Far Afield

2nd Respitesday of Fading Spring, Second Age 1853: A lot has happened in the village in the past month. Nymeria stopped going out with the expedition and refocused entirely on the rebuilding project, the whole reason she came on this expedition in the first place. Her focus paid off, with the workers clearing a significant section of rubble. It's quite clear that workers under watch perform much more efficiently. We now have sufficient space to create the critical parts of any settlement; place to conduct trade, place to rest, and some kind of governmental or religious center. We've had some trouble with the purification ritual, perhaps the lingering necromantic energy tried to resist it, but it was ultimately successful. It will still take a few months for the nature to return, but there is still hope for the great tree. I even had a moment to speak with Lady Aria in private. She still doesn't fully trust that I serve her first and foremost, but given time I will be able to prove to her she has no reason to expect treachery from me. She agreed to my plan, and first steps are already in motion, I am excited about the prospects but will not be writing details down in here, just in case.
 
Tomorrow we're going to range out into the field, Lady Aria wishes to explore a little further in and personally investigate all the points of interest around the river bend. With those reptilian tracks being of particular interest.
 
5th Brahmarusday of Fading Spring, Second Age 1853: So much time spent afield, mostly spent foraging through known territory, and subsisting on rations where we weren't yet sure of what we can find. Not much has happened and we haven't found anything new of interest. There was one night when Bahzel was sure he scared off some predators by his mere presence on watch.
 
When we made it to where those reptilian tracks were last seen, there were deeply embedded in dried up soil and already filling with fresh rains. If we delayed any longer they could've been completely gone. There were humanoid tracks alongside the reptilian ones. Lady Aria concluded, and I confirmed, that they were likely the lizards commonly ridden by shadow elves. Tracks led west, towards the nearby mountain range so we followed them to the best of our ability. It took two days and a river crossing to finally lose them. With the mountains looming over us, and uncertainty of what we might find, the Lady decided we will turn back and return to Hithfaer to resupply and prepare for a longer expedition before continuing in that direction.
 
On the way back we passed by the river monolith, spewing magical energies a mile or so off the river bank and without boats we were unable to do anything about it. Continuing on, we made it to the wrecked boats, but the rains of the past few days not only made travel miserable, they also raised the water level. One of the boats has already been washed off and broken on rocks, but the other still clung to the shore. The men waded into the mud to save it from being washed away. Upon closer inspection it appeared to be elven made, but stripped of anything valuable. We found no bodies either. At the moment it seems likely that the shadow elf tracks and the ships are connected, likely a raiding party took advantage of some explorers who either decided to camp on the shore, or were blasted by the monolith and attacked when they were vulnerable. Even more reason to find out where they went. Having shadow elves raiding this close to the city can cause issues in the future. The rains pushed us away from the swelling river and we went further inland to avoid the worst. This took us near the magical vortex of primal energies. Before we got too close, we took a moment to observe and study it from a safe distance and concluded that we need to prepare for it as well, it appeared noticeably more powerful than the necromantic energies we've dealt with last time.
 
5th Respitesday of Fading Spring, Second Age 1853: Since we returned I have been busy researching and building a device that would help us with harnessing the energy vortex. While I don't think it will make the endeavor easier, it will definitely help us to capture and direct those energies in a beneficial manner instead of having them swirl around and strike at random. I presented the Channeling Rod to Lady Aria and she accepted it once I explained its function, but I am unsure if she was happy about my creation, or if she th0ught about having me killed to keep the knowledge of the device a secret. Since I am writing this entry, I will assume it was the former. Lady Aria wants to take some boats and deal with the monolith so we will be heading out in the morning. From a distance it looked quite dangerous, I hope we won't get the boats blasted to smithereens before we can calm it.