Nell's Diary

14^th of Octumbre, 1581 TR

Dear Diary,

What the hell is wrong with men?

First they promote you (2^nd Lieutenant, Junior Grade), and give you a beautiful shield (another family heirloom), and then they completely ruin the moment by accusing your companion(s) of betraying the empire. At least, that’s what my uncle Percival did. He’s a captain, and I’ve never met him before. He’s hardly ever mentioned at home; I think he and Father had a falling out of some sort.

But that’s not even the worst of it. After vigorously defending my companions’ honor, I was told that my “friends” had stolen away, WITHOUT ME, after strict orders not to leave Bayview. They didn’t even bother to leave a note! Is this what I get for my loyalty? I understand if there was a dire emergency, but if they had time to pack up their belongings then they had time to WRITE A BLOODY NOTE. It didn’t have to say why they left or where they were going, if such information was too sensitive, but it could have at least said, “Sorry Nell, we had no choice but to leave now. We would never abandon you without a good reason.”

Men. Honestly.

My uncle instructed me to go after my companions and make sure they did not let the key to the Crystal Tomb fall into Orgoshi hands. I asked around town to try and find out how and why my companions left. After talking to a drunkard, I discovered that he had ferried them across the sea. When my uncle confronted me about my progress I instinctively lied. But I’m not a good liar, and my uncle wrested the truth from me.

I’m still not sure why I lied. I think I was partly humiliated to discover that my companions had up and left against orders and without leaving an explanation for me. I was hoping the drunk had overheard their conversation, that they had left a message for me with him, or that they had at least mentioned feeling guilty about leaving without me. Alas, they did neither. The other reason I tried to lie to my uncle was loyalty. It’s ludicrous to suggest that I should be loyal to my companions above the Watchguard, especially my uncle, but when you travel day and night with a group of people, relying on them to watch out for you and looking out for them in return, enduring countless dangers and injuries, it’s incredibly hard not to put your loyalty to them above all others. I couldn’t fathom that they had left without good reason.

But I digress. After discovering where they’d gone, my uncle instructed me to follow and bring the key and my companions back, whether they wanted to return or not. I was given a party of a dozen soldiers, and I was expected to lead them. Being promoted is wonderful and filled me with pride – actually owning up to the responsibilities of my new rank made me nauseous. Thankfully the sergeant was very knowledgeable.

We were ferried across the sea as my companions had been. We knew the general direction they would be heading. Later that day, as we trekked across the snow, the ground suddenly gave way beneath me. I dug my armor into the ice and managed not to fall down a long tunnel. I did, however, lose my grip on my maul, and it slid down the passageway. I could just see it at the bottom, and decided to go after it. Just as I was reaching for my beloved maul, I heard a growl coming from two glowing blue eyes. The eyes belonged to a huge white wolf, which proceeded to lunge for my throat. I seized my maul and attacked.

This amazing creature, aside from being a wolf, which is dangerous enough as is, could breathe gusts of icy cold air! When he tried to harm me with this power, however, my armor protected me. Then I noticed something even more peculiar – the wolf look puzzled by this. But he continued to attack, so I continued to defend myself. Eventually, when I was about to make the killing blow, the wolf cried out, “Deal!”

Turns out these white wolves can also speak in the common tongue. Needless to say, I faltered. When I regained my composure, I spoke with the wolf. His name was Rolf (you have to really roll the r, so it sounds like growling). He wanted to make a deal with me. In exchange for sparing his life and dispatching of his pack’s Orgoshi master, he and the other wolves would lead me to my companions. This seemed like a good deal to me, so I accepted.

I shouted up to the soldiers to wait for me. Then I followed Rolf to the den of his shaman master. Well, the “shaman” turned out to be nothing more than an Orgosh (of the small, extremely annoying kind) with a few potions, like some alchemist’s fire. He would wave his arms about and chant nonsense before throwing the potion, pretending as if he’d cast a spell. My armor protected me from his mixtures as well as it had against Rolf’s icy breath. I dispatched the “shaman” easily, and quite impressed the wolves. They even took to calling me “Mistress,” which I really enjoyed, to be perfectly honest.

True to their word, the wolves found my companions’ trail and tracked them to a valley. The valley was filled with dead bodies. Some were Orgoshi, some were human; some were Easteners, and some bore flags and banners with emblems I didn’t recognize. Upon closer inspection, it looked like the “valley” had actually been created by a powerful spell. At the center there was a huge pile of bodies. Every minute or so, the pile would quiver. I didn’t know what was underneath, but I had no desire to find out. Rather than walk across the valley to the other end, the soldiers and I traveled around the edge.

When we got to the other side of the valley, we found a body that seemed to end halfway. Now, he wasn’t cut in half in the way you normally see, where the guts are hanging out and there is blood everywhere – he just abruptly ended at the torso. When I tried to walk around him, I disappeared from the soldiers’ view, and inadvertently discovered an illusion. On one side there was a view of snow and trees. But when you stepped past the invisible barrier, the Crystal Tomb came into view.

The soldiers and I marched onward toward the Tomb, but before we reached the gate we could see two creatures guarding the entrance. They were monstrous; slightly translucent blue skin covered their massive bodies. Even from a distance I could see their mighty claws and teeth. They paced in front of the door, their long arms almost dragging on the ground. I knew there was no way we could defeat them.

But past the monsters was the only way through. I froze, couldn’t make a decision. So the sergeant made one for me. He said, “We’ll fend them off while you run through.” Then they charged. As I ran past them into the Tomb, I could see in my peripheral vision the monsters tearing the men apart. Not one survived. If my companions had just waited for me, I could have gone with them and no one need have died. That’s all just wishful thinking now.

Anyway, the Tomb was a labyrinth. I had no idea how to find my friends. I meandered through the halls, past several menacing stone statues that decided I was trespassing. After battling several of these annoyances, and feeling that I was completely lost, I finally found my “friends.” Well, they had no excuse for leaving me, other than it was “urgent.” Apparently it was the type of urgent that allows you time to pack, but not to write a note. Not only did they have no excuse, they weren’t even really sorry! The only one who actually apologized in so many words was Gideon. Gideon. What is the world coming to?

To make matters even worse, they didn’t have the key anymore. They traded it for another. They traded the key that I supposed to retrieve with men from some other empire that I didn’t even know existed. Apparently the Tomb we were in did not hold magic that would be helpful to us, but the new key opens a Tomb that will be helpful.

I should have arrested them right there, I know, but I couldn’t. Despite what they’ve done, I still believe that they have the Empire’s best interests at heart, and they are my friends. We’re on our way back to Bayview now, and I know that we can explain it all to Uncle.

Somehow it’ll all work out.

Fall from grace Or: You'd better all hope Constantine does not go Goth, cuz ther'll be more of this coming if he does. . .

People need certainties.

They need to have faith that at the end of a hard day of work, they
will be fed, or paid for their trouble.

They need to know that their work is worth something. That the furrows
they plow will be planted with seeds, which will grow to feed the
people.

They need to know that there is meaning in their life.

They need to know that there is a reason to get out of bed in the
morning.

Some people have lots of small certainties, tiny articles of faith. A
village to please. A litany of minor saints they are sure are watching
their every action, hopefully with approval. A thousand rituals they
have concocted to make them feel happy throughout their day. A short
prayer at dawn. A nod to this shrine every time a thread almost slips
on the loom, to that one every time you don't quite nick yourself
chopping vegetables.

Some people have fewer certainties, but larger ones. That caring for
their family is necessary, and right. That their magistrate is just,
and honest. That their priest is pure, and good.

I have only ever had one, big enough that I needed no other. Ariad is
all that is good. All that flows from him is good, and all that is
good flows from him.

The priesthood flows from him. and so the priesthood is good.

The empire flows from him, and is blessed by him, and so it is good.

The watch flows from the empire, which flows from Ariad, and so it is
good.

I flow from Ariad, and my strength flows from Ariad, and my visions
flow from Ariad, and I am blessed of him, and so I am good.

My life has meaning, and it is his meaning. And so I rise from my bed
each morning. And this too is good.

But Ariad is a lie. A sham. A smokescreen for evil men to blind the
people with, and gain power for themselves.

There is no Ariad. And there never has been.

And it is not good.

I am empty, I am without foundation.

I am crumbling inside.



I am not strong enough to go on by myself. Not strong enough to live
alone, under the weight of this lie that was all that I am.

I can feel myself dying. And for the first time in my life, I am
afraid of it. For the first time I do not know what awaits me.

I do not know anything.

There are no certainties.

In my heart, there is no faith.

Light and Shadow

My Life Thus Far

By Matthias Lateralus

Before the Wall:

Growing up, I had the unfortunate honor of being the youngest of three sons to the head of the small Freeholder house Lateralus, located deep in the wilds. As such, my oldest brother Edgar was the favorite of my father, and I of my mother. While Edgar would be out hunting and training with the sword, I was inside being coddled by my mother. I quickly learned to read and write and spent most of my days with my face in a book. The rest of my time was spent with my other brother, Maynard. We would sneak away and play in the forests surrounding the manor. My mother would always warn me not to play in the wilds, for they are unpredictable and dangerous.

