Bruisetooth's Journal - Return to Cathal's Doom

*5th The Fading*

I am once again joined by the first party I adventured with; Uklah, Drago, Alexandria, and Teres, though with two new faces instead of Cathal's sister; Blaze and Reza.  I'm not a poet. Blaze, a Druid, his hair fiery and eyes burning like hot coals, rode astride a flaming steed. Reza, on a more regular horse, spoke of his holy devotions and his joy of study. Hopefully they will survive this expedition, it is not for the lighthearted.

The fog made things difficult, and I am still unused to mounted travel. I lost my way out in what I thought to be familiar terrain, only for us to wander too far out and be forced to make camp with no true notion as to where we were, and the night brought zombies with it. Or some kind of undead, ghouls and ghasts, Reza called them. I just know I wanted them dead, especially after their arrival woke me.

*6th The Fading*

Lost again, this time arriving not at the mine as we should have, but at some kind of dwarven fortress built into the mountain by the name of Lull. We departed, not wishing to disturb the metal guardians outside, and managed to make camp at Goliath's Fall. I feel a fool for getting us this lost, and twice at that. Our earlier attempts had landed the same time on foot, and now the kind loan from the others feels like a waste to me. Perhaps a donation to Muredach will secure a proper road to the mines.

*9th The Fading*

I have experienced eternity. I have gazed into the void of nothingness, surrounded by stark whiteness like a limbo of silence and solitude. While the memories fade like a dream, the vast emptiness still clings to the back of my mind like dampness to a log. I do not think I will be able to speak of what I've seen, nor would I wish to burden anyone with the knowledge that no god came to seek me, nor did any devil condemn me. Nothingness awaited me, does it still linger? Is this the promised afterlife the clerics bray of in churches across Eberron?

We arrived at the mines, only to find something truly disturbing waiting for us; the little girl that I'd personally plucked from the webbing over Murtagh's inevitable grave (if the spiders haven't devoured him by now, starvation would have taken him, I dread to think what his last moments were like). She was playing in the dirt, idle and innocent enough, but as we spoke to her, something was immediately off about the way she addressed us. She was too calm, too distanced from the horror of this place. She told us she'd made those things we'd killed, and while the rest of us balked at her, Reza identified her as some kind of spider-like shapechanger, an 'Arachne'. She teleported out before any of us could reach her, and her 'children' arrived soon after. One as large as the biggest we fought before, and many smaller ones.

Within was no better, set upon by the swarms with their foul venom that turned our healing against us. Greater beasts awaited us within, likely the ones Cathal's sister had warned us of, and down below, on a bedding of webbing and death, the Broodqueen. She was vast, larger and faster than anything I've yet to see. She ran circles around us, aided by her hideous kin, and I fell before the final blow could be struck. Even the strength gifted by my training as a Rune Knight failed me. Strength means nothing to these beasts, only cunning and savagery.

I awoke, surrounded by my friends, all but one. Drago had fallen by my side, and his soul had refused to return despite Uklah's yearning. I know she was fond of him, and I mourned our loss with the rest at the graveyard of Hope. I am thankful I am not amongst the plots today, and I shall do my best to better this place to show that thanks, for adventurers and citizens alike.