**there are many many entries written in a steady, careful hand. Most deal with his childhoood and adolecence and the events that led him to become a paladin. They also detail a dream he had that told him to seek a man who had befallen into the Underdark and to help him. However it is the entries upon his reaching Sanctuary that catch your eye most**

I have been here less than a week, and already I am grasping the reality of this bastion of hope they call Sanctuary. This city contains the most unbelievably diverse group of any land, country or continent of the surface.

I find it intriguing that halfling, human, elf, even a stray goblin can live together in harmony, even if it is an unstable one at best. I also find it comforting to see so many Sunites, Ilmateri and even the occasional Mystran. However I find it quite appalling that these followers somehow find the stomach to live shoulder to shoulder with Malarites, Sharans and Banites.

It would seem that either the justice system here is corrupted or too inadequate to deal with such menacing forces. Personally, I suspect a little of both, though when the Watchmen do get involved, they seem quite competent giving me the impression that there simply aren't enough of them.

However, I am copperless at the moment and i just over heard some fellows talking about an employment opportunity. I should offer my services as I will need to eventually acquire some better equipment if I am to be any help in balancing out the evil here.

*crude drawings line the edges of the pages. Most are simply ornate systems of curved lines, but there is one set that seems to have formed the face of a man with soft features, almost as if the author had done it unintentionally*

It has been several weeks now and it seems that there is enough evil in this city to fill at least one of the hells to its capacity. This has not deterred me though.

I know that it is in Tyr's dogma that I face evil where ever I can, but I must also pursue a just means in doing so. And while I know, from my intuition, that many of my fellow journeymen and women are if impure ilk, they have shown no malice or self-serving attitudes thus far. There are a few notable exceptions and I have distanced myself from them. But in general, the majority have done nothing wrong according to any local laws or the general laws of morality....at least not that I have witnessed yet.

I just hope that Tyr sees my rationale as logical and judicial. Should any of these people cross either of those lines, I will be forced to take action - even if I am too weak to succeed.

*several lines of an attempted next paragraph are scribbled out. Each one starting anew, but each one not satisfying the author, he finally apparently gives up and settles on the following*

Something is direly wrong with the Cleric that I met named Mylin. I heard of a duel to the death she had where she slew a vile woman with a single show of divine might. I am glad to see that her god is strong with her and that she is a capable host to channel such power, but she seems shaken, almost 'lost' afterwards.

I touched her today and my hand instantly began to be chilled. As if some part of that woman she slew lingered within her. It is not a feeling I'm soon to forget. And what's more is that the vision Tyr gave me came to me again shortly aftwards when I slept.

What I at first thought was a halfling, gnome or other short being, is actually someone else, but they are kneeling. I still cannot make out the face. The Maimed One must not see me fit yet to see through the cloudiness of my own mind. But I feel that I am getting closer, if only a hairsbreath, to finding this man I seek.

I will be brief. Life has been stable lately. My jobs have been fairly routine. Occasionally, I'll venture outside the city with several other traveling companions. Many of the creatures that roam about are not that challenging when in a group of several people.

I have also had no new leads in this person that I seek out, nor have I had any additional visions from Tyr.

I look forward to the completion of the house of light as i will finally have a proper place to connect with Tyr and I feel that finally the truly good citizens here will have a place to be trained to fight the even greater forces of evil that surround this city.

I have not written in a long while, but now I feel I must do so now.

In the last week, much has transpired. I have had a showdown with several ill characters. Mostly evil doers that try to hide their nature from me. Tyr grants me the ability to see beyond their ruses and into their hearts.

I have also overseen the training of several newcomers to the city. Not formal religious or combat training, but merely an acclimation to this settlement.

However, despite all of that, the biggest events have been the attacks on the city.

I returned from a well needed rest to learn that the city had been attacked by hordes of mutated spiders, creations of a Mr. Breen, I've heard. Apparently this attack was dealth with and retribuition on this Breen person was sought and delivered.

Then there was the the issue of the hordes of chosen that were attacking the city. That was a nasty debacle caused by one mages possession of a powerful artifact that he had and that the chosen wanted. He was given an armed escort out of the city to draw the unending hordes of were-rats away from the citizens of the city.

And if that wasnt enough, a rogue and quite large animatron erupted from the Dunwarren Ruins and violently destroyed everything in its path on its way to the town hall where it was defeated by myself and the cities many other defenders.

Well my party is leaving now to search for the source of this mechanical beast. I will write my findings later.

And so it begins with a folly decision.

