The Honeymoon is Over Report
General Summary
Now Cyren is backpedaling on the 15 days vacation. Ivan agrees that this is too many for a vacation, "No-one needs that many days!" he says.
Over in Datova, they take odd paths back to their rooms, hoping not to be followed (or maybe be followed and notice it), then sleep the night away.
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In the night someone breaks into Evelyn's room and looks through her stuff. Nothing is taken, as they are trying to figure out who they really are and if she's legitimately trying to turn in Adaon.
Cyrn and Ivan wake up early. Cryen, Talia, and Dathania go fishing and catch a lot of sea trout. It turns out that Ivan never went to sleep and spent the whole night awake watching for their quarry.
In Datova Evelyn tries to buy some ingredients for something of uncertain intent, but can't find the ingredients. Meanwhile, two inquisitors try to ambush Adaon and fail. He punches one of them in the knee, max damage and the guy drops in pain. The other inquisitor casts an immobilizespell on Adaon, but Adaon's will is so strong that he resists it and punches the man in the stomach, The man falls to his knees, heaving out the words, "You're under arrest!" Adaon then punches him in the ribs, and then he starts to run away, but changes his mind He decides to take this wizard inquisitor. He stuns the man by punching him in the face. Adaon then puts the bag over the stunned man's head. Then he tries to kick the other one, but is repelled by some kind of air shield. Adaon tries to carry the unconscious priest away, but he is too heavy. Evelyn shows up a couple of minutes later and tries to attack the injured priest, but is repelled by his shield.
Adaon sees this and casts thornstrike at him. The spell does not work against the shield. The priest is well protected! The priest casts a blinding light spell; however, they both manage to avoid this, as they are so fast. Adaon releases an earth node on top of the hurt man, splashing everyone within 5 metres with mud. Evelyn is not pleased! He then tries to bake the mud solid with a flame hose, his hands almost in contact with the mud, baking the outer surface of it. They loop the rope around the unconscious priest and carry him into an alley, where they portal back to Porte-Entre-Portes.
Ivan tails his quarry to Atrethia's grove. The man bows to the priestess, hands her something, then goes into the grove alone. The man sits and seems to begin to meditate. Ivan waits a few minutes for him to go into a trance, then sneaks up to the man and touches him with a magical ring that charms the man. The man comes out of his trance and says, "What?" Ivan: I just want to talk. Man: Okay. Ivan. Tell me your name. "Clarence" Ivan then has him tell the story. He was wrestling with the victim, goofing around at work. The both fell, as they were on a fishing ship, and the other guy hit his head and passed out. He then panicked and ran away. They have a long discussion, and it turns out that the reward was probably placed on him by a rival group who wanted to get the ship that his friend bought. He knows that he and his friend's widow are left jointly to own the ship. This was so that he could run it, but still be obligated to support her from the profits. Ivan releases the man from the charm.
Ivan the leaves to find the widow.
Cyren and the ladies caught 13 sea trout. They ran into Adaon and Evelyn as they come in. Evelyn leaves with the Cavebears (Cyren, Dathania and Talia) to show them how to dress the fish.
Adaon then enscorcels the prisoner and puts him into an illusion where he is standing next to his partner and Adaon is bound under the hood and tied up beside them. They take the illusion of Adaon to the temple of Ga-La, where Adaon is put into a cell that is warded against magic. They report to the grand inquisitor. She tells them he will stew for a couple of days, then go to trial. After the couple of illusion days pass, the trial begins. Adaon admits to worshiping Necros and helping the undead. Therefore he is pronounced "guilty" and sentenced to death through being burned by the rays of Ga-La (the sun).
Adaon then leaves the illusion and puts the sleeping hood back over the guy's head so that he will sleep until nightfall. At nightfall, they take the inquisitor to Adaon's shack, where they set up a circle, where Adaon prays to Necros to bless his and Catalina's child with his care, instead of it being under the protection of Havenus, specifically the aspect of Necros as the healer. The point is to remove the influence of Havenus and leave the child neutral from all specific godly influence. Catalina helps in this, as she was a former priestess and understands the concepts quite well.
Meanwhile, Ivan takes Patter with him to interview the widow. "I want to speak with you about your husband's untimely death." She does not believe that Clarence killed her husband. Ivan reveals that someone planted the knife and murdered her husband. She cries. Ivan consoles her and she cries more. She believes Ivan that Clarence was framed. Ivan then vows to find the conspiracy and actual murderer.
Adaon and Catalina summon an emissary of Necros, who asks them to specify exactly what it is that they want. The emissary grants their wish for the babies to be free from the influence of godly powers while growing into full humans. The emissary disappears in a puff of mist, along with the magical circle and the corpse of the inquisitor.
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Cyren did a bunch of research on the islands surrounding Port-Entre-Portes and discovered that there are at least a dozen active volcanoes, and that one of these has an Efreet living in it. Adaon says that he would be interested in talking to it, but isn't sure it would be safe.
