I am keeping this journal as a record of our adventures, for those who come after us to learn from and perhaps enjoy reading about what we did and what we intend to do next. I write “our” and “we” because Sybelle is basically watching over my shoulder— she says she can’t keep a journal because the spirits won’t let her, whatever that means. Always so serious all the time! I think she looks really cute when she turns into the smoke man. Yes, yes, I know Sybelle, his name’s Al-Rekik, and you’re not really turning into him, he’s enveloping you in his essence. I like my version better. Let me be!

She’s sulking, says she’s going to check on Aj’Hafiz. That’s good, he could probably use some attention. At  least he seems to have completely recovered. Oh, and apparently I’m very self-centered when I am writing in my journal. This from the girl who begged us to go on this mission in the first place!

Where was I? Oh yes. After several months of non-stop work work work, we finally got permission to go and investigate the tower where I rescued Sybelle, as long as we took Aj’Hafiz with us. He’s part of the temple, as I like to call my fellow Sarenrae followers. A bit quiet, a bit reserved, but I’ll get him to open up. And thankfully, our cousin Tara decided to come with us too. (At least I think she’s our cousin. She looks a lot like us, anyway.) We procured horses, and rode past enemy lines until we reached this place again. It’s set in from the coast on hills, so you can’t really see it from the beach, and there are rough steps carved into the dirt leading up. It’s also fairly close to the road to Juba’ah Saleh. And as we ride up under a full moon again (ominous, I would say, but Sybelle always rolls her eyes), what do we see but a huge magical bug of some kind perched on a metal web covering the outside courtyard!

After resting and preparing for battle (and a brief scare involving a snake spooking one of the horses), Sybelle changes into the smoke-man— oh all right, summons her eidolon and synthesizes with it (see I can use big words too)—  and charges. Too late, we realize the webbing is held together with tiny red gems, that explode as we get too close. Her eidolon is banished and she retreats to figure out what to do next— she doesn’t carry weapons (because “the spirits don’t like them”) so there isn’t much she can do besides sorcery and playing with that big net of hers, so I ran in and tried to lure the creature down the web while it tried to repair the bits that exploded. Tara and Aj’Hafiz joined me while Sybelle summoned her dog to flank us (poor thing got squished, but Sybelle assures us it isn’t real in the same way we are), and we made short work of the bug. The bits of metal we recovered from its body and the webs should be worth a fair bit in the market!

We proceeded around the back of the building after Sybelle drew us all a quick map of the layout. Throwing open the door startled two floating creature things that were hanging out inside the room. They must have cast a powerful compulsion enchantment on me, because I got
it in my head to run all the way around the building and through the other door to flank them, instead of just diving underneath them like I would normally do. But I understand that in the meantime, Sybelle managed to catch one in a net like a balloon while it feasted on Aj’Hafiz and bloated up with his blood. Luckily Tara managed to kill it before it killed him, but it was a close call.

I will have to take a break from writing this for a little while; Syb is calling to me with her little whispery cantrip. Yes, I can hear you. You can hear me. Isn’t that spooky.

In the light of the Dawnflower, the 29th day of Tišrīn al-Awwal in the Fourth Year of the Scorpion,

Sofia.