The date format has changed to YYYY-MM-DD.
(I'll have to remember to do the same for realms, to be consistent.)
...
We finish looting.
Grey, Turia, Zim, Gwen, and Furir Elin go for a trip through the Atruaghin Plateau. We leave from Kandaputra.
We arrive at the Atruaghin border. We're traveling through forest.
We see some people in canoes, and later find a village. They have some large canoes, more like catamarans. This is the village of Halibut.
We sign up for a whaling expedition. It goes well.
The people here are Children of the Turtle. Essentially, Turtle Clan. They don't have clerics, but instead have shamans. Their shamans are sort of druidic, but have familiar-like totem animals. So maybe sorcerer-like, but not. But they have the role of clerics (healers, religious functions, etc).
They all follow Atruaghin, their god, but each clan has a spiritual leader, which sound like quasi-deities of some sort. The leader of the Children of the Turtle is Ahmanni Turtle Rider.
They hold a feast in our honour. They seem to be very canny negotiators. Despite their primitive appearance, it's clear they aren't clueless.
There are different social levels, from "nobles" (if they're doing well), to noshaki, who have no station (and can never rise to a higher station, nor have children).
No-one owns anything here - it is a communal society.
Other clans include the Children of the Horse, Children of the Elk, Children of the Tiger, and Children of the Bear. The Children of the Horse and Elk are on top of the plateau, which is relatively inaccessible. There are also tribes within each clan.
The Children of the Tiger are meant to be rather unpleasant. We are advised to avoid them. They don't follow the scriptures of Atruaghin. They have not been wiped out because they are good warriors, and because the other clans aren't bloodthirsty enough to do. They sacrifice their prisoners of war. They also work metal. As one of their punishments, they put you in pools full of piranha - for a short time only if it's a minor crime. They will kill people who have been raised from the dead, as they find it offensive.
We teleport to Akesoli, then head south to the Children of the Bear. The Darokinian Merchant Houses have an exclusive trade agreement with the Atruaghin clans, or so they say (practically, it's only really exclusive with the Children of the Bear).
We enter bear clan territory.
We arrive at the plateau, which rises about 2000 feet, with nearly vertical sides. At its base are many caves, wherein the Children of the Bear live. There is an elevator on the side of the plateau, able to pull three wagons and their horses to the top of the plateau.
The Children of the Bear live in the caves because the environment is poor, and there is a lack of building materials. They have miniature elevators which go up and down to and from ledges for people. Their houses are white washed, but it's not white washed. It's some secret process. The shamans claim that it has spiritual benefits, and it is true that the people who rest within heal and recover from their wounds quicker.
The people here are excellent potters and weavers. Grey purchases some pottery.
Supposedly the plateau was created by Atruaghin to protect them from orcs and other humanoids, long ago.
We go up the elevator. It's very impressive, and was made by the Mercantile Engineering league (based in Darokin).
At the top is a small village, with farms. They appear to be growing mostly corn, and some wheat. We are still in Bear territory, specifically the Rattlesnake tribe. It is quite dry here, and the crops look small and unhealthy.
We travel.
We stay in a village that night.
They don't use metal for farming - their ploughs are made of wood. Apparently metal will poison the earth. Atruaghin has gifted them with this knowledge. We are shown how their crops, whilst looking stunted and near death, actually yield quite flavoursome, wholesome produce. They put on a small feast for us. We gift them with a fine set of pots and pans. In the morning, their shaman says that Atruaghin accepted our gift.
We leave the village. As we head south, the vegetation changes from grassland to forest. We camp out this night.
We find a village of the Children of the Elk. Nearby the village is a large hedge, within which is a crop. The hedge would do well to keep out large animals. There is a palisade and a deep trench around the village. They appear to be well defended.
We are challenged before being allowed to enter the village. The person who called out the challenge is heavily painted by various things, including a Darokinian letter D on his cheek. Everyone here has many colourful images on them and long dark hair. It's difficult to tell them apart. They paint themselves like this to attract mates. They wear rabbit fur robes.
We are served Redaka, also called snow corn. Pop corn. It's yummy. It's also a secret recipe.
They also have maple syrup, and some pretty decent tobacco.
The fortifications are in the event that the Children of the Tiger ever raid this far.
The women here grow their hair as long as possible, as a sign of fertility.
We head south, to the forest.
The people here are friendlier than we're used to.
We enter the lands of the Children of the Horse. We see some riders on horses. They try to speak to us using some sort of sign language. They don't seem to speak. They all appear to sign to one another, which we notice when we're lead to one of their villages (temporary). There are no farms.
The riders lead us to a particularly well decorated hut. A spritely old women comes out, and they then lead us on. Outside the village, she speaks, and says that it is considered rude to speak in the village.
