Eligius Yami
Eligius Yami
Ugh, do I have to say this to you? Oh well... well I'm Eligius son to Az'gal Manto, who is daughter of the Shogun, the slain warlord Aka Manto… or Yami now as it's called. Like many of my family and cousins, I owe a life debt of servitude to the Hikari royals and the Hakumei kitsune as a whole. So guess what, my debt so happens to be helping clear out my and the kitsune's ancestral lands in Randera, clearing out the Crystalline Graveyard as they call it. Oh well I guess, I'll meet plenty of lookers most likely, so I guess this won't be too bad.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
Eligius is more of a slim, yet physically fit oni compared to his other family members in the former dynasty, more bulky warrior builds that they possessed.
Body Features
Like many oni in his line before him, he bears large and quite prominent devil horns on the top of his head, and purple skin similar the warlord of a grandfather before him.
Identifying Characteristics
Eligius has a few tattoos on his arms or back, mostly having symbols of oni origin.
Physical quirks
When he does not do something worth of entertainment or get monetary reward, he often slumps into a fatigued state that lasts for several hours in the morning.
Special abilities
Oni Bloodline Sorcery
Apparel & Accessories
Often is seen wearing the most extravagant of robes, and has horn ornaments and all kinds of rings on his fingers, as well as a certain set of traditional oni beads around his neck.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
I was born in Hakumei's capitol history, about 3 years after my mother surrendered to the kitsune forces, and integrated into their society. Despite that, and being the literal grandson of the kitsune's worst enemy for as long as they can remember... it's safe to say I got a few side glances here and there. But it wasn't too bad, I was treated well overall, got the best education, and life was quite comfortable. I got no complaints.
Sexuality
Women, no question there.
Education
University of Magics in Hakumei.
Mental Trauma
I often get visions, dreams, nightmares of culture, glorious history, or brutality. They get far more often the more my powers grow, so there's that.
Intellectual Characteristics
Social skills, whether bluffing, intimidation, or buttering up someone up in a negotiation
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
As of right now, my motivation is to fulfill my debt of servitude to the Hikari royals, and to meet some pretty ladies along the way. Aside from that, I aim to learn more about my family's dynasty, and any hidden lore that it may contain.
Savvies & Ineptitudes
Good with people skills, horrible with sometimes controlling my urges. Whoops.
Likes & Dislikes
Likes, well of course I love women, grand parties and comfort foods and drinks, and surprisingly the occasional novel. Dislikes... I have a searing hatred for bitter foods, nothing can get me to eat those.
Virtues & Personality perks
When I'm motivated, you are damn well certain I'll get a job done!
Vices & Personality flaws
Oh gods where to start.... good question. Next!
Hygiene
I keep myself damn fine when it comes to hygiene! ...except for the times I wake up feeling like death.
Social
Contacts & Relations
Got plenty of family back home, loving one, as well as many friends and acquaintances. Nothing too special you know?
Religious Views
I keep getting pressed on worshipping the first empress and emperor, but since they are of kitsune culture... I don't really follow them, but I do acknowledge them. I do wonder about the oni faith however... wonder what that schnazz is about...
Wealth & Financial state
Comfortable lifestyle back home.
Sarcastic, difficult to motivate, and overall a drag at times, Eligius Yami is a half oni of the formerly named Az'gal Manto. In his spare time, he often is a womanizer, and by sheer miracle of occasion, being a functional person by his quick wit.
Character Location
Alignment
Lawful Neutral
Honorary & Occupational Titles
If only! I would make sweeping changes if I had a title!
Birthplace
Hakumei
Children
Current Residence
Randera
Gender
Male
Eyes
Red
Hair
Brown
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Purple
Height
5 ft. 8 in.
Weight
130
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Notes and Crap (entry thirty-eight)
Alright Novia, another cult falls, the Immortal Flames extinguished, the moment started preying on the weak, and threatening the material plane itself their days were numbered. In the wake of defeating that worthless Bone Devil, the surrounding lands was soon engulfed in utter chaos, as the plane of fire descended upon the land, striking down at those who dared fly too close to the sun. The lot of us decided to sneak past the devastation, infiltrating into the lower depths of a melted volcano. Eventually we made it to the heart of the Immortal Flame's base, an underground city of darkstone, obsidian that survived the Phoenix's devastation, probably was some unknown culture's history, twisted by the Immortal Flames to their designs. At the ritual site, we found ourselves with a ritual circle with a pillar of fire, surrounded by an elite guard, the Daughter of the Phoenix chained to an altar, and one old adversary. Naturally attacking me first, the son of a Sazuman Ran'jit was still alive, over the course of a hundred years built up a second cult, the goal of drawing power from the Plane of Fire itself, siphoning power from a woman who was tainted with primordial flame, a.... sorcerer like myself.
A fight ensued, breaking the elite guard asunder and fleeing, the binding pillars crumbled, fighting our way to the very altar in the heart of the volcano. The more we fought Ran'jit, we figured out quickly that he drew strength from the Daughter of the Phoenix, whose name we later learned is Icara, slowly killing her every time we wounded him, his body slowly aging down to his prime. Many of us attempted to break free the chains, too many binding the woman down, Filea took the hint, hearing the words of Icara, saying to kill her. Filea using her paladin's scythe struck her down, and from the fires she was reborn! Ran'jit however, he lost much that he had gained from the ritual, losing his newfound youth, his powers, reverting to the dusty old man he was before. I saw his desperation, gave him an out, threatening him to surrender, or breaking every bone in his body, he had lost, and to his own principles should submit; he chose to run, and Petra and Varis cut him down. I admit, it was cathartic, I was ready to turn the bastard in, let him rot in the depths of either Hakumei's or Randera's prisons, and then die, but then Icara incinerated his body. Either way, good riddance to one more evil of this world. To think I actually agreed to parts of his teachings in the Cu's Fist after reading over his texts, the strong dictating over the weak, but instead should nurture instead of oppressing them is the only way the strong should rule, cultivate more strength.
In the aftermath of the fight, the elementals raged on with the rest of the Immortal Flames outside, we still needed to dispose of the Flame Crystal, Icara saw to that, but seeing how she was in a weakened state, I chose to aid her, absorbing the primordial fire into my system... it overwhelmed my senses, charred the skin, yet there I endured. My magic, my body.. forever changed for helping her, and what do I get called for what I thought was a selfless act? An idiot, selfish and reckless is what I was called, with a small thanks! Gods above, is there anyone in this gods-forsaken land that doesn't sour the honey so to speak. I am breaking my body, damaging my very soul for this land, and this place aside from a small few doesn't heed the dangers of the Graveyard. At least those in Desert Rose, and the Gerudo give a damn, and those that we have saved... we will bring peace to this land if I have to drag them there myself.
Anyways... my body, overwhelmed by the magics was brought to the brink of exhaustion, for two days I could barely lift a finger, let alone drink water or barely open my eyes. I barely teleported the rest of everyone out of the devastation, Radegast says a great Efreeti was bringing ruin upon the volcano with his forces, Asher Grey I think it was, the Grand Sultan himself, Viscount Thorn would have a field day hearing about that. After about 2 days of travel, I teleported us back to Desert Rose... to the horror of the royal guards of Novia, they, and my friends told me I looked like I had charred skin, fire bursting from veins of my body every time I cast a spell, fiery eyes, and from my understanding. Even now I can barely walk without the use of my old fancy walking cane... gods above... I bought that back when I was still a punk, how... things have changed since then. I had less of a care in the world... I miss those days, now I kill in the name of Hakumei, seize heretical strengths from the crystals, become a leader and champion of the people, had to be done. Though as I write this... I do ask myself... will I live long enough to truly make strides towards peace for Hakumei, live to see it, or will I die in the Graveyard... and fail the contract with Azaerlea... my soul forfeit to her...forever. Shizune give me strength... I will fight to the end to prevent that from happening, but... there's always that lingering fear. Novia, if you read this... may Hakumei endure just a bit longer... the end's within our grasp. I just know it, even if it costs me everything.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-seven)
[insert random Eligius doodling's over the course of a week of travel, various prayers to Shizune Hikari]
Well I haven't properly written my thoughts on the last week of travel. We traveled this glassy hellscape for several days straight, seeing nothing but foggy and clear glass beneath our feet, glancing upon the bedrock below, and nothing but the heat and the bright sun to give us company. We killed all of the Immortal Flames cultists in the previous camp, so we were left with no sense of direction, hardly a sense of their plans besides a shred of burnt text we found. We were at our wit's end when we finally found another wreckage of a small town, or what we later found was the ruins an entire Abbey and town that was retrofitted for their uses. Admittedly, I was rather hasty in my attack, used explosive kunai on a group of them, alerting the entire town's worth of immortal flames. It was a long and difficult fight, many of us nearly dying in the process. However the risk bore plenty of fruit, we managed to capture one of the Immortal Flames' cultists, I dominated his mind to my will, and through that magic we got the information we desperately needed, combined with the surrounding landscape after facing off against the Bone Devil a day later.
The Daughter of the Phoenix carries a great power within her, the remnants of the Primordial Phoenix that struck down this land a century prior, likely was born in this devastation or carried this great power within her blood.... a sorcerer like me. From what the cultist said, has died over and over again, and always to come back, I believe ritualistically killing her, accidentally, or many other means. The Father of the Phoenix is an old man, ancient in his stature, gray long hair, beard, not much is known about his name, or any other identifying factors; he rarely shows his face. The immortal Flames' goal was to use this "daughter's" innate power to bring forth a second calamity, and concentrating it using the power of the Plane of Fire, a large, several miles long ritual circle that surrounded what's left of the mountain the original phoenix was defeated.
With that information gotten... we decided the fate of the cultist, we chose to spare him. Enforcing my will upon his mind, he marched back to Demonitis to allow himself to get arrested by the guard there... and ignoring my spell enacted orders to carry food and water with him. Among the corpses of his fellow followers, we found a lot more scripture [information forthcoming, Eligius writes it down all here], it will take time to read it all. As we decided the fate of the cultist, a great pillar of flaming light sprout up into the sky, we have little time.
Marching onwards westward, traveling along the ritual circle river of lava surrounding the pillar of fire. We were ambushed by the Bone Devil again, and the husk of a fire serpent sprouting forth from the molten rock. It was a hard fought fight, my mind greatly impacted by the Devil's fear effects, and devil's normal immunities to elemental magics, I was out of my element in this fight, the others fared better however, defeating this wretched creature.
To this day, I can somewhat understand why we spared the devil, killing it would have caused problems down the line, perhaps problems we could have taken care of! Given that I have signed a contract already with Azaerlea, and now Varis signing one between that creature and Azaerlea as well, even with the stipulation that no more harm will come to us, where did that promise go when I originally signed it? A new devil and their forces are bound to show up until we somehow stop this madness!
It would be madness as well to trust a single word this Bone Devil says, as his past actions spoke for themselves. The Winter's Children cultists turned into grinded down corpses with... so many limbs removed and replaced... and stuffed into creating snow golems, and their souls devoured. I wished to end that devil's wretched life, banishing him for decades to the ooze of the hells, but... for Varis's sake, my respect for Filea's Oath of Mercy, and for the sake of my soul, we let him live. He provided scrolls to aid in resisting fire, but I will not partake in his hellish magic, I have my own methods of protection against the fire magics.
However... his words that I may end up in hell, or perhaps the Abyss due to my heritage, my rage....I pray to Shizune he is wrong. I do not trust a word he says, but... I admit I have my doubts. I would never cast my hand on an innocent life, never again. I pray that I stay alive long enough to prove him wrong... the Immortal Flames and beyond will bring my body and power to its limits. Well at least one thing Novia, if I hand this book of random notes and crap to you again, lest be assured that my worries were for nothing!
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-six)
Today marks three days since we've begun our march towards finding the Immortal Flames, developments were sure interesting to say the least. The information the Winter's Children had on the Immortal Flames was mostly combat reports, being unable to breach the Shores of Glass, alongside a few shred bits information on their leader and figureheads. Two names came up, that of "The Father of the Phoenix", and the "Daughter of the Phoenix." Not at all foreboding that they'd likely be able to resurrect from the dead, biggest question at the moment's how to make sure they stay dead, or incapacitate them to make sure they never threaten anyone again. Wasn't much to go on regarding any encampments, but that's what we get for facing a cult that lives in a desert made of glass.
So, with the little info we got, we traveled north, towards the town of Demonitis, a town half glassed over by some Primordial Phoenix incident well over a century ago. What bewilders me besides the devastation that this one elemental left behind is the townsfolk's refusal in deconstructing the old buildings that were half melted.... a century ago. They did have a memorial on the glassy side of town, names of each life lost in the incident, so my assumption is that they were kept in place in memorial to those lost. Despite that... harrowing sentiment, the townsfolk seem well adjusted to living in this environment. We stayed for a bit, got water, rations and eye protection from the rather blinding reflections of the sun on the glass, so this is what it's like being Filea on the surface. I do not like it; I choose having my eyes not burning.
With purchasing goods out of the way, and no devil in sight, our group marches westward into the unknown, a sea of glassy death. I must say... it miserable, and we've been going through water like nobody's business. The glassy surface while being clear enough to see all the way down to bedrock was radiating heat from below, to which I ended up using some of the power granted by the nature crystal to shield us, giving some reprieve from the overbearing heat. It took a day and a half of nonstop marching before we found a mound that wasn't flatlands, we found a half melted down wall and seems to be what's left of a small temple to an unknown deity.
It seems our first sign proved fruitful, we found signs of life here, Immortal Flames cultists occupied the settlement. They heard us coming however when Goth tripped on the ground, causing a ruckus with his armor. I admit, I froze with choice paralysis on what to do in setting up a trap, I could have used all the explosive runes I made, but only casted a minor illusion to attempt in diverting attention, way to go genius. The cultists though, something else, much more fanatical I shall give them that, wearing armor wreathed in continuous flames, that exploded upon their death, and mages, not sure the of what type whether sorcerers, wizards or such. Maria and Goth took care of the more martial focused cultists, while the rest of us took care of the mages. The mages I must say, I am thoroughly disappointed in their abilities to control fire, these were clearly bakas (idiots), lower recruits of their cult that I am able to cast circles around them before they could cast even a cantrip!
Naturally, even if it would have been useful, no one took prisoners when in this case it would have been extremely useful. We did however find a small snip of a book off one of the cultists, it had a rather concerning passage:
"...and lo, the orphan was found, and her hair aglow like embers; an lo, did the father take her, raising her as his own..."
