Wen’s Journal 1

By Kevin Sung

It's been a month after I was exiled from my home. Thrown into some unknown world for murder that I didn't commit. I am not even sure where I am only that it is lethal and precariously chaotic. I write this journal in the event that I am unable to clear my name and/or find home. It gives me some solace that I will have a record of what has transpired while also keeping me busy instead of thoughts of home. At the moment I find myself in a camp of odd group of adventurers. I only say odd because the world is somewhat foreign to me so these could be typical of the world I have landed. There are three elves, and two humans or at least that is what they mostly seem. Humans in this world seem very odd if they can change into flying beasts and minotaurs.

I met this odd group in some tomb area underground. In my country, exiles are thrown into a portal that leads to some deadly world. As soon as I grew conscious, I noticed a lot of foul looking creatures. I don't remember much except that I was fighting for my very life. I did not know much but I clearly did not want to grow friendly with these foul creatures. I did not have too much trouble dispatching them when I heard voices and what sounded like a battle.

Considering my welcome that I just received, I did not want to greet them right away without knowing their intentions. I tried to sneak up on them but I was no match for their skills. The female elf caught me eavesdropping on their conversation and knocked an arrow to my head. I explained my plight to them and figured its better to be in a larger group until I can find a way home. They seem inclined to bring me along if for nothing else to insure my silence should I alert anyone of their presence.

From what I can gather, this party is after two rare artifacts called the Hand and Eye of Veckna and planned on destroying them. These artifacts were located in a city deep underground run by a group of underground elves called drow which was further down the crevasse. Interesting that tomb robbers would want to destroy the treasures they are finding but beggars can't be choosers when it comes to traveling companions.

The party quickly moved through the rooms looking for something. I was not sure what because clearly we were in a dead end in my mind. I saw more of the foul creatures that the party dispatched in addition some weird demonic looking creature. I did not get a look as I was concentrating on keeping my wits about me. While I was concerned about my own skin, I did notice one of the human fighters got knocked out somehow. I did not know how because I was not paying attention much. With that skull ridden sword, the human fighter was pretty deadly though he seemed odd to me. Compared to this party though, he was actually pretty normal. I just don’t like his sword, it conjures up images of soul sucking weapons that I definitely would not want to be near. Legends from what I had read even said some weapons had a mind of their own but of course that was some poor sap who probably had too much to drink and was trying to tell a good tale.

After some investigating, we discovered voices from a web filled tunnel. We thought it odd and decided to investigate. One of the elves lit the web so that we could pass through. I tied a rope to a rock just incase I needed to make a hasty retreat up the tunnel. The ranger elf went first followed by a human fighter and the female elf. By the time I got down, a fierce battle erupted. I saw several large spiders that the fighters cleaved into and further down the ranger was attacking some dark skinned elves. One of which was not someone I would mess with because I kept getting thew impression he was some sort of berserking fighter though that was based on the wide eyed eager look when the fight broke out. The ranger elf was making his way to what appeared to be a priest floating in the air. He had already disposed of two dark skinned elves but was felled by the remaining fighters. All of a sudden the dark skinned female elf priestess shouted, "Stop!" The female elf and the human fighter were the only people still fighting as the rest of the party was just coming in who promptly disengaged from the remaining dark skinned elves.

The floating priestess parlayed with us regarding our current situation. Apparently she had similar goals as the party I was in. They too wanted to get to the Hand and Eye of Veckna but to protect it from other forces. She was a priestess of some old god called Loth whose power had waned after losing a battle a great time ago. The city where the relics were stored originally was a temple of Loth but a new power had taken over the temple. All that was left of the temple guards and priests were what we saw before us. The party conferred and decided to work with the outcast dark skinned elves to formulate a plan.

The biggest debate was who to resurrect. The dark elves had three scrolls and wanted their people resurrected while the party I was with was urging the dead elven ranger and some other person I had not seen yet. Apparently the party I was with had hauled this body since his death. I am not sure how they kept the body from smelling. After much debate, the dark skinned elven priestess resurrected the unknown human. Something about him being a spellcaster and able to create illusions which would come in handy to sneak into this place. Eventually the elven ranger was also resurrected after some discussion on the need for more experienced fighters.

The plan was relatively simple. We would teleport to the top of the unprotected portion of the temple just outside of the Forbiddance shield. Once inside, we would make our way to the heart of the temple where the Eye and Hand were located. We would sort out our differences afterwards though I feared that the decision would be made based on steel rather than words.

