castle of blood (part 2)

[cellio]

May 13 (Friday)

Turok had grown sicker this morning. It is frightening to see the health sucked out of a healthy man. I curse Garrett for what he has done to Agondre, and I dearly hope we are able to undo that damage.

Turok and Kyle were also sicker from the mummy disease, but Liandra was able to cure them of it today so that should not happen again. Kyle's hand is still stiff and pale, but Mairead says it should return to normal in several days. Turok called him "Kyle Grayhand", which Kyle certainly did not appreciate. I wonder what it was that Kyle said about Turok; the language sounded like Halfling to me.

Liandra also cast a hallowing spell on the waterfall where Garrett's body remains yet intact. Seamus said that Agondre's illness is his vitality; I hope that means that when we cure Agondre we will also destroy Garrett. Charlos has been standing guard since we returned and says he will continue to do so. And he never sleeps.

We went through the stuff we recovered from Garrett's body. We are using the glove to hold Weeping Wounds, which seems safest. Even so, just holding that loaded glove causes me to be somewhat weakened; I am not quite as capable in battle and I feel less lucky. Turok said the same happened to him when he held it, so it's not just me.

I am now wearing Garrett's cloak of resistance (which is stronger than mine) and his bracers of armor. Both are black and the bracers have spikes on them; they are very unfitting aesthetically. On the other hand, I take some glee in using his magic in the same way that he used Prolix's and Turok's magic against us. If he ever awakens, I want the last thing he ever sees to be me wearing his stuff and running him through with Sunrise.

We contacted Lord Marius to give him the good news about our victory, and I also contacted the salamanders to tell them. I called Zaid, who told Hamid "told you!" while I was speaking with him. I did not hear Hamid's reply, but Zaid's smile was unmistakable.

Tomorrow we will return to the castle of blood to seek out the creatures that got away, and also to find the unicorn pearl Garrett took from Prolix. He was not wearing it, so it must be in the castle somewhere. It is unacceptable that the unicorn's magic should remain in the hands of unnatural fiends.

May 14 (Saturday)

This time we teleported to outside the castle, which was easier. We also thought this would give us a chance to do final preparations for battle. We certainly didn't expect to be met at the gate. (So I guess Garrett has servants who don't mind sunlight after all.)

Two mutated dragon-like creatures with tentacles were on the roof, and they flung lightning at us and hurt Liandra badly. I threw a fireball at one and those of us who could took to the air. One dove at Liandra, picked her up, and started to carry her off, but I used magical force to push it to the ground where Turok attacked it. It dropped Liandra and grabbed Turok, so I flung fire at it since Turok doesn't mind.

I sort of lost track of what was happening where. One of them attacked me and hurt me badly, and I ended up teleporting tactically to Liandra so she could heal me. Kyle had by then climbed up onto the roof and was bringing down a flurry of blows, and he and Turok ultimately killed them.

We knew that the singer was still out there, so as we walked in most of us stopped our ears with wax. (Liandra did not; she felt confident that she could throw off the creature's charms.) This allowed her to hear singing from a distance, and she pointed to a trap door in the ceiling of the throne room. The door was open so I lobbed some fire through it, and then Turok charged through. As he did, though, the door slammed shut.

We prepared to fly up to the door when it shattered from the other side. Turok had a wild look in his eye as he flew toward us; Liandra told me later that she could see he was not in control of his mind. However, Linadra flew up, resisted the creature's domination, and turned it to dust with a sunbeam spell. Very impressive!

There was a vampiric gargoyle up there and it summoned Sythel, the wraith that attacked us in the middle of the night looking for Prolix (the coward). Liandra hit it with a sunbeam and damaged it, but it touched and drained her life-force before flying down toward the rest of us.

Kyle and Turok took on the gargoyle, and Kyle found he could do the most damage by casting curing spells on it. The wraith flew at me and touched me, but it did not steal my life. Liandra hit it with another sunbeam, and I flew by and hit it with Sunrise, which glowed bright. It then turned its attention to Turok and tried to steal his life, but the unicorn pearl saved him.

We then engaged in a game of cat and mouse; the wraith was fast and could retreat into walls, but we were fast and guarding in all directions. Eventually it emerged and we were able to kill it quickly. Take that, Garrett-servant!

There were no more creatures roaming the castle as we searched it, but there was one fight yet remaining. We came to a locked door with runes on it; this seemed pretty clearly Melisande's lab (or one of them). Inside we found an immense skeletal dragon made of adamantine inlaid with copper wire forming runes. Liandra tried to use languar and instead some of the runes glowed and the magic was transformed. I cast missiles and other runes glowed while the spell did no damage. Turok was filled with dread, and we were all at a loss about how to fight it.

Liandra then summoned an earth elemental below it, and the "dragon" started to move -- uncharaceristically smoothly, I thought. It attacked Turok and the elemental and Turok attacked it while Liandra summoned a second elemental. Kyle and I moved in to try to heal Turok while Turok and the two elementals continued to fight it, eventually destroying it in a shower of metal bits.

We all wondered just why this thing was here, but later we found the answer in Melisande's spellbooks. She had magically hidden a page of a journal; this page somehow encoded a small bit of her mind and kept it safe from Garrett, she said. She wrote that Garrett may get his wish to kill Agondre but doing so will end the disease that keeps them intact, so she has built herself a dragon of bone and metal to replace Agondre and take control of the land herself. Ambitious! I would have congratulated her on her efforts had I known.

While we were finishing up we detected scrying once more. Scrying?! But Melisdande is dead; who could be scrying on us now I asked? Turok suddenly muttered "Kepta-Mor?!" and we demanded that he explain himself. I can't believe he's been keeping this from us for most of a year.

Turok explained that Kepta-Mor was a friend of his father -- and therefore no friend of his. Turok's father wanted Turok to become a merchant and thought fighting was stupid; Turok, on the other hand, went looking for a big sword. He hesitated, so Liandra poured him some beer.

Turok's family was powerful, he said, and they had a museum that had a special, ancient sword in the back room. Turok took this and some money and ran off to join the D'Gorim, and on the way he met a lady and learned of a planned attack on Kepta-Mor. He joined this attack and was captured but not killed; he assumed this was his father's influence. One night he found his cell door open and when he slipped out, found the sword in the hall. He was in Kepta-Mor's stronghold, and he saw through a doorway his ladyfriend in nice clothes and obviously not a prisoner. He said he knew he'd been double-crossed, and he stole a flying beast and flew away, eventually landing in Agondre even though a creature should not have been able to fly that far without resting.

I asked Turok if Kepta-Mor knows of this land, but he said he never listened to his expensive tutors. Thanks, Turok. Well, it seems Kepta-Mor knows of us now, and there is little chance of us taking him unaware. So first we must heal Agondre, then free Aulos, and then figure out how to find Kepta-Mor, all while he watches us. And I thought killing Melisande and Garrett would put an end to such things.

When we returned to Oakhame we contacted Elys' to tell her of the vampires' fates and share what we had learned about Kepta-Mor. She still has no awareness of where she is (beyond "in a gem"), but she is pretty clearly Kepta-Mor's prisoner. I hope we are able to free her soon.

Comments

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

This is neat! Thank you!

Sometimes when I read Larissa's journal, I remember stuff I forgot :-)

[cellio]

Either that, or you've bumped into the stuff I made up. :-) (On the other hand, I try to only make up "color" and personal background, not real plot.)