castle of blood (part 1)

[cellio]

May 12 (Thursday)

Today we attacked Garrett's keep. It was harrowing and exhausting and not without grave cost, but we fared better this time than last.

After donning our necklaces of garlic and casting our preparatory spells (including circles of protection that we bought on scrolls), we readied for teleport. We had decided to go straight to Garrett's throne room, though I have only seen it the once. I must have been overly nervous or frightened, because my first casting of the spell landed us in a dark cavern that was certanly not the castle of blood. So I tried again, and the same thing happened! (But it was a different dark cavern.) If we had not already spent single-use magic that we could not easily replace, I might have suggested aborting at that point. Even in the dark I could see Kyle glaring at me, but fortunately, I could also see Liandra's calm, reassuring gaze. And the third time it worked.

We appeared right behind Garrett's throne. Garrett was not there, but three skeletal hounds the size of Slade were, and they saw us immediately. (I've checked. The teleport spell does not make a popping sound upon arrival. I guess they were just very alert.) These things were fierce and strong, and were particularly good at grappling. They were also able to hit Charlos! That's not supposed to happen.

One of them grabbed me when I tried to make a flying attack. Turok killed one spectacularly and Charlos drew his holy sword and charged another, declaring revenge for the emperor. Around that time an undead gargoyle flew in and charged Turok; Turok managed to kill the hound holding me and badly hurt the gargoyle in a single swing. That was impressive! Charlos and I attacked the gargoyle; when it tried to flee Turok and Charlos killed it. At just that moment we heard the sound of others approaching, however.

What appeared next was quite spooky. There were four figures wearing robes and porcelain masks, and they glided gracefully across the room. They seemed to be dancing pairwise, and they spoke with a single voice to say that the master and mistress could not receive us now.

I changed form to a troll for the vision and reach as they continued that they had "prepared a song for us". We heard a haunting, beautiful dirge as a new creature entered the room, and I was enthralled. (I later learned that Kyle was too.) I saw a fire elemental appear near Liandra and then attack the mask-wearers, who were quite flammable, while Turok moved forward and breathed on the singing creature. I could do nothing but watch.

Liandra, the elemental, and Charlos all attacked the mask-wearers. One of them belched out a horrendous stench that set Turok and the elemental back. (I've never seen an elemental retch before.) Somewhere in there the singer dove through the pit door in the floor and Charlos followed her in as the door slammed shut. Then the singing stopped and my mind cleared.

Once I regained control I began flinging fire at the mask-wearers. One of them infected Kyle with some illness, and then one took off its mask and almost everyone was frozen with fear. I flung more fire at them, killing one and badly hurting another, and one of them stepped onto the trap door, taking itself and Kyle down the hole. Turok wedged himself into the door to keep it from closing. This left me to face the remaining creatures.

I flung yet more fire at them and Liandra snapped out of her fear. She flew down into the pit after Kyle (who had been frozen in fear when last we saw him), while I killed the remaining creatures in the throne room.

I heard lots of fighting from the pit, and looked down just in time to see a dying fiend reach up and give Liandra a bony kiss, saying "I'm sorry we could not dance longer". Kyle was lying on the floor unconscious; Liandra killed the creature with her flame blade, picked up Kyle, and flew out of the pit with Charlos. The singer, however, was nowhere to be seen; I learned later that it had turned to gas and flowed through the grate.

Kyle and Turok were both infected by what we would later learn was mummy rot. This made it hard for Liandra to heal them. She did what she could for all of us; sadly, Charlos was badly hurt in this fight and none of us have the ability to heal him. I worried about him through the rest of our pursuit of Garrett. I realize that he volunteered for this mission, but we should have found some way to be able to heal him and I would have felt awful if he had died.

After we had done what healing we could, we chose a door (I suggested the one Melisande had entered through the last time we were here) and headed off in search of Garrett. Out in the hall we were met by beefed-up skeletons wielding bows; I drew Sunrise and reached out and hit one a good blow. It flicked its tongue at me; I think it was trying to poison me but it failed. I then attacked it in a flurry of blows. Everyone was in combat by now; the skeletons continued to flick their tongues while we attacked and ultimately killed them. I spat back at them more than once, just because. Sunrise was a mighty weapon in this fight, consistently dealing more damage than I've ever dealt with a weapon before. I began to feel recharged by Agondre's power and Sunrise's warm glow during this fight; it was spectacular.

After we killed them we pushed open the rusty doors they were standing in front of. These doors led to the outdoors, though you could barely tell it was daytime. The sky was dark and the vegetation we could see was badly blighted. We knew that this was not the way to Garrett and Melisande, so we went back to the throne room to try another door.

