Deja Vu To recap, I was traveling upon the ocean upon a quest - sailing nearly all the way about the continent instead of taking a nearer mountain pass. The captain had been murdered, and we were sore pressed to discover the cause. Suspicion fell upon the 1st mate or the victim's wife. My friend the dwarf refused to back off when the 1st mate ordered him from the scene, and a battle ensued. The crew was called in to back the captain, and the dwarf ... with minimal aid (the rest of us were in a quandary whether to help him or no) ... defeated the crew. Next morning, I awoke and felt fuzzy. The dwarf was bunking near me and I soon discovered that it was the morning of the previous day ! and yet I felt compelled somehow to keep silent and play along with the recurrence. The events of the day began again as did the battle with the crew. But this time, the party did not help at all, and the crew charged en masse against the dwarf. This time, he was defeated ... and thrown in the brig. Soon thereafter a cursed ghost ship, which we had read about, appeared. The dwarf was called from the brig to cast a bless upon the apparently empty but cursed ship which came alongside ours. As he finished, he was hurled by an unseen force into the bowels of that vessel. I jumped over upon the ship to try to help, and within the span of a dozen seconds the ship rushed out from under me and beneath the water - the undertow pulling me beneath the waves despite the air filled skins I carried for buoyancy. Thereupon I was torn to shreds by undead. Then, in a disembodied form, I watched as my body rose again to become an undead. The ship rose again and my body along with the other ghouls (including the undead form of my dwarven friend) attacked our ship. The battle that followed was chaotic and disorganized but my remaining friends survived the assault. With not so much as a fare thee well, my possessions were bagged up for donation to the church and my corpse thrown in a floating cask to be burned at sea. I followed my friends as a bodiless spirit. They made their way aboard ship to the next town and engaged in some silly fun in the local bar, recruiting a new teammate. A second potential recruit was spoken to, but was offended by the elf. As for my dwarven friend and myself, I heard not a kind word in our direction. Our gear was unceremoniously given to the locals with a request it be forwarded to our respective churches. My will, tucked in it's tin case with my book, was never opened. Next time perhaps I shall write it in big block letters with a magic mouth to shout 'Hey, he's dead. Read me!' My fault for not telling them specifically it was there. As dawn rose upon the tavern, I began to feel a great exhaustion overtake me and I gradually lost consciousness. The darkness was gentle and comforting. I awoke yet a third time, and was back on the ship. Lathander had decreed that I should live this day yet a THIRD time. This time however I did not feel compelled to keep silent, and I spoke at length with the dwarf, informing him of my experiences. He didn't really believe me until the day's events began to unfold exactly as I had described. This time, he did not confront the 1st mate. We went below deck, talked and decided to take our chances at sea. We borrowed a longboat from the ship, leaving more than enough monetary compensation for the small craft. And loaded it with the mass of provisions I'd brought with ... that earlier urge to buy them now paying off. A sleep spell temporarily distracted the sentry, and we escaped unnoticed. I sent my familiar back to awaken the man after we were out of sight ... a fog was building, as it had before. We traveled for weeks, most times traveling through the horrid fog. When I would sleep, odd dreams would assail me ... and I relived much of my former life over and over again. Yet always I awoke at this point - trapped at sea. Truly, were it not for my friend's ability to create fresh water we would have perished. We had both lost much weight. FINALLY, the fog lifted. It was a lucky thing I had brought so much extra food with when we left town. We traveled on now with renewed hope, moving with the light wind with our makeshift sail (Neither of us knew a shred about sailing so we went where the breeze blew us.) On the first night we discovered a shocking thing. The two moons had been replaced by one larger one. And the constellations appeared different, though I am no astrologer. Even the weather seemed warmer, and not just a little. Seven days passed when we spotted land - it took us a full eighth day to make shore. We came to a forested land, and abandoned the raft. We were exceedingly happy to have our feet on solid ground again (especially the dwarf). That it was a different ground than the world we had left hardly seemed to matter. We were off that accursed sea. I gave thanks to Lathander and the dwarf did likewise to his own deity. We rested then traveled along the shore until we came to a town. It was a friendly agricultural community. With little ado, we took up residence. It was late fall and nearly winter, though I would hardly have called it such in comparison to those of our own territory. I had been desiring a home of my own for quite a while, and this community seemed much more to my liking than the Fister strangled community of our origin. It saddened me thinking how prosperous our own area would be without the dark forces controlling it. I bought a parcel of land which years before had been a small farm - it had apparently failed because of the rocky soil. I hired a crew to begin building the house, selling the magic mace to fund it. The work went well, and the exterior was up before the snow got bad and the interior was done a few weeks later. A week was spent furnishing the