I wondered why the soldiers were so keen on hauling a whole cannon down with us the whole time the expedition was descending to the cavern. A sixteen pounder was certainly not easy to transport, and we were on what amounted to an archeological dig, and that one lacked the sometimes present risk of natives.
The cannon has being firing all day. I don't know how the barrel hasn't melted yet. I'm terrified to see what they've been shooting at, and yet find myself inexpliably curious. The chatter of the soldiers rifles has not stopped either, but we've been instructed to keep excavating and pay the sound no mind. Hard to do with the thunderous booming every minute for hours on end.
I didn't even know we had brought that much powder and shot with us.
The Great Wyrm that put this whole expedition together hasn't stopped looking in the direction of the sound of battle, though her ability to direct our excavation hasn't diminished. She also hasn't taken on her dragon form since we got into the city...
I saw what the soldiers had been shooting the cannon at, a moment ago. By the Icons it was nightmarish.
A horrific mass of pale, sickly white fluid and black ichor, congealed together in some sort of unholy, shuddering mass. I thought it was all ooze at first, but then I could see the... people inside. I don't know if they were once human, for they were as emmaciated as a starved corspe and their limbs looked far longer than thinner, but they reached out from the slime towards anyone they could see, but they could never break the surface. I could see their mouths locked into some sort of moan, but even then only a sort of wet blubbering escaped.
A contingent of soldiers arrived a moment later, firing into it and alowing the Great Wyrm to hold out her human hands and hit the creature with a gout of flame that sent it realing back, fluid boiling. It slid away from us then, dissapearing deeper into the city.
I recognized a few of the faces within the creature as it sloughed away. Their attempts to reach through the mass to speak to u swill haunt my nightmares more than the creature itself.
-Excerpt taken from a ragmentary journal passage, found in a pawn shop somewhere within the
Pilgrim Lands 
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