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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 1800578" data-attributes="member: 1210">Meanwhile, in the Temple of Elemental Evil....11 a.m, 9/9/96, on the first level of the Temple of Elemental EvilOur heroes burst into the room, taking yet another set of guards by surprise.  How could these dwellers in this evil place be so disorganized?  How could they not know by now that they were being attacked systematically?  How could our heroes keep succeeding in brutal frontal assaults?Lady Charlotte’s blade sang as it deflected off the lead guard’s shield, but Malford tumbled in and thrust his shortsword into the guard’s kidneys from behind.  “Adventurers!” one of the other bad guys cried, but then he gave a last gurgling noise as Dexter’s staff of combat crushed his head. The bodies lay in puddles of steaming blood in a few short minutes, and our heroes congratulated themselves again.  Malford was already searching the corpses.  “Look at this,” he called, snapping the string of an amulet than one of the guards had been wearing and holding it up.  “Another different symbol.”The group crowded around to observe.  Indeed, this time the symbol was a weird diamond-shaped pendant in red.  “I think they must have various factions,” reasoned Dexter.  “We’ve found three different symbols so far, right?  And there are definitely multiple temples down here- we’ve seen pretty much elementalist themes.  What if they don’t really like each other?”“Then we kill them all,” Lochenvare said with a toothy grin.  “That would explain why they don’t seem to know we’re slaughtering them,” Malford mused.  “Well, my friends,” said Lady Charlotte, “it seems to me that instead of questioning our fortunes, we should continue smiting the villains in this evil place.”Lochenvare gave an unpleasant laugh.  “For once, the woman and I are on the same page.”  Lady Keen gave him a frown for his trouble, but he just leered at her.***2:15 p.m.Several more groups of guards, human and goblin and bugbear, have fallen to the band of heroes by the time it happened.  Malford nodded after listening to the door before the party.  “People talking in there,” he whispered, giving Lochenvare the nod.With a grin, the big burly fighter threw himself into the door.  It smashed to splinters as he barreled through, screaming wildly, and hewing about him.  Blood sprayed, the smell of burning flesh immediately sprang into the air as Malford’s burning hands took out a pair of the axe-wielding guards, the sounds of weapons scraping out of their sheathes was met with the wet thump of Dexter’s staff braining the villains.But though the initial onslaught dropped half the guards, the others rallied, forming a line around their leader, who pulled out an axe lovingly sharpened to a razor’s edge and commenced giving a spirited reply to the party.  He leapt forward, hacking brutally, and brushed Charlotte aside like a fly.  While the other heroes dealt with the remaining lackeys, Lochenvare roared his approval of the leader and met him, blade against blade.  The two warriors slashed and hewed at each other, until, with a single decisive blow, the axe-wielding man sheered off Lochenvare’s foot at the ankle!  With a cry, he fell bleeding and unconscious.  “No!  Lochenvare!” screamed Malford, and rushed to his side to pour a potion of healing down his throat, saving the fighter’s life.  Lady Charlotte was dragging herself up, trying to clear her head.  One of the other guards tried to take advantage of the moment and spear her, but Galador’s righteous fury filled her and she stabbed him in the lung.  That was enough for him; he collapsed, trying to breathe air but finding only blood in his lungs.Meanwhile, Dexter rose up against the grinning axeman, spinning his staff and landing a solid blow on the man’s thigh.  He staggered, but swung again- the single blow in all of Cydra’s history to have the most repercussions.  If Dexter hadn’t jerked back at the last moment, it would have cut his head in two.  Blood and tissue sprayed everywhere, and with a horrible scream of agony, Dexter fell against the wall, clutching his face.  “My eyes!” he screamed.Malford leapt forward, driving his sword through the axe-wielder’s groin.  The human groaned and his axe fell to the ground with a clang as his lifeless body slipped down into an almost fetal position.  “My eyes!” howled Dexter.  “I can’t see!!  My eyes!!”  He staggered around drunkenly, his hands clutched to his face.  Blood poured from a terrible wound all across the front of his face.  “My eyes!” he shrieked again.“They’re over here,” groaned Lochenvare, pointing at the floor a few feet away.  “Right next to my foot.”Next Time: Blind faith indeed!</blockquote>

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