Terras' Preparation

After Aaronax disappeared, Terra stood there baffled at who she had just seen. "Could it really be him?," she thought to herself. She tried to recall what she knew of the first Arch-Magi. Not much at this intant, other than that he had vanished with no trace and never seen again. That is, until now. Could he really be the man behind this whole evil scheme? But, why? The arch-magi were put on each world to protect them from evil. "I will have to travel back to the council and tell them what I have seen. And, I will need to find out all the information I can about this being."

Silently, Terra turns around and walks towards her tower, not hearing anything other than than the thoughts in her head, and feeling as though she is walking through a thick fog. "Many preparations need to be made. So much has changed. Things are not as I had once thought. I am up against someone much stronger than I, someone who is who I am."

As she walks into her tower, she heads for her secluded study, where she knows no one can find her. She tells a servent, "If anyone is looking for me, tell them I am busy and that I apologize for not being able to gather with them. I'm sure Gildere will understand, if no one else."

She sits in her study, silent, deep in thought. "What to do ... What to do. I wish Forge were still here." Dearest Forge, Terras' mentor from the beginning of her Arch-Magi training. He helped her become who she was today. She and her companions had no choice but to destroy him as he stood in front of her that day. Tears came to Terras' eyes as she remembers back to that battle. The tears don't stop. Not for a long time. She felt so lost, so alone. Who would really understand? The other Arch-Magi? Possbile, but not probable.

She beings to write a letter to Gildere, explaining all that would be happening in the upcoming months and years. How she was going to be unreachable while in this meditative state. She writes that she will get in contact with him when the time is right. She also tells Gildere that while she is in this state, that, if he so chooses, the tower is his for his use except for this room. Any items in this tower will belong to him, and the servents, minus Terra's personal servent, will obey only him. She also leaves something for each of her other companions. For Elladan she has prepared Bracers of Archery(1). For Aiden Helm of the beserker(2). Endel shall have Blades Bane(3). And for Balden Dwarven Full Plate +2 of Repair(4).

Terra then begins to write a note to the Arch-Mage council. She explains in detail her journies to stop Kurgen, and then the final 7 days, and Aaronax posing as Kurgen after he killed him. She then explains to the council what she will be doing and how she will not be able to be contacted, through any form of communication. She instructed them that if there are any questions to direct them towards Gildere because he is a respected and trustworthy friend.

She was going to need time. Lots of time.

Terra started chanting, slipping into a deep trance. Concentrating, thinking, drawing forth whatever power she could gather within herself. This trance lasted for many months, which gave way to years. Within this trance, all recollection of her compainions faded. All sense of time has stopped. To her, only minutes has past, while outside it has been years. She feels no emotion, no sense of hunger or thirst, no feeling of exhaustion. She only hopes that she can find an answer . . .

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(1) Provides a +2 to hit and a +1 bonus to all ranged attacks as well as lets the wearer fire into melee combat with no penalties to hit allies. On a roll of a 1 however there is still a 50/50 chance of the shot being a miss and hitting a friend.

(2) This items lets you attack as if you were a fighter of the same level for 1 round/level once per day.

(3) Elven Full Plate +1, Standard armor except if any opponent rolls a natural 1 or 2 on a swing and that roll would be a miss the weapon used must make a saving through vs. crushing blow at -4 or be destroyed. I.E. - They swing and the weapons shatters when it hits the armor.

(4) Standard effects of dwarven plate however the armor auto-repairs the HP bonus that it provides at a rate of 1 per 2 hrs or 12/day.

The Morning Comes On the Last Day

Well, for what I think to be the last day of my life. I am prepared for whatever is thrown at us. If it is my final death, then so be it. I will die saving the world. If it's meant to be, then it's meant to be.

We head out in the morning of the seventh day. When we clear the parapet, we see Kurgen and nothing else. He is standing there by himself...no army.


"Despite this minor setback, I will soon get things back on track," said Kurgen. "You can enjoy this short lived victory."

