Jasper's Journal: Paralyzed at the Altar

7th of Utkar, 1491 DR
 
Surrounded by Revenants, I called for my friends to retreat. But, within a blink of an eye, Vadania calls upon her divine powers and turns three of the four revenants in fear of her holy light. As she and the rest of our companions began to run back upstairs, Ander unaware of what was happening, blast one of the undead with a lightning bolt, freeing it from its mind control. As Ander stood there in fear, I clocked both the awakened Revenants with a strike imbued with stunning ki, right to the face, and urged him to follow me upstairs.
 
Once we all arrived at the top, Morric and Vadania were kind enough to mend my wounds, and we devised a plan to help me get to the altar. They would run down and distract the two undead, while I rushed to the altar. They ran ahead as I leaped over the edge of the balcony down towards the altar, gently landing at its side and stunning the revenant one more time.
 
I rushed to the altar as Morric raised a magical wall of wind surrounding me. On the altar I saw a chalice with a symbol of a palace, and a flagon with the symbol of a dragon, additionally there was a symbol of the morning lord containing an indent that would fit Piccolo's ring perfectly. After examining the altar, I also noticed there was a strange inscription that I could not read. I placed the ring into the alcove, only to have nothing happen, but I remembered my vision of the sun shining down on the altar. So, I ran straight up the wall, fifty feet into the air, and as I flipped away from the wall I blasted two radiant sun bolts into the altar. When I landed, I saw the altar glowing slightly, but it was not enough and light faded away.
 
As I stood there, I heard the old man Sergei calling to me from above and asking what I was doing. I shouted back and explained, but before he could get here, suddenly the revenants began to defy our magic and passed through the wind wall. It stared at me and said in a chilling voice that I was embarrassing myself, then its eyes began to glow and horrifying color and my entire body froze. Within a second of it staring at me, I had become paralyzed.
 
The revenant continued to approach me, as my allies dealt with the other three. Within a matter of seconds, Sergei like some kind of bird came soaring through the fog with his sunblade drawn, and attempted to shine light on the altar. However, just like my sun bolts, it was insufficient. But, he looked at me seeing my paralyzed body, and told me that he saw a statue of a dragon above, with its hand pointing at the altar as though it was important in the process. As he spoke to me, the revenant began to cut into me with its massive sword, fileting my side like a small chicken. Sergei did what he could to protect me, but the undead was extremely powerful and I could not move.
 
After a few moments of Sergei fighting the revenant, he knocks it to the ground which frees me from my paralysis. I immediately take advantage of the situation, leaping onto the undead and pummeling its face with my fists until its skull cracked and all the remained was a bloody mass. I swiftly got to my feet and blasted the rest of the revenants with my sun bolt, as Morric and Vandania killed another one of them. Seconds after that revenant fell, Andrew ran back to me, gripping my arm and giving me a look of understanding and asked if I was willing. He created a magical portal and pulled the two of us through it, and we appeared on the balcony below the stone dragon, the sounds of the fight still being heard below us.
 
We sat for a second talking about the dragon statue, and then he told me we needed to get the rest up above with us. He also mentioned he remember something from the Tome of Strahd that might be able to help us... this worried me, I fear that the book is leading him farther down the path of his dark destiny. However, I push those thoughts aside and begin to prep myself mentally for the great leap which I would need to take to reach the statue, which I could clearly see now is of Argenvost.
 
I gave Ander a nod to convey my intentions, then I drew my dagger of running and called upon its magical agility. With speed coursing through me, I began to breathe and harness my ki to aid me in my jump. With a step of wind, I gracefully leaped onto the railing and ran thirty five feet straight up the wall, kicking off at the top and sailing twenty five feet through the open air. The one hundred foot drop below was shrouded in fog as I flew through the air, approaching the statue. As I reached the statue, I managed to grasp just the last finger of the dragon's open claw, and after mustering all my might I managed to pull myself up into the hand of the dragon.
 
Within the hands of the dragon I noticed that the ceiling cone it was wrapped around was hollow and full of mirrors, and it was just big enough for me to fit within the gap. This gave me an idea, by climbing inside, I could use the mirrors as a focus for my sun bolts, to create a blast of pure sunlight to the altar. However, I need to get Piccolo's ring back down to the altar before I can begin the process...
 
~ Jasper Solavich