Outside 48: Hotter than Inside

[Chaotic Bob]

[Wrattleham]

Xeni is not an expert on engineering, unfortunately. He was...very close to someone who was, but they're not around anymore to offer their expertise.
So he can't really contribute to the whole "speaking tube not working" thing much, beyond a quiet "interesting".

Sounds like that's why topside can't get in contact.

And then this bit about the Foreman ordering them to move! That sounds like someone even higher up the food-chain here, and immediately places them on the "talk to next" list.
"Ah, yes, of course. I'll get...right on my duties."
He sounds appropriately chastised, as a good worker bee being caught out of line should be. He does throw one last question out before shuffling off, however.
"Uh hey, did you see where the Foreman went?"

[Earl of Purple]

Wrattleham

"Yes, he's off doing the hardest job, probably. He built the engines we use, so nobody knows them like he does." That sounds like the man who was leading the group disassembling the gearbox, doesn't it? Particularly since they're having to avoid some of the gearing because they're still using it to keep the main wheel moving.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Wrattleham]

He could resume being invisible and creepy, but the odds of getting noticed doing that now are considerably higher.
So he'll just go walk over to where he was pretty sure he saw the guy (gearboxes and engines are related right? Maybe? He has only the barest idea), trying not to look too ridiculously suspicious and probably failing.

Is it the quiet humming? Maybe the quiet humming.

Either way, if no one stops him, he's going to go over there next.
"Heya gents, what's going on?"

[Earl of Purple]

Wrattleham

The good news is, everyone's too distracted by what they're doing to notice the oddity. Especially if he's still aware enough to step out of their way like he did when he was invisible. The humming is odd, but he's not alone; several of the workers hum or whistle as they work to help themselves focus. One guy appears to be whistling with two mouths, and is incapable of keeping them in tune. Hopefully he'll get better at that, or someone will get angry at him.

He arrives at the gearbox! "One of the gears has been stripped of its teeth, so we're replacing it. It's one of the lower gears, too, so as you can see we have to keep this town going at least fifty miles an hour whilst we replace it. Or else it'll automatically shift into a gear that currently doesn't exist and break this gearbox worse. Meanwhile, the other gearbox on the other side would be working near-perfectly, so the wheel would be effectively braked on one side and not the other, and that might shear the axle and if that happens the wheel through which eighty or ninety per cent of Wrattleham's weight goes through will fall off and either fall over, smashing the scaffolding around it and sending the town hall plummeting onto the fields before the wheel crashes through the decks, or else the town will drop about twenty feet whilst the wheel carries on until it hits something and we have to drag it back, heave it upright and put it back in position. In either case, Wrattleham will become a static town and we'd all be no better than mossies. Fortunately, we have a spare gear, and if you're not doing anything could you get it over here and hold it upright whilst we get it all attached?" The guy in charge points towards a two-metre diameter steel cog, which happens to be leaning against a nearby roof support pillar.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Wrattleham]

That was...significantly more information than he was actually expected to be given.
So much more, that in his shock he's a little confused about how he ended up with this gear as he walks away in the indicated direction.
The Foreman clearly blinded him with engineering, it's the only explanation.

Now, this is a very large piece of metal.
The fellow who's face Xeni currently wears probably shouldn't be able to move it around on his own.
Then again, the fellow who's face he wears probably can't keep the wheel stable with small, subtle nudges of magic as he rolls it to its destination.
"...what am I even doing here anymore."

Wait no, this works. It's just building some more trust when he finally reveals his true purpose of being here. Okay. This is fine.

[Earl of Purple]

Wrattleham

The cog has had several holes cut out of it to make it lighter and more easily moved, and there's a chap who will rush over to help. Granted, the chap has three missing fingers on one hand, with extras growing uselessly from his wrist, so there's not much else he can do except help lift and move things down here. They can move it into position relatively easily, and when they do it's fastened into place before smaller gears and wheels and cogs are put back into position, the axles they turn on fastened and the gearbox returned to a functional state.

