Excerpt

Long hath shadow and powers dwelt in lands under our feet,
where vast caverns lay hid, mazy mountain innard
or meandering stream, or in other regions antique:
in ash-buried city or the vain monarch’s
trap-laden tomb, or in deep grottos that echo the ceaseless drip-drop.
Brief are the days of the world’s green surface
that turns her cheek to the warming sun, which by his rays
stir up water and wind, the ever-changing landscapes,
elements destroying and wearing away all things,
together with every monument of record,
be it of flesh, leaf or stone.
Not so the places beneath, not so: down there be left lore
long forgotten, and the bones of creatures millenia extinct,
and other mysterious things yet to be recovered and known.

Many revolutions of men have I lived through, and still I survive
and will travel again the four worlds,
the pages of many annals turned.
Yet for so long did I sojourn in the depths,
in cavernous mazes searching, and did slumber ‘neath silvery mushroom,
that I cannot now reckon how many orbits, measured of Calduin, I have
breathed the dank airs of places unseen.
Yea shall I return more, save ye, accompanied only by the worthiest heroes,
and never any followers of Drake the coward.
Choose me companions worthy of trust, you deepseigers,
not esteeming too highly anything of skill or talent.

Still do I mourn the passing of great heroes once known to me,
men of high exploit,
whom I conducted into darkest caverns of earth, unflinching fool that I was.
Be thou comforted, my soul, the Lays of Illystra may yet preserve
their valorous deeds from oblivion.

Tell I unto thee, now, in frank writing,
of all matters concerning the histories of the intermundane realms.
First I say: known there is,
yet little of full.
Knoweth I less more so than commonly,
save for the scriptings of The Black Book which I took up in hand to memorize.
Of whatsoever I do provide, in faith,
pray, deem it most lawful and complete.

Many things once recorded in the Black Books of Melancholy are included,
as much as I had set in memory while I possessed the several tomes
before they were lost. That being so,
I beg ye mark: not even of your sunlit world be there sufficient access to archaeonic works, especially since the days when
Nystul, the great city of magian scrolls, began confiscating nearly every writing of every furthland.
How much less therefore can be learned of obscure lore, of deep caverns or old under-stone halls?
This hear ye, not well known is it,
that of the histories detailed in The Black Book,
there are those which date back even before the origin
of the elven sky-rings.
This know I, having seen the cryptic words.
There are places of peril unsighted,
dim lands better left undisturbed.
Most of the manuals teach nothing of stillness or silent listening,
so be thou not surprised to hear about fools who, in torment of mind,
hurry to excavate the wondrous things beneath, but they are quickly lost.
In righteous resolve they endeavor to the dark caves upon some deep-delving quest, and in an unexpected turn,
they awaken what should not be awoken.
The pious may at first consider these my insights to be of a questionable nature,
perhaps they even suspect these lines will lead to some blasphemous instruction.
Do I not value my head? Learn faith, and know that some thoughts may at first come across as unfamiliar and strange,
but they will reap much wisdom if well ruminated upon.
After all, is it not true that in the deepmost corners of the mind there persist the contemplations of the Ancientmost, who is ever so vastly beyond our keen?

The mind itself is a kind of luminous library that keeps long record of such ghostly visitations, and of dark portents as well, stirred up by the evil spirit that scurries about, deceiving men to misdirect the course
of the world. But it is written:
“Know them you will when see you them and hear you of them.”
There a suspicion of the dark deeply set in the hearts of all men,
albeit even in the kindred: dwarves, gnomes, and elves.
Nay, in me would not fear prevail. The stygian places of the world, hear it, I entered many a time.

Of the archaic dragons much more must be said...