Session notes 10-6-2020 & 17-6-2020

4th day in the Feywild
 
I woke up a bit later this morning, but luckily just before Baradox came to pick us up. The rest of my night had been quite uneventful, and I think that we were all quite happy to be able to sleep a full night, without watches etc.
 
During our breakfast, we had a short conversation with Baradox about our next steps. We can go for the phoenix fire, or to the elemental prince to ask some advice on the other items we need. Somewhere in this conversation mentioned an artefact called 'the iron flask' which could be a very useful item in our quest to catch the phoenix. It essentially can catch unwilling creatures if it is opened close to it. However, this item is currently in the possession of the Emerald Queen. When we inquired about this Queen, we learn that she has little patience and that she disowned the King not too long ago. The reason for the latter being that she deemed him to be 'too soft'. That sounds like a fun lady to meet. We must have seen a bit hesitant at this point, as Baradox states that with a bit of sweet talk and flattery we should be able to get our way. Or perhaps offer her something to increase her power or wealth?
 
Thalmiir came with a, somewhat good idea after this was mentioned: making a new staff as a gift her, to get into her good graces. Naturally an emerald for the Emerald Queen. I must say I am a bit doubtful, as an ordinary staff might be a bit, little, compared to the power of this artefact we are after. But it is always worth trying, and perhaps Roze can put an enchantment on it of some kind? I am not sure how that works, perhaps I should ask him about it.
 
But with that, we are once again on the Highwind, this time to the West. To the mines. Thalmiir just informed us that he had received a message from Roberta, through the bag we had gotten from Barry Olden. She inquired about how our first days in the Feywild have been, she knows that three days have passed, as three hours have passed in the 'regular' world. Next to this, she had a somewhat alarming message, the Undead Kings Army is getting closer with the day. At the pace they are travelling right now, they will be at Sarton within the week. That is really quite unnerving, but luckily we still have quite some time to get all the ingredients before that time is upon us.
 
After hearing this message, Oranje shares his view on this battle strategy - waiting for the enemy to arrive-. He states that he does not understand, for he would have organised a counterstrike long before he would ever let them come this close. Thalmiir and William responded to this, about how losing soldiers to this king might cause more force against you in the long run. I decided not to intervene, I have very little knowledge of battle strategies, I know that there are general 'rules' that people keep even in wartime, but more than that, no. After this brief conversation, Thalmiir sends a message back to her.
 
The flight to these mines is approximately four hours, but it is so hard to track this with the sun staying in the same position. I have decided to sometimes simply put a small mark on my arm using prestidigitation, I think that lasts for about an hour, which makes it somewhat possible to track time. Still, it is easy to forget and perhaps more has passed already when I notice.
 
The scenery around us changes quite a bit during our flight. From the mountain and the heavily wooded area, we see the forest thin out more and more until we are over a swamp-like terrain.
 
 
While we were looking up at the sky, watching for the cloud giants and their rocks, I suddenly felt something come from the right. But before I could say anything, a giant boulder hit us from the side.
A crash and a break later, we stand in a totally quiet swamp. It is quite eery. We had no idea what had thrown this giant rock at us. Baradox really looked defeated looking at the Highwind which had been hit badly. A lot of the crystals on the side had broken off and lay scattered on the ground. I let Mina help Thalmiir look for them, as I tried somewhat desperately to mend the ship, but to no avail. Too much wood and crystal had broken off for my simple trick to work. Oranje went to look for some wood to repair the ship with, and wandered off into the swamp.
 
It was moments later that we heard the strange sounds of wood moving? It sounded like snapping and slashing off branches and we quickly made our way there. The tree that Oranje had been hacking at, a strange-looking one with antlers? I could not really see well, as it was a bit off into the distance. This tree was doing real damage to Oranje, kinds of damage I had not seen before... A few spells, arrows and slashes later, another one showed up, locking most of us between the two. It was at this point that Thalmiir summoned a wall of fire, out of nowhere! He had placed it so that the both trees were at the outer ends of it, but it did block me from the rest of the group. Expecting that these trees would run -well I had not expected them to actually run, but you know you can expect anything here- from the fire. They did, eventually but not before the one that came towards the commotion nearly hit me to the ground. I teleported back to the ship, only to find a beat-Oranje there. From the upper deck, we could see the tree that hit me, run off into the distance. Some fiery-looking hitting blasts, and some ocher erratic looking ones that missed later, we sat down in the still broken ship. That is where we are at now.
Oranje cut some wood from the first tree that we had slain. We brought it back to the ship and took some time to recover a bit. After that, Ruby, Roze and Oranje worked on fixing the boat for a couple of hours, and that is where we are at now. Baradox is looking over their shoulders and giving them instructions. There is currently not much that I can do to help them, so I am just keeping watch
 
It is about 3 hours later - I guess- and we are flying again! It is much slower and a bit wonkier than before, but flying nonetheless.
 
