Adrian: Baldur's Gate

Adrian's guts turned to ice. He went weak in the knees. A rational corner of his mind was insisting this was a trick, had to be a trick. But the rest of him was just screaming.

The scream reached his lips and came out as a faint squeak that turned into a growl.

Tethtoril matieralized out of the gloom on Elminster's other side. "Ah, Obe, Deder. You found Adrian. Good. Things have gone too far as it is." The Dwarf and Gnome eyed one another uncertainly.

"Tethtoril wanted to tell you, but he could not," said Elminster. "Nor could I. I could only obserrve, and attempt to break the spell."

"Spell?" Adrian asked weakly.

"From the beginning of this mad dance you have been geased, but more than that, subjected to illusions," said Elminster. "You have wreaked a trail of havoc across the Coast for Sarevok, doing his bidding, all unwitting."

"I assume the rest of us have succubmed to this somehow spreading magically induced delusion?" Edwin sneered.

"Even me, with my innate resistance to magic?" Viconia added, in her coldest voice. Those icy tones were like a splash of cold water in Adrian's face, and helped stabilize him.

Elmisnter nodded. "Incredible it seems, I know. But you underestimate the power of Winski, Sarevok's pet sorcerer and mentor. He has drawn all of you in. By the time it is done, you will be hanged for the crimes he pins on you. Reiltar and his cronies are the least of it."

"For what end?" asked Adrian sharply.

"Murder, of course," said Tethtoril. "Murder on a grand scale."

Adrian once again turned to Tiax, who shrugged helplessly, not getting anything yet from the trio ahead of them.

Adrian eyed the others. Edwin and Viconia were clearly not buying it. Obe and Deder looked uncertain. Xzar was just staring, eyes bugged out. Kagain was ready to fight, fingering his enchanted axe and glaring.

Adrian turned back to Gorion. "I saw you die," he said, and his voice cracked a little.

"Indeed it looked so," his foster father said. "But in truth I was only struck with a poisoned dagger, which paralyzed me. For days I lay helpless, slowly dehydrating in that field. Insects and vermin crawled over me. It was indescribable." The wise old man who had been one of the only two people to treat Adrian with kindness growin up shivered. "But Elminster found me and cured me. Together we have been trying to break through these delusions since. But the time has come for direct action. Too long have we tried hints and gestures. The time is now."

Adrian thought back. Thought back to watching Sarevok cut Gorion in half, quite literally. Remembered burying the body, the smell of his foster father's blood on his hands, and of the dirt and soil. Imoen standing behind him, weeping softly. The sheer reality of it.

Then he made his decision. He straightened his shoulders and said. "Very well...father. It is good that you live. Lead me out of this cold darkness."

Gorion nodded. "Follow us, this is the way out." The three wise elders turned and went around the corner behind them.

"Adrian," Edwin hissed. "I can't beleive you would--"

"Shut up," said Adrian. "Make yourself and Xzar invisible, get up to that corner fast, launch fireballs down whatever hallway there is, and come back running. The rest of us will march normally forward."

Edwin nodded, eyes wide with understanding, and turned to Xzar, beginning to cast the spell.

"What if yer wrong, boy?" Obe asked. "Ye've been a cold lad all your life. This would be too far."

"If I'm wrong," said Adrian quietly, "I'll let you two kill me."

They gasped, but nodded. Viconia put a hand on his shoulder and stared at him with serious eyes. He gave her a reassuring smile, though it cost him an effort.

First Xzar and then Edwin dissapeared. The rest of the party began to march forward at an easy pace. "Coming, father!" Adrian said as brightly as he could manage.

The wizards appeared at the corner, hurling their fireballs into the darkness, and then came running back. As the fireballs exploded, there were squeals of outrage and hisses of pain, none of them even remotely human.

Adrian had, of course, been right. The surviving Greater Dopplegangers came screaming around the corner in rage, but they were no match for Adrian's party.

After that, Adrian was ready to rest, but was not about to in this graveyard. So they moved on, until they finally left the crypts and found themselves in the natrual cave system from which the crypts had been built.

But as they prepared themselves to camp, they heard a new hissing noise.

"What is that?" Viconia cocked her head.

"Tiax knows not, save that it is no doppleganger."

"I wonder--" Obe began, and then he stopped. The entire party turned to stare at him, and even Xzar flinched in horror as the dwarf's skin turned gray. Turned to stone.

"Basilisk!" Deder screamed.