The top of Halaname's large pavilion is folded open, exposing the colored western sky as the sun sets. A long table draped with yellow cloth stands under the opening. The sun has sunk below the wall of the pavilion, lending the interior a sense of gloaming light. Halaname sets a few stones on the table above which softly glowing lights glimmer into existence a few feet above each, illuminating the table a whisker more than the soft gloaming. A slightly out of focus Fey brings platters of various food and indicates to partake. Halaname gestures vaguely towards the food for everyone to start, sighs, and begins her tale. "When the Seer confirmed that Thala had been taken into Arjun, we arranged for a smuggler to take us from Beechport up the lake to Arjun. There was myself, Hartan, and eight of his company of scouts. We had to be hidden in wagons all the way from the great tree into the smuggler's riverboat, and then stashed below decks. Apparently the Arjuna employ spies in our docks to track all of our commerce! I had no idea, but I guess it makes sense. We probably do the same thing. We left in the morning and everything went smoothly, I guess. We were hidden below deck for the short day it took to reach them, and then we were hidden under the floorboards of the hold. It was a clever scheme, the boards in the center of the floor pull up, except for a walkway, maybe two feet wide, along both sides of the hull. The brackets that held the removable, center, boards, and the curve of the hull made it seem there is no space under the walkway, but there was just enough, for us Jerbeen anyway -- I don't think anyone else would have fit! Regardless, the smuggler was clever, and we were not found by the Arjuna customs inspector as we came into their port just before sunset. By the time the inspection completed, the sun was down and the sailors and longshoremen were all heading to the taverns and such. With the sun down and inspectors packed off, we pretended to be the first watch of the night, along with some actual boatmen, on the riverboat. When the next watch crew came back we just headed to the taverns ourselves!. By that time no one cared about boatmen going back and forth between the docks and the taverns. It was almost disappointing. Another pack of Jerbeen with a couple Mapache and a Vulpin drew no special attention. Arjun is not like Beechport, carved into a great tree. Arjun is a warren in the cliffside. The docks stretch out both ways along the base of the cliff, but there are only a few ramps up into the city itself, and they are closely watched at night to keep the riverfolk riffraff from getting up into town. It was just the dockside taverns for us, that first night, but we had a contact at one so when the riverfolk started crashing out on the sawdusty floors, we made our way into the backroom of the tavern, where we finally got some sleep and a change of clothes. By early-afternoon we were no longer rascally boatmen, but a family of merchants with expensive business in the city. I don't know if we really needed to go through all of this cloak-and-dagger stuff, but if we did it worked -- with little effort we were in the city and off to the upper tier just by walking around like proud merchants. The Arjuni Keep, as they call their "King"'s part of the city is really a vertical stack of apartments that start halfway up the cliff, accessible via a single passage from the upper tier where their lesser nobles and such live. We got in via a simple expedient of overpowering a rich merchant and locking him and his staff in their pantry. This actually *was* hilarious, as at first he was very confused as to why these merchants came to his door, and then more surprised when we rushed him and swept through his apartments dragging his servants and him to his kitchen. It was a relief to give up all the sneaking and *act* finally! Then it was just waiting a few more hours for night to fall and climbing from his terrace up to a terrace off of the keep. It was not even a particularly challenging climb. Hartan used a scroll to shape the stone of the heavy door closing off the terrace, and we were in. Let me say, our Tree is *much* more secure than Arjun! There is no way the Dryads would not have noticed someone rearranging parts of the Tree and reacted. But rock? It's just rock, no life, no one cares; so no one notices if you go rearranging it! Of course, it was just a matter of time before they were onto us, so we had to move. Now that we were inside the scrying wards for the keep Hartan used another scroll to locate Thala. He knew which way Thala was, but nothing of the path to get to him -- so this was a merry escapade of creeping through passages and hiding from scurrying servants. I have to admit, we did ambush a couple and leave them bound and sleeping in closets. I don't know if it was someone finding a bound servant, or someone stumbling across the gaping hole in the door, but after maybe half an hour of scurrying the alarm was raised and it got exciting! Once we heard the horns and runnintg footsteps, we joined in the running. Oh, they were not ready for us, and we could bowl past folk for a while -- but eventually it became a proper chase through their halls, and this we would lose as they knoew their way around and we did not. I said "warren" earlier, and I meant it! The passages go deep into the cliff side. Luckily, Thala was buried deep in the cliffside, and I think the people prefer to be closer to the open. We were being chased deeper, towards Thala. This was great for finding Thala, but not so great for getting out once we did -- but first problems first. We fought a running skirmish -- making our pursuers hesitate around every corner as maybe one in three had a couple scouts with shortbows peppering them as they rounded the corner, then running off. We split up into pairs in order to lead them off and confuse matters, with each pair laying an ambush, then running a different way from the rest. They had no idea how many of us there were, and we made it as confusing as we could. Hartan and I paired off, and took every turn towards Thala. We finally ran into a heavily bound door, which Hartan said Thala was behind. We yelled for him, but there was no answer -- so I smashed it. No