As we grew, my eldest brother continued to spend all his time with our father, and they were frequently gone, visiting the countryside and Father’s estates. I continued my studies with a tutor, since I had long learned everything my mother could teach me and more. I grew increasingly interested in mythology, especially the divine, yet couldn’t learn much due to a lack of text on the subject (and lack of text in general). I remember asking about my family history, and getting a cold look from the tutor. All I could ever get him to tell me was that, long ago, the head of the family committed some unspeakable act and the remaining family had to flee from Tiryns.

Meanwhile, Maynard was now allowed to practice every day with sword and bow, as his dreams were to go to the wall and become a glorious hero. I never understood his desire to fight horrible creatures and perhaps die, but he would just say that someday I might.

By the time I turned sixteen, Edgar had all but assumed control of the family, as my Father’s health had been failing in the past years. We all worried for him and the house grew silent and cold as if readying itself for his death. I was especially worried because I knew Edgar was not all he appeared to be. He had never been very nice to me or anyone else for that matter and as the years passed, he developed a sickly pallor, yet seemed to become more and more invigorated. Whispered rumors about Edgar dealing with men that had murder in their eyes reached my ears and troubled me greatly. Some even spoke of him digging in the family crypt.

One night I decided to follow Edgar to see if these rumors had any substance, and was horrified by what I saw. The night air coated my arms and face with a soft layer of moisture. It was not uncommon for there to be mist and fog, but tonight it seemed especially dense. I followed Edgar down to the family graveyard and watched as he entered the main crypt. Down and down I followed the flickering light of his torch, for how long I do not remember. I kept hoping that the incessant pounding of my heart would not be heard by my brother.

Just as I thought the passageways could not possibly delve any deeper I realized the torchlight had stopped ahead, and I crept up to the edge of an archway, peering inside. I gazed upon a large room twice the height of a man and five times as long. Lifelike statues lined the walls, and many broken wooden coffins were scattered across the floor, out of place in a family crypt full of intricately carved marble sarcophagi. Kneeling over one of the coffins was Edgar, waving his hand over the body inside. To my horror the body inside moved, and suddenly sat upright! It was then that I realized the figures standing about the room were not stone statues as I had earlier thought, but bodies that swayed slightly and stared with dead eyes.

I let out a choked scream and tried to run but my body would not respond. It was then that Edgar spun around and looked directly at me, and it was the blue fire in his eyes and hand that brought my body to life. Turning to run, something impossibly cold smashed into my back causing me to stumble and crack my skull on the wall. As blackness crept across my vision, I remember hearing shouts and battle cries as I saw what appeared to be three men and one woman all rushing into the room, clad head-to-toe in shining armor. The rest passed as if in a dream. Shining bolts of light sprang from the hands of the woman, and a large hairy man roared, swinging his gigantic axe among the swaying bodies.

As I lay slumped against the wall, a wet feeling trickling down my head and back, a bright light, brighter than any I have ever seen, shone throughout the room. I looked up to see a gleaming man holding a sun-shaped symbol above his head. From that sun the light gushed forth, destroying the walking corpses as flame destroys cobwebs. And just as quickly as it had come, the light vanished. Left standing in the middle of the room was this magnificent man, still seeming to glow, and nothing else. Feeling much weaker now, my head slumped and I tasted copper in my mouth. Before I lost consciousness I remember seeing the brilliant man striding towards me, his outstretched hand glowing with the light of the sun, and the words, “You will live young one, and one day you too will serve…”

After that night my brother Edgar disappeared. I had awoken back at the manor, under the care of several servants. The only information I could gather on the identities of the group that had saved my life was that they served the Watch and had come to deal with the trouble my brother had been causing. Everyone seemed relieved at his apparent death, all except Maynard. Being the eldest remaining son, it was now his duty to oversee the family affairs and stay at home. His lifelong dream had been to travel to the wall and serve on the Watch. But the duty now fell on me to travel north to the wall and serve in the name of my family, Lateralus. So I bid my farewells and traveled north, all the while wondering if I would ever see that magnificent man and the beautiful symbol he held in his hand.

On the Wall:

When I arrived at the wall, I was quickly processed and sent to train with all the other new recruits. The days were grueling and spent under the scornful eye of the drill master who seemed to love nothing but grinding us into the mud. After a time we were deemed worthy to advance to the rank of Private, and I was sent on my very first patrol.

As we were gathering up to depart, I gaped when I saw the very man who had saved my life stride up to our group. He said his name was Dryden and he would be leading us on this raid against Orgoshi camps to the north. Not wanting to gush and seem out of place, I said nothing, but couldn’t help glancing at his shining armor and shield with the wonderful symbol of the sun upon it.

The raid was unfortunately unsuccessful when we were ambushed several miles before reaching the camps. I fought as best I could but was in awe of Dryden and his skill in dispatching the attackers. After the battle he went among the wounded and I again witnessed the golden flame in his hands mending the wounds of my comrades. I could no longer contain myself and began asking questions about the source of the light and golden flame I had seen in the crypt and again after the ambush. Dryden smiled and took me aside as we all began the long march back to the wall.

The journey back was filled with my questions about how he was able to mend the wounds of the fallen. He told me that he served under the great god Pelor. It was by praying and devoting himself entirely that he was given these gifts to aid others in need. I then asked him if he could teach me in the ways of these mystical and divine arts. With a smile and a nod I was to become the disciple of Dryden, Radiant Servant of Pelor.

Over the next few years I learned to pray to receive the wonderful gifts granted by Pelor, and use those gifts to aid those in need. Dryden also spoke of always bringing the light to the darkness, seeking out the evil which plagues man. I was delighted to discover that I took to the teachings very well and quickly mastered many different incantations and spells.

But this mentorship was not to last forever. One day, just like any other on patrol, we were investigating rumors of some giant beast prowling the woods near a small town over the wall. Nobody was prepared when a fifteen foot beast came roaring in a full charge out of the trees and leapt amongst us, swinging a tree trunk and causing devastation. In the initial rush I was caught in the side by the massive hunk of wood and sent flying to the wide of the fight. Struggling to catch my breath and heal my wounds, I looked back to the fight to see Dryden standing alone amongst fallen comrades. He seemed so small next to the behemoth and yet shone like a star in the sunlight. Lifting his holy symbol and crying aloud a jet of golden flame shot down from the heavens directly on the beast. But this amazing feat was in vain as it only seemed to enrage the monster and reaching above its head with both hands on the trunk, it swung down in an arc, catching Dryden by surprise and catapulting him through the air where he smashed against a tree.

I let loose a cry of anguish and rage and charged directly for the beast only to be met with the side of the tree trunk, and blackness took me. I awoke back in the wall infirmary and was told that another patrol had come upon the devastation left by the beast. They told me that Dryden was dead and I was the only survivor of a twenty man patrol. Presenting me with Dryden’s armor and crumpled shield, they silently left the room and left me to weep for my fallen mentor.

That night I had a very strange, vivid dream. I was walking alone in darkness, through a valley or perhaps a forest, when I suddenly heard a singsong voice calling my name. I followed the voice for, in the way of dreams, perhaps 100 yards, perhaps 100 miles, when I came across a still pond with a glowing white ball in the center. A voice seemed centered upon the ball and it sang to me these words:

“Twice to run, twice to fade, once more for the glory repaid.
Never to see, always to look, in time, everything is remembered by book.
One Sun for the glory of ages past, two more for the screams of
remembrance dashed.
Still one more for night, and the last one for pain, at the end of the
light, all will be plain.”

To this day, I have no notion of what the voice was speaking of, but I do know this was no ordinary dream, even though the healers told me false visions were common among head trauma patients.

Time passed and I healed in body and soul, and was to take over as the unit’s healer. Showing great prowess on the field of battle and with my healing abilities, I was quickly promoted to Private, First Class. I only hoped that I could live up to the teachings given to me by Dryden and aid all those in need.

A New Journey:

I received orders today to meet a new group of privates and escort them on some mission of which I do not know the details. But my goal has always been the same: complete the mission and keep everyone alive. I was surprised when I came to learn that I had been promoted to Specialist for the mission and told that if I continued to display my cunning leadership I might be granted the honor of Sword Leader.

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 8

A fellow Elf from the Seale'de by the name of Isiil used to play this eerie tune on his lute whenever something strange and creepy happened. I've had that tune repeating in my head for the last few days.

Where I last left off, my party members and I had decided to murder an Orgoshi ogre that we had previously entered into a bargain with. Perhaps the honest adventuring just got a little too boring and it was time to step things up a little bit. A little murder here, some backstabbing there and perhaps a little treachery to top things off ... The typical resources commonly exploited by those seeking excitement. But I digress.

Anyway, we nearly passed out on top of each other, desperately needing the rest after the long march and the dangerous battle. But, in the middle of the night, a man approached our camp. He was very friendly, but he wanted to know why we were in his territory and why we had made a mess of it. It turned out that he was very similar to Brom in that he was very much in tune with nature and could make use of the mystical energies that pulse through nature in order to aid him. He was simply keeping an eye on us and wanted to make sure that we cleaned the ogre's remains so that the creatures of nature could make use of them properly. He also wanted to make sure that we left his territory before too long. So, he camped with us through the remainder of the night and he guided us out of his territory and toward the coast. He was very friendly, and helpful as well. We apologized for trespassing and thanked him for his help once we parted ways with him.