The mines are quite imposing, it is a giant canyon. Baradox landed a bit off the side, as apparently stone giants own this place. Information that we should have asked for earlier on. And they are not that fond of visitors.
 
After scouting the place for a bit, seeing some figures move, and having Liya go ahead, we learn that there is a human lady with two bears living along the path that we were thinking about taking. We had a short discussion about what we are going to do, but we decided to go down into the mines anyways, as quietly as possible.
 
 
We were not as quiet as we had hoped. Just as we passed past the door, we heard a scream that we did not understand language-wise, but the meaning was still clear. The lady ran out, including the two large bears. They did manage to get some hits in, but they were quickly overpowered by us. Thalmiir was flung far away by a stone giant that came close to the commotion, luckily, I could help him fall softly. Oranje quickly had the lady pinned to the ground and later to the wall. I made sure that the bears that went down were stabilised, as the lady seemed to care about them a lot, and I was not planning on murdering everyone in our path to get this gift.
The stone giant was ordered to go away by the woman, and he did, but not before dangling a large large rock above our heads before melting back into the walls.
 
The lady, understandably, was not very talkative. Her main concern was with the bears. She told us to go further into the mine if we wanted to trade or do any kind of business. And thus we did.
 
Thalmiir was waiting for us, further down into the mine, where he was thrown by the giant. Letting Mina fly ahead a little bit at the time, we found our way to the last place where the light could find its way into this cave system. We found ourselves in a large cavern with a creek running through and several gates. Next to the river, there are enormous statues of delicately carved figures. I am not sure who it was, but one of us knew that sculpting is one of the main skills a leader should have in a community of Giants. That explains both the intricate carvings in the walls and the beautifully carved statues. They looked so real we had to go investigate if they would not suddenly come alive.
 
The whole setting was a bit eery. The place where we arrived, where the sun still hit the bottom of this cave, there was grass and some small flowers. Looking further into the cave, where the light cannot hit, the grass cannot grow any longer, and plants like moss take over. It gives off a very different vibe, somewhat scary but also calming somehow, the low light, soft moss and water running. If we had not been fighting minutes ago, we might have enjoyed it a bit more.
 
After the first round of exploring, we passed over a what seemed to be a petrified tree. Oranje cut off a piece of it, before we walked over it, passing over the creek.
 
We went into the gate of the nearest tunnel in this cave system. With some athleticism and a combined use of a rope and the immovable rod, we clibed up a set of stairs made for the giants. After which Erky scouted forward and found a room with a group of humans camping in it, who also had a space for livestock of some kind. As well as a cavern with a bubbling lake of what I presumed to be mud.
 
 
Not wanting to disturb the people, and not being interested in the lake, we were thinking about exploring another one of the hallways. To make the search quicker, I used Mina to scout. Sadly, after following another cave system for a little while, she was spotted by a giant who was making carvings, and a somewhat large rock was hurled at her, snapping my vision back to me. I hope I still have enough components to summon her again. I have quite grown attached to her, to be honest. Perhaps later when we take some time to rest I will be able to look through my bag.
 
It was after this, however, that Ruby came with a clever idea: casting 'locate object' to find a large and expensive emerald. This proved to be very useful, as we now suddenly had a direction to travel in. With this newfound location, we made our way past a bridge, where we saw some stone giants pass over. Quietly, - well as quiet as possible, because we are not very quiet as a group we have noticed- we make our way past the streaming water until we start hearing the roaring of a waterfall in the distance. With Ruby keeping us focussed on our foul, we took a turn and eventually found ourselves in yet another tunnel which would hopefully go in the right direction.
 
It was when we were passing through this tunnel that four of us were suddenly grabbed by some kind of tentacles. What had looked like a simple stone or stalagmite, was actually some kind of scary stone creature, intended on eating us all. Oranje, Ruby, Teal and I were grabbed by the creature. I managed to break free with Ruby, but not before getting bit and hurt quite badly by this, thing. It did not seem bothered by armour or metal, as it also munched down Oranje and tried to eat Teal as well. Luckily, Roze, Teal, Oranje, and Ruby hit the creature with some strong swings and bullets, and before it could grab us again it had been slain. It was a close call, however. I had presumed that we - ruby and I- would have been at a safe distance, the place where I had teleported. But it was thanks to Oranje and Ruby shielding me, Teal and Roze attacking and distracting the creature, and my ring of shielding, for otherwise I would have surely been grabbed once again. That would have been really bad.
 
After the battle, we took a look at the creature, as we had seen something shining within his stomach. Well, those who were getting eaten had mostly seen it. Looking through the remains of this beast, we found a dozen of small gems and a couple of larger ones. Thalmiir has kept them to take a closer look at their worth. Sadly, what we are looking for is a tad larger than what we found, so we will have to continue down this tunnel towards the location only Thalmiir knows. It is quite okay, it is fun to do together as a group, but if there are more of these creatures around, this expedition is going to be a dangerous one. We should be fine right? I just hope we can take a small rest before continuing, I am quite tired, and even Oranje looked like he could use a rest.