Greetings, this is an account of events both strange, terrifying and wonderful culminating with the complete destruction of a lich and the apparent return of an outlander to her home beyond the Lands of the Mists. I was accompanied during these events by my friend and layman Franz Manstein as well as the outlander Carine de Ailleurs, a priestess from the land of Oerth.
It all started in the Mists Camp, where a vistana came and informed us they would be leaving for the Mistlands in Darkon where a professor was about to present in a show, items of interests related to his researches and archeological findings. It was strange it was as if the vistana was specifically coming for us for he looked at and spoke only to the lady Carine, sir Franz and I. The lady Carine professed interest, whereas Franz and I agreed to accompany the lady if only to insure her protection in case something went wrong.
On our arrival in the Mistlands we soon came upon a stage where professor Arcannus was presenting his findings. First was a truly unimpressive spellbook he claimed belong to one of the Hazlani wizard-kings from before the rule of the tyrant Hazlik. It was obviously a fraud. Next came a rusted crown the professor claimed was the phylactery of Azalin Rex! As if suggesting that the king of Darkon was an undead wizard. Regardless, it is obvious this was yet another fraudulent item not worth our time, nor the gold we had to pay to get to Darkon. Sensing our growing indifference to his show, the professor then presented a wicked looking ruby hilted dagger he presented as a soul blade, a blade he claimed captured the soul of those it slained. We could inherently feel from the get go that this was a vile device, even its ruby seemed to pulse with a life of its own.
The real troubles would begin soon afterward. We barely had time to ask the man what he was doing with such a weapon and why he did not attempted to destroy it, that the blade started to shake with a Will of its own, lights and mysty red fog started swirling from the hilt and surrounding us very quickly. Professor Arcannus was panicking he claimed this never happened before. I tried to reach for the weapon and throw it as far away as I could but I was too slow. Whatever power was behind the blade was sucking us within it.
Our new surroundings was a strange one. A dark ebon sky greeted us, only marred by an occasional streak of red lightning followed by a thunderclap, whereas the ground seemed to be made of a reddish crystalline and translucid surface. Several very large and pulsing rubies were floating accross the alien topology. The professor it seems, was not sucked in with us. Yet it turned out the lady, Franz and I were not alone. We were greeted by a fourth person. The mysterious man presented himself as Kartak Spellseer, a distant relative of one mad man named Chardath Spulzeer, of whom he claimed our current location was both his prison and the manifestation of his mind. Kartak was most evasive about the manner he came to be trapped as well, he hinted that he had been ensnared in a manner similar to us, but also warned us that we only had a few days to act before losing our minds and thus become a permanent part of this place. That he saw it happened to others. Puzzled as to why it didn't happened to him too he simply remarked that he has not been here long enough for the madness to take him yet. Regardless, he was apparently our sole source of information and wanted, just like us, to be freed from this place. He explained us that each and every place we would visit in this place were facets of the mad man minds. That we would need to cross all of them to reach Chardath Spulzeer and attempt to claim the key out of this place. On each facet, there would be three enchanted rubies to find. To apply these rubies unto the larger floating ones would lead us to another facet. If finding the rubies was rather easy, the exploration was on the other end unnerving. For underneath the translucid floor, the ghostly form of a woman kept watching us with a seemingly vacant stare. We decided, since this was possibly just the the manifestation of a mad mind, that it was best to ignore the presence as much as possible and move on to the next facet.
The second facet we visited took place in a gambling house. A den of iniquity where women of little moral sold themselves alongside the various gambling games available. All sort of vices could be indulged here. Kartak would later tell us this represented his childhood, for this is how his mother would finance their extravagant lifestyle. The violent beating of a patron who lacked gold to pay his debts duly convinvced us it was in our best interest to leave this facet quickly. Fortunately the rubies were quickly found and we proceeded to the next one.
