They parked the truck outside of the loose circle of stone pillars that formed the village. Corvayne could spot curious faces cropping up from windows high up in the rock. Waving would cause any observers to vanish with a swish of a curtain. No arrows yet from the fifty to hundred foot tall structures. Good sign. But he got a feeling that something was going on besides just their truck arriving.

Corvayne followed Hari, a few paces back while she stepped up to the group of villagers. They hadn't formed a line, rather they were standing around, looking about and adjusting their cloaks, chewing on flatbread, or talking quietly as if they just decided to all take a armed fifteen minute break in the center of the village. Everyone's spears and arrows were pointed at the air or quivered or stuck into the ground, but he wanted Hari to keep her distance. The elf had laughed and told him the the show of force was for any official Adventurer's Guild members who were looking to extort the town. The first few words she spoke to one of the men in the front melted a lot of his tension away, but a few people still were looking out of the village, expectant or worried.

Corvayne had started to sweep his gaze across the horizon and thought he saw something on a hill a mile away when he felt a finger in his back. He looked again and saw he was looking at a rock. He ignored the second poke and went back to scanning the crowd. Then he felt two fingers with extra thrust so he turned to see Wick with her arms on her hips and an expectant look on her face.

“Well? What is she saying?”

“Hari was speaking in a third language neither Elvish nor Cascadian.” He tried to capture her friendly delivery while looking for signs the villagers were about to draw knives on his other girlfriend. “Loosely, she said 'Hello. We are travelers. We do not belong to the adventurer's guild. Is there a stream we can draw water from that won't disrupt your fields?'”

Seru frowned. “I gotta learn both these languages or how else am I going to snoop when we get into the big cities?”

Wick nodded. “Good idea. You are our expendable information gathering team.”

Seru started flipping Wick off, and seeing nothing important was happening behind him Corvayne turned to watch a younger woman come up to Hari. The girl was adorned with more colored beads and slightly newer garb. Hari nodded then turned and gestured for them to follow as the Villagers with spears scattered across the packed dirt area between window studded rocks. He had to stop as a pair of stocky bipedal birds carrying jugs of water crossed his path.

“Perhaps we can trade water for having Mosh make them a simple pump...” Corvayne mused, mostly to himself.

Wick snorted. “I bet they have screw pumps, and anything else we make runs into problems with powering it.”

Corvayne waved a finger around as he watched Hari enter one of the stone pillar-dwellings. “Plenty of cold wind to power a windmill.”

The stone chamber he stepped into was about twelve feet high and lit by grass rope nets stuffed with large glowing crystal balls. The orbs mostly were white but a few other colors gave hues to different parts of the carved out rock. Rugs were arranged on the floor where a few men were sitting, drinking from clay mugs. Corvayne smelled alcohol mixed with spices as he stepped around the mats and over to a stone alcove that Hari and the girl had walked into. Faint wisps of smoke danced around swaying beads, and looking past them he saw the source were three older men laying on a padded stone bench carved into a sub chamber.

The girl had introduced Hari and the oldest of the men was speaking to her. “You need not pay us to simply take water from our streams. There is enough clean water from The Source that you could fill ten wagon a thousand times and no one would notice. Guests do not want for food or water at our village. However, I cannot promise you the customary safety should you stay here.”

Hari looked thoughtful. “We would be courteous and pay for anything we are given. I would ask, elder, if you could tell me why it would not be safe here.”

He nodded and rubbed a gray beard. “There is something out on the wastes. It has been hunting our goats the last few weeks, and there are disappearances from villages around The Source. Our most skilled hunters and warriors are empty-handed.”

Corvayne felt two pairs of fingers prodding him and glanced back to see Seru and Wick looking at him expectantly. He held a hand up and tapped his ear as Hari asked questions.

“What do you think it is?”

One old man coughed into his hand then pointed upwards. “Sometimes when people are buried wrong, their ghosts wander and gather. Perhaps those who went to join the army found their way back as a restless spirit.”

The third wheezed. “Dumb! That idea is dumb! Ghosts don't eat goats and leave bloodstains behind.”

The second man rolled his eyes. “If it's not a ghost, how do you explain how it moves? There one moment, then distant another, then gone.”

Corvayne felt a small chill down his spine. Another time bender?

Hari looked between the three. “Who's gone missing, and where?”

The young woman who had lead Hari to the bar or meeting room they were in spoke up. “A few young women are missing. Two of them were goat-herders, their father's flocks scattered. One was a weaver who had been going to trade dyes with another village. A girl and her sister who went to The Source and would bring back glow orbs is missing too.”

Hari's ears flicked a little. “The Source is a place you scavenge? A ruin?”