Eligius' notes: Likely a very indoctrinated member of the cult, the "Daughter of the Phoenix", no idea the age, origin (aside from being inside the Fields of Glass), or magical capability. I'm going to be assuming to be extremely strong in pyromancy, possibly has properties belonging to that of a Phoenix. High risk of combat if faced.
I hope our efforts will bear greater fruit, and that my friends will make it out of this alive. I'll write more later next time I rest.
Eligius
[nightly log, no sign of devil, we have plans to strike at them, attack in open air areas, as he'll be out in open, has to be in range of his constructs]
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-five)
In light of recent events... I don't even know where to start. Just as I think I'm finally past the entire bloodline problems of mine, it comes back to rear its ugly head to remind me I'm the spawn of a terrible demon, this time with people trying to kill me!! Every single time!! If it were not for the friends around me, I would have simply put an end to what I thought at the time was the wretched life of faceless assassins, instead I find out these skilled killers are blackmailed, a family's own mother hostage if they didn't comply. It seemed my fury nonetheless scared them to the point of surrender. I am more than a mere "Weapon of War" as they put as a label so easily upon me; however as much as it pains me to reflect, they have a point. The second you went down by poison Novia, I flew into a fury that stopped time, shook the earth, and scorched the very air in a blazing fire by my hand. Such raw destruction in mere seconds, but I ask what would you have done in the same situation, given everything I have done and been through? I pray that I made the right choice, sparing their lives, I doubt their mother will share their fate though, given that she's a hostage doomed to die if they failed.
This does make me have conflicting thoughts though Novia, am I just a tool of war, a Manto who can raze a countryside at the snap of a finger? I refuse to believe the worths entirely, but the thought of it eats away at the back of my head. All the training, all the meditation, inner reflection and change I have done meant nothing to Sazuman. That is not the man who I want to be, a man stuck in the past such as he will never be able to forge his own future. I believe myself better Novia, I take the path of harmony of my bloodlines, two halves of a whole in perfect harmony as a Sovereign Dragon would. I will march forth down my own path, that of the Dragon, shedding away the heritage of the past, making it my identity; a foolish gesture I have done in my formative years. The Manto Clan will always be apart of me, just as Shizune's holy name is, but never again will I let it define me. I shall embrace both, and use them and more to forge my own destiny. That destiny shall be purging the Crystalline Graveyard once and for all.
Note: *various notes for getting a tattoo of the Sovereign dragon for his back and right arm*
More Notes: *writing down how much it'd cost to get a nice silken kimono of the Sovereign dragon, and later cursing about the 3,000 gold tails lost from the royal guard. He swears revenge, but has no idea how, so he takes the loss. Notes he still plans to make a grand entrance as a dragon every so often*
[Various arcane practices in the month and a half, learning the Spells Release the Hounds (Foxes) (by calling upon Shizune for aid), Elemental Assessor (for the need of figuring out weaknesses of creatures), and mastering the fabled power that Aka Manto held in his prime, that of Fire Storm, and pushed it further, thus perfecting it into his own style.]
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-four)
Another day, another entry into my Notes and Crap journal...
As I write this, another cult has been defeated by our hands Novia, the Acidum Amnis cult holding Port Damocles hostage. An eventful set of the last few days, but we first took care of a few loose ends before leaving for Port Damocles, with teleporting across the continent for a number of reasons; first one was bringing Varis back to Sea Breeze, where I left him for a couple of days to create his tribute to his fallen adventuring party. I did not press on details... that's his to tell, not me to pry. Instead, Radegast, Solomon, and I teleported back to the Winter's Children camp, plundering what we could from the camp, taking weapons, armor, trade goods, and most importantly encoded notes from all over the camp, alongside a cipher. From a cursory glance, it was notes on the crystal itself, battle plans, and information on the Immortal Flames themselves. As quickly as we came and plundered, we teleported to Sea Breeze, picked up Varis, and teleported back to Hvita. I must say... never teleport three times in rapid succession, your stomach will not agree with you is a euphemism.
It was surprisingly quick for our part compared to the Winter's Children, taking two months of travel and hunting down the cult leader's location. The airship brought us to the town in a mere couple of hours instead of several week's travel. I have to say Novia, being able to fight alongside my people, is a nice change of pace from our group going in alone for months on end without support and only our wits among us. What I didn't expect however, was us to jump out of the airship taking us along over to Port Damocles into the middle of an active battlefield out at sea! Being a warmage, I simply jumped out the back of the airship, and transformed into the Primal "Brine Dragon" and flew down to a ship below. What I saw below was the cult's last stand, being pushed away from the harbor and into the sea from our homeland's armies, and directly into the path of the Gerudo, and the Storm Rider goblins. The Acidum cultists didn't let us simply come down without incident however, as acid was launched up into the sky to attempt to sear us, mostly missing their magic blasts.
Our group landed onto the middle of the ship with the acid crystal, Rad, Sol, Varis and I landed, outnumbered about 5 to 1, including the leaders, all pirates sporting swords and guns like Rad's. Thanks to the dragon's form I was able to take quite a few hits, but my friends... did not fare so well in the fight. The acid burned away at Radegast's armor, and took his life, and Solomon was on death's door, the ship being fired upon from the goblin fleet, actively ripping the ship apart as we raged on. Thinking Radegast was lost to us, in an event I could have prevented if I launched a fireball on the pirates around him, I once again flew into a rage, defeating one of the cultist leaders in one fell swoop of a disintegration spell to the body, and Varis dispatching the other. We did not have much time to reflect, only a few mere moments before the ship cracked in two by cannon barrages. I recovered Solomon's unconscious body while Varis dove off-board with Radegast's body and equipment; the ship exploding mere seconds after along with the crystal. Being still in dragon form, I did what I could, and flew Solomon's body to shore, healing him all I could with my own powers, and doing a crash landing onto the shore. The battle ended shortly after we defeated the flagship... and the field commander suggested we had time for celebration... it was only a few short years ago, I would not have even hesitated to party.... here I am only after convincing to stay behind instead of teleport directly to Desert Rose. Only the Immortal Flames, and the Oria's Light left... then we can finally return to the Graveyard... hopefully the combined armies of our people can spare going after them too. I have a feeling they'll be by far the toughest we have ever faced with the cultists, the most violent.
As I reflect... my actions of attempting to take the enemy alive has only cost the lives of my friends... even if they got revived shortly after. I had in mind that perhaps with Julian's father that taking him alive would have gained us valuable information on the Immortal Flames, dying with the swing of Gothmog's axe, and for no reason other than facing justice, I attempted to take the Acidum's leaders alive, costing Radegast's life instead. Evil will not hesitate, while I did; in the ways of the the samurai, hesitation is defeat, and death. I will not make that same mistake again. That's what I have written this time Novia, no jokes, just a reflection in the ways of the warrior, and of loss, and to prevent.
"Hesitation is defeat."
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-three)
Hey Empress,
It seems after I learned the Teleport spell, suddenly everyone wants to use it, and for good, promise! It could be for getting back to Desert Rose quicker, teleporting directly into your office at a whim, or maybe Varis wanting me to head out to Sea Breeze. His former adventuring party died long ago, to wolf-like creatures, driven away by Filea. Their bodies are likely gone two years later, but to pay respects for the fallen. Who am I to deny that idea? After all, he gave me the idea for using my teleportation spell for profit!!
[Various notes of ideas of how much to charge, telling Solomon to have resurrection alchemy on standby, and Rad's Dad to write a up a contract on how this business works, and any "liabilities insurance", and what kind of specifications he wants for Varis's watch making services].
Oh yeah, and since you're probably reading this, you realize that I am able to transform into the Imperial Dragons of legend, especially since I landed right in the middle of Desert Rose as the dragon! If you and your guards ended up killing me, well... that's a problem. If I am dead, please resurrect me, as I want to make sure Joryth too is resurrected for all of his service; he deserves to be with his family. If I didn't end up dying, same thing with Joryth, and we'll likely have defeated the Acidum Anmis, and I will tell you of my ambitions; that of the next spells I wish to learn, and an idea I have for all the crystals we have. You'll see!
[written down ideas and notes of expanding the power of the bracers to hold capacity for more of the arcane crystals, and how to channel them into Eligius' existing magics]
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-two)
Novia, I shall skip the pleasantries in this journal entry, it has been a rough few months out here in the Wildnerness. First with Julian being beat to death within an inch of his life, an ally falling on the field of battle, patricide, and a bloodrage that I dare say would have made Aka Manto proud of me. To summarize, quite a few events to go through, only a few of them good.
As soon as we got into range into the range of the main camp and began scouting and finding a way in, we were approached by some Winter's Children cultists, claiming to be defectors from, remorse perhaps, but at the time, Radegast, Solomon and I found it way too convenient that they appeared out of nowhere, and offering their help. And naturally, when I bring this up, I'm insulted and threatened by said cultist... figures, though I'm no celestial either, considering I threatened to disintegrate her to dust. The cultists came through on their word though, aiding us in the assault on the Winter's Children base. There was an entire group of them that had defected, maybe around 20 cultists have been camping out for a while, their robes weathered by the elements for weeks. It's honestly a wonder how they even survived, let alone not get caught right next to the main camp just up the cliffside.
The raid on the camp started until the crack of dawn with our group and the defectors set up on the cliffside. I was part of the first team that cleared a spot stealthily for everyone else to come in, while everyone else came in shortly after. It all went smoothly until we set off some explosions, which got the attention of the entire camp. The next few moments went by in a blur, blades clashing, magic being cast, and projectiles being fired. I was in the middle of the crowd, channeling magic into my blade, cutting down one cultist after another. The battle was beginning to turn in our favor, until a rival gunslinger, who later turned out to be Adderly's new wife came out and started firing down upon the crowd. Radegast and I attempted to deter her, Radegast attempting to disarm, and me attempting to control her mind to cease her shooting... but it was too late... One shot fired true, followed by Kosuke and Filea screaming out Varis' name. Varis was on the ground, large hole in his chest and out the back. I swear I was seeing red after that, because next thing I knew, the shooter was nothing but dust by my hand, and the enemy Winter's Children cultists were running away in fear of their lives. For a moment... it felt... good, feeling the fear of those who wronged us, who committed such evil in the name of supremacy over others, I wanted more, I reveled in it. And for Varis? By arcane means I do not fully understand, resurrected on his own, akin to a medium or revenant of legend, those spirits who had unfulfilled ambitions in life coming back to inhabit their own bodies; dead, but not.
As the chaos winded down, glow from the cave began to alight, a bright, and blinding blue light. The crystal was inside, and alongside with Julian's father, absorbing magic from the ice crystal itself. I imagined for weeks how it would go in my head, all the ways what he would say to justify his actions, using the ice crystal, waging a war against the Immortal Flames, and the people of Kair's Reach and beyond... all he had to say for himself was that he believed himself better. The fight was intense, many charging in to fight Adderly, I decided to go straight for his source of power, detonating it, causing a blinding, sheer cold blizzard to envelop the cave in a raging storm. As the fight raged on, I attempted to contain the magic of the storm, but it was too overwhelming to contain, I instead used fire, which managed to dissipate and melt the icy wind away. As the storm dispelled, Gothmog got a good hit in, cleaving Adderly down the middle in two... a morbid sight.... I have grown rather used to.
Such a shame though... I don't know Adderly before this encounter aside from Julian's descriptions of abuse. What could have changed a man who slew a dragon to save a huge part of Kair's Reach, only to become this horrible man... must have been the crystal's corrupting influence, or perhaps he was always a bad person, a fallen Seldarine akin to Lolth's drow, bent on dragging others down to the hells with his intentions. Feelings aside, he should have been taken alive, the information we could have gotten from him would have been invaluable in rooting out the last of the Winter's Children, and actionable intelligence on the Immortal Flames. Maybe a necromancer can go up to the camp, and then get some information out of the body, or thoroughly examine the camp for anything useful. Alas, it's in the past now. I then teleported us back to Hvita to report the defeat of the Winter's Children's leader, the city guard were rather... aloof and passive to us taking care of their problem. Almost every place we have gone to, save for quite a few have been the same way have been rather passive to all these threats, at least the Goblins, Gerudo, Shadow Rose are doing something about the state of their nation.
Reflecting on all this while I sit in Hvita, honestly when I thought retribution was going to strike down upon Adderly, revenge would be sweet. Instead of that feeling... I only have emptiness. No funny jokes this time Novia, just take this entry as you will. On to the next cult to destroy, no prisoners.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirty-one)
Novia, it would seem the ranger Gene's hunch was right. He found us the main base of the Winter's Children, as the reports said from that one newsletter we found, it's situated in a white dragon lair deep within the northern regions of Kair's Reach, between the Skjalheim River and the Lifegiver Mountain range. The cultists had set up not a makeshift, but an actually realized fortification nestled along a gorge path that followed northward. Rad, Varis, and Kosuke's S.C.O.U.T. moved on ahead to see for any weaknesses in movement, or readiness, while Sol, Kosuke and I waited until the cold and dark of night before we made our move. In our waiting, I had asked of Julian on the how you say... difficult choice of what should be done with his father. By the sound of his answer, he wants him to pay for his crimes, but killing him? That I am not certain, I shall make my attempt to take him alive, face justice of those he wronged. That talking was rather "rudely interrupted" by Rad of all people, piling in days' worth of rations into his bag in quite a hurry, as if he was some dying animal! "I have a plan" he said, as wanted to use that meat as bait, to lure in glacial bears on the Winter's Children, and by Shizzy's ten fluffy tails it worked! It was MADNESS, not two, but four bears assaulted the wall, and tumbled parts of the stone down to rubble! The bears died off or ran away but the Winter's Children at the gate took casualties as well. Justice was swift, their deaths quick as we came upon them like the devils of the Nine Hells. While the others were searching the camp, I saw at the northbound edge of camp, the main camp of the Winter's Children, about a day's travel north, roughly the size of an entire town... I have doubts we'll be able to defeat all of them without a few scars, but we've managed such feats before have we not Empress? Will write once victory is achieved, and justice is brought upon Julian's father.
Eligius Yami
[hours later... after the argument with Azaerlea]
Azaerlea is a stuck-up snot nosed pitiful excuse of a devil. Their kind are beyond redemption and without souls! Novia, the soul trade of devilkind, I have some.... rather unkind words towards, as it is loathed by me, and the exploitation of souls will never not be evil. Life I see it as sacred, teeming all around us, souls within all life, the creatures of the lower planes seek to exploit that for their own gain. However.... I hate to admit, she has a point on some humanoids becoming evil, and dare I say, irredeemable. As I have learned along my path, it is the duty of good to put up a fight and stop them, even if it damns their souls to the Hells. I have much to ponder on this, but I know full well in my heart, to never trust a devil. I pray to Shizune every day that I eventually fulfill my contract with Azaerlea, so that I may be free of her infernal contraptions. Until then... I shall hold my hands away from my blade, soon...