Unfortunately though, the third facet saw us in immediate danger, for upon our entrance we found ourselves shackled to pillars in some sort of gladiatorial arena. Kartak showed up again, free as a bird, explaining that Chardath always saw himself as a great warrior whereas he was mediocre at best. This facet represents his jealousy of those mightier than him. As such we would be forced each of us to singlehandly fight against various monsters with little time (if any) to prepare for the fights. These were by no means easy battles, but my companions were ressourceful enough to win theirs. The lady was pitted against some sort of mechanical man and then a huge umber hulk being. Franz was faced against some sort of two-headed giant and then a frenzied abberation looking like the mix of a giant bear with a giant owl. How he prevailed against such foe I know not, but he proved himself to be a formidable warrior. For myself, I owe it to the blessings of Ezra and my potions to have narrowly survived my duels against a berserking minotaur and a huge pyre elemental. We were handed the rubies after our victories and thus moved on to the next facet.
For the fourth facet, we found ourselves in a great cavern filled with treasures and untold riches fit to fill ten times and emperor's treasury. This was obviously the lair and hoard of a beast of legend, a mighty dragon of impossible size with glistening reddish scales and it did not took kindly to our perceived trespassing. The singular feature of this facet though was an unfished story book with a quill and some ink beside it. The idea came to mind that maybe we simply need to finish the story and I told so to the others. And indeed it was, whatever we wrote in the book came to pass. I must admit I was rather impressed with the creativity shown by the lady Carine. She masterfully wrote a story in which the dragon would see us envoys of the gods there to reward him, and she made more treasures to appear for his greatest pleasure but that in returns he would have to return the enchanted rubies which were his charge. Doing so, the beast lost interest in us and went forth tou count every pieces of its new acquisitions. We were free to leave this facet.
For the fifth facet we entered a lovely island garden, again with floating rubies all around. There we were greeted by two ladies whom were quite polite and gracious. We were at last given a moment of peace to recover. At the middle of the island was sleeping a young woman, it was the same lady we saw underneath the translucid ground of the first facet. Asked about who she was, the ladies of the garden simply replied that she was the sleeping princess. They warned us then that we should hurry up, for Esmerel would soon come and attack us. Few informations were given about her except that she hated all men. From this moment forward the idyllic island quickly turned into nightmare with the very vegetation starting to attack us and the ladies of the garden's dispositions turning from virtuous to murderous. It is then, that Esmerel, a creature in the shape of an harpy attacked us. This fight proved rather easy, and the gems for the next facet could then be found in the hands of the sleeping princess. We moved on.
For the sixth facet we found ourselves in a temple, the altar was one dedicated to the outlandish god of justice Tyr from the realms of Faerun. But the stained glasses depicted unmistakenly the Holy Icon of our Blessed Guardians on one side, and from the other side that of the lady's own deity, one she named Boccob the Uncarring, possibly a patron of arcane magic. The rubies where on Our Guardian stained glass. The lady Carine set out to retrieve them but I stalled her, for if we are to take from Our Guardian, so must we give in return and prove our piety. I prayed to Ezra thanking her for her blessings and donated a thousand gold fangs. The Lady Carine surrendered an item of magic. Our donations vanished the moment we set them on the ground. For this act we felt refreshed and healed. The Lady Carine retrieved the rubies and we proceeded toward the next facet.
The seventh facet was a unsettling to say the least for it was host to all the souls lost to the dagger. The landscape was much like the first facet we visited, except that is was dotted as far as the eye can see by countless ruby monoliths containing the unfortunate souls, their features constantly in pain. Such would be our fate should we ever fail to get out of this hellish place. Kartak was there again and he told us much about the story of this place and the madness of Chardath. As it happens, the lord of Spulzeer castle ended up being the unwitting pawn of a dreadful lich, whom for reasons of its own, manipulated Chardath in slaying the only person he truly loved with the soul blade, his sister Marble. The act drove him mad and the unfolding events would lead him to his current prison within the blade itself. Kartak himself provided the rubies to continue, he followed us this time.
