Sztuczka's Journal

Nogori and Tupper need to stop fighting and I am about ready to take out their kneecaps all though I could do a lot more damage and we explored more of the keep and Azam and Mystera figured out how to get into the walls because they heard something back there and it was quite an uneventful day until we met the owners of the keep and they had to have been deaf and stupid not to find us with the bickering and it turns out that they are on our side and it is one of those frenemy situations i think and hrogar was talking us into a pit and so was nogori so mystera spoke up and told them why we were there and then we discovered that they had the same goal of ending the threat from the sea and then they sent us on our way to a nearby keep that might have what we want but it also has some sort of plant that they want that is hard to collect so they are having us collect it since they are helping in whatever way they can and the monk is an odd one but a good fighter.

I still miss Fflam though!

Journal of Lt. Tupper, Day 252

Day 252
As we all have yet to be horribly mangled by either powerful monsters or incompetence, we rode out to investigate the island today, on giant rainbow-colored seahorses, in the apparent hopes of changing this.

The island itself is covered in fog and mist, which obscures a fortress. This place serves as the base of operations for a cult that claims to fight against the same forces we do. Nothing suspicious about this setup at all, especially since they were so reticent to introduce themselves that we had to blunder about their trap-filled hallways and smash one of their golems before they would even talk to us.

They are led by an eerily-familiar woman who calls herself the Seneschal of the Keep, and who evades inquiries as to her proper name. They claim our mutual foe is called the “Isphit,” the unmakers of all things. As our group consists almost entirely of blithering idiots, our quest to find the final piece of the Staff of Ehlonna was laid bare before her. She told us of three temples where it might be found, and in return we must gather plants and slay horrific beings for her. We are allowed to stay in the keep as guests in the meantime.

Then there was the vision. Yes, once again Herakles failed to take a hint and smacked Nogori and I with another puzzling and pointless dream. This time, we saw some ghostly form of Arcadius fighting a dragon followed by Alcander jumping off a cliff into the ocean. Nogori got more out of the experience than I, likely because she and Herakles are on the same mental level. Also I learned far, far more than I ever cared to know about her sexual interests. If believing yourself to be a princess and lusting over sparkly vampires aren’t clear signs of insanity, I would like to know what is (but not personally).

Oh yes, and we met a monk from the previous monastery named Dantro who was investigating the fortress as well. I don’t remember him, but he says he remembers Hrogar and I. That we just so happened to be in the same isolated location far from anyone who could confirm his identity, and that he came to this place via an obsidian gateway, make him very suspicious. I don’t anticipate sleeping well tonight.

The fact that Herakles can easily travel about with such a dense and immovable object on his shoulders is proof enough to steer clear of him.

Magical Girl Nirogi: Bored on an Island

BORED!

So I'm trying to be nice to the fishies, right? I mean, I could totally just ditch them and go exploring or something, like maybe go see whatever happened to the bad kitty, or find some ruins, or go swimming around near some shallows and see if I can get sailors to swim into the rocks and save them (and maybe they'd be more grateful than this bunch of fishies because, really, this bunch of fishies is LAME), or see how many things I can get the seneschal's servants to drop, or play the "Would Tupper be more of less useful if he were a..." game, or...

Well, so there's lots of stuff I could do, right, if I didn't care about staying on this stupid island, and I didn't care about getting them into, like, a lot of trouble.

But I'm being nice, right? I mean even beyond my attempts to find Tupper someone he can maybe settle down with, even if she is kind of weird, but probably better than whoever he's going to find who's going to put up with all that "Hey, can I hook your pretty ponies up to this stupid thing and maybe it'll rub rust onto them" and "Oh, look at me, I can totally help with the dishes, but only by smashing them on my face, because that's totally how I learned to disarm traps, so it should work with dishes too, right?" I mean, Sashie, he might be more useful if he was a rock.

Huh. I wonder if I could learn to turn him into a rock.

And why does he keep trying to be in all of my stupid journal entries? This journal is supposed to be for things that aren't stupid!

