Journal of the White Knight

[the Jester]

I feel that I should write this down, now, while I have the chance. After our recent betrayal, I fear that my own church will be hunting us. I am both angry and bitter at recent events- our fight against GEM, the increasing evidence of some sort of conspiracy linking them to DAM and to the blight affecting the northern isles (and Count Vermosse)...

My name is Sir Corwin, but henceforth I shall be known as the White Knight. Shorty- or Gemcutter, as he shall be known in the future- has already used his gnomish magic to whitewash my shield, covering my heraldry. He has whitened my armor as well. Now, once we are in a port at which I can purchase one, all that remains is to acquire a great helm to conceal my face and whitewash it as well.

And we will destroy GEM. We have vowed to. We are the Grinders now- the White Knight, Gemcutter, Prism, Cap’n Swagger... together, we shall utterly annihilate those bastards. We will root out their conspiracy and slay them for their evil treachery.

I do not know who I am writing this for; all I know is, if the Grinders should fail, someone must know what we have uncovered. Thus, my hope is that this record will survive us (if we are destroyed) and that others might take up our mantle. GEM must be stopped before they succeed at their plans.

GEM is, of course, the Gnome Eradication Movement, but in truth, they are only one of several front organizations. I do not know for certain who is behind it- though Father Dmitri, who betrayed us in our own Cathedral, seems to worship Legion, the mad avatar of the evil god Poltergeist who became so powerful that he became a god unto himself. I do know that the Dakon Annihilation Movement (DAM) was another of these fronts. But though it is too late to protect the dakon, we will save the gnomes.

But this makes no sense. There is no order to it; you cannot make sense of these ramblings. Let me begin at the beginning.

For me, it was in Blackstone, where the Cathedral of Sepharim is. That is where I was trained, where I grew from childhood. Now, I fear, it is one of GEM’s strongholds. I was summoned early in my 21st year to appear before Father Dmitri. He explained to me that, on the island of Silvis, one of our priests- Kent by name- had stopped sending his reports in. Dmitri asked me to investigate, and so I booked passage to Silvis.

In Silvis I found that Father Kent had become strange. Though he was old, and some folks attributed his growing eccentricities to his age, I could tell that there was more to it. Later, after we raided the GEM house in Silvis, we found records indicating that Kent had been afflicted by a magical disease called the shadow madness, which would make him progressively more and more insane over time. But I did not yet know that.

As I journeyed into the northern isles, I had noticed a marked lack of fishing activity, and it became more and more obvious that something was terribly wrong with the plants and animals around. This was my first exposure to the blight. After interviewing Father Kent, the templar of his small church told me more: that the blight had slain both plants and animals, and that a local group had been gathering druids to try to combat the problem. As I was uncertain of how to proceed regarding Kent, I decided to offer my assistance to these druids. They were housed within a large tree, and so I proceeded there.

Along the way, I met Flip- the man who is now (tentatively) known as Cap’n Swagger. He was a pirate, but our conversation revealed that he was already acquainted with the druids; in fact, he was one of the locals who had helped to gather them! Despite his piratical nature, I decided that he must on balance be accorded some modicum of respect. So together, we visited the two druids so far gathered, along with the local druid named Alla. She was an elf; the other two were a loincloth-clad human named Turok- something of a savage, to be honest- and a dwarf called Bronze Firequartz. They didn’t have much immediately useful information, but it was at this meeting that I first became aware of the problem of GEM.

Apparently, Alla was the daughter of one of the members of the city council, and her father was quite concerned with the issue of GEM. The Gnomish Eradication Movement had recently arrived in town and built a house. Thinking back on it, I could not recall having seen any gnomes in the town. After they told me about the genocidal ways of GEM, I was inflamed. “We should cast them down and destroy them!” I declared, though to be honest, probably not in those words. The others argued for a night time assault, but I prevailed upon them to attack in the day, and we stormed the GEM house. There we found a number of villains, who we slew almost to the last, saving only one for interrogation. I was ready to extract information by force if necessary, for the villains in the house of GEM had enraged me with their sneaky tactics and their unwholesome goals.

