Chapter 31 - Roma - Teclan waters

Two weeks had passed and the ship was ready to sail. Now came the time to recruit a small crew.

Mushamee went to the 1st Cohort's camp and asked Salvatore to check for any legionnaire who knew his way around a boat. Salvatore said he would ask around and sent anyone he found to the pier the next morning. Rufus went to his Patron and asked the same thing. The senator said he would do some inquiries and asked Rufus to come back the next day.

Kaeso used the day to create Tenosian (Greek) Fire. A critical success on his Alchemy roll allowed him to produce a barrel full of the stuff. He also had the time to build a small, portable catapult he installed at the front of the ship.

The rest of us got busy buying as much food as possible. We quickly realized, however, that the small size of the boat made it impossible for us to make the 22-day trip without stopping. Luckily, there was plenty of cities on our way south to buy all the food we needed. We also got $300 in unminted silver from the Emperor and exchanged most of our personal money for silver (silver is the most common currency in Teclá).

This same night, Recnam tried to communicate with the Serpent Queen. Using his luck, he succeeded and was transported in the dream world. The Queen was still sitting at the same place, with her two servants moving their tree branches up and down. Recnam asked her about the gathering of artifacts, what it meant, and if it was the thing we had to stop. The Queen said one thousand years ago, four artifacts had been brought together for a ritual destined to open the door to a magical armageddon (although she didn't say if it was knowingly or not). At the last minute, heroes stole the four artifacts and disperse them around the world so they would never be used together again. Now it seems the Inquisitors wants to perform this same ritual, as one of the four items she mentioned is the Holy Stone we are asked to steal. The description of the ritual can be found in the Tome of Power we stole from the Imperial Library. Aside from the stone in Teclá, there is (IIRC) one object in the Barbarian territory to the far North, one in the west, and one on a volcanic island to the east of the Empire.

The next morning, Rufus went to see the senator again; he was told a captain and navigator were waiting for us on the pier. The senator also gave him a scroll in Teclan describing the stone we had to steal for the Inquisitors, and the miriad of curses who would fall on whoever steal it.

Meanwhile, Recnam mentioned to the other he'd like to bring zombies on board the ship. Leif and Mushamee immediately objected, Leif because he thinks all undead are demons, Mushamee because it could frightened our crew. Leif even said he would destroy any undead on sight. Recnam replied that if he ever did that, there would be dire consequences for him for he would go directly against the will of Necros.

We all went to the piers, except for Recnam who went to the city morgue to buy skeleton parts. When we arrived, we met five people waiting for us; a captain named Nikita, a navigator named Marco, and three sailors named Anatoli, Brutus and Cletus (with his dog). The captain and navigator were sent by Senator Gordianus. The three sailors were members of the first Cohort and had some experience with boats. Anatoli had brought wine with him, but Mushamee ordered him to get rid of it.

We all got onboard. Recnam soon joined us with a big chest. While it was being loaded into the cabin, Recnam and Vinz took Mushamee apart and told him about the skeleton parts in the chest, and if ever Leif was to touch them, it would go bad for him. Vinz even asked the legionnaire to order Leif not to touch the chest and whatever it contains (Leif is Mushamee's bodyguard, after all, and thus his subordinate). Mushamee was not that hot about the idea. We also discussed Recnam's encounter with the Serpent Queen. Recnam and Vinz openly criticized the decision we made to go get the Holy Stone, but Mushamee was adamant we had to execute the mission, since 1) you must always do what the Emperor asks you to do, and 2) we don't know what to do to get rid of the bonding. Recnam and Vinz objected that as long as we didn't take the initiative, the situation would never improve for us. But at the end, since we as a group had already agreed on the mission, Recnam and Vinz decided to go along... for now.

We finally left for our trip. The first days went smoothly. Some of us even took the time to practice with the small catapult. We also took some time to check on the five people with us. The captain seemed fine, if only in a perpetual foul mood. Marco seemed somewhat lazy, but still did his job correcty. Anatoli was obviously an alcoholic, and we would have to watch him when we'll reached Teclan. Brutus was a big man and seemed to know his way around the ship, but liked to act tough and womanizing. Cletus was mostly dumb.

On the 8th day, we crossed the border between the Empire and Teclá. The same night, we noticed a big ship south of us. It turned around and started coming right for us. It was much higher and bigger than us, and could probably host 50 to 60 people. We guessed they were pirates. The captain tried to get nearer the coast to dodge them, but he wasn't quick enough. When the pirate ship got near enough, Kaeso and Leif started peppering its hull with arrows and bolts drenched in Tenosian Fire. The pirates started shooting arrows at us, but hit no one. Recnam, manning the catapult, shot a big bowl of Tenosian fire at their hull, who caught fire. Other arrows flew from the ship, hitting Recnam lightly and seriously wounding one of the sailors (don't remember which one). Then Recnam shot a second bowl of Tenosian fire on their decks; a critical success on the ignition roll later, and a big part of the deck was on fire. Although it was not a crippling blow, the pirates decided we were too much trouble and retreated. Their ship soon disappeared over the horizon.

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Chapter 32 - Teclan waters - Teclá

As we started this week, we had just repealed the attacks of some Teclan pirates. Recnam healed himself while Mushamee took take of the sailor who had been wounded. Soon after, we decided on a common story to explain our presence here; the six of us would be merchants living near the northern border between Teclan and the Empire (thus explaining our odd accent) on our first religious pilgrimmage to the capital of Teclá (bizarrely named Teclan :). The five sailors would be slaves we took with us for the trip. Since we were now in Teclan waters, Vinz spent the next couple of hours disguising the group as Teclan denizens.

The trip continued for 14 days. No one paid any attention to our small boat. During the trip, Rufus read the scroll on the Holy Stone his uncle had given him as many times as possible. He also noticed his lefthand was now completely regrown, although it looked like an undead skeleton hand from wrist to fingertips: dry, bleached bones, held together by some invisible force -- there is no muscle or flesh, no wires, etc. to explain why the bones hang there like that, and can move like a hand. As a result, he has to wear a glove to hide it. Moreover, Rufus noticed it seemed to have at time a will of its own.

We finally arrived at the Teclan harbor. While we moored the boot, we saw three Teclans coming toward us, one man and two women. They were only wearing a loincloth while the rest of their bodies was covered with painted symbols and feathers. Leif got very excited when he saw the women were bare-breasted. Vinz went to meet them. They asked him who we were and why we came to Teclan. Vinz told him our story, adding we were here for the religious festival (Fast-talk failed because of language barrier). The man asked him which festival. Recnam, using his knowledge of Theology, remembered a Teclan festival celebrated during the summer and said its name. They said we were too late, the festival had ended eight days ago. We said we knew that, but we had met some trouble on the way here. We were asked if we would like to sacrifice one of our slaves to the god. We answered that we preffered to keep the ones we have, so we'll probably buy another slave and sacrificed him. They frowned at that, saying that was not appropriate because it wouldn't be a worthy sacrifice. They also talked about a Fell Guardian guarding the entry of the harbor against any assaillant. When asked, they said it was supposedly some kind of giant snake, although no one had ever seen it.

In the end they finally accepted our story and charged us a tax of 61 silvers for the usage of the pier for the next two months ($500 + $10 per person). Mushamee gave them the $300 in silver we got from the Emperor, plus $300 of his own silver. One of the women painted some sign on the boat, while the others recommended we take rooms in a inn on the wealthy side of town. The three then left us.

As we grabbed our chests and started walking, we noticed how hot it was (which is normal since Teclan is located near the equatorial line of the planet). As we walked toward the end of the piers, we met a group of big guys who presented themselves as luggage carriers and offered us to move our stuff wherever we wanted to. Vinz remembered that Teclá was a very rigid society, and wealthy people were expected to use such services, so he accepted their offer. The carriers' leader suggested we go to an inn tended by one of his cousins on the seedier side of town. He said only in those quarters would we really live and eat like real traditional Teclan. After some discussion, we accepted his offer.

The inn was not far from the harbor. We met the innkeeper, a nice woman who welcomed us cordially. We reserved five rooms and put our chests inside. When then sat around a table in the common room for our first Teclan dinner. It was quite good, even if really hot and spicy (the exception was Recnam, who didn't like it). When it was over, we asked for some wine, but the innkeeper said she didn't had any in the house because it was a filthy habit. We realized at this moment that Anatoli had been missing for at least an hour. Vinz, Leif and Recnam immediately went outside and saw what seemed to be a drinking house just at the end of the road. They ran to it. When they got inside, they realized it was also a place where people went to use recreative drugs. They quickly spotted Anatoli, who was obviously wasted; when he saw us, he even called Mushamee and Leif by their real names. We grabbed him and quickly got back to the inn.

While this was taking place, Recnam went to his room to take a bath. He used this break to caste Death Vision on himself. He saw himself sleeping in this room while it was dark outside. He woke up when he sensed something slithering against his leg. He looked and saw a snake identical to the one who attacked him in his tent during our trip to Kapital. He then felt the bite of snake on his leg, and he lost consciousness.

We brought Anatoly to one of our rooms. Recnam joined us. Mushamee sent the other four sailors away. We bounded and gagged Anatoly, then Recnam casted Death Vision on him. Anatoly was so terrified by what he saw that he passed out on the floor. We discussed what to do with him. When he finally came around, Recnam casted one of the 17 afflictionss he knew on him, rendering him catatonic for a full minute. Mushamee used the time to search the sailor's cloathes. He found $300 in silver imperial currency, and pocketed it. When Anatoly's curse ended, he was visibly terrified of Recnam. We decided to let him stay like that for now.

As the sun was disappearing behind the horizon, the temperature dropped to a much more tolerable level. Vinz said he would take a walk outside, and Recnam decided to go with him. They went near the water, as Recnam wanted to make some new "friends." But when he tried to, nobody answered him. Looking around, we saw two different groups of around ten people each. Each group was surrounding a bonfire. When we moved closer, we saw that each group had a priest making some kind of ceremony, accompanied by a drummer. In each bonfire, we could see a human body being consumed. Recnam tried to communicate with one of them, and succeeded. Recnam's rune started to glow, so Vinz moved in front of the priest to hide it. Recnam asked the spirit where he was going; the spirit said up in the stars. Recnam asked if the spirit needed help; the spirit said no, and could Recnam leave him alone please?

While this was taking place, Vinz noticed that the fire consuming the body of the spirit Recnam was talking to was acting erratically. The Teclans surrounded it had of course noticed it too and seemed to be wondering what was happening. Vinz shook Recnam, telling him to stop whatever he was doing. Recnam complied, and the fire returned to its normal behavior. Recnam told Vinz he think the Teclan have developped a way to send their people to their God, somewhat identical to the way he was capable of sending people away to Necros.

They decided to go back to the inn. As they were walking, they were accosted by an old bald man who offered to read their future for one silver. They accepted. To Recnam, the man said something about his parents being unknown, his father being a skeleton, and a future in the priesthood. To Vinz, he said something about coming south to see the homeland of his lover, with dark secrets in his heart. He also traced the Mark of Ages on both Recnam's and Vinz's forehead (note that it was NOT glowing), and went on about how it was like his own inner eye, but provided by demons rather than the gods. Vinz briefly considered killing the guy because he knew too much, but told himself it probably wouldn't help any as this entire country seemed a lot more supernaturally active than the Empire.

