Although it was the cause of much deliberation (and self-deprecation on behalf of the young gnome), it was eventually decided that Levi should have the opportunity to read the Book of Exalted Deeds and to carry out the instructions that it contained over the next week. Fonesca took the opportunity to research some new spells from the spellbooks of one of the Puppetmasters. She failed to learn Ice Storm, but managed to comprehend Polymorph Other. The others gossiped and passed the time until Levi was again available. When he returned, he was wiser and more capable than before and he still did not desire to have his hand replaced, though Gaspode teased him with it. What he did want to do was to find out where his parents had fled to, so the Mothers returned to the office of the Lord High Seneschal of Arabel to whom they had previously delivered missives sent from Suzail. On entry it became clear that he did not know the details of many of the refugees as many records had been destroyed during the occupation of the city. He took as many details as could be offered on Levi's parents but could not guarantee any level of success. During the conversation it became clear that the Mothers expected that refugees might return to Arabel at any stage now due to the peace in the city, the Lord High Seneschal said that it was a most unusual peace, because the forces of Iuz that were still present to the northeast had not been active or aggressive as was their wont, rather they were withdrawn and defensive. He wondered aloud, whether their master, Iuz, had been distracted from his campaign on Faerun. He said that he had come upon some strange evidence of this. A group of Iuz's forces were captured and unfortunately most of them slain by a patrol of Purple Dragons. One amongst them, a human, seemed to be a quartermaster of some kind due to the records that he had of the movement of supplies and arms around the various camps of the Iuz forces. One late entry in his documents, however, was unusual. It was a requisition for a large quantity of ale for a celebration and the note accompanying it said "For the sack of Tovag Baragu and the ascension of Iuz". The Lord High Seneschal was unable to obtain any information from the sages in Cormyr as to where this Tovag Baragu might be, but he was mightily concerned as to what the ultimate consequences of this activity might be. He asked the Mothers to investigate the issue, to try to find out where or what Tovag Baragu was and to determine what Iuz might be up to. Fonesca signed the Mothers up to this quick smart. Gaspode quietly groaned.
The Mothers withdrew to debate the best route to get to the information that they required. Finally they settled on Sigil as being the best place to find these things out. Unfortunately, although they knew a fairly quick way to get to Sigil, they had no quick way to return to Cormyr. So they visited Fonesca's War Wizard friend to see if they knew about any portals that they could use in the kingdom. He was only able to tell them of rumoured secret networks of portals controlled by the Druids and the Harpers, but he felt sure that these were Faerun bound and would provide no access to Sigil. So the Mothers took the plunge, took out the cubic gate and ended up in Plaguemort (again). The passage of Tenebrous had made their arrival point somewhat less complete than the last time they had visited. The abbatoir had a gaping hole in its roof and half of one of the walls was missing. This made it all the easier to go out into the main square where they briefly eyed the great gate to the Abyss and it's scaly guards who eyed them nervously before heading off to what constituted the government buildings of this depressing gate town. The guards there took them in and they were ushered into the offices of the Arch-Lector. He asked them to quickly "use the facilities" and get out of town. The Mothers proceeded to the throne room and exited through the gate to Sigil's Lower Ward. Hailing a cab, they were soon sipping beers with Stronghoof in the Golden Bariaur Inn. Stronghoof thought that Iuz was some kind of demi-god but didn't really know any more than that. The Mothers got their usual stall and then decided to hit the anarchist library for some information on Tovag Baragu and Iuz. The small wizened anarchist librarian took their coin and searched the book stacks in a seemingly random fashion eventually returning with information, even if it was not entirely intelligible. A few things stood out:
Tovag Baragu meant "Navel of the Oerth" in Ancient Baklunish (a language of Oerth); Tovag Baragu is a place on the shore of a lake in the Dry Steppes on the continent of Flanaess in the land of Oerth and Iuz is a demigod ruling over a kingdom or an empire in Flanaess.
Wanting more information, the Mothers decided to go the bureaucratic route and talk to the people in the Hall of Records. After another hefty fee a history of Iuz was laboriously intoned to them. This was more than they needed, but it at least corroborated the anarchist's account. So all the Mothers had to do now was to find a way to Tovag Baragu. Stronghoof suggested asking the touts of Sigil whom they might pick up in the Great Bazaar. The first one they found wasn't much use, but the second, for a small retainer, found them a strange shop just off the bazaar, not far from Bits and Pieces. The sign outside had images of globes mounted so that you could spin them on an axis, but not only globes, spindles and areas of flat land were there too, suggesting strange locales. They entered without ceremony and thus must have startled the owner who descended from his hiding place as a black cloud from the ceiling. The grey dwarf was somewhat sharp with the hired tout for his behaviour but agreed to research the location of a portal to Oerth for the Mothers. They are due to return in two days to obtain the information.