Expedition Logs - Suvis 1195SY

Expedition Logs for the month of Suvis.

## Expedition Commencing 6th Suvis, 7am

#### Rozmia val Rosethi's Log

* Brought Arisa of the Xipil tribe with us to the city - we made our first entrance via the sewers as these were more familiar to Tanim and Cian. They told me of some shambling, 'sticky' creatures that plague the city - we managed to evade them.
* Above ground, our route across the river dividing the city was thwarted by a knight flanked by wolves who guarded the only bridge available to us. Cian summoned mounts for us to fly overhead, but he and I found ourselves unsuited to riding them, and fell - not too quickly for him to intervene and teleport us to safety on the other side, though. In the water, I saw a single glowing red light; my companions didn't seem to know what it might have been.
* On our way to the library, hearing a violent scream we took shelter in a nearby building until it passed. There, we found an elven body frozen in repose, as though ice had swept over to them in an instant. Whatever caused it didn't even wake them from their sleep.
* The home had strange writing implements and tablets, plus a private shrine of worship to - as Arisa told me - a serpentine deity  called Tzinlos, 'The Spirit of the World'. Arisa recognised the tools as a religious item from the culture of the Xipil - and evidently, whomever resided in the city.
* In the library, we found something Cian called a 'mind flayer', which seemed to be dwelling there. We tried to escape quietly, but were spotted, and forced to do battle. Thankfully, we bested it unscathed, though its psychic powers were clearly incredibly powerful. Outside, the knight guarding the bridge seemed to have spotted us, so we elected to remain for a time.
* On its body we found a pendant, bearing an image of a tendrilled entity Cian recognised as 'Lhuthnet' - the Stooping Man. Evidently, it had religious significance to the mind flayer.
* Cian and I were able to make use of large, casket-like stone tablets - information banks of some kind. There was a device nearby that allowed entries stored in glyphs to be 'read', producing a spectral image of an elf which recounted a tale. Cian recognised the attire of this figure from somewhere he called the 'Moonlight Tower' - worn by a wizard they fought there. The first glyph we tried concerned a schism between three cities.
* Very little that noted the siege of the city. We did find some things, though.
* During the siege, demons discovered the nature of the cursed red earth outside the city, and dragged high priority targets out there to make use of the curse themselves.
* There was a glyph describing the arrival of the bronze-clad Kherrans and their dragon cavalry, to defend the city during the demon siege.
* Whatever the curse described in these glyphs is, it is our belief that understanding it is crucial to defeating the demons - or at least finding out how to do so.
* The curse is 'a curse of fire', and the residents of the city believe the only thing that can contain it is 'a creature of cold'. The implications of this are not lost on us.
* Cian also believes that an automaton created by an ally called Jhanna could be powered up using information gained here.
* We set up a place to sleep on the mezzanine, and Arisa heard the sounds of fighting outside. During my watch, I inferred it sounded more like people being hunted down and slain. Certainly more than enough reason to stay inside.
* During our attempt to leave the city, Cian was spotted by the knight. He chose to confront him, and we watched him from the safety of the library.
* He asked if we were allied with "the heretics in the docks, the mutants to the west wall, or the turncoats to the south."
* The knight, once Cian informed him he was allied with the Kherran, said he would allow him to leave with a warning. However, he insisted that Cian pay his respects to the lord - the ice dragon atop the mountain, Parrhasius.
* We accompanied Cian to the castle, and a meeting with the dragon. I inferred that the dragon was enamoured with the heraldry and culture of chivalric knights, and so deigned to entreat it as such.
* In flattering the dragon, we learned that he felt an allegiance to the Kherran - "rescued as a whelp", as he put it. He became fascinated by the Kherran Knights who saved him as a hatchling, and so devoted himself to the chivalric code, styling himself as lord of the court.
* I treated him as a lord, and he seemed to appreciate this. He told us that in recompense for stealing information from his library, he would have us take up a quest - to slay a "black-scaled cousin" of his which sought ruin and destruction for the city. Cian inferred that this was a Black Dragon native to the forests.
* Believing that pledging ourselves as his 'knights' was the best way to secure an alliance, I accepted the quest readily on behalf of the camp. I can only hope this will not burn us in the back - but if we can lay low this other dragon, we will have a powerful ally indeed.

