The Hell Hole that is Home

Rai was having her usual lazy day.

As like all lazy days with nothing to chase down, track, kill or hunt she spent the time in Cebra’s yard. Setting off every single security system as she went as per usual. Rai plops herself down in the back yard in front of her pot of daisies, which she acknowledges was slowly getting bigger. More like taller, but she didn’t necessarily see the buds she wanted yet. She leans forward into the grass, poking the leaves with her finger, as if trying to discern it from the rest of the plant.

Seemed like most of this gardening thing was waiting. Part of her could see the appeal in waiting for a long time for something, the other part of her envied the patience of farmers. Rai gets herself up, dusting herself off before heading inside the house to see if Cebra was home. It seemed most of her qualms about entering homes were fading… or maybe it was just this house in particular she didn’t really see a problem with walking right in the doors.

“Hey Cebra, you home?” She asks, unbuckling the pauldron off her shoulder and holding it under her arm like a football. She gives an odd squint as a strange noise intrudes on her ears, a high pitched ringing. It grew from ringing to a clattering sound from the inside of her head that made her head spin so bad she fell back onto the couch. “Cebra?!” She calls again, voice just ever so escalating in tone as the pain in her head made her worry her skull would split.

Meanwhile the ground began to shake and dark clouds gathered in the sky, but only in one central area to the north, and it seemed to be pulling all the other clouds in the sky to the center.

Cebra was currently in his garage doing some work on Hank Robertson's tow truck, a pretty standard job request from one of Cebra's oldest friends. There wasn't much on the to do list for today besides chores and small tasks, Cebra seemed to be averse to taking a break, like a proper machine sometimes. He heard rai in the kitchen and laid down his tools, there was notice taken now of how much time the girl actually spent out in the garden. He appreciated Rai's help around the farm and town, Cebra has had more time for his personal projects in this way. He was headed for the kitchen when one of his internal sensors started to go haywire, or so he thought. It was an atmospheric monitor he used for weather surveillance, but these readings were very odd.

It was then he heard Rai call out again, her voice more pained and urgent than the last time, a tone he had never heard from her before. Cebra rushed quickly blowing past the door, he saw Rai on the couch in some kind of pain "Rai? What's wro...ong?! The fuck is..." The sky turned in a way Cebra had never seen before, this had to be some weather phenomenon brought on by a satellite, he had seen a similar event before. But this wasn't that. The ground beneath him shook and some great force began to pull at the other clouds like a funnel. He can't help but stare up into the void of clouds transfixed by the oddity "I... I don't understand. What is?"

Rai groans as her head almost burned, as if someone had jammed a hot poker through the roof of her mouth and into her brain. With a heavy groan she manages to glance out the window to the gathering clouds that darkened her own vision. Upon squinting she stands with a stumble. “It’s back.” She growls forcing herself to walk as the pain in her head begins to clear. She takes a breath as she is able to see straight again just as the rumbling earth gets harsher and an ear splitting roar echoes from the sky. From the inner eye of the funnel clouds the enormous head of an even larger snake-like creature falls from the sky.

The face of the worm agape and filled with row after row of what couldn’t be described as teeth, but rather a kind of whale baleen. With it came a large amount of sand but instead of laying dead on the ground it begins to burrow with ease into the ground.

“Shit. Cebra, that's the Strigga, it’s how I got here in the first place. It eats holes in dimensions and if you let it stay long enough… well… I don’t know what happens, but it can’t be good.” Rai throws open the back door, tossing Grimmorah’s figurine onto the ground with a flare of sulfur and smoke. She all but jumps in her saddle and extends a hand to Cebra. “Come on, we have to get rid of it.”

So much happens in such a short length, Cebra barely has time to think of what's happening before Rai is already to give chase to that thing. His first thoughts are of the town and it's safety, he wants to go back and check on them. But he's come to understand the threat these odd creatures can bring to this world, and also the new attachment to Rai he's developed makes him take her hand and easily leap up onto the steed. He didn't even have time to grab any weapons, tools or anything useful. This could quickly become a poor decision on Cebra's part but there wasn't much choice on the matter now. "It eats holes in dimensions?" Cebra couldn't help but wonder about that, hearing of the world of Dis didn't make it sound like anything he wanted to see. But as long as he was careful and followed her lead things she be fine he hoped.

Oh things most definitely would not be fine, Cebra made the absolute worst decision if he’d wanted to preserve normalcy in any capacity. But here he was on the back of Grimmorah anyway.