For a day we traveled on the border of the wilds and the coast, attempting to make our way toward The Wall. During that time we saw an aquatic vessel sailing south on the ocean. It was fascinating. I wonder how they deal with all of the sea monsters. It must be a very risky undertaking.

At some point near the coast, Brom was flying around in his owl-shape and spotted a very large eagle flying in our direction. He flew back down to us and informed us of it and that it was flying fast. He said it was the size of a horse. Well, sure enough, it was the size of a horse. Perhaps a bit larger. And there was a man riding atop it. The rider and the eagle landed not far from us. When the rider dismounted and approached, we could see that he was very different looking. He was very thin and slight, much like my people, but his eyes were the strangest feature. His eye-color rapidly shifted between many different, vibrant hues. His speech was very precise and accurate. He was very friendly and greeted us kindly. We were also kind to him. He informed that his name was not capable of being pronounced in our tongue, but to simply refer to him as "Brown". So, we did. When I asked him what his native tongue was, he informed us that it was Celestial, which both Constantine and I speak fluently. But, it turns out that, according to a native of the Celestial plains (Brown), Constantine and I have rather pronounced and undesirable accents when speaking Celestial. Constantine seemed quite a bit taken aback and disappointed when Brown informed us of this.

As we spoke with Brown, it had turned out that he was a knight in his land, and that he is sent to places in order to help out good travelers and that at times he suddenly appears in places and other realms, seemingly without notice, for the same reason. This, it turns out, was one of those times when he was suddenly popped into our plane of existence and it seemed that we were, in fact, the "good travelers" that he was to assist.

Brown was a very chaotic creature and, after his brief description of the land that he comes from, so is his home, where weather and earth shift and change frequently. And, at one point during our conversation, Brown suddenly changed into a wild whirlwind and headed off rapidly toward the ocean and then, moments later, returned and resumed his more humanoid form and acted as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. At that point, he was ready to take us off to The Wall and quite eager, at that. So, his eagle friend summoned some of his other eagle friends to carry us up into the air and fly us to the wall.

It was a fascinating experience. The giant eagles that were carrying us to The Wall were very adept and swift fliers, even while burdened by their large passengers. And they made excellent conversation (they spoke Common and, aside from their rough, bird-like accent, they spoke it very, very well). My giant eagle escort conversed with me about many adventures. I told him of all of the encounters that my party and I had witnessed over the last couple months and he, in turn, told me of many great adventures he had experienced. It must be amazing to be able to fly all of the time. To travel so quickly and so far must make for quite the number of adventures.

Our escorts landed a bit away from largely populated areas, for obvious reasons. We thanked them all and they acknowledged our thanks and flew off. And as suddenly as we met him, Brown informed us that his service to us was done, and before we could even thank him and offer to return the favor, he too was off and about his business.

After this exhilarating experience, we were quite tired and exhausted. We marched on for a little longer, until we came to some farmlands, and went in search of shelter for the night. The first farm that we approached we managed to get ourselves ousted from rather promptly. Gideon, the odd man that he is, managed to convince the locals that he was a demon and, as a result, stirred up a pack of locals with pitchforks and torches who were about ready to attack us. So, we quickly moved on and sought out another farm a little farther off. There we spent the night and learned the next morning of some very disturbing news about a rather successful and devastating Orgoshi raid that managed to level the village of Bayview. Bayview is in the Freelands and is the home of Brom. Brom was quite disturbed by this news and, understandably, left our party very quickly in flight as an owl, presumably to go back to his home and aid his friends and family. We'll miss Brom and I truly hope that he and his friends and family are all well.

We also learned that The Watch had sent out announcements throughout Tiryns, recalling all of its members back to The Wall. So, after eating and cleaning up, we thanked our kind hosts and headed out to The Wall.

After a couple more days of journey on foot, we arrived and ran into Lucien almost immediately after entering. Lucien wanted to speak with us right then-and-there about what we have been up to, but after a few words and a quick glance at the amulet that I was wearing around my neck and hiding down my tunic, he quickly realized that privacy was necessary. He told us to go ahead and eat and clean up and then we would be escorted to a private room where he could speak with us.

After eating and cleaning ourselves up a bit, we were escorted to the private room where we were met by a mystic and by Lucien. I did not trust the mystic, at first, but she did not seem overtly devious. She also found Gideon's antics to be somewhat amusing, so she's probably a good person. So, I showed her the Amulet Of The Crystal Tomb and she asked me if I knew anything of it. I told her what I did know, which was little, and she filled in the blanks for us. It turns out that he Orgoshi must be hunting down these amulets in order to bring out what is locked away within the Crystal Tombs. The tombs, apparently, hold powerful magicks and mystical items and were locked away since about the time the empire's history dates back to. And the amulets that are marked with the maps are the "keys" that grant access to these tombs. It is uncertain whether or not one amulet can access all tombs or each amulet is unique to its own tomb. My guess is that each amulet is a unique key, otherwise the security of the tombs would be weakened and one person could get access to all tombs with one "key". Lucien informed us that, since we were all now aware of the existence and nature of the amulets and the potential motive of the Orgoshi, that we would now serve a direct role in preventing the Orgoshi from getting a hold of these amulets.

After our debriefing, we were escorted to our quarters and told to make ourselves comfortable and we would soon be escorted again to swear our vows to The Wall. We went into town and deposited all of our valuables that we could not easily carry into a bank and ran a few errands. Then we ate and cleaned up and we were then escorted off to become official members of The Watch. After swearing in we were given very large tomes that contain the litany, rules, laws and regulations of The Watch. I read through the book that night and boy is it droll, filled with mundane, run-on descriptions of rather benign subject matter. Hm.

Note: Practice adding more flare to writing.

The next day we were given our "orders", which were in the form of a large scroll, sealed with wax and the imprint of someone's signet ring. Apparently we are not allowed to open these "orders" ourselves. We were then given a tour of the wall and the others were introduced to some of the duties they could expect to be doing over the next six months. These duties are extremely banal and it is hard to believe that they expect people to do these things. They expect people to pace around at all times, never being allowed to sit down and read a book until their "shift" is over. Sometimes humans amaze me. At one moment, I see the spark of intelligence and adventure in humans and then I see the dull, dying flicker of a flame being smothered by droning repetition and mindless, colorless and tasteless monotony. So, I asked them where the books were. They told me that they were somewhere not anywhere near there.

The next day we proceeded on out of West Watch and on toward East Watch. Humans are not known much for creativity when it comes to naming locations and places, it seems. We traveled for about a week and came to a city that was far too crowded for my tastes. But, with a crowded city comes goods and gold and trade, so I guess I cannot complain too much. Here we met Matthias who is probably the cleanest, shiniest and friendliest person I have ever met. Gideon's use of the nonexistent word "beamy" to describe Matthias is strangely accurate. The man sparkles and glistens and it seems that there is always a significant source of light around him and above him. He'll never be able to hide from anyone. But he's a very friendly man. He was even genuinely kind to Gideon, which I have never seen before. He is a religious man and I think they call his kind a "Cleric" or a "clergyman". Except that he wears armor, which seems a little strange to me for severely religious man. He managed to frighten Gideon and that was impressive. Another thing I had never witnessed before. All-in-all, I think Matthias is a good person to have around. And he's been instructed by his superiors to assist us in our "duties". So, in our party, perhaps the world's most unclean and pungently aromatic human (Brom) gets replaced by perhaps the world's most clean and aromatically inoffensive human (Matthias). What a coincidence! Humans really have a knack for extremes.

Anyway, after getting to know Matthias a bit and watching Gideon turn into a nervous wreck, Constantine handed Matthias our "orders" and Matthias took us to another clean man and handed the orders to him.

I seem to be drawing upon a vast void of knowledge at this point. Oh, hey! I identified lots of neat items that we were carrying. Fun mystical stuff. And I identified a bunch of neat scrolls. I will need to transpose those to something suitable for my spellbooks. And I need to go back to the tailor today to get my black garments designed and started. And I really need to gargle some water. I've been choking on pearl dust all day.

Tiryns Times North, Sunday Edition, Jule 22, 1581

HUNDREDS DEAD IN BAYVIEW

FREELANDS, Jule 20 - After a period of quiet the sudden attack on Bayview (also known as Orthagundt), the only civilized portion of the Great Northern Waste, sees the town completely destroyed with hundreds dead.

For the past several weeks members of the Watch have been reporting little or no activity along the Orgoshi border, some have even commented on a certain tranquility to the Waste. Now that peace lies shattered and drowned in the blood of the hundreds of men and women who lost their lives in a ruthless sneak attack late Friday evening. Reports are still coming in, but the death toll is already over two-thirds the population of the entire town.

Eyewitness reports of the battle say the Orgoshi came upon unsuspecting sentries in the dead of night and managed to make it over the gate without an alarm being raised. After that it was simply a bloodbath. "The only good thing," states a shaken refugee, "Is that they didn't get around to blocking off the southern escape, so a few of us managed to make it." A member of the Watch who refused to be named also commented on that miraculous escape. "They must have been planning this for weeks, I can't imagine why they would let something like a southern escape slip their plans, but thank Heironeous that they did."

Watch officials have declined to comment about any planned counterattack, but anonymous sources reveal that reinforcements have been called for from The Capital, and a correspondent to the throne reports an emergency meeting between King and Council has been called for as early as next week.

