Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
From the Diary of Doorag Marzipan
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="cthulhu42" data-source="post: 6585711" data-attributes="member: 6792361"><p>Flktme 13</p><p> </p><p> Today we were reminded of just how dangerous we can be when we set our</p><p>minds to it, and I must say, I think it was a boost to our confidence after the fiasco</p><p>in Latona. </p><p></p><p> We spent the early morning finalizing our plan, and by nine o’clock we were</p><p>in position. Griff, Scylla and I were situated on a ledge some thirty feet above the</p><p>hydra’s cave entrance, while Happy, Taigel and Mardath flanked the cave mouth on</p><p>the ground. Taklinn stood directly in front of it, axes in hand, glowing with holy </p><p>power from his spells. Next to him lay the bloody head of the mastodon as further</p><p>bait. I watched through my eye as Scylla tried Plan A. </p><p></p><p> She knows ‘magic jar’, a spell that I’ve toyed with the idea of learning, but have</p><p>never quite gotten around to, so I watched with interest as she laid on the snow and</p><p>cast it. It was almost possible to see her spirit leave her body as she said the final </p><p>words. I watched the hydra as Scylla attempted to enter it’s body. I saw the hydra</p><p>suddenly snap open it’s twenty eyes. It’s mass of necks began to uncoil with</p><p>frightening speed and it peered around intently. The next thing I knew, Scylla sat </p><p>straight up and shook her head. </p><p></p><p> “It didn’t work!”</p><p></p><p> “Plan B!” I cried down to our members on the ground, and they immediately set </p><p>up a caterwauling of shouts and shield banging loud enough to catch the hydra’s</p><p>attention.</p><p></p><p> Through the eye I watched the hydra stand up and curiously move toward the </p><p>tunnel. It sniffed the air with it’s many noses, and as it neared the place where my</p><p>‘ocular orb’ was hiding, I saw several of it’s heads turn in that direction. My</p><p>stomach dropped, and I knew if it sniffed out the eye it would certainly destroy it in </p><p>a heartbeat. That would put me out of commission, and I resolved not to let that</p><p>happen. In a flash, I had cast my first summon spell, and a large earth elemental</p><p>appeared in front of the cave, much to the surprise of my crew. I bid it to enter the </p><p>cave, which it did at top lumbering speed. </p><p></p><p> “Doorag, what the hell are you doing?” Griff hissed. But I held up my hand to</p><p>silence him. </p><p></p><p> Inside the cave the elemental met the hydra at the tunnels corner, and the hydra</p><p>lost any interest in strange scents in his lair. The awful beast lurched toward the</p><p>elemental and unleashed a blast of icy wind from ten separate heads. Frost coated the </p><p>elemental, nearly killing it, and I bade my creature to flee back out of the cave. It</p><p>did. </p><p></p><p> To my relief the hydra charged after it, and I grinned in satisfaction as I cast a </p><p>second summon spell and another elemental appeared to stand near Taigel on the</p><p>left side of the cave mouth. </p><p></p><p> Things happened very fast after that. </p><p></p><p> The hydra, spotting Taklinn, the wounded elemental and the mastodon head,</p><p>barreled out of the cave, intent on breakfast, but before he even reached them, Griff</p><p>was in motion. To my shock and horror, he leapt off of the ledge! He dropped the </p><p>thirty feet and landed squarely onto the back of the hydra, straddling it just behind</p><p>it’s necks. His sword came down, and it’s momentum cleaved through a scaly neck,</p><p>lopping off a head. </p><p></p><p> The rest of the crew descended upon it from all sides. Happy, under the effects of</p><p>a fly spell from me, swept in and attempted to stab one of it’s throats, but missed.</p><p>Scylla flew down to land behind Taklinn, and launched a fireball that exploded near </p><p>it’s hindquarters. As for me, I was determined not to let it retreat into it’s cave, so I</p><p>flew down for the view I needed and cast a ‘wall of force’ to block the entrance</p><p>behind it. Taigel, Mardath, Taklinn and my two elementals waded in, hitting with </p><p>sword, axe and fists, hammering away at the hydra, which was now thrashing about</p><p>wildly in an attempt to deal with the overwhelming numbers against it. It snapped</p><p>out with it’s heads, several of them taking frightful bites out of Happy and Griff, but </p><p>it was too late for the beast. We had already dealt it a tremendous amount of</p><p>damage, and Griff was in excellent position to finish it off. He thrust his sword down</p><p>again and again into its body, piercing vital organs as a veritable fountain of blood </p><p>and ichors spewed into the air to splash on the trampled snow. Griff rode it all the</p><p>way through it’s death throes until it collapsed to the ground, it’s remaining heads</p><p>twitching in death. </p><p></p><p> We gathered around it, cheering and clasping hands. It had been a relatively easy</p><p>fight, and that could only be attributed to our having made a decent plan to deal </p><p>with it. I felt good knowing we were not necessarily the bumbling armatures we’d</p><p>made ourselves out to be in Latona. </p><p></p><p> Cutting off the heads and getting them back to Latona was a simple matter of a </p><p>few strategic ‘wind walks’ and ‘teleports’. We gathered first in our inn room where</p><p>I cast a number of ‘tensors floating disks’ to carry the heads. We must have made</p><p>quite a sight, leading a parade of floating hydra heads through the town, and the </p><p>citizenry turned out in force to watch our progress. </p><p></p><p> Losom was well pleased as we dumped the ten heads on his front porch. He even</p><p>arranged to have us stay one final night in Latona, that we might get our rest for </p><p>further travels. </p><p></p><p> We used the time to discuss our dragon fighting strategies, and quickly came to an</p><p>unavoidable conclusion: We had barely any magical weapons at all, and without </p><p>them, we had little chance against Acessiwall, who would ignore the damage from</p><p>most mundane weapons. It was a very real problem, not to mention a potently</p><p>expensive one. I sighed, knowing that I had a difficult choice to make. </p><p></p><p> I have recently been in the process of learning how to cast cooperative spells, a</p><p>talent that would allow me entry into Havilah’s mages’ guild. However, I had also</p><p>been toying with the idea of learning to craft magical weapons and armor. The </p><p>choice now seemed to have been made for me. I announced that, were we to</p><p>return to Havilah, I would be able to craft weapons for our fighters that would</p><p>penetrate Acessiwall’s resistance. </p><p></p><p> Tomorrow we plan to return to Havilah. Taklinn will wind walk there with</p><p>Happy, Griff and Taigel while Scylla and Mardath and I will teleport first to Finch,</p><p>to pick up Hap and Griff’s horses, then to Havilah. It will take me a couple of ports </p><p>to do it, but I have every confidence that we shall spend tomorrow night in our own</p><p>beds in our own city. I confess, I am quite looking forward to it.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Flktme 17</p><p></p><p> Happy, Griff, Taigel and Taklinn arrived yesterday. It is good to have us all back </p><p>in Havilah again, and it is time to get to work. I fear that I shall have little time to</p><p>make proper entries in this journal as I will be devoting nearly all of my energies to</p><p>crafting items for quite some time, though I will endeavor to at least make a note </p><p>here and there. </p><p></p><p> Today has been taken up with the identification process of several items (the gear</p><p>from the assassin that tried to kill Griff and Hap). We are also tossing around </p><p>strategies to fight Acessiwall, and while we have no solid plan yet, I feel like we are</p><p>becoming more focused as a crew. Perhaps the fiasco in Latona and the subsequent</p><p>ease with which we killed the hydra will turn out to be the best thing that ever </p><p>happened to us. It has shown us both the folly of failing to properly plan, as well as</p><p>the benefits of taking the time to formulate a winning strategy. Even Griff, who is</p><p>normally loathe to sit still long enough to discuss options, has been reasonably open </p><p>to the idea of utilizing forethought in our quest to defeat Acessiwall. </p><p></p><p> This is a particularly good thing, since new information has recently been</p><p>revealed to me. </p><p></p><p> I have had the nagging suspicion that Acessiwall is somehow spying on us. With</p><p>that in mind, I have been casting ‘detect scrying’ on myself everyday since arriving</p><p>in Havilah. Today, my hunch paid off. At noon, as I was in the process of </p><p>identifying, the alarm sounded in my head, and I looked over my shoulder to see the</p><p>sensor. So great was my insight that I managed to catch a glimpse of the watcher. It</p><p>was Helious, the aged wizard employed by Acessiwall. I quickly dispelled the</p><p>sensor and returned to my work, but as soon as I could I let it be known to the crew </p><p>that we could expect more voyeurism on the part of the dragon, and that we must</p><p>beware of speaking about our plans so as not to tip our hands to an unseen watcher. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Flktme 18</p><p> </p><p> An exhausting day, and my real work has not even begun! I have finally been able</p><p>to analyze the final dweomer on the amulet given to Taklinn, and while it is not</p><p>much, I feel it is best to know everything about the item before we use it against </p><p>Acessiwall. </p><p></p><p> Essentially, if the amulet is activated (via dragons blood) and then changes hands,</p><p>it must be activated again. It is a small bit of knowledge, but even tiny details can </p><p>sometimes be the difference between victory and defeat. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Flktme 19 </p><p></p><p> I have begun work on Griff’s new sword. It will be my first attempt at enchanting</p><p>a weapon, and thus far all goes well. The strain of imbuing the blade with magic is </p><p>exhausting, but satisfying. I am glad that I long ago learned the art of siphoning off</p><p>the essence from others, as crafting such a thing would drain me beyond my</p><p>capacity. </p><p></p><p> We have also decided to tinker with the nature of the blades enchantment a bit.</p><p>This new blade will boast a bane verses dragons, rather than undead. Considering</p><p>our coming battle, it seems appropriate. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Flktme 23</p><p> </p><p> It is my birthday! </p><p></p><p> Work continues steadily on Griff’s blade and all goes well. I hope he likes this</p><p>thing! </p><p></p><p></p><p> Wlsn 10</p><p> </p><p> This day has brought happy news! Today, at dinner, Griff announced that he and</p><p>Happy have become engaged to be married! They have not yet set a date, but</p><p>apparently they have already purchased a small home in a town not far from </p><p>Havilah. </p><p></p><p> The news was met by congratulations all round. Happy was positively beaming,</p><p>while Griff, of course, scowled dourly, though I believe I detected just a hint a </p><p>smile under his grumpy visage. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Wlsn 17 </p><p></p><p> It is complete! Today I called Griff into my laboratory and conducted the final</p><p>ritual. Holding onto to Griff’s hand, I touched the sword with my other hand and </p><p>incanted, feeling our warriors essence flow through me and into the blade. I could</p><p>feel his nervousness, but he stood firm, and within an hour it was done. Reverently,</p><p>I held it out to him. “I call it ‘The Talon’,” I announced proudly, “As in, ‘The </p><p>Griffon’s Talon’”.</p><p></p><p> He took it by the handle and felt it’s clean balance. His smile was all the payment</p><p>I needed. </p><p></p><p> More information has come to light! </p><p></p><p> In an effort to know more about our enemy I asked Taklinn to ‘commune’ with</p><p>Clangeden, to ask the god several questions that have been nagging at me. This</p><p>afternoon, he and I cloistered ourselves in his room and I watched as he prayed. He </p><p>fell into a deep trance, and in due time he came into contact with Clangeden and</p><p>began asking my questions. The exchange went a bit like this. </p><p></p><p> “How old is Acessiwall?”</p><p></p><p> “Nine-Hundred and fifty years.”</p><p></p><p> “Is Taigel loyal to Acessiwall?” </p><p></p><p> “No.”</p><p></p><p> “Does Acessiwall know the spell, Dispel Magic?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes.” </p><p></p><p> “Do we have at least two months to complete the task of killing Acessiwall as far</p><p>as those to whom Taklinn is in debt to are concerned?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes.” </p><p></p><p> “Can Acessiwall magically protect himself from fire?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes.”</p><p></p><p> “Is Acessiwall evil?” </p><p></p><p> “Yes.”</p><p></p><p> “Is Helious evil?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes.” </p><p></p><p> “Does Acessiwall have more allies than Helious in his lair?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes.</p><p></p><p> “Does he have more than five allies in his lair?” </p><p></p><p> “Yes.”</p><p> “Does Acessiwall have any special abilities other than his normal dragon</p><p>powers?” </p><p></p><p> “No.”</p><p></p><p> “From a spell casting standpoint, is Helious more powerful than Doorag?”</p><p></p><p> “Yes.” </p><p></p><p> “Was Caribdis involved with Scylla?”</p><p></p><p> “No.”</p><p> </p><p> It was this last question, asked by Taklinn almost as an afterthought, that gave us</p><p>serious pause. Scylla had been lying to us! Taklinn and I talked at length about how</p><p>to deal with this information, and we decided to confront her with it at dinner. </p><p></p><p> The rest of the answers we got are more precious to me than gold. I now feel that</p><p>I can indeed trust Taigel, for I admit to a certain amount of wariness about him,</p><p>feeling that it was possible that he might simply be a spy for his father. </p><p></p><p> Knowing Acessiwall’s exact age is important too, as we can now narrow down</p><p>just what we will be facing. </p><p></p><p> Knowing that Acessiwall and Helious are, in fact, evil will avoid a repeat of the </p><p>Latona mistake. It would have been just our luck to have gone in there and killed</p><p>the only good white dragon in the world!</p><p></p><p> And finding out more about Helious is invaluable. I fear that we will have to think </p><p>harder about Acessiwall’s wizard ally, for if he is more powerful than I, he will be a</p><p>force to recon with; potentially more dangerous than the wurm himself, if he is</p><p>given opportunity to prepare for us. </p><p></p><p> ***</p><p></p><p> At dinner tonight, Taklinn and I laid our cards on the table, telling the crew what</p><p>we had learned, finishing with our final question and answer about Scylla. The </p><p>sorceresses eyes fell when confronted with the truth, and an air of danger descended</p><p>over the table, as no one knew if she might panic and start blasting. </p><p></p><p> She did not. Scylla sighed and nodded, admitting that she had lied. When pushed </p><p>for the truth, she hesitated and asked how we would trust her to tell it. It was a good</p><p>point, and after much heated discussion, we decided to meet in a few hours in our</p><p>Academy chambers where Taklinn would cast a ‘zone of truth’. Scylla agreed that</p><p>she would answer all questions at that time. </p><p></p><p> I half expected her to not show up, but she was not only on time, she was early. </p><p></p><p> All of us were there except Mardath, who we had seen little of since we arrived in </p><p>Havilah as he has been spending nearly all of his time with Nanden and his people. </p><p></p><p> Taklinn began his rituals, first casting several spells directly upon Scylla to ensure</p><p>that she would not try to resist the ‘zone of truth’. To her credit, she did not balk at </p><p>the prospect, and quietly accepted them. Taklinn followed his spells with the zone,</p><p>and we seated ourselves within it’s area. No lies would be spoken for the next hour.</p><p></p><p> “Now then,” I began, “Who are you?” </p><p></p><p> “I am Scylla D’neif.” Scylla answered.</p><p></p><p> “And?”</p><p> The sorceress sighed and told the rest of her story. “My name is Scylla D’neif and </p><p>I have been quested to kill Acessiwall by a cleric of Wee Jas named Malika Moricz,</p><p>though killing Acessiwall is not my only mission. In fact, it is more of a cover story</p><p>for my true purpose.” </p><p></p><p> “Which is?” I asked.</p><p></p><p> “To discredit you two.” She stated flatly, pointing at Taklinn and I.</p><p> </p><p> “What!” Taklinn’s face grew dark as she continued. </p><p></p><p> “Apparently Malika believes that you two are responsible for shifting the balance</p><p>of things to far toward the good. She wishes to sully your names in an effort to</p><p>realign her notion of balance.” </p><p></p><p> Taklinn positively fumed at this revelation, for his name may well be his most</p><p>valued commodity. As for myself, I could only chuckle, Since my recent</p><p>philosophical revelations after Latona, I cared little about my reputation, knowing </p><p>full well that folk would believe exactly what they wished to. </p><p> </p><p> “Yeah, yeah, that’s all real nice.” Griff cut in. “So other than dragging their names</p><p>through the mud, are you planning on harming us, backstabbing us, killing us, </p><p>betraying us, or screwing us over in any way? Because if you are, you’ve bit off</p><p>more than you can chew, sister!”</p><p></p><p> “No.” Scylla replied. </p><p></p><p> “I want to meet this Malika.” Taklinn demanded. “Can you set it up?”</p><p></p><p> “Possibly.” </p><p></p><p> “That’s not a bad idea.” I agreed. “The last thing we need right now is yet another </p><p>enemy trying to undermine us. What do we do with Scylla in the meantime?”</p><p></p><p> We all spoke at once. Some of us were in favor of showing her the door right then</p><p>and there, while others (like myself) saw the value in having a second caster in the </p><p>group. </p><p></p><p> “Even if you demand that I leave,” Scylla pointed out, “I am still under magical</p><p>compulsion to slay Acessiwall. Without your help I will surely fail and, more than </p><p>likely be killed. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but should you cut your ties</p><p>with me you will almost certainly be sentencing me to death.”</p><p></p><p> This thought brought about another round of heated debate, which I was a part of </p><p>until suddenly my ‘detect scrying’ alarm sounded in my head. I looked around and</p><p>saw it, the sensor, peering at us from a corner of the ceiling. I quickly bade</p><p>everyone be silent as I cast a ‘dispel’ at the thing, but this time Helious’ intentions </p><p>were not to simply spy on us. </p><p></p><p> The first sensor winked out under my dispel, only to be replaced by a second</p><p>moments later. Before I could dispel this one as well, Helious had sent his first </p><p>attacker. In the blink of an eye, a skeletal ice golem stood on our table, it’s wicked</p><p>claws ready to lash at us. </p><p></p><p> We broke from the table, Scylla and I putting some distance between ourselves </p><p>and the golem, while Taklinn, Griff and Taigel drew and laid into it with their</p><p>weapons. Happy, unable to harm such constructs much, backed off as well. </p><p></p><p> But Helious had obviously learned that we were more than a match for one or two</p><p>golems, for, in quick succession, three more of them arrived, teleported in by the </p><p>wizard. </p><p></p><p> It was a brutal battle, and it nearly cost Griffon his life as the golems connected</p><p>with him time and again. I was largely frustrated, as I had not prepared many spells </p><p>that could adequately deal with the constructs innate resistance to magic. Even the</p><p>elemental I summoned could barely hurt the things. </p><p></p><p> Scylla caused nearly as much harm as aid, for she opened up on the golems with </p><p>the one spell that I knew could harm them: ‘scorching ray’. Unfortunately, she is</p><p>not a particularly good shot, for I counted no less than four times when one of her</p><p>rays went astray and hit a crew member. Once she hit Griff, already grievously </p><p>wounded, and nearly took him down. I saw her face go deathly pale, and I knew</p><p>that she felt horrified at having accidentally hit him. Thank Clangeden Taklinn was</p><p>able to lay a hand on our warrior and pull him from the brink of death! </p><p></p><p> In the end, they fell. One by one our fighters hacked them apart, though we were</p><p>on the verge of desperation by the final golem. Happy was even reduced to tossing</p><p>flaming logs at it that she had plucked from our fireplace! I was able to do little, </p><p>though I did manage to dispel Helious’ second sensor, hopefully preventing him</p><p>from sending any more (though in hindsight, it would not have), or at the very least</p><p>denying him the pleasure of watching his golems do their work. I was also able to </p><p>fell one of the golems for a few seconds with a ‘grease’, though that did little more</p><p>than buy our warriors a bit of time. </p><p></p><p> When it was all over we still stood, and the room was strewn with heavy chunks </p><p>of melting ice. The silver lining to the cloud was the cache of diamonds contained</p><p>within each of the golems, and between them we found over 20,000 gold worth</p><p>which we split up immediately, since we had all incurred quite a few expenses. </p><p></p><p> We sent for Academy help to clean up our meeting area while we put our heads</p><p>together again. Helious had shown himself to be a foe to be reckoned with, and this</p><p>attack in our own home infuriated us all. I resolved to deal with him at our first </p><p>opportunity, forgoing further item creation until we could take the wizard out of the</p><p>equation. The rest of the crew agreed with me, and to that end I stepped up my</p><p>plans, vowing to learn a spell that I had only recently purchased, as soon as </p><p>possible. The spell, ‘antimagic field’ is, I hope, the key to defeating a wizard. </p><p></p><p> Even though Scylla had made herself few friends with her sloppily cast ‘scorching</p><p>rays’, we still saw the value in having a second caster, especially when she came </p><p>clean with what spells she could, in fact, cast. One of them was teleport, and I knew</p><p>that that could come in quite handy in our plan to go after Helious. We decided to</p><p>keep her with us, albeit at arms length. </p><p></p><p> I stressed that we must, from this day on, stay close. Had Helious sent his golems</p><p>after only one or two of us, we would have had little chance. This idea was met with</p><p>some resistance. Griff disliked the idea of being held prisoner by the threat of future </p><p>attacks, and Taklinn insisted that he was going to ‘wind walk’ to his home to visit</p><p>his fiance. I argued my point passionately, feeling that it was pure folly to divide</p><p>our forces. In the end, no consensus could be reached, and I feared that we would </p><p>splinter again. We resolved to speak more of it at breakfast tomorrow.</p><p></p><p> But my night was not yet over. An hour after we had all separated and I was once</p><p>again cloistered in my lab, there came a soft knock on my door. Opening it, I was </p><p>surprised to find Scylla there. I half expected some sort of attack, but she said that</p><p>she merely needed to talk with me. I warily let her in.</p><p></p><p> We spoke for nearly an hour, and what she revealed to me left me shaken and </p><p>thoughtful. When she left I considered my options carefully, cast a ‘rope trick’ and</p><p>climbed into it for a night of secure rest. I write from the inside of that safe space</p><p>now, pondering what to do with this new information. I believe that the only course</p><p>of action is to tell Scylla’s real secret to the rest of the crew in the morning. They </p><p>must know, though I am a bit worried as to how they will deal with it. Apparently</p><p>she only told me because she feels that I am more logic driven than my comrades, </p><p>and therefore less given to knee-jerk reactions. I can only concur. </p><p></p><p> </p><p> Wlsn 19</p><p></p><p> We gathered this morning around the breakfast and I brought with me a cold glint </p><p>in my eye, for I not only had staggering information to relay to the crew, I also had</p><p>a plan for dealing with Helious.</p><p></p><p> I tossed and turned last night, unable to let go of my anger at having been attacked </p><p>in our own quarters; inside the Academy, no less! I had been turning over a strategy</p><p>for fighting Helious for some time, and it made so much sense to me that I’d even</p><p>purchased an outrageously expensive copy of ‘antimagic field’, a spell that would </p><p>be the key to the entire plan. The attack made me realize that our battlegrounds had</p><p>drastically changed, and so must our strategies. I resolved, last night, to press ahead</p><p>with my plan. I can’t help but see the irony in my rage at having been attacked by </p><p>foes in my own home, considering the fact that I seem to have based much of my</p><p>career in doing just that very thing, but it still made me madder than a wet hen, and</p><p>I wish nothing more now than to see Helious cold and dead. </p><p></p><p> Call it righteous indignation.</p><p></p><p> Taklinn and I had little to say to each other as we ate, for we’d argued long over</p><p>his plan to visit his fiance. Not only would it divide us, it would call for a </p><p>postponement in going after Helious. </p><p></p><p> “Look,” Taklinn leveled his gaze at me, “I’ve got it all planed out. I’ll cast a</p><p>‘word of recall’ here, and if I get into any trouble I’ll just retreat back here. I’ll be </p><p>back in two days; three tops!”</p><p></p><p> “Fine.” I replied, nonchalantly, “I can’t take all of us anyway. We’ll let you</p><p>know how it goes when we return.” I took a dramatic quaff of my milk while </p><p>Taklinn’s eyes narrowed.</p><p></p><p> “Can’t take all of us where?” He demanded. “You’ll let me know how what</p><p>goes?” </p><p></p><p> “Yeah,” Hap chimed in, her interest piqued, “What are you spinning, Doorag?”</p><p></p><p> “Well, we’re going to kill Helious, right?” I asked, wide eyed over my oatmeal.”</p><p>I’m certainly not going to sit around and wait for him to come to me, and we’ll have </p><p>to teleport in to do it, and I’m sorry, but I have yet to attain the power to transport</p><p>all of us. But I can take four, so that would be Taigel, Happy, Griff and Scylla. Of</p><p>course,” I added thoughtfully, “Scylla can cast teleport, so I suppose we could take </p><p>more, but I understand that you need to see your fiance, so the five of us will just</p><p>pop over and mop up this nasty business.”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn looked at me for several long seconds, his jaw set, and then broke into a </p><p>grin. “Okay.” He sighed, “What’s the plan?”</p><p></p><p> I chuckled and leaned over the table, no longer bothering to conceal my eagerness to</p><p>talk with them about it. </p><p></p><p> “We need to kill a wizard.” I stated. “A powerful wizard; more powerful than me,</p><p>in fact. Helious has already demonstrated his power. Those golems last night were</p><p>more than likely sent here via ‘greater teleportation’, which means he has access to </p><p>at least one, and probably two circles of magic that I can’t even comprehend yet.</p><p>Now I can give you a probably two dozen reasons why we don’t have a prayer in</p><p>hell of getting close enough to hit him, let alone actually kill him, not the least of </p><p>which are ‘fly’ or ‘teleport’. We’ve already been able to scry him, so we have a</p><p>decent chance to port in to him, but if he gets a spell off, we’ll never see him</p><p>again.” </p><p></p><p> “Unless…” I let the word sink in, “Unless we take away his magic.” I withdrew</p><p>the scroll from my holder held it up for them. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is a </p><p>scroll that contains one ‘antimagic field’ spell. Once I learn it, I shall be able to</p><p>impart upon my person a field of anti magic that will extend ten feet from me on all</p><p>sides. Absolutely no magic will work within this field. Items will not function. </p><p>Magic swords become normal swords. And spells cannot be cast. Once inside this</p><p>field, Helious will become nothing more than a harmless, old man.”</p><p></p><p> “My plan is this: Today I learn this spell. Tomorrow we port to Finch, which is </p><p>within striking distance of Acessiwall’s lair. We scry for Helious and when we find</p><p>him we act quickly, casting as many speed enhancing spells on ourselves as we can.</p><p>We then teleport directly to his location. At that point it will all come down to who </p><p>acts first. My first and only concern will be to cast the field –for obvious reasons I</p><p>can’t cast it before we teleport- while the rest of you launch yourselves at him,</p><p>though I don’t mean to attack him with weapons. Only Hap has that job. Taklinn, </p><p>you, Griff and Taigel rush Helious and grab him. You wrestle him to the ground</p><p>and stick a sock in his mouth if you can. You break his fingers, you sit on his hands,</p><p>you do whatever you have to do to make sure he is immobile and can’t run or cast </p><p>should I not be able to get the field up in time.”</p><p></p><p> “Now Hap will probably be first to reach him since she’s so quick. Hap, you don’t</p><p>attack him unless you see him trying to cast. If you do, you hit him with everything </p><p>you’ve got and try to disrupt the spell. If we can keep him from casting or running</p><p>before I get the field up and get to him, then he’s ours. If he’s pinned down, he’ll be</p><p>short work for Happy.” </p><p></p><p> “As soon as the job is done, I drop the field and we port the heck out of there.”</p><p> </p><p> I smiled at the crew, awaiting the inevitable complications that they would point</p><p>out. </p><p></p><p> “What if he’s not alone?” Griff asked.</p><p></p><p> “He probably won’t be.” I said. “It doesn’t matter. All we should need is ten</p><p>seconds. After Helious is dead, we either deal with his guards or port out. Scylla </p><p>may come in handy as well if she can get out of the field and cover our backs.”</p><p></p><p> “He’ll be helpless?” Taklinn asked slowly.</p><p></p><p> “That’s the idea.” I answered, already knowing where this was going. </p><p></p><p> “I don’t know…” The dwarf thought aloud, scratching his beard, “If he’s helpless,</p><p>why couldn’t we take him prisoner?”</p><p></p><p> “What?” Happy laughed, sitting straight up in her chair, “Take him alive? </p><p>Taklinn, have you gone mad?”</p><p></p><p> “I cannot kill a helpless foe!” Taklinn shouted. “It is dishonorable! If he can be</p><p>incapacitated, we must bring him to Havilah for trial!” </p><p></p><p> “You really are nuts!” Griff scoffed. “Let me tell you something, Taklinn. If it</p><p>was Doorag after me and I had a chance to kill him, I’d take it without a second</p><p>thought, and if this Helious is more powerful than Doorag, then it’s a done deal. He </p><p>dies if we get the shot.”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn sighed. “I understand your position, my friend, but you must understand</p><p>mine. It is simply against my code to slay an unarmed opponent when there is an </p><p>alternative.”</p><p></p><p> “Taklinn,” I asked, “If that is so, why do you carry those large, sharp and fatal</p><p>axes? Why do you not wield a club, that you might beat your foes into </p><p>unconsciousness, after which you can haul them off to justice?”</p><p></p><p> “Axes are the symbol of Clangeden.” Taklinn answered lamely. </p><p></p><p> “Look,” I said, not wishing to press the point, “Take the guard position then. </p><p>Taigel and Griff will tackle Helious while you and Scylla keep his friends off our</p><p>backs. I will be extremely vulnerable, so I’ll need all the protection I can get. And if</p><p>he does happen to be alone, all I ask is that you help to incapacitate him. You don’t</p><p>have to do the dirty work.” </p><p></p><p> “And don’t forget,” Hap chimed in, “He is evil. Clangeden himself said so!”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn scowled, but he could see that our minds were made up on this. Helious </p><p>had to die. “Very well, I’ll go with the intention of protecting you. I’ll even grab the</p><p>wizard if I can, but I will not take his life. Let that be between yourselves and</p><p>whatever higher power you ascribe to.” </p><p></p><p> “Agreed!” I said happily.</p><p></p><p> Taklinn had other concerns. “It’s still a long shot.” He said. “Don’t you think </p><p>Helious will have ways of protecting his lair from being teleported into? And</p><p>what’s our contingency plan if things don’t go right?”</p><p></p><p> “Your right,” I agreed, “He may very well have a ‘dimensional lock’ in place, in </p><p>which case the plan won’t work and we go back to the drawing board. Nothing</p><p>ventured, nothing gained, and all that. As far as a contingency, if Helious gets a</p><p>spell off and we can’t get him, we get out as fast as we can. At the very least he’ll </p><p>know he’s not safe and it’ll give him something to think about. It’s not full proof,</p><p>but if you can think of a better plan I’m all ears.”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn could only shake his head somberly and admit that he had no better idea. </p><p></p><p> “Very well,” I said, standing up, “I am not to be disturbed for the next twenty-four</p><p>hours. Tomorrow at this same time we’ll leave for Finch. I’ll see you then!”</p><p></p><p> I stopped, suddenly remembering that I was not finished. Sitting back down, I </p><p>looked them over. “There’s one more thing.” I said.</p><p> </p><p> “What is it?” Happy asked.</p><p> I looked across the table at Scylla, and the sorceress knew that I was about to spill </p><p>the beans. She seemed to steel herself for the worst.</p><p></p><p> “Last night,” I began, “Scylla came to me with news that you should all know.</p><p>She knows that I’m going to tell you, so I’m not speaking out of turn here.” </p><p></p><p> Griff’s eyes narrowed. “What?” He asked, dangerously.</p><p></p><p> “Well, apparently, it’s a matter of her lineage.” I said. “Specifically the identity of</p><p>her mother.” </p><p></p><p> “What are you trying to say, Doorag?” Taklinn asked.</p><p></p><p> “Uh, well, Scylla, why don’t you tell them who your mother was.” I said, looking</p><p>at her. </p><p></p><p> Scylla met the gazes of the others and did not flinch. “Her name was</p><p>Melesandre.” She said.</p><p> </p><p> I will not go into the chaos that followed. Everyone spoke at once, and several </p><p>hands fell to weapon handles, but I shushed them and finally got their attention.</p><p></p><p> “Yes, she’s Melisandre’s daughter. Apparently she wishes to clear her family name,</p><p>or at least bring some semblance of honor back to it. She was able to circumvent </p><p>Taklinn’s ‘zone of truth’ by seeking out this Malika person and having the ‘geas’</p><p>spell she spoke of cast on her. In other words, she had herself geased so that she</p><p>could tell us one layer of the truth.” </p><p></p><p> Happy whistled under her breath, and I could tell that she was impressed with</p><p>Scylla’s machinations despite herself.</p><p> </p><p> “So this Malika woman has no real axe to grind with us?” Taklinn asked. </p><p></p><p> “She has no love for you,” Scylla nodded, “And she would not mind seeing your</p><p>name sullied, but the idea was mine, not hers.”</p><p></p><p> “This is making my head hurt.” Griff intoned. “Why did you lie all this time, and </p><p>why are you coming clean now?”</p><p></p><p> “I’m tired of lying.” Scylla shrugged. “One lie leads to another and another.