You pat Assante on the shoulder as you get up - no worries, and no need to bother the Queen about anything. You'll have your man on the job, someone whose capabilities you happen to have a great deal of faith in. You'll have these Utterdark Caves surveyed in no time at all, you say and give the raven a very pointed look. It nods and flies away thoughtfully, evidently having got the message.
You don't really get word about Jules leaving town, but then you also didn't hear about him arriving. He'll either get this sorted or get lost, you suppose, so it ought to work out either way.
258 S.I., Summer's End
The due date draws closer, you feel, and you have trouble walking now that your gait is destabilized and a large part of your bodily functions appear to have been suborned by the gestating horror in your abdomen. You've had to make some rather elaborate excuses to not visit the Queen as of late, but fortunately she appears to understand and you've instead taken to exchanging letters filled with pleasantries and innocuous gossip. She seems to have taken to spending more time with Princess Annika despite advice from her courtiers to be careful about courting Vesperlund intelligence, and they've apparently been getting on even better than usual.
You do somewhat miss being able to show yourself in public, but what are you gonna do when demons get involved?
3
Later that day a squirrel sits on your windowsill and looks at you quizzically for a moment. Did you know, it says, that the rumors about the Utterdark Caves are actually entirely accurate?
You're rather more interested in the ore down there, you have to be honest.
Couldn't really vouch for the ore's quality, the squirrel says, but he couldn't help but observe certain faults in its demeanor. Primarily the bits where it wants to eat you.
The
ore wants to eat him, you say, and the squirrel only nods. He didn't have the opportunity to investigate more before his agents were, well, disappeared into the depths. It quite hurts, being eaten by sentient rocks. Very stressful.
Is that all, you say a bit skeptically.
Yes, he responds, pretty much. He's not a mineralogist, you know, or a geologist. The hell do you expect him to know about prospecting?
He's got a bloody demon of wisdom in him, you retort, you'd expect at least something!
Well, he says, that's about all he managed to divine from the caves. There's rocks there and they seem to really like the taste of various kinds of flesh. Nothing else lives there. Locals are deathly afraid of the place, won't go near - they do apparently bring sacrifices though. No trace of the previous team that got sent in there. Other than that, can't say the trip was very informative.
A) Gonna need to do better than that, Jules. Go back and try again!
B) Tell Assante what you've managed to discover and leave him to it.
C) Send a letter to the Queen inquiring about a renewed, well-armed expedition in light of these meager discoveries.
D) Organize a better-funded expedition to see if there's not some way to placate these murderous rocks.
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Topic: SPAMMASTER: Spymistress Kalja the Bewitched (Read 36855 times)