Sensing his dreams of a low profile dissipating Auger tries to think of another way to enter the town but seeing that Herru and Gwasila remain concerned for their own safety he decides not to make an issue of it. If Snow is open, Auger supports them. He also realizes he is smiling more than usual. When was the last time he had used his power to save someone rather than to just react or defend himself? Tamazaert and Benita? Technically all the events leading to the Azhvuv Queen but that had been pressed upon them. A debt to pay. This they had done on their own, and now this fine couple would live and their child would know her own parents. Yes, that is a satisfying feeling. Again Auger finds himself smiling.

Snow limps down the road towards the Animu Borongo a little behind the others, feeling the pain of his wounds and yet not wanting to heal himself at this moment. It occurs to him he must look a terrible sight, fried by lightening, puncture wounds in his thigh and shoulder and drenched in a combination of river water and blood.

When the couple, who had announced themselves as Herru and Gwasila, ask for passage and protection on their way home, Snow registers it and is drawn from his introspection. These people were alive, and he had played his part in ensuring that. He wanted to complete the task and see them home safely.

“Of course”, he says, forcing a smile. “You are very welcome aboard the Animu Borongo, and a place to eat, and maybe clean up would be much appreciated”.

He looks at the sail of the Animu Borongo, “Perhaps tomorrow you can advise on where we might get the sail mended too”.

Wounded and weary, you load into the sloop, and the sail, though damaged, functions well enough to contain Snow’s magic breezes that you soon cover the short distance upriver and, coming around a bend, you see Asni Village before you on the eastern riverbank where the stream widens out to a small lake. 

Here, the shore is lined by a long row of diverse structures, including shrines, houses with private docks, and in their center, small municipal-looking buildings, where a long, welcoming, public pier dotted with warm street lamps and small trees in planters extends out onto the water which sparkles with reflected starlight.

A look of concern begins to deepen in the faces of Herru and Gwasila as, from one of the shrines, rings the doleful sound of a funeral gong, and you see villagers slowly processing toward it, holding candles which light their drawn and sorrowful faces and give off a fragrant scent which drifts to you when you moor the Animu Borongo at the public pier.

“Nanna?,” Herru whispers to Gwasila, “She has said for the last three seasons that the coming spring would be her last…”

“It’s her shrine, too: Piya, where everyone is heading!,” replies Gwasila, in a trembling undertone. “But where will we find Lallallii, Herru?”

The husband, steely-faced, has no answer. The pair are still so weak they can barely walk, and they trip getting out of the boat, then stumble forward determinedly toward the shrine.

“The hotel is this way, just before the shrine to Piya.”

Snow watches the scene unfold on the shore, seeing and hearing Herru and Gwasila’s concern for Nanna and Lallallii.

Watching them stumble as they get off the boat, he realises just how weak the pair were.

“Do not worry about us, we will follow along, you just go and find out what has happened”, he says waving them onward.

He then speaks a few words of power for each of them, willing them each good health and vitality, hoping to bolster them at least physically for the news to come.

“Let’s follow a little ways behind and see if there is anything we can do. I hope this Nanna is ok, could this be for Herru and Gwasila themselves? We don’t know how long they were missing right?”, he whispers to Varielky and Auger.

Actions: Cast Healing Word twice - 7 for the woman, 8 for the man.

Varielky can't help but think about the children slaves farming poppies. If the couple have been missing for too long, and the grandmother did pass away, would the people of the village raise the child as one of their own, or would she be sold to the empire?

"Yes, let's make sure she's alright." Varielky answers, though Snow didn't even mention the girl. It is the first time Varielky wonders: What would have happened had Veleif not taken her back then?

The pair stand taller and unbent, and a healthy color returns to their complexions, previously pallid and swollen. They thank Snow profusely for his healing, and you proceed into the village, where the hotel lobby is closed: “back at 10 bells,” reads a parchment hung on the door.

The last of the villagers have entered the shrine, and when Herru and Gwasila walk through the door, followed by you three — Granophyre has remained in the Animu Borongo for now — you discover that Snow was right. You have crashed a wake being held in memory of Herru and Gwasila.

