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By Root 686 0

her, but while she was among us, our tribe was attacked by minions of Moander. Kyre helped defend our tribe most heroically, but she was captured by the enemy. The Darkbringer made her one of its minions by possessing her body with its vines. Since she is native to this world, she can walk among your people without raising suspicion, so Moander sent her back here to prepare things for his return. In the meantime, my tribe has fought against the attacks of other minions of Moander for months now, until all but I and my apprentices and the Champion, the one you call Dragonbait, have been caught and enslaved. Moander has marched my tribe forcibly through the plane of Tarterus and into this world. The Darkbringer is using them to create a new body to use in the Realms. I came to your world seeking Champion's help.

"Unfortunately I arrived in Kyre's presence, and she used your ignorance to her own purposes and convinced you to attack me. When she'd cornered me in Nameless's room, she imprisoned me in a soul trap. Akabar freed me, and I destroyed her before she could enslave us both. I would not have destroyed her if there was any hope she would live once Moander had dispossessed her, but there wasn't. Moander's possession had eaten away the inside of her body."

"You kidnapped Elminster and Nameless, and you expect me to believe what you're saying?" Breck said, tossing his head back haughtily.

"I didn't kidnap Elminster or Nameless," Grypht replied. "I used a transference spell on Elminster-"

"That agrees with what Lhaeo said must have happened," Alias interspersed. "That strange place where Morala saw Elminster in her scrying bowl must be Grypht and Dragonbait's home world."

"Then why hasn't Elminster returned home?" Breck demanded.

"I can only assume that somehow the Darkbringer has interfered with his returning," Grypht answered.

"What did you do with Nameless?" Breck asked.

"Nothing," Grypht replied. "As I already told Alias, the bard and Olive must have fled to escape from Kyre after she trapped me in her soul gem. I was tracking Olive with the bard's magic stone, but I turned back when Akabar told me Champion was in Shadowdale."

Unable to refute the wizard's story, the ranger became less adamant, but he remained cautious. "I still need more proof," he said. "Where's the finder's stone now?"

Grypht released the ranger and pulled from his robe the prize he had looted from Kyre's body.

"All right," Breck said. "Think of someone in your tribe whom Moander has enslaved and sent to the Realms," he ordered the wizard.

Grypht held the stone and concentrated on a saurial he suspected would still be alive, despite the deprivations Moander put its slaves through. The finder's stone sent a beam northwest by westward, toward the peaks of the Desertsmouth Mountains.

"Give Alias the stone," Breck ordered.

Grypht tossed the stone to the swordswoman.

"Think about Nameless," the ranger told Alias.

Alias did as the ranger asked. The first beam of light faded and a second one shot out to the southwest. Alias felt a sense of relief. Wherever the bard was, he was far from Moander's saurial slaves.

Breck wore a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Nameless used the stone to cast a tongues spell so he could speak with Grypht,"

Akabar explained. "I tried to tap into the stone's magic last night, but it wouldn't work for me except as a compass."

"I'll bet it would work for Alias," Breck said.

"Me? I'm not a mage," the swordswoman said. "What do I know about magic stones?"

"You're Nameless's heir apparent, so to speak," Breck said. "Try the stone for something other than detecting someone," he suggested.

Alias peered into the depths of the stone, remembering how cryptic Elminster had been on the night last year when he'd given it to her. He must have thought she could use it, too. Back then, when she hadn't even known about Nameless, the magic object had seemed to her to be just another light stone. Now that she knew it had belonged to the bard, however, a whole new set of memories came to her-memories that Nameless must have