Five - Costly Progress

Mission Log - Entry Five

It has been twelve days since I have laid eyes upon my home. I accept now that these records of my travels may find themselves in the hands of enemies or future travelers rather than the archives of Heaven's Reach, so burdened with peril my journey has become. It is with this possibility that I will write with more candor. That said, my resolve has not wavered and I will faithfully execute my charge of protecting Lady Almareth.

Though not all remain, the names of the brave soldiers and companions who accompanied Lady Almareth and Sehl should be remembered: The scoffers - Rosalie and Bastillion - and the four royal soldiers - Rufus, Yemen, Vale, and Düblphart. While we must say farewell to Rosalie, Rufus, Yemen, and Vale, we remember their noble sacrifice and I pray their bravery caught the attention of the Seldarine and they are reborn with their favor. For all our loss, we have also gained allies whose names are to follow.

We broke camp in the morning, fortune seeing us unmolested during the night. Though his intentions were pure, Sehl's attempt at foraging for food left several of our party with looseness of the bowels that bothered them most of the morning.

With pitons and rope, we fashioned a crude means of scaling the castle walls, finding ourselves upon battlements connecting the five towers. Upon these paths were littered the bones of varied creatures, both human and beast, long picked clean and bleached by the sun.

Without hesitation, we cautiously began our search. Nearing the first of the towers, Madam Oliphant was overcome with curiosity at peculiar sounds and entered quietly. Within the first room we encountered strange, three-legged creatures whose bodies were each but an enormous eye. The beings emitted a terrible, shrieking sound that was sure to have alerted every soul in the castle. Stranger, still, was the cloud of noxious gas expelled as they were felled. Madam Oliphant and two of the guards were rendered unconscious by the gas for some time.

A slamming door lured me into an adjacent hallway, intentionally concealed. As the others gathered themselves, I stood at the ready before the door which I was sure the sound originated. When the others joined me, we stormed in, ready for battle, but found on one at first. Searching the room, I found an official Denmok seal, which I stowed away, much to the chagrin of Bastillion who eyed the mark with covetous attention.

Hiding within the room, nursing injuries, we discovered a pair of whom we may count among our first allies of the day. A halfling named My-Fingers and his companion, a cleric of Avandra known as Shalaa - the first Dragonborn I have met - had traveled to Castle Denmok on behalf of Northwarden to discover the source of demonic incursion upon their home. They warned us of more kua'toa - the fishmen we encountered from the bowels of Carse - and orcs which have made the castle their home and appear to be in mental communion with Zoraisis. With their injuries and fatigue, they desired to return to Northwarden, so we helped them descend our rigging and escape. As our orders from Sagrath were to travel to Northwarden upon finding Locklear's antidote, I sincerely hope we will meet these two again.

Continuing our search led us to our first foes, a group of pale, muscular humanoid figures with slithery tongues too long for their mouths and hollow, soulless eyes. Vicious and mocking as they were, my newfound powers of rebuke and the others' swift action were too much for the undead creatures.

Sehl heard a crash from upstairs which we joined him in investigating. It was there that we were set upon by a dangerous, unseen force that attacked with devastating, invisible energies. Room to room and floor to floor we chased the being, leading us into our first skirmish with monstrous rats, which proved difficult to dispatch. They dealt Sehl a terrible wound that left him unconscious and barely clinging to life.

As we dispatched the rats and ran out upon the battlements, the unseen force attacked again, killing Rufus with an invisible gale of malicious power before it ascended into an upstairs window. Lady Almareth sent forth her familiar to see what lie in wait above. Several fish creatures waited for our arrival, poised for attack. We met them head on, including other elderly kua'toa with cruel and dangerous magic in the tower's kitchen, and soon all were dealt with and the invisible, harassing creature was either dead or had fled.

We took time to catch our breath and tend to Sehl. Madam Oliphant administered a potion which woke him from his troubled, feverish sleep, but it was apparent the sickness was still plaguing him. We also built a pyre to tend to Rufus, for it was our wish to both honor him and prevent any malicious force from raising him to oppose us. In our search we found other medicinal potions, some alcohol and tobacco, as well as a cabinet which held strange preserving magics within. Jewels and coin were quickly snatched up.

Taking a moment to venture out and investigate the black tower, we found it covered in a thick, oily substance that Sehl found painful to touch. No obvious entrance presented itself, though windows and balconies above were clear of the black ooze.

In a small, putrid storeroom adjacent to the previous tower's kitchen, we found a shackled creature suffering from delirium. She resembled a gnome, in a way, but her hair seemed to be leaf-like in appearance. It was clear she was some sort of forest creature. She briefly spoke, though it strained her to do so, so we allowed her to rest. She told us her name was Tree-Gazer and her people were known as Llar-na. I, nor the others, had ever heard of this people. I hope to learn more of them and return this knowledge to my family.

