I've finally found a promising engineer who I believe can take over Delloran's work in Clear Creek Crossing. Her name is Ellory. Unfortunately before I could contact her, she took a job to find and map an old mine in the Tylon mountains.
Bad news has arrived. One of Ellory's party has returned claiming he is the only survivor. Her employer, Gerlind, has requested I form a party and either find the missing party or finish their work. I have found them to be reliable strength in the past and so seek out Vralino, Mazor, and Lazulin.
I swear by the passions, Vralino must know half of Throal. She was able to procure us work on a caravan heading to Sosanopa. This provided us the necessary funding and numbers to make the journey safely. We ere also able to find a group of outriders heading south who we traveled with until they reached their destination.
We found what we believe to be the party's campsite. As we began to inspect it, we angered some spiked rodents who then set upon us. Both Lazulin and I seemed to get the worst of it. Fortunately Vralino and Mazor ere able to finish the best despite having two unconscious teammates. We rested for three days to recover from this ordeal. *written in the side bar* if only we had pressed on
We found the cave. A broken longsword at the entrance told us some conflict had happened more recently. We pressed forward, Mazor taking the lead. Unfortunately he did not see the spider web before becoming entangled in it. Very quickly the source off the wrong came to claim its meal. Lazulin tried his best to free Mazor, but delicate work like that was not meant to be attempted in the heat of combat. These spiders had more tactics than I expected. While two held the front line, the others accosted us with venomous spit. Vralino had no defense against the projectiles and was quickly hurting. To maximize our limited space we started rotating our front line. We broke through and were able to more effectively dispatch the spiders. Unfortunately the team was spent after that encounter and decided a night's rest would better prepare us for whatever we may encounter in the cave. *furiously written in the side bar* YOU COWARD! YOU'RE WEAK!
Our second excursion into the cave was less combative. We carefully cleared it the webs as we went and encountered no resistance. In the depths of the cave we found five bodies wrapped in webbing. One matched the description of Ellory. Vralino believes she died the previous night. Our job was incomplete now so I nimbly went about the cane searching for the components Gerlind cared about. No living crystal could be found in the parts we explored, but there were many cave ins. Perhaps the crystal lies farther in. We removed the bodies and buried them. Gerlind seemed satisfied with our report.
If only I had tried harder. If I had pressed on. She would be alive. Why do I grip these tools and weapons if they do not let me grip the fate and future I want? *upon close inspection a soot outline of a balled fist can be seen across the whole page*
AAR: [4M] The Girl Who Reached for the Sky (2020-08-10 at 22:00 GMT)
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