Unless... oh, gods, no. Nononononononononononononono.

My sister told me one time that if you're thinking about a boy all the time, it's because... because...

Gods, Ms. Diary. It's so horrible I can't even write it down! I mean, Tupper? He's just so... ewww, and his smell, and his being stupid, and the way his head is stupid, and, and, and, and I'm a Princess, and a Princess deserves someone nice, someone like Sashie, or maybe that Heracles guy, I mean someone divine or something, right? Or at least some nice, handsome prince. And I mean, I guess it's kind of cute the way he's so angry when I turn him into a frog or something, but NO! EW! EWEWEWEWEWEWEWEW!

I'm not sure I can create enough water for the bath I need to take right now. But I'm going to go find out.

I'm so sorry, Ms. Diary, for soiling you like this. Maybe next time, I'll have some happier news. Like he's been eaten by a sealbear or something.

Ew.

Well those two ever shut up….

We continued searching the hallway. Sadly the people of this keep knew every step we took, since Nigori and Tupper will not stop fighting. They are both like children. I do know how any nation can see these people as worth combatants. The children of 10 back home show better restraint. Anyway back to the report. We came across a leader of the keep. It appears they are trying to fight the same creatures we are. At least that is what they claim. We have decided that we will do a few quests to aid them, in hopes we can get some good intel on our enemy. We will be heading through a portal to collect some plats. We will be given 4 days to get back to the portal, or we will need to travel home by other means. Our departure was delayed; Mistera had some things she needed to take of. So in the mean time we will stay at the keep trying not to cause problems. This is going to be a long few days..

Musings of Mistera - The Dark.

By the gods' grace, we may have found allies.

We found them after wandering through the passageways, some more hidden than others. I stayed silent for a while, with Nigori and Hrogar doing most of the talking, which ended up going nowhere fast. I sighed and spilled the beans, telling them exactly why we were here, what we're fighting, and what we're searching for.

Turns out that so far we have similar goals, and they've arranged for us to get to a nearby temple, which happens to have a rare plant that they want us to gather.

For once the gods are smiling upon our fortune. My smile continues through my first watch and only slowly fades away once caught in the arms of slumber.

---

A dim room.

A darker adversary.

The shadowy presence before the paladins cackles as their attacks fly through its form. Cries of anguish rise from my companions - old battle scars open and ooze blood with each swing of their mighty weapons. Nigori openly weeps, her arsenal of spells backfire, inflicting such pain on her loyal subjects.

My quarterstaff grows so heavy... and cold. It glistens, a blackened blade, a dark twisted claymore.

And it hungers.

I stop Nigori's screaming - through her chest with the blade. The steel lightens, the second stab into Nigori's young flesh swifter. I know she's dead as she drops Squirtle to the ground, who deliciously crunches underneath my boots seconds later.

Sztuczka is a single-swing kill, the blade cleanly separating her head from her shoulders, silencing her singing. Blood sprays across my face, and I can't help but break out into a wide smile and cackle.

Azam might have been a match had he turned around quick enough. I kick his legs out from under him and bring the blade into his heart.

The blade of black ends Blackender, with red swelling up from his multiple incisions.

Tupper cried like a little girl as I gutted him, dying at the sight of his entrails spilling to the ground.

All that's left is Hrogar, who is armed and ready. He bares down on me with his weapon, which I swing to parry - the black cuts straight through his weapon, leaving only the handle left. I only catch a glimpse of his face, staring at bewilderment at the remains of his protection as I fly into a flourish, letting the blade swing me around before catching him in the face. He staggers and recovers, but he now has no escape from the blade's terrible fury. The blade skewers him, and I shove my grinning face into his before kicking his dying body off my blade.

My laughter closely echoes with the shadows.

---

Wake up in a cold sweat. Something's wrong.

I tell the paladins nothing of last night, only that I need to do something.

I'll be back to help, but dear Artemis, please do not let my taint disrupt this mission.

I only pray that when I come back, I have done the right thing.

