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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ancalagon" data-source="post: 7407998" data-attributes="member: 23">SESSION 27 October 2nd This morning, just as Suleiman and Daito finished their watch, they heard the call of horns to the south. As they woke us up, we could hear the strange double-bark of the death dogs. We donned our armor, and quickly made our way down the trail. Not long after, we heard the sound of a horn blast to the east, surprisingly close. We continued to run north, but then we spotted a group of soldiers in the valley below. They had their backs to us, facing south. Their armor had the symbol of Ares--a sword crossed with a spear. Some held swords, some held spears, and others held slings. They continued to wait, looking southward in anticipation. Soon there was another horn blast, and we told Epiderus and Thadeus to lead the ornthras away, further down the trail, where they would be safer. The rest of us quietly crept southward, to get a closer look. A large woman sprinted into the valley, pursued by men with swords, led by hounds. I quickly surmised that this must be Narissa, the Amazon that we had heard about, and that had been in my vision. We decided that we should attempt a rescue. The valley floor was about six hundred feet down; I summoned a fiery pegasus, climbed onto its back, and compelled it to dive into the valley. As the floor rose up at me, I could see that more pursuers were coming from the south--men on chariots, pulled by ornthras, and accompanied by Zek K'tri! They began casting spells at me, so I shouted for Narissa to climb aboard quickly, but at the same time, one of the priests managed to dispel the fiery pegasus. Fortunately, I did not have far to fall; it was more embarrassing than painful. Narissa helped me to my feet, thanked me for trying, and we prepared to face the charge. I cast sanctuary on myself, and the priests of Ares worked their warriors into a rage with a Frenzy of Ares spell. They also tried to protect them with a Warcry, but I countered it with a prayer. Then they were upon us; a death dog knocked Narissa on her back, but she threw it off of her and began cutting through their ranks. Most of the soldiers and dogs ignored me, thanks to the sanctuary spell. Fortunately, the rest of the Pentachromata came to my aid. Kellindel cast a flurry of hold person spells, freezing many of the soldiers around us in place. Suleiman took a great risk, attempting to cast a fireball. The strange forces of Ionian magic worked in our favor this time; a thick cloud of smoke blanketed the area around the chariot-mounted priests, and then the fireball exploded. Suleiman then tossed the fuzzball toward the combat, and it turned into a giant crocodile. Unfortunately, the fuzzball did not reach the bottom before the transformation was complete, and the crocodile tumbled clumsily down the mountain. But the crocodile was not badly injured. It slowly walked into the fray, and swallowed an unsuspecting swordsman in single gulp. The Zek K'tri bounded up the mountain in huge leaps, and were soon slashing at Daito. With a mighty shout, Daito swung at the giant insect. He did not kill it with the blow, but the creature lost its balance and went crashing down the mountain to its death. At that moment, one of the priests of Ares emerged from the cloud of smoke, on foot, holding a black Spear of Ares. Suleiman was the intended target, and I shouted a warning. I cast a heat metal on the priests and one of the nearby swordsman, and they quickly dropped their weapons, but the priest with the spear prepared to throw. Suleiman once again took a great risk, and prepared to cast a magic missile. This time, however, it did not work as planned--just as had happened in the monastery of Oghma, a rip in space appeared, and a Fruk stepped through, looking very unhappy. The priest of Ares threw the spear at Suleiman, but missed, and Suleiman cleverly pretended that he had summoned the demon, and directed it to attack the priests. Meanwhile, Narissa and I were holding off the remaining swordsmen; Narissa soon finished off the death dogs. I cast a sunscorch on one of the priests, and he fell to the ground. Another priest tried to cast silence on us, but I dodged the spell, and Narissa and I quickly left the area of effect. It was then that a powerful warrior waded into the combat, and attacked with a magical scourge. He struck me, and the pain was incredible. I fell to the ground, unable to do anything but think about how much it hurt. Narissa tried her best to keep the warriors away from me. The head priest of Ares seemed to have believed Suleiman's ruse, as his eyes grew wide and he swore profusely. He tried desperately to dispel the Fruk. Fortunately for everyone, it worked, and the Fruk disappeared. By this time, two more Zek K'tri had bounded up the mountain to attack Daito and Kellindel. The fight was furious, but Daito ended it quickly. He gave another mighty shout, and struck one of the insects incredibly hard, knocking it up and over the cliff's edge. He then turned to the other insect and lopped its head off in a single swing. This left Kellindel free to take aim at the head priest with his bow. For the first time, he pulled out his magic arrows (which he had gained from the deck of many things), and let one fly. At the same time as Kellindel fired, the priest was pulling out a flask or potion of some sort, and was prepared to throw it. The arrow struck