8th of Lenzin

Today was another long, long day.
 
I slept very well last night and woke up feeling refreshed. The morning came with a breakfast of grits and oatmeal which, while not the best, was at least filling. Velvet also brought a group of her friends along to feed them, too. Harper, Chael, and I spoke about the scroll we found and I found that it wasn't something I could effectively used. Chael, on the other hand, seemed a perfect fit, so we passed it over to him. Though, interestingly, he said he wasn't sure why he could use it.
 
While we were talking a tiefling in Velvet's group came over and asked about "her friends". Her name is Gloria, going by "Glory", and she claims she's the best treasure hunter in the city. Although as she spoke up Velvet quickly distracted her with a bowl of oatmeal. We all discussed the open job postings and decided we would head in the direction of Hotlake to deal with a goblin threat and to try to deal with and gather some of the ingredients needed from the plant monsters as per one of the postings. Chael also mentioned his desire to go to a tailor's to get an outfit for a tiefling friend. It was decided later that Chael would go with Velvet and Glory who would both stand in for measurements.
 
Before we headed out though, I had a discussion with Ashton and Chael regarding the Order of the Radiant Shield. He idolized them and is hoping to join them eventually. Chael showed some interest as well. Meanwhile, Velvet was talking to her friends and asking them to keep watch on her "friend" at the guard post. She then described a harrowing tale where the man had murdered her family in front of her while she lay hidden. She mentioned he was a husk of a man with glowing orbs where his eyes should have been. It was awful hearing her describe the events, and she explained that as a result she met Glory and some of her other friends who were orphans. I can absolutely empathize and I hope that we'll be able to help her get some closure.
 
"It all sounds too familiar..."
 
Chael asked if I wanted to tag along and I didn't have anything else to do, so I agreed to go with them to the tailor's. Though time got away from me, so I had to rush out to meet them before they got too far. They were mentioning something about instruments and other small talk. Chael said this would be a good chance to learn "the person not the image of who you are" to me.
 
"The real me, huh?"
 
From there we continued talking about instruments and where I learned to play. I told them that my interest ultimately came from friends of mine back at College. I remember the old Bardic classes I sat in on when I really shouldn't have. I don't regret it though. Velvet had some questions about the academy and we spoke it briefly by the time we got to the tailor. From there it looks like Velvet and Glory had their measurements taken and Chael and I spoke briefly about Rux.
 
Later, we decided to go with her to the guard post to inquire further. Velvet wanted to interrogate the man she talked about earlier that had murdered her family. After some coaxing the guard captain agreed and we were all taken back to see him. Ashton and Chael went in with her as support while the rest of us stayed outside. I'm not sure what exactly happened but they spoke briefly and then something happened. He started calling out to Velvet, threatening her. He then tried to attack her and she attacked back, landing a killing blow. They mentioned that in its death throes it seemed to call out to her and threatened to see her later. I ran to get the guard captain while Chael left the room. When he got there he asked about what happened and Ashton explained. Ashton and I tried our best to comfort Velvet as I know she had to have been in shock. To take everyone's minds off of it we decided to head out to the first job to collect the plant parts.
 
On our way we saw one of the Rasp waystations (I'm not sure what they're technically called) and Chael and Arlan offered up rations. Chael seemed familiar with the customs and seemed to appreciate that I made the gesture. I remember this from back on the way up to Twin River a couple of weeks ago from our first Rasp guide. I guess Chael must be familiar with this from his homeland. Later on towards the evening as we got further out a vine tried to attack the cart. I threw a Fire Bolt at it to drive it away. We gave chase, but it was an ambush. I have to admit, I'm surprised. I didn't think the plant creatures had the intelligence to plan that far ahead. Ultimately it didn't matter as we were able to dispatch them after a brief skirmish. Luckily the others were able to harvest the parts we needed to bring back for the quest.
 
Shortly after that we came across the goblins that we were looking for via a campfire in the distance. Velvet scouted ahead and when we all went to catch up we did admittedly fail the stealthy approach. That being said, it hardly mattered as we quickly routed the group. Interestingly, there turned out to be some kind of path heading down into a ruin of some sort. Velvet did some scouting and found that there used to be traps but they had all been tripped and were no longer functional. Likely a result of the goblins stumbling in haphazardly. We took a break for an hour or so before heading down.
 
We were almost immediately attacked by a group of goblins which we dispatched. Afterwards Velvet found a secret passage behind a statue and we followed behind. Velvet took point most of the time down here as she was able to scout ahead and clear the path of traps for the rest of us. Our path led us to one with a chest and a pair of statues, of which one pivoted on its hinge. In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have been leaning on that wall, as once Velvet started to move the statue around it opened up and I fell right through into an identical room. I did a bit of looking around and the statues in this one didn't seem to rotate, although the setup was similar even down to the chest. We decided to open the chests to see what was in them although we suspected a trap. The group on one side and I on the other opened them, using Mage Hand to pry open the one on my side. Velvet and co found silver and other such treasure. What I found was decidedly more... gelatinous.
 
A gelatinous cube popped out and we dealt with it. Although thankfully I left the room shortly after the fighting started so I didn't get any residue on my robes. That's always very hard to clean out. Poor Chael got really beaten up though and was a bit worse for wear. From there we found a path leading to another room with a valve. She was able to use the valve to open up a door leading to treasure. More silver stuff, including a couple hammers which Mara grabbed and a large hammer that Chael took. The valve, according to Ashton, was made of cold iron, the only known type of metal capable of harming incorporeal undead. The others wanted to open the valve the other way but that seemed like a very bad idea. The way it'd been looking so far is that each of these passages had two things set up, of which one is correct and one was a trap. We'd already gotten the treasure, so logic dictated trying the other way would probably be a trap. For all we know it would sic a ghost on us. The party eventually relented and agreed not to open it and we headed back the way we came.
 
We eventually made our way forward and into a room with a fountain of some sort with more goblins, this time with a much stronger looking one they called a warlord as well as a mage. After a very hard fought battle we finally emerged victorious. We were significantly beat up, although I think Velvet had it the worst. After this we finally decided to head back outside and rested in shifts, each of us taking watch. Chael and I took shift together.
 
This is interesting, as this is my first experience with a ruin or dungeon of some sort, and it truly feels like it's an adventure. Although I do wonder about how deep this goes and what else we'll find.