This journal was called "No. 14", and the words scratched onto its pages were bringing a deep dread that Thrand had not felt in ages. As he read he mulled over the facts slowly, putting together a pattern that led down a road he would never have imagined before this day, each word raising new goosebumps.

The lower floor of the old watchtower east of Minoc was obviously a laboratory. The workbench was scattered with papers and frightful reagents and the nearby bookshelf was filled with bound journals containing the research notes of Khellenduras. These notes revealed what the lich had been up to since the sudden end of his attacks on tel'Ruid.

Khellenduras was playing with nature. He had discovered a way to create life. Using the reagents he had stolen from the Fae tower he had begun to experiment with old formulas and spells. His first attempts, according to the notes, had been total failures described as inanimate puddles of slime. It was clear from his writings that he was getting more and more desperate with each failure due to the scarcity of the reagents involved and was about to give up the attempt.

But then he had a sudden flash of inspiration and was successful. The creature he created next was most definitely alive and became the subject of several journals. This creature, No. 1, was a squat, eye-less humanoid roughly four feet tall if fully erect, though it seemed to prefer moving hunched over with its extremely long arms helping it to move quickly through the nearby forest. When the creature hunted it would use its long claws to kill by breaking through the base of the skull from behind. The journals then described in nauseating detail the way the creature would skin its prey, eating only the skin and leaving the rest...leading Khellenduras to coin the name "Skin Stealer".

Fortunately the being was genderless and could not breed, forcing Khellenduras to create each one himself. But this did not stop him, and the journals recorded the creation of entire packs of these creatures, each identified by a number. The packs would hunt together and the notes were full of observations of their behavior, including an attack on brigands in the forest showing tactics similar to a wolf pack.

Then he created Number 14. Something in the creation process of Number 14 was different, though the notes revealed that Khellenduras did not know what the difference was. Number 14 became the subject of intense study, with more than one journal devoted entirely to this new breed of skin stealer.

Number 14 was larger and smarter than the rest, walking more upright and learning to mimic languages. It was still blind and genderless, yet Khellenduras believed this one to be sentient, and thus his first true success.

But even more troubling than all these creatures were the passages referring to tel'Ruid. Khellenduras had dispatched the first two packs into tel'Ruid and studied their results. He was obviously upset that they seemed unable to take down a healthy elven warrior as easily as they seemed to have dealt with starving brigands, yet he seemed excited at the same time with the prospect of ridding tel'Ruid of the elves.

The last of the journals indicated that he had sent Number 14 to tel'Ruid to spy on the elves, then Khellenduras himself packed up and went on an extended journey in an attempt to obtain another item of power.

After reading through all these notes the elves carefully explored the upper levels of the old tower. One room held a summoning circle, but the most troublesome appeared to be the beginnings of a temple. Khellenduras was creating a shrine to himself.

When Thrand saw the shrine everything fell into place. He suddenly felt very tired and, leaning against the wall, said one word..."worshippers".