Goran of Kern's Journal

This is a page from Goran of Kern's journal as found by in a Dragonlance campagin.
4-10-352 A.C.

She knew me as no one could. I had hidden my preoccupations with the fate of our cousins for so long. The corruption of our language, the theft of our beauty, the destruction of our intelligence and our botherhood with the moons. The elders taught us to feel the light of compassion while cursing them when shrouded in the shadow. I felt the compassion, but never uttered the damnations. I felt the deepest pity for their rotten flesh and their dim minds. My pity grew. I prayed to the Platinum One for a chance to return our lost cousins to their former glory; to reunite them with their birthright. No answer came.

All the time I continued to hide my pity, for the elders would never accept it. The damn fools speak with the skill of Hiddukel! Pity the cursed and then treat them to your sword so their wisdom says. I pitied but did not desire for their death, I began to pray for other things. My Queen, how she knew the cancer on my heart.

I fought bravely in the war when My Queen returned to reclaim those that had turned from her. The other warriors who were captured were slaughtered before my eyes. Their mutilated bodies left in my cell by the clerics of Chemosh to rot. They never came for me as I anticipated, as I hoped. The stench became unbearable and the sight even moreso. Chained to the wall I could not flee. Then the black robes entered. Clerics, mages, of all persuassions of the darkness with one purpose: to serve their Queen. "She has plans for you" They said, "She knows your soul, she desires it." At the same time, through the window in my cell I saw the gleaming light of Solinari and heard the call home.

I endured hours of chanting, the words of absolute evil flowing from their lips, joining the pools of stagnate blood that covered the floor. As they spoke their bodies slowed, their words ran together, until not a sound was issued from their lips. Just as the light of Solinari peaked, shedding full through the window, their bodies apeared frozen and rigid, and I found that I could not move my own. The light of Solinari still washed over me, releasing the cry of my homeland. Days, months, I know not how long the call droned in my ears; or how long the light of Solinari bathed me. Never moving, all was still.

I longed to seek the solace of my home which called to me from across the seas. At first. Days..months...how long? I begged for it to end, but the Gods of good would not withdraw "the gift" they had bestowed upon my people. They relentessly cast its beacon through the window, torturing my eve ry sense, my every thought. The light of the curse filed the room. The bodies outlined ever so vigorously by the brightening light. The Healer, the Great Dragon, all failed my prayers...all but one.

And then she came. A soothing darkness, it calmed the blinding light brought silence to the room. I stared in rapture out the window at the new sight. Like a void among the heavens. It brought an end to the pain.....The room was empty, the shackles released.

I fell to my knees and thanked my Queen, begging her to accept me back into her fold, and it was done. She had heard my prayers so long ago as a child. She had let me live so that I may lead not only my cousins the Ogres, but all of her children to their deserved glory. Great power she promised me then...great power would be mine in the future when I would walk the darkest paths."



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