The Twin Clown Princes Of Crime Check Out The Goings Ons
After a long night celebrating their triumphant return, Eorl and Arben make the rounds to check up on all their friends and such. First up, they want to talk to old Harashef, the Doppelganger. Turns out he can read the surface level thoughts of those around him, so they grab Brynos to see if they can find out if he's doing alright. He seems happy enough. Eorl asks him about his people's relationship with the people of the sea. He seems to be fairly indifferent. They get B The Beholder to come down so that they can teleport him in and out of his barrel so that he can stretch his legs and take a look at something for him. It's a note left by a previous son of proteus that had two names he couldn't identify. Harashef says he never met those dudes, but one of the names, Kuseyla, clicks with Arben. It's a name he heard somebody call Chow-Han at one point. Chow-Han isn't some sort of crazy Indian Rubber Man Psionicist Kit; he's a Doppelganger. It all makes sense now.
Anyway, they plop him back in the barrel with their apologies and promises to try to work something out.
Meanwhile, Arben has sent out his loyal army of drunks to try and track down some hawk eyes in Constantinople so he can try out this Magic Mirror spell he's gotten. They return with a couple of leads. They also swing by the library to find a stressed out Nicephorous griping about hobos sleeping in the stacks. They tell him about the awesome spellbook they found, and offer to let him copy pages, provided that he let them copy them back should their copies got burned up in Acid or something. He seems cool with that.
They head back to Chrysopolis to try out this awesome new Magic Mirror. Eorl doesn't have the guts to kill the hawks to pluck out their eyes, and Arben doesn't have the strength, so they get Xenon to it. They check on the Danger Gang, who seem to be doing alright. Eorl grumbles that it was a waste of a time, but Arben reminds him that friendship is never a waste of time. Then he takes a nap.
In the evening, they scry on old Ruth. She's on a battlefield, scavenging arrows from dead soldiers in Basil II's army. Arben casts Message so they can chat. She seems in a sour mood. It seems the war isn't going great. First off, it seems Bardas Phocas has gotten himself some kind of big ol' Djinn, all punching dudes in their faces. Also Basil has been in a sulking in his tent, ever since his girlfriend, Arete was killed by a Black Dragon. Arben says to send him their deepest condolences. Then he remembers the potion of acid resistance that they got. He offers to send Abner towards the front lines (which is now east of Ankara) with a dose if Basil thinks it would help with his terrible revenge. She says she'll talk to him about it, and Arben says he'll call back tomorrow to get the details.
Arben, once again fresh out of Magic Mirrors has to go hit the sack before re-memorizing. Eorl, for his part, has so many forms to fill out.