Back in the inn, Vinz asked the innkeeper if she knew of a guide that could give us a tour of the city. She said one of her cousins would be here tomorrow morning. We all went to Anatoly's room. Mushamee ungagged him. Recnam asked what was the vision he had. Anatoly said he saw Vinz casually cutting his throat. We told him that was what was waiting for him if he ever get drunk again. We also told him he is to stay in this room for at least a week, and that from now on, he will have to act as our slave at all time. Thouroughly shaken, he said what he had just endured was not how things were done in the Legion (all the while looking at Mushamee), but he understood our mission was important enough to justify such actions. He promised that from now on, he would obey us without fail. We left him to go to sleep.

When in their room, Recnam told Vinz the vision he had of his own death. When asked, he remembered he had also heard a strange music playing outside, like the one we heard previously just outside Kapital. Vinz closed the window shutters and attached small things that would make noise if they were moved to them.

The next morning, we got up and ate breakfast. We then met the inkeeper's cousin, another woman (note: nobody ever told us their names. They all call each other 'cousin'). She offered us some itineraries; being pilgrims, we chose to visit the Temple quarters and the bazaar.

We walked for a while (it was just the six of us and the guide; the "slaves" stayed at the inn). We used this time to ask the guide about the history of the Temple, and its Holy Stone. She said nobody knew when the Temple had been built, except it was already there when the city was built around it. Ancien texts talk of four Gods that came together to build it. When it was finished, three of the Gods disappeared while the fourth one stayed, putting the Holy Stone in place (this story seemed a corrupted version of what the Serpent Queen told us about four heroes stealing the four artifacts of Power and spreading them around the world). When asked if pilgrims like us could enter it, she said only those who went through the "purification" ceremory could do so. She described it as spending one day in a "sweat house" drinking a "purifying elixir," followed by ritual dressing in a sanctified robe. Recnam asked her how someone went to become a priest. She said she didn't know the rituals, but was sure it included years of study and preparation.

We finally arrived in Temple quarter. From what Sean wrote me, the temple square was framed on all four sides by a boulevard. This "road" was easily three times as wide as any Imperial road. The square was about ten (small) city blocks on each side -- which is to say, 10 alleys entered the square from each side. The interior of the square marked the walls of the temple compound (at least 40 feet tall). Each wall is inclined toward the inside for the bottom 2/3, while the top 1/3 is inclined toward the outside, making it very hard to climb.

    _______
    \      |
     \     |
Out  /      \  In
    /        \
   /          \
  /____________\

The Temple itself is in the form of a pyramid inside the walls, towering high, high above them. It was at least the height of 28 (Imperial-sized) storeys -- about 230 feet -- tall. The main gate through the walls was on the south wall, and carved to resemble a god's head; visitors entered through his mouth, under his eyes. There were three smaller gates, one in each of the other walls. These were barred with heavy wood and iron, and had no grilles or windows.

On top of the walls, we could see a lot of priests walking around, all armed. They carried massive maces made from polished wood tipped with black stone; long spears of a bamboo-like wood tipped with steel; short steel knives; and a variety of bows, slings, and blowpipes.

It was evident for any people with knowledge of architecture that this Temple must have taken hundreds of years and hundreds of thousands of man-hour to complete. No constructions of any kind was allowed near the Temple, so there was no way to sneak to the walls under cover. The guide told us that it was said any person going through the gate with "impure" intentions would be smithed in fire.

Seeing such a Temple had a perverted motivational effect on some of us. Mushamee, being the greedy bastard that he is, couldn't stop thinking about all the riches that its coffers would contain. As for Recnam, he knew Necros and this God were hated enemies, so stealing the Holy Stone and giving it to Necros would be viewed very favorably.

Vinz started looking around for sewer entrances, but found none. Leif noted he had started hearing an underground rumble as we got closer to the walls; it seemed the Temple had been build on a big underwater river (thus eliminating the possibily of sewers). At this moment, Recnam and Vinz sensed that the god's head gate was magical. Rufus said that the entire temple "didn't feel right" (similar to the comment he made about Petr). Leif's "special" sense told him something demonic was near. As he moved slowly toward the gate, Vinz sensed an aura of danger surrounding the entire place. Rufus remembered all the stories he red from the scroll about all the horrible things priests did to all the thieves they had caught inside the Temple, and surmised those things could probably have been done by demons instead.

At this moment, we realized our hope of stealthily getting inside the Temple and stealing the Stone without being seen was simply impractical. This place was probably filled with magical creatures, demons, spirits, etc, that would automatically detect our presence because of our powers and bindings to the Inquisitors. No, the only way to succeed would be to bring every last bit of firepower we could muster (including undeads), use of all our special abilities and tools, and, more importantly, the protection of Necros.

At this moment Rufus noticed that his left hand has been making some kind of signs since he had gotten near the Temple.

We left the Temple grounds and went to the Bazzar. We saw many people wearing some hot pepper beads around their neck. Recnam explained that their Gods, while respected because they were protecting their cities, were also feared because they were quite fond of human blood and asked for regular sacrifices. These pepper beads were supposed to protect someone from the Gods' wrath. Leif immediately bought one and put it around his neck.

When we got back to the inn, it was almost time for the midday nap (a period of two hours during the hottest time of the day). After lunch, we went to one of the chambers to discuss our plans. We came up with the following ideas:

• Investigate how general was the noon nap. Could we at least sneak around the human obstacles in the Temple by going at noon?
• Since probably none of us who have the Mark of Ages can go in the Temple without being detected, Kaeso's non-demonic, non-magical person is our only hope of investating the inside of the Temple without being detected. Luckily, with knowledge in architecture and engineering, he is also the best equipped to make sense of what he will see.
• While all good Teclans are sent between the stars, all the thieves are buried underground (i.e. their spirits stay here). We must find out where they are buried, so Recnam could talk to them and find out what manner of traps and creatures are waiting for us.
• We would certainly need to search the history of Teclá to help determine which legends are true and fall.

But that is the story for another week.

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Chapter 33 - Teclá

After coming back from our visit to the Temple and the Bazar, we decided to take the rest of the afternoon off. After dinner, Recnam asked to go near the ocean, so we went. We saw two groups surrounding a fire, at what seemed the same place as last night. Recnam tried to contact the same man he had talked to before, but it was an old woman who answered him. Seems the guy's spirit is no longer around.

Rufus then led us to the cemetary where we hoped Recnam would be able to talk to some thieves who knew about the Temple. Unluckily for us, the cemetary was a small square in the shady parts of town, surrounded by a hearse. We could see some thieves hanged by their hands to high wood pilars. Nine Teclan priests were guarding the premises, hitting the prisoners regularly and constantly harrassing the people walking around about how they would finish like this if they didn't live a virtous life. We decided to leave for now and come back during the night. But when we came back, nothing had changed. We went back to the inn.

Next morning, Kaeso left us to go to the Temple to participate in the purification ceremony. He presented himself as a traveller from the North. After undressing completely, he had to stay the entire day in a hot and steamy chamber with other people. At every two hours, someone came in to make them drink some liquid full of drugs. By the end of the day, they were taken inside the Temple, but Kaeso's mind was in such an hallucinogenic state that he wasn't able to recall anything he saw later. At the end of the visit, he was given an amulet signifying he was a real pilgrim, and was sent back out. He came back to the inn.

Meanwhile, Vinz disguised himself as a beggar and went to spy on the cemetary priests all day. He noted they were relieved every six hours, and there was always nine of them present. During the day, one of the prisoners died. He was detached from his pole and threw into what is probably a common grave. This combined with the low chance that any of the dead thieves were actually killed in the Temple convinced him to abandon the plan as too risky.

For the next couple of days, we discussed what were our chances to successfully retrieve the stones. Vinz and Recnam even argued again that we were only doing the will of Vasili and the Inquisitors, while our real mission is to stop them. Some heated arguments took place, and Recnam said he would not participate to the heist even if the others went ahead. Mushamee didn't care, but Vinz was convinced there was no way to do this without the Priest. He also explained that he had a contract with the Temple of Necros to protect Recnam, meaning he had to stay with the priest. We decided to postpone the rest of the discussion for now to let the spirits cool off a bit.

Kaeso, not interested in this little debate, walked around some more and found people who also had received the amulet of pilgrimage. By talking to them, he learned of a sacrifical ceremony in four days in the temple, and since he was a real pilgrim now, he would be allowed on the site. He is not even required to offer a sacrifice, although it would be well received if he did.

We knew that time was ticking away and that sooner or later we would be noticed. So it was decided the operation, if it was taking place, would occur soon after the sacrificial ceremony. For the next four days we forgot our arguments and prepared ourselves. Leif, Vinz and Recnam took to the sewers to find the quickest way from the Temple to the harbor. Once it was found, they marked it using some of Kaeso's paint. Although no way was found leading into the Temple's ground, they guessed there probably was some secret passages, so they tried to find one, Leif using is special "sense" and Vinz by trying the spell "See Secrets" (which he managed to fail every time as it is a really hard one). They didn't find anything.

Meanwhile, Mushamee bought provisions for the voyage home. Rufus bought boots and machetes in case we can't leave through the harbor and have to go through the jungle surrouding the capital (nearly bankrupting Vinz in the process).

Kaeso used this time to buy some raw materials from merchants and create some new stuff. More specifically, he created the following (coming directly from our GM):

• A modified set of smith's bellows filled with "hot pepper extract." (Good for about three shots -- but the user has to have good aim to hit the face, since that requires a DX roll at -5 . . . although you get +2 to hit if you are only one yard away.)
• A half-dozen plum-sized cloth sacks of smoking powder. (Require flame to ignite; they do not explode on impact. Create a distracting, bright- purple flame followed by a nice smokescreen. Require a DX roll to ignite safely in combat. No roll required to drop one, but you must make a Throwing roll to hurl one any distance.)
• A box of small caltrops. (Enough to obstruct passage through ten ordinary one-yard-wide doorways, or five two-yard-wide double doorways, or two five-yard-wide gates or roads, or a single ten-yard-wide highway. No roll needed if you have time to plant them there carefully. Make a DX roll to dispense them in combat.)

Just before the sacrificial ceremony, we resumed our little conversation. We finally agreed that we had to steal the stone now, but starting next mission, we would take as much preparation time as possible to learn whatever we could about the Inquisitors, Magic, and the binding. We know the ritual necessary to open the Chaos Gate is long and complicated, and more importantly, easily disruptable, so we decided we would deal with it when the time comes. For now, our greatest weakness is our lack of knowledge, and this is something we have to remedy before going against the bonds and the Inquisitors.

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Chapter 34 - Teclá

Just as an aside, you'll find a couple of footnotes at the end of the recap. Those are additional explications Sean gave me, which are interesting but do not have a place in the recap itself.

Now let's get on with it (cue the music from 'Mission Impossible').

For once having resolved our intra-party dispute (at least for now), we waited for Kaeso to come back from the sacrificial ceremony (since Martin was not there, we kinda just skip this part). When he came back and had finished venting about how the Teclan people were barbarians, he was able to tell us the following:

• While certainly the tallest building, the pyramid was far from the only one inside the walls. Many smaller structures surrounded it.
• The exterior of the pyramid is not smoothed out. Each 'step' was approximately 4 feet high. A good climber could climb it.
• On the inside, the pyramid is completely hollow, with no support walls or ceilings. Being an engineer and an architect, Kaeso noted that this architecture was impossible to accomplish with the principles he knew; the whole thing should have been completely unstable.
• The block at the very top of the pyramid was not a block, but four pillars with a ceiling but no sides; someone agile could get in the Temple using this opening and a long rope.
• There is a small pyramid placed on the floor in the center of the pyramid. Kaeso calculated it was 10 feet tall: 15 eight-inch steps up from the ground (see first footnote for other details). On top of it was a sacrificial altar. Since it was the only feature around and was serving for the sacrifice, Kaeso guessed it probably was the stone we had to steal.
• There is one door on each side of the pyramid, all aligned with the small pyramid.
• There is a lot of Karyatids (see the footnote) disposed all over the place.

