Found in the secret room underneath the grand library of Rholos. With the oracle nowhere to be found, these sensitive texts are to be given to the care of the King. Anyone who’s read them is to report to me immediately, by force if neccessary.

– Guard Captain Mara

Art by Marek Tupec

Morsugur 3

I have hidden in a cave, the enterance is too small for the giants to follow. Attempting to ascend through Jotunheim to the higher realms was a mistake. I fear I will starve in here. I have 8 days of food and water remaining.

Morsugur 6

A brutal ice storm has formed outside. Siegmar’s doing? I am forced further inward to avoid the cold. 5 days remaining.

Morsugur 8

I have stumbled upon something here deep in the mountain. An older and stranger place. I do not recognize the architecture. All perfect smooth stone, with deep grooves. A glow fills them, but I know not the source. But the thing that frightens me the most is the portal.

A hole clean through stone. Like a monster emerged through the walls. The space beyond is infinite black sea. 3 days remain.

Morsugur 11

I am out of food. There are no other exits, and I am not alone here. Strange metal creatures live inside the mountain. Sigmar posts outside the cave. I have no choice. I’m entering the portal.

Art by Erin Vest

1st Rest

There is no moon in the black sky. No change in days. Tracking the date is impossible now. I’ll mark my arm each time I stop for the “night”. The water is only up to my knees and never deepens. The space is not empty as I first thought. I found a longship wreck here, with a sealed barrel of pickled fish and one of fresh water. I was almost desperate enough to drink the black water before. Sleeping is hard, I try to sleep kneeling but keep lilting over into the water.

4th Rest

An obelisk here, a giant’s cairn, a tower of a type I’ve never seen, a dragon’s skull. There is a logic to this place, though I haven’t found it yet.

Art by Anddr Pazyniuk

14th Rest

There is a city here! Mismatched black spires rise from the dark sea. The homes seem to be stacked haphazardly on and through one another. Shallow boats by the thousands are rowed through canals and out into the sea. A ferryman approaches now. I pray these people are friendly, if they are indeed people. If not, my trusty sword is still with me.

15th Rest

Many people here speak the common tongue, which is almost more worrying than not. There are more types of people here than anywhere I’ve seen. Races, colors, dress. No man is the same as the next. I hear the language of elves and dwarves, orcs and giants, and stranger things besides. An earth elemental barters with a Dokkalfar in a gravelly tone I don’t recognize. The most common tounge here is a clicking, alien language. I do not know it, but it seems at home in the darkness.

21st Rest

Demons! The city abounds with them. I didn’t see them at first. I know the language now! Deep Speech! My mother warned me of the foul language. The demons hold places of power here. Guild masters and magisters with skin like pitch and twisted horns. I have a small home here now, an abandoned place, as many are. I have hidden myself.

24th Rest

A kindly woman offered to bring me groceries today. An elf! Not from aelfheim she says. From a land of open seas and warm wind. It sounds lovely.

Art by Anato Finnstark

34th Rest

I saw the… not leader… not king… it does not rule. Let us say I saw the heart of this place today. It strode, nine feet tall, thirteen eyes. A woman with dark skin, no sleeves, and spiralling orange tattoos walked with him. Beggars and judges alike bantered with the pair as they walked. I followed for a time, as they wove to the center of this place. A castle split open like an egg stood as a monument in the central square. They sat at a table with a small group of the oddest characters I’ve ever seen. A Ljosalfar queen, darkness rolling off her cowl. An undead dressed in fine robes. An Aesir and a Vanir. Others besides I did not know what they were. I was lost in a throng of the crowd then, and returned home.

I noticed something strange when I got home. The latch on my door and on this journal were undone. A spy? A thief who stole none of the nothing I own? Strange.

42nd Rest

I must leave. The paranoia is too great. Allfather knows what this place is. Am I back in some dark unknow corner of Niflheim? No, this place is far more alien. Those dark shores would at least smell familiar.

I must attest I have not been harmed. But I cannot live in a place I do not understand.

52nd Rest

I found one of the monolithic black walls today. I will follow it along until I find a door.

I escaped into a stone basement, contained by a heavy iron door. These people locked this portal up. Wise I think. I will wait until they return, and ask for asylum.

53rd Rest

The woman from the city found me. She is kinder than I expected, and understanding. I feel she means me no harm. She brought me drink at the very least.

The asylum condition I was given was to give up the journal and never speak of how I got to this place. The air wafting down into this cellar is warm and sweet. I only write this so that future readers will know that I lived, and that the journal’s sudden end was not due to tragedy. I can keep an oath to secrecy.

They say the world is not tiered here. People live as equals, more or less. I do not have to claw my way up any longer. I will live a quiet life here in the sunshine. I hope you find peace as well

– Heimar Volsun

Art by Karine Villette