A NOTE FOR READERS: The journals of Zong-Tossu, though fascinating, should not be taken as accurate. Even though he was considered a great ghav-urath, eventually many of his writings were dismissed as the products of severe psychosis by the ruling council of Thamasku and simply regarded as fiction or parody. It was rumored Zong-Tossu had a mental breakdown caused by his usage of the narcotic cam-rahn.

With my companions looking to me to begin, I dragged my gaze to the four elixirs before me: crimson, jade, azure, and gold, each made from one of the inks of the Dervish Octopus and the fungal milk. Breathing out my tension in one long sigh, I quickly drank down the crimson elixir.

As I consumed the crimson draught, a cool sensation crept down my throat at first, but it became a sickly, numbing sensation as it reached my stomach. My vision swam, and when it cleared, I seemed to be floating in a starry void, with the deepest of blacks serving as the backdrop. Before me, I saw a beautiful shining orb covered in sapphire-blue oceans and dotted with tiny flecks of green and brown… all wrapped in gentle wisps of white clouds - a whole world! The sight was no less than glorious, lit by the soft glow of a blue sun. But something felt wrong - as I watched, patches of a strangely corrupt-looking brown color grew within the vast expanses of the oceans and around the islands. I almost imagined I could almost smell the dead sea life from where I was, and a crawling dread began to creep up my spine, as if I had seen this happen before, but couldn’t quite remember it.

As the tide of toxic brown coloration spread across the globe, I noticed a pillar grow out of the waters near a long chain of islands, gleaming pure white in the sunlight as it rose. Within moments, the pearlescent spire began to gleam more and more strongly, until it actually seemed to glow. Sensing something behind me, I willed my viewpoint to swing around until I could see the gentle blue ball that had been behind me. Tongues of flame were leaping off the blue sun in great arcs, only to crash down into its fires once more. As I watched, a strange churning crept across the blue sun’s face until it reached the spot closest to me! Suddenly, a great ray of light - more brilliant than anything I had ever seen before - lanced out from the sun toward the planet below. In the wake of the ray of light, the sun grew and changed, swelling into a mighty yellow orb.

Suddenly fearing for the watery world below, I swung my attention back around just in time to see the white pillar drink up the blazing ray of light, only to then release a wave of brilliance from itself. The tide of light expanded as it spread across the globe, eventually washing its way across the entirety of the world. In its wake, the brown corruption sizzled and burned, but great plumes of steam were blown up into the air, boiling the oceans. Much of this steam billowed up off the world and into the surrounding void. On the world below, the loss of the oceans had exposed the land beneath - great landmasses of browns and grays, populated by newly-revealed hills and valleys. The islands, now bereft of the waters that had surrounded them, were left standing tall as great mountains. Soon, the steam cooled. Some - that vapor which had billowed up into the starry void - settled into a great purple-pink halo around the planet; and the rest became great thunderheads, deluging the new lands below with rain and soon creating seas, lakes, and rivers. With the rains, greenery seemed to spread across the land, growing tall and strong in light of the newly-yellow sun.

As I looked down upon the world, I gasped, realizing why this had all felt so familiar - the blue sun and the world of water, the tide of brown corruption and the pristinely-white tower, the yellow sun and the new-born age of greenery… But before my mind could fully grasp what my eyes had experienced, my vision swam and the world below me faded away.

I awakened from my first vision in a cold sweat, and suddenly felt pangs in my stomach, quickly rolling over to become sick on the cavern floor. As the pangs subsided, I looked up to see my companions and the Pariah Oracle looking down at me in concern. Waving away their fears, I reached for the azure second vial and quickly drank it down; the next vision came more slowly than the last, but it overtook my sight nonetheless.

I found myself standing in a great dry riverbed. I seemed to be physically in this place, not floating formlessly as before, but I still felt that I was experiencing a vision. Looking around, it was plain that the area was once full of life, but that had all changed when the life-giving waters had stopped running - bare stone and dead trees lined the banks of what was once a mighty river and the riverbed was now cracked, dry, and lifeless. As I considered his surroundings, I began to feel a strange pulsing in my left arm. Looking down at the limb, I saw the blood vessels grow engorged, bulging in time to the rushing sound I now heard in my ears - my own pulse. My arm quickly grew, darkening and swelling like some piece of over-ripe fruit, and as I stared in horror, I realized that I could still hear something over my own pulse - the wind seemed to be whispering “blood…” as it blew down the dusty riverbed.

