92: Lots of limbs Sharleen level 5 human barbarian, Taleek
Kroasi, level 4 half-elf Druid, Peter
Valtyr, Level 1/2 human fighter/barb, VRH
Pyrrah Hleghymn, level 3 lirean elf wizard, justine
Dain, level 2 Dwarven Cleric, Luchii
Brok Boulderbreaker, level 3 Half Orc fighter/barb, chris
Semortis, level 2 huamn fighter/roge, sam Dear Thalidd, I write this letter to you, though I hope I can soon make my way to the vale again, for now this will be difficult though... I am sorry that this report will take a bit longer but I still need to adjust. Dear Thalidd... would you please ask some of the craftsmen to start to look for rowan wood in the forest as I will need a prosthetic leg... Now I am at the place of a friend to recover a bit. As my task has been, I went to new areas to report back to you on the findings there. I went to Borion, having heard of that island and its idiosyncrasies. It was a longish journey across the water but by now I got used to that form of travel. Along was Sharleen, who you know well by now, and quite some who I haven't encountered so far. Most of them fought quite valiantly when we had to fight, though Semortis appears to me rather short-sighted. Ms Greatoven, who was not part of the expedition, but who seems to be quite friendly, was supplying us with some food for our journey there. Regardless, we arrived on that island and after holding a ritual for the spirits I had a quick talk with the captain who basically could not give me any meaningful information, quite what I have learned to expect from officials of the empire, especially the iron fist. The job we had signed up for concerned a temple that seems to cause people that intend to enter it to turn around and that only one party had entered and returned from so far, and Sharleen was part of that party. Thus she was leading the way and we followed her north. This all went rather uneventful until we ran into a man sitting on the floor of a small hill, meditation. We thought to not disturb the man however, when we tried to pass he summoned some magical circles and seemed to be agitated, apparently he is guarding the area and tasked with not letting anyone pass, but noone of us was able to understand what he was saying, though he was rather short on words. Pyrrah, a member of the white horse company of haven, of which you have met some people so far, started weaving a ritual that lets her understand any language, a rather useful spell I may say. This is how we learned that this area is not to be passed for now, though the man was not very specific on what he expects or why... even the imperials seem helpful and forthcoming in comparison to that individual. We tried to talk to him in various languages, but to no avail and one of our party members, I think it was Brok, tried to sneak by, which caused to aggravate said man. In the end I could convince the party to just walk around that man, as he was blocking the way to the west and Sharleen had pointed us north. ( a visible break in the writing appears and a ink of slightly different colour is used to continue as this part was apparently written at another day) We arrived in the evening at a cave and set out for camp. I had noted so far that most of the place looked rather arid, not many trees and vegetation which saddened me a bit, but also little wildlife to my notice. The area seems to be not that fruitful and I wonder what the empire is hoping to find there... Is it just to rule and conquer? The "white emperor" as he calls himself intended to make people believe that this is not their way anymore, but I hardly can think of a reason for them to stay, what do they gain by doing so? Before we went to sleep Pyrrah and me checked the area around the cave for poison and things touched by the dwemmor, we actually saw a piece of rock close to the cave which did appear to be magical but we could not read entirely its purpose or meaning and after trying to figure it out and failing we decided to leave it for the morning. A mistake, to some regard, as during the night as someone kept watch I was woken up to see an earth elemental standing at the entrance. The earth was trembling under its weight but luckily for us it was trying to reach Pyrrah's little bat that was hanging on the entrance and thus gave us time to wake up and prepare ourselves for whatever would follow. Sharleen, always ready for battle, put herself between us and that being, however, it moved forward, its gaze stared at the backside of the cave and it rumbled. The stones moved and suddenly two more of these creatures formed behind us. We were surrounded and caught, as one might say, between a rock and a hard place. The spirits granted me to shape into a rock being myself and thus I tried to catch the attention of the two things in the back, that looked exactly like a copy of what we had seen at the entrance, so that the rest of the party might be protected. Too many have fallen in my past journeys and this time I managed to make sure that noone else died, although the price still was high. Alas, not that night though. As Sharleen swung her sword and others rained their arrows and dwemmor on the being at the entrance and two others joined me in engaging the two beings in the back, Sharleen took a good cleave and swung Shaldinaris right through it making it crumble in front of its might. She might be the one destined after all as the stories you told us can be seen to hint at.... The metal on stone rang one last time as she did so, as also the other beings started to crumble. We looked again around and the stone we had noticed before we went to sleep had changed and thus I assume it was the source of these beings... Sharleen took it into her bag and we went back to rest, which was needed at least from my side. We woke up the next day and after eating and discussing our situation and plan a bit and Sharleen sharing whatever she remembered of her last venture there we continued to head towards the entrance of this temple. In retrospective I call it blasphemy to name such a thing a temple and if the empire is as might as they claim they shall eradicate the whole building and everything inside by either flooding it or tearing down the place... (part 2) (a
new page stars that still has on it the smell of bakery and also some
smudges of fat on the paper)
We
woke up and made our way to the temple entrance. Since Sharleen had
informed us that some dwemmor will try to turn us away we braced
ourselves and tied us to each other. We approached the entranced and
something tried to force itself into my mind, flashes of my home,
flashes of having to deal with the orcs, the blackspire flashes of
Tannyll and me having tea and going back there, even flashes of me
needing to talk to you Thalidd, appeared to convince me of turning
around and following those urges. The rope moved onward though and
thus pulled me back and I managed to see through the magic, as did
all of our party, except one.
