“Okay, I’m pretty sure she was in this one before she rabbited.” Casimir said confidently as he examined the magical remnants of the desk. “Liches leave a pretty distinctive imprint on the local mana when they reform.” Distinctive… but when they deliberately wiped their trail, it was still difficult to make out. Not impossible, however.

“Any clues as to her whereabouts?” David asked. Casimir shook his head. “Curse it all!” Yeah, tracking anything through the churning mass that was this landscape was basically impossible. Even with the divination skills of a shaman, it was just a matter of checking individual underground chambers for signs of habitation by undead.

“With the scene before him,” Polium began, “Karn has revealed to me what they have burned away.” He gestured to the exit, where his mud spirit sat ready to open it back up. “We should take our leave.”

Casimir wasn’t entirely sure whether it was possible for a spirit to do that, but honestly, powerful spirits sometimes felt like they could do whatever the crap they wanted, so he just went through the mud tunnel once it opened up.

Once outside of the underground chamber, they started to move away from the massive piles of flammable mud, following Polium’s vague direction. “So, where are we headed now?” Casimir asked. “Because this seems like a dead end.”

“The lich’s master and confederates had many piles of documents which they burned in that chamber.” Polium explained. “From Karn’s insight into those documents, their next move is obvious: They seek a specific artifact, although they were circumspect on revealing exactly which one they seek.” The aviost trilled in triumph. “Where they were not circumspect was their plans for securing this artifact. We make for Anima!”

Wait… “Hold it.” Casimir said. “What was their plan?”

“They seek to plunder the personal vault of the Archmagus.” Polium explained. “By kidnapping his daughter, they will utilize a doppelganger to impersonate her and secure access.” So that’s why they wanted Illivere… “As the girl is kin to a memory spirit, the doppleganger will be able to adequately impersonate her mana profile if given time to study it.” Yeah, that made sense. Dopplegangers had enough mind mana tied up in their disguises that they were frequently mistaken for being mind controlled when impersonating people. It was the main method of detecting them.

“Do they know where she is?” Casimir asked. How fresh was his information?

“She attends the Academy of HIgh Magic. Once we-” Not very fresh at all, then.

Casimir cut the shaman off. “Yeah, I already foiled that plot. That’s how I discovered the revenants.”

“...I also have a map to some of their major bases.” Polium said.

“We already took out the one in the Wounded Wastes.” Casimir said. “It’s where we dusted Petranis.”

“In that case…” Polium tilted his talons to his right, allowing the jets of flame to curve his trajectory to the left. “This way, then!”

Casimir chuckled as he mentally finished the phrase. ‘To Adventure!’

----------------

Polium’s information was, unfortunately, mostly out of date. Each base was cleared out long before they got there, most of them being previously undiscovered or even freshly excavated dungeons filled with monsters. Profitable, but not what they were looking for.

“We’ve been running around the continent for a month now.” David complained. “Yeah, I appreciate y’all letting me sidetrack us long enough for me to do that errand, but this is not getting us anywhere!” The errand he was referring to was dropping the equipment from the Wounded Wastes off at his friend’s contact, who turned out to be a quartermaster for the local military. They took the opportunity to sell off some of the superfluous enchanted weapons while they were there, splitting the money evenly.

“At least any and all rust we could possibly have has been thoroughly scrubbed clean.” Casimir snarked as he cooked lunch for the group. He’s probably stronger than he’s ever been, at this point.

“We’ve also used up most of Hana’s potions.” David retorted. “The only ones left are those water ones you still haven’t touched.”

“I have a plan for those.” Casimir assured him. “Also, there’s still a few more life ones left.” Three, specifically. Mind mana was his second most proficient mana type, behind force, so he always had a good idea on how to make use of those mind potions. Even if he tried to hold back on using them. So, he was out. The remaining life potions were reserved for emergency healing.

“Once we face our enemies, they will be quite useful.” Polium agreed. “Even if I am uncertain as to how effectively you can wield it.”

