<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>Rosa listened solemnly to Haysel as they prepared the bodies for the pyre. "I have heard of such wonders from your people - mostly tales of mighty war machines when they have gone to war against invading orcs. But is it possible that dwarves are behind this attack?" She looked out across the horizon, all around the plateau. "Relations between Cordovia and the dwarven holds are good, as far as I know. Is it possible that machines of such power could be owned and used by a rogue band of dwarves that doesn't owe fealty to any hold? And then where would they sell their captives? It seems almost impossible that this could be going on under the noses of both Cordovia and the dwarves."<br/><br/>She looked out into the valley, then down at the ground. "Unless... they come not from beyond these lands, but beneath them. Curra?" she called to the drow warrior. "Do you know anything about duergar nearby? Is it possible that they could have the sort of machines Haysel describes, and be using them to steal surfacers away into their underground realm?"<br/><br/>Rosa shook her head and placed the last of the bodies on the pyre. "Speculation will only get us so far, anyway. We have to set off after them, whoever they might be." Holding her Sarenite holy symbol in one hand and a burning brand in the other, she set the pyre ablaze, chanting a prayer to Sarenrae to commend the spirits of the slain to the heavens.<br/><br/>Miriam stood at the edge of the plateau, looking down at the depression in the scree slope. "Honestly, Haysel, that kind of sounds like what this is," she reasoned out, kneeling down to feel the rocks. "These tracks look like a wagon. I don't know what kind of wagon or what kind of draft animal could climb this slope, and I didn't see any recent animal tracks around the monastery, but something went up or down this slope. Some kind of giant machine? Maybe. Whose, though? Last time I came down here, there were goblins living in this valley. Goblins are great at setting snares and making little mechanical traps, but a great big war wagon? I can't see them working together long enough to build something like that." She nodded slowly at Thea's suggestion. "It all feels reckless to me. Somebody got hold of this magic or technology, and they're using it to grab as much power as they can as quickly as they can. I made that mistake, and it didn't work out, but if they've got more... but then why not take all the gold?"<br/><br/>While the pyre burned behind her, Miriam picked up a long stick and began to make her way down the slope, following the depression in the rocks. "Keep an eye out," she advised her new mistresses. "Goblins are cowards, but they'll take any advantage they can get, and they love to waylay travelers when they've got opportunity. Face them head on and they'll run or surrender."