You who would read these words, take heed and bear witness to the truths here-in. This document is written so that others may understand what really happened in that Land of the Eternal Sun.
I shall begin as all stories should: at birth, or in my case- founding. I was discovered as an infant of roughly 6 months of age, by a patrol of Shadow Elves. These subterranean elves were driven beneath the surface long ago and adapted quite remarkably. From the tale they tell, I was discovered w/in the heart of an acnient graveyard in the center of a place they call: The Desert of Lost Souls. It seems my infantile form was surrounded by the corpses of some 3 score undead; ghouls if the partols Shaman judged correctly. All the corpses bore signs that they died by tooth and claw; and there was I, drenched in the blood and ichor of the slain.
My own first memories are of hearing the patrols Captain, sarcastically calling me a "true guardian of the grave". While they took to using a different elven name for me, as I grew older I embraced the title/name he first uttered. The shamans seem to think their discovery of me was by the will of their patron Immortal, Rafiel. At this point, I must give sight unto their reasoning. It seems Rafiel marks certain "special" elves w/ a purplish birthmark, generally around the eyes and forehead, and occassionally other areas of the body too. When I was found, I lay as naked as any newborn w/ 2 exceptions: I bore a half-mask of unknown metal on the right half of my face and a sleeve of the same metal over my right arm, extending from shoulder to fingertips. It was discovered that neither could be removed by any means available to the Shadow Elves. And yes, as you've probably guessed, I too bore Rafiel's mark; but, only on my upper right chest area and strangely enough, my mark was in the form of a skull wearing a crown w/ a sword passing up thru both.
The patrol delivered me to the Shamans of the City of the Star, my adopted peoples main city, to be judged and raised should Rafiel deem it so. He must've since they raised me as a shaman. My adopted people are a secretive lot and so I will not betray them by speaking further of them or their ways.
My life growing up wasn't easy; but, neither is the life of any shadow elf. Due to my "differences" I was openly shunned and even my "teachers" couldn't conceal their unease when dealing w/ me. I learned their teaching quickly and chose to make myself even more distinct by learning non-damaging spells and some non-shaman related skills.
This then leads to mention of an incident that occurred during my training which has impacted me significantly. At various points during training; but, before a shadow elf joins their first patrol; each elf must test what they've learned to prove to their teachers that they have indeed learned their lessons. On this occassion, 43 years after my founding, while testing my teachings I chanced upon what first appeared to be an injured female elf. As I approached to examine her I discovered a fascinating truth: she was not of the living; but, an undead...vampiric to be precise. In her state she rambled, on what  I will not speak; but, it was obvious she was diing.
This then is where I learned something no teacher had taught me. In my examination of her, I discovered she was diing of Positive Energy poisoning and strangely enough, the recipe for a salve entered my head. As I scrounged the ingredients, my head was filled w/ knowledge of the undead that no shadow elf had taught me. To make this shorter I will acknowledge that I successfully cured her w/ the salve and spent some time chatting w/ her as she recovered. I learned she was an ancient vampiric and a follower of the Lady of Night, Daughter of Shadows: the Immortal Nyx. I also learned a rather amusing fact: the undead tell a story of an elven infant who slew many of them...they call him Reaver. I didn't have the heart to tell her the tale was mine.
During her recovery, she never once fed from me, though I offered. I seems she had long ago sworn never to feed from one of her own. We parted ways after she recovered and I've never seen her since. Over the next 50 years I learned that my knowledge of the undead appears to be second to none. How , and why, I have such an extensive lore on the undead is unknown to me. While one might think that I am enemy to all undead, that is far from the truth. My, I refuse to name it hatred for that would sully the purity of hate, opposistion to the undead seems to be based more on whether or not they willing desecrate, violate or betray the grave. Ghouls, and vile Necromancers, obviously bear the brunt of my contempt.
For the record, there seems to be classifications for undead: natural, those born of the negative plane, and created, the most commonly encountered type. Of the created there are willing and unwilling, and I hold contempt on any who would create an unwilling undead. (Those cursed to undeath fall into the created catagory.)
I have prattled enough w/ that part of my life and now will move onto the events that are responsible for my arrival in that Land of Eternal Sun.
Early for an elf, I was assigned to my first patrol at age 96, along w/ two others: the twin sisters Rinisk and Rapuha. While Rapuha is a "normal" Shadow Elf, Rinisk is a Shaman, like myself. Neither of whom had ever raised to my level of awareness, so this was, for me, a first meet....and not a very good one. It seems both were a year younger than I and as I was to discover, had been placed w/in the patrol to not only report on me; but, also to slay me if I proved to be a traitor as was their superiors claim against me. *Note: it seems enemies where slipping deep into shadow elf lands and that mysterious deaths among shadow elves where occurring on an alarming scale.*
Now for a few words on our first patrol: our Captain never answered to anything by "Captain or Sir". His Sergeant, who seemed to be a cousin to one degree or another, was equally insistant on only being addressed as Sergeant or sub-Captain....but, never in the Captains hearing. Of the twins, I've already spoken. That just leaves six others, none of whom would interact w/ me and I was quite fine w/ that. During that ill-fated patrol, I was always ordered out as scout and it was during such an occassion that we were betrayed.
What first occurred, I know not, since I wasn't there; but, w/ the sounds of battle I returned to see the twins fighting back to back against vile orcs. The nameless six already lay slain while the Captain faced two orcs and a bugbear by himself. That's at the point I saw his "cousin" slip up behind him and drive his sword into the Captain's unguarded back. At that betrayal, I launched myself against the Sergeant managing to drive my sword into his unprotected neck just above the collar of his chain mail armor. To my annoyance, my sword snapped at that point and I was forced to fight on w/ tooth and claw.
What became of the twins, I would only learn later; but, I myself was driven into the tunnels by a mob of orcs. A merry dance we had thru those passageways. Most times I was able to avoid them; but, for those unlucky to catch me, I gave them only death. I will not lie and say I never took damage, for many times I danced Death's beautiful dance; but, always she withdrew....at times it seemed as if the Grave herself was denying me her last embrace.
