That's a ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ for Felor!
Following Zora's lead, you all follow the patrolmen -- Sleemo and Wizard, as they introduce themselves -- into the dark southern recesses of the large cavern.
When you reach the Fourth Gate after walking for some time, your meeting with the Master is underwhelming. The Master is just another human, his face similarly caked with white crud, who sits on a wooden stool on the other side of a door of iron bars. He listens to Zora's spiel, exchanges some monosyllabic cant and meaningful looks with Sleem and Wiz, and finally decides to let you pass.
The natural tunnel beyond the gate gives way, after a few hundred yards, to a tunnel of reddish-brown brick. The brick tunnel empties out into something remarkable: an underground canyon with doorways, facades, and windows carved into its walls. Brown shelf fungus, yellow mold, and white mushrooms grow everywhere. Strange round pots of oil burn on ledges, filling the stuffy air with a somewhat nauseatingly sweet odor. You can hear the tink, tink of a smith echoing from someplace near. Someone at the far end of the canyon is shouting something. A young woman peers down out of a high window and smiles at the lot of you, and she appears to be wearing nothing but a mantle of the crusty white paint on her shoulders. An old man in a vest and short trousers sits cross-legged by a door just ahead, and he seems to be covered head to toe in the stuff.
Your escorts lead you to the end of the canyon, which lets out to a circular clearing that branches off into five other, presumably similarly developed canyons. There are people milling about the circle, talking to each other, arguing, eating, meditating, doing gods-know-what. All of them have at least some of the white stuff applied to their faces or bodies.
In the center of the clearing is a stone pedestal. and on top of the pedestal is a statue of a black dog with shining copper eyes. Round pots of oil, some burning and some empty, are clustered about the base of the pedestal.
Wiz walks up to the statue. "Wizard stands before you, returned from duty," he says. "I bring guests who want an audience with the Queen. They are armed and have passed through the Sett."
The flames atop the burning lamps suddenly flicker, as if a strong breeze had just gusted from the statue in all directions. Each of you hears a deep voice that seems to come from nowhere, sounding in your very thoughts.
Take them to the House of Armilla.
"Yessir," says Wiz. He leads you down the canyon that extends to the southeast. About halfway through (and here you pass the smith's shop that was the source of the tinking), Wiz gestures you into an open doorway in a portico on the left hand wall.
"Wait in here. Someone will come and get you when the Queen is ready to see you. You're free to leave the house and roam about the Queen's city if you want, but you'll have to leave your weapons inside."
Sleem gives you an odd three-fingered salute. "Enjoy your stay, eh?"
The House of Armilla smells of mold and damp stone. It extends, mazelike, deep into the rock of the canyon, with stairs going up and down and hallways that lead to little doorless rooms, some of which are already inhabited. After a bit of searching you find a hallway on the third level up with six empty rooms, which seems as good a place as any to claim for your own.
"This is good," Zora whispers to nobody in particular. "We're closer to Hazard. These people don't seem to want to kill us. I'm almost positive Everil got himself killed, and I think the Queen is going to be happy to hear that and want to help us." She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. "This is the most confident I've felt about this godsforsaken quest since Dad sent me on it." She sits down against the wall, then gets up abruptly, making a face as she brushes a brownish-green sludge off the seat of her breeches. "Wonder if there's a place out there I can buy a change of clothes," she mutters.
This concludes Chapter Three of The Secret History of Bload. All player characters should advance their characters to the next experience level.
