Post
by SkunkD » Thu Dec 09, 2021 9:00 am
Journal of Melcar Airlana, 1st Circle Swordmaster
I've grown bored with the cramped city living that keeps me from unleashing the full dance of my weapon. Today was as good a day as any to start my adventures outside the city.
Luckily enough for me, while having a meal and some drink at the Ghost Pepper, a Windling that goes by the name Mirage came in and was looking for some Adepts to help out with some troubles she had heard of from a friend of hers. A couple of other regulars seemed interested to join in on the adventure and before we knew it Mirage, Vargo, Kalendar, Eruriel and myself decided to go take a look at what's going on at Tassadae Farm.
I'd heard about the previous events a few years back of a ghost barge traveling the river in that area; perhaps there was still more to be cleaning up after that incident.
After a few more bites and everyone agreeing what time we were going to take out, I felt the only thing left to do was to commemorate the event with a tall mug of Hurlg. I had seen many of the Orks take celebratory swigs prior to heading off to adventure. It seemed the right thing to do... and down the hatch it went... or, at least it did until it came right back up. Unfortunately Gran Gran was walking by when the full contents of what I had just drank...
"Passions! What had I just drank!?"
...along with everything else in my stomach, decided to make a hasty retreat from within me; all over Gran Grans shoes (and maybe more).
To take my mind off the events in the Ghost Pepper I decided I should probably go read up a bit on the local area around Tassadae to better acquaint myself with where I was going. This proved quite pointless while the Hurgl still worked it's magic on me and I spent more time "donating to the Mucker's Guild" than reading up on anything that would be useful coming up.
Once I realised I wasn't going to be able to focus on anything until my stomach was set right, I made my way back to the Ghost Pepper to apologize to Gran Gran and that it was anything against her establishments drinks. Thankfully, Gran took pity on this poor human and gave me a cure to settle things down. I made a promised to Gran Gran that when I make it back from this adventure, I will prove myself worthy of drinking Hurgl.
The travel down to Tassadae wasn't too bad all things considered. Much of the first few days are still a bit of a blur from that damn Hurlg. After the first day we stopped into a small little village on our way, had a nice dinner, enjoyed a wonderful evening of music and avoided any and all drink. Should we make it back, this place might be worthwhile for another stop. I'm sure Vargo wouldn't mind another stop there to listen the singers, you would think he'd never heard music before the way he was hypnotized with those two.
The next day we left town and kept on our journey searching out Captain Me'Behato and his ship, the Kek'tanoz... apparently, it means Blue Turtle according to Mirage. Anyway, the boat trip was peaceful, I spent most of my time feeling out how the weapon danced with the river underneath. It was a bit awkward and clumsy at first, but once I finally understood the roles that the motion of the water and the ship sliding through it played in the dance, the whole thing came together. Thank the Passions that there were none of my more boisterous "sword brethren" aboard this vessel, most of the sailors seemed more keen on gambling than sword play.
It did not take long to make our way to Tassadae and thankfully none of the alligators that lived in these waters decided to join us on deck through the whole voyage. I'd always heard how rough riding on the Coil was, this Captain sure made it quite the easy ride. Perhaps travel by boat isn't so bad after all.
Upon arriving at Tassadae the dockyard looked in shambles, so Captain Me'Behato decided not to make his way to dock. He was kind enough though to ferry us to shore and promise to pick us up on his way back, should he see us on the docks. A quick look through the buildings showed no signs of any recent activity. The party picked up on a few tracks that looked more like people fleeing from the docks. I don't blame them though, with alligators all through the waters, I wouldn't really want to be here. But it was quite odd that they just left many of their wares in the store houses to rot and mildew. I'm sure most of it isn't even salvageable. There were obvious wagon marks leaving town though and this had to lead to the Farming village of Tassadae, so we gathered our gear and headed towards where people should be to see how we could help rid this village of their little flying menaces.
Following the wagon ruts, it wasn't long until we heard some people yelling and screaming, obviously being attacked by something. But we were not prepared for what we saw. Two large flying beasts, similar to the description from the letter but ten times the size described, were attacking 4 farmers out gathering vegetables. We all did our best to run up and aide the farmers. At one point, I thought one of the younger farmers was going to be eaten before we could even get to them. Luckily though I was able to entice the creature pursuing the farmer to come over and pick on me. Perhaps though my enticing was too good for 3 more came out of the woods towards us! It was a beautiful battle, and the dance against the flying creatures was a tremendous affair. The whole party knew their roles and we were able to vanquish the foul beasts and rescue the farmers. Unfortunately the beasts seemed to have an ability to poison from their tails, but it seems the farmers are familiar with this and have created some salve that helps one fight their wicked toxins upon application. This might be quite useful if we can get a sample back to Throal to see if there are any further uses for this salve.
