We finally discovered something that helped our spirits a bit. A couple of Aarakocra scouts had spotted our group, and offered shelter and food for the evening, as their village was nearby. The winged Aarakocra flew up, and lowered down a basket, big enough for one person. Our Tabaxi guides were the last to be raised up through the leaves.
We asked if the Aarakocras had a map, to which they shook their heads, they rarely went down to the undergrowth of the jungle, picking most of their fruits from the canopy of the jungle. The Aarakocra village had about twenty individuals, the younger ones appeared to me as frightful; this was probably the first time they had ever seen anyother creature than their fellow Aarakocras. We asked if the village had a leader, but was only met with heads shaking. From what I could gather, this wasn’t as such a tribe, but rather a couple of families living together. Venerable Pieros, Ioun bless his soul, would have been overjoyed, I’m sure.
The next day we left the treehouses, with extra supplies of fruits among our food. The stay with the Aarakocras had lifted our spirits slightly, but we soon found ourselves back in the slump of the undergrowth. We passed bubbly hot mud-pools, turning the air humidity into a dry and unpleasant smog. Our remaining guards were on edge, naturally, and our Tabaxi guides seemed friendlier with eachother, out of the necessity for survival. There were several sounds almost all the time, some close, a nearby bush or a low-hanging branch, and some much further away. We could hear two, or more, sizeable creatures in a fight, but never saw either of them.
Out of a starting expedition of a total of thirty people, nine had perished so far. Including Pieros, another scholar, I never caught her name, disappeared from the group within the first couple of days. Aside from that the rest of the casualties were the guards and Don Kelprys’ personal guard. The remaining people were still largely divided between those supporting the Don and his quest for treasures, and those supporting Captain Mirra in making it out alive again. Unfortunately those in favor of the Don, was the ones paying for the entire expedition. As scholars, the remaining people were less than adamant in stating support for one side or the other. On the one hand, the quest for new knowledge and discoveries, was a scholar’s plight, but on the other hand, that knowledge would never reach anyone, if none of us made it out of the jungle alive.
A couple of muffled cries told the demise of two more of the guards, one of the others had seen what looked like a humanoid reptilian appear from out of a murky pool, throw a net onto the two guards, and pull them under faster than they could call for help. Their swords and the dragging marks was the only signs left of them on the muddy surface of the jungle. I can only hope that their deaths were swift and painless.
Even if the hopelessness of our situation should steer more people against the Don, the jungle did it’s part to obtain the balance between the factions. The guards were the most exposed to the dangers of the jungle, they kept the front and sides safe, but this also meant that they were first in line, if anything meant to attack us. And the guards happened to be the largest group that was, mostly, against Don Kelprys.
I decided to try and swing the balance amongst the scholars, so the next evening at camp, I gathered up the others. Some of them were easily swayed, amongst them a young Halfling, who already had had several close calls with the dangers. Others were still on the idea that if we just waited, eventually things would resolve themselves.
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