^

I am recording this log now, over a year after the incident, as to my knowledge I am the only one to reject the influence of a shard.

Some preliminary information might be needed.  We captured the elder shard from one called Nylmir the Dream Eater at the cost of many lives.  The shard entered my heart and began its corruption.  Both physically and mentally.  Culminating after 6 months the urge to remove it from my chest to such an extent that I killed myself in the process.  But that comes later.

Right after the battle the entity behind the shard tried its best to corrupt me, seeming to talk of 2 paths.  Listening to it or redemption.  To my regret I don’t have specifics, I was not in the mental state to transcribe notes.  But I do remember that it seemed to grant me the ability to understand Deep Speech and the ability for it to speak within my mind.  While I was able to respond, there was no way to stop their advances.

Before the final battle for White Moon Cove the entity became more active in its attempts to persuade me.  It seemed spiteful that the council sleeps and destruction will be allowed to ravage our lands.  They wanted me to build shrines within each of our cities in order to help their champions.  Somewhat like four black cubes stacked on edge somewhere between a foot or two tall.  I have drawn the design that was shoved into my mind to the best of my ability.

While I have an feeling the help would have been genuine, I could not imagine the cost to myself or the town as a whole. Besides, I already had a contract I could not break with the arbitrator of the courts of hell himself. Archduke Belial.  To say the least, the entity speaking to me was not pleased.  In anger at the faithfulness to my contract the entity revealed themselves as the lord of my lord. Prince of Evil. Supreme Master of the Nine Hells. Asmodeus.  At this point they gave me a promise of death and demanded I find another champion.  It was at this point in desperation to be free of this entity I ripped the shard from my heart.  Dying on the streets of White Moon Cove.

According to bystanders, as I was ripping it from my chest there was an audible sigh of disappointment in the air.  As my heart was torn from my body, purple electric shocks racked me in spasms while my corpse fell to the ground.  The shard remained floating where my heart used to be.  Zak tried to remove the shard from the air above my body but both their shield and mage hand phased through the elder shard.  Eddings tried their best to heal me but I was too far gone.  All while an 100 ft area around the elder shard became freezing cold within seconds.

After a couple seconds past and the elder shard reached the freezing point, a black tendril of energy flowed into my now empty heart.  And for the second time on this island, I awakened from death.  The blackened veins radiating from my heart are the scars from this incident.  In a broken speech consisting of many different languages a voice rang out saying “DiScaRdeD, cHampIoN, yOu, wiSHed, dEAth,  ̶̐̀ì̸͐ ̵̨̑ , GrAnt, you.  yUO, WIshEd, yoUr, LORd,  ̶̐̀ì̸͐ ̵̨̑, prEVent, you.”  A little while later the wizard chemist came over and the elder shard implanted itself within his chest.  Only two days later White Moon Cove fell. In the months afterwards I have no further contact with the entity claiming to be Asmodeus and the previously granted ‘gift’ are gone. Though I have been left changed by my resurrection.

While my experience leaves many questions unanswered, I hope it provides an insight where there was previously none.

  • Uzza, Mother of Flies & Lawyer of the Freeholds