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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jeremy" data-source="post: 261093" data-attributes="member: 4036">12th day of Chillwind    Good morning, Journal.  I’m afraid I could not write to you yester eve.  I was in a coma.  As to the events leading up to this, all will be explained.  I must be swift in my writing –Fredrick is praying and when he finishes, we will set off into the blackness once more.  Though it is of note that I think we have been scryed again.    Not long after I set you into my pack two nights ago, we were set upon by corrupted earth elementals.  To my surprise, they were also evil.  This would coincide with some of my studies which indicate that even the elemental lords can sway from their sturdy neutrality.  I have been reading a book from Taviel’s that seems to have been written by a close ally to the Daystorm.  He has written extensively on the nature of the planes and I have gleaned a great deal of knowledge from his observations.  If Tiztserak has somehow corrupted them himself, I will feel much more at ease.  If he has enlisted some evil elemental lords, I fear our quest may be in vain.    Either way, the elementals we faced were dispatched quickly, and we only lost our captured slave.  After resting, Fredrick destroyed the dungeon wall before us.  We could hear the creatures attempting to dig their way to us behind, but it would be some time before they managed to get through the hundred feet or so of muck.  Tylette linked our minds so that our voices would not carry in the large stony halls.  Sheeji scouted ahead and came back with a general layout of the area.  Many large, square rooms, linked by open doors, combined to form a maze of sorts.  In some of the rooms were minotaurs.  We decided the beasts could be effortlessly brought down and moved forward, Zerin at point.    To our surprise, battles with the minotaurs were not only short, but bloodless.  The creatures nearly soiled themselves at the sight of Zerin and after their mighty swings failed to even turn his cheek, they swiftly allowed us free passage.  Of note, we found a boulder rolled in front one of the doors.  The dragon man rolled it aside and we found behind it a small room with several chests.  A treasury of sorts, it seemed.      Moving on, we discovered stairs (or what passed for stairs, bumpy mudslides, more like, apparently the rot of the earth is not condusive to maintaining stairs against the pounding of troop movements) leading down.  At the bottom was a large cave with a cavern niche off to one side.  In this large niche was what appeared to be another command post.  We could have possibly skirted around the niche unseen, but we did not like the idea of leaving the creatures at our backs.  I chewed over an idea in my head and at last it came to be.      Sheeji created illusions of our group, armed and ready, which charged into their midst.  To my surprise, there seemed to be several dozen more of the creatures than I expected.  The slave-beasts, their drivers, and even a kennel of the infernal hounds.   The game already afoot, Sheeji drove our illusions near the command post and the creatures swarmed around like bees to spring flowers.  When an appropriate number were clumped together, I called forth one of the greatest powers of my Water Anchor, an Acid Fog.    Fredrick used the Earth Anchor to turn the ground below the creatures to sinking mud.  Combined, it was enough to bring them all down.  Every last creature was eaten alive by the acid.  A fitting way to go.  Wretched things.  There was nothing noteworthy in the command post so we moved on.    The cavern opened up into a natural geode bisected by a river.  Nothing special here either other than that the rot of the stone had allowed the running water to bite deep into the center of the cavern.    What happened next is still somewhat blurry for me.  The next chamber we came to had a very deep pit spanning the length of it.  A rope-and-plank bridge that needed over a dozen supports at each end to keep from pulling free of the muck led across the chasm.  We decided not to chance walking across and asked Zerin if he would be so kind as to give us a lift.  He was, and he did.  But we did not make it all the way across.  The dragon man had Tylette and I in his arms when our flight was suddenly halted by rope-thick, transparent strands.  Spider’s silk, I realized in horror.  I had a plan to counteract the strand’s sticking goo with some conjured grease.  But alas, to my further horror, a spider with a head as big as I am sprang from the darkness and bit down into my shoulder.  I could hear it snapping my bones.  Worse, my vision blurred and every muscle in my body turned over on itself.  I tried to retch but even my stomach rebelled against me.  The spider’s poison held me fast.      I tried to look on but even my eyes would not move.  I saw a great light, felt heat, and I then felt a great rush of wind a few times.  I could hear the struggle through my blood-filled ears, but could do nothing.  Moments later, I knew naught but darkness.    Tylette tells me of the goings-on after that.  Fredrick ended up on the bottom of the chasm with the entire mass of the spider atop him.  Zerin managed to kill the beast I think, thankfully.  Everyone survived, mostly intact.  They found another vault and bedded down there sealed inside to lick our wounds.  I don’t know exactly how long it has been since we entered Terraj’s Breath anymore, but I believe the date above to be correct.  I can surmise this by the length of Fredrick’s facial hair, the number of times we’ve slept, and the number of layers of caked muck on Zerin’s armor.  I will write again tonight journal.  Fredrick is finished and there is some kind of scratching outside our bouldered-in room.</blockquote>

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