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Baer 6th, 4288: 67 Days in the mortal realm
I suppose there is little comfort to take in at the end of this day... Another town destroyed... well mostly... I know tomorrow I’ll go back to Hommlet to see if I can salvage any of my wealth, while donating almost all of it to the town to rebuild.
So how did we manage to destroy Hommlet too? Well, it wasn’t quite the same way we messed Podunk up. However a deity was involved. Y’dey, a Cleric, was definitely involved in something sinister. She was trying to release Eryth (the female version of Erythnul) from her prison in the evil temple.
However, before I go head strong into that, there was another matter we dealt with just before Y'dey. Raæin still was missing from the stables. Cortanna and I went out to check on our equestrian friends and found a crowd of disgruntled folk. The reason for the discord was due to the dead horses and bodies of people in there. Granted, Brier wasn’t there, but I suspected this was her doing, being a nightmare and all. We asked what was going on, trying to be honestly concerned. The most anyone knew was it had to have been some kind of attack, seemingly by a beast.
We quickly made our leave and went back in to report to everyone about what had happened. Rekka, whom I assume returned during the night, was quite miffed about her horses being killed. Cortanna suspected Raæin was dead considering his absence still from the stables and assuming Brier truly had something to do with it. I reminded her that his barrier would prevent her from getting close to him. Isaac then whipped out the Maurder's map to see if Raæin even showed up. Sure enough he was in the woods, near a river, which I thought was quite odd.
I quickly took off to find what Raæin was up to, the rest of the party on my tail. When we got to Raæin I could see him laying down next to the river, not moving. I rushed to him and saw hoof marks all over him. I whipped out my belt of healing and was able to heal Raæin some to bring him about. Tears were in my eyes because I felt like I neglected him. I should have gone looking for him immediately! How fortunate he was still alive!
“Raæin, what happened?” I asked cautiously, unsure if Raæin would hold me accountable for what clearly looked like Briers marks all over him. The Unicorn grunted a little as he prepared to tell me what had transpired.
“Brier asked me to make some water for her. She left her stall so I could go in and make it for her. However, I suspect she knew the water wasn’t quite right. See, as I was creating it, I could see her reflection right as she knocked a trough of water on me. I then could feel her attacking me and... now I’m here?” Raæin said, seeming perplexed by where he was.
The anger in me and the guilt I felt for not having heeded Raæin’s distaste for Brier made me want to punch something! I balled my fists and looked to Cortanna.
“Cortanna,” I said curtly, “I’m not mad at you. But if I ever see Brier again, she's dead!” I declared. I stroked Raæin’s head, apologizing to him for being a fool.
“What did she do?” Cortanna asked accusingly, like I had judged wrong.
“Do you not see the marks all over him!? Did you not just hear what Raæin said!?" I had forgotten Raæin and I were speaking Sylvan, "Sorry," I muttered," Apparently your ‘horse’ dumped the cursed water all over him and proceeded to beat the crap out of him!” I stated. I continued to fret over Raæin while the rest quietly watched. Soon there was a rustle in the bushes behind us. A guard from town, who was at the stables, followed us. He asked what was wrong with the Unicorn and we attempted to give a truthful story that didn’t tie us back to the stables incident. The guard didn’t seem to by the feeble story of ‘whatever happened in the stable, my Unicorn was able to get away.' He informed us we ought to stick to what it was we were asked to do and then probably head out of town. I felt a bit miffed at the guard for judging us so quickly. It wasn’t like we sicked Brier on all those beasts.
Gideon healed Raæin to full health before we all gathered back in town to execute Isaac’s plan. We gathered all of Hommlet's town Elders and went to the jail. Isaac stood in the jail cell while the rest of the us stood outside it ready to strike once Isaac wished Y'dey there. The Hellbred then made the wish to which it was punctuated by a shrill scream saying, “NOOO!!” An explosion followed the scream to which I remember being flung back and against the hard ground. The memory is haunting. The building laid in ruin around us. Isaac, Jessica and Burne were dead. With all the carnage, I could see Hubert laying near Isaac’s body. I quickly rushed over to him, my ears ringing with the scream of Y’dey.
“Hubert!” I said frantically, “I wish Isaac never made the wish he just wished!” Suddenly Hubert disappeared from my hand and the world around me shifted. I blinked my eyes and suddenly could hear Isaac wishing again.