We followed a hallway to a shaft in the floor. I could sense the evil stench of our targets coming from below, so we decided to go down. Turok's fly spell ended as he flew down, but it was not yet time for it to run out on its own. His other enchantments remained. The same thing happened to the rest of us -- except for Liandra, who had grown wings rather than using magical flight. It was the first of two targetted dispels we would find there.

When we got to the bottom we gasped for air and realized that we were in the airless passage Prolix had spoken of. Kyle took out our magical air bottle and we all took breaths. We then headed down the corridor in the direction of an ever-stronger fiendish stench.

As we rounded a bend we saw a corroded door guarded by some skinless blood-spitting monsters and a huge humanoid we heard called Mungo. Mungo was like a human siege engine, big and tough and very, very powerful.

One of the other guardians stepped forward and spit a glob of acid at me. It then said "the master insists on not being disturbed", and I replied "then we will kill you quietly". I lobbed fire at them, which did them little harm, and Turok and Kyle charged in while Liandra flung lightning bolts. Charlos charged them as well and learned that they could not hit him, though he could hit them with his enchanted sword. The grin on his face when he realized this was unmistakable.

Mungo and I fought each other over the heads of everyone else. The others spit more acid at me, which was quite painful, and then Mungo managed to hit me and lock me in a grapple. He sunk his claws deep into me and squeezed out nearly all of my life in a single blow. Ouch! Fortunately, I was able to squirm away while Turok stepped up and killed him. As I leaned against a wall panting and getting healed, Kyle listened at the door and suddenly whispered "through the door now!". We passed the bottle around once again and prepared to attack.

Turok smashed the doors open and we saw a large room with a fetid pool of black bile in the center. In the darkness beyond we saw darker shadows, which is odd because shadows usually require light. So clearly these were not natural. We briefly glimpsed Garrett before he disappeared into the cover of the shadows, chanting all the while. We could not yet see Melisande, though I felt she must be there.

Turok and Kyle ran into the room; I caught a "gee, that's funny" look from Turok, but he was across the room before I could ask. Charlos charged in, spotted Melisande, and dove for her, smiting her with his holy sword. Once Charlos showed us where she was, I was able to spray her with glitterdust. She was not blinded, alas, but I did not expect her to be. Kyle hit her with my circlet of sunlight, and she responded by casting a spider-shaped glow from her staff. It began to scamper toward Kyle.

Melisande proclaimed that "the master" was not to be disturbed. We were actually having a lot of trouble finding the master, so she briefly got her wish while we concentrated on her instead.

As I flew through the doorway I felt the countermagic in my ring go off. That must be what Turok felt; the doorway was trapped in some way to dispel magic. I'm glad we bought those rings! I tried to smite Melisande as I flew by but missed. She cast a spell that confused Turok, and he swung at Liandra while Liandra flung searing light at Melisande. Turok's confusion made things very difficult for us; he's our most effective fighter and he was sidelined for a good part of this fight. Melisande also cast something at me, but my rod absorbed her magic.

Liandra summoned two fire elementals and there was a great flurry of fighting around Melisande. She managed to fling a powerful coldball at me, but I was then able to dispel some of her protective magic. Meanwhile, one of Liandra's elementals managed to hit Garrett and disrupt his chanting, much to my relief. I don't know what he was doing, but I sensed that he was summoning some very great evil from the pool of filth.

Garrett then began attacking us directly. We saw Weeping Wounds appear and disappear in his hand; I suddenly realized that he was using Prolix's glove to keep from being disarmed. Clever! He is very fast and can attack on the run; fortunately, most of us got very lucky during his attacks. Turok did not, however, and Garrett hit him with Weeping Wounds. This has me very worried; you can see the disease in Turok's face now.

I could not hope to hit Garrett with Sunrise, but I found myself close to Melisande so I brought the full power of Agondre's might to bear on her, hitting her twice. On my last swing she disappeared into a cloud of putrid dust; at first I feared that she had turned to gas, but before long we realized that she was dead. Well, temporarily; we knew we would have to destroy her coffin to prevent her from rising again. But we couldn't do that while Garrett was still on the loose.

As Melisande died the "spider" she had sent chasing after Kyle finally landed on one of his hands. It turned his hand to a white, withered limb, useless in battle. It was very frightening! I can't even imagine how Kyle felt when that happened. We were not sure whether it was permanent; fortunately, it wore off a minute or so later. Whew!

