The Fish Ain't Looking Too Good in Drega'Mire

Pat,

Sounds like you probably should not be fishing in this water. While I do not know a ton about ocean life, I believe everyone should have a right to fish and eat. I will come and help you investigate.

Dame Tari Zhafirah Deldragon of the House Sagewood

Hoi Dame Tari, Yeh that's what I was telling me mate, but ye got to make a livin' and all, which I get completely. Now like I said before, I ain't fisherfolk, so I don't have the same perspective as he, but I do know that ye can't have an economy based on poor tasting, strange lookin' fish that we're hopin' ain't poisonous. That'd be bad if it is. So if ye want ta come on down, that'd be amazin'. (OOG: email me at jeremylschwartz@gmail.com or message me on Facebook), or talk to Kat. If ye do talk to Kat, I recommend buying her sourdough. She puts rosemary and roasted garlic in the dough. It's heavenly.

-Pat

Motherfuckers. I leave home for FIVE MINUTES and someone starts shitting in the water. NOT IN MY SWAMPS YOU DON'T! Pat, I'm kind of chasing a caravan of bad guys at the moment, so I don't know how much I can help directly. But as resident Drega'mire swamp lizard druid paladin, I will try to see what I can do. This is kind of my thing, after all. Drega'mire residents should know they can always come to me about weird nature problems. If this is spreading up the river, someone want to see if they can trace it back to a source, get a basic direction?

Hoi Ms. Resident swamp lizard druid paladin, wow that's a long name to say, that'd be real nice. I ain't a resident of the area. Me sis is, and I've been staying with her for a while so she'd know ye better as the nature expert to go to. Personally, if it's between ye and me, I'm more concerned about the voices. Ain't a grand time to hear your greatest failures repeated in yer head by an ethereal yet familiar voice. Don't think I've gotten a wink of sleep since that all started. Anyway I gotta get back home. Kat should be around if ye wanna talk about what's going on. Again, thank ye all kindly for looking into this for us. -Pat

Oh, call me Annora please. And I'm sure you're right to be concerned, hearing voices, rarely a good thing. I'll see if I can talk to your sister. We'll do what we can.

Well, for anyone who's reading along, Dunn, Maria, and I just got back from visiting Shadesgull, the town that Pat and his sister come from. Lovely little fishing village, just south of Stortmouth on the river.

The water in this area is seriously fucked up. Felt oily and dirty, and not like normal swamp dirty. Tasted...ashy, and like licking rocks? It exuded chaotic energy. It felt almost like a miasma pervaded the area. A fish we...fished out of the river looked like shit. Its eyes were black and cloudy, and when Dunn went to take a scale sample, a thick black oil poured out of the fish. When I had a nice chat with the fish, it said this started about 3-4 days ago. The fish also tasted like eating rocks (I just licked it and it felt gross, I would not recommend eating it). This critter definitely had internal problems, as it had goop on its teeth, oil on its gills, and just exuded bad.

There have also been reports of a large predator in the area. Good news, this is a natural beastie, no bad magic. Bad news, it's aquatic in nature and has been driven to hunting on land because of this. We don't have a name for it yet (working on finding out more), but it looks like a wolf with webbed feet and a whale's tail, approximately bear sized, usually dripping wet. It's a nocturnal stalker, so if you hear reports of yellow eyes at night just exercise caution and leave it be. Once we fix what's happening with the land and river it'll go back to its home. PLEASE don't hunt it or I will be very disappointed.

We can at this point definitely confirm the reports of whispers in people's heads that are keeping them awake. Both Dunn and Maria were affected by this, as it made them relive horrible life moments.

We talked to the folks there (who all looked EXHAUSTED), including questioning a mercenary the town had hired to deal with this threat. This poor guy was not in good shape, and had clearly taken a heavier mental beating than a physical one. While he was coherent he told us that his group made their way to an abandoned mansion southwest of the town, towards the Shadras Forest (Maria also agreed with this direction, as that's where it seemed the miasma or negative energy was coming from). When they made their way towards the mansion, his companions started hearing whispers in their heads. These got worse as they went, and they eventually turned on each other, lost in their own minds and reliving horrible memories. As they killed each other this guy was able to escape. This group only briefly explored the first floor of the mansion, but didn't find anything notable. They did hear something prowling around while they were there, and saw signs of other adventurer groups.

We're definitely going to want a large group for exploring this big creepy house. Having anyone good with psionics or negative energy might not be a bad idea. Let's see if we can put a stop to this before more people suffer or die.

Because no one fucks with my swamps and my people.

I wouldn't exactly call what was said to me a horrible life experience, it was more the ignorance of those who tread in knowledge they do not understand. An ignorance that will be dealt with promptly now that I am back in the Proper. Signed, Professor Dunn Ironwill

I also went and explored. I too tasted the fish, I agree with Annora, it tasted awful I do not recommend trying it. I paid the price and became I'll, I am only just now starting to feel better. However in addition to noticing the waters murkiness and the miasma. I too found myself afflicted by what sounded like my own voice telling me horrible things.

I reached my psionic energy through the swamp in the direction I believed the energy was coming from and found many broken minds, ones that could not withstand the mental attacks like the ones that I had been experiencing. I could see how long standing attacks on ones mind like this could break someone. The fact that I found several broken minds worries me greatly. I believe we are going to need much help to deal with whatever waits us.

Dame Tari Zhafirah Deldragon of the House Sagewood

Tari,

If you could apply your considerable brainpower to solving this I'd be extremely grateful. Mind magics are not my forte, but I really do not like that whatever this is has set up residence in my backyard. I've warned the people in the affected areas not to eat anything from the rivers, but too many rely on fishing for that to be a long term solution.

Dame Annora,

I have been working with Tari on her mental state and as her physician I highly recommend we only use Tari's abilities sparingly. If she outputs more than her mind can handle, then we will find ourselves facing a similar situation as the warrior we spoke to. Please keep this in mind when forming our strategy.

Signed, Professor Dunn Ironwill, High Priest of Ceno

(OOG Not Kanas) Hoi adventurin' folk! Thank ye so much for helpin' us with our situation back here. I finally got a wink of sleep for the first time in what has felt like an eternity, and can I just say I feel refreshed. Then again that might have been the swamp liquor putting me into the sweet embrace of drunken sleep. The fish are starting to look better, well at least the ones we've been seeing swimmin' about in the waters. As for the beastie that y'all were tangling with, well it probably went back to it's lair or somethin', cause all them adventuring folk that were trying to find it had come back, looking mighty banged up. We had the apothecary take a look at 'em and the alderman's gonna reach out to some more doctory folks if their minds need a good fixin', but yeh they're doing alright. Anyway thank ye all again and happy swampin'! -Pat O'Shaunassey