as told by the cavalier Olmas Lurecia himself.

Sunday, 23 Sarenith

As we descend yet again, my mind absently turned to Kasimir.  I remember thinking how much he would enjoy this journey, with wide open plains to run through and the occasional enemy to run down and kill.  A battle horse does need his play, after all.

And now he is safe in a fort many miles away.  If he were here, I’m sure he would not relish the idea of floating, sliding, or climbing down a waterfall to meet our next opponent.  I feel almost like I misrepresented our quest to him … but then how was I to know …

Reaching the bottom we saw a boat tied to the shore, an island out in a pond and something else, maybe more islands, beyond that.  Hah.  A boat tied to the shore.  Might as well have a loaf of bread on a table with a sign next to it:  Eat me.  Hah.  Who would fall for that?

There is a trail to the east, leading into a small chamber.  Radella scouted ahead and discovered a dark chamber that, well, seemed unnaturally dark.  As a test, Zos sent in a tengu with a sun rod … and the sun rod looked considerably dim.  Some sort of magical darkness was in there.  As I got closer,  something up near the ceiling just, I don’t know, exuded confusion.  I seemed the only one affected, but Dasi dispelled it for me as quickly as it appeared.

Bows came out and we started shooting.  Naturally, Ivan stuck it with all his marvelous arrows, bringing it down.  Nightwing, they called it.  Once within sword range, Radella and I attacked it with vigor, with me taking the honors with the killing blow.  Unfortunately,  before it died, it called in two greater shadows .. strength-draining creatures I was not happy to see.  With the nightwing dead, Radella killed one shadow and then we simply backed off to a safe place and waited for the summoning spell to expire.

The next room held a corpse and a black throne. There was a dim glow from the ceiling.  A crown lay on the throne.

Zos sent in a tengu minion to retrieve the body.  As expected, that action triggered a reaction, and a ghostly lich appeared to go after the minion.  Stoic and dedicated in his task, the tengu picked up the corpse and returne it to us, ignoring the magic missiles that pummelled it.

Kali summoned some sort of angel to protect us (and the minion), and between its attacks and mine and Radella’s, it was, well, er, not dead but, I guess, gone.  In leaving, it cackled that it would be back.  That sounds ominous … maybe a flack-tree involved?  Liches often have those …

So, ironically, it seemed we’d have to get down and take the boat to visit the islands after all.  But before we could do that, up popped some water elementals and some horned devils; I’m not sure who summoned who.  A bit of chain lightning from Kali, and some sharp blows by Suishen and Raadella, and they were removed as obstacles.  Onward to another small chamber, where …

… we ultimately found our two final foes standing near some sort of portal.  Emperor Nobinoru  tried to capture Kali’s soul  … yeah, just that casually.  And Kali Just That Casually threw it off.   Small woman.  Big package.

Once Radella and I got within sword range, we killed him and his ugly companion.  Yeah, pretty much just like that.  I think it took us each maybe three blows.  Soooo glad that we have Kali and sometimes Ivan to blunt the magic.   Seems that most evil undead sorcerors or demons still don’t have a good answer for a sharp sword, if we can get to them.  Once both were dead, the portal seemed to close on its own.

After all that, we only recovered one thing: [777] +2 quarterstaff.  Perhaps now we can finally return to the surface!