Someone in the front of the room is offering a remembrance when their eyes widen in fear, the scroll from which they were reading their eulogy drops to the ground, and they scream, pointing, “Their spirits have come back! They’ve something to say to us!!!”

But from the front row, as general consternation and chaos ensues, a little head with a single braid pops up looking toward the door.

“Mammi! Pappi!” And she leaps from her pew to the aisle and runs to them, escaping the outstretched grasp of fearful adults and throwing her thin arms around her teary-eyed parents who embrace her fiercely and cover her with kisses. 

You can imagine how the rest of the scene unfolds: the joy, the scolding, the hugs — Nanna is in perfectly good health and she kneels right then and there, bowing her head in thanks to Piya — and the villagers ask what happened, and it turns out the pair had gone missing a full week ago, and forgetting Auger’s instructions in the heat of the moment, Herru tells them how you had saved him and his wife from twofold imprisonment, and how it was an imperial garrison man who had captured them to begin with, and the Asni Villagers laugh at their superstitious neighbors and at themselves, and you are thanked and bear-hugged and your hands shaken and kissed, and everyone there celebrates you as heroes.

Auger is caught up in the moment and stands taller, smiling and feeling truly happy for the first time in a while he realizes. The recognition is nice of course but seeing that the town had been in mourning and that the day's events had turned things around for them lifted his spirits enormously. The fact of the their revealed involvement does not bother him. So many secrets weighing them down. Having something good out in the open felt like a rarity and something to cherish.

Eventually after things calm Auger steps towards the shrine himself, pulls his small wooden symbol of Piya from the chain around his neck, kneels and whispers a brief prayer for his own ears.

In the water we find ourselves. In the water we cleanse.

Strength oh Piya, for those who swim alone. Bring them home again.

Xuống nước và trở lại. {Into the water and back}

Auger stays there kneeling for a minute until he can hear the water, perhaps from the river, but certainly in his mind. Then he stands, smiles to any villagers still there and turns to the others, "I'll go see to our rooms I think."

Tonight I must commune with the Dowager, Auger thinks. I must know more of these Naga. And if there is a way to stop spells. That lightning. Yes, he would concentrate on those things with her guidance.

Snow smiles as he sees the child Lallallii reunited with her parents. It warmed his heart witnessing such a display of family love. He had beaten himself up about a choice he had made, but he had also made the choice to help make this happen.

He winces in pain every time his hand is shaken and particularly when given a bear hug, but he doesn’t complain. He smiles at each of those who talk to him, explaining humbly that it was pure chance that lead them to Herru and Gwasila.

He sees Auger pray at the shrine, this was a new side of the man, and nods when he mentions seeing to their room.

It had been a long day, probably the longest he remembered that hadn’t involved drinking, and he was both physically and mentally drained.

He wanders over to Herru and Gwasila, “We will take our leave now, and make our way to the hotel. I am glad you are safe and reunited with your daughter, and the people who love you”, he says with a smile, this one genuine and not forced.

As he leaves he looks back at Lallallii in her father’s arms, and wonders whether he will one day be reunited with his own father.

Varielky feels a bit distant among the... celebrators. It is for the best that her question goes unanswered, but regardless, she also can't accept someone who'd just let themselves be taken away without struggle, leaving their child behind. How much have the people in this area been oppressed by the empire to get to this state? If anyone comes to thank her, Varielky will reject the thanks. She did not do much, and what she did do was not done for the couple. She'd take more pride in her actions had she known there's a little girl who mourns her parents, but that was not the case. 

(Assuming nothing else happens...)

When they get to their rooms, Varielky takes the time to pray, before she goes to sleep. However, she is not pushy, even if being patient now is far from simple. One more day, she'll wait, in hopes that Veleif will be able to gather more strength, in case he still needs to. Not that she can force him to speak if he doesn't, but... she can ask, and perhaps that has a meaning.

