Journal of The Quest Against the Slittermask

I have once again found a small lull in our questing to describe to you the activities of the party. As I reported to you in the previous entry, Vera and her pagan companions were intent on marching to the church of Mission Mount. Wherein they believed, upon the word of The Crow, that their Sage had sought refuge. If you are any way educated on the history of our earth shatteringly important endeavour, then you should know that this Sage was a companion of Marik Luther.

Using my vast knowledge of conjuring I had deduced that the wards protecting the church were old enough to have been made by Nominas himself - and so the building must be even older still. The interior proved remarkably similar to our blessed Rokari churches, although not in every facet. The Hrestoli Sir Henry felt altogether less at home, but that is to be expected from faith so departed from the original virtues.

At the rear of the building stood an impressive work of stained glass. It depicted the struggle of a knight clad in black armour against some evil vampiric fiend. Behind the warring duo stood a stoic white dragon. Many of my companions believed the knight to be Arkat himself, but the pagan Vera was not so sure. After processing her confused and erratic statements with my lighting intellect, I concluded that the figure was in fact the ancient ruler Maluskan Phillipe - who had battled a vampire in tales of legend.

This historical diversion aside we continued on towards the tower. From even a cursory analysis, I could tell that the construction was much older than the church to which it was attached. It also bore a huge crack down one side that would be enough to topple the entire edifice, were it not supported by some mystical effect. The door to the tower was magically sealed, but proved no match for the combined force of our warriors. With the entrance breached, the dim-witted knight Bellbbois charged up a spiral staircase.

The Sage was, as expected, holed up at the summit of the tower and was, as expected, near completely insane. Brutish Bellbois attempted to sedate the old crone with force, an action that brought forth the ire of our pagan companions. The wise Baron Tamar quickly defused the situation so that the interrogation could begin. The Sage reported that he had scrawled out his own eyes, and his visage testified to that fact. After just a moment, it became clear to me that he believed us all to be voices that filled his imagination. Separate aspects of his shattered consciousness.

Through gentle coaxing, we managed to divine some of what had happened to Luther and Sir Martin Montford. Apparently they had been captured by the cursed Slittermask, the hellish creature against whom we array ourselves. As she has done before, she passed through to this plane in order to tempt, placate, and indenture Luther and Montford. The Sage claimed that he was left in Mission Mount deliberately, perhaps as a warning or a temptation. The man babbled at length, but did impart some nuggets of interest.

After what seemed like hours the discussions concluded, but the Pagans were resolved to protect their quarry. He was reluctant to leave the Tower due to some professed magical protection. It did indeed seem that the High Ward had been placed over the building for protection, however my razor sharp magical intuition noted serious flaws and cracks in the spell. In the knowledge that it was not safe to remain here, the Sage was placated and travelled with us back into the village.

Our final action in the village proper was to investigate a small open area were Marik Luther had place a ward of protection. The workmanship was very shoddy, but did at least draw our attention to some bulging saddlebags that lay there. Fenix Sigvardsson and I braved the rotting horse flesh and discovered: A lead cross of Humakt (most useful for combating vampires), a True Stone of mysterious origin, and a most interesting book of dark magics nothing else at all. While the party sought my learned council on these artifacts, the dullard Bellbois took it upon himself to strike me. Thankfully I am a more competent acrobat than he gave me credit for and a nimbly dodged the blow. The motive for his heedless violence is still unknown, but I owe thanks to the kind and understanding Baron for keeping his first knight in line. Before leaving the settlement we spent some time collecting Sticky Wheat from a nearby field.

With our time in Mission Mount over we saddled up and travelled to meet with The Crow, who was to lead us towards The Fair. He led us to the Rowan Rings, ancient passageway to the other side. Before we could depart, a volley of elves arrived to block out path and the confused creatures seemed intent on causing a nuisance. One calling himself the Thorn King challenged the noble Tamar as a representative of all humanity. Despite no real impetus to engage in combat, Tamar graciously accepted and a short battle ensued. After only a few blows the Thorn King relented and disappeared back into the brush, muttering some nonsense about the fate of mankind. Unfortunately the Baron sustained a minor facial injury during the conflict, but remained mostly victorious.

Excitement over, we made the journey across the divide and on to The Fair - ancient staging grounds for quests of lore. As we approached the encampment, we passed the gatekeeper. I had journeyed this way before, as had many of the party, but never had we been refused entry by this strange creature. The Satyr boasts a hefty endowment, and seemed intent on making use of it before we could pass into the Fair. His desire was to engage himself with one of our female members, and the Pagan healer Silkene bravely volunteered.

The beguiling young creature removed her robes to reveal a female form of most exquisite construction, whose supple ....................................., but as a virtuous priest I immediately turned away and cannot report what occurred. Needless to say, we passed on into the Fair without further incident.

Safely inside the circus-town we deposited the Sage with some friends of The Crow. His intelligence had been repaired by Silkene and so he was happy to remain in this place of relative safety. The Crow then suddenly announced that he was to leave and travel a different path, although he did hint that we would meet again. The remaining party members took some time to barter with the local merchants as we steeled ourselves for the beginning of the quest proper.