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[1/18/2003] This morning I awoke to an extremely unpleasant surprise. I'm just lucky I heard something outside my door and thus looked out before opening it--otherwise I would have stepped immediately to my death. For to my shock I discovered about five members of the Order of Sin camped outside my house, around a pile of skulls they must have dug from some graveyard, and a couple of fresh corpses of poor healers that had wandered the woods around my house.
I picked up the note and discovered it was addressed to me. It appeared to be written in blood. "You know what I want Kianne," it read. "But you apparently do not know what I will do to get it." It was signed by Soth and he threatened to come to Northwind that evening and kill everyone, all of RBW, using his full power. My fingers clenched in anger and about crumpled the paper. There was no way I would let Soth get away with this. I intended to warn the rest of RBW of this event. However I couldn't do so immediately, since this day was scheduled a meeting with Lord British to discuss the actions of the warden of the Yew prison. It seemed that several members of RBW had been jailed there after having found their way into the "twisted tunnels" that had been mentioned on that rune. The root of the problem was they had apparently been jailed for violating some new law against insulting royalty. Only the "royalty" they had insulted had been Garn, Blackthorn's guard. When we took up the matter in the Yew courtroom with Lord British, Blackthorn, and the warden in question, we discovered that not only was the law something Blackthorn had dreamed up, but the warden claimed he'd jailed the RBW members because he'd been instructed to do so by Garn.
It was such a useless death, and saddened us. Although we tried to raise the warden, his ghost would not appear, so evidently he had made the decision to pass on. There was nothing that could be done. Once we left the courtroom, I called a meeting at the Northwind keep. There, I told the gathered RBW about Soth's threat, and urged them to be extremely careful. I even suggested that they remain away from Northwind that evening so that, should Soth come, he would find no one to slay. However, they remained stout and insisted they would remain at the keep and would fight Soth to the final man.
I remained there for a few more minutes, wondering if he would return, or if Blackthorn would arrive. The cloak had only three charges, so I wanted to make the most out of the charge I had used to get in here. Finally, however, I received a telepathic notice that undead monsters were attacking Northwind. I quickly left the castle at that point and Recalled to the scene of the fray. It would seem that Soth had sent his lackeys ahead of him. There were undead skeletons, ghouls, dragons, and the like attacking everything from the Rune Library to the Shadow Castle. RBW, however, was armed and ready for the attempted invasion, and quickly put a halt to it. Stationed around the various buildings of Northwind, we dispatched the creatures as quickly as they could come. Finally, while I and others were defeating an undead dragon near the entrance to the keep, I felt that familiar chill in the air and realized Soth was near. I knew I would stand not a chance against him toe-to-toe, but I wasn't about to let him slaughter RBW members without even a fight. Quickly I ran heedlessly in that direction, and when I was close enough, I could hear that Soth was calling for me. Gritting my teeth in anger, I stalked closer. My guildmates urged me to flee, but I replied that it was me with whom Soth was annoyed, and I would stand and face his anger before I would let another RBW do it in my stead. Soth teleported as soon as he spotted me and reappeared directly in front of me. I came to a halt, standing my ground and glaring at him. And then something unexpected happened. Balinor, who had received the sword of nine lives stealing from Blackthorn, immediately threw himself forward, embedding the lilac blade into Soth's body. And I was stunned--it actually hurt him. The wound was far from fatal, but this was the first attack since his appearance on Britannia that had done anything near significant damage to the undead lord. Soth turned as the sword came free, and saw other RBW members coming to circle him, a couple of them bringing what few ancient weapons we had managed to craft by then. His eyes spat fire and he suddenly vanished. "Time is short," came his incorporeal voice floating through the air. "You escaped this time, but you will not be so lucky the next time." And he was gone. I found myself letting out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding, still almost too stunned to move. I fully expected Soth to reappear, but it seemed as though he had given up for that evening. Apparently being injured had unsettled him. I believe the ancient weapons can do small damage to him as well, even without Walkyrie's pending spell, so they may also have had a factor in his abandoning his attack. At any rate, I can't say I wasn't thankful for the resulting peace, even if tenuous. The assault by the undead creatures also halted, leaving Northwind quiet and safe. At least for now. [1/19/2003] Today I got word from Balinor that he had encountered my clone. So the thing has shown its face at last. I went to the place where he had seen her, but to no avail. Balinor and I spoke at length about the clone. Apparently, he was with another, and the clone had been unusually powerful. However, using the sword of nine lives stealing, he had actually managed to kill the clone with one hit. That's when something odd happened. Her ghost appeared. None of the other clones had possessed spirits; they'd simply been anatomizations, like zombies. Thus, this made Balinor and his companion think that they'd been mistaken and had accidently killed the real me rather than the clone. Or, they decided, even if it was still the clone's ghost, mayhap she might speak to them now. So they raised her. And she got away. To this day she's still on the loose... I also learned about Balinor's clone. It, evidently, surpassed the power of my own clone, and was capable even of using the telepathy that Nystul had granted us. This was disturbing, since the more the clones could emulate us, the more difficult it would be for us to distinguish between friend and foe. It's just lucky that we had already had a meeting regarding the clones, and Connor instituted a way for us to recognize each other. Andrella and I had devised our own personal scheme, but this one that Connor declared, the entire guild knew about. Of course I won't write it down here, but it is coming in handy increasingly often. Finally, something surprising happened. Balinor gave me his sword of nine lives stealing. I was struck by the irony: earlier, Andrella and I had spoken about how to persuade Balinor to give us his sword, and here he was simply handing it to me. He said that I needed protection in case Soth or my clone came after me. Well, I won't argue the sword would come in handy in that event. Still, I wasn't sure if I should accept such a gift. I had by this point decided that the sword probably was not going to possess Balinor the way the other one had Cloud; Balinor had used it both on the clone and on Soth without any noticeable side effects. (One of the sword's nine charges, or "lives," was used up for each strike, but that affected the sword only.) And since the sword apparently did no harm to its holder, any objections I may have had over Balinor having it evaporated. (I still figure Blackthorn had a motive, but apparently that motive wasn't to harm Balinor, and that at least is the most important thing.) Still, I couldn't find a polite way to refuse, so I carefully sheathed the sword and carried it with me everywhere I went. [1/25/2003]  Today we planned to hit a new Sin hideout that had been discovered recently. We gathered as many people as were available and stocked up on supplies. During these preparations, I was gifted with a beautiful suit of silver chain armor. It was so bright it practically glowed. And beyond that, it was strong. I was able to take blows that I couldn't withstand previously. It certainly helped me greatly in the coming ordeal.I also obtained an ancient katana, which I decided instantly I would hold onto until I faced the clones, and Soth. Still, upon receiving this powerful weapon, I gave the sword of nine lives back to Balinor. He needed some protection, and, well, I've felt bad about it ever since he gave it to me in the first place. Speaking of which, I'm not sure when Balinor's body was stolen, but I was there to see his clone today when it showed up at Northwind Keep. It really was capable of using telepathy, and really hurt with its blows. It seems as though whoever is making the clones gets better at it with each one. We managed to fight off the clone, but it kept fleeing before we could finish it off. Yet this day saw a good turn from a bad. Although I had never seen my own clone,others had encountered it. It had managed to fool a few people, and killed several.Finally, someone mentioned he had just encountered the clone (Andrella says thecorrect term is really "golem") outside a dungeon. He'd escaped from her, so we quicklywent back there, and sure enough, she was there. I attacked her without hesitation. She fought for a bit, then, outnumbered,tried to flee. However, for whatever reason, she did not simply vanish the way Balinor's golem had done; instead she fled on foot. With the four of us pursuing her, we were able to take her down. The others gave me the "honors" of destroying her body. I have to say, I've never destroyed a body before, even of a foe... It just isn't in me to defile someonelike that. But in this case it was necessary, and I did so without regretsand without thinking too much about it. Luckily, she had fallen face down,so at least I didn't have to look at a face that was identical to my own.
At this point, the golem was weak, just like when any of us are raised. I didn'tattack her, but others in the group did, and she was put down almost immediately.Her ghost appeared again and the cycle began all over. Finally, the ghost simplyfaded away, and that was the last we saw of it. Andrella mentioned, however, that it was possible the ghost wasn't gone for good.If it managed to wander off and get raised elsewhere, or if Soth or someoneencountered the ghost, we realized the clone might come back. I'm still not sure how it is that the golems even have ghosts. We all agreedthat they don't seem to be sentient, like living creatures, but rather act asthough they are undead robots. So even though I felt a little bad for my clone,I kept telling myself she had no feelings and no free will, so she was littledifferent than a machine. Still, I worry that this may not be the last we've seen of her...
[2/1/2003]
It was a record of Soth's experiments in making golems. He described how each was more powerful than the last. Finally, he mentioned Balinor's, which had been strengthened by an RBW cloak that he got from who knows where. We began to fear that Blackthorn had somehow managed to supply Soth with one, although we had only theories as to how Blackthorn had obtained one. I rather wish I'd been able to take the journal with me, since I can't remember completely what it said, but I do recall that at the end of the journal, Soth noted that RBW had discovered this place. So he left a little threat to us on the final page, and apparently had no problems with our finding it. He claims that with every battle we fight, the fallen--even the fallen of our enemies--simply strengthen the undead army. Be that as it may, we can't just stop fighting. So our only hope is to put Soth away for good. [2/8/2003] I needed to blow off some steam today, so I went down to Guthnor's house to do my usual clearing of the orcs. They still keep coming back. I don't know why. Sygil appeared just as I was heading south, so he joined me in attacking the orcs. That's when we were surprised by an orc mercenary from the Euga clan. He was an extremely powerful warrior and was much more difficult than the average orc to take down. He did have some interesting armor and an axe on him, however... As if to portend what was to come, Northwind has been attacked several times now by gangs of orcs accompanied by ettins and the like. We've always had no troubles beating them back, but still, an army of these mercenaries would spell trouble. So Sygil and I decided that as long as we were hunting, we may as well hunt in the infamous orc valley, which is near my house. We had just entered the valley and were working our way south when I caught a glimpse of Thugnor and Guthnor and nearly felt my eyes pop out in surprise. Struck numb with surprise, I stopped speaking in the middle of a sentence. Then I turned blindly and abandoned the entire conversation in favor of running in the direction where I had seen Guthnor, but he was whimsical, like smoke, and had vanished as if into thin air. Still stunned, I turned and looked to Sygil. I didn't have to ask. He confirmed that he had spotted Guthnor as well. We had no idea what this could mean, but together the two of us combed the entire valley, searching for Guthnor. I ran right past orcs without even bothering to attack them, focused entirely on the search and leaving them to stare after me in dumb surprise. When we turned up empty, I finally decided we should head back to Guthnor's house. If Guthnor was really around, he would probably be on his way there. Sygil and I rode like the wind along the mountains and south to Guthnor's place. I arrived first, on the blue steed that Connor had given me, and sure enough, Guthnor was there. And yet, at the same time...he wasn't. He was a ghost. It was the strangest thing, but he was a transparent gray form, like human spirits when they die in Britannia, and I could see straight through him. Yet, at the same time, he was oddly tangible, because he was attacking the orcs which had regrouped at his house since Sygil and I had left. He was complaining that the orcs were interrupting his rest. He didn't seem to even notice I was there. "Guthnor!" I called out to him. He replied by asking who called for him. "It's Kianne," I told him. "Don't you remember?" I was worried that he wouldn't. Not for my sake, but for his--part of what makes us who we are is our memories. Thankfully, he seemed to remember, but it didn't appear as though he could see me. He spoke of winged women who guarded a gate and would not allow him to enter. Apparently, they don't allow monsters into heaven, or something. I tried to raise him with my resurrection wand, but it failed to work. Not that I was terribly surprised, but still, I had to try.
We went to see Nystul, who at first suggested that Guthnor was mistakenly trying to get into the Black Gate, not heaven. This seemed to jive with what had been said to me by the Guthnor that Cloud had supposedly raised--except I'm still not sure whether that was truly Guthnor. But if it really was the Guardian trying to trick Guthnor for some reason... Lord British suggested that Nystul visit Guthnor and speak to him personally. Nystul hesitated, afraid of the danger. He mentioned that he could not be brought back to life again. If he died again, he would be unable to be raised. We vowed to protect him, and I gave him my steed to ride. Finally he agreed and went with us. We gated to my house, and I remained with Nystul while Andrella and Sygil rode on ahead to make sure the way was clear of orcs. Once they gave the signal, we joined them in Guthnor's house. Unfortunately, Guthnor failed to appear even after we called to him. Apparently he was fast asleep and dead to the world...I didn't just write that. At any rate, after some discussion, Nystul decided that perhaps this wasn't an issue with the Black Gate, but rather the fact that monsters don't normally have souls--and, thus, ghosts. Nystul's theory was that the golden rock had somehow caused Guthnor to gain a soul when he had touched it to steal it from Blackthorn. Now, Guthnor felt he was unworthy of heaven because he had been "bad" by stealing the rock. We'd tried to assure him that he had saved Britannia by doing that, but I'm not sure if we got through to him.
Guthnor still failed to appear, however, so I said I would keep checking back. Nystul had to return to the castle, and it was getting late, so we all wanted to head to bed soon. This would simply have to wait until another day. Before we left Guthnor's house, however, the topic of the conversation shifted as I asked Nystul about the rod of magis I had seen in Blackthorn's chest. It was the only item in the entire castle that I could pinpoint as being possibly unique--and, therefore, something Nystul could potentially point at and identify as his. He did indeed say the rod was his, although he added that its magic had been used up long before he'd lost it, so it was pretty much useless now. Still, at least I was able to place at least one item of Nystul's in Blackthorn's castle--now I was getting somewhere. Blackthorn had also apparently recently acquired an arcane spellbook, because it had appeared on his table in my most recent trip to the castle, although those are not unique, so that alone means nothing. At any rate, during some point in the conversation I happened to mention the bag of holding I had seen in Blackthorn's castle. Bags of holding are rare but not unique, so I didn't think it was very important, and thus only mentioned it in passing. To my surprise, though, Nystul immediately became excited, saying the bag was definitely his, and that it had all of his items in it. Andrella told him the bag was simply a portal into one's bank box...something I had discovered a little while ago accidently (and wasted a charge doing it, oops). But Nystul shook his head, saying that the bag of his which Soth had stolen on that fateful day was different, and went to a special place that was his alone. Andrella was not convinced, and told Nystul to come back to Britain and check the bank. He went with us as we gated to Britain, but claimed he had never opened an account. She replied that it didn't matter--everyone had an account automatically. We walked into the bank, and Andrella asked the banker to show Nystul his safe box. Using the magic of Lord British's banks, the banker generated Nystul's personal chest into thin air before him, and it opened of its own accord to show only Nystul its contents. I've always loved the banks in Britannia. I'm so used to them by now that I'm never surprised to see the chest appear at my bidding, only to vanish again once I've finished and closed the lid. A mage himself, Nystul was not surprised to see the chest materialize. What did take his breath away was when he looked inside. "It's all here!" he let out in awe. "My books! My spells!"