Herru and Gwasila speak with their friends at the Asni Deshar Post Hotel, and you will spend the night in good accommodations for free. The hotel servants run baths for you, spread out clean sheets, a healer is called in who rubs fragrant salves on your wounds which will leave no scars, and while the whole affair is modest — like a small town church courtesy fair — the true gratitude expressed by the actions of the Asni folk is unmistakable. 

The next morning, a country breakfast awaits you, and you learn that Gwasila is the proprietor of a tailor & needlework shop, and has already sent for strong linen to repair the sail of the Animu Borongo, which will take less than a day, although it is conveyed to you that you are welcome to stay a second night in the same rooms. 

(OOC: Auger has taken a long rest)

That morning, as the townsfolk clarify that they are welcome to stay a second day, Auger advises the others that they move on and continue up the river and think of Asni as a place of potential respite on a return trip. While they wait for the sail, Auger plans to wander the town in search of any fine woods that might be used to practice his carving, or perhaps to better shore up the Animu Borongo should the need arise in the future.

Snow appears in the morning looking and feeling refreshed and eager for breakfast, which he eats with gusto. He agrees with Auger, that as long as the sail is repaired with some daylight left, they should look to push on.

After thanking his hosts he makes his way back to the public pier and the Animu Borongo, keen to make sure all is well with the boat.

Whilst at the pier, he keeps an eye out for any boats coming downriver who moor up, keen to get any news of what awaits them upriver.

He sits on the rail of the Animu Borongo and plays the violin, letting the familiar movements and melodies clear his mind.

Varielky spends the day restless. She does not wish to stay in Asni any longer than is required and feels like she's wasting time.

Eventually, around late morning-early noon, Varielky cannot sit around anymore. As a thought crosses her mind, she almost immediately moves to carry it out. The husband and wife they rescued last night mentioned the Amazighs pressing children to slavery. She thought she knew that already, but on second thought, did anyone ever mention the Amazighs in particular? Perhaps the fact that it came as no surprise was why she didn't even give it much thought when the couple mentioned it. Well, that and the fact she wasn't really listening.

Determined not to bother the wife so that the sail could be fixed as early as possible, Varielky seeks the husband. If she finds him, she approaches and, immediately getting to the point, asks: "I remembered something you said the other night, about the Amazighs pressing children into slavery. Do you know, or have you heard, any more details?"

Auger learns that there is a lumber yard and a mill several miles east up a rollicking creek, where he might ask the proprietors for wood. There are shops in the village square selling carved wooden dolls and curios, but making his way through them and asking after good crafting wood for his own uses, he finds neither any curio fashioned as nicely as he could make himself, nor fresh wood for sale. 

Snow draws a crowd, for couples and single folks with fishing poles come out to walk on the pier and enjoy the view over the lake, which is gorgeous, and the onlookers listen attentively or clap along and dance to the bard’s melodies. A score of boats pass in either direction, but only a handful stop at Ansi, and those coming downriver merely confirm what Snow saw on the map and what he’s heard before. The bridges draw up to allow for sails to pass, as far as El Harrouch Castle. 

When Varielky approaches Herru and asks about a connection between the Amazighs and child slavery, he has no definite answers. 

“It’s… it’s what some of us are meeting about tonight. To talk about how the empire turns a blind eye, even supports the opium families, the way that garrison man you saw did when he kidnapped Gwasila n me. Some of us don’t want t just to let it happen to us an our kids any more!” His voice begins to rise with passion and anger, but he stops himself short, looks around, his jaw set, takes a breath, begins again, quietly, tamping down his emotions. “You could come. If yer stayin that long?”

Fighting spirit. Now that is not something she thought she'll see from that man. Perhaps she judged him too soon. Varielky doesn't let go of her first impression yet, but she's accepting that it might have been a false one. "That is something I can sympathise with. Fighting for your freedom, that is a noble cause. I don't know if I'll be able to stay, but if I do, where will I find you? I will come if we stay the night. Otherwise, I hope the gods will support you in your struggle for safety and freedom."

