Amber has finished her research, and everyone else has finished their training. We're setting out for Landis today; I honestly haven't bothered to ask why. As we also have a royal commission to map the new face of Landis, Master Merrox has kindly allowed us to turn in our journals early, as this royal business will have us far from Throal come Earthtime. I have said my goodbyes to my friends on the work crews in the inner cities. I dedicate this journal to them, and the enlightenment they have shown me.

I bid farewell to...

• [lists the name of every friend he made on the work crews. I spent Karma on a Perception roll and got a 14 to make certain K'rtog remembers all of them.]

...dwarves, men, and orks of honor all.

We traveled through the month of Mawag without incident; today we at last reached the realm that was once the human kingdom of Landis. With the blessings of Upandal I have completed my work on Heart's Refuge; so now we will at least have some place to stow Elphaba's trundling wagon.

I was ablt to combine my blessings with the power of the Refuge to get a ship's eye view of the forest. T'soar, of course, took advantage of the chance provided by the edifice's height.

Unfortunately the forest canopy is all but impenetrable. It seems we will be spending some time wandering.

Scream Diver, Amber's bird, found an odd patch of stone this morning, queerly smooth and flat. We investigated and determined that there was a hollow beneath the rock. Orin opened the stone, and I examined the void beneath. Though the ambient Astral within all of Landis is tainted, the path beneath the stone was cleaner then Throal.

We opened the way further, and found a gentle ramp, large enough for a wagon. It would appear that we have found an untouched Kaer.

Elphaba "elected" to remain with the wagon, while Orin, Amber, T'soar and I ventured in. A short distance from our entrance, the path entered into a broad spiral, leading us deeper. We have been traveling the downward spiral for hours, and still we have seen no sign of the kaer proper.

The ramp didn't curve. There was no spiral. We were tricked by the kaer wards. We spent the better part of yesterday and this morning wandering less then two-hundred yards from Elphaba and the Refuge.

When we at last penetrated the potent illusion, we found the kaer only a bit farther from where we stood. And so we approached the well warded doors of the lost kaer.

I steeled myself and knocked first upon the doors; although the wards were still active, they were less than damaging. Amber, using some fell magic she learned in Throal, was able to make her almost musical knock resound within the kaer.

We waited at the entrance for three days, knocking periodically during the day. At last the doors of the kaer opened this morning, and we were given a warm, if curious welcome by the citizens of Mathan's Hold. The men who greeted us seemed quite perplexed by what had become of the world. They had expected to find the rolling plains of their ancestral home, but have instead found a lush and decidedly unnatural jungle.

The four of us were given a great feast (Elphaba has remained outside as the kaer dwellers are likely not ready to meet a blood elf yet).

We have found a fragment of Landis's once great libraries. The disposition of the Western Library we do not know, but it seems that the Eastern Library was divided into ten sections, and each section was concealed within a kaer. Mathan's Hold is one such. Amber almost seemed to be... salivating when we were informed. The wealth of knowledge here is great, and we intend to have some spirit scribes copy every word of it; so that we may ensure the safety of this knowledge by transporting it to the keeping of Master Merrox in Throal.

Mathan's Hold has a high density of magicians, most of them far more talented than any member of our small band. Yet so long isolated, they still kept their spell matrices in physical items. I have seen to their instruction in the modern ways of the personal spell matrix. I found them to be eager students.

In return, one of the local nethermancers has provided us instruction in a useful spell. Jamis's Spirit Servant calls a spirit not unlike the standard fare, except that it is far more skilled at a chosen task, and arrives prepared for the task. The usefulness of such beings is truly phenomenal. I'm not certain if even Jamis knows what he has done.

The people of Mathan's Hold, and apparently all the people of ancient Landis, have fascinating ceremonial masks. I first took note of them when the doors first opened; some members of our welcoming party were wearing them. Although most of their masks are ancient relics, a few skilled crafters have kept the art alive. I have apprenticed myself to one of their mask makers, to better acquaint myself with their styles and skills.

The spirit scribes, now much improved thanks to Jamis, require a greater supply of books to transcribe the entire library. To this end I have begun work on a paper mill for the citizens of Mathan's Hold. To survive in this world, as a community, they will require an industry, and human bodies are ill suited to sky raiding.

My workers and I have completed the mill, the first useable paper should be available tomorrow. We've arranged for some book binders to keep our scribes well supplied, and for some lumberjack spirits to keep the mill well supplied. The mayor of the Hold has expressed some concern that by copying the entire library we are somewhat diminishing their only thing worth trade. I have a meeting with him tomorrow.

