File VII: Thoughts on Outsider Mages

File VII: Thoughts on Outsider Mages

I doubt I'll live much longer.

I was a fool for allowing myself to be lured here by a fat paycheck and incredible benefits.

And I was a fool to think no Eastern mage-wannabe could ever get the better of me.

Before I knew it, this mountain had me in its grasp.

I can barely remember my own name now, let alone my incantations.

They say our goal here is to achieve immortality.

That's why they've been luring mages here: to use them as test subjects.

They're not choosy about their methods, either. They're trying magecraft, science, curses...whatever might get the job done.

How could some Far East yokels have made so much progress in two thousand years...

...with no one ever finding out about them?

...Something doesn't add up.

These people may use magecraft, but they aren't mages. They may use science, but they aren't human.

They're insects.

A writhing mass of insects focused exclusively on the singular goal of achieving immortality.

I'll be dead soon.

Now that I've spilled the secrets of my clan's magecraft, I doubt they have any further use for me.

To think that our proud family would fall for the tricks of mere peasants... How humiliating.

I only hope these scribblings will find their way to other mages as a warning, before it's too late...