High Spirits

Such sights and sounds and splendours have been visited upon our hero since last we heard from him! A dizzying array of incidents! Let us enumerate them.
 
1) Orham! The unsullied city of alabastrous marble – or marbellous alabaster - at last attained!
 
2) There, he was called before Hethor Granger, leader of the valiant and upright Knights of the Pyre, and tasked with a proper, Princess-saving Quest! (Let us gloss over the screams coming from beneath the Knights' Barracks for the moment.)
 
3) Starcaller! Aka Maja Aradoobie von… Claxonwy? Whatever! He met with her too! An epic meeting of heroic personages only slightly marred by the news Squoan unwittingly brought with him in the form of a suspicious-looking domino - a good luck charm from Locaryn - which turned out to belong to one of the apprentices of the Maja's Amascan advisor and whose presence in Squoan's possession suggested that said apprentice no longer abided amongst the living. But… oh well! A minor faux pas. These things happen!
 
4) A Princess saved! Basically a Princess, anyway! And in the process…
 
5) An Ettin slain! So what if Sarrett leapt in at the last second and lopped both its heads off? It was Squoan's vigorous pugilistic interrogation that softened the creature up for the Thunderstealer's blade. And look at the thing!
 

 
Huge!
 
But lastly, and most importantly…
 
6) VINDICATION! Ralafiss confessed to being a Con Man! In fact, he wasn't even a Priest! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
 
Granted, the sweet nectar of this victory over the Forces of… Fencery was soured somewhat by the information attached to the Con Man's confession: namely, that he'd purchased the shackle of Onir carved from fragrant celos wood (which had been the prized possession of Eraiel Othcalt) from a Hunter. O slightly less frabjous day….
 
(Although it would be presumptuous to assume that this news was responsible for stout-hearted Squoan's subsequent slide into inebriation, which lasted throughout the events already enumerated and culminated during the battle with the Ettin, in which – purely by coincidence, no doubt – he was knocked senseless. There could have been any number of reasons behind his seeming irresponsibility! Perhaps it was a cunning ruse to put his enemies off their guard. Do not question the calculus of heroism!)
 
However, a glimmer of hope: as he slumbered and recovered from his wounds – the fruits of his valour – on the rattling carriage ride back to Orham, with Lilise Peronell safe but unconscious on the opposite seat and one of the Ettin's heads gently bleeding on the carriage floor between them, it came to him in a dream that perhaps his Mentor was no longer to the south, whence he had sent his magical raven Muninn in a desperate attempt to reach her. Nay, mayhap she was even now held captive beneath the Barracks, from whose depths he had so recently heard the lamentations of the living yet damned….