The elder laughed. “Adventurers are all the same! Big ears for treasure. But it would be slim pickings at the Source. Most of the places you can find things were picked clean long before this village was formed. Kids who have less sense than courage will wade deep into the dark to try to find things to sell... It's how we have all these glowing stones.”

The second older man nodded. “The Source is sacred, once home to The Pilgrims. It is by their blessing that endless clean water slakes the thirst of this otherwise arid land.”

Corvayne met Hari's eyes, and the elf turned back to the elder. “Is the monster living near this... Source?”

All three old men started agreeing. “It is a certainty.”

“It's always been haunted.”

“Most of the sightings, it was either coming or going from those ruins.”

The girl added. “When it is not looking at you.” She made a little folding gesture that Corvayne guessed was to ward off whatever the monster was.

Corvayne heard clay clinking and turned to see that Wick and Seru had found out how to trade coppers for mugs of whatever the locals were drinking. Normally he'd have some words about compromising one's self in unknown territory, but a few swigs of spiced wine meant he could listen to Hari ask the relevant questions. It reminded him a little of the videos Wick had shown him of interviewing people who had seen Big Feet or Chupacabras.

Nyxion and Spears poked their head into the bar, Nyx looking around and asking a question with his eyes if they needed to be concerned with anything, and Corvayne gave him a thumbs up. Nyxion nodded and strode away. Spears waved a little then left, letting him go back to Hari trying to figure out what it was, guidebook open as she danced back and forth.

“How big is it? How many legs does it have?” Hari held her arms out, one still clutching the book, trying indicate something pig sized, to which the men shook their heads and started to sit up to pull their own arms wide.

“It is the size of a man and crawls on countless legs.”

“It is bigger and walks on four. It might be a sickly horseman. It has a thousand eyes.”

The girl shook her head. “I saw two red eyes.”

The third man waved his hand. “It is ten feet tall and walks on two legs. I've seen it holding a blade.”

The oldest and first man slapped his couch. “I saw it! It was like a desert mite, a black tangle of limbs and I saw it running across the dirt, three full moons and nearly as clear as day! It was no bigger than you or I, save it's spindly limbs and three eyes, glowing pink.”

The second kept shaking his head. “I disagree! Like many dark spirits, it is mounted. I saw it ride along a river, a bound goat on it's back. I believe from the lack of blood... it is a cloud vampire, made from fallen sons of the villages. It had countless red eyes, it looked back at me as it rode off!”

The third laughed. “That is so stupid it boggles the mind! The thing is a giant. I saw it lumbering during the day, it's black form measured at the boulder near Errold's pasture. It walked right by it and towered over it. A man and a half, on two legs, with a single eye! A cyclops rogue, all the more dangerous to men and especially girls when a runt of giants survives.”

The girl shook her head. “There must be many different monsters, because I was sure I was meeting the glowing red eyes of a woman. It was under the faint light of the diamond moon, but even in the dark I know what I saw.”

Corvayne had heard enough conjecture and walked back to the counter and got himself a water, then sat with Wick and Seru and started repeating what he had heard.

He was on his third water when Hari had enough bickering over why it was kidnapping or killing women and hunters and tapped out, as did the girl who had lead her into the room in the first place.

Hari bought herself a whole steaming flask of the spiced wine and dropped onto the rug between Wick and Corvayne.

“They started talking about what kind of women it wants to marry. Then got into how each form would seal the deal!” Hari huffed then poured herself a cup. Corvayne waited until she was drinking from her cup then removed the flask from her side, hoping to avoid a repeat performance of her first experience getting drunk and exposing herself to a group of strangers. The moment he put the wine flask down on the rug it vanished while he blinked and at the same moment Hari was pouring herself another drink. She was the rogue after all. Corvayne shrugged and turned to the girl who had joined them.

“Hello. My name is Corvayne, and I'm one of the leaders of our band of adventurers and have a translation power. This is Wick, the main leader whom I'm translating for.”

The girl bowed once to him and once to Wick. “Kirae. Daughter of the elder Kopek.” She spoke as she accepted a cup from Hari and gave it to Corvayne, who handed the clay cup to Seru, whom got a sip before Hari took it from her and downed it in one go.

“Kirae, I know the monster is probably the most important thing in the village, but I wanted to know if people saw the bright light last night pass by as well.”

Wick nodded and took out a few coins and rattled them. Kirae shook her head, pushing the coins back. “We saw the light, it was headed right towards The Source. There have been more lights out and about since a few weeks ago. Children had also brought back more from the ruins this month than as we've seen entire years before.”

“... I'd like to hear about The Source itself.”

She nodded. “It is a large pile of rocks, the size of a small mountain. It would have rivaled the imperial palace when it was whole, but now it is mostly just rubble and broken halls. From within there is something the produces water from near the top of the mountain and it flows down and floods out to form the streams that make this part of the high plains wet enough to support the villages.”

