Ragnarr: Day 157

I think I'm getting somewhere. I hope I'm getting somewhere.

I've spent a lot of time with Pelor these last two days. Pelor and a fisherman who still follows the old ways, hunts with a wooden spear and all that. I asked him to help me, show me how to use the damn thing. He did, patiently enough. He frowned when I practiced some of what Pelor had shown me with it, saying that it wasn't sporting to use magic to catch fish.

I tried to tell him that I wasn't going to be catching fish. We've never fought anything underwater that couldn't eat me whole, and I could use every advantage I could get. I told him about the great bloody shark, and he seemed to understand.

At least I've learned to swim a little. I still don't see why anybody created a world with so damn much water. Why cover most of the world in water if the finest creatures on it can't swim? Seems daft.

We're trying to get a boat. I'm doing what good I can here while we wait, but mostly it's been a quiet couple of days. The others are doing what they can to help make the next underwater battle a little less stupid, and hopefully between us we can avoid having to bring in a suicide fire elemental.

I've spent my days praying, spearing, and drinking at night. This village has decent liquor, even if they haven't seen a supply ship in a while. Perhaps once I get back to the mainland I can see about getting a merchant to come out this way. Somebody's got to want to buy fish, yes?

It's strange. I still feel terrible for what happened with the elemental, but I feel closer to Pelor than I ever have. Perhaps I've been leaning on him too much, and he wanted me to find my own strength, or some bollocks. I don't know.

What I do know is that Arcadius has just bought another bottle of akavit, and that means I have somewhere else to be.

With luck, we'll have somewhere altogether different to go to, too. I think I've come as far as I can on this island, and I want to see what gifts Pelor's given me.

This time, I'll make sure I've got a spear handy.

Ragnarr: Day 155

Pelor, forgive me, for I am a bastard.

I suppose I shouldn't be too hard on myself. I might have saved everybody. But how I saved everybody, that's the problem.

We're not prepared to fight in the water. That's a problem, when we keep fighting in the water. The only bloody thing I've figured out to do is to summon poor damn fishes to come fight for us.

Fishes like the two that damn shark ate. Or the one I killed today, though at least that one was a different sort of fish, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't the same fish I got eaten the other two times.

And yes, I know that the fishes will reform on their own plane, healthy in body, and go about their business. I know the fire elemental will, too, bless his soul. But I know for damn sure that I'll reform some place nicer when I die, too.

That doesn't mean that I'd be thankful if some unprepared, desperate bastard ripped me out of my life and forced me to die an awful, painful death from the thing I despise most, just so that I might explode and harm something that somebody wasn't prepared to fight.

That poor fire elemental. It was never meant to be summoned in water. It made a hell of an explosion when it did. Probably saved us all, though it ripped apart the fish I had summoned, and nearly killed Chris in the bargain.

Thank Pelor I can say "almost." I couldn't bloody live with myself if I'd dragged him out of his tower, just to get him killed unleashing forces that I don't really understand.

And all that just to get myself nearly killed when Grungarr needed my help. I can't heal anybody if I'm dead, but it was a near thing. Even with my idiotic, not thought out, needlessly cruel spell, Grugarr and Chris both might have died, anyway.

And it's all because I couldn't think of anything better to do.

There's got to be something. Some way I, that we, can be better prepared. Some way that we can fight some damn fishes without getting half the souls in heaven killed in the bargain.

Tomorrow I'll spend in prayer to Pelor. Arcadius offered that he could help me with a ritual if I needed it, which shows how little he gets it. This isn't about rituals, it's about my soul and what the hell I'm doing. This one is between me and Pelor.

With luck, he'll show me something in myself that will be useful next time.

Next time. By Pelor's beard, why did it have to be me that got called to go adventuring? This isn't what I'm cut out for. Give me a nice town with a nice plague and a few broken arms, maybe a glass of ale, and I know what I need to be doing.

But adventuring? Hell, I don't know why anyone does this on purpose. But the gods call us to where we need to be, and Pelor says I need to be here.

So here I'll stay. And if I'm to be here, I'll not be the cause of another poor bastard ripped from his home to be eaten or blown up.

What I shall do instead, I can only hope that Pelor will tell.

Aurelia: Day 154

We set out, back to the keep today. It was very interesting to see these men fight. The cleric, rightfully so, spent most of the day healing. The Wizard Chris seems unsure how to use his powers in a fight. I assume that saved the rest of us much injury. I am thankful he has a clear head. They knew our weaknesses and used them. One used a wall of iron to prevent Jacob using most of his powers, thankfully Jacob found a way to get more of us into the room. The thing we were fighting escaped through a portal. We started to follow, but being unsure when it would close or where we were, we returned to the Keep and must now figure out a new plan of attack.

