KidCthulhu's Scarred Land story hour

[Iron Chef BBQ]

desecrated temple (end of run on 07-01-03)

Our band of weary adventurers moves cautiously through the temple buildings removing boards from windows as they go. Everywhere they find alters and shrines desecrated. Kel prays for guidance. His eyes closed, he cleanses his mind of the ruined shrine. He concentrates only on the holy symbol of Corean. All the sounds and smells of the temple around him fade away. In his rapture he is again standing in the middle of an open field, fresh air blowing through the grasses. He sees the woman with the dark hair and blue eyes. She is petting a white horse. Her eyes meet Kel’s, and in a single glance impart concern, worry and hope. She mounts and rides away. Kel opens his eyes to find himself sprawled face down on the floor, beads of sweat pouring off his face.

Lucre calls to the group. He’s found a room that looks like an office. Everything in the room is charred like it was burned, but there is no soot. The others join him as he is trying to pick the lock of a desk. Deke steps in and instead of taking out his tools, he pulls out a pocketknife. The wood is so burned; he merely chisels out the wood around the lock which falls intact into his palm. Inside the desk they find the accounts and logs of the shrine and two bags of gold. Kel detects magic and finds a glowing gold amulet with a white enameled horse. He puts it on.

The adjoining room appears to be living quarters. The room is completely trashed. There is a wooden box on the table, a pine coffin. Kel ties it shut, and with Deke sitting on top, Lucre and Borin carry it outside and pry off the lid. A body wearing blue robes and a white belt falls out. Despite the fact that it is decomposing, they stake it, cut off its head and leave it in the sun.

Back inside they check the next room which is predictably a bedroom. The floor is littered with a child’s drawings that have been torn to shreds. Under the bed Deke finds a carved portrait of a dark-haired woman. Although Kel says nothing, he immediately recognizes her as the woman from his visions. The back of the portrait reads, “To my beloved, Althea.”

The party devises a quick plan led by Borin and Deke, but tempered by Kel. They will head into the basement with torches and oil. If people start dropping, those remaining will burn the place down.

At the bottom of the stairs they are faced with two corridors. Kalina casts wall of hornets to block of one direction. Over the buzzing sound Marja can just make out the sound of a gurgling cry from the first room to their left. Lucre kicks the door in. The room that was once a simple monk’s cell is in a shambles. Every piece of furniture, every book and candle, is broken. There is a man dressed in tattered monk’s robes chained to the wall. To their horror, two gray skinned creatures are nibbling on his toes. His features freeze.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

Searching for the Abbot (run of 07-15-03)

Borin rushes in and lops off the head of the nearest ghoul. Bits of toe spew out of its mouth at the head hits the back wall. He slashes at the next one which looks up in total surprise. Marja pushes through the crowd at the door and sends a single magic missile into the wounded ghoul which falls never getting the chance to completely grasp what is happening. Her remaining two missiles sear into the chest of one of the two remaining creatures. Kel barrels into the room sword swinging and strikes at the other which lays down a piece of calf meat like he’s perturbed by this disruption of his evening meal. He claws at Kel and manages to sink his teeth into the little space where Kel’s wrist pokes out of his gauntlet. Kel feels his jaw seize up, but the adrenalin in his veins overrides the weak poison. He swings his sword in a complete circle over his head and through the creature’s chest. Fang bounds onto the one Marja wounded and in a swift bite, tears it apart.

Quickly and as gently as possible, the healers pull the poor priest from the wall and begin the healing process. As soon as he can speak he tells a ghastly tale. He has been hanging in that room for three months, being eaten by ghouls and rehealed by
Ardis Cadfeil. It is clear the poor man isn’t ready to relate more of his experiences so Deke takes him upstairs to safety with several bottles of healing potions to help bring the man along. Kenyan recognizes the name Ardis Cadfeil. He was the abbot here. He was married and had a two-year-old son, probably the Althea of the portrait and the poor little vampire.

As Deke and the monk struggle up the stairs, Borin is moving door by door, listening briefly at each one, and then kicking it in. The first room is empty. Lucre joins the process. He hears the sound of sticks knocking together. Opening the door he finds a large room with padded walls covered with weapons displays, a training room. In the middle of the floor lies a body being whacked by two ghouls with quarterstaffs. Borin rushes in and strikes. As Lucre dashes in he tosses Marja his crossbow which goes off in her hands before she can aim it. His strike is not impeded, and he attacks, but does not kill the nearest creature which turns and lunges at him, but Lucre manages to shake off the poison and kill the beast. Kenyan pokes his head into the room from the relative safety of the hallway. With a flick of his wrist his wand sends three magic missiles into the ghoul nearest Borin which dies. Lucre breaks the quarterstaffs and stabs all the bodies for good measure.

