Of Books and Bags
The Second Entry of the Personal Journal of Nowhere
It has been a strange few days. I have now seen things I never would have expected to be able to see. Great metal creatures flying in air, corpses with no will or mind of their own moving at the bidding of another. Assassins not part of my own temple. I know that part of the purpose of this quest was to experience the world as it is. To see what it is the Dark Lady desires of me, but I never imagined things like this. How could I? But, I am getting ahead of myself.
After we had a good rest, we continued our search or the pillars or Raven's Rook. We went back to the area with the observatory. We took a quick look through the university but didn't find much of interest. I did pick up a few books at the library. One on basic jewelry making and one on precious stones. I've been thinking of taking up the craft as a hobby. We continued on to where there seemed to be some warehouses. A search of the first one we came to reveled nothing but a large crudely built flying machine. Blank suggested it may be a starting design. There wasn't much else in that particular area, so we continued on to the other building. Upon approach, we both quickly noticed sounds of movement from within. We hoped to open the door carefully to be able to see what was inside, but the moment we opened the door an arrow came flying out of it. Blank suggested that we split up and take whatever was inside from two sides.
I made my way to another door at the back of the building and carefully looked inside. There were more strange creatures made of metal, but these could fly, and were very square. After some quick maneuvering, and carefully placed strikes we managed to clear the building of these creatures. Once that was accomplished we had a chance too look around the room. There seemed to be a work area with scraps of metal and tools, a cot and things that suggested this was where the wizard slept. Blank started making a careful inspection of the area, looking for the spell book. It seemed very luck to me, but he did find it. However, it was in a language he could not read, and was thus not much use for the time being. What was useful, was the simple bag Blank found, which turned out to be a Bag of Holding. From this success we left the warehouses. Blank wanted to go back to the observatory. I didn't understand why at the time, but he was determined. We went back, and he went straight for the corpse of Plex the wizard. Blank then used the staff somehow, and Plex...stood up...for a moment I thought that he had come back to life, but his expression was not one of an intelligent being. He was a mindless, undead corpse. I did not admit it to Blank, but this act of disregard for death made me uncomfortable. I passed it off as a disdain for the idea of having rotting corpse smell following us, but the truth is it ran deeper. Coming from a temple full of assassins who kill by divine command, and for money, I am one who holds the sanctity and finality of death very highly. Watching the corpse of a creature that I had killed myself rise again was deeply disturbing. When this happened, I asked Blank to let me take the staff for a while, or to put it away, but it seemed he still couldn't physically let it go.
We continued back to the main pillar, with the intention of leaving Ravens Rook, but we decided to examine the hospital first, to see if we might find some potions of healing. We did find a few, but we also found some distressing signs of other things. There were blood trails. Large amounts of bloody drag marks covered the floor of the hospital. We followed them through the building and out to the last, unexplored pillar of rock. We suspected there was some kind of hostile creatures around, so we prepared as best we could. When we came to the last pillar, once again there was one bridge across. All we could see at first was one figure, standing on the edge of a cluster of woods. It was not moving, and didn't seem to notice us. Quietly, I made my way across the bridge and went up to the creature. It stayed, unmoving, and stared ahead. After some investigation, I discovered that there were more figures in the trees. They did not seem to be hostile. Eventually we discovered that Blank could direct them with the staff. We guessed that these were the villagers that did not manage to escape, and we sent them to their final end. Mostly by sending them one by one over the edge of the pillar. Once this was accomplished, we thought it might be time to leave Raven's Rook and continue towards Mirabar, and collect our reward. Blank wished to bring Plex with us. I was not sure about the plan, but once again, Blank was determined. I went on down the ladder off the main pillar. Blank followed slowly guiding Plex down each section, stopping at every landing.
Finally, they made it down and we continued our journey. We didn't get very far that night, as we had had a long day. We rested easily for the first night back on the road. The next day we pressed on. Some time during the late morning we came across a Qusit. It was a strange little creature. It told us that the Gas Queen wished that the staff Blank was carrying be brought to her, and that there would be dire consequences if we did not comply with her request. Due to the nature of the staff and the hold it had over Blank, we could not agree with this. I had hopped to get more information out of the little creature, but Blank took it on himself to dispatch the thing himself without hesitation. That night, and the day after passed without incident. Plex was beginning to create quite an odder that I found not at all pleasant. I managed to convince Blank to rid us of our slow smelly companion. Near the evening, we were ambushed by a group of would-be assassins who were also clearly after Blank's staff. They were also sent by the Gas Queen to retrieve the staff for her. It seems that the Gas Queen has developed a desire for the staff. I find myself wondering whether it is because the staff itself is very powerful, which Blank does not seem to think because all it does is allow the wielder to cast a rather mundane spell, or if it is because of the curse that is on it. I wonder if she put the curse on it herself. Never the less, she seems to want it and doesn't care how she gets it. Once we had dealt with the assassins, Blank had the compulsion to animate one of them. Once again I felt disturbed by his disregard for death. He was using the mortal remains of a person as a tool.
