The Depths

I have begun this journal at the request of my most faithful, yet eccentric friend Babble, who has begun to believe we may not make it out of this dungeon. I am not so convinced but have recently begun to question the extent of danger that we are facing. If we are incapable of escaping this underground dilemma I would like others to know of our doom and hence it came to be.

I am Elizair Stormbringer, a simple Elf with two abilities that lead me out of the many difficult situations that I find myself. First is my diversion to cast spells, where they possibly should not be cast. Second is the odd collection of friends whom I constantly bring into my life.

Babble, my aforementioned friend, is a parrot who lives with me in Perrenland. He’s a friend who has seen me though some troubles in the past, and yet until very recently, I could not understand a single thing he said. Babble, for lack of a better reason than to drive me insane, only spoke in Dwarven. I must admit, even when I cast a spell to understand him I only became more confused. Hence, Babble.

We are traveling with Fortuna Outlawe, Janet Whisperleaf and Munthrek Darss on a quest to find if any miners survive from a dwarven mine near Turnel who have been lost to a series of tremors. Other search parties have tried but never returned. And I am beginning to realize why.

We have encountered a creature of the type I have never seen before. It is somewhat like a scorpion, and yet like a giant ant, and yet not exactly like either. We have tried communicating with the creatures, but they do not respond to any attempts. In fact they have shown they are quite eager to attack. They have a tail with a stinger that is their main weapon. They have claws which can deal some amount of damage, but the stinger contains some poison that, once delivered, renders the victim paralyzed for a short period of time.

It is here I also need to point out we have found them eating some of the dwarves, an occurrence my comrades wish to block from their memories. The creatures have shown to take damage from sword and spell, and many have fallen before us. Their numbers are unknown to us, but I have taken the decision to toss the ones we have killed deeper into the mines to put some fear into these creatures.

As I mentioned in the beginning of this journal, I do believe my friend may be right in the peril we are currently in. Recently it seems the creatures are adapting. We recently fought a group that was able to regenerate when we wounded them, both from blade and from spell. This leads me to believe there may be something else at the source of the dwarves’ doom, something controlling these creatures. For now, I will not put my fears on my friends’ minds; for they are a brave and true group of adventurers, but they are still young and I believe still do not understand the strengths they have. I have seen many more sunrises than this group, and I will do my best to make sure they have not seen their last.