AnonymousOne
First Post
Hmmmm someone needs a "Create RoundUp" spell.
Memoirs of a Lawyer turned Dungeoncrawler (Updated May 13, 2008)
Altalazar
First Post
I think we'd need an "Epic Create Roundup Spell"...
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-One – Heading Toward the Root of the Problem
As we walked into the tree, I got an uneasy feeling. The “cave” of wood ahead of us twisted and turned in strange directions. The “tunnel” itself was round and smooth. There was a thick, earthy odor and the walls seemed to be pulsating with a rhythmic wind. It was also terribly humid. The humidity was so thick that there were standing pools of water along the floor that covered most of the surfaces.
About five hundred feet in, the tunnel opened up into a larger chamber. There was a path along the center of the chamber that was above the water, but the rest of the floor was covered in at least ankle-deep water that was constantly dripped on from above. The uneasy feeling continued, probably partly due to the fact that we had no clue how to stop this thing or how to get the seed un-seeded in our world. I suggested we consult Tuvstarr, but no one seemed interested in discussing the matter. I was going to suggest we dump the seed on the negative material plane, since that place will destroy just about anything. Unless the seed is somehow undead, in which case, we might just make things worse. Oh well, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Any conversation quickly became futile as the floor burst forth in the large cavern in front of us and behind us with the gargantuan forms of two massive purple worms. I glanced at Ee and wondered just what such large creatures find so tasty about him. While I’ve often thought it would be quite handy to have precognition, as some of my psionic bretheren do, I did not need it to know that before the next minute was over, Ee was going to be in the mouth of at least one of those beasts. I hoped that I or, even worse, Higgins, would not be joining him. Even with a body of iron and my elemental protections, I did not imagine that it would be a pleasant experience. Higgins made an even softer morsel.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Two – As The Worm Turns
Morwen and Ee charged toward the first worm, slicing into its purple flesh. Sure enough, as Ee charged toward it on his golem mount, the worm plucked him from his saddle and into its maw.
“Higgins, forward worm,” I said with a thought and then wrapped my mind around the large, but ultimately puny brain of the worm behind us. It instantly became my gargantuan puppet. For the moment, Higgins was safe.
Higgins, for his part, surged forward and nailed the forward worm with a ray of clumsiness, leaving the already rather slow beast flopping on the ground, rigid and helpless. Ee rolled out of its maw and back into the fight, just in time for another four worms to come up from the floor, surrounding us all. Fortunately for Higgins, the three worms near us in the rear all went for other targets. Two went for me, both missing, and the third went for Nimue, who was riding Morwen’s golem mount. She was plucked into the maw and then vanished from sight.
These worms were beginning to annoy me. I grabbed on of my stones that I created for the vampires and put it to more immediate use. A huge astral construct surged forth and began ripping into Nimue’s new “host.” I wrapped my mind around the brains of the two worms that snapped at me and made them both my puppets. I had one stay rigid as a target for my companions. I sent the worm to the rear to attacking the other, and they soon dispatched themselves, leaving little for us to mop up.
All told, in less than a minute, all six gargantuan beasts were sliced into purple steaks of enormous proportions. It was only then that I noticed that the chamber had an interior rain washing over all of us, a rain that was more acid than water. Fortunately, my elemental protection immunized me. Higgins was kind enough to spread that sort of protection to the rest of my companions. Thus drenched in acid and worm blood, we left the chamber and headed further into the bowels of the tree.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Three – Night Walkers in a Vacuum
The next large chamber we came to at first seemed empty, but then once I stepped into the room I looked behind the corner to my right and saw a huge undead monstrosity, a Night Walker, just like the two we encountered on the way to the haunted village several moons ago. It seems they always like to travel in pairs, because another one soon made its presence known to our fore, about a hundred feet in front of us, standing next to a large stone monolith.
The one to our right did something to Ee, paralyzing him. The one to our fore attempted an area dispel, removing some of our defenses, and also dismissing my astral construct, who would otherwise have remained to help us for a little while more. That was terribly annoying. Even more annoying was the resistance they showed to my powers, making both my mind attacks and Higgins’s attacks useless against him for at least the first few tries.
Nin was having better luck. He and Larch’s Dire Bear companion charged the Night Walker to the fore, ripping into its undead flesh. Nin also tripped the huge creature, leaving “him” prone and vulnerable. I’m not sure the thing ever managed to get to its feet again.
The creature to the right of us summoned two dread wraiths, vaporous undead creatures just like the two we had dispatched in the vampire’s realm. Thankfully, they were much easier to deal with than before. Larch flamestruck them both, singing Ee in the process. He was still held between them. Not wanting to risk any more resistance, I sent two simultaneous streams of crystal shards into the hide of the beast to my right, nearly shredding it to the bone. One more volley after that finished it off. Then things got strange.
There was a loud rushing sound, as if all the air were being blown out of the chamber. Then there was silence. Apparently all of the air WAS blown out of the chamber, leaving an emptiness Higgins referred to as “vacuum” just before his ears started to bleed. Nimue’s ears bled and she passed out, approaching death rather quickly. Fortunately as a being of iron, I did not need to breathe, but most of my companions were in dire straits. The bear soon slumped to the ground. Larch and Morwen made their forms that of earth elementals. The rest of my companions felt their lungs about to explode and they did not look good. Higgins rushed to Nimue’s side as she was sitting on Morwen’s golem mount. Higgins, in fact, dimension doored right onto the golem mount himself, then activated its teleportation, sending them both to safety.
Ee finally was able to move and so quickly dispatched what was left of the dread wraiths. Then we all gathered together and I teleported us to Higgins’s side, just in time to see him reviving Nimue from her brush with near-death.
We were all now standing outside the entrance to the tree once again. Ee was hurting from the dread wraiths. We were all feeling drained in one way or another from our previous encounters. The next question was, did we dare venture back in as we were, or should we rest and regroup and try again in the morning. I voted more for the latter, given our difficulties with the vacuum. At the very least, we should procure some polymorph scrolls so all of us have a chance to survive if that happens again. And then we could also make a quick stop at Tuvstarr’s for more intelligence on this “seed” we need to destroy. My only fear was the tree would grow even stronger in our absence.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-One – Heading Toward the Root of the Problem
As we walked into the tree, I got an uneasy feeling. The “cave” of wood ahead of us twisted and turned in strange directions. The “tunnel” itself was round and smooth. There was a thick, earthy odor and the walls seemed to be pulsating with a rhythmic wind. It was also terribly humid. The humidity was so thick that there were standing pools of water along the floor that covered most of the surfaces.
About five hundred feet in, the tunnel opened up into a larger chamber. There was a path along the center of the chamber that was above the water, but the rest of the floor was covered in at least ankle-deep water that was constantly dripped on from above. The uneasy feeling continued, probably partly due to the fact that we had no clue how to stop this thing or how to get the seed un-seeded in our world. I suggested we consult Tuvstarr, but no one seemed interested in discussing the matter. I was going to suggest we dump the seed on the negative material plane, since that place will destroy just about anything. Unless the seed is somehow undead, in which case, we might just make things worse. Oh well, it wouldn’t be the first time.
Any conversation quickly became futile as the floor burst forth in the large cavern in front of us and behind us with the gargantuan forms of two massive purple worms. I glanced at Ee and wondered just what such large creatures find so tasty about him. While I’ve often thought it would be quite handy to have precognition, as some of my psionic bretheren do, I did not need it to know that before the next minute was over, Ee was going to be in the mouth of at least one of those beasts. I hoped that I or, even worse, Higgins, would not be joining him. Even with a body of iron and my elemental protections, I did not imagine that it would be a pleasant experience. Higgins made an even softer morsel.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Two – As The Worm Turns
Morwen and Ee charged toward the first worm, slicing into its purple flesh. Sure enough, as Ee charged toward it on his golem mount, the worm plucked him from his saddle and into its maw.
“Higgins, forward worm,” I said with a thought and then wrapped my mind around the large, but ultimately puny brain of the worm behind us. It instantly became my gargantuan puppet. For the moment, Higgins was safe.
Higgins, for his part, surged forward and nailed the forward worm with a ray of clumsiness, leaving the already rather slow beast flopping on the ground, rigid and helpless. Ee rolled out of its maw and back into the fight, just in time for another four worms to come up from the floor, surrounding us all. Fortunately for Higgins, the three worms near us in the rear all went for other targets. Two went for me, both missing, and the third went for Nimue, who was riding Morwen’s golem mount. She was plucked into the maw and then vanished from sight.
These worms were beginning to annoy me. I grabbed on of my stones that I created for the vampires and put it to more immediate use. A huge astral construct surged forth and began ripping into Nimue’s new “host.” I wrapped my mind around the brains of the two worms that snapped at me and made them both my puppets. I had one stay rigid as a target for my companions. I sent the worm to the rear to attacking the other, and they soon dispatched themselves, leaving little for us to mop up.
All told, in less than a minute, all six gargantuan beasts were sliced into purple steaks of enormous proportions. It was only then that I noticed that the chamber had an interior rain washing over all of us, a rain that was more acid than water. Fortunately, my elemental protection immunized me. Higgins was kind enough to spread that sort of protection to the rest of my companions. Thus drenched in acid and worm blood, we left the chamber and headed further into the bowels of the tree.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Three – Night Walkers in a Vacuum
The next large chamber we came to at first seemed empty, but then once I stepped into the room I looked behind the corner to my right and saw a huge undead monstrosity, a Night Walker, just like the two we encountered on the way to the haunted village several moons ago. It seems they always like to travel in pairs, because another one soon made its presence known to our fore, about a hundred feet in front of us, standing next to a large stone monolith.
The one to our right did something to Ee, paralyzing him. The one to our fore attempted an area dispel, removing some of our defenses, and also dismissing my astral construct, who would otherwise have remained to help us for a little while more. That was terribly annoying. Even more annoying was the resistance they showed to my powers, making both my mind attacks and Higgins’s attacks useless against him for at least the first few tries.
Nin was having better luck. He and Larch’s Dire Bear companion charged the Night Walker to the fore, ripping into its undead flesh. Nin also tripped the huge creature, leaving “him” prone and vulnerable. I’m not sure the thing ever managed to get to its feet again.
The creature to the right of us summoned two dread wraiths, vaporous undead creatures just like the two we had dispatched in the vampire’s realm. Thankfully, they were much easier to deal with than before. Larch flamestruck them both, singing Ee in the process. He was still held between them. Not wanting to risk any more resistance, I sent two simultaneous streams of crystal shards into the hide of the beast to my right, nearly shredding it to the bone. One more volley after that finished it off. Then things got strange.
There was a loud rushing sound, as if all the air were being blown out of the chamber. Then there was silence. Apparently all of the air WAS blown out of the chamber, leaving an emptiness Higgins referred to as “vacuum” just before his ears started to bleed. Nimue’s ears bled and she passed out, approaching death rather quickly. Fortunately as a being of iron, I did not need to breathe, but most of my companions were in dire straits. The bear soon slumped to the ground. Larch and Morwen made their forms that of earth elementals. The rest of my companions felt their lungs about to explode and they did not look good. Higgins rushed to Nimue’s side as she was sitting on Morwen’s golem mount. Higgins, in fact, dimension doored right onto the golem mount himself, then activated its teleportation, sending them both to safety.
Ee finally was able to move and so quickly dispatched what was left of the dread wraiths. Then we all gathered together and I teleported us to Higgins’s side, just in time to see him reviving Nimue from her brush with near-death.
We were all now standing outside the entrance to the tree once again. Ee was hurting from the dread wraiths. We were all feeling drained in one way or another from our previous encounters. The next question was, did we dare venture back in as we were, or should we rest and regroup and try again in the morning. I voted more for the latter, given our difficulties with the vacuum. At the very least, we should procure some polymorph scrolls so all of us have a chance to survive if that happens again. And then we could also make a quick stop at Tuvstarr’s for more intelligence on this “seed” we need to destroy. My only fear was the tree would grow even stronger in our absence.
Altalazar
First Post
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Four – Shopping Trip, Astral Tripping, Orc Tipping
Once we were all free of the tree, and once Higgins had removed Nimue from the brink of death, I transported us all all the way back to Cauldron so we could procure supplies and consult Tuvstarr. The most pressing need was some way to survive without air. I was covered, as was Larch, but the rest of us had some work in that area. I got a stone for Higgins that would sustain him in those conditions. I think Morwen may have gotten a similar stone for Nimue. There were only two available in the whole Kingdom (and beyond – I checked my extensive spy network and was only able to locate two). We also located two necklaces that served a similar function. Though they were cheaper, they would not work with any amulets we already had, so that limited their use to those of us with unadorned necks.
A few polymorph scrolls also seemed prudent, along with a handful of other scrolls Higgins picked up. I did not ask him what they were, but I assumed they would potentially be handy for the fight ahead.
We all gathered together again at Tuvstarr’s, where she told us that the only way we could destroy the seed’s connection to our plane was to remove it to another plane. That was all well and good, but that did not quite sound like destroying it. I informed everyone that my vote was still that we take it to the negative material plane. Not much could survive there. Though I suppose the positive material plane could have a similar effect if it just absorbed energy and exploded. What I did not say was that my vote was the only one that counted, because I did not think anyone else had the means to take it to another plane. Well, except perhaps Higgins. But Higgins always gave me his proxy.
After Tuvstarr, we were all back at the entrance to the tree. It had grown in our absence. Morwen again suggested we depart to places Astral to rest and rejuvenate. I did not see why we could not just wait here and do the same thing, but she had concerns about further population disruptions if we did not hurry. Six of one, half dozen of the other, as my mother always would say. Or was that my contract’s professor in legal studies? No matter.
I went to the Astral with everyone save Ee and Nin, who watched the tree to make sure nothing happened for the few seconds we would be absent. On the Astral, I concentrated and a full day passed. I activated some of my powers, with the remaining points I had, to last a full 24 hours, straining my brain to the maximum. Higgins was kind enough to heal the blood pouring from my ears. I then waited the remaining eight hours of rest before activating a handful of other powers to last a day. Assuming we complete our mission within 16 hours, I should be ok. And I should have far more mental reserves to deal with whatever it is deep in the bark of that demon monstrosity.
Thus refreshed, I had Higgins return us to the tree (with that special spell of his that allows us to travel much more directly when changing planes – I’ll have to research a version of that for myself – it would be much more convenient).
We were about to head into the tree when I remembered that I was no longer “feeling the troll”, so to speak. I looked around for an orc. “Larch, can you take flight and see if your eagle eyes can spot any of orc stragglers?”
“Sure,” Larch said, and then he took flight. It did not take long for him to spot about 800 feet away, at another entrance, two orcs apparently “guarding” it.
“Higgins, hide me,” I said and then turned to walk off, my body disappearing within the cloak of Higgins’s magic before I took my second step. By my third step, I was no longer on the ground, my body flying at high speed toward the orcs. I wanted to surprise them.
A few seconds later, my unseen blackened finger touched one of the orcs, leaving him in a pile of dust, and revealing myself before him looking rather orcish myself. I hoped to fool him enough with my appearance to make a quick getaway. But then the orc attacked. It was then that I remembered that orcs have not proven much more than an annoyance for many moons. I got out my mirror and looked at myself. Horrible. Horrid. I looked like an orc, alright. It was frightening. I tried to adjust my hair. I also tried to file down my nails which now looked much longer than was fashionable.
In the meanwhile, the orc continued to try and attack me, its swings bouncing off of my various layers of protection. Briefly, I wondered if he could ever hope to get through. Then I remembered that my skin was not only orcish in texture, but was made of iron. The orc’s puny weapon was not likely to dent it. My nail filing complete, I turned from the orc and walked back to my companions. It was not mercy that spared him. I thought it might be handy to have an orc to absorb for later. If only I had some means of taking him with me. I would have to work on that. As it was, the orc’s departed mate filled me with great strength and power, and would continue to do so for the next hour. Hopefully, that would be plenty of time to accomplish our mission.
As I approached Ee, I heard his thoughts in my mind. “Where’s Cordozo!?”
Ee then spoke, “Where’s Cordozo!?”
Ah Ee, were it not for the possibility of separation, I would never need to waste my strength to link up with his mind. So refreshing. And such a gift. If one wishes to know what it feels like to be a telepath, its boons as well as its bane, one need only spend time around Ee. I assured Ee that the orc was I, and then headed toward his position.
Once I reached my companions, we all grasped hands and then I teleported us to the last room we had occupied.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Five – Moving is a Pain
Apparently, the tree is a restless sort. The room was no longer where we left it. We ended up bouncing through bark until we finally found an open corridor within the bowels of the tree. It hurt somewhat, taking away the temporary vigor granted to us by Larch before our entrance. Oh well. At least it saved us some time walking.
