Riddle me this... Existential questions about good and evil

XX/XX
 
I've finally done it. That trip to Sodom paid off! As we were looting the place, I found a spectral whistle — aka Berry's safe playpen. Now, I can always bring him with me and call for him when there is no danger around! I can't abuse this endlessly as there are limitations to it, but as long as I can take a rest with him at the end of a day, I am happy as can be. Of course I much prefer our outings around the outpost, as there is a certain sense of safety there now. But I will now be able to spare myself the heartache of saying my goodbyes before I leave my best Berry behind.
 
It's certainly given me the confidence to venture out again. I honestly don't know why I'm doing this, but something is pulling me in that direction. The direction where we suspect the shadowy deer. I've been hunched over the scriptures that I managed to get translated for days at this point. There is something about it that simply doesn't add up. A great tree people pray to — yeah, sounds very familiar, been there, done that. But the way they speak about the deer? Something must have happened to the poor thing. If it is a corrupted guardian of the forest, I fear the area will be in horrible shape. I can't quite imagine what else it might be and my curiosity won't let me forget about it.
 
Medyr, the one who translated the text for me, as well as two others are joining me on this expedition. I hope we learn more about this place and manage to help whatever unfortunate creature we find in that swamp...
 
XX/XX
 
Our commissioner sent us past the boundaries of the border the fey magic had created around the swamp. Once again, I find myself surrounded by fey magic — who knows in which ways it will mess with me this time?
Anyways. Swamp land. The switch from the salt plains to here has been pretty intense, not gonna lie. The biggest difference, however, is the knowledge that we definitely are not alone. While the place certainly looks desolate, I caught sight of a humanoid creature almost as soon as we stepped in. It didn't take us long to see just what exactly had been watching us and it's honestly impressive how I just keep coming across worse and worse things.
Runak looked terrible due to the experiments that had been done to him. The hovering guy we saw at Sodom had horrible vibes about him. But this guy?
Undead. Bright red eyes just stalking us, his body like a walking corpse — all of it is just wrong. What's the worst about it is...he's not attacking us. He certainly looks like something we should fight, judging by how things have been going here, but I still believe an attack on another creature (?) should not be handed out when not provoked.
I just wonder what his deal is.
We're resting in a stone house now. The walls are painted with murals, telling a story. It seems to be his story, judging by the big sword he carries on his back.
Oh right, we also found a pond. Apparently I was the only one who could see her, but there was a mermaid clutching a great sword in it. She unfortunately did not want to talk to me and was terribly wary of me...
However, judging by the empty scabbard on our Stalker's back, it must be his sword.
Anyways. The mural showed our cloaked acquaintance hovering about, folks cowering away from him. After that, the mural shows some folks praying to a great tree before the pick up torches and approach the cloaked figure. The thing is... It might be meant to be read in the other direction, too?
This day has been very very confusing. The illusion runes on the wooden poles in the swamp, the mermaid in the pond, this undead reverent... I can't make sense of it.
What concerns me the most is that nothing has tried to attack us so far. Even in all her anger, I could see a tinge of guilt in the mermaid's eyes. The reverent, too, has not attacked us, even when we provoked him by trying our hands at the six candles ritual. They seem as confused by our presence as we are by theirs.
 
I just wish I had an inkling of who the "bad" guy is in all of this... But such are the complexities of life. It is silly how an undead offers me the first opportunity to brood over such matters — my previous apprehensions in that regard were quite literally squashed by Runak.
 
I will continue my shift of the night watch, but I have a feeling that little more will happen. There definitely has been enough already.
 
XX/XX
 
Fey magic is not to be questioned, it should simply be accepted. As we headed out this morning, we were promptly teleported back to just about where we had started. Not lingering on it any longer, we changed our route and went deeper into the settlement. These stone buildings were preserved far better than the wooden ones we encountered first when we entered, but this area gives off a slight sense of religious fanatism. Images of the great tree were etched and scribbled onto every surface that offered enough space for it. The text had claimed it to be protective, but just what did they fear so badly to put them in every nook and cranny?
 
