I had never been so happy to breath in fresh air! It was wonderful! I don’t care if this city is covered in soot and smoke, it is wonderful!

We got our reward and then agreed to take the day to rest and replenish ourselves. Thank Thalath! I needed a bath!

I went to see Mother. She wasn’t too happy with me, and the presence of King didn’t help her mood either (I don’t know why he followed me anyway). She got my note I sent before I went into the sewer, scolded me a bit for just taking off. I gave her some of the money from the expedition to put toward the business and the debt. She refused to take it, told me to put it toward my schooling. I told her I quit. She was angry, of course, but what could I do. I tried explaining, but she didn’t listen. She never has. Says Emere’s family won’t have me know that I quit water-shaping school.

I tried to calm her down. She says were ruined. Sometimes she can be so stubborn. I told her I had more work lined up and to take the money, that once the debt is gone I’ll go back to school.

Turns out, Father stayed behind because the debt collectors showed up. They ransacked the house. Father didn’t want me to see it and he didn’t want Mother and I in the city. That’s why he was so eager to get me on this business trip. We’re to stay in Elrhoda until he sends word.

This is so messed up.

Customers began to gawk, so she just turned and went back to work. Wouldn’t listen to a thing I said.

I slipped the money into her coin purse when I gave a kiss on the cheek to leave. I don’t think she noticed. If she did, she didn’t show it.

Kilka’s funeral is later this evening. I’ve never been to an orc funeral before, but Kilka was a wonderful person and Nasr could use the support. I can’t miss it.

After resting, the party goes to U’ra, the woman in charge of water flow in Ehlroda. She has trouble believing the party, but agrees to do a ritual on the substance Miri has from the body of the ascendant.

In the meantime, Nasr goes to deal with some stuff, and the party goes to the market. Miri meets up with her mother, and after The King inserts himself into the conversation and implies he and Miri are close, Miri has a fight with her mother. It seems they have a tense relationship.

The party (sans Nasr) meets up at a tavern, and Miri decides to bind her teleportation bracelet to Queso. When Nasr reunites with them, he explains that Kilka will have a cremation service that evening, and that he will be working with them for the purpose of giving most of his earned money to the orphanage.

When the party returns to U’ra, she is dealing with a big pile of paperwork. She has trouble remembering them, and claims the water’s toxicity levels are not lowering. When asked if she has a superior to talk to, she explains that Mr. Lott is on leave for personal reasons. The tag on his door reads, “Mr. Nef A. Lott.”

The party discovers a memory spell on U’ra, and Nasr removes it. After she freaks out at the sight of The King, the conversation is far more productive than last time, and she gives the party their reward (plus a bit more, once informed of Kilka’s death). Miri gives Nasr some money for the orphanage.

The party goes to a tavern, and notices a mage dressed extremely well for where he is. Queso approaches him and asks who he is. His name is Casaubon, and he is looking for hired help. He explains that he is on an expedition to recover a treasure. His master gave him a scroll detailing the location of an ancient treasure believed to predate the Great Perishing. He took a group to retrieve it, but their leader, a woman named Ediza, took the scroll and left him for dead. He is now looking for a group to take him there and retrieve the artifact. He hires them, for 700G and a magical item for each of them once the job is done. He plans to go with them for lack of trust.

Before leaving, the party goes to Kilka’s funeral while Casaubon stocks up for the trip. Queso says some nice things, and Nasr thanks her before breaking down for the first time since Kilka’s death. Afterward, they meet up with Casaubon and head outside the city before The King summons Chilognotha (after disappearing for a half hour), and the party mounts him and embarks on their journey.

The party quickly discovers that the figure at the far end of the room is using the water as a way to draw life from those who willingly come into contact with it. An attack from King reveals that he is also incorporeal, and cannot be dealt damage.

A portal opens up in front of him, and a figure can be seen inside it. The party jumps through, appearing in a room with a giant vat of swirling blood separating them from a man on the other side, who claims that he must ascend. As reinforcements come from behind the party, Miri destroys the man with a powerful attack, and he is reduced to ashes.

