Spike's Journal

Coldeven 15: Our Lucky Day (Day 13)

2005-02-04T06:12:00.000-08:00

It has been one long day, I ache all over, and these damn harpy scratches itch like the dickens in spite of (or because of) whatever Asilky did to them. Overall though, the day's been a remarkable success, especially considering the number of menaces we had to contend with. I feel that this is evidence that we're finally getting our feet under us.

For instance, I'm actually starting to really get the hang of triggering magic wands, so much so that we decided I should be the one to carry around the wand that shoots lightning bolts. Eaora can already do something very similar with her own powers, and so far I'm the only other person who can make the thing work. I can hardly wait to use it. With the spiked armor and chain I don't look anything like a spellcaster, so it ought, at the least, to be surprising to someone.

We then stumbled into the frozen lair of a creature so frightful that it could have killed us all a dozen times in a row before we entered this place and started honing our skills. It somewhat resembled a dragon, but it had many heads attached to its body with long sinuous necks. I probably shouldn't have been surprised by this (considering the ice riming everything in the room) but it was capable of firing frigid ice blasts from each of its gaping maws, rather than the fire I might have expected from a dragon-like creature.

We reacted with a level of skill, coordination and teamwork that I still find surprising, especially considering how different our styles are. Eaora hit the thing with a lighting bolt, and then the rest of us charged in, spreading out so that it couldn't get many of us in a single blast. Lo-Kag affixed it with his evil eye, and then he and K just sort of waded in, engaging the majority of the things heads with a direct assault. BB and I, meanwhile, dashed, dodged and tumbled past the lashing heads to get at the creature's exposed flanks. The creature was dead before it really knew what was happening, I think.

We all had minor wounds and some of our exposed skin was frostbitten, but it wasn't anything that Asilky (and Boril) couldn't handle. In fact, for the first time in a while, Asilky seemed fairly confident that the favor of Boril would still be available to aid us if we were to continue, so we decided to do so.

At which point we discovered that Lo-Kag was bent on increasing the size of our party by one wolf. In the cave of the hydra, we found a wounded wolf, which Lo-Kag immediately took a great liking to. He's been tending to it, and feeding it bits of food, and it's been following us around all day. When standing next to Lo-Kag, it looks much like a normal man and his large dog. The illusion is shattered when you get close and can see that this thing is bigger than any dog. He keeps going on about how good it's going to be in a fight, but the thing weighs more than I do, and I bet it eats more than I do too. I hope he's got it under control. I also imagine that it's going to die soon, as this is a fit place for no beast, and then we'll have a disconsolate giant on our hands. What a waste of time.

Of course, I'm still convinced that our luck can't hold forever. Sooner or later, one of us is going to die. Other than the obvious problems surrounding the loss of a trusted companion, this also leaves us staring straight at our primary problem. We've got no fallback position. Retreat, in this hellish place, is as bad as advancement, and if one of us dies, we've started down a slippery slope, with the team weakened, more strain will fall on the rest. I predict that after the first of us finally falls, the second will fall within days. I fear a chain of events that will leave us all dead within a week, to be honest.

Shortly after that, we encountered a group of minotaurs, apparently guarding a region of this place claimed by the Broken Axe Minotaur clan. Perhaps encouraged by our victory over the Hydra, we didn't spend a lot of time chatting with them, but rather launched right into battle. Even more remarkable is that when we opened the door, K didn't charge into their midst, rather, he let them come to us through the door, where their large size worked against them and we could focus our attention on them in smaller numbers.

I retract my earlier comment, apparently K's book of tactics is two pages long.

During the ensuing slaughter, one of the minotaurs decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and ran. We assumed he'd be bringing back help, so we sort of entrenched ourselves to deal with an onslaught of angry minotaurs. I guess we made a good first impression though, because when their leader, a 'taur by the name of Markuli, showed up, he wanted to negotiate, rather than fight. This is the kind of negotiation I can get behind.

We told him that really we wanted passage through his region, and Asilky mentioned that he needed some unguents for some ritual or other. Markuli told us that he'd kill us if we had to, but that he really wanted to keep his warriors around to fight the other nearby minotaur clan, the Red Horde. I see his point. When six unknown people kill eight of your folk without any of them dying, it's probably a good idea not to mess with them unless you absolutely have to. Eventually, we agreed to give him a crystal key we'd found in exchange for being guided through his lands to the territory of something called a "sphinx". He must really rule his people effectively, because he did in fact manage to take us through his people without incident. (Some of them looked really resentful of that fact, too.)

We were then, apparently, in the sphinx's territory. I asked my companions what a sphinx was, but they didn't really know. "Some sort of bird-like thing, possibly" was about as good as I got, and that was from Eaora, our supposed expert on such matters. If I'd have known then how annoying the thing was going to be, I'd have encouraged stealth, rather than curiousity.

I'm going to take a break, eat something and rest my writing hand. It's been a full day, and there's still more to tell. And if I fall behind on keeping this damn journal, I'm sure I'll never catch back up.

Coldeven 14: Mighty Keothi (Day 12)

2005-02-03T20:14:00.000-08:00

Like Lo-Kag, my friend K seems like a truly remarkable specimen. (I write "seems like" because I only know the two goliaths, and the thought of making the acquaintance of many more fills me with trepidation.) But, regardless of how he compares to other goliaths, to me he's terrifyingly powerful. I've seen him wield a variety of weapons, but it almost doesn't matter, as he can seemingly cut a man in half with a club as easily as with a sword.

Unfortunately, that particular trait seems to have left him ill-prepared to deal with situations where strength alone is not enough, or, as I like to say, it seems like K's book of tactics is only one page long. Unfortunately, he's also frighteningly quick for someone his size, so when there's trouble, he's often in the thick of it, swinging away, before anyone can suggest a more restrained approach.

Sadly, we're still encountering these accursed shadows, and as often as not, K's mighty swings pass right through them without any effect whatsoever. We ran into a particularly tough group of them, he waded in, and before we knew it, we were in over our heads. Eaora has continued working on her new spell, the particularly fearsome incantation which results in a tiny glowing ball that flies from her hand and then unexpectedly explodes to fill entire rooms with fire. However, with K already in the midst of them, and visibly weakening, she didn't dare to use it. Lo-Kag apparently reached the conclusion that we were going to lose, because he started running back the way we'd come.

Asilky had already advised us that if we succumbed to the weakening influence of the shadows that we would lose our physical forms and become shadows ourselves. But when things were looking particularly grim, it proved that he had more than advice to offer. He raised the symbol of Boril above his head and called upon his deity, and with a flash of light, two of the Shadows were destroyed. Lo-Kag regained his composure and returned to the fray, and we were victorious.

Possibly I should say they were victorious, because I didn't help in the slightest. Not, of course, for lack of trying, but every blow I struck passed through the things, and when the last of them fell, I'd had no hand in their defeat.

In fact, since I've been so useless in destroying the shadows, my main contribution today has been destroying priceless works of art. Sometimes we find treasure that's easily portable and worth taking just for its weight of gold, even though it's broken or ugly. For instance, today we found some gold mandible covers. Since I don't think any of us is likely to be sporting mandibles any time soon, they're useless to us in their current form, but I imagine that the gold they're made of will still spend rather nicely.

But what broke my heart today was the bowl. It was a thing of beauty, made of silver, with careful inlay, exquisite craftsmanship, and adorned with beautiful gems. It wouldn't have looked out of place on a king's table, and must have taken the silversmith a month to make. I estimated its worth at 500 gold coins. Yet we have no use for a bowl; it's too heavy and unwieldy to carry. So, I wrecked it, prying the gems from it to produce a handful of gems worth perhaps 100 gold, and leaving behind a disfigured silver bowl for someone else to melt down. Tragic.

I don't know, maybe I'll talk to K about tactics before we turn in, at least then I'll feel like I'm contributing something useful to our efforts.

Coldeven 13: Rooms of Forgotten Import (Day 11)

2005-01-27T20:13:00.000-08:00

Today was strange, We traveled through many rooms that provided a lot of material for thought. (However, not any kind of useful thought, like thinking about ways to escape our predicament.)

The first room we found was a lab. Like many rooms in this area, it probably belonged to one of the old celestial jailers, now long since dead. It's not the first room like this we've found, preserved by magics, undisturbed by the frightened denizens of this forgotten place. Mostly, we used it as an opportunity to refresh our inteventory of odds and ends such as tindertwigs, antitoxins and sun-rods. I was excited by the find of a nice magnifying glass, because I always wanted one. Maybe I'll be down here long enough to find a use for the stupid thing. Eaora was also very happy to find some scroll and potion-making materials.