We must have waited on what seemed like an eternity before we started on our plan. I think it was actually two weeks but that was partly because the party was beat up and required healing. I had thought that this period was uneventful but later on I discovered this was not the case. The two leader elves of the party that I was hanger on were visiting by someone. They did not remember much because it seemed surreal but it was person in brown flowing robes dressed very simply. He claimed he did not want to interfere but wanted to give them some advice. All he said was when the time comes follow the rabbit holes and that they would know when that was. Very cryptic and I assumed they did not give it much credence based on what followed later in the journey.

As soon as we teleported to the top of the temple, we were immediately greeted by something I would describe as some sort of undead drow banshee. The drow priestess claimed she was the High Priestess of Loth and something like this could not happen. The banshee gave a earth shaking shriek that appeared to have paralyzed one of the drow fighters. The fighters in our group quickly ran up and pummeled the creature but not before it turned into some mist. We decided that we needed to get going quickly.

We finally made our way to the stairs to the next floor when the ranger elf and myself could not pass through some barrier. It must have been the forbiddance spell. The party decided to continue on without us hoping to find a way to get us to come through. We knew if the forbiddance went town, the entire city would be alerted to our presence and we definitely did not want that. Once the party left, the ranger and I combed the floor to see if we could finish off the creature we met before just in case it came back. We also hoped to find some way to get us through the forbiddance spell.

After sometime, we saw the human wizard called Kaylo come up to Emjad and me. He said he had managed to disable the forbiddance around the temple but we had to hurry as everyone in the city was alerted that something was wrong. Mean while, the party pushed on. I really don’t know what happened but from what I gather from my party, they encountered several undead creatures. It must have been a huge battle but in the end the party survived by finishing off two vampires and some sort of anti-paladin. The party was pretty hurt at this point and there weren’t many dark skinned elves left at this point. The human fighter in particular was partly hurt the worst as he seemed he beared the brunt of the fighting. They even used some clever tricks from preventing one of the vampires from escaping by trapping the mist of the vampire in some sort of stasis cloth before it could get away. They had cleared the entire temple as we hurried down towards the last room that had not been opened. I did not really pay attention too much as I was concerned more about what was in front of me.

We found the last room and entered. The undead looking priestess was there floating in the air. The elven magic user thief (at least I think he is) blasted a lightning bolt and one of the dark skinned elves blasted with another spell. Those that had range weapons let lose there projectiles. I was reduced to a spectator. Kaylo, the magic user though shouted for us to stop and claimed that it was an illusion. Low and behold the image dissolved and we saw the undead priestess underneath where we thought she was. The entire party surged forth to do battle. Viento though, did not make it. He was cut down by unholy fire that burned most of us. He must have been hurt worse than most. In the end, we managed to prevail though the undead priestess turned to mist. We could not stop her but we knew where she was going. There had to be some hidden chamber somewhere. This was the main alter room and that was typically the case.

After some searching, we found the secret chamber where a sarcophagus was located and eliminated the threat. I really did not get a good look into the room but I did notice a big lyre and flute sitting there on a table. I thought the items looked out of place but then again, I thought most normal humans can’t turn into flying beasts and minotaurs so I would I know. The party members looked disappointed that they did not find the items.

In a flash, a portal opened up and five really tough looking muscular frog men showed up. It looked like a portal to hell or some fiery place. They shouted at us to give them the musical instruments. I think they mistook us fore underlings of the now deceased vampire drow priestess. The drow priestess of Loth seemed disturbed as if she guessed what the instruments were. The elves and the human magic user went to the back room to get the musical instruments. I thought it odd that they only gave the flute and some medallion that was not an instrument. I guess they thought the instruments must have been valuable. The instant they handed the necklace and the flute over one of the foul beasts was vaporized by the necklace! Yikes! Greater powers were at work. A beautiful maiden in armor dressed in white. The remaining drow cowered in fear of her while she hacked away at the fire frogmen. Or maybe the more appropriate term was vaporized. She shouted for us to join or decide which side we were on. I waited to see what the party would do. Sure enough they pitched in. These beasts looked fiercer than they were and were dispatched quickly.

She introduced herself as Tierra and claimed the two items as well as the necklace. There was some discussion on what to do next. Tierra had already decided to walk through the portal. The leaders of the party I was traveling with were suspicious. They did not seem to think it right that she would walk through the portal even though she claimed she wanted to shut the portal down. I personally did not care one way or another. All of a sudden, we saw an identical looking female walk out of the portal! The new Tierra had blood all over her from some fierce fight and only looked at the Tierra we were talking to and said “What are you doing?”. As soon as that happened, the Tierra that defeated the fire frogmen had a look that the gig was up and ported out before anyone could react.

