Oops, I killed her in vein. I cut out her heart, got lost in the game. Oh baby baby.

Go somewhere, kill somebody. Why can't it be "Go somewhere, sleep with somebody."? Or better yet, "Go somewhere, do something for fame and glory, then sleep with many somebodies."

Either way, we went to kill somebody. In an elven city no less. We somehow managed to not piss of the entire city and get thrown into jail (first time!) and the house we tracked the assassin to had a nice little hole in the ground with dead bodies around it. Ya think? Yep. That way.

Nothing terribly exciting inside the underground complex; we didn't get a chance to explore because we ran into a chapel with a dude chanting something magic like. It was dark inside. Then there was a scream, the chanting stopped, and I ran in to kill things.

The assassin popped out of the darkness to kill our escort, and then started attacking us, so I chopped her into tiny little pieces -- when I could see her, since she was all covered in shadows and flitting around out of site.

After I killed her (go me!) it turns out she was a good guy; a very pissed wizard came in and was like blah blah blah blah. Whatever, they dealt with it. But it turned out that the woman who told us to go kill things was evil. So we went to go kill her. And we brought with us for some reason the traitor who was suckerd into helping her out because she was a hottie. Which I can totally understand, okay?

She had a trap for the wizard, so his lazy ass stayed in some spell. I killed some giant-type baddie, then traded blows wih an enormous pile of fire, like a gigantic one, with arms and shit that hurt. Some kind of an elemental I suppose, but bigger than I've ever seen. After all the battle we had seen that day, I finally had to play cat and mouse and string it along the length of the cavern until the others finished her off, so it wouldn't kill their weak tiny bodies.

Except they couldn't finish her off. So I came back, and they cast fly on me, and I flew up and killed her ass really lots. Oh, then I got killed as she died (again, she somehow came back the first time. I should learn that trick).

Which sucked. At least I no longer have herpes, what with being dead.

Sneaking into cities for fun, and no profit.

Oh my god. It was all like "sneak in here, sneak in there". No glory, no killing, no smacky-whacky.

See, we were asked to help sneak a team of people into the city where the nothrog king was, so they could do bad stuff to the nothrog king. Excellent start, lots of potential for smacking stuff with my axe.

In order to do that, we had to bug an associate of ours in that city where we got arrested for a bar brawl (no, not that city...not that one either...not that one... yeah THAT one!). So we had to sneak back in (easy, oby disguised us with some mumbo jumbo). Then we talked to the guy, and he said yes, so we went back to the other city.

And then oby got a headache so we all went to bed! Must be all those undead crawling on his spire. I know it gives me no end of grief!

I redeaded the undead. And met future me!

I made a sled in the winter. It was fun. I like the snow.

And then spring came, and with it the undead. They crawled all over oby's spire (and I thought crabs were bad) and we had to come kick some butt. There were mobs of them in the hallways and we couldn't stop them from advancing towards the students. So we had to fight a retreat while rescuing the wiz dweebs. It was fun! I couldn't miss -- I felt like a human lawnmower, wham wham wham and limbs flew. Total whack-a-mole orgy dead fest.

Unfortunately we had to stop, and it seems like oby's old school got decomissioned permanently in the process. We took the four-eyes and their pocket protector familiars to the tower that blinked between nighttime tentacle island and normal world. I guess they're going to setup a new school for nerds. I hear they're going to try to invent something called a slide rule. whatever.

Eventually the summer chugged along and some guy wanted to pay us to kill things. Actually he said capture, it was a general who's lieutenant went a little whacko and started killing things. We (well somebody) tracked him to a village where he was piling up bodies like they were undead mobs in a tower of wizards to be.

I got in a bunch of smacks, and our casters didn't seem to be doing much (later they said he was "protected" somehow but I wasn't really paying attention, they use big words and stuff). Eventually he jumped up on a roof and borrow and I followed him... err, borrow a little easier as he walked up the wall. I kinda slipped.

I think it was malakar who ringed us in a whirling circle of blades, it looks like a trick I've seen before. Once he started paying attention to me, he delivered a world of hurt. I recognize all the moves, I can totally see myself doing them someday -- other than the go-crazy-kill-innocent people moves that is. I only do those when I think they probably aren't really quite very innocent mostly.

At some point, he killed me. Or should have, later I found out a spell from malaker saved me... but it didn't save malakar, who had to be resurrected by a spell from oby! malakar came back less bear-like, in fact a lot more nothrog like. half nothrog, in fact!

But in a moment

Many months passed without incident. We were waiting for the Nothrog to attack the free kingdoms in order to lure them into a trap. One day, however, Obegard received an urgent message on his spire pendant. We quickly teleported to the Spire, though our teleportation was redirected to Gaston's office. He said that the situation was dire; undead had overrun the Spire and were killing everyone inside. We needed to evacuate as many as possible before it was too late. Gaston said that Obegard would be in charge of the students if Gaston were to fall, though from the sound of it, he didn't expect to survive the night.

We spent quite some time in the tower, delaying the hordes of undead so that the people running across the halls can each the teleportation circles to escape. The undead were both numerous and exceptionally powerful. We found that our walls of force, stone, and other obstacles were quickly dismantled by the undead wizards. However, we still managed to save a number of students, and in the aftermath, Obegard concluded that the old wizard school that was still half in the cursed plane of Basceron would be a good place for them to continue their studies.

More time passed before we received another summons. This time it was from the husband of Cassandra, a general in the armies of the Free Kingdoms. We said that one of his lieutenants has gone rogue, possibly because of the loss of his family, and was killing everyone and anyone he saw. We were tasked with tracking him down and bringing him back, dead or alive. It didn't take long before we found a village with bodies strewn in the streets, and there he was, with a strange glow in his eyes as he cut down villager after villager without emotion.

I called for the others to try to take him down alive, but in hindsight, I suppose it was a mistake. This thing, whatever it was, for it was not human, resisted many of our spells, and was extremely resilient and tough. Durthen and Borrow must have delivered dozens of slashes and cuts, but he kept going. I called upon darkfire, burning him over and over. Finally, after a drawn out battle, Obegard managed to deliver a shot that seemed to cause him to become unstable with pent up magical energy. It seemed safe from where I was almost sixty feet away, but as Borrow went in to deliver the killing blow, the creature exploded.

For a moment, I thought it would be all over, that it'd be the end. I knew that my body was probably incinerated in the blast, but I also knew that I had unfinished tasks at hand. I couldn't let the free kingdoms just fall like that, or the myself go without making up for my misdeeds. The next day, I woke up to discover myself in a new body -- not surprising because I had requested to be reincarnated again should I did. I was no longer someone marked by Lycanthropy, but instead a half-Nothrog. I believe that Albercht decided that I still must endure challenges in my life, but that for my deeds thus far, I was relieved from having to be one of the cursed.

Obegard's Spire of Magical Delights

We finally got to see the school where Obegard learnt his trade—The Spire.