Kurgan reaches down and pulls back his hood. Gabriel says,"this isn't Kurgen." Terra says,"this is Aaranax". He is the first Malkieri and first Archi Magi on this world. Elladan says, "where is Kurgan?" He replies,"he's dead, when he brought me out, there were consequences, much like Gabriel, so I killed him. This is my plan."

"It will probably take me some time, but I will get get another warlord and come back to this world. I will fulfill my plan." says Aaranax.

Gildere whispers, "grab on"

Aaranax winks and disappears.

I open my eyes...

Sabathius is standing over me. Wow, I feel like crap but I'm alive. I get up and Gildere/Terra are discussing what to do with raising Forge so that he won't smoke us when he gets up. I'm trying to get my barings and the wolf comes in. It breathes on Baldin and he stands up and appears to be ok. I lean over and puke behind my table. Sabathius resurrects Endel and the 5 of us are back.

I go over to Elladan take an arrow from his quiver and leave the room. I head out on the upper balcony and start to fashion the arrow head into a necklace and wear it around my necklace. Elladan and I have been through many many battles together. I get up and get some breakfast and head out to the parapet. I stop and see Elladan sitting next to Baldin. I sneak up on him and pull out a small throwing dagger and hold it near Elladan. He swings and punches me in the face. It figures, I could never sneak up on that guy and I could have sworn that I had him this time. Oh well. We wait until everyone else comes out, including Gabriel now.

Gabriel and Elladan tells us what has been going on. Elladan has been traveling different planes owning up. He was encased in the opalruby that Gabriel broke. Gabriel tells us that he and Elladan (and the ninja and multiple man paladin) will take care of the army. We have to take care of Kurgan and Grog.

Grog states that, "he has something to say". Kurgan says, "I'll give you one last change. You know the rest of your forces won't last the day." Gabriel arches an eyebrow at Kurgan as he is talking. Kurgan says,"You only have 4 guys remaining. Does anyone have any final words before I send my Warlord to finish you."

Kurgen says the opening of Arcanum. (which is pretty freaking cool).

After some dialogue, Kurgan says that he is on a time line. And just to make this fight fair. He raises his hand and my new cool sword shatters. Crap. A person appears behind Baldin, says "here, you dropped this somewhere." Baldin takes his hammer and the symbol of Tyr appears on the outside of Baldins armor.

He turns and walks away, Grog walks through the gate. Elladan leans to me and says, "Don't forget, he's an Ügre." (that is an Über ogre). Now I know why I missed Elladan so much.

IT IS ON!!!!!

Endel charges and swings into Grog. Grog plunges a mace into Endel knocking him aside. I stoneskin from my sword (the first time I've ever done that). Gildere's armor glows, sprouts wings and basically looks like Gabriel did yesterday. I swing and just miss. I took time and made sure to try and wreck him but missed. That is weird. He hit me, but took away over half of my stoneskin. Terra threw two energy nets the first one hit and the second one was about to hit, but a ghost of Bolo came out of Grog's armor and negated the energy net. I can't seem to get him in my target's sights. I keep missing horribly. He moves to Terra and he opens up a can on her. There is nothing she can do, he opens up on her and she falls over dead. We continue to trade blows. Grog thumps Baldin and he falls. What the heck are we going to do? Again, we trade blows and Grog is just smacking the crap out of everyone but me. Endel goes down and he's bleeding visibly. I run over and slap my periapt of wound closing on him and go back to swing at Grog (like it's going to matter).

Gildere and Grog trade blows and Gildere swells up and swings with all his might, driving his flame of the void home and Grog starts to fall over. As he's falling, his armor explodes and sends a shockwave through out the land, knocking everyone over, including the entire army.

Gabriel slams the gates closed, grabs a body and heads inside. We follow him in the tower. Endel coughs and wakes up. John raises Terra and resurrects Baldin. We are back up and running (John is the priest from the other world that smoked everyone). So the gameplan is -

After we do enough damage to Kurgan he will cast a bubble on him, at that point he will go nova and destroy the entire world around him. Terra memorized a spell that will reverse the effects of the nova and destroy Kurgan himself.

Baldin hands me a scroll of Cure Critical Wounds and I head to bed to think about where we are going to be tomorrow.

