22 Abadius, Toilday, 4719 Orders are in from G. We are to head to Roslar’s Coffer. I had to use a magnifying glass to find it on the map. Why is it we have chosen a town so far away and so small? Some notes about this town before we get there: ● One of our own has infiltrated the religious order in that town. We are to meet with “Sister” F and receive a status report. ● Last consensus puts the town at a population of 435. ● It has a small garrison with around six fully employed guards. ● Just a few months ago the Pathfinder Society arrived into town and killed a beast that had taken residence in the local Sarenite church. They are still there. ● It’s main source of income is the small farms and orchards. ● The town is situated on the border of Lastwall, right near Belkzen. It was overran some years ago by an orc tribe. Although I was given scant details about what we will be doing in this town, I have already managed to gather that it shall be experimental in nature. They have chosen me to be the leader of the group going there and my expertise is in research and experimentation more so than in conducting rituals and such. Even G did that thing where he pretends to know more than he does. Ever since our old leader Adrissant fell and that whole failure of the carrion crown there’s been too much infighting. No one trusts one single person with all the information anymore. Perhaps they’re looking for the right person? Someone devilishly smart and finds the key to success in this quaint town on the border of Last Wall? Just to be safe I have decided to bring everything with me on this journey. 30 Abadius, Wealday, 4719 Met G on the road. He said that the town is completely set and all I will need to do is research and make sure word of our experiment there does not get out to the outside world. Further details I have gotten from him: ● All in the town are believed to be dying. ● There will be an explosion of some kind there. ● Some of the town may rise as undead due to this explosion. ● He does not know how large, how powerful, or what the effects shall truly be. I speculate that we shall be witnessing the first use of the weapon known as “Radiant Fire”. I have only heard rumors of this thing. Although I have never been able to ascertain whether it is a spell or a device, it is supposed to be quite powerful. 02 Calistril, Starday, 4719 Arrived in Roslar’s Coffer. Met with our spy. What an utter buffoon! G left the final piece of our experiment in her hands and she left it in the church of Sarenrae! Now those nosy Pathfinder Society have been asking all the wrong sorts of questions about them. She hadn’t even been able to come up with a good enough story to tell them and now they’re even more curious. We had to move to extreme measures and kill all those in the church. It’s a little early but we cannot have them interrupting us! NOTE TO SELF: try and have a better say over who becomes part of my expeditions. I waste so much time trying to fix the mistakes of idiots. As for F, I have killed her and put her body just inside the town. This will be a good way to see just what effects this experiment will have. 03 Calistril, Sunday, 4719 It happened! We moved out of the town to a nearby hill to better observe the radius. It lit up the whole night sky as though it were day. What an incredible sight! I merely wish I were in the town so I could hear if any of them screamed. The blast was more than enough to engulf the whole town, I would put it at around five miles in diameter. Once we were sure we were safe, we went to the town where I activated the Fetoring Maw. It will keep out travellers and any other nosy do-gooders for 90 days. This should be plenty of time for us to study this town. If not, I shall simply activate it again. To make sure that no one messes with it, I have completed the Invisible Aegis ritual. That will keep it safe for 30 days. I shall be the only one able to make any changes since I have the key used to perform the ritual. First let me get the initial environmental changes observations. ● Plantlife: ○ Moss, Ivy, and other forest floor level brush has completely overtaken rocks, buildings, roads, and farms. An agent is gathering the harvest from the crops to see if the blast has changed the fruits and vegetables. ○ Saplings that were in the area have grown ten-fold overnight. ○ It is harder to track the changes to adult or older trees. They seem to be much bigger than they were before, but it’s difficult to see how much growth they have experienced. I shall have one of my researchers cut down a tree to see what changes there are to the ring. ○ I have also noticed that there is a lot of plants that have been animated to life. Quite strange. I have another researcher digging some out now. ● Animals: ○ We have seen animals of three varieties from this blast. Dead, Mutated, and Undead. ○ The dead ones are perhaps the most boring. The blast has simply killed the animals. I have taken their corpses for dissection to compare them to the Mutated and Undead for any discrepancies. ○ A herd of undead elk was spotted near the forest. I’ll have one of the agents kill one and bring it to me. ○ Chatar has found a few Mutated animals. It’s interesting to me that they have lived and mutated. What has caused them to have a different reaction than the ones who were raised? Or the ones who simply died? Distance from the epicenter? Relative health? Age? Species? Were they partially protected by walls, or brush or the like? ● Insects: ○ I have not been able to see a dramatic difference in the insect life. ● Inanimate Objects: ○Some of the biggest changes have been to the buildings in the area. They were destroyed by the blast of course, but they seem to have started to rot and collapse. ○ Many buildings have seen structural damage. If I were one to speculate, and I am, I would say that it almost seems as though many, many years have passed. ● Humanoid: ○ There seem to be a great deal of undead who have arisen from this burst. What’s interesting is how none of them are the typical sorts of things I might see from a raise undead spell. ■ We discovered the Sarenite priest had arisen as a Bodak. Such a creature would take weeks, even months to create and exposure to the negative energy plane itself. Somehow this blast seems to have accelerated this process so it formed instantaneously on the Material Plane. ■ There were a few Crypt Things. Normally these beings require special circumstances and rituals to bind them to a place. ■ For now I have elected to leave these rare and malevolent creatures to continue to live in their… natural habitat. To observe if the act differently than normal ones. ■ I sent one of my agents in to see if the priest had any interest in talking. The idiot stood there while the bodak beheaded him. Perhaps he’ll feel up to speaking later. ■ F has turned into a Manananggal. I simply couldn’t allow her to wander around like that so I killed her. I shall have to do further study her changes. For now one of my researchers is taking preliminary notes. ○ I have sent Chatar to lead a group specifically out to find other undead. This is but the first day of course. There is so much to do and so much to see. We are now fully moved into the Sarenite church. Some of the members of our little group have taken it upon themselves to deface the property. I have made them stop. I think it’s funny to make Sarenrae watch as I parade corpses and undead through her church. There have been many staff disputes over many trivialities, such as what rooms to sleep in and what food to eat. I have made Kalak take over discipline and personnel issues so I, and my researchers, can focus on research. 