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<blockquote data-quote="howandwhy99" data-source="post: 1714118" data-attributes="member: 3192"><p><strong>Brother Ben pens again</strong></p><p></p><p>Of the 42 souls who originally began our appointment, nearly half have died. For this, I blame myself. Many secret agendas and unknown plots plague our small group. I spoke already of the Giant and you should know that he attacked our encampment without hesitation early on. Later, we were beset upon by both wolves and orcs. The latter stalked and killed what I believe was a Fey Tree from the Faerie realm. Its death was a terrible sight to behold and brought tears to many mens eyes including my own. So few here have ever heard of such creatures, for only to meet one in its death throws is a poor beginning.</p><p> </p><p>Some time later we discovered that the well within our small outpost tower held an ancient secret: a maze of tunnels from days gone by. The connection between our current strife and these tunnels was puzzled out after meeting with another outpost – Yung – just to our North. But I am getting ahead of myself. I say to you the names that were inscribed before its entrance door: Zelligar and Rohgan. While these names held little meaning for me before today, my faith in the breadth of your own learnings is strong. The grandor therein is beyond any story I have heard of Ducal palaces and Barony castles.</p><p> </p><p>The greatest danger in my mind has been that our small, but true group of leaders, and myself, had become so enraptured by the wonders of exploration that our own obligation to the men (and the some few women) of the outpost was being shirked. The truth of this struck home to me in the cruelest of ways. You see, while our explorations have uncovered a number of pits of which some appear to hold potions (as if in mass storage), the one potion of life reviving fruit juice laid to the wayside when it was of utmost need. Fourteen of our number had taken ill that very night from what we believed to be rotten food. In my haste to rest my own body for the exertions the morrow, the bodies of those ailing were not left under proper care. Though the three brothers, Goodrich, Grizzle, and Gresslam each took their normal watch of the ill, no one was of the knowledge to soothe the ongoing pains. The next morning brought my greatest shame: every one of the men who had fallen sick died in the night. This includes the seven lame who were here upon our initial arrival. </p><p> </p><p>The true number of dead is actually two more. The first a fatally injured man from the previous patrol. And the second our very own commander, Sgt Guido. As a man who drank himself to death and to whom I personally vowed to keep under my watch, his death was already on my mind when the other fourteen died. The entire next day I spent in intensified grief. As you yourself know, the number of people who live at our Temple is few indeed. I am at once overwhelmed and greatly shamed. This day was productive for the remainder of the team who fortunately managed to keep the spirits of our company from sinking to low by searching out the nearest sister outpost to our own; outpost Yung which I mentioned earlier. Five of their men are now stationed here in the stead of the ten who died; the bodies of which were carried back to outpost Yung for transport to the keep and proper burial. Five more men are on their way from Yung as I write this.</p><p> </p><p>Even in my grievous state, it is true that, by the light of the setting sun, we decided to once again enter the halls below. Such is the extent of our passion. We made little headway this time, but I bring up the matter because a rather unusual event occurred, more unusual than normal as it is, one which has an importance you shall soon discover. Most of our time was taken up with solving the riddle of an arcane archway that blocked our path. Some managed to pass under, while others were painfully rebuffed, the why is still unknown to us even now. Igor, who was one of the few to pass through, went to scout ahead before we left for the night, so we might better prepare in the morning. (assuming we solved the riddle, of course) </p><p> </p><p>The oddest of odd, is that this man whom the gods had twisted and struck all of lame, hunchbacked, and one-eyed-blind came back as a whole man. He mentioned that he imbibed a potion down a path within, but once above and afresh the next morning, he lauded our new leader, a dwarf in the service of Father Thor, as the creditor of his remarkable transformation. This was dubious to me as it seemed an outright lie, but as I have been the recipient of this good dwarf's holy healing before, and as he did not rebuff the statements himself, I could see no reason for me to speak up.</p><p> </p><p>The matter is, the same morning, Sergeant Darius the Dwarf, one and the same as I mention above, called a meeting of the corporals. I am allowed to go to these as I have been put in charge of the infirmary per prior orders. Only this was no normal meeting. Our dwarf friend brought charges against the no longer peculiar Igor. While I at first believed Darius' intentions to be untrue, as other's lies often bring about the worst from people, I later took heart in the fact that he believed his accusations to be firmly founded. Let me explain.