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Story Hour
From the Diary of Doorag Marzipan
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<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 6582021" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>Reaping 8</p><p></p><p> I awoke to a crew in very poor spirits. I could tell right away that something was</p><p>wrong by the frowns on the faces of Happy, Griff and Caribdis. Taklinn had a dour </p><p>look to him too, but its hard to tell with dwarves. </p><p> </p><p> "What’s been going on?" I thought to Ambros. He naps when he can, and he was</p><p>already curling up under my hat now that I was awake. I knew that he would have </p><p>been keeping watch while I slept and that he would be able to fill me in. </p><p> </p><p> I could hear his yawn in my head when he answered. "Lots of talk about what to</p><p>do with Sensesi. Caribdis and Hap want her dead. Taklinn wants to keep her. Griff </p><p>doesn’t care. Oh, and Adeede is all for killing her too. That girl REALLY hates</p><p>yuan-ti! Lotte’s all better though. G’night master, wake me if something good</p><p>happens." With that, he curled up in my hair and was fast asleep within seconds. </p><p></p><p> Sighing, I knew that I’d soon be drawn into this argument, but first things first.</p><p>After having a sip of tea and a bite of bread, I sat down to select my spells. Had to</p><p>go with a couple of Greases, and you can never have too many Magic Missiles. It’s </p><p>also become habit to burn a Mage Armor and a Dark Vision per day. </p><p></p><p> I keep an Invisibility in the back of my head always, and a See Invisibility, just</p><p>because I know that some day I’m going to really need that spell! </p><p> </p><p> I can’t stay away from Scorching Ray! What a marvelous offensive spell! I’ve</p><p>taken to memorizing at least three of them when I know we’re going to be in the</p><p>thick of it. </p><p> </p><p> A Fly, of course, and a Bolt of Conjuring. I’m also taking Hold Person today. I</p><p>haven’t used that spell much as of late, so I’ve decided to dust it off. I’m also taking</p><p>a Dispel Magic. I have a feeling in my bones that the closer we get to those things </p><p>important to Melesandre, the more we might need that particular spell.</p><p></p><p> Moving up the chain of power, I do so love Polymorph Other! I don’t feel like I’ve</p><p>even scratched the surface of that spells usefulness! Two of those and two Walls of </p><p>Ice.</p><p> And last, but certainly not least, my most powerful spell. This morning I</p><p>memorized a Wall of Force and a Hold Monster. It’s very difficult to choose only </p><p>two, but that’s part of being a wizard. I’m coming very close to being able to</p><p>memorize three 5th circle spells though!</p><p> </p><p> I record all of this for no reason other than to settle my nerves a bit, for the</p><p>conversation with my fellow party members that followed my studies was</p><p>unpleasant, to say the least, and it still upsets me to remember it now. </p><p> </p><p> As Ambros had told me, the crew was bitterly divided as to the fate of our captive</p><p>yuan-ti spy, Sensesi. After closing my book and packing it away, I stretched and</p><p>finally addressed my friends. </p><p></p><p> "What’s going on?" I asked. </p><p></p><p> Happy and Caribdis immediately talked over each other, but eventually I got the</p><p>story that the two of them were indeed ready to execute Sensesi, but that Taklinn</p><p>would have none of it. Caribdis was positively passionate about the matter, and he </p><p>paced back and forth, gesturing excitedly toward Taklinn, who simply stood there,</p><p>arms crossed, the bag containing Sensesi tied securely to his belt. </p><p></p><p> "She tried to kill us!" Caribdis shouted, "And because of her Melesandre knows</p><p>what we’re up to! What if Melesandre can still spy on us? Sure, we’ve got the rings,</p><p>but if she’s a spy she must be able to get information to that witch some other way! </p><p>Its not worth the risk. We kill her now!"</p><p> </p><p> "No." Taklinn’s voiced boomed through the room, resonating with resolve. "I will</p><p>not kill an unarmed opponent! She stays with us, and that is that! We will hand her </p><p>over to the proper authorities as soon as we can."</p><p> </p><p> My eyebrows raised a bit at this, and I read a strange glint in our clerics eye. He</p><p>seemed quite dead set on the matter, but the idea seemed ludicrous to me, and I told </p><p>him so.</p><p></p><p> "Taklinn," I said, "I never thought I’d say this, but the boy speaks with wisdom!</p><p>Taking her with us is absurd. She poses far too great a risk. Caribdis is right, she </p><p>may still be able to communicate with Melesandre somehow, and that is simply</p><p>unacceptable." Taklinn regarded me with a fiery stare, but I pressed on. "And what</p><p>do you mean, you won’t kill unarmed foes? Do I have to remind you of the goblins? </p><p>What about the orcs!"</p><p> </p><p> "That was different!" He shot back. "We were in Havilah, abiding by Havilah’s</p><p>laws. We were within our right! And we had no other choice!" </p><p></p><p> I gaped at him. "Executing the enemy is okay only if we’re in Havilah? Taklinn, I</p><p>don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re at WAR here! We are a Crew of Havilah,</p><p>and we represent Havilah! We have every right to do whatever it takes to secure </p><p>Havilah’s safety! Oh, and by the way, the local law here happens to be</p><p>Melisandre’s! I’m willing to bet that she’s all in favor of killing spies, and I’ll bet</p><p>you a gold to a shaker of salt that she’d do one of us in a lot less humanely than we </p><p>will to one of hers."</p><p></p><p> "Kill her!" Happy interjected. Her eyes were fastened on the bag at Taklinn’s hip,</p><p>and I could tell that our roguish friend would have no problems doing the job </p><p>herself. "She tried to kill me, Taklinn! Me!" Griff put his hand on Happy’s shoulder</p><p>and she calmed down a bit. </p><p></p><p> "What do you think about all this Griff?" I asked. </p><p></p><p> He scowled and spat on the floor. "I’m with Taklinn about killin’ prisoners. Ain’t</p><p>no honor in it. I don’t like it." And with that, he spun on his heel and walked out</p><p>into the hallway. Happy followed him and it was left to Taklinn, Caribdis and I to </p><p>work this thing out. </p><p></p><p> "She’s a spy!" Caribdis cried. "A spy for Melesandre! You're out of your mind if</p><p>you want to keep her with us!" </p><p></p><p> I said, no!" Taklinn roared. "We are not on Havilah’s soil, and I will not impose</p><p>Havilah’s laws upon this foreign land!"</p><p></p><p> I was flabbergasted by his bull headedness! "Taklinn, what do you think your </p><p>doing here?" I asked him. "You ARE Havilah! Caribdis is Havilah, and so is Griff</p><p>and Happy, and so am I! Havilah doesn’t just end at a border somewhere. It’s always</p><p>right here." I thumbed my chest. "Havilah exists as long as we do, and we carry it </p><p>with us wherever we go. Taklinn, think of the lives at stake! I don’t like executing</p><p>an unarmed prisoner any more than you do, but we can’t afford to make mistakes.</p><p>Right now there are thousands of people counting on us. Right now there are people </p><p>being led through portals by yuan-ti! We can stop this, but we cannot let emotion or</p><p>a misplaced sense of justice cloud our view. We must keep our eyes on the prize,</p><p>Taklinn, and Sensesi is a loose end we cannot afford." </p><p></p><p> Taklinn glared at me, his brow deeply furrowed. "Very well!" He thundered,</p><p>"Take her! Do whatever you want! Just don’t ask me to take part!" And with that, he</p><p>tossed the bag at our feet. </p><p></p><p> Caribdis paused for only a second. The boy made to stomp on the bag! I threw</p><p>myself at him, grabbing him about the legs while Taklinn quickly swept down to </p><p>grab the bag again. "Caribdis, no!" I yelled. "If we do this, we do it correctly, and</p><p>we do it with the full consensus of the whole crew! We must get Griff and Happy</p><p>back in here and vote on this thing, and then we will decide what must be done" </p><p></p><p> "You have no honor, boy!" Taklinn snapped, re securing the bag to his belt. </p><p></p><p> "No honor?" Caribdis retorted, "Where is the honor in letting something like that</p><p>live?" </p><p></p><p> And then Caribdis did a very bad thing. He began to rhyme.</p><p></p><p> "Hear me Taklinn, hear me well,</p><p> for when this story bards do tell, </p><p> the people will have heard</p><p> how the dwarf did finally heed my words!"</p><p></p><p> Or something like that. The point is, Caribdis was trying to charm Taklinn, much </p><p>as he had done to get him to ride a horse not so long ago!</p><p></p><p> My eyes widened in horror, and I yelled at him to stop! "Caribdis, no!" but it was</p><p>too late. </p><p> </p><p> Taklinn almost seemed to drift into Caribdis’ words for a second, but then he</p><p>shook his great head and the next thing I knew his axe had been slung around to</p><p>come to rest in his hands. His voice was low but there was no mistaking his words. </p><p>"I told you, boy, never to do that again." He took a menacing step toward Caribdis,</p><p>but I leapt between them.</p><p> </p><p> "He didn’t mean it, Taklinn!" I babbled, absolutely certain that Taklinn meant to </p><p>kill the boy. "He’s out of his mind! He didn’t know what he was doing! Don’t kill</p><p>him, Taklinn! Don’t kill him!"</p><p></p><p> Taklinn looked at me and took a huge breath. I could see the internal struggle, but </p><p>at last he took a step back and spat on the ground at Caribdis’ feet. "I thought you</p><p>were learning, boy, but I see that you have learned nothing! You have no honor!</p><p>You are not a man, you are a sniveling child! I’ll have my braid back. You do not </p><p>deserve to wear it!"</p><p></p><p> A long and chilly moment passed, but then Caribdis, with more anger in his eyes</p><p>than I have ever seen, hastily unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a braid of hair worn </p><p>around his neck on a leather string. He tore it from his throat and threw it to the</p><p>ground in contempt. With a last look of fury, he stormed from the room. </p><p></p><p> As Taklinn picked up the braid, I understood. The braid had been Taklinn’s from </p><p>when he had shaved his beard in dishonor after our trials at the Academy. He had</p><p>sent one to Kester as an act of contrition, and he must have given one to Caribdis as</p><p>a reminder to never again bring such shame upon himself and his fellows again. </p><p></p><p> I was speechless. Taklinn growled and stuffed the braid into his pocket. He</p><p>looked at me with an utterly unflinching gaze. "Here’s how it stands," he stated,</p><p>"I’ve got Sensesi, and she stays with me. If anyone doesn’t like it, they can try to </p><p>take her from me!" </p><p></p><p> His words hit me like a fist to the stomach. Was he serious, I thought? Would he</p><p>really raise his axe to anyone who tried to take Sensesi? Would he raise his axe to </p><p>me? Never before had I heard this from one of the Crew members. Never before</p><p>had I heard such a veiled threat, such an assertion of leadership, of superiority.</p><p>Would Taklinn really go to such extremes to get his way in this thing? Would he </p><p>really disregard the wisdom of his friends so out of hand?</p><p></p><p> "You didn’t just say that, Taklinn." I whispered. But he only scowled at me. I</p><p>opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. I simply turned and walked out </p><p>into the hallway. </p><p></p><p> Once outside the room, even more harsh words were flying as Caribdis told Hap</p><p>and Griff what had gone on.</p><p></p><p> "You did WHAT?" Griff exploded. </p><p></p><p> "You tried to charm him? Are you insane?" Happy stood there, her mouth a</p><p>perfect "O" at the shock of what Caribdis had done. </p><p> </p><p> "I was just trying to get him to settle down!" Caribdis said in a defensive tone. "I</p><p>was just trying to get him to see the truth!"</p><p> </p><p> "The truth?" I snapped, cutting him off, "Very well then, Caribdis, allow me to </p><p>help you see the truth! Let me charm you! I’ve got the spell, all you have to do is</p><p>accept it! Come on, Caribdis, I promise you, you’ll see things my way!</p><p></p><p> Caribdis sputtered, "But that’s not the same... but I was just..." </p><p> </p><p> "Don’t you get it, Caribdis!" I raged, "If you charm him, it makes his opinion</p><p>invalid! Maybe I don’t agree with him, but he’s still one fifth of this crew, and as</p><p>such, his voice is every bit as important as the rest of ours, and his voice must </p><p>remain clear, without magical influence!"