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Message: <blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 4121063" data-attributes="member: 1210">Benjy At Last!“Aw, come on,” Federico whines. “We just want to make things right with Benjy. We’re here to help him. Help us reach him!” he suggests to Taylee. Again, the weak-willed lass cannot resist the compulsion. She sighs. “All right,” she says, “I will.”“Please,” Banjo begs, “you must not fight Benjy. I have seen it! I am a prophet. If you do...” He stops, biting his lip.“If we do, then what?” demands Ari. Nara walks up to Banjo. “You’re a prophet?” she asks. “I am, too. Tell me what you’ve seen. Believe me, we have no wish to fight with the Peachtrees; most of us weren’t even with this group when they first met him!”“I was,” Federico admits. “I was there when Airhead Ed shot out his eye.”*“Most of us weren’t,” Nara goes on firmly. “And all we want to do is make peace. Ed is dead. We just want to help.”Banjo studies Nara’s face for a moment, as if searching for signs of deception or guile, and then nods once. “All right,” he says. “I have seen... my visions are not always clear. They are often very symbolic. They- I have to interpret them, you know.”“I understand,” Nara reassures him.“If the Peachtrees and the Flapjacks continue to fight, we will close a door for our people. I don’t understand exactly what it is, but there is something wonderful behind it- something that we cannot achieve without peach between our peoples.”“The Promised Land,” Naomi breathes.“Yeah, we know about that,” Nara tells Banjo. “That’s kind of why we’re here. We need the cornbread.”“The-?” Banjo blinks, then realizes, “Oh, Cornbread. It’s a who, not a what.”Our heroes exchange glances.***Our heroes move forward, around the corner and into the tomb of Copperdeath.It is a shocking sight.The chamber is very large, both wide and high. It is the resting place of the corpse of an immense dragon with scales the deep blue color of sapphires. Its huge mouth is propped open with long spears, and there is a narrow crawl space down through its throat. Little pieces of someone’s armor remain stuck between the sword-length teeth from long ago. Surrounding the corpse is a large arcane apparatus of some kind, fitted with an abundance of lenses and mirrors. The thing bears many small lanterns; the lenses and mirrors seem to redirect all of the light so that it falls directly upon the corpse. A large, strange crystal focuses a wavy beam of light on the ground directly before the dragon’s head, where the party can see another figure surrounded by the apparatus. This one, however, is plainly Benjy Peachtree. He has a patch over one eye, but metal wires and strands snake beneath it and a brilliant blue glow is emanating from beneath the eye patch. He stares silently ahead, apparently sightless. The apparatus is all around him, supporting his immobile form.“Benjy?” exclaims Federico, horrified.“This bad,” Jawbreaker explains. “I don’t know if he can-” begins Banjo. Sarsaparilla and Baird step out into view. “No further, Flapjacks,” Baird calls. Sarsaparilla moves swiftly forward, leaping up on the huge tail of the corpse, her bow readied in her hands. And suddenly there is an explosion of clear goo- Naomi recognizes it as ectoplasm- and a strange iridescent serpent appears out of thin air.“Crap,” Queffe grumbles, loading her crossbow quickly. Nobody is throwing any blows just yet, but there are preparatory spells being cast and powers being manifested all over the place. For a moment the dervish dares to hope that there won’t have to be a fight. Then the serpent and Jawbreaker rush together and begin hacking and biting at each other. As soon as they move, the tension breaks, and spells and missiles are exchanged as well in a sudden outpouring of vicious violence. “No! Stop! What has happened? This is all wrong!” Banjo cries. “Please, stop!”But the battle is on. Jawbreaker and the serpent tear huge wounds in each other; and while Jawbreaker leaks blood, the serpent only bleeds ectoplasm. “It’s an astral construct of some kind!” shouts Naomi.Suddenly a blue goblin appears, firing an energy bolt at her. She returns fire with an energy bolt of her own. Then a flaming sphere appears on Jawbreaker, who is still fighting the serpent. With a roar, he leaps out of it, and Nara moves up to heal him, for the serpent has already done considerable damage to him.Taylee leaps forward, drawing her sword and dagger. “No, you can’t hurt my friends!” she cries, attacking Naomi. She slices her arm with the dagger, but then stumbles and falls, smacking her head hard. She is rendered senseless for a few moments. Naomi ignores the halfling threat. She doesn’t really want to kill Taylee (though if she did, she just might want to eat her). That damned iridescent serpent, though- that, she wants to kill. She fires another energy bolt at it, and this time it explodes in a shower of ectoplasm.Jawbreaker drops back with Nara and Federico to receive some healing. It seems at first as though they have gained a little breathing room.That impression vanishes as the immense draconian corpse begins to move, pulling itself apart. Huge chunks of rotten, half-mummified flesh simply pull free of the now-moving frame, but enough hunks remain on it to make the horrible thing’s identity plain. Bits of the apparatus snap and break off as it animate. Copperdeath walks again.Next Time: The final confrontation with Benjy Peachtree and Copperdeath’s corpse!*During our heroes’ second adventure, Jam Session, which took place waaay early on in the story hour.</blockquote>

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