Kali has been declared unsuitable for the prince and we have been kicked out of the city. The city just felt there was a sickness that had evaded. I could never quite figure out what it was but nothing seemed right, maybe Sparna felt it too. Sparna may have been trying to teach me something but as usual I don’t understand.

It is hard to believe that a little fight with ninja’s caused such disorder that the prince dumped Kali. To top it all off his servant guy told us to leave the city. Kali was overjoyed to be released from her engagement and I think this may have been the first time she was more worried about getting away from the city rather than setting up some type of business arrangement. We were all given horses to aid us in our travels; no doubt to get us away from the city faster.  It’s a good thing Cayden Cailean was watching over Kali. Had he not intervened to persuade the prince to free Kali she would be stuck. I knew that she was not going to properly thank Cayden so I did it for her.

“This wine I leave out under the open skies so that any brave adventurer walking this path can enjoy the comfort of a good drink, may Cayden bless all that drink from this bottle”

We have a new friend named Miyaro that helped during the ninja attack. She encouraged us to leave the city immediately. This was just before the prince’s aid broke the good news to Kali.  Miyaro is going to guide us through the magical forest. Turns out that she works for the Kami. From what I understand Kami are protectors of nature that were supposedly created by the gods at the age of creation. I am pretty sure that is what Kali said. I have to admit that at first I thought Miyaro said she was a Kami.

I turned to ask Sparna a question and he wasn’t there. I was wondering where the gods are leading Sparna, it’s pointless to guess as the gods work in mysterious ways. Hopefully he gets to settle down with a good forge and make many weapons. If the gods can see fit to find him a wife that shares his love for the forge he can spend his days in the forge and pass his vast knowledge down to their children.

Anyway I was working away on upgrading the enchantments on my bow thinking that I should be close to finishing but there seemed like a lot left to do on the weapon. I got out the paper and recalculated and discovered a miscalculation on the number of days it will take. Normally Sparna catches these errors but he is not hear anymore. That explains why the math said it should almost be done but I just felt that there was a lot more work to be done on the enchantment.

Next up in an enchantment for Qatana. She asked for an enchantment called greyflame which I found in my notes. The enchantment is right on the edge of what the gods will allow. The concept of good and evil still do not make since. No matter how hard I try I can’t figure out if someone is good or evil. Kali has tried to explain good and evil a number of times but it just doesn’t make any since.  How do they know for sure that the Ninja’s are evil? We are killing people and creatures that get in our way; why doesn’t that make all of us evil? Maybe I need to get a spell that only hurts good people and a spell that only hurts evil people. I suppose maybe wands of detect evil and detect good might be a less damaging option. Even if I know if someone is good or evil it doesn’t really change anything, if they are trying to kill us I really don’t care if they are good, evil or a muffin.

Ninja attack. Another batch of ninja’s attacked the caravan in the middle of the night. They must have intended to catch us off guard but that was not the case. The spell thingy Kali put up supposedly prevented the ninja’s from being able to see us so they could not throw shuriken’s at us. Olmas right off the bat asked to be protected from poison but with Amieko running into battle that changed everything. With my back protected by a warming wall of fire I was able to let go a couple of arrows at the ninja’s near Amieko. With Dasi and Olmas both running to her aid I just worked on thinning the herd. Off to my left Qatana and Radella were engaged with the ninja’s approaching from that side so we were kind of ok.  When it looked like another ways of ninja were on their way in the second wall of fire went up.  Unfortunately I found out later that Shalelu had snuck out of the wagon and was hit with the full force of the fire. The positioning was to keep them safe in the wagon and since everyone was in sight it was logical to put up the wall.  Kali stupidly flew after the Ninjas that got away with Qatana right on her heals. I should have sent Radella off with them.

With all of the Ninja’s dead I burnt the bodies just to make it look like they just disappeared.

Today was another interesting day. Starting out with a very early morning adventure where Radella was secretly searching our rooms looking for peepholes and doors the servants use.  She also did some other looking around the rest of the house. I rearranged my room and covered the peepholes that Radella found in my room. I simply shifted most of the furniture counter clockwise and then also rehung pictures.  Once I was done I said out loud “now this is a room Sasi would agree like” in case someone was listening.

