Harvesting Yard Journal

## Description

* Orba
* Harvesting Yard
* Myconid

## Journal Entries

### 444∆2:045

We have – after much consideration (too much in my opinion) – picked out a spot.  I thought it prudent to begin a new journal at this point.  A new journal for a new journey.

It’s in the Chaki Mountains.  Against my advisement we’ve come to an agreement with the Black Lions there.  One of Maurice’s men is an estranged Rudhiran elf by the name of Norma-Naya.  He knows how badly the Black Lions covet the grove of Rudhira, and we’ve used that as a point of negotiation in allowing us to build where no one previously dared to do so.

I wish Master Grahmari was here.  We could not have gotten to this point without him – it is a shame things turned out the way they did.

### 444∆2:107

Things are going well.  We’ve made excellent progress excavating underneath the river below Lake Gholkan.  Soon we will put my theories to the test about using agitated extract to replicate the spellcasting conditions for a Wall of Force.

It is difficult to explain the intricacies to a layman, but I described it to them as similar to a Glyph of Warding – a spell that is stored within the extract, but with the unique ability to trigger its own effects and then reset itself without relying on human interaction.

The only requirements are a constant source of the material components and the ability to agitate the extract.  I have designed a system that harnesses the power of the river to keep the extract in motion, but the components have been a point of some contention.  Higher quality gemstones provide a smaller margin for error, however the expense is exponentially greater.  I tried to explain that if this all works as planned, any rising costs will be a drop in the ocean compared to the profits – but to no avail.  So… quartz it is.

### 444∆3:109

We have procured our distributor in Mukmu.  A rather off-putting man by the name of Duffy Geiss.  Maurice assures me that he is reliable and well-connected, but his propensity for violence is something that could draw unnecessary attention.  We offer him wealth that would thrust anyone into a position of tremendous power, yet he insists on continuing to purge the city of Lightwhistle Estate Club members.  I hope that we do not come to regret this decision.

On the other hand, our preliminary “pockets” are nearing completion.  One in the hills where the Festival of Omaso takes place, one in Brickrock, one in Mukmu and one just outside of Tuktu at Stoddard Farms.

The larger pocket in Brickrock is where we will begin educating our scientists on the process.  We will start slow, taking individuals from this part of town where people are not likely to notice and allowing us to demonstrate the effects of the extract concentrate.  We are about to begin.

### 445∆1:082

Master Grahmari does not disappoint.  I am pleased to find that the concentrate works exactly as he theorized, mimicking the long-term effects of Myconid extract abuse within just a few hours.  Best of all, the effects subside after a day or two – leaving those affected to believe that it was simply a passing ailment.

The three kinds of effects are broken down as follows in order of least affected to most severely affected by the extract: Type A: withdrawal-like symptoms.  Sweating, shaking, and nausea.  Type B: memory loss and blackouts.  And Type C: blurred vision, thickness of blood and quickly growing blackened fingernails.

It is these latter two types – B and C – that we are most interested in – their body chemistry has the necessary makeup that allows for the implementation to take hold.  I must admit, I am excited to take the next steps.

### 445∆3:022

It is with great disappointment that I report our momentum has slowed considerably.  Construction in the mountains is going well – but our experimentation in Brickrock has produced alarmingly few candidates.  Bringing subjects down individually to be administered the concentrate is time consuming and expensive, and the rate of Type B and C candidates is relatively low.

Still, we have identified a small handful of hopeful specimens and they are being transported to the Chaki Mountains as we speak.  Hopefully the teleportation circles will be implemented soon, to cut down on travel times – but I imagine they will want to see results before they approve such a risk and expenditure.

I try not to show it but I am… nervous.  So much rests on the events of the coming months and I have only samples of Master Grahmari’s notes to guide me if something does not go according to plan.  If I cannot do it, I would imagine they would try to reacquire Grahmari’s services by whatever means necessary.  Let us pray it does not come to that.

### 446∆1:052

So much to report.  The Myconids have finally arrived – admittedly much later than we’d hoped.  Healthy adults are becoming harder and harder to get a hold of, but they’re here now… so we may begin to work with our candidates who have been held in the Chaki Mountains for far too long.

One would think the delays would add to the mounting pressure for me to deliver results, but we have acquired the financial backing of members of the Mollefaire family in exchange for priority access to our goods when the Harvesting Yard is operational.  Using their wealth and connections, we’ve established teleportation circles in three of our four “pockets,” which has reignited enthusiasm about the project’s potential.

