Meanwhile, back at the Lakeside Inn...

[Ed Chivers]

Nahdarash the goblin walked over from the bar of the Lakeside Inn, slumped into a seat by the fireplace and nodded to the tiefling sat across from her. She sipped at the dark, strong beer and thought of her father Kazkan. Surely he wouldn't mind if she was a little late back to the farm tonight? She deserved a drink, or perhaps two. Besides, it was good to get out of the rain - it sounded like it was getting heavier. She listened to it drumming on the roof and reassured herself that Kazkan couldn't possibly expect her to drive the cart back to the farm in this weather. Beer it was, then.

The inn's side door opened and a bedraggled figure stepped up to the bar, water dripping off their coat. Wasn't that one of the adventurers who had set out at the end of the last week, talking of snowy mountains and lakes of... glass? No, that wasn't right. But what were they doing back at the inn now? Wasn't this too early?

Nahdarash tapped the shoulder of her tiefling drinking companion, who had fallen asleep, and pointed up at the figure at the bar...

[Kathryn Karnage]

The figure removes her good revealing the red hair of Xyrxina, looking more than a bit grumpy and bedraggled.

"Sometimes" she says to noone in particular "I *really* hate nature"

She glanced over at the two sat by the fire and takes in their faces.

"Oh don't worry, they'll be in later, I just needed a drink and a fire"

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[Rory Cullen]

Attentive readers may recall that a group of us set out to reach, and further explore, the teleport network accessible from Entatratashan. The good news is that we all survived, and garnered useful data. The bad news is that we never got within leagues of a teleporter, and our primary research goals remain unfufilled.

 Noting on our way out of the valley that the water level of the river was lower than usual, we decided to take advantage of this and cross over to the eastern shore and explore the largely unknown territory on that side of the river.

 We quickly discovered that crossing the river, even when it's flowing less fiercely than usual, is no easy feat - especially for a group of people less physcially powerful than might be wished. Were it not for Bryss holding a lifeline for us we might have suffered serious injury.

 The name of the adventurer who tried - and failed - to walk across the river balancing on the rope like a circus performer has been lost to the mists of discretion.

 In the event we all made it across safely - more by luck than judgement, I fear - and I was able to use a minor magical charm to dry off our clothes and equipment before exposure and/or spoilage set in, but parties should think carefully before they attempt to ford the river.

 Having crossed the river, we were in a position to view a new site of potential interest - a collection of monoliths or standing stones located at the eastern end of the Blightwood. We decided not to re-cross the river, having gone to such effort to begin with, so it remains available for another party to investigate.

 Further downstream we discovered an interesting curiosity submerged in a backwater of the main river channel - a roughly rectangular metal object approximately the size of a hut or small cottage, with a hatchway on its dorsal surface. The metal remained largely free from corrosion, and Bryss - whose intrepidity had led him to swim out, suitably attached to a safety line, and investigate - thought he might be able to open the hatch. Since the object was fully submerged, however, this would have resulted in the flooding of the interior - assuming it is not already flooded - and potential damage to any relics or remains within.

 We opted to mark the location and return another time, perhaps with some tools to erect a rudimentary earthwork dam in order to allow the water level to drop around the object before attempting entry.

 It is of course impossible to say for certain without being able to get a better look at it, but the size and shape seem reminiscent of the flying vehicles observed in the Builder visual records found on the previous venture.

 Am I being fanciful or overambitious to envisage the possibility of making it operational again? Perhaps! Consider though that the teleport network is a considerably more complicated piece of equipment and that seems not only to be largely intact, but capable of sophisticated self-repair. Imagine the time saved, and peril avoided, if we could simply fly from the village to our fieldwork sites!

 Pressing on we arrived at the "Fox Temple" that the last expedition visited. Having not been present on that occasion, I was interested in the "verses" carved on the walls - particularly the Builder words which, from context, seemed like they might be activation and deactivation commands.

 Inside the temple, down in the central pit, we spoke the words loudly and clearly and, in response to the activation command, we heard a movement from nearby. Further searching revealed a partially collapsed tunnel which, when excavated, led to a much larger chamber. We utilised the reconnaissance capabilities of my familiar and discovered that the room beyond was rectangular in outline, with two niches spaced evenly along each of the long walls and a low dais at the far end. The dais was occupied by a sphere of unknown purpose, and the niches each contained more of the autonomous metal guardian constructs first observed on our attempted visit to Entatratradesh. Only one of them appeared intact and fully operational - the others were missing one or more limbs and had clearly suffered significant degradation.

