Whorfin's Adventuring 4

Aligned and Realigned (day 542-572)

Towed by whales, I arrive at Bug Village, a community of lawful good bugbears. They help me drag my leaky boat ashore and welcome me into their community.

About 350 souls live here -- 80 percent bugbears, some humans, elves, and the rest mixed. The people want me to feel right at home, and it seems like a nice place altogether.

In my leaky boat, one of my eggs has gotten soaked. It is getting bigger and shows every sign of being ready to hatch. I nest it under water, in a small underwater coral niche I make with stone shapes. I take it on the beach, and in the surf. I keep it close to magic items and spell effects. And it hatches into a baby grey dragon. She is hungry for fish, and I summon seals to hunt for her; I also give her Created Food. She grows and is happy. I name her Jules.

In casting the Create Food and Bless and so on, I find that my spells are failing half the time. And praying for higher level spells is also prone to failure.

Meanwhile, my staff is acting strange. Later, I see this and the spell failure as signs of something gone wrong. At the time, I shrugged the staff's behavior off.

With the newborn baby dragon to care for, I resolved to stay here until it was ready to travel, although that might have been months.

Meanwhile, the village elders, shamans, and everyday folk make me feel at home. I meet one elf, named Alfirin, formerly a priest of an ocean god, who tells me he now follows the Goodness of the Well. He tries to convince me that this would be a fine place to settle down. Later, at a dinner, other elders suggest the same. And it's beginning to seem like an attractive offer. At a local church service, the ceremony is marked by the drinking of water from the Well, a holy cistern located at the center of town.

But my staff is not as thrilled as I with the charms of the place, and repeatedly urges me to cast Know Alignment on myself. I am not surprised to find myself drifting towards Neutral Good. I think about packing up and leaving, but after reflection, decide that I cannot, because the baby is too small to travel. One part of me says that it would not be a bad idea to stay a while. Another part of me knows that my alignment is in jeopardy. These sides of me conflict, and though I stay, I find myself drawn towards chaotic manifestations and behaviors to try to compensate and resist. The villagers are confused and befuddled by the resulting friendly and random behaviors, such as purchasing an entire whole cooked banquet pig and bringing it back to life, giving gifts to strangers, reading the book or rules backwards, making seashell necklaces for Jules and myself.

On a whim, I cast True Seeing, look around town, and down the Well. I see a Void of Lawful Goodness and a secret door. The next day, after a disturbing Commune (What Void?), a Dispel Good has no effect. So I jump into the Well. I find a morphing Object in a cage at the bottom. I open the cage, free the Object, and put it in a sack without touching it. I go through the secret door, down a passageway, and come to a locked door. After some hesitation, I break down the door, and ascend into the Village Hall. I drop the Object on the Mayor's desk and depart.

The next day I come into the village, sell my seashell necklace, and commission a carpenter to fix the door I broke. While at Village Hall, the local Sherriff tries to touch me with the Object! I cast Pro Good, parry, and ascend using my Rings of the Planes. I, hovering at the ceiling of the Hall, try to negotiate. The villagers argue amongst themselves and a ladder is brought to reach me. I use a Spiritual Hammer to knock the ladder down. Then the Sherriff hurls the Object at me. It hits, but my Scarab of Protection kicks in and I am not converted!

I quickly shout down, "Now I see the Way of the Goodness of the Well!" Believing me converted, I am accepted into their midst and then I go home. I have dinner the next night with the elders and convince them I see the Light.

At home at the ship, I say to myself, "D'oh!" I pray for an Atonement to remove magical alignment shifts, and in so doing explain everything to the holy messenger of my god. This leads to instructions that I retrieve the Object. I say, "Sure."

I move into a house that has been prepared for me in the village. That night, I sneak into the Well, bypass a magic trap, and retrieve the Object. I offer it in sacrifice, and this gets me an interview with the Head Honcho.

HH tells me lots and lots. The Object is the union of a String of Good and a String of Law. These Strings predate gods and are mighty potent. HH splits the Object into a Good part and a Law part. He gives me the Good part and tells me to keep it temporarily for my next mission. It is a White Sphere the size of a fist. The orb does not look like a gem. It is very, very magical-like. It hovers and moves about. Its edges are not distinct; it throbs with power. Any touching it become good.

HH also tells me that his Elf Colony chief cleric, named Eglath, is getting too chaotic. This cleric has the power to give out spells. He's in need of spiritual; guidance, and my job is to bring him back into the fold. I figure that means introducing him to the Good String.

HH said he'll take care of baby Jules. So now I am off to the Elf Colony.

(Figure I spent 25 gp here.)

Old, fragmentary, and preliminary info for this turn.

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