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Cyas giggles at Mariposa, covering her face with her hand. "You wouldn't be the first, miss. Are you of the Fair Folk? I've never met your like before! And here I thought I was the novelty!" As Cyrienne gets to her business, two of the patients are healed outright, their fevers fleeing, drawn from wounds or some plague upon them. Others, while better than when the group found them, will likely need to go with Cora and Beacon on the morrow. Cyas is elated at the news. "If we can focus on one or two patients, tops, that will really turn things around here at camp. We can refocus our efforts and make this place livable, practically. You don't realize what you've done, sister, even if you think you do. Suffering is always a burden, and a teacher, but it need not be needlessly so." The critique is not particularly subtle, of the camp's leadership.

That night, logistics are spoken of regarding Mbala, regarding how best to get up there. The consensus very much agrees with Najya's offer: she will climb and secure the rope and others will follow as possible, or be carried. Eku is openly amused by Mariposa's abuse of the word Mbala, Story's chuckle like a pur. "I wonder how the people of Mbala will take to their name in your mouth? I cannot imagine anything but delight from them: it is a fun word, admittedly."

And soon, they rest.

21st Day of the 3rd Expedition, 5th Cohort

10 Alturiak, Year of the Starwalker's Return, 1490 DR

The first act of the day is a hard one: the goodbye to Cora and Beacon. Three sickly patients are packed in the canoes, along with two Order of the Gauntlet members, one for each boat, to help Cora and Beacon navigate the river back to Port Nyanzaru. While Beacon is stoic, Cora is anything but, her face a shriveled mess. "I don't do this normally. I'm good! I'm good about goodbyes. No use getting emotional when logic aims to please. But... this is a good choice. We're twenty days in and I don't have the materials to send a spell to our glorious patron. So, I'll go back, and I'll wait for you all. Besides, with ol' Hothead here I can't imagine things will go any further south than they already have. Gonna miss you, Wallflower. You too, Cyrienne: try to keep things platonic, not sure it's sanitary to go around naked as a Castle Ward jaybird. Najya, your words are wise, if not always in your mouth or mind. Keep'em on their toes. Story... loosen up, huh Kittycat?" She hugs the trio each in turn, and shakes Eku's hand; the guide, teary from Cora's tears, hugs her intensely. "I will miss this little mad mind."

And soon, the canoes go and follow the current, heading north towards the port and the sea. Before they leave, one of the guards turns, and suddenly to Najya, Story, Mariposa, Eku, and Cyrienne, looks oddly familiar: like Danuse. Yet, hadn't that guard been a young half-elf a moment before? How did she pull that off? Whatever the case, having Danuse with them is reassuring, if odd.

The remaining group headed to Mbala has less pomp and circumstance than they might have expected. Cyas comes to see them through the gate, as does Ord Firebeard, the kindly dwarf leader of the camp; his compatriots do no such thing. "I know yer mute friend 'ere spake o' paying us, but consider th' rope 'nd climbin' gear a parting gift: better used in yer hands than ours, right now. Just, don't tell Whitehawk Breakbone, aye? Eku, be sure t' come back sooner rather th'n later. We could use some good sense 'round 'ere, aye?" The gates open, the dwarf bows, and then they are out, into Chult once more.

The day is exceptionally uneventful, but the smell is much better. Even when they run across thunder lizard dung, the smell of death, dirt, and disease that had been Camp Vengeance is not a missed scent when surrounded by petrichor, fresh flowers, and life itself. They find little resistance, but Brigg proves a ready hand for Eku on guiding them: he does seem at home here in the jungles of Chult.

As they set up camp, a thundering comes from the jungles. When the jungle parts, six adult thunder lizards emerge on all fours, one standing to get a better look around, followed by eight tiny babies, miniatures no bigger than full grown wolves. The standing one spots the camp, gives off a strange honking sound from its crest, and then falls to all fours, moving to the edge of the pack of lizards and acting as a buffer between the camp and the babies. Eku is star-struck; Story's tail dances in curiosity. Soon, the thunder lizards pass without much fanfare, the stars beginning to emerge as they disappear into the trees from this clearing.

"And they call this place savage."

22nd Day of the 3rd Expedition, 5th Cohort

11 Alturiak, Year of the Starwalker's Return, 1490 DR

The next day is much as the first, clear skies and little activity. Around midday, they find a shovel and nearby, a place where digging had begun but not gotten very far; not too far off, they find a pair of boots with the feet still in them, the legs up to the mid-shins broken and the flesh stripped. Something interrupted a dig: and so soon the group continues, finding a cache of goods in a leather bag. The bag will be quite nice, Eku muses, but inside are godsends: a water catcher and a mess kit. While the latter is more of a creature comfort, the former will make their gathering of water much easier, especially now that they don't have the river to provide it.