him before he had a chance, and much to our surprise, the arrow exploded in a large cloud of fire and smoke. Then the flask exploded even more impressively--it must have been oil of fiery burning. The head priest was no more. It was obvious at this point that the tide had turned; the remaining priest turned to run, along with most of the men with slings. The warriors affected by the Frenzy of Ares, however, were too battle-crazed to cease their attacks; between Narissa, the hungry crocodile, and Kellindel's arrows they were eventually reduced to the man with the magical scourge. Kellindel fired two more of the magical arrows into him. One created a brief, painful surge of cold, and the other created a loud, stunning boom. Narissa allowed me to square off with the injured scourge-wielding warrior, while she killed the fighters still under the effects of Kellindel's hold person spells. I struck him twice, but a single blow from the scourge paralyzed me again. Narissa, however, took pity on me, and killed him quickly. And that is how the Pentachromata defeated more than forty soldiers, priests, and Zek K'tri from the forces of Aresopolis. Venimus, vidimus, nates calce concidimus. We quickly searched the corpses, recovering the magical scourge, a magic pearl on a chain around the head priest's neck, a potion, and a scroll with Restoration, Heal, and Raise Dead on it. There may have been more, but staying around the scene of the battle did not seem like a good idea. We resumed our northward travel, with Narissa and I on the valley floor, and the rest of the party on the cliff trail. It was clear that it would only become more difficult to reach the trail from the valley floor, as the trail went higher. Prometheus allowed me to share Narissa's knowledge of climbing using teaching and learning (although she was understandably reluctant to allow me to touch her head), and we scaled the valley wall. Once we were all together again, we made good time down the trail. After a while, Narissa asked for some water, and said that she wanted to speak to me alone. I agreed, and while she washed the blood from herself, I explained who we were, and how I had come to know her name. She said that she is in pursuit of Kolete, a priestess of Hecate who slew her sister. Narissa has chased Kolete through the magic lands, and all the way to these mountains, and then the priests of Ares began chasing her. Apparently, Kolete has red hair--could there be some confusion about my sister and Kolete? Or are they working together? I am confident that Prometheus will reveal all in time. In any case, Narissa has agreed to join forces with us, as we seek a common goal. It is good that she cannot understand the crude comments about her that Thadeus has made in Cimbrian; she would probably break his neck. We distributed the magical items (I took the pearl, which I suspect may be a pearl of wisdom, and the scroll, Kellindel took the potion of speed) and returned to our northward march. Just to make sure we were far away from the battleground, we continued our march a little longer than normal before making camp. Several flocks of migrating birds have flown overhead. It makes me think about Finis and Urym; I hope that they are all right. October 3rd We were awakened by Suleiman and Daito this morning, as they pointed in horror at a giant one-eyed creature stomping toward us--a cyclops! Everyone drew weapons and attacked, knowing that the giant would give us no quarter. The giant dodged a sunscorch, and struck Daito with his spear, sending Daito sprawling on the ground. Narissa slashed viciously at it, but it stood its ground, even as Kellindel's magic arrows (some of which return to their quiver after being fired) struck it. One of the arrows sent lightning coursing up and down its body, and the other created that loud, booming noise. The giant was about to swing again when suddenly it cried out, turned its head to look behind it, and fell forward, dead. Suleiman had crept behind the giant and stabbed it in the back with Dacla Iman, the Isutian sword. Dacla Iman spoke, saying that it was good to be in combat again, but of course, we could not reply to it. Suleiman has been trying to pick up on Isutian by listening to the sword talk; as intelligent as he is, he probably will have mastered the language by the time we get to Tephut-reh. The rest of our day was spent in quiet travel. October 4th You probably won't believe this, but Kellindel has died again. I am not sure how we could possibly succeed without his sword arm, so we are going to try to have him resurrected again. The day started well. We were all surprised to see Kwame, our "pet" hippogriff, fly for the first time. He has been stretching his wings and hopping around a great deal, but today, he really flapped his wings and flew around. Epiderus and Suleiman had a long conversation about proper care of of avian creatures. It seems that Suleiman has his work cut out for him, if he is to raise this creature to be a large, healthy hippogriff. We spent the day marching and keeping an eye on Kwame, to make sure that he did not lose control or get carried away with his newfound ability to fly. Our rest tonight was interrupted by four attacking trolls. Ionian trolls seem to be more reddish in color than the trolls we faced in Aragon. I used a continual light stone to light them up, and we attacked them with ranged weapons and spells, then closed to melee. The fight was surprisingly difficult, but we eventually won, and Suleiman put all the trolls to the torch. At this point, the group fell into arguing about what to do next. I needed to rest to recover my spells, and Narissa had no interest in hunting down trolls. Kellindel, however, had found the trolls' tracks, and insisted on tracking them to their lair, as he might not be able to find them again in the morning (which puzzles me, because it is much easier to track in the day, and it was only a few hours before sunrise). Daito and Thadeus agreed to go with him, and they walked down the trail, using the continual light rock to see. So they set out, the three of them, as the rest of us slept. Thadeus changed his mind quickly, and returned to the camp. Not long afterward, Kellindel and Daito were spotted by five trolls. They tried to run, but Daito, encumbered by his armor, could not keep up with Kellindel. They were eventually forced to stop and face them. We tried to assist them, but arrived too late. Kellindel drank the potion recovered from the head priest of Ares (which turned out to be a potion of speed), but even that was not enough to save him. We were eventually victorious (and Thadeus surprised us all with some very well-placed stones from his sling), but Kellindel was killed. We were far too weak, of course, to face any more trolls, so we decided that the lair would have to wait until morning. I do not think that all of Kellindel's gems will be enough to resurrect him, but perhaps we can trade some magic as well. October 5th After healing our remaining wounds, we walked back down the trail and spotted the troll lair, a cave higher up the mountain. Our cautious approach proved useless, as there were no more trolls inside. The grisly remains of their victims and their victims' possessions were spread about; they had even converted a chariot into a kind of chair or bench. Despite the stench, we searched until we found four gems, a small clay pot, a pair of sandals with wings, and a silver band with a shell on it--the symbol of Poseidon. We took the items and resumed our march to Urbs Deorum. Our travel back has gone much more quickly, as we are going downhill. Urbs Deorum was in sight this afternoon, and we were soon passing through the large East Gate. A pair of guards stopped us to ask what we were doing with Kellindel's corpse, when suddenly, Thadeus was caught trying to pick someone's pocket. The guards started to haul him off (I was tempted to let them take him away), but we intervened, saying that he was our slave, and that he was obviously a barbarian. The guards seemed sympathetic, and for ten gold, they let him go, with a warning to keep our slave under control in the future. We agreed and, as the guards walked off, took turns cuffing him on the head for his incredible stupidity. The guards had asked us to put Kellindel on a cart, and cover him with a shroud. We did so, and wheeled him to the temple of Apollo, hoping that his affinity with archers would give our request some extra weight. Narissa went to arrange passage to Tephut-Reh on a ship, and we entered the temple. A very friendly priest named Stavros seemed to take a liking to Suleiman, and they negotiated in private for a while. We had decided that the magic arrows might be valuable to these priests, but Suleiman said that they were not enough. In the end, we gave them the magic arrows, three sticks of incense of meditation, a gem worth a thousand gold, and the scroll of heal, raise dead, and restoration. It was a steep price, but resurrection is a powerful spell. Suleiman stayed to chat with Stavros for a while; he was interested in our adventures, and Kellindel's role in particular. The rest of us went to the Pilgrim, where we met Narissa, and told her of our success. She has arranged passage on a ship called the Thessalian, commanded by captain Pericles. We were expecting to meet Finis and Urym at the Pilgrim, but they are not here. I pray that their journey is short and safe; may Prometheus grant them the wisdom they need to succeed! October 6th The ocean moves beneath us yet again, and we are traveling south. Unfortunately, Daito has had to return to his master; his allotted month with us has nearly expired. We said goodbye to him at the docks, and Kellindel (having been resurrected at the temple of Apollo early in the morning) gave him a gem to pay for his passage. Kellindel seems very sullen lately; it seems to me that he should be happy to be alive. Then again, I suppose being killed twice is very sobering. We also took on an unexpected passenger; an old man named Aphetis asked if he could journey with us on the small galley. He did not have any gold, so Kellindel paid for his passage. He says that he is a carpenter (or was a carpenter; he is too old and frail now), and he is going to visit his son, a merchant, in Tephut-Reh. The crew seems very pleasant, and they sing merry tunes as they work. It is too bad Urym is not around to hear them; I think that he would enjoy learning some new songs. The captain has graciously given us his cabin, and here inside it I lay, as finish today's entry. Let us consider our departure from Urbs Deorum a new beginning; we shall put the many disasters of the past behind us, and resolve to accomplish our mission. October 7th Yet another day spent in cheerful travel. October 8th The Thessalian is hugging the coast, and from the ship we can see more flocks of migrating birds. It seems that winter is coming upon the world. Nonetheless, we will be warm here in Ionia. October 9th What an exciting