Such a grand name. Maybe it would live up to it if we had seen more of it but as it was the trip started with Obegard running around saying “The Spire is in trouble. We have to go. It must be the undead, but how did they breach the shield???”

Well okay, maybe it wasn’t that whiny but I wasn’t really paying that much attention. Everything’s a crisis in the Upworld so I’ve started tuning a bunch of stuff out. Like which of my companions panics in what particular way.

Leaping into the middle of trouble with no real knowledge of what’s happening really upsets the spellcasters. Livia seems a bit more easy-going, and Durthen and I, well, we kind of just try to deal using the skills we’ve developed.

The thing that had me really concerned about this trip was the whole undead aspect. I mean it’s hard to stick my blade into something vital when there is nothing vital to stick it into. And the feel is wrong—once you get through their armour there’s no feeling of resistance as you guide it towards its target. Oh yeah, I have my bracers that allow me to do a few magically enhanced blows but even then it’s still missing that look of shock and surprise, or perhaps outrage, you see on the faces of the living. With the undead there’s just the frozen features of a corpse. No, not satisfying at all.

The others eventually talked me into going along and Obegard cast a teleport spell. We wound up in the office of the boss dude, who gave us a brief rundown. Yep, it was undead. They’d brought down the shield (whatever that was) and were invading, killing everyone that couldn’t get out fast enough. The Spire has a bunch of teleport devices but they needed help protecting people long enough to get to them, and then to activate the devices so people could teleport.

The one advantage we had was that as agents of The Spire we would be able to bypass the wards against movement spells, where the undead would be unable to cast such spells, or apparently even move through walls in their incorporeal forms.

We jumped from the office to some other part of the building. I have no idea where it was relative to where we’d been and I wondered whether the inhabitants of The Spire even know its layout. I mean, does it even have passages and stairs and things that link everything together? Or are they only used in small sections of the building to avoid having to blow their daily spell reservoirs?

There was a whole bunch of undead where we landed, and we killed a few before moving out to act as rearguard for a bunch of residents. It was almost like these guys wanted to be ghoul snacks they were moving so slow, but Durthen blocked the corridor behind them and most of them made it to the device and zapped out with us close behind.

Not much later we get contacted by Lord Robert, current leader of the Free Kingdoms. He was almost killed because one of his knights, Sir Tython, had let the elves through and has since gone missing. We were asked to track him down and “take care of him.” See what I mean about panic, panic, panic all the time here?

When we found him there was carnage everywhere. It was suggested we try talking to him, but as soon as he saw us he charged into combat. His glowing red eyes suggested something foul, but we had little choice other than to take him down.

I got in a few good licks and my ring stopped him from hitting me back anywhere near as well. Durthen was also whacking him but good, but he seemed to be able to avoid most of the spells our casters were trying.

Malakar pumped in some healing spells, though truth be told I hadn’t really been touched so it was just fixing a few scratches. Durthen seemed to have need of it though. Maybe we should get him a blinky ring as well.

We’d taken many chunks out of this guy when all of a sudden he started glowing. Experience tells me that when things that don’t usually glow start glowing, trouble is usually close behind. You have to love experience. Next thing I knew, the guy exploded sending chunks everywhere. Naturally I dodged all the chunks that flew in my direction, but others weren’t so lucky. Malakar was killed by it, and Durthen would have been as well if Malakar hadn’t just finished casting some spell to protect from just this sort of thing, though I think Malakar was expecting the damage to come from the melee attacks the guy had been slicing Durthen up with, rather than him going boom.

It took most of the potions in Durthen’s kit to get him stable before Malakar’s spell ran out but their was nothing we could do to save Malakar.

I'm so proud

I really wish I worshipped a chaotic god because I’m sure I’d be able to claim some sort of bonus if I did. For all the lip service my companions pay to Law they seem to be moving over to my point of view.

Take our latest outing for example. Those that agreed to share Livia’s oath with Witchthorn were initially talking about ways to collect the items and raise the money, but we finished up deciding we take the “alternative solution” where the oath would expire if Witchthorn did.

So we geared up, went to see Witchthorn, and tried to kill him. I suspect that this is by no means unusual for Witchthorn and it wasn’t long before he had a bunch of plant-things to help him.

We managed to clear out his helpers but Witchthorn was continuing to be elusive. I hadn’t been paying him much mind because I figured the others would get more enjoyment from “terminating their agreement” but when we ran out of helpers it was clear they needed help as Witchthorn was sitting up in a tree and whenever the others got near him he moved easily away.

I turned invisible and changed stance to allow myself to climb faster and was almost ready to strike when Durthen spooked him and he moved to another tree. I was behind him again in moments, but he’d decided his chances weren’t god and left using some sort of teleport spell.

I was raiding the treasure from his helpers before we went looking for him when he zapped back and bargained with us, offering to release the oath if we left him alone. The others were happy with that so we’ll have to make do with the treasure I scraped off the helpers, but I’m somewhat disappointed about all the treasure Witchthorn must have had hidden away that we’ll never get too. Though that disappointment is offset by my pride in my fellow adventurers for double-crossing Witchthorn. As long as they don’t do that to me.

Now I have to decide whether to share these treats with them, or whether I should keep it all to compensate for not getting my hands on Witchthorn’s goodies. But then I’d have to work out for myself which of these things are magical and what they do...

there's nothing more satisfying than exploding poo

I guess when it comes to dirty surprises, I get a +10 competence bonus due to practice, practice, practice. Did I ever tell you about the time I bluffed that wench into thinking I gave her mummy rot? Best 10 silver I ever paid a gnomish illusionist. You should have seen the look on her face! And that's absolutely nothing compared to the enlarge appendage maneuver I learned in warblade college -- now *there* is a swift action boost (and a yelp) if I ever saw one!!!

Still, this one may have been my most classic. We were going to attack witchthorn to lift that pesky geas, and that got me thinking. Nothing says surprise round like exploding runes in a box of dwarven poo!

Unfortunately, ahem, I got tagged a bit with the... projectiles... because something compelled me into this cool looking circle of mushrooms. I just didn't want to leave it, until I was forced to re-think things later in combat.

Still, it started off with a bang :) And this strange plant thing in the ground tried to pin me between it and this attacking tree-thing. Good thing I have an axe! I used the mass of the plant thing against itself and whacked everything I could see. It was close though, this nasty mass of vapor was drifting down and I only narrowly got out of it's way. I don't want to know what might of happened if it caught me.

My companions were doing a number on the surrounding baddies, but witchthorn himself managed to stay out of the way for the most part. It was only at the very end when we managed to focus on him and he had to blink away from us. He played it smart, and offered us a deal: leave him be, and the oath is nullified.

Sweet! So we did. I hope he'll never realize that during those few rounds when oby was trying to magically locate him, I .... fertilized one of his beloved trees. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. Nothing says "grow, plant" like a little used ocelot pot pie.

Playin' the Get out of Oath Free card

A simple plan: Teleport into Witchthorn's glade a week before the deadline, pick a fight, win, and free ourselves from the obligation to deliver vile merchandise to said Verdant Prince. The exploding box of excrement we handed over in place of our price was Durthen's idea, and I had little to do with it, I swear.

