After eating their fill and cleaning up from their travels, it's time to show off the new clothes. So Eve takes Aviri, Linyala and Trilup to the center of the city, at the very top of the hill at its heart. There are fortifications - or rather, the remains of them - to pass, but nobody is actually guarding access to the government center. And near the House of Lords is the first museum built in Sylvania.

Hall of Atrocities
This is probably the oldest building in Justininople, and is a stone edifice in the Olympian style, with huge columns supporting the lintel, which has bas reliefs showing Katthas fighting monsters. The facade could use some cleaning, and it doesn't look like the museum gets many visitors.

In his new clothes, Aviri did his best to be ... not crazy, at all the things going on in the city around him, and managed to do remarkably well, certainly better than his first true foray into "downtown" Stonebarrow. Though he was so distracted by this that he hadn't noticed Eve stop, and so bumped into her. He looks up suddenly. "Oh ... hey, we're here!"

"Wow, it's a mountain.." Trilup says, never having seen a solid stone building before.

The museum's poor upkeep is not lost on Linyala. She pokes the face of the building with a claw, flaking off a bit of grime. "It's a little... Don't people like fightin' monsters and history and stuff? Look at these carvings! They're awesome!"

Aviri tries to examine the facade, but feels his mind slipping back into panic mode and catches himself making frequent looks over his shoulder to keep tabs on the other city-goers. He takes a deep breath. "Looks ... " he makes vague 'big' gestures with his hands.

"It's culture, and worse... old culture," Eve says. "It's hard to get people interested in that sort of stuff. I've tried! I put on a free opera in Rephidim. Well.. lots of people came, but they thought it was a comedy instead of a tragedy.."

Trilup watches Aviri. "We should go inside, so Aviri can calm down a bit," she suggests. "Especially if there are fewer people inside."

"Oh right," Eve says, nodding. "Aviri is the oldest! I'm sure he can get us inside."

The Lapi nods and starts toward the door, tyring not to move too quickly. "I'll do my best," he says confidently, willing to do anything to just get off the streets.

"Yeah, maybe there'll be stuffed monsters, or really bad cooking, maybe Emmett's socks?" Lin ponders, thinking of the atrocities she knows of as they enter the museum.

The door is a stone archway, and there's deep shadow until their eyes adjust. "Hi!" someone chirps in front of them, seeming to pop up out of the darkness. It's a Lapi, with light-tan fur, a pink blouse, purple skirt and slightly manic expression. "Welcome to the Hall of Atrocities, a Cavalcade of History for the Whole Family! Please say you want to see it!"

While his eyes are still adjusting to the light, the sudden emergance of manic Lapi startles him, pulling himself and whomever is to his left and right--he hadn't really paid attention to that climbing the steps--back away from the potential threat. When said threat reveals itself to be non-existant, he relaxes and merely listens with concern. "Er ... yes, we want to see it," he says, more slowly than absolutely necessary.

Lin has learned by now to not stand too close to Aviri and steps forward while he panicks. "Show us everyhing!" The says to the lapi with a grin, "Do we have to be a family though?"

"Well.." the guide(?) says, looking them over. "Are you on a field trip from school?"

"We're.. tourists," Eve claims, and clutches Aviri's arm while smiling. "This is our chaperone!"

"Ah, that's just fine then!" the Lapi woman says. She produces a clipboard.. there must be a shelf or something nearby that's painted black so that it seems invisible. "Now I just need your names and ages please!"

"I'm Eve Kurai, and I'm twelve years old," Eve says, standing on her toes a bit to seem taller.

"I'm Trilup Oggton and I'm also maybe twelve or probably a bit older, but not too old!" Trilup claims.

The Lapi girl looks them over while holding a pencil over her clipboard. "Those are obviously made up names, like Ballswick or Tina," she claims.

"Fine, I put down the names you gave me then," the woman says, then makes the clipboard vanish. "I am Historian (in training, I mean.. this is pretty much an internship until I get my degree and stuff, but I'm still not just some girl off the street) Cathrarg D'Bunnay."

