It has taken me a full day to recover from my beer drinking exuberance. I do believe it could be considered poison. Certainly, I envision scenarios where someone could drink enough ale to die. If I had doubled the amount I drank, I could very well be dead right now. Thankfully, I survived to inform you of an idea this brewed beverage has given me. Given the debilitating effects of the drink, if it were to be made readily available at establishments in each city the Legion has conquered and assimilated, the population could be easily controlled to a certain extent. Let this entry be a reminder that when I return from this expedition I should run experiments to determine which elements of beer could be manipulated through chemistry to offer desired results such as compliance, obedience, submission, and cooperation. It could be a most malleable elixir with a myriad of applications useful to the Legion.
The way forward has been slow and challenging despite the maps I have brought. Many years have passed since I have traveled to the Tanglefern Thicket. Vegetation has become so overgrown that landmarks and navigation points look different than I remember. We have had to backtrack just to stay on the trail a few times already. Dashyl seems to be enjoying it, though, smashing through the brush and asking me the names of all the unfamiliar flora and fauna we encounter. The ubiquitous tangleferns are just about to unfurl the curly tips of their branches, which means the calendar is changing over to the Meduna Cycle and the Blossoming will soon begin. The Blossoming Phase will bring out the arthids that we are here to collect. The tiny carapids will begin to swarm over the new growth and flowering vegetation, drinking their fill of sap that they will turn into the unique fluid I need to run my experiments. Dashyl and I will be collecting and milking thousands and thousands of these little creatures to extract enough to supply my experimentation for many cycles to come.
We are in the very northeast corner of the Thicket. We will painstakingly make our way south and traverse the Thicket like a needle pulling thread up and down and back again until we have covered its many acres. We will need to contact the Keepers of Tanglefern to restock our supplies, but I have brought a good amount of qu to spend. The Keepers live an isolated and often bitter existence. Many of them "volunteer" to be a keeper to escape punishment or avoid paying debts in other areas of Legion control. They will enjoy a chance to earn some easy qu selling me food and whatever else we may come to need. For now, we have all that we need as we start the working part of our journey.
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