Days 13-15: Toadstools & Troubles

On the evening of the 13th day of starting this Journal and my adventures, we started feeling a bit melancholic about our life back in our old time and began telling each other finally our stories and our origins. Janott talked about her life among the Firbolgs, Wraith told us a bit about the secret society he's a part of, and even Medea opened up a bit about her life locked in a tower... though she did not tell us why they did so. I even told them how I lost my soul and my intentions on recovering it. Janott even remarked on how I'm just a normal guy who just keeps having edgy and ark things happening to him, which is a fair summation of my life recently.
 
It was then we started questioning our next move or plan, as we could not stay here at our "safe haven" forever... we all had our own personal goals. It was then that it appeared, a myconid with a familiar face. I believe it its name was Pscion(?), and it was indeed the small myconid we encountered over century ago in the dungeon beneath Krelyria. It said it was there, more or less in its incoherent ramblings, to guide us and it needed us to go west to help fulfill some sort of prophecy. That with winter coming that the war would begin again and that Arthund the Book Burner would return. We each "consulted" our respective deities and patrons, and found we do indeed fit the prophecy for the most part with I being a "Savior of Darkness". Now most myconid don't live more than a few decades, so the fact this one somehow travelled this far north and has lived at least a century baffles me. But with no other options or real plans so we agreed. We rested and packed that evening, excited to finally have a clear goal of sorts.
 
The next morning we realized we had 3 options on how to travel west: the first being to head north around the cliffs and bluffs encircling the wasteland and cross the desert like biomes, however the myconid warned us that there were many dangers to the north and that we would surely perish and in its ramblings said "rask" which I believe to be a "Tarrasque". Wraith saw this as an exciting challenge and voted for that routed, though he was quickly vetoed. The second route was to cross the lake directly, this would involve us chartering a ship/boat to cross or Janott creating a potion of some sort to permit us to breathe underwater. The myconid said that it would be safe but insecure route, and said something along the lines about an "Aboleth", so that was no go as well for multiple reasons. We decided on the third option, heading south on the road around the lake and then proceeding west. The myconid said it would be the longest but most secure route to travel, and personally I would like our guide and friendly face to survive the journey in order for us to know for sure where to go.
 
We went to town to purchase a cart, I could've negotiated the price but we were short on time and in a hurry. So we dropped a 100 gp, 50 of which was mine from selling my crossbow, and had Janott's familiar shift into a horse to pull it. The goliath barbarian, Twitlick, Erron, and Luticia remained at the safe haven to protect it... the rest of us set off south. On 15th day we arrived at a town that seemed to be a bit rundown, damaged dwarven barricades in small town. Needing a rest stop and information, we ventured inside. Medea and I went towards the tavern while Wraith and Janott went shopping for a wench of some sort, just in case the wagon was to get stuck or to help get it uphill. Though we noticed was dilapidated and damaged, as if it were recently attacked.
 
When Medea and I arrived at the tavern, the only occupants were an elvish barkeep and a pair dwarves at a table. After paying for a few drinks, none of which were milk unfortunately, and was my first taste of hard liquor. We began asking a few questions in their own tongue, which strangely they did not speak. From there we learned that the town had recently been attacked by a large flock of particularly dangerous harpies and furthermore it seemed the town couldn't handle another attack nor was any aid coming. According to the Dwarves, the harpies were coming from the west and in addition the were nesting in the vicinity of a destroyed bridge to cross rather wide river that was fed from the lake northwest of here. To make matters worse, that bridge was the only means of heading further west and one would have to travel south for many days to find the next crossing.
 
Harpie, I remember from my studies being rather immodest and effeminate looking creatures as they tend to be nude and that even the males had breasts. They were vaguely humanoid look beings with wings, talons on their hands, and have avian legs; with their most dangerous feature being their seductive and mesmerizing voices and song as Sirens of the Sky. What also troubled me was the presence of a river, as I do not recall there being one passing through this area... it made me wonder how much of the world's geography has changed from what I knew.
 
So, I made drunken deal with the Dwarves: If my friends and I cleared out the harpies, they would repair the bridge and we would continue our journey west. The Dwarves seemingly agreed, though they seemed doubtful of our success considering how much the Harpies had destroyed their town and decimated there men. It was around this time we heard shouting in the street, and it was the familiar voice of Wraith... and him yelling is never good sign.
 
When we arrived outside, Medea and I arrived in time to see Wraith decapitate harpy that somehow survived last night's attack, we filled them in on the situation and the plan and made our way back to the cart. There we see our myconid friend being accosted by ruffians, but before we could even make a move to aid him he somehow swallowed the men whole. Despite our confusion, I asked Janott to use her magic ring for a second to see if she could see anything strange about our myconid friend. She saw nothing but still, I have many questions about the myconid... but those would have to wait as we had another long journey to the harpy nest to the west.