Chapter 141 - Roma

Vozro Festival, 1002

A pretty low-key session, as it was mostly spent dealing with the Vozro festival and the aftermath of the Guardian's destruction. Those who needed to started by getting a good night's sleep, while Kaeso went back to his warehouse to start planning for its rebuilding.

Later in the day, Recnam continued his meetings with his priests, setting things up for his reign as Patriarch. His first decision was to move the official festival of Necros from Smert (festival of the Dead) back to Vozro (the Rebirth festival). His second was to change the role of the Patriarch from a recluse hermit living hidden inside a Temple to the Champion of Necros, destined to roam the world and do good deeds in the name of his God (which suited him much better and gave him the excuse to continue hanging with the others). Once that was done, he went back to the ceremonial ground outside of Roma to study it, discovering that it has become consecrated ground to Necros and a good place for the construction of a new Temple. He then came back to Roma, as it was time to prepare for the festival's big ceremony.

Meanwhile, the others took things pretty easy, relaxing and sleeping. Except for Kaeso, of course, who couldn't stop complaining about the lost of his warehouse. He even prepared a demand for a monetary compensation from the Church of Necros, since their own Patriarch was responsible for his losses.

When night came, Recnam decided to spend it at the Temple. Vinz left the others to find Locla and spend the night with her. Kaeso continued working on his plans. Rufus, Mushamee and Leif decided to spend the night at the Temple of Bacchus.

Sometimes during the evening, as the drinking and whoring and gambling was well under way, two strangers entered the Temple of Bacchus. From their appearances, they were definitely from the far south. They talked a couple seconds with the barman, then walked toward Mushamee. The tallest of the two presented himself as Faizul from the city of Mahash in Kali. The other man was his servant, Ali. He came directly from the city of Mahash in Kali to ask for General Mushamee's help in a grave matter. Mushamme asked him how they found him; Faizul said that they first went to the Imperial Palace, where a man named Officius told them they would find him here.

The two men sat down with the others and explained their problem. A couple of weeks ago, one of their sealed Temples had started opening itself, unlocking one of its seven seals more or less each week. When they found out about it, Mahash leaders immediately sent an envoy to the man their old ambassador in Kapital said could be trusted (ex- ambassador Nerbudda Ramasi, who was a member of the Inquisitors). When asked how he came all the way back from Mahash in only a couple of weeks, Faizul said that following some dramatic event that happened five or six months ago (i.e. Ruinas' ritual), some objects started acquiring some forms of magical abilities, like the flying carpet they had used.

Obviously, Mushamee couldn't take the decision to go to Mahash by himself, so the five men left for the Temple of Necros to fetch Recnam. From there, they proceeded to Mushamee's domain, still under heavy reconstruction, where they discussed the situation for a good hour. Finally, they concluded that we had to go, not only to help Kali, but also because we knew there is supposed to be a large number of artifacts there.

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Chapter 142 - Roma - Mahash

Dva 1-3, 1002

The next couple of days was spent making preparations. Recnam finished setting things up in his Temple, Mushamee spent some time with his officers to fine-tune his troops' training, and the others gathered all the material and food needed for trip. We left Roma early on the morning of Dva 3, us flying Kaeso's disk, and Faizul and Ali riding their own, slower flying carpet.

Dva 13, 1002

It took us a long, boring ten days to finally reach Kali, mostly because we didn't had permission to fly over Tecla. On the night of Dva 13, we landed in a small forest in the north of Kali, happy to be finally there. As we were busy eating, we heard an important group of people coming toward us. It was a group of maybe 40 "Kali-en" led by a man who was obviously some kind of officer. He started talking, with Faizul acting as a translator. In short, he wanted money - a lot of money -, or he and his men would make us prisoners, if not outright kill us. Some of us actually entertained the idea of taking them on, but we weren't wearing our armor, and more importantly, we didn't wanted to create a diplomatic incident. Luckily, Recnam was carrying a small fortune in gold with him, so after some negotiations, we settled for the sum of $40,000.

After the soldiers left, we all went to sleep, all the while planning on stopping here once again on our way out to get our money back.

(Yes, that's all there is to it, since a lot of time was spent on preparing for the flight, stuff that is not really worth talking about here.)

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Chapter 143 - Mahash

Dva 14, 1002

We reached Mahash some time during the next morning. Faizul led us to his house where we met his three charming wifes, Annan, Seema and Umma. He told us to wait here while he went to the Asok's palace to request an audience. When asked, he explained that the Asok was the spiritual and political leader of Kali; he himself is a Mahal, i.e. a member of the warrior caste belonging to the highest, land-owning subcaste of Kali (although a minor one).

He was gone for at least a couple of hours, which we spent discussing Kali's society with the three women. Finally, Faizul returned and asked us to follow him to the Asok's palace.

Some times later, we were standing in front of a big palace. Faizul talked briefly with one of the guards, and we were let inside. He then led us to what was obviously the audience room, where we waited a good fifteen minutes before an old man, the Ashok, joined us with some servants. But before we could discuss the self-opening temple, he launched into a long philosophical discussion of the world, and of his own personal vision of it. He also played a game of giving us archetypal roles in it based on our answers to his abstract questions.

The conversation finally returned to the Temple. He couldn't really add much to the tale, except that of the seven initial seals, only two were still intact. He gave us permission to investigate.

We went back to Faizul's mansion to get our equipment, but since we couldn't wear it in the street without breaking many laws, we had to put it on a cart we could carry. Faizul guided us to the temple, which was surrounded by Mahash soldiers and wrestlers. It was not that big, maybe 20x20 meters. There was only one obvious way in, so we went to examine it. What we could see is that the walls of the Temple were made of seven layers of stone, of which we could only the first six. Each layer had an opening that was initially sealed by a slab of rock, but those in the first five layers had seemingly crumbled. Rufus said that the entire building was emanating supernatural energy; like the one in Roma, part of it seemed to be in a different dimension than ours.

Suddenly the sixth seal started vibrating and Vinz started sensing danger. We ran to the cart to equip ourselves (over the complain of the commanding officer). A couple of minutes later, the last two seals came crashing down, revealing a dark opening. We asked Faizul if today wouldn't happen to be, coincidentally, one of Kali's holy days. And, of course, Faizul said yes (for those who don't remember, dimensional doors have a tendency to open on holy days because that was when the barriers between dimension were the weakest).

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Chapter 144 - Mahash

Dva 14, 1002

As we quickly finished putting up our equipment, we felt some vibration in the ground; then the four walls of the Temple suddenly collapsed, revealing a cylindrical structure with some strange symbols carved on it, reminiscent to the magical symbols present on the elevator shaft to hell we had met before in the old Temple in Roma.

Just at this moment, we saw a black sphere grew out of the cylinder, and rapidly expand in all dimensions. We all backed away from it. It grew and grew, and upon reaching some of the surrounding buildings, it simply reduced them to rubble, as if they weren't there. It continued growing for many minutes, then as it reached the size of a full city block, it stopped. We slowly approached it. Mushamee tried to put one of his hands through it, but he hit a seemingly solid wall. He tried to poke his Spirit Knife through, and it went in, up until his hand hit the wall.

