3. Journal of Arthur Forge

Journal of Arthur Forge


    • a newer looking journal with some minor scuffs and blood stains *

    I was advised to keep a diary of my past and my goals when I made my conversion to Helm. I was told to write my past up to my current point. Weather to teach myself or to be used as a guidance to another is not known to me yet but here it goes….

    I was born in Calimport, I don't remember my parents as they abandoned me at the age of two. Sadly that is a fairly common practice. I did good for the first little while, looking cute and begging got me bits of scraps here and there. By the time I was four though my health and spirit had been depleted and I looked like I had just crawled out of the sands after a month without food. I was sick, frail and dying, that's when I was introduced to the temple of Bane.

    The temple Chaplain was the one that found me, I was laying literally in the gutter near death when he picked me up and took me in his arms to the temple. I remember looking up to this man, in black and gold and wondering who he was and what he wanted with such a wreck of an urchin? He began tending me with such care that I began believing what he told me about Bane sending him out to find me, how Bane could protect me if I earned a place with him, how I could have the wealth and power to never fall into this state again. How foolish I really was...

    Being so young I was useless to the temple, they permitted me to eat and sleep there though so that I was kept up as a future member. My true nightmares started when I was six years old though....by Pasha Maldorn.

    Pasha Maldorn was a cruel man even by the cruelest standards, he hated kids and he was also the trades commissioner, he was known for his foul temper and for torture. Sadly I made the mistake of hitting him with a toy bow and arrow, it didn't hurt him, never even left a bruise, I think it was more I got past his defenses by accident that set him into a rage. That day was one of the most painful in my life, he proceeded to break my hands then cut up the nerves in both. I still have problems writing for it. He then had me lashed and thrown out of his home where I managed to limp back to the temple and was mended and scolded for crossing his path to begin with.

    From that day on Pasha Maldorn made my life a nightmare, he permitted the guards to torture and abuse me at will, not that it had ever stopped them before, only now they were encouraged to do it. They made every attempt to make sure they did.

    My second misfortune with him came when I was eight. I accidentally cut infront of his horse causing it to rear and throw him. I had been trying to escape some of the guards who were in a punching mood and had decided I made the perfect punching bag. Fair to say it took him moments to recognize me and have me arrested. I was brought back to his home and locked into a cell for what seemed like days before he and an old mage came down. I recognized the finery's on the mage to match those of the palace staff and knew instantly I was in deep deep trouble. The punishment was severe, the beatings excruciating but none prepared me for what he had planned next.

    I was laid out on a stone table and strapped down, my head fastened into place and a cloth shoved in my mouth, Pasha Maldorn then approached the table with a dull knife and proceeded to cut out my left eye. He called the old mage over and handed him the eye and a purse of gold, the old man looked to me and began chanting, I blacked out from there and woke up on the streets. I stumbled back to the temple and after some treatment and some tests I was informed that I had been cursed, the eye would never heal nor could it be regrown.

    The next four years I kept very close to the temple, attending sermons, aiding them in menial tasks such as cleaning armors of the Dreadknights, polishing swords, helping the Chaplain prepare for a sermon and so on. I was twelve when I next met the Pasha, and he apparently had been hunting me all along. He just didn't dare approach the temple which is something I learned to keep close to. I had gone to the market to pick up some parchment for the Chaplain and was grabbed by the guards, being rather used to being the subject of serious punishments with or without reason my mind instantly flew into a panic.

    I tried to run, tried to fight, even tried pleading...to no avail, I was dragged out of the city to a smaller encampment where I was shoved into a small metal box and confined there for two years. The only time I was ever taken out was to be punished further. Food and water were random and far between. The days were hotter then anyone could imagine and the nights were freezing to the point I still cant be sure how it is that I survived.

    I was fourteen when I heard yelling outside, it was the middle of the night when I looked out and saw what to me was the most amazing sight, knights and squires in black and gold, and a Dreadknight coming right to where I was being held. He smashed the lock open to the box and picked me right up and out. He told me he wished that they could have come sooner but until I was fourteen I couldn't be a part of the temple proper, and now that I was, he was taking me as his squire if I wanted it. I of course accepted it considering the alternative.

    When I turned nineteen I got my own place thanks to the temples help, they provided a small apartment for me and a small salary for all my work that I had to do. I soon fell in love and secretly married the elven woman, love was of course forbidden as it was classed a weakness and could distract from the temple. We didn't care though, we settled down together and started a family of our own, we had a son we named Cathal and he was everything to me. One of the things I didn't know was that she was a Maskite. While this was no big issue it did prove to save our son. While I was sent out on task the temple began investigating claims of us being together, she was warned by her temple that the Banites had ordered her and the baby to be killed. She left me a note telling me such and fled with the baby. I never saw her again.