We spent the rest of the night making a plan. After much discussion, we decided we would go fully armed (except for Vinz). We would then walk stealthily to the Temple walls. Vinz would then go over the wall and find a way to open the nearest side gate. If he couldn't he would throw a rope to his companions so that they could climb over the wall too. Once inside, Vinz would climb to the top of the pyramid with a big rope, then use the opening at the top to lower himself inside. He would then run to the door nearest to his companions and unlock it. Once inside, we would all grab the stone and carry it to the sewers, where it would be put in a cart pulled by a skeleton. We would all go to the harbor, where our sailors would wait for us with all of our unused equipment, and we would sail out. Piece of cake! :)

We slept during the entire morning. In the afternoon, all of the equipment we won't bring in our expedition was carried back to our boat. Since Vinz had to be armorless for the first part of the expedition but didn't wanted to face any demon like that, we decided Mushamee and Leif would carry Vinz's scale armor, shield, and repeating crossbow. Vinz also lended his conceilable chain vest to Kaeso, since the engineer didn't had any and they were approximately the same size. Kaeso created some gray paint to color our capes and built a small cart. Vinz carefully prepared his black makeup mixture. Mushamee went to the innkeeper to tell her we were leaving, and to pay for our rooms. Rufus used the time to try to remember something interesting about our situation; he remembered reading about a kind of statue that could become real. Oh oh.

After dinner, Recnam asked us to participate in a ceremony asking for Necros' help in our mission. We all accepted, except for Kaeso of course (the sailors were not invited). We stood in one of our rooms in the inn, with the others (including Kaeso) standing guard outside. The first half-hour consisted of prayers to Necros. Then Recnam collected a sample of all our blood, put them together in a bowl and sprayed some ashes on it. He then asked Rufus' skeletal hand to mix the stuff together; it accepted (and Rufus had no choice but to go alone). Recnam then asked us to take a small sip of the mixture, which we did.

Recnam finished his incantations, then ask for Necros' help for the upcoming mission (succeeding, with Luck, in his Divine Intervention roll). We immediately felt a presence with us in the room. Rufus felt complete for the first time (feeling he only had a hand before, but now he had an entire body :)). Mushamee felt an urge to kill whatever was walking but shouldn't. When we got out of the room, we heard Kaeso complaining about a nosebleed. We asked him when it started, and, surprise, it was at the time we were all cutting ourselves. :)

At dusk, we left the inn and went to our boat. Recnam went in the cargo hold, got the skeleton bones he had brought from Roma out of their box, and raised it. He then put a cape on it to hide its feature. Everyobdy equipped themselves, and Vinz put black makeup on everyone's face. We then waited, some of us sleeping and some of us meditating.

We left at two in the morning. We went to the sewer entrance and climbed down. Mushamee was not able to do it stealthily, however, and someone noticed him disappearing in the hole. This person came to investigate and ask Mushamee what he was doing down there. Mushamee said he had found the sewer entrance opened and was checking to see if there was someone down there. A Fast-Talk roll later (helped by Luck), and the Teclan was down with Mushamee to look around. Mushamee fast- drew his sword and killed the poor guy promptly.

While Vinz was climbing up to put the sewer cover back in place, Recnam communicated with the Teclan's spirit, wanting to know if somebody was expecting him soon. He answered his wife is expecting him within the hour, and by the way, why did we kill him? He was only doing his job. Recnam said he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time; then he sent the guy to Necros. Realizing this, the spirit had the time to cry 'Nooooooo!' before he disappeared (Recnam explained he did this to be sure no one would be able to find the body and interrogate the spirit).

We all went on our way to the Temple. The skeleton carried the Teclan's body for a while, then abandoned it deep in the sewers. We arrived at the exit near the Temple ground. Leif climbed up first, looked outside, waited until the road was deserted, and stepped out. We all followed him. Then one by one, we walked to the Temple wall. Luckily, the inclination that makes the wall really hard to climb also makes someone who stand against it almost invisible to the guards on the parapet.

Vinz reached the wall first, concentrated for a single second and casted 'Climbing' on himself, the easiest spell he knew, receiving a +6 bonus to climbing. But even using the rope, getting uo was no easy task. And while he was climbing, he and everybody around heard a big bang; Mushamee, who was the last to walk to the wall, and having completely missed his default Stealth roll, had just dropped his sword on the ground in the middle of the road! Just over and on the side of him, Vinz heard a guard yelling for Mushamee to identify himself. Mushamee answered that he was just passing through. Of course that didn't take, so the guard ordered him to stay where he was. Knowing his spell wouldn't last for long, Vinz decided to get on the parapet even with the guards near. He succeeded, and saw there was at least seven guards on this side of the parapets, all looking at Mushamee. He used the distraction to jump into the courtyard, hurting himself just a little (it was a three story fall, but Vinz knows Acrobatics).

While this was going on, the gate near Mushamee opened and nine guards stepped out, marching toward the legionnaire. Mushamee quickly grabbed his sword and ran toward the nearest alley. The guards followed him. One or two minutes later, Mushamee saw the group had separated in two, so it was time to take them out. He waited for the first group of five, including the captain. When they stepped in range, he attacked the captain two times and one of his soldier one time. He got a critical success for double damage on the captain, sending him flying in the air, practically cutting him in two. The other guy was also hit, and stunned. Mushamee saw all of them were armed with maces and shields, and some good but not great armor.

Next, the three other guards attacked him, but two missed and he parried the other. He attacked each guy once in the neck; two blocked, one had his head removed. The two guys stepped back to ready their maces, the stunned one came out of it and attacked. Mushamee parried. Mushamee feint-and-attacked the already wounded guy, decapitating him, and attacked one of the other guys, who blocked. The two attacked, but Mushamee parried them. He feint-and-attacked one and attacked the second, both to the neck, both hitting, and both killing or knocking out the target. Mushamee called the other four, saying he needed assistance. A couple seconds later, the first two of the last four got in range, and he attacked them by surprise. His first attack was enough to cut the nearest guy's head, but he critically missed his second attack, his sword becoming unready. The second guy attacked him, and he blocked. He then shield bashed the guy two times(he is WM in shield too), and knocked him down, stunned (this using the special axe-head shield Kaeso had made for him). The two last guards got in range while Mushamee readied his sword. When they got in range, they attacked and Mushamee parried both. Mushamee attacked the three guys once, killing both the guy on the ground and one of the standing ones. The last guy decided to all-out-defense, but a combination Feint-Attack-Attack later, he was dead like the others. Mushamee quickly finished off all survivors and made it back toward the Temple. By approaching it from a different angle and finally making his default Stealth roll (with the use of his luck), he got near the wall without being seen and started walking toward the others.

Meanwhile, inside the Temple grounds, Vinz, without any armor, long- ranged weapon or shield, and armed only with Nightbane, sneaked to the nearest gate entrance (which was the one from which the nine guards had come from to get Mushamee, but he didn't knew that). There was a big grill on this side of the gate; looking inside, Vinz could see that the opening didn't led directly to the outside door. There was a small room, and at the end a corridor parallel to the wall that would probably lead to some other room where the outside gate was. He also noted the four armed guards waiting in the room. He stepped in the open and said he was send to investigate the trouble with the guy outside. His high acting skill made him look legitimate to the guards, so they told him what happened. Vinz asked to be let inside the room so he could go outside. His Fast-Talk succeeded, and two guys raised the grill to let him through. The moment he got in, he fast-drew his sword and attacked both guys who had raised the grill. He hit one in the neck, decapitating him, and hit the other in the body, wounding him gravely. One of the two guys farther in the room stood there dumbfounded while the other step toward the alarm bell. Vinz all-out-attacked him, two attacks to the neck for extra damage. He decapited the guy. Turning around, he saw the stunned man fumbling for his weapon, so he AOA him for three attacks to the neck, killing him. He then turned on the last guy and Feint-and-Attacked him for the kill.

Vinz walked to the side corridor. He saw a fifth man running away from him toward another room holding an alarm bell. He ran after him. As the guard was about to grab the bell rope, Vinz flying tackled him, rolling a 3! He beautifully pinned the guy to the ground, then slashed his throat.

The small room had another door at its extremity. Vinz knew he had to hide the body, but concluded it would probably be quicker if he got the help of his companions than if he did it by himself. So he went for the door. Rolling a 17 on his Hearing roll, he opened the door and fell face-to-face with two other guys probably responsible for the opening and closing of the gate. Luckily they were not armed. The first guy attacked Vinz with a torch, which Vinz parried. A couple of Feint-and- attacks later, it was all finished. Vinz saw the gate was unlocked (to let the nine guards out), so he only had to remove the big bolt. He opened the door just as Mushamee was joining the others. They all came in and hid the bodies. Recnam send their spirits to Necros.

Now we have an entry on the Temple ground, but with 16 guards killed, and a deserted guard post, it won't be too long before the alarm is raised. So we're not sure Vinz would have the time to climb the pyramid and lowered himself in. Maybe we'll all have to go to the pyramid entrance directly and find a way to open it.

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Footnotes from Sean:

The small pyramid:

'This is quite interesting, because Kaeso's math put the big temple pyramid at 225 feet tall plus five feet for the little box at the top (hence the 230-foot estimate on total height), and 225 is the square of 15, which is the number of steps. This only works if you use feet as your measurement, and it is interesting to note that the mythical source of that unit (feet) is the length of the foot of the god of architecture.'

Karyatid:

'In the real world, the term Karyatid comes from Greek architecture. It describes a stone supporting column carved in the likeness of a woman. Most are many, many times normal human size, not merely 5-6 feet tall.

In our game world, the term is a Tenosian word for *any* structural member carved in the likeness of a living being, be it a woman, a man, a bear, or a dragon. The term is used throughout the Empire.

In most civilized cultures with advanced architecture and religion, there is folklore that claims such statues are guardians that can "come to life" under the right circumstances. As with all folklore, no two tellings agree on the details. In some tales, karyatids become ordinary living creatures, the explanation being that they were turned into stone to act as guardians for gods or sorcerers. In other legends, they are demons of some kind that assume stone form to deceive mortals, and can transform into titans with magical powers. In still other legends, they remain stone when they get up and start walking around, and are automatons created by ancient alchemists, artificers, or other craftsmen with magical or divine inspiration.'

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Chapter 35 - Teclá: The Temple

As we started this week, we were all in the western guardpost, inside the big wall surrouding the Teclan Temple grounds. Leif and Mushamee helped Vinz put on his full armor suit for the next step.

Vinz looked through the grill leading to the Temple grounds. He estimated the time to reach the Pyramid wall at around 30 seconds for someone using a minimum of stealth. Since Mushamee and Rufus were very bad at it, Vinz tried to cast Mage Stealth on them to help. He first failed on Mushamee, then succeeded on Rufus. He tried again on Mushamee and should have succeeded, but he sensed some resistance coming from the legionnaire, and failed again. At the end of his fatigue, he gulped one of the two healing potions left to regain it while Leif cured his injuries by throwing a dead rat at him. Recnam took the remaining potion in his hand to examine it, and had the distinct impression he could create others if he could find the proper ingredients.