"An' what's it matter anyways? Those are our names but even if they weren't, you just need somethin' ta call us fer a few hours." Lin asks then tilts her head at Eve, "I know we're not from around here but is this how introductions usually go?"

"Cathrarg?" Aviri asks with mild disbelief. "Well ... it's a pleasure to meet you." Again he gives a little bow.

Eve shrugs to Lin. "I don't know," she says. "This one must go to the university. She's probably insane."

"Well that's out of the way!" Cathrarg says, and points into the darkness. "Follow me on a grand adventure through time and space, full of danger and excitement and a little gift shop at the end."

"Could downplay the 'excitement'," Aviri says quietly, forgetting that she, as a Lapi, could probably hear him. He follows, ensuring none of the girls get left behind.

"You have time travel? I overheard some Wingnuts talking about that. Can you show us the Necromancer Wars? Or maybe stuff from a long time ago?" Lin asks, "Can it do future stuff too?"

Cathrarg lights a lantern, and begins her tour speech. "This building was constructed 1273 RTR - almost 5,000 years ago, give or take a century. It was built by the Olympians as they spread through Nordika, building roads and civilization and so on. Probably dancing as well. Many Sylvanian Katthas are of Olympian descent."

Aviri hangs back a few steps, letting the girls go first, thinking they'd be more interested in the Abominations, though the mention of the mere age of this building makes his eyes bulge.

"All Museums are time machines, Linyala-if-that's-your-real-name," the Lapi doe explains. "They just sort of keep the past for you to look at. The future stuff is only at fairs and carnivals and with gypsy fortune tellers and there was this one time a friend handed me some 'tea' at a party and I saw the sun explode but that's probably just because I hit my head hard when I fell to the floor.."

They enter a room with mosaics on the walls, depicting a Sylvania that is sunny and full of farms, and almost all of the people in it are Katthas. "Sylvania was an Olympian farming colony for over 2,000 years, when nothing very interesting happened, because farming is boring," Cathrarg says, showing off the artwork.

"It sure is," Trilup notes, and tries to pry one of the blue tiles loose before Cathrarg swats her hand. "No touching the exhibits, please, unless you want to end up as one yourself," she chides.

"Cool. An' you can just call me Lin, you're gonna strain something trying to say that whole thing every time." Lin suggests, leaning closer to a wall to get a better look at the details in the background.

There aren't any monsters in the mosaic. Or anything else that isn't a digitigrade feline or livestock. "Sylvania is unique in Nordika, because it has feral-forms of many sapient peoples, which is why when you come across a Sylvanian hunting lodge you shouldn't worry that the stuffed heads or antlers came from people, it's just that we have 'deer' and 'rabbits' and a few 'wolves' even, but there are things called bears further to the west, beyond Tursdi, that would really give you nightmares."

Lin checks another few pictures before coming back over to Cathrarg. "But what about the atrocities?" She asks, "Hunting's just a thing and animals aren't monsters."

This leads into the next hall, which has lots of stuffed animals. And again, no monsters. "Of course, boredom never lasts forever, and everything fell apart in the Age of Empires, when the Olympian Empire began to fall apart around 4000 RTR. The Naga Empire in the Savan was expanding, and Nordika was fractured by the First Necromancer Wars, which started in Tizban but really flourished in Sylvania."

The next hall shows.. well, monsters. There is a 'preserved' zombie, something that looks like a feral Titanian, and some vampires. "In just 100 years, Sylvania became.. dark. The spirit of the land soured, it is said, like spoiled milk. Of course, really, you should make cheese before that happens. Cheese is milk's attempt at immortality. So.. uh.. the undead were the Necromancer's cheese."

Cathrarg pauses and looks at Aviri. "Was? There still is. The same one, technically."

Aviri nods nervously and tries to not think about that--after all, his whole knowledge of Nagas boiled down to that warning by the tailor. He focuses on the vampires which seem rather tame by comparison--after all, he'd met at least three, and they seemed nice enough.

"Finally!" Lin chirps then starts examining the preserved zombie. "Wow, this is gnarly! That finger's only stuck on by a bit of tendon. Look, Tril, the ribs are exposed an' bits of organs are poking through."