"Whatever else happens, make no mistake, the empire is once again at war," says Bryce Evenhanded, Captain General of the Watchguard.

MASSIVE RECALL OF WATCH

EASTWATCH, Jule 21 - Watch officials report that all members of the Watch have been called to station, including anyone on leave, extended assignment and Cadets not yet reported in.

"In light of the recent tragedy," says a Watch spokesperson, "We can ill afford to have the Brothers and Sisters of the Long Watch away from home." Apparently only those Watch members on extended diplomatic or time-sensitive missions have been allowed to remain at their posts. Dispatches flew by pigeon as early as Saturday morning.

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 7

I feel dirty.

Anyway, the last week of events has been rather trying. Let me see if I can properly order my thoughts and get them down accurately into this journal.

Well, after raiding the wyvern's lair, we proceeded onward, toward the spire continuing with our plan to destroy Lady Aborn and the vampire Azubahl. Near the base of the spire, we found the entrance that we had been seeking, which lead back up to where Azubahl kept his quarters. But, upon arriving at the cave, we were--as usual--attacked by Orgoshi. We dealt with them without difficulty, at least where the first batch of Orgoshi were concerned. But while fighting these Orgoshi, one of them rang a crude alarm in an effort to warn other nearby Orgoshi of our approach. Gideon, thinking quickly, tried to make himself sound like a goblin and called out to the preparing Orgoshi, claiming that it was a false alarm. But, for some reason, he made the claim in the common tongue, not in Orgoshi. It almost seemed like his bluff would work. We all hid in the dark, hoping to escape notice when an Orgoshi came downstairs, into the room where the alarm was sounded, apparently checking to make sure there was nothing to be alarmed about. We almost had him fooled, but then someone made some noise and alerted the Orgoshi, who then slammed the door and ran back up the stairs from which he came.

The Orgoshi tried to prepare a trap for us with a flammable, viscus liquid which they poured down the stairwell, but Constantine and I came up with the idea to trigger their trap early and cause it to backfire on them. The idea worked, and we took advantage of the surprise, allowing us to run up the stairs and attack very suddenly, but more Orgoshi were already waiting and prepared. We took them all out without too much trouble, but then an ogre captain of some sort came out with a pack of more surly looking Orgoshi than the ones we had just defeated. The ogre called out to us from across the room and told us that if we survived these next foes, that he would have a word with us. So, we killed them. Actually, it really wasn't that simple at all. We suffered some serious damage when we engaged them. They were very strong. In the meantime, the ogre walked off into another room, presumably waiting for us. After a very trying and dangerous fight, we destroyed the Orgoshi that the ogre brought out.

While I was looting the corpses of the previous battle, Gideon stumbled upon a trap (literally). Gideon's discovery nearly killed more than one of our party members and seriously wounded all but himself and me. We quickly got everyone dragged out of the blast radius of the trap (which turned out to be some kind of re-triggering evocation spell) and healed everyone. Then we got the idea to use the trap against our enemies by having Gideon open the door to the next room and lure the next combatants out into the room that we were in and Gideon would then trigger the trap while the rest of us were safely out of the blast radius. Well, it was a good idea, but it didn't quite work out that way. Unfortunately, when Gideon lured the Orgoshi toward the room after opening the next door, I ... Well, I guess I just was caught up in the heat of battle, and I rushed forward, into the blast radius of the trap, hoping to assist Gideon. Unfortunately, my hotheadedness almost ruined the plan, completely. Because I was in the blast radius, Gideon would not trigger the trap. He's really not as self-serving as he would have you believe. I mean, he could have just triggered the trap, regardless, in favor of saving himself--if not the rest of our party--from potential death. Truthfully, I probably would have survived the blast. I am quick enough to get out of the way of most traps. But Gideon, the friendly chap that he is, would not trigger the trap until I was out of the blast radius. At that moment, strangely, I envisioned myself as a steaming pile of goo. I am not sure why I had such a vision, but it wasn't vivid enough to keep my mind off of the importance of the battle. So, I shrieked, appropriately enough, and ran for cover. Gideon triggered the trap and, well, it didn't quite work out the way we wanted it to. Two of the approaching Orgoshi escaped the blast and charged after those of us that were covered from the blast, which nearly killed a couple of us. But, in the end, we conquered. And now I can look forward to a lucrative career as a specialist in sanitation, waste management and latrine regulation & safety.

As a side note, the viscosity of elements found in goblin latrines is rather disturbing. But Constantine has promised to give a detailed demonstration of how these elements can be properly managed, regardless of the governing custodial relationship of said latrine. As a result, if said demonstration is properly administered with the appropriate level of detail, I should have little difficulty migrating from wizardry to fecal-mucking. Perhaps I can use my knowledge as an evoker in order to assist in my doo duties. Bonus there!

Back to the events that lead up to tonight.

So, after defeating the last Orgoshi warrior and debating where to spend the night before approaching the ogre who wished to speak with us, the ogre actually came out and engaged us in conversation directly. Or did we decide to go straight to him? I don't remember. Well, either way, we did not end up resting. Or, if we did, it was not very long. No, I am quite certain we did not rest. Anyway, we spoke with the ogre and he had a bargain to strike with us. His problem was this: Azubahl had stolen his (the ogre's) master's map. The ogre had killed Azubahl's "girlfriend", which turns out to be Lady Aborn, and had killed Azubahl numerous times, but Azubahl would continue to revive and return to "pester" the ogre.

The ogre wanted us to destroy Azubahl and return the map to the ogre so that he could then bring the map to his master. In return, the ogre would not fight us and would reward us generously. Seeing what arcane magicks encompassed the orge and the items that he wore about him, and considering his size and potential strength, it seemed very wise to not attempt to engage the ogre in battle. In addition to these things, we were already planning to destroy Azubahl, as well as his late "girlfriend," Lady Aborn. So, we agreed to enter the bargain with the ogre. The ogre then let us loot the corpses of his fallen Orgoshi brethren and provided us with a relatively clean place to sleep for the night. Gideon and I spent time conversing with the ogre and telling jokes and at some point that evening Constantine introduced me, for the first time ever, to a goblin latrine (hence the earlier reference). And at two different times of the night Azubahl made his way down to the ogre's lair and was quickly vanquished by the ogre, who spent so little effort destroying Azubahl with a single blow that the whole scene seemed rather comical.

The following morning we all went on our way to destroy Azubahl. When we arrived at the main foyer (if you can call anything in a cave a "foyer") that lead to Azubahl's sleeping quarters inside the creepy well, Azubahl was standing there, as though he was waiting for us. He looked glum and sulky and he spoke to us directly. He asked if there was anything he could do or say to convince us to turn back and leave, but Constantine made it quite clear that he could not allow Azubahl to live. So, Azubahl attacked us and we quickly returned the favor. Azubahl, however, was significantly stronger than when we last fought him and he had some new and deadly talents which used on us. By only touching us with his bare hand, Azubahl was able to drain what seemed to feel like the life-force of Constantine and myself. I felt ill and weak and almost as though part of my soul was simply gone. We dispatched of Azubahl rather quickly and then proceeded into the well to retrieve Azubahl's coffin. We destroyed the shadow creature that was guarding the coffin and hauled the coffin out into the daylight. We then destroyed the coffin with fire and, with the dissipation of the vampire's remains, we found an amulet that was actually the very map that the ogre was seeking.

Now, this amulet/map is very unique. The amulet either harnesses arcane energies or is comprised of arcane energies. The map that is the amulet appears to be constantly moving, never being stable and is a bit disconcerting to look upon. But what is most unique and intriguing about this map is that, as I recall from old histories, it has something to do with the legendary Crystal Tombs that lie parallel to (or outside of) our realm. As I remember it, there were five tombs and they date back to some time around the start of The Empire. And I think they might have something to do with The Empire specifically, but I do not know what. I don't remember much, I don't even know if I read of the Crystal Tombs in books, but something about the map and amulet bring these thoughts to mind. Maybe it has something to do with butterflies from Bromon's Well.

Anyway, we decided to honor our bargain (for the time-being) and returned the map to the ogre. After returning the map to the ogre, he honored his part of our bargain by awarding us with a great deal of platinum Orgoshi currency and not attacking us. Understandably, Constantine wanted to know who the ogre's master was, since he claimed earlier that he was going to bring the map to his master, and Constantine wanted to know how the ogre's master was going to use the map. The ogre was reluctant reveal any further information, but he was honest about the fact that he and his people were working to bring down the empire and he did not want to divulge any further information. The ogre offered to let us travel with him if we could "keep up" with his pace. But, we needed to rest and we were not certain that we wanted to travel with him. So, the ogre prepared to travel that afternoon, but first cast a spell on me with the use of a scroll and an amulet around his neck which alleviated the affects that Azubahl's touch had on me. After that, the orge took to traveling and we spent the night in the ogre's lair. Once we woke, Constantine was determined to track down and destroy this ogre. He claimed that the ogre was evil. I suppose Constantine is more likely to be an authority on good versus evil than anyone else in our party, but if I were in his position, I could just as easily say that "rocks are evil." Actually, he did claim that rocks were evil. I'll have to think about this more. Anyway, in the end, we all agreed to track the ogre and, at least, approach him again and decide (when the time would come) what to do about the ogre.

