Mystvale, Session 2

What a shit show today. Today? Yesterday? I've honestly lost track, going from a week stuck at home to staying up for over 24 hours straight the past two days. Coupled with the mist, telling what time of day it currently is proves to be difficult, yet that's the least of my problems. Arlian, why the hell are you here???
 
When last I left off, I found myself fighting off sleep in order to write my journal. Seems I lost that fight and experienced a... we'll call it a "weird" dream. I found myself back at home, our cabin outside of Grandseal. As fate would have it, I found myself staring at the journals of both my parents closed on the desk in front of me. It was then that I heard a voice. "This is their heir?" It said something along those lines anyway, I can't remember exactly. I recognized that it was coming from my mind, yet I looked around the room trying to find the source. It spoke to me again, something chastising I believe, but all I remember was the white light and the searing pain from behind me. Twisting around, I tried to get a better look at the source of the pain but my eyes met nothing. Then again, another flash of light, this time in front of me. Through the light I could see mom, her hand outstretched towards me. The light grew brighter as I found myself being woken up by Skolvar.
 
As Skolvar shook my shoulders, everyone had gathered at the bar I had fell asleep at. When I say everyone, it was just my party. No Theo, Dana, or Odessa in sight. That wasn't the only odd thing though as I felt around my back where the pain was in my dream. Much to my surprise, my back hurt to touch. I couldn't feel exactly what was there, but the area around it was painful. On top of this, apparently my back was glowing, as was a spot on everyone in the party. Hem's back scars seemed to be glowing, Skolvar's shoulder had a glowing bruise on it, Jenel's brand was lit up, and Arvenna had a symbol on her as well. As if us all recognizing these things was a trigger, they stopped glowing and the pain went away. I was unsure what to think, but my survival instincts took over as I asked where our friendly tavern workers were. No one had seen them, and the doors to the building were still jammed shut. We checked each of the rooms and of course, Mystvale's dense mist was pressed right up against the windows. Well, flowing in through the windows seeing as most were broken. Seeing as there was no sign of our friends, all of us worked together to shove clothes, bedrolls, and other fabrics underneath the doors in order to prevent the mist from getting through. As the others were finishing up, I noticed that Jenel wasn't doing anything and there were no more doors to take care of. I took the opportunity to ask her to describe what was on my back. She said it was a sword, drawing it on a piece of paper. She attempted to anyway. It wasn't the best drawing, but it looked similar to dad's sword, the one he wielded when he had a pact with Arlian.
 
Everyone reconvened and debated what we should do next, but a loud noise was heard from the front door. It was as if something was slamming itself against it so Skolvar and Hem worked together to barricade the door with the piano and a table. Whatever was on the other side of the door wanted in badly and would soon get its wish. Each slam showed that our makeshift barricade would not last long and we had to act quickly. Deciding it was best to move rather than sit and wait, we made our way over to the basement entrance. Skolvar and Hem had checked this earlier. The darkness Skolvar and I found in the homes in town had swallowed the basement completely. Those of us with darkvision could not see through the darkness and our light magic would not shine through. But seeing as the front door would not last long, we all made our way down.
 
I expected to find ourselves in a storeroom. Thinking positively, I had also hoped our friends were down here as well. A storeroom was not what we found ourselves in. Skolvar, being familiar with the place due to his uh, previous escapades, informed us that we were not in the basement he remembered. Instead, we found ourselves in a tunnel. We had no choice but to keep walking, and after some time we found ourselves facing our first enemy of the day. A HUGE pool of moving flesh seemed to form into the rough shape of a pig, the bodies that made up this creature being visible to everyone. Thankfully, it looked much scarier than it really was seeing as we felled it shortly as well as the second one that had been behind it. Collecting ourselves, we decided to keep pushing forward. These pig monsters had been right next to a cliff in the tunnel, probably a good 40 foot drop. Most of the party tried climbing down the rock face only to find themselves falling as they lost their footing. Me however, seeing that the pig monster bodies had somewhat fallen down this cliff and formed a "ladder," I made my way down there, the safer option (sorry mom, had to put on the gloves for this one. I cleaned them after, if that helps at all). After healing was distributed at the bottom of the cliff, we continued onward for quite some time.
 
It must have been hours before we had our next encounter in this tunnel system. A group of figures covered in burial shrouds, numbering around 20, appeared from seemingly out of nowhere and formed a wall in front of us. They didn't attack however. They simply held their arms out to block our path. Skolvar noticed that they might have been trying to speak to us and mentioned that they could be similar to the figures we found in town, so we told them we meant no harm and asked to converse with them. One figure, seemingly the leader, stepped forward and removed the shroud from the neck up. It seemed even more deformed than the figures we found in town. At least those were identifiable, but I couldn't make out any useful details on these even if I tried. What I did take note of however was that their shrouds did not have the embroidery that the Rising Dawn Parish used on theirs. We were able to converse with these "people" with writing. I offered a pen and paper and they answered our questions. Long story short, they were the captives of something that went by the name of Duro. Duro was sleeping further down the cave and the figures were trying to protect us from it. They were its captives, saying that they couldn't leave this place. While they didn't ask for our help, we offered it, saying that if they led us to Duro we would do what we could.
 
