A most peculiar find! I visited a small village near the Drakalor Chain where I found a shopkeeper willing to part with a particular scroll. She claimed it contained great magic, and I indulged her in her ill founded, illiterate believe but haggled her down to a paltry sum.

The scroll contained no magic, and was not a scroll at all, but rather a ripped out page from a journal containing skilful drawings and a thoroughly disturbing tale. I assume this to be an elaborate hoax, a tale to frighten children with, but the penmanship shows such high skill I have decided to copy it here for posterity.

-From the records of Scribe Antius

 

 

“Little did I know what den of foulness I had stumbled upon when I sought shelter in the nearby cave. I believed my arms and armour were all I needed to match the beasts I expected to find in here, but the Gods of Chaos must have firmly established their grip in this Onn-forsaken realm beyond sanity.

I passed a chamber not long ago featuring a slab of darkest stone, radiating malevolence and stained with blood. What ancient rites this dark altar had witnessed I did not wish to investigate, staying clear of its presence and exploring the cavernous dungeon for a safer place to rest. Though I shuddered at the implication of its existence, I believed it to be merely the remnants of a cursed civilization, not so uncommon in this savage wilderness.

Would that I had taken a hammer to it, smashing it to pieces and face whatever wroth I would have summoned than allow for the abomination who now searches for me, its stony steps endlessly echoing through the twisted passages. I dare not sleep now, not even rest, for surely it will find me.

An eldritch chant by a strangely robed man was all it needed to awake and to obey and hunt for new sacrifices, for fresh blood, and it has chosen me as its prey. A golem, even one crafted from cursed obsidian, I would have faced in battle. But this display of magical power I was unequipped to deal with. I had to flee deeper into the caverns, down narrow steps of stone I was certain the animated altar would not be able to follow me, a headless flight not unlike that of a rabbit found far from its burrow.

Deeper in to the caverns. Deeper into the madness awaiting me yet.”