We started our morning by being introduced to another member of the explorer's guild, Norhm Greatmane, a dwarf cleric of Bahamut. Seems like an alright guy, but he lost his last group in rather suspicious circumstances. We don't have time to probe into this event, but I have to imagine that I'm not the only one curious about what happened. He could also be simply telling the truth. Maybe it's the old court worker in me, but it's tough for me to take things at face value. Nevertheless, Norhm was welcomed into our group with open arms. From there we had to decide what we were going to do next. The gatherers had given us a contract they were hoping to have accomplished, but we also had many reasons to go north quickly. I relayed to the group what Baron McDuffey said to me about Knight Volsaid and I believe that sealed our fate and next direction. We decided to head north, and to do so as quickly as we could. The group gave Norhm a large bit of gold to get him the materials he needed for his spells, which could be a god send.
We traveled a day and a half to the Crowdad cove. After that, we took the boat north for an additional two and half days. We decided we needed to get over the mountains as quickly as possible and the best method was to cast polymorph on two of the party members. We flew over the mountains in one and a half days and started to move towards the ziggurat. It was one more day to get to the base of the mist. We camped out right before the mist and prepared ourselves for whatever we would see next. We certainly saw some unusual things on our short journey there before, but we really didn't know what to plan for. Zirt let us know that if we don't overexert ourselves we had a better chance of getting to his capital without too many ill effects.
We went to the ziggurat and were quickly face to face with the Tree-a-saurus-rex. Polymorph worked in our favor again, as I turned the giant monstrosity into a turtle with a wood leg. We quickly inspected the ziggurat and discovered that it is the techtan vault. We traveled onto the highway and came across a dwarf growing out of a tree. He provided some insights into Volsaid's group, letting us know they were passing through about nine days ago. We decided to move forward on the highway. We traveled for two more days, on the second day we ran into a goat-tree and determined through some magic that he wanted a us to pay him to continue to cross safely. We paid him in a bit of cocoa and continued our journey. The morning of our third day in the mist, Crestin noticed a large change in his arm as it appears that a plant is beginning to form out of it. Now we really need to get moving so we can make sure this can be fixed, while also making sure everyone else remains safe.