STATUS REPORT - Dawnrise 44. Full moon. 🌕 Recruits: Odett, Raven, Die-anna, Sorrel, Draylor
A group of us recruits headed Southeast to the forest, initially seeking out the Jer-men of the board. We'd hoped to find them so they can submit their reports, and all we found were fairly recent camp sites. Diving deeper into the forest, we were approached by some "wegovy whippets" that we took care of - some strange, hound-like creatures. In the forest, Die-anna came across a stone with Druidic writing. We followed a trail (with Beauregard the Squirrel and I taking to the trees to observe higher ground) where we came across what appeared to be an ancient amphitheater. I noticed that the rock fit within the wall of the amphitheater, uncovering the phrase "in service of the grove". At the heart of this amphitheater, we found what we have named the "Cave of Wonders" - shaped in the gaping maw of a sabretooth tiger. In there, we valiantly fought against some more wegovy whippets, even encountering a larger hound creature. Things got rocky when a big, long-toothed creature appeared. With a few recruits down from the fight, we had no choice but to flee. Luckily, on the way out, we were able to grab some treasures from the cave.
The Jer-men are still MIA. It is unclear if the long-tooth made quick work of them - if they ended up in the amphitheater at all.
It seems as though there is much more in this forest to uncover.
(A torn page found crumbled up near the dining tent) Dear diary, I just got back from the med tent, who knew that two black eyes would hurt so bad! Soooo many riftlings in the southeastern corner. They were skinnier than those we encounter in the north and were in the trees. Steve had all of us go over there to find the Jermans who we did find traces of! But we got all distracted by this huge amphitheater we found. Before I found this rock which had carvings on it and the amphitheater had the same stones, after Odette (she seems cool, I mean Helm is a buzzkill but what you gonna do) found the spot where it was from I recognized the symbol on it! It was this like twisting a circular branch. I remember seeing it on the back of this one druid in the vision I saw last week. Maybe this druid also made the deer? I have lots of feelings about that deer…. Bound to be forever in this dimension? I thought it was free and wild but it’s bound here like all of us… like me… Also Raven doesn’t eat the bugs she just collects them! Don’t know if that's better or worse I met the bunny guy! He had these little hand cannons which were super cool. Draylor was there, and he made me split my drink tickets… AGAIN Anyway we got trapped in this cave that looked like a saber tooth tiger's MAW, so cool. We had to fight a bunch of riftlings and then this armored one showed up! It looked strong and maybe we could have taken it but I was injured and so was the rest of the group. As we fled I nabbed a cool dagger and a strange vial. Me and Raven traded our loot, I traded a dagger for some neat hand wrappings. We all got okay, which I guess is the most important thing… okay feeling light headed again goodnight diary love ya (on the bottom of the paper is a sketch of the symbol)
Raven Madapple A letter sent back to my swampy home, attached to a medium sized package that's not lumpy or suspicious at all:
Dawnrise 44 Moon phase: Full
Wren, You're getting updates in bullet form, as your sister has been battered three quarters of the way to death by demonic skinny whippets. I did snag an extremely rad dagger for my troubles.
Found four (!!) new insects today. 3 distinct beetles and a gross grub. Terrarium setup is taking over my tent, oops!
Transporting insects out of the rift is an... unauthorized activity. This box I'm sending you definitely does not have highly valuable preserved otherworldly fireflies inside.
I made some friends! Draylor revived me in the middle of the riftling smackdown, and Die-Anna is really good at hauling ass with me tucked under one arm. Blu and Odett are terrifying for different reasons but in a cool way that I respect. It's been nice to meet new people who don't know about The Incident.
Kisses and hugs and bugs,
Raven
ps, I will NOT send home riftling bones, so stop asking. I don't even know if they have bones! They're filled to the brim with a sticky black goo. Before you ask, I will not send you samples of riftling goo.
To Steve, Report on the return to the spiral Amphitheatre and the end of the Saber King
Donk and I had realized (as I’m sure you have) that Draylor hasn’t been his best self over the last month. After talking with him, we realize his current slump might have been due to his near-death experience at the hands of the Riftling animal that some at camp have come to call the Saberking.
So Donk, Candy, and I found Draylor and convinced him that we would help him face this challenge. We spent some time with the scholars (Linnus, Murph, and Eda) where we were able to deduce that the Saber King might have some connection to the elemental plane of earth, and therefore might be extra susceptible to injuries which induced resonance into its crystalline body. The scholars reconfigured the magic amplifier system (Sonass™) as a potential weapon, and Sarna provided us with some thunder bottles to aid us in our attack. With the help of the new recruit Candy, we determined the Saber King was in its lair. And, we actually managed to surprise the creature there, but our initial success was quickly replaced with concern as the animal proceeded to down Donk in a single attack and started to toss him about like a rag doll. Fortunately, our homework (haha) paid off, and we were able to quickly down the Sabre king with sonic attacks and heal Donk before he needed the revivification room. Hopefully, facing down the terrible beast wil help Draylor get back to his normal self.
Oh, and you Starshard banner's higher-up types have noticed that every “riftling” we encounter seems to have a connection to one of the inner planes, right? I thought it was pretty obvious, but apparently not everyone else has noticed