interior, we moved in and became very very comfortable. In truth, the mild snowfalls and temperatures seemed a bit humorous to me. I spent the winter casting spells and writing scrolls, as did my friend - he also doing work at the smithy. Since I had paid for it, my dwarf friend was quite happy to stay in the guest quarters. He is talking of building a small church or dwarven meeting hall though only a handful of dwarves live in the town. I changed my cash in at the moneychanger for local currency at a 5% fee. A note regarding the house : it was expensive - but well worth it. It cost over 1500 gold coins (these people refer to the coins by their metal type as opposed to names. How quaintly simplified. And they often refer to coins as 'pieces' ... ie: 10 sovereign = 10 gold 'pieces'.) Also, silver and platinum appear less common here. It is 10 'silver pieces' per 'gold piece'. And platinum is less common ... 10 'gold pieces' equals 1 'platinum piece'. I was happy with this, having a fair amount of platinum and silver. I managed to pay for the building by selling the magic mace and had money to spare (600 gp - which I spent and used on inks). Apparently the throwing aspect of the mace counted as additional enchantment. I plan to add a small outbuilding for my alchemy but for now the kitchen suffices. Come spring (which was upon us in a scarce three months and what a brightly lit winter is was) we were rested, and prepared to face this wonderful new world. I spent another couple of weeks mixing up inks, and writing scrolls. And enjoying the quiet. Evenings were spent in quiet dinners at the Inn, and some tea or a glass of wine at the local tavern. Things are well. Every night, however, I think back on the odd twist of perceptions I had. What had reality been? I do not know ... but I thank Lathander for his blessing and my new beginning. Spring Time As spring moved on very quickly, the heat became remarkable. What an incredibly warm climate this was - the snow was nearly all gone. I had never been a fan of the cold (and it's mistress) and found this wonderful. I have also grown fond of the town and it's people. The lack of tyrannical fisters was a breath of fresh air .... but I do some day hope to return someday to the Leirfjord area and do what I can to free it also. The city watch consists of a few paid 'regulars' and equal numbers of equipped volunteers. The Lord of the town is a former adventurer and does not harass the quiet people - who seems tolerant of his level of taxation. Spring had shrunk the cold snow to scattered patches. One evening while my dwarven friend and I were walking back to the house from an evening's light entertainment we spied a fine horse standing, with saddle, in an open field. Curious we approached and spied a wounded lady warrior fallen upon the cold ground. She was only semi conscious and my friend healed her with his spells. She revealed herself to be a paladiness bent on delivering a chrystal orb to her people. Sources had revealed to her church that one of the four clergy of her church in the neighboring town was in fact an unnatural minion of 'The Darkness' - and the orb would reveal the pretender. We quickly agreed to help her. She spent the day in town while my friend and I gathered our gear and we met her just before dawn. She seemed quite happy to have help in her quest, and was quite friendly. The dwarf began flirting with her, and I recalled his flirtations with the monk. I myself, while enjoying the view in both instances, merely admired from a distance. The first two days were uneventful ... traveling through light woods and plains areas. We made pleasant conversation - and we shared a brisk conversation about our varied theologies. The Paladiness worshipped a being she merely referred to as 'The Light'. But the theologies she espoused seemed highly reasonable and noble. On the third day we began moving through some steep hills and small very rough almost mountainous areas. The paladiness explained this area was treacherous and filled with dark forces. Traders tended to take the long route about but we were constrained by time. We did not rest overly well that night. The fourth day, we were deep within this now apparently cursed land. As we moved through a narrowing in the hills, we were attacked. Hideous howling beasts with horrid spines upon their backs and sides rushed forward biting - their fangs inflicting horrible damage upon us. In the first initial burst of attack, the paladiness was hurt badly and the dwarf was staggered - having two of the beasts on him. By some freak of chance, I myself was not attacked. Recovering our composure, we laid into the creatures. I cast first a sleep and dropped one of the creatures - who though powerful must not have been overly strong willed. The paladiness wounded hers badly but was hurt in exchange. The dwarf went on defense, waiting to see the results of my spells. After another few seconds exchange he went offensive and managed to deeply wound the creature. I cast a color spray from behind the paladiness partially blinding her opponent and she likewise slew her creature. As she fought, she healed spontaneously. I later learned that the orb she carried would cast a heal spell on the holder once per day if they were wounded. It did this on it's own. The paladiness moved over to help the dwarf and together they finished the beast - the largest of the three. The dwarf exhausted his spells partially healing himself and the paladiness and we continued. We were unfortunate however ... a hour later we were again attacked. This time repulsive ratmen attacked. Six attacked with shortbows, being highly proficient with them. I myself was badly wounded in the first few seconds. They were small creatures but very skilled. A few more