From the Journal of Hrogar (Five Entries)

We returned to the gnomish submarine after fighting the Aboleth only to find that no one was there. All the gnomes, as well as Hrefna had all vanished. After trying to find out what had happened (and failing, but wasting time and making fools of ourselves in the process) we decided to return back to the temple and try to finish off the Aboleth at least. We also did some more searching through the temple and found a hidden crypt. We did not fully investigate it yet, but I fully intend to return to do so. When we returned to the cavern we had fought it in earlier, we did not find the Arboleth, but did find an apparent minion of the beast.

We entered into battle with an apparent psion or wizard. As there was a fair amount of room in the chamber we were fighting in, I was able to summon my mount and make use of my mounted combat training. Unfortunately, that bastard was able to cast some kind of spell that caused me to take some of any damage done to him. Thus, every time I struck the enemy, I did significant damage to myself as well. Luckily, I didn’t take as much damage as he did, and eventually, with all of us combined, we were able to defeat him.

------

As we were returning to the submarine after defeating the minion of the Aboleth, Fflam was once again taken control of and started attacking us. He did some serious damage, but luckily we were able to defeat him without killing him. We really must find some way to keep that from happening in the future.

After we returned to the submarine, Nigori and Tupper argued over using her ponies to pull the submarine. Tupper needs to know what battles he should fight and what battles he should pass on. Arguing with the temperamental princess on how she should use her magic to move a giant metal monstrosity we don’t need nor particularly want isn’t the best use of ones time, and as Tupper has learned, tends to get one turned into a frog.

While we didn’t use Nigori’s magical sea-ponies to haul the submarine, she and I were able to use them to scout out a nearby island where the gnomes might have escaped to if they had to abandon the ship for some reason unknown to us. When we got there, we found an island covered in a mysterious mist. The smell reminded us of the Aboleth. This may be where it is hiding.

We were then left with a decision, should we go investigate the island, or the crypt we found in the temple? I worried that with the Aboleth sicking Fflam against us as soon as we left the temple the last time, it seemed to be trying to distract us from the temple. If so, we should finish the job there first. After some debating, I was able to convince the others that we should head back down and finish the temple off, before heading off to the mysterious island. So the temple and its crypt is where we shall go next.

------

I am still stunned from the day’s events. Our leader and comrade, Fflam, has died. We were searching the crypt we had found earlier, and found an evil sword and throne, as well as a dozen sarcophagi. I knew we would have to open them up one by one and insure there was nothing dangerous left in them, but before that happened an evil force coalesced out of the air and took human form. An accursed lich!

We fought the creature valiantly. He sent wave after wave of enemy against us. First pseudonatural creatures, and then he protected himself with an impenetrable field while he had his specters escape their sarcophagi and attack us. We had a hard time with them as we were not sure if our attacks were even hitting them.

Finally, we defeated them and were able to try to finish off the lich, and were succeeding at it, but in his last act, he threw a fireball at the ground where he stood, destroying his body, as his soul is elsewhere, and damaging those of us attacking him and killing Fflam. Fflam died the way he lived: in a giant ball of fire.

I jest, because I take consolation in the knowledge that Fflam gave instructions for us to take enough his body back to his family such that they can return life to him if they so choose. I am certain that when they hear of his exploits, they will no doubt do so.

------

After returning the Gnomes back to the ship (they had been held prisoner within the temple), and finding out where Hrefna had disappeared off to (another plane), we’ve gone off to check out what was going on at the island Nigori and I found covered in mist. Upon exploring the island we found a short fortress covers much of the island. The fortress is only about a story tall, but no doubt it descends into the earth, who knows how deep it goes.

Tupper entered the fortress first, then set off a trap that lowered an iron portcullis which stopped the rest of us from following. As we were trying to find an alternate way in/figure out how to open the portcullis, Tupper was knocked unconscious and started getting dragged away from the door and further into the fortress by a mysterious entity that we could not see. We quickly used metamorphosis spells to get the group through the bars, and were able to keep Tupper from being dragged off. But we still don’t know exactly who the person was dragging away Tupper, as they escaped.

