An extravagant white leather bound journal contains several chapters detailing Calina Ravanqnerosicor’s journeys. It is written in a rich blue ink and the pages have a gold trim. It is written in Sperethiel.
Chapter 84: A Job Search Yields Success
I was pacing around the Gates of Throal, ever hopeful that a passing group of Adepts were willing to allow a Wizard to join. I have not had a decent continuous job in months. My reward incentive from when I assisted the town of Hope Springs is nearly used up. I've had a couple temporary jobs since then, nothing worth noting. As with all my previous employment, I was more than adequate to complete my assigned tasks and was relieved of such arduous nonsense well in advance of when I would prefer. Without many Adepts departing for any such quests, I was surprised when I was approached not by a fellow Adept, but by the Sergeant of the Guard, Stronbol himself! He invited me into his office, which was in dire need of an appropriate filing system. He had the strangest issue finding a file he wanted to hand me, but before he got around to searching for it, he did inform me of a series of crimes, involving missing or dead children, that he wanted me to look into. A wave of relief washed over me. I had not been able to grasp a complete understanding of the civility found in the Dahnat, and I was concerned that I had done something that could have been construed as criminal. He departed, unable to locate the missing file, and after a very brief search of the office, I found it on the center of his desk. A page was sticking out with part of the word "Confidential" sticking out, written in Throalic. When Stronbol returned, he identified the file as the one he was searching for. He essentially booted me out with it. They handle confidential information so strangely outside of the Estates. We always had vaults, locks, guards, and a labyrinth of property to go through before anyone could even find out that the information existed.
I ended up back at my flop house before I finally read the file. It was filled with such sad and tragic tales about finding dead bodies. Each instance was about a week apart, and strangely, two of them were near a farm. I had to assemble a team and quickly get them on the road to investigate this. The one aspect that connected each event was the reported sighting of a "ghost barge." I was not convinced that such a thing existed, but it was a paying job, and I had no reason not to follow through with it. Most of the Adepts I knew were preoccupied in one form or another. I was able to employ Keel. She was not the most elegant of elves, but she was still very effective in combat. If nothing else, she would make an exceptional bodyguard, but I suspect she would be more useful than just keeping people safe. Next in line was Qwillem. As a Weaponsmith, it would be very difficult to find someone more capable of repairing not only our weapons and armor, but also anything that would need repairs. He could probably do decent with temporary fortifications as well. I was also able to find another spell slinger. (I do so enjoy that expression!) Barag was an Elementalist who would have felt at home in the wilds. I was sure he would be able to assist in recovery for the farm crops, as well as keep the group safe at night. We didn't really have much in terms of navigation, tracking, or stealthy skills, so I went looking for an archer or a scout of some sort. Nergae was not available. Taras would have been great to fill the position, as well. It would have gave me an opportunity to observe him with less biased prejudice. Oddly enough, I could not find him. After asking about the tavern, Darius Crawford was recommended. I wasn't sure about meeting another Adept, but he was an Archer, so he should have the skills we needed.
After meeting with the team in the Mallet, the tavern in the Dahnat. Each of them was on time, with the exception of Barag. He was a mess. I had to clean him up and make him presentable before he got to the table. I handed Keel the file and she read out each of the reports. There was even a map included. We came up with a plan to head south of where the last sighting of the spectral ship was, but since we would come across each of the incident sites, we would stop by each to see if there was any information we could glean. Qwillem proposed purchasing materials to create a boat to cross the river where we needed to. Keel also proposed finding some better navigational materials. I handed the map to Darius, but he claimed he was not so decent at navigation. Keel and I were competing for the navigational position. She was better than I was, but I kept the map anyway. She was going to be the first responder in an ambush situation.
We made our way down to Fair Oaks Farm, the first of the three locations. We found three Ork kids, about half the age of Vralino. They were being assaulted by another Ork who had gone insane. We also found some exploding cows, covered in massive pustules. While Darius didn't have any of the skills I was hoping for from an Archer, he was exceptional on the battlefield. Keel was covered in gross muck by the time the fight was over. I think I left about two days worth of rations on the ground somewhere. Prechewed. I would not recommend gorging on it to anyone. Not even Taras. (Although he might find it as a delicacy. I doubt he's had much elven... cuisine. I tried a joke! The regurgitated mess was very disgusting. Much of it was fish.) Keel was infected with some spores. Luckily, the Ork girl had a way to create a cure. She needed supplies and equipment to make it. We investigated a strange group of plants, possibly fungus. I'm not sure, I have not studied much about botany. In the middle of the fungus was a large red crystal. We decided to head to the farm next; we were led to the farming village by the children. All of the farmers were mad. After scouting the area, the kids gave us an orientation of the village. The mad Orks were everywhere. They seemed attracted to noise. Qwillem made a beautiful sequential noise-making device where each noisy piece triggered another. I am so glad I elected to invite him along. I sent Qwillem, Keel, and Barag to maintain a distraction while Darius, the kids, and I went looking for the necessary items. Again, false prejudices expected Darius to be able to sneak into the various locations, but we ended up sending in the older of the Ork children. I am grateful Darius is so effective in combat. I wish I had known his shortcomings before hiring him, though. We made it through the still and the kitchen, but we were not confident that we could gather the beans from the farmlands without engaging in the mad Orks. I had thought we could find more in the woods, so we departed without them. We were unable to locate the appropriate vegetation for the recipe, but we still had the recipe book from the kitchen and the equipment from the distillery. The Ork child even recovered five salves and two tinctures of the concoction.
