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… I invoked the power of Helm to smite the heretic mage. I have never felt His presence as strongly as this, it was as if I was the only defender in the breach of a city wall defending the innocents. I have never felt stronger then just now. The surroundings were all wrong though, apparently I had been turned to stone? Cereen has arranged for Werner, a priest of Helm from Saerloon to invoke Helm’s power in order to save me. Perhaps that was the feeling I just had.
We decided to spend the night in Saerloon since many of us were spent. Cereen wanted to check if Narder Morley was still on his ship, a fool’s errand if I ever heard of one, but I came along just the same. She is my sister and I love her dearly. Birk is now the captain apparently since Morley dissapeared, he offered us a lot of rum and since both of us can easily withstand the effects of alcohol we partook of a great amount. We returned to the Temple of Helm whilst singing sea shanties. I swear I saw a silver dragon in the stables but Cereen said I was just drunk as a badger. She’s probably right.
The next morning Vanniya tried teleporting to the Temple of Cyric again, after asking me for more details. But she failed again, I don’t think she’s very good at this at all. We appeared near the Cormyrean army, if it hadn’t been for Helm’s explicit command I would have attacked them there and then, Cereen had the same idea I think. Eventually Vanniyah managed to teleport us to the entrance of the right temple and talked the dragons into betraying their masters somehow. I didn’t understand any of it.
We entered the temple through the stone doors. I asked Helm to show us the traps and he helped Cereen disarm them and thereafter I created a passage through the locked doors. Inside there were some of these pitiful creatures that call themselves Cyric Paladins. They have no idea what it means to be a Paladin like Cereen is. We smote them.
A fierce battle ensued where it became apparent that Laeral Silverhand was bound into servitude by the shackles that were attached to her. She attacked me with some kind of mind stunning spell but I shook it off through the glory of Helm. Cereen and her holy blade smote the armored abomination that had held Laeral captive until she decided to try and help Vanniyah who was succumbing to the same effect that had turned me to stone previously. Alas, it did not help and she was petrified.
Cairon Artax meanwhile reenacted his previous masterpiece and forced the evil creature into another plane. Apparently this time he chose the plane of Air. I must lend him my rod of Celestia so these evil ones can be judged appropriately.
Now we rest …
——————- Part 2 —————-
Or not!
An illusion of Cyric appeared over the altar, which we had apparently forgotten to destroy (very sloppy of us, but Vanniya later rectified that situation by deliberately missing Cyric and destroying his altar with a disintegrate) and summoned some weird creatures; blood golems and some sort of time snails. Laeral had disappeared without us noticing, somehow. I glanced at the statue that was Vanniya and decided to try begging Helm to let me help her. I swore I would make her show some respect for Him. A miracle! Through His power I was able to help the infidel, hopefully she now sees the error of her ways. Glory be!
After another hard fought battle we smote Cyric’s menagerie, but we were truly fought out. Blue Eyes was a sight to behold, teleporting throughout the room and slashing at everything in sight! Bleeding from many wounds and having exhausted most of our power we stood triumphant once again. Cyric has nothing compared to our power!
With a scent of brimstone the image of Cyric appeared once again but this time it attacked us! It dealt a heavy blow to Cereen Malorn, so heavy in fact that it dawned on me that this might be an actual avatar of the evil God himself! Cereen and I exchanged brief glances, our eyes burning with a holy fire, and we charged, exhorting our companions to save themselves! To their credit, and as I unfortunately knew they would, they followed our doomed charge. It was an invigorating feeling, the foul winds of this place rushed underneath my wings as I flew towards a glorious death and the certainty of martyrdom. To die in a battle with an avatar of Cyric! In this heady moment I threw back my head and screamed unto the heavens: “Watcher, Vigilant One! Aid your champions and strike down this vile abomination!” I felt my soul shiver and quake as His gaze fell upon me. In my minds eye I saw the heavy gates of Everwatch open before me to receive me into their everlasting embrace.
Laeral Silverhand chose that moment to reappear, she seemed confused as to how. It appears her cowardly flight had failed somehow. Now that she had no choice she aided us with some time magic and turned back time to before the fight with the blood golems. Vanniya was a statue again somehow but Laeral was able to teleport us back to Saerloon. I spent the remainder of the day in a sort of stupor, my mind unable to cope with the lightning quick turnaround of certain death and this defeat. Cyric is probably laughing his ass off. We had the blessing of Helm himself! And that bitch Laeral took it away.