Greetings friends. In the name of the Athasian Survey Project, I’m sending you this missive.

When last we spoke, I had learned Margaba was on his way to the Dead Lands. Since then, it seems like the entire Consortium has mobilised their best scholars to find a way inside. While we do not yet understand what my old handler is attempting to do with the Niraani Crystals infused with that much dimensional energy, no one believes it could mean anything good.

Even with our considerable combined resources, we faced a daunting obstacle – the inaccessibility and lethality of the Dead Lands is such that even after millennia, eyewitness accounts of the lands themselves are few and far between. Bigger expeditions and more powerful adventurers than I have made it there only to succumb to a seemingly endless list of hazards that are especially deadly by even Athas’ harsh standards.

I did have one advantage over any previous expedition though: with the Carriage of Essence technique I’ve been practicing, I didn’t need to physically enter the Dead Lands. But with that advantage came a big disadvantage – needing to find an uninhabited body in a veritable land of the unliving might just sabotage the whole mission.

With this unique challenge in mind, the Consortium’s historians have combed their templar archives and secret libraries for stories of expeditions to the regions south of the Endless Dunes. Eventually, they stumbled upon a recent report from an elven explorer who had found a curious contraption on the Great Salt Flats – a glider made of bone and some kind of hide.

With a combination of elemental Air magic and the glider itself, he managed to catch some very revealing glimpses of the eastern Dead Lands from the air. He even managed to find an almost entirely hidden entry point into the Dead Lands. On an untravelled and forgotten southeastern corner of the Great Salt Flats, a shallow salt shelf crumbled onto a strange geological formation which resembled something in between a waterfall and a natural stairway built out of obsidian.

After several successful forays, the explorer’s last correspondence came just before he had made the decision to explore beyond that stair. It was a terribly thin lead, but considering how dangerous it would be to try to scry anywhere near Margaba in his current state, this was our only method of getting me into the Dead Lands near enough to intercept him and stop him if necessary.

I was under no illusion that I could ever best him in his empowered state with the Niraani crystals. But as my friends in the Nexus and Veiled Alliance pointed out to me, perhaps I didn’t have to. Ironically, the thing for which Margaba criticised me in our last exchange may yet prove the advantage I need against him – my friends and allies.

After some discussion, we came up with a plan. My reanimated body would not be strong, but Margaba shouldn’t expect me to approach in such a way, so I might have one shot to telekinetically disarm him and steal the crystals. Once I had them, a strategically prepared teleport would bring the body and the crystals in its hand to a designated place near the Nexus. I would have to be quick, and if I lost the element of surprise, I was in for a nearly impossible fight at best, but this plan was within my power.

With all preparations and failsafes readied, I cast my mind across the long distances beyond the Endless Dunes to the forgotten obsidian stair. I found the body of the elven explorer, mangled and lacerated by the fall to the broken obsidian surface below. It looked like I was fortunate – his body had not yet been claimed by any monsters or magic. Taking control of it, I stood and looked upon my surroundings.

I feel the image you now see doesn’t really do justice to how alien this landscape seems to be. For those who do not know, around four thousand years ago (not too long after the Cleansing Wars had started in earnest), the Dead Lands were cursed with a massive deluge of molten obsidian. The Consortium scholars do not know why this happened, but it had profound effects on the ecology of the entire southern part of the continent, and walled off (or even killed) entire civilisations before reanimating nearly all the inhabitants as undead creatures.

And now my hunt for Margaba begins. Wish me luck, and may the moons guide you.