5th of Lenzin

I'm exhausted... Today was a very long day.
 
At first light we woke up and got ready to head out. Apparently Chael and Harper have a companion they are bringing along with them in their cart. Also apparently they really must not like me because they were staring daggers at me before they ran off. I felt awful. I don't know what I did but I'll try to avoid them in the future.
 
After we were prepared we met up with Adelaide and we departed for the bandit fort. When we got there we decided to split up. Adelaide's team would head to the rear of the fort and we would enter from the other side. We took out two with ranged attacks before Chael climbed up to them and stabilized and tied then up. Harper joined and opened the door and alerted the guards. Probably a bad idea. We all went up to help and eventually downed 3 more guards. We kept going in and handled 3 more guards, one of them being a captain who was much tougher. Here we started to use more tactics though. Harper and Velvet went around the back, Chael drew attention, and Mara and Ashton rushed them. I supported with magic and crossbow bolts. We won but Ashton got seriously hurt. Thankfully we had those potions. The last guard Chael intimidated into surrendering.
 
The bandit was still smug and told us none of the captives had been there for days. I guess we were too late. Damn it.
 
We went further in and found a room where the stolen goods were being kept. We'll bring this back to town and hopefully Duke Stagdew will be appreciative. The opposite door was barred though, which was odd. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have opened the door.
 
On the other side were what I could only describe as demons. These weird dog-like creatures, these smaller creatures and these large bulbous humanoid... monstrosities. It was truly horrifying. We dealt with them in a rather chaotic battle but found what looked like almost a ritual killing. I... couldn't look at it. We found a journal that as soon as Velvet read it she ran off distressed. Harper went off after her. I hope she's okay... I later found out this journal showed this wasn't just any group of bandits we were after. These were cultists of some kind.
 
We kept moving through the compound and came across an Alchemy lab of some kind. In it we found a journal that mentioned something about green shards that couldn't be good. There was some kind of flask with this disgusting black ichor. We couldn't just leave this there, so I took it with me. Hopefully someone will be able to identify whatever this is.
 
Eventually we caught back up with Adelaide and together we took down the last of the bandits, though it was a tough fight. It's kind of funny how natural these daggers still feel in my hands. I may not like it but if it's me or them I'm going to defend myself.
 
Once the fighting was done we decided to stay at the fort first the night and return in the morning as we were all a little worse for wear. Mara hunted us some dinner and she and Ashton helped cut up and cook the food. It was pretty good. Definitely much different from the food at the Academy.
 
We spoke with Adelaide and caught her up on the situation and she said she would talk with Duke Stagdew as this was important. She made a copy of the important pages of the journal detailing the cultists work and sent a guard ahead to get this into Duke Stagdew's hands as soon as possible.
 
As I lay down and write this I can't help but feel anxious. This is way bigger than we expected. We definitely need to get this information into the hands of the real heroes. Until then though I'll do what I can.