"Thank you, uuh... Sam, is it? I'm sorry, lad. I'm not very good at keeping track of you coppers. Why're you down here, anyway? Aren't you lot supposed to be trying to scare off those bird-women that wanted to carry off our farmers? Or aren't they following us no more?" The guy who Xeni looks like might not be called Sam. "You didn't get a glimpse of the thing, then. I saw it, it changed me. As you see." The foreman's got stars glimmering in his brown eyes and another eye has opened in his neck. "I feel... more perfect than I did, and that scared me. Everyone here does, but not all feel the same." Most didn't snap out of it in time to do something about it, and few elsewhere were as able to do something about it. The Mayor was, and his daughter, the Navigator too. But they didn't, so they stared longer at Zee and got more badly affected. Much longer at Zee; the Navigator resisted longer than the Mayor, but was overruled.

Bufopolis

It's quite a small town, Bufopolis. Eight large log cabins around a central stone fountain, water splashing from the mouth of an oversized and three-eyed porphyry toad into a scallop-shell-shaped pond. There's also a small round marble dome supported on matching pillars with an ornate brass astrolabe in the middle, a small watchtower made from a large shipping container heaved onto its end and topped by a wooden shack and finally a battered old Winnebago motor-home, converted into a small pub and powered by a wind turbine. This is where Emily was asked to come, called by a desperate radio message sent by the publican.

There's a lot of villagers at the pub right now, sitting and drinking at a miscellany of mismatched garden furniture and park benches. The villagers are mostly human, with greyish skin, bulging eyes and long, skinny legs paired with paunches. They wear old-fashioned pinstripe suits, cravats and bowler hats, regardless of gender, and all the women wear long, wavy-bladed knives tucked into their belts. The publican's an exception, a short black man with greying dreadlocks wearing a yellow toga and a pair of hiking boots.

[Halae]

[Bufopolis]

Emily will have arrived her by motorcycle, her massive gray machine being parked a little outside of the edge of the hamlet. Her eyes don't linger on the townsfolk, even with their odd differences for the norm - it'd be a bit hypocritical of her to do that to other people given her own appearance. When she spots the man who matches the description of the publican, she'll walk up to him, her feet padding along the ground, and say, "You, uh, called for a troubleshooter?"

She's wearing her usual combat gear today, since that seems to be what was called for. Emily will sniff the air, trying to get a sense of the smell of the people here - having a powerful olfactory sense is important.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Wrattleham]

So...there's a level of resistance to the thought adjustment down here, despite being altered already.
That's almost sad, considering it is possibly irreversible.

Also what the heck is this about bird people. Harpies? Yikes.
Explains the gun-pointing when he popped in.

This Foreman fellow is giving Xeni the exact sort of information that he wanted, so let's push that a little more.
"I was...wondering a bit about that. Why I came down here, when I heard that we were reversing against the Mayor's orders."
He does take care to make sure no one is likely to be eavesdropping when he says that. Wouldn't want to cause a fuss about that, would we?
"Er, and the bird-women are gone. I think. Probably also scared away by the, ah, the thing. So, is the plan just to run away as far as possible?"

[Earl of Purple]

Wrattleham

Also, what kind of person turns down being perfect? Does that play into things down here, or not?

"The Mayor... He's a good man. He built this place. Literally, as it happens. He bought the wheel, found the wrecked raft-town and started to weld. He had help, later on. He's not much of an engineer, even if he was born and raised in a Gut. But he doesn't have a clue sometimes. I felt myself change, as I stared at... Whatever it was. I can't remember." His brain can't grasp Zee properly. "Something... Holy, I think. And I felt myself change. I grew this eye, and other things. I knew, knew I was getting perfected. But... I'm an engineer. Something that's perfect for one person is useless to another. And I wasn't getting a say in what perfection meant, here. So, yes. I disobeyed the Mayor, and disconnected the speaking-tube. Roger's never going to fix it; he's got a steady hand and a keen eye, but absolutely no sense of trouble-shooting. Currently, yes, the plan is to run away as fast as possible, with the corollary that we don't go so fast we fall apart. Not till we're at least a hour away. We'll be far enough away then that hopefully nobody will want to go mudside and walk back to the Holy." Since they've been travelling for quite a bit now, probably ten minutes with all the travelling Xeni's been doing, and they've not been able to go under fifty miles an hour until that gearbox was fixed, they might be out of sight of the fog already.

