• Agnes: The group of travellers, after finding themselves allowed to enter the ancient stronghold of Ohindar, through several reinforced Murlogi checkpoints, come to Egani's workshop. It is a large cavern with benches, shelves, cases, cabinets and miscelany everywhere. A huge block and tackle crane of some kind is mounted to the ceiling and one wall is covered with undulating, multi-colored, finger-like...things.
• Agnes: Egani is working on something obscured from view by crates and hanging canvas sheets and doesn't notice their entrance. As usual, he's wearing a leather apron with many pockets.
• Agnes: There are three goblins, unconscious and attached to apparatus where they lay in beds along one wall.
• Chimrea figures, as the embodied member of the group who's closest to knowing Egani, that she'd better take the lead. For her, that means stepping forward a bit and coughing politely.
• Agnes: A four-foot monkey wearing a top hat and bearing a silver tray approaches Chimrea et al in response to her announcement and looks expectantly. Egani seems not to have noticed.
• Chimrea: Looking like she'd prefer to step back, but unwilling to be chicken in front of the group, Chimrea says in her best coming-to-tea voice, "The honorable Egani's daughter and friends are here to see him."
• Kerem: "Nice hat."
• Agnes: The monkey cocks his head to one side and peers around Chimrea at the group. After a moment, it grunts something loudly a couple of times and Egani, distracted by the interruption comes over.
• Agnes: "Uh...hello..?"
• Agnes: Egani pats the buttler on the shoulder and he waddles off behind a mound of cloth-draped furniture.
• tez looks around the goblin city suspiciously
• Chimrea drops her best curtsy and says, "I'm Chimrea, daughter of Okhfels and Isadora. This is Kerem, Tez, and Cassio, but I'm afraid your daughter Agnes isn't exactly with us in body."
• Chimrea: Along the road, she'd thought of lots of ways to word that part, and never found one she liked.
• Egani: Egani's eyes widen. "You're Isadora's girl? What do you mean about my daughter?" He looks around the group and his eyes rest on the box -- iconically familiar to those in his line of work.
• Egani: "What happened?"
• Chimrea: "I don't think I understand it entirely, but she told us she was merging with some sort of mental network around Green Lake. She's been speaking to us since then. But... you can't hear her, can you?"
• Chimrea pauses, acutely aware of how Tez-y that last part sounds.
• Egani: "Hear?"
• Egani approaches the group now, producing a small pry-bar from somewhere on his person and begins to open the crate.
• Holmes: Tez feels her unborn child in her womb moving. She senses that there's something about this place that it's reacting to rather negatively.
• Egani: As he starts to work he looks around the group. "And the rest of you?" Noticing Tez' swollen abdomen, he catches her eye and smiles.
• tez rubs her belly soothingly, and returns Egani's smile with a pleasantly fake one.
• Kerem: "We're chaperones."
• Egani: "So, young Chimrea, how is your mother?" With this last question, he gets the crate open and looks in at the preserved body of his daughter. "And who did this work -- she's in excellent shape?"
• tez: "Arblak did it."
• Egani blinks and puffs up his chest. "Really?..that's most excellent to hear!"
• Egani: "And I'm most reassured to hear that he has an active role in life there."
• Chimrea: "Mother's dead, but thank you for asking," Chimrea says with a smile that's only slightly strained. "I was hoping we could ask you some questions while we were here."
• tez: "Are you going to fix her?"
• Egani: In the middle of pulling agnes out of the crate, Egani falters, staring at Chimrea. "She's dead? Was she poisoned?"
• Chimrea: "Poisoned? Why would you ask that?"
• Egani: Looking to Tez, Egani takes a moment to realize she's asking about Agnes rather than Isadora. "Um. I'm not sure what we'll do. What do you think she wanted? Her essence appears to be preserved, what about her spirit and soul?"
• tez: "One's in the...." she waves her hand around "the mental thing, the other one she gave away."
• Egani: Looking back to Chimrea, "I just always feared that's how it would end for her -- she was too stabby to get mugged. I'm guessing by your response that that's how it ended?"
• Holmes: Rot-rot, having carried in the box, is looking around the cavernous room, and starting to look edgy. The massive troll sniffs the air, and doesn't seem to like what it smells
• Egani: Nodding at Tez and Agnes' feet, Egani says "Grab a side?" and starts to pull Agnes out, hooking his hands under her arms.
• Chimrea flashes a crooked grin at Egani. "No, but it was a revenge thing. She and father did... something to drive Thrakelust away from Green Lake, but they went too. Idiots, all of them, because now apparently the High King is going to run over us all and no one's around to stop him."