Mercifully, Witchthorn wasted little time berating us, and there was little feigned shock on either side, merely a contest of might making right.

Witchthorn's enchanted circle captured Durthen early on, and Witchthorn himself proved terribly hard to pin down, instead throwing his ensorceled Verdant Reavers and Oaken Guardians at us. My usual approach of staying rooted to the spot become all too real as one of the reavers entangled a large area; subsequently I got stomped by one of the reavers when I couldn't move out of the way fast enough. Maybe next time I'll dimension door a little sooner and save myself the pain.

No Ocelot for this guy -- he dodged most of our attacks and all of our spells, and hurt Livia and Durthen terribly. He almost turned me into an animal, too, but fortunately by that point all my companions had the mobility to chase him around, and he dimension doored when his last servant fell.

More pragmatic than most of our opponents, he returned to offer a deal: he'd release us from our oaths in exchange for breaking off the attack. I'm almost impressed! He ended up alive, and didn't give us any reason to come hunting him again. He might not even bother to send attackers against us, although I wouldn't be surprised if he uses us to get rid of a future pest, now that he's seen our growing skill. All in all, the outcome seems a viable compromise between fulfilling our oaths, and killing him just to get out of them. Witchthorn is still out there, but he's far from the worst evil this world has seen.

Malakar's new destructive array of spells are imposing, to say the least. I may have to reserve disintegration for walls and such, leaving the utter demolition of creatures to those more qualified.

Timeline

Day 0: Ghostwood, The Assassins' Strike
Day 2: Entered Myreth Forest
Day 3: Reached cave-in, Skeletons
Day 6: Exit Myreth Forest
Day 7: Found dead peasants
Day 8: Pine Ridge Thorp
Day 10: Temple of the Undying Flame
Day 15: Stony Vale
Day 16: Entered forest
Day 17: Encountered Lycanthropes
Day 19: Returned to Stony Vale
Day 20: Set out toward the cave.
Day 22: Arrived at the foot of the mountain
Day 24: Hill Giant
Day 26: Reached the cave, encountered the dragon, rescued Barricade, captured Nothrog
Day 27: Fought the Dragon
Day 33: Returned to Stony Vale
Day 35: Set out toward Condor Pass
Day 41: Arrive at Condor Pass
Day 47: The Deverenian army enters Condor Pass. The troops in the watchtowers lock themselves in and prepare to the weather the storm. The first watchtower is obliterated by the combined power of Ygraine's magic and the Rellion Knight's charge.
Day 47, Evening: The second Denskan watchtower is raze. The movement of the army triggers the magical wards. Hundreds of Deverenians die fiery deaths.
Day 48, Noon: The third watchtower is destroyed. The watchtower troops are dragged, out and strung up on poles to be paraded before the Denskan defenders when the army reaches the foot of the Aerie.
Day 48, Afternoon: The Pass' magical wards rain death upon the Deverenian army. Hundreds more perish in the defensive onslaught.
Day 48, Evening: The fourth and final watchtower is destroyed. Captured Denskan defenders are once again lashed to poles, which are tied to the sides of supply wagons.
Day 49, Morning: Ygraine's army arrives at the foot of the first terrace, out of the range of the siege engines. She makes no attempt to parley, but she does not immediately commence the assault.
Day 49, Nightfall: Just after dusk, the Rellion knights, on their verdatha mounts, attack one of the Terrace Keeps. They destroy all the siege catapults on the roof of one of the keeps before the Wardens counter by sending out the condors, repelling the assault.
Day 50: Set out as a decoy, defeated the Beholder, ended the siege of Condor Pass
Day 60: Set out for New Golden Axe
Day 62: Ambushed by Borka. Barricade captured
Day 64: Rescue Barricade from the Frost Giants
Day 67: Arrive at new Golden Axe
Day 70: Leave new Golden Axe
Day 76: Meet Ellisa and Erson and head to Merrick.
Day 77: Speak with Jesoud. Learn of Killian. Learn that the Nothrog army will arrive tomorrow night.
Day 78: Defend the city.
Day 79: Meet up with the Dwarves and head back to Dragon's Keep.
Day 83: Arrive at Dragon's Keep.
Day 84: Explored the caves at Dragon's Keep.
Day 85: Set out for the Shattered Lands
Day 89: Arrived at Blackrock Village.
Day 90: Entered Sorscha's Keep and ventured into the Black Tower. Encountered Sorscha that night.
Day 92: Encountered Wild Hunter
Day 93: Encountered Cave Trolls attacking Goliaths
Day 95: Encountered Tonvan Veen and Trip. Found the Kaballite Staff.
Day 96: Reached Dragon Keep.
Day 97: Set out to search for the missing dwarven scouts.
Day 99: Reached the cave. Fought Blackscales, Kuo-toans, Ooze Drake, and Poison Duks. Found the Axe of Gorek. Rescued two dwarves minus a hand.
Day 100: Set out in search of the Dragon spawn. Encountered Abyssals. Entered Kuo-toan temple. Met Ironfang and traded goods. Fought Rot-tooth, Rime, and four Blackspawn Raiders.

Day 101: Set out for Dragon's Keep.

Day 104: Arrived at Dragon's Keep. Sold some stuff. Went to Stony Vale to sale items to Aleric. Met and elf named Ichaerus. Obegard had a bad dream.

Day 105: Set out for the village of Venteton.

Day 108: Arrived at Venteton.

Day 110: Encountered Blackwings. Entered building. Fought a vampire. Encountered bad ass elf again. Rescued prisoners. Ili died. Got captured.
Day 113: Brought before the Elven Hight Council. Ili raised as a Undead.
Day 114: Escaped.
Day 117: Sorcha returns.
Day 118: Set out for Vallen.
Day 122: Arrive in Vallen. Got in a bar fight. Got arrested.
Day 123: Searched for Jartik. Got a letter with an unknown coin. Obegard's pendant got stolen. Killed an Aranea. Got Obegard's pendant back from Fynn. Stole a crate from the Black Lighting. Gave the crate back.

Day 124: Basc Company

Day 125: First attempt at the Alchemist Shop

Day 126: Second attempt at the Alchemist Shop, Menagerie

Day 133: Witchthorn

Day 134: The Black Lighting Take 2

Day 144: Arrive at the Isle of Secrets, Kraken Attack, Treasure galore!, Sandpoint, Things that go Thump in the Night
Day 145: Testing the Plane
Day 152: Mysterious Tower
Day 153: Stone Forest, Jartik's Fortress
Day 154: Jartik's Fortress, divine magic stop working, encounter Jartik
Day 155: Windsong Tower
Day 157: Evil Malakar
Day 160: Killed The Aspect of Bascaron

Day 165: Sorscha's Report
Day 170: Concordant Killer and meet Archmage Syneri

Day 172: Off to see Witchthorn

Day 178: [Witchorn's Deadline]
Day 190: [Winter]

A disturbing thought

The return to Dragon Keep was a welcome relief. The dwarves have finished their work and for the first time in so long I have a place of my own.

