The Lost Diaries of Frederick DeBonesby

Bonus content from the Patreon that was eventually released to the public. Christopher Hastings narrates the final days before Frederick de Bonesby’s transformation into his skeletal form.

## Summary

Frederick’s diary ponders the nature of sleep, where he travels the planes reconnecting with his magic. He finds his usual pursuits interrupted by three strange beings. They merge into a goat creature, who warns him that they are concerned with his most recent pursuits. He shows Frederick a scene from his past, riding griffons with another child and making her laugh. Frederick refuses to reflect on this, banishing the creature from his dream.

Frederick begins to note his continued research into his ritual for becoming a lich. He studies an ancient tome, the name of which is only ever recorded as a string of nonsensical noises. He finds its decoding difficult between his waning health and the fact that the book’s information seems to change every time he looks at it. He spends much of his family fortune buying the rare or amoral components for his ritual to continue.

Frederick is one day delighted to recognize the carriage of Violence Hydrangea, a mercenary that he hired for his components. She delivers his order of elf feet while Frederick treats her to breakfast. When Frederick’s head cook Mustard serves her leftover steak and eggs due to their budget cuts, he is outraged and fires her on the spot. Between their lack of pay and Frederick’s suspicious ritual, Mustard leaves and stages a walk out with the entire kitchen staff to leave him alone in his manor. Frederick continues as best he can, finding himself unable to operate the furnace or a stove on his own.

The three beings return to Frederick’s dreams, taking the form of a shrub-like creature. It shows Frederick a vision of the local town, where Mustard is complaining to fellow patrons at an inn. Her mention of his dark ritual gets the locals suspicious and considering storming the castle themselves. Frederick ignores this, knowing he will soon be a lich so powerful that their opinions will no longer matter.

Frederick grows weary of living off nothing but bread and wine. He finds a kenku trying to rob his home and casually banishes him to his dungeon. When his fellow thieves arrive to try and rescue him, Frederick simply sends them further into the bowels of his castle where he assumes they will be lost forever. Frederick discovers that the first kenku had prepared himself a simple meal out of the plants and insects in his cell, and giving in to his hunger, he conjures him back to serve as his personal chef. The kenku is pleased to have some recognition for his skills and proceeds to cook him a stirfry for dinner. Frederick grows weary of his echoing voice and grants him the power of speech. He quickly regrets it.

Frederick is visited once more by a hooded figure in his dreams. He hastily blows it to pieces and wakes again. He decides to both read and cast the ritual all at once, spreading its pages all around the room so he cannot look away. Stirfry warns him of the villagers planning to raid his castle, but Frederick remains committed to his plans for his ritual.

“Slamuary 13th: something went wrong.”

## Trivia

* Frederick dates his diary with Highwinter and Slamuary as months unique to Cordelia.