By the time Kali called us boys to her room so that the group could discuss planning for the feast of honored visitors my redecorating was complete. Of course we had to do it again in her room as well. Things then got a little strange when Kali started telling us about results from a divination. I was more than a little confused to hear that she had to do a divination to confirm that the prince was smitten with her, isn’t that obvious.  I know dear that is like the kettle calling the pot black. So with the menu planned and the decision to use part of the play from the crazy playwright. Leave it to Sparna to come up with this one.

The day of the feast of honored visitors Kali is invited to have lunch with the prince. She was so flustered that she forgot to ask about the actors for the play so she had to run after the guy. Kali says she is not interested in the prince but I was not interested in getting married when I met you so this mystery has yet to unfold the real truth.  My opinion is that she is not even slightly interested as it has always seems that Kali has no interest in men and possibly any kind of intimate relationship. It is not really any of my business how she lives her life, although she is kind of like an older sister.

Today while shopping for some magical equipment for Kali I learn a valuable lesson. When the shopkeeper says “We have more magical enchanted gear in the back and we can most likely arrange some unique item if required. What are you looking for?” one should have a simple answer for those times. I found myself in the position of completely forgetting magic items that would be interesting and instead I asked about deathblade poison. By the time you are able to read this the time to get angry will have passed. Luckily no one else was with me so I was able to avoid a lecture.

DINNER!

The soup course consisted of Eel eye soup. The soup was fine but it would have been better with freshly killed Eel’s. It is winter so maybe getting fresh Eel’s is difficult and the spices they used just did not mask the lack of freshness. The deep fried seaweed was tasty and adding some to the soup made the soup more flavorful. Olmas review was something like “Oh great more of this food”. Olmas was not interested in the soup and I think Dessert was the only thing that he tried.

Next was the seared sea scallops on the half shell with squid ink butter served alongside some sturgeon and salmon eggs, Qatana called this caviar. On first impression this had the look of a signature dish but my scallops lacked the flavor that I was expecting.  Olmas appeared to pass on this dish.

Broiled sea bass and Octopus tentacles provided the complementary flavors of sea bass and octopus. The presentation showed what looked to be two creatures caught in battle. This dish clearly shows that there are people in the world that have so much that they can afford to make their food look pretty. I found both the sea bass and Octopus to be flavorful and tasty. I observed Olmas poking at the sea bass but he still had the look of someone waiting for the real food to arrive.

We finally got to what Qatana called the meat course. The sweet smell danced in my nose as they cracked open the piglet brain case. Just the piglet brain itself would have been a wonderful meal on its own. Pieces of piglet brain on their roasted skin provided an outstandingly delicious combination and topping with the gravy made this the best dish of all of the feasts. To make this dish even better the sides of thin sliced potatoes, Asparagus, and poached apples simply added to the overall enjoyment of this meal. I almost wanted to just keep eating at the brain but there was still frenched ribs and loins to try. The ribs melted in your mouth and the flavor was good but not spectacular.  I found the loins just a slight less flavorful than the ribs. Overall the hit of this dish has to be the piglet brains and piglet skin, with the side dishes greatly adding to the enjoyment of the brains. If I had to leave something off it would have been the ribs and loins.

The meal wrapped up with what Qatana called Yin and Yang Chocolate. Even though they were forced to use something other than fresh berries because of winter the dessert turned out ok. The real highlight of the meal was the pig and this had the look of elegance but just wasn’t the right dessert after the pig. With the wide variety flavors presented during this meal maybe a simple dessert would have been best.

Overall the food was good. I would agree with Olmas’s comment that it would have been nice to treat the prince to actual Varisian food but the goal was to impress the prince and not serve Varisian food.

On the lighter side Kali earlier today semi-accepted an engagement from the prince. The politics is very confusing but she says that she does not want to marry the prince but told the prince that she does want to marry him but needs her parent’s approval. I still don’t understand business people.

Today Sesi we arrived in in the city of Ordu-Aganhei, for some strange reason there ruler the prince wanted us to go to his palace. It is one of those places that can be nice to look at but no one should have to live there. The prince was way too happy to have us visit and I suppose at some point he is going to either try to kill us or he has some almost impossible task for us. The constant smile on his face is very creepy.