The day is without event, though clouds begin to form at dusk.

23rd Day of the 3rd Expedition, 5th Cohort

12 Alturiak, Year of the Starwalker's Return, 1490 DR

When it rains, it pours.

Morning is miserable as they trek through the jungle, the canopy doing nothing but distributing a downpour. Everyone is wet everywhere, though the bag they discovered the day before proves waterproof: a useful tool indeed. By midday the weather lightens up, the winds die down, and the cold wet is replaced with unbearable humidity: they won't be getting dry any time soon, if at all, before they reach Mbala. Story is quite peeved at his current wet state: a cat only gets wet when it means to.

They emerge onto a plain, and soon, a strange noise comes from elsewhere in the jungles ahead of them, a noise like a crow made of rocks. Following after it soon after is a noise beyond the pitch of everyone but Mariposa, who hears clicks and squeals, soon interrupted by a very human terror, a voice screaming, "Dragonbait, we can't fight them! Run! RUN!"

Wisely, everyone has time to draw weapons and prepare spells, as a human in drenched blue robes carrying a bow emerges, followed by a strange green thunder lizard-looking fellow on two legs, with furred cloak and an impressive blade, stained with blood. Follow them come a series of green-gray flying thunder lizards with humanoid bodies beneath their wings, six in total. Eku stares, as if trying to understand what she's seeing, but soon, the group open fires: no one should be set upon like these creatures. Eku sees them and yells, "Pterafolk! Kill them all!"

The group sets upon them, and soon drives them away provided any survive. Given a breather, the human lays on the ground and lets out a hoot, but the strange dragonborn that clearly isn't, looking more like the crested hadrosaur herd the day before. His sword in hand, he looks at the expedition cautiously.

"Give it a rest, eh Dragonbait? They just saved our lives. If they want to kill us, so be it. I can die today."

Only Mariposa hears the strange noises coming from the one called Dragonbait, the clicks and squeals that make his ridge dance. In time, he puts his sword on his back and crosses his arms, the smell of violets and honeysuckle filling the area they find themselves in. Mariposa doesn't need to wonder where the smell suddenly came from: she can tell Dragonbait is using pheromones to express an opinion, not unlike some of her friends back in the Feywild.

"A man and a dragonborn that isn't: the Zhentarim is looking for you, Artus Cimber."

Eku looks at Story curiously before she remembers: before they reached Camp Vengeance, they had encountered the Zhentarim, who said they were looking for a pair matching this description. The man called Artus looks up, his chest heeving, and sighs. "Gods be damned, I was hoping we could avoid more bloodshed—"

"Hold! Hold, good sir. We are an expedition not affiliated in any way to the Black Network: never would we dare to," says Story, his hands up and pacifying as Dragonbait reaches for his sword once more. "We are looking into the cause of the Death Curse which ravages our world. We have tracked it here and seek the oracle at Orolunga. We mean you no harm."

Artus looks at Dragonbait who looks back; the dragonborn that isn't shrugs and lets off a hoot only Mariposa hears.

"Funny, that's where we're headed."

Eku smiles. "Then we have common purpose and from the looks of thing, common defense is only in our benefit. If my companions do not mind, we can share a fire, and perhaps you can tell us why the Harpers and the Zhentarim seek you?"

The duo share a nervous look, but ultimately agree to at least travel together... for now. Perhaps they can be convinced of more.

24th Day of the 3rd Expedition, 5th Cohort

13 Alturiak, Year of the Starwalker's Return, 1490 DR

Soon it becomes clear not just the Zhentarim and Harpers seek Artus Cimber.

It is almost dusk when something sets Dragonbait off, a sound, a noise no one else can detect, for some reason. As white clouds carry onward and the sky begins to hue from blue to pink and orange, he looks to Artus and Artus to the group. "We're being followed. We must hurry."

Eku nods. "I happen to know a place nearby, owned by some friends."

A mile through rocky jungle brings them to a massive canephor tree, its leaves massive, and they climb, Najya leading the way by carrying the rope. Up the tree they go, and at the midway point, just above the canopy, is a small platform made of thick wood with a small hovel into which five of them can fit and sleep. While helpful, it does not answer who follows them.