While searching through the fortress, we came across a golem we had to defeat, and while we were fighting, we were joined in our fight by a monk. He was able to provide valuable assistance in the fight, and will be continuing on with us. He is apparently one of the monks from a fortress my group met previously, the same fortress they left the other staff piece at. He was sent a vision that he should help us, and here he is. We can certainly use the help.

------

I really must reign in Nigori, but I must do so carefully. I can’t keep letting her turn Tupper into a frog all the time, for one thing. Even if it is Tupper. Her maturity level borders between a young child to a teenager, but mostly a young child (I've known 12-year-olds that showed more maturity for longer stretches of time). But since she's an elf, she might still be over a hundred years old.

Immaturity aside, she is quite useful, having the ability to grant us all important abilities when we must work underwater, but she can be quite temperamental. She’s not as bad as A. Hab was, but I must remember the lesson learned from that scenario: women are crazy and will frequently overreact. We don’t want to piss Nigori off to the degree that she storms off leaving us underwater somewhere and Tupper stuck as a frog.

We investigated the island, and eventually discovered the Seneschal of the fortress. From what they say, the keepers of this fortress are fellow enemies of the Encroaching Darkness from the Depths. In fact, they seem to know quite a bit about said Darkness, and have been more forthcoming with information about it than many others we have met. I will have to gather as much information as I can while here.

The keepers of this fortress have agreed to tell us where the final piece of the Staff of Elhona is, or at least the top three possible locations. I personally wouldn’t have been so quick to even mention it to these people, since we don’t know for sure that what they say is the truth, although I did not notice any lying when they stated their allegiance. But even if they are enemies of our enemies, that doesn’t mean that they are our friends, or that they wouldn’t try to take it from us and use it themselves. If what they say about it is true, it is indeed a terrifying weapon, and one I would not want in the wrong hands. But what’s done is done.

To prove our own claims of being enemies of the Darkness, the seneschal has decided to send us on a number of quests that will prove it by hurting said Darkness and its allies. But before we go, Mistera has left on a quest of her own that she apparently can’t tell us anything about. She says she’ll be back in a week. I must make use of this time to prepare for the upcoming quests.

Magical Princess Nigori: 0 Brides for 1 Tupper

Dear Ms. Diary,

Do you ever feel like your kind hearted, well thought out attempts to help your subjects go completely unappreciated? I mean, like, you really, really thought about what they needed, and you tried really hard to get them what they needed, and then they're all, like, "Hey, I said my house was cold, but that didn't mean I wanted a magma vent there?" I mean, Sashelas, people can be picky. I mean, you can swim, right? So just don't touch the floor and it'll be the most awesome house ever. I'd practically live there myself, but I've already got a house, so no. And I'm also totally not marrying some old woman, just because you don't want to, and it happens to be the only chance in your whole life anyone might marry you, and I'm even paying your dowry. Do you have any idea how long I'm going to have to wait for my allowance to make back that ten gold?

Well, okay, like an hour, but that's not the point! It's the thought that counts, darn it, and I tried to find Tupper a nice wife, someone he could settle down with, who has nice servants to cook his meals, and enough magic to keep his feet warm, and all those nice things boys are supposed to like. Someone he could settle down with, retire from his life of adventuring, and stop getting in my way with his stupid head and his stupid "Hey, we should tow that ugly boat with your pretty aqua ponies."

AND, when I was unconscious, and maybe dead, well I think maybe dead, which would make all those ghosts alive people, or I was alive, but just not in my body, in which case, would that make them dead? And would I really be alive if I wasn't with my body, or more like some kind of spectre or something, and then I'd have to work for some stupid lich, and that wouldn't be very fun. But anyway! while I was doing... that, whatever that was, Tupper followed me there, too! And he didn't want to explore at all, and didn't like it when I tried to make the pretty paladin boy, who he apparently knew, arcdish or something, and he didn't like it when I stuck my head in the dragon, which was totally safe, because the dragon was dead or I was or whatever, and he didn't want to explore and didn't even come with me when I jumped off that cliff! There was water underneath. He probably wouldn't have died. Though he wouldn't have been manly, either, and squished those spiders like a boy should. I mean, if they're not squishing spiders who, by the way, SHOULDN'T EVEN BE UNDERWATER, then what good are boys? I know octopi that are handier than him. Though the lion guy looked pretty handy. At least like he would have crushed some spiders, if they weren't alive or dead or whatever.

