22nd Day of the Fall, Year 862

If I hadn’t just gone through it all myself, I wouldn’t believe what I’m about to write. We must have had the luck of the spirits, the Creators, the Seven … whatever you want … on our side. And even though Zursula did escape in the end, given all that we’ve accomplished, I think we still did well. It will at least take her quite some time to gather that many followers again, and in the meantime, we can warn Niesula, the Rona Kor, and the residents of Atwood.

I want to write down what happened, however, so that someday I can look back through my journals, and remember what I did with my friends when I was young and crazy.

We prepared to descend down into the sacrificial pit, to go try to find some mandragora. Captain Harton would stay up above, with the wolves and Jonathan, and if anything happened up there, either he or Gray would tell Jonathan. We hoped that Jonathan would still be in range of Weasel to be able to tell him, as Captain Harton was in little shape to do anything but run and hide. Evan suggested that once we go below, we stay together, and on one side of the wall. If the gatherer came back by, he would use a spell to make us look like part of the wall.

With Toryx using Evan’s spider climbing boots (which Parvati rather reluctantly handed over to him), and the use of some rope and grappling hooks, we all descended into the cave below. I decided to give Weasel the Imperial Shout wand that I had. He had already used up one of his wands, and while my wand only had a couple charges left, it was better off in his hands. I, at least, can fight. Somewhat, anyway. Sometimes when I see Toryx with his axes and Parvati with her bow, I begin to wonder what good I do.

Since we had to walk through the water, I took off my backpack and balanced it on my head, out of the water. Some parts of the water were deep enough that I had to hang on to Evan’s shoulder, but the water was warm enough, at first, to feel rather pleasant. (It’s a pity we didn’t have the opportunity to truly take advantage of all that warm water, and take a bath.) I had checked before stepping into the water, and had only seen some small, darting fish. Unless they were carnivorous, we would only have to worry about the gatherer.

We must have made enough noise to alert the gatherer, or perhaps Parvati’s sun rod alerted it, because I heard it approaching us in the water. We all hugged the wall, and I almost cringed when I heard a voice calling out for help. There was someone in the cage on its back. Since we couldn’t risk alerting Zursula so soon of our presence, we did nothing. Evan’s spell made us seem like part of the wall, and the gatherer soon turned around and left. A few moments later, we heard a loud metallic screeching, and I heard some muttering in a language I hadn’t expected to hear - Draconic. Thinking of what we had been told, I don’t know why it came as such a surprise. Zursula was said to be half-dragon herself, after all. Anyway, the person was too far away for me to make out what it said.

A large, ancient structure, built into the cave, was up ahead. The stone gave off an eerie green glow, but it was enough to illuminate the area for us to see. The gatherer, having gotten rid of the prisoner in the cage, was lurking in a deep section of the water.

Weasel and Sharva used some clever illusions, and soon the Gatherer was scurrying off to chase after the “intruder.” It must not be all that smart, because an intruder whining about a wounded leg certainly couldn’t have moved that fast. It worked to get the gatherer out of our way, however, which is what we wanted.

We went up onto the front porch of this structure, and saw the source of the metallic screeching from earlier. An Imperial steel portcullis barred our way in. Lucill was small enough to be able to squeeze through the bars (although it took lots of wriggling contortions on his part), to scout around. Evan was able to see more than I could, and evidently spotted some of those reptilian guards close to Lucill. Lucill himself was a tiny huddle cowering in a corner of the portcullis. Evan sacrificed his last Invisibility spell and used it on Lucill. After that, it was only a few moments before Lucill found the mechanism to open the portcullis.

The opening of the portcullis was anything but subtle, and it alerted the guards. We rushed in, and then Lucill shut the portcullis again, so the gatherer couldn’t attack us from behind. It didn’t take long before there were a large number of bodies around us, and the rest of the guards were in retreat. During the fight, at least, I did learn that these creatures were immune to acid. (It was a mere cantrip I used on them, but still, good information to know.) They also spit an acidic substance that seemed to burn some of my companions. I easily avoided it, however, as did Lucill. Perhaps I should try to teach the others how to duck and weave things like that; it could save them from a lot of unnecessary pain if they could pick it up. Toryx probably can’t, given that he’s becoming a walking armory.

