Session 39 and 40 - Sweet Sweet Victory

30th of Uktar, 1371 DR
There was a big parade today to celebrate the last day of the games. We and the other two semi-finalists walked around to the cheers and jeers of the people of Waterdeep. After some long speeches and announcements, the semi-final round matches got underway.

Auric's Warband wiped out the Teeth of Malar. The Werewolves never really stood a chance against the Golems, although they managed to disable one and damage several others. We were forced to fight a pair of Froghemoths named Madtooth and Mudsucker. These gigantic, frog-like aberrations were swimmin' rapidly in the moat which surrounded us, probably just waitin' for us to venture close.

I stopped them in as rude a fashion as I could by creatin' a Wall of Force right in front of one. It slammed into it with a resounding "bong" that echoed through the water of the moat, stunnin' it long enough for us to get a jump on it. Although he couldn't see the beast through the murky water, Mel fired a Lightnin' Bolt into the water. As soon as it hit, the electricity dispersed in a cloud of jumpin' sparks. The thrashin' in the water told us the monster was unhappy. It popped its grotesque head out of the water and started to lumber up on the dirt of the arena floor. A huge, sticky tongue flew from its gaping maw and lassoed Tyree! Alabron moved in, but his sword slipped off the creatures wet, rubbery hide. Rumple got into a flankin' position and delivered a deep wound with his rapier. Storn followed up with a blow that took off one of its fat, green toes. I riddles the creature's flank with a barrage of Empowered Magic Missiles and Egwain healed Tyree while he struggled in vain against the monster's tongue. All the while, the second Frogehmoth swam towards us.

Mel dropped a Fireball on the Frogemoth's exposed topside. That didn't stop if from swallowin' Tyree in one gulp! Then the monster went berserk and slammed into Storn with a pair of powerful blows and tried to grab him. Storn had other ideas and nearly severed the offendin' limb. The Frogehmoth changed tactics and grabbed Rumple instead. Alaron took several swings at the monster, but only managed to hit it once as Rumple struggled pointlessly against the creature's bulk. Rumple was safe, though, because Storn finished the beast off with a single thrust through its heart. Egwain healed Rumple with her wand just before the second Frogehmoth arrived, launhin' its tongue at Alabron. Alobron cut off the tip of the tongue, avoidin' entanglement. I blasted the newcomer with a Fel Drain Empowered Magic Missile.

Mel welcomed the new frog-monster with a Cone of Cold. Alobron landed a tellin' blow of his own on the beast while Storn tried to close with the thing (sufferin' a powerful blow to the chest for his troubles). Egwaine healed Storn from a distance with her magic. meanwhile, there was no sign of Tyree who must have been strugglin' to free himself from the belly of the Frogehmoth which had now slid back into the moat! The last Frogehmoth unleashed its fury on Storn, batterin' him from side to side wiuth a barrage of five attacks! (The beast might have well be poundin' on a mountain for all the reaction it got from Storn.) It even managed to slap Alabron around a little. I ripped into it with some Magic Missiles and whispered a message to Alabron for an idea I had.

Mel blasted the creature with another Cone of Cold, but he didn't need to bother. Alobron shot it with a Ray of Stupidity, causing it to collapse and slide into the moat to drown. Several moments later we were able to rescue Tyree just before he suffocated in the belly of the beast.

The crowd went nuts.

That evenin', Tyree got a letter from Captain Okorol. Since he can't read, he had Alabron read it to him. It was the most venom and hate filled letter I've ever heard - borderin' on the incoherent. Okoral was basically challengin' Tyree to a duel...alone. Alabron left that part out. We spent some time figurin' if we could somehow ambush Okoral, but he had planned too well for that. So we just left him sittin' out there in the arena.

The Next day, the final match, had a packed house. Even Open Lord Piergiron Paladinson was there to watch! As it turned out, all the fanfare was for naught. Kellick had tried to repair his Golems for the fight and somehow broke them instead, so Auric's Warband forfieted. Despite being declared the new champions, it was all quite anti-climatic.

I did, however, get a chance to talk to Lord Piergiron Paladinson and inform him of the goings on during the games. This resulted in the arrest of Talabir Welik the Red Wizard, but Captain Okorol and Loris Raknian escaped justice...for now.

