Survivors in the Mist

Survivors in the Mist
Date	7/11/26
Storyteller	Dag
Tier	Expert
Player Characters	Hogo Pok’sharr, Inari, Kaina, Kora Caroli, Mimi, Radari
Rewards	250 xp, Mudlily x6, Mud Bomb x6, Rope of Climbing (lesser)
Result	We’re lost.
Author	Inari (frosty)
Downtime	40

Associates search for survivors amidst a flood and end up lost in the fog.

Log

We set out from town with no issue, despite our group’s large size, having been accompanied by others: non-associates from Onadbyr who have family from the valley, with about three people per one associate. Altogether, our group was about twenty strong. We soon arrived at the valley, the river having spilled over to create a sort of floodplain. Nobody had been living here, at least, though the flooded area was mostly cleared out, save for the hills and mountains, of course.

Kaina fashioned a boat out of materials she found, as we decided to go across the river. Radari and Kora also helped those who weren’t as… aquatically inclined, myself included. The water was completely muddied, filled with debris and every once in a while a bloated corpse of some poor animal caught in the disaster. However, we managed to make it across safely, with little more of note as we continued along the riverbank. Eventually, we made it past the mountains, and as we looked down into the valley, we could see the first settlement on our itinerary. Keeping our guards up, as Mimi had pointed out movement in the water, we made our way towards the village.

As we approached, the damage the flood had done to the settlement became increasingly obvious. A majority of the village was submerged in some way. The flooding had spread out through the entire settlement.

Kora found a raft with a humanoid-seeming figure on it, so she and Radari went into the water to investigate. I also heard a distressed voice calling out from behind a grove of trees, so while Kora and Radari went to follow the voice, we trekked into the deeper water. Kora also heard a voice crying for help, but it didn’t seem quite human; there was something under the water, mimicking the sounds of a person in distress. Kora and Radari engaged with the creature—an ahuizotl, we eventually learned—until it retreated.

The rest of us waded out into the lake, Hogo and Mimi approaching the raft. There was a survivor curled upon it, unconscious, but alive nonetheless. The two of them soon took the person to shore, and shortly afterwards, we began to conduct our investigation on the village, canvassing the area for any more survivors. It didn’t look promising, especially as Hogo spotted another ahuizotl in the distance.

Most of what we recovered was debris and a few bodies. I managed to find another survivor, at least, who was in better shape than the one we found on the raft. As we helped them, Kaina called out to us, saying that there was something in their mind telling her to come closer. After continuing to speak with it, the tide tried to pull him closer, though they managed to evade it. We soon engaged in combat with the creature beneath the waves, though well-placed attacks brought it down fairly easily.

Upon its slaying, we pieced together that it was some kind of fiend—Mimi having dubbed it a “squark,” but Radari knew it to be a drowning daemon, an entity that feeds on the pain of those who die by drowning. It must have had much to feast upon in this settlement. It seemed to have simply taken advantage of its surroundings, not having caused the flood itself.

Once we were done, Radari took the creature’s tentacles in his own, and dragged it to shore. With our two survivors in tow, we headed towards the next settlement.

Our destination was tucked into the mountains; it was a climb to get up there and much of it was washed away by flooding, but the homes themselves were still safe enough that if we were to repair the road, the inhabitants could stay there without having to evacuate. We decided to take the time to repair the roads. It took 10 days, but with the amount of help we had from both our crew and the settlement’s people, it went without issue. Once the mountain village was squared away, we made haste to our final destination, a settlement in the valley that hadn’t been heard from since before the storms began, and anyone who went there hasn’t come back.

Some of our group’s family members were from that settlement, so it was certainly worth checking out. However, we decided to leave our team of residents at the mountain settlement for their safety. We hadn’t a clue what we might encounter beyond the valley, and now, I am very glad that we did.

As we traveled through the valley, we noticed that the colors of the surrounding forest became duller and more muted as we continued on. Kora and I soon saw a light bobbing amidst the underbrush, in the direction we were headed. Mimi told us it was a will o’ wisp— a light in the woods that will attempt to lead one astray, with certain doom lying in wait. However, it was trying to lead us down the main road— the path we were already headed down. Keeping our collective guard up, we decided to keep following the road, and the will o’ wisp, as it were. We didn’t have much choice, if we wanted to get to the root of this issue. Eventually, we came to a thick wall of mist, as its foggy tendrils reached out to us and offered a strange sense of safety.

The will o’ wisp entered the mist and disappeared among it, as we were unable to see through the impenetrable barrier. Mimi, for her part, believed the mist to have an aura of unholiness, dissonant against the peace of mind the mist tried to provide. She then chose to poke the mist with her needle, but as she did, it was enveloped by tendrils of mist and disappeared. Now knowing that this was what was likely trapping the inhabitants within the settlement, we decided we must press forward and journey through the fog. Radari embraced the wall with arms wide open, and we were soon to follow. It was odd, then, to find that the village itself was… peaceful. No flooding, no disasters… it was untouched, save for the misty barrier surrounding it.

While Radari attempted to cross back through the fog, it seemed to cause him to age rapidly, sapping every ounce of his vitality. If one were to spend too long in it, it would surely age them so far that they die, and this wall of mist is impossibly thick, making any sort of crossing through impossible.

After this happened, a man stepped out from one of the nearby buildings and welcomed us. When we asked how to leave, however, he simply laughed and told us we cannot. He mentioned the mist being some part of a deal, and that it’s been here since the valley became “protected.”

So, it seems that we are stranded.

Kora tried to use an empathic cord to send a message to Groth, but received no answer. The range of the cord is supposed to be planetary, which is… concerning, to say the least. I asked for information on what the “deal” he mentioned was, but didn’t receive any substantial answer. He did say, however, that the only one who can control this mist is the so-called “lord,” though he’s never let anybody out.

As the man began to show us around, he told us we may as well get used to being here, but we’ll have an audience with the lord eventually in order to “finalize things.” What that could mean, I can only surmise.

I will be ending this part of the log here, as we have just entered the town. As of now, any means of escape from this place seems unlikely, though I am certain we will figure something out. We always do.