We followed them to a room that seemed to have been turned into a huge, jungle-like greenhouse. The plants were so thick, it was difficult to move, unless you were on one of the paths, and it was impossible to see through it very far. This, surely, was where the mandragora was grown.

Almost as soon as we entered the room, I felt a strange mental pressure, like someone was trying to get inside my thoughts. I had never felt anything like that before, and I wasn’t sure if this was due to a simple spell trying to detect my thoughts, or something worse, that I hadn’t learned about from Alina. Whatever it was, I tried my best to block it out, and I think I succeeded, because it went away. I tried to tell the others what I had just felt, but only got a couple strange looks and a comment from Evan to “plug my ears.”

I followed a bit behind Parvati, and fortunately, I was close enough to notice when she stood frozen in place while one of those reptilian creatures grabbed her and slung her over its shoulder. I shouted a warning to the others, and started after her, only to run into some of the same spider creatures Weasel, Parvati and I had encountered at the Imperial Bridge. There was one large spider-caster, and several smaller spiders. I think Weasel was trying to command them to back off through his medallion, but that didn’t work. I was so worried about Parvati being captured, that I just took off after them. I had to pass that big spider, though, and wasn’t able to dodge a nasty bite that felt like a very serious wound. Despite the fact that I felt seriously weakened by that wound, when Lucill sped right by me in hot pursuit of Parvati, I couldn’t let him face them alone. The spiders were right behind me, as I followed him.

I was in time to see Parvati finally shake off the effects of the spell and try to break free. I couldn’t see exactly what happened, but suddenly she was dumped into a slimy pool of water. There were several pools, and most of them held cages, with people in them. I didn’t see Parvati come up, and I was afraid that she had been knocked out and was underwater, or that maybe something in the water had grabbed her. Before I could do anything else, though, I saw Zursula (since she looked fairly humanoid, although with green scaly places, I figured it had to be her) step out, protected by a magical shield, and cast a magic missile at me. Several magic missiles, actually. I almost felt ready to drop, but fortunately Sharva, who was invisible, was right behind me, and healed me up a bit. It wasn’t enough to make me feel very much better, though, so I decided my best chance was the slime pool in front of me. I jumped in, and hid behind the cage. There were a couple reptilian creatures poking around with spears, trying to find me, but I managed to avoid those, and pop up from the water, attack, and then hide under the water again.

Not that that slimy mess could be called anything close to water. It did the trick, however.

It wasn’t something that I could ever imagine Toryx doing, but Vati always told me to find the fighting style that works best for me, and go with it. More and more, I am realizing that going toe-to-toe with a creature isn’t really my style. Oh, I can handle it for a few moments, perhaps, but I seem to be more suited to something a bit more … subtle. I really think I need to try to learn how Lucill darts in, attacks and runs away before he can be hit.

Anyway, once all the creatures around me were dead, thanks to help from Lucill and the others, I got out of the pool. Zursula had run off, so while Weasel and someone (can’t remember who it was) helped get the prisoners out of the cages, Parvati and I started gathering up mandragora. I had noticed that mandragora was all throughout the room, but there were some places where it was especially plentiful. There were actually lots of very exotic plants in there, and I started to gather samples, before I remembered that the mandragora was our first priority.

Evan and Toryx went off to scout around a bit, since Zursula would probably be back. When Evan shouted an alarm about several spider creatures running, I immediately headed to the entrance of the room. We had sent the former prisoners (all members of the Eagleton Militia) out towards the front of the structure. If the spider creatures found them, they would probably use them against us. I beat the spiders to the entrance, but soon was knocked to the ground under the weight of four spiders. I felt completely repulsed by those creatures, and was about to try to struggle free when I heard the telltale sound of Parvati knocking an arrow. Four arrows later, all the spiders were dead. After pushing the bodies off me, I got up and thanked her.