Feast of the Moon, 1371 DR
The awards dinner was also celebratin' the Fest of the Moon. It was a fancy gala event that Alabron and Storn almost ruined (Alabron mostly). Al really "let the Orc out" tonight. He was as bad as Tyree has ever been in a social setting. If not for some fancy words and quick thinkin' by me, I think he'd have been tossed out on his pointed green ear.

We mingled and talked. Tyree actually gave a coherent speech about his armor and what it represented. The night ended with Piergiron’s giftin' us a pair of Stone Golems. I don't even know if we'll have room for those in the guild house. Perhaps my plans for buying the place and building a keep around it will need to be accelerated.

1st of Nightal, 1371 DR, morning
Off to Diamond Lake today.

Session38 - Think of the Most Disgusting Thing You can Imagine

28th of Uktar, 1371 DR
Raknian had congratulatory bottles of red wine waitin' for us in the Cynobe. They didn't have worms in 'em nor were they poisoned. Still, I don't think any of us drank 'em. I managed to talk the Snow Leopards into creatin' a distraction for us so we could get to the Apostolic Scroll. I had no idea they were gonna put on a strip show, but that's what they did. It proved a remarkably good distraction.

We made it to the secret chambers without a hitch. Egwaine performed a ritual, callin' on Kelemvor several times, and succeeded in disablin' the protective magic around the scroll. Mel used a Mage Hand scroll to put it in our Bag of Holdin' and we prepared to deal with whatever was on the other side of the iron door.

The creature was the biggest monster we'd ever seen! It was a gigantic, pale, maggot-like worm and it's reactions were like lightin'. It spewed forth a gout of green goo that covered Alabron and disgorged nearly a dozen various Squirmers. The liquid looked like it was eatin' Alabron away from the inside! He suddenly became pale, thinner, and a little out of breath. To brave to flee, however, he stood his ground against the Zombies.

Storn and Tyree moved into the position to prevent the Squirmers from getting in the room and I put a Wall of Force at the end of the hall so we could deal with the Undead at our leisure. Egwaine called forth Kelemvor's power and destroyed four of the Zombies and turned three more. Alabron killed a Squirmer in a single blow (causin' it to drop a pair of worm swarms), cleaved into another, killin' it as well, and still managed to get off a Quickened Protection From Evil spell. Mel ran into the breach created by Alabron's sword and blasted a Lighthnin' Bolt down the hall, killin' both swarms, two Squirmers, and the two swarms dropped by their deaths.
After that, the fight was basically over. The worm just didn't know it yet. Even though it kept pukin' up Zombies (four more, in all), our preparations were better. Invisibility on Rumple. Greater Invisibility on Tyree. Mirror Image on Alabron and Storn. Wand of Burning Hands ready. I dropped the wall.

Even though the worm was a tough opponent and it surprised us by extrudin' this horrible lashing "hairs." there was never any doubt as to the outcome of the fight. The one time the worm managed to hit Storn (and not an image), the Dwarf's combat trainin' kicked in and he hacked at the beast's maw, preventin' it from swalloin' him. I even managed to blast it with an Orb of Force (after seein' how it ignored Mel's Fireball). The funniest thing is that it was one of Egwain's Spiritual Weapons from that low-level wand that struck the killin' blow!

Figurin' we'd just ruined the "monster" portion of tomorrow's festivities, we headed back to the Coenoby to meet with our manager. He was quite mad that we hadn't murdered Raknian yet. We tried to explain the situation to him, but I fear he's gonna do somethin' stupid. He did bring us a letter that Eligos had penned to Allustan. Unfortunately, the letter told us nothin' we didn't already know. He did mention some notes, however...

We went to Titan's Hall to await our meetin' with Raknian. There was a bit of a run-in with the Snow Leopards and Tyree's continuin' attempts to have sex with one or more of them. I ended up spillin' everythin' to their leader. She went back and barricaded all her girls in their room. Eventually, it was Carenthal who showed up speakin' on behalf of Raknian.

The story he spun was that the Cleric (Bozol) we had killed had blackmailed Raknian into lettin' him use the stadium for the cult's needs. Raknian had killed that woman and asked Bozol to raise her from the dead. Instead, Bozol turned her into an Undead creature and forced Raknian to do his biddin'. There was also the suggestion that Raknian's head of security is also a member of the cult and that's why Raknian hasn't come forth himself. That, and Raknian was worried we'd simply kill him if he showed up to the meetin'. We assured Carenthal we had no desire to simply kill Raknian (Alobron gave me a strange, side-long glance at that), so Carenthal agreed to go retrieve Raknian.

