19 Flamerule 1502 D.R.
Solia Faolanri

I can't believe it has escalated to this. One mistake - one godsbedamned choice that opened up a pathway to this nightmare that doesn't seem to ever want to end. It was nothing to follow the trail of attack and retreat back to the mountain keep where Orlak launched his assault from. What we found was a force so large and well armed that they could perpetuate two more attacks of equal severity against the Syndicate at any time. More siege engines, more troops, more everything.

They say this isn't my fault, and I know I only controlled a moment of this timeline but what I know of stories tells me that at some point the path we chose opened up to all of this and the lives lost along the way can't be reclaimed. I don't hold hope that we'll find the unaccounted-for halfling child. All I can do is look forward with clear eyes at my quarry and continue pursuit until he's dead.

Our idea to find another entrance to the dwarven tunnels they were couched in proved to be a good one. We made our way through old, forgotten spaces and dispatched a few more bearded devils. After exploring doorways and passages, we ended up coming across some sort of powerful fiend while the party took heavy hits from spellcraft. Finally, we found the Beholder we knew was somewhere within and tried to negotiate with them. They told us that Orlak isn't really the focus of all of this - he's merely got the Red Wizard's artifacts. They don't hold much loyalty to him other than the power he provides and their plan is to raze the whole of the Delimbyr and all the settlments along the way. We can't trade one evil for another... so we killed it.

For now, we regroup... and the next step lies ahead of us.

17 Flamerule 1502 D.R.

...the second wave arrived. I found an imp, or rather it found me. I spent part of the time on the floor of the Syndicate until Surx could arrive to get me back up. All I was able to effectively do was shoot from afar, and even then not very well.

I was in my own head... unfocused. Yashir was hurt, Arlis was hurt, Bri was hurt... everyone... everyone was hurt. And no one could rally a defense that made any kind of sense. The orders came to fall back, and eventually the strongest among us were able to drive off the second advance. I'm disgusted with my own performance and inability to control anything. Of course I trust my friends and companions, but the sight of them hurting that badly over a domino I tipped is more than I can handle.

I want that goblin's head. I want him to bleed for what he's done to me, to these people that I love and to the innocents he used to get where he is. I don't care what it takes. I'm not resting until this task is done.

17 Flamerule 1502 D.R.

Yashir and I had gone to the Syndicate that day to check up on Shev and that infernal Beholder that is taking over his mind. It would have been a better day, if we'd been able to feed that thing cookies and teach it how to People, but no. Instead, the drums of war rumbled through the hills and before we even had time to set foot in the building, an army of Orlak's making set upon the Syndicate and all inside of it.

It's hard to recount all that happened other than what I witnessed on the Western side. We were overwhelmed. Yashir and Snap as well as Fenris and Surx, and I may be forgetting more in the aftermath, held them while the Eastern front was cleaned up and reinforcements could arrive to support us. Imps started to infiltrate the Syndicate proper, and leadership was scattered and communciation poor. We all did our best, and many almost fell, myself included.

I ended up inside to find the imps when the second wave arrived...