Day 10 – The Wake

From the diary of Vida Pankhurst

Today I am me and you are she.  To burn within is his decree.

We arrived at Nulb and I separated from my companions to make use of the local smithy whilst they went about their own business. I found it strangely abandoned and so seized this opportunity to practise my craft. Finally having what I needed I turned to leave but was set upon by a mechanical creature that clambered out of the darkness, blocking my exit from the smithy. The construct had the most curious appearance of an arachnid and it fired metallic spikes from its head. Some sort of security golem protecting the smithy.

How fortunate that the thing waited till I had finished my work to attack me!  I turned it to scrap by conjuring a ring of blades about my form and then smashing it to pieces with a dwarven war axe. Leaving it in ruins on the smithy floor I went exploring in the village and learn that the blacksmith had apparently died in our absence from the village. It seems that although we had the doppelganger’s poison slowed by Crippelina, Otis the blacksmith still died from its effects and his wake was to be held the that very day.

Eventually the others in our little group arrived and Sameson, the fool, was drenched from head to foot. It seems he returned to the lake nearby and cleansed it with his magic. Then he was set upon by some type of elemental, which he escaped by plunging into the pool he had just cleansed. At the bottom of the pool he discovered a box and then used a water walking spell to bounce himself to the surface when the elemental had left. He showed us all this box and we opened it to reveal an ancient scroll within.

As Joe read the scroll to the group we shared a vision of a mighty battle. In this battle many mortal mages and warriors battled with creatures pouring forth from the Temple of Elemental Evil.  An evil mage appeared in the battle and used a skull, bearing four coloured gems, to summon the evil demoness Zuggtmoy, the queen of fungi. The mighty forces of the temple were winning until a human warrior came forward and cut Zuggtmoy down with a gigantic sword. Then the evil mage teleported back to the temple, with the skull, where he re-summoned Zuggtmoy. Next our vision cut to a group of powerful magic users sealing Zuggtmoy and the mage within the temple.  

Unsure what to make of this new information imparted from the scroll we decided to go to the blacksmith’s wake and amusingly we all drank bad ale made by Sameson when he had been ill with ghoul fever. Consequently, it drove us into frenzy and, since all the locals drank it too, the wake turned into a ferocious bar brawl. The last thing I remember is pelting that oaf Ugg with bottles before I myself was knocked out by a stray bar stool flung across the room. A small chaos prepared to what will come, but a beginning at least.

We awoke from our frenzies only to be enlisted by the whore Pearl as part of the procession that guarded Otis’ coffin as it was carried away from Nulb. We agreed as we were leaving anyway to find The Temple of Elemental Evil, but first we rested….