Having a mindflayer's tadpole lodged into one's grey matter could be seen as a problem. Right now, I'd say that's second to the massive gaps in my memory and general sense of pain in my skull. Who was I, before waking up on that ship hurdling through the Nine Hells? Why do I have these urges to maim?

The half-elf cleric I met on the ship is here on the beach. She thanks me for saving her. I shrug. Shadowheart, she's called. We fight some horrible little beasts called intellect devourers. I look around me at all the carnage this ship's crashing has caused, and find myself smiling, reveling in the blood and bodies strewn about. Horrid. A bit further up the coast, we hear calls for help, and a man waving us over.

Pale skin, silver hair, red eyes... one of those albino drow, perhaps? I tell him that indeed - I can make quick work of the intellect devourer he's corned. But then there's the flash of a dagger, and in one fell swoop, he has me pinned to the ground. Why are we so damn trusting of every stranger we come across? A swift headbutt, and I break free of his grasp. We talk, and he realizes we have the same problem - at least, where it concerns the tadpoles; his memory seems intact. He introduces himself - Astarion - and my mind dances at the thought of turning him into a rather gorgeous corpse.

I don't know just what came over me, when I saw that hand sticking out of the glowing portal. It clearly belonged to someone looking for help. At least, I think it did, before the disembodied voice the hand belonged to started to scream.

My rancid blood whispers to me: kill, kill, and kill again. My ruined body yearns to reap death in this world, and when this foul Urge calls, it possesses my whole being. Injured beyond repair, I know nothing besides this; I must resist this Dark Urge, lest it consume my mind. I must discover what happened to me, and who I was. Before my twitching knife-hand writes a tragedy in blood.

The githyanki woman from the ship found herself captured by some tiefling hunters. It didn't take much convincing to get them to leave - and, thankfully, no bloodshed. Lae'zel, she calls herself. For once, I'm more worried about my own safety, rather than that of my companions. Shadowheart is less than thrilled over her joining us.

I've done it again, and I don't know why. Sure, that insipid little squirrel bit my foot, but did it really deserve that?! The pale elf has begun to suspect something is deeply, deeply wrong with me, but doesn't seem too distressed about it. In fact, I'd almost say he likes it. Another tadpoled would-be hero joins our ranks. Calls himself Wyll, the "Blade of Frontiers". Nobody is impressed. Says he's been tasked to hunt down some devil that escaped the Hells. I promise him we'll get to it eventually.

That poor bard... she definitely didn't deserve what befell her. It's a good thing I've hidden her body. Nobody will be any the wiser come the morning... unless they notice the ritual circle I made of her blood. Why the circle? I don't know, something came over me. Hells, I don't even remember stabbing her, but waking up with her blood on my hands... well, it's rather obvious.

The blood circle must have been meant to summon him. Calls himself a butler. My butler. Sceleritas Fel. Some sort of fiend? A foul little wretch, whatever he is. He praised what I'd done to the bard. Gave me some sort of cloak. He called it a 'gift' from 'my father'. Will this nightmare ever end?

Discovered a boar, drained of blood. More of my gruesome work? Possibly, though Astarion seems rather cagey about the whole thing. Perhaps he knows what really happened to the bard. He's volunteered to keep watch for the night.

Of course he's a vampire. All the signs were there. I was just either too stupid, or too preoccupied with my own damned problems to take notice. Either way, his secret is out, and we've come to an agreement - he can bite me whenever he needs to, so long as he gets permission first.

Saved a weird old lady from a couple of men looking for their sister. Found a Gur monster hunter looking for Astarion. I don't think he expected to find him so easily. We made short work of him, though he did put up a bit of a fight. Astarion propositioned me for some 'fun' afterward. I think I may have been right that he's a little too enthusiastic about violence. Visited the old woman at her hut here in the swamp. Turns out she's a hag. Wonderful. Took her down, rescued a rather ungrateful pregnant woman. People are weird.

We saved the grove by massacring the goblins who would have otherwise razed it and rescued the leader of the druids, Halsin, while we were at it. The goblins were serving some new god they referred to as "the Absolute"... A small victory, perhaps, but something at the back of my mind itches for more carnage. Nobody seems to care about the bard. Halsin promises to tell us more about the tadpoles first thing in the morning. Astarion and I may have snuck off into the woods for a little bit. Halsin tells us that he can't cure us of the tadpoles, but that a place called Moonrise Towers seems to be where these Absolute cultists are converging. It's something, I suppose.

Came across Wyll's "devil" target, Karlach. Pretty sure she's a tiefling, but I couldn't talk Wyll down from fighting her. The flames coming off of her were awfully hot, like something from the Hells themselves. We were later paid a visit from Wyll's "employer" of sorts - a cambion by the name of Mizora. She gave him a present, called hm a good boy, then disappeared as quickly as she'd arrived. So that was something. Perhaps Wyll isn't as heroic as he lets on...

Our motley group has been on the road for about two tendays. We came across the creche that Lae'zel was interested in... suffice it to say, it's now rubble, Lae'zel's own goddess, a lich demigoddess by the name of Vlaakith, isn't too pleased with us, and we may have committed a smallish act of genocide (...again... first with the goblins, now with some githyanki who, admittedly, were attempting to kill us first. So, honestly, it was in self-defense). And hey, I got a neat holy weapon out of the whole debacle, so... it's a win-win. According to Halsin, going through the Underdark would be a safer route and supposedly avoid the worst of this "Shadow Curse", but when have I ever done things the easy way? Either way, the former archdruid has decided to join us on our quest, though to be honest, he's not doing much other than eating up resources. I'm beginning to second-guess my decision to rescue him from the goblins.

We've entered the Shadow-Cursed Lands. Shadowheart is distressingly giddy about the whole thing; apparently she thinks her goddess is protecting her (did I mention she's a Shar worshiper? No? Yeah... like I said, we're a weird group. A Shar worshiper, an alien warrior who would probably not hesitate to murder all of us in our sleep, a vampire, a supposed hero beholden to the whims of a devil... and me, the amnesiac with a demonic butler only I can see. Weird). We come across a group of goblins, aligned with this "Absolute".