Dr Midnight
Explorer
Kisses, Coffee, and So Much Killing
Everyone stood around the combat testing floor, cautiously watching the Lord High Exultant sit in the center room, eerie purple light emanating. Keldrake expressed his desire for Tariel to divine questions about the 7 panels they had found earlier, thinking they were doors. Tariel told him when he got the ability to divine he could divine any question he wanted. Tariel took out a piece of paper and started writing down possible questions, in elvish, so no one was quite sure what she was writing. Keldrake grew bored of this waiting around and proceeded to take out the flask of whiskey he carried. Taking a small swig, he proceeded to take an enormous gulp and angrily shoved the bottle back into his pack. He searched for the bottle of abisinthe and took a large swig from that. Waiting for a moment or two, he threw the bottle against the wall, smashing it into a thousand pieces. With a very angry yell he stormed towards Tariel and grabbed her around the waist, pulled her close and gave her quite an inappropriate kiss. At first she resisted, but as the two-minute embrace was ending her right foot went daintily in the air, and when Keldrake released her, she had to take two steps back to regain her balance. Keldrake, meanwhile, yelled out "Nothing! Gods damnit!" he stormed in a circle and unsheathed his katana and wakizashi and headed straight towards the center room. Dr. Midnight, who looked quite aghast when Keldrake had been so presumptuous as to grab Tariel looked on, knowing that Keldrake had previously been beaten and knowing that since his encounter with Mistress Ferranifir and her vampiric lackey he was in no condition to take on the Lord High Exultant himself. Keldrake stepped towards the exit of thi room, one foot on the bridge, angrily waving his swords at the Exultant. "What have you done to me? I’m leaving and you can try and stop me, but I think you’re just a lucky son of a dog? If you want to stop me, if you do stop me, fine, but I don’t see anything from stopping me from leaving. Whatever you did to me, whatever is wrong with me, you better hope is curable, or you better kill me, because I’m not living like this. Everything I hold dear has been taken from me, so bring it on." With his unnecessary rhetoric concluded, Keldrake stood, expectant. The Lord High Exultant, effortlessly arose and picked up his wicked two-handed sword.
Dr. Midnight sprang forward jumping to the Lord High Exultant’s side, swing his deadly rapier. "This does not concern you!" The Lord shouted as Dr. Midnight’s rapier struck him in the side. Without taking his eyes off of Keldrake, who stood waiting in the bridge to the next tower, The Lord swung his mighty sword at Dr. Midnight, the blow ripping a wicked gash in his precious skin. With that he stepped out onto the bridge, swinging his mighty sword as Keldrake lifted his wakizashi to deflect the blow and his katana to strike. Bracing himself in a crouch, Keldrake was able to deflect the heavy sword’s first blow and his blow sank deep into the Lord’s stomach, black blood started to trickle out. Keldrake stepped forward again, and their swords clang as these two circled each other, wary of the bridges edges. The Lord swung with heavy blows hoping to the knock Keldrake off the edge, Keldrake again caught the blow with his sword. Tasgi and tariel were somewhat startled when a shivering human stepped up from the stairs. Realizing that undead don’t get cold, Tasgi and Tariel quickly waved hello and asked if he were here as friend or foe. The man, said he was here to gather information. About Acheronius, the demi-lich, tehy asked. Yes I have heard of him. Dr. Midnight spied Reynald, who he had previoulsy briefly met and shouted out "Are you here for justice friend Reynald?" Reynald nodded, holding his cloak and blanket close to him for warmth. Tariel and Tasgi positioned themselves in view of the fight on the bridge and Reynald followed, asking which was their companion. They identified Keldrake and Reynald unleashed a flurry of magic missiles that struck the Lord in the back. Tasgi, who still hadn’t slept to regain his spell ability, took out his wand and tried to duplicate the feat, instead a dark brown, steaming hot liquid poured forth from the end of the wand. Taking a cautionary whiff, Tasgi spoke "Coffee." Reynald looked at the wand and turned to Tasgi "Hot coffee, can I have some?" he asked through chattering teeth. Tasgi made a motion for a mug and Reynald shrugged. Tasgi stopped the flow of coffee. Keldrake and the Lord High Exultant were mightily battling on the bridge, Keldrake attempting to block the Lord’s blows, some of which were sneaking through, causing blackish blood to flow from Keldrake as well. This caused Tariel to let out a small shriek "Keldrake!" this surprised even her. The lord finally bent down and let forth an icy blast from his hand, stopping Keldrake cold in his tracks, freezing him solid. Dr. midnight quickly leaped forward to aid his comrade with a cry of "Justice!" The Lord turned to face him and Dr. midnight struck quickly. The Lord landed several heavy blows on Dr. midnight but suddenly threw his weapon away. The streaking red sword landed on the bridges edge, half on/ half off. Dr. Midnight seized this opportunity and stuck his rapier through the Lord’s undead skull, dropping him. Quickly, even though the creatures form was still trying to drain him of energy, Dr. Midnight picked up the Lord and threw him over the edge of the bridge, just as he did so, the Lord sprang back to life, using his jagged claws to scratch at Dr. Midnight’s eyes. Dr. Midnight quickly went to Keldrake and began rubbing his frozen form hoping to thaw the ice. Finally he tawed, but in doing so slumped to the ground, black blood pouring from his body. Tariel quickly ran to his aid, and as he reached out for aid she cast a healing spell on him, but instead of healing, Keldrake’s wounds opened deeper, the blood gushed forth and Keldrake’s head slumped. "Oh no, Keldrake!" tariel cried. Dr. midnight though he sensed more than just friendly concern in her voice. She took out her Rod of Resurrection and pointed it at Keldrake, crossing her finger. "Keldrake arise." She commanded. Heavenly goldne light shot forth from the rod, first closing Keldrake’s wounds, then returning his skin tone from it’s unearthly grey he had acquired in entering the inner sanctum of the Lord High Exultant, and finally bringing him back from death.