</p><p>Sooner or later you will uncover the truth, and when that happens, how will you </p><p>ever trust me. It is my only desire to bring some honor to my name, to make up for</p><p>some small part of the damage my mother caused. How better to do that than to aid</p><p>the very people who slew her? I decided, after coming so close to being found out </p><p>last night, to tell all and let the chips fall where they may. I’m tired of living behind</p><p>a veil of falsehoods.” </p><p></p><p> “And how do we know your telling the truth now?” Griff pressed on. “How do we</p><p>know your not just like your mother?”</p><p></p><p> “I never really knew my mother.” Scylla said. “I was raised by… others.” </p><p></p><p> “Where are you from?” Happy asked.</p><p></p><p> “I was raised on Edik.”</p><p></p><p> “Wait a minute.” Taklinn’s eyes narrowed and I could see that he had a hunch. </p><p>“What ‘others’ are you talking about? Who raised you?”</p><p></p><p> Scylla sighed. “I was raised by a yuan-ti couple.” She admitted.</p><p></p><p> “Was one of them female?” Taklinn hissed. </p><p></p><p> “Yes.”</p><p></p><p> “And her name was?”</p><p></p><p> Scylla paused for a long moment, and I knew the answer before she even said it. </p><p></p><p> “Sensesi.”</p><p></p><p> Another groan rose from the table and it was long minutes before order was</p><p>restored. </p><p></p><p> “Look,” I said, “She’s either telling the truth or this is another part of some</p><p>complicated web of lies. At this point I don’t know what to believe. I’m inclined to</p><p>give her the benefit of the doubt. She’s come clean when she didn’t have to, and I </p><p>can’t hold the sins of her mother against her. Besides that, she’s another spell caster,</p><p>and she could be very useful in the coming battle.”</p><p></p><p> “Or she might turn against us and spell our doom!” Happy countered. </p><p></p><p> “I can’t argue with that.” I agreed. “But the fact is, she’s geased herself to kill</p><p>Acessiwall. I’d rather we all tried it together rather than waste a potentially valuable</p><p>ally by letting her go alone and get herself killed. I’m not suggesting we trust </p><p>her entirely, but I say we let her accompany us until she gives us a solid reason not</p><p>to.”</p><p></p><p> “Whatever.” Griff spat. “I don’t care. Just know this: If you're thinking of </p><p>extracting some kind of vengeance for your witch of a mother, you’d better think</p><p>again. I killed her, and I’ll kill you too.”</p><p></p><p> Scylla smiled without humor and nodded. “Understood.” </p><p></p><p></p><p> Wlsn 20 </p><p></p><p> The easy part of the plan has gone smoothly. I have learned ‘antimagic field’ and</p><p>we are now all in Finch. The townsfolk here are less than overjoyed to see us, </p><p>especially since we brought Taigel back into their midst, but we are spending the</p><p>majority of our time shut away in the single, tiny room the innkeeper has provided</p><p>for us. It is uncomfortable and cramped, but we should be used to such conditions </p><p>by now. </p><p></p><p> Scylla successfully scryed Helious yesterday, though her sensor didn’t last long</p><p>under his scrutiny. Still, she was able to get a look at his surroundings and will have </p><p>a chance to teleport there. Our strategy now is to simultaneously scry Helious in an</p><p>effort to find him in a place we both recognize so that we can both have a</p><p>reasonable assurance of teleporting to the same location. It would not do to port our </p><p>two groups into the lair only to be separated. </p><p></p><p> We are finding out that Helious is a slippery one, and obviously has</p><p>‘nondetection’ cast upon himself. Breaking through that barrier may prove a </p><p>difficult feat, for neither Scylla nor I was able to do so tonight. The crew stood</p><p>around us, ready to go, but we’ve had to call off the plan in favor of trying again</p><p>tomorrow night. </p><p></p><p> We have decided to attempt this in the wee hours of the night, hoping to catch</p><p>Helious at rest. </p><p></p><p> On another side note, I have explained another potential flaw in the plan to the</p><p>crew: the fact that there is a very real chance that either Scylla or I might teleport</p><p>erroneously, that either of us might take our group to the wrong location. There is </p><p>even the very small chance that we may find ourselves in a ‘teleportation loop’,</p><p>which is potentially fatal. Griff groaned at this news, but he is still set on going. </p><p> </p><p></p><p> Wlsn 21</p><p> </p><p> Another day of waiting around until dark to scry Helious, and another day wasted.</p><p>I am frustrated by my inability to break through his ‘nondetection’, but I know it’s</p><p>just a matter of time. I only hope my crew shares a little of my patience. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Wlsn 22</p><p> </p><p> A third day of failed scrying, and I can tell that the crew is going stir crazy. There</p><p>is little to do in Finch at the best of times, and poor Taigel cannot even leave the</p><p>room without one of us to accompany him for fear of causing general panic </p><p>amongst the townsfolk. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Wlsn 23 </p><p></p><p> It began as it has the last three days, with the crew gathered around my small table</p><p>as I peered into my crystal ball, focusing my ‘scry’ spell into it and seeking out </p><p>Helious. This was my third attempt of the evening, and they were all expecting a</p><p>repeat performances of our previous nights as they lounged around and spoke</p><p>quietly amongst themselves. Taigel had excused himself to use the chamber pot, </p><p>unfortunately at a very inopportune moment.</p><p></p><p> The mist cleared, my focus sharpened, and there he was! My sensor hovered</p><p>above his form, swathed in blankets on a simple cot in a small chamber. My </p><p>excitement showed on my face, and the crew immediately stood up, knowing that</p><p>this might be our time. </p><p></p><p> Helious sat bolt upright in his bed, obviously aware of my sensor. His </p><p>annoyance was apparent on his face, and he hastily cast a dispel at it… only to have</p><p>it fail! I chuckled at the rage and frustration on his face when he realized he’d been</p><p>thwarted, but my laughter quickly died in my throat as I saw him disappear without </p><p>a single gesture of movement of his lips. He can cast without speaking? I wondered</p><p>to myself. That put another kink in my plan, for if he could cast silently it meant</p><p>that the boys had little chance of keeping him from casting even if they managed to </p><p>tackle him. Covering his mouth would not prevent him from teleporting if he had</p><p>such an enhanced version of the spell prepared, which he obviously did. </p><p></p><p> I cursed. “He’s gone!” </p><p></p><p> A groan rose from all of us, and it seemed as if we had been stymied again. How</p><p>would we ever get the drop on him? But Scylla was not ready to give up. “We could</p><p>still go in!” She suggested, excitedly, “We could steal his things, maybe set him </p><p>back a little. And perhaps I can leave my familiar in his chambers. It would be easy</p><p>to scry my familiar, and we wouldn’t have to keep trying to scry Helious!”</p><p></p><p> “That’s a bad idea.” I said. “If he finds your viper, which he more than likely will, </p><p>he’ll…” But I never had a chance to finish my sentence. Scylla said the words I</p><p>knew only too well, and was gone.</p><p></p><p> “Holy…!” I sputtered, “She’s gone in!”</p><p></p><p> “What? That crazy wench!” Griff exclaimed. </p><p></p><p> “Quick, Taklinn, cast what you need to, we’re going in!” I withdrew my wand</p><p>and cast from it, ‘hasting’ the lot of us as Taklinn hurriedly hit himself with an </p><p>enhancing spell. As one, we grasped hands and I cast my own teleport, crossing my</p><p>fingers and hoping for the best.</p><p> </p><p> As we disappeared I wondered what Taigel would think when he returned from</p><p>the chamber pot to find us missing. Perhaps Ambros would somehow be able to</p><p>explain as I had decided to leave him at the inn. </p><p></p><p> The four of us reappeared in a tiny, doorless, stone cell that I immediately</p><p>recognized as the room I had seen Helious in. His unkempt bed still stood in the</p><p>corner, and a sturdy, metal chest squatted in another. In a third corner was a gently </p><p>smoking brassier, and in the last corner there stood a low desk at which Scylla stood</p><p>franticly going through drawers. Helious was nowhere to be seen, and I breathed a</p><p>sigh of relief at our having arrived safely and accurately. </p><p></p><p> We spread out, Griff and Taklinn drawing weapons and putting their backs to the</p><p>wall in case we suddenly had company. Happy made straight for the chest and</p><p>examined it. “Hmm,” She muttered, “Magical trap.” </p><p></p><p> I was already casting, and in a second the antimagic field was up, filling nearly</p><p>the entire room. I felt suddenly naked within such a field, but I knew it probably</p><p>offered the best protection I could ever ask for. I went to stand next to Hap and she </p><p>smiled, for she no longer saw any evidence of the magical trap. She lifted the lid</p><p>carefully and we both gasped at the plethora of items contained within. Quickly she</p><p>began tossing them to Griff, who stood outside of the field and began to deposit the </p><p>goods in his bag of holding. </p><p></p><p> Scylla was apparently trying to pry open the false bottom of a drawer, and soon</p><p>she produced several tightly rolled scrolls. Taklinn, meanwhile, was poking around </p><p>the room. Looking under the bed, he noticed something and reached for it. He</p><p>gasped as his hand encountered an invisible, fleshy object. He motioned me over</p><p>and I stepped toward the center of the room so that both the object he’d found and </p><p>the chest Happy was emptying were in the field. </p><p></p><p> Once the invisibility that masked Taklinn’s find was suppressed, we were all</p><p>treated to a shock. It was a body! What’s more, it bore a striking resemblance to </p><p>Helious! I examined it closely and realized what it was. </p><p></p><p> “Destroy it!” I said. “It’s a clone; his back up plan in case he dies. If we managed</p><p>to kill him, his soul would enter this body and he’d be back in action.” </p><p></p><p> Griff grinned as he drove his sword through the lifeless body’s heart, spilling</p><p>greenish ichor across the floor.</p><p></p><p> Hap had just finished clearing out the chest, and Scylla was satisfied that the desk </p><p>contained no further treasures, when it happened. </p><p></p><p> Helious returned, blinking into the room, already working his hands in an attempt</p><p>to cast. On the opposite side of the room another figure appeared. He looked very </p><p>much like Taigel, except that he bore an aura of malevolence that positively</p><p>radiated off of him. He was a half-dragon, another spawn of Acessiwall, no doubt,</p><p>and he held a truly wicked looking sword in his hand. An evil grin spread across his </p><p>face, and he looked prepared for murder. </p><p></p><p> But Hap was incredibly fast. She let loose with a handful of daggers, the last</p><p>leaving her hand even before the first hit. All three of them sank into the half-</p><p>dragon with meaty thunks as they pierced his throat, groin, and abdomen. He</p><p>grunted and swayed a bit, and I could tell that she’d hurt him bad. He swung around</p><p>on her, and I could see hate in his eyes. </p><p></p><p> Meanwhile, Helious must have finally realized that he’d made the fatal error of</p><p>porting into an anti magic field, for his eyes widened in horror as he found himself</p><p>helpless to fend off Taklinn, who was standing right next to the mage. Despite</p><p>Taklinn’s reservations about slaying Helious, he must have realized that he was still </p><p>far from innocent or incapacitated. Our dwarf swung first one axe, then the other,</p><p>connecting twice, leaving deep and gory wounds on Helious’ chest and thigh. The </p><p>wizard looked for running room but found none. As for me, I was in the center of</p><p>the room, far too close to the half-dragon for my likening. I quickly scurried under</p><p>the bed, leaving the half of the room containing Hap and the half-dragon out of the </p><p>field. </p><p></p><p> I saw Griff’s eyes glance from the half-dragon to the Helious. “Kill the wizard!” I</p><p>screamed. “We won’t get another chance!” Thank all the gods that Griff listened. </p><p>He took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and Helious, and</p><p>unloaded on the wizard with everything he had. Once, twice, three times, the Talon</p><p>bit into Helious. Blood sprayed across the stone walls, and just like that, our </p><p>wizardly foe lay dead.</p><p></p><p> We were not out of the woods yet, for the half-dragon was now out of the field. In</p><p>a heartbeat he was upon Happy and slashed his sword across her as quick as </p><p>thought. Our roguish friend yelped in pain as she tried to dodge, and I could tell that</p><p>she was barely standing, which made what happened next all the more unfortunate. </p><p></p><p> Scylla raced across the room to get out of the field and fired off a ‘scorching ray’ </p><p>at the half-dragon. But, much like her shooting against the golems, her aim was</p><p>poor. The first two rays struck the half-dragon, but the third landed on Happy, and</p><p>with a moan, she fell to the floor. </p><p></p><p> “NO!” Screamed Griff, and he and Taklinn were already moving toward the half-dragon.</p><p>Taklinn landed an axe, but it was Griff’s strike that downed the horrid warrior. His dragon</p><p>bane sword came around, driven by the full weight of his fury,and the half-dragon’s head </p><p>went sailing across the room, careening off a wall and bouncing across the floor. </p><p></p><p> Before the half-dragon’s body had even fallen to the floor, Griff was dragging </p><p>Taklinn to Hap’s body. </p><p></p><p> “Fix her!” He demanded. Taklinn knelt at her side and detected some life still</p><p>within her. He quickly cast his most powerful healing magic, and Happy opened her </p><p>eyes. </p><p></p><p> “Did we win?” She asked, with a crooked grin. </p><p></p><p> Griff wheeled around to glare at Scylla. He pointed his bloody blade at her and </p><p>hissed through clenched teeth. “Don’t ever do that again. Ever!”</p><p></p><p> “It was an accident!” Scylla cried defensively. </p><p> </p><p> “I’ve about had it with your accidents.” Happy grumbled, fingering the rips in her </p><p>clothing left by the sword blows. “Maybe you shouldn’t fire into combat if you’re</p><p>that bad a shot!”</p><p></p><p> “Maybe you shouldn’t stand so near where I’m shooting!” Scylla replied </p><p>petulantly. </p><p></p><p> “Shut up!” Griff cut her off. “Your lucky I don’t drop you where you stand!”</p><p></p><p> “All right, all right!” I said, “Break it up! Let’s strip these clowns and get out of </p><p>here!” I dismissed the field and felt my magic’s return to me. </p><p></p><p> Within moments we had taken everything of value from the bodies of the dead.</p><p>After a last search of the room, we clasped hands and teleported out. Scylla made </p><p>straight for Havilah while I stopped off in Finch to retrieve a very befuddled Taigel</p><p>and Ambros. Both were full of questions. </p><p></p><p> “I’ll fill you in when we get home.” I assured them, and we were gone. </p><p></p><p> So now we are back in Havilah, surveying our treasures and going back over the</p><p>battle. Luck was on our side tonight, for had Helious not left his chambers before</p><p>we’d arrived, the chances of casting the field before he teleported away would have </p><p>been quite slim. And though Scylla’s impetuousness is frustrating, I must admit</p><p>that, had she not gone off on her own to Helious’ chambers, we probably would not</p><p>have gone at all. I can’t say that I like the fact that so much of the battle came down </p><p>to luck, but I won’t let it sour our victory either. I feel as if we’ve delivered a major</p><p>blow to Acessiwall, and the old wurm must be seething with rage tonight. </p><p></p><p> On another lucky note, the antimagic field turned out to help us in more ways than</p><p>one. I forgot to mention that when I slid under the bed, I pulled the field away from</p><p>the chest. As soon as it’s magic’s functioned again, it had disappeared! No doubt, </p><p>had Hap opened that chest while not in the field, it would have ported away, taking</p><p>all it’s treasures with it. </p><p></p><p> And what treasures they are! Several scrolls, a wand, a necklace, a magical pearl, </p><p>a pair of bracers, not to mention the headband we found on Helious, as well as a</p><p>ring. The half-dragon also had his share of items, including his armor, shield, and</p><p>that terrible looking sword. Two fat bags of coin also clink upon the table, but the </p><p>most exciting find of all is the book that now sits next to me. I have yet to open it,</p><p>for I must make sure that it’s protective magics are dealt with first, but my gut</p><p>instinct tells me that this is Helious’ spell book! I will not be able to sleep tonight </p><p>for wondering what it contains!</p><p></p><p> </p><p> Wlsn 25</p><p></p><p> Helious is out of the way, and thus the real work begins. </p><p></p><p> I have spent the better part of yesterday and today analyzing the items we</p><p>liberated from Helious. We divided them up at during our lunch this afternoon, and</p><p>I think everyone was quite pleased with our haul. Scylla did extremely well, taking a </p><p>pair of armor bracers of the highest enchantment, as well as a wand of ‘dispel</p><p>magic’, Helious’ crystal ball, and several scrolls. Taklinn kept Helious’ headband of</p><p>intellect and a nicely enchanted ring of protection. We all made a fair amount of </p><p>gold off the sale of a few items, as well as gold we found in the wizard’s room, but</p><p>it was I who made out the best (at least in my opinion). There is the 4 level pearl</p><p>of power, which I like very much, but it is the book that has given me the most joy. </p><p> </p><p> After seeking Nivin Motel’s aid to break the protective magic’s that warded the</p><p>book, I found it, not only to be a spellbook, but a highly enchanted one at that, for,</p><p>while it looks and feels like a normal book, it contains ten times the amount of </p><p>pages that a normal spellbook could, with 444 of them being full. </p><p></p><p> Just skimming the book tells me that there are over eighty spells contained in it, at</p><p>least half of which I do not already have, as well as a handful that I am not even </p><p>sufficiently powerful enough yet to cast. </p><p></p><p> The curse of too little time! I have so much work to do, yet my eyes keep</p><p>returning to this wondrous new find. So many spells, yet I do not even have half of </p><p>the days needed to learn the ones I want to. </p><p></p><p> But I know that time is of the essence. Chances are we will be here for at least</p><p>another month before we move against Acessiwall. I still have Hap’s gloves to </p><p>finish, though I intend to scribe several scrolls before I get to them, which is why I</p><p>have been holed up in my lab all afternoon, franticly scribbling the words onto</p><p>paper. I intend to scribe five ‘stone skin’ spells, at least as many ‘protection from </p><p>energies’ and a handful of ‘fly’ spells. All of these will be invaluable against</p><p>Acessiwall, and I feel that facing him with the chance of these spells not being</p><p>readily available would be tantamount to suicide. </p><p></p><p> Least I forget to mention: the sword we took from the body of the dead half</p><p>dragon turned out to be a highly magical blade of life stealing. Not only that, the</p><p>thing was sentient, and evil! While it pained me to hear him say it, I could but agree </p><p>with Taklinn when he insisted we destroy it. There was some grumbling among the</p><p>ranks, but in the end I used an ‘unseen servant’ (for I dared not touch it) to prop it</p><p>against a wall so that Taklinn could break it. </p><p></p><p> Then it spoke to us! An unearthly voice issued from the blade, pleading with us</p><p>not to kill it, promising at once to forgo its evil ways, and to impart on its wielder </p><p>power untold. </p><p> </p><p> But Taklinn was not to be swayed, and he made to snap it. Scylla was only too</p><p>happy to point out this bit of perceived hypocrisy, wondering aloud why our cleric </p><p>would balk at the notion of slaying a helpless Helious, but have no qualms with</p><p>killing whatever being possessed the sword. Taklinn argued that swords did not</p><p>have souls, but Griff denied that, reminding us all the Everyman’s Blade certainly </p><p>had certainly contained the soul of Roland. </p><p></p><p> The arguing went back and forth, but at last I took a stand. The sword was simply</p><p>too evil and too powerful to let live, and I have no moral objections to executing </p><p>evil, no matter it’s state. If Taklinn would not break it, I declared that I would take</p><p>it to the forge and have it melted down myself. </p><p></p><p> Taklinn’s axe sundered the evil sword, which shrieked out it’s defiance as it died. </p><p>I took it to the forge for good measure.</p><p></p><p></p><p> Rchfst 5 </p><p></p><p> We are well into Richfest, yet I have taken no time out to enjoy the revelry. There</p><p>is still too much work to be done. </p><p></p><p> I have been attempting to scry Acessiwall again, but he is proving to be a difficult</p><p>target. Not only is he extremely resistant to spells, his mind is terribly strong, and</p><p>thus he shrugs off every attempt I make. I will keep trying, but my hope is slim. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Rchfst 7 </p><p></p><p> The ‘stone skin’ and ‘pro energy’ scrolls are complete. I will begin work on Hap’s</p><p>gloves in the morning, and if there is still time when they are through I will scribe </p><p>the ‘flys’. I need a break from scribing!</p><p></p><p> </p><p> Rping 16 </p><p></p><p> I have failed to enter a word into this journal for sixteen days, and now that I </p><p>finally allow myself a moment to do so I find myself too exhausted to write much at</p><p>all. </p><p> </p><p> These past days have been spent in raising Happy’s gloves of dexterity to their </p><p>fullest potential, and though it may be superfluous, their enchantment may be the</p><p>difference between her hitting Acessiwall or not. Every small bit will count. </p><p> </p><p> I must also admit to a certain amount of pride at having raised them to such a </p><p>degree, and the look on her face when she tried them on tonight assured me that it</p><p>was time well spent.</p><p> </p><p></p><p> Rping 17</p><p> </p><p> The ‘fly’ scrolls will have to wait one more day. I have instead elected to learn a</p><p>new spell. “Arcane Eye’ is a spell that I have been neglecting to take for too long,</p><p>and today I have rectified that. I am learning that divinations can be our best tool to </p><p>defeat our enemies. Fireballs are nice, but an invisible spy is invaluable. I plan to</p><p>put this spell to good use once we enter Acessiwall’s lair. </p><p> </p><p> I also intend to use tomorrow to learn ‘greater heroism’, as I believe it might give</p><p>Griff the edge he needs against the dragon’s tough hide. </p><p> </p><p></p><p> Rping 21</p><p> </p><p> At last, they are done. The ‘fly’ spells are on paper. Even Ambros is sick to death</p><p>of the crafting and scribing process, and Griff is positively climbing the walls with</p><p>impatience. </p><p></p><p> I told the crew at dinner tonight that my work was complete, that we could depart</p><p>for the snowy north tomorrow, but Scylla has been busy. She explained to Taklinn</p><p>tonight that there was still the matter of Malika, the high priestess of Wee Jas to </p><p>contend with. She swears the Malika still wishes to sully Taklinn’s name, and that</p><p>she can take him to her. But Taklinn only partially bit on this bait. Scylla would not</p><p>tell us why she chose now to tell Taklinn this, she just seemed very adamant that we </p><p>deal with her soon. Taklinn chose to report the existence of the secret church to the</p><p>city officials and leave it at that. We have bigger fish to fry. </p><p></p><p> Scylla was disappointed, and the more I know her the less I trust her. She may not </p><p>be evil, but I find it difficult to believe that she has out best interests at heart. I don’t</p><p>know what her game is, but I fear for the day we find out. </p><p></p><p> She is her mothers daughter. </p><p></p><p> So it has been decided: we will leave Havilah first thing in the morning. Happy,</p><p>Griff and I intend to stop first in the Green Mountains to visit Hap’s family for a</p><p>few hours before we continue on to Finch (via teleports) where we will meet up </p><p>with Taklinn, Taigel and Scylla. Though she has not said as much, I have a</p><p>sneaking hunch that Happy wishes to properly introduce Griff to her parents.</p><p></p><p> I have just tried scrying Acessiwall again, and still no luck. His spell resistance is </p><p>too strong, his mind too slippery. Scylla has also been trying, with the same results.</p><p>It is very frustrating. </p><p></p><p> No matter. Soon we will face him head on! </p><p></p><p></p><p> Rping 22 </p><p></p><p> We awoke before dawn this morning, our gear already packed and ready to go.</p><p>Gathering outside the Academy’s rear entrance, Scylla reminded us once again of </p><p>the threat of Malika in what I can only assume was a last ditch effort to divert our</p><p>plans, but we would have none of it. Taklinn and Taigel merely shouldered their</p><p>packs and reached for her hands, telling her to hurry up and get them to Finch. </p><p></p><p> I was a little worried for the boys. After all, if Scylla truly wanted to do us harm,</p><p>she could accomplish plenty of it while teleporting us. The thought of her porting to</p><p>a spot miles above the ground and letting them fall crossed my mind briefly, but </p><p>then I remembered that Taklinn can use his ‘word of recall’, and Taigel has wings. I</p><p>sighed and tried to put it out of my mind. Scylla is an odd duck, and I doubt I will</p><p>ever trust her entirely, but we cannot let fear rule our lives. Besides, her magic will </p><p>be vital to our coming mission, especially her teleportation abilities. </p><p></p><p> With a frown and a word, she disappeared, taking the two with her. I held out my</p><p>own hands to Happy and Griff, and seconds later we stood in the town square of a </p><p>tiny village of halflings nestled in the shadow of the Green Mountains. I had been</p><p>scrying Hap’s father for several days, and thus knew this location quite well and</p><p>had little trouble getting there accurately. </p><p></p><p> Our abrupt arrival in the little village prompted a great deal of excitement,</p><p>especially when the folk realized that their favorite daughter had come home. A </p><p>chorus of “Happy is back! Happy is here!” could be heard from every direction, and</p><p>we were immediately surrounded by dozens of greenie children, and at least half as</p><p>many adults, all talking, laughing, and greeting us at once. </p><p></p><p> We spent the better part of the day enjoying the hospitality of Happy’s home</p><p>village. For such a tiny community, these folk celebrate like a town three times its</p><p>size. Within a few hours a full blown feast was well under way and we were given </p><p>positions of honor at one of the dozens of tables set up outside to accommodate</p><p>everyone. There was roast boar and venison, plenty of fowl, and plates piled high</p><p>with fresh fruit and vegetables, not to mention some of the best breads I have ever </p><p>put in my mouth, as well as three whole tables devoted entirely to desserts. It’s been</p><p>a long time since I had dirtberry pie like that.</p><p></p><p> The whole thing was quite pleasant, though I became a bit melancholy toward the </p><p>end as the sights and sounds reminded me of my own home and the fact that I have</p><p>yet to visit my family. I began to feel quite a bit of guilt, knowing that I had little</p><p>excuse for not having popped by my own village for a chance to catch up with mom </p><p>and dad. I have been so wrapped up in the defense of Havilah and the study of the</p><p>arcane that I have neglected my family, and I vowed right then and there to make</p><p>the time for a visit as soon as opportunity allowed. </p><p></p><p> At any rate, we were treated like royalty. Happy is a local celebrity and her</p><p>friends and relatives (of which she has a never ending supply) pressed her for</p><p>stories of her adventures while Griff played with the children. For such a gruff </p><p>fellow Griff has a soft spot for them, and thank goodness he does, for he was able to</p><p>divert their attention from me. Children make me quite uncomfortable, and I was</p><p>content to sit and observe the party from my seat. Most of the greenies gave me a </p><p>courteous space after they found out who I was. Halfling wizards are an anomaly at</p><p>best, and these folk, while respectful and friendly, obviously had little clue as to</p><p>how to take me. I was left alone for the most part, which suited me fine. </p><p> </p><p> At one point I observed Griffin and Happy’s father break away from the gathering</p><p>for a stroll around the village. I can only assume that the two were discussing Griff</p><p>and Hap’s upcoming nuptials, and the thought of Griff asking Happy’s dad for </p><p>permission to marry his daughter brought a smile to my face. It’s always fun to see</p><p>the big warrior a little uncomfortable. When the pair returned, Happy and her</p><p>mother joined them briefly, and I could tell that things had gone reasonably well. </p><p></p><p> By late noon I began to hint that it was time to go, but it would be three more</p><p>hours before we were allowed to. When we finally teleported away, it was with a</p><p>basket full of fruit, three pies and a loaf of still warm bread. Hap’s mother wept and </p><p>her father shook mine and Griff’s hands, wishing us well. I don’t know if Hap told</p><p>her parents where we were going.</p><p></p><p> We arrived in Finch seconds later, greeted by the now familiar cold shoulder of </p><p>the folk there. We found Taklinn, Scylla and Taigel safe and sound at the inn.</p><p>Taklinn and Scylla were embroiled in yet another of their philosophical arguments,</p><p>and it seems to me that the sorceress delights in pulling our cleric into rhetorical </p><p>discussions that tax his faith. By the time we arrived Taklinn’s face was red and his</p><p>voice was loud while Scylla demurely countered his points with wry smiles and</p><p>circular logic. I could already see that it was talk merely for the sake of talk and I </p><p>rolled my eyes and left them to it, electing instead to study my book and call it an</p><p>early night. Tomorrow will see us at Acessiwall’s lair, if all goes well, and I want to</p><p>be well rested for that. </p><p></p><p> Taigel assures us that he knows the location of a spot in the Mectcliff mountains</p><p>where Helious had told him to come should he ever want to join with his father. We</p><p>have to assume that the entrance to Acessiwall’s lair is near there. The plan is for </p><p>Taklinn to ‘wind walk’ the rest of the crew there, after which I will scry them and</p><p>port to their location. From there it will be a matter of searching for an entrance. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Rping 23 </p><p></p><p> Today has been long and frustrating, and we find ourselves back in Finch tonight</p><p>with little to go on other than some small hope for a plan. </p><p></p><p> All went according to the script this morning. Taklinn wind walked himself,</p><p>Taigel, Hap and Griffin to the spot pointed out in the Mectcliff mountains by</p><p>Taigel. Soon after, I scryed them and ported myself and Scylla to their location. We </p><p>found ourselves at the base of a sheer cliff some three hundred feet high with a</p><p>frozen river flowing from within it. Only the portion of the river where the water</p><p>met the cliffs base remained unfrozen due to the violent movement of the water, and </p><p>we surmised at first that following the river upstream might lead us into</p><p>Acessiwall’s lair. Unfortunately the water allowed no space between rock and water</p><p>to investigate with my ‘arcane eye’, and the thought of jumping in and trying to </p><p>swim upstream through an underwater tunnel of unknown length appealed to no</p><p>one. </p><p> </p><p> Instead, we elected to search the cliff more thoroughly, and to that end I took to </p><p>the skies, flying in an ever widening circle in an attempt to spot a cave mouth or</p><p>some other entrance. Griff hiked along the base of the cliff looking for the same. He</p><p>found nothing, but he did manage to stir up a small creature from it’s lair in the </p><p>snow. He called a warning as the creature leapt from the snow and made a mad dash</p><p>for the river and we all got a good look at it, though I was unable to identify what it</p><p>was. It appeared to be no more than three feet tall, very thin, and perhaps made </p><p>entirely of ice. It scampered to the base of the cliff and dove into the river without</p><p>hesitation. The last we saw of it was when it disappeared beneath the water,</p><p>presumably to swim under the cliff. </p><p></p><p> Still having no way to follow it, we continued our search of the cliff, and it was</p><p>Scylla, also air born, who finally stumbled upon something. Some fifty feet above</p><p>the ground, camouflaged against the cliff face with a large, white, fur, she found a </p><p>cave entrance. It was quite well concealed, for I had looked right at the spot several</p><p>times and had managed to miss it.</p><p></p><p> We gathered on the snow below the cave and I had my first chance to use my </p><p>‘arcane eye’, casting it and sending the spy through a tiny opening between the cliff</p><p>and the fur. My ‘eye’ traveled through a wide tunnel adorned with stalactites and</p><p>stalagmites, following it for only fifty or so feet before rounding a bend to find a </p><p>creature that I was now quite familiar with. It was a cryohydra. A big one. This</p><p>hydra sported twelve heads, though I soon realized that it was not so much a</p><p>predator as a guardian, for as I circled the thing I noticed a thick chain attached to a </p><p>heavy collar around the base of it’s necks. The opposite end of the chain was</p><p>securely set into the wall of the cavern. </p><p></p><p> I saw no other exits from this chamber and surmised that there must </p><p>be some secret passageway hidden here and guarded by the hydra. I told the crew</p><p>what I had seen, and they agreed. We used our flying magic’s to raise the six of us</p><p>to the cave mouth where we discussed potential plans for dealing with the beast, </p><p>and it was decided that there could be no harm in letting Scylla try her ‘magic jar’</p><p>spell again. The sorceress laid down on the cave floor and breathed deeply,</p><p>whispering the words to the spell. We watched as her life essence departed her </p><p>body, only this time she did not immediately return. Moments passed and still she</p><p>did not stir. We could only hope that she had been successful. </p><p></p><p> Happy, Taklinn, and Griff edged forward to investigate, with Happy taking the</p><p>lead, searching the ground for traps. Unfortunately, she missed the ones that lay in </p><p>wait for us. She had a twenty foot lead, and as soon as Taklinn and Griff put their</p><p>weight on a section of floor she had just passed over, it fell away beneath them to </p><p>reveal an icy shaft that led down to certain doom. Thankfully Griff still had the ‘fly’</p><p>spell on him that Scylla had cast in order to raise him to the cave, and Taklinn has</p><p>his winged shield. Both of them barely managed to escape the fall and they landed </p><p>on the opposite side as the floor section slowly lifted itself back into place. </p><p></p><p> I had been about to follow, but now I wasn’t so sure, electing instead to hang back</p><p>with Taigel and Scylla’s body. </p><p></p><p> Hap continued to search for traps, and continued to miss them! No sooner had</p><p>Taklinn and Griff caught up to a spot she declared was safe, than a massive blast of</p><p>magical fire filled the area! Hap managed to roll to safety, but both Taklinn and </p><p>Griff suffered terribly from the flames. I gulped, knowing that that single trap</p><p>would have been the end for me. </p><p></p><p> Taklinn grumbled something about halflings in general, but quickly cast his </p><p>healing spells on himself and Griff. Before long they were ready to venture ahead</p><p>again.