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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6141069" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>I had been thinking: “Right, so we have a group of devils here in the Chapel; the female was an erinyes; two bone devils and four bearded devils. That’s a very potent force. More importantly, all of them can teleport without hindrance. Fire is irrelevant to them. That means that they will have had the means to search this whole place for weeks. Now either that means that the Torch is in the hands of someone who is too powerful for a force of devils that size or more likely, that the Torch is not here.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim answered: “You are missing a third option. That the Torch is here but they just haven’t been able to find it.”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, that is also a possibility but I think the least likely one; as we have seen, devils are very powerful and have very impressive magical abilities; although I grant you that it is still significant enough that we need to continue our search.”</p><p> </p><p>Something else occurred to me: “We also have to try to work out how they arrived in this place; devils don’t generally just appear on our plane when they want; powerful magic has to be used to bring them here.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor interrupted at this point: “There’s also the possibility that they actually didn’t know about the Torch. Anyway, while all of this is very interesting, it doesn’t change our ultimate aim. We need to rest and then carry on looking; while we are reasonably healthy. Faden, Felix, how are you on spells?”</p><p> </p><p>“Fairly low; I still have a couple of tricks up my sleeve if necessary but not for a fight like the one we’ve just had. Although we have to believe that those devils have to be greatest evil force in this area. If they’re not…….then we really are in over our heads” I replied.</p><p> </p><p>“Same here,” was Felix’s answer. “Most of my healing will be from wands now. Nearly all of my spells have been used.”</p><p> </p><p>John chimed in: “I tell you what. Let’s go outside and see if we can find a place to rest; as we’re going out, I’m going to poke my head into that pair of double doors; you remember the ones from where the singing was coming?”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim looked at him: “You sure you want to do that? Things could get hairy for you.”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh yes!” John grinned. “If I get into trouble, I’ll scream like a girl!”</p><p> </p><p>With that, we retreated into the initial entry room. As John opened the doors which faced the exit, we saw that the opening beyond, more a hallway, was lined by eight statues of deities, four on each side; we recognized the universal pantheon of our lands. Longhelim’s god was there, as well as John’s and Felix’s. Each statue had a small slot between their feet. Religious music filled the hallway and we could also see murals at the far end of the hallway from where we were. They seemed to be of battles and war. An exit was apparent through a pair of double doors opposite. John sneaked through the hallway, searching carefully and then went through these double doors. As he opened these, we could just about see into a large room. John cast a spell which filled the area with a soft light and that illuminated what had obviously been a chapel, which at some point had been devastated and desecrated. It looked as if the devils worshipped different gods and they had made their opinion very clear as there were various piles of ash and debris scattered throughout, with the wooden remains of pews particularly prominent. There were also two dark curtains hanging on the back wall. Again, John searched the room carefully before disappearing through one of the curtains; there were obviously gaps in the wall behind at least one, probably both. </p><p> </p><p>We settled down to wait.</p><p> </p><p>It took some time but as we previously discussed, we could hear the screaming before we could see John. He was in trouble. I just hoped that it was little trouble as opposed to big trouble. We rushed into the main chapel. As we moved through the hallway of the gods, I noticed that the air was very sweet, as if perfumed; it befuddled me for a moment but the adrenalin must have burned it off because I barely noticed this before I got into the chapel. We burst in just in time to see John racing towards us, being chased by one of the flaming orc skeletons. Felix immediately brandished his holy symbol and almost comically, the thing skidded to a stop and immediately ran back the way it had come from, this time chased ponderously by the armoured forms of Victor and Longhelim. Both warriors disappeared through the purple curtains and then I heard the familiar sounds of Victor’s falchion hitting bone. Since Victor’s sword was wooden, the sound it made when it hit bone was quite different than that being made by a metal sword such as Longhelim’s. The sound didn’t last very long. The two warriors then returned.</p><p> </p><p>A panting John had recovered and was also waiting in the main chapel. He grinned at us:</p><p> </p><p>“Screaming like a girl works!”