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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(contact)" data-source="post: 926708" data-attributes="member: 41">Great Delve 9Eleint the 6th(Written in a more steady High Elvish)Aree pens these words.  I have been given the task of continuing this “Monstrologist’s Log”.  But before you make any further false assumptions, Ashnern, I intend to keep no record of anything that does not stir my own interest.  Make of that what you will.I will not attempt to clarify past events from the previously maudlin and short-sighted entries.  Eyewitnesses are dying at an accelerated rate, so interview them while you still can is my best advice.Eleint the 6thWe have been threatened by an individual claiming to be the high priest of Moradin.  Not a mind you, but the.  He tells us that Kor’En Eamor is taboo—the most proscribed place in Faerun.  None are to set foot within it, especially dwarves.He was waiting for us at the entrance into the Great Highway as we exited the place, and I think his speech was prepared.  Since we have already broken the taboo, we are now charged by him with keeping other dwarves out.  I can only assume he refers to the dwarves of Vesper hall, who march on Cormyr.Eleint the 6thThe Halls of the Earth and Grain are where we lost ‘Fernal.  He was ravaged and eaten by a half-dozen gnoll lycanthropes in full view of that drow.The Lord Ilthais gave us one of his retainers in response, a warrior named Shel, whom I suppose he believed was cleverly disguised as just another adventurer.  Fortunately, the gnolls killed her before she could betray us to him.  We killed the gnolls in return, a fair exchange, in my opinion.In the halls of Earth and Grain, the drow discovered the former home of this Alvodar Cursebreaker.  He is survived by his own writing, found in a hidden chapel to Moradin:Great Father I have failed you.  I have forsaken you for your wonders.  Once your scion, now I am lost.A fallen priest comes as no surprise in these cursed halls, but there is one true wonder in the Halls of Earth and Grain.  A portal exiting the hall leads to another land entirely.  It is my opinion that it is the Prime Material plane, but not Faerun.  I have chosen not to explore the world beyond the portal.However, I do not need my eyes’ own evidence to deduce that it must be the homeland of the fallen king-priest Alvodar.  His writing and his work are here, along with a throne room, more recently appointed than the rest of the place.  Apparently he did not break the curse of Kor’En Eamor, despite his name.  If you will refer to the passages detailing the trading venture established by the spinagon Baatezu, and the goods found therein, you will realize that my postulates are proving themselves correct by the moment, Ashnern.  Surrender your pig-headed contention to the contrary, I beg you, before you humiliate yourself any further in futile argument.The drow met a human wizardess while scuttling around the Halls of Earth and Grain, and this woman claims to be from the other side of the portal, a land she calls Isk.She has given her name as T’sdeal, and seems a refreshingly educated woman, once one gets past her foreign accent and stilted diction.  The drow terrifies her of course, and it is as if a second sane point of view were suddenly inserted into an ongoing and terrible nightmare.  I daresay I will like her, given time.Eleint the 7thIt is exactly as I have told you, Ashnern, this place is a nexus of portals leading to who knows how many worlds.  Let me note for you the writing upon an artifact we have determined belonged to this Alvodar Cursebreaker.  This is my translation from the Auld Dwarvish, of course.  The Song of Ceridain:Like a great vein of ironmy roots reach deepI touch a thousand worldsThe Throne to All DwarvenkindI am their ore, life, their refugeOf the fabric of the universeby the Great Father’s hand My halls teem with works so greatAll other gods weep with envyKor’En EamorNote that I do not translate Kor’En Eamor as “First Home” but as “Throne to all Dwarvenkind”.  That is a poetic rendering of the literal “Direction toward which all bow”.  Obviously, they do not mean “all beings” when they say “all”, but rather “all dwarves”.  However, they use the inclusive “Ŝ”-rune, indicating that the subject is the whole of the idea, rather than a specific group.  You can argue if you wish, but my translation is flawless.Thus, we have the First Home of the dwarves, existing simultaneously as a metaphysical idea, a religious metaphor, and a physical gateway to every place that dwarves reside.  This tri-part existence forms the crux of my argument, Ashnern, and I refer you once again to the Liven Chroncicles, which you have so passively dismissed.Further, note that in the original passage, the Throne of All Dwarvenkind is given the personal rune “I”—in the sense of a being, which is a break from the Dwarven tradition of anthropomorphizing works of craft in their poetry, if I am not mistaken.  I will leave it to you to decide if that is relevant, or simply an affectation.  