I shall never forget what happened in the eight facet. We came upon a small room, no doors, no windows, no decorations. All there was was some sort of stone coffin with a wounded lady on it. The same lady we saw previously, the specter under the crystalline floor, the sleeping princess, Marble, Chardath's sister. There was no doubt whatsoever that this was Chardath's memory of her murder. Her throat had just been cut open, blood gushing out ceaselessly. Falling to the ground, she pointed an accusatory finger toward Kartak with her dying strength, seemingly confirming what we already suspected all along. Kartak was the Lich responsible for this event. Unerved and angry at the lady, it yelled at the dying lady telling her to point her accusations elsewhere. The creature didn't denied it when asked if it was the Lich, it simply yelled claiming that it didn't matter, he would have his vengeance, and he would leave this prison. Invoking great magic it disappeared amidst lightning and flashes of light. Helping the dying lady proved obviously futile, though I had to try something. The blood started to flow at incredible speed from her wounds. We soon found ourselves drenched in blood. By the time I covered the 2 meters seperating me from the coffin, there was already blood almost up to my shoulders. We had to act quickly, the rubies could be nowhere else than in the coffin. Taking a deep breath I plunged in it to search it. There was a false bottom, the gems were underneath. We proceeded at once to the next facet before getting drowned.
In the ninth facet, we found ourselves thankfully free of blood. It had been of course only the manifestation of a mad man's mind but it felt all too real. Even now I still have the sensation of sticky blood upon my face and skin. I do not wish this feeling to anyone. In anycase, we found ourselves in a library. The books were filled with memories, Chardath's ones of course. It soon became apparent that they were sorted in chronological order. The earliest books were all crumbled and destroyed, probably earlier childhood memories he forgot. As for the other books, the earlier years seemed all but regular, nothing singular stood out, but then came a point where the books started to change shapes, an obvious manifestation of Chardath's madness. To read these books was to risk sanity, by the end of the library, the books turned in globs of ooze in our hands. It is in those that we found the rubies allowing us to continue our way.
Madness was the very essence of the tenth facet. It obeyed no natural law whatsoever, the landscape was outlandish, indescriptible, we were entirely submerged in some sort of red-tinged liquid, yet we could breath and speak, although in a muffled voice. Movement was impaired, our armors keeping us to the bottom of wherever we were. We were not alone. Above us was a great shadow, it turned toward us to reveal a monstruous sphere with one gigantic eye, an horrible fanged mouth of impossible proportion, two eye-stalks and two huge crab-like pincers, the very stuff of nightmare. Worse, it was not alone. I do not know how many of these creatures we had to battle, but I can certainly attest to their ruthless brutality. Strange powers seemed to emanate from their eyes, they even seemed able to kill merely by looking at us. The lady Carine seemed fine a moment, and was laying unconscious the next, I healed her back to life and then I fell too. I think it was Franz which managed to revive me, may Ezra ever look kindly on him. There is but one certainty. We would have failed if not for each others, we each had to reach to the limit of our abilities, draw upon resources of strength we didn't even knew existed, but survival was at stake. Battered down and exhausted, we somehow made it through the onslaught. The last of these horrors exploded releasing the gems needed to go on.
We finally met Chardath Spulzeer himself in the eleventh facet, sitting on his throne and with a wicked looking battle axe in his hands. The man looked slightly like a weasel with his pointed nose, small mouth, and narrow, upturned chin. He also had small, deep-set eyes, tangled, bushy brows, and a scraggly goatee. The man seemed prone to frequent mood changes, he could be quite amiable a moment and then quite angry the next. But to be fair he never threatened us directly and did told us more of the events leading to his damnation.
In some far away past the original physical form of Kartak the Lich had been destroyed, but since its phylactery survived so did the creature's essence. As the years passed, Kartak's spirit called out to his distant kins, whom had since changed their names from Spellseer to Spulzeer. Faintly, but persistently, it tugged at their minds, until one day Chardath's would answer this summons on an ominous night. On that night Chardath found himself unable to sleep, and pacing through the corridors of his castle, somehow found the secret library of Kartak, where its phylactery was hidden. Upon grabbing it, Chardath found himself locked in a mental battle with Kartak for the control of its own body, and lost. That night, Chardath, unable to control himself but fully aware of what was going on, took his sister's life with the accursed soul blade. It broke his mind and restored the lich to its full body and powers. The lord did not explain how they came to be both trapped in this hellish prison, he was too focused on his vengeance over the lich to tell us more. But it was obvious Chardath managed to lash back at Kartak, for it too now wanted revenge over the lord.