day it has been! In the afternoon, Suleiman spotted a golden shape moving toward us through the water. As it came closer, we could see gold hair rippling behind it. I suggested that it might be a Sea Lion, and we prepared for a fight. I conjured forth a watery fist, and the Pentachromata readied their bows and slings. We were all surprised when a mermaid emerged from the water, and asked for our help. Of course, I was somewhat embarrassed; I tried to turn the threatening watery fist into a friendly wave, with little success. Fortunately, she seemed to understand that we were not really hostile. She introduced herself as Parthanene. She has friends--members of the race known as Locatha--who have been attacked recently by a terrible giant octopus. Suleiman asked if it was the Kraken (he seems to have some kind of obsession about the Kraken), but Parthanene said it was not that terrible. We consulted Pericles and Narissa. Pericles said he did not mind helping out a mermaid, and Narissa said she would tolerate a brief diversion from her pursuit of Kolete. As a reward, Parthanene offered us a magic pearl, which bestows great swimming skill on the owner. The crew took down the sail and rigging, and retreated below deck, to avoid the wrath of the Octopus. Soon, the shy Locatha appeared and began to move our ship toward the area the octopus was last spotted. The sun soon set, and I cast water breathing on the entire party, so that we would all survive if pulled under the ocean's surface by a tentacle. Suddenly Parthanene announced "It is coming!", and she and the Locatha disappeared beneath the waves. We waited nervously for the attack to come. The octopus wasted no time; soon tentacles were writhing across the deck toward us. I prayed for protection, and the fight began. Suleiman, Thadeus and Kellindel were quickly seized by the grasping limbs. Narissa, armed with the magical javelins (you will recall they came from the island of the cyclops, where we recovered the golden forger, and had the name of the huntress on them) said "Artemis" and threw one at a tentacle. The effect was devastating; the javelin seemed to fly from her hand of its own accord, and it severed the large tentacle instantly. Suleiman spoke a few words and disappeared from the tentacle's grasp, only to reappear on the deck--he has recently learned dimension door, and it seems to work very well. Narissa freed Thadeus from a tentacle with another javelin, when I was grabbed. Suleiman summoned a group of six vicious barracuda with a spell, and sent them against the Octopus, before being grabbed by another tentacle. Thadeus quickly severed the writhing limb that held him, and Narissa freed me. We watched the barracuda go to work. At the same time, Kellindel had been pulled under the water by a tentacle, and was trying his best to stay away from the octopus' large beak. Fortunately, the barracuda proved exceedingly hungry. We could not see what was going on, but the large amounts of blood and tentacle quickly filling the water by the boat suggested that the octopus was getting the worst of it. Soon Kellindel surfaced, and the water filled with a black, inky substance, as the octopus tried to make its escape. The barracuda proved too fast and too hungry; they made short work of the octopus and disappeared. Parthanene and the Locatha returned as soon as the barracuda were gone. Of course, they were ecstatic. The mermaid gave Suleiman the magic pearl--and a kiss (he certainly has a way with women)--and told him that he was welcome to come visit her whenever he wanted. With a wink, she and the Locatha disappeared. We shook Suleiman from his giddy daze and took to investigating our magic items. The pearl allows the wearer to swim as fast as a dolphin. Suleiman cannot swim, so he is keeping it. The ring from the troll cave, with the seashell on it, also allows the wearer to swim quickly, as well as hold his breath for a long time. Kellindel cannot swim either , so we gave him the ring. Suleiman rubbed some of the oil from the clay pot on his toe and finger, and was shocked to see them disappear! They were not merely invisible, they were gone! We waited nervously, hoping that they would return. Fortunately, he felt no pain. Suleiman's finger and toe returned after about an hour. Narissa suggested that it must be oil of etherealness. She asked if she could have it, so that she could chase Kolete no matter where she tries to hide. One does not argue with an Amazon; she kept the pot. I put on the winged sandals and, of course, they granted me the ability to fly. I was somewhat reluctant to give up my old, trusty sandals that had carried me so far, but these are far more useful. The crew emerged from below deck and we were soon underway again. The night has been quiet so far, except for the crew's happy singing. Captain Pericles says that we have several days left before Tephut-Reh. October 10th Nothing much of interest today. October 11th Uneventful. October 12th We were joined by a group of dolphins today; the captain and crew have taken it as a sign of good fortune. I hope that it bodes well for the Pentachromata as well. October 13th Uneventful. October 14th The ship is headed more west than south now; we will be there soon. Tephut-Reh is perhaps as little as a day away. We are all in good shape and good spirits. I wonder what awaits us in this Isutian port. __________________________________ The story is almost over....</blockquote>

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