Vida - La Vida

… who knows how much blasted time I spent incarcerated as a statue. I was aware of nothing, except the rage of my deity pulsating within my head at allowing myself to be imprisoned so. Finally, his hand guided those who would free me to my side. None other than the trickster gnome, Wonillion, and its comrades Taki (the lover of the favoured one), a cleric of Saint Cuthbert by the name of Cedric and Ugg himself. Wonillion is a mage and used scrolls of stone to flesh to reverse the transmutation. Later it was revealed that it was this very same gnome who conjured the basilisk, which in fact was nothing more than a very convincing illusion. It did this under the service of an evil mage named Falrinth (the very same who gave the half-orc in Nulb the cursed sword) and now sought redemption in freeing us from the results of its handiwork. Redemption however seems to only go so far with gnomes because in our incarcerated state the treacherous creature had covered us all in brightly coloured paints for its amusement.

Should I meet this trickster again I shall find a way to get even with it. However, for now it worked its magic to change us all back to our true forms. The transformation was a dangerous one which required the strongest of constitutions to survive. Joe would not have lived through it were it not for my intervention; calling upon my deity to keep this most useful thief alive. Amusingly, another side effect of the gnome’s magic was that its familiar, a ferret, turned to stone and shattered upon the chamber floor leaving the gnome to release a cacophonous wail to rival that of any banshee.  Then the warrior with the misplaced affections announced his intentions to leave in his search for Mai and blessedly took the distraught creature with him.

This left us with the Cuthbertite who simply shrugged and joined our ranks. There is something else about this cleric. Something more than his obvious religious fervour that I can’t yet put my finger on, but I intend to get to the bottom of when the opportunity presents itself. A look around revealed we were in some kind of storage chamber away from the basilisk illusion. It also revealed that Fillian (the elf mage) was no longer with us. Cedric told us that Falrinth had put our statues in different elemental temples guarding by powerful monsters. They had been unable to get Fillian back because he was guarded by the Juggernaut within the water temple.

Together we agreed upon the folly of throwing our lives away against the juggernaut for an elf and headed down deeper into the temple in search of the high priest of the greater temple. Iuz’s days as the master of this domain are numbered. On route we opted to investigate a stairway as yet unexplored near what was the lair of ‘King’ Scorpp. Down it was a large chamber in which laired a two-headed giant, an ettin. Sameson clumsily slipped down the staircase on route to engage the beast and knocked himself unconscious, so it was left to Ugg and our new pious friend, Cedric, to engage the beast whilst Joe peppered it with arrows. I attempted to shatter the mind of the giant but the two heads proved impossible for me to dominate. Regardless we made short work of the monster with Ugg striking the killing blow.

We found little treasure within this room and Joe picked the lock on one of the huge double doors that exited it. The door lead to a long corridor and after much exploration of all manner of chambers (including a banquet chamber adorned with gaudy pictures of battles worn by the temple of elemental evil) we finally came to a room adorned completely in black. In typical fashion my comrades recklessly entered as if it were their own bedchambers and were set upon by shadows hiding unseen within it. These undead creatures would have been dealt with most succinctly by three clerics had it not been for one such creature that gripped a rod within its shadowy claw.  A rod adorned with the symbols of Iuz that protected them from our turning abilities.

We were left with no choice but to attack with our weapons and I concentrated my attacks, along with Cedric, on the one which held the rod. Together we bested the creature that attempted, unsuccessfully, to drain the strength from our bodies with its touch. As it dissipated the rod fell to the floor and I crushed this symbol of a lesser god under my booted feet. Sameson lifted his holy symbol and the rest of the shadows were cast away by his god’s wrath leaving us free to continue to explore the area. Joe spotted a secret door and through which was a huge burial chamber with skeletons cast all about the place. Aware of the threat of undead I cast a death … but after finding that nothing was undead within the area I stayed by the door and let my comrades explore the chamber.

Whilst they continued to make as much racket as humanly possible I sensed another group of shadows approaching from back down the corridor. These unfortunate souls had no such protection as the rod from before and so I managed to silently dispatch them before my comrades even knew they were there. I seized control of half of them and made them destroy the other half and repeated the process till none were left. It amused me to make these dark puppets dance their silent battle whilst my companions stomped around unawares.

In my absence Joe had discovered another secret door in the burial chamber. However, at this time we decided to find somewhere to rest and recover our strength for whatever lay ahead. After all we had been awake for days. I took the first watch and when nothing occurred went to the battle of sleep.