Hello my, far-away family,
Today is a day to reflect. As I sit here with FizBit who curled around his collection of metal spoons, I wonder why I feel so confused and feel put off from my last adventure. The adventure I last journeyed opened my eyes to the brutality of the outside world and this was within my travel group. Since the last time I wrote, I feel that my letters are no longer taking the tone of a wonderful experience with new and exciting things to learn but the world is starting to show more of it’s a darker side of its intentions.
Please do not worry about my mental wellbeing I know that I will come to terms with this and do not worry, I will bounce back to my happy self in no time. I just want to share my thoughts with you and warn those who travel out that even the brightest moon has a dark side.
Let me tell you my story from the beginning. Fizbet and I went out to return yet another item back to my neighbours, prior to them coming to find us. As I was following FizBit to his next location he made a friend with a dwarven woman who was sent to request that her employer was interested in my skill set to venture out on another quest. At this point, I was surprised that someone other then my best friends knew anything about how I was. It’s not like I make much of an impression, but it is always nice to be wanted. When I arrived at the locations it turned out to be one of the most fanciest place I have ever been to. I mean really FANCY. I wish they would have told me ahead of time how fancy this place was. I would have tried to dress in the outfit that Aunty Jacronic made me on my 12th birthday. As I am waiting to meet with someone my good friend Nez showed up. You remember him right from my last adventure. It was so nice to see him look so well due to his “condition”.
Three others joined us at the meeting. There was an Obsidiperson ( they like to go by person instead of “men” so it’s all-inclusive) named Daldorer. Now I have not seen many of these “people” but something about that “person” felt off. Kind of made my skin tingle and not in a good way. Then came Norg. Now there is a Troll who can punch. Wow. If I had a big cousin to watch over me when I was young I would choose him. We were also joined by a very flamboyant and colourful T’skrang named Moe’ uhane (Moe cause I can’t make my tongue roll and twist to say his name properly.) I think he is part dragon, like my other best friend was talking about when I first started adventuring. Moe could breathe fire but I am getting ahead of myself.
So our worldly adventuring group was asked to go find a lady like aunty Boogga’lou. We all know that aunty Boogga’lou loves her plants. We were asked to check in on her cause she had not reported in within a few weeks. Off we went to a village that laid just outside a jungle called Sevos. I am not going to pull your leg on this one but this jungle is huge. I mean HUGE with a capital “H”. We found out that our person of interest named “Qurali” was missing and there was a group of elves who also asked about her recently. We search her house looking for clues when one of my fine friends found a book of Qurali that showed her findings on unique plants she was researching on.
At this point, it was getting late. We decided that we would stay at Qurali's house and venture out in the morning. Problem is that we did not know which direction we needed to go. A big problem right? Not for our Obsidiperson. I found out that night that he/she/they knew how to call upon spirits and ask them questions. I would have no problem with this if it were a little cute thing but nooooooo… it was not a little cute thing. It was the opposite of cute and little. Some old lady crawled out of the fireplace and started to twist and talk and …… that was the last I saw cause I thought it was best to stand guard outside. Way outside. I guess ‘It” told our friend which way to go. I know I was ready to tell her where to go after she ran through my body. Next morning off we went. Did I mention that this jungle is huge? After a while, we decided to call it a night. Just I was about to doze off these cute and cuddly cat things thought it was a great idea to make us into scratch posts. I think at this time I am going to redefine what “Cute” means. If someone says “oh look how cute” RUN!
My good friend Naz was able to calm one down but the really impressive thing was my dragon friend was able to breathe fire. I mean he now has the new title of BBQ master (sorry Daylor). Of course, our team was the victors. We slept then off we went to find our lost herbalist. We found her and some unfavourable people. Now I will not bore you with the details of the fight I will just let you know we were awesome.