A large group went with me to search the dunwarren ruins. All we wanted was to find any information as to what caused that collosal blue animatron to go on a rampage.

What we found was Chosen, savage were-rats that believe they are Urdlens chosen ones, alongside hordes of malfunctioning animatrons.

What we ultimately found was another collosal animatron, though this one was much different than the blue that attacked before. This one seemed coated in green ooze and almost non-functioning.

However upon pulling the lever inside the room, the machine began instantly attacking me, having locked me in the room with it. Had I not had the foresight to bring another into the room with me, in this case a wise mage who cast concealment on me, I'm sure I would have perished.

I thank my associates outside the room for also bashing the door down just in time for myself and the mage to escape with our lives.

The machine then did something we were not ready for.....it burrowed through the ground with ease!

We quickly followed it and found that it's massive footsteps gave life to the ground it walked on...leaving a trail of grass and moss in it's wake. This made it very easy to track however it lead us deep into the underdark.

We tracked it as far as teh Sandy Cavern and fought some vicious Ant people, only to watch in absolute astonishment as it scaled the walls of the cavern and bash its way out through the rocky ceiling.

Unable to pursue it more we have returned to sanctuary and am preparing to inform the spellguard of our findings.

*special note* Garrith, a dwarf, and Salina Marshal, were among the witnesses of this machine and, I believe, will be key in stopping it.

Again the city has come under attack. This time in the form of tremors! Boulders from the dark cavern walls have nearly crushed many people. I helped warn them to take shelter, but that was just before a swarm of Umberhulks suddenly appeared and attacked.

What provoked this attack I have no idea, but they were quickly dispatched and casualties were minimum.

I look forward to a good nights rest tonight as I've not had one in quite a while. Anxiety for some reason seems to keep me awake. At first I thought that perhaps it was my lack of regular council with Tyr that was causing it, but it would seem that despite my increased regularity of thought and consultation with him, was not the case at all. It was guilt.

Guilt that I had set loose a terrible machine into the wild. Something that I alone could not stop, but that I am very much responsible for.

I must at all costs make sure that mechenation is destroyed. The more I think of it's druidic powers the more I hope it is not another experiment of someones. Because then who knows what diabolical ideas went into such a machine.

I must think hard as to what has occurred and find a plan of action in the confusion.

Another Blue giant animatron attacked. It destroyed the stairs leading to lower and ripped up a good portion of the street as well.

Thankfully there were brave soldiers present that put the machine to pieces and by the time I arrived my axe wasn't needed.

But this is the second attack by a blue animatron. Where are they coming from? We never saw a second one in the ruins. Only that green one that escaped. Is someone sending these? Are the machines finally gaining a sense of self-awareness and these large ones are thier creations? or are they just simply malfunctioning machines and the attacks are simply random?

I hope it is the last of those ideas.

(several lines are skipped, as if the author used the space to think out his next thought)

What have I done? Have I perpetuated an already bad situation? I must find that green animatron. Whatever is going on I'm sure that green one is at the core of it.

*written in an unusually shaky form, unlike the previous entries. There is also small drops of blood on the page, as well as smears of dirt and ash*

I feel it's taunting me now. That green machine....the animatron that I set loose. Thankfully when it walked through Sanctuary, no one was hurt, but I know if it did, it's power would be nearly unstoppable.

I was the first to find it's green slimy tracks. Garrith and Lotho happened to be near me when I saw them. My sending did not go without answer and nearly all the the armed citizens of the city came to my call.

We split into two groups, one to follow the tracks into lower and the sewers and one to follow them into dunwarren. When I spoke to the private at the entrance to the ruins, he stated that he didn't see anyting but heard the thunderous steps of the beast lumber into the ruins.

I sent a sentry back to retrieve the other group and then I lead the massive army into the ruins and into the machine bowels where a ranger aided us in tracking the massive machine.

Garrith, the only other person present who had seen the machine, and I went directly back to where we first found it in the bowels and it indeed had been there, but it had moved on. With the aid of a very very crafy Druid named Viveka we were able to by pass a locked door and pursue the machine.

BLAST I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN! The machine laid a trap for us all

hordes of machines fought us every step of the way. All I could hear was the violent grating of axe and sword against the heavy plate of the machines! The arcane and the Divine swirled around our fierce advancement like a typhoon through an earthquake!

And my team held strong, they followed orders, and worked well. I must say for this being a rag tag group they have earned my respect. Rarely have I ever seen such bravery or comradery especially in a dismal place such as the underdark.

However.......however........

