Saturday 7 July 2012

3rd of Garm-mah, 641 S.C.

The Journal of Rafiq al-Rashid

It took several hours to transport the draconic library out of the hellish temple but it was worth the effort. I could not allow such artifacts to be burned alongside the Ankivari heresy. My grasp of the draconic language is simple at best, and the archives were written in a script far older than any word now spoken. It was difficult to make out much more than phrases and fragments, until Pang placed a book in my lap, opened on a page that depicted a map of this very island.
I traced our path on the map from where we landed at the southernmost point, through the forest to this temple and there in the north was a marking. A tiny circle overlapped part of the cliffs where a river flowed off into the ocean.

The books were large, too large to take with us despite my objections. So I tore the map from the book and we proceeded through the dense undergrowth towards the the northern cliffside.
After what felt like several hours, we came to the edge of the island; a sheer cliff face maybe four hundred paces high the plunged deep into the surf below. From our vantage point we were able to make out a large cave entrance that bore deep into the cliffside. We rigged up a couple or harnesses and descended down the cliff face into the cave below, entirely unprepared for what we would find.

The creatures were clad in leather, hide and chain from head to toe, their faces obscured by dark red protective eyewear. They asked no questions, nor gave any quarter and nearly overwhelmed us several times during the fight. Maggots and bile spilled from every wound we inflicted and they fought with unholy vigor. Could these creatures have been the result of the Ankivari library that rots the heart of this land? Or was there another force in play here? So many questions filled my head, but luckily we were granted a single answer. In one of the side caverns lay six large reptilian eggs, immediately recognisable as the final goal of Xo-Tang’s quest.

Spending little time with the rotting cadavers, we made our way to the cave entrance and found the Jealous Wyrm and her captain waiting for us.

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