“I’ve been practicing.” Casimir said, smiling in anticipation. “I’m ready for them.”

David punched his palm. “So, what’s our next move?”

“I don’t know.” Casimir admitted. “We haven’t checked an Adventurer’s guild in six days, perhaps they have more news from the other teams, or fresh leads about undead?”

“I don’t have any better ideas.” David replied, agreeing with the rough idea. “What’s the closest big one?”

Polium checked the map, marked . “The one in the Jurta Federation’s capital, I believe.”

Casimir perked up. “Actually, let’s not go to Jurta. They’re invading their neighbors right now. Let’s go to Krallent instead.”

“Want to check on your students?” David asked.

“More like I need to make sure they get back to the Academy.” Casimir said. “The communication crystal I left them has finally expired even after my efforts to maintain the connection, and if they want to get back in time for classes they’re going to have to leave soon.” Should he pay for a portal? He can afford it now… Maybe if there’s a promising lead at the guild, he’ll take the extra days to hunt it down, and then pay for a portal.

Polium hummed in thought. “Yes, it may be time to gather information once more. I must continue on this course until the revenant threat is dispatched, but if obligations take you from this journey…”

Casimir winced. “Yeah… they kind of do.” He could just not show up for his upcoming classes… but that would leave his students out in the cold. Was it really worth abandoning them when he didn’t even have a lead?

“I will send a messenger in the event I learn of their plans.” Polium assured him.

David chipped in: “Unless we get a chance to take them out first.”

----------------

“I’m sorry sir, but the Cursed Study Group haven’t yet returned from their latest mission.” The polite old man said sympathetically. Their name was kind of stupid, but Casimir really couldn’t talk. They can change it later, anyway. “We did expect them back this morning, but they must have been delayed.”

“Ah, where would they have been sent, then?” Casimir asked. “Also… did you expect them back based on their demonstrated travel times, or the standard?” He added.

“Oh, they were specifically requested for a small clearing mission.” The bureaucrat replied. “A farmer that moved in recently found an underground cavern on his new property, and heard from his neighbor how proficient your students were.” After a moment, he added: “The property is about two days away, and it’s been six days since they’ve left.” Shit. “Now that you mention it, they have made something of a habit of coming back early for all of their quests.”

“Where’s the farm?” Casimir asked insistently.

The bureaucrat considered the request, as it was, strictly speaking, not something he was supposed to do. The Adventurer’s guild doesn’t recognize Casimir’s status as a teacher to hold any special privileges related to his students, and as he’s not related to them either… Policy-wise, it’s no different than if he was some random thug demanding to know where some rookie adventurers were busy getting tired out by fighting monsters.

Needless to say, policy wasn’t always followed to the letter. “Now I don’t know what kind of things you get up to in your local guild, Mr. Toomes, but here, we take the privacy of our adventurer’s seriously. I couldn’t possibly give you directions to Mr. Mason’s farm.” the old man shooed Casimir away.

Casimir snapped his fingers. “Well, I’ll just have to wait, then. On an unrelated note, where is the courthouse? I’ve been thinking about purchasing some land.”

After the detailed directions as to who to talk to regarding land ownership, and an uneventful trip following them, Casimir ran off to possibly save his unlucky students.

----------------

Finding the farm was the easy part. More difficult was finding the cave system that was nominally the reason his students were called. Now that he wasn’t in a terrain that was best described as ‘churning pudding’ in consistency, it was only somewhat annoying to locate rather than nigh impossible.

The cave was cleared, but there was clear evidence of battle. A wide scorch pattern on two parts of the cave, presumably from fireballs, a few cracked bits of floor from exuberant use of force mana to maneuver… they were here. So, time to check on the owner of the land. He did see a shack on the way…

The shack was deserted. After a quick look around, he saw the trail of a wagon. “Back to tracking.” Casimir mused, focusing his senses on the smells and faint traces of his student’s presence. “They were on the wagon.” He concluded after following the trail. “...and Hanna was bleeding.” It was quite unusual, actually. She could easily use magic to seal any wound or clean up any blood, but he could pick up a drop of her blood, the mana within distinctly pungent to his enhanced senses, every hundred feet or so.

