A record of events transpired

It has been a rather long time since I’ve felt the urge to imprint my thoughts on paper. It seems that an eternity has passed between the last time I did this, and in all actuality, it indeed has. I am not that far from the Aclazar bay, I have even stepped onto land I have previously walked on, but things could not be any different. I could not be any more different.
 
Perhaps I should first give you, my kind reader, a short summary of the plethora of events that have transpired since last. After convening with my new party, we have departed to my home, Ionolia. My sweet home. We have talked to the Council of Archmages regarding the threats we have discovered, and pleaded for them to join the United Front created by Damaschini; all but one have not considered listening, and the one who did, helped us in purchasing wares for the road. He may not have done much, but without that help, we might have not finished the trip. After our failed attempt to wake up the Archmages from their lenient slumber, we have have been shown the very same prophet that first ignited our faith, the divine child. It has shown itself only to the first man to wander upon the Marion hill, and now it chose us as the ones to behold its presence. It let us know that the Black Sylph will come back to us in Dushen, and that we should go to where the sapphire path leads.
 
I knew that a tough road is ahead of us, I asked my party to regroup in my apartment in Marion, and went ahead to bid a last farewell to my father. When I saw him, something in me said that I should tell him of what happened. That might have been the first time I have ever seen him shaken, and he beckoned me to come with him; we both went ahead to my family home, in complete silence. There, he offered me 1000 gold to aid us in our travels, and a ring which he said is his greatest creation; but most importantly, he told me that he believes in me now, and wished me a sincere good luck in my journey. That last part was and willl remain in my mind as the greatest of the things he last gave me: his trust.
 
We departed to Alomir, and requested Damaschini’s boat with his seal of approval. I had the opportunity to contact Mazog, but just as with Damaschini, who worked closely with my father in Ionolia, I just couldn’t. Perhaps Llyaria’s death stood still too fresh a wound on my mind, or maybe it was the cutting disappointment I felt about their actions at the time. I simply went to the boat, and sailed away to Dushen. Later on, I would come to deeply regret not getting some early closure on these feelings of mine; but again, I feel like I was but a child in my mind. I was not even half the man I thought I were.
 
In Dushen, surprise awaited me, in the form of my previous “roommate”. The blasted Axiol, the demon, the bane of my integrity, has returned to haunt me. Not only that, but he returned at the same time as the Black Sylph, and used my hubris and my revolting emotions to hurt her so badly that she started falling apart. Dear reader, you might not comprehend the depth of my horror and despair when I realised that my inexperience and lack of action caused this gentle soul so much pain. I was not a man of action, I was but a pretender.
 
Thankfully, my party did not waiver as I did. Nixie came up with the idea to bring her to the Monument of Life, where she believed that we could being the Black Sylph closer to a sacred elvish place, and help her recover. We managed to do that, but she was irrevocably hurt, and we could only mend her on the way. I could only imagine the disappointment my party felt towards my actions, and my lack of good judgement; especially since they chose me to lead them in this path. It was no wonder that soon after they have decided that a new captain was needed, and Nixie was the one who was picked by most of the party and crew. They were right, I was nowhere near ready to lead such an important mission; I was too inexperienced, and way too unprepared. It was for the better in any case. While Nixie did not possess any experience leading, she more than made up for that with a steadfast heart. She may be cussing all the time, and she may despise me for the pain I caused the Black Sylph, but I decided to still help her in any way I could. But I needed to be better, to become stronger. That meant facing my demons, and you will find pretty soon that it got as literal as it can get.
 
At one point, we got close to a tall, dark tower, and as I fell asleep, I was confronted with visions of my dead friends, my dead party, and once again, my weakness got the better of me, as I succumbed to Axiol’s control and once again just the Black Sylph. But even worse, I also hurt my party. No, my friends. He made me hurt my friends. No! I hurt my friends, and it was all my fault for being too weak to resist him, so naive as to think that ignoring him would do me any good. And they still came to my help, they still were concerned about me. Even the Black Sylph came to me, and she hugged me as I was silently lamenting my inability to do anything. As I looked upon all of them, I realised that I would no longer abide such bullshit. I would no longer be a part of it. Axiol had to go. So I immersed myself into the depths of my psyche, creating a minds cape in which I could confront confront this bastard. As we fought, I could feel all of my friends being there for me, and I could feel the love the Black Sylph, or rather Sea, as she presented herself to us, exuded towards me. You may not believe me, dear reader, but I did not defeat Axiol with the power of my will, or my unrelenting spirit. No. The one thing that became my greatest strength, and Axiol’s downfall, was simply love. I was finally free, but we were out of time; Sea was fading.
 
