141 humans, 22 halflings, 15 gnomes, 15 dragonborn, and 12 other races. This is or will be the total population of Balenpost. The small town of 205. It’s from here that the mages of the Cerberus Assembly send out crews to find and recover the lost magical artifacts of Aeor. We aren’t working with any mage so we will have a harder time getting supplies here. Everything will come with a huge markup, but that is okay. I have purchased a few weeks worth of rations and I know of places where we can find food.

We approach the gates to the town where the guards command us to halt. A human man comes up the wall and speaks out to us, “Who are you? Identify yourself.”

I stay in the back and let the Formation lead. “We are the Fortuitous Formation. We flew here from Bysaes Tyl so we can explore Aeorian ruins,” Devin said.

“Are you with the Assembly?” The man asked.

“We are not. We are independent mercenaries,” Devin said.

“Independents huh? I am Wadlow Akron, leader of Balenpost on behalf of Lady Vess de Rogna of the Cerberus Assembly. You may enter but as you are not on any of our salaries the amount of supplies you may purchase is limited. Bring back treasure and you can get food, weapons, and materials for a good price,” Wadlow said.

Wadlow Akron! Fuck I did not want to encounter this mage. King Dwendal has sent spies to Balenpost to keep an eye on the things being taken out of Aeor. The king is right not to trust the assembly and in return, Wadlow is smart not to trust the explorer here. He reads the minds of everyone here looking for suspicious activity. I loop the lifting song from Warframe in my head to fill my thoughts. He could try to dive deeper but I was making room in my body for more brains to create a huge echo of the song in my head.

We walked under the gate and headed inside the fort. It had no inn so we had to sleep in our own tent. We weren’t here with Vess De Ragna like the Nein while be so we didn’t get the privilege of sleeping in the fort. Our tents were big enough for us. I didn’t have to sleep as a human anyway. I hope we won’t need to return here all too often. I would like to speak with the Kryn if I could. I hadn’t actually asked the group their opinions on the nation. We are still two years out from the War of Ash and Light so tensions shouldn’t be that high. I might even convince them to at least speak with the Kryn.

I probably shouldn’t do that unless I bring back a piece of Aeorian technology that points to the Luxon. If I do that I will change the fate of the Kryn Dynasty's involvement in Aeor. That might not be such a bad thing. The Nein don’t have to kill Cognouza and deal with Lucien as their ending after all. I can change their final boss to the Assembly. Some meta information I remember is that the Somnovem is weak to psychic damage. There are bombs in Aeor I could use to destroy the city myself.

This was the plan I have been discussing with the Planning Committee. To recruit allies that would help me kill the city myself before the Nein meet. This way there would be no worry about saving Mollymauk and finding Lucien. I could gain allies in the Dynasty to help me enter the astral plane. Yussa Errenis would be a good choice. I might even approach Vox Machina for help. This would change a lot of things but it should work.

The abilities I would need for this plan are immunity to all psychic damage and its effects as well as the power to create psychic damage repeatably. For immunity to psychic damage, I could hunt a Core Spawn. The Core Spawn came in many types but all had psychic immunity. Some had psychic damage effects and the best part is I know where to find some. The problem with them is they are tied to the Elder Evils. Claiming their souls would probably connect the Soul Dream to the Evils. I do not want to risk that so they are all out as targets.

I had two other targets for the immunity. An Emerald Greatwyrm or a Couatl. I knew of no emerald dragons on Exandria and only the one Couatl. There were rumors of a spirit Couatl on the Twinward Isles I had found Beckett. They would offer guidance to those that seek them out but I am unsure they would accept being killed for their power. If I can get an audience with the gods I could request one move to my world so I could create the connection. An Emerald Greatwyrm would be harder to kill than the Somnovem. The adult and younger variants only had resistance to psychic damage but that is a start I guess. Mind Flayers don’t actually have resistance to psychic damage I learned. That’s kinda bullshit.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

The search for those powers will have to wait. I need to figure out where we are searching. I figured we could take the same route as the Nein but that will be hard. I only know roughly where they entered the city. It would take a lot of searching to find it. I don’t need to find anything important in the city so we can hit one of the other ruins. I know exactly where those are because I saw the map on Twitter. Thanks, Deven Rue.

The Nein found the creatures I was looking for in the ruin marked A2. We could fly there but that would mean killing the giant lightbulb baby ourselves. It was strong and it had some unique abilities I might want for myself. It's just that the damn thing is creepy. The Aeorian hunters were in vats and said to be faintly twitching. Sounds like they are alive to me.