As they move carefully down the hallway, they find destruction and often rotting bodies in abandoned rooms, but nothing either living or undead. At the end of the hallway, the corridor turns to the right, and they find another hallway of equal length with four more doors. The next room is a library, and every book has been torn apart. Marja is moved by this senseless destruction. “They don’t read. Why don’t they leave the books alone?” Borin replies, “They believe RIF – Rending is fundamental.”

The next room is remarkably intact. There is a large wall hanging of a great white horse, but the horse has been desecrated. Kel pulls the tapestry down. Lucre breaks into a sideboard and finds an iron box. Something inside it rattles. He sets it aside for Deke. The next room is long and narrow with a big table in the middle. It is the ruined kitchen. The last room on the hall was the scriptorium. Desks with continual light spheres are in a line. Four ghouls sit at the desks writing on long pieces of flesh that they are unwrapping from their arms. A larger ghoul walks between them with a switch in his hand. Borin swings his axe at the master, but feels it being magically pushed away. Kel turns undead, and the four writers fall. The master turns and growls. He points at Borin and whispers, “Die!” Borin laughs, his defiance causing the spell to fissile. Kalina approaches with the green living glow of healing on her hands. The ghoul tries to attack as she approaches, but is distracted as he tries to avoid her touch. Borin swings again, and this time he cuts a slice out of the creature’s back. Kel can see its spine poking out of the wound. He steps in and breaks the spine in two, and the creature falls. Kel cuts off its head.

The group wanders down the remaining hallway, but find nothing more until they reach the wall of hornets. They backtrack to return to the stairs while Kel detects magic. They find one intact magic scroll and two vials. They take these and the strong box two the stairs.

The wall of hornets is engulfing 5 doors on the last hallway. Kenyan throws his voice down the hall to sound like it is at each door, saying, “I say, all you ghouls and ghoulish things come out and get what’s coming to you. I have a might firebrand of retribution and will smite your unholy souls.” The trick works. Two doors open and five figures shamble out into the hornets. They’re all in a line, and Marja pulls out a lightening bolt scroll and yells for everyone to wait. Borin jumps in and kills the first one in line. Marja isn’t wasting a scroll on 4 ghouls and a fellow party member. She steps back and pouts.

The ghouls advance, and Lucre shoots a crossbow bolt through the first one’s neck. They see hornets fly through the hole. Kel waits until it steps out of the hornets and kills it. They quickly finish off the rest.

As the hornets disappear, they search the last rooms. Fang can smell the abbot and paws at a desk. Kalina finds a leather-bound journal. The front of the journal has ordinary entries about temple visitors, crops and horses. Four months ago the entries start to change. The abbot’s wife and son have died of a sudden illness. The temple healer was unable to help. The abbot is distraught. Each day his writing becomes more frantic as he becomes consumed with grief, guilt and anger. Finally, he curses and blasphemes Corean writing, “I will do it tonight. I will give my soul to whomever will take it!” Three days later the precise handwriting has returned. He describes the systematic destruction of the temple and how he turned some of the order into ghouls when it became impossible to hide his “darkness.” His anger and hatred began to scorch the land. He dug up the body of his son and fed him his blood. Of his wife he writes, “She would not come to me.”

Deke comes downstairs cautiously since he has not heard any noise in some time. He left Brother Niall resting and has explored the stables. He absolutely forbids Kalina or Kel from entering saying only that the horses are all dead. Brother Niall has told him more. He was the cleric who failed to heal Cadfeil’s wife and son, and was being kept alive and tortured as punishment. Deke searches the basement and is appalled at all the stuff the others overlooked. There’s tons of valuable stuff down here: potion components, parchment and a few undamaged books like “Mind Magiks: Fact and Fiction,” the Temple of Corean report on Secret Societies and “Monster Manual with Prophecies of Akbar.” He easily springs the lockbox and finds a ring with the Corean holy symbol. Kel puts it on.