When we were all ready, Leif and Mushamee raised the grill leading to the Temple compound. We started toward the wall, in order of sneakyness (the best being first). We reached it without being heard, except of course for Mushamee. Somebody heard him and asked him who he was and what he was doing outside at this hour. Mushamee said he was a guard going back to his barrack (making his default Fast-Talk roll). The guard told him to be quick about it. Mushamee spotted the nearest door, opened it, and went inside. After closing the door, he looked around and saw he was in a barrack with maybe 40 guards sleeping in their bed. Mushamee pondered the idea of killing them in their sleep, but came to his senses and abandoned this crazy idea.

He waited for a little while, then re-opened the door and looked outside. The guard who had interpelled him was nowhere in sight. He slipped outside and tried again to sneak toward the pyramid wall. He critically missed his Stealth roll, and hit someone's stomach. Looking up, he saw he had walked directly into a 13-men patrol. A second later, he was surrounded by two rows of six guards. Their captain, safely out of reach a couple yards away, ordered him to drop his weapon.

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was looking at all this, but decided not to intervene for now. This way, if Mushamee was captured, the guards wouldn't automatically assume he was not alone.

Mushamee, trying to find a way out of this mess, settled on a desperate maneuver; he would attack each and every one of the guards immediately surrounding him at a random hit location (default Whirlwind attack). He knew that would leave him open for counterattacks, but he had some advantages. First, being confident in their superiority, the guards were wearing their shields on their back, not in their hands. Second, those who used their maces to parry would not be able to attack him on their turn. Third, he had a really good armor (DR5). And fourth, he would take the guards by surprise.

He fast-drew his sword and hit all six guards surrounding him, crippling a leg on four of them, crippling one weapon arm, and hitting one in the chest. At least four guards were thrown backward, and four fell on the ground (not necessarily the same ones). Guards from the outside circle stepped in to close the gaps. Mushamee was attacked six times with maces, but his armor absorbed most of the damage (only 11 points went through). On the next round, he did another Whirlwind attack, again hitting all six guards and killing a couple of them. No one was able to attack him this time, either because they were hurt or were busy readying their weapon. The captain started screaming some unknown words. On the following rounds, Mushamee went back to his normal pace of killing men with neck shots. The captain threw his lance at him, but missed, hitting one of his own men. Vinz then shot a bolt in the captain's throat to silence him, doing maximum damage. A couple rounds later, the last guard was killed and Mushamee ran to the others. Leif threw him his last dead rat, curing six of the eleven points of damage he had taken.

We reached the door to the pyramid. It was a big flat stone with no obvious way to open it. Vinz tried to find a mechanism, but failed. Kaeso also tried, and succeeded (he is one TL higher than the rest of us, so had a big bonus). He saw a small lever that could be either pushed, pulled, or moved left or right. Vinz detected danger coming from it, and called for Recnam. Using his Intuition, the priest guessed the lever should be pulled. Vinz did it, and the door started to raise really slowly. Recnam used the time to ask Necros to protect us against whatever was inside the Pyramid. When the door was high enough, we rushed inside and find ourselves in a small antechamber with another stone door barring the way to the inside of the pyramid. This time, Recnam guessed we should push the lever. He was right.

When the stone was high enough to let us through, we stepped in the big empty space of the Temple. We saw a group of 13 old Priests chanting on the south steps of the small pyramid in the center. They were approximately 50 yards from us. Leif and Mushamee immediately charged them, and the rest had no choice but to follow. When we got a third of the way, we saw the priests shapechange into big tigers. They then jumped down the steps and started jumping toward us. We regrouped, with Leif, Mushamee, Vinz and Rufus at the front, and Recnam and Kaeso behind. When the tigers got near, Kaeso shot one of them with his crossbow, doing good damage. Rufus also threw his spear, only doing minor damage.

The next round, three tigers jumped on each of the four guys in the front row. Having thrown his spear in the preceding turn, Rufus couldn't act and was slammed by two, while the third one went past him. He was pinned to the floor and bitten, but his armor saved him from any damage. Mushamee was waiting, so he got to attack before the tigers jumped on him. He swinged once at each three tigers, hitting one and killing it. The other two attacks were blocked by some kind of shielding. One of the two tigers left slammed him on the floor, while the other missed him. He was thrown down and pinned.

Vinz was also waiting, so he got to attack first, to the eyes. His first attack missed, but his second hit, knocking the tiger out of the fight. He also sidestepped one, but was knocked down by the other, and bitten (for, like, 1 point of damage). Finally, Leif was also waiting, but his attack missed; he was knocked down by one tiger, and dodged the other two.

On our next turn, Rufus punched one of the tigers on top of him, luckily knocking him out! Mushamee and Vinz tried to hit the tigers on top of them, but missed. Recnam, realizing those big tigers (with ST 30) would probably ripped us to shred on their next turn, and seeing four of them running toward him and Kaeso, asked his father for help. The tigers immediately morphed back to old priests. The four who were running toward Recnam and Kaeso turned to run toward the south door. The others were rapidly dispatched, and we ran after the fleeting priests. We caught up with them at the main pyramyd door, and dispatched them quickly. Recnam started his ritual to talk to their spirits (he wanted to send them to Necros!), while the rest of us returned to the small center pyramid.

Meanwhile, Kaeso, who did not go after the priests, walked to the small pyramid and climbed the steps to the altar. Common sense told him to search for traps and whatnot, but his curiosity got the better of him and he started fiddling with the altar stone. Luckily for him, nothing bad happened. He saw that the altar was made of three weighty stones. He tried to dislodge them with a crowbar, but wasn't strong enough.

The rest of the group joined him (except for Recnam). Rufus sensed that the middle stone was "special." He also detected that four jaguar stone statues, one in each corner of the Temple, had their own "special" aura (although none of it was magical, as Vinz could confirm). Mushamee went to each of the four statues and bound them meticulously with the long rope we had. When he was finished, he gave a signal, and Leif, Rufus and Kaeso used the crowbar to disloge the "special" stone. After a couple of seconds, it finally fell on the floor with a loud bang.

Immediately, at each corner of the small pyramid, smoke appeared, and molded into some black, vaguely humanoid shapes with stars as eyes. Recnam, sensing their presence, stopped his ritual and recognized them as elder half-gods from between the stars. Two of them stepped toward Leif, and two toward Rufus. Mushamee, being near one of the jaguar statues, saw it starting to move, but it was still held in place by the rope. Estimating the black forms were more dangerous, the legionnaire started running toward the altar. Recnam spent one or two seconds concentrating his will on the four things, then imitated Mushamee.

Rufus tried to dodge his two attackers by jumping down from the pyramid top to the floor. That didn't stop the black forms, however, as each had time to touch him and drain some of his life force. On the other side of the altar, the shapes lunged for Leif, who dodged them. Vinz then attacked one twice; his first attack went through the being without harming him, but the next one, a critical success, connected solidly. The thing flinched. Leif tried to bash the other thing with his Shield of the Wolf, saying he would avenge his granpa, but it was totally ineffectual. Vinz attacked again, hitting solidly both times; the form started to roll on itself, grew smaller and smaller, and then disappeared, leaving a black puddle behind. Seeing that, Leif hit his enemy with his broadsword and connected, dealing some good damage (although we don't know exactly how much it really did, since his broadsword is not a magical weapon). Kaeso, who until then was trying to break the holy Stone thinking it would send the demons away, threw one his greek fire grenades at the shape left, doing some fire damage. The shape suddenly became berserk, and attacked Leif two times, hitting with one for minor damage. Seeing this, Vinz stepped behind the thing and all-out attacked, sending it back to his plane.

For Rufus, things weren't going great. Flat on his back, he was constantly attacked by the two black forms, and Mushamee and Recnam were still some distance away. He rolled aside a couple of time, but was hit often and sent into negative HT. He plunge his hand into one of the shapes' body, and was able to actually grab something solid, but before he could squeeze, he was hit again and had to let go. All during his fight, he could hear Necros talking to him, helping him and menacing the two forms, saying how his servitor would drink their souls. When he finally passed out from his injury, one of the forms stepped toward Mushamee who was just arriving on the scene. Still a little farther away, Recnam was able to see the immaterial form of Necros hovering over Rufus, ready to accept him at his side. He also had the distinct impression that the dead of Rufus would somehow allow Necros to come into the world. Luckily for Rufus, it was not to be as Leif and Vinz, having jumped near him using Acrobatics, attacked the thing. It madly went for Leif, hitting him enough to put him at half move and dodge. Leif riposted and hit, and Vinz all-out attacked again to finish it off.

Finally, Mushamee and the last half-god reached each other, but the shape was no match for Mushamee's Silver Sword (who gives him big bonuses against undeads and demons). The legionnaire's first attack was a critical hit, and the demon was instantly dissipated.

Vinz gave the last of our healing potions to Leif (Rufus was too far into negative HT for one potion to even bring him back to consciousness). Kaeso, having for the first time in his life witnessed the presence of demons, was seriously shaken up, but came about. Vinz and Leif put the stone on their shoulders, while Kaeso put the unconscious Rufus on his shoulders. We decided to get out by the main entrance to the south.

We reached the big doors and moved the gigantic bolt aside. We then pushed the door open. We heard voices around, but saw nobody. The gate was a 30-second run in front of us. We decided to use Kaeso's smoke "grenades" to cover us.

As we left the Temple with the Stone, we heard a big rumble behind us. The Pyramid was starting to collapse on itself! Then we saw a giant shape appear, and heard a big voice coming from it saying how his servitors had failed him in keeping the sacred stone safe, and they would all pay. Lightning started coming down, hitting people and structures indiscriminately. The form then turned to look at Recnam and said that no servants of his rival could escape unharmed. A couple of bolts fell from the sky, hitting Recnam. The god said he would have his revenge and would let the whole world know his wrath.

We continued running, and reached the big gate. We saw two rows of ten men waiting for us, those on the first row armed with maces and shields, those on the second row armed with spears. We stopped, dropped Rufus' body and the stone on the ground, and prepared to fight. Vinz and Kaeso threw the last of the greek fire at the gate.

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Chapter 36 - Teclá: The Temple

After we attacked and wounded a couple of their front guys (both Vinz and Recnam got one macemen), the three leftmost and rightmost guards on both ranks moved to attack us from the flank.

On the left side of the melee, Mushamee took around four or five rounds to clean all of the macemen and two of the spearmen. Kaeso tried to help him by spraying pepper in the guards' eyes, but missed all three times. Before being killed, one of the macemen hit him, dealing serious damage.

In the front, helped at first by Leif, Vinz got rid of three of the macemen. He then stepped in range of the two middle spearmen and hit them in the throat, dropping them both. The two other spearmen retreated away from him and each other. Vinz stepped up to one and attacked him two times, but the spearman parried the first attack and dodged the second.