Day Six

Wake up, feeling good and ready for whatever Kurgan throws at me today. I head out with the rest of the group and see 6 people standing below the wall.

Jaton
Forge
Elladan
Fiston
Mydok
Jeff (Gildere's Dad)

Wow, are we supposed to fight these guys? These guys are known to me and I can't fight these guys. I mean, I have fought next to Elladan for years and years, how am I expected to kill him. I won't...I can't.

Gabriel jumps up on the parapet and says "I'll take care of the army." He pulls out a opalruby "all the brute force in the world can't compare to a little preparation" and shatters the opalruby. He jumps down, sprouts wings, his armor turns to bright white and starts walking towards the army and leaves behind flaming footprints. The rest of the guys that Hades brought with him join Gabriel.

Gildere throws a forcecage on Jaton, which gets dispelled by Fiston. Screw that guy. I use my dimension door and stab Mydok in the back. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Elladan pour about 9 arrows into Fiston!!!

HOLY CRAP, he's on our side!!!

I turn back to Mydok and stick my sword into him full hilt. I lean into him and say to him "That's right dirtbag, he's on our side!!" I unsheath my sword from his body. He staggers back and frowns at me. I look past Mydok to see Gildere's dad and Jaton swing into Endel and he falls to his knees. I swing into Mydok again. He casts harm and my ring triggers. He cut my life in half..stupid harm. Elladan looks like he was dehydrated and falls over dead. A lot of missiles are shot at Terra and she looks pretty bad off. Mydok gets in a heal and then harms me again. I'm at 2 freaking hit points. Mydok drops to Terra's wilting (turn about is fair play). I start tumbling to see if I can last a couple more minutes and get Gildere's Dad to swing at me. However, he casts a fireball at his feet which takes away the remaining life I had left.

I'm dead...


Enter 3rd person -
Gildere swings and kills his dead and Baldin charges Forge, Death Wishes (transfer HP to damage) and drops Forge. It's a good thing Elladan's cat was taking away stoneskin ticks from Forge.

When it hit the proverbial fan...

And the morning of day 5 rolls around, we are feeling great and we are kicking ass and taking names. What could we possibly face today that would be worse than what we have faced so far. I mean c'mon, 7 dragons, what could be that bad. The last paladin summoned a Shioken Grove and that pretty much kept the army at bay for the entire day. And then over the grove comes the following -

Baatezu
Balor x2
Maralith x2

That is a significant amount of damage heading our way. The Maraliths get dropped off on the wall and I try to go invis. Evidently they see me cause they take a swing. Endel basically smokes the Baatezu, with the help of Terra's Energy Net and we help to finish it off. I swing into the Maralith with a backstab and get some damage in, the second Maralith attempts to swing at me, misses with the tail and falls off the wall. The Maralith that I am fighting wraps its tail around Baldin and chokes him. Luckily he doesn't pass out. He breaks out and we drop that Maralith. The rest of the part drops a Balor and Gildere Forcecages the other Balor. The remaining Maralith gets smoked and the Balor in the force cage throws some fire at his feet and hits us with it. Gildere gets wrapped up by the Balor's flamewhip and he drops the forcecage. We are able to gut him and call the day victorius. What more could be done to hurt us...


....


...the answer is not enough.

Day Four...

We head out in the morning...and see the following -

4x Greater Mummies
4x Skeletal Warriors
4x Liches
4x Death Knights

What the hell is going to happen now? Terra casts an anti-magic shell and we gameplan. Gildere backs out of it and knocks into Sabathius. He's like "what's up, Dugan said we'd be a little late". So we are like, let's do this. Sabathius said "why, I'm just gonna watch." We look at him and then John (JP) lept over the wall and just wrecked all of them. Wow, that guy is freaking good. We would have been smoked, but we were lucky. "Dugan said his debt is paid, I don't know what that means, but that's what he said," said Sabathius.

We go back and see the other paladin holding up a wall of force around the tower so the army can't get through. Sabathius heals us all and we have a feast fit for a king. Day 4 was easy, I don't think it's going to get any easier as we go forward.

Day Three...

