Chapter 3: Meeting The Natives

ELSPA, RYGNAR, and MOSS

You move deeper into the earth and fill the cavern with torchlight. The pool turns out to be moon-shaped, and the inky black waters prove impenetrable to your light. Nestled in crescent sits a warty, emaciated old woman. Her head is mostly bald save for a white topknot wrapped in leather straps that binds a few remaining white, chaotic strands. Her skin is pulled tight around her bones, and her eyes bulge in her sockets. She sits in a weathered rocking chair, rhythmically ebbing to and fro.

The cave contains other sparse furnishings: beside her is a table set with many glass containers, no two alike. The stone wall behind her has been worked into a shelf of sorts, holding several weighty, leather-bound tomes and a few animal skulls. From the dangling stalactites hang various knick-knacks, some of which appear to be bones.

"Oh my pets don't bother anyone. Unless they bother Auntie Zilla first." smiles Auntie Zilla, revealing black, rotting teeth.

"So why is it that you have come a calling, dearests? Auntie Zilla never turns away a soul in need."

FRICK, JARVEENA, and YGNE

The craftspeople whisper amongst themselves in disappointed tones, what with the few transactions being conducted. She Who Has Been Beyond the Reef directs them to begin cleaning up.

"Surprising. Did you know that in our language, the word for outsider means 'Fools Who Give Copper?' This is the first time in my life time that outsiders have come to our village without even a copper coin to trade. Well, if Drinker of Booze and KIller of Shit that Needs Killing finds this pile of copper he is talking about, we will talk again of trade."

"You are welcome to stay in the village for one night, and we will help you get going in the morning. Come by here after the Rising Hour, there will be a great battle. The Seventh defends his title against our village's fastest girl!" When she speaks the name "The Seventh," she gestures at the warrior who has been practicing on the bridge all this time.

"Shelter, is it?"

She clasps her hands together in a fragile clap.

"You will find Auntie Zilla's hospitality is without equal! Yes, you may stay above, a place where blood has never been shed. And such good manners to offer food in return for peace. But, Auntie Zilla's stomach has not been feeling well lately. Perhaps, in return for my hospitality you would be willing to run an errand for me?"

She reveals a small, paper-wrapped parcel tied with a mildewy string.

"I need to deliver this package to a woman in the village. She is expecting it soon, but the thought of walking up all those stairs is positively giving Auntie Zilla heart palpitations. Do we have a deal?"

"Moss, what a delightful name! When a volcano makes a new island, the first thing to grow is the moss. It turns the lava rock into soil, makes possible all other life. Moss is very powerful, but few think that way.

You know, don't worry yourself over my stomach. Can you cure an old woman of being old?"

She cackles heartily at her own joke, ending up as a coughing fit. She spits phlegm into the pool before continuing.

"My, but don't you have a lot of curiosity! Do take this to the front of the chief's hut and give it to the girl with the scarlet ribbons, and watch how she uses my gift. But remember, not everyone is worthy of Auntie Zilla's gifts. Time will tell if this girl is or not."

As you approach to retrieve the package, you notice many oddities in the jars: shrunken heads, strangely misshapen preserved babies, eye balls, and other horrific specimens. She hands you the package, but as you take it, she pulls you close. Her halitosis gives the Trogs a run for their money, but she speaks with authority as she looks you up in down.

She speaks a few words in Draconic before letting you go, with a sickening smile.

The black onyx dangling from the Bane twig fetish, which is a material component in that spell, probably elevates it to the most impressive. It's also a good spell, especially with the ACs your team is packing.

Moss inspects the markings at the entrance of Antie Zilla's cave. Although it is difficult to tell, several depict various scenes of ambition resulting in failure: an army rising and then being slain, a warrior first slaying with and then falling upon a flaming sword, a girl riding upon and then being devoured by a sea monster. Occasionally there are scenes that have no obvious defeat. However, all of these threads lead to a central figure at the top of the wall, a symbol of a man on a throne.

Elspa turns up empty handed in her search, although she notices that non aquatic plant life within 500 feet of Auntie Zilla's cave is rotting and dying. The area is otherwise tranquil.

Indeed, just as Auntie Zilla said it would be, an hour before nightfall a young woman emerges from a hut with scarlet ribbons threaded through her hair, but she is not what you expected: she is clearly not from this tribe. Her hair matches the colour of the ribbons, and she wears a black breastplate with matching gauntlets, inlaid with intricate gold patterns. Two ornate gilded rapiers hang at her hips that look like they were made for someone bigger than her.

In flawless low Atlantean she greets you: "Hail and well met, outsider. I understand you have something for me?"