Chapter 5: Pleased to Meet You

Judging that the cell members who'd left to retrieve her friends have probably met them and started back by now, Verrian begins to reach out telepathically to Coreene, hoping to sense when she is near enough to send and receive.

Looking back at the map, she frowns slightly. "So they aren't all holed up in one complex. Is there a teleportation circle in Sunrise Square? That might be why he's made his headquarters there."

The dwarf, Erannik, counts up his new charges and nods, satisfied. "That's all of you then."

He nods his head toward his companion, Timarra, who's still watching the street silently. "Let's be on the move," he says, hand on the handle of his mace. He glances sidelong at Swan. "So you're telling me that you left Hara and came back? Not sure if that's brave or stupid. Or even both."

He leads the group to the south, with Timarra staying some distance ahead as a forward scout.

"I think it's rather brave of them actually." Elora responds to the dwarf, trying to do her best at skulking through the city.

While Wil walks around, he will look for Anders a'Valas, and ask people if they have seen him. If he finds him, he will pass on the message from his sister.

During Wil's initial pass around the large room, he sees no one matching the description given by Kazia.

There are a number of people here of which Wil could ask after Anders.

If you'd like to approach a group of people and speak with all of them, there's a group of four around a ramshackle table playing a card game common to Alcave. It would normally be played for coins, but there's no such riches in the center of this table. It seems the "guests" have torn up bits of fabric of different colors and are using those instead. These four are all men, three of them human, one appears to be a half-elf.

There's also a group of three in another part of the large open space, a man and a woman sitting on one cot speaking quietly with a woman sitting across from them on another cot. All of them are human, and older, possibly in their fifties.

There are plenty of other possibilities. Some people sit on their cots, some walk laps around the room singly or in pairs, some sleep.

Verrian cannot yet make contact with Coreene. Wherever the rest of the party is, it hasn't yet come within range.

Eanala shakes her head in response to Verrian's question. "If there is, I would've expected it to be inactive. I don't know if anyone would still know how to fix them. Everything else in this blighted city that used to function by magic has either broken down completely or has become so dangerous that no one dares use it. "

Giran seems to have recovered from his embarrassment, since he pipes in. "Or go near it. We used to live near Dockside, across the river from the warehouse. Whole district is uninhabitable now. Don't know what's causing it, but anything metal that comes within a hundred feet of the old district governor's house gets so hot that it burns just about anything it comes in contact with."

Wil approaches the group of three people on the cots. He bows respectfully.

Greeting strangers. I am sorry to intrude on your conversation, but could you tell me if you know Anders a'Valas.

"Hmm. Well, somebody with the Crows - or someone bankrolling them - is still capable of creating magic items. Ildemu had to get that teleportation ring from somewhere, and those magic-draining restraints were specifically crafted for their mission."

She sighs and thinks. "Tell me what happened when the magic all went haywire."

The woman sitting on the cot with the man flinches and shrinks away when Wil speaks. Even though he wasn't particularly quiet in his approach, it still seems to catch her by surprise. Both the man and the other woman reach out to put a comforting hand on her, the man touching her shoulder, the other woman her knee.

The woman sitting alone on the cot stands. She appears human, though she's not significantly taller than Wil. She wears simple, homespun clothing, and looks as though she's had few opportunities to clean herself or her clothes recently. Still, she carries herself with some amount of pride: her chin held steady, her return look to Wil direct and clear-eyed.

"Anders a'Valas?" she repeats, eyes narrowing as she listens to Wil's description. "I'm afraid I haven't seen anyone like that, or that answers to that name. Not that many of us give our names to one another in this forsaken place," she murmurs. "We've only been here a week, though. Maybe he left before we arrived... a few people are taken out everyday, and they never return."

On the cot, the timid woman noticeably shrinks against the man sitting next to her, who puts his arm around her shoulders and murmurs something quietly into her ear that you can't quite make out.

All of the cell members look at each other for a moment. Finally, it's Livia that ends up speaking. "It wasn't just one thing. People talk about the crazy things that happened toward the end of the war, but here... everything just seemed to... I don't know. You know how a lump of butter melts in a hot pan? That's what it felt like. Things infused with magic just slowed down and died."

