Not too long ago a strange dwarf pilgrim was looking for Roark's fulcrux
and was led there by Silvanoshi. Upon arriving, the strange dwarf began
uttering dark incantations and laughing to himself. While doing this
ritual, he was seen by Syntobis and Silvanoshi receiving a letter
carried by a bird.

Not long afterwards, in a seemingly unrelated event, a heavily clothed
man appeared in Celest, asking for directions to Roark's fulcrux. He
called himself Joseph. Shortly after leaving Celest he appeared in
Serenwilde, having lost his way, and again asked for directions.

At this point a crowd was gathering at Roark's fulcrux, suspecting
something strange was happening. The dwarf became more and more excited
with maniacal laughter. The secretive clothed man was heard yelling
about coming to his true love, and then the dwarf released a massive
spell, blacking out all in the area. When people came to their senses,
the dwarf had vanished. Nailed to the wall was Roark's silver eagle with
a note attached. The note dared to threatened Roark's life!

At this point Roark appeared, wanting to know what had happened. Upon
reading the note, he became very pale and sweated noticeably. Getting
back his composure, he noted that he sensed the life force of a dwarf
nearby, on the edge of death. And sure enough, the dwarf was found, but
held in some sort of suspended animation field. Exploration of the magic
by Roark revealed the field was somehow tuned to the astral plane and
the dwarf's astrological sign and its opposition: volcano and burning
censer. The astral creatures attuned to these signs (abhorrences and
mitrans) could be used to help heal or kill the dwarf. Expressing
ambivalence and even suspicion of the dwarf, Roark did not express any
opinion on if the dwarf should be saved or killed, noting that the dwarf
did indeed attack people unprovoked.

Roark decided to meditate on the matter in his cave, and said he would
return in no more than a month's time. He also offered a reward for
anyone who may find information that would identify the real murderer.
During this period, various factions decided to work for and against the
dwarf. Some believed it would be good to revive the dwarf so as to see
if he had any useful information. Others believed the dwarf definitely
was guilty and so should be put to death. Many also contemplated who the
real murderer was. Some felt it was the dwarf, others the secretive man,
and still others suspected a unknown third party.

After much time, the strange man known as Joseph appeared again. Though
he seemed to have trouble remembering his name, also saying it was
Johnathan, James, and other names. He traveled through the various
cities and communes, asking about gossip related to the dwarf. He
expressed encouragement to see the dwarf die, saying nothing good would
come of letting a fellow like that live. But in places where his
reception was not well received, like Celest, where he was believed to
have been the real murderer, he quickly made his exit, claiming to be
late for important business elsewhere.

In the end, a mixture of people who felt death would make for justice
and maybe even some who just wanted a chance to spill blood won the day.
A large mob gathered around the dwarf, using mitran corpses to weaken
the field. The field suddenly flickered out of existence, and the dwarf
tumbled out, dead, and a letter fell from his pocket. The letter was
from a human villager, who referred to his village as the village for
lovers. The letter implied that there was a past exchange of letters
between the sender and a secret admirer. This letter said that they
would finally meet at Roark's fulcrux and see each other for the first
time. The signature simply said, "JL."

Kalodan recognized that this "village of lovers" had to be Delport, and
Kaervas was the first to recognize that Jacques Lelouch was the man in
Delport whose initials matched those of the letter, both of whom
received the promised reward in the form of a divine blessing.

Everyone rushed to Delport. Upon arriving there, Roark lifted Jacques
above his head, kicking and screaming, and literally tore his body into
two pieces, splattering much blood and innards. A sickening black cloud
flowed out of the body, making everyone on the vicinity grow ill for a
brief moment. This black cloud formed into a spirit that rushed into the
sky, taunting Roark. The two did battle, with the spirit shouting
strange things about Roark's secret past being forgotten, that it shall
"reveal the truth to the remaining elder gods," etc. Roark seemed very
displeased by this and quickly acted to silence the foul spirit.
Knocking it from the skies, it landed near the aetherplex and escaped
into the aetherways, where Roark dared not give chase.

Roark returned to Jacques, claiming that he had the power to undo his
own actions, and so he performed a brief ritual where he breathed life
back into the body parts, forming it whole again. Jacques at this point
recounted his tale, that he had been lured by someone posing as a secret
admirer, though there really was no such person in the end. It was the
dwarf who had been posing as a secret admirer. Upon reaching the fulcrux
to meet with this alleged secret admirer, a strange black smokey spirit
flowed from the dwarf's body and into Jacques'. At this point he
remembers losing control of his body as this spirit took hold. He
recalls the spirit finishing a spell it had started while it had been
possessing the dwarf, summoning down Roark's silver eagle, and slaying
it. He then attempted to slay the dwarf, the only witness due to the
aforementioned blackout spell, but the dwarf escaped, casting the stasis
field spell to protect himself, perhaps in the hope that he would be
revived.

He also had memories that belonged to this spirit. He recalled the
spirits memories of existing long ago during the days of the war against
the soulless ones. He remembers it having a deep seeded hatred for
Roark, though for some reason the cause of this hatred was blocked from
Jacques' memory. He recalled the being's memory of going into hiding
after the wars, and only returning recently. He said it was too weak to
form a body of its own, so it had used host bodies. It initially had
taken on the dwarf, but when it learned that humans came from a foreign
source outside of Lusternia, it decided it wanted to merge with a human,
perhaps believing such a merge would result in greater powers than
merging with those native to Lusternia.

Finally, Roark claimed to have obtained a piece of the spiritual "flesh"
of the being he had fought, torn from its spiritual "body" during the
battle. He claimed that he may be able to use this to undo its actions
in a ritual to revive the eagle. The ritual was a success and the eagle
was revived, asleep.

Though many questions remained unanswered. What is this dark spirit? Is
it merely an evil ancient god bent on spreading destruction? Does Roark
have good reason to brush aside what it said as being lies, or is Roark
trying to cover up some dark past? Will it return, or will Lusternia
someday be able to chase it through the aetherways? Only time will tell.


Penned by My hand on the 23rd of Vestian, in the year 137 CE.