Editing Journal - A Search for Answers (section)

==Night Jaunt==

As ever, I slept fitfully, frequently snapping awake at the slightest sound; the Dark Forest was troubling me even as I tried to sleep. It was clearly a place of deep evil and yet was working against itself. The trees had seemed to be drawing us deeper in, hiding the tracks as soon as we had followed them, clearing a path ahead through the brambles but closing up behind us. Yet, even while the forest was drawing us deeper, the creatures we encountered clearly were trying to stop us. The attack by the spiders was perhaps happenstance, we had seen little else that could feed such huge creatures, so we must have seemed like a gift from whatever unholy gods the beasts worshipped. The dogs though were something else again; they were stalking us, hunting us. Their actions were deliberate and the unholy creatures were like nothing I had ever heard tell of, even when the old men told stories to scare the little children! Perhaps the forces of evil aligned against us were not coherent, competing with themselves for the prize of delivering three fresh souls to whatever master each served? More compelling though, was my instinct that the transition from the normal lands of the island to the closed, dark, lifeless world of the forest, was nothing natural. We had followed a path to find it, and maybe the path itself was the trap? Had we been deceived from the very edge of the village, drawn from the outset into some trap that the hellish hounds had inadvertently prevented us ever reaching?

Not long after the village had fallen silent, I gave up on my futile efforts to find sleep and gathered my belongings quietly. It took all my skills, mastered while evading the human scum in Freeport, to sneak out of the Temple without alerting the others. The doors opened soundlessly but the action clearly triggered a reaction from Arad, who stirred and mumbled in his sleep. I froze in place, sinking back into the shadows beside the doors, listening intently for any reaction. Finally satisfied that Arad had fallen back into sleep, I slipped out of the Temple door and set off to the south. Resolving from the outset to avoid the same trap as last time, I set off in a south-westerly direction, making no attempt to find the trail that we had followed earlier that day.

Almost as soon as I stepped beyond the protective barrier of the village, the night-time temperature dropped several degrees. Apparently the temple’s protection extended to more than just those intent on evil deeds - the elements themselves were somehow controlled inside the barrier as well. It was not only the temperature that dropped, the hairs on my neck stood on end, the sense of foreboding was almost overwhelming. Barely a few minutes passed outside the protective bubble when an ear-splitting scream tore through the night sky. Instinctively I dropped to the ground, burrowing into whatever scrub I could find and willing the shadows to conceal me. The moon was still almost full but there was at least some light cloud cover to dull its searchlight glow. A shadow passed over me from above and I risked exposure to quickly twist my head up, scanning the night sky. Whatever it was had passed overhead and let out another piercing screech from a few hundred yards to the south. Nonetheless, I let a full ten minutes of silence pass before I dared move again.

What was I doing? Was this a fool's errand from which I would never return? The safety of the village, the friendliness of the Saloroc, the relative ease with which my new comrades had helped to defeat the Goblins - had the events of the last couple of days so dulled my sense of self-preservation that I was already taking stupid risks? No, surely I had already survived far worse than whatever airborne terror stalked the skies of this little island.

My mind set and nerves steeled, I set off cautiously, once again tracking to the south-west. Knowing how far I had to travel if I was to learn anything meaningful, I purposefully abandoned stealth in favour of speed. Still taking advantage of whatever natural cover the open forest offered, I exploited the moonlight to make good speed, always ready to dive for cover at the first hint of danger.

Half an hour passed without incident and I knew I must be getting close to the point where we had crossed over into the Dark Forest. A hard to identify sound from the forest floor ahead heightened my senses and I dropped immediately into cover. Advancing slowly, staying hidden as best I could, I crept forward to the edge of a small clearing, in the centre of which a monstrous bat, fully twice my size, was bathed in the eerie light of the moon. The creature's head snapped up almost immediately, staring directly at me! Once again, it silenced the forest with an awful screeching cry, leaping into the night sky as it did so. I fell back into cover, more grateful than ever for the overhead protection of the trees. Apparently the hellish nightmares weren't limited to the Dark Forest. Was no part of this cursed island safe? Is this the reason that Father Melak built his church here, or could his church be attracting the evil? Was this reconnaissance turning into a suicide? Should I just head back to the village and tell the others that they should get as far away from here as possible? But what of my people and the justice they deserved? After so many months, had we finally found the source of the evil that had driven the goblins to attack? Was I really going to abandon the fight now that we were finally getting close to the enemy?