Ah, she was leaving behind a trail on purpose. Of course. That said quite a few things about their situation. Casimir’s guess was slavers. If they were working directly for Luci, they probably would have taken Illivere alone. That wasn’t to say that the slavers weren’t going to sell Illivere to whatever doppleganger Luci has ready, but the trail meant that they believed that he would come looking for them, and they’d live long enough for him to find them.

Now, he had students to track down.

----------------

If you had asked Casimir to guess where a wagon full of slavers with product would go to in this part of the mainland, he wouldn’t have been able to answer that question. Slavery was not particularly endorsed by any nation… officially. There were plenty of ‘not quite slavery’ kinds of agreements out there, and of course criminals could threaten whatever kind of force necessary to make things work for them. Even bandits had to be able to deal with local monsters, after all.

What he did not expect was a prison complex/quarry that, to all appearances, was associated with the same nation that Krallent is a part of, although he couldn’t quite remember the name right now. He was pretty sure the ruler was a King… It had the same flag with the hammer and spear design on it.

His students were definitely inside, though. The question was, was this a legitimate prison that dabbled in slaving on the side, or a slaver camp merely disguised as a prison? As Casimir tweaked and amplified his senses to examine the area from a distance, he started to build a picture of how his students were being kept. They were in the basement, chained up and with their equipment kept in a crate, not yet distributed to the slavers as loot. Well, some of it probably was, but for the most part it was all in one spot. Which if they were a real prison, would be what one would expect them to do.

Still…he needed more information. He leapt to the front gate of the prison, allowing the excess force mana to violently discharge on the ground, which was absorbed by the dirt with a brief tremor. The guards on the towers adjacent to the gate all became alert and started readying their bows.

One of them shouted, using an enchanted stone to amplify their voice. “Who goes there!”

“I am Elite Adventurer Toomes!” Casimir boomed back louder, using a few motes of mana to emulate the enchantment. “This is your only chance to release the unlawfully imprisoned adventurers held here!”

As the guards processed his statement, Casimir assessed the gate. The wall was made of quality steel-plated stone, which was another point in favor of this being a legitimate prison. There were some enchantments improving both the durability of the metal and also providing other security features, but this country did not have enchanters that were up to the task, in Casimir’s opinion. But he was a bit of a magic snob, so it was probably passable.

…Yeah, it would take way too much mana to kick it open. Drat.

Surprising him, the guard actually sent someone to ‘get the Warden’, which put the final nail in the ‘real prison’ coffin. “You stay there, and the Warden will speak with you.”

“Alright. Won’t move from this spot.” Casimir assured them. He focused on the depleted, but still present mana profiles of his students, which still shined to him from his usage of Attune Senses.

As the minutes dragged on, he noticed his students being moved, sedated with a sleep spell, and he tracked them in his mind’s eye as they moved down what was probably an underground tunnel that led… right beneath his current position. He confirmed the terrain with a pulse of stone mana, feeling out the dirt beneath his feet. Conveniently, they thought to bring the evidence with them, carrying the crate with their equipment on the same cart or wagon they were being moved with.

The Warden was a fat man who squinted past his spectacles as he stood on the walkway above the gate. “What’s all this then?” He shouted, offended. “We have no prisoners that are here unlawfully, adventuring or otherwise.”

“Does your prison have a basement?” Casimir asked. “Any underground tunnels, perhaps?”

Stunned by the non sequitur, the Warden said “No.” with confidence.

“Well then, clearly those adventurers aren’t in your prison then.” Casimir said, kicking the ground in faux frustration. “Ah well. I’ll just… go away.” Sighing dramatically, he walked off dejectedly, following the path the tunnel took as it transported his students.

The Warden didn’t seem to know how to respond to this outcome, but eventually decided that it wasn’t his problem. “Good! You are not welcome here!”

Now, where in the world are they taking them?