Investigating the ties to Qolijo Report

General Summary

From the journal entry "Back on Solid Ground" by Anduro Taeri   A tinge, a tickling of a memory’s detail – the elemental companions had mentioned a place of refuge they were heading to once our paths diverged. A land west of here, and a camp of air elementals north along the coast. This place stuck in my head, as if I had seen it before in my imagination, but had resigned it to a teasing of fate. Maybe more friends awaited in this land, or maybe more allies, but for now the Von Cuthberts had answers that needed explanation.   Wallsard lay ahead in our path. We knew the Cuthberts had concentrated their power in a place called Gilsa, northeast of the peninsula. We took the Deep Mercy back to the surface to rejoin the ship, still anchored off shore near the Fangs of Wolfbron. Sahuagin corpses littered the surface of the water, floating silently as the waves rocked the ship back and forth gently. We erupted through the water, waving down the Magdalene, and started to float towards the crew and mother vessel.     Piling onto the deck, we collected ourselves eventually. Several members of the ship were covered in sheets, apparently laying down for a ‘long final nap’. I briefly saluted them for their valiant efforts to defend the quest and our endeavors. They wouldn’t be forgotten in vain and remembered for their honor.     We also noticed several faces we had freed from below, now quickly lending a hand to the boat’s errands and chores, and had made quick work of readying the boat for heading back to home. The Deep Mercy raised to the deck of the ship through the sheer might of the crew, attaching it to the main mast and securing it as it once had before our journey began.     To honor the fallen and welcome new friends, the crew had a party, breaking out the ale and rum to sing songs and chant lyrics to commemorate not only the great victory in the ravaged depths but the Feast of the Bright Star, an annual celebration that occurs with the alignment of the celestial bodies above. Despite my best efforts, I could not pry Randuraas away from his pesky report for the party. He felt compelled to complete the documentation of the adventure during his fresh memories before they fade. I still made sure to check in on him regardless. Some people need to be roped into a good time, and despite his cracks at my own journaling, I can respect the effort to log the entry as I frequently do myself.     Jakuul did acrobatic party tricks, Coro flirted with Neoon, Magnus drank his weight in grog and rum slurry mixtures, and Kico flitted about the room. The group enjoyed a moment of ease while we sailed back to the docks of Wallsard. The night was blurry after a time, but a lasting feeling of joy and well-being despite the looming unanswered questions and shadowy figures still at large. At the end of the evening, I turned back to find Randuraas asleep at his desk, his report finished as well as the rum I had offered him. I found a blanket and covered him as he slumbered and left his cabin with a wholesome smirk to find my own warm bed elsewhere.     We reached our destination after a major part of a week at sea along the shore. We disembarked and split up to run separate but equally important errands. Magnus tended to his horse at the stables, and Jakuul attempted to meet with the adventurer’s guild to claim our reward for clearing the fog of the land. Kico went to the accessories shop to claim her illustrious saddle she had ordered with her new riches, while Randuraas and I went to visit his friend Baldo to deliver his report.     We travelled through Wallsard to the far side of the city. The walk seemed to take hours, although I’m sure the dilation of time was due to never having seen it before. We rounded a corner and found an estate with a wrought iron fence, a main gate that opened for us as we let ourselves into the main doorway. The items along the walls were covered with a small film of dust, various trinkets from around the world of varying age, most of it older than myself.     A gnome bounded down the main stairway towards us, excited to see us and hear of our adventure, and especially overjoyed we had found a name for his underwater vessel. I took pride in relaying the name with a slight flourish of my hands. A rapid fire succession of questions flurried from the small man, and Randuraas did his best to answer, before deferring politely to his report as a well curated stack of papers. Throwing the small book down on a nearby study table, plumes of dust puffing up as it fell, Baldo devoured the information inside as we were offered various baked goods and tea as he spent some time perusing.     He poured over the book with great attention to detail, and after a while popped up and told us with a satisfactory tone that our business had been concluded very well. He then stammered slightly and bounded up the stairs, to return back once again with a small box. He opened it and showed us the contents inside, and explained that he never had much use for ‘these objects’ but thought we might like them as a gesture of appreciation. Inside there were lenses of varying colors, red, yellow, and other shades of vibrant hues. He held a wand in his hand, and told us to peer through the lens – the object remained untinted unlike the rest of the room.     