</p><p> </p><p>Igor is our camp cook and responsible for the preparation, serving, and all other aspects of the feeding of our men. The night that we were in the tunnels below, another of Igor's assistants prepared the meal: one “Smitty”. In final judgment, we all determined that Igor held no malicious plan to sicken or kill those who had died. That fault is squarely mine, if unmentioned. Smitty had used sour or rotten vegetables from an unknown source and variety and added it to the day-old soup. An honest mistake, but one that cannot happen again. I was glad that Igor was able to prove himself that day. As he is a new man and might indeed owe his change to Darius, he deserves a chance to enjoy his new life, one without pain or bigotry. Woe be to me who had forgotten the potion of life healing, so the other might still have life as well.</p><p> </p><p>Another event on the list of this days doings. One you yourself may be interested in Father, is the revealing of a soul transfigured and, I can only hope, traveling to the heavens. You see, of the treasures we brought back to the surface, two were of an unknown magic ensorcelled onto scrollwork. A wisewoman named Kayla entrusted these to me for destruction. But as they went up in flames, I beheld a vision: our dead commander in the smoke of the fire. He was very angry, just like when he was alive. I can only hope he has now found peace in the afterlife.</p><p> </p><p>Our plan as we entered the oddly named “Quesquaton” mazes again, was to explore the remainder of it before heading to the archway. But we soon had to go after a missing girl who is always underfoot. Her name is Meer-Elle as I believe she says it. I have kept my eye on her since our arrival as she is in the most danger owing to the nature of trials only grown men should face, and only in grave need at that. But she seems as inquisitive as any of us. There is no keeping her out of the caves.</p><p> </p><p>Fortunately, Kayla determined the functioning of some power circle carved into the stone floor. We actually were transferred without movement to another section of the maze. This portion is as I believe what a wizard's home would appear, if any were still living today. Oddly this one still seemed to be in clean and working order, unlike the rest of the maze. This led my questioning to the place as a hoax. I won't go into the specificities of such a place, as I am sure you have heard many a tall tale of such places yourself. The one important point to mention is the great number of real books on shelves here. Far more than our Temple holds and many of the of a religious nature. I have removed some for my own curiosity, but find we may need to keep them in the faux wizard's lair as it is still the safest location in our vicinity.</p><p> </p><p>Ignoring the bizarre, we did finally arrive in a long columned corridor of marble and sculpted stone. The columns themselves were carved into beautiful human figures larger than life. It is only by the wisdom and suspicious nature of Darius the Dwarf though that we still live.</p><p> </p><p><em>(to be continued)</em></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="howandwhy99, post: 1714118, member: 3192"] [b]Brother Ben pens again[/b] Of the 42 souls who originally began our appointment, nearly half have died. For this, I blame myself. Many secret agendas and unknown plots plague our small group. I spoke already of the Giant and you should know that he attacked our encampment without hesitation early on. Later, we were beset upon by both wolves and orcs. The latter stalked and killed what I believe was a Fey Tree from the Faerie realm. Its death was a terrible sight to behold and brought tears to many mens eyes including my own. So few here have ever heard of such creatures, for only to meet one in its death throws is a poor beginning. Some time later we discovered that the well within our small outpost tower held an ancient secret: a maze of tunnels from days gone by. The connection between our current strife and these tunnels was puzzled out after meeting with another outpost – Yung – just to our North. But I am getting ahead of myself. I say to you the names that were inscribed before its entrance door: Zelligar and Rohgan. While these names held little meaning for me before today, my faith in the breadth of your own learnings is strong. The grandor therein is beyond any story I have heard of Ducal palaces and Barony castles. The greatest danger in my mind has been that our small, but true group of leaders, and myself, had become so enraptured by the wonders of exploration that our own obligation to the men (and the some few women) of the outpost was being shirked. The truth of this struck home to me in the cruelest of ways. You see, while our explorations have uncovered a number of pits of which some appear to hold potions (as if in mass storage), the one potion of life reviving fruit juice laid to the wayside when it was of utmost need. Fourteen of our number had taken ill that very night from what we believed to be rotten food. In my haste to rest my own body for the exertions the morrow, the bodies of those ailing were not left under proper care. Though the three brothers, Goodrich, Grizzle, and Gresslam each took their normal watch of the ill, no one was of the knowledge to soothe the ongoing pains. The next morning brought my greatest shame: every one of the men who had fallen sick died in the night. This includes the seven lame who were here upon our initial arrival. The true number of dead is actually two more. The first a fatally injured man from the previous patrol. And the second our very own commander, Sgt Guido. As a man who drank himself to death and to whom I personally vowed to keep under my watch, his death was already on my mind when the other