ralph_dnd | ogre mages and the trip to Beliaberith

February 1 (Sunday)

I'm confused. The last ogre-mage we met tried to kill us; this one is being hospitable. But I don't trust him.

This morning we decided to investigate the tower Hrolf and I scouted yesterday. As we got near it, we heard loud noises, like something huge thrashing around in the woods. We came to a clearing to find a huge, unnatural beast -- with an ogre-mage in its mouth. Then the strangest thing happend: the creature bit down, decapitating the ogre-mage, and as the head bounced on the ground it promised us a great boon if we saved its body.

I'm not used to ogre-mages asking for my help, and I'm really not used to them doing so when separated into normally-inseparable pieces.

But who had time to think? We acted first, and worked out the consequences later. I magically greased the body, but the monster hung on. Prolix sent an illusory (I think it was illusory) noxious odor toward it, and that got it to drop the body. And Liandra did something to slow it down, which was a great help.

The creature was tough. It barely noticed my fire, and didn't fall for an illusion of an even bigger creature attacking it. If it weren't for the magical creatures Liandra summoned, which struck it with lightning many times, I think we would have been in trouble.

The creature picked up the body again and swallowed, and Turok slashed its belly open to reveal the body. He and Slade hit it a lot and eventually it fell. Turok pulled out the body and, after asking the head what to do, we put the head next to the body. Amazingly enough, they grew back together! I've never seen anything like it. I mean, I've seen a worm get cut in half and turn into two worms, but I've never seen the two parts rejoin. This seems highly unnatural somehow. It was also pretty gross -- I mean, the blood didn't all get sucked back inside magically or anything like that.

But that wasn't the most unnatural thing we saw today. No, this ogre-mage has his own infectuous pool, and that's where some of these creatures have been coming from -- the one that almost ate him, the ones that attacked us yesterday, and the gods only know what else. At least, so far, they come up from the ground, rather than swooping in from the air. And not only is he doing nothing to stop this, but he's actually been feeding the pool. It seems that he and his brother Grimulak have (well, had) some disagreements. Liandra was pretty grumpy about this, for good reason, and eventually Garalak, as we learned his name to be, agreed to let us heal the pool tomorrow morning.

Garalak did try hard to be the perfect host in his own special way. He made us welcome and comfortable in his tower, and offered us a meal to bind host and guest. That's nice in principle, but the implementation left something to be desired. That is, I really didn't want to eat part of an ogre-mage's finger, chopped off in front of our eyes. (We then watched it grow back. Eww...)

Prolix brought up the matter of the boon, and Garalak made assorted offers of money or magic items. It was hard to agree on a fair reward, and Prolix was kind of grumpy, so eventually we decided to accept an offer of gold rather than trying to divide magic.

I noticed that Garalak had a green dagger hanging on his wall, and I asked about it. He referred to it as a Weeping Wounds, but a lesser one. Oh, so there are several. Great. We weren't able to bargain for it, in large part because Prolix wanted to sell it if we got it and Liandra and I object. Such a weapon does not belong in this land. We should study it, yes, but never use it or sell it to someone who would use it.

Garalak later fed us an (apparently) normal meal -- that is, meat that we usually consider to be meat. We talked for a while, and eventually he offered us a very lush room. We decided among ourselves to be discreet but make sure that someone is always awake. Turok and Prolix are currently playing cards, and I am going to go to sleep now.

February 2 (Monday)

I'm happy to be away from Garalak's tower. That place just isn't healthy.

Last night the tower was attacked by a huge flying version of the thing that we fought on the ground earlier. We all flew up to the parapet as it approached. We attacked it with fire (which actually seemed to help a little), but Garalak said cold would work better. We don't have a lot of cold magic, but Liandra was able to slow it down, which helped. It belched some sort of noxious cloud at us and rushed at us; fortunately, no one fell off the tower. At the height of the fight Turok, Prolix, and I were all flying around, and Kyle was getting ready to leap onto its back. Eventually we prevailed, and we managed to grab Kyle before he fell from the plummeting body.

I was in pretty bad shape after the fight, and I had sent Hrolf away after that first belch of gas. Hrolf didn't even argue too much this time. Liandra had done all the healing she could, but I discovered something interesting: I was able to heal myself (and Hrolf) a little just by shape-shifting. It seems to work only once.

