What an exciting day! Words cannot express the wondrous sights I have experienced today, but I suppose they will have to do. I sit now, having tended to my meditations and prayers as the others finish their much-needed rest. Startling ghostly forms appear and disappear, apparently tending to the job of excavating this cavern. At first I was fearful, but these apparitions, if that is what they are, pay us no attention as they silently swing their pickaxes and carry away bits of stone.
I must pace myself, for much is to be said of today's events. The wicked Tear of Ioun is no more, as is the sickness it had inflicted upon me. My hands appear pristine and smooth, free of those wretched boils. My hair, too, has returned to its previous golden splendor, now falling below my shoulders once again.
For we have stood in the presence of the gods themselves, and they have cast their blessings upon us. While these blessings and the destruction of the tear are a fantastic turn of events, they did not come without a hefty price.
We embarked early through Estevan's portal to the Elemental Chaos, appearing on barren, cracked soil at the foot of a flaming mountain. In the distance, all around us, stood molten pools of lava. The sky above us appeared tumultuous and dangerous as lighting darted amongst swirling, colorful clouds. Though the thunder boomed every few seconds, the atmosphere was relatively calm compared to our first venture to this dangerous plane. Far beyond the magma pools came a lumbering, but active thunderhead whose thunderous emanations became louder and louder as it approached. Alyana was the first to tell us that the ominous formation was making a beeline for the fiery crag upon which we now stood and the compass's needle was following the cloud as it approached.
Hastily we made our way up the steep slope, making clever use of our rope to support each other. Lucky for me, I have my boots which cling to surfaces with ease, and my connection to the Feywild persisted, allowing me to slip from ledge to ledge along this treacherous path.
We later came to a wide ledge, allowing us to take a moment to sit and catch our breath, but it appeared we had stumbled upon the home of a fire giant. Our smoldering foe called out to us in a language we did not know, brandishing an enormous sword in an obvious attempt to intimidate us. We would have none of it. Our attacks came too quickly for the giant to gain the upper hand, and eventually, with a forceful ray of radiant light, I managed to knock the behemoth from the ledge, sending him crashing upon the stoney outcroppings below until he came to rest beside a large cave mouth, which I assume must have been his home. As the crippled giant began to drag himself into the cave, Alyana fired a single shot which sent our injured adversary to his final resting place.
As we topped the crag's peak, the thunderhead rolled in right over us. Winds howled and lightning crashed as we clung to the rope which held us all together. The tumult was brief, though, and as the wall of cloud swept past us, we were left staring at an immense, floating orb which shone as bright as the moon through a thin cloud of shattered rock.
Surprisingly, the object began pulling us towards it, lifting us gently from the mountaintop. As we neared the sphere, it quickly grew larger and larger, exposing a scorched and barren landscape as it quickly stretched below us as far as the eye could see. Whatever force drew us to this body reoriented us to land safely on our feet. The Luminous Body, as it turned out, was quite ironically named. For the object shone in the swirling sea of elemental energy, but once on its surface, the terrain was bleak and grim. Petrified trees and an assortment of small, grey stones lay scattered about the landscape along with the occasional skeletal remains of a large beast.
We decided to travel towards an area of ruined stone structures in the near distance. Upon searching these ruins, we came to a darkened shaft guarded by a single stone statue of a frog-like creature. This statue turned out to be a creature under magical influence, slowly succumbing to petrification. We attempted to stave off the magical malady, but were unsuccessful. At the last instant, the creature shrieked loudly, echoing all around and down into the shaft, leaving us startled. We stood for a moment, weapons drawn, ready for whatever would be alerted by this petrified beast, but nothing came.
Our descent into the shaft led us to the battle we expected above. More large frog-like beasts set upon us as we set foot in a darkened subterranean room. It was now that Talos recalled that these were Slaads, plague-carrying toad-beasts bent on spreading chaos about the realms. Unfortunately these beasts caught us by surprise, and seemed unaffected by the lack of light in the room, so our ensuing skirmish was difficult, but we managed to scrape by.
The Slaads were attempting to get into a large set of stone doors, whose intricate carvings had eroded over centuries, or even millennia, of wear. Upon inspection, Elwoz was again stricken by celestial visions, saying that he could see divine power concentrated into a orb. The door was magically warded, but stood no match against my arcane spell-casting. Channeling the natural magical energy of my surroundings, I was able to dispel the locking spell.
A thick mist, teaming with necrotic energy, boiled out of the chamber as the stone doors slowly slid open. Within the large chamber, the walls caught our attention. One had the skeletal remains of what we think is Torhana Inksole petrified and embedded into the smooth stone surface. Opposite this wall was a reflective surface which emitted conflicting magical energies, seemingly good and evil at once. The third wall, facing us as we entered, was but worked stone, but had four framed arches which seemed to have been excavated from the earth.
Talos boldly approached the reflective wall, reaching out to investigate its surface, but was rendered unconscious as he made contact, and a petrifying force began crawling down his arm. Frantically, Elwoz and I attempted our healing and arcane magic to reverse this process and were able to rip Talos free from this peril.
It was then that the wise paladin, now conscious yet barely shaken, reached within his pack and drew forth the Tear of Ioun. Quickly, Talos pressed the tear against the mirror wall and tore his hand back before the magic crept up the tear to his hand. We then stepped back and watched as the tear was overwhelmed by the reflective surface, then shattered, filling the chamber with glittering shards of dust. As I fell to my knees in joy and the others cheered, Without stepped up to the wall. Before we could ask him what he was doing, he held out his dark orb and hypnotically held it to the surface just as Talos had with the Tear. Without stood motionless, eyes blasting forth rays of light which illuminated the room fully. We squinted both from the instant rush of light and the anticipation of the orb, too, shattering into dust.
