The Sacrifice

The cave began to get rough, and we found ourselves climbing up a rocky face. We climbed for half an hour before we reached the top. At the top, we found a corridor, and we saw a light approaching us from a distance.

As the light grew closer, we could make out a man, carrying a torch. "Hello!" he called out to us.

"Were those your zombies?" asked Carlagnios.

"No," the man replied. "Are there zombies here?"

He had dropped cheeks -- almost like a basset hound. He introduced himself as High Guide Fasil of the guild.

"My patroness allows be to live," he declared.

"Your patroness?"

"Yes, I am a follower of the Raven Queen."

"I am also a follower of the Raven Queen," Bran said. "Have you met her?"

"No, but I will meet her one day. One day, we all will meet her."

Tiny looked at him closely and whispered to us, "He's a heavy drinker. I think he might be drunk now."

"Where is your guide," Fasil asked us.

"He... uh... disappeared. Did you have a party of treasure hunters with you?"

"Yes. They met their end. But that is how I serve the Raven Queen. I bring people closer to her."

"I am on my way back to the city," he continued. "I need to get some supplies."

"Beer?" asked Tiny.

Fasil glared at him. "Do not mock me, Dwarf! I must return to the temple."

"The Temple of the Raven Queen?" asked Bran. "Where is that?"

"In the outer city above us. What are you here for? What do you seek?"

"We are looking for the Centenarch," answered Kale.

"It is a chair," explained Carlagnios.

"It's a piece of furniture," offered Tiny.

Kale corrected them through gritted teeth. "It was their seat of *power*. The seat of power of the 100."

Fasil gave him an empty look. "I don't know what it is, but I could take you to the Map Room. You might find your answers there. My fee would be 500 gold pieces."

"500?!?"

We discussed this amount amongst ourselves and finally agreed to pay the cost. We had just found 1100 gold pieces, so the price would not be that much of a problem for us.

"Now we need to go back to the surface to get some supplies," Fasil said.

"And you can show me the Temple of the Raven Queen," said Bran.

As we followed him back up, Kale recorded the path we took.

When we reached the surface, Fasil brought us to the Temple of the Raven Queen. Before we could enter, a Chimeric approached us. He stared at Garg.

"Where are you from?" the Chimeric demanded. "What business do you have here?"

What was the name of the town we had come from? We did not remember, but Firinne did. "We came from the town of Sour Well," she answered.

"And we're exploring the mines," replied Garg.

"Alright, you can go now," the Chimeric declared and walked away.

"The Chimerics are taking a census," Fasil explained.

"He better have counted me as a Dragonborn," Carlagnios muttered. "Dragonborn are always underrepresented in treasure hunting groups."

"As are Halflings," mentioned Bran.

Tiny chimed in, "And Dwarves. Why aren't many of us in these groups? It's the Humans, Elves, and their half-breeds who always seem to crowd all of us out. Why are they so popular?"

"Wait," interrupted Ryn, "you don't think they're lumping in Eladrin with Elves in general, do you?"

"Why?" growled Carlagnios "Elves are all the same."

"Are you kidding? Eladrin are a different race of Elves," explained Ryn. "And what about the Drow?"

"What are Drow?" asked Carlagnios.

"The dark Elves we just fought," said Ryn impatiently. "You know, the Arachnomancer? Lolth's Grasp?" He turned to Garg and Firinne. "Surely you'd want them to distinguish between Elves and Half-Elves?"

"Eh." Garg shrugged with indifference.

"Well, what about women who are treasure hunters?" Firinne pointed out. "Hello? If we're talking about underrepresented here, ..."

"Look, people, can we just go inside now?" said Fasil.

No one else was in the temple. There was a small altar to the Raven Queen inside.

"You should prepare for the event of your demise," Fasil told us. "I always ask people to do this before I lead them to the mines. Some of them will never come back alive."

After Bran and Fasil were done with their prayers to the Raven Queen, Fasil rattled off a list of supplies that we needed.

"500 gold pieces worth of magical residuum."

"Got it," replied Kale.

"250 gold pieces worth of magical components."

"Got that."

"A pair of bulls -- in the prime of health -- not castrated."

"Go-- wait, what?"

"And some feed for one of them."

"Did you say 'bulls'?"

"Yes, we'll need one bull to get into the mines, and one bull to get back out. We'll need to bring them with us."

"Don't the bulls get aggressive?" asked Carlagnios.

"Yes," replied Fasil, "but I have a feeling that you are the type of person who is good with aggressive creatures." He smiled.

"Where would we get bulls?" Kale asked.

"In the outer city, you should be able to find a herder that would be willing to sell you a pair."

The request for the pair of bulls seemed very strange. We asked Tiny if we could trust Fasil. "Yes, he'll take us where we want to go. He doesn't care much about what happens to us."

We made our way to the outer city and found a drover who had some cattle. Perhaps he might have some bulls that he would be willing to sell.

"So, you wanna buy some bulls? How about these ones? They came from my old grandmother, who used them only once every other Sunday."

He pointed to a group of scrawny bulls. Kale shook his head.

"If these will be used in some sort of magical ritual -- which I suspect -- we'll need exactly what Fasil requested."

"OK, how about these? I'll sell both to you and some feed that you wanted for 50 gold pieces."

The two bulls seemed to be in good health and had their virility intact.

"These will suffice," Kale answered.

"Oh, wait," the drover interrupted. "There's an extra 2 gold pieces that these will cost you. It's obligation for him -- the guild master. That guy who lives in that floaty thing."

"The teardrop above the tower?"

"Yup, that place. Anyway, is it a deal?"

"Yes, we'll pay for the bulls and the feed. Just out of curiosity, do you sell bulls like this very often?"

"Oh, about once a month or so," the drover replied.

We took the bulls and the feed and met back with Fasil. He led us to a guild house in the outer city. We walked past a guard who looked quite disinterested, and we walked down a ramp tha tled to a platform.

The platform descended and we found ourselves in a room with a crushed table in the middle. Fasil led us out to a door. When we looked behind us, we saw that we were coming out of an odd looking building. The door had a sign that said "Trust of Beric."

Fasil led us through a passageway untl we reached a fork. One path led upwards and the other downwards. We led the bulls down the lower pathway. The pathway led to a room.

In this room, the air became permeated with a sweet, rotted smell -- a smell that seemed to remind you that you forgot something. Something bad had happened here.

In the room, there was a platform with a locked iron ring. Carlagnios followed Fasil's instructions and tied one of the bull to the ring.

We followed Fasil back up the passageway to the fork and then followed the upper passage to another room. It almost seemed like this room was above the room where we left the bull.

We sat there and waited for 15 minutes. After that, we hear the bull lowing below us. Five minutes later, the bull was wailing in fear.

"OK, we need to move now. Put out your torches."

We used the wall to make our way back and quickly pulled the bull with us. As we passed the room with the bull, we could hear gurgling, keening noises. The noises were confusing. We almost forgot who we were. Kale whispered that the sounds were almost demonic.

We were able to pass the room quickly, and we found ourselves in an excavated room. It looked like a small civic square. In the center was a fountain. Somehow, water continued to flow through this fountain. We followed Fasil's advice and used it to refill our water.

We tied the bull to the fountain and left the feed with it. Fasil led us down a long set of stairs deeper underground.