Excerpt from the Journal of Professor Yorin Argirus Brunton

15 Tytlan, 98 of the Age of Restoration
Day 72 of Excavation

          The workers have been asking for tomorrow off. They say that the winter solstice is a time to be with family to cherish those that survived the onset of winter and remember those that did not. While the ruins that we have been excavating are fascinating, I fear that if I refuse productivity will drop to an unacceptable level. With that in mind, I gave them tomorrow off with the understanding that they would return to work the following day.

                Excavation has been slow due to the rain which has been hampering our ability to move dirt out of the pits. We’ve resorted to hiring a few orc-blood thugs from the docks to pull the buckets of mud out of the pits. Fortunately for us our investor has been unusually patient. Whatever he thinks is down here sure is worth a lot to him.

         What we have managed to pull up out of the ground besides mud has led us to believe that the region was home to an elf village or city at some point. We’ve found pottery with scorpion images and flowing lettering enameled on as well as bronze spear and arrow heads shaped like sharpened leaves. I’ve had Selvian take a look at the lettering, and the cocky elf was for once baffled. I don’t need to be a wizard to tell that he had no clue what was written on the pot.

              There’s a modern elf city a few days ride south, might have some scholars that can read ancient elf there. I’m putting together a sketch packet to send and hopefully it’ll be ready by the time this rainfall abates. Which reminds me, Gorta said that his wife “smelled a storm of storms” coming. Sounds a bit odd, but we’ve been taking some precautions just in case.

             A storm isn’t our only concern. We have been experiencing unusual nightmares. Everyone that has mentioned them reports the same thing: a whispering, menacing voice and a sense of horror. No one has been able to understand what the voice has been saying, just that it keeps repeating something over and over.

           I’ve had Natrial do some research into what little records we have of the ruins on this island, but so far he has not yet found anything that we did not already know. The ruins were here before any of the nearby settlements, and haven’t done anything but sit here in the lake looking spooky.

            The architecture that makes up the ruins is fascinating: the walls seem to be boulders that just fit together like pieces of a puzzle. No mortar was used, but even today we cannot fit a dagger in between two of the rocks that make up the walls. I wish I could figure out how the builders made these walls, nothing that I have thought of seems to fit. Well, I’m just a worksite manager, not a researcher. Perhaps Archmage Gaero will be able to figure something out.

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