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim pursed his lips and looked at John just long enough to make apparent just what he thought of that comment; then he asked: “So, what did you find?”</p><p> </p><p>Totally unabashed, John replied:</p><p> </p><p>“Well, the whole chapel has a corridor running around it with various doors. These doors all lead into bedrooms, kitchens and stuff; basically rooms that double up as living quarters for the priests and servants; I even found a library; or remnants of one. Don’t get excited, Faden, there was nothing left, just shelves; oh, and a secret door. That led into another room which, by my calculations, is right behind this wall.”</p><p> </p><p>He motioned to left wall in the hallway of the gods; we had already found a secret room on the other side opposite wall; it was the one with the four glass offering jars.</p><p> </p><p>John continued:</p><p> </p><p>“Inside, there is a tub made out of gold, that’s full of water; there was also lots of incense and probably something else in the air because it was making me feel dizzy, so I didn’t go in. As for the other rooms, not much there really except that it was in one of those that I found boney over there.”</p><p> </p><p>He motioned towards the direction in which the skeleton had run.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim looked thoughtful: “Did you give the place a good search?”</p><p> </p><p>“Not really. I gave each room a cursory glance but I didn’t take time to search them. I was looking for enemy initially, as opposed to anything else. I thought it would be best to search them together.”</p><p> </p><p>The paladin agreed: “Right, let’s go. We’ll give the place a good search and then we find a place to rest.”</p><p> </p><p>That was what we did. The rooms were as John had described. He hadn’t mentioned that one of them showed some insane perversions between humans and devils drawn on the walls; I assumed that was the erinye’s room. She had an extraordinarily vivid imagination; or probably fairly normal for a devil. Anyway, the rooms didn’t yield many things except for one, which made up for the rest. Inside a study, we found two scrolls and two wands. The scrolls were incredibly powerful: one not only brought someone back from the dead, but it was an advanced form of the spell. Felix looked at it for a long time and then declared:</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m going to have to study it just to see what makes it different from my other spells of this type. I think I know, but I have to make sure……The other spell, well, let’s just say that we’re all going to have a really good breakfast tomorrow; in fact a totally magical breakfast.”</p><p> </p><p>We also had a brief glance into the room with the golden tub. It was a big tub. Short of smashing it and molding it into a lump of gold, that was going to stay there for the time being.</p><p> </p><p>We began to retreat at this point; through the main chapel, the hallway of the gods and finally through the entrance room into the main foyer. There, we could see a positive hive of activity. We had already heard them but we were unprepared at the gnomish and halfling chain that was ferrying various objects into the caravan; anything that could even remotely be of any value. Jorine and her party had obviously also had a successful foray as object after object was deposited into the wagon. They seemed to be coming out from the door beneath the chapel. I was fairly stupefied as I looked at them; when they had called themselves treasure hunters, they were not joking; they were utterly systematic in their hunting; we were amateurs in comparison.</p><p> </p><p>Jorine came up to us: “Did you have a successful rummage? We found a few trinkets. There were a bunch of stables and even some sort of riding track through those doors.”</p><p> </p><p>She pointed at the doors she had initially gone through.</p><p> </p><p>“We met a pair of undead riders on flying black horses which turned out to be difficult to defeat but we managed. We also came across more skeletons, including one which must have been some sort of priest because it was slinging priest spells. That one proved to be almost too tough. They were in a pump room; it seemed to be broken, but I think that if it was fixed, it would control most of the lower floor in this place. We also found a room with a swarm of flying burning insects, so we shut the door on that one straight away.”</p><p> </p><p>She then pointed at two falchions in the wagon.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, those two are magical; we also found one of these flying stones; the same type that’s flying around your head, Victor.</p><p> </p><p>So, what happened to you?”</p><p> </p><p>We gave an accurate account of what had happened. She was obviously being truthful with us so we reciprocated.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh good! You really couldn’t make that up. So……this arrangement is working for us then.</p><p> </p><p>Right, that main room? The chapel? Sounds like a good place to rest. Then tomorrow, we can repair the pump room and hopefully get the lift working. Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you. We found a lift going up but I think it’s broken. There was something nasty in the lift room so we just slammed the door for the time being. We’ll deal with it when necessary. We need to repair the pumps before we can look at the lift anyway. Faden, how’s your engineering? You’re a dwarf, you should understand these things.”