The Game is Afoot

The Church of the Whispering Wind

Brother Markus sat back and rested his elbows on his favorite leather desk chair.  He pressed his steepled fingers to his lips in a gesture of contemplation and his brow furrowed.  After a few silent moments, he cleared his throat.

"Well, my friends," he began slowly.  "It would seem that there is something more at play here then the Council had first thought."

He gestured first to the rough sketch they had made of the symbol on the defiled altar they had found in the lair of the hobgoblins they had slain.

"I confess that without further evidence, I do not know anything at all concerning this strange sigil..."

A sudden crash nearby drew a sharp turn of the priest's head in the direction of the disturbance.  He frowned deeply at the source of the noise.  "Brother Donaghast I would greatly appreciate it if you could keep a closer eye on your... little friend over there while she is in my study."

The paladin quickly corraled the goblin away from where she was trying to get at the brightly glowing oil lamp that hung on a slender iron chain in the corner of the room, and the priest resumed his analysis.

"Where were we?  Ah, yes, the sigil.  Fortunately, there is in fact some other evidence to be gleaned from the parchments you recovered from the goblins' abode.  I had entirely forgotten that the goblin races' dialect was also a written language, and yet here it is.  A treasure trove of inventories, correspondence, and... well... theatrical scripts."

He shook his head sadly at the last.

"These creatures were keeping careful track of the supplies they had stolen from our villages.  These letters between a personage named Shagrash, who appears to have been the bugbear, and someone named Tilda, who I believe is the hobgoblin oracle you described earlier, prove that these bands were coordinating their efforts in order to prepare the way for something or someone they call 'Graz-Naz,' or perhaps THE Graz-Naz.  The goblin language is very crude, you see, and so I am not certain if this is a name, or even a title of some sort."

"So, what do these things have to do with the sigil?" he asked rhetorically. "These letters also repeatedly use the salutation 'May He who Dreams in Shadow Awaken from the Deep.'  Next to this salutation is always a small mark identical to your sigil.  Given the structure of the discourse between the bugbear and the hobgoblin, the Graz-Naz and He Who Dreams in Shadow are not one and the same.  Their mention of the Graz-Naz is more familiar, while their reference to this Dreaming individual is...," he paused thoughtfully to choose the right words, "more reverential."

"In any event, all this suggests there is a greater game afoot than anyone may have initially thought.  I suspect that given that the last of the goblinoid tribes had been driven deep into the Seawall Mountains twenty years ago, the creatures have rebuilt their numbers while they remained outside the reach of Lord Kell or his cohorts.  It is entirely possible that these are just the advance scouts of something greater to come.  In your adventures in the darkenwood you have encountered goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears working together to some end."

Markus gathered up the various documents and placed them into one of the leather folders he had stacked on his desk.  He handed the folder to Yorick Mori as the party of adventurers rose from their seats and readied to take their leave.

"I will think further on these things, and I will of course discuss them with Councilman Vyrlich and Constable Dreng," he said, as he shook each of the adventurer's hands in turn. As they filed out of his study, he suddenly remembered another pressing item. "Actually, if you have a moment later this afternoon, perhaps you might be able to assist Anton, Mamadou and myself with a small matter.  I believe I can persuade Magda to identify all of your magical loot at no cost to you if you can help us with this engagement.  Your particular skills would be perfect."

"Meet us at 6:30 for dinner at the Black Kraken, and we will elaborate further.  oh and don't forget to see Magda first.  You will want to know what you've got before you have to use it later tonight."