WE KILLED A DRAGON!!!!! WHAT?
Okay, in the spirit of documentation, I guess I should start from the beginning.
We headed deeper into the Glow Wastes today, north-east as the grandfather mushroom told us to. Stopping to gather some mirror-shroom roots on our way, we walked until we were blocked by a large swamp. Like the rest of the Wastes, the bioluminescence was beautiful, lit up in a lovely purple light cast by several glowing myconaids. Overhead, several large floating eyeballs drifted above us. This seemed to make the rest of the group quite uneasy, but I thought they were quite funny looking. Mr. Lowtide was able to get a closer look at them and identified them as Gas Spores, large plants that explode in noxious gas when you hit them. Several of them were also infected, and we were able to harvest their cores to hand in at the Crux Fleet.
On the other side of the swamp, the infection was even worse, almost as if the swamp has been holding it off from the rest of the Wastes. Our next obstacle in our path was a group of giant, fossilized mushroom stalks. Several tunnels had been carved through the stalks, and they were lined with glowing violet lichen, which smelled quite pleasant. Thinking that the spores of the lichen might present some danger to us, I was able to summon a Flaming Sphere to burn away the lichen as we walked through one of the tunnels. Nothing happened to us as we went through, so I think that might have been a good idea.
Some time afterwards, Arzula's tattoos began to faintly glow as we walked along our path. I have yet to begin to understand what's up with her, the way she communicates psionically is creepy enough. I think she might have some connection to dragons, she seems to be very interested, and Bitey has taken to her more than the rest of us. I think she can speak Draconic. Anyways, she somehow lead us to the skeleton of an Ancient Dragon. It was huge, it's teeth the size of a longsword, it's ribcage towering over us, covered in mushrooms as the body decayed. The others think that it had been there for a while. There was a small pile of gemstones placed in the beast's mouth. I tried to find some tracks of anyone who might have placed them there, but I didn't find much.
At this point in time, we had moved north enough to reach the HeartWall above-ground. The sheer cliff also appears in the Deeplands, so with no other ideas as to where to go, we headed towards it. When we reached the foot of the cliff, we saw a ruined building carved into the cliff-face. The infection here had killed everything around it, there was no vegetation left, and I couldn't see any animals either. Several veins of Lifeblood converged above it, which always means something bad is about to happen.
The first floor of the building was stable enough for us to walk through, and Inyanore was keen to guide us. I think she has an interest in ruins like this, mentioning that she has been to one like it before. There were nine statues standing around a large hole in the ground, one statue for each of the Gods, and several murals on the walls depicted them creating Fantin. Standing over the hole, we could look down and see the Mirror, but it looked wrong, the color of burned flesh, and there was a hole in it. Questioning if it was possible to get through it, I sent Ember through the hole, but it just spat her back out, like the Mirror should. The Mirror seemed to be fixing itself, but I can't help but wonder if the infection came from whatever is on the other side.
Finally, I can talk about the dragon. Venturing further into the temple, we found a large cathedral-like space, with a large pulsing spore pod attached to the ceiling. I think our moving around must have woken it up. I dropped from the spore pod, covered in tendrils of goo. I think it had been infected, and was using the pod to heal itself. If we came later than we did, it might have been much stronger. As we talked to it, it mentioned a flame woman that had entered the temple earlier. Was this where the infection came from? And did she come from the other side of the Mirror, or did she come here to infect the Mirror, and get to the other side? Too may questions.
I think the fact that we slayed the dragon can be attributed mostly to luck than anything else. It was still very exciting though. I think I'm getting better at fighting though. I hope we'll find more in this temple, perhaps this dragon had a hoard?
I can't wait to tell the folks back home about this. Gerritt will lose his tiny little mind.
PS Ara got back to me! I think she can only talk once a day. She's in Murcas, which is where I'm trying to go, and she's on the run from something. We're going to try to meet halfway, but if we don't she's left some notes in the city that should help me find her.
PPS Tell Ara about the dragon immediately