An envelope is left for Apothar Manos at the tower.

[Finny]

The letter is sealed with wax and pressed with no symbol, in an envelope treated so as to not reveal the contents with a bright enough light.

"The following is a more detailed account of my encounters with Djinn and other supernatural occurrences on Hufaidh.

Something notable about the djinn that assailed us is that we were attacked with a constant barrage of fireballs slung from lesser djinn of shadow, odd given that fire is not their court. This means, to me, that the courts are brooking with one another, seemingly with one exception which is Light and Water. I was assured they are in fact brooking with water, and that perhaps this connection was severed before our raid on the island due to the actions of the Kulamet cult in the creep, but I remain unconvinced.

Phaedra died in this ordeal to her own devices. She sacrificed her body and life to become some kind of death thistle. Ultimately we misunderstood this hulking monstrosity.  It's purpose was threefold: kill djinn, collect the dead to prevent them from becoming corrupted flesh puppets, and offer us a final way out of the realm we were trapped by means of dying and being eaten by the thistle. We misunderstood this at the time and many of us began feeding it blood to make it stronger, thinking it could somehow open a portal, but this was foolish and Bourne of desperation and despair. All it did was grow larger and, ultimately, go berserk for reasons I cannot attest to, as I did not witness it begin attacking, just that it did. Perhaps what was left of Phaedra thought it a mercy to us. We subdued it, but I believe it returned and fled back with the kulamet, though hypothetically diminished without fresh bodies to feed it.

Prior to the events of hufaidh, around the time Onion was accusing Valeria of brooking, Phaedra explained to me that the Kulamet undertook a task to destroy some manner of djinn vessel, one of 100 anchors, apparently belonging to the Court of Light and Water. Once destroyed there was a wave of lesser djinn from the aforementioned court assailed the desert in and around the well. This may be connected to the reason Onion called Valeria a brooker. According to the Balladeer, Valeria had been using a blade of mist, and was too foolish to realize it was a djinn blade. It gave her memeroies of some garden which were relenquished when the blade was destroyed. This is why she claimed to have sacrificed her memories of the garden; She was allegedly cleansed in some kulamet rite of any brookery, but I am also skeptical of this. As for how she acquired the blade it is claimed she picked up a shiny rock on the ground, but then realized it was her sword. I was assured this is how spring elves find their fancy blades. What it really means is it was delivered right to her feet under her nose by djinn of Light and Water, a fascinating prospect that suggests they sought out one already hunting existing brookers and djinn artifacts to try and gain something from that. Unfortunately all that can be offered is speculation as the only ones that can answer these specific questions are rather hostile, known liars, and wanted killers.

We were assailed by terrible maws made of deepest shadow, black as a void. they manifested as giant serpents and began swallowing our warriors whole, though this was not a permanent problem as they seemed to be able to climb their way out, but they were also terribly dangerous and seemingly unaffected by all the fire being thrown. We slew around one hundred djinn and four of the maws. Notably, these greater djinn, the maws, were not affected by an interposing hand but were affected by the seven seals spell as tested by myself and Orin Vossar.

During the initial assault the Sisters and a few other helping hands assisted in opening the path into the vessel it was sealed, a stone crucible. The creation of this crucible is somewhat of a mystery to me, though one of the acolytes of the priory has written a chronicle of everything that led up to the events of Hufaidh. She published it for any to read, though I suspect it should be taken with a grain of salt but should provide at least an overview of events. It was written and published by Acolyte Seriyah, as part of one her collections of tales.

Once inside it became quickly apparent that we could not get out on our own. the walls were made of a flesh like substance, like soft stone. Exactly what one would expect of the Court this "Prince" was of. We met the nadiri and student mentioned in the report copy I provided you already. The Nadiri kept trying to get us to promise we would help and the student was intent on sowing distrust in our actions between us. there is perhaps a sliver of a chance they were who they said they were, but having been seen and reported dead there was no doubt in my mind they were just being used as flesh puppets.

