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1st of Baldir 358

Tenebrous and I decided the best spot to try and find Hornet was to check the local bars and taverns. We went drinking and due to this sickness he contracted, he was not able to hold his liquor at all. We were not able to find them at any taverns and Tenebrous went to go search for a cleric who can possibly heal him from the sickness. I took this time to go to the post office to send the letter I wrote. I didn't pay much attention to the price or anything; I just chose the fastest option, which was 500 gold. As I handed the postman the gold, he talks into a slate and a person appears beside me, takes the letter, and leaves.

Having sent the letter, I took the time to walk around the city looking for where Fathom and Friend had went. A couple moments later, I got a message on my stone slate. "Found Hornet, Friend remembered ruins important, meet at door?" I'm guessing they mean the door we entered the city from, leading to the underground ruins with the mechanical woman. I began to search for Tenebrous.

I walked for a couple minutes and I bumped into him, literally. He was invisible and he was badly hurt, as he got jumped after leaving the cleric. I healed him and we continued to head to the others at the door. They arrived at the same time they did. Hornet had a guilty look on their face. They read the runes that were on the door and they say it's a riddle saying "Given one, have two or have none." We debated the answer as I wrote down possible solutions. After some time, Hornet said choice and the door creaked open. I was so close to getting the answer too.

We went down the very long staircase and eventually arrive to the room we originally teleported into. We go down a nearby staircase, leading us to the archive room. As we approach the mechanical woman, she jumps in surprise, dropping a book on the floor. After clearing up how we got in, Friend asks about their colleagues that went missing who were sent here for information. She says they came more than a week ago working for someone named Eber. They came to her archive for information and gave her something Eber asked to keep safe. They asked to point them to city center but she wasn't able to point them there. She offered us to look through the texts for any information we may need.

Fathom grabbed some books off of the shelves and puts them down on a table, reading through one about bladesmithing. He asked me for the piece of electrum we found alongside Soulkeeper's shards, probably to compare the symbol on it to a symbol in the book. A big crate was found and brought to the area we were in, with a label that says "Myrentheia NML Excavation". When I touched the crate, I got flashes of excavation and the smell of ash, seeing a dry and empty environment. Inside the crate was various raw materials, broken weapons and armor. Friend dug through the crate, finding a vial with a thick, red liquid in it. It reminded her of the sap from her home so she asked where this crate was from. The mechanical woman began to explain the country Myrentheia, which was destroyed in war long ago. Places from the north, east, and west shared the country and its unique characteristics, such as magic being stronger there. Now, there is monsters and sorcerers there, the land is barren and destroyed, nothing can be born there, and magic doesn't work there. Fathom and Friend examine the bottle, which seems to have some creature in it. I was peeking over Tenebrous's shoulder as he read a book titled "A Cord of Foundation". It was a first hand account of a ruin of creation and the golden strands. It talks about how they found the ruin and it was a lesson, with the strand being their reward. They gained the ability to make passageways wherever they wish, and it felt innate to them. On a piece of parchment inside the book, there is written that the strands are a "manifestation of the will of creators".

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