A Complicated Errand

As the two gods entered the room, we were all struck by a sense of awe and insignificance. Dru and I dropped to our knees before our respective patrons, and Dru made an offering and prayer to Chauntea on the spot. She smiled, and took him to another room for a private conversation. Silvanus spoke to me as well, though not in private, and said "You must figure out if you want to live with two voices in your mind or bring them together. You can't bring balance to the world if you can't even bring balance to yourself." It cut me to the core. I had known something was wrong with my mind, the constant voices clamoring for control and struggling to subdue each other. For the moment I knew that I, Lurker, was the one who needed to be in control. The boy and the child were not ready for what we are facing. But perhaps the god was right. The constant struggle is tiring, and some sort of consensus must be reached eventually. But until I discovered what caused this "split" in myself, there was little I could do to heal it.
Silvanus, Amara, and Fen eventually all took their leave and we were left to discuss what our plans were next. Part of me wanted to stay and see to the defenses of Barad Ellion. But at the same time I felt inadequate to make a difference after seeing the forces Merkyl and Bane controlled in their dungeon, and knew we needed to learn more about how to fight them and grow stronger before we had a chance to win. We also discussed going to retrieve Egert, but again felt that venturing back into the dungeon would be foolhardy. Part of me was also reluctant to risk my life in such a way again while I am so far away from seeing my own goals realized. There are things I must do before I am claimed by my other patron permanently, and I could risk a suicide mission. But I did not voice those thoughts to the group; I was not ready to trust them with that knowledge yet. Fighting demons is one thing...
In the end we decided to find Zarruk's uncle. Zarruk did not say if there was information in the letter as to what he wanted, but it seemed urgent.
We remembered that we had left some of our treasure at the bottom of the well in Scholar's Square, so Po and I decided to go retrieve it. It was night already by the time we left the inn and headed to the square, and it was beginning to rain. As we walked through town it seemed that word of an attack had already begun to spread and people were beginning to make preparations for defense and a possible seige. Upon arriving at the square we found that the well was being guarded by four soldiers. Getting a closer look we found that they had brought our treasure up and piled it by the well. I doubted that the guard would just turn the bags over to us if we showed up, so Po and I devised a plan to distract the guard and allow him to slip close and grab the bags. It went fairly smoothly; I cast a darkness spell to block their view of Po and he cast Faerie Fire to distract them. They almost heard him though and began searching for the treasure when they realized it was missing. I used another spell to disguise myself as a guard in case they came to close, but fortunately he was able to slip away before they saw him. While watching I noticed that these soldiers had the symbol of the Black Fist on their armor. It reminded me that a woman calling herself Aleyid Burral of the Black Fists had offered us a job. Too bad we wouldn't be able to take it; the coin would have been nice.
After Po rejoined me, he told me that he had taken a piece of the obsidian rock that covered the ground around the square and had thrown it down the well to distract the guards. But when he picked it up, he felt like something or someone was screaming in his mind. One more product of whatever corrupted spells the Blue Flame were using to sow chaos in the land no doubt. But we'll need to be careful if we come in contact with it again.