Chapter 28

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          Navero, male human cleric, 4th level
          Dania, female 1/2-elf MU, 4th level
          Kortul, male human fighter, 4th level
          Razuli, male human fighter, 4th level
          Arlor, male dwarf thief, 4th level
          Kory, male elf bard, 3rd level
          Topash, male elf druid, 3rd level

Inside Methigor...

(Party members are scattered along the castle wall, or getting food,
or looking for a cleric, or whatever.  Kortul went looking for Navero,
and found him sewing up a rip in his robe. Navero carries needle and
thread, among other things.  [This is a conversation between my two
characters.  I thought it up while listening to Jeff and Shelby bitch
out rules for making Holy Water.])

Kortul: "Priest."

Navero: "Yes?"

Kortul: "Want you out of group."

Navero: "What?"

Kortul: "Get out.  Menace.  Gods have cursed you."

Navero: "No they haven't!  I mean...  I'm sorry about your head.  It
     really was an accident.  I didn't mean to."

Kortul: "Either looked down on by gods, or most incompetent asshole I
     ever met.  Either way, get out."

Navero: "Uh...  I...  I can't leave my friends."

Kortul: "Better off without you."

Navero: "I'm sorry!  I didn't mean to hit you, or die any of those
     times, or anything!  It just HAPPENED!  I don't know what's
     wrong, really I don't.  It MUST be that the Lords are angry with
     me."

Kortul: "Fine.  Go somewhere else, let them be angry there."

Navero: "But I can't leave my friends.  I...  It... It seems to me
     that would be a greater sin.  You got me back from both... times,
     and I haven't proven I was worth it.  I have to do that.  'Equity
     is most desirable among friends'!"

Kortul: "Priest, not listening.  Said, 'get out.'"

Navero: (Looks nervous.) "Uh...   No."

Kortul: (grr...) "You are menace.  Cursed, damned.  Signs in
     everything you do.  GET OUT!"

Navero: "No.  I refuse.  I cannot."

Kortul: (Glowers) "Priest, don't have a prayer.  Do as I say.  Get
     out.  NOW."

Navero: (Looks very nervous.) "No."

Kortul: (Approaches.) "Priest..."

Navero: (*Command*) "STOP!!"

Kortul: (Stops.)

Navero: "No, I will not leave!  I will not run!  I have too much to
     make up for!  I WILL NOT!  I am going to show the Lords that I
     CAN do well!  Yea, I will not allow these trials to bear me down,
     I will GO ON!  I must bear it as I would any other burden, and I
     will prevail despite it!  I will!  I will!  You can't make me do
     what I don't want to do!  You can't!  No one can!  You stopped.
     You did.  The Lords do look on me with kindness, they do
     understand!  I have been given a great task, and I SHALL
     PREVAIL!"

Kortul: (Command ends) "Fine.  PREVAIL SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

Navero: "No.  Now go away."

Kortul: (GRRR....) (Crouches for leap.)

Navero: "I don't want this.  I don't.  Please don't."

Kortul: "..."

Navero: "Please."

(Kortul considers the situation.  God, what a wimp this kid is.  Was I
ever that young and stupid?  Surely not.  Surely not.)

Kortul: "Stay out of front lines, then."  (Walks off.)

     The night passed slowly, but peacefully.  A few of us did get ill
from the stench, and nobody had any kind of appetite.  We couldn't
find the mess hall (Smells of food couldn't make it to us), so those
who felt like it nibbled old travelling rations.  We slept during the
day, like everyone else seemed to do; it was dark enough to get away
with it, even in the relatively sunny city.  The next night a soldier
came looking for us, and told us to meet Duke Desmod in his
observatory.  Somehow, the guard could not find Navero, so he was
absent from the meeting.

(In the observatory.  The observatory is a high tower with a small
room on top, with big windows, and glass windows in the roof through
which stars could normally be seen.  Duke Desmod was a thin man with
very pale skin, and a furrowed brow.  He looked ill, and very
worried.)

Desmod: "Greetings.  I have heard of your arrival.  Tell me, how fares
     the outside world?"

Dania: "Well, sir, we don't know much, we came here to try and find
     out what was going on."

Topash: "`Tis a tale of great woe, your excellency.  When we left the
     city of Propyla, the great blackness covered nearly a third of
     the sky.  It has taken the city of Ethilia, I have little doubt,
     and consumed it."

Kory: "Yea, yea.  Whoever's doing this has absolutely no appreciation
     of aesthetics whatsoever."

Desmod: (Short, wheezy laugh) "Well, I suppose.  Do you know if any of
     our messengers have gotten through to a free town?"