But I did pause for a minute while we were tossing stuff into our sacks to wonder about the celestial whose room this used to be. By all accounts, the celestials are pretty good, which is another way of saying that they put a great deal of emphasis on the big picture. (Spike's Law of Goodness, which I've mentioned before.) But regardless of how good a guy he was, his stuff is now ours, and pretty much without us giving too much thought to it. There's an important lesson in that I think, so I formulated a new rule.

Spike's Looting Consideration: Dead People Don't Need Things

Occassionally there are things lying about that used to belong to someone who is now dead. I've found, sadly, that sometimes I even had a hand in the previous owner's death. I've noticed, however, that when people pick up these things to put them to further use, that often there is a bit of guilt attached to the action. There needn't be. Either the person in question was allied with your personal aims or opposed to them. If he was allied with your aims, he would doubtless want you to have his possessions so that you might better carry them out. If opposed, you doubtlessly want his goods not to fall into the hands of those who he would more naturally consider allies. Either way, there's no reason you should have problem with it, so set the guilt aside.

Having thus set my mind at ease, I also took a set of high quality lockpicks that he had in a drawer.

Shortly after that, we actually met one of the Inevitables that we'd been warned about, a being by the name of Morsak. I'd been worried (after the somewhat evasive description we'd been given by the Celestials) that any Inevitable we met would be a supremely powerful, supremely arrogant, jerk. Luckily for us, Morsak, while he did seem a little chilly, was helpful enough to warn us that the rest of the Inevitables that lay the way we were headed were going to be supremely powerful, supremely arrogant, jerks. After a short discussion, we turned back. I let my friends do the talking, since I got the impression that Morsak didn't really care much for me.

After that, however, things got really weird.

We found a room with a large (and valuable) rug, a hook hanging from the ceiling, and a sword mounted on the wall. The room felt very important, there was a palpable aura of immenence, like something truly monumentous was capable of happening there. We fiddled with things for a bit, and nothing happened, so we moved on. Considering the circumstances, it seems likely that I will die still wondering what purpose the room was waiting for.

Then we found a room with thousands of tiny alcoves, each of which contained a candle and was labeled with a name. Eaora suggested that each of the alcoves represented one of the Celestials that were assigned here. Only nineteen of the candles were still lit. BB, apparently moved to a rare bit of emotion, observed that it was very sad. I let out a small chuckle, and had to hurriedly explain that I was thinking about Spike's Looting Consideration and how much stuff that meant we could take. With my friends all glaring at me, I retracted the statement, but I still think it's kind of funny.

After that, in quick succession, we found a room with an ancient legal document that appeared to be the charter for this hellhole, a room full of rugs and pillows where there was a dead archon, and a small room with cushioned chairs sitting around a table with a crystal embedded in it. It turned out that we couldn't get out of that room until we all sat in the chairs and were "shown" some of the history of this place. It was making me very uncomfortable, so I tried not to pay too much attention. I was only partially successful at that, however. as it felt like the damn crystal was trying to crack my head open. Strangely, despite the ordeal, we all felt pretty good afterward.

It had become clear by this point that all these rooms, meaningless though they may be at this point, were once considered pretty important. Amazingly, they were in fact protected by an intricate series of traps and tests. Somehow though, we started on the wrong side of those tests, and as we progressed, we worked our way back through the tests, which were strangely impotent because of the direction we came at them from.

Just as I was beginning to think that the day would end without any sort of true menace, we encountered a group of four barghests. We defeated them fairly handily, and found a place to rest. The troubling thought that occurs to me as I recount the various things we saw today is that we failed to understand what most of them were for. In fact, most fixtures of this place are nearly impossible to figure out. Even if we find the exit, will we recognize it for what it is?

Coldeven 12: Loose Ends (Day 10)

2005-01-14T13:37:00.000-08:00

This morning (if you can call it that) we decided to take care of the shadow mastiffs that had so nearly killed us a few days ago. It sounds crazy, put like that, but it actually made a fair amount of sense. First off, the constant struggle to keep alive in this place is really honing our skills, and Eaora's newfound ability to fill entire rooms with searing fire encouraged us. Secondly, we knew our enemy, and what to be careful of. But most importantly, we were able to take full advantage of what I see as the first key to victory.

Spike's First Key to Victory: The first blow falls hardest.

People have this idea that a fight can somehow be "fair". I thnk this is obvious insanity, as the best kind of fight is clearly a onesided battle. But even in a fight between two relative equals, someone is going to strike the first blow, and that person is more likely to win. When I was a kid, there was a bully among the steet children. He was regarded as nearly unassailable by the majority of the kids, and to be honest, by me. He liked to torment me in particular, probably because I was younger, and thus smaller than he. His pattern was always the same, he would pick someone younger and smaller, and then would thrash them publicly. I remember nursing a split lip and black eye for a week. If anyone challenged his authority, he would sic his followers on them.

After 2 months of this, I began to realize that this was a sign of weakness on his part. Now, no way was I ready to take this guy on in a "fair fight". He was twice my size. I needed a different approach. I found him, shadowed him until he was alone, and hit him in the back of the head with a board. He was tough enough that I had to hit him with it three times before he stopped twitching.

So, we went back to the shadow mastiffs that had given us so much trouble before. B.B. used her silence to keep their howling from affecting us, Eaora softened them up by filling their lair with flame, and then K, Lo-Kag and I went in and put the rest of them down without too much trouble. Some of them were pretty tough. K. had to hit one of them more than once.

We continued to explore the area.

We found a giant spider that had been enchanted to obey someone's commands. It didn't seem too threatening, so I was inclined to leave well enough alone. Others weren't feeling quite as charitable, however, so we killed it. It turned out that the thing was the servant of a goblin mage that had been working with the shadows of the region. Considering we outnumbered him by 6 to 1, I thought we could probably negotiate with him. He proved very unreasonable though. Maybe he knew what we'd done to his pet spider.

Surprisingly, he also proved pretty difficult to deal with, throwing lightning bolts and turning invisible. But in the end, I looped my chain around his neck and yanked. Invisible or not, his neck snapped like a twig. Among his possessions, we found a wand, from which I "pushed" to see what it did. I succeeded in electrocuting myself with a bolt of lightning, nearly killing myself. Since Eaora can do similar things all on her own, we decided I should keep the wand handy, though I'm not sure I'm ready to use something so hard to control in a really threatening situation.

It was at this point in our exploration that we found the strangest room yet. It was, to all appearances, a walled forest under open sky. Despite assurances from others that the ceiling still lay above, the illusion of being outside was hard to shake. Sadly, any joy I might have felt at being outside was completely destroyed by one thing. It was raining, and all of us were very shortly a sodden miserable mess, enveloped in the odor of wet dwarf. After exploring the area somewhat, we decided to call it a day, and found a dry room.

Coldeven 11: Salvation

2004-12-17T16:33:00.000-08:00

Lo-Kag made it out! He was apparently wounded enough that he had to hole up for a few days, since he didn't have Asilky with him to restore his health, but after that, he travelled back to where Sper was, and got her to come drive off the hornets!

She has the power (it appears) to turn into a whirlwind, which allowed her to do it. Unfortunately, now that she's saved us twice, I feel like we really owe her. I have to keep reminding myself of Spike's Exchange Axiom, and that I'm not necessarily in any hurry to pay her back.

My curiousity about what happened with Lo-Kag has been more than satisfied, since he tore out a page of his book to leave us a note in the room he holed up in...

Sure.... lets open the door... how bad can they be?... its probably just bees.... If we don't open it I'll always wonder what's behind it... Note to self: NEVER LISTEN TO K OR THE OTHERS EVER AGAIN. If I ever see them alive again I'm going to strangle them.

The swelling is going down somewhat but it is starting to itch. The poltice is helping although it stinks. Thank goodness Aunt Gathnik stuck them in my pack. I've had some time to reflect overnight. Courage be damned, Eaora has it right. I'm staying out of the way from now on. The things down here are too nasty. I like a good game as well as the next guy, but I prefer to win. When playing with my life, I like even more of an edge. From now on, when it starts looking bad, it is time to go.

It sounds like at least some of my friends were still alive. Judging by the sounds they made another attempt at the bees. I still hear the humming, so I don't think they won, but I did hear a door slam so I think that's good news. Anyway yesterday we decided to open a door with a loud humming noise behind it and got attacked by bees. I've never seen anything like them, thousands of them and with stingers that went right through even MY hide. They were crawling all over you so that you couldn't breathe or or even think. I think I stabbed at them but my magic spear did nothing. Anyway I barely got out alive but my idiot friends went out the wrong door. I'm going to rest here another day, then go for help if they don't show up. I just hope the priest was right when he said the shadows can't go through the doors. I've spiked them shut for now. I think I messed up my thumb hammering in the spike though. I seem to be very clumsy with all of the stings.

