Journal Entry #17

Whom do you Serve?

Knowledge

Knowledge or Secrets?  For Knowledge is mad, and Secrets are hidden.

Secrets

Well if it is Carrion you side with, carrion you shall be

I was wrong to protect you from the Puppet King.  No more.

 

 Osgood,

I shall explain what is on the preceding page in just a moment.  The good news is that we are a few days, at most, from home.  We are currently  in Tradedock in the Mark of Payrus.  I am sitting here watching Fyn sleep after a, somewhat, bizarre and terrifying experience. 

So, after our meeting with my fellow Owls (that feels real silly), we headed West with Marwyn.  This gave me a good opportunity to annoy him with questions, which I did.  We started talking about World Enchantments and he gave me some information, and a bit of a riddle.  The information is that world enchantments seem to have no single point or source of emanation, and that we can only observe that there is magical energy, but not the effect of said enchantment.  Frumious wondered if that meant Enchantment in the strict archane sense, or if it was just another way of saying magick.  I think that is an excellent question, and something we should look in to.  The riddle, of sorts, or the statement Marwyn gave me to ponder was that there is something linking world enchantments, the nature and shape of our world, and the metal used to taint the firstborn.  Yep, mind blown.  No theories yet, but pondering this gives me a headache.

We also talked about Vespatious.  He mentioned that Vepatious was trying to contact something or someone the day his tower fell.  He also thought it worth noting that Vespatious was not as, obviously, concerned with the shadow entity, as he was with Crow man, or Puppet King.  Both of those things bear some exploration.  Something else about Vespatious has been bothering me.  Why had he never read a single one of the Scrolls of Legend that he possessed?  I know he couldn't read all of them, but there were several that could have benefited him.  I find that odd.

So our conversation continued, and I mentioned a Jester, and Marwyn's face went immediately grave.  Apparently the Jester is a representative of the God King of the Giants.  So we now have a new player on the field.  My count is that this brings us up to 6.  At least.  Marwyn said he needed to go and inform others that there was a new player in the game.  He said that any one who says they are with him will have the mark of the blue anvil on their wrist.  Very much like the blue anvil we saw at Elliqor's.  Then he summoned a kind of Kyros looking creature out of the air, who picked up Marwyn and flew off with him. 

OH!  I found out about the Dwarves.  Apparently there is a Dwarven organization called "The Underground Mine", and they do Dwarf things, and protect Drawf interests.  So that explains that.  Also, regarding this "game" that has been going on, Marwyn said something about a "return to Godhood".  That sounds like it could have terrible repercussions.  So we need to see what the hell that is all about.  Also, Marwyn said something that I found quite interesting.  He said to think of the things occurring now like several "plays" all happening at the same  time, and with recurring characters who appear in different plays.  That analogy makes a lot of sense to me, and I would be well served to remember that moving forward.

I also have a thought on the Ilmarian University, Osgood.  They are trying to buy up all of the first world knowledge and lock it up in their academy to the North.  This may be a stretch, but does that reek of The Carrion King?  What do you think?

So after Marwyn flew away, we continued our journey heading West until we reached Tradedock.  This is a nice sized city on the River Avonwine, and everyone seemed very friendly.  As we were looking for a place to bed down for the night, we noticed an old beggar in the alley who was muttering to himself while being tortured by, what appeared to be, shadows.  He was swatting them off, but they kept coming back.  I cast detect thoughts to see if I could discover the thoughts of these "shadows", but they resisted the spell.  Regardless, Frumious seemed to chase them away.  At which point the beggar stood up and we could see the depth of his depravity.

Rags were all he wore, and he was barely wearing that.  His hair was matted and dirty, his face covered with dirt and blood.  Where was that blood coming from, you ask?  It was coming from the sockets where his eyes USED to be.  Oh yeah.  Creepy blind beggar!  My favorite of the horror story stock characters.  And there he was, one of our very own.  All of a sudden, he stood erect, became very lucid, and said, "I know the unspeakable name!"  Fyn asked him what is was, and the beggar said it.

Osgood, I am not going to write the name.  I am not going to tell you the name.  I hope to not have to think about this name for a long time.  The reason I am not sharing this with you is because when the beggar said the name, he exploded.  Now let me be clear, I don't mean a fireball went off, or his head swelled up.  I mean he fucking exploded.  We were covered in tiny little particles of that guy.  Not only was it gross, but I have never seen a spell like that before.  On some level it was amazing.  Terrifying, but amazing.

So, after we talked with the local constable, we went to an inn to clean up, get some food, and sleep.  After dinner, just a few hours ago, I came to the room to continue deciphering The Marquis' journal.  Shortly after that Fyn came in to call it a night.  I agreed to take first watch, and Fyn was fast asleep before long.  After, I don't know how many hours I got up to stretch my legs and get the blood flowing again.  That brings me to the writing on the earlier page.

When I turned around to get back to work, I noticed a large, very defined shadow writing in my book.  With my pen.  And my ink.  I can't say I was scared as much as I was intrigued.  You can see the exchange above.  After his note about being carrion, I felt myself being engulfed by shadow, constricting my throat keeping me from yelling for Fyn to help.  Now I was scared.  I reached out, mentally, to Kyros, and he was able to scorch the shadow enough to keep him at bay, and then all of a sudden his arms turned to tentacles.  Tentacles very similar to the ones that took Vespatious, and he whipped them around for a bit, then wrote in the book one last time and disappeared.  The last entry was "I was wrong to protect you from the Puppet King.  No more."

So I am pretty awake at this point, but hopefully, I am able to get some rest when I wake Fyn up in a few minutes.

So that is what has been going on here.  What about you?  How are you?  How are your studies coming?  I look forward to some nice long discussions with you about your spells, and abilities.  

In preparation for my return home, I need you to look into the following things:

* Start researching the concept of things that CANNOT be said.  I'm curious to know if there is more than the one unspeakable name out there that people are afraid of saying.

* I need you to restore the third floor back to working condition.  I know I told you to disassemble the room, but when I get back I am going to need to spend some time contemplating.  To that end, I could use a small pouch of the mushrooms that grow near my folks' house.

*Also, think about what scrolls you might want to keep around our house.  I will be spending some time scribing scrolls while we are home, and before the group sails West.

I hope all is well, and you and my tower will be a sight for sore eyes here very shortly.

Grigor