However, as the reinforcements are defeated, the figure from the other side of the portal comes in, hovering above the pool of blood. The liquid beneath him begins to be drawn into him, and he becomes more solid. The party continues trying to damage him, while minions enter from the doors and push past Nasr and Queso to throw themselves into the pool, sacrificing themselves to empower the creature. The party realizes that unwilling sacrifices corrupt the blood that is feeding him, and they eventually take him down by blocking the minions from entering and continuing to damage the enemy until he falls.

Carivol enters the room, speaking to the party about how this man was a problem he had meant to deal with, this rogue ascendant who got impatient and tried to gain ascendance through sacrifice instead of earning it legitimately, but the party took care of it just fine. He talks more about ascendance, saying that Brindol and Ava act independently of him, and all involved have different reasons to pursue ascendance. He even says the party may be allowed to join, if they are invited in the future. He tells them of magical items granted to them as thanks, which they can attain from a smith back in Ehlroda.

There was a giant, freaking millipede down here! It ate Nasr… I can’t even…

Nasr’s safe.

King tamed the nasty thing. Calls him Chilognatha. I can’t believe he gave it a name. At least it didn’t kill any of us.

We found the problem. A crazy person. Greedy.

Carivol showed up. Talked about ascendants. I have no idea what any of it means. I’m just glad it’s over and we can get out of here.

I’m so tired. I just want to sleep.

A large millipede, Chilognatha, appears from the hallway. The King sets a fire trap, setting it ablaze as it enters the room, and Nasr marks it and begins attacking it up close. Nasr and the King attempt to damage it while Miri gives it supporting damage from afar and Queso works to heal the party. After a struggle, Nasr is swallowed by the beast, but The King willfully provokes an attack, and Nasr teleports out of the creature’s throat in response.

Lord Carivol appears, and tries to steal the Mold King’s Crown from The King, but fails. However, as the battle rages on, he decides to aid them, claiming that while his peers would certainly disapprove of his decision, the warriors are something the world needs, and he will protect that. He ascends, as Ava and Brindol had earlier, and lends his far superior firepower to the battle, highly damaging Chilognatha. As the battle continues, Queso attempts to make amends for his behavior toward Carivol, but Carivol brushes it off. Brindol is seen in the shadows, disdain and disapproval etched on his face.

The King decides killing Chilognatha is not the best course of action, and instead attempts to make a connection with it. As a result, he calms it, taming it as a mount. Impressed, but warning The King of the gravity of this decision, Carivol leaves.

The beast tamed, the party turns their attention to the statues, using the poem given in parts through the plaques to move the statues and open the jaws of the crocodile statue to the north of the room.

Miri enters the chamber through the throat of the crocodile statue, discovering a large, circular chamber with pools of clear water. When Miri, Nasr, and Queso enter, the jaw of the statue snaps shut behind them, leaving The King outside. Inside the chamber, a humanoid figure stands at the far end of the room, appearing with no defining details as to his race or physical appearance, and another figure appears as a vision in the water. As the figure begins to gain more clarity and detail, he is seen to be an aging man in high-class, respectful clothing. He pours water over his face, and his skin becomes bright red as he visibly becomes younger. Nasr asks if they know why the water has been so icky, and the creature on the far end stands, ready to attack. The water begins swirling, and through it can be seen a lone figure, dressed in silk, in a large room.

The creature emerges from the water, revealing a hydra. After a battle that goes surprisingly well for the party, it is defeated, Caravel appears to commend them for their victory before leaving once again, and exploration once again commences. Miri finds another plaque, this time reading, “All are now home.” Investigation into the chains on the statue reveals that pulling it in different directions opens the gates on the western and eastern sides of the room, but not both at once. Miri (with the help of The King and Nasr) wraps the chains around the statue to hold it open.