Grimmorah didn’t even start out at a lower gate as Rai digs her heels into his side, sending him sundering forth at breakneck speed. The feeling of being on his back was almost sickening as the gate smoothed out, yet it appeared they were going faster than what it felt like a horse should be capable of. Each hoofbeat sending them further than it sounded like it should. They cleared Cebra’s fields in a blur only to reach a clearing of nothing but hot desert sand that shouldn’t be there in a perfectly round cut of land. Trees were shorn in half perfectly smooth where they stood around the ring, as if somewhere else had been dropped into the world, but only a piece of it.

Within the sand churns as the massive worm surfaces, tearing through the sand and through the trees, maw agape as it swallows the trees and land like they were nothing and leaving more sand in it’s wake. Rai hauls herself up in her saddle, poised to leap onto it, scythes at her sides. “Cebra, Take the reigns” She huffs as she leaps onto the back of it, scythes tearing into flesh.

The cowardly worm squeals and dives, throwing Rai off it and into the sand. Grimmorah, meanwhile, seems to not appreciate being handed off and throws on the breaks, skidding to a sudden halt by his disgruntled rider.
“Fuck.” Rai growls as the sand seems to shift ever more beneath them in a perfect ring. Before the reaver could even stand the ground explodes beneath them into a prison of baileen and black void as the worm swallows them whole, thundering into the sky, and vanishing just as quickly as it had appeared.

The next moment another portal opens in Dis as Rai, Grimmorah and Cebra are tossed out in the worm’s wake… with the trees from the mortal dimension in a perfect ring just like the ring of sand from earlier. Beyond the ring was yellowed grass as far as the eye could see. The sky permanently darkened by clouds so thick they looked like soot and what little sunlight did creep through was a deep bloody red. “Damnit… not again.” She groans, looking around as if looking for the Strygan again. “Twice I’ve chased that stupid worm and twice it’s landed me somewhere. Where are we?”

Rai walks for a second, just beyond the trees and into the waist-tall grass before it suddenly hits her. “We’re in Dis.”

For someone fully capable of slowing down his perception of time, this was happening way too fast for Cebra to know exactly what the best course of action was. He took the reigns of the steed being very familiar with horseback riding, but it seemed as though this particular one didn't take kindly to Cebra. As the feeling was mutual Cebra leaped off and approached a little closer on foot. The worm slams into or rather through the ground, Cebra started to run back with a mind to go home and arm himself with something. There is no time however as the great beast springs from underneath and swallows everyone whole.

The next thing Cebra knew after tumbling through whatever hole that was is being spat out into an environment completely foreign to him. He climbs to his feet feeling a little disoriented and immediately checks his body externally while Cyco runs diagnostics. It would seem he was in one piece but there were problems with his GPS link, he couldn't connect to any satellite. It would appear as though Rai was fine and furthermore she recognized this place as her home world, answering some questions for Cebra. This was problematic as hell, Cebra's mind began racing with more questions, chief of which was how to get back to his world.

"We're in... I see. That worm sent us here, it must be the key to travelling then. Rai." Cebra turns to her. "This is..." Cebra has a hard time voicing his discomfort with this situation, it's the first time he's travelled dimensions and it wasn't by the most pleasant means. He decides to stifle himself and just focus on the here and now. "Never mind, so where are we exactly?"

“Twice I’ve chased that damned worm and twice it’s put me somewhere odd. At least it didn’t take us somewhere neither of us had been before.” Rai settles out loud, trying to think of what little positives there were of this situation. She scans her horizons before settling to the south, a vague spire just over the horizons. “Looks like we are north of Rome. Theres the chapel. If we go south we'll end up in the bone yard” She thinks out loud, looking up into the sky only to see the setting rays of the bloody sun.
Looking back north, Rai sighs. “We can’t stay out here too long. We need to find a town. Terni or Foligino should be up that way so if we head north we could probably find a place. Get you into an inn or something.” The good part about Dis was that there was never a town more than a day’s travel away from the other entirely to help those in their situation.

The reaver re-mounts Grimmorah as he grunts in light displeasure at having been handed off to someone else. “Psh. Ass.” She huffs back offering Cebra her hand. Just before she was about to kick Grimmorah off into a gallop she notices an odd glimmer in the distance. A tiny flying demon… perhaps a scouter? The urge to check it out herself quelled as she realized keeping Cebra out past dark could end badly and she needed to join whatever night watch there was at some nearby town to avoid being alone herself.

