Vanja: Oyun was my friend. To depart this world in the manner she did is...
Petarus: ...Barbaric. And without a protector for the tribe, we're sitting ducks here. Tasuni thinks he can rule, but he is seduced by all manner of dark things.
Vanja: There is no easy fix here. I'll be awake for many nights to come.
Petarus: I'll be right beside you, my love.
Vanja: Let's not fool ourselves love. You'll be sleeping.
Petarus: In any case, it'll be time to crown a new chieftainess soon.
Vanja: Or chieftain. Tasuni is next in the bloodline. Sure, he doesn't mind breaking a few rules, but at least he's no Dominus.
Petarus: I do hope you're joking, sweets! The Maraketh are a matriarchy! The men here aren't used to being in charge. Tasuni would ruin everything the Mother stands for.
Vanja: You would have them crown Irasha?
Petarus: She's strong, stable and traditional. I don't see why she shouldn't rule.
Vanja: Because, ironically, Tasuni has the one thing that Irasha lacks.
Vanja: Say what? I told you so? Well, I never trusted Kira. Her need to control everything, no matter the cost, was never a trait I held much faith in.
Petarus: Yes, but ambition is not the problem. I have ambition, do you not...
Vanja: Of course I trust you, sweetie, but you're not about to go killing everything that moves in exchange for a bit of power now, are you?
Petarus: Well, I'd trade dreams of power for dreams of you, my sweets, any day!
Petarus: Irasha holds the feather? Then Highgate has been saved. She may not be in the bloodline, but she holds fast to their traditions, and that's all that matters. Just think, Tasuni may have steered the tribe into dangerous and unknown territory.
Vanja: The beast you know is not always better than the one you don't, my love.
Vanja: Tasuni has the feather? Then Highgate is saved. It's about time they gave the men of the tribe a chance to prove themselves. Tasuni will usher in a new dawn for the Maraketh.
Petarus: For all our sakes, I hope you're right, sweets.
Vanja: Have you not got anything between those legs of yours, my dear? One would suppose that man would like another man to rule more than he would a woman.
Petarus: Well one would suppose wrong then. Tasuni may benefit me simply because I was born of the same sort as he, but it's the future of this fascinating tribe that worries me - he's reckless and flippant of their sacred traditions. I fear with him at the front of their dekhara, they will lose what makes them sacred. They will become like the bloody savages that wander the wastelands, or worse - a Blackguard!
Vanja: Being a Blackguard wasn't that bad, surely?
Petarus: What was that earthquake caused by? Some sort of death shudder from that volatile Beast? I've no thaumaturgical bone in my body, yet still I can sense the corruption seeping out of the cracks in that mountain. This can't be! Why would you disturb its rest?
Vanja: Hush now sweetie, the situation is more complex than you would first think.
Petarus: The Maraketh sat under the curse of the Beast for thousands of years, they had just gotten free, yet now you do... something... to bring the source of its darkness into our very presence? This is unconscionable, it's...
Vanja: ...the right choice. Would you rather a hostile reign of warring immortals? Our hero obviously has some kind of plan in mind. If this shift in the mountain can remove the gods from Wraeclast, then I for one am happy to be shook up a little.
Petarus: Well, whatever the case, at least we have each other.
Vanja: And we are strongest when we stand together.
Petarus: Have you ever heard much of the Maraketh legends?
Vanja: A truly unique cosmology of strange creatures, pagan gods and powerful treasures.
Petarus: One such story talks of a magical stone dial...
Vanja: A Maraketh Calendar, said to detail important events in the future of our world.
Petarus: General Adus, a war hero of the Empire, reported in his diaries of discovering a dial meeting that description at a dig site somewhere in the Foothills.
Vanja: It appears the war hero had a secret penchant for archaeologies...
Petarus: But the cataclysm wiped the land clean, and buried the dig site in rocks and sand. No one has been able to locate it since, nor the stone dial.
Vanja: Seems that with everything that's been going on of late, knowing what's due to happen in the future, could be a fairly profitable ability...
Petarus: We know you would never have use for such a gift...
Vanja: It would remove all the enjoyment out of adventure for someone like you!
Petarus: Yet, In times such as these, us small folk could do well with a heads up if something particularly nasty were to occur. Besides, a relic like that should sit in a museum...
Vanja: ...Or our collection...
Petarus: ...Not be lost beneath the rubble where it benefits no one.
Vanja: If you were to track the Calendar down for us, we would pay you handsomely, exile.
Petarus: Yes, we are traders of antiquities after all.
Petarus: We needed to know as much about him and his dig site as possible...
Vanja: ...to make sure he was worth our while.
Petarus: The General was an eternal commander of the Highgate Legion...
Vanja: He ran a mining camp up here in the mountains. The bastard was the one responsible for controlling Karui, Maraketh and Ezomyte slaves, forcing them into the black bowels of rock fissures in search of gems...
Petarus: ...At least he treated them fairly and as human beings.
Vanja: A slave is still a slave my sweets.
Petarus: For all his faults, the general appears to have been a good man for his time. It's a shame what happened to him... an even greater shame that by the sounds of things, he's come back.
Vanja: Yes, we'd advise steering clear of his old camp.