From the diary of Vida Pankhurst
I’m here to stay forever but not today
We stayed in Hommlet for five days. I feel more in control than before. Perhaps it was being away from this bloody horrid place for so long that allows this. I didn’t want to bloody go back, but be damned if I will allow her to make me into a coward before the eyes of mighty Joramy.
I used my time in Hommlet to remake my blessed war hammer, the favoured weapon of my goddess, and prayed to Joramy for guidance in my plight. But she refused to give me any more clues to add to the strange one given before. ‘In 3 on 6 lies 9.’ What the bloody el is that supposed to mean. I’m beginning to worry that the clue didn’t come from her… but from the other one.
Anyway it turns out that the beautiful Mae, and the sailor she left the temple with, never made it back to Hommlet. Joe received a message from the church of the big gamble saying she hadn’t returned and insisting he go look for her. He learnt not to bloody trust that capricious church as well when they scammed him out of all of his money via gambling.
Concern rife in all of us for Mae’s well-being we set off with our bags full of provisions and made for the temple again. A short journey later and we were soon at the place of ineffable evil once more. As we crossed the courtyard we found a body lying supine. It was the sailor whose body was covered in abrasions and worse yet his bloody eyes had been pulled out! As he chocked in his own blood he gurgled something about a tower. Sure enough a sinister looking tower lurked in the ruins near the temple which we had yet to explore. Hoping to find Mae inside we uttered prayers of mercy for the poor sailor and headed in the direction of the tower’s drawbridge.
We hadn’t got far when the mystery of what happened to the sailor was quickly solved when a swarm of humungous looking crows swarmed from the top window the tower and launched themselves down towards us. Sameson, being mister king of the animals and all, called upon his god and took control of one of them. He made it attack another raven and the two tumbled out of the sky in mortal battle. But that still left about ten more of the things. Suddenly my stomach lurched when I head Fillian garbling in the language of magic. ‘What bloody elf trick was he conjuring this time!?,’ I thought. He threw a fireball from his hands and then the air was a cloud of feathers and barbequed raven. I gotta admit that elf has bloody style sometimes.
We crossed the bridge and discovered the door to the tower was locked. Luckily we have old fleet fingers Joe with us and he deftly picked the lock. Pulling open the door revealed darkness within. With my keen dwarf eyes I managed to make out lots of humanoid figures within who punctually assailed us with arrows before I could shout a warning to my friends.
We charged in and discovered the place to be full of soldiers faithful to the temple. On the ground floor of the tower we were engaged by some warriors, whilst archers peppered us with their bows from a staircase above. Fillian cast his trademark Web spell to take some of the warriors out the battle as they became entangled in his magical net. I called down the fiery powers of my goddess upon others, as Sameson and Ugg fought with some of the commanders. Joe snuck around making use of his own crossbow and short sword within the wild confines of this epic battle. And that was the last thing I remember because the battle rage took over me and the next thing I knew I was on the staircase hacking down archers with my war hammer. I turned to find we had dispatched all but one of the soldiers, who we opted to take captive.
It seemed the lieutenant who had been barking orders in the battle had fled through one of the side doors on the bottom floor of the tower. Thinking him trapped we interrogated the surviving soldier who admitted to being a simple mercenary under pay from the temple. The only other useful thing he knew was that Mae was brought to the temple. Letting him go we pursued the lieutenant. But we were too late! He had escaped through a trapdoor. We raided a chest in the chamber that contained lots of treasure, including a topaz incrusted short sword and magical cloak. Also in the chest was a list of potential kidnap victims for the temple. We took this to show to Burnes. I think we should bloody take it to show the potential victims so we could finally get some gratitude from the locals!
We piled the bodies up and left a warning so that any other recruits know what becomes of those who ally themselves with the temple. Then we followed the passageway down the trapdoor and discovered it led almost all the way back to Hommlet, exiting at a dry well within view of the village. So this is how the new recruits for the temple are coming in! The bloody lieutenant was long gone by now though, so we returned via the passage to the temple and decided to explore the other ruined towers on the outskirts of the temple courtyard.
Most of these turned out to be empty but whilst exploring became possessed by a strange creature called a Cranium rat. It looked like any other rat except it had glowing red eyes and a large brain protruding from its skull, all out in the open to see. It looked bloody disgusting if you ask me. Still it doesn’t surprise me that even a rat has a bigger brain than these men. The creature took control of most of the men. It tried with me but I shook its influence off. I was ready to squish the bugger and the rest of its kin, but it seemed they meant us no harm. In fact they gave us some useful information about Mae. The rats claimed that she is some sort of ‘favoured of the souls’ and that’s why the temple want her. They said she is ‘safe within the darkness.’ Whatever that bloody well means.
Things got even more blummin weird when they stole some of Fillian’s spells right out of his head and Little Bit (Fillian’s rat that stole my last copper pieces in Nulb – I’ll get the bugger for that one day) opted to become their leader and stay with them. Anyway, they released the men from their wacky mind control and
after this most odd encounter we turned and entered the main temple once more to search for Mae.
Having a million and one bloody questions between us we decided to head back to the augury chamber to see if it might be able to answer our questions about what my clue meant, or where Mae or whoever this Keller person is that Sameson keeps harping on about. Of course this meant going through the chamber with the striges again. The nasty bugs attacked us but this time we were ready for the things and swatted them down with ease.
In the chamber we asked our questions and got nothing but what seemed like random, and bloody obvious, advice. Stuff like ‘beware the cursed corridor’ or ‘go to the blessed door’. I felt like burning the whole bloody place down to be honest, but instead we decided to go down a nearby corridor we had yet to explore. We discovered a new area behind some wall hangings and entered a room with rich soil on the floor rather that your usual sturdy stone. At the far side of the room we could see a large altar upon a pyramid like pedestal with stairs leading up to it. It didn’t take a wizard to realize this was part of the earth temple.
We stepped onto the soil and then a humungous earth elemental pulled itself out the ground before us. It took one swipe with its big earthy fists at Joe and sent him flying back down the corridor. Ugg tried to hold it off but it did the same to him. We hitched up our armour and legged it, healing the fallen as we passed them. The animated lump of earth followed us for a while but ceased its pursuit when we were far away from the earth temple entrance. Just to be safe though we have sealed ourselves into the crypts which we slept in a few days ago. Here we will rest to regain our strength and think on how to proceed without getting turned into bloody jam.
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