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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SolidSnake_01" data-source="post: 7232607" data-attributes="member: 63254">Journal of Egan: Entry II – Meanwhile in Diamond LakeIt’s been very long since I’ve felt at home, but you can never go home again. Although only a week had passed since I traveled into the Mistmarsh with Etona, Melinde and Rey, we returned to a Diamond Lake unlike the town we left.  In our absence, Dourstone’s mine was shut down because of his involvement with the Cult of Vecna, and Dourstone himself was hung at the hands of the Sheriff Cubbin.  The garrison had intervened in the purging of the Dourstone complex, and Balabar Smenk and his closest goons, including the albino Half-orc, Kullen, were slain in mysterious, assassination-like fashions.  The assumption remains that Vecna’s cult got revenge for his exposure of their operations in the mine.  In a similarly mysterious fashion, the one Kenku that had been captured by our team escaped with the help of his cult members.  The garrison was mobilized, and likely his security was reduced.  Since our return, Allustan has requested that we pursue our study of the strange larval, undead, green worms by visiting his old friend Elgios, a sage from his early years of training, in Greyhawk.  Our first real encounter with the worm’s hideous conversion of a humanoid was revealed in the scout from the garrison at Blackwall, when he was overcome by their plague-like illness that caused a rampage in the basement, nearly infecting Etona’s aunt Verdre.  We have managed to obtain a single inactive green worm from Filge’s, the necromancer’s, library which was in the abandoned observatory in Diamond Lake.  Filge has since left, at our not-so-gentle urging, but the worm has been with Allustan all the while.  A second worm sample came from the egg hatchery of the lizardmen, a whitish version of the green one, similar though.  Our plan will be to give both worms to Elgios to study.Though I hold no grudge to Allustan, I know he was untrue to me when my sister fell under the spell of the deathly sleep in the Whispering Cairn.  She was certainly alive still at the time I asked him to search for her, but he could not pinpoint her location and could not, with a good conscience, send me to find her and risk another life.  Yet, I have to wonder.  Maybe I could have found her and, at least slept at night, or slept eternally by her side when I did find her.  Diamond Lake can never be home without what has been taken from it.That thought brings me to my next quandary, I sought arcane power in Greyhawk when I could not obtain it through natural talents under Allustan, and sought it to find my sister.  Surely wizardry was my best hope, but I haven’t the mind for memorization, and as I watched Mel in the Mistmarsh, I saw that she wielded divine magic without much thought or preparation.  In my case, I am ashamed to admit, I ran out of money and means in The Free City before I found power or answers.  I was desperate then, but now I have my answers about dear Layla, my sister.  Yet there is a debt to pay for my powers.  I made a pact with the Asmadai, a group of warlocks who serve Asmodeous, a devil of the Nine Hells.  Clearly, the pact was wrought with complicated magics that granted me my sorcerous power, but the reward came at a price.  I promised to give whatever I found in the Whispering Cairn, should I be successful, to the Asmadai to repay the debt of introducing me to my power.  I now, no longer need my powers, but I must fulfill my debt at some point.  You will see why I mention this story soon.My hope is that I can avoid giving up all the treasure, under a small technicality.  You see, Etona was present when we opened Zosiel’s, the Wind Duke’s, Sarcophagus.  She technically found half the treasure, and I found half as well.  I hope I only have to give up half, and I am more likely to hand over the mysterious circlet than the rod that housed the orb of annihilation.  However, the plot thickens.My dear companions have been gone for almost a week now, traveling to visit a young blue dragon, a former mentor of Rey.  I have remained in Diamond Lake to study with Allustan.  Last evening, a familiar face came into town, one of the Asmadai from Greyhawk was waiting for me at the Spinning Giant.  I had hoped to never see them again, but I knew the day might come.  All would be simple if not for my recent research.I have been studying what Allustan has in his library, and it would seem that the Wind Dukes are not entirely gone, and perhaps one remains here on Greyhawk, though without the title of Wind Duke.  An intermediate deity, called Volgan, a god of Wind and Storms has served the human races on Greyhawk for a great many years.  This deity may have been a Wind Duke of Aqa’a from ages past.  The most well-known deity of Wind and Storm is Quetzalcoatl, but his magics lie mostly with the tribes to the North, and he seems to be linked to the age or the primordial titans, whereas Volgan is newer.  At any rate, I have found references to Volgan rituals, and I think I can perform one at the Whispering Cairn.  The magics there likely would enhance the ritual.  I had planned to renounce my pact with the Asmadai and commit myself to serve Volgan in the next few days.  The catch, I need a sufficient sacrifice to prove my commitment.  As my sister died in the Duke’s burial cairn, and I swore to find answers to their ancient magics, I want to offer up the circlet from Zosiel’s Sarcophagus as an offering to beseech Volgan for Divine power.  However, I have to pay my debt to the Asmadai, and now they have come knocking.At first, I tried to avoid them, hoping my friends would arrive back in town to save me from the fiends, but my luck is bad as ever, and no help returned.  I met with one of the Master Asmadai’s minions who instructed me to hand over any treasure.  I tried to convince him that the magical club from the Mistmarsh was all that I had, but he didn’t fall for the deception.  I couldn’t raise my magic against him either.  My Pact would cause it to simply fizzle.  I was, once again, powerless.  At the risk of being destroyed at their hands, I agreed to lead them to the site of the hidden treasures.  I wish now that I had left them in the Cairn.  After quickly gathering my pack, we set out into the night to check the dry well near the abandoned mine shaft, the last place I saw the treasures.  The Master Asmadai and his two minions were quick to move, and they only appeared once we were of clear of the main town.  Secrecy is the key to their success, no names, just Master and Servant, but I recognized all three of them from the Free City.  We plodded along with the three of them following me.  Perhaps Volgan will accept the hideous magical club from the lizardmen as a sacrifice, though I would much rather give the circlet.  Hopefully, they leave me alone once they have what they came to retrieve.</blockquote>

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