Homontel, and beyond

[Graybeard]

Brother Miguel and Sister Rose looked at each other, shrugged; they'd been doing a lot of that lately. "I think Bernie has forgotten that we're not on active duty," Rose said. "On the other hand, we could be called up whenever they want to, and what he's telling us to do does make sense. Centoriel has changed from a smoldering enigma to a current, serious problem that needs solving."

"Agreed on all counts," said Miguel. "Argus, I don't know much about this Provatiel, but it's supposed to be the largest town between Lorenzel and the central urban centers of Saus and Emerylon. It's surely the best bet to have a second-hand store where you can find a crystal ball, or maybe a jeweler to get that one polished back up to usefulness. As for lodging, Colonel Bogiel doesn't usually sugar-coat things, so I think his assessment that we'd be more comfortable there than in the smaller towns is probably well founded. Let's get packed up; the day is getting on, and we still have three or four hours' travel to get there."

-----------

While Kristi was having a long talk with Hildebrandt, and Brother Farley was getting a little ... something for his girlfriend, Professor Damyo was otherwise occupied.

Revyl is a damn fool, he thought, noticing the Wards that the lab assistants had applied while Dirienzal was reeling, and not stopping to think that maybe there was a good reason for them. All he was thinking was that the Wards had almost certainly interfered with whatever divination Dirienzal had performed. Well, that's easy to fix, and who knows, maybe I'll even get a paper out of it. It would be nice to rub the fat bastard's nose in his own incompetence.

A quick, muttered "Dispel" later, the Wards were gone, and Damyo was ready to do what he'd come for. The Plane Convergence spell was fairly difficult to set up, and he didn't want to be in the laboratory any longer than he had to, so he hurried through the preparations ... maybe slightly more than he should have. Finally, all was in readiness. He muttered the syllables of the spell and turned his augmented vision to the desk, where swirling planes of existence were converging...

... And, for the brief moment before everything went black, something was looking back out of the desk -- at him.

[Sareth]

Lillith ladled up a bowl of the soup she'd cooked. Silently she stood, then stepped in front of Brother Miguel.

"Soup first," she said, her voice brooking no dissent. She thrust the bowl into Miguel's hands, then began cleaning up her utensiles and killing the little fire she'd made.

[Graybeard]

"Thank you," Brother Miguel smiled; the nap had done him a great deal of good, but he couldn't deny that he was hungry.

A few minutes later, the wagon was on its way to Provatiel. "I'm glad to have that place behind us," Sister Rose opined. "Just too much weirdness rolled into one package. Weirdness, and death. Do you think it was just coincidence that that explosion at Centoriel happened right after the strange storm? I don't."

Miguel nodded. "I don't either. And having both of them happen right about the time I saw that strange man, through an instrument that Sasha said wasn't even turned on at the time, pushes my belief in chance to the breaking point, if not beyond."

"Well, at least Dead Man's Hill itself seems to be settling down," Rose said. "I must say that I find the Centoriel War Zone order convenient, even though I'd like to find out what happened to our people. I really don't want to go back there, and we still have a job to do. Let's head on to Provatiel; it's supposed to be a comparatively normal place, anyway."

Famous last words, Miguel thought as the wagon rumbled forward.

[OOC: OK to fast-forward to the outskirts of Provatiel? /OOC:]

----------

"If we hurry, we can catch the gate opening in 45 minutes," the portalmage told Brother Farley and Kristi.

Anxious to get rid of us, aren't they? Farley thought. Of course, he really couldn't blame them. The desk inspection had been a disappointment, and face saving was so important to the Tsuirakuans that having anyone around to remind them of the event would be ... inconvenient. It was time to move on. "Did you get to talk to your friend?" he asked Kristi neutrally.

Later, she mouthed with her face turned away from their escort, then said, "Just a little, catching up on old friends, that sort of thing. He says that nothing too exciting has been going on in his life." Would Farley catch the drift of that? She thought so.

He smiled. "Well, let's go find some excitement of our own." What I got you in that shop should qualify. They headed into the warp gate.

----------

"Hm. Someone left the light on in the lab," Yamabi said to the graduate student accompanying him back to clean up. "I thought we'd turned it off. Well, no matter. It should only take five minutes to put everything away here."

The man and the young woman stepped inside after operating the magical lock. "I thought the boss would pitch a fit when Professor Damyo came in," Yamabi said. "I guess he was just too busy hamming it up for the audience, but we'll hear more of this, I bet." The student chuckled agreement and rounded the lab bench ...

... To find Damyo lying on the floor. His face was gray, he wasn't moving, didn't seem to be breathing, and that look on his face ... She wasn't sure, but it looked as if he was --

"LIFEMAGE!!"

[Templar771]

(OOC: agreed sounds good to me)

[Sareth]

[OOC]Yep. Ditto[/OOC]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: OK, time has been warped...]

The sun was near the horizon by the time the wagon full of tired voyagers reached Provatiel. A mounted party was at the edge of town to meet them, but unlike the group at Mazantzel, this one was in the uniform of the Veracian military and greeted the travelers with scrupulous correctness and courtesy. The young officer commanding the unit introduced himself as Lieutenant Bindiel as introductions were made, with certain inconvenient facts not exactly concealed, but at least avoided. "Sir, ma'am, we're here to escort you and your assistants to your quarters for the night," the lieutenant said. Sister Rose and Brother Miguel decided not to enlighten him either on the fact that their fellow travelers weren't just "assistants," or on the fact that Rose was the higher ranking of the two Veracians when on active duty; this fellow might be among the Veracians who had problems with women in positions of power, and why stir up trouble unnecessarily?