Now here is where things get really, really dark. Remember how I said that I would love to have Norg as a big brother. I take it back. Once we finished our battle and rescued Qurali. I look around and Norg is hanging one of the dead bad guys upside down draining him of his blood over one of the bad guys unconscious allies. My first thought was maybe this is some sort of cultural thing I don’t understand but no it was not. He did it to scare and intimidate the bad guys still alive. OH HELL NO!! I was not brought up that away and let's just say on our way home I made sure I was on or awake during his shift. I tried to stay as far away as possible without having him notice. HE CRAZY! The problem is the rest of the team didn’t do anything to stop them
.
We returned the herbalist home and journeyed back home also. When we returned I was gifted with an amazing coin that looks just like me. I really apricate the craftsmanship of it. I must hide it away safe from FizBit.
Well, another adventure is done and I can gladly say that the cold sweets and nightmares have slowly disappeared.
With all my thoughts,
Azurea
AAR: [5M] Herbalost (2020-06-25 2300 GMT)
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Re: AAR: [5M] Herbalost (2020-06-25 2300 GMT)
From "Notes on the world outside the kaers" as penned by Norg
Just a few weeks before I would sit the Admiralty Board's Standard Test for Crew & Officers of Aerial Vessels, Boats, and Related Conveyances, a dwarf lady named Lavrinn rescued me from that endless abyss of tedium. I was so relieved to have an excuse to abandon the studying that I did not even question how she knew I was going to sit the test or inquire into who exactly Spoudaious Pagameno, the name she gave for her employer, was.
That's how I found myself at the Blackroot Club, an establishment catering to the rich wanting to experience "min altering substances" in a safe and overpriced setting. They also have an excellent selection of roast meats. As I entered I could see the judgment in the ancient elf directing customers to their party and almost regretted avoiding that goat excrement on the way.
I was taken to a waiting room where Moe, Daldorer and a couple of other adepts I had not met yet were already being made to waste time. I barely had time to introduce myself to Azuera the troll Shadow and Nez Pierce the windling Beastmaster before we were ushered into a private room. I guess our employer does not fancy having us around anymore than necessary.
In the private room we were greeted by Lavrinn once again, apparently her employer is too self important to meet with us. She explained that another associate of her employer, and orc named Qurali Vilkenn, had apparently gone missing. Quarali was an herbalist researching plants native to the Sevros and her research was critical to mr Pagamenos future plans.
She then left telling us we had use of the room for the rest of the afternoon, so I proceeded to pile as much as I could on our employer's account, mostly from the aforementioned roast menu. The others were significantly less "generous" in their contribution to mr Pagamenos' bill.
The next day we left and had a very relaxed five day stroll in the plains south of Throal until we reached the village of Yanisya, Quarali's home, and the edge of the Sevros. There we first has a chat with a local farmer on the way back to his homestead, Azurea greatly enjoyed petting his draft dog, and got some basic information. Soon we attracted the attention of the resident school teacher, who took her children out to perform the "rites of introduction" on behalf of the village, it was a rather charming display richer in enthusiasm than skill. It was then our turn and when the children realised I was a body painter they were all clamouring to be the one that would be my canvas. To my surprise the teacher allowed this, so I lined up about seven of them and painted a rendition of the drawing one of them had just made on their back, some of my best work still. In the mean time Azurea and Daldorer collaborated in a retelling of the liberation of Grakor, with one narrating and the other making shadow puppets to match. By the time we were done, several other villagers had gathered and used the excuse to have some minor festivities.
Talking to the locals they all directed us toward Kreska Navid, the local record keeper. Kreska turned out to be quite worried about her missing lover, and gave us some locations to look for. She also mentioned that two elves with strange accents had approached Qurali a few weeks before. Daldorer realised that our questioning may have increased Kreska's worries and that she did not have any real reason to trust us, so he swore an oath of blood peace to her.
Next we visited Qurali's small home, as we looked around I got the distinct feeling the place had been searched by someone else before us. Luckily the hadn't found the hidden compartment under the floor where Qurali kept her journal. Some of the plants in the journal were marked with an odd glyph that looked like a reptilian wing. Nez remarked that the marked herbs were variants of fairly common plants used in various herbalist concoctions to aid with the ills of old age.
