January 3. I find myself sitting at the piano more of late, yet my fingers do not touch the keys. Of all the items I salvaged from the wreckage, it has withstood time's erosion where all else in my life has not. In burying Charlene and Etienne, I felt as if I buried a part of myself – there is nothing to strive for, nothing more the island holds for me. Even the presence of the nearby outpost I find grating – the incessant traffic of merchant and animals back and forth on the roads, carving up and dividing what they can dig and pluck from the isle.\n\nThere must be more, something else I may focus upon. I fear that I will live here forever, aimless. I do not know why the isle did not awaken my wife, my son as it did so many others. Perhaps they had tired of life here. Tired of me, and saw no future in it.\n\nI may never know. But I know this – if I do not steady my racing thoughts, I may try to find the same path as they.\n\nR. Grenville

An Untouched Piano

January 17. I had a curious visitor a few days ago - a Frenchwoman M. Cartier, a tanner of buffalo - but more of the look of a hunter about her, oddly enough. She had heard of me and the piano, and sought me out to see it for herself. She seemed surprised by my disposition, but did not inquire deeply about it. I sensed she had lost someone, yet is at peace with it. Quite uncharacteristic of me, I asked her how she had come to cope.\n\nShe said that the isle itself awoke her. Some saw it as a hell, a curse, purgatory – some as a paradise, but that no one truly knew it at all. It was life, she said, and the isle gave birth to all manner of wonders to feed our curiosity. “We were not the first here,” she told me. “Others were here, you can see it in the ruins to the north, the Great Spheres upon the plains. This was a city once, all around us.”\n\nI inquired what happened to this city, and the people before us. She smiled and said, “M. Grenville, perhaps you were brought here to answer that question.”\n\nI gave her words much thought over the past few days. I will seek out these structures and what sense can be made of them – it is better than remaining here and letting more dust gather upon the piano keys.\n\nR. Grenville

Departure

Feb 24. I have secured a guide, a fellow named Rolfe. Unlike the others, seemed undaunted by the tales of obelisks, spheres – even the dead amongst the ruins on the ridge. “They's dead, no life left in them,” he said. “Guarding nothing, Yorick's all.” He told me that you might chance across one of them in the underbrush while hunting, usually near the great stone structures of the isle, like the lighthouse to the south. I asked if he was not curious about them, and he shrugged – and said if I was, and I had coin or azoth to pay him with, then my curiosity was his gain. “Who cares who built them as long as they're naught more than skeletons now – dead and gone is how I prefer, and I'd rather not join them.”\n\nI told him my interest lay with the Spheres... and perhaps this curious temple he mentioned to the east.\n\nR. Grenville

Rolfe

April 1. Rolfe's guidance proved true. The man brought us to one of the Great Spheres, and said here we might labor without interruption. He also introduced me to a former quartermaster of the E. Stokes company, a stern woman by the name of “Maddie” (Madelaine), who leads a crew of a dozen laborers in need of employment (The Stokes Company came to an unfortunate end when their compound was torched by rivals). She seemed not bitter by the experience, only matter-of-fact, and had no wish to build more walls to be burned down.\n\nThe Sphere is partially buried as the others and requires men to dig, but Maddie assured us her crew would put their backs to it if they knew what was good for them – and I had the coin to pay them. I assured them I did. The lie tasted sour in my mouth, but I will figure out a means to pay them – the work on the Great Sphere must begin in the meantime.\n\nR. Grenville

The Dig Site: Day 1

April 15. The work goes swiftly. We have carried away the soil from beneath the Great Sphere, revealing the full mark carved upon the stone.\n\nMaddie's men labor honest and industrious – they work efficiently, which is well and good, as I am not certain how far my coin will last. Maddie is more worried about provisions - food has proven a challenge, as the scouts find they must range farther and farther from camp for game. This has worried Rolfe, though he has not said why. He is often at the perimeter, staring into the woods.\n\nMore curiously, Maddie claims she has seen such marks before, on smaller spheres being sold at the outposts. She said the small spheres were scavenged from hunters near the Temple to the East. Rolfe frowned at that and said it wasn't in the ground they found the spheres, but in the rib cages of skeletons there, like stone hearts. Maddie looked unsettled by the news, as did her men. I pressed Rolfe on this, but he refused to speak further. I must secure one of these spheres – after our work here, perhaps a trip to the Temple is in order.\n\nR. Grenville