*  *  *Bored.

*  *  *I think I need some heavier armor. I think I'll see if I can fit up a new set from the armor laying around in the smithy I'm holed up in.

*  *  *Note to self, don't put heavy armor over bee stings: ouch! Since I've still got time to kill, I might as well try something else futile.

*  *  *Success! I've been working for years on some of the spells that old Blighter taught me. He told me they would work because we both had what he called "the blood" and that my evil eye proved it. None of them ever did much. Mostly I'd been trying the laughtodeath spell, but that never worked. I guess I'm just not funny. Anyway given my recent experiences, I've decided to work on the runfast spell and I finally got it right. I'll try out a couple of the others to see if I can make them work too.

*  *  *I'm not going to wait any longer. I should probably leave a note.

Lo-Kag seems glad to have found us, but grumpy. I didn't mention it before, because it seemed unimportant next to the fact of our inevitable death, but the portable hole we found closed up, and we failed to get some of the stuff that was in it out. I rescued much of the important stuff, including the bag of miscellaneous booty. Lo-Kag doesn't seem impressed though, he keeps going on and on about some sort of horrid icepepper sauce he had stored in there. Like I could conceivably pick something that makes food effectively inedible over a bag of gold and gems.

Since our rescue, We've done a little additional exploring, with two interesting results. Firstly, we've found a second Ward Staff. So, we're halfway done with the job we told the wardens of this asylum we'd work on. I guess that's good, since it means I have to worry less about owing them favors.

Secondly, we found a magic door that wouldn't work for anyone. After everyone gave it a shot, I decided to try and "convince" it to work. I guess talking with Eaora was good for something, possibly clarifying my thoughts on the matter, because I was able to make it do its thing.

It took me to a cloak room where many robes and much clothing was stored. Yes, a magic portal to a wardrobe, I've never heard of anything like it. With something like that, you'd think you could protect something more important than a few scraps of mildewed clothing. I grabbed some of the nicer looking clothing in the hopes that it would be good for something, and made the door take me back. I didn't tell the others, but I had a bad moment where I was worried that I wouldn't be able to make the portal work in the opposite direction.

Now that we're free of our prison-within-a-prison and able to move about, I'll rest a little easier tonight, and leave off worrying about the bigger prison until tomorrow.

Coldeven 9: Death

2004-12-17T14:43:00.000-08:00

It is times like this, when everything has gone to the hells, that I occassionaly have to think about dying. It turns out that Asilky has the power to create food. Of course, since the power comes from his god, the food is tasteless grey mush. This plays into the whole "are the gods perverse" question which I've ruminated on before.

One wonders if there's some sort of cosmic accounting system. "Yes, I can give out endless food to my worshippers, but only if it looks like wet sand, smells like old leaves, and tastes like spoonfulls of mashed turnips."

Since we can't even enjoy the food, for the most part, our options our few. There is no productive work to be done. We cannot bathe, there is no privacy, and there's nothing to read except spell books and what I write in my journal. I've tried sparring with the other males of the party, but K outmatches me too easily, and Asilky is a sore loser. (I don't think dwarves like being tripped, but that's a major portion of my fighting style.) And while B.B. is deadly in her own way, it's not a kind of deadly that translates into sparring.

So, I've spent a lot of time talking. Mostly about three things.

The first thing is escape. We've come a long way to be stopped here. Everyone has a hare-brained notion on how to get out of our predicament, but not one of them has passed muster with the group, mostly because each new idea is twice as crazed as the last.

The second thing is magic. I've always had a gift for understanding magical things. Don't get me wrong, I'm no wizard, but I seem to have a unique "feel" for magical things, and I can sometimes make them work, even though I really don't know the "right way" to do it. Recently, I've taken on the job of testing wands we find. I feel like I've almost got the knack, but I've had two embarrasing disasters.

The first one I was holding backwards. When it discharged there was a deafening sound, and several fragile items on my person, like potion bottles and such, were shattered. Eaora explained (once I could hear) that it was what the wand was for, but that I'd been holding it the wrong way. Even I had to admit it was funny.

The second one went off when I wasn't expecting it, and a little red sphere flew out, struck the ground at my feet, and exploded into a full-fledged ball of fire. Once Asilky had cleared up the damage, I could see why some of the others thought it was so funny, especially after the "holding backwards" thing. But, my pride was stung.

So, I've been talking with Eaora, trying to figure out more about how such magical things work, and she's had some interesting things to say, but I'm not sure how much help its going to be. You see, when I make a magic item do its thing, I don't think I'm working through normal channels. I'm not trying to guess the special word, gesture, or phrase that's supposed to make it work. I'm trying to make it work in spite of the fact that I don't know those things.

The thing is, which I'm not sure Eaora gets, is that a magical device "wants" to work. It has a purpose, and that purpose is to do something, and that's all it was built for, and it's ready to do it. The special word, gesture, or phrase isn't like an extra push to make it do something it doesn't want to do, rather, it's a key in a lock that lets it release the magic that the lock has been holding in check.

Put another way, I do "push" my will into the wand or item, but I don't fake the key, nor do I understand or mess with the lock. Instead, I put more pressure on the bottled up energy to do what it's supposed to do, and I keep pressuring it until it just plain bursts the lock and does it.

Eaora, of course, says I just don't understand.

Anyway, the third thing we've been talking about is death. About how long it's going to be until we can't stand each other. About how long we can eat tasteless mush, rehash the same old discussions, and read the same books, before death starts to look more attractive. About how long it will be until one of us cracks and opens that damn door, consigning the lot of us to death at the hands of the bugs.

Damn, I don't want to write about this anymore. I'm going to go play some cards.

Coldeven 8: Hornet's Nest

2004-11-26T13:27:00.000-08:00

We're all doomed.

As I sit here, trapped, writing what are probably my final words, I wonder what exactly to say. Should I write the circumstances which lead to our demise, so that the next person to find my journal, trapped by the same circumstances, should better appreciate the bitter irony? Should I strive to share some last bit of wisdom, in the hope that this book is somehow found before the world ends.

Scanning through my journal, I see that I have yet to write much about Lo-Kag. Since he is now dead, writing about him seems as good a way to mark his passing as any.

I've mentioned before that LoKag is one of two goliaths travelling with us. I'm not a short man, but he towered over me as I might tower over a young boy, standing perhaps as much as half again my height. Similarly, I am not a weak man, yet he overpowered me as I might a tavern girl. He resembled a man, yet was clearly not human, having hairless grey skin with dark brownish patterns. Furthermore, he was covered thickly in large coin shaped bumps, some of which appeared to have small gems embedded in them. (Alas, I cannot inspect his body to find out for sure.)

LoKag had a green right eye that was normal enough, but a frigteningly red and dragonlike left eye, which was, I would guess, why he sometimes referred to himself as Lo-Kag Evil Eye. He carried a massive hammer with a 5' handle, and a prodigious spear bearing a bundle of possessions wrapped in a tarp.

I got along well with him. He was friendly but competitive, but always practical. For example, he would occasionally pick
up, move or carry others when he thought needed, occasionally to their annoyance. I think he was aware of how frightening he must have been to humans, for when in towns, I saw him wear an elaborate eye patch over his "evil" eye. But while adventuring, he cared little for appearances. For example, he recently started wearing two magically burning candles stuck to a leather band he wore around his head. It looked ridiculous, but I didn't want to say anything. It's too bad he died like that, as I'd liken it to dying while wearing women's undergarments.

Looking through what meager possessions of his remain to us, I find a scrap of his journal, though why this page was torn loose, I cannot say. I'll attach it here, for presumably the hornets will tear the rest of his journal to shreds to make nests or for some other such obscure insectoid purpose.

Lately I've been feeling down on myself. I'm starting to worry if I am really a coward after all. Where I grew up everyone was expected to step up when there was something dangerous going on, and I stepped up with the rest. Now whenever we're out looking for trouble, I'm in the back making sure nothing sneaks up and bites Eaora's behind. Lately it seems like I run as much as I fight. We have gotten into several fights against the shadow dogs recently where all I did was run. Then the one time I don't run, we get chewed up so bad that if Sper doesn't show up, we all die. Now I'm really starting to worry. We ran into a trap that fills the room with fire. Eaora has gotten so paranoid that she won't even be in the same room as B.B when she is looking for traps. As a result, when the fire goes boom, only Eaora and I are spared. I used to think she was a total coward. Now I'm trying to figure out whether she's just smarter that we are or whether I'm a coward after all, because I think she may be onto something.

