Simaal responds "Building is heavily damaged, who knows if it can be rebuilt without magic, and is now less on fire due to guards but it's otherwise guarded for all intents and purposes. They have some prisoners as well, some of the assassins. Heard someone in the crowd mention that the tattoos designate them as part of a cult of Borkus or something like that who are undead worshipers. Nonetheless should be easy to check soon enough. There was also mention that based on the symbols on their armor, they're a splinter of the main cult. Lots of rumors going around, but at least some are closer to the reality than not, including flying undead. That's all I got for now... Oh and I got her stuff before guards got there... or someone else's stuff... hard to tell..."

Zhuti nods at Toc. “I would much appreciate it. Now, to work.” She turns, picks up a table spoon and, twisting her hair, uses it to secure the whole out of the way. She approaches KitKat’s remains and studies her for a minute. Then she turns to the still crowded, still noisy tavern. Her eyes begin to glow an unnatural white, and the flames of the fire flare, then dim, and when she speaks her voice is laced with unnatural volume and power.

”NOW EVERYONE GET OUT OR SHUT UP, I’VE A DEAR FRIEND TO RESURRECT.”

She turns back and begins a ritual, focusing entirely on her task. She will spend the next hour casting Raise Dead on KitKat using the diamond she produced earlier.

(Fun effects provided by Thaumaturgy. Warcaster’s concentration bonus should be helpful here, doing complicated ritual work with people and a dragon around. 1 500 gp diamond deleted, one 5th level spell slot used)

Zhuti is soon working in near total silence, aside from the crunching sounds of the dragon worrying the remnants of the turkey bone. Everyone has been ushered from the room except for Tomas and the bartender and the group.  Toc has placed his staff across a table and sat down in an exhausted heap into one of the chairs, his eyes closed.  The dragon seems content to simply observe the room, its lids half closed.  Any sounds from beyond the walls of the tavern are totally silenced by Toc's shrouding spell. Any attempt to look through the grey veil filling the windows comes to naught.

Kyriani, looking considerably more hale, joined Zhuti in the ritual, clasping her hand as they both resumed the ritual as one...calling on Selune to restore the serving girls life. 

After a few minutes a pale white light begins to fill the room. It slowly builds brighter and brighter, seeming to gather about KitKat's body...and then abruptly the light is gone and the ritual is finished.  Kit Kat's body seems to slowly heal much of the horrific burns over her skin...and the black shot veins through her body.  And then the girl takes a breath. Both Zhuti and Kyriani urge her to lay on the table, as Kyriani applies several low level healing spells, mending much of the damage. Eventually KitKat is helped into a sitting position, and then off the table into a chair. She is largely quiet, communicating in mumbles, and clearly shell shocked from her ordeal. Tomas comes to her with a plush fur lined blanket and wraps it around her and says, "I'll get you some soup...it's really good soup..."   He hurries off into the back with the Bartender. 

Simaal "Do we need to get there by horse, or will magic be used to get to our destination. If by horse please get me one too, and have you started travelling yet? I guess I may as well stay here and can pick up any supplies we need. Let me know if you need anything else. I'll try to keep a low profile. Quite the collection of allies they have."

Zhuti crouches next to KitKat where she is sitting, speaking quietly to her. At one point she puts a hand behind KitKat’s neck and presses their foreheads together. Finally she stands, kisses the top of the woman’s head, and walks outside (past whatever cordon Tomas has set).

(Since y’all are Uber high level and surely have excellent Passive Perceptions) Her cheeks shine with the tracks of tears as she goes.

Thyrius had watched the conversation with the golden dragon from his brother's shadow, a term that had been directly used to refer to the black-furred cat before. Xem led that conversation well, as he always did, and matters soon seemed to turn back to Zhuti and her ritual. Thyrius watched that attentively as well.

He had an uneasy relationship with the thin line that separates the living from the dead. In fact, he had learned to harness the power of those who manage to balance on that thin line, which many called undeath. He had seen rituals meant to restore the dead to life be tangled in undeath too. Most would have called that a failure, but Thyrius had long learned that the undead can be just as capable and even more powerful than the living, albeit at a high price. It would come for him one day, he was now certain but, for now, he was happy to witness another divine success.  

