A morning to try and forget!

Year 1456 Date Unknown...

After a successful night of fighting, gambling and boozing, Ilimahg and myself awoke in some barn near the inn. Our heads fouled with a wicked hangover, we managed to stumble back to the inn for a spot of breakfast. As we sat down at the bar where we approached by a woman, this was no common tavern wench, she was quite the beauty! However whilst she was easy on the eyes, she was hard on the ears, especially with my hangover... She was throwing slights and insults at us, blaming us for her bad fortune at the casino. She'd lost money on my fight betting against me, and then lost a further wager when Illimahg was thrown out the ring by that grung. Hah! Still makes me smile.

I thought her no more than a scorned punter, however upon Ilimahg suggesting she pay us to fight at the casino again, she cast some type of magic with her eyes and turned him to stone! I was taken aback, wondering what the hell was going on. Thanks to come quick thinking I managed to dart behind her, grabbing her face and covering her eyes before she turned her gaze on me. She screamed and struggled against my grapple trying to bite my arms, the crazy bitch! I'd had enough trying to restrain her, I went on the offensive, drew my sword and plunged it into her back. No sooner than the tussle had started did the dwarf we travelled with enter the inn. I hadn't seen him since the previous afternoon and now lady luck had happened him to my aid. He joined the affray, and he and his little mechanical minion attacked the beast.

I say beast for as soon he joined the fight she removed her circlet, throwing it to the floor. Her form writhed and twisted as she transformed back into her original state, a large green lizard! I'd heard tales of lizards that could turn their enemies to stone, Basilisks! Hanging on as best I could, I continued my attacks, stabbing at the scaled hide. The dwarfs spider manage to destroy one of her eyes and after a vital stab from my rapier the beast was done. It surprised me to be honest, the kill was easier than I'd anticipated.
 
No sooner than we'd finished taking what we could from the basilisk's corpse, an old man in a poke dot robe burst into the inn shouting about a statue. He set his gaze on Ilimahg's stone form, running over to him. He then started complaining saying something about it not being the right look, needed to be a rat. After he calmed his inane ramblings, we managed to come to an agreement that he could have the now statue of Ilimahg, if we could take his weapons and equipment first. The mage wasted no time and with a flick of his wrist, he turned the statue to mist. We quickly grabbed the gear before it returned to stone and promptly made our way to the market district. An eventful start to the day...
 
After a short walk we arrived at the market district, only to find the place completely deserted. After entering one of the blacksmiths, we discovered a bloodbath had taken place and someone it seemed had gone to go door to door killing each of the merchants. Not wanting to be next in line, we hurriedly went back to the inn and found the mage carving away at a now wooden statue of Ilimahg. Apparently, he needed to transform Ilimahg to wood so he could carve him into a rat first and then turn him back to stone. Once the mage was done carving, he flicked his hand and the statue was stone again. Thinking that we could now reverse the effect of the petrification from the basilisk, I opened the vial of basilisk saliva we took and poured as much as I could on Ilimahg. To my surprise, it did nothing other than cause the mage to laugh. With a chuckle he exclaimed we need to apply the saliva through steam in some type of hot box. I asked if there was another way to reverse the petrification and he said one of the clerics at a nearby church could do it.
 
The mage cast another spell lifting the statue onto a hovering disk and we set off for the church. Shortly after we arrived to find the church surrounded by toll gates and a Bullywog standing guard. After speaking his gibberish and Albert haggling with him, they settled on a toll of 3 silver and we entered the church ground. To our surprise upon our entry we heard a familiar voice. It was none other than our previous employer Bombastus, he was commanding a group of ruffians to dismantle the church. Upon our approach I greeted him and stated why we were there. He was slightly taken aback and then informed us that he and his little gang had just finished slaying the clerics moments ago. Bombastus was hesitant to try and revive any of the clerics given how difficult they were to dispatch in the first place.
 
After I finished explaining our predicament he caught one of his men about to slit the throat of one of the clerics that laid dying nearby, and commanded him to stop. We dragged him out of the ruined church and agreed to stabilize him enough just so he could cure Ilimahg's petrification. Bombastus agreed and pulled a familiar looking candle from his coat. He suggested we light the candle to pacify the cleric to avoid any possible fight, I agreed and Albert performed a minor healing spell and lit the candle. The cleric rose up, confused about his circumstances and surroundings. The candle made him most agreeable and he did not put up any resistance to healing Ilimahg. The cleric performed the spell needed and began a sermon spouting his nonsense. Once Ilimahg's consciousness returned I promptly dispatched the cleric running my blade through his back.
 
This seemed to please Bombastus, who invited us into the basement of the church to see one of his projects. Upon reaching the bottom, we found teams of dwarves mining and sculpting a large tunnel. Apparently Bombastus and the towns Mayor want to build and underground canal to the coast. The church was one of the buildings that needed to move and after the clerics refused, they were killed. It is impressive, it's certainly a massive project to build and the logistics of it can't be understated. I've no idea how they're going to flood the tunnel deep enough for ships to run through it. So, for the meantime at least it appears we're working with or for Bombastus once again. He's quite cunning and I can never figure out if he's being sincere of using us for his own designs. Time will tell...

JH