We waited for a little while, but nothing happened. We couldn't see through it, nor hear anything coming from it. Finally, Recnam made Vinz insubstantial, allowing the assassin to poke his head through the black barrier.

He kinda expected what he would find, but it was still a shock. Thousands upon thousands of starfish creatures were organizing themselves into combat formation. Most of them were of the type we were used to, but others were standing way above the others, big as giants. Siege engines were also being put in place. Because of his awkward position, Vinz couldn't get a clear estimate of the number of troops, but it was anywhere between one and five Legions. And more importantly, he heard one of the creatures talk about how they had to prepare for the arrival of the following ten Legions.

The last thing Vinz noticed before retreating outside was that from inside, the barrier was transparent, meaning there was no way for us to prepare surprises for when the barrier would drop (someting which Kaeso evaluated as happening in less than a day).

After Vinz finished explaining what he saw to the others, we decided that the only thing we could do for now was to inform the Ashok of the upcoming invasion. Faizul agreed, so he led us back to the Palace (but not without stopping at his house to tell his wives to leave the city immediately). At the Palace doors, we had to face Kali's strange customs again as the guards simply refused to let us in. It took some arguing (and a little bribing) from Faizul to just convince the main guard to carry a letter to the Ashok.

When he came back fifteen minutes later, he told us to follow him. A couple of minutes later, we were back with the Ashok, trying to explain to him that his city was about to be invaded from the inside. He had some difficulty believing us, but anyway, if are right, there is nothing much he can do since there is nowhere near the necessary number of Kali Legions to resist in or around Mahash.

At this point, we as a group decided that Mahash was pretty much doom, so the only thing we could do was to go to the Temple of Su and get some artifacts. Of course we presented this plan in a better light to the Ashok, saying that these artifacts would probably help save the city (which I guess is true), but mostly, we just wanted to get our hands on interesting objects. :) Still, the Ashok agreed, and ordered Faizul to guide us to the Temple.

As we were walking, Faizul pointed toward a river flowing through the city, saying that the Temple could be found on one of its island not far from here. A couple minutes later, as we were on a small boat on our way to the island in question, Faizul told us it was inhabited by Su's mad cultists, and that unless we wanted to take them all on, we would have to pass their tests. Goddamn it.

As we approached the island, we could see it was basically a big plain with some hills. Ruins of some ancient buildings could be seen here and there. Some of the mad cultists came to greet us on the quay; they informed us that to get access to the Temple of Su, we would have to have three one-on-one duels with their champions: one a contest of wrestling, one a staff duel, and one an unarmed duel. There is to be no cheating at all, meaning no punch or kick is allowed in the wrestling match, no weapon other than a simple staff in the staff duel, and no wrestling, grappling or judo maneuvers in the unarmed duel. We do get to choose our champions, so we selected Leif for the wrestling duel (because of his Strength), Recnam (!) for the staff duel (he's the only one who knows how to wield a staff), and Rufus for the unarmed bout (because he's the only one who knows Karate and some unarmed maneuvers).

All the cultists gathered in a circle, and the wrestling duel began. Leif's opponent was obviously very strong, but the barbarian still was the strongest by a good margin (his strenght is at the moment 19). It was mostly a test of grappling and trying to hold on, and because of his superior ST (and of course his ridiculous Luck), Leif finally grappled the guy, who then failed to break free. The next second, Leif almost casually threw him to the ground and fell on him, for all purpose pinning him without any chance of getting out. First fight goes to Leif.

Now the staff duel. Recnam's opponent seemed as skilled as the priest, if not better. But what he couldn't possibly know (and even the others in our group didn't) was that the Priest had just bought a new ability from Necros, a Word of Power that can stun an opponent just by uttering the word 'Necros'. Not only that, but uttering it is a free action that can be repeated each turn, and is resolved by a Quick Contest of Will against IQ or HT (and Recnam has a Will of 19...) So as you can imagine, the fight didn't lasted long. Systematically defending at -4 against a staff- 20 guy without even the possibility of attacking... The only thing we didn't know was if the cultists would consider using this ability cheating, but luckily, the skill Kiai known and acceptable to them, and they just thought that is what Recnam had just used (with incredible mastery, of course).

With the last duel still to come, we had to stop for the night.

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Chapter 145 - Mahash - Temple of Su

Dva 14, 1002

It was now time for Rufus' barehanded fight against the cultists' champion. As the informatore was preparing himself, Kaeso handed him a pair of normal shoes to wear, soaked with an unguent of Bravery (although he only got +1 to his DEX).

It ended up being a (comparatively) long fight. Both men traded a couple of blows in the first eight-to-ten seconds. The cultist eventually hit Rufus a couple of times to the chest. Seeing this, Kaeso spread an unguent of Healing on a towel and discreetly threw it a couple of yards beside the figthers. With his special vision, Rufus was able to feel the magical effect from the towel; he then managed to step on it to get a small boost in HP.

The fight eventually came to an end when, after Feinting his opponent successfully, Rufus All-Out-Attacked him to the brain; he hit, but only for one point of damage (which was not enough to cause a major wound). Seeing his opponent defenseless, the cultist all-out-attacked him in return with two punches to the vitals. Rufus took a lot of damage, but was able to stay conscious and resist stun. He then all-out-attacked a second time, this time with two punches to the body and using Mighty Blow on each attack; the cultist finally fell on the ground, dead.

The cultists, who were much more interested in seeing a good fight than seeing their champions win, cheered widly at the intense fight, and even invited Rufus to join their group (which he politely declined). They also invited us to their camp to share their meal.

We used the time to rest and recover from our wounds. The cook served us some type of curry that was incredibly hot. After lunch, they led us to the temple entry, which was blocked by a big round rock. They pushed it aside, revealing a long black corridor with a downward slope. Rufus looked at the opening, but couldn't detect anything supernatural. Before entering, Kaeso found a location to hide his disk in, but since he had no knowledge of Camouflage, he didn't do a great job of it.

We started down the corridor, in our normal marching order, two at a time. Behind us, the cultists pushed the rock back in place. Luckily, some strange green light seemed to emanate from the walls, allowing us to see without torches.

After walking for a couple minutes, Vinz sensed immediate danger and made the group stop. Looking down, he saw there was something strange with the floor. Leif handed him his Sun Spear to clear it, revealing an opening 12 feet long and as wide as the corridor. Looking into the hole, we could see dozens of cadavers impaled on long spikes.

Leif grabbed his rope, gave one of the ends to Mushamee, then crabwalked along the hole to the other side. He and Mushamee then used the rope to form a hanging anchor the others could use to cross. We all did, except for Vinz who remembered Flying Leap to easily jump over the chasm.