04 Calistril, Moonday, 4719 I have gone into more depth with the research today. Oh, if only I were a full undead! Then I would not have to worry about such banalities as sleep and eating. Animal Autopsies: ● Undead Elk: seemed to die and raise instantaneously. This means, at least for these elk, that they did not have the chance to mutate. Perhaps there are others in the town that are different? The possibilities are endless. But this one is at least pretty run of the mill zombie. I will have my researchers perform the autopsies on the other undeads and just inform me if they discover anything different. ● Mutated Animals: They were a squirrel, a moose, and an opossum. ○ Bony Growths between ⅛” - 1” in size. ○ Discolored flesh that is a darker hue than they have originally, most of them well outside expected variations of their species. ○ No changes to the organs themselves, those remain in tact and at the right amount. They are able to digest the same sorts of food they usually do. ○ Some possess strange abilities. Fear auras, shadowalk, displacement. I have yet to figure out rhyme or reason for what has determined them. ○ I will have to get some of my agents to catch a predatory animal and see if the mutations differ. While searching through the town I came across the most unusual find! Six corpses in the wreckage of the town. I wonder why they did not raise as well. If, like the animal corpses, some sort of environmental blockage kept them from fully experiencing the blast? I simply must know more! I shall have to perform an autopsy of course. No, a better idea. I shall try and have them risen and see what happens. NOTE TO SELF: Have Chatar and a small group try and find mutated humanoids hiding in the town. Humanoids who survived the blast may have some interesting things to say. I had the cats raise them as Juju Zombies. I had hoped I would be able to speak with them on their experience of the explosion but they have yet to utter a word. It’s like speaking to a wall. I’m not even certain they understand me. It’s as if they don’t have any life in them whatsoever. Like giving the table a set of organs and no brain. No, no. Not no brain; no soul. 05 Calistril, Toilday, 4719 After wrapping up the last of the autopsies I started yesterday, I’ve decided to devote today to those strange corpses. Erm, recently created undead. So far today: ● They have had no interest in food, water, or sleep. This proves at least that they are a true undead and that the raising didn’t fail in some way. ● They feel pain, and in fact proceeded to fight back when they discovered the scalpel was the source of the pain. ● They are capable of learning. I’ve been able to get them to answer simple questions. But they still are not yet able to recall any events from before they were risen. ● Interestingly, even though they do not have memories of who they used to be, they still have some sort of muscle memory. I gave them the weapons and armor they all had before and they were able to fight very well. Better than most zombies are capable of. An agent returned to me and told me that some orc archer was spotted at the edge of the forest. He’s killed one of my researchers. I’ve dispatched a small group of people to take him alive. 06 Calistril, Wealday, 4719 The group I sent out to capture the orc came back with some very fascinating news. The orc was spotted with a group of six humanoids who match the description of the same six zombies. I wonder what this could all mean. Perhaps they are several sets of twins? Extremely convincing simulacrum? I shall have to get my hands on them. I spent the better part of the day looking for these others. I was not able to find them, and now I am beginning to believe they have something to do with Chatar’s disappearance. Them, or the orc ranger. A trio of undead who came wandering into town told me that they saw people who matched their description in the tomb of Ervin Roslar. I’ve captured these three and will have to see what they’re all about. I was not able to get into the graveyard due to the Loci spirit protecting it. I’ve tasked Kalak with trying to find a way to rid us of this useless spirit. It may be nice to see what sort of changes have happened to the corpses that rest in the graveyard. 07 Calistril, Oathday, 4719 I sent out the researchers to gather soil and water samples. Some of the others are to start dissecting the humanoid undead - after killing them. In the meantime I have begun studying the six undead personally. I’ve devised a few tests: Behavioral, Intelligence, Cognitive, Physical, and Psychological. ● Behavioral: ○ They are like sponges, they do whatever I tell them to, no questions asked. It is like I can tell what to do as per the spell Command Undead but I don’t have to cast anything. Fascinating. ○ They seem to have only basal knowledge. Things that hurt are things to avoid. They remember behaviors that were rewarded and punished. ● Intelligence: ○ I have yet to get them to speak. ○ They respond to yes or no questions very well. They seem capable of making complex decisions. ■ I had them decide between a personal reward for something easy that let down others and a group reward for something harder and they all decided to try for the group reward. I haven’t finished the tests yet, I’ve had to review preliminary reports that our other researchers have completed. It is too early to say but if the Radiant Fire creates undead as easy to train as these, I would say we could have the best army on our hands. No need to waste spells on Command Undead, calculating the intelligence of various undeads, compromising quantity for quality or vice versa. 08 Calistril, Fireday, 4719 I spent the better part of the day helping Kalak research this Loci spirit since we seem to keep having this issue with our agents running into town and dying! After raising their corpses and sending them out on patrol, we have both agreed that the graveyard is a great untapped resource. I think we’ve made a breakthrough on that and sometime tomorrow we shall have an answer on getting rid of that accursed Loci spirit. 09 Calistril, Starday, 4719 Just earlier Ellot told me of the six humanoids who disappeared into the tomb are in the church. I never thought this day would be so exciting! I have brought the six zombies into the room
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