One thing they had to admit: Provatiel's setting was impressive. They'd crested a low ridge and were looking down into an attractive valley, with a town of perhaps 10,000 or so clustered around the stream in the valley's bottom. Two or three temples were recognizable by their spires, the streets were well adorned with trees, the houses within looked well maintained. In general, this looked like a more prosperous, healthy community than those they'd come through on the way.

The most spectacular feature of the town, however, lay atop a hill that rose beyond the far shore of the small river. What appeared to be a full-blown castle sprawled across the hill, and it looked to be in good working order, not a ruin. The walls were intact, and three or four towers rose among the buildings within. Figures could be seen atop the walls in the fading light; a garrison, probably. "That's quite a sight," Rose said, impressed. "Military headquarters for the region, I assume?"

Bindiel grinned. "Actually, it's your quarters for this evening. Let's get going; we can get your assistants settled in, then do a debrief." The horses and wagon started moving again as Rose, Miguel, Argus, Lillith, Sasha and Cit stared at their unexpected accommodations.

[Drannin]

I'm staying in a castle? Despite himself, Argus was impressed. High walls, well-fortified, obviously designed by an architect who more than knew what he was doing. Hell, Argus was learning a thing or two just looking at the damn thing. The professor in him stirred. Gotta get a look at the blue prints. And shake the hand of whoever built this beauty.

As a craftsman, Argus appreciated fine work when he saw it. And this was... spectacular. From a functional point of view, this thing was practically artwork. Argus' thoughts could be summed up in one word:

"Wow."

Of course, to the others, it just looked like a castle. It took an architect to appreciate the subtleties.

"Down, boy," Harker chuckled at Argus' archigasm.

[Sareth]

Wow.

Lillith echoed Argus subconsciously. She'd never even seen a real castle before, let alone be in one, and she had to admit, she was rather impressed. Santoriel didn't have even a ditch around it, not having enough people to really put up any real defenses. None of the towns she'd traveled through had been much larger than Santoriel as well. But this... this was a goodly city!

Of course, being a castle, there were only a few ways in and out, too. She felt nervous looking at the place. Still, Sister Rose and Brother Miguel had had opportunity to do her a good deal of harm and hadn't.

She hoped they had a bath.

[Graybeard]

"I've never been in anything quite like this before," Brother Miguel said as he entered the castle, echoing the thoughts of the rest of the group. Their basic surmise had been right: the castle was apparently a military base, if a comparatively relaxed one. What had looked like a tower from across the river, and might have served some defensive function in the past, turned out to be quite a tolerable set of officers' quarters, and Bernie, bless his heart, had arranged separate rooms for each of them. This would be the first comfortable night's sleep for most of the voyagers in quite a while.

"Do you know any of the history of this place?" Sister Rose asked the young lieutenant who was escorting them. "I'd be fascinated to hear more of how it came to be where it is, what battles were fought here, how it was preserved so well. It's obviously been around for a while."

"Indeed it has," Lieutenant Bindiel said. "I don't know much about it myself, not my kind of thing. My eldest wife is a native of Provatiel, though; if you wish, I can ask her about the history and get back to you in the morning."

His eldest wife? Rose thought. What a strange turn of phrase. He couldn't be... She put the thought out of her mind, smiled and said, "Yes, I'd appreciate that very much. For tonight, I think Brother Miguel -- Captain Monterio, if you prefer -- and I have a debriefing to do. I assume that has been arranged?"

"Yes, ma'am," Bindiel answered. "I'll conduct you to the inner sanctum once our other guests are secured for the evening. It's too late for dinner, but you'll find an assortment of sweetbreads and Luminosita's honey in your quarters to tide you over until morning."

Inner sanctum? Another mystery, Miguel thought. There were some very odd features to this place ... but there was a job to do, and after that, a pillow that needed serious pounding. They could sort out the oddities in the morning.

[Graybeard]

[OOC: Where did everybody go? To try to jump-start things again:]

With the rest of the weary travelers installed in their rooms, Sister Rose and Brother Miguel set off with Lieutenant Bindiel for their debrief. They expected to be conducted to some deep, dark underground chamber away from prying eyes, but they were wrong: Bindiel led them back out through the gates of the castle wall, toward one of the town's temples. The temple was just a little larger, a little more ornate (some would have said "ostentatious"), a little better maintained than the others in town that they'd seen on the way in. "Millenarians," Rose murmured to Miguel as they entered, and it was so.

An old, bearded man introduced himself as "Elder Jacobiel" and welcomed them to the temple, although the glint in his eye didn't exactly convey a welcoming impression. "You are receiving a great honor," he said. "Few outside the Faithful are allowed into our Holy of Holies." He turned to Bindiel. "Brother Elgin, we give you leave to bring your visitors to this special place in the service of Our Lord Luminosita. But please do not linger, and ensure that they -- and you -- conduct themselves with dignity and respect." He stalked off without another word as Bindiel indicated an ornate door.

"I'm confused," Rose said, thinking (correctly) it had been a good idea to hold her tongue while in the presence of the old man. "From the looks of it, I'd say we were meeting with the bishop of the Millenarian Church, not the commander of the advance party for the unit going to -- that place." They weren't inside the inner sanctum yet, and she didn't feel that she could name Centoriel. "Which is it going to be? I have fairly specific instructions as to talk to the unit commander, not a church figure."

Bindiel grinned again; he seemed to do this a lot. "Well, actually, I'm both of the above. Come on in." He mumbled something at the door and passed his hand over the latch; a Ward flashed into, and then out of, sight, and the door opened to reveal a meeting room that was quite out of keeping with what they'd seen on the outside.

[OOC: Feel free to do castle-ish things while these two are "occupied"...]