* * *
More stinking shadows. I really wish we could find something else to fight. Shadows are easy enough to hit but they always seem to fade just before you hit them and your weapon just passes right through. The way K keeps charging forward and getting surrounded, he's going to get sucked dry one of these days. Fortunately Asilky seems to be able to scare them off if things get too nasty. Gotta go B.B. just signaled the all clear.

* * *
What a let down. We enter a heavily warded room that MUST contain something nasty. I push through to the front to try this magic spear of doom against the powerful thing lurking inside and ... nothing.

It's interesting reading his perspective on recent events, because in some ways it mirrors mine. I've been trying to keep with BB, but as the traps get more and more lethal, it seems only common sense to stay back. Not that it matters now.

The traps, the shadows, the need to somehow alter the horrible circumstances that surround us have caused us to grow increasingly careless. Lo-Kag writes of the heavily warded room we found that proved to contain nothing. The mere fact that we opened it demonstrates the degree to which we've been taking foolish risks. The fact that it proved nothing only served to cement our course, and that has lead to our ruin.

You see, we found a door, and from the far side of the door we heard a buzzing, like insects. It's hard for a grown man to be too frightened of insects, and I said as much, pointing out (what was I thinking!?) that if we had been willing to open the warded door, which might easily have contain some kind of demon, why would we avoid opening a door just because of a few bugs.

As soon as we opened the door, they were upon us. Hundreds, if not thousands of them, hornets, yet unlike any hornet I have ever seen. They attacked with a purpose, climbing under armor, swarming over every inch of exposed flesh and stinging again and again. Those that were enveloped by the swarm could do nothing but flee, and always the insects pursued. Those, like myself, that were fortunate enough to be standing outside the swarm were still stung, but found that there was little we could do to help. With each swing of my chain, a few insects died, but not enough to make any real difference.

Eoara tried to use fire against them, casting the impressive fireball spell that she has recently mastered, but it did not affect the creatures in the slightest. When K. went to his knees, and looked like he was about to pass out, we grabbed him and dragged him through the nearest door, slamming it before the hornets could follow.

Lo-Kag didn't make it. We left him there, amidst the wasps. But our situation is not much better. We are in a room, apparently once a temple to Pelor. It has but the one entrance, and from beyond it, we can still hear the buzzing, travelling up and down the hall. They are clearly not hornets of this earth, like the other demonic inhabitants of this place, they will not tire, hunger, or die of old age.

I am not much for praying. Yet I will pray to Olidammara now, for I see nothing but outrageous luck that could possibly save us from the doom we have stumbled into.

Coldeven 6: Haven (Day 4)

2004-11-04T22:56:00.000-08:00

This is a prison, and there is no easy way out.

I'm tempted to make that the last entry, as it seems unlikely that anyone other than other prisoners of this horrible place will ever read it. But there isn't enough to fill the empty hours while we recover from our trials, and this helps me put my thoughts in order.

Sper has lead us to her allies, and they are impressive, if frightening. They say they are of the Eladrin, which seems to mean something to Asilky, but to me they appear to be animals combined with men. But despite how weird they are, they seem to have a lot of power, and claim to have been here for thousands of years.

Apparently this whole place is a prison, built by the gods, to contain things too evil to walk among mortals. The Eladrin and a variety of other beings that Asilky calls "Celestials" acted as jailers, working in concert with another group ominously named "the Inevitables".

Apparently a recent series of earthquakes has caused trouble, releasing certain things from their prisons, destroying barriers that are supposed to prevent movement of the prisoners, and weakening the "wards" which are supposed to contain all this evil.

Now, I'm a simple guy, I stick to Spike's Cardinal Rule, and I expect others to do the same. Good and Evil, as I've said, are mostly just labels applied to what I see as either excessively short-term or excessively long-term thinking. I've met people who are called "Evil", and I got along with them just fine. But apparently, this isn't like that at all. Apparently, this is the kind of evil that gets under your skin and makes you into something horrible. Not stealing other people's stuff and killing anyone who gets in your way horrible, but "Let's eat babies" horrible.

A lot of people think I'm not a very good person, but I really don't want to lose that much perspective.

Anyway, the Celestial named Keylara, who is apparently the leader, can't help us much, but has proved amenable to striking a deal. She'll give us aid and comfort if we can find some things that they've lost called "Ward Staves". The evil creatures running around have accounted for killing lots of the Celestial's numbers, and those that are left are very busy, and no longer know the wearabouts of the staves.

In addition, if they're not found, evil forces could apparently destroy them, resulting in the release of some nasty stuff which will add to our woes. I'm not sure that'd be enough for me to want to take this on, but the promise of allies and payment makes the difference for me.

I guess, cautiously, that things are looking up.

Coldeven 6: Priorities (Day 4)

2004-10-15T13:47:00.000-07:00

It's been a few hours since it happened, but today we almost bought it. We'd become engaged in a sort of running battle with some large black dog-like creatures, which I've since learned are called shadow mastiffs. They set up this terrible howling which chilled me (and others) to the bone.

We'd killed several, and I knew it was stupid, the creatures weren't that tough, but every time I heard that noise I felt this terrible compulsion to run. At least I wasn't alone in that. It's a wonder that none of use were picked off as we ran in every direction at our best speed, but somehow we managed. Asilky seemed the most immune, and held the line against the beasts until we could regroup. In the end though, it turned out that our very succeptability to the creature's howling was what would save us.

You see, the mastiffs also have this ability to fade into the shadows, becoming effectively invisible. We observed it once in an early encounter, but I struck out at the area where the thing had disappeared, and I still hit and killed it, so the ability didn't really fill us all with concern. Definitely a case of underthinking the situation, I'd say.

"Hey, didn't these things have some sort of ability to fade into the shadows?"

You see, we found a room with four of the beasts, they howled, and several of us went tearing off in unnatural fear. Asilky, thinking quickly, shut the door. The things, though clearly more intelligent than normal dogs, didn't have hands, after all. When the rest of us had overcome our terror and returned, we yanked open the door, only to find the room empty, the beasts having left through the other door. Something about the situation bugged me, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

We cautiously moved into the room, and B.B. headed over to check out the far door, while Eaora and others chatted about a mysterious apparatus in the corner with many gears which had apparently been stopped when someone jammed a corspe into the mechanism. It was at this point that I realized what was troubling me, and spoke up: "Hey," I asked, "didn't these things have some sort of ability to fade into the shadows?"

The nine shadow mastiffs hiding around the edges of the room leapt upon us in that instant, and a chaotic fight began that I was pretty sure was going to be my last. Eaora went down almost right away, and it looked like several of us, including Lo-Kag and K., were going to be joining her quickly. I was swinging my chain wildly in all directions trying to keep them off me, and managed to back into a corner, but I wasn't hurting them fast enough, and it seemed clear that if my friends all went down, I would be joining them shortly thereafter.

Lo-Kag has said something a few times about having an evil eye. I didn't know what to think of that before, but today I finally got to see him use it. Badly wounded, and bleeding from many bites and claw marks, he paused in the middle of melee to fix his strange-colored eye on one of the creatures. Exactly how it worked, I can't tell you, but the mastiff jerked as if struck, and made a whining noise like a dog that had been kicked by its master. It didn't take it out of the combat, but it certainly seemed to slow it down a good deal.

"It's either an ally, or we're all dead. Assume it's an ally."

None of us knew whether Eaora was still alive, of course, but several of us were keeping an eye on her, and noticed an armored hand reach in through the door, grab her leg, and drag her out of the room. Despite the still-swirling melee, many of my friends started trying to go to her aid, but I shouted out, "Guys, it's either an ally, or we're all dead! Assume it's an ally!" Which I figure is a succinct a distillation of Matrim's Guide to Victory as I've managed in some time.

Matrim's Guide to Victory: Know your Priorities.

I've mentioned Matrim, the only paladin I could ever stand, before. One time, I was asking him what the typical paladin's secret was. As a rule, they arent't particularly bright or imaginative, they're too weighted down with moral baggage to make really down-and-dirty fighters, and they're always biting off more than they can chew. Yet they still seem uncannily effective. Matrim smiled, and explained that paladins were very good at prioritization. I must've showed my doubt, because he explained further.

Once, he was exploring an underground excavation with some companions, when a door slammed shut and the room they were in began to fill with water. All of them began working on the door, but couldn't get it open. Suddenly, they were attacked by a giant tentacled aquatic creature that had come in with the water. Matrim began to fight it, but it was more powerful than he was, and it became clear that he couldn't defeat it without assistance. His companions began to leave the door alone to help him with the creature, but he yelled "Get back to the door! I'm sure I can hold off this creature long enough for us to drown!"

