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Kerghan's Journal is a book found in his secret chambers in the Stonecutter Clan. It is the journal of Kerghan the Terrible, as the name implies. In the journal, he describes how he first discovered the Black Necromantic college of Magick, and his research upon the subject. There is also mention of his sentence to the Void by the Elven Council...

Transcript[]

February 10[]

I've been working diligently as of late to assure the Council that their selection of myself was not a mistake.  As the first human wizard on the Elven Council, I feel I have a great responsibility to prove my worth, and to show them that my understanding of the old magicks is equal to their own.  I believe I have the support of Nasrudin and a few of the others, but Arronax and his contingent are in strong opposition to my presence and seem ready to do anything to ensure my failure here.  I will persevere.


March 12
[]

I've discovered something incredible.  I need to do more research, but this could be exactly what I've been looking for...a way to convince the ENTIRE council that I am as worthy to lead as they are.   I must look further into this...


April 3
[]

I continue to be amazed by the things I discover.  It seems that there is another side to Necromancy that none of us was ever aware of.  Yes, long ago I discovered the power to resurrect the dead, but I never dreamed that I could actually SPEAK with their incorporeal souls!  It's incredible!  Yes, these poor souls they are in pain, but the things they can tell us!  I believe I'm on the verge of discovery an entire new College of Magick.  Soon I will share my discoveries with the rest of the Council...


May 14
[]

Today I animated the lifeless body of a mountain lion.  I'd found the poor creature not far from my laboratory here, expired, it seems, from natural causes.  To animate the dead is not the same as resurrecting them, as the creature is merely an earthly shell, still dead, being powered by a soul I have trapped within it.  It was a pathetic sight, and I released the creature's soul not long after.  But the possibilities for such an application are endless!  Truly, I have found something incredible here...


June 22
[]

I've found that it is possible to pull the very soul from a living being.  All of my experiments to date have been upon beasts, but there is no doubt that the spell would work perfectly upon a living, sentient being.  Not that I would ever do so, of course, but the curiosity within me burns as this new knowledge opens up to me!  I have been given these visions of the lands of the dead, and I must try to understand them.  It is both a blessing and a curse, but I must strive forward to the end...


July 6
[]

Nasrudin and an entourage of the Council Members stopped by today, wondering why I've been neglecting my duties.  I wanted to tell them what has been happening, but kept quiet as I still have much to learn.  Begging some privacy, and pretending not to be in the best of health, I promised to resume my duties as fast as I possibly could.  I could see in the face of our leader that I was not believed.  I haven't much time.
I spoke with the gravekeeper from a town not far from here.  He was quite accommodating after I fattened his purse, and he should be making a delivery to me by the end of the week.


July 15
[]

My theories were correct.  I know that some may look at the things that I've done in the name of magick and call them monstrous, but these shells that I raised and then quenched were already dead to begin with...that I used them to further our knowledge should not be of no concern!  And now that we can control these spirits, who is to say what is right and wrong concerning them.  I'm no tyrant, but power is control.  I now have this power, I and I alone...


August 8
[]

The Council has found out what I've done, and they are furious.  Arronax is screaming banishment, and Nasrudin is speechless and the rest of the Council eyes me with distrust or outright revulsion.  Can they not see the power in these things?  The importance?  I pity them, these poor unenlightened souls.  Caught forever in their shallow thoughts, they whimper like small children, afraid of what they cannot understand.  And fear me they should...


November 17
[]

The sentence has been passed, and tomorrow I stand before the council to be banished.  I go not into the Void with fear or malice, but merely with anticipation.  If this be my death, then it will be a homecoming...perhaps I was never meant to truly be among the living.  And if not, then I go with open eyes into the unknown, and welcome what I will see there...

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