The tome harkens back to a day in which cities were built and rebuilt, and time weighed on everyone's mind as though the mist would inevitable clear up. The shipment of books that arrive in cities, as foretold in distant times, are made less common now that knowledge is limited by the Shadow. The yellow, wine-stained pages seem to emerge in bloody ink, with references to be had in illuminated texts in some of the Shadow's places of knowledge (Baden's Bluff is one). The cart that the tome was ridden in, before Jack located the text, was done up in clasps to keep the sacred histories relevant.

"The new world"


I found myself in a very strange land, appearing in the midst of a battle with a fire giant, the giant turned to gems afterwards I found the place I was was known as Cauldron, a city set in the bowl of a volcano, others were part of the team in fighting, and people appeared to help and also disappeared, with no reason, winking  in and out of existence.

In the aftermath of the battle, I had a few companions and we went to Skies Treasury a lady with fine taste in some rare and curious items.  I had a few companions at that time.
There is an item a key that I had found particularly interesting and hope to obtain it as part of the payment related to a very important mission....


As a party we received some perplexing instructions, for our main mission:

"the power nexus in the south needs to be activated, and to achieve this, the party must load up on goods from Highwall. From Highwall to the power nexus which sits outside the outpost of Caulderin. The current combat sits astride the unnamed outpost where bandits thrive. Astiraxes and blink dogs roam at night here, when the undead rise from their graves and plague the earth as though the Argonauts have swept through leaving skeletons in their wake. The blighted earth of the Fell slows your mind slightly as you traverse with faerie fire dotting all that you can see, barrenness and desolation of great import.

Progress saw the goods sloughed off on Highwall and the magic items here were a lucky find, the current encounter the result; Highwall had flown under the radar but is now leveraged at night with a swarm of bodiless feeding astirax, which toy with the mind like Trapped between their own state and that of mortal ken. Bottling an astirax form is an option. The obsidian glass from the fire giant jettisoned you (in a manner of speaking) from Skie's Treasury toward the power nexus. Be warned that you may have to run away at breakneck speeds and might want to use conducive spells or items, assuming you have any. Astirax generally means legates will be using powerful magic that is rare to most adventurers.

The blighted southern Eredane awaits and you hear rumors of the elves in-fighting but to travserse the paths toward the elven forests is dangerous, most keenly aware not to leave fires going or use light-based magic unless hidden. Several groups of similar ken you will find meandering the shoddy roads, but if you go to the elves, several of their craft (of gnomish make) will sluice towards the raiding parties, riddling them with arrows, as per the legend."

We Areana and I, (the only ones still present at that times) were attacked by Fell bipedal creatures and a pack of four legged monsters, again during this battle others came into and out of the reality, (One a cleric, the other had a light in his eye a mindbender perhaps?) this realm shifts like chaos/dream, in my reality it was very rare deja vue....Some seem to enter the dream like place, and a coma locks me here as they are only here for the brief moment of deepest slumber; or this is some afterlife or limbo.
After this battle I obtained a lich phylactery, somehow I knew or sensed it needs to be taken to a pround in High wall, to be destroyed otherwise at some point the lich reforms....
(Is this the realm of dream and can it be nightmares that have a way to be destroyed as well?)

At the edge of some water, we met The ferryman Greenham, and sailed onto the waters, while lights played in the sky....
Obtained a sextant, need to learn profession navigation in order to use it, and understand what it does.
It sounds like the gods reorient or change this reality on unfathomable whim, and deja vue can happen at any frequent moment.
-uncertain if the sextant had anything to do with Mongo showing up?
Asked How to summon the ferryman in the future, and the payment required a shard of posiden?

Deja vue according to the ferryman
"It's not too rare to see the gods changing things on a large scale. They are like the wogren, always on the hunt for those astral parasites, the astirax. You might learn a thing or two about the damn dogs in Highwall, or perhaps you have other affairs."

Arrival in Highwall, with several thousand residents, divides the black realm from the colorful realm, and the city seems to sparkle with the beasts of burden having their backs broken in shipments across the continent. It is clear whether a creature is good or evil, in other words, light or shadow. Light creatures seem to glow with an iridescence with Detect Evil spells, whereas the darkness thrives with a solid attachment to chaos.

The ferryman is gone with no answers to my questions


Mongo offers
"Extraplanar, no doubt. Bordering on the Chaos Realms. In viewing the surroundings I am filled with knowledge of types of magics though I have no training in such. Reactive environment as well."

There is something about the shackleborn markings and the soul cages...something evil perhaps?
This message was last edited by the player at 21:21, Tue 30 Apr.

We have arrived in a new city and I am hopeful to find a library or someone who can fill in the blanks of explain this world in a more comprehensive way....

As it stands the confusion is mostly mine, from my earlier entry we will have to contend with the
"swarm of bodiless feeding astirax" what they can do specifically "toy with the mind"
one way to contend with them is "Bottling an astirax form is an option"
another is "conducive spells or items, assuming you have any."

Astirax is (often?) an indication of "legates" and their use of rare "powerful magic".


DM feel free to give specific information or a known frame of reference....for example if they are wraiths (dementors?) of some sort them that means incorporal creatures, so ghost touch nets; protection from evil, splashing holy water, etc...


Also any errors that I may or may not be aware of within the journal itself
For example "conducive spells"
The word conducive in this sense makes none, unless it means spells that work on these creatures...
or a spell capable of working against this creature....but what the spell is still unknown although labeled
......in other words, a tautology "use spells against these things that work against these creatures"

Which could easily be actually meant to be conductive spells, meaning simply electricity vulnerability
This message was last edited by the player at 22:55, Thu 02 May.

Astirax, if I understand right, a variety of the undead shadow that feeds off of magic. Almost exclusively in the employ of a dark and oppressive god who is doing pretty well at challenging- almost single handedly it seems, Izrador.

Striders of Farlaghn
A new good intentioned organization: Some power
Location: Highwall and ?
Known members: Icarus, Brett, and Katherine: Ranger and monks
They may be infiltrated by "The shadow" (military arm of the dark god Izrador)






Creatures

Astirax, if I understand right, a variety of the undead shadow that feeds off of magic.
Also

Fell - A bipedal evil creature in the badlands


 Izrador
That’d be an oppressive god of darkness, opposing the Greek pantheon. There seems to be a feudal kind of thing among the Greek gods and then the dark one… who is in a conflict with the whole of them; to the best of my knowledge.
the dark god who keeps magic out of people's hands.
The greek gods are trying to destroy him, their elite is the only group that can utilize magic items with any frequency

Lich
an Undead creature who after being defeated, the phylactery must be taken to a pround in high wall to be destroyed lest the thing reform


Wogren are wolf-like beasts


Locations:
Cauldron- Full city set in the basin of a dormant volcano
-Skies Treasury
Wastelands - dangerous place to cross full of violent monster
Highwall - another city, home of the Ranger

Power Nexus-Power nexuses are kind of like cell towers, they are dying and decaying metallic installations (and steel is pretty rare, most weapons are corrugated iron) somewhat resembling watchtowers. They look like claws planted in the earth and radiate with blue light.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:15, Sat 18 May.