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The Collected Journals of Artemis Heuw Cannith
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<blockquote data-quote="Jubilee" data-source="post: 3865100" data-attributes="member: 36594"><p><strong>From the Journals of Gwaenna Goldenbrow (10/28/07 session) part 1</strong></p><p></p><p><strong>Sniffles missed the last session, so I decided I'd go ahead and write up another journal entry so we'd have some record of what happened. It got rather longer than I intended and I sincerely apologize. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></strong></p><p></p><p><strong>------</strong></p><p></p><p>… After the air elemental had been vanquished, its essence seemed to flow towards the portal in the center of the platform before us. The circle was filled with mystic light and we all paused for a moment, to see what further challenge might await us, but nothing terrible happened. Artemis, Conshru, and myself approached to examine the portal. </p><p></p><p>Artemis began to study the nature of its magic and I started to make out the runes on the floor and the archway. Almost immediately, I recognized some of the runes on the floor matched some of those on the Stone of Kings we carried, as well as from a journal entry from Boraman. In his journal, he wrote that the symbols were connected in some way to Cazhaak Draal, although he didn’t know why they were important. It’s a shame the man didn’t have the stone and shield before he left, for I’m sure he’d have made better sense of all this than any of us could. If only we were in not so much of a hurry, we could free him from his captivity..</p><p></p><p>The light from the portal faded at about the same time that Artemis finished his identification; I also was able to make out the writing on the arch, which read “May the Winds of Acheron blow you to your destiny.” Although it did not mean much at the time to me, I was later to learn that the Winds of Acheron is a proper name that shows up fairly frequently in Dhakaani stories and histories. </p><p></p><p>I was finally allowed to return to the first chamber, whilst the others tended to each other’s wounds and speculated about the nature of this place, the portal, and the chasm below the bridge. The markings on the walls, of which I have made many fine copies, allowed me to determine that this was an outpost for a hobgoblin prince who had once been very mighty, but fell into disfavor, for his name had been defaced in every place where it might have been shown. There were sealed doors, four in total, that bore warnings against tampering, although Artemis found no traps on them and there were no magical seals accompanying the physical.</p><p></p><p>I also discerned that this was one of many ancient sites of the Dhakaani that was used for travel and communication. We speculate that there must be other portals such as the one we have found. However, I was not able to decipher what the ‘name’ of this place might be, so I don’t know how we would return here with a similar portal. Conshru pointed out that there would probably be no need for the symbols that brought a traveler here to be in the circle of runes on this portal, so perhaps I will be able to figure them out in Cazhaak Draal. Artemis mentioned seeing a circle much like this one somewhere near the border between Zilargo and Thrane, in the same place where they found the Shield, so I will have to get him to take me there. </p><p></p><p>Conshru, in particular, was becoming increasingly impatient with the time it was taking for me to record and decipher the site, so we decided to begin exploring behind the sealed doors. The warnings seemed to say that it would be impious or unpatriotic to unearth whatever lay behind, which I must admit made me even more curious to discover what lay beyond.</p><p></p><p>The first room was a disappointment – it was probably barracks, but there was only some debris and a great deal of dust. The walls were bare, and there were no secret doors or panels that we could find. Sten had been a little too enthusiastic cutting out the door and it had fallen right out of its frame. Artemis asked him to leave the other doors functional, so that we would have at least one left on which to use the Key. The second door in the first room revealed a wide hallway that was filled with debris after about 20 feet. On closer inspection, we discovered that amongst the debris were some ruined statues – some of hobgoblins whose features were not quite right – twisted in some subtle way I did not understand until we found the statue of the tentacled beast. It was not, quite, an illithid, but bore enough resemblance to such a creature to give me a shiver.</p><p></p><p>I remembered then that there was a hobgoblin prince who had turned against his people and allied himself with the Daelkyr. He had raised an army against the Dhakaani and was sealed away after a costly battle. The stories say he had five, or maybe six, great beasts of the Daelkyr that accompanied him. I wish I could remember whether the translation indicated that he had been entombed or trapped.. but surely after so much time, even beasts of nightmare would have died..