I have persuaded the mayor that knowledge should be available to all, and that Mathan's Hold has any number of other valuable commodities, not the least of which is their tremendous supply of wood, both regular and true. I also noted that the odds of anyone else being able to find the copies of their books in the Great Library would be akin to finding a specific kernel of true fire cast adrift on Death's Sea; anyone truly wanting access to their knowledge will still have to come here.

I am going to remain here for a time, and assist the people in making the transition to above ground living and industry. Their time living in the earth has left them ill-prepared for living on the earth.

I have left some spirits and volunteers working on building up the future city, and journeyed alone into the jungle to watch how the trees grow.

The life of wood and the life of crystal are similar in a way that I hadn't fathomed before. I have watched their patterns; caused them to grow and intertwine, one into the other. I see now how living wood can be coaxed to grow, shaped, and used like the crystal of the Twilight Peaks.

I have spent the last few days practicing the skills of the Crystalsmith upon living wood. Amber has taught me the basics of mundane woodcraft as well. I now understand the ways of Woodcraft in a new way, I shall teach this vision to the people of Mathan's Hold so that they can make the most of their new land.

Orin has taken Amber and a young ambassador from Mathan's Hold to Throal. Elphaba has is returning again to the Blood Wood, I don't know if she plans on coming back. T'soar and I have been left alone with the newly freed men of Mathan's Hold.

I loaned the Refuge to Amber, so that she can transport the books we've already transcribed to the Great Library. I also included a copy of Jamis's Spirit Servant, as the spell's creator wants it spread; though personally I think the spell to potent for common knowledge.

I have planted one of my early experiments just above the entrance to the Hold. Living wood and crystal I hope it will one day grow into a great tree. It is Sildraygg - Heart of Mathan's Hold - Emblem of Landis Reborn.

Amber and Orin have at last returned from Throal. Amber is now the official Throalic ambassador to Landis.

I hope I have spent my time well, the city is planned out, and the Woodcrafters have built a strong wall at the edge of my first projected growth point. Only select trees are being removed by the lumberjacks, ensuring that the city will always be well concealed by the jungle's canopy, to better hide from wyverns, dragons, and raiders.

We have left Mathan's Hold, Amber is leading us South.

We reached the location of a former village today; at least Amber says it is a former village, the jungle gives no sign.

We spent the day digging, the only evidence we found of name-giver inhabitants ever having been here was a chamber pot, half eaten by something, probably a gnasher.

Orin, Amber, T'soar, and I took Orin's carpet to a great height today; far higher than I could hope to raise a tower. We examined the terrain, seeking the most likely place for a kaer to which the former villagers may have.

Amber has selected a location to the east of here as a likely candidate.

We reached the kaer site this morning, and spent the day excavating the entrance; it had been covered by rubble sometime in the past. The Astral within the kaer is corrupt; leaving no doubt that this kaer was breached, and the population is no doubt long dead. Amber is intent upon plumbing the secrets of this place.

We shall seal the entrance loosely, and send in spirits to scout in the morning.

Only one of the scouts returned, and I dispatched it after it reported. We can not risk the chance that it was marked by the kaer's lone denizen, a wormskull. Upon careful consultation, Amber has agreed to investigate alternate sites before we consider attempting the destruction this creature.

We have buried the entrance to the blighted kaer, even deeper then we found it. Amber marked this location upon her map.

We arrived at a second kaer site today. West of the last site, and southwest of Mathan's Hold we located the entrance, but are waiting until tomorrow to uncover it and send in additional scouts.

The scouts we sent into the ruined kaer confirmed that indeed the destroyers of this kaer are still in residence. A pair of wormlike things, they proved far less apt at catching our spies then the wormskull.

One of our scouts located the remnants of a library, but it would seem that it burned sometime in the past. One of the creatures was making its lair there.

We resolved to enter the kaer, and defeat its destroyers. The first of the beasts nearly surprised us, it approached on a cross street and had been watching us from beyond the corner of a building. It proved to not be quite as impotent as we had foolishly hoped. The things mouth dealt Amber some vicious wounds, and we had to pull out of the kaer to regroup before facing the one lairing in the library.

Our strategy adjusted, we surprised the second, and rendered it immobile before moving in; Orin finished it off with darts of earth. We were able to minimize additional damage to whatever lore might remain in the library.

Spiritual experts have been called in to carefully document and transcribe the remaining books and tattered sheets while we scour the kaer for valuables.

The spirits were able to assemble 40 volumes of information from the burned library, no more. Either the worms were voracious, or gnashers entered the kaer with them, for we found no other relics of habitation except buildings, the burned library, and a single orichalcum piece.

