The Danger Gang Learns More Of This Valley
After a relaxing night on the Kivot of the rocky shores of Samothrace, Arben, Beau, and Can head ashore to talk more to the Samothrace Party while Gershom, Xenon and Zahrah hang out on the boat.
After meeting up with Ferminus, Arben confesses that he is a bit of a history buff, and is curious about this Forbidden Valley. He asks if perhaps someone could take him, just to the edge of the valley, no need to go inside, just so he can see the ruins. Ferminus explains that this might not be such a hot idea, as the valley tends to be surrounded by Giant Bees. There are also two raging streams that are surprisingly difficult to ford. There are also, of course, the two headed dogs, called Orthoi all over the island. They've been a bit of the problem for the goatherds of late, snatching up lone goats in the night. Beau is quite moved by their plight. The gang heads back to the ship.
Everyone agrees that the situation calls for prudence. It's decided that it's not worth risking [Chrysopolis|Chrysopolis's]] hard earned neutrality for whatever secrets hide in the forbidden valley. They figure it's their best bet to be upfront with these guys.
They hop back in the launch and row out to shore. They track down Ferminus again and lay their cards on the table. "Look, we'd really like to get into that Forbidden Valley. We're guessing that maybe Basil wants it protected because he doesn't anybody else getting the rich stuff that's in there. We're fine with that, we just want to copy any texts," they say
Ferminus confesses that they don't have authority to grant them permission to order. He does confess that they were initially sent to squirrel out the three dudes they already killed. He says he saw some sort of pagan monument there with an inscription mentioning an old lady and Phillip and Olympia, but he doesn't really remember. He agrees that if he has to go back, he'll try to remember what the monument was and if he can get in contact with Basil II, he'll ask permission for the D.G.
Arben thanks him for his time, and then asks to speak to Anderoctonia. He asks her if she knows where to find the dwarven city of Bhijimin. She has no idea why anyone would ask her that, what with her just being a short, bearded lady, and not some kind of Dwarf. Awkward. Still, she happens to know where Bhijimin is and gives Arben some directions.
They then ask where they can track down some of these 2-headed dogs that are plaguing the land, since nobody likes that. Ferminus says to head in such and such a direction, but then excuses himself. They hear a loud explosion and the Circus de Jerkus does not react. When Ferminus returns, they track down where he went and find a circle of singed foliage. Everyone nods and scratches their chins. They head towards reported 2-headed dog sightings, asking assorted farmers if they're on the right track. Soon they run across four of the buggers. They are surrounding a naked man lying on ground, who keeps on repeating the word "Auxieros". No time to think about that now, however and they start fighting the dogs. Thing is, these two-headed dogs are a little bigger than was expected. Everyone is holding their own, however. Even Beau is managing to stay verticle. However, the next thing they know, three Crab-men come out of the woods behind them. One promptly knocks Beau down to negative HP and he crawls off...