fourteen died. The entire next day I spent in intensified grief. As you yourself know, the number of people who live at our Temple is few indeed. I am at once overwhelmed and greatly shamed. This day was productive for the remainder of the team who fortunately managed to keep the spirits of our company from sinking to low by searching out the nearest sister outpost to our own; outpost Yung which I mentioned earlier. Five of their men are now stationed here in the stead of the ten who died; the bodies of which were carried back to outpost Yung for transport to the keep and proper burial. Five more men are on their way from Yung as I write this. Even in my grievous state, it is true that, by the light of the setting sun, we decided to once again enter the halls below. Such is the extent of our passion. We made little headway this time, but I bring up the matter because a rather unusual event occurred, more unusual than normal as it is, one which has an importance you shall soon discover. Most of our time was taken up with solving the riddle of an arcane archway that blocked our path. Some managed to pass under, while others were painfully rebuffed, the why is still unknown to us even now. Igor, who was one of the few to pass through, went to scout ahead before we left for the night, so we might better prepare in the morning. (assuming we solved the riddle, of course) The oddest of odd, is that this man whom the gods had twisted and struck all of lame, hunchbacked, and one-eyed-blind came back as a whole man. He mentioned that he imbibed a potion down a path within, but once above and afresh the next morning, he lauded our new leader, a dwarf in the service of Father Thor, as the creditor of his remarkable transformation. This was dubious to me as it seemed an outright lie, but as I have been the recipient of this good dwarf's holy healing before, and as he did not rebuff the statements himself, I could see no reason for me to speak up. The matter is, the same morning, Sergeant Darius the Dwarf, one and the same as I mention above, called a meeting of the corporals. I am allowed to go to these as I have been put in charge of the infirmary per prior orders. Only this was no normal meeting. Our dwarf friend brought charges against the no longer peculiar Igor. While I at first believed Darius' intentions to be untrue, as other's lies often bring about the worst from people, I later took heart in the fact that he believed his accusations to be firmly founded. Let me explain. Igor is our camp cook and responsible for the preparation, serving, and all other aspects of the feeding of our men. The night that we were in the tunnels below, another of Igor's assistants prepared the meal: one “Smitty”. In final judgment, we all determined that Igor held no malicious plan to sicken or kill those who had died. That fault is squarely mine, if unmentioned. Smitty had used sour or rotten vegetables from an unknown source and variety and added it to the day-old soup. An honest mistake, but one that cannot happen again. I was glad that Igor was able to prove himself that day. As he is a new man and might indeed owe his change to Darius, he deserves a chance to enjoy his new life, one without pain or bigotry. Woe be to me who had forgotten the potion of life healing, so the other might still have life as well. Another event on the list of this days doings. One you yourself may be interested in Father, is the revealing of a soul transfigured and, I can only hope, traveling to the heavens. You see, of the treasures we brought back to the surface, two were of an unknown magic ensorcelled onto scrollwork. A wisewoman named Kayla entrusted these to me for destruction. But as they went up in flames, I beheld a vision: our dead commander in the smoke of the fire. He was very angry, just like when he was alive. I can only hope he has now found peace in the afterlife. Our plan as we entered the oddly named “Quesquaton” mazes again, was to explore the remainder of it before heading to the archway. But we soon had to go after a missing girl who is always underfoot. Her name is Meer-Elle as I believe she says it. I have kept my eye on her since our arrival as she is in the most danger owing to the nature of trials only grown men should face, and only in grave need at that. But she seems as inquisitive as any of us. There is no keeping her out of the caves. Fortunately, Kayla determined the functioning of some power circle carved into the stone floor. We actually were transferred without movement to another section of the maze. This portion is as I believe what a wizard's home would appear, if any were still living today. Oddly this one still seemed to be in clean and working order, unlike the rest of the maze. This led my questioning to the place as a hoax. I won't go into the specificities of such a place, as I am sure you have heard many a tall tale of such places yourself. The one important point to mention is the great number of real books on shelves here. Far more than our Temple holds and many of the of a religious nature. I have removed some for my own curiosity, but find we may need to keep them in the faux wizard's lair as it is still the safest location in our vicinity. Ignoring the bizarre, we did finally arrive in a long columned corridor of marble and sculpted stone. The columns themselves were carved into beautiful human figures larger than life. It is only by the wisdom and suspicious nature of Darius the Dwarf though that we still live. [i](to be continued)[/i] [/QUOTE]
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