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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1793810" data-attributes="member: 1210">Continuing the journal of Farenth Whiteshield...3/13/96 O.L.G.Well.  Isn’t Pesh a pleasant land? ...nough to make me sick.   The people all try to make friends with you; positively smothering.  All these gaudy scarves and veils, and of course all the famous Peshan perfumes... This whole island stinks of them.  It smells like unwashed body odor mixed with vinegar and honey.  Cloying and sticky; that is the best way to describe Pesh.  And to think that I used to dream of visiting this hell hole!Sigh.  Except that it isn’t really that bad; I’m just bitter.  I want to kill them all for doing this to me!  Or am I passing the blame so I don’t have to own up to my mistakes?  Damn it, my plan would have worked!  If Dexter and Malfourd hadn’t slain Gallagher it never would have come out at all!3/15/96I’ve been staying at this inn called the Inn of the Traveler’s Spices since my arrival here at Pesh City last week.  Today the local authorities came and asked me many uncomfortable questions.  I fear that someone tipped them off to my little experience with piracy (with my dear shipmates from the Twikwakikikak).  They left me with a stern warning that they will be watching me.Dammit, I have to leave this city quickly, before anything happens to get me in trouble with the authorities.  I do not want any problems.  I just want to settle down for a while and collect my thoughts.  I just want to have time to figure out who I am.  I don’t know anymore.3/19/96Got a job today.  I gut fish.  It is a smelly, slimy, stinking hellpit of a job.Damn them all anyway!  If I ever run into any of them again I swear I will kill them!No... no.  Better to let bygones be bygones.  Hard though that may be, holding a grudge will only worsen things.  I just need some time alone somewhere isolated- maybe Aerisa, maybe Gorel again.4/2/96Why me?The local constable came to see me while I... work... and questioned me at length concerning a robbery that ha... near here.  I knew nothing of it, of course; still... out to haul me off.  Thank the sea that I had a ...th the ship I gut fish on.)  He seemed relative... played for a fool or used as a scapegoat.4/15/96I’ve turned the 55 gold piece... ka (worth about 130 gp at current rat... st have to work another five days, unti...4/17/96I left, but not as planned.  I am on board the ship Ancient ... ishing vessel I gut on.  I just finished dumping the bodies over...What have I done?The constable came while we were at the docks, to arrest me for crimes I did not commit.  I tried to talk to him, to make him listen, but he wouldn’t.  Obviously, he died.  So did my employer and all his crew (save myself, of course).  It was mostly a family vessel: mom, dad, and four children, one of them too young to work.  But still present.And over the side.I am a murderer of children, now.  Children too young to fight back with any hope of success.It all goes back to the piracy, doesn’t it?  It’s all their fault.I am without direction now.  I do not know what to do.  I (obviously) must flee Pesh, most of my possessions left behind.  Of course, I now own a fishing vessel, but it will not take me far or fast.  However, perhaps it will fetch me enough money to run out on.  I think I will try to sell it when I reach Khelm. 4/29/96My old ship sold remarkably quickly, but then I was asking an almost obscenely low amount.  The question remains, what now?  I am certain the Peshan authorities are seeking me now, even as I write.  I must flee, but my options are limited in the extreme.  I have heard, however, that there is a land devoted to Bleak somewhere to the east.  It is called Strogass.  Perhaps I shall seek it.  (As good of a course as any, I suppose.)5/3/96Today I set out for this mythical “Strogass” on board a ship I hired.  The captain said that they will only take me part-way, but that they will then provide me with a boat to allow me to journey the rest of the way.  I wonder that something devoted to darkness could survive so close to Forinthia, but I suppose I shall see soon enough.7/15/96I sighted land today.  I have yet to reach it (it is evening) but anticipate that I shall by tomorrow noon.7/16/96Land ho!  The first I’ve stepped on in over two months!The first thing I saw as I approached was a great cliff face, running inland.  I would say that it is almost two ... high at the tip that extends into the sea.  It makes the waters around ... and dangerous, and so I had to travel somewhat north, to where the ... lower, in order to reach the shore in safety.No signs of cities as of yet- but then, I’ve only been here an hour and a half.7/17/96Sailing north along the coast.  I expect to see a city soon enough, assuming that this is in fact Strogass- or that it is inhabited.7/18/96No city yet, but I saw a warship today.  They stopped me and asked me who I was and suchlike.  