Soon, a group of seven zombies shuffle into view, and Story, like the others, draws his weapons: they hid because of zombies? Yet Dragonbait holds them up, putting his beefy green scaled arm up as if to hold. After a minute or two, a group of black-clad warriors appear, their faces somewhat obscured but pale and pink with bright black veins appear, all carrying weapons of war; this group of four is soon joined by a single bald man with tattoos on his head, carrying a bronze staff. His most notable and recognizable feature, however, is the red robe he wears around him. Brushing away sweat, he sighs. "Another astute failure. Another like this and I will have our Mistress put the lot of you down and leave you for fertilizer. Perhaps it was a false trail all along: who knows where that Cimber has gone?" He says something in a language no one understands. "Let us return to the Heart. She will want a report before we head onward to the City."

Soon they head onward, and when they are well out of sight from the tree house, they let another five minutes pass.

Story speaks, a growl in his voice. "Red Wizards of Thay. Dark magic is theirs. They seek you too, Artus? A wonder you are still alive."

Artus chuckles. "You do this as long as I have, and you find novel ways of survival. Listen... having me around is dangerous enough. Dragonbait sticks with me because he has a misguided sense of honor and duty, and I can't convince him otherwise. I appreciate you having me, but I am a liability. Are you sure you want me hanging about you like a miasma?"

25th Day of the 3rd Expedition, 5th Cohort

14 Alturiak, Year of the Starwalker's Return, 1490 DR

By dusk they reach it: the cliffs upon which Mbala sits.

The day is largely normal, though an air of dread hangs with them: the Red Wizards being in Chult is a bad sign that this Death Curse is larger than they realized. While the Death Curse would not stop the Red Wizards of Thay from resurrecting bodies, it would prevent them from speaking to the death, and given how prominent resurrection and undeath is among Red Wizards, it might affect them further. Yet an alliance with them is unthinkable: and perhaps they come here not to end it but steal the source, Story notes.

Whatever the case, they trek onward with Artus and Dragonbait, who seem as intent on ending the Death Curse as they do, though that is not why they sought the oracle. Getting them to speak is one thing, Artus is congenial and Dragonbait as quirky as he is adorable when he's not downright frightening. Getting them to talk about their personal lives is another thing entirely. When he sees Najya using her sign language, Dragonbait immediately seeks to learn it from her, having spent the last two nights trying to learn it from her: he cannot speak in the tongues of this world, only in his smells and the strange noises only Mariposa can hear. Sign language would be a godsend.

Dragonbait is what they call a sauriel, which not even Story has heard of. Eku has, though: a group of beings from another world, only a handful entered this one a century ago, which means Dragonbait is a century old at least. Artus admits thus far to only being from Cormyr, the kingdom of Purple Dragon Knights, War Wizards, and stories of yore that fill the pages of history and trashy chapbooks alike. He says little more beyond that, unless persuaded.

"There, the cliffs are low enough there." Eku is right: the cliffs are lower here than the wall they have followed along. Three hundred feet of cliffs awaits them, but Eku stares. A hundred and fifty feet up, a path has been cleared in the greenery revealing a rocky, upwards trail. "Strange. That is new. Perhaps the people of Mbala have made a path for us... if we climb." The rope goes to Najya, and their journey begins in earnest.

Alright, we're exploring Chult again! I think once we get to Orolunga we can reconsider this format more and stop having so many encounters, or perhaps after Mbala. A few things:

• Hunting, camp-making, etc. rules remain, but we'll adust them: building camp is requires no check, finding water requires no check, but finding food does. DC 12 Survival, failure leads to 1 level of exhaustion. Multiple people can hunt.
• You can attack the Hadrosaurs, but why would you? Feel free though.
• You can run a series of checks on Artus and Dragonbait as you like, including Insight (number rolled will reveal different info), Persuasion to get them to open up (Dragonbait will be much more willing so his DC is smaller), etc. You can ask about their pasts, why they're pursued, and what they seek with the oracle; of those, Artus is most likely to reveal why they seek the oracle (hint: it's more Mezro nonsense).
• On the Pterafolk, everyone roll 2 rounds of attacks. The DC to hit a Pterafolk is 12, their HP is 26; get creative and perhaps one can die if you attack.
• It is extremely advisable you not attack the Red Wizard, as Story and Artus have said, but feel free to.
• Climbing! Let's do this. No checks for Najya in her spider climbing, but everyone else can either be hauled (which will require an Athletics check from those at the top, made easier with more people) or by climbing. DC to climb or haul is 14; everyone will need to make 3 checks. I'll provide consequences for failures in my next post or in the chat, but you lot can roleplay that out or wait for me. Everyone will make it to the top, at their leisure, given a dead body can be tied up with rope and just hauled.
• Once at the top, it will need to be an Athletics check or a spell of appropriate use to climb up the trail; DC 15, failure leads to 1 level of exhaustion.

Once that's done, we can move into the Mbala section of this day.