Fragment of A Forbidden Truth

Written by Meta_Nexus

6th of Parat, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
I've been assigned to a scientific expedition to investigate substantial claims of newly discovered underground ruins in the Eastern Reaches. I expect it to be more nonsense from some local farmer stumbling drunkenly into a cave with the wall covered in some etchings made by children, but we shall see the truth of it before long. The expedition is made up by seven members, including myself, and we're all mostly of academic origins, except for the guide who will be taking us the entire way and back. He is a man of few words, but seems to focus entirely on his tasks, so that's good enough for me. The rest of the team includes a boisterous and excitable set of twins, Horace and Borun who are experts in various archaic forms of architecture, Rorik who is an oddly nervous man that studies several dead languages, Ferrus who is an inquisitor joining on behalf of the church's interests and is well-versed in the matters of the scriptures and the divine of course, and finally Hilda who is the fairly young and stalwart representative of the Academic Council in charge of this expedition, if I recall her scholarly interests were focused on heretical teachings of dead cultures--if you're reading this journal then you certainly already know my area of expertise. The journey will take us a little more than a week each way, so at least if it is local nonsense, I should still be back home for the holiday celebrations. We set out with two horse-drawn wagons loaded with the necessary equipment and provisions for the journey in two days' time.

17th of Parat, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
Bad weather, broken wheels, and highway robbers. Delay after delay. The bad weather came first and slowed our progress to a crawl for the first several days. The rain restricted visibility, created muddy areas, and made sleep difficult. A very poor start to a lengthy trip. Just when the weather cleared, a small group of thugs emerged from the forest on either side of us. I think we were all surprised to see how well Priam, our guide of few words, could handle a blade. When that gaggle of brigands halted us, I thought we'd lose all of our vital excavating equipment to them, but without a word or a sound of any kind, Priam deftly dispatched each of them, most before they could react or defend themselves. It was a sight to behold, even if I couldn't keep up with much of it. The excitement startled the lead wagon's horse and she ran the wheel over a large stone at a bad angle, busting it badly. We've had to wait for a replacement to be delivered from the next town still another day ahead of us. Of Priam, it is proving difficult to figure him out. He's obviously a deeply humble man, practical, and a tireless worker. Rather than waste a moment to celebrate or take stock of things, as soon as the highwaymen were disposed of and he saw the busted wheel, he told us "wait there, I'll get a replacement" and he immediately set off ahead on his own horse. Best we can guess is that he is an ex-soldier, or former mercenary perhaps. No matter his history though, we're lucky to have him along. Hopefully he'll be back with the wheel before anything else comes out of the forest. I can swear I hear Rorik speaking in tongues at night sometimes. Maybe he's just praying.

21st of Parat, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
Hilda decided we should stay a night here in the town that provided the new wheel for us. They're letting us stay for free since Priam took care of those brigands--apparently they had been harassing the people coming in and out of the town for months on end. A good deed always returns, as they say. Honestly, I'm glad we're taking a rest here. Sleeping in wagons is bad enough, but tonight I'll be free of Rorik's mutterings in the dark as well. Somehow Ferrus' prayers are reassuring, but Rorik's are unnerving. I'm too tired to try to understand it. In the morning we'll be resupplied and continue our journey Eastward.

26th of Parat, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
Priam saved us all again. We're due to arrive in Hornburg on the morn, but we were set upon in our sleep by beasts from the field. I didn't know what was happening until it was already over. Wolves or wild dogs? Hard for me to tell in this darkness. Vicious, though. Somehow Priam managed to kill them all without getting so much as a scratch. Hilda got a nasty bite when she tried to help him by swinging a burning torch down at the beasts, however. We cleaned the wound and wrapped it as best we could. We'll know in the morning if there's sign of infection. Rorik seems to have wandered off at some point during the night. We called for him but there's been no sign yet. We'll have to search for him as well. Strange that those beasts were trying to go after us instead of the horses.

2nd of Zephus, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
ASTOUNDING! No other word describes the underground ruins! After arriving in Hornburg, we had the town's doctor look over Hilda's wound. It showed signs of a mild infection, but after he recleaned it, put curatives on it, and bandaged it anew, he said she would travel better after two day's resting and should have no further risk beyond that. The rest of us were quite eager to see the ruins, however, and we all agreed that Ferrus would stay behind with Hilda and organize a search party to see what became of Rorik, while Priam took myself and the twins to verify the existence and significance of the site. It was more than I could ever dream of. We had little time to investigate properly, since we'd left most of our equipment in town in favor of expedience, but now that we know the ruins are real, we'll be returning on the morrow when Hilda will be able to join us. Sadly the search party found no sign of Rorik whatsoever. Hopefully the man just went back the way we came out of nerves and did not end up wandering into the wilds alone. Who knows what's out there?

