033 And Then There Was One

After a moment, Artur came to. Confused at his friends' hostile poses toward him he reassured them that he was indeed himself.

However, when Horsa's protection from evil spell failed to affect the paladin, the rest of the party's suspicions reached fever pitch. With a shout of, "Kill him–it is not Artur" Horsa unleashed a maelstrom of attacks on the hapless paladin. As Colzo, Hell'en and Horsa set upon their friend Grand Silvertongue and Luther hung back ready for anything.

Unable to convince his friends of his identity, Artur fled through a hitherto unopened door. With some of his friends in murderous pursuit the paladin dashed to the north. Bursting out onto the rickety wooden walkway through a narrow gap in the cavern wall the paladin continued his flight. However, Colzo was too quick for him. A web–promptly set on fire–enmeshed and finally subdued the paladin.

The heroes were not quite ready, though, to murder their friend. Tying up the paladin, they were about to heal and interrogate him when Caiden arrived on the party's third (and final) rowboat. Horsa shouted for the young hero to stay away while Grand Silvertongue called him closer. Confused, Caiden rowed closer to the dock–with predictable consequences.

The water elemental surged forth from its hiding spot under the dock and in short order destroyed another of the party's boats. Luckily, by the time the rowboat was sinking Caiden had made it to the stone dock and got ashore. Again, Grand Silvertongue was left holding a short length of rope attached to a few splinters of wood.

With the band now fortified, but seemingly trapped, the heroes decided to explore a little bit more of the complex before dealing with the paladin.

Hell'en explored the decomposing body found in the small room to the east. Luther picked the lock of the chest below the bed, but forgot to search for traps--with predictable consequences. A poison needle pierced the young ranger's finger and soon he was writhing in agony. Hell'en administered powerful ointment to her injured friend before belatedly finding a key to the chest hanging from a thong around the decomposing corpses' neck.

Attention turned back to Artur. The party cautiously brought the paladin around to discover their worst fears were true. In his (now) horribly familiar voice "Artur" pronounced they would never escape from this area without his help. He could sense the precise location of the water elemental and in return for safe passage he would help them escape.

The party were having none of it, and in a barrage of attacks killed Artur–and then the brain that appeared near the paladin's corpse. Hoping that some aid could restore Artur to his former self Hell'en cast gentle repose on the corpse, and the party fell to discussing their next move.

Caiden was confident that given enough time he could repair one of the destroyed rowboats–handy given that six heroes and one corpse would be unlikely to fit in the one (damaged) rowboat remaining to the party...