December 8th, 2006

After investigating Serena’s household, we returned to Dagonhold to see what we could learn from Migos. Conveniently, he disappeared while we were gone. Furthermore, his disappearance was suspected to be an abduction. Griswold mentioned that he was suspicious of him catching wind of us and wanted to get out while he could, disguising the situation as a kidnapping.

Dathan permitted us to search Migos’ home. We found a great deal of evidence implying that he was, in fact, taken against his will. I found a trail leading away from his home to an abandoned fort where the tracks abruptly ended. In the fort were a few undead that put up little resistance. In my opinion, they were there for more “evidence,” not to actually protect anything. This whole situation flows too well to be real. I’m going to have to agree with Griswold and his suspicions.

While we attempted to track down Migos, Griswold decided to head back to his room and study some magic. In that time, he managed to learn a spell that he believes will help us in removing Serena’s madness. So, once again, we made our way to her household. This time, we decided we might not be able to trust anyone we’ve meet here in Dagonhold and were careful to leave Ivan, Dathan’s servant, behind.

We arrived to our destination near the end of the day and found that Serena had a fit, resulting in a bit of damage from her magic. Wanting to help her regain her sanity but not wanting to risk getting in the way of her fiery attacks, we decided to slip an herbal drug in her tea that would cause her to sleep deeply for the duration of the night. Griswold and Schmendrick then proceeded in casting the spells they had decided might help the situation.

Being around so much magic makes me terribly curious. Since joining this group, I’ve been repeatedly exposed to the products of this incredible force and have decided that its potential is limitless. Magic seems to break all the natural laws I’ve been forced to abide by my entire life. I think I’m going to ask Mort if I can look at that book he got back in Phoenix. I already asked Griswold if he would help me and, just as expected, he coldly replied that Mort had a book from which I might be able to learn.

Griswold and Schmedrick’s spells were a success. I wasn’t present for the actual casting, as Mort and I were keeping watch, but I was quickly notified that Serena was now acting fairly normal. I’m not entirely sure what they did, but I kept hearing those who are more affluent with magic say they could no longer feel the energy of it around them. Allison, Serena’s blind friend, was the one to make the biggest deal about. Apparently, she could see people by watching their magical auras. Now that such magic was void, she saw nothing. I never realized that could even be done! This phenomenon of magic gets more interesting the more I hear about it!

Serena’s sanity wasn’t going to be permanent from the spell the two mages cast. Schmendrick said she had some magical aura emanating from within her that may have been the cause of the insanity. Being that the magic couldn’t operate in that area, she was sane only because the aura was extinguished.

Crespin, prior to this whole event, made a very good point concerning the possibility of those translation amulets relaying everything we might say back to Dathan. We had stopped using them for a while but now we thought it wise to test that theory and see if we could ask for Sujo’s assistance. Confirming our suspicions, he responded and arrived to help us permanently cure Serena now that we knew the source of the trouble. Living up to his reputation, he removed a small fragment that Schmendrick says must have been enchanted to make her insane.

Serena was now assumed to be cured of her insanity. We discussed our concerns about Migos as well as the situation with her wraith mother. We were able to get her to comply with us, regardless of the fact that she didn’t think Migos capable of the acts we mentioned.

She took us to a mausoleum where she thought he might go were he in trouble. Griswold turned me into a cloud of air and I set out to scout the area. Within the structure, I found a Fallen and a Sylothreni standing over who I assumed to be Migos bound up in the corner. The Fallen reacted slightly, demonstrating that he might have recognized my presence, so I rushed out of there as fast as I could to warn the group of the possible conflict.

Griswold returned me to my normal form and we took a few moments to prepare ourselves for battle. We greatly outnumbered them but there was a Fallen among them. Furthermore, if they truly were aware of my presence then they would be making some preparations of their own. We soon discovered that they were.

We faced two oversized dogs with very sickly flesh, a man in dark plate, the Fallen, and that Silothreni. The man in plate turned out to be Migos, precisely as I had suspected the moment I saw him. We were able to beat all of our opponents to the ground, save the Fallen who retreated through the wall. Migos was unconscious at the end of the battle but he should be fine. I’m hoping now we can get some answers and figure out what’s going on.

January 19th, 2007

First Day, 1977 FG

I was just looking over some of my logs from when I served in the military and a few of those I wrote more recently. I realized something. I’m no longer in the military. Why am I still keeping logs as if I were? I’m not writing reports for the commander anymore so why should I bother including all the boring details? Other than a soldier, who would want to read a bunch of reports? As Crespin so often points out, we’re heroes now! Well, I guess he’s always pointing out how much of a hero he is but if that’s the case then the rest of us must be even greater for saving his skin all the time. Now that I’m thinking about it, I bet Kess would be more than happy to read my “reports” since he’s always trying to be like a soldier.

