998 Barrakas 26th - 4th Rhaan

998 26th Barrakas early night Fairhaven, Aundair

Upon our return to Fairhaven, I informed Lady Elaydren of the threat posed by the Shadowed One. I emphasized the unnatural creature’s combination of warforged and aberrant flesh. This unusual physiology along with our clashes with both the warforged of the Lord of blades and various Dragon Below cults causes the conspiracy theorist in me to speculate that there might be some sort of collusion these two disparate faith organizations. Perhaps the Shadowed One serves as a liaison between the two groups. I would conjecture even further a field and speculate that the Enlightened of the Dreaming Dark might also somehow be involved given that we were visited with a false prophetic dream that nearly tricked us into slaying innocents. As I said I WOULD suggest that the quori spirits of the Dreaming Dark were in collusion with the aberrations of the Dragon Below Cult, except that I have read that the Enlightened will ally with nearly anyone in order to keep a Dragon Below Cult from ascendancy. But there could be a deeper purpose here as the quori are unfathomable beings and I for one will take care with future prophetic dreams that seem to come from the Sovereign Host. In any case, the story of warforged priest of the Dragon Below, even if it were not believed, earned us at least a temporary reconciliation with Lady Elaydren. And this more than anything was the object of my tale. I truly expected no assistance in combating the Shadowed One from the Canniths but the items provided through the fair trading terms will enable us to defeat the evil priest, should we meet again.

From the Canniths we commissioned two minor wands that I can use to protect my companions, as well as an enchanted cold iron mace for Vaegar, and a magicked buckler for Elarin. We also paid for two healing wands from the Host temple in Fairhaven. These will enable me to keep my companions healthy for the foreseeable future. Of course it will be a number of days before the items are completed.

As we walked from the Cannith installation to the Host temple we noticed a hand bill posted by the faithful of the Silver Flame seeking “adventurers” to assist with some great undertaking. This meshed well with my own plans in that I have a great deal of sympathy for that faith and would like to ingratiate myself to its practitioners. My own personal theory is that the Silver Flame is merely the latest of the young gods and should be added to the pantheon of the Sovereign Host. Certainly their goals and our goals align almost seamlessly.

998 4th Rhaan late night Fairhaven, Aundair

When we entered the Silver Flame temple we were directed to speak with one Dyrjoran Barakis. She was a tall and attractive, if short nosed, fiery haired human female warrior-priest of the Silver Flame. After a brief discussion she informed us that she sought to “release” the spirits of a nearby haunted sanitarium known as Haverthold. Vaegar seemed reluctant to do so and was filled with trepidation. I, however, eagerly agreed to join this mission as this was a research opportunity of a lifetime. Incorporeal undead, that have not passed on to Dolurrh, are very rare in Khorvaire. This was a chance to learn more about the ghostly undead than I ever could from a book.

After we volunteered to join her expedition, Dyrjoran asked what skills we would bring to such an expedition. Clearly she had a low estimate of our abilities. After each of us told her of our specialized skills, Dyrjoran asked for a demonstration. I almost laughed for joy at the providence of such a request. For just the day before I had asked Zed to serve as a test subject for an new spell that I just researched specifically to defeat the Shadowed One. I wanted to know if my new illusion spell known as “phantasmal assailants” would work on warforged. It did and fairly well at that, as Zed can attest. The only problem being that the Shadowed One is a warrior-priest in addition to being a war forged so I still wanted to test the spell on a warrior-priest. And here was Dyrjoran volunteering to serve as a test subject! The Silver Flame priestess actually turned this event into a small spell skirmish. We cast a few spells at each other, to no effect, then I released my phantasmal assailants spell on her and she dropped screaming to the floor. Of course the spell would have no effect on undead, or even on the holy knights of her faith because it draws upon one’s own fears, but it seems to work quite well on warrior-priests. Thanks to Dyrjoran I now know that I can cripple the Shadowed One the next time we meet. It may take several assaults on the Shadowed One’s mind but I know that with perseverance I can eventually overcome the warforged priest’s mental defenses.

We are now preparing an expedition to the Haverthold Sanitarium. This is a very different sort of expedition than my compatriots and I are used to. Being that the haunted sanitarium is only a couple of hours march from Fairhaven, we will not need to carry weeks of bland food rations and we will have a close safe refuge should events turn against us (as they inevitably will).