Defiler defiled

28th of Pegasus
Dear Father Philip-

The Trials are heating up, Overkill has taken his personal tragedy and used it as his driving force, He actually got as far as having a weightlifting competition against a Titan, I had never seen one before, but there was Overkill huffing and puffing away (i think the fact that he only had to lift the bars about 8 inches to get it over his head helped) and mostly kept up. Unfortunately the Titan did defeat him, but it took a giant from myth to do so. It was very exciting. Jadeir and Tyvernos wandered off as well, but I assumed they were heading for a Tavern and maybe a little wagering on our friends, which I would have done if only to show solidarity.
After the days fun and games we slowly wended our way back to Elanu’s house. It was getting on to dusk and we were tired, sweaty (and smelly, you don’t go near Overkill when he has been exerting himself for the whole day. Phewee, if he smells like that in the wrestling bouts he will win by TKO.
Happily enough there were baths waiting for us, and then dinner and council. I jumped in the bath with much relish, and I heard the others doing the same. Then suddenly while I was dozing in the bath I thought I heard something . . . Suddenly the bath water turned icy icy cold. I jumped out fearing the worst and grabbed the Three Sisters. I opened myself to the power of Isis and cast an enchantment on my weapon, If there was evil nearby the sisters eyes would turn black.
I looked, black eyes glittered in the candlelight.
I rushed out into the hall, just in time to see the others doing the same.
We all started babbling at once. water . . cold . . evil nearby . . . are we under attack.
We all then noticed that we were naked, except for the weapons at hand, standing in the hallway. We immediately ducked back into our rooms. I put on some breeches and my boots and ran back out, but before I left I made use of some of the perfumes and unguents that Elanu had made available, more specifically the Talcum Powder. This i scattered on the ground and in the air, just in case there were things moving about undetected. We checked our rooms again and we were being robbed, by invisible creatures. Xerx’ses and Overkill checked in on their things, and it was immediately apparent that someone had been in our rooms since we had jumped out of our baths and ran into the hall. We checked the rooms again and in-between Xerx’ses and my room there was an empty room, and in it there was a hastily made trapdoor, and trying to descend the ladder leading down from the trapdoor was a hooded figure. Overkill let out an almighty roar and charged, stabbing his swords violently downwards, his antagonist showed that he was no stranger to fighting as well, and tried to twist out of the way, but luck was against him. Overkills first sword strike just missed taking of the fingers of his left hand, but the follow through caught him in the side of the head, his eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped bonelessly out of sight, to crash onto something hard below. Overkill followed the thief in with a quick jump, and I heard Overkill land on something soft that made a small popping noise, like when Xerx’ses hits a watermelon with a hammer.
There was also the sound of a crossbow or bow, it was hard to tell as Overkill screamed out his rage again. Xerx’ses followed quickly as well, using his magical ring to transform into human form so he would fit into the trapdoor.
By the time I got to the trapdoor I heard Overkill scream out his victory cry and I held up my left hand and said a small devotion to the light of Isis, and her Lord Brother shared some of his light with me and suddenly the room was lit as if was daytime. Down below in the flickering shadows there were 2 bodies laying on the ground. One was at the bottom of the trapdoor, and when I climbed down for a closer look showed wounds on his body that suggested a small chunk of Neutron Star may or may not have landed on him, and laying in the far corner near a passageway was another body, this one was almost cleaved in half, with one arm clutching what looked to be an Amulet of Anubis, and the other Arm was burnt and blackened, and it was holding Oathbringer. I swore under my breath so the others would hear me not and ran over, as soon as I touched her the Mace screamed out her rage and demanded vengeance. I complied and smashed her down on the Unholy symbol clutched in our enemies hand, and suddenly unholy flame roared up out of it and blistered my skin not covered by clothing, but luckily did not set the house on fire. I imagined explaining to Mikala that we stopped our adversaries but burnt his brothers house down. Xerx’ses and I then searched the other rooms down below and found more miscreants involved in deviltry. We warned all the people that we say and eventually the alarm was raised. Tyvernos and Jadeir returned as well. Apparently they had sniffed out trouble earlier on in the day, and found a Raksasha disguised doing things about the town, but that they had decided to come back to warn us and the place was under attack. With what has happened here in the past few days I really believe someone high up in the Order of the Jackal or whatever it is they call themselves is here in town, as I can’t see them not gloating over what is happening, but I can’t think of anything to help flush them out at the moment.
We started helping with the cleanup, feeling a bit better for ourselves as we managed to recover our stolen items, but there was another surprise waiting for us. Elanu was greatly disheartened by the fact that his brother, Mikala, had disappeared during the evenings attack, whether he was dead or otherwise is not known, and he wouldn’t have went willingly, what could take him from here without notice. He was distraught but we did manage to calm him, and then went looking for something of Mikala’s to help find him, but there was nothing left in his room of his, and all that Elanu had was an Old Magic Arrow, which Xerx’ses tried to discern some information, and it turned out that it was an Arrow imbued with Rune magic, but all that Xerx’ses could find was that it would help us if we helped it find a worthy carrier. I felt helpless by this stage. Overkill and Xerx’ses and the others had fought off the enemy, Tyvernos and Jadeir had found a potential nest of vipers for us to investigate, and all I could do was say the last rites over the bodies of the fallen as they burnt on the pyre.

I thought that Elanu and he thought that he needed to be forgiven his crimes, so we could benefit from some insight from the gods we headed to the church of light. Once there I gave Elanu his confessional, not that he is a bad man, but that he is just a man.
I then had an Idea, the feather from my dream maybe, just maybe . .
I rummaged through my pack and pulled out the feather, I asked Elanu to hold out his hand and I placed it in it. Happily enough it seemed to have no weight so I thought his soul held no major burdens, and the feather disappeared without harm to Elanu. I took this as a sign that he was still accepted by the gods.
However a very unhappy elf left the church that morn, and I knew nought else that could help.

One last worry is that Mikala has somehow been made to work with the enemy, to think that something could take Mikala in a well protected house like this with any alert being given is a great worry and danger to all those working in the light.

Fair Winds and Godspeed
Indaris Excellar

Scibbled down on the early morn of pegasus 29th during the trials by Indaris Excellar