Nystul was so ecstatic it took us a while to get him out of the bank. He kept running around the room having the box materialize, closing it, and then asking for it again from a different vantage point. It was like watching a child playing. I asked Andrella quietly how Nystul could have been Lord British's royal mage for so long and had not known about the bank boxes. "Sometimes, he doesn't know things unless someone tells him," she replied. We escorted Nystul back to Lord British's castle finally. I couldn't believe the turn of events. Nystul had all of his things back. Well, almost all. He was still missing a few loose items, such as the rod of magis, that hadn't been in the bank when he'd been killed. But still, he said everything still lost was easily replaced. The fact that he had nearly everything back was the important thing. I was glad that we had accomplished what I had promised myself I would do so long ago. Still, who would have thought it had all been in the bank, all this time? As a postscript to this, I mentioned to Andrella in private how Soth had essentially led me straight to the hidden chest in Blackthorn's castle which held the rod of magis, among other things. She thought that pretty much confirmed that Blackthorn and Soth were in on this together. But of course, I told her, we had no solid proof that we could point to. It would be our word against Blackthorn's (and Soth's if we could ever drag him into a court room to testify, although that's dubious at best). She asked me at this point if I was able to pick up items while wearing the cloak of invisibility. I had earlier discovered that I could not. She considered that information for a moment. Then she suggested I get a mage to cast Incognito on me and walk into Blackthorn's castle that way. I stared at her in disbelief. Why hadn't I ever thought of that? My mind instantly began churning, formulating ideas. As soon as I am prepared and have a chance, I'm definitely going to have to act on this... [2/9/2003] This morning I carefully prepared for our plan for Guthnor by visiting the Shrine of Justice, marking a rune, and making sure I had a Gate scroll in my pack. (I haven't spent a lot of time brushing up on Britannia magery since I've returned here; I'm so rusty I can no longer cast Gate Travel except off a scroll.) Then I gathered Sygil and Andrella and asked if they would like to check out Guthnor's house again. I thought both of them would be interested in seeing this through to the end. They agreed, but the house was still empty. We walked through its crumbling rooms and called to Guthnor, but to no avail. I felt my heart sink. How long would Guthnor sleep? Would we ever be able to help him? Finally, I suggested we visit orc valley. After all, we had first seen Guthnor there before. Together, the three of us headed out, then split up to search. It was Sygil who called to us, saying he'd spotted Guthnor heading back south along the road. We raced immediately back to his house, sure that was where he was headed. Sure enough, when we arrived, Guthnor was there fighting orcs again. After helping him clear the orcs, we spoke with Guthnor and told him our idea. He went with us when I used the Gate scroll to create a moongate, but instead of heading toward the Shrine, he walked away from it, toward the water. There he revealed that Dupré had once saved Guthnor from drowning. Apparently, Dupré and Guthnor went back a ways. I wished Dupré could have been here to see this. We spoke at length about Guthnor's sacrifice and his worthiness of an afterlife. He said he had never been able to actually approach the Shrine before, while he was alive. The guards had always stopped him short. But we promised him that wouldn't be the case now. I privately could only hope this was true--the guards couldn't harm a ghost, could they?
We stared in shock. "I am ready," Guthnor said while crazy little grins began to spread across our faces. Guthnor turned to face us, and we said our good-byes. Finally he faded away, and we were awash with the feeling of utter serenity, secure in the knowledge that he was resting in peace. Andrella and Sygil and I continued to stand there, smiling happily. Tears of joy ran down my face for a few minutes before I could get them to stop. And then the ankh spoke once more. "You have saved a lost soul! Be rewarded!" And as we turned back in surprise, three items appeared on the ankh's steps--one for each of us.
"I guess the Shrines do speak here," I mentioned as we walked away. I had never heard them speak on this Britannia, so I had begun to assume that was yet another difference between here and the world I had once known. Andrella mentioned that apparently the Shrines only spoke when someone performed an extraordinary deed. Or, when one was on a quest, I mused, which seemed to make perfect sense. After all, I had usually been on a quest of some sort each of my visits to the Britannia I knew. I was feeling almost lightheaded with happiness at finally seeing Guthnor find the rest he deserved. The day was still young, so I decided to celebrate by moving. Earlier, I had promised to move to Northwind once the issue with Guthnor was cleared up. After all, I no longer felt compelled to keep watch over Guthnor's house, although I still wanted to keep my rune for that clearing, as a memorial. So Andrella and Sygil assisted me in carrying all of my things. Andrella sold me a house directly across from Connor's that had just been vacated. It was larger than the one I'd had before, and quite nice. I just barely had enough gold for it, counting the gold I received from selling my old home. Actually, I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it, but Andrella and Sygil kept giving me gold despite my protests, and urging me to buy it. So I did. It's so roomy, I don't even have enough things to fill it up yet. But give me enough time, and I'm sure I'll manage! The previous owner of the house had left behind his double bed, complete with lots of blankets and fluffy pillows. I dropped onto the soft covers that night with a content sigh. For the first time in a long time, I went to sleep pleased and at peace. [2/15/2003] Why that lousy, no good, rotting corpse of-- . . . Okay, forgive that blotch of ink up there on the page. That was me grinding my quill into the paper in frustration. I hate quills. Where was I? Oh yes! It's truly amazing how much can happen in a single day. But let me start at the beginning... Spurred by Andrella's idea, I obtained a few Incognito scrolls and decided what I was going to do. I was going to dress as a guard and walk into Blackthorn's castle in full view. Nobody ever pays the guards any heed, and there are always guards wandering the castle, even the third floor, so I figured I would be as good as invisible. The goal: to obtain the rod of magis, assuming it was still there. This would serve several purposes. One, I wanted to give it back to Nystul, its rightful owner. And two, it would be a piece of solid proof against Blackthorn, seeing as to how Nystul's rod that was stolen by Soth had somehow managed to not only find its way into Blackthorn's castle, but Blackthorn had also not made an effort to return it. The first thing I did was visit Blackthorn's castle to see what his guards were wearing. They were all in full plate, male and female alike, so no female plate to worry about. They did have Chaos shields and I had no idea how to obtain one or even a lookalike, so I decided to carry a halberd instead. After all, many of the town guards carry halberds and who in their right mind would wield a shield while using a halberd? This would thus justify my lack of a Chaos shield. Finally, I noted that most of the guards were wearing doublets or sashes of some shade of salmon pink. The color varied, so I supposed there was no rigid uniform dress code. I assumed as long as I got close enough, it would do. Heading to Skara Brae, I went on a shopping spree and purchased a full set of