Euryale (NPC)

Euryale is an ancient and powerful creature, some sort of medusa, who stones creatures and eats the resulting stone. She lives in the City of the Screaming Statues in Halghan.

She was sent to make life difficult for Meryetamen, the empress of Halghan, by a lich named The Limper many years ago. The Limper was killed, but Euryale was compelled to remain in the town by a guard of powerful demons. When the demons were slain (see History of the Game August 1163), she was able to leave; it is not known where she is now.

Reminiscence from Paraswarm:

"The players and Euryale talked, and learned that a lich had trapped her there for 150 years, the same lich we had destroyed earlier. We agreed to bring her non-human food, and that she would spare the remaining stoned villagers. She accepted our promise that she'd never starve, or have to eat humans again, even if we could not free her. She was afraid, but eventually we convinced her that we'd help her break free of the lich's containment. Some of us (well, Paraswarm particularly) loaded her up with every protective and enhancetory spell we could, and we all fought the summoned guardians. We helped her break free."

A more detailed writeup of the encounter; [a couple of minor corrections from the DM in brackets].

"At one point a few years back, we decided that there was little “monster action” around Aertael anymore, and we started exploring other continents. Rather than spending months camping in the rough, and fighting a lot of stupid “giant rat”-type battles, we'd typically just look up the local authorities, and ask if they had any “monster problems.” Some of these were trivial, some were beyond us.

One of the more interesting, and troubled countries of the Western Continent [actually the Eastern continent] is the land of Dorwinion [actually they were in Helghan, a bit to the west from the country of Dorwinion; but it was called Gralur - I had to change it because there is also a country on the western continent named Gralur, apparently I liked the name]. It's a very stratified society, dominated by women, who are great followers of the likes of Isis, Ra, Anubis, Thoth, and those sorts. Males aren't even allowed to speak to the nobility, there. This was challenging for our group. The usual “Paraswarm, why don't you go talk to them?” paradigm did not work. I was actually kind of relieved, at first. Not being able to speak, there was no one to complain about what secrets I gave away, or what promises I made that friends didn't like, or the ever likely “I can't believe you actually SAID that!”

Others in our cadre were forced to step up, and they did admirably, I must say. However, we weren't able to solve but a few of many Dorwinion [Helghan] problems. One particular issue was the town of Gralur [actually Deshret]. It was a strategic point on a major river in Dorwinion [Helghan], and about 150 years ago it was taken away during a war by a powerful enemy. The war against Dorwinion [Helghan] was led by a lich known as “The Limper,” who has since been destroyed.

The Limper sent some strange, shadowy female creature to Gralur [Deshret], and within a few days all of several thousand inhabitants there were turned to stone! Any reinforcements or relief sent met the same fate. The few reports that came out indicated that there was a shadowy female presence there, who vanished when lit with even the likes of magic swords, continual lights, and so forth. None could engage her in combat, and everyone who stayed in the area would eventually be turned to stone. After numerous defeats and stonings of Dorwinian [Helghan] forces and agents, it was decided by the powers that be over there, to just quarantine that area, and it had remained “The Village of Screaming Statues” for close to 150 years. Very occasionally, the Dorwininion {Helghan] Army scouts would observe the shadowy figure actually EATING one of the statues! Chewing up stone with her teeth!

We absolutely HAD to see what was going on over there! We did glimpse the strange female spirit on our first visit. I got a pretty good look with true sight and X-ray vision going, and I saw a strange, blue-tinted female with a LOT of strong magic in evidence. She also looked pretty skeletal, starved, and emaciated. She faded away to some exotic demi-plane when we approached, and we lost track. We had no more success engaging her than the Dorwinion [Helghan] Army did, beyond a few glimpses.

I was able to cast stone to flesh on several inhabitants of the village, and they actually survived the process. We learned then that a petrified person doesn't age, and has no perception or thought at all while in that state, mercifully. A judicious use of the tongues spell later, we had the tale of how this shadowy female had turned most or all of the village elders to stone within a night, then tried to leave town and was beaten severely by a huge contingent of demons that suddenly appeared around her. Curious, that. The creature retreated back into the village and just started just stoning everyone in the area, with but a glance. These poor villagers had been entombed in stone for 150 years! At their desire, we relocated our three survivors to Valdemar, where they still live and work for the great bard Siobhan.

