[Previous session]

Laylah was overwhelmed by the experience of direct contact with her goddess (see last session). In response, she composed a song over the next several weeks, a moody lullaby titled "The Heart's Memories." Darra heard her working on it, and expressed her appreciation.

[Laylah's player, Anne, got an extra character point for this. The lyrics are posted on her Laylah web page.]

While studying the papers seized from Taroq, Darra asked Pelmark about his silver skin. He told the story behind it at dinner, so that Laylah could hear it, too. (See "Silverbolt's Story".) When he finished, the parts of his tale about Orthag Kullmast left Darra very pale, and gave Laylah the sinking feeling that they would meet him some day. They were, however, glad to hear Pelmark's true feelings about "Were-Hunters" (he has only met one or two "rational and reasonable" were-hunters, but on the whole dislikes these fanatics).

During Darra's brawling lessons, it was pointed out that her long hair was a liability. She decided to cut her hair short, as a sign of a split with part of her past. (Laylah, long-haired herself, was disturbed when she saw Darra's shorn hair.)

11-12 Blooming: The priests sent to cleanse the defiled tomb returned late in the evening of the 11th. Darra and Laylah accompanied Pelmark and Corben to hear their report the next morning:

• The priests had found no definite signs that anyone has been in the ruins since Corben's company left. In the sarcophagus on the lowest level, they had found a well-preserved body in black robes. The body had once held something in its hands, but it had been pried loose; they could not tell how recently. (Darra grew angry at having missed this.)
• Most divinations regarding the site failed, or were very vague. Spells cast on the body showed Taroq removing a small item, but gave no image of that object.
• They found no clues to Taroq'a whereabouts. Divinations cast later that day were vague; the priests believe he is hiding somewhere in the mountains.
• The priests destroyed the body in the scarcophagus, cleansed the main demonic temple, and made lessor efforts to purify the rest of the complex.

Corben's company left Theronton that afternoon. Bran and Fran left the next day, to return to their hometown near Castle Farvale.

14-21 Blooming: Ruqayyah left town for about a week in order to be alone during the new moon. [She has the Lunacy disadvantage.] Before leaving, she arranged for a local tailor to create desert garb for her friends. Before and after her sojourn, she gave Darra lessons in the Desert Tongue. Sometime during these lessons, they discovered that both knew Fazia. Darra then had to inform Ruqayyah that their mutual friend had died in the fight with the necromancer.

21 Blooming: Laylah's meditations were interrupted with a message: "Daughter...Tel Yuli, on the longest day." She was told to ask "the cat's eyes" how to find it, and if she needed help, to meditate as she had been doing.

Laylah sought out Volan to inform him of the message. They met Ruqayyah in the temple grounds--she had been sleeping on the roof, waiting for her new friends. Ruqyahh shapechanged into a caracal to join them, and explained that "Tel Yuli" ("Ulidel", in Krithian) was a trading post to the south, at the border of the great desert. (That prompted a laugh on Laylah's part--she had thought that the message was "tell Yuli," and she also found it amusing that she should follow the irreverent, cat-eyed Ruqayyah there. Laylah was rather relieved that "she [Rashira] has a sense of humor.")

Laylah was convinced that something will happen in Tel Yuli on the solstice; she decided that she should go there, and then ask for guidance again. The next day (the 22nd), she, Darra and Ruqayyah made plans for the journey, and Laylah had some last lessons from Volan.

[Next session]

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