I also must thank Joryth for his guidance in cooling my temperament, he's the anchor in my adrift ship as he would call himself. He told me of a fable, of four fishermen and the lake, and how each man sees the act of fishing, whether out of respect, or exploitative. He explained it is the duty of the good to cast out the evil before your "lake" is left barren, and some that are evil can be redeemed or pushed toward the right path, but some cannot. I reflect on this lesson with a haiku:
"Four men and a lake"
"A struggle against evil"
"Remain vigilant"
Eligius Yami
note to self: Perhaps I should have Joryth revived from the dead. I imagine it's taken his toll on him, being separate from his family. I wish to
Notes and Crap (entry thirty)
[written over the course of two weeks as the party traveled across Kair's Reach]
[random crude and decent sketches of landscapes, practice on Haikus, and random musings/business ideas]
Empress Novia, it seems we might have a lead possibly for the Winter's Children. The Rangers of Hvita seemed to be of no help back when we were in the Ranger's Lodge. Most of the rangers are rather avoidant of the Winter's Children and extremely reluctant to give over any info; given that we burst in looking for information, we could have looked suspicious to them... such is the way of a different walk in this life... they even don't even know the basic bow as a gesture. Aside from that little annoyance, our group has marched for roughly 2 weeks out into the wilderness of Kair's Reach, heading northwest to what a novice ranger named Gene believes is a former White Dragon's lair. To be honest, I can see why he's still a novice; in asking for directions to this dragon lair, he lacked the basic knowledge of the cardinal directions, something I, a city boy would know! Gene however, knew his section of the forest like the back of his hand, we marched across the mountainous tundra and the forested taiga, trekked through mighty blizzards, and scaled our way up sheer cliffs. Our group saw glorious landscapes that went on for miles up upon these mountaintops, but no sign of any activity as of yet, but I was able to practice a bit of sketching of landscapes or drawing out illusions I make, Joryth and I even sang sea shanties that he knew!
For the others, Kosuke's still quiet as per usual, I swear he never speaks more than 5 words at once [note to self: Try speaking to him in that mannerism and convince the others to be like that. Maybe it'll FINALLY break him out of his shell!], Radegast, I swear has been the stink eye ever since I touched his gun to use his scope to scout out a landscape; and Solomon, smelling of fire and sulfur, I accidentally drank one of his potions one morning (when he put it next to my coffee), I better keep this quiet. Last time I told him I accidentally touched one of his potions, I swear I got this bump on my arm that never went away! The other 4 were doing their own thing in the travel, of course we talked however! Things are going well! If this dragon lair is a bust, I'll be sure to complain about it after the two-week travel back, then we'll be conducting plan B: posing as merchants to catch the Winter's Children off guard as they attempt to ambush "merchants" and force them to lead us to their hideout. Though one thing that I have surprisingly haven't heard from is that one Bone Devil, haven't seen it in nearly a month. Will keep posted, and give you this notebook once we arrive back at Desert Rose, though it might not be for a while. How about instead of going back to Desert Rose in between ever single eliminated crystal, we keep marching on and destroy one after the other. Anything to get the job done quicker for you Novia I suppose, hope it's all worth something on your end, I know Hakumei's going decently on your side of things, and you bet your fluffy tails that I'll do my job! If I fail, I'll leave you all my funny souvenirs from across the land in my will, let that sink in!
Personal Note [written on another day]: On a personal note, not sure if Petra-chan is even reciprocating any feelings I've given her over the course of our time here, she mostly sees me as a good friend which I don't mind. As Joryth says however, I should keep persisting, with either her, Maria, or maybe someone else. Maybe finding someone I truly love would finally rid me of my hedonistic thoughts, and actions... by Shizune's tails I hate it. I haven't even dared tried to bring anyone to bed ever since Gerudo dragged me away on their own, Lady knows what on Marchen is with those ladies, they did NOT take no for an answer! [goes on a tirade of ideas of how to get over his hedonism, gift ideas for friends]
Crystalline Gauntlet: While on my travels, I realized when facing off against the Frostweave bears, it seems most of my attack-based magic are rather niche in terms of actually harming them! When it comes to creatures across this strange land, many seem to have magical properties that render even my magics moot. I couldn't think of any solution besides using the various elements of my Dragon's Breath technique, but then I thought of my gauntlets, and the crystals we have been gathering from each corruption blight in Randera. If I were to incorporate each of the crystals into my gauntlet, I would be able to channel their power into my magics similar to our enemy, and creatures of this land. It's risky, but given the success of this corruption crystal for this past year, I would not be surprised if this were to work. I'll talk to Sute about this back in Desert Rose.
[goes over ideas of the existing crystals he has, the Nature, Earth, Necrotic, Electric crystals]
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-nine)
"Fifteen minutes of
quiet time before I face
the day ahead now."
Empress, it's been rather difficult to get out of bed in the morning these past few days, with Julian recovering in the infirmary here. Spent the last... entire time in Hvita waking up, and going straight to a bench right outside of where Julian was being held. It was my fault that he went out alone, he went to my room and asked for advice on his father. I repeat myself, but it is my duty to make things right. I have sworn vengeance on the Winter's Children, but we have no leads to go on. Guess the best place to start is the townsfolk of Hvita, maybe the Rangers Hut, Town Hall, the Library, or heck maybe even the tavern. You never know what a man might spill if they get a few drinks!
*written after gathering the information in session*
After going scouring the town for information... what we have so far are as follows:
Tower to West has magical distortions, crazy antimagic and wild magic patches all across the area in a 3 mile radius that seemingly go off at random, known as the "Tower of Ruin". The tower predates much of the area, and is said to be from the Dark Ages of Randera many centuries ago. If you want my guess Novia, given the crazy nature of this continent, and this tower being the near the center of its landmass, my guess this is a Bonafide ground zero to the entire country's magic properties, OR the location of another crystal that's more potent than the ones we've found with the Cults, the Summer's Tree, or in Sea Breeze. That sounds like MUCH of a problem to deal with later after the Graveyard. 5 gold tails says I can go in and out if I REALLY sprint in there and back! HAH! I probably got you pinching your forehead at that statement!
Ski group went missing, found 5 years later not aged a day; likely cryo magic, or just the hellish weather around here.
Library records revealed events from 50 years ago near the town. A mercenary band marched into the lair of a young white dragon to defend a village, no name given. Only 3 survivors confirmed, two unknowns, and one coincidentally being an Adderly. My assumption, in the White Dragon's Lair is where the icy crystal is located. The big glaring problem is that we have no name for the village. We do however have a map that has a trove of locations and hideouts that's almost 2 weeks old. Other information will also help against whereabouts.
Some tiefling merchant approached Solomon at the tavern, talking about a lost shipment of mithril against ice magic using masked individuals. They donned a symbol of snowflakes bordered by 2 squares at 90 degrees, described by the merchant, not me. Likely to be our in and capture a few Winter's Children cultists, we'll have to pose as valuable merchants.
Motives: The Winter's Children seem to comprise of mostly elves, namely elven supremacists. They target those who sympathize with other humanoids, despise half breeds such as Solomon or Julian being half elves, and that their kind should have dominion over all. They seem to have a town or two out east that agree with their principles, where they bring their stolen goods to fence off, and use their gold stolen for supplies. Most likely have agents in town.
Rumors of a giant, spiny bony humanoid with mammoth tusks on the face outside of town, near forests. The Devil "Council" member most likely. I swear... we'll have to face it eventually, and it won't be pretty. Varis' mother must be worried sick about her son taking the brunt of the abuse of being hunted down by devils. Stopping this devil won't stop anything, and will likely escalate things. As a great samurai I learned about in school once said: "Tomorrow's battle is won during today's practice." I will have to prepare for the inevitable confrontation, and we'll come out on the other side.
Fun facts: Fafnir might have been some barbarian king back in the old days. There once was a barbarian king that had a voice to cause an avalance, a greatclub "the size of a tree", and a striving sense of justice with a warrior wife. Sounds like Fafnir the Silver alright! I might go remind him of his glory days when I return.
More information to be had at the Ranger's Hut, and needing to find a cartographer to make sense of the map we acquired. Hopefully someone was on that duty, because I for sure wasn't.
Anyways, that's my notes for now Novia. It's comforting, to write in this dang thing. To think I absolutely hated this when you first gave this dang journal to me, but here I am keeping onto it. Thank you for that Empress.
[scribbled out idea of getting cinnamon rolls for Petra Yami]
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-eight)
[written after the talk with Julian, before he leaves]
It was a rather uneventful traveling across the western lands of Randera. Landing on the coast, we ended up in the "Lower Desert" nearby to the west of Foxhole. We traveled for about a day or two, which I admit, my only source of entertainment was my books, so it wasn't too bad, read about "The Tale of the Nine Ronin". Eventually we came across a group of fennec foxes hunting some desert creatures, and chopping fruits off cactuses. It turns out the foxes we met were Kosuke's kin, and they treated us to a humble dinner back in their home. Naturally, I threw Kosuke under the carriage, mentioning that I had to sign a contract for friendship with him, "monies", and all the other quirks he had. What a laugh it was!
[writes a Haiku in his travels]
"Stop writing haikus
They don’t even make sense now
Something something fish"
At the inn later that night however, Julian approached me posing a question, whether that his father could be approached and forgiven. Well... I gave him my thoughts on it. I had to deal with my grandfather Aka Manto, the Shogun in the past, so maybe I could relate? I thought about it, and from what Julian told me, I said it was possible. We'd likely have to force his hand, but perhaps he could see reason and have the Winter's Children stand down. A son should never have to kill his father, nor should a father ever have to kill his son. He left for his bed, so tomorrow, we'll have to travel further east and think out our next move and plan for any encounters out in the wild frozen lands.
"I will not hate you
for your sins belong to me
thus they are forgave"
[written.... shortly after Julian is brought to the hospital]
Shizune forgive me for what I have done! I unknowingly sent Julian out on his lonesome out east. Shortly after I went to sleep, Julian went out alone to go find his father! We had several hours behind him after we realized he was gone. Not even strategizing, we marched out east half asleep out into the night, expecting to destroy any Winter's Children in our way. Azralea, thank the gods she had a thing for Julian, she was able to faintly trace down where he went. Given that we trekked for four hours into the night, the winds howling with blistering cold, the crunching snow, and cloudy skies with no moon in sight. We found a camp along a riverside, corpses ripped to shreds of victims by the Winter's Children, seemingly untouched tents, and many snowmen surrounding the area... and Julian near beaten to death inside a cage, left to rot in the snow!! I was seeing red, by the spirits someone was going to pay! Examining the camp, I went into the master tent, hoping we'd find Julian's father, but I instead found a war room table, and possessions.... alongside 4 snowmen.
Before I was able to properly examine the room, the snowmen attacked us! I was overwhelmed and forced to retreat from inside the tent. As quick as the ambush occurred, so too did the aggressors fell, but we found that the snowmen... had corpses of the Winter's Children inside them. We grew worried, realizing the cultists were already dead... Radegast found quickly we were not alone.
All around us, echoing maniacal laughter, groans that do not sound like a humanoid..., crushing snow and branches all around us. Rad and I saw a colossal spiny skeletal figure lurking in the shadows, through what I think was magical means, the second I laid eyes on it, I could not help but nearly vomit in fear. I can't even cast spells against it, if I can't even gaze upon it! Azarelea said it was the same devil as before, the bone devil of the Volcanorian Council, so he's clearly after Varis!
We doubled our haste out of that camp and into the forest, sprinting for hours eastbound, until we eventually reached Hvita, a mountaintop town keep in the Reach. Safe from that devil, we barged into the hospital and admitted Julian into their care. Here I sit, waiting outside his room. I swore I would not kill a living person by my hands again, but I failed my friend, and he very well might die from his injuries. My inaction and soft heart caused Julian harm, by Shizune's name, I hereby swear vengeance upon the Winter's Children, Julian's father shall experience all the pain he inflicted upon Julian, the people of this land, and his own people a ten-fold! None shall be left alive, and if they do, I shall end them painfully, this I swear!
"I cast upon you,
The black shade of my revenge
An eye for an eye"
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-seven)
[Many Scratched out names for renaming / refurbishing / rebranding the brothel into a sushi shop]
Samurai Sushi
Shinobi Sushi
Kuchi Sushi
House of Hatashina
MANY OTHER NAMES
Today, our group set out from Desert Rose after preparing our clothing for winter excursions. I made sure the newly made robes and armor were not touched, because I didn't want the gear to already be altered, to do that would be insulting to those who made it. I instead just opted for padded winter clothing to go underneath the robes and armor. After that whole ordeal, I got to know a bit of this new companion from the Gerudo, Ooset. Her duty to Zahira is what sent her our way, and seemingly mixed with a bit of curiosity of using dead now fossilized creatures and using them in shapeshifting; reminds me of the druids of the Feywilds. I must say, I admire that in her, as she studied each of these creatures, including one called a "Mammoth", or "Elephant". ...those creatures remind me of some chimera, with that snake nose thing on the end of their heads.
To start things off on our travels to the Reach, Radegast sprung the idea of teleporting to the west to clear much of the Desert from our travel, and instead opt for the civilized route near the Capitol Sea Breeze. We went to the local Lord Thorn GrimRoze, where he agreed and took us there, as he happened to have other business matters there at the moment. After some final wrappings up with our gear, rations and other items, we arrived at the Capitol inside their palace. Needless to say, we were quickly escorted out of the premises within minutes, and I must say a great shame. I heard it's a lovely view from the top of the palace, some day!
For our form of travel, Varis had this nifty magic foldable boat using some transmutation most likely that was able to travel on sand, water and *possibly* snow. We decided to take the cove down towards Glacier's Rest, taking maybe a day or two's worth of travel by boat. During the relaxing ride however, we were interrupted by what I thought was some whale, or water elemental. Instead, it was a devil of bone surrounded by water, it demanded that Varis come with him, and that the Princess was missing, meaning Azaerlea....the shrimp. Devils, beings described as so intelligent and cunning, this one especially by Azaerlea's own words barely had anything profound to say, and came alone to fight, even if it was a construct. Perhaps it was gaging our group's collective strength? I am but left guessing at motives or tactics besides a brick brained frontal assault fit for a demon based on Radegast's knowing's of devils.
The talks after didn't help much either. It turns out this "clever" devil is part of some cabinet that was headed by the Archduchess "Glysaris", or former Chairwoman of Volcanor. I asked about who else is in the group, no real answer was given by Azaerlea. I swear devils sometimes, they never give you real, full truths, even if their own life depended on it or if you signed your soul away in some contract; always there is a lie twisted in or omission weaved in somehow.
