Infatuation in Ironridge
The Mothers went down to the Great Bazaar and found their way to the Bits and Pieces arch. Taking a tooth or two from the bag they went through the arch to the shop itself. They managed to procure an Arcadian Dove Hawk feather from the owner and hastily made their way back to the lower ward and the crawlspace by which the khaasta group had evaded them. The feather worked perfectly and opened the gate through which the lizards had passed. The Mothers did not hesitate, following the same route. Once through, the Mothers found themselves in a mountainous landscape, scarred by the delving of some previous inhabitants. Slag heaps and slime pools dotted the landscape around them. Aldaron was unable to use his skills as a tracker, but the trail that the khaasta had left was easy to follow. They must have had some mounts with them, as there were not just khaasta tracks. After a few miles the Mothers noticed a building off to their right, tilted dramatically, and half-submerged in one of the pools that remained to scar the landscape. As the Mothers went to investigate a figure emerged from the tower. It had brownish skin and pupil-less white eyes. Three-fingered hands clutched the sides of its soft skull as it stumbled down towards the Mothers through the slime. The tentacles which served it as a chin flailed wildly as the face of the creature imploded as if an unseen hand crushed it. It fell dead into the mud. The Mothers approached it cautiously, but once assured that it was truly unable to threaten them, the proceeded to the tower to see if they could discover what had happened. Inside they found another such creature kneeling on a dais, obviously in great distress, one of its eyes had gone black, and disturbing haemorrhages were spreading across its skull. "Dead. God is dead! The secrets are lost. It has slain out great Maanzecorian..." these powerful thoughts pierced the skulls of the Mothers before this creature, too, expired. Thinking that they might suffer the same fate, the Mothers left the tower quickly, but as they did so, strange unbidden thoughts came to their minds about seemingly unconnected and inconsequential matters. "Madarn is against killing the big cat," was one that occurred to Bert. The Mothers picked up the trail of the khaasta and hurried on. A further day of trudging through the mud and slime saw the group emerge onto an area of dry grassland. They could not decipher a trail but decided with "Richard"'s advice to continue straight. Two days later the Mothers arrived in a small settlement of Ironridge. Here Gaspode and Aldaron became obsessed with a brewer and his wife when they pressed through a local fracas that had left a couple of locals killed and more injured. Using their superior strength and guile the Mothers barricaded themselves in the local inn while they planned how to keep their new possessions from the mob outside.
