6^th of Bloomtide

Edward was anxiously awaiting our arrival when we got to the city yesterday.  It seems that Lord Azeroth has gathered together a set of artifacts known collective as The Tears.  There are six of them, one each for Omni, Ethenos, Carthas, Zorandor and Danica, and one for an unknown god.  Individually they each grant their bearer significant power, but together they grant the user power over demons, which was how Azeroth was keeping his army of demons and men together.

 

Edward needed us to plan a “snatch and grab” raid to get as many of them away from Azeroth as possible.  Hopefully, by doing so the demons in his army would defect, ravaging his army in the process.  Edward is too busy with the defense of Pangoria to do it himself so he has left it completely in our hands.

 

7^th of Bloomtide

We made a raid against Azeroth’s camp today and managed to get away with four of the six stones.  Omni’s, Ethenos’s, Danica’s and the Unknown God’s.  It was a glorious fight, but we very nearly lost several people and I was almost forced to fight a dragon in single combat.  Ultimately is was Nim who saved us by casting an anti-magic shield that held of Azeroth’s mages long enough for us to complete the task and escape.

 

After the fight we dispatched Shadows, Bert, Lieutenant Jayne and Cole with one tear each and orders to hide them where nobody would ever find them.  I was a bit reluctant to do it because, according to legend, prolonged contact with any of the Tears will drive the bearer to madness or worse.  In the end though, I decided it didn’t matter.  They wouldn’t be the first soldiers I had sacrificed in this war and they will be far, far from the last.

 

After we took the Tears, Azeroth’s camp fell into disarray for a time as we’d hoped, but not for as long or as badly as we had hoped.  Many of the demons decided to stick around anyway for the promised slaughter, and those to decided not to stay generally just left rather than attack Azeroth’s army.

 

Edward has a plan to get everyone out of the city by building a gate that will take us a day’s travel south of the city; however, it will take 3 days to build.  With Lieutenant Jayne gone, he’s placed me in charge of the defense of Pangoria for the next three days.  Vance has agreed to be my second for the time being.  He’s a real soldier with experience in the Suul war and I’m certain I’ll need his council.  It’s my first real command and the stakes are very high.  I hope I’m up to the challenge. 

 

11^th of Bloomtide

We finally escaped through Edward’s portal late last night.  The last few days have been hell.  We managed to hold the walls for the first day of the siege, but by the time evening fell it was getting harder and harder to repel the constant ladders, grapnels and siege engines in addition to the sporadic incursions by Varu raiders and sappers.  When night fell the demons took over the siege, giving us no respite.

 

We lost the walls part way through the second day and the rest of the afternoon, and the following night and day was spent in a fighting retreat behind improvised defenses as we were gradually pushed toward the center of the city, and Edward’s gate.  The truth is that we barely held them long enough.  The Varu were overrunning the gate even as the last few of us were retreating through it.

 

Edward seems more than satisfied with how we all performed our duties, but I can’t help but doubt myself.  I lost more than a third of the company in the defense of Pangoria, many of them Trevenici whom I personally persuaded to join.  Edward and Vance seem unfazed by the events but perhaps they just have more experience at hiding their pain.  I suppose I’ll learn the same trick before this is all over.

 

27^th of Bloomtide

We arrived back in Aerith today after a long forced march south.  I could sleep for three days straight.  With Lieutenant Jayne still gone the Captain has been using me as a full time second, and I’ve still got my sergeant’s duties on top of that.  I never realized just how much work Jayne did to keep things running smoothly.  Hopefully the Captain will find someone else to fill in for him now that we are back in Aerith.

25^th of Lowharvest, 966 FG

It has been several weeks since I last wrote in this journal.  When we left Aerith catch and intercept the northern army, we had a long forced ride to to make, and seeing how this it was my first independent command, there was little time left over for niceties like writing in this journal. 

 

Before we left, General Grumby convinced the council in Aerith to open the vaults of the museum and distribute some of the powerful magical artifacts there for use in our campaign.  I distributed them among a few of the Trevenici who I thought would best make use of them.

 

I myself was granted the spear of Cedric Dangarten, and the helm Apothis, a night unbreakable horned relic who’s unvisored face grants the wearer 360-degree vision in addition to free use of the Great Voice spell and a powerful resistance to mind control magics.  I was also granted another Seraphin, so that I could report my progress back to the General.

 

We took the western road along the Cragwall Mountains through Granger.  It’s in better shape for horse travel than the eastern road through Knightsbridge, and we were hoping to intercept the army at Montgomery, south of Pangoria, where the two roads meet up.  We managed to do so, but just barely.

 

We arrived at Montgomery scarcely a day before the northern army.  We gathered all the refugees there and put them on the road to Granger, and then set to work destroying the city.  We killed all the animals, burned and poisoned any foods we found and set as many traps and deadfalls in the city as time would allow.  We didn’t intend to hold the place; we just wanted to deny the approaching army any benefit from taking it.  As it was we managed to hold up the army for only a day or so as they made a few forays into the place and discovered what we had done and moved on toward Knightsbridge. 

