Loose threads
The Speaker is still out there, and probably now holds a personal grudge against the Guild, soecifically. We never figured out why she was building an army.
Participants
Ao & Nix
Adopheu 'Doffy' Hildrheart Hammerhead
Locations [the main location(s) where the quest took place]
Short summary:
Went back to a cult the Guild had previously given power to, found their leader abusing that power, and pissed her off.
Full Report
So we set off from First Landing to go check up on some old cult that the Guild had dealt with in the past - something about a hag and an elemental staff? The report is referenced somewhere in this file. I'm not much for readin', but I was ready to shoot at stuff. Hopefully that hag.
We first wandered up to a bucket of something goopy and gelatinous that dissolves flesh. Apparently some kind of ooze. I requisitioned it for my own purposes down the line, you never know when you need to melt some flesh.
Next, we found the cult. Well, at least we found what was left of 'em. There wasn't much there save a single bugbear, and they didn't speak a language that we understood. If anybody else from the Guild is pulling on these threads, bring some translation magic. Or a Goblin. Through a serious of pantomime, they pointed us towards a stormy area that had some target for us to shoot at in it. I also understand now, after the fact, that there was some iconography of some elemental god at the camp - Hshursha ?
So here was the problem with that storm we were headed towards - YOU CAN'T SHOOT AT A FUCKIN' STORM. Bastard storm clouds were dousing us with water and lightning and wind and we were all stuck limp dickedly slogging through it. We barely made it through, and when it finally cleared up a bit, there was a water hydra. Finally, something we could shoot at. So we did, and I was able to kill the beast. The bastards had the nerve to dissolved into water and not leave me any skulls for my collection.
A further ways past the hydra, after resting up a bit more (all the whole rain is pouring on us), we find what was left of the cult. Their main cult leader lady - The Speaker as she was called - she looked to be the doing your typical mad-with-power villain arc. The hag was already dead (another skull robbed from my collection), but Speaker lady was doing some kind of ritual to raise an undead army from the bugbears. We tried to be the heroes and talk her down (or maybe we were intentionally trying to egg her on, I'm not sure what we were up to), but once diplomacy failed, we had to resort to Diplomacy™, and Diplomacy™ runs on black powder and kinetic energy. If anybody else from the Guild is gonna follow up on this, you'll know the Speaker as the one with the bullet hole where one of her eyes ought to be. Dibs on the skull.
Sadly, she managed to run after that hit, so we were left with cleaning up the scraps of the undead army. Vitality magic and more bullets proved to be too much for her plucky ragtag group of bugbear zombies, and so we were able to stop her and her stupid storm. For now, at least. She's up to something though.
Oh, and I left her a note egging her on and provoking her some more. Have fun, whoever picks this up next!