We ran back to the others, but the fight was practically over already. We debated about whether we should go after Zursula or stay and protect the prisoners and gather the mandragora, which, after all, had been our main purpose in coming down here. This is when Parvati really surprised me with her callousness. She said if the prisoners get caught, it is their problem. I know she didn’t want to even come here, but still, is she blind to the fact that as difficult as the past several days have been, we have managed to accomplish a lot of necessary things? Not just for the safety of Atwood, and the Rona Kor, but for Kingscrossing, and so many others. I know that I was having a difficult time myself for a while, coming to the realization that this IS our responsibility, but if I’ve remembered that fact, why can’t she? Perhaps she just needs more time to think things over. She hasn’t refused to accompany us so far, at least, but this still worries me. When we get back to Cutter’s Gap, I think I will go talk to Ava and Tia. Maybe they will know what the problem is, because this is not the friend that I’m used to being with.

We hadn’t quite come to the decision to pursue Zursula, so we started investigating some of the rooms. I think Toryx was still out prowling around, hoping for something to fight. Parvati had remained behind in the jungle room, to continue gathering mandragora. Evan and I ended up in a room with a rather crude statue of a dragon, mouth gaping wide open in a ferocious grin. Inside the mouth, embedded in the wall of the room itself, was a large Imperial Steel disk. There were four dials on this disk, like circles within circles, which I thought were astrological symbols, representing the four pilgrim stars. I told Evan this, and he studied the disk further. He thought it was a time-activated vault, although he said it didn’t function automatically anymore.

He looked at me, and I looked at him. I knew what we were both thinking, but I was trying to be somewhat sensible about the dangers. Temptation won out, although I did try to see if there were any traps on it. I couldn’t find any, so I gave Evan the go-ahead. He cast a Knock spell, and the vault opened. Before I could stop him, he climbed in, and was listing all the stuff he saw. The list ended in a rather loud shriek, as the dragon’s mouth began to close, crushing him. I quickly helped yank him out. He had been rather badly hurt, and naturally, the others came in just in time to hear him accuse me of needing more practice checking for traps.

Not that I don’t need more practice … I figure no matter how good you are at something, you still have to practice to keep those skills up, at least. But it isn’t like I did a bad job of it on purpose, either. But he WAS the one that got hurt. I suppose a life of study inside hasn’t given him a lot of ability to withstand things like that, while being raised by a dwarf has probably toughened me up a bit more.

Since Lucill was there, I asked him to take a closer look at the statue. After a moment, he found the mechanism to open the mouth in the eyes. Hindsight being perfect, I should have found a couple spears or staffs or something to do it, instead, I just used my hands to set off the glyphs hidden inside the eye sockets. Ok, maybe I need a lot more practice. Or I at least need to start thinking things through a bit more, before I wade on in. I don’t know why I haven’t been doing that. That lack of forethought made me fall through one of the floor pit traps later on. Pretty soon, everybody is going to think that I can only find traps by setting them off.

Oh well, we’ll see if I can refrain from commenting when one of them does something stupid. It’s bound to happen sooner or later.

Anyway, triggering the levers in the eyes worked. The mouth opened up again, and after a cautious pause, it didn’t look like it was going to close. Lucill crawled in and started tossing stuff out. He didn’t toss out everything, however. I saw him try to slip two rings into a pouch. I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm by it, but I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on him. It’s probably just his naturally curious nature, but I think our group conversation about fair distribution is going to happen soon. There were a number of items, which we will have to take the time to identify later. Evan did pick up a white ash wand, though; that he said was a wand of Cure Light Wounds. How he knew this, I don’t know. I’ll have to ask him about that, and also ask Toryx how he immediately knew so much about Father Janin’s staff. I never felt anything like that with the Imperial Wand of Shout. I wonder if Weasel has ever felt anything like that with a wand before.