The party carefully walks around the main temple and the grounds. Fang can not smell the abbot anywhere. A few of the others go into the stables and see the remains of horses that look like they were tortured horribly before their deaths. Outside, Kel is sure that he sees a large white horse trot out the stable door.

They continue their search in the graveyard. They don’t have too much daylight left. Reexamining the graves of Althea and her son, they notice that the earth is very dry and cracked. They begin to dig. When they reach the coffins, Borin smashes in the lid of Althea’s with his axe. Kel smashes the baby’s and finds a tiny body. Lucre jumps in and steaks it. Lucre turns to Althea’s coffin. He sees a face and strikes, but hits the back of an empty coffin, then Borin attacks.

Lucre manages to tumble out of Borin’s reach. Marja tries twice to cast dispel magic from a scroll, but cannot concentrate properly. Both attempts fail. Deke carefully inspects the coffin. It is empty. Kalina summons a constrictor. There is so little living near the shrine that she finds it very difficult, but she concentrates and draws life from deep within the soil to bring the constrictor forth. Kel uses two blasts from his ring of the ram which Borin dodges. He isn’t so successful at dodging a blow from Kalina’s avalanche sling. With Borin briefly dazed from the blow, Lucre jumps in to grapple his cousin, admonishing him the entire time. Borin breaks free, takes a few staps back and drops his axe. He stops raging and grabs his head in pain and confusion.

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

The Saving of Hooffall (run of 07-29-03)

In the distance the party can hear the howling of wolves. Their time in daylight is rapidly coming to an end. They all realize that they had better find and kill the abbot before those wolves descend.

Lucre pulls Borin into the sunlight. Kel turns undead. Light radiates from him in a circle. As the light reaches Borin, he flinches. Kel begins to cast protection from evil and approaches Borin who bolts in the opposite direction. Kel breaks off the spell and casts again. “Stop!” he commands, and Borin freezes. Lucre sprints in and ties his cousin with a rope while Kalina casts dispel magic. They have immediate proof that the spell worked because Borin gains control of himself, the hold spell is gone. He struggles against the bonds. “Untie me,” he bellows. “Don’t move,” Lucre orders and hits him with the flat of his sword.

Marja takes a moment of quiet to make Deke fly and turn him invisible. Kenyan starts to sing and looks into the grave. “Hey, there’s a body in here.” Marja and Kel help him pull the body out into the light. The body is dressed in a good quality gown. Kel recognizes her as the woman from his visions.

Borin rages and breaks the ropes casting them and his backpack aside. Marja rapidly casts detect magic and sees nothing unusual about him just as Lucre is about to swing. “Lucre, stop!” Lucre swings wide just barely missing his cousin’s temple. Kalina steps in with her glowing green hands and lays her healing touch onto Borin then Deke’s voice comes from above them, “Guys, four wolves, five minutes away.”

Kalina calls everyone into a huddle and casts invisible to animals and they all prepare to move into the main hall when Kel notices that Borin’s backpack was cast off into the shadow of the temple. He grabs it and chucks it into the light. Borin opens it, but nothing is inside it any longer. They all rush to the temple where Brother Niall is waiting alone.

In the shrine Niall turns to see the glowing red eyes of the abbot in a dark recess of the room. A booming voice commands him, “You will serve me!” “NO!” shouts Niall defiantly. “I serve Corean!” Niall casts turn undead and pulls out his holy symbol. “May this symbol pull the love of your god from the depths of your soul,” he prays. “Have faith.”

“Nice try,” chuckles the abbot’s voice from behind the red glowing eyes. Niall screams in rage.

Outside, the party redoubles their run.

The abbot reaches out with both his hands and clamps onto both sides of Naill’s face. The monk struggles, but feels sharp teeth sink into his neck. “I am done,” he thinks as he feels his life force slipping away. His eyes roll up in his head, and as he gazes upwards, just before everything goes black, his eye catches the last rays of the setting sun shining through the blue eye of the white horse in the stained glass window overhead. “I will not loose faith. Corean,” he prays, “Let me be the instrument that saves your temple. I give you my body and my life.” He struggles against the bite and regains his center and pushes the mouth of the abbot away. Niall struggles again to cast, but cannot concentrate. The abbot chuckles, “Don’t fear for your life, Niall. I’m not going to kill you. I’m going to make you like me.” He grabs Niall’s neck tighter and bites again, but Niall resists.