How long the dance between my hunters and I lasted, I cannot say; time had long since ceased to have meaning to me. Long after my supplies ran out, I fed on what fungi and minor creatures I found. Often only the blood of my enemies slacked my thirst, though I never lowered myself to feed upon them. They were filth, carrion only to be slain. In time I found myself in a passage w/ a bright light at the end. Rather than risk blindness, I rested for days w/in the passage until I grew accustom to the light. At this point I had been five days w/out food and three w/out liquid, so I was weak and slightly disoriented.
Easing my way out of the passage mouth, I found myself viewing the surface lands for the first time in my life. Regrettably, the view was cut short as I realized I had emerged into a battle between Dwarves and Goblins. Though weaponless, when a couple of goblins mistakenly tried to attack me; I rent their throats w/ my teeth and locked my hands on the throats of two others. Embarrassingly enough, that exertion caused me to pass out.
When I awoke, I found myself w/in the dwarves camp; my wounds tended and some nourishment had clearly been given to me. Surprisingly one of the dwarves spoke Elven and told me of how they had to pry my death grip from the goblins throats. They had tended me for half a week before I regained consiousness. As we spoke, he told me of the Goblin War that was sweeping this land and how this band had disagreed w/ their clans who decided to hole up in their mountain fortress's to wait out the end of the conflict.
This band had chosen instead to aid the humans and elves in the ongoing war. When I was able, they planned to return to the human castle. Interestingly, they didn't push the fact that my appearance wasn't like the surface elves they commonly deal w/. I limited myself to telling them that I had been changed by my extended ordeal underground. We moved on from that camp two days later.
We avoided what combat we could; but, fought when we had no choice. While the dwarves had no weapons or armor to spare me, our fallen foes were another matter. I used whatever I could scavenge from them and replaced it when it inevitable broke. Three weeks it took us to reach this "human castle" and I have to say: I was not impressed w/ its construction. Clearly no dwarf, and definately no Shadow Elf, had a hand in its creation. After entering the castle, I was quick to learn the fate of the twins. As an elf, I was shown to the resident Elf-lord, Palens, who was currently meeting w/ two others like me...the twins.
It seems they too had found their way to this land; but, unlike me, they were found by a group of Hin (whom humans call "Halflings", I have since seen these Hin dance and they are certainly not "half" anything.). The twins wanted to "question" me on the spot; but, I think the massive amount of scars covering my torso stopped them. I learned that like myself, they had held to a story of having to be underground for an extended period and thus explained their appearance. *Here I must mention w/ a smile, that I haven't exactly been making very good first impressions. While the dwarves seemed to take to me, I appear to be too blunt for everyone else.*
Once the meet w/ Palens ended, the three of us had a brief meeting w/ the human leader, Duke Hector Barrik. After we agreed to help in this war, a human named Slyke lead us to get better outfitted as well as some food and drink. *The human meals left ALOT to be desired.* Once we had eaten and been outfitted, we were led to meet w/ another human, Bilion, who seemed to be head of their merchants. He supplied us w/ what he claimed were common sized "spellbooks". Although they were blank, the twins and I were able to copy our original "spell plates" into them. *Here I will mention that living underground, we have no trees hence paper is new to us. We do however have some very large mushrooms and other fungi and use them as our version of paper. Remarkable, some human sage named Marmillian offered to buy our mushroom plates at a staggering price: 1,500 gold EACH!!! Neither twin took him up on the offer; but, I did and sold all three of my plates to him for a total of 4,500 gold pieces. From what I gathered he was less interested in the spells they contained and far more interested in how they made.*
It is now at this point that I will speak briefly on the various religions I've learned are followed by the various castle defenders. The dwarves follow an Immortal named Kagyar, while the Hin follow an Immortal called Terra (though some also refer to her as "Mother Earth"). The elves it seems pay homage to the Immortal Ordana, who they say created the elvish race to be friend and protector of the forests. The only Immortal "most" of the humans mentioned is called "Ka the Preserver." Which brings me to both a surprise and a personal minor annoyance: there is another recent addition to the castles human defenders. A cleric of Nyx, who claims her Immortal sent her here in search of someone her Immortal calls: Guardian of the Grave.....so far, the twins have kept quiet and not told her that I'm the one she seeks. (Since first meeting the dwarves, I have taken to using the name: Van; so even they aren't aware of the truth.)
Ah...life in the castle. It brings a smile to face....and not a happy one. W/in a month (as measured by the surfacers) the goblin horde had contained all the defenders w/in the castle walls. W/ each passing day, they came closer and closer to over running these walls. Though there is a fountain w/in the castle, its waters are for drinking and not for bathing. So you can well imagine the stench w/in these walls. Every defender is caked in the dried blood of goblins to such an extent that you can barely tell the races apart.
Even here I have come to be relatively shunned. There have been occassions when the goblins got too close and my blood slicked weapon would fly from my grasp. Much to everyone's "horror" I do not hesitate to face goblins w/ tooth and claw. Many-a-times, I've heard defenders refer to me as "a living nightmare." I gave Barrik my word to defend his castle and his people by any means neccessary, so long as I stand upon this earth. (The twins have seemed to integrate themselves into the defenders alot more easily than me. I consider it a good thing, since it means they are spending more time w/ the others and staying the hell away from me.)
On those occassions when the goblin horde gave us even slight pause, I have found a quiet and peaceful area to sleep....outside the castle's cemetery. I have avoided entering it so as not to disturb the souls interred w/in.
They say its been now 5 months since the twins and I arrived at the castle; but, all I remember is the blood soaked dream that has been our existance. Their numbers never seem to grow less, regardless of how many we slay. I've seen the elder spellcasters slinging fireballs and more into their ranks; only for them to replaced just as quickly. But, last eve it all changed.
