Diary Entry 38

The journey through the wilds of Avis-Poulí to get to Ippodromía, so I could cover the Athlitikós Agónas, was without incident until I was three quarters of the way finished. I was taking a rest a little bit off the road, when little Leroy Murphy jumped off my shoulders to chase a little butterfly. I chased after him through twists and turns in the forest, wondering how both he and the butterfly were moving so fast. Eventually, I had tracked Leroy to a pool with a waterfall. As I looked around for the Ramidreju, there was a burst of pain erupting from side of my head and everything went dark.

I awoke to find the face of a woman who has lived a hard life in a terrible environment in close proximity of mine own. Seeing that I was awake, she smiled, showing teeth and fangs that would give a dental healer nightmares. She then pulled away and that was when I realized three things. The first that I was hanging from a pole like wild game. The second was the owner of the woman's face was a Lamia. Finally, there was a strong smell of brimstone in the air. Receiving an inkling of where I was, looked around hoping I was wrong, but alas, I was indeed a prisoner of the Lamia that live in the Caves of Keshish.

The Caves of Keshish are said to be one of the Five Gates into the Land of the Dead and for a good reason. Dimly lit by phosphorescent slime molds, the stone that made up the walls, stalactites, and stalagmites was a sickly yellow. Although the floor was covered by an eerie green mist, I assumed it was the same sickly shade as the walls. Scattered all around were pools of water that boiled and gave off the stench of rotten eggs. Around the pools were mineral deposits caused by dripping and among some of the more larger pools there were also various bones coated in various amounts of gypsum crystals. In a few discreet places, there were rotting and decomposing corpses of past victims. Although I couldn't see it from my current position, I have been told that deeper in, the caves descend, deeper and deeper, to the point that no one knows how far down it goes. Finally, surrounding me were Lamias of various ages looking at me with hungry eyes.

As I was about to try and communicate with my captors, there was a commotion at what I was guessing was the entrance to this cavern of death. Straining my head to get a look, I gave a groan of despair as I watched two more Lamia slither in carrying another captive strapped to a pole. As they got closer, I gave a longer groan as I saw the identity of my fellow captive, still unconscious. Out of all the people in the world, why did I have to be prisoners with him! The Lamias set down the new prisoner down beside me, turned around and joined the others as they started preparing tables, bowls, plates, and eating utensils.

As I sat there watching the Lamias make preparations, I felt something climb onto my chest. Turning around to look, I found little Leroy Murphy clutching me, looking scared. With a plan forming in my head, I whispered soothing words to the little guy while trying not to wake my fellow captive. When he was calm, I tried to send a telepathic link, which isn't exactly my strong suit and the fact I didn't have the necessary spell components (various crystals) didn't help, meaning I had to try several (I refuse to say how many) times before the spell worked. Luckily the Lamias seemed busy arguing about what recipe to use, how many courses, what beverages to serve, and other fine dining stuff, and people wonder why their classification as a monster is shaky.

First Leroy brought me, after some effort, my Dimensional Carpet Bag that the Lamias had taken away. After leaving it near me, he then climbed up to the pole near where my feet were tied. I didn't cast the spell as good as I hoped apparently because he started chewing the bindings on my feet when he was supposed to free my hands first. Keeping an eye on our captors, Leroy finished just as they seemed to have come to a consensus. As they started coming over, Leroy gave some sort of trilling sound as he started working on the cordage binding my hands, which of course the Lamias heard. Leroy Murphy barely had enough time to free my hands from the pole when they came. Grabbing my bag with my bound hands, Leroy and I started running into the caves with the snake women behind us.

At some point, we managed to lose our pursuers by ducking into a crevice. As the Lamias ran past us, Leroy resumed chewing the cords around my wrists. Once free, I grabbed some stuff from my bag, put Leroy on my shoulders and snuck back to where the other captive was. By the time I got there, Chan Lee, who I am now starting to consider as my own personal god of plagues, was finally awake. The lummox was trying to challenge a Lamia to a duel or something, but she just ignored him as she dragged him by the tail to one of the boiling pools of water.

I crept into range and then used the booster spell components from my bag to blast both the Lamia and the annoying lizardman with a spell of silence or what I like to call the "QUIET!" spell. Now that I didn't have to worry about any noise that those two might have made, I, with maybe a little enthusiasm, launched a fireball at them- er, I mean, at the Lamia. I will spare my readers the grisly details, just know that both of the targets- I mean the target and poor lizardman who got caught in the blast, survived and were unconscious. A dead Lamia in the Caves of Keshish would have involved so much paperwork with the Priests of the God of Death (it's unlucky to mention his name), which I would rather avoid. Anyway, after covering both Leroy's and my faces, I gathered our remaining things, both mine and Chan Lee's, before dropping one of the remaining items I had taken out of my bag into nearest the bubbling pool. It was a concentrated dehydrated sleeping potion, just add some boiling water and you get a steam that causes instant sleep. Heading over to Chan Lee, I poured the last item, a shrinking potion, on him. Picking up the shrunken lizardman by his tail, I ran out of the cave before I suffered from my own sleeping vapor.

Once out of the cave, I kept running and didn't stop until I reached a road. Now that we were safe, I dropped to the ground to catch my breath. Unfortunately, Chan Lee woke up and was talking again, I guess at least one of the booster spell components I used must of expired, he should still be silent for at least another day. Chan Lee wasted no time in wanting to fight, again. Apparently he has been looking all over Tirna for me, I am just glad he still thinks my name is Fionn MacIntyre... although I may have to start creating false trails using that name. To my great dismay I found out that we were both heading to Ippodromía for the Athlitikós Agónas, although for different reasons as I tried to futilely explain to him. So now it looks like I have a, ugh, small (the shrinking potion was still in effect), traveling buddy. Why didn't I memorize the way back to the Caves of Keshish, cause I am suddenly missing the man-eating Lamias...