Excavation: Day 15

April 19. I write this far from the excavation, yet I am alive and must recount what happened. Rolfe and I were the only ones I know who managed to escape. It was near dusk, Rolfe had sought me out – one of the guides had gone missing – not deserted, of that Rolfe was certain – it was something else.\n\nHis instincts proved true, for as dusk bled out, we heard a distant cry in the woods, then silence – then spotted shapes, hunched, moved amongst the trees. Rolfe became afraid, but to the man's credit, it did not stay his actions, and he pushed me to move. “Where there's one, there's at least two others you can't see,” he hissed to me, and fighting my hesitation, I left the equipment behind.\n\nCursed isle – these infernal things seek to drive us from knowledge at every turn!\n\n-Grenville

Misfortune

Whatever powers these obelisks hold, the ancients of Aeternum made use of them – or more likely, shaped them themselves... but to what purpose, I do not know.\n\nLife grows thickly about them, striking blue flowers unlike any I have seen on the isle - and even azoth-infused flora, which we gather carefully.\n\nRolfe seemed out of sorts, has been since the attack on the dig site. He was hunched to the ground at a stone's throw from the obelisk, staring at it as if listening to something, clutching the vial of azoth I'd paid him with... I had to address him twice before the fellow snapped out of it, still at a loss for words.\n\nAfter addressing him rather sharply... perhaps sharper than was merited... Rolfe said he felt the azoth... ‘sing' in the presence of the obelisk, and did not know what to make of it.\n\nWe shall continue our circuit of the ring of obelisks, then leave the central Spire for last.\n\n-Grenville

The Obelisks!

May 20. Rolfe again voiced his fears the azoth might awaken that which lies dormant on Aeternum.\n\nThe man is a fool, and has not the heart to continue. I reminded him of the great fields of life that blossomed around the obelisks – if that was their power while the obelisks slept, what life might rise should they awake and how could that be naught but a good thing? Do we ourselves not awake each day and are better than when we sleep and know nothing but dreams?\n\nEven my reasoned arguments did not quell the man's doubt. He became quite animated, saying I knew not what might wake at the center Spire... even the dead, the skeletons that encircled the cursed temple might come alive, if their hearts were tied to this land.\n\nI suspect our ways must soon part, though I know his promise of payment keeps him in my shadow for now. If needs must, I will send him away, but before he goes, I will need his azoth for what I plan next. I will unlock the mysteries here, and cast such a light that it will burn away doubts and shadow from fearful minds.\n\n-Grenville

Growing Fears

I take no pride in what happened next but do not take this as a writ of confession. Rolfe refused me, and would not part with the azoth he carried. I explained to him, at length, that I was certain of my discovery but lacked the means to test it with the central obelisk, but with his cooperation, we might yet illuminate the secrets of the culture that had come before us.\n\nHe grew agitated and said that he would leave at dawn and head back to the Renee's home and seek shelter with the Frenchwoman – and take the azoth with him. He spoke of nameless dangers if I persisted in my efforts, until I grew quite tired of it, and told him I wished to hear no more.\n\nAt this point, I ordered him to part with the azoth one last time. He shook his head, and before he could give voice his refusal, I had sunk my knife into his throat. I knew it would not kill him, but I had no use for his body any longer – it was what he carried I needed. If he wanted to go, then so be it. His other belongings would remain should he brave the journey again. I took solely the azoth, and I made a promise that should our paths cross, I would repay him for its use – if Aeternum let him awake as it did for others.\n\nI have one attempt at this – and I shall do so at the central Spire.\n\n-Grenville

The Spire

[Page is burned, but it looks like it was written on after it was burnt, not before.]\n\nMy hands shake as I write this. I was a fool. First the Spire, the great light... the light grew above me like the dawn of a second day, and my heart lept with hope – and again, when I saw the torches along the main road blossom into blue flame. It was as if I'd awoken the isle itself!\n\nThen... then a terrible silence from the Spire as the light streaming from it froze in the air, as if paralyzed by touching the Earth. I confess... I was consumed by a growing dread, and I fled along the road, the blue flames leading my steps... as it turned out, here, to the Temple Ruins from before.\n\nThe Temple was no sanctuary. Had the azure flames summoned me here? Whatever occurred at the Spire, it had touched here as well, awakening something terrible. I saw the same blue fire that lit the lanterns of the road now burn within the chest of the skeletal figures I had taken for dead... they were not dead, I see now, merely sleeping. Now they walked, blades drawn, circling the Temple with dark intent. What have I awoken?\n\nMay the powers of Aeternum have mercy upon my soul.\n\n-Grenville

Azure Flames

Aeternum's rolling plains of green filled with abandoned ranches and farms

Grenville's Journey Chapter - NWGuide Database of Lore

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