</p><p></p><p> No more traps lay in wait, and soon they faced an impatient hydra, one of it’s </p><p>huge claws drumming the ice floor in anticipation. As I flew after them it became</p><p>obvious to me, just from the look on the hydra’s twelve faces, that Scylla did indeed</p><p>reside in the creatures body. </p><p></p><p> We set about searching the cave, and to our dismay, found nothing! Apparently</p><p>the hydra and his cave were a red herring, for no secret entrances to Acessiwall’s</p><p>lair could be found. Nothing but a few old bones were revealed to us, and we cursed </p><p>in frustration. Happy picked the lock that held the hydra chained to the wall, and</p><p>Scylla lumbered about in her hydra body, trying to communicate with nods or</p><p>shakes of her dozen heads, which was comical to say the least. </p><p> </p><p> Taklinn was all for re-chaining the hydra to the wall and leaving it alone, though</p><p>the rest of us were not comfortable with leaving such a beast behind. Scylla flatly</p><p>refused to let herself be chained again, and she finally lumbered down the tunnel to </p><p>the pit trap. Once there, she leapt onto the hinged floor and let the hydra fall while</p><p>she exited it and returned to her own body. We heard a ground shaking thud and a</p><p>dozen hisses of pain and rage. The fall did not kill it, but it could not escape the </p><p>sheer pit. We felt a bit bad about leaving it to such a fate, but Taklinn reasoned that</p><p>it would at least not starve, figuring that, since it could regenerate, it would eat it’s</p><p>own heads and that they would simply grow back. I am not so sure, but if it lets </p><p>him rest easy at night, who am I to discourage his rationalization. </p><p></p><p> We descended back to the snow again and continued our search, spending the rest</p><p>of the day combing the cliff face and the surrounding area. At dusk we gave up in </p><p>frustration. We had found nothing, and it looked more and more as if the only way</p><p>into the cliff would be to follow the river upstream. We bandied about ideas on how</p><p>to do so, and I proposed that a ‘passwall’ spell might do the trick. The only problem </p><p>was, I did not actually know the spell. However, ‘passwall’ is contained within</p><p>Helious’ book. Given twenty-four hours, I could learn it and we could be on our</p><p>way. </p><p></p><p> The rest of the crew sighed at the notion of still further delays, but no better ideas</p><p>were forthcoming. With a last look at the cliff, we ported back to Finch where I set about </p><p>learning the spell. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Rping 24 </p><p></p><p> I was taking a short break for lunch this afternoon from learning the spell,</p><p>‘passwall’, when Scylla joined us at the table. She excitedly plunked down a sheet</p><p>of parchment on the table with a hastily drawn map of a room. </p><p></p><p> “That’s where it is!” She exclaimed.</p><p></p><p> “That’s where what is?” Griff asked through a mouthful of mutton. </p><p> </p><p> “The creature we saw yesterday!” She answered proudly. “It took me some time,</p><p>but I managed to scry it! There’s a whole pack of them, but they are pretty small,</p><p>and I got a good look at the room they’re in. I’m pretty sure I can teleport there. </p><p>Even Doorag will have a good chance!”</p><p> </p><p> “What?” I cried, “What about the ‘passwall’ idea? I’m right in the middle of</p><p>learning the blasted thing!” </p><p> </p><p> “Well, this way we don’t have to worry about whether or not the ‘passwall’ will</p><p>extend far enough, and we’ll also have some element of surprise. Come on, we can</p><p>do it!” </p><p></p><p> Griff looked doubtful but said nothing. Happy looked at Griff. Taklinn eyed the</p><p>map thoughtfully, as did Taigel. </p><p></p><p> “It might not be such a bad idea.” Taklinn said at last. “We can’t count on the </p><p>‘passwall’ to get us in as far as we need; you told us that yourself, Doorag.”</p><p></p><p> I sighed. “You're right. I guess I’m willing to give it a try, though remember that</p><p>our chances of teleporting accurately are only about seventy-five percent. I’m up for </p><p>giving it a go, but not until tomorrow. Now that I’m already halfway through</p><p>leaning this spell I’ll be darned if I’m going to stop now. Griff, what do you think?”</p><p></p><p> “Seventy-five percent, you say?” Griff answered slowly. </p><p></p><p> “Yes, about that.”</p><p></p><p> Griff scratched his chin, and I could tell that his internal battle was over a course</p><p>of action that might lead only to more waiting and reliance of spells, or the chance </p><p>for immediate battle with Acessiwall’s forces. In the end, his warrior side won out,</p><p>and he nodded his acceptance of the plan. Scylla grinned broadly and we vowed to</p><p>depart first thing tomorrow. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Rping 25 </p><p></p><p> Last night, after my journal entry, I attempted my own scry of the small ice</p><p>creature and his lair, based on Scylla’s description. It was very little to go on, but </p><p>without having seen the creature at least once I would have no chance at all of</p><p>porting to his location.</p><p></p><p> To my surprise, it worked, and I was able to view the creature through my crystal </p><p>ball for several minutes. I studied the room he was in and watched as several more</p><p>of the ice creatures wandered by him. There seemed to be quite a few of them, but</p><p>they did not appear to be too dangerous. </p><p> </p><p> Though I am not foolish enough to let looks deceive me. I’m sure that many</p><p>would say that I don’t look dangerous. </p><p></p><p> I looked at Scylla over my crystal ball when the scry had ended. “What do you </p><p>suppose they are?” I asked.</p><p></p><p> “Ice mephits?” She shrugged, taking a guess.</p><p></p><p> “Hmmm,” I said thoughtfully, “I don’t know much about them.” </p><p></p><p> “Neither do I.” She replied. “But I don’t think they’re too bad.”</p><p></p><p> I frowned. “I hope you're right.”</p><p> </p><p> So it was that we gathered this morning for a ‘hero’s feast’ conjured by Taklinn.</p><p>A mighty fine spell, that. Not only does it provide an excellent meal, he tells us that it will</p><p>negate the fear effects of Acessiwall should we meet him today. </p><p></p><p> We split into two groups. I would port in with Griff and Happy, and Scylla would</p><p>take Taklinn and Taigel. I was as nervous as Griff usually is over teleporting, but</p><p>Scylla seemed all to eager to get on with it. She wore a reckless grin and I hoped</p><p>against hope that she knew what she was doing. We wished each other luck and </p><p>began our casting, timing our teleports so that we would reach our destination</p><p>simultaneously. The innkeeper watched with a scowl. By now he was used to our </p><p>coming and going in such a manner, but I doubted he would ever approve of such</p><p>things in his establishment. We had paid him well though, and he merely waited for</p><p>us to disappear so that he could clear our table. </p><p></p><p> I spoke the final word of my spell and we were gone. Just as quickly, we</p><p>reappeared in a cold room with a pair of massive ice pillars supporting the ceiling.</p><p>A quick look around showed far more of the small ice creatures than I had </p><p>originally seen, not to mention a massive beast squatting in a far corner that I</p><p>quickly identified as a paraelemental. There were at lest a dozen and a half of the</p><p>ice mephits (if indeed that’s what they were), but the paraelemental gave me far </p><p>greater pause. It was huge, and resembled a frozen wave of water adorned with</p><p>hundreds of icy spines. </p><p></p><p> There was no sign of Scylla, Taigel or Taklinn. </p><p></p><p> There was no time to wonder where our companions were. We had the element of</p><p>surprise and we used it to our full advantage. Happy had long ago become the proud</p><p>owner of a necklace of fireballs, and she had been waiting for just such an </p><p>opportunity to use it. Pulling one of the beads free, she hurled it into the midst of a</p><p>group of mephits. A wave of searing heat washed over us as it exploded into a ball</p><p>of magical flame. When it was gone, nothing remained of several mephits but </p><p>misshapen chunks of melting ice. </p><p></p><p> Taking my cue from her I quickly read off a ‘fireball’ of my own from a scroll,</p><p>killing another handful of mephits. Griff stepped toward a mephit and it shattered </p><p>under his blade. </p><p></p><p> Happy threw a second bead straight at the paraelemental, but it seemed to do</p><p>little, and the strange creature glided forward, hammering at her with it’s spines. </p><p>She danced away, suffering only a minor wound before Griff put himself between</p><p>her and the creature. </p><p></p><p> The remaining mephits scrabbled toward us, surrounding us and breathing cones </p><p>of frozen breath that chilled me to the bone. The damage was minimal, but I knew</p><p>they must be dealt with. I read from a second scroll, this one containing a fireball of</p><p>less than full capacity. I centered it on myself, knowing that it might damage my </p><p>friends as well, but taking the chance of killing the rest of the mephits. </p><p></p><p> My gamble paid off. My mantle protected me, as did Griff’s armor for him.</p><p>Happy rolled out of the area with ease, taking nary a scorch. When the blast </p><p>dissipated not a single mephit remained.</p><p> </p><p> I looked franticly about me. Still no Scylla, Taklinn or Taigel. I could only</p><p>assume that her teleport had not worked. </p><p></p><p> Griff hacked away at the paraelemental, his sword biting off huge chunks of the</p><p>things icy body, but still it came. Happy tried to hit it with her daggers, but they did</p><p>little. I cast ‘fly’ on myself an became airborne just as our erstwhile companions </p><p>showed up.</p><p> </p><p> Scylla, Taigel and Taklinn appeared in the room without fanfare, and I could tell</p><p>by the look on Taklinn’s face that he was not pleased. He had no time to voice his </p><p>displeasure, however, for Scylla’s teleport had deposited him only a few feet from</p><p>the paraelemental. He wasted no breath, for his axes were already in his hand. He</p><p>made to attack the thing, but fortune did not smile upon him. He slipped on a patch </p><p>of ice and fell to the floor with a curse. Taigel ran around behind the creature and</p><p>slashed away at it with his two short swords, dealing it some damage, but not</p><p>downing it. Scylla backed away, casting a ‘scorching ray’ that seemed to do nothing </p><p>more than enrage the thing. It turned it’s full fury on Griff, slamming at him with</p><p>tremendous power. Once, twice, three times it’s spiny arms connected with our</p><p>warrior, and down he went. Griff was sent spinning to the floor, and Hap screamed</p><p>his name. I took a sharp breath, for Griff did not move. </p><p></p><p> To make matters worse, one of the doors in the room burst opened and in charged </p><p>a two-headed beast that I immediately recognized as an ettin. The giant made straight </p><p>for Hap, bashing her with it’s club, nearly taking her down. She groaned in pain as she</p><p>danced back, letting fly with her daggers at it. </p><p></p><p> Taklinn, back on his feet, and Taigel renewed their efforts on the paraelemental, </p><p>each of them connecting, but still it stood. I knew that we had to kill the thing; that</p><p>we had to focus our efforts on a single foe. I also knew that Taklinn must get to</p><p>Griff soon. </p><p></p><p> I fired off my ‘conjuring bolt’ at the elemental. It was the one spell I had that</p><p>would bypass its spell resistance, and I prayed it would be enough. Ten small</p><p>missiles slammed into the creature, and to my great relief, it shattered into a </p><p>thousand pieces. </p><p></p><p> I turned my attention to the ettin, but to my surprise it was waving it’s arms.</p><p>“Don’t attack!” It shouted, “It’s me!” I looked to where Scylla had stood and saw </p><p>her limp body on the floor. I immediately understood that she had ‘magic jared’</p><p>herself into the ettin’s body, and she smiled at me with both heads. </p><p></p><p> “Griff!” Happy screamed, racing for her companion. She knelt down at his side </p><p>even as Taklinn did the same. Our cleric felt for a heartbeat and his face looked</p><p>grim.</p><p> </p><p> Panic showed in Hap’s eyes as she watched Taklinn. Our cleric pressed his</p><p>fingers to Griff’s throat for a second, feeling for his life pulse, and at last, he</p><p>breathed a sigh of relief. </p><p></p><p> “He lives.” He said.</p><p></p><p> “Well don’t just sit there, heal him!” Hap exclaimed.</p><p> </p><p> Taklinn did just that, laying his hands on Griff and allowing Clangeden’s power </p><p>to course through him. Within seconds Griff’s broken bones mended and his cuts</p><p>closed. He stirred and his eyes fluttered open. A moment later he stood, good as</p><p>new. I silently thanked the gods that Griff had gotten over his notion of not wanting </p><p>Taklinn to heal him anymore.</p><p></p><p> We set about searching the room, finding little except for an adjoining room that</p><p>had been the ettin’s, and a second door that lead out to a deserted corridor some </p><p>twenty feet wide. An antechamber lay between us and the corridor, and after some</p><p>searching we found that it’s floor bore a strange and magical rune. Happy surmised</p><p>that it might be a trap and was somehow connected to an unmarked leaver she had </p><p>found in the paraelemental room. We stood well away as she tested the leaver.</p><p>Upon pulling it the antechamber was immediately filled with a ‘force cage’. A nasty</p><p>bit of business that would have been had we gotten ourselves trapped in that! </p><p></p><p> Scylla, still in the ettin’s body, carried her own lifeless body into the corridor and we</p><p>followed, gathering to decide which way to go next. Before us stood a massive set</p><p>of double doors while the corridor led left and right before curving off into the </p><p>unknown. It seemed a perfect time to use my ‘arcane eye’ spell, and I did so,</p><p>casting it and concentrating. I sent my invisible spy to the south and it traveled</p><p>around the bend which began to slope upwards. It spiraled around in an ever </p><p>increasing ramp until it emptied into a chamber full of doors. An ice golem stood</p><p>sentry there, still as a statue. I held my breath, waiting for the golem to come to life,</p><p>but apparently it either did not sense the ‘eye’ or was not set to bother with such </p><p>things. It simply stood there.</p><p></p><p> I could find no way beyond the doors with my eye, so I turned it around and</p><p>brought it back to myself, sending it the opposite direction. Down the corridor it </p><p>floated, rounding another bend, this time descending down a spiral ramp for about</p><p>one hundred feet. At the bottom it emptied into a room similar to the one I had seen</p><p>previously. A golem stood here as sentry, and again, did not move. This room,</p><p>however, had but one exit, an open tunnel, and I steered the eye through it. </p><p></p><p> Down hallways it went, spying on a group of six ogres mining for ice before</p><p>heading deeper into the complex. Past several closed doors it went, following </p><p>corridors and exploring intersections before finding a couple of passageways that</p><p>ended in what appeared to be abandoned mines. I back tracked the eye, finding</p><p>another corridor and followed it. I saw a small chamber guarded by five more ogres, </p><p>and beyond that another mine, only this one being worked by apparent slaves of</p><p>several races that included humans and dwarves. I gasped inwardly as I saw what</p><p>they were mining. </p><p></p><p> Diamonds!</p><p></p><p> I had gone as far as the eye would allow, and thus I let the spell end, quickly</p><p>getting out a piece of parchment and sketching a map from memory. I held it up to </p><p>the crew, but they were already at work investigating the set of double doors that</p><p>blocked our way. I shrugged, figuring that we would search beyond the door</p><p>eventually, so why not now? </p><p></p><p> Happy picked the lock on the doors and Scylla put her now considerable ettin</p><p>strength into it, opening them to reveal a corridor that traveled some fifty feet only</p><p>to end at another pair of double doors. On the right wall were two more sets of </p><p>doors, with another on the left. </p><p></p><p> Cautiously Scylla and Hap made their way to the first set of doors on the right,</p><p>and before long Happy announced that they were trap free. It took some doing from </p><p>Griff and Scylla, for the doors were stuck fast, but eventually they forced them open</p><p>into a comfortable room complete with a bed and a magical brazier that heated the</p><p>area. Another set of double doors led from the room to the west. </p><p></p><p> While Griff and Scylla investigated the room, Happy picked the lock on the doors</p><p>to our left (in the corridor) and opened them. She and I looked in to see a storage</p><p>chamber filled with shelves and trunks. The smell of must wafted over us, and I </p><p>whispered to her that it looked like no one had ventured in here for a long time.</p><p>Happy entered to poke around a bit while I stood watch at the doors. No sooner had</p><p>she prodded a pile of moldy blankets than a massive centipede crawled forth, </p><p>snapping its mandibles at her. Happy was no fool, and she quickly retreated after</p><p>hurling a dagger at the thing, but more of the fifteen foot long insects were crawling</p><p>out of their hiding places. I quickly counted five of them, and called to Scylla and </p><p>Griff for some help. I considered casting a spell, but reasoned that Scylla may as</p><p>well put her borrowed body to good use. Scylla and Griff entered into battle with</p><p>the centipedes, and were soon joined by Taklinn as well. Taigel stood watch at the </p><p>first set of double doors, and I saw that it irked him to be left out of the fight, but he</p><p>was also standing guard over Scylla’s real body.</p><p></p><p> He did not miss much though, for Scylla, Griff and Taklinn easily slew the </p><p>centipedes. I was content to watch as they chopped the big insects into pieces, and</p><p>Happy was already searching the room with the brazier while our warriors were at</p><p>work. By the time the last centipede stopped moving Hap had declared that the </p><p>room contained nothing except a fiendish trap of some sort. She could not tell</p><p>exactly what it did, but she could point out dozens of tiny holes in the ceiling, and</p><p>said that they were somehow connected to the bed. </p><p></p><p> It was a sleeping dog we decided to let lie for the moment as Scylla and Griff</p><p>broke into a few of the trunks in the storage room. We found little there except for</p><p>moth eaten winter gear. Even a ‘detect magic’ revealed nothing. </p><p></p><p> Happy shrugged. “Which way now?” She asked.</p><p></p><p> “Well,” I said, “First things first. We need to back up a bit. Scylla and I should go</p><p>back to the ettin’s room and study it for a good while so that we’ll have a better </p><p>chance of porting in here. I have a feeling that we’re not going to clear out this lair</p><p>in a single day, and if we’re forced to leave and return later, I’d like to not have</p><p>another teleportation mishap. After that, I suppose we can either head on down this</p><p>corridor, or we can free the dwarven slaves.” </p><p></p><p> I let those last words drop before Taklinn, knowing full well that he would never</p><p>resist that sort of bait. </p><p></p><p> “Dwarven slaves!” He roared, “Where?”</p><p></p><p> “Right about here.” I said, pointing to a spot on my map. “In the diamond mines.</p><p>Of course there are more than just dwarves being held as slaves down there, but I </p><p>thought you would want to know.”</p><p> </p><p> “Why didn’t you tell me this before!” He demanded, already turning to stalk</p><p>toward the wide hall where Taigel stood guard. </p><p></p><p> “Where the hell do you think your going?” Griff hissed. </p><p></p><p> “To free my brothers!” Came Taklinn’s curt reply.</p><p></p><p> Griff snorted. “Just hold on a minute. Didn’t you hear Doorag? He needs to study </p><p>a room to teleport into. Those slaves aren’t going anywhere. I’m all for setting them</p><p>free, but let’s get out ducks in a row first, shall we?”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn grumbled but stopped, waiting impatiently for Scylla and I to study the </p><p>room to our satisfaction. </p><p></p><p> We did just that, committing every detail of the ettin’s room to memory before</p><p>announcing that we were ready to carry on. It cost us an hour, but I deemed it time </p><p>well spent if it meant a solid teleporting location.</p><p></p><p> “All right then!” Said Taklinn, “Let’s go!”</p><p></p><p> “Wait,” I implored him, “Lets at least set our strategy first. My ‘arcane eye’ has </p><p>given us the advantage of knowing what we’re going up against. Let’s use it to our</p><p>advantage.”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn frowned, but he could not help but see the wisdom in my words. “Very </p><p>well then, what do you suggest?”</p><p></p><p> “Well, I know that the first room we’ll come to is guarded by one of those ice</p><p>golems. I think we should let Scylla use her ettin body as much as possible. I say we </p><p>let her go in alone to battle it. We can hang back and mop up anything if the golem</p><p>kills her ettin body. What do you think, Scylla?”</p><p></p><p> The sorceress shrugged. “May as well.” She agreed. “We’ll have to dispose of this </p><p>body sooner or later. I’d just as soon have it killed by a golem as anything, though</p><p>I’m not crazy for the idea of being bashed around. I can still feel pain you know.</p><p>But I can also cast from this thing, so maybe I’ll be able to take it out. Let’s give it a </p><p>try!”</p><p></p><p> So it was that we made our way down the north corridor, looping around the</p><p>descending ramp that led into the lower levels of the lair. Halfway down we paused </p><p>so that I could cast two ‘stone skins’. One on Griff, the other on Taigel. </p><p></p><p> We continued on until the ramp leveled out to empty into the golems chamber.</p><p>We could see the thing standing statue still. Scylla took a breath and entered the </p><p>room.</p><p> </p><p> We waited for the golem to come to life and attack her, but it did not. It seemed</p><p>likely that it was programmed to ignore such things as ettin’s. Scylla glanced at us </p><p>and shrugged. She took up a position as far from the golem as she could and</p><p>unleashed a ‘scorching ray’. Three lines of flame leapt from her fingertip and all</p><p>three hit the golem, melting great chunks from it. At last, the construct came to life, </p><p>lumbering straight at Scylla. She just had time to fire off another ‘scorching ray’ at</p><p>the thing as it closed with her. We have known for some time that, while the ice</p><p>golems are immune to most magical effects, they are particularly vulnerable to fire </p><p>spells. Scylla’s three rays struck the golem, and it immediately fell to pieces, put out</p><p>of commission before ever having a chance to lay a hand on her. Scylla grinned</p><p>with both her heads and waved us into the room. </p><p></p><p> “That wasn’t so hard!” She said.</p><p> </p><p> We searched the room but found nothing other than a cabinet full of mining</p><p>equipment. I pointed to the room’s only exit. “That way leads to a large ice cavern</p><p>with six ogres mining for, apparently, ice.” I said. “They shouldn’t be too hard, but </p><p>let’s not get overconfident.” The rest of the crew nodded and we carefully made our</p><p>way down the tunnel. </p><p></p><p> It was a short walk of no more than fifty feet down the tunnel that led to an</p><p>intersection. The tunnel continued on to the south while a short hall opened into a </p><p>rough hewn chamber that appeared to be chipped from solid ice. Six large ogres</p><p>toiled there with picks, hammering away at the ice walls. In the center of the room,</p><p>on a cart, was a massive block of rectangular ice. </p><p></p><p> We gathered in the entryway, making no attempt to conceal our presence, and the</p><p>ogres obviously noticed us, yet they did not cease their labor. We looked at each</p><p>other a bit uncertainly, not prepared for non-violent confrontation. </p><p></p><p> “Perhaps we should talk to them…” Taklinn began. But Scylla was already in</p><p>motion. Unbeknownst to us she had cast a ‘spectral hand’, and before we could act</p><p>she sent it flying toward one of the hapless ogres. The disembodied hand touched </p><p>the ogre and it groaned in apparent pain. Glancing at Scylla’s ettin body I noticed</p><p>several of it’s small wounds close and heal. </p><p></p><p> ‘Vampiric Touch’! I thought. Taklinn shot a glare at Scylla, but there was no time </p><p>for him to disparage her, for Scylla’s act of aggression prompted the ogres to turn</p><p>the attention on us at last. All six of them turned from their work and lumbered</p><p>toward us, picks raised, and the battle was on. </p><p></p><p> These ogres were tough indeed, one of them even managing to score a painful hit</p><p>against Taklinn, who’s armor is normally very hard to penetrate. The clang of</p><p>weapons echoed off the ice walls as our two forces bunched up near the entrance. </p><p>Happy dodged aside and Griff stepped into her space, cleaving into the ogre that</p><p>had threatened her, taking it down. Scylla continued to stand back, letting her</p><p>spectral hand deliver her vampiric touch. Taklinn got off a spell that made him even </p><p>stronger and more frightful than he already was, and closed with an ogre, while</p><p>Taigel laid into another with his two short swords. As for me, I hung back, still not</p><p>wishing to cast against enemies that should not be a real threat. Truth be known, I </p><p>had prepared my spells that morning with an eye toward dealing with Acessiwall.</p><p>To that end I had plenty of ‘dispel magic’s’ and ‘stone skin’s’ and the like at my</p><p>disposal, but few offensive spells. I was loathe to spend them on mere ogres. </p><p></p><p> And indeed, while these ogres were of a sturdier breed than their normal lot, they</p><p>were still little match for the fighting prowess of our warriors, and one by one they</p><p>dropped. I was feeling quite confident by the time only two remained, and I stood </p><p>watch at the intersection believing that these last two would fall with ease and that</p><p>we would soon be on our way.</p><p></p><p> I was partially right. </p><p></p><p> I glanced away from the battle for a split second to check the south tunnel, and</p><p>my heart leapt into my throat, for there, charging towards me, was the biggest ogre</p><p>I’ve ever seen in my life! Granted, I have not seen that many, but this one, a female, </p><p>was at least a foot taller than her brethren. She sported a finely wrought breastplate,</p><p>a wicked looking double axe, and a gleam of pure murder in her eyes. I barely had</p><p>time to take to the air, flying above the heads of the combatants in the ice cave, </p><p>yelling a warning to them as I got out of her way. </p><p></p><p> Scylla spun around to see the she-ogre hulking in the entry way. The sorceress</p><p>cast quickly, and immediately the floor beneath the ogre was covered in a fine film </p><p>of grease, which slowed her considerably. Taklinn, glancing over his shoulder from</p><p>the ogre he was fighting, grinned. He ignored his ogre to cast a spell that made him</p><p>suddenly double in size. Holy power seemed to radiate from him as he turned to </p><p>block her passage, keeping her standing on the greased floor. He raised his axes to</p><p>her in challenge. The two exchanged blows, each connecting, and I gasped.</p><p>Taklinn’s attack could have felled a sturdy oak, but the she-ogre just grunted a</p><p>laugh. She retained her balance on the greased floor and returned the hit. </p><p></p><p> Griff and Taigel, unable to get past Taklinn and Scylla to help with the she-ogre,</p><p>contented themselves with dispatching the remaining miners, and within seconds </p><p>the last of them lay dead. </p><p></p><p> I floated above them all, and did my part to help Taklinn, casting a ‘grease’ of my</p><p>own on the she-ogre’s weapon. To my delight, she dropped her axe. Snarling, she </p><p>leapt from the greased area and ran with all speed back down the corridor,</p><p>disappearing around the bend.</p><p></p><p> With a great dwarven war cry, Taklinn leapt over the greased area and sped off </p><p>after her, ignoring our cries of, “Taklinn! Wait!” </p><p></p><p> I flew after him, determined not to lose sight of our raging cleric. </p><p></p><p> Around the bend we raced, down hallways and past closed doors. I glanced over </p><p>my shoulder and could not see the rest of the crew. I prayed that they were</p><p>following us. </p><p></p><p> I was only just able to keep Taklinn in sight as he made an intersection and </p><p>quickly turned right. I knew that he was heading toward the diamond mines. Upon</p><p>reaching the intersection I hesitated, and decided to wait there for the rest of the</p><p>crew. It would do no good to have them looking all over for us. A second later I </p><p>heard Taklinn’s war cry again and the clang of steel on steel. I groaned inwardly,</p><p>wishing that the crew would hurry up.</p><p></p><p> Then I saw them, jogging down the hall in search of Taklinn and I. I waved to </p><p>them before flying off after Taklinn. I reached another intersection and looked left</p><p>to see our cleric’s broad back filling the hallway some fifty feet down. The hall</p><p>beyond was full of ogres, and he appeared to be taking them on one at a time. I </p><p>quickly flew down to be near him and saw what I’d already known was in this</p><p>corridor. Directly to Taklinn’s left was another door set into a small alcove. It was</p><p>guarded by another ice golem, and it had been my fear that it would have come to </p><p>life and attack him. Ogre’s were one thing, but I had already seen on several</p><p>occasions how difficult the golems could make life for our fighters, and I was quite</p><p>glad to see that, again, this one simply stood there, letting Taklinn ignore it in favor </p><p>of the ogre’s. </p><p></p><p> I landed quite behind Taklinn, far too close to the golem for my liking, but I had a</p><p>plan. I waited for Scylla to arrive. </p><p></p><p> Sure enough, the lumbering ettin (Scylla) rounded the corner and made it’s way to</p><p>my position. She saw that golem and skidded to a stop. “Scorching rays!” I shouted</p><p>to her, and she understood. Simultaneously we cast, and six fiery rays pounded into </p><p>the golem. It never had a chance to activate; our two spells melted it into a pile of</p><p>ice chunks and puddles of water. Hap was right behind, and set about gathering the</p><p>trademark scattering of diamonds that these golems left behind. </p><p> </p><p> Griff and Taigel arrived, but could do little, for Taklinn’s wide form filled the</p><p>hall. Again and again our cleric’s axes came down. His laughter echoed down the</p><p>tunnel as he split ogre skulls one after another. The ogre’s put up a tough fight, but </p><p>they were no match for our magically enhanced cleric, and he downed them one by</p><p>one as a farmer might cut wheat with a scythe. </p><p></p><p> Griff and Taigel did not have to stand idle for long however, for we heard a roar </p><p>behind us. Spinning, I saw yet another ogre coming at our rear, with another</p><p>behind him. From around the corner we could hear a distinctly feminine ogre voice</p><p>issuing commands, and I knew that the she-ogre had returned with support. </p><p></p><p> Scylla dropped a ‘fireball’ amongst them as Taigel and Griff closed to combat</p><p>with the first ogre. I cast a ‘persistent missile’ and pelted it, and the roaring ogre</p><p>dropped without a chance to even raise his massive club. Taigel and Griff moved </p><p>against the second, and Scylla and I provided yet more spell support from the rear</p><p>until it too dropped. At last, the she-ogre rounded the corner, now armed with a new</p><p>double axe. She screamed her challenge and lashed out, but victory would be denied</p><p>to her, for she was already grievously wounded. Taigel punctured her with his short </p><p>swords, Scylla blasted her with another ‘scorching ray’, and Griff did what Griff</p><p>does best. His sword came around with enough force to carve through granite, </p><p>hewing into flesh and bone. A great gout of blood erupted and sprayed across the</p><p>wall, and she fell with a defiant scream.</p><p></p><p> I looked to see how Taklinn was doing and saw that only a single lone ogre still </p><p>stood against him. The ogre was terribly wounded; near death, and I believed that I</p><p>could probably take it out with a volley of my missiles. But Taklinn had been barely</p><p>hit at all, and he appeared to be enjoying himself very much. It is not often that he </p><p>has the opportunity to revel in such battle lust against sworn dwarven enemies, and</p><p>he had thus far taken on four ogres by himself. I decided against stealing his kill and</p><p>held back, waiting for him to finish the job. </p><p></p><p> Scylla had no such style, however. “What’s the matter, wizard?” She laughed,</p><p>“Running out of spells?” She let fly with a handful of her own ‘magic missiles’ at</p><p>the ogre. I scowled at her and thought briefly about countering her spell just to shut </p><p>her up, but did not, figuring it would only stir up more bad blood. Fortunately, her</p><p>missiles did not kill the ogre and Taklinn would not be denied his kill. With a final</p><p>cry to Clangeden, our cleric stepped in and brought his axe down, caving in the </p><p>ogre’s skull, killing it in fine fashion. </p><p></p><p> Taklinn turned to regard us, his face lit up with a bloody grin as his spells finally</p><p>dissipated and he returned to normal size. His breathing was heavy, but I could tell </p><p>that he was flush with battle fever and victory. </p><p></p><p> “Nice.” Complimented Griff, as he eyed the carnage that lined Taklinn’s path.</p><p> Beyond the five dead ogres led another path that led into what I knew were the </p><p>diamond mines with their slaves. We quickly searched the ogres, and found a</p><p>bulging sack of uncut diamonds on the she-ogre, not to mention her axe and her</p><p>breastplate that glowed with magic. I quickly flew back to the area we had first </p><p>encountered her to retrieve her first axe, which also glowed magical. We tossed this</p><p>loot into our bag of holding. Taklinn stood like a statue, impatiently waiting for us</p><p>to follow him into the mines. I was curious about the door that the golem had been </p><p>guarding, but I knew full well that Taklinn would not wait much longer to free his</p><p>brethren. In truth, I knew that it was the best course of action as well. If we could</p><p>spare the workers beyond even a few minutes of slavery, then surely that was our </p><p>most important duty.