The Journal of Harren Smoulder Entry #10

I find myself in new company tonight. On the third level there is a town but it seems this layer isn't totally uninhabited by people. Once again I'm sleeping inside the lofty branches of trees as old as dragons. It brings to mind more and more of my youth, but this journal is for the future. Perhaps a memoir will come after this adventure is over, although its conclusion is still unclear. Scares like yesterday's and today's don't inspire confidence.

While we packed up camp Few continued to sleep. She seemed so peaceful and none of us wanted to disrupt her. We still had to get moving though, so I tried to wake her up. The moment I touched her I could feel her fever. She was sick just like Ilean had warned. We had to find that blue flower and save her, me especially to make up for yesterday. Zanvar placed her inside of himself, and for as dire a time it was for Few I can't help but smirk thinking about it. Her arms reaching up to barely reach his elbows and sitting where his legs separate, dangling around like a marionette on a wall, it was such a sight!

We trudged about looking through any patches of flowers we came across but we were empty handed. It was a stroke of luck or divine intervention that we were discovered by a goblin. Her name is Thug, she's very capable and knowledgeable about this level of the abyss. She pointed us in the direction of the flower we needed. Once we had it we were to meet her on the way to her home. She would make a concoction with the flower that would break Few's fever and bring her back to her senses. She took off weaving about through brush. She's goodhearted, I don't think many people would make such an effort for someone they only just met.

Sure enough we spied the flower glowing brightly among wildflowers on the other side of a fissure from some long forgotten earthquake. There was no bridge and finding an end might take hours we didn't have. Eric swung his grappling hook to a tree on the other side and we took turns swinging across. We all managed to cross without incident but this same trick wouldn't work on the way back. As we neared out prize the ground began to tremble. Another earthquake making more fissures? No, a ferocious towering reptile afflicted with the purple disease.

Its roar shook us, its tail swung wildly, but its arms were practically vestigial. Zanvar's outside kept Few safe inside while we fought. The sickness must have been draining it's strength because it took hardly any effort to fell. While I would have like to take a tooth or steak it would have been drenched in whatever was making it sick. Thug stepped out from the trees, earth shaking animals causing a commotion made her second guess if we could get the flower ourselves. She led us through the forest to the trunk of one of the smaller trees. She grinned a bit while she striped away bark. Behind it was a little lever. She pulled it and a large section of tree fell to the ground creating a doorway to a spiraling staircase leading up into the leafy heights.

She directed Zanvar to a cot for Few and took Eric with her to a small workshop. I was left to introduce the group to the two others who were already here. The woman clad in armor over her entire body was assaulting me with endless questions while the half-elf just looked on worriedly. I had to grab hold of her just to get a word in. After explaining the situation she seemed at ease. They'd all helped to cure a child before and Thug had more experience than the other two combined.

The armored woman shook my hand and asked for my name. After giving it she reciprocated with hers, Annie. The other began to list off other people of some importance I'm sure, eventually landing on calling herself Ciela Sunstrider. To my confusion, Ciela asked how we'd come to the second layer. I had thought there was only a single path but there are apparently many, some skipping the first layer entirely. If someone had told me we could have avoided that mountain I would have atleast taken the time to think on it before refusing. The point of my journey is to see as much of the Abyss as possible after all.

When she heard that we'd gone through Viktor's laboratory she seemed to almost be amused by our hardships. She had taken a different route looking to find information about him. Perhaps when she'd come down he was still working there and she wouldn't have even come to this layer. She started musing about what might have been until Thug and Eric scurried across the room with a bowl of foul smelling liquid in a bowl. Annie wasn't bothered by it when she followed them. It's occurring to me now that Thug must have some inkling as to what Zanvar is. He would have to open himself to put Few in the cot.

Ceila continued on about Viktor. There's a tribe of gnolls living in a volcano on this layer. They are proud warriors but they're fighting a new enemy. Viktor has forced his way in to experiment on an even larger scale. He has been using the volcano's strange magical pool to create Illithids, abominable humanoid creatures that only seek to consume brains and intelligence. They number in the hundreds. The gnolls have been forced out but plan an assault to retake their home tomorrow. She plans to sneak in through the battle and confront Viktor. He'd been a member of the court she belonged to until his work was exposed. Disgraced, he left to continue on and show that his theories were right. He despises anyone who isn't an elf, reason enough for me to dislike him, and wanted to use the power of an entire kingdom of elves to wipe the other races of the world out. Until now I thought he was only an immoral scientist attempting to know things beyond his understanding. Speaking to someone who knows him shows just how important it is that he is stopped. I pledged that I would help her bring him to justice.

Thug returned and said that the medicine would be effective. All Few needs now is a night of rest and she should be right as rain. I've returned the favor of life to one of the three already. We talked and ate together as a group and were about to turn in for the night when someone clambered in through a window. It was that Diedre woman jumping about from tree to tree landing here to spend a night with her friends. She wasn't surprised when I told her how terrible a route she'd given us. She wasn't remorseful either when she heard how I had nearly died. While she might not be hostile her disregard for me is unacceptable. She'll see a day soon when her bad behavior catches up to her.

Got my good friends' art again. Thug and Annie courtesy of http://garloo2.tumblr.com/
Ceila by https://twitter.com/Paper_DawN