Only a fool wouldn't have realized that attack should've been our last. So many of their numbers breached the walls...I fell from the battlements w/ no less than nine of the filthy beasts clinging to me. Personally, I'm not clear on what happened by when I landed and opened my eyes, there were no goblins anywhere to be seen. Every castle defender looked like hell; but, they were alive and shockingly unharmed. Each race seemed to think their own Immortal had saved them...that's when we all noticed our new surroundings and that infernal Red Sun blazing in the sky. It hasn't set in the time we've been here and it seems to be annoying people.
We appear to be in some kind of basin w/ cliff walls so high they never seem to end. We have all seen the land masses, both small and large, floating high in the sky as if in orbit around the sun. And of course.....we've found a new enemy in this land. Marmillian calls them "Beastmen", I call them just one more annoyance. As the defenders were first becoming aware of our new surroundings, a group of these things stupidly tried to attack the castle walls. They numbered less than 50 and all were slaughtered before they reached the walls; but, lookouts said there were more watching. The Duke expects further attacks and there is talk of sending small groups out in search of allies.
I was just told by Silvik, Captain of the Guard, that I'm to appear before the duke after a short sleep. I'm betting its to be part of one of those groups.
Meeting Time! After a few hours rest, I presented myself before the duke. Annoyingly the twins and Nyx's priest, Mish Tu'Lura, were also there. The duke said we're to be the first group to begin searching for allies. He claimed it was because three elves and a cleric would fair better for those times when we must fight. He grimaced a little when I pointed out, that since we aren't really any of his people, we're also the most expendable. He did tell us to meet w/ various people around the castle for advice: Marmillian, Silvik, Amelya (Ka's High Priestess),Valimas (a human Magic-User), Bilion, Slyke (turns out he's the Duke's Interrorgator), Palens, Argone (Hin leader) and Gristling (Dwarf leader).
Marmillian and Silvik were easy enough to speak w/. Silvik just imparted minor words about combat and Marmillian told us to bring him anything interesting we find like handcrafted artifacts and such. Palens, Gristling and Argone each in turn simply spoke to us about their various peoples. The absolute most annoying parts came from speaking w/ Amelya, Bilion, Valimas and Slyke. Amelya told us to search the Temples cellar for two Healing Potions and a Staff of Healing that SHOULD still be down there. She also mentioned the rumor of a magical suit of Chain Mail in the cemetery's closest tower that had been converted into crypts. Bilion told us to grab a magical Battle Ax from his inn's cellar that he had planned to sell. Slyke said we could grab his old magical Gauntlets from a secret room in the "questioning" area of the castles dungeon. He also claimed to be holding a Beastman and a Giant Rat in there for questioning. What in the name of sanities madness does he expect the rat to tell him? Valimas, begrudgingly, said we can take both a Scroll of Sleep and a Wand of Lightning that he had recently finished crafting. Both of which can be found in his Magic Shops cellar. As much as I despise repeating myself.....What in the name of sanities madness where these humans thinking? All this stuff would've been of great help DURING that damn war.
After gathering everything we were told about and buying up some slings from the weapon shop, we all headed for the front gate, only to have Silvik stop us and tells us to go collect his old magical sword from a cubbyhole in the Northeastern tower. Seems w/ everything else going on, he really had just forgotten about it. I understand he's pushing 60 years which for humans seems to be old. Just as we neared the gate once more, a runner found us and revealed information Slyke had just extracted from the beastman. Supposedly there is a half natural/half manmade complex behind a waterfall slightly to the North of the castle. But more importantly, there's a beastman encampment to the Northwest of the castle. Seems the duke has ordered it wiped out w/ extreme prejudice.
Once outside the castle, we wisely explored our surroundings never straying more than a days walk away. Over the course of several weeks we learned that the castle is on a rather large island. We did find the entrance to the waterfall complex and also spied upon the beastman encampment. At the time, there were too many for us to handle. We have had our fair share of battles though. Everything from wild boars (surprisingly tasty once cooked) upto a young'ish black dragon that we managed to get the drop on. *Damn; but, that Wand came in handy for some of our fights. Luckily we still have it.* (On a side mention, the townspeople where thrilled when we returned carrying the dragon's corpse. What they did w/ all of it, I neither know nor care; I snuck my part from it.) Mish has managed to learn spells from her Immortal, while the twins and I have managed to be able to memorize more of our spells. None of them were happy to learn that I didn't have any offensive spells. They insisted I scribe the sleep scroll into my book and keep it memorized. My Watcher spell sure saved their asses a couple of times when we took a rest, though.
*Here I will hint at a special secret that I've kept from the twins: Even before my first meeting w/ the dwarves, I knew other spells. Spells usually granted by Rafiel to his shamans. Generally shamans require a special means to wield Rafiel's power; but, I have learned that when I meditate, the mark on my chest warms. I have the distinct sense that Rafiel grants me power, possibly at the behest of another. Who? Why? I neither know nor care. Rafiel guides my hand, so to Rafiel I meditate.*
After an acidental clash w/ a beastman force, we finally decided to hit their camp. Turns out there was only seven present at the time. My guess is that they were waiting for reinforcements after their repeated failed attacks on the castle. A simple sleep spell and our swords, mace and axe ended all their lives. By this time, roughly three or four months had passed and our supplies needed replacing, so we returned to the castle. On average, I'ld guess we visited the castle once a week up to this point. We delivered some minor trinkets from the beastmen to Marmillian. (The pay wasn't great; but, noone complained.)
As surprising as it may sound, up til now only the human Mish had worn any armor. We had given her the magical chain mail so that we three could rely on speed during combats. Having just come out of a great war, none of the shops offered anything worth buying. As to be expected, their wares weren't any better. We did however have to shell out alot of the gold we had acquired up to now, so we could get new spells from Valimas. I did manage to get Marmillian to teach me a spell he called "Analyze", that I figured might prove helpful. All in all our days were proving monotonous, so we elected to face the waterfall complex.
