Cade's Journal
I am not sure I made the correct decision in asking the group to join me on this adventure. I was so caught up in the idea of getting those Goggles of the Night that I didn't ask the right questions at the start and Raz'i'el plays things very close to the chest.
Without knowing where we were going or what we were really after, we joined hands with Raz'i'el as she teleported us all the way to the plane of Elemental Chaos. From what she said afterwards, this plan shifts each day, randomly, to focus on a different element. When we arrived it was in the air phase, which seemed fairly benign. We were able to move around it by thinking about the direction we wanted to go similar to how we moved in Raz'i'el's shop. I was never sure if that had to do with Raz'i'el being there or something with the plane. Raz'i'el said we were after an "Elemental Node" and she did a ritual to locate one and said it was about a 3 day trip away.
We started marching in the direction Raz'i'el told us and made pretty good time and I was able to have a nice conversation with Lotty about building me some additional arms now that I have a second magic staff. I think that will be useful.
Some clouds were following us at one point that ended up being some Air Elementals and they tried to ambush us, but we soundly defeated them. I was never sure if Raz'i'el would help us in combat but she held her own well.
That night I tried to build a dome out of vines to protect us while floating in the air, it took a lot of seeds I had collected recently to grow. Unfortunately it did not provide the protection we needed as more Air Elementals showed up and blew us out of their with some wind attack. We were all tied together so we didn't float away so it became a big mess of a fight, however we eventually won it.
In the morning the plane shifted to fire and at first I thought we were going to fall to our death but Raz'i'el saved us by making us float down. We kept marching on the lava crust toward the elemental node. At one point a pocket burst some lava on us but we were able to recover and fine harder crust. An army of Fire Elementals with some larger creatures too passed us, fortunately Elric was able to use his ranger magic to help us hide from them.
On the second night, it was peaceful, I grew another dome but with no plants around I had to use the last of the seeds I had on me. The night went without incident and I had a good conversation with Raz'i'el about Aeon. I guess he has left the area but still has power an influence through his worshippers. It is good he is still around and I now feel a stronger urge to return to worshiping him formally so I can help him gain more influence and turn back evil.
The plane shifted again, back to the element of Air, and we floated along toward the node. Eventually we arrived and found the Elemental Node suspiciously unguarded. It appeared to be on an alter protected by an Energy Shield but nearby and surrounding it was 4 orbs on plinths. I tried to inspect with Gafros, my familiar, but when he touched the energy shield he was vaporized! He keeps getting violently sent back to his own plane every time I summon him, I just hope it was not too painful.
It was all the party could do to stop X2 from running head long into that protective shield, he seemed hell bent on touching it. Fortunately we distracted him by inspecting he orbs on the outside. I had a whim to touch one of them with an element so I summoned Fire and the orb responded, it turned Red, and instantly 2 small Air Elementals and 1 big one wearing armor appeared near the Elemental Node and attacked us.
Thinking we were going to need to face a similar force each time we touched one of the orbs with an element, making 4 combats, we held back at the start pacing ourselves. That was a mistake! As soon as we killed one of them, they installed were summoned again for us to continually fight!
The group, thinking quickly, each spread out to light the outside orbs with different elements. It was a mad scramble but Raz'i'el took the SE one first with a water based attack on it. The original one I hit with fire was going out so Dolosius and Elric ran to the one on the NE corner to hit with Lightening. Lotty smashed on the NW one with a fire attack. As I ran down to meet X2 at the SW corner one to try to find a way to make an Earth element attack on it.
When I got there, I touched X2's weapon to make it do magic Acid damage hoping that would trigger the orb. However, as soon as I did that he was stunned! I thought quickly about dropping my magic Staff of Healing in order to take X2's weapon and do it but I knew if I did that I would lose the staff forever. I am regretful of that selfish decision as it put my friends in harms way.
Eventually, X2 was able to recover and hit the orb and released the Node. We all yelled to Raz'i'el to grab the Elemental Node quickly and she ran for it as fast as she could. All of the elementals then turned to attack her instead. The fight was crazy and disorganized but we eventually were able to group up on Raz'i'el to get teleported back to the material plane.
We all made it back alive, barely. Raz'i'el paid us what she promised and gave us a bonus of the goggles I was after. It made me feel really guilty as I essentially got the entire bonus just after I made the selfish decision to hold on to my precious staff of healing instead of dropping and losing it to help protect my friends.
After we settled down a bit, I noticed that I felt a little different... a little weaker... I am not sure why. Oddly Dolosius seemed a bit stronger. Raz'i'el said that sometimes other planes can have weird effects on people who visit them. She said she would help if she could, but it might take some powerful magic to get rid of this feeling.
This whole endeavor seems like a bit of a gamble now, I am going to need to be more wary and ask more questions in the future.