All the normal folk show up: Chris (Pawnbroker), Nick (Mungo) and Tim (Laerynthe). April is unable to attend.
Most of the forces the characters led against Lecutor Chen's troops have dispersed by the day after the battle. The adapoi under Warleader Eloshan disperse into the forest to hunt survivors from Lecutor Chen's force. Taotach Cassand and his partisans gather up all the equipment they can carry and head back to their camp.
The characters detail Fesh to take most of the Living Weapons back to the abandoned deyrey hive. They take twenty Living Weapons to escort Lecutor Chen and their other five prisoners (four priests and one beast-master) to a nearby abandoned Dillir Family plantation so they can interrogate them.
The characters take up temporary residence in the main house of the abandoned plantation. The house is a standard youda design with an internal atrium surrounded by a variety of rooms. The roof is tiled, and slopes inward to gutters that feed the central pool in the atrium, which does double duty as a cistern. The characters place the four priests in separate rooms, guarded by three Living Weapons, after they are thoroughly searched by Laerynthe.
The characters treat Lecutor Chen with an element of greater dignity. Where they simply tied the priests hand and foot, they merely deprive the Lecutor of his weapons and place him under watch. They reason that he gave his word to cooperate, and probably feels some responsibility to his men.
Once the characters have settled with the priests, they have a fairly long conversation with the Lecutor. He tells the characters that the Maelstrom Walker Massat the Scimitar is in Prince Tonnalk's camp, as the direct representative of Mardaka. Basically, Massat the Scimitar is calling the shots. In particular, in order for Prince Tonnalk's army to be brought back to Mardaka an envoy must return there and tell Mardaka's Angels to go to the Edge of Abbatine. Massat is that envoy. Though Lecutor Chen has never actually seen Massat the Scimitar, he believes that the Maelstrom Walker holds to a fairly puritan interpretation of Mardaka's command to eliminate the Spyral contamination in Abbatine.
While the characters are speaking to the Lecutor a Living Weapon enters the room and tells them that the Tale-teller Liggin has been captured walking up to the building. The characters allow him to be brought into the room without dismissing Lecutor Chen. When Liggin appears, he looks slightly the worse for the wear, testament to the enthusiasm displayed by some of the Living Weapons in apprehending him.
Liggin tells the characters that he brings an offer from someone they may be acquainted with named Juboss. Juboss (whom is quite an impressive individual according to Liggin) was with the Abanga's Plaza refugees when they were slaughtered, and wants to leave Abbatine. He wants the characters to provide him the location of a Bridge to another world. In exchange, he will tell the characters when and where Yaggo the Boatman will next dock on Abbatine.
The characters take Liggin aside and have some Living Weapons watch him in a different room while they continue interrogating Lecutor Chen. They determine that among their twenty Living Weapons, three know the Truthsayer spell (two at skill-12 and one at skill-15). Under Mungo's leadership, these three Living Weapons spend a total of six hours monitoring Lecutor Chen's statements.
The characters start by asking Lecutor Chen's opinions on Lecutor Suek, with whom the characters have previously dealt. Chen tells the characters that Lecutor Suek is definitely a "liberal", with some sympathies for the people in Abbatine and a willingness to let the non-Spyral Holy City Folk live. Chen also tells the characters that Lecutor Suek's opinions are definitely not in the majority among the officers in Prince Tonnalk's army.
Mungo then turns to questions on Prince Tonnalk's troop strength. By the time he finishes his session, he has determined (and used the Living Weapons' Truthsayer spells to verify):
Pawnbroker locates a quantity of paper, then talks to Liggin. He says that he still needs to think about Juboss' offer. He also says that the others are not convinced that knowing where Yaggo the Boatman will dock is worth anything (Liggin protests, "but everyone knows about the Boatman!"). Anything else Juboss can add in to sweeten the deal would be welcome. Pawnbroker also gives Liggin the paper and asks that Juboss write down anything he safely can about the Spyral. He promises to meet again with Liggin in a week, at the site of Lecutor Chen's massacre of the Abanga's Plaza Folk.
The characters send Lecutor Chen back to Prince Tonnalk's camp with instructions to arrange a parlay between the characters and Prince Tonnalk. He is to have a bat-folk meet the characters at their current hideout in the next two days. Mungo and Laerynthe take four Living Weapons (including one who knows Night Vision) to escort him as far as the camp. Mungo, unafraid of night-time travel, elects to depart that night, though he does make preparations to defend the group against bat-folk attacks. He also takes Lecutor Chen's standard along with him to dissuade bat-folk.
While Laerynthe and Mungo travel back towards Prince Tonnalk's camp along an old plantation road, they are accosted by a rather ragged group of bandits. The characters' first indication of trouble is a flight of torches that arch from the darkness to land at their feet, illuminating them beautifully. The bandit leader demands that the characters put down their weapons. Mungo impulsively leaps to the attack, triggering a volley of crossbow bolts that rip through Lecutor Chen and two Living Weapons, leaving Mungo essentially unhurt. A brief conflict ensues, during which Mungo effortlessly strikes down the bandit leader, who is armed with a hastily-made crossbow of Paiden manufacture and a cheap sword. Subsequent investigation by Mungo uncovers two of the blinds from which the crossbowmen fired, and one crossbow abandoned by a fleeing bandit.
Looking at the threadbare clothing and worn shoes of the bandit leader, Mungo and Laerynthe conclude that these guys were independent. Unable to provide good medical care for the critically-injured bandit leader, Laerynthe simply slits his throat before the group moves on.
The remainder of the trip to Prince Tonnalk's camp is quite uneventful in comparison. Mungo and Laerynthe release Lecutor Chen in sight of the camp, then retreat into the forest to watch.
