Khalo's Journal: Royal Blood

Once, in my early days, I was traveling with Ashanto and Blinet, and we came to a fork in the road. There was some quibbling over which direction to go - Ashanto wished to go to the right, where the terrain seemed well-traveled, and there were signs and trail markers. I desired to explore the more rugged path. Blinet, in what passed for wisdom on his part, expressed no particular preference, summarizing each option as "a choice between stories." He finally conceded that while going my way would make for a more exciting tale, Ashanto's way was the more comfortable option.

As we have embarked under the mountain on our way out west, I find myself unsure as to which of the choices we've made would have been the more interesting story. Certainly, the way we chose was fraught with challenges, and it is probably the most sensible direction for us to have taken. I am not sure that the talents of our retinue are well-suited to making friends with wyvern-riding lizard men. And, to be sure, had we not chosen the path we are on now, we would not have made the discovery that I, Khalo Kavorath, am a dwarf of noble blood.

Whatever that means - I am not sure that "noble" is the right word to describe the family who abandoned me - the distant, unknowable Clan Foambeard - but by virtue of their genetic makeup, I was able to pass through to the guarded room behind the lair of the demon our group heroically slew. And therefore, I was able to collect a treasure which I see as a reward for our efforts. I am not sure how much of it I can actually enjoy, but I have resigned myself to the fact that my path restricts me from utilizing such earthly goods, particularly the metals my people are so fond of drawing from the rock and manipulating. 

I am taking to rest now, because the combination of the battle, the pit trap, and the efforts of withdrawing the treasures have left me quite weary, and I need to rise fresh so that I may invite Tamlin back to the mortal realm. He was slain fighting the demon. If he feels he has earned his rest, so be it, but I think he may have unfinished business in the land of the living. For my part, I confess to being excited to perform the ritual of reincarnation. I saw Ozgander perform it once, and I paid close attention. I have finally matured to the point where I know I am ready to undertake it on my own. In this way, I know the blood and matter I am made of is special moreso than what any steel guardians may surmise. 

Entry concluded.  

Soromir's Journal Entry #29

After making it through the valley that is a mass grave from the Gods-Slayer War, we began our trek up the mountain pass. In the distance we spotted some wiverns and were approached by a wivern and its rider. The rider was covered in scales, and it looked almost dragon-like. The rider was also dumb as hell. He considered us an invader but didn't attack. Also, his kind didn't know the dome had fallen and seemed inclined to remain in the ignorance that the dome HADN'T fallen.

Close to where we encountered the dragon-man the mountain path forked; one path led up and toward the wiverns and dragon people and the other path led down and into a mine. We chose the mine. As we came to the entrance to the mine, the arch of the mine entrance had ancient dwarven script etched in. While I couldn't interpret it, I knew that it was dwarven.

As we ventured into the mine, it quickly became obvious that the darkness in this mine wasn't natural. Where we would normally get ample light from torches and light spells, the luminesence had been reduced to about 15'. Khalo's dark vision was also failing him. as with most tunnels and mines we've encountered so far, there were various rooms off the main tunnel shaft. One room that Khalo and Tamlin went into was strewn and the floor covered with very, very old clothing from women and girls. I will assume these were dwarven women and girls. Oddly though, there were no skeletons or corpses to be found in this room. It looked as though the people had just disappeared.

The room opposite, Zane and I went into. This room was rather plain except for what appeared to be some odd looking water moving at the back edge of the room. Looking back on it, the skittering and clacking sound I heard should have been enough to tell me it wasn't water. Zane stuck his short sword in and was immediately set upon by a flesh-eating beetle. The beetle attacked in such a way that it looked like it was peeling away the flesh on Zane's arm. We beat it off and then fled the room as it looked like the beetles were massing and coming for us. We told Khalo this and he stone-shaped the entrance to that room and probably saved our lives in doing so.

At some point, I'm not sure when (after the encounter or before, more on the encounter will be described below) we came to a larger a room and from the ceiling we could see what appeared to be flat cages with piles of something below them. We were able to see what was in the cages. Dwarves had been hung upside down in the cages, and flayed (likely alive). The piles below each cage was their skin.

