Empirical Gnollage: Installment 103 [https://squirrel.dogphilosophy.net/Installment103.png]

After Lady FitzWayne had gotten over the excitement of hearing humanish speech coming from such a bestial creature and was calm again, they all finished the food, wine, and tea while they all discussed some potential solutions for her problem.

The possibility of seeking acceptance with a circle of druids and learning their secrets of adopting the shapes of natural beasts was considered, but deemed infeasible since Lady FitzWayne was in no condition to even survive, let alone endure, the ordeals in the wilderness that were likely to be involved. Lady FitzWayne turned out to have a passing familiarity with alchemy, so some discussion of alchemical principals and possible extracts, essences, or potions that might alter one's body in favorable ways were considered. Al contributed what little he knew of the crafting of enchanted objects and the possibility that there might be some form of charmed clothing or jewelry that might strengthen a body or change its nature entirely - Al noticed that Lady FitzWayne unconsciously rubbed her ring when the subject came up, perhaps unaware that Al already knew it was enchanted. The subject of magic led to Al's digression on "the thaumatological normalization phenomenon", earning him an exaggerated eye-roll from Wikwocket at the jargon until he explained in plain language how some kinds of magic-working can be made to last indefinitely by repeating them consistently and frequently enough to trick reality into acting as though the spell was naturally-existing and permanent. Al had to admit that he didn't know much about shape-changing magic yet, but thought he remembered reading something that suggested it was at least possible to make their effects last indefinitely. Wikwocket insisted that they at least consider the possibility of seeking aid from otherworldly beings. After all, there were lots of stories about djinni and demons and fairies and gods and even dragons making deals to do a supernatural favor for someone. Al reminded her that these stories usually didn't work out the way the recipient of the favor wanted them to. Wikwocket insisted that usually isn't the same as always and so it should at least be kept as an option. This led in turn to the concept of spiritual possession, which the stories often depicted as providing supernatural strength and vigor to the body of the possessed. Al emphasized that this meant literally sharing your body with someone - or something - else who will have complete control some or all of the time. After a pause to calm the distressed Gruntle at being reminded of this, Al described the stories of werewolves he'd read as a boy, and how the afflicted person would sometimes wake up naked and spattered with someone else's blood, and no memory of what had happened in the night.

Finally, Bote asked Lady FitzWayne if she was prepared to die to escape her unwanted body.

"Uh, I don't think necromantic animation of her corpse is really what she wants," Al had objected, "and I'm pretty sure that sort of thing is very illegal, or at least tightly restricted."

Bote had laughed and agreed, but then explained that they'd read somewhere that the druids - who Bote referred to as the priesthood of the nature-spirits - had some among them with such an understanding and mastery of the natural cycles of flesh and spirit that they could call a soul into a new and different natural life. That, of course, meant being freed of the previous natural life first.

By that point, Lady FitzWayne had become completely exhausted. She agreed with Al about spiritual possession, saying that the entire point of her request was to experience life herself and not vicariously through some other spirit or soul, but otherwise didn't much care what solution was ultimately chosen. Her primary concerns were only that she be able to spend as much time as possible being free in a healthy body, and that it happen as soon as possible. She did reluctantly admit that it would be advantageous to be able to return to at least her original appearance in order to attend family functions and meetings, but was willing to give even that up. With that, she mustered a whispered thanks for the party's attendance and promise to help, and Charlene rang a bell to summon the butler to show them out.

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Charlene met them on the way out of the room and recapitulated Lady FitzWayne's thanks.

"She doesn't get much relief from the prison of her frail body," she had told them, "She's been so hopeful since she first saw you here. Thank you for agreeing to help."

"So, how do you like your very first damsel in distress?" Wikwocket asked Al once they had left and walked for a while back towards the main street.

"As far from demons as possible, that's how," Al answered. "I understand why she's so desperate but that could have been very dangerous."

"I've seen stories where demons get tricked into ending up with the worse end of a deal, so it's not always bad!", Wikwocket insisted. "Besides, once you've got your own demon-slave you'll be a demon-master and you'll be able to make them obey, right?"