</p><p></p><p> As it turned out we would not have to seek out the slaves, for as we gathered </p><p>behind Taklinn to head into the mines we became aware of forms approaching</p><p>cautiously from behind the first bend in the mine tunnel. Several of them came</p><p>forward, all humans save for a single dwarf, as if to see what all of the commotion </p><p>had been about. They had obviously been treated badly by their captors, and their</p><p>first instinct was to believe that we had either come to slay them or to force them to</p><p>work harder, for upon seeing us they grew fearful. </p><p></p><p> I suppose we must have made quite a sight. Griff was splashed with streaks of</p><p>blood from chest to thigh. Taigel, fearsome looking at the best of times, was striped</p><p>with ogre blood that stood out in stark contrast to his pale, white, leathery flesh, not </p><p>to mention that these poor souls had likely been visited by Taigel’s brother, the</p><p>half-dragon we had killed in Helios’ room. I could only imagine the cruelty that one</p><p>would have visited upon helpless slaves. </p><p></p><p> And what to make of Scylla, still in her ettin body? It’s two heads and hulking</p><p>form would have been enough to put the fear into anyone, and Taklinn was a mess</p><p>of gore from head to toe. His shield and axe dripped with ogre remains, and he </p><p>smiled through a mask of blood. He would need several cantrips that night to make</p><p>himself presentable. </p><p></p><p> So it was no surprise that we had to chase the slaves into the mine and assure</p><p>them that we were liberators, and not tormentors. </p><p></p><p> We found twenty-two of them in all, three of them being dwarves, the rest,</p><p>human. Many were undernourished and weak or suffering from sickness or wounds. </p><p>Taklinn set to work as best he could trying to ease their pain. </p><p></p><p> As the understanding that we had come to free them spread through the group of</p><p>slaves, a mummer of gratitude and joy swelled among them, and I was touched. </p><p>These poor folk had suffered in ways that I could not possibly imagine, and for</p><p>what? To stock a vain old lizards treasure horde. I resolved that we would do</p><p>everything in our power to return them to their homes before pressing on any </p><p>further.</p><p></p><p> It turned out that most of them are from Latona, which would make the job</p><p>somewhat easier. Though I was technically forbidden to enter the city, I reasoned </p><p>that this would be an acceptable exception to my exile. I would teleport as many as</p><p>I could back to the city at my first opportunity.</p><p></p><p> But we were still not through with the day. Not by a long shot. Many doors lay </p><p>behind us, and with these, the slaves were quite a bit of help as well. They were</p><p>able to tell us what several of the doors guarded, and we were saved the time and</p><p>anxiety of searching them. Behind one we found still more played out mines. </p><p>Behind the one that had been guarded by the second ice golem, was the slaves</p><p>quarters. Around a corner and down a hall we found a door that Griff unlocked with</p><p>keys he’d taken from the big female ogre. It opened into a hallway that held tiny </p><p>spy holes into two other rooms. One looked to be quarters for ogres (now empty),</p><p>while the other was obviously a golem sculpture room. Four huge, rectangular slabs</p><p>of ice lay on four tables. One of the ice slabs was being feverishly sculpted by a pair </p><p>of slaves; artisans forced to ply their craft to hideous ends. Already the torso and</p><p>legs were visible. Griff smashed the half finished golem after we had freed these</p><p>two slaves, which made twenty-four that we had found so far. </p><p></p><p> We unlocked another empty barracks room with ogre sized beds, and then another</p><p>that led into a hall flanked with several doors. We soon found out that these were</p><p>sturdy cell doors that held Acessiwall’s prisoners. One of them was a frost giant! </p><p></p><p> The huge humanoid sat against the wall of his cramped cell and glared at us as we</p><p>debated his fate. Scylla was all for tossing in a few fireballs and toasting the</p><p>helpless brute, but Taklinn glared her down, and I daresay I shot her a disgusted </p><p>look.</p><p></p><p> “Hmmm,” Taklinn wondered aloud, “Perhaps he’d help us against Acessiwall…”</p><p></p><p> I stared at him, aghast, and the rest of the crew seemed just as dumbfounded. “Are </p><p>you out of your dwarven mind?” I asked. “He’s a giant! A FROST giant! You’re a</p><p>bloody dwarf, are you telling me you don’t know anything about frost giants?”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn shot me a wounded look. “Well,” He said, I’ve never actually met one.” </p><p></p><p> “Well neither have I, but I’ve studied them at length. Frost giants are generally</p><p>evil!” I said.</p><p></p><p> “Are you sure?” Taklinn looked doubtfully between me and the giant, who </p><p>obviously understood us and had taken an interest in the conversation.</p><p></p><p> I slapped my forehead. “Cast ‘detect evil’ on him if you don’t believe me! Go on,</p><p>cast it!” </p><p></p><p> Taklinn did so, gesturing with his holy symbol. “Oh.” He said, a bit sheepishly, “I</p><p>guess your right. Still, he’d be a good arm to have against the dragon. My enemies</p><p>enemy is my friend, and all that.” </p><p></p><p> The giant agreed whole heartedly with Taklinn’s line of reasoning and said so in a</p><p>booming voice. “Bet your arses I’ll help ya against that cursed worm! Just give me</p><p>a chance and I’ll show ya!” </p><p></p><p> “Shut up, you!” I snapped at the giant. I then looked Taklinn straight in the eye.</p><p>“Let’s get one thing clear,” I said, “We are not allying ourselves with this giant! We</p><p>are going to leave him right were he is, we’re going to feed him if we have to, and</p><p>we’re going to go kill Acessiwall. After that, we’ll figure out what to do with him. </p><p>I’m putting my foot down on this one, Taklinn.” I looked at the rest of the crew to</p><p>gauge their thoughts on the subject, and found them to be in total agreement with </p><p>me.</p><p></p><p> “I ain’t traveling with no freaking giant!” Was Griff’s vote, and Happy nodded</p><p>vehemently. Taigel shook his head and Scylla shrugged. Taklinn did not argue the </p><p>matter, and I don’t think he was terribly upset to have his idea shot down.</p><p></p><p> Two other cells were empty, but in the last we found yet another slave, this one</p><p>obviously stricken with a debilitating disease. The poor fellow was on the verge of </p><p>death, and Taklinn did what he could, though he said that he would have to wait</p><p>until tomorrow to pray for the needed spell to cure the ailment. We picked up the</p><p>mans entire bed and transported him back to the rest of the slaves who were </p><p>overjoyed to find him still alive. </p><p></p><p> One other door led into a storage area, and the last emptied into a tunnel of rough</p><p>design. It led off into darkness, and I (more or less) volunteered Scylla to explore it, </p><p>figuring that we might as well get as much use out of her ettin body as possible, and</p><p>that it would be no great loss should it be killed. Scylla shrugged again and plodded</p><p>off down the tunnel. A second later, Happy, to Griff’s great displeasure, scampered </p><p>off after Scylla. She assured us that she would stay well behind the ettin, she just</p><p>wanted to see what happened. Her bright grin was the last thing we saw disappear</p><p>into the inky blackness. </p><p></p><p> It was all we could do to keep Griff from tearing off after her, but we convinced</p><p>him to have a little faith in Hap’s capabilities. “Five minutes.” He said, at last. “I’ll</p><p>wait five minutes. Then I’m going after her.” </p><p></p><p> I could tell that he would not be dissuaded and we agreed.</p><p></p><p> Perhaps three minutes later Griff stalked into the tunnel, hot on the heels of Hap</p><p>and Scylla. Taklinn, Taigel and I hurried after him. </p><p></p><p> It was several minutes before we caught up with the pair, safe and sound. The</p><p>tunnel appeared to simply sink into the earth at a sleight grade without promise of</p><p>any particular destination. Even after all of us had walked nearly a half hour, the </p><p>tunnel changed not a whit, and I surmised that it might go on for miles. Perhaps</p><p>even into the underdark. At last, despite Hap’s curiosity and certainty that</p><p>something must surely lay just ahead for us to discover, we decided to turn around </p><p>and head back. Soon we had returned to the men we had freed and at least one wing</p><p>of Acessiwall’s lair that was now under our control. It was time to rest.</p><p></p><p> Before I did, however, there was the matter of the slaves. We now had twenty-</p><p>five men and dwarves in all to return to Latona. Scylla was out of teleports (or so</p><p>she said), but I had two left. Gathering four of the sickest of the men around me</p><p>(including the bed ridden fellow) I told the crew I would be back in moments. </p><p>Telling the men to form a chain, I touched one of them and cast, picturing our old</p><p>inn room in Latona. </p><p></p><p> I think we scared the poor trader who was sleeping in that room half to death! I’m </p><p>sure that when he rented out the room he never expected a halfling wizard and four</p><p>bedraggled and sick ex-slaves to teleport into it while he tried to sleep! I had to toss</p><p>him a gold piece for the fright we had put into him, which quieted him down in no </p><p>time.</p><p></p><p> I told the men to report what had happened to the magistrate, that we would be</p><p>returning more slaves tomorrow, and that I sent my apologies for this breech of our </p><p>exile. I hoped he would understand. </p><p></p><p> The grateful men promised they would deliver my message. They thanked me</p><p>until I was embarrassed, and then helped their sick friend from the room. With a last </p><p>nod and a wink at the trader, I ported out again, returning to the lair. </p><p></p><p> It was time I got some rest. I was nearly out of offensive spells, and that would</p><p>never do. I cast a ‘rope trick’, climbed into it, put out my ‘Do No Disturb’ sign, and</p><p>settled in for a journal entry and some shut eye. </p><p></p><p> </p><p> Rping 26</p><p></p><p> It seems that our day was not yet over after I had gone to bed last night. </p><p></p><p> We had decided to hole up in this, the mining wing of Acessiwall’s lair. It</p><p>appeared the best spot, being that there was only a single entrance to it, and to that</p><p>end Taklinn, Happy, Griff and two of the former slave dwarves settled themselves </p><p>in for sentry duty in the room where Scylla had killed the first ice golem by herself.</p><p>This room was a sort of antechamber to the whole wing, and was a defensible spot. </p><p></p><p> Fortunate that the crew was cautious, for late last night we did indeed have </p><p>visitors. </p><p> </p><p> I was, of course, asleep in my rope trick in a far room of the lair, so I had no idea</p><p>of this until I was informed at breakfast. From what I gather, our crew and the two </p><p>dwarves were resting on the floor of the room when Happy heard the sounds of</p><p>approaching footsteps. She quickly hid herself behind the entry corner as Griff and</p><p>Taklinn roused themselves from their bedrolls. Two men, both heavily armed, </p><p>entered, and though they were outnumbered, it didn’t bother them a bit. Apparently</p><p>sure of their own fighting prowess, they drew and advanced, only to have Happy</p><p>slip up behind one of them from the shadows and plunge her daggers into his back, </p><p>nearly taking him down. But the fighter was made of tougher stuff and wheeled</p><p>around to cut Hap with his sword badly enough that she was forced to retreat. </p><p></p><p> By then Taklinn and Griff had joined the fray. From what I’ve been told, luck was </p><p>on their side during that fight, for our warriors missed not a swing, cleaving the two</p><p>enemies down in a matter of seconds. </p><p></p><p> I would have to agree with the luck assumption, for I’ve seen the equipment that </p><p>the two dead men had on them, and I can scarcely believe that any two foot soldiers</p><p>would be able to acquire such gear. One of the suits of armor alone must be worth</p><p>thousands at the least. </p><p></p><p> At any rate, no further attacks came, and I was able to slumber through the night</p><p>in blissful ignorance of the violence. </p><p></p><p> And where was Scylla during all of this? According to Happy, our intrepid </p><p>sorceress did have a single ‘teleport’ left, and she used it to return to Finch,</p><p>preferring to sleep in a warm bed instead of sharing a floor with the rest of us. She</p><p>arrived back this morning after having obviously enjoyed a good breakfast, and she </p><p>showed not the least bit of guilt at having left her party to suffer the confines of this</p><p>lair alone. </p><p></p><p> Yet another reason to dislike her. </p><p></p><p> I said nothing to her about this lack of etiquette, for I knew I would need her help</p><p>today. We spent the first part of the morning teleporting back and forth from Latona</p><p>to the lair with our cargo of former slaves, and between the two of us we managed </p><p>to transport all but one of them back to the city. The magistrate there must have</p><p>given us some leeway in our exile, for no constabulary awaited us, and indeed, even</p><p>the poor trader that I had frightened so badly last night was gone, as if they had left </p><p>the room empty specifically for us to use as a landing point. </p><p></p><p> There were no mishaps, and we ported twenty people into Latona today without a</p><p>hitch. This, of course, used up both of our repertoires of fifth circle spells, and we </p><p>decided to wait for one more day before continuing our hunt for Acessiwall, thus</p><p>allowing both Scylla and I to replenish, as well as giving us the opportunity to take</p><p>the last man to Latona tomorrow. </p><p></p><p> We whiled away the rest of the day in the lair, searching it out and feeding our</p><p>prisoners. The frost giant still sits in his cell, sullen as ever, and Scylla’s ettin now</p><p>occupies another cell. She knew by last night that she had to do something with the </p><p>monster before her spell wore off, so she imprisoned him in a cell and returned to</p><p>her own body. I suppose it is an improvement. </p><p></p><p> As we prepared to bed down again tonight, Scylla announced that she would be</p><p>returning to Finch again for another comfortable night. She ignored the looks on our</p><p>faces and disappeared without so much as a fare thee well. </p><p> </p><p> But the laugh would be on her tonight! Last night, as I studied my spells before</p><p>bed, as I usually do, I suddenly realized that I had had a major breakthrough!</p><p>Several spells of the seventh circle became clear to me, and it was with trembling </p><p>hands that I turned the pages, basking in the potential power of these dweomers.</p><p>This morning, when I memorized, I committed a spell that I have been longing to</p><p>cast ever since I heard of it. I have spent months researching it, and after Scylla </p><p>departed, I felt that it was time to put it to the test. Grinning from ear to ear, I</p><p>gathered the crew around and cast. </p><p> </p><p> The shimmering doorway appeared in thin air and I opened it with a command, </p><p>ushering my friends inside with pride. </p><p></p><p> ‘Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion’, it is called, and the interior was even</p><p>more lush and opulent than I had hoped. Spreading before us were carpeted floors </p><p>and decorative entryways that led into warm, comfortable rooms. There were beds,</p><p>chairs, couches, tubs, tables piled high with food, and cups overflowing with drink.</p><p>Ghostly servants awaited our orders, and the night was spent in more luxury than I </p><p>daresay we have ever been privy to. Griff grumbled a little at the idea of spending</p><p>the night in an extra dimensional space, but Happy was utterly fascinated with the</p><p>mansion. I had even constructed it with the pair in mind, having designed a specific </p><p>bedroom for their pleasure. There was not even a question as to where she would be</p><p>spending the night, and Griff sighed, following her in. I don’t know that he was</p><p>ever able to relax, but the wine was good, and soon even he was settled into the </p><p>mansion. All in all it was a delightful evening; restful, clean and safe. The final</p><p>slave was in utter awe, and he thanked me for this final treat with tears in his eyes.</p><p></p><p> I sit here now, in my room, looking about the mansion in wonder. It may not be </p><p>an offensive spell that lights up the sky and strikes fear into the hearts of my</p><p>enemies, but this mansion may well be my new favorite spell. Now if I could just</p><p>figure out a way to make it permanent… </p><p></p><p> Tomorrow we intend to head back into the unexplored areas of the lair. Part of me</p><p>hopes to find Acessiwall tomorrow, but I must admit to a certain amount of</p><p>trepidation. The old wurm will be crafty, and my spells will do little against him. It </p><p>is extremely difficult to try and gauge what spells to memorize for the upcoming</p><p>battle, especially should we meet any more of his minions before we confront him.</p><p>The spells I will learn to deal with the dragon will be more oblique in nature, and </p><p>will do little against his allies. </p><p></p><p> This is, of course, always the difficulty of being a wizard. At times I find myself</p><p>admiring Scylla, with her ability to spontaneously cast. She seems to never run out </p><p>of spells, and she never has to memorize them. If she needs a ‘scorching ray’, she</p><p>will have it. If she needs a ‘teleport’, it will always be there for her.</p><p> </p><p> Of course this flexibility comes at a steep price, for she will never know the broad </p><p>range of utility spells that I have mastered. Her entire repertoire would only fill a</p><p>few pages in my book, and I would not trade my own knowledge for that kind of</p><p>limitation. Besides, while she is undoubtedly powerful and dangerous in her own </p><p>right, she is still only a sorcerer. Much like any fool born with a decent singing</p><p>voice or an innate talent for art does not have to truly work at his craft, she can</p><p>hardly be considered a true aficionado of the craft of magic. She is merely a savant, </p><p>gifted with natural aptitude, but she will never know the true meaning of the art of</p><p>the arcane, for she has not the intelligence or the drive to master the intricacies of</p><p>magic. In many ways she is a spoiled child with a wonderful gift that she will never</p><p>fully understand. </p><p> </p><p> I have been noticing some interesting changes taking place within our crew. Griff</p><p>and Happy are now a force unto their own, as if they are their own team. They still </p><p>watch our backs, but it is now no secret where their priorities lie. I know that if it</p><p>came to a choice between myself and Happy, Griff would leave me to rot. I cannot</p><p>fault him for that. He has found his partner, his other half, and who could begrudge </p><p>him such a thing? Griff is still as grumpy as always, but I sense in him an inner</p><p>calmness now; a sort of peace that was absent only a few months ago. Gone is the</p><p>man who lived only for cheap drink and cheaper women, and in his place stands a </p><p>husband and protector. As much as he tries to hide it, it is only too obvious that his</p><p>world revolves around Happy, and I do not think he regrets it one bit. </p><p></p><p> Happy is, of course, over the moon for Griff. She always has been, and their </p><p>recent engagement has only solidified her love for him. Now Happy and Taklinn,</p><p>on the other hand…</p><p></p><p> The dichotomy between those two has gotten a bit rough of late. As both of them </p><p>become more and more secure with their respective places and life paths, the more</p><p>they have diverged. Taklinn has become far more zealous in his quest for</p><p>divine perfection, and his code of ethics seems to conflict with Happy on a daily </p><p>basis. Happy is, of course, a thief. She is small, she is quick, she can hide in the</p><p>shadow of a pebble, and her deft hands can best nearly any lock ever made. She</p><p>strikes from hiding and uses the angles available to her to her best advantage. And </p><p>well she should! However, her ideas of what is right and wrong do not necessarily</p><p>follow the word of law, let alone Taklinn’s concept of morality, and it is for this</p><p>reason that the two have exchanged rather harsh words of late. </p><p></p><p> I believe that deep down they both at least respect each other. I would hope that</p><p>that respect could even bare a certain sort of love that comrades in arms share. But</p><p>on the surface they continually jibe one another, and sometimes it gets downright </p><p>nasty! Taklinn has taken to reminding Hap of how many times he has healed her,</p><p>while Happy refers to him, off handedly, as nothing more than a tool for a god. She</p><p>laughs at his supposed lack of free will, while he remembers aloud all the times he </p><p>has brought her back from the brink of death, as if keeping score of some debt she</p><p>owes. </p><p></p><p> The whole thing is petty and bores me, but it is a bit bothersome to see the rift </p><p>growing between two members of our crew. Worse, any rift between Hap and</p><p>Taklinn will certainly distance Griff and Taklinn as well. I consider this a bad state</p><p>of affairs, for our very strength lies in our solidarity. </p><p></p><p> Still, there has always been bickering between us. I only hope that we will</p><p>always find a way to overcome our minor disagreements in favor of the big picture,</p><p>something that I must keep at the forefront of my mind. </p><p></p><p> Perhaps finding Caribdis will set things right. As chaotic as the boy was, he</p><p>seemed to provide a focal point for all the chaos within the rest of the crew. It was</p><p>as if we were kept so busy watching out for the trouble he caused that we had no </p><p>time to dwell on our own differences. Scylla is, of course, a bit similar, but not</p><p>much. Caribdis was, at heart, simply a boy going through the difficult transition to</p><p>manhood. He never meant any real harm, and his heart was always in the right </p><p>place. Scylla, on the other hand, seems not to have a heart at all. None of us trust</p><p>her, and I can only believe that we will cut her loose once we have dealt with</p><p>Acessiwall. I keep waiting to find out what her real plan is; for the other shoe to </p><p>drop, as it were. I only hope we find out before it’s too late. </p><p></p><p> Ah, Caribdis. I have not mentioned him much in this journal since his death. It is</p><p>too painful. At night, when we share our meal, I listen for his ceaseless rhymes, but </p><p>they are not there. Every time we are faced with a decision, I keep expecting him to</p><p>chime in with the most ludicrous of notions, but he does not. Taklinn remains sure</p><p>that we will be able to find him in the spirit world, though he tells me that there is </p><p>every chance that Caribdis may refuse to return with us again, or that whatever god</p><p>holds sway in that realm will deny us the right to even petition him again. </p><p></p><p> It is a chance, though. A chance that I am willing to take. I miss the boy too much,</p><p>and there is still too much left unsaid between us.</p><p></p><p> Speaking of rifts developing between us, it should be noted that, while Scylla is </p><p>not much liked by any of us, the acrimony between she and Taklinn is fast reaching</p><p>a boiling point. Not only are her actions suspect, he finds her selection of spells</p><p>profoundly distasteful. She thinks nothing of using ‘magic jar’, ‘vampiric touch’, </p><p>and ‘enervations’. While these are not inherently “evil” spells, they do not mesh</p><p>well with Taklinn’s skewed notion of right and wrong. He grumbled heartily over</p><p>her taking over the ettin’s body, and while I understand the value in being able to do </p><p>such a thing, I can understand Taklinn’s stand point as well. The idea of trapping</p><p>another’s soul makes him terribly uncomfortable. Worse yet, she seems to take</p><p>great pleasure in flaunting such spells in front of him; poking the bear, as it were. </p><p>This is a bad idea, for Taklinn has never been one to be poked, and he has said as</p><p>much on several occasions. I can only hope that we will find and defeat Acessiwall</p><p>before those two have a bad confrontation. I daresay the outcome of such a thing </p><p>would be devastating! </p><p></p><p> Ah well, there is little I can do except try to be the voice of reason. Thank</p><p>goodness for Taigel! I suddenly find myself being more in line with the thinking of </p><p>our half-dragon companion than any of my old friends, for he is supremely easy</p><p>going in nearly all things. He regards the world with a kind of stoic humor that I</p><p>admire. Perhaps it is born of having been an outcast for so long. </p><p></p><p> Not that I have any real problems with any of my crew. I still get on well with all</p><p>of them. Taklinn and I no longer see eye to eye on many counts since I have come</p><p>to see the world from a much different perspective than I used to after the incident </p><p>in Latona. Still, I admire and respect him, and I believe he shares the same feeling</p><p>for me. We have gone through far too much, and in the end we both share a basic</p><p>sense of justice and morality, though mine may be a bit more flexible now. </p><p></p><p> Perhaps it is simply due to my having grown so dramatically in power. Griff has</p><p>never been keen on spellcasters, and the more I learn about magic the more he</p><p>seems to distance himself from me. I know that, in his heart, he likes me and trusts </p><p>me as much as he can any wizard, but I doubt we will ever be much closer than we</p><p>are now. Happy, of course, bears no grudge against my powers. She seems</p><p>endlessly fascinated by the things I can do, but her very interest seems to make </p><p>Griff all the more reticent. </p><p></p><p> Such is the price of knowledge and power though. A wizards life is a studious and</p><p>solitary one, I am learning. I believe that I will always be able to count this crew as </p><p>my companions and friends, but in the end I know that my true family will be my</p><p>books and my lab and my spells. I will never know the love that Hap and Griff</p><p>share, and I will never know the serenity that Taklinn receives from his faith. It is a </p><p>choice I have made, and there is no turning back now. I only hope that my friends</p><p>will remain accepting of me. </p><p></p><p> Alas, it is late and time to turn in. The plush four poster bed awaits me, and the </p><p>bath I took earlier has made me sleepy. If we should perish tomorrow at the claws</p><p>of Acessiwall, I suppose I will not be able to say that I did not have at least one fine</p><p>last night of rest. </p><p></p><p></p><p> Rping 27 </p><p></p><p> We awoke at dawn, and it was odd, throwing back the thick quilts on my</p><p>luxurious bed, stepping on the thick carpet, and having an attentive magical servant</p><p>slip my robe onto my shoulders. It took me a full minute to remember that we were </p><p>still deep within Acessiwall’s lair, and intended to hunt him down today if at all</p><p>possible. </p><p></p><p> We met for breakfast, as always. Instead of partaking in the sumptuous fare</p><p>offered by the mansion we elected to eat Taklinn’s conjured ‘hero’s feast’ for the</p><p>magical protections it would offer. As we ate, we went over the plan one more time. </p><p> </p><p> “All right,” I said, “You know how this is supposed to go. We get as close as we</p><p>safely can to Acessiwall, then Taklinn and I pile as many buff and protective spells</p><p>on us as we can. Many of them won’t last very long, so time will be a major factor.” </p><p></p><p> “And what if we don’t have time for the spells?” Griff asked.</p><p> </p><p> “Then we teleport the hell out of there.” I answered. “Going in without ‘stone</p><p>skins’ and ‘pro energies’ would be suicide, and that’s the bare minimum. I won’t be </p><p>satisfied unless I hit most of you with several more. Taklinn will also give at least</p><p>one of you a coin with a ‘silence’ spell cast on it. That will make it a little tougher</p><p>for the wurm to cast spells. We’ll also need ‘fly’ spells on everyone or we’ll likely </p><p>never get near enough to him to make a difference. Once we get within ninety feet,</p><p>Taigel will attempt to use the amulet on Acessiwall. He may resist and force Taigel</p><p>to try it a few times. It will be a matter of luck on that count. Griff, you and Taigel </p><p>will go into melee with him. Remember to flank him as much as possible; this will</p><p>give Happy the opportunities she needs. Taklinn, I imagine you’ll be in combat as</p><p>well. Once you get the proper spells cast on yourself you should give Acessiwall </p><p>plenty to worry about; but remember this: Your our only real healer! It’s your</p><p>responsibility to fall back and lay hands on anyone who’s in bad shape. Do you</p><p>have that ‘status’ spell you mentioned earlier ready?” </p><p></p><p> “Aye.” Nodded our cleric. “Though you must remember I’m not much good at</p><p>casting while being attacked. It may be rough.”</p><p></p><p> “Just do what you can, and be cognizant of the rest of the crew. Don’t get so </p><p>wrapped up in fighting that you neglect the wounded.”</p><p></p><p> Taklinn nodded again.</p><p> </p><p> “Scylla and I will hang back.” I continued. “She’ll try to punch through his spell </p><p>resistance with whatever she can. ‘Scorching ray’s’ will likely be the best bet if we</p><p>can get around any fire protection spell he may have on him, ‘enervations’ if not.</p><p>As for me, I’ll provide support. My first order of business will be to hit him with a </p><p>‘dispel magic’ to get rid of those protection spells if I can. I’ll also be waiting for</p><p>him to cast so I can try to counter him. I’ll have more protection spells of our</p><p>own ready in case he casts a dispel on anyone. After that it’s just a matter of getting </p><p>past his hide and doing him in. But if it goes bad and at least twoof us go down, </p><p>Scylla and I do our best to port us all out of there. Any questions?”</p><p></p><p> Five somber faces regarded me. Finally, Taklinn spoke quietly. “I have a </p><p>question,” He said, “For all of you. I’ve got two ‘raise deads’ memorized. Now we</p><p>never spoke of any of us dieing before Caribdis went down, but we should have.</p><p>When I cast the spell, it’s not in my hands. The spirit can choose not to return to it's </p><p>body. What I want to know is, what do each of you wish me to do should you be</p><p>killed? Who among you wants me to bring them back should I have the</p><p>opportunity?” </p><p></p><p> The silence around the table deepened as we all considered the implications of his</p><p>question, though I did not hesitate. “You’d better bring me back!” I grinned. “I’ve</p><p>got too much left to do!” </p><p></p><p> Hap and Griff looked at each other as if for a hint of what the other would want.</p><p>“If you don’t let Taklinn bring you back, I’ll hunt you down myself!” Hap said to</p><p>Griff. </p><p></p><p> Griff scowled. The very idea of returning from death via magic was abhorrent to</p><p>him, but he sighed. “As long as you promise to do the same.” He said.</p><p></p><p> “We’ll both come back.” Happy smiled, looking at Taklinn.</p><p></p><p> “But if both of us go down, he brings you back!” Griff suddenly demanded. </p><p></p><p> “Now wait just a minute…” Hap began to protest, but we could all see that Griff’s</p><p>mind was made up. Hap glared at him, and I could see that she was far from </p><p>finished with this argument, and I did not doubt that she would lobby Taklinn in</p><p>private to do just the opposite.</p><p></p><p> “If I should die,” Taigel quietly put in, “I do not wish to be brought back.” </p><p></p><p> “Taigel, you can’t be serious!” I cried. “Think of all you have to live for!”</p><p> </p><p> “That is my wish. Taklinn has asked, and I will expect him to respect that.”</p><p></p><p> “Aye,” Taklinn answered. “Of course I will. And just so it’s understood, I share </p><p>the same feeling. If I should die, I want none of you getting the crazy notion of</p><p>trying to have me raised by a more powerful caster than I. I’ll stay dead.”</p><p></p><p> I gaped at him. “Taklinn, no! How can you say that?” </p><p></p><p> “Tis my wish, Doorag.” He said, gruffly. “I am a war priest, and what better death</p><p>could I ask for than at the teeth of a dragon?”</p><p></p><p> “But you…” I tried to protest, but Taklinn cut me off. </p><p></p><p> “Scylla?” He said to the sorceress, almost as an afterthought.</p><p></p><p> “Of course I want to come back.” She laughed. “If I find that death is so</p><p>wonderful, I can always return to it easily enough!” </p><p></p><p> Taklinn gave Scylla a look, but said nothing.</p><p></p><p> “I still think you should consider…” I began again, but it was Griff who cut me</p><p>off this time. </p><p></p><p> “Are we gonna sit around here all day worrying about dieing, or are we gonna go</p><p>kill us a dragon?”</p><p></p><p> We finished our meal and made ready, stepping out of the mansion and back into </p><p>the harsh reality of the dragon’s lair. Before we continued on, I had one more quick</p><p>trip to Latona to make. Holding the hand of the last slave, I ported him home where</p><p>he thanked me again. Within seconds I had returned to the crew and we were ready </p><p>to be off.</p><p></p><p> We made our way back up the spiral ramp that led to the wide corridor with it’s</p><p>still unexplored double doors. We paused at the major intersection to have a look </p><p>into the room where we had fought the mephits and the paraelemental. Oddly</p><p>enough, it looked as if nothing had been disturbed, and I wondered if it were</p><p>possible that Acessiwall still did not know that we had invaded his lair. Either that, </p><p>or he was running out of minions. </p><p></p><p> We decided to check out the large hall with it’s double doors first, and after a few</p><p>minutes Happy announced that they were trap free. Griff put his back to them and </p><p>they swung open to reveal nothing more than an unadorned room with an icy river</p><p>cutting through it. The river was, we assumed, the same one that we’d seen coming</p><p>out of the cliff face. It flowed out of one wall and disappeared through another. We </p><p>checked the walls for secrets but found none and Griff sighed with disappointment,</p><p>for he’d had a gut feeling that Acessiwall would be lying in wait behind those</p><p>doors. </p><p> </p><p> There was still another door inside the room with all the holes in the ceiling, and I</p><p>was not keen on finding out what might come out of those holes, so I stood in the</p><p>hall while Griff tugged at the doors. He heaved with all is might, but they wouldn’t </p><p>budge. Even with Taklinn’s help they only managed to unstick the door a few</p><p>inches, and Griff gave up in frustration. Scylla cast a ‘blink’ on herself and</p><p>transported herself into the room beyond the door with a thought, appearing seconds </p><p>later to announce that it was merely another guest chamber. </p><p></p><p> We were left with only one way to go. South, and up the spiral ramp. But Scylla</p><p>had a thought before we ventured that way. She wondered if perhaps one of the </p><p>prisoners might not know a little more about Acessiwall’s lair. Perhaps, she mused,</p><p>they might provide us with valuable information, given the right… motivation.</p><p></p><p> Scylla’s idea of motivation, of course, was to drop a fireball into the cell to give</p><p>her hapless victim an idea of what sort of fate might be in store for him should he not </p><p>answer her questions, but neither Taklinn nor I would have any of that nonsense.</p><p>We discussed what we might offer the prisoners as we made our way back into the </p><p>mines, and I offered the obvious choice.</p><p></p><p> “We offer them their freedom.” I said. </p><p></p><p> Taklinn scowled. “You’d let a frost giant, and an ettin go free?” </p><p></p><p> “If they gave me directions to Acessiwall, I would.” I replied. “Besides, what else</p><p>are we going to do with them? Do you plan to execute them after we kill the</p><p>dragon? Or will you just let them starve to death in their cells?” </p><p></p><p> Taklinn had no good answer for that, and he sighed in resignation as we</p><p>approached the prisoners. </p><p></p><p> I spoke to the ettin first and found that he could communicate at least a little in </p><p>orcish. We had a brief exchange, and he was surprisingly polite and deferential. I</p><p>wondered if that had anything to do with the look Scylla gave him whenever he got</p><p>a little rude. </p><p></p><p> The ettin was quite excited by the prospect of gaining his freedom, and he</p><p>gestured towards the ceiling, repeating the words, “Up! Up! Up!” when I asked him</p><p>where Acessiwall was. I handed him a sheet of parchment and a piece of chalk, and </p><p>he eagerly scrawled out a pathetic attempt at a map which showed a crude spiral, a</p><p>room, and crooked hallway. It was well nigh impossible to make it out, but the idea</p><p>was clear that, to find the dragon, we must head “Up!”