Location: The Underdark
travel is incredibly taxing; the party has no idea how much progress they have truly made or how much further they must go
notable incident: party finds a wand of wonder at the bottom of a lake, where the water was reflecting a rainbow shimmering light everywhere
over the course of about a week, the party comes across a series of abandoned camps
- Dibrael and Gaziel say prayers for the dead while Mylz makes them proper graves
- when they catch up to the final camp, which is still set up, Zaz peeks in the tent and finds a corpse with a journal
- it tells a depressing story of a group of people trying desperately to escape the Underdark, only to gradually die off to monsters, madness, and dwindling resources
- with the direction the party has been going, they realize that the journal writer was traveling in deeper in the wrong direction
- while preparing the body for a grave, Mylz spots a figurine of wondrous power
- she summons the lion, who immediately understands that its previous master is dead and that Mylz will be its new master; it grieves while the party buries the stranger
at camp that night, Shoor is concerned about Zaz and tries to cheer him up in the usual way they mess around
- he (unintentionally) sneaks up on Zaz and playfully shoves him, causing Zaz's madness to trigger and make him believe he's being attacked
- Zaz pulls a knife to defend himself, and after being slashed at, Shoor begins to fight back
- Mylz steps in between them and holds them back from each other; both she and Shoor get injured
Dibrael panics and pulls Zaz away from both Mylz and Shoor
- Sylrien instructs Dibrael to use lesser restoration on Zaz to cure him, but Dibrael snaps that he won't do anything Sylrien tells him to do
- Sarith calls out that Zaz is about to bolt, and commands Dibrael to cast the spell already
- Dibrael obeys Sarith and Zaz is cured; Zaz immediately bursts into tears while Dibrael comforts him
Shoor, thinking it's the best thing to say for some reason, says "it's okay, I deserved it"
- this makes Zaz even more upset, and Dibrael and Mylz immediately shut that train of thought down
- Skjorn attempts to comfort Shoor and ends up making him laugh; he also tends to his wounds, which Jorlan steps in to fix later
the next day during travel, they encounter an earthquake; Zaz has flashbacks and Mylz hesitates just slightly
- the party ends up facing off a pack of bulettes
- Mylz gets inspiration for setting a hunting trap and compelling one of the bulettes to focus on her
- Skjorn and Zaz are both significantly wounded by the bulettes, with Zaz also being caught in literal friendly fire
after both bulettes are dead, Mylz senses another one underground and moving towards Sarith; she tries to run to him, but Dibrael physically gets in her way, setting off major alarm bells
- the bulette emerges, knocking Sarith prone just as Dibrael and Zaz reach him to take the damage in his stead
- Mylz reaches them a moment later and kills the monster from behind
with all threats eliminated, Mylz immediately asks Skjorn to cast remove curse on Dibrael, who reacts with hostility towards anyone approaching him
Sarith holds Dibrael still while he is cured, and Dibrael apologizes as he realizes how he's been behaving
later at camp, Mylz is very upset and blames herself for not noticing something so important
- while everyone can tell something's wrong based on her demeanor and scourge powers activating, only Elwyra is allowed to approach
- Ellie tries (with no success) to reassure her that their madness was very internalized, and Mylz had already been juggling Aerlian, their mission, the party's general safety, etc