This new zombie traveled with us until we reached the town of Miribar. When we entered the town, we asked a town guard to direct us to where the refugees from Raven's Rook were staying and were directed to the Dancing Duck Inn. It seemed a respectable place. There we me the mayor, who not only gave us a reward of 1000gp each, but offered to pay our room and board as long as we were there. For the rest of the day, we chatted with the towns folk in the inn, had some drinks and then retired to our rooms. Which is where I sit now, writing. I feel now that I understand better why I have been sent on this journey. I must experience the world in many different aspects to be able to see the will of my Lady Shar. I also see, that it is this experience that will prepare me for what I must do. I am seeing Blank affected by a cursed weapon that makes him do things that I find disturbing, but I believe this was something I had to learn. To see with my own eyes that, for some, death is not final. Though, I still believe that it is deeply wrong to rob a person of their right to death I see now that it might be part of my journey to ensure that those whose lives I take, are not able to be treated like this. That their death's will be final, and unblemished. To complete my true purpose and prove myself worth of the Lady's blessing, and prove myself to the master who cared for me so long, I will push myself to strive not to disappoint and give Baroth Ithicane a true death.
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| Image retrieved from http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Quadrone |
We continued back to the main pillar, with the intention of leaving Ravens Rook, but we decided to examine the hospital first, to see if we might find some potions of healing. We did find a few, but we also found some distressing signs of other things. There were blood trails. Large amounts of bloody drag marks covered the floor of the hospital. We followed them through the building and out to the last, unexplored pillar of rock. We suspected there was some kind of hostile creatures around, so we prepared as best we could. When we came to the last pillar, once again there was one bridge across. All we could see at first was one figure, standing on the edge of a cluster of woods. It was not moving, and didn't seem to notice us. Quietly, I made my way across the bridge and went up to the creature. It stayed, unmoving, and stared ahead. After some investigation, I discovered that there were more figures in the trees. They did not seem to be hostile. Eventually we discovered that Blank could direct them with the staff. We guessed that these were the villagers that did not manage to escape, and we sent them to their final end. Mostly by sending them one by one over the edge of the pillar. Once this was accomplished, we thought it might be time to leave Raven's Rook and continue towards Mirabar, and collect our reward. Blank wished to bring Plex with us. I was not sure about the plan, but once again, Blank was determined. I went on down the ladder off the main pillar. Blank followed slowly guiding Plex down each section, stopping at every landing.
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| Image retrieved from http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Quasit |
Finally, they made it down and we continued our journey. We didn't get very far that night, as we had had a long day. We rested easily for the first night back on the road. The next day we pressed on. Some time during the late morning we came across a Qusit. It was a strange little creature. It told us that the Gas Queen wished that the staff Blank was carrying be brought to her, and that there would be dire consequences if we did not comply with her request. Due to the nature of the staff and the hold it had over Blank, we could not agree with this. I had hopped to get more information out of the little creature, but Blank took it on himself to dispatch the thing himself without hesitation. That night, and the day after passed without incident. Plex was beginning to create quite an odder that I found not at all pleasant. I managed to convince Blank to rid us of our slow smelly companion. Near the evening, we were ambushed by a group of would-be assassins who were also clearly after Blank's staff. They were also sent by the Gas Queen to retrieve the staff for her. It seems that the Gas Queen has developed a desire for the staff. I find myself wondering whether it is because the staff itself is very powerful, which Blank does not seem to think because all it does is allow the wielder to cast a rather mundane spell, or if it is because of the curse that is on it. I wonder if she put the curse on it herself. Never the less, she seems to want it and doesn't care how she gets it. Once we had dealt with the assassins, Blank had the compulsion to animate one of them. Once again I felt disturbed by his disregard for death. He was using the mortal remains of a person as a tool.
This new zombie traveled with us until we reached the town of Miribar. When we entered the town, we asked a town guard to direct us to where the refugees from Raven's Rook were staying and were directed to the Dancing Duck Inn. It seemed a respectable place. There we me the mayor, who not only gave us a reward of 1000gp each, but offered to pay our room and board as long as we were there. For the rest of the day, we chatted with the towns folk in the inn, had some drinks and then retired to our rooms. Which is where I sit now, writing. I feel now that I understand better why I have been sent on this journey. I must experience the world in many different aspects to be able to see the will of my Lady Shar. I also see, that it is this experience that will prepare me for what I must do. I am seeing Blank affected by a cursed weapon that makes him do things that I find disturbing, but I believe this was something I had to learn. To see with my own eyes that, for some, death is not final. Though, I still believe that it is deeply wrong to rob a person of their right to death I see now that it might be part of my journey to ensure that those whose lives I take, are not able to be treated like this. That their death's will be final, and unblemished. To complete my true purpose and prove myself worth of the Lady's blessing, and prove myself to the master who cared for me so long, I will push myself to strive not to disappoint and give Baroth Ithicane a true death.
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