We waited for hours, but no one ever returned, so we went back to our room. Later we discovered Carenthal's dead body, throat torn out just like the Coenoby guards. Somethin's down here huntin' people, but that will have to wait until the fight tomorrow is over. It's been a long day.

Session 37 - A Pitched Battle

28th of Uktar, 1371 DR
We got a letter from Jasper today, informin' us of the state of affairs in Diamond Lake. It sounds bad, but the boys seem to be holdin' out alright. He needs money, which we will get to him as soon as we've sorted out our current predicament.

We got a letter from Loris Raknian! In the letter he implies that he is not the one responsible for the cult activities here in the stadium and he wants to meet us in one of the side passages late tonight. Uh huh.

The Unhumans were wiped out to the "man." At least they were able to kill one Werewolf.

After the first match, we heard a scream and found a warden with his throat torn out. We also found a worm vat. We cordoned off the "alley" it was in and dealt with it so no one was hurt. Auric was suddenly interested in what we had to say and afterward had a bad proposal for us, which we refused.

Our match with Pitchblade was quite the spectacle. The introductions were so long they caused some of our spells to expire. Pitchblade seemed to have been informed of this, because they didn't start drinkin' their potions until halfway through.

When the fight started, the Dire Tigers took off after us without so much as a "go get 'im boys!" from the Dwarves. One of them tore into Storn like he had stolen somethin' from it while another gave Alabron a scratch or two. Tyree managed to dodge all the third tiger's attacks since he seems to be impossible to ever catch off-guard. Tryee tumbled behind Storn's tiger creatin' a flank and then, in that bizarre fightin' style where he's in the defensive but swingin' for all he's worth at the same time, he slashed the tiger. Mel blasted all the Dwarves with a Fireball, but the leader and the machine were unscathed. The machine moved towards us and deployed. The other Dwarves all flew into the air and headed our way. Eqwaine summoned up a Spiritual Weapon but missed her target. Rumble flanked Storn's Dire Tiger and drove three feet of rapier into it! Alabron used part "A" of our attack plan against Pitchblade and shot a Dire Tiger with a Ray of Stupidity causing it to collapse in a coma in an instant! The crowd roared because it must have looked like he killed it with a single spell. I used part "B" of our brilliant plan and created a Wall of Force directly in front of the machine. Storn landed two crushing blows on the Dire Tiger but then slipped in the sand and caught a huge paw across the face.



The Dire Tiger continued to rip and tear at Storn despite his heavy armor. The other tiger swatted Storm once and then landed a couple of hits on Rumple for good measure. Tyree, still workin' on the original Dire Tiger, sliced off one of its rear legs and then drove his sword through its spine to end its sufferin'. Mel blasted the lead Dwarf with an Orb of Electricity. The leader and another Dwarf charged through the air and slashed at Mel with their swords. Luckily, Egwaine had has Resist Fire on all of us, so the flaming swords were not quite as effective. Another Dwarf dove down on Rumple and nearly cut off his head! Egwaine had to save his life with a Close Wounds spell. The machine un-deployed and started moving to the east. The driver may have been able to see the invisible Wall of Force, but the crowd couldn't and they started booin' and jeerin' the driver. Egwaine dropped a Mass Cure Light Wounds which helped many of us as Alabron disabled the last Dire Tiger with another Ray of Stupidity. The crowd went nuts. I cast an Arcane Turmoil spell on the leader, strippin' him of most (if not all) of his enchantments. He floated to the ground and Storn hacked at his legs as he landed. Storn's next three attacks completely missed the leader. Turns out he was wearing a Cloak of Displacement and Storn was simply swingin' in the wrong spot!

Tyree flanked with Rumple and hit one of the Dwarves. Rumple used the distraction to stab the same Dwarf with a tellin' blow. Mel, takin' his lead from me, Dispelled the enchantments on one of the other Dwarf fightin' him and flew away, but he was hit just before he could escape. The flanked Dwarf managed to slash Tyree back while another Dwarf hammered Storn and knocked him to the ground! The machine plodded on to the ever increasin' jeers of the crowd and the last Dwarf moved to deal with Alabron, but missed. Egwaine hit everyone but Mel with another Mass Cure Light Wounds and Alabron hit his new Dwarven friend once. Noticin' that it was tough for my friends to strike the leader, I blasted him with an Empowered Fel Drain Magic Missile. The missiles struck, as always, unerringly and leeched a bit of his life force away. Storn, from the ground, used his Ring of Spell Storing to cast Shield.

