| Sunday Morn |
| Vampire Prince part 3: Saving the Prince |
| Creatures and Dream-Lord Sorceror part 1: Damn Dark Elf poisoner |
| Creatures and Dream-Lord Sorceror part 3: Trying to work the banishing ritual |
| Sad farewells and strange artists |
| In the morning I got up at about 7.30 (trying not to wake Kiare, or the Necromancer and Salamander) armed and wandered out to see what was going on. The place was empty; the tavern wench suggested I try the Chapel. So I wandered down to find Perrin, Slu'ak, Imbas and Toa'Kata guarding the chapel. They filled me in: four people had gone again into the tunnels under the Keep to fetch the Prince out, where the gypsy mage would get him though an astral gate in the Chapel and they would work a ritual to return him to being a normal half-elf (banish the vampirism) using Silvermoon's fruit, some holy cord, and the Ring of Poets from the Necromancer, and a few other things. However the other three that went in tot he keep would have to find their way out by themselves at a run with monsters after them, more like than not. Perrin and I, having shields, stationed ourselves on either side of the gate (a good defensive position) as guards. Kylen wandered up and he and Slu'ak hovered over our shoulders. Soon the Gypsy Mage appeared in the Astral Gate dragging the (possibly hung-over) vampirised Prince, and shortly after the other three came changing into the chapel with a handful of Orcs on their heels. A couple of Orcs ran round the back of the chapel - Toa'Kata and Imbas and some of the crew from the crypt fought them off, while the rest of us (excluding those performing the ritual) attacked the three in front. The Prince woke up, and we escorted him back to the keep. Having the largest shield, I was at the front covering the Prince. We marched up to the keep - and boy, were the guards surprised!! The Prince told the guard captain there might be others hiding in the keep. He replied that the re couldn't be, because they were guarding the keep... and trailed off under the gaze of the Prince and unspoken 'how did I get out here past your noses then?' They ran off to search the keep... we heard banging noises and cries of "Get a battering ram!" and smashing-door noises. The Prince covered his face with his hand, muttering "IDIOTS, what are they DOING to my KEEP?!" We stood out there for another minute or so, then the Guard Captain realised we were still standing out there waiting and he came rushing back to open the portcullis to let the Prince in... |
| Some of us were hanging round outside the Tavern sparring. Lord Vanian had just snatched Kiare's morningstar and I was attacking him to retrieve it when suddenly a Dark Elf leaped out of the bushes by the path and sped like lightning through our ranks flailing about himself with a poisoned dagger, catching me and many others unawares, and returning to the forest as quickly as he came - leaving the place in a total uproar with poisoned people sagging to the ground, and general mayhem. The Healer was summoned and people were Healed, poison drawn etc. Rumours came of a gathering of evil creatures in the forest so we went to mount an offensive. The hooded Salamander, Kiare, the Necromancer, Lord Vanian (in his burnished mask) and I went down one path from the Chapel to the Tower, the others went by a couple of routes past the campers. A couple of Elves went with us - two somber-looking fellows, one weedy and one more beefy (for Elves that is, of course!) Losing patience with the chatter I slipped ahead to scout. As I had almost reached the clearing there was a commotion behind me and the weedy Elf rushed up and stuck me with a poisoned dagger before vanishing. As I sank to the ground I realised that was why the Elf looked slightly familiar. After lying 'unconscious' for awhile Kiare came and woke me up, and we sneaked to the clearing. There were creatures fighting our crew. I sneaked down to look for a healer to take the lingering effects of the poison off me. I have Kiare and Salamander's information on what happened after I left them: apparently the two Elves attacked them, the beefy one was slain but the weedy one managed to cut them all. He stabbed Sal several times until she was forced to yell "I'm a vampire, you clot! I am not affected by poison! Stop ruining my top!" Kiare was sneaking round not wishing to run into combat, when she found me. |
| Creatures and Dream-Lord Sorceror part 2: The tentacled things inconveniently in Gates |
| After I managed to get Froniga's attention and healing, I joined in the fun that was ensuing as some tentacled Cthulhu-monsters were alternately attacking and standing in rope circles which were Astral Gates. We found out that there were three Gates, and we couldn't attack the creatures in the main two: later it became clear that they represented dream, nightmare and limbo, and the three gates each kept out different things: one kept out magic, one kept out weapons, and the last kept out both magic and weapons. Sometimes the tentacled things would wait until we wer off our guard, and rush out of the gate whacking with their poisoned tentacles. And at the same time the sorceror was appearing and disappearing in the circles doing nasty spells: I got hit by a lightning bolt twice (luckily not at the same time or I would have been Crispy Fried) I had yet to learn how to dodge those nasty spells not by putting my shield in front of them which is an instinctual reaction... And through all this nasty red-eyed Nightmares were walking around casting fear into the very marrows of our bones...! I much later learned that Lucius got Froniga to Gate him into one of the gates where he could kill the Sorceror. But three tentacled creatures showed up and over-poisoned him to death. |
| Finally a way to combat these nightmares was found: a scroll (that may had been used the previous night and not completely worked, in the dreaming tower quest I did not attend by means of storming the keep at the time) in which several people (I think it was eight?) had to stand in a circle and each read the right lines of the long and complicated scroll. Except while we were so involved (I was one of the eight for most of the time) monsters kept sneaking up behind us and poisoning some of us so we had to revive them and start again. Also, Hingen was unhinged by one of the nightmares hovering round him and Imbas had to fairy-dust him and tell him that he couldn't sense that the nightmares were there, and that he was fine. It worked, and finally the spell was completed and the Gates dissoled! The sorceror was knocked unconscious and then it turned out that it was our friendly mage Chalky who had been under posession or compulsion or something. |
| Photographers came and took photos of us in groups and singly. We helped clean up the camp and then it was time to go home and back to dull reality... |
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