Mercer's Journal

Month 1, Day 1
After three months on a boat, we've finally arrived. I'm not sure what to really expect, but maybe this is chance for a fresh start, after what happened after the annexation of Gant... it's probably best not to dwell on such things.

The defacto authority figure seems to be some Illyian lord named Corgandash. I've heard of him before during my travels; his lands butted up against the Hedge and were apparently pretty important. So the Empire sends him out here to an undeveloped land and expects him to run a colony? I wonder who he pissed off...

Month 2, Day 13
We've been exploring the area surrounding New Pyleus. By the coast, we encountered two large crab creatures. They were quickly dispatched, though they poisoned Tandalon's... companion. On further examination, the creatures appeared to be filled with strange writhing tentacles. I've heard such creatures, though I had assumed the drunkard was just telling the same baseless tales he usually does after the sixth bottle of wine. I wonder what else he was telling the truth about...

It appears that these are aberrations; creatures not native to this world. To find them this close to the colony is a bit disconcerting and serves as a reminder of how little we actually know about the creatures on this new continent.

Upon further exploration, we discovered another group of the crab creatures in a small tide cave. We encountered four more like the two we fought earlier and an extremely large variant. After a fierce battle in which both the human Alastair and Tandalon's companion were badly injured, we managed to clear out the infestation. Inside the cave we discovered five eggs as well as three decomposing bodies among the floating rubbish. The group decided that it'd be best to harvest the eggs and bring them back to the alchemist Daviel.

As for the bodies, two of them were sadly members of the dog-headed race, though I'm hoping not necessarily of the Water People. They were, unfortunately, too badly decomposed to say for sure.

The third body was interesting in that it was a small reptilian creature who happened to have both a magical amulet and ring. That such treasure could have been lost in this cave forever is a saddening thought. The magic of the ring appeared to be defensive in nature and was given to Tandalon since he seems to be the most vulnerable at this time.

Unfortunately, we were unable to discover the exact properties of the amulet, as whatever enchantment it had was previously used and the faint necromantic aura was fading quickly.

We gave all three of the corpses a Water Peope-style burial at see before returning to the colony.

Month 2, Day 15
Daviel seemed extremely interested in the crab monster's eggs. He was willing to pay 100 gold for each egg, which was split evenly among the group.

I feel like I should get to know Daviel better, especially given his interest in such dangerous things. I certainly have no reason to distrust him or anything of that nature, and anyone in the field of alchemy would likely be extremely curious about such bizarre creatures.

I believe we will be exploring the swampland south of the colony on our next expedition. Hopefully it turns out to be slightly less interesting than the coast did...