attacked in hand to hand against us - one was very large, and appeared an ogrish half-breed while one last one appeared a sorcerer and cast a color spray upon us. None of us were affected. I managed to get a spell off, and slept the small creatures upon us - then took a step to the side, placing the fighters between me and the bowman. Half the bowmen fired upon me, but in a fluke of luck I was only struck once. The ratman ogre smashed the already wounded paladiness. Then the sorcerer cast another color spray ... this time the dwarf was affected. I wish I'd gotten him those colored glasses way back, but then again I doubt I could have convinced him to wear them. The dwarf, blinded, reached out and grabbed a pleasant handful of the paladiness blindly while casting a healing spell upon her. I quickly pulled a scroll and managed to get a shield spell off right before a massive volley of arrows. None hit me, but the dwarf was further injured. As the sorcerer was casting another spell, I recognized it as a color spray and I waved my hand - negating it. He looked at me furiously ... and another volley of arrows was fairly ineffective. One grazed me, but just barely. In counter-attack, I cast color spray upon the bowmen and they fell en masse. The sorcerer threw a spear at me, missing. Looking over, I saw the paladiness drop just as my dwarf friend seemed to regain his sight. I trusted my friend to take out the ogre, and I myself leapt forward and launched a my spear at the sorcerer. He dropped. I turned and saw the dwarf had been hit again but still standing, and he dropped the ogre. The ogre had obviously been the heavy weight fighter of our enemies, and I was happy to see him down. He would have made short work of me, as I was now nearly spell-less. The dwarf used a scroll to revive the paladiness, and we continued on - wanting to get to a forested area we saw up ahead. And we were beset by a THIRD encounter as we entered the wood. Just as I thought we were doomed, we saw that is was centaurs who had circled us. A large band of about forty individuals. They guarded this wood in the center of these cursed hills, trying to keep evil out. They had some clerics in their midst and we were soon healed. We thanked them and accepted their offer of safe haven while we rested. In the morning, two of the centaurs offered to escort us down through the far side of the cursed lands. It was a shorter trek, but no less treacherous. Barely an hour out of centaur territory, we were attacked yet again. More rat men, these a band of archers with poisoned arrows. They seemed mostly concerned with the centaurs - and within seconds our two guides dropped. We responded with volleys of spells and missiles, and managed to survive the battle. I sent back my familiar with a message to the centaurs and a large band came to us. The one guide, the male, was alive and they healed him. The female was dead, and they cast a reincarnate upon her from a scroll. She came back as an elf. They seemed happy she was alive but unfortunately their laws prohibited her from now staying with them. She joined our party, and we journeyed through the cursed lands again. This time, we managed to avoid encounter with anything major. We arrived on the other side, and hastened to the city. we rested, and at first light headed out for her to finish her quest. There was a construction site upon which a new church of 'The Light' was being built. Four bands of followers camped around four tent pavilions nearby. The spiritual leaders who had banded together to construct this temple. Upon meeting the third group, and entering the tent the gem immediately gave a shrill sound of alarm. A glow surrounded us and the illusions within the room masking the creatures faded out. There stood two small golems and some sort of undead creature. A haggard battle ensued - and I was glad to have thrown my protective spells ahead of time. The undead creature, every thirty seconds or so, would unleash with a small lightning like blast. The golems, while not hitting often, did massive amounts of damage. My role in the battle consisted mainly of throwing true strikes. The elf (former centaur) did very well and remained on her feet the entire battle. We managed to survive the battle - the dwarf dropped briefly, but a mage hand gave him a healing potion and he regained his feet and he helped finish the undead beast: the last of them to drop. The tent was searched, then purged and burnt to the ground. The agents of 'The Darkness' were destroyed. Our party limped back to the city, and rested the days until strength returned. In a few days, we shall return to Glen Cove - our new home base : this time taking the longer safe route home. Going through our loot for the adventure - we each profited 1200 gold pieces. There was a magical scimitar, which we gave to the reincarnated centaur as kind of a consolation gift. I hate to tell her this, but she is a striking elf - if a bit dark skinned compared to what I am used to (very tan). There were three scrolls - I learned the spells Blindness and Arcane lock. Also on a scroll was the spell Identify, but I made a mistake scribing it into my book and it was wasted. Unfortunate but I cannot complain about my luck of late. I do wonder if I shall ever see my father again. I spent 1000 gold on inks in the scribing - 400 for each of the 2nd level spells and 200 for the wasted 1st level one. My net gain was 200 gp. I combined this with my platinum and copied Summon Monster II into my book. I continued my ongoing studies, and mastered the spells Hideous laughter and a necromantic spell 'Scare' advancing my skills in wizardry. I also, through meditation, increased my force of personal energies - and found myself able to cast another first level sorcerer spell a day.