Session 4 - Into the Jungle - Hettie's Letter Home

Hi Mum and Dad,
Yes the shop is going fine. It’s starting to look quite respectable and I sold quite a few candles last week - mostly just those plain ones you always tell me are so important. So boring. Whatever, it keeps food in the pantry I guess.
Yesterday I joined an expedition to look for the drow (Vulkoori) that those gnolls thought might be responsible for the missing villagers. I was hopeful that I might find Candace with them, but it seems that was too optimistic.
There was lots of walking again. I got so bored and tired, definitely going to need to find a way to make these hikes more interesting if I’m going to keep coming on these missions. It’s sooo hot and sticky, but Mafaldine brought watermelon, he’s the coolest.
Eventually we found the animal Shiv was tracking, which had previously eaten a drow. It was a really cool jaguar thing with snakes coming out of its shoulders, apparently called a kamadan. It had cloudy poisonous breath that I thought might be explosive or something, I wanted to collect a sample but couldn’t find any gland that it might have come from, if only I had studied anatomy or something!
Next, we found another old ruin, with lots of elven graffiti on the walls, which sounded like a rebellion against the giant masters. On the lower level was an old giant bedroom made of lead, which they seemed to think would protect them in their dreams. That reminded me of some old stories about the giants being at war with the quori that lived in the dream plane back in the olden days. I guess the drow slaves might have turned out to be the bigger threat after all.
Mafaldine cooked dinner with some kamadan meat that he stewed with some berries. It was really rich, and quite delicious the way he prepared it.
In the night some Vulkoori arrived and started singing. I tried to make friends with their leader Telrentath and ask him about Candace, but it turned out he was a firework hating meanie! He called me a ‘fire-binder’. Also, he seemed to have the wrong idea and think that I owned the ships we sailed in on, and the whole town are ‘my people’! I tried to set him straight that I’m just a merchant, and not from a great house, but he didn’t understand and kept threatening to kill my friends.
We decided to sneak out before the drow got all stabby on us. Mafaldine and I made an illusion of Tel as a decoy (he did the voice; I made the pointing image). Mafaldine does nice dancing lights too, though not in as many colours as me, and did I mention how good he is at making food? He’s my new friend. He got shot in the back while we were escaping actually. I was sooo worried, but he’s fine now. Oh, don’t worry about me, I didn’t even get a scratch the whole trip. I promised I’d look after myself, didn’t I?
Anyway, we didn’t find a drow city or anything (apparently they’re mostly nomadic?) but we did confirm that they’re hostile to anyone from the mainland. Not really sure if that counts as a lead but I won’t give up, I’m sure Candace is out there somewhere.
Love to you both,
Harriet