One day, Bayan and Hyamsam were sharing a tavern meal when they overheard an intriguing conversation at another table. Rather than a conversation, one man, whose name they later learned was Dilawar was holding forth on the powers and mysteries of “her,” allowing himself to be interrupted only by offers of more food and drink. When Hyamsam and Bayan approached the table, Dilawar was immediately welcoming and pronounced that both of them looked like they were “ready.” He introduced them to his half-dozen dining companions, including Lena, a soft-spoken, alert-eyed young woman, and Weeno, an older woman wearing a ragged sari and an abundance of gold bracelets. Dilawar invited Bayan and Hyamsam to a party that night—“at our special house by the lakeside.”
The party took place outside the city, at a pavilion next to a beautiful lake surrounded on three sides by steep cliffs. There was a ruined mansion on top of the cliffs. Despite the setting, Bayan and Hyamsam found the party strange. Other guests asked not subtle questions about the “Blue Lady, who just wants everyone to be happy and enjoy themselves and each other.” Hyamsam tried to explore the mansion on the cliffs—he was dissuaded by the revelers.
The next day, Bayan and Hyamsam were contacted by Jaral, Lena’s elderly father. He was worried about his daughter. Rumors about Hyamsam’s bad behavior at the lakeside party had made him hopeful that he had found someone who could give him useful information about the strange group that had ensnared his daughter’s attention.
Bayan and Hyamsam had little in the way of information, but they agreed to go to investigate at the lakeside. Accompanied by Bo Jing and two of Kafka’s sohei (Minh and Mai-Thi) they ventured forth.
The mansion itself was only a shell, but among its ruins, the explores found a staircase leading into a cave complex. They explored natural limestone tunnels and finished rooms filled with damp, moldering furniture. Murals of undersea life decorated the walls—and beautiful, smiling Blue Lady featured prominently. The explorers also had the strange feeling they were being watched. Hyamsam clearly saw a figure peering down from a ledge. When he climbed up to see what it was, he found only a pool of water. They found that the tunnels connected to the lakeside pavilion where they’d attended the party. They also found Dilawar, Lena, and Weeno, and some other members of the Blue Lady Society.
The Blue Lady devotees were hiding in a locked door that Hyamsam had to break down with magic. Dilawar showed only mild outrage and Weeno began weeping with relief. Bayan asked for an explanation.
Dilawar struggled to assume his usual tone of self-assured authority and mumbled something about “Close-minded people who intrude upon the gathering of those who are steeped in the mysteries.”
As Bayan pushed her inquiry, Weeno began shrieking, and pointed at Bo Jing’s waterskin. It quivered, lurched, and exploded as a spiny fish-headed monster burst forth. Bo Jing’s blade flashed like lightning and cut it in two. Weeno collapsed at Bo Jing’s feet and clung to his knees, wailing.
Bayan accused Dilawar of using magic against them, but Dilwar promised to have no control. “What a horrible manifestation of bigotry.”
After some negotiation (Weeno promised 500 gold coins and to stop crying), the explorers agreed to escort all of the Blue Lady society members back to the city. On the walk back, Dilawar and Lena spoke in whispered tones and gave dirty looks to anyone who tried to join their conversation. Weeno broke her promise and cried whenever Bo Jing, tried to pull his arm free of her grasp. The fourth member of the Blue Lady group, a sullen young man in blue clothes, stayed aloof from everyone and slunk away as they reached civilization.
Lena agreed, with a display of exasperation to let Bo Jing and Hyamsam bring her back to her father’s house. When they arrived, the servants were at first happy to see Lena, but then unhappy to see that Jaral wasn’t with her.
“He went to that place at the lake so he could look for you—we tried to stop him but he wouldn’t listen!”
Bayan insisted that they should rest briefly, but return to the lake that night. Bo Jing and Hyamsam agreed. Lena was anxious to go with them and the party agreed that the benefit of her knowledge outweighed the risk that she might betray them to other members of the society.
Although the gates of Dar E Lan were closed, Lena knew a secret way out of the city, and the quickest path back to the lake. Relying on Bayan’s maps, they swept through the tunnels they’d explored earlier, with Lena calling out for her father. A man’s voice answered them, but he turned out to be another member of the Blue Lady Society. Terrified, he ran from them, and stumbled down a slope to knock himself unconscious. They decided to carry him outside where he would be least likely to hurt them or himself. Lena knew him only slightly, since the entire Blue Lady Society met rarely and only at night so that they could overthrow their inhibitions without fear of being interrupted by nosy closed-minded people.
Interesting. But there was a nosy close-minded person who needed their help and Lena was eager to continue looking for her father. When the group reached the ceremonial room, Lena was dismayed to see that someone had defaced the murals of the Blue Lady, replacing the smiling beautiful nude woman with a fearsome fish-headed monster. Bayan and Hyamsam noted that the painting of the fish-head monster actually looked far older than that of her benign counterpart and that the “defacement” could better be described as a restoration.
As the rescuers continued their search, it became clear that Lena had seen little of the caverns firsthand. Bayan’s careful mapping helped them locate a narrow passage, steeply downward sloping. A trickle of water ran down the middle of it and as the trickle reached a large pool at a low point in the passage, the party prepared to meet one of the strange monsters that had burst from Bo Jing’s waterskin. Sure enough, it leaped out of the shallow pool, claws pointed at Mai-Thi. Bo Jing leapt in front of her, drawing his blade. The tentacles surrounding the monster’s mouth lashed Bo Jing’s eyes, but he fought through the pain and cut it down.
The party pressed onwards until they found a locked door. With a shout, Bo Jing charged at it and threw his body into it. It gave way enough for Hyamsam to pry it open with his staff. Lena’s father rushed out swinging his cane and screaming, “The water is evil!” Lena calmed him down, and they had a tearful reunion, artfully mixing plaintive apologies and half-veiled recriminations. “I’m sorry that I never felt worthy to be your daughter!” “I’m sorry that I never earned your trust!” They were interrupted by Hyamsam who pointed out that a ruder interruption, in the form of three of the fish-headed monster, was on its way.
Hyamsam stood by Lena and her father while the warriors, including Minh and Mai-Thi fought and killed the monsters.
During the long walk home, Lena told her father everything she knew about the Blue Lady Society and in so doing, came to the realization was Dilawar was a manipulative, perverted, and cowardly piece-of-shit.
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