1st of Ostar

We'll be heading into the sewers today to help Chord and the Bowens with their ooze problem.
 
As usual, we all met downstairs for breakfast. Chord said he would meet us in the early afternoon to show us to the sewer access that puts us on the path to find out what is tainting their waters, and hopefully deal with that ooze creature. However, we had a bit of time to kill until then, so we went go to see Merlin. She'd finished her work on the fur cloak and it was magnificent. It's light, and seems to have a subtle shimmer to it outside of the shifting of color, shifting through the fur itself. It has magical properties as well. There were a few of us that were eyeing the cloak, so I stepped back. I believe it's with Harper as of right now, although Velvet was sure interested.
 
After we retrieved the cloak we met up with Chord. He showed us to the entrance to the sewer area where we headed down over rickety stairs. One of the first areas we found was what looked like a ruined temple area. Chael mentioned this was likely for the goddess Shar, goddess of trickery. The area looked to be ransacked, and there was nobody there. Very strange.
 
Later, after a few more rooms, we encountered a number of slimes which we were able to dispatch fairly quickly. Chael managed to dispatch a large slime with a significant amount of radiant energy. We then moved forward further into the sewers and encountered more of those slimes. These ones seemed to take on attributes of the elemental damage we were using to combat it. So if we swung a sword at it, it seemed to bulk up, or if we hit it with a bolt of force, it would seem to grow repellent to force energy. Definitely frustrating little creatures, but we were able to work around them by mixing up our attacks.
 
We encountered multiple rooms, including a storage room for casks of alcohol. Mara and Harper took this opportunity to drink some of a strange purple fluid from one of the casks, which I'm sure they will not tell Chord about, as that was likely Bowen wine. I'm also pretty sure that Velvet swiped a bottle, but I'm not sure, and I'm not really willing to make a fuss over it with as cavalier as Harper is about his family's stuff. The next room had what looked like a boiler. There didn't seem to be anything important in that room so we moved on.
 
We headed back to the previous hallway and headed down another path, leading us to a room and a wall. The room just had several rats, who were all strangely angry with us, but weren't aggressive at least. The wall however looked to be a ruse, as Mara was able to crash through the wall and reveal a path on the other side showing the pipe leading further down. As we entered the room I was caught off guard by a grey slime and engulfed. Thankfully it didn't have too much time to cause damage before Velvet and Harper managed to deal with it, freeing me. I swear, I'll be getting this gunk out of my robes for weeks...
 
Shortly after, we found a room with a stairwell heading further down. As we headed down Chael must have sensed something, as he just started moving ahead with clear purpose. We found a pair of wights that immediately engaged us in combat, and I managed incinerate two at once with a double Fire Bolt, which ended the skirmish. After we won, Chael ran off again. We headed further into the area and found another room, this time with a number of skeletons and a pair of what looked like animated armors. We dealt with them, and I found about 30 gold in gems and odd coins which was distributed among the group.
 
Most of us felt another pulse of psychic energy and felt pain as it felt like something was staring at us. We headed into another room similar to one we found in the Dwarven ruin with vials burning in the back and an operating table with a skeletal figure. Chael moved the vials off the burners and collected them while I found another book that was ancient and threatened to fall apart if we so much as moved it. Harper agreed to copy down the symbols which appeared to be the Sylvan language, the language of the Fey. Harper noted his mother or brother may know the text.
 
Shortly after, Chael attacked the skeleton on the operating table and it cried out with an otherworldly scream as a large shadowy creature arose from the middle of the room and attacked us. It was a hard fought battle but we eventually won. When it died though the entire floor seemed to fill with darkness and chilled considerably. We heard a horrible metal banging sound and returned to the entrance to the floor to find it barred with a large stone gate where the exit was. Without a way to return to the surface we headed back into the first room near where we'd fought the wights to rest up for a bit.
 
I'm glad. That fight took a bit out of me. Going to get a bit of rest before we proceed.
 
(A line is drawn on the page to indicate the next part is written later)
 
After a short rest I stumbled onto 3 greater healing potions, which was extremely lucky! I passed those out to those who I know fight on the front lines, being Mara, Ashton, and Chael. They were all grateful but it was Chael who surprised me most. Chael began to describe what he called my past accomplishments as a fighter, about how I was willing to step in when those in danger were about to be harmed, and that he is honored to stand by me and thinks of me as a warrior. I... really didn't know what to say. I thanked him, of course. And I told him that I hope we continue fighting together for a long time.
 
I mean, it's just how I am. I can't not help when I can. It's the least that I can do after the fire.
 
We continued searching throught he area, and searched multiple rooms. In one large room and its adjacent rooms we found a pair of magic rings. It also looks like a similar room to those of the cultists we found in the bandit camp and Dwarven ruins before. Everything looked scorched, as if someone had tried to burn the room and the adjacent rooms quickly, as if they were fleeing or trying to erase their tracks.
 
Afterwards, we head back to search another couple of rooms. In one we found a black ooze which we got the jump on and destroyed. Chael smashed it with a blast of radiant energy. In the next room we found what appeared to be a jail with skeletons in it. Chael mentioned these looked like human skeletons, different from the ones we found and fought before. We discussed and opted to put them to rest, so I set fire to each of them to destroy them. Afterwards I searched them, worried they may have been prisoners, and found a scrap of cloth with a pattern of a flower on it. The same seemed to be on another persona as well, so I took the scrap with me in hopes someone may be able to identify it so he could inform their families. I'll need to be mindful to look for the symbol.
 
