aftermath

[cellio]

January 24 (Tuesday)

Today was spent mainly in recovery. I wasn't physically hurt when we came out of the dungeon yesterday, but I was pretty spooked. Getting a good night's sleep -- finally! -- last night helped.

And I have finally figured out shape-changing! Not just the wings I've been growing for a while that bother Kyle so, but complete transformation. I can turn myself into birds, wolves, ogres, and things much more fanciful. After a bit of effort I was able to immitate those markorl gargoyles we saw near Kozel'sk. And I can do a decent Prolix immitation, it appears. This has all sorts of possibilities! I can immitate Turok physically, but I can't breathe fire the way he does.

And I now understand what Hrolf and his "consultants" were trying to tell me about wing position! Once I was able to become an owl, it was obvious. Hrolf and I spent the afternoon working on advanced topics -- not just owls but eagles and hawks and bats and other flying things. They're all subtly different.

Late in the day I realized that I can give Hrolf the ability to change shapes as well, and did so. He says that being an eagle is definitely strange; now he knows how I feel, maybe. Maybe tomorrow I'll see if I can turn him into a humanoid. Perhaps it's time for him to learn to walk, just as I learned to fly.

January 25 (Wednesday)

I continued my experiments in shape-shifting today. I can change into a variety of forms and my strength and agility seem to vary, but I have no more actual skill in a fight than I would have in my own form. I can, however, see much farther as a hawk or owl than as a human, which could be handy. And tonight I realized that in some forms I can see in the dark! I haven't tried to find out if, were I a fish, I would be able to swim and breathe under water. I think I want Liandra standing by, ready to dispel the magical shape-shifting, before I try that, just in case. (Do fish cough and gasp for air?)

Kyle seems to be very bothered by all of this. I'm trying to do these experiments privately, but he's going to have to get used to me in different forms. I think he's getting a little more comfortable with Liandra, but I don't know if that's because he's getting used to the idea or because she keeps him healthy so he has to.

Prolix has been spending a lot of time with Trina. Tonight he told me that she was going to let him borrow Theodocius' remaining spell books.

Prolix also told Trina about our theory of magical geography. We had agreed to keep that one quiet. I'm annoyed. Well, if she knows anyway, maybe there's something useful she can do here at Durgam's Folly after we leave tomorrow.

January 26 (Thursday)

This morning we left Durgam's Folly. We are travelling the flatter, ogre-infested route, rather than the mountainous, snow-filled route. Firella says it will take a week or so to reach her home.

It's been snowing all day. This afternoon we heard a very loud sound, and soon came to the foot of a hill with a large pile of newly-fallen snow. Great; avalanches aren't limited to the mountaintops. We're being careful to travel in open areas.

Because we're travelling through ogre territory, I decided to spend the day as an ogre-mage like Grimulak. It's possible that this is keeping ogres from bothering us. I'm also learning how to use a larger body.

We didn't encounter any ogres, though we have seen tracks. So it must be working.

January 27 (Friday)

Last night we saw ogres during the first watch. They didn't see us, though, so we didn't bother them. They were heading toward Durgam's Folly and talking about Grimulak. There were only five of them; I'm sure the people at Durgam's Folly, particularly the archers, can persuade them to go elsewhere.

Today I was mostly a gargoyle. It's a different kind of flight from owls.

We came across the ruins of an ogre settlement this morning. It had been burned out, and there were ogre tracks and huge reptile or bird tracks. (It was hard to tell.) This is not good.

The village was not empty as first appeared; we found a nasty, unnatural creature that immediately attacked us. It resembled an ape in some ways, but was much bigger, was uncannily black (like darkness itself), and had glowing red eyes. It also seemed to be resistant to most damage, including fire. Definitely not good.

It turned out not to be resistant to electricity, though, so I used my shocking hands spell several times, swooping in each time from the air to attack and then flying away. Much to my surprise, I did not get hit during this. Even if I had, though, how can I ask Turok and Kyle to risk damage while dealing damage if I'm not willing to do the same when necessary? True, they are better able than I to stay out of harm's way, but in this case my most effective spell involved being in the fight, so of course I went. And it had just knocked down Turok, leaving Kyle on his own. (Heh. I wonder if Kyle realizes that he was possibly saved by this "freak"...)

