Well, we began to open doors in the castle... again. I was looking for a door with a keyhole to appear across the room or down a hallway. I noticed that Bryrgar was removing doors from their hinges... hmmm. We all began to do so (and we also counted any elves we came across, in case the attacker tried to fool us as he had in the library). Sprocket’s rat sniffed away, searching for the attacker as well.

Finally, I found a door with a lock and called to the others. Sure enough, the key fit and we were in Haran’s laboratory. Sprocket quickly found the cabinet described and got the anti-invisibility stuff... and then she and Bryrgar decided to ransack the lab for anything else that might be useful. I thought this a bit wrong, and kept by the door, listening for trouble.

Trouble came from another source, unfortunately. We hadn’t been watching the time! As the walls began to darken and the bloodred streaks appear, my first response was to yank the key out of the door and close us all inside the lab. We soon realized that being trapped inside at daybreak would be worse, and began to pull the door open until we found the entrance hall (lucky for us we did not open it to an occupied room).

Bryrgar did check down one of the doors-off-hinges pathways, following the sound of screams until he saw the throne room’s occupants tearing each other apart. We all then went outside. To my surprise, the sick queen still slept on peacefully, and she had not changed at all! Sadly, Haran and Roscoe had changed, and they had torn each other apart, too.

On a half-formed hope, I pulled their bodies (and the body of Elzan) inside the barrier to wait for morning. Sprocket cast something over her loot from the lab, and Bryrgar tried casting something over the queen, to no avail. Touching her with the bishop’s wand didn’t help, nor did giving her his remove curse potion. Poor lady! Realizing the screams from the castle were dying down, we decided to make another search for the invisible attacker - before he came out here and got us again.

We found two “elves” in the hallway to the throne room, but after killing them, we found that the rest had torn each other apart like Roscoe and Haran. We worked our way to the library, at which point, Sprocket’s rat smelled trouble. Sprocket chucked a cloud of magical dust into the air, which clung to the outline of a humanoid - with bat wings! We all attacked. After a short battle and some lucky shots, we managed to kill the creature. Not only did it have red eyes... it had the missing page to the book of curses. Thank Ubtao! We retired to the outside of the barrier, and waited for morning.

Sprocket studied like mad, telling us that she’d need some more ingredients from the well-searched laboratory, but we decided to wait for daylight. Morning came, and the barrier sprang up... both elves disappeared, and Roscoe was suddenly standing, whole, in the same spot as the previous day! Whew! We ran inside (oops, all the doors were back in place, too), and dragged Haran out into the morning sun.

It turned out that he had no memory of the previous day at all. While Sprocket explained for the third time just who we were and why we were there (plus why she had stuff from his lab and books from the library), I got Roscoe and pushed his head through the barrier. Sure enough, he had no memory of anything since he’d first been frozen by the curse, too. So, I tied his legs into another knot and pushed him all the way through. He untangled himself and ran off shouting that he hated us, and it was just as funny the second time around. Oops... Haran just as worried-looking. I was going to curb those impulses, wasn’t I???

Together, Haran and Sprocket performed the ritual, one on each side of the barrier. There was a blinding flash of light and we were thrown to the ground! When I opened my eyes, everything was in darkness. I quickly reached for a torch and got it lit, startled to find ourselves in a tomb! Alas, it was not so easy - I’d have loved to find ourselves in the lich’s tomb, and quickly slapped the bishop’s rod into place. Still, this place was beautiful, with statues of elven warriors in the corners and a relief of what looked like the elven queen on the lid of the sarcophagus.

Mystified, we checked each other and our gear. Everything from that strange realm had disappeared, except for what we’d taken off the red-eyed creature’s body. Seeing a set of steps, we headed up, and slowly opened the door at the top. All I could see and hear was forest, so we finally stepped outside. Sprocket stared at the ancient tomb we’d just left. If I understand her, we somehow got into a loop of time and freed those elves, even if it was thousands of years ago. This forest is indeed a strange place!

Roscoe climbed a tree, and eventually returned to tell us that he thinks we’re back where we started, but months have passed. We’ll head out west in the morning again, and hope that there’s something left of the town we tried to protect.

I wonder if Charzth has been looking for me?

Posted by Kate on December 19, 2004, 08:19 | Nosila’s Journal