</p><p> </p><p>I was taken aback: “Ummm……..”</p><p> </p><p>But she was already walking away, shouting at Oller about something.</p><p> </p><p>We waited while the Clan finished loading up their wagon and then we all retired to the main chapel.</p><p> </p><p>The gnomes gave the rooms a look and then Jorine approached us:</p><p> </p><p>“That golden tub in the secret room? Are you planning to do anything with it? I mean, by our agreement, at the moment it’s yours; you found it; but if you are just planning to leave it, then we’ll take it.”</p><p> </p><p>Quickly, I said: “No, we have plans for it. In fact, we’ll get it now.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim gave me a quick glance but then we went to the secret door and had a quick discussion.</p><p> </p><p>I said: “The only way we can carry that out of here is by making it into a lump of gold. Victor, you’ll have to do that with the hammer. We’ll put a rope around you and you go in and do that.”</p><p> </p><p>The warrior did as we asked. He went in and shouted: “The tub is full of holy water; does anyone want any?”</p><p> </p><p>Everyone filled up various vials, including the gnomes who claimed that holy water was very effective against the skeletons. Then there were several smashing sounds and Victor came out with a lump of gold, which was surprisingly small. I was amazed that such a large tub could be made into something so small. Then again, that was one of the beauties of gold; it was very easy to work.</p><p> </p><p>Then, Jorine cast a spell and a hut appeared; it was sturdy, well made and secure; a very good place to set up camp. Inside, Jorine did something very strange. She cast two more spells. I recognized them; they were the spells which revealed the properties of various magical items. However, she managed to cast them at an extraordinary speed. I made a note to ask how she did that.</p><p> </p><p>I could not do that then because I was very distracted. I had been inspired during our battle with the devils and I was feverishly writing down several formulae for new spells. They were in fact variations on some of my existing spells but more powerful. One of them was my lightning bolt, but I had worked out how it could affect several people. The secondary bolts would not be as powerful but at least they would still hit; I had also worked out how to make my fog cloud even more deadly: I could make it viscous and so thick that it was very difficult for anyone to walk through it; but now I had also worked out how to add a deadly twist and by giving the fog an acidic taint.</p><p> </p><p>I had also been thinking about the two rods which were still hanging motionlessly behind the smashed doors of the chapel. I theorized that if I could cast my own spells of divination magic in the morning, I would be able to work out the command word for each one and appropriate them. I was also still racking my brains as to how Jorine had cast her spells so quickly.</p><p> </p><p>We all woke up the next morning and began our preparations when Jorine approached us:</p><p> </p><p>“We’re planning to go to the pump room now. The only way to go up is to fix the pump and that should get the lift ready to go to the next floor. Once we fix it, we need to break the dam holding the water which should get the pump working.”</p><p> </p><p>I frowned: “What dam?”</p><p> </p><p>She turned to me:</p><p> </p><p>“There’s an underground stream or small river really; someone dammed it; probably to sabotage the lift but really, who knows what’s happened here? Anyway, if your friend with the big hammer could knock the dam down at the right time, then we’ll all be able to get up to the next floor.”</p><p> </p><p>I turned to Victor at this point, who nodded.</p><p> </p><p>Jorine continued: “So, what’re you planning to do?”</p><p> </p><p>I replied: “I want to cast a couple of divination spells on these rods; hopefully, that will tell you the command words or phrases. After that, well we are open to suggestions.”</p><p> </p><p>“Finish clearing out this level. I don’t think there’s much left since the sounds of battle would have drawn pretty much everyone out already; but there is that strange hall with sounds or merriment coming out of it; we didn’t go in but it should be checked out. There are also quite a lot of other rooms to go through.”</p><p> </p><p>I looked at Longhelim and John who both nodded thoughtfully.</p><p> </p><p>“That sounds like a good idea,” said the paladin.</p><p> </p><p>“So that’s settled then,” said Jorine and went back to her clan who promptly all left the chapel; several of them nodded to us in a friendly manner.</p><p> </p><p>I turned to the paladin:</p><p> </p><p>“What room with merriment coming out of it?”</p><p> </p><p>He replied: “Oh, she was telling me last night. They found a pair of double doors; when Oller listened, he said he could hear someone playing music and some sort of celebration. She said that after a little time, they could all hear it; apparently, whoever is having this bash is not being particularly quiet about it.”</p><p> </p><p>“I wonder who could be having a celebration in this place?” asked John.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s bound to be vampires,” I told him; “they heard we were coming so they’re having a party.”