Looking out towards the next tower, Dr. Midnight stepped forward. Let me cross first to make sure it’s safe lest we all plummet to our deaths. Was Dr. Midnight actually doing this for all his comrades, or to get the attentions of Tariel who seemed to be looking at Keldrake with love in her eyes. Dr. midnight then stepped ot into the darkness by himself, holding the sides of his cloak, lest the bridge fall, so he could fly and soon was not much more than a speck occasionally illuminated by the ever-present bolts of lightning. Minutes later, he returned reporting the bridge was safe, but just to be sure they should cross one at a time. They all safely made it across the massive bridge and found themselves at another tower and bridge leading off in another direction.. Keldrake and Dr. midnight cautiously entered, opening the first door in which they found a bunker complete with over 10 beds, opposite each bed was a locked metal cabinet. Dr. Midnight pulled the door off the first cabinet and found numerous jars insides, all filled with an oily green liquid. Keldrake joined Dr. Midnight and tehy made their way down the room ripping the doors off of the cabinets, each such a display of masculinity might endear Tariel more to them than the other. As they neared the far wall, each felt a familiar chilling feeling creep across them as a body rose from the last bed in the room and attacked Dr. Midnight. Dr. midnight easily dropped it to the ground, but not taking any chances threw the creature out the window just as it sucked more life from him for itself. All this allowed it to do was writhe on its way towards the abyss below.
Reynald began examining the jars with green liquid, studying them to determine if they were anything familiar to him. After a long time swirling the contents, he was unable to fathom a guess as to what it was, other than best left alone. They continued into the castle, coming finally to a room whose floor had been knocked out. Dr. Midnight asked Tasgi to put away his glowing dagger and he flew down into the pit and found a platform soem 40 feet below the floor. On the platform was an hourglass, perhaps the one referred to in the riddle at the city’s entrance. The riddle told them to turn the hourglass over once the sand has expired. After much discussion about whether this meant they should turn it now, or turn it now and turn it again later, Dr. midnight finally turned it over. A click was heard when he did so. Tasgi determined that they had about an hour before the blue sand would run out. While they were discussing what to do next, a fear crept over all of them as the sounds of thousands of voices crying out in pain was audible to all. Everyone readied their weapon and looked around uneasily. A slow fog rolled around them, and suddenly several appendages formed in the fog striking out at everyone. Tasgi screamed in fear (unnatural, he would have us believe), and the pseudopods struck everyone. Keldrake struggled tomaintain his humanity and intelligence as it seemed the entity was feeding on their psyches. Everyone struck at the fog around them, but only Keldrake and dr. midnight’s weaposn had any affect. Reynald magically hasted everyone (except Dr. Midnight, who did not want the unnatural aging that accompanied such a spell), tasgi tried to jar the fog with a bolt of magical force, but as he pointed his wand crying out’s activation words through tears of fear "Wand of Wonder!" a red gelatinous wall formed around Dr. midnight. Tasgi lifted his nose to the air and softly spoke "Strawberry gelatin. Quite good when one is sick." Dr. Midnight looked watched his wiggling, jiggling prsion in fear. Tariel turned into a white badger and started running away, soemthing she had yelled for everyone to do before changing. She made it only a few feet before the "arms" of this entity struck her dead. Tasgi though about trying another spell, but before he could do anything, the "arms struck him dead to the ground. Reynald quickly bolted, picking up the badger as he ran. Keldrake and dr. midnight continued fighting, until Keldrake bashed his sword against the wall and it fell from his hands. In the dark fog he stumbled around looking for it, finally picking it up as Dr. Midnight ran past. Dr. Midnight yelled out to Keldrake that he had broken free of the fog and Keldrake continued fighting as he moved back ( he knew this wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but couldn’t think of anything more intelligent to do). One of the limbs of the fog swung up to strike him just as he plunged his sword into the fog. The limb came down hard on his head and struck him dead. Dr. midnight looked on as his new comrade lay dead and the fog dispersed. Dr. midnight called Reynald back (he had scampered over to the Twoer of the Lord High Exultant) and they picked up their friends. They returned to the Exultant’s tower and realized that Tariel’s rod had transformed with her. Searching their bodies for much needing healing supplies, they came across Keldrake’s Four Leaf Clover pin.
