Aleska's Allegiance: Alien Alignments

After my unsuccessful yet ultimately profitable pursuit of last night's fezed fakir, I returned to the gnome's place to find the others already gathered. Cloistered behind the door to his private quarters, the wizard continued his reticence despite all our summons, but such behavior is to be expected from someone of his profession. Exhausted and spent, the lot of us decided to get some much needed rest, and bedded down in the workshop.

The next morning we woke to find the wizard bright eyed and bushy tailed with a full breakfast all ready for us. That he did it all in the same room where we slept was a wizardly wonder in itself. Famished, we fell into the feast with fervor. Scarfing two sausages, I then reached for a delicious-smelling mushroom stew, but the second before it reached my lips, Madak batted it from my hands crying, "Treachery! Death cap mushrooms, or I'm a blushing maid in her bridal bed."

Having worked with the mushrooms myself, I know them quite well, and seeing the contents of the stew spilled out across the table, it was plain the half-orc spoke true. But why? Why would the gnome try now? With poison no less. The thoughts flashed through my mind as I raised my eyes the short distance to look into the wizard's face and see the glazed look of the ensorceled.

In an instant we sprang from our chairs as our former ally began casting defensive magic. Having fought so many wizards in the last few days, our group was beginning to gain an instinctive coordination: We spread out to lessen the effects of a far-too-frequent fireball and to make the most of our martial makeup. Madak moved in for a grapple while the other two and I prepared to pepper the provocateur with projectiles.

But as the half-orc's massive arms closed around the wizard, he suddenly winked out, leaving Madak grasping nothing but air. Finding his quarry escaped, Madak ripped the great axe from his back, and after a quick look around the room, his eyes fell on the double doors behind him. With a roar he charged the stout oaken barrier and reduced it to splinters in a massive crash of steel and sinew, revealing, in a smaller room, the errant Aleska.

No sooner had the doors come down and the wizard been revealed, than Droganas, our dutiful druid, let loose a moonbolt, grazing the gnome, who jumped aside and then disappeared. Prolth and I moved cautiously toward the door as the room around us was suddenly engulfed in flame. A quick dive for cover kept me from getting burned, and after the fireball dissipated, I saw the others had not been harmed either.

Invisibility has always been my weakness, but I've learned a few tricks over the years. Moving cautiously into the room, I cast Tremorsense on myself. Instantly I became aware of every vibration around me. Madak made great rumbles, and just opposite him, towards the far wall, I sensed the movement of the wizard. "He is 30 feet directly in front of the right door!" I called out to my companions. Prolth, already with bow in hand, wasted no time in firing two arrows into the space I had indicated. I felt, as well as heard, both thunk home into the gnome. He did not cry out, however, and I remembered the Stoneskin spell he had cast on himself.

Droganas, our dynamic druid, changed form into a massive devil tiger and moved towards the door. Madak, desperate to sink his axe into something, into anything alive and meaty, stared ahead of him in bewilderment. "Which portal doth it be which thou hath so vaguely alluded to-- be it that which stands to the right as we first entered this room, or is it that standing to the right as we would depart?" called out the enraged barbarian.

"As we entered!" I called out. And in the instant of that clarification the half orc launched himself forward, leaping clean over an intervening table, and slammed his axe down in the place the invisible wizard stood. Again, the wizard silently bore the injury despite the ferocity of Madak's attack.

The battle was escalating and I began to fear our struggle would end with great casualty to both ourselves and our erstwhile ally. Drow poison was my best chance to safely incapacitate the enchanted wizard and end the fight quickly. But it is so weak and prone to failure. Thinking quickly, I knocked first an arrow coated with black lotus, followed by one with drow poison. The first poison just might weaken the wizard enough for the second poison to do its work. I fired.

I felt both arrows sink in. The appearance of the wizard winked back into sight, but only to reveal him falling to the ground. Thinking my gamble had worked, I moved forward. The rest of the party moved in as well. We checked his pulse and found it weak. And then I realized my great error. Black lotus is very potent upon contact, but as it works its way through a victim's body, it continues to damage it, very often leading to failure of the vital organs.