On the right side, Recnam concentrated on a curse. He was attacked one or two times, but managed to parry and dodge while maintaining his concentration. The others attacked Leif, who either defended or had all damage absorbed by his good armor. His magic shield's PD was particularly useful here (PD 4). Leif hit a guard, for average damage. Recnam casted his curse (Madness), but missed his roll by 1 or 2. Since it was not subtle, the guards noticed it and attacked him more; one spearman hit him in the torso, and Recnam fell unconcious, gravely wounded (he was already wounded by the lighting bolts sent by the god). On the next turn, the guards concentrated their attacks on Leif, but still weren't able to hit him. Then they noticed their comrades on the left and front sides being butchered by Mushamee and Vinz. Someone yelled to concentrate their attacks on the body of Recnam, so that they would "at least get the priest." Hearing that, Leif stepped over Recnam's body to defend it. On the next turn, he was able to block or parry all attacks on either him or Recnam. Then on the turn after, there was three attacks on Recnam. Leif parried one and blocked another, but it was impossible for him to dodge, so he jumped down on the Priest, covering him with his body and shield. He took the third spear in the torso, but again, his armor saved him from most of the damage.

On the left side, Kaeso told Mushamee he could deal with the two spearmen left, so the legionnaire ran to help Leif and Recnam. Then Kaeso realized he had nothing to use against the spearmen, just a swordbreaker unusable against a spear. When the spearmen turned to him to attack, Kaeso did the only thing he could do, i.e. he ran away. The spearmen gave pursuit.

Mushamee got in range of the three macemen attacking Leif and Recnam. He attacked, killing one of them. But then he critically failed his second attack, slicing himself severely in the left leg. Since he was already wounded from last week's fight against 13 guards, this wound brought him down to 0 HT. He missed his HT roll and fell on the ground, unconscious.

Vinz also noticed the attacks on Recnam, and given his contract for protecting the priest, decided he had to get rid of the two spearmen still left in front and to the side of him as quickly as possibe. He moved toward one (thus getting out of reach of the other) and all-out- attacked him. The man fell down hard. Then the other used the situation and slammed Vinz from behind, sending him to the floor. As Vinz got on his knees, the guy dropped his spear and grappled Vinz around the neck quite easily, in position for a neck snap. Desperately, Vinz swung Nightblade at the man's vitals, surprising him. One attack hit, doing wicked damage and stunning the grappler who had to let Vinz go. The assassin stood up, then feint-and-attacked to the brain, killing the guard. Vinz turned around and ran toward Leif and Recnam. He reached them as Mushamee was falling unconscious.

Vinz cut the head of one of the macemen surrounding Leif. The other two turned around and attacked him; he parried both. Leif got on his knees. Kaeso, spearmen still in tow, ran past the melee; two other spearmen took aim at him. Seeing this, Kaeso moved in a way to put the two pursuing spearmen between him and the aiming ones. On the next turn, Vinz killed one of the two remaining macemen, and Leif took out the other. The guys running after Kaeso decided to stop and aim at him. The other two already aiming had to wait because they had no clear shot. On the next turn, Vinz jumped at the waiting spearmen and cut one of them down. The other two threw their spears at Kaeso, who fell to the ground to dodge them. As Vinz took care of his last spearman, the ones who had just attacked Kaeso turned around toward Vinz and started readying two other spears. Kaeso got up, ran toward them flying-tackled the nearest one, sending him on the ground! Let's just say from there they were easy prey for Vinz.

The fight over, we saw we had a big problem. We were only three left to carry three bodies and a large stone to the sewers (where the cart and the skeleton were waiting for us). Since Mushamee was the less hurt of the unconscious ones, Vinz asked Kaeso if he had a way to revive him at least temporarily. The engineer put what was left of his pepper spray on Mushamee's face. It burned the legionnaire somewhat, leaving him blind and a little more hurt, but conscious. We put Recnam's body on the stone. Leif and Mushamee lifted the stone, while Kaeso grabbed Rufus. Being mostly unharmed, Vinz acted as scout and protector.

We decided to ignore the big central gate and use one of the side exits instead. We climbed some stairs, opened a door and found ourselves in a small room with a carefully locked door at the end leading outside the temple ground. Kaeso looked at it and estimated it would take a little more than 30 seconds to unlock everything. He went to work.

In one of the walls, there were stairs leading up. We could hear people running above us. Vinz stood at the base of the stairs, waiting. Soon, two guards macemen appeared. Vinz waited for them, then feint-and- attacked the first one, dropping him. He parried the second guard's attack, then all-out-attacked him lethally.

Many seconds passed, and two spearmen appeared at the top of the stairs. Vinz stepped toward them. He parried both spears and stepped in melee range, killing both guys in one round. He went back to the base of the stairs and waited.

Another ten second passed, then two crossbowmen appeared at the top of the stairs. Again, Vinz stepped toward them. They both shot. Vinz blocked the first bolt with his shield, while the second flew past him and hit the wall near Leif. Vinz attacked them both one time; one fell down, his throat cut, and the other dodged. He fast-drew a pair of knives and attacked. Vinz parried him twice, then feint-and-attacked his throat, knocking him down.

Before another pair of guards had time to attack us, Kaeso successfully unlocked the door, and we left the Temple grounds. We walked as fast as we could toward the sewer entrance (which was still pretty slow as Mushamee was at -1 HT). Luckily for us, it was still night. Arrows whizzed all around, but it became apparent they couldn't really see us. We reached the sewer entrance and climbed down. We installed the stone and Recnam on the cart. Mushamee and Leif went behind it to push, while Vinz and the skeleton were on the front, pulling. Kaeso was still carrying Rufus.

We walked for an hour undisturbed. When we reached the entrance nearest the harbor, Vinz went to scout ahead. He climbed out of the sewers and went near our boat. With his really good vision, he was able to see the dead bodies of Captain Nikita and sailors Anatoli, Brutus and Cletus hidden on the bridge of the ship. Looking around, he found Marco, our navigator, hiding behind some crates. Vinz walked to him and asked him what happened. Marco, obviously frightened, told him he had left the boat to do something (I don't remember exactly what), but when he had come back, he had found the four cadavers as they are. He also said he was convinced there were still assassins on board, hidden in the cargo hull. Vinz got the impression the guy was telling the truth and asked him if we could take off with the boat without the captain and the three sailors. Marco said that as long as we stayed near the coast, that shouldn't be a problem; if worse comes to worst, we could always hire people in one of the coastal cities to the North. Vinz told him to stay were he was and went back to the sewers.

After Vinz had explained the situation to the others, Leif used most of his remaining fatigue to ask his grandfather to heal Mushamee. It worked, and Mushamee got 10 HP back. Vinz evaluated that at most 10 to 12 assassins could fit inside the cargo hull. We set up a really simple plan. Mushamee would attrack the assassins out and attack them from the front, Vinz would move around and attack them from behind, and Kaeso and Leif would pepper them and any other too curious Teclan with bolts and arrows.

Vinz left first, and after some climbing and stealth rolls, successfully moved along the boat's hull on the water side. He moved to a position where he could climb in the boat and surprise anyone on the bridge.

Leif and Kaeso took their position. When all was ready, Mushamee walked casually to the boat (he used water to clear his eyes and face of all the pepper spray first). He asked captain Anatoli (which was a trap of course since the captain's name was Nikita) to come out. A voice not ressembling the captain's asked him to come onboard. Mushamee replied we had many wounded, so he really needed help. The door to the cargo hull opened and ten Teclan assassins armed with ninja staves (quarterstaff with poisoned retractable knives at the end) came out. Two by two, they climbed out of the boat. Mushamee simply waited for them, and when they were in range, he attacked. Vinz jumped in the boat and attacked those still on the bridge from behind.

Well, to make it quick, although they were much better than the guards at the temple, the fact they couldn't pile on one of us because of the small space available made them somewhat easy prey for the killing machines that are Mushamee and Vinz. Kaeso also took two pot-shots at them, hitting once. Leif was ready to shoot at anybody coming near the boat, but he saw no one.

When all was over, we threw all the assassins' bodies in the water, except two that we kept for Recnam. We told Marco to get onboard; having seen the entire operation, the navigator couldn't believe Mushamee and Vinz were able to dispatch 10 assassins by themselves, and in such a casual manner. We fetched the unconscious bodies, the stone and the skeleton from the sewers.

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Chapter 37 - Teclá - Roma

After finishing cleaning up the boat of all the assassins' bodies, we untied our boat and started rowing away. Wary of the legend of the Fell Guardian, we kept our weapons close.

After a little while, Kaeso noticed that the water approximately 150 feet in front of was bubbling furiously. At the same moment, Vinz had a sensation of imminent danger and Leif sensed a demonic presence nearby. Suddenly, a 50-60 feet-high pillar of water irrupted before us, turning on itself like a gigantic vortex.

We immediately grabbed our weapons. The vortex lowered its highest section toward us, and we saw lots of gigantic eyes twirling. We felt a maddening sensation of something trying to make us mad, but we all resisted. Marco, the navigator, fled in the cabin. Vinz ran to the catapult to ready it with tenosian fire. The vortex suddenly plunged on the ship, rocking it somewhat. The water was enough to extinguish anything that could be used to ignite the tenosian fire, and almost threw Vinz overboard. Recnam's body was about to go over, but his feet got caught in something. Rufus was not so lucky and found his body floating in the sea.

The vortex struck again, and again the boat resisted. Mushamee and Leif took an opportunity fire at the monster, the legionnaire with a spear, the barbarian with his longbow. Vinz ordered the skeleton to grab Recnam's body and pull it in the cabin. Vinz and Kaeso fired their crossbows at the center of the pillar, but the bolts went harmlessly through the water.

The vortex plunged again to attack. Mushamee and Leif fired at it as it was getting near, hitting an eye both times and doing damage. The vortex went after Mushamee instead of the boat, but the legionnaire dodged the attack.

Mushamee grabbed another spear. Leif, thinking that his longbow wasn't doing enough damage, grabbed one of his three hunga-mungas. Vinz readied his repeating crossbow. Kaeso successfully grabbed Rufus' body. The vortex attacked Mushamee again, and the legionnaire dodged again.

Mushamee, Leif and Vinz took opportunity fire at the vortex. Kaeso started hissing Rufus' body onboard. When the vortex attacked, we all got the drop on it and fired; the three missiles hit some eyes. The monster went after Leif, who dodged it.

Mushamee grabbed a third spear, Vinz cocked his repeating crossbow, and Leif readied a second hunga-munga. The vortex went back to attacking the ship, who again resisted (but barely). We knew a couple other hits like that and the boat would sink.

Again, Mushamee, Leif and Vinz took opportunity fire at the vortex. Again, they got the drop on the vortex when it decided to attack. Again the three missiles hit the eyes, and the vortex collapsed, splashing the boat with tens of gallons of water.

We immediately started bailing. When we had removed enough water, we started rowing again. It was a really fatiguing activity, and Leif fell unconscious regularly from exhaustion; luckily, he has the Recovery advantage, so it was only for a couple of minutes each time (although he had to wait ten minutes each time to recuperate one fatigue point).

Our objective was to reach a little creek we had spotted before and wait there for a couple of days to let things cool off. But we knew if we didn't use the sail, it would take us at least two or three days to reach it, instead of less than one. We tried to set it right, but none of us except Marco had the seamanship skill, so Mushamee dropped his section, making Vinz completely fumble what he had to do (rolled a 17). The sail fell into the water.

