The Dragonborn Bard

"Do you know Dennig?" Kale asked Fasil, our guide.

Fasil shrugged. "I am not good with names and faces. In the end, neither matters. The patroness decides whether we live or die."

We retraced our steps back to the city of Lordahl on the surface. After a day, we found our way back to the cylindrical carriage. Once more, we paid our residuum to the statue of the woman with the outstretched hands, and the carriage delivered us back to the room with the mosaic of the man pouring out water from the gourd.

We went back up the stairs to the fountain, where we found the bull that we had left there, still eating the feed. We led the bull up to the room with the platform and tied it to the iron ring. We made our way up to the fork and to the upper room, waited until we heard the bull wail in fear, and scurried back up the passageway. As we passed, we almost forgot who we were.

We finally reached the surface and decided to part company with Fasil.

"My patroness has not seen fit to take you yet," remarked Fasil.

"Before we part ways, can we ask you something about the Raven Queen?" asked Kale. "Do you know one of her angelic servants named Gamerat?"

"The Raven Queen sends Gamerat on errands to help make things right. She gave him authority over life and death. The 100 were an aberration -- they were placed above death. That is not right -- the natural order should be preserved."

Bran nodded.

"If you plan to stay in the city," said Fasil, "perhaps you could volunteer to help us to maintain the Temple of the Raven Queen."

"I'd like to help with that," offered Bran.

"Thank you. Now that I know you, you may approach the High Guild and ask for me there."

"Maybe we could have a drink some time, as well?" asked Kale.

Fasil scowled. "Do not mock me, Mage."

We left to continue our search for the Ritual of Finding and the Challenge Ritual. Perhaps Provost Benjy could help us in our quest.

We found Benjy in class, so we waited outside and read the books to pass the time. After class was over, he walked outside to meet us.

"Was Pican able to help you?" he asked.

"Yes," replied Kale, "but we have some questions we'd like to ask."

"Maybe we could talk somewhere more private," suggested Benjy.

"We could bring some wine as well," offered Kale.

"Excellent! It's the full moon, and my stipend is not sufficient to cover such things."

Bran found a merchant that sold some decent wine, and we purchased the wine and met up with Benjy.

Kale handed the book on Pre-Centenarchy Law to Benjy. "What can you tell us about Illusionism?"

"Illusionism led the 100 to discover and contact the Chimera," explained Benjy. "The Pre-Centenarchy is from the time of the Judges. The Laws of the Judges would have prevented the coming of the Chimera."

Kale showed Benjy the "Illustrated Exploits of the Early Centenarchy."

"May I borrow this and have a scribe copy the notes from this?" asked Benjy.

Kale nodded. "Now, we need to find the Ritual of the Challenge. Do you know what that is?"

"It was used by the 100 to assert power over the army, I believe."

"If an explorer found some books and brought them back to sell them, where would they sell them?"

"Well, usually the Guildmaster gets the first choice of whatever is found. The Guildmaster buys the best of the artifacts recovered."

"Oh," Benjy continued, "I forgot to mention this. While you were gone, there was an eerie fellow who came asking for you. He was wrapped in cloth from head to foot. He called himself 'Baird'."

The lich. We had never found his phylactery, Kale explained earlier, which meant that he was not destroyed and could come back to life.

"Did you tell him that we were here?"

"No," Benjy quickly replied. "I didn't give anything away."

Tiny gave him a skeptical glance and whispered to us, "He might have been tight-lipped about our whereabouts, but Baird could still discern a lot from Benjy's mannerisms."

"Anyway," Benjy continued, "Baird left and flew back up to the teardrop. I wish he hadn't come by here. He had parked in the greens, and the vulture drakes shat all over the lawn. We had to get our first year students to clean up the mess."

"Who is allowed to go to the teardrop?"

"Usually the Chimerics. The teardrop is where our government is run from."

We thanked Benjy and left. Bran decided to go to the Temple of the Raven Queen and help Fasil with the cleaning. As they swept the temple floor, Bran asked Fasil if any of the Raven Queen's followers could help us in our quest.

"I do know people who know more than I," replied Fasil. "I can ask around. Give me a few days and I can introduce you to some of our followers."

Bran thanked Fasil and met us in the city. Ryn used his streetwise skills to find the bar where Dennig was at. In the bar, there were a dozen patrons, and a large man (perhaps 6' 7" in height) holding court. The man was quite drunk and had been paying for everyone's drinks. This had to be Dennig.

"And they went to the desert," Dennig sang, "and found a mystic river..." He turned to Carlagnios. "Sing with me!"

Carlagnios joined in. "I went upon the river, and drank a mighty drink..."

Dennig applauded. "We have a bard in here! Give him a silver piece!"

Carlagnios drank with him. They both continued to drink and sing until they were too drunk to stand.

"Why are we here again?" slurred Carlagnios. "I forget." He belched, and a small flash of fire lit up the bar.

"I need to piss," declared Dennig. "I'll be right back."

He stumbed to the bathroom, and we waited for his return. Time passed -- 5 minutes, 10 minutes -- until it became evident that Dennig was not returning.

We quickly made our way to the bathroom where we found Dennig on the floor. He had fallen over and was too drunk to pick himself up. Carlagnios helped him to his feet.

"Thank you," said Dennig. "What is your name, bard?"

"Carl...agnios."

"So," Kale interrupted. "We heard that you raided a library."

Dennig smiled. "I'm still living off that. It was a few weeks ago. It was great -- I had a buyer lined up and everything. It was the Guildmaster himself! I went up top to sell the books to him." He started to get sleepy.

I wondered whether we should tell the librarian where to find Dennig. Tiny pointed out that he was just a hard-drinking explorer with no moral quandries. In some ways, we were not all that different.

But it was clear that all paths led to the Guildmaster and that we needed to find our way up to the teardrop. That would have to wait, though -- we needed to sober up our drunken Dragonborn bard first.