CanadienneBacon
Explorer
"Is there something I know that I'm not telling you?" Celeste eyes Nyla with no small degree of mirth. Giving a little laugh, the blonde woman nods. "Of a certainty. But with regard to Davked's request, no, I can think of no more other than what I've already provided. Davked's wife Marta, who died last year, cursed him for being a harsh unyielding father and driving their sons away; Davked will waste away to nothing unless he makes peace with his three sons. He's already laid old wounds to rest with the first two, but Zenith couldn't be found. The last Davked knew of Zenith was that ten years back when they had their falling out, the son left the Malachite Fortress in favor of marching into the Underdark with his army, that he might cleanse that vast underground of its vileness. Suspecting that Zenith may have come to an ill end in the Underdark, Davked traveled recently and paid a hefty fee to the free city of Valorre, to their Tower of Xylla, for a powerful divination. When the mage from whom the divination had been ordered returned with the tidings that Zenith still lives but is being kept prisoner in a kuo-toan shrine in the Underdark north of here. The shrine, the mage said, is called Bhal-Hamatugn. No fool, Zenith naturally suspected the divination, for his son was a mighty warrior within the ranks of dwarves and the location seemed to Davked to indicate that Zenith had made but precious little progress into the Underdark before being captured. A second divination was ordered, this time from a Temple of Stone, but it only confirmed what the first divined. And so Davked returned to Cauldron and has been petitioning ever since for his son's return." Celeste pauses and eyes Aaron. "You already have the map and the promise of 4,000 crowns or 6,000 gold pieces' worth of arms and armor from Davked's clan. Each." Celeste drums her fingers on the countertop for emphasis. "Will you take an overland trek to get to the rift north of town that leads to the Underdark?"
When Bollaron takes Celeste's hand and kisses it, Celeste smiles wanly and offers no resistance. "I earn a good living by serving as Davked's secretary. The term is, I hope, short, and my requirements clear: I am to help him lay his affairs in order ere he passes from this world to his heavenly Halls of Stone, to lay in eternal peace at the feet of Drendd." Taking her hand back from Bollaron, Celeste continues. "Davked is old, true. His wife cursed him and he lives on, longer than any dwarf has a right to, 'til he can rid himself of his curse. I do not know his exact age."
[sblock=Aaron]Aaron senses that Celeste shrouds something from public disclosure in her last statements regarding her work with Davked and the old dwarf's age.[/sblock]
When Bollaron takes Celeste's hand and kisses it, Celeste smiles wanly and offers no resistance. "I earn a good living by serving as Davked's secretary. The term is, I hope, short, and my requirements clear: I am to help him lay his affairs in order ere he passes from this world to his heavenly Halls of Stone, to lay in eternal peace at the feet of Drendd." Taking her hand back from Bollaron, Celeste continues. "Davked is old, true. His wife cursed him and he lives on, longer than any dwarf has a right to, 'til he can rid himself of his curse. I do not know his exact age."
[sblock=Aaron]Aaron senses that Celeste shrouds something from public disclosure in her last statements regarding her work with Davked and the old dwarf's age.[/sblock]