</p><p></p><p> "But..."</p><p> </p><p> "No, Caribdis!" I cut him off, "We do not cast such spells on each other! It is that </p><p>simple! We. Do. Not. Cast. Such. Spells. On. Each. Other! I understand your</p><p>position with regard to Sensesi, but you have no right to deprive Taklinn of his free</p><p>will! Do you understand?" I looked at him, exasperated. </p><p></p><p> Caribdis opened his mouth to speak, but found nothing to say. He looked at the</p><p>ground in shame as his anger turned to understanding. He turned away from me, his</p><p>shoulders hunched and his head low. </p><p></p><p> "Ah, to hell with this!" Griff rumbled. "The rest of you can sit around and talk all</p><p>day if you want to, but we’re going to get this orb!" With that, he strode away,</p><p>leading Happy, Adeede, Lotte and Albert with him. </p><p> </p><p> I cursed under my breath at Griff’s impatience. We still had matters of great</p><p>concern to deal with, and it galled me to not put them to rest. But we had to stick</p><p>together, and I made to go back into the room to fetch Taklinn. But Caribdis </p><p>stopped me. "No," he said, "I’ll get him. We’ll catch up, just wait for us at the top of</p><p>the stair." </p><p></p><p> Seeing the look in his eyes, I nodded, and made off down the tunnel. Ambros </p><p>awoke with a start and yawned, "Did I miss anything?"</p><p></p><p> "I’ll tell you later." I said, hurrying to catch up with the others. Ambros smacked</p><p>his lips sleepily and was out again in seconds. </p><p></p><p> I caught them on the stairs and told them that Caribdis and Taklinn would be</p><p>along shortly. Griff merely grunted and continued his climb, but he did wait once</p><p>we’d reached the top of the stairs. </p><p></p><p> It took quite a few minutes, and I feared that Griff would leave the pair behind,</p><p>but just then we heard their footsteps coming up the stairs. What we saw when they</p><p>arrived stunned us all into silence. </p><p></p><p> Caribdis had shaved his head! </p><p></p><p> I could tell that he had done it hastily, probably with a dagger, and without benefit</p><p>of a mirror, for odd clumps of hair jutted this way and that from his pate. Our bard, </p><p>once so obsessive and vain about his appearance, had hacked away most of his hair!</p><p>I surmised that it must have been done as penance to Taklinn, an act of contrition</p><p>and apology, for Taklinn seemed to have no more anger in his eyes toward the boy. </p><p></p><p> "What?" Caribdis challenged our shocked faces, "Haven’t you ever seen someone</p><p>whose gotten a haircut? C’mon, lets get on with this!"</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Reaping 8 (con’t)</p><p> </p><p> We all looked away from the shorn Caribdis and shuffled our feet a bit. We</p><p>decided at last to get back to business and formulate a plan. It was decided that </p><p>Adeede would lead Lotte and Albert to a safe place and hopefully rendezvous with</p><p>Nanden and the forces he was bringing, while we would follow Albert’s directions</p><p>to the orb room and, with any luck, wretch it from the grasp of Melisandre’s</p><p>minions. Adeede told us to meet them in the towers prisons, which Albert was also </p><p>able to tell us how to get to. We parted ways, and Griff, Happy, Taklinn, Caribdis</p><p>and I made our way further up the stairs into unexplored territory. </p><p> </p><p> We did not have far to go, for the next landing emptied into a bare room with a</p><p>hall leading from it. Down this long hall and around a corner we met with the first</p><p>of Melisandre’s guards. They were two drider, though these two were magically </p><p>toughened, and though we bested them, it was a hard fight, and I mainly stayed out</p><p>of it except for a Magic Missile finisher on the last drider. I feared that my spells</p><p>would be much needed. As it turns out, I was right. </p><p> </p><p> Another hall led from this room, and Happy led the way, her eyes peeled for traps.</p><p>Instead, she found a secret door midway down the hall. After announcing that it</p><p>was clean, Griff swung it open, and we beheld a narrow hall that emptied into a </p><p>triangularly shaped room, this one containing a door that could not be missed, for it</p><p>bore the visage of that strange and terrible god, Illugi, and it positively reeked of</p><p>danger and evil. Taklinn cast a quick detect magic, and reported that a powerful </p><p>magical source waited for us beyond the door. He could see streams of it’s dark</p><p>power leaking through the door cracks, and all of us could feel a sense of unease. I</p><p>quickly cast some preparatory spells while Hap skulked forward to examine the door. </p><p></p><p> It was trapped. And dangerously so. She asked us all to move back, and we did,</p><p>though Griff stayed a little nearer to her than I think she approved of. We watched</p><p>her in silence as she concentrated, and the tension was utterly palpable. I could </p><p>almost feel the sweat dripping off her, as I imagine it must have been, trying to</p><p>deactivate a delicate magical trap without setting it off. After what seemed like a</p><p>long time, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief and stepped away from the door. She </p><p>turned, and with a smile gave us the thumbs up. </p><p></p><p> She had done it.</p><p> </p><p> And so we came to our greatest challenge yet. Griff swung the door open and we </p><p>beheld a sight that weakened even our battle hardened knees.</p><p></p><p> The room was simply massive. Round and domed, I could barely see the other</p><p>side through a haze of murky torchlight. Its walls writhed and moved, and after our </p><p>eyes adjusted to the light, our minds had to adjust to the horror, for the walls</p><p>stretched and swelled with the faces of the dead/undead as they swam in agony</p><p>before us. We saw plainly the faces of Kester Orban and Teppo Stafford. </p><p> </p><p> In the center stood a massive statue of Illugi fashioned of reflective, black, stone.</p><p>It raised at least forty feet into the air, and clutched an object. Sandwiched between</p><p>its two massive hands shone a black orb, the size of a small pumpkin. </p><p> </p><p> At the statues feet there was still more horror awaiting our eyes. Upon a dripping</p><p>alter was lashed the naked and tortured body of Ryton Stafford. He had been cruelly</p><p>gutted and terrible things had been done to his appendages. </p><p></p><p> And then, from either side of the statue they came. The guardians. There were</p><p>only two, but their sheer size and appearances gave me pause, and for the first time</p><p>I wondered if we’d bitten off more than we could chew. The thing on the left was a </p><p>demon, a half spider creature born of the underworld. It scuttled forward, looking a</p><p>bit like a drider, but roughly the size of a small house. It gnashed wickedly hooked</p><p>mandibles and chittered a challenge at us. </p><p> </p><p> The thing on the left was also a giant, though obviously undead. A walking</p><p>skeleton, its eyes shone with intelligence and hate as it swung hammer-like fists</p><p>before it, awaiting the fight. </p><p> </p><p> Without a word, Griffin charged the demon while Taklinn raced toward the</p><p>skeleton, bellowing prayers to Clangeden that were swallowed up in the howls of</p><p>the tortured souls that writhed in agony all around us. Griff brought his sword down </p><p>with enough force to fell a ogre with a single hit. It glanced off! The demons hide</p><p>was incredibly tough, and even Griff found himself thwarted by the armor. The</p><p>demon seemed to laugh, and with a single thrust of its mandibles, lashed out and </p><p>tore Griff’s breast plate cleanly from his body! It exposed him as easily as one</p><p>would rip the paper from a package, and I knew that the next hit would strike flesh! </p><p></p><p> Taklinn was having his problems too, for his axe met with stiff resistance. The</p><p>skeleton was obviously magically protected, and it ignored our clerics slashes and</p><p>pounded down a rain of blows that staggered even our stout dwarf. </p><p> </p><p> Happy raced around, trying to get into flanking position with Griff, looking for a</p><p>weakness, a spot to slip a dagger. Caribdis unleashed a barrage of arrows at the</p><p>skeleton while I tried to help Griff with a Hold Monster aimed at the demon. The </p><p>beast simply shrugged off my spell, and I feared that I might never affect such a</p><p>creature. But I had to try.</p><p></p><p> Griff, Happy and the demon danced around each other, waiting for an </p><p>opportunity. Griff slashed and stabbed, and may even have drawn blood, but</p><p>Happy’s daggers simply bounced off of the thing. I took a deep breath,</p><p>concentrated, crossed my fingers and shouted out the words to Polymorph Other. </p><p>To my great shock and amazement, it worked! One instant Griff and Happy were</p><p>fighting a massive demon, the next, they were looking as a fluffy, white, rabbit that</p><p>hopped about uncertainly for a moment, quite dazed to have found itself so </p><p>suddenly neutered. With a cry for blood, Griff brought his sword down on the</p><p>bunny, but it was already gone, gating itself back to its own plain. I can only</p><p>imagine its reception upon arriving back in the abyss! </p><p> </p><p> Meanwhile, Taklinn and Caribdis had worked their way through much of the</p><p>skeletons magical protection, and it was starting to show signs of damage, though</p><p>the same could be said of Taklinn, for he bore many a mark made by the heavy fists </p><p>that pummeled him again and again. Griff and Happy raced to his aid, but I was</p><p>already casting. My Bolt of Conjuring slammed into the undead thing with</p><p>tremendous force and it clattered to the ground in a pile of still bones. I’m quite </p><p>certain that Caribdis and Taklinn had weakened the skeleton considerably, and full</p><p>credit must go to them. Mine was simply the killing blow, and a lucky one at that.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Rping 8 (cont)</p><p></p><p> Taklinn reeled back from the pile of undead bones as an eerie wail made by the</p><p>trapped souls within the dome rose and fell. He was already healing himself even as </p><p>we joined him at the base of the statue. Looking up, it was a malevolent and</p><p>obscene figure, inky black and cloyingly evil. In its ebony hands, thirty feet above, </p><p>it held our prize. </p><p></p><p> Climbing the thing was out of the question. Every bit of good sense told us that</p><p>touching it was not an option. </p><p></p><p> We wondered aloud for a second about how we would retrieve the orb, but I knew </p><p>that the answer was obvious. </p><p></p><p> I already had a Fly spell cast on me. I emptied a sturdy sack and rose into the air</p><p>with my friends watching, helpless to aid me. Happy, bless her soul, asked me to </p><p>Levitate her so that she could do it, but I didn’t happen to have it memorized, and,</p><p>truth be told, I don’t know that I’d have cast it on her even if I had. Sometimes we</p><p>must all face risk, and Clangeden knows the rest of this group has taken more than </p><p>their fair share. Today was my turn.</p><p> </p><p> I flew up to the orb, where it rested between the statues two giant hands. I paused,</p><p>still not certain that the statue might not simply spring to life and bat me down, but </p><p>there was nothing else for it. It would be tricky getting the orb into the bag without</p><p>touching the statue itself, but I felt confident that I could do it.</p><p></p><p> Overly confident, it would seem. Apparently my sack had a small hole in it, and </p><p>as I grasped the orb, my finger slipped through and I must have touched that foul,</p><p>black, stone, for all at once, all the spells I’d cast on myself in preparation for the</p><p>battle suddenly blinked out, including my Fly spell! </p><p></p><p> I fell, slamming into the statue on the way down, and each time I touched it I</p><p>could feel the icy shock of undiluted evil course through me. It hurt nearly as bad as </p><p>the floor did when I finally came to rest. </p><p></p><p> But I had the orb. </p><p> </p><p> Groaning, I held up my hands and announced my success. I was barely able to </p><p>hold onto the thing, and Taklinn quickly wrapped the sack around it and stowed it</p><p>away while Caribdis and Happy helped me to my feet. My head throbbed and my</p><p>body screamed in pain from the fall, but worse, I felt fundamentally drained, </p><p>weakened. My mind was muddled, and I realized I couldn’t even remember my fifth</p><p>circle spells! As Taklinn healed my physical wounds I described my plight to him</p><p>and he nodded in understanding. </p><p> </p><p> "We’ve been drained, my friend," he explained, "The skeleton did the same to me.