Session 21

Gwenda.
The red lightning struck again, taking Gharesh with it. Thinking about it makes me furious. I hate how this lightning keeps taking people from my life. Why are they being taken from me? I do feel bad for the poor tabaxi who witnessed it and couldn’t function for a while, just like I had the first time. She seems capable, if a little dinged up -- time will tell, but for the moment I am glad for her company.
So we’ve shifted from dealing with one curse to dealing with another. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. I am surprised Halda has helped us to any degree, since some of us are afflicted. As she granted us access into the city (which is beautiful: the way that nature reclaims these ruins is breathtaking) there were barriers of some kind that made it so we couldn’t see this place before we crossed them. These people seem eager to defend.
We rested in a green bubble thing that Rainier made. It was cozy. In her sleep, Kara saw the snake named Cat, who offered to give her arm back for the cost of her services. Kara refused. She says she may have doomed all of us by doing this. She doesn’t seem the type to be dramatic, but I hope she is this time.
Note to self: these ruins are home to the “bannerless”. Not entirely sure what that’s about, but people take stock in what they call themselves.
We met Wherton, who was once an alchemist in Cair Caladir, but decided to set out on his own with other merchants who were displeased with the Steward’s treatment towards them. He said “this place is home to many great secrets”, referring to Halda’s discovery of necromancy. What other secrets could this place hold? Anyway, we need to eliminate a fair number of werewolves to earn his ritual that could cure my friends, so we’ll be heading north to the source of the wolves.
I made my first business transaction since I’d left Baldur’s Gate in these ruins. I got some nice rubies in exchange for my crafted earrings. I was grateful for a sliver of normal life.
We visited a building that once housed royalty: the place had been picked clean before we got there, but I could still tell it was lovely once. The council meeting room was particularly interesting: the chairs had meticulous detail. I felt a presence of death from one of the five stone thrones, left by someone who suffered. It was not a menacing presence, but it seemed to want something. What that is, I don’t know.
This group naturally gets more and more ridiculous at every turn, but adding werewolves into the mix is too quick of a boost of ridiculousness. We’d best keep heading north.