When he woke it was to a scream clawing in his throat.

He bit into his arm to silence it, because he knew if he started he wouldn't he able to stop for a very, very long time. His stomach roiled and he was shaking; skin slicked with sweat, body curled tightly in on itself, every muscle clenched. Suddenly the nausea coiling in his belly reached a tipping point and he was forced to scramble for the washbasin, emptying what little was left of last night's dinner. He gasped, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and looked into the mirror.

The self-inflicted bite stood out redly from the skin, but otherwise he looked...healthy. He didn't looked pale and there were no shadows under his eyes; he didn't look sick. With the mark hidden under clothing, no one would guess at his momentary weakness.

Just a dream

He cleaned the basin, dumping the contents into the chamberpot; and briefly washed his face and neck. Patting himself dry, he looked again at the mirror. Yes, he looked fine; he felt perfectly alright now. Perhaps the food hadn't agreed with him for some reason; the cause of his dream and sickness. He never had dreams of any kind, much less nightmares; so it was likely a one-time fluke. The memories of the dream were already fading; so his immediately suppressed any lingering feeling with hid finely-honed self control and got ready for the day, ignoring the deep, lingering ache of sickness that refused to fade.


He set out for the tavern, already starving. Of course, as soon as he set foot into it Jarlaxle waved him over. Sometimes he wondered how the drow had lived before traveling with him; he was a constant presence at the assassin's side, never leaving him for a moment, like some symbiotic parasite. A day may come when he'd have to peel the drow off with a crowbar.

"You're up early." He said. Usually the drow like to sleep in.

"Judas insisted last night that we start in the early morning; so as to avoid the curious." He gestured at the steaming platter of scrambled eggs. "I ordered for you."

Entreri snorted in amusement as he sat down to eat. "I don't think that's possible. Not with you."

He'd barely begun to eat when Judas himself stormed in, aiming straight for them. He was puffing and blowing and the barkeeper gave him a concerned look.

"Found something." He gasped out. "Eat quick; this is important. Meet you outside."

He went back out, leaving them to give each other puzzled looks.

They followed behind the old man, accompanied by the stub-legged donkey. She carried a large bag that clanked and clattered as she moved and Entreri assumed that it was full of spell components.

"Quickly, quickly." He muttered. "Before gawkers come and destroy everything."

They pushed through thick underbrush, and reached a small depression. Inside the brush had been cleared, the ground stripped. People had been here all right, scraping the ground feverishly in their search. Apparently they had found something.

"I knew that this was a center of activity for cro-magnom." Judas said. Jarlaxle gave him a puzzled look; they assumed that he meant the people who'd lived in the caves. "I've found tools, firepits, and burnt animal bones. I always assumed this was just a summer camp...but it's something else."

He padded over to the exposed find. "It's a ceremonial site."

It was a simple circle of stones, vaguely shaped into large rectangles. There were eight of them in a circle no more than ten feet across; and none of them came any higher than his knee.

Judas circled the stones thoughtfully. "These were used for ceremonies and rituals?"

"Very important." He grunted. "Also practical; the sun, stars, moon; all these line up with the stones."

"And how is that practical?" Entreri snorted.

"Acts like a calendar. Keeps track of time." He looked over the sited carefully. "Tell them when they should stock up for winter, how many days they left, when certain plants are ready to gather, the time a migrating herd of game comes through. Very useful."

Entreri stood at the edge of the circle, and looked carefully at them. He couldn't see how the simple structure could do anything like that. But he supposed the mage/archeologist knew what he was doing because he'd already dug a measuring tape and sextant out of his bag and was making calculations.

"What are you doing?" Entreri asked, getting interested despite himself.

"Finding what they were keeping track of." He grunted. "I'm finding out what celestial events happened recently in their calendars, or what will be happening."

"And what will this tell us?" Jarlaxle felt a bit lost on this; he usually dealt with more physical things; like calculating the financial expenditures of his mercenary band. On the other hand he was glad the man was opening up; he seemed a much more manageable person when he was around these ancient remains.

"Perhaps it will give a clue to what they wanted to use this site for." He murmured, then looked up at Jarlaxle. "Can you detect magic with one of those trinkets?"

"Yes." He quickly activated a brooch of his. "Their has been magic preformed here, and recently. Perhaps a few months ago."

"The same time the villagers started to disappear." Entreri added.

Jarlaxle nodded. "We are on the trail of someone; perhaps this spell was the beginning. Judas what events were happening around that time?"

He grunted. "The convergence of heregus and labados, and eclipse, and the first day of spring; though I don't think this structure was calculated to observe any of the those but the last one."

The first day of spring sounds so...harmless. Entreri gave the structure a puzzle look. Disappearances aren't something that you would associate with spring.

"Is that all?" Entreri asked.

He nodded. "This calendar is built for consistent, yearly events. The convergence and the eclipse is something that happens once every few hundred years."

"In their culture, what does the first day of spring signify?"

"Other than the beginning of green growth and newborn game?" He shrugged. "Not sure. Spring is so symbolically ties up with other things-rebirth, fertility. Take your pick."

He started to walk around the circle very slowly, his mouth narrowing into a grim line. "One thing worries me."

"What is that?" Jarlaxle stepped forward, intrigued.

"These ancient ceremonies had many components." He paused. "Including sacrifice."