A New Journey

09/08/3022
 
The night passed quietly and it felt good to be somewhere indoors with light. I will say something has occured however, it seems whatever was in the item I held has now left, this worries me but there's little I can do about this so for now I'll leave it on the back burner. I will head out in a bit, maybe have some food before discussing with the group how we intend to move from here, maybe we can head to Rugby by foot and seek transport down to Arkrhyst's territory from there. I'm aprehensive to use the lightning rail due to recent events and I assume that sentiment will be the same with the rest of the group.
 
09/08/3022
 
After discussing plans with the group over breakfast the bar keep mentioned that he had planned to move to Rugby as well and doesn't mind heading off one day early. we go with this plan. During this Axel picks a fight with the 2 green dragonborn which he considered to be sketchy, they argue, axel hurls insults towards them, they laugh it off and leave, teleporting out of the pub.
 
We soon set off and arrive at Rugby, during which Storm talks another patron who stayed with the pub on it's journey to Rugby, we get walked through the gate by the bar keep and then part ways. The boy smells the air and announces to the group that it is unlikely that Brightgleam is here, upon questioning from Ciri, seeming very embarrassed he revealed he was also a son of a dragonlord which is why he and Rénlèi considered each other to be family.
 
Apparently the man Storm spoke to suggested if we need help to seek the aid of a Father Gideon of the old ways curch here at Rugby or the Court of owls, but given the group as well as my own affiliations we decided to against that. Walking up to the curch Axel encountered someone from his past and without too much explanation, other than it being a high elder of the simic conclave split from the group, I sent my little contraption with him just in case. We then headed into the church and were greated by the Father himself, moving to a private room we spoke of our situation, it seems the father and the boy know each other, not on great terms but they didn't fight. we got transport out but were asked to look for a Anna Petrescu as a favor, and that they would recognise the book. This seemed innocent at the time but I should of seen something like this coming.
 
We left the church and were met by Axel who said he had to meet the Head of the church, Father Gideon had little time but humoured Axel, casting some sort of divine magic around the area to give some cover, Axel described how someone of the simic conclave had met with a bar keep of a nearby bar and discussed the purchasing of a weapon that had an airborne weapon and that thier target was the religious quarter, then going on to discuss how he had seen the same person leaving and sending a few biological creations through the waterways that ended with axel following them to the water treatment plant in Rugby.
 
The Father seemed more like he was humouring a child than taking anything seriously but turned to talk to someone in a lab coat before they ran off and he bid us adieu, we left to head to a bar that Axel had got us a free meal at, I had buisness with the Archonists and after discussing transport concerns to Bristol, the boy had suggested he would look into seeing if he still had access to some funds of his.
 
My meeting with the Archonists was an interesting one, I was greeted by a Mousefolk at the door a Scribe Mathew, he guided me to a small room in which I showed him the Golem core, he immediately rushed off, a few minutes later another person came in, an older human , slightly out of breath, came in. He introduced himself as Ezera Stern, Chief Rabbi, soon after asking for my name he fell to his knees in prostration. Apparently they had been looking for this item for generations, a raid from a Black dragon from up north had seen it taken and to have it back it seems a great thing. Apparently it was one of the first golem cores.
 
Thinking on the Shard in my pack I ask for somewhere secure, without a word he guided me deep into the church, this place was for someone like me, no words would do it justice, the enchantments here amaze me and so many layered upon layered to provide whatever functions they provide. I was guided to a small empty room with a circle in the middle. the first item I revealed was the shard, I had thought not to do this but I couldn't miss this opportunity to get rid of this thing as well as try to understand it more.
 
Putting it in the circle he described the item as pure evil. He also talked about the creature that had followed it, an assassin of the mists, those killed by it are removed from the world and all history, both oral and litterary. with little discussion I agreed upon him taking the item, i then showed him the green crystal which he saw as a statis gem as I did, he seemed to be able to gleam a bit more information from it, a small golem was inside and that it was not of an evil nature but would follow anyone it bonded too.
 
He announced that what I had asked for would not be treated as the favour owed as he considered this a nessassery thing to do for safety, at the time I could not think of what I wanted and as such was provided a quartz gem that if shown would allow me to call upon the favour at any time. he then guided me out of the church, closing the door behind me I could have sworn I heard him shout "WHOOPEE".
 