Tyree continued to move to keep his Dwarf flanked with Rumple. Rumple continued to use this to his advantage, landing yet another devestatin' hit on the Dwarf. Tyree, unfortunately, missed. The Dwarf responded with a slash at Rumple's face while the leader knocked Storn unconscious (again), stepped to the side and hit Alabron as well. Another Dwarf flanked for the leader and struck Alabron as well and the machine continued rollin', now on the boards coverin' the moat that had become part of the battlefield. Egwaine's Spiritual Weapon continued to miss its targets as she stepped in (still invisible) to heal Storn. Mel hit one of the Dwarves with a trio of Scorchin' Rays, one of which burned a hole in the fella's armor! Alabrong slashed into the leader twice and then sidestepped to flank for a still prone Storn. I tore at the leader with another Magic Missile spell and laughed as my missiles burned straight through his Brooch of Shieldin'. Alabron's flank allowed Storn to slash at the leader's legs, nearly chopping one off at the knee!

Tyree landed a pair of blows on the (somehow) still standin' Dwarf. Rumple tumbled into a flank and stabbed the Dwarf in the back of the neck, finally killin' this very tough foe. Mel used another Scorchin' Ray to drop another Dwarf and then hit the leader with a ray as well. The leader had apparently had enough of my Magic Missiles. he came over and swung at me, barely managin' to graze me. His second strike was much better, but I simply absorbed it with a spell sheild and then laughed as I dodged his thrid attack. The crowd seemed to love that. That's when Egwaine's Spiritual Weapon floated over and drove straight down through the top of his head, killin' him instantly! The machine had finally cleared my Wall of Force. I readied myself to throw up another wall if they guy tried to shoot and gave him a chance to surrender. meanwhile, Alabron actually scaled my Wall of Force and stood on top of it!

Tyree jumped up on the machine and the Dwarf panic-fired into the Wall of Force, nearly catchin' Tyree's leg in the trailin' rope before jumpin' off the machine. Alabron performed an amazin' run across the length of the Wall of Force and then leaped down to cut the strike the Dwarf from above. The crowd went crazy, because all they could see was Alabron runnin' through mid-air the whole time. That's when Tyree jumped into the seat of the machine and shot the Dwarf with it! Even though he didn't hook him, the crowd actually screamed loader. They screamed louder still when Mel used Benign Transposition to switch Tyree and Rumple who then shot the Dwarf again! At last the Dwarf surrender and the battle was over.

Everyone in the crowd was cheerin' and chantin' "Three Hills! Three Hills!" except for Raknian, who was nowhere to be seen, and his bodyguard, who was livid with anger and shakin' his fist at us in frustration.

Before we returned to the Cynobe, our manager caught my eye. I used a Message spell to have a private conversation with him. That's when we learned that someone had broken into Elegos' estate and killed him and his servant!

Whoever is responsible for what's goin' on here in Waterdeep, be it Raknian or not, it seems they are gettin' ready to make their move.

Session 36 - Can You Feel the Noose Tightening?

27th of Uktar, 1371 DR
Since the green light emanatin' from the scroll seemed dangerous, we decided to avoid it and went through the smaller door in the room. We followed a short hall to another door beyond which we could hear a woman cryin'. Inside the bedroom was a beautiful red-headed woman sobbin' uncontrollably. As she stood, completely nude save for a veil, she began to sway and gyrate. We realized two things. First, this was, in fact, Lahaka (Ekyam’s sister). Second, she was some kind of strange Undead creature.

We, sadly, dispatched her quickly and without any harm to us thanks to Egwaine's timely turnin'. Upon further examination, Egwaine estimated she'd been dead for a year or more - pretty much the exact time she went missin'.

We entered another room that had some kind of low, green fog coverin' the floor and the room was split by a curtain. When Alabron went to check out the room behind the curtain, a bizarre, blob-like Demon spillin' out of one of them wax-covered vats blasted him (and Storn) with a Cone of Cold. Behind the blob demon was a Symbol of Fear spilling green worms from its eyes and mouth into the room.

Poor Alabron was not only affected by the Symbol of Fear, but he was also nauseated by the Stinking Cloud the blob demon dropped in the room. Mel promptly dispelled the Stinking Cloud allowin' Tyree to run into the room and tear down the curtain. I moved in and blasted the beast with a Magic Missile spell, but was unable to penetrate its spell resistance. Egwaine cast Resurgence on Storn (also affected by the Symbol of Fear), but he was too terrified and continued his headlong flight back to the Coenobe.