Reynald fingered the emerald green pin and he and Dr. Midnight discussed the wording of the wish available to them from the pin and it’s ramifications. They knew that wishes wee indeed the most powerful spell, but also tended to have some karmic backlash if used greedily. All they wanted was for their companions to be alive again. Taking out paper, they began to write down various versions of what they wanted, careful not to wish for too much. After over half an hour later they thought they had finally figured out the best wording and Dr. Midnight grabbed the charm and wished away. There was a brief pause and suddenly the badger, Tasgi and Keldrake’s wounds healed and life once again stirred within them. Dr. Midnight and Reynald held their breath for a moment, aware that perhaps there were some repercussions, but nothing happened. Dr. Midnight realized that the hourglass was probably almost empty, and although everyone was thankful they were all alive again, they did not have time to revel in their "good fortune". They rushed back across the bridge to the Tower of the Vestige and swooping down to the platform, Dr. midnight was present to see the last few grains drain to the bottom. Once he was sure it was completely drained he turned it over again, and again an audible click was heard, but this time a little bit different.
Dr. Midnight and Reynald were severely wounded, Tariel and Tasgi had no spell recollection, an unfortunate side effect of ebing dead, so they decided to camp out in one of the room’s and hoped that they hadn’t merely temporarily dispelled the Vestige, or if they did that it wouldn’t come back while they slept. Reynald still shivered from the cold and the spell Tariel had cast on herself, Dr. Midnight, Tasgi and Keldrake (who she still looked at a little googly eyed) was going to expire soon. Searching the tower for any wood they came up with nothing. Tasgi, Reynald and Tariel sat down, huddling together in one room while the tow manly-men went off in search of warmth. Thinking that the vials of green liquid might be flammable and they tested a bit on one of the thin blankets in the bunker-room. It burned, albeit with a bit of smoke. They then poured the whole bottle on the blanket, thinking it might make for a good fire-source. Setting a spark to it, it indeed caught fire well, but quickly the smoke filled the room and as the sparks settled down, both Dr. Midnight and Keldrake slumped against the walls, they were so very tired....
Meanwhile, Tasgi had come across the torches in his pack, and after some debate with himself decided to use the wand again to try and enlarge them. He enlarged three of them, and Tariel set them up and lit them for a camp-fire. The torches burned hot and soon they all had some of the chill taken from them. It was then they asked themselves what had happened to their muscle-bound friends. Tasgi and Tariel went in search of them and came across their slightly chilled bodies slumped on the floor in restful slumber. Trying to wake them up was pointless and no amount of kicking jarred them. They dragged the lunk-heads back into the room where they had set up the fire and Tariel turned into a white-owl thinking the bird’s downy coat would help her keep warm. A mouse that Tasgi had summoned in enlarging the torches proved quite a snack for this snow-white bird. They all slept, hoping nothing would attack them, but realizing if it did, being awake just wouldn’t matter. When tehy awoke, they again tried to revive Dr. Midnight and Keldrake, but to no avail. The three awake persons studied and prayed for their spells and Tariel quickly went about healing Reynald and Dr. midnight who were still each nursing wounds from the battle with the vestige. Tasgi prepared a simple soup from their rations that was quite delicious, spicy and warming. They still waited for their sleeping beauties... It wasn’t until the following "morning" that they awoke. The awake members did their best to entertain themselves during the time, playing games, Tasgi and Tariel played some music, Tasgi created another delicious meal for them. They all slept through the evening once again.
