Had a bit of free time, so why not waste it adventuring in the ruins of Doomhollow?
A torn and bloodstained journal left by a team of adventurers was found some way east from the ruins of destroyed mountain halls of Doomhollow. Based on the information we managed to glean from it, we decided to halt our expedition and wait for military reinforcements.
A transcription of the legible parts of the manuscript is attached. We will stay in our current position and wait for further orders.Regards,
Urist Minestandards,
Leader,
Reclaim expedition to Doomhollow
—
Journal of Onol Galeiron(several pages missing from the beginning)at Ushat fiddling her crossbow nervously and even Sodel barking and jumping, sensing our excitement.
And why not? In just few hours we should be reaching the outskirts of
Doomhollow. It has been a long walk from the southern settlements, just me, my dear friend
Ushat and my faithful dog
Sodel. We have finally reached The Sour Desert, this vast freezing northern wasteland where for some reason they decided to first found a fortress and then move the royal seat to it.
I have no idea what to expect. Cousin
Tosid, or “
Staalo” as he later started calling himself, always sent letters back home about exciting adventures like vampire hunts and goblin invasions, but later also about worrying things like dwarves going mad and endless screaming from the dungeons deep below the fortress. Then he stopped writing entirely, and now few months back all other communication from Doomhollow ceased as well. I have to admit I’m worried
(rest of the page soiled by water)first marks of any activity in this endless desert. Tracks left by some large creature are leading northwards, towards Doomhollow. We have no other choice than to follow them.
(illegible)lit only by a full moon tonight. Ushat claimed to see a huge winged shadow flying across the face of it; I think the excitement is getting to her nerves.
The ground around us is littered with corpses body parts and other assorted debris. Clearly a huge battle had happened here, only a few months ago. We decided to sneak around an oddly shaped guard tower, watchful of any hostile creatures, when we saw our first still living being in this area.
It was a rather hefty looking elf, standing completely naked in ankle deep snow. We carefully hailed him from distance; he claimed to be a poet but couldn’t explain what had happened or what he was doing here. Clearly he had gone insane from whatever horrors he’d witnessed here.
As Ushat was starting to make scornful remarks about the effects of the cold on certain parts of elven anatomy, I decided it would be best to keep moving.
We walked on, dodging dwarven, goblin and animal remains and now we can finally see opening, complete with an open drawbridge in front of it. That must be the entrance.
Next to it, we saw another skeleton… a dwarf, but some obvious anatomical differences compared to normal dwarves.
A vampire. Just what had been happening here? At first I thought Doomhollow had just fallen to an invasion but now we’re finding undead monsters; on top of that, some of these corpses look a rather… chewed up, and not just by ordinary carrion eaters.
To remain outside seems too dangerous. We step inside the dark entrance tunnel littered by battered and bloody pieces armour. The naked elf poet is still standing out there, keeping his vigil, oblivious to reality.
(part of a page missing)blocked! It's blocked! The inner drawbridge is firmly closed and there are no visible mechanisms to open it from outside. There’s no way inside the fortress.
I can’t believe we came all this way only to be frustrated at the last moment! Ah well. There’s no other choice but to head back out and start our long voyage home. For some reason Ushat keeps screaming something about melons at the closed gate. She might really be losing it.
Just as we were about to climb the entrance ramp we saw an opening among the rubble. There is a wide hole in the entrance hall wall, leading into the inner fortress.
What could have caused a solid stone wall to crumble like nothing? Cousin Staalo once wrote in his letters about how a dragon once destroyed the front gate of Doomhollow and I can’t help imagining how something even more horrifying might have done this. What’s worse, if the heart of the fortress is laid open like that, there is probably no hope of finding anyone alive inside. A breached fort is a dead fort.
Well, there is no point postponing it; we will step through the breach and into Doomhollow.
We entered into what probably had been an area for workshops. The first thing we saw was another naked elf, mumbling something under her breath. Probably another unhinged performer. I decided to leave her alone, as there is something more worrying lying just next to her. Huge corpses, so enormous I at first didn’t even recognise them as such, are blocking half of the corridor. They are badly decomposed and battered, but there’s no mistaking the enormous, feathered horrors.
Demons. There were demons loose in Doomhollow. The dwarves here had Dug Too Deep and unleashed the horrors of Underworld into the fortress.
And, since the fort has been breached, there might now be demons loose in our world. Everyone could be doomed.
Of course the brave dwarves might have defeated the forces of Hell in some glorious last stand. This might not be as bad as it seems. Our course is clear; we have to find evidence about what happened here and tell the world about it. We will venture further into Doomhollow.