Tierra look depressed in the situation. She claimed the imposter was some person needing the Hand and Eye to defeat his brother of sorts. This was the final piece to his ascension to becoming a real god and that was apparently not a good thing. She went through some long spiel about the Runelord imprisoning him after he had captured and was about to kill his brother. Riatha whose name seems to escape me as I write this journal, claimed he only had one of the artifacts. She was the head female elf of the group. Tierra brightened at the hope that this person, Araketh could still be stopped. She opened a portal and hoped we could do something about it. The party decided to go. I had thoughts of asking Tierra help for going back home but I was not sure how long it would take. Plus I am not sure I could trust her. I decided to follow the party even if it was dangerous. Even if I could go back home, I doubt I could clear my name. Those bastards will pay! I just need time to think.

So Tierra explained to us that we were heading to the mysterious but deadly undead isle. To get there we would have to pass through a series of Septahenges. She did not know which series would take us to our destination but we could follow the person who just ported out. He would know. Once we got there she hoped we could do something. I am not sure what nor did I agree to help so I decided to see what happens. Probably the best thing to do because I did not want to anger her. At least she did not make me agree to her terms. Otherwise it would have been tough for me.

The portal Tierra opened for us lead to a Septahenge somewhere on our world. The rangers quickly searched for tracks and looked for which door was still activated. The steps and path lead to one portal. We jumped in. As soon as the first person was in there was shouts. Not too far from the Septahenge there was a little keep. The rangers quickly surveyed the land looking for the correct path as arrows rained down on us. Eventually we took cover and decided to put an end to the arrows. The party decided to attack. In an instant, a large earth elemental appeared. Looks like a wizard was among them. One of the human fighters transformed into this large ugly beast and took off. The rest of the party started running for the gates. Two made it through while two more climbed up the walls. I was left with the Earth Elemental who I quickly out ran and climbed the walls. By the time I got up there, the battle was over. The winged beast one of the fighters transformed into was immune to the arrow attacks and took out most of the fighters. The tricky part was the mage who gave a good fighter but we managed to dispatch. The troops at top surrendered. Well except for one who attacked me but one of the elven rangers quickly disposed of them.

After some parlay with the remaining combatants we discovered they were Veckna worshippers guarding the portal.

She said the old man came through with three groups. A bunch of fighters, another group with even burlier fighters and the last with the look of assassins about them had come through. She wanted to help. So we dressed up as Veckna worshippers and moved to the next portal.

As we stepped through one by one, we entered a very bleak and fiery world. Not a place I wanted to stay. All about I sensed eyes staring at me. I thought I saw movement. It looked like the outer portion of the septhenge was flanked with a wall of bones. All about I saw bones of strange beasts. I was not planning on staying too long. We found the portal and headed through it. I was the first through and saw a quaint inn standing in the middle of the next Septhenge. Quite a bit better than the previous one. Unfortunately some of the fighters lagged behind. The Veckna worshipper who accompanied us was killed and one of the fighters was down. Some strange ghoul like creatures attacked them. Kaylo the fighter was reduced to a comatose idiot.

When the rest came through, they seemed relieved that we did not have to fight our way through. Some of the party members gave me an evil look as if I should have stayed and help out. Guess what? I want to save my skin. After all it covers my body. I was assigned to Kaylo babysitting. Basically I had to carry him around because I was the quickest and would not be useful in the fight ahead. Riatha entered the inn and did not come out. The rest of the party followed. Apparently a kindly lady innkeeper was talking to Riatha. She had seen the big party that came through and knew which portal they left. After some discussion that was going nowhere, Emjad the elven ranger, another name that seems to escape me, told the party to leave. I took off with Kaylo and waited outside. I waited for a while, when I heard shouts. I waited a moment and it died down. I was worried and dropped Kaylo down. My instinct told me to get in quickly so I jumped through the window to aid the party. I had to cover my face less the glass did damage and immediately attacked the innkeeper. No point in reasoning when we needed to move. The innkeeper kept trying to convince the party that she was not a threat. Eventually after I had attacked the innkeeper, they were broken from the spell. We attacked and discovered the innkeeper was a vampire! She disappeared in a poof of smoke. Some of the party wanted to finish her but eventually they decided they had wasted enough time.

The rangers searched for more tracks and found three portals. All active. We decided to try each one. The first one led to a similar hell like world. The septahenge was encased in a cage. There actually were no other portal except a door leading to another cage which led outside. After some fiddling around, we decided this was not the portal. We guess the person we were pursuing had tried someone on the cage and something clearly happened as the tracks disappeared. It could have been a false trail.