## Expedition Commencing 10th Suvis, 7am

#### Rowena's Log

**Official notes:**
Met a man with some associates by the bank in the city centre. He said his name was Chimalmat. Jessari reckons he's a vampire. Looks like they've laid claim to the bank. I negotiated for some gear and we made it back without incident.

**Notes where I specifically and directly confess to diplomatically risky decisions:**

It was raining, still. We arrived in the city and quietly headed towards the blacksmiths. Inside I could hear sounds of two people conversing, one of them was definitely Mael sounding fairly exasperated, and the other was Arisa. I didn't really want the Xipil to know that we were going into the city without an escort, so decided it would be best to head on without talking to Mael. I've been to the bank before, I was fairly confident I could get us there fine without him. Jessari however, had unfortunately been under the impression that this mission was above board and I think she was getting uncomfortable as she realised it wasn't. She suggested that we just let Arisa know and ask her to come with us so we had an escort. I brushed off this suggestion and we pressed on down the main street. We worked pretty well as a team, I led us quietly through the back alleys towards the bank whilst Ursula made sure I stayed on course and Jessari kept an eye and ear out for anything else. At one point she heard what sounded like bare feet hitting the ground, and the sounds of skin sticking and peeling. Her description very much reminded me of the Adherers I had come across previously. They hadn't been too intimidating, but we decided it was better to avoid it anyway.

When we got to the bank Jessari used magic to look through the walls. The burnt vegetation Cian had left looked potentially like it had been disturbed. It was likely someone had been here in the last couple of weeks. I take out three potions of hiding I had been saving for a special occasion and pass them around to everyone. I also told Jessari about the mimic we were likely to come across and she remembered that alcohol is a pretty decent way to unstick mimics and also that they're immune to acid. Unfortunately it was far too late to get alcohol at that point and we decided just to go for it and head in.

We arrived at the first vault door and discovered that it was off its hinges. It looked like it had been removed slowly and meticulously rather than simply blown off. I was slightly disappointed that my investment in a Knock spell page was a waste for today, but I'm sure I'll find a use for it at some other point. I decided to go scout ahead to see if whoever destroyed the door is still around or if there was any sight of the mimic. I turned invisible and entered the vault. The automatic lights didn't  turn on, but luckily I had the darkvision goggles. There was no sign of the mimic anywhere, which was unnerving to say the least. There were also some weapons scattered around on the ground and alarmingly I could see some legs sticking out from under the gold. I decided that I didn't want to mess around with that without backup, and absent of any immediate threat I go get the other two to come take a look with me.

As we entered the vault together Jessari continued to be pretty nervous. She told us that she knows that there is a high amount of mimics in the city, caused by greed. Maybe something could have transformed the gold here too, make it come to life and attack would be thieves. Well, the gold would have to actually have an owner for us to be thieves. I wasn't confident that sentient gold and chests would make that distinction however. As we moved around the vault, I couldn't help but flinch at every coin that shifted, half expecting it to come to life and attack us. Ursula pulled out the body from under the gold pile. Or she would have if there was more than just a pair of legs. The body was completely severed from the torso and the torso was nowhere in sight. As the gold moved around where the body had been moved away from, I kept wondering if it was moving due to the new absence of a body, or if it was starting to move on its own. Ursula also seemed to be getting nervous, so she decided to summon Bagheera in case we were attacked. I think that none of us wanted to be the first to touch any of the gold or objects in the vault. Jessari started to cast detect magic and the mimic finally revealed itself, leaping up from a pile of gold. We fought - well, Ursula and Bagheera fought the mimic as me and Jessari supported them from behind. Poor Bagheera took a beating, but they were able to kill the mimic before it ate Baheera.

