Expedition 31: Friendly Brain-Eaters

### Summary

We venture to the Quivering Stones for the first time, and meet a floating creature called an Uflophon.

### Detailed Writeup

On the 3rd of Titanus, 5 adventurer’s set out into the wilderness: Uzmir, Marzipan, Nexrin, Clairity, and I! Torr, Torrson. We began from the badlands, pushing through a shallow river and up the rocky slopes that lead to the unknown region. Passing them, we reached a broad, hilly landscape, built of shifting, twisted rocks of folded white and grey. There was thin cover of greenery, which supported a few creatures, including a few Horse-gorilla creatures that Clairity recognized as Anisodon.

While passing through a rocky region by the coast, we were assaulted by strange shiny bugs of brass and a massive serpent of silver. They were mechanical, and carried the power of the stormlord, and though they were not people, they spoke in the mother tongue of the mountains (dwarven) “You are not allowed” or some such claim. We destroyed them and collected their bodies for sale. We would later learn that they were duergar creatures.

We then found some tracks of stoney material, I honestly couldn’t say how we tracked them, but they lead us to some geodes, which we collected for sale. Following the tracks further, we were led to a strange structure: a pile of rubble followed by a series of standing stones. The tracks went off the cliff face, and we did not chose to follow, but we did note several features of interest:

1. There was a magical signal 10ft down which we detected, transmutative. Torr dug towards it, but was dissuaded.
2. Amidst the rubble pile we discovered a strange floating creature, with disgusting sticky tentacles. I can say with pride that it shook my hand. It apparently could not communicate in any language we could speak, but Marzipan used a spell to communicate with it. Via this communication, we learned:

· They refer to the rest of the continent as the \*\*“\*\*Newland”

· They call themselves Ugrada the Uflophon, and their home is to the South, beyond the stone line I spoke of before.

· They find the term “cleric” as offensive

· They described the boulders as made of two groups “those that fold and those that melt” and further informed us that they were dangerous but not aggressive.

· We learned that this Uflophon was 47 seasons old, and that their “Matron” has lived for more than 1000.

· There is some group of entities farther South that are in conflict. They are divided into four groups, one each fighting “for” the red sun, the white sun, the blue sun, and the sea. The matron forbids her subjects from traveling into this region , due to the danger.

· The creature mistook me for a dueregar, indicating it’s clear stupidity.

· This was strange given that it consumes brains as a regular part of its diet.

· It listed 5 dangers in the region: Creatures of Stone, Burrowers, Other flying sound-seers, Creatures that use stone for defense, and land sharks.

We then began to make our journey home, traveling inland for the second half of our loop, to cover fresh territory. It was not long before the ground began to rumble; in an instant, three land sharks, which someone would call “Bullayes” struck out at us. We slew 2 in short order, receiving only minor injuries, although managed to escape. Again, we harvested their corpses for sale while Ugrada consumed their brains. We then made our way back to the Nestle with no further issues, leaving our newfound friend to return to his home.