(the rest)
Author: Torin
September the thirteenth, nine-hundred and fifty-third year:
Place/Gathering Discovered: unknown Date: unknown Transcribed by: Janus Kil'tra, placed in Ivory Library by Sir Iawen Penn Well according to every faerie and pixie I've met, September the twelfth was the best day to try and snare Nemesis, although they don't know why it is so. Well it didn't seem to do a lot of good. Myria is standing over me forcing me to write down yesterday's events in painstaking detail despite the total lack of anything even resembling success. I think she likes to see me squirm. In her miserly, healer-like fashion, she tells me that our mistakes are as important as our successes. I think she is full of manure. Still, she's my wife and since I can't cook... I guess I'll have to do what she says. I am pretty sure I mentioned that we're married, Myria and I. Yea, I see that I mentioned it in my previous entry. Several times as a matter of fact..... hmmm. Well, I suppose that we were just newly wed and I suppose my mind was still on that honeymoon we took with the sprites in Feywood. Now that was fun. Uh-oh. Myria's getting that look on her face again. Sometimes she really gets no my nerves... but like I Said, I can't cook. Let me begin by saying that anyone who tells you that you can use Summon Netherform to conjure a Demon Prince is full of manure (like a certain healer I know...). It simply doesn't work. I wish I had paid more attention to what Jarek was doing when he summoned Nemesis... All I can remember was that there were many magical circles on the floor... at the time I couldn't recognize any of them. I still wonder why more than one would be needed. In any case, Myria says it is good that I failed so early...the damages were kept to a minimum. Now I wait until next year to try again. September the thirteenth, nine-hundred and fifty-fourth year: If I ever find that sprite who told me Nemesis' truename I will kill it and have Myria cook it up with a nice light wine sauce. Myria says that the sprite was just playing a little joke and not to take it seriously. To the abyss with that... if I ever find the bugger again, he's dinner. Myria's reading over my shoulder again. I guess I'll have to add that clue to the lack of a proper truename for Nemesis, the ritual failed this year as well. September the twentieth, nine-hundred and fifty-fifth year: Well, it's been a week since my last attempt to conjure Nemesis. Maybe I am going about this all wrong. What I have been trying to do is to force Nemesis into the confines of my banishment spell... but forcing a Demon Prince to do anything is tricky at best. I can't think anymore, my head is still hurting from my last attempt. I can't believe I was out for six days! Myria is an excellent healer and yet...six ------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 June the sixth, nine-hundred and sixty-second year: Gods! Has it been so long? Seven years! Well, I hope it was worth it. I don't know about where Myria is. I suppose I should begin with the beginning, that's what Myria used to tell me. Gods, how I miss her... A little over six years ago, I decided that I simply wasn't going to get anywhere without Nemesis' truename. With Myria's help, I found out a very interesting fact... Nemesis is a half-breed, his mother was human! You would think that by diluting the demon blood that Nemesis would be easier to handle, but such is not the case. If anything, Nemesis has a stronger will than most demons, and with its dark, royal bloodline... well it could easily be the most evil and powerful being to walk the Realms in eons! In any event, I figured that if anyone knew the truename of Nemesis, its mother might... and the fact that she was human may incline her to tell me. The catch was that she had been dead since the beginning of history and I had no idea where her body was. it was then I thought of the vaults of the Mages' Guild. The Mages' Guild contained vaults full of powerful and untaught learning. Most of the magic contained in the vaults were dangerous. The Mages' hid these magical artifacts and scrolls of learning in the vaults benearth the guild. I was hoping there was something there that could help. So Myria and I came home, staying the night in the ruined basement of Monk's Keep wehre I had stayed during those first months I was banished from the guild. In our searches, Myria and I fought numerous beasts which had taken up residence in theeh vaults. For months we searched the remains of the guildhouse. We found numerous items which we thought could be useful in banishing Nemesis, but nothing substantial. We were just about to leave with what we had when Myria stumbled across a scroll case. Inside was the answer. A sixth