We continued on and found another stairwell going down with a door with an impressive lock that took Velvet a while to open up. Harper tried to use a spell to unlock the door but it shot back and damaged him like some sort of feedback. Thankfully he wasn't really hurt, but it's surprising to see a door locked down so tightly. Once Velvet unlocked the door we headed downstairs.
 
We found a room with some more undead and cleared them out. Shortly after we all started to feel a thrum in the back of our heads like we did back at the Dwarven ruins. We proceeded on and saw behind a large gate some sort of creature. It took me a few moments to recall my classes, but I recognized it as some sort of Dryad. It carried a blackened apple as well as a bracing belt, and the entire thing was surrounded by some sort of pulsing aura. The gate barred our entry and we weren't able to proceed inside.
 
We then walked around the corner and Chael noticed a room above, looking like the floor had collapsed, and after a running start Mara was able to run and jump up. She tied a rope to herself and helped Harper and Chael up as well, who looked around inside. They found that it was the Taybot Mausoleum, where they buried their passed. Chael found that someone was recently there leaving both a fiendish and undead presence, and suspected it was Luisa Taybot, the woman we found at the Dwarven ruins who Harper knew. There were some body parts missing from some of the corpses stored there above which matches what Velvet had told us before about the Cult of the Yellow Eye. The two can't be a coincidence, and it sounds like Luisa was definitely here. Harper was noticeably and understandably upset.
 
They came back down and we opened the door further along which led to a large valve with a pipe. On the sides of the room seemed to be a moat of acid. All of us left except Velvet and Harper and he opened the valve, flooding the room with scalding hot water. The water did not dilute the acid, but instead seemed to float on top of it, though a sluice gate prevented the room from overflowing. With Mara and Chael's help they were able to get the valve closed again.
 
We headed back to the previous room and across from the room with the Dryad we found a room adjacent with some form of a demonic creature. When we engaged it a pair of large slimes attacked as well. We lured the slimes out into the main hall and dealt with them one by one. After, we entered the room with the large grate and found more slime monsters. Inside we also found a large grate, which Arlan was able to determine had both Conjuration and Transmuation magic. However, shortly after we entered we were attacked by a swarm of those same kind of slimes we encountered before that shifted to adapt to our attacks.
 
As we dealt with them another large slime, seemed to be made up of some of the slime in the moat around the room which attacked us. It was a harrowing fight but we eventually won, most of us battered and bruised.
 
Chael had tossed some kind of device that emitted smoke and after the battle out popped a woman with blue skin and blonde hair, a priestess of Lathander named Chera, according to Chael. She healed us and then disappeared. Chael suggested that I should talk with her as they would have a lot to talk about. I wonder what he meant by that.
 
Now that the danger had subsided, we returned to the gate barring the entrance to the pulsing room with the Dryad. The gate, it turns out, was wreathed in heavy abjuration magic. We'd found a jade statue earlier that I was curious about, so I held it up to the gate and the gate unlocked! Inside, we examined the room, and found that the Dryad seemed to be long passed, but was rooted over top of a leyline. Upon further examination of the belt, it looked to be made of the same curious metal that my bracer, Ashton's boots, and Mara's helmet are made of. It looked stury, with the head of an elk emblazoned on it. I'm not sure why, but it seemed like it would work well for Chael, so I offered it to him, since three of us already had a piece of this type of equipment. He accepted it gratefully. Afterwards, we recovered the black fruit, noting it was another Life Fruit. Velvet held onto it.
 
Since our way forward was barred, and it seemed like the Taybot Mausoleum was likely a way out, we climbed up through the path Mara, Chael, and Harper had trailblazed previously. Thankfully, we were correct, and we were able to leave that way. We finally returned to the inn after a long day and got cleaned up, and spoke with Chord to report back. Before the conversation went too far in though, Chael spoke of rewards, and immediately began taking up negotiations to get more from our work. We left briefly to discuss the rewards, and once everyone had decided on what they wanted, we returned to speak with Chord.
 
Mara had wanted Ambersteel to reforge her sword, the Stormwind. Chord authorized it, and directed her to the Silver Moon Mallet to ask for Gavin Kinseeker, a very talented blacksmith who could help.
 
Velvet wanted some handcrafted armor, and so Chord directed her also to the Silver Moon Mallet for some to be procured for her.
 
Chael requested a partnership and mercantile contract to acquire wines at a discount price. Chord agreed.
 
Ashton hoped for a recommendation for the Order of the Radiant Shield. Chael had recommended he try to be enlisted as a Bowen guard and work his way up. Chord said he may be able to pen something of a recommendation for Ashton.
 
Harper had initially requested magical training to make up for the time he'd lost. Chord had said that opportunity had passed, but he would look through the Bowen vaults to see if he could find anything worthwhile for Harper.
 
As for me? Eamon had sent me out into the world to procure a Dwarven artifact, so I requested one, preferably magical in nature. I figure if I can get this to him then hopefully he'll be satisfied enough. Chord said he would see what he could do.
 
After negotiations had passed, we went back downstairs, but Chael had mentioned one more thing about discussing the leyline with Chord. It would be dangerous to leave it open like that, so having someone mindful of it and able to guard it was a wise call. We went back up to speak with Chord, Chael, Harper, and I. We discussed it, and Chord wanted to see the leyline, so we discussed taking him there and showing him. He also mentioned that the lord of the Taybots hasn't been seen in weeks. Chael mentioned it seems out of the ordinary given their lack of presence at the earlier wedding. I had a bad feeling about it, given what we saw at the Taybot Mausoleum and what we know about Luisa and the Cult of the Yellow Eye.
 
After all was said and done, here I am, back in my room at the inn. Ready for sleep. It was definitely a long and exhausting day.