Bufopolis

Emily's bike is the only working vehicle in town; the Winnebago looks like it hasn't moved in years, with flat tyres and a small tree growing out of one of the wheel arches. She can't even see a bicycle, or a cart.

"Indeed, yes we did. My name is Samwell, and there's a pack of werewolves hereabouts. Three nights ago they attacked, and they took our mayor's son with them when they left. The mayor wants him back, and has in fact gone to get him back. We've not seen either of them since, nor have wee seen the werewolves. The mayor followed the werewolves' tracks to a cave over there," the publican points, and every villager nearby turn to stare in that direction. "And went inside. The mayor took our only gun when he went in. We would like you to find and recover the mayor and his son, if either is alive, or the gun if they aren't. We'll pay you, everyone's pooled their resources. It won't be much, I'm afraid." The town doesn't look particularly prosperous, so 'not being much' is probably very accurate.

[Halae]

[Bufopolis]

Emily waves that off, "No charge," She doesn't normally charge for hero work anyways, but these folks are looking particularly down-and-out, so it wouldn't do to ask for pretty much anything that they could use to make their lives better, "I'll see what I can do about getting both back."

Unless the publican has more to say, she'll head off in the direction the hamlet indicated, following her nose along the trail - werewolf has a fairly distinct smell, and if there's three of them, she should be able to find the shelter they've holed themselves up in given the opportunity.

[Earl of Purple]

Bufopolis

Instead of being paid, the publican sends two of the suited locals to grab a harpoon gun each and go hunting. If she doesn't want being paid, they can maybe give her a victory feast. Emily looks like she could eat a lot of cuisses de grenouille, so they should get busy.

Emily's nose picks up the scent of werewolves along the route, though it seems there may be more than three of them, and neither Mayor nor his son were werewolves when they entered- Emily can smell the swampy scent of the locals mixed with what would be an overpowering lavender cologne, suggesting the Mayor at least tried to mask his scent without knowing how.

The cave itself is a large hole in the side of a hill. Originally a natural feature, it's been widened by the work of picks and mattocks. The floor is swept clean, and after a short descent into the hill, it splits in three directions. It's quite dark down here, lit only by patches of glowing fungus growing from the walls; bulbous, pale grey things with tendrils that fall from the bottom, lighting the immediate area but little else. The tunnel to the north is wide, and there's dried blood streaked on the floor in that direction. It sees some regular use, so it's hard to tell if there's anything that way at the moment. To the south, the tunnel is dark; no fungus grows on the walls, and there's no sign of recent passage in air or floor. Ahead, the tunnel widens most, and the smell of werewolf and lavender is strongest.

Which path would Emily like to take?

[Recaiden]

Calm Reed will proceed to remove the bolts and let the villagers out. The half-elf ought to have only been knocked out, as the freezing water isn't quite enough to outright kill someone.

The slavers don't move, though the half-elf is starting to wake up.

The slaves file out of their cages and off the bus, smiling and waving at the manticore up ahead. There's another bus, and Calm Reed hasn't checked upstairs yet.

One of the women, a twenty-five-year-old wearing several bone rings on a thong about her neck, grabs one of the shotguns and walks over to the slaves. Unless Alice stops her, she'll shoot one of the slavers in the upper back.

