Beth Lyons

Death Gaze

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Beth

*Guess who forgot her camera last Wednesday. The cell phone pictures are fine for Twitpics, not really worthy of the blog, though.*

Fario and Felian, the half-elf brothers, decided to join us deeper in the jungle, in pursuit of the undead and the cleric with the scar. As we walked along, Fario told us that Merthan, the leader of the Striders of Fharlanghn, had arrived in Kingfisher Hollow. It will be good to compare notes back at MacTavicks. It seems that the Striders are also searching for the Thirteen.

As we moved through the jungle we could hear the river off to our right. We couldn’t see it through the thick growth, but the sound reassured me. We came up to a clearing. Fario and Brus were up front so they were the first to notice the pile of bones. Before we could examine it, Acgar gave a cry of alarm. Some 30 feet away standing on a rock was a lanky greyish creature. As we turned our attention to the creature, the bones began to move.

Felian ran up to stand beside his brother at the same moment that Fario was moving to be on the other side of the bone pile. I stared in disbelief as the bones danced around until they sorted themselves into several skeletons. Sadi came up beside me and smoothly slipped two arrows into her bow. One went wide, the other hit the grey creature.

Myntilly used an orb of acid on the bone mob. And Acgar sprayed them with her acid breath. The acid didn’t slow them down, but I hoped that it would make the bones themselves more brittle. I took a few steps back and tried to destroy the bones. Clutching my holy sun, I said the words and felt the power move through me. I fully expected that when I opened my eyes, I would see bone dust. But no, the bones still danced. In fact they had surrounded Sadi and Felian.

Myntilly lifted off the ground near me and hovered over Sadi. Sadi jumped and grabbed ahold of her hand and was pulled up to safety. I was standing dumbfounded when I saw Various throw her hands into air. By now I know that usually means a blinding spell. I moved closer to the grey creature perhaps it was controlling the bones. As I got within sight of it, I felt a sharp pain in my chest. For a moment, I couldn’t breathe. And then my holy symbol, the sun I wear around my neck became as hot as a kettle and then I could breathe again. “What,” I thought “was that?” A few moments later I heard Ian casting a spell. He was just behind me and I caught enough of the words to realize he was casting baleful polymorph. That had certainly done the trick on the Fire Giant. I hoped it would work on this creature.

Again Pelor blessed us. We won the day. Captured a cleric, destroyed the bones and, the creature was turned to a frog. I found out later that the pain in my chest was caused by death gaze. When described how I felt and the heat of the holy symbol, Various got very excited. “I knew that it was a bodak. I’ve read about them. I hoped to blind it of course, but I had no idea you’d be so silly as to go right up to it! ”

She stepped closer to Acgar who held the frog. “I wouldn’t look at it, if I were you. In fact here, put it in this pouch. I’ve made a study of polymorph. You can read about it in the Journal of Transmutation. I published a preliminary paper on the affects of polymorph on intelligence and wisdom. My findings, which have been supported by none other than Belkas Huntinghawk, show that a polymorphed creature can retain abilities. Therefore (she adjusted her glasses) that frog should have death gaze.”