Swamped

Your first thought is to show it to Captain Long. He's in the sketchbook, after all.

But... you can't help but glance at the sketch of him and your father, and you wonder just how much he knows. And what would he be willing to tell you? He might conceal what some of the text says, or try to mislead you.

The safest option is to ask a grebling. With all the expertise they've got here, they've probably got someone who specializes in languages. And they'd be unlikely to have any dealings in Kandria to hide.

You put the sketchbook back in the package, then store them both in your pouch. It's a bit of a struggle with one arm, but you're getting used to that now.

As for who to ask... well, you recall seeing a tent with a holy symbol on it. Priests tend to be fairly well-read and often know several languages; and even if this one doesn't, he can probably point you to someone who can.

So you walk over there, only to run into Corvus.

He stares at you for a moment.

"Have you seen Rivers?" he asks. "I need to talk to her about something. And, ah, while I'm at it, are you feeling okay? Just checking up on everyone."

"I'm fine," you say.

"Good, good. So, have you seen her around?"

"She marched off with a grebling kid who was causing trouble. Um, I don't know exactly where she went, though. No, wait... she mentioned a Max?"

"Great. I guess I can ask around where that is, at least. Say, are you heading to bed soon?"

"I don't know," you say. "I've spent a lot of the day lying around as it is."

"Well, if you're not, do you know where I can find you? The way things have been going lately, I might have to play messenger for Rider or Long. And I don't want to go rushing around everywhere if I can help it."

Hmm. You don't have your plans finalized, but you do know roughly what you're going to do next.

But you're not sure if you want to be easily found. It depends on what this sketchbook turns out to say.

What should you tell him?

You know, maybe Corvus is somebody you could trust. Ask him if he can keep a secret. And if he can read Kandrian.

You suddenly remember hearing that Corvus was very stubborn about giving anything away when the Bogknights held him prisoner. That feels like so long ago, even though it's barely been a week.

And, come to think of it, the Marshguards in general don't go prying. Rivers said that earlier, didn't she?

So it might not be so bad to ask Corvus for help.

"Actually, you might be able to help me with something," you say, trying to figure out how to best ask this. "I need to consult with someone who can keep a secret."

Corvus suddenly beams widely.

"Well. You don't have to worry about that with me. I don't go blabbing secrets to anyone. So, feel free to talk to me about whatever it is." He pauses. "Except I really ought to talk to Rivers first. And, well, we probably ought to head somewhere more secluded if you want to avoid eavesdroppers. Oh, I've got it. Pubert's wagon, that should be harder to hear through than these tents."

"Right, I'll meet you there," you say.

"Shouldn't be long. I just need to find someone who knows which of these tents is Max's."

You hope he can read Kandrian, or whatever this is. Well, even if he can't, he might have some ideas about what you should do with it.

You head over to the wagon to wait. Except, as you approach it, you think you see something odd.

Some sort of magic residue on the wagon. Was this thing near wizards recently?

Looking closer, it looks like a drawing of a crow on the surface of the wagon. Only, it's moving around.

Is this magic? Or is it the work of one of these grebling scientists? Either way, it's strange.

You decide to take a closer look. The crow seems to take notice, and leaps off the wagon, and starts flying towards you.

Your missing arm starts to ache. You feel rather confident this is magic now.

What are you going to do?

Swat it out of the air! With your missing arm!

You begin to reach for your slicer, but the crow's moving too fast. Instinctively, you swat it away.

Then you notice your hand is on your slicer. You realize, very suddenly, that you swatted it away with nothing at all. But whatever you did, it's reeling.

Then, all of a sudden, it vanishes.

You're not sure what happened. Then you think about what you know.

Long told you that wizards can store spells in books. You just found a strange sketchbook, in a package with your family crest on it. You were just attacked by a crow that looked like a drawing.

Could it have been summoned from the sketchbook somehow? Perhaps a trap set by the original owner?

It's the best explanation you have, but you barely understand magic. The crow might have been something else entirely for all you know.

You decide to just sit in the wagon and wait for now. Hopefully you won't get attacked by any other drawings.

A few uneventful minutes later, you feel the wagon start to move. Then it picks up speed rather rapidly.

You don't know what's going on, but you think you should probably do something.

Maybe shouting would be a good idea.

"Hey! Stop!" you yell. But whoever's driving doesn't stop.

It's not that wagoner making a break for it, is it? You think they already tried that. Must be desperate if they're making another attempt.

You get your slicer ready, and head for the driver's seat. It'll be hard to dodge and drive at the same time, you reason.

Wait. There's no driver.

But there's something wrong with the desert horse. It looks like a drawing, just like the crow you saw earlier. Drawing or not, though, it's strong enough to pull this wagon.

You're beginning to suspect your slicer won't do any good here. But you don't actually know how to do magic at will.

But unless you can figure that out or think of some other way to harm the beast, you'll be dragged away to...

Wait. Where is this thing headed, anyways?

Looks like it's headed towards that mountain in the distance...oh no wait...that's a sandstorm.

Or is it a sandstorm coming from a mountain?

You get in the driver's seat for a better look. It doesn't seem as if it matters right now if anyone's sitting there.

Up ahead, you can see a mountain looming in the distance, and a large sandstorm. You can't really tell which way the desert-horse is headed, but at the rate the sandstorm is moving, you're sure to be caught in it either way.

Perhaps you should take shelter back in the wagon. Or perhaps you should just try to jump out and make your way back to the camp.

But what if the creature is after you for some reason? You're not sure you'd be in any position to fend it off if it decided to pursue you, and you definitely can't outrun it.

And if it's not after you... well, why is it taking the wagon? Does it want the lodestone Pubert mentioned? Something else? Whatever it's after, you have no idea of its purpose.

What can you even do?