Things have been so weird for so long that I made a mistake and lowered my guard slightly. Big mistake.

There was a call to arms and when I reached the source of the trouble it was some incredible demonic/angelic thing. I had no idea what to make of it and I knew things were bad when Obegard’s only comment was “Oh crap.”

We fought for a little while and then everything went blank. Next thing I knew there was a cat in a cage and some elf I’d never seen before standing there talking about how he’d been testing us.

So here’s the disturbing part. We’ve been so used to people pushing us around that we’ve become accustomed to being pawns in some huge power struggle. But in all the games to which I’m accustomed it’s the players that introduce the pieces. Could it be that, in fact, we are the ones running this show and all that’s missing is for us to work out the rules of the game and how to use our pieces?

What a horrible, scary thought that is.

angry pussy

You kill a god, you expect a little vacation. But ooooh no, can't have that.

I was illin' and chillin' at the mess hall -- thinking about taking a prestige class level in Illin' Chiller, when a ruckus ensued. And this had nothing to do with what I owed that pimp, so it came as a real surprise!

A guard burst into the mess hall babbling about some giant heavenly demon thing dude who was arguing with Malaker. I ran out of the hall, hoping to get a chance to strike Malakar with my axe again, but it turned out this dude was the bad guy. Okay, bad-er guy.

I ran up to smack him with borrow, who had just come up from the dwarven hall (somehow arriving at the same time despite him being further away and having really tiny tiny legs). We were held back by a mysterious invisible wall of force (I can think of some good applications for that one!), but Oby blinked into existance and got rid of it with that magic stuff.

We just got off a smack or two before he cast some obnoxious spell and I was paralyzed. Just when I had a good chance to maybe use iron heart surge, oby turned the giant demon-angel thing into a very, very angry pussy... cat.

We locked the pussy away in a cage (deja vu!) and brought it into the chapel to figure out the next steps. At which point a magical-type elvish dude who wasn't undead popped into the chapel and started babbling about the book, and some test, and that he was 1,000,000 years old and he wore depends or something.

I wasn't listening, I was making coochie-coochie-coo noises and trying to pet the angry kitty.

Yet another test?

After briefly celebrating our victory and briefly saying a prayer for Livia, we departed the moon. With the Aspect gone, we were able to to get off the Isle of Secrets and shortly thereafter, Obegard was able to teleport us back to the Dwarven Keep. We were allowed to keep the Book of Crafting for the time being. We spent a few days fortifying defenses at the Keep while waiting for a shipment of diamonds so that we could.

The others didn't seem to be too serious about security, and I had only cast a few spells to protect the area around the chapel. It looks like my preparations paid off, though in a way that we didn't expect. One day, close to dinner time, as I was leading the faithful in the sundown prayer, a figure suddenly appeared outside the doors of the chapel. He looked like a twelve foot tall humanoid, both glorious and frightening to behold at the same time. He seemed to have angelic and demonic features, a very strange combination indeed. He asked sternly for the Book, even though it resided in Obegard's tower upstairs. He didn't seem to know that and must have approached me because he sensed the most powerful wards at the chapel. This was fortunate, as he appeared to very easily be able to dispel and remove our magical defenses. However, because he was visible, the guards he had bypassed noticed him and quickly went to get the others.

I stalled the creature for a few moments, and even though he knew that the guards must be fetching help, he didn't care. With the others here, I asked him sternly to leave one last time, but he didn't seem to care, and instead responded with a single word of utter blasphemy. As the others leaped to attack, I was overcome with weakness and dread. Durthen and Borrow were stopped by what appeared to be a wall of force, but Obegard quickly took it down. Fortunately for me, one of my acolytes, Derny knew that I had a scroll that would remove the affliction and he acted quickly, freeing me from my state. I saw that the other two were having trouble hurting the creature, as his skin was as strong as adamantine. Just as I recovered and advanced to help the others, he spoke another word of power. The note resonated with perfect clarity and symmetry, and passed through me without much effect, though both Durthen and Borrow both seemed to be held rigid by a matrix of energy.

The situation looked bad, but just as it seemed like we would have to give in to whatever demands this creature had, Obegard, out of desperation, cast a spell that tried to turn this creature into a harmless animal. I didn't think he could possibly bypass this creature's magical defenses, nor did I think that such a powerful beast could possibly be affected by mortal magic, but he was. A moment later, I was looking at what appeared to be a large cat. An angry cat to be sure, one that appeared ready to tear out the eyes of Durthen and Borrow, so I moved quickly to pick up the animal and summoned a guard to get a cage.

We were discussing why such a creature would assault our stronghold, when suddenly, a wizard teleported into the church. I realized that the protections around the church must have been stripped away earlier in the battle, by a powerful dispel magic spell. However, he seemed to not be hostile. In fact, Obegard had heard of him as one of the most powerful wizards in all of the world. Obegard explained that he was Syneri, a thousand year old elf -- and a level-headed one at that. Apparently, it was he who placed the elves on a geas to be nice for 99 years. Too bad he didn't make it 999 years instead. He said that sending the Concordant Killer was all just a test to see if we were powerful enough to hold onto the Book, and we were, so all was well. I didn't like being tested in such a deadly manner, but there wasn't much we could do, as this wizard was beyond any of us. He did offer up a few words of encouragement, however, saying that we were hurting the Nothrog, and that we needed to keep doing it. With that, he left just as quickly, taking the cat with him.

Corcordant Kitten

The return home to Dragon Keep was almost anticlimatic -- as we destroyed the Aspect, Oleanth managed to alter the cycle of the Isle of Secrets so it would be part of our material plane during the daytime. Thus we were able to Greater Teleport right back home.

Oleanth expressed his gratitude by giving us custody of his Tome of Stuff. For now, I'm keeping it in my laboratory when we're at Dragon Keep, and in my pack when we travel. As it turns out, some more sophisticated defenses may be in order: the day after arriving home, we had an unexpected visitor.

I was in the observatory at the time, relaxing with the familiar patterns of the stars. A guard shouted up the tower shaft that Malakar was under attack near the chapel. I zapped in as quickly as I could using the nearby Platform of Jaunting, and rounded the corner to see a Concordant Killer threatening Malakar and Durthen, as Borrow approached from down the hall. I didn't know a lot about Concordant Killers at the time, but I knew enough to be concerned. Once combat began, it set up a force wall to divide us in half, and incapacitated Borrow and Malakar with a blasphemous word. I dropped the force wall with a disintegrate, but it dispelled most of my efforts to disable it. Finally, in desperation, I attempted to transform it into an Ocelot -- and it worked! Malakar stepped in to pin the angry kitten, and the fight was over.

