PLANS in Plans in plans

"Remember," continued Synizn. "There are only a select few sorcerers who could have interrupted my magic like that. The Calamari desert is too distant from Walants for us to reach it in time; the faeryfolke are too unpredictable and dangerous for us to enter their realm; and so we shall search for the one here in the city."

"And the children?" asked Frederigo again.

"And the children shall be kept in the care of my maidservant Ithamar. She is a goodly woman who was raised as a cheetah and later changed into a woman."

Both Fred's and Astra's eyes grew at this. "Now, now...no time for explanations. She will guard the little ones in her own home. WE shall look for the wizard Ibn the Small. He is a homely man only reaching 5'3" and he has dirty-blond hair with a red beard that reaches to his knees. I shall inquire with my friends within the were-folk community; you two must go to the various inns and the local husbandries."

"Husbandries?" asked Lord Fred. "What do the caretakers of animals have to do with this wizard?"

"EVERYTHING!" answered the were-fox. "Ibn is a mage of great power and part of his power is based upon the life of animals."

"You mean –" interrupted Astra. "You mean he is a vivisectionist?!?"

"That's right. Now let's go."

**************

Meanwhile within one of the many towers that surround Walants:

"Blast, blast and triple blast!" yelled out the man in the green robes. "That diabolical beast cured the wench of the poison, and not only that, but did something else?!!?"

"So it seems m'Lord."

"So it seems, so it seems!!!" he screamed in rage at his attendant. "I traveled to this tower to hear good news, you idiot! That Ibn failed! Failed!!! And now we don't even know what ELSE the mountain mage did to them and their accursed offspring?!!?"

"That's right," came a new voice; it belonged to Ibn the Small. "Death is a tricky business, and surveillance is even trickier. Magic is an art, m'liege, not a science. You must keep your guards watching the threesome if you want to keep them under your eye, I can only help you when you have them."

"Why didn't you kill the wench?!!?"

"That mountain-freak had a power...something too strong for me. it did not come from within him, however, it was...different."

After more discussion, the lord in green robes decided that a guard would follow the threesome wherever they went, another group would watch for the best time to kill the children, and a third group would be sent to the local prison to eliminate the lycanthropic threat of the two would-be assassins. Before all could be set into motion, however, the door to the Tower burst open and an out-of-breath guard sputtered, "The furry freaks are human again! And they've split up!!"

"NO!" cried out the lord. "Send guards to follow each of them - and kill those bloody kits!"

1. follow Fred as he goes to the husbandries.
2. follow Astra as she goes to the inns and taverns.
3. follow Synizn as he goes to the were-folk community in the mountains outside of Walants.
4. follow Ithamar as she guards the children in her home on the outskirts of Walants.

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