Sept. 25th, Night, Illithid ruins
When we regroup at the ruins, my companions tell me of their day. Along the way back to River’s Crossing, Ku, Gale, and Barry are attacked by a group of bandits. Upon their return, they talk with Lord Indaren, explaining about the dragon situation, the ones that attacked the dragon, the bandits, and then the new location of the dragon in the ruins. Gale explains that the dragon may be able to help protect the city during the war with the elves. We explore the Illithid ruins, first finding a room of shrieker mushrooms. Though I have heard of them, I have not actually encountered them before, and their wailing screams take us off guard. Quickly, the screams intensify as we try frantically to silence them, but we are unsuccessful, begging a hasty retreat.

We continue exploring the Illithid temple, finding a storage room with rotten nutrient sludge and kitchenware. Then, we come upon a large set of double doors, runes etched upon it, warning of a trap. Partially disarming it, but partially tripping it, we open the door to fin d another set of doors, an alarm sounding. Opening the second door, we see 2 strange creatures, alive, their attention turning to us. Battle ensues and we are able to destroy the beasts.

Inside the middle of the temple, we encounter a scorpion creature made entirely of crystals, which we also defeat. This middle room is empty, save for a crystal which was at some time broken into many pieces and the now dead scorpion. Strangely, these creatures we found all seemed to be psionic or at least sensitive to other psionics as they targeted me and Ku almost exclusively. When I was attacked by the 2 hounds, one was able to score a hit, and I felt a marked weakness, a loss of my psionic abilities. Fortunately, it seems there’s no permanent harm. Maybe these creatures were drawn here by residual psionic energy- in the future I’ll try to attune my senses to detect psionic energy like this, as it may be useful. Additionally, the creatures were able to disappear at will- not just invisibility, but they phased out of our plane. Where they go when they do that, I’m not completely sure, but I suspect that they travel to the spirit world, the world tied directly to the Spark that mirrors ours.

Before we leave the interior of the ruins, I manifest my psionic abilities to learn of the history of the place, and find that elves attacked the Illithids, driving them inside the temple and finally killing them, though not before they had a chance to shatter the crystal first. This raised questions of what importance the crystal had, and remembering the scrolls we found, Ku begins reading them with the hope that they might shed light on its purpose. We find out from the scrolls that the central crystal was indeed an important item to the illithid- it could communicate magically (or psionically?) over great distances, allowing for instant communication.

At the campfire this night, Gale tells us the story of the serpent of the forest, whom Frostfang seems to know. He explains that the serpent from the story is a servant of Yrhaisydyngwargedwig, “those who watch the forest.” I’ll scribe the story in full for future reference.

September 26th, Night, River’s Crossing- Le Shabby Inn

We travel back to River’s Crossing to inform Lord Eric of the situation with the dragon. Eric tells us of the prison breakout and the riot caused by the doomsayers and then asks us about joining the army to fight the elves. We decide to think on the matter, retreating to Le Shabby Inn to talk over our decision.

September 27th, Morning, River’s Crossing

We, except for Ku, agree to join the army in order to gather allies for Lord Indaren. We decide to head for the University at Sehhrosh to ask for their support as allies, as they possess naval superiority that could help against the elves. Along the way, we will seek out the scattered Wolfos tribes in an attempt to unite them. There are additional allies that we might seek out, as noted by our official orders from Lord Eric. The Illithids of Laushurno in the Eolas Mountains might prove useful allies, though the Deepguard itself cannot help. The outcasts living on the east shore of the Frostmelt sea might also help against the elves, but they are comprised of criminals and other societal exiles and may cause more trouble than benefit.