On seeing the rescued woman approaching with a gun, Alice steps up, raising a hand that shimmers slightly with the force field bending around it.
"Leave his punishment to us. Killing them won't help you." She says. Although she hesitates a bit saying it. I'm sure the freed slaves have very persuasive stories as to why they should be allowed to shoot the slavers.

[Morty]

[Manticore's Village]

Calm Reed does head upstairs, leaving Alice to negotiate with the slaves.

[Chaotic Bob]

[Wrattleham]

Well. This actually sounds pretty ideal, from where Xeni is standing.
He's going to have to confer with Zee that these guys going all culty isn't going to become a "contagious" problem...but it sounds like he might not have any actual work to do here.
He has one other concern, but after that he's willing to let them all go.

"So, ah. Any chance the Mayor is going to march down here and force us to turn around?"

[Earl of Purple]

Manticore Village

Upstairs, just like below, the chairs have been stripped out. Here, they've been replaced by a collection of large mesh crates- like ones for transporting large dogs, each fitted with a padlock to keep it closed. There's also a dead slaver on the floor, lying on his back and holding a shotgun. His gasmask has been pinned to his face by three very large porcupine-like quills, one embedded harmlessly in the filter, one in the cheek and one punching straight through the lens and into the eye beneath. Two of the cages have manticore cubs in them. One, the larger of the two, is about the size of a Labrador, or other mid-sized dog. Its face, unlike that of the parent Calm Reed met, is obviously female, and looks to come from a dark-skinned girl of about eleven years old. Her mouth is wide and filled with row upon row of shark-like teeth, and her eyes are green and cat-like. Her body is covered in thick brown fur with white spots, though her face, bat-like wings and paws are bald. Her paws look like human hands, if human hands were equipped with hooked talons. Her tail is long, furred like her body, and ends in a thick bushel of spikes like those that slew the guard. The other manticore is notably smaller, with a face more like that of a lion than a human, though the bright blue eyes and large ears are undeniably human. Its fur is black, with black stripes that occasionally gleam in the light due to reflecting light differently, the wings are batlike with humanoid hands halfway down, and the tail is a long, sinuous black-scaled snake.

The larger manticore speaks first, her voice musical and almost hypnotic, and totally lacking her parent's lisp. "We saw you, out there. With our father. You move so smoothly, for such an ungainly looking thing. That guard was going to hold us hostage to get you to go away. I foiled him. He has the key for this locks. Will you let us out?" The hypnotic quality increases as she asks the question, and there's magic behind the words, but she's not trained it and is unaware of the effect it could have on humans. The other manticore sits patiently, staring at Calm Reed with four eyes as it nonchalantly licks its paw.

Outside, the manticore lands a short distance away, and some of the freed villagers rush over to hug and stroke its fur and give it their thanks. Meanwhile, the woman turns to Alice, still holding the shotgun. "How will you punish him? Will he get what he deserves for killing my parents? How about my brother? You can't give me my family back, but can you punish like with like?" She doesn't want to kill him, it seems. She just wants to be sure he'll die.

Wrattleham

"The Mayor personally? I doubt it. He likes the view, never comes down from the Town Hall. They've got a speaking tube to the town guards, though. If there's any in the guard station who's not slacking off like they usually do or staring at the Holy, if it's still visible up there, they might come down. I thought that's why you were here, Steve. To arrest me and get me stopped. He'd not dare more'n arresting me, though. I'm the only man who knows how all this works. I upgraded the engines, improved the gearbox, made the furnace more efficient and designed the crane that gets stuff from the mud aboard." The Mayor might have built the town originally, but the Foreman's mostly responsible for keeping Wrattleham going and keeping it in working order.

Also, it's good the Mayor likes the view from the Town Hall. From what Xeni saw, he's not moving for a long time with those glassy roots anchoring him to his chair.

[Halae]

Bufopolis

Instead of being paid, the publican sends two of the suited locals to grab a harpoon gun each and go hunting. If she doesn't want being paid, they can maybe give her a victory feast. Emily looks like she could eat a lot of cuisses de grenouille, so they should get busy.

