spoiler:

~Excerpt from the Diary of Elias the Traveler, The Grand Library~

Haha! I've got the scroll! and right from under those pesky necromancers' noses too! It reads as follows:

My current situation prevents me from writing a proper report. I, Infiltrator Matthias Hope, ask to whoever receives this missive to relay this without delay to High Paladin Lightfist.

The Kresh are not we believed them to be. They are not creatures of this world but of another entirely. They are summoned to this plane through dark magics: The Grey Mother Summoning Ritual.

~Grey Mother Summoning Ritual~

The only necessary regents are flesh of recently killed body and equally fresh blood. A wild beast will do, human is most effective. These will serve as bait for a ''Grey Mother'' Kresh. With bait ready, a portal to the plane of darkness must be opened from which a ''Grey Mother'' shall come, attracted by her favourite food. The task here is easier than most would think for the required portal is much smaller than a typical one needing be no bigger than the breadth of a hand. Places where the walls between worlds are thin, tears in the fabric of reality, other such anomalies and places where summoning rituals are often practiced usually further eases the task.


A Grey Mother is the foundation of Kresh Hive. The queen bee. When first obtained, it is an inconspicuous grey spider no bigger than one's palm. If fed correctly though, within a week it will grow to the size of a farmer's cattle. When it has, the Grey mother will seek a place, usually a clearing within a wood, where she will dig herself deep into the ground and build a nest where she will lay her eggs and give birth to a Kresh colony.

This is a quick and easy way for a necromancer to build himself an army as the Kresh colony is a hive mind under the will of the Grey Mother who can be easily be dominated by a necromancer with enough experience and the Kresh's number increase rapidly. As with all creatures of darkness, the Grey Mother may be empowered by an artifact of the Darkness realm such as Darkness Orbs and lesser variants.

The Grey Mother possesses the same weaknesses as her children. The Kresh are great in numbers, but they remain weak creatures. The Grey Mother is as weak as the army she spawns, even if she may grow to a great size, and similarly abhors the light and is weak to fire. Also, once she outgrows the size of her tunnels, she is effectively trapped within, relying on her children to bring her food. Of course, she is protected by the Kresh horde, unless this one is absent, and if she is slain, The Kresh will act as a body will without a head: as likely to go on a rampage than tear each other apart.

Light preserve me, Matthias Hope.


Seems I've hit gold as far as lore is concerned. I'll see to it later though, I doubt the necromancers will be happy about me ''borrowing'' their scrolls. Hehe...