. </p><p></p><p> The ettin seemed disappointed and confused when we did not immediately release</p><p>him, but I assured him as best I could that we would return after we had killed</p><p>Acessiwall. </p><p></p><p> “Can we go now?” grumbled Griff, impatiently. </p><p></p><p> So, back up the ramp we went, down the hall, past the intersection, and up the</p><p>second spiral ramp that rose into the mountain. </p><p></p><p> “There will be an ice golem at the top room.” I warned. I saw it with my ‘arcane</p><p>eye’ when we first got here. Scylla, be ready.</p><p></p><p> As it turned out, I was half right. There were, in fact, two ice golems guarding the </p><p>room at the top of the spiral, and both of them immediately came to life the instant</p><p>Griff stepped into the room. But we now knew how to deal with these things, and</p><p>Scylla and I blasted both of them with a pair of ‘fireballs’ that left them severely </p><p>weakened. Taklinn was able to step up and shatter one of them with a blow from his</p><p>axe, and Griff slammed the second in the head with an ice pick he’d grabbed for</p><p>just such an occasion. The golem still stood, but I finished it off with a scorching </p><p>ray before it had a chance to attack.</p><p></p><p> Double doors led from the east of this room while a smaller door was set into the</p><p>south wall. We readied ourselves, fearing the worst, and Griff pulled open the </p><p>double doors, only to reveal a grizzly sight. This had obviously once been a</p><p>laboratory, but now everything lay shattered and strewn across the room. Beakers,</p><p>vials, half finished golems, and bits of paper littered the room, and it rended my </p><p>heart to see such damage done to innocent equipment. No other doors led from this</p><p>room.</p><p></p><p> So Happy checked the smaller door in the golem room, and Griff opened it to </p><p>reveal a hallway lined with more doors. We set out cautiously to explore, expecting</p><p>to find Acessiwall waiting behind every one.</p><p></p><p> It appeared as if the dragon was cleaning house, for the first room we opened was </p><p>streaked with the blood and gore of the poor human who lay, dismembered, on the</p><p>floor. We recognized tools for gem cutting laying on the floor, and the man still had</p><p>a jewelers loupe clutched in his dead hand, which Happy pocketed. </p><p></p><p> We opened still more doors, finding a kitchen, a dining room, a privy, and a</p><p>couple of guest rooms. We found several more dead humans, probably slaves that</p><p>Acessiwall had slain in his rage at having had his lair invaded. One room in</p><p>particular gave us the chills. It was a large area with a huge pentagram carved into </p><p>the floor that glowed of faint magic. Above the pentagram, painted on the ceiling,</p><p>was a mural of four white dragons spiraling inward. </p><p></p><p> We gave the pentagram a wide berth, and felt sure that the double doors in this</p><p>room must lead to Acessiwall. But opening them only led to the dining room, and </p><p>we were disappointed again. </p><p></p><p> An hour passed, and at last we had to face the fact that we had opened every door</p><p>and searched every room.</p><p></p><p> “Damn it!” Said Hap, “Where is he?” </p><p></p><p> “Up, up, up!” I replied, dryly. </p><p></p><p> “There must be a secret door we’re missing,” muttered Taigel. “Perhaps we</p><p>should check again.” </p><p> </p><p> “The pentagram!” Taklinn shouted. “It must be a portal! Of course!”</p><p></p><p> I looked at him doubtfully. “You think so?”</p><p></p><p> “What else could it be? We’ve searched everywhere else. I say we step onto the </p><p>pentagram and get this dragon!”</p><p></p><p> We went back to the pentagram room, and the symbol did glow with faint magic.</p><p>I rubbed my chin, and hoped that Taklinn was right. “Very well,” I said, “We </p><p>should go ahead and cast our spells. We don’t know what we’ll be going into, so</p><p>we’ll have to hope that Acessiwall isn’t far from where we’ll land. </p><p></p><p> So Taklinn, Scylla and I began casting. Stone skins, protections from energies, </p><p>and flys for everyone. I hit myself and Hap with greater invisibilities, though I</p><p>assured her that Acessiwall would not be fooled at all by not being able to see her. I</p><p>put a ‘see invisibility’ and a ‘spell turning’ on myself, as well as several more minor </p><p>protections. Taklinn was doing the same, and by the time he was through, he</p><p>positively radiated with strength and power.</p><p></p><p> “Okay!” He cried, “We don’t have much time before this all wears off! Let’s join </p><p>hands and…”</p><p></p><p> “Umm, guys,” Hap called out, “I think I found something.”</p><p></p><p> We looked toward the south corner of the room, and while only I could see her </p><p>invisible form, we could all see the secret door that she had found and opened</p><p>there. </p><p></p><p> “Oh no!” I groaned. The appearance of a new route to explore was a major </p><p>problem. “We’ve got about thirteen minutes before several of these spells wear off.</p><p>Which way do we go?”</p><p></p><p> “We try the portal first!” Taklinn cried, his voice resonating with divine power. </p><p></p><p> We agreed, and the six of us joined hands, and stepped onto the pentagram.</p><p></p><p> Only to have the doors to the dining room open. </p><p></p><p> That was it. Nothing more. We gaped in dismay at the realization that the </p><p>pentagram was nothing more than a regal means of opening the doors. I counted off</p><p>the passing seconds in my mind. “We need to move!” I said, “Now!”</p><p></p><p> This was it. Time was of the essence, and if we did not confront Acessiwall </p><p>within the next ten minutes or so we would be forced to retreat for the day. </p><p></p><p> All six of us took to the air, flying down the hall that lay beyond the secrete door.</p><p>We raced, pell mell, around corners and burst through doors with none of our usual </p><p>caution, expecting a trap to explode in our faces at every turn. But we found</p><p>nothing. Just more rooms within a hallway that took us in a circle to our starting</p><p>point. We had wasted a full minute and I gritted my teeth in frustration until Happy </p><p>exclaimed again.</p><p> </p><p> “There!” She pointed, and raced toward an unassuming wall in the last room we’d</p><p>found. Her fingers quickly traced another secrete door, finding the release catch and </p><p>flinging it wide. A blast of cold air swept into our room, and beyond the door we</p><p>beheld a massive shaft that went straight up, disappearing into darkness. A spiral</p><p>stair case lined it’s wall, but there was no time to walk it’s steps. We instead flew</p><p>straight upwards as fast as we could. </p><p></p><p> A hundred feet straight up we flew, the air getting colder and colder as we</p><p>approached the top, until finally we crested the shaft to find ourselves in a natural </p><p>cave so huge that we could not see the walls. All about us hung icicles. Plateaus of</p><p>rock rose from the floor and natural columns of ice and stone connected floor and</p><p>ceiling. It was eerily quiet, and I knew that this was it. </p><p></p><p> We had found Acessiwall’s lair. </p><p></p><p> We hovered there for a few seconds, taking in the sheer size of the place. Though </p><p>our vision was limited, the cavern simply “felt” big. Even the largest of dragons</p><p>could fly unfettered in this place.</p><p></p><p> We slowly advanced forward, and I scanned for anything I might recognize from </p><p>the only time I had successfully scryed Acessiwall. Rising twenty feet above the</p><p>surface of the cave, I thought that the canyon-like fissure we were flying through</p><p>looked familiar. </p><p></p><p> Seconds ticked away, and I was painfully aware of how long our spells would</p><p>last. I worried in particular about the fly spells on everyone else, knowing that the</p><p>mobility of flight was a major advantage for us, and I prayed that we would meet </p><p>the wurm before they wore off. Taigel and Taklinn floated near me, though we were</p><p>careful not to bunch up. Hap drifted off to my left about twenty feet away with Griff</p><p>near her. Scylla hung back, uneager to be the first to meet the dragon. </p><p></p><p> And then he was there.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="cthulhu42, post: 6585711, member: 6792361"] Flktme 13 Today we were reminded of just how dangerous we can be when we set our minds to it, and I must say, I think it was a boost to our confidence after the fiasco in Latona. We spent the early morning finalizing our plan, and by nine o’clock we were in position. Griff, Scylla and I were situated on a ledge some thirty feet above the hydra’s cave entrance, while Happy, Taigel and Mardath flanked the cave mouth on the ground. Taklinn stood directly in front of it, axes in hand, glowing with holy power from his spells. Next to him lay the bloody head of the mastodon as further bait. I watched through my eye as Scylla tried Plan A. She knows ‘magic jar’, a spell that I’ve toyed with the idea of learning, but have never quite gotten around to, so I watched with interest as she laid on the snow and cast it. It was almost possible to see her spirit leave her body as she said the final words. I watched the hydra as Scylla attempted to enter it’s body. I saw the hydra suddenly snap open it’s twenty eyes. It’s mass of necks began to uncoil with frightening speed and it peered around intently. The next thing I knew, Scylla sat straight up and shook her head. “It didn’t work!” “Plan B!” I cried down to our members on the ground, and they immediately set up a caterwauling of shouts and shield banging loud enough to catch the hydra’s attention. Through the eye I watched the hydra stand up and curiously move toward the tunnel. It sniffed the air with it’s many noses, and as it neared the place where my ‘ocular orb’ was hiding, I saw several of it’s heads turn in that direction. My stomach dropped, and I knew if it sniffed out the eye it would certainly destroy it in a heartbeat. That would put me out of commission, and I resolved not to let that happen. In a flash, I had cast my first summon spell, and a large earth elemental appeared in front of the cave, much to the surprise of my crew. I bid it to enter the cave, which it did at top lumbering speed. “Doorag, what the hell are you doing?” Griff hissed. But I held up my hand to silence him. Inside the cave the elemental met the hydra at the tunnels corner, and the hydra lost any interest in strange scents in his lair. The awful beast lurched toward the elemental and unleashed a blast of icy wind from ten separate heads. Frost coated the elemental, nearly killing it, and I bade my creature to flee back out of the cave. It did. To my relief the hydra charged after it, and I grinned in satisfaction as I cast a second summon spell and another elemental appeared to stand near Taigel on the left side of the cave mouth. Things happened very fast after that. The hydra, spotting Taklinn, the wounded elemental and the mastodon head, barreled out of the cave, intent on breakfast, but before he even reached them, Griff was in motion. To my shock and horror, he leapt off of the ledge! He dropped the thirty feet and landed squarely onto the back of the hydra, straddling it just behind it’s necks. His sword came down, and it’s momentum cleaved through a scaly neck, lopping off a head. The rest of the crew descended upon it from all sides. Happy, under the effects of a fly spell from me, swept in and attempted to stab one of it’s throats, but missed. Scylla flew down to land behind Taklinn, and launched a fireball that exploded near it’s hindquarters. As for me, I was determined not to let it retreat into it’s cave, so I flew down for the view I needed and cast a ‘wall of force’ to block the entrance behind it. Taigel, Mardath, Taklinn and my two elementals waded in, hitting with sword, axe and fists, hammering away at the hydra, which was now thrashing about wildly in an attempt to deal with the overwhelming numbers against it. It snapped out with it’s heads, several of them taking frightful bites out of Happy and Griff, but it was too late for the beast. We had already dealt it a tremendous amount of damage, and Griff was in excellent position to finish it off. He thrust his sword down again and again into its body, piercing vital organs as a veritable fountain of blood and ichors spewed into the air to splash on the trampled snow. Griff rode it all the way through it’s death throes until it collapsed to the ground, it’s remaining heads twitching in death. We gathered around it, cheering and clasping hands. It had been a relatively easy fight, and that could only be attributed to our having made a decent plan to deal with it. I felt good knowing we were not necessarily the bumbling armatures we’d made ourselves out to be in Latona. Cutting off the heads and getting them back to Latona was a simple matter of a few strategic ‘wind walks’ and ‘teleports’. We gathered first in our inn room where I cast a number of ‘tensors floating disks’ to carry the heads. We must have made quite a sight, leading a parade of floating hydra heads through the town, and the citizenry turned out in force to watch our progress. Losom was well pleased as we dumped the ten heads on his front porch. He even arranged to have us stay one final night in Latona, that we might get our rest for further travels. We used the time to discuss our dragon fighting strategies, and quickly came to an unavoidable conclusion: We had barely any magical weapons at all, and without them, we had little chance against Acessiwall, who would ignore the damage from most mundane weapons. It was a very real problem, not to mention a potently expensive one. I sighed, knowing that I had a difficult choice to make. I have recently been in the process of learning how to cast cooperative spells, a talent that would allow me entry into Havilah’s mages’ guild. However, I had also been toying with the idea of learning to craft magical weapons and armor. The choice now seemed to have been made for me. I announced that, were we to return to Havilah, I would be able to craft weapons for our fighters that would penetrate Acessiwall’s resistance. Tomorrow we plan to return to Havilah. Taklinn will wind walk there with Happy, Griff and Taigel while Scylla and Mardath and I will teleport first to Finch, to pick up Hap and Griff’s horses, then to Havilah. It will take me a couple of ports to do it, but I have every confidence that we shall spend tomorrow night in our own beds in our own city. I confess, I am quite looking forward to it. Flktme 17 Happy, Griff, Taigel and Taklinn arrived yesterday. It is good to have us all back in Havilah again, and it is time to get to work. I fear that I shall have little time to make proper entries in this journal as I will be devoting nearly all of my energies to crafting items for quite some time, though I will endeavor to at least make a note here and there. Today has been taken up with the identification process of several items (the gear from the assassin that tried to kill Griff and Hap). We are also tossing around strategies to fight Acessiwall, and while we have no solid plan yet, I feel like we are becoming more focused as a crew. Perhaps the fiasco in Latona and the subsequent ease with which we killed the hydra will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us. It has shown us both the folly of failing to properly plan, as well as the benefits of taking the time to formulate a winning strategy. Even Griff, who is normally loathe to sit still long enough to discuss options, has been reasonably open to the idea of utilizing forethought in our quest to defeat Acessiwall. This is a particularly good thing, since new information has recently been revealed to me. I have had the nagging suspicion that Acessiwall is somehow spying on us. With that in mind, I have been casting ‘detect scrying’ on myself everyday since arriving in Havilah. Today, my hunch paid off. At noon, as I was in the process of identifying, the alarm sounded in my head, and I looked over my shoulder to see the sensor. So great was my insight that I managed to catch a glimpse of the watcher. It was Helious, the aged wizard employed by Acessiwall. I quickly dispelled the sensor and returned to my work, but as soon as I could I let it be known to the crew that we could expect more voyeurism on the part of the dragon, and that we must beware of speaking about our plans so as not to tip our hands to an unseen watcher. Flktme 18 An exhausting day, and my real work has not even begun! I have finally been able to analyze the final dweomer on the amulet given to Taklinn, and while it is not much, I feel it is best to know everything about the item before we use it against Acessiwall. Essentially, if the amulet is activated (via dragons blood) and then changes hands, it must be activated again. It is a small bit of knowledge, but even tiny details can sometimes be the difference between victory and defeat. Flktme 19 I have begun work on Griff’s new sword. It will be my first attempt at enchanting a weapon, and thus far all goes well. The strain of imbuing the blade with magic is exhausting, but satisfying. I am glad that I long ago learned the art of siphoning off the essence from others, as crafting such a thing would drain me beyond my capacity. We have also decided to tinker with the nature of the blades enchantment a bit. This new blade will boast a bane verses dragons, rather than undead. Considering our coming battle, it seems appropriate. Flktme 23 It is my birthday! Work continues steadily on Griff’s blade and all goes well. I hope he likes this thing! Wlsn 10 This day has brought happy news! Today, at dinner, Griff announced that he and Happy have become engaged to be married! They have not yet set a date, but apparently they have already purchased a small home in a town not far from Havilah. The news was met by congratulations all round. Happy was positively beaming, while Griff, of course, scowled dourly, though I believe I detected just a hint a smile under his grumpy visage. Wlsn 17 It is complete! Today I called Griff into my laboratory and conducted the final ritual. Holding onto to Griff’s hand, I touched the sword with my other hand and incanted, feeling our warriors essence flow through me and into the blade. I could feel his nervousness, but he stood firm, and within an hour it was done. Reverently, I held it out to him. “I call it ‘The Talon’,” I announced proudly, “As in, ‘The Griffon’s Talon’”. He took it by the handle and felt it’s clean balance. His smile was all the payment I needed. More information has come to light! In an effort to know more about our enemy I asked Taklinn to ‘commune’ with Clangeden, to ask the god several questions that have been nagging at me. This afternoon, he and I cloistered ourselves in his room and I watched as he prayed. He fell into a deep trance, and in due time he came into contact with Clangeden and began asking my questions. The exchange went a bit like this. “How old is Acessiwall?” “Nine-Hundred and fifty years.” “Is Taigel loyal to Acessiwall?” “No.” “Does Acessiwall know the spell, Dispel Magic?” “Yes.” “Do we have at least two months to complete the task of killing Acessiwall as far as those to whom Taklinn is in debt to are concerned?” “Yes.” “Can Acessiwall magically protect himself from fire?” “Yes.” “Is Acessiwall evil?” “Yes.” “Is Helious evil?” “Yes.” “Does Acessiwall have more allies than Helious in his lair?” “Yes. “Does he have more than five allies in his lair?” “Yes.” “Does Acessiwall have any special abilities other than his normal dragon powers?” “No.” “From a spell casting standpoint, is Helious more powerful than Doorag?” “Yes.” “Was Caribdis involved with Scylla?” “No.” It was this last question, asked by Taklinn almost as an afterthought, that gave us serious pause. Scylla had been lying to us! Taklinn and I talked at length about how to deal with this information, and we decided to confront her with it at dinner. The rest of the answers we got are more precious to me than gold. I now feel that I can indeed trust Taigel, for I admit to a certain amount of wariness about him, feeling that it was possible that he might simply be a spy for his father. Knowing Acessiwall’s exact age is important too, as we can now narrow down just what we will be facing. Knowing that Acessiwall and Helious are, in fact, evil will avoid a repeat of the Latona mistake. It would have been just our luck to have gone in there and killed the only good white dragon in the world! And finding out more about Helious is invaluable. I fear that we will have to think harder about Acessiwall’s wizard ally, for if he is more powerful than I, he will be a force to recon with; potentially more dangerous than the wurm himself, if he is given opportunity to prepare for us. *** At dinner tonight, Taklinn and I laid our cards on the table, telling the crew what we had learned, finishing with our final question and answer about Scylla. The sorceresses eyes fell when confronted with the truth, and an air of danger descended over the table, as no one knew if she might panic and start blasting. She did not. Scylla sighed and nodded, admitting that she had lied. When pushed for the truth, she hesitated and asked how we would trust her to tell it. It was a good point, and after much heated discussion, we decided to meet in a few hours in our Academy chambers where Taklinn would cast a ‘zone of truth’. Scylla agreed that she would answer all questions at that time. I half expected her to not show up, but she was not only on time, she was early. All of us were there except Mardath, who we had seen little of since we arrived in Havilah as he has been spending nearly all of his time with Nanden and his people. Taklinn began his rituals, first casting several spells directly upon Scylla to ensure that she would not try to resist the ‘zone of truth’. To her credit, she did not balk at the prospect, and quietly accepted them. Taklinn followed his spells with the zone, and we seated ourselves within it’s area. No lies would be spoken for the next hour. “Now then,” I began, “Who are you?” “I am Scylla D’neif.” Scylla answered. “And?” The sorceress sighed and told the rest of her story. “My name is Scylla D’neif and I have been quested to kill Acessiwall by a cleric of Wee Jas named Malika Moricz, though killing Acessiwall is not my only mission. In fact, it is more of a cover story for my true purpose.” “Which is?” I asked. “To discredit you two.” She stated flatly, pointing at Taklinn and I. “What!” Taklinn’s face grew dark as she continued. “Apparently Malika believes that you two are responsible for shifting the balance of things to far toward the good. She wishes to sully your names in an effort to realign her notion of balance.” Taklinn positively fumed at this revelation, for his name may well be his most valued commodity. As for myself, I could only chuckle, Since my recent philosophical revelations after Latona, I cared little about my reputation, knowing full well that folk would believe exactly what they wished to. “Yeah, yeah, that’s all real nice.” Griff cut in. “So other than dragging their names through the mud, are you planning on harming us, backstabbing us, killing us, betraying us, or screwing us over in any way? Because if you are, you’ve bit off more than you can chew, sister!” “No.” Scylla replied. “I want to meet this Malika.” Taklinn demanded. “Can you set it up?” “Possibly.” “That’s not a bad idea.” I agreed. “The last thing we need right now is yet another enemy trying to undermine us. What do we do with Scylla in the meantime?” We all spoke at once. Some of us were in favor of showing her the door right then and there, while others (like myself) saw the value in having a second caster in the group. “Even if you demand that I leave,” Scylla pointed out, “I am still under magical compulsion to slay Acessiwall. Without your help I will surely fail and, more than likely be killed. I don’t know if it makes a difference, but should you cut your ties with me you will almost certainly be sentencing me to death.” This thought brought about another round of heated debate, which I was a part of until suddenly my ‘detect scrying’ alarm sounded in my head. I looked around and saw it, the sensor, peering at us from a corner of the ceiling. I quickly bade everyone be silent as I cast a ‘dispel’ at the thing, but this time Helious’ intentions were not to simply spy on us. The first sensor winked out under my dispel, only to be replaced by a second moments later. Before I could dispel this one as well, Helious had sent his first attacker. In the blink of an eye, a skeletal ice golem stood on our table, it’s wicked claws ready to lash at us. We broke from the table, Scylla and I putting some distance between ourselves and the golem, while Taklinn, Griff and Taigel drew and laid into it with their weapons. Happy, unable to harm such constructs much, backed off as well. But Helious had obviously learned that we were more than a match for one or two golems, for, in quick succession, three more of them arrived, teleported in by the wizard. It was a brutal battle, and it nearly cost Griffon his life as the golems connected with him time and again. I was largely frustrated, as I had not prepared many spells that could adequately deal with the constructs innate resistance to magic. Even the elemental I summoned could barely hurt the things. Scylla caused nearly as much harm as aid, for she opened up on the golems with the one spell that I knew could harm them: ‘scorching ray’. Unfortunately, she is not a particularly good shot, for I counted no less than four times when one of her rays went astray and hit a crew member. Once she hit Griff, already grievously wounded, and nearly took him down. I saw her face go deathly pale, and I knew that she felt horrified at having accidentally hit him. Thank Clangeden Taklinn was able to lay a hand on our warrior and pull him from the brink of death! In the end, they fell. One by one our fighters hacked them apart, though we were on the verge of desperation by the final golem. Happy was even reduced to tossing flaming logs at it that she had plucked from our fireplace! I was able to do little, though I did manage to dispel Helious’ second sensor, hopefully preventing him from sending any more (though in hindsight, it would not have), or at the very least denying him the pleasure of watching his golems do their work. I was also able to fell one of the golems for a few seconds with a ‘grease’, though that did little more than buy our warriors a bit of time. When it was all over we still stood, and the room was strewn with heavy chunks of melting ice. The silver lining to the cloud was the cache of diamonds contained within each of the golems, and between them we found over 20,000 gold worth which we split up immediately, since we had all incurred quite a few expenses. We sent for Academy help to clean up our meeting area while we put our heads together again. Helious had shown himself to be a foe to be reckoned with, and this attack in our own home infuriated us all. I resolved to deal with him at our first opportunity, forgoing further item creation until we could take the wizard out of the equation. The rest of the crew agreed with me, and to that end I stepped up my plans, vowing to learn a spell that I had only recently purchased, as soon as possible. The spell, ‘antimagic field’ is, I hope, the key to defeating a wizard. Even though Scylla had made herself few friends with her sloppily cast ‘scorching rays’, we still saw the value in having a second caster, especially when she came clean with what spells she could, in fact, cast. One of them was teleport, and I knew that that could come in quite handy in our plan to go after Helious. We decided to keep her with us, albeit at arms length. I stressed that we must, from this day on, stay close. Had Helious sent his golems after only one or two of us, we would have had little chance. This idea was met with some resistance. Griff disliked the idea of being held prisoner by the threat of future attacks, and Taklinn insisted that he was going to ‘wind walk’ to his home to visit his fiance. I argued my point passionately, feeling that it was pure folly to divide our forces. In the end, no consensus could be reached, and I feared that we would splinter again. We resolved to speak more of it at breakfast tomorrow. But my night was not yet over. An hour after we had all separated and I was once again cloistered in my lab, there came a soft knock on my door. Opening it, I was surprised to find Scylla there. I half expected some sort of attack, but she said that she merely needed to talk with me. I warily let her in. We spoke for nearly an hour, and what she revealed to me left me shaken and thoughtful. When she left I considered my options carefully, cast a ‘rope trick’ and climbed into it for a night of secure rest. I write from the inside of that safe space now, pondering what to do with this new information. I believe that the only course of action is to tell Scylla’s real secret to the rest of the crew in the morning. They must know, though I am a bit worried as to how they will deal with it. Apparently she only told me because she feels that I am more logic driven than my comrades, and therefore less given to knee-jerk reactions. I can only concur. Wlsn 19 We gathered this morning around the breakfast and I brought with me a cold glint in my eye, for I not only had staggering information to relay to the crew, I also had a plan for dealing with Helious. I tossed and turned last night, unable to let go of my anger at having been attacked in our own quarters; inside the Academy, no less! I had been turning over a strategy for fighting Helious for some time, and it made so much sense to me that I’d even purchased an outrageously expensive copy of ‘antimagic field’, a spell that would be the key to the entire plan. The attack made me realize that our battlegrounds had drastically changed, and so must our strategies. I resolved, last night, to press ahead with my plan. I can’t help but see the irony in my rage at having been attacked by foes in my own home, considering the fact that I seem to have based much of my career in doing just that very thing, but it still made me madder than a wet hen, and I wish nothing more now than to see Helious cold and dead. Call it righteous indignation. Taklinn and I had little to say to each other as we ate, for we’d argued long over his plan to visit his fiance. Not only would it divide us, it would call for a postponement in going after Helious. “Look,” Taklinn leveled his gaze at me, “I’ve got it all planed out. I’ll cast a ‘word of recall’ here, and if I get into any trouble I’ll just retreat back here. I’ll be back in two days; three tops!” “Fine.” I replied, nonchalantly, “I can’t take all of us anyway. We’ll let you know how it goes when we return.” I took a dramatic quaff of my milk while Taklinn’s eyes narrowed. “Can’t take all of us where?” He demanded. “You’ll let me know how what goes?” “Yeah,” Hap chimed in, her interest piqued, “What are you spinning, Doorag?” “Well, we’re going to kill Helious, right?” I asked, wide eyed over my oatmeal.” I’m certainly not going to sit around and wait for him to come to me, and we’ll have to teleport in to do it, and I’m sorry, but I have yet to attain the power to transport all of us. But I can take four, so that would be Taigel, Happy, Griff and Scylla. Of course,” I added thoughtfully, “Scylla can cast teleport, so I suppose we could take more, but I understand that you need to see your fiance, so the five of us will just pop over and mop up this nasty business.” Taklinn looked at me for several long seconds, his jaw set, and then broke into a grin. “Okay.” He sighed, “What’s the plan?” I chuckled and leaned over the table, no longer bothering to conceal my eagerness to talk with them about it. “We need to kill a wizard.” I stated. “A powerful wizard; more powerful than me, in fact. Helious has already demonstrated his power. Those golems last night were more than likely sent here via ‘greater teleportation’, which means he has access to at least one, and probably two circles of magic that I can’t even comprehend yet. Now I can give you a probably two dozen reasons why we don’t have a prayer in hell of getting close enough to hit him, let alone actually kill him, not the least of which are ‘fly’ or ‘teleport’. We’ve already been able to scry him, so we have a decent chance to port in to him, but if he gets a spell off, we’ll never see him again.” “Unless…” I let the word sink in, “Unless we take away his magic.” I withdrew the scroll from my holder held it up for them. “This, ladies and gentlemen, is a scroll that contains one ‘antimagic field’ spell. Once I learn it, I shall be able to impart upon my person a field of anti magic that will extend ten feet from me on all sides. Absolutely no magic will work within this field. Items will not function. Magic swords become normal swords. And spells cannot be cast. Once inside this field, Helious will become nothing more than a harmless, old man.” “My plan is this: Today I learn this spell. Tomorrow we port to Finch, which is within striking distance of Acessiwall’s lair. We scry for Helious and when we find him we act quickly, casting as many speed enhancing spells on ourselves as we can. We then teleport directly to his location. At that point it will all come down to who acts first. My first and only concern will be to cast the field –for obvious reasons I can’t cast it before we teleport- while the rest of you launch yourselves at him, though I don’t mean to attack him with weapons. Only Hap has that job. Taklinn, you, Griff and Taigel rush Helious and grab him. You wrestle him to the ground and stick a sock in his mouth if you can. You break his fingers, you sit on his hands, you do whatever you have to do to make sure he is immobile and can’t run or cast should I not be able to get the field up in time.” “Now Hap will probably be first to reach him since she’s so quick. Hap, you don’t attack him unless you see him trying to cast. If you do, you hit him with everything you’ve got and try to disrupt the spell. If we can keep him from casting or running before I get the field up and get to him, then he’s ours. If he’s pinned down, he’ll be short work for Happy.” “As soon as the job is done, I drop the field and we port the heck out of there.” I smiled at the crew, awaiting the inevitable complications that they would point out. “What if he’s not alone?” Griff asked. “He probably won’t be.” I said. “It doesn’t matter. All we should need is ten seconds. After Helious is dead, we either deal with his guards or port out. Scylla may come in handy as well if she can get out of the field and cover our backs.” “He’ll be helpless?” Taklinn asked slowly. “That’s the idea.” I answered, already knowing where this was going. “I don’t know…” The dwarf thought aloud, scratching his beard, “If he’s helpless, why couldn’t we take him prisoner?” “What?” Happy laughed, sitting straight up in her chair, “Take him alive? Taklinn, have you gone mad?” “I cannot kill a helpless foe!” Taklinn shouted. “It is dishonorable! If he can be incapacitated, we must bring him to Havilah for trial!” “You really are nuts!” Griff scoffed. “Let me tell you something, Taklinn. If it was Doorag after me and I had a chance to kill him, I’d take it without a second thought, and if this Helious is more powerful than Doorag, then it’s a done deal. He dies if we get the shot.” Taklinn sighed. “I understand your position, my friend, but you must understand mine. It is simply against my code to slay an unarmed opponent when there is an alternative.” “Taklinn,” I asked, “If that is so, why do you carry those large, sharp and fatal axes? Why do you not wield a club, that you might beat your foes into unconsciousness, after which you can haul them off to justice?” “Axes are the symbol of Clangeden.” Taklinn answered lamely. “Look,” I said, not wishing to press the point, “Take the guard position then. Taigel and Griff will tackle Helious while you and Scylla keep his friends off our backs. I will be extremely vulnerable, so I’ll need all the protection I can get. And if he does happen to be alone, all I ask is that you help to incapacitate him. You don’t have to do the dirty work.” “And don’t forget,” Hap chimed in, “He is evil. Clangeden himself said so!” Taklinn scowled, but he could see that our minds were made up on this. Helious had to die. “Very well, I’ll go with the intention of protecting you. I’ll even grab the wizard if I can, but I will not take his life. Let that be between yourselves and whatever higher power you ascribe to.” “Agreed!” I said happily. Taklinn had other concerns. “It’s still a long shot.” He said. “Don’t you think Helious will have ways of protecting his lair from being teleported into? And what’s our contingency plan if things don’t go right?” “Your right,” I agreed, “He may very well have a ‘dimensional lock’ in place, in which case the plan won’t work and we go back to the drawing board. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and all that. As far as a contingency, if Helious gets a spell off and we can’t get him, we get out as fast as we can. At the very least he’ll know he’s not safe and it’ll give him something to think about. It’s not full proof, but if you can think of a better plan I’m all ears.” Taklinn could only shake his head somberly and admit that he had no better idea. “Very well,” I said, standing up, “I am not to be disturbed for the next twenty-four hours. Tomorrow at this same time we’ll leave for Finch. I’ll see you then!” I stopped, suddenly remembering that I was not finished. Sitting back down, I looked them over. “There’s one more thing.” I said. “What is it?” Happy asked. I looked across the table at Scylla, and the sorceress knew that I was about to spill the beans. She seemed to steel herself for the worst. “Last night,” I began, “Scylla came to me with news that you should all know. She knows that I’m going to tell you, so I’m not speaking out of turn here.” Griff’s eyes narrowed. “What?” He asked, dangerously. “Well, apparently, it’s a matter of her lineage.” I said. “Specifically the identity of her mother.” “What are you trying to say, Doorag?” Taklinn asked. “Uh, well, Scylla, why don’t you tell them who your mother was.” I said, looking at her. Scylla met the gazes of the others and did not flinch. “Her name was Melesandre.” She said. I will not go into the chaos that followed. Everyone spoke at once, and several hands fell to weapon handles, but I shushed them and finally got their attention. “Yes, she’s Melisandre’s daughter. Apparently she wishes to clear her family name, or at least bring some semblance of honor back to it. She was able to circumvent Taklinn’s ‘zone of truth’ by seeking out this Malika person and having the ‘geas’ spell she spoke of cast on her. In other words, she had herself geased so that she could tell us one layer of the truth.” Happy whistled under her breath, and I could tell that she was impressed with Scylla’s machinations despite herself. “So this Malika woman has no real axe to grind with us?” Taklinn asked. “She has no love for you,” Scylla nodded, “And she would not mind seeing your name sullied, but the idea was mine, not hers.” “This is making my head hurt.” Griff intoned. “Why did you lie all this time, and why are you coming clean now?” “I’m tired of lying.” Scylla shrugged. “One lie leads to another and another. Sooner or later you will uncover the truth, and when that happens, how will you ever trust me. It is my only desire to bring some honor to my name, to make up for some small part of the damage my mother caused. How better to do that than to aid the very people who slew her? I decided, after coming so close to being found out last night, to tell all and let the chips fall where they may. I’m tired of living behind a veil of falsehoods.” “And how do we know your telling the truth now?” Griff pressed on. “How do we know your not just like your mother?” “I never really knew my mother.” Scylla said. “I was raised by… others.” “Where are you from?” Happy asked. “I was raised on Edik.” “Wait a minute.” Taklinn’s eyes narrowed and I could see that he had a hunch. “What ‘others’ are you talking about? Who raised you?” Scylla sighed. “I was raised by a yuan-ti couple.” She admitted. “Was one of them female?” Taklinn hissed. “Yes.” “And her name was?” Scylla paused for a long moment, and I knew the answer before she even said it. “Sensesi.” Another groan rose from the table and it was long minutes before order was restored. “Look,” I said, “She’s either telling the truth or this is another part of some complicated web of lies. At this point I don’t know what to believe. I’m inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt. She’s come clean when she didn’t have to, and I can’t hold the sins of her mother against her. Besides that, she’s another spell caster, and she could be very useful in the coming battle.” “Or she might turn against us and spell our doom!” Happy countered. “I can’t argue with that.” I agreed. “But the fact is, she’s geased herself to kill Acessiwall. I’d rather we all tried it together rather than waste a potentially valuable ally by letting her go alone and get herself killed. I’m not suggesting we trust her entirely, but I say we let her accompany us until she gives us a solid reason not to.” “Whatever.” Griff spat. “I don’t care. Just know this: If you're thinking of extracting some kind of vengeance for your witch of a mother, you’d better think again. I killed her, and I’ll kill you too.” Scylla smiled without humor and nodded. “Understood.” Wlsn 20 The easy part of the plan has gone smoothly. I have learned ‘antimagic field’ and we are now all in Finch. The townsfolk here are less than overjoyed to see us, especially since we brought Taigel back into their midst, but we are spending the majority of our time shut away in the single, tiny room the innkeeper has provided for us. It is uncomfortable and cramped, but we should be used to such conditions by now. Scylla successfully scryed Helious yesterday, though her sensor didn’t last long under his scrutiny. Still, she was able to get a look at his surroundings and will have a chance to teleport there. Our strategy now is to simultaneously scry Helious in an effort to find him in a place we both recognize so that we can both have a reasonable assurance of teleporting to the same location. It would not do to port our two groups into the lair only to be separated. We are finding out that Helious is a slippery one, and obviously has ‘nondetection’ cast upon himself. Breaking through that barrier may prove a difficult feat, for neither Scylla nor I was able to do so tonight. The crew stood around us, ready to go, but we’ve had to call off the plan in favor of trying again tomorrow night. We have decided to attempt this in the wee hours of the night, hoping to catch Helious at rest. On another side note, I have explained another potential flaw in the plan to the crew: the fact that there is a very real chance that either Scylla or I might teleport erroneously, that either of us might take our group to the wrong location. There is even the very small chance that we may find ourselves in a ‘teleportation loop’, which is potentially fatal. Griff groaned at this news, but he is still set on going. Wlsn 21 Another day of waiting around until dark to scry Helious, and another day wasted. I am frustrated by my inability to break through his ‘nondetection’, but I know it’s just a matter of time. I only hope my crew shares a little of my patience. Wlsn 22 A third day of failed scrying, and I can tell that the crew is going stir crazy. There is little to do in Finch at the best of times, and poor Taigel cannot even leave the room without one of us to accompany him for fear of causing general panic amongst the townsfolk. Wlsn 23 It began as it has the last three days, with the crew gathered around my small table as I peered into my crystal ball, focusing my ‘scry’ spell into it and seeking out Helious. This was my third attempt of the evening, and they were all expecting a repeat performances of our previous nights as they lounged around and spoke quietly amongst themselves. Taigel had excused himself to use the chamber pot, unfortunately at a very inopportune moment. The mist cleared, my focus sharpened, and there he was! My sensor hovered above his form, swathed in blankets on a simple cot in a small chamber. My excitement showed on my face, and the crew immediately stood up, knowing that this might be our time. Helious sat bolt upright in his bed, obviously aware of my sensor. His annoyance was apparent on his face, and he hastily cast a dispel at it… only to have it fail! I chuckled at the rage and frustration on his face when he realized he’d been thwarted, but my laughter quickly died in my throat as I saw him disappear without a single gesture of movement of his lips. He can cast without speaking? I wondered to myself. That put another kink in my plan, for if he could cast silently it meant that the boys had little chance of keeping him from casting even if they managed to tackle him. Covering his mouth would not prevent him from teleporting if he had such an enhanced version of the spell prepared, which he obviously did. I cursed. “He’s gone!” A groan rose from all of us, and it seemed as if we had been stymied again. How would we ever get the drop on him? But Scylla was not ready to give up. “We could still go in!” She suggested, excitedly, “We could steal his things, maybe set him back a little. And perhaps I can leave my familiar in his chambers. It would be easy to scry my familiar, and we wouldn’t have to keep trying to scry Helious!” “That’s a bad idea.” I said. “If he finds your viper, which he more than likely will, he’ll…” But I never had a chance to finish my sentence. Scylla said the words I knew only too well, and was gone. “Holy…!” I sputtered, “She’s gone in!” “What? That crazy wench!” Griff exclaimed. “Quick, Taklinn, cast what you need to, we’re going in!” I withdrew my wand and cast from it, ‘hasting’ the lot of us as Taklinn hurriedly hit himself with an enhancing spell. As one, we grasped hands and I cast my own teleport, crossing my fingers and hoping for the best. As we disappeared I wondered what Taigel would think when he returned from the chamber pot to find us missing. Perhaps Ambros would somehow be able to explain as I had decided to leave him at the inn. The four of us reappeared in a tiny, doorless, stone cell that I immediately recognized as the room I had seen Helious in. His unkempt bed still stood in the corner, and a sturdy, metal chest squatted in another. In a third corner was a gently smoking brassier, and in the last corner there stood a low desk at which Scylla stood franticly going through drawers. Helious was nowhere to be seen, and I breathed a sigh of relief at our having arrived safely and accurately. We spread out, Griff and Taklinn drawing weapons and putting their backs to the wall in case we suddenly had company. Happy made straight for the chest and examined it. “Hmm,” She muttered, “Magical trap.” I was already casting, and in a second the antimagic field was up, filling nearly the entire room. I felt suddenly naked within such a field, but I knew it probably offered the best protection I could ever ask for. I went to stand next to Hap and she smiled, for she no longer saw any evidence of the magical trap. She lifted the lid carefully and we both gasped at the plethora of items contained within. Quickly she began tossing them to Griff, who stood outside of the field and began to deposit the goods in his bag of holding. Scylla was apparently trying to pry open the false bottom of a drawer, and soon she produced several tightly rolled scrolls. Taklinn, meanwhile, was poking around the room. Looking under the bed, he noticed something and reached for it. He gasped as his hand encountered an invisible, fleshy object. He motioned me over and I stepped toward the center of the room so that both the object he’d found and the chest Happy was emptying were in the field. Once the invisibility that masked Taklinn’s find was suppressed, we were all treated to a shock. It was a body! What’s more, it bore a striking resemblance to Helious! I examined it closely and realized what it was. “Destroy it!” I said. “It’s a clone; his back up plan in case he dies. If we managed to kill him, his soul would enter this body and he’d be back in action.” Griff grinned as he drove his sword through the lifeless body’s heart, spilling greenish ichor across the floor. Hap had just finished clearing out the chest, and Scylla was satisfied that the desk contained no further treasures, when it happened. Helious returned, blinking into the room, already working his hands in an attempt to cast. On the opposite side of the room another figure appeared. He looked very much like Taigel, except that he bore an aura of malevolence that positively radiated off of him. He was a half-dragon, another spawn of Acessiwall, no doubt, and he held a truly wicked looking sword in his hand. An evil grin spread across his face, and he looked prepared for murder. But Hap was incredibly fast. She let loose with a handful of daggers, the last leaving her hand even before the first hit. All three of them sank into the half- dragon with meaty thunks as they pierced his throat, groin, and abdomen. He grunted and swayed a bit, and I could tell that she’d hurt him bad. He swung around on her, and I could see hate in his eyes. Meanwhile, Helious must have finally realized that he’d made the fatal error of porting into an anti magic field, for his eyes widened in horror as he found himself helpless to fend off Taklinn, who was standing right next to the mage. Despite Taklinn’s reservations about slaying Helious, he must have realized that he was still far from innocent or incapacitated. Our dwarf swung first one axe, then the other, connecting twice, leaving deep and gory wounds on Helious’ chest and thigh. The wizard looked for running room but found none. As for me, I was in the center of the room, far too close to the half-dragon for my likening. I quickly scurried under the bed, leaving the half of the room containing Hap and the half-dragon out of the field. I saw Griff’s eyes glance from the half-dragon to the Helious. “Kill the wizard!” I screamed. “We won’t get another chance!” Thank all the gods that Griff listened. He took a step forward, closing the distance between himself and Helious, and unloaded on the wizard with everything he had. Once, twice, three times, the Talon bit into Helious. Blood sprayed across the stone walls, and just like that, our wizardly foe lay dead. We were not out of the woods yet, for the half-dragon was now out of the field. In a heartbeat he was upon Happy and slashed his sword across her as quick as thought. Our roguish friend yelped in pain as she tried to dodge, and I could tell that she was barely standing, which made what happened next all the more unfortunate. Scylla raced across the room to get out of the field and fired off a ‘scorching ray’ at the half-dragon. But, much like her shooting against the golems, her aim was poor. The first two rays struck the half-dragon, but the third landed on Happy, and with a moan, she fell to the floor. “NO!” Screamed Griff, and he and Taklinn were already moving toward the half-dragon. Taklinn landed an axe, but it was Griff’s strike that downed the horrid warrior. His dragon bane sword came around, driven by the full weight of his fury,and the half-dragon’s head went sailing across the room, careening off a wall and bouncing across the floor. Before the half-dragon’s body had even fallen to the floor, Griff was dragging Taklinn to Hap’s body. “Fix her!” He demanded. Taklinn knelt at her side and detected some life still within her. He quickly cast his most powerful healing magic, and Happy opened her eyes. “Did we win?” She asked, with a crooked grin. Griff wheeled around to glare at Scylla. He pointed his bloody blade at her and hissed through clenched teeth. “Don’t ever do that again. Ever!” “It was an accident!” Scylla cried defensively. “I’ve about had it with your accidents.” Happy grumbled, fingering the rips in her clothing left by the sword blows. “Maybe you shouldn’t fire into combat if you’re that bad a shot!” “Maybe you shouldn’t stand so near where I’m shooting!” Scylla replied petulantly. “Shut up!” Griff cut her off. “Your lucky I don’t drop you where you stand!” “All right, all right!” I said, “Break it up! Let’s strip these clowns and get out of here!” I dismissed the field and felt my magic’s return to me. Within moments we had taken everything of value from the bodies of the dead. After a last search of the room, we clasped hands and teleported out. Scylla made straight for Havilah while I stopped off in Finch to retrieve a very befuddled Taigel and Ambros. Both were full of questions. “I’ll fill you in when we get home.” I assured them, and we were gone. So now we are back in Havilah, surveying our treasures and going back over the battle. Luck was on our side tonight, for had Helious not left his chambers before we’d arrived, the chances of casting the field before he teleported away would have been quite slim. And though Scylla’s impetuousness is frustrating, I must admit that, had she not gone off on her own to Helious’ chambers, we probably would not have gone at all. I can’t say that I like the fact that so much of the battle came down to luck, but I won’t let it sour our victory either. I feel as if we’ve delivered a major blow to Acessiwall, and the old wurm must be seething with rage tonight. On another lucky note, the antimagic field turned out to help us in more ways than one. I forgot to mention that when I slid under the bed, I pulled the field away from the chest. As soon as it’s magic’s functioned again, it had disappeared! No doubt, had Hap opened that chest while not in the field, it would have ported away, taking all it’s treasures with it. And what treasures they are! Several scrolls, a wand, a necklace, a magical pearl, a pair of bracers, not to mention the headband we found on Helious, as well as a ring. The half-dragon also had his share of items, including his armor, shield, and that terrible looking sword. Two fat bags of coin also clink upon the table, but the most exciting find of all is the book that now sits next to me. I have yet to open it, for I must make sure that it’s protective magics are dealt with first, but my gut instinct tells me that this is Helious’ spell book! I will not be able to sleep tonight for wondering what it contains! Wlsn 25 Helious is out of the way, and thus the real work begins. I have spent the better part of yesterday and today analyzing the items we liberated from Helious. We divided them up at during our lunch this afternoon, and I think everyone was quite pleased with our haul. Scylla did extremely well, taking a pair of armor bracers of the highest enchantment, as well as a wand of ‘dispel magic’, Helious’ crystal ball, and several scrolls. Taklinn kept Helious’ headband of intellect and a nicely enchanted ring of protection. We all made a fair amount of gold off the sale of a few items, as well as gold we found in the wizard’s room, but it was I who made out the best (at least in my opinion). There is the 4 level pearl of power, which I like very much, but it is the book that has given me the most joy. After seeking Nivin Motel’s aid to break the protective magic’s that warded the book, I found it, not only to be a spellbook, but a highly enchanted one at that, for, while it looks and feels like a normal book, it contains ten times the amount of pages that a normal spellbook could, with 444 of them being full. Just skimming the book tells me that there are over eighty spells contained in it, at least half of which I do not already have, as well as a handful that I am not even sufficiently powerful enough yet to cast. The curse of too little time! I have so much work to do, yet my eyes keep returning to this wondrous new find. So many spells, yet I do not even have half of the days needed to learn the ones I want to. But I know that time is of the essence. Chances are we will be here for at least another month before we move against Acessiwall. I still have Hap’s gloves to finish, though I intend to scribe several scrolls before I get to them, which is why I have been holed up in my lab all afternoon, franticly scribbling the words onto paper. I intend to scribe five ‘stone skin’ spells, at least as many ‘protection from energies’ and a handful of ‘fly’ spells. All of these will be invaluable against Acessiwall, and I feel that facing him with the chance of these spells not being readily available would be tantamount to suicide. Least I forget to mention: the sword we took from the body of the dead half dragon turned out to be a highly magical blade of life stealing. Not only that, the thing was sentient, and evil! While it pained me to hear him say it, I could but agree with Taklinn when he insisted we destroy it. There was some grumbling among the ranks, but in the end I used an ‘unseen servant’ (for I dared not touch it) to prop it against a wall so that Taklinn could break it. Then it spoke to us! An unearthly voice issued from the blade, pleading with us not to kill it, promising at once to forgo its evil ways, and to impart on its wielder power untold. But Taklinn was not to be swayed, and he made to snap it. Scylla was only too happy to point out this bit of perceived hypocrisy, wondering aloud why our cleric would balk at the notion of slaying a helpless Helious, but have no qualms with killing whatever being possessed the sword. Taklinn argued that swords did not have souls, but Griff denied that, reminding us all the Everyman’s Blade certainly had certainly contained the soul of Roland. The arguing went back and forth, but at last I took a stand. The sword was simply too evil and too powerful to let live, and I have no moral objections to executing evil, no matter it’s state. If Taklinn would not break it, I declared that I would take it to the forge and have it melted down myself. Taklinn’s axe sundered the evil sword, which shrieked out it’s defiance as it died. I took it to the forge for good measure. Rchfst 5 We are well into Richfest, yet I have taken no time out to enjoy the revelry. There is still too much work to be done. I have been attempting to scry Acessiwall again, but he is proving to be a difficult target. Not only is he extremely resistant to spells, his mind is terribly strong, and thus he shrugs off every attempt I make. I will keep trying, but my hope is slim. Rchfst 7 The ‘stone skin’ and ‘pro energy’ scrolls are complete. I will begin work on Hap’s gloves in the morning, and if there is still time when they are through I will scribe the ‘flys’. I need a break from scribing! Rping 16 I have failed to enter a word into this journal for sixteen days, and now that I finally allow myself a moment to do so I find myself too exhausted to write much at all. These past days have been spent in raising Happy’s gloves of dexterity to their fullest potential, and though it may be superfluous, their enchantment may be the difference between her hitting Acessiwall or not. Every small bit will count. I must also admit to a certain amount of pride at having raised them to such a degree, and the look on her face when she tried them on tonight assured me that it was time well spent. Rping 17 The ‘fly’ scrolls will have to wait one more day. I have instead elected to learn a new spell. “Arcane Eye’ is a spell that I have been neglecting to take for too long, and today I have rectified that. I am learning that divinations can be our best tool to defeat our enemies. Fireballs are nice, but an invisible spy is invaluable. I plan to put this spell to good use once we enter Acessiwall’s lair. I also intend to use tomorrow to learn ‘greater heroism’, as I believe it might give Griff the edge he needs against the dragon’s tough hide. Rping 21 At last, they are done. The ‘fly’ spells are on paper. Even Ambros is sick to death of the crafting and scribing process, and Griff is positively climbing the walls with impatience. I told the crew at dinner tonight that my work was complete, that we could depart for the snowy north tomorrow, but Scylla has been busy. She explained to Taklinn tonight that there was still the matter of Malika, the high priestess of Wee Jas to contend with. She swears the Malika still wishes to sully Taklinn’s name, and that she can take him to her. But Taklinn only partially bit on this bait. Scylla would not tell us why she chose now to tell Taklinn this, she just seemed very adamant that we deal with her soon. Taklinn chose to report the existence of the secret church to the city officials and leave it at that. We have bigger fish to fry. Scylla was disappointed, and the more I know her the less I trust her. She may not be evil, but I find it difficult to believe that she has out best interests at heart. I don’t know what her game is, but I fear for the day we find out. She is her mothers daughter. So it has been decided: we will leave Havilah first thing in the morning. Happy, Griff and I intend to stop first in the Green Mountains to visit Hap’s family for a few hours before we continue on to Finch (via teleports) where we will meet up with Taklinn, Taigel and Scylla. Though she has not said as much, I have a sneaking hunch that Happy wishes to properly introduce Griff to her parents. I have just tried scrying Acessiwall again, and still no luck. His spell resistance is too strong, his mind too slippery. Scylla has also been trying, with the same results. It is very frustrating. No matter. Soon we will face him head on! Rping 22 We awoke before dawn this morning, our gear already packed and ready to go. Gathering outside the Academy’s rear entrance, Scylla reminded us once again of the threat of Malika in what I can only assume was a last ditch effort to divert our plans, but we would have none of it. Taklinn and Taigel merely shouldered their packs and reached for her hands, telling her to hurry up and get them to Finch. I was a little worried for the boys. After all, if Scylla truly wanted to do us harm, she could accomplish plenty of it while teleporting us. The thought of her porting to a spot miles above the ground and letting them fall crossed my mind briefly, but then I remembered that Taklinn can use his ‘word of recall’, and Taigel has wings. I sighed and tried to put it out of my mind. Scylla is an odd duck, and I doubt I will ever trust her entirely, but we cannot let fear rule our lives. Besides, her magic will be vital to our coming mission, especially her teleportation abilities. With a frown and a word, she disappeared, taking the two with her. I held out my own hands to Happy and Griff, and seconds later we stood in the town square of a tiny village of halflings nestled in the shadow of the Green Mountains. I had been scrying Hap’s father for several days, and thus knew this location quite well and had little trouble getting there accurately. Our abrupt arrival in the little village prompted a great deal of excitement, especially when the folk realized that their favorite daughter had come home. A chorus of “Happy is back! Happy is here!” could be heard from every direction, and we were immediately surrounded by dozens of greenie children, and at least half as many adults, all talking, laughing, and greeting us at once. We spent the better part of the day enjoying the hospitality of Happy’s home village. For such a tiny community, these folk celebrate like a town three times its size. Within a few hours a full blown feast was well under way and we were given positions of honor at one of the dozens of tables set up outside to accommodate everyone. There was roast boar and venison, plenty of fowl, and plates piled high with fresh fruit and vegetables, not to mention some of the best breads I have ever put in my mouth, as well as three whole tables devoted entirely to desserts. It’s been a long time since I had dirtberry pie like that. The whole thing was quite pleasant, though I became a bit melancholy toward the end as the sights and sounds reminded me of my own home and the fact that I have yet to visit my family. I began to feel quite a bit of guilt, knowing that I had little excuse for not having popped by my own village for a chance to catch up with mom and dad. I have been so wrapped up in the defense of Havilah and the study of the arcane that I have neglected my family, and I vowed right then and there to make the time for a visit as soon as opportunity allowed. At any rate, we were treated like royalty. Happy is a local celebrity and her friends and relatives (of which she has a never ending supply) pressed her for stories of her adventures while Griff played with the children. For such a gruff fellow Griff has a soft spot for them, and thank goodness he does, for he was able to divert their attention from me. Children make me quite uncomfortable, and I was content to sit and observe the party from my seat. Most of the greenies gave me a courteous space after they found out who I was. Halfling wizards are an anomaly at best, and these folk, while respectful and friendly, obviously had little clue as to how to take me. I was left alone for the most part, which suited me fine. At one point I observed Griffin and Happy’s father break away from the gathering for a stroll around the village. I can only assume that the two were discussing Griff and Hap’s upcoming nuptials, and the thought of Griff asking Happy’s dad for permission to marry his daughter brought a smile to my face. It’s always fun to see the big warrior a little uncomfortable. When the pair returned, Happy and her mother joined them briefly, and I could tell that things had gone reasonably well. By late noon I began to hint that it was time to go, but it would be three more hours before we were allowed to. When we finally teleported away, it was with a basket full of fruit, three pies and a loaf of still warm bread. Hap’s mother wept and her father shook mine and Griff’s hands, wishing us well. I don’t know if Hap told her parents where we were going. We arrived in Finch seconds later, greeted by the now familiar cold shoulder of the folk there. We found Taklinn, Scylla and Taigel safe and sound at the inn. Taklinn and Scylla were embroiled in yet another of their philosophical arguments, and it seems to me that the sorceress delights in pulling our cleric into rhetorical discussions that tax his faith. By the time we arrived Taklinn’s face was red and his voice was loud while Scylla demurely countered his points with wry smiles and circular logic. I could already see that it was talk merely for the sake of talk and I rolled my eyes and left them to it, electing instead to study my book and call it an early night. Tomorrow will see us at Acessiwall’s lair, if all goes well, and I want to be well rested for that. Taigel assures us that he knows the location of a spot in the Mectcliff mountains where Helious had told him to come should he ever want to join with his father. We have to assume that the entrance to Acessiwall’s lair is near there. The plan is for Taklinn to ‘wind walk’ the rest of the crew there, after which I will scry them and port to their location. From there it will be a matter of searching for an entrance. Rping 23 Today has been long and frustrating, and we find ourselves back in Finch tonight with little to go on other than some small hope for a plan. All went according to the script this morning. Taklinn wind walked himself, Taigel, Hap and Griffin to the spot pointed out in the Mectcliff mountains by Taigel. Soon after, I scryed them and ported myself and Scylla to their location. We found ourselves at the base of a sheer cliff some three hundred feet high with a frozen river flowing from within it. Only the portion of the river where the water met the cliffs base remained unfrozen due to the violent movement of the water, and we surmised at first that following the river upstream might lead us into Acessiwall’s lair. Unfortunately the water allowed no space between rock and water to investigate with my ‘arcane eye’, and the thought of jumping in and trying to swim upstream through an underwater tunnel of unknown length appealed to no one. Instead, we elected to search the cliff more thoroughly, and to that end I took to the skies, flying in an ever widening circle in an attempt to spot a cave mouth or some other entrance. Griff hiked along the base of the cliff looking for the same. He found nothing, but he did manage to stir up a small creature from it’s lair in the snow. He called a warning as the creature leapt from the snow and made a mad dash for the river and we all got a good look at it, though I was unable to identify what it was. It appeared to be no more than three feet tall, very thin, and perhaps made entirely of ice. It scampered to the base of the cliff and dove into the river without hesitation. The last we saw of it was when it disappeared beneath the water, presumably to swim under the cliff. Still having no way to follow it, we continued our search of the cliff, and it was Scylla, also air born, who finally stumbled upon something. Some fifty feet above the ground, camouflaged against the cliff face with a large, white, fur, she found a cave entrance. It was quite well concealed, for I had looked right at the spot several times and had managed to miss it. We gathered on the snow below the cave and I had my first chance to use my ‘arcane eye’, casting it and sending the spy through a tiny opening between the cliff and the fur. My ‘eye’ traveled through a wide tunnel adorned with stalactites and stalagmites, following it for only fifty or so feet before rounding a bend to find a creature that I was now quite familiar with. It was a cryohydra. A big one. This hydra sported twelve heads, though I soon realized that it was not so much a predator as a guardian, for as I circled the thing I noticed a thick chain attached to a heavy collar around the base of it’s necks. The opposite end of the chain was securely set into the wall of the cavern. I saw no other exits from this chamber and surmised that there must be some secret passageway hidden here and guarded by the hydra. I told the crew what I had seen, and they agreed. We used our flying magic’s to raise the six of us to the cave mouth where we discussed potential plans for dealing with the beast, and it was decided that there could be no harm in letting Scylla try her ‘magic jar’ spell again. The sorceress laid down on the cave floor and breathed deeply, whispering the words to the spell. We watched as her life essence departed her body, only this time she did not immediately return. Moments passed and still she did not stir. We could only hope that she had been successful. Happy, Taklinn, and Griff edged forward to investigate, with Happy taking the lead, searching the ground for traps. Unfortunately, she missed the ones that lay in wait for us. She had a twenty foot lead, and as soon as Taklinn and Griff put their weight on a section of floor she had just passed over, it fell away beneath them to reveal an icy shaft that led down to certain doom. Thankfully Griff still had the ‘fly’ spell on him that Scylla had cast in order to raise him to the cave, and Taklinn has his winged shield. Both of them barely managed to escape the fall and they landed on the opposite side as the floor section slowly lifted itself back into place. I had been about to follow, but now I wasn’t so sure, electing instead to hang back with Taigel and Scylla’s body. Hap continued to search for traps, and continued to miss them! No sooner had Taklinn and Griff caught up to a spot she declared was safe, than a massive blast of magical fire filled the area! Hap managed to roll to safety, but both Taklinn and Griff suffered terribly from the flames. I gulped, knowing that that single trap would have been the end for me. Taklinn grumbled something about halflings in general, but quickly cast his healing spells on himself and Griff. Before long they were ready