Letter Home 1st Entry
General Summary
Mother,
I know not when this might reach you, as I know not when I shall have the opportunity to send it.
The situation has … taken a turn.
As soon as I arrived I began to recognize the depth of difficulty ahead. There are so many races here; so many cultures. But so few of us. In fact, just me.
It is impossible for me to assimilate. Everywhere I go, people point and stare, as if they’ve never before seen royalty. They must recognize it in my bearing.
At any rate, I fear it made me a target: I was kidnapped.
Sylvans.
Clearly, I am no longer kidnapped, but I have, as you always told me, “escaped the nest for the cliff”.
I say that to myself so-as to save you the effort upon my return. Though I rob you of the enjoyment as well.
The point of the kidnapping was not, as I obviously feared, ransom. It was, instead, as … well, as hired muscle. A group of us were conscripted to enter a mine and determine the cause for recent disappearances.
A mine.
You can only imagine my terror.
Though grateful for our training, going underneath was always a choice, and I always knew I’d see the sky as soon as I wished. That the training would end. That the underneath was temporary.
This is not that.
I was forced, bound tightly, underneath.
Our group, which included a Tabaxi, started heading under farther, tracking the miners. I stayed back, unable to see. Two of the others could make light, which helped, but no weak blue shadowless flicker matches the majesty of the sun.
And further down we went.
I did not show it, but my heart yearned for sky, the cool wet of a heavy cloud casting itself upon the mountain face, the thump of your heart as you drive to the earth, the thrill of an airborne ambush.
We fell under an ambush from lurking centipedes, but they were more fodder than foes.
We came upon the corpses of a soldier search party. We were in dire straights, mother, and I do not say this with pride: we looted the corpses.
We were then set upon by underdwelling cretins. Foul-smelling, scrabbling, bottom feeders. They had killed the soldiers, and their aim was the same for us. Surprisingly, we came together as a group and slaughtered the uncoordinated wretches.
Tracking them back to their “den”, we dispatched the remainder.
The ‘Baxi is also an archer, so we seemed to work together. I kept a decent distance, and did not let it out of my sight. My two-handed swordsmanship also came into play when they engaged us at close quarters.
The den the creatures had made was actually a ruined city, dragged below the surface by angry gods. Looking around, we resolved, as a group, not to return to Sylvan captivity. Instead, we would forge ahead.
In part of the city we found a … well, a particular and peculiar artifact: the skeleton of a man, half embedded in rock.
He had some magical possessions, which we relieved him of, one of which is a bag of holding! Very handy on our little excursion.
Also, we found other artifacts, that, with some deductive reason, lead me to believe what we found was a transportation portal, a teleportation station. And our skeleton was probably holding the key in his hand.
It was all very curious and occupied my mind all through dinner, following me into my slumber.
Two of my companions are familiar with the underneath and promised to lead us to freedom.
Sky.
I really have to choice but to follow. To go back would be unforgivably obtuse.
Before heading out, we searched the ruined metropolis, and found a room that seemed a workshop. Father would have loved it, various contraptions laying about, components and whatnot.
One contraption was, well, let’s start with the beginning. One contraption was a clock. And on it were some puzzles. We also found a chest with a similar puzzle.
A youngster in our group, cocky and headstrong and full of hormones, also found a chest. She seemed very possessive of it, but could not access its contents due to the puzzle lock. So she was forced to share.
They tried to solve the various puzzles, but could not.
So I did.
I solved the chest puzzle, and we discovered some pieces of gold. Very, very old pieces of gold.
We then set about solving the puzzles on the clock, which seemed an imperative because the clock seemed ticking. And the ticking increased pace. I was able to solve two of the four puzzles before…
…well, the clock was a clockwork spider. And it did not like having us in its room. And so it brought forth swarms of tiny brethren.
They all attacked, and we fought together to defeat them.
Unable to resist a challenge, I returned to the now lifeless automaton to attack the remaining puzzles. Surprisingly, the geriatric grandfather of the teenager was able to provide assistance in the solutions.
We opened it and found a book and many broken vials.
After cleaning up and some rest, we headed further, yes further, underneath. We entered a large cavern with a tumbling waterfall. In the center of the room lay a vast pit, with a rope spanning it.
With the rest of the group requiring pedestrian locomotion, we decided that I, with my abilities and skill at archery, should fly ahead into the cavern and scout it out.
Good decision that!
The rope was indeed an ambush, two huge frogs lurked behind the waterfall, awaiting prey like spiders! I led the group in our attack, immediately engaging both of the beasts, and we dispatched them into the pit.
I followed them down, greatly enjoying the ability to stretch myself, and found them floating in a lagoon deep below…alongside a third! Somebody had been through here recently, and had killed one of the three (we the remaining two).
And our predecessor had been wounded.
We tracked them, finally catching up, and convinced them to give us guidance to find familiar environs.
Which we did.
At the strange, fungus-lit city we discovered, we then encountered an archeologist seeking precisely the ruins we had previously battled in! He offered us a salary to guide him to the location, which we agreed to do.
At first I thought my colleagues might want to cheat the learned gentleman, but I convinced them that "cooperation keeps the flock". We made the correct decision, as he is in competition with the Sylvans for access to the ruins. I explained certainty of the Sylvans finding the place, and soon, due to our clearing of all obstacles, so we leave at dawn.
Or whatever happens here in the morning.
Whenever morning is.
At any rate, as much as I would greatly prefer simply leaving this deep, squat, city-in-a-hole for the true blue of open air, an opportunity has arisen: this scholar has requested additional help with keeping, or perhaps clearing, out any Sylvans.
This provides an opening for intelligence. I shall fulfill your desire.
Report Date
28 Aug 2021
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