We stayed the night in the mausoleum before heading back to Dagonhold. During the battle with the skeletons, there was some roaring and growling coming from the top of the stairs. Schmendrick had placed some magical ward at the top of the stairs and we believe it stopped Darby’s demon from attacking us while we fought the hordes of undead. The claw marks it left were enormous (probably the size of my chest) so we thought it best to rest up before leaving.

At first, I wanted to hunt the demon down and stop it. It seems to be a servant of the Fallen so I wanted to destroy it before it caused any problems with the Celestine Empire. The rest of the group, however, seemed to want to get out of there as soon as possible with the information we had found. Thinking about the importance of reporting our findings back home, I conceded my hopes of destroying the creature with plans to eliminate it in the near future. When we finally left the mausoleum, we took serious precautions in case it lied in wait to ambush us, but no conflict arose. We rushed back to Dagonhold as quickly as possible, making it there in half the time it took us before. Needless to say, we were exhausted when we arrived at the city. I quickly prepared for a long-night rest in the inn we had been staying at.

Before retiring, I asked Darby a little about his squirrel and what he knew about the theory of magic. I was terribly curious to know why this squirrel could communicate with others. He gave me a fairly vague answer, saying this squirrel was more enlightened than others. When we talked about magic, he said he knew nothing of it. I had seen him use magic so I was a bit confused when he said that. He then went into a long lecture about how magic was a cheap copy of greater powers that were granted by higher beings like Carthas. At first, what he said was interesting, but it quickly became dull as the conversation became more and more like preaching. As he was talking, I couldn’t help but notice a mole on his face with three hairs growing from it. His mouth would move and the mole would start to shift about, causing the hairs to sway back and forth. At that point, I wondered how three hairs managed to grow from the very same pore...

Second Day, 1977 FG

My attempt to sleep was rudely awakened with a large blast in the adjacent room—Griswold and Kess’ room. Mort and I leapt from our beds, grabbed our closest weapons and rushed into the next room. There was a hole in the ground where Griswold’s bed sat only moments before. Now, a little bit of Griswold was found throughout the room, most of him up against the nearby wall. Kess was also injured but no where near as bad. Mort—who I couldn’t help but notice was wearing polka-dot underwear—and I rushed over to Griswold, finding he was still alive, and attempted to stabilize his injuries the best we could. As I was treating him, I noticed Mort was binding one of Griswold’s lower leg injuries to stop the blood flow. Only, just above that injury, was another one far larger that was bleeding much more profusely. I’m guessing he wasn’t quite awake yet.

Just as miraculous as Crespin’s survival when he was blown up by the skeletons a few months back, Griswold managed to survive. Schmendrick used his magic to heal him back to perfect condition, save the fact that he’s now hairless. Shortly after, we began to do some investigating with the assistance and support of the local government. Understandably, Griswold was the one to take the lead in locating his would-be assassin.

After casting some spell that let him see what happened in his room a few moments before, Griswold asked me to take a look around to see if I could find anything that might be useful. Through his magic, he had seen a man with a dark cloak and broadsword crush a small stone and toss it under Griswold’s bed only moments before escaping through the window. The only thing of interest I found was a small thread that could have come from the man’s cloak. However, such a thread could have come from anything, possibly being a remnant of the bed.

Griswold used more of his magic and was able to locate the owner of the thread. We followed that lead only to find that it had come from some merchant’s pants that had probably stayed in the room in the past. With the guards’ supervision, I searched the man’s house to solidify my suspicion. Aside from some questionable ledgers and obvious cheating on his wife, the man was clean. Still, I was sure to point out his ledgers to the guards so they could deal with such filth.

Once that lead was gone, Griswold got the idea of using his magic on a fragment of the stone that had been used to create the explosion. I took another look through his room and was able to find a couple of pieces of the stone. From there on, Griswold used his magic to solve the remainder of the mystery. I showed support for my friend the best I could. It wasn’t until the day actually arrived that we finally found the assassin and his employer, both of which having little information on the one who had hired them. Griswold said it was because the guy that used them probably used magic to secure the evidence.

I must say that I’m fairly pleased with my efforts as of late. When I served in the military next to Mathis, I found I was always following his lead, waiting for him to point out all the details I would miss when we were tracking our enemies. Now, I find myself intuitively noticing nearly every detail. I don’t even need to think about it!

On another note, Sujo discovered more information about the Fallen and their plans. One of them that infiltrated the labyrinth had been apprehended and questioned. He discovered that there was a gate to a world of Fallen but there was a barrier that prevented them from entering ours. However, there was another gate to a clan of Fallen and they were trying to destroy the barrier so the other Fallen could use the gate. Supposedly, Schmendrick knew how to open the gate and the Fallen wanted him, dead or alive. That’s why Griswold was attacked. The assassins thought he was Schmendrick.

