Gord spends the rest of the night walking. He leaves the path after a few hours; he'd rather be more thoroughly lost than get as far as he can. His pursuers are mounted, so he tries to shake them by going over rocks and through shallow water when he can. It probably won't help, but you never know.

He keeps his Lesser Restoration until predawn lightens the horizon, trying to judge how tired he gets and how much the drain is affecting him. Spending the night on high alert (and missing a day's worth of sunlight) makes it harder to tell, but he knows his body. He probes the place where the wraith wounded him (it left a little scar) to see if it still aches or feels at all doomy unlike a normal fully-healed dagger wound.

He finds the most defensible spot he can in half an hour of searching, so that he can't be snuck up on from behind or unaware. He doesn't know what monsters live around here; a perfectly ordinary wolf pack could interrupt his prayers as effectively as any wraiths.

Once it's finally time, Gord spends the Lesser Restoration, and a channel on the off-chance it will help. 

And then he carefully takes out a small collection of skulls, and arranges them in a pyramid. Each has a story; most of the stories are of failure, and prices paid. On the top, as always, a gnome's tiny skull with an inked pentagram frowns disapprovingly at him.

After a brief consideration, he works the twisted remains of his sword into the tiny mountain. It seems appropriate, for today.

And then he prays.

Gorum presumably hears his prayers, but Gord doesn't think He cares much about them.

Some clerics he knows make a full report of the past day to their gods; some plan for the day ahead; some just meditate wordlessly, or fantasize about the girl of their dreams, or how they're definitely going to win at cards this time around. Prayers are private and (outside the Lawful churches) highly individualized, and as far as Gord knows they're just as holy and as banal as every other part of life. Prayers are the priest's, not the god's.

When Gord prays he reviews the past day, but he's not reporting to Gorum. He's reporting to himself, because his is the only opinion that matters and he believes Gorum thinks so too.

So. What went well, what went wrong? What is Gord going to learn from and do differently today?

He attacked the wraiths while it was daylight, instead of running away from the party the wraiths were after. He risked himself, even more than he knew at the time, angered very powerful wraiths - and undead have long memories and infinite grudges - and ultimately gained nothing. A very partial understanding of their daylight abilities and their use of horses wasn't worth a possibly-cursed wound that will probably require a full Restoration (and he can only afford so many of those). Even Merry's party didn't benefit; the remaining wraiths still had them at their mercy.

Recall: why did he do this? At the time, he thought that - wraiths are a menace to all living things, one must destroy them before they have a chance to breed more -

But the wraiths have been chasing the party for many days, at least. They could have turned them into wraiths already if they wanted to. He knew this when he ran off to fight them. He should have believed what Merry was implicitly telling him, that the wraiths didn't want to kill his party and very likely would keep on not killing it. 

He let himself be rushed, and he made a wrong decision because of it. It hasn't cost him much (yet) but that was luck; the mistake is his to own.

...

If he had left and come back the next morning - assuming the party was still alive to continue their conversation - what would he do about the wraiths then? What can he do about the wraiths, with proper preparation?

He could kill all their horses, from a distance, if that's his goal. If he uses only summons, it might not even break Hide from Undead. If the wraiths can find him though, and if they attack, he would be in just as much danger. Ultimately, he still doesn't understand what they're using the horses for (or how they're using corporeal horses to begin with). It might be a worthwhile tactic, but only if he's already committed to attacking them, with all the risk that entails.

Anyway, letting the wraiths keep their horses makes them much more visible and findable, especially during the day; killing their horses might work out against him.

He doesn't know of any spell that would let him keep a wraith pinned down and unable to flee, even in daylight, for the rounds it would take him to destroy it. He never used his Searing Light, but two (three?) channels and a Cure Critical didn't take out a wraith, and a Searing Light is less powerful than all those together. Once the wraiths are sufficiently harmed, or once he destroys one, they will switch back to standard wraith tactics - hide during the day, attack invisibly in the night, float through the earth - and he can neither defend against it nor catch them again in the daylight if they abandon their horses.

...how does anyone destroy a bunch of wraiths that can just run away, including into the sky or underground? Stronger clerics have spells that'll do it in one round, but keeping them in place probably needs a wizard. His own blunt approach is clearly insufficient and he shouldn't try it again.

Next time, he will run away sooner.

After he drove the wraiths away he rode up the hill, drained and unarmed, to share Hide from Undead. It didn't help anything, but he doesn't think it was very wrong, in retrospect. He couldn't have known they were enchanted not to put the artifact into his bag of holding, and it wasn't obvious that the remaining wraiths would attack the minute after the sun went down and not half an hour later. (Then again, they were probably watching the party all along and only attacked because he cast Hide from Undead.)

His only real mistake was not killing their horse, but otherwise he'll give it a pass.

Overall, yesterday was a significant loss. Not one he feels, not one he'll remember on dark nights, but a tactical loss all the same.

He foolishly took large risks, was injured and made enemies, and earned nothing for himself or anyone else. It would be better for everyone if yesterday's Gord had done nothing. 

...

This is normally the point where his sword, propped up by the tiny mountain of skulls, whispers to him that he is still standing. That he meant to do good. That everyone fails occasionally but he's still in the fight and will do better next time.

In the bleak light of morning, his dead and twisted sword offers no false reassurances.

He meant to do good and still does. He resolves to do better next time. By not rushing blindly into battle. By knowing clearly what he fights for, what he risks and what he might gain and why fighting is the best way forward.

Gorum is not a god of fighting. He is a god of striving. Enforcing your will on the world, no matter who stands in the way. Fighting is often the way, but it is not the goal. Strength bent to a purpose should not be stupid.

He doesn't know yet what he'll fight for in this new world. A way home, certainly, but that is certain to come so long as he grows stronger. His usual goals are likely to apply, here and everywhere but Elysium, but he does not know this land yet. He should step lightly, and wait to make any grand plans.