Borin rushes in first and moves to attack. “You can’t have him,” the abbot admonishes. “He’s mine. He killed my wife!”

“Who are you kidding?” the invisible Deke interjects. “She spent all her time boinking all the other guys in the place.” The abbot turns to find the source of the voice, and Borin strikes making a line of red across the abbot’s chest. Lucre lectures the creature about keeping faith as he strikes, but his blow is forced away. Likewise, Marja’s and Kalina’s spells bounce off a field of protection.

Niall picks himself up off the floor and reaches out seeing his own blood on his hands. He prays for all the souls of the other brothers whose blood has been spilt while his was spared. He reaches into the depths of his soul. “I summon the love of Corean!” A ray of Corean’s light emanates from Niall and hits the abbot full in the face. “Don’t speak his name,” the abbot shrieks and runs to cower in a corner.

Borin charges in, but as his hand brushes against the creature he feels a tingle along his arm. His arm looks burned, but still functions normally. Deke shoots a crossbow bolt. They’re wooden after all, but it misses. Marja sends three magic missiles searing into the abbots body. Niall approaches and pins him in the corner. Kel rushes forward and speaks. “Renounce your evil and return to Corean.” The abbot begins to cry. “My Althea is gone.” Kels words turn more tender. “No,” he says, “Her spirit is in this place. I have seen her.”

The abbot reaches out and touches Borin who is still, fortunately, protected from evil. Deke flies around to the abbot’s back and stabs him with his rapier, but the wound heals as soon as he removes the blade. Borin and Lucre both swing with wooden stakes, but both miss as do Kenyan and Niall.

Kel swings his longsword and feels it snap a collarbone in two. “Think of your wife,” he says. “She longs for you to return to her. Embrace Corean, and you will be together again.” The abbot looks almost like he might relent. Kel feels that if he can only reach out to him a little longer, his faith would return. Kel reaches out with his healing touch. He sees the glowing rays shoot from his hands and burn into the abbot’s face. “Do not serve Corean. He cannot help you,” the abbot cries. Kel feels evil wash over him, but he is sure of Corean’s grace. He feels the gentle touch of Brother Niall behind him and knows that Corean’s love is here.

Borin succeeds in pinning the abbot. Kel offers one last chance for redemption which the abbot answers by trying to turn into mist, but Borin’s grip can not be shaken. Finally, Borin holds a steak firmly against the abbot’s chest, and Kel raises his sword. “Corean forgive us both,” he whispers to the abbot. He brings the hilt of his sword down hard against the steak. The abbot crumples.

Borin jumps up to his feet and carries the body into the last of the day’s sunlight. The body shrivels and begins to crumble. Kel looks out at the horizon and once again sees the figure of the beautiful dark-haired woman on the white horse. A single tear falls from her cheek, and she turns and rides across the lake.

 

[Blood Jester]

Yay! WhooHoo team!

"But now Iron Chef BBQ..."

*insert creepy whisper*

"...show me the future!"

*insert creepy insane cackle*

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

Entire Story Hour Available

Thanks to a lot of time and effort from Alomir, I now have the entire story hour in crono order in a single file. Unfortunately, I don't have a website on which to post it.

If anyone would like it, and can handle having a 120 page Word document emailed to him/her, just email me, and I'll forward it to you.

Chef.

 

[Piratecat]

Actually, I think I can arrange that. I'll chat with Sialia about storing it on piratecat.info.

 

[Sialia]

'Scool by me, but you'll need to talk to Tomtom's player about setting up the permissions. Please set it in it's own subfolder so it doesn't get mixed up withthe Spira files--there's so very many many of them, I could lose another website in them and never notice I had accidentally globaly obliterated soemthing.

 

[KidCthulhu]

Oooh. There's a cthulhu idea in that somewhere. The lost website. We did something like it with Yellow.com..

 

[Blood Jester]

*pokes head in*

"In here? nope."

 

[Iron Chef BBQ]

My will shall shape the future (run of 08-12-03)

Our intrepid adventurers stand over the body of Abbot Ardis Carfael, exhausted and feeling some small regret that they could not turn him back to his god before his demise.

Kel scans the devastation of Hooffall and sighs. He is sure that Corean’s blessing has not left the shrine, and feels consolation that Brother Niall seems determined to rebuild.

Suddenly, a flash of bright light engulfs the party.

