====== 2022-08-02 ======

=== Jesua (Dorian) ===
<WRAP indent>//Our first day refused to go quietly. After we had dealt with the trouble in the mine mere moments after arriving, I hoped any other excitement waiting for us would could wait a little longer, at least until tomorrow. The local whistlers visited us, whom Zarn seemed to already be familiar with. Apparently the strange owl we spotted earlier had informed them of our arrival, and I suspect Xander is already thinking up ways to deal with that security vulnerability. Our guests brought welcoming gifts in the form of pleasant company and friendly advice on safety measures to take for some of the less predictable local dangers. With any luck we'll be able to pay them a visit and set up beneficial relations; It would be foolish to not utilize Whistler expertise in matters pertaining to the Forest and potential changes in lands reclaimed from it. They let us know about where we would be able to find the local forester outpost, which was another trip we were planning to make after securing out starting camp. Their apparent leader, Fern I believe, also had a strange request for us. According to them, a group of "our exiles" were located nearby, and they've been causing trouble recently. Considering I've never heard of any cities exiling people out to this area, it was a bit of a surprise to hear there was already another group out here. Our to do list grows.//</WRAP>

<WRAP indent>//But as night began to fall, our camp settled down for our first dinner together in this new home of ours. All in all it was shaping up to be a pleasant evening, give or take some odd happenings with Avery and Tim, and since we had taken care to prepare the protective measures as per our visitors' advice, I had hoped this long day would settle into a decent night's sleep. Perhaps I had thought such things to loudly, as almost immediately after dinner strange events began to occur. Lucrecia and I began organizing the main tent for use as a clinic and lab space when we noticed that we had our second visitor for the day. Jolly, if they were to be believed, was visiting from the local foresters. Strange, given the foresters had no way of knowing we were here yet. Stranger still, she was traveling alone, so late at into the night. Perhaps the strangest, she had thin strands of silvery strings extending out from her limbs towards a space in the air, like those of a puppet.//</WRAP>

<WRAP indent>//It didn't take long to chaos to break loose in the camp. To the south several people were having to deal with ragged spirits attempting to control our people into walking outside the protective salt line we had drawn, and as I followed the strands manipulating Jolly, I managed to see past the veil obscuring our true guest: a seam ripper. An exceedingly rare type of undead, one that I theorized could be possible but had hoped to never find evidence of. If left alone it could do devastating damage to small settlements like ours, and its threat would only grow the more it fed. It immediately got to work puppeting Jolly into disrupting the salt circle on the north side of the camp. She had managed a small breach before I could produce a strong enough grip on the threads to sever them fully. With her strings cut, Jolly collapsed into a pile far too small for the bulk her body should have had, but we didn't have time to consider that further as several spirits rushed towards the newly formed breach. Upon seeing me, I could sense the ripper was keen to see me dead first.//</WRAP>

<WRAP indent>//The undead eventually broke through our lines, but given a surprisingly effective beating by Spud and the surprise reappearance of Tim from seemingly nowhere, many of our enemies fell before they could enter the camp itself. Our forces stood strong, and eventually only the seam ripper remained. It had attempted to dispatch of me by teleporting me into the dark woods outside the camp, but luckily Zarn was able to pull me back in. The creature was enraged by our defiance, and after regaining my bearings, I knew what I had to do. I approached it, readying my magics to tear at the fabric of its being. The spell failed to hit its mark, but it didn't need to. It just needed to keep the ripper's attention focused on me, instead of Aldric, who had been lining up the shot that finally brought the creature down.//</WRAP>

<WRAP indent>//If I had any control over things, the ripper would have been left outside the camp, to be dealt with at a later time, but today has shown that none of us have a say in how things will go. The pure density of threads and souls that poured into me as I consumed the ripper once it was slain was so bright I worried the others would actually be able to see it. Zarn's concern confirmed for me that it was. At the very least I suspect Lucretia will have questions for me. Ones I had hope to avoid. Necromancy tends to make people uneasy.//</WRAP>