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General Summary

Mother,
Another eventful letter to share. I learned from their journal that they've been tracking me. So I disguised myself and headed into the sky, hoping to be seen. They already think there are two Aracockra, possibly three. If they see me, they think there are three or four. More confusion is better. Let them think we sent an army!
Perhaps we have.
Thinking ahead, I flew in the opposite direction of our travel to the tower.
I know not whether I was seen. I didn't see the owl, but Baermak tells me that the mage can change the animal at will. So perhaps I was looking for the wrong thing. If I was that mage, I would absolutely change it, as he knows that I would recognize (and destroy) that owl. No loss either way.
As we traveled through the jungle we came upon a quite ancient ruin, populated by shambling skeletal undead. They were so long gone that we couldn’t even tell what they had been; mostly skeletons with bits of decayed flesh hanging from them.
Poor lost souls, I felt more pity than anything. We decided to dispatch the wretches and inspect the ruins.
Our ambush started well, and we dropped a shambling zombie within seconds. But as soon as we started, two wisps rose from the ground. Knowing the threat they posed, I immediately drew down on the closest wisp, landing two arrows in it in quick succession. It shrieked, flickering, but remained active (alive?), though its glow visibly dimmed.
The rest of the group joined in, focusing mostly on the decayed skeletons. The wisps seem impervious to attack unless we use magical weapons, so my attention was best spent on them while the others attended to the zombies.
At which point the wisps disappeared.
So I turned my attention to the weakest zombie, shattering it.
At which point the wisps reappeared…next to me…and brought a friend. So there were now 3 of them, all focused on me.
I ducked and dodged, but I could not evade all three, so one of them zapped me, which hurt immensely.
Fortunately Baermak gave me a little bit of healing after trying to zap one of the wisps. The team continued to whittle away at the zombies, but turned their focus to the damaged wisp, landing a series of blows that finally ended the miserable thing. It took a great deal of damage from their non-magical weapons, but it did die.
The other two disappeared.
Again, I turned my attention to the zombies, knowing full well that the wisps would appear beside me at some point. As much as I want to just be ready for them, I have no idea on which side they might appear, and I’m sure that they would simply appear behind me no matter which way I was facing.
I got between my comrades, hoping that at least one of them might reappear in my sight.
We dropped the remaining zombies, and, as expected, the wisps appeared at my side. I dodged the one I could see, but the one behind me successfully zapped me. Baermak quickly ran to my side to heal me yet again.
Vessyr then made one of the wisps glow radiantly, which I hoped would keep it from disappearing again.
And it did. Kinda. The wisp did disappear, but its glowing aura did not. So I was able to effectively target it, landing another arrow in the thing. It faded to nothingness.
We waited for the hidden one to reappear, but it did not.
We waited longer.
After a while we decided to explore the ruins; but I remained vigilant, arrow drawn, waiting.
For naught.
Neither artifacts nor wisp appeared, so we left.
We remained especially vigilant that night, but the wisp seemed not to have followed us. Perhaps it knew better, or perhaps some remainder of its previous existence kept it tethered to the spot of its original demise. I might never know, but thinking the latter brings empathy for the poor lost soul. The next day we made it to the tower. The bridge had been cut, so we tied together our ropes and restrung it. I tested our handiwork, and it was safe, so we headed across.
As we approached the tower I saw Sylvan corpses littered about, and they were not dead long enough to have been part of the battle last year against the necromancer, Baermak’s old employer. We did see a fire pit, however, with the charred bones of one person; most likely said necromancer.
Alyona wanted to loot the corpses, but mother, I must admit that my anger rose at the sight of the Sylvans, alive or dead. Slaves! Born to die fast, never to know the cuddling of an egg, sharing warmth. I had an urge to, well, mark the corpses. But she wanted to loot them first. So I allowed her to precede me. And as we approached the first one they all rose.
She fell back and I dropped the one closest to us.
Fighting broke out everywhere. Arrows flashed through the evening sky, and Vessyr made the zombie closest to him alight with that aura.
Arrows also flew at us from the tower above. And mother! Alyona caught one of the arrows in her hand! Not only that, but she spun around and flung it at one of the zombies, actually hitting it in the head! A fabulous move, and it made me smile. They can't fly, but they do have some tricks.
I sighted the illuminated zombie and put an arrow right through its head.
And then got hit with several arrows. I thought about engaging the archers, but I’ve seen four arrows at a time coming our way, which tells me that there are four archers up there. A 1 v 4 seemed unwise, so I stayed put, but moved closer to the tower so as to be out of sight of the archers.
It worked, as they then started shooting at Vessyr.
That allowed me to really focus on taking out the remaining zombies, which I did.
With one left standing, I decided to get to the top of the tower. The ‘Baxi started climbing the tower from the other side, so one of us would be behind them no matter which way they were looking. Though with possibly four of them there…
But there were only two. I put an arrow deep into the decaying torso of the closest, and they both turned and unleashed a volley of arrows at me, hitting me twice. I shot back, then quickly dropped out of sight.
Always at the ready, Baermak healed me a little, and I jetted back up, took a shot at the damaged archer, and nailed him right through the eye. He collapsed in a pile.
I dropped back down a little, and the other archer ran to the edge to take two shots at me from between the crenelations. But missed.