I clenched the bracer on my right arm and a blade erupted out from the sheath, razor sharp and resembling an insect’s shell. Hands shaking, I slowly turned the blade to my left hand and slit open my arm. Blood gushed out from the wound, splashing onto the cracked clay of the riverbed and quickly soaking in. Though the pain was sharp, it subsided surprisingly quickly, with the wound closing up of its own accord. Bending down to examine the blood-soaked earth, I could feel my feet sink down into the now softened riverbed - the clay had grown malleable from the infusion of the life-giving blood, and it seemed to me that the clay now begged to be shaped. I ran my hands along the clay, working and forming it, though into what I still did not know. As I worked it, however, the softened earth seemed to form itself into long, smooth lengths, like rods or tubes. The remaining blood on the ground began to soak up into the tubes, coloring them first a deep red and then a bruised-purple color, sometimes bulging strangely in places. I kept working the clay, however, and soon it took shape. The lengths of clay branched and divided as they spread along the riverbed, and massaging the bruised clots made their contents flow down the tubes once more, allowing pulses to flow along their lengths.

Stepping back, I could see now that I had worked the lengths of clay into veins and arteries, and that with the clots removed, the blood vessels were all pulsing in time - feeding blood out across the riverbed. As the blood spread, life began to flourish along the old riverbed again, with plants growing in its wake. Suddenly, the whole area began to quake and shift around me, with the earth itself seemingly coming to life around the pulsing blood vessels. As I stumbled and fell among the shifting riverbed, my vision faded once more.

Awakening in the cavern again, I immediately reached for my arm…yet, no sign of what I had done remained. I took a moment to steady myself and then reached for the third elixir, this one jade-green in color. This time, it was quick. This time, it was quick. I was immediately propelled into another vision when I drank it. I found myself once again floating amid a sea of stars, weightless and translucent. In front of me was a massive rock worked into the shape of a great fortress, with angular designs carved all across its surface. When I attempted to focus on the smaller details of the fortress, I effortlessly drifted closer until I could see small figures running across the rock’s surface. Pushing even closer, I found myself in an open plaza before the fortress’ great gates. Squat bearded humanoids, many of whom were heavily armed and armored, ran across the courtyard towards the massive gates. I noticed one of the defenders point with a stout finger to the stars, where several massive squid-like creatures could be seen racing through the void. Horns and drums thundered loudly, sending civilians to seek refuge, and triggering the gates to be slammed.

As the squid-creatures grew closer, several huge figures - seemingly made of dull gray armor and with huge tubes for arms - lumbered out from the fortress. Within these great plodding creatures, I swore I could see what appeared to be more of the bearded humanoids working and stoking strange flames as the huge beings took positions within the courtyard.

As the first wave of attackers hit the courtyard, they slammed down onto the stones and immediately attacked the giant armored figures, only to be cut down in a series of explosions. Half of the alien cephalopods were cut down by a strange flurry of stones and fire hurled by the giants’ tube-arms, but those that survived released a host of terrible creatures across the courtyard. Large creatures - shaped like a Rhulisti, but having the appearance of a hulking frog - leapt away from the squid-creatures, spilling across the courtyard in great waves to fall upon the defenders. The frog entities came in a great variety of colors - red, blue, gray, green, black and even white - and each had hatred in their three bulbous eyes.

Above the frog-things, spherical multi-eyed beasts flew out from wombs within the squid-creatures. The flying spheres had neither arms nor legs, but each instead had one large central eye, several smaller eye-stalks, and a great fanged maw. Flames and other means of death struck out to meet the swarming invaders, and many frog-things and spheres of eyes fell, but for each death, more and more of the creatures poured forth, and the defenders were slowly but surely dragged down and slaughtered. As the last of the defenders fell, the vision faded.

I awoke in the cavern yet again, this time drenched in sweat. My body felt ravaged by the various elixirs I had consumed…and my mind was in a worse state. Cho’ka quickly handed me the remaining golden elixir, however, and as I consumed its warm goodness, I fell into a deep, warm sleep.