Baronet Julius al Dupres had left on business in the morning but his servants conveyed his farewell. Guards directed you through the awakening peasant throng to the witch's hut in town.
First, you spoke with the strange peasant witch Apatune; an eyeless, once-beautiful middle-aged Raliosian with a conspicuous grace despite her sunken orbits. She is albino with shocking white hair, and speaks with frequent absent-mindedness or nonsense. She claimed to know the Baronet (but he knew nothing of her), seemed to barely be aware of the Giranois (but mentioned a spirit called Quick Sister), and professed to have powers of life that she helped the peasants with. Apatune did not know of the Unsighted One you sought, but late in the meandering conversation she asked you “If you meet the Skinless Prince, and you probably won't, please tell him I'm trying.” You asked what she was trying to do and she said to be good; to do well. When asked to describe this prince she said he was “like large, and like warm” but neither of those things specifically. Apatune had private words, of a sort, with the Captain, seeming attracted by his cold, dark nature; and then other private words with the Baronet (so briefly that he received a ribbing from the Captain afterwards), in which her carnal offerings were rejected (after an internal struggle with his personal relationships and his faith) but her confession of knowledge of Arkat left him flustered and uncertain, so you left. Odd lady.
And you left Toadhaven, back on the path out of the Little Gunge inland to the main trail northeast toward Humbertsville. On the swamp path, you passed some Giranois square huts and fields that look rather new (they were said to be overwintering on the coasts) but left the wary natives alone, then you spotted a horse-sized great brown toad limping through the swamp and noticed some odd, scabrous black wounds/scars on its body and a curious lack of coordination. It squatted and seemed to look at you askance as you passed it with a wide berth. Similar berth was given to a travelling group of several ragged Giranois, who nattered at you in strange words as you veered around them.
As you came onto dry ground out of the swamps, you passed a seemingly empty camp with smoking firepit, and were about to leave it alone when the Baronet noticed the glint off some skeletons lying around the camp. As you suspected, you found that they were freshly consumed remains of four Giranois, whose tracks Boamund reconstructed to infer that there had been a frantic struggle, but clearly the fly-demon had won, and only a few flies lingered to lap up the last scraps of organic matter.
Soon you veered back into the swamps to head into Humbertsville, and heard a buzzing sound that set you on edge. But it turned out to be the fluttering and scuttling of a horde of kettle-sized brownish Grass Beetles, fanning out from the swamps toward you and clumsily leaping/flying as they came. Ciddar dashed backwards around them, while the Captain surged ahead; both avoided the swarm. But Boamund and the Baronet stood their ground and simply climbed atop obstacles. As the swarm passed around them, they had to dodge haphazardly flying beetles, one of which collided with the Baronet's stomach and would have winded him if he'd not been armoured. They seemed to be engaged in a wild mating frenzy, and soon passed onward, so you did too.
On the trail to Humbertsville, just a couple of hours from the coast, you were met by a young patrolman on horseback who galloped up to you, found out who you were, and raced back to the village to bring news of your coming. Although it took you a while to realize, this scout named Marzul never returned to Humbertsville– at the close of play, this dawned on you…
But you made it to the village and were impressed by some of it (indeed, the Baronet was humbled by its advanced infrastructure). The first sign was the cobbled road that led about 1/2km from the swamps into the village, passing a wooden sign “Welcome too Humbertsville”. The peasant huts were in a loose cluster behind a 1m stone wall, and the crumbling old ruin of the Baronet Humbert lay at the rear of the enclave. All were poised on nice dry ground and surrounded by abundant winter crops. These settlers seemed to have been granted much finer lands than yours! Again, the Baronet endured some pointed mockery from the Captain. The guard at the wall entry point welcomed you and guided you to the manor, which although unimpressive outside turned out to be cozy, surprisingly dry, and well-furnished inside.
Baronet Salacrinne Humbert is a nobleman from the Trader Princes of Wenelia to the east, from a House Caroman that he left due to some vague trouble. He is young (~25), plain, and blond, fashionable and civilized. You met his household of 2 scampering children, a quiet, flute-playing wife, 2 reclusive teenage daughters, and a sombre older uncle named Silidine who barely acknowledged you while reading a book of pious nature poetry (and revealed a sadness to Ahappi later that night; he had fought in some wars or something and the pain was still fresh, relieved by his readings and the cavorting of his nieces and nephews). The household guards seemed competent professionals with well-kept gear and a strong loyalty to their lord. But Baronet Humbert himself was no warrior- he was a Trader Prince, who admitted a dream to cross Giraine in roads that his folk could lay. The Baronet Shaven and him quickly became friends, drinking and conversing long into the night about the former's adventures and the latter's (frankly naive) ideas of trade and profit. You enjoyed a fine meal of imported and locally-grown goods.
Humbertsville was rich, stable, and self-sufficient, but isolated and unsure of its future. Boamund was pleased to learn that they allowed much social mobility; Humbert's household (like Trader Princes in general) did not recognize castes except a loose nobility that could even incorporate outsiders! And Humbert had no patience for the Rokari church, least of all the Evracian monks to the south, he had muttered.
Later in the night Salacrinne brought the non-peasants among you (Ciddar was left to another night of drinking with the warriors and failed attempts to charm the simple town wenches) to a spot outside of town, on the coast, that he was very proud of. A cave opened into a tunnel, all of natural origin but additional masonry, that led into a central, dry and bricked/mortared cave adorned with old, faded/crumbling paintings and frescoes of obscure Second Age origins. But the wonder was the contents of the cave: a couple dozen man-sized, eerily lifelike and dynamically posed statues of Second Age folk: nobles, knights, wizards, townspeople and more. The Baronet's people had uncovered them and treasured them dearly, but the peasants claimed the place was cursed and would not come here; rumors of disappearances were but superstitious nonsense, Salacrinne said. But what was not nonsense was the clearly magical nature of the statues- they had endured the ages without marring and seemed invulnerable to defacement, although some remains of statues lay at their feet.
You left Humbertsville the next morning with a certain fondness for its main household, and carried on down the next path, through the swamp back to the main path and thence to New Arvonesse. Shortly outside Humbersville you passed some cloaked peasants that were resting along the trail. In passing them, you noticed that they had bloody streaks on their backs– presumably flagellants; heretics of various movements that believed suffering brought them closer to Makan through penitence. A sorry lot. Then, on the inland trail, while crossing some rough terrain you passed through a nigh-invisible cloud of vapour that left a hazy smear in the air, and was most vile and acrid of taste. The Baronet(?) took a lungful of the nasty stuff and then doubled over, coughing bloody phlegm. Back through the haze you could see a crack or hole in the stony ground through which you presumed the vapours had escaped, but you dared not inspect further. So you continued on for “New Arv,” as the Humbertsville folk had called it (with some grumbling about it being a rough place or something).
What would you find there, and would you meet more of the dread fly demon before you found its security? We shall see.
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