</p><p>We’ve both felt the touch of pure evil and have been sapped of energy, knowledge</p><p>and ability." I was aghast, but he smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. "Not to </p><p>worry! At sundown Clangeden will grant me spells that can right these wrongs! He</p><p>will see to this, I assure you! Nice job getting the orb, by the way." With that, he</p><p>gave it back to me, for I wanted to closer examine this artifact. </p><p> </p><p> But that would have to wait, for as I took it from him, there was a strange ripping</p><p>noise, and a terrible creature tore its way from the abyss into our world! </p><p></p><p> It was another demon spider thing, similar to the one so recently turned into a rabbit. It </p><p>skittered into the room and immediately settled it’s glowing red eyes on me. </p><p> </p><p> "It’s a retriever!" Taklinn yelled, leaping to stand between me and the demon as it</p><p>closed the distance with terrifying speed. I’d never heard of a Retriever, but the </p><p>name alone said it all. It obviously meant to retrieve the orb!</p><p></p><p> My comrades understood this too, and Griffin joined Taklinn as a blockade for</p><p>me while I quickly cast Levitate from a scroll and rose into the air (ok, well I did </p><p>have Levitate on scroll). </p><p> </p><p> The retriever was a nasty opponent, and Griff, without his breast plate, felt its</p><p>sting, though he did manage to bite deeply with his sword, drawing an enraged </p><p>shriek from the demon.</p><p> </p><p> We unloaded everything we had at it, and soon it was pock marked by arrow,</p><p>dagger, axe and sword. The burns of magic scorched it, but it fought on, hitting </p><p>Taklinn with a jolt of electricity fired from it’s eyes. Taklinn sagged to his knees,</p><p>but hauled himself up again to slash away with his axe. He and Griff dodged</p><p>between the demons legs and tore into it’s abdomen as Happy, Caribdis and I helped </p><p>as much as we could. And the whole time, I felt as if it were staring right at me.</p><p></p><p> At last, it fell, frustrated and dead in it’s pursuit to retrieve the orb. </p><p></p><p> It’s carcass was fascinating, in a horrific way, and we appraised it while Taklinn </p><p>and Caribdis took care of wounds. Perhaps that is why we didn’t see Griff stroll</p><p>over to another door in the chamber and grasp it’s handle. We heard his gasp of</p><p>pain, though, and when we looked at him he returned our stares with a smile forced </p><p>through a grimace of pain. He stepped back from the door, trying to whistle nonchalantly,</p><p>as Happy lambasted him for tinkering with doors before she’d had a chance to check</p><p>them out.</p><p> </p><p> After doing just that, she opened this one and we beheld a library! Row after row</p><p>of books lined shelves in neat, orderly rows. I salivated at the very odor of all these</p><p>old tombs, and I could not help but to hurry down the aisles, reading spines as I </p><p>went.</p><p></p><p> In all, I managed to select twenty-seven books of interest or value, and two of</p><p>what I believe to be Melisandre’s personal spell books! I have yet to open them </p><p>though, for I don’t even want to imagine what heinous protections guard her</p><p>spells. I will have to wait until we return to Havilah to pursue them under safer</p><p>conditions. </p><p></p><p> Another door led from the library, and while I read esoteric titles, Happy checked</p><p>it for traps. She declared it safe, and opened the door. </p><p></p><p> She was wrong.</p><p></p><p> The bolt of pain hit her like a hammer, and she doubled over on the floor, face</p><p>going pale, her mouth open to scream but no sound coming out. Griff, still acting a </p><p>bit odd himself, knelt at her side, looking from Taklinn to myself, his face pleading</p><p>with us to help her. </p><p> </p><p> Happy fought back tears of pain as she shakily regained her feet. I could tell that </p><p>it wracked through her body even as I recognized the symptoms of a Symbol of</p><p>Pain. There was nothing to be done for her except wait until we had spells to get rid of</p><p>it. Until then, we knew that she’d be at a considerable disadvantage. But we had to </p><p>go on.</p><p></p><p> Behind the trapped door was a length of empty hallway. It was such an obvious</p><p>place to put a secret door that we had to at least check it. Happy, putting on a brave </p><p>face over her grimaces of pain, stepped into the hall, her watering eyes peeled for</p><p>danger. She found the door near the end, and with a touch, it pivoted to reveal that</p><p>we’d just gone in a circle. The door emptied into the room where we had fought the </p><p>two drider. </p><p> </p><p> At least Taklinn, Happy, myself, and possibly Griff were injured beyond</p><p>immediate repair. We’d gotten what we’d come for, and needed to heal badly. We </p><p>decided to hide in the secret hall where we’d found Lotte until we were ready to</p><p>brave the towers prisons. We made our way down to that small room, and we</p><p>dropped to the floor, our backs resting on the walls. The orb in its bag lay at my </p><p>feet, and I could almost feel its pulse emanating from within. I decided to examine</p><p>it more thoroughly later. We had things to discuss right now.</p><p> </p><p> I cleared my throat, getting their attention. "Friends," I said, "There is a matter to </p><p>talk about that we can’t put off. That of what to do with Sensesi. Is it agreed that we</p><p>will discuss it?" I looked around the room and saw four heads nod. I continued.</p><p></p><p> "Before we dive into it, however, there is one thing I must say." I looked straight </p><p>at Taklinn. "There is no one of us here any more or less important within this circle</p><p>than any other. We are all one fifth of a Crew of Havilah, and none among us can</p><p>make this decision on their own. Taklinn, when you said that whoever wanted </p><p>Sensesi would have to take her from you, you may as well have slapped me in the</p><p>face. Never have I feared your hand, and you have no right to place it above me." I</p><p>stared at him, and Taklinn met my eyes with understanding. </p><p></p><p> "You are right, my friend," he nodded at last, "I spoke then out of anger and pride</p><p>and in a misguided attempt to protect my ideals. But you are right, none of us</p><p>should have to bow to the other, and I apologize if you will accept it." He stretched </p><p>his hand out to me, and I got up to shake it. </p><p> </p><p> "Apology accepted." I said, and I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from</p><p>both of us. </p><p> </p><p> "Now then," I said to them all, "Here is what I suggest. We each say our piece</p><p>regarding what we feel should be done with Sensesi, afterward will be a short</p><p>discussion, then a vote. I submit that we demand a unanimous desiccation. This </p><p>may mean the difference between life and death for Sensesi, and such a thing</p><p>should be agreed upon by all of us. I will start."</p><p> </p><p> I took a breath. "Sensesi is a spy. She tried to kill Happy, and she was one of the </p><p>two yuan-ti that cut off Taklinn’s arm. For all we know she may still be able to </p><p>communicate with Melesandre. I take no pleasure or pride in executing prisoners, </p><p>but we are at war, and we are a Crew of Havilah. We are well within our rights to do </p><p>whatever needs to be done. It is a simple matter of practicality. She is too great a liability, </p><p>and she must die. Too many lives hang in the balance to afford a mistake at this late hour."</p><p>Having said my piece, I sat down. "Happy," I said, "Want to go next?"</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Rping 8 (cont)</p><p></p><p> Happy took her feet and I could tell that she was as passionate now on the subject </p><p>of Sensesi’s fate as she had been earlier. </p><p> </p><p> "She tried to kill me! Me!" She cried vehemently. "She’s a spy and a yuan-ti, and I</p><p>have no sympathy for her. I say she dies!" </p><p></p><p> She sat back down again, her point made in short but firm sentences. </p><p></p><p> I looked at Griff, and though I could tell he was made uncomfortable by the idea</p><p>of giving his opinion, he did so anyway. </p><p></p><p> "Look," he said, "I don’t give a crap about this war and whether or not she’s a spy</p><p>and blah, blah, blah! I just don’t like killin’ unarmed foes. It goes against my grain,</p><p>that’s all. Frankly, I don’t care if we turn her over to the law or let her go. She </p><p>doesn’t scare me either way. I just don’t want to be the one that has to stick her</p><p>when she can’t fight back."</p><p></p><p> "Duly noted." I said. "Caribdis?" </p><p></p><p> Caribdis leapt to his feet and we could tell that his bardish loquaciousness was</p><p>about to take hold. It was as if he was taking the stage when he expounded, "Doorag</p><p>is right! Sensesi may still be communicating with Melesandre for all we know! Too </p><p>much is riding on this decision for us to take it lightly! Havilah is depending on us!</p><p>Countless lives hang in the balance! Will any of us ever be able to bear the</p><p>knowledge that we failed in our mission because of misplaced compassion? She </p><p>dies! Yes, and immediately!" Caribdis’ actual speech was far more lengthy and</p><p>verbose, but that was the meat of his argument.</p><p> </p><p> Taklinn went last. He stood and addressed us in his deep rumble. "I can still not </p><p>agree to the out and out execution of a prisoner, especially on foreign soil. But that is</p><p>a personal qualm. My true reasoning is one that I have only just thought of over the</p><p>past hour or so. While it is true that Clangeden revealed to me that Sensesi is a spy, </p><p>the question I posed to Him was, by necessity, of the simple yes or no variety.</p><p>There is still much we do not know. We have no way to be certain that she is still</p><p>actively working for Melesandre. Perhaps she has some ulterior motive. Perhaps she </p><p>in no longer loyal to the witch queen. These are questions that cannot be answered</p><p>now, but as soon as I am able to ask for new spells, I can cast a few that will reveal</p><p>the truth of these matters. I would ask that we wait until that can be done. Her life is </p><p>on the line, and thus she deserves any benefit of the doubt that we can give her,</p><p>otherwise this cannot be considered a fair shake. Also, I’m with Griff. I cannot</p><p>condone, nor do I see the honor in killing helpless foes. True, I have done so in the </p><p>past, but only under the most extreme of circumstances. As things stand now, she is</p><p>our helpless prisoner. True, she may be communicating with Melesandre, but if that</p><p>were so, why aren’t there a hundred yuan-ti storming this room right now? I say we </p><p>wait until I can cast my divining spells and learn the truth. There may yet be things</p><p>we can learn from her."</p><p> </p><p> He took his seat again, and I nodded solemnly. I passed out a stone to each of us. </p><p>"The vote is on weather or not to kill her right now." I said. "We shall hold out our</p><p>fists and reveal the contents. A stone is a vote for death. An empty palm means life.</p><p>The decision must be unanimous. All agreed?" Four ’ayes!’ sounded, and we hid our </p><p>stones behind our backs before holding our fists out to the circle. As one, we</p><p>opened our hands. As I suspected, the vote was not unanimous. Three stones lay on</p><p>outstretched palms. Happy, Caribdis and I had all voted for her execution, but her </p><p>death was staved off by the empty hands of Taklinn and Griff. </p><p> </p><p> In my heart I had known that they would not vote for her death, but I had felt that</p><p>this small act of democracy was needed to focus us again, to solidify the fact that </p><p>each of our voices must be heard. I was disappointed with the result, but pleased</p><p>with the act itself. </p><p> </p><p> "Very well." I said, "Tomorrow Taklinn will cast his spells, and perhaps a new</p><p>vote will be taken. Until then I pray that you are right Taklinn, and that she can no </p><p>longer report to Melesandre. </p><p></p><p> We spent the rest of the day in rest, healing, and study. Every once in awhile my</p><p>eyes would stray to the orb on the floor, but I abstained from dwelling upon it </p><p>overly much. The artifact was far too powerful to tinker with without some sort of</p><p>road map for its use, and I wanted no part in accidentally setting it off without</p><p>knowing how to turn it off again. A worse case scenario might have us Teleporting </p><p>Melesandre and her entire army directly to us! That would never do.