None of us knew how to swim. Kaeso plunged into the water, but realized swimming was harder to do than he thought (his DX is only 10), and had to be pulled back in the boat. Vinz went into the water and made his default swimming roll (he did take the precaution of attaching a rope around his body). When he reached the sail, he realized he was too fatigued to pull it back to the boat. The sail started sinking. Vinz plunged after it, removed the rope from around his torso, and attached it after the sail. He then came back to the boat by pulling himself with the rope. The others then pulled the sail back on the boat.

A little later, we met some boats and asked them to put up the sail for us. They asked for $200 in gold, which was of course an outrageous price, but after the necessary complaining, Vinz agreed to pay. When they were finished, we were finally able to make good time.

By the end of the day, we had reached the little creek. Some first-aids were made. We decided to stay four days. Kaeso used this time to make some reparation to the boat and to paint it another color. Leif asked his grandfather to cure Recnam, successfully (he won't do it for Rufus until the informatore apologize for some comments he made on Leif's grandfather a while ago), then spend his time fishing. Recnam took care of himself and Rufus. Vinz spent his time meditating. Mushamee spent the first two days relaxing, then fished with Leif on the last two.

Nobody bothered us, then on the morning of the fifth day, we went on our way. Because of our inexperience, we had to stay near the coast, so the voyage home took a full month. When necessary, we used our Luck to dodge any military vessels. When we crossed into Imperial waters, we reverted back to Imperial clothes. Kaeso used the time to work on the catapult to make it smaller, with a better range, and a better aim. He also worked on some of our weapons to make them better.

When we finally arrived in the Roma harbor, we were met with an officer harboring a crest unknown to us. We told him we were traders. He insisted on inspecting our boat, but was interrupted by another man who had came onboard with him. We recognized him as the same bureaucrat we had met on the steps of the Imperial Palace the first time we went to see Vasili. He told the officer we are to be let in immediately.

We were led to a warehouse. Many soldiers were waiting inside. The bureaucrat, whose name was Officius, told us we are to be led immediately to the Imperial Palace. The stone was put in a little cart. All the legionnaires present made a circle around us, and we made our way to the palace. Inside the Palace, we were led to our respective quarters, while the stone was being moved in another section for testing. We all cleaned and shaved ourselves for our meeting with Vasili.

Maybe one hour later, we were conducted in a big room where we were met by Vasili and his people for a big celebration. While eating, Vasili told us the following things:

• The tests indicated the stone we brought back was the genuine thing.
• He has adopted the new crest because he couldn't use the traditional imperial crest as long as the Empire was divided.
• Our actions at the Teclan capital had many other benefits than the retrieval of the stone. To retaliate to such an affront, Teclá had redoubled its war efforts at the frontier, and since most of it is on Ruinas' part of the Empire, he was forced to send many troops down there to stop them, thus effectively stopping his advance on Roma. In practical terms, the situation is now a stalemate.
• We will receive our rewards, consisting of money and lands, as soon as possible.
• Our next mission is to retrieve the second holy item in the northern barbarian tribes. Supposedly, the locals won't try to stop us, but there will be a test to complete.

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Chapter 38 - Roma

The day following the banquet, we received our "rewards" for our actions in Teclá, which were in the form of promotions for some, and new positions for others. Mushamee got promoted to the position of Legate of a new Legion that is being built around his 1st Cohort. Leif received the honorary position of general, although not assigned to any particular Legion. Vinz and Rufus were made members of different imperial organizations. Kaeso got the permission to build a complete workshop in the palace. As for Recnam, he was told his reward would be given to him by his own church.

The Emperor gave us a break until the Festival of Zhatva two weeks from now. According to what we had discussed a couple of weeks ago, those who could used their time off to study magic and the world of 1,000 years ago.

• Kaeso got to build a workshop to his taste, including a bunch of high-tech gadgets. He also worked on his boat, making it bigger and better. He finally worked on a much better version of Mushamee's bladed shield, replacing the axe heads with a single circular blade.
• Leif used the time to craft ten hunga-mungas.
• Mushamee spent his days playing politics and socializing with members of the government. At night, he spent a lot of time on booze and women.
• Vinz spent his time meditating on his former lives, trying to remember some of his magical knowledge from that time. He did find some interesting information.
• Rufus was able to talk to one of his ancestors who had lived in that time period too, also getting some interesting information.
• Recnam spent his time in a lab in the Temple of Necros in Roma, working on finding the magical elixirs' recipe. He eventually found it and was able to produce a couple of potions. More importantly, he was now confident he could produce a much bigger batch of potion for the next time.

Then, four days before the Festival, everything went to hell.

It all started when a noise woke Vinz up in the middle of the night. Sensing danger, he grabbed NightFang and opened the door of his room. The corridor beyond was empty, except for a shape lying on the ground a good 15 meters to the right. He knocked on Leif's door, who was just beside his, to wake him up. The barbarian soon opened it, and, seeing Vinz armed, quickly grabbed his sword, shield, and demon helmet. The assassin pointed him to the shape on the ground, and his special sense told him that it was human.

We decided to wake everyone up. Leif went to knock on the doors to their left, while Vinz took care of those of the right. As he got nearer the body, Vinz realized it was Officius, still alive but gravely wounded. The left side of his cranium had been caved in and big claw marks were clearly visible on his torso. The civil servant feebly called for help, but Vinz ignored him to wake Mushamee up. The legionnaire drew out his Silver Sword, noticing that it emitted a much weaker light than usual. He also took his new bladed shield, and lended his old one to Vinz.

Rufus, Recnam, Kaeso and Leif joined them near Officius' body. We noticed that everyone but Mushamee's rune were glowing. Leif squatted near Officius's body to check it out, when suddenly the servant sprung up and tried to bite him, all the while yelling the word 'Brainnn...' The barbarian jumped back just in time to block the attack. As the head hit the metal, its wolf carving suddenly came out of the shield and bit Officius's face, ripping a good part of it. The body felt back on the ground and stopped moving. The crest immediately returned in the shield, but we could see it has changed to show a wolf chewing on a human head. Leif told it to let go of the head, but of course, being a crest, it didn't obey.

Leif could see that coming here, Officius had left a blood trail on the floor. It was thus easy for us to track it back to its source, which happened to be in the officials' quarters. The guards who were ususally present to protect it were missing. We reached Officius's room and stopped before its closed door. Leif could feel his unease growing. We opened the door, just to find an empty room. Moreover, Vinz didn't sense any danger coming from it. We guessed that whatever creature was in the palace had come here first to kill Officius, but was now gone.

Going back outside, Leif noted the blood trail was continuing past the room and toward the Emperor's quarters. We followed them. As we reached the doorway indicating we were leaving the officials' quarters, Officius's zombified body jumped out of a side passage to attack the trailing member of our group from behind. Unfortunately for it, it was Mushamee. The general just chopped it in three parts with his sword. They started crawling away by themselves at a surprising speed. Mushamee went to ran after them, but the others told him it was more important to get to the Emperor's room, so he let them go.

We followed a long corridor and finally reached the big double doors leading to the Emperor's quarters. There was four humanoid shapes standing up in front of them. As we approached them, we noticed they were not guards, but spectral entities of some kind, with red light points in the place of eyes (kind of like the zombies we fought in the sewers system of Kapital). As we were about to attack them, Recnam stepped in front of us and said that those were the four sacred servants of Necros, and we would not be able to destroy them. One of the entities said that what was happening on the other side of these doors was only for Necros and his chosen. Rufus removed his left glove and showed his skeleton hand. Recognizing it, the entities moved aside to let him pass. When he put his hand against the doors, the skeletal part of his left arm started expanding, growing all the way up to his shoulder. He was then able to push the doors open.

We went through, and followed another corridor to the Emperor's chambers. Vasili's bed was empty, but there was a big blood stain right in the middle of his sheets. Back in the corridor, we noticed the blood trail was now leading toward a set of stairs going down. We followed them, but had to go slowly because the stairs were really slippery.

All through these activities, we could see Rufus' body slowy continuing his transformation into a skeleton.

The floor on the level below was completely covered by blood, at least a half inch high. Rufus and Leif could hear some chants coming from one of the side corridors. From what we remembered of the layout of the place, in this direction was the balcony surrounding the official reception room from approximately 30 feet up.

We followed the corridor until we reached another door... except this one was glowing. As we got nearer, we noticed it wasn't a door after all, but some kind of green spiritual wall with ethereal shapes moving through it. Recnam was able to make contact with them; he learned they would be willing to let us all pass if one of us was willing to sacrifice himself. Thinking he would be immune to their power, Mushamee poked the barrier with his sword. It immediately became encased in ice, also trapping the legionnaire's hand. He tried to pull it away with all his strength, but only succeeded in shattering it at the wrist. He fell down, stunned, as the ice went from his right hand to his arm and shoulder, and then to the rest of his body. Suddenly, the general realized his soul was not in his body anymore, but part of the spirit wall. His body was still not dead yet, however, so Recnam forced the content of the two healing potions he had made before down his throat. The spirits told us we could now pass. At this point, Leif suggested that we seemed to be trapped in some kind of dream.

We went through the wall, with Kaeso and Recnam carrying Mushamee's body. We found ourselves on the balcony overlooking the reception room. Looking down, we could see the entire High Imperial Guard legion standing up, immobile. At the far end of the room was a circle of six robed shapes, all wearing different colors. This was obviously the Inquisitors. In the middle of the circle was Vasili standing beside the Teclan Holy Stone, upon which sat the Holy Tome of Power. We quickly realized they were doing the fabled ritual to open the gates of chaos, and had to stop them. Leif and Kaeso aimed their range weapons at them and fired; but at the very last moment, their respective missiles turned back and hit them instead, Kaeso in the throat and Leif in the torso. Luckily, the damage was not too serious.

This attracted the attention of Vasili, who said something about how they should not be distracted. His eyes started glowing, and the head of two of the Inquisitors immediately burst into flame. The others tried to calm him, saying the four of them could still finish the ritual.

Rufus, by now practically turned into a skeleton and under the control of Necros, jumped from the balcony to the floor (badly hurting his leg in the fall) and started running toward Vasili. Leif and Vinz jumped down after him, also hurting their legs a bit. Recnam threw Mushamee's body down, although we didn't really know why.

Kaeso tried to remove the bolt in his throat, but realized he couldn't do it without further injuring himself. Recnam, being a surgeon, said he'd take care of it; he just grabbed the bolt and pulled it out without taking any precaution. Kaeso asked him what the hell was wrong. Recnam got his scalpel out and said, with a strange light in his eyes, that he had to operate immediately on Kaeso. The engineer stepped back, with Recnam following menacingly. Kaeso shot the priest in the torso, causing maximum damage (and Recnam was unarmored). The priest fell down, unconscious.

Down in the room, Rufus, Leif and Vinz were running toward Vasili, with Rufus far ahead of the others. The eyes of the four Inquisitors glowed, then started shooting bolts of fire and lightning, and a bunch of other stuff, at Leif and Vinz. They both evaded the attacks. At the same moment, Rufus reached Vasili, immediately to be blasted by a bolt of electricity coming from the ceiling. He suffered massive damage, missed his HT roll to stay alive, and died.

Leif started running again, while Vinz grabbed his crossbow. On the next round, Vinz aimed, while Leif slammed Vasili and knocked him down. The wolf head came out again and bit the Emperor, ripping off parts of his flesh. When it went back in the shield, the crest changed to include it. The Inquisitors concentrated on Mushamee's body, which started to rise to his feet. Then, because of a little advantage Mushamee had just acquired (Covenant of Rest), the body gave the Inquisitors the finger and fell down on the ground again, this time for good.

