Wednesday September 17, Plain of Scales
Cruniac is dead. Our sergeant, Garrick, says he saw the commander and half of
the color guard running like hell back through the lines ordering a general
retreat. When Garrick caught up with him, Cruniac collapsed; he had been holding
his guts in with his shield. Cruniac's last words were of the bravery of the
color guard, who had given their lives trying to save him even as Soulblighter
had delivered the killing blow.
Soulblighter...
I have not heard that name since the days of my youth, when my grandfather would
tell me stories of the Great War. According to legend, Soulblighter was killed
in the last battle of that war, when Balor's severed head was thrown into the
Great Devoid and the armies of the dead collapsed.
But after the horrors I have witnessed so far, no tale is too terrible to be
believed. And if Soulblighter is alive and the minions of the dark have risen to
do his bidding, the events of the last few weeks begin to make sense.
All of us agree we must reach Madrigal and King Alric soon. But it would take
months to get to Madrigal on foot. Garrick believes there is a World Knot
directly west of us on the other side of the Cloudspine. Although it was
destroyed during the Great War, the Dwarves seem confident they will be able to
repair it. This I will have to see for myself.
As we were breaking camp, Garrick handed me a journal he had recovered from
Cruniac's belongings. The commander must have taken it from one of the Baron's
libraries.
What significance it may have had to Cruniac I do not know, other than it appears
to have been written by a man who served in the Legion during the Great War.