a note uncovered.

This note was found in a burnt-out house within the borders of Perrenland, in the Sepia Uplands during the travels of a wandering priest of Pelor. It was entrusted to Qaan’apar Kher, Bishop at the Shrine of Pelor at Eru-Tovar, at the mouth of the River Black. The priest Hadrian uncovered record of it and had a copy made, then the copy was sent from Eru-Tovar to Verbobonc.

581 CY – Coldeven 18. A few weeks ago, on my travels through Highfolk, I was taking my ease in the Blackslate Tavern. A young man asked to sit at my table. My old ring went cold when he sat down. A strong feeling of malice and hate almost oozed from him. He must have known my history then, for he greeted me in the way of the Cult of Tharizdun. I recognized the gestures he made but I didn’t repeat them. Not as I once would have.

The man called me by name and asked what I knew of raising a champion. I feigned ignorance, but he didn’t believe me. He was powerful then, more powerful than me at that age, when I was a Doomdreamer, and he would have been high in Tharizdun’s favor.

He seized my mind then, when I wouldn’t willingly give an answer, and I couldn’t keep him from the information. My vision swam. I remember hearing someone scream, then I woke up a while later, my face soaked in beer and sweat. I knew he had the information he needed though.

I have no idea if the one who invaded my mind is going to raise an avatar of Tharizdun, but I fear that he could collect the necessary components to do so. I was behind the creation of the last avatar, so thankfully defeated in the battle of Emridy Meadows, I realize that now, and thievillain knew somehow of my involvement.

After a time, some memory of this night returned to me. I believe that he unknowingly implanted a part of himself in my mind when he took my memories. In my nightmares I see a monstrous dragon’s head, severed, a cold body of a man, and the precious stone which we took long ago after the banishment of the dwarves from their home south of Verbobonc in the Kron Hills. True, one of their number reclaimed it, a Saltheart Lord, but the damage was done by that point. These components could be able to be used, in concert with a few others, easily obtained, to raise a new avatar of Tharizdun.

I feel that I must impart the weakness of the last avatar to give any chance of stopping a future menace. Avatars are susceptible to magic, but rarely do the weapons of hand combat affect them. This is not to say that magic will always penetrate their defenses. An avatar can weaken you with a touch and people are easily cowed by the presence of one so mighty and godlike.

Varachan, of Perrenland.