Year 001, the 40th of snowfall, post everlasting era
Hello, I'm stults, I was a soldier from the southern firefly kingdom, well soldier is an overstatement, I was more of a guard than anything else, but then, they assigned me to the COT.Bravo, I still don't know what cot is but we've been walking the tunnels for 2 days, and now where at the start of our journey, the wild forest, northeast of the desert and defiant root town, and I will be cataloging this journey in this journal
I'm not entirely sure what the mission is, I don't think even the captain knows, but bugaria, the lands to the north has been quarantined for about 2 weeks now, that's 20 days, and we are being sent there to find out why, which is concerning, if even the kingdom's that quarantined the place knows what's happening, then we can't even imagine what we'll find in this journey, maybe I'll die before entry 3, but, this is a strong team, I think we can make it
●Me, stults, I was selected because I was born in bugaria and lived there for years, so they want me to serve as a guide
●Princ, the captain, he's harsh but it's understandable
●Hasta, she's a dragonfly with a strange-looking spear
●Magnus, he's a scorpion, and a large one at that, he's shy but he's nice and I think we're good friends now
●Now neb, he's not so nice, he's also a scorpion but much more armored, he's a jerk, but I think he's essential for our survival, he is the champion of the arachnid arena!
●demens, he is certainly an interesting one, he's "an alchemist", to me he's a small spider with glasses of explosive liquids
●gercus is a butterfly, she's a field medic assigned to this group for, ya know, medicine
●sani, he's a termite scientist, he's from the termite kingdom, which happens to have their capital in the quarantine zone, he's quiet, and that weird scanner, it's strangely advanced, hopefully, he can figure out what happened
●Stella is a firefly hunter, she is cool, I don't know much about her, but I heard something about her being from the hunters guild, neat
●eri, eri is a big black spider, she scares the crap out of me, twice my height wields a scythe, many legs, she is a beast and I am scared
That's my group, but we're not the only ones, there are 2 other teams, team alpha, and team Charlie, they were sent to other locations so I have no idea who or what they are
But hopefully, we can make it, as I'm writing this the night has come and we're settling in for the night, tomorrow is when the real journey begins
Year 001, 41st of snowfall, post everlasting era
The captain said we are supposed to split up, apparently, me, demens, neb, eri, Stella and I go through the Swamp while the rest check out the wasp kingdom, why did he make the decision of me going with the most intimidating people on the team should go together in the Swamp rout? No idea, it seems as if he chose at random like with a wheel or something, but whatever were packing our stuff and heading to Swamp path
I heard stories of a beast that lurks in the region, killing any explorers foolish enough to go here
Hopefully, it's a myth, but we have to figure it out on our own
I also heard that there were "local leaf bugs" in the area and that they were dangerous, I think they might be a problem
It's been a few hours, we've walked a long way through the Swamp, it's quiet, too quiet, but fear not cause bad news and good news, bad news the beast isn't a myth, good news it's dead, but, now that I think about it, if the beast is dead, then what killed it? I don't know, but Stella is hurrying us to continue our route, maybe we won't find what killed that beast, and still no signs of locals, but I did see a spear lodged in one of the plants, oh well, more stuff for us
Year 001, 42nd of snowfall, post everlasting era
We found some of those natives we were warned about, insects covered in leaves to disguise in the wilderness, but, these were different, they looked dead, but they were still moving, strange gray things coming out from inside of them, and we even saw one of them eating another bug's arm, I knew these people were wild, but I don't think this is normal, it's creepy, they attacked but instead of spears clubs and bows, which they had, they attacked by biting and slashing with their strange grey arms, could whatever that was be the reason why bugaria was quarantined? I hope not, but I don't think we should ignore this………sickness
Another thing, they were fragile. As if they were rotten, a single crossbow shot was enough to put one down, and, demens decided to cut one of these "infected" natives open to "Get a better look" and "research", their insides, it was mostly more of that Grey mass, and after some minutes, demens said that it was some kind of mushroom, I've never seen a mushroom-like that before, this, I don't have a good feeling about this
We need to keep our eyes open, good thing we packed hustle juice, that should keep us awake
Year 001, 43rd of snowfall, post everlasting era
We're close to the exit of the Swamp, good, I don't want to be in this place anymore, those natives give me the creeps, and the strange infection doesn't help the situation, we had a break so we could rest, I talked with Magnus and demens about this situation, Magnus is as scared of this situation as I am, and considering he is a big scorpion twice my size and a poison Tail, that means that it's scary to him as well, but demens seems to be awfully cheerful about this situation, when I asked him, he just said "I can do my experiments without anyone questioning about ethics!", that's when I realized he didn't look crazy, he was crazy, hopefully, these experiments will help us and not kill us
