1.22.23 - The Valley of the Lost Veronica

In the morning, we went to the barn because Pey wanted to know the names of the llamas before picking one to take with us. There was Chimaly, Guatamac, and Nacali–Shield, Falling Eagle, and Battle, written in Tabaxi, respectively. Pey decided that they were all too precious to take with us, so we made due without. We finished gathering our supplies before bidding Deer and Bush goodbye. Pew was acting a little weirder than normal with Pey. Maybe Pey took their lion head toy?

On the road, we encountered a fallen tree which Marko got stuck on top of and Pey seemed to have found a large bird's nest he wanted to haul around. I piled snow for Marko to jump into from his perch Dense helped Pey get resituated before lifting the tree for everyone to go under. About an hour later, we found our paths crossed with a fox who tried to scare us off the trail, but Squish, Marko’s mimic, reshaped itself to look like it and scared the fox off the path instead. We neared the base of the mountains where we came across a cross-roads with a sign written in an unfamiliar language. I chose the path that Bast designated as the one to follow, but a few hours later, after we had trekked down the side of a ravine, we came to a dead end so we had to turn around. I guess Bast had meant that that wasn’t the path to take. On our way back up, Dense spotted an owlbear, so he had us stand back while he dressed as the yeti to scare it off.

Around dusk we made it to the ruins, but Pey stopped us before we got too close because he said he could see that there was a fire already lit and people resting there already. He and Marko disappeared up the hill towards the people while Dense and I continued up the road to come around the easier way. The closer we got the more we could tell that these were not like any humans we had ever met before. They communicated like animals using grunting noises and wild gestures instead of articulating themselves how normal people would.

When Pey extinguished their fire, they were not happy campers anymore and began to chase after Pey and Marko which allowed Dense and I to sneak up from behind. Pey summoned some of his natural magic around himself and it caused him to grow even taller and sprout hair! He also summoned a new animal spirit: a hawk. The humans were heartier than normal, and put up a great deal of a fight, but we managed to subdue them with minimal damage to ourselves. Looking around the campsite and their corpses, Pey found some pouches and a red painted fake eye, which he pocketed. It was a fairly peaceful night except for the occasional crunching of bones from the mimic.

In the morning, Pey opened his nest to display that he had found three giant speckled eggs the day before. When he checked them, only two were still alive so he opened the other one to determine how much longer he might have to wait for the other two to hatch. He was unable to determine how much longer they had, but that they were most likely a bird of some kind. Then, he fashioned a sleigh for his eggs from some of the materials around the ruins and convinced Dense to pull it for him.

Around noon, we neared the new bridge my father had commissioned. Pey noticed that there were large craters along the side of the path that were evenly spaced. He and Marko took a closer look where they found that they had found large footprints traveling in the same direction we were, but that diverted from the path across the ridgeline. The footprints look kind of like Klaub’s or a ‘Sauran’s but much bigger. They went looking for scat to find out more information while Dense and I continued to break the trail towards the bridge. At the top of the ridge we were crossing, Dense stopped suddenly. He scanned the area before declaring that something wasn’t right. His patron had sent him a feeling that he needed to follow the tracks because there was a gift from her waiting for him at the end. We went off trail and motioned for the others to join us in following the trail.

When they reached us they told us they had found owlbear parts in the scat so we should be careful with whatever was ahead. Pey heard a rhythmic rumbling as we approached a cave that was radiating heat. We decided that we should approach as carefully and quietly as possible, but that we needed to know what was within the cave. As soon as we entered the cave we could feel the warmth coming from a cavern further in. The entrance cavern was massive and had a large cage in the center with a sleeping humanoid inside. Dense and I positioned ourselves between the cage and the next cavern while Marko snuck into the cave as a rat. When he woke the sleeping figure she sat up with a start and let out a mighty roar. Immediately, Pey stuck his hands through the bars and put them over her mouth so that she couldn’t roar anymore. Marko tried to calm her down and tell her we were here to rescue her, but there was no comprehension in her eyes.

Dense and I noticed that the rumbling had stopped and was replaced by the sounds of metal scraping on the stone floors followed by stomping footsteps. We all scramble to hide ourselves from the approaching creature, but with little effect. A giant feathery ‘Sauran appeared from the next cavern using their metal arms as a monkey would to help propel their large body forward at a rapid pace.

The new entity demanded to know who had dared to disturb her, but we recognized that voice. This ‘Sauran sounded like Veronica, and looking closer, the woman in the cage was Veronica. Dense stepped out from his pace behind the cage and expressed how happy he was to have found her after so long apart. This just confused the ‘Sauran more because we knew her name but she said that she had never met us before. At that, we all emerged and began explaining how we had met her in a time and place before this one. However, she explained that all she could remember was going to Peyradisia as a slave. She went to sleep one night and woke up in this body with her other body locked in a cage. Veronica told us she had seen the ‘Saurans use the arms so she grabbed those and her other body’s cage and ran. This is news to us; although, there had been rumors starting to spread about the way that new ‘Saurans were created and not born. We offered to help her in any way we possibly could and we would do our best to help her get back into her original body.