2022.09.17, Nikonai Nikanios

 it hates us but it didn't and it was eaten consumed and its twisted twisted we are like an anthill under a carriage and the horses are spooked but ants can still eat we have to eat it if we eat it it can be good and ours im so hungry tree eyes should we open it can we open it my eyes are still cold and its watching we need to eat it and i can feel the way it sees us through my bones no supplies no rations eating time consuming time where is it 

On our return to the High Wilderness, and how it changed in the past few months. The expeditioning party was composed of Castille, Lina, Mortred and Nikonai

Facts

 * We can feel the cold even from beyond the portal. Every place we explored so far is completely frozen and coated in snow.
 * The eastern wing of the dam appears to have been destroyed by a glacier of some sort coming from the lake it was supposed to contain. A lot of rooms are inaccessible.
 * The lake above the dam, the reservoir below, and the river that was flowing from it are all frozen solid
 * The lake above the dam (needs a name?) has grown another spire. It's different from the one that was there last time, and we could not see the top of it
 * The frozen lake is dangerous. There is a large eyeless anglerfish and the ice cracks under our feet.
 * The woods to the east of the lake are also dangerous. Time and/or cognition seems to slip from us
 * We heard a piercing scream from the woods. Different from the groaning of the hopworth willow
 * Most structures in the void are destroyed almost beyond recognition. In particular, any writing has been scratched out. Good thing I got rubbings of it a while ago.
 * Importantly, whatever was tearing through the void could break through the dark stone that everything there is made out of
 * Among the rubble in the void we found a small stone medallion, with something that looks like a sun inscribed in it. Notably there is no sun in the High Wilderness
 * We could feel something moving around the corridors between rooms in the void. Possibly the anglerfish from the lake? We did hypothesize that the void is somehow under the lake
 * The barrier of feathers and dawn that Philharmandra put up in the void has a crack

Considerations

 * How far does the cold reach? We did not check the ziggurat village. We did not check further north from the lake. Either way the epicenter is probably in the void, below the lake.
 * We should probably consider a group project to clear the hallways in the dam of rubble. Maybe even to break into the glacier
 * Its possible that we might be able to stop the frost from taking over the High Wilderness if we repair the barrier, or somehow take care of whatever is under it
 * There were distinctive purple flowers in the Shadewoods, possibly related to our lapse of consciousness?
 * The Flensed was consumed by the void entities, and now it looks like it has become something similar to those void entities
 * The anglerfish's bait was talking to us in our tongue

Cartographical finds

 * The barrow where the giant is imprisoned is about 3 miles/4.8 km away from the sunken village
 * The dam is about 100 meters tall
 * On the end that's closer to the dam, the lake is about a mile across. On the eastern side sit the Shadewoods, and on the western side there's plains.
 * About 3 miles north of the dam there is a giant, endless spire of ice

[PLAN A: DAM EXPLORATION]
We punched in the numbers to the portal in the void. 7878617. Instantly we feel the chill wind coming through the portal, and as we cross it's way colder. The room is mostly unchanged, its dark, notably the paper I pinned to the wall so many expeditions ago was still there - but tattered and frozen. The rope to the dam remained, and we used it to cross over. The long hallway we emerged into is mostly the same, except its extremely cold. And there's a giant wall of ice covering about a third of the room on the eastern side. It blocks access to the eastern wing and to the stairs to the eastern side of the topmost pavillion. The doors that were previously locked were now warped by the cold and could swing open effortlessly.

We took the middle door on the south and went down the stairs, into one of the rooms that were previously unexplored. On the eastern side of this room we could see the wall of ice preventing us from continuing there, and the whole southern half of the room was missing, instead we could see the southern landmass from here. The river and reservoir are frozen solid. Lina investigated the room to see what caused it to collapse, and concluded that it was ice damage. The hallway on the west was blocked by rubble, which matches what our maps say.

Back on the long hallway, we take the western door to the pavillion outside and assess the damage. There's no jingle like there was on the other side. To the east, the dam just disappears into ice, we can't see the other side of the pavillion. To the north, the lake is frozen, and about 3 miles into the frozen lake there's an enormous spire, so tall we can't see the top. We saw a similar tower before, before Philharmandra sealed the cold in the void, but this one looks different. I took the chance to do some cartography. Without measuring things on site i couldn't get much, but I did measure approx. 3 miles between the barrow where the giant is imprisoned and the sunken (now frozen) village.

