Chapter 2 - Set, The City of Gods

Mortemiar turned to the dwarf and looked around. "Where did the other man go? I think I remember he was present just moments before. Anyway, we can go and take a look inside the Moon temples. Maybe we can find something. I would also like to visit my Solemn order, you can come too."

"I wouldn’t want to intrude…" Hargrac says awkwardly, though he considers it a pretty deft sidestep of the invitation!

"Don’t worry about him! He never goes too far!" the dwarf says, though is careful not to let anything slip on to his face as to what he thinks the other manling might be up to when he slips off!

"Aye, best we go see this temple." he says then, as if to move on from the strange encounter with the Jotun and the guards.

Hargrac looks at the cat, and wondered if its markings marked that of that of his companion! He couldn’t smell the thing from this far away!

"You suppose they’ve been put like that? Or that’s where they fell when the moon priestesses disappeared?" the dwarf asks, as he stalks towards the robes slowly!

Mortemiar is not that familiar with the Moon goddess religion but he still tried to remember whether he had heard something like this. "This seems very eerie with all the robes there. I wonder if anything magical happened here."

"Cat got your tongue, manling?" Hargrac asks, very pleased at his appropriate play on words, given the situation!

"You’d know better than me! You and that pissing goblin, wherever he’s gotten off to!" he says, stopping himself from spitting in the temple!

Seeing his companions has gained entrance, he feels silly having turned to feline form to sneak in. He thought it would take them longer. He jumps down from the dais and turns back to human form. Giving his companions a wave. "Surprise," he says, mostly to Mortemiar. "I don't know if nine lives is a anathema to your religion."

Mortemiar is visibly taken aback. "You! You are the one, I was asking Hargrac about. You...are...a feline...no, no, wait, a ferren, right? I haven't seen any in my life but I have heard about your people. So, you can turn into cats? As for life and death, I guess Father Death accepts it whenever its the appropriate time. If you live nine more lives, then so be it."

He then turned towards the robes and asked him, "I guess you were here all this time then. Did you find anything noteworthy?"

Theodore shrugs. "Not yet," he admits, then he holds up one of the robes. "Though whoever wore this one should have bathed more frequently."

"Glorious Dead but I wouldn’t want to live nine lives of this." Hargrac grumbles, certain that he wouldn’t have his own one for very much longer!

He was lucky to have it even now, after what those orcs had put him through!

"Nowt much different here than to the last time we saw the priestesses, is there?" he says, a bit puzzled before looking about!

Mortemiar listened to Enimpi as he walked around the empty temple trying to find something valuable which the owners won't miss. "So, what do we do now? Inquire the council about what is going on with the priestesses of the Moon?

"Aye!" Hargrac says, agreeing with the plan. Though there is a hint of menace in his saying of the word; as if it was pushed about between gritted teeth.

"Someone wants this place. Maybe they had to get rid of the priestesses to make that happen!"

The sound of voices roused Arkemos with a start.

He had only just arrived in the city but could have sworn he was being followed, and had decided to duck into the temple, which he had thought to have been abandoned. Days of maddened traveling on the road, just one step ahead of the assassins of the Moth Sisterhood, had tired him to the bone and though he had intended to rest his eyes for just a few moments before looking for a seedy inn to stay the night, it appeared he had fallen asleep.

But for how long? And who were all these people?

Arkemos peered at them from the shadows. They didn't appear to be Moth Sisterhood assassins, as those black lipped women never made a sound, and had always one breast, the other cut off during their initiation into that vile cult.

Perhaps he had been mistaken earlier about being followed, and had managed to give them the slip on the road after all?

Whatever the case he needed to get his bearings, make some money to be able to get a ship to somewhere farther away, and maybe find some allies along the way

Arkemos slowly moved out from the shadows and into the light, holding up his hands casually. "Well met!" he called out cautiously. "I am Arkemos, a newcomer to this fine city, and looking for some information, or some work if any's to be had."

Mortemiar almost jumped at the voice from the shadows, "Ho there, Arkemos is it? What are you doing in the temple of the Moon? Are you somehow related to these disappearances or have you seen anything weird happening here."

Theodore reaches instinctively for his rapier as they are interrupted. Though once the stranger introduces himself, he assumes a more relaxed pose again. "Better than living dolls," he mutters under his breath, but otherwise remains silent for now.