Nuzej reels as conversations swirl around him. The healing from Kyriani helps stabilize him a lot. He closes his eyes and takes some deep breaths. He opens them and looks around and a more relaxed, dopey voice says, “oh wow, I missed Fianna’s bar. Where is she? Is that you Tomas?” from the same mouth. He walks over in an easy, friendly manner and greets everyone, but when he gets to  Zhuti and Kyriani he is ushered aside when the raise dead spell begins and the room is cleared. He sits down on his heels and quietly observes. He seems a bit confused by what’s going on but Toc seems to be waiting so he’ll wait too. He idly takes the stone out and passes it from one hand to the other. 

The gold dragon looks up at Nuzej's mention of Fianna. "Fianna comes and goes. I haven't seen her in a few days." 

Toc sits forward in his chair, wiping the exhaustion from his face with a single sweep.  He says out loud, "Simaal is wondering at our next move. He seems eager to make immediately for ....the House of the Moon was it?  Where do we need to take this stone? How do we do this ritual?" 

Kyriani watches Zhuti go, then glances to the dragon, the two brothers, Nuzej and Toc.  She says a bit absently, "Those guys were regulars. Or, at least they looked like some regulars. Sure, they'd been a bit more regular for the past few weeks...but...I knew many of them. I fear for their lives if they'd been replaced by these cultists.  I will not attend with you, but...Zhuti...I believe Selune has sent her for this. The visions become clear even as the future becomes more obscured." 

She takes a deep breath and looks to Toc, "You must use Selune's Eye and take it to Elah'zad. There, you must perform the Ritual of the Waxing from the center of the alabaster palace. Zhuti will know the ritual." 

Nuzej seems to stare in the distance for a moment and adds, "Elah'zad means House of the Moon in the Midani language, which is what the Bedine people who live in the Anauroch derive their language from. Elah'zad is an isolated oasis in the Sword region, and is considered by the Bedine people to be a sacred place of great power."  His eyes clear and he blinks a bit, with a tiny frown, and just nods to himself looking a bit confused.

Toc mentally responds to Simaal, "We are not riding horses from here to the Anauroch, no. It will be magic."  He waves a hand and a textured map appears in the middle of the room, floating in the air.  He moves over to it and begins looking at the center near the Anauroch. 

Nuzej comes over and pokes his finger through the map that appears to have no real substance..."It's somewhere around here." 

Toc nods and looks about, "I can take us to Semberholme, or Suzail in Cormyr. Both are about the same distance."  His finger points out a couple spots on the map.

You're currently at Port Llast.

The other blue circle point is where Nuzej says the rough location of the place is. The blue point with a square is Semberholme. The grey point with a triangle just below the location is a rumored possible location of another Mythalar / fallen city of Netheril. 

Having once again become preoccupied with his own thoughts following the interaction with the dragon, he's only briefly torn from them should Zhuti's display of divine presence bore needing to further encourage any lingering ooglers to run off. But even after such a display, which in itself would've certainly earned a look some admiration, thoughts of the dragon's words soon had Xemnez absentmindedly finding a large enough seat or gathering a pair to sit in and ponder during the remaining time of the ritual. But no weapon is far from his side in the event even Toc's impressive magics proved to be little more than child's play for the lich's or their allies to overcome and appear before them ready to fight. During this time he never begrudges Thyrius company, but rather seemed to breathe a little easier knowing the  elder yet stood nearby.

(@DM: For those that didn't participate, can they be assumed to have gotten a short rest?)

With the ever-expanding light of the ritual eventually giving way in completion, even Xemnez takes more conscious notice of it, and eventually rose up and wandered closer to observe the immediate aftermath. A word of praise(not that anyone might've guessed) are stifled by hesitance seeing Zhuti make her hasty departure. And by the time he found his words again, Kyriani's addressing of the group leads to him to sighing softly, before then crossing his arms and giving the woman his full attention. Though he does glance back to where Zhuti left as two and two is put together regarding her name(Xemnez having been previously distracted with everything else at each prior instance).

"This anauroch area... it is plain of some kind, yes? Or worst yet, a desert? Also, can you explain the ritual? Or are we to learn it from the Bedine nearby, seeing as I doubt we'll be getting finding this place without local assistance by the sounds of it." Xemnez expresses, before furrowing his brow ridges in thought. Another glance then goes out to where he'd last saw Zhuti before turning away ruffling the back of his mane.  "Or is... Zhuti to be our connecting point to all my questions." 