Kaeso insisted on checking the bottom of the hole, but Vinz and Recnam didn't want to lose any more time. Rufus looked down using his special vision, but couldn't detect anything magical. In the end, Vinz, Mushamee and Recnam decided to continue forward, while Leif, Kaeso, Faizul and Rufus stayed behind. Leif attached his rope around Kaeso's waist and lowered him in the chasm. The engineer was immediately overwhelmed by the horrible smell of rotting bodies. As he landed on top of the corpses, he realized the chasm was much deeper than he thought, and was litterally filled with dead corpses. He also realized it would take him days to search the corpses, so he let go of the idea. A minute later, Leif pulled him out of there, and they went after the others.

Meanwhile, Mushamee, Vinz and Recnam reached the body of a dead man laying face down. A brief forensic examination revealed that he was running toward the exit when he was hit from behind by a big cutting object. He also had his right hand cut at the wrist, with no sign of the hand around.

The time taken for the examination allowed the others to catch up. The moment Rufus touched the cadaver, he had a sudden flash of the man imploring his master to "not do it." He sat down to use Psychometry, and in his resulting vision, he saw the man running along the corridor, on the heels of another one. Behind him was many men fighting some creatures (although Rufus couldn't see them). Suddenly, something stroke the running man from behind, and he fell on the floor. The man in front stopped and turned; Rufus immediately recognized him as Kali's old Ambassador to the Empire, the one who was part of the Inquisitors. The wounded man implored his master to help him, but the ambassador said there was no time for it - they weren't even able to go through the first door, but what they got would have to suffice. He then took the right hand of the wounded man (who Rufus could now see was holding one of the six Swords of Su) and unsheated his sword. The man implored his master to not do it, but the ambassador ignored him and chopped the hand in one swift stroke. He then opened his cloak, put the the servant's sword beside its five sisters (thus completing the set), turned around, and ran toward the exit.

The vision finished, we left the body there and continued. We soon reached a small room with a big double door made of rock at its end. On each side was a group of nine unmoving humans with red eyes. Recnam examined them, concluding that they were not undead. But they were not really alive either, and seemed to be powered by the souls of hundreds of men who died here.

We slowly approached the door. We soon saw that an image of Su had been carved on it, and on each hand was a weapon holder coming out of the carving. We guessed that this is where the Swords of Su were kept. Guessing that touching the stone would activate the guardians, we piled against it, forming a half-circle around Rufus so that he could freely use his Psychometry to find a way to open it. And our guess proved right, as the moment Rufus put his hand on the stone, the 18 guardians just rushed us.

They were pretty strong, but they were still humans, and most importantly, they didn't wear armor. They were using a mix of weapons (spears, swords, flails), but because of our formation, they couldn't all get to us at the same time.

• They were certainly no match for Mushamee. The legionnaire plowed through them without being hit once, downing one pretty much every turn with three Deceptive Attacks to the body. He killed six of them in all.
• Things started badly for Vinz, as he was quickly hit by a flail. But he didn't pass out and, since they were humans, started hacking them to the throat with Power Blows. He killed five of them.
• Leif and Recnam used their long-ranged weapons to good use, chopping down guardians as they approached. They each killed three guardians.
• Faizul ended up being a good swordsman himself, weilding a big, sharp and curvy simitar. He didn't had much success at first, but when he saw Vinz decapitating heads near him, he decided to use the same strategy. He killed two guardians in all.
• Kaeso was the one who got the worst luck. Armed only with his gunbow, he tried to defend himself against an opponent, but got hit critically for three times normal damage (Sean rolled an 18 on the Critical Hit table). He was litterally flung into the wall, then slowly slumped to the ground, unconscious.
• Rufus didn't had much to do, as he was busy with his Psychometry. The only vision he got told him we had to defeat the guardians to be let inside. Coming to his senses, he grabbed his big sword and joined the fight. He did inflict some damage, but he didn't kill anyone.

Less than 10 seconds after the start of the fight, it was all over.

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Chapter 146 - Temple of Su

Sometimes after Dva 14, 1002

Having killed the 18 guardians, Leif healed Kaeso extensively (luckily getting a critical success in the process). The engineer also drank one of his potions of healing, the special type giving a Death Vision; he saw himself prodding after the big rock, when it suddenly tilted forward and came crashing down on him.

As Vinz started some of his exercices to get some of his fatigue back, the engineer explained to the others what he just saw. Leif, Rufus and Mushamee put their hands against the statue to prevent it from falling, after which the engineer was more willing to examine it. He saw that at the center was a kind of puzzle made of hundreds of small moveable blocks. With his knowledge of math, he knew immediately that this would be impossible for him to solve.

After ten minutes, Vinz came out of his meditation and used Lockmaster to unlock the doors (at a -10 penalty, but he rolled a 5). Leif pushed them open, revealing another corridor going slightly down. We followed it for a little while, then reached a wall. In it was a small alcove with a stone chair. Rufus looked at it and sensed the same kind of power as the one powering Kaeso's disk. After a little discussion, Mushamee was chosen to sit on it, as he was the most capable of surviving by himself.

The moment the legionnaire sat on the chair, he and it disappeared from the corridor and reappeared in a small hexagonal chamber, with each wall section covered by a big mirror. Mushamee approached one of the mirrors, when suddenly his reflection stepped out of the glass to attack him!

This copy was absotely identical to Mushamee, with the same attributes, same skill levels, same equipment, and even the same level of Luck. They traded blows for five or six seconds, each going for combinations of Feints, Rapid Strikes and Deceptive Attacks, with neither one hitting. Finally, the real Mushamee concentrated on multiple attacks to the brain, hoping for a critical success... and it worked, as one of his strikes hit the reflexion in the brain and knocked it out. Instantly the reflexion disappeared, and the mirror from which it came also disappeared, revealing an obsidian stone wall. Mushamee examined it, but couldn't find any opening.

Hoping that his test was over, Mushamee sat on chair and started moving it around with his body, hoping that it would go back to the others. But it didn't move. Grumbling, he got up and approached another mirror. Again, his reflexion stepped out of the glass to attack him. He went ahead with his attacks to the brain, scoring another hit almost immediately and killing the reflexion. Again, the mirror from which it had come from turned into a black wall. Mushamee stepped on the chair a second time, without effect. He then stepped toward a third mirror, with the same result as before - although he couldn't help noticing that the reflexion wasn't as good as the others. He easily defeated it with the same tactic, then immediately stepped in front of the fourth mirror. This one was even less effective and he dispatched it quickly in one round. Same thing happened with the fifth reflexion.

He then stepped in front of the last mirror, but to his surprise, the reflexion that came out was now better than him, quicker, and more agile with its sword! They traded blows for a couple of seconds, Mushamee having to use all his tricks to block his opponent's attacks. Then in an incredibly lucky sequence, Mushamee launched his three attacks to the brain. He got a critical success on the first, which the reflexion turned into a normal hit with his Luck. Then he rolled ANOTHER critical hit on his second attack, and there was nothing the reflexion could do about that one. Mushamee got Maximum normal damage as a result, inflicting a whopping 52 points of damage to the reflexion's brain and knocking it out instantly.