As the sun rose, I head out to the wall after breakfast. The ninja is there. As we gaze out, I bust out the spyglass and notice that it is wyvern and they are holding something. The following appear from the army -
3x Naga
3x Medusa
3x Wyvern
3x Stone Golems
3x Baskilisks
3x Remorahads
3x Gorgan

Each one of these bastards has an instant death attack. We notice the ninja is running around faster than we can watch him. And it seems as though everytime he ran past, the bad guys dropped behind him. He's just running and slicing, how freaking cool is that. However, we can't be worried by that right now.

Endel jumps down and the tiger follows, then Gildere jumps down and the wolf follows him. I turn to the jackals and are like..."i'll be right back." I dimension door behind one of the big wurms (Remorahads) and gut that thing, but what's this...the jackals appear with me and are knawing/biting at the dead Remorahad. I see a giant fireball land near the medusas/nagas and it leaves just a medusa and a single naga from that group. On my next swing, I catch one of the spines and lose my new sword and the damn Remorahad moves over it. I take off towards the group at the base of the wall. I see Gildere's wolf that was turned to stone, I use my flesh to stone and turn it back. We make quick work of the remaining guys and I get my sword back. However, I'm at about 1/4 life.

Another day, another dead bunch of monsters.

Day Two...

Morning breaks and we head out. The 2nd Paladin comes out with us, he tells us to let him out the gate. He walks up to the army and a large warrior steps up and takes a swing at him. He splits in two. The bad warrior swings twice more and he splits again in 2. He keeps splitting and pretty soon there are about a 1000 of him surrounding the keep . He starts to smoke the rest of the army. In front of us there are about 20 giants that making a beeline to us. 20 giants ain't no thang.

Let's get it on. I dimension door behind the one that is farthest from us (about 60 ft) I drive my new uber sword into his back and drag it around. I ride him down and unhinge my sword. I clean it off and move to the next one. I get enraged and swing at him. He goes down as well. Two swings and two dead giants. I am Aidan "Giant Killer" Fistenbught. I notice across the battlefield towards the tower that the rest of the crew is swiping through them as well. I moved to the next one and try with all my might to smoke him. The streak stopped there, he lets out a bellow and turns to swing on me. I take a mallet to the back that throws me to the ground. I get back up and am pissed and go for the next one. I get stuck by three of these guys and swing back but it sort of parlays so I only knick it's side. Screw this, I'm making it so it doesn't wreck me. I start tumbling around so these bastards can't hit me. Endel, Gildere, Baldin and Terra take care of the rest of them and we are good to go.

We all head back to the tower. Again, I'm back to hurting. It's a good thing that Pip's Back Biter is still with me. This ring has saved my life more than I care to remember and it's going to continue to save my life. I will never be able to pay Pip back for what he has bestowed upon me.

The Army Advances...

It is the morning, I eat breakfast and Gildere requests an audience. He and I reminisce about the times that we've had and the times that I have saved his life. After we are finished, we head outside and I try to sneak up on the Jackals. Of course they see me and are like "nice try!!!".

But all that is behind us now, we are prepared mentally, physically and spiritually, there is none more preparation that we can do. It's now or never.

The army arrives and stops about 200 feet from the front gates. Grog steps forward and we converse with him. We talk to him and unfortunately can't get Grog to change his mind. Grog says to us "You don't understand what he's doing, he's bringing eternal bliss to everyone." We converse again, and Grog turns around and walks back to the army. There are 7 dragons that fly over (Red, Black, Blue, Green, Yellow, Shadow, White). Kilandros appears behind us, and tells us that his kind left and he is back not because of a sense of duty or to defend his homeland, but because we are his friends and that's what friends do...I got the two on the right (yellow and shadow). He leaps towards them, does a barrel roll, grabs the yellow with his clawls, flips him over and beathes back scouring the yellow and shadow with his breath weapon.

Just then, the tall handsome fellow that Terra beat at chess, takes both his bastard swords out, bangs the hilts on the ground and a lightning bolt hits his head from the sky and his armor turns to black. It's Lucious!!!! He looks at the army and the undead turn to attack the non-undead in the army and he leeps off the wall and takes off towards the battlefield.