Those are my thoughts Empress Novia. We have arrived now at Sea Breeze, next stop being Foxhole, then to Frostweave. I wonder the extent of how the Immortal Flames and the Winter's Children will be using and abusing Kari's Reach as their own personal battlefield for dominance over each other. They both must be stopped, and any info on how we can go about doing that would be well served. That's my statement for now Empress.
"Ocean waves cry out,
From the center of the sea:
With faith to reach land."
Eligius Yami
[Note to self: Expect sneaking Rose agents to give us more information about the factions or people leading as soon as we arrive, maybe in a few days/weeks time]
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-six)
[Set after talking to Empress Novia and meeting his Aunt Ezran, turning his katana over for refurbishing]
At this point, I'm not sure why I still write these. Maybe to just write out my thoughts perhaps, I shall never know. Novia, since you read these, know that I see your perspective as to why I should stay, and agree with it to a point. Kitsune, Oni, the people in our lands have been in a constant feud for as long as I can remember, and even more thereafter. What I said to that rioting crowd was said from the bottom of my heart, I just didn't know the exact words of "why did I choose to become champion" until now. I wanted a brighter future for our people, even if I am not there to see it, to plant a seed that would become a great tree for our people to rest our heads under. Taking up this mantle, only then can we be free from the shackles of our past. While I do not like the act of killing in order for this goal to be achieved, I remember the lessons of eld, where without the actions done by good, evil and unrest shall fester and take hold. That is what I aim for, even if I don't like the means, I will do what I signed up for. Even I as aloof and idiotic as others may claim, even I see that there's been too much hatred in this world of ours. I've always wanted to do something about it, and for the longest time I was just not sure how to go about it. And if I don't find the solution to this problem fully, I shall do what it takes to march down the right path, and show everyone else the way, and entrust them to find it. With that said, don't expect me to quit now Novia, I will see to it complete, for our people.
-------
[Written later]
After the rioting, your sister Umbra told many of the townspeople to start some sort of militia and grassroots effort to aid in the graveyard effort, instead of just buying adventurer services (finally!). She also showed me to a local smithy to touch up my katana, only to find out it's an Auntie my mum mentioned a few times in passing, Ezran. I will be frank, she didn't seem to like you at all Empress, and I dare not write down her insults to you. She however, said you were right, that "Bridging the gap" scheme of yours worked, as much as it pained her to say. She's currently refurbishing my blade as I write this, I didn't even know sword spirits were a thing, and even then it was a bit more sentient than I once thought. Needless to say, it's pissed, and I have to offer sacrifice to it on the morrow, the use of shrines and everything! Either way... I got to become more.... faithful, in-tune with the spirits, and I will have to clean up my act to live up to my title as mentioned earlier. If I do want to lead people down a path towards peace, I'll have to become the best me possible. Until then Novia, since you read this, thanks for the talk. I really appreciated it.
Note to self.... make "Tail Chasers" into a sushi sit down place...
Note to self again.... get some new sandals.
[Many note to selves later.... none of which involve armor]
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-five)
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-four)
Well, it seems luckily, I survived our latest encounter with the head of the Goblins: Quickthinks Allthoughts was his name. I got to say, he was a mad tyrant over his people... he had to be put down. Little did I know his mastery over stolen Volcanorian tech, repurposing it to fit the power generated by the Crystal of Lightning. In the battle that occurred, he had a giant titan of metal about as tall as a fabled Storm Giant, and brute force to rival a legion of oni. Most of the time I seemed to have gained the Titan's ire, with his giant-sized fists hurdling their way into my magic defenses. Managing to hold, this bought time for my comrades, where they whittled it down.
Honestly, it seemed like a battle of attrition we would have lost, as our blows were barely making a dent in the thing, until right off the side of the complex, in the ocean itself was Zahira and a fleet of Gerudo ships, alongside Filea shooting her way out of one of their cannons right through the center of the thing, exposing its core. Honestly, didn't expect Miss Righteous to do such things, labeling them "reckless and unbecoming of her", but shows what I know. In the end, it was still a tooth and nail fight against this Titan, but with us coming out on top. As the old saying goes, the highest up always have the hardest fall; the Titan fell, and Allthoughts with it. Though the victory was broken up, when we found Allthoughts was still alive... his body was... nothing but a husk, like a "Warforged", or an animated suit of armor. His real body, was nothing but a disembodied brain in a vat of gooey pale blue liquid. Gothmog and I had the honors of breaking the thing, not after one last delve into the Tyrant's mind... overwhelming knowledge struck me, making my nose bleed and having a headache for the next two days. How did this goblin keep it together, I will never know... but as the brain fell out of the vat.... I sensed as the thoughts panicked, grew slower.. until nothing but darkness.. nothing. Dark, I know, but I simply am writing down my experiences as usual, Empress Novia.
To wrap up the goings-on, I shattered the crystal, some of my comrades gathered up samples, and I personally want nothing to do with touching it. I don't want my body to become further corrupted. I guess you can call that "Mission accomplished", the goblins freed... something barely connected to the Graveyard besides the one crystal. Can't we just dig around the barrier wall? It's a simple solution... I would suggest trying it.
Anyways, enough of venting my thoughts Empress, you'll likely have questions after you read this, just like the last few entries. Will see you soon.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-three)
Empress Novia, progress has been slow but steady in this accursed underwater base. Honestly, I'm not sure how the goblins even survive if it weren't for pillaging. I personally haven't seen any crop or livestock growth as of yet. I assume it's closer to the top floor, being closer to the sun and surface. Our next way further towards the crystal was Central Processing. Instead of fighting, we snuck our way through this machinery, choosing the path of sabotage instead of blowing our way through the scores of goblins. As of now, the goblins had no idea we were here, only thinking a riot of goblins was caused by their own volition. We used this ignorance to our advantage and snuck past these goblins. I got to say, how in Shizzy's green creation did they even make this stuff underwater, it was forges meant for great dwarven halls, moving minecart track made of leather belts called "conveyor belts", moving minerals to the next step in their refinement. Kosuke, Gothmog, Radegast, Solomon, Petra and I threw their metal "wrenches" in between the moving metal parts, I used my geomancy to bend things out of place subtly. The goblins had no idea it was us!
Eventually, we made it to a giant "elevator" in the center of Processing. It would seem our attempt in sabotaging that set off an alarm spell, but not magical in the slightest. That brought the attention of a giant construct made of metal from those belts, one with 4 giant legs meant for stomping across huge swaths of creatures, explosive fireballs launched from its back, and bullets from across its body similar to Radegast's firearms: a true death machine! Naturally despite this obstacle, we were able to defeat it, blowing up and nearly damn killing us. At least it wasn't a person... I still won't forget it... I barely sleep over it now, well at least as soundly as I used to before I became champion.
To get away from that dark abyss of thought, we decided to announce to the goblins we didn't kill that they are surrounded, the elevator stopped and our recently made goblin allies swarming to subdue them all. We told them that Allthoughts was a doomed regime, he didn't care for them, only his own ambitions to that of godhood. By the sound these goblins talked about him, it's an ego that somehow surpasses mine, only backed by having an army of yes-guards that would vehemently beat or arrest anyone who dared question his regime or are out of line. In a small speech, I told them these truths, that of working for their own metals and food instead of just toiling for nothing, getting their own "cheese". I gave them an alternative, that of Gothmog, my friend being a Hobgoblin, and Umbra, the self-proclaimed "goblin goddess". You can very well guess they were quick to switch allegiances after hyping them up over cheese. With that, the next phase of our work was done, we rested from our advance among our now sizable army of goblins. If they didn't know we were here before, I can only guess they know something was up now. If I survive my next part of this adventure, I'll be sure to write more.
Eligius Yami
Personal Note: I think I have feelings for Petra, given how she can be, not sure if she means the same as well. She enjoys my gifts sure, and we are great friends even, but I'm not sure how to go about it. She'd probably slug me in the gut for even thinking about it. Probably just keeping it to myself is the best idea.
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-two)
*written after the initial invasion of the goblin base, and being cooped up for a week in the Ocean Drinker*
Empress Novia, this time deep beneath the sea, it has become clear my mind's at its lowest point (No pun intended for once). I don't know what's worse down here in this base, the fighting the goblins, or past week has given me time to think in the aftermath of it. I've come to an unfortunate conclusion... I never had the intention to become your champion to kill *living people* Novia.
(The "*" words mean underlined)
This past year, I have been fighting all sorts of abominations in the name of Hakumei. Crystal corrupted undead, plantlife, animals, elementals, they were par for the course in cleansing a corrupted land, to put those tarnished with the corruption of the Graveyard and its crystals out of their misery. It all changed in my mind the second I locked blades with the crystal worshipping cults; the Snakeroot's Bite, the Cu's Fist, and now the Storm Riders... I have become disillusioned with why I am here, why I even accepted being champion in the first place. Why am I at the bottom of the sea, doing dirty work for Gerudo who only hated me until recently when I proved myself in a trial by combat because I was born with a prick. They are Zahira's people, and for friends I would do anything... but killing living people... that's crossed my line in the grass. That puts a stick in your political wheel doesn't it? When I get back, you and I are going to have a little chat. You'll figure as much as you're reading this.
Eligius Yami
*this half of the journal entry is set after his talk with Petra before they moved out to manufacturing*
Empress Novia, I feel a bit lucky I have my two friends from home to put some of my mind at ease, even for a short time. I'll give you one win for picking Petra and Maria, and sending them to spy on me. I talked with Petra after closing myself off in this damn undersea metal ship for the past week. I explained her what's been on my mind building up these past couple of months... she seemed to somewhat understand, commenting my hatred for killing, I'm nothing like Grandfather and his relishing for battle, the slaughter. She also told me that as Champion, I'm a specialist, the scalpel that excises problems without any excess. I'd argue against that given how violent my friends, as well as myself have become, but the point is made.
I understand why you had me group up with adventuring... the freedom of mobility, answering to no one and exercising such actions as I see fit. I likely would not have fit into the armies, shinobi or ministry thinking about it; a chain of command to answer to, the rigid structure... that's not me. I'm still so conflicted over everything; Ichihara's teachings of irredeemable people, their path being set, and I mine, Joryth's guidance towards peace, Petra and Maria's rigid ronin way of life, and the many outlooks on life that are all unique. None seemed to have stuck fully with my outlook on life in this situation... there's so much hatred in this world, a really giant problem to solve, and I'm not sure how to solve it. I despise war, detest killing living beings, and I scared of the violent soul that I am becoming.
We still need to talk when we get back, though it may not be as... angry as I intended before. I still have doubts as Champion even now. I will be doing my part at least, trying not to kill any of the goblins in my path, and those I find injured I will do my best to keep them alive. Hopefully soon we can get past this underwater fortress full of goblins cleanly, take out the crystal, and we can head back to Desert Rose. We're going after their forges and metal processing next, end their war machine to a halt. I'll write more when I get the chance.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twenty-one)
Okay Novia... the more I go on, the more I'm thinking maybe my methods... those of the people whom I accompany... it's getting pretty violent and inexcusable... nothing to be proud of, nor write home to.
To give context, after the trials and having a walk of the town gathering information on the threat. I consulted the town barracks, while the others consulted the orator for background information. Based on what we found, the Gerudo have been in a war of attrition for two and a half decades, their warriors being thinned with each passing attack. For the barracks, those that did have information were out fighting on the front lines, only for the wounded and inexperienced to be left behind. The town was showing to be thinning in terms of food and other goods as well; it was only a matter of time before things became truly dire for hunger.
After sharing our findings, we heard from Azaerlea she went into the Ethereal and went all the way across the seas to investigate the goblin base, and where their fleet is. The main base is underwater, and if her spying was to be trusted fully, that the goblins are not 100% on board with their leader, with mutiny on the mind. Her hunch was right however, on our way out to sea, we found a goblin metal ship on the run from the rest of the fleet, being fired upon as they made way to land. We decided it was in our best interest to help them out, so we boarded their ship and helped fended off the goblins. The fending off however... was scarring.
To give context, I attempted my very best to minimize lives lost. I used air-based spells to knock air flying goblins over the side, and used geomancy to crush the metal of a giant "Widow Walker" around the legs and weapons. It was effective, as was Radegast's shooting the core, Solomon's bombs, Gothmog's chopping up the legs, and Kosuke's heat wave spell. That... eliminated the goblins on the ship, but fried them alive in that metal walker... it was... not a pleasant sight to see... nor was what Zahira did to a nearby submarine. You know the spell cloudkill? The poisonous cloud that doesn't even need you to breathe in to kill? Zahira unleashed that into the submarine attacking us. The results similar to the heat wave... except a far more gruesome fate awaited the goblins. In the end, we did rescue the friendly goblins. They defected with one book, a "Cook book": a book of history, recipes and blueprints of machinery they used. Radegast tells me they kitbashed technology from Volcanor, made it somehow work without "Elemental Crystals", and instead powered it with the crystals from the Graveyard. This indeed confirms their usage of being empowered by the graveyard...
Next we have to interrogate the evil goblins we spared and captured, and kindly ask the defector goblins what the situation of their base is all about...
No funny quip this time Novia, this mission's starting to weigh heavily on my mind, as well as a few others. I had to talk to Kosuke about usage of spells in killing... he took it about as lightly as I did with my first kill a mere few months ago... This is the entry, nothing else.
Eligius
Notes and Crap (entry twenty)
So, it would seem their "Trial" was similar to that of a Rite of Passage for some oni clans. Things got pretty interesting during that time, and by interesting, pretty dangerous. So, there we were, being challenged to man a sand gliding ship, in search of a great hunt to prove our worth. Radegast at the wheel, Zahira, Gothmog and others were manning the sail and the like, and other Gerudo under the deck in case things went badly. To my surprise, we were also given other initiates that were becoming of age, going through these Rites. A spellcaster, one sword wielder, and it would seem a rather young Gerudo princess. She said something about needing to do this to prove her right to rule, understandable and respectable.
With our positions in place, and some fine gliding from Rad, we sailed out in this sandy sea, the initiates needing some motivation, mostly out of nervousness. I did what I could to steel their resolve to some effect. Not long after however, we came under attack...
Novia, since you ever so graciously hinge upon my every word in this journal, I want you to take a guess on what we fought. If you guessed a gigantic ravenous dune worm.... you'd be absolutely correct.