 The guardians initiated lethal force protocols as soon as we interacted with the sphere on the dais. The damaged units were probably working at no more than 50% of their designed capabilities, but since the undamaged units can run faster than a humanoid and attack with three limbs at once this was probably fortunate. We were able to inflict critical damage on all the units without suffering siginicant injury ourselves; this would likely not have been the case if all four guardians were at full capacity. I must advise caution when dealing with these constructs at other builder sites, particularly in numbers.

 Having overcome the guardians we were left to count our spoils; as well as the orange and blue bolts from the guardians themselves, we had a chance to examine the sphere. It appears to be made from a dark stone or similar mineral, but is extremely light - less than 10lbs - and was not permanently affixed to the dais on which it sat.

 The surface is cracked - it's not immediately clear what caused this damage - but bears three builder glyphs which according to Kallista and, later, my own independent corroboration read "stillness" "power" and "flight". The glyphs are not arranged in any obvious pattern or along a line.

 Those who are interested in examining this item for themselves may proceed to the Lakeside Inn, where it is presently available for inspection.

 My initial guess is that this was some sort of focusing/transmission mechanism for whatever spell or motive power allowed the flying devices to operate - in much the same way that the Temple of Power provides energy to all the Builder facilities in its vicinity, without having any apparent physical conduit. Further examination will be required to try and identify how it worked and what happened to it. I wonder if it can be brought into proximity with operational builder technology, would it repair itself like the tower in Entatratashan?

 We also discovered a surprising bonus behind the dais - an apparently empty gap proved to be occupied by a small chest which, whilst invisible from the outside, appears quite normal when looking at the inside. The box contained a small but useful sum of gold and silver coins, which were distributed between the assembled explorers. The chest was "powered" by an orange bolt in a setting in the lid, and can also be viewed at the Lakeside Inn - we used it to transport the sphere, although it does not appear to have been constructed specifically for that purpose.

 The coins each bear a number glyph on one side - mostly 1s, 2s and 4s in Builder numbers. On the other side is a stylised fox and the word "ASTERI" in the same angular script found on the temple wall. My translation spells suggest that this may be a proper noun - perhaps this was what the "Fox People" called themselves?

 Moving on from the Fox Temple we decided that, since we were in the area, we should try and identify the smoke noticed by previous expeditions coming from the forest on the south side of the river bend. This was accomplished straightforwardly enough by proceeding cautiously through the woods and using my familiar to scout ahead. In this fashion we noticed a guardpost of spear-armed goblins behind a basic wooden defensive fortification before they observed us, and were able to make contact peacefully.

 There was something of a language barrier - none of us spoke Goblin, and the Goblins on duty spoke no Common tongue. After trying Halfling, and some other dialects, it transpired that Gnomish was the only language we shared. We offered some gifts of food, and explained our peaceful intentions, but the goblins were not welcoming of outsiders and suggested that we leave immediately. They represented the "great Goblin city of Qaratta" which is apparently built into a hill in that stretch of forest, and which we were not permitted to enter. The guards were unyielding on this point, but did concede that travellers sticking to the open ground south of the forest would not be considered to be trespassing.

 They also alluded vaguely to some sort of danger along the path by the river, below the forest hills, stating that one should "... not believe everything you hear." I enquired as the whether they referred to the birdmen, who I understand are prolific mimics, but they refused to be drawn further.

 As a final point, whilst in discourse with the perimeter guards I noticed a strange phenomenon - red dots of light, darting about on the chests and heads of myself and my fellow explorers. Utilising once again my familiar's keen senses and general unobtrusiveness I found a larger, more permanent guard tower structure manned by goblin marksmen. These goblins were armed with some sort of crossbow, heavily modfied with Builder relics - the red dots were being projected as aiming-points by these devices, and from quite some distance away.

 Without a closer examination I cannot say exactly what effect these modifications would have, nor assess where on the scale from "farcical" to "utterly devastating" their threat level might fall, but overall I suggest avoiding this area unless there is an extremely good reason to return. Gifts of food are likely to be a good idea if we do so.

 We may infer from the goblins' security-conscious stance - they are far more vigilant than the gnomes of Riverglade or the spiritual elves of the plains - that the area is relatively dangerous in its own right.

 Having taken our leave of the goblins, we decided that - although we had not reached the teleporter, as we had intended - we had enough information that it was worth reporting back, so we carefully retraced our steps and reached the path up from the plains uneventfully.

- Tagariel