Tilia’s Field Notes: Mine Quest Day 3

Observations outside the mine:

• Scavengers present when we arrived — including “buzzards” (vultures), some small animals, and a larger animal, likely a canid such as a wolf or coyote — consuming the remains of a dwarf and a human. Could not confidently identify animal species due to our distance from them when they scattered.
• Unknown moving creature in the woods. Spotted multiple times by different parties, unable to directly observe or identify. Present during overnight watch when Val and Agenar got drunk and fell asleep.
• Songbirds, mice, and a small owl active during the overnight alert incident at the hut by the mine. Unusual for songbirds to be active at night, but nothing strange about the others. Talked with the owl (a screech owl) to get information about potential threats; it told me there was a tentacled creature in the mine that would eat us, but did not identify the observed moving creature in the shadows as a threat.

Inside the mine:

• Strange glowing crystals that have strong potential to hold magic charges. Unusual, have not encountered such deposits in dwarven mines. Picked up a couple samples for later evaluation.
• Psychoactive glowing mushrooms in the mine tunnels. They were sampled by Pantaghion and Agenar, and clearly have a strong hallucinogenic effect on humans and half-elves. Plan to collect some for sale to the herbalist upon return to The Glade.
• Ankhegs: one encountered and engaged in battle by the party, three additional individuals observed in their tunnels. An approximately 6′ arthropod, like a massively overgrown ant that’s a bit smaller than me, with large mandibles and formic acid as a defensive adaptation. Hive-minded social animal that prefers not to interact with humanoids; while it appears quite vicious and is capable of inflicting substantial damage (as one of our party learned the hard way, and likely others before us), they are actually a rather peaceful species that keeps to themselves unless threatened. I tried to communicate with it; the poor thing was utterly terrified from the start, and did not want to attack us — it was compelled by some force to do so. It was quickly overwhelmed by our party’s attack and the others nearly killed it, which was very distressing to me because the insect was only the instrument of the attack, against its own will. However, there was at least an attempt to heal it slightly when it retreated, which may have helped prevent additional attacks by the other ankhegs in its colony, whose eyes I saw peering from the holes in the side of the mine shaft. We need to mend these holes before departing so that the ankhegs’ colony can be left undisturbed in the future, as they would not have interfered with mine operations had they not been compelled by an external force. Believe we’ve neutralized the source which made them attack, so sealing off their passageways should fulfill our contract to remove the insects from the mine.

In the “eldritch chamber”:

• A round, floating creature with several eyes on tentacles, not native to this plane, and a fierce foe. I was able to help slow its attacks by creating a bonfire around it, but it took the combined efforts of several of us to slay it.
• Several abhorrent lanky creatures with disjoint jaws, like snakes, and odd tentacle-like limbs without digits. Also not native to this plane. Not as strong as the many-eyed creature, but the four individuals collectively inflicted considerable damage on our party before my battle-skilled companions dispatched them.

The creatures present in the eldritch chamber did not belong on this plane. There were also images of many other strange and terrifying non-native creatures on the walls of the chamber, many of which appeared to have marine origins — not my strongest suit for species identification, to be honest. Such creatures obviously should not be encountered underground in an inland location such as this, which is quite troubling, but may have something to do with their being non-native to this plane. Perhaps Teal will be able to determine whether the creatures were unnaturally transported to this location, or traveled to it via a subterranean waterway that connects the chamber to the river, which could indicate a more substantial threat lurking in the seas.