We did not have to walk long before finding another chamber. This chamber was large. Higgins had protected everyone from acid long before we entered, so we were ready for more of the trees sap, but the chamber was dry. It was so dry that we all heard rather clearly the scratching of a thousand or more giant feet scraping along the walls and ceilings. A creature larger than the purple worms came scurrying along the wall at as, like a centipede from hell. (Later, I determined that this was a ‘Megapede’).
Ee and Morwen jumped forward, surrounding its head, if you can call it that, inflicting great harm on it. Larch stepped right up to its maw and slammed his elemental fists right into it. I tried to disintegrate it, but its carapace proved too thick to penetrate, so I left only a small wound on its face. Then Higgins, having learned from our bout with the worms how clumsy large beasts like this can be, pointed a finger and drained away what little agility the beast had, leaving it a flopping, helpless mountain of insectoid flesh. We finished it off pretty quickly and then resumed our trek into the tree.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Six – Between a Rock and a Soft Boneless Pile of Flesh
The tree really doesn’t seem to like us. The next “room” we found was more of a rounded corridor, about 30 feet in width. The path we walked led into the room, then slowly squeezed itself off, leaving only the way forward open. Unfortunately, the way forward was filled completely with a large ball of flesh about 30 feet in diameter that perfectly sealed off the width of the room.
Morwen grabbed Nin and used her bracers to transport them both to the other side of the beast. There, Nin laid into it with his chain, doing massive damage that the beast seemed mostly to ignore. Then, the beast rolled backward, nearly engulfing Nin and Morwen. Fortunately, they deftly stepped back out of the way. Before the beast could roll forward again and engulf the rest of us, I pointed a finger at it and disintegrated it, leaving behind a pile of dust.
Larch later informed us that the beast was a ‘gigantic bone ooze’ and that had we not killed it quickly, it would have rolled over all of us and sucked the bones right out of our bodies, leaving us as soft, fleshy pulps on the walls of the room. It was fortunate that Nin did so much damage to it, or else there might not have been anyone left to pen this journal.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Seven – We Fight the Tree (or is that Symbolic?)
We came to a seemingly final room, which the tree again was kind enough to close off on us, making only the way forward open. Or it would have been open had there been any other way out of the room.
Standing at the far end of the room was a huge statue of a treant. Of course, it animated and attacked us. But not before two huge umber hulks came up out of the ground and tried to kill us.
One came up on our right, right by the (former) entrance to the room. It was rather too close to Higgins and I for comfort. I stepped back and dropped down on it a cylinder of energy from the negative material plane, sucking away some of its precious life force. My second mind, harking all the way back to my very first days of adventuring, grabbed onto the mind of the beast, found purchase, and then crushed it to a pulp. A few soft blows from Larch later, the beast was on its back.
That’s when the aforementioned statue animation took place. It turned out the statue was more of a massively strong and large (huge) stone golem. Nin, before he could charge it, was swallowed up by the tree. We could hear him fall and hit something solid before the pit beneath him vanished. He reappared a few seconds later, complaining about the general lack of courtesy (and air) at the bottom of the pit.
“Feather fall is a very nice sort of thing to have on a ring,” I mentioned to him before he charged back into the fray.
I sent forth another column of negative energy on the statue and on the second umber hulk. Unfortunately, constructs don’t seem affected by negative energy. I guess they don’t really accumulate any life experiences to lose. The umber hulk, however, did not have that luxury. Still, the hulk was extremely tough, and it looked to be a long struggle to bring it down. Then Nin stepped up.
Nin jumped between the two hulking, huge beasts and slammed his chain into the skull of the umber hulk. There was a sickening “snap” and the hulk’s head went soft and spongy. The creature, who had barely a scratch on him, cluttered to the ground, lifeless.
“That is so Broken!” I thought to myself, looking at the creature’s neck.
Nin then turned his attention to the golem. Ee, Nin, and Morwen quickly finished off the pseudo-Treant, leaving us yet again alone in the bowels of the tree. Then the “ground” began to shake. Another pit opened up, taking Higgins down into a pit much like Nin had been the moment before. Higgins, however, floated softly to the bottom and then shifted dimensions to return to my side. Then things got rather grim.
The whole room began to fill with the tree’s foul sap. Within a minute, the entire room was filled with it, burning us all horrible with its acidic nature. Or it would have, had we all not been protected. First, by Higgins, and then later, by the cages of force that surrounded all of us.
Then the floor opened up and we went shooting down a long tube, buffeted around by the journey, but well protected from the acid. I probably would have been hurt rather badly had my body of iron not absorbed all of the shock. Higgins’s skin of stone helped him as well. The mental complaints of my companions suggested that they were not faring quite so well. After several minutes of this bumpy ride, we were all deposited in a large chamber, free of the boxes of force.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Eight – Now We’re Talking!
The room was covered with all sorts of different, chattering faces. Once we were arrived and settled, some of the faces turned to us. It looked like the time for fighting was over and the time for talking had begun. I cleared my throat. I looked up at the faces and prepared my best in-court voice.
“Greetings! I must say, normally our potential employers are just a little more subtle about the fact that they are secretly demons intent on the destruction of our entire plane when they come to us and ask us to do a job for them. So, what is it we can do for you?” I beamed at them with my best jury smile. My eyes sparkled.
Once we were all free of the tree, and once Higgins had removed Nimue from the brink of death, I transported us all all the way back to Cauldron so we could procure supplies and consult Tuvstarr. The most pressing need was some way to survive without air. I was covered, as was Larch, but the rest of us had some work in that area. I got a stone for Higgins that would sustain him in those conditions. I think Morwen may have gotten a similar stone for Nimue. There were only two available in the whole Kingdom (and beyond – I checked my extensive spy network and was only able to locate two). We also located two necklaces that served a similar function. Though they were cheaper, they would not work with any amulets we already had, so that limited their use to those of us with unadorned necks.
A few polymorph scrolls also seemed prudent, along with a handful of other scrolls Higgins picked up. I did not ask him what they were, but I assumed they would potentially be handy for the fight ahead.
We all gathered together again at Tuvstarr’s, where she told us that the only way we could destroy the seed’s connection to our plane was to remove it to another plane. That was all well and good, but that did not quite sound like destroying it. I informed everyone that my vote was still that we take it to the negative material plane. Not much could survive there. Though I suppose the positive material plane could have a similar effect if it just absorbed energy and exploded. What I did not say was that my vote was the only one that counted, because I did not think anyone else had the means to take it to another plane. Well, except perhaps Higgins. But Higgins always gave me his proxy.
After Tuvstarr, we were all back at the entrance to the tree. It had grown in our absence. Morwen again suggested we depart to places Astral to rest and rejuvenate. I did not see why we could not just wait here and do the same thing, but she had concerns about further population disruptions if we did not hurry. Six of one, half dozen of the other, as my mother always would say. Or was that my contract’s professor in legal studies? No matter.
I went to the Astral with everyone save Ee and Nin, who watched the tree to make sure nothing happened for the few seconds we would be absent. On the Astral, I concentrated and a full day passed. I activated some of my powers, with the remaining points I had, to last a full 24 hours, straining my brain to the maximum. Higgins was kind enough to heal the blood pouring from my ears. I then waited the remaining eight hours of rest before activating a handful of other powers to last a day. Assuming we complete our mission within 16 hours, I should be ok. And I should have far more mental reserves to deal with whatever it is deep in the bark of that demon monstrosity.
Thus refreshed, I had Higgins return us to the tree (with that special spell of his that allows us to travel much more directly when changing planes – I’ll have to research a version of that for myself – it would be much more convenient).
We were about to head into the tree when I remembered that I was no longer “feeling the troll”, so to speak. I looked around for an orc. “Larch, can you take flight and see if your eagle eyes can spot any of orc stragglers?”
“Sure,” Larch said, and then he took flight. It did not take long for him to spot about 800 feet away, at another entrance, two orcs apparently “guarding” it.
“Higgins, hide me,” I said and then turned to walk off, my body disappearing within the cloak of Higgins’s magic before I took my second step. By my third step, I was no longer on the ground, my body flying at high speed toward the orcs. I wanted to surprise them.
A few seconds later, my unseen blackened finger touched one of the orcs, leaving him in a pile of dust, and revealing myself before him looking rather orcish myself. I hoped to fool him enough with my appearance to make a quick getaway. But then the orc attacked. It was then that I remembered that orcs have not proven much more than an annoyance for many moons. I got out my mirror and looked at myself. Horrible. Horrid. I looked like an orc, alright. It was frightening. I tried to adjust my hair. I also tried to file down my nails which now looked much longer than was fashionable.
In the meanwhile, the orc continued to try and attack me, its swings bouncing off of my various layers of protection. Briefly, I wondered if he could ever hope to get through. Then I remembered that my skin was not only orcish in texture, but was made of iron. The orc’s puny weapon was not likely to dent it. My nail filing complete, I turned from the orc and walked back to my companions. It was not mercy that spared him. I thought it might be handy to have an orc to absorb for later. If only I had some means of taking him with me. I would have to work on that. As it was, the orc’s departed mate filled me with great strength and power, and would continue to do so for the next hour. Hopefully, that would be plenty of time to accomplish our mission.
As I approached Ee, I heard his thoughts in my mind. “Where’s Cordozo!?”
Ee then spoke, “Where’s Cordozo!?”
Ah Ee, were it not for the possibility of separation, I would never need to waste my strength to link up with his mind. So refreshing. And such a gift. If one wishes to know what it feels like to be a telepath, its boons as well as its bane, one need only spend time around Ee. I assured Ee that the orc was I, and then headed toward his position.
Once I reached my companions, we all grasped hands and then I teleported us to the last room we had occupied.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Five – Moving is a Pain
Apparently, the tree is a restless sort. The room was no longer where we left it. We ended up bouncing through bark until we finally found an open corridor within the bowels of the tree. It hurt somewhat, taking away the temporary vigor granted to us by Larch before our entrance. Oh well. At least it saved us some time walking.
We did not have to walk long before finding another chamber. This chamber was large. Higgins had protected everyone from acid long before we entered, so we were ready for more of the trees sap, but the chamber was dry. It was so dry that we all heard rather clearly the scratching of a thousand or more giant feet scraping along the walls and ceilings. A creature larger than the purple worms came scurrying along the wall at as, like a centipede from hell. (Later, I determined that this was a ‘Megapede’).
Ee and Morwen jumped forward, surrounding its head, if you can call it that, inflicting great harm on it. Larch stepped right up to its maw and slammed his elemental fists right into it. I tried to disintegrate it, but its carapace proved too thick to penetrate, so I left only a small wound on its face. Then Higgins, having learned from our bout with the worms how clumsy large beasts like this can be, pointed a finger and drained away what little agility the beast had, leaving it a flopping, helpless mountain of insectoid flesh. We finished it off pretty quickly and then resumed our trek into the tree.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Six – Between a Rock and a Soft Boneless Pile of Flesh
The tree really doesn’t seem to like us. The next “room” we found was more of a rounded corridor, about 30 feet in width. The path we walked led into the room, then slowly squeezed itself off, leaving only the way forward open. Unfortunately, the way forward was filled completely with a large ball of flesh about 30 feet in diameter that perfectly sealed off the width of the room.
Morwen grabbed Nin and used her bracers to transport them both to the other side of the beast. There, Nin laid into it with his chain, doing massive damage that the beast seemed mostly to ignore. Then, the beast rolled backward, nearly engulfing Nin and Morwen. Fortunately, they deftly stepped back out of the way. Before the beast could roll forward again and engulf the rest of us, I pointed a finger at it and disintegrated it, leaving behind a pile of dust.
Larch later informed us that the beast was a ‘gigantic bone ooze’ and that had we not killed it quickly, it would have rolled over all of us and sucked the bones right out of our bodies, leaving us as soft, fleshy pulps on the walls of the room. It was fortunate that Nin did so much damage to it, or else there might not have been anyone left to pen this journal.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Seven – We Fight the Tree (or is that Symbolic?)
We came to a seemingly final room, which the tree again was kind enough to close off on us, making only the way forward open. Or it would have been open had there been any other way out of the room.
Standing at the far end of the room was a huge statue of a treant. Of course, it animated and attacked us. But not before two huge umber hulks came up out of the ground and tried to kill us.
One came up on our right, right by the (former) entrance to the room. It was rather too close to Higgins and I for comfort. I stepped back and dropped down on it a cylinder of energy from the negative material plane, sucking away some of its precious life force. My second mind, harking all the way back to my very first days of adventuring, grabbed onto the mind of the beast, found purchase, and then crushed it to a pulp. A few soft blows from Larch later, the beast was on its back.
That’s when the aforementioned statue animation took place. It turned out the statue was more of a massively strong and large (huge) stone golem. Nin, before he could charge it, was swallowed up by the tree. We could hear him fall and hit something solid before the pit beneath him vanished. He reappared a few seconds later, complaining about the general lack of courtesy (and air) at the bottom of the pit.
“Feather fall is a very nice sort of thing to have on a ring,” I mentioned to him before he charged back into the fray.
I sent forth another column of negative energy on the statue and on the second umber hulk. Unfortunately, constructs don’t seem affected by negative energy. I guess they don’t really accumulate any life experiences to lose. The umber hulk, however, did not have that luxury. Still, the hulk was extremely tough, and it looked to be a long struggle to bring it down. Then Nin stepped up.
Nin jumped between the two hulking, huge beasts and slammed his chain into the skull of the umber hulk. There was a sickening “snap” and the hulk’s head went soft and spongy. The creature, who had barely a scratch on him, cluttered to the ground, lifeless.
“That is so Broken!” I thought to myself, looking at the creature’s neck.
Nin then turned his attention to the golem. Ee, Nin, and Morwen quickly finished off the pseudo-Treant, leaving us yet again alone in the bowels of the tree. Then the “ground” began to shake. Another pit opened up, taking Higgins down into a pit much like Nin had been the moment before. Higgins, however, floated softly to the bottom and then shifted dimensions to return to my side. Then things got rather grim.
The whole room began to fill with the tree’s foul sap. Within a minute, the entire room was filled with it, burning us all horrible with its acidic nature. Or it would have, had we all not been protected. First, by Higgins, and then later, by the cages of force that surrounded all of us.
Then the floor opened up and we went shooting down a long tube, buffeted around by the journey, but well protected from the acid. I probably would have been hurt rather badly had my body of iron not absorbed all of the shock. Higgins’s skin of stone helped him as well. The mental complaints of my companions suggested that they were not faring quite so well. After several minutes of this bumpy ride, we were all deposited in a large chamber, free of the boxes of force.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Eight – Now We’re Talking!
The room was covered with all sorts of different, chattering faces. Once we were arrived and settled, some of the faces turned to us. It looked like the time for fighting was over and the time for talking had begun. I cleared my throat. I looked up at the faces and prepared my best in-court voice.
“Greetings! I must say, normally our potential employers are just a little more subtle about the fact that they are secretly demons intent on the destruction of our entire plane when they come to us and ask us to do a job for them. So, what is it we can do for you?” I beamed at them with my best jury smile. My eyes sparkled.
Altalazar
First Post
Three different “factions” of faces stared down at us. They were almost all talking at once. I heard mention of desire for freedom, ruling the plane, and for killing Lazbral’Thull. I negotiated in good faith, bringing all of the factions together, with a little bit of help from my companions. After oration that would have acquitted a serial murderer, I sat back, satisfied, as all of the faces smiled down upon us.
“I just want to go back to my home plane,” the demon-tree smoothly lied to me, apparently with the delusion that it could actually fool an epic lawyer such as myself.
“Oh, but of course, I sympathize for your plight and I’ll help you any way I can,” I lied back, confident that the tree would believe every word I said. “As I said before, we’ve worked for demons before, so working for you is old hat.”
I heard in my mind the loud protests of Morwen’s voice, but I mentally assured her that I knew the demon-tree was full of purple worm dung. (As it most assuredly was, given past encounters.)
“Enough talking!” the faces all shouted in unison, and then we were all transported (if you can call it that) through the innards of the tree to the final battle with the tree’s current “master.” The ride was a bit bumpy. Higgins took the transit time to lay some enchantments on my companions, offering them additional protections and powers for the coming battle. I waited until the last moment, just before we were dumped into the room, to activate one of my power stones to call an ectoplasmic guardian. Higgins used that moment to haste us all. Then our faces met the barky floor.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Nine – Druid from Hell
The room we found ourselves in was of gigantic proportions. It was divided into two halves by long tentacles that met in the middle of the room just short of a large, glowing seed-shaped object encased behind a box of magical force. This, apparently, was the seed.