Tonight we attended the first of five nights of feasts. Tonight was the feast of three. I think you would have like the spicy ducks heads as I think the cooks got then just right. The ox forehead was a little over done for my taste, although my mother always used to make soup out of these parts of the ox. They had a turtle casserole that I guess was ok but it just seemed like it was missing something. Pigeon brains was a new and interesting food, not my favorite but not horrible. The fired chicken feet appetizer brought back found memories. The most disappointing item on the menu was the tiger, dragon and phoenix soup. Right off the bat the flavor gave away the fact that there was absolutely no dragon meat in the soup, I suspect there likely wasn’t any tiger or phoenix meat either. I thought about complaining but the serious look on Kali’s face was a clue that maybe I should just keep it to myself. I realized at the moment that it is likely that I am the only one in the room that knows what dragon meat tastes like.

The entertainment for the evening involved the royal guard performing mounted archery, wrestling and then bareback riding. The prince asked us to perform the same challenges. Sparna in that gruff voice of his intimated the heck out the other wrestler and own the match. I got up on a horse galloped toward the target while trying to get my bow ready. There were a couple of times when I thought for sure that I was going to fall of the horse but somehow I managed to keep myself on the horse. I fire at the target and was lucky enough to hit the target with two arrows and not fall off the horse. If we were asked to do it again I likely would just have Olmas do his riding thing. So Olmas and Kasimir took on the challenge of bareback riding. They didn’t have a good evening so I feel back for Olmas and Kasimir.

Today is the Feast of the Ancients. The Steamed hongali stone frags were very delicious, they almost melted in your mouth. They had goose stomach but at least for me they got the spices wrong and so it wasn’t as good as I expected. Fish lips with celery was I guess interesting. Solidified duck blood was ok but not really my favorite. The goat’s feet tendons in wheat noodles is something that would make a really nice meal, this would be perfect food to share with the one you love. Dunking live shrimp into alcohol was not for everyone in the party. Hey it’s just shrimp and alcohol how can that not be good.

For the entertainment portion of the even Ameiko played a lovely tune while telling the story of the battle with the white dragon. I provided the images of our battle with the white dragon while Kali did what she called interpretive dance. The prince took a notice of Kali as he invited her to breakfast.

The day of feast of fire!!! Kali with Sparna as escort had breakfast with the prince. Kali seems to have an admirer.

And onto the feast. It started with Thousand-year-old eggs which I found out was a lie, they are just 100 days old. Next I tried the Cow’s lung soaked in chili sauce but I really didn’t care for their version of chili sauce and at least the lung that I had was a little over cooked. The pig’s face was passible. The snake venom soup sounded and looked interesting but for all I know these people have eaten the venom from childhood. The deep fired bee larvae was a twist on all of the years eating larvae and I can see this being a good snack food. Lastly we get to the duck’s feet marinated in blood. These were good but I still prefer crunchy chicken feet.

For the evening quest fire. I pretty much let the others handle this one! Yea I really didn’t think you would believe that I was not evolved with fire. There was dancing on the coals, a flaming sword and urgosh display and finally a wall of fire with me standing in the middle.

Tomorrow is the feast of Honored visitors. Kali, Ameiko, and Qatana are putting together a dinner plan. Kali and the others are trying to figure the entertainment should be. My guess is the prince really wants something that evolves Kali dancing.

My lack of insight along with the inability to plan ahead have lead me to the situation now find myself in tonight.  I know that Kali wouldn’t consider my gathering of personal supplies as planning but she gets a little nuts with her planning.  Hey I am not complaining because the caravan planning she has been doing is a task that I would not wish on anyone, I truly believe it would be pure torture for me.  So back on topic in the last town I forgot to get bacon and marshmallows.  Marshmallows and this wall of fire would be perfect together. It probably would have been a bad idea anyway, the wall is to protect us from the undead and their aura that paralyzes. To maintain the wall I need to concentrate so getting effected by one of them would be bad.