Speaking of killing, we ran into more of those natives, we were able to defeat them, once again they were fragile, but one of them stabbed neb with their weird grey arm, he's okay but it looked bad, and it shows that they're dangerous, although defeating them is easy, they were able to penetrate neb's hard shell, that is not good news
Year 001, 44th of snowfall, post everlasting era
We arrived at the spot, the rest of the team was there just as planned, and, my fears are true, that strange grey mushroom that was in the natives, where also in the Wasp Kingdom, and according to princ and Sani, most wasps are infected, even the queen was infected, I think we can safely say that this mushroom is why bugaria is quarantined, which is bad, if they were so contagious they had to quarantine the place, then, I think neb might be infected, and he's not the only one, it seems hasta was also injured by these infected, hopefully, they didn't catch it but, from what we've seen from the natives, and what the others saw from the wasps, if they're infected then they'll certainly will become hostile like those monsters
Hasta is calm, apparently, she has ice magic, and these creatures are weak to ice, so maybe she's immune, but neb, I never thought he would be scared, but the second he heard that he might be infected with this plague which turns people into monsters, he instantly started to cry of fear, I feel bad for him, and for us, the strongest members of our teams are infected with the thing we're supposed to destroy, this is bad news for our journey
Until then, we'll camp here for the night, and tomorrow we head for the desert
Year 001, 45th of snowfall, post everlasting era
We've been walking the desert for a few hours now, it's the same as it always was, hot, full of sand, no water for like miles, only resources being from cactus'es, and with lots of tiny criters that love to attack adventurers walking nearby, one of these critters are psicorps small not sentient scorpions that just attack anything in sight, wich is kinda awkward since the scorpions from the south are huge and sentient, as it's probably understandable since 2 of my team members are scorpions, but here's the thing, these scorpions and critters are infected, if critters and scorpions can be infected, then I'm certain that neb could be infected,and I'm not the only one that thinks so, everyone else is less trustworthy of neb and hasta due to the fear of them being infected, wich I agree, it seems that whatever this is, it turns the infected I to monsters, but for now, they're still safe and sane, were setting up camp now,the captain where gonna head to defiant root because that's where the other teams will be going, but it will take a while cause I think we had the shortest route, hopefully we'll be able to find these other teams soon
Year 001, the 1st of celebration, post everlasting era
Today I woke up to the noise of distress, I was confused then I saw it, hastas head started to break for no reason, she wasn't attacked, she didn't feel pain, he'll she didn't realize the Crack until someone else pointed it out, gercus, the field medic examined the wound, it came from INSIDE her skull, and while examining, she found something which made everyone scared and anxious, that grey mushroom thing was INSIDE her, and it was breaking out, God it was so unnerving
Some of the members of the team wanted to "put her out of her misery", but the captain said no, she was still sane, and we would never kill one of our own, after that discourse, we continued our route, more sand, more heat, and more infected critters
I talked with Magnus and demens, and I asked what they think about the whole executing hasta before she loses it, Magnus is scared of everything and doesn't have an opinion, and demens thinks we should wait until she starts to lose herself, and then we kill her, I'm still thinking whether befriending the mad scientist was a good or bad idea
Year 001, the 2nd of celebration, post everlasting era
Today is interesting, hasta hasn't gotten any better, but she is still with us, a teeny tiny sprout of that weird mushroom disease appeared from the cracks of her skull, wich is disgusting, we quickly wrapped that with bandages, but bandages isnt a cure, but that's not the interesting thing of today
While we continued to walk, trying to find deviant root, we found something else, an abandoned camp, several tents, campfires, and other stuff, it was…..empty, no people, no bodies, no leftover objects no nothing, however there was something, a tent, larger than any of the others, ans on top of the entrance,a sign, it was the symbol of the bee kingdom, on top of a alchemy flask, and inside this science tent, we found somethings, a table full of research equipment on top, a "dissection" table with what appear to be a dead infected person on top, wich was probably being used for research of these monsters, but most interestingly, a infected bee wearing a lab coat, bound to a piece of wood, it tried to attack us but it was stuck, it seems this bee was part of whatever research team was here, but then it got infected and then it became the test subject
