the coffee-and-prayer session was a calm and affirming way to start the day
afterward availah was curious about my connection to the silver flame
i didn't tell her that i'd stood next to a paladin of the flame while we battled and banished a fiend ... and then another
i did say that i can see the good within those of the faith and that itself has been a source of comfort and strength while i'm travelling
that seemed to brighten her day which in turn brightened mine!
the other inn in bedem is called the "lucky sable" and that's where we met vollite priest "dantus eirdic" for breakfast
before the meal he shared a homily about shared meals and community ... but as he spoke he passed vedim a coded message by knocking on the table
then all during breakfast the two talked in an oblique and vague way about the folks we've been chasing
later on vedim explained the priest's meaning – kraal is in town and met with tayda and then grogloth
aside from the chat breakfast was amazing!
we enjoyed spruce scones and a root vegetable stew but my favorite was the little pastry bundle "shrew's purse" filled with spicy potato mash and crisp pickled radish and carrot
right away both medya and i fell in love with the mix of textures and flavors
but she was the one to exclaim "it's just like eating a mouse!"
...
for a moment that was disturbing but i imagined a mouse made of vegetables and now it's really funny
vedim and zer' found kraal's room in the rectory and looked into the past – kraal took relic's sword from grogloth saying it would make a fitting tribute for "blizzard devours the frail"
that's a very-unpleasant-dragon sort of name
and the sword's not here
tayda furlan's room had a lockbox full of shipping manifests and such
these included records of "mortuum" coming from "fort deepdark" and becoming "product" – ash! – shipped to big cities like starilaskur and sharn
there was also a letter to tayda from "gebler" telling her to keep working with "hayden dauber"
he runs a sort of pub called "cravings" which serves everything that normally demands moderation – fried foods and alcoholic drinks and smoking herbs and even glitterreed! from a trader in the "eldeen reaches"
he's rather proud of his house blend of tobacco so i purchased a little
but he's also proud to be the sole distributor of ash from fort deepdark to ... everywhere
tomorrow we visit segor brand's lodge to free his "honored guests"
after that it's to teryk to free four more folks
and then fort deepdark to see what can be done about ash and maybe by then we'll find the sword? or a dragon? perhaps both?
this redoubles our travel plus some but at least it's all mostly in the same direction
i'm using the time to work out why the spell i used on sykes didn't work as planned
and now it doesn't work at all?