Maura's spirit dart was a lot darker than last time... interesting. We get downstairs, and agree to get *out of here*. Steven is suddenly around the corner... One of the nethermancers clears it's throat very loudly. There is a very loud, clear voice from one of the robed people. Steven shouted "hello" and Tzeika said something in T'skrang. "We don't expect to be returning until we solve some of the, er, problems that we've created. (Tzeika asked to talk to them) "We don't think that's a very good idea *at all*. We're going to go away very very fast now" They walk out, with their 200 undead. Tzeika and Maura want to investigate the tower, I really think we ought to leave, but that's not terribly heroic. We decide to wait to do that until the door is free, so we have an "available path for a retrograde maneuver" in Steven's words. Tristian and I went to tie a rope around the base of the fireglobe. We all go over to the N-tower. Tzeika pulls on the door, then I try, then Donk tries. It rattles a bunch, but nothing else. "I'm nbot going anywhere till we wake the sleepers"--Tzeika Steven wrote "Warning: potential horror here. Use caution." over both doors, and we went to the "The T'skrang Nethermancers summoned a HORROR. This is, potentially, it's lair" (showed to Maura) I don't know how she knows this, but she's confirming something I thought. Tzeika managed to get a T'skrang out of the sleepyroom, and the person started to wake. Her eyelids opened, and there were no eyes behind. She coughed and Tristain hit her, to try to put her out of her misery. It caved in her skull, but she still seemed to be dying *slowly* I gestured to Tristain that he should throw her back in, he does and passes out. Donk pulled him out, and soon he recovered and woke. Steven insisted that we bring the gunpowder in, put it in the Rec Room. Tzeika and Donk got ready to free the fire elemental, and the rest of us headed out to out base camp to wait for the fireproof people. **Ready? **Here goes nothing. One. Two. From outside, there is AN EARTH SHATTERING KABOOM. The top of the caer shell blows off, and we see Tzeika and Donk running out. The elemental seems to be going straight up. There is silence for a moment, and then another large CRACK that sounds like what we heard after the spectral dancer died. There is a reddish glint from the Nethermancers' tower. Maura turns to me and lectures me on my three choices: "Okay E'leia, we're going to talk about overkill." 1) never touch that again and stay an Elementalist 2) Become a Nethermancer and learn why not to touch that 3) Have Maura kill my body when I give my mind to the horror. "She was casting using a method usually reserved for use by high-level Nethermancers" I reassured her that I would *not* be touching it anymore, and suggested that maybe the two of us should spend a couple weeks without any people who aren't our party. Steven suggests that we go back to the abandoned village we saw after the wizard's tower, and so we do. One of the books Tzeika and K'shrik found looks like the one from the dream that La'leia read that caused all the problems. We spent a week studying, doing Karma rituals, etc. Tristain tells us that the two T'skrang broadswords are mundane but very fine. Another week passes, and I have 1 pt of taint. Maura, apparently, has more since her robes still have lines on them. Suddenly there are 300 people in fur coats outside with bagpipes. I try to play my flute and *really* fail. Once they got to us, we tried communicating with them. They only kinda speak dwarven, but they asked to camp here. We indicated that they could, but the barn was ours. That night, they threw a party with lots of alcohol. Bunches of them hit on me, and Thwak was trying to keep them off me. I tried to get one of them to write for me, and really failed. I tried to get Thwak to help, but he's drunk. I try to get Tzeika to help, but that doesn't work either. I give up and go in to hang out with Maura. In the morning, the shaman is going around dumping things on people. I try to talk to the shaman, and he called me a child. Thwak came in and shouted at me, and I tried to just walk out, but Tzeika stopped and caught me. She insisted that I stay, and Steven insisted that I stay at least until the people are gone. I walked out, and woke up in the barn on a pile of straw. Thwak had carried me back in--apparently I tried to walk through the shaman's magic field, and got knocked unconsious. K'shrik went to go through the wall, and disappeared in a blue bubble. I curled up in a corner and cried, writing first "I'm stuck here forever. You don't understand" to Thwak and Tzeika. *a voice in the back of my head said "Go ahead. Lie to them."* I realized that I am, in fact, still tainted, though in a different way. "You don't want me corrupting you. I'm darkened" (to thwak) I tried to help Thwak dig a hole, but the "wall" goes through the ground, too. I talked with Thwak about it, and tried to get him to explain why he won't just leave... "You can just leave... I screwed up. At least twice. You all shouldn't suffer for my mistakes. I can't allow that. If I were dead, would you have to stay here? Even if you had nothing to do with it?" *especially then* "I was tainted, and am still (and probably always will be) marked." We talked about plans. Donk decided to go after the human shaman, to try and convince him to come back. I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't just leave me, Maura and Gilad there. Maura asked if anyone could teach her something to do sitting down. I offered to teach her flute, or calligraphy, or cloak maneuvers, but she said that it wouldn't be worth it.
***I am no longer a horror -Donk*** Donk, after the leader asked "Do you claim the title of shaman?" said "yes" and the leader (a little old woman) said "Then I will no longer defile myself by speaking with you!" and turned away. The shaman said something along the lines of "I had no idea. We will fight in the manner ordained by ***the Passions in the beginning of time. I will return when the moon is at the ***top of the sky" When the shaman returned (dresses in a moose), he said "All true shaman know the manner of ancient intertribal conflict resolution" And you are a true shaman? "You better believe it." Donk hit him, and the shaman, pulling his punches said "make this look good." Donk played along and let himself get "beaten". The shaman claimed it'd wear off by morning.
I managed to walk through the "barrier", but I burned off my taint We discovered that there was a ring of stones around the village which Steven says is a physical spell matrix. I try to help Tzeika find some herbs, but they are pretty far. After a week, we leave a message for K'shrik, and leave for Camrish. When we get back to Camrish, the snow is melting, and there is a cavalry troop drilling outside the city. In mid-morning, we approach the gates of the city, where there are two orks with pikes and whistles. Maura sneezed, and the "guardians" dived for cover. Thwak started baiting the orks to armwrestle with them, challenging their honor. They blew the whistle, and the cavalrymen came over. They recognised Steven and the rest of us, and made fun of the guards for bothering us. It looks like the orks have been working miracles to get the city rebuilt, and all the people walking around seem to have pouches tied to their belts. People pull things out of there in open-air markets and buy things--weird. We were pointed in the direction of the council building (the place that had the maps) and the tube system is functioning. A week passes, and as we are going past the wizard's tower, there are planets going around it.