26 Highsun New friends made today; Burglekutt, a Gnome Wizard, Constance, a Human Blood Huntress, Tordak, a Dwarven Barbarian, Arnulf, a Trollkin Cleric to the faith of the temple we were travelling to, Sabrina, a Human Sorceress, and Kronk, a Leonnin Barbarian who has already assured me he was a Bugbear in an all-too-recent past life. We set out towards a temple to the south-west, where we'd find some evil that had corrupted the place, and I'd get to finish what my sister started. We set up camp after a long day of hiking, though I preferred the peace and quiet of uneventfulness to what faced us that night. Zombies, tall and frightening, and they brought horrid little yowling pets with them! One of them managed to nick Kronk and I think it's made him sick, another got Arnulf, though he'll likely be able to sleep it off. 27 Highsun Thankfully nothing to report for the day, even the night passed quietly. Kronk still looks sick, though, worse now than the day before. Whatever's in him is eating him from the inside, and while my magic can help him fight it, it's not going to cure him. I hope we can deal with this threat in time to have him cured. 28 Highsun We arrived, the entrance to the temple looking less like the courtyard of a temple to a Moon Goddess, and more like a mausoleum. Horrid smoke, the very same ochre fog that has been bothering the people of these lands, comes from a chimney in the centre, with signs of a tarry ooze all over the place. Before we could even enter, we were attacked by our own shadows. Thankfully, despite how resistant they were to most magic and physical attacks, Arnulf and I were able to use radiant damage to see them off magically while the rest beat them down over time. Constance seemed particularly effective. Within, we saw the first of hopefully many holy artefacts left behind by Kayassit's worship; a limpid pool that Arnulf encouraged us to pray at. He'd been here before, and said the pool was responsible for saving his life and opening his eyes to Kayassit. I believed him, and prayed that my fellows might be protected. Next, he directed us to bathe, and while Kronk shied away, the rest of us bathed together. It seemed to make a few of us a lot better, and I helped Tordak unknot his beard while his strength was restored in the pools. It was actually quite nice, all things considered. We agreed as one to sleep in this little sanctuary and get ourselves ready to go further. 29 Highsun Not an hour into the dungeon, and Arnulf woke the very beast he'd warned us off in the days leading up to this. A great, inky mass of slime-like flesh attacked us, supposedly a part of some greater and eviller being. To make it worse, while Tordak tried to move into another chamber to give us room to manoeuvre in the narrow corridor we'd been forced to face this thing in, he roused the attention of swarms of plagued rats, hungry for flesh as much as the bigger beast was. In the end, we won, but not without much moving about to get caught by this thing, and I think I may have been the only one to come out unscathed. I was forced to stay at the back and try and fire over the heads of half a dozen taller folk, what was I meant to do?? I must have spent most of these fights running between ankles to avoid getting slaughtered.
