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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lazybones" data-source="post: 1969368" data-attributes="member: 143">RE Practiced Spellcaster: I don't have any context here (I don't own CD), but just reading what Solirion posted, I think I'd have to agree with wolff's point. It does pretty clearly state that the other classes have to be non-spellcasting. Of course, few of the basic classes are truly non-spellcasting (barbarian, fighter, monk, rogue)... I wonder how it treats low-level rangers and paladins? Broc: yes, but if the bad guys couldn't get away, then they couldn't come back to torment the heroes when they least expect it!wolff: glad to see you're still reading, and thanks for the clarification and feedback. * * * * * Chapter 307“We got lucky,” Dannel said, later, in the relative security of the Temple of Helm.  “We should not underestimate the foes we faced, simply because we overcame them so easily.  Without the advantage of surprise and magical preparation, events would have gone quite differently.”“Easily?” Hodge said.  He held a cup of steaming hot tea—liberally “seasoned” with alcohol—in hands that still shook, hours after he’d been hit with the ogre’s cone of cold. “Several got away,” Fario said.  The restored half-elf shot a look at Mole, who’d seemed a bit disappointed earlier when they’d dispelled the polymorph spell that had transformed him into what she’d referred to as, “a cute furry rat.” Mole was now seated on the floor on a small carpet, examining the various magical items they’d taken off of the villains they’d slain at House Rhiavati. “I think that white-skinned woman was some sort of undead,” Zenna said, looking up from the spellbook she was reading.  Since their return, she’d been buried in the book they’d found in the personal possessions of the necromancer Melagorn Thureq.  “And Thero got away as well, along with that tiefling sorcerer who made a mouse of our friend here.”Fario grimaced, but Fellian clasped him on the shoulder as the others laughed.  It was healing, in a way, to be able to laugh in the aftermath of such carnage.  And in the face of what they now knew. “Velior Thero won’t find easy sanctuary,” Dannel said.  “As long as Jil is in our custody, and under your sway, she’ll reveal the whole network maintained by the Last Laugh to us.”“A good point, elf,” Beorna said.  “Her knowledge should allow us to crush that nest of thieves once and for all.”“I am more concerned with the wizard’s speech,” Arun said.  Mole had shared all of the details she’d remembered from Rhiavati’s address to the gathered villains, and the grim outline of the Cagewright’s plans had left all of them shaken.  “Damn it, we’re in the same position we’ve always been,” Zenna said, slamming her fist down on the arm of her chair.  “Always a step behind, always in the dark.  We know what they want to do, but not how... or where, or when, except that it will be ‘soon’.  Who are the Shackleborn?  Where is this ‘Tree of Shackled Souls’?  And what is this ‘key’ that they need to complete the ritual?  How in the hells can we stop them, if we don’t even know where to find them?”“We will find a way,” Arun said.  “We’re clearly facing long odds, but we’ve won a victory tonight, and though our adversaries are powerful, we are not without resources of our own.”“Well said,” Beorna said, coming to stand beside him.  “We will finish this.”“Face it, Zenna,” Dannel said, a hint of his old spark shining in his eyes as he looked at her.  “You just can’t argue with a dwarf.”“Let alone two of them!” Mole added. “It’s been a long night,” Beorna said, looking at Fellian, who was already half-asleep, leaning back on the couch beside Fario.  “Morning will be here in just a few hours, and maybe the situation will be clearer in the light of the day.  This place is safe, if anyplace in Cauldron can truly be considered such.”They filtered out toward their rooms.  Even Fario and Fellian were too exhausted to do anything but accept the guest quarters offered by the acolyte of Helm.  The rectory was nearly full now, with some of the new “recruits” even sleeping in the lofts above the stables, but there wasn’t one among them who wouldn’t have been willing to sleep out under the open sky, if one of the Heroes of Cauldron needed a soft bed in a private room. Zenna didn’t feel like a hero; she just felt tired.  Belatedly she realized that she and Dannel were the only ones left in the room.  The elf was watching her, something unfathomable in his eyes.“You should get some rest,” he finally said, after a long and awkward silence. “I will,” she said. Her eyes were on the book in her lap, but she did not see the glyphs inscribed therein as she slowly turned the page. “Zenna...”Her hand froze in the middle of a page.  “Please,” she said, her voice thick with emotion.  “Not now; I can’t handle it, not now, on top of everything that’s happening.”He stood there a moment longer, but she did not look up from the book.  It was as if she was frozen there, a statue enfolded in soft dark cloth.  Finally, he turned and left the room. Zenna’s body shook, and there, on the page, a single tear fell onto a magical glyph, blurring its outline. That night, the companions slept the sleep of utter physical and emotional exhaustion.  Morning came all too swiftly, however, and the adventurers were still bleary-eyed as they gathered for a late breakfast.  The rectory was quiet, with most of the temple staff already out and engaged in the activities of the day.  But the needs of the companions was not unanticipated; even as they continued to straggle from their beds into the common room several of the new recruits brought in trays laden with sweet breads, sausages, various fresh fruits, and pitchers of fresh-squeezed juices.  Hodge immediately intercepted one of the trays, directing it to the table in front of him, not even bothering with an individual plate as he started stuffing foodstuffs into his mouth.  Zenna, rubbing her temples at the headache that had resided there since awakening that morning, skipped the food entirely and poured herself a large mug of the black, strong-brewed coffee that was the common morning beverage here in the south.  Even after almost a year, she was more used to the teas that were drunk in the north, but there was something to be said for the bitter black liquid when one was trying to wake up from an insufficient sleep. “I don’t know how you can drink that stuff straight,” Mole said, adding a fairly considerable dollop of honey to her own, smaller cup.  Once they’d served the meal, the young recruits left them to their privacy.  For several minutes they just ate in relative quiet, restoring the strength that had been burned in a long night of battles and tense confrontations.  Finally, Fario stood. “We must go; Meerthan will be greatly concerned, and we’d better update him on what’s happened.”“I thought you guys had that mind-link thing,” Mole said, gesturing with a cinnamon twist, her mouth full of berries. “The link did not survive our deaths,” Fellian explained, likewise pulling himself away from the table with an obvious effort.  “The note Jenya sent last night will let him know we live, but we have to discuss what happened at House Rhiavati.”There it was; with the spoken reminder of last night’s events, the illusion of peace that they’d let linger over their repast evaporated.  Arun let the pastry he’d been about to bite into fall back to his plate; only Hodge kept eating, continuing his decimation of the platter of sausages.  “I suppose we’d better...” Dannel began, but he was interrupted as the door opened, and Jenya Urikas stepped into the room. The look on the cleric’s face was immediate evidence of trouble.  “What’s wrong?” Beorna asked, her hand stealing to the hilts of the swords propped up against the bench beside her. The High Priestess of Helm took a deep breath to steady herself, before shattering their day with another dire pronouncement. “Lord Orbius Vhalantru is a beholder.”</blockquote>

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