The Mystery of Merec's Aedyran Expedition: Where Did Edriga Fall? (spoilers)

[Gilmoy]

I log every bark, note, and dialogue. From this, I reconstruct more of the full story!
N.B. a bark in PoE1 is transient floating text from a person or magnifying-glass icon.

The PoE1 wiki is incomplete on this story, because it considers only notes.
https://pillarsofeternity.fandom.com/wiki/Expedition_Log

N.B. this thread contains story spoilers, for reading enrichment only.
It doesn't reveal any gameplay spoilers. You won't learn monsters or tactics here.
-- Gilmoy

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The Full Party of Merec's Aedyran Expedition
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We six comprise the Aedyran Expedition into the Endless Paths of Od Nua!

1. Faramund
2. Andras
3. Edriga
4. Sceyda
5. Drafden
6. Merec

Merec is the ringleader, visionary, and driving force.
He convinces and enlists the five of us!
As we fall one by one, he convinces the survivors to press ever onward!

I, Drafden, write the Expedition Log in my journal, which is quite a large text.
Perhaps I should bind it with 3 rings shaped like 'D' (for 'D'rafden).
I shall ask my artisan friends to pursue this upon my return to the Empire.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Faramund falls in Od Nua 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I, Faramund, am separated from the other 5 here.
You may infer that the xaurips broke me and left me for dead in their latrine.

There, I write Faramund's Curse[pillarsofeternity.fandom.com]:

So I record:
+ this room is the xaurips' latrine
+ Andras fell, jumped, or was thrown into the Sacrificial Pit, and took the elevator to 5
+ Five of us left, and you run -- Andras already fell, I'm still here, you four ran
+ I name Merec and Drafden, but not the other 2

You may strip Hand and Key (Unique Medium Armor) off my dead body.
The "Corpse" is me, it's my corpse. I don't get things named after me, even when it's me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
2. Andras falls into Od Nua 5's pool (and does dirty before it)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
They all watched me fall!
+ Faramund's Curse writes: Help Andras right into a great big pit, more like.

But I got 'em good before I left. I love me some Mocga's Tears!
I emptied my full supply (and I'll tell you, that's not a little bit) into their bucket!
And carried half of that down with me, into the pool at the bottom!

+ In Od Nua 2's Sacrificial Pit, the bucket next to the pit barks:
This bucket ... gives off an acrid stench.
You recognize it as Mocga's Tears, a powerful poison.

The stain barks: Blood spilled from this bucket seems have eaten into the stone.
Yah, Mocga's Tears is a molecular acid, like Ripley Alien blood! That's what I paid for!

+ If you jump into the Pit, it's an elevator to Od Nua 5's blood pool, with no malus.

- If you climb down, then everybody falls anyways.
- all members with Athletics 3(?)+ get no malus (Edér Athletics 5)
- all members with Athletics 0-2 get Minor Fatigue debuff (Aloth Athletics 2)
- 1 random member who ties with lowest Athletics gets an Injury

I didn't jump, I was pushed! And they all saw it!

+ In Od Nua 5's blood pool, that's my own corpse at the edge of the pool, half-in.
It barks: The corpse draped over the edge of the pool is contorted in the throes of what must have been his final agony. Rotting, skeletal hands still clutch towards his throat.

Sure, that's where I kept it when it's not in my pockets.
I wasn't choking, I was pushing it out in a fine spray!
It was fine, as long as I could push it out! I don't remember after that.

+ Drafden in Od Nua 6's Expedition Log Note writes:
I found Andras. I don't think he was alive for long, after that fall, but he made use of his time. The entire pool reeked of Mocga's Tears. The crooked bastard always did love his poisons.

I still do love 'em!

What broke my back was some hard bits in the pool when I landed on 'em.
But my Tears soon cut up everything so small you can't see it without tiny-glass.
The pool is all smooth and soft now, like a pudding, or a deep stack of fluffy towels.

And my Pool of Tears did poison xaurips for years and years after my "visit"!
Trouble is, xaurips are so near crazy already, poison in their head hardly changes them.

