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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TerraDave" data-source="post: 5473048" data-attributes="member: 22260">A book yet unamedMalachai and Nar-Heru: The Tome is an odd one. Clearly cobbled together from various books and manuscripts—not an unknown practice by itself—it has the journals of Simon Amber (a cousin of that infamous family?) mixed in with more standard rituals and much that, at this point, is barely comprehensible. From what Bart said (and Lucian could verify, if he clawed that far back into his memory) is that the he first found the book beneath an old crumbling keep in the Nearblight. Beneath the keep was a bizarre cathedral to undeath, and the book was being used by a cultist of Orcus to make in a rift in the firmament between Thraeya and the Land of the Dead. You think Amber wrote the journal some decades back. Below are various bits of the journals that are comprehensible and seem relevant: “Perhaps the most famous tomb outside of the ruins of Ta’Khem, in the Shadow Coast!...Built even as the dwarves still ruled, a testament to the degree of their decadence—or perhaps the untamable nature of those lands—and the deadly foresight of its creator. For of course the region would become a wilderness that would rival the Blight and perhaps be even less accessible.”“Five centuries ago, a philosopher turned malicious sorcerer king in the waning days of Illumaria’s might [a reference to the last great empire]. His real name was carefully removed from all records and shielded from practically all divination. This acolyte of Vecna, just as that other lich’s cult was rising, would seek his own path to undeath that would rival his master. He is known to us as Acererak.”“We took the old North Road. In bad repair, but passable. After about 15 days (it would have been less had we approached this with more focus), we came to the statue, or part of a statue, of a great dwarven head. My own notes seemed to indicate that this was key clue, and with much searching we found the trail, barely a path, east.”“The signs of the old dwarven settlements are found here and there. We made the mistake of exploring some. Too much time taken, and the first lives lost….”“Trust nothing here! The savagery was too great for the Old Kingdom of the dwarves, and is to great now. Also, beware the elves. One snow clan was helpful, but others had degenerated badly [unreadable]”“We climbed high into hills, and then, barely visible through the mists, was the face! But first, into a swampy valley did we have to travel. There was an opening to some old settlement nearby. This we avoided.”“The entrance to the place is well concealed, and takes digging! In any case, its in the middle of the hill, or should I say below the middle of the ‘face’” “From the entrance on, the duplicity and trickery here is astounding! One deadly choice and trick after another. I will attempt to take careful notes of what I find.”The two wizards who may be reading this realize that large parts have in fact been blackened out. The nature of the damage is unclear.</blockquote>

Verification