Journal of Lt. Tupper, Day 254

Day 254
Apparently I am the only person in the group that does not enjoy being forcibly transformed into wildlife.

So we set forth in the morning to locate Nogori and Azan, only to find Nogori's magical residence set up right outside the keep. When Schtooichzzkaah went to wake her, she was turned into a squirrel. Also, squirrels can hurt you. Do not agitate squirrels. Dantro's turn at dragging the primadonna into consciousness was significantly less rodent prone, thought still not successful. After Hrogar had a deep and spiritual moment with her pet turtle, we decided to get back to the task of finding Azan. This was surprisingly non-eventful, as he was wandering around the island looking for us.

It turns out Nogori had found the keep's obsidian gateway, and decided to blunder through it with Azan in tow. On the other side, he encountered sailors led by a shaman. They claimed they were all hired to assault Stonekeep, except they were called off when it was 'bloodlessly' captured. Their current assignment, presumably from the same person, is to defend the area around their end of the obsidian gateway from an impending attack. On their return through the gate, Nogori and Azan were detained and questioned by the Seneschal, and released only when they promised to assist her.

Alright, so, barring any future startling revelations or dishonest seamen, there are three factions at play here: the normal government and people of Stonekeep, the current caretakers of Stonekeep, and those that planned the aborted battle. Now given that the forces of the third faction were called off when Stonekeep went down like a sack of wet kittens, this would mean Faction 3 was either in poorly-communicated cahoots with Faction 2, worried about waging a public battle with a foe that still kept things discrete (since Faction 2 slid into command with nary a scream), or slow on the draw. And if they were too late then that means either the forces of Faction 2 outnumber their own, or the reason to capture the keep is no longer in play. It can't be good, whatever it turns out to be.

Did I mention squirrels hurt? Yes, yes I did.