The villagers hurried us off to where the rest of the villagers were in the town before more creatures could come by. We gathered as much from the field as we could and brought it with everyone. Apparently they have had to barricade in their buildings against these creatures as they grew bigger and bigger while consuming every living creature around; including villagers. The only real information we could get about the troubles the town is facing is that the creatures have consumed nearly every animal around and make it impossible to leave the houses without fear of being eaten by them. The creatures do leave the crops alone though, so at least the villagers were able to subside off something until we arrived (assuming they survived the scavenging run to the fields). We were informed though that the beasts seem to have come from over by the old pillar in the forest and that there were 12 villagers unaccounted for that just up and went missing at some point.
Thankfully the village has a healer whom was able to assist us with the wounds we'd taken from these creatures. In the morning we will go check out this pillar.
The forest around here did not look like anything I had expected. The trees looked dead or dying, the ground was almost crystalline and in the middle of the trees was a HUGE crater. It looked like what I would imagine a missive volley of firecannons hitting the ground would look like. This was the center of something, and that something does need to be investigated. Lightly carved upon the trees surrounding the crater were magic symbols, all symbols were pointing to the center of the crater too. We should probably inform Throal about this for further investigation. Humanoid tracks, Large for human but small for Troll, could be found around the crater too; no signs of these flying creatures though.
Following the tracks led us to a nearby cave. As we tried to cautiously approach the cave, we were set upon by 3 of these creatures.
HA! We have found their home... Ut Oh! They seem to have been laying in wait for us!!
One swooped out of the cave right at me and knocked me to the ground. I took my defensive posture and stood back up ready to attack. Something seemed off as I entered into my dance, it was as if I was alone and the dance was only half there... it was mid attempt to strike one of these creatures that I realized I had not had an opportunity to draw my axe! Luckily the rest of the party was on their game and quick work was made of these beasts.
Entering into the cave, we took a little more caution in our movements. An odd mists obscured our feet and made looking for tracks quite difficult. Echoing through the tunnels also made things difficult as noises seemed to be coming from all around us. With out torches lit, we stumbled into the first chamber where the sight is too gruesome to fully describe. In this room we found one of the 12 missing villagers, no longer living, along with some kind of shell from an egg. Whatever had come out of that egg was one of the reasons this villager was no longer with us; maybe not directly responsible, but someone had left her as a meal for whatever came out of that egg. As we got deeper into the cave we started hearing more sounds down the tunnels and a rough direction the noises were coming from. Following the sounds, we came upon an enormous egg that was in the midst of hatching. Again, the sight I will not recount in detail as it deserves not to be brought to life in words. Suffice to say, we knew the fate of three more of the villagers that were missing. This unnatural egg was massive, standing taller than most dwarves and nearing four feet wide, and it was hatching...
What exploded from the egg was nothing I had ever seen before and something I wish to never see again. For something so large it was surprisingly fast. Before anyone could react a tentacle of the thing reached out and speared Mirage and started pulling her back towards it's main body. Kalendar struck first, targeting a weak spot on the creature that he had noticed. Eruriel followed up Kalendar, aiming for some soft spot or vital organ exposed of the beasts. This opened up the perfect oportunity, my blade's dance took me under the creature's appendages and directed me over to the side where the tentacle was retracting in with Mirage attached at the end. The side of the beast exposed, a perfect opportunity to sever the abominations' thread once and for all. My axe struck true and deep, ending the thing's existence.
Vargo rushed over to assist Mirage, placing some of the salve the villagers gave to us upon Mirage's wound. Much longer and Mirage might not have been around to tell her side of this tale.
With the foul beast destroyed, we started searching the immediate area and were able to locate 7 of the villagers unconscious. We gathered up the villagers and rushed them out of the cave into the fresh air and back to their village. We then came back with the villagers collected the remains of 4 of the villagers so that we could give them a proper burial, then burned out every square inch of the caves and collapsed the entrance for good measure.
What happened to the 12th missing villager? Perhaps something that still needs investigated or perhaps something we'll never know the answer to. But for now, the village of Tassadae is safe again.