Some more murals in (what seemed to be) a house of worship gave us some more...suggestions, yet still no definite answer. Instead, a new character was introduced into this mix and thinking of her just makes my hair stand on end. Her name, Kaina, was written into the mural in sylvan. Her looming presence, however, spelled out danger to me.
The first mural once again showed people praying to the tree, yet this time there was a young fowl resting under the tree as well. It also showed our stalker, standing over the deer as he strikes it down with his great sword.
This alone made me nauseated enough, since it looked like a horrible ritual killing of an innocent creature, but the next mural only grew worse.
The thought of it makes me want to spit venom in agony.
They artfully displayed how they ripped out the deer's antlers over and over and over again! Each time, the deer grew bigger, regrowing a mightier set of antlers, just to have it ripped out yet again! These savages even proudly painted the deer's suffering expression onto their walls!
Just writing this down makes bile rush to my throat. I don't remember ever feeling such anger bubble up inside of me — I truly feel ready to burst but I just don't know who I ought to beat to a pulp!
The thing is: the other murals showed our stalker as a great hero, protecting this village — until it turned into a tale of betrayal. The hero's murals have suffered a great deal of destruction, while the traitor's murals were left intact and seemed much newer than the rest. Had the stalker been led into his cruel actions, only to be shunned for them later on? Did that alleviate any of his guilt?
 
Before I even had a chance to ponder over these matters properly, everything started to happen so fast. My memory fails me on the details here, as things became a mess. But the deer finally appeared. Hues of spectral green and blue coated its huge, altered body, a trail of twilight dragging behind as it passed between the trees in the distance. It's face...outright melted, falling to the floor and seemingly dissipating upon impact. It held all the majesty and horror one would expect from such a tortured soul that persisted despite all odds. My heart ached, yet I have no way to know how I should feel about this deer.
It simply stood and watched us as we chased after our stalker, who had rushed off the find the poles with the illusion runes.
He failed horribly at it, digging just a few steps away from the poles as if he vaguely knew where they are but couldn't see the three pieces obviously sticking out of the bog.
Dessik had approached him and went down within seconds, only to inform us that he had received insight into a memory. That lady, Kaina, had been standing behind our stalker who was gently stroking the fawn. Suddenly, she reached out and the stalker's fingers grew thorns, shredding into the poor deer. It apparently seemed like he couldn't stop, as if he felt guilt and pain over all of this.
At this point, I am almost inclined to believe him...even just a little.
See, when we did end up helping him by destroying one of the illusion runes, a pile of burning candles appeared. He destroyed them. Curiously enough, the deer shrunk as he did this and seemed rather happy about it, too.
And just when I think things get easier, the guy turns into a darned Werwolf.
I won't lie, I felt my stomach drop for a bit because the boy was BIG and alongside his transformation, a bunch of specters appeared and started to attack us.
But they also attacked HIM.
As we dealt with a few of them, our wolfish acquaintance ran off. The deer just kept watching all of this...
We re-encountered our stalker at the mermaid's pond, he seemed to be searching for her. I remember that the others saw her as a statue with illusion runes on her arms, so maybe he was aiming to destroy those runes... Still, she has the great sword and until we determine whether he's friend or foe, I have no intention to give him an opportunity to get that sword.
I really ought to try and talk to the mermaid again, though. She rose out of the pond and our eyes met. Outside of the water, she looks undead, too. Her ghastly body bent over the surface, pointing us in a direction we hadn't gone to before.
I didn't even question it as I relayed this information and guided my party in that direction. Really, our other options were to either stay with an undead mermaid and a werwolf or to run back to a humongous spectral deer.
 
We found a cottage, which I am currently writing from. It looks cozy. There's soup bubbling over the fire, the house is in good shape...the comfort of it all almost made me drowsy. Buuuut there is a set of clothes in here, which are topped by a belt which seems to be made of human skin.
Suddenly this does NOT feel very cozy anymore.
Apparently, a belt like that may be able to de-transform a werwolf. I assume we'll be taking it back to our big friend after we take a rest here. I just hope he takes it as a peace offering and stops being a creep.
 
I'm still so confused. The deer, the reverent, the mermaid — they're all suffering in their own way but there definitely is a connection between all of them. The reverent betrayed the deer, even if it wasn't his intention. The mermaid must have gotten the sword from the reverent somehow — but she seemed scared of the settlement. And the deer... It hasn't attacked any of us. Not us, not the reverent, not the things that attacked us. I don't think any of them are... Truly evil. There is a missing piece in all of this. I have a feeling it's connected to the owner of this cottage, the person who created the illusion runes and Kaina.
 
And you know what? Thinking about finding this missing link makes my hair stand on end. I have a feeling I don't want to know, but need to know what happened here. I just hope we can salvage as many souls here as we can. May we at least be able to deliver them to wherever they move on to beyond this plane of existence.
 
I shall not call for Berry while we are in this environment. Still... Clutching his whistle close to myself soothes me enough to alleviate the headache that's been plaguing me. I hope my warmth reaches him...