10th of Zephus, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
There's simply too much for our group to handle in any short amount of time. How were these structures even built here? Nothing makes sense on the surface level. They expand further down below than any of us dare to go, and looks tell there is ample space for even all the royal capital's inhabitants to dwell comfortably within, but that's also the strange thing about them. There's plenty of evidence of course that this place was built, but little to show of the people who lived here. No organic remains of any kind, not even lichen or fungi on any of the structures. It's unnervingly quiet down here. The kind of quiet that makes one unable to think. We stay close together for safety's sake the majority of the time, but it also helps my sanity. I want to stay and investigate all the enigmatic sigils and carvings forever, but we're constantly in need of fresh supplies from town. Nothing edible grows on the surface above the ruins, and there is no fresh water above nor below. I'm curious to know how the builders and inhabitants were able to stay here. Maybe they weren't and that's why they're gone...but why settle here at all? Aside from the ruins themselves, what is there of value here? Perplexing. I hope there are more answers here than questions, in the end. We'll stay for as long as the weather permits us, but it's already getting cold. Soon the snows will come and then we'll have to leave. We'll organize a much larger expedition come the Spring. The undertaking will be so much easier with more people and more supplies.
I hesitate to mention it to anyone else, but I thought I heard Rorik talking in the empty halls nearby when I was alone collecting some samples last night...I was probably just tired, though. The samples themselves were quite intriguing. I'll write more about them after I've had a chance to better study them, though.

21st of Hiem, in the year 113 after Deadhaus
The journey back has been uneventful so far compared to the thrill of the findings during the excavation. It would have been nice to stay longer, but the cold season has now firmly set in, and soon the roads will become completely impassable, and with no hope of steady supplies, remaining any longer was not an option. Even so, the prospects for such an important discovery have left me feeling more giddy than I have ever been in memory. The few things we've taken with us were only that which was easily transported and worth further study and preservation. A few tablets with undeciphered language carved into them--likely by magical means, small reliquaries of unknown purpose, and a smattering of other strange compact devices which are certainly ages beyond hope of ever functioning again are among our spoils. Notably there was some evidence we were not the first people to enter those particular ruins, nor even the first team of researchers, since nearby some of the rune-carved tablets I also discovered a scrap of manuscript written in the Old Tongue. At first I thought perhaps Rorik had come and gone before us somehow, but the handwriting is not his, and the vellum is quite old and fragile. It reads as follows:

The blind have no eyes, yet they see it...

The mute have no voice, yet they speak it...

The deaf have no ears, yet they hear it...

The insane have no reason, yet they know it...

The lost have no guidance, yet they seek it...

They have no animus, y e t t h e y l i v e . . . .

I anticipate it to be a partial translation of the carvings on the tablets, but I haven't been able to find any commonality between the manuscript and the carvings themselves. There's something missing, a piece of this puzzle that has yet to reveal itself. I thought that I had a revelation in one of my dreams, but nothing came of it sadly. I've had more nightmares the past several nights instead. Darkness, being lost in the depths of the ruins, and always Rorik whispering something to me, but I can't make out what he's saying. It feels like I'm being watched while I'm asleep and awake now. The others have said they had similar dreams, though Hilda said in hers she's still being attacked by that wild dog or whatever it was--I didn't see any of their remains on our way through the area where we were attacked by them, so perhaps some hunters or the like found a use for their meat and pelts while we were in the ruins. I feel badly for Hilda, poor girl. Her fever spiked sharply last evening. If she survives the trip back to the capital, we have the best healers there who might better be able to cure the infection. That rural doctor was probably used to treating animals more than people. Priam has said little, as always, but he may just be better at dealing with the troubles of the road than us scholars and researchers. Perhaps much of it is just stress from the journey. It is very exciting, though, the prospects the site may yet yield. It could become the most important discovery of our age, or perhaps all ages. The academies likely will remain skeptical as we were until they see it as well. I can hardly wait to go back!

//Hasty, messy scratchings follow as the final entry
Wrong! Wrong! It's all wrong! They came out of nowhere and Priam, he...why would he turn on us like that? We never stood a chance. All a mess of blood and screams. The screams...they weren't human were they? I got away, but I'm now lost in these godsforsaken woods. What happened? The first thing I recalled was waking from the twin's scream. Was it Horace or Borun? No, the whispers came first. I thought I was having another nightmare. Rorik was there, then? Then one of them screamed...Hilda was biting out his throat. What came over her? Her eyes weren't human anymore. The other twin was trying to pull her off of him, but then Priam...he cut him down without a single utterance. Ferrus...he was fighting back something I couldn't see. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, I knew I had to flee at once. I heard the other screams after that, but they weren't human. I dared not look back to see what was making those horrid cries. I thought I was being followed, and I still feel like I'm being watched, but I had to rest. I'll move again soon...it's hard to write with my hands shaking like this anyway. I'm sorry, gods I don't know what we did to deserve this, but I'm sorry! Phoenix guide my soul to the light. I have to keep going West, back toward the capital. I have to tell someone what happened. I'm going to move again now. There's a bit more light for me to see my way.
If I don't survive, whoever finds this tell my wife I'm sorry for what I said before I left, and that I love her dearly.


//from the journal of an unfortunate researcher

Type

Journal, Personal