    It was eleven years later when the temple gave me new orders. I was to go to a small island called Arelith, the temple of Bane there was desperate for members and they were sending me. To prove myself worthy to Bane I was to go there without any supplies from the temple, no armor, no weapons, no funds, only a note of introduction. At first I couldn't imagine how I was supposed to pull this off...then I saw him. Pasha Maldorn, he was alone on the docks, I wasted no time slipping up on him and in taking his own dagger I slit his throat. He died in my hands and I took the gold he had and chartered a boat off Calimport.


  • Its been many years since I have even looked at this journal, and it makes me wonder a lot about who I could have been. After arriving here I made some good friends, many I became close to which I have honestly never done before. In that I have learned a strong lesson, but I will continue that in a moment.

    I moved here as previously stated and joined up with the Divine Shield trying to get myself strongly connected with a goodly group. It went so well for a long time. I met Cray a short time later and he reminded me so much of myself early on, a friend and a brother. I quickly found myself open and talking with him especially about becoming a blooded of Oscura. In time he accepted and even stood for me as a blooded and helped me make my pact. In time, I fell from Helms graces as I chose to stand by Cray as a friend, that's where it all started to go wrong.

    When I fell, Ashena booted me from the Order, I lost my mentorship with my mentor and people from the order started being more distant with me. Sir Reynauld though, he offered to be my Mentor, to help me stay on the path. He has always been a great friend to me and I could never tell him how much of a brother he was to me. He taught me how to joust and made me laugh many times, other times we sat and had some very serious talks about many things that don't belong in this book.

    Then as time moved on, I was jumped by Calimports assassins and I knew my past had finally caught up with me, I was in love with a woman named Ah'ria and really I didn't want her in any danger, so I decided to go back to Calimport and face my past. I remember the trip there, so much damn fish….ugh. When I arrived it was hell, I went to see the pasha who at least heard me out and deemed I was fit to keep my head, but not innocent of the charges. I spent what in my mind was months locked in a cage staying directly in the center, around the cell were other cages filled with blood thirsty and ravenous undead. Each barely unable to reach me. I would be taken out daily for torture and punishment then thrown back in leaving me bloody and weak and driving their hunger.

    Apparently at some point during all this I actually came back to Peltarch, started back on my Banite ways and fell back to bad habits, really all I can say for that is Temporary insanity and perhaps a survival instinct from what I had learned in my early years in Calimport. During this time I also apparently made a deal with a demon for him to protect Varia in exchange for my slavery and soul. I could never tell anyone about it though. I actually don't remember doing anything of this and only mentally coming too in the Grapevine with Sir Reynauld sleeping by the door and Varia sitting nearby asleep as well.

    I remained bedridden for a month after that and from there barely moved around. As I got stronger I began to venture out by the fire enjoying the fresh air and trying to get my head clear. It was like I was coming out of a fog. Varia soon told me that I had been exiled from Peltarch as a Banite which I didn't want to believe, yet there was a letter of exile right in my bag. It was some time later when speaking to Ah'ria and seeing the letter I had written to her that it truly sunk in. From there I spent my time trying to find a god and spoke much with Andrew and Varia on the matter.

    Ragosh. He was the key to my diety choice, Varia led me to him and told me to ask him about Gond. Soon after I found what I enjoyed and a new reason to continue my craft. I loved it honestly. So I began working to please Gond, to get in his favor and in doing so I felt the darkness lifting from around me. I had a dream some weeks later, A man standing infront of a forge talking to me, he told me to gain Gonds favor I need to craft him a Copper Hammer, then offer it to him. Then he may accept me.

    Instantly I went into a ferver of trying to accomplish this. I had only ever worked on Tin and was just barely starting Malachite. But with Eragor, Romulus, Kyans and Varia's help I managed to get it done, I dreamed of him after offering the hammer, he told me it would do and from then when I worked at the forge, I could feel him when I worked as if he was standing over me guiding my hammer.

