Joaquim faces goes grim. He tells his boy Geoff to the Boss that some visitors representing the magi would like to inspect the facility and are quite insistent. The kid runs off, and returns in about ten minutes. Halfway between here and back, this is the time that coincides with Vibria's treasure from the salt wyrm horde turns to salt.
Vibria comes running full bore into the village, dressed in her normal wear (slightly-too-snug blouse and long skirt), with the skirt hiked up in her hands so she doesn't trip over it.
She screeches to a halt in front of Selim and Arnau, breathing heavily but not sweating.
[color=red]"Sodales!" she cries out, looking as angry and upset as either have them have likely ever seen her. [color=red]"We've been robbed! Swindled! Hoodwinked, even! Everything we got from defeating the Salt Wyrm a few years ago* is gone! It's all turned into salt and crumbled away! Every last diner! Useless!"
Okay, that was rather fast. Las Salines is a few hours ride from Arans. Let us just say Vibria is racing there like bat out of hell at this very moment.
Meanwhile...
Geoff returns to the house in the village where Arnau and Salim are being entertained by Joaquim. The kid mutters to his dad, Joaquim smiles and says The boss is ready to see you and give you a quick tour. If you gentlemen would follow me...
This is all that Antoni hears.
His face red with anger, his voice booming, he turns towards Vibria
Dinner??? Useless??? This is an outrage! Who would dare spoil our food? How could such a crime happens? The infamy!
With a nod of approval, Arnau rises to follow Joaquim on the tour.
Selim smiles broadly as he stands up, wine cup still in hand, "Ah, wonderful. This is what I have been looking forward to all day."
Vibria facepalms. [color=red]"No, not dinner. Diner! Silver! Money! Geez...get your priorities straight! 
"
When Vibria arrives, Selim and Arnau have already departed with Joaquim to see the mine boss. They have been gone for as long as it took Vibria to get from the covenant keep in Arans to the village of Las Salines. So, tell me how you got here. Sell me something. If you want to say you hitched a ride with your flying cousin Maurice, I will buy that. He will be quite sympathetic to the loss of your treasures and will console you as you cry.
No one will get in your way and will direct you straight to where the visitors from the covenant went, which is the house of Joaquim. There, you will find Antoni, outraged at hearing about dinner being ruined. There are a few others, some of Anau's men and Sergeant Javier of the Andorran Guard. Plus Joaqim's son Geoff, who is keeping them well supplied with wine.
I thought that Maurice's cave was two or three days in the other direction. And I was also assuming that the village was about an hour or less away by foot.
To be honest, I actually never thought about her doing anything but getting to the village as fast as she can to stop a potential situation when all the silver is turned into salt (which may actually be more valuable, if it weren't for the fact that they're running a salt mine). Did anybody else at the covenant have any of the Salt Wyrm's loot? If so, she would warn them, too. (And maybe they would be able to get her to the village faster, since she has no travel magic yet.)
Oooo...I just had an image of her flying with a flame trail, like the Human Torch or something. That would be sooooo cool.
It is gold coins that have crumbled into salt. And yes, the other magi had received a share and a good portion went into the covenant coffers. It is out of date gold coin, so we could not spend it. Though as a commodity, Carmen may have sold some of the covenant supply to raise currency for the treasury (yikes 
).
Maurices cave is indeed two days away, Las Salines is even further in a different direction. Your Avarice drove you to run out of the covenant like a bat out of hell to find out what happened in Las Salines all of a sudden. Not thinking about the logistics or logic of anything! Are you even fully dressed?
Maurice "coincedentally" happened to be travelling by. What he is up to is none of your business, and right now you don't care 
Take the McGuffin muffin, and you will arrive in Las Salines ten minutes behind Arnau and Selim heading off to see the Boss.
What's her sigil? This could be very appropriate 
Probably not fully dressed. Loose-fitting unlaced blouse and skirt, barefoot.
She wouldn't even bother to saddle up. Just jump on back, tell him we need to get to Las Salines, [color=red]"No time to explain, I'll tell you on the way!" and budda-bing-bang-boom there we are.
So, she gets there and tells Antoni what happened.
Shimmering, like heat-waves.
Javier is also there. Wait, what's going on now?
Selim can't help but admire the state of Vibria's dress (or undress as it were) as she enters the village in a hurry. Ever since first meeting her in Barcelona, he'd found his eyes wandering in her direction and now was no exception. He did his best to focus on the words she spoke, but was fighting a losing battle.
[color=red]"All the gold coins we got from the Salt Wyrm's hoard a few years ago are gone. They turned into salt and crumbled into nothingness!" Vibria looks like she's...no, actually, she's beyond the verge of tears and is flat-out crying at the thought of all those beautiful, shiny gold coins vanishing like that.
Antoni looks almost relieved.
But the food? Is the food okay?
I would like to award Vibria a Confidence Point, because I am charmed by her entrance, and am smiling that the type of gold coin circulated in Iberia in this era was correctly identified.And as a reward for taking the McGuffin Muffin :mrgreen:
So yeah, Joaquim is leading Selim and Arnau [strike]into a trap[/strike] to meet the salt mine boss. But they are not even thirty yards from the house when Vibria and her cousin burst on the scene. Vibria may be too flustered to notice, but the villagers that are witnessing this seem oddly calm at the presence of a flying firedrake.
Vibria is totally oblivious to Selim's wandering attention (Per 0 + Awareness 3 + ( die roll of 0, followed by a 2, so not a botch) 0 = 3).
She puffs a wayward wisp of hair out of her face.
[color=red]"Yes, Antoni, the food is okay. The money is not." She then notices the villagers (but not how nonchalantly they're taking the presence of Maurice). [color=red]"They haven't said anything about it, yet, have they?" she stage-whispers.
Everything becomes suddenly quiet, gawkers looking around and at each other, and at Joaquim. He goes to make a break for it. Someone shouts "Stop him!". Selim and Arnau are right there next to him. Joaquim's Initiative is 1d10=5.
A woman grabs Vibria's attention, touching her upon her left shoulder from behind. Her name is Maria Meritxell. You just knw this somehow, not pausing to question how or why you know her. She looks to you with pleading eyes and says "Please help us! Salakk the Salt Wyrm has returned to torment us. Seeing how prosperous we had become as miners, he has set us to slave labor toiling and laboring for his profit. He has coerced Joaquim into acting as his agent. Be merciful, Salakk holds his daughter as hostage."
Who shouts that? Are they referring to Joaquim?
If the answer to the second point refers to Joaquim (likely) Arnau will try to grab him or kick him in the ribs with his stout walking cane. He already suspected something fishy here. Arnau is not the fastest of men, though. One of his men is likely to throw a javelin backwards (butt fist) at him if Arnau fails to trip him before he makes a run for it.
(No Invisible Castle for me yet, so can someone roll initiative for me? Arnau is at -1 for a brawl attack.