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Story Hour
Dear Mom - Mishap Adventures of a Mommy's Elf
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<blockquote data-quote="Lwaxy" data-source="post: 5819106" data-attributes="member: 53286"><p>4th of Rhune</p><p></p><p>Honored Lady Theka!</p><p></p><p></p><p>It is getting harder and harder to keep it from Ortlath that we are writing to you as well. And I dislike having this secret from him. But, as you command. </p><p></p><p>We are back from the temple, and the temple is now gone! The Loremaster was a great help, I'm so glad he decided to become more active again. </p><p></p><p>After we woke up early this morning, instead of having breakfast we had 4 undead acolytes to deal with who, if the priest can be trusted, only attacked us to be killed and end their existence. We obliged. Fighting uncorporals is frustrating though, I need to get myself a sword or saber with some magical extra I think. Never saw the need for it back in the Realm, where we mostly dueled for fun. </p><p></p><p>After disposing of the poor acolytes we came to a prayer room. I am wondering what kind of weird god this Yig really is, doing so much harm to those who worshiped him. The room was a nightmare, the wall the usual serpent, this time in a mosaic form. The eyes glowed, as if it was alive. I didn't dare look into them, being sure of some evil magic going on. But Uthas and Flip both did and promptly went to attack us. Orlath had to magically hold both of them so I could serene touch them. Scarbelly had the sense – amazingly enough – to cover the eyes with a bed sheet from his equipment. Falthar took a book from the altar with him; unfortunately, as he confirmed, it wasn't anything helpful to our search for the missing ritual items. </p><p></p><p>Before we could get one level down, we had to fight a wraith. The Loremaster tricked it to attack him, and he had an amulet repelling, and in this case destroying, attacking special undead types, so that was easy for a change. Level down we found the temple's infirmary, with two more undead serpent priests stuck there in eternal sickness. Can you imagine they could not leave their beds for centuries? Really, this Yig god is not on my good side. </p><p></p><p>The two told us what they remembered in their half mad state before we killed them on their request. We got some valuable information about the missing items, too. One of them, the armor called Serpent Scales, was actually still on one of those shadow priests, however that works with an uncorporal creature. It was a warrior priest in the training room yet another level down. He immediately challenged us to a training fight. It was like he didn't get he was dead, and that we were not his acolytes. On the bright side, this meant that he was not out to kill us. But we needed the armor off him and, ideally, him ending his pitiful existence as well. </p><p></p><p>Scarbelly, who is quite the clever orc, came up with the idea of the orcs fighting him one by one, pretending to be his students. They could not harm Vrosh – that was the undead's name – because of the armor he wore, we had been told as much. The armor had one slight vulnerability though, where it must have been damaged by a superior opponent a while back. The two shadows in the infirmary had told us where the damage was. If we looked closely, it was clearly to see. The spell to disrupt undead worked wonders, although we all had to try several times because the armor, despite us aiming right, absorbed much of the magic. </p><p></p><p>Uthas brought the armor to the shadow priest once we were done while the rest of us kept searching the next level. And what do you know, more undead in the mess hall. They, too, had no idea they were dead and thought we, of all things, might be food! Orlath and the priest somehow managed to get through to them about their undead status. They were all confused after that, but we didn't attack them as they had not asked to be killed. We figured the ritual we were collecting the components for would take care of it, and it did in the end. </p><p></p><p>We then found a makeshift prison with another poor soul trapped in it. This one talked in riddles, or rather, wanted us to solve an easy riddle before giving us any information. This way, we found out where the Venom of the Serpent was – hidden in yet another statue of their god. Again, we sent Uthas to deliver it upstairs once we had retrieved it. In the time we needed to do so, the Loremaster had found the high priest's journal entries. In there is an interesting bit of insight about the Unspeakable One. It is said he might not be of this world. Do you think it is possible? I am not all that versed in religion, do our scholars ever mention this? </p><p></p><p>We had a comical moment, too, as we encountered the shadows of the high priest's assistants. They hated each other and seemed to have been fighting all the centuries, wanting each other dead. Each of them asked us to kill the other. After some laughter (and also feeling bad for them of course) we obliged both of them. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, just when we thought we were about done and it would be an easy day, we found the sacrificial chamber with a whole lot of undead. Seems the priests have sacrificed sentient creatures – which definitely makes their god evil in my eyes – and only Orlath's and mine fireballs could take care of the matter. Ash not does good zombies make. </p><p></p><p>Then we found the most curious thing – a hatchery. From what the Loremaster got from the journal, the priests of Yig were chosen before birth and hatched in the temple. The room was full of mostly broken eggs. It seems that once the fate of the temple became clear to some, they destroyed the unborn to prevent them from sharing their fate. There were still stones in there giving off magical heat, which was welcome after the dampness of the temple. The orcs were very interested in them, because it could keep warmth in their ship without risking a fire. Scarbelly and the orc shaman present came up with a way to carry all 8 in a rug between them. </p><p></p><p>One of the eggs was intact, and we took it along out of curiosity. This now causes some issues, but more on that later. </p><p></p><p>We also found what must have been a rich waiting room once. Orlath wanted to fireball the room because of more molded fabric but he was all out of spell energy. Good thing that, too, I am still a little bit mad at him for the incident in the altar room. Black Dog's ghost was all excited about the first real treasure here, a jade serpent statue which was a replica, as it seemed, but still very valuable. The orcs agreed to take it along and drop it in the dead pirate's treasure hoard later. Other than that, we found a stuck door with water seeping out under it, if just very little. We didn't dare open it, as it looked very much like the original entrance leading to the open sea. </p><p></p><p>Oh, yes, there were more statues. One of them was quite tall and had yellow light coming out of its eyes. The light illuminated a double door with the usual snake carving. The most curious thing; when standing in the path of the light it was shining right through us! </p><p></p><p>We could not get the door to open, and it was Flip who finally discovered that the statue had eyelids we needed to close for the magical light to stop. After that, the doors opened up to what the snakes in the infirmary had named the Serpent's Pit. It was basically a large amphitheater in half moon shape. And yeah, more rotting pillows and such, and Orlath almost had a panic attack about it. I have no idea what his issue is, he doesn't tell. It must have been a long time back in his past, as I know him almost his whole life. </p><p></p><p>And there was a large undead snake. Yes, undead undead undead. And we were all out of magic so we had to manually hack it apart. Luckily, the orcs and Uthas did most of the work, and that spear Scarbelly had taken from the warrior priest earlier seemed to be quite the help. But they were at it for quite some time, nobody wanting to risk being bitten. I picked up some additional colorful orc language while watching. </p><p></p><p>We then removed the Fangs of the Serpent and went back to the undead priest. He was happy enough to have everything he needed, but one thing, it seemed. He needed the blood of one of us as he was, well, undead and had no blood to give. K'Stallo agreed to do this, after all, they were his people, if from centuries back. </p><p></p><p>The ritual itself was strange, including the mixing of blood and venom and a lot of weird snake language. When all was done, the Jade Serpent disengaged itself from the altar and we could take it. The high priest had just time to thank us before he ceased his cursed existence. Unfortunately, the whole tower began to shake badly, and we had to hurry up through the water – with some difficulty with the heat stones and all – and out of the building, back into the boat and off. The whole caves shook, and Uthas and two of the orcs panicked about being buried alive. </p><p></p><p>But, after dropping off Black Dog and his new treasure, we all made it out. Had to promise the ghost we'd check in on him every now and then. He must be very lonely. </p><p></p><p>We had to wait for the tide to be right before we could leave the caves so we slept in there. When we came out finally, it was just dawn, and a lot of ships and boats of all types filled the waters around Freeport. We were back just in time before the lighthouse was supposed to be opened that night. Milton's Folly had no scaffolding anymore, and if we would not know of the dark secret it held, we might have liked the view. </p><p></p><p>We parted ways with the orcs and decided to prepare for the night. Scarbelly made it clear that, supportive of our endeavor as he and many other pirates were, they would not risk life and ship to this, as they would, if needed, always find another port to sail to. That is fair enough, I suppose. I would do the same thing. I am not even sure now if we should just let someone else finish this, but there seems to be no one else. </p><p></p><p>We will now set out to Milton's folly to see what we can do. It would be impossible to get close by day, but I am sure, Milady remembers the invisibility rings Orlath and me had so much fun with at the ambassador party last year? We did not give them all to the royal treasurer as instructed. We kept 5 of them, I am reluctant to admit. But now, maybe for the first time, we can do something useful with them.