Homer: #2152 No Compassion in the Desert

[chuxton]

Homer: #2152 No Compassion in the Desert

I was out in that nasty Desert of Compassion mining obsidian from sand elementals. Don’t you hate how it chaffs when you get elemental sand under your plate armor? Well I generally try to fight only one or two things at a time out there, what with the spells and the poison and the flame breath. I was engaged with a flaming gargoyle and a flaming skeleton at the same time, which I can handle when I keep my wits about me.
Suddenly, I was surrounded by thousands of gargoyles of all kinds. Well, okay, there may not have been thousands, but there were two or three new guys besides the two I was fighting and they had me hemmed it. The last I saw of my wits, they were bounding across the dunes as fast as they could go. I tried to catch up with them, but just ran into more gargoyles. I died by fire and lightning.
What to do next? I formulated a plan “A” that called for Smudge to clear a path between my body and the compassion shrine so that I could pray for resurrection and return for my “stuff.” I strolled over toward the shrine in ghost form to scout things out for him. Yikes! It was the gargoyle company picnic. It would take Smudge hours to clear that out and the way all of that decorative masonry was packed together, he would be in danger of meeting the same fate I had.
Plan B- much simpler. I take the transport to Britain, heal, get my backup kit from the bank and come back to simplify the architecture. So I did. When I got back to my body, I found all of my goods in place and unstolen. I guess I had some sort of a mutual respect Homer of Arabia thing going for me. That might have inspired me to be compassionate like the shrine says and leave in peace. I was not in the mood. I decided that the gargoyles and their buddies were going to provide a scholarship grant to pay for my retraining. There was no compassion in Compassion today. I killed everything I could find or track all of the way to the shrine and then back across to the eastern edge. It worked out as planned, all of my skill loss repurchased and 1200 gold pieces left- plenty for an ice cream soda to cool off.
#2152 in the books, but I’m still cranky. I think I’ll go back tomorrow.

[Zoram]

Excellent!