‘I think,’ Robin said slowly, making a show of looking from the book to the winged cat and back, ‘that it might be our deceased friend’s familiar.’

It was a blatant lie, but no one else could decipher so much as the odd word from the journal he was holding, so it worked as well as any other explanation. better, really, if Robin was going to ‘bond’ with Rerebos in this disguise and make him his own familiar.

Robin pulled a morsel of foods from dimensional storage and crouched down, holding it out to Rerebos.

‘Here, kitty, kitty, kitty,’ he sang softly.

Rerebos cocked his head at him but didn’t approach right away. That’s right. Play it a bit coy. Gotta keep the performance convincing.

‘Are we sure it’s safe?’ Jhess asked, not sheathing her knives. ‘We’re in a city that apparently held more than its fair share of illusionists and shapeshifters, and we’ve already dealt with more than the usual number of insane dungeon monsters.’

‘I do not sense any ill intent,’ Savra said slowly.

Rerebos hissed at them.

‘Well, no more than I would expect,’ the seeress amended.

Nice touch, Robin sent to Rerebos, but don’t push it too much. We need to reel them into accepting you quickly so we can crack on with finding out what else there is here.

A disgruntled wave of assent came back in reply. Rerebos de-fluffed himself a bit and took a cautious step forward, nostrils flaring at the morsel of food in Robin’s outstretched hand. He took it gingerly and began a rasping purr.

It sounded like a set of rocks with the hiccoughs tumbling down a mountainside. A very tiny mountainside. Clearly the little dragon needed a bit more practice in that department.

‘Too bad this little one can’t tell us what our friend was up to,’ Vance said, crouching carefully down next to Robin.

‘Do the supplies tell us anything?’ Robin carefully extracted another bit of meat to tempt Rerebos with. A small one. The little dragon was going to make himself sick at the rate he wolfed them down.

‘Not much,’ Drev said. ‘The mundane supplies we’ve found are fairly general. Savra’s insight into what the magical items do might tell us more, though. At least in terms of what kind of adventurer he was.’

‘The journal is likely still our best bet,’ Vance said.

Rerebos choose that moment to leap up onto Robin’s shoulder and settle in, claws pricking sharply through the fabric of the bard’s shirt.

He was going to need to invest in some leather epaulettes if Rerebos was going to be spending any amount of time in this form. His shoulder would kill him otherwise.

Rerebos made a small kek-kek-ke-kek noise.

‘Good boy,’ Robin said softly. ‘You want to stay with us, eh? Good Rere.’

‘Ree-Ree?’ Jhess asked, raising an eyebrow, but sheathing her daggers.

‘It’s kind of what that noise sounded like,’ Robin said defensively. ‘Don’t you think.’

‘I think we need to get back to figuring this whole mess out,’ the rogue replied. ‘Put your nose back in that book and pull out something useful, eh?’

‘Aye-aye!’ Robin snapped off a mock salute and cracked open the book once more.

And like Jhess’s words had been a benediction, the book fell open once more at a section of the hand-drawn map, and his eyes alit upon a passage he’d not yet read. Perhaps it was random chance, or the hand of Rhyth from wherever forgotten gods dwell, or the influence of his wild magic perk, but the first section of the note was simply in English, before it abruptly shifted to whatever cipher the writer had been using about halfway through.

Found another control point. This one is in much better repair. I think I can repair it and restore some limited functionality to the—

Interesting. He’d been trying to repair something in the city? Why? To figure out how it worked? To answer some kind of quest—

As if the thought had summoned it, a quest notification appeared before Robin’s eyes.

New Quest: [A Touch of Restoration]

You’ve discovered that another worldwalker had a quest to repair some of the damage done to the city. What did he know that you do not? You need to figure out why, and decide if you wish to take up his quest as your own. The journal may have some clues for you. It may not. Crack the code. Discover the secrets. Find the control points. Unriddle their secrets. The rewards may be more than you can imagine…

Reward: Lost knowledge, greater access to the depths of Tarin-Tiran, and since you’re a greedy little thing that is motivated by material gain, maybe even a magic item or three.

Robin blinked away the notification after reading it twice. Well. That was something.

He opened his mouth to say something but was preempted by Savra.

‘He was clearly some form of caster,’ the seeress said. ‘The necklace contains a pearl that can temporarily boost the efficacy of one’s spells for a few minutes each day. I suspect he’d not be wearing it were it not useful to him in some way.’

Good news and bad news there! That was exactly the sort of thing Robin was after. But, it woulds also be useful for Vance and Drev and Savra. That was a lot of competition.

‘I suspect some of these sachets have a similar effect if the drug inside is consumed.’ Savra clearly didn’t approve of this, but she didn’t move to destroy the things either.

Robin suspected that would be a bit of a risk/reward situation. No way to really tell what the balance is without knowing what side effects there might be from the drug or how addictive it might be.

‘The ring offers some form of protective enchantment,’ Savra continued. ‘The pouch has a storage enchantment on it and, I suspect, some kind of anti-theft measure. Then there is this.’

