Stuck in a bubble

We had a litch show up while Ken was preparing his spells. Fortunately Ragnar is very skilled at turning undead creatures, which helped the the beetle creatures. What happend next was almost comical. First the litch sent Aracadius to another area and then he covered the floor with grease. I thought it would be a good idea to slide across the the floor to close the cap between the litch and me. Sadly i am not as dexterous as i would like. I ended up falling and had to have Ragnar use a hand to push me across the grease. At this point I was able to get in a single attack then i was put into a buble. Fortunately by this point Aradius had made his way back and the litch decided it made more sense to run. So all in all a good victory for us. We allowed Ken to learn some spells while holding a litch at bay. We will not be able to press on and find the teleport ring. We also need to find Crunch. It seems that he was captured. Ah good the bubble finally went away we can go now.

The Ethics of Lizard Tossing

It seems that bloody lizard isn't happy with me.

Arcadius seems to think that it has a point. I think my wee bit of lizard tossing has offended his sense of honor. Which, alright, sense of honor and what have you and I'm sure that's nice, but this case seems fine to me.

I mean, for starters, it's not like I promised to protect the little bastard. I don't believe I made any promise to it at all. So I didn't break my word.

It doesn't seem like it would be that I've alienated a valuable ally. All the little bastard does is run away when something big enough to eat it shows up. Ix doesn't seem to know much, and what he does know he doesn't always tell us.

Plus, he's an evil bastard. When did being evil stop counting for things with the paladins?

And aside from that, he's a lizard. A talking lizard, sure, but it's not like a did it to a person.

No, that would be wrong.

And heavy. I'd have a bastard of a time tossing a person high enough, even if he was a bastard. Even dwarf tossing would be hard.

Which no one should do. That would be wrong.

Plus, it's embarrassing.

Maybe the gnome, though.

From the Journal of Keniroh

We got back to the Aboleth's dimension, and immediately we saw that it had been redecorated. A stone roof had been placed over the maze, and we quickly found a prismatic wall in our way.

We moved our way though the maze, following an ally of Ragnarr's to where a connection between this plane and nearby planes are connected, in an attempt to break that connection. On the way we met a female mage, who looked somewhat familiar, actually. She then proceeded to start stripping me of my various magical protections and take them for herself. Now that's just rude.

I was a moment away from teaching her a lesson in manners when she phased through the rock and away from us.

I will have to prepare myself better for dealing with her the next time I see her. I just wish I could remember where I'd seen her before.

Alby's Journal

My sister infuriates me! She gives me an amazing puzzle and no idea how to know when it is solved! Knowing her, it is probably some magical spell that gives me warts or donkey ears or something! I wonder where she got this. It's very nicely crafted. Pretty and shiny! Of course it's magical... Anything from Mellie would be, so that's not a helpful clue!

I can't seem to figure out any sort of logic to the symbols. They seem like a mix-match of things that just don't seem to go together. I mean, some look like hieroglyphs and others look like runes... and others just aren't very decipherable at all! I mean, seriously! 12 concentric circles! At least 144 combinations! At least ONE of them has to do SOMETHING!

And even though I haven't been through every combination, I feel like I am making some that I have made before and just going in circles!

I suppose I'll give a few more a try and then get some rest... This is getting crazy!

Hrefna's Calling: A Theory of Wizards

Wizards--more than any other group--seem to be the group most likely to be obsessed with immortality. Perhaps it is a function of our relatively fragile beginnings--or perhaps it is just human nature combined with arcane power--but wizards, unlike many other professions, actually have it within their grasp to cheat death and not only might obsess over immortality, but come close to obtaining it.

As one lich of some renown is said to have remarked:

Don't you get it? Be a vampire, or a ghost, or an immortal with a paint-by-numbers portrait in the rec room. Hell, even a brain-in-a-jar in a pinch. Anything to avoid the Big Fire Below.

So there are a variety of less savory means available to wizards for extending their life, but the wizard's need for thinking ahead and preparation goes past just the base desire to extend their life. Much of this comes from what is just good common sense for any wizard who goes into even remotely dangerous situations.

Even those who aren't obsessed with immortality or self preservation frequently find that preparation is the difference between life and death for them, and so they cannot afford to walk into a situation without due consideration and prepwork. A wizard who gets caught without her spell components or with all fire spells memorized when the enemy has fire elementals is a dead wizard.

So a wizard who is worth his salt and wishes to survive even remotely hostile situations is well advised--and capable--of engaging in preparation.

There are a few different ways that wizards approach this problem, of course. Diviners try to anticipate what is coming in advance and build their defenses accordingly. Others might attempt to gain a little more flexibility in their spell list so that they can spontaneously cast a few relevant abilities, thus meaning they don't need to know exactly what is coming. Some put themselves behind series of elaborate traps and layered defenses. Most learn quickly to put contingencies on themselves using whatever powers they have available, many learn to keep magical defenses up on their person even when traveling in relatively safe areas, those who are not cocky learn not to show all of their power at once, and all who are even half wise learn to not directly confront an enemy unless you know you can escape. Preferably by more than one route. The paranoid might go so far as to copy their consciousness, store their soul, or make friends with a very powerful cleric so that even death does not deter them.

This might all seem excessive to some, but if you don't learn to prepare for the worst as a wizard, you end up dead well before your time.

Bael'thas

I don't think they like me very much.

Okay, so I didn't realize how important it was for the wizard to be studying at that time, or that the lich was spent specifically to interrupt that study.  And perhaps it took me longer than it should have to try and teleport my way out of the cage I was contained in.  At least I didn't go sliding across the floor like an idiot.  Don't these people know how to be a little careful when the situation calls for it?

And to be fair, things looked pretty dire to me.  I was stuck in a cage, the metal one was stuck on the other side of the trapdoor, Arcadius had vanished to who knows where, leaving just Azan falling over in the grease and Ragnar.  To be fair some more though, if you're up against a lich, Ragnar probably counts for two or three paladins.

Perhaps this is just how tings tend to go for them.  Maybe they get into situations like this three times before breakfast every day.  If that's the case, well, then it's going to be an interesting trip.

We are back.

This abalith is going to push us to our limits. We have made our way back to the abalith's plane and the layout has changed. The biggest change was the labyrinth. There is now a ceiling. For this reason I believe there is no turning back. Things are getting harder and harder each time we leave. We are giving this abalith to much time to adapt to us. Anyways we have traveled into the labyrinth, having dog water with us has helped us progress quickly. We have made our way to a room with a mirror that produces our counter parts. Fortunately Ken claims he has a spell that will allow us to bypass it. He however needs some time to prepare to use the spell. So we wait. Hmm i think i hear something coming, looks like we are going to have to earn this time needed for Ken.