Just as a side note, the moment the reflexions were either killed or knocked out, all their equipment disappeared, so no, we didn't ended up with six new orichalcum armors and shields. :)

As soon as the last reflexion was gone, its mirror disappeared, revealing the rest of the group behind it. After we entered the room, a black wall came down from the ceiling to close the opening. The opposing wall rose, revealing a big open space under a red sky. Although it did ressemble the the hell dimension of the starfish creatures, there were some differences. We were against the inner wall of what looked like a big crater. In its middle was a big black castle built using the same architecture used in Khali. A red and sinuous path led from where we were to a big gate. On each of its sides were a series of cages, each one holding the body of a guardian.

To joke about the Hiking threads on the forums, we decided to piss Sean off by hiking toward the gate; as a result, Faizul, the only one without the Hiking skill, had to spend a lot of fatigue to catch up. :) As we reached the gate, we could see that the entire castle was build on an bigger-than-human scale - which is normal since Su is between 9 and 12 feet tall. There were a couple of stone gargoyles on the top of the gate, following our movements.

Having nothing better to do, we knocked. Immediately the two gargoyles started speaking in Elder Tongue. They said we have to chose our Champion to face Su's champion in an even of its choice, that it could take a multitude of form, and it would take the form and event most susceptible to defeat our champion. They said we could choose any one of us except for Rufus, who they said is cursed.

Mushamee eventually volunteered again. One of the gargoyles opened its mouth wide, and a little gnome came out of it carrying a chess board. He jumped to the ground, started putting up the board, and announced in a broken Imperial that he challenged Mushamee to a game of chess. Mushamee had no formal knowledge of chess, however his high Tactics skill still gave him a respectable default of 13. Using his Luck, he got a 4. But unluckily for him, the little guy had a skill of 20 and rolled a 3. :) So the game was over pretty quickly.

The gargoyles announced that we had lost the challenge, and that we could try again in a thousand years. We tried to convince them otherwise, but they were inflexible. We quickly examined the fortress, but couldn't see any windows. Going over the wall was always a possibility, however, so Leif transformed into a crow to do a little recon. Vinz used the time to recuperate more fatigue.

Ten minutes later, Leif came back and told the others that there was a similar gate on the other side of the castle. Inside the walls was a keep with only one door, which was also guarded by two gargoyles. The top of the outside walls were covered by what looked like a set of moving teeth. For now, we decided to try the second gate.

As before, when we knocked, the gargoyles said their things about chosing a champion to face Su's champion in a competition of its choice. Again they said that Rufus shouldn't be selected, as he is cursed. Fed up with that, the informatore took a good look at himself - only to find his aura tainted by some kind of curse!

This time, Vinz was selected as champion, because of his ability to remember any skill. Before going, he asked Kaeso for a potion of Bravery. Because of some comments Vinz made before about Kaeso talking like a dog, the engineer gave him one that tasted like dog piss. :) Still, he got a +2 boost to his DX.

After Vinz said he was ready, the gargoyles announced that the assassin's challenge was to sexually satisfy six nymphs in six minutes. Six beautiful and naked magical creatures appeared. As the others started laughing, all ready to throw in the towel, Vinz calmly undressed himself. For the first time, the others actually realized that his missing gonnads were in fact back, and that he was not an eunuch anymore. The gargoyles said that the assassin's aura was lying, but the challenge had to go along as is. Still, six women in six minutes was practically impossible to do, so instead of going for one creature at a time, Vinz decided to "work" on all six at the same time. Remembering all the sexual skills he had known before (i.e. Erotic Art) and using all his knowledge of Body Control (to fine-control his movements) and Body Language (to perfectly read his partners' reactions), he knew it was possible, even if extremely difficult.

The penalty ended up being -2 per nymph after the first one, for a total of -10 to his Erotic Art roll. Looking at his spell list, he decided to help himself with Locksmith, as Locksmith allows the "fine manipulation of small, hidden objects without the appropriate tools," and "could be used every time a third hand would be useful". :) This gave him a +5 to his roll, and using his Luck, he made it by 6 - JUST enough to make the six creatures all orgasm in the time alloted. Mushamee and Leif, who at first had no interest in watching, ended up paying great attention; Leif, probably for the first time in his life, even took notes for future encounters. :)

The gargoyles announced that we had passed the test, and we could now enter. The gate slowly opened. As he was dressing up, Vinz explained to the others that since he knew the Restoration of Isis path, it would have been stupid not to use it to restore himself - being an eunuch was not something he chose, but something someone inflicted upon him.

Leif guided us to the entrance of the inner keep. The two gargoyles there said that after beating the Champion, the only thing left was a test of bravery and sacrifice, and they wanted someone to put both his arms into their mouths. Rufus volunteered. As soon as his arms were inside, the creatures bit them as hard as they could and wouldn't let go. Rufus had to rip them out of there, shredding his gauntlets and crippling his right hand. Luckily, it was only a temporary crippling, and Leif healed it immediately.

The door opened, and we found ourselves in a black, empty room. As the others carefully inspected it, Vinz recuperated some more fatigue. After maybe ten minutes, Kaeso noticed an outline in the far wall, with two holes at arms' length. He asked Rufus to put his arms in them, but being bare-handed, the informatore refused. Kaeso suddenly remembered a spare pair of gauntlets he was carrying with him, and offered them to Rufus. To the surprise of the rest of the group, Rufus put them on and inserted his hands in the two holes. Again, mouths clamped down on him, but they were much feebler than the gargoyles', and couldn't go through the gauntlets. The wall started pivoting on itself, and we all jumped through the opening. As it settled back in place, Rufus forced his arms from the holes.

In the new room we were greeted by a set of robes floating in the air, as if an invisible man was wearing it. He presented himself as the Majordomo of Su and asked what we were doing here. We told him about the invasion, and how we'd probably need some of Su's equipment to defeat his enemies. He told us we were fools to use the Swords of Su, as they were not real artifacts and would transform their wearers to mindless zombies like the guardians we had to kill. He then offered us a trade; give him some of our magical items to be kept here for millennia (so they would grow in power and eventually equip future heroes) in exchange for some of Su's current artifacts on a one-on-one basis.

• Leif gave up his Greatsword of Ice and his Sun Spear.
• Rufus gave up the other Greatsword of Ice.
• Vinz gave up his Dagger of Rest, his Sun Mail, his Amulet of Lightning Protection, and the enchanted shortsword he got from the Isle of Sorcery. The Major Domo even offered to remove the Blood Wand and grow back his heart, but he refused.
• Mushamee gave up his dragon's teeth.
• Kaseo gave up all the potions he still had with him (I think it was something like 21 bottles).
• Recnam gave up its Spirit Stone and Sun Mail.

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Chater 147 - Temple of Su

Sometimes after Dva 14, 1002

We put all of the stuff to exchange on a small cart, andt the majordomo led it to the back of the room. A door opened itself to let him through, which allowed us a brief glance into probably the biggest magical forge in the world, manned by tens of blacksmiths and weaponsmiths of diverse races.