Just to our flanks were two huge Treants. At the far end of the room was a gargantuan creature that reminded me of a dragon but which was actually a fiendish tyrannosaurus (according to Larch’s mind). Standing right in front of it was a demonic angel. Or rather, it was an angel, but my eyes saw through this and instead saw a hag of a druid. She and her “pet” were standing on a ten foot high plateau at the rear of the chamber. Flanking her, not on the plateau, but in front of it, were two more Night Walkers, their large hands eager to grab and destroy whatever weapons they could reach.
When I finally was able to act, I felt the stone in my hand complete its magic and then I directed my ectoplasmic friend to appear right in front of the druid. He lunged at her and wrapped his huge arms around her body, holding her fast. I hoped he would prevent her from weaving magic against us, but it was not to be. She walked out of his grasp as if he were made of air, not ectoplasm, and her “pet” began to tear into him. I decided then that he would need some assistance.
In the meanwhile, the two treants were quickly dispatched by Ee’s Axe, Morwen’s rapier, and Nin’s chain. Then the druid acted.
I had just finished summoning two of my valkries to surround the tyrannosaur when suddenly my vision was filled with fire. A wall of flames erupted from the ground in front of us, filling the width of the cavern from floor to ceiling and cutting us off. Higgins noted in his mind that this would cut the druid off from targeting us as well, but I somehow doubt she expected her wall to last long. And she was correct, because the second part of my mind, the part not occupied with the valkries, brought down the fire wall.
Just as the wall vanished, more fire arrived, this time from the “heavens,” courtesy of our demonic angel druid friend. Acting quickly, I dampened the fire and divine energy with my mind down to minimal levels, reducing it from a bang to a whimper.
My main mind focused its attention back on the battle at the far end of the room. My valkeries were holding their own, even as my ectoplasmic guardian was flanked by the two Night Walkers. Then Moria was swallowed whole by the dinosaur. To her credit, she kept her head together well enough to teleport herself free, but just to bolster her, I sent forth two more valkries to further flank the gargantuan beast.
Morwen grabbed Nin and dimensioned them both to flank one of the Night Walkers. At that moment, the tree began to “help” us. All of the air was removed from half of the chamber, leaving us in good shape, but not Nin or Morwen, who were now standing in vacuum. Nin held fast, but Morwen immediately passed out. Nin, eager for the kill, sighed and transported them back to Higgins.
Ee, eager for a fight, ran straight into the vacuum, right up to the wall of force. He could not get through, so he flew up and over, landing just on the other side of the box of force.
Morwen, aided by Higgins, sought to return to the fight, but she could not cross the vacuum barrier without risking asphyxia again. So she and Nimue stayed just at the edge of the air (which was expanded outwards by the tree at their request) and tried to target the druid with ranged magic.
Nin, meanwhile, jumped back to face the druid (who now stood at the back of the platform at the far end of the room) and he managed to slow her down as she tried to escape. She tripped once, but managed to get to her feet and run down toward the middle of the chamber.
Higgins disintegrated the box of force with a scroll, leaving it open for us to go for the seed, but the druid apparently put it right back up.
As if to emphasize the fact that the only part of the room that still had air in it was the back part where most of us were standing, the druid sent a whirlwind through us, smashing us all around and picking Nimue right up into the air. She would have been swept away had she not been brought back to the dirt by Larch dispelling the the funnel.
The tyrannosaur was finally brought down by the combined might of four valkries and my astral construct, leaving them all free to pursue the druid. One of the Night Walkers was sucked down a pit by the tree. I somehow doubt it can escape. The second one concealed itself and headed toward Ee, but it ultimately did not last long.
The druid, surrounded and wounded, activated some magic and vanished, leaving us alone with the tree and the seed. I disintegrated the wall once again and Larch charged for the seed, grabbing it as he was shocked from strange energy discharges. I ran in after him and grabbed him, instantly transporting us to the negative material plane, then back again, pausing only long enough for Larch to drop the seed. I then brought us back to the tree chamber, just in time for everything to start to collapse.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty – If a Tree Falls in the Prime Material Plane…
The tree was obviously imploding. It could not be very happy. I quickly gathered up my companions for a safe transport outside of the tree. Morwen balked at first, wanting to loot the bodies, so I gave her a second to verify that there was not much loot to be found. Then I brought us out some distance from the tree. We got to sit and watch it slowly collapse over about twenty minutes. It probably would have hurt had we remained inside.
Thus, the plane saved, we returned to Cauldron. The King was very happy with us. Though the tree had not sprouted within the kingdom, it was clear enough that all lands would have been in jeopardy had we not acted. We were paid close to 100,000 gold in coins, gems, and other valuables. He also gave us a daern’s instant fortress, a crystal ball, an amulet of second chances, and something just for me, a cognizance crystal of middling power. I could already hear the words in my mind from Morwen, “Sell sell sell.” Still, it was a suitable reward. But that was not the real reward.
“In honor of your service to the realm, and to the world, I bestow upon you all the title of Baron (or Baroness) of the Kingdom, with appropriate land and honors to follow.
Finally! Finally I am getting my due. Finally I have a title that will survive me, a real entry into the nobility! Now I just need to work my way up toward Duke – only four or so levels of nobility to go!
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-One – A small matter of vampires
As my first act as Baron, I am going to go back to the strange plane of those blood sucking rapier-wielding woman and clean out their tower of evil. Higgins and I have been stockpiling stones and scrolls specifically for the occasion. In three weeks time, when the moon is right, we will go back. And this time, it is they who will be caught off guard. Oh yes, they are going to pay!
Now I just need to finish sharpening my stakes.
“I just want to go back to my home plane,” the demon-tree smoothly lied to me, apparently with the delusion that it could actually fool an epic lawyer such as myself.
“Oh, but of course, I sympathize for your plight and I’ll help you any way I can,” I lied back, confident that the tree would believe every word I said. “As I said before, we’ve worked for demons before, so working for you is old hat.”
I heard in my mind the loud protests of Morwen’s voice, but I mentally assured her that I knew the demon-tree was full of purple worm dung. (As it most assuredly was, given past encounters.)
“Enough talking!” the faces all shouted in unison, and then we were all transported (if you can call it that) through the innards of the tree to the final battle with the tree’s current “master.” The ride was a bit bumpy. Higgins took the transit time to lay some enchantments on my companions, offering them additional protections and powers for the coming battle. I waited until the last moment, just before we were dumped into the room, to activate one of my power stones to call an ectoplasmic guardian. Higgins used that moment to haste us all. Then our faces met the barky floor.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Seventy-Nine – Druid from Hell
The room we found ourselves in was of gigantic proportions. It was divided into two halves by long tentacles that met in the middle of the room just short of a large, glowing seed-shaped object encased behind a box of magical force. This, apparently, was the seed.
Just to our flanks were two huge Treants. At the far end of the room was a gargantuan creature that reminded me of a dragon but which was actually a fiendish tyrannosaurus (according to Larch’s mind). Standing right in front of it was a demonic angel. Or rather, it was an angel, but my eyes saw through this and instead saw a hag of a druid. She and her “pet” were standing on a ten foot high plateau at the rear of the chamber. Flanking her, not on the plateau, but in front of it, were two more Night Walkers, their large hands eager to grab and destroy whatever weapons they could reach.
When I finally was able to act, I felt the stone in my hand complete its magic and then I directed my ectoplasmic friend to appear right in front of the druid. He lunged at her and wrapped his huge arms around her body, holding her fast. I hoped he would prevent her from weaving magic against us, but it was not to be. She walked out of his grasp as if he were made of air, not ectoplasm, and her “pet” began to tear into him. I decided then that he would need some assistance.
In the meanwhile, the two treants were quickly dispatched by Ee’s Axe, Morwen’s rapier, and Nin’s chain. Then the druid acted.
I had just finished summoning two of my valkries to surround the tyrannosaur when suddenly my vision was filled with fire. A wall of flames erupted from the ground in front of us, filling the width of the cavern from floor to ceiling and cutting us off. Higgins noted in his mind that this would cut the druid off from targeting us as well, but I somehow doubt she expected her wall to last long. And she was correct, because the second part of my mind, the part not occupied with the valkries, brought down the fire wall.
Just as the wall vanished, more fire arrived, this time from the “heavens,” courtesy of our demonic angel druid friend. Acting quickly, I dampened the fire and divine energy with my mind down to minimal levels, reducing it from a bang to a whimper.
My main mind focused its attention back on the battle at the far end of the room. My valkeries were holding their own, even as my ectoplasmic guardian was flanked by the two Night Walkers. Then Moria was swallowed whole by the dinosaur. To her credit, she kept her head together well enough to teleport herself free, but just to bolster her, I sent forth two more valkries to further flank the gargantuan beast.
Morwen grabbed Nin and dimensioned them both to flank one of the Night Walkers. At that moment, the tree began to “help” us. All of the air was removed from half of the chamber, leaving us in good shape, but not Nin or Morwen, who were now standing in vacuum. Nin held fast, but Morwen immediately passed out. Nin, eager for the kill, sighed and transported them back to Higgins.
Ee, eager for a fight, ran straight into the vacuum, right up to the wall of force. He could not get through, so he flew up and over, landing just on the other side of the box of force.
Morwen, aided by Higgins, sought to return to the fight, but she could not cross the vacuum barrier without risking asphyxia again. So she and Nimue stayed just at the edge of the air (which was expanded outwards by the tree at their request) and tried to target the druid with ranged magic.
Nin, meanwhile, jumped back to face the druid (who now stood at the back of the platform at the far end of the room) and he managed to slow her down as she tried to escape. She tripped once, but managed to get to her feet and run down toward the middle of the chamber.
Higgins disintegrated the box of force with a scroll, leaving it open for us to go for the seed, but the druid apparently put it right back up.
As if to emphasize the fact that the only part of the room that still had air in it was the back part where most of us were standing, the druid sent a whirlwind through us, smashing us all around and picking Nimue right up into the air. She would have been swept away had she not been brought back to the dirt by Larch dispelling the the funnel.
The tyrannosaur was finally brought down by the combined might of four valkries and my astral construct, leaving them all free to pursue the druid. One of the Night Walkers was sucked down a pit by the tree. I somehow doubt it can escape. The second one concealed itself and headed toward Ee, but it ultimately did not last long.
The druid, surrounded and wounded, activated some magic and vanished, leaving us alone with the tree and the seed. I disintegrated the wall once again and Larch charged for the seed, grabbing it as he was shocked from strange energy discharges. I ran in after him and grabbed him, instantly transporting us to the negative material plane, then back again, pausing only long enough for Larch to drop the seed. I then brought us back to the tree chamber, just in time for everything to start to collapse.
Sir Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty – If a Tree Falls in the Prime Material Plane…
The tree was obviously imploding. It could not be very happy. I quickly gathered up my companions for a safe transport outside of the tree. Morwen balked at first, wanting to loot the bodies, so I gave her a second to verify that there was not much loot to be found. Then I brought us out some distance from the tree. We got to sit and watch it slowly collapse over about twenty minutes. It probably would have hurt had we remained inside.
Thus, the plane saved, we returned to Cauldron. The King was very happy with us. Though the tree had not sprouted within the kingdom, it was clear enough that all lands would have been in jeopardy had we not acted. We were paid close to 100,000 gold in coins, gems, and other valuables. He also gave us a daern’s instant fortress, a crystal ball, an amulet of second chances, and something just for me, a cognizance crystal of middling power. I could already hear the words in my mind from Morwen, “Sell sell sell.” Still, it was a suitable reward. But that was not the real reward.
“In honor of your service to the realm, and to the world, I bestow upon you all the title of Baron (or Baroness) of the Kingdom, with appropriate land and honors to follow.
Finally! Finally I am getting my due. Finally I have a title that will survive me, a real entry into the nobility! Now I just need to work my way up toward Duke – only four or so levels of nobility to go!
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-One – A small matter of vampires
As my first act as Baron, I am going to go back to the strange plane of those blood sucking rapier-wielding woman and clean out their tower of evil. Higgins and I have been stockpiling stones and scrolls specifically for the occasion. In three weeks time, when the moon is right, we will go back. And this time, it is they who will be caught off guard. Oh yes, they are going to pay!
Now I just need to finish sharpening my stakes.
Altalazar
First Post
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Two – Murky Mystery
About a week later, I was engaged in the creation of more stones for my upcoming visit to the plane of negative evil, home of the vampire tower, when one of my followers, a commoner named Raelon, came staggering into my stronghold in Cauldron. Apparently, the small mountain community of Raven's Hollow, which has long lived in peace under the watchful proetction of its night-Protectors, an enclave of Paladins in a mountain fortress just above Raven's Hollow, has gone silent. No more trade or travellers come from there and now an alarm has been raised.
“The people and the land have gone sour,” Raelon told me, after we had tended to his wounds. “It happened suddenly, after a strange storm about a week prior. The storm led to a brown-stained rain. Soon after it began to fall, people acted strangely.”
“What do you mean by ‘strangely,’” I asked him.
“They seemed to all act in concert, even the paladins with the villagers. The last thing I saw, from a distance, before I ran, was a rider being pulled from his horse by a large group of villagers. I did not tally long, lest I be caught as well. A paladin on a horse almost rode me down as I escaped.”
This seemed like a noble enough purpose, at least for Posiedon and Morwen, if no one else. I decided to contact them and see what they could come up with.
Posiedon scryed on several people known to Raelon. Only a few were scryable, the rest were not. Which either meant they were dead or they were somewhere they could not be seen magically. Neither option was particularly helpful. The last clear vision we saw was of a paladin on a horse, her blank face covered in brown stains that were hard to see because the entire scene was covered in a brown haze.
Divinations proved most unhelpful. It seemed we had to take a closer look.
Between Posiedon and myself, we managed to transport all of us to the paladin. Morwen, Tuvstarr, Posiedon, and myself, along with our cohorts and several golem warhorses. We all were mounted, with some mounts shared, in an attempt to keep our feet out of the brown mud that seems to cover the entire landscape hear Raven’s Hollow.
As soon as the paladin saw us, she reared up her horse and charged. Strangely, both she and her mount had the same blank looks on their faces and both were covered in brownish stains from head to toe. Thinking quickly, which is all a psion need do, Posiedon engulfed both the paladin and her mount in a cocoon of ectoplasm, stopping them mid-charge.
We quickly surrounded her, then attempted to tend to her. Posiedon linked with her mind and attempted to repair any damage he could find. I know from my own use of that power (which I actually gave to him in the first place), this would take at least ten minutes of concentrating hard. Unfortunately, within a minute, brown, muddy villagers stood up from the ground around us and began to charge us, their sharpened farm implements held high.
Before they could close the distance, one of Posiedon’s disciples raised a barrier of ectoplasm around us in a large dome, keeping the former farmers away from us. They kept at the barrier, slowly wearing it down. They would have made it through had the barrier not been renewed several times.
Poseidon ultimately determined that the paladin’s mind was fine. Her name was Persephone, and she communicated to him via mindlink that she has no control over her body, and this has been true since about half an hour after the rain started a week earlier. We tried many magical and psionic cures to try and save her. Nothing seemed to help her. Posiedon was contemplating trying to leap her forward in time, sans mud, to see if that would help her.
Tuvstarr examined the brown substance carefully, and determined that it was water mixed with a fine powder of bark dust. The bark was from a tree not native to this plane, at least so far as Tuvstarr could determine, which was usually good enough to know for sure.
Testing a theory, Tuvstarr, thought back to her days as an apprentice, and then used one of the most basic magics she learned, prestigiditation, the sort of magic one uses to shine one’s boots. And it worked! Persephone was clear of the substance and clear of its control. And the ectoplasmic dome around us kept the rain at bay. Then we saw more trouble.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Three – More Paladins, More Wands, More Teleportation
The villagers we kept easily at bay. But then we saw four more paladins come riding in on warhorses. They were apt to bring down the ectoplasm far faster than was comfortable. We quickly transported everyone back to the Capitol. There we were safe. There we also found at least a half-dozen wands of prestidigitation, something which we would find great use for with the villagers. Unfortunately, even that many would cover only a small fraction of the over 3,000 villagers and paladins that occupied the community of Raven’s Hollow. But it was a start.
We could not scry anyone in the paladins’ keep, but Persephone knew a location near the keep and so we attempted to teleport just outside the gate. Fortunately, this worked.