So, we tracked the ogre for six days and pushed ourselves to our limits in order to catch up with him. On the last day of tracking, we came to a small wilderness village filled with hunters and trackers and rangers. They were kind to us and sold us a great deal of food and fed us. Then they kindly--but firmly--escorted us out of their village and perimeter. On our way out of the village, Constantine asked our escort if he and his people would be willing to help us destroy the ogre. But our escort informed us that, though they are not allies or friends with the Orgoshi, and though they generally despised the Orgoshi, they had somewhat of a peace and pact with the Orgoshi where their tribe is unharmed by the Orgoshi and they, themselves, pose no harm or threat to the Orgoshi. He further added that for them to attack the ogre they would destroy that peace and that they were not willing to put their village at such risk. So, alone, we pushed on to catch up with the ogre.

When we finally caught up with the ogre, we all prepared for battle. I was really not looking forward to fighting the ogre and was already beginning to dread the decision we made. At the last minute, we decided to go forth and destroy the ogre, at which point I used some spells to defend and prepare the party.

When we entered into a clearing in the woods, the ogre was patiently waiting for us, but he too was prepared for battle. He attempted to convince us to turn back, to not attempt an attack, but Constantine put it quite simply that we (or he, really) could not allow the ogre to bring the map back to his master. So, the ogre threw a bright, red, burning boulder at us. At that point, I used a spell to increase everyone's speed except for Brom's (Brom was too far away at the time) and we all flew into battle. The battle was fierce and perhaps the most deadly battle we have yet to be a part of. I set myself up to levitate and then I had to drain the strength of the ogre, which turned out to work quite well. I then increased Nel's strength and cast a few offensive spells at the ogre. Nel delivered a few nasty blows to the ogre and Constantine hit him with a few spells of his own, but it was Gideon who really conquered the ogre. Gideon delivered several deadly blows to the ogre, and the ogre then focused on Gideon and hit him so badly that, for a moment, it looked like Gideon was dead. But then, when everyone was just trying to stay alive, Gideon got up and, in a blur, cut the ogre in so many vital places that the ogre bled to death within instants.

I didn't really feel good about killing this ogre and I voiced my feelings clearly to the rest of the group. So he was evil. I don't know about this "good versus evil" game. All I know is that the ogre held to his end of the bargain and then we killed him and took from him what was his payment for the bargain. I think everyone else in the group (except, maybe, Gideon) feels similar to the way I feel. Normally, I would not care quite so much about the breaking of a deal, but the way we did it just seemed so dirty and despicable.

Well, we're resting now, but there is concern that more Orgoshi will soon come to find us, because when the ogre drew his last breath, his amulet fired off what might have been a warning "flare" into the sky. So, we'll be moving on very soon, I think.

I think I will start wearing more black.

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 6

Well, we headed out of Wildsgate town after receiving from from the Baron's scouts that we had a location for Lady Aborn and that she was in the company of Azubahl. To my amazement, we were each given fine light warhorses and traveling gear--with the exception of Constantine, who already had his own horse and traveling gear--courtesy of the Baron. I chose one of the duns. Gideon chose the least attractive of the horses, a rather homely dapple. Nel also chose a dapple and Brom chose a dun, whom he has named "Horse" for some strange reason. Fortunately, having some experience riding horses in the past, I am not one of the clumsy riders in our group.

So, we headed and it only took us a day to reach a good stopping point at the base of the spires where an alcove in the mountain would be an ideal place to leave the horses. There we encountered two men, one by the name of Barek and the other by the name of Broth. Barek appeared to be a decently intelligent individual, but Broth seemed rather dimwitted. Amongst their party were three horses, and one of those horses happened to be Lady Aborn's mare. At the time, none of us had recognized the mare, but Broth seemed a bit shifty, however dimwitted. So, we were cautious and politely questioned the two men while Brom wandered off, presumably investigating the surroundings.

After some rather uninformative conversation with the two men, Brom came running back to us, as a wolf, and dove into the lake, completely immersing himself in the cold water and then resurfaced in his normal human form. This shocked both of the men and so Brom made up some lame story about the lake being a gateway between two worlds, one consisting entirely of wolves or something. Next thing, Broth dove into the lake and came back out claiming that he could not see the world in there. That was when Brom started going into detail about how when he was scouting, he was attacked by unseen assailants using arrows and said they were not far off from where we were. At that point, Broth then shouted something like "now" and we were set upon by Hobgoblins, I believe, who appeared on the ledge above us and fired upon us with crossbows and spears.

During this fight, Broth attacked us as well, and Barek, amazingly, fought on our side. Poor Barek seemed to not be a very good fighter. He kept slipping and falling and hardly landed a hit on anyone, but he did help out and possibly saved Constantine's life. But, I wonder if Barek is related to the captain of the Wildsgate guard. Anyway, the fight turned very ugly for Constantine when he suddenly started dancing uncontrollably. And while he was dancing, he had a rather horrified and strained look on his face. Obviously he was the victim of some kind of spell. But his dancing attracted the attention of some of the hobgoblins once they lept down to our level from the cliff, and so they surrounded him. He was completely defenseless and almost died as a result. But, in the end, we managed to kill them all and subdue Broth.

Then we found out that the crossbow bolts that hit some of us were poisoned and we had to quickly act in order to keep anyone from dieing. We managed to get everyone fixed up and Constantine shackled Broth so that he could not get away.

After all of that, we decided that it was time to clean up the camp site and get some rest. So, we piled all of the hobgoblin corpses around a tree about fifty feet away from the campfire and some of us bathed. Then, as we were getting prepared to bed down and Constantine was out scouting not too far away, a wyvern came swooping down from across the lake, landed and started consuming the hobgoblin corpses. I was really hoping that it would just go away, but instead it saw us and decided, then to roost atop our alcove and play a game of cat & mouse with us. Wyverns are really annoying, and quite scary. I wanted to create a diversion, so that we could attack the wyvern from behind and then, later, flank it. So, I tried to convince Brom to run out there as a wolf and get its attention, but he was rather insulted by that suggestion. So, we just had to fight it off, right there, as is. We did so and, though it was tough and Brom and Gideon almost go killed by the thing, we still prevailed. At one point, it really looked like Brom was going to keel over and die. I cast a protection spell on him, hoping to stave off further damage to him from the beast, but he managed to get away from the beast and not further suffer the wyvern's attentions. But the wyvern attacked me as well and I could not get away from it very easily. Those horrible creatures can fly, so my own flying and levitation don't help me out much. But, again, in the end, we managed to destroy it.

After that, we dragged the corpse away and I harvested some wyvern claws and scales and teeth. I also removed its heart. We then went to sleep and the night was uneventful.

When we awoke, I discovered that I had no way to securely store the wyvern heart. So, I cooked and ate it. I cannot say exactly why I ate it. Some arcane books that I have read spoke of human sorcerers eating the hearts of dragons and draconic creatures to gain insight into their mystical dragonic abilities and knowledge, which was part of the reason I ate the heart. But, it also just seemed like it should not go to waste. And there were other reasons that I could not exactly explain. I offered some of the cooked heart meat to the others and fed some to our captive, Broth, who was happy to have something to eat. After all, we could not just let him starve out of spite. We then packed up and made ready to climb the spire path. But, first, Constantine tied Broth to a horse, keeping him restrained but allowing him to use his knees to guide the horse. Constantine then placed a signed writ in Broth's belt, the writ describing Broth's crimes and he then instructed Broth to guide the horse back to Wildsgate if he wanted even a chance to live. Broth seemed quite cowed at that point and, hopefully, he will remain to be and do as he is told.

We then headed upslope to a location directly above where we slept the night before, searching for the wyvern's lair, and we did find it, and found some interesting items in there. After gathering up a few choice items, we continue on up the spire's path.

I have settled on a name for the horse that I was given for transportation by the Baron of Wildsgate. I will call him "Arakyn-Mor". And I am going to call Gideon's horse "Caslth".

Now, we are before the mouth of a cave. So, I will close out this entry.

[End of journal entry, next will be the "Thoughts of Erhivor" to fill in the rest]

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 5-B (Addendum)

Oh, yeah! And Brom ate Fred! Gross!

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 5 (Back In Town: Oh, the carnage!)

Well, the last couple of weeks have certainly been ... interesting. The adventure is fun, but it's nothing like it is described in the books that I have read. For instance, the books make it look so simple for the heroes, how they so easily bring down their foes or how easy it is to identify the enemy. But it's not easy and enemies wear many, many different and deceptive faces. And I don't care what the books say, being burned by acid is really distracting and very painful.

Well, we're in a tower in the citadel inhabited by the Baron of Wildsgate, who just happens to adore us for our recent deeds (if at a distance).

So, about 12 days ago, after dispatching of a horde of goblins atop the westernmost peak of the Spires, we encountered Azubahl, a goblin vampire. Vampires, apparently, are "evil" undead creatures who wield embarrassing flails. They are very strong and can only be hurt with magicked silver--or at least this is the case with Azubahl. And, when injured enough, they turn to mist and the mist makes its way to a coffin, whereupon arrival it begins a regenerative process unless someone defiles the coffin, which prevents it from ever fully regenerating into its more physical form. Vampires feed off of living creatures, but instead of devouring the flesh of these creatures, they feed off of their blood. They also appear to prefer to blood of humanoid creatures over others. At least, this is my assessment of this particular vampire's feeding habits, as we did not find any non-humanoid animals with bite marks on their necks.