We went back down the dam to see if anything had changed. Our usual route up the dam seems relatively unchanged, but the dome we usually enter through now has no roof and is a little more destroyed than before. The easternmost dome is completely gone, and the one next to it is halfway consumed by the glacier coming from the lake. Since we don't have much else we can explore, we've decided to explore the frozen lake

[PLAN B: LAKE EXPLORATION]
Mortred set up a rope and climbed down but ended up breaking the ice. I went down to help but couldnt see anything past the surface of the water. After we got her out we decided to go along the coast instead of through the ice, which still threatened to crack. The forest beyond the coast has these gigantic trees, bigger than anything I've ever seen. We walked along the coast until we hear a piercing scream from inside the forest. We followed the sound into the forest, small purple flowers under our feet

[PLAN B EX: FOREST INTERMISSION]
After some unspecified amount of time walking, we realized we were camping. There were no tracks anywhere, not even ours. Our camping supplies were spent but we didn't feel any more rested. We marked a tree and followed the sable compass west, back to the lake. On a future expedition we should try to figure out the mystery of this place. We walked and once again lost track of ourselves until we stepped on the freezing water of the lake.

[PLAN B CONT.: FISH]
We continued north until the spire was directly to our west. We started walking towards it until we noticed a woman standing between the spire and ourselves, beckoning us to come closer. "Please, come closer". Castille noted that her feet were encased in the ice of the lake. "Please, help me". "Help me, I'm stuck", "Please, come back". Something moved under the ice, something predatory. Lina and I got further away while Mortred decided to lure it towards the shore. Castille walked close behind us. Mortred did a really cool thing here. Jumped to the skies, covered in violet fire, and falls down on the shape under the ice, shattering it and piercing it with her greatsword. It looks like a giant anglerfish, eyeless, with a tendril reaching up through the ice and becoming that woman, beckoning us. They came back to us and the anglerfish decided not to pursue, depriving us of dinner.

Is this what the sirens out at sea are, too? We always spoke of them as spirits or at least creatures in their own right, but this was just a limb of a greater predator. Oh well. No safe way to get to the spire for now, so we retreated into the dam

[PLAN C: VOID EXPLORATION]
We crossed back into the void, explored various rooms. In general, most structures were ripped apart, despite being made of the same extremely hard material as the walls. Northern room with the statues was completely wrecked. I found, among the rubble, a pendant with imagery of a sun on it. There's no sun in the high wilderness.

The room with the pillars with inscribed writing was similarly wrecked, any writing scratched out. Room with the plinths powered down but generally unharmed. The room that used to have machinery in it was empty now. In the "corridors" between the rooms we felt watched, maybe by the giant anglerfish, maybe by whatever is caged deep inside this place.

Which brings us to that room, where the Flensed was, where it was eaten, where that cold dark sun was sealed. It's cold. Just looking into that room felt extremely painful. But it's cracking. Nothing lasts forever, specially not trying to contain something like this. The barrier is bulging, cracked and frozen. It's still barely holding it in check. There's a crack in the barrier. The crack is like so small but so much is getting through. So much. I could understand it. It didn't speak and it didn't speak to me but I understood it because it's alive or something like being alive. It wasn't always like this, it used to be... is the word benevolent? But then it was consumed and now it hates everything that we are. Not hate, but more like... it sees our being as wrong, somehow. I could see its three eyes looking back at me. I'm... at least mostly sure that it's the Flensed. Or it's what used to be the Flensed, before it was eaten.

And the crack in the barrier wasn't natural. Something is tearing at it with all its viciousness and its getting through. And it wants to kill us, I think. It doesnt *just* want to kill us, it wants us to suffer. I think.

I blacked out for a moment and when I came back, I was surrounded by three pillars of flesh and thought I was gonna die. Thought they were void entities. But after blinking I realized it was just the rest of my expeditioners. I think something from that dark sun stayed with me. Maybe something of mine stayed with it? I feel its gaze when i close my eyes

I have my theories. I think we can fix this. We can't close the door but maybe we dont need to. I can't write anymore. My eyes still hurt, but they're not too frozen to close them anymore. Just waiting on the portal to open back up so I can get medical attention. I'm extremely hungry. End of report.