As we prepared to probe the thoughts of the incarcerated kitty, we were interrupted by another teleporting visitor. I looked up from my spellcasting to see none other than Syneri, the immortal elven archmage and benefactor of humanity. Whoa! Knowing Syneri's legend, I was speechless, but Malakar and Durthen established that he was testing us to see if we were capable of protecting the Tome of Stuff from the Medusan Lords. Apparently Syneri is a member of an anti-medusan-lord capabal called the Ten. (Do they have to rename themselves every time the membership changes, I wonder?)

Syneri is gone now, taking his Concordant Kitten with him. Now our deadline with Witchthorn looms, and we need to raise Livia to face it. I hope she's got a plan!

I only axed him once: death or cake?

I killed a god. I killed a god. I killed a god. I killed a god.

Did I mention I killed a god?

I killed a god.

Did YOU kill a god? No, no, no you didn't. I did. hahahahaha, sucks to be Not-Durthen. Here's how:

So we flew to the moon (which was as fun as it sounds) and then landed and Oby started casting something to help us track down the evil god-thing. Soon after he finished, a pair of dragons appeard in the sky and started attacking us. I let those ranged-types do most of the damage, waiting for a chance to whack one with my axe.

The rest of the party dropped the scaly birds, and then evil malakar appeared -- total deja vu. And like last time, we tried to kill him! And unlike last time, he morphed in to a humongous tenticled mass. Still sexier than the normal Malakar...

At this point, the rest of the battle was filled with explosions and craziness. I had a ton of buff spells on me, and was able to walk right up to the aspect's feet-tentacles and hew away. He kept smacking me back into a cliff and I kept running back for more.

I really hurt him with a viscious pair of axe swipes; but I dealt the killing blow soon after. What a mighty feat by Durthen!

Small side effect; he blew up and killed Livia and drastically injured the rest of our party. Oh well....

I KILLED A GOD. HAHAHAHAHA.

Death of an Aspect

This blinking ring is so trippy...

We fought the aspect of Bascerone and won. I took surprisingly little damage throughout the whole thing, and while the ring didn’t seem as effective as it has before, the range of attacks the aspect made cast a whole new light on this avoidance thing.

“Best laid plans” and all that; when we got to the moon we spent a minute or so making sure we weren’t under immediate threat and for Obegard to cast some ritual that dispatched a bunch of little detector eyes or something in a big circle around us.

Then two dragons attacked. Obegard yelled something about them being chaos dragons. I assume that was meant to mean something—I think Obegard both realises and doesn’t realise that we don’t know as much about dragons. I think he thinks that if he tells us what kind they are we’ll know exactly what to do. I don’t know why he’d think that given the consistent evidence to the contrary, but that’s Upworlders for you.

No sooner had we dealt with those than Evil Malakar made an appearance. Except it can’t really have been Evil Malakar because not-so-Evil Malakar was still with us. Hmmm. Ah. Aspect of Bascerone.

He invited Malakar to join him, which Malakar declined. I’m not sure why, because it kind of looks like Bascerone owns him already. Maybe he’s afraid that since we beat him once we can do it again. Last time he had two mooncalves, this time he’d have an aspect of a god. Personally I’d favour his odds more with the god, but Malakar’s not really your big risk taker.

When Malakar spurned him the Aspect turned into a crazy mass of tentacles. It was disgusting. But it made me wonder if this is why Upworlders are so unstable. I mean, what if all their gods are really like this—they put on some nice facade when it pleases them, but in reality they have some alien form that reeks of the insane.

The number of things that I was sure would paste me in that fight was large and I can’t recall them all because I was busy dodging them in case I happening to be on the wrong plane at the wrong time, while still trying to stick my knife in somewhere it could do some good. Because of my “now I’m here, now I’m not”-edness I was taking damage at a much slower rate than the others, so when Malakar was casting spells to heal everyone he was pretty much just topping me up. Mind you, I was glad we did that thing with the incense beforehand because at one stage I got hit bad and that went off to provide a nice comfy cushion of protection against later damage.

I think I held my own in the fight, but it was Dearthen that delivered the death blow. And it was the last insane attack of an insane Aspect, because as it died it exploded spewing some vile acid all over the place. Again I avoided most it but some of the others weren’t so lucky. Poor Livia, she was covered in the stuff and completely dead before anyone could do anything about it.

Some of the others are talking about casting some druidic spell that will call her soul back, but possibly into a different body. Fine for those Upworlders but if I die I don’t want some sub-standard Upworlder body. Give me dwarfdom or give me death! Preferably dwarfdom.

Aspecting an Aspect

So I wake up, and the others were relieved to tell me that just moments ago, I was stronger, faster, more powerful, and in general, cooler. The only problem was that, apparently, to be strong and cool, you also have to be evil, and I had given the rest of them a run for their money trying to kill them and all that. However, with all that behind us, we went back to the tower and completed the ritual that shot us to the moon. We sped through the air and landed an its barren surface about an hour later.

We only had about a minute to gather ourselves before two strange looking dragons came and began making strafing runs at us. I used several of my offensive spells, knowing that against the aspect, my spell would have little direct effect. It wasn't long before the two dragons were chopped up by Durthen.

However, after barely getting a chance to take a breather, someone that looked like my evil self suddenly appeared and tried to recruit me to join him. I *did* want to be cool, but then again, these Basceron guys were also raving lunatics that turn into tentacle things at night, which is decidedly uncool, so I turned him down.

When the fight began in earnest, I had to admit that these "aspect" thingies were quite tough. He opened up with a number of area effect spells that hurt. I spent a great deal of time just keeping Durthen, Erson, and Borrow on their feet and fighting. At one point, Livia and Obegard summoned several helpful creatures to heal us, but they were instantly destroyed by a surge of vile energy by the aspect. I somehow had resisted, but Erson was badly injured. However, Durthen also got a few good hits in, including a pair of strikes that I swear would have cleaved a Fire Giant in two.

At one point, I saw a blast of energy heading toward me that I knew surely could have killed me. I barely had time to summon a ward that protected my body from physical injury, though I still lost consciousness. I was brought back by the healing spell of an Eladrin, and I had just enough time to cast another healing spell that healed everyone nearby before Durthen struck a blow brought down the aspect, but not before it initiated its final revenge by unleashing another blast of energy of fire, acid, and pure evil. Since I was already wounded, the blast should have blasted me to cinders, but fortunately, my ward held, and I regained consciousness a short while later when I was given a powerful healing reagent. I looked around and saw that Durthen, Borrow, and Erson had survived, though they were badly wounded. Obegard had barely survived, though only because his shield guardian had absorbed the damage and was utterly destroyed. Livia, however, did not fare so well.

Story of my life

Victory was so short lived! We did it, we actually defeated an aspect of a god. We did the impossible! I can't even believe that we survived! Two seconds after this hits me, the aspect hit me. Hard. Acid and vile evil exploded from its corpse, obliterating me. I can only think that in its last moments, it cast some sort of retributive spell, knowing that if it would die, it would take us down with it. I don't think my colleagues suffered the same fate, but I'm not certain.

