Jinx' OOtA 11 - On our way back to Araj

I've had enough of Huldir acting all smarmy and weird. Giggling and eating anything that Thorand plants from those beans. It's a wonder we haven't all turned into frogs or something from trying out Thorand's bean trees.
  We were ready to camp for the night and I went up to Huldir and slapped him. He just giggled more. I knew something was really wrong with him. So I told Thorand there was something wrong. Huldir got really mad at me for telling Thorand but I had to do something.
  And that started a huge chase. Huldir could hide in the dark of course. I could have walked around with Dawnbringer held aloft but I didn't. I just watched Eldredge, Thorand and Kromdar try to catch Huldir. Even though I was irritated by his ridiculous giggling and acting weird, I have to confess that it was funny to watch 3 grown men chasing him around a cavern wasting spells. I should have been more involved. But I had done my bit. I told Thorand that Huldir needed to be fixed.
  Kromdar was chasing Huldir. If you've never seen dwarves chasing each other, you can't quite understand how funny it is. Huldir was invisible and running around stalagmites. He would pause and throw his hammer at Kromdar. I had to hide far away across the cavern so they wouldn't see me laughing. Luckily for Kromdar, Huldir kept missing him. Thorand was casting spells and they would hit in the wrong place or miss all together.
  Huldir tried casting rope trick to hide but Eldredge counterspelled him. If Eldredge hadn't changed his wizarding capabilities like he did everytime we turned around, Huldir might still be giggling. But he had counterspell and kept casting it everytime Huldir tried to cast a spell.
  Thorand wasted a lot of time cursing Huldir and throwing spells that didn't hit because he couldn't quite see him.
  It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen happen. Even though I was mad at Huldir for acting like a fool, I couldn't help but laugh at him. Finally though, Eldredge threw a tracking spell at Huldir. If Eldredge had kept his original wizard form that he had when we met him, Huldir might still be running around giggling. With the tracking spell, Thorand was able to finally cure Huldir.
  Thorand cast some kind of spell on Huldir, and sure enough, it turns out he was cursed from way back when we got the angel feathers. Thorand fixed him. I was afraid Huldir would be mad at me, but I much prefer his grumpiness to this weird silly giggling and acting all mysterious.
  It's funny in a way. He wasn't mad because I slapped him, he was mad because I told Thorand to do something. But after that any time I would have any interaction with Eldredge, he would accuse me of liking Eldredge. Somehow that was worse. I didn't have any feelings for Eldredge at all except irritation for the most part. But for some reason whenever Eldredge would ask me to do something, even if it was against my own best interests, I would agree. I don't know why. I didn't have time to ask myself why.
  The journey back to see Virizin wasn't any problem. I mean by now goblins and stuff like that would run from us.
  Virizin was thrilled to bits we got the stuff he needed. He was even accommodating to Eldredge in spite of Eldredge's natural pompous attitude. Eldredge told him if he would let him have some of his spells, he would work as an apprentice for him. Virizin turned him down. I wanted to laugh but I kind of felt bad for Eldredge, he looked like a kid who had just been told he couldn't have dessert.
  I felt bad for him until he decided to make a simulacrum of me. I didn't know what that meant really. I might not have agreed if I had known how he was going to act. He created this temporary version of an identical me. She only had half my stamina and she didn't have Dawnbringer so I let her use my +1 dagger. Eldredge thought it would be a good idea to have an extra person along when we made our way to Menzoberranzan. That made sense to me.
  But as soon as Eldredge created Sphinx as we nicknamed her, Thorand went on quite a bit about how she was naked and how they were all seeing a naked version of me. Kromdar, bless him, tried to intercede but Thorand actually gave her a robe to cover herself with. You would think none of these guys had ever seen me naked. I guess they forgot about when we first met though it's true I did at least have my underclothing then. The only one not affected by her nakedness or anything like that was Eldredge. He was too busy plotting how he would rule the world I guess.
  But the worst thing is that Eldredge was treating Sphinx, who looked just like me, like a servant. He would tell her to get him a cup of tea or whatever and she would immediately run off and do it. Ugh.At some point, I have to admit that I started to feel responsible for Sphinx and she wasn't even real.
  Huldir made a few snarky remarks about Eldredge and me. I think he's jealous. It's quite funny. I guess it all comes from that embarrassing time when I asked Eldredge if he wanted to marry me so we could get special bonuses. I only asked him because I thought he would be the most likely to want to get the extra bonuses. He changes himself every time I turn around. One minute he's studying evocation magic, the next necromancy. You never know with him. He's a man who is out to prove his worth, that's for sure. Maybe he does that because he wasn't with us from the beginning but neither was Kromdar and he's quiet.
  Oh well. Huldir is an idiot of course. I just ignore his snarky remarks.
  We are having to prepare ourselves to act like we are the slaves of Virizin's actual apprentice. The guy is such a milquetoast sort of wizard that I can't even remember his name half the time. He's supposed to lead us safely into Menzoberranzan. It makes me nervous that he seems so unsure of himself. I don't like it. We have a couple of days to prepare for the trip.
  We are supposed to go into the Drow's city, go to some great tower where Virizin's archmage rival Grumph Baern holds office as the archmage of Menzoberranzan. We are somehow supposed to get in there and steal his grimoire.
  I had a bad dream about it the other night. I dreamt that Eldredge betrayed us all so he could become the new archmage in Menzoberranzan. That's absurd of course but maybe it was a revenge dream for the way he keeps treating Sphinx like she's his hand maiden. I truly want to smack him. I dare not. Slapping Huldir is one thing, slapping Eldredge might get me turned into a frog. Actually, he would probably just look very indignant and say something scathing that would make me look like a fool.
  Now that I've seen a flying snake by the way, I can make my familiar a flying snake. Huldir has enjoyed the snake themed familiar. I'm glad to know I amuse him.
  I'm not stupid but my education came from a bunch of rough pirates. I can't say that I know much about history or the names of cities or anything on land for that matter but Eldredge said one time that he could never abide being with someone who was ignorant. Okay, he said it that one time I suggested we get married to get bonuses in the underdark. I don't care what he says, I may be ignorant but I'm not stupid. He said ignorance is worse than stupidity because you could do something about being ignorant. Sure, I could just hang out in the library and let my friends get killed trying to get us out of here while I learn stuff.
  No wonder I keep having dreams about him being evil.