I knew from the previous attack that Garrett can casually saunter away from my fireballs (or so it seems to me), so I began flinging missiles at him while bemoaning that I could do nothing better. Garrett pulled out Turok's wand of shielding and used it, and I dispelled it. Garrett then attacked me in a flurry of blows with Weeping Wounds, missing entirely! I was stunned by my good fortune, but even greater fortune was yet to come. The elementals slammed into him and I flung more missiles into him as well. He used the wand again and I dispelled it again.

At about this point Turok snapped out of his daze and charged at Garrett. Garrett then fled the room, and we followed in hot pursuit. I am glad for the extra speed I have when flying; otherwise he would have gotten away easily. One of the elementals was also very fast; it managed to somehow get past him and block the corridor. Then, suddenly, Kyle and Turok appeared near Garrett in a puff of smoke, and I recognized Zaid's magic at work.

We had begun passing the bottle around for more air, and I had to fly into that fight to deliver the bottle to Turok. As I flew by Garrett managed to hit me with Weeping Wounds, but -- modah l'qa'asan! -- he did not infect me! My pearl sizzled and glowed brightly, and I could feel Agondre's strength coursing through my blood and pushing the infectious invasion right back out through the wound. (I guess this is what Anarian meant by "dragon-blooded".) Between the unicorn's magic and Agondre's aid I survived with my health, much to my astonishment.

Even so, I felt the intense corruption of Weeping Wounds as he stabbed me, and I know it must have been much worse for Turok because he was infected. It felt like being stabbed with a rasp, and goo oozed off of it into the wound while the blade pulled bits of my skin away with it. This weapon is not only vile and evil, but designed to be cruel.

Under a rain of blows from the elementals, Turok, and Kyle, Garrett turned gaseous and began to drift back toward the pool. It was the same sort of gas as Melisande -- temporary death, not gaseous form. As Garrett headed toward the pool we saw the Melisande-cloud head down the hall toward the shaft up; we couldn't pursue both, and we chose Garrett.

Garrett sank into the pool and we could see a solid shape forming beneath the surface. The pool itself is his coffin! Destroying the pool seems impossible, so we decided to attack the body instead. I pulled out a sharpened markorl stake, flew to the center of the pool, and stabbed down hard, feeling the caustic goo of the pool in the process. Liandra cast a mass healing spell and included the pool, and it screamed out in pain.

As I pounded the stake in I felt it wither to the consistency of balsa wood. The body was sinking and I wasn't going in after it, but I did spot and grab Weeping Wounds. Ack! Holding such a foul weapon made me shudder uncontrollably, and I had to ask Turok to pull the glass blocks from my pack so I could wrap the weapon up. I fitted the glass around it, then tied knots around it, then put the package in a sack and tied that off. I don't want it to be easy to touch that weapon!

Seeing no alternatives we waded in and pulled Garrett's body out. We pounded in another stake and it, too, withered. I had heard that the way to kill a vampire is to drive a stake through the heart, but this was not working with Garrett. I guess his corruption is too great. We were somehow able to wedge a stake in his heart anyway, and Kyle's research suggested that we had a bit of time, so we looted the magic items from his body and went looking for Melisande.

We didn't know where her coffin was, but I used a location scroll to find that staff she had used against Kyle, and that indicated that our target was above the throne room through a hole in the ceiling. Charlos scouted it out for us and reported many spidery webs occupied by half-spider half-humanoid creatures; fortunately, judicious use of fire took care of that. We finally found the coffin encased in the webs; we burned it out, opened it up, and drove a stake through Melisande's heart. Her body became a withered corpse, unlike Garrett.

We decided to take both bodies out into the bright sunlight to see if that would make a difference. Moving Garrett even a little bit caused the stake to wither away and fall out, so we teleported to the waterfall near Oakhame. The sunlight caused Melisande's body to turn to dust; Garrett was disturbed but remained intact. We held him under the waterfall and even still he remained intact. So we propped him there and drove in a fresh markorl stake.

Liandra ran for Seamus, who looked at Garrett and told us that the power of Agondre's disease is Garrett's source of vitality. So it looks like Garrett will stay that way until we can heal Agondre. Charlos volunteered to stand guard over Garrett day and night, insisting that this is his duty.

Liandra, Seamus, and Mairead examined Turok carefully. His strength, speed, and vitality have been sapped, and restoration is only a temporary aid. He will continue to sicken until we can heal Agondre. At least we have Weeping Wounds now and have interfered with Garrett's plans, but oh the price! I hope we are able to keep Turok from sickening too much, and that we can heal Agondre soon. I fear that Weeping Wounds without the Dragon's Heart will be only a temporary fix, but every fix helps.

We are all exhausted today, and it has been a long time since almost every bit of my magic has gone away in a day. Now that I have recorded the day's exploits, Hrolf and I are going to go sit by the waterfall for a while with Charlos.