The battle had begun...and we were quite literally in the middle of it this time. Hell, aren't we 'always' in the middle of it?
The Charua-ka had attacked, and they had summoned their great demonic ape champion. This thing was a creature to behold. Nearly 20' tall, the monster was able to pull trees out by the roots and hurl them like a child throwing sticks.
By this time we had penetrated quite far into the ancient complex, to find a strange stone plinth. Carved with odd symbols it glowed rhythmically and had some type of niche holding a strange globe of sorts.
Elsbeth, ever the careful one (yeah, right), carefully made her way into the room and checked over the strange artifact. With no apparent way to interact with the plinth, we couldn't figure out a way in which to free the "stone" globe. For stone is what we believed the thing to be made of...although it certainly did have very odd properties, like the strange glow for instance.
After some very careful observation, and no small amount of hemming and hawing by Ix, Elsbeth found that the globe was held in place by a set of pincers. And lo and behold, Ix had a magical spell prepared that cast a sheen of grease upon the pincers...and it was then an easy task to tug it free.
As this was taking place, I was checking the walls, which were covered ceiling to floor with glyphs and writing of some sort. Near the back wall though I found a very strange pattern, not unlike the one of the front doors. The same pattern that destiny manipulated in order to pass through the stone portals. And wonder of wonders, as soon as Elsbeth pulled the key free, the pattern changed! But it was not until later that I was to figure out why...
Worse came to worse for the defenders and Durvil, seeing the carnage that the Charua-ka had wrought, hustled back in to elicit ou aid...and post haste I might add. Somehow I ended up with the key..and it occurred to me that the key had been glowing like that great big sphere outside. Maybe there was some type of connection.
So as we emerged into the chaotic press, that's where I headed immediately.
The champion of the Charua-ka broke through the barrier like a bull through reeds. On it came, bellowing and swatting the defenders left and right. Durvil, ever the brave fool, took a stand, called out the name of "Otterson!" at the top of his lungs and charged the monster with a leveled lance. The short of it was; It didn't go well. He was swatted aside and left for dead. But as we all know, Durvil is one stubborn son of a bitch. He wasn't about to die easily.
Approaching the glowing sphere is when things got weird for me. One instant I was standing amidst screaming men and monkeys: The next, I was peering down at a stone floor from on high. A moment of confusion reigned, but I soon figured out that I was back in that strange tomb / museum. So I moved to leave immediately to help my friends. What sort of witchcraft I had befallen, I did not know. But I needed to get out to my comrades quickly. And that's when I noticed that not only was my point of observation, or my sight, skewed, but my arms and legs felt strange.
In fact, my whole body felt extremely odd! I tried to recall how much, and of what I had drunk. No, that wasn't it. I looked down and saw that I was made of Iron! Truly and amazing thing!!!
But still, the need called: My friends were out there being slaughtered by that giant gorilla creature.
I emerged into the sunlight and the monkey beast spied me immediately. It bellowed out a massive challenge and charged to meet me. I did the same of course...I was after all a massive iron titan of fable! Sure I couldn't move as gracefully, but I made up for that in sheer size and bulk. I was heavy!! And IRON!
The fight erupted, and even though I couldn't physically feel pain, I realized right away that this monster was no pushover. Even though it was "flesh and blood" it was demonically infused...And fought as such: Like a demon. I tore away at my new iron body, and nearly had me, but in the end, those massive iron fists won out, and the creature crashed to the ground, defeated.
And with that, the Charua-ka melted away into the jungles like the morning mist with the rising of the sun. We had won the day!
Days later and we were cleaned up and ready for travel. Our new "companion", Captain Colgardie agreed to put aside his duel with Durvil for another day and pursue more lucrative concerns in the north.
And with that we set off, back north to further adventure!
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