She offers a hand to Cebra before reaching into her boot and producing the one solid gold coin she’d showed him at the diner in Overdale. She offers it to Cebra. “You’ll need it for an inn. A room should only cost a quarter of it.”

"Rome huh? Interesting." Cebra was curious as to the similarities of the Rome here and in his world. If the name of the city was Rome then was there a man here also named Romulus? At what point did the two dimensions sync up enough to have two cities of the same name? Cebra's head occasionally jerked from one point to another as he scanned and made notes of things as best he could. There was a splinter of anxiety in the back of his mind pricking away at his thoughts, what sort of damage had been wrought in his world since that worm creature struck and what sort of technology could shift dimensions looking like a worm? This was far beyond Orion's capabilities to do.

"Ah right, monsters and such come out in the dark huh? Well if you insist we need to hide out that's fine. Though I feel I should mention I'm not as..." Cebra remembers the instances of Rai seeing Cebra in combat, not his best performances but circumstances hindered him somewhat. "I'm capable of fighting larger scale enemies if need be, I just need to be ready." It had become important to Cebra that he could be seen as reliable, specifically by Rai. It was the most trying task he'd ever undertaken trying to get this girl to take a little notice of him, usually it wasn't this brutal. At the same time he felt a sort of kinship with her, the simple ways she carried herself pleased Cebra, something they reflected in each other.

Cebra accepts the gold coin, in his hand it rapidly shifts from gold to silver to copper and back to gold, he has to wonder if he could get work here as an alchemist. "Do I need to change my..." Cebra was going to say clothes, but he remembers Rai has no idea what clothes look like. Pointless to ask her if his weird future jeans would scare people, he decides to just walk around like he's lived here forever, just do as the locals do for the most part.

“Monsters are always around, they just seem to move more at night. It’s almost like they know humans can’t see in the dark.” Demons could be sneaky bastards, luckily a reaver was built to deal with those kinds of antics, hence their odd vision. Although usually chatty, Rai’s recently found voice was fading, once again choosing words so deliberately she didn’t respond to Cebra for almost a full five minutes.

“You will not fight here.” She adds blankly as Grimmorah’s hooves clear the ground at breakneck speeds. “No one can know you aren’t human. If the clergy sets reavers on you in fear, I cannot help you.” No reaver would attack Cebra on sight. He looked human enough to pass in her eyes, she really had to squint to pick up on the fact he wasn’t human. As strange as his soul looked, it wouldn’t attract too much attention unless he did anything outrageous.

“I have to leave you at an inn. Something feels wrong here but I have to meet up with whatever nightly patrol of reavers Terni has to send out tonight to find out more. I might be able to meet with you in the night but it would have to be somewhere…unclaimed.” Rai thinks for a minute before changing her choice in words. “Neutral. Somewhere a reaver and human would be without any suspicion.” Rai keeps scanning the horizons before jerking Grimorah sharply to the left, but saying nothing of why. In the distance the wheat seemed to be bristling in an area but then moved away. Rai couldn’t help but feel a bit of guilt. She had to treat Cebra like a stranger for a while and push him away, but the last thing they needed was the weight of Dis societal norms making their lives hell right now. She had to play her cards carefully or one, if not both of them could end up burning at the stake before sundown.

“I am sorry. Dis is not like home. There are rules. Many unwritten, but still rules.” Her voice trails as the small path they’d carved their way into lead up to a heavily reinforced wall and an iron studded gate. Rai gives a high pitched whistle to the gamesmen, two reavers, each looking quite a bit like Rai herself who quickly open the gates, hauling the heavy chains to swing the door upwards to let the pair through. “I do need a favor though. I need you to find out where the white cloaks are here. They’ll look like me but their cloaks will be white instead of black. Don’t talk to them, but we need to find them. They can probably help us.” Rai whispers below her breath as they keep their pace at a low walk.

