February 28th

As Rory went to sleep and Thog emerged, Snarg and Higaide quickly realized something unusual; sometime over the last few weeks Thog had grown from a near mindless beast into a fully sentient creature that could clearly speak Common without issue.  Snarg and Higaide didn't quite know what to do with this, and were on eggshells while dealing with the monstrous Tusker, but eventually found a degree of common ground with him.  The three hunted, cooked, talked, and finally convinced Thog to sleep, reverting him to Rory.  

When the sun rose the group headed out again towards Irondell, found it in good condition albeit with rumors spreading at an alarming rate about the war and the disaster, though it was so much hearsay that at this point there was no useful information.  Moving along swiftly, the party arrived at the debris pile that used to be Janwall.  

Along the way, Javan was doing worse and worse as he began ranting insanely as a sort of crystalline chitin began growing around him, eventually concealing him completely.  Kolson agreed to watch after him for the night, but by morning's light Javan was gone, as was the carapace.   It turns out something... unusual had happened to Javan, with light blue, jagged crystals jutting out of his skin all across his body, with his scarf having fused with his body, also fused with the odd crystals.  Javan felt much more energetic and enthusiastic afterwards, though a bit manic, and has no real idea what happened to him.

The party's next moves were going to be towards Holtburg.

Within Holtburg the party took some time to relax and reconnoiter, as well as some shopping, before some of the party gathered on a small sailing vessel that Snarg had hired in order to perform a proper burial for their Goblin friend, Sally, spreading her ashes onto the waves in as best a simulacra of Goblin rights as they could manage.  

Shortly thereafter the group gathered to confront the leadership of the Exchange over Bonebreaker's actions which benefited the Exchange in every way.  First they visited Oghren, who was surprised at the news and had apparently not heard of it until now.  He had nothing particular to add, though the party did discuss business with him for a bit.  For all of these proceedings Zeiss took the lead, portraying a unified leader and attempting to behave as the Warlord of the Exchange Bloc.

Next they confronted Bonebreaker himself, though on the way there they found he was visiting with several other adventurers, and a surprise; Sareth.  Sareth related his story to the group, as apparently he had been basically abandoned in Janwall and forced into conscription, but managed to talk his way into a position on a ship where he'd encountered another familiar face, the Elven captain Kolson had sent to claim the ship over a week ago.  Between the two they escaped from the area, ship intact, and the woman claimed the ship as her own and sent sailing for different shores while Sareth remained in Holtburg.

Bonebreaker, for himself, did not seem particularly sorry over his actions nor in keeping the party out of the loop, as it was his argument that while they were busy doing 'adventuring things' he was running a business (successfully) back home.  Zeiss insisted they be kept in the loop on everything, and appointed Sareth to be the group's liaison in this manner.  This settled, the group took the Hub to Arwic to continue their next leg of the journey; towards the Light Temple.

While in Arwic, two curious things happened.  First, all the Fairies present acted very strangely around Javan, though with some quick thinking from Z Javan began to pose as Zeiss' Aspect, which allayed suspicions.  While there, Javan insisted on re-visiting the Pools, the spot where all Fairies are birthed from, and while there began hearing voices.  The Keepers who were present heard nothing, and initially berated Javan for 'attempting to go back home', but after they heard his story a bit realized that they were mistaken and left him be, answering no further questions on his condition.

Meanwhile, Snarg had to procure a small auditorium to keep Thog in when Rory went to sleep, and Thog was even more intelligent and self aware this time around.  He was especially confused given the fact that he could not smell Fairies, at all, and Tuskers receive a huge percentage of their perception from scent.  He also broke down a wall in a half hearted attempt to escape, which basically went no where, before being talked down by the party.  After some more discussion during which Thog realized he had access to another person's memories, the truth about Rory and the relation between Thog and Rory was revealed to him, which Thog did not take well.  After considerable more talk, Thog was eventually convinced to 'go to sleep' again, though the thought of keeping a bit of a diary to communicate between the two was mentioned.