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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 581476" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chinese Take-outChapter 75, “Morgath’s Journal”, September 28, 1018, 12:30 P.M.    Barthrock again asks about the location of Morgarth's Journal.   Cassie says that she has it in the Bag of Holding, but that they haven't opened it yet because it is covered with magical protection glyphs.    Barthrock replies "You don't have to worry about those, the glyphs on it are fake, they were just painted on with magical paint.  We've already deactivated the real glyphs that Morgarth put on there."  "Lets read it" Fiona states.   Cassie carefully removes the tome from the bag, opens the cover, and begins to read.   The members of the Silver Moon gather around behind her, reading over her shoulder.   The journal begins as follows:   “September 21st of the Year 1018 .  It is with no small amount of trepidation that I have reluctantly decided, upon the advice of my new team of bodyguards, to commit my personal thoughts and plans to writing.”   He then prattles on for several paragraphs, most of which concerns his distrust of most of his current companions.   The next section begins “How fortunate am I to have been blessed with he insight to connect the work of idealistic but fool-hearty geniuses.  Between the writings of Derieki, the shortsighted but brilliant efforts of Li-Tak, and the warped but technologically savvy efforts of my late associate Vaughn, I now have world domination within reach.”   He then praises the Prince of Hell for granting him enlightenment and perspective.  He then talks of the linkage between wizard and earth magic, writing “That crystals and precious stones were used for spell components seemed second nature to all, so why it took several millennia to make the connection of magic to the earth itself is unclear.   Similarly, the druids and nature-clerics of the world knew of the magical powers of the earth, but never deduced that there was a linked association to areas also susceptible to strong Wizard Magic.  Elementalologist mages came closest to the truth, but like the others, lacked the imagination to grasp the full forces available to them.”He then writes of using geological mapping technology belonging to his associate Vaughn to identify twenty-three separate location on the world with very high concentrations of “both earth and wizard magic”.  He wrote “Not surprisingly, powerful mages, high-level druids, nature-based high priests, or combinations of the three inhabited most of the other locations.  These spell casters were there because of the magic potential, even though they had no idea why they were actually drawn to these places.”     He then references how he began investigating these different locations.  It was there that he made associations with three other high-level spellcasters, the cleric Roger, wizard Etronne and druid Spring.  Next he references the attack on his Phlooredah fortress three years ago by Oterel and the Silver Moon, where he was forced to flee the continent.  Morgarth states that this proved to be beneficial in the long-run, as it led him to the writings of Li-Tak.  He states that Li-Tak was “an absolute genius, being the first to actually make full use of the theory of magical convergence of energies of both wizard and earth magic, using powerful magic artifacts, to draw the full energies from below and project them outward.”  It then describes in detail the anti-magic sphere, concluding that “Li-Tak  did this great thing, for the misguided goal of protecting the disgusting human-animal hybrids that he had made!”  Next Morgarth talks about the Hengeyokai.  He states that “These animals have been only a minor nuisance to me.  With Spring’s assistance, we convinced these primitive creatures that I am a powerful deity, to keep them from this castle.  Being a Druid, Spring had some curiosity about these creatures, and we captured fourteen of them for him to examine.   We later used these, plus some of Li-Tak’s immediate offspring who we found in a form of sleep-stasis and released, for menial tasks around the castle.  Why Li-Tak wasted his gifts on these creatures is beyond me.  They have been adequate servants, but hardly worthy of the time and efforts that he devoted to them.  So as not to waste our time having to keep an eye on vast numbers of these animals-hybrids who live beyond the castle itself I brought in bugbears to guard the outer perimeter.”  He references that he still has not located Li-Tak’s primary journal about the sphere, but found enough information from Li-Tak’s notes to figure out how to move the sphere to any of the other twenty-two  locations with similar concentrations of Earth and Wizard magic.  He and his three allies then brainstormed about the possibility of changing the sphere’s spell to something other than anti-magic, suggesting ideas such as sleep or charm.   They also postulated the idea that if they could deduce how to create similar spheres on each of the six main continents, and then expand the size of each sphere, they could encapsulate the entire planet.  It was decided that they work towards this master plan, which meant that they needed to first establish the infrastructure of having a foothold at a convergence point on each continent.   They already had this location in the Orient, and were soon able to establish strongholds on the two other continents where Roger and Etronne had each originally come from.  Morgarth decided that Silver Moon Island would be the best convergence point of the three possible location on the Phlooredah continent, but would have to wait until he had the resources necessary to defeat “Narg’s Team”.  In the meanwhile, he sent two of the controlled Hengeyokai to infiltrate and spy on the Silver Moon.   A possible convergence point on a fifth continent was the Forest Dawn Kingdom.   The Ambassador of that land was a traveling mage named Hendry.   Morgarth then logs in detail how he had the Prince of Hell capture and destroy Hendry’s wife, a lawful good high priestess.   Morgarth then befriended the distraught man, tricking Hendry into then working for him.   The journal then states how the best location on the final continent was a place known as True Point Island, ruled by a powerful good-aligned Elementalist Mage   True Point was allied with its neighboring Kingdom of Vestland, which was at war with the nearby Kingdom of Ostland.   Morgarth discovered that the Silver Moon had twice intervened in the war on Vestland’s behalf, resulting in Ostland’s only two recent setbacks to winning.  Morgarth approached the Ostland King about an alliance.  The King offered Morgarth troops and funding to defeat the Silver Moon and agreed to give the Arch-Mage True Point Island following the war.   The next part of the journal details all of the events of the “Retake the Island” module from Morgarth’s perspective.   It mentions his great disappointment that the Silver Moon won, especially since it cost Morgarth the lives of his key advisors Etronne and Spring.   However, he writes that “while the attack itself failed I am encouraged by the successful test of moving the sphere and of sustaining it for five days at the alternative location.”   He then mentions that he cannot do this again until he finds another high-level druid, as the spells to initiate the transference require the simultaneous casting of powerful druid and magic-user spells.  He also states that he is “starting to loose control over the captured animal creatures, as it was Spring who had bound them to my will.  With the druid gone they are now exhibiting some degree of free will.  If this continues I will have to have them killed.” The journal concludes by praising Barthrock's team, stating that they “have proven to be excellent bodyguards, intelligent and constantly on alert.  I am grateful that this team won the competition.  I should have realized after this team had successfully captured both Cassie-Andra and Mark during the initial assault on the island that they were a force to be reckoned with, and not merely fodder.” The party finds much of this information very interesting, as it explains most of what had occurred. Several of the party take offense at the journal’s constant reference to the Silver Moon as “Narg's Team”.    Serita says "Yeah, we've got to get us a better publicist".</blockquote>

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