The 4 ladies returned to Retundi’s office to discuss the dungeon and how it would impact trade between Nostalli and the Lost Forest. After hours of discussion and drawing up plans that would only need Orym’s approval Asha escorted Mika and Myra to a nice restaurant.

After a hardy meal Mika bid the 2 good night. She planned to use the mornings in Judor to take care of her and Feta’s affairs, and close their house up for the temporary move to Adortin.

Myra spent the next 2 mornings exploring the city and various shops. She was sure Olive would love to come see the different herbs and potions available. She and Mika meet for lunch each day and the kenku would then show her around the less touristy parts of the capital.

Both evenings were spent with Retundi, Asha and the head of the adventurer's guild, Shawn. Where they hashed out more rights and time for Nostalli adventures over Horamear ones.

After all, The Lost Forest might technically be in Horamear, but almost half of its commerce was with Nostalli. There was currently very little trade between Adortin and Tornmer. And it didn’t set right with Myra that their county ignored them until they had a valuable resource. She planned to do her best to see that their long term allies benefited most from the dungeon traffic.

If Myra had had her way, Eslan and Linolen would have never been informed of the dungeon. It would only be known by Nostalli and the cities in the bay.

Just after breakfast on their 3rd day in Judor everyone gathered at the city's north gate. Thankfully those here for the cleansing mission didn’t question why so many builders and contractors were accompanying them. Once everyone was gathered they headed out.

3 teams of adventurers from Judor were accompanying the builders so that the cleansing team could move on and not be slowed by the oxen and their heavy carts.

Myra had discussed this and in lieu of pay for the escort each team would get a chance to run the dungeon. Though they would need to wait in the city until the Team from Eslan ‘properly’ evaluated and ranked the dungeon.

During their 3 days of travel Myra and Mika chatted with the Twin God’s disciples and the adventures that were with them. Myra was glad to leave the craftsmen in the dust. They had stopped her every few minutes to ask questions about building placement and try to get her to agree with some shortcuts that would increase their profit or some addition that would cost extra.

Even though she learned so much on the trip and made great connections, seeing the gates of Riverside was a blessing. It wasn’t Adortin but it was close enough to home.

She was even more excited when Olive was there to greet her. Beside Olive was Orym and Jaz. Myra hugged her best friend tightly. Telling her rapidly about her adventure as Olive told her about the happenings of the last week she’d missed.

Mika smiled at the teens chatting a mile a minute. She greeted Orym and Jaz, handing over the proposed plans and telling them about the cleansing mission.

Both men were nervous for the same reason Myra had been. They feared the forest's retaliation.

“We’ll bolster the walls and get everyone organized.” Orym told her loud enough for others to overhear. He sounded far more confident than he felt.

Over the next several hours the teams were sorted. Teams to protect Adortin and Hoggle left with escorts at dawn the next morning. Tuck, Typha, Feta and 2 middle aged tritons with wicked looking swords and chitin armor arrived just before noon. Less than an hour later Olive and Tuck were leading the group of 20 into the forest. Unlike before they headed straight from Riverside to the heart of the ruins.

Olive, Tuck and Myra exchanged looks after they had been in the forest a while. They didn’t say anything at first. But after another half hour the twins signaled a halt.

“What’s going on?” One of the paladins asked.

“If you’re scared you can go back and let the grown ups handle this.” What Olive guessed was a wrestler or barbarian added. There were a few chuckles from other members of the group.

Before Olive or Typha could get angry and rip into them Myra stepped between her friends and the fool. “If you think you have a chance at navigating this forest, which has killed entire teams of S and double-S ranked adventurers, then go right ahead. We’ll give you a head start so that anything in our way is well fed.” She was not in the mood to deal with a dick measuring contest.

Tuck stepped up beside her. “I know that to many of you my sister and I look like scared little children but she’s a herbalist. The 2 of us know this forest better than anyone alive. People that travel this forest as much as my sister and I do, don’t usually live to be adults.”

“Something’s happened.” Mika stated. She could tell the twins were tense.

