Starday, Kuthona 22, 4712 noon
Storm Tower

“You never listen to me — you should have killed her!” Star fumed.

“I took the best action available given our situation, and the sylph was killed more quickly because of that,” I replied.

This argument had been going on for some time, and I was already weary of it. Sending Radella up to attack Katiyana had been the tactically wise thing to do. Radella was much better at melee than I, and we needed to take the sylph down as quickly as possible.

I would have joined Radella and Sparna in pressing the attack had Katiyana not died so soon after two of our primary fighters got their first real chance to engage her.

But Star was beyond reasoning with, and I noted from their silence that some of my other friends had taken her side. Only Huffy and McLovin tried to calm her down, but they had always been the most reasonable of my cadre. Something needed to be done or I’d never hear the end of it.

“How about this,” I offered as a compromise, “we’ll spend more time practicing and improving our fighting techniques from now on.”

There was a moment of silence followed by a reluctant, “As long as you really mean it” from Star. The others relaxed, sensing that the most bellicose of them was standing down.

It had really been a tough battle, and was a hair’s breadth away from ending in disaster (for us).

From the tower’s mid level Radella had experimented with the control panel, figuring out how to send a platform up to the top level with a covering to protect us from the terrific wind that howled down the center shaft.

Kali sent up an air elemental to scout up above, and it reported back that their was a great tumult of wind with lightening arcing out from large gems. Frozen undead were walking about.

By this time Radella was fairly confident she could summon the covered platform, and so Kali detonated a fireball and sent two earth elementals up to wreak as much havoc as possible. She was rewarded a few moments later when a pair of bodies fell down from above.

The rest of us prepared for combat with a Magic Circle Against Evil, Protection from Energy spells (for both cold and electrical damage), and Ivan cast Hide from Undead upon all of us. I then cast Fly upon myself and used a wand to confer the same on Kali, Radella, and Sparna.

We took the magical platform up.

Stepping off I could see six large blue glowing gemstones set high in the walls about us. Bolts of lightening zapped from them up and out a thirty foot hole in the ceiling, above which hovered the enormous swirling blue ball of energy. Beneath each gem was a small platform at least fifty feet above the floor.

Hoarfrost spirits were shambling about, and a winged blue skinned woman was leaning out from one of the platforms above. She released a spell in the midst of us, but I could not sense any affect, although some of my companions looked alarmed. This was obviously Katiyana, whom Tunuak had so idolized.

The plan seemed obvious: slay the sylph first and then mop up the undead.

Kali cast haste upon us as the woman hit us with another spell, and a sphere of color exploded about us.

Radella, Sparna and I began the arduous task of flying up to Katiyana, battling the hurricane force winds. Olmas had earlier asked Suishen for Airwalk, and he too began to climb up, but as soon as he stopped the winds slammed him against the wall near the sylph.

I assumed we would all fly up, but for some reason Kali and Ivan remained on the floor, trusting in the Hide From Undead spell. Surely they realized that the spell would end once we attacked. Ivan had to know, right? And Kali was smart, she must know. I returned my attention to Katiyana.

Olmas whacked at Katiyana as I moved in and bestowed Touch of Idiocy upon her. Radella landed nearby and hit her hard.

She was not a happy sylph.

With Hide from Undead now cancelled, the hoarfrost spirits shuffled towards Ivan and Kali. I saw them close in on Kali, but so had Sparna who swooped down to her aide, thus freeing the three of us next to Katiyana to focus on her.

Unfortunately for us she summoned a red daemon. Unfortunately for her Olmas had been the focus of the Magic Circle Against Evil spell, and as the daemon appeared it was forced off the platform, plunging fifty feet onto the hard stone floor.

Later I found that this was not as fortuitous as it could have been. Ivan was standing directly beneath us, and had been paralyzed by the touch of an undead. The daemon landed next to him, and while injured it was still alive, and seriously pissed off.

Sparna had faired no better, and he too was paralyzed, standing rock still next to Kali. Those of us above were oblivious to their plight.

Katiyana flew away from us, but whereas we had to struggle through the wind, she flitted about as if it were dead calm. In her place appeared a daemon made of pure force.

“Hurray! Pookie called out.

“No, Pookie, that one isn’t ours.”

I chased after the sylph and touched her with Bestow Curse, as Beorn cackled loudly (it being his favorite spell). Radella joined me, carving deep gashes in our foe.

Katiyana was even less happy now, and she dispelled Fly from Radella, who drifted dow to the floor.

Katiyana’s force daemon flew over to harass me, giving the sylph the perfect opportunity to use Hold Person.

“Move, move, move!” my friends chanted. But I was held firmly in place.

Olmas then tried to Airwalk into combat, but the winds threw him across the room into another wall. Realizing the futility of trying to move about in this fashion he climbed up to the nearest gem stone and began to smash it.

Clearly this had been the right thing to do, because Katiyana sent her force daemon to stop Olmas. Katiyana flew to another platform, and Sparna, who had since recovered from his paralysis, flew up and bashed the crap out of her.

“Bitch!” shouted Badger.

Down on the floor Radella wasted no time in pulverizing the daemon, which vanished with a pop! and a cloud of greasy black smoke.

Kali had not been idle all of this time, and suddenly the wind in the room ceased. She had flown up to the ceiling and used a spell to summon a structure of force, which blocked the wind.

I broke free from the Hold Person effect and briefly pondered my course of action. “Kill her! Kill her!” screamed Star. Yes, this clearly needed to be done, but how to do so as quickly as possible?

I flew down toward Radella, with Star screaming shrilly all of the way, and touched her with the wand of Fly. “Go, kill her!” I yelled, pointing up at Katiyana.

And as quickly as that it was over. Radella grievous wounded Katiyana, and when the sylph tried to flee Sparna and Radella put an end to her.

We next focused on the undead (with Star spouting obscenities the whole time), and once they were gone we flew up to the gem stones and smashed them all.

The lightening stopped and the glowing maelstrom above soon dissipated. The winds stopped.

It was dead calm, and some of us flew out the hole in the roof to gaze at the silent star lit landscape surrounding the tower.

Down below we stripped Katiyana’s corpse and flung her into a bag of holding.

[424]	scroll of Cleanse
[425]	+1 breastplate
[426]	masterwork buckler
[427]	Headband of Mental superiority (+2 INT, WIS, CHA) (Radella)
[428]	spell component pouch
[430]	shards of blue crystal (from the walls)

We descended to the base of the tower via another magical platform, and wondered if there might be a basement level and began to search. We moved into the previously unexplored mushroom side of the tower.

Mixed in with the small edible mushrooms were much larger, invisible fungi that wanted to eat us. They would appear briefly just before biting, and then vanish.

Suishen had granted Olmas the ability to See Invisible, and with his direction we were able to kill the fungi. My inability to consistently hit the creatures did nothing to improve Star’s mood.

We collected bits of the aggressive dead fungi, which turned visible shortly after perishing, and I harvested a good number of the mushrooms for cooking.

We have rested a short while, and I have taken this opportunity to write a journal entry and sooth an irate battle mouse.