</p><p></p><p></p><p> At sundown Taklinn entered into meditation, as he does every evening, and soon he </p><p>opened his eyes, replete with spells that would, hopefully, reveal the truth about</p><p>Sensesi. His first order of business, however, was to deal with the lasting wounds</p><p>we had received, the energy draining taint of the statue I had touched, and the blow </p><p>from the skeleton. In mere moments he had laid his huge, calloused hands upon me</p><p>and recited his prayer. Just like that, I felt good as new. Powerful magic’s indeed,</p><p>my friend! Powerful magic’s indeed! </p><p> </p><p> He then turned his attention to Sensesi. To question her in her current viper/turtle</p><p>form, he had to first cast Speak With Animals upon himself, after that he cast his</p><p>divinations and for several minutes we heard no sounds save an almost inaudible </p><p>hissing exchange. We had given him our questions, and he asked them without fear</p><p>of lies.</p><p></p><p> When he again spoke to us in recognizable tongue, he had this to report. </p><p> </p><p> "I could only ask a few questions," He said, "But this I know: She is no longer a</p><p>spy working for Melesandre. In fact, she has no loyalty to Melesandre at all. She</p><p>aided us for her own reasons, though what those might be I cannot ascertain. Also, </p><p>she is unable to communicate with Melesandre."</p><p></p><p> He shrugged, looking at us all. </p><p> </p><p> Much discussion followed. Griff and Taklinn were now not to be swayed on the </p><p>matter, and even Happy and Caribdis now raised empty palms when next we voted.</p><p>I found myself the only holdout. </p><p></p><p> I don’t know why, but I have a deep foreboding about Sensesi, a feeling that there </p><p>is far more to her than meets the eye. My fear is so great that I must admit that I</p><p>would see her dead rather than give her even a chance to wreak havoc. It defies</p><p>logic. On the surface, she is a turncoat from Melesandre, and I suppose, could even </p><p>be of use to us. But my heart tells me that, though she might be against Melesandre,</p><p>that does not mean that she is loyal to us. </p><p> </p><p> I have no real evidence upon which to base that. It is a moral dilemma that I have </p><p>fought with myself now for the past several hours. I must now admit that she dose</p><p>not deserve execution. Yet the thought of her fills me with such dread that I find</p><p>myself wishing that I possessed a less rigid set of ethics. </p><p> </p><p> It has been ultimately decided that she will remain our prisoner for the time being,</p><p>but that she shall be released when this nasty business is over. It galls me that I will</p><p>be the one who has to Polymorph her back to yuan-ti form. But I will do it. It is the </p><p>will of the crew, and I know that no matter what evil she may cause in the future,</p><p>we will defeat her. If the four people I trust most say she lives, she lives.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Rping 9</p><p> </p><p> Well, this has been a busy day to say the least. </p><p></p><p> We set out as soon as possible. Rested, healed, and full of spells, we delved </p><p>deeper in to the tower, following the path described to us by Albert. Through taking</p><p>secret passageway we were able to enter into the prison level without dealing with</p><p>yuan-ti patrols. Yet, we had more things to worry about that a few yuan-ti. </p><p> </p><p> A spacious and empty room greeted us when we stepped from the spiral staircase,</p><p>and we quickly made out way through it toward the exit on the far side. We had not </p><p>gotten more than half way across, when a quick look behind saw another retriever</p><p>claw its way into this dimension and rattle forward, a huge and hellish spider with</p><p>lava in its eyes. I looked at it. And I realized that I still held the bloody orb! </p><p> </p><p> I didn’t even have time to react. The demon hit me with twin rays of magical fire</p><p>shot from its eyes, and I felt the world slip away. I could barely keep my feet as I </p><p>felt the life run out of me in a single, huge, second. I sagged against Caribdis, but he</p><p>was already there, laying his hands on my shoulders and infusing me with his most</p><p>powerful healing verse. Just that quick, I was nearly fully healed! It was an </p><p>incredibly odd and frightening experience, but I had no time to dwell upon it, and,</p><p>almost by reflex, I threw up a Wall of Ice that effectively blocked the creature. </p><p></p><p> Happy and Griff ran to the wall, getting into position, for the retriever was already </p><p>hacking away the wall in big chunks. In mere seconds it had breached the wall only</p><p>to find Griff standing there.</p><p></p><p> "Come on!" Griff roared, his sword brandished and his body bereft of armor, </p><p>"Come get some!"</p><p> </p><p> But the Retriever still had its eyes locked on me, and it charged forward, heedless</p><p>of the Ice Wall's freezing damage and Griff’s blade. It took hits from both Happy </p><p>and Griff but sent Griff spinning to the floor in its headlong rush to get at me. But</p><p>they had bought me a little time, and Taklinn still stood between myself the demon.</p><p>I cast Fly on myself and shot toward the ceiling - only to find it a mere fifteen feet </p><p>high! The retriever could easily reach that with it’s hooked legs! </p><p></p><p> It became a race, with me doing my best to lead the thing toward my companions</p><p>and still not get caught. </p><p></p><p> I failed to mention in my account of the first retriever we fought that the things</p><p>regenerate, and only fire seems to be an effective method of keeping them dead. In</p><p>the end, we wore it down and overwhelmed it, and a flask of alchemists fire </p><p>finished the job. The only serious injury had been mine, and I must remember to</p><p>thank Caribdis for pulling me so swiftly from the brink. </p><p> </p><p> Sometimes I am reminded of how physically frail I am compared to our </p><p>swordsmen. Griff or Taklinn probably would have shrugged off those fire blasts as</p><p>if they were minor annoyances. </p><p> </p><p> The day was far from over though. The exit from the large chamber was a lengthy </p><p>hall. Happy took the point by some thirty feet or so until she came to a doorless</p><p>room. Cautiously, she stepped in. </p><p> </p><p> Right into an ambush! Half a dozen yuan-ti waited here with drawn bows, and </p><p>they unleashed a full barrage of arrows at our hapless girl. We heard her cry out in</p><p>pain before we even saw the black arrows thunk into her body, and she reeled,</p><p>barely keeping her feet. </p><p></p><p> We acted quickly. I hurried forward and threw up a Wall of Force down one side</p><p>of the room, blocking off three of the yuan-ti. After that it was a matter of</p><p>supporting Griff and Taklinn as they mowed through the other three. Griff made </p><p>them very sorry that they had harmed his favorite halfling. Alas, the yuan-ti trapped</p><p>behind the wall blacked out that section of the room and escaped by changing into</p><p>viper form and slithering through small holes at the base of the walls obviously </p><p>meant for travel in serpent form.</p><p></p><p> "They know we’re here!" Griff rasped, and he set out through the opposite exit at</p><p>a quick jog. We feared that the yuan-ti might slay prisoners rather than see them </p><p>freed, and thus we hurried down the hall straight into another mass of yuan-ti. </p><p> </p><p> Seven of them waited here, and again they stood with bows at the ready, only this</p><p>time it was Griff who met their barbs, and though they scored hits, Griff was</p><p>amongst them in a split second, his sword carving a path through the serpentine </p><p>ranks with meaty thuds. Taklinn came in behind, his axe bringing death and</p><p>dismemberment to them in great swaths. </p><p> </p><p> Our steel, as well as our spells and arrows brought them down, and when it was</p><p>over not one yuan-ti breathed life. </p><p></p><p> We were faced with five doors, two north, two south, and one east. The southern </p><p>and northern doors lead to barracks and kitchen for the yuan-ti soldiers, and though</p><p>Griff urged us on, we could not help but be captured by what we found behind a</p><p>secret door in the barracks. Swords, longbows, armor, arrows. Hundreds of sets of </p><p>weapons, all of very fine craftsmanship were stacked along the walls of this room.</p><p>Taklinn took one look at it and pronounced it worth a fortune! That, and the notion</p><p>of deriving the yuan-ti of weapons, set us to pitching as many of these weapons as </p><p>we could into our bag of holding. </p><p> </p><p> But we did not tarry long, and in short order had opened the eastern door to find</p><p>another corridor that led to a stout pair of business like double doors. Griff wasted </p><p>no time in shoving the unlocked doors open, and we beheld the antechamber of the</p><p>towers prisons. The room was large and lined with weird sarcophagus-like</p><p>chambers, each of which had a dozen or more tubes running through it. All seemed </p><p>to leak a green, viscous, liquid, and, still dripping that same liquid, there staggered</p><p>ten undead zombies toward us. We would soon learn that these were no run of the</p><p>mill zombies. </p><p> </p><p> Toward the back of the room stood a rack, and upon it was stretched a broken</p><p>wreck of a man. Behind the rack stood a caricature of all that is good and right. A</p><p>cleric of Illugi. He cast a spell even as the doors swung open, and Taklinn would </p><p>later reveal that the spell had made him a magnet for the undead. Immediately all ten</p><p>of the zombies turned their attention to our cleric and stumbled toward him. </p><p></p><p> Griff charged through, slamming zombies out of his way as he did, to come toe to </p><p>toe with the cleric, but I had other things in mind for this servant of hell than an</p><p>opportunity for more magical hijinx. Flying up to see over the converging mass of</p><p>zombies, I let loose a Hold Monster that stopped the cleric in mid motion. He froze </p><p>as still as stone, and Griff was showing no mercy in the heat of battle. With a swift</p><p>roundhouse swing, he sent the clerics head sailing from his shoulders. </p><p></p><p> In the meantime Taklinn was getting a chance to show off the raw power of </p><p>Clangeden, and pure holiness seemed to radiate from him in waves beneath which</p><p>the zombies crumbled. Within seconds he had destroyed the lot of them, but more</p><p>streamed from a door to the south. Lots more. They came at Taklinn in a stumbling </p><p>tide, and again he cried out to his god, and again a full half of them were turned to</p><p>dust.</p><p> </p><p> But there were five zombies left and Taklinn’s ability to call upon Clangeden to </p><p>destroy undead is finite. The last of these things would have to be dealt with the old</p><p>fashioned way.</p><p> </p><p> We quickly found out that they were somehow at least partially immune to most </p><p>forms of damage. Taklinn, Caribdis, Happy and myself all scored tremendous hits on</p><p>zombies. I hit one of them with a Scorching Ray that would bring down an ogre, but</p><p>the undead just ignored it! </p><p> </p><p> On the other side of the room Griff was also having problems. Two quasits,</p><p>apparently the clerics pets, had appeared on either side of him, bent on revenge.</p><p>They attacked him with a fury of blind rag, and he sustained several poison filled </p><p>bites that would plague him later in the day. But they were no match for his</p><p>sword, and soon he was joined with us in a maddening fight against seemingly</p><p>impervious zombies. We had brought a couple of them down through either lucky </p><p>shots or just a mass of damage that tore the things apart. I was able to polymorph</p><p>one of them into a fish, and apparently they had a weakness for force spells, and</p><p>Magic Missiles proved their worth again as it turned out to be one of our only sure</p><p>ways to damage them. </p><p> </p><p> Mindless, on and on they came, pounding away at Taklinn until the last one fell to</p><p>my final volley of Missiles. Taklinn, Griff and myself stood there for long minutes, </p><p>trying to figure out how they had sustained so much damage. In the meantime</p><p>Happy was busy trying to bring comfort to the still surviving torture victim on the</p><p>rack while Caribdis was happily opening the only other door in the room. </p><p></p><p> What he found behind it has changed the whole scope of this mission!