(few rows stained and illegible)filled with sticky substance, probably some kind of demon silk from an Underworld web spinner. We have to carefully navigate our way through the corridors to avoid getting stuck into the foul smelling ooze. Sodel ran off somewhere, probably scenting food further away. There’s no controlling that dog; I’m worried what the
(page missing)like the corpses had been thrown around with some force. Some of the dead dwarves are fancily dressed and look like they had been important figures during their lives. All the same now.
We descended to lower level and are now in what seems like a mansion of a ruler or something. Could this have been the throne room of the King of our realm? Now its electrum furniture is in a sad state and piled with decaying animal carcasses and garbage.
Beyond that the tunnel seems to lead into an apartment complex with rows of bedrooms on either side. Discarded clothing and pieces of armour are lying everywhere. There is also a bloated carcass of a dog some distance away; at first I was worried it was Sodel, but just then he trotted from a side passage from whatever errand he has deemed more important than our expedition.
I should probably search some of these bedrooms, in case of
(illegible; unknown number of pages missing)still can’t believe it. How had it even managed to cram itself into that tiny bedroom? Luckily it was of a type made completely out of salt and was hindered by demon webbing so I managed to crack it apart with my axe.
Still, that was a close call. Worse, it now seems there are live demons in the fortress, and it seems more likely some of them have escaped and are now out there in the world somewhere.
(page missing)The damn dog just ran off again. Ushat seems equally useless; she has taken to giggling to herself and dashing from doorway to doorway brandishing her crossbow, making odd “hut-hut-hut” noises as she goes. This place is getting to her… badly.
We have now reached a food production area. Everything tells me the end of Doomhollow was sudden and abrupt; a full crop of plump helmets has been left waiting for a harvester and each nest box is stocked with a clutch of rotten eggs. The booze stockpile also seems to be intact; a stroke of luck since we’ve run out of water. Might as well fill up while we’re here.
(few pages stained with a brown substance and filled with illegible scribbling)Woke up in a pool of vomit, probably my own. How long was I unconscious? I should be glad I wasn’t eaten by a demon while I was out of it. Or maybe I shouldn’t; my head is killing me.
That last batch of dwarven beer was probably polluted with demon essences or something. Time to move on… slowly.
(pages missing)finally picked the lock and opened the door. So this must be the “Underlook” cousin Staalo often wrote about before disappearing. It’s a horrifying place; despite everything now broken up and thrown about one can clearly see this was a place of suffering even before the catastrophe. There are deep groovesleft by dwarven nails in the doors and insane scribblings are still visible on the walls, under all the filth and grime.
These rooms seem to go on and on, without any logic or reason. I have no idea what had been the original purpose of all these spaces. Each room is littered with equal parts of junk and treasure, mixed together. Some things are just thrown and broken, but what puzzles me is that someone, or -thing has carried entire bins full of stuff intact down here and just left them. Nothing here makes sense to me.
(top of the page missing)drawn to a glint of blue in the corner, among the rubble. There, just lying on the floor was an artefact probably worth more than a king’s ransom.
So they were mining adamantine here. The metal of gods. Why someone would first mine the precious ore at the risk of their lives and then make an earring with a melting dog on it out of the raw ore escapes me, but still this bauble alone probably just made this trip worth it.
We should now head back the way we came and
(this page slashed in several places with some sharp object)sure it was the door we tried earlier but we still ended up somewhere else. These rooms all look the same but
(illegible)finally reached the staircase going up towards the main fortress. I can hear the demons down in the forges and
(illegible)these damn elves! What is their
(illegible)had to run but I think we made it. Sodel is still missing and I fear
(illegible)WHERE DID ALL THESE TURKEYS COME FROM? WHY ARE THERE SO MANY
(illegible)had my doubts for a time. But here we are, alive and mostly unharmed. There’s the breach leading back to the entrance hall and once we’re out of this place I plan never returning. This place has too many ghosts and bad memories, even from before the end times to ever be a pleasant place to live or visit. Doomhollow is truly doomed.
We got out of the cursed fortress and walked until sunset. We made camp some way eastwards of Doomhollow and in the morning we’ll continue our way southwards, back home. The world has to be warned and an expedition must be sent to seal the breach to the Underworld. This is our responsibility.
Time to sleep; Ushat will take the first watch.
Woke up to Ushat’s screams. I must go and see what she’s
(the writer seems to have been interrupted. Then another writer continues with a different handwriting; most of the writing is illegible)W I N G S
(The rest of the writing obscured by blood. The journal ends here.)So yes, unfortunately quite uneventful expedition; the high point was probably to my surprise getting killed by a roaming demon OUTSIDE of the fortress. Didn't even get to see the adamantine toy boat.
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Topic: The Doom of Doomhollow - Year 10 - [Finished] (Read 51540 times)