Paladins, he explained, have a strict code, that lets them know, almost intuitively, how to balance concerns like that against each other. He said he didn't have to even think about whether it was worth him risking his life to give his companions time to get the door open, it was obvious that it was. As a result, they did manage to get it open, and all of them survived. Now, I'm not crazy enough to think my priorities are anything like those of a paladin, 'cause they're not, but I've been in enough scraps to know that Matrim was certainly right about the importance of quick, correct prioritization.

It did turn out to be an ally, of course, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this down now. A beautiful, if a bit unearthly and heavily armored, woman named Sper entered the room and began to lash at the mastiffs with lightning bolts. They got fed up with that pretty quickly, and fled the scene.

It turns out that Sper had seen B.B. while she was running panicked through the corridors due to the mastiff's fearsome howling, and wondered enough about her to investigate. So, ironically, if the creatures hadn't frightened us so badly, they probably would have beaten us handily.

I've got to eat something. I'll write more about Sper (and her associates) when I can. They've told us a lot, little of it good.

Coldeven 5: Asilky's Speech (Day 3)

2004-10-14T20:06:00.000-07:00

Well, we took a little while to find a place to rest, but we finally have. There's a room here where a horrible gigantic spider-like creature was killed by a small bald guy with a spear. Apparently in the final battle they killed each other, because when we found them, they were still there, frozen in combat at the moment of their deaths.

Eaora and Asilky put their heads together, and concluded that the large creature was a demon called a retriever. I didn't like the sound of that, and asked what, exactly they were said to "retrieve". Nobody seemed sure. The spear was magical, so we broke up the tableau to claim it. Hopefully it will come in handy.

After that, we made camp, and Lo-Kag cooked the Krenshar we'd killed earlier in the day. It wasn't great. After dinner, Asilky had something to say. Here it is as best as I can get it written down. (I probably should have taken notes.)

"OK, in light of our recent encounter with the celestial I think a confession is in order. I have never been successful in the priesthood. In fact many have questioned why I have not given up the trade. Well the truth be told I have often considered it but for some reason Boril would not listen to my requests to leave his service. I think perhaps now I understand why. Let me explain.

"Boril Ironbeard is one of the minor Dwarf god’s. He is not blessed with a strong following but there are points in any dwarf’s life that he will pay tribute to Boril. His domain is that of law and justice. Those who serve Boril are few in number but our services are valuable throughout the clans. For the most part the clerics of Boril, Adjudicators as we are known, travel throughout the dwarven realms acting as impartial judges on all cases brought before them. An adjudicators strength is his ability to weigh the evidence brought before him and then to discern a true and just settlement to any dispute. Impartiality is his constant companion and ally so that none would question his verdict. That is where my troubles start.

"For you see I have a certain 'problem'. I have never been very good at seeing shades of grey. I tend to see right and wrong, good and evil. There are cases when a bad person can be in the right, and a good person can be in the wrong. When that happens I am at a loss. Can evil ever be right?

"Suffice it to say that my many years as an acolyte of Boril seemed pointless to the Adjudicators that I was assigned to. Each time I was assigned to be aid to a new priest they would test me. Each in turn tried to mold my perceptions. Finally each in the end would suggest that I take up a different trade. Their wishes however were not Boril's. I have prayed often for guidance and Boril would always assure me that my time would come. I personally find it is best not to argue with a deity, no matter how 'minor' others say he is.

"So it was that the high priest sent me out into the world to 'get a greater understanding of Boril and how he works even in other realms'. Simply put they were tired of dealing with me. My travels were many and tedious, and not worth wasting your time over, but I seemed no closer to gaining favor in my god's eyes. I began to think I was being punished for some misstep I had made, and when we first landed in this festering dungeon I was certain of this. As of late however I am thinking that this is why Boril has so long held me in his service. Boril is with me now more then ever, and my abilities have grown dramatically in only a few days. Some things ARE simply evil, and it is a different brand of justice that is reserved for them. Here I see right and wrong, and my justice can be swift and final. If the need arises for diplomacy I have been fully trained, but since so many of the rest of you seem eager to talk I will hold my skills in reserve until the need arises."

Well, time for me to turn in. I've got a watch tonight, and I'm going to have to be sharp. We've heard some terrified screams, and it's possible our cooking fire will attract whatever caused them. I'm also not feeling very well.

Coldeven 5: Bugs in the Fog (Day 3)

2004-10-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Despite my increasing pessimism at our prospects, today has not been a total waste. In fact, four things have happened today that are good enough that I think I should record them.

Firstly, the group of orcs led by the mysterious wizard in red has lost a few more of its number. We found a room where a battle took place between orcs and dark mantles. Since the orcs bodies hadn't been looted, it seems safe to assume that the dark mantles won, but the sheer number of bodies would seem to be a good thing since I'm not anxious to deal with a large group of either.

Since the bodies hadn't been looted, we took it upon ourselves to do so, and actually found a fair bit of stuff, mostly little bits of gold, silver, and semi precious stones, but we did find some ivory knucklebones, which neatly doubles our recreational options during down time, so I'm counting it as a win. I also took the best of the orcs falchions and tossed it into the portable hole, figuring that a backup weapon might come in handy.

Nearby, we found a lone orc survivor named Tirag. Needless to say, he was eager to offer us the benefits of his experience. After we'd asked him what we could, and learned what he knew (not much), we sent him to wait with the Ogre, figuring that we'd at least know where they both were that way.

But the best news is that we found an area that seems significant, and which will hopefully offer up some answers.

So far, this place has been full of nearly identical doors. Most of them are of iron-bound wood, and very solid and well built. They are maintained, so despite the apparent antiquity of this place, they are mostly functional and in good repair. I stressed the importance of not killing anyone or anything that seemed to be doing maintenance to my friends, as whoever is responsible for maintaining these doors must know something of this place's layout and purpose.

Anyway, today we found a door that was very different. It was stone, and had a huge eye/sun thing sculpted into it. Beyond it lay a trap, further heightening my anticpation that at last we had found something that might offer clues or escape. This area is also lit by magical lanterns set into the ceiling, which I take to be another sign of its importance.

What we found was a large room, with foggy mist covering the floor, many corridors criss-crossing between mighty pillars of rock, each of which has writing in a multitude of languages. The room was occupied by many horrible insects, and our explorations attracted yet more, yet the fighting, though hard, gave us a chance to work as a team, which is an experience I think we were all needing badly. In all, we were attacked by 5 halfling-sized beetles, 7 man-sized insects with horrible stingers poised above their bodies, and 3 man-sized spiders. While feriocious, they were not intelligent, and we were able to put a doorway between us and them so that they could only come at us one at a time, an advantage we employed mercilessly.

As I believe I mentioned before, tempers had been becoming a bit frayed, and I think the need to work together quickly has done some of us good. I'm not used to fighting with groups, and I think K. comes from a tradition of mindless ferocity, so most of the sound tactical reasoning came from Lo-Kag, but his shouted orders came at the right time in battle, and when the last of the insects fell, while many of us were injured, not one of us was seriously hurt. Hopefully our shared victory will keep us from sniping at each other when we continue.

A few of us are sick from spider bites (albiet not myself), and Eaora is looking at the writings, so we're staying here for at least a little bit. It's possible we may make it into a permanent camp.

Coldeven 5: About B.B. (Day 3)

2004-09-29T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've alluded to this already, but I think that B.B. is getting a raw deal. She's willingly taking point on our explorations. In part, this is because she has a number of advantages that the rest of us don't enjoy. Her people, whom I've heard called the whisper gnomes, are by nature silent, stealthy, and have a caution that borders on paranoia.

However, even among her people, I suspect that B.B. is an exception. Her reflexes are as good as mine, which surprised me a great deal, because I'm faster than anyone I've ever met. I don't know where she learned her trade (or, to be honest, exactly what she would claim her trade to be) but she has exceptional skill with locks and traps. Twice now, I've seen her throw herself clear from lethal traps before I'd even had a chance to register them activating.

But as much as I admire her talent, I have to question her judgement. We've only been in here for two days, and already she's saved our lives by endangering her own at least twice. We all owe her, and thus she's put herself firmly on the wrong side of one of my favorite little rules.

Spike's Exchange Axiom: Pay slowly, collect quickly.

Let's face it. Circumstances change. If you owe someone something, maybe you'll never have to pay. They might die, forget, move out of town, or accept some sort of lesser or alternate payment in exchange for the debt. Waiting as long as reasonably possible to pay someone back is just good policy. Likewise, people who owe you something are subject to the same changing circumstances, so collect what they owe you as quickly as possible, to make sure that you don't lose out on what you're due.

She's going to die, of course. This place is going to kill her. The debt that all of us owe her is one she's not going to get to collect. I'm not feeling particularly inclined to point any of this out to her, of course. Because if she wises up and starts refusing to take the lead, I'm likely to have to do it, and my mother didn't raise a fool.