At first all seemed in our favor, then those damn beetles swarmed out of nowhere and almost claimed Rapuha. Thankfully for her, Mish was able to use the Staff and her own spells to save her. After that it became a series of running battles through the whole first half of the complex and yes, the rumor was true. The first half was indeed a natural complex that had seen the hand of crafters. It was shored up akin to a mine. During all those fights, we ran into both a carrion crawler and a gelationous cube. While the cube died fast, the crawler managed to paralyze me before Rinisk ended it w/ a well placed magic missile.
After resting up, and making sure this half was fully cleared; we passed thru some vines into an obviously man-made structure. Who built it and why, we'll never know. The creatures w/in came closest to ending our entire party. Undead, gargoyles...even blasted troll. After the first room, in which both Mish and Rinisk were brought to death's door; they heeded my advice. Open door, use wand of lightning, close door quickly. It was during this series of battles that the twins learned Rinisk can use cleric items, even if she can't cast shaman spells.
After spending two full days ensuring both halves were cleared, we found a second entrance to the place. It came out at a cliff and was well concealed w/in an old dead tree. Once we returned to the valley floor, we made for a bridge we had discovered that connected this island to the rest of the valley. And wouldn't you know, barely halfway across the bridge and we get attacked by a hill giant and half a dozen beastmen. They all died quickly to the wand; but, turns out that was the final charge. Taking what treasure we could from them, we pushed on. Most of our battles after that were w/ normal creatures, until we were ambushed by a couple of minotaurs. When the first died, his companion fled w/ us in hot pursuit.
We trailed him to another well concealed lair in a copse of three large elm trees. Inside we discovered a crafted lair. (Evidence showed it had been built by the minotaurs themselves.) We had several hard fought battles w/ these beasts; but, in the end there were nine dead minotaurs and four seriously injured adventurers. However to our joy, we found some salvageable axes (two proved magical), two swords (one magical) and two suits of magical chain mail. (One Hin sized and one fit us elves so we gave it to Rapuha, who was proving to be our main warrior.) W/ all this in tow, we carefully made our way back to the castle.
While the others reported to the duke, I sought out Argone to see if he would buy the Hin armor. Much to my surprise, he actually traded me a suit of Elven Chain Mail for it. While not magical, it was definately better than the armor now being sold in the shop. Rinisk settled for a non-magical suit of chain mail and all three of them grabbed some shields. W/ both twins using the magical swords, I was content to wield the magical axe we got from Bilion. The two magical axes we took from the minotaurs, we sold for a nice profit. We also sold the non-magical axes after Gristling identified them all as being of dwarven make. The twins further purchased a couple of bows and LOTS of arrows; but, Mish and I stuck w/ our slings. Easier to find stones than arrows, is my  opinion.
After a good nights sleep and a decent meal, we headed back out. Crossing the bridge once more, we commenced a through exploration of the southwest valley floor. Although we didn't find any threatening lairs, like the minotaurs; we still had lots of battles w/ randomly encountered creatures. While mostly normal animals, we faced our fair share of hill giants and various types of beastmen. (There appears to be around ten different types of these creatures: ranging from tiny, that barely reach our knees, to huge, that are almost the equal of a hill giant.)
After spending a solid six months scouring that area of the valley, even the duke had to admit that there wasn't any "serious" threats to the castle. While we certainly didn't get rich, we gathered enough valuables to buy more healing potions from the church and spells from both Valimas and Marmillian. *By this time, I believe it had been close to a full year since our arrival.* Once more we headed out to explore, this time we focused on the West central section of the valley.
After making our way across the bridge, we cautiously and throughly began our exploration. Encounters were more of the same, normal animals, hill giants and beastmen. Atleast until we came w/in sight of The Burning Lands. Seriously no other name applies. A lava filled region that proved to have "some" stable ground to walk on. After an initial attempt by Rapuha to scout it out, we learned that w/out protection we would take damage. It was here that I finally revealed my secret to them. I cast upon myself a spell to resist fire and scouted out a small area; but, was forced to retreat w/ a rather nasty young red dragon hot on my heels.
Luckily, the others saw us coming and prepared themselves. Damn dragon was dead before he knew I wasn't alone. Let's just say, they all seemed a might unhappy w/ me over not telling them sooner; but, they shut-up when I set to work preparing the dragon's corpse for transport back to the castle. As small as it was, it would atleast give the citizens a change of meat. And I'm sure someone (Valimas and Marmillian) would want to use the left over portions. I did however manage to collect the dragons bloodstone, much like I did w/ the young black we killed months back.
When we returned to town, we noticed that attitudes where changing and people were getting more "snippy" to use the human term. Marmillian counseled us to find another means of accessing the Burning Lands. Both he and Valimas ended up sharing the various remnants of the dragon, save for the meat which was passed out during a "celebration" to help raise everyone's spirits. After a few hours refreshing ourselves, it was back out for more exploration. However, this time we had better information from Slyke. It seems he had finally learned where the beastmen's main lair was, so the Duke ordered us to "wipe it out as though it had never existed."
Our destination proved to be the far Northwest of the valley, passed the outskirts of the Burning Lands. Along the way, was more of the same encounters. While hugging a cliff wall to avoid a large force of beastmen, Mish accidentaly found a cave entrance. It almost proved our undoing when we entered and found ourselves face to face w/ a Fire Giant. Luckily Mish cast a light spell in his eyes and we all four beat him to death as he wandered blind and swinging way over our heads.
Rapuha found a secret passage behind more vines that led us into a nest of hellhounds. None of us ended that battle w/out injury; but, all four hellhounds died. While searching their area, Rinisk found another secret spot w/ a good amount of gold nuggets that we split amongst us. After that we had an encounter w/ what Mish claimed was an extinct creature called a "Sabertooth Tiger". Since one of his massive teeth almost gutted Rinisk, she took both of them as mementos. Battle is never silent and we learned that the hard way when we were surprised by a damn red dragon. Though his breathe hurt us all intially, Mish was able to blind him like the giant, so it proved easier to kill. When we searched the way he came, we all but jumped for joy. We found lost of gems and jewels, a suit of magical plate mail, a magical shield, a magical sword and a magical bow.