The gate was down, but with four of Posiedon’s behemouths of ectoplasm, it was quickly raised. We managed to get inside just as a few hundred villagers charged us. The gate was raised at the same time from within. One construct quickly blocked the gate with his body, cutting off the villagers. At the same time, paladins came from each flank, from the east and west towers astride the gatehouse. Some were held in ectoplasm, some were time-hopped forward, and the rest were cleaned, giving us more allies in our fight.
We then turned our attention to the remaining door ahead of us, the one that led to the central atrium of the keep. As it happened, we did not need to open it. It was opened for us.
After it opened, paladins streamed in. They looked different than the others. They had not just brown sludge, but large splinters of wood piercing their flesh everywhere. There were seven of them. The council of six leadership, and then the castellan of the paladins himself. This would prove to be a tough fight.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Four – Night Twist
We were careful to do only non-lethat damage to the paladins. Unfortuantely, they were not kind enough to return the favor. One of the circle was taken down by the constructs. Then the rest retreated to the atrium, to protect the true menace. There, we saw a huge tree, with long flailing limbs.
Posiedon, Tuvstarr, Morwen, and Nimue charged into the atrium to face it. Morwen tumbled behind it, hoping for assistance flanking the tree. Assistance never came.
Within seconds, six limbs tore into Morwen’s flesh, ripping most of it from her body, and leaving her unconscious on the ground behind the tree. Then a great wind began to flow, blasting everyone back. Finally, a huge, weird vision of death vercame Nimue, nearly killing her instantly.
None of Posiedon’s ectoplasmic beasts could enter the atrium, nor could any other summoned beasts. Posiedon send wave after wave of sharp crystal shards into the hide of the tree, wounding it again and again. But just when it was close to falling, the circule of paladins would surround it and heal it, first laying on hands, later, using their more conventional healing magic.
We had a short scare at one point as all five of the circle cast their shield of protection over the tree, taking half of its wounds as they came. Had Tuvstarr not dispelled that magic, we would probably have killed all of the paladins before the tree even came close to falling.
In the end, though it was a tough fight, the tree simply could not survive our epic onslaught. More importantly, we managed to avoid killing a single innocent villager or paladin. We had to pick out the splinters by hand after the fight, and then we had a few thousand villagers to clean, but we saved the village and the paladins. The paladins, in particular, were very grateful. They offered us a “favor,” whatever that might mean.
The tree itself held nothing but seven strange, magical “acorns,” for lack of a better word. These acorns protected it from negative energy and boosted all of its various attributes, making them a valuable find.
Tuvstarr finally settled the murky mystery of the tree. The Night Twist grew from a fragment of the great demon tree that we had recently vanquished. The rain was shards of its bark, coming down upon the populace after the giant splinter of a fragment landed in the atrium and began spreading its foul, demonic evil into the keep and the village.
While we heard no further reports of trouble, it does not bode well for us if further splinters from the huge demon tree have landed elsewhere to spread their evil. I will keep the eyes and ears of my great information network, now nearly 700 strong, wide open for signs of this evil.
Now, there are some vampires to vanquish who have waited far too long.
About a week later, I was engaged in the creation of more stones for my upcoming visit to the plane of negative evil, home of the vampire tower, when one of my followers, a commoner named Raelon, came staggering into my stronghold in Cauldron. Apparently, the small mountain community of Raven's Hollow, which has long lived in peace under the watchful proetction of its night-Protectors, an enclave of Paladins in a mountain fortress just above Raven's Hollow, has gone silent. No more trade or travellers come from there and now an alarm has been raised.
“The people and the land have gone sour,” Raelon told me, after we had tended to his wounds. “It happened suddenly, after a strange storm about a week prior. The storm led to a brown-stained rain. Soon after it began to fall, people acted strangely.”
“What do you mean by ‘strangely,’” I asked him.
“They seemed to all act in concert, even the paladins with the villagers. The last thing I saw, from a distance, before I ran, was a rider being pulled from his horse by a large group of villagers. I did not tally long, lest I be caught as well. A paladin on a horse almost rode me down as I escaped.”
This seemed like a noble enough purpose, at least for Posiedon and Morwen, if no one else. I decided to contact them and see what they could come up with.
Posiedon scryed on several people known to Raelon. Only a few were scryable, the rest were not. Which either meant they were dead or they were somewhere they could not be seen magically. Neither option was particularly helpful. The last clear vision we saw was of a paladin on a horse, her blank face covered in brown stains that were hard to see because the entire scene was covered in a brown haze.
Divinations proved most unhelpful. It seemed we had to take a closer look.
Between Posiedon and myself, we managed to transport all of us to the paladin. Morwen, Tuvstarr, Posiedon, and myself, along with our cohorts and several golem warhorses. We all were mounted, with some mounts shared, in an attempt to keep our feet out of the brown mud that seems to cover the entire landscape hear Raven’s Hollow.
As soon as the paladin saw us, she reared up her horse and charged. Strangely, both she and her mount had the same blank looks on their faces and both were covered in brownish stains from head to toe. Thinking quickly, which is all a psion need do, Posiedon engulfed both the paladin and her mount in a cocoon of ectoplasm, stopping them mid-charge.
We quickly surrounded her, then attempted to tend to her. Posiedon linked with her mind and attempted to repair any damage he could find. I know from my own use of that power (which I actually gave to him in the first place), this would take at least ten minutes of concentrating hard. Unfortunately, within a minute, brown, muddy villagers stood up from the ground around us and began to charge us, their sharpened farm implements held high.
Before they could close the distance, one of Posiedon’s disciples raised a barrier of ectoplasm around us in a large dome, keeping the former farmers away from us. They kept at the barrier, slowly wearing it down. They would have made it through had the barrier not been renewed several times.
Poseidon ultimately determined that the paladin’s mind was fine. Her name was Persephone, and she communicated to him via mindlink that she has no control over her body, and this has been true since about half an hour after the rain started a week earlier. We tried many magical and psionic cures to try and save her. Nothing seemed to help her. Posiedon was contemplating trying to leap her forward in time, sans mud, to see if that would help her.
Tuvstarr examined the brown substance carefully, and determined that it was water mixed with a fine powder of bark dust. The bark was from a tree not native to this plane, at least so far as Tuvstarr could determine, which was usually good enough to know for sure.
Testing a theory, Tuvstarr, thought back to her days as an apprentice, and then used one of the most basic magics she learned, prestigiditation, the sort of magic one uses to shine one’s boots. And it worked! Persephone was clear of the substance and clear of its control. And the ectoplasmic dome around us kept the rain at bay. Then we saw more trouble.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Three – More Paladins, More Wands, More Teleportation
The villagers we kept easily at bay. But then we saw four more paladins come riding in on warhorses. They were apt to bring down the ectoplasm far faster than was comfortable. We quickly transported everyone back to the Capitol. There we were safe. There we also found at least a half-dozen wands of prestidigitation, something which we would find great use for with the villagers. Unfortunately, even that many would cover only a small fraction of the over 3,000 villagers and paladins that occupied the community of Raven’s Hollow. But it was a start.
We could not scry anyone in the paladins’ keep, but Persephone knew a location near the keep and so we attempted to teleport just outside the gate. Fortunately, this worked.
The gate was down, but with four of Posiedon’s behemouths of ectoplasm, it was quickly raised. We managed to get inside just as a few hundred villagers charged us. The gate was raised at the same time from within. One construct quickly blocked the gate with his body, cutting off the villagers. At the same time, paladins came from each flank, from the east and west towers astride the gatehouse. Some were held in ectoplasm, some were time-hopped forward, and the rest were cleaned, giving us more allies in our fight.
We then turned our attention to the remaining door ahead of us, the one that led to the central atrium of the keep. As it happened, we did not need to open it. It was opened for us.
After it opened, paladins streamed in. They looked different than the others. They had not just brown sludge, but large splinters of wood piercing their flesh everywhere. There were seven of them. The council of six leadership, and then the castellan of the paladins himself. This would prove to be a tough fight.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Four – Night Twist
We were careful to do only non-lethat damage to the paladins. Unfortuantely, they were not kind enough to return the favor. One of the circle was taken down by the constructs. Then the rest retreated to the atrium, to protect the true menace. There, we saw a huge tree, with long flailing limbs.
Posiedon, Tuvstarr, Morwen, and Nimue charged into the atrium to face it. Morwen tumbled behind it, hoping for assistance flanking the tree. Assistance never came.
Within seconds, six limbs tore into Morwen’s flesh, ripping most of it from her body, and leaving her unconscious on the ground behind the tree. Then a great wind began to flow, blasting everyone back. Finally, a huge, weird vision of death vercame Nimue, nearly killing her instantly.
None of Posiedon’s ectoplasmic beasts could enter the atrium, nor could any other summoned beasts. Posiedon send wave after wave of sharp crystal shards into the hide of the tree, wounding it again and again. But just when it was close to falling, the circule of paladins would surround it and heal it, first laying on hands, later, using their more conventional healing magic.
We had a short scare at one point as all five of the circle cast their shield of protection over the tree, taking half of its wounds as they came. Had Tuvstarr not dispelled that magic, we would probably have killed all of the paladins before the tree even came close to falling.
In the end, though it was a tough fight, the tree simply could not survive our epic onslaught. More importantly, we managed to avoid killing a single innocent villager or paladin. We had to pick out the splinters by hand after the fight, and then we had a few thousand villagers to clean, but we saved the village and the paladins. The paladins, in particular, were very grateful. They offered us a “favor,” whatever that might mean.
The tree itself held nothing but seven strange, magical “acorns,” for lack of a better word. These acorns protected it from negative energy and boosted all of its various attributes, making them a valuable find.
Tuvstarr finally settled the murky mystery of the tree. The Night Twist grew from a fragment of the great demon tree that we had recently vanquished. The rain was shards of its bark, coming down upon the populace after the giant splinter of a fragment landed in the atrium and began spreading its foul, demonic evil into the keep and the village.
While we heard no further reports of trouble, it does not bode well for us if further splinters from the huge demon tree have landed elsewhere to spread their evil. I will keep the eyes and ears of my great information network, now nearly 700 strong, wide open for signs of this evil.
Now, there are some vampires to vanquish who have waited far too long.
Altalazar
First Post
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Five – The Moon is Aligned
After carefully preparing for several weeks, our secret moon was full, and we were ready to go dust some vampires. Just before we left, Larch found a still pool of water and attempted to scry some of the vampires in order to see where they were and what they were up to. After several failed attempts, we finally viewed three of them sitting in the sitting room at the top of their tower.
Higgins spent several minutes preparing all of us with various magical protections and enhancements for the battle ahead. In particular, he put a planar bubble around myself, himself, Larch, and Nimue to bring with us the native magic of our home plane. There would be no problems will spells or powers this time.
Fully prepared, we joined hands, and Higgins shifted us directly into their midst. They were caught completely by surprise. Within seconds, two of the three vampires were slain, and then disintegrated into dust. The third was nearly down, but survived long enough to send a signal to the rest of them before she, too, was mere dust on the wind, dumping the contents of her body onto the marble floor. Unfortunately, that signal was enough to cause us some trouble.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Six – Anti-magic of a different kind
The entire room was sheathed in anti-magic. We did not know where it came from. It made it very dark. We also heard a rushing of air. Higgins rushed to the fireplace to stop it up. Nimue and Morwen joined him. Larch transformed himself into an elemental of fire to shed some light. What he saw was not encouraging. The small window slits that were originally in this room were gone. And thick, black smoke was filling into the room from the ceiling from a fist-sized hole. Larch’s fist soon filled that hole, but this just revealed another hole as a source for the smoke.
Quickly tiring of the situation, I shouted to Nin and Morwen to put their adamantine weapons to use on the tower walls. Morwen started, but made little headway. Then Nin stepped up, putting the full power of his attack into his swings, he hit the wall with both ends of his swinging chain, probably faster than one solid blow per second. Within fifteen seconds, the wall was rubble. The last few hits of his chain got stuck in something, which we had to help him pull it out from. Then one more swing opened up the wall wide enough for us to step through it. Not wanting to wait for any more surprises, I jumped through the hole. As suspected, the anti-magic did not extend much beyond the tower and so soon all of us were floating in the air by the tower, courtesy of Higgins’s earlier magic.
From out vantage outside the tower, we saw a vampire standing on the roof holding some rope and supplies and another vampire standing on the ground about a hundred feet away from the tower. Nin flew toward the tower vampire and quickly reduced him to gas. Thinking quickly, I grabbed Morwen and transported her to the vampire on the ground, where she quickly reduced her to gas as well. Then they both “ran.”
Higgins pursued the tower gaseous vampire, flying around the tower just in time to target her before her mist disappeared into the sandstorms raging below us. Higgins pulled out a scroll and as the magical writing slowly dissolved, taking the paper with them, the vampire soon followed suit, her gas reduced to dust, her belongings clanging out onto the rocky ground beneath her.
I chased down the vampire by Morwen, but it fled quickly into the mist and then was lost in the blowing sand. At this point, Morwen brought something to my attention.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Seven – A New Voice in Morwen’s Head
“There’s a voice in my head that isn’t yours,” Morwen told me.
“What is this voice saying?”
“He’s asking for us to rescue him from his confinement at the bottom of the tower. He has asked that we teleport to his location.”
Thinking back on what happened the last time we teleported into a level of the tower with no windows, I rolled up my sleeves and said, “Sure thing,” before disintegrating a 20 foot wide hole in the side of the base of the tower.
Seconds later, we were all in the room, surrounding a man. Or rather, a former man, because this man was now a vampire.
“I asked you to teleport to me,” he said, looking at Morwen.
Before she could answer, I responded, “it will be a cold day in hell before we listen to mysterious voices that want us to teleport into rooms with no exits, particularly after what happened just a few levels above you.”
Apparently aware of the futility of questioning my reasoning, the vampire said, “My name is Largger. I am a vampire, but I have learned the error of my ways. I have taken a pledge of non-violence. Ages ago, I was spreading evil through the land. I created the dozen vampires you faced here and together, we hurt many. We came to this plane as a base of operations, perfect for striking out against the world of the living. But then something changed in me. I saw the harm I had done to others and I understood that it was wrong and that it had to stop. I used the black orb to seal off this plane, trapping all of us here. I could not defeat the twelve, but they could not rid themselves of me, either. They sealed me into this tower and have been plotting escape ever since, luring others here to feed upon as they plotted.”
“If they could not escape,” I asked, “How did they lure others here?”
“They have done magical experiments, particularly two of them, and found a way to transport paper to other planes. They used this power to transport maps to “treasure” that have lured many an adventurer here to their doom.”
“I see,” I said, fingering the treasure map in my pack. “So what do you want from us?”
“Nothing now. You have freed me. I can depart. The others will never leave this place. Even now, they have fled this tower with their coffins in their bags of holding. You will never find them in the storms.”
“That’s what you think,” I said. “I am not leaving here until every single last one of them is hunted down and destroyed.” I then turned my mind outward to the vampires. “Come back to the tower,” I told them, “come back and we’ll help you leave this place in exchange for your possessions of magic.” I received no response. I guess no talking was going to matter to them. They knew their fate was sealed.
I found a puddle of water for Larch to scry them. He scryed the gaseous one first, finding her position. We quickly transported to her and then reduced her to dust. We found two more the same way, scrying them as they ran, surrounding them, and destroying them. Unfortunately, we ran out of scrying when there were three remaining. We left the plane for the night, then returned the next day and finished off the remaining three. Largger was still there, waiting for us, when we returned.
After inventorying all of their possessions, we noted that there was only enough equipment for ten of them. “Where are the possessions of the two we destroyed on our first visit? For that matter, where are the bodies and possessions of all of the adventurers that met their end here?”
“I do not know,” was all Largger would say. No matter. We got what we came here for. We ended the undeath of these foul creatures and took everything of value that they owned. Now it was time to return home.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Eight – My Companions Choose Poorly
“Do you want to come back to Cauldron with us,” Morwen asked the good vampire.
“I know not where that is,” he replied, “but my sense is that my fate is to take me through this archway.” He pointed at another portal like the one that originally transported us to this plane. He arranged the stones in front of it and activated it.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Morwen asked.
“I do not mind if you wish to do so,” he replied.
“Uh…” I said. “I’m NOT going through another one of those portals, particularly not blind, with no idea what is on the other side.”
“I think we should go with him,” Morwen said, and Nin agreed. Something inside me said that if Morwen was advocating this, this definitely was the wrong way to go, even though Morwen did not seem to be as unwise as this feeling indicated. I should definitely trust my feelings more. My feeling turned out to be right.