Coldeven 5: Straight to Hell (Day 3)

2004-09-26T20:47:00.001-07:00

I've become convinced that the architects of this place were crazy. To be honest, I'm not sure how a place like this could come to exist. In order for it to exist, it seems like it would need to have someone insane to design it, a huge number of insane people to build it, and someone insane to pay for it. This is because anyone, from the architect to the builders, ought to have been able to see that several aspects of its construction make no sense.

The corridors twist and turn without apparent rationale except to wind around rooms. The rooms themselves are gigantic, typically 30 feet square or more, but most of them have no apparent purpose. A room with no purpose has no reason to exist, especially if it requires the excavation of thousands of pounds of earth and stone to create. There are corridors that are exactly parallel to other corridors, separated by only a wall, with a door between them. There are many concealed doors, but they don't (so far) seem to lead to secret areas, rather they seem to be secret access routes from one public area to another. Interestingly, we found a secret door at the end of 200' corridor. This seems stupid, because even if we hadn't found the door, I'd have been tempted to smash through the wall, for who (other than possibly the creators of this place) builds a 200' hall that goes nowhere?

Throughout, there are few furnishings that don't seem to have been added by later explorers like ourselves. When we find the few exceptions, they seem pregnant with significance, but so far, devoid of meaning.

Today, for instance, we found a censer half-buried in a room. The thing was made entirely of wrought cast iron, and weighed around 200 lbs. No explorer carried it there, it almost has to be part of the original function of this place. But it was in an entirely empty room. We found a room with a 10' round column in it. It didn't seem like it was necessary for support, since several other rooms of equal size have no such support. It had some writing on it once, but it had been thouroughly defaced and rendered illegible. No clues there.

The traps are also bothersome, because they seem permanent and well designed, but protect nothing. I've begun working more closely with B.B. in an attempt to spot them earlier, but she still clearly has the better eye. Didn't stop her from stepping on one today, though. A 100' long section of corridor floor that fell suddenly away above a 40' drop. She managed to throw herself back just in time, catching Asilky's foot as he teetered on the edge.

In short, this is the sort of place that could easily drive a person crazy, and I'd say from something we saw today, that it has happened to some. We found a room where someone had painted pictures (poorly) on the wall in blood, and sealed a secret door by driving 24 spikes into the seams around it. Asilky said he could sense hundreds of tiny creatures on the other side of the door, so we decided not to unseal it, but we did reclaim some of the spikes for future use.

We've spent a lot of time sharing theories, of course. Most of them seem silly when I think of writing them down, but Eaora's bears thinking on. You see, we've killed a lot of creatures during our travels today, among them 2 dark mantles, and 8 giant rats. All of them, according to Eaora, bear the hallmarks of demonic taint. Her theory is that we've found a portal into the hells, and that with every step we progress, we are drawing closer to entering those dark realms.

I have to go help with food and setting up camp while thinking upon this charming prospect. I'll write more about today's experiences after we've eaten.

Coldeven 5: Kobolds and Other Things that Should Not Exist (Day 3, Rest Break)

2004-09-21T15:24:00.000-07:00

I forgot to heed Spike's Guide to Threat Assessment today, and have thus gotten myself well and truly caught in the grip of the very rule I was mocking clerics for when I wrote in my journal last night. Perhaps I should add a fifth possibility to yesterday's list, that the gods are capricious and cruel.

It seems clear that our being trapped here is beginning to fray everyone's nerves. Lo-Kag and I have had some words because of the decision to stop early yesterday. His point is that this place is dangerous, and we need to be fresh and at our best for each new challenge. My point is that if we run out of food before we find our way out, other dangers won't matter. B.B. glares at us everytime we raise our voices, too, which makes it really hard to have a decent argument about the subject. We clearly need a leader in this pit, and both Lo-Kag and I seem to be nominating ourselves.

So we're exploring. Climbing through rubble-choked rooms (there appears to have been an earthquake), and peeking our heads in each door as cautiously as possible. Eventually, we found some kobolds behind a rude barricade on the far side of another rubble-strewn room. They offered a self-serving proposal about peaceful coexistance. I asked them if they had any food. They said no, but they were pretty clearly lying. My friends and I had a quick whispered discussion, but the lure of increasing our food stores was pretty compelling, and after all, they were only kobolds. We began moving into the room, without much more plan than to cross it, kill the little creeps, and take whatever food they had.

Spike's Guide to Threat Assessment: Don't Underestimate Orcs.

The conventional wisdom is that orcs are not a true threat to much. They're stupid, disorganized, reckless, and prone to infighting. But simply saying this does not eliminate possibility of a smart, skilled, or lucky orc, other than in people's perceptions. When I was little, a neighboring town asked our village to send some warriors to help fight a local orc chieftan and his clan. After some debate, my village sent four of our young untried men to be blooded in real combat. The town in question no longer exists, and my village had to pay taxes to the Orc chieftan, and his half-brother the necromancer, for the next four years.

The kobolds had four things we didn't: reasonable cover, a decent plan, a more powerful wizard, and an unnatural, horrible beast to serve them.

Eaora leapt into the room and immediately began casting a spell. As she completed her arcane gestures, B.B. darted into the room, taking cover behind some of the rubble that lay there. I could tell by the high-pitched barks of dismay that Eaora's spell had had some effect, and I, Lo-kag and K began to make our charge.

The next thing I knew, Asilky was kicking me awake. Apparently the kobold wizard had cast a spell that caused me and Lo-Kag to fall immediately into a deep slumber. At that point, any semblance of coordinated action we might have had was completely lost. I charged into the room, determined to down the kobolds as quickly as possible, Lo-Kag at my side. A full charge was made impossible by the rubble strewn around the room, so I was half-running, half-climbing. The torch was somewhere by the entrance, my back was to it and my shadow was cast wildly before me, obscuring almost everything.

I'm not sure I can convey here quite how chaotic the situation had become. I couldn't really see my opponents, other than the gleam of eyes ahead of me. I could hear K's war-cry somewhere ahead of me, but I couldn't really see him either. Arrows went whistling past me in the darkness, and I couldn't tell if they were fired by friend or foe. Half the time, I couldn't look around anyway because of the need to watch my footing. Suddenly a large beast loomed up out of nowhere. I thought at first it was a dog, which proved to be a serious misjudgement.

The creature leapt foward toward me and Lo-Kag, and as it did so, it let forth an unearthly shriek as all of the flesh just sort of melted off of its head. I didn't know what kind of horrible sorcery was at hand, but I was sure, in that moment, that I was going to die. Apparently Lo-Kag felt the same, for he backpedaled away from the creature and ran for the entrance. I, for my part, began to lash at the creature with my chain. I put a bold face on it afterwards, but here in my journal, I'll confide that I was just as panicked as Lo-Kag, madly lashing out at the creature in a vain hope that it would turn its unnatural visage elsewhere.

The creature went down, but I'm still not sure if it was I that delivered the fatal blow. I could hear K's grunts of pain, and the continued chanting of the kobold wizard, so I wasted no time, rushing forward. When I reached the battle, I found K, hard pressed by kobolds, who were stabbing at him from behind their barricade with spears. I savaged one with my chain, and continued my advance. Suddenly I could see the kobold wizard. He had an arrow standing out of his shoulder, but when I looked at him, it was like there were three of him, standing shoulder to shoulder behind the kobold warriors. An arrow flashed out of the darkness, and one of the images of the wizard vanished.

That was good enough for me. I figured that even if I didn't manage to do real harm, getting rid of the extra wizards was worth something, so I whipped the end of my chain around the neck of the nearest kobold wizard and pulled hard, breaking his neck with a satisfying snap. It must have been the real one, for as the wizard fell limply to the floor, his double vanished. The remaining kobolds put up a bit of fight, concentrating their attacks on K, who, with his 7 foot height, must have seemed very fearsome to them. I disarmed the last one and demanded its surrender, and the creature threw itself on the floor. But K had apparently had enough, for his greatsword flashed down and cut the thing nearly in two. Small loss really, I doubt it knew much.

In the end, we got off relatively unscathed, except for K, who looks like he jumped into a pit full of wild dogs. While Asilky was doing what he could for him, we searched the room, and found three things of interest. The wizard was wearing a cloak and some bracers which Eaora said were magical. Since they fit no-one but B.B., we've given them to her. The third item was more interesting. It appeared to be a small square of folded dark fabric, but as Eaora unfolded it, it revealed itself to be something even more unnatural than the horrible beast.