“Stop!” I yelled, almost on the verge of tears from the horror I saw moments before. Every eye was on me and with fear pumping through me I barely was able to sputter out how he, Burne and Jessica had died as a result of the wish. Isaac asked Hubert how many wishes he had and was informed he had 2 left. Isaac then sheathed Hubert, clearly disappointed. The party and I took off for Nulb to take care of Y’dey and the temple the 'hard' way.
As we approached Nulb, Soap appeared on the map. We made our way toward him. Rekka, whom had a new set of eyes now (probably why she was gone all night long), told us that she could see a Cleric was tied up to a stake, Soap preparing a fire. We quickly intercepted the attempt Soap was making to burn the Cleric. Gideon and I attacked, I hitting Soap with the handle of my weapon to knock him out. Soap tried to attack back, but Gideon hit him squarely to which he finally went down. He was quite gory but alive. I wanted to revive him enough to get answers about what he was doing, but Gideon finished him off saying it was obvious what his evil intentions were. Everyone else didn’t seem to care, which bothered me.
We untied the Cleric and he was a blubbering mess. He sputtered about how he thought that party he was with were his friends and that he might have been able to have been a good influence on them.
Isaac asked where the others had gone off to and the Cleric motioned to the fire. It was enchanted to conceal the entrance of the temple. Isaac then sent the Cleric off on a Rhinoceros and summoned a peculiar chest. Was animated and had characteristics of a dog. Isaac asked it for gloves of disintegration. The luggage coughed up some gloves to which Isaac placed them on. A green light shot out the tip of his gloved finger, making the fire disappear and revealing the entrance to the temple. As we head down, Isaac makes a comment that if we wanted anything, if we asked for it, chances were the luggage had it.
The temple had 3 levels to it. The first 2 levels had three rooms each. Each room had an elemental theme of some sort. The first room had a dead Earth Elemental, while the second had memfits all entranced by a glowing orb and the third room was full of water. I and Raæin transformed into Mermaids (Rekka had given the Unicorn a circlet like mine since she had promised Brier one and she’s no where to be found). We didn't get too far down before we were attacked by a giant octopus. It followed us back to the top, Isaac getting grappled by it. No sooner had he disappeared under the water, the octopus was then thrusted out of the water and into the stone ceiling above. It's bloody bits fell back into the pool of water.
The Elders had mentioned that each room held a stone that was needed to destroy the temple. So far, each room held no stone. Our only clue was the empty crevice that indicated some kind of rock or ruin had been taken.
We went off into another room after the pool was thoroughly explored for the stone we needed. The new room was completely on fire. The luggage had gloves that can keep Isaac safe from the fire (and every other element for that matter. So he and Raæin were the only ones who could go into the fire room. While in there imps appeared. After dealing with the imps, Isaac and Raæin came back from around a corner. Isaac informed us that there was a dragon but he had managed to get rid of it on his own. I shook my head. The winnings he had aquired were clearly to his advantage.
Anyways soon we encountered an air room, an electric room, and an acid room. The electric room was interesting enough. Just as Isaac was about to kick down the door Rekka broke into hysterics. She started yelling at him to stop. Isaac asked why and she explained that everyone except her and Cortanna died at the hands of Iron Golems. She mentioned how the whole room was electrified. Apparently I had touched the floor and nearly died right then and there from the electric shock. Isaac had then rusted all the metal surfaces. The electrcity disappeared, but the room flooded with Iron Golems. Isaac checked with Hubert and sure enough he was down to 1 wish. I smiled thinking about earlier. For a moment everyone had thought it farfetched when I said some of them had died in the explosion from Isaac’s wish.
We finished clearing the final rooms, collecting 3 stones in the process. Isaac had also gained the previous 4 stones, that we noticed missing in the other rooms, from his encounter with the dragon. With the 7 stones, we continued down to the lowest level of the temple. It was very dark. Even my eyes couldn't see what was before us.
“Y’dey, explain yourself,” Isaac called out.
“Hmm? You’re not my slave,” a feminine voice answered. I casted lights in the room so we could see. There was no one there... I then remembered the water from Hommlet and figured my invisible sight was currently under the influence of the water.
