So, what now?

Im in the depths of Russia and getting home will be a bitch.

And it was, with the war going and all that just getting on the fligth was a hassle to no end but that was just the start.

The moment we set down at home i was greeted by our secret service, understandable as i made a short plan 1 day trip to Russia.

Luckly the story of the Hiking trip cut short by a blizzard was relativley believable but it took quiet some convincing why i didnt have a return ticket prepared before hand.

Tried to explain that i wanted to reduce my chances of being detained by not giving a concrete time to be at the airport.

It was an exhaustive experience and im probably on some sort of list by now, though i suspect if it would impede a contract that entry would just disapear.

Anyway back to work it is.

I've been to Finland.
Looking for trolls and Etiäinen in the Finnish forests. Maybe a Menninkäinen, but I doubted I'd be that lucky. Some of my contacts had posted that they'd observed some strange happenings in the forests near Pokka. I've spent three weeks with backpack and recording equipment, walking between spots of snow, lakes, rivers, and trees, trees as far as the eye could see.
It was... beautiful, I have to say, but eerie. From time to time I needed to call on an Ircanrraat, otherwise I might've gone insane. Internet connection was... more than spotty, even my satellite connection. Like the forest was a smothering blanket.
I've spent days with not a single sound. Only the vague hiss of my blood in my ears, a whistling that seemed like self-protection from the absolute nothing - until even that stopped. Total. Absolute. Silence. No birds. No snapping. No snow falling. No wind blowing. Absolute, utter, complete silence.
I've never heard anything like it.
I've never experienced anything like it.
This is what being deaf must be. It is terrifying.
I really thought I'd go mad, and maybe I did, because while I never saw hide nor hair of any Finnish cryptid, but I think a piece of the Finnish silence came along with me. When I remember that utter stillness, and visualize it, and... channel it... it comes back, just for a couple of seconds, just for a quick reminder of a cold and dark stillness, of a forest beyond time.

It is time to sit down and clear my thoughts. Make a timeline of things. Collate data.
I need to procure some items, and fetch some of my stuff from storage - these adventures are dangerous. More dangerous than I'd have guessed! That tentacle thing almost killed Evan in the room with the well. Thankfully mom's gear fits me pretty well. I don't think she's worn most of it in a decade.

Anyway, what do I know?

Harbingers. That's what my visitor called his... bosses? The people he works for?
They - from what little the others said - seem to not be able to do these jobs by themselves, as that'd draw too much attention. So there are other players in the game? Presumably working at odds? Mr. Wexner seems to have been at odds. And powerful, otherwise he'd not have had a goddamn tesseract gallery. That's supervillain stuff right there. Magic supervillain. A trap that has devoured several people before us, if the remains were anything to go by.

I can think about the implications later, for now I have to prepare. I'm gonna need to adjust my go-bag, if this will happen again.

I really hope it will happen again.