Finally, with everyone awake they decided to move on. They decided to head across to the tower they knew to be empty as opposed to returning to the Exultant’s tower and trying their luck going back through the various tests contained on it’s lower level. Dr. Midnight again volunteered to cross, but to save time he strapped Tariel to him with a rope harness, so if the bridge collapsed she would not fall to her death. Something, somewhere suggests that he had an ulterior motive. Sure enough as they made it halfway across the bridge, they felt a trembling and the bridge starting collapsing under them. Dr. Midnight grabbed the sides of his cloak and sprouted the magical bat-like wings they had seen on him before. He and Tariel dropped nary 10 feet before assuming their own flight. They continued on towards the tower and as they flew in the always- night sky, they were suddenly attacked by the buffeting of headless bat-like creatures. The creatures’ attacks were unrelenting , butting their bodies into the two of them, and their companions had no idea what was happening. With Tariel securely fastened , Dr. Midnight landed on the steps of the bottomless tower and began attacking the flying marauders. Tariel freed herself from the harness and swung her mace at creatures also. Frustrated with their darting ways, Midnight threw a net out at the creatures and caught one with it, the net and flyer fell into the abyssal depth below. Finally they thwarted all the beasts and quickly resecured Tariel and returned to their companions at top speed, deciding it might be best to try and find and alternate route. They went back towards the Tower of the Exultant and realized they didn’t have to go through, but could merely go around the outside of the tower. Not wanting to be anything but cautious, Tasgi cast Fly spells on all those that couldn’t already and they flew down to the lower entrance bridge of the tower.
They traveled to the Tower of Portals Tasgi spoke of first seeing when he entered the city. Inside they found three portals, none o which allowed vision through to see what lay beyond. Recalling the initial riddle, they thought perhaps the three riddles/ puzzles mentioned might have something to do with these three portals. Dr. Midnight activated the first, and the mists in the portal were still hazy, so they still didn’t know where it led. They walked to the next one and this time Tariel activated it. Instantaneously, everyone was being sucked towards the portal by a phenomenal sucking force. Tariel quickly dropped to the floor and grabbed onto one of the free floating stairs as best she could. Tasgi dropped also attempting to secure himself digging his fingers into the bricks of the floor. Keldrake, who was behind Tariel, also grabbed hold of one of the steps. Reynald, who was still flying thanks to Tasgi’s spell ried pulling himself away from th portal, but he was making negative progress. Seeing his friends in dire straits, Dr. Midnight allowed himself to pulled towards the portal and aimed to deactivate it. As he looked straight in the portal, straight into nothing, his hand went for the palm print that activated it, and the force was too much pulling himm into the nether-region beyond. Tasgi and Reynald were being pulled towards the portal and Tasgi let the force carry him and focused all him energy on getting his hand (which only had four fingers) into the palm print. He pulled himself to his feet and leaned into the direction of the portal and just as Tariel’s fingers started slipping and Reynal was getting uncomfortably close to losing the tenuous grip he had, Tasgi’s hand found it’s target, and like that, the sucking stopped. Keldrake and Tariel immediately fell downwards, secured only by their arms. Tariel almost slipped, which would have sent her plummeting into the darkness below. Keldrake pulled himself up and then ran over to Tariel to aid her. Only Tasgi’s launderer will know he scared he was looking into infinite blackness. Everyone’s spirits were down a little realizing Dr. Midnight was mot likely lost to them, but they moved on. Hoping they didn’t have to activate the third portal, they decided to leave it alone for now. Just then an executioner wielding a shiny axe approached the party (had he come from the portal they had opened first) and pointed at Reynald. "Lay down your head so you may receive your punishment!" the executioner bellowed at Reynald. Reynald turned towards the hiulking man and shook his head. Keldrake quickly jumped between the two of them and raised his sword. The executioner’s axe swung towards Reynald and cut deep into hi arm, while Keldrake struck mightily with his katana. The executioner’s second blow missed and Keldrake unleashed a flurry of blows, the last finally knocking it off the ledge they stood on sending it plunging to the depths below.
The moved towards the exit of the tower and cautiously crossed the bridge, each was still able to fly, so they did so, making sure to stay close to the ground. They entered the next tower and found themselves on a very small ledge in a tower with no apparent floor. A rusty ladder led down from the ledge and two exits were barely noticeable across the tower, but the most prevalent feature of the tower was the sound of gently lapping waves soem 50 feet below them. With the temperature being well below freezing the smell of brine slowly filled their frozen-snot clogged noses. Tariel quickly took out her small notepad. The brine dragon she cried out. "Okay, who can swim?" Tasgi was the only one who couldn’t. They did realize though that they would not be able to go down tyoday, they didnt’t have the right spells to allow them to survive the freezing cold depths they were sure to find below. Whiel they discussed their option and attack plan for the beast beneath the waves, they heard a cry behind them. A familiar cry. The cry of "Justice!" coming from a joyous Dr. Midnight. He ran across the bridge to meet his companions and gave each and uncharacteristic hug, perhaps hugging Tariel a bit too long. He told them al he was very glad to see them. They all shrugged, he’d only been gone about half an hour. When they asked where he ended up, he told them "It wasn’t a good place, none of us should go back there, but it has provided me with a goal. I will defeat Acheronius."