+ In Od Nua 3, Ogre Thulgar's dialogue adds a grim footnote.

"Isn't there something to eat down here?"
For a time we feasted on the xaurips, and lived well.
But the xaurip tribes have become diseased. Poisoned.
We did not notice at first. Not until we, too, began to grow weak.
Some of us became like feral creatures, maddened by the poison.

That's my Mocga's Tears at work!
Working its way up the food chain in ever-stronger concentrations, until finally the apex eater has a brain that can't brain.

I'm almost sad I brought the ogres low.
I never even met them, they weren't none of my enemies yet.

But I hear that xaurips are now so brain-addled that they'll just stand in a Chill Fog,
and never once think to step out of it! Mebbe that'll help you find my body!

Wave hello as you pass me, I'll be here all century, and the next.
Too bad my Tears have mostly evaporated, there's none left you could reclaim.

I reckon you could jump yourself into the blood pool over and over again, and not poison your own brains. But if you're jumping into the pool just to go deeper faster, you're already poisoned in your head with worse than Tears, like Merec was! I salute you both, and spit!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
3. Edriga screamed (and wherever was the deed done?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Od Nua 4's Expedition Log Page, in the Ruined Library, tersely records:
We thought Sceyda lost alongside Edriga, but she has returned, carrying a strange seal ... -- and I did not return with her.

Od Nua 5's Expedition Log Page, in the study just east of the blood pool, says:
I cannot stop thinking about Edriga, the way she screamed.
So Drafden was near enough to hear me. I was that close to getting out.

It is written:
+ Sceyda returns with the Peridot Overseer Seal.

+ The other 2 seals are Bloodstone in Od Nua 6 NW, and Sapphire in Od Nua 6 SE.
+ Od Nua 6 comprises exactly 3 other rooms:
+ center room that welcomes you to the show, and you're the clown
+ north room with the sealed door that consumes all 3 seals
+ east room with ... nothing at all. Just a looted sarcophagus. A dry run, no reward.

I conjecture that the Peridot Overseer Seal came from the NE crypt.
That's why it's empty! And they're the ones who looted it! -- G.

~~~~

Who's to tell it, who wasn't there?
I'm there still, and it's mine to say. But then, who's to ever read it?

You'll carve it onto a (wooden) post and throw it onto a (woven) web?
Is this new magic? (Yes, it is, and yes, I will. -- G.)

Ay, so Sceyda has the notion to climb the rock shaft, head-first like two squirrels.
Near straight down it went, ten times the height of me if any.
(N.B. That would reach from Od Nua 4 to Od Nua 6, bypassing all of Od Nua 5. -- G.)

We drop into a crypt, dimly lit with a single torch.
All around us are the sounds of things walking, but not breathing.

Sceyda wants to scribble-trace the inscriptions off the coffin lids.
I said, what they put on the outside isn't the treasure they hold dear.
We smash it open, and it's true twice over:
the treasure isn't outside that skeleton's skull, it's stuck inside it.
It's a hard puzzle to get it out, and both of them in one piece each!
We do it the easy way.

Now it's a round seal of adra we hold, with a peridot inset, and a hammer engraved.
Sceyda traces some lids and walls. Me, I look out the door.

We climb up the shaft, but it's harder going up.
Coming down, you can let gravity pull you sliding past blind ledges.
Going up, you have to lift yourself, without seeing the grips.
I'm stuck a time or two, and Sceyda reaches back and pulls me up.

Then Sceyda bumps into my feet from below. Sceyda is below me.
Who's pulling me up?

And I can hear the sound of two of us climbing ... but only Sceyda is breathing.

So I scream. It's the last time air moves through my lungs, and it goes from in to out.
To this day, I can still mouth-talk by moving my lips, but no air passes either way.
That's the only why I'm silent. It's not from being dead, or afraid, or having no say.

I have things to say still, I just lack the air to vibrate it.
Hold a light close to my face, watch my lips move, and we can still talk that way.
Visit me twice, and you won't need to breathe, either

~~~~

In Od Nua 6, the east workshop/crypt has the usual hard fights.
But it contains no Seal, and no reward. Compared to the rest of Od Nua 6, that's unusual.

