Amberfield
We conclude our business in the town of Amberfield and its monastery thusly
- SUBERB and Valerie speak with Sister Honey, who invites Valerie out later and gives them a hot tip of places to places to explore in the ruins. Dandelion and Chicory join them and explore the ruins of the temple of the Slobbering God. There is not much to find, until they discover a tunnel underground and find a chamber. Their only light source is the strange and cold candle SUPERB received from the minnow demons, and its blue light reveals a hidden door, leading deeper still. Inside they find pristine artwork from long ago of the God, but in an unfamiliar and flowing form. Upon reaching the end of the secret tunnel, they found a new chamber built around a deep well, containing an old corpse strumming on broken strings. They offered it a libation and it awoke, and spoke with them of ages past and the creature they gave voice to, the Slobbering God before she grew into a stagnant and wicked thing. It spoke of the ghosts at their own backs, and they brought it to the surface, where it finally passed on. They buried it by the riverbank with its old instrument, wreathed in flowers.
- Evangeline, meanwhile, was getting drunk with the brewmaster, Sister Orange Blossom, discussing gossip and business, and greeted them on the way back from their work.
- Valerie met again with the Abbotess Bergamot and learned the history of Aslind, leader of the failed Bellflower Rebellion, and her final resting place. She also learned the name of the Skyward Smith, Yarrow, and some of her own history as well.
- Valerie and Sister Honey met up again, and Honey took her to view the wildflowers in the evening, where they spoke and kissed and did other things besides. Valerie asked if she would join them, and was told that the day would come when it was time for her to find her again.
- Around the same time, Chicory took Evangeline into the fields and confessed her feelings of not wishing to leave her side; she asked Chicory what she could do for her to help her do that, and she asked her to kiss her, which she did.
There was much discussion of the presence of spices and the spice trade, how everyone takes their oatmeal, various forms of yuri, as well as the kissing dynamics of pangolin snouts and bird beaks as well.
???
Next time, the caravan travels to a sacred place, a place of the dead, and the heart of a maelstrom.