(I don’t think Py knows who Omar is. But he relays the essence of what transpires to Auger.)

Ah, that made sense. If Omar assumed they died on the way, it wouldn't be too surprising that he'd try to uncover a place such as the Core of Dacite through other means. The Empire though... it did sound like Omar was being forced. Did something happen to his family, or was he just lying to save his skin? (Insight: 2+5=7 :/ )

Varielky releases Omar's arm. Though they're not done talking yet, she doubts he'll try to run, and confident they can stop him if he does. "We've been pursuing your mother's friend's past for a few months now, and at the end of our search, we arrive here, and find empirical forces digging, as if they knew where what we searched so hard for was all along. And then, amidst them, we see you, who have accompanied us through the first leg of our journey." Varielky now stands crossed-armed, expression stern and clearly expecting some answers. "How did that come to be?"

Varielky seems unable to read Omar’s features as they shift from anger to fear to desolation.

Granophyre adds to her question, “We are quite alive, Omar. What you saw was not false, for you know as well as me that the Eyes are bound by arcane law to relay their sendings truthfully. But that is a story for another time.”

Omar seems to notice himself rubbing his arm lightly where Varielky had held him, and processing this, to accept the proof of your non-etherealness as evidenced by Varielky’s incontrovertible physicality. Fear retreating to the background of his countenance, he answers her, his voice low and tremulous but rising in agony as he tells his tale. 

“It’s Haldi my older boy. He had been apprenticed at a small printing shop near my home. They, Governor Ulloz, the Empire, they took him. They came for him as he left the shop and stole him from home, from Ishi Ammah, from Oracca u Shia. Over the mountains, to Jen Ghessa they took him!

“Cordalys — his mother — is so brave, alone now with Foxglove, my younger boy. I only wish I had her courage!”

Snow had taken a back seat as Varielky and Granophyre interrogated their friend, but his curiosity gets the better of him.

"Sorry to intrude on your re-union. I'm Snow Das, archaeologist", he says by way of introduction to Omar.

"I can fully accept you are under duress here, and I am sorry for that. But what exactly is the situation down there? What information led you to this exact spot, and what have you uncovered so far?", he asks.

"I'd also like to know exactly what you told the Imperials. Did you keep anything back?"

Auger watches the interchange between Omar and Granophyre and tries to see if the newcomer is lying at all (Insight 3 +4 = 7!). Detecting nothing, Auger is willing to let the others guide the discussion.

When Snow starts asking questions, Auger nods along, those make sense. But still thinking about the potential danger of the situation he adds his own. "How long until you are missed back at the camp there?"

Py, keep a close eye on the camp. I want to know if anything is heading our way. Anything.

Omar el Idrissid nods in thanks to Snow for his sympathy, at first. But as the bard’s attention moves immediately onward, the professor pulls back somewhat, his face hardening. He looks to Granophyre and says, “You’re keeping very young company, Master Strewn. My students, at a certain age the worst thing they can imagine is an older person wasting their time with the concerns of older people.”

Granophyre firmly grips the academic’s shoulder. “Omar. I am so very sorry. I feel in part responsible, for if I had not drawn Governor Ulloz to you with my visit, none of this would have transpired."

“It is not your doing, Granophyre. Adekite and I wrote to you, how could you have ignored our call. It is all my own responsibility. I have put my family in danger by bumbling my dealings with the governor, may Sashia curse me.”

Auger asks his question, and Omar answers, “I am allowed but little privacy, and a patrol following me will no doubt arrive in minutes.”

Turning to Snow, he answers him.

“There was a vision by an imperial oracle, of Master Strewn, in this place, looking at the cleft there. Master Strewn, you said in the vision, ‘The position lines up exactly with the map.’

They are convinced this is the location of the lost Core of Dacite. They insisted that I uncover it or… or that I would be executed for treason.”

He gazes flatly at Snow for a moment. “They took Haldi — my son — as… as insurance. If I fail… they threatened…” he trails off and cannot finish. He turns to Strewn once again, and his eyes and voice gain intensity. 

“They believe, I overheard a conversation… they believe the Hammer — the very weapon which, in myth, or in history, no one now knows, destroyed the Old Mystics, and brought The Fall. The Empire believes it still exists. That it is here, beneath us, in Core if Dacite. They plan to discover it and use it. To destroy Drey once and for all, no matter the cost. After Lokimarra, their pride is hurt, the Emperor’s. They will stop at nothing.”

‘Master,’ Py sends to Auger, ‘an Imperial patrol approaches.’

"I think it is time we fight at last. Py says a patrol is approaching."

Auger looks around and tries to get a measure of distances. His spells were often quite noisy, would the enemy camp hear them?

(OOC: The patrol is 200' away but only visible to Py at this moment due to intervening foliage and terrain. Yes, the enemy camp would probably be able to hear loud noises and see bright flashes of light.)

Snow meets Omar's hardened gaze, with a soft one of his own.

"If my words were not tactful, and seemed to show little regards for your situation, I apologise. We have all suffered through this journey, and what seems urgent to me, doubtful pales into insignificance to you in your present circumstance", he says empathetically.

"Their motives are worse than I could have imagined", he says sadly, shaking his head. "It appears the vision you saw was of but moments ago to us. I wonder how much more they know", he says just as Auger warns of the approaching patrol.