</p><p></p><p> Rping 9 (cont) </p><p></p><p> It was the cells. Caribdis had located the still living prisoners who were held in</p><p>this hell hole and there were lots of them. On and on the rows of cells went, and</p><p>Caribdis, who had found the keys somewhere, ran merrily down the rows, </p><p>unlocking doors and singing the praises of our crew. They walked, staggered, and</p><p>crawled out of their cells, and before I knew it the main antechamber was filled to</p><p>capacity, and then overflowing, with newly released people, many of them speaking </p><p>excitedly in Havilahian. It was music to my ears!</p><p></p><p> On and on they came, most of them stout men, eager for leadership, a weapon,</p><p>and a chance to take revenge on Melesandre. We counted 450 of them in all, several </p><p>of them Crew members come to Edik in the same way we did, only captured upon</p><p>arrival. They looked to us for guidance, and we took the role, using the Crew</p><p>members as lieutenants and organizing them into groups. We emptied our bag of </p><p>holding of the weapons and armor we’d found and sent others to retrieve the arms</p><p>we’d not been able to carry. Within a short time we had at our command a sizable</p><p>force, considerably armed. </p><p></p><p> And Nanden had yet to arrive with his people. </p><p> </p><p> To find so many survivors filled me with joy, but I couldn’t help but feel heartsick</p><p>at the thought of how many thousands had been lost and now served Melesandre as </p><p>her undead minions. </p><p></p><p> The organization of these people has taken up the whole of the rest of this day. I</p><p>sit now in an antechamber guarded by three wizards we found amongst the </p><p>prisoners. They are all Crew members. It appears that all spontaneous casters such</p><p>as clerics and sorcerers were killed out right, but those spell casters who could be</p><p>rendered inert by withholding their spell books were sparred. I opened my own </p><p>books to them and they eagerly memorized select choices. They take my privacy</p><p>very seriously and each of them take turns standing guard at the door to make sure</p><p>that I am not disturbed during my study and rest. I am both amused and </p><p>uncomfortable with being put in a position of reverence, but I suppose it would be</p><p>rude to reject their gratitude. I guess I’m just not used to being looked up to. </p><p></p><p> I should mention that there are also some twenty-four yuan-ti prisoners held here </p><p>as well in specially designed cells to keep them from escaping as vipers. Though</p><p>they are more than likely turn coats against Melesandre, we have chosen to leave</p><p>them where they are. We cannot trust them.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 6582021, member: 6792361"] Reaping 8 I awoke to a crew in very poor spirits. I could tell right away that something was wrong by the frowns on the faces of Happy, Griff and Caribdis. Taklinn had a dour look to him too, but its hard to tell with dwarves. "What’s been going on?" I thought to Ambros. He naps when he can, and he was already curling up under my hat now that I was awake. I knew that he would have been keeping watch while I slept and that he would be able to fill me in. I could hear his yawn in my head when he answered. "Lots of talk about what to do with Sensesi. Caribdis and Hap want her dead. Taklinn wants to keep her. Griff doesn’t care. Oh, and Adeede is all for killing her too. That girl REALLY hates yuan-ti! Lotte’s all better though. G’night master, wake me if something good happens." With that, he curled up in my hair and was fast asleep within seconds. Sighing, I knew that I’d soon be drawn into this argument, but first things first. After having a sip of tea and a bite of bread, I sat down to select my spells. Had to go with a couple of Greases, and you can never have too many Magic Missiles. It’s also become habit to burn a Mage Armor and a Dark Vision per day. I keep an Invisibility in the back of my head always, and a See Invisibility, just because I know that some day I’m going to really need that spell! I can’t stay away from Scorching Ray! What a marvelous offensive spell! I’ve taken to memorizing at least three of them when I know we’re going to be in the thick of it. A Fly, of course, and a Bolt of Conjuring. I’m also taking Hold Person today. I haven’t used that spell much as of late, so I’ve decided to dust it off. I’m also taking a Dispel Magic. I have a feeling in my bones that the closer we get to those things important to Melesandre, the more we might need that particular spell. Moving up the chain of power, I do so love Polymorph Other! I don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface of that spells usefulness! Two of those and two Walls of Ice. And last, but certainly not least, my most powerful spell. This morning I memorized a Wall of Force and a Hold Monster. It’s very difficult to choose only two, but that’s part of being a wizard. I’m coming very close to being able to memorize three 5th circle spells though! I record all of this for no reason other than to settle my nerves a bit, for the conversation with my fellow party members that followed my studies was unpleasant, to say the least, and it still upsets me to remember it now. As Ambros had told me, the crew was bitterly divided as to the fate of our captive yuan-ti spy, Sensesi. After closing my book and packing it away, I stretched and finally addressed my friends. "What’s going on?" I asked. Happy and Caribdis immediately talked over each other, but eventually I got the story that the two of them were indeed ready to execute Sensesi, but that Taklinn would have none of it. Caribdis was positively passionate about the matter, and he paced back and forth, gesturing excitedly toward Taklinn, who simply stood there, arms crossed, the bag containing Sensesi tied securely to his belt. "She tried to kill us!" Caribdis shouted, "And because of her Melesandre knows what we’re up to! What if Melesandre can still spy on us? Sure, we’ve got the rings, but if she’s a spy she must be able to get information to that witch some other way! Its not worth the risk. We kill her now!" "No." Taklinn’s voiced boomed through the room, resonating with resolve. "I will not kill an unarmed opponent! She stays with us, and that is that! We will hand her over to the proper authorities as soon as we can." My eyebrows raised a bit at this, and I read a strange glint in our clerics eye. He seemed quite dead set on the matter, but the idea seemed ludicrous to me, and I told him so. "Taklinn," I said, "I never thought I’d say this, but the boy speaks with wisdom! Taking her with us is absurd. She poses far too great a risk. Caribdis is right, she may still be able to communicate with Melesandre somehow, and that is simply unacceptable." Taklinn regarded me with a fiery stare, but I pressed on. "And what do you mean, you won’t kill unarmed foes? Do I have to remind you of the goblins? What about the orcs!" "That was different!" He shot back. "We were in Havilah, abiding by Havilah’s laws. We were within our right! And we had no other choice!" I gaped at him. "Executing the enemy is okay only if we’re in Havilah? Taklinn, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we’re at WAR here! We are a Crew of Havilah, and we represent Havilah! We have every right to do whatever it takes to secure Havilah’s safety! Oh, and by the way, the local law here happens to be Melisandre’s! I’m willing to bet that she’s all in favor of killing spies, and I’ll bet you a gold to a shaker of salt that she’d do one of us in a lot less humanely than we will to one of hers." "Kill her!" Happy interjected. Her eyes were fastened on the bag at Taklinn’s hip, and I could tell that our roguish friend would have no problems doing the job herself. "She tried to kill me, Taklinn! Me!" Griff put his hand on Happy’s shoulder and she calmed down a bit. "What do you think about all this Griff?" I asked. He scowled and spat on the floor. "I’m with Taklinn about killin’ prisoners. Ain’t no honor in it. I don’t like it." And with that, he spun on his heel and walked out into the hallway. Happy followed him and it was left to Taklinn, Caribdis and I to work this thing out. "She’s a spy!" Caribdis cried. "A spy for Melesandre! You're out of your mind if you want to keep her with us!" I said, no!" Taklinn roared. "We are not on Havilah’s soil, and I will not impose Havilah’s laws upon this foreign land!" I was flabbergasted by his bull headedness! "Taklinn, what do you think your doing here?" I asked him. "You ARE Havilah! Caribdis is Havilah, and so is Griff and Happy, and so am I! Havilah doesn’t just end at a border somewhere. It’s always right here." I thumbed my chest. "Havilah exists as long as we do, and we carry it with us wherever we go. Taklinn, think of the lives at stake! I don’t like executing an unarmed prisoner any more than you do, but we can’t afford to make mistakes. Right now there are thousands of people counting on us. Right now there are people being led through portals by yuan-ti! We can stop this, but we cannot let emotion or a misplaced sense of justice cloud our view. We must keep our eyes on the prize, Taklinn, and Sensesi is a loose end we cannot afford." Taklinn glared at me, his brow deeply furrowed. "Very well!" He thundered, "Take her! Do whatever you want! Just don’t ask me to take part!" And with that, he tossed the bag at our feet. Caribdis paused for only a second. The boy made to stomp on the bag! I threw myself at him, grabbing him about the legs while Taklinn quickly swept down to grab the bag again. "Caribdis, no!" I yelled. "If we do this, we do it correctly, and we do it with the full consensus of the whole crew! We must get Griff and Happy back in here and vote on this thing, and then we will decide what must be done" "You have no honor, boy!" Taklinn snapped, re securing the bag to his belt. "No honor?" Caribdis retorted, "Where is the honor in letting something like that live?" And then Caribdis did a very bad thing. He began to rhyme. "Hear me Taklinn, hear me well, for when this story bards do tell, the people will have heard how the dwarf did finally heed my words!" Or something like that. The point is, Caribdis was trying to charm Taklinn, much as he had done to get him to ride a horse not so long ago! My eyes widened in horror, and I yelled at him to stop! "Caribdis, no!" but it was too late. Taklinn almost seemed to drift into Caribdis’ words for a second, but then he shook his great head and the next thing I knew his axe had been slung around to come to rest in his hands. His voice was low but there was no mistaking his words. "I told you, boy, never to do that again." He took a menacing step toward Caribdis, but I leapt between them. "He didn’t mean it, Taklinn!" I babbled, absolutely certain that Taklinn meant to kill the boy. "He’s out of his mind! He didn’t know what he was doing! Don’t kill him, Taklinn! Don’t kill him!" Taklinn looked at me and took a huge breath. I could see the internal struggle, but at last he took a step back and spat on the ground at Caribdis’ feet. "I thought you were learning, boy, but I see that you have learned nothing! You have no honor! You are not a man, you are a sniveling child! I’ll have my braid back. You do not deserve to wear it!" A long and chilly moment passed, but then Caribdis, with more anger in his eyes than I have ever seen, hastily unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a braid of hair worn around his neck on a leather string. He tore it from his throat and threw it to the ground in contempt. With a last look of fury, he stormed from the room. As Taklinn picked up the braid, I understood. The braid had been Taklinn’s from when he had shaved his beard in dishonor after our trials at the Academy. He had sent one to Kester as an act of contrition, and he must have given one to Caribdis as a reminder to never again bring such shame upon himself and his fellows again. I was speechless. Taklinn growled and stuffed the braid into his pocket. He looked at me with an utterly unflinching gaze. "Here’s how it stands," he stated, "I’ve got Sensesi, and she stays with me. If anyone doesn’t like it, they can try to take her from me!" His words hit me like a fist to the stomach. Was he serious, I thought? Would he really raise his axe to anyone who tried to take Sensesi? Would he raise his axe to me? Never before had I heard this from one of the Crew members. Never before had I heard such a veiled threat, such an assertion of leadership, of superiority. Would Taklinn really go to such extremes to get his way in this thing? Would he really disregard the wisdom of his friends so out of hand? "You didn’t just say that, Taklinn." I whispered. But he only scowled at me. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out. I simply turned and walked out into the hallway. Once outside the room, even more harsh words were flying as Caribdis told Hap and Griff what had gone on. "You did WHAT?" Griff exploded. "You tried to charm him? Are you insane?" Happy stood there, her mouth a perfect "O" at the shock of what Caribdis had done. "I was just trying to get him to settle down!" Caribdis said in a defensive tone. "I was just trying to get him to see the truth!" "The truth?" I snapped, cutting him off, "Very well then, Caribdis, allow me to help you see the truth! Let me charm you! I’ve got the spell, all you have to do is accept it! Come on, Caribdis, I promise you, you’ll see things my way! Caribdis sputtered, "But that’s not the same... but I was just..." "Don’t you get it, Caribdis!" I raged, "If you charm him, it makes his opinion invalid! Maybe I don’t agree with him, but he’s still one fifth of this crew, and as such, his voice is every bit as important as the rest of ours, and his voice must remain clear, without magical influence!" "But..." "No, Caribdis!" I cut him off, "We do not cast such spells on each other! It is that simple! We. Do. Not. Cast. Such. Spells. On. Each. Other! I understand your position with regard to Sensesi, but you have no right to deprive Taklinn of his free will! Do you understand?" I looked at him, exasperated. Caribdis opened his mouth to speak, but found nothing to say. He looked at the ground in shame as his anger turned to understanding. He turned away from me, his shoulders hunched and his head low. "Ah, to hell with this!" Griff rumbled. "The rest of you can sit around and talk all day if you want to, but we’re going to get this orb!" With that, he strode away, leading Happy, Adeede, Lotte and Albert with him. I cursed under my breath at Griff’s impatience. We still had matters of great concern to deal with, and it galled me to not put them to rest. But we had to stick together, and I made to go back into the room to fetch Taklinn. But Caribdis stopped me. "No," he said, "I’ll get him. We’ll catch up, just wait for us at the top of the stair." Seeing the look in his eyes, I nodded, and made off down the tunnel. Ambros awoke with a start and yawned, "Did I miss anything?" "I’ll tell you later." I said, hurrying to catch up with the others. Ambros smacked his lips sleepily and was out again in seconds. I caught them on the stairs and told them that Caribdis and Taklinn would be along shortly. Griff merely grunted and continued his climb, but he did wait once we’d reached the top of the stairs. It took quite a few minutes, and I feared that Griff would leave the pair behind, but just then we heard their footsteps coming up the stairs. What we saw when they arrived stunned us all into silence. Caribdis had shaved his head! I could tell that he had done it hastily, probably with a dagger, and without benefit of a mirror, for odd clumps of hair jutted this way and that from his pate. Our bard, once so obsessive and vain about his appearance, had hacked away most of his hair! I surmised that it must have been done as penance to Taklinn, an act of contrition and apology, for Taklinn seemed to have no more anger in his eyes toward the boy. "What?" Caribdis challenged our shocked faces, "Haven’t you ever seen someone whose gotten a haircut? C’mon, lets get on with this!" Reaping 8 (con’t) We all looked away from the shorn Caribdis and shuffled our feet a bit. We decided at last to get back to business and formulate a plan. It was decided that Adeede would lead Lotte and Albert to a safe place and hopefully rendezvous with Nanden and the forces he was bringing, while we would follow Albert’s directions to the orb room and, with any luck, wretch it from the grasp of Melisandre’s minions. Adeede told us to meet them in the towers prisons, which Albert was also able to tell us how to get to. We parted ways, and Griff, Happy, Taklinn, Caribdis and I made our way further up the stairs into unexplored territory. We did not have far to go, for the next landing emptied into a bare room with a hall leading from it. Down this long hall and around a corner we met with the first of Melisandre’s guards. They were two drider, though these two were magically toughened, and though we bested them, it was a hard fight, and I mainly stayed out of it except for a Magic Missile finisher on the last drider. I feared that my spells would be much needed. As it turns out, I was right. Another hall led from this room, and Happy led the way, her eyes peeled for traps. Instead, she found a secret door midway down the hall. After announcing that it was clean, Griff swung it open, and we beheld a narrow hall that emptied into a triangularly shaped room, this one containing a door that could not be missed, for it bore the visage of that strange and terrible god, Illugi, and it positively reeked of danger and evil. Taklinn cast a quick detect magic, and reported that a powerful magical source waited for us beyond the door. He could see streams of it’s dark power leaking through the door cracks, and all of us could feel a sense of unease. I quickly cast some preparatory spells while Hap skulked forward to examine the door. It was trapped. And dangerously so. She asked us all to move back, and we did, though Griff stayed a little nearer to her than I think she approved of. We watched her in silence as she concentrated, and the tension was utterly palpable. I could almost feel the sweat dripping off her, as I imagine it must have been, trying to deactivate a delicate magical trap without setting it off. After what seemed like a long time, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief and stepped away from the door. She turned, and with a smile gave us the thumbs up. She had done it. And so we came to our greatest challenge yet. Griff swung the door open and we beheld a sight that weakened even our battle hardened knees. The room was simply massive. Round and domed, I could barely see the other side through a haze of murky torchlight. Its walls writhed and moved, and after our eyes adjusted to the light, our minds had to adjust to the horror, for the walls stretched and swelled with the faces of the dead/undead as they swam in agony before us. We saw plainly the faces of Kester Orban and Teppo Stafford. In the center stood a massive statue of Illugi fashioned of reflective, black, stone. It raised at least forty feet into the air, and clutched an object. Sandwiched between its two massive hands shone a black orb, the size of a small pumpkin. At the statues feet there was still more horror awaiting our eyes. Upon a dripping alter was lashed the naked and tortured body of Ryton Stafford. He had been cruelly gutted and terrible things had been done to his appendages. And then, from either side of the statue they came. The guardians. There were only two, but their sheer size and appearances gave me pause, and for the first time I wondered if we’d bitten off more than we could chew. The thing on the left was a demon, a half spider creature born of the underworld. It scuttled forward, looking a bit like a drider, but roughly the size of a small house. It gnashed wickedly hooked mandibles and chittered a challenge at us. The thing on the left was also a giant, though obviously undead. A walking skeleton, its eyes shone with intelligence and hate as it swung hammer-like fists before it, awaiting the fight. Without a word, Griffin charged the demon while Taklinn raced toward the skeleton, bellowing prayers to Clangeden that were swallowed up in the howls of the tortured souls that writhed in agony all around us. Griff brought his sword down with enough force to fell a ogre with a single hit. It glanced off! The demons hide was incredibly tough, and even Griff found himself thwarted by the armor. The demon seemed to laugh, and with a single thrust of its mandibles, lashed out and tore Griff’s breast plate cleanly from his body! It exposed him as easily as one would rip the paper from a package, and I knew that the next hit would strike flesh! Taklinn was having his problems too, for his axe met with stiff resistance. The skeleton was obviously magically protected, and it ignored our clerics slashes and pounded down a rain of blows that staggered even our stout dwarf. Happy raced around, trying to get into flanking position with Griff, looking for a weakness, a spot to slip a dagger. Caribdis unleashed a barrage of arrows at the skeleton while I tried to help Griff with a Hold Monster aimed at the demon. The beast simply shrugged off my spell, and I feared that I might never affect such a creature. But I had to try. Griff, Happy and the demon danced around each other, waiting for an opportunity. Griff slashed and stabbed, and may even have drawn blood, but Happy’s daggers simply bounced off of the thing. I took a deep breath, concentrated, crossed my fingers and shouted out the words to Polymorph Other. To my great shock and amazement, it worked! One instant Griff and Happy were fighting a massive demon, the next, they were looking as a fluffy, white, rabbit that hopped about uncertainly for a moment, quite dazed to have found itself so suddenly neutered. With a cry for blood, Griff brought his sword down on the bunny, but it was already gone, gating itself back to its own plain. I can only imagine its reception upon arriving back in the abyss! Meanwhile, Taklinn and Caribdis had worked their way through much of the skeletons magical protection, and it was starting to show signs of damage, though the same could be said of Taklinn, for he bore many a mark made by the heavy fists that pummeled him again and again. Griff and Happy raced to his aid, but I was already casting. My Bolt of Conjuring slammed into the undead thing with tremendous force and it clattered to the ground in a pile of still bones. I’m quite certain that Caribdis and Taklinn had weakened the skeleton considerably, and full credit must go to them. Mine was simply the killing blow, and a lucky one at that. Rping 8 (cont) Taklinn reeled back from the pile of undead bones as an eerie wail made by the trapped souls within the dome rose and fell. He was already healing himself even as we joined him at the base of the statue. Looking up, it was a malevolent and obscene figure, inky black and cloyingly evil. In its ebony hands, thirty feet above, it held our prize. Climbing the thing was out of the question. Every bit of good sense told us that touching it was not an option. We wondered aloud for a second about how we would retrieve the orb, but I knew that the answer was obvious. I already had a Fly spell cast on me. I emptied a sturdy sack and rose into the air with my friends watching, helpless to aid me. Happy, bless her soul, asked me to Levitate her so that she could do it, but I didn’t happen to have it memorized, and, truth be told, I don’t know that I’d have cast it on her even if I had. Sometimes we must all face risk, and Clangeden knows the rest of this group has taken more than their fair share. Today was my turn. I flew up to the orb, where it rested between the statues two giant hands. I paused, still not certain that the statue might not simply spring to life and bat me down, but there was nothing else for it. It would be tricky getting the orb into the bag without touching the statue itself, but I felt confident that I could do it. Overly confident, it would seem. Apparently my sack had a small hole in it, and as I grasped the orb, my finger slipped through and I must have touched that foul, black, stone, for all at once, all the spells I’d cast on myself in preparation for the battle suddenly blinked out, including my Fly spell! I fell, slamming into the statue on the way down, and each time I touched it I could feel the icy shock of undiluted evil course through me. It hurt nearly as bad as the floor did when I finally came to rest. But I had the orb. Groaning, I held up my hands and announced my success. I was barely able to hold onto the thing, and Taklinn quickly wrapped the sack around it and stowed it away while Caribdis and Happy helped me to my feet. My head throbbed and my body screamed in pain from the fall, but worse, I felt fundamentally drained, weakened. My mind was muddled, and I realized I couldn’t even remember my fifth circle spells! As Taklinn healed my