No such explosion came. The orb sank into the wall, turning the reflective surface into a rippling silver fluid which turned to an image of four figures. Instantly it was obvious who these four figures were.
The first figure, a beautiful female human clad in a white tunic stood before us, looking down with pleasant, but stern green eyes. Her blonde hair, tied up in beaded braids, floated around her as if she were submerged in a gentle current of water. This pleasing image was clearly that taken on by the goddess of the wilderness and sea, Melora.
The next image, one of an equally striking female elf with beautiful blue eyes, stood in a blue flowing dress. Her brown hair, held with a modest green headband, fell behind her,disappearing behind her thin frame. This gorgeous elven avatar was that of Sehanine, patron deity of the elves.
Standing beside her was an image I recognized quite well. The same eladrin male figure I saw so many years ago in the forest. The lightly armored soldier, with longsword on his side and chainmail sleeves poking out from the sides of his star burst tabard, wore his sapphire-gemmed circlet crown in sharp contrast to his solid gold-colored eyes. His snowy white hair was cut modestly at his shoulders, perfectly framing his pensive countenance.
The last of the four stood proudly, towering over the other three figures. The plate-covered dragonborn's visage was hard to discern. Only his piercing eyes, their thin pupils flanked by an even thinner orange iris, were revealed by the thick covering of armor that obviously hid a mighty frame. Bahamut, son of Io, stood before us, leaning upon a massive battleaxe.
As I and Talos fell to our knees in reverence, the four spoke to us in perfect unison in the language of the gods, appearing to me as clear and fluent elvish. They show us an image of Orcus, sitting upon a throne in Icaria, ruling over legions of undead, all roaming freely about the material planes. The prince of the undead sat next to an immense primordial being, obviously displaying an alliance between the two. They warned that a war will come, and the gods defeated. Worst of all, Sehanine will fall. The land on which we were brought within the luminous body is a vestige of an apocalyptic possible future, existing outside of time.
They explain that Orcus will attempt to trigger chaotic and destructive events upon the mortal realms, distracting agents of the deities, leaving them vulnerable to the plans of the demon prince. He aims to take over the underworld, taking the souls from the Raven Queen and ruling all of existence with an unending army of the dead.
We were given the task to defend the planes against these attacks, and warn the Raven Queen of the impending disaster. They explained that their power is weak, so they had to channel it into a material being, Without. His birth and course of existence, including the orb he carried, was a plan to gather us chosen warriors together and guide us to this location. Unfortunately, his mission was completed and must now return to the celestial realm with the gods.
As the image of the deities disappeared and the wall turned to cold, blank stone, Without exploded in an eruption of divine light and energy, which we all felt channeled into our bodies. All that remained of our dear friend was his last, lingering word, "Ow."
It was then I noticed my hair had returned, and the four stone archways lit up, each holding a portal with a repeating image.
The first portal we recognized as a temple of Bahamut. Around it stood soldiers wearing Talos's symbol of the Vanguard of the Dragon. Though the image was silent, they were obviously shouting to each other, drawing their weapons, and filing into position in preparation of something. Then, the image flashes and shows demons pouring in on all sides of the fighters, overwhelming them and tearing them apart. After that, the image repeats.
The second portal showed what I recognized as the city of Mithrendain in the Feywild, the pride of eladrin civilization. The image of the city council members arguing with each other, pointing fingers and yelling as a few storm away fades to that of eladrin soldiers fighting foulspawn and feydark creatures in the streets, as they burst forth from the ground below. The image then faded to these creatures roaming the streets among corpses of my people before starting over.
The third image was that of undead thralls burning and poisoning a swampy forest while staving off a futile resistance by a primitive and tribal assortment of creatures Elwoz recognized as residents of Big Root, his home. This image then shows spirits of nature, emerging from the waters and attacking every living thing in sight, natives and undead, before that image repeats itself.
Lastly, we see Corath and Lim'Shargoth among others in what appears to be the Denmok palace, standing around a map, shouting orders to soldiers that run in and out of the room. That turns then to demonic and undead creatures pouring in from the windows and doors as soldiers are cut down, and finally Lim'Shargoth and Corath, fighting back to back, are consumed by the wave of monstrous abominations.
Shaken by these images, we talked at length about what portal to take first and what the consequences may be of the order in which we take. We concluded from our meeting with the gods that they would aid us in our ability to travel to each of these lands and save these people. It stood to reason, then, that we should take our rest, and when we arise, pick a portal and aid whichever peoples we encounter first.
I doubt the others are sleeping well. I know that I am apprehensive, but I am also honored and excited. The gods themselves summoned us to aid them in their divine battle. There is no doubt that we will be successful, knowing that we are chosen warriors of the gods. Though I am sure of our abilities, my mind is plagued by images of snow, fleeing, and regret. Perhaps it is the emotional toll of some of these images or perhaps the loss of our friend, Without, but I must retain my determination and faith.
We shall begin our journey soon, travelling to these lands and protecting these people from the evil, vanquishing it and thwarting the wicked plans of Orcus and his primordial allies. Praise be to Corellon; praise be to Sehanine; praise be to Melora; and praise be to Bahamut! They have trusted in our might and we shall not let them down!