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Ever in Your service</p><p></p><p>Nevukh</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Lwaxy, post: 5819106, member: 53286"] 4th of Rhune Honored Lady Theka! It is getting harder and harder to keep it from Ortlath that we are writing to you as well. And I dislike having this secret from him. But, as you command. We are back from the temple, and the temple is now gone! The Loremaster was a great help, I'm so glad he decided to become more active again. After we woke up early this morning, instead of having breakfast we had 4 undead acolytes to deal with who, if the priest can be trusted, only attacked us to be killed and end their existence. We obliged. Fighting uncorporals is frustrating though, I need to get myself a sword or saber with some magical extra I think. Never saw the need for it back in the Realm, where we mostly dueled for fun. After disposing of the poor acolytes we came to a prayer room. I am wondering what kind of weird god this Yig really is, doing so much harm to those who worshiped him. The room was a nightmare, the wall the usual serpent, this time in a mosaic form. The eyes glowed, as if it was alive. I didn't dare look into them, being sure of some evil magic going on. But Uthas and Flip both did and promptly went to attack us. Orlath had to magically hold both of them so I could serene touch them. Scarbelly had the sense – amazingly enough – to cover the eyes with a bed sheet from his equipment. Falthar took a book from the altar with him; unfortunately, as he confirmed, it wasn't anything helpful to our search for the missing ritual items. Before we could get one level down, we had to fight a wraith. The Loremaster tricked it to attack him, and he had an amulet repelling, and in this case destroying, attacking special undead types, so that was easy for a change. Level down we found the temple's infirmary, with two more undead serpent priests stuck there in eternal sickness. Can you imagine they could not leave their beds for centuries? Really, this Yig god is not on my good side. The two told us what they remembered in their half mad state before we killed them on their request. We got some valuable information about the missing items, too. One of them, the armor called Serpent Scales, was actually still on one of those shadow priests, however that works with an uncorporal creature. It was a warrior priest in the training room yet another level down. He immediately challenged us to a training fight. It was like he didn't get he was dead, and that we were not his acolytes. On the bright side, this meant that he was not out to kill us. But we needed the armor off him and, ideally, him ending his pitiful existence as well. Scarbelly, who is quite the clever orc, came up with the idea of the orcs fighting him one by one, pretending to be his students. They could not harm Vrosh – that was the undead's name – because of the armor he wore, we had been told as much. The armor had one slight vulnerability though, where it must have been damaged by a superior opponent a while back. The two shadows in the infirmary had told us where the damage was. If we looked closely, it was clearly to see. The spell to disrupt undead worked wonders, although we all had to try several times because the armor, despite us aiming right, absorbed much of the magic. Uthas brought the armor to the shadow priest once we were done while the rest of us kept searching the next level. And what do you know, more undead in the mess hall. They, too, had no idea they were dead and thought we, of all things, might be food! Orlath and the priest somehow managed to get through to them about their undead status. They were all confused after that, but we didn't attack them as they had not asked to be killed. We figured the ritual we were collecting the components for would take care of it, and it did in the end. We then found a makeshift prison with another poor soul trapped in it. This one talked in riddles, or rather, wanted us to solve an easy riddle before giving us any information. This way, we found out where the Venom of the Serpent was – hidden in yet another statue of their god. Again, we sent Uthas to deliver it upstairs once we had retrieved it. In the time we needed to do so, the Loremaster had found the high priest's journal entries. In there is an interesting bit of insight about the Unspeakable One. It is said he might not be of this world. Do you think it is possible? I am not all that versed in religion, do our scholars ever mention this? We had a comical moment, too, as we encountered the shadows of the high priest's assistants. They hated each other and seemed to have been fighting all the centuries, wanting each other dead. Each of them asked us to kill the other. After some laughter (and also feeling bad for them of course) we obliged both of them. Unfortunately, just when we thought we were about done and it would be an easy day, we found the sacrificial chamber with a whole lot of undead. Seems the priests have sacrificed