physical wounds I described my plight to him and he nodded in understanding. "We’ve been drained, my friend," he explained, "The skeleton did the same to me. We’ve both felt the touch of pure evil and have been sapped of energy, knowledge and ability." I was aghast, but he smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. "Not to worry! At sundown Clangeden will grant me spells that can right these wrongs! He will see to this, I assure you! Nice job getting the orb, by the way." With that, he gave it back to me, for I wanted to closer examine this artifact. But that would have to wait, for as I took it from him, there was a strange ripping noise, and a terrible creature tore its way from the abyss into our world! It was another demon spider thing, similar to the one so recently turned into a rabbit. It skittered into the room and immediately settled it’s glowing red eyes on me. "It’s a retriever!" Taklinn yelled, leaping to stand between me and the demon as it closed the distance with terrifying speed. I’d never heard of a Retriever, but the name alone said it all. It obviously meant to retrieve the orb! My comrades understood this too, and Griffin joined Taklinn as a blockade for me while I quickly cast Levitate from a scroll and rose into the air (ok, well I did have Levitate on scroll). The retriever was a nasty opponent, and Griff, without his breast plate, felt its sting, though he did manage to bite deeply with his sword, drawing an enraged shriek from the demon. We unloaded everything we had at it, and soon it was pock marked by arrow, dagger, axe and sword. The burns of magic scorched it, but it fought on, hitting Taklinn with a jolt of electricity fired from it’s eyes. Taklinn sagged to his knees, but hauled himself up again to slash away with his axe. He and Griff dodged between the demons legs and tore into it’s abdomen as Happy, Caribdis and I helped as much as we could. And the whole time, I felt as if it were staring right at me. At last, it fell, frustrated and dead in it’s pursuit to retrieve the orb. It’s carcass was fascinating, in a horrific way, and we appraised it while Taklinn and Caribdis took care of wounds. Perhaps that is why we didn’t see Griff stroll over to another door in the chamber and grasp it’s handle. We heard his gasp of pain, though, and when we looked at him he returned our stares with a smile forced through a grimace of pain. He stepped back from the door, trying to whistle nonchalantly, as Happy lambasted him for tinkering with doors before she’d had a chance to check them out. After doing just that, she opened this one and we beheld a library! Row after row of books lined shelves in neat, orderly rows. I salivated at the very odor of all these old tombs, and I could not help but to hurry down the aisles, reading spines as I went. In all, I managed to select twenty-seven books of interest or value, and two of what I believe to be Melisandre’s personal spell books! I have yet to open them though, for I don’t even want to imagine what heinous protections guard her spells. I will have to wait until we return to Havilah to pursue them under safer conditions. Another door led from the library, and while I read esoteric titles, Happy checked it for traps. She declared it safe, and opened the door. She was wrong. The bolt of pain hit her like a hammer, and she doubled over on the floor, face going pale, her mouth open to scream but no sound coming out. Griff, still acting a bit odd himself, knelt at her side, looking from Taklinn to myself, his face pleading with us to help her. Happy fought back tears of pain as she shakily regained her feet. I could tell that it wracked through her body even as I recognized the symptoms of a Symbol of Pain. There was nothing to be done for her except wait until we had spells to get rid of it. Until then, we knew that she’d be at a considerable disadvantage. But we had to go on. Behind the trapped door was a length of empty hallway. It was such an obvious place to put a secret door that we had to at least check it. Happy, putting on a brave face over her grimaces of pain, stepped into the hall, her watering eyes peeled for danger. She found the door near the end, and with a touch, it pivoted to reveal that we’d just gone in a circle. The door emptied into the room where we had fought the two drider. At least Taklinn, Happy, myself, and possibly Griff were injured beyond immediate repair. We’d gotten what we’d come for, and needed to heal badly. We decided to hide in the secret hall where we’d found Lotte until we were ready to brave the towers prisons. We made our way down to that small room, and we dropped to the floor, our backs resting on the walls. The orb in its bag lay at my feet, and I could almost feel its pulse emanating from within. I decided to examine it more thoroughly later. We had things to discuss right now. I cleared my throat, getting their attention. "Friends," I said, "There is a matter to talk about that we can’t put off. That of what to do with Sensesi. Is it agreed that we will discuss it?" I looked around the room and saw four heads nod. I continued. "Before we dive into it, however, there is one thing I must say." I looked straight at Taklinn. "There is no one of us here any more or less important within this circle than any other. We are all one fifth of a Crew of Havilah, and none among us can make this decision on their own. Taklinn, when you said that whoever wanted Sensesi would have to take her from you, you may as well have slapped me in the face. Never have I feared your hand, and you have no right to place it above me." I stared at him, and Taklinn met my eyes with understanding. "You are right, my friend," he nodded at last, "I spoke then out of anger and pride and in a misguided attempt to protect my ideals. But you are right, none of us should have to bow to the other, and I apologize if you will accept it." He stretched his hand out to me, and I got up to shake it. "Apology accepted." I said, and I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from both of us. "Now then," I said to them all, "Here is what I suggest. We each say our piece regarding what we feel should be done with Sensesi, afterward will be a short discussion, then a vote. I submit that we demand a unanimous desiccation. This may mean the difference between life and death for Sensesi, and such a thing should be agreed upon by all of us. I will start." I took a breath. "Sensesi is a spy. She tried to kill Happy, and she was one of the two yuan-ti that cut off Taklinn’s arm. For all we know she may still be able to communicate with Melesandre. I take no pleasure or pride in executing prisoners, but we are at war, and we are a Crew of Havilah. We are well within our rights to do whatever needs to be done. It is a simple matter of practicality. She is too great a liability, and she must die. Too many lives hang in the balance to afford a mistake at this late hour." Having said my piece, I sat down. "Happy," I said, "Want to go next?" Rping 8 (cont) Happy took her feet and I could tell that she was as passionate now on the subject of Sensesi’s fate as she had been earlier. "She tried to kill me! Me!" She cried vehemently. "She’s a spy and a yuan-ti, and I have no sympathy for her. I say she dies!" She sat back down again, her point made in short but firm sentences. I looked at Griff, and though I could tell he was made uncomfortable by the idea of giving his opinion, he did so anyway. "Look," he said, "I don’t give a crap about this war and whether or not she’s a spy and blah, blah, blah! I just don’t like killin’ unarmed foes. It goes against my grain, that’s all. Frankly, I don’t care if we turn her over to the law or let her go. She doesn’t scare me either way. I just don’t want to be the one that has to stick her when she can’t fight back." "Duly noted." I said. "Caribdis?" Caribdis leapt to his feet and we could tell that his bardish loquaciousness was about to take hold. It was as if he was taking the stage when he expounded, "Doorag is right! Sensesi may still be communicating with Melesandre for all we know! Too much is riding on this decision for us to take it lightly! Havilah is depending on us! Countless lives hang in the balance! Will any of us ever be able to bear the knowledge that we failed in our mission because of misplaced compassion? She dies! Yes, and immediately!" Caribdis’ actual speech was far more lengthy and verbose, but that was the meat of his argument. Taklinn went last. He stood and addressed us in his deep rumble. "I can still not agree to the out and out execution of a prisoner, especially on foreign soil. But that is a personal qualm. My true reasoning is one that I have only just thought of over the past hour or so. While it is true that Clangeden revealed to me that Sensesi is a spy, the question I posed to Him was, by necessity, of the simple yes or no variety. There is still much we do not know. We have no way to be certain that she is still actively working for Melesandre. Perhaps she has some ulterior motive. Perhaps she in no longer loyal to the witch queen. These are questions that cannot be answered now, but as soon as I am able to ask for new spells, I can cast a few that will reveal the truth of these matters. I would ask that we wait until that can be done. Her life is on the line, and thus she deserves any benefit of the doubt that we can give her, otherwise this cannot be considered a fair shake. Also, I’m with Griff. I cannot condone, nor do I see the honor in killing helpless foes. True, I have done so in the past, but only under the most extreme of circumstances. As things stand now, she is our helpless prisoner. True, she may be communicating with Melesandre, but if that were so, why aren’t there a hundred yuan-ti storming this room right now? I say we wait until I can cast my divining spells and learn the truth. There may yet be things we can learn from her." He took his seat again, and I nodded solemnly. I passed out a stone to each of us. "The vote is on weather or not to kill her right now." I said. "We shall hold out our fists and reveal the contents. A stone is a vote for death. An empty palm means life. The decision must be unanimous. All agreed?" Four ’ayes!’ sounded, and we hid our stones behind our backs before holding our fists out to the circle. As one, we opened our hands. As I suspected, the vote was not unanimous. Three stones lay on outstretched palms. Happy, Caribdis and I had all voted for her execution, but her death was staved off by the empty hands of Taklinn and Griff. In my heart I had known that they would not vote for her death, but I had felt that this small act of democracy was needed to focus us again, to solidify the fact that each of our voices must be heard. I was disappointed with the result, but pleased with the act itself. "Very well." I said, "Tomorrow Taklinn will cast his spells, and perhaps a new vote will be taken. Until then I pray that you are right Taklinn, and that she can no longer report to Melesandre. We spent the rest of the day in rest, healing, and study. Every once in awhile my eyes would stray to the orb on the floor, but I abstained from dwelling upon it overly much. The artifact was far too powerful to tinker with without some sort of road map for its use, and I wanted no part in accidentally setting it off without knowing how to turn it off again. A worse case scenario might have us Teleporting Melesandre and her entire army directly to us! That would never do. At sundown Taklinn entered into meditation, as he does every evening, and soon he opened his eyes, replete with spells that would, hopefully, reveal the truth about Sensesi. His first order of business, however, was to deal with the lasting wounds we had received, the energy draining taint of the statue I had touched, and the blow from the skeleton. In mere moments he had laid his huge, calloused hands upon me and recited his prayer. Just like that, I felt good as new. Powerful magic’s indeed, my friend! Powerful magic’s indeed! He then turned his attention to Sensesi. To question her in her current viper/turtle form, he had to first cast Speak With Animals upon himself, after that he cast his divinations and for several minutes we heard no sounds save an almost inaudible hissing exchange. We had given him our questions, and he asked them without fear of lies. When he again spoke to us in recognizable tongue, he had this to report. "I could only ask a few questions," He said, "But this I know: She is no longer a spy working for Melesandre. In fact, she has no loyalty to Melesandre at all. She aided us for her own reasons, though what those might be I cannot