thats bc Tamamo technically went missing again. waiting for Cat to say what she will do.

Yulya places her hand on one of the crystals and tries to find out if magic flows through them. Her hand sinks into a gelatinous mucus like slime.
Magic indeed, she takes 2 necrotic damage from the living substrate.

Witnessing this, Alice discards the idea of eating any of those fungi with  heavy heart.
Ah figures. But they look so pretty...

Yulya shakes her aching hand and holds it to Alice - the living towel.

Damned, be careful what you touch, leave that to me!
Alice oozes neutralizing liquid on Yulya's hands to wash off the poison without getting it into her body

Ashley pulls out the dark crystal from her pack. "I bet this is worth something, I know this is the thing Tharden wanted, I bet it's worth a lot more than just ore, and powerful people could use this to speak to their demonic gods.

Alice's eyes narrow.
This thing...
I am still convinced that orb is magnitudes more dangerous than my ship. Not just because some shady sorcerer could use it to level up his pals or talk to evil gods. It's a portal! You saw what happened at the guild. Even under Freya's supervision that Orcas guy managed to intervene. And she couldn't have stopped him if I hadn't stink bombed everything. Imagine some idiot used the crystal on purpose to summon demons. Add a few human sacrifices and I bet it's not overly hard even for a rookie to open the gates of hell.



Alice begins to whisper
I've heard stories about this before. Monsters from the negative plane spilling over entire worlds. It's a runaway process like an avalanche. The more demons manifest, and the more carnage they create, the more mana leaks over, spawning new monstrosities. Eventually the barrier between the material and the negative plane breaks down over a vast area and - well, that's it. Not even the owl guy could seal off such gate once the avalanche is set off...

Alice musters Ashley.
What will you do with this ticking time bomb when we get back? Hand he crystal to the Rockseekers? Pretend we never found it? This must never fall into the wrong hands and we should only use it in an emergency. I wish that mecha goddess had given some advice what to do with it but she's not the most talkative...

Whatever. I think we're being fucked over by just about everyone here, from gods to bandits. But soon they'll learn what it means to mess with the wrong persons...

Alice proceeds to let out her anger at fungus puffballs when suddenly out of nowhere strange smoky dragons

Yulya places her hand on one of the crystals and tries to find out if magic flows through them. Her hand sinks into a gelatinous mucus like slime.
Magic indeed, she takes 2 necrotic damage from the living substrate.

Ashley is appalled by Yulya's action, "Why don't you have gloves?! I wouldn't touch that eww!"

Ow! I - I just wanted to touch the crystals, not any slime!
Yulya shakes her aching hand and holds it to Alice - the living towel.

"Didn't they say something foul was happening here? Necromancers, summoners, opportunists coming in out of the cold. I bet half this stuff wasn't here before that snowstorm, but yeah, that means they must have known about the other half; so sending low level adventurers against this onslaught seems very suspicious to me. First against a hoard of goblins and hobgoblins with wolves and a dragon, now bandits, bugbears, and ghouls? You'd almost think they didn't want us to survive, but maybe that's just me." She gesticulates with growing distaste.

Yulya nods in agreement
Do not forget the drow elf sorcerer of the highest level! To be honest the whole story never made sense to me. Why did Sir Gundren hire us absolute rookies while he had this precious map and nobody had managed to get through to Phandalin for months? It must have been obvious to him this would not be an easy trip s soon as we would leave the High Road. Not to speak of 'scouting ahead' with Sildar and breaking up. It was a recipe for disaster. Or a plan to get abducted with us as witnesses.

"Then Sildar didn't want us dealing with Harbin, but Harbin seems like the most helpful guy. So we know he wants to process the ore so he's looking out for profit,it figures he'd be nice, and wants to be the royalty of Phandalin to the dismay of Elmina Barthen, figures she wouldn't like her rival, and the Rockseekers just want to mine the ore, that I believe, and I don't take the dwarves as being intentionally deceptive; furthermore, why send us to our deaths if that means they still need to clear the mine? Good luck with that!"