    What brought me down more recently was the betrayal of Gnarl. Something I could never forgive or forget. Romulus was heading into the gnolls, he had me, Constantine, Gnarl and Charles. Charles suddenly piped up recognizing me that he couldn't come with because I was tainted. I understood his plight being that he was a paladin and all. What I didn't understand and that hurt me gravely was that Gnarl said he would not accompany me either because of the taint. He was supposed to be my friend, he was not a paladin. For me, that is unforgivable. You can never give me an excuse that makes it okay to betray a friend. As I sit here writing this I can see Varia giving me a strong look of worry. I told her that I have been having chest pains, she doesn't know I have been having them off and on since that day with Gnarl. I know my end draws close and that I am supposed to be with that demon, but I have faith in Varia.

    My true friends: Varia, Sir Reynauld, Cray, Romulus.

    I will miss them even in death, but death is only the beginning.

    Their friendships will carry on even in death. Even in death, I do not forgive Gnarl, I cared deeply for him and he knew I had risked everything to save his sorry arse only to be betrayed by him. That goes to the grave with me. May his god have mercy on him for his traitorous act.

    Signed with finality: Arthur Forge, Smith of Gond


  • Hehe…That was some strange stuff on Arelith huh? (I should know, none of it has even started stopping there yet! XD). Try playing nice paladin when every single person you meet/date/are sacrificed by to some indeterminate unholy power is either a Banite or a Necromancer.

    (Also...Random hello to everyone here :D)


  • Several months after setting out from Calimport I arrived on the isle of Arelith. I docked in a city called Cordor which from the moment I landed I enjoyed. Remembering my duties I set to work finding Dreadknight Marcus Amphreal of the temple of Bane on the isle, I located him in a city called Wharftown and handed him my introduction. He told me it would be considered and I didn't hear from him for months.

    During that time though I got myself involved in Cordor's guards. I had training as an infiltrator and decided I might best prove myself there as Cordor had banned Banites by the laws of the Dark Agencies act. By the time I found Dreadknight Felblade I was already nearing promotion to Private rank in the guard and was told to search out the First Knight Valorie Slades. I told her about what I had done and it was to her approval. I was permitted continue and was told to gather specific information for them. I did as I was asked and one day after delivering such a report I got a strange vision. Bane standing over me looking down at me, he placed his hand on my chest and I felt a burning pain. When I snapped out of the vision I looked down to see a burn mark of the black hand of bane.

    I later asked the Templar Isador Kanes what it meant and he told me I had been chosen by Bane to champion his cause. A ceremony was held in which Bane took away my need for love, this was later changed by Lord Bane instead to amplify feelings of pain in every sense as Love drew in my new wife and my son Cathal.

    Ricket was a wonderful woman, one I loved almost as much as my first wife. She was a fighter and a smith. Cathal was a recruit I adopted on as my own son never realizing until later that he really was my son I had lost so many years ago. As time grew on I began hearing rumors of the temple, people refering to them more as Cyricists and I began to investigate this temple as well.

    They were truly chaotic, coming to Cordor to murder guards for fun, lying, manipulating. It was disgraceful. What surprises me to this day was how close I became to the guards…I truly began caring for them as my own kin, especially my commander Karen Eldafire. She was like my sister and she meant the world to me. When the day came that she pulled me aside and asked me if I was truly a Banite, I saw the hurt and sadness in her eyes....and I couldn't lie to her. I told her the truth and was exiled for it, she herself walked me off the pax....and hugged me.

    Truly I had found someone invaluable to me. I promised her that I would never abandon her and I would consider her and her mothers suggestion to convert to Helm. Little did she realize how much of an effect she had on me even then. I went back to the temple though and thought that maybe I could work on refixing the name of Bane, end the Cyricist crap and expand the temple and help it grow. Instead I was shot down and when I managed to get my temple up and running they kidnapped my wife and son.

    They managed to scare my wife into joining the temple and when my son refused they executed him anyways. Thankfully he was returned to me. At that time I finally made the decision to leave Bane. I accepted Trynn'delynn Eldafire's offer to learn how to be a Helmite and went and prayed on it. I was struck in the back by twin black lightening bolts and woke up back in Cordor.

    I left willingly so as not to get the guards that still supported me in trouble. I travelled around the area for a while and was eventually kidnapped by the Banites as was my son. He was tortured and executed. I had my right ear cut off, a blade stabbed into my lower back and was sacrificed to Bane. Strangely enough I woke up seeing Helm over me for a brief moment. He told me he would accept me but the terms of my penance would be hard.

    1. I could not lie about my past.
    2. I had to confess my past if asked.
    3. I must strive to live up to the paladinship

    and more to come when he deemed me ready for it. Fearing for my sons and my safety I told him that I would find us a new home away from the Banites. I sailed out to Narfell and since arriving I have alot to work on. May Helm watch over me as I continue my journey...