Soot's Journal: Petrified Stone

2nd of Alturiak, 1512 DR
 
Aiviq and Ida made their way into the tower, with Luna and I perceiving through their senses. They explored the first few rooms of the tower, eventually finding a metal chest bolted to the ceiling and a matching key. The cute little Isfugl relayed this information to us, and we as a group decided to all make our way into the tower to meet them.
 
We got into the tower and met the Isfugl, collecting the key from Ida. As Electra and I made our way to the chest, she mentioned that she saw a floating eye in the darkness behind me, but as I turned around to see it, it was gone! Very strange indeed. But, we went over to the chest, and Electra used her magic to make a ghostly hand to put the key into the ceiling chest. As the chest swung open, four glass bottles dropped out of it down towards us. Electra managed to catch one with her magical hand, as well as one of her others. Though the other two bottles fell past her! I dove to the ground at her feet and managed to luckily catch both of them. We examined the bottles and determined that these were all potions. I took a small drop of each on my claw and tasted all of them. I determined that they were potions of Force, Fire, Cold, and Acid resistance! I kept the Potion of Force Resistance, but we distributed the rest amongst the group.
 
While this was happening, apparently Madu saw one of those floating eyes too! We all met up in the hallway again and decided that we would venture down to the next floor. As we reached the second floor, we discussed more on how to fight Saxon. Madu mentioned that he is not like the kind of ghost we fought with Janth Aluwah, and that we needed stronger and more magical attacks to fight him. So, I proposed that I cast my trademark spell, Soot's Fire Arms, on Madu! This would give him magical fire punches, so that all of us would be attacking with magical attacks!
 
After talking for some time and checking out the rest of the rooms, we made our way down to the third floor. Here, we once again noticed one of those strange eyes, and also found what appeared to be Saxon's office. Strangely, this room was not flipped upside down, perhaps it has been used recently? As we were looking around, Madu got concerned as he could not remember how to get down to the next floor again. He walked through a hallway and eventually just completely fell through the floor! As he fell, the floor began to dissipate and revealed that there was some sort of illusion.
 
As everyone was stunned by what happened, I jumped to action and pulled out my rope! I tied off the rope and through it down the hole, descending into the dark where Madu fell. I dropped down about fifteen feet before hitting the next floor. Here I found Madu on the group, and a large reptilians creature bearing down on him! It was a Basilisk, a creature which could turn people to stone! Unsure of how it turned people to stone, I kept it in my peripheral vision as I tried to help Madu up. As I reached down for him, the creature jumped and bit into my shoulder, ripping my flesh and seriously injuring me. Just after this, all of our companions began making their way down and joining the fight.
 
Madu began to reach for my hand and then met the gaze of the basilisk. He began to clench up and his eyes began to slowly fade away. It appeared that even though he was already a stone construct, the gaze of the basilisk began to petrify him and lock up his body! That is it! Looking at the basilisk is what turns you to stone! I averted my eyes, and as my little Isfugl companion Aiviq began to distract the lizard, I made a blind attack against it with my great hammer! The scalding hot metal made contact with its face, singeing off its scales! In rapid succession, Dyleth, Luna, and Electra all attacked the creature, killing it.
 
But, as its cold body hit the ground, Madu began to let out a small groan as the light of his eyes completely faded away. With that, I knew that Madu had been fully petrified and was gone... I went into a blind fury as I turned around and just started beating the body of the dead basilisk, hoping that it might end the petrification. The rest of the group started talking about how to help him, and I eventually stopped and told them that we cannot help him without magic like Greater Restoration.
 
We sat for a few moments, discussing how we could get him out of the tower, when we heard a small voice through the door say, "I could help him." A wizard walked into the room with some sort of undead companion, clearly it must be Saxon. He tried to make us come to some sort of agreement with us, but I was not having any of it. He was the reason Madu was this stone man, and he was the reason that Madu was now petrified! I snarled in his direction and said, "How about this deal? Fix Madu, and I will not walk out of this tower with your eyes on my necklace." I began to jingle my chieftain necklace which held the trophies I have pulled from my previous hunts. I took a step back and looked scared. He told me that despite all he has seen, I actually frighten him. He agreed to help.
 
He pulled out a piece of parchment that appeared to be a scroll and began reciting words. Though, I quickly remembered that the sort of magic we need is not the sort of magic that wizards and sorcerers know! Only those with holy magic or nature magic can use it! I rushed forwards and ripped the parchment from his hands, afraid that he was about to cast some strange magic on us. As I pulled it away from him and looked at it, I saw that the paper was completely blank. He smiled at me and finished his arcane words, and with that Madu stood up completely dazed, but not of his right mind.
 
This deception completely enraged me. I let out a bloodcurdling roar, and the tips of my fur began to produce small cinders as I started raging. The cinder flew into the air and ignited into roaring fire which took the shape of ursan warriors, ancestral spirits of our clan's previous chieftains! They surrounded Saxon, and I swung my hammer at him with as much force as I could muster, hitting him dead in his chest. With this, all of our group began to prepare themselves to attack, but Saxon pointed at at the wall and snapped his fingers, creating some strange magic and confusing most of the group. Only Luna and I were unaffected. She was attacked by the undead warrior that was with Saxon and attacked it right back, but the rest of the group was too dazed to help. Dyleth even accidently tried to attack me!
 
Madu was right to fear this wizard. I believe that we are up for quite the difficult fight ahead, but we must do whatever we can to help Madu...
 
~ Soot Isbjorn