Admitting my fault to the party, I advised we quickly heal him and find some help--after all, killing a member of the Wizard's Council in his own city would not bode well for our reputation. "Tie him up while I heal him." I said to the others.

Madak obliged by first stripping off his boots and socks and stuffing the latter into Aleska's mouth. He then bound his legs, but before he got to the arms, the satyr called out "Wait! Let's smash his hands so he can't cast anything!" and before I could stop him, his mace was out and he was sadistically swinging at the poor gnome's fingers. With a crunch the offending hand dissolved into a fleshy sack of meat and bone splinters.

Damage done, I healed the wizard with my wand. With a glare he came to, only to find himself gagged, bound, broken, and held fast by the steely thews of the half orc Madak.
"He is stabilized for now, but I am afraid of what the poison in his system still may do. We need to get him to the priest. It will probably cause a scene to carry him through the streets. Druid, you know the priest well--How quickly can you get to the temple?"

"It will take about 15 minutes," Donzabel, our daring druid, seemed to reply through his feline countenance, "or even faster if I stay in this dire tiger shape." And with a last, silent yet meaningful glance that seemed to say " I will get the priest and bring him back as soon as I can," the horse-sized, demonic-looking tiger left the workshop to go charging down the main streets of the city to be seen by all of the busy merchants preparing for the day, and to eventually meet with the priest, Father Mulcten, and carry him back in the form of a horse.

Meanwhile, the poison took its toll on the small, frail, gnomish body, and the glare went instantaneously from blazing to dead.
"Shit." I thought, less with remorse than with foolishness. "How the fuck am I going to explain this one?"

Twenty minutes later, Donzabel, our dashing druid, returned with the priest and his butt-boy.

"He's been poisoned!! Who would dare do this to our Aleska?!" Father Mulcten shouted upon entering the room to find his friend already perished. "Who would dare bind and mutilate a member of our own wizard's council?!' The priest bore his gaze down over us with the force of a hurricane. "You dare..."

"I'm sorry good priest, I am afraid that the wizard's death is ultimately my fault. But it is not as it seems. He was possessed by some unknown power." I began to explain.

"He tried to poison us! He cooked us a meal full of poison mushrooms, and it was only due to our quick senses that we didn't eat it!" Drogonas, our determined druid, testified.

"It is true. He first tried to poison us, and as we prepared to defend ourselves, he called down a fireball upon us." I continued.

"It is true I see the char and sulfur left from such a spell, but Aleska would never attack those he calls allies. It will be very difficult for me to believe you. How can you assure me this is as you say?" spoke Father Mulcten.

I am a terrible liar, which is a great flaw in someone of my profession. But I am what I am, and no excuse would save us. "I will submit to whatever interrogation would use, but I tell you truth." I said.

"Well then. It just so happens that I have a spell that will reveal all. " spoke the priest as he moved towards the center of the room. And then, with words most likely often heard by his young practitioners, he invited "If you will all be so good as to come upon me."

"Gladly" I replied as I moved close.
"This spell is called 'Zone of Truth." he explained, waving his hands in a spell. I felt an invisible weight settle over me. Again, he questioned us. Again we answered. And this time, he believed us.

"Who would do this? Who would be capable of doing this?" Father Mulcten puzzled.
"We have been attacked by both Ak'Chazar and Tatian, two evil sorcerers. " I answered. "We think it was one of them. In fact--Father, will you excuse me for a moment. I would like to search the rooms for evidence of intruders. "

Prolth and I went back into the workshop where we found definite evidence the rakshasas had indeed been in the workshop.

Assured of our innocence, Father Mulcten, after wrangling out a promise of 10000 gold from Droganas, our derelict druid, took Aleska's body to the temple to be resurrected. Left to ourselves, now penniless and wondering over our next move, our thoughts returned to the fezed fakir, and we decided to scry upon him.

Droganas, our divining druid, with the help of a masterfully illustrated picture drawn by Prolth, managed to see him flying a carpet over a forest resembling the distant lost hills...