The Black Claw mercenary captain said: "I am of the Black Claw circle, and so what the Red Claw or the Green Claw do in their circles is really none of my affair. Still, I am curious; why were you spun out of your circle? Who did you offend?"

To be honest, sir, I was a thief. Growing up I was always bigger and stronger than my fellow Lizzard children, so I took advantage of that and stole.

Marcus sighed. Sir, do you ever come in contact with the Green Claw at all? I don't know what my fate is.

Thank you, sir! Marcus smiled, bowed, and left. He found Maxwell with the others.

"May I have a word with you, sir? The Black Claw chief is gonna help me get spun back into my Circle. He wants you and the Mayor to write a letter about my good character."

"Aye, I think there is some stew in the middle of the camp, the lizzardman ate out of the pot I think, there should be some salted pork, possibly some eggs, don't know if the lizzardman ate those too, follow me" With that he walked toward the center of the camp, looking for the chest with his own personal food and utensils.

"Green Claw High Council, Sir. I can translate it and give the letter to the Black Claw chief."

"Oh, good!" Acedia smiled and followed Horin, content.

"Pork is made from my homeland"

<GM's satirical note: Yes, every year Dwarvenkind cut a chunk of sod from their homeland and salt it until it magicly transforms into salted pork. If you can get past the gravel and sand, it's quite digestible. Or NOT!>

{ If this version of Sleigh Ride is anyone other than Julie Andrews I'll be surprised. o-o [/random comments] }

<Buh?>

"Call me Marcus, Mister Gnome."

Acedia considered for a moment. "Ale would make for a nice change of pace. Sure." She took the bowl and spoon and meat unquestioningly. "Just one or two eggs, please," she said humbly.

"Fourteen and a half, Horin. I'm from the Green Claw Circle of the Lizzardman tribes. There's 4 main Circles: Black Claw, Red Claw, Green Claw, and Blue Claw. Now that's in order of how well their armies are; the Black Claw are the best. I'm a Green Claw, but I'm real big and strong for my age." Marcus proudly flexed his arms. "So can I have some of that ale?"

Marcus snagged a mug from the ice-tent, came back, and sat down next to the dwarf. "I don't need weapons. Got my claws." The Lizzardboy turned to Acedia.

"So is that boy going to be OK? What about the elf with the cold fire?"

<I'm also not available every other weekend(the weekend I'm in now is the other)>"Okay, I'm going in." said Tem. He put on his pilot scarf and giant goggles, and pulled a small door out of his belt. "If I'm not back in an hour, bash me good with this." He handed Maxwell a hammer labeled, 'GOOD BASHER' on the head. He threw the door at Eruntian's head<cue psychonauts music> and sat crosslegged, allowing a white, see-through version of him to come out the top of his head.<If anyone's played psychonauts, that's how psychonautery works. Mind-reading is simply hearing. To bring Eruntian out of his trance, though, he needs to enter his mind. In someone's mind, you always meet them.>

"As far as I know they're both still alive," Acedia said, after Horin had gone. She blinked. "The elf is in some kind of trance, though, I think. You did hear that awful scream earlier, did you not?"

Before Acedia answered, Horin mumbled something, finished his food, and said "You reminded me, I should check up on Prosper, excuse me." He didn't actually need to check Prosper, but he didn't want to sit next to the lizzardman. As he neared the tent, he saw Maxwell, and another "Oh no, it's a flayer. I hope he's friendly." He thought to himself, he had never seen a flayer before, but had seen paintings of them, and heard bad stories about them. "What's going on?" He asked Maxwell "What is that doing?"

Maxwell motioned calmly to Horin: "It's OK, Horin. Tem here is a friend of ours. He's part of our paty. He's a High Flayer, and he's agreed to try and make telepathic contact with Eruntian and see if he can find out what's going on in his mind. Perhaps he can even wake him."

As Tem looked into Eruntian's mind, he saw fleeting immages of Tem's memories rushing by as he passes Eruntian's surface thoughts. So confused, so chaotic. Then, as he reached deeper to Eruntian's unconscious mind, he found Eruntian in a dream scape resembling Eruntian's old house, the one that burned down a few days ago. Eruntian Seemed to be ill, as he was lying on the floor of his house sweating a cold sweat and clasping his right hand in apparent pain. His ring was nowhere to be seen, though.

<GM's Notes: None of the dreamscape in Eruntian's mind is real and it can't actually hurt either particpants (well, not physically anyways). It could have a adverse emotional or pshycological effect on someone who wasn't (a) already in a dream-like state or (b) hostile towards the telepath, but that's not the case here. I'll treat this as a player to player exchange, with both Eruntian and Tem encountering each other's minds in a Dreamscape that Eruntian subconsciously controls.>

<OOC>So Tem(in my mind) isn't currently on a mountain?</OOC>

"No, I was bringing Prosper back here. What happen?"

Tem walked up. He noticed that the voices were getting louder. He heard a rustle. "Who's there?!" he yelled, accidentally pyrokinesis-ing a bush.<Tem's powers are heightened in minds>