More water damage has obscured many of the entries beyond, including the one that modern scholars have spent the most time attempting to reconstruct – the encounter in Ferrier Keep that was later referenced in several other places by second or thirdhand reporters, but has never been fully described by any with firsthand knowledge. The damage to Auditore’s journal is not unexpected, given how the intact pages begin.

filthy sewers. Scouted forward with Dane & Talon. Stumbled upon Red Soldier, but the two felled him quickly. At Lord Wallace’s instruction [Editor Note: This reference is to Malcolm I, who is recorded as to having traveled with a man known only as Whitecloak; this is generally believed to be Gabriel Auditore and this historical document is confirmation of this theory], we pressed on where we entered a wide section of the tunnels. My memory here is sketchy, though I recall another of the Red Soldiers appearing and I springing forward to delay him so as to protect the archers. The skirmish passed quickly, even though more Reds appeared, and my contribution was negligible. One of the Reds fell to my blade and Talon’s arrows and I recall hearing Rainald’s warcry moments before a Leader emerged from the darkness, but a second of the monsters won through my defenses and thrust his weapon into my body. Had it not been for Brother Mendel and the Lord, I fear I would have fallen.

I woke elsewhere, in a shadowed room that my compatriots said was reached via hole in the sewer floor magically erected by the Leader before he was slain. My grievous injury was mostly healed, though they burned and I fear infection. Roughly chiseled stone stairs beckoned and, once we were rested, we stepped toward them.

Emerged from the room and into an alien vista. Architecture is completely foreign, with scribbles that could be writing though none I have seen. Upon looking back we discovered it to be little more than a doorway in the rock.

The sight we beheld was both terrifying and magnificent: Two moons hung low in the sky that was otherwise normal in appearance. A great canyon, with trees that look to be upside-down, with branches growing into the ground rather than upward toward the sky, stretched out before us. The foliage was unfamiliar – the leaves I’ve never seen, nor has Dane or Talon. A great river cut through the canyon, and in the far distance was a boat, which we set out toward. Bro. Mendel & Magnifico exclaimed over “restored mana levels” though I knew not what they meant. Experienced a lightness of step that I had never before felt.

Near dusk, Dane & Talon kill a blue, four-legged beast that tastes funny. We camp now, and mean to press on upon the morrow.

Sleep beckons now, though my wound burns. I pray that this land is not an eternal Purgatory.