The walls had writings on them that were difficult to decipher, but myself and others were able to discern what was being conveyed: "Each measure is worth its sin. By weight and measure know the cost. Each drop of blood is counted in purchase. They know the Every sum of your worth down to the strand of hair on your head..."

These writings seem to suggest the nature of this particular court, which is eerily similar to other beings long since believed extinct. I believe this supports my theory that the courts are acting as some kind of refuge for the beings believed to be extinct, and that perhaps the connection to the new and different energies the courts are made of compared to their original homes changed them into what we know as Djinn today. All of this, of course, is simply speculation based on current observations, and dreadfully little was already known before large swaths of knowledge were assuredly lost to the ringfall.

While in there we met an interest being. It presented as a shining Paladin with a halo larger than it's body. This was declared djinn after enough interaction, but not before Aurelio noted that he could sense absolutely no evil from it. This being introduced itself as E'izariya, which I later learned it's full title, Light of Darkness, Star Shining in the Depths Black Pitch. This Being is the one that claimed to have sent prophecy ahead of time to the Balladeers warning them that the Prince would merely escape and leave them trapped in its place. Interestingly, this prophecy noted that there were two foes to be wary of, yet the only one we came face to face with,if it can be assumed that the one giving the prophecy did not mean itself, is the so called Unnamed Prince, something E'izariya called it himself. It would seem that prince is not just a title given by us. the prophecy is as follows:

"A wretched prince of the unspoken will be unleashed, there is little to do but stall. The fool will lead the charge, his squire left to carry the broken. The fool wil be given a choice-- To fight or avert the fate of others. No life is safe in this, and death is not the worry. Expect something old and something new! There are two foes."

This implies that something else besides the corrupted firebird eggs was created or birthed somehow, but we only encountered one Djinn prince of terrible power. It is notable, however, that within this crucible was another crucible, allegedly a device made by the trapped nadiri and used by both Apothar Margarethe and Sister Amelie which was the basis of the trap for the djinn. We would not break into it, and it, hypothetically, still remains there. Getting to it, however, is a death sentence without an assured means of escape.

Ultimately, as noted in the first report, This djinn was struck down, leaving some vestige of itself behind before , I believe, making it's escape. it disappeared into the sky like a flash of light. It did not try to strike us down, and by it's own claims did not want us to die there. It offered us a way out for nothing in return, specifically. It was a strange interaction for a djinn. I could not see where this was a trick, but I suppose if we had taken it up we could have become marked. There is no way to know now, as E'izariya claimed it would take three score years to re-manifest. Notably, Aurelio's blade did not truly slay this creature, raising more question about the nature of his blade, which kept pointing towards E'izariya as his destination. What this means is anyone's guess at this time, and I intend to seek Aurelio for the privilege of studying his blade and what it truly does. I do not believe he lies about his ability to slay djinn, but it is possible that while not lying, he is simply lacking some fundamental understanding of his blade.

It seemed throughout the whole ordeal that the djinn was much more interested in breaking us than just outright killing us, something I believe it could have done at any time. By the end of it we were being tempted with all our doubts and regrets. It truly seemed like E'izariya was right by the end of it. This fuels another bit of speculation, mentioned earlier with the report on Valeria's blade. I believe that the court of light and water to be in contention with the other courts. There is some fundamental difference about them compared to the others, but perhaps that is just a matter of the universal energies that make these beings up. Three courts seem tied to "evil", while one is tied to "good," though not quite the way is viewed as a morality versus universal energy currents that run through most living things. Do these currents influence action or does action influence these currents?

In the end, we did escape but I still have no real speculation beyond Amelie sacrificing herself in some way to free the rest of us. Perhaps with so many now caught in the ward it was breaking faster, and we simply waited it out. Perhaps we were expelled in place of Amelie being trapped there to be tormented for longer. All of this is speculation. In the end, the firebird that had made nest there destroyed its corrupted eggs for food and flew off to unknown lands over the sea, perhaps back to another home.  That is all I have for this report.

[blue_luminaire]

[The letter is received...]