***************************************************

Lucre Bladebane is standing in the middle of a vast plain, far from the Shrine of Hooffall. How many of his steps have been leading him to this place? He grips The Citadel in his right hand, easily pushing away the swarm of thoughts emanating from the crystal sword. In that moment before his mind will push away all thoughts and concentrate on battle, memories flash before his eyes.

He glances at his cousin, Borin Axewielder, standing at his right hand. A small smile crosses his lips as he remembers back all those years to the day he approached with that story of a message trapped in his brain. After all this time, no one seems to care that the message has never been delivered. It had been an opportunity for Lucre to leave his clan before news of his blood taint spread, before his death became inevitable. Yet Lucre had been afraid to go out on his own and had turned to a family member he thought might accept him. Borin had not disappointed.

Borin stands, squat and resolute, his great axe in his hand. Small wrinkles are visible around his eyes. He is less unkempt than Lucre remembered him at their first meeting, but his barbarian upbringing has prevented him from ever mastering proper beard care. Despite what might befall him today, Lucre would always consider his inability to convince Borin to braid his beard as his greatest personal failure. Uncharacteristic of a dwarf, Borin wears no braids except for a very thin one that hangs down behind his left ear. That is in deference to Marja who had kept his hair out of his eyes by braiding it every morning all those years ago when he was inhabiting an elf woman’s body.

Now that was an age ago, Lucre thinks. He remembers how Enkili had chosen his cousin as his unlikely champion. Borin had risen to the call and served Enkili faithfully. When his tasks were at last complete, Enkili had interceded on his behalf. Goran, god of the dwarves, had blessed him and granted him his dwarf body back. No more soft elven hair for Marja to braid.

Lucre glances to his left at Marja Silvanrod, all 9 feet of her. Her face is ringed by a headband of dragons’ teeth. Her bronze hair is braided in a single thick plait that falls down her back between two massive wings, which are unfolded and tense in the still air. He chuckles to himself as he thinks back on all the pleasure he used to take in calling Marja a trollop, among other things.

He doesn’t call her any names now, and not just because with a flick of her claw and a breath of lighting she could kill him. There had been something unnerving about Marja when they first met. She had a sex appeal that unsettled even the most stalwart dwarf, and he had felt jealous of her friendship with Borin, but as her classic beauty had faded, she had become even more charming, even more interesting. They had lost the need over all this time to be intimidated by each other. Truth be told, they had become friends.

Lucre notices Kira just as Marja lays hands on her and she blinks out of sight. Her soft black hair is the last of her to disappear. Now there was a woman whose beauty had grown to exceed Marja’s. That had caused no small issue in its day. How silly those things seem now. Kira was as headstrong as the day they’d met, and more capable then they’d ever believed she could become. Everyone grows up. Deke had introduced them. Ah, Lucre remembers. After they’d saved Hooffall Shrine, Deke had returned to Vesh to become “King of the Filchers!” He wonders how he’s doing now, probably hiding in his palace, if he hasn’t changed.

Lucre scans the group around him. He can’t see Terri. She has already activated her ring of invisibility. Instinctively, he touches his money pouch. Ha! That Rogue of Enkili will be causing more trouble than that today.

There is young Kelly Windrush. Not so young any more, but a proud, strong man, a true warrior. He has grown to embrace both his own desires to become a fighter and his parents’ wishes for him to become a healer, and through it all he has kept his idealism, although losing his naiveté. Most important, Lucre thinks, he’s never become pompous, or self-possessed. Not like Kenyon C. Bolton, who fled the adventuring life years ago in favor of warm taverns and grateful female patrons.

That thought causes Lucre to find Caerwyn Ap Bundholm. There he is, standing in his shining armor, broadsword in hand, glowing with the deserved self-righteousness of a great Paladin. Even Lucre had found Caerwyn too good to handle at times, but his honest blade had been a lifesaver too many times not to respect this ally and friend.

Lastly, his eyes fall on Kalina. For a change her hair is a natural blond color. No matter what environment she is in, she seems to always have stray leaves caught in it. She had grown in ways that are unclear to Lucre. She had wrestled with some inner demon and had come out strong and true. He knows the women in the group were privy to the struggle, but he had kept his distance. He watches her gently run her fingers through Fang’s fur, and he sees Fang’s ears perk.

“They come,” says Fang over the mind link from their cohort tattoos. The reverie is over.

