ralph_dnd | friendly fire

February 15 (Sunday), later

The stars are gorgeous here in Beliaberith, especially on a moonless night. They also seem quite numerous. We're leaving in the morning, and I will miss this place. I hope we can return someday, when our current task is over.

Anarian and the others threw a wonderful dinner for us tonight. Amazing food, good music, and fun conversation.

Before dinner our group was discussing the final details of treasure division. Prolix has been very cranky all week about the ring of protection we found. He wants it, but Liandra needs it more and he has gotten a lot of stuff from our adventures already. He threw a tantrum and held his breath until he turned blue (well, I helped with hue), and when we still didn't give in he gave up. Turok is right; he is a child.

February 16 (Monday)

Yikes. Trying to capture people without killing them is dangerous, especially when some of them are trying to kill you.

This morning we headed for Cardior. Prolix had this idea that he could teleport us directly into the emperor's secret hiding place. We argued about that some, but in the end agreed to let him try. However, he missed; the forest we landed in did not resemble the chambers we had seen through his scrying magic. This was particularly disconcerting to Kyle, who said he would only teleport when drunk.

Before we could have much of a discussion, though, we were taken prisoner by some soldiers who wanted to know what we were doing out here. Eventually we were taken to see Captain Jorvik -- which is convenient, as Lord Marius had referred us to him anyway.

Things are very strange around Cardior. Essentially, three armies are fighting here, but they're also cooperating. The soldiers who captured us are prisoners from Taelyn -- but they are working with Tergia. Eventually they will escape and return to their units, and the Tergians being held prisoner elsewhere will likewise escape, and so it goes. This is because while the armies oppose each other, they are united in opposing the monsters coming from Cardior. They've even instituted some rules of combat to limit casualties from each others' armies, because there have been a lot of losses all around. It's an interesting way to conduct a war.

Captain Jorvik is an interesting fellow. While explaining what we were doing there we mentioned the cataclysm, and he said "bugger, is that happening again?". It's easy to lose track of the fact that most people don't know what's behind all the disturbances in the land. I think he also thinks we're crazy for seeking it out.

It took us some effort to convince Captain Jorvik that we were not here to join his army, but eventually he agreed to let us go into Cardior. In particular, he said, a group of his men had gone in a week ago and not returned, and since those men included Liandra's fiance' Viggo, we are motivated to go in after them. Not only that, but the group included Tobin! I was quite surprised when I heard that from Jorvik -- apparently Tobin has been a quite effective soldier in their army. The rest of the party was a fireball-throwing wizard named Olver and a heavily-armored warrior named Karameikos.

(Olver has no finesse, by the way. I can tell he learned those fireballs out of a book, not from direct experience; the power-summoning is just all wrong. I don't think he'd be receptive to some tutoring, though, not that I'm enthused about teaching someone who tried to kill me.)

Cardior is a large circular city consisting in part of concentric rings. The palace is in the center, and it's immediately surrounded by a mass of buildings, which in turn is surrounded by a mass of newer buildings, and so on out to the current city limits. It looks like it was kind of chaotic even before monsters began to overrun it. Now everything is in a shambles.

As we worked our way through the city we were attacked by some nasty, ambilatory plants, which Slade described as "yuck - salad". (It's good that he's willing to attack foul-tasting things, given that his attack is a bite.) This must have caused flashbacks for Turok, because he fought with even more gusto than usual, eventually killing two with a single blow. Then we were attacked by a large bat-winged lion that hurled a tail-full of spikes at us. Fire and lightning did damage to it (lightning actually helped the plants), and when it dive-bombed Prolix Turok stepped in and killed it.

My understanding is that Cardior did not run to walking vegetation and flying lions before things started getting strange. There must be a noxious pool around here somewhere. We'll need to find it.

Once we got to the palace Liandra spotted signs from Viggo pointing the way. The excitement from this was short-lived, however, as we finally met his party. Specifically, we met them when an arrow slammed into Turok from the darkness while Viggo shouted to Liandra to run because he "can't stop himself".

Oh great, I thought. We don't have to rescue them from monsters; we have to rescue them from themselves -- and they don't mind damaging us. This was going to be tricky.

I immediately cast a light spell on my dagger and handed it to Kyle, hoping he would throw it down the corridor and illuminate the group. However, at the same time Olver hurled a fireball at us, nearly killing Tasha, so Kyle was occupied. The light showed enough of the corridor that I could fill it with webs, and Prolix erected a wall of force at our end of that. Then we spotted a doorway into what turned out to be a small room, so we all dove in there to regroup. Prolix said the wall would last for several minutes.

Our plan was clever, and it partially worked. Prolix created an illusion of Turok and Liandra advancing down the corridor (once the wall and webs were gone); this was to draw fire so we (invisible) could target and subdue them. Tobin, much to his credit, sat out the fight; I heard him pray to Pelor for sanctuary. Good Tobin! He was able to respond to the compelling magic non-destructively; Brion has taught him well.

Viggo shot many arrows but mostly missed; perhaps he was able to partially win his mental battle against the geas that compelled him. Olver threw a couple of fireballs at us, but they did minimal damage -- especially after the still-invisible trio of Prolix, Liandra, and Kyle had teleported to the other end of the corridor. (Turok and I were visible, having attacked, but Turok doesn't care about fire and I was lucky modah l'ka'asan.) Karameikos is wicked with a spiked chain and caused a fair bit of grief for Turok, but not fatally so.

Eventually we prevailed -- Turok subdued Karameikos, I counterspelled Olver's attempt to entangle us, and Prolix cast a very entrancing display of lights that distracted the others. We were able to knock them unconscious, tie them up, and carry them out of the city. Fortunately, nothing attacked us in the streets while we were so loaded down.

I can see the magic that compels them to fight. I can see it, but I have been utterly unable to dispel it. It hurts me to see Tobin like this, and Liandra is distraught about Viggo, but I don't know what to do to help them.

There's so much I want to discuss with Tobin. I hope we can crack through this enchantment somehow!