
Brother Brian Jaques - Scribe |

First I must provide a warning to those who would peruse this book. I have cleaned and edited as best I could. The most horrifying and detailed descriptions of the author’s deeds as well as the many detailed drawings have been removed. The few that do provide some relevant and worthwhile medical information have been preserved in another volume. I have annotated where necessary, but to distinguish my own insertions from the author’s words I will be using the [] symbols.
Still what remains can be gruesome and horrifying. This is after all the personal scribing of a madman. His evil is renowned and recorded in detail in many other works. It is likely that without these journals we would never have had the slightest idea of the number of victims he left in his wake. To have removed enough for it to be safe and comfortable for all eyes would have left precious little text for us to work with.
While these horrific ravings are disturbing they are not without educational value. It provides us a chance to study this man’s madness and perhaps help prevent or at least identify those who might follow in his footsteps.
The first thing that struck me as I worked on these texts was that his evil is not the normal evil that one assumes. Many stories tell of his delight in his victims suffering. That he enjoyed the depths of cruelty to which he sunk.
This is simply not true. He took no pleasure in his victim’s pain. In fact it is likely that he was unaware of their suffering except for its physical manifestations. He seems to have no understanding of other people as being of emotion. To him they were simply research material. This in difference might at first blush seem to indicate that he was not an evil man, but nothing could be further from the truth. Women, children, the elderly and even expectant mothers were all victims of his. In some ways his indifference was a greater evil than innate cruelty could have been.
Some background on the author is important. Many know of him only from the stories told of him, which frequently leave out key details. He is known as Ob or Bob as that was an easy sound for him to make. His birth name was Eldratch Frankle. He was born deaf. Perhaps this accounts for much his apparent madness. It was not that he ignored the please for mercy or screams of pain he caused, but simply that he did not perceive them in the first place. Unlike many who were born deaf his spoken language ability was rudimentary at best, although is writing ability was exceptional. Nor did he have the ability to read lips. In fact many who met him said he would only rarely respond to any attempts at communication other than writing.
His parents were well to do and when they realized their child was deaf they did everything in their power for him. The best clerics they could find could not relieve his deafness. At this point they turned to education in hopes of finding a way for him to makes his life. His early education included some minor training in combat and the use of armor, although he did not show much promise in these areas. In the area of study however he showed much promise. His tutors found that though he was deaf, once he grasped the concept of writing he was one of the most promising students they had ever had. His parents went into debt to provide the best, hoping their son would someday live a productive life.
It was when he was sent to the healer academy at the capital that he seemed to find his true home. The records show that he was known as the most gifted and promising student in decades, although one teacher with more foresight than the rest noted the young man’s growing obsession with life. Not the meaning of life which many question, but the nature of living happens. I will not attempt to explain further. The author’s own words will do that more effectively than I ever could.
He returned home for only a short time after graduating. Some books and ballads on the topic wonder if his parents ever realized the monster they had birthed. More learned sources know that they did, as they are counted as his first victims. This is unlikely to be true as going over the records of his schooling shows that 23 students and 2 teachers disappeared during his schooling.
His mother died of repeated poisoning. She apparently was poisoned and then allowed through skillful healing to recover from the poisonings for a period of 18 days. 12 different poisons were used and each was administered at least twice during the time. His father died by having a ¼ oz. section of his liver removed each day until it was no longer able to sustain function. These two processes are described in minute detail in the oldest journals so far found.
From here on out the madman’s own voice shall provide the details of his life and adventures.