“We should go back to Cauldron. We do not need to go with him. Let him follow his own path,” I implored. They ignored.
I sat and watched with a frown as Largger, Morwen, Nimue, Nin, and Larch all entered the ring and vanished. I tried to reach them, to no avail. They were gone and I could not touch them. Then the ring cycled down and closed. Finally, I got a response.
“I think we have a problem.”
I listened to the explanation that followed. The portal took them to a barren world. A world that was covered in black rock, in large craters that never held lava, bombarded from the sky. It was also a world without magic. Were it not for the planar bubbles around Larch and Nimue, I would not even have been able to contact them. They would have been trapped. I sure would not have followed.
Larch assured me that he could get them all home. “How can you do that,” I asked.
“I don’t need to get into that, just trust me,” he replied.
“Uh, sure.”
I waited. They explored for over an hour. I waited. I reminded them that the planar bubble only lasts a few hours. Finally, I heard from Morwen.
“Help! Come get us.”
“Larch?”
“I lied, I guess I can’t get us out.”
I sighed. I really did not want to go get them. But if the bubbles worked for them, they should continue to work for me. I transported Higgins and myself to them, then announced, “grab my hand, we’re leaving now,” then did just that, Higgins returning us directly to Cauldron.
“No more portals,” I said as I walked up the stairs of my stronghold to my room. I did not wait to see where my companions went.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Nine – Trouble In Cauldron – Small Fires
My followers informed me that there was trouble of a small sort in Cauldron since we left. Three rooms in my abode had been burned, albeit only shortly. Someone or something had thrown in oil-soaked rags through open windows on each of my three floors. Two bedrooms and my dining table were singed. No one saw anything. This will bear further investigation. I wondered if this had anything to do with the strange dreams I’ve had lately about many people, only some of whom were my followers.
I also discovered that there was a small earthquake in Cauldron that has utterly destroyed the construction done on Nin’s temple. And Nin’s architect is no longer available, as he is busy with Ee, helping to rebuild his peoples’ village in the woods outside of Cauldron’s Crater.
Dreams, fires, and earthquakes. What else is there to occupy us? Time to get to work investigating. But first, I decide I need a short rest. I retire to my room to find Crystal waiting for me, as she often is. She has grown much over the time I have known her. Her telepathic skills are progressing quite nicely. She did not even need to open her mouth to greet me, and so it was with a closed mouth and a solemn expression that she said to me as I entered, “I’m pregnant.”
After carefully preparing for several weeks, our secret moon was full, and we were ready to go dust some vampires. Just before we left, Larch found a still pool of water and attempted to scry some of the vampires in order to see where they were and what they were up to. After several failed attempts, we finally viewed three of them sitting in the sitting room at the top of their tower.
Higgins spent several minutes preparing all of us with various magical protections and enhancements for the battle ahead. In particular, he put a planar bubble around myself, himself, Larch, and Nimue to bring with us the native magic of our home plane. There would be no problems will spells or powers this time.
Fully prepared, we joined hands, and Higgins shifted us directly into their midst. They were caught completely by surprise. Within seconds, two of the three vampires were slain, and then disintegrated into dust. The third was nearly down, but survived long enough to send a signal to the rest of them before she, too, was mere dust on the wind, dumping the contents of her body onto the marble floor. Unfortunately, that signal was enough to cause us some trouble.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Six – Anti-magic of a different kind
The entire room was sheathed in anti-magic. We did not know where it came from. It made it very dark. We also heard a rushing of air. Higgins rushed to the fireplace to stop it up. Nimue and Morwen joined him. Larch transformed himself into an elemental of fire to shed some light. What he saw was not encouraging. The small window slits that were originally in this room were gone. And thick, black smoke was filling into the room from the ceiling from a fist-sized hole. Larch’s fist soon filled that hole, but this just revealed another hole as a source for the smoke.
Quickly tiring of the situation, I shouted to Nin and Morwen to put their adamantine weapons to use on the tower walls. Morwen started, but made little headway. Then Nin stepped up, putting the full power of his attack into his swings, he hit the wall with both ends of his swinging chain, probably faster than one solid blow per second. Within fifteen seconds, the wall was rubble. The last few hits of his chain got stuck in something, which we had to help him pull it out from. Then one more swing opened up the wall wide enough for us to step through it. Not wanting to wait for any more surprises, I jumped through the hole. As suspected, the anti-magic did not extend much beyond the tower and so soon all of us were floating in the air by the tower, courtesy of Higgins’s earlier magic.
From out vantage outside the tower, we saw a vampire standing on the roof holding some rope and supplies and another vampire standing on the ground about a hundred feet away from the tower. Nin flew toward the tower vampire and quickly reduced him to gas. Thinking quickly, I grabbed Morwen and transported her to the vampire on the ground, where she quickly reduced her to gas as well. Then they both “ran.”
Higgins pursued the tower gaseous vampire, flying around the tower just in time to target her before her mist disappeared into the sandstorms raging below us. Higgins pulled out a scroll and as the magical writing slowly dissolved, taking the paper with them, the vampire soon followed suit, her gas reduced to dust, her belongings clanging out onto the rocky ground beneath her.
I chased down the vampire by Morwen, but it fled quickly into the mist and then was lost in the blowing sand. At this point, Morwen brought something to my attention.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Seven – A New Voice in Morwen’s Head
“There’s a voice in my head that isn’t yours,” Morwen told me.
“What is this voice saying?”
“He’s asking for us to rescue him from his confinement at the bottom of the tower. He has asked that we teleport to his location.”
Thinking back on what happened the last time we teleported into a level of the tower with no windows, I rolled up my sleeves and said, “Sure thing,” before disintegrating a 20 foot wide hole in the side of the base of the tower.
Seconds later, we were all in the room, surrounding a man. Or rather, a former man, because this man was now a vampire.
“I asked you to teleport to me,” he said, looking at Morwen.
Before she could answer, I responded, “it will be a cold day in hell before we listen to mysterious voices that want us to teleport into rooms with no exits, particularly after what happened just a few levels above you.”
Apparently aware of the futility of questioning my reasoning, the vampire said, “My name is Largger. I am a vampire, but I have learned the error of my ways. I have taken a pledge of non-violence. Ages ago, I was spreading evil through the land. I created the dozen vampires you faced here and together, we hurt many. We came to this plane as a base of operations, perfect for striking out against the world of the living. But then something changed in me. I saw the harm I had done to others and I understood that it was wrong and that it had to stop. I used the black orb to seal off this plane, trapping all of us here. I could not defeat the twelve, but they could not rid themselves of me, either. They sealed me into this tower and have been plotting escape ever since, luring others here to feed upon as they plotted.”
“If they could not escape,” I asked, “How did they lure others here?”
“They have done magical experiments, particularly two of them, and found a way to transport paper to other planes. They used this power to transport maps to “treasure” that have lured many an adventurer here to their doom.”
“I see,” I said, fingering the treasure map in my pack. “So what do you want from us?”
“Nothing now. You have freed me. I can depart. The others will never leave this place. Even now, they have fled this tower with their coffins in their bags of holding. You will never find them in the storms.”
“That’s what you think,” I said. “I am not leaving here until every single last one of them is hunted down and destroyed.” I then turned my mind outward to the vampires. “Come back to the tower,” I told them, “come back and we’ll help you leave this place in exchange for your possessions of magic.” I received no response. I guess no talking was going to matter to them. They knew their fate was sealed.
I found a puddle of water for Larch to scry them. He scryed the gaseous one first, finding her position. We quickly transported to her and then reduced her to dust. We found two more the same way, scrying them as they ran, surrounding them, and destroying them. Unfortunately, we ran out of scrying when there were three remaining. We left the plane for the night, then returned the next day and finished off the remaining three. Largger was still there, waiting for us, when we returned.
After inventorying all of their possessions, we noted that there was only enough equipment for ten of them. “Where are the possessions of the two we destroyed on our first visit? For that matter, where are the bodies and possessions of all of the adventurers that met their end here?”
“I do not know,” was all Largger would say. No matter. We got what we came here for. We ended the undeath of these foul creatures and took everything of value that they owned. Now it was time to return home.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Eight – My Companions Choose Poorly
“Do you want to come back to Cauldron with us,” Morwen asked the good vampire.
“I know not where that is,” he replied, “but my sense is that my fate is to take me through this archway.” He pointed at another portal like the one that originally transported us to this plane. He arranged the stones in front of it and activated it.
“Do you want us to go with you?” Morwen asked.
“I do not mind if you wish to do so,” he replied.
“Uh…” I said. “I’m NOT going through another one of those portals, particularly not blind, with no idea what is on the other side.”
“I think we should go with him,” Morwen said, and Nin agreed. Something inside me said that if Morwen was advocating this, this definitely was the wrong way to go, even though Morwen did not seem to be as unwise as this feeling indicated. I should definitely trust my feelings more. My feeling turned out to be right.
“We should go back to Cauldron. We do not need to go with him. Let him follow his own path,” I implored. They ignored.
I sat and watched with a frown as Largger, Morwen, Nimue, Nin, and Larch all entered the ring and vanished. I tried to reach them, to no avail. They were gone and I could not touch them. Then the ring cycled down and closed. Finally, I got a response.
“I think we have a problem.”
I listened to the explanation that followed. The portal took them to a barren world. A world that was covered in black rock, in large craters that never held lava, bombarded from the sky. It was also a world without magic. Were it not for the planar bubbles around Larch and Nimue, I would not even have been able to contact them. They would have been trapped. I sure would not have followed.
Larch assured me that he could get them all home. “How can you do that,” I asked.
“I don’t need to get into that, just trust me,” he replied.
“Uh, sure.”
I waited. They explored for over an hour. I waited. I reminded them that the planar bubble only lasts a few hours. Finally, I heard from Morwen.
“Help! Come get us.”
“Larch?”
“I lied, I guess I can’t get us out.”
I sighed. I really did not want to go get them. But if the bubbles worked for them, they should continue to work for me. I transported Higgins and myself to them, then announced, “grab my hand, we’re leaving now,” then did just that, Higgins returning us directly to Cauldron.
“No more portals,” I said as I walked up the stairs of my stronghold to my room. I did not wait to see where my companions went.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Eighty-Nine – Trouble In Cauldron – Small Fires
My followers informed me that there was trouble of a small sort in Cauldron since we left. Three rooms in my abode had been burned, albeit only shortly. Someone or something had thrown in oil-soaked rags through open windows on each of my three floors. Two bedrooms and my dining table were singed. No one saw anything. This will bear further investigation. I wondered if this had anything to do with the strange dreams I’ve had lately about many people, only some of whom were my followers.
I also discovered that there was a small earthquake in Cauldron that has utterly destroyed the construction done on Nin’s temple. And Nin’s architect is no longer available, as he is busy with Ee, helping to rebuild his peoples’ village in the woods outside of Cauldron’s Crater.
Dreams, fires, and earthquakes. What else is there to occupy us? Time to get to work investigating. But first, I decide I need a short rest. I retire to my room to find Crystal waiting for me, as she often is. She has grown much over the time I have known her. Her telepathic skills are progressing quite nicely. She did not even need to open her mouth to greet me, and so it was with a closed mouth and a solemn expression that she said to me as I entered, “I’m pregnant.”
Altalazar
First Post
Book XXVI – A Dream To Some
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety – Breakfast
I groggily sat up in bed as the first rays of the sun hit my bedroom window. As always, Higgins was there, ready with the morning’s news.
“Good morning, suh! Lovely day today. Ninety-five percent of Cauldron appears to have been reduced to rubble, along with the proportionate population. Breakfast will be ready shortly!”
Such utter devestation! Suddenly, I felt very worried, and I hesitated before I asked the next question on my mind.
“Higgins?”
“Yes suh!” (Such an impecible British accent)
“What is for breakfast?”
“The usual, suh!”
I sighed with relief. And sure enough, a few minutes later, Higgins strode in with the usual breakfast, in all its glory, and Crystal and I enjoyed and savored every bite. If the city is coming to an end, I just have to make sure that I get in a proper breakfast. Anything less would be uncivilized. All was right with the world, at least until lunch.
I sent Higgins off to find out more while I dined. He soon returned.
“Forty left, suh, no sign of the rest.”
That was disturbing. There should have been a hundred in the house. I wondered where the rest had gone. Outside, there was lots of rubble, but no bodies. Fortunately, my local tavern, the Blue Tabbard, was still intact. But only the bartender was present there. Scattered throughout town were another fifty of my people, but only about twenty of them were accounted for. This called for some investigation.
“Stay here, love,” I said to Crystal. She was 13 weeks with child now, leaving a full 25 or so to go. I was not to risk my heir on this foolishness.
My breakfast done, I left bed and headed out into what was left of the city.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-One – My companions minus one
I found all of my companions were with us. I heard from Morwen first, through the link. The link seemed much stronger and louder than usual. Or perhaps it was just that her voice was less subdued. We soon met up with Nin and Larch. Ee came from the outside of the city. He had stranger news to report. Apparently there was nothing but mist outside of the city walls. Ee’s village was there, but empty, with nothing but the road back to town evident in the mist.
Now it ws obvious. Cauldron was not gone. We were. What a relief. I was worried that we’d have to rebuild the entire city AGAIN. We tried to find Tuvstarr, but she was gone. Skylar was there, and we put her to work researching. Then we headed toward Poseidon’s tower, one of the 5% of the structures still intact in town, along with my buildings, Nin’s tents, City Hall, Saint Cuthbert’s Temple, and the Tip Tankard Inn.
On the way to P’s tower, we ran into trouble. (And some trouble ran into Nin).
From out of the rubble appeared a “burglar” who was dressed to steal, wearing a mask. He also appeared to have a jagged scar on his face reminiscent of Morwen’s scar. We apparently inturrpted him just after he had murdred two villagers who looked rather like the two people Morwen was concerned with when people were being “occupied” by spirits several months ago. I asked Morwen about this, about who they were, but Morwen pretended not to hear as she tumbled behind the burglar and stabbed him through the heart.
At the same time, someone else came out of the rubble to our left, someone who said his name was “Kyrnyn” and whom Nin seemed to recognize. Nin then tried to stop him as Kyrnyn ran right over Larch and into Nin’s body, vanishing from sight.
My own demon came to haunt me. A judge appeared, gavel in hand. I recognized him from Desbury. He was the most corrupt of the bunch.
“You’re out of order, Cordozo!” he shouted at me as he ran forward with the gavel held high. Instinctively avoiding the judge’s wrath, I grabbed Higgins and transported us both to the far side of Morwen up the street. But the judge was undaunted. He ran out of the rubble beside me there and continued his assault.
Higgins was faced with the etiquette coach behind me. The coach threw up a tray of 40 silverware of the finest sort and let it all fall down into the mud. With a speed I did not think possible, Higgles managed to catch with his bare hands seven of the set, keeping them from the mud as the man laughed at him.
Behind me, the Mayor was assaulted, and beside her, Ee faced a pregnant woman throwing babies at him. For every baby he failed to catch, another pregnant woman appeared to throw some more. Ee was rather upset.
Morwen continued her fight. The burglar slashed her face with his blade and laughed at her. She stabbed him again and again until he finally vanished in a heap.
I faced my judge and did something I’d dreamed of doing so many times, but never had the courage or the skill to do. I crushed his worthless, corrupt brain with my own, leaving him an empty corpse on the ground. It was so satisfying, I can barely find the words to describe it. And it was so worth it, despite what happened next. The judge’s body reformed and then he was joined by another corrupt judge from Desbury, and they both held me out of order. This time, I parried with the law, using my newfound powers of the mind to augment my legal understanding to an epic level of knowledge that normal lawyers could only dream of. It was flawless. It totally destroyed the corrupt lawbooks they were holding. And yet they reformed again and then there were three judges facing me. Again, it was so worth it, but I knew the only way to defeat them. I reached into my pouch for my ultimate weapon against them. “How much?”
The judges all turned around in unison, their hands held at their backs. I suddenly knew, with certainty, that just over 100 gp would be needed for each. I pulled three globs of 101 gold coins each from my bag and put them into each hand. Then they vanished.
Higgins behind me, in a feat of servant prowess probably never before seen, and sure to be talked about for ages hence, managed to, in the space of six seconds, clean every single one of the dirty silver dining set pieces save one, and then in the next heartbeat, he cleaned the last piece, sorted them, and put them in a nice display box for use that he seemed to conjure out of nowhere. The old man who was taunting him vanished with a flourish, saying “I’ve seen better,” as he faded away.
