Entry 12

  Got back to Imagen, turns out I was gone for three and a half months. Summer is over. My first stop. A bath in the brothel. Fiara made my head spin again. Got offered some drugs. They did nothing to me. Waste of gold. On the way to his lordship I bought a stone that changes color by the hour. Got fucking scammed. The stone doesn’t actually work. I'm waiting in this fancy room with a fireplace and soft furniture. He’s busy with a guest. I caught a glimpse of the guy as he left a northerner, looked fancy but not a lord. A merchant maybe.

  Lord mage was happy with the scrolls, but hadn't even looked at them before telling me he wants me to go back to the deadlands. Again. For a different project. Needs a gem said to have been buried with some old alchemist, famous for inventing the cure to petrification. Nugter Gritfist. A Dwarf. Asked if his lordship has any books I can take with me, I've finished reading the ones I’ve bought. He said no. and here I thought we were getting along so well.

  And I'm off to loot a dwarven tomb past the mountains. Won't take that long. Was given a clear map to where it is. Why should he hire some new untested mercenary when he has me and my debt. Douchebag said two more trips into the darklands. He did give me the flesh changer ring and I have been reaping its benefits. Should I take his word for it?

  Got new boots, trying out giant elk leather. Not buying a horse. Waste of gold. Either the zombies get to it or it may starve if I take too long in the damn places I tend to get stuck in. What if I get trapped in the tomb just like I did in the last place? Broke into a noble's house. Well I just walked in having taken the face of said noble and took a bunch of books from his study. His guards thought it strange with the cloak I was wearing but I discovered that if I heard the voice of the person the ring changes my voice to match the face. Gonna have to ask Syrus why he added such a feature. No, I should just thank him.

  Spent two days in the brothel. I have officially fucked every woman they have there. Time to find a new brothel to conquer. Broke a kid's arm for trying to pickpocket me. Felt a little bad a few hours later. But every town has its urchins. There was a woman begging for money pretending to be blind outside the market. Told her she needs to up her game. I also tried to find that fucker that sold me the fake magic rock.

  Found him. Took over a day, but I found him. Left him bleeding in an alley. Just about to leave and it starts to rain. So I'm staying at the hanged bard inn until it passes. I might be dead but I’d rather not be dead and wet.

  Joined a card game, lost twenty eight gold. Bought my card pals a round of drinks when they told me of a new brothel that opened up a month ago. Twas a cruel joke. There were only men there. Sure some were handsome and one was cuter that any female elf I’ve ever seen but he looked suspiciously young. Like, hasn’t started to grow crotch hair young. Gross.

  I packed up my stuff, gave the key back, paid ten gold to have my card pals be woken up before dawn two days in a row. Skip two days then do it again. They shouldn’t have told me how long they were staying there. I left town with a big grin on my face.

  Entry 13

  Made it to Usten. Can confirm the curse is still there. Watched a couple of men be taken down by undead soldiers on the old trade road clad in armor bearing the Blackwood sigil. By the time I had walked up to them, two new zombies had risen up.

  Seeing the Blackwood sigil, brought memories back of the days I spent tracking and killing every last one of the Blackwoods. Spymaster said the Blackwoods betrayed the kingdom and the king himself wants me to go do them in. Yet Muriel, how she begged for mercy. Mercy from me, me The Unseen. She claimed that the king only wants her and her family dead because of the indignation he suffered when she refused to marry him. Gods. I was a fool. Such blind loyalty. I wish I had believed her then… I wish I didn’t kill her. Such blind loyalty, NEVER again. While the nobles fought amongst themselves who would take over the Blackwood estate, kissing ass, so the king would choose them the dwarves invaded Usten and took the mountain territories. Then we had a three year war as we tried to take that mountain back. It was the people of Usten who suffered, the main mountain pass was occupied and that two year famine hit. Our ally couldn’t afford to send grain. Everyone was angry and the general mood was gloomy as fuck. In the end the dwarves still hold the pass, they build a city there on the border to the deadlands.

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  Entry 13 14

  Was passing my old prison. The headquarters to the order of the silver shield. Why didn’t I search the place when Jif helped me out of my cell? I guess waking up and talking with someone for the first time in ages had me not thinking right.

  I walked past my old cell, said hello to the corpse in the other one. Wonder why that one never became undead. Guess maybe he died before the curse reached here. Poor guy starved to death. We were both left to our fates, your’s was to be punished for that god awful singing you would do. Took a peak into the pain room. So many lovely memories of being tortured by men that called themselves “humble servants of the god of silver light, the paragon of protection”. I still recall the questions they asked me. What are you? Why can you talk? Can you control the other undead? Why are you laughing? The pain only started when they started using their holy magic to burn me. Still I had no answers for them. I still don’t have any. And then one day they were just gone, never to return. Left alone with that psycho that loved retelling how he would cut up pregnant women, take their babies and then heal them up rape them and leave them in a slum of some town. Raved about how he sold the babies to some demon. Kept saying that it will come for him and set him free. Well it never did. And that guy used to be a priest of the order here. A horrible secret kept locked up and hidden from the public.

  I found some of my previous belongings. Some were gone. My old journal wasn’t there. Just realized I used to write in code. And most of my notes were just tracking targets and writing down whatever weak spots I found. Guess it dont matter. Not a spy anymore. Just a mercenary trying to pay off a magical item. My enchanted armor, also gone. Found one of my magic items, guess they didn’t find the secret compartment in my sword. The blade is bent. What the fuck did they do to her? Poor thing, I had to smash it to get the hilt to open, it was where I kept my “ring of the prepared” when I didn't need it. It lets me create temporary tools among other less useful things. Mostly I used it for lockpicks or quills. I spent a few minutes just playing with the ring. Making tiny wolves run in my palm. To make things move takes concentration but it's kind of fun to watch. I used to entertain the little princess with tiny animals like that. I wonder if she made it out of Usten safe.

  There was a painting of King Arnold and his pretty second wife Queen Anna. The notorious cheater. So many knights she bed, so many heads would have rolled if the king wasn’t into watching other men fuck her. There’d be times when me and the spymaster would ponder if she did that stuff for his benefit over a good elven wine bottle when the rest of the castle was dead asleep. We would get a little tipsy and like little children go scare the night guards. Then he had to go and get stung by that red desert scorpion I brought back for him. I wish I had not been able to catch that damned thing. If he had lived and was still the spymaster he would have not let the king hire a necromancy obsessed mage. This is all my fault, I am like this because I indulged my monitor's love for rare poisons.

  Should I feel bad about grave robbing? Seeing how I’m also dead. Just got out of that tomb with the magical glowing gem. It was inside a mummified corpse. To my knowledge dwarves never mummified their dead. Fucking thing got up and stratted chasing me. I’m faster though much faster. I kind of get it though the mummy guy I mean. I’d be angry too if I woke up to someone having their hand in my chest stealing my glowing gems.

  Had to kill the dwarf mummy, it chased me and chased me. Out of the tomb, across the land. Over hills and rivers. It just kept following me. It had to happen. I lit it on fire. It kept screeching and walking after me even on fire for a bit, but eventually it collapsed. The final sound it made was dreadful. Never heard an undead scram like that. I think it could feel the pain.