NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JollyDoc" data-source="post: 4822781" data-attributes="member: 9546">FULL DISCLOSURE‘Katarina, they’re calling for you.’Kat recognized the voice as easily as she recognized her own.  It was Zellara, the Harrow reader who’d first assembled the members of the K.I.A.  Kat also knew what Zellara was referring to.‘I know,’ Kat sighed, ‘but I’m so tired.  I want to rest for awhile.’‘There’ll be time for that later, daughter,’ Zellara said, ‘perhaps more time than you would wish.  For now, though, there is still work for you.  I have seen this.  You must unite the tribes, and then you must retrieve the dragon’s bane.  Only then can you destroy the Crown of Fangs.  Only then can Korvosa, and Varisia itself know peace again.  It’s time to go, daughter.’‘Tribes?  Dragon?  Crown?’  Kat asked.   ‘What does it all mean?’‘All in good time, daughter.’  Zellara’s voice seemed to be coming from a great distance, and Kat could see the darkness that enfolded her begin to brighten…_________________________________________________________“Tribes?  Dragon?  Crown?”  Kat gasped aloud as her eyes fluttered open.“It worked,” Michael said, blowing out his breath as he leaned back on his heels, sweet beading on his brow.“You mean you weren’t sure it would?”  Valeris asked as he raised one eyebrow.The priest shrugged.  “I had faith, but it’s the first time I’ve ever tried to bring someone back to life.”“And hopefully the last for me,” Kat groaned as she sat up and massaged her temples.  “It’s not an experience I would want to repeat.”“What were you talking about when you came to?”  Ratbone asked.“I…don’t…remember,” Kat said.  “It’s like a fading dream.  Like it’s just beyond my reach.”“Well, now’s not the time for dream catching,” O’Reginald said.  He had been staring down the long hallway that lay beyond the deadly fountain of spinning blades.  When he turned towards his companions, his eyes glowed brilliant blue.  “Looks like our next challenge is just ahead.”Eight alcoves lined the long, narrow passage.  Inside each one stood a human-sized upright iron casket, the image of a sobbing woman decorating its lid.  The hallway’s floor was smeared bright red, a mosaic of tiny red stones that gave the appearance that the hall was awash in blood.“It’s a trap,” O’Reginald said as the group peered down the hall.  “I can see magical auras emanating from the caskets, but I can’t discern their nature.  Necromancy, I think.”“Let me take a look,” Kat said.“Do you think that’s a good idea?”  Michael asked.  “I mean…that’s what led to your…situation.”“I didn’t know what I was walking into,” Kat smiled.  “This time I do.”She knelt down and examined the floor between the first pair of alcoves.“Clever,” she shook her head, “and very deadly.  When the first person steps past these statues, the sections of floor between each set of alcoves will rise up at an angle, dumping the person in between the statues, and preventing them from escaping.  That’s when the magic ‘Reg detected takes effect, but I’m not sure what it does.  I do know that after that, the caskets are designed to spring open.  I imagine something nasty would come out.  Don’t worry though.  It’s wicked, but relatively simple to disable.”One-by-one, Kat dismantled the mechanisms between the statues, allowing her companions to pass safely down the hall until they reached a closed door at the far end.  Beyond the door lay a bare room, the walls, floor and ceiling decorated with a complex mosaic that depicted an immense swarm of wasps.  Kat stopped her friends before they could enter, kneeling down once more to examine the floor before she entered.  “Another trap,” she said.  “Needles.  Poisoned I’d guess.  They’d come out of every surface the moment we stepped in.  See?  If I know what I’m looking for, it presents only a mild inconvenience.”Once more, Kat disarmed the trap.  The room was otherwise empty, save for a small alcove strewn with bones and patches of mold.  Protruding from the wall of the alcove was an ebony lever.  Ratbone glanced at his companions to make sure they were ready, and then he pulled the lever.  Once again, the floor rumbled and moved, rotating the room counterclockwise.  When it came to a halt, a new room was visible where the wasp trap had been.  Four alcoves in the walls contained floating spheres of mist, each hovering three feet off the ground.  Each sphere was a foot in diameter…one was black, one white, one green and one gold.  Just north of  the strange spheres, two levers protruded from opposite walls.  “There’s magic here,” O’Reginald needlessly announced.  “Conjuration, I think.  