Womp Womp

"The Mist infested arm of a presumed fire giant after the experimentation of presumed hags. It was a terrifying threat. They owe me a tank.
Those fuckers owe me money.
But a formidable foe, I will have to adjust my designs and plans for the future of these things and their plans

A God listened to me and dropped a anvil on a Ent. I AM CHOSEN
Also Puca in a test of strength against the gargantuan arm, beat it."

((I had fun with the event, it was very difficult and made our party have to think more carefully about how we acted and actually stick to a plan oF attacking and making a hole in the arm for its bone.))

Log-7-6

The paper of this entry is more weathered than usual.

'The trip itself wasn't arduous, the idle chatter and company can keep your mind off things, like the wait, or where you're going to, or what you'll have to deal with.'

Pinned to the side unfolds a map and of a trail much larger than any previously drawn in this journal, split into three sections with estimated dates of around when each had been taken. There are notes on shrubbery, scents, a warning against the sleeping habits of tabaxi, and extensive documentation on the Taglock's design, from it's appearance down to its predicted creation.

'We worked alongside other groups to handle the impending threat before it'd fester into much worse. We were given equipment before our departure, helmets to handle the fraying mist's effects, and a device known as a Taglock, this can be attached to a weapon or used with a stubborn hand. We were to deal with the threat primarily with these creations.'

Smaller sketches of the party involved in various states of conversation, sharing a meal, keeping watch, usually looking elsewhere. At some point these little vignettes end, drawing that of a giant hand and a bone jutting out of the ground surrounded by foliage.

'The mist can warp your spells, everything magical in its presence can and will likely be used against you.'

Scattered in one section of the page are further examples against using magic in vicinity of the mist, and notes of the group and their approaches, from sketches of their martial technique to casting practices against the frayed. To the side is meatball of flesh and a stink aura exuding from it, and a small, extremely simplified cartoon of an artificer pinching his nose and pointing a thumb at it, the angry eyebrows look freshly added.

'It warped harmless critters into malicious creatures, we dealt with them in time, but it'd taken a heavy toll on the others.' Snuck in is a drawing of a dwarf being drenched in a barrel comprised entirely of healing potions, that's what's written on the side.

'I watched my senior kickflip against a giant hand and jam one of the Taglocks into the bone, after a few seconds, it puffed right into mist. We had the misfortune to deal with its effects, and had we not had our masks, I'm sure they'd been much worse. I myself came across hallucinations- I think they'd been at least- beyond the burns and the withering, my body was suddenly filled with lacerations, I heard of words I least wished to hear, and something maddening.'

A blob next to a spiky blob. 'Oh, on a separate note, someone was trying to seduce a purple worm with some sort of deranged mating call in the cavern below ours. This may be a hallucination on my end as well, and I may need to visit a therapist to sort out my thoughts.'

There are doodles of the party recovering from the battle, drawn from a secluded corner of the cavern. Some figures seem ecstatic, some more contemplative, and then there's a catgirl seemingly high off her kite, staring blankly into space as a smaller figure feeds her berries.

'Still, I think we're okay, we're all going home.'

There's a colored drawing including blue and white pigments, of a night sky drawn from below the hole closest to the surface, thick with sapphire clouds, with smaller wisps of light peeking between them, an arrow pointing to it with the phrase 'stars?'.

At the bottom are the initials 'A.A.'

"The mist arm of some fire giant was a tough fight, Also trying to not fall from all that stupid shaking and them stupid falling rocks.

I am hurt but others got it worse, I had to protect my friends....... I don't know how but I guess I somehow held the arm from shaking helping my friends with there taglock thing ((Puca had to roll a nat 20, that was the only choice given to hold the arm haha I did it but now have LEVEL 3 EXHAUSTION how fun.

I also never thought I would see the day of Sir Scums tank being... destroyed.... it looked so strong, AND MISS ELLI THEY FELL AFTER WE DESTROYED THE ARM, I really hope they are fine."