"Why'd he keep the organs?" Trilup asks, reaching out.. and then pulling her hand back before it can be swatted.

"Or zombies don't care to take the time to remove the organs," Aviri notes, walking over to the display.

"If I were making a necromantic army," Lin claims, "I'd do skeletons. Zombies look and smell bad and they're slow. Skeletons aren't hauling around all that rotten meat an' you can decorate them!"

"I dunno," Trilup says to Lin. "It'd be awfully noisy when they moved. Clack clack clack clack all the time.."

"Also they's seem pretty fragile," Aviri adds. "Pretty easy to knock apart, unless held together with something like moss."

"That morphy moss was pretty cool. Quiets down the skeletons and keeps them together. Though maybe just the moss on its own would be better and not have it be tryin' to kill and or seduce you." Lin follows Cathrarg, "Dragons, you say?"

"Stuff would get stuck in them too, especially the lower legs and arms, because they've got two bones instead of one," Cathrarg offers. "I used to get my tail caught in the hanging display skeleton in my civics class all the time.."

"Oh, right, come along to the Age of Exiles!" Cathrarg announces dramatically, and strides into the next chamber. This one has a huge painting of a unicorn in shining armor fighting.. well, it looks like a black blob full of shapes. There are stuffed dragons though, no two alike other than being monstrous versions of normal reptiles. "The Exiles brought the dragons, and fought them right here in Sylvania.. among other places. Northern Shore is still ruled by an Aeonian, and legends say the Shadow Dragons are responsible for the creation of the vampire Eeee that spread out from Draco County. All of this was still 2,000 years ago!"

Aviri looks with some distrust at the dragons, not as though they'd come to life, but at their variety. "So, they brought dragons here," he says, "and then fought them? Why not ... not bring them?"

"Who were the Exiles though?" Lin asks, "If dragons kin fly, wouldn't tey have come on their own just 'cause they aren't limited by oceans and mountains?"

"Well, see.. the Aeonians.." and here Cathrarg points to the unicorn, "were the Exiles. So.. they were exiled here. By the Shadow Dragons.. who came along, for some reason. A few anyway. They made the other dragons. The Shadow ones did, not the unicorns. And did you know there can never be new Aeonians? They live forever, but can't reproduce. Pretty weird, right?"

"They can die though, right?" Lin asks, "That sounds horrible. Live forever and not have kids. Blech."

"Uh.. I don't know," Cathrarg admits. "They're really rare after all. I think there's just the one in Sylvania."

"It.. it doesn't work that way," Cathrarg says. "It's just the Aeonians that don't age. We can have all the kids we want, but you don't want to have middle children, because they'll resent you."

Lin cocks her head, "Can the witches do that? Make sure you have twins or nothing?"

"Or stick to even numbers," the doe suggests. "I've never met a witch. I suppose that's the sort of thing they do though? This whole exciting bit of history with aliens and dragons and such lasted for a century, and then things got dull for a while, except that everyone was fighting everyone else, because Sylvania was lots of little towns and fiefdoms and nobody was in charge. So it was pretty chaotic for the next 750 years. Then then humans showed up here and tried to organize things, and lots of other folks started moving in as well, so it wasn't just the Olympian types anymore."

"And all the while, this building was there, recording stuff?" Lin looks around with at least a little awe in the age of the building now that she has a bit more tangible of a time scale.

"Well, curators recorded stuff and put it in here, the building doesn't do stuff on its own," Cathrarg says. The next room has a statue of a human in it, wearing a big fur cloak and holding a big sword. "Around 5100 RTR, we got our first Czar, who unified Sylvania into a proper nation," the doe explains. "Sylvan the First."

There are murals in here as well, showing battles and armies, often with poodles.

"Probably explains where the name comes from," Aviri chuckles, examining the statue. "Was it cold?"

"They sure aren't much for looks." Lin says then wanders away from the satue to look at the pictures of battles.