The sarcophagus barks:
This sarcophagus has been pillaged, its contents removed.
The skeleton within has been all but destroyed, its skull cracked into several pieces.

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4. Sceyda succumbs in Od Nua 4 or 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Od Nua 4's Expedition Log Page, in the Ruined Library, continues:
Sceyda ... is badly wounded, and Merec is tending to her.

Od Nua 5's Expedition Log Page, in the blood pool's adjacent study, concludes:
Sceyda did not make it. I know Merec tried his best ...
We have lost half of our people ... especially with Sceyda gone.

I infer that Merec tended Sceyda's injuries within Od Nua 4's Ruined Library.
It may have occurred before then, and Drafden only wrote about it later.
But I conjecture that the tending takes hours (= 1 rest ).
That gives Drafden enough downtime to log the current day's data.

Similarly, I think Sceyda died in Od Nua 5's study, and Drafden promptly wrote about it.
She could have died at any earlier point between 4's Library and 5's study.

Consider also Drafden's curious statement of half of our people, and not "two-thirds".
But later, in Od Nua 6's Expedition Log Page, he finally writes: I found Andras.
And he didn't write that earlier. So at that moment, I infer that he thought the roster was:

[x] KIA (known): Faramund, Edriga, Sceyda
~~~~
[..] MIA (unknown): Andras
[_] can go onward: Drafden, Merec

Hence his use of "half of our people" is mathematically consistent with his knowledge.
Their confirmed KIA are indeed 3 of 6, exactly half. Andras is only MIA, yet.
(The hypothesis of a party-of-8 is contradicted by Faramund's Curse, which see.)

Ironically, they find Andras's corpse in the very next room, which is the blood pool.
Thereafter, he can count Andras as KIA.

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5. Drafden dies in Od Nua 6 SE
~~~~~~~~~~~~
The corpse is named "Drafden", and it holds Od Nua 6's Expedition Log Page:
I wonder if Merec still does. It's just the two of us now ...

It also has Hirbel's Protective Skin (Unique Medium Armor), kind of meh.
Also in this room is 1 of the 3 Seals you need.

~~~~~~~~~~~
6. Merec dies in Od Nua 6 before the sealed doors
~~~~~~~~~~~
The final corpse, and the end of the saga, is named "Merec".
It has Od Nua 6's Bloody Expedition Log Page.

I conjecture that this page is actually written by Sceyda, as she dies in Od Nua 5's study.
+ Her dream is to retire with Merec, together
+ Get the ... final seal from the fourth floor, and run the rest of the way out of here. -- This implies that they would be coming upward from below the 4th floor, and they (would) keep going upward, and not return downward.
+ It's bloody. Drafden's own page wasn't, so I don't think it's his blood.

It could be Merec's blood, from injuries when they barely escaped the drake.
It could be Sceyda's blood, from her fatal injuries.

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Conjecture: Merec is not the Lost Spirit?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Almost on top of the "Merec" corpse, there's also a Watcher spirit, in ghostly purple.
The (too-)obvious implication is that the Lost Spirit is Merec.

But I don't like it, because the Lost Spirit's dialogue text is such a poor fit for Merec's saga.
I cannot hear myself. How am I to tell her anything?
Please, there is nothing here. Will I never be out of this place?

Interact with it again and it barks:
I told her. I told her please, please let me out. Let me out. Let me out!

That just doesn't fit Merec's storyline, not with Sceyda, nor with any other member.
Instead, it strongly hints at a completely distinct storyline.
This new storyline seems to feature:

+ a mysterious her
+ an imprisonment theme
+ a task to tell her something

I conjecture that this Lost Spirit is part of the deeper Od Nua quest.
(I've never been past Od Nua 8-and-a-half.)
It's not the end of Merec, it's the prologue of a new saga.

Surely it will be answered ... in a future post

[Fanty]

yes

[ZirzoR]

This is on the verge of "Maybe abit too much?"

Love the effort & the passion, but its really not something people want to read, lol.