</p><p> </p><p>John glared at me and then said: “You don’t have the slightest idea as to how unfunny that is, do you?”</p><p> </p><p>Really, some people had no sense of humour.</p><p> </p><p>Leaving John to mull that over, I took out a pearl and we all marched to the room where rods were still suspended in the air and I began my spell while the others talked quietly among themselves. I soon lost myself in the magic while, paying little attention to the others until I saw Victor approaching the doorway; he was looking at something in the distance. Then John also moved past me and his voice disturbed the quiet:</p><p> </p><p>“There’s enemy coming. Skeletons!”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6141069, member: 6692807"] I had been thinking: “Right, so we have a group of devils here in the Chapel; the female was an erinyes; two bone devils and four bearded devils. That’s a very potent force. More importantly, all of them can teleport without hindrance. Fire is irrelevant to them. That means that they will have had the means to search this whole place for weeks. Now either that means that the Torch is in the hands of someone who is too powerful for a force of devils that size or more likely, that the Torch is not here.” Longhelim answered: “You are missing a third option. That the Torch is here but they just haven’t been able to find it.” “Yes, that is also a possibility but I think the least likely one; as we have seen, devils are very powerful and have very impressive magical abilities; although I grant you that it is still significant enough that we need to continue our search.” Something else occurred to me: “We also have to try to work out how they arrived in this place; devils don’t generally just appear on our plane when they want; powerful magic has to be used to bring them here.” Victor interrupted at this point: “There’s also the possibility that they actually didn’t know about the Torch. Anyway, while all of this is very interesting, it doesn’t change our ultimate aim. We need to rest and then carry on looking; while we are reasonably healthy. Faden, Felix, how are you on spells?” “Fairly low; I still have a couple of tricks up my sleeve if necessary but not for a fight like the one we’ve just had. Although we have to believe that those devils have to be greatest evil force in this area. If they’re not…….then we really are in over our heads” I replied. “Same here,” was Felix’s answer. “Most of my healing will be from wands now. Nearly all of my spells have been used.” John chimed in: “I tell you what. Let’s go outside and see if we can find a place to rest; as we’re going out, I’m going to poke my head into that pair of double doors; you remember the ones from where the singing was coming?” Longhelim looked at him: “You sure you want to do that? Things could get hairy for you.” “Oh yes!” John grinned. “If I get into trouble, I’ll scream like a girl!” With that, we retreated into the initial entry room. As John opened the doors which faced the exit, we saw that the opening beyond, more a hallway, was lined by eight statues of deities, four on each side; we recognized the universal pantheon of our lands. Longhelim’s god was there, as well as John’s and Felix’s. Each statue had a small slot between their feet. Religious music filled the hallway and we could also see murals at the far end of the hallway from where we were. They seemed to be of battles and war. An exit was apparent through a pair of double doors opposite. John sneaked through the hallway, searching carefully and then went through these double doors. As he opened these, we could just about see into a large room. John cast a spell which filled the area with a soft light and that illuminated what had obviously been a chapel, which at some point had been devastated and desecrated. It looked as if the devils worshipped different gods and they had made their opinion very clear as there were various piles of ash and debris scattered throughout, with the wooden remains of pews particularly prominent. There were also two dark curtains hanging on the back wall. Again, John searched the room carefully before disappearing through one of the curtains; there were obviously gaps in the wall behind at least one, probably both. We settled down to wait. It took some time but as we previously discussed, we could hear the screaming before we could see John. He was in trouble. I just hoped that it was little trouble as opposed to big trouble. We rushed into the main chapel. As we moved through the hallway of the gods, I noticed that the air was very sweet, as if perfumed; it befuddled me for a moment but the adrenalin must have burned it off because I barely noticed this before I got into the chapel. We burst in just in time to see John racing towards us, being chased by one of the flaming orc skeletons. Felix immediately brandished his holy symbol and almost comically, the thing skidded to a stop and immediately ran back the way it had come from, this time chased ponderously by the armoured forms of Victor and Longhelim. Both warriors disappeared through the purple curtains and then I heard the familiar sounds of Victor’s falchion hitting bone. Since Victor’s sword was wooden, the sound it made when it hit bone was quite different than that being made by a metal sword such as Longhelim’s. The sound didn’t last very