Rapuha took the plate and shield, Rinisk took her old magical chain mail and the bow. I swapped out the magical axe  that I had been using for the sword. Since this dragon was just too big for us to carry back to town, we had to let it go to waste; but, I still claimed its bloodstone. While we rested, Mish did a little exploring and learned the passage lead to the Burning Lands. After a good meal of dragon steaks, we headed for the beastman caves.
Those caves proved to be comprised of several small areas w/ lots of beastmen and little treasure. However Mish's face really lit up when we took a magical warhammer off not one; but, two of the larger beastmen. We found a few arcane scrolls that us three elves split amongst us. We also found another magical sword hidden behind some rocks in a beastman shamans lair. Bastard revealed his shamanistic abilities by making Mish sick. We also encounter a human woman in one cave who attacked us like a madman. The final cave we entered proved to house the beastman leader and some of his stronger people. While I took the majority of damage, we managed to kill all of them. Along w/ some valuables, we found three magical spears and an arcane spell scroll of entangle, which I took. Rinisk found a blocked passage covered in vines that even our magical weapons couldn't harm. We decided to return to town and speak w/ Marmillian. To the others obvious discomfort, I insisted on taking the human females body back w/ us.
Ahhh, the last laugh was mine. After carefully making our way back to town, we showed Marmillian the womans body and he identified it as being an Azcan: an extinct human civilization. To say he was thrilled is an understatement. Something is really wrong in the castle. If they were "snippy" before, they seem to be getting almost hostile now. Marmillian believes its the sun causing this, the duke doesn't care and just demands we find him allies as he no longer trusts anyone w/in the castle. We had to spend a few days in town while Marmillian, Valimas and Amelya worked on some magical item to help us pass the vines.
Finally! Another day in that blasted castle and I would've started killing everyone just to shut them up! The Item was finally done and we couldn't get out of the castle fast enough. Luckily we were able to purchase more spells from Valimas and Marmillian. The twins each learned fireball and I learned lightning bolt. Mish acquired a couple more healing potions from the temple. I do wish they could make those things quicker, instead of only two at a time. I suspect that they are choosing to only sell us two at a time; but, can't confirm it. *On a side mention, I haven't told the twins yet; but, I do know the fireball spell....as one of my shaman spells!
We made it back to the beastman caves w/ little trouble. In fact, the whole way we didn't have a single encounter and that troubles me. Atleast when we reached the caves, some of it made sense. Waiting in ambush was no less than four dozen various sized beastmen. They died fast when three fireballs hit them. Of course the twins were upset and demanded to know when I learned fireball. I had to tell them it was granted to me during meditation to Rafiel; they're still upset that I have shaman powers and Rinisk doesn't. (Secretly I think Rafiel has something up his sleeve connected to me and that's why he's granting me powers w/out the special item normally required.)
*I realize none of this is greatly detailed and may even seem rushed; but, I write this now, long after events have happened. I don't have much time left. I gave my oath and will never break it, so I have to get this on paper quickly. In the end you'll understand the need for hurry.*
After looting the dead, we entered the main caves and faced the vines once more. Damned if they didn't part at a touch from the artifact we had been given. What a dance we had after that. As we sought to scour the complex, it almost seemed as if the creatures w/in KNEW we were there. Damn things came after us! Around every corner seemed a battle: carrion crawlers, owlbears, giant lizards, spiders, troglodytes and a massive beast akin to alligators. When we finally had killed anything that moved and looted what we could, we found an exit...and a strange pattern of holes in one wall that Mish insisted on noting down. (Luckily for us she did that.)
Upon exiting the caves, we found ourselves in a swamp and almost instantly in a fight w/ two massive creatures Mish said were dinosaurs. She claims Marmillian told her he thought we had been taken back in time due to the presence of the Azcans and beastmen. Whether true or not, we developed a simple outlook: if you attack us, we kill you. We spent weeks scouring that swamp before stumbling into a lizardman village. It was a slaughter that netted us some decent treasure and items for Marmillian. A bonus was finding a map of the swamps w/ two spots noted that we headed out to investigate.
What luck that we had that map! Along the way we were ambushed by lizardmen AND dinosaurs. Rapuha fell to one of the dinosaurs and Rinisk went beserk 'til everything save us was slain. Mish insisted we take Rapuha immediately to a strange pool listed on the map. She wouldn't say why; but, she proved to be right. When we found the pool, Mish insisted we place Rapuha's body in the waters, almost immediately Rapuha returned to life, though barely alive. Mish said if she read the words right, this was some kind of pool of life and that the tree should be able to heal us all. We found the tree after a few battles and Mish was right, as we all sat beneath it to rest, we healed w/in minutes.
By the time we finally made it back to the castle, time had no meaning to any of us. Marmillian however said it had been just over a year and a half since the castle first arrived here. On this return we found that the castles people were showing signs of madness. Not anger; but, actual insanity. Marmillian encouraged us to hurry in our exploration before they all went completely insane. He seemed to think that somehow our travels were keeping us sane. *Didn't want to break it to him; but, noone is ever completely sane. W/ sanity there must be madness, just like w/ light there is always darkness.*
We quickly made our latest report to the Duke and found him to be almost stark raving mad. He told us if our next visit didn't bring good news, allies, he would banish us from the castle. We decided not to speak w/ him again unless we had found his allies. By the time we left town, we were all flat broke. Spent all our wealth on more spells from Marmillian and Valimas. While we rested for a few hours, it was decided to spend our time exploring the entire valley and only return to the castle if absolutely neccessary. W/ our discovery in the swamp, we can go there if we run out of healing or anyone dies again.