****************************************************

Behind them in the distance there is a strong tremor, and an entire range of mountains dissolves into pillars of dust. Borin feels a stab in his heart. “They are gone,” he says to Lucre. “The royal family. All dead.” Lucre knows better than to question his cousin, but what could have destroyed Burok Torn like the slapping of an errant bug? He sends up a prayer to Goran for the souls of the dwarven royal line and for the dwarven people left alone, and then he feels the emptiness. His prayers rise into the void. He knows there are no ears to hear them. Lucre glances at his cousin and catches sight of a single tear falling. Borin has felt it too, an emptiness that can never be filled. Goran, god of the dwarves, has fallen. Lucre announces the news over the mind link. “Today is a black day. The gods kill each other. Goran is gone.”

The news hits the party with a flash of helplessness. If even the gods fall, what hope do they have? Caerwyn alone stands firm and resolute, his faith can not be shaken. Kira begins to sing.

“If we die today,” says Lucre blackly, “we’ll take them with us.”

Marja scans the horizon. She senses their shape before she can see them. “Three from the east, made of wood. Three from the west, breathing fire. But,” she adds, “they are no kin of mine.”

Then everyone sees them. Wyrms, or abominations made to look like them: wrack dragons. A shudder of fear sweeps through the hundreds of soldiers on the ground. They know most will die that day.

“Come on, Cousin. Let’s kill us some dragon.” Lucre extends his hand to Borin who clasps it tightly. Lucre pictures a door in front of him, and with his other hand he reaches out and thrusts it open with all his might. As he steps through, he visualizes the other side of the threshold. With a jolt, Borin and Lucre find themselves on the back of a fiery red dragon. Marja watches and shakes her head. “So much for sending an ice storm out there. Those two are always in my way.”

Kalina turns to the east. She can now see the dragon constructs swooping low over the hoards of soldiers causing panic and leaving death in their wake. They are odd configurations of flesh, wood and metal bits, but Kalina can sense the wood. She raises her arms above her head and sends a shock wave forward emanating from her palms. The invisible wave grows and accelerates until it reaches the constructs with massive force. At first they are unaware of any change. Then their bodies begin to struggle against themselves as the wood parts are repelled backwards. The three dragons are blown apart; the wooden bits propelled eastward, the rest falling on the crowds below. “Nice spectacle,” an invisible voice remarks in her ear.

The ground beneath their feet begins to rumble and bubble. Up surge thousands of maggots. The maggots swarm together forming a gargantuan creature. Everyone within 20 feet almost wretches from the smell. Churn is here.

Marja pulls a scroll from her side and begins the incantation to summon a celestial dire lion. Slowly the creature takes shape in front of her. Suddenly, POP! The image is just about to fully form when it disappears. Tiny orbs of light are left in its shape. They begin to zoom about. One enters the tip of the dispel magic wand Marja has hanging from her belt. The wand explodes sending her sprawling on the ground. Two more embed themselves in Kalina’s staff of the forest. “Throw it,” Marja yells. Kalina tosses her stick into the air and gasps as it shatters in two. “What the hell happened?” Marja shrugs. “I don’t know? Something’s mucking with my magic!”

Meanwhile, up above Lucre and Borin make short work of their ride. The dead dragon goes into a spin and begins to plummet toward the crowd below. “I hadn’t thought this far,” admits Lucre. Borin gets a determined look on his face as a plan forms on how to divert the diving beast away from the crowd below, but as he scans the crowd he rapidly realizes that there is no way to miss some portion of fighters. There are just too many. He jumps off and flies down to Marja to help her up from the ground leaving Lucre holding the dragon, so to speak. As the creature crashes into the ground Lucre tumbles into the air and lands, remarkably, on his feet. Borin hears him over the mind link, “I thought you had something clever planned.”

Marja is worried about casting again, but with Churn, the god of disease, pulsating and spewing before her, she has little choice. She sends 15 acid orbs springing from her hand and into the beast. The spell works with no little glowing balls of light. Kel and Caerwyn each step in to strike at the putrid beast. Kalina moves in from the other side and casts repel. The maggots temporarily separate and move away from her – all over Marja. Marja finds herself chest deep in a stream of putrid-smelling worms. Her only consolation is that she’s no longer 5 and a half feet tall. She is immersed in a wave of fever, but it quickly passes. As the creature draws all the maggots back into itself and rises upwards to strike, a long thin cut opens along its top. The slice cuts deep. Maggots fly everywhere. Offal spews from the cut. Then suddenly, the creature and its minions turn into dust and disappear into the ground. Terri’s voice comes over the mind link, “Next.”