plate armor and a halberd and a doublet, stopping briefly at the bank to grab my dye tub and tint the doublet salmon pink. Then I hauled the entire stash to the inn where I rented a room for an hour so I could try everything on without anyone stumbling across me. I pulled off everything I was wearing, down to the earrings and all, and shrugged into my disguise. As I wandered the room to get a feel for it, I was reminded as to why I don't wear plate. Ugh, too restrictive. But that was okay, all I needed to do was walk anyway, or at least I hoped so. I figured if Blackthorn somehow saw through my plot, I would be as good as dead because I would probably trip over the armor when I tried to run. Maybe I would throw my halberd at him to confuse him, then run... I shoved the thought to the back of my mind and carefully packed away my costume. I didn't want anyone to see me walking around in it--word would certainly carry back to Blackthorn. There was one more thing to do. I took an Incognito scroll and my costume and went out into the woods where there wasn't a soul in sight, not even a wandering healer. It was important that I wasn't seen. I cast the Incognito on myself, and pulled myself into my costume just for practice. Then I walked to the water and gazed at my reflection, marveling at how I looked like a different person. I carefully timed the effects of the Incognito, wandering the woods idly while waiting for it to wear off and practicing the disinterested look of the guards. Every few seconds I'd look at myself and make sure the spell was still working. When the Incognito finally wore off, I estimated about seven minutes. Not bad, but not a lot either, since I knew I would have to cast it before the bridge to Blackthorn's castle. I had discovered while trying to Recall that there was an anti-magic shield around the castle walls, probably to keep people from teleporting in, and that would block my Incognito as well. I figured I would have five minutes inside the castle, since I would need to reserve the other two for getting in and out safely. And all of this at a dead walk. Well, it would have to be enough. Putting on my clothes and gathering my disguise, I went back to town and deposited the items that I didn't need. I would carry my own clothing with me, so that I could change back as soon as possible afterward. My bow was tucked into my pack rather than being laced across my back, and I lightened my load of unnecessary things. I added my invisibility ring just in case, and the Incognito scroll. Then, carefully hidden, I got into my costume. I would Recall to my destination in it--assuming the plate armor didn't block the spell--since guards teleport themselves around a lot, so I hoped if anyone saw me pop in, they wouldn't think anything of it. Finally, I took a deep breath to steady my nerves and Recalled to the spot I had marked outside Blackthorn's castle. Once there, I hid behind a tree and used another Incognito scroll. The instant I felt the spell take effect I gripped my halberd and started moving at a fast walk. I was tense inside and had to force myself to walk instead of run. Keeping my face dead of any expression, I went inside the castle walls and began to work my way toward the stairs. I walked boldly straight by the guards within the castle, and they didn't bat an eye. I had noticed that they seemed to rotate a lot, so that I rarely saw the same guard twice on any two given days. This was working to my advantage. No one seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. Forcing myself to breathe normally, I walked stiffly in the plate armor through the halls, all the while mentally coaching myself in how to mimic the other guards. Don't run, walk. And don't walk like you have a goal in mind, just wander idly. Take a few steps and stop. Then take a few more and change direction. Stare blankly at the walls. Oh, who was I fooling? I was way too full of adrenaline to put up with that. I worked my way up the stairs as quickly as I dared, barely able to keep myself at a walk and remind myself to pause every once in a while. I lifted the lid of the chest hurriedly. The contents didn't seem to have changed. Quickly I snatched the rod of magis and tucked it into my pack, then closed the lid as quietly as I could and turned my back to it, trying to look nonchalant in case anyone came in. I took another deep breath to steady my rapidly pounding heart. Okay, the worst of it was over. Now just to get out of there. I didn't think I could Recall out--sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't, which implied to me Blackthorn had only specific areas blocked from magic, and I had no idea where those areas were. Best not to take the chance of having someone hear me say "Kal Ort Por" without me actually disappearing. Turning, I started for the stairs. I had walked half of the way back across the room when I heard a noise behind me and saw Blackthorn appear in the middle of the room out of nowhere. He practically landed on my head. It was all I could do to keep myself from crying out in surprise--or simply turning and running for all I was worth. After a brief moment of panic, my racing nerves realized that Blackthorn hadn't given me a second glance. I forced myself to do my guard thing rather than race for the stairs, wandering aimlessly in that direction rather than going in a straight line. I heard Blackthorn moving around behind me, going about his business. He never spoke to me. I was tempted to stick around in the event that I might see or overhear something interesting, but in my nervousness I had lost track of the time and I wasn't sure how much I had left before I reverted back to my own appearance. This was not something I wanted to have happen while I was standing in front of Blackthorn. Not that it wouldn't be funny to watch his expression, but I was sure that amusing sight would be the last thing I saw other than the walls of a jail room for a very long time to come. Once I got down the stairs, I started breathing a little easier, but I still wouldn't be content until I was out of there. I probably took more of a beeline to the exit than I should have, but the guards still ignored me, and at any rate, I figured once I hit that teleportation tile on the inside of Blackthorn's gates, I would be safe. In fact, as soon as I was outside the outer walls of the castle, I broke into a dead run and raced across the bridge to the tree where I had hidden previously. Once there I immediately cast Recall, then cast it again when my heavy armor--or maybe just my racing heart--fizzled the spell the first time. Luckily, the second time carried me away, and I was safe. I landed outside my new house in Northwind. I never even paid attention to whether the Incognito had worn off yet or not. I dashed inside and closed the door, then quickly peeled off my entire disguise and replaced it with my own clothes. I placed the rod of magis away into safe storage. I took a deep, steadying breath. And then I collapsed in limp relief onto my bed. I still couldn't believe I had pulled it off, and walked right by Blackthorn without being noticed. I sat up with the desire to tell Andrella what I had accomplished, and quickly went to the keep. Here I discovered a number of members gathered for the circle of eight. We had scheduled a specific time and that time was not yet upon us, but since everyone was present, we decided to go ahead and start early. I wasn't about to hold things up with my news for Andrella, so I simply told her I had something to say to her later, then took my place on the bench.
"Hurry," Dupré called to us. "The shamans are preparing the gates." Walkyrie finished chanting and a scroll materialized on the grass a few steps in front of her. It was practically pulsing with power. She picked it up, and we returned the stones to Andrella for safekeeping. And not a moment too soon. Moongates appeared in front of Northwind keep and orcs and ettins began to pour from them.
