Dear Mother,
The whole town is in chaos at the moment. I've finally found a moment to sit down and rest. Our investigation into the island has the whole guild in a tizzy. We've been helping out where we can with preparations. They aren't telling us everything, but it's obvious that they know something about what we found that we don't. They're planning an all-out assault on the island as we speak, and every merchant, smith, mage, and warrior is getting in on it. As for what we found. . .
We had two possible routes we could take down to the coastline. There was a forest trail that was relatively safe but would've taken longer. It was also the one I was more familiar with, since I'd taken it when I arrived to town the first time. The other route was much shorter but a bit riskier. We chose Option B, because of course we did. The path led through several caves. (Oh boy, my favorite.) Of course, we ran into trouble as soon as we entered the first cave, and of course it was because of Becket. We had just entered a larger chamber with some drawings on the walls. Becket found a shiny thing embedded in some rocks and decided to grab it. It was a decently large crystal, with a decayed human arm inside it. By some leap of logic we mere mortals will never understand, he decided to take this obviously cursed object and smash it against a wall. Within an instant, we were surrounded by ten beings that seemed to be made of light. I sadly won't recount the whole fight as I was half-blind for most of it. What I do recall is Rost using his flaming sword to take out nearly half of them at once. I think I tried taking one out with my Zephire Strike spell, but it just shrugged me off. And much to my despair, one of them got Saphira. I felt her pain as she retreated into my soul stone. I think I apologized to her a grand total of 2,374 times once we'd finally managed to make it out of there by the skin of our teeth. That damn buckethead is going to get us killed.
We managed to find a place in the nearby woods to rest and recoup for a bit. It was at this point that both Sam and I approached Becket with deals. She promised to hand over a whole bunch of her magic stones if he'd just remember to consider what he's doing before getting us killed, and I said I'd give him my scale mail once I was done with it if he'd just. stop. touching. things. He SEEMED to get the message and once Saphira had enough time to heal, we set off towards the second, and thankfully last cave. Luckily, this one was rather short, more of a corridor really. Once we were inside, we saw something rather disturbing. Something that made me question my faith in the guild more than I already had. This place was meant to serve as an example for any who went a step too far. It was a prison for whom the guild labelled as the worst of the worst. Those for whom death was too merciful of a fate. Along the entire length of this cave, were zombies, hanging from the wall by chains. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel sorry for the poor bastards, turned into mindless corpses and left here to fester. I don't think I'd wish this fate on anyone. We swiftly moved on.
Once our trail intersected with the forest trail, we bumped into a local merchant. His name was Dave. Apparently, he's rather famous around these parts for inventing some weird role-playing game for lonely people. After persuading him with some coin, as well as some threats from Rost, he told us what he knew of the island. He said it had just showed up three days prior. Many of the sea life in the area left, and what few stayed washed up on the beaches, mutilated, but not eaten. He mentioned a lot of other weird stuff washing up onto the shore as well. He sold us a few magic stones and a charter for a boat in the harbor we could use, but by then he had to be on his way. We left on what we thought was pleasant terms with him, but we'll get to that much later.
It was already getting dark by the time we made it to the port village. A few of the traders there were pleasantly surprised to see me and Saphira again. We got rooms and slept for the night. We began our true investigation in the morning. T and Centurion held down the fort while the rest of us began gathering information. Sam and I questioned some guards and other civilians on what they were doing when the island appeared. I'd brought my journal along so I could write down whatever clues we gathered. While we were busy with that, Becket and Rost searched the shoreline. Dave was telling the truth. Dead sea creatures everywhere, mutilated, but not eaten. Whatever was doing this either didn't eat fish, or just hunted for fun. They said they thought they saw something big moving around underwater, but nothing solid. They also found something else on the beach. It looked to be some kind of claw, coated in metal.
We managed to find the boat that Dave mentioned and handed the charter to its captain. He said he'd drop us off but he sure as hell wasn't staying. He'd pick us up again the next day, if we were still alive. It seems we weren't the first sent to investigate. Once we'd gotten close, we were lowered into the water on a large raft. The captain wished us luck and we rowed out to the island. As we made land, one thing became obvious. This place was huge, not the island itself, but everything on it. Rocks, plants, everything was enormous. Becket immediately went over to a giant flower and ripped off a petal, stuffing it into his armor. I reasonably asked, "Why?" He then used his lance to poorly spell the word, "EVIDENCE" into the sand. It was at that point that we found tracks. Sam said that they resembled that of ants, bullet ants to be precise, just way bigger. I'm not sure how she could tell what ant tracks looked like, but I guess it's just a druid thing. We followed that tracks inland until we found something that immediately lent credence to her theory. It was a large, lopsided spire made from dirt, chitin, and strangely enough, metal as well. This wasn't an island, it was an anthill. We all agreed to stay the absolute fuck away from that and investigate elsewhere. Before we left for a forest that was really just a patch of giant grass, I decided to try an old trick you taught me Mother. Something about the metal embedded in the spire made me think something else was behind all this than just giant bugs. So I concentrated, focused my senses, and tried to see if there were any other humanoids on this island. I sensed myself, my team of course, but something else, deep withing the center of the spire. It seemed humanoid, felt humanoid, but wasn't. I couldn't make heads or tails of it, but before I could try to learn more, something stupid happened again.
