"...<span style="font-style: italic">"Better off"?</span>" echoes Yuki flatly, as if Geno had just told an unfunny joke.<br/>"Greedy or not, their property laws are the only thing holding this 'town' together. Without them, it'd be anarchy; the merchants would pack up and flee."<br/><br/>"Yeah... " says Soma, turning to her friend, "...they keep the peace. But I wouldn't exactly call 'em great leaders or anything. They don't give half a damn about the rest of us, 'less it benefits them..." A far-off look of remembrance crosses her face.<br/>"And the way they throw out death sentence for the smallest things...it's kinda scary. Like maybe they've got too much power, you know?"<br/><br/>"Psh." says Yuki. "So what? What're you going to do, go over there and tell them that?" She chuckles darkly. "You'll be a steaming pile before you finish explaining."<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>When the worgs first lunged at the party, Nocke had shrieked in terror and fled upwards. Throughout the battle the green-winged bird had stayed out of sight, though he could be heard twittering unseen in the haze above. After the combat, he gave lion Chrrou a very wide berth out of instinctual fear. Finally, only after the druid shifts back to normal, does he return to being a peeping shoulder-ornament.<br/><br/><br/><br/>"Over there." says Soma, pointing west for Sashi. "There's a path leading up through the boulders; the Inn is by the rock wall."<br/><br/><br/><br/>Takal soon sees this for himself. Heading west past the Heodo camp, he finds a narrow, foot-worn path heading uphill through the dust. The path weaves between several large boulders.<br/>Ahead of him in the haze, he can just make out the silhouette of a two-story masonry structure. The sounds of music, talking, and general revelry fill the air.<br/>[Takal: make a spot and listen check]<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>Chrrou's aura vision detects a colored glow around the following objects:<br/><span style="color: orange"><br/>    Quarterstaff (skull end is +1 <a class="postlink" href="http://www.d20srd.org/srd/magicItems/magicWeapons.htm#spellStoring">spell-storing</a>, wooden end is masterwork)<br/>    +2 chain shirt barding<br/>    Boots of Goblinkind (+5 move silently)<br/>    5 +2 keen arrows<br/>    5 +1 silver arrows<br/>    felt drawstring bag containing unidentified sapphire (face value ~1,000 gp) [faint illusion]<br/>    unidentified vial of sour-smelling clear liquid [faint divination]<br/>    unidentified vial of dry dust [faint transmutation]<br/>    unidentified amber earring (face value ~500 gp) [faint abjuration]<br/></span><br/><br/>["unidentified" means that unlike the staff, arrows and boots, the item has no obvious clue as to its function]