255
The Runic Disc that you found in Helgor falls from your pocket as the Elder hauls you roughly off the bench. It bounces off the deck and comes to rest on his foot. He releases his grip on your robe and stoops to pick it up, thinking that it is booty you have looted from Vorn. But his temper quickly cools when he recognizes it to be the mark of the Guild of Rhem, the most feared brotherhood of assassins in all of northern Magnamund. He is aware that some guild assassins have been employed as agents to carry out missions for the acolytes, and he assumes at once that you are such an agent.
Nervously he returns the disc to you. Then, without further word, he backs away a few paces, bows his head, and leaves to attend to other matters at the prow of the boat. Those seated around you have now become uncomfortably curious. To avoid their attentions, you get up and move to the stern where a score of acolytes are kneeling in prayer.
