13–14 Abadius, 4725 AR

I should mention, for the record, that Azazle’s slime rot was not getting better.

We had acquired this particular problem on the road out of Ithamar, when he put his bare hands into something that had strong opinions about being touched. The rot progressed with a kind of grim patience while we traveled, and by the time we were approaching the Witch King’s library, it had gotten considerably worse. Eli was managing it. That is about the most optimistic framing available.

The library itself did not open easily. Whoever built it had opinions about visitors, and those opinions manifested as a long and exhausting fight at the entrance that I documented in considerable detail. What I will say for the Dungeoneers, and what I have said in taverns from here to three countries, is that they are relentless. They do not stop. The fight went on, and on, and on, and at the end of it, the door was open and the party was still standing.

I wrote it all down. My notes from this period are among my most vivid.