Lucre opens another dimension door and steps out onto the next dragon.

A flash of light blocks all from view.

******************************************************

This day has been longer than any day in Kel’s young life. Every muscle in his body is fatigued to its limit. He can barely lift his sword above his head. Several times today it has been the healing touch of Corean passed through his callused hands that has saved the lives of his friends. They have all been fighting for hours, and yet the enemy rises before them like the day has just begun.

They stand in a circle facing out surrounded by four huge creatures. Each has seven heads that are darting and snapping ominously. Their brightly colored scales reflect in the late afternoon sun, two red, one purple-white and one green. If Kenyan C. Bolton were with them today he might tell them that these were ancient titan spawn called hydras.

Kira has had it. She’s tired, and these creatures have bad breath. She looks up at the one nearest her. It’s red and generating intense heat. “I’m gonna kick you in the nut sack,” she storms, and she delivers a kick that sends the beast 20 feet into the air. It falls to the ground dead. (note: that was a kick delivering 158 points of damage!) Its blood spills out onto the ground. Kira turns away wiping droplets of blood from her face when she hears an odd noise. She turns back to see two new creatures sprouting up from the puddle of blood. “Drat!”

The two new beasts seem perturbed over their recent rebirth. Perhaps they’re both feeling the sting of that kick in the privates. Various heads snap and snarl while the rest exhale fire onto the group. Everyone is singed. Kalina backs away from the red ones right into the green hydra. “Well, since I’m here,” she muses and summons a spell that always seems counter-intuitive to her druid nature. She reaches out and touches the creature with the finger of death. It crumples and dies, but spills no blood. It doesn’t regenerate. She turns to the next one with a repeat spell, but as she raises her hand, she sees the magic on the end of her finger begin to turn into golden glowing orbs. She breaks the spell, and with great effort pulls the magic back into herself. “That was close.”

The purple one moves in and comes within 20 feet of Marja. It rears up to strike, but gets a good look at her. One glimpse of her headpiece, a Circlet of the Fang made up of dragon teeth, creates fear in the beast. It backs away and cowers.

Terri roles her holy die of Enkili, summoning an orb of magic. As it rises, it breaks apart into a dozen golden orbs. Two are sucked into The Citadel, Lucre’s crystal sword. It shatters into a million shards of glass shattering Lucre’s hand with it. Lucre hears the voices that have lived inside the sword for eons scream, and then the voices stop. Two more orbs fly into Caerwyn’s holy armor. The magic suddenly stops, and the metal shatters.

Borin dodges one whizzing by him and comments, “All the years we’ve been together. You spell casters have never dispelled so well.”

Two more go right into Kalina’s eyes. She screams in pain as the blood of Masos is purged from her body. Her gift from the magic waters, one of her first adventures, is gone.

Out of the corner of her eye Marja sees on of Madriel’s Hopes. These beautiful angels have crisscrossed the battlefield all day both healing and fighting. An abomination that Marja cannot even describe grabs the poor Hope and tears it to pieces.

Borin throws a chaos diamond at the feet of a hydra and speaks Enkili’s chaotic charm. The diamond explodes leaving the creature confused, stunned and deafened.

Again the creatures snap and spew fire at the party. They manage to dodge the snarling teeth, but Kalina, Caerwyn and Kel all find themselves singed. Kalina turns to the one that just burned her. “You’ve really pissed me off,” she explains to it as she casts reverse gravity. It flies up into the air. Under its shadow she casts mass heal on all within her reach then deftly steps aside as the beast falls to earth and splatters. Her healing spell moves out in a shimmering wave then suddenly the light begins to congeal. Once again they are beset by those shining motes of light from a spell gone wrong. Borin’s vorpal great axe (+5) explodes. Marja tries to dodge as an orb shoots right into her headband. The dragon teeth are torn apart ripping long lines into Marja’s face.

Suddenly the purple hydra closes again. Now that Marja’s headband is destroyed it is no longer afraid. Terri glances over her shoulder and sees the last of the Calastian priests detonate himself as 20 creatures close in through the smoke.

Flash!