We made for the Well of Saphires, and Sea was home. As she rose up from the chair we made for her, she lifted her arms to the sky, visibly happy to be home. She made one last turn, looked us in the eye and gave us a last thanks. Then she fell down and broke down into starlight. Our quest has ended, and we have witnessed the real history, the chronicle of how the world came to be. But that knowledge was only for us to know, and we had to decide what we would do with this. I wish I could tell you the truth, dear reader, but at this time, I cannot do that. All you should know is that Xantinya, the cursed, dastardly abomination that is Xantinya is much more than we initially believed. Much more evil. And that we could only stop her with the combined mettle of as many peoples as possible.
 
We set out to Enneth, in order to bring the eldest elves in existence to our aid. They were indeed as wise as everyone believed, for they quickly ascertained the threat we presented them, and have decided to join us. We set out for Vaneolin, where we would seek the aid of the rest of Elfdom. Our path was arduous, and we have lost many on the way, both elves, and crewmates. We have fought undead, warlocks bent on destroying us, a lich lord and his minions, Fatorarkians with their wild magic, and even dragons. I was even captured by the Union again, for they have come into this dimension. However, we managed to escape, and have gotten an ally, Kelly. She has heart, but she doesn’t believe in anything but science. Some say that ignorance is bliss, but I was afraid that she would soon come face to face with the ugly reality of divinity and demons. And to my dismay, I was right as rain.
 
We have passed Sten, and to our dismay we discovered the protective bubble of light to be absent. I entered Vision, and have wandered towards the western end of Sten. There, I saw the Western Sight to be destroyed, and much more shockingly, the great dragon was dead in the water. I have also felt the presence of something else, far more sinister, in the water, but dared not to approach, for if it could kill the father of all dragons, I was but a pest to it, much too easily squished. The rest of Sten was languished as well, and sadly, even their greatest hero, Jacov, was slain after he single-handedly killed several dragons. Sten was slowly fading into non-existence, and the dragons were all moving to the east.
 
Upon arriving on the next pitstop of our journey, Yomen, we have managed to repel the attack of an azure dragon, and saved its people. I have organised the burial of the dead, and have organised an exodus of its people to Roib, hoping they would offer us some additional ships, but sadly, Roib tried once again to imprison its visitors, a course of action first started by the already infamous Evelon Roseld. He once again offered us 2 options to help us, both of which were extremely bad for us, and I have cautioned against this plan; however, my warnings have come on death ears, and Nixie accepted one of the lesser evils. Long story short, people died, we were imprisoned, both Evelon and Tersiolis have been found not guilty, we were set free with our life and freedom as the reward for our troubles. A fruitless endeavour.
 
As we sailed from Roib, we have fallen prey to the demon that begun haunting us and out ship. I felt something was different, but only too late was I able to bring attention to this, as I was already fighting a battle in my mind. My dear reader, you would think me crazy, but the boat itself attacked us; and while our bodies were attacked by it, our minds were assaulted by the menacing cackle of the despicable demon who was possessing both us and out beloved boat. In the middle of all this mess, I saw my friends divided. Bart was by himself, trying to control his fear and master our own. Nixie was trying to help Verfy, who made the mistake of pitting her will against the will of Hell. Eve was trying her best to help Bart, paying no heed to anyone else, Xebec was trying to help Verfy and was protecting her from the boat’s unrelenting attacks, and Heron simply got naked and tried to feel the desires of this demon; to each his own, I suppose. But this was not the time for us to stand alone, for this was not our purpose. This was not what we sailed out to do, and we could not pretend to wish to unite all peoples under a single banner if we could not work as one ourselves. I saw Sea’s mask, on which we have all left our mark, and I used it as a beacon to call upon my friends to come together and fight this plague. We managed to win that round, but sadly, Xebec was no more. The old me would have once again lamented his weakness, but I have grown. I am not all-powerful, no matter how much I wanted this to be true, no matter how much I wanted to be as such. Even Sea came to us as an angel, and asked us to never cease making noise, to never give up. Our whole journey was never meant to be a proud one, one of victory. We were never meant to win all the battles. All we can do is keep losing battles, if it means winning the war.
 