This dune worm seemed to be a good 150 meters long, dwarfing our ship by comparison. It was the hunter, and we were the prey. Only problem for the worm was it didn't expect us to put up fierce resistance. While Radegast was one handing his rifle and steering us clear of danger, Gothmog was chipping entire chunks off its hide, Solomon juicing up the cannons, I launching balls of fire from afar upon this beast. Unbenownst to me however, Zahira had a special concoction of spells that she was preparing to fell this creature... She lowered its fortitude with some mental magics, and unorthodoxically transformed this absolute behemoth into a small rabbit.
I know, you're probably scratching your head thinking "What in the Feywilds?", yeah, it in fact happened. We brought this beast back to their city and killed it in its rabbit form, which then transformed it back in a catonic state. You should have seen the look on their faces, sheer shock: the mother of all Dune Worms felled by outsiders! Well that gave us access to their city while we discussed plans or gathered info on the Storm Riders. More to follow, I'll be sure to get you some conductive gold for your magic tests since you love to test those things. Consider it my souvenir for this place.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry nineteen)
Well isn't this place dandy, I was thinking the women on the sand boat were the only ones that discriminatory, but gods above, their entire society does the same thing! City's gleaming out greatly at night in the distance, all while the men get the most most mundane town I have ever seen. If function over form existed in its purest form, it would be this town I am stuck in now. You would think us coming over to help, we would get full cooperation, but instead we are treated like ingrates, second class citizens. Even my grandfather was for equality of sexes, and that's saying something!
Town folk however, that's a different story, place has got plenty of drink, betting men and Joryth would kill me if I didn't write this: fishing. Lots of dock people knew their stuff, though not many bites out on the dock, will have to try deep sea fishing that Joryth proclaims to the seas and beyond, might be cool. Novia, if you are reading this or spying on me (and I know you are), they're talking about some sort of trial. I and my infinite ideas came up with a strategy, and it surprisingly worked. Since oni and kitsune are well known shapeshifters, I changed into the form of a woman in order to gather information for their "trial" so that I may prepare. It turns out to be for naught, their lips were sealed on any form of rumors, so I'm dead in the water. My best guess it's trial by combat, and as they said from what I *did* hear, a coming of age, acceptance into society, even for men.
----------------- *the next day, with Azaerlea's incident*
I have just about had it with Azaerlea, that damn devil runt. I did something out of my control, Aka Manto killing everyone in Reprieve, including her using MY body, and I get the blame from her. Just like everyone else, but this had the very real consequence of possibly being dragged down to hell. I refuse to bow to her, kneel, or let alone see her with respect, she has not earned it. So help the gods when I get out of this contract, she will know my wrath, then we shall see who holds the power between us two then! Though unlike her, I have some friends to help me at my lowest, trying to help me in that situation... Gothmog, Radegast, Kosuke, if you ever somehow get to reading this.... thank you. You are a great friend, and I could argue brothers that I never had. Great... getting all sappy, Novia, stop reading now if you are, and don't bullshit me, you are and we both know it.
P.S. Novia, hope you like the souvenir I got you!
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry eighteen)
The journey back to Desert Rose was rather uneventful. We just took a caravan back, and aside from the occasional sights of sand, cacti, and rocks nothing really happened. Once I got back, I went straight back to my mansion to find Mum and Pa taking to the new Ryozo property. It was a pretty nice breakfast we had, Maria was in a muffin coma, Petra trading techniques with Pa, and I learned a few techniques in spells from Mum. The technique taught was [Dominate Person in Oni], incredibly dangerous spell. To even prove the point, Mum used the spell on my head.
[Rest was notes on spells he learned, showing his mom the Sun and Moon Plaza as her new ownership, going to the Meishu College of Magics to visit old Professors, and of course partying with old classmates]
The day finally came, getting new orders from the Empress. We're set to go out to fight the Storm Riders in a place southwest of Desert Rose past Fofus, among hundreds of these tanned skinned beauties. On the boat, many made advances on Rad, Sol and I; I politely declined their advances, but Sol and I agree they were looking pretty stacked. Others however frowned upon us just for being men. Gotta say... not a good first impression like the other ladies, won't lie there. It took two days to travel across the desert, on one of their boats that were able to glide across the sand as if it were water... even magically was protected against a sandstorm that could have shredded our skin and the boat itself. They claimed it was divine magic that protected them... I'm inclined to believe it was the arcane. I will get back to you on that for details Novia, in case you forgot I know you read this!
To add worse for wear on the earlier, the men are separated from the women in this society. We were cast out to a smaller town outside their holy city right along the coast. It was... how to describe... based on utility over form; little bits of land were wasted on beauty. Might be beauty in their own way? Perhaps, but I prefer the dark wood and rice paper of home... I miss it.
Upon going about the town, some of the locals are mentioning a Trial, with boats. The leader of the people here is a young, unproven Gerudo named Riju, as her mother died in the raids against the Storm Riders. Perhaps impressing her in these "trials" will force their hand in taking us seriously. Time will tell. I'll write more when things get more developments. More to follow Novia.
P.S. Expect some souvenirs. Turns out they use gold and jewelry to channel their magic, maybe you could use or study them? Or heck, get some for Petra and Maria alike.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry seventeen)
[random written notes about the great library of the dwarves, their history of going underground and remaining isolationist for centuries, millennia even due to a vampiric incident ages ago]
*written after the events of the scouting session and the talk with Kosuke*
What an eventful last day this was... nearly lost my life and all. That's normal at this point yeah? Well it seems in retrospect, I bit off way more than I could chew, and should have leaned on others, instead of being a fanatical martyr, because I want to live, and I would hope the others do too. Well, might as well get writing on what happened, can't not have context no?
So, after we fended off the Underdark armies on behalf of Mountainhome, the king of the dwarves brought us to his throne room and handed each of us this sort of tracking stone while we looked for the Cu's Fist. After that roughly brief meeting with him, he sent out of the caves to begin our search. Naturally bickering ensued on where to start, and while that was going on, Rad figured out quick as a wink with his pathfinding skills that their monastery... was smack dab directly on top of the mountain that we entered!!! It was just out of sight, and he caught a glimpse of it, saw footsteps or whatever magic he performed to figure that out. So naturally, we had to start climbing, and by sheer miracle ~~brilliant planner~~, he had several sets of climbing gear at the ready. Well better to have it, than need it and not have it. We all started climbing, I'm terrible at it, Goth's a natural, everyone else was fine, so I just started flying up to scout ahead. With that, we eventually made it to the top after a few hours, and found ourselves at the midst of the Cu's Fist monastery. Thing was built like a fortress, walls dozens of feet tall, tall guard towers, well paved out paths nearby, and patrols throughout the area.
We decided to split up, where Varis, Gothmog and Filea snuck forward while Rad took to the rocks above, and I snuck around all invisible like. I later heard commotion on my way to the walls, when I look back, Varis got spotted by one of the monks, and tried to talk him down. Not taking any changes, I draw my sword and wait until he starts attacking, which eventually, he did. Turns out fighting hand to hand with a trained monk is a terrible idea, he disarmed my sword. Filea grabs Varis and bolts (like carry the man over her shoulder strong), then my boy Goth literally walks up with his axe and intimidates the dude. The guy turned tail and ran, then went back inside. We checked if he told anyone, but... Varis in retrospect was right, dude was one of those guys who was captured and forced to become a monk.
[disclaimer: this is Eligius' thoughts, not mine]
Seeing that some of the others bolted, might as well have gotten some intel so we didn't leave empty handed. I thought at the time, screw that, we need any edge we can get. I went invisible and flew up to one of the towers to scout the area. The one monk earlier was getting chewed out by this Ran'jit man, dude looked scarier than what the dossier described, and I swore he looked in my direction, or saw Joryth or something because he stared right at me on the tower. So after waiting a bit of time, I shifted away from the tower, and on top of the monastery. My suspicions were correct, he climbed the tower and checked out my hiding spot, then went back inside. After... maybe 10 minutes, he went inside, and I decided to go inside as well after a bit more waiting. Turns out I found his room, with him in it... I opened the window and snuck behind his desk, by sheer miracle at the time, I thought he didn't spot me, he or his pet pseudodragon apparently. Eventually, he left the room, giving me the golden moment to steal everything of his that wasn't nailed down. Books, journals, papers, nun-chucks, even a purple crystal shard. As soon as I was about to leave back out the window, a bullet shot right through the wall and I heard a grunt of pain, dude was climbing the wall and WAITING FOR ME.
What next happened felt like a blur, I bolted out the door instead of the window, sprinting up the tower trying to find an exit. There was literally no windows anywhere else to exit, so I was thinking I was doomed. And as I was running up the stairs, I heard more gunshots and hitting the tower on lower floors, dude was climbing after me! Eventually I found an exit at the top of the tower, and as I jump out to fly, the Ran'jit guy ripped a chunk of the tower out and chucked it at me, somehow he missed, and in retaliation, I tossed a fireball at him and flew off. The whole monastery knew I was there now, so we had to go. So I found Rad, and got him off the mountain by tackling him off one of the cliffs and using my flying spell to slow us down.
Everyone else didn't seem to appreciate the stunt I pulled, despite what I pilfered. Only now do I realize that I got too greedy, I talked to Kosuke post-mortem, he spoke of teamwork, being a cohesive force instead of just doing it all by myself.... yeah, I should have done that. Guess I'll have to fix that next time. Novia, if you are reading this and shaking your head, know that I already know the lesson of team work, no need to hit me over the head with it or whatnot.
Now, we're about to now raid the monastery and defeat the Cu's Fist, destroy their crystal... hoping for the best.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry sixteen)
Alright, Novia's and the Roses got me to going after another target from the dossiers, this time being the Cu's Fist. Ichihara-Sensei had a hoot about them, let me tell you. Anyways, it seems they were out east, out in the Cu Mountains. We traveled north from the Vigilax to the Tenebriam in one of my favorite ways of transport, convoying with my boy Veldrin Omriwin! And guess what, if you thought we were gonna get ambushed by dune worms, raiders or even a devil like last time... nope! Didn't happen!
We then made it to Faltis perfectly fine, where we got our in for the Cu's Mountain. This moustachio supremo lad was none other than a Dr. Fimbleton, who was looking for ancient dwarven ruins in the Cu Mountain range. After a couple a drinks and schmoozing that his colleague is inferior to him, he agreed to guide us through the mountain ranges IF he finds the dwarven city with us. Thing is... he says it's a myth, but I'm one to please Novia, considering you have me do the impossible on the daily, who am I to say no to thine holiness?
-a few days later....
Aaaaaand turns out the Mountainhome is what the dwarven city of myth was called, and of course it was real. It was in a cave underneath a gigantic mountain, going miles underground. I swear... my head hurts writing this due to the pressures I think, as well as my sides from old mythril arrows shot from some dilapidated traps from the walls. Free mythril at the cost of my organs that healed up.... It still damn hurts.
The puzzles to get into the damn city was another, it was a wall with a bunch of tablets translated from dwarvish, it translated to some sort of sing song thing that I had no idea about. But this city... turns out they were isolationist, last records they told us of was vampires on the surface (Care to clarify the history of the empire then Novia, there's a fact for you!).
So, the king said these Cu's Fist monks, they don't know where they are... they seem like a shit ton of happy go lucky drunkards for the most part, never leaving the caves. They however will help us against them if we scratch their back, by holding back an assault of the Underdark forces. ...turns out that was a lot of them. We faced "duergar", drow, "deep gnomes" in army fashion, Solomon was manning a modified cannon of theirs that he personally upgraded. Boy that packed a punch, even more than my magics.
The cannon however... attracted the attention of a purple worm. A trip to the caves or desert is never complete without a worm is it? But damn, it almost killed Rad! It managed to swallow him, but we ended the thing before it digested him. It was burrowing through solid rock like it was a fox diving into snow during the winter. Not only that, it barfed up a ton of gems, didn't know that, pretty kickass. But as promised, the dwarven king gave us some sort of tracker stone used for miners to track our location as we scout the Cu's Fist Monastery when we find it. Now all we have to do is find that... that'll be fun....
[added note in]
So I had these necklaces made from gems I bought Petra and Maria from Faltis, not very well cut gems (they seemed to be unenthused when I first got them). [I had to steal them back for Gustov, this dwarven gem carver to fix up by going through their room when they weren't looking] (previous sentence crossed out). After that I had them cut into beautiful and unique necklaces, they REALLY seemed to appreciate them. Maria gave me a hug, and Petra, never seen her so blushed before. She even gave me a 10 second head start when I made a joke about the purple worm and my...... anyways, yeah, they liked them.
Novia, will keep you posted, and something something sarcasm something something.
Eligius Yami
Desert Rose Shenanigans (Entry Four)
The week-long visit back home was rather needed given recent events. I walked across the entire desert in my bloodied robes, soaking in the fact that I actually killed someone, and it didn't even set in with that fact until like a day later. First person to see me in that squalor was my sensei, he saw me in the bloodied robes and outright understood what went down. He once again shared his grand wisdom to me in the form of a tale from the age of clan wars, one now burned into my brain.
It was both their way of life, and their way of preserving their way of life, their life choices, how many soldiers do you think came away questioning if they did right or wrong? In their eyes, they were doing what their tribe needed, for land, food, water, revenge, to defend their families. You will find your adversaries do much the same, though they may not call themselves a tribe, their actions are indicative of it.
They chose to fight you, rather than surrender, to ambush you, to cause harm to you and others. Words may not have reached them, it is likely they won't have much effect, and scaring people away may not always work, if they fear betraying their tribe more
That does not mean you should not try, but instead, when your are asked to chose, to fight or to let live, remember, they chose their path like you have chosen yours. and they will continue to walk it.
Wrote verbatim
These cultists took their path of wanton destruction, and paid the price for it. I was in the right for opposing them for starving out Kobir, killing all those innocents. I must take heart the values of a monk to deal with everything. Preserve my heritage... both of them, take no sides, and do not fight unless challenged (this will be difficult).
Next person who I ran into was my father, Ichihara suggested it. He was praying at the Shinto shrine out back, and he too understood, "First taste of war" he called it. He says it gets easier so long as you have a cause, and I do, destroying the Graveyard. He also guided me to start praying to the kitsune spirits for once, and.... I very just might continue it, keeping my body, mind, and soul in balance. One last thing, glad to hear they're proud of me, my ma and pa. I can't let them down, I got to press on and continue my chosen role as Champion.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry fifteen)
Alright... last we left off, we forced information out of a Snakeroot's Bite cultist girl about where they held the stolen food as well as their main base. We did remain skeptical however, as the girl might have been lying. Rad apparently had captured one of the cultists from a previous attack, so we decided to do a bit of blindfold interrogation. We decided to scare the living pants off the guy, as I impersonated a horned devil's voice, threatening to devour his soul and grind his bones to dust. THAT.. actually worked believe it or not! Of course we revealed ourselves by taking off his blindfold and showed the thug he was had! Ahh... I still laugh thinking about it.