Olive looked down. Feta gave her sister a sad smile. “2 days ago, a half-elf was found wandering in the grain field south of the forest. He was raving mad and nearly dead. This morning he was lucid for long enough to tell us there were 5 members of his team. The locals would usually be out here looking for any other survivors but us poking the hornet's nest makes it far too dangerous.”

“We have 4 missing people in this forest,” Cynthia recapped “Alongside whatever is disrupting magic and driving people crazy.” Olive nodded in agreement. “So why did you stop us?”

“It’s quiet.” Olive replied. There were several moments of silence as everyone strained their ears to hear the world around them.

“Forests are never quiet.” Rioux added. He licked his lips and made sure his lute was in easy reach.

Tuck replied: “Exactly, we should be ready for anything. This forest is dangerous on a good day. If it knows what we’re planning it could do anything.”

“We should get into formation with our less defense based fighters in the middle.” Feta instructed.

No one questioned her order and shuffled into place quickly and professionally. Then they were off again.

After close to an hour of marching people were starting to calm down and relax their grip on their weapons.

Another hour of nothing happening passed.

“Something’s wrong.” Feta announced, calling everyone to a halt.

“What now?” One of the clerics asked. They sounded irritated.

“It’s too quiet.” She replied looking around.

“We already went over that it was quiet.” the same cleric answered.

The kenku turned and glared at her. “WE are too quiet.” She amended.

“Sound off.” Cynthia ordered.

“We’re missing 3 people. How did we not notice them being taken?” One of the healers asked, voice going high.

Rose gave a sharp whistle. “We are NOT going to panic.” She glared at everyone that looked shaken. Once it seemed that everyone had themselves under control she turned to the teens at the front. “Any idea what happened to them?”

“Will-o-wisps most likely. Brain hounds aren’t usually that quiet.” Olive responded.

“There are brain hounds in this forest?” A fighter from Judor asked.

“We fought 1 that had taken over a bugbear when we were here last.” Feta replied.

“Son of Sahera.” A few of the group cussed.

“I think we need to have a break.” Marius suggested, “It’s obvious we weren’t given a proper briefing of the trouble we were expected to face.” Several others nodded in agreement.

The 3 teens shared looks. “Alright. There’s a clearing just this way. It’ll be easier to watch each other if we can spread out a bit.” Olive declared.

They followed her to the clearing and formed a circle with Myra, Tuck and Olive in the center.

Over the next hour the teens explained all the dangers they knew of in the forest. Tuck and Olive offering first hand knowledge of many of them.

Myra also shared the tale of how the forest attacked Adortin and destroyed many of their records. That’s why they built the high walls, multiple gates and kill boxes.

She went on to explain that Riverside had evacuation plans to cross the river and blow the bridge and that there were several bolt holes hidden in the swamp for those that couldn’t escape to Mt Peleter.

Silence greeted them after they were done and stepped back,

Rose stepped forward. “So that’s why everyone was nervous in the city. They knew the hell we might be getting into.” The teens nodded

“The problem is we don’t know.” Typha corrected. She slithered closer. “These kids are telling you what we know of and what they’ve seen. We don’t know what is deeper in. Tuck and Olive are the only recorded people to see the ruins. Who knows what could be hidden in there,”

“But we know the estimated size of the ruins.” Olive rebutted.

Typha nodded, uncrossing her arms and pulling out a map that had been made for this mission. Several people came forward to look over the area. For most of the seasoned adventurers seeing the blank center of the map was unnerving. A select few saw it as an exciting challenge.

Kevin took the map and looked it over. The rest of his team watched as he muttered over the ruins.

“What do you see?” Markus asked

In lue of answering he took a staff out of the bag at his hip and started to draw in the dirt at his feet. As his drawing took place some of those that had studied the arcane took notice and joined him chattering and looking at the map in a new light.

“I think this is what we're walking into.” He finally said, stepping back.

“Are you sure?” One of the Clerics asked.

“As sure as I can be. It makes a kind of sense and would explain the miasma and the odd behavior they have mentioned.”