circle spell. Not second sphere, mind you... sixth circle. It was called combine, and it allowed a spellcaster to link together two spells to produce some rather interesting effects. As far as I can tell, there are no limitations to which spells can be combined. The spell did contain a warning that many of the combinations are harmful, and a great many more are simply useless. It didn't take long before I had my answer. I used combine with the spells truename and converse with dead. With these two spells in combination, I could converse with any spirit who's truename I knew. Nemesis' mother's spirit was in the abyss. The horrors I witnessed in my travels to the abyss numbed my mind. I left Myria at the gate where she promised she'd wait for me. To make a long story short, I found the spirit of its other and she spoke to me the truename of Nemesis. I cannot write it down for anyone with its truename could sommon it again, and that must not happen. So I left the abyss with the most precious of secrets. But when I returned, Myria was gone. Only after I stumbled into some poor farmer did I learn that seven years had passed since my last diary entry. I still cannot get over that. Hopefully Myria just gave up waiting for me and continued on with her life. That's far better than what I fear might have actually happened to her. Beware Nemesis, for I am coming for you. --------------------------------------------- 6 September the fourteenth, nine-hundred and sixty-third year: I had it. By its name, I had it. I called and the Demon Prince came. But when I commanded it to go it laughed at me. The words it spoke into my mind were harsh and mocking. It told me, "Foolish one. Know you not that you may only command me once every year with my name? You commanded me to come and not to take any action against you and so I have come. Now you command me to go and never return. I choose not to. For this year you are safe, for my name prevents me from tearing your flesh. But tear your flesh I shall, one year hence. Begone, foolish one. Your time will come." I suppose it is a start. Nemesis knows I am after it now and I figure I got a year to live. I cannot use Nemesis' name to place him within the bounds of confinement and use its name to send him away! I will be lucky if I can ever use its name on it again... I will not have the element of surprise ever again. After the abyss and Myria and everything, to have it come down to this is maddening. I don't even know why I keep this stupid journal. Myria's gone. For whom do I write it? Myself? Hah. I will remember this all long after I am dead, I fear. September the sixteenth, nine-hundred and sixty-fourth year: [transcriber's note: this is in a different handwriting] I never thought I would be doing this. Let me introduce myself, diary. I'm Myria. Torin's recovering, but it was everything I could do to piece him back together. I found his body amiss a wreck of broken magical circles and a few implements of his art. I never would have guessed that he made it back from the abyss. Since he is in no condition to write down what has happened, I figure I had better. Evidently, my husband figured he could take Nemesis by himself. I think he has always thought that. I don't believe this is possible. The fact that he summoned it at all gives me hope that someday we sill succeed. I have been tutoring a fine bunch of students in the arts of healing. I have been working with Gerald and his students to try and figure out a way to destroy Nemesis. Torin, you thought Gerald was old then, huh? I hope you'll be able to see him soon. As far as the hunt for Nemesis goes, I have a few more bits of knowledge to add. Gerald says that Nemesis was originally summoned at the Focus located near Monk's Keep. That is, some sort of magical wellspring. Knowing this, I know where to find the beginning of Nemesis' astral cord. I can find it using the cord, and force it to return with me back to the point it entered the Realms. Of course, once we're both there, Nemesis can just turn around and tear me apart. Gerald and me are working on this, but it would be so very nice if Torin could, too. I hope he's not too mad about my leaving the gate to the abyss...three years is a long wait for anyone. September the twenty-first, nine-hundred and sixty-fourth year: I thought I had died and gone to whatever afterlife waited for me. As it turns out, I had died and found yself in a far better place. I'm alive. Myria's here, and so is ol' Gerald. (really old now, how does that man keep going?) I have just finished reading Myria's entry in MY journal and I guess I'm going to have to agree with her. I can't do this alone. From what Myria has been telling me, everyone here has been working on a whole new