Isaac suddenly attacked, hitting something. A few moments later a woman, whom I could only assume at the time was Y’dey, appeared. Quickly all of us closed in on her and attacked. I let off two spells with a single of my halberd which brought Y’dey to her knees. Isaac then paralyzed her and placed the collar of command around her neck. He then structs her to not attack or cast spells upon us. She remained, glowering at Isaac.
“Tells us what you’re doing here or else!” Isaac demanded. Y’dey continued to glare at him. She then pursed her lips and let out an exasperated sigh.
“I was trying to unlock this temple to appease my Goddess,” she confessed.
“Who’s your Goddess?” I asked. She looked at me and remained silent.
“Look Y’dey, either you talk or I kill you,” Isaac said. Y’dey continued to hold her tongue. Isaac grabbed Hubert and lifted the enormous sword above his head. Just as he began to swing forward Y’dey broke.
“Stop stop STOP!!” she hollered, shielding her head. She let out an exasperated sigh, “Her name is Eryth.”
“Eryth? Like short for Erythnul?” I asked.
“No,” Y’dey responded, “Erythnul was bi-gendered. He split and I was trying to free the female side of it.”
“Why not serve Erythnul? He’s not contained,” I went on. Y’dey scoffed at me.
“Erythnul is the god of hate, envy, and slaughter. Eryth is the goddess of jealousy, beauty, and vengeance and killing people for those things,” she added with a smile. Her face then darkened again as she looked to Isaac, “Please let me release her!”
“You will not release her,” Isaac commanded to Y’dey’s obvious contempt, “However, I would like to know if you have any followers.”
“Yes,” Y’dey says through pursed lips.
“How many are in Hommlet?” Cortanna blurted out.
“12.”
“Can you communicate with them?” Isaac asked.
“Yes.”
“Stop.”
“I can’t stop what I haven't started considering I’m not allowed to cast spells,” Y’dey snidely remarked.
“Oh good,” Isaac said, “Now tell us, who all in town are involved.”
Y’dey was clearly livid. She reluctantly disclosed with us all those involved. The grocers, some beggars, the wheel wright family, and a few others. Once everyone’s questions were answered, Isaac asked Rekka to turn Y’dey to stone, figuring she could at least be preserved for further questioning. He then command his trunk to eat her. I knew he meant to have the trunk just store her... but the trunk lived to the meaning of the word and ate the stone form of Y’dey. Perhaps if we need info from her, we'll piece her back together.
We then proceeded to destroy the symbols. Gideon had acquired some rings from the Cleric at St. Cuthbert who presented this task to him. They had the same kind of symbols as the stones we collected. When matched with the correct symbol, the two melded together and crumpled into nothingness. After destroying all the symbols the temple begins to crumble under our feet. We start to run but the temple was crumbling faster than we could move. Isaac told us to grab him. With a hand barely touching one of his horns, he wished us back to Hommlet’s town square. We stood stunned for a moment as we foudn ourselves back in Hommlett. The wind around us was headed in the direction of Nulb... and it was getting stronger. Jaroo came running over to us.
“What did you do?” He asked.
“We destroyed the temple,” we admitted. He looked in the direction of Nulb. With an exasperated look he took off. We too began to head off after squabbling on who was going where and how. Raæin took off with Isaac, Gideon, and Cortanna toward the ruins while Jessica and I got a ride with Rekka in her dragon form. I did feel somewhat abandoned when Raæin rushed off without me.
Rekka was flying fine for a while, but the wind got so strong she had to go back to the ground and use her claws to dig in and keep put. The wind continued to pick up and soon Rekka was losing her grip on the ground. Her claws began to carve deep crevasses into the earth as we were pulled back toward Hommlet. Just as it seemed the wind would take us back to the depths of the temple, it stopped. Rekka didn’t wait around, just in case the wind picked up again, and took us to the ruins.
It took the rest of the day for us to get there. Once we landed, Rekka turned back into herself and was livid with Isaac. I’m sure she would have ranted and raved at him, but she ended up collapsing in an exhausted heap. I was grateful for the care she took in keeping me safe, so I set up my tent and made her comfortable, everyone else following suit since it was getting late.
Like I said, little to take comfort in. Hommlet was mostly destroyed and it just kills me that another awful end to a good cause happened in our wake. I know one thing, tomorrow I must go back and collect what I can of my wealth while donating most of it to the town for the destruction we caused. Maybe even help rebuild if there's time that can be allotted.
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