Gaping Maw of Sound #9

Neya took Middalah aside to talk to her about her mission to murder people with the Voice, admitting they had someone with the Voice with them

• Middalah was taken aback but Neya assured her that the group was bringing the person with the Voice to Ar'Vayn to be killed there

• Middalah approved of this plan and explained the importance of killing off the Voice instead of finding the artifacts it lead people to -- she claimed the world itself, Vault, was creating the Voice to uncover these relics, and the people of the world were puppets being used to uncover them, and the only way to not be controller was to show Vault that the Voice was hated and shunned

Neya took Middalah back and showed her Jackal, who ran to Middalah and hugged her

• It turned out Jackal was once a child living in Ar'Vayn where Middalah spent much of her younger years

• Middalah told the group Jackal was not actually a child but a construct created to seek out the Daughters of Eve Galdarion

Convinced Jackal and the group would find the answers they needed in Ar'Vayn, Middalah claimed someone was speaking with the Voice in Wayward and she was going to go kill them, leaving the Gaping Maw of Sound to deal with Jackal in their own way

As Middalah left for Wayward, running faster than was physically possible, the group made their way into Galdarion Forest, hoping to reach Demon's Hollow and the body of Glainwing

Along the way, they found a battle in which a group of Dawn Chasers fought denizens of the forest. All were dead except for a Firbolg forest guide and a Tiefling paralyzed, holding a magic dagger

• Kit stole the dagger and Neya healed the Firbolg of her grievous wound that would not stop bleeding, made by the Tiefling's dagger

Upon seeing the Firbolg, Jackal ran off into the woods and the Firbolg claimed they needed to catch "that thing."