Here we sit in the middle of Arun-tosa, and everyone is upset with me again. We just yesterday managed to escape the ruins of Barraktor, to find ourselves at our destination - the city of the dead. Entering town, Korin immediately ran off on his own, talking about seeing dead people. As the rest of us continued towards one of several buildings that appeared to be intact amongst the ruins of Arun-tosa, Korin came screaming back towards the party with three ghouls in chase! (And I should mention, he was running really fast - faster than anyone else in the party could have, I think. I wonder if it’s those boots?)

Anyway, we had soon dispatched the Ghouls (strangely, Drusilia didn’t try to turn them). The only one of us who was really injured was Korin, who had been clawed, bitten, and paralyzed. I suggested Drusilia use the Healing Sword to heal his wounds, since we were going to have to wait for him to be un-paralyzed anyway, and she could save her healing spells for any emergencies later. (After all it was only early morning, and we ARE in the City of the Dead!). She disagreed, and said she had ‘spells to burn’ and went to heal Korin. This is where the trouble started.

For some reason, I immediately got what I thought was a GREAT idea for a practical joke. I could barely keep from tittering when, just as Drusilia finished casting her healing spell, I cast Major Image right in front of Korin, and made the spell appear to have the opposite effect — Korin decaying into a corpse right there on the spot. The result was more than I had expected. (After considering this further, a corpse was a bit too drastic — maybe if I had just had him turn into a newt or something...)

Drusilia immediately went to examine Korin further, and I could tell that she didn’t realize it had been an illusion. (This was quite a surprise actually, as in the past she has always seen right through them.) At this point I suggested to Ghelt, that she should maybe try to see if Korin could still be helped, meaning to drop the illusion after having shown Korin be miraculously ‘healed’. No such luck.

Drusilia had already begun to drag what she thought was Korin’s body back the way we had come. When Ghelt tried to check on Korin, she saw right away that it was an illusion, and turned around and slugged me. (Dwarves apparently have NO sense of humor.) I dropped the illusion right then. And there was Drusilia, holding a now completely healed (but still paralyzed) Korin, by the head, and dragging him along behind her. It was a pretty funny sight, and even though Ghelt had just smacked me a good one, I couldn’t help but laugh.

Then, when Jonathan came over and attacked me, it stopped being funny. The blow caught me so off-guard, that at first, I thought he had hit me with his axe. Thinking this was overkill, I almost let loose with a lightning bolt, but I came to my senses, and used an illusionary one instead. Once more, Ghelt and Jonathan didn’t think this was funny, and this time they were coming after me with murder in their eyes.

Deciding this had better end now, I managed to outrun them for long enough to explain that it was just another illusion, and eventually they stopped chasing me.

That settled, I went to see if Drusilia had gotten the joke. (That had been the original point, after all… to have her spell ‘fizzle’ with disastrous results.) She didn’t think it was funny. In fact, she was very upset.

I tried to explain to her that it was all just meant to be a joke, but she got even more upset. Then she explained that for a cleric’s spell to fail that badly, with such a horrific effect, her God must have turned his back on her, deeming her unworthy to be a cleric. That was what she thought that had happened. Nothing could be worse.

Now I feel really bad. When the idea came to me, I thought it would funny to make her spell *seem* to fizzle. After all, I have had lots of spells that didn’t go off as planned, and once I realized no one was hurt, it was always pretty funny. (Like the time I accidentally made all of my and Fingers’ hair fall out… even Fingers thought that was funny — well, after his fur grew back, anyway.)

I guess it’s different for clerics. Now that I look back on it from her point of view, it does seem really mean, even though I didn’t intend for it to be. I will need to be more careful in the future if I decide to play a practical joke on someone.

I apologized to Drusilia, and she says that she will probably be able to forgive me. Ghelt and Jonathan don’t seem so sure, as they are still staring daggers at me. Korin just seems oblivious to it all. At least Fingers isn’t mad at me — although he is giving me a rather berating look, and I think he tried to bite my ear.

I guess we are ready to continue on into the city now, as Korin is mobile again, and no one is attacking me at the present time. Better to find some more real enemies to fight, and try to put all this behind us.

~=Fafnir Flamebrewer=~

P.S. — Reading back over this, I am not sure what possessed me to pick this particular time to do play a joke on Dru. It was probably a combination of her sudden refusal to use the Healing Sword, and the opportunity provided by Korin being paralyzed (and quiet!) for a change. At least I hope that was the reason... After all, Korin has also been acting weirder lately.

Posted by Dave on April 28, 2003, 01:43 | Fafnir’s Journal