Emily's nose picks up the scent of werewolves along the route, though it seems there may be more than three of them, and neither Mayor nor his son were werewolves when they entered- Emily can smell the swampy scent of the locals mixed with what would be an overpowering lavender cologne, suggesting the Mayor at least tried to mask his scent without knowing how.

The cave itself is a large hole in the side of a hill. Originally a natural feature, it's been widened by the work of picks and mattocks. The floor is swept clean, and after a short descent into the hill, it splits in three directions. It's quite dark down here, lit only by patches of glowing fungus growing from the walls; bulbous, pale grey things with tendrils that fall from the bottom, lighting the immediate area but little else. The tunnel to the north is wide, and there's dried blood streaked on the floor in that direction. It sees some regular use, so it's hard to tell if there's anything that way at the moment. To the south, the tunnel is dark; no fungus grows on the walls, and there's no sign of recent passage in air or floor. Ahead, the tunnel widens most, and the smell of werewolf and lavender is strongest.

Which path would Emily like to take?

On The Trail

The darkness is little challenge to Scaleback's superior senses, which should leave her able to pierce the darkness if it isn't magically enforced. The low ceiling does means she needs to bend over for much of this traversal, laying her hands down on the ground to support her large body while stooped like this. It also means that her path is basically chosen for her, as getting into the wider passage will not only let her stand up a little straighter, but also evidently let her follow the same path the mayor and his werewolf captors took.

[Earl of Purple]

Werewolf Cave

The werewolves are maybe not as bulky as Emily, but they're still pretty large. Especially compared to a normal human. She could go down either side-passage if she desired, though it may be tricky.

This passage opens into a really big chamber. There's a pool of clear water to the south, inhabited by small, pale crabs and fed by a drip from the ceiling. Ahead, there's a narrower crack in the rock, narrow enough that Emily would have to squeeze through to fit; a tuft of fur is caught on a stone, suggesting the werewolves struggle, too. Another tunnel leads almost directly north, slightly more regular than the other passages that Emily's seen so far. Near that passage there's a niche in the wall, holding an idol carved of yellow jasper; a human with a deer's head and large antlers, holding a spear and riding a bear. The idol's eyes and the spearhead are made from ruby, and there's a pile of bones at its feet, topped with a bloodstained human skull.

Lying on the floor is a long human leg, wearing a bit of trouser but no boot. The rest of the body is missing, but the leg smells strongly of lavender. There's blood streaks leading into the northern passage, smaller ones than those previous. Sat cross legged in the middle of the room is an old lady, completely naked but for her long silver hair, with an assault rifle next to her. "Welcome, child. The toads sent you, didn't they? Want their mayor back, I imagine. Well, we killed him. Ripped him apart and devoured his flesh, giving his skull for Hircine. He used this deathspitter here" she touches the rifle "to slaughter our cubs. Leave us in peace. Go. Or we'll eat his son, too." The old lady stares at Emily, very much not afraid of the giant crocodile-woman.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

Emily lets out a pensive sound that comes out as something of a rumble. She looks over the corpse of what's clearly the dead mayor, and how his corpse is strewn about the place, with an offering of his skull placed before the statue - presumably, of their god Hircine. The ruby eyes are interesting; there's no way a clan of this kind of cave-dwellers dug up and cut gems like that. They simply don't have the infrastructure. Support from elsewhere? A gift from others of the faithful? It's unclear, but it does suggest that Hircine isn't some deity they dreamed up themselves, and likely has real power.

The god's domain is clear - a god of hunters, no doubt, and willing to accept the sacrifice of thinking beings. Not a light and fluffy god, and if he's worshipped by man-eating werewolves, he no doubt supports their endeavors in the region, perhaps with his own flavour of divine magic, or teachings for his followers. It'd be best to tread carefully in here - while Emily can probably handle an assault on herself, the late mayor's son no doubt can't, and this silver-haired matron doesn't make idle threats if the blood around the room is anything to go by.