When we encountered this vampire, it spoke to us, claiming that it had been expecting us and claimed that we were working for "her", which I can only assume he meant Lady Aborn. He then stated that the "secret of the Third Key" would remain with him. He then attacked us. We eventually hurt him enough that he turned to mist. I then observed his mist-like form descend down to a lower platform on the spire and into a trapdoor that we came out of. The trapdoor had the letter "F" on it, which I made the connection of with the creepy well that we saw on the way up to the platforms on the Spire, which was also marked with an "F". In the "throne-room" that the vampire previously occupied, I happened to find a flagstone that was loose and beneath it was a coffin. In that coffin I found a sack of coins and the Emerald Key. But we had little time to waste at that point, so we grabbed what we could quickly and headed out.

We made our way down to well as quickly as possible and made preparations to go down there and finish off the vampire. We lowered Constantine down into the well, but just as Constantine touched the water of the well, a shadow attacked him and seemed to drain him of some of his strength. We had little success, attempting to damage the shadow, so we pulled Constantine back up the well. After some extensive debate, we decided to round up all of the prisoners that the goblins were keeping as sustenance for the vampire and escort them out of the spires and back to town. As we came to the final cave that let out onto the road, we encountered the vampire again, but Constantine, Gideon and Nel managed to dispatch of him quickly, yet not destroy him. So, eventually we must go back to finish him off.

We made it back to town with the prisoners safely and turned them over to the city guard so that they may be healed and cared for. We were rewarded by the Regent and the city residents seemed to have some praise for us. We spent a couple of nights there, gathering supplies and resting. During our visit to town, we spoke with the dwarf at the Hammer & Anvil and I did an excellent job of spooking him and offending him as a result of the war crown that I was wearing. He told me to take off the crown, but, as I had learned days before, I could not take the crown off. The dwarf informed me that I needed to shave off the beard that I had rapidly grown and renounce my clan (or, in my case, my name). I thanked him for the information and then informed him of the silver anvil and gold hammer that we found in the old dwarven citadel. He was astonished and quite taken aback by the fact that the legendary artifacts actually existed. I then informed him of how to get through the traps that were guarding the artifacts. After all of the discussion, we began to barter over contracting the dwarf to craft for us special weapons, armor and ammunition. Once all of the bartering was done, I went back to the inn and shaved and renounced my "name" (as a dwarf). Shaving just might have been originally devised as a means of torture, to draw out delicate information from potentially criminal subjects who would otherwise withhold said information from an interrogator. I would like not to shave hair off of my skin with a metal razor ever again. Anyway, the dwarf's method proved successful, if painful, and the war crown simply fell off of my head as a result. After that, I felt as though I was no longer mentally divided and I found it much easier to focus.

The next morning we did more trading in town and with the dwarf. I offered up the war crown and some spiked scale mail armor to the dwarf to settle Nel's transaction and then we went back to the inn.

We spent a few more days in the town until we could get all of our goods from the dwarf and then we headed North, to the Eastern side of the river and over to the place where the barbarian flesh-eaters lived. Once we entered the thickening forest, Gideon, Nel and Constantine began to suffer the effects of some kind of curse and we began to find creepy-looking dolls with bits of hair and flesh woven about them strewn throughout the trees in the forest. We found a doll that looked somewhat like Nel and whenever we did anything physical to the doll, Nel could somehow "feel" what we were doing. We took the doll with us and continued on to try to track down whoever created the curse and doll, and along the way we found dolls also matching Gideon and Constantine. We collected those dolls and proceeded onward.

As we entered a sprawling, little barbarian living area, consisting of roughly-built wooden walls encircling a large bonfire and several little rough huts, we were assailed by a few barbarians whom we disposed of rather quickly. We then approached the raging bonfire, which was surrounded by dancing barbarian warriors we spotted that the bonfire was centered beneath human corpses, which some of the barbarians were pulling pieces of meat off of and devouring. We decided it was time to break up their little party, so we immediately attacked them and, again, quickly dispatched of them.

We then proceeded onward to cross some barrow mounds and we set upon by corpses granted life through the magicks of Necromancy. We managed to destroy them, but it was not an easy task.

At the head of the barrow mounds was a large building that appeared to be a meeting hall or a celebration hall of sorts. The large double-doors at the front of the building were barred from the inside with a large wooden shaft. So, to make things simple, Nel blasted the doors and shaft to pieces in one fell swoop and we charged in and laid waste to four powerful barbarian warriors. Now, these barbarians are really tough to fit because they do not feel pain and they are very fast. They managed to do some damage to us, but we took them down in good time. And, man! Gideon landed the first hit of the fight on one of the barbarians before they even knew what was happening and hoo! That barbarian didn't even get a chance to start foaming at the mouth like the others did afterward.

These barbarian warriors were using what probably used to be sane and civilized human women as their servants, in many foul and sexual ways, I am sure. These women were obviously kept shackled at all times and were extremely malnourished. They were also like feral animals. They seemed to have no sense or reasoning within their minds. These barbarians had obviously broken the minds and wills of these women. It was a rather horrible reality to witness the state of these women. We tried our best to calm them down, but in the end they ran off into the woods somewhere and probably died of starvation.

After some investigation of the main room of the large building, we continued on, through a back door that led us through a recently-mined cavern and down a hall that dead-ended in a roughly mined-out room where the ceiling was decorated with life-like dolls hanging from strings and swaying around as if moving to a non-existent breeze. At the end of this cavern room was a disturbingly gaunt man standing atop a makeshift throne, holding a skull enveloped in blue flames. As with all evil overlords, it seems, he was expecting us and had been patiently waiting for our arrival. He appeared to be pleased to see us, but then he threw a flaming skull at us. So, we killed him too. He was a bit complicated to kill. The dolls hanging from the sealing kept attacking us while we fought him and he was quite effective with necromantic magic. He managed to scare off Nel and Gideon at one point, but eventually we all overwhelmed him. And that was funny.

Okay, so we found on him what was supposed to be the "Second Key", the "Saphire Key", and the effects that Gideon, Nel and Constantine were suffering had simply vanished after this Necromancer perished, so we headed on out of the cave and building. Gideon got the idea to plunder the barrows, which I must admit, was a rather unsettling and creepy thing to do, but we did find a couple of items to sell in town. We also got attacked by a couple more undead creatures, but they were easy to destroy.

We then headed back up to the dwarven citadel, where we ran into the dwarven smith on his way down the mountain, carrying the silver anvil over his head. He stopped and talked to us for a while, explaining how he would be able to craft finer weapons and armor with this anvil. He was very excited. We then continued on, but the dwarf saw Fred and, thinking Fred was a wild and dangerous shock lizard, he smashed him with the anvil. Poor Fred.

We eventually arrived at the room of dwarven heroes. We inserted the three keys and proceeded through a number of complicated traps that Gideon managed to disarm without too much difficulty. Gideon discovered one secret passage after tinkering with a false traps and lock mechanism. After we went through the secret passage and Gideon discovered another misleading path that lead through traps, I discovered another secret passage in the hallway just past the last secret passage and that led us to a room with two coffers that appeared to be filled with ancient gold coins. I discovered again, in that same room, another secret passage beneath a loose flagstone. But before we entered the secret passage, we decided to check out the two coffers. While doing this, Gideon noticed some movement in one of the coffers and told everyone to hold on for a second. He then withdrew one of his daggers and started to slowly bring it down into one of the coffers. All of a sudden Gideon shouted "run" and he ran off back down the hallway from which we came. None of us really understood what was going on or what Gideon was talking about, so we did not get out of the way before Constantine was attacked by some creature consisting entirely of clear, acidic slime. Then it turned out that there were two of these creatures and both of them must have been inside the coffers before. The two creatures attacked Constantine and Brom relentlessly and were very, very difficult to attack and damage. Gideon noticed that we had not run and that Brom and Constantine might be overwhelmed, so he came back and helped all of us fight these creatures off. In the end, Brom's clothing, armor and beard were all eaten away by the acidic slime of these creatures and Constantine did not fair much better. We then gathered up the gold coins, which it turned out were fewer than we had thought before because the coffers were shallower than they appeared from the outside. The coins were all ancient gold coins and weighed more than the typical gold coin of more recent civilizations. The coffers were dedicated to two dwarven sons from two different families who might have been warring against each other.

After getting the two cleaned up and covered up a bit more, Gideon and I crawled down beneath the loose flagstone, into the secret chamber and Gideon proceeded cautiously forward in a low-ceilinged chamber to discover a few old, oilcloth sacks. The sacks turned out to be containing the stolen heirlooms of the Wildsgate barony and a few bars of gold. So, Gideon and I hauled them back up to the others and we then headed back down to the foot of the mountain.