Oh, and illithids? Totally shouldn't be the same kind of dead I am. That's totally not fair. Though he woke me up, so that was nice of him, and if Tupper had been fun at all, he would have gotten woken up, too, but no. Lame!

And is it just me, or is Hrogar getting kind of annoying? It's like he thinks I'm a little kid or something, and can't see through his oh-so-patronizing crap.

Stupid boys.

Maybe I should just give up and date you when Sashie's not around, Ms. Diary. You never talk back to me, and you're never mean. If you were a boy, you'd totally be awesome.

Oh, well. Until next time, Ms. Diary!

Sztuczka's Journal

They tried today to get Tupper to be more of a fighter and Nogori offered to change him into some form of creature that would be useful in fights and he declined and it would have been interesting to see and then we took off for the island with the Abolith! And we did not find the Abolith yet but Tupper did get stuck inside a fortress and nogori turned us into mice so we could get in with him and we did find a new friend and he is a monk and he has apparently met the group in some other incarnation and he knows about the sword and this ought to be intersting and i am running out of time to write before we start moving again.

Dantroe Blackender

Well, I found them, the group that visited the monastery several months ago. Or at least, I found one of them. I am not one to question the gods, but if there really was to be only one left from that group, did it have to be Tupper?

The others seem to at least a similarly minded bunch with a couple of paladins, but I don't know about the sea-elf, though.

I wandered through this portal a couple days ago, and have since been trapped in this structure. No way out has been apparent, and I had not encountered anything living until hearing the sounds of battle. I ran towards the sound, and discovered the group, quickly joining in to help against a stone golem.

I wonder if they have any more idea of where we are than I do?

MONKeys in the mist

Well the fish girl and Rogar talked to Tupper, well more they was yelling and screaming. They were talking about his lack of combat skills. Hopefully this will inspire him to not just stand around when things get dangerous, but I am not holding my breath. Anyways we are headed to an island to take care of the last evil thing related to this temple.

We made it to the island. There is yet another fortress on this island. IN this fortress there is a mist that is affecting my senses. It is a shame neither of our casters can get rid of it. Anyways while there we were attacked by a rouge and a stone golem. I do not think I have been hit so hard. The group was able to kill the golem, but the rouge got away. During this fight a monk showed up. He apparently is from a monastery that is in possession of a piece of a powerful magic staff. Since Tupper seems to know of him, we will allow him to travel with us. Since he has been traveling the hallways of this building he might be able to give us some insight on what to expect.

Musings of Mistera - Golem get 'em!

It seems the paladins are actually useful for something.

After some delightfully intriguing yet petty bickering amongst the group regarding Tupper's effectiveness at anything martial, we descended upon an island completely shrouded in mist. Flying around the island proved to be useless, as the fog overwhelmed my senses and prevented any scouting.

As history repeats itself, we watched Tupper set off a trap (arguably purposefully) that separated him from the group via a dropped portcullis, knocked cleanly out, and then dragged off to gods knows where. Then it's off to the races, trying to catch back up to him... right into the hands of an invisible stalker and a golem.

The stalker wasn't much - Nigori made him painfully easy to see to the rest of the party, and he fled while the golem started knocking its great fists into anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby. I step back, reaching into my pouches, in one hand a mass of clay and some drops of water in the other, and try to recall the words...

...where did the words go...

I curse to myself quietly, putting the reagents away. I had replaced the lines of the transmute spell I usually memorized with the more vulgar ones of a Flame Strike.