And the woman herself is old enough to be dealing with graying hair, respected before Hircine, and likely just as deadly as the rest of her tribe, or moreso due to long experience. Not someone to be trifled with on a whim. But Emily can't go back empty-handed; the situation is delicate, not unsolvable. Rather than attack, or acquiesce to the old she-wolf's demands, Emily moves to sit down in front of her, crossing her legs in a mirror of the other woman's position. She makes no sudden or hostile movements, not even reaching for the gun - Emily suspects she already knows all she can find out from the weapon anyways, so it doesn't hurt to allow the old woman to keep it for now.

"We both know this conflict can't be resolved by sending me away," she starts, "There are dead on both sides, and the villagers have at least a more pleasant public focus. If you attack them, you invite reprisals in the form of their allies, such as myself, and while I've no doubt your god and your strength would see you through the hardship, it's also no doubt a situation you don't wish to try, as there's no telling how many of your tribe will be left whole when the dust settles. So, let's talk, that we might come to an amenable compromise. And if we cannot, then we'll have at least tried."

Emily is hoping that the old woman's age has tempered her no doubt ferocious personality with wisdom and experience - an offer like this isn't a small thing when it could prevent further bloodshed.

[Shadowcaller]

[New Inside - Castilla]

"Gotta love that system." Ilpholin's smile is thin and mirthless. She ends up rubbing her forehead. "If I could but kill them myself. Alright. I'll be gentle. Thank you." With an appreciative nod to the guard, she heads inside the new room.

[New Inside - Castilla]

"Good luck." The guard wishes her as she heads inside.

The room she enters is nearly identical to the last one she was in. The same barred windows, the same type of bed in the same spot in the room and even the same tiny pixie chain.
However, the chain is leading underneath the human-sized pillow on the bed and she can't see the patient anywhere.

[Earl of Purple]

Werewolf Cave

Not all the bones in the pile before the idol are human. Most, in fact, aren't. Besides the skull and the leg, there's no trace of the mayor's body.

"More dead on our side, than theirs. And we can afford the loss less. Hircine will see us through... Or see us destroyed. We're most of the way there, already. That's why my granddaughter picked the toad mayor's son, our blood is thin. It was her choice, but I disagreed with it then and I disagree now. The toads' demon-god lies with them under the new moon, their blood is tainted. They are gutless, that is why they need allies to do their dirty work. Their mayor killed our cubs. Talking won't bring them back. Neither will vengeance. I doubt the toads would accept a compromise. They want their mayor, or his deathspitter. They started this war, and they are winning it. No, any compromise, by its nature, would favour us more than them. My pack is down to five adults, now. The rest... Some have left, to forge their own pack, some died to protect our cubs and others killed on the hunt. Some were caught under the light of the sun, dragged before the toad's statue and drowned. Myself, my granddaughter, my youngest daughter, her mate and my great-grandson are all that remain. Perhaps the toad my granddaughter caught will join the pack. Perhaps you will. Hircine is the Father of Manbeasts, and that includes you, if you'll have him." An invitation to join a werewolf pack? Has Emily had one of those before? Also some rather dire accusations about the people of Bufopolis, too. Reliable? Possibly. She sounds like she believes them, but she could be misinformed, and people always believe the worst of their enemies.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

Father of Manbeasts. Interesting, that. Emily pauses a moment to consider her next words before speaking, "I'm not a faithful individual by nature, and my hunting is generally nonlethal. I doubt I'd make for an acceptable packmate, if you did take me in," Not a denial or acceptance, simply tossing that particular ball back to the matron, "Though, it seems to me that the largest problem you're having is one of genetics. You need an infusion of new blood... would it not be wiser to simply move away from here? To somewhere that would accept who and what you are more readily than the villagers?"