We quickly ran back through the portal. Riatha said, must not be that one and tried the next portal. It led to a peaceful world. All about the septhenge was water. We were on an island! We saw what looked like Halflings in canoes. I had never heard of such a place. The rangers could not find a trail when all of a sudden we were attacked! Someone tried to backstab one of the fighters. There was a fight and the would be assassin jumped to the top of a portal. I tried to jump up but failed several times. Etrigan, the human fighter with a nasty sword and shape changing ways turned into a flying beast to attack. The assassin quickly made way to the portal and left. The fight might have only been a few minutes or so but we wasted a lot of time between the inn and the assassin.

We headed back and entered the next portal which led to the top of a mountain. It was cold and looked like there was some dead orcs and half breed orcs charred. We heard a roar up top! It was a red dragon about to breath fire on to us! We quickly scurried to the next portal that was active and hoped that it was the correct one.

We passed through a two more portals. We did not stay long to get the scenic view as only one portal was active though one of the places had two sets of tracks. The last portal took us to an entrance way with eerie green light. We had made it. Thank god. I did not like jumping through hoops especially when the stakes mattered little to me. We searched the room for a door as it did not appear to have one. There was an altar. One of the members decided to put Kaylo on the altar hoping it would revive him. It did! Great it could only mean he has connections to Veckna. I was not happy. I had a bad feeling about this and I was concerned that the party might have some sick hobbies and I did not want to get caught up in them.

After some searching we did find a weird opening. One of the rangers stuck some blood through and heard some weird noises behind the door. There must have been a secret door that we missed. We checked and found how to open it. Apparently it swiveled. The rangers peaked in and saw several ghouls gnawing on dead bodies. After some discussion, we open the door slightly and the rangers picked off the ghouls one by one with there bows. It was the safe move.

We entered the room cautiously and searched. We saw two doors while one of the elves found another. After some searching, someone must have set off a trap because a strange noise sounded! We ran for the door and made it just as it shut. Well most of us. Drake, a meddlesome mage thief, did not make it. We did not know what happened. We waited a few moments for the trap to reset. I have no idea who set it off and no one was confessing.

Once we entered we tried to find Drake. We did not see his body around so we checked the doors. We heard shuffling in the secret door and decided to open it. Drake was there! He had teleported into that room. I guess even a thief instinctually thinks about loot first and safety next. He apparently found quite a tiddy hoard of magic items, books and various trinkets. All I saw was an unseen person throwing things left and right like a child opening gifts.

After some searching, and several of the party partaking of some of the magic items. I did not want to know but I saw them eat what appeared to be pieces of brain. This party was getting stranger. I am beginning to worry that they might be cannibals though this could be all there custom. Maybe this was normal where they come from. Who am I to judge.

We decided to try one of the doors. It led to another room. I did not pay much attention. All I know was there was some treasure that was hidden and protected by some traps. I remember seeing a statue. I did not care. Afterwards, the magic user Kaylo, the human morphing minotaur, was wearing some foul skin. He offered to the rest of the party and the elf thief Drake decided to put it on him too. How foul and stupid. If there weren’t already. They were pretty much now full Veckna worshippers in my mind.

We then proceeded to the next door and opened and saw a hall way. We decided to investigate the closet door. As soon as we opened, we saw several gruesome fighters. We immediately shut the door and head for the room we came in hoping to get the pursuers in a bottleneck through the door optimizing our attack while minimizing theres. It might have work had they not been wise to our scheme. Unfortunately we ended up in a stalemate. One party waiting to ambush each other on different sides of the door.

Riatha and Emajd performed the usual parlay and managed to convince them we were going to help this fellow. After some discussion, we decided to join forces with one condition. Some Veckna worshippers were in a room and we had to kill them. This other party was a group of stragglers from the larger force who were worshippers of Bast the war god. He had thrown his lot with Araketh and agreed to supply the manpower to help in his grab for power. Everyone gave the look, “Don’t have a problem with that.” And decided to proceed with the attack.

Kaylo attempted to tell the Veckna worshippers what to do. Not all of them listened and were paid in steel. The party did however manage to get one alive. There was an interrogation but not much happened. They were low level grunts and did not know much but did confirm that we needed one of the artifacts of Veckna. The party disposed of them quickly and we moved on. The Bast worshippers also indicated some of the old man’s men had gone insane. Something about losing there spells. I am not sure what happened to them but this place does strange things.

After some searching, we found a portion of the complex that was booby trapped. Though it was pretty obvious why. The room contained what was believed to be a piece of Veckna. We were all in a room when the trap went off. It might have been set off by someone trying to steal the Veckna artifact from the pedestal. The room was being sealed and the floors were collapsing. The Bast worshippers, myself and Kaylo jumped back into the room we came while the party I was with jumped forward into the next room. I waited for a while figuring the party would come back. At least I hoped they would come back.

