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by Dougansf » Mon Jun 14, 2021 1:37 pm
Indran Field Journal
First Entry
We travel to the Meat Market, a place where adepts may find jobs. We meet Big Laszka and Moishvan the Elder from Mudville. Things have been disappearing for about a month, small things, some animals. One witness saw a washtub moving itself out of town.
Mudville
We trek out and find the Illia river and find a settlement of 5-10 partially built houses. They found the clay pits, “obedient and obliging,” he was able to make 30 in a week. They look very solid, but plain, no glazing. They clay seals itself for storing water. Moishvan shows us how he makes the jars. He places a pitcher on the table, and 5 lumps of clay around it. He fixes us a meal to wait for the clay to duplicate the pitcher. After 3-4 hours, the lumps have shaped themselves into duplicates. The duplicates are still soft and need firing. He smacks one with a hammer, and they all start to stiffen.
I sense a few Beast Spirits in the area, Drask’a senses some other spirits as well, but nothing out of the ordinary. It’s a very fertile place, lots of potential.
We gather the town into a meeting of about 25-30 people. Nothing clay has gone missing. Clay has not duplicated anything that isn’t clay. Everything is found missing in the morning. They discovered the clay’s properties within a week of arrival, but things went missing in the last 3 weeks.
Laszka brings us to the river where it comes up from underground. She stands on the clay pit, stomps on it, and sinks into the clay up to her knees. She pulls herself out and appears covered in muddy scales. Looking over the area, we find raised footprints. There are scrape marks near the water. I confirm they are prints of a washtub and a pig, and they head into the water. The earth around the tracks are higher than the rest of the area. Our t’skrang members go for a quick swim.
I believe these are not Horrors, but could be some kind of earth spirit.
We head back to Mudville for dinner and night watch.
Night Watch
Drask’a takes first watch. Nothing eventful.
Indran takes the second watch, and sees a barrel sliding across the ground. The earth is being disturbed beneath it. I can’t determine if it’s an animal or spirit, so I wake the others.
When we approach, we find other items are being dragged with the barrel. We follow it all the way to the water. Just as things are about to go into the water, I jump up and down. All the items stop moving. As Z’mokki approaches, a small rock mole leaps out of the earth at him to attack.
Z’mokki’s magic warns him and helps him avoid the attack.
Garak shoots one, and it shatters.
Different muddy creatures emerge and hurl clay at Garak and Z’mokki.
Draska and I weave threads.
We eventually gather back on the West bank of the water and finish off the last mud creature.
Having seen their manifested forms, I think they’re primitive Earth spirits.
We watch two of the objects move along the walls, spiraling down into a tunnel. We bring the other objects back to town. All the objects that were taken were crafted, not grown.
Morning
The next morning we tell the villagers what we found. They call a meeting and take a vote, they trust our judgment.
We head back to the water. Z’mokki dives into the water and scouts the pool. He determines we can make it, as there are pockets of air we can use. With the help of the Otters, we swim down fast enough to reach the air pockets and then to the tunnel below.
There we find ancient stonework ruins, some submerged. On the other side of the clearing, we can see a pile of stolen objects, and a red sphere surrounded by mud creatures who are trying to push things into the sphere. The sphere grows when something goes in.
Z’mokki tries to talk to them at first. I examine the sphere some more, and spot something hiding in the water between them and Z’mokki. Z’mokki throws them a torch, and one runs to place it into the sphere.
We carefully search around the ruins. It’s been abandoned since before the Long Night began. There are no trinkets or crafted items other than the walls. It doesn’t appear to have been a kaer, and was abandoned before the Scourge began, and thus was not likely attacked by Horrors.
We get closer to the sphere, and they stand defensively. I sit and start my greeting ritual. They move closer, very curious. When I finish, it’s eager to take the cloth, which I offer up with care. One mud creature forms a fingered hand to take it eagerly to the sphere. Garak follows suit with wood carving.
We search around and find another way out of here, via climbing, taking nearly a day. We return to village and instruct them to leave offerings out for them to take.
We are paid, and also get payment from the alchemical and enchanting concerned bodies, who are also willing to pay us in clay-based products.