We are going to return to Mathan's Hold to consult with the magicians there, and then we will return to the wormskull's kaer.

We have reached Mathan's Hold, and consulted the magicians. There is a spell that can aid us against the beast's powers, but none of us are powerful enough to wield it. Amber has apprenticed herself to a local, and has begun learning what she must to cast counterspell.

Orin has agreed to take me to Throal, where I will deposit the remainder of Mathan's Hold's library; and then to the moothome.

Merrox was quite pleased with the gift I brought him, and I was surprised that King Varulus himself appeared at the gift giving. I visited with Elkezar and the children; I only hope I get to see them again. We set out for the wormskull's kaer tomorrow. I note that T'soar has gone missing; I'd consider it were I not oathbound to Amber.

We arrived at the wormskull's kaer this afternoon. The workers are again opening it up. Tomorrow we'll be facing the thing.

The wormskull fell before the Hearts of Vengeance and our legion of spirit minstrels. Yes, minstrels. Not trusting to our abilities at stealth, we instead conjured as many spirits as we could, drummers called forth by Jamis's Spirit Servant, and sent them into the kaer before us. Orin masked our trio as more of the discorporate troubadours, and we joined them in their revelry.

We didn't quite get the drop on the wormskull that we'd hoped for. In our attention to all the details, we failed to take into account that the horror could enter the Astral. It was able to differentiate between our living patterns and the dead ones around us. But only at close range, the spirits and the horror's own corruption of the kaer ensured that our ploy had at least some value. The wormskull had to leave the Astral to attack us, and so although it knew which party of minstrels we were with, it couldn't at first tell which of us was which.

As with the library worm before it, we rendered the horror immobile, though with more difficulty then before. It would have fallen easily, except that it had a construct our surviving scout must not have seen, a boneless griffin-thing. The constructed attempted to disrupt my concentration upon its master, but in then end we destroyed both; the slime-griffin proved more disturbing then effective.

We released the minstrels, to rove the country side as they would, singing of our victory until their time within this plane expires. In their place we have called archaeologists and excavators to examine the ruins. Unfortunately there is no sign that any portion of the library was stored here. It may however, be well hidden.

One of the archaeologists found a place where the wormskull seems to have been digging. True Earth is packed into the soil of the region, unconnected with the kaer's failed wards. A dense spell pattern fills the Astral image of the place, and Orin seems to think that some potent illusion was once at work here.

The site is located inside what I presume to have been an average house; in short, an otherwise unremarkable building in an otherwise unremarkable part of this blighted kaer.

We have set about extracting the true earth and completing the horror's excavation, curious as to what could persuade a wormskull to dig.

There is a second kaer. The doors to this place are untouched, and the wards still glow with eldritch power. Amber has set about communicating our presence to those within. None of the journals we found from the fallen kaer indicate any knowledge of this second haven.

I am disquieted by the existence of this kaer, if there are survivors within its walls, then they, or rather their ancestors sat complacent within its wards, while generations were eradicated by the wormskull, scant yards above their heads.

True, they may not have known, but the mere existence of this place sends shivers down my spine, the designers must have known that this was possible, or else they would not have made the second kaer. I see the prudence of this plan, for at least half of the kaer's population survived (though the wormskull was not far from completing its work); yet the cost shall haunt my dreams for some days.

The kaer doors opened today, revealing an aging wizard flanked by a pair of guards. As I had known it would be this is not simply the library, but an entire kaer. I don't know why the sacrifice of the people above would sit better with me had it been only for the sake of knowledge, but it would.

This kaer is untainted, by horrors, and its people are at least acting properly horrified by the gruesome deaths of their neighbors.

Jerith's Rest is the name of the survivor's kaer, the name of its long dead twin I do not know and will not ask.

As we had all hoped, another fraction of the Eastern Library was concealed here, it is complete and undamaged.

Though we all find this place distasteful, we have stayed and helped them to establish themselves. In some ways an easier task then when we did so for Mathan's Hold, as we already have experience from our first encounter with the survivors of ancient Landis. Yet in some ways my own discomfort has made this far more difficult.

Amber, suddenly the diplomat, has negotiated the reformation of Landis as a nation; Mathan's Hold shall serve as capital. The people of Jerith's Rest put up only the most token resistance to her suggestion. She cited the trade ties which Mathan's Hold has already worked hard to establish; though our real reasons were more base, Mathan's Hold didn't allow an entire kaer to sacrifice itself for them.

To the people of Jerith's Rest I have given a gift, brother to Sildraygg. Above their entrance to the world outside I have planted Oth'phirse - Heart of Jerith's Rest - Emblem of Landis Renewed.

