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// Margrave Gilderoy, Date Unknown, w/Notes V 
// Story: The Gilderoy Expedition 
// by PaulAsaran 
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From the private logbook of Lord Margrave Gilderoy of Fletcherstown.



As exciting as it is cracking this ice, Eastern Leaves brought up a good point today. She reminded me that according to the paperwork I used to justify this expedition, we’re supposed to be collecting ice core samples for research into the glacier’s history. Tedious and boring stuff, not likely to wield anything of note as far as I’m concerned. It does get those geological history enthusiasts down at LRU going. We certainly don’t need seventy-two creatures here just to pour goop down a hole.

I’ve divided the expedition into five teams, each with twelve crew. I, of course, will remain here to continue the real point of this venture. The other teams are to spread out with an equal share of the boring equipment, collecting core samples at equal distances in a general spiral pattern. The good news is that I didn’t pick my team offclaw. Each of the collector teams will be led by an experienced professional who knows how to handle expeditions of this variety.

It was foolish not planning this from the beginning. I honestly hadn’t expected the map to lead me right to my target! Thought I’d be scouring the ice for weeks before I got this far. Eastern Leaves is a blessing from Boreas. She learned a bit of what I’m really after—not all of it, at least I don’t think so, but enough to understand that what’s under us is the true goal. I thought she might be a problem upon realizing that, but on the contrary, she seems every bit as eager for this as I am. I decided to keep her on my local team as a show of trust.

The second batch is almost ready. Once all the other teams have departed, I’ll pour it into the crack. Perhaps we won’t have to wait so long for results. To speed up the process, I’ve instructed the team to start taking bore samples at the edges of the crack. With any luck this will make the widening process go by faster and maybe create an opening large enough for us to enter with mere wingpower.

I won’t have any diamond dogs on my team. When I went to Sweetooth to tell him about the new instructions, he demanded that none of his people stay here. He was downright vicious about it! The old dog said there was something evil about that formation below, something his pack could sense instinctively. I knew better than to discount his instincts, so I didn’t argue, but I doubt it’s ‘evil’. More like there’s something down there that they are instinctually prone to dislike, in the same way dragons are subconsciously disturbed by the presence of ponies (a well-documented psychological problem, though they deny it to the last lizard).

It’s fine. I’ve got seven strong griffons and three zebras with potent alchemy, and together they are more than enough to do whatever work we might need. If worse comes to worst, Leaves has her potent fire magic, though I’d hate to turn her gift into a mere ice melting tool. Feels disrespectful.




Cptn. Decadent Dawn, Notes:

Here at last we come to an explanation as to why the camp appeared so diminutive. Yet this discovery raises still further questions. If Gilderoy – I hesitate to refer to any creature who flagrantly wields such pedestrian terminology as ‘goop’ a lord – divided his expedition into a quintet, whatever occurred to the other four teams? Surely the search parties might have spotted some sign of their existence on the ice. And why is it that all eight sleds, the number they were reported to have on the whole, were found at the camp?

Gilderoy’s methodology is aggressive and dangerous, but not entirely lacking in merit. It is a pity he has not written down that mysterious recipe, so valuable for opening the ice, in these clumsy pages. Perhaps one of the other officers has uncovered an appropriate reference. Some sort of acidic substance? My modern chemistry is admittedly lacking, yet I seem to recall acid and ice not playing well together. Delivering the recipe to the Crystal City for analysis would no doubt make some learned scientist’s day.

Unrelated personal note: I really must inquire as to this rumor of great, vicious, wholly unpleasant dragons being disturbed by a mere pony’s presence. Certainly, such a wild and childish suggestion would have seen a stallion laughed out of town in the old times, never to return for fear of his shame being remarked upon and recalled to all who might be nearby! But then, it has been such a grievously long time. Mayhap today there is some paradoxical truth to the idea.

Of real concern are these diamond dogs Gilderoy speaks of and their admiral yet wholly mystifying instincts. Learning of such a thing, I am filled with regret at having not brought one along just to test the concept. I have heard there are dogs in the mountains west of the city. Great, shaggy creatures adapted to the snowy climate, with vast strength and size but ponderous, dim-witted existences. They were not present in the old days. Perhaps in a future expedition some could be brought along, although if their reaction is anything like that of this Sweetooth character then perhaps such an experiment would be deemed cruel by modern scientists and their coddling, limiting moralities.

The night grows long, and I shall have ever so much to do come the sunrise even before we continue our work here. Let me conclude this reading for tonight, and hope the others have discerned much more than I have in these cold, lost pages.