The Kidnapped Kumos

When you arrive at the IKON temple ready to take your next journey to Falcor, you are surprised to see Irella sitting beside the crystal ball at the round center table. Her face is tear-stained, which is totally unlike her, and Chiasa runs to embrace her immediately, which brings forth a fresh flood of tears.

"We have been betrayed!" she explains after she takes a large gulp of water. "One of my clans has betrayed the oath of the Singari and all of Falcor. We were barely able to rescue our Mishka. We found him just in time. He was sheltering some valuable books at the entrance to the Golden Forest. The wolves helped him drag them there, and we've recovered the volumes. One of the contained this."

She holds out a shard exactly like the copper one, but made of iron.

Nancy nods. "yes, these seem to be what we need. But is Mishka all right?"

"Scratched and bruised. Exhausted of course," Irella continues, "with burns on his tail, but he says he protected most of the sections with the help of Cassia. You see, our library is deep within the forest tunnels, and it connects to the next one in the system. Mishka is our librarian and Cassia is the next. She's also a Kumos, so she won't break easily. They took her, you see--dragged her off on a leash just as she closed off the entrance!"

"Reprehensible!" exclaims Lappy. "To treat a conine that way!! They're in for it with me when I get my paws on them!"

"And my claws!" adds TwoFer. "They're metal!"

"How did this happen?" Larianne asks.

"When you were last here, a faction of one of our clans was evidently recruited to help. They suspected the library was below and launched some firebombs into the roots of the big trees. All Falcor's attention was diverted to stopping a forest fire, which we did, but the underground burn left the library vulnerable, and the Singari betrayers went down. Mishka acted quickly and set off the library alarms. Cassia heard them and responded, so mostly everything except one section was saved. Mishka and the wolf patrol dragged to important books out, including the one with your shard."

'Well, that's a relief," Izzy puts in, "but we need to get to the next library and rescue Cassia!"

"I don't know where it is," Irella explains. "Those tunnels are a vast maze and could come out anywhere. Mishka would know, but he fell unconscious after he told us as much as he could. He said you had to take a helping hand from one who moves, but cannot feel, and that was the last he told us. Now he must rest.

"But we have not been idle. Singari take care of their own criminals."

She points to the Crystal and you see a vision of the clan leaders' caravan circle swirling within

The five caravans form a semi-circle around a bonfire burning to warm the autumnal night. While all are colorful with elaborate markings, each is a base color reflecting a different Singari clan leader and flies a different banner with the clan animal upon it. The leaders each have a different skill, and each toasts with a unique clan beverage.

"We do not precisely know which one of these betrayed us, but there are some clues. There were a broken boar tusk and some spilled water near the tunnel entrance. And we know the following about the clan leaders:"

"Can you find who had Cassia," Irella beseeches, "PLease and hurry!"

(OOC--More details on this challenge will be found in the OOC topic for this chapter. You must fully solve the puzzle for clan name, caravan color, weapon expertise, clan beverage and animal.)

the next chapter is out :D

Good luck teams! :)

Frieda couldn't tell if the mage was in one of her moods, or was teasing. What good was it to be empathetic when she was associated with a magic users who apparently had no emotions? Frieda picked up the parchment and it wasn't the least bit hot. Aicha was cranking her chain...again. She looked down at the parchment and it was a mess, "I can hardly read this, did you write this in crayon?" Now it was Frieda's turn to do some chain-cranking.

"Oh my gawd, ermine are such fastidious little beasts! Oh, I would rather die then spoil my pristine white fur...death before dishonor. Meh!" Aicha waved her hand and a perfectly printed grid appeared on the parchment, as if done by a typesetter. "Happy? Can we get some food now? I've heard roasted weasel on a stick is good."

Frieda looked over Aicha's solution to the puzzle and showed the others in her crew. When nobody could find fault with the mage's solution, Frieda presented it to Irella, “We think we know who betrayed you, and we think that we know where the next library is."

Weldon just looked over at Aicha and said in his very matter-of-fact voice. "Weasel is too gamy." He turned and pointed at Frieda. "Weasel takes a lot of barbecue sauce." He looked back at Aicha again, "There isn't a wine or beer on any world that pairs well with that much musky tasting meat and smoky sweet barbecue sauce."

Aicha suddenly turned green and walked away.