The Red Wedding
The queen is dead and so is our Professor... What we are left with are more questions and a prospected race somewhere between war foe and potential ally.
Midterm Expedition Report
As part of our midterm exams, our Supportventure accompanied Kate Lyra Langridge, her Soulventure, the Magiseekers and Professor van Gaevin on their expedition into the Foreverglades to make first official contact with the Nature Spirits, the first intelligent conversational species on Ignotas. As guard support for the main convoy, we prepared for a hostile welcome from the spirits, but what ended up happening was worse than our worst case preparation.Expedition Happenings
Travel to the Glades
We were granted multiple carriages with which we travelled north towards the forest. Miss Langridge travelled with us to brief us on the mission in detail, since we joined this quest rather abrupt. Once at the convoys endpoint, we were led out of the carriages and were subsequently attacked by our driver and more bandits of the Shadowbound. We suspect that they were out to stop our expedition attempts, as they do. One thing that was strange however, was that their leader was very adamant on killing Miss Langridge, seemingly having some personal grudge against her. The most concerning thing however is the fact that these Shadowbound were able to infiltrate the ressource center, since they were our drivers from the very beginning.First Contact
After resolving this attack, we pressed on and met with Gil not too long after. He is a nature spirit that was said to have met our kin first not too long ago. He welcomed us with open arms and brought us to the nature spirit town, which was previously unfindable due to some strange fog magic. He briefed us on the nature of this meeting once more and told us that their princess "Fyunn" was to be married to the tree of life, "Yalrath", and we were invited to attend as an invitation of peace.Inside the City
We were bid to stay in the city until the evening where the ceremony was to commence. Until then, we explored the city in detail, which we will discuss in the "Findings" Section later in the report. In the evening, we went to the ceremony grounds, without Professor van Gaevin, since he fell sick during our stay, which we later found out was a combination of unfamiliarity with the food and external poisons. At the wedding grounds, we were greeted by the Princess herself and were sat at her table. I, Callan, harbored huge mistrust towards the intentions of the spirits and chose to stand at the edge of the venue rather than to sit, in order to observe. Once the festivities reached their climax, the princess began the "wedding vows" and began fusing with the tree of life as all the dowries swirled as offering towards the tree. At the most crucial point of this process, suddenly, the Princess was attacked and assasinated with a single shot of dark purple light. Unknown shadows started emerging and we fought to protect the spirits with our lives. In this fight, Professor Iothar sadly gave his life to fend off his attackers. After the fight, we tried but could not find the source of these shadow attacks, but quickly turned our attention towards saving the queen in some way. I quickly determined that she had passed, and without a proper healer present, I begged the tree of life to take me if necessary to revive her majesty, since I felt the need to show the spirits the good will of us after they undoubtedly thought the shadows were our doing. Although even the spirits thanked me for my attempted sacrifice, there was no way for the tree of life to bring back the dead. Just after telling me that, the tree of life started moving, absorbing all the dowries and the princess, not as its equal, but as part of the dowries and strengthened itself with her lingering powers. I would like to think that I was the reason for this, since no spirit knew that this was even possible, but I honestly can not confirm.Aftermath
We were led out of the city with no new queen appointed. Gil told us that while he did appreciate our help in this matter, it is imperative that this wouldn't have happened would the spirits not have opened up their doors to outsiders. They will need to think this relationship over and will be in touch.Botanical Findings
This was supposed to be the main part of our report, but since so much has happened, this longer report is to make due.Outside Help: We thank Kate Lyra Langridge for helping with any questions we had regarding our findings. While all our findings were ours, she was an integral part in making sense of these new flora species.
The City Itself
The entire city was veiled in a thick layer of illusion magic. If the Nature Spirits so wanted to, they could have kept themselves hidden for however long they wanted to.
Inside the city, the nature spirits lived in small communities very socially. Their houses were woven by magic, their food was entirely unique and the way they consumed their food was unconventional to say the least. They eat and drink by absorbing their food into their bodies rather than digesting them.
They had some sort of walking tree guardians throughout the city, conversing friendly with the citizens. I also took the liberty of talking with one during my stay and it can speak at least in the common tongue and elvish. It is very non-confrontational if not directly prompted and is moderately helpful in answering questions about this place. When asked about any outside cities, it answered that it only knows what it ahs seen, and it has never ventured outside the city. It also told me that is is created by the tree of life Yalrath, as are the nature spirits to some extent.
Aside from everything being basically bioluminescent and other phenomenon such as self sustaining water fountains seemingly working for themselves, or unknown instruments played by a band of nature spirit, nothing more interesting in a botanical sense was found among the city's infrfastructure.
The Flora Found
While I conversed with the tree guardian, my partner looked around together with MNiss Langridge to explore the flora and brought his unique magical insight, feeling the magical workings rather than seeing.They found a type of mushroom that when touched plays a distinct tone, depending on where and how hard you press its cap. According to Shigeru, themagical particles became denser around the part where the cap is touched and subsequently released a tone when rubbing against each other.
They also found a set of what we call "Camoplants". A weed that when trying to observe closer, vanishes into nothingness, hiding itself. As for Shigeru's sight, the magical particles that made up the plant were, if not focused on it, pretty clear and slow to move, but the more directly he looked at them, the more chaotic, unpredictable and colorful they became.
Another mystical flower was also discovered, red orange overflowing with magic, releasing small crackling particles even when kept to itself. Once touched, the crackling would stop and condense into an image that would change every three seconds or so to show what the flower saw in the past. Although we don't know how far back into the past the flower memorized, this is one of the most intruiging finds we had. We called it, for lack of better term, Memory Flower.
We took samples of these species with us, through the generous help of Miss Langridge and her Prismatic Glaive and will be providing them to the designated research centers upon request.Nature Spirits in Detail
Redacted Information
Shigeru
Professor van Gaevin
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