So, seeing that the information was truth, Rad, Solomon and I decided to go take a small visit to the food stash in order to help Kobir. I had the brilliant idea of disguising myself as one of the guards, and using my persuasive charm to have the first two cultists lower their guards. Rad, Sol, Petra, Maria and I then quickly dispatched them..... it.... was... repulsive. That was my first person killed by my own hands, not crystal creatures, or even at the disembodied self of Reprieve.... but my own hands...
I didn't think on it at the time, as the guards behind a solid wooden planked door were wondering what the commotion we caused was about. I changed my voice to impersonate one of the guards, told them everything was alright. They seemed to buy it and went back to their posts like the first guys, only for us to blow the door inward and assaulted the compound. It was an all out assault on the place, though there was a LOT of food lying about in crates, so I had to limit my magic to not burn it all down (guess what Novia, that really cost us). The cultist leader there was a black hooded figure with no face in sight, just the void itself. Needless to say, seeing I was the caster he went straight for me, armed with a dagger that felt like it did more than just physical, but otherworldly damage to my very soul. I did as best I could to fight him without damaging any of the food, he was getting the upper hand on me, almost took me down, but thankfully Petra came in and saved my sorry ass. He didn't even die, he stood upright, said "Very well", and literally walked away before my very eyes into nothing! I swear, the Material Plane is a helluva weird place.
In any case, we got the goods, and brought them back to Kobir. The people loved us, praised us as heroes and chowed down a helluva feast. After the other group took down the base, we marched on back home... that gave me time to soak in the fact that I had killed... I was not proud of it.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry fourteen)
Alrighty Novia, I got to say I am writing this on a more somber note. I must say right after I left for Kobir, I wasn't expecting something to pursue our party to be to the point of wanting to steal our souls... want to guess what happened? No? Well too bad. So we were going along to Kobir convoy style with a cart full of food as ordered, resupply them you know? Naturally we were ambushed by some of the Snakeroot's Bite, hiding among the sands. We were surrounded, I tried in scaring them to back down after Zahira mind controlled one of them, but they wouldn't have it, they attacked us. The poison... would not recommend, I nearly puked up my guts and felt horrible for days.
And you would THINK that would be the end of it? Well you aren't paying attention.... Varis forgot the key detail of being actively pursued by devil death squads, Azzy does not count. Zahira casted a few hexes on it, and it seemed to soley aim for me, nearly slicing out my throat with its spines. That was... harrowing. I'm just here lying on a bed wrapped in tons of bandages as I write this, all bloodied in the robes and all.
We eventually make it to Kobir after dealing with the cultist scouts and the devil death squad. And boy... it was bad. Many were starved and nothing but skin and bones. Our cart full of food was like mana from the heavens to them. I felt like the Snakes had to pay, and our plan was stealing the food back from their hideouts... and luckily we forced one of them to reveal said location....
-Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry thirteen)
Hey, get this Novia, something strange happened to me, and everyone else were given dossiers on these organizations I was granted a vision on back in the Graveyard. After delving into the puzzle for.... an embarrassing amount of time. I gotta stop overthinking those things and relying on obscure references to old legends, plays and the like honestly. It'd have been funny if it worked however. So to put it seriously, I was told to memorize the details in the dossier and destroy it, to hell with that, I'm writing down key details in here in some fancy magic ink I bought a while back. You'll need basic conjuration magic to reveal it, so there's your hint. The information is as follows:
(Copying cutscene stuff here in case somehow gets deleted)
The Immortal Flames: This band of bandits specialize in all things flame based, they are known for burning down villages and being immune to the infernos they leave in their wake, Know for burning alive those that challenge them, They make use of shock and awe tactics to keep people from fighting back, they've taken up somewhere around the town of Demonitis, One of the hottest in the region due to the above ground lava pools that surround the towns outskirts, they commonly fight with the Winters Children, But they collect healthy tithes from near by villages, and some businesses in the town it's self. The base it's self has yet to be found, and the most we know is the region they operate out of.
Danger Level: High
Recommended action: Wait for more information
The Winters Children: A group of mountain survivalists, They harness "Kair's gift" in their words, Channeling Cryokinentic magics and have either become immune, or are well adapted to the frigged temperatures of the reach, while not attacking the Vigilax directly, they do pose a great threat to trade, and the stability of our western siblings in the reach. They have made their base somewhere withing the Ranges of Kair's Blessing, And are usually found in combat with the Immortal Flames
Danger Level: High
Recommended Action: Wait for more information
The Storm Riders: A group of pirates operating in the meteor Gulf, they have taken to raiding any ships that come into their waters, and attacking villages on the coast line of the Vigilax, Their base is as of now unknown, but they have been found fighting with the Snakroot's bite
Danger Level: Extreme
Recommended Action: Avoid until more information is provided
The Snakroot's Bite: A band of poison masters, Lesser known for combat prowess, but dangerous all the same if not careful, They have made themselves comfortable West of Kobir, Poisoning water, food supplies, and even people if their demands are not met. Normal antidotes will not help those afflicted by their poisons and they need immediate clerical assistance. Their brand of spell casting weaves toxins into the aether, poisoning the body in such a way only magical healing will provide succor
Danger Level: Moderate
Recommended action: Engage at will, bring a Cleric
Cu's fist: A band of Militant monks who has taken to weaving Geomancy into their attacks, They have taken up residence in their monasteries in the Cu mountains. Capable of both devastating blows and petrifying strikes, if temporary, they are a fierce group to go after. They see the world as being indolent, and seek to bring it to heel, Often at odds with Acidum Amnis.
Danger level: Moderately-high
Recommended action: Engage at will, be prepared for a fight
Acidum Amnis: A group of hydromancers who have been sieging Port Damocles and any ships that sail into the port. They use their magics to corrode armors through some unknown means
Danger level: Extreme
Recomended action: Avoid until further notice
Oria's light: Known for hit and run tactics, they use magics of light affinity to blind and stun people while they run around them, Weak in a upfront confrontation, but also locked in combat with the unknown Bulwark cult
Danger Level: Minimum
Recommended action: Leave them to fight the cult, monitor their movements
Okay, we then focused on this information and I tagged along with two different groups of my bunch to figure out more about these people. Of course the first group was more... hospitable with my presence, but that's neither here nor there. First group went to the library and visited Viscount Thorn's manor for specific information, while group two talked among folks in the town and I delved my info to them from the previous day. Here is our findings, compiled by Kosuke. Thanks bro for writing a copy!
The Immortal Flames: Rivals with the Winter's Children. Threat to morale; intimidation tactics. Known to destroy entire towns. Harbours "Children of the Phoenix". Byproduct of the Great Disaster. Holds ties to Glysaris Azralin.
Appraisal: Direct threat to logistics. Develop fire resistance. Life support systems as well.
The Winter's Children: Rivals with the Immortal Flames. Threat to trade by land. Not a long-established organisation. Currently unknown leader. They utilise the "Kair's Gift". Isolationist faction.
Appraisal: Redirect trade routes, exploit isolationism.
The Storm Riders: Rivals with the Snakeroot's Bite. Operates in the Meteor Gulf. Threat to trade by sea. Long-established organisation. Nomadic by nature. Makes temporary alliances with sahuagin.
Appraisal: Too elusive to decisively attack.
The Snakeroot's Bite: Rivals with the Storm Riders. Threatens food and water supply. Taxing on divine casters.
Appraisal: Develop poison resistance. Ambush. Exploit reliance on poison.
Cu's Fist: Rivals with Acidum Amnis. Grandmaster holds radical views. Seeks to force "strengthening" change. Generally not lethal. Captured prisoners become new monks.
Appraisal: Direct threat to logistics. Liberate if possible.
Acidum Amnis: Rivals with Cu's Fist. Threat to trade by sea. Regularly corrodes metal equipment. Short history, but disastrous nonetheless.
Appraisal: Develop corrosion resistance. Until then, leave to monks.
Oria's Light: No current rivals. Confrontation with the Bulwark Cult. Opposed to the Crystalline Graveyard.
Appraisal: Possible alliance, though unlikely.
VERDICT: First move is to attack the Snakeroot's Bite.
We will head out to find out more about the Snakeroot's Bite first since they are intending to attack the water supply. More to follow, sorry this particular entry was a snoozefest Empress, I'll have more sarcasm later for you. Not sure how I'll feel about killing honestly, but we shall see.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry twelve)
Okay! So it's been a few days since I wrote my last entry, so that's fun isn't it Novia? Listen well Empress because it is time for another wild ride through the Graveyard. So! We embark on our journey back to the land of the forge, the place where I faced off against that samurai of legend. The city itself was still ridden full of these crystal skeleton soldiers... must have been the former inhabitants and the citizens... damn shame this happened to them. We mostly snuck past them and tore down a group or two, no big deal right? We then made it back to that holy ground. My compatriots, including Petra and Maria mind you did the best idea we had in such an untouched land of our ancestors..... WE STOLE EVERYTHING THAT WASN'T NAILED DOWN! I got Petra and Maria some ear rings found in some jewelry part of the forge, must been crafted for some lover or the like back when... I suppose it'll come of better use being in their hands now.
After such plundering, we marched on to find the normal wall o' crystal conveniently blocking our path, and what did we find? That's right, a tarp. A tarp Eligus? Stop being crazy, nothing is wrong with that, but oh no, what was above it is what scared me, some floating handed monstrosity and giant torso with glowing eyes was what was up. It was... quite an annoying fight, I was thrown around like a stick on a drum. This thing used the tarp on the floor as a weapon to throw us off our balance and then divide and conquer. Maria wasn't fond of that, trying to club at the hands while Petra, hot damn did she obliterate that monster, stabbing its hands something fierce with that Ronin combat training. Eventually the giant creature fell, and just in case, I collapsed its suspended body from the ceiling and it fell right through the tarp into some bottomless pit. It took.... I think 15 seconds to a minute for the thing to reach the bottom. You.. might want to send a team down there to cleanse that hole, no?
Well, and get this, we made it to the giant crystal wall, and it wasn't just one layer... it was seven. Reminiscent of a "Prismatic Wall". Naturally since no one else wants to get mind blasted, I volunteered because no one else bothers doing it. The vision I saw was as follows, a devil blasting through the crystals with an almightily powerful spell through the crystals, and several people across the land finding crystals, and over the years forming cults around them. That's.... gonna be a problem, not gonna lie.
So yeah, that was something, and of course I had to be the translator for the visions to everyone else, naturally. I await the next order your Empress, and the sarcasm that will come your way when it does.
Eligius Yami
1st Letter to Xozgoral Manto
To Xozgoral Manto
(inside the scroll below)
Hey Auntie, it's Eligius,
I did what you asked and delivered letters for you. In my delivering, a monk and sensei of mine, Ichihara Suzu noted those I was delivering letters to would be hesitant with the name "Manto" as the clan name due to its history. I am inclined to agree with him, I'm suggesting you a name to symbolize your drive to bring the clan back to its roots. "Genten", would be a good idea for a name, our return to our roots as oni before were void of demonic influences. I also suggest the new clan not be exclusive to those of Manto blood, but like the Yami clan, accept those who wish to start a new life in Onijima, and create a life separate of the demonic influences on our people.
I await your response Auntie Xoz, your cousin,
Eligius
3rd Letter to both Mother and Father
To Az'gal and Angelus Ryozo,
(inside the scroll is below)
Hey mum, pa,
I know I haven't written in a while, but I am doing well. I am in a place called Desert Rose out in Randera still helping Novia save the world. Ichihara-Sensei has decided to join me here, as well as surprise visits by old classmates. Remember Petra or Maria? Well they're Ronin now working for Novia, following me around like I'm their leader. Surprising I know, but it's... nice to actually see them again given a few weeks of reflection.
We are now facing problems in the form of cultists worshipping the crystalline graveyard and its magics, so Novia wants us to help the local lord take them out (and I don't mean for dinner!). If you are wondering what I am doing exactly, now you are graced with knowledge.
By the way, how's things on the homefront? I hope pa's leg is healing nicely. I can have my healing Gorget sent back home for a few days in order to further help him if it's required. I also hope him being back home does him some good, he needs to sit down and sip on tea every once in a while, take in the slow parts of life. I'm also trying to turn my life around now. With Ichihara coming to Desert Rose, I am actively trying to change my way of life, be more humbled and become a true good person (the word oni warrior was crosses out) in both body and mind. And with your little sister Xozgoral, I think the Manto clan she wants to reform needs a renaming. I was thinking Genten (Origin) would be a good name, going back to the roots before the demon corruption. I am writing a letter to her soon, I hope it reaches her.
I will try and visit soon. Joryth and I will need a break once these cultists are done for (and he's dead!). I think we are starting to become a really good team. More letters shall come soon for updates.
Your son, Eligius.
Notes and Crap (entry eleven)
(First part written right as he's traveling alone, second part after the samurai fight)
Damn Joryth, damn these "friends" that fight by my side, damn this whole restoration effort! I can't go one day without someone insulting my intelligence, demeaning me, insulting me, or thing I'm a worthless runt! I'm going alone to restore this sword, Joryth thought it a bad idea I go alone, but this is something meant to do alone. I want to prove myself for once that I can take care of myself. No one ever seems to believe that. Today.... I prove myself, if I fall... well.... you'll probably know reading this journal.
Well.... I didn't fall, but I found that eternal flame in the city of the forge itself, the old city mostly still stands. I decided to sneak my way through, I'm no samurai cleaving my way through scores of crystallized undeath, so that was my only change. I did find many tomes to gain knowledge from to bring back, so I gathered all that wasn't nailed down. Only to find that Zahira and Julian followed me here, thanks to Joryth... after.... a heated argument, and pouring out my heart... they seemed to have understood my plight. Julian.... and I seem to have things in common surprisingly, who would have thought. Never imagined it like that, though Zahira also didn't realize, thought I could take it. I can, but it wore thin.
We made it inside the holy forge, it was guarded by a samurai of legend, the nine tailed warrior himself. It was to be a challenge of fates, me against him. Julian and later Zahira intervened, summoning animal after animal until the Samurai gave up, allowing me to use the forge. Angels from the heavens itself guided my hands in the repairs, even one angel that... well... anyways! She and the others helped me mend the cracks, though the spirit of the blade lies dormant. Seeing all my efforts for naught, I tosses the completed blade to Novia. Her father deserved that blade. It was his to own, and I left it with her.
(Written before he took it back)
Novia, if you are reading this, just keep the damn blade. I'm not worthy, despite everything. I told you I went alone to face the tides, only for you to find the truth this way. Ironic.
