The Forest of Nemi

After a decent night's sleep with no further weirdness we awake in Mainz. We get assigned a detective mission by Adelaide, with 10 Commune questions we can use for ourselves and 10 more to spend on the mystery. After some Stone Telling and Plant Speaking we get a description of our high level mage. Seems he looks a bit Jewish, so we go talk with the local Jews. They mention that a visiting scholar had arrived around the time wierd court stuff started happening. He was a big know-it-all jerk, and a little defensive of Christians. The rocks also say he hung out with two shapeshifters who ate gems, a boy and a girl. We guess that these are Piligrim and Amethyst. Commune sustains this hypothesis, and they have in fact skipped town, as has the mage. Overall it looks like the mage wanted something from the tomb, a circlet, and he got it. We were merely in the wrong place at the wrong time, and he doesn't want to take over the HRE or anything. As we get ready to leave Bernward takes us aside to talk with him, Henry IV, and a guy named Thangbrand that we haven't met. He asks us to keep an eye out for a ring with three gems: 1 red crystal, 1 translucent white, and 1 green with purple sparkles. He says they lost this, and if we could find it that would be great. Also, don't look at it because it will take over your brain. As we're about to go a kid runs in and says "We just got back from Tizaphon, we got the cup!". He sees us and shuts up. I ask it that's "THE cup", and Bernie says there are cups and there are cups. We take off.

After a brief stop at the Ayesha we head to Rome with Kleantha, the Pope's sister. We leave her at an inn and go to Nemi. There we get ambushed by a bunch of low-level female rangers brandishing a Nymph head. We beat them down and convince them that we're not here to try and kill their god, Verbigius. Harald's ears perk up, as he has been nursing a theory that Al Khidir is now the Rex Nemorisis, trapped by the Lake of Nemi. On the way to see him a sheep charges the party and turns into a crazy monster. It's big, and has the horns of an ox, the face of a man, the tusks and trunk of an elephant, hooved forelegs, bird-claw rear legs, and a tiger's tail with spikes. All of them can attack, plus a bite (9 attacks!!! with a good THAC0!!!). He really doesn't like Harald, and knocks the crap out of him in one round while yelling in gibberish language. The party fights valiantly, and we kill it. "What the hell was that?" everyone asks each other. No answers. We continue to see the god.

Indeed, it is the Green Man of Islam. However, he has a memory problem, and he's kind of depressed. He perks up a little when we don't challenge him to combat. He mentions that he used to have a magical cup that could make ice cream, but he lost it. Also, he thinks he could remember stuff if he could remember his name. He thinks he might be named after his mother. We try some stuff, but to no avail. We ask if it's OK to hack the lake, and he says sure. Ailyll Communes with Nature, who says that there are two monsters in the lake: A giant worm and a scrag. We summon some crocs and bugs and go down in an Airy Water. The ships are mostly broken, but we do find a worm. It swallows Harald, but we manage to kill it before he is digested. The scrag is no problem. We find one room that has been sealed with pitch, and something within Detects as magic. Harald Clairvoys into the room and sees some dead folks and a statue with Caligula's head grafted to the top. It's got some diamond eyes, and the magic is coming from that direction. The tree gives us a Woe on going in through the door, so we cut a hole in the floor and peak in. The three dead guys' wraiths come up and start complaining about how much it sucks to be Caligula's sex slaves. We beat them without losing any levels, thank goodness. The statue doesn't come to life, and one eye is magical, the other a 5000gp diamond. Harald grinds the regular one into powder for Nondetection. We head back to Rome, telling the Green Man that we'll try to learn his name.