“If this kind of array has been sitting here for over 500 years how far could the corruption have reached?” Another asked.

“I would say all the way to the water.” A healer responded. “The rivers, ocean and swamp have been keeping it from leaching out of the area. It is well documented that necromantic and demonic magic has an unusually hard time infecting or crossing water.”

“They’re right.” Kevin replied.

“So the ruins aren’t ruins.” Rose stated. “But what does it do?”

“No clue.” Kevin answered. “It’s some kind of summoning circle. But the damage to the ruins and the lack of inner details make it impossible to know more until we get closer.”

“Let me get this straight.” A large man with an even larger hammer on his back said as he stepped forward rubbing his forehead. “500 or more years ago someone built a massive summoning circle in the middle of these woods. That summoning either failed or the circle was just left here and has been polluting the area and interfering with spells.”

“And likely poisoning the inhabitants.” Kevin added.

“What do you mean?” Typha hissed, gripping her spear tighter.

“He means there aren’t many of us born with magic. And the few that do feel sick as they get closer to the forest.” Tuck responded. His tone was calming.

She took a deep breath and let out a long hiss. “Are we going? Or do some of you want to turn back?”

“There are now 7 people missing in this forest. 4 from the elven team and 3 of ours.” Cynthia replied. “Going to those ruins and stopping whatever is going on will make finding them easier. And will allow your teams to join the search.”

Everyone was in agreement. They formed up and started heading for the ruins once more. This time every half an hour they sounded off to hopefully prevent anyone else being lost.

A few hours later Tuck informed the group without stopping that there was an area they could camp in coming up. It was a bit early to set up camp but there was nowhere safe closer to the ruins.

Not long after camp had been made Marius alerted the other to the sound of fighting.

Feta and Olive took point as the steathyist of the group.

“It’s 2 of the elves.” Feta called back before launching a barrage of daggers at the blight that was attacking her.

“BLIGHT!” Olive shouted. She pulled several vials from her pack and rushed toward the plant monster.

The group rushed to help the 2 elves.

As the fighting started to calm one of the elves smacked away an attack that was headed for the 3 kobolds that were with them.

“Harm them and your life is forfeit.” She growled.

“Una?” Olive asked in surprise.

“What? How?” Feta asked dumbfoundedly, looking at the elves.

“We have been given a quest.” The same elf replied. "What are you doing here?”

“We’re here to stop whatever is making the miasma before it threatens our mutual friend.” Tuck replied nodding to the kobolds.

Everyone in the group stopped when a quest popped up.

Team Up

Join forces to investigate the miasma and the ruins that lie within.

250XP

Accept?

The elf that hasn’t spoken shook her head with a smile. “The next step in our quest chain. Accept.”

The other elf nodded. “Accept.”

All 3 kobolds nodded to her then stepped forward. Una showed Olive her shield with the symbol of the core on it.

“Accept.” The teen replied with a grin coming over and clasping the kobold on the shoulder. “Everyone, this is Una…” Saw lifted her namesake. “Saw?” The kobold nodded. Then Ax lifted their weapon “Una, Saw and Ax, they are allies. We’ll tell you more about that once this mess is taken care of.”

“I still have questions?” Feta replied, narrowing her eyes at the kobolds and elves. “But I accept.”

“I also have questions.” Mika added “But those can wait until we escort you home.”

“They can’t understand you.” The lead elf said. “I’m Hashira Aedriel and this is my sister Remina Aedriel. We will join you on this quest and return these 3 to their home after.” Remina nodded in agreement.

Everyone else in the group accepted the quest and led the 5 back to their camp. Once they were all settled another pair of boxes appeared for the whole group.

Quest “Team Up” Complete

250XP

Survive the Night

Live to see Sunrise

4 healing potions

1 poison of life

Accept?

“Well that’s worrying.” Marius said what they were all thinking. Life magic was known to be poisonous only to the undead and extraplanar creatures. He and most of the group planned to coat their main weapons in the poison first thing in the morning.