It could summon something in here with us.”“Or be a source of healing,” Michael observed.“Only one way to tell,” Ratbone shrugged.  He stepped to the first alcove, the one bearing the golden globe, touched it…and promptly vanished.“Or teleportation,” O’Reginald said.  “Hadn’t thought of that.”Kat sighed.  “I guess we’re committed.  Here goes nothing.”She too touched the golden sphere, and she too disappeared.  O’Reginald followed, then Michael, and then Valeris.  Only Herc and Orisini remained.“After you, Master,” Herc gestured.Orisini looked hesitant.  “Are you sure about this?” he asked the big mercenary.  “We’re just assuming its teleportation.  They could all be dead, for all we know.”Herc shrugged.  “Could be.  If they are, we aren’t going to be able to do much on our own.  All or nothing.”He stepped up and touched the sphere, confident that the fencing master would follow behind._______________________________________________________It took quite awhile for the companions to realize that Orisini had not followed them.  There were too many other distractions.  In the first place, the room they all found themselves in had no way out.  Instead, a five-foot diameter pool of murky green water nearly filled the small, circular chamber.  Ratbone, in his large, bipedal, horned predator form, stood submerged in the pool up to his neck.  A glowing arcane rune glared from one wall, and Herc cowered beneath it, blind panic on his face, his sword forgotten at his feet.  The rest of the group searched the walls frantically for any sign of a hidden door or lever.  There was nothing.  Moments later, however, the room began to rotate.  The southern wall slid slowly aside to reveal another room…one they’d already seen before.  In fact, it was the very first room they’d come to upon entering the labyrinth, only this time, it was not unoccupied…The creature was not human…at least not all of her was.  From the waist up she did, in fact, resemble a beautiful, if coldly deadly woman.  Below that, however, her body was that of a powerful lion, with small black wings protruding from her back, and a barbed, spike-like tail that lashed the air behind her.  She carried two, blood-red kukris in her hands.  “You are trespassing on Arkona land,” she said flatly.  “It is my duty to kill you all.  It’s nothing personal.”She leaned casually forward, and slashed both of her blades viciously across Herc’s quivering abdomen.  Suddenly, a furious roar filled both chambers as Ratbone lunged out of the pool, his jaws clamping down on the arm of the dark sphinx.  Her eyes widened in shock as a rime of golden ice cascaded up to her shoulder.  Ratbone’s claws ripped at her as her reflexes dulled and slowed, and even more ice began to encase her limbs.  In a matter of moments, she was completely paralyzed, and completely at the mercy of the savage druid.  Within seconds, he had reduced her to a bloody corpse.It took a few minutes for Herc to recover from the magic-induced fear, but even then, he could not answer as to Orisini’s whereabouts.“I thought he was right behind me,” the mercenary said.  “Maybe when the labyrinth rotated again, he got trapped.”“Hmph.  Maybe.”  Valeris grunted.  “Well, there’s no way back from here,” Kat observed, and she was correct.  There was no lever in either room.  The only way out was the door leading back to the passage which in turn lead back to the torture chamber where the seneschal was hiding.  The companions made their way there, and found Kalepopolis just as they’d left him.  He was relieved to hear they’d found Orisini, but disturbed to learn they’d lost him again.  The group reassured him that they would not leave without the fencing master.  They returned to the cavernous gear room, and from there Ratbone, in his avian guise, shuttled them back up the shaft Michael had created, and back inside the labyrinth.  Once there, they discovered that the chamber had opened up onto an oddly-shaped hallway, the walls of which were decorated in a complex mural that depicted a jungle brimming with hungry life.  Predators of every sort stalked and maimed and fed on dozens of hapless men and women.  In the canopy above, monkeys, snakes, and birds seemed to chatter and mock the victims below.  Standing in the middle of the hallway was none other than Orisini.“Thanks the gods your safe!” he said, relief on his face.  “I tried to follow you, but as I touched the orb, the labyrinth began to turn, and I ended up here.  I had no idea where you had gone.  Are you ok?”“We’re fine,” Ratbone said, assuming his normal form.  “We met your friend…the dark sphinx.”“Sivit?”  Orisini said, his voice incredulous.  “What happened?”“We’re here, she’s not,” Ratbone shrugged.“I’m…relieved!”  Orisini said.  “It’s done then!  We can leave and confront Glorio now!”“Not quite yet,” Ratbone said.  “We want to explore the labyrinth a bit more…just to make sure that Lord Arkona hasn’t planned any more nasty surprises for us.”Orisini shook his head.  “No,” he said sharply.  “I’m done with this place.  I’ve risked my life for the past several days trying to escape it.  If you insist on doing this, then I’ll wait for you back with Kalepopolis.  We’ll give you a day.  If you’re not back by then, I’m taking him from here and I’ll try and get him to safety.”“I’m sorry you feel that way,” Kat said, “but I understand.  We’ll be back shortly.  You have my word.”_________________________________________________________The six companions had a problem.  In order to rotate the room again, one of them would have to stay behind to pull the lever, which was located in an adjoining chamber.  Katarina volunteered.  She pulled the lever and watched her friends vanish behind the rotating wall.  Then she settled back to wait, rendering herself invisible as a precaution, and melted into the shadows.Meanwhile, the remaining agents continued through the labyrinth, room after room, venturing deeper and deeper in.  Occasionally they came across another of the sphinx’s arcane symbols, but they found no other living creatures…until they reached one chamber in particular.  A great green throne sat atop a dais in the northern end of the room.  To either side stood statues of a tiger-headed man.  Each held aloft a pair of chains from which manacles dangled.  Dried blood spattered the walls, floor and even the throne and statues, filling the room with its stale reek.  Shackled to one statue was an unconscious man, his hair hanging lank across his face.  Michael moved quickly across the room and lifted the man’s head.  The features were battered and bruised, but there could be no mistake.  It was Vencarlo Orisini…__________________________________________________________Kat heard something.  A soft scrape.  It had come from the hole in the floor which Michael had burrowed down to the gear chamber below.  Then, as she watched, Kat saw a figure rise silently from the hole.  It was Orisini, the clothing and gear of Black Jack unmistakable, but as he turned slightly, Kat saw the terrible truth.  The creature that wore Orisini’s clothing was definitely female, as evidenced by the ample curves she sported, but she was anything but human.  Where her head should have been, she instead had the face of a gimlet-eyed fox.  Two kukris were gripped in her hand.  She paused at the top of the hole and sniffed the air.  Kat stopped breathing, afraid even that slight noise might give away her presence.  After a moment, the creature stepped into the room.  She went to the corner which led to the passage down which Kat’s companions had gone to the rotating room.  She stared intently at the blank wall there, then she flattened herself against the corner…and waited.  Kat was trapped, and her friends, when they returned, would be walking straight into a kill zone…_________________________________________________________“Bring him!”  Ratbone shouted.  Herc had shattered the chains holding the fencing master, but Michael had been unable to revive him.  The druid decided they didn’t have any longer to wait.  Whoever was impersonating Orisini was alone with the seneschal.  Worse, Kat was alone as well, and had no idea of the danger she faced.  Herc quickly shouldered the unconscious man, and the group began hurrying back the way they’d come.________________________________________________________Kat sensed her companions before she saw them.  She had been sending her thoughts out desperately, trying to warn them of the danger.  Finally, as the wall at the end of the passage began to slide open, she touched them.‘It’s a trap!’ she screamed in her mindRatbone, at the head of the group, had just stepped into the hall when Kat’s mental shout assaulted him.  He paused for a moment, and his enhanced senses in his predator form picked out the figure hidden in the shadows beyond the corner.  The would-be assassin, however, sensed something was wrong as well, and knew she’d been discovered.  She quickly reached behind her and slammed the lever down.  Immediately, the archway Ratbone had just stepped through began to close again, carrying his allies away once more, and leaving only he and Kat to face the imposter.“You’ve been fools and pawns from the beginning,” the fox woman said as she stepped from the shadows.  “Glorio thought he would use you to kill me, but I’ve always been smarter than my brother.  