Captain's Log #2
Aersday, 9th Zenith 211 EoL:
Well this second day sure has not been boring either. Seems like we find trouble even without looking for it. First, we visited the Taera estate to gather some information in regards to the missing person poster we´ve found. Coincidently, the Goliath in question went missing around the Haunted House we were meant to investigate anyways, sure love when we can be efficient. The father was willing to impart some information to us, but I feel like he is not telling us the whole truth. They also seem to be rather rich or lets say well established for having recently been slaves still. I do believe the Taera family means good but everyone with a certain role or status in a town like this has something to hide. It seems I was not the only one with that feeling as I’ve seen Mini sneak off with the excuse to go to the bathroom. This isn’t the first-time she set off on her own, she is rather sneaky and can sniff out a lot of secrets and hidden information. De Mini has her annoying quirks but she definitely fills an important role in the group. She later told us that she talked to Panga, the younger brother of the missing Goliath Ungu. She was in Ungu’s room, discovering that he seems to be involved in some secret Goliath organisation, which is fighting against the Drow allowed to live in Adanum as ambassadors. Hearing that, I knew I had to keep a close look on Tiny. His heart is in the right spot, but he does have a short fuse, especially when it comes to affairs with the Drow. Ungu seemed to have been involved in a fight at the Fishing line pub with a certain Chandara, but more about that Drow bitch later. We decided to leave first thing in the morning, but at breakfast Hot Shot just said he was going to stay behind as he was feeling under the weather. Fortunately, we found our way to the haunted house without a hiccup. We went inside and were soon greeted by a supposed ghost, but we championed on. We soon found out that the ghost was just a ruse to keep people away from the house as it was used as a hub for a bunch of smugglers. Needles to say a bit of coaxing was necessary to get that information. Usually, Tiny does it a bit smoother but the potential of Drows being around might have made him a bit antsy, poor smuggler. Lucky quickly pulled me aside and filled me in that he had heard of smugglers stealing from the Mining Company, I have no idea where he got that info from, but he always has his ways and ties to the underground wherever we go, once again an important asset to the team. The smuggler also made us aware of spiders that have been bred down there by the Drow. So I made sure we all were ready and on high alert going down. I find it rather puzzling that the smuggler struck a deal with the Drow and coexisted, maybe they both gained a lot more from this unlikely alliance, scum working with scum I guess. We found a secret door hidden underneath a carpet that went down into the caves. Food was the first thing we found, to the delight of the whole crew. We wandered forward and avoided the regions with the spider webs at first and followed down the tunnels until we found a bunch of smugglers readying a shipment, they never knew what struck them. Questioning the last survivor revealed that Ungu had been “fed to the spiders”. They are working together with the Drow to get weapon shipments to the Lizardfolk and are sending stolen gems and other minerals back to the mainland for profit. Investigating the crates Mini found a crate full of explosives. I hoped to never see that kind again. We always called those rippers, in memory of what they tend to do to the bodies of those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end of them. A shudder ran down my back as I remember the horrifying images of war just seeing those rippers again. We ventured up for a small rest before going on and investigating the spider infested area of the caves. We found a cocoon the size of a Goliath and we immediately cut him out and found Ungu, thankfully he wasn’t dead yet. Thank god Mini always has her trusted dagger with her as it prevented us from being ambushed by a bunch of giant spiders. We were in the middle of the fight as I suddenly hear the sound of a ripper going off and the backlash and fire spreading quickly with the spider webs. Big explosion that killed all of the spiders and almost the party as well. Whoever launched that ripper I’m sure will think twice doing so again. We healed up with a bunch of potions and with the help of Doc before hearing some enormous noise coming from the cave as a Monster of a spider appeared and gunned for us. Thankfully Lucky had the brilliance to use his imovable rod to effectively put a barrier between us and the spider as we could finish it from a distance. After some more exploring we found a storage room with a chest. I stayed outside of the room keeping guard so we don’t get ambushed from behind as I hear another loud bang. Mini’s curiosity got the best of her as she opened a trapped chest. All of them were breathing in some Blue sand, a highly sought after drug. Thankfully, none of them got hurt too much and we were able to carry on. Pressing on, we are looking for Chandara and we promptly found her as she ambushed us. To be fair everyone would have heard us by now with that ripper going off. It was a tough fight with her trying to control our movements with her spells. I managed to disarm her with my whip and we bested her. She smartly surrendered. The calmness and sureness of herself while in captivity is irritating. I think she is hiding a lot more then we were able to coax out of her. I thought Tiny would have ripped her head off as soon as he realized it was his former master’s subordinate, and that said master is the ambassador for the Drow in this city. I’m gonna have to calm him down. I can’t blame him for wanting revenge on our captor, hell I want to see him bleed aswell, but the political situation is very delicate. We took Chandara and managed to sneak her hooded to the Wolfsden. I thought it was best to hold her captive there and not let the balance of things be disturbed just yet. There’s more information to be gained and the element of surprise is momentarily still on our side. Debriefing Birdy and putting her up to date with the latest developments we’ve uncovered, as well as discussing potential next moves, we decided on going to Diernum and let Commander Secus Gratidius Taneris know about the development. We sure can’t trust anybody from the Empire locally in Adanum as most things like disappearing weapons have been swept under the rug so our dear Praetur doesn’t look bad. We will see in our journey to Diernum if we uncover anything else there that adds to the bigger picture and we can build up a plan to secure our position on the island.Written by Captain Kusanagi of the Wolves of Summer.