Anyway, after their intentions were clear. We quickly dispatched them and moved on. But a lesson was certainly learned. 

If things keep on this way, I may be forced to change the name of this journal to the "The Hard Lessons of Mar Salac".

Anyway, we made our way back into the keep or citadel or whatever and continued deeper into its depths. It took two days of fighting various gobliniods and other riff-raff until we final came to an underground cavern with a huge dark tree in the middle ... and under the tree, none other than Balek himself with a few of his underlings.

Balek actually tried to convert us to his way of thinking ... sayingthat his cultivation of the "Galthias Tree" was a good thing and not the darkest of evils. The he tried enchanting poor Kaldes (successfully I might add), but with judicious use of entangle and some excellent teamwork by the rest of the group, we were able to dispatch the minions and then Balek himself.

As I write this, knowing what Balek became, I can't help but recall what he was ...

He was on the fringe, there was never any doubt of that, but that was part of his appeal ... his mystery. But he was never cruel. He even helped me with my studies on occasion. It happened over the course of years ... so slowly that nobody consciously noticed him changing ...  drawing inwards ... never venturing far from his workshop.   Toward the, though, I'll admit that he made me uncomfortable. And then ... it ... escaped.

It was a horrible thing that tore itself away from Balek's cages. There were rumors that he experimented on animals but ... they were just rumors ... not to be believed ... and they weren't even close to

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