• tez catches Agnes' feet and gently lifts her out of the box with Egani.
• Egani chuckles. "So they drove out Thrakelust...good for them. Too bad it couldn't have just been your dad to go."
• tez looks down at Agnes' face, and looks away, concentrating on her knees instead.
• Egani: "Your troll seems edgy. Please make sure he doesn't go bat-shit in here."
• Chimrea: "What's that supposed to mean?"
• Egani: "Well, your mom was the better of the two, it's just a shame she couldn't find a way to do it without having to die too."
• Kerem fidgets with his key, looking at the goblins.
• Holmes: As he does so, Kerem, the only one not really busy with the body, or watching it, notes that Rot-rot is getting really agitated.
• Chimrea thinks of several things to say and doesn't say any of them, fists clenching as she watches them unload Agnes.
• Kerem: "Uh, guys?"
• Chimrea: "What?" It comes out a little sharp.
• Egani: "Did she instruct you to bring her home..?" Egani looks around for the disturbance.
• Holmes: Rot-rot lets out a snort that sounds a bit like a bull ready to charge. Kerem notes that the big beast is standing on some sort of trap door.
• Kerem: "Something's wrong with your troll, what the hell, what is that?"
• tez: "Rot rot, calm down." She sets Agnes' lower half down where Egani indicated and walks over to him, reaching out to him soothingly. "It's okay. Egani is a friend." she glances over her shoulder. "I think."
• Holmes: Tez's words seem at first not to have an effect, but after a moment or two, the troll ceases it's stamping. Egani and Kerem both note that the trap door the troll is standing on is damaged, and could collapse at any moment.
• Kerem: "Uh, maybe you'd better get hm to move off that thing."
• tez pulls on his... wrist, and leads him off of it. "What's wrong, Rot Rot?"
• Egani: "Huh...he likes you. The murlogi priests and battle leaders keep the trolls in line through beatings."
• tez: "Agnes showed me how to feed him."
• Holmes: Just then a rather fat goblin comes waddling into the room, with two smaller ones in two
• Kerem: "Is it complicated? It seems like it'd actually be pretty easy to feed a troll."
• Holmes: Tow
• Kerem: "The hard part would be NOT feeding him."
• Egani smiles as he inspects inside Agnes' mouth. "Were you friends?"
• Holmes: "There he is!" shouts the fat one. "That's my troll!"
• tez: "I guess it's not that hard. Some people are scared though." She leans against the troll a little. "Agnes was my best friend. I l... who's that?"
• Egani: "It's interesting that my daughter's body was ritually prepared, not just preserved for transport." Egani looks up at the noise.
• Egani: "What are you doing in here? You're not supposed to interfere in my work!"
• Chimrea edges backward a bit to stand nearer to Kerem. "Why did I think it was a good idea to come here?" she whispers desperately to him.
• Holmes: The goblin turns to Egani, dozens of iron keys jingling on his belt as he does. "That's my Troll!"
• Kerem: "Man, I'm still not sure why we ARE here."
• Kerem: "On the other hand, meeting this guy does help me understand Agnes a little better. If only that were still relevant."
• tez stands between Rot Rot and the goblins protectively, her hand on the hilt of her blade.
• tez: "He's not yours. He belongs to me."
• Egani: "How can he be your troll if he's been living with these humans for several months?"
• Holmes: The goblin, obviously not well versed in Rhiani, repeats himself to Egani, "I made him! He's mine!"
• Chimrea: "Should we get involved in this?" she murmurs to Kerem, watching the argument.
• Kerem: "We probably won't be able to avoid it, so let's savor these few moments of relaxation," he mutters back.
• Holmes: The fat goblin, intent on obtaining it's prize back, drops the leashes that it had been leading the other two goblins by.
• Egani: "Trolls are, by the ancient compact of the pits, rightful spoils of war. You lost control of this creature in a fight and thus, she who took him from you has legal claim under the law of the dark. Your incessant whinging about it at the time didn't gain you anything because you have no claim!" Egani shows obvious frustration with body-language picked up from Murlogi life. "Why are you pushing this? Were you not shamed enough?"
• tez narrows her eyes, pulling her shield from over her shoulder, and very slowly pulling her blade almost all the way from its sheath, letting the rasp of the blade speak for her, punctuating Egani's statement.
• Kerem frowns slightly as he examines the keys the goblin is carrying.
• Kerem: "So how does goblin society work again, Chim? I know constant violence is involved somehow."