Just before Sparna and I were supposed to begin our sleep someone spotted a Yeti. The Yeti seem to watch us for a little while and then they retreated back into the caves or wherever.. It felt good to get some sleep, keeping the wall of fire up is not in itself difficult but not casting other spells or doing things that would break the concentration is the hard part. Luckily I didn’t forget to concentrate on the wall of fire and cast a spell. Since it was fire it was a little easier to remember to not cast other spells.

I thought the idea was to spend the day recovering but Qatana was feeling better than expected and was able restore some of Olmas’s lost mojo with a restoration spell. So it was decided to move ahead and explore.

To the gold door we headed. After some checking it was discovered that this door was broken into before. Qatana cast hide from undead on us and it occurred to be that I should have done this on the people in the caravan. The others waited while I ran back and put hide from undead on them.

Once I was back they opened the door and a major spectral creature appeared and started to attack. I moved away from the door but as it turns out not the safest location. The revenant jumped up and started moving towards me. While it was standing next to me someone attacked breaking the spell. I really should know by now that sharing a hide from undead with the fighters is a bad idea. This was my first big mistake for the day. Luckily for me the revenant was after the spirit. Turns out this was what was keeping the revenant around. With two spiritual alleys Qatana and Sparna were able to beat down the revenant to the point where we could kill it. For my part I put some arrows into the creature but it was not doing as much damage as expected, well I know that ghosts don’t take as much damage. I know that there are ways to get around this with either magic or enchanted weapons but I am just not sure that we fight enough of these to get a weapon enchanted and the force spells such as spiritual alley and spiritual weapon might actually be a better option.

The spirit defeated the revenant was freed from his torture. I have to wonder about spirits like this one and how they became spirits. Did we just kill it for a second time and now soul is free? Well if Kali is correct then the spirit is truly dead otherwise the revenant would not have been released.

In the room with the Spirit we found armor that protects from ghosts and spirits plus a weapon to hurt them. The sword has these rings on it that provide additional magic effects. Freeing someone from possession seems to be one of the abilities I have to wonder why the gods provided this weapon to us. Is there someone we need to free, maybe the Yeti king or is one of our group possessed? I should keep these thoughts to myself or Olmas and/or Sparna may use this on some of us to free us from a so called possession.

We headed down the hallway and those in front decided to check out a side path. We had traveled down the side passage and around the corner when I commented that by not being on the main path the Yeti could walk right passed us and attack the caravan without us noticing. I was a little surprised when the others agreed with me and we headed back to the main path.

As we moved down the main path we found another magical barrier that Kali said was another anti-life spell blocking our path. This time there were two Yeti on the other side holding their hands up and telling us to stop, I am so glad Qatana the gods granted me comprehend languages. It got a little weird when Kala and Qatana set down their weapons, walked closer and then started talking in some type of jibberish that was beyond my spell. The whole time she was talking jibberish I was trying to decide when and how to attack. Trapping them between a wall of fire and the antilife area seemed like a good idea but shooting arrows also has its advantages. My second big mistake for the day was letting them walk away unharmed. I have no idea what was going through Kali’s mind or if she even had a plan. All that I know is that she told them that she was going to surrender.

We headed back to the water room and waited for the yeti. My plan was to get haste and then move up 35 feet out of reach of them and the fear effect that seems to follow the Yeti. The time arrived and no haste so rather than standing around being a target I move up into position. This is a great tactic only if we are fighting creatures with limited range capabilities.

Qatana was using one of her share crazy abilities and we were doing pretty well with the first wave. Sparna, Radella, Olmas, and Qatana were smacking the yeti while I provided range support. Kali once again brought out her pit spell and it seemed to be that she was very close to getting Olmas and radella caught in the pit trap. I keep hoping that she would get less careless with the spells. At least she thus far has stopped blinding Sparna with glitterdust.

The second wave started heading towards us from the main corridor so I put up a wall of fire to greet them. They don’t appear to light fire so this at least in the short term is a good way to control the Yeti movement. I suspect that the person with magic with dispel the in the future to try to get the drop on us. He or she better have a lot of dispel magic spells available.

The first wave was finished off and the other were pulling of things from the bodies while they waited for the second wave. The second wave arrived and we start to fight them when it occurred to me that the new Yeti were basically trapped in a narrow cave. I put a wall of fire down the length of the cave to catch both of them.  This was the third big mistake I made today as the two Yeti just ran to get away from the fire. I should have just shot them with arrows.

