Session 1510/15/2022 13 November 925
The Harvest Festival is upon us, but I feel little joy. Unless we are able to acquire more food for Great Orton in the next few weeks, hundreds will die either of starvation or the violence that hunger fuels. An even greater tragedy is that two of my companions--no, friends—have died helping these villages: both Matt and Swift were killed in the Valley of the Cult earlier today. I am not sure what Swift’s final end consisted of, but Matt died trying to recover his nephew’s body, tumbling off the narrow, cliff-bound track upon which we were fighting cultists. I will remember them, both brave, generous, and exceptionally talented. Their strength of character is a model for all in these villages and, at least for me, whenever I celebrate harvest, the memories of our few months together will be on my lips and in my heart. Their deaths were not without purpose: the cultists have been killed including Finis the Revelator and the Maggot Demon that either had been summoned by him or arrived in the fire from the sky. Silas and I explored the remainder of their compound, killing the cultists that had been poisoned. Silas and I were broken and exhausted and with miles to return home to Horsley we left a natural cavern containing the glowing rock unexplored with hopes of returning with Durtainian who will hopefully have some insight into the glowing rock’s origin, nature, and alchemical characteristics. Our plan was to return with food from Selvatico with food for Great Orton by early December. We had thought while Matt and Swift were alive that it would be best to have the priests in Great Orton store and distribute the food to avoid any malfeasance by Robert the Blue and I suppose this is still the best plan. There is also the matter of the long-term selling of this magical powder without the Conclave’s knowledge in order to provide a sufficient income for my own arcane investigations. I would like to determine a way to make the withdrawal symptoms less powerful, but this transformation at the moment seems beyond my skill.
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Session 115/29/2022 27 October 925
The first substantial snow fell yesterday, a wintery reminder that our ability to travel between these villages is about to become more difficult. This is especially important because our plan to feed Great Orton involves trading or selling ab aurantiaco to acquire enough food so that careful rationing will get them through the winter. Our meeting with Jerrin Ilk is one reason we are able to do this: he has enough men and resources to mount another caravan and protect it so that it arrives in Ridgeside unharmed. Jerrin is governed by avarice and the desire for power and both purposes are ironically furthered by this humanitarian gesture. He understands that the Cult has intentionally marginalized him to acquire these rocks and now he will strive to take them for himself. Silas has been exceptionally quiet these past few days—perhaps the season or the impending death of 800 villagers from starvation is weighing on him? He seems to have mastered a new miraculous power and can now produce powerful arrows similar in effect to a single Urnain Missile. This was helpful in driving off the terror birds that gathered above us as we reentered the Valley of the Cult yesterday to acquire the rocks needed to manufacture more ab aurantiaco. This trip to the Valley was a conditional success: we gathered a few hundred pounds of raw absconditus, killed a score or more of goblin miners, and prepared a well-placed and well-hidden lookout for Ilk’s bandits to keep an eye on the comings and goings from the Valley. The consequence I fear is that the destruction that we wrought will push the Cultists to either more desperate actions against the villages or to the establishment of much better protections in the Valley. It occurred to me over the past few days of walking how close Great Orton is to the Valley of the Cult and I cannot help but begin to wonder if Robert the Blue might somehow be connected with their plan. Our single meeting with the Baron was difficult and the destruction of an entire village close to the Valley would extend the Cult’s power further into Ridgeside. Or, perhaps it is Blythe, whose soldiers burned much of Orton's crop? The Cult is active in one of these two villages, and I fear we must add the unraveling of this mystery to our growing list of endeavors. My empathy for Swift grows as he is torn between how to be helping to individual people in Great Orton and how to help Great Orton as a whole. His plan to deliver a few hours of food to the village was madness driven by these conflicting needs and ended up causing a riot in the village, a priest from Horsely fleeing for his life, and several buildings being burned down. It could be his use of the ab purpura is driving these illogical decisions. I will request that Silas speak to him to moderate these arcane influences and perhaps curtail his use of the powder. Alchemical Note: Durtainian (the Dwarf) has been very helpful in refining the alchemical process I have developed to separate absconditus into its individual components and Matt has agreed to begin crafting more advanced alchemical equipment to improve both our manufacturing and research. Session 104/28/2022 20 October 925
