Illaria

The return trip from Ac-Aziza was much livelier than the trip to the empire's largest port. The entirety of the Black Powder Clan, as well as Illaria's family, traveled with them now. Thankfully, the group didn't endeavor to be stealthy, for the Black Powder Clan made it impossible with near-constant celebrations of their freedom.

"Bait, do your kin always be this loud?" Illaria asked as the pair sat on the lead wagon. They were now a small caravan moving in the direction of Sha-Laial. The Blue Banner had been kind enough to outfit those of the Black Powder Clan, who were trained hunters with muskets and pistols. A fact that Illaria was beginning to resent with every errant gunshot.

"Dis normal." Bait replied as the carts continued down the roads. Mavec popped his head out of the wagon.

"So what is our plan when we reach the Tsuhomma downs? Are we just going to split off, or have the clan and your parents wait for us in the town?" He asked.

"That be a good question. I think it be best if we send them ahead. I don't be seeing any bandits dumb enough to attack what looks like a goblin raiding party." Illaria replied. "We shouldn't be but a few days behind them anyway."

"I'll send word ahead of us to Sorali; she'll be working overtime till we can get back home," Mavec said. "Guess taking care of a clan of goblins will make up for the days she hardly had to do a thing."

"You know, you might not even need the miss to meet them at the gates. My father be an excellent negotiator." Illaria said, glancing back towards one of the other wagons.

"Fair, just seemed polite, is all," Mavec said.

"Bait, take the wheel," Illaria said as she passed the reins off to him and hopped down from the wagon. With expert timing, she waited for the last one in line and hopped onto it, joining her father at the front of their wagon.

"Ah, Illaria, I wasn't expecting to see you so soon. Our plan was to meet up at the campfire tonight. What will be bringing you by?" Her father asked. It had only been a matter of days, but the dark circles under his eyes seemed to be receding, and his face looked a bit fuller than when she had rescued him from the brig. It warmed her heart to see him recovering so quickly. The sword at his side also brought a smile to her face. The Blue Banner had made sure to outfit him with his pick. They'd spent the better part of a morning testing the weights and styles of blades that the Blue Banner could offer, sparring lightly with him had brought back so many memories.

"Aye, that was the plan, but I've been reminded that we be needing to make a detour before returning to Sha-Laial. Mavec, one of our wizards, has business in the Tsuhomma Downs. Could be very important, so we'll be stopping there. Can I trust you to keep an eye on the Goblins and get them safely to Sha-Laial pa?" She asked.

"Of course, you can," he said, nodding along. "Guess that means our reunion will be coming to an end, your mother will be sad."

"Aye, but it's for the best. I can't share the details yet, but the information we're seeking could help prevent a disaster." She said.

"Aye, then it can't be helped."

"I knew you'd understand, Pa."

"How much longer do we have?" He asked.

"We'll be in the Tsuhomma downs by tomorrow. We'll take our leave then." Illaria confirmed.

"So we've got one last night together as a family," he said as a wistful smile crossed his face. "Just be promising me you'll be as safe as you can be." He said.

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"I be promising." She said.

"Good, let's share a bottle of wine by the fire tonight, you, me, and your mother," He said.

"Aye, sounds great," Illaria said.

Mavec

The following day, the wagon split off from the others and returned to the hill where Mavec had left the two constructs. While searching around, Mavec noted that the other constructs' remains were, in fact, gone. Eventually, Naya found where she had camouflaged the poppets. Mavec picked one of them up.

"Alright, which way did they go?" He asked. The machine slowly raised a hand and pointed towards the tree line. They followed the guidance of the construct down to a pair of shallow graves at the tree line. "Alright, that's strange. You think someone buried them?" Mavec asked the group.

"I mean, I guess that's a possibility," Alvec said as he looked around. There weren't any other signs of a grave here, so it very well might have been made specifically for the constructs.

"Hey, what are you guys doing over there?" The voice of the Lochmaster came as he approached them.

"We're investigating," Alvec said as he waved hello.

"What exactly would you be investigating over here?" The man asked.

"We're looking for those spinnymen," Mavec said. "My poppets told us they were over this way, and here we find two shallow graves. I suspect they are buried here, though, if I'm wrong... well, I don't want to be wrong."

"These are just graves for unknown travelers. Who would even bother burying spinnymen?" The Lochmaster asked. Mavec's puppet raised its hand to his question, pointing directly at the man. Mavec looked at his creation, then back to the Lochmaster, and back again.

The Lochmaster raised an eyebrow to the construct pointing at him. "I mean, yes, I buried these people here." He said, shaking his head and walking back towards the town.

Mavec pushed a thought out with magic to Alvec. "Hey, can you, I don't know, dispel magic on him? I mean, could he be Alusai himself? The poppet answered the question. I don't really doubt my handiwork."

"Alright, I'll give it a try. Keep him talking," Alvec thought back as he quietly fell back away from Mavec and the Lochmaster. Once a modest distance away and obscured by Echo, he focused on casting dispel magic. The jagged magic he threw at the man glanced off him effortlessly. If the Lochmaster was in disguise, it was a potent one. "No luck," Alvec thought back towards Mavec.

"Fine, we'll just head back into town and see if anyone else can tell us more about the spinny men." Mavec thought back. Mavec explained to the Lochmaster that they'd be stopping back in the town, and the group began their trek from the outskirts to the town's square. They hadn't gotten too far before arriving at the hill where they had initially met the Lochmaster and the townsfolk.

A wave of nausea swept over the party as a strange scream ripped through the air. Alvec's fingers seemed to elongate, the joints swelling and filling out a putrid black. Illaria's hair coiled together, becoming one fleshy mass. Bait's torso began to elongate as he fell to the ground twisting in agony. Naya's arms seemed to fuse with her blades, and Mavec's throat elongated while becoming discolored. The pain was immense and sent all of them to the ground. Alvec reached out to his magic but couldn't make the words come out of his mouth. A large creature, not unlike a particularly grotesque hill giant, now stood upon the field. Its back was hunched, and its limbs poorly proportioned, with its legs stout to the point of uselessness and its arms elongated many times its length. Its skin seemed to ooze a dark, muddy slime, and its eyes were insectoid in nature, sprouting all around its misshapen skull.

The sound of a sword being unsheathed drew his eyes to the base of the creature. The Lochmaster seemed unaffected by the strange powers coursing through their bodies. He dashed forward and buried his blade into the beast. For the briefest of moments, Alvec's lungs burned as he took a sharp stab of air into his lungs. The wound had made its concentration falter. His hands seemed to be slowly shrinking back to their original size. The creature lunged out at the Lochmaster, striking him hard and sending him flying. The beast recoiled and screeched in anger as it clutched at the hand it had used to strike the man. The ooze around it had been dissolved, a scorch mark sizzled where its hand had come in contact with the Lochmaster.

The illusion around the Lochmaster dispersed as a single leaf burned away, revealing him not as the halfling that Mavec and Alvec had briefly considered him to be, but instead, a machine. He was unlike the spinnymen, in so much as the external gyroscope that the pair could see was both smaller, and housed in a much more human looking headpiece. A metal faceplate made from several small plates soldered onto a frame of wires gave it a much more personable appearance. The gyroscope itself was even insulated, as two broad bands of iron gently cradled it in place. A dim hum came from the spinning gyroscope. It also housed a soft glow of warm orange light as the pieces of the gyroscope spun around.