After some waiting, they did. They had investigated the rest of the complex and each room contained an artifact of Veckna. Several of the party members had attempted to try to remove it and went a little crazy. I saw Drake caressing a disgusting head and Riatha clearly was not herself. They did manage to remove one of the artifacts, a finger for the task at hand. Unfortunately Kaylo started acting weird. Or maybe it was normal but he was just hiding is true intentions. He wanted the head of Veckna. After some struggle, we managed to get the head away from Drake and Kaylo. Etrigan smashed it with his Maul. Drake did not take too kindly to that but we managed to subdue him between Etrigan and me. They threw the remains of the head down some disgusting tube in a secret room that they found. Not sure where it goes but I definitely did not want to find out. We must have wasted quite a bit of time with those episodes. It took time to get Kaylo and Drake back to there senses. Drake came back and promptly cut his finger to replace it with the Veckna finger. Great. I wasn’t too happy with that but beggars can’t be choosers when it comes to travel companions. As long as he kept his choices to himself and did not affect me, I would not complain. In a way I am kind of glad the party wasn’t too sneaky. It meant that if they planned on killing me, they would have done so already. There not very subtle.

After some time, we figured out how to use the Veckna artifact, the finger, to open the inner sanctum of the temple. We charged in were greeted by some insane Veckna priest! We fought several rounds and took down the foul priest. I was not sure what he threw, but it made one of the orc captains writhe in pain as well as Kaylo. The Bast worshippers snapped his neck, while the rest of my party hid Kaylo hoping he would not suffer the same fate. Eventually he came to but I am worried that what ever was thrown might have done permanent damage. Almost comical considering he already is covered in disgusting skin, eating brains and now has a Veckna finger. That’s right I forgot that the priest had a Veckna finger that the party chopped off and gave to Kaylo. The party might talk a good talk but its actions clearly are in favor of Veckna. I worry for my life as I see party members starting to job off body parts for more power. Such foul magic is corrupting their very souls.

After some searching, we met up with the remaining Bast worshippers. There was quite a few. There leader struck a very imposing figure. Almost like a great warrior of ancient times who would kill you in an instant with just a look. He was bounding on some invisible barrier. There were six runes. The wizards in our group identified them as representing several gods. Bast was one of them which explained why they could not pass. We talked to the Bast worshippers and said we would help with a little healing. The party made a bargain that if the Bast worshippers helped us, we would support the old man in his quest. He wanted us to make a good showing there. I grew worried. I began to think that is presented a conflict of interest with Tierra sending us here but then I realized that I did not give my word. Unfortunately this was an iron tight agreement. The head Bast worshipper laid out the terms quick clearly. He even gave the party a choice between taking a Gorgon or a hellball which was the same thing the Veckna priest threw at us earlier. The party chose the Gorgon. I thought a poor choice but considering nether appealed to me, I didn’t care.

We stepped through the barrier and quickly released the gorgon did not come with us. We only had the leash. Bast worshippers couldn’t come through. A poor choice indeed. When we entered we were on a cliff with sickly green mist coming over the edge of the cliff. The party spent probably 15 to 30 minutes checking the entire area to see where the next portal was. No luck. We did know the mist was magical. There was only one choice. We decided to take a leap of faith and step into the green mist.

It was a surreal experience. We saw many things at once. We saw the old man we were pursuing and probably a dozen or some men of his that made it through the ordeal heading for Tenubria. We then saw him fighting vampires and all sorts of undead creatures in the crypts. He was already there heading to the crypt where Veckna lay. We saw other images too of undead black ships manned by skeletal beings and fighting on the island. I don’t remember much but there was a lot of chaos.

Eventually we found ourselves in an alley of a city. One of the party members checked around. We decided to go in the Veckna guises seeing how we could blend in. We walked out and immediately, several soldiers picked us up and forced us into some office. They seemed to think we were some new recruits for the battle with Kas, Veckna’s betrayer. I always wondered if there was some connection between the old man and Kas. Anyways, I was scared. I did not want to go the front to battle Kas and his forces. Kaylo in his wisdom showed him his Veckna finger and pointed at him. The soldier cleric gulped and asked for forgiveness. Kaylo kept spinning his tale of a impromptu inspection to check all was in order and we left.

We found an inn to hunker down for the night. We needed to figure out our next move. All I know was we could not take the Eye of Veckna out otherwise others would be alerted to its presence on the island and all hell would break loose. Not that it would be a significant improvement considering this town and island was hellish as it was.