At this point everything went crazy and I was wondering if all of them were possessed. Kali ran ahead to do who knows what followed by Radella and Qatana. There was some confusion I think in the ranks of the Yeti so Olmas and Sparna rushed forward to take advantage of the confusion with Kali retreated? Clearly everyone seems to have their own plan and is expecting everyone to go along with the crazy shit in their heads. I just kind of put myself between everyone so that I could see if we are moving forward or backwards. I just felt that if I wanted to be stupid like the others that I should run down the main hallway! In the end I calmly decided that being impulsive is one thing and being stupid is something else.

The necropolis has lived up to its name thus far.  Lots of dead or should I say undead. We have only just arrive here a few hours ago but we have already taken a heavy toll in our group today.

It all started out fine with two walls of fire blocking the tower doors and giving us some leverage.  It was a good thing that we did this as Olmas, Sparna, and Kali were all shaken by the weird fear effect that these creatures have. I positioned myself in a way to try to keep out of range of their effect while providing support for the others. The effect of freezing people with fear was the most dangerous thing about these creatures. Once the fighters were not frozen the fight ended quickly.

Investigation of the towers uncovered a number of alcoves that looked to at one point house the dead, presumably these are now the undead. Our count showed that there are actually a lot of these undead still unaccounted for and likely wandering somewhere in the necropolis.

Qatana in her normal forge ahead attitude could not cross the bridge.  After some investigation by Kali she proclaimed that it was a anti life shield,  no not shield. She proclaimed that it was an anti-life thingy? Anyway living things cannot pass.

I made an effort to dispel the magic but the magic is just too strong for me at this time. There was a discussion about the difficulty of getting the wagons across but to me the problem seems to be more about getting horses across to the other side. It seems like we could push and pull the wagons across one at a time if needed. But I will leave the planning to the others.

With the really cool spell air walk from Qatana I was able to get across the span. I know that in the wind this spell may not be as good in combat as fly but I really like it anyway. Maybe it goes back to the days on the high ice with getting blown through the air while levitating. I am sure Kali would have had something to say about it but with the darkness “what happens on the high ice stays on the high ice”.

We moved forward to a pool of water with a body on the other side. With deathwatch running it was clear that this was the body of an undead creature. Kali later told us it was a revenant. Nasty creature from what Kali told us can’t be killed until the creature killed it dies. I was ready to light it up with fire, even with Qatana stating not to use fire. It was almost like Gorum was encouraging me to light him up.

One of my companions noticed something by the tree in the middle of the water. Specters appeared and the others moved in to engage them. The others discovered that regular weapons were not as effective on the Specters and there touch was disastrous. Both Olmas and Qatana were touched and as a result were weaken. It was like they were drain of life. These things drain you and now we have to wait a see how many castings of restoration will be required for the two of them. This is the kind of unluckily thing that normally happens to sparna. I guess taking on the Yeti saved him from the drain.

More yeti began to show up but a wall of fire discourage them, I guess those with fir should not play with fire. Between the spiritual weapon from Qatana and the spiritual ally from Sparna they were able to take care of the Specters.  For just a moment when Sparna cast the spell I thought the weapon was a greatsword.

We were feeling good about the situation when Qatana announced that the caravan was under attack. With the power of air walk from the wind spirit through Qatana the gap was not an issue for me.  I took off in a dead run back to the caravan. It turns out that the undead had come up from behind and attacked the caravan. I got there two late as one of the brothers had been killed. I was able to protect the others by putting up a wall of fire. We the advantage we were able to dispatch these undead.

Although we have lost one of our own after some discussion we have decided that once we get back to a town we need to bring him back. I suggested that we use speak with dead to ask him if he wants to come back. His brother insists that he would want to come back. I look forward to a day soon when we can once again enjoy a drink with him as he propositions the barmaid.  I have come to understand that these barmaids are pretty used to drunk men hitting on them.

Kali used magic to scout ahead and it was a good thing as there are a lot of Yeti ahead and from what she said there king is huge. I have to wonder if the Yeti are going to be friendly, although since we killed one of their own that might be highly unlikely.

