Death, Decay, Corruption, Destruction, and Chaos surrounds us all. It permeates our very lives, and corrupts our very souls. Yet without Chaos, without destruction we cannot have creation, or Peace. And so you see our problem, we have been sent to rid the world of something the world requires. How do we do this, how can we complete this impossible task. Ours foes have all the knowledge we need, and yet we cannot win it from them. Locked inside our dear Veridean lies a shard of destruction himself. The evil within her could unlock itself at any point for all we know. Yet we must risk our lives to try, and end that evil, that evil that we cannot end. It’s enough to make my head explode. We have lost a companion, and a leader. We have found the one who was supposed to be able to help us, and he said little, and sent us to an unknown people, where we are apparently hated.
Where to begin. We have crossed the great desert with a flying ship, lots of luck, and some hard fights. We crashed the ship that was sent to us, and we were thankfully able to find help. An oasis of beauty in the middle of the barren wasteland. But wait I am getting ahead of myself. I last wrote of our arrival in Dhoesone, but much has happened since then. The most important event is that we met a sorcerer in the swamp. He lived in a large keep; apparently alone except for his magic’s, and his golem. Most of us did not trust him, but we followed Gailen in believing that perhaps though he was not a good person he might be able to help us in our search for Dean. And so we sat, and ate with him, and we slept in his keep. Veridean slept poorly if I remember correctly, and in the morning we were given a task. If we went, and collected a book of this mans, his name was Barick Ashton. Then Barick would help us to find Dean. He also told us that he, and Dean had been working on how to rid the world of the shards, and that Dean had decided to harness the power of Naresh himself. We all found this hard to believe, but we went to find the Man’s book. The book as it turned out was in the hands of an orc wizard, who was encamped with fellow orcs, and a whole army of Gnolls. We fought them all, and destroyed the city, and achieved the book. However when Raen, and I decided to take a look at the book we discovered that it repulsed us with its vile magic, and so we returned to Dhoesone, with the book, and a decision to make. We ended up destroying the book though far from town so that were it possessed we would not endanger the city. I should say here that Gailen actually went, and destroyed the book as I was too worried about the possession to actually go. What a coward I was.
And so with the book destroyed we went to return to the Keep in the swamp. Before we left though our Gypsy companion disappeared in the night, I have missed him, and our conversations, but I suppose it was necessary for him to separate himself from us before he became so associated with the evil paths we have had to walk that his people no longer accepted him. And so in the Swamp while we camped we were attacked by wolves. And during this attack we came across Ur a dwarven druid. He ahs become quite a companion. Seemingly able to change into any animal almost at will he has very valuable capabilities. But back to my story and so we went back to the keep, and it had been turned inside out. Many things were destroyed, and everything was dirty torn, and broken. We feared that perhaps we would not be able to get information from Barrick. However as we searched the keep we discovered unspeakable horrors, and eventually Came upon Barrick himself, though much changed from our last meeting. It occurs to me now that perhaps the change happened due to our destruction of the book. Perhaps some of his power was tied to that book… oh well. He was waiting for us, and Gailin charged in shortly followed by Aeric. Veridean was feeling an unusual pull, and we urged her to stay back, but being the brave woman that she is she too joined the battle. Alas we were victorious, but oh what a high price to pay. Barrick turned out to be some sort of evil demon, of some sort, or some equally evil thing. He had been going around absorbing shards of Naresh, we believe hoping to become the living embodiment of Naresh himself. With his power as a sorcerer, and a demon, he was able to kill our leader, our focus, and our holy warrior. Gailen Perished fighting A very evil thing, which is as he would have wanted, but I can’t help feeling a pain of guilt. Had I cast better, had I put more of myself into my attacks instead of relying upon the fighters to do much of the damage perhaps Gailen would still be with us? Perhaps none of what followed would have happened, and we would be that much closer to our goal. I regret not trying to get to know Gailen better not trying to understand his religion, and his gods. After seeing the demon fight I am no longer in doubt of gods playing an active role on this planet, no longer unwilling to believe that we really are attempting to destroy the destroyer. How I wish I had paid more attention asked more questions then perhaps I would have the knowledge to understand how to do this task I see as being impossible.
