Chapter 30

Praise be to Baldr, may his memory deliver me from sin, wretched dwarf that I am.

This trip to the realm of shadows has been exhausting, in the kind of way that you can feel in the marrow of your bones. I am so tired, and feel so pitiful, and this all feels so pointless.

I guess we did find Tolko.

To back up a bit: we were licking our rooms in a cavern beneath the castle, a shadow of The Wizard's home. Lenny absolutely would not sit still while her sister was still missing, so we pushed forward as soon as we finished catching our breath. I led the group daylight shining from my hammer. At least I could provide some use. Finally we came upon a staircase where we heard familiar calls for help. Running up the stairs, we found Tolko, disheveled and talking to himself. He was ecstatic to see us, at least at first, ranting about how he knew we would arrive. I should add that Castelis was a giant snake, which would turn out to be a smart decision but honestly scares the Baldr-loving shit out of me every time I see it.

Then Gurney opened his mouth about how we weren't looking for him and this was just chance, and it all went downhill from there. Honestly Tolko was in such a sorry state, it was probably inevitable. He started talking of an Azu-Fareen and mixing ingredients into a magic pot, from which an eye of smoke appeared. Scourpax, who was having about as bad a day as I was, used some new unholy spell to drop Tolko into a pit of tentacles. I swear on my life I do not know how our little group's warfare became so tentacle-y. Helike then tossed his disturbing Octopus familiar at Tolko, killing it (the familiar) instantly, and when Tolko called him the worst, Helike declared him his sworn enemy. That reminds me, Tolko knew things about us that I do not remember telling him. This whole meeting stank of shadow bullshit magic.

I was useless against Tolko and his magic, so I channeled the little I have left of Baldr's light to turn his skeletal underlings to dust. Lenny tried to destroy the pot to no avail, and Tolko's fire monster nearly burned Gurney alive. We managed to down Tolko, Castelis revived him, and then Gurney quickly downed him again when he tried to cast some hex. Unfortunately we were too late to stop his spell, and Azu-Fareen himself arrived, himself a large, draconic shadow creature screaming at how we had attacked his researcher.

I am still shocked that wasn't the end of us right there.