*I've chosen to seriously condense our search of the valley, little of true interest was found. I will instead only list those points of interest.* We found numerous minor caves along the Eastern and Southern cliffs of the valley; but, none held anything save monsters and minor treasure. It's when we got past the Southern most swamp region w/in the valley, that we made a shocking find. We discovered a cave that we entered and immediately were almost deafened as a voice intoned that "These caverns have been sealed by the Ancients!" Unable to pass we had to turn around and make our way back towards the castle. Funnily enough, looking out from the North side of the swamp we were by, we could just barely see the castle in the distance.
Enroute back the way we came, I added a few more draconic bloodstones to my pouch. From both blacks and greens, by this time I held half a dozen bloodstones from blacks, greens and reds. As we neared the Northeastern region of the valley, we were ambushed by a group of Azcans. After they died, we trailed them back to a cave we had missed. After resting, we enetered and were attacked by a statue made of rock. Just past it, we found a deadend w/ a series of strange holes. Mish pulled out her paper from the lizardman caves and damned if that pattern didn't open the way. (Almost made me change my opinion of humans....almost.)
Minotaurs, owlbears, cave bears, giant worms and scorpions, stone giants and trolls, spiders and ants and sabertooth tigers; all these we faced w/in and prevailed. We found some decent loot scattered thru out, including an arcane scroll of fireball that I scribed and a magical ring that let Rapuha regenerate damage. Once we were past the tigers, we found the exit and ended up in a hot, steamy jungle.
We scoured this jungle for weeks, slaying snakes and lizards, tigers and Azcans...lots and lots of Azcans. To our annoyance many of these proved to be spellcasters, both arcane and divine. From them we restocked our depleted wealth before stumbling onto a massive pyramid of gold colored stone. Atleast 200 feet high and 400 feet wide, it was impressive. It also had eight Azcan guards at the entrance. Three fireballs, a few magic missiles, arrows and stones and none of us had to draw a melee weapon. We took valuables from them and a couple of magical bows. W/ both the twins now using magical bows, Mish and I were using a couple of magical slings we'd taken from some of the earlier Azcans.
After resting and recovering, we headed into the pyramid. I really, really came close to hating the Azcans for building this place. Traps, traps, traps, Azcans and even more traps. If I hadn't learned to pick locks and find and remove traps from a kobold servant to a dwarven slave among my adopted people, we would've ended our journey here. While my skills aren't the equal to a human thief, they sure came in handy here. Mish burned the last charges from her staff of healing keeping us alive to reach the fifth and final floor. Along the way we found two minor arcane scrolls and an almost endless supply of Azcans.
It wasn't 'til we found the main chamber, complete w/ the more powerful Azcans that we also found our greatest treasures. As we neared the chamber we saw what appeared to be the leader, turns out he was some kind of cleric, standing in a ring of flames and unharmed. I kindly sent a lightning bolt w/ his name on it and the fool never moved. Whether he thought himself some big badass or what, he died when the bolt rebounded off the wall behind him. After that we slaughtered a couple dozen Azcans before we could explore the chamber. It held some kind of altar and Rapuha discovered a secret compartment w/ three rings inside. Turns out they matched a ring worn by the dead leader. After some experimenting we discovered them to be magical rings to protect against fire. Mish found a map hidden beneath them, that seemed to depict the jungle outside. She seemed excited over notations on the map above a pool of water. We decided to investigate it after getting out of the pyramid.
Thanks to Rinisk keeping track of the traps we found; but, either couldn't disarm or set off, we made it out unscathed. From the pyramid, we made our way to the pool which proved to be capable of healing our wounds and even cured me after I got poisoned by a winged serpent. We had a few more encounters before re-entering the caves that brought us here and returned to the valley prime, as I have come to call it. By the time we reached town, Marmillian said it had been two years since we first arrived here.
The people had reached a point of almost complete insanity, w/ only Marmillian seeming to be any kind of sane. Regrettably we had to render Valimas unconcious to get at his spellbooks for new spells to add. Marmillian seemed to think now that we're close to an answer. W/ our new rings, he urged us to cross the Burning Lands and discover what ancient extinct cultures hide there. We avoided the Duke and practically everyone else while we found a place to rest before heading for the Burning Lands. After our rest, Mish informed us that her Immortal had warned her we would encounter undead loyal to the old bag of bones, Thanatos. W/ this forewarning we headed out.
Damned if it didn't seem as though Existence herself had turned against us. We left a path of death and destruction from w/in sight of the castle gates all the way to the outer edge of the Burning Lands itself. It was like the betrayal ambush all over again. Hunted and driven for days and weeks, it didn't relent 'til we actually entered the Burning Lands themselves. After a quick rest, we explored hoping to find somewhere we could take a longer rest. We slew a couple more red dragons (Of course I took their bloodstones), many fire giants, hell hounds, flaming salamanders and even a few fire elementals. We also found the exit from the cave we had discovered long ago that let out near the beastman caves. We decided to rest in there for a couple of days.
During our resting, Mish recieved a vision from Nyx. It seems the Great Lady had hidden a structure of her own w/in this valley and we were a few days away from it. As long as we respected its sanctuary, the undead w/in would ignore us. We headed there first thing simply to pay our respects to the Great Lady. Her words proved true, though undead roamed w/in, they left us alone. After paying our respects, we moved on and finally found a massive cave entrance.
Upon entering we faced a red dragon that Rapuha managed to catch w/ an entangle spell, so the rest of us stood back and watched as Mish took out some frustrations on it. Almost felt sorry for the poor thing...almost. For the first time, the others saw me take the dragons bloodstone. I convinced them it was just a quirk of mine. Turns out this place wasn't a natural formation; but, man-made and ancient. How all these creatures got w/in we never learned. We never bothered to try asking, either. So many different types of creatures scattered thru out the place, some actually had decent loot.
