General Summary
With Dreos back to his senses, it is agreed to speak with Aptior in the morning to find out what has been going on, at which point he will hopefully be conscious
Guards arrive, but are told to stand down by Dreos. Saramne and Weddy follow shortly afterwards
The group are put up in a much nicer inn for the night, and meet at the church in the morning to question Aptior
Under a Zone of Truth spell, Aptior reveals that the entire Church of 9 Lives is a farce. It was originally created as a way to control the Leonin population, and further segregate themselves from the Tabaxi. An opportunistic Rakshasa introduced himself to the founder of the church all those years ago, and entered into a pact to provide magical powers and knowledge to the head priest, in exchange for him being allowed to live amongst the community, and do as he pleased
With the Rakshasa dead, Aptior is now free of its grasp. He admits that he is not entirely innocent in all that has happened, but pleads for mercy nonetheless
Aptior did look into the artefact the group are seeking however and provides the party with a map of the nearby jungle. He believes the hammer is with a group of Tabaxi in a village called Arbolla
With their business concluded in Hidalgo, the group leave for Arbolla - sending Tobur and the crew back to the airship to return home
The trip through the jungle is long and treacherous, but the party eventually make it to the Tabaxi village, after defeating their Earth Elemental guardians
The leader of these Tabaxi, a nature-based spellcaster known as "Rays of the Sun" tells the group that she has been expecting them. Apparently, she has "seen their arrival in the stars", and she knows why they have come
Ray believes that both parties can mutually benefit from this meeting. The hammer is currently being used as a magical totem, which is keeping a large dinosaur away. If the group can slay this beast, known as Ghalta, then they can take the hammer with
With a clear goal before them, the group rest up before heading off to slay the beast
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