Does she want me dead?

After quietly finding my way through town to find my comrades, I alerted them of the fact ‘we have to go NOW!!’ In which the party took to its normal course of action, yup, arguing. After I told them for the twentieth time that odds are there are assassins out to kill us as we speak, the group finally decided to move. Although, at some level it is obvious they decided to move on for other reasons, our continued breathing not being one of them.

Drusilia asked me for the sword of Pelor, again in hopes of giving it to the next thing with feathers she finds. After seeing the change in party opinion on the sword I quickly handed it over. Although I remember something about telling her she would have to pay me for the sword as she had once promised. It is in that moment she decided to kill me. All I did was tried to seek a little profit in this cruel world, and now it may kill me.

As the party left the bar on way to the temple of Pelor, to attempt the teleport from a safe location, I let the party go ahead of me. I have learned the painful way, not to tell them to let me sneak around for they see that as a call to follow me close. So, as we walk through the evening air I see a cloaked figure dart out from an alley between me and the group. “RUN” I shout, because when an assassin is about to stab your friends in the back, what else is there to yell? Well, this confused them. I truly believe Fafnir was the only one with the brains to listen.

As I lean to the left to avoid a poisoned arrow from my new friend in a dark cloak, I yelled again for them to run. It is at this time I see the look in the eyes of a couple of them, the look that says, ‘I know nothing of fighting in shadows or of dealing with a skilled night stalker, but what the *^@# I will try to stay and fight instead of listening to the only person who has a clue what we are up against.’ Let me tell you that is a scary look to see. I have seen it before, just to see close friends slaughtered without a chance.

I concluded the only chance they had is for me to keep in the open and be the killer’s biggest threat. So I continued to yell for them to leave and started launching arrows at the assassin who had now taken partial cover behind some boxes. Do you remember what I had said about Drusilia wanting me dead? Well as I continued to try to save my friends, she decides to cast a light spell. Besides affecting my vision for a second, all this spell did was cast me in a bright light for the assassin to sink a poisoned arrow deep into my chest.

Ghelt pushed Drusilia away and told her and Aramil (who was watching the show) to run for it and then she tried to join me as the prowler and I continued to exchange arrows. Suddenly I was hit again, not for much damage, but the poison found a vein and knocked me to the dirty street gasping for air.

I think Ghelt sent the dog into the alley to get the killer, I don’t recall the next few moments well, but I do remember regaining consciousness while Ghelt carried me to the temple. To tell you the truth she saved my life, not for a grand cause or for her own deeds, I think she actually would have died with me instead of letting me die alone. I can never forget this, in all my life only Aramil had shown that kind of friendship.

Anyway, Drusilia and Ghelt had to team up to get my health back to where I could travel. To tell you another truth, I think the arrows I took (not the poison) did less damage to me than the ride on Ghelt’s shoulders. I think my left side will carry a scar from her armor.

Off we go, Fafnir again takes us exactly where we needed to be. That little fellow is getting to be real handy. After camping for the night in a secured shelter, we started to explore the ruins of Redcastle. To my dismay the party won’t let me cut down the bodies of the prior owners, who are still hanging above the castle walls as a reminder to all of the orcs’ power in this area. In one tower we find the strangest things, I had heard stories of them for years, but never would I have imagined running into a phase spider.

After a short but violent battle I decided to check out the tower the spiders came from, no need to get attacked from behind two days in a row. Suddenly Drusilia is right behind me. How can I be expected to check for dangers with a cleric following my every footstep? Then I remembered, she wants me dead. Ok, as we explore the tower we run into a stair case that is near collapse, certainly she wont follow me up those, so I climb the stairs to see the next level. To my dismay, she has purchased slippers that let her climb the walls right next to me. As I try to find a limit to how far she will follow me, I forget what I am concentrating on, put my foot in a bad spot and begin to fall. No problem, I am trained in how to do this, right? Nope, it is then that my new angel of death tries to grab me to catch me. Now she is by no means a frail woman, but I weigh nearly twice what she does. Now I and she begin to fall, not with skill or grace mind you, but with the reckless abandon one would expect an ogre to eat a finely prepared meal.

As we hit the floor, I hear the floor giving way, I grab for a strong spot and hold on, this is when she decides to grab me again, not a secure spot, but me. I manage to easily hold onto the board with both of our weights, but the board was not so strong, and we fell again, hit another floor and fall through it. It seems that even though I have a nice piece of the floor above still in my hands, our fall continues. Head first into the stone floor I go. A bit dazed, the party pulls us out of the rubble. We will need the help of the entire pantheon, now that we have made enough noise to attract every orc for 10 miles. This may not end well.

It seems that Aramil and I may not get the chance to get revenge on the fool that sent us to the town of the dead. It will take all my skills to convince them to go north if we survive this encounter.