The characters camp near the abandoned Dillir Family plantation after they return Lecutor Chen to Prince Tonnalk's camp. Several days pass with no sign that Prince Tonnalk intends to respond to the characters' request. Laerynthe spends the time tormenting priests for no good reason. Meanwhile, Mungo camouflages a blind for two Living Weapon sentries to watch the plantation building. Four days after the watch starts, a Living Weapon comes back to the characters' bivouac to report that a single bat-folk had spiraled down into the building atrium.
Laerynthe and Pawnbroker head over to investigate. The other Living Weapon reports that the one bat-folk is still in the building, and another one is circling overhead. Pawnbroker walks up to the building and asks the bat-folk, "What answer do you bring, so I can take it to Pawnbroker." The bat-folk says that there will be a parley in three days, in the no-man's land behind Prince Tonnalk's camp.
Before the characters leave to parley with Prince Tonnalk, they meet once again with Liggin. He brings a better offer from Juboss: not only will Juboss provide the details of Yaggo the Boatman's next stop, he will also give the characters a "gold mask of surpassing ugliness" that sounds very much like the Mask of Pwir. The characters discuss this deal extensively in Askalach, then have Laerynthe tell Liggin that they must talk to their wise men, and will return in a week. They promise him a definitive answer in a week. Liggin notes that Juboss is becoming impatient.
Pawnbroker and Fesh's lieutenant Ago (armed with one of the knockoff crossbows) go to meet with Prince Tonnalk in a small pavilion out of bowshot range of both the forest and Prince Tonnalk's camp.
Unfortunately, the meeting goes very badly. Tonnalk is dressed in sumptuously decadent style, though it is still evident that he is wrapped tightly in blankets. The only other occupant of the pavilion appears to be a bald serving-girl. Both of them behave in a very strict, ritualistic manner towards Pawnbroker and Ago. While Prince Tonnalk speaks, Pawnbroker gets several strange chills, and sees a vaporous, ram-headed shape drift through the lamp-smoke around the sides of the pavilion. Prince Tonnalk essentially speaks the party line, that there is no real negotiation possible upon the issue of purifying Abbatine of Spyral contamination, offering up only the bland assurance that he is quite glad that Pawnbroker was willing to come and listen to him. By the end of the meeting, Pawnbroker is completely convinced that he is dealing with a fanatic so arrogant in his power that he is willing to call a meeting simply to insult his enemies. Through the entire meeting, the bald serving-girl speaks not at all.
When the meeting concludes, Prince Tonnalk offers Pawnbroker a gift: an incense-jar made of a black lacquered substance inlaid in gold with typically baroque Mountainshadow style. Pawnbroker, convinced by Prince Tonnalk's assertion that he should not open the jar in the pavilion that there must be something toxic inside, arranges to "accidentally" tip it over. It spills out a pile of moist black powder and a small piece of folded paper. The serving-girl leaps for the paper, and is instantly struck dead by a phantom with the head of a ram. Her mummified corpse collapses across the incense-jar. While Pawnbroker and Ago flee the pavilion, pausing only to snatch up the note, the ram-headed spirit turns upon Prince Tonnalk. His horrible screams are audible even to the rest of the characters hiding in the forest.
Caught up in the excitement, Mungo and Laerynthe open fire with crossbows upon Prince Tonnalk's luckless guards, killing one of them before they realize that Pawnbroker is (apparently) safe and running towards them as fast as his feet can carry him.
Laerynthe and Mungo watch as a detachment from the camp carefully surrounds Prince Tonnalk's pavilion to allow an (apparently) senior priest to examine the inside. After the priest sees the devastation, he uses magic to burn the structure to ash. The soldiers then return into the main camp.
Having accidentally managed to get Prince Tonnalk killed, Pawnbroker uses his magic suit to walk into Lecutor Suek's camp disguised as one of Lecutor Amon's lieutenants. He is easily able to talk his way into the Lecutor's pavilion, where he has a brief conversation with the man. They arrange to have the Lecutor lead a patrol three days hence so they can talk more freely. Lecutor Suek's comments on the state of Prince Tonnalk's army and the relative futility of their mission in Abbatine confirm to Pawnbroker that the Lecutor really is a "liberal" among Prince Tonnalk's forces. Lecutor Suek cautions Pawnbroker that his opinions are unpopular, and that many other Lecutors (Lecutor Amon among them) hold a much stricter view.
During the conversation, a messenger comes bearing a summons to a meeting of all Lecutors. The messenger claims that Prince Tonnalk had just been slain by the savages under a flag of truce. After the messenger departs, Lecutor Suek admits to Pawnbroker that he didn't know that Prince Tonnalk was trying to parley. Pawnbroker leaves Prince Tonnalk's message with Lecutor Suek so he can use it to convince others.
Pawnbroker arranges for Nop, a couple of Living Weapons, and some of the Folk who served as stretcher-bearers to occupy a plantation near Lecutor Suek's encampment so they will be seen by the bat-folk scouts. This provides Lecutor Suek with an excuse to lead troops out of his compound to "attack the Spyral camp." Once there, he slips away from his troops and talks with the characters. He tells the characters that he trusts one of his Bashars, and will send the man out on a perimeter patrol with a few troops every two weeks. They will be able to exchange messages through him.
Before he departs, Lecutor Suek gives Laerynthe an amulet of silver and jade given him by Prince Tonnalk (index #66). In return, Pawnbroker gives him Item #34, the intelligent creature detector and Laerynthe gives him a dagger made in Sa Opedi that he claims has saved his life.
Each character gains four experience points. Mungo examines Lecutor Chen's gear, and finds: