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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 3299863" data-attributes="member: 30035">Letter #2312 Reaping  (Sunday June 13, 2004)Dearest brother;It's no surprise that adventure has swiftly reentered our lives. Thor was restless, and wanted an opportunity to allow his new friend Beaker the axebeak to run free.  The twins had got over their disagreement as I expected they would.  Just when we had almost made up our minds to leave Lopolla at once – Thor wasn't willing to wait even until the following day – we received an invitation to dine with the Malik.  Most of us assumed he meant to thank us for rescuing his daughter, though Erasyne was a bit anxious that he had a less friendly motive.Our dinner was pleasant and friendly, though Erasyne had to dissuade Thor from bringing Beaker along as an additional guest.  The Malik did indeed reward us for rescuing Ceciliah.  We were also given some gold coins in exchange for some valuable items of jewelry we recovered from the undead skeletons we destroyed.   Assuming that the skeletons were the remains of the temple priestesses, the Malik intends to try to return the jewelry to the families of the victims.After expressing his gratitude, the Malik asked us to perform a task for him.  Now that he has agreed that Ceciliah need not marry the sheik's son she was betrothed to, the Malik wished us to carry a message to the sheik to notify him of the change in plan.  We were also given a coffer of valuables to deliver to the sheik, presumably to make up for the loss of Ceciliah's dowry.  The Malik asked us to tell the sheik that Ceciliah had entered the temple of Kumari, and to omit the information that the temple is currently unoccupied.  Thor was a bit uncomfortable with that at first, as we'd planned to contact other temples during our travels and notify them of what has happened to the temple in Lopolla.  He was persuaded to agree to the Malik's request when the Malik assured us he would send messengers to contact the temple there after we made our visit to the sheik.Our journey began uneventfully.  We decided to follow a main road and avail ourselves of the inns along the way.  But after we had been traveling for a few days affairs changed for the worse.  It was about midday when we were suddenly accosted by a group of bandits.  I don't know how they managed to surprise us.  I can only assume that they had considerable practice in approaching by stealth.  One man grabbed Liselle and held a dagger to her throat.  We didn't appear to be outnumbered, so his action was the only thing that put our party at a disadvantage.  With great presence of mind, Ninad swiftly struck out with his staff and sent Liselle tumbling to the ground.  Once she was free of the bandit I attacked him with my spear.  But just as we turned on the bandits a large shadow appeared overhead.  We all looked up to see a black creature resembling an enormous centipede flying toward us.  This appeared to be as much of a surprise to the bandits as it was to us.  I heard a feminine voice demanding that we turn over the black diamond shards to this creature, but the voice appeared to come from within my own mind rather than through the air to my ears. The bandits quickly fled as we turned our attention to combating this creature.  It was immediately apparent that the creature was evil.  It was difficult to harm her with ordinary weapons.  Erasyne sent Liselle to retrieve a sword from the pack horse, as we'd found a sword at the Sanatorum that she hoped might be more useful against the demon.  In the meanwhile the creature grabbed Shishir and slashed him almost to ribbons with her claws.  Ninad attempted to help his twin but was badly wounded himself and was forced to retreat and swallow a potion.  I also suffered some serious injuries from the creature's dagger-like legs.As I stepped back to catch my breath I saw that Shishir was very near death.  Liselle came rushing up and somehow managed to administer a potion to him, although the demon still held him in the grasp of her pincer-like tail.  The demon then backed away from us and began cutting into Shishir again.  She seemed to be searching for something.  Appalled at this foul behavior, Erasyne and I both rushed the demon and clove into her with our weapons.  She dropped Shishir and began writhing about like a dying snake.  Ninad was so furious that she had nearly slain his twin that he smashed her head to dust with his staff.  Illtud produced a potion that brought Shishir back from the brink of death, but he was still very badly injured.  When we examined the remains of the demon we found that she clutched two black diamond shards* in one of her claws.I'll continue this later in another letter.Lothiriel*See Letter #20 for more information about the black diamond shards._________________________________________Quote of the day:Devo: "We're definitely going to have to pick up some healing.  Or quit fighting."</blockquote>

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