Another wave came, but this one was smaller and we handled it much better. Dupré spoke up that we seemed to have a handle on things, and that he needed to leave for an important meeting at Serpent's Hold. We bid him farewell, and he told me he would speak with me later. The next few hours were consumed with multiple waves of orcs. It seemed we would beat them all off, then half an hour or an hour later, another round would appear. At one point, a single orc shaman came by himself. When we killed him, we discovered a note from Soth on his body. In it, Soth threatened that next time he would send Ophidians instead of orcs. I should mention that Blackthorn himself had also once hinted that Soth may use Ophidians against us, threatening us in his usual roundabout way. What he had actually said was that there was a particular staff, an artifact, which was a symbol of peace between the humans and the Ophidians. If the staff should be destroyed, Blackthorn had said in his oily manner, then the Ophidians would consider peace to be shattered and would attack en masse. Of course, he didn't come right out and say why he was telling us this, but his warning was clear: Soth was trying to destroy the staff so as to indirectly turn the Ophidians against us. During one of the lulls between orc attacks, I took Andrella aside and showed her the rod of magis. We spent some time discussing what course of action was best. If I came right out and told Lord British where I had gotten the rod, it would appear as though I was making baseless accusations against Blackthorn, which might not reflect highly of me. After all, there were all sorts of excuses Blackthorn could use, so it was back to being my word against his again. After some thought, we decided it was best to talk to Nystul alone, return his rod, and simply tell him I had found it in a "hideout" that Soth had been known to frequent. This too had its potential consequences, as it was a half truth at best. But it seemed to be the lesser evil to us at the time.
Jaana explained to us that Lord British, Nystul, and even Dupré were all at Serpent's Hold in a meeting regarding the staff of peace. She explained the staff's properties. It was a magical treasure that had been carried for years by priests. It had to always be held by a person, and that person was unable to travel by magical means such as Recall or Gate. Given Soth's warnings about using Ophidians against us, Lord British decided to take extra measures and have the staff sent to Serpent's Hold for safe-keeping. Unfortunately, the Ophidian queen wasn't very happy about this, and demanded that it be sent back. The diplomat that he is, Lord British agreed, and even now the staff was on a ship on its way back to the mainland. Still concerned for its safety, Lord British thus decided he wanted Dupré to be the one holding it. Dupré, it seems, wasn't terribly happy about this suggestion, not because of his own safety but because those around him guarding him would be put in danger. There was also an issue in which Dupré, not being a priest, would have to personally ask the Ophidian queen for permission to be the staff bearer. This would involve a treacherous journey through the lair of spiders, and thus he could not possibly go alone. Even so, he would not want to risk the lives of others to be his escort. It seemed to be an impasse. Jaana spoke of nightmares that she had kept to herself because she knew no one else would believe her. She knew if the staff was destroyed, the result would be terrible. She also knew that there were threats on Dupré's life, and that he would be hunted mercilessly. Andrella and I listened as she explained this to us. We then immediately pledged RBW's support in providing Dupré's escort. I promised Jaana I would not let Dupré's fear for our safety cause him to turn us away. Dupré may be stubborn, I said, but he knows I am more stubborn still. According to Jaana, the staff would reach the mainland in about a week. So that did give us a little time to prepare, although Dupré could go ask for permission at any time. But before that, what we had to do was tell Dupré. It would seem that he did not yet know that he would have to seek out the queen of the Ophidians. We received permission from Jaana to be the ones to break this news to him, as we would have to in order to explain our offer to him. And, of course, the first thing to do was inform the rest of RBW that they had just been signed up for this quest. Andrella and I thanked Jaana and made our way out of the castle. We had to admit this wasn't at all the outcome we had expected. We left the castle and for the next few hours were occupied with a few more small waves of orcs. Finally, I found Dupré again. Andrella was busy elsewhere, but Sygil and Balinor and I went with Dupré to a tavern for some ale where I would break the news to him. The conversation, however, ended up starting with the rod of magis. Dupré had heard from Nystul that I had found it, and he said that it was important that Nystul have it back. He explained that Nystul himself was the type who would never personally ask for it, and that was why he had downplayed its importance when I had spoken to him earlier. I was quite glad by this point that I had gone back to retrieve the rod, and told Dupré I had it safely tucked away and would return it to Nystul as soon as possible. Dupré said he had asked to speak with me because he wanted to know where I had gotten the rod. He didn't fall for our "just one of Soth's hideouts" line. "I was rather hoping you had gotten it from you know who's," Dupré said, referring to Blackthorn in a roundabout way because there were other people in the bar. So I spilled the beans and told him as much about the true origin of the rod as I could while still being vague enough so that any of the tavern's other customers wouldn't know what I was talking about. At this point, Balinor asked us who this "you know who" was that we kept referring to. We laughed and said, "You know who!" It was funny until a barkeep, Tai I believe his name was, suddenly spoke up loudly, "They're talking about Lord Blackthorn!" I about fell off my stool. Dupré shook his head and commented that maybe we should take this conversation somewhere else. We all agreed wholeheartedly, and left the tavern in due haste. Darn barkeep. I was sure this would get back to Blackthorn, and that wasn't going to be pleasant.
We have since placed it outside in the courtyard, with a recall rune that I prepared that leads to the memorial at the Shrine of Justice. However, I'm getting ahead of myself. The conversation turned finally to the Ophidians and the situation with the staff. There was a lot of back and forth, but the end of the matter was Dupré said the staff was safer in priests' hands. He said many would not blink to kill him, but that few would dare to attack a priest. I could find no way to counter that argument, so I figured it would have to be Lord British who would change his mind. Dupré had to leave shortly thereafter. When I was able to speak to Andrella again, I recounted what had been said, and mentioned that the rod was more important than Nystul had let on. This got me asking if there was anything else that I should have grabbed from Blackthorn's castle as well--and if I should go back for them. I had mentioned this to Dupré as well, but he had told me not to risk it. The mandrake and other herbs I had seen, while rare specimens, were still not impossible to replace. Dupré also mentioned that Blackthorn was never happy to hear my name brought up, which I found fairly amusing, although I suppose I should be worried. At any rate, while I was trying to explain the mandrake that I had seen, and the fact that it wasn't your average spell component, Andrella said she thought there was such a mandrake on display at the Rares Museum. So we headed over to the museum together to find out. I paused to admire the display case that is now on the ground floor, where the eight stones of Virtue are resting peacefully, a rainbow of glory. At the ground floor, Garn and Blackthorn were examining the case with the stones of Virtue. "What brings you here?" I demanded as I entered the room. They turned at the sound of my voice. "Kianne," Blackthorn growled through clenched teeth. If the situation hadn't been so serious, I might have laughed out loud--his reaction was identical to what Dupré had described earlier. Andrella came down, and we had a very unenlightening conversation where Blackthorn claimed he had come merely to see the stones. He kept tapping on the glass of the case, as if testing its strength, and of course putting us all on edge. Others arrived when they heard what was going on. "Sorry I'm late," Sygil apologized as he came in. "What's going on?" "They decided to drop in on us unexpectedly," I explained to him. Not that I don't do that to him, I was thinking privately, when Blackthorn commented icily, "Like you do me? Kianne." Startled, I tried to look innocent. I don't think I pulled it off. Blackthorn started for the door. "Kianne, let it be known: My guards have seen you sneak into my castle. We met up with Adweigan and Sygil and learned that Blackthorn and Garn had left. As we stood on a cobblestone path discussing Blackthorn's appearance, I was suddenly beset with a flurry of spells. Turns out a Liche Lord had appeared as if from nowhere and for whatever reason had decided to target me. The others immediately counterattacked while I moved out of range to heal. They pretty much took care of the threat before I could even get done with the bandaging. Sygil and Adweigan decided that Blackthorn had unleashed the Liche Lord on us. "Send something with better loot!" they teased. An instant later, a dracholich--an undead dragon--appeared. At least this one I spotted from a distance and was able to help defeat. As we felled the creature, I stood near its corpse and frowned. This wasn't right, I was thinking. These were all undead creatures, and the one who summoned undead things was... I never saw what hit me. All I knew was a sudden disorienting flash of pain, and by the time I was able to pull myself together, I was hovering as a ghost over my body and everyone else was scattering in all directions. To my utter shock, Soth was chasing them off and killing them all effortlessly. For the first time, I had experienced no forewarning that he had come. There had been no chill in the air, no sense of evil. I hadn't detected him at all before he'd come by and simply killed me with a single blast. It frightened me more than dying, because if I couldn't see him coming... I shook my head and debated what to do. I couldn't see everyone from where I stood, but if Soth had killed all of the others, no one would be left to raise us. That would mean I would have to run down to the ankh by the keep to be raised. I had turned and taken a few steps in that direction when I saw that Soth was heading back toward my corpse. Cold dread clenched in me, and helplessly I ran back to stand protectively over my body. "Not again..." I sighed. Soth seemed to be in an odd hurry. He never spoke a word, neither to taunt nor to offer warnings. He snatched up my body, carelessly letting the heavy backpack fall to the ground, and hurried northward. I abandoned everything and ran after him, determined to follow him this time. But he moved with inhuman speed, and I finally lost sight of him. It amazes me sometimes how he can move so quickly without appearing to be going at faster than a walk... Without knowing what to do, I returned to where my corpse had been and sighed again, staring down at the backpack lying forlornly in the grass. Navien came by at this point and raised me with a Resurrection spell. I thanked him, growled at Soth, and picked up my pack, pulling out my weapons. As we rejoined the others, I explained to them that Soth had taken my body again.
