Chapter 74 IN PROGRESS

MK is in air, flying up with the crystal. Had he brought Slurk back with him, we might have asked him if he knew a way to get up there, nonmagically. Or if he knows something about the crystal. Or Tzeentch. Or knows someone who might. The storm increases to a fever pitch. Black sky. Raining, hailing. We lose sight of MK. After about an hour, the storm abates a little. Two hours, reduced back to just snow and wind. The stone flies down, gently coming to a rest in front of us. MM scans the skies for MK, but he doesn't return. He failed. And died. Sadly, she decides that they're not getting anywhere. WD's vision tells us that Slurk is the key. We go to the tower, where we told Slurk to meet us. THe trip is uneventful. Still snowing, but lighter, especially 2000 feet lower. And gets better the further we get from the hole. We arrive. Slurk comes out of the woods and prostrates himself before us. Just him. Where are your friends? Can't find them. Knights? No idea. Worthless, useless, undeserving wretch, etc. He's really sorry. Give you a chance to prove you're not totally worthless. Oh, yes, mistress. Coldfire knights looking for Crystals of chaos. Have you heard of them? No. $, elements, created by dwarves long ago. Dwarves, chaos, really? Yes; I believe Tzeentch was involved. Ah, Tzeentch; Don't know about crystals, but do about Tzeentch. Tell me what you know. Yadda yadda yadda blah blah blah. Master of Fate, trickster, plans, change. Conspirator, intrigue. Knows nothing about destroying things of power. No. Why are we searching for them? Because Tzeentch desires us to. He looks up, with an idea, "I know someone who talks to Tzeentch every day!" Who? Malusalbus; he leads a small cult of chaos not far from here. Perhaps he would know where to find these stones; he certainly knows something of the mind of Tzeentch, and perhaps Tzeentch would even communicate with us! Where is he? They are very secretive, he can take us there. OK, take us there. After all, WD's visions said he's the key, and this is what he apparently knows. We follow him east, towards the mountains. We reach them, he takes us south, deeper into the YV along the mountains. // The tower is sort of at the northern area of the chaos that is at the center. The river is the western and southern extent, the mountains on the east. // South along the mountains for several hours. We camp for the night at the point where we start heading into the mountains. Quiet, we get food. Cold and miserable, but not in danger of dying. Still snowing of course. Slurk camps 50 yards away from. MM hears on her watch Slurk's two heads arguing with each other in loud whispers. THe Vulture head says don't try to fool me, know you think. F: Nothing! V:You think people are good and deserve loyalty more than the great god! F: same thing, they are of tzeentch. V: not! you betray us, slurk! Next morning, we head into the mountains. 1/2 day's trip. As we travel, Slurk tells us about the Cult of Chaos. They are very secretive and very paranoid about outsiders, which is why he has to take us. Otherwise, we'd never be let near the place. Although we could of course fight our way in, it's not our intent. If he can make some recommendations... Go ahead. Don't tell them of our power. (He believes we are avatars of Tzeentch.) Instead, we should pretend to be humans, pretend to want to be new acolytes in the cult. Allow them to get used to us and live amongst them until Mal trusts us to talk to us openly about stuff. If at any time we get tired of pretending, we can just end the charade and show them we are avatars of Tzeentch! As you know, Mal is only human, and like most humans are very jealous of the knowledge they have and I believe he is more likely to share his knowledge if he doesn't understand who we really are. Yokay. Do they accept many acolytes? Not many, but occasionally. Acolytes don't live long. They need refreshing. Mal encourages his followers to embrace death, not to fear it. How large is this cult, how many people? About 50 or so. Are they all human? No, but most of them are, with a few beastmen. As we walk, R hears the sound of armored men ahead. R announces. We stop. They're not very far ahead, but out of sight. We're ascending a mountain, and there are losts of rocks, crags, corners. No trees; above the tree line. Slurk says it's probably the cultists. A guard patrolling the compound. It would be best if we let him do the talking. OK... We see 10 well-armored men (and beastmen). Slurk hails them heartily (jskflsirjgfhteencth!) They look at us suspiciously. THe leader says hello and asks who we are. Slurk says: these are the great heralds. of Tzeentch! THe ones who come to destroy all! The leader says OK. Seems bored by the statement, and ignores us. They walk off. Slurk says, see, they know me here. MM asks about the heralds. They all dream of destroying everything! That's probably why we are here. Oh, good. Do we intend to continue to pretend to be human and acolytes? Yes, I believe that is our path right now. We continue. We reach the top after about an hour. Wow. ON the way up, it looks like a peak, then mountains on the other side. We get there, and the other side of the peak is just a sheer cliff, 100s of feet high. Very sudden and startling. THe other side has slipped away about 200-300 feet, and there's a huge jagged fissure going down. Over the edge is a huge rack jutting out from the edge of the cliff. Hanging from this rack is a sheet of tattered, old, weathered netting. Hangs about 30 yards down. Down below are openings in the cliff, like caves. Made accessible by the netting. There are in fact a few people climbing on the netting, traveling between the caves.