......our powers faded....our mages tired ......our supplies ran low.....

the machine had advanced deep into a massive hive of Chosen. Their finest warriors, mages and stealth artists faces us by the hundreds.

....and while our group was strong....battle had taken it's toll. We had suffered casualties. Not many mind you, but enough to weaken morale.

......I'll admit that I've never actually led an army anywhere before so when we started off strong I though tomyself "strategy and cunning! That is all you need!"

But when dissention and disbelief appeared in the ranks....I...I didn't know what to do. I knew this machine had to be destroyed. but.....my conviction was stronger than those whom I led.

....my faith was probably too. I knew that Tyr would see me through to the end, but......i could not provide that sort of strength for the others. In a way I failed them, I know it.

We pressed on though. Wave after wave of chosen attacked...and while in each encounter we were victorious, the cost of that victory rose higher and higher.

Our diminished supplies left us often still injured when the next wave of rat men would attack. And our weapons lacked the enchantments to really be effective.

.....and the casualties grew.

Two dwarves, a human and an elf fell all at once. In a single acid spell, the rat men had claimed 4 more lives.

I was able to save one of them, but not the others.

....our great army of nearly 30 strong had been reduced to less than a dozen.

We could not continue without rest and supplies. And so we turned back, unable to continue.

I sit here now having just returned to my room at the inn wishing, no hoping, that our losses today were not in vain. My axe and shield sit in the corner of the room.....I see dents, cuts, scortch patterns, claw marks and acid pock marks all over them. I should replace them, but I wont. At least not until this threat to the city that I unleashed is gone.

*several lines are skipped as if he realized later on that he had a somewhat separate thought from the above details*

On my way back from the ruins, I was separated from my group, and met a man in the sewers, who said that I had failed.

It occured to me, at that moment, that I had not failed. This was a war. And while we've won sevearl battles with these machines, we lost this one. A single loss is not the loss of the war.

It is a time to reflect on what happened and to prepare better and compensate for the challenges ahead. And so here are my brief notes on what we should do next.

--Combat Log Notes-- Machine typically runs for cover in areas of Chosen. Need heavy amounts of echantement granted persons or items.

In light of drought of weapon enchantments, large two-handed weapons seem to be of great use. Weapons like a greatsword, greataxe, heavy flail and so on seem to be at least marginally effective against Chosen

Chosen also seem easily stunned by their own instruments of war (choking powder, etc) having some on hand may prove useful.

Heavy potion stocks is helpful. Not just for the obvious reasons either. Tending to wounds using proper medical herbs is often tricky in the heat of combat and potions proved a quick fix.

Healing granting items, while rare, help in aiding fallen comrades, in times fo great need and when using medical herbs is not ideal.

Bedrolls, lamp oil, and stinkweed are needed to provide camp and rest in the underdark for comrades who's skills take much effort, particularly clerics and mages.

A ready supply of scrolls and wands for mages will aid in long tracking journeys

Scouts are a must. A proper team should have at least 3 of equal skill level. They should be out only one at a time. And at no point should more than one be sent in case one were to fall, the remaining ones would assume the fallens' duties.

Invisibility potions should also be kept on hand for both scouts and mages for obvious reasons.

more details to come..........................

*in the lower corner of the first page, a neatly drawn image of a hammer resting next to a sword, accompanies the text, 'justice even in the face of resistance'

As I reread that last entry, I recall the anguish I felt that day. The disappointment and pain of watching so many fall before the might of the wererats.

Since then, I've had much to think about and many events happen in the mean time.

The House has opened again, thankfully, but also has quickly attracted many threats yet our members still feel safe. I feel that while their faith may be strong, their faith in being safe without preparations is quite unwise.

On the topic of the Green Animatron, I have learned that there is a key that is needed to locate the machine. The key is said to be round in nature and becomes part of the door that it opens.

Though I've had no lucking finding a key yet, I have had a glimmer of hope with a Dwarf that I met had a unique key. Though it didn't open the door I once thought it might, it still might be useful. Perhaps two different keys are needed?

Additionally, I've noticed that the last 3 times the machine has entered the city, it always comes from a body of water. Why this is, I'm not sure.

Not long ago, a cleric of Tyr approached me. She was new to town I believe. She asked some of the oddest questions. I believe she could have been bitten by a bit of spontaneous affection for me, but I don't have time for such frills as companionship. Perhaps later on.

Beyond that Drow have entered the city. They apparently seek some sort of 'collection' from the Council. What or how this came about, I don't know, but needless to say that the drow are by far the much more dangerous threat.