Baldin commands the Pegasus and shouts "I got the green". Terra fires a fire bolt and misses the white dragon.

I dodge the black and the red bit me on the fly. Thank goodness Gildere slapped the stoneskin on me. The breath from the white did some damage. And then it happened...

I swell my chest, turn on the ring and take off towards the blue dragon. I come upon him and stab him with all my might. I twist the sword and start to drag it across his side and pull it out. The dragonblood drips from the sword and the dragon falls to the earth. (that's right, I crit/killed a dragon, who's next)

I moved to the white dragon and he appears to be a bit torn up and I plunge my sword to its hilt. That dragon falls as well. Two shots, two dead dragons. The red, black and green die at the hands of my party. Terra kills the yellow and then a giant shadow stretching across the field engulfs kalindros and the shadow dragon. I can't see in so I have to wait. When the shadow smoke dissipates, I see Kalindros on the ground and appears to be dead. Endel swoops down to check on him (got fly from Gildere) but the fight with the army is surrounding kalindros.

The night falls and I am pretty bad. We don't have a Paladin anymore (it's a long story that Baldin can share if he wants) so I'm still hurting...a lot (34 remaining HP, yea, this sucks).

Leading up...

Day 1 of 3 (up to when the shit will hit the fan)

Got up early and started to prepare for the events that will transpire. Baldin and I scout out around the walls. Looking for any enemies that might be showing up early. It was fairly uneventful. Terra says that a guy in black cloth and a mask with two swords and a big guy with two huge swords showed up and were with Hades.

Day 2 of 3

A pegasus shows up and is evidently the Lord of the Pegasus. He informed us that there are others that are willing to help us. We open the front gate and there is a pack of jackals, direwolf, black bear and a sabretooth tiger. I see Baldin take to the skies on the back of the pegasus. In the afternoon, 3 more guys show up. Two of them are paladins and the other is a non-paladin. So now we have 5 people here.

Day 3 of 3

This is the morning. I eat my breakfast and keep to myself. I head out to the front gate again. As I'm watching around, I see Gildere with a stack of steaks and he heads for the wolf and tosses a steak on the ground. The wolf makes a motion to Gildere and Gildere hands him a fresh steak from the stack that he was holding. I chuckle to myself and turn back to watching the outside. Terra summons me in. Baldin says that he saw the army to the west and that it should be here by morning. I go and speak with the jackals and bob owns me in "jackal play". So I make friends with the Jackals and call it a night....

The Calm...

*Aidan sits on the wall that encloses Terra's Tower*

"Well Squeaker, this is it. We have been through a lot and we've amassed quite a name and fortune for ourselves."

*Aidan feeds some ruffage to the ferret that is sitting on his lap*

"I don't think there has been anything that we have learned along our journeys that will prepare us for what is about to happen. Your grandfather and I went through a lot back in the day and even that pales in comparison to what is about to happen. I don't think there are words to describe it."

*Aidan sighs and looks to the north where the sky is red as blood*

"You know we could just blow this joint. I've been thinking hard about the possibility of doing that. I'm sure Dugan has his price and we could probably match, especially since Bobbi and V came through for us...

...

but it wouldn't be right. Gildere and Terra have been there for me for practically my entire life, even more so than anyone in my family was. They are my family now, and you don't run out on family, no matter the odds."

Chapter III

"These insects are beginning to irritate me. They try to stop my plans although they don't yet fully comprehend them. They have traveled in my footsteps seeking knowledge that they somehow think will save them. They even go so far as to free Gabriel even though he is no threat to me now. Why….why do they persist on this pointless journey? In any case, I am not one to make even simple mistakes."

"Grog!!"

"Yes my lord?"

"Go, show these mortals what true power is. Take the army and shatter their precious tower. Break their bones and scatter this last remnant of resistance to the winds. Take no chances, unleash the Vanguard as you would against any other city."

Raising an eyebrow Grog replied "They worry you that much?"

"I like to be thorough. Oh, and wake the dead for this. I want their spirits broken as well"

Grog Scowled. "Sir, is it wise to do that? In this case the personal ties may have some unforeseen consequences. I'm sure the army can handle them."