Nimue was busy with her own demons as well. She tried to rescue someone from being attacked from behind by a vile murderer. But she was too late. The poor man was beheaded. She saved the second man, but he was ungrateful – he did not see the murderer coming. She shouted at him as he left to “go celebrate life.”
Morwen was busy tying up her burglar when she suddenly realized that he was not just unconscious—he was dead. She had, without realizing it, tied him up by his neck.
Thus, things had settled back to “normal.”
“Very strange,” said Nin.
“Considering all the weird stuff we have seen,” I said, “I can’t say that this was all that strange.” It seemed more like a dream, and I said as such.
“No, it is a nightmare,” Morwen insisted.
“Well, it was very satisfying for me to kill that judge,” I said.
“A nightmare,” she said.
“I see,” I said. “So who were those people that were ‘murdered’ by your burglar? Family? I’ve seen them before.”
“They’re important people,” she said.
“So they ARE family,” I said.
“They’re important peope,” she said.
“Family?”
“They’re important people,” was all she would say, no matter how much pressed her. She did further say that it “wouldn’t be very safe.”
“Safe for whom,” I asked.
“You’re asking too much,” Morwen said.
“You could send them to your new Barony,” I said.
“No!” she said. Then she asked, “What do you think of this plane?”
“I think we already covered this,” I said. Then I changed the subject. “We could try plane shifting out of here at P’s.” As it was, I had no contact with anyone not in “Cauldron.”
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Two – We Reach the Tower
We were greeted at the front desk and sent up to the top-most floor to meet with Posiedon. Posiedon stated that “most of the people who could fix this” were there. I asked the obvious question.
“How do we fix this?”
“I’m researching it,” Posiedon said.
I contacted Skylar again to ask her about her research. She essentially told me that she was busy and not to bother her. I guess I do bother her a lot, contacting her whenever we need Tuvstarr. But it is not like it is my fault that Tuvstarr shields her mind from contact all of the time. Which reminds me, I’m going to have to see what I can do about that.
With the preliminaries out of the way, I noticed that there was one person, an elf, with Posiedon whom I did not recognize. She was dressed very nicely. Apparently she was also a psion, a telepath of some power.
“I’m Kaitlin,” she said to me. “Pleased to meet you, Baron Cordozo.” She told me that she woke up this morning at the inn and found herself in a city of rubble.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” I told her. I noticed that not only did she have an exotic elven accent, but she also was from a city I had never heard of. At least, that was her claim. As I pondered this further, the ground began to shake. I ran to the window to look outside.
“Oh gee, the volcano is erupting,” I said nonchalantly. After all, it wasn’t like it was the real volcano. And even if it were, the city was already destroyed anyway.
Posiedon seemed a bit more upset about this, and souted “No!” as he ran to the window. Nin and Morwen ran in the opposite direction, shouting “Murderer!”
Here we go again, I thought to myself. This time, my “friend” was the Dwarven Baron, who taunted me with the final paperwork for granting me my Barony lands. He held a lit torch toward them threateningly. Though I knew it to be false, I couldn’t give him the satisfaction. I tried unsuccessfully to dominate his mind, then I charged forward to take them from him. My fingers gripped the parchment tightly. I was worried that the papers would rip when I saw a ray shoot past my face and hit the Baron and suddenly his grip slackened to nothing as the paper became too heavy for him to hold.
“Thank you, Higgins.”
“Very good, suh!”
My papers thus secure, I noticed an interesting spectacle. There was another Dwarf Baron and there was the King himself. Both were to either side of Kaitlin, trying to square off against each other as she tried to shield one from the other. I wondered if she was in league with the traitor or if she were somehow manipulating them both. This would certainly bear further investigation.
The ground shifted again, and this time, things were much more to our liking.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Three – Dreams Come True
We found ourselves standing in the actually completed stronghold of Nin, no tents, no construction. We were on a balcony above a grand ball as people danced and enjoyed themselves. Looking out over the horizon, I could see the lands of my Barony, even though they were too far away to really see, and they looked grand and perfect.
On the ballroom floor below, Higgins was leading an orchestra of servants at the party, making everything run as smooth as a waterclock. He was smiling and happy, a thousand servants taking his lead with the noble party around him. The Motif of the party was that of the forest, with real trees and other living things covering the walls and the floor, much to Larch’s delight.
I watched with amusement as assassins tried again and again to kill Morwen while she was oblivious as Nimue deftly dispatched them all, one by one, with such skill and speed that Morwen never even noticed their attempts.
Ee stood by my side, wearing an axe the size of a tavern, an axe that he swung around with ease, felling whatever got in his way with a single large swing.
What a wonderful dream, I thought, but there was business to attend to. I walked toward Kaitlin.
“So, what was up with your vision of the Baron and the King,” I asked her.
“Oh, that was nothing,” she said, using such skillful inflection that probably 99.99% of the population of the world would have fully believed her, finding it nothing at all. But even though her inflection was perfect, there just did not seem to be something right about that, despite her seemingly innocent explanation. Unable to detect any deception, I decided to join her in the ultimate battle. A battle of wits. Putting on my best noble-game face, I feighned detecing her deception in subtle tones, and told her that “I know what you are up to.”
Again, she perfectly deflected my blows, and with a slight toss of her hair and a turn of her chin, she looked completely unconcerned. Parrying further, I dealt my killing blow. I pretended to notice her nonexistent concern, as if I had spotted a deception I really did not see. And finally, just barely, I saw a tiny bead of sweat cascade down the back of her lovely neck. My triple deception finally broke her façade. She was hding something, something about the Baron and the King, and it was definitely NOT innocent. But her skills at deflecting my words and my detection was considerable. She would bear close watching.
The festivities soon ground to a close. An air elemental appeared named “Night Air.” She told us that she was sent into this “dream” by Tuvstarr to rescue us. Night Air pushed us all out of the dream, one by one, back into the waking world, where it was late afternoon. As soon as I was truly awake, I contacted Skylar and asked her where Tuvstarr was.
“How would I know, I was in there with you!”
“But of course, but you are now in Tuvstarr’s tower – presumably they can tell you there where she is.”
After a brief pause, Skylar told me that she was in Bellanon.
I gathered up my companions and headed toward Posiedon’s tower. I knew we could get to there from his platform without my having to expend any effort, and besides, I wanted to talk with Posiedon about what happened and about Kaitlin. As it turned out, all roads really do converge, because by the time we got there, Tuvstarr was at P’s tower.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Four – Denoument at the Tower
Apparently everything has a price. In this case, what happened was the price paid for our vast network of mindlinks. Posiedon just created something known as a “Psionic Accord.” I did not know what it was, but apparently it is like a mind-golem that can perform psionic tasks and can link together minds for you permanently. Somehow all of our frequent mind links, along with some strange property of the woman Kaitlin (she was a “society mind”), led to this alternate dream world where we were all linked together in our sleep. Tuvstarr was not affected because of her lack of a link.
Posiedon’s Accord is named “Xavier.” And the air elemental named “Night Air” was not an air elemental at all, but instead a dream walker. She was hired by Tuvstarr to come into the dream and bring all of us out.
I told Posiedon and Tuvstarr about Kaitlin, after first making sure that she was not there and would not be admitted to the tower. They said they did not know her, but that she appeared to be very educated.
“Of course she’s educated—she’s a psion,” Posiedon said to Tuvstarr.
Tuvstarr replied, “No, not all psions are educated. Some are just pretty,” and then she gave a soft look to Posiedon and his well-kept blue hair. I glanced at Higgins, and saw that he already had surreptitiously held up a small mirror for me to check my own hair. Everything was in place, as always.
“Now, what are we to do about Kaitlin?” I asked.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety – Breakfast
I groggily sat up in bed as the first rays of the sun hit my bedroom window. As always, Higgins was there, ready with the morning’s news.
“Good morning, suh! Lovely day today. Ninety-five percent of Cauldron appears to have been reduced to rubble, along with the proportionate population. Breakfast will be ready shortly!”
Such utter devestation! Suddenly, I felt very worried, and I hesitated before I asked the next question on my mind.
“Higgins?”
“Yes suh!” (Such an impecible British accent)
“What is for breakfast?”
“The usual, suh!”
I sighed with relief. And sure enough, a few minutes later, Higgins strode in with the usual breakfast, in all its glory, and Crystal and I enjoyed and savored every bite. If the city is coming to an end, I just have to make sure that I get in a proper breakfast. Anything less would be uncivilized. All was right with the world, at least until lunch.
I sent Higgins off to find out more while I dined. He soon returned.
“Forty left, suh, no sign of the rest.”
That was disturbing. There should have been a hundred in the house. I wondered where the rest had gone. Outside, there was lots of rubble, but no bodies. Fortunately, my local tavern, the Blue Tabbard, was still intact. But only the bartender was present there. Scattered throughout town were another fifty of my people, but only about twenty of them were accounted for. This called for some investigation.
“Stay here, love,” I said to Crystal. She was 13 weeks with child now, leaving a full 25 or so to go. I was not to risk my heir on this foolishness.
My breakfast done, I left bed and headed out into what was left of the city.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-One – My companions minus one
I found all of my companions were with us. I heard from Morwen first, through the link. The link seemed much stronger and louder than usual. Or perhaps it was just that her voice was less subdued. We soon met up with Nin and Larch. Ee came from the outside of the city. He had stranger news to report. Apparently there was nothing but mist outside of the city walls. Ee’s village was there, but empty, with nothing but the road back to town evident in the mist.
Now it ws obvious. Cauldron was not gone. We were. What a relief. I was worried that we’d have to rebuild the entire city AGAIN. We tried to find Tuvstarr, but she was gone. Skylar was there, and we put her to work researching. Then we headed toward Poseidon’s tower, one of the 5% of the structures still intact in town, along with my buildings, Nin’s tents, City Hall, Saint Cuthbert’s Temple, and the Tip Tankard Inn.
On the way to P’s tower, we ran into trouble. (And some trouble ran into Nin).
From out of the rubble appeared a “burglar” who was dressed to steal, wearing a mask. He also appeared to have a jagged scar on his face reminiscent of Morwen’s scar. We apparently inturrpted him just after he had murdred two villagers who looked rather like the two people Morwen was concerned with when people were being “occupied” by spirits several months ago. I asked Morwen about this, about who they were, but Morwen pretended not to hear as she tumbled behind the burglar and stabbed him through the heart.
At the same time, someone else came out of the rubble to our left, someone who said his name was “Kyrnyn” and whom Nin seemed to recognize. Nin then tried to stop him as Kyrnyn ran right over Larch and into Nin’s body, vanishing from sight.
My own demon came to haunt me. A judge appeared, gavel in hand. I recognized him from Desbury. He was the most corrupt of the bunch.
“You’re out of order, Cordozo!” he shouted at me as he ran forward with the gavel held high. Instinctively avoiding the judge’s wrath, I grabbed Higgins and transported us both to the far side of Morwen up the street. But the judge was undaunted. He ran out of the rubble beside me there and continued his assault.
Higgins was faced with the etiquette coach behind me. The coach threw up a tray of 40 silverware of the finest sort and let it all fall down into the mud. With a speed I did not think possible, Higgles managed to catch with his bare hands seven of the set, keeping them from the mud as the man laughed at him.
Behind me, the Mayor was assaulted, and beside her, Ee faced a pregnant woman throwing babies at him. For every baby he failed to catch, another pregnant woman appeared to throw some more. Ee was rather upset.
Morwen continued her fight. The burglar slashed her face with his blade and laughed at her. She stabbed him again and again until he finally vanished in a heap.
I faced my judge and did something I’d dreamed of doing so many times, but never had the courage or the skill to do. I crushed his worthless, corrupt brain with my own, leaving him an empty corpse on the ground. It was so satisfying, I can barely find the words to describe it. And it was so worth it, despite what happened next. The judge’s body reformed and then he was joined by another corrupt judge from Desbury, and they both held me out of order. This time, I parried with the law, using my newfound powers of the mind to augment my legal understanding to an epic level of knowledge that normal lawyers could only dream of. It was flawless. It totally destroyed the corrupt lawbooks they were holding. And yet they reformed again and then there were three judges facing me. Again, it was so worth it, but I knew the only way to defeat them. I reached into my pouch for my ultimate weapon against them. “How much?”
The judges all turned around in unison, their hands held at their backs. I suddenly knew, with certainty, that just over 100 gp would be needed for each. I pulled three globs of 101 gold coins each from my bag and put them into each hand. Then they vanished.
Higgins behind me, in a feat of servant prowess probably never before seen, and sure to be talked about for ages hence, managed to, in the space of six seconds, clean every single one of the dirty silver dining set pieces save one, and then in the next heartbeat, he cleaned the last piece, sorted them, and put them in a nice display box for use that he seemed to conjure out of nowhere. The old man who was taunting him vanished with a flourish, saying “I’ve seen better,” as he faded away.
Nimue was busy with her own demons as well. She tried to rescue someone from being attacked from behind by a vile murderer. But she was too late. The poor man was beheaded. She saved the second man, but he was ungrateful – he did not see the murderer coming. She shouted at him as he left to “go celebrate life.”
Morwen was busy tying up her burglar when she suddenly realized that he was not just unconscious—he was dead. She had, without realizing it, tied him up by his neck.
Thus, things had settled back to “normal.”
“Very strange,” said Nin.
“Considering all the weird stuff we have seen,” I said, “I can’t say that this was all that strange.” It seemed more like a dream, and I said as such.
“No, it is a nightmare,” Morwen insisted.
“Well, it was very satisfying for me to kill that judge,” I said.
“A nightmare,” she said.
“I see,” I said. “So who were those people that were ‘murdered’ by your burglar? Family? I’ve seen them before.”
“They’re important people,” she said.
“So they ARE family,” I said.
“They’re important peope,” she said.
“Family?”
“They’re important people,” was all she would say, no matter how much pressed her. She did further say that it “wouldn’t be very safe.”
“Safe for whom,” I asked.
“You’re asking too much,” Morwen said.
“You could send them to your new Barony,” I said.
“No!” she said. Then she asked, “What do you think of this plane?”
“I think we already covered this,” I said. Then I changed the subject. “We could try plane shifting out of here at P’s.” As it was, I had no contact with anyone not in “Cauldron.”
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Two – We Reach the Tower
We were greeted at the front desk and sent up to the top-most floor to meet with Posiedon. Posiedon stated that “most of the people who could fix this” were there. I asked the obvious question.
“How do we fix this?”
“I’m researching it,” Posiedon said.
I contacted Skylar again to ask her about her research. She essentially told me that she was busy and not to bother her. I guess I do bother her a lot, contacting her whenever we need Tuvstarr. But it is not like it is my fault that Tuvstarr shields her mind from contact all of the time. Which reminds me, I’m going to have to see what I can do about that.
With the preliminaries out of the way, I noticed that there was one person, an elf, with Posiedon whom I did not recognize. She was dressed very nicely. Apparently she was also a psion, a telepath of some power.
“I’m Kaitlin,” she said to me. “Pleased to meet you, Baron Cordozo.” She told me that she woke up this morning at the inn and found herself in a city of rubble.
“Tell us something we don’t know,” I told her. I noticed that not only did she have an exotic elven accent, but she also was from a city I had never heard of. At least, that was her claim. As I pondered this further, the ground began to shake. I ran to the window to look outside.
“Oh gee, the volcano is erupting,” I said nonchalantly. After all, it wasn’t like it was the real volcano. And even if it were, the city was already destroyed anyway.
Posiedon seemed a bit more upset about this, and souted “No!” as he ran to the window. Nin and Morwen ran in the opposite direction, shouting “Murderer!”
Here we go again, I thought to myself. This time, my “friend” was the Dwarven Baron, who taunted me with the final paperwork for granting me my Barony lands. He held a lit torch toward them threateningly. Though I knew it to be false, I couldn’t give him the satisfaction. I tried unsuccessfully to dominate his mind, then I charged forward to take them from him. My fingers gripped the parchment tightly. I was worried that the papers would rip when I saw a ray shoot past my face and hit the Baron and suddenly his grip slackened to nothing as the paper became too heavy for him to hold.
“Thank you, Higgins.”
“Very good, suh!”
My papers thus secure, I noticed an interesting spectacle. There was another Dwarf Baron and there was the King himself. Both were to either side of Kaitlin, trying to square off against each other as she tried to shield one from the other. I wondered if she was in league with the traitor or if she were somehow manipulating them both. This would certainly bear further investigation.
