Leave It How You Found It

**Synopsis:**

In Chapter 29: Leave It How You Found It, Safira rose from unconsciousness to find the party quarreling over what to report back to Cedric Skense.  With concerns that our presence was being monitored by any possible combination of the Lemonade Man, Skense's subordinates or the mutated creatures that ambushed the Tackle Shack – we thought it prudent to exercise caution over how much detail to go into when presenting our findings.

After some reflections on what to do in the event of a future near-fatality and rescuing our horses from some collateral damage that had spilled out onto the road, we rode back to Mukmu.  Taking advantage of our official writ of service, we breezed by the suspicious Standing Sergeant to report directly to Skense – informing him of the attack on Marissa's residence but omitting important revelations such as the existence of a secret basement.  The director did not attempt to hide his concern and asked us to return tomorrow so the scribes could take down a written statement, but he thanked and dismissed us before vowing to investigate further on his own.

With the dangers of Mukmu lurking in the dark, sleeping at the Lakeside Inn seemed risky – so we planned to ask Yannick if we could spend the night somewhere in the Graveyard.

While the rest of the party got the horses and headed to the north gates, Erland accompanied Orba to the Inn briefly so she could leave a note for Jillian Kosivo with our supply requests.  Before reuniting with the others, Orba broke the news to Erland about the ring that would be bound to his foot as a prerequisite to her official employment.  Despite his reservations, Erland agreed – though things were not coming together as swimmingly just outside of town.

Gravekeeper Yannick expressed immense gratitude for all that we had done for him, but with the excavations already underway he didn't want anyone resting in the vicinity for safety reasons.  Instead he suggested we reach out to Teo Hendry, the animal trainer who lives across the road.  Having already been through quite an ordeal hours earlier with Safira, Teo graciously allowed us to stay – and we closed our eyes to regain our strength after a taxing day.

In the morning, for the first time in what seemed like forever, the five of us reconvened with Jillian in her makeshift war room that she had assembled to prep us for our departure.  After consulting extensively with her friend Kelcettra and her scouts, Jillian had learned that the Harvesting Yard in the Chaki Mountains boasted impressive magical defenses – leading her to believe it was hiding something nefarious in its depths.

Discovering what might be concealed required getting there in the first place – and Jillian planned to enlist the help of two guides to bring us safely through mountains, thus avoiding any main roads and the scrutiny of anyone transporting Myconid products to and from Mukmu.  A halfling named Cyneberg would take Beezaura through a series of small tunnels to open up a gate in an abandoned mine, and the rest of us would follow the second guide – Wangami – through the mines as a way to stay hidden while we made our approach.

## Trivia

* Natural one count: no natural ones were rolled in this Chapter.