"What in the Hells is this?" Tyrion looks over the mess of ooze and bone, gingerly picking up one of the tubes with a cloth. Hope kneels and shakes her head. "I have no idea. It's rancid, though. Did you see what happened?"

"They melted, Red! From the inside out, turned to bone and goop within seconds! And that noise, like a banshee! I've never seen or heard anything like it." The halfling gags and moves out of the cart, examining the tube in the light. "Amadeo, you're a smart lad. Any idea what this is?"

Amadeo kneels and takes the tube from his companion. "Steel construction. Vented from both ends." He knocks on it, a light 'gong' sounding out. "Hollow. I won't know more till we get it somewhere to examine it. Rough guess, I'd say these all connected and pumped that ooze into their bodies, which melted them from the inside. Judging by that and the fact that what's left is metal and bone, it was probably oozes or something equally unpleasant."

"Gods, oozes in your body that can be released on command? What moron signs up for that?" Anna looks back to the hills, and Harken huffs.

"My master's leader commanded quite a deal of respect and loyalty from those around him. I never saw him, but I could hear his voice in my head, hollowing out my mind and seating himself in it as the puppeteer pulling my strings."

"That's awful. But you're safe now, right?" Anna frowns, patting Harken's snout.

"Yes, I'm fine. Their control over me has ended. When we return you to the city gates, I will find somewhere far away from here to live, where his strings can puppet me no longer."

"I'll be sad to see you go. You're alot nicer now that you're not being mind controlled." Anna smiles sweetly. The other three look at each other, chuckling to themselves. From their point of view, it looks like Anna is talking to a dire wolf who is growling in response. A very strange sight had they not already seen her do this once before.

"So what do we do? This doesn't sound like standard adventurer stuff." Tyrion scratches his chin. Hope shakes her head. "I'm not sure at this point. I think our best course of action is to get back to the guild and let Kiriel know what we found. Maybe they can make sense of this, or point us to someone else who can."

"I dunno. Remember what Cal said when he showed up? 'Meets the description we were given'? He knew we were coming. Someone in the city told him we were coming." Amadeo wraps up the tubes in some more cloths.

"So your hunch was right then. Someone was working for the bandits. Any idea who?" Hope folds her arms across her chest as Amadeo shakes his head. "The people we told about us going to the Arboria Hills was a slim list already. Kiriel was in on the plan, but these guys didn't know about Tyrion and Anna, so that rules them out. There was the priestess and a couple of city officials who attended. But I have a hard time believing a priestess would lead people to an early grave for a cut of the profits."

"Which would be a great reason to be in on it. Who suspects a man or woman of the cloth, after all?" Tyrion looks under the cart at the last of the ooze and sticks his tongue out in disgust. "The other question is, what were they stealing for? All the reports said they took some money, but not all of it. And they didn't hit everyone who came through the hills...What did you say we had with us?" He turns to Amadeo, brow furrowing.

"Metals and meteorite chunks, in addition to three thousand sovereigns. I noticed that the reports of attacks all mentioned steel and bits of meteorite being taken. So I went with a hunch." Amadeo shrugs, and Tyrion grits his teeth. "It doesn't make much difference from where I'm standing, since the result probably would've been the same regardless. But you could have shared the full details with us."

"He's right." Hope nods in agreement. "It feels a bit like you don't trust us, if you won't lay it all out for us. I know you're the planning type, but we need to be in the know."

Amadeo shakes his head. "That part wasn't necessary to your involvement, and I wanted to be sure of the hunch before laying any unnecessary info on you all."

"Still, maybe next time we can all work on the plan together, hm?" Tyrion holds a hand out to the wizard, who sighs and nods.

"Alright, little man. I suppose I can be more open next time. I apologize for not telling you everything." Shaking hands, the two men get back on the cart, Hope climbing into the front seat. "Let's go. I get the feeling something bigger than thieves is going on."