I have been watching you for a long time, from the moment I placed my spy among you.”She reached into her cloak and pulled out a very familiar looking silver dagger…the same one that Valeris had carried for so long.  In her hand, it transformed into a serpent, its crimson eyes flashing evilly as it coiled itself around her arm.“I always suspected that you would achieve great things, and thus might be useful to me.  When I discovered that you’d entered the labyrinth, however, I knew that Glorio had gotten to you first.  It was my fervent wish that you would simply do as I suggested, and kill Glorio.  Believe me, he means you no good will.  It would have been to your benefit to rid Korvosa of him, and I would have rewarded you suitably, but no…you insisted on your petty suspicions and codes of honor, and now you’ve forced my hand.  I take no pleasure in killing you, but I will show my brother that I am no one to be trifled with.”She leaped towards Ratbone, but as she did, a barbed tentacle suddenly sprouted from his back and slashed at her.  She dodged the brunt of the blow, but a thin line of black blood flowed down her cheek.  She dipped one finger in it and licked it.  A thin smile stretched across her muzzle, and then, almost too quickly to follow, she snatched a javelin from her back and hurled it at the druid.  As it left her hand, it transformed into a brilliant bolt of energy, and as it struck, Ratbone’s body went rigid as every hair stood on end._________________________________________________________“I…hate…this…place!!”  O’Reginald screamed as he pounded his fist against the blank wall.  Then, before any of his friends could react, he turned and grabbed Herc by the shoulders.“Hang on, big boy,” he said, and then both of them abruptly vanished.  “Guess that just leaves you and me,” Valeris said to Michael.  “You got any cards?”__________________________________________________________While Ratbone struggled to recover, the Arkona woman lunged at him, kukris flashing.  She cut deeply into the druid’s tough hide, and he reeled back.  He shook his head desperately to clear it, and reached out blindly, trying to draw the fox woman into his grip.  For his trouble, he received another vicious slash to his arm.  Kat feared for her friend’s life.  In desperation, she risked exposing herself, becoming visible as she hurled a sonic lance at the woman.  To her astonishment, however, the spell simply vanished as it touched the Arkona.  The woman turned her head slowly and smiled at Kat.“Well, hello there,” she said.__________________________________________________________O’Reginald and Herc appeared in mid-air high above the floor of the gear control cavern.“Whoa!”  Herc said as his feet dangled over nothing.  “Warn me next time.”“I did,” O’Reginald said.  “Now I’m warning you again.  Hang on again.  We’re going for a ride.”The sorcerer wrapped his arms around the big merc’s neck, piggy-back style, having imbued Herc with the power of flight the instant before they had teleported.  Now he had the warrior shuttle him across the vast chamber until they arrived directly below the entrance to the hole Michael had carved through the labyrinth above.The fox-faced Arkona stepped across the hole to reach Kat, slashing with her blades in a large X across the beguiler’s abdomen.  Kat crumpled as her belly opened, and the creature leaned over her for the kill.  At that moment, a column of white-hot flame erupted from the hole and engulfed the woman.  When the flames died, nothing remained but a pile of ash.__________________________________________________________Sometime later, the companions gathered together once more in the torture chamber.  They had found the seneschal alive, but unconscious and badly beaten.  It had taken all of Michael’s skills to revive him and Vencarlo, and to repair Kat’s and Ratbone’s wounds.  Many explanations and comparisons of stories followed.“I’m sorry to drag you into all of this, my friends,” Orisini said, “but I can’t help but admit relief that you arrived when you did.  As for Glorio Arkona, I’m not certain what he is, but I know what he is not…an ally of Ileosa.  There has never been any love lost between House Arkona and the Crown.  I suggest we leave him for another day.  We have larger issues to deal with now.”The group made their way back to the sea cave, and boarded the small boat moored at the dock.  They left through the tunnel and emerged into the harbor under the cover of darkness.  Vencarlo set a course due west, and they disappeared into the darkness.</blockquote>

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