A recounting of the night of 23 July, 1210‏

Greetings,

Before you on this parchment lies a very important piece of information, one that the people need to know, for it could lead to a great change in the lives of everyone in the lands of Arawyn. I implore anyone who reads this to encourage others to gaze upon it too, and to read aloud this notice to those who are incapable of reading themselves. Everything upon this notice is taken from a first-hand account of the event, my own first-hand account. If anyone disputes the claims I make upon this parchment, then I welcome them to discuss the matter with me in private.

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Throughout the month of July 1210, several of the Chroniclerites of Travance received a series of visions as they dreamed. These visions culminated with the appearance of an Angel of Chronicler, who gave unto us a message. The specifics of each message differed for each Chroniclerite, but a constant among them was that they told us that there would be a great event unfolding very soon, and that we must record its passing. Above all else, we were told by this Angel that we could not, must not, interfere with this event, for our interference would set off a chain of events that would lead to a catastrophic outcome.

And indeed, it was not long before we were visited again by this Angel, this time within the proper of Travance. We quickly gathered up all of the available Chroniclerites within the proper and met the Angel just outside of the Dragon's Claw Inn. This group consisted of myself, Father Osred, the Guild Master Ardin Silverbow and his younger brother, Sir Aleister Darkheart, Sir Lethias VonRitter, and Dorian Birchwood. The Angel again explained to us that what we would be witnessing was something that we must not interfere with, that we would be there only to observe and chronicle. When each of us indicated we understood, she gathered us close and then proceeded to take us by flight to our destination.

We were taken into the Inverted Tower by our custodian, and we ended up within its depths, but not within any room. We moved inwards, the Angel leading the way, until we came upon a group of figures within a glowing circle, within an alcove just outside of the door to the 13th floor of the Tower. Within this gathering was the vampire Pesmerga with an unknown associate, the Commodore of the Ghost Ship, and two Arch-Devils, one of Glomm, one of Galamachis, who had appeared within Travance earlier that night and were seen walking off with Shalok Kensington, Captain of the Town Guard, in tow. The five of them were standing within a glowing circle that was warded against life. Besides the Ward, the only way inside the circle was through a stone arch that had strange, green clouds floating within it (later determined to be clouds of very potent poison). The Angel of Chronicler took us to our own warded circle and warned us again that only within this circle can she offer us protection, if we were to step out, we would be at the mercy of the forces in the room.

At this point, the devils brought our attention to two figures laying within the warded circle, Sister Celestine, who was seen earlier that night being taken away by a mysterious dark portal, and Captain Kensington. The Arch-Devil of Galamachis, who called himself 'Ventropian', proclaimed to us that we would be witnessing the birth of a new god and the death of Galamachis on this day. They explained that Galamachis was of little use to them due to his severe hatred of the Undead and his tenants of death also applying to the other followers of the Dark Pantheon. And so, Ventropian, seemingly also being backed by Glomm in his endeavors, is setting out to open the gates to the Amber Path, a mystical path that is said to be the path one must walk in order to attain godhood. The devils also spoke of using Ventropian's newly attained godhood to usurp Malyc as the ruler of the Dark Pantheon. However, one of the items that the devils needed, a spirit key of some manner for the Inverted Tower, seems to have eluded their grasp and so instead, they brought Sister Celestine and Captain Kensington here to perform a ritual to open the doorway instead.

At this point, the two townspeople had stirred into consciousness. Captain Kensington, however, was under the command of the bracelet upon his arm (the bracelet in question was a powerful ancient artifact of pure evil; within it lied a fragment of one of the original masks, which was what controlled Captain Kensington's actions). Using Captain Kensington as his gatherer, Ventropian harvested one of the components he needed for his ritual; the pure life essence of a Paladin, drawn by a mortal. With the essence gathered, Ventropian then removed Shalok's arm which held the bracelet, then slew Captain Kensington. He then held aloft the essence of Sister Celestine and, along with a red scroll case used to harvest her living essence and Shalok's bracelet he was able to both open the Amber Path. Within the doors of the Amber Path lied countless angelic guardians of unknown origin, presumably there to prevent access to the powers that create Gods from mortals, but among the angels there also was a gigantic beast of darkness resembling a Soul Harvester, only significantly larger. This would later be revealed to be the God Beast, the first Soul Harvester, which was freed from its prison within the 13th floor by Ventropian's ritual. We only caught a glimpse of the path, the angels, and the God Beast before Ventropian entered the Amber Path and the doors closed behind him and the gateway vanished without a trace. With Ventropian inside the Amber Path, the others inside the ritual site dispersed. After bypassing the poison clouds that hung in the doorway, we stepped within the ritual site, but only moments after we entered, Sister Celestine suddenly arose with a flash of light. She told us that she was brought back to the realm of the living through a focus that she was laying upon, and that Valos Himself was the one who had brought her through it. She then used her abilities as a Paladin to bring Captain Kensington back from the brink of death.

As we went to leave the room, Sir Darkheart suddenly fell to his knees as he was assaulted with visions of the Amber Path and Ventropian's progression through it. At first, he saw Ventropian atop the God Beast, using the bracelet he acquired from Captain Kensington to control it somehow and using its power to fight off the angelic custodians. Shortly after, he received another vision of Ventropian at a vast, jeweled door made of amber. This was presumably the gateway to whatever it was that changed beings into Gods. Finally, as we were leaving the tower, he received a final vision of Ventropian opening the door and stepping within.

From onwards, this is merely conjecture:

It is safe to assume that the Arch-Devil Ventropian has become imbued with divine powers to make him as powerful as a God, and as this note is written, he is more than likely carrying out his plans to usurp Galamachis as the new God of Death. If he were to succeed in his machinations, I am relatively sure that he would send forth heralds to proclaim his new status, especially to the town where he ascended in the first place.

Again, if you have any questions, concerns, or disputes over that which has been written here, I would prefer if you sent them to me by post rather than tacking them up on the Inn wall.

Sincerely,

Aldous DuFaire Structo

((Tacked just under the notice is a second one, with the same handwriting.))
I have been made aware of a few inconsistencies within my recounting, and have revised my story to accommodate this. I will continue to do so if more are made apparent to me.