[coronatiger]

Thoughts on April 14th

Leopold and Va’lyndra had deduced that the ritual we had seen the remains of was part of a larger one, and that the arrows pointed towards the nearest other ritual sites. They suspected that the text outside the main painting was mathematical calculations that would give us the coordinates of the other sites, but neither of them knew enough geometry to decipher it. We determined to find someone who could help with the calculations later.

Ilzo started talking about how to spread chaos in the world. Burning down churches would be a good start, he thought. Leopold was alarmed, but calmed down when Va’lyndra assured him we weren’t going to do anything that extreme. The discussion moved on to what we’re going to do after these quests. Should we look for the other ritual sites? Should we join the fight against Tamburin? I didn’t weigh in much, but my mind was hard at work. I’m not keen on enlisting, having to take orders all day from some snot-nosed noble. I don’t have much respect for most of the nobles around here. Lady Karita’s cousin, Karl Morgenstern, is the only decent one, in my opinion. Hiding among the townsfolk while Ilzo and Va’lyndra, and Leopold, I guess, flee south to escape death or slavery doesn’t sound very appealing either. Whoever wins the battle, soldiers who haven’t seen a woman in ages will come into town, and they’ll rape my beautiful, precious, delicate Olivia. I have no delusions I’ll be able to stop them all. We’re going to have to flee, too.

I shook those depressing thoughts away and declared that we had a quest to complete. There were two residential areas and a temple to explore here. We started with the closest houses, five pretty nice villas.

The first house gave us nothing. The second house had metal doors and bars over the windows, and Va’lyndra said it was spelled, and she had difficulty analyzing it. So much so that Ilzo lost his patience, found a boulder and hurled it at the door. After a couple of attempts, the rock burst through, shattering the hinges and toppling the door inwards. He peeked inside, but didn’t pass the threshold until Va’lyndra questioned his wisdom. Then he stepped through defiantly. His hands came up to his chest and it was clear he’d been hurt somehow. He was still standing, and started looking around inside, telling us he wouldn’t come out again before we removed the spell on the door.

I asked him if he had brought healing potions. He hadn’t, but explained where I could find them, so I returned to camp and grabbed a few things that surprised Olivia. “Ilzo’s been stupid again,” I explained. Olivia nodded knowingly as I attached an empty sack to the end of a tent pole, and put Ilzo’s potions inside. I went back to the magic house and handed Ilzo the potions. I guess we could have used Surkalpi or Va’lyndra’s quarterstaff, but what was done was done. For his recklessness, I’d make Ilzo help me erect out tent again.

Ilzo declared that there wasn’t anything to find inside the house. Impatience getting the better of him again, he used his boulder to break through a window. Climbing out didn’t hurt him, so he climbed back in. That didn’t hurt either. I suspected that the window was safe, but maybe the house only attacked each intruder once? Figuring I was the one in our party, after Ilzo, who was most able to survive a beating, I backflipped in through the window. Seeing me unhurt on the inside prompted the others to follow. The window was only about a meter above the ground, but even that is too high for a gnome, so I reached out and pulled him inside. Va’lyndra entered last.

We searched through the house. As Ilzo had claimed, it was devoid of valuables, but Leopold was as interested in uninteresting things as always. He chattered on about how this wasn’t a dwelling, but rather a gathering place for someone, a place to meet once in a while. There was a cryptic inscription on the bottom of a wall, though, that baffled him and Va’lyndra for a few moments. The script was ancient elvish, but the words made no sense. Leopold managed to decipher the code, though, and then translated: “You must retrieve fire essence from the Spirit Land. Remember to bring a water mage to keep the container sealed. This must happen before …” some date near the end of the old elves’ three-thousand-year long calendar cycle. Neither Leopold nor Va’lyndra had heard of this Spirit Land, and the gnome determined that more research was required. I didn’t think the instruction held much relevance for us. It certainly wasn’t meant for us. Someone had to perform this task, and whether they succeeded or not was hardly important anymore. The time limit had expired millennia ago.

