27 Enerio, Harmonia

Went downstairs to breakfast this morning and discovered that, no we didn't dream all this, we are still in Harmonia. The city of dark-skinned, singing natives who rarely speak intelligibly, on those rare occasions when they condescend to speak to us at all. Truly we are strangers in a strange land.
One more thing we learned. These people are all afraid of the dark. Everyone is off the streets before sunset, and then they all bolt themselves into their homes; they even lock up the animals.
The four of us found ourselves faced with a difficult problem -- how were we going to find a healer for Thibor when no one would even talk to us? Fortunately, we found ourselves a guide. Or rather, she found us. Complaining loudly that no one here would even talk to us, I went to the bar and was attempting to stock up on ale (only to find that they don't have it here, but instead pander some disgusting red brew called Meekulbrau. I don't recommend it.), when someone tapped me on the shoulder.
I turned around to discover very tall, but otherwise nondescript woman with a quarterstaff strapped across her back. Like the other natives she had dark hair, but her skin was fairer than most.
"Hello," she said. "You must be a stranger around here."
I tugged at a strand of my blond hair. "Obviously," I said. Then it struck me that I'd been able to understand the woman easily.
"I'm Temmer," I introduced myself.
"Lisha."
"From?"
She shrugged. "North of here."
Well, I took Lisha over to our table and introduced her to everyone. She seemed very curious about our origins, wondering where we were from and how we'd gotten to Harmonia. We simply told her that we were lost; we'd been sailing and our ship crashed. (No one mentioned that we'd been sailing our ship through the air, not on the water. Why bore her with details?)
Lisha wouldn't talk about herself much, just said she was a peasant from up north. But she was a heck of a lot friendlier than the other natives (which, I'll admit, isn't saying much), and she did try to answer our questions. We soon learned that Harmonia was nowhere near Istur. In fact, not only had Lisha never heard of Istur, she'd never even heard of Hurva. Or Harat or the Southlands or any of the places we knew.
"You must have been blown pretty far off course," Lisha remarked with a raised eyebrow.
The four of us stared at each other. "You can say that again," I said. For we could only conclude that, unless we were in the midst of some incredible illusion, we'd been transported to another world entirely. And how, I wondered, were we going to find our way back home?
But we had more pressing problems to deal with. First we had to get Thibor healed. With Lisha acting as our guide, we set off to find some clerics.
Well, it took quite a bit of searching. Harmonia didn't exactly boast a lot of temples. But we finally found some clerics and persuaded them to heal Thibor for a fee -- namely, every bit of wealth we had. And we had to haggle with them to get them to accept that price.
Alanna seemed kind of depressed that we were broke again after being so wealthy just a short time ago. But I figure adventuring is a gamble just like anything else and, if we're lucky, we'll come out on top in the end.
Besides, though it was a Hell of a lot of it, it was still only money. And, though I'd never admit it to him, Thibor's worth it.

