### 69

While Jenkshi and the crew are busy repairing the ship’s hull, you are approached by Grooja, the town elder. He is able to speak a little Sommlending and he asks if you would care to stay the night as a guest in his humble home. He says that he would be greatly honoured if you accepted his invitation and, rather than risk hurting his feelings, you agree to go.

Grooja lives in the best hut in all of Dlash-da Ralzuha. It is the best hut because it possesses a door and a roof which does not leak when it rains. Grooja’s family prepare for you a meal of roasted vulture meat and boiled snakes. After this unusual feast, his wife invites their twenty grandchildren to come and entertain you with an ancient tribal dance in which they each spin around and around for as long as they can before they are violently sick. Whenever this happens the other members of Grooja’s noisome clan scream and cheer them excitedly. When at last this display of quaint tribal culture comes to a natural end, Grooja’s toothless wife sidles up to you and suggests that you should pay a visit to the ‘Shrine of the Oracle’. She assures you that this wondrous shrine is famous throughout this region for it dispenses infallible words of wisdom to all those who would seek its counsel.

If you wish to visit the shrine, turn to 299.

If you do not, turn to 178.