We waited approximately one hour, then the door opened again to let the Majordomo and the cart back. Ten brand new shiny black items were disposed on it. The Majordomo gave us a brief description of each:

• Cuirasse of Su: a heavy DR10 (!!) black cuirasse covering the front and back torso. Heavy, but still really light for such a powerful protection.
• Bracers of Su: black bracers covering the wearer with a DR2 force shield.
• Mail of Su: a set of black, hardened chain mail (providing DR5 against all types of attack), can be wear under heavy clothes, and surprisingly silent. Lighter than the Sun Mail.
• Belt of Su: a belt that can hold up to six weapons. When sheated, the weapons are NEVER in the way of the wearer. Also, on a mental command, the weapons will unsheat themselves and jump into the hand of the wearer, whatever his/her position.
• Bow of Su: a bow that automatically adapts to the ST of the wearer. Also allows him/her to raise his effective ST by aiming, giving +2 to ST per second (up to a maximum of double ST after ten seconds).
• Shield of Su: acts like a normal medium shield against melee attack, but makes his wielder practically immune to ranged attacks (+5 DB instead of +2).
• Six Arrows of Su. Each arrow can be used to dispel practically anything, be it a force field, a demon, etc. Each arrow is one use only.
• Forge of Su: a small box that is effectively a portable dimension containing a complete forge and all the necessary tools.
• Candle of Su: after one hour of concentation, allows a priest to contact his Deity from any time/space/dimension. One-time use.
• Scroll of Su: provides the reader with a one-time powerful shield that can also go through powerful protections. Can only be used by a magic- user.

He also added that each had some hidden effects we would have to discover by ourselves. Which mean we'll have to ask the Serpent Queen about them.

After much discussion, we distributed the objects like this:

• Leif got the bow and arrows (since he's the only archer in the group)
• Rufus got the cuirass and the shield (since he's the one who is hurt the most)
• Recnam got the Mail (so he can use it under his robes) and the Candle (duh)
• Vinz got the Bracers (because with his natural DR, he eventually wants to go with light or even no armor) and the Scroll (because he is one of the two magic users of the group, and Recnam already has two artifacts)
• Kaeso got the portable forge (again, duh)
• Mushamee got the Quick-Drawing belt (because it's useful, and also that was the only thing left :) )

Once we were all set up, it was time to go back to our world. The majordomo told us that to his knowledge, there was no other way out than the one we had used to come in, so we left the keep and hiked back to the passage leading to the mirrored room. In there, Rufus sat on the chair and one of the walls raised itself to reveal the corridor leading to the guardians room.

Some minutes later, we reached the big Su door, which was again closed. Leif put his ear against it, and heard some strange noises coming from the other side. There was no visible means of opening the doors, so Vinz had to use Lockmaster again. Leif pushed it aside, revealing a group of six starfish men working on some kind of device sitting on a rectangular table. Four of them were on our side of the table, and two on the other. Kaeso immediately recognized the device as a primitive drill; the creatures probably meant to use it to pierce through the big doors, although it was easy for him to see they would never have succeeded.

We had the drop on the six creatures, so we immediately charged them. Mushamee and Leif quickly took care of the two on the right, while Rufus and Vinz took more time to deal with those on the left. Recnam went after the two behind the table, killing one with his long scythe. He tried his Word of Power on the second one, but he realized that they seemed to be immuned to it.

The last creature yelled loudly before Recnam put him down. Then four heavily armed and armored guards irrupted into the small room, from the corridor leading out. Mushamee litterally ran into the fray by himself. They tried to overwhelm him by surrounding him and using all-out attacks (double attacks), but he waltzed between them, parrying and blocking their eight attacks. On the following turn, with the creatures defenseless, the massacre started. Leif joined on the fun, staying behind the general and cutting the creatures up with his beheading sword.

After maybe four or five seconds of combat, Vinz finished his last opponent with a Power blow to the brain, cutting him in two by inflicting more than 6x the creature's HT. As the others were regrouping, Leif and Recnam, being near the corridor, heard the sound of armored footsteps coming from far down the corridor. We prepared ourselves for another battle. Leif, and Rufus set themselves up on the left side of the passage, while Mushamee covered the right side. Kaeso used some of his gizmos to fill the end of the corridor with caltrops, marbles, and a cloud of dark smoke. Recnam pushed the table on its side to form a barricade. He, Kaeso and Faizul knelt behind it, ranged weapons ready, aiming on the left side of the corridor. Vinz made himself invisible, then positioned himself beside Mushamee, in a way that he could cover the right side of the corridor with his crossbow.

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Chapter 148 - Temple of Su - Mahash

Sometimes after Dva 14, 1002

We only had to wait for a couple of seconds for the first couple of star-fish creatures to come out of the smoke screen... only to slip on Kaeso's marbles and fall on the floor. Vinz shot the one on the right in the brain, taking him out of the fight. Kaeso did the same with the one on the left. The next two creatures came in; one realized the danger of his position and came out slowly, while the other came out running and fell down like the others. Recnam threw his scythe at the one on the floor, hitting its brain and knocking it out. Faizul shot at the other guy, but it blocked the arrow. Then Mushamee stepped in and cut it into pieces.

The next two creatures stepped in the room, in all-out-defense position. Vinz, who had switched to NightFang and was waiting, hit the one on the right with a Power Blow to the brain, knocking it right out. Rufus attacked the one on the left, but the creature blocked. Protected by the informatore's body, Leif all-out-attacked with his greatsword, killing it in one shot.

There was four other guards left, but because of our ability to kill them as they were entering the room, they had no real chances. Rufus hit one, which Recnam finished off. Then Leif, Mushamee and Vinz each bagged another one.

The flow suddenly stopped. We could now hear people talking in Elder Tongue on the other side of the smokescreen. Listening, Vinz heard someone say they were probably facing demons, but that was no problem as they had just the thing for it. Leif put his ear against the ground and used his Vibration sense to sense a low rumbling coming from down the passage, as if some heavy object was being dragged toward us.

Still invisible, Vinz carefully stepped through the dark zone to take a look. From where he now was, he could see that the creatures had deployed a wooden bridge over the chasm, and were busy pushing a ballista loaded with tens of big purple spheres across it. They were probably planning to bring this thing to the entrance of the room and just shoot all the spheres in one shoton. On the other hand, if we could shatter one of the spheres right now...

The problem in this plan was the four guards standing between Vinz and the siege engine, since the corridor was not high enough to shoot over them. So he returned inside the room, quickly told the others what he had seen, and asked Mushamee and Leif to take of the guards. Doing his best impression of Leroy, Leif charged full-steam toward the guards, soon followed by Mushamee. Vinz returned to the corridor to prepare himself for his crossbow shot (i.e. bracing himself, aiming for a long time, and remembering Zen Archery). As he was doing this, he saw Kaeso running past him and toward the melee.

