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'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. Gershom tries to hold person on them, but to no avail. Arben is similarly ineffective. It's down to Xenon to deal with both the remaining 2 headed dogs and the Crab-men. With his last bit of usefullness, Arben casts Levitate on one of the Crab-men, floating him up out of range. Xenon and Gershom soon dispatch of the remaining aggressives. Arben lowers the Crab-man and Xenon lassoes him. Arben tries to smooth things over with the humanoid, but no luck. They drag him like a big crab balloon back to the beach. Gershom also picks up the naked man (who voids his bowels) to drag him along as well.
They head back to the Samothrace Party's hang out to see if they know what the fuck any of this is and just neglected to mention it. They know absolutely nothing about the crab-man, but they have seen something like the naked man before. Sergia leads the gang to the barn. In the barn they find a woman bound to a post, also repeating the word "Auxieros". Both Arben and Xenon now recognize this as a mother goddess in an ancient mystery religion. It probably has something to do with that forbidden valley, but they'll never know.
Also in the barn is a man chained to the wall. Unlike his fellow prisoner, this man seems completely lucid. He says his name is Ezio and he washed ashore on this island and has been kept prisoner with this crazy lady for a week. The Danger Gang says they got bigger fish to fry, but they'll look in to it. They'll be back.
Anderoctonia asks if they noticed anything on the shoulders of the Orthoi. They head back to investigate find claw marks on the shoulders of the dogs. Perhaps they were flown in, they speculate. The claw marks are slightly smaller than those of the Gryphons they've encountered lately, but still. Who knows?
They head back to the beach to figure out what to do with this crab-man. Both Xenon and Gabriel want to end this dude, but both Sergia and Arben are a little more hesitant. Perhaps the mermen know what this guy is. Beau convinces a fish to track down a merman. When the merman shows up, Arben drops the same old line about saving his kingdom from an Eye Of The Deep, unfortunately, the merman has no idea what he's talking about. It turns out, the undersea kingdoms don't stretch as far as he had assumed. In any case, Arben was curious if this merman (who was named Galenos) had any idea what this crab-man was. Galenos is really surprised to see this guy, explaining that he is a Cabiri, a member of what was supposedly a long dead race of skilled crafstmen that had died out after the great flood had receded. No one really knows what to do with this guy, so they ask if maybe Galenos would like to take him prisoner back to the sea to see if anyone can talk to him and find out what's up. Galenos agrees to have a mermaid sing on a rock at the end of the beach every night for the next week so that they can have a line of communication. The D.G. promises to keep him informed, and he does likewise. They bind the Cabiri's claws and lead him into the ocean.
Now for the other mysterious and weird thing that's happened today, the naked man. They head back to the barn to investigate. Gershom casts Detect Magic, and notices a glimmer of Creation magic about them (he also notices some magic equipment among the Circus De Jerkus). The Circus claims that no one from the island recognizes this lady, which Xenon confirms with the island's midwife. She says that their behavior is very reminiscent of babies' behavior. This sets off a lot of speculation amongst the D.G.; the most extreme theory being that these two were created by Auxieros and are some sort of new Adam and Eve that have yet to eat from the tree of knowledge. All they know for sure is that this island definitely requires some more investigation. They approach their new friends in the Circus. The circus also agrees that the island warrants investigation. It's settled that they'll split in the island in two, the Circus will head clockwise and the D.G. will go counter-clockwise and they'll meet on the far shore of the island. They'll leave tomorrow.
Arben goes back to talk to Ezio, who begs him to get him out of there. Ferminus has already asked that they give him a ride out of here when they leave, but Ezio doesn't know that. He asks if he's any good with a sword, and Ezio reluctantly admits that he is not. However, he does fancy himself a bit of a scholar. Arben flips through a book that Ezio was carrying and sees it is full of arcane symbols and the like. Arben says that if he helps them investigate the island, he can give him a lift as far as Chrysopolis. Ezio agrees and Arben frees him.
They go to settle down for the night, when a farmer runs up complaining that some of his goats were stolen. Everyone heads over to the farm, but without a ranger, they're unable to track the goat thief (or thieves...). Beau asks an eye witness pig if he saw anything. The pig says he saw three Cabiri and some Feathered Lady took the pig off into the woods. Xenon thinks Fury. Arben thinks Swanmay. And that's why those two don't get along. It's too late and dark for them to try and track the goats now, so they'll give it a fresh start in the morning.