Apparently, wherever you unfold this thing, it creates a hole about six feet across and 10 feet deep. Eaora says it's a "portable hole", which while an apt description, fails to convey how odd the thing is. If you put something into it, fold it up, and then unfold it elsewhere, everything that you put in the hole is still there. While it is unfolded, the floor beneath it seems gone, but when you fold it up, it's intact, as if nothing had ever happened. The kobold wizard apparently used it as a portable study, for it has a desk, some spellbooks, and a chair within it.

Anyway, aside from the obvious questions the existence of such a thing raises, (What happens to the stuff inside when it's folded up? What if there's a person in there? What if you unfold it on a floor that's only a few inches thick, does it still create a 10-foot deep hole? If you unfold it against a wall, does the stuff inside fall to the side that's now "down"?) it puts us, as I said, firmly into the grip of Spike's Tool Paradox.

Spike's Tool Paradox: A Good Tool is a Trap.

There was a land that labored under a horrible curse. The gods, in their wisdom, created a magical ring that could be used to lift the curse if it was taken to the dark castle at the heart of the kingdom and smashed. In order to allow the prince of the realm to reach the dark castle, the ring granted its wearer several powers. The power of command, the power of flight, and the power of invulnerability. By the time the prince of the kingdom was nearing the castle, he was really beginning to doubt the wisdom of destroying the ring. That was many years ago. The kingdom still labors under its curse, but the magical ring of the royal family is the envy of other rulers everywhere.

This portable hole thing is, simply put, too useful not to use. I've already put most of my food into it, as well as some of the heavier gear I was carrying "just in case." That's all well and good, but when everyone in the group does that, it will rapidly become clear that we're totally dependent on it. If someone steals it, we'll have to get it back, because it will quickly become so important to us that we can't afford to give it up. The more use we get out of it, the more dependent on it we'll be. I can smell trouble coming a mile away, and this thing will bring it eventually, mark my words.

We're resting now. The food situation still worries me, especially since the kobold's "food" turned out to be a pile of decomposing orcs. I'm not sure if others want to explore further today or not, but I'm going to try and convince them to press on.

Coldeven 4: Regarding Asilky and the Gods (Day 2 Watch)

2004-09-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

Still having trouble sleeping. It doesn't help that we didn't do anything for most of the day. After Asilky called upon the "powers of Boril" to partially heal Lo-Kag and Eaora, I was all for pressing on, but Lo-Kag had serious reservations about facing more danger while Asilky couldn't heal, and since he brought up stopping to rest every time we found a room that was half-way defensible, eventually he got his way and we made camp. So, after sleeping fitfully for 8 hours or so, taking a 2 hour watch, and exploring for perhaps 2 hours, I had about 12 hours to sit around in camp and find things to do.

I'm positive that a saint couldn't find 12 hours of productive activity in this empty room, and I'm no saint. I checked and cleaned my gear, played some more cards with Lo-Kag, sparred a bit with Asilky, and wrote (and doodled) in my Journal. At the end of it, totally bored and wondering how much time I still had to fill, I asked Asilky (who, being a dwarf, has much better sense of the passage of time underground) how much time remained until we slept, and he said "About 7 hours".

I'll confess, I got a little resentful of the fact that he couldn't cast any more healing spells at that point. He, of course, reminded me (as usual) that the healing doesn't come from any magic of his own, but rather from the "grace of Boril". But that got me thinking: Where does the limit on his healing ability come from?

Asilky isn't tired. To be fair, he looks as bored as I feel, but he's his usual cocky self, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Matrim's Courage Maxim: Don't Underestimate Cocky.

I used to know a paladin. He was old, and maybe that's why I could tolerate him. Most paladins seem like sanctimonious pricks, and definitely have an air of "better than thou" which pisses me off. Anyway, Matrim wasn't like that. He'd pretty much done with adventuring, his knees were locking up with age, and his "holy missions" mostly centered around handing out advice to those younger and stronger than himself when I met him. Anyway, we had a few long chats over beer, and I was talking about someone I didn't like, and called the guy a "cocky bastard". Matrim says, "Don't underestimate cocky, son. Cocky's what keeps you going when real courage won't serve." Surprisingly smart guy for someone who let himself be sucked into some damn idealistic crusade. Asilky reminds me of him a little.

Anyway, Asilky's not tired. And, according to him, the magic that healed Lo-Kag and Eaora didn't even come from him, but from his god. So why can't he get more? I mean, the god isn't tired, right? Asilky is doing what the god wants, or he wouldn't get his spells every morning. (Clerics are the ultimate victims of Spike's Tool Paradox) So why can't he just kneel down and pray and get a few more healing spells so he can continue doing whatever the hells it is that he's supposed to be doing?

I can't come up with any explanations I'd care to say aloud in front of a cleric, that's for damn sure. But I'll jot them down here so I can think about them some more.

The gods do get tired.
The gods don't really care about their followers
The gods won't because of some obscure moral principle.
It's a stupid arbitrary rule.

If the gods are anything like us mortals, I bet it's #4. Which means it's the fault of the gods themselves that I'm bored. Go figure.

Coldeven 4: Many Obstacles (Day 2)

2004-09-17T23:41:00.000-07:00

This place is huge. Exploring it is proving to be logistically difficult. Aside from the constant need to keep our voices low, lest some hostile person hear us, there's the problem with the doors.

Clearly, there's no one here (at least that we've found yet) who wants to be here, and so nobody is treating it like home. As near as I can tell, whenever someone exits a room, they're leaving the door open behind them. As a result, most of the doors are open. On the one hand, this is good, because it means that B.B. has to worry about traps less. In fact, today, she found only one, and luckily she disarmed it before any of us could fall victim. It looked nasty though, a scything blade that she said could easily have killed one of us. I have a hunch that she may be playing up her accomplishment there, but still, what little I could see of it looked bad.

But the bad part is that this means that we're A) getting lost, and B) constantly having to watch our backs against open doors we haven't been able to check yet. Everything down here seems scared to death, and is quietly keeping an ear to the floor. Food is also scarce, and I have no doubt that if we show any weakness, the scavengers will be on us quickly. For instance, today we had to kill some Stirges. Not much of a threat to us when we're all at our best, but likely to be very dangerous if we're already weakened.

As we were travelling, we actually found a simple pit latrine. It makes sense I guess (because no one likes do their business in a corner of a room that they may have to pass through again) but a lot of us were really happy to find it. Which just goes to show that little things like that matter more than most people think. Anyway, we're walking down a corridor and we start to hear the sound of running water, and Asilky says "Good thing I already went." Which I thought was pretty funny.

More importantly, we've actually learned a little bit about what we're facing today, albiet not nearly as much as I'd like. We found a mysterious room with columns in the corners which had channels down which water was flowing. After about half of us had moved into the room, an Ogre leapt from behind one of the columns and smashed Eaora to the ground leaving her senseless. Before we could really react, it delivered a huge blow with its club to Lo-Kag as he was trying to close with it, sending him flying back limply, which is quite a feat, considering. But K went into one of those fearsome rages of his, and delivered a crushing blow in return, and when I smashed its forearm with my chain, it apparently had had enough, because it dropped its club and surrendered. Since it was speaking undercommon, I immediately put Spike's Rule of Questioning into effect.

Spike's Rule of Questioning: The merciful man gets better answers.

When you've got someone at your mercy, and you want information from them, you've got to play it straight. Some people like to say they'll let their captive go if they talk, but really plan to kill them anyway. In my experience, this doesn't work so well. I think most captives pick up on this, and give bad answers. If a foe is so powerful that you simply can't afford to let him go, don't even bother questioning him, just kill him and have done.

We learned a few interesting things. Firstly, this ogre, Bragdor by name, came in with a bunch of orcs and a wizard dressed in red (their employer). This was apparently the same clan that the three pitiful orcs in the entry room were from. Anyway, like them, this guy had been told to guard the room, and he was genuinely terrified of the orc clan leader, an orc named Orghar. We also learned that the Ogre was living off of stray kobolds, which served to remind me that we have a limited supply of food. We left him there, I don't think he's going to want to tangle with us again. B.B. was in favor of killing him, of course, but the general consensus was that he'd given us some useful information, and that he wasn't that big a threat to us.

Now we're camped. Lo-Kag and Eaora needed the time to recover. We actually found a bit of treasure today, a golden ring with opal inlay. B.B. thinks it's probably worth about 300gp, which is a pretty decent days work, so my mood is slightly improved. Near it, we found a deck of playing cards. The suits are odd (Sword, Fireball, Whip and Spider), but it's a complete deck, and since we didn't do a full day's exploring, it's proved really useful in passing the time. I'm up two silver on Lo-Kag.

