After what felt like an eternity of waiting while trying to stay awake the Kan’s were finally up and ready to receive us. Aurelia and Fenna were waiting for us in their tent, well rested. Aurelia is clearly looking for Shin, and wonderingly asks why he isn’t with us. As we mournfully tell her, she is overcome with emotion and leaves the tent in tears. I do not envy her. After all, even for us his loss is great, and for her it must be greater still.
Ravia is evidently also in emotional distress, and separates herself from the group to mourn Shin. We do not want her to be or even just feel alone, so we follow her. I talk to Ravia about Shin’s heroic sacrifice to save her. She counters that Shin was the second person in her life already that had to sacrifice themselves for her benefit. I do not understand, isn’t it a good thing that she invokes such loyalty in her friends? I reply that if her friends deem her worthy of their life, that they think that the force for good she is in the world is greater than their own, she should be grateful, not sad. Besides, I would have loved to have killed Shin myself in order to send him home to Muranar, but I also valued Ravia as more important. Clearly this was the wrong thing to say, as once again there was lightning in her eyes, and she stomped off towards the ship, closely followed by Sylas. Man, the outside world is difficult to navigate. At least Miriana doesn’t seem to hate me like the others do.
Miriana and myself go back to the tent, where the food is still waiting for us. All this emotional stuff has made me hungry, so I start digging in. They really outdid themselves with the fresh bread, so I let them know how much I am enjoying it by eating lots of it. As Fenna looks unhappy, I even eat a bit more than I would normally just to show her how good it is.
She starts explaining how there is a big problem in the camp. A rather large group of warriors never came back from their patrol. Another problem is that the constant relocating is doing a number on their food supply, so there is a shortage. Upon hearing this, I stop eating mid-bite, and put the other half of the bun back on the plate. Shortage? But… there’s lots here? Surely there is enough….?
“This was the breakfast for the camp, not just for this meeting.” The words hit me like a hammer. Here I was, stuffing my face so they wouldn’t feel offended while actually I was eating their own food so they would go hungry. My face burned red-hot, and I wanted to crawl under the carpet. I blurted out the first thing I could think of to make it better: “WE WILL HELP WITH THE THING! THE PROBLEM…THAT GROUP!”. Fenna seems to take that well, and we quickly excuse ourselves to inform the others on the ship.
Fortunately, Ravia and Sylas don’t seem to hold too big a grudge against me, and we discuss our options in peace. We unanimously decide to help, although for our own reasons. They feel like it is what Shin would have wanted, and I just wanted to make my own mistake right again. Why is this all so complicated? Fenna informs us that the mission involves killing a Tyrannosaurus Rex Matriarch. Great, another fight where I cannot capture a single worthy soul to send home. Serves me right, I guess.
During our discussion, Ravia finds out that Miriana can make people fly. She mumbles something about not missing out on that for a second time, and quickly accepts. She soars around above the ship, giggling like a little girl. I wouldn’t recommend flying so close after eating for fear of throwing it up again (wouldn’t that be the ultimate insult? First steal all their food, and then throw it up over their homes right after!), but she seems to enjoy it immensely. However, after a while she gets a concerned look on her face. As Ravia descends, she mentions seeing veins of corruption, growing as a blight onto the land. It seems our mission is very important indeed.
We rest up (normally I love a food-coma, but this time I just couldn’t enjoy it), and steer the ship towards where the missing team was last known to be. As we get near, we notice an eye abomination shooting beams of energy at flying bird-dino’s with dead halflings at his… well not feet. I assumed this eye-bomination was also a corrupted creature, but it seemed to try and helps us during the fight. After we clear out the aggressors, he introduces himself (herself? Itself?) as Manuron, Zje-Daelkyr extra-ordinaire, guardian of the entrance. We see if we can save any of the dead halflings, but they have been dead for a while, and bear marks of mutation themselves.
Luckily, this does not prevent me from speaking with their souls, so I ask them what they want done with their bodies. A nice cremation would do, he said. Next, I asked what attacked and killed them, to which he replied that it was infact the T-Rex, target of our expedition. He did not notice any special abilities on the prima carnivore, nor did he know what the cave was like, seeing as they died outside without ever having set foot in it.
Armed with this information, we prepare to enter the cave, ready for anything…