After the short conversation is over, Varielky searches for the others. She does want to stay, but she knows she should talk with them first. She'll try to gather them together so they can all discuss it at the same time, but if that doesn't work, she'll talk to each separately. "The villagers here are preparing a meeting this evening," she explains why she gathered everyone, or came to speak with each, "regarding the empire's rule on the valley. More specifically, on how they let the opium families - the Amazighs among them - do as they please with the valley's residents, especially their children." And, in case it wasn't clear enough, she adds: "Forcing them into slavery, that is. I believe they are considering - even willing - to fight. Some of them are, at least. I suggest we stay and participate in the gathering; see where their spirits truly are. If they are ready to lay their lives on the line for this cause, perhaps we can help them, or... if that's not our immediate goals..." she glances, surprisingly understanding at Granophyre, "then, perhaps we can ask them to wait a while longer until we return. We already discussed this option, and if the people are ready to fight, rallying them all together might help achieve more than if each village struggles alone in a futile attempt for freedom."

Snow waits patiently, curious as to why Varielky had gathered them all together. She has been a bit quiet since their arrival in town, and he assumes that she is eager to leave.

As she speaks of the Empire and the Amazighs his face becomes stern. There was no love lost between him and either of those groups.

His mind flicks back to the Amazigh who tried to take the Animu Borongo, and then to the Imperial soldier he had had to bribe, and the chimps he falsely took into custody. They are both as corrupt as each other.

He looks to Auger and Strewn and wonders what they are thinking, tempted to wait and see what they say. But he didn’t want to wait.

“I want to help these people”, he blurts out. “I want to stay for the meeting at least”, he adds a little more sedately.

“A family were reunited because of us yesterday and I would like to reunite more families. Or stop them being torn apart in the first place. Although I do not as yet know how”.

As Varielky speaks of delaying for the day, Auger's mind at first goes to the idea that extra time might allow him to visit this mill the townspeople mentioned. But as Varielky goes on, what she is talking about grabs Auger's full attention and then his mind starts spinning with possibilities. Freeing the slaves? Dealing with the Amazighs? And Imperials? How was that going to-- then Snow blurts out how he feels and Auger realizes he feels the same way.

"I think attending the meeting would be good and allow us to learn more. We may hear more of what is going on elsewhere in the valley as much as here. And if there is some way we can help free these slaves-- well there would be much to consider in how to go about that..." Auger looks at Granophyre, "...and how that might affect the rest of our trip."

If everyone resolves to stay for the meeting, Auger agrees and will make his way to the mill in the afternoon, to see about any fine woods, and perhaps to talk with these craftsmen there to see what there is to know about the poppy fields.

That night, around 8 bells, townsfolk gather for a “Service of Thanks” at the town’s largest meeting place, the Shrine to Namawa, god of travel and commerce. Here, Namawa is worshipped as an androgynous god/goddess driving a golden team of oxen. 

When you arrive, among perhaps a hundred townsfolk, the shrine’s priest, a smiling older man with freckled lavender complexion, dimples, and high, bushy eyebrows, begins the proceedings with a prayer of thanks and supplication, after which he takes a deep breath. 

“Any and all who wish to remain here and share the evening with their neighbors are welcome to,” he finishes, before stepping down off the dais.

Everyone remains seated as a woman who had been sitting in the front row stands, shakes hands firmly with the priest, and then she then steps up to take his place at the dais. The woman looks like a guild person, well dressed in middle-class clothing, jewelry and makeup modestly done. She is, apparently, a familiar face to those present. She speaks passionately about the continuing abuses of the garrison. About rumors of orcs running rampant in Orraca u Shia, goblins in the vale, and of what is not mere rumor: the opium lords, killing and imprisoning folk “willy nilly, and without consequence from our so-called protectors stationed here these many years, by order of the Jenghen Empire.” She expresses anger, frustration, and fear for her loved ones. Several more townsfolk stand up from their places in the pews to expound, in turn, on the same themes. 

One man, whom Snow recognizes as a boatman having moored his barge in the late afternoon, now seated near the rear of the room, stands, and as others turn around to see him or crane their necks, he tells of having barely made it out of Kalahata before the lockdown took effect,. “Lockdown?,” someone asks, and the boatman explains the circumstances which you three already know all too well. He then continues with his story, telling of how “that night, folks at Tizra Riyadh Jemmu,” – the inn at the little suburb across the little lake outside Kalahata where your party dined and spent the night after yourselves making it out of Kalahata – “met to discuss what to do. Folks all over are furious, and fed up, and losing their flocking freedom, and their lives. So what’re we going to do? Nothing? And this lockdown, now that you’ve heard of it. From what I heard in Tizra Riyadh Jemmu, the imperials have been using it as an excuse to jail up our friends and our people. They said they were looking for some dwarf,” and here, your friend Herru glances at you inquiringly (Granophyre did not attend the event), “but not a single sindarrin has been imprisoned, is what they was sayin. It’s a joke! And not a joke, it’s crazy, we gotta do sumpin! My pappi fought in the rebellion those fifty years ago. Yes, he did! I know what you're thinking, don't talk about that, but I say so, freely, even though we’re thrown in stockades for even mentioning the flockin’ rebellion. I say it all right! And I say… let us continue what they started!!”

“But how?,” someone asks. 

“The Red Cypress,” answers someone else. “I bet they’re fighting for the same thing.”

“Who knows about them cultists,” announces Herru, “but we have to just fight for ourselves. There’s a lot more of us then of the garrison!”

“For now!,” answers someone else, “But don’t forget what happened during the Rebellion. The garrison sent for help from Jen Ghessa, and they got help. How many of our folk died??”

“Too many!,” shouts someone else, and arguments break out across the room.

Auger sits and listens, carefully studying each speaker. At the mention of the drug lords in the vale pressing people into slavery, Auger shakes his head with disgust. He listens for any details as to whether it is specifically the Amazighs who are mentioned or if all of lords in the vale engaged in similar practices. He nods along to the events going on in Kalahata, having been a witness. When the Red Cypress is mentioned Auger can barely keep himself from shaking his head. He had not thought about them in a while. Yet another group hunting for Granophyre. Best to avoid their attention.

As the arguments break out across the room Auger silently continues listening and observing. If this set of people was going to unite then they would need to unite behind some leader. Auger did not see himself as that person. It would not make any sense anyway, he was a stranger. Looking at those near the front Auger tries to see if the lady who had spoken initially was going to take charge of them.

To the others he shares a look, shaking his head and motions as if to go. If any of them indicate they want to stay then Auger will stay with them.

Snow listens to the discussion, making a mental note of those things that were new to him. The rumour of goblins in the vale was interesting, although only a rumour so to be taken with a pinch of salt. 

When Herru looks towards them at talk of the dwarf being looked for, he gives a smile and very slight shake of his head.

The talk continues, this time about rebellion and the Red Cypress cultists, which he hadn’t heard about, he would have to ask the others about them later.

As proceedings degrade into bickering, Snow stands up and makes his way to the dais. “Good people of Asni Village”, he says loudly, cutting through the chatter. “I am but a stranger in your village, yet your cause I find myself drawn to. But hear me, you have enemies enough without discontent among you”.

“The Jenghen Empire and the opium lords are both powerful in their own right, and if they have formed some sort of alliance that doubles the threat. In order to oppose either one, let alone both, you will need the support of the whole Vale, and yet you cannot find common purpose in this one village”.

“And what of the rest of the Vale, are there those who feel as you do? Are there those with military might to bring to the cause? How do you reach out to this Red Cypress?”, he says making eye contact with the loudest speakers.

“Now is not the time for picking up pitch forks, now is the time for subtlety. For gathering allies to a common purpose, and having a plan. The opium lords hold sway because they control a resource the Jenghen Empire wants, most likely needs. Take control of that and you break their alliance, and have the power to make your own”.

“Disrupt the supply of the opium, sow discontent between your enemies, and find the allies you so desperately need. But most importantly, find someone who can unify the people of the Vale”.