The Drow War Book Two. The Dying Of - RoseRed

Sunspite’s Journal: If the Player Characters search
the bookshelves, a Search check (DC 20) locates a
journal among the books. This is written in a cipher of
Sunspite’s own devising and requires either magic or
a Decipher Script check (DC 30) to understand. The
relevant entries are reproduced below:
Entry One
Objective: Devise and execute a solution to the problem
of the blasted sea-portal. My people command an
immense army but are lacking in naval power and are
likely to remain so until the day that oak trees grow in
the Sunless World.
Even if we take Crom Calamar at a stroke, which
Rannirak assures us can be done (and I believe him),
it will not remain ours for long. The tactician Maskuz
Vellin, writing in the time of the old Equinox, reminds us
that principalities are either easily taken and hard kept,
or taken with great effort and then kept more easily.
Crom Calamar shall be a victory of the former kind.
Without some upper-world power base, there is no way
we can assemble a fleet and prevent reinforcements
arriving through the sea-portal. The likelihood of us
acquiring one is slim to nil. Where would we build
ships? Come to that, where would we board them?
There are no harbours in the Sunless World.
Conclusion: Make an alliance with a force that is
capable of executing the kind of blockade we need
for long enough for us to slash the heart out of Crom
Calamar. No land-based kingdoms but Visk and
Kandang have shown any willingness to consider an
alliance. Visk cares only for itself and Kandang is too
thick with webs of corruption and intrigue. It must be
the neutrals, then, the pirates of the Shard or the Sea
Harriers.
Entry Two
The Pirates of the Shard have proved useless, though
I seem to have fathered a brat on one of them, which
added some spice to the trip. They are simply too fond
of chaos. One can sustain their interest only with gold
or the promise of gold and even that is no guarantee
that they will keep to a bargain. They have no ‘fleet’
to speak of; it is only a shabby gathering of brigand
vessels, working on the principle of each man for
himself, united by nothing more than terror of capture
and punishment.
The Sea Harriers have proved far more worthy of my
time. The problem is that they do not think me worthy
of theirs. They call me ‘grubbesh’ and think me, a
noble of the Crevasse of Concatenate Lanterns, to be
a mere hedge-wizard. My anger is so great that I must
discharge it in private with small acts of torture, which
at least grant me sleep.
My only recourse is to make myself indispensable to
them. Let me, then, climb this arduous ladder. For
Tzummu and the Ennead! For Arkady!
Entry Three
One is now an honoured navigator. One is satisfied.
Even so, my privileges are limited. The amma hadrak
sees all, controls all. Without her word, the Harriers
will not lift a finger to aid us. As yet, she has baulked at
any suggestion that they might take sides in a war. It is
not their way, she says. She quipped a saying at me: the
fisherman does not choose sides in a battle of fish.
Some days the insularity and hauteur of these people
infuriates me. On others it seems that they are more
like us than any other race of the upper world. I have
dealt with the rage in the usual manner. Part of me
wonders, in an alarmingly disconnected and abstract
fashion, what would become of me if the remains were
found. Perhaps this life of eternal seas and open skies
is driving me mad. I have been compelled to huddle
in the cupboard to remind myself what it is like to be
enclosed by stone.
Entry Four
Disaster. The amma hadrak has forbidden any further
discussion of the blockade plan. She feels that the
Celebration would be in too much danger of discovery.
Their way is to strike fast and vanish fast, not to sit like…
what was the phrase?… a whale with his mouth open,
waiting for prey to swim in. Damn her greasy hide.
Damn all of them. Damn this cat’s water I am obliged
to drink to quieten my head. This demands something
more. Yes, I know what will settle my seething brains.
Entry Five
I am filled with joy, as if the sun had all of a sudden
vanished behind a mighty thundercloud.
The tales speak of three artefacts, resembling standing
stones in their outward appearance, that have the power
to lift entire masses of land into the air. The Stone of
Caradeth was one such; Bruin the Abjurer transported it
to the island of Chillhame, according to legend, though
what became of it then is not known. Another was the
Stone of Zaul, which the formidable but mad Shura Krai
of Kandang employed to hoist off the mountain peak
beneath which his enemies were hiding, exposing their
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