"No…wake the dead, they fully obey me now. Then we'll see what these 'heroes' are really made of. If they can even survive that long"

--------------------

Walking off in the distance Grog stopped in an open patch of land. Closing his eyes and raising his arms he summoned forth 6 spirits. Looking at the 6 figures he sighed. His eyes lingered for a moment on each individual.

"Come, we have work to do."

"Where are we going master" asked Elledan. The Warlord pointed at the figure next to him. "To take back his tower".

And on to the Mage in the black tower

So we hear from Terra that Grog is indeed the general of Kurgan's army. We still need to find out why Kurgan has an army. We head back Terra's tower, get her a couple of $5k value opals for a spell, I get myself a scroll of Go Behind from Terra and we head out to the Black Tower.

Dugan drops us off at the coast of the desert and I get the 3rd watch. The servant and pavillion show up with the tower. I wake up everyone else and the mage comes out. We start a conversation with Gildere saying "We came for Gabriel." Silly silly Gildere. We banter back and forth and finally someone insults his mother, so it's on!!!

The servant, whose name is Tim, shouts, "He's torturing Gabriel," and draws his swords. Endel and Gildere charge him, I go poof and move to the left from the Pavillion. Endel strikes him and we hear a thunderclap (just a coincidence). Endel swings right through him and we look behind and he's standing in the middle of a 120 foot wide patch of grass/foliage with a staff sticking out of the ground. We all halt in our tracks and move towards him. Endel moves towards him and Terra disintegrates about 5% of the grass (we figured out the math, and the grass was larger than she expected). However, we know that there isn't an anti magic spell covering the grass.

I dimension door and try to backstab, but he had truseeing up so it wasn't a backstab damage. Over the next couple of rounds, sorry it's a blur, but here is what happened. Tim falls over writhing in pain, we get rid of his 14 extra mirror images (which sucks up a round of my 22 strength which sucked balls). Baldin got trapped in a cage. He stuns Terra and Gildere, I ironbands of bilarro him and Baldin casts insect plague so he can't cast spells. He takes off straight up in the air and I take off after him. (Note - Baldin wouldn't have been able to cast his bug spell unless the Mage conjured up some grass.) I clear the insects just in time to see a fireball go right down below him and the incects scatter and Baldin, Tim and Gildere take some fireball damage. I swing again and hit and then...

HOLY CRAP!!!!

I stand up and i'm on the ground, I figured out that I was flesh to stoned. Terra is dead and they stick her in Gildere's bag of holding. I'm around and we go to the base of the ramp and Tim turns around and says to Baldin "Promise me you'll get me off this world."

We head in and Tim takes us to the wall where the mage goes and sees Gabriel. I passwall and we see Runes of Pain. We pass through and I start to shake and am in pain. We see Gabriel, I attempt to pick the lock but fail. This pain...REALLY IS FREAKING ANNOYING. I use my misorly Chime of Opening and get him out of the shackles. We go back through the hole in the wall and the PAIN INCREASES 2 FOLD! OMFG, now I'm shaking convulsively. We head out and the band of 6 of us head out. As we leave, Gildere flies up and finds the mage's body on top of the tower, Gildere disintegrates the body. Luckily this annoying shaking ends in about a half hour and we make it to Dugan's boat by the afternoon.

Baldin speaks to Terra (he evidently can speak to dead), she doesn't know what killed her, Gildere doesn't need any information about her tower, and we find out that she can get rez'ed at the archmage world. Gildere and Gabriel head to Terra's tower and the rest of us head to the Archmage world. On the boat, Tim attones for his deeds. When we arrive on the Archmage World, we get Terra to the clerics ASAP. A half hour later, the clerics come out to get the mage that met us. Another half hour the cleric and mage come out and explain that it was Monterro's Retaliation. Gildere disentigrated the body so we can't bring back the mage which is preventing Terra from being resurrected. Yea... at this point, gildere prevented terra from being resurrected. Endel and I head to a room they prepared for us, he seethes...whatever the hell that is.

OH HOLY CRAP!!!