“It's not natural though, right?” Corvayne asked as Hari pushed a cup into his hands. He tried a sip of the warm wine and nearly spat it out. It was like someone pureed a bouquet of flowers then soaked the slurry in booze and cinnamon. He saw that Kirae was assessing him and so he resisted the urge to spit it back in the cup and swallowed the mouthful he took. She raised an eyebrow as Corvayne fought to keep from spitting what he drank back up.

Hari started laughing. “He drank a cup of the pure stuff! What a man!”

He felt Hari rubbing up against his side and looked around, hoping Lady Blood Claw would swoop in with her sleep spell. No such luck. He saw that Kirae was amused by the whole act, hand over her mouth but not really covering her smile. Corvayne felt his cheeks burn and he straightened his back further to keep Hari from licking his ear, which just meant her tongue was instead on his neck. He pretended that Hari wasn't there as he tried to keep the conversation going.

“You mentioned halls. Do you know what the ruins were before?”

The village girl thought about it. She responded while Hari headbutted his shoulder. “Everyone has a different theory, usually something like a temple, palace, or burial spot.”

“I don't want to offend you, but honestly you seem pretty well informed about it.” Corvayne felt Hari peel away from him a moment and worried, turned to see she was pouring herself another cup of the undiluted drink. Seru took the cup away from her and for a moment Hari paused, then started muttering.

“Imluhdespredistishion.” She pointed, then looked at her finger.

Kirae had taken a cue from Corvayne and was ignoring Hari trying to cast a spell. “Every few years researchers from The Empire come by and kids will lead them around the ruins. There's miles and miles and miles of tunnels under the ground too, not counting areas that are flooded. A hundred years back someone who could explore under water tried to see if there was something interesting deeper but they gave up after a month. Perhaps something shifted in the pile and a new set of halls opened... the last month before the creature shut it down was the most fruitful in nick-nacks for generations, to hear grandfather tell it.”

Hari's musical elvish voice called out “Ima Imades- Pre dis. Pre dis. Predispoisition.”

Corvayne suspected that like Cascadia, the new sections appearing was some effect from whatever happened on April 9th. At the very least, there was probably a brand new Tower entrance in those ruins. And if the thing hunting goats was smart, he might be able to reason with it. “So what you're saying is that a monster or a glowing flying light could go there and hide for years and not be found?”

The local girl nodded. “It is something we all agree, the monster or monsters would naturally lair somewhere in the ruins. Anywhere else and it would have been found.”

Corvayne nodded. “I wanted to ask, what did people go to the ruins for before? You made it sound like it had been picked clean.

The girl nodded. “Very few treasure seekers. Most of the researchers were trying to decode what the language in the ruins says and trying to find if there's some message from The Pilgrims...”

“I've heard that term... The Pilgrims... are they who built the ruin then?”

“They at least decorated it, then someone else desecrated it. We think they were taller than humans, because often they are shown as taller figures. Something came later and scratched the stone. That is, places where it hasn't been worn to nothing. Most of the outer ruins are smooth.”

He felt an itch that only going to the ruin would scratch. Then a sharp pain let him know another shard was trying to worm its way out of his shoulder, and with a wince he pulled out a black shiny shard and dropped it in his ring. He held up a hand to request Kirae take a break. “Please let me relate all this to Wick.”

It didn't take long before Wick was beaming. “Oh FUCK yes! UFO hunt, monster hunt, AND a term that the weird lady under the library urged you to find... we are going to those ruins as soon as we are done here. I bet it's a hotspot! A regular skinwalker ranch!”

Hari shook her head, and slurred her words as she spoke. “We took too long it's going to be dark before we get there! Let's keep drinking then test the bed again.”

Wick rolled her eyes. “Corvayne, tell her to speak Cascadian to us!”

“Hari, we'll be fine but it's time to stop drinking... what is this stuff called?”

“Rutspice.”

Hari shook her head and poured herself another cup. Corvayne tried to intercept her drink and pass it to Wick, but Hari produced another cup the moment he grabbed the clay vessel and smoothly downed it with one hand while draping herself on Corvayne with the other, pushing her warm and slightly sweaty cleavage into his forearm. He pulled her onto his lap as he sat with his legs crossed then used [Cross Skill: Expert Throw] to toss the clay flask onto the bar's counter where it landed right side up, wobbling before it settled without spilling a drop.

Kirae and a few men who were watching started clapping, as did Hari until she started pouting about the booze. Corvayne looked past her to Kirae and motioned with his head.

“What would you say to making some money guiding us to those ruins?”

“You are not worried about the monster?”

Corvayne looked down at where Hari was biting his collarbone for attention. “I'll put her to bed before we head out.”