Snowshoe's Basement – With the training Royce has received, Snowshoe's has been blessed with some modern amenities such as a central boiler for hot water and a piping system for gaslamps. Keeping it all maintained has fallen to him, and topping it off with being the general purpose handyman for the place has given Royce a full-time job. This dimly lit sub-level houses the boiler, and despite how spartan it looks, it seems to be where Royce prefers to spend the bulk of his time, judging by a cot in the corner and stacks of drink cups that he's neglected to return to the kitchen. Pipes, fittings, and other oddments litter a table used as a workbench. The boiler's coal burner provides a considerable amount of the illumination here, tinging things with its orange glow.

Royce himself reclines in the corner cot, one of his grease rags draped over his eyes.

Lilac seems to have bucked up some since the household confronted her with her unfortunately transformative affliction. She doesn't seem her usual cheery self, but at least she isn't moping. "So, Royce lives down here?" she whispers to Kin, standing behind the dragoness.

"It is like living in the belly of a great beast," Kin comments in accented standard as she comes down the stairwell into the basement. "A beast with poor manners and a bad diet, that is," she adds when one of the steam valves vents a burbling hiss of gas. "And yes, that is what they said upstairs. Ah, there," she notes and points toward the resting Lapi. "I think he is asleep."

"Should we wake him up? He looks so peaceful," Lilac comments. Despite her words she walks over and folds her hands behind her back, leaning forward to peer down at the man. "I know I hate when people wake me up early," she tilts her head, twisting her lips, "although, I suppose, that may happen less, now."

The Lapi stirs a little, reaching up to move the rag over his eyes slightly so an eye can look out from under it. "Just taking a break," he mumbles, ears swiveling forward. He doesn't move much otherwise, just letting that one eye appraise the pair in his domain. "Need something?"

"You will not be sleeping late around me," Kin comments in her typical deadpan way, making it hard to tell if she's joking or now. "Yes, we do," the Kiriga answers as she looks around for a chair to sit on. "Your sister said you were the most knowledgeable on the contents of a certain unusual book."

"A VERY unusual book," Lilac confirms, her own ears swiveling forward and perking.

Royce closes his eye again. "Did she now?" he says. "About as knowledgeable as anyone could have been, I guess."

"She said you translated a large part of it," Kin says as she gives up and just finds a crate to sit on. "We would like you to tell us what you know. Vandringar is active again and has seemly come across either new information or new artifacts."

"And, he's hurting people," Lilac adds. She steps back, then sniffs. Turning, she yanks her tail away from the furnace. "I tell you, this thing gets in to EVERYTHING."

"I could bob it for you if you like?" Kin offers Lilac. Again, deadpan.

"Oh, stop teasing, Kinny," Lilac retorts. "I may not know where it … Um," she glances at Royce, "Anyway, I'm not about to cut it off."

The Lapi frowns a little without moving. "Yeah, I remember what his goons put us through." He sighs, and puts a paw to his forehead without disturbing the rag. "'Translated' isn't really the word for it… it was something like Rephidim Standard. 'Interpreted' may be better. I wouldn't say I got through a large portion of it, either. We were moving pretty much right away, I had study snatches of it when I could."

"What did you learn?" Kin asks, returning her attention to Royce. The reptile might actually be grinning slightly, too. "Time is of the essence. He has started 'collecting' scholars and seems to have targeted interest in Imperial lands and Sylvania."

"Yes, he's kidnapped several, and they're definitely up to something both here and abroad. This is very important." Lilac edges away from the furnace, holding her tail in her hands. "Will you help us?"

At this, Royce finally pulls the rag away from his face, dumping it on the floor and looking resigned. He swings his legs out of the cot and places his feet on the floor, hunkering down to rest his elbows on his knees. The Lapi doesn't offer a place to sit, since the place seems light on furniture, but the table is a decent height for leaning against. "Honestly, I bet Anisa could tell you as much as I could. She went the closest of any of us to the place the book was actually about. It was the center of that Dagh forsaken place in Levitha's Pearl. The book was a mishmash of journal and notes collected by a peoples that came to live there. They were sandwiched around a layer of … stuff. Crystal, glass, I don't know. Pages that had stuff I couldn't understand."

"It's nothing I ever heard of," Lilac tells Kin. "And, I've never been to Levitha's Pearl." Instead of leaning, Lilac just sits herself right down on the floor, tail in her lap.

"What could you understand? Even fragments of sentences may help. It may connect the mysteries in the other documents taken from the Cinders," Kin inquires, not at all dissuaded by the Lapi's somewhat exaggerated show of effort.

"And. … what can you tell us about the people? What race where they?" Kin adds.

The buck shakes his head, massaging his temples. "I can't tell you anything about the people other than that they seemed to be losing it. Even in the context of what I could read, they sounded like they were growing steadily more unsettled, paranoid, even nonsensical. I'm not surprised. They existed within the ruins of something old and inconceivably powerful. Maybe Anisa doesn't like to talk about it, but she was in the middle of it, somehow summoned up those horrible black… things that routed the Cinders. She came out drenched in blood, and it shook her up."

