Plots revealed, pointing towards a land called Thunderclap!

Andrea

"Why in Terra are you wearing a collar?" Dragon Synizn ask me, perplexed.

"Because in the course of spying I determined that by feigning being enscrolled by spell, that I could learn more as a trusted pet than a vixen slinking in the shadows," I explain, yipping at the dragon mage.

He, having analog brothers who speak the tongue of the Demifox as well as a few other languages, knows what I am saying.

The dragon mage nods in approval of that, bringing a slight glow of pride at that within my heart. See, he was one of my magic teachers....and like so many of the Synizn clan wasn't easy to impress.

They manage to remove the collar around my neck (what a relief!) as I tell them that I was able to uncover.

"....but to my regret I found that I had to slip away before Exotica remembered to leash me again," I finish up from the other room, slipping into my clothing while as I return to my most human form.

I then, with a bit of hesitation, tell about what Exotica had told me while I was on her lap. Cederick's eyes grow wide, then abstracted.

I note that Dragon Synizn has drawn some kind of warding around the now removed collar, suggesting that my initial concerns of it possibly being magical were valid (if not necessarily it being able to constrict my throat). My attention turns back to Cederick before I can study the symbols around the collar, though, when he begins to speak

"That...would explain why she threw in with her father," he says, "She always was such a loving child and....it would have broken my heart for her to have been corrupted. Guess that she at least took my advice in not taking Flagg the Hooded as an instructor in the Magical Arte!"

I and the other adventurers freeze in their tracks and just stare at him for a few seconds. That name was an alias for Randal Flagg, and this was worrisome.

Roland had told us (and we had read in The Dark Tower series by Stephen King) that Flagg had befriended Roland's father, the ruler of the kingdom, became his advisor (and court mage)...and in the end had betrayed and destroyed not only the ruler...but the kingdom as well.

If the Demon was doing the same thing here, then the Great Kingdom could be in trouble!

After a bit of frantic discussion, we decide that contact must be made by one unlikely potential ally: Exotica. Who should contact her? Well....

Would you believe me and Cederick?

How to do it?

Well, according to Synizn, the collar has a locator ward on it...which he could....maybe....use to send back a magical message.....

Meanwhile, back at the enemy camp....

Exotica, in the privacy of her own tent, was thinking some rather nasty thoughts about Flagg the Hooded. See, through the....er....respect (some would call it fear) that Flagg had amongst the King's vassals was what played a large part in keeping some of the more unruly ones in line. The man had been....missing for awhile now and her father feared the worst. He feared that Flagg had been killed!

Utter disaster, he'd called it! He believed whole heartedly the visions Flagg had shared with him about a man set on reaching the center of all creation (a place called the Dark Tower). There, the monster called Roland would then destroy everything...and everyone, in a mad orgy of destruction! Embry believed this and would do anything to prevent it, but in the course of things Exotica saw that Embry himself had turned into a monster.....

Disposed of the rightful king. Struck deals with dragons who were the only ones who had access to needed magical ingrediants. That and much more for this obsession....

She herself was less sage about anything that the Hooded said, but she was now being held in check, with her own mother as hostage. If Exotica betrayed her father, her mother would die. If she failed to obey his strict orders to get the needed spell components for this last magical trip to a dark, dangerous land called Thuderclap to send her troops to lay in ambush for the Roland and his cronies (the "Kid", the "Lady of Shadows", and the "Fool").

Already, Flagg had been able to send false visions to Roland...by placing an impaled illusion of the "Kid's" pet in a tree. The implied threat had failed, but Flagg had chuckled that it had shaken Roland.

Exotica just hoped for the millionth time that Roland was the monster he was reported to be. She had, actually, seen his handiwork (an entire strange town slain by his hand), but something about it.....struck Exotica as being wrong..... Something wasn't clear, and Roland might have had no choice.

Just like she had no choice now, really.

If only Reyna had stayed and not run off, she'd have been able to confide, at last, to somebody about her woes about having to do this. About having to appear confident and obedient, in order to maintain the illusion. To keep the crowds under control, and the noose away from her and her father's neck!

Now, she was trying to call back Reyna (who had somehow slipped her magical snare on her heart), so she could proceed....

If only Cederick....

1. That's when the crystal she was using for her summoning spell began to show images of....a demifox female (who felt....familiar) and.....Cederick?!

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