My plan is to stay awake until the last watch so that I can keep the wall of fire up pretty much all night.

Sesi,

I am writing this letter from a tavern in Jaagiin. The ale is not bad but the atmosphere just isn’t the same without you. I found someone that told me that they could get a letter to the other side of the ice, for a price of course.

The gods have favored me with new spells but not with the one that will allow me to communicate with you. I will be asking Qatana to magically contact you in a few days to let you know that we are safe so by the time you get this letter it will be old news. The gods have decided to grant me Desna wrath and fire. I know that you are thinking that any idiot can create a fire but I can make a wall of fire. This has been very useful against the undead and I suspect those with fir to burn. It has also become my go to spell for creating snowmen on the high ice. Oh Yes I have finally found a way to create snowpeople in the extreme cold.

Arriving in Jaagiin I have to admit that my thoughts turned towards letting the others continue on with the quest and heading back over the high ice. I just have to have faith that continuing on is just the right path to follow. If you are reading this to grandmother just let her know that I have not forgotten her words on this matter and that I remember that this is the will of the wind spirits. At times it almost seemed like I can hear a voice in the wind. I wonder if I am going crazy or if the wind spirits are trying to encourage me forward.

Excuse the ale stain on the letter as I had a little tussle as this guy tried to run off with my bag of spending money. My thoughts were of you focused on you and I didn’t notice, the bag only had a couple of gold so we would not have been out that much money. The barmaid was bringing me some stew as he was stealing so she alerted me. I really like magic and weak willed people. Over an Ale that he paid for we reach an agreement. He would give me two gold, never come within sight of me, and I will not force him to cut off his own fingers on his right hand. I don’t have any magic that could force him to do that but he doesn’t know that. I know you are thinking it and yes the two gold was for the barmaid.

So back to the whole quest thing I do worry that something will happen to Ameiko and one of the party would have to take over. I just can’t imagine us being the royal family and it kind of scares me to think of Kali taking on the mantle. I like Kali but my preference is to put someone on the throne that is ready to rule the people and not looking at the next business deal. It just seems like business people going into government is not always a good fit for the people. Before you know it they are taking away the rights of common people just to put a few more gold in the pockets of fellow business people. So I have to continue on this quest and keep Ameiko safe for the common person. I think at least with her the common folk will get a fair shake.

I just realized that the bard is playing an interesting and strange song. The people in the tavern must have heard this before because some of them are getting evolved with the song whistling. It seems that at certain pauses the crowd would start whistling. It seems like the crowd really gets involved after the lines with “Always look on the bright side of life”. Anyway I wrote down as much as I could get or remember. There is more to the song but I just didn’t get it written down. It was a catchy song.

So always look on the bright side of death!
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
Life’s a piece of shit,
When you look at it.

Life’s a laugh and death’s a joke, it’s true,
You’ll see it’s all a show,
Keep ’em laughing as you go.
Just remember that the last laugh is on you!

And always look on the bright side of life

Always look on the bright side of life

Come on guys, cheer up

Always look on the bright side of life

Always look on the bright side of life

Worse things happen at sea you know

Always look on the bright side of life

So take care my love

Ivan

Kuthona 22nd, 4712

Today we extinguished the storm tower. I just have to hope that these creatures never make their way down to Iqaliat.  I have never seen beasts like this before it was truly an experience to remember.

The wind was howling to the extent that using my longbow was not even possible in parts of this tower. There were times during the assault on the tower where the others didn’t really need my help and I was wondering if they even needed me here at all.

After fighting undead at the entrance of the tower we found a tree that tried to kill us. This was a vicious tree that grabbed Qatana and then kind of spit her out in some type of pod. While the others were working on killing the living tree I ran over and started cutting Qatana out of the pod. I later found out that it was using acid to finish her off.  After the tree was dead I think they said something about the tree being carnivorous. I am not sure if I will every look at trees the same way after this.

We found a control panel and Radella spent some time trying to figure out how to make it work. She was finally able to get it to work well enough to get us to the second floor. The worms on the second floor were vicious. I spent the entire battle running from or trying to escape from the worms. Both worms ended up dead at the hands of the others but I really couldn’t tell who killed which worm from the vantage point of inside one of the worms. Upon the death of the worm holding me I was thrown out and made a perfect landing but I was still invisible so no one witnessed my great feat.