• Chimrea: "You're asking me? All I know, I learned from Agnes, and some stories about the goblin invasion of Teth Hold that Dad wouldn't talk about."
• Chimrea: Then she notices where he's looking. "Um, are you planning to distract the nice goblin from his upset by giving him a different one?"
• Kerem sighs. "Well, I more meant it like, if I free those goblins, they're just going to go enslave other goblins, right?"
• Holmes: The goblin looks at Egani, and it becomes obvious that he really doesn't understand what Egani is on about. But looking at all the big humans in the room, and not being able to communicate well, he decides that he may have to reformulate his plan. He turns and grabs the leashes of the two other goblins.
• Chimrea: "Oh! I don't know for sure, but probably." She tilts her head thoughtfully. "What if we could go to the top? I mean, the High King owns all of them, right?"
• tez slides her sword back home and steps back, patting Rot Rot, a little disappointed.
• Kerem: "Huh."
• Kerem: "I either really like or really don't like what I think you're suggesting."
• Egani: "Stupid turd! Can you believe he's the high priest? He's as dumb as they come."
• Chimrea: "It's a terrible idea, so based on past experience I'll probably be able to talk you into it."
• Holmes: Kerem can feel the coin turning in his pocket
• tez: "He is the High Priest?"
• Kerem snorts, covering it up as he steps forward.
• Kerem: "He's the High...yeah. I also wonder that."
• Egani: "There is a terribly sophisticated social order that sometimes selects people poorly for jobs. In part, he's from an important family of brilliant and incisive tacticians -- so he needed an important function."
• Kerem: "Wait, what?"
• Kerem: "Haven't you people ever heard of sinecures?"
• Egani: "This culture sort of figures that he can do relatively little harm in that position -- it's not like lives are at stake."
• Kerem: "Oh."
• tez: "What do priests...do?"
• Kerem: "Wait, so what does the High Priest actually do, then?"
• Kerem: "Stop that."
• tez: >.>
• Egani: "Just so."
• Kerem: "Huh."
• Kerem gets kind of a funny look on his face and starts rubbing his chin thoughtfully.
• Egani: "In his case, he mostly controls access to the High King's chamber. He also commands some special magic granted to him by his master."
• tez: "Interesting magic?"
• Egani: "It's a largely political appointment. The good thing, form a certain perspective, is that the High King is completely insensitive to the needs of his minions. We're merely tools. So this particular high priest gets no respect from above with fosters not too much respect from below..."
• Holmes: Agnes' hand rolls off her chest eerily.
• Chimrea: "What can you tell us about the High King, Egani?"
• Egani looks back at Agnes and starts walking backward toward his daughter. "Yeah, he can travel through stone quickly, concentrate the power in the underground essence sources and eavesdrop on us stuff like that."
• Holmes: Tez once again notes the strange absence of Agnes' voice. Strange in part to be so used to it being in or around her mind, that it's absence is notable.
• Egani: "Uh, what do you want to know? He's a big, very powerful force of earth magic. He's been around a long time..."
• Egani continues inspecting Agnes, checking for all the ritual preparations.
• Chimrea: "How fast is he moving? Agnes said he would take over Green Lake, take over everything."
• Kerem: "And you need to be the High King to get access to the chamber, huh?"
• Egani: "It seems that someone knew some pretty specialized stuff. Stuff that Agnes might have known, but Arblak couldn't have...I think. Was she planning to die?"
• tez thinks as hard as she can, ~AGNES? WHERE ARE YOU?~
• Kerem: "Doesn't goblin society have some kind of succession by assassination thing going on?"
• Egani: "There are various systems of succession for all positions of power. Sometimes it's obvious and sometimes there's a fight. Why?"
• Kerem: "And how do they feel about humans? Kind of good?"
• Egani: ~~I'm right here, silly. I never realized how much tighter the Murlogi mental network is. The connections between the individuals is much easier to traverse than in a human city. Fascinating stuff! Anyway, what's up?~~
• tez: ~~...nothing.~~
• Egani: "How does who feel about humans...and for what?"
• Kerem: "What if a human wanted to become the High Priest? Just to choose a totally random example."
• Egani: ~~Nothing?~~ Agnes attempts to tousel Tez' hair but isn't sure if it comes across. ~~Oh! You're here!~~
• Egani: "Um...that would never happen."
• Egani: "I mean the High King can do whatever he wants, but the Murlogi wouldn't stand for that."
• Chimrea: "Like raising someone from the dead never, or like my mother admitting she's wrong never?"
• Egani: "He'd do it if he decided there was something to gain more valuable than his association here, but I can't imagine what that would be."