Eventually we discovered a portal at the bottom of a deadend staircase and went thru it. Turns out it lead to a second level. We slaughtered everything on that level and rested when we found another set of stairs w/ a portal. After a good rest, we stepped thru and Mish warned us that this was the floor of the undead. Suffice it to say; we explored and everything died. One lucky wraith got a hit on Mish that left her clearly weaker then when we entered that floor and I knew she had been subjected to an energy drain. Against my better judgement, I made them all rest while I concocted a salve for her. While it didn't fully undo the drain, it gave her back atleast some of the energy taken. To say she was both shocked and angered was an understatement. All this times shes searched for "Guardian" and I was right there keeping quiet. The twins were suspicious of the salve I made; but, I silenced them all when I told Mish that yes, I am the Guardian she saught; but, I am also the one undead name Reaver. She never spoke to me again after that.
After scouring this final floor and taking what loot we found, by chance Rinisk discovered another carefully concealed portal. When we stepped thru, we found ourselves in a small natural cave w/ some minor undead guards that we slew. Upon leaving the cave, we found ourselves just a stones throw away from a small walled settlement. We were quickly spotted and approached by the locals. At first they seemed to believe us to be from some group called: Schattenalfen. *Strangely that is an elven word that translates as: Shadow Elf.*
After clearing up the confusion, we got to meet w/ the settlements leader. Seems she was some kind of minor merchant sent here to get her out of her superiors hair. Her people it seems are called: Oltecs and are quite the merchant people. After spending a couple of weeks among them, we reached an agreement. She would convince her people to aid us and in exchange, we would open the path for them to trade w/ the castle. She gave us a letter for the Duke and a Medallion to prove friendship.
After taking our leave, we returned the way we came. Imagine our surprise to find all the undead back in place. But, this time we proved lucky and noone was drained. We also discovered the cause of their return. Damn bag of bones had set the place so that if all the undead were slain, they would just rise again. As a result, we slew all of them save for a single ghoul that we imprisoned in a room w/ all the other undead corpses to feed on.
After that, our trek back thru was quite the walk in the park. After exiting the dungeon we face a few battles; but, easily made it back to the castle..... only to find the entire place in ruin. As we carefully entered and searched, we noticed a lack of bodies or any signs of external attacks. The castle had been ruined from w/in. When we reached Marmillians tower, the cagey old man was still there; but, in terrible shape. I refuse to hear him out until AFTER we healed him. Once healed he confirmed that the inhabitants had destroyed the castle and fled into the surrounding forest. The Duke, himself, had beaten Marmillian almost to death before fleeing.
Marmillian told us that before Amelya went completely insane, she told him of a warning she recieved from Ka. All the madness was emanating from a cavern in the southeast portion of the valley. *Yep, the one sealed by the Ancients.* She left w/ him a scroll that would aid us against the evil we'ld find there. After giving us the scroll, we told him of meeting Oltecs and he was over the moon. Like the Azcans and Beastmen, they were a civilization from our prior worlds past. He is now conviced, and we agree, that the castle was moved into some kind of zoo housing extinct civilizations. *None of them would speak of it; but, it obviously means this castles civilization on its prior world is now extinct.*
Before we left, Marmillian dropped another surprise on us. It seems in the early days after the castles arrival, someone had discovered a passage hidden inside the cemetery grounds. Marmillian suggested to explore it on the off chance it might be a quicker route to the southern swamp. On a whim, I stopped into Valimas's old quarters and damned if that mage hadn't torn and burned his entire spellbook.
I made peace w/ the dead before our group entered the cemetery and as we searched for the entrance, we all got a few good laughs from some of the epitaphs written on the headstones. According to Mish, the previous duke had a sense of humor and these epitaphs were written to honor his memory. *He was the first casualty of the war.* After a few hours, we finally found the entrance in an empty grave. Upon entering we had to slay some cave bears and zombies; but, I was quick to notice an oddity. This place was not only man-made; but, of almost....Shadow Elven stone work.
As we explored, slaughtered and looted; neither of the twins mentioned the stonework, so I don't know if they noticed or not. However, in one room noone could help but face the apparant connection. After passing thru a few secret doors and slaying many creatures, we passed thru a secret door and found ourselves face to face w/ four elves almost identical to shadow elves. They seemed just as surprised as us 'til they saw Mish and attacked. Though we slew three of them, I managed to keep the fourth alive and set about questioning him. Bastard was difficult to crack; but, keep in mind, the undead have good cause to fear me and in the end, so did he.
What I learned is that his people call themselves: Schattenalfen. They are made up of mostly warriors w/ precious few able to learn magic. They have no shamans or clerics; but, worship an Immortal called Atzanteotl. On hearing that name, I almost rent his throat. The traitor Sergeant of our first patrol and the creatues that hunted me all followed that Immortal. I also learned that his people had built this place, before the castles arrival, to attack the Azcans more easily. By the time I had extracted every last kernal of knowledge I could from him, even the twins were begging that he be allowed to die. Seems what I had done in questioning him, had sickened all of them to the point that they almost left me there. But, as I told them: "Sometimes, honor demands that you commit acts so horrific; that even the memory of those attrocities will be enough to give monsters nightmares." Of course I also told them if they ever want to look into eyes of a monster, to look in a mirror. All of Existances Children are monsters to me, I'm just the darkness that gives them nightmares.
After ending that "Schattenalfen's" life, we looted their corpses and moved on. Though I had learned the secret those elves used to bypass all the creatures w/in, we chose to slay them instead. *Apparantly, the various creatures w/in were either hired mercenaries or trained by the Schattenalfen not to attack them.* It didn't take long to finally reach the exit. We found that not only were we at the southern most end of the valley's swamp; but, that the entrance was well concealed w/in an old dead tree. (In hindsight I realized that the Schattenalfen were also responsible for crafting that waterfall complex as well.)
We made our way to the Ancients caves, dealing w/ all encounters along the way. We rested just w/in the caves before trying to progress any deeper. Words written at the top of Marmillians scroll helped us to bypass the Ancients barrier. We also discovered that the Oltec Medallion seemed linked to these caves too. These caves were true natural passsages and the creatures w/in proved stronger than much of what we had faced so far. While we found some nice treasure, the exit proved quite...interesting. It was the areas surrounding the exit that teemed w/ Schattenalfen elves.