Savra held out her hand. In it was an ancient looking coin. It was thick and gold and had clearly been cast with the image of someone important on the side but the years had worn away the fine detail so the figure just looked misty and indistinct.

The seeress turned the coin over. On the other side was a sigil that looked like it might once have resembled a pair of scales. Savra closed her hand over it once more.

‘This appears to have some form of simplistic divinatory magic imbued into it. Though the enchantment itself is potent, I think the questions one might ask are somehow limited.’

‘I’ll let you sparkle-finger types fight over the items and I’ll just take the gold from his pouch, shall I?’ Jhess said, claiming her portion of the salvage.

Savra clearly wanted the coin, to judge buy the way she gripped it so tightly. Robin could get on board with that. Drev would probably want the protective ring and he’d be the one most likely to be able to use it most effectively, freeing up magical energies for more attacks, possibly.

Robin wanted that pearl necklace. Badly. But would vance be willing to take the storage bag? It wasn’t that terribly rare a thing, dimensional enchantments of this nature. You could buy similar pieces in Noviel. Though this one looked like it was of finer workmanship. And it clearly had a history.

Maybe Robin could use that. Vance was a sucker for a good story.

Then the negotiations began. It began easily enough, falling out as Robin predicted with Drev and Savra. Vance was clearly eyeing the necklace, however.

Before Robin could launch into his plan to make the pouch look more attractive, however, Vance threw a spanner into the works, turning to Robin with a fiendish look in his eye.

‘Look. You want the necklace. I want the necklace. We both know that. I’m willing to make you a little extra deal, however, and take the bag instead, if you make it worth my while.’

‘I’m listening,’ Robin said cautiously.

‘That journal is fascinating and I suspect it holds a great many secrets. I think you’re going to unriddle them. I want a copy—an honest copy—in your hand once you’ve cracked it. With nothing left out. Annotations of any information you understand enough to clarify. What do you say?’

Robin’s mind flashed through the options, the lies and the tricks and the dodges he might employ.

‘You’d have to swear on your god, of course,’ Vance casually added, before Robin could open his mouth to agree.

That complicated matters. Particularly in a world like this. That would not be an easy thing to do.

On the other hand, if he could pull off any trickery in a situation like this it would surely result in a bumper crop of experience points. And he did trust Vance. More or less.

‘I could do that,’ he said, stalling for time, a thoughtful look on his face.

Maybe he could commit without actually getting to the bit about swearing. He’d need to try and distract Vance with something tempting, though. A good faith offering, of sorts, maybe.

‘These maps,’ he said, opening the journal, ‘they look like they represent sections of this city. There are notations in several locations. I think our friend Red here was trying to find something or fix something. I can read some of the words on the page, but these sections remain a mystery. I think they have been encoded somehow.’

‘But it does show us that there are spots of interest, here,’ Jhess said. ‘Could be treasure.’

‘And do any of these locations match up with the ones you researched yourself before we came to this place?’ Vance asked.

‘I don’t know.’ Robin blinked. He should have thought of that. ‘I’ll have to check.’

‘That would be the smartest place to start, certainly,’ Drev offered. The mage was only partially paying attention to the discussion, engaged as he was with examining his own prize, the ring of protection.

‘Let me see,’ Robin turned his attention to the map.

Yes. There were at least three locations he could definitely say he’d want to look at from his own research, and another two that might fit. It was hard to say between the general level of decay the city had experienced and the hand-drawn quality of the map.

He went ahead and pointed the three he was certain of out to the rest of the party.

‘This place seems solid enough, ghosts notwithstanding,’ Savra opined. ‘It should serve well as a base. Excellently so, if Ruprecht can make some repairs to the structure.’

‘It’s certainly convenient to the three locations Robin has just pointed out,’ Vance added. ‘I think.’ He turned the journal back and forth in his hands and squinted at the map.

Rerebos began grooming himself from his position on Robin’s shoulder. With a quick mental suggestion from Robin he began to purr loudly.

‘I think our little friend here approves,’ Robin said. Might as well nudge events along a bit. They had a lot of work to do and he wanted to get his hands on that necklace! Of course the party might need just one more little nudge.

Robin sank down into a nearby chair with a sigh. Thankfully it held up under his weight. A small puff of dust escaped, but otherwise it remained solid.

‘Nice workmanship,’ he said. ‘Solid and comfortable. Could use a bit of a clean, if we’re staying, though. Are we staying?’

He looked around at the rest of the party.

‘We’ll make this our base, let Ruprecht settle in, and then head to the first of the locations Robin has identified,’ Jhess said decisively before anyone else could offer an opinion. ‘That’s our best chance at finding something useful. And Savra’s right. This is a good location, so long as she feels she can keep the ghosts at bay.’

Robin bit back a smile. It looked like his distraction ploy had worked. Now to just…

‘Right after Robin makes his vow,’ Vance said.

Curses! Foiled again!