I then had a couple of failures on my stone-to-flesh spells, and the poor victims did not survive either the de-stoning spell, or the subsequent raise dead we did. And then there was the emergency in Shintapoor, and other concerns to occupy us that cropped up, and those put my mass-rescue plans on hold.

So, for years, we had this big “X” on our wilderness map where Gralur [Deshret] was, and the words “Stone Bitch.” Please pardon my Calhandrian! You can thank my Setite friend for that moniker. There was no real solution we could come up with at the time, for Gralur [Deshret] , and the monster that dwelled there.

Years later, I mentioned the problem to the wizard Alterein, over at Finarfin Keep. He provided me with a specially tuned ring, which he said would trap and prevent any plane shifting or teleporting short of a greater god's powers within 20 feet, but it would last less than a half-hour. When I made 18th level wizard, I was pushing for another visit with the “Stone Bitch!”

We protected the entire party with proof against petrification, and the ability to see without reservation in the dark. We then cast every prep spell we knew, armed up with oils of sharpness, impact, and pretty much all the big things we could manage, and charged into the center of Gralur [Deshret] , where we suspected the “Stone Bitch” lived.

We found the vile creature pretty rapidly, sprung the Alterein trap, and attacked. In actual fact, she didn't look very vile. Deceptively beautiful, I thought, with kind of a brilliant blue halo sort of structure around her head. Evil beings sometimes appear to be comely, but the only ones I figured might fool my true sight might be a Rakshasa.

With nowhere to run, the “Stone Bitch” was vanquished quickly, punctured by arrows from all directions, and her head was staved in. However, within a second, she was fully healed, and getting back up. She managed to turn me into a large stone ball, and hurled me at my friends. Luckily, I was running a shapechange spell, and quickly resumed my battle-form.

Oh, we'd seen this sort of thing before. Dubbed by those who came before me, we'd seen the “wish-raise” used before by the powerful. Certain conditions are met, such as being incapacitated, wounded beyond a certain degree, etc, and a wish goes off to restore the subject. Wiser folks use the “wish-remove-body-to-mentor” variant, but to each his own. Not a problem, since she was still trapped, right? We renewed our attack on the Stone Bitch. She went down again, killed. And then she was healed again, and again got right back up, good as new! Twice!

We were terrified, at the time, although the memory is pretty comical, now. She couldn't run, we couldn't run, and we could NOT keep her dead! We were locked in a cage with an enemy we couldn't kill. Sure, we were taking some damage from her attacks, but we had prepared everyone with total immunity to poisons and stoning. We also had Venetia with us. She was doing chain-heals, and all sorts of amazing support. None of us stayed more than minorly injured, for more than a few seconds.

While we were beating the Stone Bitch to death a third time, I remarked that I could see what items of hers were magical. I directed friends to grab the strongest ones when she went down. Surely, we'd end up taking away whatever was bringing her back, sooner or later, right? She went down again, and we grabbed. Tossed items into bags or behind us. When she got back up this time, she was pretty incensed.

We beat her down to death again, a fourth time and a bit quicker. This time, I teleported behind her, and snatched an artifact-level staff off her back. She popped back up, and turned towards me with a look of horror on her strangely beautiful blue face. I hid the staff behind my back, and arrogantly sneered, “Maybe I should just snap this thing over my knee, and be done with it, if it means that much to you!”

Amazingly, the Stone Bitch stopped fighting! “No!”, she implored! “We'll all be lost! Please! Do not break it!” We stopped fighting, too. “Tell us. I'm all ears,” I said. She explained that the staff was an ancient artifact, capable of creating planes of its own, and many more wondrous and strange powers. Breaking it would unleash cataclysmic effects, or so she said. She certainly seemed pretty fearful of the prospect that I would break it.

My response? “I see. What about these poor villagers? We cannot let you just stay here and eat these people!” I did not get the response I expected. Blue tears formed in her eyes. With lowered head, she said, “I've only eaten a few. I've been here over a century, and most of them are still here, as you see. I had to do something. I, and they have to eat, and we could not leave. We all were going to starve. I saved most of them, and I've tried to eat only the worst of them, and the vermin, and the occasional enemy or wild animal that ventures here.”