And so we left the keep, and on our return trip we encountered a goblin. He was traveling alone accept for his shield Gollum, and he was there to find us. We discovered this several weeks after Veridean killed him in cold blood. Well I should say in her defense that it has been a horrid couple of days, especially for her. And we have nbot had many if any friendly nighttime meetings. And so she attacked, and Aeric ran in to fight off the shield Gollum, and it was all over so fast I couldn’t even get the words out of my mouth. From the beginning of the battle I knew we shoudln;t be attacking I just had a feeling, but by the time I regained my tongue it was too late. But what happened the next morning made me understand what had happened. We were continuing our journey when we found a sailing ship in the swamp. Yes a sailing ship which we later learned could fly, and though it took me a while I eventually deduced that this ship was here because someone was looking for us, the goblin had been sent to us, and the only person I could think of it being was Dean, as he has strong magic’s, and there were maps showing paths across the barren desert. We took the ship to Dhoesone, and found out that it had possible been seen many years before flying through the air, and so we had it repaired by the craftsmen in Dhoesone. We then returned to Gideon to have a shirt audience with the King. He told us he had resurrected Gailen, but Gailen had gone north to search Selador for Danyelle. And so we set out without our leader across the Barren desert in a flying ship.
For most of the jouney we were fine, and then at night we were attacked by strange enrgy beings, and the ship was brought down, though I don’t recall most of it, as I had had my brain essentially drained of all intelligence. I apparently made quite the fool of myself, and we were met by two Monks from the above mentioned oasis in the desert. They took us to the oasis their home, and I was cured of my stupidity. This is where I remember what occurred again. They tell me little time passed between when I was…afflicted, and when I was healed, but to me it felt like a millennia. To wake in that perfect place, to realize who I was again in that most perfect of gardens was a life changing event. It made me contemplate even more about the Gods, and made me think less of Dragons, and their power. I was introduced to a most simple life, and it was beautiful, but not for me. During out stay there we learned much about the desert, and Naresh, and His rival god, L’Antwene. She was the one who scorched the desert so long ago, and who left this mountain garden whole, and complete she now resides in a tree in that garden she is sleeping, and has been for millennia. It was here We heard philosophy on the necessity of destruction in order for there to be creation, and from this place I came up with my dilemma. We left the Monks soon after arriving as their garden doesn’t get many visitors, and we had a quest to go on. While we were there we gained a new companion, a strange man who can do with his fists, and feet what Aeric does with his greatsword. He is truly a wonder to watch in battle. We were taken to an old druidic circle in the desert where we had to appease the spirits, in order to gain passage across the rest if the desert. We almost failed, but Aeric was able to talk to spirit into letting us all go. An Amazing feat considering I thought all the fighter was good for was fighting.
Once we had been transported across the desert we had to journey back towards the desert in search of Dean. We arrived at Deans after several days travel, and he was truly on the edge of the desert. The craziest Tower I have ever seen. The craziest collection of people, alchemy, magic, and any other thing you can imagine I have ever seen awaited us. However we were asked to leave soon after arriving when we met Dean, and he discovered that we had killed him friend, and we found out he was not just his friend, but his adopted son. After several days of wandering the tower, and waiting Dean agreed to meet with us. However he seemed to have none of the knowledge we had hoped for. All he did was he ended up teleporting us all to this forest we reside in currently. He transported us to the elven forests where we are apparently not welcome, and all he told us was the tell her hello. I only hope that this isn’t some sort of revenge if his in order to repay us for his son’s death. I doubt that that is the case, but any moan who builds what we saw in that tower is both a genius, and a madman. And so I sit, and write awaiting morning when perhaps we will be able to make sense of what has been going on, or at least of where we are, and who we need to talk to. It is late I am tired, and hopeless. I feel as if I have let this group down. As the magic user of the group I should know about these sorts of things, but nothing in all my travels has prepared me for anything on the scale of what we are now dealing with and so I feel useless, and estranged from the rest of the party. I hope this feeling changes, but if it doesn’t I Guess staying the rest of my days in the land of the elves, dead or alive would be an adventure in itself. |
