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Journal Entries - Crystal in Twilight Tunnels Journal of Aravin de Tylmarade Journal of Fatso Fjalar Journal of Ruegoth Ulgon After being in Burok Torn for a week, a great illness started sweeping the dwarven populus. The illness caused weakness and eventually death and it had spread at an alarming rate through the city. After speaking to some of the older dwarves, they thought that the illness may have been caused by a demon. Xa'Cravka , was one of Churn's demons and had been causing chaos for years. The legend goes that Xa'Cravka had eventually been trapped inside a crystalised skull. Unfortuantely a few decades ago, Xa'Cravka was accidantally freed by a young priest. The priest was slain and neither the skull or the demon had been seen since. Aravin had the forethought of asking how to use the skull to trap this demon and one of the old dwarves remember that the skull was worn like a helmet and could be used to will the demon into it. We were again approached by Captain Garrett who asked us to accompany him into the lower tunnels of Burok Torn. A number of Cairn Hunters, which are large hound like lizards had been attacking the dwarves lately. Cairn Hunters are usually used to guard against Dark Elves and it is very unusual for them to be attacking dwarves. Garrett, who was still uneffected by the plague, led us through a number of winding passages before we were attacked by three Cairn Hunters. Unfortunately for me, I was bitten by two of the creatures and their poison seaped through my veins. The poison sapped my strength, leaving my only able to attack with my crossbow. Fortunately for me, Garrett, Fatso and Aravin managed to finished off the Cairn Hunters and were able to continue. We eventually entered a large cavern that was a few hundred feet across. In the centre of the cavern was large demon, standing next to an Urn. Another four Cairn Hunters also stood nearby. Upon seeing us, the demon pointed behind us, shouting that the child was now affected with the plague. He then lifted the lid off the urn and dissappeared. Out of the urn streamed a plethora of crawling insects, who streamed towards us like a river. The the four Cairn Hunters turned and strode towards us. Garrett drew his mace and charged in to face the Cairn Hunters. Aravin and I ran out at an angle towards the urn. Knowing the damage that these creatures could do to us, we were very careful to steer around the Cairn Hunters. As we ran towards the Urn, Fatso blasted the Cairn Hunters with his magic. Even though he was greatly outnumbered, the Cairn Hunters were no match for Garrett, who had no problems carving through the beasts. Aravin and I quickly approached the insect swarm, Aravin with a lit torch and some oil and myself with a smokestick. Knowing how weak I was, I dared not enter the insect swarm but Aravin bravely threw his oil into the insects and then ran through the swarm to grab the lid to the urn. The insect crawled all over him and bit into the Paladin. The insects were also creating a slimy substance which caused Aravin to trip. Aravin regained his footing, grabbed the lid to the urn and stoppered the urn. This caused the insects to stop their march and the Cairn Hunters to stop attacking and return to normal. After we returned, things were quiet for a few days and we managed to get some much needed rest. The plague was also starting to have another nasty affect. The spirits of those that had died of the plague were rising up and were attacking their former kinsmen. Unfortunately it became clear that Garrett and King Thane were also coming down with the plague. Garrett asked us to go to the great forge and seek the mage Garith Blayrock. As we reached the burning forge, four spirits of those who had fallen, turned on us, one attacking each us and one attacking Garith. We made short work of the spirits before explaining what had happened to Garith. Garith then used some form of rune magic to scry on the King. We saw a number of priests standing around the King before one of them started slaying the rest of the priests before revealing himself as the demon Xa'Cravka. Seeing that the King was in trouble, we sped off to the King's chambers. When we reached the Kings chambers, Garith immediately ran to the sick King and teleported him away to safety. That left us facing Xa'Cravka who stood holding the crystal skull we needed to trap him. Xa'Cravka called forth some powerful magic which reversed the gravity where we were standing and we fell up to the ceiling. Knowing that our only chance was to get that skull Aravin and I turned and ran along the ceiling towards the demon. Unfortunately that meant running outside the reverse gravity zone and we fell back to the floor. Xa'Cravka seized that opportuity and the last thing I remember is being enveloped by a dark black cloud. The next thing I remember is a dwarven priest standing over me and he ressurected me from the dead. King Thane stood close by and thanked us for defeating Xa'Cravka. Supposedly that happened after I fell is that Garith teleported back into the room and was joined by some Dwarven Warriors. Garith and the dwarves held Xa'Cravka at bay which allowed Aravin to disarm the skull from the demon. Aravin put the skull on and then entered a mental battle with the demon. Eventually, Aravin managed to win the battle and sucked the demon inside the crystalised skull. After the demon had been trapped, the plague had faded and the dwarven population started to get well again and the spirits of the dead started to fade away. King Thane rewarded us with gold and silver coins and a magical item. The item was a set of runic marbles, which could be rolled at an opponent and cause a spell to effect that target. Fatso, having recently learnt about runic magic, decypered the runes and explained what each of the runes would do. All in all, this was another successful mission, although this one was not without a great deal of pain. Journal of Viktor von Haelsburg |