We marked the house with guild signs saying that we had explored it and that the door was trapped, but that the window was safe, and then we moved on. The last three houses were as boring as the first one, but we found some gold coins, so I had some good news for Olivia when we returned.


Thoughts on April 15th

We decided over breakfast that we’d search the other residential area first, even though we had to pass the temple to get there. Those houses were much smaller than the villas we searched yesterday, and they had no elaborate carvings to mark them as important places, so we agreed not to spend much time in each of them. There were a lot of them, though, and it took all day to go through them all. We’re lucky we did, for in one of them, someone had left a sizeable treasure, coins and gems totaling nearly a thousand gold pieces in value. Too bad the governor gets half. Va’lyndra and Ilzo talked about smuggling out the gems. I wasn’t keen on the idea, but said nothing. We’ve been caught smuggling before. The next time, we won’t likely get off with a slap on the wrist.


Thoughts on April 16th

I was supposedly watching for enemies approaching, but Olivia was still alert, even with my distractions, and she spotted Leopold leaving the camp. She slapped my hands away and nodded towards him. I called his name, first in a hushed voice so I wouldn’t wake Ilzo and Va’lyndra, but when he kept walking, I raised my voice. He gave no sign of hearing me, so I activated Surkalpi and ran over to him. I poked him on the shoulder, to no effect, so I ran around him and grabbed him by the shoulders. The glaring light from Surkalpi woke him up. He complained about it, so I lowered the weapon so the light shone from behind him. Then he said he was going to bed. “Do that,” I agreed, and followed him back. I turned off Surkalpi and explained to Olivia that he’d been sleepwalking.

We went to check out the temple after breakfast. It was carved into the wall of the cavern, and we could see a large lump carved into the wall above the entrance. The surface of the lump was covered in bubble-like carvings, and made me think of foam. I glanced meaningfully at Va’lyndra, and Leopold prompted that this would be a good place to look for magic. Sure enough, the area inside was covered with an enchantment. Va’lyndra discovered that the enchantment checks whether those entering are alive or not, and if you’re alive, the magic changes you so you’re not anymore; “transforms” was the word she used. To me, that sounded like a death spell. An additional effect makes the enchantment difficult to remove. Lovely! Not that we’ve ever removed spells other than by destroying the enchanted object. Our strategy has always been to break through or sneak past spelled areas. That wouldn’t work here.

Va’lyndra tossed a piece of dried fruit into the temple, but we couldn’t see any changes to it, other than the slight deformation that happened when it hit the floor. She needed to rest after her spellcasting, and was adamant that none of us should try to enter. I think her words were more for Ilzo than for Leopold or me…

A piece of living wood pushed into the temple showed no changes we could detect. With the stupidity of an orc, Va’lyndra stuck her hand inside. It made her feel dizzy, and when the effect worsened, she pulled her hand back. Ilzo postulated that maybe those who enter turn into spirits. Va’lyndra asked him to take her hand, and I could see the struggle on her face as she forced herself to step inside, only her hand remaining outside. She said she was getting dizzy, and told Ilzo to pull her out if she fainted. The words had barely left her mouth when she collapsed. Ilzo pulled her outside. We hurried back to Olivia with her body. I sighed with relief when Olivia said she felt a slight pulse on her neck. I explained what had happened, of course, that Va’lyndra had stepped into a magic death trap on purpose. “Why in the world would she do that?” Olivia moaned. I had no answer for her. We watched the body all day, letting Ilzo and Leopold do as they wished.

Va’lyndra didn’t wake, and Ilzo and I put the body inside her tent. Olivia notified Leopold that his watch was beginning, and my lover and I converged on our own tent. We were about to kiss when Olivia spotted something over my shoulder. She ran over to Va’lyndra’s tent and went to work, trying to get Va’lyndra to breathe. Relief washed over me when Va’lyndra vomited and gasped for breath, although she was still sleeping. Olivia rounded on Ilzo, berating him for nearly drowning the poor elf. He must never give liquids to someone who’s unconscious. Olivia turned on me, and with nearly as much anger instructed me to make sure he didn’t.