The past month has been a whirlwind of travel, research, and politicking, but I also feel confident in writing that we have made progress in our goal of eliminating the cult that attacked our caravan and has been creating the monsters that plague Ridgeside. My companions, whom I also consider friends, continue to grow: Matt has become a formidable fighter, Silas’s ability to wield divine magics (that which some call miracles) and his Holy Sword are piously impressive, and Swift continues to display both a depth of compassion for others that is admirable and an understanding of human nature that makes him a capable politician among these villages. For my part, I have spent much of the past month experimenting with the mineral we discovered in the goblin cave. I have started calling it absconditus, or simply, ab, due to its various hidden properties. I have succeeded in isolating the various compounds within ab, including absconditus purpura and absconditus aurantiaco, but have been much more successful in determining the properties and appropriate dosages associated with the purple mineral. Indeed, Swift has been using the ab purpura to enhance his perception for the past several days and I have not observed any further changes of behavior. Ab aurantiaco remains mysterious. It radiates a demonic aura and seems to increase one’s compulsivity and tendency to become angry. I would normally believe that the purple powder would be more beneficial to wizards but have seen no evidence of this to be true, indeed my own use of ab aurantiaco was quite helpful in opening my mind to the arcane. Today, I have been working on creating a potion that would marginally enhance one’s magical acumen without success, though I have learned that a suspension in water is impractical. The political landscape continues to evolve. We removed the Baroness Bath from power by revealing the necromantic rituals she had been using to extend her life while slowly killing the young women who had been acting as her lady’s maids. While this was a moral imperative, the new Baron Hudson seems inattentive to the realities of the bandits and the cult that threaten his city and instead imagines some grand scheme of the local lizard people to overthrow New Ash. Baron Robert the Blue of Grand Orton has proudly led his people to what seems to be unresolvable state of starvation after Blythe’s militia destroyed their food supply. We have not had the honor of meeting the leader of that village, but tomorrow we will meet Gerald Ilk, the leader of the bandits, who, according to one of his cutpurses, has been providing mining equipment to the cult. If Ilk proves incompetent, then Horsely will be the shining light of governance here. This has become especially true after we recommended that a town council constituted by Horsely’s citizens most knowledgeable in agriculture, warfare, faith, trade, and construction make the town’s decisions rather than Magnus by himself. I am unsure about my friends’ goals in relation to Ridgeside while my own seem to be evolving. I want to help eliminate the cult, but I also very much miss Honor. I also wonder if it might be possible to use the knowledge about absconditus to improve people without turning them into monsters and, if this is possible, could not the sale of this substance generate enough wealth to pursue the answers to other important magical questions? Session 410/17/2021 21 SEPTEMBER 925
I need rest. The past week has been exhausting and the festival, though enjoyable, has done little to provide it. The dances of Horsely are energetic and companionable. I threw myself into them—it was good to have my mind elsewhere for a few hours rather than reflecting on the cult, its rock, the increase in monsters, and the fact that I am living in a village that were they to know my true nature they would likely murder me (or is this Atrofus’ paranoia being born in my mind?). Swift especially enjoyed the festival and released some of his burdens by dancing inebriated on a roof during a Holy Day. I am thankful that he did not injure himself. Matt spent much of the festival guarding Tim. Perhaps he shares my premonition that little good can come of this cultist remaining in Horsely. 22 SEPTEMBER 925 I spent the day working on the gift for Matt, supervising the preparations of the goods for tomorrow’s trip to New Ash, trying to discover more about the glowing rock, and napping. I was able to take a few minutes out of the day to try to magically coerce some additional information out of Tim, but he resisted my arcane manipulation. From failure, often comes insight, however, and I believe as I was weaving the threads of enchantment through his mind, it occurred to me how to peel away the layers of his mental resistance to read his actual thoughts. I will need to try this when we return from New Ash. Perhaps someone more skilled in interrogation can question him while I sift through his ruminations from afar. It would seem that to not talk about something requires the bringing of that thing itself into one’s thoughts and in this way, we may discover much useful information. 