Rumple moved into a good flankin' position and paid for it when the blob bit him and lashed him with one of its tendrils. Another tendril smacked Tyree in the face. As Tyree completed the flanking maneuver, Rumple drove his rapier deep into the demon's fleshy body and was rewarded by a high-pitched, warblin' scream. Tyree took advantage of its distraction to slash it twice. Mel missed with a Lesser Orb of Electricity and suddenly, a planar gateway started to open back in the bedroom! I missed the demon with an Orb of Force and Egwaine (at my urgin') dispelled the Gate.

The blob demon bit Rumple again and slammed Tyree with both its tentacles. Rumple hit it right back and Mel managed to hit it with a trio of Scorching Rays, but they were all deflected by the monster's spell resistance. Tyree landed a brutal strike and followed it up with yet another deadly slash. With all the movement goin' on, there was no way I'd hit it with an orb spell, so I focused by will and hammered it with another Magic Missile spell. This time I managed to pierce the demon's spell resistance, pepperin' it with force energy. Meanwhile, Egwaine moved in and tapped Rumple with the Wand of Cure Moderate Wounds.

The blob demon tore into Tyree, hittin' him with moth tendrils and nearly bitin' his arm off with its bite! Once again, Rumple drove his rapier into the demon all the way up to the hilt. Realizin' "Elven High Magic" was no match for the blob demon, Mel ran off to make sure Alabron and Storn were safe. Tyree hit the beast again and I, now confident I could hurt the demon, blasted it with an Empowered Magic Missile - again bustin' through its spell resistance. As Egwaine moved to heal Tyree with her wand, she identified the demon as an Alkilith (I still prefer blob demon).

The Alkilith transformed itself into a Clodukill spell (hurtin' but not killin' Egwaine, Rumple, and Tyree), but that didn't prevent Rumple's magic rapier from finishin' it off.

After recollectin' everyone (Mel had to use a Dimension Door to get reunited because of a run-in with the stadium guards), we discovered a long hallway lit by candles that eventually led to Raknian's estate. We turned back to avoid leaving the stadium and decided to deal with other two mysterious vats. Luckily, they only contained worm swarms which we dealt with in the usual fashion.

While back at the Coenobe, we met with Ekyam and gave him the bad news about his sister. Egwaine managed to talk him out of doin' anythin' rash and stickin' with us to bring justice to Raknian. Some stupid Damaran guard wanted to warn us that Raknian was out to get us (no shit) and then wanted our help gettin' him out of the stadium. We had him escort our manager out of the place and then gave him some advice for extricatin' himself.

Somewhere in all this, some of us were attacked by a disembodied demon blob tentacle. We also discovered that Raknian was forcing the Snow Leopards to stay in the Coenobe and had basically tricked the other disqualified teams into stickin' around. We also found that several teams had been given wine tainted with worms! Egwaine managed to save a pair of Woodchuckers from a horrible death and we prepared ourselves to meet Pitchblade tomorrow.

For myself, all this spellcastin' has helped me make several breakthroughs. I mave managed to eek out a bit more power from my Magic Missile spells, but I fear I have reached the limits of what my pet spell can offer. Perhaps there are other ways to modify it...

I have also discovered a way to summon forth a larger quantity of force energy in a passive mode. In this form, I am able to shape the force energy into a wall. It won't last long, but it is basically an impenetrable, invisible wall while it is there. That should open up some interestin' tactical opportunities on the battlefield.

Session 35 - The Sinister Situation Sub-Stadium

27th of Uktar, 1371 DR
After puttin' the Squirmers to the torch, we headed down the hallway past the dead gods' banner to a set of double doors. Rumple could hear voices on the other side and it sounded like they knew we were comin'. So we kicked in the doors and started the fun.

Not so fun, as it turns out. The room (a gladiatorial trainin' room of some kind) was jam-packed with Undead! There were six Squirmers, two pregnant Squirmers (never seen anything like that before), and at least a half-dozen gaunt beats that literally radiated hate and anger (Egwaine called 'em Wights). There was also some Undead critter that had a long, grotesque, purple tongue (a Mohrg) which, we were informed, are very dangerous.