We see Terra, Endel takes off for the docks where Baldin is. Terra and I have a conversation and what kind of pull does he have on this world. We then head to the boat and have an intense conversation with Endel. He said that Baldin just very recluse and wouldn't tell him what was going on. So we wait to go back to the tower. When we arrive, we see that Baldin has no symbols on his armor anymore. Endel head straight to the tower and finds a room. We all gather in the main hall and Baldin tells us that he lost all of his powers. He is no longer a healer or has any powers. He is just a straight up warrior....

....

What am I supposed to say here? He's not a healer anymore. We are all conversing with Baldin and he turns to head to his room. Gabriel pipes up and says that the weapons that are in the trunk that Gildere has are uber and will allow us to hurt Kurgan. He says that Kurgan has a Barrier of Thoth. Which means anything lower than 10th level spells can't go through it, but he can cast out of it. He also has Nova which he uses after the Warlord clears the city of high level mopes. He explains that Terra is going to learn a spell that will reverse the Barrier of Thoth so that the Nova will kill him. Gabriel says that when we are ready all we have to do is open the chest.

And that's where we end for now.

Back to the Malkeri World we go

So since Gildere was banished, we figured we had better go. yes...I think you better hand.

We make it back to the Malkeri World, farely easy. Dougan does a good job and we get there uneventful. We go and see Benedict at his place. Benedict brings out a chest and a note. The note is from Gabriel, it says that this chest contains weapons that will help us defeat Kurgan and that the next step in our quest is to free Gabriel. Nothing about going and killing the mage that is imprisoning and torturing Gabriel, just that we have to rescue Gabriel.

"So we are currently trying to formulate a plan as to how to accomplish this. And stumbling over ourselves. I guess to me it seems like we waste a lot of time sitting around and talking. I'm much more of a doer rather than a talker. Maybe that's a bad thing and a drawback of me being part of this party, but it seems we sit around and talk ALOT. Why does Kurgan need a general anyway if he's soo freaking powerful?" - Aidan

We finally decide to head out. We talk to Dougan about getting to a world where we can pick up some armor for Endel. So we are traveling and a storm hit, Dougan sends us below to our quarters. When the storm clears, he comes and gets us and we go topside. We are in a cove and Dougan tells us it's going to be awhile before we know where we are and plot a new path. So we head ashore.

It's unusually quiet on the beach and Baldin speaks to a squirrel. We find out there is another human around so we plod through forest looking around. We come upon a human in full plate with markings and a giant axe on his back. I poof before we see him (I heard a noise). The rest of the group approaches him and engages in a conversation. The conversation leads to the guy's dead wife and the forest seemed more lively when she was alive. He seems nice enough and we head to his castle.

The next day we head out to the castle, he doesn't seem weird about seeing me the next day just show up where he didn't see me the day before. He tells us that Minotaurs frequently attack his city/castle. We travel until we see his castle off in the distance with the sounds of cows in the distance. We decide to wait and he walks about 10 feet in front of us and a spectral horse appears below him. Then a spectral army appears (not skeletly) and they dispatch with the minotaurs. After the minotaurs are destroyed, we head towards the keep and to the castle doors. There are no guards at the entrance to the keep and the door is open so we head in.

We speak with the Steward/head mage for the area/head of the church/old guy that wants a pickle. We found out that there was a mage that came and saw the lord that looked out of place. We find out that the mage asked the lord if he would lead his army in exchange he would rez his wife. The lord declined and demanded that he leave.

So...we figure it's Kurgan. What we know is that so far he has spoken to two different guys that a) have ties to family dead and b) are leaders that have magical powers. Kurgan could offer each of these guys a way to possibly bring back a life and in exchange lead his army. So the behemouth that is Kurgan's general must have some ties to a dead that Kurgan is agreeing to bring back to life. It was brought up that it might be Grog, because we remember the cave with the living wall.

We head to the Armorworld and I fingale...poorly i might add...so that Endel and Gildere have new armor. I end up going from 8000 plat to 2000 plat, but they have armor and can defend themselves, etc. We head out and the plan is to back to our world and do two things...rescue Gabriel and investigate Grog's grave.