*several lines are skipped in an effort to distinguis the next thought from the last*

I have not had any more dreams about the man I seek here. I suppose there are several reasons for this. Tyr might not find me worthy of seeing the next phase of my dream, or, and this is probably more so the truth, that I have become distracted from my goal by the happenings and desire of providing protection for this city and thus am no longer actively persuing him.

I have skipped many meditation times to hunt that animatron. I should redouble my efforts to find this man.

No sooner do I start my respite then two drow sentry's attack a group outside the town hall. I was there, weak from my fight with the undead and weighted down further by an extra set of full plate.

I only could fire arrows at the dark elves.

Though the group dispatched them, two brave adventurers were lost. I had not seen them in town before, but they did face the Drow bravely.

To complicate matters, Seeker Grey made a sending stating that all paths west leading to Fort Mur had been laid heavily with dispelling traps and drow patrols. This could be the beginning of an invasion force considering that the fort does have a pair of ports for ships to dock on the far side. It would be easy for the Drow to land there and then march through the mines and into the city.

We are in grave danger and the Spellguard should consider removing the ban on casting in the city considering that the reason for the law was to protect us from being seen by the Drow. It would be pointless to maintain that law seeing as the Drow obviously know that we exist.

Something tells that the city will become ravaged badly should the Drow follow through with their plans.

However, this does present a unique thought. If a significant number of the drow forces have been deployed to attack Sanctuary, that means that Traensyr is in a vulnerable state. More than likely only their city guards remain behind whiel the bulk of their military might heads towards Sanctuary.

And with the current civil war already causing chaos and panic in the Drow city, this might just be the opportunity we need to drive a devastatingly crippling blow to the dark elves.

Today I face a dilema, one that has not been uncommon to me as of late.

For weeks, perhaps months, I have wrestled with the notion that though I am of good nature and spirit, it should also come naturally to help those in need.

However, often times the ones in need that I encounter are quite wicked in nature and to aid someone that person in any way would allow them to further thier own wicked goals.

On the otherside I am faced with compassion, the notion that through charity and compassion that even the hardest hearts can be softened. But again, this could be taken advantage of by those with only selfish acts in mind.

I also feel in conflict with the House of Light. Though well wishing, they're leadership seems hellsbent on helping everyone they see. Only recently have they finally started to see the folly of thier ways in light of recent threats, attacks and so on. I fear that thier need to be compassionate has blinded them to the dark truth that in a world such as sanctuary and residing in Lower Sanctuary no less, that they are not well liked unless they directly benefit everyone.

Instead they are seen as a bunch of goodie goodies with no real threat about them....a group to be used up just as any resource would be, taken for granted and forgotten about.

Thier leadership is collapsing and with every leaders departure, the House seems nearly desperate to adhere to an open-door policy that is in fact the reason why the house is going to eventually vanish into the mists of time.

Though I wish to side with them, I cannot in good faith allow myself to be permanently aligned with them. It would seem that my decision to not join them formally was a wise one for more reasons than first appeared.

Surely when the House is once again besieged, several of us who have not subscribed to such a fool hearty dogma will be spared so that the work of our gods may contiue without a cloudy vision of a utopian world that the underdark itself repels with every moment of it's deep darkness.

The time has come. A day of reckoning of sorts. The Red Smiles, a reclusive gang, in a violent doublecross, has decimated the tigereyes. Their captain is dead, their numbers nearly wiped out. Only a few members remain now.

In their stead an even more power hungry group known as the Deep Sailors has arrived and laid claim to the Lower part of the city while it remains sealed off from Upper.

I have confronted their captain and what seemed to be his right hand man and told them that Lower is not to be claimed by anyone and should rightfully be united with Upper for the sake of the defense of all of us. Sadly they are even more bull headed and evil than the Tigers that they replaced.

They feel the House is a useless extension of Upper and the 'first mate' even stated that he saw no use for it and that the only reason the building hasn't been demolished is because the 'cap'n' wills it to still be. Though speaking with him in person seemed to contradict that statement.

He also threatened the lives of the Stouts and that any 'uppers' one who had family in Lower that those family members now belonged to the captain. A statement that smacks of slavery. Something I will not stand for.

However, I fear I may have brought undo stress upon the House when it seems it is at it's weakest.

Relating to that, I believe I am the only surviving member of the House. No other members have checked in and those that were missing in the past have still not shown. I am not qualified to run such a place........but I must keep this light alive somehow. I cannot allow such a holy place to fall....never. Even if it means my life.

*the handwriting is comparably sloppy to previous entries, as if the writers hand was shaking as it wrote the entry*

Things only get worse.....I have learned that a mob forced their way into the House and Linda, with some companions, died defending the House.

