Deep Water in Waterdeep

Recovery of the 1021 Almanac, Part V

We flew for hours (nay, years!) until we reached a swirling, spinning whirlpool of clouds indicating another vortex, presumably the one which would return us to our natural material plane, where "up" was up and "down" was down and the sun shown during the day and the moon lit the night.

The immense eagle flew us into the vortex, and suddenly the snow-covered Toril landscape appeared below us, a massive sheet of virgin white ice screaming up to meet us at a speed as great as the one in which we sprang from the aarakokras' tower. At the last second, the great bird of prey, who had been warned by Kaawnick not to eat us (I swear to the Oak Father, it's true!), pulled up and landed upon the snowy plain of Toril as lightly as a falling feather kisses the ground. And then Baron was gone, but a blur, an arrow shot from a bow drawn and released by a titan.

I fear I shall never see this grand creature again.

Thank the goddess Selûne we had the pirate Jolly with us, for if not for his navigation skills, we surely would have met death at the outer edges of the wilderness. Using his navigation tools, Jolly determined we landed east-southeast of Waterdeep near the Dessarin Valley. So, led by Jolly, we marched west-northwest until sunset, at which time we made a fire, huddled together, and traded watch for well over a dozen hours, waiting for the sun to break the horizon on a new day.

It was here that Jolly finally opened the 1021 Almanac to discover what secret contained within it made it so coveted by two different parties. The question went unanswered as its only remarkable contents mentioned the Husteem noble family and how in the year 1021 the entire family perished to a plague. I even cast the ritual Detect Magic, and the book turned out to be ordinary, containing no wards or hint of enchantment.

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Photo: https://www.deviantart.com/art/LotL-Giant-Eagle-430803417