Sleeping City, Waking Creatures

	Such curious creatures, the Somnolent. Something about this event… I believe it has done something to them.

	My traveling partner of the day—Howl, I believe their name was—saw it too. The creatures that infested Euleisat were Somnolent in appearance, but carried themselves… differently. We landed on the Las’aem pad to the north of the city, just outside of the industrial district. It seemed like a smart place to start; perhaps we could salvage some things of use from the wreckage of our society. Such a grim time we live in, you know.

	Still, we became preoccupied with the major stumbling block in that plan, and they soon became our focus. As we stalked between walkways and avoided what we thought were other scavengers, Howl pointed out a small gathering of Maws. It certainly wasn’t the time of year for them to be all the way out here! Yet there they were, hulking umbral forms, digging through the ruins like… well, like us.

	Howl advised we move along and avoid their line of sight, but I’ll admit that my curiosity got the better of me. Against their advice, I traipsed closer to try and study them further. I’d seen them many times before; as a young doctor, they were one of my favored subjects, although I’d long since abandoned that line of research in favor of the more pragmatic. After all, there were few new things to learn about the things… at least, few new things that didn’t involve risking one’s life, something I was unwilling to do so early in my career.

	But there was something off about them. I heard one vocalize; it was a low, thready snarl, perhaps surreptitiously aimed at me, as if it knew I was approaching. Howl took me by the shoulder and demanded, hushed, that we retreat and move on, but I reminded them that I was the one paying for our little excursion, and that they were merely my guard. If I wanted to risk my life, why, that was my prerogative!

	Still, the moment it turned to face me and bared those dripping, glowing teeth, I was a little more keen to follow their orders. We backed off for the time being and went back to our expedition. Indeed, we managed to actually come across a drone factory, still completely intact! There weren’t many drones left, but a few remained that we thought we could get back to Sorrow’s Rest without much trouble.

	Guns in hand, we fished through the place until we were sure we’d seen every nook and cranny. We managed to find a way beneath the facility, into the maintenance tunnels; Howl did not seem interested, but I opted to root through them anyway. Perhaps there was a storage room or something of the like.

	But we instead caught sight of another pack of Somnolent: this time, shadows! Shadows are definitely a rare sight indeed; they usually hid behind their tougher counterparts, but in the dark of these tunnels I saw only their distinct, swirly faces… sneering at me. Yes, expressions! They were usually animalistic, but there was something distinctly sapient about these things, it was fascinating! They began to recoil somewhat when we approached, which was as well unusual for them—Somnolent were never quite the type to back down from something. Perhaps it was my sheer intimidating might… or maybe that of my partner, ha ha.

	Still, I spoke to them. A simple “hello”, to which there was a response! Certainly not a vocal one, but they chittered and snarled in a way that thoroughly communicated something along the lines of ‘go away’. If you could see the look on my face then, you’d think I’d seen a ghost!

	Howl brushed past me, and stomped their foot, and half-raised their gun. I tried to get them to stop, but they harshly shoved me off and insisted on warding away the spectral creatures. Within moments, the Shadows were gone, their light zipping away from us down the winding steel halls. I’d never seen a Somnolent flee from something before, not once.

	Of course, Howl chided me for my propensity for ‘playing with monsters’, but I could hardly pay them any mind. I’d spent years studying these baleful symbols of doom, and here they were, almost unrecognizable to me! This all came to be far more exciting and interesting than the actual expedition, something that Howl, although they expressed understanding, seemed annoyed by. I brushed them off; what would a mercenary understand about scientific curiosity, anyway?

	Things got… more interesting, though, as we progressed towards the insides of the city. The city was arranged almost like a bowl, with the innermost parts being the lowest to the ground and expanding outward in waves of buildings that grew taller and taller and messily clambered over each other. Well, messily at first glance; in truth, it was all quite a marvel of ingenious engineering.

	Dead center of the city, nestled among dented and warped metal buildings, some melted by an apparent heat that the wreckage we found gave off, was the remains of an Argent vessel. It was likely a Frigate, or some other battleship—Argent ships tended to be hard to classify and identify, given they did not often follow the same form and titles we were familiar with. Still, it stretched throughout most of the city’s interior, its remains strewn about and marked with strange, bright white… almost burn marks.

	The Somnolent were all over it. In fact, it seemed like they’d concocted a little nest inside. They had desecrated the place with markings we’d never seen before; Argent symbols had been marked with scratches or burned so heavily that the metal onto which they were imprinted melted. There were military drones, Bautazan we believe, torn apart and strewn all over the place, shame none of them were in working condition.

	We managed to find our way to the front of the ship, and climbed our way into the shattered helm. I saw something that I am today still pondering.

	Engraved on its ceiling was a massive, glowing white eye insignia, almost reminiscent of the Vigilant Eye; perhaps a mockery of some sort. As we entered the room, it seemed to move as if to look at us, and blinked.

	We could hear scrabbling footsteps rushing towards the helm, slamming against cold metal. We made a hasty retreat, and opted not to toy with the Somnolent any longer.

	I am worried about what I have seen there. The Somnolent are acting strange. Producing symbolism, vocalizing, adventuring outside of the countenance of the Citadel seemingly year-round… they showed complex behavior that indicates something either terrible or grand, and I am not sure which yet. This merits more study, but so many things do in the wake of the Argent, and I certainly cannot keep up with it all.