Which is to say: Gord doesn't want to think about his situation right now. Give it a few more days to settle.

Goals for today:

- Deal with his drain and possible curse

- Try to fix his sword

- Figure out where to go next - actually, sleep for most of the day, and then figure out where to go next

So. Gorum, please give me these and such spells. And if You know of any great anti-undead spells I missed, please put them into my free slots.

Darling, you take me to such places!

Of course you can have your spells. Earlier than usual, but there's no-one here to tell Me otherwise, is there?

Restoration (targeting vitality): definitely helps, but he can't afford to cast that too often. There's a way to supercharge the spell by feeding it ten times as much diamond dust, which can heal some kinds of drain that even cumulative castings of the base spell can't touch, but he'll wait to see if he still feels off at the end of the day before resorting to drastic measures.

Remove Curse: no way to tell if if it did anything, but better safe than sorry. At least it doesn't cost anything besides the slot.

Does Make Whole work on his poor sword? If he can un-twist it enough to be even a slightly magic sword again, Mending should be able to take it the rest of the way.

(Gord took Guidance, which helps a bit with most things out of combat. He's not tired since he cast Lesser Restoration again just before praying, so he can afford to spend a while on Mending before sleeping.)

Well, there's someone who could tell Him otherwise...  but He's not going to.  Of course Gord can have his spells.

Did you think that, after letting a cleric come in, Eru Illúvatar was going to stop him from filling up his spells?

... Well, He might for some gods and some clerics.  But this one is perfectly fine.

No, "Make Whole" doesn't work.  The tiny twisted remnants of the sword stay in place as if they'd always been twisted that way.

What is up with these wraiths and their overpowered abilities?

Maybe they're on the same power-level as the ring artifact. Maybe Gord is a magical weakling in this world, and should behave accordingly.

Can he at least Mend his non-magical sword?

Yes, that works!

Meanwhile, Aragorn is tired.

After doubling back once to check on Frodo, he decided to track Gord in the moonlight, because that was as good as any other course to search for kingsfoil.  But he hasn't found any, and Gord - it turns out - is actually decently good at hiding from pursuers.  He hasn't lost his trail, but he's come close several times and wondered whether it's worth giving up and going back to Frodo again (who could be expiring right now with the fate of Middle-Earth on his shoulders...)

It's not till after sunrise that he sees someone moving ahead, and crouches down behind the bushes to watch.  Yes, it's Gord!

... And then when Gord isn't doing anything more than some presumable magic on his swords, Aragorn stands up.

"Hello!" he says, holding up his hand in greeting.

Gord feels annoyed at being followed, but he had tried to convince Strider and the others to come with him to begin with, so he can't really complain. Besides, he might still be a useful source of information, as long as Gord doesn't stick around until nightfall.

Is he making a mistake again, if he talks to Strider? Well, what's the worst case here?

That the wraiths charmed or dominated Strider and will use him to find Gord, because they want revenge. That they gave Strider some magic powers to strike at Gord directly. That Strider made a deal with them last night to save his life in exchange for tracking down the man who hurt them. That they're already watching him, uncloaked and invisible beyond the range of detect magic, and he won't ever shake them again now that Strider led them to him better than any horse could.

...yeah, the worst case can always be bad enough that you shouldn't gamble, or so bad that you've already lost. He doesn't think just talking to Strider, now that he's here already, is too risky. And if he decides he doesn't want Strider to keep following him, he'd like to try using words before he does swords, especially seeing as his remaining sword is still a little bent.

He walks forward and offers Strider a Share Language.

Aragorn gladly takes this thing that looks like the same thing Gord did for Merry yesterday.

"Hello," he repeats in Westron.  "I hope no one pursued you after you left?"

"I don't understand that. The spell is so you can speak Hallit."

Aragorn raises his eyebrows in surprise.

"Another language -" he starts in Westron, and then continues in a tongue of Hither Rhun, "still another from magic" -

And that's when he realizes Gord was speaking a language he hasn't heard before.  Yes, there's a new language in his mind, the same one Gord was speaking.  "Hello," he says in the language apparently called Hallit.  "I hope no enemies found you after you left last night?"

"If they did, I didn't see them. I can only see the wraiths within sixty feet, though, and maybe not if they're hiding inside the ground. What happened to your party after I left?"

"Good.  I did not think so, but -

"I attacked the wraiths with fire, but I fear it did little good.  The wraiths stabbed Frodo with a Morgul-knife.  But then he called on Elbereth, and they retreated.  I scouted, and they are nowhere around the hill, but how far they have withdrawn, or what  -"  He shakes his head.

"Frodo lives, but he had not woken up when I left, and the other Hobbits" (he drops in the Westron word) "are tending him."

"Are they vulnerable to fire?" If Gord had known he'd have summoned a fire elemental!

"Who's Elbereth and what did they do?"

"Not very vulnerable, but more so than most swords.  Rivers will do more good in blocking them and their senses, but we have no flowing rivers near here."  He shakes his head.

"Elbereth is the goddess -" He pauses a moment, chewing on the Hallit word he just used, and then decides yes it is the right word "- who kindled the stars.  She is called on for a shield against evil; the Elves honor Her greatly."

(They have a separate set of pronouns for gods?  Well, all right; it's no more unusual than some of the pronoun choices in Further Rhun languages.  Though it'll make a few things difficult to talk about... no, the connotations of using these pronouns for evil gods like Sauron seem perfectly normal after all?)

Hopefully like Desna, then, or maybe she is Desna. "I thought you said your gods didn't grant power to mortals. Did She just intervene, to drive off the wraiths?" That would be a notable miracle on Golarion, but maybe with no clerics it's more common here.