Malachi's Leather Bound Journal
Leather bound journal found in the desk in the catacombs beneath the Loki Temple of Deep Seshalas
Takes a PC of average intelligence 2-3 hours to peruse and identify the entries below as potentially relevant. They have been written over several months, as the ink in the earlier entries has faded somewhat. The last entry is clearly quite fresh (written in the last 1-2 days), and written quickly.
I have arrived in Loki and taken up residence at the Leering Stag. Rosle was correct: the clientele are exactly the sort of contacts needed. I plan to visit the temples here over the next week to see which will be most amenable to our message. Excited but nervous.
Rebuffed at that Temple to Talos! Fools! You would think a bunch of sailors praying not be sunk by storms over the waters would understand the need, desire to recapture the greatness of Melnea. Degenerate fools, unworthy to set foot on a ship – and to do what? Transport grain to other fat and lazy isles? Trade? We are a people of take what we need. May as well be fools from across the Kraken’s Bones!
I changed my tactics, and have met with greater success at the Temple of Deep Seshalas. There I found a congregation interested in knowledge, and providing insight into the greatness beneath the waves melded more easily with their held beliefs. I have also begun inviting some patrons of the Leering Stag to temple, though most feel they have better things to do. Will keep working. Rosle was beginning to get impatient, it will be good to report converts.
Eudora Loys is more astute than I first thought – she has begun to question my supposed “new gospel.” The older members and children all love and trust her implicitly – but many of the younger congregants, and many with infants, are coming along in their devotions to Kasralealam. The credentials as an acolyte of Deep Seshalas have paid dividends, everyone thinks that I am bringing newly found texts to light. I have also gained access to the crypts and found access to the Loki Catacombs. There is a spring that bears investigation deep below.
A portal to the plane of water! The continuous flow of salt water connects out below the western docks, but a portal! Providence is made clear. The first sacrifices to Kasralealam will begin next week!
She suspects much. Will need to find a way to replace her. Perhaps I can leverage something against her son.
Fools! Ham fisted fools! Some of the younger and zealous among my converts approached the priestess, and have tipped our hand, somewhat. She has become increasingly guarded. However, more than half of the congregation has pledged fealty to our Iron God. In another few weeks her suspicions will be meaningless.
she has begun to undermine me with other temples – starting with those fools bound to Talos. I am still making in roads with the devotees to Waukeen. She will need to be dealt with. I have also heard from Rosle that the Plague Merchant is coming. I have converted space in the catacombs for him, as well as creating a small set of jail cells to hold those who create too many problems. To the north is a room I have yet to safely explore. Two of the faithful entered, but soon after a door shut and by the time we could open it they were lying on the ground dead, bone broken and skin discolored. I haven’t the time now to disarm these magics, though I am intrigued by what they may hide.
The foul dragonborn has arrived. I had made some arrangements to put him up in rooms at the Staggering Dolphin, but he has, instead, set up a small pallet near the lab. He then summoned two giant octopi from the pool in the catacombs, though I know not if they came through the portal or via more mundane routes. He brought them to the lab where they died a rather gruesome death at his hands. They yet live, however, in some mockery of life. The use of such creatures does seem to portend our lords favor, though I must admit I cannot escape the feeling that he is working in his own, rather than the faith’s, interests.
where am I going to get grung prisoners? Rosle insists that I accommodate this mad-mans whims. The periapt provides some degree of comfort – though I am tempted to slit his throat and be done with this.
I found a contact with the Bloody Hands via some of the Dock Rat faithful. Grungs on the way.
grungs arrive. Small things, though I made the mistake of touching one and was sick for two nights (and couldn’t help but jump continuously until one of my brethren could heal me).
He has poisoned two of the converts! When I demanded an explanation, at the least, why he did not choose some of the stalwart holdouts to deep seshalas he simply said “they came more easily to hand. Their greater purpose is now served.” He then packed up his belongings, grabbed one of the grungs (how could he handle one so casually?!) and flesh of my brethren, and left through a portal circle he had hidden under his pallet!
Disaster. So distracted was I by that putrid interloper that I did keep my eye on the larger prize. I must find a way to rectify this before word gets back to Rosle. The priestess has fled. She was seen entering the northern room, and by the time word reached me she was gone. We have searched her house, and found no trace of her or her whelp.
I have dispatched a party of trackers. She has a head start, but they’ll find her…. Without her here I can redouble my efforts. Some have refused conversion, but continue to come to the temple. With time they will come to see the light. The congregation grows steadily, and additional members of the faithful have recently arrived and are similarly infiltrating other temples as well – how long until all of Tuulet is under our sway? How long until Kasralealam rises, his iron voice echoing over the land, throwing down the false gods and shattering the world as he did 5 millennia ago? Will we be ready? Will Melnea embrace the coming golden age?