Eventually the creature tried to run, but we did not want it out terrorizing the countryside and were able to kill it. Its feet didn't match the tracks we saw, so we knew there was something still out there causing trouble. We found it in the afternoon.

We passed several more ogre settlements first, all burned out and having the same unusual tracks. Then, this afternoon, we saw an old farmhouse a few hundred yards away and near it a large lizard tail. We were going to try to slip past when we spotted another lizard a hundred yards off to the other side -- and that one was moving toward us. These things were huge, bipedal, with nasty teeth. I'll bet they breathe fire.

Prolix used a spell to mesmerize one of them, and we ganged up on the other. With a combination of missile fire (magical and otherwise), fireballs, and weapons, we eventually killed it before it did too much damage to us. We were then able to attack the other one successfully.

After the fight we looked inside the farmhouse and found an ogre toddler. It's verbal but not articulate -- probably about three years old. After some discussion we decided to try to find some ogres to give him to. We eventually found a cave of ornery ogres; they didn't want him at first (said he looked like a momma's boy, not good stock), but we persuaded them. (Prolix bribed them with wine.) We told them the kid's parents were killed by dragons; the ogres replied that there are many dragons here. Oh joy.

Also this afternoon, some smaller lizards tried to sneak up on us. That's harder to do when you're brightly-colored and sneaking around in the snow. They ran away.

January 28 (Saturday)

Last night we were attacked by evil wolves. No, really -- they were completely unnatural, had glowing eyes, and were very nasty. We eventually prevailed, but they did a lot of damage to several of us. We're going to camp for another day, finding as defensible a place as we can, so people can rest.

After we killed the "wolves" I studied one of the bodies for a long time, and determined that it was fabricated from the land. So not only is the land sick, but it's vomiting out creatures to attack humankind with. Either that or someone is forming the land into creatures. Not good either way.

Prolix seemed to be having trouble with his mirror-image spell during the fight. He came out of it badly damaged and muttering about how that spell doesn't really work. That's unfortunate.

Turok did some spectacular fighting. We were in close quarters, so I used missiles instead of fire. These things might be immune to fire anyway; I don't know. But everything else out here seems to be.

There is an old tower several miles off that Liandra noticed while scouting yesterday. Today Hrolf and I investigated it. Hrolf says the sensation of riding an eagle, wind in his feathers, is very strange to him, but as an eagle I was able to fly faster than Hrolf can on his own. Fortunately, eagles are built for carrying smaller birds on their backs, and it didn't hurt to have Hrolf's claws digging in.

The outside of the tower is in bad shape, but the inside is well-appointed. Someone lives, or lived, here. But the outside wall has been blasted out (not bashed in), and there are tracks from lizards that must be at least 20 feet long.

We might investigate this tomorrow; it seems an odd thing to have out here in the middle of nowhere. But not today.

Comments

[cellio]

I was thinking of the feature that lets me cast any personal spell on my familiar (as a separate spell-casting). "Share spells" would seem to imply that, to share a single casting of polymorph, we would have to meld into a single creature (which solves the 5-foot problem :-) ). I don't think that would let me make (in this case) two eagles, but that it would let me make one eagle that subsumes both of us. Both Larissa and Hrolf would probably object to that idea, however; it adds a whole new layer to "get out of my head". :-)

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

I hadn't even thought of 'number' as being among the properties that could be changed by polymorph.

[cellio]

Neither had I, before you brought up spell-sharing.

Ok, suppose Hrolf and I shared the Shield spell. I would have interpreted this as us both hiding behind one shield; if spell-sharing works with Polymorph in the way you've described, that would imply that we'd get two independent (and independently-controlled) shields. Both of these outcomes -- two polymorphs or two shields for the price of one -- strike me as not what was intended. It's the difference between extending the scope a couple feet and creating two things.