------------- The Braxton Expedition - Yours Truly

By way of introduction, I should say that my name is Gillian Merrigold. You may think that an odd name for a Sister of Isis, but one must remember that the Symballan Empire has only recently received its independence after many thousands of years as part of the Raidon Protectorate. As such, it is not unusual to find a young girl such as myself serving the Great Mother. But so as not to confuse the reader, my roots are not in Atheae so much as in Taipai.

My grandfather came to this land, this wild coastline along the jungled and sweaty shores of Beotharn around the time that The Daughter of Isis first established our temple, the year 18422 of the Gailen calendar, right after the War of Arrallon. It was when Aeriel Hayes was building the ASH-Taipai shipping line. Molasar Mallabane was writing his Drovik Manifesto, taking from the histories of a thousand other socialist and communist regimes across the galaxy, and hoping to learn from their ultimate failures. But I'm getting off the subject. My grandparents were originally from Battle Ward, Atheae. Here they led a plain enough life, working the docks and buying a small home and raising three boys. My father grew up on the docks. The jungle was always something he wished to explore, but never did. Dangers lurked there, dangers worse than fang and claw, but disease of every kind. These lands had not been so blessed by civilization, and those diseases that had long since been eradicated on Callona, for instance, ran rampant here. And there were few enough Clerics and Healers to stem the tide of infection. A plague swept through the docks district of Taipai, killing many. I lost one uncle before I even knew him,... my grandmother as well. My father fell ill and grandpapa used what savings he had to take him to the newly built Temple of Isis. There, after a short convalescence, my father met my mother, one of the acolytes. They were married a year later. I, and my three sisters and younger brother, soon followed.

Isis and the Gods of the Iniad were always worshipped in our home, humble though it was, and when I was old enough, I was initiated into the Church. The Sisters soon discovered I was gifted enough to be trained as a Mystic, but my interests were never in the grand magics of some, but in machinery and science, and that new field of study called Paratechnology. I found engagement in the libraries of the Church, transcribing scrolls and filing books, and my life became common and rather dull. For ten years I served as a Scribe and Paratech, working on the designs of the first airships built by the church.

A few months ago, I received a letter from Raidon. It was from a Doctor Taylor Hayes III, Professor of Arcanology at the Raidon Royal Academy. He was seeking certain documents and I was assigned to help him. I found the maps and journals he was seeking in one of the many shops here in Taipai. Last week, a man arrived at the Temple looking for me. He is not yet 30, tall and handsome, and so very worldly. He is a lesser noble from Sonntaglia, a baron or some such. His name, Lord Calvert Braxton. He is taking an expedition into the interior, to search for a lost tribe of elves. I will go with him, as scribe, priestess, and interpreter. This being my first trip away from temple, I'm both excited and terrified. What mysteries will we uncover together? What dangers will we face? I can't wait to find out.

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