sentient creatures – which definitely makes their god evil in my eyes – and only Orlath's and mine fireballs could take care of the matter. Ash not does good zombies make. Then we found the most curious thing – a hatchery. From what the Loremaster got from the journal, the priests of Yig were chosen before birth and hatched in the temple. The room was full of mostly broken eggs. It seems that once the fate of the temple became clear to some, they destroyed the unborn to prevent them from sharing their fate. There were still stones in there giving off magical heat, which was welcome after the dampness of the temple. The orcs were very interested in them, because it could keep warmth in their ship without risking a fire. Scarbelly and the orc shaman present came up with a way to carry all 8 in a rug between them. One of the eggs was intact, and we took it along out of curiosity. This now causes some issues, but more on that later. We also found what must have been a rich waiting room once. Orlath wanted to fireball the room because of more molded fabric but he was all out of spell energy. Good thing that, too, I am still a little bit mad at him for the incident in the altar room. Black Dog's ghost was all excited about the first real treasure here, a jade serpent statue which was a replica, as it seemed, but still very valuable. The orcs agreed to take it along and drop it in the dead pirate's treasure hoard later. Other than that, we found a stuck door with water seeping out under it, if just very little. We didn't dare open it, as it looked very much like the original entrance leading to the open sea. Oh, yes, there were more statues. One of them was quite tall and had yellow light coming out of its eyes. The light illuminated a double door with the usual snake carving. The most curious thing; when standing in the path of the light it was shining right through us! We could not get the door to open, and it was Flip who finally discovered that the statue had eyelids we needed to close for the magical light to stop. After that, the doors opened up to what the snakes in the infirmary had named the Serpent's Pit. It was basically a large amphitheater in half moon shape. And yeah, more rotting pillows and such, and Orlath almost had a panic attack about it. I have no idea what his issue is, he doesn't tell. It must have been a long time back in his past, as I know him almost his whole life. And there was a large undead snake. Yes, undead undead undead. And we were all out of magic so we had to manually hack it apart. Luckily, the orcs and Uthas did most of the work, and that spear Scarbelly had taken from the warrior priest earlier seemed to be quite the help. But they were at it for quite some time, nobody wanting to risk being bitten. I picked up some additional colorful orc language while watching. We then removed the Fangs of the Serpent and went back to the undead priest. He was happy enough to have everything he needed, but one thing, it seemed. He needed the blood of one of us as he was, well, undead and had no blood to give. K'Stallo agreed to do this, after all, they were his people, if from centuries back. The ritual itself was strange, including the mixing of blood and venom and a lot of weird snake language. When all was done, the Jade Serpent disengaged itself from the altar and we could take it. The high priest had just time to thank us before he ceased his cursed existence. Unfortunately, the whole tower began to shake badly, and we had to hurry up through the water – with some difficulty with the heat stones and all – and out of the building, back into the boat and off. The whole caves shook, and Uthas and two of the orcs panicked about being buried alive. But, after dropping off Black Dog and his new treasure, we all made it out. Had to promise the ghost we'd check in on him every now and then. He must be very lonely. We had to wait for the tide to be right before we could leave the caves so we slept in there. When we came out finally, it was just dawn, and a lot of ships and boats of all types filled the waters around Freeport. We were back just in time before the lighthouse was supposed to be opened that night. Milton's Folly had no scaffolding anymore, and if we would not know of the dark secret it held, we might have liked the view. We parted ways with the orcs and decided to prepare for the night. Scarbelly made it clear that, supportive of our endeavor as he and many other pirates were, they would not risk life and ship to this, as they would, if needed, always find another port to sail to. That is fair enough, I suppose. I would do the same thing. I am not even sure now if we should just let someone else finish this, but there seems to be no one else. We will now set out to Milton's folly to see what we can do. It would be impossible to get close by day, but I am sure, Milady remembers the invisibility rings Orlath and me had so much fun with at the ambassador party last year? We did not give them all to the royal treasurer as instructed. We kept 5 of them, I am reluctant to admit. But now, maybe for the first time, we can do something useful with them. Ever in Your service Nevukh [/QUOTE]
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