one ever expects me to smash through things, it's so fun. I was rather hoping there would be some Arjuni prison warden on the other side to be surprised, but there wasn't. There was just a room that looked like a library, but with bottles standing upright on the shelves instead of books. Hartan stepped quickly over to one of the walls and froze. He raised a hand and took down a bottle. It looked like a wine bottle, complete with a label with something scrawled on it. He said something like: "Uh. This is Thalaname, I think, I know." He sounded confused, and totally unlike him, with an edge of panic. I rushed over, and took the bottle. Scrawled on its label was "Prince Thalaname, Beechport". I moved to smash it, maybe it was some magical prison? Hartan stopped me, saying not to do anything we cannot undo, we needed a wizard to understand this. So we took the bottle and fled. I should have grabbed others. There were so many, maybe a hundred, at least. I couldn't have gotten them all, but at least some. But I get ahead of myself. Our plan for getting out was a bit more improvised than getting in -- make our way to a terrace and leap off. We had potions to protect us from the fall. We had to get to a terrace, of course, we were deep in the warren, and while Hartan could guide us unerringly to Thala, we had no such compass to take us back out. By luck or skill, though, our scouts had done an excellent job drawing off the guards -- either that or they decided to just guard the exits and switch to a methodical sweep to find us. Regardless, we avoided the sounds of running feet and snuck most of the way back to the living quarters along the cliff front. Half a dozen armed folk were guarding the junction we though we needed to go through, but we recognized it and knew we were close -- so I charged. What else would I do? They were trying to capture us, not kill us, which helped. They also seriously underestimated me, so when I picked up the first and hurled her into the rest, they scrambled quick and we could rush past to the very terrace we came in by. We ducked through the hole and leapt. Crossbow bolts followed us, but there were no birdfolk among them, so they couldn't catch us. The trip home was less pleasant -- we had a long swim to where the smuggler's boat was waiting in the lake. We had to do it quickly too, as they started sending boats out to search for us. We were able to glide a ways, and I think our smuggler may have been identified in the chase, so he won't be going back to Arjun -- but given part of his deal was a five year waver on customs from us, I think he'll make out alright. When we made it back to Beechport we confirmed that Thala was in the bottle -- or at least his spirit is. Apparently this is some kind of necromancy where you trap someone's spirit in a bottle and slowly, so slowly, starve the life away from it. I guess starving hurts even when you are dead, and necromancers can speak with the your spirit while it is trapped. The details are not good. The story at home was the same as always, of course we already have issues with the Arjuna, now we just have at least one more reason to hate them. A damned good reason. We know they hate us, though we've never done anything this blatantly *evil* to them, and they had a hundred more bottles, at least, just in that room! Maybe that was just the Beechport Room! Bottles of people's spirits: murdered, trapped, and starving. I wanted to attack immediately -- we had Thala's bottle, we could use it to convince the merchant companies and riverfolk to support us, but father is still so cautious. He refused, saying their position is too strong to just besiege -- and he doesn't believe the riverfolk will take sides. To cut to the chase, I knew we had other allies -- ones who owe us and would help if we called it in. When Thala disappeared and was tracked to Arjun, father told me our family mysteries, after all, I was the eldest now and if anything happened to him the mysteries must not be lost. One of them was that we are owed a big debt by these fey. A *big* debt. So I called it in. To contact them, I needed to get into the Wild -- I needed your help for this, Ethex. I called to them once we were in the Wild, but didn't expect them to effectively kidnap me! I am so sorry, I should have warned you about what i was doing, but I didn't even know if they would come. They did come though, and once they brought me to Lord Amite, I called in our debt. They're going to war for us, to overthrow Arjun and destroy those of them who did this. It's going to be a siege, a siege from the lake and the clifftop both. We have already been raiding the clifftop, they have effectively lost access to their farms and the forest -- we hit them hard whenever they try to resettle them. Our allies are not willing to delve into their warren though, so we need to draw them out, and we cannot do that while they still have access to the lake. Lord Amite has scheme to bar them from the lake -- the boghadair you came back with was hired to track down a particular blue thing he needs to create a great charm, with which we can bar them from the lake. If we can do that, we can keep them in siege. The terms to lift it will be simple, give us up their king, his necromancer, and his retainers. If they cannot give them up to us, then step aside and let us into the city to besiege the keep alone. I *want* to tear down all of Arjun -- just scrape it off the cliff and let it tumble into the lake, but surely not everyone there knows about their evil and just allows it? If they do, then maybe scraping it into the lake is the right thing. I am *so angry* at what they did to Thala, and who knows how many other of our kin. I hope I don't need to be angry at all of the Arjuna. I hope. Though, if I need to, if they all *do* support this evil, I *will* destroy everyone who supports these horrible, foul, unspeakable acts. The sun has set while she told her tale, and the stars shine down unto the table. Halaname breaths deeply, and the fairy lights above the stones reflect in her tears. She looks across the table at Ethex, "you are my best and truest friend," and turning to the mouse, "and my sibling -- the clever one who sees the secret truths. Will you help me destroy this evil?"