"He was named after the country, not the other way around," Cathrarg explains. "That's normal for kings and such - they get a new name with the crown. And humans don't have all-over-fur, so they get colder easier."

Aviri nods and turns from the coat to stare intently at the rendition of a poodle. "Makes sense."

"What's with the funky hair cuts?" Lin asks, pointing at a poodle whos fur looks like a series of spheres set on its shaved limbs.

"That's just the style for Gallisian nobility," Cathrarg notes. "Otherwise I think they just have really long curly hair that would make them look like mops or something."

Lin whispers to Trilup, "We need to find some hair growth potion for next time one of them comes to town. It'll be glorious!"

"The current Czar is Justinian III," Cathrarg notes. "The first dynasty reigned for 800 years, while Sylvania flourished.. for the most part. Then things started to go bad again.."

"When was that in relation to now?" Lin asks, "We must be getting to only a few hundred years ago."

Lin nudges Aviri as they head for the next room. "An' you had 'reservations' about the Hall of Atrocities. Cool name, cool place." She says quietly and lightly elbows him in the ribs.

"It'll prolly get more horrifying once we hit the next Necromancer Wars." Lin offers, hopefully.

"Welcome to the year 5903 RTR, when Sylvania was invaded!" Cathrarg says. The next room has paintings and a statue. "This is the Age of Demons, when Bosch began to spawn monsters, the mighty Underground Empire of Moltpaa collapsed, and other omens hinted at Bad Times Acomin!" She holds the lantern up close to the statue, which the otters and Lapi should recognize as.. Amelia Blacktail, from Stonebarrow. Only here the engraving is Amelia Bloodfur, and flecks of red paint hint that the statue was once painted. "The Demon Horde, the Bloodfurs, the Catskinners.. lots of names go with these fellow. They came out of Tursdi and cut a bloody swath across Sylvania. They were the swathiest of swathers.."

The Kadie statue is in a pose of mid-leap, with claws and teeth bared and a wild look in her eyes. This is matched in the paintings, showing blood-covered Kadies and Lapis slaughtering Katthas and others, all with demon-red eyes. Piles of skulls are a prominent feature as well.

"The Bloodfur rampage tore through everything and everyone that tried to stop them, until they just stopped at Stonebarrow and slaughtered everyone that wasn't a Skeek. Then.. they supposedly just settled down and became farmers. But during the Necromancer Wars that followed, and the Gallisian invasion, there were always rumors about the Bloodfurs showing up and killing armies.. without anyone seeing it somehow."

Aviri tilts his head at the statue and the various paintings of Amelia, an odd look on his face. "So, Stonebarrow's still around?" he asks. "Despite the ... slaughter?"

Lin looks at the statue quietly, steps back, then looks at it from another angle. "Any idea why ther cut that swath?" She asks, "Seems weird that they'd just show up an' vanish like that. Armies an' hordes usually have a reason for doing stuff."

"Nobody knooooooows," Cathrarg says, moving her hands around in a spooky manner. "But it softened us up, and in 5950 the Wars of the Necromancer Kings started, which is what we normally think of as the Necromancer Wars, if we ignore the original wars almost 2,000 years earlier."

Aviri turns to a painting and chuckles. "It's like a natural event," he says. "Sweeping in, destroying everything, vanishing ...." He turns to Eve and nods with a wide grin.

"Ow," the kitten complains, while Cathrarg turns to look at Lin a little more closely. "You.. You are a Kavi, aren't you?"

Aviri shoots Lin a look for hitting a Duchess! but doesn't feel it right to berate her here.

"An' what of it?" The otter asks, "We're not cutting swaths or going on bloody rampages. We're just bein' halfway well behaved 'tourists'."

"Are you one of the Swamp Devils from the Upheaval of 6037?" Cathrarg asks with a gasp.

Aviri rolls his eyes and holds up his hands in a calming gesture. "No, we're not devils, we're not dangerous, we're not warriors of any kind. I'm a botanist. These two are fisherm ... fisherpeople. Eve's ... not from Stonebarrow at all."

"And you're certain you aren't possessed by any demons or spirits?" Cathrarg asks.