At the foot of the mountain, we camped for the night and rested up. We then proceeded onward to the town of Wildsgate. Once within the walls of Wildsgate, yet still outside of the town, we were blocked off to the town by Lady Aborn and about a half-score of mounted riders from the Outriders, including the captain of the Outriders. The Lady Aborn accused us of being in possession of the stolen heirlooms and threatened that if we did not hand them over that we would be placed under arrest. Constantine began an attempt to explain to her our intentions, but I already knew that there was no chance that we were getting out of there without a fight. I was positive that the White Lady had absolutely no intention of letting us walk away, no matter what we did. So, I attacked her. Actually, I was going to cast an offensive spell on her, but I then realized that she was too far away from me for that to work. So, I readied a protective spell for myself, but she and her mounted Outriders were too quick to react, so I failed to stay focused enough and failed the spell.

This battle was horrible. Most of us were horribly wounded in the end. The captain of the guard of Wildsgate came out of the town's inner gates with a score of lancers and charged our assailants. But Lady Aborn vanished and managed to get away from the battle safely. The captain of the guard commanded a cease of all fighting and charged one of the outriders, but seemed to overcompensate what appeared to be a fancy dismount, coupled with a powerful attack, and propelled himself in a quite uncontrolled manner off of his mount, careened off of Nel (who hardly noticed the hit) and plowed face-first into the hard-packed dirt of the well-trodden road. That action obviously failed to impress the Outriders, so the Outrider captain and his men continued to fight us. I managed to deliver a significant amount of damage to the Outrider captain with some spells, but he just would not stop. Finally, I tried to make it appear to the Captain of the guard as though I was only holding guard to defend myself by raising my bow in a defensive stance and watching the Outrider captain, but the outrider captain attacked me. I managed to loose one arrow into him at point blank, yet the captain still stood. He missed me with his first blow, but he managed to hit me with the second. Before that I was already in critical condition from him and his men and that last blow took me down.

Apparently, after that, Gideon, who had disappeared at some point when I was not looking, suddenly appeared behind the Outrider captain and cut him and his horse in half with the heirloom sword while the Outrider captain was trying to flee the scene. To top it off, Gideon followed up with the gruesome attack by bellowing "SURPRISE!" and scaring everyone who was not unconscious, dying or already dead half to death. I really wish I could have seen that.

After that, the three remaining Outriders surrendered. After seeing what Gideon did, I think they made a very smart decision. Brom revived me and a medic came around and gave us healing potions. At that time, we explained to the captain our story regarding the heirlooms and our initial encounter with Lady Aborn. The captain informed us that the Lady was, indeed, a criminal and then left to bring word of our actions and what had just occurred to the Regent. While he was off, I looted that bastard Outrider captain's corpse. During that time Gideon managed to get a trace of the Lady's tracks.

Coming as close to death as I did is really disturbing. I haven't even been around for a century. I have so much more I must experience and witness. I want to be around for a good few centuries. But there are wretched things that keep trying to kill me. And this most recent encounter was the closest of all. I don't like that.

Oh! Anyway, the captain came back and informed us that we must see the Baron immediately. So, in the horrible condition that we were, we had an audience with the Baron (or he had an audience with us). The Baron thanked us for our deeds and claimed that he owed us his life. He explained that the Lady Aborn had been exacting conspiracy against the Wildsgate throne for some time. He assured us that his scouts would report directly back to us on the whereabouts of Lady Aborn once they fully trail her and he then granted us many luxuries and a place to stay in what was formerly the Lady's tower.

So, we went up into the tower and got some rest. Early in the evening, though, Gideon disturbed our rest by setting fire to Lady Aborn's undergarments. He also managed to set free her familiar. That was an understandable mistake, though. I tried to explain to everyone why the familiar was a threat, but Constantine was very firm with the idea that I was putting them into danger by speaking to them of it. Humans are just too secretive, sometimes.

Later in the night, Gideon disturbed my rest, again, by calling my name. I walked upstairs and found him lying atop a raised surface covered with a blanket, in a rather strange and leisurely pose. Gideon is strange, but this was a very strange thing to stumble upon when I was so exhausted. I asked Gideon why he was posing like that and he asked told me he had something to show me that he did not trust the others to see. So, I closed the door and he lifted the blanket to show what he was lying on. There were six iron-banded chests that were marked as the property of the Baron of Wildsgate.

Gideon opened each chest, one-by-one, to reveal loads of gold, platinum and other items of value and currency. And one chest contained various items of great worth. One of which was a book in a sack. While Gideon was rummaging through these things, asking me if I had any unmarked chests that we could transplant the coins and gems to, I grabbed the book out of the sack and started to read it. Then I suddenly realized, six days later apparently, that I was in a different room, wearing a lovely belt, with a sign around my neck that had the words "No pickles!" and a spreading knife in my hand. According to Nel, after I opened the book, a snake came out of the book, bit me on the hand and then I was frozen in some form of stasis with an amber-colored forcefield encasing my body. I was in this state for six days. And obviously someone had been having fun at my expense.

After I was hit by this protective spell on the book, the Regent assessed my condition and explained to the rest of the group that the spell would wear off in a few days, then claimed the chests that Gideon had discovered beneath the floorboards of one of the rooms, but left the items of value from one chest behind. Since I was now free of the stasis spell, I was able to open the book that had cursed me in the first place and read it again, as Constantine claimed the book was now safe for reading. The book turns out to be a spellbook and it has spells in it. Most of the spells look necromantic to me, but it will take some more time for me to fully understand the writing.

At this time it was still afternoon on the sixth day in town and everyone (except for me, obviously) was eager to get moving out of town and after Lady Aborn and the vampire. But Nel convinced everyone that I needed the rest and so I headed out to make some quick transactions and get some supplies. Now, finally, I get to update my journal with the most recent events of the last couple weeks. Well, it's time for me to get some meditative rest. This really is a nice belt. It's nice to know that my companions will still share their findings with me, even when I am unconscious or otherwise incapable of interacting with the world.

Tiryns Times North, Sunday Edition, Junet 17, 1581

Violence Increases in the Waste

FREELANDS, Junet 10 - More violence today in the Waste, with much of it occurring in Bayview.

Members of the Watch say skirmishes between Watchguard forces and Orgoshi raiders left three soldiers and 15 goblins dead. The Watchmen also say midnight raids killed at least six villagers in their homes on the outskirts of Bayview.

In other violence, an Eastern diplomat was killed in mysterious circumstances in the town of Eastguard, and a roadside ambush killed two people and wounded two others just north of Wildsgate.

In another incident, Orgoshi stormed the house of a local official in a town about 60 miles north of Wildsgate, forcing family members outside and burning down the house.

Lord Ashden accuses Barony of Wildsgate of providing arms to Easterners

John Ashden, mayor of Ashden's Point, says the Barony of Wildsgate is helping smuggle weapons to the Eastern traders in and around the Wilds, according to local report.

Officials said yesterday that soldiers in the Wilds have recovered at least two sophisticated siege weapons, known as gastrapheltes (or, belly-bows), that are similar to devices that are being used in the Waste and are thought to come from the Orgoshi citadel.

“Obviously we are very interested in finding more about where it came from just so we can prevent more of them in the future,” a Tower spokeswoman tells us.

Human Smuggling, Once Again a Problem

ADACIA, Junet 11 — Three members of the Watch Guard helping patrol the Churchlands border have been charged with human smuggling after Kings Watch agents found one of them in uniform driving a wagon crammed with 16 illegal immigrants from the northern waste lands.

The guardsmen, including two sergeants, were assigned to assisting the Border Patrol and had run multiple smuggling trips at fees of 15 Marks to 25 Marks per passenger, according to the complaint filed in Tiryns by the Kings Watch.

The complaint cited scratched words hidden in tree-stumps such as “16 will be tough to fit but I will try.”

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 4 (Dwarven Citadel, days 4 and 5)

Well, I have been far too busy just trying to stay alive for me to take time to write in this journal. I don't even know why I bother. I mean, what good is it going to do, anyway? Goblins or demons or crazy humans are going to be the death of me too soon. I might as well take this one-hundred-fifty-six gold coins and bury them now, before some goblin eats me and uses them as a spice.

Anyway, after Brom opened a door to a bunch of sparring madmen, they attacked us, and we managed to make them look rather stupid. The last survivor of these men surrendered and brought his mistress to us, who turned out to be some kind of evil, Dark Elf druid by the name of Leoth. She and her rather ugly assistants attacked us on sight and we managed to subdue them all except Leoth.

Leoth fled up a nearby lift, but I poured two flasks of acid on the chain for the lift and the whole thing came crashing down with her on it. I managed to dive out of the way of the crashing lift and when the dust settled, Leoth was unconscious. We tied her up, gagging and blindfolding her, just in case.

Next Gideon searched the back room where Leoth and her friends came from, which had been torched at the last minute by those that attacked us, so we did not find any useful documents or materials. But we did find one of the three special keys that seems to fit in the emerald key slot on the pedestal in the room of heroes.

After Gideon came back from his searching, we were set upon again by a group of attackers. We managed to destroy them, but we suffered greatly from the attack. After that, we bedded down for the night.

When I woke up, Leoth was gone. She appeared to have escaped her bonds and climbed up the lift shaft. Not long after awakening, a man that I could only describe as "pristine", came down the lift shaft, bringing Leoth with him, shackles and all, and he was apparently looking for us. This man's name is Constantine, and though Gideon believes that Constantine is a criminal (but a good-looking one), I believe that he is a Paladin (and a good looking one). He speaks in a very precise and accurate manner, one I would not normally associate with humans. He is obviously very well educated and comes from a wealthy background.

