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.

What follows is an account of the elixir-induced visions experienced by Tr’Shadai, as they were later relayed to his companions Zong-Tossu and Cho’ka.

“One elixir will show you the deep past, the second will let you see the future, the third will show you a different world, and the last will purge you of all the inks of divination - remember, the golden one has to be the last!” was the last thing I remembered hearing as I reached for the deep red-colored elixir. I drank it and immediately felt my eyes roll back into my head.

I suddenly found myself in a black void, floating between the stars. In the distance I saw a vast thing, a strangely-shaped living being, attacked by a swarm of smaller creatures - squids and nautili by the look of them. With a thought, I willed myself closer and flew to the scene of the battle. Streaks of ferocious death erupted in arcing rays from the great creature, cutting cephalopods in twain; in turn, the nautili and squids belched forth tiny balls of fire and strokes of lightning at the monstrously large lifeform. The attacking molluscs were losing numbers dramatically, but their relatively minor assaults finally took a toll - as the last of the squids was destroyed, a great wound opened in the side of the massive creature. Large pieces of its outer shell fell away and a great cloud of seed-like pods floated away from it, like eggs abandoned to drift on the ocean currents. I strained to follow the pods, and tried to see if any of them fell upon fertile ground, but the vision was already fading. Shaking the vision from my head, I saw the great fungal cavern once again. Oracle beckoned to me to consume the azure elixir; I hesitantly took it from him, drank it, and fell deep into another vision.

As my sight returned, I found myself standing on a plateau, looking up at a great mountain. All around me, I saw a jungle below… and an ocean or sea beyond that in every direction, leading me to assume I was on an island. To my left was a wizened Zong-Tossu, looking visibly aged, and on my right was a larger Cho’ka, towering over us even more than usual, his carapace gleaming. We looked at each other, nodded, and began to climb the rugged surface of the mountain. The journey was brutal, with the sun burning down upon us, but as the tropical forest dropped away, the humidity of the jungle quickly gave way to colder and drier mountain air.

Eventually we reached a large plateau near the top of the mountain… and I was completely exhausted. My shoulders burned from the climb, and my limbs felt like jelly. Looking for somewhere to catch my breath, I made my way to a nearby rock face, hardly even noticing the tuffs of dry scrub grass and multicolored succulents growing on the rough ground all around me. Placing a hand on the rock face to steady myself, I suddenly leapt back - the entire mountain had suddenly begun to shake violently from a massive tremor. Cho’ka, Zong-Tossu, and I looked at each other in bewilderment, barely able to hold on to keep from tumbling down the mountain.

When the earthquake had ended, I saw that the nearby rock face had crumbled, revealing a fleshy wall with a strange seam running horizontally across it. As I slowly approached the newly revealed portion of the mountain, the seam split, revealing an array of wickedly long teeth before gaping fully open. Within the strange fleshy cave, I could see stairs leading down into the mountain, and I felt a strange wind flowing in and out of the cavern - almost like breathing. As we began to step into the opening, however, the vision ended, pulling me down into a darkness even deeper than that of the cavern.

When I awoke from the vision, my blood was still pounding in my ears. Eager to end the experience, I looked to the last elixir - a jade green one - clasped it in my sweaty hand, and swallowed it in one sip. The elixir’s sickly-sweet taste, like fermented kelp mixed with bile, lingered on my tongue as I blissfully drifted down into another vision.

I found myself back among the sea of stars, and floating before a great, angry red sun. As I looked upon it, the sun began to grow darker, with purpleish-black spots developing all across its face, as if the sun was becoming bruised and sickly. As I stared perplexed by this, the sun suddenly collapsed in upon itself, imploding into a swirling black vortex. Shocked by what I had just seen, I desperately looked around at the surrounding void. Brilliant spheres of swirling colors hung amidst the stars, but as I watched, many were consumed by the newly-formed maelstrom.

A small burnt cinder of a sphere fell into the vortex almost immediately. Closer to where I hung in the void, a dusty-colored globe with two smaller ones circling it quickly developed great patches of glowing red and gleaming white color. Peering more closely, I saw what appeared to be a winged reptile with rotting flesh rear up from the surface and beginning to transform horrifically. The creature was becoming a multi-headed winged being, one that roared with defiance into the surrounding night sky. With a wave of the creature’s taloned hand, the ruined world it stood upon shattered, sending forth strange triangular shapes into the starry void.

Looking away from this strangely unsettling sight, I saw other spheres suffer similarly tragic fates. One of the smaller ones that had orbited the shattered orb spun off, hurling itself into the black vortex, while the other - free of its neighbors - swirled around the black maelstrom in a wide arc, tracing its own path through the starry void. In the distance, a great globe swirling with ashy color suddenly winked out of existence, sending the multitude of orbs around it careening around each other in its wake before settling into a calm dance with themselves. As I watched, more and more spheres fell down into the hungry maw of the vortex or were shot out of their established paths to fly out into the deepest reaches of the void, never to be seen again.

I awoke with a cold sweat, my pulse once again racing from a nightmare-like vision. I could still taste the last traces of the vile elixir in my throat. Above me, I saw Oracle and my companions. Weakly reaching out my arm, I took the golden elixir from the misshapen Pariah’s hand and drank it. As I faded down into a dreamless sleep, I heard Oracle say: “He was lucky: he consumed the last elixir in time; any longer, and the other ones would have damaged his mind. Now that the golden elixir has purified all of the Dervish Octopus’ inks from his body, he is safe and can rest. Now, Cho’ka, you must experience your visions. You are the only one that remains.”