Corley's Journal
The Maskdwarf
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The Maskdwarf just came here, alive! How could something even like him survive Steelhold, and for as many years as have passed! He's definitely not an ordinary dwarf, that much I have always known; what he is I don't know. He claims to have the power of the "True Gods," but what that means, I can't say. How long has he been here? Has he been watching me for all these past years?
He claims to have knowledge of my goals and the Ascension Project, and he has ordered me to stop. He threatens me with magic, claiming that he can dispatch me without effort, but I doubt his words. If he truly wanted my plans to be stopped, he would have killed me—I'm not going to give into any command's of his—and I wouldn't put it past him to lie. Perhaps he actually wants me to disobey him; there's only one way to find out. The demon seems to have considerable thaumateurgical skill, as he demonstrated in our recent confrontation. I tried to cast a basic offense spell at him, but it didn't work; I was never much of a combat-magic user anyway. If he comes back, I'll use the matchlock, and should that fail, he'll taste my sword.
A few things that the Maskdwarf said to me struck me as quite odd. For one, he stated that the FractalEntity is apparently one of the strongest thaumateurges around. I suppose that explains why he can simply rise from the grave whenever he feels like it, but how would the Maskdwarf know so much about the issue. He gave the implication that the two of them were working together, saying that he'll be my enemy too if I continue with my plans. I might see about having a little chat with him. The Maskdwarf also advised me to check for tunneling in the fortress. I'm not sure what he meant by that—whether literally or figuratively—but I've told Leopold to have his men keep an eye open.
I feel that I'll need more information now that I know about the presence of another enemy. I've requested that Leopold take any scroll, book, pamphlet, or tome from the library related to Steelhold or cultism and to bring it here to me; I have plenty of studying to do if I'm going to stay alive. I told him that he should also ask Tarmid if he knew of any such works that were not in the library, and that should questions arise—for they are wont to do so when the Order is involved—to say that its just historical and theological curiosity. Until then, I wait.