"Cathrarg, I wasn't even born yet then. I don't think my parents were born then. I ain't some demon spirit thing." Lin claims.

"But.. you guys did just recently kill a Necromancer, didn't you?" Cathrarg asks. "I know for a fact that someone from the Mages Guild went to Stonebarrow to confirm it, due to the bounty.."

"Yeah," Aviri says. "Valicross. But, seriously, we're not dangerous. Kinda getting tired of people being terrified of me. As Lin would say: I stare at moss."

"Does the moss flinch when you do that?" Cathrarg asks. "I may have to interview all of you after the tour, to fill in some blanks as it were."

"Well, there was that one time it tried to seduce you an' gave me a massage." Lin chirps.

"Not usually," Aviri says with a smirk. "There was that one time it did." He chuckles. "And I guess an interview would be fine. Might help clear up things."

"And I'd like to do an anatomical study on the Akwavi," Cathrarg says. "They're very rare you know."

"Come back to Stonebarrow with us an' I'm sure some of us would be happy to show you all the anatomy you like." Lin says with a wink.

"Oh, I can't do that," Cathrarg claims, waving her hand. "But.. is there a difference between the Lapi there and everywhere else?" She starts looking Aviri up and down. And.. well, some Chalks are born with antlers, it's true..

"Well, I can help you with that," Cathrarg says, and winks. "Now then, shall we move on to the Wars of the Necromancer Kings?"

Aviri gulps nerbously. "Y-yes, lets move on," he says, giving her a worried look.

There's a life-sized diorama in the next chamber. It shows several hooded figures, human and Khatta, standing around an ornate sarcophagus that is opened to reveal a mummy-wrapped female form. "The only knowledge we have of how things started is from The Sylvanian Heresy, which is alleged to be an eyewitness account by one of the putative Necromancer Kings," Cathrarg says. "This sarcophagus was contained the Queen of the Undead, Necropolis - also known as Amenlichtli - who revived and shared her secrets with the necromancers. They of course all started fighting and trying to claim their own pieces of Sylvania.."

Feeling a but flustered at the whole Stonebarrow-revelation-thing, Aviri takes his time with the diorama. "So, necromancers raised Necropolis/Amenlichtli, and she then became her own necromantic queen-person?"

"But they couldn't get along." Lin muses, "If they'd worked together, I'll bet they'd have plunged the whole area into a nightmare of eternal undeath."

"Well, the story goes that Necropolis played them against one another using her.. feminine wiles," Cathrarg notes. "The true Necromancer King was the one she was with. But it only lasted 30 years, before Duke Phelix Kurai the First came along and chopped the King's head off. There was more skirmishing and such, so the conflict itself lasted until 6050."

Aviri nods, giving Eve a look, realizing that she was kinda historical, being related to Phelix. "Wonder if the king's head is still alive," he says idly. "Being undead and all...."

"Prolly wouldn't be any more fun than the sword of buttmunch though. Just some talking head rambling about being an undead head." Lin says then adds, "But you need lungs to speak so he'd only really be able to make mouth shapes at you all angrily."

"Oh, there are stories about that," Cathrarg teases, and moves to the next display. Now things get a bit more atrocious. There are depictions of hybrid zombie creatures made from mixed parts, and a miniature sculpture of a giant skeleton made out of smaller ones. "See, legend says that the second Champion, Phelix the Second, founded some sort of prison for the Necromancers, where they would be trapped forever in special coffins that kept them just alive enough to suffer being undead."

"Granny Oggton says we gave that guy a ride on our way through the swamps," Trilup notes.

"Yeck," Aviri mutters as he sees the abominations. "Are those prisons still ... around? Or did someone go and kill the undead things?"

"That'd have been during the upheaval, in 6037," Cathrarg says. "Central Silvania suffered a huge earthquake and massive flooding from an unknown source. Lots of normal animals turned monster as well."

"Well, the Well of Souls Prison is just a legend, along with the Light of Nala - the weapon the Kurai's wielded to defeat the Necromancers. The Queen supposedly escaped though."

