4.2.5 YOU FAILED AGAIN, MISERABLE ONE! (Milestone - 5th Level!)

Freya, Valric, Zugg Zugg and I decide to head back to the abandoned temple of The God of Guardians once more to finish off the job from before. We don't have Lim Dul with us this time so we'll replace him with Valric. At least we won't have to deal with his antics for now. We make it to the temple just outside of Thistlebriar safely.
 
We head inside, not knowing whether to expect more resistance since we were last here, but it was an easy trek into the heart of the temple. It appeared exactly as we left it, including the keys we left in a bag at the northern door and the eastern statue flipping the bird to the once-present Lim Dul. Who knows who, or what, it has rudely gestured to since our last foray into the temple. Oh well. I don't care. Before heading further inside, I pull out a fuzzy creature from my bag. It materializes into good ole King Louie once again, and I have him guard us from behind should that pesky vampiric mist make its presence known once more.
 
We pick up right where we left off, by going straight to the western side of the circular hallway and heading down the southwestern corridor. I suggest that Valric check for traps as they seem most adept at doing so. They find none and we open the unlocked door. Security doesn't seem to be a priority here. Not before, and certainly not now. Inside, there are several bookshelves lining the walls of the circular room with ladders that allow access to the higher shelves. There are seats in the center of the room near a desk, presumably to allow for comfortable reading and research. That's not something I do much of myself, but this room does feel rather cozy. Just then we hear a voice coming from above. It says "Show me your symbols." We never thought we might need one of the symbols so we just left them at the norther door after inspecting them to make sure they were all there (they were). Zugg pulls out one of his own symbols. I'm unsure of which deity his belongs to. I do know that it was the wrong one, however, as this creature clambers out from above the shelves walking on the ceiling. Suddenly we find ourselves in a tussle.
 
I quickly dash up the ladder nearest the creature and balance precariously while swinging my heavy greatsword. I make purchase once before it flees to the opposite side of the room. My companions are content with firing from afar while I attempt to bring down the creature using more conventional melee techniques. Unfortunately, it brings me down before I can bring it down as it knocks me off balance, causing me to fall from the ladder I've leapt to prone on my back on the desk below. Freya gets the final blow, causing the creature to fall, narrowly missing me in the process.
 
Relieved, I lay there for a moment thankful it didn't fall on me. While gathering my thoughts, the rest of the group search for useful items. We find a couple magical scrolls before Freya attempts to check the shelves for more. As she touches one of the books, several other books begin convulsing. Before we know it, books bound of what appears to be human flesh are flying off the shelves and swarming us. We're not done yet.
 
It doesn't take long for the books to begin making good contact with us, giving Mal at least a few good papercuts. I say to the party, "Whoever said 'Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me' was speaking some BS!" These were some heavy tomes to be hitting this hard. Without any way to set fire to the parchment, it took us a little longer than expected to fend off these testy texts, but eventually we closed the chapter on the encounter and finished searching the room. We find many more spell scrolls. In amongst the books, we find one that is hollowed out, containing a particularly well gilded totem. The moment I touched it, I felt that same sense of exhaustion that Lim Dul explained from before. It's a terrible feeling. I took Lim Dul's lead and headed straight for the other totems and left it there with them. Immediately I felt better and reconvened with the rest of my party.
 
Before entering the final western hallway, I take a quick look at the statue here. Similar to that on the eastern side of the corridor, this statue's hand is placed atop the hilt of a sword. And likewise, this statue's fingers are movable, one of which contains a ring adorned with three painted gemstones on its right ring finger, similar to the other statue's two-gemmed ring on its right pinky. As we figured out last time, the number of fingers which touch the hilt determines which door is opened. We quickly deduce that the final western door requires that a total of four fingers touch the hilt.
 
After unlocking that door, we venture inside to find really nothing at all. Notably, however, there is an image drawn in dried blood of the now-familiar symbol of a femur bone with a skull on top affixed to the wall opposite the door. Around it are what appear to be some mats, presumably for kneeling while praying. This looks to be a makeshift altar. Just then we hear a disembodied female voice calling out. "I don't think we've spoken before. I am Laura." Zugg leads the conversation, asking about herself and what we can do for her. It turns out this is the voice of the wife of Malek, who we're ultimately after here. She rightly assumes we're here to destroy Malek and put an end to his evil dealings. She says he has fallen deeper and deeper into his deal he made with Orcus. She said he was in the Sun God's grace before making this profane deal with Orcus, and now it seems he's too far gone for any hope of returning him to the light of the Sun God. She's worried that if he's allowed to continue further that he will just slip further into insanity, and must be stopped now. Freya asks how we might stop him, to which she replies that channeling divine power might be able to better deal with his servants and guardians. We make note of that and thank her for her help before heading out.
 
Before leaving, she asks us if we know how to properly use the totems we've found to open the locked doors. We tell her we haven't tried yet. She gracefully tells us that she only knows how to open the door to her and her husband's quarters, and to the very chamber in which we can surely find him toiling away at his evil plans. She says to open Malek's chamber, we are to place the gilded totem into the hole three from the left and four from the top. We gratefully thank her for her assistance and move on.
 