Seeing Leif approaching, the four guards, in two rows of two, prepared themselves for combat. The barbarian stopped just in front of them and started swinging his big sword. He didn't hit anything at first, and one guard even put a nick in his armor (doing 8 points of damage in the proces, but this is Leif we're talking about). But Mushamee soon joined him, and they quickly made mincemeat of the opposition. Kaeso stopped some yards behind them, produced some sort of grenade filled with Tenosian fire, loaded it into his gunbow, and aimed at the creatures behind the ballista.

With the four guards down, it should have been the end of it. But no... The troops behind the ballista moved into position to fire it immediately. Mushamee, completely misunderstanding they intention and missing his Bloodlust roll, thought they were retreating and charged after them! But while trying to jump over the ballista, he critically missed his Acrobatics roll, hit his head on the ceiling and fell to the ground. :) Given the passage's slope, he started rolling away from the ballista, until Leif grabbed him and pulled him aside.

Seeing his opportunity, Vinz fired his crossbow at one of the spheres through its protective net, and hit it dead center. It immediately shattered, which provoked the activation of the other spheres beside it, which led to a domino effect that ended with the sending in the demon dimension of the ballista and everything in a three-hex radius (including its operators and some of the guards behind them).

The ten guards still present didn't had time to recuperate from their surprise that Kaeso bombarded them with Tenosian fire. Separated in five ranks of two, they were ideal target, and Kaeso's grenade splashed them all. Since Tenosian fire is a pretty messy stuff that can stick to clothes and armor (and against which unsealed armor protect at only 1/5 DR), they had to stop and try to wipe it away. Kaeso grabbed another grenade and threw it at them. And a third one. And a fourth one. At that point, all the guards were lighting up like candles and Kaeso was laughing like crazy. Soon, they all died or passed out from the fire.

While this was taking place, Recnam, Rufus, Vinz and Faizul gathered the stuff we had left in the room, and joined the others. A little farther along the corridor, we met another group of enemy reinforcements on their way down. Getting rid of them was no big deal, and we did it with a simple strategy of killing and pressing forward. The only humorous part was when Vinz's attack using his Spirit Knife was critically parried, and the knife was sent flying backward (where Faizul grabbed it). He fast- drew NightFang, but on his next attack, was again critically parried (although he didn't lose his sword this time).

As we got near the exit, we noticed that the light coming from it was diminishing in intensity - because of a big round rock that was being pushed in front of it! Seems the starfish guys were trying to seal us inside. We all started running as quickly as we could. Mushamee and Rufus were the first to arrive, with the informatore successfully plunging through the opening and the legionnaire ending somewhat stuck in it.

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Chapter 149 - Mahash

Dva 24, 1002

Once outside, Rufus and Mushamee took a quick look around and saw four starfish creatures busily trying to put the rock in place. Since Mushamee was still not completely free of the rock, Rufus stepped alone toward them. It is only at this time that he noticed the six archers stationed on the small hillock surmounting the entrance, well out of reach of meleee weapons. They all fired at him, but since his new shield counted as +5 DB against missile weapons, he dodged the six arrows.

On his turn, he stepped toward two of the rock pushers and attacked one of them, hitting once for good damage. Mushamee finally freed himself from the rock and stepped toward the other two creatures, killing one with a combination Feint-Rapid Strikes. The archers shot a second time, hitting Mushamee with two arrows but not hard enough to penetrate his armor. On the next turn, Mushamee killed his other opponent, while Rufus ineffectively traded blows with his own two. Mushamee then moved toward Rufus, as the informatore finally knocked one of his opponents out with a critical hit to the torso. The archers launched a third voley, hitting Mushamee thrice and causing two points of damage; the legionnaire had to make an immediate HT-6 (+3 for his aquired Resistance) to resist the effect of the poison coated on the missile (which he did).

After they got rid of the last creature on the ground, the two men tried to push the rock away from the Temple's entry. Their first attempt was unsuccessful, and they had to endure another voley of arrow (which they all dodged or blocked). On the next turn, the people still inside the Tem ple finally reached the rock door. Leif and Faizul combined their ST with Mushamee's and Rufus, and together they easily rolled the rock away. Mushamee and Rufus jumped back inside the passage, leaving the archers without targets.

We quickly elaborated an action plan, then put it into action. Kaeso started by calling his disk. Then Mushamee and Rufus ran back outside, armed each with a pair of throwing spears, to draw fire. After the archers fired at them without any result, the rest of the group ran out two at a time, armed with varied ranged weapons: first Leif and Kaeso, then Vinz and Recnam, and then Faizul. We used the turn the archers took to reload to aim, except for Recnam who threw his scythe while running and cut one of them grieviously, knocking him right out. On our next turn, we fired. Leif hit his target for an insane amount of impaling damage to the torso. Kaeso shot his target in the eye, knocking him out instantly. Vinz shot his in the brain, with the same result. Mushamee and Rufus threw their spears, but missed their targets.

On the next turn, Recnam threw his scythe again, killing another creature. The two guys left shot at Vinz and Kaeso, missing the assassin but hitting the engineer for serious damage. In addition, he missed his HT-6 roll to resist the poison, and felt a burning sensation spread from his wound through his body. Leif sticked a second arrow into his target (the guy who had just shot Kaeso), who then missed his HT roll to stay conscious. Mushamee threw another spear at the last archer, hitting him in the chest and knocking him out instantly.

The most important thing now was to deal with Kaeso's poisoning. The engineer tried two times to improvise a universal antidote potion, but failed. Leif tried to heal him, but also failed. As a last resort, Vinz had to remember the Instant Neutralize Poison spell, which finally did the trick.

By this point, Vinz and Leif were pretty badly hurt and completely exhausted, so we had to take some time out. Mushamee, Rufus and Recnam walked to a nearby hill to take a look around. The first thing they saw was that a bridge had been deployed between the small island and the city grounds, and that one creature originally from the island was running across it while making big gestures with his arms. On the other side, some of the giant creatures were obviously getting ready to come as reinforcements.

The second thing they saw was a series of 8-9' high crosses standing not far from where they were, each one. Each one had one of Su' cultist attached to it. Seems they had been tortured even as they were crucified, as they all had their entrails hanging outside their bodies.

There was no obvious way out, so the only thing we could do is stop the reinforcements from coming in. Mushamee told Kaeso to join him and they both made their way to the bridge. Kaeso quickly looked at that primitive (for him) feat of engineering, then did three small cuts with his Spirit Knife. He then gave the wooden planks a small push with his feet, and the bridge started floating away from the island.

Meanwhile, Recnam and Rufus decided to examine the crucified bodies. First, Rufus used his Psychometry on one, allowing him to see the cultist being slowly tortured for information by the starfish creatures before being put up on their cross. He did hear the name of Recnam, Leif and Kaeso being mentioned. Second, Recnam contacted the spirit of the dead cultists (having just bought an enhancement that allows him to bypass the language barrier), who asked him for revenge. Before he sent them to Necros, they informed him that we've been gone for ten days, that the invasion started approximately one hour after we had entered the Temple, that he and his companions have been crucified nine days ago, and that Kaeso's disk had been found by the creatures and carried somewhere else (which would explain why it still hadn't showed up).