Everyone stood around the combat testing floor, cautiously watching the Lord High Exultant sit in the center room, eerie purple light emanating. Keldrake expressed his desire for Tariel to divine questions about the 7 panels they had found earlier, thinking they were doors. Tariel told him when he got the ability to divine he could divine any question he wanted. Tariel took out a piece of paper and started writing down possible questions, in elvish, so no one was quite sure what she was writing. Keldrake grew bored of this waiting around and proceeded to take out the flask of whiskey he carried. Taking a small swig, he proceeded to take an enormous gulp and angrily shoved the bottle back into his pack. He searched for the bottle of abisinthe and took a large swig from that. Waiting for a moment or two, he threw the bottle against the wall, smashing it into a thousand pieces. With a very angry yell he stormed towards Tariel and grabbed her around the waist, pulled her close and gave her quite an inappropriate kiss. At first she resisted, but as the two-minute embrace was ending her right foot went daintily in the air, and when Keldrake released her, she had to take two steps back to regain her balance. Keldrake, meanwhile, yelled out "Nothing! Gods damnit!" he stormed in a circle and unsheathed his katana and wakizashi and headed straight towards the center room. Dr. Midnight, who looked quite aghast when Keldrake had been so presumptuous as to grab Tariel looked on, knowing that Keldrake had previously been beaten and knowing that since his encounter with Mistress Ferranifir and her vampiric lackey he was in no condition to take on the Lord High Exultant himself. Keldrake stepped towards the exit of thi room, one foot on the bridge, angrily waving his swords at the Exultant. "What have you done to me? I’m leaving and you can try and stop me, but I think you’re just a lucky son of a dog? If you want to stop me, if you do stop me, fine, but I don’t see anything from stopping me from leaving. Whatever you did to me, whatever is wrong with me, you better hope is curable, or you better kill me, because I’m not living like this. Everything I hold dear has been taken from me, so bring it on." With his unnecessary rhetoric concluded, Keldrake stood, expectant. The Lord High Exultant, effortlessly arose and picked up his wicked two-handed sword.
Dr. Midnight sprang forward jumping to the Lord High Exultant’s side, swing his deadly rapier. "This does not concern you!" The Lord shouted as Dr. Midnight’s rapier struck him in the side. Without taking his eyes off of Keldrake, who stood waiting in the bridge to the next tower, The Lord swung his mighty sword at Dr. Midnight, the blow ripping a wicked gash in his precious skin. With that he stepped out onto the bridge, swinging his mighty sword as Keldrake lifted his wakizashi to deflect the blow and his katana to strike. Bracing himself in a crouch, Keldrake was able to deflect the heavy sword’s first blow and his blow sank deep into the Lord’s stomach, black blood started to trickle out. Keldrake stepped forward again, and their swords clang as these two circled each other, wary of the bridges edges. The Lord swung with heavy blows hoping to the knock Keldrake off the edge, Keldrake again caught the blow with his sword. Tasgi and tariel were somewhat startled when a shivering human stepped up from the stairs. Realizing that undead don’t get cold, Tasgi and Tariel quickly waved hello and asked if he were here as friend or foe. The man, said he was here to gather information. About Acheronius, the demi-lich, tehy asked. Yes I have heard of him. Dr. Midnight spied Reynald, who he had previoulsy briefly met and shouted out "Are you here for justice friend Reynald?" Reynald nodded, holding his cloak and blanket close to him for warmth. Tariel and Tasgi positioned themselves in view of the fight on the bridge and Reynald followed, asking which was their companion. They identified Keldrake and Reynald unleashed a flurry of magic missiles that struck the Lord in the back. Tasgi, who still hadn’t slept to regain his spell ability, took out his wand and tried to duplicate the feat, instead a dark brown, steaming hot liquid poured forth from the end of the wand. Taking a cautionary whiff, Tasgi spoke "Coffee." Reynald looked at the wand and turned to Tasgi "Hot coffee, can I have some?" he asked through chattering teeth. Tasgi made a motion for a mug and Reynald shrugged. Tasgi stopped the flow of coffee. Keldrake and the Lord High Exultant were mightily battling on the bridge, Keldrake attempting to block the Lord’s blows, some of which were sneaking through, causing blackish blood to flow from Keldrake as well. This caused Tariel to let out a small shriek "Keldrake!" this surprised even her. The lord finally bent down and let forth an icy blast from his hand, stopping Keldrake cold in his tracks, freezing him solid. Dr. midnight quickly leaped forward to aid his comrade with a cry of "Justice!" The Lord turned to face him and Dr. midnight struck quickly. The Lord landed several heavy blows on Dr. midnight but suddenly threw his weapon away. The streaking red sword landed on the bridges edge, half on/ half off. Dr. Midnight seized this opportunity and stuck his rapier through the Lord’s undead skull, dropping him. Quickly, even though the creatures form was still trying to drain him of energy, Dr. Midnight picked up the Lord and threw him over the edge of the bridge, just as he did so, the Lord sprang back to life, using his jagged claws to scratch at Dr. Midnight’s eyes. Dr. Midnight quickly went to Keldrake and began rubbing his frozen form hoping to thaw the ice. Finally he tawed, but in doing so slumped to the ground, black blood pouring from his body. Tariel quickly ran to his aid, and as he reached out for aid she cast a healing spell on him, but instead of healing, Keldrake’s wounds opened deeper, the blood gushed forth and Keldrake’s head slumped. "Oh no, Keldrake!" tariel cried. Dr. midnight though he sensed more than just friendly concern in her voice. She took out her Rod of Resurrection and pointed it at Keldrake, crossing her finger. "Keldrake arise." She commanded. Heavenly goldne light shot forth from the rod, first closing Keldrake’s wounds, then returning his skin tone from it’s unearthly grey he had acquired in entering the inner sanctum of the Lord High Exultant, and finally bringing him back from death.