The ground shifted again, and this time, things were much more to our liking.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Three – Dreams Come True
We found ourselves standing in the actually completed stronghold of Nin, no tents, no construction. We were on a balcony above a grand ball as people danced and enjoyed themselves. Looking out over the horizon, I could see the lands of my Barony, even though they were too far away to really see, and they looked grand and perfect.
On the ballroom floor below, Higgins was leading an orchestra of servants at the party, making everything run as smooth as a waterclock. He was smiling and happy, a thousand servants taking his lead with the noble party around him. The Motif of the party was that of the forest, with real trees and other living things covering the walls and the floor, much to Larch’s delight.
I watched with amusement as assassins tried again and again to kill Morwen while she was oblivious as Nimue deftly dispatched them all, one by one, with such skill and speed that Morwen never even noticed their attempts.
Ee stood by my side, wearing an axe the size of a tavern, an axe that he swung around with ease, felling whatever got in his way with a single large swing.
What a wonderful dream, I thought, but there was business to attend to. I walked toward Kaitlin.
“So, what was up with your vision of the Baron and the King,” I asked her.
“Oh, that was nothing,” she said, using such skillful inflection that probably 99.99% of the population of the world would have fully believed her, finding it nothing at all. But even though her inflection was perfect, there just did not seem to be something right about that, despite her seemingly innocent explanation. Unable to detect any deception, I decided to join her in the ultimate battle. A battle of wits. Putting on my best noble-game face, I feighned detecing her deception in subtle tones, and told her that “I know what you are up to.”
Again, she perfectly deflected my blows, and with a slight toss of her hair and a turn of her chin, she looked completely unconcerned. Parrying further, I dealt my killing blow. I pretended to notice her nonexistent concern, as if I had spotted a deception I really did not see. And finally, just barely, I saw a tiny bead of sweat cascade down the back of her lovely neck. My triple deception finally broke her façade. She was hding something, something about the Baron and the King, and it was definitely NOT innocent. But her skills at deflecting my words and my detection was considerable. She would bear close watching.
The festivities soon ground to a close. An air elemental appeared named “Night Air.” She told us that she was sent into this “dream” by Tuvstarr to rescue us. Night Air pushed us all out of the dream, one by one, back into the waking world, where it was late afternoon. As soon as I was truly awake, I contacted Skylar and asked her where Tuvstarr was.
“How would I know, I was in there with you!”
“But of course, but you are now in Tuvstarr’s tower – presumably they can tell you there where she is.”
After a brief pause, Skylar told me that she was in Bellanon.
I gathered up my companions and headed toward Posiedon’s tower. I knew we could get to there from his platform without my having to expend any effort, and besides, I wanted to talk with Posiedon about what happened and about Kaitlin. As it turned out, all roads really do converge, because by the time we got there, Tuvstarr was at P’s tower.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Four – Denoument at the Tower
Apparently everything has a price. In this case, what happened was the price paid for our vast network of mindlinks. Posiedon just created something known as a “Psionic Accord.” I did not know what it was, but apparently it is like a mind-golem that can perform psionic tasks and can link together minds for you permanently. Somehow all of our frequent mind links, along with some strange property of the woman Kaitlin (she was a “society mind”), led to this alternate dream world where we were all linked together in our sleep. Tuvstarr was not affected because of her lack of a link.
Posiedon’s Accord is named “Xavier.” And the air elemental named “Night Air” was not an air elemental at all, but instead a dream walker. She was hired by Tuvstarr to come into the dream and bring all of us out.
I told Posiedon and Tuvstarr about Kaitlin, after first making sure that she was not there and would not be admitted to the tower. They said they did not know her, but that she appeared to be very educated.
“Of course she’s educated—she’s a psion,” Posiedon said to Tuvstarr.
Tuvstarr replied, “No, not all psions are educated. Some are just pretty,” and then she gave a soft look to Posiedon and his well-kept blue hair. I glanced at Higgins, and saw that he already had surreptitiously held up a small mirror for me to check my own hair. Everything was in place, as always.
“Now, what are we to do about Kaitlin?” I asked.
Altalazar
First Post
Book XXVII – A Book of Future Historical Importance
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Five – The King’s Ire
A small voice filled my head, urgent and familiar. “Cordozo, my uncle is really, really mad!” it said. “He will be calling you any minute!”
As I contemplated that, I then heard another voice, this one not mental, but magic, sent to me by a royal spell. “The King wants you here NOW!” was all it said. I presumed “here” was the capitol. While the message was urgent, I decided some caution was called for. I contacted my companions and prepared to depart.
I tried to contact Skylar. She was not available. Apparently she was paranoid enough after the dream incident to have Tuvstarr mindblank her. No matter. I sent my mind out to the city at large and found one of my followers was walking nearby Tuvstarr’s library. Bettran. I sent him to contact Tuvstarr and determine what was going on.
By now, the small voice contacted me again and told me, in response to my query as to what was wrong, “I don’t know, something the worm said made him real mad.”
“Worm?” I asked.
“Dragon.” She said.
“What dragon? What is his or her name? What is its color? Metal?”
“Her name is Melves. She is Grey, not metallic.”
I figured as “Dragonslayers” it would be prudent to know if a Grey was good or evil. And if it was possibly influencing the king, not in a good way. Bettran’s voice interrupted my train of thought at this point.
“Baron, I have reached the library.”
“Ask Tuvstarr about Grey dragons, specifically, about one named Melves.”
“Yes, my Baron.” Then a pause. “Skylar says that Tuvstarr is not here.”
She’s probably with the King already, I thought. “Ask Skylar to see if she can answer that, then.”
“Yes, my Baron.” Then another pause. “Skylar says she will ‘look it up.’”
By now, my companions had either joined me or had already transported (by their golem warhorses) to the Capitol. I decided I had figured out as much as I was going to on short notice, so I took Larch and Nin by the hand and we all joined together in the waiting room of the great castle. I was unsurprised to see Tuvstarr and Posiedon already there.
Apparently our station truly is elevated. We only waited five minutes for an audience. Though we heard plenty of shouts from the king, including sputtering commentary such as “Just because he’s a king doesn’t mean he can . . . he can . . . behave like this” and other equally irate snippits, when we actually saw the King’s face, he was calm, with just a hint of red in his cheeks. He then spoke his piece.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Six – A Library Looting
“There is a library at a school called Westphalen,” the King began. “It is located in a small town on the outskirts of the northwestern reaches of the kingdom known as Withers.”
I silently noted to myself that this was one of the smaller communities, one that currently lacked a Cordozo presence. That would soon be remedied. The King continued.
“Stop them from looting it!” he shouted. “Utterly destroy them! Get back as soon as you can.”
I noticed that as he said this, the number of guards in the halls increased, more than double what it usually was. I noticed guards in places usually left empty. The King was obviously greatly disturbed. The King continued.
“This should not be happening!” he said. “If the library is looted, all of humanoid kind gets destroyed!”
So, I thought to myself. Either the King is crazy or the world is about to end. Either possibility did not leave me with a warm feeling in the pit of my noble stomach.
The King was rather insistent about us leaving right then, so Tuvstarr and myself transported all 12 of us to Withers.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Seven – Burning Books, Crying Tuvstarr
The village was a small one. Twenty buildings, if that. The school probably was the only thing of note in the entire place. I immediately set out to make it twenty-one buildings. I summoned forth an “establishment team” of my followers, two dozen in all, to began preparations for building an inn here and establishing a presence. Obviously, this town, small though it is, is of some importance.
As my followers arrived from the teleportation platform, I surveyed the scene. The library of the school was on fire. It was surrounded by several dozen blue “eggs” of unknown origin. As we watched, another blue “egg” descended from above. A door opened in its side and some creatures streamed out of it into the library. We quickly closed the distance.
As we ran toward the flames, Tuvstarr began an interesting monologue about how the eggs must be from the “Great Beast,” a creature that studies the universe “at large.” At times she spoke so fast, it was hard to keep up with what she was saying, but it was clear that she was excited even as she was also horrified to see a library on fire.
I distracted her by asking her about grey dragons. Her long, rambling reply eventually included the magic words, “they are usually good,” which reassured me, at least for the time.
When we reached the entrance to the library, we found two guards with crossed glaives blocking the way. Apparently they were not the normal guards for the library. They were covered from head to toe in strange leather armor with silver runes covering every surface. They even had masks with runes covering their faces. As we tried to enter, they blocked our way.
“Move along, move along. Nothing to see here,” they said in unison.
“Step aside, we have business in here,” Tuvstarr told them insistently, the fire reflected in her eyes.
The glaives burst into flame. “You have no business here.”
“Move aside in the name of the King,” I told them, “Our authority is his authority, and you must obey.”
“We recognize no authority,” was their only reply.
That was all that I needed. Clearly, they were now in violation of several statutes, including the primary statute that required all to obey us as agents of the king. Thus established as not the legitimate staff of the library, combined with our status as King’s agents, combined with the King’s specific orders to “annihilate them” that were looting the library made it my carefully considered legal opinion that we were fully within our authority to beat these two guards like red-headed step children. And so it began.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Eight – We Put Out the Guards, then the Fire
As we approached the door, one of the guards made three swipes of his glaive against Morwen while the other sent three against Ee. None connected with Morwen, but Ee was hurt slightly. Tuvstarr was urging that we keep them alive so we could question them. I decided to help in that regard by turning the minds of one of them inwards into a closed loop, cutting his perception off from the world, making him inert. Unfortuantely, it was soon moot, between Nimue’s lightning bolt, Ee’s axe, and Posiedon’s large fists (he had made himself a mountain troll yet again) soon had the guard a bloody pulp upon the ground. Ironically, the other guard survived because Morwen and Tuvstarr only subdued him.
Not stopping to examine their bodies (or their possessions) we pressed onward. Not wishing to leave anything behind, I summoned some of my followers to take care of the bodies (and their possessions) while we entered the burning library.
Inside, we found an empty foyer. Smoke poured in from under the door to our right. Not wishing to see Tuvstarr cry any further, I felt deep down inside my mind for an alternate reality, one where everything was the same, but the flames were snuffed out. Fortunately, I only had to bend, not totally alter, reality, or I would have been severely weakened.
The flames out, we explored the smoking room, finding nothing of interest. Either the books there were gone or there were never any to begin with. We quickly headed forward, to the main door of the foyer. Through that, we saw a wondrous sight.
From floor to ceiling, in many cramped rows of shelves, we saw books. Books were crammed into every last available space. There were so many books it defied counting them. I pulled out an embroidered silk hankerchief and handed it to Tuvstarr. She took it and absentmindedly wiped her chin free of the drool that was pooling there. I politely declined her offer to return the now drool-soaked hankerchief back. I diplomatically offered that she may have further need of it given all of the books here.
Something else we saw in the room was a man in full plate armor, three others dressed in strange hardened, black armor, and a Beblith. It was apparent that they could not see us, courtesy of a blinding brilliance that Tuvstarr had brought forth on herself just moments before we opened the door. Apparently those not of sufficiently pure heart cannot see beyond its blinding light. And the light extends very far.
Guessing that the Beblith was summoned, rather than native, I dispelled it, sending it back to the foul plane where it spawned. Morwen plunged into the room and then plunged her rapier into the hearts of several of the creatures in the room. Tuvstarr chained a bolt of lightning through all of them. Nin moved next to the man in plate armor, his chains ready. The man began to voice an incantation, asking for a miracle. Alas, his prayer went unanswered as Nin smashed the man’s mouth with his chain, ending his invocation before the final words could be uttered.
The man’s miracle denied, he and the others remained blind, allowing us to make short work of them. We continued to explore beyond the room, finding a spiral staircase leading up to the rear and many more doors to either side. I had my followers continue their clean-up work behind us, taking care of these new bodies.
Tuvstarr and Morwen insisted on going right up the stairs. Ee and Nin lingered. I talked briefly to an old man we found hiding in a study. His name was Professor Barrymore. He did not seem to trust us, but after I talked to him and soothed him, he was quite happy to see us. I offered to return him to the Capitol, but not immediately. He seemed eager to go. I sent him to the care of my followers while we continued our search of the building.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Nine – Stairs up to Praxis Tome?
On the top floor, skipping a floor with doors, we found a large classroom occupied by Beaulabre, apparently the chief scholar of the school. He explained that the intruders were looking for a single book, something called the Praxis Tome. As he described it, the book was a non-magical book, probably the most important non-magical book ever.
“It could change the course of human history,” he said.
“How so,” asked Tuvstarr, enthralled at the concept of such a book.
“It could inspire an entire generation of scholars and philosophers,” he said.
To myself, I wondered why, if the book was so wonderful, and non-magical to boot, there weren’t already many copies of it floating around. To me, a book can only change the world if people know about it and read it. Otherwise it is just a pile of dead-trees. Moreover, if it was so wonderful, why hadn’t anyone heard of it. I was rather skeptical of the whole thing. I did believe, however, that the invaders thought this book was important. Given that, we would have to find it. The old man was not much help.
“We don’t have that book and I have no idea where it is,” he said.
It is good we left at least one alive to question, then. Perhaps we can find out from him where they would look for this tome next, and meet them there. But first we had the rest of the library to explore.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Five – The King’s Ire
A small voice filled my head, urgent and familiar. “Cordozo, my uncle is really, really mad!” it said. “He will be calling you any minute!”
As I contemplated that, I then heard another voice, this one not mental, but magic, sent to me by a royal spell. “The King wants you here NOW!” was all it said. I presumed “here” was the capitol. While the message was urgent, I decided some caution was called for. I contacted my companions and prepared to depart.
I tried to contact Skylar. She was not available. Apparently she was paranoid enough after the dream incident to have Tuvstarr mindblank her. No matter. I sent my mind out to the city at large and found one of my followers was walking nearby Tuvstarr’s library. Bettran. I sent him to contact Tuvstarr and determine what was going on.
By now, the small voice contacted me again and told me, in response to my query as to what was wrong, “I don’t know, something the worm said made him real mad.”
“Worm?” I asked.
“Dragon.” She said.
“What dragon? What is his or her name? What is its color? Metal?”
“Her name is Melves. She is Grey, not metallic.”
I figured as “Dragonslayers” it would be prudent to know if a Grey was good or evil. And if it was possibly influencing the king, not in a good way. Bettran’s voice interrupted my train of thought at this point.
“Baron, I have reached the library.”
“Ask Tuvstarr about Grey dragons, specifically, about one named Melves.”
“Yes, my Baron.” Then a pause. “Skylar says that Tuvstarr is not here.”
She’s probably with the King already, I thought. “Ask Skylar to see if she can answer that, then.”
“Yes, my Baron.” Then another pause. “Skylar says she will ‘look it up.’”
By now, my companions had either joined me or had already transported (by their golem warhorses) to the Capitol. I decided I had figured out as much as I was going to on short notice, so I took Larch and Nin by the hand and we all joined together in the waiting room of the great castle. I was unsurprised to see Tuvstarr and Posiedon already there.
Apparently our station truly is elevated. We only waited five minutes for an audience. Though we heard plenty of shouts from the king, including sputtering commentary such as “Just because he’s a king doesn’t mean he can . . . he can . . . behave like this” and other equally irate snippits, when we actually saw the King’s face, he was calm, with just a hint of red in his cheeks. He then spoke his piece.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Six – A Library Looting
“There is a library at a school called Westphalen,” the King began. “It is located in a small town on the outskirts of the northwestern reaches of the kingdom known as Withers.”
I silently noted to myself that this was one of the smaller communities, one that currently lacked a Cordozo presence. That would soon be remedied. The King continued.
“Stop them from looting it!” he shouted. “Utterly destroy them! Get back as soon as you can.”
I noticed that as he said this, the number of guards in the halls increased, more than double what it usually was. I noticed guards in places usually left empty. The King was obviously greatly disturbed. The King continued.
“This should not be happening!” he said. “If the library is looted, all of humanoid kind gets destroyed!”
So, I thought to myself. Either the King is crazy or the world is about to end. Either possibility did not leave me with a warm feeling in the pit of my noble stomach.
The King was rather insistent about us leaving right then, so Tuvstarr and myself transported all 12 of us to Withers.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Seven – Burning Books, Crying Tuvstarr
The village was a small one. Twenty buildings, if that. The school probably was the only thing of note in the entire place. I immediately set out to make it twenty-one buildings. I summoned forth an “establishment team” of my followers, two dozen in all, to began preparations for building an inn here and establishing a presence. Obviously, this town, small though it is, is of some importance.
As my followers arrived from the teleportation platform, I surveyed the scene. The library of the school was on fire. It was surrounded by several dozen blue “eggs” of unknown origin. As we watched, another blue “egg” descended from above. A door opened in its side and some creatures streamed out of it into the library. We quickly closed the distance.
