Day 6: Drinking and Questing

As I mentioned previously Hendrik had challenged that poor Vadian girl to a drinking game which is borderline problematic if truth be told. I lost spectacularly. The drinks were far too strong, and my small body couldn't hack it. Thankfully Estall was able to clear my system with his magic, though it did leave me feeling a bit tingly and on edge, damn holy magic. Hendrik almost lost as well; he should have if he wasn't a cheater. Not to mention his girlfriend is as much of a lightweight as I am and passed out first. The game didn't last long however as a man and a small army showed up and tried to steal Hendrik's girl from him. Gross bastard was trying to get her to stay with him and seemed to think she might be some contact of his. Hendrik taking an odd stab at interjecting himself into the conversation told the man he was nobility too. Maybe we can give him one of the rugs from our guest wing so he can feel a bit better, I think I'll write father to have him do that. However, after drawing his attention to the table and to me still essentially drooling on the table we secured an invite to the man's house where he showed us the fine things he has collected. It was rather nice as now I have been invited to his home so I can enter whenever I wish as well as the tour was extensive so if we ever need to kill the man, which we will have to do, it should be easy to accomplish and rob him at the same time. He has some rather beautiful Ventas art, and I aim to return it to Ventan hands.
 
After leaving the creeps mansion we went to go and start adventuring as he ruined Hendriks chance at drugging the girl into liking him, or making a mistake, or whatever his goals were. We took three which is all we would be allowed to take from the silly rules imposed on us and went to investigate a magical item that someone couldn't control. It was a trip, a rather powerful item it was. I really hope it can be tweaked so it can be used for good, or at least my own personal brand of evil. Anyway, the house was doused in about three different versions of magic, and thanks to Estall we were able to find it quickly. Watching him shrink down and run through the keyhole of a door and then watch him walk across the air to a kitchen counter was rather fascinating. The object had slots for smaller crystals to be put into it and we rounded them up. Each crystal placed altered the reality around us. The last two crystals were ridiculous. We snuck past a giant rat and had to dive into cheese to find the crystal, and after placing that the rat turned into some strange lobster monster. Fire was spreading all around us and it looked like we simply needed to let the crystal buildup charge to enlarge us. After a quick argument about tactics, we decided to hide in flour in a burning kitchen, not my idea. Estall was convinced that this illusion was just that an illusion, but I know that illusions can kill. He didn't seem to care about the opinion of someone versed in magic and walked into the flame. We watched him burn alive screaming as he did. The Lobster monster seemed fascinated with patrolling around our flour sack and after teleporting Hendrik I ran past it. Hendrik tried to pull me up the bottle with a rope but wound up slipping and we were falling to our doom.
 
Needless to say, we were all alright. It was some sort of dream or vision of some kind. Estall having died to the flame woke up first with Hendrik and I coming to moments later. Estall wanted to break it, but I argued we shouldn't, and he relented. Can you imagine the fun you can have with such a thing. Hendrik had investigated another section of the house earlier and told us that a man had been shrunken and was stuck behind a door and seeing as we had just turned off the magic effect, we figured the man would be back to normal as well. Turns out that man has been dead for a bit. His throat was cut, but more importantly his chest was broken open from the inside and his organs partially eaten. Hendrik informed us that it could be a few things but seemed to settle on a slaad. Shape shifting egg laying monsters it seems. Come to think of it the bodies the orcs were piling up had similar cuts to the throat. I wonder if it's some sort of ritualistic mark, or a calling card of these submitted.
 
I didn't really see the big problem but instead of continuing our questing we had to go back and report that it could be a slaad infestation. We then had a long and boring conversations revolving around being panicked and political maneuvering. Certainly, hope those feral dogs are not hurting anyone whilst we waste time arguing about the political situation of a town we do not give a fuck about. Anyway, brother I hope you're not a slaad when I find you and if you are please just kill me before you lay an egg in me. That seemed like it would have hurt a lot.