<div class="floatleft">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/7/7b/BanditLeader.JPG)</div><div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/03/RosaCandlemass.jpg)</div>Miriam swallowed hard when Senna made her that. "After seeing your drow friend carve through my men, I know when I'm beaten," she said reluctantly. "Whatever I have to do to get out of this alive, I'll do it." She looked Curra up and down. "You're a long way from home, aren't you?" she asked the drow woman. "Never met a drow before, but I hear all sorts of stories... If I'm to serve you when we make camp, it'll be an experience to remember, I have no doubt."<br/><br/>At the monastery, Miriam walked around the plateau with the others, casting her investigative eye over the perimeter. "Dragons? I mean, maybe? But I've never heard of dragons in this area, and I don't see any tracks of their talons on the ground out here." She pointed to the scree slope on the northeastern edge. "Anyone with good boots could climb up and down that slope... but climbing down with a dozen prisoners? I don't see how humans or humanoids could do that. Giants, maybe, but we'd see the signs if this was giants."<br/><br/>She nodded to Thea. "This armour isn't like anything I've seen. It's obviously magical, but at the same time, it's just so... drab. I've seen people in magic armour, and it's always rune-carved plate mail or leather armour sewn using sinew from magical beasts, that sort of thing. This is just... uninspired, like the sort of clothes you'd buy from a workshop full of slaves. I think you're right - they're making it in bulk. Who has that sort of magic?"<br/><br/>Rosa took Kye's hand and pressed it between her palms. "Then pursue this with us, pet. Find the monsters responsible for this atrocity and bring them to justice, and bring my sisters home if they still live. Knowing that your keen mind and sharp blade are on the mission will put my heart at ease."<br/><br/>She then turned to Haysel. "Thank you. If you are willing to come with us to pursue the perpetrators, I would appreciate your company and your insight. This is as bewildering as it is horrific, and having another eye to look over the evidence will be most welcome."<br/><br/>While the others investigated the plateau, Rosa worked with Haysel to drag the bodies of the fallen warriors onto a pyre that stood off to the side of one of the buildings, which seemed to have been used for that purpose many times in the past.<br/><br/>A closer inspection of the scree slope showed two shallow depressions, where rocks had been pushed aside, perhaps by the passage of foot traffic. Each was about a foot wide, and they were five feet apart, continuing down the slope towards the valley Miriam had suggested.