Unfortunately, I must look into getting a magical weapon. This is the first I have dealt with something with the power to knock my arrows aside like a child's plaything.

Journal of Arcadius - Day 154

(hastily scrawled note)

Much fighting. Enemy well prepared. More foul dark-robed mages, perhaps undead perhaps not. Definitely in league with alienists. Gravely wounded or perhaps destroyed one, through the grace of Pelor. Another nearly trapped me with an illusion. May I be wiser and more cautious in the future. It then escaped through magic. Third foe was well defended in a room, we assaulted and broke through, but it too escaped through portal to cliffside complex of the alienists. Advised others to retreat quickly and we did. Found room full of caged pseudonatural creatures. Found some information and some potentially useful items, but we are getting low on magic. Retreat to regain magic only buys them time. We could press on, but where are they? What to do?

*A*

Playing with others is hard. (Chris)

It seems I need work on picking better damage spells to work with this group of adventures. They like to run up and engage the enemy, which prevents me from casting fun spells like fireball. I would hate to hurt any of them. Now do not get me wrong, I love their enthusiasm and I prefer them to get the attention of the enemy then the person or creature to be pissed at me. So I need to do some research so I can assist them in defeating these people that work with the creatures from the sea.

I will say my spells that are not design to do damage I have been very fortunate with. The dispel spells and glittering dust really came in handy today. A wizard used an invisibility spell that would have made fighting extremely tough if I was not able to cover him with dust there by allow the others to continue attacking him.

But enough about spells, let talk about the wizards we faced recently. They were some very powerful wizards; these wizards used spells that were very powerful and not all of them where “boom” spells. I can really appreciate the work that went it all of the defenses that they had setup. I need to do some research on runes. They are very powerful and I can see it being very useful for me in the future. Hmm wonder if there is any place near by where I can get information on them.

Well I need to do more research on this as well as digging up some information on this ancient threat o and I need to talk to the paladins. They seem to know things about the place we went to, when followed the wizard for a while though a dimensional door. I would like to know more about these people.

Ragnarr: Day 154

Pelor works in mysterious ways, except when he doesn't. It's no wonder he sent me to babysit this bunch. I've healed my share of diseases, broken legs, snake bites, and what have you, but never in my life have I healed so many life threatening wounds in a single day. I new that Pelor must have directed me in this direction for some good reason, and now I know. That this pack of bastards has survived this long makes me thing they must be doing something Pelor finds extremely important.

Chris is getting a workout for his magic, too. It's good for him, I think. He's spent so much time in a room with his books, but he's never had the chance to find out how his magic works in the real world. Sure, it would be nice if he were practicing doing something useful, not just trying to kill things, but it's practice, none-the-less.

And what better things to practice on than undead? At least I think they're undead. The power I could have used to detect such things keeps being used to prop people up instead. Even if these things aren't undead, they're certainly very old and very evil. Not at all the sort of thing that Pelor smiles on.

They're also quite powerful mages of some sort. Which means we've got the painful decision of whether to chase the bastards while they're still weak and so are we, or to let them rest and recuperate while we do the same. It's the paladins' decision, of course, but I hope we go after them, soon. Any chance at surprising them is gone. It might be dangerous to carry on, but it would be worse to let them prepare another day.

Though not as bad as wanting me to undo damage that could have been massive, all to look in a closet. I talked Flam out of that, but by Pelor's beard, has the man no sense?

At least Grungarr was injured opening a useful door. The poor lad is going to need powerful help for his head, I fear. Both because he harmed his head greviously, and that he did it to himself. With a very large hammer. We stopped him, and I think that this is only an effect of the glyph he triggered, but I fear to think that this was within him all the time. I'll have to make sure his spirit stays strong, or we may have great problems.

Journal of Grungar, Day 153-154ish

Hello journal! Did you enjoy beetsack?

Okay so we saw a shark and Ragnar fed it another shark and then we saw another another shark but it go away.
IT WAS AWESUM
Then we get out of water and find notorctown and big spooky keep.

We make new friend that talk funny and is a notorc. Her name is Areola and she smell like book. :D
She has a doggy named Wuulf! \:o
I want to make Wuulf sculpture, but she doesn't want to show me Wuulf also town has no beets. :{

Okay so today. I learn that Areola uses food to say hello and goodbye. Notorcs are neet!

We find wet hole in ground. Elflady says it is way to big spooky keep. We go in but journal stay in beetsack agin. Goodbye journal!

AAAAHHHHHHHHH okay so we find dry part in water okay
FISH ARE SCARY THEY ARE GOING SWIM IN MOUFH AND EAT ME LIKE BANANNA
also we beat up spooky guy in robe