Tuesday

 

My Dearest Brother Thermadillion,

 

I bring you glad tidings!  Our long-dreamt day has finally arrived.  We have found it!

 

Those adventurers that I laid a Geas upon have finally done completed their task, and after many months probing the slopes of the Flametooth Mountains, they have found the entrance we have long sought.  We have it!  We have found the entrance to the Hellsmaw!

 

Once I gather a few supplies I will teleport there at once, and we will finally see if our desire lays behind those ancient, alien doors.  I will send daily messages via my Astral Sparrow so that you will be able to read my accounts of what I have seen.  You should also be able to see some images I cast into the sparrow's eyes.  Look to your window tomorrow for my sparrow, and remember he prefers crushed rubies for his payment.

 

I cannot believe it has been 8 long years since we lost our beloved sister Amarel.  I curse the day that we found that evil blade, and I wish I would have acted with greater haste to stop her from drawing it forth.  The look upon her face as she vanished to the Hellscape still bides within me a great pain. 

 

Perhaps, very soon, we shall see her again.  I only hope we are not too late.  I have from a malicious, yet truthful, source that the region of the Hellscape that our sister was banished has recently acquired a new ruler.  It is said he is tenfold more foul and cruel in the region.

 

Your devoted brother,

 

Slithigarriett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

 

 

My Dearest Brother Thermadillion,

 

I have much to tell but my time is short.  Let me write in brief as to what fell deeds have befallen your devoted kindred.

 

After I gathered a good assortment of useful supplies, I used a teleportation magick to arrive just outside the hidden cave entrance found yesterday by our hirelings.  They did a deed most crafty as the opening was well spelled to hide itself from the outside world.  Fortunately for us the evil that weaved the warding magicks also left a foul taint upon the very ground where it labored those many centuries.  Over time it warped the living things around it into horrid expressions of its malevolence.  I know our druidical friend Morgan TaMoor would find this place to be an abomination.  Since I knew the entrance was near this place of dread, it took a simple bit of abjuration to find the hidden entrance.

 

I quickly entered the small cavern and found its hindwall completely sealed by some horrific grand skull gateway that was flanked by glowing braziers of licking flames.  Whether these flames had been burning all these many centuries I know not, but alas I can be certain that they were altogether evil and foul.  I could hear the pitiful screams of many a lost soul as if it was their flesh that did provide its fuel.

 

Standing upon a Great Seal of Power, I was able to wealfully employ my Chime of Opening to cast the gate to its foundation.  The stench that filled the small cavern was most foul, and it felt like the wake of a great wave of disdain had overwashed the chamber.  My skin still feels its vile touch, and I can almost feel it seeping into my very skin.

 

It was then that I presented forth a holy relic that I have long found great power there within.  The Holy Writ of Ascension was a great comfort to my troubled soul, and as I opened its ancient pages and began singing one of its holy hymns I found that the stench and the grief to be almost bearable.  After I gathered my courage I stepped into the vile darkness.  With only the faint muted illumination of my glowing Robe of Blessed Colors to guide my steps, I made my way into a curious chamber that laid beyond.

 

The small room was dominated by a set of stairs and a large platform of basaltic rock that were supported by ghastly tentacle-like appendages which sprang out of the very floor.  I thought a great madness had taken me, but my fear of insanity soon turned to a base great dread as I was able to discern that these tentacles were, in fact, slowly shifting and moving.  They were alive!  And yet I saw that they acted as careful symphony of purpose so as the stairs stones and platform did not waiver in their position.

 

 

 

 

As I stepped first upon the stairs I felt the room grow instantly hotter in temperature, and the stench in the room shifted from foul to most foul.  It was at that time that I turned the Holy Writ to another hymn, and I quickly began to sing of protection from fire and flame and the evil that employs it for fell purpose.  It was a great comfort to me as I reached the top of the stairs and my eyes took in the sight no mortal should bear witness.  Before my lay the Hellsmaw and within its hungry orifice I beheld the tortured souls sacrificed here many centuries ago.  It ached my very bones to see such suffering, and my heart labored greatly to keep beating in the face of such ill-fate.  My thoughts turned to our hapless sister Amarel, and the pain she must have long consumed, and it was my love for her that allowed me to endure such horrors.

 

I am to enter the Hellsmaw in short order, and I have sent this sparrow as a record of what I have witnessed.  It pains me to enter a new world to find someone I love most dear, but only to leave another dear one behind.  Please know I would do this most troublesome deed for you as well.  It has been my profound honor and laborless task to call you my kin.  I hope to send another Astral Sparrow as circumstance and providence dictate.

 

 

 

 

Your devoted brother,

 

Slithigarriett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 more to come tomorrow...