A valiant....... escape

We continued exploring through the catacombs, opening a door that led into darkness. Horadric lit the way as we walked through a long room, finding on the far side of it the boy, Thuran. Treble shouted at him, which just seemed to upset the poor thing. I went over and told him we were there to help, and attempted to break him free of his shackles. However, the iron chain was very thick and I wasn't able to break it. I tried attacking a length of the chain with my flail, attempting to break it, but again saw no results. Horadric and Jellissa came over and helped me try to break the chain again, but even together we were unable to break such a thick chain. I followed after the others, leaving Horadric behind to pick the lock and take care of Thuran.

Through the pillared hallway, Keh'r lit up his sunrod to illuminate a room full of foes. We found ourselves facing three skeletal archers, two blazing, fiery skeletons, two bonewretch skeletons, a deathwalker wight, a bone shard skeleton, and six decrepit skeletons. I maneuvered to the front lines to find a spot from which I could better mark my enemies, and found myself being besieged by ranged attacks: three arrows from the archers, an orb of black energy from the wight, and two flaming orbs from the blazing skeletons. I was looking pretty ragged, and so I was grateful when Rhogar touched my arm and infused me with healing energy. In the meantime, Rhogar cast a safe zone behind the pillars, to bolster our defenses as we awaited the melee enemies to join with us as our allies traded ranged attacks with the skeletons. However, this didn't work as well as we'd hoped, as Rhogar was subsequently knocked unconscious in short order and we found ourselves in a position where we needed to run in earnest.

Keh'r went into the fray to grab Rhogar and drag him to safety, as I dealt a grave injury to one of our foes and used the Earth's gifts to slow them down behind us. As Keh'r and I were heading out, we found Horadric and Elaira were still too close to the enemies, so we slowed and encouraged them to run ahead of us. I took a few more hits, and Elaira and I became slowed. I found myself again in need of healing; I paused from the fray to heal myself and push my enemies away, and was surprised and grateful when Horadric lent me his aid as well... I didn't know he had such an ability. As Keh'r and I were bringing up the rear to help cover Elaira and Horadric, and I was slowed and therefore unable to run quickly away, I found myself again the target of several attacks. I would have been alright if it weren't for the fact that the blazing skeletons had set me aflame and I was unable to douse the fires, and therefore I found myself still weakening quickly. Keh'r was on fire, too, but he didn't even seem to notice it. However, he did notice that I was having some trouble staying upright, and he pulled a flask from his belt, ran over to me, and said, "Here, drink this!" and reached up to pour the potion into my mouth. I was too weakened to protest that I'd rather drink it myself, and took a big swallow of the healing potion. This gave me the energy I needed to follow Horadric and Elaira out the door, with Keh'r and Rhogar behind me. Even so, the fires continued to burn me until finally Rhogar helped me to put them out before they sapped the rest of my energy reserves. We fled from the castle and headed back for Brindol, taking a much-needed long rest so that we could replenish our strength. During our rest in the forest, Elaira broke the news to Thuran about the death of his father. She did it as gently as she could, but the poor boy was still devastated. When we got to Brindol, we took him to his mother.

Some of us stopped by Derrick the artificer's stall to buy potions of various types to help us when we re-enter the castle and face the enemies again. I am not pleased that we had to run from the battle in the first place, but still consider it somewhat a success that we got all of us out of there alive with the condition that we were in when we left. Tomorrow we will try again with more resources, and we will triumph and defeat the brigands who attacked Brindol. We also stopped by the Hall of Great Valor and returned the two artifacts to Sertanian. He was pleased to see us and looking relatively well; he was happy to see the artifacts returned. While I was there I saw Horadric, who told us that he had stopped by the Temple of the Silver Flame and met two acquaintances of his who he convinced to join us as we re-entered the catacombs and defeated the wight and its allies. When we took Jellissa to her temple, she offered us three healing potions as a token of gratitude for our help. If yesterday's battle was any indication of what we'll be facing tomorrow, we will definitely need them.