"Payment Has Been Made"

Honorable Priestess,

We continued to follow the rope along some strange loops. Kale the Human Mage noted that the loops reminded him of the strange kinds of math that they did at Govor.

Eventually, we reached a point where the rope bended around the corner of a piece of rock. At that point, the rope followed the contours of the path fo the tunnel. The path bended upward to a set of steep stone stairs. We followed the stairs to a room with a familiar pile of stones in the center of a circle. The stairs led up to the center of this circle.

As we entered the room, the stones started sliding together, forming a crude semblance of creatures. The figure looked around outside the circle before realizing that we were in the circle.

"How did you get here?" the stone man asked us.

"We followed the rope."

"I see no rope," the stone man remarked. "You're going the wrong way."

"No, we're going to the Siege world."

"You want to go *to* the Siege world?" The creature stared at Garg. "You. You are the one. There must always be payment."

Garg stared back at the creature and replied, "I refuse to make payment. Payment has already been made."

The stone man scoffed. "Who paid?"

Garg stated his mother's name.

"Your mother will pay by giving her name and identity as passage," the stone man acknowleged. "The door is open. You may pass."

(We learned later that this was all part of Garg's prophecy. He would face the stone men once again, and they would ask for payment. He would refuse payment and say that payment was made.)

The stone man continued, "Some things you'll need on the other side. You'll find these things on your way there. Before you saw with the eyes of the refugee. This time, something different will happen."

And with that, the stone man allowed us to pass.