General Urduuk

3rd Lieutenant Gerrog – Logbook Second Edition

This is the journal of a very important Lieutenant in the Second Rallosian Empire.

Entry 14: We march through the Feerott. It is a good march. It is a quiet march. Nothing lives within the Feerrott since we have last passed through. The General personally leads us. The Arm of Vallon marches behind us. The Rathetear Mountains is our destination. We will stomp on the bones of the gods we once defeated. This time they cannot stop us.

Entry 17: We have changed course in the march. The forgotten temple of Cazic-Thule is within sight. The General tells us in command that the Amygdalans will join our ranks or they will be destroyed. I pray to Rallos that they refuse to join us.

Entry 32: We have entered the foothills of the Mountains of the fallen Rathe. The Amygdalans have refused to add their numbers to our ranks. Let them hide in the temple for as long as they wish. It will be their tomb. For now, we will take the land of our forefather’s defeat and turn it into victory.

Entry 40: The General has detached us from the Arm of Vallon. The Arm, hundreds of scores in number, will continue marching north. They are to cross the Lake of Tears. Then they are to annihilate the gnolls. The Arm of Vallon will conquer the Karana plains. There is no question this will be done.

Urduuk woke up feeling much the same way. More, perhaps. Definitely not less.

He rubbed his eyes and looked around, noticing that Karna was cooking breakfast. He shook his massive head. “How is it that we live like this?” he asked aloud.

“What?” she grunted back at him. “Live like what?”

“This place,” he said, rising to his feet, “it’s nothing more than a jumble of rocks with some crude rugs on the floor. Yet we’ve lived like this for years and never thought twice about it. Doesn’t that seem odd to you?”

Karna was baffled. “This place is our home. Oggok is as it has been all of our lives. I don’t understand this sudden… change in your thinking.”

“Dissatisfaction, you mean? Don’t you feel it, Karna? Don’t you feel something rising up within you? It’s as if a fog has slowly been receding and my mind understands things for the first time. We are a race of kings, Karna. Once we held all of Norrath in the palm of our hand. Yet for centuries our people have lived in a city that is nothing more than a shambling pile of stones and rotting vines. Doesn’t that seem ridiculous to you? Doesn’t that seem absurd?”

She bared her teeth and slowly shook her head. “My mind… it’s fuzzy, Urduuk. It scares me a little. I know of what you speak, but still… it’s like I’m trudging slowly through deep water. I want so much to move faster, but I simply cannot.”