Being a fey was amazing, better than my wildest dreams, being able to flit around the clouds. I wonder if this connection was always there or if my pact with witchthorn put something deeper inside me than I ever knew.

I'm having visions of fey, swirling around me and surrounding me.. hundreds of them in all directions and colors.

Perhaps this is the way I can show my house - our way out of our short lives. The old legends say that the elves and fey were cousins, and we know that the fey are immortal -- maybe in reconnecting with them instead of turning to necromancy.

Or, they can just be the sight of my revenge, building an army to destroy those who destroyed my family.

Belated Aspectations

Livia is dead.

The Shield Guardian is destroyed.

Malakar and others cheated death by a slim margin, and I nearly died myself, scorched by acid and fire, tainted by an indefinite vile corruption.

It could have been much worse.

I believe the killing blow was Durthen's, but my memory of those scant seconds before the Aspect exploded is hazy. It was certainly his axe, wielded with superhuman precision and no small amount of luck, which brought it to the brink of disruption.

With the Shield Guardian aiding and flanking, Durthen, Erson, and Borrow all together had hacked and poked away at it's disgusting tentacles for what seemed like ages. It was, predictably, proof against nearly all my magic, though the ancient artifact spells I gained from Oleanth made a minor dent. So I helped Malakar to heal and protect the fighters as best I could, summoning short-lived Eladrin at opportune moments.

Livia and I should have been fine -- she was blasting away from well outside the Aspect's reach, and I was safely ensconced behind a small ridge. But the Aspect had one final surprise for us in defeat, exploding in a nigh-unresistable torrent of elemental evil. I survived only because the Shield Guardian gave up the last of his animating energy to absorb half of my wounds; Livia had no such protection and was charred beyond recognition. I have some hope, with the resources now at our disposal, that we can return her to life; Malakar will know more about that possibility.

Things looked grim from the very beginning of the battle: before assuming its true form, the Aspect called down a shower of meteors, burning us undiscriminately and smashing the terrain into unstable rubble. I haven't seen magical power exercised on that scale since the raising of the Arak Spire shield, and never by a single entity.

The Aspect was heralded by a pair of Chaos Dragons, who proved a minor challenge. A little bit of disintegrate, many sparks from Erson's energetic will-o-the-wisp form, the usual axes and swords and eldritch blasts, and they were history.

The skies now appear clear, and I believe we have succeeded in the mission Oleanth gave us. I expect that one of him will be here to retrieve us soon. For now, we can carefully collect Livia, and cautiously search our immediate surroundings. I hope we don't find any more big surprises.

Fly me to the moon, not!

I guess at one point I should have mentioned that the plan here is for us to be flown to the moon to fight an aspect of Bascarone. What do I think of this? Well, let’s see... up until recently I’d lived my whole life beneath ground where no matter how large a place is, you know there’s something solid above you—if you see something twinkling up there, you know it’s attached to something. Now I’m in this crazy upworld where that’s just not true, and apparently things can just be sitting in the “heavens” without falling.

I’ve mostly coped with that by, you know, trying not to look up too often. But now you tell me that you’re going to send me to one of those things? The others seem comforted by its substantial size in the sky, but that just makes me wonder all the more how it stays up there. What if the only thing holding it there is this aspect of Bascarone, and we kill it?

Warning—the word “crazy” appears four times in the following sentence.

I’m not crazy about the idea, you must be crazy if you thought otherwise, and I suspect you’re crazy for even believing this isn’t a crazy and unnatural concept.

Okay, so the last one was gratuitous. And “thrice” would have sounded cooler than “four times.” But at least you probably get the idea that I think this whole thing is crazy, right? Everything about it. Including the fact that everyone else things this is a perfectly normal and natural thing to do. Crazy!

The caretaker’s four aspects all prepared some weird ritual circle and started chanting, when some honking big dragon swooped out of the sky and picked one up. With surprising speed Malakar ran off after them, not even pausing to see what the rest of us were doing. I mean, I don’t know if we could have kept up with him under one of Obegard’s corruptions, erm, “spells.” And Malakar was still wearing his tank armour that makes him move slower than everyone else. Something was definitely not right, but at least it was here on the ground, so it wasn’t all bad news.

We gave chase, though “chase” is perhaps being a bit kind to us since they were long gone and moving much faster than us. Let’s say we made our way along the obvious path created by Malakar in heavy armour dashing heedlessly through vegetation.

Which was fine until we reached a clearing and the path just stopped. Clearly Malakar hadn’t vanished, and his ability to hide his trail is about as effective as trying to kill someone by farting a knife out your... Yeah, never mind. Poor old Stand—even if he chosen a knife without a guard I don’t think it would have worked.

So while we pondered what had happened I began to feel uneasy, like this might be some trap. So I carefully moved over to one side just before the dragon swooped out of nowhere and breathed some cloud of something at everyone else. Man was that thing moving—it had flown in, breathed, and was gone again before we could do anything about it.

I did something similar a few more times while we milled around trying to work out how we were going to get at it. Obegard offered to curse, I mean “enchant” a couple of people with the ability to fly, but they weren’t gonna do more than hang in the air like targets for the dragon to pick off, so we elected to stay on the ground and spread out to minimise the effect of its breath.

I don’t know why it did so, but eventually it came to ground to fight and that was pretty much the end of it. No. Really. We just beat up on it and no matter how big it was, we killed it.

I’m not saying it didn’t do its share of damage, but we had some spirit that the caretakers had summoned to keep us healthy and it was mostly keeping up with the damage.

We were just starting to turn our attention back to the problem of finding Malakar when he saved us the trouble. Only it wasn’t the Malakar we’re used to. This one had what looked like the same armour, only it glowed red. And instead of a honking big two-handed sword, it had some different sword thing with teeth along the blade that looked pretty nasty.

Oh yeah, and instead of saying “Hi guys!” and casting all nice spells on us he attacked us. But like our old Malakar he’d clearly cast a bunch of spells before going into a fight.

I wasn’t actually watching much of Malakar’s fight because a couple of tentacled creatures burst out of the trees and decided to play with me. All I can say is thank goodness for my blinking new ring—or should I say my new ring of Blinking!!!!

Oh yes, their tentacles struck at me repeatedly, and some hit their mark, but many times they flew through the place I should have been as I shifted into the Ethereal Plane. Or something. Ask an egghead like Obegard if you want a technical explanation. All I know is that they missed a lot more than they should have, and a couple of my shots missed too, but I connected enough to dispatch both of them while the others were taking on Malakar.

By the time I’d done that I was pretty badly wounded, and looked around for our healer but it had apparently been killed by Malakar. Obviously his tactical sense hadn’t diminished by whatever change had occurred.

I went in to help but some spell went off and hit all of us and I pulled back again to rummage through my bags for some healing potions. (Note to self: get stronger healing potions.)

I downed one of the minor potions and was just wondering whether I needed to drink the other when Durthen cut Malakar down. So I guess the answer to that question is “no.”