A few threats and a warning slap or two and the sniveling coward we had captured revealed what little he knew to us. According to him, GEM had the petrified form of someone named Saradin in their basement; he was apparently the greatest mage that ever lived. Our captive revealed to us the secret door that led below, and we descended to a small basement. Within which, we found a statue of what appeared to be some kind of wizard. We warily left the statue unmolested. Far more important, we found voluminous files on a large number of individuals, including every member of the city council of Silvis and Kent himself.

It was here that the betrayals began, and they have not ended yet....

 

[the Jester]

Please Note: This story hour is substantially different from all my other ones, in that I am a pc and it is set in a different campaign world. I am, of course, the player of Sir Corwin, aka the White Knight. The gm is Alcar, and the system is a mix of homebrew and 3.5 and earlier editions. Alcar likes to brag that it is "3.5 compatible." The setting is mostly islands. (Base classes include both ninja and pirate, though they appear to be kind of natural enemies.)

 

[the Jester]

I was about to make the point that I know both my letters and numbers, but I realized belatedly that you already know this; for am I not the author of the journal you are reading even now? -For it is very important that you understand that I read the files kept by GEM with my own eyes, and there can be no doubt about what we learned that day.

We were so innocent, then; it was before we all began to wear masks. Indeed, my white helm has not yet come; it is due in another two days. But I am ahead of myself.

There in the basement of the GEM house, we found files on many of Silvis’ citizens (Silvis being the town I was in at that time). I knew immediately which name would be most important to me: Father Kent, the priest I was sent to check on. Indeed, there was a file on him- a very thick file, stamped in large, red letters with the word “EXPERIMENTAL”. With trepidation I opened the file and began to read, becoming more and more horrified as my eyes took in more and more. I was only half-done when the druidess Alla (who is now known as Woodsong) spoke up, telling us that she had found files on every member of the city council, including Janfodar, her own father!

What did the files reveal?

Betrayal!

Almost all of the council had been compromised by GEM.

Alla was horrified, and her distress communicated the seriousness of the situation. There were just under a dozen powerful councilors that were traitors. The local alchemist had been paid an extraordinary amount of money to spy for GEM. Only two members of the council were uncorrupted: Janfodar and another, who was an elven cat. (I must point out that elves run their lands in very odd ways. One would never, for example, see a dog on a human council.) The local alchemist, enchanter, evoker and illusionist were all traitors. It was a devastating blow to Alla; and though I did not know the area or people well, it tested my confidence.

Uneasily, we continued our examination of the files. I turned my attention back to GEM’s records of Father Kent.

According to the records in the file, GEM had made several attempts to kidnap or coerce Kent, but they had been foiled (at least most recently) by some kind of beam of light. They were after his holy symbol (which I had noticed was spectacular upon meeting him), which was apparently the material component for the spell they were attempting to employ to wipe out all gnomes. Obviously, this could not be countenanced. During their most recent attempt to capture him, they had hit him with a dart. This was the delivery method for the shadow madness afflicting him; but it was a magical variant of the disease. Normally, shadow madness makes one more and more paranoid and insane until he dies. However, in this instance, it would simply keep making him crazier and crazier. I thought this was unacceptable, and determined both to bring GEM to justice and also to endeavor to cure Father Kent.

But how?

When I put this question to the group, they suggested that Janfodar might be able to help. Moreover, he must needs be informed as quickly as possible. The files indicated that he had resisted long pressure from GEM to turn, and Alla and Flip both vouched for him. Therefore we set out to speak to him, gathering a few more of my new friends’ companions along the way.

Janfodar was a polite older elf. We showed him what we had learned, and he was most distressed. Almost all of his compatriots were traitors! Yet he seemed confident that the situation could be handled.

There was a lot of talking at this point, but though I do love to converse with others, Janfodar was so far my intellectual superior that I found myself misapprehending much of what he said, and a great deal of the conversation revolved around events of which I was, at that time, ill-informed. Eventually, for one reason or another, we ventured outside of town and ran into an unsavory and powerful fellow named Asmodel, who rode astride a wyvern and threatened us if we did not withdraw and leave things alone. Naturally, I attacked. The battle was certainly rough, but the fact that the wyvern was, in fact, an illusion made things a little bit easier. After a very frustrating period in which all my blows were dodged or parried or absorbed on his armor, I finally managed to cut his head off. However, this battle had left us wounded, so we went back to town to rest.