Simaal scratches his a... ear... as he waits for things to develop. But then a mental link occurs "Say, any of you know or have a connected person within Waterdeep that could create a situation where I could interrogate the prisoners for a couple of hours each? Time is of the essence. I can understand some conditions could be imposed. Akin to where I happen to be a connected agent to your organization that happened to be in Waterdeep and as such could perform a non-physical interrogation as a matter of great importance on let's say the attacks that are happening by undead against major and notable  and well defended locations. No one is safe type of thing, but hush hush since we don't want to panic everyone.".

"That said, hopefully a powerful enough contact so that I don't become a permanent guest of Waterdeep behind bars."

Thyrius approaches Kyriani and thanks her for the unsolicited healing magic she shared with the party. He does so silently by placing a closed fist over his chest and bowing slightly. 

After that, Thyrius takes a resting position near his brother, though not near enough to be a nuisance to either the golden lion or those involved in the ressurection. 

The map was foreign to Thyrius, so he let those more familiar with it, its storied locations, and the overall purpose of their enemies, take care of the planning, as usual. 

Being from a different world, Thyrius assumed Simaal's question about having connections in Waterdeep was not addressed to either of the Leonin. Nonetheless, the elf's(?) voice in his head made the black cat produce a follow-up question: "How are we to pick up Simaal on the way?" 

Zhuti steps out the door of the tavern, stepping through a grey veil. The sounds of the world immediately become known to her. The sounds of hammering, sawing and shouts of groups of people working on construction can be heard from around the town. The high pitched call of seagulls can be heard on the stiff wind. The tavern is indeed set up near the top of the hill on the side of the sea. The town walks down the hillside before her like a grand set of stairs, it's roads winding in switchbacks all the way down. Far below it meets the sea, boardwalks and docks extending into the ocean where ships are parked, tied up tight against the docks, their sails bound away in anticipation of a coming storm. To the south, great swaths of dark clouds push northwards, invading the blue and grey spotted sky. Behind the tavern, a fortress with high stone walls perches at the top of the town, glaring down at the sea. Large ballistas that could easily fire down into the ocean sit, with armored soldiers manning them. 

Zhuti sees that the street hear has been cleared of activity, all the locals and or tourists have been ushered away. Only a handful of town guards stand about.  They awkwardly avoid staring at the foreign woman as wipes tears from her face.  The briny cool air kisses her nose and helps clear her mind as she takes a moment to swallow several deep breaths. 

Port Llast: 

Zhuti wraps her cloak closer about her. KitKat was okay. She'd be fine. Once this strange crew moved on with, whatever that stone was, Zhuti could go back to Waterdeep with Kyriani, and she'd make sure KitKat was well. Then they'd put the temple back together. Always moving forward. She took a deep breath, the ocean smelling almost like home, let it out slowly. Then she turned, and plunged back into the inn...

Just in time to catch the gist of Kyriani's speech.

"I'll do what?"

(No need to repeat, I can assume someone fills her in.)

Zhuti listens to what, apparently, Selûne has in store for her, and squares her shoulders. No complaining. "I'll need a rest, if we're to do this right. I need to prepare and pray. And I'll need armor. And it would be nice to be included in however you all talk to each other."

(FYI for the rest of the group, MOSTLY Simaal...the mental connection dies roughly 3/4 of the way through Zhuti's raise dead spell.)

(Short rest achieved for everyone.) 

Kyriani returns in as Tomas brings a bowl of soup to Kit Kat. The color appears to be returning to her cheeks, though she continues to shiver under the heavy blanket. She takes the soup eagery and Tomas sits next to her, a gentle hand on her shoulder as she takes the spoon and begins to eat.  "Careful, it's hot," he adds. 

Kyriani has a pleased look on her face as she watches, and then she turns to Zhuti and shrugs apologetically, and then smiles broadly, "You've been asking me for direction. I believe this is it. But Selune never dictates. The choice is yours."  She turns to address the group, "The ritual of the waxxing is a well known set of prayers that all priests of Selune know. Zhuti knows it, but if she decides to go another way, I will find someone who can help."

Toc nods to Zhuti, "If you decide to come with us, then we will of course include you in our mental bond. It's a ritual that Nuzej or I can perform. It takes 10 minutes, and once cast we can speak together mentally, over any distance, for an hour. It's convenient, but also secure from our enemies ears, so when discussing anything sensitive, we prefer to use it." 