Constantine seems to have suffered trouble similar to what we had suffered in Wildsgate town. He was more than likely attacked by a group of people whom he likely had to kill in order to defend himself and was told by the guard captain to leave town for a while. He is apparently under instruction to accompany us to The Wall. So, we invited him into our group and, again, went to sleep.

Once we woke up again, we walked out to the cliffs overlooking the river that divides the Spires and discussed whether or not Constantine should take Leoth back to town with or without our company. Then Leoth got up the nerve to dive off of the cliff, into the river, while still shackled. Gideon dove off the cliff after her, which is over threescore feet of a drop. That worried me, so I jumped off of the cliff, with the assistance of a Feather Fall spell, to assist him. Once I landed in the water, I remember that I was not a very good swimmer. You know, you don't really tend to think of those things much when you spend most of your life underneath mountains. Of course, I never really lived under a mountain. Oh well. Anyway, Nel helped pull us back up over the cliff on a rope. Leoth is a lot of trouble.

After that, we decided to let Constantine take Leoth back to town while we waited in the hero room of the citadel. It's a very nice room. Once Constantine returned, he wanted to know where to find and destroy this demon (it's name is possibly "Breark") that the Orgoshi are serving (and likely Leoth is cutting deals with). So, Nel showed him the map that one of our earlier captives drew for us, and I informed him that the location was back the way he came from. He was upset that I told him where it was after he got back. I was fairly exhausted, so I wasn't thinking right.

We then proceeded on to the goblin cave that supposedly leads to the demon. Boy, what a mess that was! I'm still finding Goblin and Ogre guts in strange places on my body. It's like sand! I'm finding it everywhere! Anyway, when we first arrived at the location, we had to climb a narrow staircase that was broken by a halfscore-foot-long pit filled with spikes. When Brom, Constantine and Gideon got across the pit, a giant, dead, flaming Ogre was hurled at them, which happened to knock both Brom and Constantine into the pit. Gideon, fortunately, was fast enough to drop to the ground and not be hit by the Ogre corpse. The corpse seemed to have an illusion around it to make it look alive and like it was covered in blue flames. After Brom and Constantine fell into the pit, three Goblins appeared at the top of the steps and started hurling javelins at everyone below.

We managed to get past the staircase without too much trouble. It was messy and awful, though. We then came upon what appeared to be a Goblin leisure room. Needless to say, we slaughtered them all in short time. In the back of that room, there was a cage with a mystical lizard that seems to be capable of shocking its enemies. It was being taunted by the goblins when we arrived. So, we fed it and set it free. It seems to like goblin meat more than anything else. Since then, it's been following us around and cooing and trilling at us. So, Brom named it Fred and it's been a regular companion since then.

After that we encountered a goblin shaman of some sort, who managed to put Gideon asleep for a few seconds with an enchantment spell, but we dispatched of him rather quickly. On him we found a nice spear and some enchanted dice that he was using. The dice seem to have divination qualities to them. In that room, we found a very nasty well at the end of the room and the marking of "F" in common tongue on the floor before the well. We also found a chest, which Gideon was able to disarm and unlock in order to get open. Within which he found some gold and a couple of other items.

We then went back out of that room and took a branching hall up to a trapdoor, which Gideon, Constantine and Brom opened just to have hot coals and ashes dumped on them from a Goblin waiting outside the door. Constantine then blasted them with a cone of fire and cleared the way for us. After that, climbed out to a series of platforms on the cliffs of the spire. It's actually a beautiful view, but I do not think that goblins appreciate the view. We walked up to the next platform to find another large group of goblins lounging about. So, again, we killed them all. Now we're all discussing what to do next. There's another platform that we could go to and a cave as well. There are also barrels of highly flamable Goblin drink, which could be handy later.

Well, everyone's asking me to stop writing and to get ready to move on. I suppose we have finally decided where to go next.

Thoughts of Erhivor: Dwarven Citadel - Day 3

Things have been very strange since we came down into this citadel. We have discovered three magical items here and some strange mystical traps and creatures. The ring that I found not far from where we are now I still have yet to understand. Nel is carrying a magical adamantine Urgrosh, which I have yet to understand the nature of. I am wearing a magical, yet cursed, war crown. The war crown has made me feel stronger and more confident and commanding, yet it seems to be turning me into a Dwarf. It's becoming more and more difficult to remember that I am an Elf the more that I wear this crown, but I cannot take it off. I do have a lovely beard, though.

The room that we found the Urgrosh and the Crown in was inhabited by a young and malnourished White or Blue dragon. Instead of breathing fire as a weapon, it breathed ice. It was a very dangerous and vicious creature, regardless of its malnourished state, though. We managed to kill it, but it nearly killed Brom and Gideon in the process. In that room we not only found the two magical items, but an Orcish spiked shield, a cracked-open egg (from which the dragon probably came), a tooth from what was probably an adult dragon and a stone tablet with Dwarven runes engraved within it and appears to be in some form of code. At that point, I made a really stupid mistake and put the war crown on.

Getting to the room of relics was a little complicated as it was trapped with magic. The trap was in six parts, where in order to deactivate them, one must utter the name of a Dwarven hero whose sigil matched the rune engraved on the floor. The heroes and sigils matched those who had statues in the room nearby where I found the curious magic ring that I have. At the end of the hall with the six traps, just outside of the room of relics, there was a silver anvil and a golden warhammer. None of us could get a hold of the hammer, as it would magically move away from our grasp.

Another room off of the trapped hallway with the anvil and hammer contained a forge and a smith who was a lizard-like creature, yet humanoid in form, whose body seemed to emanate fire. The smith was in the process of forging weapons and it appears was walled off with a mystical barrier. It could not hear or see us from within that barrier. I happened to lose control of my thoughts and wandered past the barrier in order to irrationally communicate with the fiery lizard, which seemed to break the barrier, at which point the lizard could see us and it suddenly attacked us all. The lizard was fast and strong and it attacked with a vicious spear and its tail. After everyone except for myself getting hurt very badly by the creature, our combined efforts overpowered it and we managed to kill it.

I then found a secret door within the forge room which led to a weapons store room. Within that room we found a series of exotic, masterwork weapons and a full set of spiked scale mail armor. We then packed up the weapons and armor and, after taking a break near the lift shaft at the base of the trapped hall, we climbed up the shaft and back to where the secret door is that we originally came from the night before.

When we got to the secret door, someone had pulled the stone out of it that Gideon placed there to keep it open, so the door was shut. We had no choice but to break down the stone door, regardless of who might be on the other side. Once we broke through the door, everyone except me noticed a man hiding about thirty feet away from the door, almost directly in front of us. Gideon called out to him and asked him to come out. He came out into view and told us that we were under arrest and to submit. Gideon and I did not believe that he was a legitimate guardsman and Gideon asked him to identify himself. He refused and threatened to attack us. Then all of us started talking and arguing loudly and I started openly accusing the man of being an imposter. The man then shot me with a dart, at which point Gideon rushed forward to attack the man and I shot him back. As Gideon rushed forward, another man seemed to suddenly appear beside Gideon and stabbed him. In short, I took down the first man, who was thirty feet away with a couple of arrows and Gideon and Nel killed the second man. Then a third man appeared from the rubble about twenty feet away and ran down the adjacent corridor into the dark. Gideon ran after the third man while I watched the first man and Nel attended to him. Once Brom showed up to assist Nel, I ran after Gideon to help him out, at which point the third man, who was hiding behind a barrel that both Gideon and I missed, shot me with a poisoned dart. I was then unconscious.

I awoke to Nel and Brom standing over me and Gideon standing over the third assailant, who was rather dead. Gideon was cut up pretty bad and bleeding a lot. After Gideon bandaged himself up, we started to hear fighting behind the closed door in the room that I woke up in at the end of the corridor. Brom's curiosity got the better of him and he opened the door. Now we're all standing in the doorway staring at a room full of armored men with their weapons drawn and they're all stopped in the middle of fighting and staring at us. They don't look very friendly.

Erhivor's Journal: Entry 3

[Written in Dwarven] Look at all this gold I have! I should hide it somewhere down here where no one can find it. This is a lot of gold. I have one-hundred-thirty-seven pieces of gold. Wait. Let me count it again. Yes, one-hundred-thirty-seven pieces of gold. Now, where should I hide it? Oh, I should go buy some supplies and get to smithing. That lizard left behind a very nice forge, which I could use. Boy, I sure do write well.

Why is everyone staring at me? They've been acting so strange since just after we fought the dragon in the room with the relics. Their minds just aren't strong enough to deal with the reality of dragons and fire lizards. Life is too easy for surfacers. It's all about dancing and singing for them. A Dwarf has to work hard and cut stone and fight dragons.

Hey, I found this neat battle crown. It makes my beard look even better than before. Ooh, and there is this really nice adamantine Urgrosh that I found. I think I could learn to use it with a little practice. I also found this neat spiked scale mail that could be useful. These clothes are too soft.

We're going to take a little bit of a break and then proceed back up to the surface of this fine citadel. Nel wants me to talk to someone in Wildsgate. She probably wants me to speak with the smith in Wildsgate. Who better to talk to a Dwarf than a Dwarf, eh?

Yep. Still one-hundred-thirty-seven pieces of gold!