Comprilith Adventure Log #1 - Spooktober 2022

Recordings and sketches of one poor soul's adventure through the Comprilith

Well, it finally happened. My poor choices caught up with me, and as these things go, I've been left with no choice.
"Bring me some shit worth serious coin. Get it out of that accursed tower. Do that, and we'll go ahead and forget your uh, mistakes."
So here we go. Into the Comprilith. This will be my log of things I found. Maybe I'll even sketch them, who knows.
Let's go.

— Just some unlucky individual in way over their head.

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Day 1 - Portrait

Hmm. It's a portrait of Farad, in husk form.
I always get the weirdest feeling from the vacant spiked hole where his neck should be. Like there should be something there -- I mean, of course his head should be... but imagining that even feels wrong.
This painting has these small, feather like objects floating around above him, too. Makes that vacant chasm on top of his torso begin to feel like an empty nest. I wonder what might have grown out of it.

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Day 2 - Abandoned

This poor thing nearly made me cry today. I can't really tell what animal it is -- too worn down, too many parts missing. Stuffing spilling out. Almost thought it was a Pilostra from River Artazia at first, but on closer inspection I think it's something different. Perhaps simply a bunny.
With the condition it's in, the way it's abanondoned like this...
I just hope whoever once owned it didn't suffer a similar fate.

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Day 3 - Unquiet

I found evidence of some poor bastard lost to time in here. A jar, same as the ones they make you take and fill with T'kalia's temporal sand before coming in here. Looks exactly like the jar I'm currently holding in my hand.
Of course, it could be a coincidence. But I've just got this feeling in my gut that it's truly the mark of someone lost forever in here.
...Yikes, it's only day 3, I need to stay more positive.

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Day 5 - Curse

I haven't seen one of these in ages! Not since I lived in Russin. A splithead curse knot.
I almost thought it was the opposite at first -- a double knot of blessings, but the giveaway is how the twine is unconnected below the knot. Giving one or the other used to be common between sailors that worshipped Sharenskus, with the knot shape being symbolic of the god's two heads. Give a conjoined knot as a blessing of luck before a voyage, or hide a splithead knot to curse enemies with bad luck.
I'm not personally superstitious, but I know people who are -- so I'm definitely pocketing this for later.

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Day 6 - Broken

Of.
Course.
I mean, the rational side of my brain says that this was just pure chance and an unlucky event. I've been known to have bad luck, it's what got me into this entire situation in the first place, but...
I mean, I literally pocketed a curse knot yesterday. And now here I am, sitting on the floor, bruised tailbone, surrounded by the splinters of that very nice chair I decided to sit and relax on. The timing is just too perfect to be coincidence this time.

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Day 12 - Hunt

It's been a few uneventful days that are all starting to blur together.
Gave myself quite a fright today though -- I was checking through drawers when I found one that was a bit stuck. Took a lot of effort, had to get my leg up on the table to really yank it open and everything; so when it finally came free I went sprawling, and this thing came tumbling out and landed right in front of my face.
It looks like the skull of an Aurnax, an ancient herbivor that used to live in Apathae, long before the continent was blasted in two by Qur. They're pretty rare to find, because of that whole explosion thing.

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Day 13 - Slime

Some things you find in here, you just instinctively know not to touch.
For example, this disgusting jar, full of what appears to be some sort of slime. Slime that I think is alive. The slime is crawling up the edges of the jar that it's held within, and not only that, but it seems to be sending up small little tendrils, reaching to the shelf above it. All that's up there are books, I think, so maybe it's searching for more organic matter to latch on to and break down. All the more reason to leave this alone and never touch it.

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Day 14 - Escape

I think I must have taken the wrong turn somewhere...
This place seems in a lot worse of a state of disrepair than what I was expecting.
What's really unnerving though is all the doors -- they've all got their handles ripped off. Sometimes cleanly, like they were unscrewed or disassembled. But other times it's like someone or something ripped them off, big chunks out of the door and everything.
It's not so bad when the doors are open, I can still get through. But I am worried that if I have to make a run for it, I'm going to find my escape route cut off by a shut door with no method of opening it.

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Day 15 - Thorn

Oh come on...
I'm starting to really regret grabbing that curse knot last week. I'm now certain that it's what's behind my string of bad luck lately.
Today was a bad one -- stepped on a Ochrebark thorn. One of those big, woody, and exceptionally sharp thorns that grow along the root systems of Ochrebark trees. I'm lucky it seems to be dried and long dead, otherwise I don't know if I'd be in a state to write this update.
I wonder what it was doing in the middle of a dark hallway though. I'll move it to the side so no one else suffers like me.

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Day 20 - Relic

I've found something worth the "serious coin" I've been sent in here to grab, but...
I don't know if I even want to touch it. It's a gem dagger from the Qetzelian countries. Used in ritualistic sacrifice for honoring Qetzel himself. The horrific practice started some time after The Seven Day War, and from what I understand through my limited knowledge of history, the rituals have only gotten more disturbing as time passed.
...I'll just mark it down and maybe come back later, if I can find my way.

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Day 23 - Shadow

This... huh. This is strange. I've spent nearly two weeks in here-- no, wait, it's been over three now. Hard to keep track.
Still, in all the time I've been here, I haven't seen something defying reality like this before. At first I thought it was a simple table with a couple vases on it. But as I walked by, I did a double take... because while the vases themselves looked normal, the table cast no shadow. It was definitely real, as I could touch and feel the table. I moved one of the vases to below the table, and the vase itself cast a shadow still, so it's not a trickery of space down there. I have no idea what's going on. I don't like it.

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Day 31 - Door

I think I found where those missing shadows went. They seem to be pooling behind this... it's a doorway, but it feels not... like a dooray?
It both disgusts me and intrigues me. This simple opening, with a grotesque amount of shadow behind it, yet it feels so appealing. Almost like I've seen it before but I've repressed the memory for some reason. I'm going to try and avoid it for now... but something tells me I'll be coming back here eventually.
At least this door has a handle on it.

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Day ??? - Drown

I no longer know how long it's been.
I went back through the door, into the pooling shadows, submerging myself in the darkness beyond. I feel like I lost myself in space and time behind that door. I wandered the void. Came across this large, claw footed tub, filled to the brim with dirty water. Floating in there, soggy, and rotten...
An exact replica of my journal. This journal, the one I'm writing in. "Vertixico" emblazened across the decaying cover.
I need to get out.