"What black things?" Kin asks, then glances towards Lilac briefly.

"Drenched in blood?!" Lilac asks in astonishment. She then glances at Kin in a 'what?' sort of way.

Royce looks up, grimacing. "Levitha's Pearl is an island off the coast of Half Valley. It's known to be a weird place, full of huge, bug-like creatures and strange plants. It's a favorite place of big game hunters and thrill-seekers… stupid, if you ask me. There were stories of a massive beast, they called it the Observer. Some thought it was just a legend, some though it was the ultimate hunter's trophy. It wasn't any of those. Anisa saw it first."

"Did she describe it?" Kin inquires and tilts her head a bit. She then comments to Lilac, "This place sounds much like the Beast Lands in the Imperial territory, doesn't it?"

"It kind of does, doesn't it? Maybe there's a connection?" Lilac agrees, nodding to Kin. "But, are they trying to accomplish what they failed to do before?"

"Only a fool tries the same plan over again. I would expect it to be different. A variant, perhaps," Kin notes.

The Lapi's ears fold down. "She didn't have to. We saw it… -them- later. Imagine a bug the size of a small house… black as night and gleaming as if it were living oil. Eight eyes burning like embers at the front, the whole thing a hideous forest of legs and pincers and tail mouth barbs, moving so fast it didn't seem to have a shape. An army of them. I don't know how Anisa did it, but they fell on the Cinders and just… tore them to pieces. Sis said later they were some kind of guardians. We didn't think anything could have survived."

"Not like Zelaks? No, they don't sound like any Zelak I've ever seen – or heard of!" Lilac shakes her head in wonder. "But, if they're guardians, what were they guarding? That land you mentioned, the one that was driving people insane?"

Kin frowns at the description and nods. "Well, it appears their leader did, at least. He's been gathering other allies and rebuilding, I suppose. Or perhaps this Vandringar isn't really the original," the Kiriga muses.

Royce shrugs at Lilac. "Maybe. We never got any closer. The Pearl itself is strange, chaotic. Moving around in it doesn't make sense. The whole place descended into madness, and we fled once we were sure everyone was safe."

"And you never went back once it calmed down?" Kin inquires. "None of you?"

Lilac frowns, then asks, "So, you mean, it's like a … Forbidden Zone, or something?"

The Lapi looks mildly annoyed. "Star, no we never went back. It seemed like guaranteed death after what got turned loose. We have no idea if it calmed down or not, we just wanted out, and were sure that those… Observers, I guess, we were sure they did the lot of them in." He turns to Lilac, and shrugs. "A lot like what I've heard. It's not officially recognized as such, I think because very few people can actually find their way into the really crazy part."

Kin folds her hands together. "Well, given what information is at hand, it can be assumed that Vandringar must have made it to the center of that island and survived somehow," she says, "And learned enough from it on how to go into dreams, if Anisa's revelation about a recent dream is true. I think we must either travel there, or tot he beast lands, to uncover what he uncovered. We hold little in whatever game he is playing. He apparently knows the rules and the board and we … well … know little, to be blunt."

Lilac nods, then purses her lips. "If the Society is planning to return, they must know their first expedition was killed. I'd think if they return, they'll be bettered prepared this time. Maybe, the Guardians won't be able to stop them," she offers. She glances at Kin, and asks, "But, how to we cover it all? I mean, Sylvania, the Beast Lands, and Levitha's Pearl too – where do we go first? None of them sound safe … "

"Either Levitha's Pearl, or the Beast lands," Kin says. "The beast lands seem to be of current high interest to him. Perhaps he seeks to use that land to raise an army to fight the Observers."

Royce shrugs again. "If he got out of the Pearl, he must have had some way of dealing with the Observers. One thing's clear, those things aren't natural. They were an overwhelming force. I don't even know if they were flesh and blood. We never saw one die, or even bleed."

"Perhaps he didn't. Perhaps he's trapped there and this Vandringar is some sort of living statue, a replica," Kin muses, "I did walk with him and hold his arm. It was … solid."

"Or, maybe there are Observers there, too? Maybe there are some on Sylvania? Or … " Lilac reaches up and rubs at her ear, leaning in to it, "Well, they all seem to be places of craziness. The Beast Lands has those … beasts … and the Society had, um … " She pauses in her scratching to ask Royce, "Do you know anything about the Society's, um, beast-people? Where did they come from, and were they at the Pearl?"

Lilac blinks at Kin. "Wow, that would be creepy!"

"The artist Hakuu is a master sculptor," Kin notes grimly.

"A master madman, too. Maybe he wants friends," the human suggests with a grimace.

"I don't know where his beast henchmen came from," Royce says, reclining on his cot again. A small hammer falls out of the pocket of his overalls, and he ignores it. "But they were there. For a while, me, Gibson, and the two Whitewhisker brothers were captives of the brutes. When everything went nuts, we saw them go berserk. It wasn't pretty."

"What did they look like when they went berserk?" Kin asks.

"Ummm," is all Lilac says to that, looking off at the fire as if it were suddenly interesting.

