Well, it took a little arguing, but we got a better deal out of Theo. He agreed to recharge our two wands as part of our reward, but the money dropped to 12,500 GP. Considering how much it cost to recharge wands, this is a much better deal for us. After resting up and regaining spells, we headed back in to clean out the Southeast corner of the complex. We still hadn't discovered what had stacked all the furniture in the closet, so we figured something else must be in there. We headed east from the entrance, past the rooms we had already explored, and worked towards what we expected to be the Southeast corner. Sure enough, a room or two layer we turned to the North. We found a few more empty rooms but not much else. We discovered the armory, the weapon storerooms, and the fletcher's room. A detect magic there revealed some of the arrows as being magic. We backtracked, and found that a shield was also magical, so we took that along. It seemed like we were finished, so we headed out and found Theo.
We wandered through again with him in tow, so he could verify the place was clean. And that was that. Well, almost. There was a minor snag in that he docked our pay by 1500 GP because of the shield, but we decided not to push it. Getting the wands recharged was more than enough for me. We used some of the cash to get stuff identified, so we'd know what we were dealing with. The ten arrows were only +1, but magic arrows are a must against some creatures. The shield was also +1, but a missile attracter. Kind of a mixed blessing, but Glug was happy to get it. The wands got really recharged, up to about fifty charges apiece! That made me happy, and Milque ecstatic. So much so that he immediately ran outside and blew six charges just to see what happened! Sometimes he's such an idiot, I wonder why he's trying to be a mage.
The statuette of Gaiea that we found was also enchanted. It was a druidical item, that increased the range and duration of druidic spells. Not useful for us, but maybe someone at the temple of Gaiea would be interested. There was a message from Danell waiting for me back at the inn. When I went to see him, he asked if we had seen Chicot recently. Apparently, none of the local rangers had been into town since the plague had in cured. None of the Druids either. This sounded pretty suspicious, and we were bored with waiting for Chicot anyway, so we said we'd check it out.
We stopped by the temple of Gaiea on the way out of town the next day. It was closed an empty, as if no one had been there in months. Now we were getting worried. We'd put the word out that we were looking for a guide who could lead us to the rangers encampment in the Tanglefoot woods, and hooked up with a female dwarf name Xan who claimed she knew the way. We were a little skeptical about following a dwarf in the woods, but despite Quicksilver's misgivings she didn't get us lost. We reached her friend Kickote's cabin (what is it about these ranger names, anyway? Do they have to change them when they start their careers?) as evening was falling. Unfortunately, it was as empty as the temple had been. We decided to spend the night there and continue searching in the morning. About six o'clock the next morning, however, in the middle of my watch, I heard a knock on the door.
I was quite surprised to find Chicot there when we opened it. A somewhat different Chicot, but Chicot none the less. He was pleased and excited to see us, and couldn't wait to introduce us to this woman he'd met. We were all pretty suspicious, since he'd never been much of a ladies' man, but he brooked no refusal. Finally we agreed to follow him to where the love of his life lived, and hear about the work they were doing to care for the forest. When we got there, we discovered that "They" was more than just Chicot and Olivia (his love). There was another ranger and a Druid named Walt there as well.
We were welcomed with open arm by the group, and I had to admit that Olivia was indeed a lovely elf. But what she saw in Chicot was another matter. I should also note that Blink took an immediate dislike to Olivia, so Milque stayed outside with him. This probably saved our lives in the charming events which were soon to follow. We were soon sitting down inside to a large feast, which appeared surprisingly quickly after we arrived. I (and I think everyone else) suspected both poison in the food and magic, so we ate as little as possible. I spotted Glug summoning some food of his own, and tried to mostly eat his. I saw Olivia take some food to Milque, but he told me later that he tossed it into the woods. A lot of what I'm going to write here I heard later as we pieced together the events, but I'll try to keep it all straight.
I tried to get out of the room by saying I wanted to go for a walk, but I got saddled with Walt and Chicot giving me a tour of the surrounding woods. I talked with Chicot for a bit, basically ignoring Walt at first, but suddenly, after a few minutes, I really decided Walt was my friend. A really good friend. He tried to convince me that Olivia was great and I should do whatever she said. I realize now that he must have charmed me, but he sure seemed reasonable. Besides, he's a great guy. He must have had a good reason. I think.
Meanwhile, Olivia had led Glug off into the woods and was proceeding to seduce him. It didn't take long before she had him eating out of her hand. Milque, however, had figured out she was charming him, and decided to try and kill her right away. He hid by the side of the trail, and as they came back he jumped out and backstabbed her. Not that it did any good. She shrugged off the damage like it was nothing, and fled away screaming faster than he could run. Glug stood there confused for a few moments in shock, and that gave Milque time to get away. He wanted to just leave, but Blink wouldn't let him go. So he decided he needed help and came after me. With Blink's help he tracked us down and tried to get me away from them. He created an illusion of a dark elf that only the two of them saw. They chased it, and he tossed the statuette at me. At this point I guessed he was there and grabbing the statuette I ducked into the woods out of sight.
He told me that Olivia was evil and we had to stop her. I tried to explain that Walt said she was great, so she must be ok, but he convinced me that she had charmed Walt and was leading him into evil. Well, my buddy needed saving, so I was all for it. But I wasn't very sure I'd react well, so I gave Milque the wand of lightning to use. We hatched a plan to sneak back invisible and blast her before they could react. If we got her, all her charm spells would be broken, and then we could straighten everything else out. Back at the cabin, they searched for us without much success. Oh yes, Quicksilver and Xan woke up tied up in the woods. Olivia and her cohorts didn't understand how that could have happened (yeah right), so those two at least were on their guard.
That night, we slipped back and snuck up to the window. Milque climbed in, blasted both wands, and dove out again. I was waiting and cast invisible on him as he came out. The fighters and rangers came pouring out the door after us, but we slipped around to the window on the far side of the cabin. Glug, the charmed fool, was healing her! Fortunately, it wasn't enough. Milque hit her again with both wands, and I nailed her with magic missiles. This time she started to smolder. But I was too distracted to notice. Milque had dropped the wand of lightning, and was holding an ornate deck of cards. He drew two out and the deck vanished. Of course there was now a hideous demon standing beside us. I dove for the wand of lightning and Milque yelled "I wish for you to return to wherever you came from." I looked up and the demon was gone. From inside came the sound of Glug lamenting the loss of Olivia. Me? I was wondering if Walt was okay. We headed inside to straighten everything out, and saw that Olivia had changed shape. She now had fur and looked like a fox. Well, actually she'd looked like a fox before, but now she was a fox. A were-fox! That explained her speed and why Milque's backstab had no effect!
On to Journal Thirteen