My dear brother,

I don't really know how to tell this story, but I feel that I must put ink to paper before I convince myself that I imagined it. I guess I'll start at the beginning, then.

I heard a great commotion from the goblin mining tunnels of Azdun, and I personally missed much of what transpired, but apparently the goblins broke through a wall and stumbled into an old, hidden chamber. I guess that disturbed the meditation of a woman who had been there for almost six hundred years, if she was truthful. She called herself Mazra, and claimed that she and others had been meditating in scattered hidden chambers all over Sapience in order to keep something - some terrifying entity, something that she simply called "The End" and refused to elaborate more - slumbering. She told me her secret order, which she called the Silent Sentries, tried to defeat it long ago but found that the best they could do was keep it asleep, though even that required several of them to lock themselves in meditation for, well, forever.

When I arrived, there were dozens of adventurers trying to replicate a ritual they found in some old journal. They showed me their notes - it was a mess. Much of the original work was missing, so they could only complete part of it. Mazra indicated that the part they couldn't complete was less important than the part they could, but it did mean that she couldn't be hidden away anymore. It seemed to me that the second ritual was meant to keep the first one going, to keep the burning candles and whatnot sustained. Without that second ritual, Mazra said that she would need someone to check on the ritual reagents and replace them from time to time. To be honest, the whole situation was a bit overwhelming.

She also said that she would need someone to stand guard over her going forward, since she can't rely on secrecy anymore, and, brother, I don't know what came over me, but I felt that was what I needed to do. The purpose I've been searching for. The thing that would earn me a name worth our clan's honour. So I volunteered! I am now the lone guard for Mazra, the Silent Sentry. Forever, I guess.

Anyways, they did it. An Eleusian named Gallus led the ritual from the journal as Mazra slipped back into her meditation. A quiet stillness that I'd never experienced before settled over the chamber. It seemed to work. Oh, and then Sir Kresslack gave me a drinking horn! A gift like that from a knight has to count for something, right?

But now the candles and incense are burning low, and I fear that I must turn my attention to convincing adventurers to replace these components.

Come visit me in Azdun when you can. It gets lonely down here sometimes.

Your brother,
Zerdin

~~~~~
A wall collapses leading to a great commotion and dire warnings that brought adventurers to the mines of Azdun: a secret centuries-long meditation was disturbed, supposedly putting everyone at great risk. The ritualist claimed that an ancient ritual must be repeated in order to return her to her meditation so she could keep some great threat in a state of stasis. Adventurers scattered across Sapience to find a record of this ancient ritual and replicate it, their efforts lead by Gallus, Imyrr, and Theosis. With secrecy no longer possible, a wandering dwarf volunteered to stand guard over her vigil.

Penned by My hand on the 24th of Chronos, in the year 1000 AF.