to venture ahead again. No more traps lay in wait, and soon they faced an impatient hydra, one of it’s huge claws drumming the ice floor in anticipation. As I flew after them it became obvious to me, just from the look on the hydra’s twelve faces, that Scylla did indeed reside in the creatures body. We set about searching the cave, and to our dismay, found nothing! Apparently the hydra and his cave were a red herring, for no secret entrances to Acessiwall’s lair could be found. Nothing but a few old bones were revealed to us, and we cursed in frustration. Happy picked the lock that held the hydra chained to the wall, and Scylla lumbered about in her hydra body, trying to communicate with nods or shakes of her dozen heads, which was comical to say the least. Taklinn was all for re-chaining the hydra to the wall and leaving it alone, though the rest of us were not comfortable with leaving such a beast behind. Scylla flatly refused to let herself be chained again, and she finally lumbered down the tunnel to the pit trap. Once there, she leapt onto the hinged floor and let the hydra fall while she exited it and returned to her own body. We heard a ground shaking thud and a dozen hisses of pain and rage. The fall did not kill it, but it could not escape the sheer pit. We felt a bit bad about leaving it to such a fate, but Taklinn reasoned that it would at least not starve, figuring that, since it could regenerate, it would eat it’s own heads and that they would simply grow back. I am not so sure, but if it lets him rest easy at night, who am I to discourage his rationalization. We descended back to the snow again and continued our search, spending the rest of the day combing the cliff face and the surrounding area. At dusk we gave up in frustration. We had found nothing, and it looked more and more as if the only way into the cliff would be to follow the river upstream. We bandied about ideas on how to do so, and I proposed that a ‘passwall’ spell might do the trick. The only problem was, I did not actually know the spell. However, ‘passwall’ is contained within Helious’ book. Given twenty-four hours, I could learn it and we could be on our way. The rest of the crew sighed at the notion of still further delays, but no better ideas were forthcoming. With a last look at the cliff, we ported back to Finch where I set about learning the spell. Rping 24 I was taking a short break for lunch this afternoon from learning the spell, ‘passwall’, when Scylla joined us at the table. She excitedly plunked down a sheet of parchment on the table with a hastily drawn map of a room. “That’s where it is!” She exclaimed. “That’s where what is?” Griff asked through a mouthful of mutton. “The creature we saw yesterday!” She answered proudly. “It took me some time, but I managed to scry it! There’s a whole pack of them, but they are pretty small, and I got a good look at the room they’re in. I’m pretty sure I can teleport there. Even Doorag will have a good chance!” “What?” I cried, “What about the ‘passwall’ idea? I’m right in the middle of learning the blasted thing!” “Well, this way we don’t have to worry about whether or not the ‘passwall’ will extend far enough, and we’ll also have some element of surprise. Come on, we can do it!” Griff looked doubtful but said nothing. Happy looked at Griff. Taklinn eyed the map thoughtfully, as did Taigel. “It might not be such a bad idea.” Taklinn said at last. “We can’t count on the ‘passwall’ to get us in as far as we need; you told us that yourself, Doorag.” I sighed. “You're right. I guess I’m willing to give it a try, though remember that our chances of teleporting accurately are only about seventy-five percent. I’m up for giving it a go, but not until tomorrow. Now that I’m already halfway through leaning this spell I’ll be darned if I’m going to stop now. Griff, what do you think?” “Seventy-five percent, you say?” Griff answered slowly. “Yes, about that.” Griff scratched his chin, and I could tell that his internal battle was over a course of action that might lead only to more waiting and reliance of spells, or the chance for immediate battle with Acessiwall’s forces. In the end, his warrior side won out, and he nodded his acceptance of the plan. Scylla grinned broadly and we vowed to depart first thing tomorrow. Rping 25 Last night, after my journal entry, I attempted my own scry of the small ice creature and his lair, based on Scylla’s description. It was very little to go on, but without having seen the creature at least once I would have no chance at all of porting to his location. To my surprise, it worked, and I was able to view the creature through my crystal ball for several minutes. I studied the room he was in and watched as several more of the ice creatures wandered by him. There seemed to be quite a few of them, but they did not appear to be too dangerous. Though I am not foolish enough to let looks deceive me. I’m sure that many would say that I don’t look dangerous. I looked at Scylla over my crystal ball when the scry had ended. “What do you suppose they are?” I asked. “Ice mephits?” She shrugged, taking a guess. “Hmmm,” I said thoughtfully, “I don’t know much about them.” “Neither do I.” She replied. “But I don’t think they’re too bad.” I frowned. “I hope you're right.” So it was that we gathered this morning for a ‘hero’s feast’ conjured by Taklinn. A mighty fine spell, that. Not only does it provide an excellent meal, he tells us that it will negate the fear effects of Acessiwall should we meet him today. We split into two groups. I would port in with Griff and Happy, and Scylla would take Taklinn and Taigel. I was as nervous as Griff usually is over teleporting, but Scylla seemed all to eager to get on with it. She wore a reckless grin and I hoped against hope that she knew what she was doing. We wished each other luck and began our casting, timing our teleports so that we would reach our destination simultaneously. The innkeeper watched with a scowl. By now he was used to our coming and going in such a manner, but I doubted he would ever approve of such things in his establishment. We had paid him well though, and he merely waited for us to disappear so that he could clear our table. I spoke the final word of my spell and we were gone. Just as quickly, we reappeared in a cold room with a pair of massive ice pillars supporting the ceiling. A quick look around showed far more of the small ice creatures than I had originally seen, not to mention a massive beast squatting in a far corner that I quickly identified as a paraelemental. There were at lest a dozen and a half of the ice mephits (if indeed that’s what they were), but the paraelemental gave me far greater pause. It was huge, and resembled a frozen wave of water adorned with hundreds of icy spines. There was no sign of Scylla, Taigel or Taklinn. There was no time to wonder where our companions were. We had the element of surprise and we used it to our full advantage. Happy had long ago become the proud owner of a necklace of fireballs, and she had been waiting for just such an opportunity to use it. Pulling one of the beads free, she hurled it into the midst of a group of mephits. A wave of searing heat washed over us as it exploded into a ball of magical flame. When it was gone, nothing remained of several mephits but misshapen chunks of melting ice. Taking my cue from her I quickly read off a ‘fireball’ of my own from a scroll, killing another handful of mephits. Griff stepped toward a mephit and it shattered under his blade. Happy threw a second bead straight at the paraelemental, but it seemed to do little, and the strange creature glided forward, hammering at her with it’s spines. She danced away, suffering only a minor wound before Griff put himself between her and the creature. The remaining mephits scrabbled toward us, surrounding us and breathing cones of frozen breath that chilled me to the bone. The damage was minimal, but I knew they must be dealt with. I read from a second scroll, this one containing a fireball of less than full capacity. I centered it on myself, knowing that it might damage my friends as well, but taking the chance of killing the rest of the mephits. My gamble paid off. My mantle protected me, as did Griff’s armor for him. Happy rolled out of the area with ease, taking nary a scorch. When the blast dissipated not a single mephit remained. I looked franticly about me. Still no Scylla, Taklinn or Taigel. I could only assume that her teleport had not worked. Griff hacked away at the paraelemental, his sword biting off huge chunks of the things icy body, but still it came. Happy tried to hit it with her daggers, but they did little. I cast ‘fly’ on myself an became airborne just as our erstwhile companions showed up. Scylla, Taigel and Taklinn appeared in the room without fanfare, and I could tell by the look on Taklinn’s face that he was not pleased. He had no time to voice his displeasure, however, for Scylla’s teleport had deposited him only a few feet from the paraelemental. He wasted no breath, for his axes were already in his hand. He made to attack the thing, but fortune did not smile upon him. He slipped on a patch of ice and fell to the floor with a curse. Taigel ran around behind the creature and slashed away at it with his two short swords, dealing it some damage, but not downing it. Scylla backed away, casting a ‘scorching ray’ that seemed to do nothing more than enrage the thing. It turned it’s full fury on Griff, slamming at him with tremendous power. Once, twice, three times it’s spiny arms connected with our warrior, and down he went. Griff was sent spinning to the floor, and Hap screamed his name. I took a sharp breath, for Griff did not move. To make matters worse, one of the doors in the room burst opened and in charged a two-headed beast that I immediately recognized as an ettin. The giant made straight for Hap, bashing her with it’s club, nearly taking her down. She groaned in pain as she danced back, letting fly with her daggers at it. Taklinn, back on his feet, and Taigel renewed their efforts on the paraelemental, each of them connecting, but still it stood. I knew that we had to kill the thing; that we had to focus our efforts on a single foe. I also knew that Taklinn must get to Griff soon. I fired off my ‘conjuring bolt’ at the elemental. It was the one spell I had that would bypass its spell resistance, and I prayed it would be enough. Ten small missiles slammed into the creature, and to my great relief, it shattered into a thousand pieces. I turned my attention to the ettin, but to my surprise it was waving it’s arms. “Don’t attack!” It shouted, “It’s me!” I looked to where Scylla had stood and saw her limp body on the floor. I immediately understood that she had ‘magic jared’ herself into the ettin’s body, and she smiled at me with both heads. “Griff!” Happy screamed, racing for her companion. She knelt down at his side even as Taklinn did the same. Our cleric felt for a heartbeat and his face looked grim. Panic showed in Hap’s eyes as she watched Taklinn. Our cleric pressed his fingers to Griff’s throat for a second, feeling for his life pulse, and at last, he breathed a sigh of relief. “He lives.” He said. “Well don’t just sit there, heal him!” Hap exclaimed. Taklinn did just that, laying his hands on Griff and allowing Clangeden’s power to course through him. Within seconds Griff’s broken bones mended and his cuts closed. He stirred and his eyes fluttered open. A moment later he stood, good as new. I silently thanked the gods that Griff had gotten over his notion of not wanting Taklinn to heal him anymore. We set about searching the room, finding little except for an adjoining room that had been the ettin’s, and a second door that lead out to a deserted corridor some twenty feet wide. An antechamber lay between us and the corridor, and after some searching we found that it’s floor bore a strange and magical rune. Happy surmised that it might be a trap and was somehow connected to an unmarked leaver she had found in the paraelemental room. We stood well away as she tested the leaver. Upon pulling it the antechamber was immediately filled with a ‘force cage’. A nasty bit of business that would have been had we gotten ourselves trapped in that! Scylla, still in the ettin’s body, carried her own lifeless body into the corridor and we followed, gathering to decide which way to go next. Before us stood a massive set of double doors while the corridor led left and right before curving off into the unknown. It seemed a perfect time to use my ‘arcane eye’ spell, and I did so, casting it and concentrating. I sent my invisible spy to the south and it traveled around the bend which began to slope upwards. It spiraled around in an ever increasing ramp until it emptied into a chamber full of doors. An ice golem stood sentry there, still as a statue. I held my breath, waiting for the golem to come to life, but apparently it either did not sense the ‘eye’ or was not set to bother with such things. It simply stood there. I could find no way beyond the doors with my eye, so I turned it around and brought it back to myself, sending it the opposite direction. Down the corridor it floated, rounding another bend, this time descending down a spiral ramp for about one hundred feet. At the bottom it emptied into a room similar to the one I had seen previously. A golem stood here as sentry, and again, did not move. This room, however, had but one exit, an open tunnel, and I steered the eye through it. Down hallways it went, spying on a group of six ogres mining for ice before heading deeper into the complex. Past several closed doors it went, following corridors and exploring intersections before finding a couple of passageways that ended in what appeared to be abandoned mines. I back tracked the eye, finding another corridor and followed it. I saw a small chamber guarded by five more ogres, and beyond that another mine, only this one being worked by apparent slaves of several races that included humans and dwarves. I gasped inwardly as I saw what they were mining. Diamonds! I had gone as far as the eye would allow, and thus I let the spell end, quickly getting out a piece of parchment and sketching a map from memory. I held it up to the crew, but they were already at work investigating the set of double doors that blocked our way. I shrugged, figuring that we would search beyond the door eventually, so why not now? Happy picked the lock on the doors and Scylla put her now considerable ettin strength into it, opening them to reveal a corridor that traveled some fifty feet only to end at another pair of double doors. On the right wall were two more sets of doors, with another on the left. Cautiously Scylla and Hap made their way to the first set of doors on the right, and before long Happy announced that they were trap free. It took some doing from Griff and Scylla, for the doors were stuck fast, but eventually they forced them open into a comfortable room complete with a bed and a magical brazier that heated the area. Another set of double doors led from the room to the west. While Griff and Scylla investigated the room, Happy picked the lock on the doors to our left (in the corridor) and opened them. She and I looked in to see a storage chamber filled with shelves and trunks. The smell of must wafted over us, and I whispered to her that it looked like no one had ventured in here for a long time. Happy entered to poke around a bit while I stood watch at the doors. No sooner had she prodded a pile of moldy blankets than a massive centipede crawled forth, snapping its mandibles at her. Happy was no fool, and she quickly retreated after hurling a dagger at the thing, but more of the fifteen foot long insects were crawling out of their hiding places. I quickly counted five of them, and called to Scylla and Griff for some help. I considered casting a spell, but reasoned that Scylla may as well put her borrowed body to good use. Scylla and Griff entered into battle with the centipedes, and were soon joined by Taklinn as well. Taigel stood watch at the first set of double doors, and I saw that it irked him to be left out of the fight, but he was also standing guard over Scylla’s real body. He did not miss much though, for Scylla, Griff and Taklinn easily slew the centipedes. I was content to watch as they chopped the big insects into pieces, and Happy was already searching the room with the brazier while our warriors were at work. By the time the last centipede stopped moving Hap had declared that the room contained nothing except a fiendish trap of some sort. She could not tell exactly what it did, but she could point out dozens of tiny holes in the ceiling, and said that they were somehow connected to the bed. It was a sleeping dog we decided to let lie for the moment as Scylla and Griff broke into a few of the trunks in the storage room. We found little there except for moth eaten winter gear. Even a ‘detect magic’ revealed nothing. Happy shrugged. “Which way now?” She asked. “Well,” I said, “First things first. We need to back up a bit. Scylla and I should go back to the ettin’s room and study it for a good while so that we’ll have a better chance of porting in here. I have a feeling that we’re not going to clear out this lair in a single day, and if we’re forced to leave and return later, I’d like to not have another teleportation mishap. After that, I suppose we can either head on down this corridor, or we can free the dwarven slaves.” I let those last words drop before Taklinn, knowing full well that he would never resist that sort of bait. “Dwarven slaves!” He roared, “Where?” “Right about here.” I said, pointing to a spot on my map. “In the diamond mines. Of course there are more than just dwarves being held as slaves down there, but I thought you would want to know.” “Why didn’t you tell me this before!” He demanded, already turning to stalk toward the wide hall where Taigel stood guard. “Where the hell do you think your going?” Griff hissed. “To free my brothers!” Came Taklinn’s curt reply. Griff snorted. “Just hold on a minute. Didn’t you hear Doorag? He needs to study a room to teleport into. Those slaves aren’t going anywhere. I’m all for setting them free, but let’s get out ducks in a row first, shall we?” Taklinn grumbled but stopped, waiting impatiently for Scylla and I to study the room to our satisfaction. We did just that, committing every detail of the ettin’s room to memory before announcing that we were ready to carry on. It cost us an hour, but I deemed it time well spent if it meant a solid teleporting location. “All right then!” Said Taklinn, “Let’s go!” “Wait,” I implored him, “Lets at least set our strategy first. My ‘arcane eye’ has given us the advantage of knowing what we’re going up against. Let’s use it to our advantage.” Taklinn frowned, but he could not help but see the wisdom in my words. “Very well then, what do you suggest?” “Well, I know that the first room we’ll come to is guarded by one of those ice golems. I think we should let Scylla use her ettin body as much as possible. I say we let her go in alone to battle it. We can hang back and mop up anything if the golem kills her ettin body. What do you think, Scylla?” The sorceress shrugged. “May as well.” She agreed. “We’ll have to dispose of this body sooner or later. I’d just as soon have it killed by a golem as anything, though I’m not crazy for the idea of being bashed around. I can still feel pain you know. But I can also cast from this thing, so maybe I’ll be able to take it out. Let’s give it a try!” So it was that we made our way down the north corridor, looping around the descending ramp that led into the lower levels of the lair. Halfway down we paused so that I could cast two ‘stone skins’. One on Griff, the other on Taigel. We continued on until the ramp leveled out to empty into the golems chamber. We could see the thing standing statue still. Scylla took a breath and entered the room. We waited for the golem to come to life and attack her, but it did not. It seemed likely that it was programmed to ignore such things as ettin’s. Scylla glanced at us and shrugged. She took up a position as far from the golem as she could and unleashed a ‘scorching ray’. Three lines of flame leapt from her fingertip and all three hit the golem, melting great chunks from it. At last, the construct came to life, lumbering straight at Scylla. She just had time to fire off another ‘scorching ray’ at the thing as it closed with her. We have known for some time that, while the ice golems are immune to most magical effects, they are particularly vulnerable to fire spells. Scylla’s three rays struck the golem, and it immediately fell to pieces, put out of commission before ever having a chance to lay a hand on her. Scylla grinned with both her heads and waved us into the room. “That wasn’t so hard!” She said. We searched the room but found nothing other than a cabinet full of mining equipment. I pointed to the room’s only exit. “That way leads to a large ice cavern with six ogres mining for, apparently, ice.” I said. “They shouldn’t be too hard, but let’s not get overconfident.” The rest of the crew nodded and we carefully made our way down the tunnel. It was a short walk of no more than fifty feet down the tunnel that led to an intersection. The tunnel continued on to the south while a short hall opened into a rough hewn chamber that appeared to be chipped from solid ice. Six large ogres toiled there with picks, hammering away at the ice walls. In the center of the room, on a cart, was a massive block of rectangular ice. We gathered in the entryway, making no attempt to conceal our presence, and the ogres obviously noticed us, yet they did not cease their labor. We looked at each other a bit uncertainly, not prepared for non-violent confrontation. “Perhaps we should talk to them…” Taklinn began. But Scylla was already in motion. Unbeknownst to us she had cast a ‘spectral hand’, and before we could act she sent it flying toward one of the hapless ogres. The disembodied hand touched the ogre and it groaned in apparent pain. Glancing at Scylla’s ettin body I noticed several of it’s small wounds close and heal. ‘Vampiric Touch’! I thought. Taklinn shot a glare at Scylla, but there was no time for him to disparage her, for Scylla’s act of aggression prompted the ogres to turn the attention on us at last. All six of them turned from their work and lumbered toward us, picks raised, and the battle was on. These ogres were tough indeed, one of them even managing to score a painful hit against Taklinn, who’s armor is normally very hard to penetrate. The clang of weapons echoed off the ice walls as our two forces bunched up near the entrance. Happy dodged aside and Griff stepped into her space, cleaving into the ogre that had threatened her, taking it down. Scylla continued to stand back, letting her spectral hand deliver her vampiric touch. Taklinn got off a spell that made him even stronger and more frightful than he already was, and closed with an ogre, while Taigel laid into another with his two short swords. As for me, I hung back, still not wishing to cast against enemies that should not be a real threat. Truth be known, I had prepared my spells that morning with an eye toward dealing with Acessiwall. To that end I had plenty of ‘dispel magic’s’ and ‘stone skin’s’ and the like at my disposal, but few offensive spells. I was loathe to spend them on mere ogres. And indeed, while these ogres were of a sturdier breed than their normal lot, they were still little match for the fighting prowess of our warriors, and one by one they dropped. I was feeling quite confident by the time only two remained, and I stood watch at the intersection believing that these last two would fall with ease and that we would soon be on our way. I was partially right. I glanced away from the battle for a split second to check the south tunnel, and my heart leapt into my throat, for there, charging towards me, was the biggest ogre I’ve ever seen in my life! Granted, I have not seen that many, but this one, a female, was at least a foot taller than her brethren. She sported a finely wrought breastplate, a wicked looking double axe, and a gleam of pure murder in her eyes. I barely had time to take to the air, flying above the heads of the combatants in the ice cave, yelling a warning to them as I got out of her way. Scylla spun around to see the she-ogre hulking in the entry way. The sorceress cast quickly, and immediately the floor beneath the ogre was covered in a fine film of grease, which slowed her considerably. Taklinn, glancing over his shoulder from the ogre he was fighting, grinned. He ignored his ogre to cast a spell that made him suddenly double in size. Holy power seemed to radiate from him as he turned to block her passage, keeping her standing on the greased floor. He raised his axes to her in challenge. The two exchanged blows, each connecting, and I gasped. Taklinn’s attack could have felled a sturdy oak, but the she-ogre just grunted a laugh. She retained her balance on the greased floor and returned the hit. Griff and Taigel, unable to get past Taklinn and Scylla to help with the she-ogre, contented themselves with dispatching the remaining miners, and within seconds the last of them lay dead. I floated above them all, and did my part to help Taklinn, casting a ‘grease’ of my own on the she-ogre’s weapon. To my delight, she dropped her axe. Snarling, she leapt from the greased area and ran with all speed back down the corridor, disappearing around the bend. With a great dwarven war cry, Taklinn leapt over the greased area and sped off after her, ignoring our cries of, “Taklinn! Wait!” I flew after him, determined not to lose sight of our raging cleric. Around the bend we raced, down hallways and past closed doors. I glanced over my shoulder and could not see the rest of the crew. I prayed that they were following us. I was only just able to keep Taklinn in sight as he made an intersection and quickly turned right. I knew that he was heading toward the diamond mines. Upon reaching the intersection I hesitated, and decided to wait there for the rest of the crew. It would do no good to have them looking all over for us. A second later I heard Taklinn’s war cry again and the clang of steel on steel. I groaned inwardly, wishing that the crew would hurry up. Then I saw them, jogging down the hall in search of Taklinn and I. I waved to them before flying off after Taklinn. I reached another intersection and looked left to see our cleric’s broad back filling the hallway some fifty feet down. The hall beyond was full of ogres, and he appeared to be taking them on one at a time. I quickly flew down to be near him and saw what I’d already known was in this corridor. Directly to Taklinn’s left was another door set into a small alcove. It was guarded by another ice golem, and it had been my fear that it would have come to life and attack him. Ogre’s were one thing, but I had already seen on several occasions how difficult the golems could make life for our fighters, and I was quite glad to see that, again, this one simply stood there, letting Taklinn ignore it in favor of the ogre’s. I landed quite behind Taklinn, far too close to the golem for my liking, but I had a plan. I waited for Scylla to arrive. Sure enough, the lumbering ettin (Scylla) rounded the corner and made it’s way to my position. She saw that golem and skidded to a stop. “Scorching rays!” I shouted to her, and she understood. Simultaneously we cast, and six fiery rays pounded into the golem. It never had a chance to activate; our two spells melted it into a pile of ice chunks and puddles of water. Hap was right behind, and set about gathering the trademark scattering of diamonds that these golems left behind. Griff and Taigel arrived, but could do little, for Taklinn’s wide form filled the hall. Again and again our cleric’s axes came down. His laughter echoed down the tunnel as he split ogre skulls one after another. The ogre’s put up a tough fight, but they were no match for our magically enhanced cleric, and he downed them one by one as a farmer might cut wheat with a scythe. Griff and Taigel did not have to stand idle for long however, for we heard a roar behind us. Spinning, I saw yet another ogre coming at our rear, with another behind him. From around the corner we could hear a distinctly feminine ogre voice issuing commands, and I knew that the she-ogre had returned with support. Scylla dropped a ‘fireball’ amongst them as Taigel and Griff closed to combat with the first ogre. I cast a ‘persistent missile’ and pelted it, and the roaring ogre dropped without a chance to even raise his massive club. Taigel and Griff moved against the second, and Scylla and I provided yet more spell support from the rear until it too dropped. At last, the she-ogre rounded the corner, now armed with a new double axe. She screamed her challenge and lashed out, but victory would be denied to her, for she was already grievously wounded. Taigel punctured her with his short swords, Scylla blasted her with another ‘scorching ray’, and Griff did what Griff does best. His sword came around with enough force to carve through granite, hewing into flesh and bone. A great gout of blood erupted and sprayed across the wall, and she fell with a defiant scream. I looked to see how Taklinn was doing and saw that only a single lone ogre still stood against him. The ogre was terribly wounded; near death, and I believed that I could probably take it out with a volley of my missiles. But Taklinn had been barely hit at all, and he appeared to be enjoying himself very much. It is not often that he has the opportunity to revel in such battle lust against sworn dwarven enemies, and he had thus far taken on four ogres by himself. I decided against stealing his kill and held back, waiting for him to finish the job. Scylla had no such style, however. “What’s the matter, wizard?” She laughed, “Running out of spells?” She let fly with a handful of her own ‘magic missiles’ at the ogre. I scowled at her and thought briefly about countering her spell just to shut her up, but did not, figuring it would only stir up more bad blood. Fortunately, her missiles did not kill the ogre and Taklinn would not be denied his kill. With a final cry to Clangeden, our cleric stepped in and brought his axe down, caving in the ogre’s skull, killing it in fine fashion. Taklinn turned to regard us, his face lit up with a bloody grin as his spells finally dissipated and he returned to normal size. His breathing was heavy, but I could tell that he was flush with battle fever and victory. “Nice.” Complimented Griff, as he eyed the carnage that lined Taklinn’s path. Beyond the five dead ogres led another path that led into what I knew were the diamond mines with their slaves. We quickly searched the ogres, and found a bulging sack of uncut diamonds on the she-ogre, not to mention her axe and her breastplate that glowed with magic. I quickly flew back to the area we had first encountered her to retrieve her first axe, which also glowed magical. We tossed this loot into our bag of holding. Taklinn stood like a statue, impatiently waiting for us to follow him into the mines. I was curious about the door that the golem had been guarding, but I knew full well that Taklinn would not wait much longer to free his brethren. In truth, I knew that it was the best course of action as well. If we could spare the workers beyond even a few minutes of slavery, then surely that was our most important duty. As it turned out we would not have to seek out the slaves, for as we gathered behind Taklinn to head into the mines we became aware of forms approaching cautiously from behind the first bend in the mine tunnel. Several of them came forward, all humans save for a single dwarf, as if to see what all of the commotion had been about. They had obviously been treated badly by their captors, and their first instinct was to believe that we had either come to slay them or to force them to work harder, for upon seeing us they grew fearful. I suppose we must have made quite a sight. Griff was splashed with streaks of blood from chest to thigh. Taigel, fearsome looking at the best of times, was striped with ogre blood that stood out in stark contrast to his pale, white, leathery flesh, not to mention that these poor souls had likely been visited by Taigel’s brother, the half-dragon we had killed in Helios’ room. I could only imagine the cruelty that one would have visited upon helpless slaves. And what to make of Scylla, still in her ettin body? It’s two heads and hulking form would have been enough to put the fear into anyone, and Taklinn was a mess of gore from head to toe. His shield and axe dripped with ogre remains, and he smiled through a mask of blood. He would need several cantrips that night to make himself presentable. So it was no surprise that we had to chase the slaves into the mine and assure them that we were liberators, and not tormentors. We found twenty-two of them in all, three of them being dwarves, the rest, human. Many were undernourished and weak or suffering from sickness or wounds. Taklinn set to work as best he could trying to ease their pain. As the understanding that we had come to free them spread through the group of slaves, a mummer of gratitude and joy swelled among them, and I was touched. These poor folk had suffered in ways that I could not possibly imagine, and for what? To stock a vain old lizards treasure horde. I resolved that we would do everything in our power to return them to their homes before pressing on any further. It turned out that most of them are from Latona, which would make the job somewhat easier. Though I was technically forbidden to enter the city, I reasoned that this would be an acceptable exception to my exile. I would teleport as many as I could back to the city at my first opportunity. But we were still not through with the day. Not by a long shot. Many doors lay behind us, and with these, the slaves were quite a bit of help as well. They were able to tell us what several of the doors guarded, and we were saved the time and anxiety of searching them. Behind one we found still more played out mines. Behind the one that had been guarded by the second ice golem, was the slaves quarters. Around a corner and down a hall we found a door that Griff unlocked with keys he’d taken from the big female ogre. It opened into a hallway that held tiny spy holes into two other rooms. One looked to be quarters for ogres (now empty), while the other was obviously a golem sculpture room. Four huge, rectangular slabs of ice lay on four tables. One of the ice slabs was being feverishly sculpted by a pair of slaves; artisans forced to ply their craft to hideous ends. Already the torso and legs were visible. Griff smashed the half finished golem after we had freed these two slaves, which made twenty-four that we had found so far. We unlocked another empty barracks room with ogre sized beds, and then another that led into a hall flanked with several doors. We soon found out that these were sturdy cell doors that held Acessiwall’s prisoners. One of them was a frost giant! The huge humanoid sat against the wall of his cramped cell and glared at us as we debated his fate. Scylla was all for tossing in a few fireballs and toasting the helpless brute, but Taklinn glared her down, and I daresay I shot her a disgusted look. “Hmmm,” Taklinn wondered aloud, “Perhaps he’d help us against Acessiwall…” I stared at him, aghast, and the rest of the crew seemed just as dumbfounded. “Are you out of your dwarven mind?” I asked. “He’s a giant! A FROST giant! You’re a bloody dwarf, are you telling me you don’t know anything about frost giants?” Taklinn shot me a wounded look. “Well,” He said, I’ve never actually met one.” “Well neither have I, but I’ve studied them at length. Frost giants are generally evil!” I said. “Are you sure?” Taklinn looked doubtfully between me and the giant, who obviously understood us and had taken an interest in the conversation. I slapped my forehead. “Cast ‘detect evil’ on him if you don’t believe me! Go on, cast it!” Taklinn did so, gesturing with his holy symbol. “Oh.” He said, a bit sheepishly, “I guess your right. Still, he’d be a good arm to have against the dragon. My enemies enemy is my friend, and all that.” The giant agreed whole heartedly with Taklinn’s line of reasoning and