We
quickly pulled him our way and into the temple and the magic faded,
what was left was a seemingly unending corridor in front of us. So
vast was it, that for a moment we thought we had lost some of our
companions, focused on glaring into the dark and even after moving on
from time to time we had to wait for someone to catch up as the
vastness caused them to fall behind.
One
of my fellow adventurers, I don’t recall who it was, told us to
always hug the right wall, this way we would never get lost. We
heeded the advice, as we all deemed it reasonable. My task was it to
look for traps and Pyrrah joined me in that endeavour, while the
others kept their eyes out for anything moving in the distance,
though her focus was on looking for traps based on dwemmor. And by
Kron, did she find those. No even 10 minutes had we walked when she
noticed something of dwemmor ahead and notified us of an ocean of
magical circles on the floor and on the walls, basically everywhere,
of which some might be traps whereas others be harmless, though which
were which was a hard task to identify.
She
also noticed a mirror up ahead engulfed in dwemmor and thus we walked
ahead just to find one of us stepping into one of the traps and a
blast of energy engulfing them leaving them rattled for a moment and
looking rather beaten and blasted. Seeing that, and having read of a
recent group of adventurers encountering a mirror that was creating a
mirror image of them, I strongly advised against entering the area of
the mirror and to just pass it by. Pyrrah was not sure whether that
was the right thing to do but in the end we all agreed. Just having
seen a trap injuring one of our companions not only I was convinced
that this would be the next one.
We
moved on, now taking special precaution to not step onto another one
of those circle traps. Our walk had brought us north, then east,
south again and then again east. We reached a corner of the hallway
as Pyrrah and Dain both noticed some dwemmor coming from within a
room ahead of us. So far we must have walked along the outer wall of
this ruin since this was the first room we actually found that was on
the southern wall or the eastern wall.
Counselling
what to do, we in the end decided to have Sharleen take a look and
the others be behind her in case she should needed aid. She peeked
into the room and then told us about some humanoid creatures warped
in void energy. Not knowing what it was, we decided to at least give
them a chance to talk, thus Sharleen went in, pushing herself around
the corner, shouting “Friend or foe?”
The
creatures looked at her and while she moved towards them, hand on the
hilt, they started coming at her, weapons blazing and swinging with
frenzy and might. Shaldinaris met the blades mid air as they tried to
force their way into Sharleen’s body, pulsing with that energy of
emptiness, but Shaldinaris prevailed. Their attacks were caught and
then it was her turn, and you know her might Thalidd, for that she
is.
A
few slashes and a bit of help of us and the first creature had lost
its head and we started rushing for the 2 nd one. I looked
at the body of the just beheaded and noticed that the dwemmor that
had been clinging onto it was fading, dripping away, leaving the
headless corpse of a human behind. “Keep one alive! They’re
human!” I called, “ Hold your fire!” Sharleen
exclaimed, but our words fell onto deaf ears in Semortis’ case,
mercilessly he pulled the string of his bow and the arrow pierced
through the creatures head, taking all life from it.
Sharleen
and I were both enraged at such numbness and cold bloodedness, and
while I saw that the body must have been dead before it got possessed
by this foam of void, Sharleen picked him by the buttons, lifting him
2 feet above the ground. “If I tell you to hold your fire, you
will hold your fire.” Whether he agreed or not, there was later
no opportunity to find out, though as much as I agree with the
wielder of Shaldinaris in this situation, I am a bit concerned…
What will happen if I disagree with her? If she is blind for some
reason and not even Shaldinaris can guide her, will she resort to
violence to force her side onto others? I hope it will never come to
this, and yes, I know you have high words for her, Thalidd, and so
far she has done our people a lot of favours, but … What do I say,
after all you were the one that taught me to always be weary of
everyone’s words and their possible changes of heart.
Regardless
of this criticism, Shaldinaris did not fail us and whenever a trap
was near, Sharleen would be aware of it by a humming. Now, both
Pyrrah and I focused on these treacherous writings we had encounter,
however, I must have missed one as I went barely 10 feet ahead
towards the north and fell unconscious. Not even the blast I can
remember, just a flash of light and the immediate darkness, that
strongly was I hit. A dreary feeling in the stomach after my
companions got my up remained, and a doubt in my mind whether going
here in this realm was at all a good idea, but the spirits were
whaling, the imbalance was too strong. Still, I am uncertain that
what we did helped restore it in any way…
Moving
on we found more traps, some by seeing them, others by someone
triggering them… Dain got caught by chains that wrapped around his
limbs and pulled him into the middle of the room, tearing on his
extremities. I can’t even remember how many traps we passed and how
many we did stumble into. 8?10?15? More...
