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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Altalazar" data-source="post: 3549949" data-attributes="member: 939">Book XIV    Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Seventy-Nine – Party’s Over, Party in the Streets, Party Reunited    After the festivities wound down, we began to walk home.  I was walking with my companions and Higgins, winding through the streets of Cauldron.  We decided to walk instead of just teleporting to our various destinations so we could have the chance to talk and reflect on what happened at the Demonskar Ball.  Ee was particularly despondent.      “Me not like party.  Me not kill anything.  Me has new axe and me still has not bloodied it.”      After a few blocks of Ee’s complaints, we heard the sounds of combat ahead and to the right.  Ee, before another word could be said, took off into the air and flew over the buildings to our right, presumably right into the heart of the conflict.  “Me go kill!  Me so happy!”    “No, wait for Higgins!” I shouted after him, but he was already over the tops of the buildings and out of sight.  By the time I looked forward, I saw that Morwen and Kyrnyn had also run off, though they hadn’t quite made it around the corner.      “See what I have to deal with, Higgins?”    “Very good, suh,” was Higgins’s only reply.      At least Morwen and Kyrnyn slowed down after they apparently heard Higgins, so we caught up to them.  Higgins could still not quite see everyone, so he whispered a few words of magic, and then threw a handful of diamond dust onto Morewn.  Her skin instantly hardened to stone, giving her a rather severe look.      I decided it was time to practice my newly acquired discipline, and closed my eyes and began to concentrate.  I visualized a creature in my mind, thirty feet tall, covered in muscle, with hardened skin and fast reflexes, able to bash with its very mind.  Then I opened my eyes and saw my vision come to life, protoplasm flowing out of me and swirling around in the street ahead of me, until it solidified in a form as real as Poseidon’s tower.  Amazing!      And speaking of Poseidon, I could see now that he was in the street ahead, to the right, standing next to Tuvstarr.  Apparently they also took a nice stroll home from the ball.  Standing in front of them was a Demodand demon and a rather fiendish-looking Minotaur.  Both were standing rather closer to the pair than likely either would have enjoyed.  I also saw Ee standing in the street behind the minotaur.  It was then that I gave the signal to Higgins and he weaved more magic, encompassing all of us, including himself, and including my new ectoplasmic construction.  Suddenly the world seemed to slow down, which I knew was an illusion of the magic:  we had all sped up.      And just in time.  Two more demons appeared, perhaps summoned by those before us.  One appeared behind Tuvstarr, the other appeared directly in front of Higgins and I.      Fortunately, my new creation acted next.  He (She? It?) swung one of its huge appendages at the best in front of me.  With its naturally nimble reflexes, enhanced further by Higgins magic, its arms were a blur as it struck the demon four times in rapid succession, the last blow directly to the demon’s heart.  The demon staggered, but did not fall.  I took that moment to slip my mind into the demon’s, and thought back to oh those many moons ago, when I first slipped underneath the ground and left behind my lawerly life for that of an adventurer, and then squeezed as hard I could.  I felt its mind utterly annihilated by my strength, and the demon fell to the ground at my feet.  I looked up at Higgins and smiled.      Higgins, ever stoic, simply nodded his head imperceptibly, and then his features vanished from my sight altogether.  A thick fog had enveloped us all, seemingly from nowhere.  I then felt the air itself sting and burn.  I could barely move my arms through the fog, it was so thick.      “Higgins!” I shouted.  His only response was the weaving (or in this case, unweaving) of magic around us.      In the next moment, I felt some of the fog dissolve around me, but this only revealed another layer of fog, one thicker and deadlier.  What strange magic was this?      “Higgins?” I shouted.    I heard the sounds of combat for a while, but could see nothing.  I hoped my creation was giving a good fight.  I could sense it was still near me, but I could not see him.  I mentally leaped forward to where I last saw him.  Then I heard Higgins’s voice weaving further magic from behind me.  As his words faded, a wind began to blow.  It started as a soft breeze, but then it very quickly grew to a great roar, blowing away all of the fog all the way down the street, revealing the two demonic attackers standing right where we left them.  Only now they were engaged with Morwen, Ee, and Kyrnyn, Poseidon and Tuvstarr having departed further up the street.      Unfortunately, those two demons were now uncomfortably close to me.  I quickly raised my mental defenses, screening me from attack.  It was then that I discovered another, more potent defense.  In my mind, I imagined I was invincible, impenetrable, immovable, a veritable statue of iron.  And that was what I became.  I looked down and saw my arms and legs were now made of solid iron.  I felt powerful, if sluggish.  I felt like I could take blows that would kill an ordinary man as if they were nothing at all.  I felt GOOD.  I also felt my feet slowly sinking several inches into the soft ground.  Apparently I was also quite heavy.      Looking back at the matter at hand, I saw that my companions were slowly killing the demons.  I guess these two won’t be given the opportunity to hire us.      