<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/pE5cuaH.png)</div>Slugwort's roars of pain, echoing in the confined space of the dungeon, temporarily deafened Yazhu. So she didn't hear the satisfying thud as the ogre hit the floor, defeated! But the entire castle probably heard that, and it was way too loud to be explained away by mere copulation so someone was sure to come investigate soon... fortunately she had a secret exit to disappear without a trace.<br/><br/><strong>V10 Grotto:</strong>The floor of this vast cavern descended in two twenty-foot drops into a large, eerie grotto. The walls dripped with moisture and bore strange and disturbing cave paintings of towering four-winged humanoid shapes. Tiny motes of glowing light drifted and bobbed in the air, giving the place an almost nauseating feeling, as if the cavern was viewed through a dreamlike haze.<br/><br/>A bit further down the secret passage, Ameiko was helping the Ulfen woman don her armor - in scantiness of coverage it offered Yazhu's chainmail bikini some serious competition! "Thank Desna you're safe! I was about to go back and get you. From the sound of it, I don't think heading back is an option. But at least you gave him better than you got, right?" She said with some sympathy. "Yazhu, this is Kelda, a shieldmaiden from Kalsgard. Kelda, Yazhu."<br/><br/>"Greetings," Kelda grunted, sounding a bit surly at having to be rescued but also grateful for it.<br/><br/>"We can catch up after we get out of here, this place gives me the creeps," Ameiko said.<br/><br/>In the centre of the grotto was an eldritch-looking egg sac as tall as Yazhu's waist, its transparent leathery shell moist and pulsing. Within was a slimy mollusk-like embryo complete with too many tentacles. But of more interest was a disk just like the sun disk that Kikonu possessed, that was somehow<em>inside</em>the egg sandwiched between the shell and the unhatched monster. The transparent shell distorted the image on its surface, but it resembled a moon. Around the egg, the motes of glowing light hovered in mid-air suspended in place, as though frozen in time.<br/><br/>If Yazhu tried to approach the egg, she would find herself slowing down too more and more so the closer she got to it... before she could get too close, Kelda would pull her back. "Bad idea," she shook her head. Ameiko added, "It's like time slows down the closer you get to the egg... speaking of time, we need to keep moving now. We'll have to figure out how to get the disk out later."<br/><br/><strong>V10a Old Caverns:</strong>The tunnels to the north wound through a number of old caverns and chambers that once served as the main nest for the dire corbies, long abandoned now that they had moved into the castle proper. Some tunnels once led deeper, but they had long since collapsed, and the only way out of this network now led to a secret exit to the east of Brinewall Castle!<br/><br/><hr/><br/>Moving away from Brinewall Castle, Yazhu and company found themselves back in the present day, the castle looking like ruins from a distance once more. The Jade Whores regrouped at their wagon, where Shalelu reappeared as well - it seemed that she had also been shifted in time, but to the future instead where - or when - only the foundation stones remained. When she had walked away from the castle, she found herself back too. It seemed that whatever time-traveling mysteries were localized to Brinewall Castle itself...<br/><br/>Comparing accounts of what happened to them, they consolidated the timeline about Brinewall castle:<br/><br/>-From Rokuro Kaijitsu's letter, the family's greatest treasure was hidden in the secret third vault under Brinewall Castle. Presumably the two disks - the sun disk in Kikonu's possession and the moon disk in the egg - were keys to its secret.<br/>-Brinewall, town and castle, was attacked by mysterious forces on the first day of Sarenith in 4687 and practically all its inhabitants killed. This was general, if slightly obscure, knowledge.<br/>-Kikonu and the dire corbies must have moved in afterwards, after Brinewall was abandoned but before the castle fell apart entirely. This was where Kelda had ended up and been captured when she tried to explore the castle, and Yazhu and Ameiko had arrived in this time as well. Spivey must have arrived at this time too to encounter the birdmen whenever she tried to approach Brinewall Castle.<br/>-By some time not too long ago, Kikonu and the dire corbies were dead or gone, and the castle fell into complete ruin.<br/>-A few months before, Spivey had arrived in Brinewall to retrieve the phylactery of Desna. She was unsuccessful but followed the goddess's will to wait for the Jade Whores' arrival.<br/>-A few days before, Ulfen raiders had arrived in Brinewall via longboat to explore the castle. They were attacked by the sea drake in the lagoon and in the ensuing fight Kelda was the only survivor. Unwilling to retreat empty-handed after such heavy losses she had entered the castle.<br/>-Today, the Jade Whores had arrived in Brinewall. Baihu and Sandra had remained in this time all along, through whether that was fortunate or not was another question.