As he fell the red glow faded and the weapon transformed back into a two-handed sword. It was very strange—almost as if the whole thing had been some sort of bad dream. Except this nightmare isn’t quite over because we still need to find the missing caretaker aspect, and we still need to fly to the moon and fight an aspect of a god.

Eeeeveeeeltastic

So the second I had prepared for my premature death, a dragon swoops in and takes one of the "aspects" of our host Oleanth -- of course not killing but capturing him, preventing us from completing the spells needed to leave. Then Malekar runs thataway with the dragon, moving at inhumanoid speed. It was so obvious he had begun to worship Bascaron, I'm not certain why we were still traveling with him. These humans don't seem to understand the rules of our ancient elven philosopher named Darwin and would rather risk being killed or stuck on a hellish island than leave an obviously insane man behind. And don't they realize my time is running out ?

Anyways, a heavenly ethereal woman called a Ghaele came along with us to help us fight the evil dragon. We ran after the dragon and malekar (pretty easy to follow the destruction of a gigantic beast as it rushes through the forest) and as soon as we notice the tracks have stopped, it swoops down, breathing a horrific gas of despair, before I could jump out of the way. Unfortunately, in order to stay safe, I had to hide in the woods, where my spells had a difficult time reaching the huge beast. Thank goodness I can make myself a rod of eldritch spear soon to remedy that issue

Now evil Malakar, that is a frightening, yet powerful sight. He obviously wasn't so far gone that he didn't remember our weaknesses, and he most definitely fought us well (with Mooncalves, which happen to not look like anything from the moon, nor do they look like cows -- why not Flying Spaghetti Monster calves -- that would have tentacles). And, true to Malekar form, instead of using his spells to buff the calves up, he had buffed himself up beyond all belief. At least I can dispell those in the blink of an eye. What a nasty sword though - gigantic and toothed.

Durthen, instead of disabling malekar so we could question him, of course decided to chop him in two. He loves that axe. I think he uses it to make up for the lack of chances to use his other "weapon." At least Malekar seemed to return to his original form after the chopping - unconscious, but alive and no longer with evil-infused armor and weapons. Perhaps he has returned to his old self. His old, not quite evil yet most definitely not good self. Human gods have very loose definitions of morals.

Malakar stayed the same (evil) but now we got to hit him! yay!

Step one in killing a deity is apparently standing around in a circle chanting some crap. I wasn't really paying attention, I was thinking about this Oleanth thing. I can understand why, if you're going to be stuck in a tower for thousands of years, that you do it as 4 seperate versions of yourself. You've got a hand for bridge right there, so the years won't be too boring.

But why not 1 male Oleanth and 3 hottie female Oleanths? Bridge can be fun, but there are other ways to pass thousands of years. Plus, now he has to darn his own socks instead of having herself do it for himself. Gee, for a wizardy type, that Oleanth is pretty stupid sometimes.

Apparently while I was thinking about this, a giant dragon swooped in and stole one of the too many male Oleanths, and Malakar went chasing after them faster than I've ever seen him run -- it's like the dragon stole a continual flame torch or something.

So we hustled after them with a cleric on loan from one of the other (male!) Oleanths. Got to a clearing where his tracks disappeared, and we stopped to collect our thoughts. My thoughts involved a dragon swooping down, flying into the sky, and dropping me on my head. YES! What a dumb dragon -- my head is the safest thing for me to land on. Thank god it wasn't one of my weapon hands, or my running feet, or my entertainment crotch.

A short healing spell from the cleric later, and I ducked off into the woods to wait for the dragon to come close. The other guys did stuff, and the dragon got close, and I wacked it, and eventually something killed it (not me, unfortunately).

After the dragon bought it, Malakar stepped out of the woods so I ran after him to smash him in the face with my axe.

Malakar was kind of a pain, he managed to deal me a fair amount of damage. Also wiped out the cleric that came to help us. Still, in the long run he managed to not get out of the way of my axe -- a fatal mistake.

Later my friends told me Malakar was possesed by evil, which meant I did the right thing by trying to kill him. Hey, I just trust my instincts -- they're based on a high 8 wisdom after all. I bet I subconsciously noticed the glowing blue axe with my -1 spot. yep. I must have noticed it, which is why it made sense to smash his face in. Damn but I am good.

After fighting that dragon though, I have this great idea for a new maneuver where I use my opponent's bulky size against them. And I'll be practicing close quarters fighting next time something tries to swoop in on me like that, I bet I can get a blow off first! That's what she said!

I slew the Dragon (mostly), but I did not slay the Malakar (mostly)

After we rested and re-equipped, Oleanth's four avatars escorted us back to the Isle of Secrets to the forest just outside the tower entrance. There he/they constructed a conjuration circle and began the ritual to teleport us to the moon.

While we were concentrating (at least those of us with the necessary attention span were), a huge dragon winged out of the sky at top speed and stole away the lead Oleanth. Just as suddenly and without a word, Malakar sprinted off in the same direction at inhuman speed. I identified the dragon as a Tarterian Dragon from a chaotic plane, an apropriate servant for Bascaron, but I couldn't figure out why Malakar was behaving so strangely. The remaining Oleanthkin warned us that if the lead Oleanth were kept captive, they would be unable to complete the ritual, so we set off immediately to follow Malakar's unmistakable trail through the woods. The Oleanthkin sent a powerful servitor with us, a Ghaele Eladrin, to assist.

We hadn't been hustling very long when Malakar's trail suddenly disappeared. As we paused, cautious of a trap, the dragon returned to swoop and breathe a foul gas of despair at us. Of course I shrugged off its suggestion, but Durthen may have been affected, as he seemed to pause to recollect himself and reconsider his approach to this combat. He didn't have to wait long for a clear answer, as the dragon chose to picked him up and hurled him bodily to earth from the zenith of its next swooping pass. Fortunately for us, Durthen bounces well, though perhaps not in the sense his usual boasts intend.

We peppered the force-oriented dragon with ranged attacks (many trusty magic missiles from my staff) while the Ghaele kept us healed. Eventually the dragon came to earth to attack a small grouping of us, and the Shield Guardian dealt the killing tap.

But before the body had ceased twitching, an alternate version of Malakar charged us from the nearby trees. Clad in reddened mithril plate mail, and bearing a toothed falchion in place of his usual greatsword, he hurling a defiantly coarse cry of "Bring it!" at us. Evil Malakar had arrived, and in signature Malakar style he glowed with stacks of divine spells to aid his fell purpose. Since we had no everburning torches with which to sate his hunger, we were forced to fight.

Unlike the dragon, Malakar knew our strengths and weaknesses and deployed his forces and abilities to great tactical effect. He commanded two Mooncalves to surround and harry Borrow with their plethora of tentacles, while he concentrated his efforts on the Ghaele, trying to remove our ability to heal and protect ourselves. He was as difficult to hit as ever, and magically defended too: my scorching rays were deflected astray, and my chain missiles blocked completely. I didn't manage to hit him with my staff either, but that's a surprise to no one. Fortunately Borrow was having better luck with the Mooncalves, dodging tentacle blow after tentacle blow and piercing their most sensitive anatomy with uncanny accuracy -- a reversal of their usual experience with humanoids, I am sure.