With Orin's help I have fashioned Gale's Breath a fast, if mischievous means of transit. I have business in Blood's Rest, and along the way I shall deposit the transcriptions of our most recent literary find with Master Merrox.

I have given the library to Master Merrox, who as always was overjoyed. Included were the journals of the sacrificial kaer's residents. The most interesting, and disturbing of which was dutifully kept for five years after its owner's death. Somehow the horror kept the journal's owner oblivious to his transformation into a cadaver man.

I spent the rest of my day in Throal with Kayla and Xeros, their training is progressing but both are far from ready to take to the adventurer's life. Xeros misses Amber horribly; I hope she finds the time to visit him soon.

Gale's Breath and I reached Blood's Rest today. Strathule was happy to see us, having been alone for some time. I built him a companion, Cthylla. She is fashioned from the bones of a wyvern we met while awaiting Usun above the Liaj. Not much for conversation, Strathule likes his new toy.

Today I celebrate the twenty-first anniversary of my birth. I spent a quiet day with my mother, Elkezar, and my children.

Gale's Breath and I have returned to Jerith's Rest.

Amber has befriended a human male, BLAHX, who seems to have someway of divining the direction, but not the distance to the artifact she seeks. We took a careful measure from here; Amber scribed the line upon our map.

Orin, Amber, BLAHX, and I have journeyed back to the home of the Swiftwind Moot. BLAHX has taken another reading, and Amber has inscribed this line upon our map as well.

We spent five days at the moot before the others could draw me away. The children seem drawn to Gale's Breath, not unlike moths to a flame. No matter how many times I've watched Elkezar or Neela leap into the air, my heart still skips a beat to watch my own children doing it. I'm dissatisfied to leave them again so soon, but glad to get Gale away from them.

I already miss them, but I know that what I do, I do for them. I must progress in skill until I can bring their mother back from Death's cold embrace.

We've arrived near where the lines on Ambers map intersect. So far we have found neither sign of the artifact nor of name-giver habitation. Amber and BLAHX are taking new measurements.

This morning we located the site of a presumed kaer, we have begun excavation of the rubble filled entrance.

We sent in the scouts this morning, and learned that a bloatform has made its lair in the breached kaer. One of the scouts was traumatized, by witnessing what the horror did to one not as quick as he. Strange, I would have thought that a spirit servant would dissolve instantly upon being ripped in twain.

Amber attempted to taunt the bloatform out, so we could face it upon our own terms, but the idiotic beast collapsed the tunnel upon itself in its rage. Instead we have decided to divide our forces, using some to keep the beast near to the entrance while we excavate our own, with the maximum degree of stealth.

While the scouts were away I permanently summoned the spirit Bathis Keen-eyed, the master archaeologist who found the wormskull's excavation that lead us to Jerith's Rest.

Our secondary entrance breached the kaer this morning, and our battle plan was an almost perfect success. We had thought to sneak into the kaer, just far enough to hide near our tunnel, while Amber taunted the beast and lured it up the new tunnel. Unfortunately the horror proved incapable of entering the tunnel, held in place by a mighty ward. I had suspected something of the sort may have been the case, but failed to plan for it.

Surprise lost, I stepped from my concealment and was able to hold the beast immobile. Amber and Orin made short work of the thing, while BLAHX watched. We had forgotten that he had never seen a horror before; the man could do little but stare at the horror's hodge-podge of mouths and teeth. I admit that some of the mouths were quite fearsome, but I find it a little hard to take seriously a horror that manifests the mouth of a cow.

We've spent a month carefully combing the kaer, learning as much of its history as we could. Amber found her relic, guarded by the ghost of the Wizard whose dying act had bound the many-mouthed bloatform within the kaer.

The ghost has been quite kind; the artifact Amber has been looking for is a sheath, suitable in size only for a largish dagger, the dagger that BLAHX carries if I don't miss my guess. Named Fairlorn, the sheath is gifted with a long history of defeating horrors and their curses.

No gnashers entered this kaer, or at least not many, and so we found ourselves in possession of an abundance of clean, solid furniture. We elected not to sell it, and instead will donate it to the poor of Throal and Bartertown, better it see good use again then be left to rot in a hole in the ground.

We have returned to Throal, Amber's quest paused while she considers how best to complete the first deed of Fairlorn. I am told that she must find a named horror and defeat it. Orin and I are thus oathbound to aid her, and BLAHX, as the bearer of the companion item, will likely accompany us on this, our most daunting (AKA suicidal) task to date.

We are all seeking training during this time of respite, and intend to here await the days of Earthtime. Our time in Throal will be prolonged, though not so prolonged as when we last setup shop here.