Rost and Becket had kept the weird claw thing they found back on the mainland and Becket was playing with it now. As he swung it around in the air, a strange whistling noise seemed to come from it. And within an instant, the upper half of the claw was now missing. We all looked up and were greeted with the previous owner of said claw. A giant praying mantis, with one metal claw on its remaining forelimb. Thankfully, giant bugs seem to be our specialty. Becket managed to hit it with a spell that made it start to decay instantly. He then cast a different spell that seemed to stop the decay in its tracks. He had what I think was a proud look on what I think was his face as he stood over a fully intact mantis corpse, and once again drew in the dirt, "EVIDENCE." We spent the rest of the day collecting samples from plants and dead bugs until it was getting close to when the captain would come and pick us up.
We were split into two groups at this point, Sam, T, and I were observing a giant ladybug on a leaf right above us and debating whether or not it was friendly. Meanwhile, Rost, Becket, and Centurion were closer to the spire. They had been carrying the mantis corpse closer to the raft when they noticed something. Rost says they found a whole bunch of what looked like different metal ores, or at least what was left of them. At least now we knew where the metal in the spire came from. Suddenly, they felt a slight, rumbling, beneath them. Apparently, Becket took one look into what seemed to be the spire's main entrance, saw something approaching, and immediately used a water spell to flood said entrance and then started booking it for the raft. He and Centurion turned only to see exactly what he was running from. They picked up the dead mantis and followed. By then, the rest of us had heard the commotion. We sprinted over and saw it too. They were ants, but not ants at all. They looked like ants, moved like them, were as territorial as them, but they were made of rusted metal. We didn't have time to question it. We just ran. Thankfully, by the time we reached the raft, Rost and the others already had the mantis onboard and were ready to push off. We got on and with a little minotaur strength from Sam, we got out to sea just in time, and hoped to any god listening that those things couldn't swim. The captain picked us up a short time afterwards.
We made it back to town and immediately reported to the guild. Becket and Centurion handed over the dead mantis as well as the flower petal and the rest of the samples we'd collected. Each of us was questioned of course but Rost and I were stuck answering questions for several hours. A lot of them were, oddly specific. We got paid for the mission and were told that once the mantis had been studied, we'd get a big payout for it as well. They also offered to salvage its metal claws to make weapons for us. In a few days, Rost and Becket will have brand new mantis great scythes. But after the debrief and appraisal was over, we went to the tavern and fell asleep immediately. This morning, we woke up to the sound of yelling, hammering, and casting. The whole town was abuzz. Every shop we visited was either out of inventory or closed. Everywhere we looked, people were running around, carrying materials, and working on one project or another. While Sam and I went to restock on gear, the others went to the guild to figure out what was going on.
From what Rost told me, the guild got this whole thing going. Every adventurer, worker, and smith is being hired to help in the assault on the island. That's why all the shops are either low stocked or closed, their all donating their inventories and time to work for this. Every smith and artificer in town, including Chavelle and her master, are working on some giant machine in the main plaza. They weren't able to get any real details, but whatever we found on that island is bad news. We are also welcome to join in the raid, but we'd most likely just be left on the mainland to help pick off any stragglers that manage to make it off the island. These were the things he was telling me just before I informed him that our team had also just been banned from half the shops in town. Remember Dave? Turns out we didn't leave on such good terms. Apparently while Sam and I were talking to him, that damn Becket got offended by something Dave did and decided to carve the word, "HERETIC" in big bold letters all across his merchant cart. Dave was not amused by this and used his connections to get half the local merchants to ban us from their establishments, and the other half to no longer offer us discounts. Bear in mind, Becket did this AFTER we'd already made our deals with him to stop this kind of behavior, so guess who's not getting my scale mail anymore? Shame too, since I'm only about half his height, I was looking forward to seeing just how ridiculous he would look possessing my tiny little set of scale mail. Oh well. Life is often disappointing.
Anyways, Centurion and I are putting some finishing touches on a new toy for me to try out during the battle. I got a better look at the machine the artificers are building in town. I'm no mechanic, but that thing looks like it's packing some serious firepower. It's also powered by the biggest magic stone I've ever seen. I can't wait to see it in action. We're now just training and waiting for the time of the raid. As for good old Buckethead, Sam and I have hidden his helmet somewhere he can't find it. Apparently, once you remove a part of his armor, he stops being able to use whatever body parts that would've taken up that space. So, without his helmet, he can't see, hear, or smell. He's been bumping into walls for the past several hours. I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do with him. All the others have become better adjusted in the past month. T has now learned when it is and isn't appropriate to play his bagpipes at full blast. Turns out, while I still can't spell it, his name is pronounced like, "Tibia" like the bone. It's nice to have an actual name to call him by now. Sam has stopped the short jokes and is actually participating in the conversation more. While I admit, I haven't been treating Rost as the co-chaperone he is, I'm slowly learning to trust him more and more. Whatever he did in his past, he seems to be a different person now. Centurion, while quite a bit dense at first, has been much more agreeable lately. I think his relationship with Chavelle has become a real grounding force for him. And as for me, despite my misgivings about them. I think I've actually started to care about these screwups. I'm a screwup too after all, but you know that already.
I don't know what will happen during the raid. There's obviously something about those metal ants that the guild isn't telling us. But I think that if we stick together, we'll manage to barely cheat death again. We seem to have a talent for that, especially when it comes to giant bugs.
Love, Your son, Fessiiv