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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 7539427" data-attributes="member: 143">Rodan was the tiefling ranger they allied with in the Silverpeak Valley, and yes, both were siblings raised by the cult in Li Syval. * * * Chapter 235Spectral lights floated forward through the air, shedding light on the empty chambers of the long-abandoned complex.  The somber sounds of Glori strumming on her lyre, maintaining the dancing lights, seemed a fitting accompaniment in this forbidding place.“This place is empty,” Kosk said, kicking a piece of loose debris.  “No one’s been here in years.”Glori sent her magical globes further ahead, brightening the next pair of hallways ahead.  “Kalasien paid another hefty bribe to get us access to this place,” she said.  “We might as well give it a thorough look while we’re here.”“You really think that the cult left behind a clue that the local authorities would have missed?” Kosk asked.“It won’t take long to confirm,” Quellan said, with a sidelong look at Bredan.  He didn’t need to voice the subtext that they all understood.  We don’t have any other options.But Kosk’s statement seemed borne out as they continued their exploration of the chambers that had once served as the headquarters of the infernal cult that had once clung to the underbelly of Li Syval.  The entrance that Kalasien’s bribe had unsealed had been within a stone’s throw of some of the finer properties of the city’s elite.  Several of the leading families had been implicated in the activities of the cult, drawn by promises of wealth, secrets, and power.  Those families had been cast down and replaced by up-and-comers as part of the never-ending churn that shaped the ruling class of the trading city.Everything of value had been taken from the complex when the cult had finally been exposed years ago, but there was plenty of detritus that remained.  Signs of the violence that had consumed the place in its last days were everywhere: old stains on the walls and floor, scraps of torn cloth, fragments from shattered furniture.The companions spread out, careful to remain within visual or hailing distance.  They didn’t find anything worth sharing, but each faced their own moments of revelation during the search.  Quellan bent to pick up a child’s doll, little more than a collection of stitched-together rags, and stared at it for over a minute before he tucked it into his pouch.  Kosk likewise lingered in a brick vault that had a dozen rusty iron cages built into the walls.  Glori found a hole in the floor that she explored with one of her dancing lights, but recoiled when the glowing orb revealed that it was full of tiny bones.Bredan made his way through a narrow doorway that appeared to lead into a larger chamber, but which dead-ended at a curving alcove.  There were marks on the walls to suggest that objects had once rested there, but the place was now empty.  The walls of the alcove were covered with markings in a strange script, marks that glinted faintly as the warrior lifted his lamp to examine them.The language was not familiar, but there was something that tickled at the edges of his understanding.  It looked as though there had been more writing at one point, but someone had taken a chisel to part of the wall, hacking away the marks.  There was no way of knowing why he had stopped part-way, or what the remaining writing signified.He was about to turn away and depart when he thought he saw a slight shift of movement out of the corner of his eye.  But when he turned back, nothing had changed.“I don’t know if you can hear me,” he said.  He kept his voice low so that it would not travel beyond the alcove.  “I’m not leaving Li Syval without her.  Do you understand?  I know you have something planned for me.  But I’m not leaving without Xeeta, so if you can help me in any way, you’d better do so.”The only response he got was a sound of footsteps in the passage outside.  A moment later Quellan stuck his head into the space.  “Bredan?  Who are you talking to?”“No one,” Bredan said.  “Myself.”Quellan squeezed into the alcove and stared at the writing.  “This is written in the Infernal script,” he said.“Can you understand it?”“No.”  Quellan looked at him strangely.  “Can you?”“It’s gibberish to me,” Bredan said.  But he did not look away from the writing.“None of the others have found anything,” Quellan said.  He watched Bredan, a look of unease growing on his features.“Hello?” came Glori’s voice from the corridor.“We’re in here,” Quellan said.The bard appeared, though there was hardly enough room for her to join them in the tight confines of the alcove.  “We shouldn’t get separated.  Kosk found what looks like it might have once been a tunnel into the sewers, but it’s been thoroughly sealed.  Nothing there but years of dust.”“That’s probably how they got around without being detected,” Quellan said.Glori nodded toward Bredan, mouthing a silent question.  Quellan shook his head.“We won’t find anything here,” Bredan said.“So this was a dead-end,” Glori said.“Perhaps not,” Bredan replied.  “I have a hunch.”“A hunch?” Quellan asked.“Call it intuition,” the warrior said.  “Get Kosk.  We may not have much time.”</blockquote>

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