I told them the truth, and they held me prisoner for a few hours, searched my ship, etc.  Then they told me many things: where to find a city nearby, that this is indeed Strogass, and that if I am lying they will find me and kill me.  To this effect they took a lock of my hair and my best shirt.  Then they sent me on...7/20/96Glorious- the ...e of the jagged mouth of the Salmon River.  ...I think I will ... some more formal training.7/21/96Today I suddenly rea... absolutely no idea what became of that Book I found... was it rea... ago?  Almost two and a half... I didn’t sell it or destroy it, and ...have it.  I guess that for a long time I just tried not to think about it, before I came to accept myself in darkness.  I sought out a temple, but much to my chagrin they did not know the proper rituals any more than Gallagher did!  I think that it is I who have much to teach them, not the other way around.7/24/96I went to that temple again today to offer them my superior knowledge.  They laughed at me until I killed their high priest.  I do not quite know how it happened- anger welled up in me and he fell dead at my feet.  I suppose it must have been the power of the darkness within me- TRUE darkness.  After savoring the pleasures the temple had to offer and beginning to teach my new underlings the true way of things, I spent a few hours in repose and meditation.  I realized that I have much to thank my old shipmates for, because without them I would never have heard of this wonderfully dark place.  They were headed here when they dropped me off.  I wonder what happened to them?  I must find out.They hate runs strong in me for them, all of them.  Perhaps...A plan begins to form.Chanti, especially, would be easy to use.  After all, she is a Bleak worshipper whose master was slain by two of ...emies.  I wonder if I could set them against one another?  Chanti was ...e of the Twikwakikikak at the time of my ejection.  She must have a ... of pull with Lyr.  Hmmm....7/25/96 O.L.G.To pull it off I need to:--Find the Twikwakikikak--Find Dexter and Malfourd--Lure Chanti and Lyr into attacking Dexter and Malfourd--Bait a trap for Dexter and MalfourdIf they reached Strogass I should be able to find the ship with minimal effort, as long as they were in a major port.  I must at least find their tracks.I must plan.7/29/96I began sending my new l... today.  One of my underpriests knows a wizard of some ... us with divinations.  He must travel about a ...lly this wizard will respond to my pol... end of next month.  Regardless, I’ve oth...exter and Malfourd.  My ecclesiastical com...ikak (again assuming it ever made it to po...I need more informa...re I can plan anything to any real extent.8/1/96I reread all the entries I have made in here since I joined the Sea Had so long ago this morning and the extent to which I have sunken sickens me.  I was once so full of virtue that I was nearly a paladin.  Now I am a twisted mockery of my former self, a mockery of all that I aspired to be.  The Book.  I do not think that anything I do can save me now and so I say: Cast it to the sea and let it swallow me up.  Let me be the way I am.  I am beyond redemption, a murderer of children, a worshiper of Bleak, an agent of darkness, vengeful, vindictive, evil, unrepentant.  Except that I DO feel remorse!I wish I had a way to expunge my sins, but they stain me too deeply on my soul.  I am forever lost.8/19/96The wizard Besphem attends me now. ...te impressive, but he had no choice but to aid me; after all, who on Str... would defy the Church of Bleak?Ha.I wish I could still laugh.Besphem said that he has a crystal ball, and that with the help of some of Dexter or Malfourd’s personal effects he can scry them out.  Good, I have a few of Dexter’s things, still- not much, but a few things he brought on board with him that remained when he and Malfourd fled.  With these I will sow the seeds of his destruction- his and Lyr’s and M...  Especially Lyr’s.8/20/96Besphem left today to fetch hi... his tower.  I wonder if I can use him to aid me in other ways as well...8/30/96Well well...Apparently my old mates reached Bratamond (a city south and east) over two months ago and are questing for some sort of device to protect them from Dexter’s psionic powers.  They already seek him!  Better still!  Now I have dispatched word to Bratamond that they are to be aided but subtly delayed until I am ready.  I lied to the Archpriest of the province that Bratamond lies in, saying that I am baiting a trap (true) to aid them in destroying Dexter (false).9/7/96I dreamed of Dexter again last night.  He look... He was everything I wanted to be.  He was with ...nd spoke w.....of God.  And I looked like him, and was everthi.....anted to ... opposition to all that is good.  I have begun to wonde... are se... some entity- whether Bleak or a wizard,  or... Boo,, I d.....w.Next Time: That's as far as I can go with Farenth's Journal without spoilers, so we'll be gettin' back to Dexter and co.....</blockquote>

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