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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1784797" data-attributes="member: 1210">Farenth's Journals, pt IWhat follows is a partial transcriptions of an old journal alleged to be that of Farenth, the so-called Black Son of Bleak.  These journals were found sometime in the early third century O.L.G. in the ruins on Forinthia, and were studied extensively by a team of scholars under the leadership of Thimbleton, a gnomish illusionist and scholar of note.A note from the translator: This journal was in terrible shape when it was recovered and it has resisted all efforts to restore it to its original, undamaged state.  Thus, there are sections missing, both in terms of areas of pages and possibly in terms of pages themselves.  Also, in translating the language used almost half a millennium ago, one must realize that many subtleties have been lost and not all terms will translate directly.  Many of Farenth’s more colorful curses, for instance, would have little impact in our modern world.  Nonetheless, without further ado- Farenth’s Journal.4/18/95 O.L.G.A few days ago I hired on to a vessel called the Sea Hag.  I have been directionless for far too long, ever since I found that damn book.  I must become active again, lest I go mad from the voices I now hear.  We are planning on establishing a hideout on Yafall.  How ironic... the captain of the Sea Hag is this little arrogant gnome named Malfourd.  His crew includes a Forinthian pagan named Lyr.  The bitch offends me, with her constant “I th.. text burnt away I’m clever” attitude.  I would like to see her off the ship, at the least.  Th burnt is also a young man named Gallagher who preaches the virtues of Bleak... if burnt he knew.4/19/95Amazing what can happen in such a short time!  We saw and investiga burnt ship manned by skeletons and commanded (?) by a skeletal warrior of burnt It vanished in the end, leaving me to speculate that Lake Yafall may burnt gate within its waters.  I wonder if we could find it, use it, perh burnt far away...?  I wonder, too, why I have yet to offer my knowle burnt captain.  I think I shall wait, but I can’t quite pin down why.  Hm burnt I simply pay too much attention to the voices within.4/25/95We have begun the preliminary work necessary to establishing burnt operation.  I suspect that we shall be kept quite busy for the nex... burnt or months.  I have learned a lot about my companions.  I like few burnt amount.Note: From here on in the burn damage is more excessive, and shall be noted with an ellipse (...).5/1/95 Began work on Gallagh... to... Damn it, I feel more akin to him every day!  I do not...5/3/95That bitch Lyr... crew today, upbraiding me for she called m... te and the officers of the crew” and promise... out either someone to watch me or the... Bitch.5/4/95...but I have become bitter.  Damn that book...Thing... rk to be done, and then our base will be des... high seas.  What fun- loot, ravage and des... of innocents.  Damn this life!6/15...Lots of work to be done. The voices will not go away.  I want to cry.  Sometimes it makes me... I don’t know.  I do know that I act as if I were already a servant of darkness as often as not.  I know that bitterness and anger and hate fill my soul as if it were a cup of wine and I could not stop drinking from it. The bitch Lyr and I continue to have what Captain Malfourd refers to as a “personality conflict.”  I begin to dislike the smug little gnome, as well.I see from my earlier entries that I have avoided, until now, talking about Dexter.  He is a convert to the Light, oddly enough in this hive of Bleak worship and paganism.  Apparently an old friend of many of the crew, he and Galligher seem to be constantly at each others’ throats.  Perhaps they will kill each other.I wish the voices would stop.6/22/95I found a very interesting thing this afternoon down by the lakeshore: a... that appears to be magical.  I would show it to the others if not for the ... that I will NOT surrender it under any circumstances.  It is MINE.7/18/95We have begun clearing the wilderness around the hideout.  Started construct... a pagan temple for the bitch Lyr as well.I hate them all.  The voices have told me so much, and the more time passes the more I begin to surrender myself to them.  I cannot help it.  I am so tired of resisting them all the time.  I am no longer the Farenth Whiteshield who once desired paladinhood so strongly, so long ago.  No more am I in the Light, of the Light, for the Light...Oh father, how far I fall.8/1/95The temple to Bleak is done.  I went in to try to make friends with Gallagher- or at least an ally- but found myself scoffing, laughing at his would-be services.  The fool knows nothing.The voices have been urging me to take his temple over, perform the right services, glorify Bleak as he deserves.  If it were only so easy... and yet, that is not what I really want.  Is it?  I am no longer very sure of what I want, or even of who I am...8/28/95I cried all night last night, for I surrendered to the voices at last.  But now I understand so much better.  I was simply holding back my destiny for all this time.First Gallagher, Lyr and Dexter; the rest shall follow.9/1/95Last night I had a dream.  