He explained further that these were ‘aura lenses’ that apparently allowed the user to identify various sources of magic – divination for yellow, red and purple for evocation and illusion magics respectively. We were enchanted by the effect alone, and he again closed the box and pushed it towards us on the table. Randuraas accepted the gift and we both thanked him for his time while his servant escorted us politely towards the door. We then made our way to the stables to join the others and catch up.     We showed the others our new trinket and set of colored glass, which was a moment of wonder as we peered through them at nearby objects just to look. Randuraas noticed that Kico appeared in a strange tint with one lens, and a different tint under another – the yellow and purple lenses for Illusion and Divine magics identified our small fairy friend and her source of powers. After a few ideas of what we may do with the lenses or how maybe Randuraas could fashion them into a device of regular use.     Then we made our way to the adventurer’s guild to claim our just reward for clearing the land of the fog. We debated shortly what to do with a large stretch of land as the prize – none of us had ever owned land quite on this scale before. We thought at first we should just let it be a preserve, dedicated to our friend Blue, and took a vote to do so. Claiming the reward, a deed with a wax seal was handed over to us, with a note attached to the back side, written in familiar handwriting. I read the note aloud and half way through realized I was reading a correspondence from Blue himself, who narrated that he was very thankful for our help, glad to dedicate this land to us as a reward, and that the citizens of the neighboring Dade Woodland had agreed to be caretakers of the land and help farm any crops or livestock we would choose to raise there. Also included was a large sack of coins, totalling enough to split between the group quite handsomely.     We returned our thoughts and plans towards our next steps – We felt compelled to rescue the child Gwindolyn and free her from the Von Cuthberts. But, would they know about our deepwater exploits, and would they be waiting for us to dispose of our burden of knowledge? What about the other shards the Sahuagin were looking for? Should we consolidate the shards in the wild before confronting the brothers and whatever they may have?     Deciding to continue our deliberations in a finer setting than the dirt road, we headed towards our old familiar tavern The Laughing Sprite to find Jorund and Brannigan. Drinks and food served, we again debated our wisest next steps. A veritable feast to keep us well-fed, Jakuul began to spin a tale over the table.     He began to stammer as he visibly struggled to recall details of his past. A group of researchers in the Utancia region in Gyte had experimented on Jakuul when he was younger. Torturous from his memory, poking and prodding, and he had not been the only one – however he had never had the opportunity to talk to the others. Blurring between sleep and lucid moments, he had only flashes of their scaly skin and painful procedures. It all seemed a little too familiar to my own experiences as a younger child. Considering my own origins from the south seas and the deeper south continents, we agreed there could be a connection between not only our own heritages and pasts, but that it could be related to the aethermirror shards and their experimentations on our bodies and or kin.     We also discussed other possibilities. Perhaps the elementals in the northwest from Wallsard, and the disturbances we had driven off in the Dayde Woodlands had been just the surface and worth revisiting. Perhaps time was of the essence and all we needed to do was confront the brothers Von Cuthbert before it was too late, either for our answers or our child friend Gwindolyn. All valid and worthy threads to pull, but which first? Which was the most urgent?     We debated, mulled over, and thought about the details until our heads were foggy, and decided to investigate reports of elementals in Wallsard as much as we could, while ultimately setting out for the Von Cuthberts in the morning, to play coy to their intentions and follow up on their promised previous award. As we began to solidify our notes and intentions, a vibration started and grew more violent from within my bag. Neoon noticed it at first, so I retrieved the object from my personal equipment and offered it to her to inspect – it was one of our shards.     She obscured the attention by ducking under the table, the rest of us obfuscating her make-shift partition with our silhouettes and the partition Brannigan had already provided for our personal privacy. The light under the table snuffed out, red and black emissives emanating from the shard as she held it in her hand. The shard turned jet black, absorbing all the light and slightly dimming the lanterns in the tavern, making it hard to even tell she was still under the table. Her eyes also grew solid black as she appeared to have a vision, and began to tremble and sweat. After a few moments fell unconscious collapsing onto our legs and feet and crumpling helplessly, dropping the shard.     We would have to wait till she awoke to discover what she saw, but in my heart I knew it was time to confront the Cuthberts now that we were back on dry land.