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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Chef BBQ" data-source="post: 1238361" data-attributes="member: 1844">Danger!  Thin Ice (run of 10-28-03)Thul-Javas stares defiantly at Caerwyn as he asks him to repent his sins and receive redemption.  Borin, Lucre and Caerwyn engage in a debate posed in the question, “Can good people worship and evil god, or are they evil themselves by nature of the worshiping?”  Caerwyn won’t hear arguments coming from the Titan-tainted psychic warrior, and his religious fervor won’t allow any of Borin’s rationalizations.  The others stay silently out of the fray of a debate that will come up again.Although Thul-Javas believes he is morally right in his worship, he none the less provides the group with information.  A man with a spider tattoo on his face came with information on how to free the frozen piece of the Titan, Thul from its prison of ice.  He didn’t trust this stranger and spoke out against him and was imprisoned.  The man has one green eye and one blue eye.Thul-Javas directs them to the location of the soul of ice.  He would rather see Thul remain imprisoned in ice then in the clutches of the man with the spider tattoo.  They lock him back in his cell.Our intrepid band of adventurers travel northward to another room of magma.  In the center is a glistening white pyramid made of solid ice with a stairway cut into the side.  The heat is melting it rapidly, and just as rapidly it is refreezing.  The sides are smooth and slick.  Terri spots a figure slowly climbing up the side about 10 feet from the top.  He’s carrying a large chest on his back.Borin heads up the narrow stairway of ice, leaping like an elf and deftly reaches the top where he finds a 5’ by 5’ crystal pyramid made of clear ice.  All around the edges he can see a crowd, creatures with stick-like limbs clawing at the air trying to break free of their prison.  At the back of the crowd Borin spies a large white thing.Suddenly, a white arm holding a trident slices through the ice wall and pushes itself through the crack.  It’s an ice lizard.  Borin hits it with his great axe and is sprayed by shards of ice.Kel casts bless and carefully sets his foot at the base of the stairs.  Terri ahs already crawled halfway up, and Lucre is attempting to crawl around to the other side.  Marja decides Kell looks to precarious in his heavy armor on that narrow slippery staircase.  One false move and he’ll slip off into the magma.  She murmurs quietly and reaches out to touch Kel’s shoulder.  As her fingers lightly graze him he feels his feet loose purchase on the ice.  For a moment he thinks he’s falling, then he realizes the feeling is more controlled than that.  Effortlessly he rises up into the air and flies about Marja’s head.  “Thanks,” he shouts as he heads for the top.Kalina, who is in owl form, casts a flaming sphere and sends it toward the lizard, but the creature dodges.  Borin rages, but can’t get traction to bull rush.  He moves toward the man and attacks.  As he approaches, he sees the man’s face.  He has a spider tattoo.  Borin hits him and cuts his face.  His blood spatters and burns Borin where it lands.Caerwyn tries to pray for healing, but he slips on the ice and falls to one knee.Terri moves up the stairs, but slips and slides back down bumping into Kel as he is rising.  “Did you want something?” he asks.  Ha!  Kel made a joke.  “I think she wants you to carry her,” someone replies.Lucre continues his slow ascent.The lizard stabs at Borin with its trident.  “Hey, guys.  Whenever you want to come up and help would be fine,” Borin calls down.  The man with the spider tattoo begins to chant, and the crystal pyramid begins to throb.Kel flies up and uses the ring of the ram, but forgot that he wasn’t braced with his feet.  As the ring emits a strong puff of air which charges forward, it also propels Kel backwards.  His aim is off, and the windy ram charges wide.Kira who has carefully climbed up the stairs, tosses a tanglefoot bag at the man with the spider tattoo.  She warns Borin who manages to jump up and avoid the goo, but so does the man.Marja casts spider climb on Terri who doesn’t think twice about popping the tiny living spider into her mouth.  She pulls off her shoes and scrambles up the ice slope.  Kalina moves the sphere back toward the lizard and casts Salamar’s quiet contemplation.  Fang helps Lucre by pushing him up the mountain side with his snout while Lucre activates skate and moves 5 feet.  He’s almost in range.Again the lizard stabs Borin with its trident, but Borin thinks not as hard as the last time.  Perhaps Kalina’s spell is working.  Borin tries to grapple the man with the spider tattoo, and Terri tries to poke him with her rapier, but he dodges all their attacks and continues to chant.He tosses a fine powder over the crystal.  As the dust drifts through the room, they all feel an intense sadness.  It smells like the elven forests near Amalthea, but feels wrong, like something powerful has disappeared.  Cracks appear in the crystal.Caerwyn approaches Marja and removes his boots.  Marja chants quietly with a slight chuckle and hands Caerwyn a spider.  Garnet voices her displeasure that all her spiders are being eaten.  And while she’s complaining she puts in a word about temperature control here.   Marja ignores her while she too eats a spider and removes her boots.The lizard creature has trouble dodging the flaming sphere this time so Kalina swoops down to Caerwyn and heals him a little before he starts up the slippery slope.Borin finally grapples the man with the spider tattoo and holds him fast.  He can feel his skin burning wherever he touches the man.  Lucre heaves himself into the top of the pyramid and whacks the man with the Citadel.  A flame jumps out of the wound and burns Lucre.The lizard half-heartedly pokes at Kel with its trident.  Clearly contemplating something.The man with the spider tattoo looks at Borin, and Borin sees the insanity behind those mismatched eyes.  He’s still chanting, and Borin begins to squeeze until finally he can’t take a breath.  The chant stops.Caerwyn reaches the top and bulrushes the lizard, but misses.  The lizard responds, but lamely.  Caerwyn senses motive, and the creature seems lazy. Kira fires her crossbow, but slips on the ice as she releases her string.  The arrow flies wide and low and hits Lucre in the buttock.  The site almost made Marja mess up her own chanting, but she stifles a laugh as four magic missiles fly from her fingertips at the lizard.“Don’t hit the salamander,” Borin calls.  “Why?”  “I have a suspicion we shouldn’t.”  But too late.  Again the lizard is unable to move away from the flaming sphere.  It collapses and slides down the side of the pyramid into the magma below.Kel swings with his long sword as Borin leans forward to allow the blade to slide under his ribs and into the man with the spider tattoo.  Kel hits him again, and Borin squeezes until the man loses consciousness.  Terri steps in and ties him up.Marja approaches the crystal pyramid and casts ray of frost at it.  It’s a little spell, but just about all she has left.  The cracks stop getting bigger.  Caerwyn touches it to help channel holy energy.  The cold burns his hands, but he holds them there as Marja casts again.  The tiny ray of frost jumps from her fingertip.  Caerwyn feels his hands freeze to the crystal.  Then the cold and holy energy get sucked in to the crystal.  Caerwyn’s hands release.  The throbbing slows, and the thrashing limbs inside the crystal seem to be scratching at the inside instead of pushing to get out like before.  Kel steps in and Caerwyn aids him.  As he touches the crystal he can feel the icy fingers scratching on the inside, and he can’t concentrate.  He tries again, and this time his prayer succeeds.  The crystal stops thrumming.</blockquote>

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