Looking out towards the next tower, Dr. Midnight stepped forward. Let me cross first to make sure it’s safe lest we all plummet to our deaths. Was Dr. Midnight actually doing this for all his comrades, or to get the attentions of Tariel who seemed to be looking at Keldrake with love in her eyes. Dr. midnight then stepped ot into the darkness by himself, holding the sides of his cloak, lest the bridge fall, so he could fly and soon was not much more than a speck occasionally illuminated by the ever-present bolts of lightning. Minutes later, he returned reporting the bridge was safe, but just to be sure they should cross one at a time. They all safely made it across the massive bridge and found themselves at another tower and bridge leading off in another direction.. Keldrake and Dr. midnight cautiously entered, opening the first door in which they found a bunker complete with over 10 beds, opposite each bed was a locked metal cabinet. Dr. Midnight pulled the door off the first cabinet and found numerous jars insides, all filled with an oily green liquid. Keldrake joined Dr. Midnight and tehy made their way down the room ripping the doors off of the cabinets, each such a display of masculinity might endear Tariel more to them than the other. As they neared the far wall, each felt a familiar chilling feeling creep across them as a body rose from the last bed in the room and attacked Dr. Midnight. Dr. midnight easily dropped it to the ground, but not taking any chances threw the creature out the window just as it sucked more life from him for itself. All this allowed it to do was writhe on its way towards the abyss below.
Reynald began examining the jars with green liquid, studying them to determine if they were anything familiar to him. After a long time swirling the contents, he was unable to fathom a guess as to what it was, other than best left alone. They continued into the castle, coming finally to a room whose floor had been knocked out. Dr. Midnight asked Tasgi to put away his glowing dagger and he flew down into the pit and found a platform soem 40 feet below the floor. On the platform was an hourglass, perhaps the one referred to in the riddle at the city’s entrance. The riddle told them to turn the hourglass over once the sand has expired. After much discussion about whether this meant they should turn it now, or turn it now and turn it again later, Dr. midnight finally turned it over. A click was heard when he did so. Tasgi determined that they had about an hour before the blue sand would run out. While they were discussing what to do next, a fear crept over all of them as the sounds of thousands of voices crying out in pain was audible to all. Everyone readied their weapon and looked around uneasily. A slow fog rolled around them, and suddenly several appendages formed in the fog striking out at everyone. Tasgi screamed in fear (unnatural, he would have us believe), and the pseudopods struck everyone. Keldrake struggled tomaintain his humanity and intelligence as it seemed the entity was feeding on their psyches. Everyone struck at the fog around them, but only Keldrake and dr. midnight’s weaposn had any affect. Reynald magically hasted everyone (except Dr. Midnight, who did not want the unnatural aging that accompanied such a spell), tasgi tried to jar the fog with a bolt of magical force, but as he pointed his wand crying out’s activation words through tears of fear "Wand of Wonder!" a red gelatinous wall formed around Dr. midnight. Tasgi lifted his nose to the air and softly spoke "Strawberry gelatin. Quite good when one is sick." Dr. Midnight looked watched his wiggling, jiggling prsion in fear. Tariel turned into a white badger and started running away, soemthing she had yelled for everyone to do before changing. She made it only a few feet before the "arms" of this entity struck her dead. Tasgi though about trying another spell, but before he could do anything, the "arms struck him dead to the ground. Reynald quickly bolted, picking up the badger as he ran. Keldrake and dr. midnight continued fighting, until Keldrake bashed his sword against the wall and it fell from his hands. In the dark fog he stumbled around looking for it, finally picking it up as Dr. Midnight ran past. Dr. Midnight yelled out to Keldrake that he had broken free of the fog and Keldrake continued fighting as he moved back ( he knew this wasn’t the smartest thing to do, but couldn’t think of anything more intelligent to do). One of the limbs of the fog swung up to strike him just as he plunged his sword into the fog. The limb came down hard on his head and struck him dead. Dr. midnight looked on as his new comrade lay dead and the fog dispersed. Dr. midnight called Reynald back (he had scampered over to the Twoer of the Lord High Exultant) and they picked up their friends. They returned to the Exultant’s tower and realized that Tariel’s rod had transformed with her. Searching their bodies for much needing healing supplies, they came across Keldrake’s Four Leaf Clover pin.