I have a hard time believing that a place can be a being, despite the scribblings of a long-dead poet.I am preparing to give this journal to our new companion T’sdeal, for her study, and I am sure you will find that your weak contentions will now be doubly opposed.Undated entryThe seal of Lord Ilthais Truesilver is stamped over the seal of Storm’s Rise.  A scribe’s practiced hand notes:  “Trnscrbd in entrty, Elient 8, DR 1372 ”Eleint the 9thSelise is justifiably angry with T’sdeal for passing this journal into the hands of Lord Truesilver, but there is little he can do to us, as we are currently under charter from none other than the Steel Regent herself.Tomorrow we are back into the mines, and I will dutifully hunt for what you seek.Elient the 10thIn searching for another way to find the elevator Fernal noted earlier (and the flank of the Kuo-Toan and orcish forces he neglected to mention), we discovered a chamber marked as the Room of Golden Writing.  It seems to be a storehouse for historical lore.  Right now, the group is agitated and desires to get back at the Kuo-Toans.  That drow in particular hates them for what she claims to have suffered at the hands of others like them, but you know what I think of her stories already.Elient the 13thKor’En Eamor is a delicate tightrope act masquerading as a bludgeoning tool.Do you recall the gargoyles that we destroyed on the level above?  They were in an alliance with a band of orcs, led by a powerful outworlder fighter.  His group had previously been part of a second orcish band, which includes the majority of their elites, and is now led by an outworlder wizard, his former boon companion.  At one time they were one larger group, although kept in slavery by the Kuo-Toans.Several years ago, they rebelled against the Kuo-Toans, and shortly thereafter became masters of the level above.  Some time recently, however, the outworlders had a falling out, and split their band into two factions, and the subsequent fighting quickly settled into a détente.  The warrior allied with the gargoyles, but the wizard had the elites.The gargoyles were immune to the elites’ weapons and neutralized their advantage, but were not enough in and of themselves to grant their group victory.  And so it remained for several years an uneasy peace.Then we came along and killed the gargoyles, which disrupted their standoff.  The wizard’s group responded by attacking, defeating and assimilating the other group, and then were able to finish their revenge upon the Kuo-Toans, who were weakened from our own previous raid against them.By the time we arrived, all the Kuo-Toans were dead, the orcish forces greatly reduced, and the remainder unable to resist us.  Frankly, we could not have played it better than we did in our own total ignorance.The wizard and his former companion hailed from a world they called Pentak Seline, which means “Dancing Under the Moon”.  They were heavily tattooed and made easy use of magic, as do T’sdeal’s people.  The wizard was a wand-crafter, and had trained several of his filthy orcs to use them.We’ve slain the wizard, and intend to go back in the morning to finish the remaining orcs.  What I have related of their recent history we learned from the diary of the warrior outworlder, which we captured today.  Eleint the 23rdNow here’s something for you Ashnern—the wizard also kept meticulous writings, and it was his belief that the Kuo-Toans who were masters of the place when he arrived were themselves previously subjugated by illithidi.The drow asserts that the mind-flayers still hold the lower reaches of Kor’En Eamor and were her captors.  She states that she reserves the better part of her hate for them, and whether this is her suicidal bent emerging or simply good sense I deem not to care.This place has been a fertile ground for conquest.  Apparently, over the millennia, uncountable groups have found their way here through the portals, and all have discovered that like most prizes, Kor’En Eamor is easier to seize than it is to hold.  Note this: No beings can reproduce here.  They enter as fertile as the day they were born, but once ensconced, they neither grow old nor do they breed.  Food is plentiful, as is the treasure of dwarven past, and warfare is the norm.  Over time, each force is whittled away until it is finally replaced by another group.We seem to be the latest manifestation of this unnatural natural order.Are you aware, Ashnern, of any force that can upend nature so?  I am not, save for the will of the gods.  You agree, I am sure, that we have determined an aspect of Moradin’s greater curse upon this place.  Perhaps a return to the Room of Golden Writing will reveal more.At any rate, I shall see you soon, for we are off to Storm’s Rise in the morning.  Selise is gravely worried about her Lady Tess, and I think she is near to abandoning Kor’En Eamor altogether in favor of a political quest.  So be it, I am myself longing for some other life.  I think that I have repaid my debt to my rescuers, and hope to soon return to my home.  We will converse more on the morrow.  May I find you well.</blockquote>

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