SkinEater's party went quietly enough. I had to decline offers to dance, as I half-expected. Thank Horus I had considered my refusals in advance. Lairunya performed in a somewhat shocking and politically careless manner (though not unexpected for a Telperin) by inviting Yomalia.

Mik was much in his element. [...]

We also have a new mission; some dwarves that used to be protected by Brandon's clan have asked Mikhael's (and therefore the entire S.C.'s) help in dealing with a plague and the creatures that are evidently inducing it.

Hopefully this will keep me busy enough to keep both problems off my mind.

[...]

Tomorrow I'll visit the healer's guild and Gax and see what I can learn about this plague and its cures.

January 2, 44

Nasty thing, this disease. The healers had no name for it (though Cassia says the rangers call it Taklif), and they say that the most virulent form can only be cured by a Bless, a Cure Disease, and a Dispel Evil, in that order, or it will kill a human or an elf in one day. Very nasty.

Michael wants my field notes, as ususal. I must remember to call on him more often, for he surely benefits more from our arrangement than I.

But the disease itself is magical, and so there is no natural way to protect us from it. I don't find this at all encouraging. I don't like the idea of taking any of us into such a situation, but we're honor-bound to go at this point. Taklif is evidently caused/spread by creatures called Marrash; they're summoned to his plane by mages or djinn to spread disease.

Lairunya got a lead on a periapt of health we may be able to borrow for this little sortie. If we get it I'm going to vote that it go to Mikhael. I don't think there'll be much arguement, really.

On a lighter note, Lairunya has suggested I ought to name the blade he gave me. I'm not sure why, but I humored him and christened it "Khelekwen."

January 7

I wish I knew how to explain myself, sometimes.

I couldn't find a way to explain to Mikhael and Daniel that I wanted the arrows and the water to try and discover how the poison is spread—whether the arrow is hollow and the poison seeps through the tips, whether the arrow itself is formed of solid plague material. Once we discovered they were magical to see if the difference in the level of magic was due to age/time away from the Marrash, or due to the virulence of the disease.

The more we learn about how this plague is spread, the better our chances of effectively countering it before one of us falls ill. Am I the only one who thinks that we may encounter nastier illnesses when we meet the Marrash's master?

One thing that I did discover is that the arrows infect anything they touch, so you don't have to be injured by one for them to spread the plague. Cost me a good pair of gloves, too, to find that out. And they are powerful enough to poison the earth. I feel filthy from having held the things at all, but water's too precious right now to waste on a bath. I'm not sure I could get the rest of the Company to understand why I want one, anyway.

January 8

It impresses me greatly at times how effective the Scintillating Company can be when we make a plan, work together and stick to it. There are four fewer Marrash in the world to plague it.

We burned the bodies, though I would have liked to have kept one to study. It wasn't worth arguing about, and I doubt there was anything left of any real use after the plummets they all took.

[...]

Later --

Simon and Lairunya have somehow ended up on the Ethereal. Mikhael is going to scry via mirror & try to talk to either them or Baldarian to try and get them back here, or at least find out what happened. Trust the two of them...

Evidently they teleported low while wraithform and it threw them into the Ethereal. Now Baldarian says they're about two months away, and there's evidently a Foo Lion after them. So we have to figure out if we're going to rescue them or continue without them and try to complete this mission.

January ?

Lost track of the date again. I'm really not sure why I bother trying when we're on the road. I don't feel too badly, though. Mik has lost track as well. He's trying to help Laurie and Simon by sending them to Rein Atoll (an Ethereal city under the influence of Godsmen that Baldarian recommended as a potential save haven, though he didn't sound particularly hopeful). Meanwhile, we're continuing to plan to go in and explore without them. Cassia came up with, then suggested, then regretted a decent plan that won't be used because her morals, and Daniel's, and Callous' will interfere. It's pointless to argue—Daniel's in one of his "we don't know they're evil creatures" moods. After what they did to the dwarves, even. Poisoning the Kua-Toa with the Marrash's arrows does have a certain poetic justice to it.