Despite their numbers, we defeated the pile of Undead fairly easily, although there were a couple of surprises. For instance, the pregnant Squirmers were pregnant with hugs swarms of worms! They dropped their broods as soon as they got close to us. The Squirmers have also learned to flick worms at us. This seems to hit much more often than when they try to claw at us through our armor. So, there was a tense moment when a worm wriggled its way into Storn's neck. Storn, however, whipped out a dagger and stabbed himself without a moment's hesitation. When he pulled the dagger out, amidst a gout of blood, there was the disgustin' creature writhin' on the point of his knife.

Everythin' else was fairly standard fair. We used the doorway for cover and to limit the number of Undead that could assault us at once. Mel soften the Undead up with a massive Fireball and then Alabron, Storn, and Tyree killed Undead left and right with brutal chops of their weapons. I killed a pair of Wights with Empowered Magic Missiles and managed worms with the Wand of Burnin' Hands. Rumple actually proved to be a passable archer, killin' several Undead with his bow. Egwaine, of course, was constantly at work in the background; reinforcin', healin', and gettin' worms off of people. We slaughtered the Undead and the worms and drove off the Mohrg.

Now, the two Wights I killed were the ones that seemed to be guardin' a large, wax-sealed vat like the one we found in Dourstone Mine back home. We debated what to do about it for quite some time until Rumple heard somethin' go "bampf" behind the other set of double doors. We barely had time to set ourselves when a Fiendish Dire Tiger burst into the room!

I think several of us believed this was one of the Pitchblade animals, so we beat it like a rented mule. It took a nasty swipe at Storn who fell back into the room so that all of us could get shots at it. I hit it hard with an Orb of Force augmented with my Hellcat Gauntlets. Mel blasted it with a pair of Scorchin' Rays. And then Alobron went and took it out of the fight with a Ray of Stupidity. I wished I'd remembered he was gonna do that. Could have saved myself a spell. Then, when Tyree dismembered the big cat, it simply vanished in a puff of acrid smoke. It had been a summoned creature!

Through the next set of double doors was the Mohrg (healed of its damage), eight Tieflin' warriors, and some kind of Cleric. Again, using the features of the room to our advantage, we tore into these deranged, evil, cultists.

The Morgh, for all its potential danger, turned out to be easy enough to deal with. It tried to paralyze a couple of people with its disgustin' tongue, but they managed to resist its horrid toxins. Hell, it only drew blood twice on Alabron. One was an admittedly forceful strike, but then it was dead for good.

Rumple, again, put his bow to good use. He killed one Tieflin' with a pair of arrows while the fellow was just realizin' a fight was on him. He placed two more arrows in another Tieflin', peppered the leader once, and struck the killin' blow against the Mohrg.

The Tieflings were just cannon-fodder and spent the fight missin' us with their greataxes and tryin' to extinguish themselves.

Alobron used a Fly spell to give himself some mobility. At first he hovered above Storn, helpin' to drive back the Tieflins, but when the Mohrg fell back into the room, Alobron was able to give chase. He kept the Undead horror pinned in a corner, landin' a couple of powerful blows with this falchion.

Mel called forth a piece of "Elven High Magic" I was truly impressed with. He called it Firebrand and it brought forth bursts of fire that nearly filled the room. It didn't kill anyone outright, but it caused horrible burns to all the Tieflings and caused them to scatter to avoid further damage. The Cleric must have had some sort of fire protection spell active since he just stood his ground, chucklin'.

Storn killed four Tieflins and struck the killin' blow against the leader. Tyree killed a Tieflin' and struck a tellin' blow against the leader. Egwaine reinforced us all with a Mass Shield of Faith and kept Storn in the figjht with her healin'.

I used an Empowered Magic Missile at exactly the right time to ruin the leader's Doom spell and hurt him a lot (my missiles blowin' right through his Brooch of Shieldin'). Two more Magic Missile spells helped kill the Cleric. I spent the rest of my time teasin' Mel. For an Elf, he's easily excitable.

When all was done, we had a large amount of booty and, on a strange alter, (one of?) the Apostolic Scroll! We spent a good ten minutes tryin' to figure out how to claim the scroll so we could remove it from evil's hands, but the scroll was protected by some sort of "temporal stasis field" (or so says Mel) that we were unable to penetrate. After studyin' the magic forces at work, Mel declared that we would just have to leave it here for now. Without some absurdly powerful magic, he says we have no way of claimin', movin', or even touchin' the scroll without killin' ourselves in the process.

I guess we'll have to just kill every villain down here to make sure no one else can touch it either.