The House has been decimated, desecrated, and overrun with thugs who have stolen most of the keys and locked themselves in.

The next day, they left the door unlocked and I entered to see what I could......it was as if nothing had happened.

However....several well armed gypsies came down from the sleeping quarters and cleared out the beggars who were staying there so they could have a meeting.

I hid briefly, but finally confronted the one I thought was the leader - William. He accused me of being a murderer as Linda was - a thought that shocked me as I know Linda is not capable of such things.

Outnumbered, worn down from days of fighting, and without sleep in nearly 3 days, I was in no shape to fight, but it looked as if I had no chance but to do so. A large man with a huge axe named Winston approached, I gripped my axe and readied for a bloody fight.

To my dismay he was surprisingly calm and understanding.....and through a brief negotiation, I was able to allow myself some limited worship time in exchange for my healing their members should they be wounded.

It may have seemed selfish, but it was simply myself getting my foot in the door so that I can try and win the House back.

I have also learned that the Thane of the Stouts wishes to unleash a holy war upon the evil in the city, but I fear that with what I have seen in lower, without great numbers such an assualt would be useless, though I would aid him if he asked.

I have finally been contact by a few remaining members of the House - Kara and Sera. I have also heard rumors of Kaddaz and Gabi being still alive as well. Mylin and Eowung are still missing which pains me as right now I don't feel I am a leader enough to raise the House back to its honorable state that it once was. But I will continue my negotiations and political maneuvering with the Gypsies with an optimistic outlook. I do not sense evil about them, so there is still hope that the House can be back in it's rightful owners hands.

I have grown weak from my injuries and the constant fighting and my meditation has fallen behind greatly....I cannot keep this pace up if I am to survive. As it its, I have been labled an Outlaw in lower for being associated with the House members that are thought to be murderers.

The darkness of this city and the division between it grows larger and larger....soon, i fear, there won't be anything left to unite.

*written in a slightly more steady hand than the previous entry*

The state of Lower has deteriorated further. Gangs now rampage trhough the streets. Once peaceful citizens must walk armed or risk being slain for what little physical posessions they own.

I have tried to maintain a link with the House, but my presence is only a thorn in the 'ruling class' of thugs down here. Several of the leaders of the invidividual groups have threatened me with my life......I cannot walk tall at the moment. A fact that I despise and one that I know Tyr frown's upon, but I hope that the Maimed God will understand my reasoning for trying to keep a low profile.

If I am to help the House or anyone that wishes it to remain, I cannot perish because my pride blinds my wisdom....they need me at my best.

Sadly though, in my earnst to try and make a bit of light shine in this bleak undercity, I have incurred several serious wounds from numerous dangerous tasks that I foolishly undertook while exhausted from the civil war. Additionally Julian Valerius and his cronies attacked myself and a dwarf who simply wished to purchase supplies and stay at the Crone. Between these two incidents, I have reduced my capacity to aid this area and defend it from the threats that now fill it.

Does Tyr still have faith in me? I know I have wandered from my quest of searching for that fair skinned person in my dreams....but I cannot let these injustices continue...nor allow chaos to reign supreme....even in these lawless and dark depths.

I start a new beginning of sorts now. When I arrived here, I had one goal: complete my atonement.

That has changed drastically. Since arriving, I have done some foolish things. Things that somewhere in the back of my mind at the time made sense. But now I realize they were only impulsive actions. Actions incapable of seeing further into the future.

A new journal of sorts has been started. I feel completely dedicated to this cause as something draws me to it like never before.

I assisted the watchwoman in giving burial rites to the corpses in Lower and burning their bodies to remove any chance of disease. However we were attacked and the proper rites could not be completed. I have not yet understood how they wish us to help them, yet do not want us there at the same time.

I must use Lowers need of medical aid to show that the House is about helping and giving aid.

I'm sure I can wrench control of lower from the clutches of Toberski and give it back to the folks of Lower through showing them that a Light path is the right path.

I no longer can feel myself. It's like touching a cooling ember of a fire that once belonged to my future.

I can't help but feel that I face a mountain in this city. A mountain of darkness. Bodies line the streets, children beg for food, gang tyrants rule the homes and now I hear that there is a child pickpocket group being formed in upper.

I am no longer the pridefilled person i once was.....something has left me. Has Tyr recinded his favor? Is he losing faith in me? have I failed him in his quest?

*his journal grows dusty, hidden in it's secret spot, undiscovered, in the Pissing Crone*