***** Dionna - The Crystal Club. Gets off before Dusk. Bring wine.

Well, here I am writing another journal entry from a jail cell. Only this time I'm not on trial, and I didn't do anything wrong. Let me explain.
After getting Thibor healed, we proceeded to tour the town. Harmonia has a bard college, which I think is pretty strange. I mean, bards and beaurocratic organizations usually stay pretty far away from each other. Gods forbid that a bunch of bards would actually form one! I wanted to check the place out, but they wouldn't let us in. They just told us to come to some sort of singfest they're having in a couple of days. Whatever.
We also came across this really hot nightclub called The Crystal Club. It was expensive, though, so we didn't go in. But I made a date with Dionna - one of the babes tending the front desk. Of course, I won't be able to keep it now. Damn it anyway.
Guess I should explain what happened. We'd explored all the nicer sections of Harmonia and found ourselves wandering around here in the slums. There were few people about here, and the ones we did pass either stared at us silently or went back inside their homes and pointedly shut the doors. Like I said before, Harmonia's a real friendly town.
Anyway, we'd been walking along and we were just beginning to wonder why we'd come here in the first place when a man came running out of the building we were passing. Dressed in some sort of uniform, he was waving keys about and screaming something we couldn't understand.
"Help!" he screamed, seeing us standing there and running over. He started babbling at us, and Lisha explained that one of the prisoners had gone mad, apparently killing his cell mate. The jailer wanted our help and, according to the law of this land, he was entitled to it.
I doubt any of us really cared too much about Harmonian laws. But Thibor volunteered our services. It had been a whole day since we'd had the chance to kill anything, and he was starting to get a little testy. Besides, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to ingratiate ourselves with the townsfolk. So we followed the jailer inside.
While the wounded jailer stayed behind to raise the portcullis, allowing us access to the cells in the west wing , two other guards named Devon and Bakki appeared to lead the way. They were understandably nervous, but told us nothing about the escaped prisoner except that he was "a mean one" and that he'd murdered his cell-mate.
The jail was an unpleasant place, and as we followed the silent guards through the halls we looked around us with distaste. The hardwood walls were covered with years of soot, and the smell of rot and decay surrounded us. Both sides of the hall held thick, wooden doors with small windows set in them, and from behind some of them we heard the occasional moaning of unseen prisoners.
Our progress was slow, delayed by the necessity of stopping for the jailer to raise the many iron portcullises that blocked the way. Finally, though, the last portcullis opened before us with a creak of turning gears. We suddenly felt that something was watching us from the darkness beyond, and we noted with astonishment that the door to the last cell was torn open by some great force, its bars bent and twisted. Deep, parallel gouges were carved into the wooden furniture, as if someone had slashed it repeatedly with a knife. What kind of crazed lunatic could have done this?
Nervously, we drew our weapons and peered into the pitch black cell. Two gleaming yellow eyes stared back at us, eyes set too far apart to belong to any human! A guttural growl issued forth, and from the blackness sprang forth a horrible creature, half-man, half-wolf. Faster than our eyes could follow he was upon us, and poor Bakki was sliced to ribbons by the monster's wicked claws.
Soon Devon was down also and, blood dripping from its horrible maw, the creature turned on us. Demetrius, Lisha, and Thibor were quick to attack it with their weapons, but the snarling, biting wolf-man eluded them. Unable to join the fight due to the closeness of the corridor, Alanna and I watched tensely from the background, both of us ready to lend a hand if one of our companions should fall. It seemed a frightening possibility, as the beast sunk its fangs into first Lisha, then Demetrius.
Finally Lisha landed a solid hit with her quarterstaff, and the creature howled in pain as the silver tips of her staff sparked brightly in the darkened corridor. As if inspired by her success, Thibor and Demetrius connected with their magical blades, Demetrius thrusting Scray into the monster's throat and putting an end to its miserable life.
Realizing that the two guards were beyond his help, Thibor tended to our wounded fighters. Then, as one we all moved up to peer curiously at the dead monster.
"What the Hell was that?" I asked.
Even as I asked the question, the creature began to change suddenly. It's blood-soaked fur dissolving, fangs disappearing, before our horrified eyes the beast transformed into an ordinary-looking human.
"Just as I thought," said Thibor. "A werewolf."
The Hurvans among us exchanged confused looks. "What's a werewolf?" asked Alanna.
Lisha pointed to the dead body. "That was."
Thibor, who's always been willing to lecture us about the nature of the evil creatures he's encountered, ignored her. "A werewolf," he explained, "is a human who's been cursed so that, with every full moon, he transforms into a monster like this one. They're horribly strong and completely evil, and only magic and silver weapons can harm them."
"And the curse," Lisha added, "is gotten by their bite."
We all looked pointedly at Lisha and Demetrius, who'd both been bitten by the monster.
"Wonderful." I said.
Thibor waved away our concerns. "Worry not. I can deal with that problem if it arises. Let us leave this wretched place."
But we couldn't. All five us walked over to the nearest portcullis, pounding on its iron bars with our weapons and calling for the jailer, whose name none of us had bothered to ask. For a long time there was no reply. Then, finally we heard a familiar voice calling from above.
"Is the beast dead?" The jailer asked.
"Of course it's dead," Thibor yelled. "Now let us out of here."
"Can't do that."
"What do you mean you can't do that?" Thibor demanded angrily.
The jailer didn't answer, and Thibor repeated his question heatedly. Again he was met with silence, and we renewed our efforts at screaming and pounding on the bars, Thibor adding a steady stream of threats and curses. Of all of us, only Lisha seemed unsurprised by the events, and she merely watched the rest of us calmly until we gave up our clamoring.
We all felt betrayed by the jailer we'd just helped, and Thibor promptly made plans for the man's painful and untimely demise. In response, I unrolled a parchment I'd been keeping for such occasions and added the man to Thibor's revenge list, right behind Shifty Nicco and "the damned guard who charged us a fortune to get into this stinking town in the first place." Having little appreciation for sarcasm, Thibor seemed quite pleased by my efforts.
Having no other options we set about searching the place. We realized it was unlikely, but we could only to hope to find some way out of this horrible prison.
What we did find was a lot of empty cells and rats. As the door to one cell swung open, we all found ourselves overcome by the stench of corruption and all five of us, even Thibor, threw up on the grimy floor. After that we didn't feel like exploring much. A quick scan of the room revealed it to be covered with rotting food, blood, and broken furniture (not to mention vomit). Disgusted, we closed the door behind us and searched the rest of the cells.
But there was nothing of interest to be found, certainly not a way out. We've been stuck here for hours, listing to Thibor describe all the different ways he could put the traitorous jailer to death. It's the middle of the night now, and I've missed my date with Dionna. It's not easy being a hero.


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