said so in a booming voice. “Bet your arses I’ll help ya against that cursed worm! Just give me a chance and I’ll show ya!” “Shut up, you!” I snapped at the giant. I then looked Taklinn straight in the eye. “Let’s get one thing clear,” I said, “We are not allying ourselves with this giant! We are going to leave him right were he is, we’re going to feed him if we have to, and we’re going to go kill Acessiwall. After that, we’ll figure out what to do with him. I’m putting my foot down on this one, Taklinn.” I looked at the rest of the crew to gauge their thoughts on the subject, and found them to be in total agreement with me. “I ain’t traveling with no freaking giant!” Was Griff’s vote, and Happy nodded vehemently. Taigel shook his head and Scylla shrugged. Taklinn did not argue the matter, and I don’t think he was terribly upset to have his idea shot down. Two other cells were empty, but in the last we found yet another slave, this one obviously stricken with a debilitating disease. The poor fellow was on the verge of death, and Taklinn did what he could, though he said that he would have to wait until tomorrow to pray for the needed spell to cure the ailment. We picked up the mans entire bed and transported him back to the rest of the slaves who were overjoyed to find him still alive. One other door led into a storage area, and the last emptied into a tunnel of rough design. It led off into darkness, and I (more or less) volunteered Scylla to explore it, figuring that we might as well get as much use out of her ettin body as possible, and that it would be no great loss should it be killed. Scylla shrugged again and plodded off down the tunnel. A second later, Happy, to Griff’s great displeasure, scampered off after Scylla. She assured us that she would stay well behind the ettin, she just wanted to see what happened. Her bright grin was the last thing we saw disappear into the inky blackness. It was all we could do to keep Griff from tearing off after her, but we convinced him to have a little faith in Hap’s capabilities. “Five minutes.” He said, at last. “I’ll wait five minutes. Then I’m going after her.” I could tell that he would not be dissuaded and we agreed. Perhaps three minutes later Griff stalked into the tunnel, hot on the heels of Hap and Scylla. Taklinn, Taigel and I hurried after him. It was several minutes before we caught up with the pair, safe and sound. The tunnel appeared to simply sink into the earth at a sleight grade without promise of any particular destination. Even after all of us had walked nearly a half hour, the tunnel changed not a whit, and I surmised that it might go on for miles. Perhaps even into the underdark. At last, despite Hap’s curiosity and certainty that something must surely lay just ahead for us to discover, we decided to turn around and head back. Soon we had returned to the men we had freed and at least one wing of Acessiwall’s lair that was now under our control. It was time to rest. Before I did, however, there was the matter of the slaves. We now had twenty- five men and dwarves in all to return to Latona. Scylla was out of teleports (or so she said), but I had two left. Gathering four of the sickest of the men around me (including the bed ridden fellow) I told the crew I would be back in moments. Telling the men to form a chain, I touched one of them and cast, picturing our old inn room in Latona. I think we scared the poor trader who was sleeping in that room half to death! I’m sure that when he rented out the room he never expected a halfling wizard and four bedraggled and sick ex-slaves to teleport into it while he tried to sleep! I had to toss him a gold piece for the fright we had put into him, which quieted him down in no time. I told the men to report what had happened to the magistrate, that we would be returning more slaves tomorrow, and that I sent my apologies for this breech of our exile. I hoped he would understand. The grateful men promised they would deliver my message. They thanked me until I was embarrassed, and then helped their sick friend from the room. With a last nod and a wink at the trader, I ported out again, returning to the lair. It was time I got some rest. I was nearly out of offensive spells, and that would never do. I cast a ‘rope trick’, climbed into it, put out my ‘Do No Disturb’ sign, and settled in for a journal entry and some shut eye. Rping 26 It seems that our day was not yet over after I had gone to bed last night. We had decided to hole up in this, the mining wing of Acessiwall’s lair. It appeared the best spot, being that there was only a single entrance to it, and to that end Taklinn, Happy, Griff and two of the former slave dwarves settled themselves in for sentry duty in the room where Scylla had killed the first ice golem by herself. This room was a sort of antechamber to the whole wing, and was a defensible spot. Fortunate that the crew was cautious, for late last night we did indeed have visitors. I was, of course, asleep in my rope trick in a far room of the lair, so I had no idea of this until I was informed at breakfast. From what I gather, our crew and the two dwarves were resting on the floor of the room when Happy heard the sounds of approaching footsteps. She quickly hid herself behind the entry corner as Griff and Taklinn roused themselves from their bedrolls. Two men, both heavily armed, entered, and though they were outnumbered, it didn’t bother them a bit. Apparently sure of their own fighting prowess, they drew and advanced, only to have Happy slip up behind one of them from the shadows and plunge her daggers into his back, nearly taking him down. But the fighter was made of tougher stuff and wheeled around to cut Hap with his sword badly enough that she was forced to retreat. By then Taklinn and Griff had joined the fray. From what I’ve been told, luck was on their side during that fight, for our warriors missed not a swing, cleaving the two enemies down in a matter of seconds. I would have to agree with the luck assumption, for I’ve seen the equipment that the two dead men had on them, and I can scarcely believe that any two foot soldiers would be able to acquire such gear. One of the suits of armor alone must be worth thousands at the least. At any rate, no further attacks came, and I was able to slumber through the night in blissful ignorance of the violence. And where was Scylla during all of this? According to Happy, our intrepid sorceress did have a single ‘teleport’ left, and she used it to return to Finch, preferring to sleep in a warm bed instead of sharing a floor with the rest of us. She arrived back this morning after having obviously enjoyed a good breakfast, and she showed not the least bit of guilt at having left her party to suffer the confines of this lair alone. Yet another reason to dislike her. I said nothing to her about this lack of etiquette, for I knew I would need her help today. We spent the first part of the morning teleporting back and forth from Latona to the lair with our cargo of former slaves, and between the two of us we managed to transport all but one of them back to the city. The magistrate there must have given us some leeway in our exile, for no constabulary awaited us, and indeed, even the poor trader that I had frightened so badly last night was gone, as if they had left the room empty specifically for us to use as a landing point. There were no mishaps, and we ported twenty people into Latona today without a hitch. This, of course, used up both of our repertoires of fifth circle spells, and we decided to wait for one more day before continuing our hunt for Acessiwall, thus allowing both Scylla and I to replenish, as well as giving us the opportunity to take the last man to Latona tomorrow. We whiled away the rest of the day in the lair, searching it out and feeding our prisoners. The frost giant still sits in his cell, sullen as ever, and Scylla’s ettin now occupies another cell. She knew by last night that she had to do something with the monster before her spell wore off, so she imprisoned him in a cell and returned to her own body. I suppose it is an improvement. As we prepared to bed down again tonight, Scylla announced that she would be returning to Finch again for another comfortable night. She ignored the looks on our faces and disappeared without so much as a fare thee well. But the laugh would be on her tonight! Last night, as I studied my spells before bed, as I usually do, I suddenly realized that I had had a major breakthrough! Several spells of the seventh circle became clear to me, and it was with trembling hands that I turned the pages, basking in the potential power of these dweomers. This morning, when I memorized, I committed a spell that I have been longing to cast ever since I heard of it. I have spent months researching it, and after Scylla departed, I felt that it was time to put it to the test. Grinning from ear to ear, I gathered the crew around and cast. The shimmering doorway appeared in thin air and I opened it with a command, ushering my friends inside with pride. ‘Mordenkainen’s Magnificent Mansion’, it is called, and the interior was even more lush and opulent than I had hoped. Spreading before us were carpeted floors and decorative entryways that led into warm, comfortable rooms. There were beds, chairs, couches, tubs, tables piled high with food, and cups overflowing with drink. Ghostly servants awaited our orders, and the night was spent in more luxury than I daresay we have ever been privy to. Griff grumbled a little at the idea of spending the night in an extra dimensional space, but Happy was utterly fascinated with the mansion. I had even constructed it with the pair in mind, having designed a specific bedroom for their pleasure. There was not even a question as to where she would be spending the night, and Griff sighed, following her in. I don’t know that he was ever able to relax, but the wine was good, and soon even he was settled into the mansion. All in all it was a delightful evening; restful, clean and safe. The final slave was in utter awe, and he thanked me for this final treat with tears in his eyes. I sit here now, in my room, looking about the mansion in wonder. It may not be an offensive spell that lights up the sky and strikes fear into the hearts of my enemies, but this mansion may well be my new favorite spell. Now if I could just figure out a way to make it permanent… Tomorrow we intend to head back into the unexplored areas of the lair. Part of me hopes to find Acessiwall tomorrow, but I must admit to a certain amount of trepidation. The old wurm will be crafty, and my spells will do little against him. It is extremely difficult to try and gauge what spells to memorize for the upcoming battle, especially should we meet any more of his minions before we confront him. The spells I will learn to deal with the dragon will be more oblique in nature, and will do little against his allies. This is, of course, always the difficulty of being a wizard. At times I find myself admiring Scylla, with her ability to spontaneously cast. She seems to never run out of spells, and she never has to memorize them. If she needs a ‘scorching ray’, she will have it. If she needs a ‘teleport’, it will always be there for her. Of course this flexibility comes at a steep price, for she will never know the broad range of utility spells that I have mastered. Her entire repertoire would only fill a few pages in my book, and I would not trade my own knowledge for that kind of limitation. Besides, while she is undoubtedly powerful and dangerous in her own right, she is still only a sorcerer. Much like any fool born with a decent singing voice or an innate talent for art does not have to truly work at his craft, she can hardly be considered a true aficionado of the craft of magic. She is merely a savant, gifted with natural aptitude, but she will never know the true meaning of the art of the arcane, for she has not the intelligence or the drive to master the intricacies of magic. In many ways she is a spoiled child with a wonderful gift that she will never fully understand. I have been noticing some interesting changes taking place within our crew. Griff and Happy are now a force unto their own, as if they are their own team. They still watch our backs, but it is now no secret where their priorities lie. I know that if it came to a choice between myself and Happy, Griff would leave me to rot. I cannot fault him for that. He has found his partner, his other half, and who could begrudge him such a thing? Griff is still as grumpy as always, but I sense in him an inner calmness now; a sort of peace that was absent only a few months ago. Gone is the man who lived only for cheap drink and cheaper women, and in his place stands a husband and protector. As much as he tries to hide it, it is only too obvious that his world revolves around Happy, and I do not think he regrets it one bit. Happy is, of course, over the moon for Griff. She always has been, and their recent engagement has only solidified her love for him. Now Happy and Taklinn, on the other hand… The dichotomy between those two has gotten a bit rough of late. As both of them become more and more secure with their respective places and life paths, the more they have diverged. Taklinn has become far more zealous in his quest for divine perfection, and his code of ethics seems to conflict with Happy on a daily basis. Happy is, of course, a thief. She is small, she is quick, she can hide in the shadow of a pebble, and her deft hands can best nearly any lock ever made. She strikes from hiding and uses the angles available to her to her best advantage. And well she should! However, her ideas of what is right and wrong do not necessarily follow the word of law, let alone Taklinn’s concept of morality, and it is for this reason that the two have exchanged rather harsh words of late. I believe that deep down they both at least respect each other. I would hope that that respect could even bare a certain sort of love that comrades in arms share. But on the surface they continually jibe one another, and sometimes it gets downright nasty! Taklinn has taken to reminding Hap of how many times he has healed her, while Happy refers to him, off handedly, as nothing more than a tool for a god. She laughs at his supposed lack of free will, while he remembers aloud all the times he has brought her back from the brink of death, as if keeping score of some debt she owes. The whole thing is petty and bores me, but it is a bit bothersome to see the rift growing between two members of our crew. Worse, any rift between Hap and Taklinn will certainly distance Griff and Taklinn as well. I consider this a bad state of affairs, for our very strength lies in our solidarity. Still, there has always been bickering between us. I only hope that we will always find a way to overcome our minor disagreements in favor of the big picture, something that I must keep at the forefront of my mind. Perhaps finding Caribdis will set things right. As chaotic as the boy was, he seemed to provide a focal point for all the chaos within the rest of the crew. It was as if we were kept so busy watching out for the trouble he caused that we had no time to dwell on our own differences. Scylla is, of course, a bit similar, but not much. Caribdis was, at heart, simply a boy going through the difficult transition to manhood. He never meant any real harm, and his heart was always in the right place. Scylla, on the other hand, seems not to have a heart at all. None of us trust her, and I can only believe that we will cut her loose once we have dealt with Acessiwall. I keep waiting to find out what her real plan is; for the other shoe to drop, as it were. I only hope we find out before it’s too late. Ah, Caribdis. I have not mentioned him much in this journal since his death. It is too painful. At night, when we share our meal, I listen for his ceaseless rhymes, but they are not there. Every time we are faced with a decision, I keep expecting him to chime in with the most ludicrous of notions, but he does not. Taklinn remains sure that we will be able to find him in the spirit world, though he tells me that there is every chance that Caribdis may refuse to return with us again, or that whatever god holds sway in that realm will deny us the right to even petition him again. It is a chance, though. A chance that I am willing to take. I miss the boy too much, and there is still too much left unsaid between us. Speaking of rifts developing between us, it should be noted that, while Scylla is not much liked by any of us, the acrimony between she and Taklinn is fast reaching a boiling point. Not only are her actions suspect, he finds her selection of spells profoundly distasteful. She thinks nothing of using ‘magic jar’, ‘vampiric touch’, and ‘enervations’. While these are not inherently “evil” spells, they do not mesh well with Taklinn’s skewed notion of right and wrong. He grumbled heartily over her taking over the ettin’s body, and while I understand the value in being able to do such a thing, I can understand Taklinn’s stand point as well. The idea of trapping another’s soul makes him terribly uncomfortable. Worse yet, she seems to take great pleasure in flaunting such spells in front of him; poking the bear, as it were. This is a bad idea, for Taklinn has never been one to be poked, and he has said as much on several occasions. I can only hope that we will find and defeat Acessiwall before those two have a bad confrontation. I daresay the outcome of such a thing would be devastating! Ah well, there is little I can do except try to be the voice of reason. Thank goodness for Taigel! I suddenly find myself being more in line with the thinking of our half-dragon companion than any of my old friends, for he is supremely easy going in nearly all things. He regards the world with a kind of stoic humor that I admire. Perhaps it is born of having been an outcast for so long. Not that I have any real problems with any of my crew. I still get on well with all of them. Taklinn and I no longer see eye to eye on many counts since I have come to see the world from a much different perspective than I used to after the incident in Latona. Still, I admire and respect him, and I believe he shares the same feeling for me. We have gone through far too much, and in the end we both share a basic sense of justice and morality, though mine may be a bit more flexible now. Perhaps it is simply due to my having grown so dramatically in power. Griff has never been keen on spellcasters, and the more I learn about magic the more he seems to distance himself from me. I know that, in his heart, he likes me and trusts me as much as he can any wizard, but I doubt we will ever be much closer than we are now. Happy, of course, bears no grudge against my powers. She seems endlessly fascinated by the things I can do, but her very interest seems to make Griff all the more reticent. Such is the price of knowledge and power though. A wizards life is a studious and solitary one, I am learning. I believe that I will always be able to count this crew as my companions and friends, but in the end I know that my true family will be my books and my lab and my spells. I will never know the love that Hap and Griff share, and I will never know the serenity that Taklinn receives from his faith. It is a choice I have made, and there is no turning back now. I only hope that my friends will remain accepting of me. Alas, it is late and time to turn in. The plush four poster bed awaits me, and the bath I took earlier has made me sleepy. If we should perish tomorrow at the claws of Acessiwall, I suppose I will not be able to say that I did not have at least one fine last night of rest. Rping 27 We awoke at dawn, and it was odd, throwing back the thick quilts on my luxurious bed, stepping on the thick carpet, and having an attentive magical servant slip my robe onto my shoulders. It took me a full minute to remember that we were still deep within Acessiwall’s lair, and intended to hunt him down today if at all possible. We met for breakfast, as always. Instead of partaking in the sumptuous fare offered by the mansion we elected to eat Taklinn’s conjured ‘hero’s feast’ for the magical protections it would offer. As we ate, we went over the plan one more time. “All right,” I said, “You know how this is supposed to go. We get as close as we safely can to Acessiwall, then Taklinn and I pile as many buff and protective spells on us as we can. Many of them won’t last very long, so time will be a major factor.” “And what if we don’t have time for the spells?” Griff asked. “Then we teleport the hell out of there.” I answered. “Going in without ‘stone skins’ and ‘pro energies’ would be suicide, and that’s the bare minimum. I won’t be satisfied unless I hit most of you with several more. Taklinn will also give at least one of you a coin with a ‘silence’ spell cast on it. That will make it a little tougher for the wurm to cast spells. We’ll also need ‘fly’ spells on everyone or we’ll likely never get near enough to him to make a difference. Once we get within ninety feet, Taigel will attempt to use the amulet on Acessiwall. He may resist and force Taigel to try it a few times. It will be a matter of luck on that count. Griff, you and Taigel will go into melee with him. Remember to flank him as much as possible; this will give Happy the opportunities she needs. Taklinn, I imagine you’ll be in combat as well. Once you get the proper spells cast on yourself you should give Acessiwall plenty to worry about; but remember this: Your our only real healer! It’s your responsibility to fall back and lay hands on anyone who’s in bad shape. Do you have that ‘status’ spell you mentioned earlier ready?” “Aye.” Nodded our cleric. “Though you must remember I’m not much good at casting while being attacked. It may be rough.” “Just do what you can, and be cognizant of the rest of the crew. Don’t get so wrapped up in fighting that you neglect the wounded.” Taklinn nodded again. “Scylla and I will hang back.” I continued. “She’ll try to punch through his spell resistance with whatever she can. ‘Scorching ray’s’ will likely be the best bet if we can get around any fire protection spell he may have on him, ‘enervations’ if not. As for me, I’ll provide support. My first order of business will be to hit him with a ‘dispel magic’ to get rid of those protection spells if I can. I’ll also be waiting for him to cast so I can try to counter him. I’ll have more protection spells of our own ready in case he casts a dispel on anyone. After that it’s just a matter of getting past his hide and doing him in. But if it goes bad and at least twoof us go down, Scylla and I do our best to port us all out of there. Any questions?” Five somber faces regarded me. Finally, Taklinn spoke quietly. “I have a question,” He said, “For all of you. I’ve got two ‘raise deads’ memorized. Now we never spoke of any of us dieing before Caribdis went down, but we should have. When I cast the spell, it’s not in my hands. The spirit can choose not to return to it's body. What I want to know is, what do each of you wish me to do should you be killed? Who among you wants me to bring them back should I have the opportunity?” The silence around the table deepened as we all considered the implications of his question, though I did not hesitate. “You’d better bring me back!” I grinned. “I’ve got too much left to do!” Hap and Griff looked at each other as if for a hint of what the other would want. “If you don’t let Taklinn bring you back, I’ll hunt you down myself!” Hap said to Griff. Griff scowled. The very idea of returning from death via magic was abhorrent to him, but he sighed. “As long as you promise to do the same.” He said. “We’ll both come back.” Happy smiled, looking at Taklinn. “But if both of us go down, he brings you back!” Griff suddenly demanded. “Now wait just a minute…” Hap began to protest, but we could all see that Griff’s mind was made up. Hap glared at him, and I could see that she was far from finished with this argument, and I did not doubt that she would lobby Taklinn in private to do just the opposite. “If I should die,” Taigel quietly put in, “I do not wish to be brought back.” “Taigel, you can’t be serious!” I cried. “Think of all you have to live for!” “That is my wish. Taklinn has asked, and I will expect him to respect that.” “Aye,” Taklinn answered. “Of course I will. And just so it’s understood, I share the same feeling. If I should die, I want none of you getting the crazy notion of trying to have me raised by a more powerful caster than I. I’ll stay dead.” I gaped at him. “Taklinn, no! How can you say that?” “Tis my wish, Doorag.” He said, gruffly. “I am a war priest, and what better death could I ask for than at the teeth of a dragon?” “But you…” I tried to protest, but Taklinn cut me off. “Scylla?” He said to the sorceress, almost as an afterthought. “Of course I want to come back.” She laughed. “If I find that death is so wonderful, I can always return to it easily enough!” Taklinn gave Scylla a look, but said nothing. “I still think you should consider…” I began again, but it was Griff who cut me off this time. “Are we gonna sit around here all day worrying about dieing, or are we gonna go kill us a dragon?” We finished our meal and made ready, stepping out of the mansion and back into the harsh reality of the dragon’s lair. Before we continued on, I had one more quick trip to Latona to make. Holding the hand of the last slave, I ported him home where he thanked me again. Within seconds I had returned to the crew and we were ready to be off. We made our way back up the spiral ramp that led to the wide corridor with it’s still unexplored double doors. We paused at the major intersection to have a look into the room where we had fought the mephits and the paraelemental. Oddly enough, it looked as if nothing had been disturbed, and I wondered if it were possible that Acessiwall still did not know that we had invaded his lair. Either that, or he was running out of minions. We decided to check out the large hall with it’s double doors first, and after a few minutes Happy announced that they were trap free. Griff put his back to them and they swung open to reveal nothing more than an unadorned room with an icy river cutting through it. The river was, we assumed, the same one that we’d seen coming out of the cliff face. It flowed out of one wall and disappeared through another. We checked the walls for secrets but found none and Griff sighed with disappointment, for he’d had a gut feeling that Acessiwall would be lying in wait behind those doors. There was still another door inside the room with all the holes in the ceiling, and I was not keen on finding out what might come out of those holes, so I stood in the hall while Griff tugged at the doors. He heaved with all is might, but they wouldn’t budge. Even with Taklinn’s help they only managed to unstick the door a few inches, and Griff gave up in frustration. Scylla cast a ‘blink’ on herself and transported herself into the room beyond the door with a thought, appearing seconds later to announce that it was merely another guest chamber. We were left with only one way to go. South, and up the spiral ramp. But Scylla had a thought before we ventured that way. She wondered if perhaps one of the prisoners might not know a little more about Acessiwall’s lair. Perhaps, she mused, they might provide us with valuable information, given the right… motivation. Scylla’s idea of motivation, of course, was to drop a fireball into the cell to give her hapless victim an idea of what sort of fate might be in store for him should he not answer her questions, but neither Taklinn nor I would have any of that nonsense. We discussed what we might offer the prisoners as we made our way back into the mines, and I offered the obvious choice. “We offer them their freedom.” I said. Taklinn scowled. “You’d let a frost giant, and an ettin go free?” “If they gave me directions to Acessiwall, I would.” I replied. “Besides, what else are we going to do with them? Do you plan to execute them after we kill the dragon? Or will you just let them starve to death in their cells?” Taklinn had no good answer for that, and he sighed in resignation as we approached the prisoners. I spoke to the ettin first and found that he could communicate at least a little in orcish. We had a brief exchange, and he was surprisingly polite and deferential. I wondered if that had anything to do with the look Scylla gave him whenever he got a little rude. The ettin was quite excited by the prospect of gaining his freedom, and he gestured towards the ceiling, repeating the words, “Up! Up! Up!” when I asked him where Acessiwall was. I handed him a sheet of parchment and a piece of chalk, and he eagerly scrawled out a pathetic attempt at a map which showed a crude spiral, a room, and crooked hallway. It was well nigh impossible to make it out, but the idea was clear that, to find the dragon, we must head “Up!”. The ettin seemed disappointed and confused when we did not immediately release him, but I assured him as best I could that we would return after we had killed Acessiwall. “Can we go now?” grumbled Griff, impatiently. So, back up the ramp we went, down the hall, past the intersection, and up the second spiral ramp that rose into the mountain. “There will be an ice golem at the top room.” I warned. I saw it with my ‘arcane eye’ when we first got here. Scylla, be ready. As it turned out, I was half right. There were, in fact, two ice golems guarding the room at the top of the spiral, and both of them immediately came to life the instant Griff stepped into the room. But we now knew how to deal with these things, and Scylla and I blasted both of them with a pair of ‘fireballs’ that left them severely weakened. Taklinn was able to step up and shatter one of them with a blow from his axe, and Griff slammed the second in the head with an ice pick he’d grabbed for just such an occasion. The golem still stood, but I finished it off with a scorching ray before it had a chance to attack. Double doors led from the east of this room while a smaller door was set into the south wall. We readied ourselves, fearing the worst, and Griff pulled open the double doors, only to reveal a grizzly sight. This had obviously once been a laboratory, but now everything lay shattered and strewn across the room. Beakers, vials, half finished golems, and bits of paper littered the room, and it rended my heart to see such damage done to innocent equipment. No other doors led from this room. So Happy checked the smaller door in the golem room, and Griff opened it to reveal a hallway lined with more doors. We set out cautiously to explore, expecting to find Acessiwall waiting behind every one. It appeared as if the dragon was cleaning house, for the first room we opened was streaked with the blood and gore of the poor human who lay, dismembered, on the floor. We recognized tools for gem cutting laying on the floor, and the man still had a jewelers loupe clutched in his dead hand, which Happy pocketed. We opened still more doors, finding a kitchen, a dining room, a privy, and a couple of guest rooms. We found several more dead humans, probably slaves that Acessiwall had slain in his rage at having had his lair invaded. One room in particular gave us the chills. It was a large area with a huge pentagram carved into the floor that glowed of faint magic. Above the pentagram, painted on the ceiling, was a mural of four white dragons spiraling inward. We gave the pentagram a wide berth, and felt sure that the double doors in this room must lead to Acessiwall. But opening them only led to the dining room, and we were disappointed again. An hour passed, and at last we had to face the fact that we had opened every door and searched every room. “Damn it!” Said Hap, “Where is he?” “Up, up, up!” I replied, dryly. “There must be a secret door we’re missing,” muttered Taigel. “Perhaps we should check again.” “The pentagram!” Taklinn shouted. “It must be a portal! Of course!” I looked at him doubtfully. “You think so?” “What else could it be? We’ve searched everywhere else. I say we step onto the pentagram and get this dragon!” We went back to the pentagram room, and the symbol did glow with faint magic. I rubbed my chin, and hoped that Taklinn was right. “Very well,” I said, “We should go ahead and cast our spells. We don’t know what we’ll be going into, so we’ll have to hope that Acessiwall isn’t far from where we’ll land. So Taklinn, Scylla and I began casting. Stone skins, protections from energies, and flys for everyone. I hit myself and Hap with greater invisibilities, though I assured her that Acessiwall would not be fooled at all by not being able to see her. I put a ‘see invisibility’ and a ‘spell turning’ on myself, as well as several more minor protections. Taklinn was doing the same, and by the time he was through, he positively radiated with strength and power. “Okay!” He cried, “We don’t have much time before this all wears off! Let’s join hands and…” “Umm, guys,” Hap called out, “I think I found something.” We looked toward the south corner of the room, and while only I could see her invisible form, we could all see the secret door that she had found and opened there. “Oh no!” I groaned. The appearance of a new route to explore was a major problem. “We’ve got about thirteen minutes before several of these spells wear off. Which way do we go?” “We try the portal first!” Taklinn cried, his voice resonating with divine power. We agreed, and the six of us joined hands, and stepped onto the pentagram. Only to have the doors to the dining room open. That was it. Nothing more. We gaped in dismay at the realization that the pentagram was nothing more than a regal means of opening the doors. I counted off the passing seconds in my mind. “We need to move!” I said, “Now!” This was it. Time was of the essence, and if we did not confront Acessiwall within the next ten minutes or so we would be forced to retreat for the day. All six of us took to the air, flying down the hall that lay beyond the secrete door. We raced, pell mell, around corners and burst through doors with none of our usual caution, expecting a trap to explode in our faces at every turn. But we found nothing. Just more rooms within a hallway that took us in a circle to our starting point. We had wasted a full minute and I gritted my teeth in frustration until Happy exclaimed again. “There!” She pointed, and raced toward an unassuming wall in the last room we’d found. Her fingers quickly traced another secrete door, finding the release catch and flinging it wide. A blast of cold air swept into our room, and beyond the door we beheld a massive shaft that went straight up, disappearing into darkness. A spiral stair case lined it’s wall, but there was no time to walk it’s steps. We instead flew straight upwards as fast as we could. A hundred feet straight up we flew, the air getting colder and colder as we approached the top, until finally we crested the shaft to find ourselves in a natural cave so huge that we could not see the walls. All about us hung icicles. Plateaus of rock rose from the floor and natural columns of ice and stone connected floor and ceiling. It was eerily quiet, and I knew that this was it. We had found Acessiwall’s lair. We hovered there for a few seconds, taking in the sheer size of the place. Though our vision was limited, the cavern simply “felt” big. Even the largest of dragons could fly unfettered in this place. We slowly advanced forward, and I scanned for anything I might recognize from the only time I had successfully scryed Acessiwall. Rising twenty feet above the surface of the cave, I thought that the canyon-like fissure we were flying through looked familiar. Seconds ticked away, and I was painfully aware of how long our spells would last. I worried in particular about the fly spells on everyone else, knowing that the mobility of flight was a major advantage for us, and I prayed that we would meet the wurm before they wore off. Taigel and Taklinn floated near me, though we were careful not to bunch up. Hap drifted off to my left about twenty feet away with Griff near her. Scylla hung back, uneager to be the first to meet the dragon. And then he was there. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
Playing the Game
Story Hour
From the Diary of Doorag Marzipan
Top