Me and Silvanus were on the ground dealing with ogre zombies and skeletons, while Tittlin was up on the rocks providing cover fire. Or so I thought.
Silvanus proved himself early on. He can ignite his glaive at will - just says a word and the thing bursts into flames. Combined that with some kind of cold breath weapon from his draconic ancestry. Guy’s got a solid combat kit. We were making decent progress clearing out the undead when a flame skull showed up and summoned this ball of fire that just sat there burning.
The skeletons kept shooting at us while I tried to clean up the zombies. Standard chaos. I kept calling out updates to Tittlin, letting him know what we were dealing with. He was being quieter than usual, but I figured he was just focused on picking off targets from range.
Then everything went sideways.
Tittlin cast some kind of fire spell on Silvanus - hit him hard and set him on fire. Not like a stray shot that caught him in an area effect. A direct, targeted spell. I called out to him - “Tittlin, we just met this guy, come on! You’re the one who made friends with him!” - but got nothing back. Just silence.
That’s when I realized. He was possessed. I’ve been through that before - Ghurde had to use a spell to break me free from a ghost. When you’re possessed, you’ve got zero control. You’re just watching yourself do things you don’t want to do.
Silvanus, very smartly, dove into the frozen river to put out the flames. The ice broke and he went under, which worked, but the skeletons continued to shoot at him while he was in the water. Shortly after surfacing and getting back to shore, he made a break for the tree line and I lost sight of him. Not exactly the best first impression of the Cedar Combe Monster Bashers, I’m sure.
With Silvanus out of the picture and Tittlin actively trying to kill me, I had to make a choice. I kept fighting the undead while trying to figure out how to handle our possessed rogue. Tittlin pulled out that amethyst lodestone and started flying - went up 40 feet in the air, completely out of reach.
I tried everything. Threw spears, javelins, even used the antimatter rifle at one point out of desperation. Couldn’t land a hit. He was too high up, too mobile, and that cloak of his made him invisible when he stood still. Meanwhile, he hit me with another fire spell that nearly killed me. Had to burn through several healing potions just to stay alive.
The worst part was knowing he couldn’t control any of it. The ghost was piloting him around, keeping him at range, making tactical decisions. I kept trying to close the distance, even drank a potion of speed to move faster, but he just kept backing off and going higher.
While chasing him around, I spotted the actual source of the water problem - massive zombie clot rotting under the ice. That’s what was fouling the town’s supply. Still needed to deal with it, but at least we knew what we were up against.
Being alone in the snowy wilderness with potentially more undead on the way and a flying sharpshooter on the loose, I begrudgingly decided to cut my losses and book it back to Trondkan.
Found Silvanus at the inn and apologized profusely. Explained that Tittlin was definitely possessed based on my own experience with that, and that normally he’s actually quite useful - good at hitting things, sneaking, the usual rogue stuff. Definitely not a traitor.
Silvanus was understandably wary, especially about whether our necromancer Momen had anything to do with the undead showing up. Had to convince him that Momen’s the academic type who studies dragon restoration, not the kind to poison water supplies. Plus his brother lives around here - would be pretty stupid.
We worked out a plan. I’ve got the Robe of Eyes that lets me see invisible creatures. Between that, Tittlin not being invisible when he moves or attacks, and Silvanus being an experienced hunter from the area, we should be able to track him down. The goal is to grapple him and hold him still while someone performs an exorcism. We can teleport Ghurde here from the Fief - she’s dealt with possession before and knows what to do.
Silvanus agreed to help, though he’s clearly still processing the fact that his first adventure with us involved getting set on fire by the guy who recruited him. Can’t say I blame him for being cautious.
So now we’ve got two problems: one possessed elf who needs an exorcism, and one massive zombie clot contaminating the town’s water supply. We really need to learn our lesson and stop splitting up the CCMB - seems like we get our asses kicked every time we’re apart.