Journal of Arcadius - Day 41 cont'd

We still mourn Ryan's passing. Marion appears to have gone mad with grief, I pray to Lord Pelor that she may regain peace and her sanity.

More exploration in the accursed dark of this place.. a strange discovery: an underground camp or base, connected to yet another surface entrance, of persons claiming their hold to be a caravanserai. Well, one of them anyway, we didn't speak to the others. He wasn't evil, but we found later he was lying, or at least revealing less than the full truth. For we found a prisoner, a man from a very far country and by all appearances a noble and honorable warrior from some tradition resembling that of the Paladin, though by no means identical. That they captured and held such a man speaks very ill of their true character. We released him, found his gear and he joined us without fear or hesitation in our explorations underground. As to the keepers of the "caravanserai"... we shall have to deal with them later.

We later discovered Dark Elves, beings of fell legend from the underdark. I had never seen them before. They cast spells of darkness to hide their attack on us, but I found the light of Pelor welling in my soul, and knew that I could be the vessel of that light, casting the darkness away. And so it was. After a hard fight, we defeated the evil folk. They were well encamped in this place, and were at least part of what is happening here. No longer. After further explorations we came to a room where we were attacked by the foul shade again, but this time we slew it, or at least so I deem.

From there was a throne room with a portal to another place, perhaps another world... a dead and cold place, grim and cheerless. Something has come here to make this land as is that one. We smashed the portal. There were also items of magic, and much gold. That at least is helpful, though perhaps not at this moment. I think we must at last approach the center of this place, rooms full of the screams and threats of spirits. No doubt something worse is at the heart of this. We must do our duty so that the innocent may be safe. May we bring light to this darkness. Pelor guide me. May the gods grant us strength. Now we go to do what must be done.

Should we not live, and in some day or age hence this note be found, let this be recorded:

[in both common and a foreign script]

Rightly we have done, rightly we do, and rightly may we do in the times to come. O' reader do no less when your time comes and you are called. For that is the way.

*A*