Eligius Yami
Hakumei Shenanigans (entry one)
This one's a brief one, so don't expect some supremo life lessons learned Novia. It was basically going home and doing things I needed to do.
Rule of the first, I went home to visit family, got a hot meal and some hugs, good stuff, then visited Joryth's home so he could do the same (I know you're a ghost Joryth, but still). We got him to reunite with his family. Got to say, it was... heartwarming to see him happy, despite all we do to bicker with each other. After that, I decided to visit my old Sensei, fulfill a promise to family, Xozgoral wanted talented minds and warriors, and Ichihara Suzu-sensei was both. In my attempt of recruiting him, it took a bit of clarification, and some humbling myself to get him to agree... but... he joined the cause. Besides that, I apologized to ignoring his lessons, and overall being a drag. Unlike what others may think, have some heart and offered to redeem myself in his eyes. He agreed, and promised to not go easy on me, naturally, dude was always a hardass.
I then went to the Meishu castle, to speak to them on the recruitment for my Auntie. That also bore some.... very reluctant success from Oppia, as well as Demaentus. I wanted him and his position among oni to give them hope for this cause, though he suggested renaming the Manto clan to something else due to stigma. I... don't know what to even begin in naming a clan. I'll have to talk to Auntie about that. That's all for now. Go away now Novia, quit invading my privacy or something, you knave.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry ten)
(Writing backlog, forgot to cover this session
Okay... well that was an adventure. Our first adventure back into the graveyard... man I felt like I was being teased throughout this whole thing. My first day to impress the ladies with my magic and I get to show off nothing. Hope they suspect nothing... maybe I look like the loser I did then. Great...
So, what happened was we gathered just outside town, turns out the great and illustrious former Empress, Octavia was in town, talking to Novia in dealing with loss. We debriefed, and met and shook hands... man she was kind of... I dunno. She said she knows about rumors of me, and I fit them well. How... ominous. Didn't help everyone else ganged up on me. We then went down convoy style to the graveyard, it was filled with dune worms along the path and we were security. I thought it would be best to get off ground and fireball it from above, but Zahira and Gothmog... jeez, they obliterated it in seconds with mind fuckery and literally decapitating it before I could make an ember.
After that little incident, we made our way into the Bulwark, and were ambushed by about 8 wizards on the plateau side above us. I was gonna fight back after they scorched us, but Zahira, good gods she... started talking to them and somehow convinced them we are friends who are lost looking for them. That somehow worked, and they enc0uraged us to receive the "Graveyard's Blessing". So... we left them alone.... we could not take on their numbers. That one dude still owed me 5 silver....
So... we make it south to an old town in the most northward parts of the graveyard. Honestly looked like farmland, or could have been. Some of the places were barns, taverns, your classic little road town. We were investigating for relics and a Torii gate; however during my search for books and ancient tools, I heard rumbling. Turns out it was a hill giant, underneath a face full of crystal having a face of pure agony. Zahira decided we need to get out and distract it, and I actually agreed. So, she summoned something and we tried making out escape, but boy was it fast in killing Zahira's summon. So.... we had to face it, I started my stand against it by shattering its face, revealing its ugly mug, Gothmog slashed its heel with his axe, and Zahira.... literally made its head explode with her magics. (I got off lucky from that lady)
Overall, screw all these people, all I did was look like a weakling that can't get anything done right. I also gave Novia all these brass tools and ancient tomes, depicting the soul plague of old, commoner's perspectives. Though... I really wonder how much I can stand. It's starting to wear thin. Novia, if you are reading this, lay off alright?
Eligius Yami
Desert Rose Shenanigans (Entry Two)
(Set before the sword session, just backtracking)
Okay! So I found this damn journal stuck between bed sheets, knew I hid it somewhere, just forgot. So get this, Maria and Petra, girls you are kind of nice.... but I'm not sure about either of you. You two are great and all, but I don't trust you two for squat yet. No one comes into my life from that jaded past and just suddenly everything's peachy. I.... I just don't know. I'm probably just worrying about a betrayal, but I'm just jaded. Novia, don't strike me down for personal feelings please.
The noble here, Thorn, I firmly believe we are kindred spirits, he's clearly a womanizer, good sense of style and hella charismatic! Though he also seems to get blasted into oblivion by those around him. I think it brings him comfort that there's others like him to lessen the blow perhaps? There's probably a bit I can learn from the man. He and Umbra told me of a few adventures he had in the past we're pretty fun, and I might sit down every so often with him to listen to them.
Joryth, we may get... on wrong terms a lot man, but even I want to see him happy. So I finally decided to grab his incorporeal ass to the Feywilds to the great foothills of the Jangling Duchy where his family lives now. Him finally seeing someone in his life he got to go home to... it was touching. Though I'm a little jealous of it. What do I have to go back to once this is all over? I'll see I suppose.
Right before I got to do Xozgoral's letter delivering, I decided to take a risk, and visit Ichihara Suzu, absolutely one of the most wise men I have ever met. I went to his home and.... humbled myself before him, I admit here I did fail him and his teachings. I let pride and my vulnerabilities eat away at me and give in to temptation with the demon himself. I gave him one of the letters for Xozgoral's future ambitions for Onijima, and... he was surprisingly interested, to bring the oni back to the ways before the demonic influences. He's also agreed to coming to Desert Rose to continue our lessons in my downtime, he promises to be more fierce in the lessons for my failures, I do understand. And he's allowing me to bring others due to his love for teaching others the ancient ways.
Last but certainly not least, I talked to Duchess Oppia about letters for Auntie, and she's... surprisingly understanding, given how hesitant she is around Oni. She agreed to get her husband the Duke to talk to me about any future help that they might offer.
That's the end of this entry. Go away now Novia.
Eligius Yami
Desert Rose Shenanigans (Entry One)
Okay, I have missed quite a bit since my last entry. Let's see.... the casual haunting of something called a camel... might be evil, meeting the locals of this place, finding even an oasis with some gigantic ray, whatever that is. The material plane's animals are weird is all I can say. And had to diffuse a situation with Kosuke, note to self, get some anti-electric vest or something. For all that I have done for him he electrocuted me without hesitation. Hells, it would have killed a lesser person! And... last but not least... ghosts of my past reappear.
Okay to actually divide this up into readable parts, first and foremost! Kosuke!
My boi didn't seem to like me talking about weapons at the table. I like his stuff, sure, but you can't disrespect the attention of the ladies! On top of guards possibly getting called upon us, that *might* complicate things. I told him not to do that and he.... didn't seem to like that. He ran off during a breakfast, so I eventually went after him to come out for the water festival with the ladies he ate with. He... didn't seem to appreciate me trying my best to bring him out of his shell, he zapped me, he yelled a whole five words at me (new record), and didn't want me to enter his room uninvited. No one else bothered going to help him, so I felt like I needed to! Sorry dude, but it had to happen. In the end, almost lost him, buuuuut, I managed to get him to come outside, and I got him to talk to that one chick that he had lunch with AFTER he won a competition. Score one for Kosuke! SO PROUD!!
Okay... the ghosts of my past... it would seem.... the Crystalline effort has... brought forth two of my classmates... Maria and Petra Yami... They've... changed... and noticed mine as well. While nice to see them, they barely knew me beforehand besides being the quiet and reclusive kid. I guess that is a chance for new beginnings in my case, yet... I don't fully consider them friends yet. I was picked on for years, and that won't go away so easily. We shall see if they are good at reaching out to me in return in due time.... so far it is good. Though hopefully they don't see through the accent I picked up in college from this foreigner. Though it seems like me, they both have baggage of their own, unwilling to unpack them same as I. I suppose that is the reality of the Yami clan, born out of war we all share hardships.
Next up is the..... Camel. I have no idea what it was, but it ominously stared at my tent for two days straight in my week-long excursion to find inner peace and contacting the spirits. I managed to contact one for Maria since she has blood rage similar to the oni berserkers of old, she needs guidance and I found someone willing to guide her and Petra similar to how Joryth guides me. ANYWAYS, I tried talking to so many people throughout the town. No one knows about this ominous camel even existing, now I look like a crazy person but I know what I saw! At least Maria and Petra seem to believe me since we all hail from the Feywilds. Trust me, we've seen weirder I'm sure.
That is my paragraph for this. Happy Novia?
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry nine)
Oh the son of a bitch! He wrote in my damn journal! That horn headed demon! It messes up the chaotic order in my journal and everything! Not only did he do that, I he took over my body! Novia, from my perspective, what had happened followed this...
I first readied a ritual circle to directly commune with Aka Manto, against Joryth's wishes. Want to know why I did that? Because I wanted to get something done right on my own for once. Every time I do something right, someone else takes the credit, and I'm called an idiot. And thus the chain of that continues to this day... great. I tried appealing to his sense of clanship and family... it seemed to have backfired because he took my body over, banished Joryth, and throat punched Kosuke to the point of not being able to speak for two weeks. And you know the rest with him detonating the entire town... I still kinda feel guilty. Because of my actions I let people... hundreds die by my hand.... literally! Even if it was Aka, it was also me by proxy.
[Redacted portions from the Heavens, except for a few jots of info where the Heavenly Forge is]
One note from the heavens when you saw me bolt away. I convinced one of the generals to commune and come back as a guiding spirit for Xozgoral, and maybe rally his men to do the same for the oni on the ground. He said we shall see, but I got faith in the old man.
So even if you were on our adventure to Desert Rose, I'm writing it down for sake of continuity for maybe a future book or something, who knows. So, we made our way from Reprieve to Port Mareh via one of your personal submarines. Got to admit, the sea life look is pretty nice looking, I think I saw a dragon turtle in the far distance a week in, but I was tired, maybe I didn't see anything. Once we came ashore, it looked awfully sketchy with a near-abandoned town look as soon as we arrived. Turns out it was a town filled with Drow from the nearby Underdark coming out for their crops and work during the night, gotta admit it was kinda really cool to see that kind of culture. And appreciate some other... activities as well, good times.
[Redacted about drow from the town]
We then secured a caravan on your dime Novia, which we rode across the vast deserts for about a day or two, being constantly on the move only to be interrupted by freaking dune worms! The nerve of those freaks! So of course I made shatter lures explode into the sand as Solomon and Radegast took care of them with their explosives, and from that we managed to fend them off. Victory, whoopie, hoorah and stuffs.
Finally we make to Desert Rose, turns out there is a festival to water there, really beautiful sandstone architecture and sapphire gems alongside waterways. Turns out from the talk of the locals, there might be magic bandits. Novia, I hereby request that at some point we deal with them, they might be related to the graveyard since the magic is as their words "unknown origin", and they keep coming back no matter how many they deal with.
[Redacted about a succubus]
And ey, I still need to get home to bring those other letters to the oni for the war effort. Xozgoral is counting on me, and I won't let down Aunty, she's family and she needs me.
Eligius Yami.
Notes and Crap (entry eight)
Athradte was our destination for eliminating the heart of the forest, the crystalline abomination. We ripped it out root and stem after an elven guide showed us the summer tree that they use for their solstice rituals. The tree itself was a giant oak with a hollowed out center with an exposed skyline to the skies above, likely centering on the solstices when the sun reaches its highest point. Nonetheless, the tree was greatly infected with corruption... acidic water, exploding bugs, giant arachnids and humanoid-eating plants as far as we could see.
In its heart was a creature of formidable strength, likely a corrupted Venus fly trap grown to a tremendous size, capable of devouring an entire full-sized oni whole in one of its mouths. Despite this challenge it all fell down the same, with me delivering the killing blow via a blade. I then ripped out the forest's "Heart" by shattering the crystal in the center of the tree, then I grabbed a bit of a sample for further study.
We await further assignment in our excursions to the graveyards Empress Novia, on your order.
[not signed at the bottom like normal entries, and it is well written in a WAY different handwriting, in Giant]
Notes and Crap (entry seven)
[There was an entry where he was getting a gift for Novia, mainly the 1k gp elven dress and jewelry, but he covers it up because he doesn't want to spoil it... because he hasn't bought it yet.]
[There was an entry where he woke up in his underwear, covered in glitter by reasons even he doesn't know how, but he scribbled it out and covered it all up with ink].
So, when we get to Antradte, and I decided to search around for some guides... mainly those who have some actual relevant knowledge around the area about the forest, and its... crystal problem. Naturally, I went to the most comfortable place first, company within my own family. Xozgoral's men had scout reports mainly on their going abouts in the forest... but they found something that piqued my interest, giant 8 foot tall deer with splendorous antlers that glow teeming with nature magic. Given this report by my Auntie, and probably at the loss by my spine's integrity, I went to a hunter's lounge, and consulted with some elves from that area. The (very young, yet proven) woman in charge knows her stuff... gave some actionable info on the what's going on in the forest.
[sealed in an envelope instead of an open notebook is written below]
The village elders of several clans and druid circles are currently in consensus that the heart of the forest is indeed corrupted by a giant green crystal for a few years now. They are currently about to meet on whether to inform the public or not about the crystal and its guardian guarding it in the heart of the forest's giant tree. They are currently looking for people willing to exterminate it, and I will be exploiting it in order to get further in past the druids and rangers who hate trespassers. I don't know what this guardian is, but it was said that those who were going in to kill it were never seen from again.
[end of sealed envelope]
If you read my note, that is the details of it, do not disclose this until after the problem is done, unless you want me killed and gutted like a fish Novia, then by all means, go ahead. I'll be sure to come back with another souvenir for you, this place is looking pretty good in prospects. Until then, the Champion of Hakumei and the Yami Clan has spoken.
Eligius Yami.
Notes and Crap (entry six)
Okay, so here's what happened in our little adventure this time Novia. We were going to the heart of the forest just like those mind scrambling visions said... we head on our merry way to Athradte by following Rad by taking a shortcut through the forests northbound, where we find ourselves stumbling upon some sniffling devil of all things. Shocker I know, but she says that she got the tar beaten out of her by "Some meanies", after pressing and a bit of promise of one pastry for Zahira, this devil told us the other half of the party ended up beaning her down for attacking them. Turns out Varis.... or her mom I guess is some contract breaker... not my problem.... BUT, since it is our friends... I signed a binding nonaggression pact between me and the devil, where no soul magic was involved mind you, but there shall be no violence between our group and her.... on top of she is helping with the graveyard! Can't turn down another hand, so be it!