We arrive ok at Terra's tower and there appears to be a couple of people camping on the grounds. I'm weary, terra goes up and talks to them. It turns out it's Bobbie and V and they have great news for me. I was very distraught by hearing that the Platinum Halflings have been pretty much destroyed. The news that they brought offset the new of the Halflings...to a point.

We head to Grog's grave half way up assassin's peak. There is no body in the gravesite....that's where we are at.

The Adventure Continues...

We didn't update last week (which sucks) we killed the Lich, but it took us forever to figure out how to do it and we needed the help of an NPC. It wasn't our best time...ever.

We get back to Baron Rivendare's Keep and speak with Lucious. He told us of the portals that Kergan passed through. There are 7 of them and they are all located in the Scarlet Monastery to the east of here. What we know is that Kergan passed through these portals for 1000s of years, but Lucious would not tell us why he went through the portals. Obviously it was for information gathering and gaining some sort of strength.

We part ways with Lucious and Sebathius (the paladin that helped us out) and head east to the Monastery. We come upon an 80 foot wall. It looks the same as the Black Gate. Gildere casts fly and takes my magnifying glass to see if he can see over it. He can't, burns a truseeing and still can't see past the gate. He comes back and says that it might be a darkness spell.

After checking around (flying up, checking for traps, etc) we knock. The doors swing open and we speak to a guy in robes who looks like a monk. We asks us to follow and we do. There appears to be a village, a temple and other buildings. As we walk through the doors, it feels forboding. The shadows are longer than they should be and the room appears bigger than it should be. He takes us to the sitting room, as we go, Baldin looks towards the alter. Once the Monk leaves, Baldin tells us it's the church of Hades.

A little while later, a gentleman in a silk shirt/pantaloons comes into the room and asks "can I help you?" We have a conversation about the portals. Kergan spent the most time in the land of the Restful Dead. Hades (who we find out is the guy in the silk shirt/pantaloons) gives us a room for the night at the monastery while we discuss our next plan of action. As we theorize why Kergan spent extra time in the realm of the Restful Dead, it was brought up that what Kergan is doing might be doing good, in Kergan's own mind. He may be thinking that he's doing the right thing. We talk for many hours and decide that it was better going back to speak with Lucious to see if he knows why Kergan was turned away (meaning he turned and left, not that he was defeated). We appear at the gate and a lich appears and tells us that the master doesn't wish to be disturbed. We head back down the path to go where the Baron Rivendare's ghost first appeared to us. Katrina appears to us and we speak to her...for a long time. We converse and say that Gildere should cast "Vision", unfortunately he doesn't get the outcome that we were hoping for. Baldin/Endel suggest that we should go and find something of Lucious's. I step up and remind the group that, yea...he's been a death knight for a VERY long time so he won't have anything remaining. Gildere tries a second time, this time sacrificing his beloved armor (it has special powers that do stuff like cast wraithform and dimension door twice a day), again...nothing. Gildere tells us that he needs to leave this world immediately (probably a drawback of failing the spell). He leaves for the city with the pirate ship.

.....and that's where we are at.

A Gift for a Friend

Not too long ago, I came upon the unfortunate experience of death. Luckily, I know a guy named Baldin (I know, this was the same guy that in just the previous post, I was talking about not trusting me). He happens to be a paladin and they are good at bringing people back to life. I know that I could never give him anything as valuable to him as life is valuable to me, so I did the next best thing.

He had the unfortunate experience of death as well, what is worse is that his armor was ruined. When we arrived back in town, I took it upon myself to see that his armor was either repaired or he received a new set. Endel and Gildere offered to help, but I told them that I would take care of it.

I made my way to the Lord's blacksmith and spoke with Joe. Joe was the lord's steward and he and I were able to strike a deal for a new set of armor for Baldin. Spared no expense. I was even able to get some money back on the ruined armor from before. I also was able to gain recognition with that particular lord.

The armor wasn't cheap, but I was able to gain a bit of reputation and more importantly, I helped out a friend who was in need. Do I feel that I have repaid the paladin for the gift of life? No, but I feel better knowing that I was able to give back.

-Aidan