Dania: "We saw some ride into Propyla about a couple of weeks ago."

Topash: "But we have not seen any on the road since we came from
     Ethilia."

Desmod: (sigh) "Yes.  I wish my wife were here.  She was a mighty
     Paladin, full of grace and beauty.  She could secure the
     Bloodstone."

Topash: "Bloodstone?"

Kory: "Grace and beauty?"

Desmod: "Sadly, she is finished.  Yes, the bloodstone. It is an
     artifact in the keeping of a witch who lives south of here.  My
     incantations have pointed it out as being responsible for the
     infestation of the undead you see here, but I have been unable to
     reach the item.  I am no longer a young man, but I fear I may
     have little choice but to seek it out myself."

Dania: "Explain this Bloodstone, please, your grace."

Desmod: (Mirthless laugh) "It is an artifact, made by the Gods of
     Chaos.  It holds a small piece of Death's great scythe, and death
     radiates from it.  To merely touch it with flesh creates a
     Vampire.  I fear it is causing all this; it appears some witch or
     other has found it, and is using it for her own ends.  I have
     heard her laughing in my incantations; she uses its power to
     guard it and herself, and I cannot reach the artifact from here.
     All the men I sent have never returned.  I fear I must go myself,
     but without my wife, I fear my chances of even reaching it are
     not good, and the journey would drain my remaining health and
     leave me no match for its guardians."

Kory: "Oh, my GOD...  THAT WAS INCREDIBLE!  So dramatic, and full of
     pathos, my dear sir!  Have you ever considered acting?"

Desmod: "I know not what you mean."

Razuli: "Where's your wife?"

Desmod: "She died, recently."

Dania: "Ah."

Topash: "So, the thing we must do, obviously, is to get this
     bloodstone and destroy it."

Dania: "Destroy a godly artifact?  Good luck."

Desmod: "There is a ritual which can be used to CONTAIN the
     bloodstone, if not destroy it.  Many have quested and sought
     after a means of destroying the bloodstone, but nothing has come
     to light.  It seems as difficult as conquering death itself."

Razuli: "So, you wanna run south, get this thing, then run back here
     and put it inna lead box?"

Desmod: "Lead?  Why would you use lead for this purpose?"

Dania: "Ah, never mind him.  He's just a idiot."

Razuli: "How'd you like some..."

Kory: "Children, children, please!  Let's be reasonable and not kill
     each other all over his excellency's floor.  Something as dark
     and unpleasant as this place needs cleaning up.  Why don't we go
     do it, then get back to the Orb?

Dania: "Oh, yeah.  Your excellency, do you know anything about the Orb
     of Spheres?"

Desmod: "Orb of Spheres?  You seek the Orb of Spheres?  Why, I have it
     right here!" (Reaches into his pocket, pulls out a 3" diameter
     globe, whose surface seems to reflect the entire universe.) "It
     is very useful in maintaining the wall of this castle against the
     assaults of those who would smash it.  I propose a trade, then:
     If you can get the Bloodstone, I will no longer need this, and
     will gladly give it to you as payment!  Then, your own quest will
     be satisfied, and my wife can rest in eternal peace!" (Looks
     excited, genuinely eager.)

Razuli: "Waitaminute.  Where'd you pull that thing from?"

Kory: "Razuli, shut up.  You don't know anything."

Arlor: "Lets go."

Topash: "I don't know... this seems too easy, somehow..."

Dania: "Dear, when we get outside the castle wall it ain't gonna seem
     easy."

Topash: "I suppose you have a point there.  We'd best leave at dawn."

Desmod: "Yes, ha HA!  Sleep well, my dearest one!  Wait, one moment!"
     (*POOF*  A hole appears in the air beside him.  He reaches in,
     rummages, and comes out with a plain silver ring.) "When you get
     the stone, rub this ring three times, and you will be teleported
     back here.  All of you touch the ring and say 'Thee and me be the
     ones to TP' so it will know who to teleport."

Topash: "Yes.  What kind of holy water supplies do you have?"

Desmod: "Not much, I fear.  It tends to get used a lot.  Can't your
     own priest make it?  I thought you had one with you."

Dania: "We do, but he isn't here.  Probably off praying."

Razuli: "We'll tell him.  Ok, kids, let's go."

Kory: "Weeeeeeeeeere off to see the witch-bitch,
     The uglified witch with the stone.
     Because I'm a wonderful, wonderful, wonderful"

*SMACK!*


Daniel Parsons               "You have no appreciation of fine music!"



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