Role-Playing on a Rainy Night

Salomon drove along a silent country road. Pitch-black woods stretched their long, winding limbs toward the windows, while the tires crushed the fallen leaves carpeting the ground, producing an endless dense rustling. A dark sky caught up from behind them, and the storm arrived as expected. Raindrops drummed against the roof, and damp cold seeped up from beneath their feet. The Arcanist had no choice but to switch on the headlights of the rented black Jeep and slow down to avoid hitting wild animals fleeing in every direction from the heavy rain. The air was oppressive. The beams cutting through the icy rain curtain and the dense white pine forest growing over the low hills flickered between bright and dim. In this nearly lightless night, only distant muffled thunder occasionally illuminated the horizon.

He and Wanda headed toward the latest epicenter he had investigated. Intelligence from Kamar-Taj also confirmed that dark forces were gathering. Salomon had changed cars midway through the journey—so they could better disguise themselves as mortal bait, they carried no magical items besides the amulet around Wanda's neck, his Silver Key, and the rings they could not remove. Those high-level magical artifacts were not easily seen through. The amulet, the only thing likely to give them away, had been stuffed into Wanda's underwear, making her blush furiously.

Judging from her appearance, no one could tell she was still wearing an amulet.

Perhaps having sensed the destruction of Jerusalem Town, the cannibalistic incidents that should have continued came to an abrupt end.

Salomon had not left Jerusalem Town empty-handed. Something wrapped in a rain tarp was hidden in the Jeep's trunk. He had found it beneath the thoroughly burned church—before that, not even Wanda's visions had detected that the church had a basement, and that basement had survived