We killed the infected bee, and then decided to use the camp to camp for the night, both cause these tents where much better than the sleeping bags, and because we wanted to see if we missed something, wich we did
Eri found a hole with several infected bugs inside, from bandits to what looked like bee soldiers, that hole had all kinds of dead bodies, holy crap, and we also found a "research" note they forgot about, "After 3 days, the first signs start to appear, after 7 the infected becomes unable to eat food and can only eat insect meat, and they also hear voices from "The hivemind", and after 15 days they're lost, monsters that only want to kill and infect, and at 30 days, God have mercy on those around, once they reach stage 5 they become way too Dangerous to be left alive, within why all infected must be destroyed before day 30"
That notes tells us so much about this thing, wich I think is good for our mission but, well hasta is nervous about the situation, and neb is having a mental breakdown, toughest warrior of the arena? Well he doesn't seem so tough now
Year 001, the 3rd of celebration, post everlasting era
Today I woke up to something bad, really bad, it was in the night and i think nobody saw it, it's better that way, I woke to a sharp pain in my leg
One of those infected scorpion critters bit my leg, hopefully it didn't infect, but I'm scared, I'll sleep with my Armour on from now on, and let's pray to the gods that, that single bite wasn't enough to infect me, yeah it probably didn't right?, a tiny little scorpion with a deadly plague wouldn't pass it to me in one single bite! Right? I hope so
But, anyways we found this mountain wich we climbed to get a better view, so we can see where defiant root town was, it worked like a charm, we will reach it by tomorrow, but, theres something else, we saw this horde of infected bugs, there was a bad bandit problem in the region, and I'm pretty sure those where the bandits that the newspapers warned us about back in the day, those bandits seemed to be going in the direction of defiant root, why? Also, one of those bandits had something weird and blue on top of their head, I couldn't see it cause it was far but it was definitely different
Year 001, the 4th of celebration, post everlasting era
10 days, one whole week since we arrived in bugaria, and its a hell hole, the sudden quarantine is now understandable, this mushrooms, these parasites infected normal bugs, and turns them into cannibalistic monsters
I woke up to the sound of warfare, those bandits we saw yesterday, some of them found us, they attacked, they stabbed at us with spears, and shot at us with bows, we were able to defeat them but we knew more would come, we grabbed our stuff and ran to defiant root, hoping the bandits weren't there
We are so lucky, when we arrived the town was empty, no bandits, no citizens, nothing, just the woosh of the wind as the only sound
But there was something there, a smell, when I lived here I used to go to this place called "crisbees", it was a bakery/restaurant with the most delicious pastries I've ever eaten, sweet glazed donuts, yam bread, ice cream, it was a dream, and this smell came from crisbees, at first I toughtit was the smell of his sweet donuts, but then, i realized the smell wasn't just honey
It was honey, mixed with rotting flesh, God almighty, while the other checked the elevator to the bee-hive, me Magnus and demens went to check the smell, and it was horrifying
The shop wasn't abandoned, it was relatively in good shape, but it was different, there were posters advertising a new menu, with new……"cordycep inclusive items", God I almost vomited at the sight, ant pie, cordyceps burger, bloody shakes? I hoped this was a sick joke but when i peeked in, I saw it, crisbee, the wholesome baker of the shop was definitely infected, his fur was pale, his abdomen had exploded, bursting open full of cordyceps, his right arm had been completely cut off, replaced by more of that mushroom plague, and his head, God it was full of these mushroom sprouts, and worst of all, he was still cooking food, but instead of the normal honey cake, he was making a cake with BEE MEAT, God I vomited at the sight
And then he saw us, I thought he was going to kill us, demens was ready to throw acid in his face and Magnus had ran away, but instead, he talked, crisbee talked, wich was not expected
He explained to us that sometimes, this plague wich he called "cordyceps" would spare their sentience, wich was maked with special mushrooms, wich only then I noticed that crisbee had, anyways, these "relivers" as he called it are sentient, but they still have the primal cannibalistic instincts of these monsters, wich is sad but reassuring
Soon we and crisbee met back up with the rest of the team and explained the situation to them, neb was still sad over his condition, but slightly less so, and hasta was calm, because it meant sje could live
After that, we barricaded ourselves inside the inn, finally after a whole week of leeping in bags, we finally have beds!
Hopefully, things get better, but ……. I doubt it
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