I drew my quarterstaff, keeping the words of Shillelagh upon my tongue, watching for a moment when I could summon creatures to attack the golem, but all possible flanking spots were taken by the oh-so-virtuous, sword-swinging Paladins. Within short order the golem was in fact destroyed, but not without me hanging in the back of the party, gripping my quarterstaff, feeling as damned useless as Tupper.

Magical Girl Nigori: Everybody Must get Stoned (Golem)

Dear Ms. Diary,

Well, I'm happy to say that my attempts to be nice to Tupper are paying off nicely.

Sure, he doesn't realize it. He keeps complaining that I shouldn't turn him into stuff, like being useless old Tupper is such a great thing, but I suppose there's not a lot I can do to make him less dumb, anyway, at least not right now, so I'll just have to work on that later. But anyway, at least I know I'm not the only one trying to help him get better, since my other guards are totally trying to help too, and they say there's a god who's trying to help him out, too, so I think I'm going to pray to Deep Sashey and see if he'd mind if I helped out another god a little bit. Because he can't say no to a god, right?

So, anyway, Tupper got stuck behind this big metal thing. He was doing a really good job of setting off all the traps for us, like he does, but then the portcullis fell, and he got all stuck. So no big deal, right? I mean, I can turn him into a rat or something, and he can run right back through, and we'll all be together. But no!!! He has to go and be a stupid head, and get all complainy about how he doesn't want to be "turned into things" and how we should "find a better plan." A better plan would have been to let him starve. Ooh, or just let him stay underwater with the poison that makes him not breathe air, but NO, stupid Mystera has to go and cure him. And I thought she was my friend. But this was our chance, right? We could just, you know, not really kill Tuptup, just let him sit in there for a while until he got real hungry, and then he'd have to apologize for being such a stupid head.

But then he had to go and be stupid and get clubbed over the head and dragged off, probably by some stupid invisible amazon cave woman or something, so we all had to go rescue him, which we could only do because OH YEAH, I can turn people into things. And they're not all stupid about it, so we could go rescue him instead of standing around and complaining, like, all day instead of just admitting that he's stupid and doing something else.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. So we went in, and some invisible guy tried to stab me, ME, a princess! and everyone knows that you don't stab a princess unless she's at least, like, third in line for the throne, and if I'm going to get stabbed by invisible assassins anyway, what do I have all these stupid brothers for? I mean, seriously, couldn't they have stabbed, like, Ledrahalis or something? I mean, what do we need a stupid Minister of Kelp for, anyway? I mean, I know it's mean, and I'm his sister and all, but they could stab him in the face and it wouldn't exactly make things worse, you know?

So then the assassin guy got away, which I supposed I should have expected, making Tupper my bodyguard and all, which he says he doesn't want to do, but I'm cute. He wants to. But since he won't let me turn him into anything useful, the assassin totally got away, which is lame. And he left behind his friend the stone golem, who was super mean, and wouldn't die when I killed it with fire or anything, and everybody knows that when a magical princess shoots you with fire, the nice thing to do is be dead. But he just kept trying to smash Azan, who's nice and stuff, so I had to heal him a bunch. And I kind of think I could have killed him, because I found this scroll and stuff, but I think I would have probably killed some people's magic swords and stuff, and you know how boys are about their magic swords. I mean, like, seriously, you don't ever want to call it a short sword, you know? You should just be like "Yeah, dear, your magic sword's totally a two hander," or at least that's why my mom says. And Tuptup tried to fight the thing, and his is long and needle-like and just couldn't penetrate far enough, but at least he tried to stick it in something. I wasn't even sure he knew what it was for.

So, yeah. Intervention: totally worked. Now we just need to teach Tupper something besides "pointy end goes this way," and he might almost be useful!

Anyway, I think the paladins are mad at me, because I've been talking to you, and that bard is getting kind of annoying with her "watch the door, Nigori," and "help search the room, Nigori," and "Do something useful for a change, Nigori." I mean, jeez, can't she see I'm busy? I've got princess things to do.

You are my most loyal subject, Ms. Diary. I'll talk to you real soon.

Sztuczka's Journal

Shocked. That is the only word I can bring forth.

