A massive rainstorm started during the night, and did not stop all day.
It was wet and miserable.
Alosrin taking the last guard duty, brewed some coffee for when the rest woke up.
As he was focusing on his coffee, he had a dream-like vision. He was on a ship, and it was raining, he heard a voice call him "Al?"
His body rushed over to a barrel of water, when he looked at his reflection, he saw it wasn't him, but Ashlee Rose, except strangely enough, she had bright golden eyes.
Alosrin was back in the cabin shortly after.
Krystoff woke up. And as if for the first time, Alosrin noticed his eyes and asked him about them.
The Paladin explained that he didn't quite understand it himself. Until about a month earlier, he had normal, brown colored eyes. And during the Inheritor's Ascendance about a month earlier, he had a vision of Iomedae, and when he woke up, his eyes were Golden, and he had attained some minor divine powers. He explained that unlike some of his other abilities, such as Lay on Hands, these were not something he trained in or was usual for Champions to learn. Unfortunately, he could not give him any more information about it, as he did not understand it himself.
Once everyone was up and ready to go. They continued traveling Eastwards. Until the Pilar was visible through the dense trees and foliage.
The group decided to stay back and ready for anything. They had a good idea of the range on the Pillar's beam and wanted to stay out of it.
Bjørn snuck in to get some information on any possible enemies we should be aware of.
As he's successfully avoiding the Pilar's attention, he looks up and sees the remains of humanoid creatures up in the trees, as if some predator had captured them and kept them up there for later consumption.
The signs on the trees suggested it was not the work of more Asanbosam's, but the creatures were large, and more than one.
He realized he was in danger and started backing up. But out of the trees, two Jungle Drakes appeared and attacked. One of the Jungle Drakes got a hold of Bjørn and was trying to drag him through the trees.
The rest of the group had to jump into action. Krystoff rushed in as fast as possible considering the dense foliage and wasn't making much progress, but Bjørn managed to free himself and Alosrin, while staying out of range of the Pillar, smacked one of the Drakes with a Sudden Bolt spell, doing massive damage to it.
That drake, seeing how Alosrin was undefended in the back, flew towards him and attacked, but Andromeda managed to finish it off with an Electric Arc Spell.
The team worked together against the remaining Drake.
The Drake then pierced Bjørn's neck with it's spiked tail before Krystoff was able to get to him, but the Champion then healed him with a Lay on Hands.
As Betty was throwing bombs at it, Andy and Alosrin sieged it from afar with spells.
In a flurry, it slashed and bit at both Bjørn and Krystoff, doing massive damage. But Krystoff managed to make an opening during one of the attacks on Bjørn, and managed to slide beneath it and slice open it's belly.
Alosrin and Bjørn got taken down by the Pillar's beams of poison, but were healed by Gumball and Krystoff as they retreated passed it's range.
With the threat of the Wyverns taken care of, Krystoff focused on providing healing while Alosrin took it down from afar with Ray of Frost.
Once the Pillar was Destroyed, the group checked the bodies that were up in the trees, and found a Red Leather armor, that they identified as a +1 Resilient Leather Armor, which was perfect for Alosrin, except maybe for the color, which didn't really combine well.
They also found three doses of Giant Wasp Venom.
As it was still early in the day, the group needed to decide what to do next.
As both Alosrin and Betty were running low on both spells and consumables, they decided to try and keep it safe and not travel too far. They went South since the river was near.
At the river, they found Gerhard Pendergrast's ship, and some of them decided to board it.
Alosrin sent in Slip, his rat familiar, who got distracted by some cheese and didn't do much.
After Alosrin, Bjørn and Andromeda boarded the ship, they entered what appeared to be Gerdhard's quarters. As they rummaged through, they found some strangely shaped golden idols that Bjørn took for himself.
They also found a journal, detailing the explorer's intent during his visit to the Mwangi Jungle. One of which, was to destroy a temple that lay to the North. The same temple Chioma had pointed out to the party.
Apparently, there was evidence there that would expose many of Gerhard's publications as nothing but hogwash, and he intended to make sure those revelations never reached the light.
As it was getting late, the group decided to rest in the Cozy Cabin, and set off the next day to the temple.