</p><p></p><p>We moved into the second chamber, which had in it a platform on the far wall, with a tunnel leading out towards the strange bridge, flanked on either side by statues. The northern door revealed a 30-foot wide, 60-foot long corridor with two rows of pillars flanking the central aisle. Azlin commented that the stone must have been brought from some distance, because she was fairly sure the marble was not native to these mountains. We saw a pair of doors at the far end of the corridor, and as Artemis and I began cautiously to enter the room, Xil expressed some doubt of the wisdom of opening these undisturbed doors. We, of course, ignored him. </p><p></p><p>Artemis stopped me with a gesture and indicated there was some kind of trap that was triggered upon proximity to the pillars. He began to study the trap as best he could from afar and I checked the room for magic. The pillars were, indeed, magical; however, the auras seemed more of divination and protection than those of harm. Artemis could not tell what the trap would do, but that it might prevent passage of those who weren’t worthy. Perhaps it set off an alarm for someone who could no longer hear it.</p><p></p><p>Conshru threw his pack down the corridor to see if it would set off any alarms, but nothing we could perceive happened. Artemis dragged it back with magic and threw a lighted sun rod near the door. Again, nothing moved and no sound came. Finally, Artemis summoned – a bunny, of all things – in the center of the hallway. It hopped towards us and twitched its nose. There was no alarm and no bunny guts were spilled onto the floor.</p><p></p><p>I decided that my curiosity could wait no longer and started down the corridor, making for the door as quickly as I could without appearing too fearful. The back of my neck prickled a bit, as if I were being watched – which of course, I was – by anxious companions in the doorway. When nothing happened as I reached the door, Artemis used one of his many useful wands to teleport himself to the door beside me. Luckily, both doors were sufficiently far away from the pillars that he didn’t risk triggering the traps. Conshru, Xil and the others waited at the other end, declining to tempt the pillars as I had done and lacking the magic Artemis had used.</p><p></p><p>I pushed open the doors with some effort – they were swollen with age and nearly fused together by time – but one of them gave way before me. The most beautiful sight I have yet witnessed awaited me – the unmarred tomb of a hobgoblin prince! I learned that it was the burial of the son of the dishonored hobgoblin. This place had been created before his dishonor, but had somehow escaped the wrath of those who had imprisoned or killed the prince – perhaps it was the magic of the pillars? For here I learned the dishonored prince’s name was Alderash! What a find! I will have plenty of material from this expedition for my next book.</p><p></p><p>As I was recording the murals on the walls, Artemis moved towards the center of the room, where five chests were arrayed before an elaborate carved tomb. There was also an urn, made of some kind of shimmering red metal or stone, with them. I noticed peripherally that he was about to open the first chest he came to, so I told him the urn was likely the ashes of the dead prince’s wife, or possibly Alderash’s wife, and would probably hold little of interest. Also, I felt for some reason I cannot explain, even here, that it ought not be disturbed. </p><p></p><p>We found a number of interesting items in the room. There were some scrolls in one of the chests, but sadly the first Artemis touched crumbled to dust immediately. As we did not have the knowledge or skills to preserve the other two, we decided to leave them in the box where they were, at least for now, somewhat safe. Inside the sarcophagus we found the mummified remains of a hobgoblin. He was wearing a breastplate of adamantine! He was laid out in repose, with the broken pieces of his long spear held in his crossed hands. We took the spear, but decided to leave the breastplate and body as it were – I hope to return at some future date and remove the entire thing. It would make quite an exhibit, especially if it were preserved all together! </p><p></p><p>The urn we determined was magical, and very strong, but neither of us could divine the exact nature of it. We did not want to disturb it if it were dangerous and I was fairly sure there would be ashes within it, although I regret I could not discover whose ashes were inside. We decided to leave it, hopefully for a future expedition. </p><p></p><p>The last door had a corridor with pillars much like the one leading to the burial chamber. On the far end of the hallway, however, a solid sheet of strange metal with a reddish sheen – Artemis said it looked almost like adamantine – covered the space where the door had been on the opposite corridor. The traps on these pillars, Artemis told us, were definitely harmful. He wasn’t certain whether they would drop the ceiling on us, drop the pillars on us, or something else equally painful and none of us dared test it. On the floor just beyond the doorway in which we studied the room were the words “Here lays Alderash, sealed in Verak’s name.” Verak was a name I knew – he was a dragon who was the founder of the Gatekeeper Druids! I did not know the Gatekeepers were involved in sealing Alderash and his abominable allies away. Artemis thought there was a phrase of some kind that would allow us to bypass the trap and that it probably had something to do with the declaration on the floor; although we tried half a dozen variations of the phrase “In the name of Verak, let us pass,” we could detect no change in the trap and did not feel comfortable risking it. I could tell there was some writing on the seal on the far end, but it was not for me, at least not on this trip, to discover what it said.</p><p></p><p>We decided to return to Artemis’s house in Sharn, via the Key. I only had to wonder for a few minutes how Artemis planned to accomplish it. He asked Sten to carve a space out of one of the working doors (for none of them had locks in them, which is required for using the Key) and after a lengthy infusion, he had created a working lock made of ironwood inside the cavity! He really has the cleverest ways of using his talents! This allowed us to return the horses to the relative safety of the Closed Circle (Artemis’s house does not have stables, probably because it is so high up in the city), since we do not think we will need to travel by horse again any time soon. </p><p></p><p>Even though we thought we could now cut our trip from 11 days to fifteen minutes, we didn’t want to take too much time away from it. I briefly considered suggesting we attempt to rescue Boraman, because he would be very useful to have around, but we have no idea how quickly our Kaarnathi adversary will prepare new defenses against us – and the sooner we get there, the more likely he will be unprepared.</p><p></p><p>Conshru and I both hoped to do some research – he on the four dragonshards we found in the sarcophagus of Alderash’s son (all that Artemis could ascertain was that they were attuned to each of the four elements) and I wanted to learn more about Acheron and Alderash, as well as the portals that must have connected the hobgoblin Empire. Alas, this was not meant to be, for when we arrived at Artemis’s house, his steward approached to say that there were visitors – for me – that he could not be rid of.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jubilee, post: 3865100, member: 36594"] [b]From the Journals of Gwaenna Goldenbrow (10/28/07 session) part 1[/b] [b]Sniffles missed the last session, so I decided I'd go ahead and write up another journal entry so we'd have some record of what happened. It got rather longer than I intended and I sincerely apologize. ;)[/b] [b]------[/b] … After the air elemental had been vanquished, its essence seemed to flow towards the portal in the center of the platform before us. The circle was filled with mystic light and we all paused for a moment, to see what further challenge might await us, but nothing terrible happened. Artemis, Conshru, and myself approached to examine the portal. Artemis began to study the nature of its magic and I started to make out the runes on the floor and the archway. Almost immediately, I recognized some of the runes on the floor matched some of those on the Stone of Kings we carried, as well as from a journal entry from Boraman. In his journal, he wrote that the symbols were connected in some way to Cazhaak Draal, although he didn’t know why they were important. It’s a shame the man didn’t have the stone and shield before he left, for I’m sure he’d have made better sense of all this than any of us could. If only we were in not so much of a hurry, we could free him from his captivity.. The light from the portal faded at about the same time that Artemis finished his identification; I also was able to make out the writing on the arch, which read “May the Winds of Acheron blow you to your destiny.” Although it did not mean much at the time to me, I was later to learn that the Winds of Acheron is a proper name that shows up fairly frequently in Dhakaani stories and histories. I was finally allowed to return to the first chamber, whilst the others tended to each other’s wounds and speculated about the nature of this place, the portal, and the chasm below the bridge. The markings on the walls, of which I have made many fine copies, allowed me to determine that this was an outpost for a hobgoblin prince who had once been very mighty, but fell into disfavor, for his name had been defaced in every place where it might have been shown. There were sealed doors, four in total, that