ascertain. Also, she is unable to communicate with Melesandre." He shrugged, looking at us all. Much discussion followed. Griff and Taklinn were now not to be swayed on the matter, and even Happy and Caribdis now raised empty palms when next we voted. I found myself the only holdout. I don’t know why, but I have a deep foreboding about Sensesi, a feeling that there is far more to her than meets the eye. My fear is so great that I must admit that I would see her dead rather than give her even a chance to wreak havoc. It defies logic. On the surface, she is a turncoat from Melesandre, and I suppose, could even be of use to us. But my heart tells me that, though she might be against Melesandre, that does not mean that she is loyal to us. I have no real evidence upon which to base that. It is a moral dilemma that I have fought with myself now for the past several hours. I must now admit that she dose not deserve execution. Yet the thought of her fills me with such dread that I find myself wishing that I possessed a less rigid set of ethics. It has been ultimately decided that she will remain our prisoner for the time being, but that she shall be released when this nasty business is over. It galls me that I will be the one who has to Polymorph her back to yuan-ti form. But I will do it. It is the will of the crew, and I know that no matter what evil she may cause in the future, we will defeat her. If the four people I trust most say she lives, she lives. Rping 9 Well, this has been a busy day to say the least. We set out as soon as possible. Rested, healed, and full of spells, we delved deeper in to the tower, following the path described to us by Albert. Through taking secret passageway we were able to enter into the prison level without dealing with yuan-ti patrols. Yet, we had more things to worry about that a few yuan-ti. A spacious and empty room greeted us when we stepped from the spiral staircase, and we quickly made out way through it toward the exit on the far side. We had not gotten more than half way across, when a quick look behind saw another retriever claw its way into this dimension and rattle forward, a huge and hellish spider with lava in its eyes. I looked at it. And I realized that I still held the bloody orb! I didn’t even have time to react. The demon hit me with twin rays of magical fire shot from its eyes, and I felt the world slip away. I could barely keep my feet as I felt the life run out of me in a single, huge, second. I sagged against Caribdis, but he was already there, laying his hands on my shoulders and infusing me with his most powerful healing verse. Just that quick, I was nearly fully healed! It was an incredibly odd and frightening experience, but I had no time to dwell upon it, and, almost by reflex, I threw up a Wall of Ice that effectively blocked the creature. Happy and Griff ran to the wall, getting into position, for the retriever was already hacking away the wall in big chunks. In mere seconds it had breached the wall only to find Griff standing there. "Come on!" Griff roared, his sword brandished and his body bereft of armor, "Come get some!" But the Retriever still had its eyes locked on me, and it charged forward, heedless of the Ice Wall's freezing damage and Griff’s blade. It took hits from both Happy and Griff but sent Griff spinning to the floor in its headlong rush to get at me. But they had bought me a little time, and Taklinn still stood between myself the demon. I cast Fly on myself and shot toward the ceiling - only to find it a mere fifteen feet high! The retriever could easily reach that with it’s hooked legs! It became a race, with me doing my best to lead the thing toward my companions and still not get caught. I failed to mention in my account of the first retriever we fought that the things regenerate, and only fire seems to be an effective method of keeping them dead. In the end, we wore it down and overwhelmed it, and a flask of alchemists fire finished the job. The only serious injury had been mine, and I must remember to thank Caribdis for pulling me so swiftly from the brink. Sometimes I am reminded of how physically frail I am compared to our swordsmen. Griff or Taklinn probably would have shrugged off those fire blasts as if they were minor annoyances. The day was far from over though. The exit from the large chamber was a lengthy hall. Happy took the point by some thirty feet or so until she came to a doorless room. Cautiously, she stepped in. Right into an ambush! Half a dozen yuan-ti waited here with drawn bows, and they unleashed a full barrage of arrows at our hapless girl. We heard her cry out in pain before we even saw the black arrows thunk into her body, and she reeled, barely keeping her feet. We acted quickly. I hurried forward and threw up a Wall of Force down one side of the room, blocking off three of the yuan-ti. After that it was a matter of supporting Griff and Taklinn as they mowed through the other three. Griff made them very sorry that they had harmed his favorite halfling. Alas, the yuan-ti trapped behind the wall blacked out that section of the room and escaped by changing into viper form and slithering through small holes at the base of the walls obviously meant for travel in serpent form. "They know we’re here!" Griff rasped, and he set out through the opposite exit at a quick jog. We feared that the yuan-ti might slay prisoners rather than see them freed, and thus we hurried down the hall straight into another mass of yuan-ti. Seven of them waited here, and again they stood with bows at the ready, only this time it was Griff who met their barbs, and though they scored hits, Griff was amongst them in a split second, his sword carving a path through the serpentine ranks with meaty thuds. Taklinn came in behind, his axe bringing death and dismemberment to them in great swaths. Our steel, as well as our spells and arrows brought them down, and when it was over not one yuan-ti breathed life. We were faced with five doors, two north, two south, and one east. The southern and northern doors lead to barracks and kitchen for the yuan-ti soldiers, and though Griff urged us on, we could not help but be captured by what we found behind a secret door in the barracks. Swords, longbows, armor, arrows. Hundreds of sets of weapons, all of very fine craftsmanship were stacked along the walls of this room. Taklinn took one look at it and pronounced it worth a fortune! That, and the notion of deriving the yuan-ti of weapons, set us to pitching as many of these weapons as we could into our bag of holding. But we did not tarry long, and in short order had opened the eastern door to find another corridor that led to a stout pair of business like double doors. Griff wasted no time in shoving the unlocked doors open, and we beheld the antechamber of the towers prisons. The room was large and lined with weird sarcophagus-like chambers, each of which had a dozen or more tubes running through it. All seemed to leak a green, viscous, liquid, and, still dripping that same liquid, there staggered ten undead zombies toward us. We would soon learn that these were no run of the mill zombies. Toward the back of the room stood a rack, and upon it was stretched a broken wreck of a man. Behind the rack stood a caricature of all that is good and right. A cleric of Illugi. He cast a spell even as the doors swung open, and Taklinn would later reveal that the spell had made him a magnet for the undead. Immediately all ten of the zombies turned their attention to our cleric and stumbled toward him. Griff charged through, slamming zombies out of his way as he did, to come toe to toe with the cleric, but I had other things in mind for this servant of hell than an opportunity for more magical hijinx. Flying up to see over the converging mass of zombies, I let loose a Hold Monster that stopped the cleric in mid motion. He froze as still as stone, and Griff was showing no mercy in the heat of battle. With a swift roundhouse swing, he sent the clerics head sailing from his shoulders. In the meantime Taklinn was getting a chance to show off the raw power of Clangeden, and pure holiness seemed to radiate from him in waves beneath which the zombies crumbled. Within seconds he had destroyed the lot of them, but more streamed from a door to the south. Lots more. They came at Taklinn in a stumbling tide, and again he cried out to his god, and again a full half of them were turned to dust. But there were five zombies left and Taklinn’s ability to call upon Clangeden to destroy undead is finite. The last of these things would have to be dealt with the old fashioned way. We quickly found out that they were somehow at least partially immune to most forms of damage. Taklinn, Caribdis, Happy and myself all scored tremendous hits on zombies. I hit one of them with a Scorching Ray that would bring down an ogre, but the undead just ignored it! On the other side of the room Griff was also having problems. Two quasits, apparently the clerics pets, had appeared on either side of him, bent on revenge. They attacked him with a fury of blind rag, and he sustained several poison filled bites that would plague him later in the day. But they were no match for his sword, and soon he was joined with us in a maddening fight against seemingly impervious zombies. We had brought a couple of them down through either lucky shots or just a mass of damage that tore the things apart. I was able to polymorph one of them into a fish, and apparently they had a weakness for force spells, and Magic Missiles proved their worth again as it turned out to be one of our only sure ways to damage them. Mindless, on and on they came, pounding away at Taklinn until the last one fell to my final volley of Missiles. Taklinn, Griff and myself stood there for long minutes, trying to figure out how they had sustained so much damage. In the meantime Happy was busy trying to bring comfort to the still surviving torture victim on the rack while Caribdis was happily opening the only other door in the room. What he found behind it has changed the whole scope of this mission! Rping 9 (cont) It was the cells. Caribdis had located the still living prisoners who were held in this hell hole and there were lots of them. On and on the rows of cells went, and Caribdis, who had found the keys somewhere, ran merrily down the rows, unlocking doors and singing the praises of our crew. They walked, staggered, and crawled out of their cells, and before I knew it the main antechamber was filled to capacity, and then overflowing, with newly released people, many of them speaking excitedly in Havilahian. It was music to my ears! On and on they came, most of them stout men, eager for leadership, a weapon, and a chance to take revenge on Melesandre. We counted 450 of them in all, several of them Crew members come to Edik in the same way we did, only captured upon arrival. They looked to us for guidance, and we took the role, using the Crew members as lieutenants and organizing them into groups. We emptied our bag of holding of the weapons and armor we’d found and sent others to retrieve the arms we’d not been able to carry. Within a short time we had at our command a sizable force, considerably armed. And Nanden had yet to arrive with his people. To find so many survivors filled me with joy, but I couldn’t help but feel heartsick at the thought of how many thousands had been lost and now served Melesandre as her undead minions. The organization of these people has taken up the whole of the rest of this day. I sit now in an antechamber guarded by three wizards we found amongst the prisoners. They are all Crew members. It appears that all spontaneous casters such as clerics and sorcerers were killed out right, but those spell casters who could be rendered inert by withholding their spell books were sparred. I opened my own books to them and they eagerly memorized select choices. They take my privacy very seriously and each of them take turns standing guard at the door to make sure that I am not disturbed during my study and rest. I am both amused and uncomfortable with being put in a position of reverence, but I suppose it would be rude to reject their gratitude. I guess I’m just not used to being looked up to. I should mention that there are also some twenty-four yuan-ti prisoners held here as well in specially designed cells to keep them from escaping as vipers. Though they are more than likely turn coats against Melesandre, we have chosen to leave them where they are. We cannot trust them. [/QUOTE]
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From the Diary of Doorag Marzipan
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