"A familiar spirit does not have the ability to make supernatural deals with other people, and even if they did they don't have the ability to supernaturally enhance or control someone's body. The whole point of a familiar spirit is that they're small and simple and obedient," Al corrected, "I really think it'll be safer if we concentrate on alchemical or mortal-magical approaches."

Wikwocket gave this some thought.

"I suppose if we had to go somewhere exciting and do something dangerous to get what we need, it might be okay. You know, hidden away and guarded by terrible monsters, so that only the most worthy hero may claim it!"

"It doesn't have to be dangerous."

"Sure it does! It's not a proper adventure if there isn't some danger! Who wants to hear a story about people just going to a market and haggling to buy something to fix the problem?"

"I would expect," Bote added, "that if there was something available to simply buy that would satisfy Lady FitzWayne's desires, she would have found a way to acquire it by now, or if too costly, she'd at least have mentioned it."

"Well, we've got some time to figure it out, I did warn her it might take us a while to come up with something. Maybe I'll be able to find something in the books at the place Cyrus gave me the directions to in Southwall. The instructions and requirements for getting in that he wrote down suggest it's not a normal place."

"Like what?" Wikwocket asked, intrigued.

"Uh...part of the instructions say I'm not allowed to talk about those parts in any detail, and if I don't follow the instructions properly I won't be able to get in. Let's just say the detailed explanations of what I am required to do and what I may or may not tell people about makes it pretty clear there's something supernatural going on."

"You can't tease something like that and not tell me more!"

"Hmmm. Let's see, it gave an oath that I need to take and a list of some temples and shrines where I could swear it. I have to do that first to even be able to find the place, so it seems it's hidden in some supernatural way. Also, I won't be going in the front door."

"Sounds like a lot of hassle just to read some weird books."

They arrived back at the main street. A well-dressed couple - Al guessed some minor nobility - scowled at seeing Gruntle and crossed to the other side of the street to pass by.

"Jerks," Wikwocket muttered.

"Yeah, well, they shouldn't be able to do anything to us here, but I feel like we should wrap things up soon and leave as discreetly as we can before someone decides to try to catch us on the road to be unpleasant."

"I'm fine with that," Wikwocket agreed, "this place is fun but unless something exciting happens when we go back to the Lavatio one more time, I feel like we've probably experienced all the really novel things we can here. Time to go find the next part of our story!"

"We only have a little more to take care of first. For one thing, what are we going to do about that horrible goblin swamp-juice concentrate. I don't want to just abandon it here. I don't think the apothecary would be happy about that, and we might actually want to come back here again someday."

"That stuff is the most horrible, sickening thing I've ever smelled! I think we should keep it!" Wikwocket decided.

"Why?" Al asked.

"It's bound to be useful for something! We just need to package it up well so it won't break or leak, until we want it to."

"All right, but you get to carry it. Aside from that we just need to find out when the surveyors are going to the baths so we can go with them and try to earn our bonus, collect our pay, and then see what kind of deal Cyrus manages to work out with his contact in Southwall. Maybe check on our donkey in the meantime..."

"Haunch," Bote corrected.

"Uh, right, check on Haunch and make sure he's not getting too pampered while he's here."

Gruntle's immediate turn to head towards the stables surprised Al, but he supposed now was just as good a time as any other.

They found Haunch with his eyes half-closed and tail gently swishing as he was brushed down by one of the stablehands, who had to move to avoid being stepped on as the donkey turned to face the party. Haunch raised his muzzle to meet Gruntle's curious sniffing, then snorted gently in the gnoll's face.

"I see you are content with your arrangments," Bote told the donkey, "We will probably leave in the next few days, so please do not become too comfortable."

Haunch turned to snort gently at Bote's face as well.

Al tipped the stablehand another silver coin. Al and Bote returned to their room while Wikwocket and Gruntle went back out to - as Wikwocket described it - "delight the locals with our charm", promising to bring food back once they got bored.

The remainder of the evening was pleasantly uneventful, aside from Stephen stopping by to announce that the survey party would be leaving one hour after sunrise for the Lavatio the next morning, and a brief attempt later by Wikwocket to get Al to catch pieces of meat and cheese in his mouth the way Gruntle did.

Al read through Auswelte Sachen's informative chapter on familiar-spirits then finally went to sleep dreaming of demons throwing cheese at him.