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Journal Entries - Clawing at the Light Journal of Aravin de Tylmarade Journal of Fatso Fjalar Journal of Ruegoth Ulgon Fatso received a letter from the female wizard, Eshella that he had met on the eve of the nameless orb. The wizard invited him to Burok Torn, presumably to study. I had always wanted to visit the great dwarven city and as much as I like Mithril, it was time for another change of scenery. We travelled on the first portion of our trip on a caravan doing guard duty down to Lave. Caravan duty was both lucrative and dangerous, with us facing some gnolls and some strange bald apes with spines down there backs. A few days into our journey we encountered an old abandoned town. The town was devoid of activity, apart from some flames dancing in the forge of the blacksmith. Those flames turned out to be a small fire elemental. We made short work of the elemental but not before Aravin was injured when the creature heated his armour. My battle axe was also damaged but fortunately I was able to get it repaired in Mullistown. After leaving Mullistown, we encountered what was probably our toughest battle to date. The creature looked like a 4' tall battered, bloated corpse with black-blue skin, long arms and fingernails. Aravin and I quickly ran in and engaged the creature, only to be shocked to find that any damage that we did to the creature was also done back to us. We quickly ran out of the creature's aura of retribution and thanks to one of Viktor's summoned skeletons and some of Fatso's magic, we managed to defeat the creature. Within the next few days, we made it to the town of Lave where we stopped at the Shining Light Inn. Upon going inside the inn, we quickly realised that Lave was a town that was gripped by fear. The townsfolk didn't go outside at night for the fear of a creature that came out of the graveyard and took people during the night. After finding out that a local woman had gone missing just that night, we quickly agreed to investigate the graveyard. One of the local men loaned us a magic longsword. It had previously belonged to his son and told us that we could use it to help us slay the beast. We entered the graveyard and were attacked by a group skeletons, which Aravin quickly turned. In the middle of the graveyard was a crypt, with a defaced symbol of Corean on the front. An inscription read, "Here lies Kor, Champion of Justice." Upon the walls on the inside of the crypt were murals of paladins fighting Titanspawn. Kneeling near a coffin was a man feeding off a fallen woman, who was barely alive. The man looked up at us with his fangs becoming visible. The vampire rose and a battle ensued. With Aravin defending himself as I attempted to attack the vampire with the enchanted sword, but the vampire's defences were too strong for me. With the fight going badly for us, the vampire attempted to grapple with Aravin but fortunately for Aravin, he failed. The battle then took a strange turn. Fatso attempted and successfully pinned the vampire. Having no luck myself, I threw the longsword to Aravin, who ran the vampire through. We quickly got to the creature's coffin where we staked him. In a chest, Aravin found an excellent looking longsword named "Durindana". We dragged the body of the vampire outside and burned it in the morning, much to the delight of the townsfolk. I returned the borrowed longsword before we took a few much needed days of rest. After a few days, we headed south to Burok Torn. The journey south from Lave was a dangerous one. We encountered numerous strange and deadly creatures, including a very large spider the nearly killed me. By far the strangest was what looked like a giant wasp but it had the face of a woman. Not long after that we reached the road and headed west for a few days before heading south again into the mountains. Before reaching the moutains, we were joined an elven Wizard with black eyes and green iris's named Alandain. Alandain was also travelling to Burok Torn and we gladly accepted the extra company on the long journey. The mountains provided yet another strange and dangerous groups of creatures. I still don't know what it was but the 3 eyed, 4 armed mouth on legs sure gave us some trouble. The region proved especially dangerous for Fatso, with him falling during an encounter with one of the regions native creatures. Aravin was also injured by a black hound, that looked similar to one we had fought before, except that this one drained his energy after it bit him. Aravin was a little sore for a few days after that. After about a week of trudging through the mountains, we came across a large column of armoured dwarves. Their leader, Captain Garrett of the Shield Arms, was leading a group of priests, Iron Guards and Stone Guards to the cursed peak of Baerith Marn. Baerith Marn was once a great dwarven city, but the Titan Churn killed a great many dwarves there and now the place stands cursed. When questioned about their mission, Captain Garrett reported that a large amount of undead dwarves had been seen outside Baerith Marn and they had been sent by King Thane to deal with them, however, under no circumstances were they to enter Baerith Marn. Garrett asked us to accompany them along to Baerith Marn. Fortunately one of his priests was able to heal us and raise Fatso. Baerith Marn was truly a frightening sight. As we approached the great spire, I could spot some movement. Upon getting closer, undead dwarven figures could be made out. The dwarven column moved in and we were quickly engaged in a fierce battle. I moved to fight a ghoul before quickly becoming paralysed by the creatures bite. Fortunately the rest of my companions were able to fight off any ghouls, zombies and skeletons near us, and the dwarves cleaned up the rest. Just as the dwarves were starting to burn the bodies, a figure appeared on the top of Baerith Marn and rang a bell. Suddenly, all of the undead that we had just killed