NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1772711" data-attributes="member: 143">Well, most liches aren't going to be foolish enough to leave their phylactary someplace where it can be found, even with divination magic.  Don't worry, Polynike; I'm well ahead in the story and the party's "enemies list" is going to make Nixon's look pathetic by comparison, in a module or two.  Since all of the mods except for "Asylum" have been published, it looks like the authors of the series leave a number of loose ends unresolved.  But I already have some fairly dramatic ideas for the last few mods, and I am sure there will be numerous places where a few disgruntled former foes of the adventurers can make an appearance.  And, of course, old friends as well...Stay tuned!* * * * * Chapter 228With the lich destroyed, the companions made short work of the remaining summoned creatures.  Within a few moments they were alone again, drawing back to the edges of the chamber to put as much distance as possible between them and the continuing surge of power represented by the black nexus. “A deadly foe,” Morgan said, sliding his sword back into its sheath. Zenna bent over Mole.  For a moment she didn’t detect any breathing, and a feeling of cold terror washed over her, but then she felt the slight flutter of her friend’s pulse.  “How is she?” Arun and Dannel both asked, at nearly the same instant.  “She’s paralyzed.  I can help her, but I will have to recover my spells first.”Kaurophon had reappeared, and several of them looked up at him.  “You know my arguments, and I know yours,” he said with a shrug.  “I will defer to your judgment.”“Several of us have been poisoned,” Dannel said.  “You yourself can barely stand, Zenna.”“I do not have any more restoration spells, but I will include some in my meditations,” Zenna said.  He was right; her body felt stiff and awkward, but she forced herself to stand straight, ignoring the painful tingling she felt in her limbs.  “Arun can help with that as well.”  The dwarf nodded in acknowledgement. “Armor’s good stuff,” Hodge said.  He’d dragged the lich’s possessions back from the edge of the nexus, and was examining them with a critical eye.  In addition to the armor and the bone wand, he found an amulet, a pearl the size of a marble on a silver chain, and a pouch that contained a tightly wound scroll.  “Another plane shift,” Morgan reported, after examining the scroll. “For an out of the way place like this, there sure are quite a number of planar travelers here,” Zenna commented.  She looked around for Kaurophon, but the sorcerer had wandered off a short distance, examining the perimeter of the room.  “What do you think?” she asked her friends, softly. “You know what I think,” Morgan growled.  “He cannot be trusted.”“We would not have gotten this far without him,” Dannel pointed out.  “He drove the lich out of the nexus, in case you did not see.”“I saw,” Morgan replied.  “Yet another power that he did not see fit to reveal to us before.”“We may still need him,” Zenna said.  “And in any case, I’d rather have him somewhere we can see him.”“Agreed,” Arun said.  The paladin knelt over Mole, gently covering her with a blanket, his hand glowing with a soft blue light as he laid his palm across the ugly gray scars left by the lich’s touch. Zenna healed the injuries they’d suffered in the battle with the lich.  Less than an hour had passed since their last rest, and she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep so soon, but no sooner had she laid her head down upon her bedroll she fell once more into the black oblivion of a deep slumber.* * * * * Dark shadows swarmed around her, taking on form briefly as they passed close by, almost recognizable.  Strangely, she was not afraid; although surrounded by blackness, somehow this place seemed familiar, almost welcome.  A few of the shadows were frightening horrors, faces from her past that had brought suffering and pain to her and those she cared about.  But even they did not penetrate the cloak of nullity around her emotions; they were dead and gone, unable to harm her now, even in this place of dreams. The landscape of shadow shifted, and she found herself looking at Cauldron.  The city was familiar, but far away, as if she were in a great dark tunnel.  She could feel the pulse of life that filled the city, and the whisper of voices, a soft, almost inaudible compendium of the lives that were crowded into the volcano town.  A story in each voice, all blending together into an unending tapestry.There was something here she was supposed to see; she felt it with a certitude that filled her very being.  But the vista of the city was somehow more unreal than the vague shadows she had sensed earlier.  There was something underlying it all, a presence just beyond the edges of her perceptions, a sinister force that she couldn’t quite reach...“Zenna.”Dannel’s voice, and his soft touch upon her cheek, drew her instantly back into wakefulness.  For a moment her muscles wouldn’t respond to her commands, and she felt a rush of fear that she too had become paralyzed, but finally she forced her sluggish body to obey her orders and she pulled herself up to a sitting position.Belatedly she sensed that something was wrong.  “What is it?” she asked.“Kaurophon is gone.  Again.”* * * * * Next week: CONCLUSION</blockquote>

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