"Why mess with it? If they're safe an' sort of dead in there, there's no good reason to interfere." Lin says, "Hey, are there any live examples of these necromangles?"

"I heard Amy say how they used to have a Necromancer head that could talk, but.. uh.. the witches used a magic box or something to 'eat' him. I bet they've got Valicross in it right now!" Trilup claims.

"If there are still necromancers out there, they are keeping a low profile," Cathrarg says.

Lin grins and bounces on the balls of her feet. "The witches have a magic box too? Maybe I could bring Waddles an' we could have a magic box party."

"Ewww, what if they kiss?" Trilup asks, shuddering. "Then your box would have necromancer cooties on it!"

Aviri shudders too, but for completely different reasons. "No box-parties while I'm around," he says to Lin. "So Necropolis/Amenlichtli is still alive?"

"Waddles?" Cathrarg asks. "That's an odd name for your magic box. I call mine Veronica. Wait.. no, that's.. uh.. never mind that I said that," the doe quickly adds, waving her hands as if to clear an odor from the air.

"Then maybe they'll have little undead box babies an' we kin give one to Aviri." Lin suggests.

"Ahem.. Necropolis isn't alive but.. she's around, supposedly," Cathrarg says, glad to be back on the topic of history. "There have been incidents and sightings.. all far away from Sylvania though, thankfully!"

"Oh, good," Aviri says, relaxing at that distance. It meant he'd likely not need to worry about it.

Lin gives Cathrarg a curious look. "You've got a magic box too?" She asks, "I found Waddles in a weird basement full of magic junk. Where'd you get yours? Does it do anything cool? Does it clean cutlery?"

"I.. thought we were talking about something else.." the doe claims. "You'll get it when you're older. Now.. on to the scary stuff.." she says, waving the lantern and hurrying into the next room.

Aviri chuckles into his hand and looks back at the coffin scene. "Yes, onto more history," he advises.

Lin rolls her eyes and mumbles to herself as she follows, "That's what older people always say when they mean sex. How is a box even related to that? Of all the magical boxes I've seen, they're made of wood and are enchanted and are actual boxes for keeping things in."

After leaving the Necromancer Era.. they're into the modern one, the last 70 years or so. "A few years back, Rephidim was attacked by a coalition of surface nations, mainly Babel and the Nagai Empire. It's unofficially knows as the Boomer War, because of the two city-eating weapons that were used. Gallis sided with Rephidim, and fought in the Battle of the Plaguebringers.. and this granted them a bit of favor with the Rephidim Temple - enough to have them declare that Sylvania was not a nation, due to the Czar being unable to pull things together after the necromancers war, and that gave Gallis the 'authority' to try and conquer us for our own good." There are paintings in here, done in modern, realistic style. Many of them show Gallisian Chevaliers holding up trophies - Eeee skins and heads, specifically of vampire Eeee. "They basically declared that certain people were monsters, and strove to exterminate them whenever they advanced."

Lin looks around for some kind of reference image, "Boomer War? City eating weapons? I don't get it."

"The mystic energies used in the war left a lot of places sour, and that meant a higher incidence of surface mutation," Cathrarg explained, showing other paintings where deformed or just slightly off people - even children - were being killed.

Aviri blanches at the look of the trophies, turning away and trying to find better, less barbaric scenes. "Hope that's not still happening," he manages to say.

"Oh.. the Boomers were alien weapons that.." Cathrarg says, turning to Lin. "Well.. do you know of Elamoore, the trade city of Himar? While chasing a Babelite airship that had stolen one of the weapons from wherever they came from, the Eeee decided to drop it and escape. The bomb.. swapped Elamoore for a piece of the world Abaddon, so now it's the Red Cliffs instead of Elamoore, and the Pit of Himar on Abaddon. Then after the war was 'officially' over.. a rogue captain of the Rephidim fleet dropped a second boomer on Babel in retaliation, swapping the core of the city with.. nothing. It's just a great pit now, called the Wound.."

"And the Gallisians are still trying to conquer sections of Sylvania. They more or less control the south now, but can't make headway in the north against the forces of Draco County and other hazards."