Coldeven 3: Regarding Eaora (Day 1 Watch)

2004-09-16T15:18:00.000-07:00

Olidammara, do I hate trying to sleep underground. It's my watch now, and I'm almost grateful. I don't think I've slept much, if at all, and I'm tired of trying. Eaora's doing that "sleeping with her eyes open" thing, which, as always, is creeping me out. I keep thinking that I can talk to her, because she looks pretty much awake, and I open my mouth to say something and then remember that she's not really, and that if I interrupt her meditation she'll lack the mental focus to prepare her spells.

What else can I say about Eaora?

I like to think I'm pretty smart. I speak three languages, have trained in a variety of disciplines, and know more about life than just about anyone I know. Eaora, however, is brilliant in a way I will never be. As you know, I don't like to volunteer a lot of information about myself (outside the confines of my Journal, of course). Anyway, one day we were discussing a potential job with a potential employer, and he asked us if we were familiar with the Highfolk region, and, out of the blue like she does, she says "Spike's mother was from Highfolk."

Now, it's true. My mother was from there. But I'd never told her, and so I was pissed, figuring she'd been prying into my affairs, or maybe reading my journal. I totally lost my cool, called her on it, right then and there. Anyway, she calmly explained that when I hand-signed the symbol of Olidammara, I did so with my left hand, and in front of my face. My face must have shown that I wasn't understanding, so she continued to explain that this was the way that the women of the Highfolk region did it, but that men of the region made the gesture in front of their chest, and typically with their right hand. Logically, she explained, I must have had a woman of Highfolk to model my behaviour on.

Maybe I had the long life of an Elf I'd start to notice such things, and perhaps that's Eaora's secret. But mostly, I think she's just a lot smarter than me.

Coldeven 3: A Day of Mishaps. (Day 1)

2004-09-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been an interesting day.

Lured (as usual) by the promise of easy riches, and the desire of my friend Asilky to find some old dwarven caves, we had traveled into the mountains. Mountain travel being what it is, I damn near froze my fingers off, and it was unpleasant enough without trying to hold a quill, so I didn't make any journal entries. Suffice it to say, I can't wait until I'm rich enough to pay some other fool to go freeze his ass off in the mountain snows in my stead.

Anyway, the gigantic dead Titan (without a mark on him) that we found probably ought to have warned us off, but we entered the cave behind him, climbed down a ladder, and found a huge, relatively featureless, room with two doors. I was hearing warning bells, especially when I couldn't figure out what the room had been used for, but there didn't seem to be anything actually dangerous, so I kept quiet. It's looking like I'll be cursing myself for that lapse of judgement for some time. Thusly, a new rule:

Spike's Principle of Objection: Reasonable Objections buy Respect.

If I object to something (without getting strident), and the group goes along with me, I've shown leadership, never a bad thing. They'll be more likely to go along with me in the future. On the other hand, if I object to something, am overruled, and it goes badly, they'll feel a sense of obligation to me for overriding my judgement, and, will be more likely to go along with me in the future. If, on the other hand, I object, am overruled, and things turn out well, I can always accept that I was wrong gracefully, which isn't likely to rub anyone the wrong way, and I've lost little. I see that as two winning outcomes and a draw.

Anyway, we opened one of the doors, and there was some sort of magical inky blackness. Now that set off warning bells for everyone, I'm sure, even Eaora. Eaora took her torch and stuck it through the door, which seemed smart enough to me, but she stuck her hand in with it, and then we were in the latrine up to our knees, because she couldn't pull it back out. I grabbed hold and really heaved, but she started wailing about it hurting, so I stopped.

Anyway, I was thinking that a competent priest would probably be able to get her a new hand, especially with her being willing to indenture herself to some bleeding heart cause or other, when she goes and sticks her other hand in. Maybe she could figure what I was thinking, because before I could say that regrowing two hands is probably just as easy as regrowing one, she moves forward into the darkness entirely. Everyone else, apparently worried about her safety, followed her, pretty much without discussion, while Lo-Kag and I were trying to decide on the best course of action.

Well, Lo-Kag and I figure that since we don't hear any screaming, and since B.B., Asilky and K are pretty rough customers, they probably don't need our help right away. Anyway, we check out the other door, which turns out to also be full of inky blackness, and stand there and discuss our options. To his credit, Lo-Kag suggested the obvious, heading back up out of the caves, but I had two counterpoints. One, friends are friends, and they're harder to replace than enemies, even if they are reckless idiots. And two, nobody sets up permanent magic like that unless they've got some serious coin-on-hand. I think he found the first argument the more compelling, which is like him. Lo-Kag talks a good game, but I think he sometimes has trouble with Spike's Cardinal Rule.

You know, it occurs to me that I haven't written my rules down in this journal yet, (other than the new ones) which is a real shame, because they probably constitute the only true wisdom I've acquired in my life. So, here's a few of my longer-standing rules off the top of my head.

Spike's Cardinal Rule: Always look out for Number one.

Never saw anyone who did well by ignoring this one. Value recieved needs to equal or exceed value given in every aspect of one's life. People who ignore this rule end up in the gutter. Show me a nobleman, and I'll show you someone who has this rule infused into their very blood and sinew. Everytime I've ignored this rule, it's ended badly.

Spike's Law of Goodness: Think about the big picture.

People that think of themselves as "good" are pretty good at this rule, but often suck at Spike's Rule of Selfishness (see below). You shouldn't take an action without thinking about its long term consequences. Breaking a deal, stealing from a friend, eating too much stew. All of these things may have positive short term benefits, but in the long term, they often cost far more than they're worth.

Spike's Law of Selfishness: Think about the small picture.

People that others think are "selfish" or "evil" are pretty good at this rule, but are hit-or-miss with Spike's Law of Goodness. Sometimes people can get too hung up on the big picture to realize when the short-term negatives have gotten out of control. Honoring with a bad deal that isn't going to get better, giving your life for a "noble" cause, never having any fun because one's lifestyle is too moderate. Maybe some of these things would have good overall consequences, but they're not worth it in any sane analysis.

Spike's Value Proposition: You can't buy beer with a magic sword.

A lot of people don't get this one. But it's really pretty simple. I had a magic sword once. It was nice. It shone in the sun, it never rusted, it was very sharp. But at best, it was just a little tiny bit better at killing folks, which is all a sword needs to do with itself. And there was this guy, who offered me more than 2000 gold pieces for it. He's a lot poorer, I'm a lot richer, and I'm pretty sure that I could still take him in a fight. So much for magic swords.

So, Lo-Kag and I go through the door, ready for trouble, and find ourselves in a big dark room, with our friends, and no way back. There's some out-of-luck orcs in there, who tell us (It turns out that Eaora speaks orcish too) that something in this place has wiped out their entire clan. Some of my friends tried to find out how big the clan is, but trying to get a decent estimate of numbers out of your average orc is like asking a halfling to scan a crowd. They're just not equipped for the job. Anyway, I felt kind of sorry for the orcs, and offered them a food for labor arrangement, but they turned me down, which is too bad for them I guess, because they're out of food. I considered making an appeal based on my slight orc heritage, but they probably wouldn't have cared, and I still don't want Asilky, B.B. and Eaora to know, as they seem to harbor some ill-will toward orcs in general.

We decided to start trying the doors out of the room, and as we move toward the first one, I got my chain ready, which produced some snickers from my friends. Sometimes I worry that they think I'm stupid just because I'm ugly, but I still think it was the right call. We hadn't been quiet while talking with the orcs, and there could have been anything behind that first door.

Anyway, we open the door, and immediately learn more bad news. There was a room full of dead kobolds and trogs, which means A) they'll let anyone into this dump and that B) my clothing all smells. BeeBee and I searched the bodies a little bit, but they'd been picked over (in more ways than one), so we backed off. While we were doing that, Lo-Kag discovered the other bit of bad news.

It seems that whatever people built this place left some fairly nasty magical traps lying about. Now I consider this something of a mixed blessing. On the one hand, B.B. is running herself ragged trying to keep up with the ingenuity of the builders, and a few of us have now been hurt. Lo-Kag looks really funny with that missing patch of facial hair. But on the other hand, no one goes to all this trouble to trap an area that has nothing valuable in it. So, the way I figure, that means there's something worth more than pixie dust in this forsaken place. (I'm not sure my friends share my opinion however.)

Anyway, there's not much else to tell. We were attacked by a swarm of rats, but beat them off fairly easily. B.B. dealt with another trap, and then she got attacked by a dark mantle. I was kind of hoping it would try to grab me next, but maybe it saw the armor spikes, because it jumped to K. After that, we made short work of it. Asilky got B.B., (who seemed a little shaken) back up on her feet, and we beat a retreat to a defensible room full of old rope and nails we'd found during the day's explorations.

I hope we find some decent loot tomorrow and can get out of this place soon. It's starting to give me the creeps.