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Chapter 40 by HistoricoPublius HistoricoPublius

Does she find the thing calling to her?

Yes...but something finds her, too.

Fate Roll: Does she find the source of the music? Nearly Certain (CF 4): 1d100=33. Yes, AND a random event!
Is the source of the music a creature? Very Likely (CF 4): 1d100=99. **** no (and a random event but we have that already).
Random Event Focus: 1d100=62. Move Away From a Thread. And just like that, I remembered where I saved her Mythic lists...bad news for her is that now that they've found the grove and she's out of Mudrin, there's only one Thread left on her sheets: "Get 10 GP to start adventuring."

Gilia hurries through the empty halls of the ancient building, following the sound of the music. It sounds faintly percussive, like someone playing a whole carillon of little bells, but it's more consistent, like a string orchestra...she turns one corner after another, seeking the music out doggedly. Come on...you've got to be here somewhere...

Finally she turns a corner and comes into an ancient courtyard. Along one wall stands a still-functioning fountain, oddly untouched by the vines that have crawled over every other wall. Whoever carved it was clearly a lech: it shows three horned and goat-legged men, arms slung around each other's shoulders and faces in expressions of boisterous song. One of them holds a wine jug in the hand resting on his companion's shoulder, but each of their free hands grip their own large, erect phallus. Water spurts from each cock in a parody of ejaculation, shooting out at different speeds and lengths to fill metallic cups clutched in the hands of kneeling nymphs who surround the duo with expressions of adoration. The complex rhythm of water striking the cups, which change tones as they fill up, is forming the tinkling "music" that's lured Gilia here. Even as she watches, one of the nymph's cups fills to the brim and tips over, swinging on a pivot between her hands to sluice down the nude, stone body and into the fountain's pool before returning to its upright position. The statues are all worn with time (and water, in the nymphs' case), but not nearly as much as they seem like they should be.

"Damn," Gilia mutters. She casts around the courtyard, looking for anything valuable or interesting. Come on, there's got to be something here... Just as she's poking around the pert buttocks of one of the nymphs, though, there's a slight hum and her skirt moves, as though stirred by a breeze. Glancing around, Gilia frowns. Nothing there... She straightens up, smoothing her skirt, and notices that her coin purse is gone.

Her coin purse is gone!!

Gilia lets out a strangled yelp, patting her skirts frantically and then whirling around, scanning the courtyard with panicked eyes. "No, no, no," she hisses. "No, where'd it go...?" She retraces her steps, scanning the ground, panic rising in her. That was all the money I had...! My future! Not finding the purse, she whirls, scanning the area around her. Was that...did something take it?

A short ways away, hidden behind a curtain of greenery, a pair of eyes watch her with cruel delight, the coin purse clutched in the owner's hand.

Does she spot the thief?

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