We arrived in a desert with no clue where we were. Awkward. As we were getting our bearings, a sleipnir and mounted rider rode past! Ceres used Thaumaturgy to call out to them, but they just kept going. Shortly after, we saw a very nice cart being pulled by six slaves, driven by an earth genasi (ostensibly) who told us we could call him the Driver.
He's transporting the body of somebody home to her family, and he wanted our help getting past a checkpoint of some druids up ahead. He seems like he's probably a terrible person but he did have an extremely comfortable carriage. We're going along with him for now. Ceres thinks she can probably persuade the druids to come to a diplomatic solution.
It turns out we're in Arnast. Oh boy. Out of the icebox and into the fire, huh? Get it? I don't really feel temperature any more, but it sucks for, well, everybody else.
There's so much to unpack here. Asteria doesn't want us causing problems or staging some sort of slave uprising. I hate the idea of just leaving these people here, criminals or not, but I can tell that Atar is more worried about the Sliver.
I think he feels guilty about taking it from them, even after we saw what it was doing to them. But it's not like we can just give it back, right? They were going to weaponize it.
Geez, this recap is all over the place, huh? What else happened today? A three-person guard patrol came for us and the Driver asked us to step inside the cart for a bit. He killed all three guards and said he solved the problem with "diplomacy". We took their horses and Asteria reupholstered their saddles.
Oh! Atar says he contacted his old friend to come pick them up, and that help will be arriving in - it was a day and two hours from when he called. He contacted the Administrator to say thank you and he contacted one of Sylas's people to pass on the message that we have the Coldlight Sliver.
The Administrator sounded really creepy and weird when it replied to Atar, like twenty-five different people! It said...
"This entity has found its darkness and will take its time to become content. It owes you a debt now. Call on us when needed."
Look, just between you and me, that's kind of creepy, isn't it? I mean, Atar isn't creeped out by that kind of stuff, but you gotta admit that's creepy, right? It's not just me, right?
Six hours into our second day of travel, we came to a bridge annnnd I think we've found the druids! What happens next? FIND OUT NEXT TIME!