ritual. A radically different idea. At first glance I would say it has a chance. Gerald says it'll never work... that it goes against every precept of civilized magic there is. To the abyss with "civilized" magic. If I have to cut Nemesis into tiny pieces before I send it packing home, then so be it. It's war between it and I. Civilization be damned. December the first, nine-hundred and sixty-fourth year: I've been working with Gerald, Myria, and the others here at Monk's Keep. Gerald says we can combine the powers of several different spells within the confines of a Circle of Confinement if this circle -------------------------------------- 7 Myria says that the physical location where Nemesis entered the Realms is not as important as teh psychic location. When I asked her what the difference was, she said teh psychic locatoin moves around depending on the activity in the magical weave. I asked if the spells we were going to cast would affect the locatoin of Nemesis' astral anchor, so to speak. She said probably, but she didn't know exactly in what way. I told her that was her problem. She growled at me, then kissed me. She's notnearly as annoying as Gerald. We have had problems feeding everyone here at Monk's Keep. Hmmm. I don't believe I have mentioned that we have over twenty mages and healers here. Well, we do, and they all eat like pigs. I think I may have to convince a few peasants to come work the land around here. Myria says she tried to before, but that everyone though the land here was cursed. Well, in a way, it is cursed. I don't really blame the peasants for not coming. I still have a number of those sixth circle spell scrolls... the ones with the combine spell written on them. I think they will come in very handy, if I can just figure how. The obvious is to combine truename with banish conjured being. I don't plan on using it until I am sure that Nemesis cannot reisist the effects. Since the spell will be so long, I also have to be sure Nemesis cannot hurt me. I think a greater circle of protection is in order. February the fifth, nine-hundred and sixty-seventh year: Progress Report. Geralds working on the idea of using a process called spellweaving. It involves a lot of spellcasters and a lot of chanting. He says that using spellweaving is a good idea because there's a good chance any ritual we devise using it can survive the deaths of a few of the spellweavers... a situation we would do well to prepare for. He says that spellweaving is only possible around the Focus, and that there is some sort of purification rite that has to be performed. He says it is pretty straight-forward stuff. I asked him why I had never heard of ti before. He says it isn't generally taught because mistakes during the rite tend to kill the participants. Just what I needed to hear. Myria says that for every sircle of protection we erect around Nemesis' astral anchor, we have to figure that Nemesis' astral anchor will manifest 90 degrees left of west if we use the Focus as the center. When I asked her how far from the Focus it had to be, she looked at me funny and asked what did that have to do with it? Sometimes I wish I had been taught magic by a real teacher and not a bunch of chaotic faerie. So far I feel I haven't contributed too much to this effort. I told Myria this, and she said that no one here spent six years in the abyss getting Nemesis' truename from it's dead mother. I smiled and kissed her then. Myria can be so comforting at times. Gerald says the rite of purification is not very complicated. All we need have to do is have everyone involved in the ritual walk through the maical focus without touching or talking to anyone. I asked him if that was all. He told me that there was no degree of error and a sixty second time limit as well. Myria mentioned that if a magical weapon was present inside the cirle of confinement before it was complete, the psychic location of Nemesis' entry point would shift vertically. Since there isn't anyone left in the Realms who can fly... we'll probably have to do without. Pity. Nemesis is still wandering the Realms subjecting all it meets to its will. The devastation is staggering. I am getting truly angry with this Nemesis. The sorrow and misery that it has brought with it into the Realms... as I have sworn before: it will pay for this. I've been spending most of my time teaching my students how to cast some pretty rudimentary spells. Even the most humble of spells will strengthen the spellweaving. Speaking of the spellweaving, I asked Gerald exactly what kind of effect we were going for. He told me that was my problem. |
Created by Janna Oakfellow-Pushee at 01-15-11 06:43 PM
Last Modified by Demetria Highwater (Rhiannon Chiacchiaro) at 05-21-12 02:40 AM