I rejoined the group and upon getting to the table Storm asked if the bartender looked familiar to the one we were looking for, to be truthfull I hadn't paid much attention to the description but the red hair did catch my eye, I agreed with him and gave him the book so that he could show her. we then rodered food.
 
A short while later Storm revealed that the book had been taken and that he had also found something in his bag, taking out a small golem from his bag, putting it on the table it seems to cling to him whenever it could, upon seeing it I realised that it was the being inside the stasis gem I had, and with taking it out it seemed to recognise it, it did not seem to be a possitive memory for the little thing.
 
Storm asked it to see where the red head had gone as she did not come out with the drinks we had ordered, it followed the order and came out moments later describing in a complicated game of charades that the girl had burnt the book and was currently angry/crying at the fire, Storm decided that he needed to know what this meant and I sent him with my contration, he barged into the kitchen and there was a heated discussion before a pan flew otu the door, Axel followed by Ciri went to invistigate.
 
There was a heated discussion and as this was happening I watched as the other bar maid ushered everyone else out the bar, all but one left bar myself. I went to see what was going on, it seems that we had found the girl but she had been in hiding from the old god church and that we had ruined their plans.
 
A lot of fighting went on and it ended with axel leaving after shouting about how they were idiotic for hiding under the nose of the church. the only man left in the pub asked the girl about the simic they had met with, she took out a weird weapon? deformed fish with a trigger ? and then upon saying she couldn't give it to him he left it and they left. which the boy then decided by himself to go and follow them. moments later a kobold ran in and after blurting out the name of the man and who he was working for, there had been a complication at the water treatment facility.
 
With the Simic conclave being in the area and knowing their intrest in bio-tech as well as their interest in the recently constructed water facility I should have expected what we would discover, with permission of the Big guy Sheel? we entered the water treatment facility, at the front gate there were red flags arising. The guards were no where to be seen, the alarms on the door had been deactivated, and there was a slime like substance on the doors, whoch thanks to Axel who has a connection to the conclave we were later informed that this was the residue of one of the conclaves units.
 
Acordind to axel these units are colour coded to identify their role, red infiltrate units, blue command units. red/yellow for assault, green for specialist tasks. he also informed us to be aware of a slightly sulfurous/eggy smell that they would exude. There is also a theory that roleless units are clear and that some/a majority of the residents in the treatment facility have been turned into.
 
As we entered, trying to be sneaky, we discovered something of interest, on approach Sheel was noticed but we did manage to get a glimpse of a clear slime humanoid before it liquified into the floor. We continued further in following the right wall. Upon reaching a small workshop we saw a small child, the likeness was amaing, I say this as we eventually disconvered it was not a child but an infiltration unit of the conclave, we were able to destroy it but Ciri noticed a tether like appendage as it disolved into the wall. Likely our presence was allready known but this probably didn't help.
 
Moving forward we encountered a small prayer area, where Ciri heard the slight sobbing sound of someone trying to hide, we found them and they were not in a good state of mind. We managed to discuss with them for a time and found out a few things.
 
An alarm had rang out 3 or so hours ago, while he and his brothers and sters were in the prayer area they had been attacked by flying flat fish and he described that something that looked like one of the guards had done something to him, upon inspection we could see that a portion of his right arm had jellyfied and that it was slowly spreading up the body, unsure on how to stop this my suggestion was to cut the arm off, the rest of the group assuring that I could make an arm to replace the lost one, which, if this does stop the spread, I can only hope he forgets about due to shock.
 
Once Storm had applied the "anaesthetic" I went to work with the inpiration and guidance of the group. Not being a doctor or trained in any medical first aid or even even owning any medical tools I set to work with what I had, which happened to be my wood carvers tools. With a bit of effort and applying some "binding salve" to the wound he arm was successfully removed. whether this has worked will remain to be seen but I did what I could. the arm allthough jellyfied seems to keep its shape which is interesting. I took it and will try to figure out something from it.... maybe ? I also made sure to take samples of the clear slime. Maybe I should take these to the archonists to check what these are.
 
We moved on but Axel seems to be taking this very hard, which I suppose is understandable, him and Ciri seem to be discussing something as we moved on.
 