Unfortunately, I missed some of what happened next; I was still not integrated enough with those who would become the Grinders to join them that night when the council attempted their ritual. I’m sure that my companions, or maybe Janfodar, were involved; and I know that the councilors got away, but without finishing the demonic ritual they were involved in. Alas, though my companions explained it to me, my powers of comprehension, not to mention my imagination, sometimes fail me. Thus I must regretfully tell you that, in the light of day, I rose to find the town in something of an uproar, with most of the councilors (save Janfodar and the elven cat) missing, and a massive army of sky elves led by the dakon Joe Evans rushing through it. A dakon, for those of you who do not know- for there are few left after the Dakon Annihilation Movement’s great successes- is an intelligent ape-like being. I have only met one, Joe Evans, and he turned out to be quite a nice fellow (in addition to having bananas in the middle of the blight, in which fruits and vegetables simply rot!). Regardless, the sky elves were coming from a fleet of ships. Sky elves are blue-skinned and possess the natural ability to fly (or perhaps it is magical, for they do not have wings). By now we had been joined by a sky elf of our own, the one we now know as Prism. She was the first of us to wear a mask; she wore one even then.

Ahh, my hand is tired from holding the quill. I shall write more anon.

 

[the Jester]

So much has transpired since all these events that I to you relate. I do not know if there will be time to write it all down, nor do I know if these scrawlings will do any good. With all arrayed against us, I may never have time to finish our tale, yet I shall try my best to at least catch the main thrust of the action in these pages.

Looking back, I see that I left off at the point of the sky elves’ attack on whatever terrible force there was without the city. Demons or some such, according to the words I heard, but- again, I am a man of action, not of thought. I was growing bored with talking and anxious to return to Blackstone and make my report. Yet when I was musing about the situation with Kent, Alla reminded me that her father, Janfodar, might be able to assist. Of course! I had even broached the subject with him previously, but the conversation had turned to more complicated matters, including the betrayal of the other council members (that much, at least, I comprehended). So it was that shortly, my compatriots and I, joined by Janfodar, proceeded to the temple, where I enlisted the temple guardian in procuring Kent for Janfodar to work his magic upon. Tho’ it took some time, Kent was soon restored to his mind.

Next on my agenda, of course, was to return to Blackstone and make my report. I mused over how best to journey there; the pirate Ro seemed to be my only real hope, though he was a scoundrel and wastrel. With a scowl I agreed to necessity and, with my new friends, boarded his vessel. They needed to go first to Cat’s Cradle to unload a shipment of drugs for the tabaxi there (catnip, specifically). I reluctantly accompanied them, brooding on what we had learned of GEM and their evil ways. They had been brewing up strange little diseased creatures called “meazles” in the house we had raided, designed to spread disease. They seemed to be against not just gnomes, but ultimately everyone who was not human. They were linked the DAM- the (largely successful) dakon annihilation movement. My head began to hurt, so I gave up pondering for the time being.

When we reached Cat’s Cradle, we made the journey inland to their city (apparently they did not much care to be near the sea, cats mostly hating water). Ro left much of his cargo on the ship, apparently to improve his bargaining position. We were approached, as we entered the town (which was replete with great scratching posts, and stank far worse than any human city, reeking as it did of cat piss), by a group of tabaxi gangsters intent of taking our merchandise. We prevented them and took their gang armbands (according to Captain Pirate, or perhaps it was Ro, I honestly don’t remember, they were members of a gang called the Black Pussies) and continued on our mission.

However, as we got deeper into the city, more and more of the cat-folk began trailing along behind us, entranced by the scent of our goods. However, invoking the name of Ro’s arranged customers persuaded most of them to back off. Some protracted negotiations ensued between Ro and said customer, ending in our offloading the entirety of the merchandise. Thankfully, Janfodar had some sort of eldritch abilities that allowed him to make it all float through the air, saving us the difficulty of multiple trips back and forth from the ship to the town, no doubt suffering tabaxi harassment all the while.

Finally, we were able to depart that stinking place. I tell you truly, until you have smelled a tabaxi city, you have not suffered terribly enough to comprehend my discomfort there!

Our next stop was to be Blackstone, where the most baleful betrayal of all came. But I am at the end of my page, and I have no more paper as yet; consequently, I must save those bitter details until I can find another sheet. Let me just leave you with this: the sour feeling has not, even now, months later, left my stomach.