The town looked absolutely dreadful by today’s standards. The road through the main village was dry stacked stone littered with straw and animal manure. Along the sides of the roads were occasional grocers stalls, fishmongers, butchers stands and the like, each trying to attract attention to their goods. Many peasants looked unwashed and perhaps like they had missed a few meals and their clothes were very drab, usually wool or flax and none were ever dyed, resulting in clothes of more natural colors of beige, white and brown. The architecture still kept the italian appeal of stone buildings and a snaking road that ran up hill into the nicer parts of the town, but rather than being an idea vacation hotspot, it just seemed dark and drab. On occasion another reaver would pass by, mounted upon a similar steed to Rai, only variations being things like hair and eye color, or accent colors on the horses and the type of armor they wore.
Rai pulls Grimorah to a stop in front of a stone building with a large wooden sign projecting into the street with the word ‘inn’ carved into it with some kind of sharp tool as she hops down and offers a hand to Cebra. Just as she turns to enter the Inn, she is met by a portly man with a broom, his face red and puffy. He just stares her down for a moment as she remembers where she is. She backs away before remounting Grimorah. With one last nod of assurance he was going to be alright, she goes on about her way, assimilating back into the life of a Dis reaver.

“Hmp, Devils bastards they are.” The man grumps, lowering his broom and setting it inside the doorway. His latin accent thick, however almost morphing into what could be considered modern day italian. “Anyway, Assuming it found you on the road and brought you here. In need of a room?”

Meanwhile, Rai lingers, walking Grimorah as slow as she possibly could, on occasion glancing over her shoulder to ensure Cebra got into the Inn safe just as the sun began to fade into night.

Cebra tried to bring up all the info he could about Eastern European medieval culture and politics, there was something wrong with his memory though. It was like the data was corrupted and missing chunks but at the same time there were no anomalous functions detected, shit just vanished. It wasn't a lot and he could still see some info but it was vanishing by the minute, this disturbed Cebra though he didn't say anything and didn't know what he would say.

He wasn't very fond of what Rai was telling him about her world, having to blend in to this culture seemed incredibly ironic to the point Cebra looked vainly skyward mocking the idea of a God controlling fate; One of the most technologically advanced cyborgs of the future flung back into the past by a fucking mutant worm. And now this primitive screwheads were the only people that could likely help them. Rai was certainly acting different as well, she seemed to be more nervous and if it was even possible more distant. He thought that it could just be her not liking home, he remembered how her tone and demeanor would change when talking about Dis. It wasn't something he had done or said... Well he hoped. But frankly the atmosphere was a good enough excuse to be in a dour mood, it was the most depressing looking Halloween world Cebra had seen.

"White cloaks huh?" Cebra says to himself as Rai leaves him. "Sounds simple enough. But if I can't talk to them then how do I get them to help us?" He cocked his eyebrow figuring out that puzzle for himself, a thought process quickly shattered by the chunk bartenders harsh words. Cebra was no beginner to the concept of assimilating into culture and blending in, even when he found their ways despicable and reprehensible he could easily melt into the cultural stew. Cebra shrugged nonchalantly and adjusted his accent when he heard the man speak to a very similar sounding one "They have their uses I suppose, few as they may be. Yes, a room please... And maybe a little information if you please."

Rai glances around, not sure were exactly her and Cebra could meet up later. He was smart, he’d find a way… that is if he could tell her apart from the other reavers.

----

“Come in, it’s about to get dark.” The man ushers Cebra in the door of the inn and sets his straw broom against the doorway. The inside was rather run down for an ‘inn’, the tables carved up and dirty. A stone hearth crackled lightly with only a meager few logs on the flame and above it, an iron cauldron full of bubbling soup which just seemed to be more water and bones with a few vegetables than soup. The smell in the place was rancid to the less accustomed to the scent of starving, unwashed peasants.

There were only three patrons in the cramped dining hall, each with a bowl of weak soup and a dark bread made of whole cereal grains, but not something palatable. Perhaps Barley or Rye.

“Mariza, Get the man some dinner.” The innkeep boomed toward a frail looking woman, her face bruised and scarred from some recent ordeal. Linen draped across one eye, and a deep fresh cut from her lip to her ear. She creaks up from her chair behind the counter, making her way to the bubbling pot. She grabs a ladle with her left hand, but struggles as she was missing two fingers and was freshly bandaged. She switches to her right with much more success. Setting the bowl and bread down for Cebra, Mariza limps away, retreating up the stairs without a word.
“Forgive my wife. She and my daughter got snatched up by a monster.” The innkeeper gives a heavy sigh and shakes his head. “She has been in a state ever since.” His voice trails off as he lingers his gaze up the stairs for a moment too long, perhaps even fighting back the closest thing to tears the pox-scarred man had ever shed. “I am Niccolo, you said you were in the market for information?”

