Leoric Gathenwale's Demise

xtra! Extra! Hear all about it! A suspicious death, creatures most foul appearing everywhere. Speak to Jasper to assist in the investigation."
Town criers all over Britannia were yelling that same message. Pike had become interested. Maybe by assisting, there would be something in for a pirate... He traveled to the Court of Truth in Yew. He found Jasper in the courtroom, beside him on the table a journal of Leoric Gathenwale - the first trace! The book read:

"For two generations now my family has been carrying the shameful burden of my grandfather's folly. From nobles to destitute, nothing my family has done to prove we are in no way like Lysander has been deemed good enough. If I could undo the wrong to the families of those who died, then maybe, just maybe things could change. I have studied my grandfather's research on Khaldun. There was an entry which described how to call upon a Dark Guardian within the Tomb. That terrifying being apparently is a jailor to the cursed souls that wander the mausoleum. It is said that a specific word must be spoken in the centermost room within the Tomb. That word is hidden in the combined wall carvings which adorn the bloodied walls of Khaldun. The hardest part was finding the cursed parchments required to make the etchings of the carvings. They are made by Skeletal Liches, none of which have been seen in decades. It is said that the etchings combined in a tome and plunged into the blood of the Damned will reveal the secret incantation. I am concerned about the secret room. Lysander's notes mentioned two levers controlling the door opening the mechanism. But they are hidden in secret passages of the Tomb. I must find them! I will unseal the tomb of Khal Ankur tonight. And I, Leoric Gathenwale, will free the cursed souls of Khaldun and grant my grandfather and his three companions the peace they have been denied so long."

The pirate quickly traveled to the graveyard of Vesper. It was commonly known that since today the graveyards of Britannia were overrun by evil creatures. Among those was also the dangerous Skeletal Lich; a big dark creature with dangerous necromancy powers. Pike assisted a group of fighters to kill the Lich, and said cursed parchment appeared in his backpack. He now was ready to travel to Kahldun and find the carvings on the dungeon walls.

He knew Khaldun quite well. Only recently, he had explored the Grave of Khal Ankur together with a group of pirates. However, today Khaldun was to be found also in the Trammel facet, and the creatures of this tomb had gained a lot of power. It was quite dangerous venturing into the depths of this eerie place, without being killed by the dangerous Shadow Fiends and other undead creatures. Also, resurrecting inside Khaldun was not possible anymore.
After a while, he found eight carvings along the northern wall of the dungeon. The ninth carving was hidden in a secluded area in the eastern part of Khaldun. He already had been there and knew how to enter this place. He quickly pulled the two hidden levers and hurried back to the secret entrance to make the final etching.

After combining the etching, a cursed tome was created, which he now had to drain with blood. After a short search, he found a big pool of blood in the southwestern corner of Khaldun. It wasn't the pool of blood where the Harrower lived, as he first had assumed. He quickly plunged the tome into the pool, and a message written in secret letters bled out of the Tome's cover:
"Speak 'sarcophagidae' in the central room of the tomb."

Pike also knew how to find the second secluded area, the central room. He hastened through the narrow corridors until he found the dark hole in the ground, and jumped in. He had reached the central room! He quickly spoke the word "sarcophagidae" and summoned the Dark Guardian. The pirate asked him about Leoric Gathenwale, and in a short conversation he received the crucial hint:
"Search what's left of Leoric's house and with luck you might detect some hidden clues within the rubble. What's left of it can be found on the outskirts of Jhelom."

Pike left the dark tomb named Khaldun. And, infering from Gathenwale's journal, he would return to this eerie place very soon.

It didn't take him long to find ruins of Gathenwale's house. Among the rubble on the ground, he found a half burnt book. It looked like a diary of Leoric Gathenwale. It was a long read:
"MONDAY
I woke up not recalling when I got back home. My clothes are covered in blood and dirt. My hands are painfully calloused and my entire body is sore and aching. The last thing I clearly remember is an ominous presence, a cold breath in the back of my neck. An eerie, chilly voice whispered my name as burning cold claws clenched around my heart. Then darkness...
I washed and went to town for some bread and ham. People were frantic, speaking of abominations. Then a town crier began shouting about skull totems, undead beings and Skeletal Liches roaming through Jhelom graveyard. I feel like the wind has been knocked out of me. What has happened in the Tomb? What have I unleashed? What have I done?
TUESDAY
I was found wandering outside Covetous. My clothes in rags, covered with dirt, my hands bleeding sores. I don't remember leaving the house. I don't know how I got in this condition. The farmers who rescued me said I must have been attacked by the horrors that have overtaken Cove Cemetery. When I asked them what they meant, they told me the spectral armors were seen hovering not too far from me. Cursed souls are now invading Cove and Vesper cemeteries. The farmer's wife was emptying the wash basin of the water bloodied from cleansing my wounds and I suddenly felt insanely thirsty.
WEDNESDAY
The voice... the dreadful voice... It will not leave me alone. I can hear its whispers to me. It gnaws at me... mocks me... It tells me the things I've done, the things I do... It tells me that when it's done with me, it will feed me to her, so I cannot undo the 'great' things I've done so far. I went back to the tomb last night. I was standing on a stone circle surrounded by skull candles and I spoke her name and it took me to her. Her eyes, as dark as night, as cold as death, hypnotized me. I was bringing her food because she cannot get her own for now while we hide her. I don't know why we hide her. But she bit me. And the voice told her to stop, she can have me later, but not now. The bite wound is festering...
THURSDAY
The blood everywhere, on my hands, on my face. But not mine... no, not mine... It makes me hungry... so hungry... but the food is for her, for Sicarii... She doesn't share. She never shares. And if He let her, she would eat me too. I see her greedy eyes on me... I would do her in first if I could. I know why the Voice made me hide her here. It's her venom. Enough of it would destroy the totems and put an end to the curse. But He won't let me. I'm so hungry...
FRIDAY
I killed him! I didn't want to, but the Voice... He made me do it! HE MADE ME!! And how He laughed... How he mocked me...
I cannot go on...
I cannot...
May the flames cleanse me of my sins, of the foolish arrogance of me quest.
Forgive me...

Pike shuddered. But he knew what he had to do next. He had to find Sicarii, whoever that was. And therefore he had to venture to Khaldun again, to find the stone circle surrounded by skull candles, which Gathenwale had mentioned in his journal. When he arrived there, he was ready to face any horror. He stepped on the stone pentagram. He shouted "Sicarii".

The pirate was teleported into a large room, which seemed quite familiar to him. Only from what he remembered from his past adventures, this had been an empty room beneath Wrong Dungeon. Today, this place was used as a hiding place for something evil. Spider webs everywhere. Big cocoons in which creatures were bred. And then he saw her. He saw Sicarii, a giant spider. Pike instantly cast the Invisible spell on himself, waiting for brave warriors to help him fighting this beast. And they soon appeared. Robert Pen Dragon and his mighty dragon pet Merlin, as well as the warrior Cutter, and Sharkeye Pike were obviously the among the first people on Catskills who faced Sicarii. The fight lasted long and required a lot of resurrection until the beast was finally slain. Pike found in his backpack the mentioned Venom Sac and a Spinneret. Should he use the venom to help destroy the totem on the graveyard? Probably not. At least not before he had gathered a significant amount of loot there...

10/2008

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