The rest of us were still discussing things, oblivious to Navien's troubles, when Navien's golem showed up. It couldn't have been more than six minutes from the time Soth killed him, Navien said. Add to the things to be frightened about was the speed with which Soth had created the golem. It was no longer a matter of weeks or days now... It was a matter of minutes. The golem turned out to be extraordinarily powerful; it picked us off one by one, and was even able to find me while I was hidden as if I was standing in plain sight. I have no idea how it was able to do that. At first, we were losing badly to it, but as soon as we were able to regroup and attack it as a team, the battle went smoothly. Even so, Adweigan couldn't help but wonder where the golem had learned to wrestle. It would seem Soth was making golems with different and stronger abilities than their host...
We didn't see my golem that night, so I can only dread its next appearance. Curse it all, I had thought we had gotten past this issue. Now I had to tell Connor it was back to the code phrases again... "Next time," I said to Adweigan and Sygil, "don't beg for something more powerful, okay?" [2/16/2003] As I sit here and write this, I uneasily note that as far as we know, Soth did not take any other bodies that night other than mine and Navien's. It seems odd to me, since he killed just about everyone who was there, so why did he pass up all those convenient bodies? I sincerely hope that he took mine only for revenge on me for annoying him to death (I think I made a punny...). Because if it was pre-calculated, then that could only mean he has something specific in mind for my golem, and I fear we will only discover his plan once it is carried out. At any rate, today had an interesting twist. Garn showed up in Northwind and sparked quite a bit of back-and-forth between the other members of RBW. Finally, they took it to the Duel Pits. I went along to watch and perhaps participate, although the Duel Pits were never my thing. To our surprise, Blackthorn appeared after a few minutes, apparently to do his own watching (and perhaps a little healing of Garn while he was at it). Andrella and I exchanged glances. "Keep me informed," I told her using private telepathy. Private telepathy was much more complicated to use than the usual global broadcasting everyone used, but Andrella and I had been practicing it lately. She nodded, and I quickly ran off. If both Blackthorn and Garn were occupied in the Duel Pits... I slipped into Blackthorn's castle with my invisibility ring in my pack, avoiding guards the manual way. As far as I know, none of them saw me, but then I had thought that before too, and Blackthorn had found out about me anyway. Of course, it's possible Soth had told Blackthorn I was in his castle, since it was no secret to Soth... I had just made it to the third floor of the castle when Andrella's private warning came to me. "Blackthorn's going back! Get out of there!" I nearly cursed out loud, grabbing the ring and sliding it onto my finger and barreling down the stairs at a dead run. From previous experience, I expected Blackthorn to teleport straight into the third floor, which would leave me fairly safe once I was on a floor or two below him, provided he didn't look out any windows. However, as I emerged into the ground-floor courtyard in front of the gates, I was startled to see Blackthorn walking toward his castle on foot. And just as I streaked by him, the invisiblity wore out on my ring. I almost cursed again, but there was no time, not even enough time to activate the ring again. I just kept blindly running, not looking back, wondering if at any moment I would be struck down. My feet touched the teleportation plate at the front gates, and the magic swept me up and deposited me outside. When my feet touched the cobblestones of the bridge, I was still running. I didn't slow down and I didn't stop until I reached the grassy area where I knew magic would work, and Recalled away. It took me a little while to catch my breath. Andrella was looking for me to see if I was all right. I told her what had happened, then decided we ought to tell Lord British after all. As it was, he was bound to start hearing it from Blackthorn soon. Of course, Blackthorn couldn't prove I had stolen anything without pointing to the rod of magis, and if Blackthorn confirmed I had found that in his castle, he would be condemning himself, so that evidence was unusable for him. However, we finally decided to talk to Nystul first if we could, and at any rate, I still needed to return his rod. We went to Lord British's castle and still couldn't find Nystul, but Lord British himself was in his chambers, preparing for a meeting. He gave us audience for a few minutes, and explained that Nystul was already away for the meeting that would take place shortly. I decided on the spot to give the rod to Lord British, and he could give it to Nystul, since it was seeming that it was going to take too long for me to encounter Nystul myself. Since British had to leave, we kept the conversation short, which meant skipping the story of finding the rod in Blackthorn's castle. Oh well, another time perhaps. Lord British didn't even ask where I had gotten the rod until we were on our way out. I explained to him him that it was a long story and I would tell it when we had more time. He let it go at that, and Andrella and I made our leave. [2/17/2003] Today, I heard disturbing news from Sygil. He or Juno could tell the story better, but as I understand it, apparently Soth somehow managed to snag a good deal of Juno's items, including a suit of armor, his pets, and about 60,000 gold. He then proceeded to call Sygil out and demand that Sygil give him his RBW cloak in exchange for Juno's things. Sygil refused, and even Juno urged him not to give in to Soth. As Soth threatened to take Sygil's flesh instead, the two quickly Recalled away to bustling cities where Soth did not follow. "Soth wants an RBW cloak for my golem!" I let out as Sygil related these events to us. I then proceeded to mutter a few choice words. Andrella agreed with me, since my body was the only one left as far as we knew. Navien's had been difficult enough to take down. As Soth gets more practice, his golems are getting more powerful. What, now, will a golem be like with an RBW cloak? [2/19/2003] I was chatting with Sygil and Adweigan when we received summons that orcs were attacking Northwind again. They had been doing that off and on over the past few days, as if trying to wear us down. We went down and took care of them, and after they were defeated and we were going through the loot, Dupré came. He said he had heard about the orcs and come to offer his support, but that he was too late. We chuckled and thanked him for the thought anyway. While he was there, Dupré told me he needed to speak with me. We spent a few minutes trying to decide where to sit and talk (Dupré wanted a tavern, no surprise, but I pointed out that taverns have people that overhear things). Finally Dupré seemed to change his mind. "Perhaps Saturday," he said, and bid us all good travels.