Cebra immediately smells the decay and putrefaction around him, to him this place looks more like a refugee shelter than an inn. He ignores the looks he gets from wearing rather untattered clothing and a clean complexion free of filth. The depressing atmosphere inside all but killed his appetite though he accepted the food to be grateful. "Thank you kindly ma'am." As his soup was delivered and he reluctantly spooned some into his mouth, it wasn't particularly awful but it was quite plain and listless much like the people. Cebra couldn't help but be curious as to the nature of the wild life in this world if people used the term monster, was everything as dangerous as the creature they fought in his world?

His mind was flooded with questions that would lead to more questions as he watched the wounded woman leave with some pity. Given that Rai said Reavers are the ones responsible for the protection of people here, acquiring a weapon might be somewhere between difficult and impossible. The thought passed his mind due to the fact his memory issues seemed to be moving through many areas of his cybernetic mind. His advanced weapons schematics were degrading by the minute and diagnostics didn't reveal anything except for

"UNKNOWN FOREIGN PATHOGEN DETECTED"
"PATHOGEN REWRITING DATA FILES"
"ATTEMPTING TO RESTRAIN PATHOGEN"
"ATTEMPT FAILED"
"EXPLORATORY PROBE INITIATED."

In Cebra hears all of this in Cyco's cold deep voice. He still needs to track down this group of white cloaks and hopes his questioning doesn't rouse any ill attention. "My sympathy friend." He says before taking another sip and observing the mans face as it was turned. "I have a need to find the whit cloaks, personal business. Can you tell me where I might find them around here?"

The innkeep gave a deep sigh, lingering just a moment more. He appeared somewhat portly, but really he just had a round face and a bit more of a belly than any of the other starving peasants. Across each cheek he had the speckling of scars from a disease long passed, but it looked as though every few of the people didn’t have these same markings on some part of their body. His hair was the color of dirty sand and his eyes seemed to match the tone of fresh mud.

Niccolo’s attention is pulled back to Cebra as he asks for white cloaks. “Ah, you want shepherds.” Niccolo’s face gives a light twinge of disgust under his voice. “I’ve always hated that name for them. Fucking shepherds. Thinking of us like some kind of sheep. “ He spits, pouring himself some weak beer and then filling a tin tankard sitting on the table for Cebra. “Anyway, There's only one bar in town that lets them in. I wouldn’t be going into The Black Crane alone. Full of drunkards and reavers. And between you and me, the clergy is one more brawl away from burning the place to ashes.”


Niccolo takes a long drink of his beer before perking to the sound of commotion outside. Thundering hooves against paved stones and the unmistakable hellish squeals of reaver mounts. The innkeep rolls his eyes and shakes his head. “If I could go back in time I would tell my grandfather to place the inn somewhere that wasn’t on the main track of town. Instead I get to hear those things screamin’ out of the place a quarter from an hour after nightfall every damned day.” He taps his tankard for a moment before his attention turns back to Cebra. “Anyway, Where are you from, stranger? I know I’ve never seen you around here before and not many people come to the edge of the earth for fun.”

Cebra tried his best not to be put off by the sheer anger and spite the old man spat out. It was times like this he was happy he hadn't succumbed to the long years of strife, Cebra was quite old by human standards and had seen much. When he looked at this simple townsman he couldn't help but feel Dis might be a dark mirror of his own town, what could happen if he wasn't there to defend that small piece of green land. He wasn't there right now and the thoughts gnawed at the back of his mind, he kept his focus on the task at hand.

Cebra had a drink along with the man trading glances and nodding as he told Cebra what he needed to know. Cebra hadn't thought about what his cover story would be, he hadn't really had the time or tools to construct anything believable. Cebra's mind blitzed through thousands of options in a fraction of a second and ended up picking out something he perceived to be generic for a medieval era. As he was dressed too nicely to be a peasant Cebra went with the vague title of "Merchant... I'm a merchant, selling threads of cotton and silk from the south. Looking for new markets wherever I can in these trying times."

Niccolo gives a bit of a side eyed stare as Cebra claims to be a merchant. He did look like he was dressed finely, albeit weird. He was also rather clean and seemed to have all his teeth and his limbs still attached to him, thus he must have been able to afford both protection and access to clean water on a regular basis. The part of Niccolo that wished his business well couldn’t help but be thankful about it as Cebra definitely had the coin to pay for the room, the other half was suspicious. A clean man on the back of a filthy devil spawn? Was this some sort of trick the clergy was playing on him? A way to fool him into blaspheming? With a stubborn shake of his head, he stashes the thought out of mind, choosing to take the option that kept the inn running.

