Austenus Journal- WD3HQ

The Journal of Austenus Belloq, entry 1- for middle of mission 3(?)

A thought dawned on me, one that was long overdue, that I should record my adventures. For posterity and for my family’s future lore. Initially considered hiring a scribe or such to record our travels, but quickly realized it would be difficult to keep such a hireling alive. To avoid that complication I took it upon myself. Since I recently lost a bunch of notes that would have been helpful I will instead write directly in the magic book I got as a gift from Greatest Grandfather. Due to all that will begin with the current, but will fill in the gaps previously the best I can in other entries. So my story begins in the middle & is a gist:

We had infiltrated a mine, at first seeking terrifying tiny glowing worms that could render someone a mindless zombie in moments. Instead we found those likely behind their existence, or at least involved in some way, We Dark Three. A cult that we previously were introduced to in their attempt to assassinate us\*. Later we learned (from our employer from a previous mission\*\*) that they were worshipers of dark gods that intended to meld said deities together as a powerful Over-God to rule everything or something. Possibly due to not having the agreement of all the gods involved it didn’t go as planned and caused the Fracturing of the world. Seems like they have not given up on those designs.

Deep within the mine we found a large and well-made underground network. Beginning from when “landed” in the large main room, with a door on each of three walls and an ominous black pool taking up the remaining wall.

The first door we tried led to the worshipers of Rancor. From what I gather a god of murder & violence. Rather straight forward in their attempts to kill us and occasionally retreat to regroup. Notable bits where their leaders: a scarred woman and half orc who seemed to be lovers. Aside from that a rather disgusting enormous boar, never have I wanted bacon less.

The second door has been far more annoying, followed by being deeply unsettling. Within were worshipers of Wrath, the Death god. Part of the aggravating nature of the area is that some of the walls that are not walls, rather than just being illusions they seem to be made of whispers and require some trick to walk through that I have not fully grasped. Must be something inversely related to noble bearing and charm as my allies seem to have little issue getting through. Our introduction to said whisper walls was assassin types leaping in and out of the not-walls. This was exceedingly annoying. Most were Tieflings, like myself, which used Darkness to equally annoying effect. Will have to remember utilize those tactics sometime. Also somewhat annoying was Smax getting in a theological debate with one who had surrendered, who then escaped along with both sets of my manacles. Then things went from annoying to unsettling when we entered rooms with pillars that had unnatural hands reaching forth from them. There we fought creepy robed figures along with more of the assassin types. The leader had a mask that was riveted to his face! Guess he never had to worry about it falling off by accident. The silver lining to the future nightmares is they had a decent amount of magic items for us to acquire. Most of those went to our new recruits, especially Aerendyll the Impatient, as I have little use for most and Smax considers them contaminated. The haul included a Sanquivar Shortbow, Horn of Halt-less Hydration, Magic Bone Shield, Three (one definite/ two probable) Potions of Gaseous Form, and valuables including 2 big diamonds. Though I do hope to get some ritual magic out of the many (9!) spellbooks. Speaking of which it was back to annoying (and painful) when got a face-full of acid via a magic trap, upside it has been a while since I had a proper exfoliating treatment. To be fair I didn’t leave empty handed (or should I say shouldered) as I did get a rather nifty cloak which will really bring any outfit together in addition to magically enhancing my already amazing allure. Also took one of the potions of gaseous form, the one which I am certain that is what it is.

We still must finish exploring the labyrinthine passages of Wrath’s faithful. The plan after that is to check the mysterious blank door.