Backtracking a bit, it turns out we're not the only people looking for gems of power (surprise!). We volunteered to help Jay and her kingdom by tracking down a guy named Brute who was infringing on her family's authority by randomly stopping/attacking/questioning/confiscating travelers within their kingdom. Turns out he's our old friend Burton, and he's looking for gems of power, just as we are.

We successfully tracked him and his group down, planning and executing reasonably well, I thought. Somehow, I still ended up dead. I'm not sure whether I should style myself "Blink the Stupid" or "Blink the Unlucky". I'm leaning towards the latter because it makes me feel slightly better.

We started the combat fairly nicely. Malif cast fireball not once but twice at a big knot of fighters who had kindly disposed themselves in a "ready to fireball" tight configuration. I'll note in passing that they were attentively listening to a MONK. Should I take this as meaning that SOME people are actually willing to listen to one of my kind, or that doing so can be dangerous? I'm sure that this is an issue that my friends won't think about overmuch. Malif did go off a little early, leaving Vaugner and me insufficient time to position ourselves. I guess when you've got a fireball at your fingers, it's difficult to be patient.

When the fireballs went off, I couldn't decide what to do. There were no soft juicy (magic-users make tasty snacks) targets available from where I was, so I decided to go finish off the group of fighters. I've since decided that this was a big mistake, since it put me alone. In retrospect, I should have gone to fight next to Kestrel (who also died and was raised - fighting in the front is dangerous, to no one's surprise.).

I've replayed what happened next a thousand times in my mind. The sequence of events is just SO improbable. If any of it had turned out differently, I'd have been fine.

- First I failed to trip my nearest fighter. I'm trained, so I should be able to trip almost anything.

- The HE tripped ME. Again, not very probable.

- Then when I stood up (deciding to attack the closest fighter rather than backing off) and missed him (if I'd hit him, he might have died, or at least been stunned).

- Then their cleric (who had come out of the tent) decided to try to "hold" me (can't think why he did that - it seems that while I may think of myself as inconspicuous, to the enemy I'm one big moving bulls-eye).

- And the "hold" worked, which really shouldn't happen with all my discipline and technique.

- Then Errol cast one of his (very nice) "sound burst" things, and the fighter next to me was one of the few not stunned by the sound. This meant that he could do the "coup de grace" thing and kill me, which takes a bit of time. And he hits, of course.

So clearly I'm somewhat stupid AND definitely unlucky. I'm thinking more and more about taking some priestly training. I hear that they have some knowledge of luck (can one actually learn to be less unlucky?) and further techniques against getting held like that (I really didn't like not being able to move!).