There was no way around it, Chardath clearly let us know that he had the key to leave this prison and that he would only give it to us and tell us how to use it should we defeat Kartak and destroy its phylactery: the very staff it is carrying. The only alternative would have been to take the key by force and trust into the words of Kartak, but unleashing such greater evil upon the land was certainly not an option. We agreed to the task and the lord gave us the belongings of former adventurers to help in the battle to come. The mood of the lord changed again, this time he was becoming bored with his own throne and decided to hack it with his axe. The portal for the twelfth facet was there. We braced ourselves for the final battle.
The room was large, in the middle was a plateform. The lich was floating on the other side of the room in its terrible true form. We exchanged very few words with Kartak and none of them were of any import whatsoever. It was obvious he simply wanted to destroy us, and us the same. With the pleasantries cut short the battle began. The undead-wizard was impossibly fast, he seemed able to be at several places and to launch several necromantic spells at once! But again the battle prowesses of my companions of fortune proved formidable and it is with pride that I can reflect of my own actions in this battle. Armed with Faith and steelty resolve, there was three champions defying Death! Fighting relentlessly with Heart and Courage to overcome this Lord of the Legions and Ezra as my witness, prevail we did.
The physical remains of the undead-wizard were still crumbling into dust, that I was calling forth one more time all the might I could muster in the name of Ezra, and with a swift powerful blow of my sword, shattered the creature's staff in half. The phylactery, exploded into a great, although harmless, ball of blinding incandescant light, accompanied by a terrible cry of rage, agony and helplessness. Thus ended the existance of the Lich, Kartak Spellseer.
Returning back to Chardath's throne room, the lord was ecstatic, basking in a mood of triumph. Claiming that he savored every moments of his nemesis demise especially what he called the "exquisite cry of agony" in the end. The lord proved true to his word and handed us the key that would let us out. To defeat such a foe was its own victory, but he rewarded Franz and I further with gold nonetheless claiming that it was more than earned. To the lady Carine however he presented and old and crumbling scroll, he called a "Scroll of Return". On it, a powerful enchantment of the greatest power which he claims can return its reader to its true Home, wherever that home may be. But he warned her that the scroll was failling quickly and would need to be used within the next 24 hours or this chance would be forever lost. He instructed us then to return to the location of our victory, to place all the rubies in circle around the platform with the key in the center. The way out would then be clear.
When suggested that with Kartak gone, maybe redemption would not be far off for him. Chardath replied in a rare moment of clarity of thought that "to beg others for forgiveness, he must first forgive himself". Kartak may have had control of him when he murdered his sister, it was still his own hand that did the deed and he is not ready to forgive himself for that. It was as if he found that this prison of his was a fitting punishment for his crimes. We bid farewell to the tormented lord. I shook hands with him, letting him know that I would pray for his redemption. "Pray hard." would be his last words. Chardath Spulzeer is still far away from redemption, but if our actions can help him progress toward it, then Franz and I have proven true to our commitment to Ezra.
The portal took us back to the Mists camp to the amazement of those presents. Of the professor Arcannus or the accursed dagger there was of course no sign. That charlatan will not find me in an amiable mood should I ever meet him again. And I will think twice next time a vistana invites us to a curiosity show. But in the end I should not complain for it did lead to a miracle. Hopeful that the scroll truly was what Chardath claimed it was, the lady Carine bid us to inform some of her friends that she had found a way home, to thank them for their friendship and that she would miss them. And so did Carine de Ailleurs, servant of Boccob the Uncarring from the land of Oerth, took the leap of faith that might lead her home. The scoll glowed with power as she read the words, Mists coalesced all around her, until she could no longer be seen. The bank of Mists lingered for a while, some fools dared each other to touch it or enter it. But Franz and I just stood there in respectful silence, mesmerized by the Mists and pondering if she truly made it. We will never know the answer, but in my heart I feel that she is. And this gives me great hope for the future, for it doesn't have to be a bleak and desperate one. More than ever, I hold to the belief that through good deeds and righteousness we can make this world a better place.
May Ezra bless us all five-fold!
Koryan Thorgarov
Warden of the Pure Hearts.