Everybody regrouped around Vinz and Leif to exchange information. According to Mushamee's estimation, by breaking the bridge we had gained from half-an-hour to an hour of respite. Leif called his Grandad and asked him to look around for any way out of here.

The most important thing to do right now was to heal ourselves. Kaeso opened his portable forge of Su and was able to whip up ten healing potions in less than 20 minutes, while Vinz and Leif recuperated some of their fatigue and Leif healed Mushamee. Mushamee and Rufus then used the time off to walk around the island. As luck would have it, they spotted, attached to a small quay, a boat that was just perfect for us .

Twenty minutes later, we decided it was time to go. We made our way to the boat, but quickly found a problem with using it to escape: the river in which the island is located is right in the middle of the city, and to follow it outside, we would have to go through the well-protected city gates, and so be completely opened to attacks. So instead, we decided to use the boat as a diversion and go to the Ashok palace using the sewers. We used the bodies of the crucified cultists, which Vinz quickly disguised as ourselves, to set up the scene on the boat (although it was not that well done). Leif then attached a rope to the boat's keel, entered the water and changed into his tryton form. Since we will have to walk underwater for a while to reach the nearest sewer entrance (as pointed by Faizul), Recnam had to call on his father to transform us into undeads (except for Leif, who was already amphibious, and Kaeso, who produced and drank a potion of underwater breathing). Once this was done, Necros even threw in a little bonus by transforming the dead bodies on the boat into zombies, so that they would be able to move around a bit.

When everything was ready, Leif started swimming against the current, pulling the boat behind him. The others jumped into the water and followed Faizul, who slowly led them to a semi-submerged sewer tunnel.

After a couple minutes of swimming, Leif suddenly felt a strong vibration coming from the boat. He turned around and saw a big rock falling down into the water depth, carrying part of the boat structure with it. He went back to the keel, undid the rope and swam away, just as hundreds of arrows were fired into the water. Then a second rock hit the rest of the boat straight on, breaking it in two. All the zombies fell heavily to the bottom of the river. Finally, a bunch of purple spheres slowly fell after them, activating themselves after some seconds into the water. Leif waited a couple of minutes to make sure nothing else happened, then turned around to catch up with the others.

Meanwhile, we had finally reached the sewer entrance. We tried to make our way in without alerting the guards standing near the pier, but alas, Faizul had no knowledge of Stealth and completely failed his default roll. With a big 'clang!', he hit his head on the low ceiling. We immediately heard someone running toward the water's edge, and decided to move away as quickly as possible.

Leif saw the guards arrive at the river's edge, and one immediately lowered himself to the sewer tunnel to look inside. He tried to attract their attention (making as if a big fish had actually come OUT of the sewers instead of us going IN), but they all repeatedly missed their awareness roll to notice him (he had to stay at least somewhat hidden since he only wanted them to see his fish part). Seeing the guards calling for reinforcements, he realized the gig was at least partially up, and decided to make for another sewer entrance. From there, using his enhanced vibration and smell senses and his great speed in the water, he was able to cath up with the rest of the group.

Faizul led us toward the palace as best he could. We eventually reached a corridor just as a group of starfish archers were lowering themselves through a drain trap. We quickly hid ourselves (with Vinz casting a Mage Stealth on Faizul to make him more stealthy). The demons didn't noticed us and started walking away - just in the direction of the palace. We followed them from a distance. After many minutes, we reached a Y intersection. Faizul said the right one, which the creatures had taken, was a cul-de-sac leading directly to the palace entrance, which meant the archers would eventually come back toward us. We hid ourselves and waited. Approximately twenty minutes later, they came back and took the left branch. The moment they were gone, we followed the right path all the way to a solid grill in excellent state, with no apparent way to open it. Leif tried to lift it, but even with his ST 20, he wasn't even able to budge it, since all the metal poles were embedded and bolted into the stone floor. Vinz tried a combination of Breaking Blow and Power Blow, but the -5 penalty to BB against metal made him miss his roll.

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Chapter 150 - Mahash

Dva 24, 1002

We took a couple minutes to find the best way to go through the bars silently. Finally, Vinz decided to remember the Shape Earth spell (from the Glyph of Terra path) and use it to free two of the metal bars from the stone floor in which they were embedded. Once it was done, at the cost of most of the assassin's fatigue, Leif, Rufus and Mushamee teamed up to bend the bars horizontally, creating a big enough underwater space to let us through.

Once on the other side, we stepped on a solid platform leading to a door, and took some ten minutes to discuss our plans (and rest a bit). We also had to roll at HT-2 to see if we didn't caught any disease. We all made it - except for Kaeso; not only had he a bigger penalty because he was actually breathing the water (whereas the others were not breathing at all), but he was not able to roll lower than a 14, even while using his Luck (I think he rolled a 14, 17 and 15). Since he missed his roll by so much, he immediately started feeling feverish.

Faizul explained that by going through the door, we would enter the dungeon of the palace, two levels below ground. Since the door was locked, Vinz lended his lockpicks to Kaeso who easily picked it. Since the door looked like it hadn't been touched in many months, Rufus advised the engineer to oil the hinges before opening it: as usual, Kaeso totally ignored him - and as he pulled the door open, produced the most horrible and loud grinding noise ever.

We quickly went through the door and found ourselves in an empty room at least five meters wide on each side. It was completely dark, but we had our own source of illumination. Kaeso closed and locked the door behind him.

A decidedly distracted Faizul decided it was time to warn us of a certain rumor about prisoners down here dying from abandonment and rising as bloodthirsty vampires that could only be killed with wooden weapons. We sarcastically thanked him for the heads up, noticing that since one particular ritual had been performed many months ago, these types of rumors had a tendency to be, or at least become, true. Being the only one of us with a wooden weapon, Leif sheated his greatsword and readied instead his long wooden pike.

Rufus suddenly sensed a spirit appearing in the middle of the room, but it was only Granddad. After blasting Leif appropriately for having left the place he was, he took possession of the barbarian. He then told us he had good news and bad news. The good news is that Kaeso's disk is still in this dimension, right here in Mahash. The bad news is that it's kept heavily chained down, under a dome of energy guarded by starfish guards, inside a Temple some distance from here, which is in turn guarded by even more starfish creatures. He thinks they are keeping it for some event, possibly to use its divine energy for some nefarious end.

After the old man left, Vinz decided to wear Rufus' old Sun Mail for the time being. Leif approached the far door and listened through it, but couldn't hear anything. Kaeso asked for some time off so that he could prepare some potions, but Mushammee rejected the idea as our time was very short (which caused Kaeso to whine even more than usual).

We all approached the far door, which the engineer unlocked and opened. He was immediately jumped on by a quick and silent humanoid with big fang! He dodged it, and quickly retreated among the others to prepare and drink a potion of Bravery. Mushamee slashed at the thing with his Spirit Knife, but the blade went through without any effect. Vinz tried the same thing with NightFang, with the same result. Recnam slashed it with his scythe... and connected, causing grievous damage. Leif finished it off with a swing of his wooden pike.

