Running Low Time and Healing

We are running low on healing spells. I only have a few more charges on the healing wand. Due to this we are going to bunker down and try to survive through the night. We have to do this because we will not be able to kill the evil in this place. There is light in all this darkness. The group is working together like they should. Even Tupper is putting an effort. Anyway i do not have anymore time to waste. Time get to back on guard.

Steinbjorn: On Golems

Consider the iron golem.

On the one hand, you have a magical creation whose usefulness is hard to overstate. They are large, strong, never tire, are resistant to wear, tear, and other damaging influences, and can operate in the most magically toxic areas without worry. If you lived in a city, particularly the kind with poorly thought out construction practices, you could have no better neighbor than a man with an iron golem. If your house burned down, the golem could dig tirelessly through the rubble, seeking to dig out your children, stash of gold, pet dog or what have you. If you lived in a magically active area, it could wade into a magical vortex to fish out your wife without concern. If the local mine was collapsing, the golem could hold it up for as long as it took for the miners to shore up the thing.

Around the house, of course, they can perform all manner of menial tasks, again using their inhuman strength and tireless obedience. And they can defend your home better than the most fearsome guard dog, and without all the irritating clean up.

And yet, there is hardly a fool in the world who would look at his neighbor building golems and think "oh, good." Why is that?

Because, quite simply, a golem becomes an unstated threat. An iron golem could be useful, yes, but it could also single-handedly demolish an infantry regiment. The average military is simply not set up to deal with a golem. They haven't got a storehouse of adamantine blades, and the sort of mage that joins the military is probably the sort that thinks in terms of evocation, rather than more elegant magic. A golem, therefore, carries with it a second potential, aimed at the rightful rulers of wherever the thing happens to be built; you may rule this place, but I can demolish you whenever I like.

And then, of course, the golem's creator passes on, and you have a new host of problems.

Which raises the question: given that a golem carries with it so much possible threat, is it a proper use of magic?

I think not. Unfortunately, it's not the kind of improper use of magic I was prepared to deal with today.

But there is one less golem in this world, and that can only better, in the long term.

Sztuczka's Journal

Yay! We acquired Steinbjorn's wife, Valdis! and we explored the temple more and we're waiting on a lot of things until we heal a bit and spells and things and then it's gonna be back to the keep and we're going in "peace" but expecting a fight and it kinda has knots in my tummy and...

--

that was a waste of good tactics and tupper actually knows how to do helpful stuff and i am not necessarily more helpful than him in combat which is a good thing since fighting is relatively new to me and my babcia would be rolling over in her grave if her spirit knew that i actually wield steel and not just my violin because my family is such a peaceful lot but my Da knows and he thinks it is great because I am doing what makes me most useful and thinks there is nothing wrong with doing something to earn other folks' respect and as a gnome it is hard to do that and he is proud of me and i miss my Da and I hope my Ma and Babcia are happy wherever they are and gorramit now I need to stop thinkin before I start crying... cannot let the group see me cry. Cannot. Will not.

Journal of Lt. Tupper, Day 260 Supplemental

HERAKLES I KNOW YOU CAN READ THIS
The dreams and visions were one thing, but now you are forcing my hand. Now you have actively interfered with my duties. Here is a task for you, Herakles. Go to St. Cuthbert. Ask him if he's alright with sending one of his followers into a screaming frothing rage during a mission of infiltration and tactics. I would like to hear his opinion on your deeds to date. I know I am probably not his best follower but I try. By the Cudgel I try. And in the meantime know this: I have not converted to your beliefs, I will not worship you, and all this has proven is that YOU ARE GETTING IN MY WAY. Just leave me alone, just me. It's all I ask.