As we ran toward the flames, Tuvstarr began an interesting monologue about how the eggs must be from the “Great Beast,” a creature that studies the universe “at large.” At times she spoke so fast, it was hard to keep up with what she was saying, but it was clear that she was excited even as she was also horrified to see a library on fire.
I distracted her by asking her about grey dragons. Her long, rambling reply eventually included the magic words, “they are usually good,” which reassured me, at least for the time.
When we reached the entrance to the library, we found two guards with crossed glaives blocking the way. Apparently they were not the normal guards for the library. They were covered from head to toe in strange leather armor with silver runes covering every surface. They even had masks with runes covering their faces. As we tried to enter, they blocked our way.
“Move along, move along. Nothing to see here,” they said in unison.
“Step aside, we have business in here,” Tuvstarr told them insistently, the fire reflected in her eyes.
The glaives burst into flame. “You have no business here.”
“Move aside in the name of the King,” I told them, “Our authority is his authority, and you must obey.”
“We recognize no authority,” was their only reply.
That was all that I needed. Clearly, they were now in violation of several statutes, including the primary statute that required all to obey us as agents of the king. Thus established as not the legitimate staff of the library, combined with our status as King’s agents, combined with the King’s specific orders to “annihilate them” that were looting the library made it my carefully considered legal opinion that we were fully within our authority to beat these two guards like red-headed step children. And so it began.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Eight – We Put Out the Guards, then the Fire
As we approached the door, one of the guards made three swipes of his glaive against Morwen while the other sent three against Ee. None connected with Morwen, but Ee was hurt slightly. Tuvstarr was urging that we keep them alive so we could question them. I decided to help in that regard by turning the minds of one of them inwards into a closed loop, cutting his perception off from the world, making him inert. Unfortuantely, it was soon moot, between Nimue’s lightning bolt, Ee’s axe, and Posiedon’s large fists (he had made himself a mountain troll yet again) soon had the guard a bloody pulp upon the ground. Ironically, the other guard survived because Morwen and Tuvstarr only subdued him.
Not stopping to examine their bodies (or their possessions) we pressed onward. Not wishing to leave anything behind, I summoned some of my followers to take care of the bodies (and their possessions) while we entered the burning library.
Inside, we found an empty foyer. Smoke poured in from under the door to our right. Not wishing to see Tuvstarr cry any further, I felt deep down inside my mind for an alternate reality, one where everything was the same, but the flames were snuffed out. Fortunately, I only had to bend, not totally alter, reality, or I would have been severely weakened.
The flames out, we explored the smoking room, finding nothing of interest. Either the books there were gone or there were never any to begin with. We quickly headed forward, to the main door of the foyer. Through that, we saw a wondrous sight.
From floor to ceiling, in many cramped rows of shelves, we saw books. Books were crammed into every last available space. There were so many books it defied counting them. I pulled out an embroidered silk hankerchief and handed it to Tuvstarr. She took it and absentmindedly wiped her chin free of the drool that was pooling there. I politely declined her offer to return the now drool-soaked hankerchief back. I diplomatically offered that she may have further need of it given all of the books here.
Something else we saw in the room was a man in full plate armor, three others dressed in strange hardened, black armor, and a Beblith. It was apparent that they could not see us, courtesy of a blinding brilliance that Tuvstarr had brought forth on herself just moments before we opened the door. Apparently those not of sufficiently pure heart cannot see beyond its blinding light. And the light extends very far.
Guessing that the Beblith was summoned, rather than native, I dispelled it, sending it back to the foul plane where it spawned. Morwen plunged into the room and then plunged her rapier into the hearts of several of the creatures in the room. Tuvstarr chained a bolt of lightning through all of them. Nin moved next to the man in plate armor, his chains ready. The man began to voice an incantation, asking for a miracle. Alas, his prayer went unanswered as Nin smashed the man’s mouth with his chain, ending his invocation before the final words could be uttered.
The man’s miracle denied, he and the others remained blind, allowing us to make short work of them. We continued to explore beyond the room, finding a spiral staircase leading up to the rear and many more doors to either side. I had my followers continue their clean-up work behind us, taking care of these new bodies.
Tuvstarr and Morwen insisted on going right up the stairs. Ee and Nin lingered. I talked briefly to an old man we found hiding in a study. His name was Professor Barrymore. He did not seem to trust us, but after I talked to him and soothed him, he was quite happy to see us. I offered to return him to the Capitol, but not immediately. He seemed eager to go. I sent him to the care of my followers while we continued our search of the building.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Two-Hundred Ninety-Nine – Stairs up to Praxis Tome?
On the top floor, skipping a floor with doors, we found a large classroom occupied by Beaulabre, apparently the chief scholar of the school. He explained that the intruders were looking for a single book, something called the Praxis Tome. As he described it, the book was a non-magical book, probably the most important non-magical book ever.
“It could change the course of human history,” he said.
“How so,” asked Tuvstarr, enthralled at the concept of such a book.
“It could inspire an entire generation of scholars and philosophers,” he said.
To myself, I wondered why, if the book was so wonderful, and non-magical to boot, there weren’t already many copies of it floating around. To me, a book can only change the world if people know about it and read it. Otherwise it is just a pile of dead-trees. Moreover, if it was so wonderful, why hadn’t anyone heard of it. I was rather skeptical of the whole thing. I did believe, however, that the invaders thought this book was important. Given that, we would have to find it. The old man was not much help.
“We don’t have that book and I have no idea where it is,” he said.
It is good we left at least one alive to question, then. Perhaps we can find out from him where they would look for this tome next, and meet them there. But first we had the rest of the library to explore.
Altalazar
First Post
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Three-Hundred – We Explore, then we Burn
We explored the remaineder of the library, first scouring the rooms on the first floor we had only briefly examined earlier before turning our attention to the rooms left unopened. Morwen and Ee prepared to open the first such door while we waited in the middle of the main stacks of books to see what she found. We did not have to wait long.
As soon as the door was opened, the room was filled with fire, much to Tuvstarr’s horror.
Higgins, with the aid of magic, was able to deftly roll out of the way as the most massive, horrible ball of fire we had ever encountered filled half the library, incinerating the books instantly, and, but for our magical protections and reflexes, it would have reduced all of us instantly to ashes. Before we could react, we were also washed over with a blast of cold from the doorway, which was far far less harmful than the fire, but it hurt some a bit more, because of the lack of cold protection for some. And then a loud wail of the dead filled the room, a horrid screech that seemed to make death a preferable option to avoid hearing the voice any further. The final act was a curtain of fire that came down across the doorway, blocking our entrance and also removing the room beyond from our view. Fortunately, when the flames and frost settled, no one was dead, though we were all certainly worried about what may come next from beyond the curtain of flames before us.
Apparently the heavens were aligned strangely, because despite the much more nimble reflexes of most of my companions, I reacted first. The first thing we needed was to be able to see, so I concentrated quickly on the wall of fire, found its anchoring point, and then mentally ripped it from its moorings, causing it to sputter and die, revealing the room beyond. I could only see two heavily armored humanoids, similar to what we saw earlier in the library. It looked like the room beyond was much larger. Wishing to weaken them (and hoping to weaken whomever was sending such powerful enchantments our way), I send forth a colulmn of stygian energy to drain away their life force, throwing all of my concentration into the effort. Then, with my second mind, I quickly tried to dominate them, but they proved impervious. Perhaps they are more automaton than human.
It was then that I heard a voice from the room shout “Run, they’ll kill you!” From the tone of the voice and its inflection, I determined that this voice was for our benefit. Though, as it ultimately turned out, it was the black armored “men” and their wizardly lord who should have taken his advice.
Through the doorway, I could see a large green hand of force appear and start to crush one of the armored figures. The gestures and motion of Tuvstarr made it clear that this hand was courtesy of her magic. Looking at her soft glow, I was again reminded that her “Blinding Glory” was still active, probably leaving all of our opponents blind from the time they opened the door. As if in response to this, a bright flash of light covered all of us, injuring us slightly. Apparently the wizard was now hiding amongst the books on the main library floor and aiming his magic at us.
I looked around for him, but Nin spotted him first and he ran toward him, his chain flying high.
Higgins ran forward to Morwen and held out his stone of spell storing, offering the boon of foresight to her, something we all probably ought have had the foresight to do long before ever opening that door.
Looking back toward the mage, I began to summon my valkries. I knew that they would probably be no match for him toe to toe, but they would help anchor him for Nin’s chains.
Ee rushed forward into the room and began cutting down the armored “men” one by one. Looking behind me, I noticed that Posiedon was gone. I could feel waves of mental energy crackling through the ether of the room beyond the doorway, placing him within it.
Higgins ran away from the doorway toward Nin and enchanted his chain-arm, giving him the “dolorous blow” boon, aiding his most grievious hits. Higgins then prepared his stone of spell storing for another little surprise for Nin.
By the time Nin arrived near the mage, my valkries had flanked him. I ran back to see him, but before I could do more, he attempted to escape. I could feel his magic start to wrap around him and transport him away. I quickly tried to lock him down with my mind, anchoring him, for a moment, to the room, but he managed to slip away from my grasp, teleporting inside one of the eggs outside. Well, if I cannot stop him, I can join him.
I quickly ran forward and grasped Higgins, Nin, and Tuvstarr, who had also run toward the mage before his quick exit. As I weaved the power through my mind, Nin touched Higgin’s rock and became half-insubstantial just as we transported into the wizard’s blue egg.
Nin attacked him in rapid succession as soon as we arrived, but somehow he managed to avoid most of the blows. It was then that I felt an alarming thought come from this wizard. A thought of desperation. The staff he held in his hands had great power within it. Sensing the nearness of his own death, a plan began to form in his mind to break it in a retributive strike, searing the flesh off of all of our bodies in the cramped egg, him included.
Thinking fast, in an effort to avoid this fate, I shoved my finger right up under the mage’s chin (in the close quarters we were in, I could barely do much else) and let the full force of my maximized crystal shards rip into his flesh. In the next instance, his corpse lay at our feet.
We gathered up his body and returned to the library, just in time to see Ee, Morwen, and Posiedon finshing off the dozen or so armored “men.” It was then that we had time to chat with the young scholar who was apparently their “guest” before we intervened.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Three-Hundred One – The Scholar Speaks
The man was apparently impressed that we rescued him. I guess he expected us to die. I was happy to correct his expectations.
“My name is Emery. I was abducted by the Cult of the Forgotten Word and forced to be their slave. They are dedicated to stealing the collective knowledge of the world in order to plunge it into darkness. They are after the Praxis Tome.”
Here we go again, I thought, as I parroted his next words in my own mind even before he could say it. “… likely the most important non-arcane Tome ever to be produced by mankind. It has the potential to inspire an entire generation of scholars and philosophers.”
“So we’ve heard,” I said, trying not to sound unimpressed.
“Once they are done here, they plan to raid two more libraries, perhaps one in Cauldron,” he continued. Tuvstarr’s blood boiled and I could almost hear her thoughts of retribution even through her mind blank.
He continued to talk and we had many questions. What he told us next was particularly interesting – and disturbing.
We explored the remaineder of the library, first scouring the rooms on the first floor we had only briefly examined earlier before turning our attention to the rooms left unopened. Morwen and Ee prepared to open the first such door while we waited in the middle of the main stacks of books to see what she found. We did not have to wait long.
As soon as the door was opened, the room was filled with fire, much to Tuvstarr’s horror.
Higgins, with the aid of magic, was able to deftly roll out of the way as the most massive, horrible ball of fire we had ever encountered filled half the library, incinerating the books instantly, and, but for our magical protections and reflexes, it would have reduced all of us instantly to ashes. Before we could react, we were also washed over with a blast of cold from the doorway, which was far far less harmful than the fire, but it hurt some a bit more, because of the lack of cold protection for some. And then a loud wail of the dead filled the room, a horrid screech that seemed to make death a preferable option to avoid hearing the voice any further. The final act was a curtain of fire that came down across the doorway, blocking our entrance and also removing the room beyond from our view. Fortunately, when the flames and frost settled, no one was dead, though we were all certainly worried about what may come next from beyond the curtain of flames before us.
Apparently the heavens were aligned strangely, because despite the much more nimble reflexes of most of my companions, I reacted first. The first thing we needed was to be able to see, so I concentrated quickly on the wall of fire, found its anchoring point, and then mentally ripped it from its moorings, causing it to sputter and die, revealing the room beyond. I could only see two heavily armored humanoids, similar to what we saw earlier in the library. It looked like the room beyond was much larger. Wishing to weaken them (and hoping to weaken whomever was sending such powerful enchantments our way), I send forth a colulmn of stygian energy to drain away their life force, throwing all of my concentration into the effort. Then, with my second mind, I quickly tried to dominate them, but they proved impervious. Perhaps they are more automaton than human.
It was then that I heard a voice from the room shout “Run, they’ll kill you!” From the tone of the voice and its inflection, I determined that this voice was for our benefit. Though, as it ultimately turned out, it was the black armored “men” and their wizardly lord who should have taken his advice.
Through the doorway, I could see a large green hand of force appear and start to crush one of the armored figures. The gestures and motion of Tuvstarr made it clear that this hand was courtesy of her magic. Looking at her soft glow, I was again reminded that her “Blinding Glory” was still active, probably leaving all of our opponents blind from the time they opened the door. As if in response to this, a bright flash of light covered all of us, injuring us slightly. Apparently the wizard was now hiding amongst the books on the main library floor and aiming his magic at us.
I looked around for him, but Nin spotted him first and he ran toward him, his chain flying high.
Higgins ran forward to Morwen and held out his stone of spell storing, offering the boon of foresight to her, something we all probably ought have had the foresight to do long before ever opening that door.
Looking back toward the mage, I began to summon my valkries. I knew that they would probably be no match for him toe to toe, but they would help anchor him for Nin’s chains.
Ee rushed forward into the room and began cutting down the armored “men” one by one. Looking behind me, I noticed that Posiedon was gone. I could feel waves of mental energy crackling through the ether of the room beyond the doorway, placing him within it.
Higgins ran away from the doorway toward Nin and enchanted his chain-arm, giving him the “dolorous blow” boon, aiding his most grievious hits. Higgins then prepared his stone of spell storing for another little surprise for Nin.
By the time Nin arrived near the mage, my valkries had flanked him. I ran back to see him, but before I could do more, he attempted to escape. I could feel his magic start to wrap around him and transport him away. I quickly tried to lock him down with my mind, anchoring him, for a moment, to the room, but he managed to slip away from my grasp, teleporting inside one of the eggs outside. Well, if I cannot stop him, I can join him.
I quickly ran forward and grasped Higgins, Nin, and Tuvstarr, who had also run toward the mage before his quick exit. As I weaved the power through my mind, Nin touched Higgin’s rock and became half-insubstantial just as we transported into the wizard’s blue egg.
Nin attacked him in rapid succession as soon as we arrived, but somehow he managed to avoid most of the blows. It was then that I felt an alarming thought come from this wizard. A thought of desperation. The staff he held in his hands had great power within it. Sensing the nearness of his own death, a plan began to form in his mind to break it in a retributive strike, searing the flesh off of all of our bodies in the cramped egg, him included.
Thinking fast, in an effort to avoid this fate, I shoved my finger right up under the mage’s chin (in the close quarters we were in, I could barely do much else) and let the full force of my maximized crystal shards rip into his flesh. In the next instance, his corpse lay at our feet.
We gathered up his body and returned to the library, just in time to see Ee, Morwen, and Posiedon finshing off the dozen or so armored “men.” It was then that we had time to chat with the young scholar who was apparently their “guest” before we intervened.
Baron Cordozo – Chapter Three-Hundred One – The Scholar Speaks
The man was apparently impressed that we rescued him. I guess he expected us to die. I was happy to correct his expectations.
“My name is Emery. I was abducted by the Cult of the Forgotten Word and forced to be their slave. They are dedicated to stealing the collective knowledge of the world in order to plunge it into darkness. They are after the Praxis Tome.”
Here we go again, I thought, as I parroted his next words in my own mind even before he could say it. “… likely the most important non-arcane Tome ever to be produced by mankind. It has the potential to inspire an entire generation of scholars and philosophers.”
“So we’ve heard,” I said, trying not to sound unimpressed.
“Once they are done here, they plan to raid two more libraries, perhaps one in Cauldron,” he continued. Tuvstarr’s blood boiled and I could almost hear her thoughts of retribution even through her mind blank.
He continued to talk and we had many questions. What he told us next was particularly interesting – and disturbing.
