Midnight's Report: After Love From The Other Side

"Where to begin..."
 
"Thaddeus made a call to Charity who then put a call out to Renic, Arel and myself. Apparently Thaddeus has been busy, recovering books from after the tower was taken down. Including a book Arel brought to my attention involving the forest. Myself and Charity were also interested in a Tomb to the east, hoping we could find more information on the Lady of Ash but also something that could help the Silver Thimble. The bread crumbs of knowledge and information she has been leaving behind could be valuable in so many ways and I hope we get the chance to pursue that lead in the future, but the forest took priority."
 
"Truth be told, I've been wanting to talk to the Tatzelwurm, see if they could be negotiated with. After all, Iskra's people were able to speak with them, right? There must be something to that. Is the Tatzelwurm truly simply a cruel monster, or a guardian with a great purpose that enjoys its zealous defense of the forest too much? I don't know, but no good will come from completely dismantling the forest. It is a dangerous but wonderous place that I can't help but have an appreciation for. I want to learn more. So much more."
 
"We held off on that for now however. Probably would be better to have Iskra as an intermediary anyways if we can. We decided to rely on Arel's golden path magic that protected us as we travelled. Mostly. See there was a small issue. There is a point in the forest that I cannot cross. A point that forced me to bring up my current cursed state to those not in the know. Granted, we now know the name of the magic involved in the curse thanks to Thaddeus. Bureaumancy. Apparently this magic comes from this world's version of Yoke. Law and contract based magic... it's a fascinating prospect in theory. Magic that could be used to potentially enforce agreements between parties? To create consequence for those who violate their oaths and agreements? It has a lot of potential. And yet it's being used to create curses like this? It doesn't surprise me, but the abuse of such a wonderful concept still infuriates me. Still, it might give some insight into how to break it. Arel and Renic will likely be key in doing so."
 
"Anyways, we did figure out that the line that I couldn't cross would likely affect most of the crew. Just me more so given my current state. Despite this we managed to find something of interest. Likely the thing that the Lady of Ash sought from the recovered copy of "A Garden of My Own". A remnant of the Scholars of the Page that specifically referred to a Librarian called Nikki B. I feel this information might become invaluable to Quet at some point. In fact I believe at some point Quet MUST be involved in an investigation of these Scholars and Librarians both for our information and for Quet's development. To understand what fragments of who their people are might remain in this new world and for us to understand what the Librarian was and what exactly happened. We have a lot on our plate at the current moment, but this place might tell us much in the future. We also noticed the name E. Zekiel as the author of the book. I wonder if it has anything to do with that Ezekiel I heard the crew mention once? A snailsman? Maybe the Snailsman I took the curse from might be able to point us in the right direction of additional volumes of this book in such a case. Worth a try next time we see them."
 
"There of course was a problem. The book had a protection spell on it. Whether I triggered it on accident or something we were close to caused it to do so, the Lady of Ash's magic burned the book, causing me to drop it. The Tatzelwurm noticed the fire and came rushing for us, the golden path spell being disrupted and the group scattered. I braced myself and prepared to run as I expected I'd be the target, but no such chase came. Strange. Wasn't I the one at fault here? Instead I heard a growl and knowing what it meant, I rushed towards it, refusing to leave a comrade behind. There I saw the Tatzelwurm staring down Arel. I didn't have time to think, I just acted. I used a mana battery, used the excess magic in my ring and bound the Tatzelwurm before sucker punching it with all my might. I knew we couldn't beat it, but we didn't need to. Just needed to stun it long enough to start making our escape."
 
"And escape we did. I'm not sure why the Tatzelwurm didn't try harder to chase us. Maybe it's become weaker? Maybe I hit it harder than I thought? Or maybe it LET us go? Every event leads to more questions in that forest. No matter the reason, it was time to go. We returned to Dyad, exhausted, but with newfound knowledge."