Leaving her to recover, we searched further, disposing of a lone kua'toa hiding within a lavish bedchamber. An orc, holding a crossbow stood within another room where magic behaved strangely. A small pixie manifested from Lady Almareth as she tried to attack the creature. The orc did not seem to react in a natural way to our presence, and Sehl found that a tiny, shadow-figure was casting illusions and magical disruption within the room. With his lead, we defeated the trickster and normalcy was restored.

Ascending the tower, we found ourselves met with a large gelatinous creature and three large snakes. While the creatures were vanquished, the serpents took their toll upon Lady Almareth's soldiers.

We came upon an astrolabe, whose star-gazing equipment sat out upon a balcony covered with a false roof which appeared to be decorated with a mural of stars. However, these stars turned out to be hidden malignant wisps that took Rosalie's life and drained myself and Madam Oliphant of much life energy. Sehl convinced us to place her body in the preserving cabinet we discovered earlier. A vain gesture, I am sure, but his grief was great and, frankly, unexpected given what I have been taught of elves.

Soon after, we met the next of our allies, and a wonder of science and magic. Words escape me in my attempt to describe our newest companion, Valor, who appears to be a sentient golem of sorts, bound only in faith to Erathis, but apparently in none other's control.

Sharing our mutual goals, we set off to further search the tower, wandering into a room covered in fetid droppings of its inhabitants, a collection of harpies. The fight was a tough one in which we lost Vale and Yemen, leaving Düblphart the only remaining soldier of Lady Almareth's retinue. Much to my humiliation at the time, I did briefly succumb to a harpy's hypnotic call, but was able to free my mind after a moment.

It was apparent that we had reached the top of the tower, and still had no cure or means in which to enter the ominous black tower. Reaching the end of a hallway, we came to an open window facing the central black spire. Across a gap was another window. After discussing options of crossing the gap, I held a rope and lept across, breaking the glass and landing within a sort of laboratory. Within the room were several skeletal models including those of a human, troll, and orc. As the others crossed the rope, a skeleton animated and, surprisingly, its only task was to clean the glass which I had spread about the floor. Also within the laboratory was a caged monkey, which I freed. He travels with me now and I have given him the name Ho'aloha [good friend].

Venturing further into the black tower, we came to an opulent bedroom decorated with erotic imagery. A pale, nude human woman laid upon a bed, introducing herself as Zorasis's mistress Merkwind. She calmly led us to Zoraisis, who appeared to be asleep. He rose and after looking over our group, vanished as Merkwind attacked, exposing herself to be a vampire. As we fought her, a scream, then a roar came from a nearby room, taking a more bestial nature until a figure, part man but mostly bear, entered the fray. Madam Oliphant finished off the vampire with her stolen spear, its holy energy dealing a killing blow from which no undead has been seen to rise. The bear-man, however, was a grueling ordeal, but also fell to our assault. Unfortunately. my prayers and rebukes had no effect on the pair.

Continuing in search for Zoraisis, we discovered an unconscious elven woman laid upon a bed with a dagger through her heart. It was found that approaching her caused one to slow in time. Some magic kept her in a suspended state of time.

Bats began to swarm the room, one of which took the form of Zoraisis. Calling forth the spectral forms of divine warriors, Valor swept aside the bats and his attacks along with Madam Oliphant's spear caused Zoraisis to take a gaseous form and attempt to flee. Chasing him from room to room, we finally finished him in the laboratory, confirming Valor's suspicion that Zoraisis, too, was a vampire, for the battered gaseous image of our nemesis futilely crawled upon the floor in an attempt to escape, before going limp and later turning to ash.

With our enemy defeated and those killed in Carse avenged, we turned our search to Locklear's cure. Searching Zoraisis's library, we discovered that the lady frozen in time was his wife, who had fallen so ill that desperation forced him to make a pact with Orcus and was turned to vampirism by one named Olman One-Eye. The corruption of this pact distracted him from his task of healing his wife as he turned to dark service. It was Zoraisis that caused the downfall of Denmok many years ago, conjuring a portal through which demons entered our realm and cast the kingdom into ruination. An avalanche covered the region, and only Castle Denmok was spared, through Zoraises's magic.

The frozen woman gasped and gurgled after Zoraisis fell, his magic no longer keeping her alive. Valor cast healing magic upon her as I removed the dagger but it was clear that she, like Locklear, suffered from a sickness brought on by poison. It seems that Zoraisis may have one more victim, even in death. I sat with her and offered my prayers, although she was unconscious. I fear it is unlikely that she will survive, but I will do all I can to help her.

Whatever malady befell Tree-Gazer also lifted upon our victory, as she told us she now remembers searching for her companion, Golden Eagle, and also spoke of a magic user among her people called Silver Fire, who may hold the secrets to Locklear's cure.

The top of this tower has become a safe haven of sorts, for no entrance or exit can be found. We are in desperate need of rest and must tend to our injuries. I also have much meditating to do, for I am troubled by my quickness to kill the kua'toa while I have recently spared lethal action toward those I battled in Carse. Do I look upon them as others might look upon me - a monster? Or perhaps it is an unconscious realization that these desperate times call for a stronger hand. Regardless, I have not given my enemies the opportunity to repent, and for this I am ashamed.