On the next round, Vinz fired and hit Vasili in the torso... and immediately woke up.

He sat up in his bed, just in time to see his door closing. He jumped on his feet, and immediately noticed the wound he had sustained when he jumped from the balcony was still there. He opened his door and looked outside; he noticed Vasili walking away. He asked the Emperor why he had been in his room. Then Vasili suddenly turned around and jumped on him, his traits changing, and yelling 'DIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!'

Vinz instantly woke up, this time for real. He noticed his leg was still in pain, but no wound was visible. It was the morning, so he put his clothes on and went to see Leif. The barbarian was somewhat nervous, and Vinz couldn't help notice he had put a bed sheet on top of his shield. Vinz asked if there was something wrong with it. The barbarian said no, but Vinz didn't needed his Body Language skill to know he was lying. He removed the sheet and saw that the crest on the shield was changed; the wolf had now something coming out of his mouth, as if he had bitten and chewed on something. Leif didn't know how the change had happened, except of course for this hideous nightmare he just had...

When Vinz talked to the others, he noticed that they all had shared his nightmare. Those who had been hurt in his dream were actually hurting in the same place, for no visible reason. Mushamee's arm had fallen asleep, becoming cold because of the lack of blood circulation. Rufus' leg was hurting a lot (although his skeleton hand was back to normal). Kaeso had a sore throat and Recnam's torso was really sensible. He told them about his dream, and how we all shared it, but most of them didn't take him seriously. Just in case it actually meant something, he had Recnam write it down in details.

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Chapter 39 - Roma - Roman waters

As we started this week, it was four days before the Zhatva Festival.

Kaeso finished preparing his boat, and at the wish of Mushamee, prepared more Tenosian fire and smoke "grenades." In the Palace, some old guy came to meet him and said he could give him a crew; Kaeso just had to follow him in another part of the Palace. Kaeso did, and found himself in an old crypt. Realizing what kind of sailors that meant, the engineer said we didn't need a skeleton crew and left. Later in the day, he met Officius about hiring a crew, but was told no new people could be brought in our missions, except those furnished by some called the cryptkeeper. Kaeso was not happy :) Getting Marco was alright, though.

Mushamee spent his time socializing, i.e. drinking, gambling and womanizing. :)

Rufus was charged with getting all the necessary provisions and material we needed on our mission. All of this was all paid up by the Emperor.

After two complete weeks of meditations, Vinz had acquired some hidden knowledge about magic before it disappeared one thousand years ago. In particular, he was able to recall the different existing paths of magic (although not what they covered). Some of these paths, like the Scroll of Necros, had the name of a deity in them, so he went to the library and asked the help of a librarian to find who those deities were, as to get a clue of what their paths were encompassing (i.e. Necros = Dead, Morpheus = Dreams, etc). He found some of them, like the aforementioned Morpheus.

The potions done, Recnam found himself intrigued by the mysterious island without a name standing in the middle of the ocean, in the straight line between Roma and the Island At The End Of The World (IATEOTW) where we're supposed to go. Rufus told him one of his ancestors knew this island as one nobody ever comes back from. The Priest decided to spend the remaining time he had looking for some information on it.

He did some research in the old library of his Temple. A critical success on his Research roll helped him found that the island is supposed to be the home of some very old wizards.

The same night, he contacted the Serpent Queen. Here's the information he was able to get:

• She doesn't want to give too much information about the island because she fears it will make Recnam want to go there. She only said that the "Isle of Sorcery" is a place out of time, and is exactly as it was before magic was hidden away by the gods. She also said that if Recnam goes there, she will ask Necros to sent Recnam's soul to the realm of dreams to be with her.
• The test in the IATEOTW (where we're supposed to go) is not a test at all, but a trap. We should not treat it as a test, i.e. with a higher benevolent power supervising us, otherwise we will fail and get killed.
• The ritual involving the four elemental artifacts and the Tome of Power can break our binding to the Inquisitors.
• The four elemental artifacts comes from the "Age Before Gods," and are guarded by elder elemental forces that are madness even to think about. The one in Tecla represented the element of earth and was the less powerful of the four. The one in the IATEOTW represents the element of water.
• To know the truth, one has to know the truth three times in a row and look at the face of the truth. Maybe it is a reference to the four artifacts; after getting three of them, the truth will be revealed by looking at the fourth. Maybe it's something else.

With this information, Recnam became immediately convinced that going to the Island of Sorcery was by far the best way to learn about magical matters and about how to break our bonds. :)

On the day of the Festival, we got together to discuss what we had all found. Recnam insisted that we should go to the Island of Sorcery instead of to the IATEOTW. Kaeso agreed with him, mostly out of curiosity. Rufus, Leif and Mushamee were against because it wasn't their mission. Vinz was also against, because he didn't want to go to a place he didn't know anything about, except for the fact that nobody ever came back from it, and the Serpent Queen doesn't want us to go. The discussion became somewhat heated, until Recnam left, furious, and announcing he would not go with us to the IATEOTW. We continued talking for a while and agreed that since only four of us knew a little about seamanship, we could not go directly to our destination, and would have to follow the coast (thus going nowhere near the Isle of Sorcery). When we'll come back, we'll stop at Leif's village to get four barbarian sailors and will go straight across the ocean (and near the Island). We estimated coming back in a straight line would shorten our trip by ten days.

During the night some of us went to the festival celebration, and some spent their time in their room. Recnam spent his time in the Temple basement, talking with the Temple's Listener. Suddenly, mist appeared from one of the room's corner, and Petr (the Vampire) emerged from it. He told Recnam the Inquisitors were trying to break the binding themselves, because they prefer us as partners instead of slaves. Initially they thought they were summoning demons, thus making the binding necessary, but since we are not demons and are very effective at what we do (as everyone is saying, even the Emperor), they want us to be their willing allies. He gave Recnam a new amulet and an unknown potion.

Recnam said he would try something, and asked Petr not to move. He then tried to use his True Faith on the vampire. Petr immediately became uncomfortable. Recnam stopped. He explained he wanted to find out if his power was working against vampires. It definitely was.

Recnam then asked Petr about his curse. The vampire said he didn't remember how he got it, or anything before he got it; that was one of the effects of the curse. He allied himself with the Inquisitors because they were the only ones who accepted him as he was. Problem is, they don't seem to be that interested in finding a cure; they are mostly using him for their own purposes. He said he could transform into mist and go anywhere, allowing him to be the perfect infiltrator.

Before he left, Recnam told him if he ever come across a way to remove the curse, he would inform Petr about it. That made Petr happy. (Who knows, maybe he could become our allies instead of the Inquisitors'.) Back in his laboratory, Recnam tested the potion (by tasting it :)) and found it was a potion of water breathing.

The following morning, Vinz and Rufus went separately to the Temple of Necros to try to convince Recnam to go. Only Vinz was let in. He and the priest talked for the entire morning, and part of the afternoon. Recnam wanted Vinz to thrust his instincts, but Vinz explained he doesn't like to go somewhere without having no idea was what waiting for him, and against the Serpent Queen's wish (who's his ultimate employer). Finally, Recnam asked Necros if he should go to the Isle of Sorcery (and got a 4 on whatever he was rolling against). Necros said yes. Recnam asked if he should go to the Island At The End Of The World. Necros said no. Knowing Necros wanted us to go to the Isle of Sorcery was enough to convince Vinz to go. We grabbed Rufus on our way out and went to join the others at the harbor.

Meanwhile, Kaeso and Mushamee went to meet Marco and asked him if he would be willing to be our navigator again. After they told him we were not going into hostile territory this time, he accepted. They then went back to the Imperial Palace. Kaeso asked for a meeting with the Legate of the High Imperial Guards, and got it. He asked him if we could bring four of his troops who knew about seamanship. The legate agreed, if Legate Mushamee personally approves of them. He then selected four of his men and filled the requisition order. Kaeso took it to Mushamee.

Now the fun part begins, as Mushamee didn't wanted those men with us, but thought he could not refuse such an offer from a superior officer. So, against his wishes, he approved the selection of the men! (That's what happens when you become more worried about politics than your mission.) We are now stuck with four men who are fiercely loyal to the Emperor with us. On the other hand, these men are there only for sailing, and to fight if we are attacked. And with them, we can go the straight line both while going to and coming from the IATEOTW, And they know not to ask questions. But still...

They left the Palace to go to the boat. Later, four men dressed in civil clothes but with obvious military attitudes showed up with Marco. Finally, Vinz, Rufus and Recnam showed up. When they learned about the four guards, they called for a little "meeting" somewhere else. They then got on Kaeso's case for making this kind of decision by himself; he should have asked the others before. Mushamee even went as far as threatening Kaeso's life if he ever did something like that again. The engineer started complaining about the lack of respect he was getting from the rest of the group (does engineers ever get it? :)). We said no one had ever asked him to follow us, and although we appreciate his ability to build things or make them a lot better, he was still free to walk out. He didn't, mainly (I think) because all of the mysteries still in front of us (he is extremely curious by nature).

We continued the discussion about if we should go to the Isle of Sorcery or not. To convince the others, Recnam even asked Rufus' left hand if we should go to the Isle of Sorcery; it gave a thumb up. The priest then asked if we should go to the IATEOTW; the hand gave a thumb in the middle. Given this, Recnam said if we go to the IATEOTW, he won't use either his priest of Necros' powers, or the spells from Necros' path, so as not to antagonize his father. Moreover, if we go to the Isle of Sorcery, Necros would probably be more willing to help us later in our subsequent missions.

The hand demonstration was enough to tilt the balance in favor of going to the Isle of Sorcery. Kaeso said it shouldn't be a problem for him to "sabotage" the ship just as we are passing near it to give us a reason to stop. The only thing left to decide was if we should go there on our way to the other isle, or when we will come back from it.

We finally left Roma. A couple of days past, then came the time to make the final decision. At first, only Kaeso and Vinz wanted to go right now, then Leif made the argument that if we go directly to the IATEOTW against Necros' wish, he certainly wouldn't be there to help us like he did in Tecla. That convinced him and Recnam to go right now, and with the majority, that is what we are going to do. Mushamee insisted that we stayed at most three days (we'll see about that). Someone mentioned that since the island is quite big (200 miles by 100 miles), it could take us some time to find anything, but Recnam said that if nobody ever came back from it, we will probably be noticed as soon as we get near it.

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Chapter 40 - Roman waters - Isle of Sorcery

As we started this week, it was Vosem 1 and we had just left Roma to go to the Isle of Sorcery. We navigated for ten days. Leif spent most of his time fishing.

On the morning of Vosem 10, Leif caught a big, still-moving skeletal fish with no skin or meat on it. He called for Recnam, who casted Control Zombie and confirmed this was a zombie fish. When Leif looked into the water, he saw many other such fishes floating all around the boat.

A little later, we took notice of a big dark cloud formation still in the distance, right in front of us. When we got nearer, we saw it seemed to be a big storm. When Rufus looked, however, he saw some spiritual forms moving through the storm, as if sustaining it. Marco recalled that the unknown island was reputed to be surrounded by a perpetual storm.

We got nearer and nearer, and we started feeling the storm's effects. Mushamee and Vinz went to the front of the ship, Vinz to man one of the catapults and Mushamee to stand in the front with his silver sword drawn.

