6–11 Calistril, 4725 AR

Torcok, one of the manticore’s owners, paid the party four hundred gold pieces for their help.

We were heading toward the relics. There had been some deliberation about this, as there always is with the Dungeoneers. They are not a group that makes decisions quietly or quickly, but by the time deliberation ended there was a direction and we were moving in it. This counts as decisive action by their standards, and I say that with genuine affection.

Outside Tuzan we met Rock Rock.

Rock Rock is a talking rock. He is roughly the size of a fist, enthusiastic, and harbors ambitions of becoming a bard. I wrote down everything he said. Devon engaged with him as a serious artistic peer. I do not know what Rock Rock is, or why he can talk, or whether he has ever performed for a live audience to any reception. What I know is that the Dungeoneers treated him like a person, which is more than a lot of people would do, and that he was delighted by the encounter.

That evening someone added dried mushrooms to Macaulay Cauldron. The chili has been evolving in ways I find difficult to document accurately.