Third Day, 1977 FG

Griswold, Kess and I stayed at the palace barracks last night. Griswold didn’t feel too safe in the inn, not to mention I got the impression from the inn keeper that he didn’t want us there and Kess just wanted to feel like a soldier. Also, Mort was off being pleasured by Crystal and I wasn’t about to trust anyone else to watch my back were I to get a room with someone else. Although, I was forced to endure much of the morning listening to Kess go on an on about how he’s a soldier now. It was a little annoying at first, but I realized it was much better than hearing him brag about his skills with the bow. Plus, I think he mentioned it was his birthday so I can humor him a little bit. We left for Dagonport later in the morning.

Another Day, 1977 FG

Dagonport is a very fascinating place. We came through here on the way to Dagonhold but, for some reason, I can’t seem to remember the experience. Actually, I think Mort’s the only one that remembers coming through here. I didn’t believe him at first but he insisted so relentlessly that I decided I’d just let it go. He’s a trustworthy guy.

We managed to find a boat that’s heading back to Seaport in a couple of days. That’ll leave me some time to do some exploring. In the city are some aquatic creatures called the Orken. I had heard of them before but never got to meet one. I approached one to see what kind of a conversation I could get going with it but found the experience a little awkward. I didn’t realize it before, but I think it was a female that thought I was flirting with her. She attempted to speak Celan but sounded like she had cotton balls in her mouth. I could barely understand a word she said. I think she was trying to get me to leave her alone.

A Day in Open Sea, 1977 FG

I didn’t think I’d ever see the day but Griswold is actually acting like a real person rather than some heartless battle-mage. Ever since getting on the boat, he has been running around like he was a little kid. He spent much of his childhood on a boat and this was bringing back many of those memories. I made the mistake of expressing interest in how to run a boat and he hasn’t stopped ordering me around since. He donned Crespin’s eye-patch and now he’s acting as if he was my pirate captain.

Schmendrick has been going by Stitch lately. He even dressed himself as a common soldier so as to avoid unwanted attention. He also got rid of his horrible beard back in Dagonhold and, somehow, had his enormous nose reduced to normal size. I’m happy to say he actually looks Celestine now.

Another Day in the Open Sea, 1977 FG

We found a wrecked boat flying Celestine flags today. Griswold stated with confidence that it had been severely damaged by a storm. Being the curious individual that I am, I immediately elected to be part of the crew that investigated the remains. Aside from Lydia, everyone of my friends chose to go, as well.

I immediately went to the captain’s cabin to look for his log book. Inside his cabin was the obvious sign of struggle, blood stains spread about the room. Strangely, there were no bodies.

I located the log and found that it had been well-kept for the past eight years, the last entry being just a couple days ago. Only interested in the recent events, I looked back about a week and found that they began to have ghost troubles ever since they mounted a figurehead they had found to the front of the ship. They had lost their old one in a storm only days before.

At first, the encounters with the ghost were simple, resulting in nothing serious but, eventually, sailors would be found turned to stone or otherwise afflicted, some being dead.

My experience with the living dead implored me to do but one thing; destroy the figurehead. With one sailor following me, I made my way to the figure of a woman and started beating it with the sailor’s hand axe. Realizing that Griswold could do much more, I headed back to the main deck only to find a bunch of sailors missing their eyes climbing up the side of the boat with weapons ready. About this time, the group came pouring out of the door that led to the deck below, shouting that we were leaving. Seeing that some of our fellow sailors were carrying cargo from below, I ran to that doorway, sword drawn, to make sure everyone made it off ok. Without any direct conflict, we were all able to get off the boat with a good chunk of the ship’s cargo.

Griswold prepared a massive ball of energy that he then threw at the lower hull of the ship. The explosion was absolutely impressive, blowing half the side of the ship open and tossing splinters every which way. Seeing the display, I couldn’t help but wonder how lethal the splinters would be in comparison to the initial explosion. That’ll be a test that I’ll have to conduct at a later time.

After the explosion, I considered the effect Griswold’s magic would have on the figure head and asked the people rowing the boat to move to the front of the ship so we could destroy it. They failed to comply. Griswold—after I explained my discovery from the log—launched out of the ship in flight and prepared another equally destructive ball of energy. Contrary to his track record, he managed to hit and destroy a large portion of the figurehead. After taking two massive blasts, the ship was doomed to sink before its undead crew could threaten us. Of course, it helped that Mort was rowing. With every movement he made, I could feel the boat lurch forward at unrealistic speeds. Even in the midst of the shouting, I swear I could hear the oars threatening to snap. I just don’t understand how someone so large could bring himself to wear polka-dot underwear.