Eleasis 7, 1373 DR, Outside the Crystal Palace

We managed to get a little more information out of the confused elf. We are in a realm called Arania. Upon questioning him about magic, and specifically, other planes, I discovered that they know nothing of elemental magic, and stranger still— they don’t speak Common because there are no gnomes here! In fact, there are no humans, dwarves, or halflings as far as Elzen knew. The elf insisted that there is nothing beyond the mountains, rivers and forest either! As Roscoe and I translated back and forth, we learned of the last thing Elzen remembered: a strange traveler with red eyes came to the palace, and the queen grew ill and was supposed to be resting in her bedchamber. Upon trying to take him back through the dome, we discovered that he became inanimate as soon as he was passed through. Bryrgar agreed to stay outside the dome with him (and our stuff), giving Roscoe and I a chance to go in with Nosila— Roscoe wanted to look at the books in the study (we were assuming all were in Elven), and I was to look for an elven wizard Elzen called Haran. Elzen assured us that the randomly displayed rooms behind the hallway doors were a perfectly normal function of the castle. I cast an alarm spell where the elf and Bryrgar sat, in case some of those killer rabbits showed up.

I put on some of the clothes from the heap by the dome, so Roscoe would stop looking at me so oddly. You’d think he’d never seen a female before! We followed Nosila in, and she showed us how the doors worked— after a fashion. I would have loved to stay longer and figure out how this all was accomplished. For a while we kept “finding” the kitchen and an empty bedchamber, but eventually a study appeared and Roscoe and I ran in before Nosila could stop us. Luckily she held the door open so we didn’t find ourselves lost elsewhere in the palace.

There were lots of books and Roscoe was pulling several off the shelves. I had stopped to look at the three remaining sprites frozen in place on the shelves, when I thought I saw one of them moving slightly. Suddenly, we all realized that, as the sun set outside, the inside of the palace took on demonic features: the walls became pitch black streaked with blood-red lines, the skin on the sprites darkened to black, and their teeth and nails elongated. Then the hellish screeching started, first from the sprites, and then we could hear it from elsewhere in the palace. We ran! If I had picked up something other than Widget, I dropped it in my haste to get out of that palace, and I was able to keep up with Nosila and Roscoe (who managed to hold on to three tomes as he ran). The dome was gone, but apparently, the evil was not contained to the palace grounds. We found Bryrgar pulling his axe out of the forehead of the dead Elzen, who was almost unrecognizable with his blackened skin and mouth full of fangs.

There was a full moon overhead, providing some light, but we suddenly found small wounds appearing on us, caused by some unseen assailants. I cast the illusion of a sun overhead, hoping to see the creatures better, but they were completely invisible. The screech of one told us that the sprites we’d seen in the study had found us, and were out for blood! We began running, and swinging weapons around us and overhead, hoping to hit them by chance. Then Bryrgar decided to stand still so we could get away while he took on however many of the demonic pixies there were. We all ran back to him and Nosila actually hit one, then Roscoe impaled the other on an arrow. I threw dirt on each one just so we could see their outlines— though as they expired, their hideously twisted corpses became visible.

The attacks ceased with the demise of these two creatures, so we camped where we were. Bryrgar provided us with what healing he could. Thankfully no other transformed beasts bothered us.

We formulated a plan for sunrise. It went as I feared it would.

We stood at the barrier in the morning, with most of our equipment (sans the books from the study) on the “dome” side of the palace grounds. Roscoe decided to stand inside where the dome would be, with our equipment, though I wish he hadn’t. As the sun came up, the dome reappeared and the red and black streaks disappeared from the palace. Roscoe ceased moving. I jumped across and pushed him to my friends, who grabbed him as he reanimated. He will spend the day outside reading the elven books while Nosila, Bryrgar, Widget and I try to find a way out of this cursed demiplane.