Reynald fingered the emerald green pin and he and Dr. Midnight discussed the wording of the wish available to them from the pin and it’s ramifications. They knew that wishes wee indeed the most powerful spell, but also tended to have some karmic backlash if used greedily. All they wanted was for their companions to be alive again. Taking out paper, they began to write down various versions of what they wanted, careful not to wish for too much. After over half an hour later they thought they had finally figured out the best wording and Dr. Midnight grabbed the charm and wished away. There was a brief pause and suddenly the badger, Tasgi and Keldrake’s wounds healed and life once again stirred within them. Dr. Midnight and Reynald held their breath for a moment, aware that perhaps there were some repercussions, but nothing happened. Dr. Midnight realized that the hourglass was probably almost empty, and although everyone was thankful they were all alive again, they did not have time to revel in their "good fortune". They rushed back across the bridge to the Tower of the Vestige and swooping down to the platform, Dr. midnight was present to see the last few grains drain to the bottom. Once he was sure it was completely drained he turned it over again, and again an audible click was heard, but this time a little bit different.
Dr. Midnight and Reynald were severely wounded, Tariel and Tasgi had no spell recollection, an unfortunate side effect of ebing dead, so they decided to camp out in one of the room’s and hoped that they hadn’t merely temporarily dispelled the Vestige, or if they did that it wouldn’t come back while they slept. Reynald still shivered from the cold and the spell Tariel had cast on herself, Dr. Midnight, Tasgi and Keldrake (who she still looked at a little googly eyed) was going to expire soon. Searching the tower for any wood they came up with nothing. Tasgi, Reynald and Tariel sat down, huddling together in one room while the tow manly-men went off in search of warmth. Thinking that the vials of green liquid might be flammable and they tested a bit on one of the thin blankets in the bunker-room. It burned, albeit with a bit of smoke. They then poured the whole bottle on the blanket, thinking it might make for a good fire-source. Setting a spark to it, it indeed caught fire well, but quickly the smoke filled the room and as the sparks settled down, both Dr. Midnight and Keldrake slumped against the walls, they were so very tired....
Meanwhile, Tasgi had come across the torches in his pack, and after some debate with himself decided to use the wand again to try and enlarge them. He enlarged three of them, and Tariel set them up and lit them for a camp-fire. The torches burned hot and soon they all had some of the chill taken from them. It was then they asked themselves what had happened to their muscle-bound friends. Tasgi and Tariel went in search of them and came across their slightly chilled bodies slumped on the floor in restful slumber. Trying to wake them up was pointless and no amount of kicking jarred them. They dragged the lunk-heads back into the room where they had set up the fire and Tariel turned into a white-owl thinking the bird’s downy coat would help her keep warm. A mouse that Tasgi had summoned in enlarging the torches proved quite a snack for this snow-white bird. They all slept, hoping nothing would attack them, but realizing if it did, being awake just wouldn’t matter. When tehy awoke, they again tried to revive Dr. Midnight and Keldrake, but to no avail. The three awake persons studied and prayed for their spells and Tariel quickly went about healing Reynald and Dr. midnight who were still each nursing wounds from the battle with the vestige. Tasgi prepared a simple soup from their rations that was quite delicious, spicy and warming. They still waited for their sleeping beauties... It wasn’t until the following "morning" that they awoke. The awake members did their best to entertain themselves during the time, playing games, Tasgi and Tariel played some music, Tasgi created another delicious meal for them. They all slept through the evening once again.
