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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2295309" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Twenty-SecondIn which: the party finds that all Guardians are named Cyrus, but not all named Cyrus are Guardians of the Barrier.“What in all hells are you doing!?!”  Eva yells after him.“The infidel Petros will be made to suffer for this!” Cyrus declares, reaching for the chains.Thatch tries to grab him as he goes by, but, unable to keep hold, settles for thumping him on the head with his fists instead.Cyrus turns, genuinely surprised.  “We must free him.”Thatch gapes, with absolutely no idea what to say to that.  Screw it, he concludes, and simply reaches for his sword.But Cyrus reaches faster and makes a grab for the sword himself.  Fortunately, he is unable to pull it from its sheath.  Thatch punches him again, but (surprise, surprise) Cyrus proves to be more than a little thick-skulled. Hearing the commotion, Anvil—still half-dressed—comes striding into the room.  “Stop it!” he demands.For a moment, Cryus does.  “Brother!  We must free him.  Don’t you see?  As he follows in our Lord’s footsteps he will lead us in His true glory!”(Anvil’s player shoots a look over at Fajitas, who nods.  “Yeah, that’s crazy Crosser talk.”)  (Note: The Crossers of the Barrier are a group that splintered off from the Guardians of the Barrier.  The Crossers are the Kettenite Sect who seek to emulate their god by raising the dead.)  (Note 2: This would be one of those cases where “splintered off” means “completely inverted the purpose of.”)Anvil takes another measured step forwards.  “No.  He.  Won’t.”Cyrus watches him, eyes narrowed.  “Brother—” he begins, and then reaches forward and snatches Anvil’s sword out of his hand.Thatch immediately brings his own sword around to bear, but Cyrus is able to use his stolen blade to ward off the blow.  Cyrus then turns and strikes Anvil with his own sword, calling out as he does so, “Kettenek!  Help me smite this pretender of Your faith!”The sword blow hurts.  The spell has no effect.  (Note 3: That’s what happens when you try to smite good on someone who is lawful neutral.)Anvil retaliates by calling upon Kettenek to strike Cryus blind.  Unfortunately, it doesn’t work, so Cyrus gets the pleasure of watching as Lira’s two magic missiles slam into the side of his head.Thatch, for his part gives up on trying to knock Cryus out and just tries to take him out of the fight by any means necessary.  He hits full-on with the blade, his entire strength behind his weapon.Cyrus staggers.  Then, just before he falls, he brings Anvil’s sword up one more time, stabbing forward right through Anvil’s heart.  Anvil falls, Cyrus’ insensate body on top of him.###Anvil groggily returns to consciousness, feeling the familiar warmth of Kettenek’s healing spreading through his chest.  Except… it’s not.He opens his eyes to find Lira crouching over him.  She lifts her hands from where they rested over his heart and tucks her holy symbol back into her tunic.  “Welcome back.”The others help Anvil to stand again.  Cyrus lies at his feet.“Is he dead?”Thatch shakes his head.  “Neither were you.”“Although it was close,” Eva adds.Anvil nods, then picks up his sword, still lying by Cyrus’s side.  He stands over the unconscious body for a moment, murmuring a quick prayer to Kettenek.  Then, he slits the fallen Crosser’s throat.“Well…” comes a creaky voice from one corner of the room.  “That’s more excitement than we usually get around here.”The party whirls, but in the direction from which the voice seemed to be coming from, all they can see is a plain wooden desk, piled with assorted papers, boxes, and various arcane supplies.“Who said that?” Anvil asks of the room in general.“My my.  You are a demanding one, aren’t you?” the voice replies.Annika, standing closest to the desk, jumps back with a small shriek.  Pointing, she indicates a severed human hand and forearm inside an iron cage.  The arm has been surgically opened, with the skin flaps pinned back to reveal the musculature beneath.  As the party watches, the hand reaches forward with its fingers and pulls itself forward by a fraction of an inch.The voice laughs, and that’s when the party sees for the first time, half covered by a piece of burlap, a golden skull, staring at them with glowing ruby eyes.Anvil raises his holy symbol and turns undead.  The skeleton and partially dissected hand are both instantly blown to dust.The skull merely seems to grin a little wider.  “Now, that’s not very polite is it?”</blockquote>

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