Daldorer decided to summon the spirit of the heart to help us locate Qurali, an idea that would turn out to be extremely helpful as the spirit narrowed Qurali's location to one of three spots in the jungle, one which we hadn't known about. Azurea was rather taken aback by the Nethermancer's work and avoided the spirit presence as much as she could.
The next day we set off into the Sevros towards the one location we had not known about, I had a hunch it would be where Qurali was. The trip through the Sevros was hot, damp, and generally uncomfortable. Azurea, Daldorer, and I kept an eye out for threats while Moe navigated. Nez also spent a lot of his time looking for something.
In the night we were ambushed by a small pack of Crojen, possibly nature's cutest killing machines, while Nez and I were keeping watch. I managed to nudge the other awake before the furballs fell on us. Nez... seemed to think he knew the one that was trying to eat him, and spent the fight calling this or that Crojen "Sagarmatha", even while they were tearing into him. Daldorer and Moe were also mauled quite badly, while the Citadel kept the claws at bay.
After the fight Nez started trying to tame the two surviving beasts, and managed to convince one of them not to eat his face off. The rest of the night passed without incident.
Early on the third day in the Sevros we heard some voices in the distance, alternating between Throalic and what Daldorer thought was Theran. Azurea, Nez, and Moe moved to ambush while me and Daldorer formed the distraction. Inside some ruins we found two elves, a t'skrang, and two humans holding Qurali prisoner, probably in the early stages of interrogation. We dropped on them with Azurea and Nez making short work of the humans and Daldorer being his usual source of terror. The fight was brief, the t'skrang dead at Azurea's hand, the female elf unconscious, and the male running away, after shouting something about the glory of the empire.
We started to give chase, pesky elves are fast even with those short legs, when Moe pulled out a flying carpet and easily overtook the fugitive. Another spell and the elf was rooted in place, at which point the pointy eared maniac cut his own throat. We took the corpse back to the others and hung it from a tree to set a proper ambience for a chat with the other elf. Azurea went a bit green around the horns at the sight, odd for someone that throws shadow knives into people's backs without a second thought.
Turns out the theatrics were unnecessary, when the woman woke up she meekly surrendered and told us she was from a kaer still loyal to Thera. At Moe's insistence we took the dead body back to Throal too, even if it got really fragrant on the way.
We left Qurali back in Yasinya and, once back in Throal, found our payment waiting for us at the Blackroot Club.
Just a few weeks before I would sit the Admiralty Board's Standard Test for Crew & Officers of Aerial Vessels, Boats, and Related Conveyances, a dwarf lady named Lavrinn rescued me from that endless abyss of tedium. I was so relieved to have an excuse to abandon the studying that I did not even question how she knew I was going to sit the test or inquire into who exactly Spoudaious Pagameno, the name she gave for her employer, was.
That's how I found myself at the Blackroot Club, an establishment catering to the rich wanting to experience "min altering substances" in a safe and overpriced setting. They also have an excellent selection of roast meats. As I entered I could see the judgment in the ancient elf directing customers to their party and almost regretted avoiding that goat excrement on the way.
I was taken to a waiting room where Moe, Daldorer and a couple of other adepts I had not met yet were already being made to waste time. I barely had time to introduce myself to Azuera the troll Shadow and Nez Pierce the windling Beastmaster before we were ushered into a private room. I guess our employer does not fancy having us around anymore than necessary.
In the private room we were greeted by Lavrinn once again, apparently her employer is too self important to meet with us. She explained that another associate of her employer, and orc named Qurali Vilkenn, had apparently gone missing. Quarali was an herbalist researching plants native to the Sevros and her research was critical to mr Pagamenos future plans.
She then left telling us we had use of the room for the rest of the afternoon, so I proceeded to pile as much as I could on our employer's account, mostly from the aforementioned roast menu. The others were significantly less "generous" in their contribution to mr Pagamenos' bill.