Go back into the shelter of the wagon and look at the pictures again, more closely this time, and see if you can assemble them into a meaningful order. Maybe they're the formula for something magical like that weird novel was. If nothing else, maybe you'll see something you missed at first glance.

The one time you can recall willfully using magic, as opposed to on reflex, was when you read your father's book and healed Captain Long.

So if the sketchbook does have any magic in it, you'll have to unlock it. Maybe the pictures hold some kind of clue.

You head back down into the wagon, not wanting to expose the sketchbook to the elements. Then you take the package out of your pouch, and pull the book out of it. You flip through and look for something, anything that might be a clue.

You hope that if it does hold a spell, the notes you can't understand aren't essential to it. Maybe you can resolve some of the puzzle, at least.

You focus on the familiar faces first. Father only appears in that one picture, but Long and Mudviper appear more than a few times. Both tend to be in shots with soldiers, and not usually together... though, now that you're watching for it, you realize that they both appear first in a sketch towards the beginning of the book. They're standing on either side of an older couple, and all four of them are smiling.

When you first saw this, you were so struck by the familiar faces that you hadn't given much thought to the picture itself. But glancing at it, you can't help but think they look like a family. Are Long and Mudviper brother and sister? Are these two their parents?

You can't answer that for sure. But it's given you two more faces to watch for in the other pictures. You flip through again to see what you can find.

There's one sketch that seems to be getting more detailed each time you flip through the book. Maybe you're just remembering it wrong?

The next place you see the older couple is in the midst of a large sketch, spread over two pages. It looks to be some kind of banquet. There are dozens of people here, but the Longs (if that's who they are) are the only ones you can recognize.

And that's not for a lack of effort on the artist's part - each face is individually drawn. You'd know right away if one of these people were Father, say. You can't recall seeing this much detail when you glanced at this picture on previous searches.

But maybe that's because by the time you came across it, you were already focused on Long and Mudviper. For whatever reason, they're not in this scene. You might have just not looked very closely before.

Now that you're giving it a proper inspection, though, one thing stands out. At the far end of the room, not even sitting at the table, there's an armored man wielding a lance that looks very familiar. Could this be Rider?

You flip through again. You see that man more than a few times. But that's the only picture where he has the lance.

You're not sure if you're getting anywhere with this. You can't really figure out who drew these, or why, or how they might have hidden a spell in here. If they even did. And all the while, the wagon keeps moving towards gods-know-where.

So what are you supposed to do now?

I'd freak out if I just realized I'd been flipping through something using my hand that had been cut off.

Ether is getting thicker here.

Shouldn't you have hit the sandstorm by now? Why's it so quiet?

It occurs to you that it's strangely quiet.

At the speed the desert-horse was moving, it should be close to the sandstorm by now. You ought to be hearing the sand striking the wagon, but you don't.

Did the creature veer away? You decide to take a look. You put back the book, and head back to the driver's seat.

And discover that the desert-horse is galloping through the air.

The desert sands are down below. You think they're close enough that you might be able to survive the fall now, but the creature is starting to ascend. You definitely won't have a choice if you hesitate.

So, do you stay here, or risk jumping off?

You've got to be dreaming or hallucinating, right? Maybe you got stung by something, or ate some spoiled food. Might as well go lie down in the wagon and wait for sanity to return.

Honestly, you're finding it hard to believe this. Magic is one thing, but a flying wagon being pulled by a drawing? That's gotten so ridiculous that you're starting to wonder if you're hallucinating. Maybe you've gotten heatstroke again and it's affecting your senses.

You think about just going back into the wagon and lying down until things make sense again. On the offchance this is actually happening, maybe you can negotiate with whoever's sent this creature.

You do know that the height, whether it's real or not, is starting to make you a bit dizzy. So you opt to just stay, and see what happens.

You lie down on the seat, and wait. You try to take a nap, but your eyes just won't close.

Nearly ten minutes later, the wagon comes to a stop.

Well. You're stuck here now, wherever here is.

What do you do?

You think you hear something outside the wagon.

You head to the driver's seat again and take a look. You could use the door, but if it's something dangerous you'd rather have a way to slip back inside easily.

You've landed, but you're not sure where. Most likely it's on the mountain you saw earlier. The desert-horse drawing that was pulling the wagon seems to have vanished, but there are plenty of real desert-horses milling about. You don't see any people, though.

The desert-horses seem agitated for some reason. You don't know why. You just hope they don't knock the wagon off the mountain or something.

Not that you know how far you are from a cliff edge. You'd rather not know that right now, honestly.

So now what are you supposed to do? Just wait and see if someone shows up?

Something moved that cart there, it's odd that it would just stop. Something is going to come. Better do what you do best and hide before they do.

You'd better scout around. But first raid the wagon for supplies.

SpoilerShow

a52 broke the tie with "go out and look around", so that's what's happening.

You can't help but worry that whoever or whatever brought you here is going to arrive, but the fact that you haven't seen them yet suggests you have some time to find your bearings.

You take a quick look around the wagon for things that might be useful. About all you can find is a length of rope near the post. You're not sure how well you'll be able to use it with one arm, but you might well find yourself wanting it. You coil it up and put it in your pouch as best you can.

After that, you decide to risk opening the door and slipping out.

You immediately regret it as you feel the eyes of several nearby desert-horses turning towards you. They're not doing anything aggressive, at least, but they definitely seem wary of you. You'd best not disturb them.

You can't see any sign that these desert-horses have been tamed. There aren't any reins or saddles on them. On the other hand, most wild animals react noticeably to humans; they hide, they scream, they run away. These desert-horses are just standing around. They seem bothered by your presence, but otherwise unconcerned.

You don't know what to make of that yet. Maybe it would be more productive to look at something else in the area.