We were in the underwater place, fighting the Lich. The Lich threw up some sort of protective sphere and left us to fight some specters. We were making good headway against them and everything went blurry and I really lost track of what exactly happened in the course of it. That is one thing the bardic tales never cover! They tell amazing tales of love and heroics, but they fail to capture the true rush of adrenaline from battle.

The Lich dropped his sphere and the room started to fill with smoke. The Paladins stayed to fight, the rest of us backed out towards the door. When it looked like the Lich was going to be going down, he dropped a fireball at his own feet. He took out Fflam with him.

We lost Fflam. He will be greatly missed. We're going to spend a few days in the town an recuperate and who knows where we'll go from there!

Journal of Lt. Tupper, Day 247-251

Day 247
Attempts to explore the temple today were thwarted by a mind-controlled Fflam. Fortunately, we restrained him with a minimum of damage to anyone. After that, the more mobile members of the group went out to scout the surrounding areas, while the rest of us stayed behind to guard the dwarf. Actually got some useful research done, especially since Nogori was out of casting range.

When they came back, they told us of a shrouded island with indications that the 'abboleth' is residing around it. It is either making for a full retreat (with the kidnapping of the sub crew as a way to strand us) or it is trying to draw us away from something hidden in the temple. Apparently, there are crypts down there that nobody bothered to tell me about until today. The debate on what to do was left in a stalemate, and will hopefully be decided tomorrow morning.

Herakles thinks brainwashing requires soap.


Day 251
Fflam is dead.

On day 248, we managed to make it to the temple and into the crypts. There we found rows of coffins and a sword next to a pitch-black throne. This, for any rational mind, is not a place to mess around in. So Nogori sat in the throne to play princess and refused to get up until Mistera gave her the sword. This act summoned a lich. Nogori then gave the sword to the lich because I still don't fucking know why. After we dealt with its undead minions, summoned monsters, and arcane protections, it finally decided to 'kill' itself and take as many of us as possible with it. Fflam was closest to the lich when the fireball hit.

After the dust settled, we found the glorified zombie's stash of weapons and goods, including a map to the seas around Stonekeep; and Mistera found the missing crewmen of the submersible. On top of that, we all returned to the sub to find Hrefna waiting for us. I have spent the past few days recovering from the effects of poisonous gas and of being a bile-spewing chicken-thing (again, Nogori's fault). The chief engineer was curious about all of the disarmed traps in his office, which was left to me to explain. Had to fill out a survey about them, and participate in a burial-at-sea for the mechanical spider.

As it stands, the group I was sent to help now consists of a lone paladin and a gaggle of misfits. Suppose this makes me second-in-command, hah. Should probably write a letter to Fflam's family to send back along with the corpse, and maybe one to HQ to request proper reinforcements, assuming they can even find us.

I'm never going to see Point of Origin again, am I.

Musings of Mistera - That Lich.

Cypress was happy to see me, which makes it all the more hard to go back to the waves and the ocean. He seems pretty fit and fed, with a small trace of blood left on his maw from a recent kill. I held him close, telling him that I had to depart again, and that I would come back to retrieve him as soon as the sea battles were over.

---

I come back to amusing tales of bad fishies and the proper use of the royalty's seapony steeds. Nigori seems like a well enough companion though, as long as you know how to talk to her - a nuance that seems lost among the rest of the party, except perhaps Azzam.

Once again we dive into the depths, this time to an unexplored room. Sarcophagi fill the room, and in the back is a throne with a sword. I pick up the sword, which seems normal at first, and then Nigori takes her magesty's spot and sits in the throne.

The sword grows cold, chilling me to the bone. I hand the sword to Nigori just as a figure coalesces - a shadowy figure at first, who demands to know what we were doing on his throne. Nigori, being a proper princess, hands the sword back to its rightful owner and tries to daintily leave, if not for the horrific hippogryph blocking the only exit.

At this point, it becomes clear that we'll need to fight out of this - my hands glow with the power of the sun. It's time for him to burn.