The note was sloppy, and kind of hard to read as if written with a non-dominate hand

" Twenty eight of us went out to the caves and we all split up into four groups and fought on four separate layers where this arm had busted through we were given tag locks made by Maeve.. When we approached the undead arm we found it had an arm of mist sticking out of it also attacking us and stopping spells, as it thrashed it knocked us down, dropping rocks on us, shot boiling blood at us and radiated this pulsing green wave from it. Its presences also seemed to upset trees within our layer.. Me and Huyao were the first to make contact onto the arm then Johnson so we started slicing into the skin to expose the bone... Relnea sliced from a distance, and So did Puca.. He even held the arm in place.. And Scum and Wobble were out ranged shooters.. We attacked for hours some of us going down a few times..Scum lost his tank... I even lost Slobber.... and an anvil dropped from the sky? I don't know.. Scum got a kick out of it... We finally broke skin.. We helped each other to hold the tags in place.. Even Maeve came and helped me... and then the ground disappeared from under us me and Maeve didn't make the jump.. so I grabbed her.. the Wind rushed past.. and impact...then darkness.. I don't remember anything afterwards.. just coming to in the Hospital..

This was only the beginning.. We fought only an arm.. Arms come from bodies.. Goods help us when the rest of the body shows its face.. These hags know were are here and they want us gone.. but we aren't gonna let them."

-Paladin of the Underhaven, Ellimor Vashtova

Log of the events of Isket Day 6:

• Multiple parties rode out as vanguards against the invading fray threat.
• Participated in the top-most party, fought numerous frayed creatures including rust monsters, "stalkers", frayed hill giant corpses, and a large mist apparition of the giant's hand.
• After some struggle, all parties managed to place their taglocks on the dismembered giant's arm bone, dispelling(?) the arm and reducing it to fray mist.
• Where is the rest of the giant's reanimated corpse??

Mission Report

The journey to address the giant threat was a long one, several days, and I am thankful we had the support of the city behind us. Had we not been at full strength going into this I fear we would have had many casualties. The combat I am about to describe was intense and exhausting, I spent most of the travel back to the city and the follow days recovering. For the sake of all of us I do hope after this the threat moves away from our city.

Also, I would like to extend my thanks to the parties responsible for creating the taglock, which allowed us to seal the threat and eventually destroy it.

When we arrived at the destination the giant was supposed to be burrowing into we were met by a horrifying sight. The giants arm has penetrated through the surface layer and several underground layers, though fortunately it was only the giants arm, seemingly detached from the rest of the body. The group I was travelling with arrived at the uppermost layer, closest to the surface, where we observed the upper portion of the arm extending down into the lower layers.

The giant undead limb was large enough that it spanned through several layers at least. While we didn’t have to content with the hand of the giant or much movement, there were some defences that made dealing with the arm extremely difficult. This included a massive hand that seemed to be formed out of the mist, several frayed rabbits, some burrowing creatures, and three normal sized giants.

When we initially engaged the arm several giants peeled off it, it seemed like they had been sewn into the undead flesh. However these giants were swiftly dealt with by Iggy and the others, a barrage of arrows and a few spells from myself offing most of the the beasts. One did throw a large lump of flesh which briefly trapped one of our party members, but they managed to break out quickly enough.

The rabbits and other creatures were nimble and managed to spread out amongst the group, attacking us from various angles. They didn’t inflict any serious damage but they were a pest which distracted us from the main threat and prevented us from immediately dealing with the hand and arm. In fact throughout the whole fight the arm was causing problems for the entire group, causing the ground to shake, pulling us towards it, causing it to rain boiling blood and even firing missiles of bone at us. I was nearly knocked unconscious a few times were it not for the abundance of healing potions I had brought with me.

Once we had dealt with the smaller threats we all rushed towards the arm and attempted to weaken it enough to apply the aforementioned tag lock. As we damaged the limb it did produce several abominations, creatures made of flesh with many mouths, but they were manageable with the giants and rabbits off the table. Eventually the arm seemed to weaken enough to apply the taglock, which allowed our artificer C to fly in and apply it. The mist hand made an attempt to pull him away and stop the taglock from being applied but we managed to pull through and emerged victorious.

I intend to put together a more comprehensive report at a later date, when we have information from the other layers whom I know also had to deal with pieces of the the giants arm. Though this does feel like a shallow victory... where is the rest of the giant? And what was it even after?.

-Orion Malanis