The party continues east. As they enter another room, there are statues of children, all of which have expressions of fear on their faces. Each statue is holding a shield, each with a gaudy painted image on them. There are cages hanging from the ceiling. Yet another plaque reads, “Lizards never roam.”

A loud horn blows, and the party begins preparations for whatever may be coming, including investigating and gathering the shields held by the statues. After a few more horns blow, armored creatures ride in on dog-like steeds and attack. While the battle rages, the party seems to be at an advantage. Nasr tries to explore his shield’s magical properties, but the attempt backfires and his mind is taken by a strange spirit. The King’s shield is broken by an attack that renders him unconscious, and it sends locusts to assault his attacker. Miri brings him back to his senses as Nasr misses an attack on The King and regains control over his mind. Queso gets pushed back as a huge amount of dogs pour out of the hallway, and his shield is released, causing his magical abilities to dampen for the rest of the encounter. Miri, seeing the potentially negative effects of the shields, drops hers. The party cleans up the remaining enemies and continues to explore the area.

Miri picks up her shield again. It has a picture of a door on it. She activates it, and quickly disappears. When The King freaks out about it, Queso supplies him with another door shield, and he disappears as well. As Queso and Nasr prepare to go after them, they hear Miri calling to them from one of the cages above. Through a series of events including more shield-warping and a bit of sword-throwing (along with some frog-transformation shenanigans involving The King giving mouth-to-mouth to Miri), they go through the cages in search of items, discovering only a bracelet that Miri finds in her cage, allowing her to warp next to her anything whose blood has been spilled upon it.

They enter the next room to the east, which contains a well with a similarly-sized hole high in the ceiling. The well is surrounded by scattered, stone bugs. Queso looks into the well and immediately turns to stone, having seen something like a Medusa in the well. Miri brings him back with the golden liquid. When she goes back to the crocodile to refill, Caravel shows up and ominously warns the golden liquid could have permanent side effects, but refuses to specify what. Attempts prove ineffective to damage her and a strange effect causes items to fall into the well and fall back down through the hole above.

The party continues west, ignoring the Medusa room, and come across their original entrance. They spend a while getting their bearings and furthering their understanding of the sewers’ layout before working their way backward to find a way toward the center, eventually returning to the circular room with the centipede footprints and following it the rest of the way. Miri lights one of the oil basins, and all the rest immediately flicker to life, lighting the whole place.

They follow the hallway into a well-lit amphitheater with four large crocodile heads (their mouths open and housing bright lights) in the corners, and another at the top (its mouth closed). The footprints go completely through the room into a hallway on the opposite sides. There are four statues in the center, in various states of disrepair; the northwest one is completely crumbled (but has wings), the southwest one’s features have been worn away (but scales can be made out), the northeast one is the only clear one as a frog, and the southeast one is an unblemished block (but seems to be started with a slitted eye).

As they search for the answer to this riddle, a rumble begins working its way toward them…

There is something seriously wrong with this city! How can there be so many nasty things living underneath it and no one knows! It’s one nasty creature after another. I don’t know how much more of this I can take!

To make matters worse, the frog “King”, seems to have taken a liking to me. He keeps hinting that I could be his queen, where ever his kingdom is. I’m not into inter-species relations, but if his kingdom is this place then there’s no way in hell! Despite this, he’s been a big help. Honestly, I don’t think I would be sitting here writing this if he wasn’t here helping.

Maybe I should lighten up on him a bit. Maybe tomorrow I’ll let him touch my hand. It’s already covered in slime anyways.

The party continues north, coming into a flooded room with four of those same statues (though now covered in a slimy muck) surrounding a throne with a bloated corpse in the center, a bronze crown on his head and an object shining in his lap under the water. As they move through the room, zombies appear and attack, followed shortly by crocodiles flowing freely from gates in the corners. The party defends themselves, and after a struggle manages to vanquish all the attackers.

The King picks up the item in the corpse’s lap, a tiny casket, and tries to unlock it, but it explodes. Queso takes the crown off the corpse’s head (much to The King’s chagrin) and discovers it is an ancient and powerful artifact that grants many benefits to its wearer.