Indeed! Despite my initial suspicion Sir Wester was the most helpful character we encountered. He even entrusted these valuable potions to us. I also do not believe in ill intentions of the Rockseekers. Dwarves are rather straightforward people and bad schemers. But maybe they are a little bit - uh - clumsy? Remember Sir Tharden and Sir Nundro rushed off to the goblin cave to save their brother without consulting us then ran past it and luckily only arrived after us. Had they been ahead of us they would have perished against the goblins - or at least ended up as additional hostages for sure. They are miners not combatants. And probably not the greatest strategists either. I worry about their quest to save Sir Gundren to be honest.

Then again as you say the whole thing is suspicious and it does not sit well with me. Why in Eldaths name did they insist we deal with the mine - without a map or any information - while they went off to rescue Sir Gundren without our aid? I would have preferred to deal with this matter first before they do something foolish again.
Yulya briefly falls silent wondering if the Rockseekers may indeed be part of a larger conspiracy involving - literally everyone in Phandalin.

Her frustration intensifies. "Sildar though, I don't trust him at all at this point. My bet is he's working with the bandits. I bet he wants to be the royalty of Phandalin, and what better way than to control the mine and set up a local slave trade. But a mine isn't the best base of operations, so there must be something else going on in here than just mithril ore. Something the Orcs wanted, something the powerful want. That plaque said:"

In the throat of the Forge of Spells, forevermore known as Wave Echo Cave, our greatest treasure was taken from us in the Year of the Empty Hourglass 951... To this day they come to claim what was long lost and strike a new fortune, for the riches of the sword mountains remain a beacon to those who seek wealth and power... but to all who come, show respect for those who forever dwell here as a reminder of what once was...

Ashley pulls out the dark crystal from her pack. "I bet this is worth something, I know this is the thing Tharden wanted, I bet it's worth a lot more than just ore, and powerful people could use this to speak to their demonic gods. The plaque said their greatest treasure was taken, yet people still seek what was long lost. This was lost, but not necessarily taken, so what was long lost? That's my first question for the Rockseekers. What would someone come to this mine for?"

Yulya gazes at the crystal.
I believe this is an immeasurable treasure as it is a literal orb! And therefore the dwarves quest makes no sense. Sir Tharden asked us to bring the amethyst heart from the throne room from the deepest part of the mine. For 75gp. Which by all respect is laughable compared to the value of this crystal. And if anyone would have been able to retrieve it by normally traversing the mine it would have been long gone before the Mechatherial Goddess reached it. I assume the people down there including that drow elf should be far more capable of reaching the throne room than us and they had a huge head start. Yet they did not find it. Thus I conclude Sir Tharden gave us an objective we could not possibly achieve. I am certain we were never meant to encounter this crystal of yours. Maybe he didn't want to pay the quest fee so he gave us an unsolvable quest? But that appears a tad too dirty of a move for a dwarf. Maybe this is not the amethyst heart after all? Sir Gundren was said to be in possession of a valuable map to the Wave Echo Cave. Meaning even for the Rockseekers as dwarves - their own mine was not fully navigable without this map. So how should we rookies with zero experience reach the deepest parts? Impossible!
Either this is not the Amethyst heart and only Sir Gundrens map was meant to lead to this long lost crystal - or we have been tricked by our quest givers. I guess we will find out when we reach the throne room.

As for why this bandit organization came here, I have a hunch. Look at all these crystals. They appear to gather or amplify mana. Remember even Summer said a spell to freeze over the entire land must be god-tier and not something even the most skilled mortal mage could pull off? But if this mine - the Forge of Spells - acts as a giant amplifier, a powerful mage could pull off this trick. This is what I believe this drow is here for.

I have no idea if any of my attacks will be effective against these things. If they don't have a physical body, obviously even my Hand of Harm will do no harm as it's not magic. Ashley should do her Crucifix thing, I'm afraid at and me won't be able to do much damage here.

No wait, I still have 2 explosive sticks! I could at lest throw one of these. Better than nothing.

ok this is brilliant