As we stopped to catch our breath, three people arrived at the entrance to the vault. An Adherer led the way, one of the others had two daggers drawn and the final one had an axe at his side. The person with the daggers drawn seemed to be the leader. The leader says something in a language I don't understand, so I cast tongues so I can listen. They were thanking us for doing the hard part and recommended that we should leave now. I didn't immediately respond, I didn't quite want to give up the advantage of being invisible yet, but neither Ursula nor Jessari responded, so I assumed they didn't understand or have the magic to understand. I dropped the invisibility to start negotiating. I argued that since, as they said, we did the hard part, there's plenty of treasure here, we deserve at least some of the spoils. I came all this way, I'm not leaving with nothing, but I was fine letting them take the majority. They ask how much we want and I say that we'll take as much as we can carry now and then we won't come back here. They consider for a moment and then agree. I got the impression that if there had been less of us, or we were more hurt after our battle with the mimic, they might have tried their chances in a fight against us. Since they were outnumbered they seemed willing to give up a little of the treasure to avoid that. Works for me.

Jessari and Ursula go through the magic items lying around the vault. Jessari picks up and gives me a stage she found. The leader eyes it and says to me that if we let them have the staff then they'll let us take every other item here. Clearly this staff is very valuable or very powerful, probably both. I was reluctant to just hand it over, but I had no idea of their capabilities in combat and I wanted to remain on their good side. I agreed and handed the staff over. They seemed pretty satisfied and we finished off stuffing gold into the remaining space in our bags. Before we left I introduced myself to them and asked their leader for their name, they hesitated for a second and then told me that it's Chimalmat. Might be handy to know.

As we leave and get a little bit away, Jessari tells us that she thinks that they were a vampire. Definitely prefer to stay on their good side. Maybe I can persuade them they owe me a favour for handing over the staff if we get in trouble with other vampires in the future.
## Expedition Commencing 10th Suvis, 7pm

#### Rozmia's Log

* We arrived in the Feywild with the help of Cale Forred, who agreed to 'guard' the standing stones and take us home when we returned.
* Rogdul noted a parasitic flora with poisonous spores.
* Rowena, from a levitated (and invisible) viewpoint, spotted people bound by roots into a vast tree growing above the standing stones. They appeared to be Xipil and Ichmatl (mostly the latter).
* Rogdul noticed a carpet of dessicated insects underfoot, which began to glow and tried to climb him. Some of the reanimated bodies of the tribal explorers joined the fight, too.
* The swarms proved extremely challenging - Rowena and I had nothing in the way of magic to destroy them, and only Tanim seemed able to land an effective blow at all. Rogdul dispatched the undead tribespeople, while Tanim dealt with the swarms.
* Rogdul reported seeing something he identified as an 'Orphne', which seemed to be responsible for resurrecting the insects.
* Whilst fleeing from the swarms, I was assailed from high above by archers volleying arrows from platforms constructed upon the trunk of the tree looming overhead.
* Once the insects and undead were dispatched, and whilst taking cover from the archers, we decided we were ill-equipped for the environment to which we had come, and determined that our best course of action would be to return, regroup, and revisit with members of our contingency better suited to the task.
* Before we left, Rowena took advantage of her lingering invisibility to scout out the area on the far side of the planar bridge. She found humanoids serving the will of some fey entity (possibly the one we came to slay).
* Rowena ascended the tree, and found our target surveying the Feywild from high above - accompanied by the Orphne.
* Xolotolo spotted Rowena and dispelled her invisibility. He asked her why she came to the Feywild and she told him of the owl prophet who had asked her to assassinate him. When he tried to enslave her, she resisted and leaped from the tree - thankfully, intact enough for us to bring her back to consciousness when she landed amongst us. Tanim scored a severe parting blow on him when he came down to apprehend us, and he fled. We took advantage of the moment and returned to our home plane.