Beneath

FROM: Calum T,
TO: Patrick D,
CC: Kelsei T, Robert M, Tiernan Q, Jules L,

Shorah, Patrick. This is a big one.

On December 16th, I lead an expedition of explorers and a few visitors from Rei'schu into the mountains of Naybree, across the lake from the island the garden rests on. Our intent was to survey the landscape, check out the local wildlife, and potentially find signs of life of a more humanoid kind. This is my report of that endeavor.

Well, we definitely did those three things. Hoo boy. In no particular order...

For starters, the local wildlife... It's wild and varied. The first thing we encountered was a salamander type creature with a dog's head and a mane of squid tentacles. We named it a "Doghulu" for lack of a better description. The Doghulu seems to be a fish-preferring scavenger of sorts, and its tentacles are all prehensile. It used them to properly pry open a cooler, fetch a wrapped tuna sandwich, carry it over to a rock where it unwrapped it, and chowed down without hesitation. Probably also an omnivore since it didn't seem to have any issue with the bread.

The next creature we encountered was a 'deer-cat' type creature, caught up in some mass migration across a river. I'm still not sure if the Scientists poking around the imagers is what spooked them or not, but we also saw a flock of swan-turkey like birds fleeing the scene as well. We did not see much of them, and it was at a distance. The deer-cats are probably carnivore-leaning omnivores, I'd wager, based on their mostly feline physiology.

Moving onto more important things.

We found the campsite of a pair of scientists under the names of "January" and "February," along with a journal marked with the same flask bottle iconography of the Lumberjack's journal. Given the previous appearance of "December"- where in the man gave our Detective Friend a shapeshifting crystal stolen from Rei'schu by Haru'sara- we were right to assume a larger group. When we eventually found them, we learned their group is called the "Calendar Men," and have atleast two backers whom January and February called "Mister Tea" and "Mister Raspberry", with possibly more funding them.

Their leader appears to be a man named "August," or at least he was the one who dispatched January and February to Naybree, as he seemed to be the man they were most worried about. Needless to say, we didn't get a good look at them. They were wearing Maintainer Suits the entire time.

We made an attempt to offer them more gainful employment elsewhere, but it seems they've signed one of those exploitative non-compete contracts that prohibits them from going elsewhere for the time being.

Beyond their littering of sandwich wrappers everywhere, we found remnants of Athsheba's presence in this part of the age- many statues carved after the wildlife of the age- and one very large D'ni Imager Chamber that seems to be original to the age, as it contained a recording of what we've deduced to be the Retirement Ceremony of the Guild Master whom Naybree was originally gifted to.

Athsheba mangled the machinery, though, and it seems she set it up as some kind of protection device, setting ghostly images to scatter across the Age, as well as using pieces of the sound component of the imager in the statues to evoke the haunting sounds of backwards whispers and conversations.

Overall the device seems to be based around similar technology to the Cleft imager, or Gehn's imagers from Riven. Very large emitters project light into a space, where it interacts with the air medium there, forming ghostly images of whats there. The cold air rising from the river water seems to be this device's preferred mechanism of image conveyance. Said cold river also seems to possibly be the source of the mist wall separating Naybree's island from the mountains.

I've written a Linking Book to this chamber, as the doorway sealed behind us due to a firemarble accident.

So... what was Athsheba trying to protect? A painting, likely taken from another site somewhere on Naybree. Just a painting, you ask? Why all of that trouble for a *painting*?

Yeah, uh. We're probably going to want to look into those Pirahnay rumors, Patrick. Skyisblu touched the thing and was linked away. I used it myself to recover her a moment later. It's either got a Linking Book hidden behind the canvase somewhere, or this is *actually* a real, live, absolutely functioning Linking Painting. Heads to some under-water Cavern Location. Place is a Code Tetsonot, though. Water's leaking in through the ceiling and spraying down right onto the link-in point. When we left the place, we were dripping glowing orange water everywhere. Water Pumps are pumping the floodwater out, but I am absolutely not risking sending anyone into this place at this time. The Painting is presently secure in an undisclosed location.

I think we need to schedule a face to face meeting.

_Calum

FROM: Calum T,
TO: Patrick D,

Further report from survey work on the imager structure in Naybree. The mechanisms seem to be on a continuous cycle activating and deactivating on a timer. I can't find a power on or power off button, so it seems this imager device was deliberately set in motion long ago. Our scientist acquaintances seemed to be on the up and up about trying to reset its functionality to not project its phantom images wild and everywhere across the age that it could reach. I'm willing to cut them some slack regarding those shenanigans as it seems they were stumbling into something Athsheba rigged up as much as we were.

We'd probably have seen the same wildlife disruption and phantom images regardless of if the scientists were there or not, which leads me to believe the mass migrations we were seeing was not a result of the scientists' presence or actions- nor the imager projections, given how long they've probably been running for- but rather due to something else.

The data from the various sensors I've put in play has begun starting to paint a peculiar picture of geological instabilities. Further exploration of the mountainous region is probably something to put on the agenda, but it's not something I have the manpower or resources for at this time. The Lunar Decay continues to be a concern. In that regard, I'm thinking it might be a safe bet to keep people away from the mountains for the time being. I'll DM you the raw data spreadsheets to look over if you feel you've got the time for it.

As a side note, on a recent return visit via boat, I've found that the campsite was taken down and the area seems to have been rather respectfully put back together in a way to minimize a human impact. As long as these 'Calendar Men' scientists keep to themselves I don't see any reason to be aggressive towards them, beyond having stolen materials that are Rei'schu's problem more than ours. We haven't seen those artifacts get handed out beyond that initial event, and beyond the accident in Naybree, these guys seem to have been keeping to themselves. But that's Runa'mei's remit. Frankly, I'm more concerned over that troublemaker Haru'sara than these scientists.

TLDR: I have a feeling our group's aggression was far higher than theirs, all things considered, especially given recent events regarding that whole Marcus situation. Not surprising, tensions on the surface being what they are these days, I can't blame folks for seeing enemies where there aren't any. It's easy to get swept up in the moment.