While Toryx was scouting around in the jungle room, he discovered a section of the wall that was fake. It led to yet another section of this structure, and was probably the direction that Zursula had fled in earlier. After a short debate (thankfully), we decided to go after her. It’s probably just as well that Parvati wasn’t around when we decided this. She was still gathering mandragora, so Evan went to get her, and I gathered a few more plants myself while he did that.

Zursula had had enough time to prepare, of course. We had just barely entered the illusionary wall before we heard casting. A bunch of black tentacles erupted from the ground in front of us. I got grabbed by one when I tried to move away, and was surprised by the strength. It had a crushing grip that was already starting to make one of my legs go numb! Evan quickly killed it with a magic missile, and I was more careful after that.

Zursula had a few undead creatures by her, but Toryx and Evan called upon the Creators and completely destroyed them. She still had her spells, though, and released a fireball that seemed to stagger the others. Seeing that just reinforced my thought about teaching the others how to duck and weave.

With nobody else near her, we started to run forward. Zursula breathed out a cloud of green gas, but it didn’t stop us. I guess she was tapped out of spells to prevent us from getting her, because after giving us a little wave, she disappeared. That really upset Toryx, when she just vanished like that. Somehow I wasn’t surprised, though. All the major evil people we come up against seem to manage to slip away at the last moment. Someday, however, we will be able to do something about that.

Someday, too, I hope to be able to cast such spells myself. Alina told Weasel and I about them during one of our lessons. Until then, however, it will be my own two feet hauling my behind out of trouble.

With Zursula gone, we continued searching the place. There was a set of familiar-looking Imperial Steel doors, with an indentation right where an Imperial sigil necklace would go. Weasel’s obviously wasn’t the right one, so we looked to Evan for his Knock Key. At first he tried to deny that he had it, but he soon gave up, and let Lucill use it. Despite him telling Lucill he could only use it this once, I will be surprised if Evan gets it back without a struggle. I certainly don’t recall Lucill handing it back immediately once the door was open. With what was inside the room, however, I can certainly understand all thoughts like that disappearing.

We had found a treasury room. At first glance, we saw an amazingly huge pile of coins, two tables, a bookshelf, and three chests. One of the chests wasn’t really a chest, however. It was some strange creature that mimicked a chest. First it reached out and grabbed Lucill, and then when Toryx tried to attack it, it grabbed one of his axes, and then his arm. This creature was called Ivit, and Zursula had raised it, apparently to guard this treasure. With all the floor pit traps in the corridors around the room, she had also trapped it there. It soon became obvious that negotiating with the creature (it wanted some flesh to eat) wasn’t working, so Evan finished it off with a magic missile. After Lucill and Toryx finally got free, we started looking at the other chests.

One chest held Zursula’s spellbook. That, in itself, is almost as valuable as all those coins… at least for casters like Evan, Weasel and I. It actually looked like it might be an older, Imperial spellbook, but I wasn’t about to risk destroying the thing just to find out. The other chest held 40 jars of herbs, pollens, and plants, including belladonna and mandragora, as well as 18 jars of healing salve. We took everything from that chest, since it would be a shame to waste it all. There was lab equipment on the tables, and probably a couple hundred books on the bookshelves. And the coins! I have never seen that much money in one place before, and I doubt any of the others have, either. Evan and I rather reluctantly came to the conclusion that we couldn’t possibly take all those books up with us. We did take about three each … just so they weren’t all completely wasted down here.

All in all, we only spent about three hours underground. When we were ready to leave, we lured the gatherer towards the portcullis, and managed to kill it without leaving the relative safety of the building. Now, even though we have a ton of stuff we are carrying, we can return to the Rona Kor camp to inform Niesula of what happened, and then back to Atwood. Once the Rona Kor and the group from Kingscrossing arrive, I think we will finally be able to go there ourselves, and start to clear up this matter of the Freeman’s Tax.

Somehow, I don’t think it will be as simple a task as we’ve been thinking it will be. But hopefully these next few days in Atwood will be relatively peaceful, and we can at least have a break before all hell breaks loose once again.