I was pretty stunned, but this got me to thinking, and certainly tore at my heart! With the situation at a tense standstill, I pressed onward. “How are you trapped here?” She explained that she had been enslaved by the lich, and was ordered to take the city. Then, she was betrayed by the lich, and left trapped there, by a horde of demons that would appear whenever she tried to leave. She was told by the Limper that if she or any villagers tried to leave, she'd be hauled off to the Abyss by the demons, never to return. She had tried to defeat the demons a century and a half ago, failed, but had been able to retreat and hide from them, back in Gralur [Deshret] with her artifact staff.

I had my reservations with this tale, as we certainly HAD teleported 3 villagers away, with no problems in the past. Still, most of her story added up. I think I had everyone in our party's head on a swivel, when I bowed low, and blurted out, “I'm Paraswarm Regliad, and I'm very sorry that we attacked you. We didn't understand, and we've made a terrible mistake. What can we do to help, now? We can likely break you out of here. Even if we can't, I'll see that a supply of livestock is brought here till we work it out. You'll not starve again, while I'm alive.” Against my better judgment, I added, “just lay off eating the villagers, please?” Not taking offense, she agreed, “I won't.”

I pressed my luck. “Who are you? We'd like to help you, just tell us.” She answered, “I'm Euyale. Sister of Medusa.”

I'm not sure how long it was till I responded. I was experiencing awe, fear, but more than anything, compassion towards what she had endured. Finally, I answered, “Euryale. Pleased to meet you! I'd love for you to trust us. I'm going to trust you, and please listen. We can help you. Don't run away.” With my friends looking on in horror, I handed her the staff back. She nodded at me. I turned to my friends, and asked for folks to hand everything back we had taken. Everyone complied. It was an amazing display by my friends, and not one I probably deserved.

After the magical trap we had sprung expired, I teleported to a cattle market, bought a prize Angus steer, and teleported back with it. Euryale immediately turned it to stone, and started eating it. Such a noise! It was like a great millstone grinding tons of dried corn. She ate like she was starving! Nothing of the poor cow was left, not even a hoof or scrap of bone! Some folks may have been horrified. I could see how thin and hungry she was, and I was glad she could finally feast.

We then conferred on strategy with Euryale, and she was NOT confident that we had any chance against the Limper's demons. I did what I could to convince her that we could win. With her now having a steady source of food from us, we had time. We concocted strategy. I figured she would be the major target of the demon attack, and thus it was paramount that we bend every protective enchantment and effect we had towards her benefit. We even experimented, making sure that person-applied healing would affect her, as well as our other preparatory spells and effects.

In short, in a few days we engaged the demons, Euryale fought with amazing valiance, we joined in, and the battle was won. It was a fine time we had that evening after the victory, dividing up a number of powerful magick items from the demons. Naturally, Euryale was included in the shares. In the following days, we developed a plan to return all of the statues to the world. This included a bit of misdirection towards the army contingent keeping a distant watch on the town.

It was explained to the local leaders of the army that the danger in Halghan had been ended, and that we were going to start freeing the statues in mass. They would need food, and help getting crops started. I loaned Euryale my hat of disguise, and the troops were none the wiser that the monster they were to guard against was walking amongst them, returning villager after villager to flesh and life. The stock answer, if asked who she was, “She's a powerful friend.” It WAS true, at least as far as I was concerned.

I stayed very close by during all of this, ready to provide protection and transport if our little illusion failed. Fortunately, none of the more visionary members of that kingdom could be bothered with the details of helping farmers and villagers. That's certainly part of what's wrong in that kingdom, I'm sure!

Most of the Zeus-related mythos out there hold that the three Gorgon sisters are demons, hideous, and loathsome. I've seen differently. Just look at the canon tale of Medusa, and the flaws in it are evident. She was raped... note that the story does NOT say that she seduced the sea god. No, the tale states universally that she was raped, and was still blamed, cursed, and later set up for assassination by a jealous goddess. Possibly this is the earliest tale we folks have, of the villainy of blaming the victim. It also illustrates the fallibility of even gods.

I've got a channel to contact Euryale, even to this day. It's supposed to be a deal for me to ask a favor, after what we did for her. Earlier, I was thinking of using that boon to ask Euryale what we could do to help Allena endure her suffering, or better yet, alleviate it. It's likely that Euryale is one who would have some answers, and wisdom. She's everlasting. Does one ever get over the loss of a beloved sister, if one lives forever? On the other hand, she might consider Allena's situation to be trivial, and could say as much to Allena's face.

I've certainly not wanted to ask Euryale to fight for us again. She seemed to hate fighting, although she was pretty decent at it.