The next day we left and had a very relaxed five day stroll in the plains south of Throal until we reached the village of Yanisya, Quarali's home, and the edge of the Sevros. There we first has a chat with a local farmer on the way back to his homestead, Azurea greatly enjoyed petting his draft dog, and got some basic information. Soon we attracted the attention of the resident school teacher, who took her children out to perform the "rites of introduction" on behalf of the village, it was a rather charming display richer in enthusiasm than skill. It was then our turn and when the children realised I was a body painter they were all clamouring to be the one that would be my canvas. To my surprise the teacher allowed this, so I lined up about seven of them and painted a rendition of the drawing one of them had just made on their back, some of my best work still. In the mean time Azurea and Daldorer collaborated in a retelling of the liberation of Grakor, with one narrating and the other making shadow puppets to match. By the time we were done, several other villagers had gathered and used the excuse to have some minor festivities.
Talking to the locals they all directed us toward Kreska Navid, the local record keeper. Kreska turned out to be quite worried about her missing lover, and gave us some locations to look for. She also mentioned that two elves with strange accents had approached Qurali a few weeks before. Daldorer realised that our questioning may have increased Kreska's worries and that she did not have any real reason to trust us, so he swore an oath of blood peace to her.
Next we visited Qurali's small home, as we looked around I got the distinct feeling the place had been searched by someone else before us. Luckily the hadn't found the hidden compartment under the floor where Qurali kept her journal. Some of the plants in the journal were marked with an odd glyph that looked like a reptilian wing. Nez remarked that the marked herbs were variants of fairly common plants used in various herbalist concoctions to aid with the ills of old age.
Daldorer decided to summon the spirit of the heart to help us locate Qurali, an idea that would turn out to be extremely helpful as the spirit narrowed Qurali's location to one of three spots in the jungle, one which we hadn't known about. Azurea was rather taken aback by the Nethermancer's work and avoided the spirit presence as much as she could.
The next day we set off into the Sevros towards the one location we had not known about, I had a hunch it would be where Qurali was. The trip through the Sevros was hot, damp, and generally uncomfortable. Azurea, Daldorer, and I kept an eye out for threats while Moe navigated. Nez also spent a lot of his time looking for something.
In the night we were ambushed by a small pack of Crojen, possibly nature's cutest killing machines, while Nez and I were keeping watch. I managed to nudge the other awake before the furballs fell on us. Nez... seemed to think he knew the one that was trying to eat him, and spent the fight calling this or that Crojen "Sagarmatha", even while they were tearing into him. Daldorer and Moe were also mauled quite badly, while the Citadel kept the claws at bay.
After the fight Nez started trying to tame the two surviving beasts, and managed to convince one of them not to eat his face off. The rest of the night passed without incident.
Early on the third day in the Sevros we heard some voices in the distance, alternating between Throalic and what Daldorer thought was Theran. Azurea, Nez, and Moe moved to ambush while me and Daldorer formed the distraction. Inside some ruins we found two elves, a t'skrang, and two humans holding Qurali prisoner, probably in the early stages of interrogation. We dropped on them with Azurea and Nez making short work of the humans and Daldorer being his usual source of terror. The fight was brief, the t'skrang dead at Azurea's hand, the female elf unconscious, and the male running away, after shouting something about the glory of the empire.
We started to give chase, pesky elves are fast even with those short legs, when Moe pulled out a flying carpet and easily overtook the fugitive. Another spell and the elf was rooted in place, at which point the pointy eared maniac cut his own throat. We took the corpse back to the others and hung it from a tree to set a proper ambience for a chat with the other elf. Azurea went a bit green around the horns at the sight, odd for someone that throws shadow knives into people's backs without a second thought.
Turns out the theatrics were unnecessary, when the woman woke up she meekly surrendered and told us she was from a kaer still loyal to Thera. At Moe's insistence we took the dead body back to Throal too, even if it got really fragrant on the way.
We left Qurali back in Yasinya and, once back in Throal, found our payment waiting for us at the Blackroot Club.