Cauldron Journal
(Note, this is also posted to the Alishea home page.)
Notes by Brago
Arporp 33
Wow! What a day!
It all started off pretty normal, I guess, as normal as any day can be. I woke up in the comfort of my inn after a night of reveling and song-making wondering exactly where I would go after I had a wondrous breakfast. I decided that minor decisions such as that could wait until after more important ones were made and seen-through, such as bacon or sausage.
I gathered my few worldly possessions that I had acquired over several months of travel and I went downstairs to the bar and sat myself right at the counter to await service. As I waited for the innkeeper to show himself, I looked around the tavern to amuse myself and I saw several complimentary smiles and waves directed at myself. Naturally, I returned them all, happy to oblige a kind face that undoubtedly was smiling the night before during my musical extravaganza.
I heard a gruff voice behind me, so I quickly turned around to find myself face-to-face with the innkeeper. His voice quickly changed to one of servitude as he asked what I would like for breakfast. He quickly added that everything was on the house for me. I decided to have both bacon and sausage.
After my scrumptious meal of all the bacon, sausage, eggs, and potatoes that I could eat, I decided that I should stretch my limbs to keep the food from weighing me down until my joints stiffened. As I stood up, several members of the newly formed audience cheered for a song. Always happy to earn a few more coins at any time, I pulled my lute from my side and began to strum a ballad about some dragons and the knights who slew them. As I was reaching the climax of the tale, I noticed a weird light surrounding my body. I chose to ignore this, thinking maybe some mage decided to cast a spotlight on me to heighten the experience.
As I continued the tale, I came to the realization that the bar was no longer in front of me, but instead there were some new people in an old building. I would have continued to keep singing in hopes of payment, but unfortunately a very heavy dwarf decided to fall on top of me and knock the wind out in one giant puff of air.
I pulled myself to my feet to find out what on Alishea had happened to me and where were the loyal patrons of song. I noticed the old man of the group yelling at a short fellow with a topknot for apparently screwing things up again. Of course, this is understandable if you consider the fact that the little man looked like one from a race of creatures who apparently don?t realize that they are kleptomaniacs. I?ve heard my fair share of tales about these people. Thankfully, I haven?t had to experience dealing with one?yet.
Well, to make a long story short, the little guy, who introduced himself as Cirlyn the Colourful, screwed up a spell royally (apparently not for the first time) and transported away some of his party members and brought some random people from across Alishea in place of them. Needless to say, those of us who were just brought were a bit annoyed at that fact, especially me since I was about ready to earn some more money.
Apparently the group was adventuring through some old, decrepit temple for a lesser race in search of the gods-know-what, and they seemed to know the way out. So I decided to stick with them in hopes of getting out, and maybe finding a little extra gold on the side. Besides, I have a few tricks up my sleeve that could help out if need be.
They had already searched a large amount of the temple before I had teleported to their location, so they knew where they had to go next. As we moved on, I was informed that the temple?s owners could number in the thousands and that getting them angry with us would not be a smart thing to do.
We came to the door that they had not already been through and pondered on what to do next. The rogue of the group searched for traps, but could find nothing. They then opened the door and found another door down the hall. They checked that for traps too, but seeing none, opened it as well. That was the first big mistake.
Quicker than an elf rushing to save a weed from getting stepped on, a huge blast of lightning seared down the hallway as the door opened, zapping almost everyone except for myself, having strategically placed myself to the side of the door in case of some event like this happened. Needless to say, the rogue ran right back and shut the door closest to us in a jiffy. Everyone decided to regroup and think of what to do next, seeing as how there were several powerful spellcasters in the vicinity. They eventually all decided to just rush in and start hacking and shooting arrows, which was fine by me since I would be aiding them with my amazing voice and instrumentals.
As the rest of the party stormed into the room to slay our attackers, I started a riveting rendition of the newly written ballad, The Fallen Moon. It seemed to fit the situation, seeing as how we were fighting a bunch of wicked monsters with several of the party seeming to be a bit useless at times. Not me though?of course not me. If it wasn?t for me, who would sing the songs to get everyone?s adrenaline pumping? No one, that?s who.
Well, the battle seemed to be going pretty well for us with people summoning swarms of bugs, enlarging the bugs, and just a good deal of bow-shooting. Unfortunately, this all turned around after some devil-lady appeared out of nowhere and started plucking all of us full of arrows. I?ll admit it that I received a couple of the bloody things, and they hurt, too. So I decided I might as well use one of my handy healing spells to fix the irritations. But I screwed up. I don?t know what exactly I did, I might have accidentally mispronounced a syllable (even highly articulate people such as myself do that every once in a while), but whatever I did, it totally altered the intended effect. Instead of perking up and stopping the bleeding, the spell actually enlarged me to about 12? tall, nearly 4 times my normal height. And immediately after this happened, someone had to mention me being ?a giant halfling.? Ha-freaking-ha?
Well, the battle continued, mostly badly on our part. I, myself, got shot more by the devil, but that?s to be expected considering the fact that I?m a much bigger target. I noticed the dwarf try to lasso the flying demon, but it didn?t work quite so well. She just kept flying around the room, being chased by some of the aforementioned bugs.
The dwarf finally lassoed the devil and dragged her down to the ground, taking a bit of a spill himself. However, just as the devil came into reach of our arrows, she disappeared in the characteristic <bamf> of a teleport spell.