Forum

[the Jester]

Our heroes dispatched the ogres with aplomb and hurried forward, seeking Ingen Jager. They found him, broken and half-boiled in the ogres’ stewpot.

“He died well,” Lady Charlotte said.

Lochenvare snorted. “Told you he needed somethin’ to fight with.”

Their conversation was suddenly interrupted. The ogres, it seemed, had not been alone. A sudden battle cry- ”Mynar!!!”- came from behind the party, and even as they turned to face their new foes they realized belatedly that they were in a fair amount of trouble. A cone of cold of such blistering intensity that it almost killed several of the party! Charlotte collapsed, as did the gnome.

Teeth chattering from the rime of frost now covering them, the party swung about to face their attackers, and one of them sprang forward, dealing a daunting blow to Lochenvare with a cruelly-spiked flail. Behind him, the other human made a gesture and suddenly sprouted mirror images. And rushing forward, passing him by, came another troupe of goblins!

“Sleep!” Dexter commanded the fellow with the images, but the robed man snarled and shook the spell off. He began to make spellcasting gestures, and Malford watched helplessly as a volley of magic missiles sprang into his young friend Dexter.

Five missiles, Malford thought grimly. He’s a potent spellcaster- far more potent than I. Swiftly, he intoned the words to an invisibility spell and began maneuvering into position to perform a backstab on the wizard.

Lochenvare, meanwhile, was beginning to overpower his foe. The goblins were a distraction, but his heavy plate armor turned most of their blows. The human was more dangerous, and Lochenvare determined to change that situation as quickly as he could. His axe whistled into the man’s side with a sick ‘thunk,’ and he collapsed to one knee, groaning. With a smug grin, Lochenvare brought his axe down again.

The others dueled with the goblins, but now that Lochenvare’s attentions were free, he was certain to make short work of them. But what about the wizard...?

Just then a burst of flame enveloped the multiple images, and the wizard yelled in pain. Then there was a flurry of motion as Malford’s two-handed attacks pierced him again and again. A few minutes later it was all over.

Lochenvare grunted, surveying the carnage.

***

After ascertaining that whatever the humans had been up to was done- surely it must have been something no good- our heroes traveled along their way. The next morning Malford announced that they needed a day’s rest so that he could try to identify the items the humans had carried that he had detected to be magical.

It turned out that they had acquired a ring of protection from blades, a potion of flying and a pair of gloves of mirror image. Dexter took the gloves, which would serve him well for almost his entire life.


Next Time: The first appearance of the Temple of Elemental Evil in Cydra!