Retaking the City

CONTENTS OF STAUNTON'S JOURNAL (ABRIDGED VERSION):

A list of dozens of sacred and holy weapons and armor
he and his brother have successfully tainted through the
use of the corruption forge.

A description of the Sword of Valor, including Staunton’s
frustration over Aponavicius’s desire to keep it as a mere
trophy and not to attempt the banner’s corruption.

Several detailed pages of how he hopes to someday
torture Irabeth for “ruining nearly everything” when
she confronted him almost a year ago in Kenabres.

Notes on the shadow demon Eustoyriax, an unusually
powerful shadow demon who came to Drezen a few weeks
after Staunton f led here from Kenabres. The shadow
demon arrived in the possessed body of a crusader named
Maranse (a man the diary records as now being long dead
after having been turned over to the succubus Kiranda),
and bore gifts from a place called the Ivory Sanctum—
five elixirs of distilled power brewed from powdered
Nahyndrian crystal. The notes explain how Staunton
volunteered to take one of the elixirs to test its strength
before Aponavicius used one, and of the powers the elixir
unlocked in him (drinking the elixir was the antipaladin’s
moment of ascension to mythic power). The notes go on
to describe the grisly deaths the elixirs inf licted on the
dragon and xacarba servants Aponavicius tested them
on, and that only the chimera Soltengrebbe survived the
transformation. The notes conclude by revealing that the
shadow demon Eustoyriax remains here in a chamber
below the citadel, where Aponavicius has placed him in
charge of protecting the Sword of Valor.

The Ivory Sanctum is the central stronghold of the
Templars of the Ivory Labyrinth in the Worldwound,
a fortress led by a man named Xanthir Vang who also
happens to be the regional leader of the Blackf lame
Adepts. Staunton records his sole meeting with
Xanthir Vang, and indicates he would rather not meet
him again—apparently something about the man
particularly revolted the antipaladin.

Finally, Staunton mentions a special prisoner who’s been
kept in the Drezen dungeons—a succubus by the name of
Arueshalae who was captured by Aponavicius. Staunton
knows the succubus is some sort of Abyssal heretic and
that the marilith wanted her kept prisoner until a special
oubliette in the Rasping Rifts on the Abyss was ready for
her. The fact that the succubus escaped not long after
Aponavicius left Drezen in Staunton’s hands is a major
point of worry for the dwarf. He’s sent several minions
out into the Worldwound to track her, noting that her
loss of certain demonic abilities is the one saving grace
and hoping her inability to teleport or become ethereal
will allow his agents to find her and return her to Drezen
before Aponavicius finds out she’s managed to flee into
the wilds of the Wounded Lands.