Back to the Darkness

This has certainly been one of the more harrowing ordeals of my life, and it seems as though it will change things quite a bit. I guess I should start from the begining. I was just wondering around the forrest when I noticed Angel was dragging some poor guy to her house to kill. I arrived too late to save him, but Angel did come out and sic a pack of ghoul hounds against me. Normal animals I could have stopped, but these were driven mad by the vampiric curse and no longer natural.

I fought off the back of them by magic and by blade, but when it was over I was bleeding from my thigh, one of my arms, and my other wrist, so that all my limbs save a leg were almost totally disabled by the jaws of the wolves, and one of them stood over me yet.

Angel laughed and taunted me and gave me time to crawl away, promising to set the wolf on me if I didn't move. I crawled off into the forrest after getting my wounds somewhat dressed and sent out a telepathic call asking for help. No one answered. That hurt nearly as much as the wounds, and for an entire day no one came to my aid.

My clothes were torn and bloody and not much help against the chill of the forrest's night, so I did as the animals do and got into a dead tree for windbreak, covering myself with leaf litter as if it were a blanket.

When I awoke I found Isis, a friend I'd made in the days previous to my ordeal, had brought her aunt to meet me. I thought she was a vampire but it turned out to be much worse. Liv, as her aunt was called, was a succubus, and she could sense that she would be my first if she could entice me... And she wasnt subtle about it.

When she'd ripped off my clothes and straddled me I thought I was doomed, but things got worse. Gia appeared, taking a walk through the forrest. And of course she saw what was happening. I was expecting her to cheer Liz on or kick me or something, but she actually stood up for me, even when Siona appeared and laughed at me. I couldn't help but be kind of touched.

Gia had nothing to gain by telling Liz to get off of me, and in the end it nearly caused her a lot of trouble. Mera's evil double appeared and tried to claim me, and then Valkryn appeared to kick dirt at me (though I got him back by spitting on his boots real good. At least I think it hit his boots, I couldn't see what with the succubus on me)

Anyhow Gia and Valk eventually left once things seemed to have calmed down and Mera left me to my fate after collecting nearly 500 gold for Liv to "rent her property" for the night. By then I was curled in a fetal position in an orb of air and starting to cramp up. But when I told Liv that I couldnt do anything because of my oath to Mystra and my own choices she just accepted it and kissed me. Of course in doing so she sucked out a good bit of my life energy, but thats neither here nor there.

She looked after me while I threw a tantrum at her and then took me to get a bath. Tomorrow I'm heading down to Navere. I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm sure I can find something. Gia's feud with Ali is pretty much their own, though I wish I could do more to help the weaker side, especially with Al mixed up in the equation. But Thaydin told me not to interfere, and I intend to respect his wishes.

But the bigger picture is that Navere is unique among the drow cities I've been to. The events tonight surely show that. They're better morally than other drow, but in the underdark that is sure to be taken as a sign of weakness as it was in the past. I'm sure that I'll have plenty to do because of that.