bore warnings against tampering, although Artemis found no traps on them and there were no magical seals accompanying the physical. I also discerned that this was one of many ancient sites of the Dhakaani that was used for travel and communication. We speculate that there must be other portals such as the one we have found. However, I was not able to decipher what the ‘name’ of this place might be, so I don’t know how we would return here with a similar portal. Conshru pointed out that there would probably be no need for the symbols that brought a traveler here to be in the circle of runes on this portal, so perhaps I will be able to figure them out in Cazhaak Draal. Artemis mentioned seeing a circle much like this one somewhere near the border between Zilargo and Thrane, in the same place where they found the Shield, so I will have to get him to take me there. Conshru, in particular, was becoming increasingly impatient with the time it was taking for me to record and decipher the site, so we decided to begin exploring behind the sealed doors. The warnings seemed to say that it would be impious or unpatriotic to unearth whatever lay behind, which I must admit made me even more curious to discover what lay beyond. The first room was a disappointment – it was probably barracks, but there was only some debris and a great deal of dust. The walls were bare, and there were no secret doors or panels that we could find. Sten had been a little too enthusiastic cutting out the door and it had fallen right out of its frame. Artemis asked him to leave the other doors functional, so that we would have at least one left on which to use the Key. The second door in the first room revealed a wide hallway that was filled with debris after about 20 feet. On closer inspection, we discovered that amongst the debris were some ruined statues – some of hobgoblins whose features were not quite right – twisted in some subtle way I did not understand until we found the statue of the tentacled beast. It was not, quite, an illithid, but bore enough resemblance to such a creature to give me a shiver. I remembered then that there was a hobgoblin prince who had turned against his people and allied himself with the Daelkyr. He had raised an army against the Dhakaani and was sealed away after a costly battle. The stories say he had five, or maybe six, great beasts of the Daelkyr that accompanied him. I wish I could remember whether the translation indicated that he had been entombed or trapped.. but surely after so much time, even beasts of nightmare would have died.. We moved into the second chamber, which had in it a platform on the far wall, with a tunnel leading out towards the strange bridge, flanked on either side by statues. The northern door revealed a 30-foot wide, 60-foot long corridor with two rows of pillars flanking the central aisle. Azlin commented that the stone must have been brought from some distance, because she was fairly sure the marble was not native to these mountains. We saw a pair of doors at the far end of the corridor, and as Artemis and I began cautiously to enter the room, Xil expressed some doubt of the wisdom of opening these undisturbed doors. We, of course, ignored him. Artemis stopped me with a gesture and indicated there was some kind of trap that was triggered upon proximity to the pillars. He began to study the trap as best he could from afar and I checked the room for magic. The pillars were, indeed, magical; however, the auras seemed more of divination and protection than those of harm. Artemis could not tell what the trap would do, but that it might prevent passage of those who weren’t worthy. Perhaps it set off an alarm for someone who could no longer hear it. Conshru threw his pack down the corridor to see if it would set off any alarms, but nothing we could perceive happened. Artemis dragged it back with magic and threw a lighted sun rod near the door. Again, nothing moved and no sound came. Finally, Artemis summoned – a bunny, of all things – in the center of the hallway. It hopped towards us and twitched its nose. There was no alarm and no bunny guts were spilled onto the floor. I decided that my curiosity could wait no longer and started down the corridor, making for the door as quickly as I could without appearing too fearful. The back of my neck prickled a bit, as if I were being watched – which of course, I was – by anxious companions in the doorway. When nothing happened as I reached the door, Artemis used one of his many useful wands to teleport himself to the door beside me. Luckily, both doors were sufficiently far away from the pillars that he didn’t risk triggering the traps. Conshru, Xil and the others waited at the other end, declining to tempt the pillars as I had done and lacking the magic Artemis had used. I pushed open the doors with some effort – they were swollen with age and nearly fused together by time – but one of them gave way before me. The most beautiful sight I have yet witnessed awaited me – the unmarred tomb of a hobgoblin prince! I learned that it was the burial of the son of the dishonored hobgoblin. This place had been created before his dishonor, but had somehow escaped the wrath of those who had imprisoned or killed the prince – perhaps it was the magic of the pillars? For here I learned the dishonored prince’s name was Alderash! What a find! I will have plenty of material from this expedition for my next book. As I was recording the murals on the walls, Artemis moved towards the center of the room, where five chests were arrayed before an elaborate carved tomb. There was also an urn, made of some kind of shimmering red metal or stone, with them. I noticed peripherally that he was about to open the first chest he came to, so I told him the urn was likely the ashes of the dead prince’s wife, or possibly Alderash’s wife, and would probably hold little of interest. Also, I felt for some reason I cannot explain, even here, that it ought not be disturbed. We found a number of interesting items in the room. There were some scrolls in one of the chests, but sadly the first Artemis touched crumbled to dust immediately. As we did not have the knowledge or skills to preserve the other two, we decided to leave them in the box where they were, at least for now, somewhat safe. Inside the sarcophagus we found the mummified remains of a hobgoblin. He was wearing a breastplate of adamantine! He was laid out in repose, with the broken pieces of his long spear held in his crossed hands. We took the spear, but decided to leave the breastplate and body as it were – I hope to return at some future date and remove the entire thing. It would make quite an exhibit, especially if it were preserved all together! The urn we determined was magical, and very strong, but neither of us could divine the exact nature of it. We did not want to disturb it if it were dangerous and I was fairly sure there would be ashes within it, although I regret I could not discover whose ashes were inside. We decided to leave it, hopefully for a future expedition. The last door had a corridor with pillars much like the one leading to the burial chamber. On the far end of the hallway, however, a solid sheet of strange metal with a reddish sheen – Artemis said it looked almost like adamantine – covered the space where the door had been on the opposite corridor. The traps on these pillars, Artemis told us, were definitely harmful. He wasn’t certain whether they would drop the ceiling on us, drop the pillars on us, or something else equally painful and none of us dared test it. On the floor just beyond the doorway in which we studied the room were the words “Here lays Alderash, sealed in Verak’s name.” Verak was a name I knew – he was a dragon who was the founder of the Gatekeeper Druids! I did not know the Gatekeepers were involved in sealing Alderash and his abominable allies away. Artemis thought there was a phrase of some kind that would allow us to bypass the trap and that it probably had something to do with the declaration on the floor; although we tried half a dozen variations of the phrase “In the name of Verak, let us pass,” we could detect no change in the trap and did not feel comfortable risking it. I could tell there was some writing on the seal on the far end, but it was not for me, at least not on this trip, to discover what it said. We decided to return to Artemis’s house in Sharn, via the Key. I only had to wonder for a few minutes how Artemis planned to accomplish it. He asked Sten to carve a space out of one of the working doors (for none of them had locks in them, which is required for using the Key) and after a lengthy infusion, he had created a working lock made of ironwood inside the cavity! He really has the cleverest ways of using his talents! This allowed us to return the horses to the relative safety of the Closed Circle (Artemis’s house does not have stables, probably because it is so high up in the city), since we do not think we will need to travel by horse again any time soon. Even though we thought we could now cut our trip from 11 days to fifteen minutes, we didn’t want to take too much time away from it. I briefly considered suggesting we attempt to rescue Boraman, because he would be very useful to have around, but we have no idea how quickly our Kaarnathi adversary will prepare new defenses against us – and the sooner we get there, the more likely he will be unprepared. Conshru and I both hoped to do some research – he on the four dragonshards we found in the sarcophagus of Alderash’s son (all that Artemis could ascertain was that they were attuned to each of the four elements) and I wanted to learn more about Acheron and Alderash, as well as the portals that must have connected the hobgoblin Empire. Alas, this was not meant to be, for when we arrived at Artemis’s house, his steward approached to say that there were visitors – for me – that he could not be rid of. [/QUOTE]
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