Once more calming my nerves, I moved on, skirting the now-empty clearing to keep the trees between me and whatever terrors were crossing the night sky above. I'd only traveled another hundred paces or so when all light and noise disappeared as I crossed the transition into the Dark Forest, this time without the warning of seeing tracks abruptly ending. I stood frozen in place for a few seconds before survival instincts took over and I tumbled backwards, more grateful than ever to see the moonlight filtering through the canopy. Was there no moon over the Dark Forest, or was the canopy and cloud cover thicker in there than on this side of the divide? No matter, I had come here with a plan and I set to it with hardened resolve.

Reaching out my left hand cautiously to the front, I found the exact spot at which my own arm disappeared from view as it crossed the curtain between the island and the Dark Forest. Smiling grimly, I realised that it would be easy now to track the extent of the barrier. Setting off more to the West, towards the coast that I knew to be only a few miles away, I used my disappearing hand to monitor the barrier. At least half an hour passed this way, before the barrier started to angle more towards the south-west again. Alone in the dark on this island of monsters, I started to imagine what other horrors I might encounter, more goblins, man-eating spiders, wild dogs, even the shadowy wraith that had brought death without end to his people? Once more I questioned my own sanity. What was I doing out here alone while my new allies slept soundly in the safety of the village? Why hadn't I brought them with me? Why was I scouting at night when this place had seemed too dangerous to proceed during the day, with friends? No matter - I was here for my people. If I died seeking vengeance then that would be an honourable death at least, and maybe when my soul returned to Karmana I would find peace again. Regardless, I couldn't shake the image of some hidden horror snatching at his hand each time I used it to test that the strange divide between worlds was still there. Scouting around the forest floor I found a stout branch, almost as tall as myself. Using that in place of my arm, I could easily track where it disappeared behind the veil with no fear of losing a limb to the creatures beyond. In this way, I tracked the divide as it ran due south, no more than half a mile from the western shore of the island. I guessed that I had been gone four hours by the time I reached the southern tip of the island and the barrier tracked to the south-east and then east. It was now clear that whatever this phenomenon was, it was enclosing something inside a very rough circle, concealing it from the world beyond.

I knew I would have to turn back soon, but I allowed myself another mile of eastward travel to confirm my theory as best I could. It was tempting to follow the barrier all the way round, but I didn't know how long that would take or what else I might encounter. Finally, after what I guessed must be almost five hours since leaving the village, I reached a small stream flowing from beyond the divide and heading out to sea. Taking that as my cue, I realised that I had to head back to the village if I was to get back before the others were awake. Before leaving, though, I crouched low and stepped through the barrier once more.

Rather than the Dark Forest I had been expecting, I had an uninterrupted view of a two-storey stone-built house atop a smooth hill, no more than one hundred feet in height. The hill was clear of anything more than thorn bushes and long grass but it was surrounded on three sides by the same evil forest. Only the southern approach, facing out to sea, was unimpeded. I was too far away to see any real detail, but the building looked mostly intact with no visible lights, inside or out. The sky above was heavily overcast and if the moon was even still there, I certainly couldn't see it. Even without the oppressive darkness and the threat of the forest, the house radiated evil and I felt a chill to my core.  If the enemy we sought was anywhere on this forsaken island, then it was here for sure. As I turned to leave, my foot caught against a sharp edge in the undergrowth. Reaching down to inspect the obstruction, I realised that it was a long-since discarded shield. Dragging it with me, I stepped back through the divide, into the relative brightness of the moonlight beyond. The straps were gone and the wood was rotten but the embossed metal in the shape of a dragon was still discernible, even in this poor light.

I had seen enough, I knew that I had to tell the others of my discoveries. Moving cautiously once more and staying close to the coast, away from the Dark Forest, I retraced my steps back to the village. Although I made it back before sunrise, the eastern horizon was already growing lighter as I went up to the temple doors.