Chapter Six: The Muster of Caltlikrath

You could have gone out a window or through the kitchen or something, but that surely would have drawn more attention and suspicion than just leaving through the front door.

The party sits down for a meal of bacon, bread rolls, boiled eggs, honeyed milk, and fruit preserves. While you are eating, you observe the goings-on in the common room. A girl of about fourteen walks up to the bar with an empty sack, which the bartender fills with food. The exchange a few words, the girl makes the sign of Semla's blessing, and she heads out of the inn.

An argument a few tables over draws your attention. Another young person, a boy of about fifteen, is trying in vain to convince several of his adult relatives to let him enter the military academy in Hazard. Their counterpoint is that harvest season is when he is needed at home the most.

Little else of note transpires while you eat, and before long, you have finished your breakfast.

Leaving the inn, you head to the other side of the village toward the holy house. Lavender and fruit trees surround the octagonal building, and a few chickens wander freely in front of it.

On the short walk over, you pass the girl who left the inn with the bag of food, now empty-handed and headed back toward the inn.

You stand before the closed oaken doors of the holy house.

Ready to go in?

The girl slows but does not stop, side-eying you warily. "Uh, just the Pater's there. I don't know when the next rites are, sorry."

Mordred is the first inside. The interior of the holy house is dark and cool, with a strong smell of incense overlaying the funk of the food offerings left untouched at its many shrines.

The interior is about fifty feet wide, with cobwebbed roof beams overhead. A partition wall divides off the rear third of the space. On the right half of the partition wall is a low wooden dais and a door, on its left are four large shrines, with a few shelves and pedestals holding smaller shrines and votive objects. There are other major shrines set along the side walls, and three benches arranged so that worshippers can sit facing them. The floor of the holy house is made of old copperwood. It could use a good sweeping.

Idols of Semla, Ziu-Pater, Erat, and Achlae inhabit the four largest shrines on the partition wall, while Laran and Turan take up the two shrines along the wall nearest them. On the other side, you see shrines to Aitas and Velchans. There are offerings sitting in front of all the large shrines, but Semla and Ziu-Pater have the lion's share. A scattering of candles and oil lamps provides some illumination.

There doesn't appear to be anyone in the main chamber of the holy house, but there's a door on the back wall. What are you going to do?

Upon speaking, you hear a sudden scraping noise from behind the partition wall. A few seconds later, the door opens and somebody steps out, stooping to fit under the door frame.

The priest of this holy house emerges, six feet tall with a plain gray robe hanging loosely on his skinny frame. He is old, with long stringy gray hair and a beard, and a cylindrical cap on his head. He carries a crook and leans on it for balance as he regards you all.

"Welcome...welcome," the priest says in a wheezy voice. "You may leave your offerings and remain here in the presence of the gods for as long as you like...at sundown there will be a small sacrifice, if you wish to return..."

"Gorham...yes. Of course."

The old priest steps down off the wooden dais and walks slowly over to the wall to your right. He points with his crook to a small stone alcove next to the shrine of Aitas. Inside the alcove are two small clay figurines and fine brass oil lamp burning with a low flame.

"The Gorham family shrine," says the priest. He turns to head back to the door he came from.