Finally, with everyone awake they decided to move on. They decided to head across to the tower they knew to be empty as opposed to returning to the Exultant’s tower and trying their luck going back through the various tests contained on it’s lower level. Dr. Midnight again volunteered to cross, but to save time he strapped Tariel to him with a rope harness, so if the bridge collapsed she would not fall to her death. Something, somewhere suggests that he had an ulterior motive. Sure enough as they made it halfway across the bridge, they felt a trembling and the bridge starting collapsing under them. Dr. Midnight grabbed the sides of his cloak and sprouted the magical bat-like wings they had seen on him before. He and Tariel dropped nary 10 feet before assuming their own flight. They continued on towards the tower and as they flew in the always- night sky, they were suddenly attacked by the buffeting of headless bat-like creatures. The creatures’ attacks were unrelenting , butting their bodies into the two of them, and their companions had no idea what was happening. With Tariel securely fastened , Dr. Midnight landed on the steps of the bottomless tower and began attacking the flying marauders. Tariel freed herself from the harness and swung her mace at creatures also. Frustrated with their darting ways, Midnight threw a net out at the creatures and caught one with it, the net and flyer fell into the abyssal depth below. Finally they thwarted all the beasts and quickly resecured Tariel and returned to their companions at top speed, deciding it might be best to try and find and alternate route. They went back towards the Tower of the Exultant and realized they didn’t have to go through, but could merely go around the outside of the tower. Not wanting to be anything but cautious, Tasgi cast Fly spells on all those that couldn’t already and they flew down to the lower entrance bridge of the tower.
They traveled to the Tower of Portals Tasgi spoke of first seeing when he entered the city. Inside they found three portals, none o which allowed vision through to see what lay beyond. Recalling the initial riddle, they thought perhaps the three riddles/ puzzles mentioned might have something to do with these three portals. Dr. Midnight activated the first, and the mists in the portal were still hazy, so they still didn’t know where it led. They walked to the next one and this time Tariel activated it. Instantaneously, everyone was being sucked towards the portal by a phenomenal sucking force. Tariel quickly dropped to the floor and grabbed onto one of the free floating stairs as best she could. Tasgi dropped also attempting to secure himself digging his fingers into the bricks of the floor. Keldrake, who was behind Tariel, also grabbed hold of one of the steps. Reynald, who was still flying thanks to Tasgi’s spell ried pulling himself away from th portal, but he was making negative progress. Seeing his friends in dire straits, Dr. Midnight allowed himself to pulled towards the portal and aimed to deactivate it. As he looked straight in the portal, straight into nothing, his hand went for the palm print that activated it, and the force was too much pulling himm into the nether-region beyond. Tasgi and Reynald were being pulled towards the portal and Tasgi let the force carry him and focused all him energy on getting his hand (which only had four fingers) into the palm print. He pulled himself to his feet and leaned into the direction of the portal and just as Tariel’s fingers started slipping and Reynal was getting uncomfortably close to losing the tenuous grip he had, Tasgi’s hand found it’s target, and like that, the sucking stopped. Keldrake and Tariel immediately fell downwards, secured only by their arms. Tariel almost slipped, which would have sent her plummeting into the darkness below. Keldrake pulled himself up and then ran over to Tariel to aid her. Only Tasgi’s launderer will know he scared he was looking into infinite blackness. Everyone’s spirits were down a little realizing Dr. Midnight was mot likely lost to them, but they moved on. Hoping they didn’t have to activate the third portal, they decided to leave it alone for now. Just then an executioner wielding a shiny axe approached the party (had he come from the portal they had opened first) and pointed at Reynald. "Lay down your head so you may receive your punishment!" the executioner bellowed at Reynald. Reynald turned towards the hiulking man and shook his head. Keldrake quickly jumped between the two of them and raised his sword. The executioner’s axe swung towards Reynald and cut deep into hi arm, while Keldrake struck mightily with his katana. The executioner’s second blow missed and Keldrake unleashed a flurry of blows, the last finally knocking it off the ledge they stood on sending it plunging to the depths below.
The moved towards the exit of the tower and cautiously crossed the bridge, each was still able to fly, so they did so, making sure to stay close to the ground. They entered the next tower and found themselves on a very small ledge in a tower with no apparent floor. A rusty ladder led down from the ledge and two exits were barely noticeable across the tower, but the most prevalent feature of the tower was the sound of gently lapping waves soem 50 feet below them. With the temperature being well below freezing the smell of brine slowly filled their frozen-snot clogged noses. Tariel quickly took out her small notepad. The brine dragon she cried out. "Okay, who can swim?" Tasgi was the only one who couldn’t. They did realize though that they would not be able to go down tyoday, they didnt’t have the right spells to allow them to survive the freezing cold depths they were sure to find below. Whiel they discussed their option and attack plan for the beast beneath the waves, they heard a cry behind them. A familiar cry. The cry of "Justice!" coming from a joyous Dr. Midnight. He ran across the bridge to meet his companions and gave each and uncharacteristic hug, perhaps hugging Tariel a bit too long. He told them al he was very glad to see them. They all shrugged, he’d only been gone about half an hour. When they asked where he ended up, he told them "It wasn’t a good place, none of us should go back there, but it has provided me with a goal. I will defeat Acheronius."