 

I was forced to split my forces after that.  I sent Vance, with the bulk of my army south to Knightsbridge to stop the northern advance, while I keep one company to cut their supply lines.

 

With the forces at his command at Knightsbridge, Vance halted the northern army completely.  Like some intractable force of nature, he and the Trevenici under his command stood resolute and immovable while waves of demons and men broke themselves against the walls of Knightsbridge.  The man impressed me to no end during the week of unending siege that he endured.

 

As for me, I spent the week raiding the rear of the northern army, rescuing captives and destroying supplies.  It was risky work and I lost more than a few men, but it was devastating to the morale of the army.

 

The worst part of the job was destroying the supply caravans.  Regular soldiers guarded the supplies, but women, the elderly, the very young and anyone else unsuited to the rigors of combat, manned the wagons themselves.  Distasteful as it was, we ended them all and burned the supplies.  We didn’t have the manpower to take prisoners, and anyone who lived would return to the northern army base camp and report on our activities.

 

After all the men I’ve slain in this war I wouldn’t have thought the sight of women and children slain by my own axe would effect me so deeply.  I did my best to end their lives quickly, since, as The Oath says, “death troubles not the dead one whit”.  Still, it’s those other words in The Oath that keep bothering me… the ones at the very beginning... the ones that read: “Never harm an innocent”.

 

29^th of Lowharvest, 966 FG

The Trevenici companies of the Fourth Column left with the young King (soon to be emperor), his Regent Jepia Edo, and his entire household this morning.  They will travel east to Seaport and take the navy there to invade the eastern kingdoms.  Those who remained behind in Aerith save for a tiny handful have effectively been sentenced to death.

 

Shadows went with them.  Many members of her… our… clan are among them, a few of them captains.  She, and my unborn child, should be safe there.  If I survive this ordeal then perhaps I will find her once again.  I should like to see my child before I am dragged back to the future we have all fought so hard to save.

 

5^th of Highsummer, 966 FG

The armies of the north and south will arrive in Aerith soon.  Even now our skirmishers are engaged with theirs, probing each other’s lines and reporting strengths. It pains me that I am stuck in the middle of the city and unable to lend a hand there.

 

7^th of Highsummer, 966 FG

It is done.  General Grumby, a few of his mages, and our little band from the future met in combat with Azeroth and his dragon atop the library in the center of Aerith today while the General performed the ritual that would culminate with the largest mass murder in history.  A quarter-million lives snuffed out in an instant.

 

I faced Azeroth at the edge of the magic shield the General’s mages had erected while Nim, equipped with Cedric’s Spear faced off with the dragon in a deadly aerial dance the like of which I expect I shall never see again, and see it I did.  For Apothis, true to it’s reputation let me see everything around me, the actions of my opponent Azeroth in front of me as well as those of my friends behind and above me.

 

It was an ability that saved my life several times as Azeroth rained magic and swordplay down on my defenses from all directions.  However, in the end it proved to be as much a curse as a blessing, for when the ritual was complete, and the dying began, I saw EVERYTHING.

 

I watched in horror as a great hungering rift, like the mouth of hell open up above Aerith, and as it opened, all the life beneath and around it was sucked in with the force of a mighty gale.  I saw soldiers, both Celestine and Suul ripped through the air.  I saw merchants, fat and wealthy, beggars in rags, women and suckling babes all torn upwards and devoured by that enormous maw.  Even horses, cattle and birds were drawn in; all life was consumed by that voracious beast… and I saw everything.

 

Azeroth himself was yanked away even as his defenses started to fail and I pressed my advantage, while I, a few feet away, was untouched, protected by the magic shield the General’s mages held in place.  His dragon, fighting Nim above, was taken as well, plucked from the air like a marionette on strings and devoured.  When it was over there was only the silence of a grave.  The sounds of the city and the armies were gone; not even the cry of birds to greet our presence.

 

This will be my last entry in this time.  I have long since used up all the pages in the journal I brought with me so this one must endure the test of time in my hiding place in the Sentinel House.  I will leave it there along with Apothis and a few more coins I’ve gathered from the wreckage.  We will leave for Redcliffe tomorrow and the glass fortress there.  I’ll try to find a place to hide Cedric’s Spear up there where it will be safe for the next thousand years.

 

We’re staying in library of Aerith for tonight.  Protected by the magic shield it was untouched by the rift above Aerith.  The librarian is still here and is still sweet on me.  She knows I’m leaving tomorrow and has combed her hair a bit in a last ditch attempt to woo me.  It’s been a difficult day and I’m tempted to take her up on her offer.  Yeah, she is a little plush, but only just enough to make parts of her “articulate” in a way that has finally managed to catch my attention.

 

I wouldn’t feel right about it being married to Shadows, but it’s not like we’ve had much in the way of intimacy since she found out about that whole “from the future” thing.  Still, she’s my wife.  I guess that just show how much of a hypocrite I am.  I’ve murdered men women and children by the thousands, but I’m afraid to cheat on a wife who resents me.