Something is smelling awkward around here... The milliner takes the mask and examines it thoroughly before handing it back Milliner: Ah! Excellent, everything is as it is supposed to be. I bet it was the sans pareil quality of the membrane that did the trick, this should last a lifetime or two! Is there anything else I can help you with? : I have the Amber, the Blood and the Muktuk! The milliner is obviously impressed. Milliner: Please, show me! At the sight of the things you brought, the milliner's voice becomes a bit reserved, like he is genuinly touched. Milliner: Many a Tourist has let his life for items such as these you present to me here and I have no doubts you have given a good share of your own life's blood getting hold of them. Here, take them back and keep them safe. It is time to find Nhohor. Suddenly the milliner realizes something and looks at you in a half embarrassed way... Milliner: Umm... ... We have a problem. : Problem? Milliner: Yes, it might be a bit hard finding Nhohor nowadays. : Why? Is she lost? Imprisoned? What? The milliner swallows hard. Milliner: She is dead... : Dead??!! Milliner: Well, deadish... Yes... Been dead for several hundred years actually The milliner adds apologetically: Milliner: Terribly inconvenient, but that is the fact of the matter. Stone, cold, dead! It was a tragic affair. : So, what happened? The Yuttos tells you a strange story. Throughout, his voice is definitely skeptical, probably a member of the "matter of fact" Yuttos race is not overly convinced of things such as those described being true... Milliner: Nhohor was widely known as the only person capable of making these coveted boots. It is said that the methods she used were not entirely of this world and to underline her powers, she liked people to call her "Nhohor the Techno Shaman". Nhohor was the head of an ill reputed cult of malah's down in Inferno and it is said that they had two temples in the twin volcanoes Marum and Benbow. Apart from Lord Galahad and Lord Mordeth themselves, Nhohor was the one running most things in Inferno. She was a master in playing the redeemed and the unredeemed sides, always managing to stay somewhere that was not in their way. But she had her enemies... Enter the Hellion Trinity. Three voracious dragons Razor, Xark and Tchu, under whose control no one knows, but they certainly followed some premeditated agenda. And to Nhohor's misfortune, her removal was on top of it. To make a long story short, they finally managed to corner Nhohor in her temple in Marum. But as the dragons were proceeding to kill her and all seemed to be lost, four witches of the cult managed to suck out Nhohor's spirit and make a wild escape, ending in them hurtling themselves over the Brink and vanishing forever. Whatever is true about the milliner laying any truth to the story, it is obvious that he likes to tell it. With a dramatic swirl of his cloak he adds: Milliner: Tchu, together with a horde of imps followed the witches, and as the story goes, were plunged through time and space on an eternal witch hunt, preventing Nhohor to be brought back to life. The milliner rounds off the story with a deep bow and you can't help but giving him a fitting round of applause. : That was an interesting story! But it still leaves me without a person to make the boots... Milliner: It seems so... Unless... The milliner has the word "mystery" written all over his face. : Unless what? Milliner: Unless there is something to the stories about "Life after the Brink" so to speak. I mean, I don't want to sound gullible or anything, I don't believe in fairytales or life after death, but I KNOW that people have been getting these boots made AFTER Nhohor's demise! Something which is very strange indeed : I agree. But let us say, purely theoretically, that I would run into this Nhohor, what should I do? Milliner: Just for the sake of the argument? : Yes, just for the sake of the argument. Milliner: Well, if we imagine that Nohor was still alive and well in Inferno and you came to me with the materials needed to make the boots, then I would charge you my weight in gold and then I would send Nhohor the word to meet you close to the entrance to Burning Marshes, inside Penumbra and make the boots for you. Nhohor and I would then split the profits as usual. : And let us say, just for the argument's sake, that I met Nhohor somewhere and happened to have the materials with me. How would I go about asking her to make the boots? Milliner: Well, I guess I could give you a letter asking her to make the boots for you... And if you would meet her, you should give her the Letter, the Imps Blood, the Molokh Muktuk and the Amulet of Algid Amber. But it would be a HIGHLY hypothetical letter! Ok? : Works for me! The milliner mumbles something about the silliness of the world in general, but does after a while and a bit of scribbling, produce a small letter. Milliner: Here, I hope this eases your mind. He smiles at you comfortingly. Milliner: I am sorry my friend, but I am afraid that this little talk of ours is wearing me out. I feel my curses come back and I need to rest. And then he is gone.Gone in the sense that he is there "in corpus" all right, but definitely not "in spiritus". : Goodbye