[Earl of Purple]

Werewolf Cave

The werewolf matron nods in acceptance at Emily's words. A well-said rebuttal about the offer that doesn't offend. "I found the shrine with my mate, when I was very young. The pack has grown around me. We could move, but where to? Hircine's children are rarely welcome in civilised lands, and so much more land has been claimed in my lifetime. The toads weren't here when we arrived, just an abandoned statue overlooking a pool, with the gazebo nearby. I don't know who built them, not the toads. They arrived ten years after I did. Their taint started fifty years ago, when they began worshipping the statue. And if we did go, we could not take the statue with us." So they found the statue and that's why they settled here.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

"Why not?" Emily says, looking at the statue with a frown, "It looks like it'd be heavy, sure, but not impossible to move, given the right leverage."

Already, a plan is forming in Emily's head to deal with this directly. Hmmm...

[Earl of Purple]

Werewolf Cave

"Horses and camels will have nothing to do with us. If we moved it, we would have to carry it by hand. It is too heavy and too valuable to risk." Although the matron sounds as though she might be willing to listen to an idea, if it will help save her family. She would like to avenge those she's lost, but saving those she's not lost yet is more important. Even if vengeance doesn't solve any problems or bring them back, it appeases Hircine. She also hopes it would thwart the plans of the toad worshipped in Bufopolis.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

"What if I offered to move it for you? I'm not precisely a classic beast of burden, but I'm strong enough that I shouldn't have any real problems moving it relatively safely," And labor is fairly simple to come by for the willing. She'll likely have to appease Hircine somehow to be allowed to touch his idol, but that'd likely be a relatively simple thing if done properly; either a test, or some kind of blessing.

[Earl of Purple]

Werewolf Cave

The matron smiles a little. "If we were to move, we will not be staying anywhere near the toads. We'll be travelling for quite some time until we find somewhere new to settle down. And I cannot expect that of you, nor ask it either." Wandering the wilderness for a week at the minimum? Possibly months? She wants somewhere reasonably isolated with a local community that would appreciate a pack of hunters moving in nearby, or else somewhere isolated with a local community they can take over and adopt into the pack, which would be trickier and likely more bloody.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

"What about Hircine? Couldn't he guide you to a new location? Even if he insists on you taming it yourselves, I doubt he'd allow his faithful to die for lack of omens and portents," even as she says it, Emily is thinking of different ways that she might allow for moving the shrine without disrupting anybody. If she had access to a technologist, she might have been able to suggest a gravitic lightener, but that's not something she can really guarantee access to. Maybe an extradimensional bag that can be used to store it safely until their arrival? It'd have to be a very large one, though...

"I imagine if you knew of a location, it'd be the work of a day or three to get it there safely. That'd make the burden of time on me significantly easier to deal with."

[Earl of Purple]

Werewolf Cave

"I will have to ask Hircine myself, see what the Huntsman has to say about it, and discuss things with the pack. Come back tomorrow, please. I should have answers for you then." The matron stands up, grasping the rifle beside her by the barrel, and moves back to the narrow crack in the rock. Emily could possibly stop her, or attack her whilst her back is turned and her guard down, or she could leave. Let the werewolves discuss things and come to an agreement and potentially even leave in peace.

[Halae]

[Werewolf Cave]

"I'll return tomorrow, then. Have a good night," Emily says, standing up, and then she'll leave the cave the way she came, intending to head back to Bufopolis. There's some investigation that needs to happen here, and that can only be done in town.

[Earl of Purple]

Bufopolis

When she returns, most of the town is gathered around the impromptu pub. A big pit has been dug and a fire set into it, and the publican is running a spit with a pair of two-metre-long frog legs on it, roasting them above the fire. Her approach is greeted by a cheer of the locals, though they die down a bit when they see she's alone. Nevertheless, the publican carves off a large piece of meat from one of the legs, sets it on a chipped ceramic plate and squirts some barbeque sauce on it. It's then given to a child who shares the local features, with very long legs, a paunch, and bulbous eyes, who runs it to Emily.