Journal of Thurn Gumis, Gnome Archeologist of the Highest Degree

Journal of Thurn Gumis, Gnome Archeologist of the Highest Degree

First day of travel to the dig site. I still do not know who hired us, but the money is too good to pass up. We have a team of twenty including myself, three fully supplied wagons being pulled by mules. We should reach the site in five days’ time. I look forward to what we will discover.
The site is located in the Ironspire Mountains south of Haaversdale. We made good time despite the road not being oft used. Camp has been set up and we will rest for the night and inspect the site at dawn. Excitement courses through my body, sleep will be hard come by.
Couldn’t sleep. Woke up and walked around camp. It is cool this high up, but we are at least below where ice forms. There is a stream from a spring that must form higher up in the peaks where it melts.
There is barely a hint of the ruins that lie buried in this mountain, just a smooth stone corner peeking out from the rugged rock. It is enough, we will began chipping away at the rock and revealed a portion of what appears to be a door. More work tomorrow.
More of the doorway revealed today. We are removing huge portions of the mountain to do so. It does not seem like it was buried in a landslide more than the mountain grew around this structure. The door appears of Dwarven make, though the uncovered runes are not of a known language.
Work was postponed for most of the afternoon. A large boulder broke loose and landed on one of the workers, Hargrim. It was three times his size, he did not survive. We are sending notice and our condolences to his family in Hovden.
We have no coffin for which to bury the body in, so we interred him directly in the earth about 100 meters from camp and left a marker. Hargrim was a skilled carpenter, if such an accident had befallen anyone else he would have made them a magnificent casket.
Work resumed today, we are nearing completion in uncovering the doorway. Beyond its framing there appears to be no solid foundation it is built into other than the mountain itself. The runes on the door appear to be a cypher of sorts.
The door is uncovered fully. There are no locks, no handles, no levers, and no devices unto which we can use to open it. We have been unable to pry it open. I suspect the key is the runic cypher on the door, which we are attempting to currently solve.
[Enter page for cypher and translation]
[Enter page for door puzzle and solution]
We have done it. Ymes and I make a decent team, it only took one bottle of Perian Wine. The runes were a simple cypher which I have transcribed on the previous pages along with the door and their solution. It is midnight but we are going to attempt the answer anyway.
It opened! By Ixtrumus it opened! The rock split apart with the groan of a sleeping giant and swung outwards spraying us with dust and dirt. We are lighting torches and waking up the others before heading inside.
I am confused, bewildered, and curious. There were no ruins, just a room. A large room, very intricately made, very impressive. Complex geometric shapes were carved into all the walls, perhaps they mean something, perhaps they are simply beautifully made mathematical art.
All we found inside the room was a pedestal with a bronze cube on it. The box was carved with similar geometric shapes as the walls of the room. It is warm to the touch despite feeling like solid metal. All manner of magical detection and scrying could find no danger or traps, so we have removed the cube for study.
While the interns search the geometric room, myself and Yves are studying the cube. It teems with magic energy, yet we cannot determine its purpose or use. Yves thinks that it is another puzzle, I think maybe it is a key to something more. But who left it here?
I dreamt last night of a doorway, black and depthless. I stood before it naked with the cube. Something in the doorway I could not see moved, beckoned. I felt like I could feel the world spinning but I was held in place, it was dizzying and I woke up sprawled across the floor of my tent.
Yves has gone to spend the day with the interns searching the room, they wanted to show her what they think are scratch marks where stone has shifted and moved in the room. A waste of time if you ask me, there is nothing more in the room. The real prize is in the cube.
It moved. I forget how I did it, but part of the cube clicked and moved. A section of it now sits at a 45 degree angle from the rest. There is a puzzle to this thing after all. I hate to admit Yves is right, though I still believe it to be a key to something more.
A Shadow. The darkness swallows me, consumes my body and leaves nothing behind in its place. I am all that has been and nothing. I see an eye in the darkness that stretches to infinity. It is boundlessly beautiful.
Two more days of work, I have managed to move several more pieces of the cube and it resembles more of a star shape now. One more movement should complete it. I have had to stop Yves from meddling with my studies, she nearly ruined the current configuration with her fat greasy fingers.
Yves yelled and scolded me in front of our peers and underlings. The things she said. Pitiful, scornful. She wants to leave, pack up and research back home. I told her no, for all the things she said all the things she said. [Scribble the last sentence larger and larger at the end of this page]
[ALL THE THINGS SHE SAID scribbles]
[Drawing of the doorway]
My mind pulses, throbs, pounds. It is like something threatens to break through my skull from the inside. Threatens to escape. A foreign monster deep inside. I CANNOT LET IT OUT. It cannot be free.
It is a key, it is a holy relic, and it is mind shattering. The others do not understand. I have seen what it holds and will show me. I will take it to the lock. I will open it for all. It will be awesome. This is awesome. Awesome. AWESOME. [Repeat awesome in scribbles]
[THIS IS AWESOME scribbles]
[EYE OF MOR DHUUL]
Blood for Knowledge. [BLOOD SPATTERS ON PAGE]
[BLANK PAGES WITH INK SPATTERS]
I know what I must do.
Ink smears on several of the pages, blotting out some words and part of the cypher.