Sufficiently creeped the fuck out but not enough to inspire us to turn tail and run, we move forward through the room. As we exit the room, we notice a black flame approaching us. This would be the start of the encounter I referenced above. It's a black flame because I have no other way to describe it; a black flame that gives off a purple light. As it got closer, the flame was on a white candle. And it was being held by an undead dwarf male. The undead dwarf male had a look of sheer agony and torture on its face and it was also dragging six corpses behind it. The corpses were being dragged via rope tied to I-bolts that had been sunk into the body of the undead dwarf. Luckily those corpses were lifeless. However, I can't help but assume that the corpses being dragged were the corpses of the dwarf's family. We battled the corpse and defeated it but not before being attacked by the missles that were the family, lobbed by the dead dwarf. The dwarf dropped the candle when it died again, but the candle didn't go out. After some thought, we were able to identify it as a "Candle of Darkness" and after some further consideration, we determined that Osbert would be familiar in how these candles are made.

Interestingly enough, our two fearless friends, Osbert and Orrenthal, decided to wait outside the mine discussing the merits of who gives a fuck while Khalo, Zane, Tamlin, Norris, and I pursued glory.

I hope there is some mithril in this mine.

Khalo's Journal: West Side Story

Since I last set pen to paper in this book, I have eaten two people. The first time could be chalked up to an occupational hazard. The second time, I had worked up a hippogriff-sized appetite.

We dispatched the deserters, received our reward, and then moved on to more personal pursuits. We decided we should track down the wizard Nordo, and which led us to Abernathy, which led us to the belief that Nordo had set out to the west of the ruins of Norhall in search of something related to Yallathune. Our group decided to follow.

Outside of town, we were beset by bandits. Their mistake.

Seeing the city from the outside of town was revealing. At the far west end, we found ruins that seemed to come from a great battle. Later, we saw the tree - and while camping in view of it, Orenthal was subject to a spiritual encounter with the god of death. Unfortunately for us, this encounter went from spiritual to material quickly. However, because we saw them coming, I was able to prepare in a way I had not before. These preparations made Mome Rath a particularly formidable foe. It was hard to argue with the results, though I do not wish to fall into a rut with our combat style - my preference is to keep our enemies on their toes.

There were wights, skeleton giants, and spectres, but our fighting was focused mainly on ghouls, who were the first wave. They slew two enhanced dire wolves I summoned to our aid; though they are but returned to their home plane, I lament their loss regardless. There were many ghouls, but our strategy prevented our losses from being too dear, while they were destroyed utterly.

In this midst of this fighting, the spectres came and took hold of Orenthal, taking him we knew not where - they evaporated with him when they made contact.

When the ghouls had been defeated, the remaining forces began to chant, and an ancient structure emerged from the ground. Before the chanting was complete, though, a massive being stepped forth to call an end to their machinations. He was - well, for lack of a better word, maimed. He was missing limbs, and had been repatched with inorganic materials.

He strode forward, and chastised Nerull, who materialized. They argued out of earshot, and then the army of undead retreated, and we were given a jar. Inside was a figurine of Orenthal, and our limited arcane knowledge (without him) revealed to us that there would be a way to bring our flesh and blood compatriot back, though we could not suss out how in the moment.

The Maimed One (in whose presence we were in awe, Soromir most of all), bid us enter the building, and bade us be respectful inside. We went in, and discovered a tomb and a ghost keeping watch. The ghost introduced himself as a former cleric of Frumious, whose resting place this was. In that moment, we understood the Maimed One's objections to Nerull's actions, for it seems he had intended to raise the body of this slain god to use for his own purposes.

The ghost told us the story of the war between the god-king of the giants and the civilized world, which included a breach of this realm and the introduction of the eye tyrants and Yallathune to this world. He also chronicled the gods Frumious, Feador, and Bajol taking the field to fight, and the god-king luring the gods to a magical relic which rendered them mortal, then killing two of three and severely wounding the others in a great blast. Soon after, the mortal form of the ghost was killed by a falling gargoyle, and so ends his memories, and his ability to provide us with new information. Oh, and he told us of the Gnome of Gnomewood, the Isle Librarian, and Blackbriar fighting together on the same side. This action seemed so unusual to our ears, we resolved to seek out Blackbriar - he's the one we had prior contact with, anyway - for him to illuminate us.

Entry concluded.