I am headed to the Chaki Mountains myself in the coming days – it will be my home for the foreseeable future.  Maurice has been there for a couple of months already acting as the camp’s boss – a position I believe he intends to retain when the camp is in working order.  It will be good to see him again – his days of late have been spent mostly alongside our loathsome distributor, who has now adopted an absurd pseudonym for the citizens of Mukmu to address him by.  Maurice’s faith in him wanes not, however – and so I am forced to abide by his presence.

### 446∆1:118

I am… I am at a loss.  I performed the implementation exactly as Master Grahmari described, but it did not work.  Not only did the spores not take to the candidates… they have become grotesquely disfigured.  Mute abominations that seem to have lost any sense of who they are.

I brought my findings to Maurice, who was justifiably enraged.  Also present at this meeting were Mr. Geiss and the elf Norma-Naya, the latter of which came to my defense by pointing out the profitability of the camp even without our intended advancements – though as a vocal proponent of the camp’s construction I imagine he was mostly worried about his own status.

Mr. Geiss and Norma-Naya got into a verbal altercation over how to proceed with the Harvesting Yard – Mr. Geiss evidently concerned that our stock of Myconids would dry up and he would lose his hold on Mukmu.  The fight evolved into a physical one, and Mr. Geiss slashed Norma-Naya across the face with a blade before jamming a vial of Myconid spores into his wound.

I appealed to Maurice: these unpredictable violent tendencies are exactly why I didn’t want him to occupy such an important position… but Maurice sided with Mr. Geiss, and impressed upon me the urgent necessity of finding out where we had gone wrong.

I do not know where to go from here.

### 446∆2:037

An incredible development that has preserved my sanity – and potentially my life.  In an act of desperation I implemented the spores to all of our candidates, creating mutant after mutant until finally… mercifully… the signs that Master Grahmari foretold presented themselves.

Where Grahmari had been mistaken was his belief that the Type B candidates are susceptible enough.  The successful implementation occurred with a Type C – the only one in our initial batch of subjects.

This was, undoubtedly, excellent news – but it came with its own challenges.  Type Cs are the least common of all, and acquiring them one at a time could take years to reach a satisfactory number.

We needed a better way to identify suitable candidates – which is when I remembered a discussion I had with Grahmari about a device his apprentice had developed for pumping gases into the earth.  Initially intended to be used with water vapor for farming purposes, I saw no reason why it couldn’t be modified to suit our needs.

If we could convert the concentrate into a gaseous form – a kind of miasma – we could use a version of the apprentice’s device to expose large groups to the effects all at once – and then identify those who showed the visible Type C symptoms: vision problems and dark fingernails.

We can do this.  I can do this.

### 446∆2:049

Converting the concentrate to a gaseous state was not problematic, but the density of the miasma is too great for natural airborne dispersion.  We need a way to trigger the miasma… possibly by temporarily heating it to decrease its density or combining it with another, lighter gas… and any solution must be possible over some distance to allow time for the miasma to seep through the earth and cover a sizeable area.

With the company I’ve kept over the years, I have a solid foundation of Myconid knowledge, but I fear a misstep in this regard could result in countless deaths, as well as spelling the end of our project.  For that reason, I asked for Maurice’s permission to consult Grahmari’s apprentice – a task that he promptly handed off to Mr. Geiss despite my objections.

We haven’t found a solution yet, though I am assured that Mr. Geiss is making progress in that regard.  In the meantime I have mostly occupied myself with the study of my lone, successful project.  They tell me another Type C is arriving soon at the camp – I am eager to see if the changes present themselves in the same way.

### 446∆2:059

I met with Mr. Geiss to discuss any findings but no meaningful progress has yet been made.  He tells me that he will be “learning harder” on the apprentice in the coming days, to which I said that will not be necessary nor helpful – but Mr. Geiss rarely takes my advice under consideration.

I must say, it unnerves me the way that the now-disfigured Rudhiran elf follows him around.  Evidently Mr. Geiss has identified a way to instill in him the quality of loyalty, like the taming of a wild dog.  A further similarity to the domestication process is his use of a small whistle that he keeps in his pocket.  I believe that without that item they are subject to uncontrollable bouts of madness and lucidity.

On the one hand, I am glad that we have found a way to make the mutants useful.  They are fast and strong and possess interesting powers that may be worth studying.  On the other hand, I fear that their usefulness has Mr. Geiss and Maurice thinking about inflicting more Type B candidates intentionally, and beyond the fact that this was not the stated intent of the camp – I believe we have less control over them than we think.

It may be time for me to meet with Grahmari’s apprentice personally.  I know that Maurice will oppose this, but we have hit an impasse in our research here – and I have no qualms about leaving things in the capable hands of my lead scientist, Tybalt.  Onward to Mukmu.