The rabbit lifts his hands into the air, gesticulating vaguely. "They bulked up, frothed, got all wild and crazy. A Rhian that jumped on the back of an Observer that Anisa was riding got pinned to down by a stinger the Observer had, and it apparently nearly tore itself in half trying to get to her."

"See? Nothing to concern yourself with, Lilac," Kin says to the human. Her attention shifts back to Royce and she asks, "So, Anisa was controlling these Observers? She did not mention any of this to us."

"Well, that's a relief," Lilac says, looking back.

Royce twitches his nose. "I don't think she likes to talk about it. I don't either."

"It is necessary. If actions are not taken, it could happen again," Kin states, trying to sound sympathetic.

"Or worse," Lilac adds grimly.

The rabbit sighs, lolling his head back. "Well, by all means, if you can get her to talk about it. I wish we understood what happened better. I think we only scratched the very surface with what we saw. How and why he'd come back out, and what he intends to do now, I can't begin to guess."

"So, we know that the book holds experiences. Does it say anything about why the people came, or who they were, or why the place was like that?" Lilac asks, head tilting.

Kin tilts her head a bit too, wanting to know the answer to that question as well.

Royce waves a hand, then lets it drop. "Probably. I kind of skipped around, looking for important bits. I missed a lot, but it was already pretty jumbled as it was."

"Well, tell us what you DO know. It doesn't sound like you really want to help us – don't you care Vandringer and his ilk might be going around hurting people? Do you think once he's got what he wants, he'll just leave your family alone for messing with his plans?" Lilac insists, leaning forward.

Kin lifts off her crate and walks closer to Royce. She kneels down and retrieves the hammer, which she then places gently beside the Lapi on the cot. "Thank you for your time, Master Snowshoe. I do not know if it will mean much to you, but what you, your brother, and your sister faced brought you much honor. You faced horrors so another generation would not have to. The children upstairs live now because of your bravery. Even if the memory of the times pains you, never forget that. Thank you for sharing what you remember."

The Lapi's ears fold back all the more, and he sits up again, stabbing a finger in Lilac's direction. "I'm telling you all I can! Don't you preach to me about how I care for my family. I lived that experience, and I'm still living it! I'm here keeping stuff fixed when I could be… I could be… " He trails off at that, and just takes his hammer up again, tucking it back into his pocket and nodding tersely at Kin. "It's just jumbled and disorganized, that's all. We honestly don't know a lot about the workings in the Pearl, and I'll be honest, I was just a kid at the time." He sighs again. "Maybe if I saw the book now, I could figure out more."

Lilac lays her ears back, holding up a hand defensively. "I'm sorry! I don't mean to suggest … I'm just frustrated, and I've had a bad day," she apologizes.

Kin holds up her hands. "Please, both of you, calm down," she says. "We have learned more than we knew an hour ago and that's all that matters. We should leave him in peace. Thank you again, Master Snowshoe."

The rabbit just nods again, settling back against his cot with arms folded over his chest. "It was a culture that lived within the ruins of another, maybe more, and whatever the precursors were, they were accomplished in ways we can hardly imagine." He glances at Lilac, and lifts an index finger. "Something else worth mentioning was that it seemed like Vandringar had ready access to mages. I don't know if that might have anything to do with the beasts, but there you have it."

Shrugging, Lilac nods. "Thanks for continuing, after my outburst. I've been a little stressed, too." She then scootches up, and adds, "I don't know anything about mages, not really, nothing that isn't in a story – and those are mostly Necromancers, unless you count the Kurais. The ones the Society has, they're not like the, ummm … 'beast people' I know about." She blinks. "From stories, I mean. Know about from stories."

Kin stands up and steps away from the Lapi. "May I ask a personal question, Master Snowshoe?" the Kiriga inquires.

Royce gives the golden reptile a guarded look, but says, "Shoot."

The Kiriga looks a bit confused by the order to shoot him. It takes her a moment to translate that into what she hopes means she can ask. "Are you angry with your brother Gibson for being gone so long?" she asks.

The Lapi's ears pick up, Royce looking a little surprised. "Me? No, I don't care what he does. I always knew what kind of guy he was, he was off doing his own thing when I was just a kid. Quinn's mad about it, but me, I just mind my own business."

Kin nods at that. "We should be going, Lilac. We need to get to the bazaar and inquire about recent events in Imperial lands," she says as she heads towards the stairs. "Or, stay if you wish. I can get directions upstairs."

"No, I think I've bothered him enough," Lilac admits. She hops to her feet with speed out of place with her awkwardness, and gives Royce a wave. "Thanks for the help! Look me up if you want a song, I owe you one."

Royce grumbles non-committally, waving a paw and rolling back onto his cot.

Pausing partway up the stairs, Kin says, "And I did not get a chance to thank you the other night for the use of your oil. It protected the Falling Leaf wonderfully. So, thank you."

"Let'sjust leave the poor man alone," Lilac tells Kin, patting the woman's shoulder.

"Just put it back in my toolbox when you're done with it," says the Lapi.

"One should always be grateful for assistance provided by others, Lilac. It reflects upon the person and family," Kin notes to Lilac as she resumes her walk up the stairs, leaving the gloom behind.