The monster did have a good effect, though: it convinced Garalak that he should let us clean up his pool. I can't believe he was feeding that pool in an effort to generate more monsters like these! He's lucky we were around to save him from his folly yesterday.

Cleaning the pool is easier said than done, though. Liandra chanted and cast spells over it while Turok and I attacked blobs that reached out from the pool to try to stop her. Things are much better now, Liandra says, but stronger magic than hers is needed to fully cleanse the pool. I hope we can acquire that stronger magic and return here before this foulness grows back and does more harm. The pool had a faint reddish glow and a sulphurous smell, and that didn't completely vanish with Liandra's magics though it got better. This is also different from the last pool, which makes me nervous.

This morning as we were packing, Liandra noticed a coin that seemed to be moving on its own toward our bags. We put a cup over it to contain it. When Garalak came in later he saw what had happened and scowled, but we didn't ask him about it. The coin has a beetle on it. I'm guessing that it was some sort of scrying device. At the very least, it could serve as a locator. Hmm, maybe in a few days we should look for it magically to see where it's gotten to.

February 3 (Tuesday)

We're another day away from Garalak's pool of horror with no more attacks. So far, so good.

Hrolf asked me if I could polymorph him into something that doesn't have a nose, on the theory that this would make him immune to noxious gas. I don't think it works that way, unfortunately.

February 4 (Wednesday)

I haven't been able to coax any movement out of that wooden doll from under Durgam's Folly so far. Drat. I saw it run down the corridor in front of me! I know it can be made to move.

February 5 (Thursday)

I've been thinking about fire and cold. They are, fundamentally, two aspects of the same force. It ought to be possible to tweak fire-magic to make cold-magic in equal quantity. I will have to think on this more. We've seen too many things lately that are fire-resistant.

Firella says we're making good time and, if we don't run into any more horrific monsters to slow us down, we should reach Beliaberith tomorrow evening.

February 6 (Friday)

Dragon-blooded?! I don't understand.

We arrived in Beliaberith today. It's a lovely place -- awe-inspiring, in fact. Anarion, Liandra's father, greeted us each by description -- he called Liandra "elf-daughter" (no surprise there), Prolix "far-seer", Kyle "unicorn-touched" (how did he know that?), and Turok "dragon-bodied" (again, fairly obvious). And he called me "dragon-blooded". What does that mean? I want desperately to talk with him about this, but tonight wasn't the right time.

I suspect I'm not the only one who wants to have a more private conversation with him; he told Turok that much has changed about Kotara-nar as well as for him (Turok). Perhaps Anarion knows something of changes yet to come.

Anarion said that there is a connection between Turok's homeland and Agondre. In the past there was rich commerce; now the seas are dangerous and there isn't. Did that happen at the time of the Cataclysm? Anarion said the Cataclysm affected Agondre, not them. When we asked him about the Cataclysm Anarion said there is someone else we should ask, and he left for a while. When he returned later he gave Prolix a long strand of hair, which belongs to Elys'. I didn't know Elys' was still alive! I hope Prolix scries her soon; if she can tell us something of what happened last time, maybe we can together figure out what is happening now.

Anarion is called Starseeker. Elys' is called Starhand. I asked, and Anarion said "it is she who I seek". But why didn't he have someone else scry her for him before now? (I didn't ask.) It's a pity Prolix wasn't prepared to scry today; I want to know what's going on.

Anarion said there is a malaise in the land, which we already suspected, and that the elves have done something to protect themselves from it, but I can't tell what. He said that Beliaberith is not part of the dragon's body, but surely it is part of Agondre somehow?

I asked Anarion if the Dragon's Heart is in Cardior. He thinks it is not. He doesn't know if this is a problem.

We have spent most of this evening visiting with the people here. They are very friendly and have invited us to stay as long as we like. They have a large guest room for us; elves rarely sleep, but they have provided for those who do. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep, in safety, after days on the road with unnatural monsters everywhere.

February 7 (Saturday), before dawn

7b -- maybe 7c, but probably not. Hypothesis 2 very likely. Hypothesis 3 partially correct. Eeek.