Not an owl

Toma Sovic

What a day.

Uthai's condition is getting stranger. Volga tried to cure that infernal itching on his back, but her magic did nothing - if anything, it made things worse. Now he can't read words anymore, but apparently he can learn anything he eats. We tested it with a copy of the treasure map, and sure enough, he knew every detail. I don't know whether to be impressed or deeply concerned. Speaking of that map: some "mysterious" figure approached us at the inn. Turned out to be a man named Will who was about as mysterious as a wet boot once he opened his mouth. He offered us a treasure map for a cut of the profits—wanted 20%, I talked him down to 15%. I may have considered pushing for 13%, but he threatened to walk, so I let it be. I'm a reasonable man, after all.

treasure_map

We finally tracked down Ziri, the halfling everyone says is the best hunter in the village. Found her with her apprentice Popkin—nice kid. She warned us about avoiding anything "unnatural" in the woods and to "keep to reason." Solid advice, though it felt a bit ominous. She agreed to lead us to Brotherly Hills and point us toward the river before we parted ways. Uthai had some fun with Popkin before we left, asking for an apple. Good-natured enough.

The journey got strange fast. We met a beggar on the road—gave him some silver without thinking twice. He mentioned something about "the way of the treasure" and "Tree Hall," which caught our attention. When we turned back to him, we realized he didn't have a face. Just... nothing there. He muttered something about a "third gaze" before we decided discretion was the better part of valor and got out of there.

Tree Hall itself was beautiful, I'll give it that—the woods formed a natural courtyard that would've made any nobleman jealous. Then a moth knight dropped from above. Multiple arms, rapiers, buckler, the whole theatrical package. Introduced himself as Mithlumen, Knight of the Broken Sword, and challenged one of us to a duel.

Olga and I discovered we could move at the speed of light when properly motivated—we both ended up behind Uthai saying "him" before he could protest. To his credit, Uthai fought brilliantly and actually won. Mithlumen flew off promising a rematch someday. Good luck to both of them on that.

Next came a troll at a bridge who wanted to play riddle games. Before he could even finish his first question about what makes plants green and people brown, Olga screamed "Sun!" Same thing with the second riddle about tides. The troll said we had a smart companion and let us pass—though I suspect we could've crossed anyway. But he gave us "advice": "Do not enter the circle because you will lose the treasure." And here's where we were complete idiots.

We found the circle with a man trapped in a cage, flames closing in on him. We wanted to help, but the troll's words kept echoing in our heads. So we tried everything except entering the circle—ropes, shooting the lock, walking around. The man disappeared. We thought we were clever. Then we couldn't find the path forward anymore.

The faceless beggar appeared again and told us we'd failed the test. We valued treasure over a life. He was right. We were greedy and listened to a random troll in the forest. That stings more than I'd like to admit.

Wanting to salvage something from this cursed day, we went after Golciorne. Found the area Jan mentioned—covered in spiderwebs with strange symbols on them. Olga said they looked like cantrips. I managed to sneak in and grab ten plants before my survival instincts kicked in. I tried to convince Uthai to get more, but even he had limits when it came to spiders.

Since that went relatively well, we pushed our luck and headed to Makabat cave. Olga and Uthai gathered some ingredients, but our curiosity got the better of us when we heard clunking sounds deeper in. Found a room with a hammer striking an anvil all by itself. The moment Uthai stepped in, the hammer attacked. He tried to grapple it—actually held it for a few seconds—but it broke free and chased us out. The hammer returned to its anvil once we left the room. Further in, we found massive double doors with a strange golem blocking them. We asked nicely. The golem didn't care. Uthai tried to move it by force, and it came alive just long enough to nearly kill him before returning to its dormant state. Olga had to stabilize him. We finally concluded we were dumbasses and decided to leave. Getting out was fun—I strung a rope into the hammer room and used myself as bait so Olga could get Uthai to safety. Got hit, but we all made it out.

We tried to rest near the cave as darkness fell. Made a fire, started to relax. Then we saw eyes watching us from the darkness. Shadows attacked from all sides, smothering our fire until it went out completely. Once the flame died, they left us alone. We took the hint and ran straight back to the village.

Mysteries to remember: