Gorlen Blackhammer – Journal Entry, # 210
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Gorlen Blackhammer – Journal Entry, # 210
[Recommend Reading – The History of the Spell Weaver, before diving into this Journal Entry]
Well, journal, today was an unusual day, I saw multiple Kargin’s walking around the city, some with tentacles, some with Mind Flayer helmets, a few with beholder stalks, it was all quite unsettling, and bad for business. I did send a letter to Sorvani, and Varalla asking if their cloning machine had gone awry but received a rather tort response back. I suspect they are confused as well as to what’s happening. It seemed like a day to close up shop, and I thought I would swing by the obelisk and ask him if he knew about this Kargin explosion. But then I had a line of Kargin’s forming outside of my shop looking for a very special form of gemstone capable of holding celestial gates to summon angels. As they came in and explained what they were looking for the answer to the multiplicity of the Kargin’s became obvious as I have seen this before, back in the forgotten mess you can usually tell thru the eyes, there is a special look a kind of crazy that lurks in the back part of their gaze that quickly tells you alchemy is involved. It must be that Dregnoth fellow that swings by on occasion to drink beer, chat me up with some stories, and try to pump me for information about something he needs. Gorlen sighs, that’s a shame, he’s a clever alchemist, and he is probably just building something interesting, probably didn’t have to go and freak the city out though – hope those clones stay far away from Damar… that won’t go well. He will probably get evicted from V’Ral, that’s a shame, I will miss those stories over a barrel of salted meat, some cured tobacco, and a frosty pint of Jamas.
After a few hours the Kargin’s Continuum purchased all of my gems, so I closed up shop, as I had a new stack of books and research to pour thru from the Lost Coast. Fresh from the Library of Arcanum, a whole series of books around the Ruins of Marran-Zural. Apparently, centuries ago, a mighty civilization of spell weavers delved deep below a volcano that now holds the city of Kauldron. When the cataclysm (also known as The Disruption) occurred that rocked the Spellweaver civilization it transformed the spell weaver city into a smoking crater known now as the Manaskar, the spell weavers themselves faded from the region after this. Traces of their might and experiments can still be found today, in one of their ruin’s an Ancient lore, even to the spell weavers, was discovered a scroll that never was completely unlocked. The language a forgotten form of magic from when the multi-verse was young, but the archmage that discovered it, didn’t understand what he had, after many years of working on the scroll was able to interpret a single sentence of words that spoke of a race called “Xelvean”. Because the magic of the scroll was so powerful, just reading that sentence was enough to warp the archmage, and drive him insane forever transforming him into something of a ManaLich
Driven by alien desires and a great understanding of death magic, the spell weavers built a tomb designed to gain knowledge into frozen death. In the spell weaver mind, the forces of cold and death held a mystical connection, the understanding of which promised ever greater arcane power. Deep in the heart of the doramant volcano, the spell weavers built their laboratory/tomb, where they blended the forces of death magic, the magical essence of cold, and the undead flesh of the spell weaver race.
Had the spell weavers restricted their experiments to the arcane forces they mastered, and willing spell weavers, their plans perhaps could have been realized or even understood. But none of that happened when spell weavers started using captives from other races, and dead slaves in their necromantic rites, the experiments started going off the rails.
The lore hidden in Marran-Zural by the spell weaver architects that built it, remains as vast as it is complex, and it was here, nearly two hundred years ago the ManaLich laid out its plans for the City of Kauldron (now built upont he ruins). In delving between the magical essences of ice and death, the spell weavers discovered a number of strange arcane formulae that dealt with the merging of worlds. From these secrets the ManaLich and his followers extracted the genesis of the ritual that can transform the City of Kauldron into a Gate Town. And it is upon these theories, and arcane formulae of the spell weavers that the soul cages were invented.
Too much time has passed and the ManaLich while still believed to be hatching plans across the Manaverse, has long shifted his research away from the Ruin’s of Marran-Zural, leaving behind a powerful follower the ManaLich calls the “The Chronicler” to continue the research behind the soul cages, and the spell weavers ritual. As to the were abouts of the scroll, that has been lost to time.
To be continued……
Meanwhile back in Dregnoth’s lab….