“I guess that’s as acceptable as any. But… What is cotton?” Niccolo asks, having never heard of the new world plant. Most clothes here were made of wool or flax and only the rich could afford silks.

Xxxx


Meanwhile, Rai found herself outside the gates of Terni with another group of Reavers, most of which hadn’t even earned their cloaks yet. She takes the opportunity to set them scouting elsewhere while she follows up on their drop-site. Rai settles in his saddle, if not a bit uncomfortably. While they were away, the horrid energy in the area only grew denser.

Rai follows past their original point as she begins to notice more evidence of recent travel. Some of the trees their warping had brought with them into dis had been felled and dragged away, as if timber men had come through for lumber. This was so recent some of the trees were still wet with sap. The horseman dismounts, dispelling Grimmorah to track on foot, following the trail of imprinted tracks through the flax fields, across a low grown forrest and then into the beginnings of the foothills of the Apennine mountains. Just as visible movement hits her eyes, she freezes for a moment. This place was crawling with demon trails, snaking all over the place. All of which led over a particular hill.

Rai would have to play scout, as ducks down into the sparse undergrowth as she creeps up the hill just one step at a time. As the peak of the hill grows near Rai freezes, only now realizing what she is looking at. This was not just a demon den, it was a damned camp. There were tents, demons and devils everywhere, some of which were organized and armed. They kept their fires low to avoid detection and seemed to be building things from fresh chopped lumber but she couldn’t make out what. She chose not to stick around too long to find out. Although every bone in her body urged her forward to fight, she was not dumb enough to charge into a camp alone, especially not one that seemed to span an entire hillside.

The reaver turns tail, summoning Grimmorah and spurring him back into a dead gallop back to where she’d left the fledgling Reavers only to find ravaged corpses of the horned. They’d been set upon by something that’d been equipped to handle reavers, silver halberds wrenched through breastplates and some reavers had even been fully reduced to dust.

She couldn’t wait around here, if she’d been discovered and killed as well, the information of the camp would die with her. Rai had barely stopped to discover her slain companions before she was off again, straight back to Terni at a pace that shouldn’t be possible by a horse. Thundering through the gates she skids to a stop, turning to the doormen asking for the nearest whitecloak hang out.


XXX

The Black Crane was a run down dump of an establishment. The dirt road had turned to mud from the water run down from the sloped streets. The sounds of drunken men roaring from the inside and drunkards littering the yard, as well as the occasional reaver only a modicum less uptight than usual. Rai hurriedly waits by the door, only hoping Cebra had found the same information as she had and didn’t end up god knows where.

She leans back against a wooden column, just waiting as a group of white cloaks passes. She avoids their gaze as typical, however one stays behind. His armor a gleaming bronze with a while cloak delicately drawn below his pauldron. He was in slightly more movable platemail than the bulky dreadnaughts, however she didn’t register him as a frontliner at first. Upon closer inspection Rai realizes he was a skirmisher, a very well armored one at that.

“Hey. You look like shit.” He gruffs in reaver with a light smile. His white hair is cropped short and his markings were sparse compared to Rai’s, but there was still a resemblance. “What do they call this one, girl?”

“Sa’ Rai Osgh’ol.Erm, Rai… I need help.” Rai sighs, not comfortable putting all her trust in another reaver, but if there were anyone who would help them, It’d be a white cloaked reaver. “More like we. I have a companion but…”

The reaver gives a blank stare. “I am not helping you cover up a tiefling, girl.” He crosses his arms and shifts his weight, choosing to hear her out.

“No no, God no.” A very flustered Rai quickly refutes. “I will wait until he gets here buuuut… Wait, what do they call this one?”

“Mol’ ShaRai. Molly. I jest about the teifling. I assume he is human?”

“Aye.”

“We will pull him into the back then. Go. What am I looking for?”

“Fuzzy, kind of dim but still strong. Strangest one you’ll see.” Rai barks, slinking into the back of the Black Crane as the barkeep lets her into a back room with the other reavers, all battle-hardened white cloaks, one of which pulls out a chair for her.

Meanwhile Molly assumes Rai’s position, leaned against the support beam, watching for Cebra.