Tomorrow will interesting

After investing the temple we came across a hidden hallway. In the hallway there was a magical barrier. We will look into what is behind this barrier tomorrow when we have the spells for it. After doing that we will be heading back through the portal. We are running out of time and the portal might close if we do not go tomorrow. At least tomorrow Pelor will allow me to heal the affect that has drained the energy from me when we went through the protective bubble.
........
Just finished discussing strategy for tomorrows battle. It is reassuring to see the group pull together and think ahead for the next battle versus just rushing in. We have come up we a decent plan that will make the battle possible tomorrow, versus just winning by luck. Anyways tomorrow is going to be very interesting. It will be a good test.

Steinbjorn, Day 2.5

Angr-Boda, give me patience. Allow me to overcome my instincts once when necessary, that I can keep from doing things like that.

If we hadn't been scryed, it would have been correct: stop the enemy from raising the alarm, protect us, even if it means the death of one who might only be mind controlled. The mission is greater than his life.

But we had been scryed. I feared I just wasted valuable magic, as well as the life of a potential ally, for nothing.

I must learn patience, though it takes me another hundred years.

More later. I must return to the fray.

Steinbjorn, Day 2

Good news abounds. The aboleth is dead, Valdis is recovered and appears to be in her correct mind again, and even the monk has reasonably recovered.

Sadly, a proper thanksgiving for Valdis's return will have to wait, as we have more enemies to face tomorrow, and that means preparing for the coming battle. It is not the first time the duty of one of us or the other has meant putting off each other, and I imagine it won't be the last. Such is the nature of serving Hel, and the gods know that I married Hel right alongside Valdis, and never had any illusions otherwise. Angr-Boda, for her part, asks less often. When she does, though, ignoring her is never an option.

I'm pleased to say that this new group that the gods sent us here to find seems to be reasonably competent. They fought well. There were a handful of questionable tactical decisions, such as Tupper's refusal to fire his weapon for a bit, and of coure the monk's leaving the bubble to fight a wizard. That second, I think, is at least understandable; he thought it would be a quick fight, that he could take care of a potential threat easily. I suppose he could not have foreseen that it would become the ordeal which it was.

There is one thing which concerns me, which is the surprise which my companions seem to have in regards to their level of competence. Things so simple as their forming a shield wall to protect myself and the bard seem to cause them a concerning amount of surprise, and a question as simple as "who is your leader in battle?" led to a great deal of discussion.

I wonder that their gods have been allowing them to get away with this.

I also wonder, for a group that is here almost entirely at the behest of their gods, what Tupper's motives are. The god which wants him here is one which he flings insults at, ignores his dictums, and he insists that this god is stalking him and the Tupper wants nothing to do with him.

But if he reviles this god so, what then are his motives? This is not the sort of quest one takes for material reward. It's not the sort of thing one undertakes to be safe, or to stay out of battle, or anything else. This is war, and it's war that we can only win with the full support of our gods. But if we do not support our gods, how can we expect their support?

I wonder that he might be some sort of foul trick from our enemies, a supposed "ally" put here to try and separate us from the loyalty of our god, to pretend competence only as often as is needed to keep the others from sending him home, while trying to tear apart this group with useless bickering.

Consider: tomorrow we will travel through the portal back to the other aboleth, the golems, etc. We do not believe that this aboleth knows that we're coming after him. Travelling through the portal, one of two things will occur: either we will surprise them and catch them unawares, or they will spring a trap on us, for which we will be mentally and magically prepared.

Instead of this, he tried to convince us that we should go somewhere else, follow a thin thread which might lead us to another way back to the island, and therefor make certain that this Seneschal person knows we're coming and is ready for our attack. It is, at best, a nitpick of an argument: do we take one portal which they expect us to come through, or another? (For to believe that they can't anticipate any teleportation of ours would be foolish.)

At worst, it's the most devious kind of trap, the kind that looks like helping, like discussion, while halting useful discussion and driving the part apart.

I will have to keep an eye on him. This is precisely the sort of threat which Paladins have issues with, as they cannot ever truly say that they've been attacked, that he's a worthy enemy.

Which is why those such as them need those such as I. Because keeping Paladins alive, sometimes, requires acts which they could not condone.

My eyes will be open.