Further down the river, we found Clearbrook Cove. A T'Skrang was being engaged by several seaweed creatures. We jumped in to rescue him. The creatures were adamant about stealing his clams. Oddly, they reacted to Keel as though she was a deity. I must have selected the best team for this job. Keel, Qwillem, and Darius were pulling off some amazing accomplishments. Darius continued his outstanding Archer work, even though it did not actually include archery. After we rescued the T'Skrang, I had to dispel the magical effects Keel was suffering. Then I did the same for the T'Skrang. He led us to the entrance of the Niall. It was the App'Ressa Niall. They were under siege from more of these seaweed creatures and were attempting to evacuate their eggs. Their Shialla was dead. There was a farm in the middle of the Niall, where another strange crystal was located.
It was very similar to the one we found at Fair Oaks. What was particularly interesting about the App'Ressa T'Skrang was they had some form of enchanted paint to protect them from the... I'll call them Noris. They do remind me of what I use to wrap my fresher pescatoral recipes in. Well, what I had used when I was in House Ravanqnerosicor. All of the Noris' attacks just bounced of the paint. It was quite remarkable. I attempted to learn the recipe, but it was outside of my area of expertise. We did get the Ork girl to learn it, though. We even traded some of the salve used to get rid of the spores for some of the materials. They ground the clamshells we kept the Noris from stealing into dust before mixing it into paint. We also made copies of each recipe so both the T'Skrang and we could have a copy. I was not comfortable with underwater combat, so I urged the party to continue along the river. The Ork girl made some of the paint while we were on the way.
The last location was Tassadae Farm. The farmland was being lit on fire by a group of... cultist, possibly. They were screaming about how the world revolved around them. The strange thing was they were the kindling. They had set themselves ablaze and were using the flames on their own bodies to light the fields. Again, more strange reactions to Keel. They approached her and called her "brother." I thought I had hired a female elf who was a badass with a sword, but I'm not so sure anymore. I'll have to observe her... him... Keel more closely so I do not cause offense. Again, Darius was amazing with his hatchets, but this battle allowed Barag to show me why he was a good idea. He was able to douse the culprits with his water spears. Darius did quite a bit of damage himself. I finally got around to casting my own spell. Observing astral space, it seemed they were trying to commit suicide to phase into the astral realm. None of them succeeded. As the last one fell, the villagers rushed to the field to douse the remaining fires. We were fortunate enough to find that their main product was the very ingredient we had neglected to harvest back at Fair Oaks. We did find a scorched trail leading from the flaming men back to a campsite, where a cultist was invoking self punishment for one reason or another. He had one companion, so it wasn't difficult to interrogate them. They referenced a hooded man who was responsible for the events involving the ghost barge. They even were kind enough to provide the berthing location of the barge.
When we arrived at the barge, we found it abandoned. Qwillem built us a boat to take to the barge. We looked into the portholes and found a lot of the same fungus, a few Noris, and a couple of the mad Orks in the hold. I almost lost some more of my digested nourishment before we entered into the captains quarters, where the Orks were. We used the tinctures to deal with them and quickly searched the cabin. Before we got very far in it, the ship came under attack from a large tentacled beast. We grabbed some paperwork detailing the planting of several pillars. I am assuming the pillars were the crystals we had seen. We had the locations and could pass that on to Adepts better equipped to deal with them. As we departed in Qwillem's boat, the cannon powder exploded, killing the beast. Chunks of corpse flew everywhere. I was completely covered. Most of the rest of the team was, too, but Keel was completely missed! There was no point in holding back my vomit anymore. I just let it drip out of my mouth and spat out what did not exit, not caring whether it landed on my clothes or not. I couldn't even tell it was sliding down my chin. It was so depressing. I wonder if Barag's willing to do the whole purify water trick again. I am having trouble cleaning my outfit, but at this point, I might as well abandon it. I still have another twelve sets. I'll just have to be more careful. It took forever to get it out of my hair. I am glad my undergarments were mostly protected.
This was not the ideal adventure I was hoping for. I thought Taras was disgusting, but I don't think he comes anywhere close to what happened to me during this trip. Maybe I should check out this Vorst place. It might explain a lot. I was expecting humans to all be revolting, but Darius is another surprisingly useful human who does not reek of alcohol. And is prompt. And wears clean clothes. My preconceptions on humans has really been incorrect. I wonder if I can get Taras to take me to Vorst. Maybe he won't want to go back. He does speak quite lowly about it. Maybe I should ask him about it. He doesn't really understand sign language. Maybe a letter? Yes, I shall write a letter asking about his home. Then I can go check it out. Maybe I can find someone to pay me to do something there. I'll have to save up the money from Stronbol's payment. There is so much planning that needs to go into this trip.
