DAY 342 (9th Alturaik)(February) cont ...
It was about two in the afternoon when we headed up to the church. After talking it over with Ashlyn it appeared she really wanted to see how her pals were doing before tackling anything else.
At that time I was sort of thinking they were probably fine. If they were as tough as Ashlyn I doubted they could have come to much harm.
On the way there we were attack by three of the tough sort of zombies you get in these parts and then a further set of nasties that we later identified as ghasts. They were unpleasant but a good dose of Searing Light, Magic Missiles, Fireballs and bears did away with them.
Towards the end of the fight, for reasons that I cannot guess at Tie Pie launched a Fireball into the melee just as my bears were finishing off the last of the undead. Result, three dead bears.
Those poor things. I summoned a monkey and made it follow Tie Pie around for a full minute with a little sad monkey face.
After that small tussle, although just a couple of spells had been used the pestilential sorcerer next insisted that we go back to the inn and rest so he could recover his magical energy.
I suppose we had killed off quite a few undead today anyway and since Ashlyn had nothing to say on the matter we went back to the inn.
I spent the evening deep in thought. After all the bother we'd had in the Plane of Shadows here we were in another dark corner of the world.
DAY 343 (10th Alturaik)(February)
I can hardly bring myself to write down what happened today, but I owe it to he who has fallen to collect my thoughts and commit them to paper while they are fresh in my memory.
In the morning, after breakfast, we headed back up the road to the church. As we approached it we could hear chanting, some sort of nonsense prayer.
We entered through the front door and I saw a figure at the altar across the main chamber. Now, I must have been thinking of nothing other than trying to offer friendship to this fellow as I failed to notice the large hole in the floor. What I mean is, I did see it, but I mistook the dark patch on the floor, thinking it a carpet or something. I had cast a Light spell on my scimitar but the shadows and gloom worked against me.
Anyway, as I fell I made a quick decision and turned an inelegant scramble into a graceful dive. If I was falling to my doom I would at least do it in style. Also perhaps I would be able to fly back up as an eagle and declare it had all been part of my plan.
In hindsight it is perhaps just as well I fell as I could have been the one that died when the man at the alter turned and used a Zone of Death scroll on the others as they entered.
Some of them felt the effect of the spell but managed to fight it off. Poor Mr Badgerington wasn't so lucky and dropped stone dead on the spot. I felt the magical link severe between us as he died.
Badger had been my animal companion since I had first become a druid and had been with me all the way to Sasserine and back, Waterdeep and all those troubles and then at my side all through the expedition into the Plane of Shadows. Now he was dead and I was hit with a tremendous sense of anguish and loss.
I was also immensely angry. I turned into and eagle and flew out of the hole and cast a Polymorph spell on the priest that had killed Badger, but it failed to get him. He then jumped down the hole and I followed after.
Undead gathered above and the others dealt with them while I pursued my prey. The room below was dark and full of undead but I cared not. I cast Inferno on him, but he dispelled it. I then cast Hypothermia but it missed.
Yli fired arrows down at the undead from above as the others finished off the enemies they were facing in the main chamber.
I cast Arc of Lighting at my foe and it hit him, just as Sylvia and Ashlyn jumped down to join the fight below. I summoned bears and sent them into the combat. One was killed by two swift strikes from a large skeleton. Yli saw his target and shot at it, arrow after arrow finding its target.
I swooped and soared around the melee, summoning bears. Sylvia turned some of the undead, skeletons and other stranger things while Ashlyn methodically hammered away at them with her mace. It was turning into a brutal battle, but I didn't want it to end until I had slaked my thirst for revenge!
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