23 SEPTEMBER 925 Swift today had the grandest idea of this campaign: a long, hot bath. Just imagining how wonderful it would have felt eases my tiredness somewhat. Would that I had time! As if there were not already too many stray threads to try to weave together, today we discovered the final resting place of the Hallowed Coven near Horsely in a cemetery that appears to have been protected by Gosfrid, the Grave Watcher; killed a monstrous stag terrorizing New Ash that had clearly been transformed by the cult’s glowing rock, and stumbled upon a mystery in New Ash involving disappearing young women with evidence seemingly implicating David, Baroness Baath’s guard and champion. The information about the Coven is fascinating. History records that they were driven from Southern Erend about 450 years ago as novices; however, the graves suggest that they died about 300 years ago suggesting that they had become powerful enough to extend their lifespan several times over, a feat that requires exceptionally powerful magic and probably the life force of many humans. We learned from the Baroness’ sage that the Coven had created a horror of some kind that killed both them and most of the residents of Pond. Could this creature have been fashioned in some way by being near a rock similar to one that is impacting the region today? Maybe the rock has always been here, and the earthquake caused it to resurface? Maybe the Church buried a similar rock 300 years ago along with the bodies of the village creating this raised area of ground above the pond and the village built around it? Questions continue to multiply faster than resolutions present themselves. Travellin’ Matt and I were the principal investigators of Martha’s (one of the missing women) disappearance in New Ash while Swift bathed and Ex. Silas assisted in the preparations for burial of the body of our fallen militia member. Matt is a skilled questioner of people, and it was good that he was there – I was able to nudge Martha’s boyfriend with a little magic, but for the most part everything we have been able to conclude about this mystery came from Matt’s inquiries and observations. I am not convinced that any of this is connected to the problem Horsely faces with the cultists and their rock, but perhaps Matt should be the one questioning Tim while I peel back the layers of his mind from a distance. I was able to borrow a hairbrush that belonged to Martha and hope to use it to locate her—Silas is unable to accomplish this, but Swift suggested that the priests of Horsely may have such power within their grasp. 24 SEPTEMBER 925 I was able to acquire copies of two important books while in New Ash, one on the geology of the region and one an alchemical primer. Together they should vastly improve my ability to investigate the properties of the glowing rock from the goblin cave. On the return trip we were attacked yet again by monstrously changed creatures – this time, two giant voles. The battle was successful, but Matt would have perished were it not for Silas’ miraculous healing, and I was forced to climb down into a vole hole to rescue Swift who has riskily jumped onto one of the creature’s backs. Swift encouraged me to tell the group that he had heroically killed the vole, perhaps to help disguise my use of the arcane in the battle; however, I cannot help that it was motivated out of a desire for fame. I am not an expert on the faith of Ignimius the Divine, but I am concerned by these recent changes in Matt: first, dancing on the roof during a Holy Day and, increasingly, a tendency toward lust and selfishness. I am beginning to believe that maybe when he inhaled the dust from the goblin cave something deeper changed within him. Perhaps, I should discuss this with Silas. What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that travel between settlements is deadly and will come to a complete halt if the cultists are not stopped and the rock either buried or its arcane power dispelled. Session 39/10/2021 16 SEPTEMBER 925
I spoke with Exemplar Silas this afternoon regarding the possibility of healing me of the nightmares that haunt my sleep, images of mother’s animated body strangling Simone, my sister, and then collapsing into a desiccated husk. He said that this was beyond his ability to heal and, indeed, that it is likely impossible. Silas is a good man and I trust his word. Swift suggested these dreams were the product of demons in my head and that giving up wizardry would clear my mind. But I also have good dreams. Does this then mean that there is a constant war between demons and celestial beings in my body? And, of course, people who are not wizards also suffer from bad dreams. No, I think dreams and nightmares are more akin to memories than spiritual battles. I have heard of wizards who can remove memories from the mind of a person and if that is the case, I cannot help but wonder if it possible to remove or at least subdue the power of those distant events over me. 17 SEPTEMBER 925 The people of Horsely are simple, good folk, but I worry about their safety and ours. Their single-minded focus on the building of a log barricade to keep out danger has turned their eyes from other compelling dangers. They would benefit from learning to fight, patrolling the area around their town, and