Someone (or ones) have been breaking into the Crispen family graves - both the regular graves in the cemetary, and the caskets in their (respectably large) crypt. They strike once every few nights. Valuables have been left behind in many cases, and it is unclear what if anything is being taken. Even more oddly, when investigating the crypt, Amber found a footprint... on the ceiling. As we've already heard stories about vampires in the city, this put us thinking along those lines, though there was nothing to rule out a magician with a Spider Climb spell. Our first night standing guard in the crypt was nearly quite a mess, as we encountered another group of adventurers in pursuit of the same goal. Fortunately, we managed to avoid any bloody misunderstandings.

We'd originally considered this situation to be something that could be handled by someone earlier in their career than we are...and apparently we were half right. A party of less experienced adventurers did go to the village and fight off the animate plants. They tracked them back to their source, which was described to us as a 'colossal tree', and judged it beyond them. We've been asked by one of the Silver Tower officials if we'd be willing to follow up on the situation, and we've agreed.

Apparently, this Zifban had quite a list of ingredients he wished to acquire; naturally, all of those that were simple or safe to locate have long since been procured. What remains are the intact body of an Inevitable, and something (I was laughing at the first request and failed to write it down) from a Formian colony...a live egg, perhaps? We'll keep our eyes open, of course, but I'm dubious we'll encounter either.

Though we haven't spoken to Garn as yet, others were able to tell us a little of the situation: during an expedition to Carceri, Garn's companions were captured and imprisoned. He is seeking reinforcements to go and free them. A worthy goal, but I'm left with the (new, but rapidly becoming familiar) feeling that perhaps this needs to be handled by those more formidable than we are. It's valuable to have a reminder that as far as we've progressed, there are still people and situations that exceed our abilities. While I don't know for certain that this is one of them, I do strongly suspect it.

'Another plane' in this case being Pandemonium. Jeremian is less than sanguine about the prospect of visiting that plane, and while I feel for the poor fellow who is lost there, we'd help no one by leaping in unprepared. If the situation is still unresolved when we've dealt with what's currently facing us, perhaps we can determine whether it would be suicidal for us to attempt it.

I haven't decided how I ought to feel about this. Djinni are creatures of Air, and I dislike the thought of one summoned and bound for any length of time; both because being bound against one's will is distasteful in general, and because it is especially antithetical to Air. The brief service of a summoning spell seems acceptable, as incovenient as we've seen it to be, but the idea of being Called and trapped in a circle is...very unwelcome. On the other hand, noble Djinni have the power to grant wishes to those who capture them, and as far as I know, this is the only time they possess that power. That suggests that in some ways, being called in such ways is part of the Djinni's own nature. They might even regard it as a sort of challenge, a tradition. I should think on this some more.

Aveaya, a bardic friend of Celadrin, who is in turn an old friend of Jeremian's, found this inscription on the door of a sealed crypt deep beneath Cleven. The sewers of Cleven they call the 'Old City', as they're at least partially formed of the ruins of a previous settlement on the same site...but this place was both older and deeper. In her notes, she referred to it as the Deep City. Unfortunately, we can no longer ask her about it. Her explorations were interupted by vampires. She fled back to the surface, and was killed (assassinated, truthfully) by a vampire. It's impossible to say at this point whether the vampire who killed her was one of those she fled, but the level of vampiric activity in this city is well past the line into 'disturbing'. I'm inclined to investigate on general principles, but we will need to give careful thought (once we know more) to the question of whether this sealed crypt should perhaps be LEFT sealed. Whatever rests there is likely something I would prefer to see put to a final rest, but we must consider the possibility that we might fare no better than the ancient servants of Pelor did.

This I do record, in the name of Ehlonna, Protector of the Woodlands.

The above was from a document I had of Brigga. I'm not clear any more on precisely where it came from; a lost shrine of Ehlonna in the Old City, perhaps? In any event, it had been forgotten by the Church of Ehlonna - at least briefly. Hrag-Leshak sent us to get the document from her; we gave him the original and kept a copy.

I don't know what Hrag-Leshak's intent was in our recovering the proclamation...he might have merely wanted to deny knowledge of the location of the Lance to the enemies of the dragons. He gave no instructions in either direction with regards to recovering the Lance, but I think it is a goal we should strongly consider. Not only would it keep it out of the hands of enemies, but it would make a lovely gift to an up and coming half-Gold or half-Brass Priest of Fire.

I inquired of Air via Communion whether the Heart of the Stone Forest was located beneath the 'Old City' under Cleven, and was told Yes....

It's a curious poem. Individual lines of this message seem to have meaning, or at least hint at it, some more obscurely than others. I've noticed something else odd about it as well, though. The rhyme pattern is very unusual . there are two separate rhyme schemes, one using the final word of each line and one using the ante-penultimate. The latter is very regular: AAA/BBB/CCC. The former, however, runs ABC/CAB/BCA.

That's peculiar enough that it seems to be intentional. If you instead think of it as 123/312/231, and use that pattern to select a word from each line, the words indicated are: Future tied with past you are blurred in time.

This could, of course, be a coincidence.