Of course it was not alone, and five other identical creatures entered the room. They were unarmed, and their attacks consisted of slamming or grappling their opponents, then draining their vital essence. Metal was completely useless against them, either as weapon, armor or shield. The first couple of rounds was spent finding what was working and not working against them, and their general tactics.

Since they had wooden shields, Vinz and Kaeso resorted to shield bashing the creatures, with more or less success. Mushamee looked around and saw Faizul prosterning himself on the ground a good distance back; guessing the man had at least one wooden item on him, he ran back to him. Rufus used his Serendipity to find an unlit torch hanging from the wall to use as a broadsword.

One creature successfully grappled Leif, but the barbarian broke free. On the second attempt, it grappled again, and this time, Leif was unable to push him away. It then bit deep into the barbarian's neck, causing 12 points of soul-draining damage and making him fall to the ground. Kaeso tried to slam the creature, but could only cause minimum damage. Rufus all-out-attacked it, inflicting some damage, but not enough to kill it. Then Recnam, having just rid himself of the two creatures in front of him, swung at it two times, hitting it with the first swing - and Kaeso with the second. The vampire was instantaneously killed, and Kaeso took another 13 points of cutting damage. Ouch!

Mushamee stopped beside Faizul, but aside from his really fine spear (with jewel ornaments), there didn't seem to be anything made of wood in the Kalish man's arsenal. So the legionnaire decided to imitate Rufus and used his Serendipity to find another torch. Just in time, as a vampire tried to slam him. He successfully parried the monster, inflicting good damage to it but breaking his torch in two. Now armed with the equivalent of a wooden spike, he stabbed the thing in the heart and killed it (Mushamee the Vampire Slayer!).

As Vinz and Recnam were taking out the next to last vampire, the last one ran toward the defenseless Rufus (who, if you remembered, had all-out attacked the round before) to bite him. But Leif got on his knees right between them, almost as tall in this position as the informatore, and cutting the vampire's path. The creature slammed him, but he blocked it with his wooden pike, inflicting grievous damage in the process (luckily, his pike didn't broke). He then shoved the thing away from him, stepped up, and took a mighty swing at the vampire, sending him flying into the wall where it disintegrated.

Because the battle had made some noises, we knew our time was short. Kaeso quickly produced a healing potion that raised his HP back to positive, so that he could walk around. Leif did a little recon; when he came back, he said that he had heard a group of people upstairs equipping themselves and getting ready to come down.

We asked Faizul about any way out of here aside from the stairs. He said that one of the cells had a secret passage leading upstairs to the dungeon master room. We quickly made our way there. Kaeso quickly spotted the door and tried to pick its lock. He then realized it would take him too long, so instead he produced two small flasks of acid and burned through the locking mechanism. We then went through the new dark opening, with Kaeso closing the door behind us and jamming it as best he could.

There was a small set of rungs leading up, so Leif took them. But as he reached the top, he realized he couldn't find the opening mechanism. He climbed down and let Vinz deal with it. As the assassin was about to open the secret door, he heard two star-fish creatures talking in the Elder Tongue and decided to listen to the conversation.

I guess it was important, as for the first time I've been playing with him, Sean had the thing actuallty written down. :) Here it is, in its integrity:

=========================================================

o "We must secure the city before Priest-General Uthu will send his Enduring through. He will not tolerate a repeat of the disastrous First Entry Attempt by Priest-General Zatoth."

o "Weren't those assassins taken care of? Intelligence reports from our Realm Crossers stated that the only humans in this region were disorganized and lacked any kind of special support."

o "Facts on the ground are more complex. An Inquisitor platoon discovered the floating platform used against Zatoth at the First Entry Attempt, which suggests that the assassins are here. They were last seen entering the sewers. We're here to examine a suspicious-looking sewer grille reported by a Scout patrol."

o "Can't Uthu track the assassins through the Mark?"

o "The trail vanished. He deduced that they had been killed in a human conflict. It appears now that they're merely unmarked."

o "Then we must find them."

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I don't know why, but I think we have to stop this Enduring, whatever it is, from coming here. :)

So, anyway, after this little exchange, both guys (who were obviously officers) decided to follow their men down to the prisons to make sure they got some of the glory of capturing us (suckers). Vinz waited maybe ten seconds after they were gone to open the secret door and get in the room. The others soon joined him (although Kaeso had to give a potion of thieving to Faizul (which helped him be more stealthy and more agile when climbing). The engineer then closed the door the two officers had taken to go down and jammed it thight.

We went to the door on the opposite side, and saw through the small window that the next room was occuped by a good half-dozen starfish creatures. We retreated away from the door to discuss our plan. We could easily take out the six creatures, but the whole palace was probably on high alert right now, so it would mean fighting our way out. With Vinz, Kaeso and Leif missing more than half their HPs, it was not a really good solution. Faizul then said there was another way; he knew that one of the wine cellars on this level had a way to communicate with the Ashok's quarters through the use of a dumb waiter. It would be probably easier to escape from up there, and maybe we could even find the Ashok somewhere, so we decided to go with it.

The cellar was locked by one of those strange and incredibly hard mechanisms, so that even with his High Tech advantage and Lockpick skill, Kaeso was only rolling at 10 or less to unlock it - and it was a one-try only deal. So before he started, Vinz used the last of his Gem's energy to cast Locksmith on him, making his roll aa 15 or less. Kaeso made it easily.

The door opened, revealing not a wine cellar at all, but a meditation chamber. We went in, closing the door behind us. Faizul guessed that the Ashok probably comes here in person to meditate, so there's still bound to be a secret passage around. Which Kaeso and Leif quickly found. The wall opened, revealing another set of rugs leading up. Putting his head in the opening, Recnam could see that they did go at least six stories high, which is much higher than the Ashok's quarters we visited early on (which were on the second floor) - although there seems to be a small, closed door at approximately the right height.

So up we went, with Leif in the front. We ignored the closed door and continued to the top. There, Leif found himself facing a small opening at ground level, from which he could hear two people talking. Since he couldn't understand them, he assumed at first that they were starfish creatures, but the others told him they were talking in the Kali language. So he climbed out of the hole. What he saw was two Kali guards standing beside the Ashok, who was sitting on the ground, deep in meditation. The guards jumped when they saw Leif, then ran to him, weapons drawn. Leif made as if he meant them no arm, but they still took no chances by removing his sword from its scabbard and ordering him to kneel on the ground. The barbarian obeyed, all the while repeating Faizul's name and pointing toward the hole with his finger.

Rufus then climbed out of the hole, followed by Mushamee, Recnam and Vinz. Each time the welcome was repeated, until, finally, Faizul came up (followed by Kaeso). On seeing him, the guards relaxed and gave us our weapons back.

After a little discussion with them, Faizul explained that the Ashok was performing a really old ceremony that would stop any being from another dimension from entering this room. Any use of magic would disturb him, so we were forgiven to perform anything out of the ordinary. But still, for now, it should give us a little respite to decide what to do.

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