long. The two warriors then returned. A panting John had recovered and was also waiting in the main chapel. He grinned at us: “Screaming like a girl works!” Longhelim pursed his lips and looked at John just long enough to make apparent just what he thought of that comment; then he asked: “So, what did you find?” Totally unabashed, John replied: “Well, the whole chapel has a corridor running around it with various doors. These doors all lead into bedrooms, kitchens and stuff; basically rooms that double up as living quarters for the priests and servants; I even found a library; or remnants of one. Don’t get excited, Faden, there was nothing left, just shelves; oh, and a secret door. That led into another room which, by my calculations, is right behind this wall.” He motioned to left wall in the hallway of the gods; we had already found a secret room on the other side opposite wall; it was the one with the four glass offering jars. John continued: “Inside, there is a tub made out of gold, that’s full of water; there was also lots of incense and probably something else in the air because it was making me feel dizzy, so I didn’t go in. As for the other rooms, not much there really except that it was in one of those that I found boney over there.” He motioned towards the direction in which the skeleton had run. Longhelim looked thoughtful: “Did you give the place a good search?” “Not really. I gave each room a cursory glance but I didn’t take time to search them. I was looking for enemy initially, as opposed to anything else. I thought it would be best to search them together.” The paladin agreed: “Right, let’s go. We’ll give the place a good search and then we find a place to rest.” That was what we did. The rooms were as John had described. He hadn’t mentioned that one of them showed some insane perversions between humans and devils drawn on the walls; I assumed that was the erinye’s room. She had an extraordinarily vivid imagination; or probably fairly normal for a devil. Anyway, the rooms didn’t yield many things except for one, which made up for the rest. Inside a study, we found two scrolls and two wands. The scrolls were incredibly powerful: one not only brought someone back from the dead, but it was an advanced form of the spell. Felix looked at it for a long time and then declared: “I’ve never seen anything like this. I’m going to have to study it just to see what makes it different from my other spells of this type. I think I know, but I have to make sure……The other spell, well, let’s just say that we’re all going to have a really good breakfast tomorrow; in fact a totally magical breakfast.” We also had a brief glance into the room with the golden tub. It was a big tub. Short of smashing it and molding it into a lump of gold, that was going to stay there for the time being. We began to retreat at this point; through the main chapel, the hallway of the gods and finally through the entrance room into the main foyer. There, we could see a positive hive of activity. We had already heard them but we were unprepared at the gnomish and halfling chain that was ferrying various objects into the caravan; anything that could even remotely be of any value. Jorine and her party had obviously also had a successful foray as object after object was deposited into the wagon. They seemed to be coming out from the door beneath the chapel. I was fairly stupefied as I looked at them; when they had called themselves treasure hunters, they were not joking; they were utterly systematic in their hunting; we were amateurs in comparison. Jorine came up to us: “Did you have a successful rummage? We found a few trinkets. There were a bunch of stables and even some sort of riding track through those doors.” She pointed at the doors she had initially gone through. “We met a pair of undead riders on flying black horses which turned out to be difficult to defeat but we managed. We also came across more skeletons, including one which must have been some sort of priest because it was slinging priest spells. That one proved to be almost too tough. They were in a pump room; it seemed to be broken, but I think that if it was fixed, it would control most of the lower floor in this place. We also found a room with a swarm of flying burning insects, so we shut the door on that one straight away.” She then pointed at two falchions in the wagon. “Oh, those two are magical; we also found one of these flying stones; the same type that’s flying around your head, Victor. So, what happened to you?” We gave an accurate account of what had happened. She was obviously being truthful with us so we reciprocated. “Oh good! You really couldn’t make that up. So……this arrangement is working for us then. Right, that main room? The chapel? Sounds like a good place to rest. Then tomorrow, we can repair the pump room and hopefully get the lift working. Oh, sorry, I forgot to tell you. We found a lift going up but I think it’s broken. There was something nasty in the lift room so we just slammed the door for the time being. We’ll deal with it when necessary. We need to repair the pumps before we can look at the lift anyway. Faden, how’s your engineering? You’re a dwarf, you should understand these things.” I was taken aback: “Ummm……..” But she was already walking away, shouting at Oller about something. We waited while the Clan finished loading up their