As the party moves on, they come to the water and Nasr has a vision in its reflection. A high priest sits on a throne of human bones while seasons pass in moments. A crocodile nearby rapidly ages, dies, is consumed by maggots, and is replaced by another as the cycle continues indefinitely. The high priest washes his face with blood from the skull of a human child.

Near Nasr when this happens is another wheel. When the King spins the wheel, it lights up red, makes a screaming sound, and a roar echoes from deep within the sewers. The characters, unsure of its meaning, move on and come across another fountain. After refilling their supplies, they move on into a room with more water.

Queso is given a vision in the water, and sees the green face of a high priest looking through a shower of blood. Etched on his ring are four glowing runes, each going out one by one and covering his face in shadow. As each goes out, it reappears on the forehead of a large reptilian creature.

They move on, and come across another wheel. Queso spins it, and it lights up in the southeast and northeast, respectively. The party heads east, and comes across a dining room, a fireplace burning at the far end and the table set for dinner. A cloaked man reveals himself, explains that his name is Sir Caravel, and begins talking to Queso while he lights other lamps on the walls. He explains that he is waiting here for some kind of signal, but refuses to give any details of his purpose or help for the party’s. They begin noticing small creatures appearing and disappearing right outside their field of vision. They eventually leave, sure they can get no useful information out of Caravel.

They head south into a room with a crocodile statue in the center, holding a chain that disappears into the depths below it. Ripples begin forming on the water, and the party begins to retreat back to the hallway, where Caravel is waiting, expecting a show. King goes back into the room to scout briefly, but as he does, a giant creature rises out of the water.

This place is not getting any better. I’m covered in some sort of muck that no matter how many times I clean it off, it somehow coats me again. My stomach is in a constant knot and the BUGS! There are so many bugs! They’re always buzzing around us, swarming us. I hate this place.

Nasr is still grieving. He’s such a tough kid. I want to tell him that it’s okay to cry, but I don’t think it would help. I’m at a loss for what to do.

We met a frog today. A giant, talking frog! Covered in slime, by the way. He calls himself the “king”. He even wears a robe and crown. I’m not sure what to think anymore. This place just keeps getting weirder.

I want to get out of here.

Nasr steels himself, appearing emotionless long enough to help put Kilka’s body in the back room before Miri freezes her body for preservation and protection. Miri finds a chest with some alchemical elements and a scroll with a ritual of stone shape. The party leaves the room, continuing where they left off until they come into a room with a large pool.

As they look into the water, they all saw a vision of countless worshippers bowing before a giant crocodile, but the vision disappears quickly. Miri explores to the south while Nasr and Queso look north. Miri reaches a dead end and is attacked by a crocodile, which she manages to slay. She returns to the other two.

As they journey on, they find another crocodile statue with the golden liquid. Miri and Nasr take some. Hearing a splash, they look to the opposite bank of the river to see a large frog. He is hostile to them at first, but calms down when they activate the rune wheel he’s been using as a throne (the wheel points northeast) and begin talking to him. He introduces himself as the King of Toads, and after hitting on Miri and identifying his name as nothing more than, “The King,” joins their quest.

He leads them to a room to the north, which is covered in a slippery mud. Nasr notices another plaque, this one reading, “snakes then slide where locusts hide.” The party has trouble navigating, but as they work their way through, a woman named Beshebra approaches Miri. She mentions “the king,” and The King goes over to her. However, she reveals herself to be an enemy, and attacks along with her three large insect minions.

Miri retreats, injured, while Queso works his way up to the battlefield. During the battle, King notices a creature like a centipede, just outside his field of vision, but it disappears during the battle. The party struggles against the enemies, but eventually prevail. Miri tries to extract more golden liquid from the statue, but it snaps closed on her hand. Nasr tries to pry its jaws open, but it’s King who manages to free Miri. Queso finds some treasure, and the party takes a well-earned rest.