Before heading to Malek's door, we decide to take a quick detour to try to figure out the two doors in the center of the circular corridor. There appear to be hand-shaped cutouts surrounded by magical runes. The door is magically sealed, and no amount of lockpicking will open it. Freya has a great idea to use a Mage Hand to see what happens. However, when it approaches the door, the hand appears to have no effect. It was definitely worth a shot. I thought it'd be a good idea to try to place a hand with the same number of fingers held up as the number of gems on the respective statues' ring opposite the door. Valric places his hand into the door. The runes flash and glow. It seems promising, but just then Valric yelps as he is stabbed by a poisoned spike. I decide to try placing two hands simultaneously on each door to see what would happen. Freya asks if I can summon another ape to try that with, to which I reply I can try, but I can't control what fuzzy creature materializes. I pull out a fuzzy creature, which turns out to be a giant weasel this time. I named it Daxter. It's too bad Dexter's hand won't fit fully, so I volunteer King Louie to try in my stead on the eastern door as Freya places her hand on the western one. They both were stabbed as well. Ouch.
 
At this point, we decide it's a good idea to take another short rest before heading to Malek's room. I leave King Louie and Daxter outside to guard the room and alert us to any trouble. While resting, we were interrupted by some loud stomping and an alerting sound only a giant weasel could make. Before we could open the door, poor Daxter had been immediately splattered along the wall, lifeless after his short-lived time with us. Rest In Peace, Daxter. We hardly knew ya. Turns out a minotaur had somehow found its way into the temple. It's always something! After a fairly tough battle, we decide to cut the short rest short and just head back to Thistlebriar where we could fully rest up in relative safety. After the short trek there and back, we're rested enough to continue on to meet Malek.
 
By this time, the magic of the Bag of Tricks had ended for the night. King Louie is gone for now, but I'm sure he'll be back. Once we arrive at the temple, I pulled out another furry creature. This time we met a new friend, a baboon I named Rafiki. I know, the names are pretty creative. It just felt right for some reason. Anyway, Rafiki'e job is to alert us of any trouble from behind as we make our way to Malek's chamber. We make it safely there.
 
All that's left to do now is unlock the door. I take out the special totem and place it into the hole three from the left, and four from the top. To no one's surprise, the door unseals and I push it open.
 
Standing before us now are six quite tall zombies and Malek himself down a small set of stairs in a rather small room. With the seven creatures inside, the room seems even smaller. Malek stands atop an altar of skulls as the zombies watch, as if they're a congregation at a religious service. They turn to look at us as Malek welcomes us. Malek appears to be not quite human anymore, as his spine is twisted in ways it shouldn't be able to twist, looking as though he shouldn't be able to walk. But there he is, doing just that. It's time to end him.
 
Zugg starts by attempting to turn all the undead. He's able to turn four of the six zombies, which is more than enough to be helpful to us. That gives us enough time to make our next move. Rafiki and I try to hold off the two unturned zombies, which are the two closest to us, while Zugg prepares his next move. Just then, Malek casts a Fear on Zugg, buying himself some time to escape into an adjacent room, from which he continues to peek out of and pester us with spells. I pull Zugg out of the room, allowing him to come back to his senses. I guard the door before stepping out of his way to allow him to cast a Shatter ability. This was able to severely wound many of the zombies, causing them to come back to their own senses. But they were on death's door at this point. We retreated slightly to coerce Malek out of his hiding spot, but that wasn't enough to fully prevent him from casting his spells on us. It also allowed the zombies out of the room, but this actually worked in our favor as we used this as a choke point. And it worked well. Freya was able to get a Faerie Fire off on the zombies and Zugg was able to cast a Thunderwave to take out some of the zombies at once. Valric unfortunately was caught up in the blast, but he was thankfully okay. Only one zombie remained, and it was still turned from Zugg's divine power. Things were looking to be in our favor. We marched quickly into the room to meet face to face with Malek. I step aside to make room for my comrades to enter the room, stepping on a nearby bed. We do our best to get him down quickly. But he was able to escape with a cheeky Misty Step. Just then, the bed began shaking under my feet as another ugly ogre awoke from his slumber from under the bed. He said his name is Riggles. Turns out Wiggles has a brother? Son? I don't question it, and just begin whittling him down just as we did his kin. At this point, it's no holds barred as we try feverishly to catch Malek while holding off Riggles. However, with the distraction caused by yours truly, Malek was able to make a full escape. We could never find him. I can't help but feel this is my fault, but how could I have known someone, or someTHING, was sleeping UNDER the bed? I will not hold this against myself, nor let anyone else should they try.
 
With Malek having escaped, we could certainly all feel the pit of our stomachs churning with regret and dread as to where he could have gone. We have no time to search for him before we must get back to Urithiru once more. We search his chambers as thoroughly as we can. We find some coin, a painting worth some cash, yet more spell scrolls and a couple weapons. The greataxe we found appeared to be magical. We agreed to have it identified once we returned to Urithiru. We do so safely, and the greataxe turns out to be a Greataxe of Remembered Rage. This is perfect for me, so I take it and leave the rest of the loot to my friends.
 
I can't wait to venture outside of these walls again to try out this new greataxe. It feels well balanced. Until then, I shall think about what to do next.