Anyways, so we get on our merry way reluctantly with this devil in tow (I don't trust her), where I find out that I have an Auntie Manto that's leading a civil war soon for Onijima. I'll be doing some personal familial favors for her in my spare time, so don't mind that. She's pretty cool, a "Half breed" like me, and can drink and chow down way more than I could ever dream of. If you see me going about the duchies picking old "Praetorians", Generals, archers, smiths, quartermasters, or even foot soldiers and the like.... you can guess what I'm doing. So anyways, I got myself a really sweet Auntie Xozgoral, best extended family I could ever ask for! Overall, a good find in this quaint little elf village. More to follow...
Eligius Yami
2nd Letter to both Mother and Father
To Angelus Ryozo and Az'gal Yami,
I am once again writing to both of you to make things easier on my part, I am writing this just before I head out on another expedition. I'm writing now to tell you that the adventures are pretty same old at this point, I took out some sentient crystal plants with fire, and killed a giant one with the help of my friends in the old botanical research sector of Old Hakumei. Honestly that adventure was meh, but I now gotta follow up in the elven forests to break a giant crystal and most likely get eaten by a giant spider that's guarding it. No big deal I'd say, you know a lot about me already since you raised me for crying out loud, I'm pretty hard to kill.
Aside from that, grandfather seems to have granted me "further insight into the power of our bloodline", which gave me the power to launch fireballs, and turn into a gas and sail among the winds. And here's another no biggie tidbid of info, I got myself a business that I bought with the pay Novia gave me, this nice bar out in Randera's capitol; that place I have big plans for! I look forward to hearing from you both, please do write back, as I would love to hear from you! That, or I'll visit, either way, I fare both of you well.
Your son, Eligius Yami
Randera Shenanigans (Entry One)
Okay, so on my way back from nabbing Hydra and Ms. Split Personality Aela and Seele from Glacier's Rest, I did myself a little side gig with the money I've gotten. So I found this sweet little bar in the capitol on the way back, near the MCA building, a bar owned by a Hakumei national of all things! We got into this awesome side chat about things going on at home, you know the good stuff. So, I basically pitched that I'd pay him for a share of the building, basically being his boss, so long as I get to add extensions to his building and he gets to advise me on things, and basically still run the place. That's right Novia, I got myself passive income! Never saw that coming did you? So yeah, that's basically this entry, I got plans for this place, and it shall be glorious! Plenty of girls, games and booze to come!
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry five)
Hey Novia, if you guessed we went into that freaky plant filled monstrosity of a hellhole and fought ravenous crystal plants.... you are exactly right. So, we took your portal to this place and started our investigation around the area, finding any scrolls and information we could find. I did manage to find some scrolls, mainly on blueberries, some giant strawberry recipes and mountain bananas....for whatever gods forsaken reason that was created, I shall never know.
For the enemies, I nearly got my beautiful face torn off by a plant that bit me in the jaw. It is okay to weep and cry for such a tragic event, but fear not your holiness, for I have survived such a horrible endeavor! We faced off against these wall plants, where I got the golden opportunity to use the newfound power grandfather gave insight into, and nearly leveled the building with the explosion. Rad, Julian, and Zahira were alright in the fights, but I was absolutely glorious in my crowd control.
Further venturing in, Rad skillfully made his way through the vines and found his way towards the giant green crystal in the center, finding a wall of vines... which then attacked us. He shot through the vines, which maddened the beast controlling them, this damn plant beast thing. So, using my quick wit, my dashing good looks and almighty powers, I used a shatter to drop the ceiling on said creature after a fireball to it, and gave Julian the go ahead to snap freeze the creature in an overwhelming blizzard! This thing barely stood a chance.
Overall, after one bit jaw and one disintegrated scroll, I give this adventure 3 out of 5 tails and one ointment cream for scars.
P.S. You'd kill me if I didn't write on what I saw with the giant ass crystal that brain scrambled me, so I might as well write it down.... Well what I saw was a damned spider. Felt like I wanted to stomp on myself first of all, in some far away forest, not across the ocean mind you I... for some reason laid eggs, they glowed green, and one never hatched, and the other was taken to a distant land to become a giant ass tree. So guess what, I gotta go inland westward to the elven forests. Time to have some fun with some elves chicks, kick ass and maybe purge a giant spider and green crystal.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry five)
Hey Novia, if you guessed we went into that freaky plant filled monstrosity of a hellhole and fought ravenous crystal plants.... you are exactly right. So, we took your portal to this place and started our investigation around the area, finding any scrolls and information we could find. I did manage to find some scrolls, mainly on blueberries, some giant strawberry recipes and mountain bananas....for whatever gods forsaken reason that was created, I shall never know.
For the enemies, I nearly got my beautiful face torn off by a plant that bit me in the jaw. It is okay to weep and cry for such a tragic event, but fear not your holiness, for I have survived such a horrible endeavor! We faced off against these wall plants, where I got the golden opportunity to use the newfound power grandfather gave insight into, and nearly leveled the building with the explosion. Rad, Julian, and Zahira were alright in the fights, but I was absolutely glorious in my crowd control.
Further venturing in, Rad skillfully made his way through the vines and found his way towards the giant green crystal in the center, finding a wall of vines... which then attacked us. He shot through the vines, which maddened the beast controlling them, this damn plant beast thing. So, using my quick wit, my dashing good looks and almighty powers, I used a shatter to drop the ceiling on said creature after a fireball to it, and gave Julian the go ahead to snap freeze the creature in an overwhelming blizzard! This thing barely stood a chance.
Overall, after one bit jaw and one disintegrated scroll, I give this adventure 3 out of 5 tails and one ointment cream for scars.
Eligius Yami
1st Letter to Father
Dear Angelus Ryozo,
Hey pa, I know we... aren't on the best of terms.... if not any... but... my guiding spirit convinced me to send letters to you... I genuinely hope this reaches you at some point... I don't even know where you are with all your missions in the deep forests. Well... I am the champion to both kitsune and oni to help clear out the Crystalline Graveyard... it was that or a desk job, but you know me, Novia wanted to have me be a symbol to both peoples. So, I have done so far one major mission into the graveyard, and not to mince words... it's a hellhole that needs to be either purged or cleansed, with horrifying creatures I'm sure you can imagine. Anyways... hopefully you can see this letter... I know we haven't had the most stable relationship as... father and son.... but.... hopefully this letter reaches you, as I wish for you to write back. Love you pa.
Your son, Eligius.
1st Letter to Mother
Dear Az'gal Yami,
Hey mum, I guess it's high time I started writing about my time being the champion of the oni and kitsune. I just want to say, that I am alright, and am adjusting well in this town of Reprieve, aside from some adventurers here and there too big for their britches. But, I think I found a nice group of friends that I'll be running missions with and all. So, I have seen the graveyard... and yikes... the creatures are definitely in seeing of better days... Progress seems like it won't be overnight, so I'll try to send letters more often. I know pa's out on his missions, so the other letter attached to the scroll is for him... could you please send it his way?
Your son, Eligius.
Notes and Crap (entry four)
Novia, you would kill me if I didn't explain what happened while we were gone. Long story short, we talked around a crowd in glacier's rest... I think I am a popular person there now, and then lowkey blew up a crystal infested wizard tower. Now that I got your attention thinking "Eligius, why would you blow something up, or what do you mean by popular?" Well prepare to have yet another heart attack and sigh in disappointment or something, because this is how it went...
SO, I started out with that damn orange crystal in the graveyard, and blah la blah, we went to Glacier's rest by somehow calculating an estimate of where it went. We reached the damn town and everything, and guess what, no leads other than some wizard tower and edgy looking mage robes. We talked around the town, and after searching the red light district, the taverns, and city hall, we found the possible wizard is some Aela chick. I may or may not have pissed off a grumpy wizard, but no big deal. He had it coming if I'm being honest. Oh yeah, I got admission to this Magical Caster's Association, I got these nifty stamps, pins and everything. TO hells with the magical uptightness!
On our adventures walking northward like a merry band of misfits, we did things, talked about stuff, and oh yeah, found this incredible wizard tower made of marble and coral! On the way there however, it would have seemed the goddess herself, your goddess I mean the kitsune one tried talking to me, turns out my beads around my neck are made of meteor that predates my great grandfather Xol'gur Manto, magic enhancement stuff you know? All it took was one mental breakdown and a crisis of faith, no biggie.
So, then we finally got to the tower with this wizard we picked up, Hydra. I think she has it on for me due to how wet I end up getting, she blasts me with so many damn spells and all. Anyways, we decided finding this tower, that the inside had this gigantic orange crystal inside like the graveyard's. We thought about you, and grabbed every book that wasn't nailed down, you can thank me later. We fought elementals and looted some silverware, set explosive barrels and gunpowder along the ground on several floors. Eventually, we made it to the top floor, to find this gigantic elemental of corrupted Aether controlling the major part of the crystal on the top floor while the other half of the party was fighting the wizard it seems. By sheer miracle we killed the thing, and during the fight it seems the roof of the tower blew off. I nearly died, so you can weep in my wounding when I show you this entry since you won't leave me alone for these things. So, in the end... we had the means to take out the tower, and blew it up after the crystals were drained, and what seems to be Aela was spared and has... a split personality I guess? I don't know, I'm not overthinking this...
-Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry three)
Of all the things that were to happen on my first adventure Novia, guess what happened... if you guessed I overslept, you are right. The twist this time is that I wasn't partying, but reading up on my clan's history. So... yeah, that happened... you saw me firsthand go onto the ship and the shores with the dudes Sol and Rad, and the tremendously beautiful Sute. So, since the others went ahead of us, the four of us formed our own team. Rad was recon, Sute being support gun, Sol was the analyzer of anything good, and yours truly was crowd control.
In our exploration thanks to the tomes, we got far past one mile, and found a bunch of zombies. Using my superior intelligence, I created a distraction, allowing us to sneak right on past them, avoiding wasting needless resources. We set up basecamp, and I owe Kosuke for this, but the Pavilion prevented necrotic energies coming inside, so it was a surprisingly well rested night, shocker in such a hellhole of a place. The further we went in, the more of these giant crystals we found getting bunched up, Sol and I theorized that it used to be a forest. Our objective however, was the giant spire of crystal further inland... going in closer we encountered a surprisingly powerful pack of crystal wolves. We utterly crushed them with but only a few scratches,. BUT THE CATCH, of course the floor collapsed in the weight of our magical and bullet filled onslaught, some stray bullets, the bombs and my magic weakened the floor near the cracks and caused us to fall into a lake. Near that lake to my surprise.... was.... holy ground, and the grave of Umbra....
Got to admit, this caught me by surprise, I thought she was bluffing when she said she died, but turns out it was true... Anyways... Novia, I'm sorry I doubted your sister, but I'm continuing this entry. We went into the inner parts of the castle as you pointed out.... and found parts of Novia's "memory road" as I coined. Gotta admit, it was depressing to see her sad, but despite all that, we found a dojo of her's. Inside we found an ancient sword, worn throughout the years... a possession of Novia's father. Of.... all things she gave it to me... it doesn't feel right, but... the sword called to me, yet I'm more oni than kitsune.... I'm just conflicted now... Novia, if you ever read this... thanks I guess for the.... gift?
Eligius Yami
Reprieve Shenanigans (Entry One)
Well since Novia's probably scrying on me, I got to seem productive, so aside from the usual stuffs such as going about the town. I thought it would be nice to have a celebration for Oni culture, something I can really get behind. So I got some cheap, yet good fireworks from my boy Radegast after gathering a sizable crowd, and set it out in a nearby field. It would seem I made the fireworks too close to the gunshops, and the owners seemed to want to shoot me. Me, not wanting to be Meishu cheese decided to make it like a tree and get out of there for a day.
While in the forests, I thought about it, realizing I was in the wrong, I decided to turn myself into the guard. Boy was that a mistake, turns out they're useless, and Novia sits on her hands in this town! They brought me to the people to settle it, where I got shot. I ***REALLY*** wanted to burn that orc's face off, but I decided against it, only to pay back that condescending son gold for repairs. But in the long run, I do not forget, I, am funding his competition... a tiefling named Sute. Turns out she's a nice gal, we even had a night of drinking and experimenting on magical grenades. My kind of night might I add! In the end, one of those owners are alright, but I will still laugh when Gunag goes out of business due to my patronage to his competition.
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry two)
Just because Empress Novia so ***graciously*** has me writing these dang things. So I finally met some potential people you wanted me to get for the Graveyard, yes ma'am I did it. So you expect that we made it to your luxury airship to get to Reprieve, and that's exactly what we did. And all I have to say... not bad of a place Empress, tax money well spent! But not everything was as it seemed, sure I met some friends and all.
But guess what happened... if you guess the airship got attacked, that's literally the second one to happen! But instead of normal Sahuagin, it was glowing ones, with the necrotic crystals sticking out of their sides, blotting out their eyes and all over their weapons.... To make the situation worse, a damned Leviathan was trying to sink the ship, and it too was infected! I found out during the fight that one of my spells had a tremendous impact on the creatures, causing the things to have a violent reaction. We ended up using mead from an oni themed feast that I started, fits them for throwing that party! So in the end, the Leviathan was destroyed by this paladin named Filea and her friend Varis.
Are you happy now Novia? You got me out here and ready to serve... beats desk duty I guess...
Eligius Yami
Notes and Crap (entry one), by Eligius Yami
Ugh... I can't believe Empress Novia actually made me keep track of what I am doing on my adventures... that overbearing stressaholic of a kitsune... no one should dare tell me what to do! Fine.... she seriously wants me to say what I did on an airship of all things, fine! After I set off from my comfortable home back in Meishu, saying goodbye to my own mom and pop, I found my way to the Seran western shores and found the services of an airship called the "Charming Siren". What I did on that airship was basically lounge around all day, and did what you asked Novia! I read your tome that you gave me on Randera, and I talked around, and met some people. Like some hobgoblin, a warrior from Neothica, some tiefling, a gunslinger from Volcanor, and two lovely ladies, the spellcasters both of them.
Need I also say you brought Joryth along with me, to "guide me on the right path"? Do you seriously not trust me enough to take care of myself, what kind of animal do you take me for? Even then, Joryth is... kind of cool, despite his insistence on treating me like a child. I guess we'll see in time how good of an oni he is.... and if you read this, there will be a reckoning.
So all was good don't you think Novia, all that friendship making you suggested I do eh? Well guess what!? The ship got attacked by Sahuagin pirates who cannoned themselves onto the blasted ship! Needless to say, they became mincemeat because of Gothmog, Meishu cheese by Radegast with his firearm, and yours truly made some sea food by frying them with fire. So after that attack I made it off of that bloody ship, and with some PROPER rewards given by the owner of the ship, and I have met some other chuckle buddies at this tavern. There your illustrious highness, happy now that I wrote this? You better be or so help me...
Eligius Yami
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