Smols

Now injured. Jarek is half as fast as the rest of the group.
 
We said our goodbyes before leaving the inn. Two more weeks of travel, as we headed towards the homelands of the dwarves.
 

The Lagoon

 
Our trip through the calmness and quiet landscape was broken only by a lagoon one day. Blue and pristine, we noticed some figures at the lake (one swimming). Milo introduced himself: the two (Monty and Regis). While Monty is quite diminutive in stature, his brother is massive (and ripped). Offering Jarek some bitterroot for his pain, and some guidance about current upheaval in the city of Belfor, the larger Regis sat and spoke with him by the lakeside. He mentioned their far-off homeland of Yannux (another continent), and the fact that small Monty (his older brother) is blind.
 
On the other side of the lagoon, we intervened on a basilisk raiding a nest of small eggs. Milo defeated it with a bolt of lightning -- Saldar be praised -- and the rest of us did our best to protect the eggs and their hatchlings: pseudodragons. An argument broke out between Bee and Jarek over who should take care of the eggs; it ended with Jarek taking the eggs (in a bag full of soft clothes and Kajura) and Bee pouting over checking in later.
 

The Shack

Another week of travel. The eggs are doing quite well, rustling a little as we walk.
 
We found a shack in the wilds (the "calms"). Everyone sand Leah and Jarek decided to sneak into the shack and investigate. It was Sera who first saw inside: a disgusting and horrific sight of decomposing body parts, organs cut from bodies, and a hack-and-slash mess of gore. Only Bee could stomach the inside -- she had experience dissecting animals. "It seems to be for medicine," she noted, before something lashed out from the darkness below (in the cellar) to pull Sera down into pitch black.
 

Abominations

Below, two eldritch abominations of stitched flesh and black magics lunged at Sera. As Jarek yelled for everyone to clear out of the shack, the rest of the party grappled with the two beasts to defeat the creatures.
 
Not heeding his warning, Jarek destroyed the rest of the shack's aboveground and outside features with a holy fireball. This sparked (haha) a huge fight between Bee and Jarek about why he felt the need to cleanse the shack and his friends with sacred fire. Sera, though supporting the use of fire, strongly told Jarek that she no longer trusts him.
 

Hatchlings

Suddenly, interrupting the argument, the rustling in Jarek's bag grew louder. The pseudodragons were hatching! As Bee instructed the group gave them space, and out of the eggs hatched six pseudodragons. Over the next half hour, the dragonlings accustomed themselves to the world and imprinted on the party members:
 

"Myst", a red for Sera

"Gimpy" a blue for Milo, with an entire wing deformed and "bad"

"Echo" (of the Summer Sky), a blue for Bee.

"Ymaet" (Warmheart), a white for Jarek

"Lief", a green for Tiberius; and

"Ashe", a black pseudodragon for Princess Leah

Still holding a grudge against Jarek, Bee rejoined the group to recount what she ("without his help") had discovered: a man named Kellen was associated with the owner of the shack (Vivian), who was harvesting a "divine blood". There was noted of an "ashfall" coming soon, and a nearby marsh where Kellen and others would be meeting. The princess recognized "divine blood" but said no more.
 
When the arguing returned, the princess this time stepped in to settle things between the two. Sera, "helping", cast silence on the siblings, and though Bee stood up to leave the space, Jarek barely noticed -- between the already quiet of the Calmlands and the spell, he pulled out a book to read instead. Then began the princess' rant at Bee and then Jarek in turn. Finally realizing that He could not hear, an anger grew inside Princess Leah that burst out into a light and a scorching ray that struck Jarek full-force in the chest, before collapsing into a heap (exhausted). Jarek, looking over the princess and trying to rouse her, realized that the exhaustion was from the outside magical effect.
 
Tiberius realized that a similar thing happened to Leah when the sandstorm "attacked" us on our way to the Twin Cities (despite being sick and drifting in and out of consciousness).
 
Thankfully, the rest of the night was peaceful enough.
 

Belfor, Capital of the Dwarves

It was only three more days until we came upon the crescent valley where the dwarven city of Belfor spilled out from caverns deep within the mountains and cliffsides.
 
We entered the city outskirts, and didn't receive the welcome we expected. There was a good amount of people out and about bustling, but notably a good amount of people were boarding up shops, packing up goods, and guardsmen were corralling the people.
 
Pulling a guard aside -- Guard Yolman -- we learned that it is "goblin-attacking season", where the goblins raid from the north. Our approach from the east (to leave to the west) brought us in contact with a large portion of the Belfor people being relocated for safety. Upon pressing, he gave us the inn his cousin works at (that may have lodging in this busy time) -- the Crossed Hammers.
 
As we made our way towards the inn, Sera sought out (and found) a place to identify the magical items she had collected in the Vault of Carceri. Named Pixie Dust, Etc. and run by an old woman, the place had an identifier ("my sister, I'll fetch her!"; an identical women, clothes, accent, and all appeared). Sera was offered 100gp, and failing to have that ran back outside to find the group and ask for a loan. Tiberius, with 400gp from the Carcerian vaults, realized at least 200 of his coins were missing; Sera too was missing some of her coin. The two shrugged it off, and Sera returned to the shop Pixie Dust, Etc. with payment.
 
The key Sera had collected is a key of opening that can open any door. The identifying mage also noticed an unknown, additional enchantment on the item that she could not determine.
 
The bolts Sera had been using are called entropy bolts. Each time one is fired, a random event or effect is or is not triggered. The timing and effects, as far as she could tell, cannot be predicted.
 
The rest of the group found the Crossed Hammers as instructed, with Tiberius and Milo taking point. Because of the evacuation, the room availability was low and price was high -- as far as the clerk told us, a small room (a broom closet, too small for six people) was the only availability. And at the cool sum of 500 gp. Too expensive, of course, but the clerk did give us a thread to follow:
 
"General Tolbin, Naymin sent us (from the Crossed Hammers) and we need lodging."
 

In General

The military headquarters (or one of) was setup in a library of Belfor. General Tolbin was there, and by the time we got to him we were tired and frustrated. We relayed what Naymin had instructed us, and subsequently worked together to convince the dwarvish general to assist us (just as we would assist him).
 

"I have a job for you"

Because of the attacks, the general has no resources to follow-up on a recon unit northeast of Belfor. It sits on the flank of the battlefront, and if we could find out what happened -- "Tell them they need to do their jobs, tcha?" He offered his house to us, if we could do this for Belfor.