We got to an office but it had been ransacked but what seems to have been a command unit acounting for the colour of ooze that was found in the melted safe, also seems someone lost their life here as we found more clear ooze in one of the chairs. we moved on and encountered an ooze dropping from the ceiling before entering a small area, a quick overlook of the area showed that there had been combat and this area had yet to be cleaned up, most bodies had gone leaving only armour behind but one remained propped up against a door.
 
"BODY"
 
We entered the building and could hear an ooze disolving a victum on one of the the small rooms further in, most of us decided to leave Ciri tried to look through the drawers but managed to alert the ooze, we had quite the encounter and were surprised by another ooze fouther down the room but we managed to take care of them, seems they really do have elemental resistances, something to do with their diet or biology, but it seems to be indicated by their colour/role.
 
We moved further in to discover the main part of the water treatment facility, we enetered the room on the right and the water seemed healthy enough, ciri, storm and axel went further in and discovered a small room for medicinal herbs which would in normal operation be mixed into the water treatment process to aid with civilian health, unfortunately there seems to be some ill intent behind these plants as some have grown in odd ways and have mind altering affects, perhaps in a way to make people more passive to changes.
 
moving over to the control room onthe left we discovered the control levers for the water ficility as well as another sample of water, ths sample was heavily corrupted and was a vibrant purple colour, looking over the lever and button system I found a way to make it enter a maintanence mode which would shut down distribution for the time. We then heard a voice, female of sorts, addressing Axel as a "very naughty boy". We had a discussion on whether we should leave and the group finaly convinced Axel to go down to meet this individual.
 
We spoke with them for a bit, Axel informed us that is was a commander unit, one the conclave had less control over, they went by the name of Priscilla , according to them Axel had a bounty on their heads. We eventually got into a fight and by the end most of us were quite badly hurt, I managed to finish her? off with a well placed crossbow bolt to the head.
 
Big man picked up Priscilla 's weapon a trident of sorts, the rest of the group took some time to rest as I had to sit down and take a moment to breath. Storm's little golem partner came out and seemingly nibbled off a bit of the trident and through this the groups discovered what the function of the golem of the is, the function of the trident and that the little golem seems to be speaking some variation of celestial according to the big man.
 
We left the facility, checking up on the boy who's arm I took off, he seems to be fine and the ooze has not spread, we encountered a heavily armoured paladin at the door of the facility and he then began to discuss recent events with big man. Axel and Ciri interjected a bit and I informed him of my actions concerning the maintanence mode of the facility. we then left to discuss things further in the church district the Church of Bahamut. Axel offers to discuss the conclave but asks to be paid for the information.
 
As we left there was smoke billowing from the nicer part of the city, we later found out this was to do wit hthe boy and his encounter with the girl we were meant to find. but all seems "well" on that front, or at least is none of my concern.
 
We entered the curch and found ourselves in a small room to discuss things, apparenty the paladin had been in contact with a soothsayer and they had discussed both the big man and our group as well as a painting which seemed to have put them out of commission which is understandable I suppose considering the context, I let the big man look at it at the request of the paladin, what he got from it is up to him to share or not but is not my concern at the current moment.
 
the soothsayer also seemed to have mentioned the stability, mentioned that we would either be the end or the continuation of the dragonlord, and the enders of the black mist. both Axel and Storm asks why they should care or what it has to do with them, revealing some of the big mans history it seems he was once involed with the cult of tiamat, the main religion of london.
 
we discussed our movement plans and were asked to avoid specific areas/dragonlords
- Brightmantle territory/North Whales
- Chryselephantine the Diplomat
- lahamorantos
- The Southern Coasts
 
Then we began to discuss our escort, who seems to have had a confrontation with the old ones church which ended in some of their members dying, some civilians dying and a few fires before he and the group he was with fled the city. We were then also informed that Missy has put a bounty on our heads all but the boy and big man now have a price on them and Axel now has two.
 
Ciri seemed to take the news quite badly and I suppose I understand, I tried my best to calm her down, dusring which the paladin came into discuss wit hthe big man something about him being a rep for the them in their meeting with the conclave, this would occur around the 25th of Darkwhisper. to ensure he can get there on time he was handed some sort of teleporter ?
 
I headed out to so the archonists and used my favour to get an upgrade on my tools as well as give them the ooze sampls I had collected, likely wont help with anything but it was worth a shot and I don't need them.
 
We decided to rest up before heading out through a hidden tunnel to the exit through the same gate as the boy.