"Our Chevalier landlord was turned into a pig by Countess Draco!" Trilup offers up. "His son runs stuff in his name.. but is alright.. or at least easy to manipulate."

Lin nods slowly. "So it's like a great big magical teleport? How do you know what you'll swap with though? Seems like you could easily wind up moving half of your own city to the place you just... Attacked? Did anyone even die from the Boomers or did they just get moved to another place?"

"Oh yes, still hunting 'monsters' - it's possible that they've done away with The Midnight Murder, which were some troublesome monsters from a lost town. And sometimes things go bad for the Gallisians too. There was an occupied town that woke up one morning to find all the soldiers - which had been posted in their homes mind you - beheaded. But no sign of the heads! That's credited to the Bloodfurs."

"They pretend to be all nice and civil," Eve says. "Some came to Blackshire to try and convince Feli.. my brother, the Duke.. to switch to their side!"

"They sound downright barbaric," Aviri says. "I hope the Duke resisted their wiles!"

"Oh, he made sure they didn't get very far, and went and kicked them out of our neighbor's county too," Eve says proudly. "And they're.. not barbaric, just.. civilized to the point where they don't see lesser folk as people anymore. Even in their own country, they had a race where the goal was to see how many poor 'mutt' people they could kill."

Aviri looks down at his own feet--digitigrade--then up at Eve. "Don't think I'll be visiting there anytime soon."

"They probably wouldn't bother you," Cathrarg says with a slight smile. "Everyone likes Lapi. We don't cause trouble. Except for the ones that might have maybe brought down the Olympian Empire, but the Amazonians are practically mythical."

"Still doesn't seem like a nice place," Aviri says. He glanced back at the vampire-heads and shudders. "Seems like we're getting pretty close to ... today, on our tour."

"We mostly still update this area," Cathrarg says, and brings them to a map of Sylvania, showing the current occupied areas. And of course the location of whatever the compass is pointing to is within that area.. and possibly underwater.

Aviri notices the map, and it's implications--an up-to-date topology of the area, with a surprised "Oh!" followed by a disappointed "Oh...." when he sees that there's water where the ring is supposedly hidden. He frowns, and peers at the rest, trying to find Stonebarrow and the Duchess' castle on the map as well.

Blackshire isn't far, relatively speaking, from the northernmost point of Gallisian incursion. And Stonebarrow is also there, across the swamp.

Aviri notices their proximity to the Gallisians and gulps. "Glad your brother's got integirty, Duchess," he says.

Lin comes back from looking at the pictures on the walls and checks out the map. "This is quite recent?" She asks.

"He's also really stubborn and doesn't like how the Gallisians treat Savanites," Eve points out.

"This isn't the most recent map, that one is still being worked on," Cathrarg explains. "But there isn't much difference. The Gallisians have been busy trying to hold onto what they've grabbed. There are a few northern areas that have Gallisian landlords, but they're small."

That doesn't seem to ease Aviri's worry. "Guess it doesn't really matter in the end," he mutters. "Not like I could do anything to stop 'em if they tried to take over here."

"You're from Stonebarrow," Cathrarg says. "Home of the only undefeated fighting force in the history of Sylvania. You could probably just suggest that you aren't happy with the Gallisians and they'd have to change their drawers."

"We could always dye ourselves red and charge them." Lin suggests, "If our reputation is worth anything, thay'd flee like scalded toads."

"And anyone surrounded by swamp has reason to fear the Akwavi," Cathrarg adds.

"Gallisians don't do magic," Cathrarg notes and rolls her eyes. "So yeah, they want to invade a land that's dripping with it. But you're young and shouldn't be worrying about such things! Plus, the gift shop is next, and we have candy. Candy zombies. But.. candy all the same!"

"Oh, gift-shop!" Aviri says with a mixture of excitement and the dull feeling that he'd be relieved of at least a few coins. "Hope the candy-zombies taste better than the real things."

"Just so long as it doesn't taste like rotting flesh." Lin chirps and follows Cathrarg.