After talking a bit, we decided to check out the Yew orc fort and see if mercenaries had started showing up there. This trip was short and uneventful. The orcs were all the standard, garden variety and not much of a threat. We also paid a visit to the Cove orc fort, where for a while we didn't see any Clan mercenaries. Finally a hunter showed up and gave us a bit of trouble before we took it down. We decided there was no point going further into the fort, so we retired back to Northwind. As I sit and write this now, to candlelight in the evening, I realize I can't help but wonder what was on Dupré's mind. And now I have to wait until Saturday...? [02/21/2003] Today I learned of surprising news. Last night, orcs attacked en masse again, and Balinor was the only one there to fight them off. Navien and Adweigan arrived after a time, but so did Soth, who started taking bodies as people went down. Adweigan, the new warden that Andrella had chosen to replace the one that had been killed attacking Blackthorn, decided to have a little fun at Soth's expense. Using his warden's axe, he proceeded to jail Soth. To my surprise as I listened to the recounting of this story, the magic of the axe actually worked, and Soth was transported to the Yew jails. Of course, Soth teleported himself out immediately thereafter, the magic barriers not strong enough to stop the likes of him. And of course Soth promptly killed Adweigan for his transgression and took his axe.  Nevertheless, I couldn't help myself. I about died laughing when I heard this story. I had always thought I had a knack for irritating my enemies, but Adweigan takes the cake!At any rate, Soth showed up again today, calling for us to meet him at the RBW Keep. We gathered there, and he warned us not to speak. He wasn't bluffing either; every time someone said a word, no matter what it was, he killed the person, then took his flesh. It was quite awful. Once Soth got around to explaining his reason for being there, he stated that he had once feared us, but now he considered us cowards. He had decided that making golems in the shape of RBW members was foolheardy because they inherited our weaknesses. I rolled my eyes--let him think what he wants to think. No more clones of us would be a good thing in my view. Soth also warned that he was creating a new type of golem--one much more powerful. He also mentioned that he creates such golems using flesh--the flesh from the bodies he's been taking, no doubt. Laughing darkly, he disappeared. I went to my house then and Adweigan came by to visit, but just as he stepped through the door, he vanished into thin air. I blinked, looking around, and wondering where he went. The next I heard of him, he was calling a meeting of all RBW. Finally, Adweigan related to us, something unexpected happened. The paralyze wore off before Soth was ready for it to. Adweigan immediately bolted down the hallway, and managed to see a bit of the hideout before Soth caught up to him and teleported him away from the place. Adweigan is sure that the hideout is the same twisted tunnels that we had found before. The tunnels are sealed off now with a brick wall, but I wondered if we could get into them. Unfortunately, it turns out the red moongate which led to the tunnels has vanished. Figures Soth would know better than to leave it there if he's still using the same hideout. [02/22/2003] This morning I got pulled into...fishing. Yes, hook, line, and sinker. Well, no sinker, just a hook and line. Actually, it was a lot more entertaining than I had anticipated. And it was a good way to pass the time until I was able to speak with Dupré again, and finally find out what was on his mind. We sat in the Keep again, chatting over ale and bread and meat, as before. The conversation was...surprising. Dupré said he had changed his mind and would carry the Serpent's Staff after all. He had learned that my ideas, though often crazy, usually lead to beneficial outcomes. So he was willing to follow my advice once again, so many years later. I was honored. We reminisced a little about the "good old days" when we adventured in a small group and roamed the entire planet on quests. I sometimes miss those times. But Dupré has his place now, and I have mine in RBW. Yet that doesn't mean we will abandon each other. We discussed briefly the task before us. We would need a lot more people, but we also had a little bit of time to prepare. I told Dupré I would let him know when we were gathered and ready. He had a meeting he had to be getting off to, so we had to keep the conversation relatively short. As we walked outside the keep, we practically walked into another orc invasion. Dupré helped us fight them off, but in the middle of the battle, Garn showed up and just stood there, not making a move to lend a hand. "Dupré, you're needed at the meeting," he said to the paladin, who was currently parrying blows from three or four orcs at once. "Can't you see he's busy?" I grumbled, trying to shoot the orcs off Dupré with my bow. Garn just turned. "Don't keep the lords waiting," he responded cooly, and vanished. Of all the nerve. Dupré seemed used to it and didn't respond. When we'd finished off the first wave of orcs, he apologized and said he had to leave. We assured him it was fine and thanked him for his help. More orcs showed up after that, but we defeated them. Andrella and I were standing together in front of the keep after one such attack. Suddenly a strange, midnight black zombie popped into existance. At least, that's what it looked like. Its form wasn't even really substantial, but instead it was like looking through a human-shaped tear into the night sky--into a..void, like the void surrounding the Shrine of Spirituality, dotted with blue stars.
For a short while it was just Andrella and I...and Soth, who decided to appear and watch the show. For the most part he just stood around and watched, but when I was felled by a rapid fire of three Flamestrikes in a row, I saw as a ghost Soth come over and tear the flesh from my corpse. Andrella raised me, but had to run off to avoid the golem. I was still pulling myself together and trying to find her when she went down. It was the first time Soth got her body. I was a few seconds too late to raise her in time to prevent it--not that it would have mattered, I suppose, since the golem was standing nearby and probably would have simply killed her again before either of us could heal. It was frustrating. At any rate, I have no idea how it happened, but we finally brought down the golem. I even tried my ancient katana on it, but that didn't seem to do any damage either. I guess you just have to hack away at them until finally their defenses fall and blows start to do damage. It wasn't very long after that when another black void golem appeared. But, Soth had left and reinforcements were arriving. It was three or so of us that took down the next one...then another appeared, then two more in rapid succession. By then, five or six of us were struggling to deal with three very slow but very powerful golems at once. I began to wonder if it would ever end. Finally, after the three were destroyed, we stood with bated breath and waited for another to appear. But nothing happened. Apparently, Soth had momentarily run out of ammo. This does not bode well. On one hand, it's nice to not have to worry as much about seeing clones of each other, although I plan to continue to be careful in any event. But on the other hand, the black void golems take a lot of punishment before they go down. Still, I reflected, Navien's golem had killed a lot more of us in a shorter time, because he was faster and his magic was stronger. I personally felt Soth had made a foolish decision, on his part, in discounting the strength of RBW. However, that is his loss; I'm certainly not going to point it out to him.