wagon and then we all retired to the main chapel. The gnomes gave the rooms a look and then Jorine approached us: “That golden tub in the secret room? Are you planning to do anything with it? I mean, by our agreement, at the moment it’s yours; you found it; but if you are just planning to leave it, then we’ll take it.” Quickly, I said: “No, we have plans for it. In fact, we’ll get it now.” Longhelim gave me a quick glance but then we went to the secret door and had a quick discussion. I said: “The only way we can carry that out of here is by making it into a lump of gold. Victor, you’ll have to do that with the hammer. We’ll put a rope around you and you go in and do that.” The warrior did as we asked. He went in and shouted: “The tub is full of holy water; does anyone want any?” Everyone filled up various vials, including the gnomes who claimed that holy water was very effective against the skeletons. Then there were several smashing sounds and Victor came out with a lump of gold, which was surprisingly small. I was amazed that such a large tub could be made into something so small. Then again, that was one of the beauties of gold; it was very easy to work. Then, Jorine cast a spell and a hut appeared; it was sturdy, well made and secure; a very good place to set up camp. Inside, Jorine did something very strange. She cast two more spells. I recognized them; they were the spells which revealed the properties of various magical items. However, she managed to cast them at an extraordinary speed. I made a note to ask how she did that. I could not do that then because I was very distracted. I had been inspired during our battle with the devils and I was feverishly writing down several formulae for new spells. They were in fact variations on some of my existing spells but more powerful. One of them was my lightning bolt, but I had worked out how it could affect several people. The secondary bolts would not be as powerful but at least they would still hit; I had also worked out how to make my fog cloud even more deadly: I could make it viscous and so thick that it was very difficult for anyone to walk through it; but now I had also worked out how to add a deadly twist and by giving the fog an acidic taint. I had also been thinking about the two rods which were still hanging motionlessly behind the smashed doors of the chapel. I theorized that if I could cast my own spells of divination magic in the morning, I would be able to work out the command word for each one and appropriate them. I was also still racking my brains as to how Jorine had cast her spells so quickly. We all woke up the next morning and began our preparations when Jorine approached us: “We’re planning to go to the pump room now. The only way to go up is to fix the pump and that should get the lift ready to go to the next floor. Once we fix it, we need to break the dam holding the water which should get the pump working.” I frowned: “What dam?” She turned to me: “There’s an underground stream or small river really; someone dammed it; probably to sabotage the lift but really, who knows what’s happened here? Anyway, if your friend with the big hammer could knock the dam down at the right time, then we’ll all be able to get up to the next floor.” I turned to Victor at this point, who nodded. Jorine continued: “So, what’re you planning to do?” I replied: “I want to cast a couple of divination spells on these rods; hopefully, that will tell you the command words or phrases. After that, well we are open to suggestions.” “Finish clearing out this level. I don’t think there’s much left since the sounds of battle would have drawn pretty much everyone out already; but there is that strange hall with sounds or merriment coming out of it; we didn’t go in but it should be checked out. There are also quite a lot of other rooms to go through.” I looked at Longhelim and John who both nodded thoughtfully. “That sounds like a good idea,” said the paladin. “So that’s settled then,” said Jorine and went back to her clan who promptly all left the chapel; several of them nodded to us in a friendly manner. I turned to the paladin: “What room with merriment coming out of it?” He replied: “Oh, she was telling me last night. They found a pair of double doors; when Oller listened, he said he could hear someone playing music and some sort of celebration. She said that after a little time, they could all hear it; apparently, whoever is having this bash is not being particularly quiet about it.” “I wonder who could be having a celebration in this place?” asked John. “It’s bound to be vampires,” I told him; “they heard we were coming so they’re having a party.” John glared at me and then said: “You don’t have the slightest idea as to how unfunny that is, do you?” Really, some people had no sense of humour. Leaving John to mull that over, I took out a pearl and we all marched to the room where rods were still suspended in the air and I began my spell while the others talked quietly among themselves. I soon lost myself in the magic while, paying little attention to the others until I saw Victor approaching the doorway; he was looking at something in the distance. Then John also moved past me and his voice disturbed the quiet: “There’s enemy coming. Skeletons!” [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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