Closed.

Dhea pinched the bridge of her nose. She was irritated, but not at the ogre.
“Thank you, regardless.”
She would go check the grave, because it may have something of note there. Hopefully.
If not, she was going to find a quiet place and have her angry outburst.
Just so that nobody undeserving received any of the backlash of it.
 
Lorag's grave was stated in the backyard of the mansion. It was a simple slab of stone covered in flowers. Nothing extravagant like one would expect of a Noble. The circumstances of his death were weird though and his butler was not at all helpful in clarifying them. As Dhea approached the small grave she could see the inscription on it.

"Lorag, The First Noble of Khare."

The rest of the words were covered by flowers and when she moved a couple of petals aside another inscription was revealed.

"Tumblers two sealed deep inside."

It could have been a part of the North Gate spell. But then, why would he have it engraved so openly on his gravestone?

- Continue down the street.
 
Dhea shook her head, but noted the phrase. It was clearly going to be useful somehow and it was better than nothing. She wasn’t going to burst just yet.
She continued down the street, as there was not a lot of options open to her at that moment.
 
The buildings were thinning out as she walked, only to be completely gone at the end of the road. Dhea emerged into a wide area of wasteland. Once, this was a busy city district, but now it looked as though a hurricane had levelled it - nothing stood higher than head-height. A few staircases led to nowhere and in some places, a door still stood on its own. Plants grew from every crevice and crack as though someone had poured green paint over the whole scene. Things were constantly moving and shuffling underneath the leaves.

The road, such as it was, was quickly smothered by piles of wreckage. There were two possible ways for Dhea to proceed from there. One possible route led up and over the side of a broken down house and another passed by what might have once been a mill. She could climb the side of the broken house or step over the wheel of the mill.

- Climb the house.
- Step over the milling wheel.
 
Dhea felt safer climbing the house. She had been doing a good portion of climbing recently, so it wouldn’t be anything she was unfamiliar with.
So, that’s what she did. She climbed the house.
 
The house had been sliced, like a many-layered cake, showing the floors that were once inside. Opened rooms have been stripped of their colour by the wind and light and of their possessions by a decade or more of scavengers, but there were still hints that this place was once a family home - the hooks in the ceiling above the hearth, the marks notched on the ground floor pillar that suggested the height of growing children.

Dhea clambered up the fallen rubble to the roof of the broken building. From there she got a clear view across the rest of the wasteland. It stretched for a mile or two and would take about an hour to cross on foot, while the sun was already high in the sky. At the far end of the wasteland stood a tall iron fence thick with ivy. Perhaps to keep the people of the wasteland out, or to keep whatever was beyond the fence in. Dhea saw dark shapes in the distance, moving across the sky.

She made her way down the building safely and was back onto the path below. A small, ruined church stood to one side of the overgrown path. Most of it was in ruins, but a tall steeple still reached for the sky. Circling the steeple were those two dark shapes from before. Some sort of enormous birds.

At the foot of the church, a man dressed in rags was curled up in sleep.

- Look at him.
- Greet him.
- Leave him.
 
Dhea walked over to the man, before crouching near him. Not close enough that he could strike her, but close enough that she could speak without being overly loud.
“Hello? What are you doing out here?”
 
Under a hood that was over the man's head, two white eyes glowed slightly like orbs. That poor man was not only blind, he had no eyelids at all.

sorcerer_by_gryphart.jpg

​
He did not respond at first, however a moment later he sat up sharply. "Who's there?" He demanded. "Are you attacking me! I have nothing else for you to rob!" He rubbed at his eyes, and then reached with dirty fingers toward Dhea, trying to grasp her. "I'm starving out here, that's what I'm doing. And avoiding people."

- Introduce yourself.
- Ask for his name.
- Give him a coin.
- Give him some food.
 
Dhea shifted back, before finding some of her food and offering it up to him.
“My name is Dhea and I’m not here to rob anyone. Here, have some of my food.”
Sometimes she feared that she was too nice, but it was likely a good chance from the constant thieving and betrayal that Khare seemed to thrive on.
 
"Thank you. Thank you form the bottom of my rotten soul." The man nodded, taking the offered rations and eating them in a ferocious manner. "Why did you wake me for? I can see in my dreams, you know. I'd rather stay there." He said once finishing the food, his expression pained. "I..."

His voice trailed off. It seemed like he had heard something. The beggar pointed his gaze upwards, trying to find the direction of the disturbance. Then his expression changed to one of stunned horror.

"Oh no." He cried. "Not again. Not again. Not every time..."

The two dark shapes that were circling overhead were now spiralling downwards, beating wide, weathered wings.

latest

"God-cursed Harpies!" The beggar screamed. "They come for me every time - every coin I get, every apple, every stinking crust of bread, they come and they take it from me! What did I do to deserve such torment!"

- Run away.
- Protect the beggar.
 
Dhea shifted herself in front of the beggar, before drawing her blade. She was going to protect this beggar. He deserved that at the very least.
And she was angry.
This could help ease that for the time being.
 
The Harpies came swooping down, screaming toward the beggar. They were ugly feathered creatures with sharp talons on their legs, coming to tear out what was left of the beggar's eyes. Dhea had a bow, which she could use to bring one of them down, but she would not be fast enough for the other, or a dagger she could use to fight them, though they were flying creatures and her blade was already dulled. She also had a lot of spells that could be used to defend herself.