--

It was a hard fought battle, and in the end we only had one of our brethren fall, who ended up being the leader of this rag-tag group of Paladins.

It was some weeks ago that he had mentioned a curse, where anyone who took up leadership in this band of holy heroes would quickly perish.

Mayhap he was right.

Artemis, remind me not to lead.

A loss of a paladin

We lost Flam today. We were fighting a litch who controlled specters and altered creatures. The fight went fairly well even though Tupper refused to fight, up until the specters were summoned. When the ghost attack it felt like they drained the life out of you. Things would have been dyer, but Flam was able to turn them making the 12 spirits more manageable. We were starting to get the upper hand, which is when the litch started to attack us again. As we attacked him he brought fourth a poisonous gas. This did not slow us down so the litch used a last ditch effort and cast a fireball at his feet. This is when Flam died. Pelor reward Flam for his sacrifice.

After that fight we search and found the missing gnomes. So we made our way back to the sub. After some rest we will go back down to the temple and try and find that evil fish. Anyways Flam really proved that he was a great warrior and has earned his place in the after life.

Magical Girl Nigori: Liches Ain't Shit

Dear Ms. Diary,

Mom was right! Life is more fun when we put aside our differences and help other people!

So we met this lich guy, who's kind of like a lord, but with some of his skin missing, and without the letting you sit in his chair and bringing you cookies, and more being friends with icky seal things, except they aren't seals, they're monsters, and he's also got friends who try to eat your soul, and you can't poke them with sticks because they're see-through, which is kind of neat, but kind of annoying when all of your companions are the kind of people who try to poke evil things with sticks. And these were evil things.

But anyway, so we were fighting them, even though I tried to be nice to Mr. Lichy and give him his sword back and everything, but then he tried to kill us, and his mean, weird hippogrif wouldn't let me leave after I had said goodbye and everything, and then the ghosty guys cornered me and tried to eat my soul, but I was invisible, so they went away. And then Tupper was all "I'm so scare, I will pretend to be a turtle," but he's not a very good turtle, and besides, guys who can walk through walls don't really care if you have a shell, so they were eating his soul and stuff, and he was just so scared that I knew I had to help him! So I decided he'd be better off if he was a scary monster, and wouldn't really look worse either, so I did, and then he got all pukey and threw up, kind of like Squirtle that one time I fed him some sushi, but then it turned out to be made out of sea turtle, and he was mad at me for a while. Except that Tupper was puking up acid, and it burned the bad ghost guys, and the lich guy, and he didn't say anything stupid the whole time, just, like, "Rarararar" because he couldn't really talk human. And he managed to not even get pukey on Hrogar, which was pretty impressive, since he was riding around on this kitty.

Oh! And the Lich I think had some bad turtle, too, and there was all this gas, and it smelled really bad, and the druid summoned the cutest little lemmings! and I don't think Flam is evil anymore, because he's dead.

So, yay! Lot's of victories for Magical Girl Nigori's Undersea Adventuring Squad!

Next, we're going to go kill that mean old Aboleth, but first I need to swim over to that town where they'll sell me magical stuff, and that one old man won't even ask how old I am. It's wierd that he likes me so much. I think it's just because I'm so nice.

I wonder if an octopus would be better at braiding hair.

Anyway, I've got to go. Talk to you real soon, Ms. Diary.

Sztuczka's Journal

I am used to all sorts of ranks of upper-class. I can hob-nob with the best of them! But that Nogori girl is too much. Just because she claims to be a Princess does not mean that she cannot stand guard. She has no problems healing or going into battle, but she won't help us make sure nothing gets us at night? Not cool.

The next day, she turned Tupper into a frog. Though I suppose that's not the worst that could have happened. Hrogar made her turn him back.

Then a most curious thing happened. As we set forth through the water, something happened to Fflam and he started to attack me. Everyone tried to stop him without killing him. It seems to have worked, but who knows why that happened!

It seems that something down here has a hold on Fflam. We might need Mystera back to fix this. An exciting tale so far though! Well, other than self-entitled "Princess" Nogori.