trading with the towns surrounding them. After discussing it among ourselves, Silas brought some of these issues up to their leader Magnus, who is reluctant to make any decisions until he has more information about the glow in the night sky. It comes from the Pastern Cliffs southwest of Horsely, an area rumored to be riddled with terror birds and other monsters. We are arming ourselves with bows as available and Travellin’ Matt has offered to make a couple of fletched javelins for me so that we can engage the terror birds at range. Despite my like for the villagers, I am worried about their contempt for and history of persecution of wizards. I can understand their contempt given the proclivity of some to engage in the questionable. Nevertheless, I fear for my safety and have asked Swift, the Exemplar, and Matt, to maintain my secrecy in this regard. 18 SEPTEMBER 925 While Matt has been busy at the anvil, the rest of us have been laboring on making a house livable. The people of Horsely have granted us use of a worn-down house, but one with fine bones. “Livable,” includes sealing it from the elements which has been a challenge since it has been storming since midday yesterday. When the rain lets up, we hope to round up some basic furnishings for our new residence. Swift seems unusually fatigued given his normal stout constitution and I hope that he is not becoming ill. It will be good to move past sleeping on the floor of the Twin Claws—maybe even in a bed! Beyond comfort lies privacy and having the house will also allow me to begin exploring some arcane questions that need answering about the rocks we found in the Goblins Lair and begin studying the spell book and scroll that we recovered there. 20 SEPTEMBER 925 In my twenty-one years, I have thought that I would die on five different occasions: when I contracted the Flux when I was eight, when an angry tide pulled me far out into Honor Harbor one afternoon while swimming, when my mother murdered by sister and I feared I was to be next, when the giant grubs attacked our caravan, and yesterday as we explored the caves in the Pastern Cliffs. That two of these five instances have occurred in the past month is surely an ill omen. We owe our lives to Swift’s skill with the bow, Exemplar Silas’s skills as a healer and his faith in Valroon, Travellin’ Matt’s surprising ability to feign death under pressure, and the stupidity of a gnoll. I don’t think any of us expected to find survivors from the expedition led by Captain Adel and so finding Nolan, a starving, thirst-crazed man from Horsely was surprising. What was stunning, however, was that he told us that most of the militia remained alive, working the mines under the supervision of two gnolls and a small contingent of goblins. Deciding that Horsely’s militia needed to be rescued we fought and killed many of the mine’s denizens to a stalemate. Both groups near death, Swift was able to parley with a gnoll to release half of the prisoners, which we summarily armed and used to complete the rescue. We gained far more than able bodied persons trained in the defense of Horsely, however. We gained information. We had two unusual sources: the gnoll, whose health Exemplar Silas was able to stabilize, and a cultist, who had attempted to disguise himself as a prisoner from Great Orton. We learned much including the fact that the source of the glow is what sounds like an exposed rock formation of significant power, power that is somehow augmented by the rocks that the militia was mining and that we found in the goblin cave. This rock transforms creatures as they get closer to it including Captain Adel who, according to our cultist, was transformed into a monster who escaped and now perhaps roams the canyon. We gained information, but it opened the door to so many more questions: what is the goal of the cultists? why are the cultists searching for members of the Conclave? how far geographically has this cult spread? what is the nature of this mineral and how do we suspend its power or channel it in another direction? Upon returning to Horsely, we were greeted by Magnus and the townsfolk, who were surprised by both our survival and the return of the militia members. It is good that we were able to restore so many families—love remains a powerful force here. While we were gone a message came from another village asking Horsely to establish a local trade agreement. Finding a cultist from Great Orton has opened my eyes to the possibility that there may be cultists in our midst. Horsely would seem a natural place to position such a spy given its proximity to the Sorceress’ Tower and the Cult’s interest in the Conclave. There is a saying among the sailors in Honor: “trusting the sea is like being faithful to a festhall whore.” I begin to wonder how this adage might apply to our situation with the villagers both in Horsely and beyond. Magnus seems to believe that the Cult is searching for wizards to assist in their plan, but I wonder if a wizard might transform into something even more monstrous than Captain Adel were it to be placed near the Stone of Power. Tomorrow is a Holy Festival, a time to make merry and celebrate what the village has regained: a small sense of security and the homecoming of its militia. |