We
moved back towards west and arrived at the extension of the entrance
corridor. Should we continue Should we go outside and do something
else? We decided to pressure on, again along the wall to the right,
further north. Another corner appeared, and we saw some makeshift
barricades. Peering through them revealed a huge pile of undead
looking creatures. We readied ourselves for the removal of the
barricade and I called upon the moon to burn the foulness away. The
light hit the bodies of the creatures and their flesh started to
scorch. At the same time Pyrrah summoned a knife of ice and hurled
it into the pile and soon all of them were properly dead, no longer
moving between the two worlds.
East
again, another barricade, this one made more elaborate, and then
north… We looked and we saw what Sharleen had described to us as a
Void elemental. This was, what we had prepared ourselves for. We got
into position and started firing, yet…
This
was not like Sharleen had described it, the immense blue sphere
vanished and while we were looking around trying to figure out what
happened, it appeared behind us, ramming itself against Brok and
Valtyr. Chaos descended with this elemental, Sharleen charged towards
it, Shaldinaris blazing, we moved away and I called to the spirits to
attack it, yet, the earth spirit formed and got soaked into the
sphere, leaving me in disbelieve.
Valtyr
went down, Semortis went down, then Pyrrah, I believe Dain as well.
Or was it Brok? Or Both? I can’t recall, my memory of this part is
somewhat faded…
(another
paper and another tap of fingers not properly cleaned of fat on the
paper)
Valtyr
lost his other hand, Pyrrah pulled him away and her foot got consumed
by the ball of nothingness. While we were looking in horror at what
happened, a voice started booming through the hallway. “ The
void shall burn asunder” is, what I think it said… Anger
started to rise in me. Why would anyone create such a thing? Why
could anyone be falling so far? Anger came over me… We continued
hitting the Sphere and finally it crumbled.
(part 3 incoming)
Still
hearing the laughter in my head, Sharleen and me ran after it. This
temple will only be cleared if this mad person is brought to justice.
We ran further north into the corridor, hoping to catch sight of
whoever the source of the shouting was, but we did move barely 50
feet when Sharleen looked concerned at her sword and called: “STOP”
I
turned around to stop, yet in my run could not halt as fast as her, I
turned to stop in front of her, wanting to ask her “What is the
matter?” but my right foot slid just a few inches to far. Zap!
Another intense flash of pain and light.
I
awoke, and my companions were pulling me away, Dain was looking at
the wound, but there was nothing to do for him, my right leg… gone…
it was just gone, including half of my thigh… I had seen nothing on
the floor, yet Sharleen told me later that Shaldinaris had warned her
foul magics close by. But … I didn’t even feel the pain at first…
just disbelieve.
Again,
my arrogance and naiveness has cost dearly, but this time at lest it
costed me and not others. We had seen traps before and obviously this
creature, whatever it is, was only trying to lure us into our demise…
Had I only taken up one of my temporary forms, my leg would still be
there, I reckon… but I didn’t…
This
all happened by now two weeks ago, dear Thalidd, and I know you will
say I shall search out the service of Kron. But as you know I did
what we all do, hold up the day of Kron, but never gave him any extra
attention. Going there now and demanding when I was not caring
before… it sounds quite self obsessed and arrogant.
But
then again? Who am I to take this decision instead of him? Who knows
the mind and the way of a being like Kron, a god in his own right? I
might be going there, at some point, for now I am resting and there
are still all these people that I have to teach…
The
others claimed that they found a hidden hallway where the blue sphere
had appeared, they did not inspect it further though and neither what
was behind the more well made barricades. Generally they were silent
at first. At one point Sharleen though mentioned to me… “What
are you? What is it with you? You were engulfed by these flames, then
you vanished, then you reshaped out of Myst and dropped onto the
floor, looking like you are now...” I do not know what she is
referring to, there are no memories of what happened after I turned
to her and before I woke up. But if what she says is true, perhaps
the spirits aided me even beyond my knowledge and beyond my naive
recklessness.
It
seems, I have to continue my work. I will return home in some days
after I have gathered myself. As its absence is hurting me, my leg
seems to hurt my body even while not here. A strange thing I cannot
understand, but perhaps Tannyll can give me answers to that. I
haven’t spoken to her for too long…
All
these announcements seem somewhat strange, considering that I might
have to hand in this not personally to you Thalidd, and thus
everything in here seems somewhat bizarre…
However,
even if I were to have only a wooden leg, I still stand by my oath of
getting rid of what is causing the problem of Orcs for our home, this
I swear, again, Thalidd.
May
the spirits guide you and watch over you.
Your
loyal servant,
Kroasi PS: Please warn everyone to not go to this place, it is absurdly deadly and we should find a way to make the temple collapse from the outside. I was told that some of the traps did even stay active after they got triggered, thus even finding a way to trigger them cannot save you!