Turns out they were considered an "outpost" to protect the entrance to one of their cities. We slew them all and looted before resting. We all wanted to be well refreshed before trying to make our way thru any "city". As it turned out, we had been smart to rest. Although the city had few Schattenalfen w/in, it did have several high powered spellcasters. By pure accident we stumbled into a building w/ several of them and that had to be our most difficult battle upto that point. After they all died, we spent a solid week just recovering; even w/ the healing spells from Mish and I.
But, the loot made it worth while. We found a couple of arcane scrolls AND spellsbooks for each of those we killed. We three shared the books among us, each of us copying any new spell w/in. *Herein I learned there were some spells the twins couldn't learn yet; but, that I could. After all spells were scribed that could be, the twins kept most of the spellbooks. The only one I took for my own, belonged to the apparent leader of this city.*
Ah, but, our joy wasn't ended there. All told we slew eight elves in that room and managed to find four "strongly magical" suits of elven chain mail and five equally strong magical shields. Several of their weapons were just as strong in magic. As the ladies started splitting the various magical loot into four piles, I was beinning my search of the fallen leader. Something must've alerted the others to my shock, for they all rushed over. This leader wore a suit of clearly elven craftsmanship; but, it was forged of various colored DRAGON-scales. There proved to be five colors of scales: black, blue, green, red and white. This leader had clearly been one hell of a warrior. This armor, his shield and his sword proved to eminate strong magics and I claimed all three for my own. (The ladies were willing to allow that, so long as I ONLY took the treasure this elf had on him and let them have everything else. I insisted his spellbook was part of my treasure then.)
When all the loot was divided and we had all completely rested, we finally continued exploring the city looking for the exit. Wisely, we did not slay every elf w/in the city. Those we could, we avoided; but, fought when absolutely neccessary. *I must point out that we all had noticed the Schattenalfen city bore similar design to the Azcan pyramid from long ago. This was even more apparant when we found the exit.*
At the farthest end of the city, we found a purplish tinted pyramid of Azcan design. Here we were forced to slay anything we encountered to reach the top. This is also were the majority of spellcasting elves were found. A pity none of them carried their spellbooks w/ them and we didn't want to waste time searching the city for them. Upon reaching the very top of the pyramid, we found the door leading inside....or so we believed. W e couldn't be father from the truth!
After breaching the door, we discovered the doorway was infact a portal that connected to a series of natural, grass-green caverns. The taint of evil w/in was so strong, that at first it was all we could do to keep our feet. As we each called upon our Immortals to give us strength, we were attacked by an Efreet that stumbled on us. W/ strength from the Immortals, we pushed on slaying all before us. Though we encountered various creatures, including two undead, the most annoying proved to be a Medusa that turned Rinisk to stone. Luckily, Rapuha had a scroll to turn stone to flesh, so she saved her sister. The strong taint of evil w/in these caves kept us from being able to rest, so we had to conserve our might.
We chose to strike w/ spell and ranged weapons as much as possible, relying on melee only if we had no other choice. After facing a dragon-like creature, similiar to a red; we rounded a bend and faced the true source of evil and madness. What this.."thing" was we didn't know (Ka later called it a Burrower); but, we did as Marmillian had instructed and used Amelya's scroll. It proved to be a truely unique summons scrolls. As Mish finished reading the words, all sounds ceased and time itself seemed to no longer move.
A massive, powerful creature *similiar to the dinosaurs we had faced in the lizardman swamps* appeared and launched itself into battle w/ the Burrower. Somehow a barrier seemed to have raised between them and our group, for we were all left unscathed from the destructive powers unleashed by the two. How long they fought, I can't say; but, in the end the "dinosaur" was victorious. I had just time to note a shimmering beyond the battle site; but, this being addressed us.
Turns out he is in fact, the Immortal Ka. It seems he hadn't been aware that these Burrowers still existed; but, now that he did, he and other Immortals would deal w/ them. He said he would return us to the castle as heroes, having already cured the survivors and told them of our deeds. As he spoke these words, the other three vanished; perhaps back to the castle, perhaps not. I was never to find out.
W/ their disappearance, Ka was joined by two others...both of whom I recognized: The Lady Nyx and my own adopted Immortal, Rafiel. Seems I had been right all along, they had other plans for me. Rafiel admited to knowing all along that I was not a "true" Shadow Elf. It seems shortly after he became my adopted peoples patron, an entity even more powerful than he, gave him a foretelling. It warned him that the "lost realms" would birth a portal "enemy to time herself" and that Rafiel, two other Immortals and a mortal "akin to Rafiels chosen" would be required to seal it. *Rafiel admitted, at a question from Ka, that the entity also said the portal was a danger to Rafiel's own recorded past.*
The entity showed Rafiel a mark by which to know the mortal (that which stood upon my own chest, apparently) and that w/ the aid of the "preserver" and the "daughter of shadows", the portal could be broken.....But, only AFTER said mortal had willingly passed thru it. At this point Nyx tried to argue she needed more time to speak w/ me. (As I understood it, some of my knowledge on the undead was unknown, even to her.)
They granted my request to put words to paper, hence the rush in this writing. They also promised to see this document was found and delivered to my adopted people. To Nyx, I make a promise and a gift. I promised she and I would meet again and on that day, I would name my price for the gift I offered. As I write these words, I also permit her access to my mind. What she learns, I neither know...nor do I want to, judging by her face. I can only think to name it a mixture of awe..and raw horror.
My words are ended. Let these pages stay safe 'til Rafiel's own may read them. Even as I look upon the portal, I cannot help but smile. It gives the feel of an old friend, an ancient ally...an eternal lover. I fear not the other side; but, embrace the excitement that curiousity brings.
"Fist and Faith, an Oath once Sworne; we never Forget."