• tez: She grins, ~~I was just... worried. You weren't there. It was weird.~~
• tez: ~~Are you going to go back in your body?~~
• Egani: "I'm afraid that I'm confused by your question, Daughter of Isadora." This last is said in the high-honorary of the Rhiani, largely to see if she reacts properly.
• Egani: ~~If it works out. I'm conferring with him now.~~
• Chimrea stiffens a bit. "I'm not calling you a liar, father of my friend," she says in the same mode. "But sometimes people say 'never' as a short way of saying 'very difficult'."
• Egani pulls a large tome out of an old wooden chest and sets it up to study some diagrams while continuing to talk.
• Egani: Stopping to bow slightly to Chimrea, Egani returns to casual speech. "Well, I'd say that never _always_ means very difficult, but usually -- this time included, it means very, very difficult."
• Kerem: "Oh. That reminds me of what I actually wanted to ask you about."
• Chimrea returns Egani's bow, very formally. She's still upset about what he said earlier.
• Egani begins inscribing some kind of text on Agnes' skin in a dark brown pigment of some kind.
• tez peers at Egani and his workings curiously, trying to figure out what he's doing and why
• Kerem: "See, uh, the High King seems to want to destroy Green Lake to get at the nodes underneath it, and we, well, we want him not to."
• Kerem: "So I was wondering, you know a lot about these nodes, right?"
• Egani: "Not as much as he does. And he probably, though I can't say for sure, doesn't want to destroy Green Lake. You should ask him."
• Chimrea: "Not that I'm accusing you of being easy to talk to, but I think we'd rather ask you first."
• Egani stops writing for a moment to look at Chimrea questioningly. "Have I offended you by not providing a better guest experience? I could summon servants and have baths drawn and meals prepared if you'd prefer." He goes back to copying the inscription from book to daughter.
• Kerem: "Actually, the traditionally polite thing to do when you have guests is to stop what you're doing. This kind of communicates a sense of importance, like you are very interested in them and are glad they stopped by."
• Chimrea: "You offended me a bit the way you talked about my father, but mostly I'm just trying to figure out what's going on here. This High King seems to want to take over my home, and that bothers me."
• tez: "You should let me take it over instead!"
• Egani pauses again to smile at both of them. "I can see both of your points." He glances at Tez after her strange comments and returns to his important work.
• Egani: "So, there are lines and points of concentrated essence deep within the earth. It should come as no surprise to know that there are some of these below Green Lake. The High King does, I'm sure, want them -- I believe he considers them a fundamental part of his being and covets all such nodes in the world."
• Chimrea looks askance at Tez, trying to tell if she's joking right now.
• tez is inscrutable!
• tez: "If they're a fundamental part of his being how come they're not already part of him?"
• Egani: In response to some unseen summons, three murlogi appear and, after taking breif orders from Egani begin preparing a great copper tub with hot water, salts and herbs.
• Egani: "They've been distributed. I'm not sure of the history, I get the idea that it happened before our race existed."
• Egani: "And maybe it's not a reasonable belief on his part in the way that we think of such things. However, he still acts as if that's what he believes, so we deal with the reality of it."
• Chimrea: "What does it mean for the people living in a place when he takes over? Would we all live like the goblins do here?"
• Egani: "Oh, by the way, I didn't understand what you were saying about Agnes being around when your first appeared, but she's been talking to me and I think we have a course of action. We do really owe you a debt of gratitude. What else do you want to know?"
• tez: "What happens if the High King dies?"
• Egani: "The Murlogi largely live as they did before the High King rallied them. The exact details of their religious life is different -- for most of them, but that's largely trivial. He adapted to them as much as they to him."
• Egani: "Dies? I'm not sure. I'm not even precisely sure what death means for a creature like him -- or what you might specifically mean."
• tez: "Things happen. It could happen."
• Egani: "There is certainly precedent for the nature of great entities to change dramatically."
• Kerem: "So...you're saying we'd probably be pretty much the same, under the High King. Except we'd have to worship him."
• Egani: "I really don't know. He'd have no qualms with putting you all to the sword if he believed it was in his best interest -- before or after making an agreement to spare you, he's entirely sociopathic. But he's also predictable. It might be that he doesn't care about Green Lake at all and if he could have what he wants beneath it -- if he believed that you wouldn't constitute a threat to his operations (which are cloaked in mystery)...
• Egani: "Much further down that road of inquiry and we get into total speculation."
• Egani lowers Agnes into the strange copper vessel, poking the front of her head under the water in a vaguely disturbing way.