Eanala adds, "If it was something mundane, something that had a spell on it, it just went back to being mundane again. I used to have a journal... you could open it up and talk to it, and it would record your words on the page. No ink, no writing required. Now, it's just a blank book. None of the things I recorded in it are still there. You have to write in it now."

"That thing at the district governor's house. My guess is that it was something that malfunctioned once the magic holding it together failed," says Giran. Livia gives him a bland look, and he adds, "Okay, our guess. Practically everything burned to the ground for blocks in every direction 'cause of all the metal. That wouldn't happen if something just... stopped working."

Taking all of this information in, Verrian asks, "What did you city government do in response? It seems as though your city remained largely functional and intact."

Eanala's eyebrows rise. "Maybe you haven't seen much of our city. Half of it's been reduced to rubble, half of what's left is abandoned considering we lost three-quarters of our population in the war."

Her hand, resting on the table, curls into a fist. "What functionality remains is largely due to the fact that those of us that are left have consolidated in this part of the city and started trying to rebuild. The heavy-handed governance our self-styled mayor and his brute squad have imposed on us keeps anything from growing. Martin Ghara has no interest in running a city, other than the power it gives him over people. Handing his people over to these bastards? City government, my puckered ass."

The woman stares at Wil for a long while, obviously confounded by the idea of multiple names. Her eyes narrow, and finally she points over to an older man by himself on a cot some distance away. "Byza over there was here when we arrived. I can't think of anyone that's been here longer than that."

For the City Folks

The small group wends their way down darkened streets past long-abandoned buildings. This part of the city wasn't destroyed in the war, but with so few citizens left to populate Hara, many of its neighborhoods and districts are much like this one: empty and desolate.

Still, Erannik and Timarra take some time and care to avoid notice. No one seems particularly interested in conversation, and so it's particularly surprising when a tiny chirping missile explodes into the middle of the group, flapping its tiny wings frantically in front of Elora's face.

"Oh! Oh Pip I- please sto- you have to-" Elora is overjoyed to see Pip safe and sound, however his frantic chirps and zippy nature force Elora to instead focus on shutting him up. She does this by snatching him out of the air, trying to calmly shush him while she feels him wriggle in her hands. "Shhhh, this is quiet time okay? We can't be loud." He slowly relaxes, if only a small amount, but it's enough for Elora to focus on comprehending what's got him in a tizzy, sensing his concern. She decides to share this information.

"Pip is worried about something real close, I'm not sure what." Hoping that has satisfied Pip Elora releases her hold on him, placing the bird on her hat where he stays for the time being, still acting a bit fidgety over this concern.

Swan mutters, 'Bird probably hates orcs,' but puts his hand firmly on his rapier hilt. "Erannik, steady on, but eyes wide," he hisses.

Verrian can't stop herself from laughing, holding up her hands in defeat. "All right, point taken. In my defense, this is my first time in Hara."

A thought strikes her. "Do those magical storms ever occur here? If so, how do the townspeople avoid them? Are there tunnels under the city to use for shelter?"

Wil walks over to the man who was pointed out to him. He clears his throat as he approaches, so as not to startle any one else. He removes his hat and gives a small bow.

Excuse me sir, someone told me you been here for a longer time than most. I was wondering if you know a man named Anders a'Valas? His sister asked me to pass a message on to him.

He sees the man may not be well.

Also, is there anything I can get for you?

Erannik makes the sound of a night bird, calling twice. Up ahead, you can see Timarra's silhouette stop, consider, return the call once, and then meld into the shadows ahead.

The dwarf turns, gestures at the rest of you and points to the empty doorway of the building next to you. There was probably once a door, but it's long since been torn off and the interior of the building sacked by looters. "Let's go. Maybe it's nothing, but better safe than sorry," he says softly. It sounds strangely loud in the otherwise quiet street, but it's barely above a whisper.

As he too follows his own advice, he says to Elora, "No chance you can tell your... bird friend to be quiet, is there?"

Erannik moves into the building, and takes up a position near the door where he can see out into the street. His mace is drawn, held at the ready in thick muscled hands that look entirely comfortable holding it. Timarra apparently is still outside.