Livia proved essential again, stripping Malakar of most of his defences with her incomparable innate dispelling abilities. Even hampered thus, Malakar managed to kill the Ghaele before he was finally brought low by a blow from Durthen. As the killing blow became apparent, we feared that we had lost Malakar permanently, out of the frying pan of Evil and into the fire of Death, as it were. However his form blurred momentarily and Malakar, our Malakar and breathing freely, returned. I hope his possession by Evil has been purged, since we omitted the crucial "looting" phase of his concurrent defeat and rescue.

Now we return to the eldritch ritual of fleimituthamune, flush with success yet knotted with worry about our ally Malakar. We'll need his tactical genius unfettered by moral confusion if we're to face a nigh-immortal Aspect of Bascaron.

I just hope I can get some sleep during the flight.

Aspect-Oriented Powergaming

We passed the tests, fighting projection after projection. Oleanth, the headmaster of Windsong Tower, was testing us to see if we were powerful and cunning enough to aid him in his goals. He wishes to reconnect Windsong Tower to the Accordlands so that it is not isolated by the twisted Isle of Shadows. I'm so glad that the book wasn't angry with us after all -- gaining the enmity of inanimate objects would be a new low for us.

Flush with success, reward, and hope of return to our home, you'd think we could relax now. Ha! The extremity of Oleanth's request is such that I'd laugh it off, were we not already beyond the boundaries of our ordinary reality. He needs us to travel to the Broken Moon to assault and temporarily disrupt the Aspect of Bascaron. Only with the Aspect disrupted can Oleanth break free from Bascaron's pull and reconnect the tower.

It's a good thing we have time to prepare and plan; I know very little about the environment of the Broken Moon, or the powers of his Aspect, but I doubt they'll be hospitable.

How many psychos does it take to change a continual light stone?

How much trouble can one party get into? Well, let me point out that the elf that traded her soul for power is looking a little antsy...

We continued on into the magic school, Windsong Tower or whatever it’s called. The place was deserted, and Obegard was upset because his book has stopped talking to him—is it good or bad when the voices in your head stop?

We came across this large auditorium, and Obegard became very excited and started saying something about “wizard’s duel”. Before we knew it he was standing on a pedestal at one end of a large pit and there was someone standing on a pedestal at the other end. Actually, it looked just like the guy we’d taken out downstairs!?!?!

We couldn’t get to Obegard but we could clearly see what was going on as he and the other guy madly summoned critters all over the place. It didn’t look good for Obegard because almost everything he summoned the other guy summoned as well, and summoned more of.

When I wasn’t worrying about what would happen to Obegard which, let’s be honest, was most of the time, I was wondering where all these summoned creatures were when we were stuck in a tough fight. When Obegard claimed to be out of spells, how many of these little surprises was he holding back? Note to self—when Obegard completely loses it and has to be taken care of, remember this little episode.

While I was working through scenarios for killing Obegard I totally lost track of what was happening in the pit, and was only brought back to the present by the other guys cheering. Somehow, despite the overwhelming odds, Obegard had managed to kill his opponent.

We continued to search the school and I made sure to keep Obegard in sight at all times. We entered a room with several passages off it and were assaulted by some dude in super heavy armour that was whacking away at us like crazy. It was clear he had some major mojo involved and it was a pretty tough fight, but eventually we managed to beat him down and it was the same freaking guy!!!

Apparently he decided that three times was enough because now he stopped to actually talk to us and said he’d been testing us to see if we were strong enough to face an aspect of Bascerone. Hahahahahahaha! Oh, wait, he’s serious? Are all non-dwarven magic wielders insane?

The thing I don’t get is with Sorsha who approached us calmly to offer help Malakar and some of the others were like rabid dogs “Kill her, Borrow!”, “Silence her so she can’t cast spells, Borrow!”, “Slit her throat!”, “Don’t let her say anything!” but this psycho tries to kill us a bunch of times and they’re all like “Shall we have some tea and scones?” It’s totally messed up.

I’m keeping my mouth shut for now because this guy may be psycho, but he’s a really powerful psycho, and Obegard’s such a nut case that who knows which way he’d go if a fight broke out?

Also, the guy claims to know how we get back to our own plane and is offering us some cool magic items to help us do what he asks, which will cause the school to be cut off from this plane and re-connected with ours, if I understand all that mumbo-jumbo correctly. I’m kind of suspicious that perhaps the magic items won’t do exactly what we expect, but they’re going to be so shiny and my current bling is looking a little dated.

I'm not sure if Obegard was really sane or there just happens to be a bunch of completely mad wizards. The book was plotting to test us along with the crazy spirit who inhabits the wizards college of Windsong Tower.... hrm.....
Oh yeah, and we're about to go fight a god... well only an "aspect" of a god.... a god which one of our own party now appears to serve.... Does anyone else see a teeeny problem in this ? I mean, it may be our only chance to get home, but then again, that assumes that my spirit will be returning home instead of my body.

Meeting our host

We finally made our way to Jartik, and he wasn’t very hospitable. He was expecting us, because his desk was some sort of scrying device that allowed him to observe the rest of the keep.

We tried to talk to him—honest—but after laughing at our attempts at diplomacy he just attacked us. Him and his big red wolf.

Jartik engaged our combat guys and seemed to get them on their back foot, especially since he was pretty big and was able to use his bulk to push them around. Even with the shield guardian helping it looked like it was going to be a long fight as Jartik dictated terms.

At the same time his wolf went for Livia and given the weirdness of the creatures we’d encountered here I feared it would go badly for her so I went to help out. While the wolf was fierce, it turned out to be nowhere near as fearsome as some of the other things we’ve found and we were able to take it down quickly.

Then a played a nasty little trick on Jartik. As he was deciding who to attack next I made some nasty comments about the “special bond” he’d shared with his wolf. I know the others thought I was mad but when Jartik charged me I was able to use his size against him and divert his charge straight into a position where the others could surround him.

He was clearly experienced at fighting against multiple opponents but the opportunity for everyone to get attacks on him before he could once more take command of the fight and engage people one at a time was enough for us to get the upper hand and we quickly took him down.

We did a fairly careful search of the area but we haven’t really found any answers to our questions. There are many books here, some of which are journals, but it seems unlikely there will be enough detail to be of use to us. I guess we’ll have to rely on Malakar to interrogate Jartik’s spirit.

Obegard’s condition continues to follow a predictable decline. As I expected, “the book” wants to go home to the wizard’s college. What? No! Really?

Almost as soon as we got there we were attacked by some spirit that concealed itself inside solid objects and cast spells at us. We were unable to reason with it and could only really attack it by causing massive damage to the objects it was hidden in.

Not surprisingly when there was something that a talking book familiar with the college could have helped with, it appears to have become upset with us and stopped talking. How very convenient.