Meanwhile, the ‘Baxi had sneaked up the other side of the tower and was peppering the archer with her short bow. Suddenly Alyona skittered up the side of the tower and appeared at the archer’s side, landing blows.
I popped back up and sent an arrow straight through its head, taking half of it off. It staggered, stumbled, and dropped its bow, drawing two swords and slamming them into Alyona. She seemed to fumble a bit, trembling. She then regained herself, spun around, and put her fist right through its torso.
The immediate danger passed, we opted to rest for an hour, healing back up. While we healed, Baermak tried on a ring he found in the ashes of the necromancer (which confirmed that it was indeed the necromancer). I’m not sure how wise that was, but I was exceedingly curious to see the result, so did not try to dissuade him.
He seemed to be someplace else for a bit, his eyes looking into the distance, then regained his focus, telling us that it was indeed his mistress’s. He was able to somehow…commune? Communicate with her. Something.
Looking around, the first floor of the tower housed Baermak’s old bed when he lived here, and the mistress’s room, which was locked.
We searched the second level, leaving the bedroom for later. It looked to have been a library, with a bunch of books strewn about. We found three scrolls in the bookshelf debris.
The rooftop lacked anything of interest, so we returned to the lower level and the door. There was no visible lock, but the door didn’t budge…until Baermak tried it. Apparently the ring gave him access!
And the room lay entirely untouched. We found her open spellbook, a chest, and a footlocker.
The ‘Baxi decided to open the chest first, and it was filled with coins. Enough to buy a slave, perhaps? A slave that flies, has a short life, and cannot reproduce, perhaps?
The footlocker contained mostly clothing, as well as another box. That box contained a significant amount of silver jewelry.
And in the fireplace we found a perfect spot for our key; except that the key now has an additional ring that somebody added in order to wear it as a necklace. With no small effort we removed the ring and inserted the key into the lock. There was a loud click and the bottom of the hearth transformed into stairs.
Which we, of course, descended.
And that's when it got strange.
At the bottom of the stairway lay a bisected body on the floor of a library. The body appeared to have been dead before it was bisected. It had been...somewhat dissected. But it had apparently risen, shambled over, and then been bisected. The agent of that bisection: a saw blade deeply embedded in the book case. There was a cell in the other room, and the rest of the team went to inspect it.
I was drawn to the twice-dead corpse. It had been killed again, clearly by the saw blade. But how? There was no mechanism to fling or somehow propel the blade. But it hit the bookshelf with such force as to embed itself deep into the wood. There was a second blade, but it simply lay there, unconnected to anything capable of propelling it. It was a very interesting mystery.
That mystery was about to be resolved, the question as to how the saw blade flew across the room and bisected that corpse very clearly answered.
As I inspected the corpse and the sawblade, I felt somebody try to charm me. They failed, and I alerted the group, but they were in the other room, in the cell, trying to pick the lock, except for Baermak.
I looked at Baermak, beside me, who also yelled the same, ripping the ring from his finger.
Again I felt somebody try to take control of me, my muscles seeming to tense up, but I shook it off and scanned the room. The ‘Baxi came running into the room, pointing at a brain in a jar on a shelf, surrounded by apparatus. “The brain!” she shouted, “the brain!”.
At that moment, the other saw blade flew across the room and passed through my side. Through. It happened so quickly that I didn't believe it had happened, even as my red blood poured out over my white feathers. It seemed as if somebody stood behind me, pouring a warm cup of somebody else's blood over my side. It couldn't possible be me, my blood. So quickly! I hadn't even flinched. I almost passed out, but quickly drank a healing potion, then told Baermak to put the ring back on and see if he could get help from his mistress.
Contrary to his worry (well founded) that she might be responsible for the charm attempts, she might instead be the key to charming this disembodied brain.
I dodged back into the entryway so that I had cover from additional flying objects. A quick glance showed me that the brain's apparatus was mostly devoid of fluid, that fluid likely being its sustenance. So I reasoned that it must be in great distress, and yelled to the brain that we were here to help. We saw what had happened, and we were friends.
As the rest of the party rushed in to the room, a hammer flew across, slamming into Alyona and shattering against the wall.
That was the answer to my entreaty.
Vessyr lit the brain up, making it an excellent target, and Baermak sprinted to Alyona to heal her a bit. Another tool flew across the room at Vessyr, but he dodged. Now that we were aware of the attacks they were a little easier to anticipate. We were all scanning the room, looking for the next likely missile.
Feeling better, Alyona jumped back into the fray, starting to fracture the glass with her blows.
I started raining arrows in on the glass where she was hitting it, and could see clearly visible fractures. Alyona deepened the cracks and the ‘Baxi landed an excellent shot on the huge flask, widening one of the cracks such that the fluid began seeping. I was able to send an arrow through that crack and directly into the brain, killing it instantly.
I wanted to rest immediately, with my insides a bit more visible than I would prefer, but the team decided to search through the place first. Which was maybe an okay idea, as we found what appeared to be a magical candle…and the tri-key for the engineering building!
Even better. I found an old physiology book on the shelf down there, near the bloodied blade. It's in Sylvan, but Baermak translated for me. And in the footnotes the author mentions us.
Chimera.
He mentions wishing he had the funds to acquire a chimera.
As if a chimera was simply another product to be acquired.

Report Date

23 Apr 2022