"How many? If they have seen more than just Granophyre's words, they will be sending many, if not it will be a regular number", he asks urgently.

When Omar brings up his son, taken to Jen Ghessa, Varielky averts her eyes, a guilty look on her face. Even if she had done nothing, her powerlessness bothers her. Usually, she'd immediately offer to help retrieve the boy, but even Varielky can tell that's beyond rash, just stupid. Jen Ghessa was way beyond her reach. Even if it were close, breaking someone out of there would be impossible. Even breaking Sura out of a small castle was a difficult task.

When Omar keeps talking, explaining the Empire's plans, Varielky can't help but grin a little. "Didn't realise Lokimarra was that humiliating for the Empire, and I was there myself. But if such a weapon does exist, and if it lies in this core... then all the more, I cannot allow the Empire to beat us to the chase. I must stop them. Will they punish you if we get in your way?" That sounded irrational, but perhaps that was the way the Empire operated. She hoped not; she didn't want the blood of a young boy on her hands. But she knows, she won't only face easy decisions in her life, especially if she does one day become Queen of Drey... an idea that still seemed too strange, but nonetheless lingered in her mind.

"For now, can we make it look like Omar is dead? If this patrol believes he died, and we 'accidentally' let one of them escape and alert the camp, they might not punish Haldi. They'll know of our presence here, though, so if we do need to attack the camp eventually... it will become harder later." Not a great plan, but the best she could come up with at the moment. Regardless, Varielky straps her shield on her arm, getting ready to fight. "But if they saw a vision of Granophyre here, they might already be expecting us regardless."

“NO!!,” Omar says.”Please! The empire has made threats against my son if I do not cooperate! How can you think of tricks and deceit?? Can you five destroy this entire imperial contingent and insure my son is safe?? I must go back! I hike this way every morning, if you need to speak to me again.”

He takes a step back toward the deer trail, upon which the patrol is advancing. 

“Omar!,” says Granophyre. “Have you seen three black stone pillars? There where you are digging?”

El Idrissid turns back momentarily, seemingly uncertain how to respond. “Three what?”

“Pillars. Of black stone.”

“Master Strewn, I have seen nothing here which you cannot see for yourself. We have only scratched the surface. And with all due respect, if you ask me, you were wrong. The diggings reveal what looks more like an outpost than a grand entry.”

His face drawn, he slams his eyes shut to seal in his emotions, and when they open again, his expression is flat, his face drawn, tired and despondent, as it was when Varielky first approached him. He turns once again toward the trail.

(OOC: the patrol is composed of four armed fighters.)

Auger looks to the others for a moment, trying to decide if Omar is trustworthy or not, and arrives at a snap decision.

"The patrol is coming. Let's conceal ourselves as best we can. After they pass, we can decide what to do."

Auger then moves up and away from Omar and the trail, praying it was going to be the right decision.

"If Omar is right, and they are in the wrong place, then we have no reason to attack", Snow says.

"I think you might be right, Auger". He looks to Strewn, "You know him best, will he give us away?".

He starts to back away along with Auger, unsure what Varielky will do, if she will simply let him walk away.

"Hmph, whatever." A little disappointed they're not going to fight, Varielky follows the others away. But if the camp truly is misplaced, then perhaps they have no reason to draw attention after all. And as for Omar, Varielky couldn't do anything to help him. And even if he tells the Empire they're digging in the wrong place, who would take his word over that of the oracle?

Four elite Jenghen swordsmen and women move up the path, peering in all directions. 

“What were you doing?,” one demands of Omar. You see him gesture toward the encampment and answer curtly. Lowering his head, he returns to the trail and in short order, the patrol follows him. The last soldier stops and peers in your general direction (uphill) keenly, but when another calls to her, she shakes her head and moves along, joining the rest. 

Snow stays quiet until the patrol has moved a decent distance away, before turning to the others.

"Where does that leave us then", he says obviously rhetorically. "Could there be another vantage point on the other side of the peaks that matches as well? Are we simply looking at it from the wrong direction?", he wonders out loud.

"The black pillars have to be there, right? They couldn't have been moved or hidden like the entrance itself was?", he finally asks Strewn directly.

(OOC: Is there a map Snow can investigate to try and get any more insight? He has Cartographer's Tools proficiency)

Stay on that patrol and make sure Omar makes it back to the encampment. Above and out of sight while you do it.

"So... perhaps only an outpost?" Auger looks around at the surrounding area. Three black pillars. How big would they be? "Perhaps we return to the ship, give this area a wide skirting and continue our search? Look for the three pillars?"

Py buzzes away after Omar. 

"We'll be seen if we take the ship," Varielky disagrees, "and by foot, it might take too long. Is there no better way?"

Varielky unstraps her shield. Doesn't seem like they're going to fight anything soon. "But are we even sure about those pillars? It might have been a part of the core, or some forgotten warehouse. All we know is that Safiyah found the axe there. And besides, didn't the place collapse right after? Unless one of you knows some magic that can do it for us, do we even have anything to dig with? We don't have the resources the Empire has. How will we uncover the entrance once we find it?"

Granophyre is not sure what to make of this new information.
Snow: there is no map other than Granophyre’s ancient mima stone. Re assessing the information you have and forming a theory regarding the entrance, please roll History (Archaeology) check, DC 20. Very important roll if others want to aid in any way.