Fafnir's Journal Entry 22 - Of Half-Wit Humans and Heroic Halflings

Well, Valon is back. For a brief while we also had another companion - Markus. Markus was a half-witted human sorceror that fell from the sky with Valon. It would seem that Valon and Markus were teleported to us by some friendly dwarves. Unfortunately the dwarves weren’t quite so good with the teleport spell, and both of them materialized very, very high above Arun-tosa.

As they were falling to the ground, our group noticed them plummeting. Luckily Valon knew Feather Fall and was able to cushion his landing. Once they had landed (on the other side of the city), I created a Silent Image of a large wooden “We Are Here” sign above the rooftops. I was pretty sure that the undead would not be able to see the illusion, so we patiently waited, and soon Valon came jogging into sight, being chased by a human sorceror. It turns out I may have been wrong about the undead seeing the illusion, as soon a large group of them appeared as well. (Of course, they may have been chasing Valon... it’s hard to say.)

As we began to attack the pursuer, Valon stopped us and told us that Markus was a friend. I don’t think Valon meant to lie about that, but as it turns out, Markus was more of a curse.

Continuing with our plan to examine the few surviving buildings in Arun-tosa, we proceded back towards where Valon had landed. Along the way we fought many tough zombies, but eventually we arrived at a small tower.

After determining that the door to the tower was magically sealed, I used my Polymorph spell to transform myself into a small bronze dragon and flew to the top of the tower to look for another way in. I found a small balcony with a curtained archway. Pulling back the curtain, I nearly fell off the tower as I saw what appeared to be a lich staring back at me!! I immediately flew back down to the party and suggested we run...Fast...Now.

I was too late. The lich had come out onto the balcony and was staring down at the party. Drusilia tried to turn the creature but he just laughed at her. At this point I considered running, but decided to wait and see what the lich was going to say. (He had already had plenty of time to attack us — it seemed to me that he was getting ready to speak.)

Unfortunately, before that could happen, the human sorceror that Valon had brought decided to take a more foolish action. He let loose with a lightning bolt at the lich! The lightning bolt of course did absolutely nothing to the lich, and the rest of us could do nothing but stare in stunned horror as the lich returned the attack with a very large Fireball!

In a bit of poetic justice, the fireball killed Markus instantly. Unfortunately the rest of us were also severely wounded. Korin, in a last ditch effort to save us all, managed to distract the lich long enough for the rest of us to run to safety. He was successful, but unfortunately the heroic action resulted in his own death. I never thought he had it in him. I am surprised to realize that I’ll actually miss the little fellow’s strange antics.

Luckily, the lich did not give chase, and the rest of the party has managed to regroup amongst the ruins. Hopefully Drusilia will be able to provide us some healing, as most of us are in dire need.

While I pretty am sure Markus didn’t intend for his actions to cause such damage, It doesn’t change the simple fact - One party member’s mistake can hurt us all. This tragedy should serve as a warning to us — we shouldn’t just allow any stranger we meet in our travels to join our group. Sometimes their actions can lead to disaster.

~=Fafnir Flamebrewer=~