Scotty: Drim.
Grandaunt Ngeng will not wed!
Middle Month of Summer. Day 1, evening watch. HEX A.
Ilyra retires for the night and disappears into the city. The vizier introduces Drim, a young, squat, handsome wilderness explorer. The vizier dismisses the party and repeats that the skiff will be ready tomorrow. The party spends the rest of the evening at the markets.
Jubilo searches for an expert tracker and comes across Callan, an intense, wide-eyed man chewing on a metal toothpick. Jubilo and Callan form an unlikely, awkward bond and mentally (via imagination) sign documentation for the hiring of Callan. Drim buys some rope. Brook buys a fishing rod.
Day 2, morning watch...
The party meet at the palace bright and early. Callan is already there, eyes nearly bursting out of his head as he searches his surroundings. The vizier has prepared their skiff earlier than expected. Jubilo "Alaric the Thief" at the prow, Brook and Callan in the middle, and Drim rowing at the helm. Callan observes the clues outside the palace, tasting the cat hair, sniffing the wind. The party determines they shall head northwest. Dark clouds swoop in. Thunder cracks. Downpour. The party is soaked. Eventually crows fly overhead. Callan grabs one midair and licks a feather. He turns around: behind them, a war galley captained by Good Captain Fintan. He introduces himself: "I am your rival!" He knows all about their quest and aims to complete it before they can, rescuing the king and earning untold fame and riches. Jubilo ignores Good Captain Fintan's corrections and repeatedly calls the man just "Captain Fintan." Good Captain Fintan angrily speeds ahead. Jubilo asks for Drim's rope and throws a lasso at the racing war galley. It falls short. A soldier on the war galley aims a handshot gun at the party. Drim lassos the gun and Brook tugs it out of his hand, perfectly landing the handshot into their skiff. Jubilo tucks the gun away in a hidden part of his bag. Good Captain Fintan disappears into the rain and mist.
Day 2, evening watch...
The rains pours less heavily and cools. Fever weather, as the hot roots and river still bake the party. They are all Deprived with a shivering sickness. Brook starts resting, sleeping in the middle of the skiff so later he can keep watch at night. The trees overhead darken what little of the sun shines through the overcast clouds. Dark humidity. Eventually the party comes upon a muddy bank. Tracks of a war galley dragged by many men lead further northwest. Drim finds a different path pure north marked by a Witch Folk noose. Jubilo and Callan determine that if they cannot outpace Good Captain Fintan they should try their luck on another route. Callan, Drim, and Jubilo pull their skiff (within: Brook sleeping) through the muddy path and gain Fatigue. More nooses. Drim suspects Krun, a notorious Witch Folk serial killer. The path opens into a flooded clearing. A pack of eight Witch Folk tend to their wounds on an island of mangrove roots
(HEX B).
Jubilo, for the first time, introduces himself as Jubilo the master performer and puppeteer. He tries to be as humble and unassuming as possible. His whole demeanor shifts. Jubilo explains his group is searching the wood for fantastic stories and asks Nana ap Sark, the leader of the pack, for a tale. She tells of Granduncle See. He used to be the most compassionate ancestor, full of kindness and goodwill. His fruit would heal illness and prolong life. After his sister Grandaunt Soot was chopped down and killed; Granduncle See's core hardened, his branches bittered, and his fruit soured with poison. Jubilo, in return, performs a mesmerizing puppet reenactment of the tale of Grandaunt Leek. Foretelling her own felling in a dream, Grandaunt Leek uprooted herself. Branches turning into tentacles, she transformed into a squid and sunk into the sea. Nana almost smiles. She warns of night. "Who is on whose side in the darkness?" Callan, looking at Nana, sniffles. He glances at Jubilo. "Allergies," says Callan suspiciously.
The party continues on. Drim questions Jubilo's honesty. Jubilo tries to cover it up, but Callan takes Drim's side. Jubilo explains when he acted as Alaric the Thief he was overcome with the role. He loves Witch Folk, he says, but Alaric doesn't. "It's hard to tell where Jubilo begins and Alaric ends..." Jubilo makes Drim and Callan promise not to tell Brook when he awakens. Nana had mentioned she used the nooses as a warning to scare away Zum soldiers, hoping they would think it was Krun's doing. Drim recognized the name. Jubilo asks what he knows of Krun and Drim tells the story of how he had met the murderer when he was younger. Both teenagers.
The sun starts setting. A cluck in the distance. Another tongue cluck. Goodbye. Jubilo nervously plays his pan flute. A shadow ahead, blocking their path. A war galley marked with the emblems of Manishi Zaq. Jubilo: "Are there people on the ship?" Twenty one soldiers, strung like paper puppets, hand-in-hand, intestines wrapped around the arms to hold them in place like corpse rigging.
Day 2, end of evening watch.
HEX B.
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