What a disappointment! The rescue team was late. Late by ... well, probably a whole generation? We could only rescue the bones and the legacy of the father who once went missing.
At first Esanor gathered his guild pals at the plaza: Lumi, Dalos, Laros, Qiner, Eisenhand – who suspected the name "Greensplish Kelpslinger" to be of the Nolthrir, due to its watery sound. The gathering caught attention, and soon more people followed curiously: Cirerey, Kaerli, Mrae, Xola.
The clues were not really clear, so we went into different places. The first was the Iron Tower, the highest place with own rope ladders we knew. Nothing there. Did we take this part of the letter wrong? Did the father have an own rope ladder with him? Then maybe the hint with the Gawert was more important... so we decided to search in the mines below the Eagle fortress for more hints. If we just knew how close we already were...
While taking a break in the Explorer outpost, a few more friends joined our already respectable party: Derator, Gonger and Roled arrived. We searched the mine in the rarely visited places, up to the gap down to the path behind the watch platform where Sierann has his duty. Gawert and rope ladders ... this combination must have misled us. Which other hints remain? Only the "caves of Laanx" seemed to be the direction we should have followed. The crack below the waterfall was not known to have a relation to Laanx. But the temple in Hydlaa, and what lies below.
And then a sudden intuition struck Esanor: The father must have taken an own rope ladder to climb places in the dungeon you couldn't normally reach. And he thought of a quite strange place immediately, one he always wanted to get to, wondering if it contained interesting resources... The quickest members of the party rushed ahead, and Qiner was the first to find the place Esanor described by a sketch: A narrow dead-end tunnel above the iron mine, near the bottom of the winding stairs where the Onyx Dagger crew protects their hidden leader. A precise jump with a mount served as substitute for the missing ladder.
Well, as already mentioned, all we could rescue was the legacy of Troutmouth Kelpslinger: His bones, his armor, and a medley of ... oh, no, besides a dagger and a chip of gold, the bag also contained the crystals he must have searched for, a Radiant Sapphire and a Diamond of Waterkin. Installed in an armor socket, it should have helped the humidity-bound Nolthrir to discover dry places, covered in a layer of water. So the "Diary of Troutmouth Kelpslinger" revealed on the last readable page.
This scientist sacrificed his life for the wealth of the Nolthrir race. I am pretty certain that his name will find its honorable place in the library of the Knowledge Seekers University.