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Lord British made clear that RBW was not to answer to such petty laws, since we, being dimensional travelers, have our own codes of honor. We, on the other hand, assured him that RBW would nevertheless follow the law of the land out of respect for Lord British. Blackthorn, who was on relatively good behavior as he always was when Lord British was around, claimed that Garn would have done no such thing, but promised to have a word with his guard anyway, just in case. Then, probably to cast the light of blame from himself and Garn, Blackthorn proceeded to blame the warden for the event and relieve him from his post. To my utter distress, the warden did not take this well and decided to attack Blackthorn in retaliation. Before the rest of us could barely open our mouths in surprise, the lightning-fast reflexes of the town guards struck the warden down.
We prepared for the battle immediately, while the sun was yet high in the sky. While this was going on, I went to Blackthorn's castle to see if I could discover Soth's whereabouts and thus get a one-up on his plans. Andrella had earlier just that day given me a wonderful gift--a cloak of invisibility. This treasure was far better than the ring, as its effects were permanent as long as I did not perform an action which would reveal myself. Under this cloak, I was able to walk right into the castle and past the guards without having to carefully stealth my way through. And almost to my surprise, I did indeed find Soth in the castle, on the second floor. He was in the room with the table, examining each of the items carefully. I have no idea what he was up to. After some time of this, he went upstairs, and I followed silently, breathing carefully under the hood of my cloak. Soth led me directly to a chest that had been hidden behind a wall on the third floor, and examined its contents. After this, he seemed to grow bored and began summoning hideous and evil creatures. Unfortunately for him, one of the castle guards reacted in the usual manner and put his halberd of justice to the creatures, felling them all. Soth growled at the man, demanding to know why he had done that. "We do not tolerate monsters in the castle," the guard with the Chaos shield replied (I had to wonder at this point why they tolerated Soth, but evidently they had been so instructed by Blackthorn). Soth growled again. "Then die," he spat out, and immediately killed the guard. I winced, but remained hidden. The words I had once heard so long ago rang in my ears again. "A chap who can point at you and say 'die' has a distinct advantage." Here and now, that "chap" was Soth.
To our surprise, a few moments later the golem's ghost appeared. Balinormade a comment about how they'd raised her before, so we all immediately urged"Don't raise her!" We did try to communicate with her using Spirit Speak, but shecouldn't or wouldn't respond. She simply stood there for a while. Then awandering healer came along and, not understanding our situation, reacted toseeing a ghost by raising it. We all called to the healer not to do it, buttoo late.
At any rate, where was I? Oh yes! Once we were prepared, we went into the Sin hideout via a red moongate. The entrance room contained another Chaos shrine like the one that I had found in Blackthorn's castle. Andrella said the red obelisks had powers of resurrection, which would be handy. Through a gate was the first room of the stronghold. And it was packed with Sin members.
I was happy to see Dupré again after a long while; I was able to discuss the clones with him in person, and he assured me that the town guards had yet to be fooled by one, which made me feel a lot better. We also went in a small group to a dungeon, where Dupré was looking for some scales off a crystal dragon. They were amazing beasts, translucent so you could practically see right through them.
If Nystul's guess was correct, we simply had to demonstrate somehow that Guthnor had a good soul and was worthy of an afterlife. We decided to take him to the Shrine of Justice and have him rest at his memorial tombstone. After all, he had selflessly given his life to protect Dupré and the Shrine from the Order of Sin. I could think of no more ultimate sacrifice than that.
Andrella, Sygil, and I exchanged happy grins.
The ankh gave Sygil a powerful vampiric bow, an extremely rare item. Andrella was gifted with a ring of radiance, and I... I almost laughed at the sheer irony, because the ankh gave me a bag of holding. My very own little window into my bank box, with 13 charges.
We moved to a clearing near the keep where we had space to stand in a circle around Walkyrie. One by one, Walkyrie named the holders of the stones of Virtue, and which stone each would hold. Andrella passed them out. I was given the purple stone of Honor, which I cupped protectively in my hands. Once we were all given stones and in place, Walkyrie raised her hands and began to chant Words of Power foreign to Britannia.
We traveled to Lord British's castle together, but there was no sign of Nystul. We encountered Jaana in the library, and it was all I could do to keep myself from blurting out references to the adventures I had experienced with another world's Jaana.
We retired to Northwind Keep, where Dupré pulled out a huge stash of ale, wine, and various food items. I still can't figure out how he can fight while carrying all this stuff without breaking his bottles. Sitting around the table upstairs, we began to continue the conversation when Dupré suddenly stood up and said he had something for us. He proceeded to pull out a statue of an ettin almost half his size, and placed it on the floor for us to see. The little plaque read "Guthnor of Justice." While we were awing over it, Dupré commented that it was Iolo's handiwork. "Put it where all can see."
Nevertheless, I promised him that we would help if he ever needed our aid. Even though I hadn't yet discussed it with the rest of RBW, I knew there would be enough who would feel the same way. Also, it helped that Connor was able to arrive halfway through the conversation, so I explained to him the task which we had assigned to RBW. I tease, but of course he agreed with me, and didn't mind our jumping the flag a little.
Then I followed Andrella through the three floors of the museum, but she couldn't find the herb. While we were on the roof, I happened to glance down and was startled to see Blackthorn and Garn heading for the museum's door. "Uh oh," I said, and quickly ran down the stairs, knowing Andrella would follow me even if she hadn't personally spotted them. I didn't want to take the time to explain.
Better hope I never catch you." Then he turned and left the museum, with Garn and everyone but Andrella and I trailing behind, probably to keep an eye on him or to continue the conversation. Once we were alone, I traded glances with Andrella. "Well, it could be worse," I commented to her sheepishly. "He could have jailed me on the spot."
Here is where it gets even more strange. I did not learn what happened until afterward, but it turns out Navien called out using telepathy, trying to contact Soth and offer his body in exchange for mine. I would have whacked him if I'd known what he was getting himself into. Soth's reaction is what surprised me. He actually teleported Navien to his new hideout. Navien couldn't really identify where he was, but he said the room had the same sort of necromancy instruments as the one in the twisted tunnels, and was also a cavern like the tunnels had been. Navien said Soth turned down his offer, killed him, took his body, and sent his ghost back to Northwind. It was so frighteningly efficient, I'm starting to realize Soth could be even more trouble than we ever dreamed--and I already knew he was bad news from the start.
We defeated the clone, chopped up its body, and recovered the items from it. Navien's ghost found us around then, and we raised him and returned his things. I had been lucky--my items had fallen away from the body when Soth had taken it. Navien's had all been on his golem.
We were at this point in front of Northwind Keep, looking at Guthnor's memorial. Someone spoke up that the memorial had changed slightly since last I had seen it, so we all went to see. And sure enough, to either side of the stone were perpetual sparks of dancing light. I don't know where they came from, but they really add to the memorial.
Apparently, Soth had taken him to his hideout, evidently to taunt at him and probably to punish him for jailing him. He kept Adweigan paralyzed while he talked, and even went so far as to return his warden's axe, which surprised me to no end. Of course, Soth had no reason to fear the axe, although I'm still sure being jailed annoyed him to as much of a degree as a creature like him can feel emotions.
"Ack," I gasped, a little Earth lingo slipping through. Andrella and I immediately engaged it. It was pretty slow, but that was about its only weakness; it hit hard, could cast high level magic, and seemed all but immune to our blows.