• Kerem: "So this goes back to my first idea, then."
• tez hovers around protectively
• Kerem: "How could we destroy these nodes?'
• Egani: "I think it would be easier to move Green Lake."
• Kerem: "Well, you can tell us how to do that next."
• Egani: "The problem is that the nodes are normally replenished by lines of energy. IF they were just lumps, you could excise them and move them around or even use them up. But they're like charging spots. The location itself is significant somehow."
• tez: "Well we move the lines then."
• Chimrea looks at Kerem with fresh appreciation--she didn't think this was so important to him.
• Egani: "You could make redirect the energy flows beneath the earth far from Green Lake -- even a small redirection would cause the sweet spots (and you should know that I'm hypothesizing wildly here) to form elsewhere."
• Chimrea: Then she gets a look on her face like she's chewing on something really tough, and she can't decide whether it's a good idea to spit it out.
• Chimrea: "I know the land and the spirits are connected. If the spirits shifted, it would change the truth of the area. That might move the lines, right?"
• tez: "How do we move them?"
• Kerem: "How far elsewhere? Unpredictably elsewhere?"
• tez: "Who don't we like very much..." she mutters to herself
• Egani: "But here's the deal..." Egani's nodding at Chimrea. "Yeah, that's possible. Or more dangerously to my thinking, if the energy is shifted the spirits might not have the ability to stick around. How would you feel about the Two Trees withering? Or what about Scorpion and Badger who I know to be earth powers? What happens to Green Lake with the spirits gone?"
• Egani: "On the other hand, what happens to the spirits if the High King seizes the nodes..?"
• Kerem: "So...if we want to change the lines...we need to get rid of some spirits we don't like. Then the lines will move, AND we'll help the spirits we do like survive with the lessened energy."
• Egani: "Uh...maybe."
• tez: "Trees...who cares about trees?"
• Egani: "Without the Two Trees, the Rhiani have no stake in Green Lake. Does that matter these days?"
• tez: "What do trees have to do with Rhiani?"
• Egani: "Or maybe the spirits and energy have to move together or be destroyed. Which means nothing is really accomplished."
• Egani looks concerned at Tez. "The Two Trees Shrine is a fundamental stopping point on the trek through the plains. Without that, Green Lake would never have happened."

(Missing posts?)

• tez: "Sure but it did already happen."
• Egani: "That's why I asked if it mattered."
• Chimrea shakes her head. "Even if it works, wouldn't it just make our problem someone else's?"
• Egani: "Maybe. It does sound like either working to bargain with him or finding a way to defeat him is in order -- unless you think of something new."
• Kerem: "Most places that we shift the nodes to, it'll be safe."
• Kerem: "Hell, we might shift it into goblin territory."
• Egani: "It may well be that the High King would bring considerable resources to bear on helping you with that project. That would seem a funny turn of events from your perspective."
• Kerem: "But that isn't really what I was looking for."
• Kerem: "I was hoping for something we could threaten him with."
• Egani: "I'm afraid I can't think of anything you could threaten him with. I've found it quite pallatable to work with him rather than against, for the most part."
• Egani: "The Sorceror of the White Wood might have some ideas, but he's probably more dangerous and less predictible than the High King."
• Kerem looks at Chimrea for some idea of who this sorceror guy is.
• Egani: "Have you consulted with the great entities at Green Lake for ideas?"
• Chimrea: To Kerem's unspoken question, Chimrea answers, "He's a crazy evil old sorcerer-god who cursed the White Wood. Bad news." At Egani's question, she looks uncomfortable. "Not yet."
• Egani: "That might be a good starting place. There are a number of quite powerful spirits around."
• Egani: "If nothing else, negotiating from a position of strength makes sense..."
• Egani continues making arcane preparations.
• Chimrea: "Um, yeah, I'm still getting the hang of that." Chimrea looks pensive.
• Kerem: "It's cool, that's actually my job."
• Egani: "I do hope you folks will stick around to help with Agnes. And I can host you while you're in the city in comfort."
• Kerem: "Uh..."
• tez: "Of course I'll stay."
• Kerem shifts.
• tez glances over at Kerem, and stares at him with a look eerily similar to the one she gave him just before going off to the spirit realms with Agnes
• Kerem shifts his eyes to Chim.
• Chimrea: "I have to get back to Green Lake soon, but I want to see Agnes to her final destination. I can stay for a while." She doesn't dare look at Kerem; she wants him to stay more than anything, but can't ask.
• Kerem thins his lips. "Yeah, all right, we'll stay for a bit."