We soon found ourselves at an opening to the cave on our right. This area was illuminated slightly by moss. The noises of.... thumping could be heard from this area. Jenel had cast a spell to keep us stealthy, so we poked our heads around the corner to see for ourselves what this "Duro" was. The first thing I saw was the sight of two large... toads? They were like mutated toads, being much larger than any of us. They were, well, they were fucking. Surrounding the platform they were on was some green liquid that I did not want to try and identify as well as about 6-7 of the creatures we had found in the tunnel when we first left our home. We probably could have just snuck past them, but we couldn't let these monsters survive. Hoping the same trick I used last time would work again, I used my magic to make an arrow smell like meat and fired it into the corner of the cave. All but one of the toads and two of the humanoid creatures jumped at the arrow, grouping up quite nicely for my shatter spell. This gave away our position, so we began firing projectiles at the larger toad as we retreated a bit into the cave hoping to form somewhat of a choke point.
 
The fight lasted just under a minute. None of us were knocked unconscious and we felled all of the creatures within the cave. While we weren't knocked unconscious, Jenel and I used most of our healing during the fight and we were in no condition to continue onward right away. Wanting more information from the figures we met earlier on, we made our way back and had planned to rest a bit. We repeated the same process as earlier, giving them a piece of paper and pen to write with as we asked our questions. We found out that these creatures did not know where they were, or why they couldn't leave despite Duro being slain. It was at this point that Hem asked who these things worshiped. Throughout the process of asking these questions, I didn't think much of these beings. They were friendly, but were confused about many things. This question was an interesting one though. These creatures did not know where they were and had not heard of Briarcreek so this could have been a good way to determine who they were. Thankfully I was watching, as the person who was writing down his answer spelled out H-A-S-T before I snatched the paper out of its hands. I didn't need it to finish writing that. These fuckers worshiped that fake Sol who declared war against the kingdoms of the three saviors! Thankfully, THANKFULLY, they didn't react negatively to my doing this. I instructed them to not write the name of that being, and they agreed. I didn't need my group's heads exploding. Speaking of the group, they were clearly very confused given my actions. I told them i'd explain later and they agreed, so we asked a few more questions before walking out of earshot so I could explain to everyone.
 
I know dad used the names of Prism's true enemies in his journal, but i'm not going to risk using them here. Someone could read this and die. But anyways, we talked about the god of these things from the tunnels. I gave my group as brief of an explanation as possible, saying I couldn't say much due to the nature of these beings but that I would answer what I could. They had a few questions, such as why they couldn't hear the names and if these gods could be killed. Poor Hem though, it seems he might have the gift but i'm not sure. While I was explaining things to the others, he walked towards the figures. He said he wouldn't ask for the name, so I let him go. As I continued explaining, Jenel mentioned a figure in yellow that Hem was talking to. That fucking bastard. Not Hem, the figure in yellow. If that was "Sol" I knew we were fucked if he tried to do anything. I looked over at Hem, but he wasn't talking to anyone. I rushed over anyways, hoping he was alright.
 
By the time we got to Hem, he was seated against the wall grasping his head. Thank Nodens he was still alive. Turns out, the figure in yellow said the name to him and Hem's head DIDN'T EXPLODE. Oh man, Hem is one lucky guy. Had he not had the ability to hear the names of the great old ones, he'd have been dead before we got there. Looking in his eyes, I knew he understood why the name should not be said. While he didn't die, he had definitely been hurt. He promised never to say that name, and I trust him completely. It was at this point that we continued on down the tunnel, but I was confused. If Arlian was with me, if he was listening, the Arlian I read about would have torn himself free of my body as soon as the name came to mind. This was... worrying.
 
We continued on, walking for what seemed to be hours. Eventually, we found a familiar sight, the creatures we had slain in the tunnels when we left home the other day. Our well was also within sight, and staring out of it showed no sign of the heavy mists. The group cleaned themselves and we made our way into our home. We removed the boxes we had placed in front of the door and searched the house. No signs of entry, but there were scratch marks on the front door. There also wasn't anyone within the house, thankfully. However, it was hard to hear but there was chanting coming from outside. We gathered by the window and we saw the glow of torches, the sight of pitchforks, both of which were being carried towards our home by the townspeople. They were alive! But why were they marching towards us as an angry mob?
 
*Will continue from this point in journal 3, but will use the space below to touch a bit on Lance's personal thoughts this day. This will also be found in the journal he keeps on him.*
 
Arlian, that is you, isn't it? I heard you in my dream. I heard you during the fight against the toad-like creatures. Jenel helped me look at my tattoo and it looks EXACTLY like how dad described your sword. But why are you so quiet? The Arlian I read about always jumped at an opportunity to weaken mom and dad's enemies, his enemies. We found a group of followers who worshiped one of those enemies and you said NOTHING. You did NOTHING. If that really is you, what the hell happened? And even more worrisome, if you're here, what happened to dad? If something happened to him... no. Nothing could happen to him. He is one of the few people in history to ever draw the ire of The Priest. He is one of the few people in history to ever go to battle with The Priest. He is the ONLY person in history to go to battle with The Priest and survive. He's still out there, I know it, and your being here with me has to be some sort of fluke. If you're watching as I write this Arlian, still silently watching and refusing to speak when I pose you questions, what the hell?
 
*Lance nearly dies*