Another Letter from Tug

Kirk has written another letter home by his character Tug in is my friend Steve's Pathfinder-based game

 Dear Papa,

It is the 17th of Mart, and I just finished talking to the mayor of this town!  He gave us cloaks and broaches of the town guard!  You always wanted me to be on it.  We had a big feast, with strange food and different types of juices.  They gave me many gold coins for the map I made.  But it was not complete until the spirits of the dead were removed, and we just did that.  Let me write about it.

We met a new stranger, half man and half beast.  He buys all of the giant slayers and me a drink of juice.  The more juice we drank, the more fun we all have, and just like me, Pierce welcomes him to join and help us to remove the spirits of the dead from the tower.  This does prove to be a tough bargain for the half beast Tageam, as he does not understand the dangers involved, at first.

I was given the task to learn as much as possible about these spirits of the dead.  I saw them, too, but I will describe them later.  The giant slayers let me stay in a room entirely by myself all day.  Can you believe that?  This room could fit two wagons.  I meditated in prayer, like you taught me, and I focused on what I remembered of these spirits.  After five minutes, I just absorbed the vastness of the room, all to myself and for the rest of the day.  Then at the end of the day it happened.  I had the vision.  I  saw a dark shape, more essence than form and it was bound, trying to get free.  The vision changed to a different place and I saw a very beautiful maiden, dressed in holy robes, holding a silver pot in a strange way.  She held small decorative chains which hung down and held the pot.  This pot had smoke but no flame rising from it.  She moved it about slowly, to spread the odor of the smoke around.  It reached my nose and so sweet was the smell.  Then the vision ended.  I told the others we had to find this beautiful woman.

Pierce did all the talking to Tyla, the holy woman, so that she would help.  I was still fixated by how she appeared in my vision, that I cannot remember much about her now.  We found her at a house of healing.  Naturally, I wanted to absorb the surroundings, so I volunteered to help the many sick people there, and I applied my skills the best way possible.  They let me stay the night.

In the morning, we all gathered back at the tower, with the holy woman.  The bargain was simple, she gets rid of the spirits, and we protect her.  We move to the top where we saw the spirits of the dead last time.  They attacked us through the walls, before we got there.  I saw one, although there were more that others saw who were behind me.  It was dark vapor in the shape of a hovering body with a head and arms, but no legs.  Its eyes were just black holes.  My initial reaction was to think of my happy place, to shield myself from these vapors of malice.  After a moment, I cannot contain the shield anymore and it releases a force in all directions.  This joyous force hurt the creatures, and they became angry with me and focused their attacks on me, which is good, because they will not hurt Holy Tyla.  All they did was reach out to touch me, and they pulled my strength from me.  Many times they did this, and I would not yield.  I again shielded myself and the shield erupted out to them.  They also attacked  others this same way, too.  I could not heal their weakness, however, I know, somehow, I will be able to in the future.  But, we did our job well, for the holy woman purified and sanctified the area.  This freed the spirits of the dead bound to the tower.

I must finish this letter now.  The giant slayers are calling me back to the party.  I know this all sounds fantastic, especially the part about being on the town guard.  I finally did it.  Not as a fighter, but as a healer.  You can be proud of me.

Your son, Tug.