Dexter...whom I have mentioned previously in pa... saw him somehow restoring me to the man I... it, but the dream had something of the ring o... much on it, for I have no hope of it coming tr... open my soul to him and I know that something w... ever happening, God!  And every day that part of m... ot even resist it anymore.9/2/95Another dream of Dexter.  I saw him in a great hand, and he was lifted to a... mouth and devoured.  It was only then that I realized that the hand, the mout... were mine.  As I consumed him body and soul I came to realize that I too was he... in the grip of a hand, this one even larger than mine (the distortion of t... physical form being very common in dreams), and then that the hand was connected to a form that glowed with such brilliance and light that I knew it must be Galador Himself.  I quailed at His presence, and found myself propelled towards His mouth.  He destroyed me, sending me to darkness.I take this dream to be a sign of my damnation.  I believe Galador sent it to me to tell me that all my old aspirations are not to be, that I am beyond redemption.  I woke weeping bitterly; I fear that Bilbo, the cook (a halfling), may have heard me.  He is a quiet and inoffensive creature, devoted (to a great extent) to that bitch Lyr.  I do not want my weaknesses exposed; and yet I am loathe to act against such a malleable individual.  Who knows; maybe someday I will have use of him. 9/17/95The indignities some of us must undergo!Paris (one of the crew, an archer of impressive skill) and I were on a routine patrol when I was caught in a snare.  The archer chuckled and guffawed for a good twenty minutes before shooting the line and dumping me on the ground.  I do not think that I like him very much, or that he likes me.The snare was primitive, probably goblin or wild gnome.  (If there are wild gnomes on Yafall; I think their culture might be confined wholly to Gorel.)9/29/95That bitch Lyr today put out a reward for apes.  Imagine that.  I asked her what she wanted them for and she said she was going to eat their hearts.  Hmph!  And they call Bleak worshipers barbaric.10/21/95We finally finished all the construction we’ve been working on for the last six months late last night.  Now the officers are going on leave.  Bastards... Oh well.  I have a feeling... doing all I can to make friends wi... ion of the bitch.10/23/95Bilbo will not be subverted... ve enough time I think I can at least set hi... poison in the food delivered to Gallagher?11/14/95They’re gone again, and I’m coninu... ve also begun to fear the power of the ship’s ta... r name is Chanti; I recently saw her in comba... r her if I should move openly against Gallag... Bleak, and if he should suffer some sort of... ould be relatively easy to turn her to my service. It was not so long ago that I... have changed.11/20/95How eagerly I await the return... ain and officers!I believe that Bilbo is mine.  I... persuaded him (mostly through fear... to poison Gallager.  I told him that I had evidence that Gallagher is plotting against both Malfourd and Lyr.  The halfling is a fool.  However, if he can slip the poison in the wine (or wherever) than he is a fool that I am happy to be acquainted with.11/29/95Still waiting, and now word.  Could something have gone wrong?  Perhaps they are not to return...I fear Bilbo may lose his nerve.  He knows too much at this point.  I would have to kill him.WHAT AM I DOING????  WHAT HAVE I BECOME???  I must stop these things, tell Bilbo-Tell him what?11/30/95Of course I let things remain as they were.  What can I do now?  It is too late.  If I were to tell Bilbo not to do it he would be suspicious and my options would be discovery or murder.  If I were discovered it would mean the death of me (after all, these people ARE pirates.)  That is therefore not an option.  Murder- or murder.How have I come to this?12/4/95I do not know...They still are not back.  Perhaps they have encountered trouble?12/18/95Still no Sea Hag.  Perhaps I will not have to choose.1/2/96I fear I am undone.  The Sea Hag is no more, nor are Dexter, Gallagher, or Malfourd with us any longer.  Apparently Dex and Malfourd attacked and killed Gallagher.  Worse still; Lyr is the new captain of the ship, and I am almost sure that Bilbo either has or soon shall tell... y plan.2/17/96 So.  This is how my term aboard shi... ll you,” the bitch said, “for you acted to save yo... ot sail with a poisoner... You will be put off...At least it will be Pesh.3/11/96 Today I said farewell to my com... (But can I really blame anyone but myself?)Next Time: This brings us to the point at which Farenth was put off the boat.  What will follow will be his journal entries up to the current point in the story hour and a little beyond... the spark that will begin Farenth’s game.  DM’s Note: I’m actually transcribing this journal from a prop I made for a much later group of pcs, so all the ‘burnt’ stuff is actually burnt away on my copy.  Alas, this was done on an old 286 almost a decade ago, and it’s crammed away in an attic hundreds of miles away, so there’s no hope at all of simply copy & pasting or anything- it’s peer past the browning of time and the blackening of artfully-applied flame to transcribe what I can, but it sure is interesting to throw a perspective in here that didn’t exist until years after the fact...</blockquote>

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