Then the wizard looks to Thyrius, "When we are ready to travel, Nuzej or I will take us first to Waterdeep to get Simaal, and then onwards to wherever we wish to go. And you may not know these lands, but your input is requested regardless. Semberholme is an elven enclave in the great forest.  We will be welcome there, they are my people. But, I am a servant of my nation, and returning has the possibility, however minor, of resulting in some unforeseen political...hmmmm....interference, or political boon. Perhaps we may leave with an escort of elven military, who knows. There will be conversations to be had, and directives given. Suzail is the capital of a powerful nation. As a large city, we will likely be anonymous. I'm unsure which is the better choice.  As for the Anauroch, it is a vast desert. Travelling it is...challenging always. Either way we go, I think we will travel through Tilverton where we can find pack animals and gear suitable for desert travel." 

Zhuti waves Kyriani off. "Oh, I'll do what the Maiden asks. I always do, and I'm not dead yet."

As Toc discusses plans, she will add, "If we're being chased by liches and their minions, I'd rather that happened among allies, however... political. I'd choose Semberholme."

Xemnez chuffed over Toc's mention of preference in regards to the bond, but otherwise stood by silently listening and observing and patiently waiting for an answer to his many inquiries. A mote of concern only briefly crosses his face in looking to Zhuti with narrowed eyes. But then it's gone without a trace as the Leonin's attention shifts once more to the others.

"... Our foe has proven plenty resourceful, as well as willing to... mn... what is the word... bah! He has allies among the living as well as the dead. Not much of a surprise of course. But if his reach has extended to your Semberholme, Toc, EVEN if only in the most minor sense as a... eh... scouts or spies or whatever, there lies some greater risks involved then simply being waylaid by more politics." Xemnez expressed upon finding a moment. "And while having more noble warriors join us, if only to help guard during the ritual would be a boon, too large a host foisted upon us might draw unwarranted attention... or make it difficult negotiate with the Bedine, if it comes to it."

At that point his gaze drifts again to the magicked up map if it yet remains visible for viewing. ".... Is there no way to convince them -- your people in Semberholme -- to send further aid to meet us at Tilverton, since we need stop there anyways? Perhaps, uhm... with some simple enchanted bows?" He adds, starting off strong, then shifting to a slightly awkward tone towards the end.

Finding a moment in the conversation, Thyrius approaches Toc and asks curiously: "This is quite the eclectic bunch you have following you, elven sorcerer. Tell me, how many of us have jumped into this boat while it was already moving? Has any member of this team of circunstance been with you since the beginning of the fight against Larloch?"

On the other subject: "If my input is requested, then here it is: We sought the followers of Selune for allies; if you are telling me there is a chance we can find additional ones in your home, then I say we indeed make our next stop there. This is especially the case if it is the nearest safe heaven to the goddess's place of choice for this ritual. However, I am not in the habit of disagreeing with my brother. If his vote is cast, then mine aligns with his."

Xemnez growls and half-heartedly glares at Thyrius. But after a moment or two of that, he lets out a barking laugh and slaps a hand on his shoulder. "Now I almost feel guilty Brother! But you do raise a fair point... Still, if this is to be put to a vote, my advice and choice remains unchanged. BUT, I will not argue it further should all else be of a mind to yet pay Toc's home a visit. Just ask not for me NOT to remain wary while we're there. There's been far, FAR too many surprises on this venture as there has been. And though they've all provided certain level of... entertainment and challenge, for the sake of all worlds, victory is far more preferred." 

Toc leans towards Thryius, a thoughtful and curious look on his face as he asks his question about the history of the quest. "Well. Hmmm, now. Interesting question."  He nods to Nuzej, "Jezun and Nuzej have been with me the longest now. Fianna, who owns this place, started off with us, but.....her passionate personality drove off an early ally and then later I think took its course, resulting in her staying behind here.  Mirica....well...she was there to start, but you know her situation. Simaal joined us well into our quest, on the way to the icy north." 

Then he turns back to Xemnez, "Indeed, I could reach out to Semberholme, have them bring a force, perhaps even a bow....though I would not discount the effort put into creating such things....and then we could meet the force in Tilverton. That could avoid some of the political entanglements and still get us additional allies. Is this a good compromise for everyone?" 

"Aye," Thyrius replies simply. "That sounds like a good compromise." Then, in an effort to show further gratitute to the folk around him, Thyrius starts picking up the bowls and cups pushed to the floor in the process of clearing a table for the now completed ritual.