She asks if we're here for the lodge. The lodge is a place constructed a while ago by foreigners. They hunted for sport from it. Then they all died, and now it is always winter at the lodge. This was about nine seasons ago. They were from neighbouring countries. They hunted dangerous beasts, always alone, as a sign of bravery and honour. For example, one hunted a whole pack of draconic dire wolves, singlehandedly, and survived. As they hunted for sport and did not hunt for food, this was offensive to the Atruaghin. The lodge is off of the plateau, but they came to the plateau to do their hunting. They ignored the Atruaghin when asked to stop their hunting. When asked again, a little more forcefully, some of their warriors were killed.
The huts here are temporary. They have a permanent encampment to the north. They hunt buffalo for a living, and are here to observe the buffalo. We will travel with them to this tribal home.
We head off.
We eventually arrive at their permanent encampment, a fortified village. They have unsafe-looking small boats. The Children of the Horse look like they're pretty poor seamen. It seems that their poor quality boats result in less seasickness.
It is acceptable here to sneak into another tribes encampment and steal their horse. If you're caught, you fight, but only with blunted weapons. If you accidentally kill someone, you go with the body in the funeral rite, which is over a waterfall.
The use of a bow in combat is considered particularly dishonorable.
We arrive at the edge of the plateau. It is unusually cold. The shaman tells us this is because of the curse on the hut. We teleport down, and head towards the lodge. It gets colder and colder and colder, and eventually starts to snow. We kit up appropriately.
As we get closer, the snow gets heavier and heavier. There is little noise.
We arrive at the lodge. It's two or three stories tall. The front door is mostly covered in snow. We melt the snow, and open the front door (it isn't locked). Inside we are presented with well preserved wooden walls, two large blue lizard heads hanging on plaques, a staircase, and doors. There's some torn up red fabric on the ground.
We explore the ground floor. We find a toilet, a common room (with a half stuffed blue lizard head on the floor). We also find a sitting room, filled with four large, scaly, dire tigers. Translucent. They don't seem to like Gwen and Zim. We leave, and they don't follow us outside of the inn. Zim casts detect undead - they're undead. They're ghosts. When Zim and Gwen hide their crossbows, they ignore us.
We buff a little bit.
We explore more, and find a dining room filled with frozen blood. Wall, floor, and ceiling. We also find a boot with a foot in it.
Next we find what might have been a taxidermy room. And another blue lizard head, of course. Another room contains platters of fresh, frozen food. A mixture of cuisines. Next to this is a kitchen, with stairs going up.
We go up the stairs. One room is a bathing room. The tub is filled to the brim with ice.
We also find a library, scorched by some sort of magical fire, perhaps a fireball. The books are badly charred.
Nearby is a luxurious bedroom. There is a chest of drawers here, filled with middle-class clothing. Zim notices a rectangular shape on the ceiling, perhaps a trapdoor. Near to this is a study. Underneath the table is a blue lizards heads.
Another bedroom has three large chests with brass locks. We leave it for now. Another room seems to be quarters for squires or something.
We go back to the bedroom with a trapdoor, open it, and climb up. It leads to the attic. There's a solid oak chest here, with a brass latch and no lock. Inside is a ledger book, for the Green Lodge Hunting Club. It talks about memberships, tallies, hunting records, and so on. There were about 40 members. The members seem to be various minor nobles across this region of the world. We note that one person killed one 12-headed laernan cryo-hydra, and four half-dragon dire tigers, single handedly (on separate occasions). Rowan Fane. He is a minor land holder in Darokin who disappeared some years ago.
We go further into the attic. The majority of the room is taken up by the bodies of the rather large half-dragon dire tigers. There is another door. Beyond is a particularly icy room, with three ice covered goblins within. A solid block of ice covers the right hand corner, a dark shape within. Grey steps in. 12 ghostly lizard heads appear, and breathes ice at Grey. Zim then casts control undead on it, successfully. It indicates that it is split, and must be restored before it can be put to rest.
We rush about, and try to find all of the heads.
It says it killed the man who killed it with its ghostly form.
We bring all the heads up. It says thank you, and a body forms. It doesn't go away. It then says it now needs to kill everyone. Now that it is whole, it can leave. It is no longer ghostly. It clearly wants to kill us. It seems we made things worse.
Zim orders it outside, and we blast it. As soon as it dies, it stops snowing.
The ghosts of the draconic dire tigers are still here. Grey casts a sending to one, and it indicates that it was killed for sport, and its remains have no purpose.
We speak to the shaman. They indicate that we could craft gear from the bodies appropriately, but they should be used properly, not discarded, else the tigers might come back, and start slaying. We might have to wear or use goods from the tigers for a good five years.
We contact Safranna, Thora, and so on. Safranna agrees to make stuff from it. We make:
We strip the house as well, and will demolish it at the end.
We've sorted out the draconic tiger stuff. The tigers have passed away.
Furir Elin signs on with Grey's military, as the head of Grey's hippogriff's scouts. Her training regimen is interesting, to say the least. She makes them do push-ups, she makes them swagger in front of the regular troops and so on. She refers to them as worms in private, and talks of them glowingly in public. She is given the rank of Zareb (which approximates a Captain).