Once we get the nullifier I am happy to show them to other treasures as thanks for all their hard work. I don’t really know the location of any specifically but we could look. I at least know the locations where powerful shit could be found. Take Mutalos for example. It's a 30-mile diameter circle that is constantly changing environments at dawn. One day it can be a desert another it will be an ocean. The Aeorian artifact that creates this effect might be within the area. Only have to search 706.5 or more square miles to find it.

There is the Fortress of the Dead Jarl. It's an ice giant fortress on the other side of the mountains of Aeor that is filled with undead frost giants. The leader of this fortress found some artifact in Aeor that killed everyone inside and raised them as undead. So a bunch of undead giants and a horde of magical items. Sounds fun.

We could head for the Tomb of the Worm and we can reseal Quajath. The island of Beissel has a bunch of white dragons. Schneescel is an island covered in a permanent blizzard. It's said that some Aeorian weather device is creating this effect. Dampfkan is a volcano island with a large tower in the middle of it. There is weird shit everywhere I look and we can go anywhere. I will talk with them in the morning and we can decide then.

………

Yulisen 32nd of Sydenstar

“So those are some of the places we can go,” I said. I told them about most of the places I was thinking about, except for the Tomb of the Worm.

“Man you know a lot,” Carmilla said.

“Most of this wasn’t hard to find. Wizards spend a lot of time in their towers pondering orbs and scrying on shit so I learned a lot from Yussa,” I said.

“I like this frost giant idea. We could kill them easily,” Zenix said.

“What about this Mutalos? I can’t fathom the power such an item could do. It would be worth a fortune,” Lupine said.

“That place reminds me of Threshold Crests. They are items that are used in the transporting of cities to other planes,” Abaxis said.

“My money is on Mutalos being a zoo or safari,” I said. The area had its own wildlife and sometimes they escaped the area and survived out here.

“That sounds possible,” Abaxis said.

“I don’t want to spend days in a blizzard looking for some unknown weather device. You are immune to the cold so you can do that yourself Edsom,” Devin said.

“We could just search the main crash site,” Folin said.

“Yes, I do think we should do that. I am sure we will find a bunch of stuff there. Do be careful in these ruins. Yussa’s notes talked about a disease called the Frigid Woe. If you see blue fog or spores don’t go anywhere near it. It is an incurable disease weaponized against the divine. There is only one cure and that’s only found in Aeor,” I said.

“Gods damn. This place is intense,” Lupine said.

“Aeor hated the gods more than any other city during the Age of Arcanum. Everything they did was to destroy the gods,” Abaxis said.

“Are we sure we should be unearthing this stuff?” Lupine asked.

“Someone is going to. Might as well be us,” I said.

“That is fair,” Lupine said.

“So where to first then?” Devin asked.

“I say this one,” I said pointing to the area I knew as A2. I named it something else in case anyone was watching. I still couldn’t see scrying eyes yet.

“That one is far away from Aeor. Are you sure you will find the creature you need there,” Abaxis asked.

“I don’t know, but it never hurts to try. We can search the other areas later after all,” I said.

“Fair,” Abaxis said.

“I agree with Edsom. We can head there first. Afterward, we can fly over Mutalos and then see the frost giant fortress,” Devin said.

We all agreed. A2 was first then.

……..

We left soon after. The flight would only take about 7 hours or so but we had to be careful. White dragons flew these skys and hunted large prey. I was unsure if the people on my back would scare them away or attract them more. Better to not think about it. If need be we could probably kill an adult white dragon easily. The group was collectively bitching about how cold it was. Even before I became immune to cold I loved weather like this. Being hot sucked more than being cold in my opinion. To help the big babies I flew closer to the River Inferno. The island of Folis was divided in two by a mile-wide river of flowing lava. It was somehow connected to the elemental plane of fire and sometimes elementals came out of it. I interrupted the group's complaints to ask for permission to kill any fire elementals we encountered so I could see if I get their powers. They said go for it.

I altered the flight path and followed the river for most of the day. I eventually saw what looked to be a humanoid made of fire. I did the smart thing and destroyed it with my frosty breath from the air. I encountered two more fire elementals and repeated this process. This put me in a great mood. If I can get their power I will be able to increase my damage potential by an insane amount. Fire might be one of the most commonly resisted types of damage but it was still powerful. I couldn’t wait to sleep tonight.