A huge splash of blood then hit my iron face, nearly covering me.  I glanced right and noticed that it was Ee’s blood.  Ee,’s massive body was nearly shredded, and he was about to fall.  I opened my mouth to call for Higgins, when a bright ray of light filled my vision as it passed from my left to my right, striking Ee in the chest.  Incredibly, his wounds all healed instantly.  I’ve never seen someone so grievously wounded healed so quickly, and from afar.  Then I turned left and saw him.      “Marcus!”  I shouted, “I’ve not seen you in ages!  Where have you been?”     “Well,” he said, as he send forth a flame strike from the heavens against the two beasts, “Life was a little on the slow side for a while as I did special work for my order.  But it’s good to be back!”      The combat only interrupted our reunion for a few more seconds before my companions finished off the demons.  Then we all gathered together to properly catch up.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Eighty – Reunion for us and for the Noble Five    We spent some time standing in the street, the warm corpses of the demons at our feet, the demon blood running between our toes, as we caught up.      “I’m a noble now!” I told Marcus.    “How did that happen?” he asked.    “I rescued the King’s Niece!” I said, and then flashed him a shining smile, made brighter by the fact that my teeth (and mouth and face) were still made of solid iron.      Our reunion was cut short by Poseidon and Tuvstarr, who told us about a reunion of their own (after Poseidon stopped vomiting from the demon stench).      “We know those demons.  Those are Cagewrights.  We’ve killed them before.  And we’ll have to kill them again.  I think we’re due to be attacked by the beholder next,” Tuvstarr explained.      “Oh, how terrible,” I said, silently grateful that the demons we usually meet are more interested in hiring us than in attacking us and then coming back from the grave again and again to repeat the process.  I idly wondered if the demons here would have offered us a job if they hadn’t been too busy attacking Poseidon and Tuvstarr.      After looting the demon corpses, we continued on our way home.  I again asked Morwen if she’d like to stay with us, and as always, she said, “Thank you, no.”  One of these days I’m going to figure out where she disappears to each night, no matter where we are.  Maybe she’s just paranoid.  But then again, given our experiences, anyone in our group who is NOT paranoid just isn’t paying attention.      I returned to Poseidon’s tower with Higgins and Ee and retired for the night.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Eighty-One – Wake up Call from the Moon    Morning brought no birds or demons, but I did get a message from Kyrnyn when I contacted him after breakfast.  He told me, briefly, that Geneth the “art dealer” had sought to hire us for a job.  Funny, he didn’t look like a demon.  It turns out that he probably isn’t, because he is the middle-man in the deal.  Geneth said that he belonged to a group of Acquirers or Collectors who are hired by others to find things.  He would not say who hired him to hire us.  So HIS employer is the demon.  Well, at least we won’t have to deal with them directly.  They often smell rather bad.      Kyrnyn further elaborated that Geneth has told him about some sort of “Temple of the Moon” that only appears every 300 years or so when some secret moon appears, and then only for a night.  Apparently the temple holds a “Library of the Moon” that covers all sorts of moon-related subjects, from astrology to lycanthropy.  We were offered 12,000 gold coins each for the job, which involved “borrowing” the entire library.  It sounded like the hard part of this one would be the logistics of emptying an entire library in one night that may exist on another plane, or at least is not exactly easy to get to.      I had to make sure this job would not interfere with my Barony acquisition.  “Will this job be done within two weeks?” I asked?    “Yes,” Kyrnyn answered.  “The window of opportunity is four days from now.”      “Fantasitic.  Ok, we can do the job then.”      I relayed the job offer to Ee, by mouth, and to Morwen and Marcus, by mind.  Marcus at first did not know what to make of this voice in his head.      “Is that you Pelor?”     “Why no, but I’m Pelor’s duly appointed legal representative,” I replied.  Marcus was not amused.      “While I appreciate the inherent goodness in humor,” he said, “I do not appreciate you impersonating someone who represents my god.”      “Aw C’mon, Marcus,” I chided him.  “You’re the one who gave me the opening.  It would have been criminal not to take it.”  But I did promise him I would not do it again, though I’m sure he must recognize what my voice in his head sounds like now.      Just in case there were special dances we needed to learn to get into the temple, Morewn and I (and the others as well) hit the streets of Cauldron to see what information we could find about this moon temple and library.  Kyrnyn went to ask Tuvstarr, though he tried to be diplomatic about it because he thought she might covet the entire library for herself.  I told him not to worry about that.  “At worst, perhaps she can give us a better offer.”      Kyrnyn then met with Geneth at the Cusp of the Sunrise to seal the deal.  Geneth told him that our mapmaking friend would have a map we could use and that we could discern the map (and its true path) using the reflection of a moonstone that Geneth gave us.  He gave us the stone when we agreed to take the job.  I asked Kyrnyn, via mind, to get the full parameters of the deal.      By the time I was done, we had it clarified that we would get the entire library, defined by what was clearly visible, so that if we missed a specially hidden book or two, we would still get our full reward.  (Though I wondered how they could even tell if a volume was missing).  I further stipulated that the library was “as is” so that if some books were decayed or damaged, we still got the full price and it was up to Geneth’s employer to figure out how to restore them.  Thus legally protected, we began our quest.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Eighty-Two – One map, two map, three maps, Moon map    Our first stop was at the map-maker’s.  We didn’t tell him what we were really after.  Why increase the price?  I talked to him and shared more tales of our adventures and asked him questions about his other maps to distract him while Kyrnyn looked through the maps with the moonstone.  It did not take long for him to find what we were looking for.      I haggled down the map-maker’s initial offer of 500 gold for the map down to 125.  Then I asked him about his three “genuine” treasure maps, which he offered for 500 gold each, one of which even showed an area near Cauldron.  I haggled him down to 490 gold each, then paid him 500 anyway, calling the extra a “tip” and leaving him with a smile on his face to accompany my bag of 150 pieces of platinum.      The map to the Moon Temple was an old one.  It showed the Demonskar to the west of Cauldron, and the river to the north of the Skar, with the temple just northeast of that, in the thick jungle.  We asked around town but could not find anyone living who had been anywhere near that area.  Not even Poseidon or Tuvstarr had been there. They had seen only the southernmost portion of the Demonskar.      Apparently the Paladin Alec Turval had been to that area, but he was long dead, a tragic death I’m told, and we would not be allowed to disturb his body, even if it were to attempt to raise him from the dead.  His life is no more.      To make matters worse, the place was at least four days walking away, through demon-infested jungle, and we had only four days until the celestial event of the moon.  Fortunately, Larch’s new noble steed was able to fly there within two days and from there, could describe for me where we could teleport there directly.  Given the dangers, Kyrnyn rode the steed and Morwen donned her flying wings as well, and off they went.      While they flew, I researched the maps I bought a bit further.  They seemed genuine.  I wondered if the treasure was still there for any of them.  But that is for another day.      At the end of the first day of Kyrnyn’s flying trip, I contacted him and Morwen so they could describe their location.  Morwen was very concerned about where to sleep for the night in the dangerous jungle.  I pointed out that she could sleep in Cauldron once she described the location, because I could just teleport there, then teleport them home and they could start from that same location in the morning for the second half of their trip.      “Oh,” she said sheepishly, and then I returned them to Cauldron.      The next day, they made it to an area close to our final destination.  Again, I brought them home, figuring we could start fresh in the morning.  Morwen told me that she saw huge beasts lurking in the thick jungle below her as she flew.  Some of the beasts even flew, but none molested them on their journey.      Again we retired for the night.      Sir Cordozo – Chapter One-Hundred Eighty-Three –A fresh morning start    In the morning, we all prepared to depart.  I briefly wondered if we should not wait a day, so we don’t have to be in the jungle overnight.  Poseidon had been kind enough to offer to create a teleportation circle for us to the jungle so I would not have to make more than one trip to arrive there and further, so I would save my energy for the perils ahead.  I did not know if he would do this for us twice, and I did not think it would take us two days to find the base of the temple, or whatever might indicate where the temple was to appear in the night after this night.      Finally, I decided that we might as well gather as much information as we could in advance of the trouble.  So we entered the jungle that morning and began our search.      It did not take long for us to find something.  Or rather, something found us.  Two somethings.  Two gargantuan somethings that had huge scales, sharp teeth, and menacing claws.      They came crashing at us through the jungle, moving faster than I would have thought something so large could move.  Before we could even react, one of them ran right over Morwen, Ee, and Marcus, nearly crushing the life out of all three of them.  Even worse, this left Higgins and myself standing directly underneath the claws of both of them.  Higgins quickly weaved his magic to speed all of us up ,and then I grabbed his shoulder and quickly spirited him (and myself) away from the reach of the foul beasts.  As I did so, one tried to bite me, narrowly missing, while the other took a good chunk out of me, nearly stunning me.  But I recovered quickly, and before it could try and bite me a second time, we were gone.      Thus removed to safety, Higgins healed my grievous wound.  My companions stayed where they were and quickly brought down one of the beasts, having surrounded it on three sides.      The other one quickly followed as further hacks of blades and flames from heaven brought it down to size.  By the time I returned to the clearing in the jungle created by the divine fire and the falling beasts, the smell of well-cooked dinosaur filled the air.  It smelled like roast chicken.  Thus inspired, we ate our lunch, then we resumed searching for the temple.  Hopefully we will find it soon.</blockquote>

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