The whole crew was devastated at Xebec’s death; he was their captain once, and he had great respect in the eyes of everyone on the boat, myself included. In the middle of our struggle, the demon kept insisting that the Almighty is dead on our boat, but I could feel his love and warmth even there. For me, this became a motto that I will keep with me, in my heart and soul, for all the troubles ahead: the Almighty is always there for you, for he loves us all. All you have to do is accept his helping hand. So I proclaimed my steeled resolve with a salute of my magic in the sky, and as a form of respect for the death of a man I deeply respected and cared for as a friend. After sending his body to rest, we have sailed ahead to the city of Nefim, the first elvish outpost on the western side. We were expecting a warm welcome for the elves from Enneth, and believed that after a long sailing, we have finally come to rest, albeit for a while.
 
Upon trying to go over the Gamble, a dangerous maritime crossing, I have entered Vision, and tried scouting it for any pirate ships. And I found them, alright. It was Cato’s ship, and the last thing I saw was a pair of ref eyes, and a hatred for life I only felt in one other living entity: Cato. The accursed betrayer who tried to kill Mazog when I have just started adventuring with my last party. I believed him to be dead, and the visages of him to be only a vision created by the demons who were pursuing us at all times. Or maybe I just wanted to believe him to be dead, but deep in my heart, I always suspected he would not simply fade into non-existence that simply. His body was destroyed by the very armor he wore, but somehow he managed to still exist. Perhaps a necromancer came to his last place of rest and resurrected him, offering him a body even more fit for killing. I dread thinking about what has happened to Alomir should this be true, but I have faith that Nerissa, Mazog and Damaschin would defend it should the need arise. Remember how I said that our journey is a series of lost battles? Well, this one almost broke all of us. Almost.
 
We tried going for Nefim, but the sight before our eyes has simply destroyed our hearts: Nefim was in ruins, atop it’s highest tower stood tall the three-pronged spear, and only death dwelled there. It has fallen, and we already discovered several boats sent to intercept us, all bearing the symbol of the fiery eye; after hearing about it from my friends, I always believed that Deos would become a problem, but for him to be the one behind this carnage, that was too much. We have abandoned ship, and took the most-needed possessions only with us as we escaped into the wild, all the while hearing the menacing song of a flute. At that moment I remembered that Cato had a bard that played a flute made of xenatine. Thus, my suspicion came true. Even if Cato is not here, his pirate crew is, and they will at least want revenge for their captain’s death, and I am their target, along with everything that is alive.
 
As we regrouped in a forest to the west of Nefim, we have seen that Metherol is also under siege by an army of undead numbering 12000 strong. But, the surprises did not end there. A bloodies and battered man appeared from the bushes, presented himself as a man named Gilders, the half-brother of a friend of mine named Bajid, from the dimension of Spirit. He came to us to find out the situation in our dimension, and to offer us help with the troubles at hand. We described the situation known to us prior to our leaving Alomir, and we have planned the way in which we can help the city of Metherol, and made our way into the city under the guise of dawn. We have decided that Bart will head out stealthily and search for necromancers, an when he finds one, he will signal me by going invisible. I will feel the burst of strong magic and will teleport to him, and proceed to annihilate any and all necromancers we find, in order to destabilise the chain of comand within the army of undead and make them uncontrollable, which will cause infighting between the undead, giving our forces a much needed reprieve. Verfy, Anevis and Marc will go to the north wall and protect it from the head-on assault, Xixi and 3 sorceresses will take care of the east part of the city, Heron, all the Fastodans, Nixie, Eve, and Miremis the elven sorceress will defend the western side, which is the most heavily assaulted side of the city, and I will defend the port together with Dillen and Orman, who will cover me should the need arise. I do not know if you will hear from me again, dear reader, for I will face the bane of my last party, the one who could only be killed by himself alone. I am almost sure Cato will be there, one form or another, and if I fail, the city, my friends, everyone will feel his burning hatred for life and desire to destroy.
 
May the Almighty help us all.