- Use the bow (Roll a die, Bonus: 7, Difficulty: 15).
- Use a dagger (Roll a die, Bonus: 6, Difficulty: 20).
- Cast a spell.
 
Dhea dropped her blade into it’s sheath without a second thought and drew her bow. She could get the other one if she was quick enough. Not with her bow, but something.
...and then she felt a heavy weight against her thigh, because she’d slipped the pendulum in there before she left Xirin’s mansion.

And she brough it out and cast a spell of sleep.
 
As her chanting ended, the screams of the Harpies died down. The creatures stopped flapping their wings, their eyes following the swinging pendulum. The spell was working! As one the two creatures fell onto the ground in a tumble of limbs and feathers.

The beggar cheered and danced a very clumsy dance, almost tripping himself up.

"Stranger! Thank you so much!" He grasped Dhea's cloak.

- Ask him his name.
- Leave him and continue your journey.
 
“I’m not such a stranger now, am I?”
Dhea turned to the old man with a soft grin, even if he couldn’t see it.
“May I know your name?”
She tucked the pendulum away and returned her bow to its usual place. She wanted to stab the harpies so that they wouldn’t cause trouble again, as she didn’t know how long the spell would last.
 
"Theetah." The beggar nodded. "I'm sure everyone's forgotten about me by now. All because of the cursed First Noble. These are his servants." He pointed at the sleeping Harpies. "Finish you work, my saviour, please."

Theetah was the Seventh Noble of Khare, as Dhea found out in the Council Chamber.

- Ask for his line.
- Leave.
- Optional: Kill the Harpies.
 
Dhea shrugged, before taking her blade and jamming it into the skull of the first harpy and then into the other. She used their wings to wipe the blood off and she turned to Theetah.
“I need your line. Please.”
 
"My line?" Theetah turned to her, following her voice. "To the North Gate? You want to get out of here?" His expression sunk. "I wish you better luck than mine." He said, before reciting. "I bid you portals open wide."

And that was it. The third line. Dhea had to learn the other half of Moulag's line, as well as the forth and final full line. She had a way to go yet. The beggar waved her away, stepping up to the Harpies and inspecting their corpses, looking very happy that the creatures were now gone.

Dhea proceeded on the only path through the wasteland. After a while she came to the edge of the ruined area, where a line of tall, dark fence cut through it. Through the dense leaves of the ivy she could make out a wide area beyond, dotted with stones and small buildings and straight, sombre trees. Whatever it was beyond it, it could not be as deserted and empty as the place she had left behind.

- Climb the ivy.
- Cut the ivy down.
- Cast a spell.
 
Dhea was not in the mood to do anything more involving her blade, so she decided to use the ivy to her advantage. It seemed it was a day for events like these.
She started to climb, muttering a few curses under her breath as she did so.
 
The ivy seemed tightly wound about the railings, it looked fairly safe to climb. Wedging one toe between the metal bars, Dhea gripped the cords of the plant and hauled herself up. Then the second foot was up and she was climbing, though she could feel the plant tearing under her weight. With two more measured movements and thanks to her agility, she was up and above the fence, dropping to the other side as the plant crumbled from the spot she climbed.

484844_10151242521831903_44734712_n.jpg

She was standing in the grounds of the Necropolis, a city within the city, occupied by headstones and mausoleums of the dead. Somehwere between the yews and cedars she could make out the wide road that looped through the graveyard before turning uphill as it headed for the far gate. The wind whistled between tall trees. The sun was slowly climbing down the sky. She had a couple of hours of daylight left.

- Look around the gravestones.
- Stick to the path and leave the Necropolis.
 
Dhea looked around, before letting out a soft sigh and going hunting through the graveyard. She had remembered someone saying something about one of the lines being in the graveyard. And it couldn’t hurt to look.
 
She stepped off the bath, walking between the nearest tombs. Some were ancient: headstones tilted to crazy angles and some of them fallen face down, as though the citizens of the graveyard have been drinking since they died. Xirin had mentioned that the Khareians are never resting in peace. The older tombs were too run down for Dhea to examine or find anything useful, though, but a little further on she saw new gravestones, neatly carved and clean of all moss and weeds. The marbled gleamed in the sunlight as though cleaned by maids and waiting for their occupants to arrive.

There were several tombs among the new graves - like there was a plague in the city recently, or perhaps the people simply died often in Khare. They were scattered about in a roughly alphabetical order. She looked across the names and a couple caught her eye.

- Praya's gravestone.
- Riif's tomb.
- Shinva's mausoleum.
 
Dhea, despite usually being curious and not at all terrified by anything, was unnerved by this place. She wanted to be out as soon as possible, but it seemed her best bet would be the mausoleum. The Nobles of Khare seemed to enjoy displaying their wealth.
 
She approached the mausoleum. Carved above the doors was the inscription: "Here rests Lord Shinva - Fifth Noble of Khare."

The doors of the mausoleum were unlocked and slightly opened as though someone regularly came and went. Just in front of it was a ring of mushrooms, growing up against the front step of the mausoleum. The mushrooms were red with white spots - highly poisonous. The ring itself was in a perfect circular shape. In its centre glittered something silver - a blade pushed into the soft soil.

- Reach for the sword.
- Step into the circle.
- Leave the circle.
 
Nope.
Dhea was rather done with the temptations of the Portals, but she took a loose button off her clothes and tossed it in. Just to make sure.
If it wasn’t, she was going to see if she could get the blade.

And if she could, she had a new weapon.
 
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