I suggested to Mikhael that we go ahead and do it anyway. His response: "Do you know how mad he'll be when he finds out?" I said I'd take my lashes, but Mik shook his head—"It won't be that kind of mad," he said, "it'll be guilt mad." And he went on to describe it, and I dropped the subject, in part because I do have some respect for Daniel's morals (even when they keep us from the expedient course), but mostly because I get the impression it would make Mik uncomfortable to have Daniel and I not speaking.

And if we end up going down there to scout, as it appears we will, well, Laurie took the potions of Sweet Water with him.

Another day -

We're preparing to go in to the lair—protected from the water by one of Zai Jikku's spells and from the Kua-toa's senses by another. I will be leaving some of my gear with one of the dwarves that will be guarding the bolthole Cassia has found for us.

We're going in to search and survey. I tried suggesting to Mikhael that perhaps the entire group should not go, but he rebuffed the idea and upon careful consideration he's correct. We're too split up as it is (although with Simon gone we won't have to worry quite so much about what happens when someone doesn't follow the plan).

Well. Lairunya has died, though Simon evidently managed to get his body to Baldarian. Avitar is also involved in some fashion, and he will be returning Simon to us in about eight hours.

Our plan has finally come down to the Siege of the Lake. We intend to dam up the river, then drain the lake. Much better to bring them onto our playing field. I do not ever want to fight in the water again.

Simon is being his usual incoherent self, but Laurie's death evidently was somehow related to spiders (again) and betrayal. Whatever the case, I'm sure it won't be good for his ego.

I'm going to try scrying on her again—I still hold no hope for success, but I'm no tactician, and I need to do something while the planners do their job.

I had another thought, earlier, that I believe I should follow up on—I do not believe her to be raised, and I have no desire to see again the vale where she lies, but. I simply cannot think of anyone else who would know me as Sulisil. Or who would even know of that name.

Horus' eye. I hate waiting.

Later-

She lives, somewhere, enslaved. Not a place I recognize, she should not—Horus help me, it's the Laurie/Khamul situation all over again. I cannot bear this—I must learn where she is, and find a way to get to her and get her out. She is my mother, she must not suffer this. I will not have it.

Can I send her a Dream? Odds are long that she is on this plane...and what (if anything) does this "Stella" have to do with her...there must be something.

Still later-

Can't sleep. It's the first cold light of false dawn, and we'll be off to the valley Cassia found in true morning to dam it off. Mik is involved with some experiment in magic involving dreams and Akalina. Suddenly I find an understanding of Lairunya's and Sindaraen's desires for privacy about their situations. Waves of ice and of fire wash over me and render words useless.

I don't know...I need a plan before I can go to anyone else with this.

Later still-

I've just been involved in Mik's experiment—I don't think we'd better tell Brandon there are creatures out there who call his people Rock-Ants. Interesting, though how one can affect the Dreamscape, and how we were able to work toget

Attacked—killed all four Omyrr and raked in their haul. Wonderful. Sin will be jealous. I was off balance though. I'm no longer fighting only for my companions and my own life, but also to stay alive long enough to rescue Mother. I should have thought to scry on her earlier, to make sure her resting place was unmolested. Surely I owed her that much, and yet before Ebrien this abomination would never even have crossed my mind as the faintest of possibilities. We learn from the strangest of places.

We're going to question the Omyrr in the morning. I'm tired, but sleep eludes me. I have to figure out what to do...I've never been much of a plotter or a planner...so I sit here chain-smoking and trying to convince myself to talk to Mikhael about this.

The obsession with life-extension is widespread in Glenzor—even the extra-planar Omyrr were researching it. I doubt they learned much from their vivisections, however.

Will continue to scry on both. I don't know what else I can do. Not until I have more information, anyway.