We found another control panel that even Radella couldn’t figure out. Luckily for us Qatana had a spell that could cut holes into stone.  These fascinating crystal creatures inside used some type of teleport magic to move around and attack us. One by one we destroyed these crystal creatures but they also had the ability to cast the spell—

“Qatana what was the spell those crystal creatures used on Olmas and Sparna? It’s for my journal. “

“Tooch of idiocy”

“How do you spell that?

“Oh you said ‘touch’. Thanks”

Touch of idiocy

Qatana, Kali, and Sparna figured that these crystal creatures were somehow have been keeping this

“Qatana what did you call that blue crystal thing in the room? ‘Machine’, right.”

Machine running for hundreds or maybe thousands of years. It only took Qatana and I about 40 minutes to pull all of the crystals out of the walls. 4 of the crystals radiated magic.  Kali seemed most concerned with the two that could cause blindness but there were also two crystals that will protect us from the extreme cold.

In the meantime Radella was working to get the platform to go up to the third floor. I am not exactly sure how she figured this out as it was very complex. Before going up to the third floor Kali sent an elemental up to see what was up on the third floor. With the information that there were undead she sent a fireball up to the third floor that exploded with boom. She next sent up some earth elementals and less than a minute later two of the undead bodies went flying by.

With resist energy from the wand providing electric and cold plus my hide from undead we head up to the third floor on the platform. We all moved off the platform. There was a blue female creature with wings up on a platform 50 feet in the air.

“Qatana what was the name of that blue woman?”

Oh guess since Qatana isn’t here anymore I will have to just refer to her as the ‘blue woman with wings’.

The blue woman with wings looked tough and everyone but Kali and me flew up to engage her. This is the first time I have ever used hide from undead so I did not realize that as soon as someone attacked the blue woman with wings that it would break the spell. I suddenly found myself unable to move after being hit by one of the undead. From my vantage point I watch as Sparna flew down and vanquished one of the undead before he himself was unable to move. Things got worse as I heard a thud to my right. I wanted to turn and look by I was just not able to clearly see what it was, It definitely didn’t look friendly.

I was able to break free from the paralyzing hold this creature had on me and dashed over to Kali and Sparna to recast the hide from undead spell. This provided us with some time. I was able to free up Sparna and watched as Kali headed to the celling and surprisingly blocked the strong winds.

The battle finally turned in our favor as Sparna and Radella converged on the blue woman with wings and ended her reign of terror.  Once all of the undead had been allowed to pass onto the next life those that could fly smashed the blue crystals bring calmness to the tower of storms.  Clearly this is no longer the tower of storms.

We looked over the gear and her headband looked really nice. Qatana, Radella, and I all had interest in the item but in the end both Qatana and I kind of decided that it may not be the right item for us so Radella will be the one buying this from the party.

After some time Radella figured out how to make the platform go down. Seems like we could have saved time by just jumping. On the first floor Radella wanted to check out the control panel more and Olmas wanted to pick mushrooms. As it turns out the mushrooms byte back, well at least the invisible ones do. Olmas was showing off when the sword granted him the ability to see invisible. It must have been funning to anyone watching us swing at nothing. A few minutes after killing a mushroom creature it became visible. Parts were gather and we headed back to the caravan.

Since leaving Iqaliat I keep having the same dream. I am looking down at a group of undead. Right after Kali casts her fireball I cast this mysterious spell. As the spell goes off all of undead are attacked by pastel light pink and blue butterflies with imagines of stars, suns, and moons upon their wings.  In what sounds like Koya’s voice I hear

“Desna’s wrath affects those farthest from her the most while those deemed worthy will be spared her wrath. “

So clearly the spell that I asked the gods for is not the one they chose to give me.  Koya just tells me to trust in Desna’s wisdom and that I should have let her dance at the wedding. Turns out people in a small town can’t keep a secret.

Sesi when you read this I admit that your suggestion that maybe we should wait for my friends to return would have been the correct thing to do.  After watching everyone go through the struggles of adjusting to the high ice I can see where a party would have been good for them.