started to rise again. The resourceful dwarves quickly hacked the bodies up before they could completely raise to their feet and burned the bodies before they could do us any more harm. Garrett was extremely surprised by this turn of events. As he was ordered by King Thane not to enter the citadel, he asked us if we would venture into the lower levels of Baerith Marn to investigate what other undead forces could be found there. So we passed through the large gates of Baerith Marn and started exploring. While exploring the lower level of the citadel, we encountered a number of skeletons, ghouls and wights. After exploring for a few hours, we came across a wood and stone framework that looked like it housed the bell. Unfortunately for us, the bell housing was being guarded by a horrible golem, made of bone, metal and flesh. The golem was extremely tough, and were we extremely lucky to defeat it and escape Baerith Marn alive to report what we knew to Garrett. Upon hearing the news we returned with the dwarven column to Burok Torn. After many weeks of travelling, Burok Torn was truly a sight to see. The main gate of Burok Torn looked like it was part of the mountain and must have been thirty feet thick. As we walked through the gate, all of our wounds were immediately healed. With magic this powerful guarding this place, it is no wonder that the cities defences had never been breached. Garrett immediately took us to King Thane so that we could retell out story to him. We were told to wait in am impressive antechamber while we waited for the King. The chamber was filled with lots of small rocks that glowed, making the chamber almost as bright as daylight. On one side of the chamber was a waterfall that we were ushered through to meet with King Thane. Strangely as we move through the waterfall, we did not get wet. That night we had the great honour of dining with King Thane, his wife and young son. After hearing our story, King Thane told us that the bell was known as Goran's rebirth and that the bell is made of pure mithril. This was once a holy item but had been corrupted and turned into a force of evil. Thane ordered Garrett to travel to Gambadel's bridge, which was the final gateway between Burok Torn and Berrith Marn. As we were leaving for Gambadel's bridge, we again heard a frighting peal. It was sound of the bell that we were seeking. All around us, undead began to rise around us. Garrett and the dwarves we were travelling with immediately took up arms and we took up a fierce battle with a number of undead. Aravin, Fatso, Viktor and I would not have been a match for these creatures by ourselves, but Garrett and the shield arms swiftly took care of them. We continued through the twisted passageways before entering a large cavern with a chasm running along the middle of it. Spanning the chasm was bridge with a large gap in the middle of it. As we entered the cavern a strange sight appeared before us. Ghostly images of Goran and his dwarves appeared on one side of the bridge. On the other side appeared shades of dark elves lead by their god, Nalthalas. The dwarves and dark elves started a mighty battle but not long into the fight, a strange thing happened. The titan Churn appeared and started attacking Nalthalas and his dark elves. Then I saw something that I would not have thought I would ever have seen. Goran and the dwarves, simply left, leaving the dark elves to fight the Titan. Churn and Nalthalas battled, but things were clearly going badly for the dark elven god when Madriel appeared with her glowing spear and entered the battle. Churn was gaining the better of Madriel when Corean appeared helped drive off the mighty Titan. After this scene had finished the bell appeared in the middle of the gap in the bridge. A demonic figure appeared on the other side of the bridge, laughed at our plight and then disappeared. Soon after that, the bell started ringing. All around us undead started appearing and we were again in battle. Garrett, the dwarves and ourselves quickly finished the undead but no sooner had we done so but the bell rang again. Aravin, Fatso and I hurried over to the bridge to try and think of a way to get the bell to stop ringing. Thinking quickly, I pulled a sack out of my backpack and threw it to Fatso, who used a mage hand spell to levivate the sack over to the bell and place it around the clacker of the bell. The clacker continued to strike the bell but the noise was dampened. After Garrett and his warriors finished off the remaining undead, Garrett drew his heavy crossbow and tied a rope to the other end. He then shot the bolt through the loop on top of the bell and dragged it back to our side of the bridge. We returned with the bell to King Thane, who passed the cursed artifact onto his priests. We dined well that evening and I got to sleep in a comfortable bed for the first time in weeks. That next day, I went out to investigate this city on my own. In particular I was looking for an enchanted weapon of some type, as I had encountered many creatures over the last few weeks where the creatures were somehow able to resist my blows. With the money we had made from guarding the caravan and what we had picked up on along the way, I bought an enchanted half-spear and a magical small wooden shield. I spoke to a few merchants around the place, hoping to find out what items would be of value to them, so that I might in future open a trade route with this city but I quickly found out that the dwarves of this city are very self reliant and they rarely buy goods from other places. The one thing that they did do well here is make ale. I had a great time that week drinking all manner of fine ales, as I had not had a decent tasting drink since leaving Dalane. I also spent some time in the library, researching Ancient Lede, where I learnt of a city named Aurimar that was the centre of Lede for two millenia. Someday, I hope to find the ruins of that city. Journal of Viktor von Haelsburg |