by Nystul

Long has the shattering of the Gem of Immortality weighted upon my thoughts. A lifetime I have spent studying the mystic arts, and yet it is only lately that I have begun to uncover even the least of teh Gem’s secrets.

Two things have become clear to me. Both warrant further investigation, though it seems I shall leave this place soon, and it is not clear to me who will carry on with my research. I record my discoveries in this notebook in the hope that it will be of use to my successors, after I depart this world. First, I have uncovered proof that no hand but that of the Stranger, who defeated Mondain, could have shattered the Gem. A stranger not only to our people, but to our entire reality, the laws and harmonies binding him were somehow different than those that act upon us. It was this differing set of qualities that allowed the Stranger to interact with the Gem on a plane closer to its own abstract reality, ultimately shattering it.

That those of differing planes can have influence and effect upon our world brings to mind a most disturbing line of thought, best left for another day-yet I feel I must note it now. There was once a madman who attempted to cast a most terrible spell, one which would bring about the cessation of all life upon our world. He and his followers failed, thankfully. But it seems as though the spell itself was designed by those not of our world.

I leave this, then, for another day, and will concentrate upon my second realization. Within each shard of the Gem of Immortality lies a perfect likeness of the world as it was at the very moment the Gem was shattered. My liege has confessed many things to me, many disturbing things, about the influence the Gem’s power still holds upon these worlds.

It is possible that within each of these shards lie copies of the shattered remains of the Gem of Immortality. I had thought this imopssible, that the Gem transcended our reality and was no longer a part of our world. Yet I gaze upon the shining facets of s shard looking at the world slowly spinning within, and it seems obvious I was wrong.

The stone’s sinister power was not destroyed when the Stranger shattered the stone, but instead spread throughout the shards themselves. Thus the question begs: does this recursion go on forever? Are there worlds within worlds, scattered like dandelions on the wind, lying in my trembling hand? And what influence does the Gem yet have upon them?