Cyren wants to transport the ape-like creatures to the next island to the east, which is the next largest in the 40-some islands here. It about 1/5 the size of this island. The group discusses whether to approach the ape-beings or not, but gets distracted when Adaon reveals that Catalina is pregnant with twins. A discussion ensues about whether or not Adaon will retire or not, and how smart those kiddies are going to be, with two wizard parents. Evelyn says that Cyren should get on that with Talia and Dathania so that they have more friends to play with and grow up with. Talia says she's all down for that, but Dathania says she would prefer to herself to wait a year or two at least. Huge discussion about children, nannies, and getting more Hallü joining clan Cave Bear. Talia says that at next summer's Great Gathering they can interview people to join the clan.
Ivan says that he can interview the people about the murder himself, but Adaon says that he shouldn't go alone, as they are dangerous and there is clear evidence that they already react violently to interference. Adaon asks if there's a possibility that there's a third party involved in it.
After a long discussion on what to do next, they decide to investigate the murder - not have Cyren walk through a magical mirror and possibly die. Not talk to the ape-yeti people.
After breakfast Cyren and his wives decide to go horseback riding and explore around the ruins he spoke of earlier, but not go inside.
Ivan and Evelyn decide to investigate the murder the murder.
The Cavebear family goes out and rides. The horses are excited, because they have 3 people who are master riders for once, then Cyren speaks to them (he can speak with horses magically), and they are even more excited and amazed. They are allowed to run and have fun, which is wonderful for the horses. They explore the outer ruins and only discuss going inside, as Cyren says he's not ready to face the avatar that is in there again. So, the women ask what other fun they could have out here. They explore and do find a waterfall with a pool beneath it and all go skinny dipping.
Meanwhile.... The murder investigation is stalled, because Ivan and Evelyn can't find the people they want to talk to. So, they keep looking for Guy and Stephan, and are directed to the ship that they work on.
Meanwhile... Adaon casts cloudform and flies out to see if he can find the yeti-ape-people creatures. He can only find signs of them, and is unable to find the creatures themselves. He manages to track them, which takes about 2 hours. He finds them, and they appear to be a large family or tribe of creatures that grow as large as 12 feet tall (3.65 metres), most are around 10 feet in height. He tries to move closer to them. As soon as he gets closer to them, he hears a voice that screams in his head, "What do you want?" A conversation ensues... He wants to find a way to stop the humans from hunting them,. They respond that the humans can rarely find them, and when they do, if they try to hunt the creatures, the humans die.
Adaon explains that there is a reward for the capture and/or killing of the entire tribe that will keep the humans coming. The female he is talking to says, "Then we must kill them all!" About 20 of the creatures appear around him, as if from thin air.
Adaon says, "I have come to try to find a peaceful solution to stop deaths on both sides." He suggests that they all move to the next island over. They say that they cannot swim and do not trust ships. Adaon agrees to take them there magically.
The creatures have a council and it is decided that four delegates with go with him to see this place he proposes that they move to. He says that it will take him a day until he can do this, and he leaves a wizard mark here so that he can have a beacon here. The giantess leaves a similar mark, which she ties to Adaon magically so that he can find this place through her protections.
Ivan and Evelyn go and speak with Stephan. Ivan shakes his hand, wearing the charm ring. They walk out onto the dock. Ivan asks about the murder. Stephan says that he does not know who killed André. Ivan keeps him enthralled, and decides to wait the 40 minutes until his boss shows up.
When the ship's captain arrives they greet with a handshake, and he is enthralled. Again, they walk out onto the dock. He states that he isn't certain that it was a murder, but you never know, as André and Clarence were known to drink too much, and with alcohol anything can happen. He gives them the names of some former crewmen of André's: Clovis, Loius, Pertré, Phillipe... They talk to Guy now. He gives a story almost the same as Stephan's.
Ivan continues on to find André's former crew and question them about the missing suspects who were fired publicly. So, after lunch you look for the former crew. Adaon contacts Ivan mentally and they discuss the murder, suggesting that maybe the widow committed the crime. He then says that he will see them around sundown, as it's a long walk back from where he was (he obviously used up a lot of manna to get there, so can't do it to come back).
Meanwhile, back in the forest. The trio comes out of the spring and their clothes are missing. After asking the horses about it, they discover that a couple of fauns took the clothing and scattered them around as a prank. Cyren does manage to find the clothes. They eat their picnic lunch. Then they want to enjoy nature and the outdoors as they should on the last day of their honeymoon.
After lunch, Evelyn and Ivan go and try to talk to the widow, Celina. She tries hard to remember the names of the two men who were fired for incompetence, and recalls that they had Deutscher sounding names - Randall and Gerhardt, she thinks. Celina takes Ivan and crew to the ship and allows them to look at the records. They then go to the constabulary, where they find that Gerhardt is wanted as a suspect in the murder of his girlfriend, Angelique. They speak more with the constable in charge, and convince him to use the priestess of Atrethia as a truthseer, should they find Clarence, and that they think Clarence is innocent. Ivan then gets the key to Angelique's to investigate further.
Meanwhile.... Cyren and ladies head back after their tryst in the woods,. They ask the innkeeper to cook up the fish they caught for dinner, offering the extra to him for himself. Adaon arrives after dark and goes through some trouble trying to get in, and finally convinces them that he survived out there because he is a wizard and casts a flamehose spell out into the air. They let him in, and he goes to the inn and calls it a night. Ivan will investigate Angelique's murder in the morning.
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