A couple of moments later, a beautiful, perfectly proportionated seven-foot high woman in armor and weilding a sword appeared on the deck. She said there was only two possible paths in front of us. The first is toward the island, and the second is back where we came from. If we decide to go to the island, we must understand that there's no way out until we solve its mysteries, whatever they are. Also, we must understand that on the island, there won't be any time for studies (said while looking at Recnam), and no unnecessary killing (said while looking at Mushamee). She wants a simple yes/no answer from Recnam: do we want to go to the Island of Sorcery. Recnam said yes. The woman disappeared.

Our boat started taking speed. We looked into the water and saw many blue-skinned, naked women swimming with us, apparently pushing the boat effortlessly. We were plunging directly into the storm, faster and faster. At some point, we were just skimming the waves. One or two of the High Imperial Guards had to threw up.

A little later, we saw, in front of us, a gigantic, fourteen meters high wave rushing toward us. As it got nearer, we felt a presence over the boat, and we heard Necros' voice said 'You shall let my servitors pass' (or something to that effect). Immediately, the wave froze. Mushamee did see what seemed like skulls emerging from the very top of the wave. Then the wave started parting right in front of us, offering a funnel large enough for the ship to go through. As we went in this water canyon, we could see the water walls on each side were filled with skeletons, humans and others, actively pushing the water away from us! We could also hear their voices saying we had to save them, that lord Necros had promised them they would be free it they helped us.

We came out of the funnel in really calm waters, and we saw it closed behind us. The blue-skinned women had left us, so the boat stopped moving. We could see, still far from us, a big island with a rocky shore, cliffs and trees. Although the shore was at water level, the main land was a gigantic mountain plateau hundreds of feet high. From here, we could see no way of climbing the cliffs. The wall of water seemed to surrender the entire island. The sky was blue and sunny, although it looked a little strange, somewhat distorted. Only Rufus could see the big floating vortex right in the middle of it. Recnam, Vinz and Rufus also sensed that magical energies were more powerful here, although in a very specific way; the two mages realized the additional energy was Death- aspected.

We started rowing toward the island. It took us most of the afternoon. When we got near the island, Leif was able to notice some kind of bulking form walking very deliberately on the beach. Also, midway into the water, he noticed a cohort worth of skeletons armed with spears, immobile.

We talked about trying to find another way to the island, but realized all beaches would probably be similarly guarded; and of course, with all that had just happened, there probably was no way we could still be undetected. And rowing long hours didn't seemed particularly attractive :).

So we continued rowing toward the shore. As we got near the skeletons, they started moving around the boat, pushing it along with their spears. When we got to the shore, they lifted it up and continued walking. They deposited it near the path we had seen the bulking figure use. They quickly brought a ramp. At the same time, we saw the big form come toward us. It was a nine feet giant made of iron (which I will call Ironman from now on). It said, in an old but still understandable form of Imperial, that we were expected and we had to follow him. Recnam grabbed the Golden Mask and looked at the giant. He found himself in a big forge, where emaciated beings were working on many parts of the giant. He also saw another being having his throat cut and his blood falling into some kind of vat that was already full of blood. He saw parts of the giants being plunged into the same vat, as one of the blacksmiths reminisced about how they needed the blood of 1,000 warriors to complete the work. Recnam remove the mask. Vinz knew that none of the 40 or so paths of magic he knew about could have produced such a being.

We grabbed all our stuff and three days of food, and joined Ironman. We told Marco and the High Imperial Guards to stay onboard and guard the ship. They were happy to oblige.

Ironman led us to one of the rocky cliffs and spoke a word in a language unknown to us. Rufus tried to memorize it, but failed. We sensed a rumbling under our feet, then an entire section of the cliff moved aside to reveal a set of stairs leading up. Ironman started up, and we followed. Then as the last of us started climbing, the skeletons started following. With Ironman going at an extremely steady pace, without fatigue, and the skeletons sustaining the same rhythm, the journey was quite fatiguing. A tired Recnam voluntarily went to the back of the group and stopped moving, forcing the skeletons to pick him up.

At dusk, we finally reached the plateau. We saw a large strip of flat land disappearing in the distance. To its right was a dark forest. Rufus was able to see some intangible forms moving inside it. The Ironman told us we had eight hours to sleep, and that the army of skeleton would protect us from the perils of the forest. He also said we'll have to walk two other days to reach our destination.

We ate and went to sleep. Vinz had a vivid dream in which two emaciated guys were talking to each other, discussing how Vinz was 'ready' to be used. They didn't seem to have any flesh, and their bones were showing through their skin, which was all brown and dry like leather. When he woke up, he realized he was still fatigued from last day's trip, probably because of his nightmare.

We got up, ate, and immediately resumed our trek. Vinz noticed most of the plants on the ground were poisonous. Good thing we brought food with us. He later discussed his dream with Recnam and they both realized the beings they have saw, Recnam with the Mask, Vinz in his dreams, were the same.

We walked all day this and the next day, with 15 minute pauses to eat and an 8-hour pause for sleeping. When dusk fell on our third night on the island, Ironman didn't stop, indicating we were about to reach our destination. We walked for another couple of hours, then we finally reached a three-story tall structure, each story being smaller than the one it was sitting on. Ironman led us to one unblemished wall and said we had arrived. He then left us. Kaeso put his hands against the wall, and we all heard some mechanism being activated. Part of the wall moved aside to reveal a dark hole. We went in. We didn't needed light, as our Marks of the Ages were very brilliant.

We found ourselves in an outdoor courtyard. We saw many huge and powerful forms with brilliant eyes turn toward us. Their armor were covering their entire body, and they were all armed with shortswords. Recnam and Vinz fell that both the armors and swords were magical. One of the forms came forward, almost gliding, and said we had to follow it. He led us through a door leading inside the structure.

The first thing we noticed is the walls of the room we were in had a greenish tint. Vinz immediately recognized it as the same tint the spirit wall from his big nightmare 17 days ago had, and warn everybody not to touch them, even with their weapons. There was more of these forms against the walls, not moving.

We waited for a quarter hour, then some kind of magical gas filled the room. Kaeso, Vinz, Recnam and Leif were instantly knocked unconscious. Mushamee and Rufus resisted. Rufus wanted to turn around but realized he couldn't move anymore. Other forms joined the one already in the room and they started stripping all but Mushamee of their gear. Mushamee didn't know what to do. The 'leader' offered him to put all his gear on the ground, and to follow him peacefully. Mushamee accepted, and dropped his weapons and armor. The form told him he had to be naked. Mushamee didn't like it one bit, but obeyed.

Before being led away with the bodies of his companions, he saw that all our gears had been collected on small sledges and were carried away. He was then led down a long stretch of stairs, to a big door. One of the forms opened it, and they found themselves in a corridor filled with prison cells on both sides. Each cell door was in solid wood and had a small window in the upper center. Each window had a metal frame and a removable grid locked from the outside. At the other end of the corridor was another door, similarly locked as the one they had just came through. They put us in six different cells, gave us a black ceremonial robe, closed the cell doors, and left. When his cell door closed, Rufus, still paralyzed but not unconscious, saw some kind of flash, making him think the doors were magically locked.

A minute later, Rufus came out of his paralyzation. 11 minutes later, Leif woke up (because of his Recovery advantage). The three others only woke up 12 hours later, ironically allowing Vinz to have his first good night's sleep since we got on this island.

At this point we were all famished, so we yell for a while, asking for food. Eventually, the corridor door opened, and some of the forms walked in with pitchers of water and bowls of some greenish porridge. They unlocked the small metal window grids on each of our cells, pushed them up, and handed us a bowl and a pitcher each. They then locked the grids back and left.

Vinz and Leif each tested the food for poison. In the porridge, they found some traces of a plant used to transform living people into mindless drones. The water was pure. They told the others not to eat.

A while later, the corridor door opened again and two emaciated beings came in. They looked into each cell in turn, all the while making comments about how this one was ready, how this one would make a good sacrifice, and how this one would make a good soldier. Vinz and Recnam instantly recognized them as the beings they have seen before. By listening to their conversation, it became apparent that if we stayed here, we would meet our doom.

When they stopped in front of Recnam's cell, the Priest casted Control Zombie on one of them, even though he knew they problably were not zombies. He got a 3. His target suddenly stepped back and raised his hands to his head, yelling 'Make him stop! Make him stop!' Before Recnam had time to do anything else, the other being concentrated and Dazed him. They went back through the corridor door and locked it.

The moment they left us alone, Vinz concentrated on one of his spells (Lockmaster) and tried to unlock his door. It failed. He tried again, this time sacrificing six hit points by cutting his left arm profoundly; he barely succeeded. The spell locking the door had a resistance roll, but Leif used his Luck to make sure it failed (Sean having ruled that this was a party roll). The door opened and Vinz stepped out. Kaeso, sure that the door was locked normally, used one of his bowl to work on a set of improvised lockpicking tools.

Vinz made sure all his comrades were OK. Leif asked him to put his left arm through the window, and, without even using a dead rat (since there wasn't any around), successfully healed him.

Vinz walked to Mushamee's room and repeated the same ritual. This time he missed the HT roll he had to make because of the damage he was inflicting himself, and fell on the floor. Luckily, by this time, Leif was making a lot of noise to cover any noise Vinz could make. The assassin got on his feet and casted the spell successfully (although barely). Mushamee used his Luck to make the locking spell miss its resistance. The door opened. However, it became evident that Vinz couldn't use this method anymore, because of the toll on his body and the 3 fatigues he had to take for each casting. Looking around, he realized the doors' windows were big enough for someone to wriggle through... if the grid could be unlocked and pushed aside.

Kaeso, having finished his set of lockpicks, tried to pick his celldoor's lock. He made his roll by a good margin, but the door stayed close. Vinz took the lockpick from him and unlocked the small window grid. It worked. But as the clumsiest of the group by far, Kaeso had no chance to make a default Escape roll, so we told him to wait. We went to Recnam's cell and unlocked the grid. Then, with a little help, the priest was able to crawl through the window into the corridor. Vinz unlocked Leif's and Rufus's window grids, and they all made it through (although it was a close fit). We went back to Kaeso. At that point, Vinz started feeling some danger coming toward us, so he decided to break the wood around the window pane with his Breaking Blow skill. While he concentrated, Mushamee and Leif came to support him in case he fell. He jumped in the air and kicked the wood just under the frame with his foot, making his Breaking Blow roll and rolling maximum damage. The metal frame and part of the the door flew into the cell and hit the far wall with a loud bang. With such a big hole, Kaeso was able to escape his cell.

At this moment, Vinz sensed that the danger was really, really near. We hide on each side of the door. It opened. Recnam stepped forward and saw two of the big forms who captured us. From his knowledge of the occult, he had found out these things were probably wraiths, humans brought back from the dead, their will intact but having to obey their masters. They were material, but incredibly tough and powerful. He knew we couldn't really fight them unarmed and unarmored. He used his True Faith on them, and won the contest of will. The two wraiths stepped away from him, hissing. Recnam told the others to stay near him, then stepped out of the room. We found ourselves in a small room with a set of stairs leading up. The priest maneuvered carefully to force the wraiths to go into the cell block, then closed the door. Kaeso took a couple seconds to destroy the locking mechanism.

We started climbing, and reached another door. Leif used his special sense to hear through it. He heard some ruffling on the other side. Then, coming from below, came a horrible plaintive cry that seemed to make the entire structure tremble. Still listening through the door, Leif heard the sound of weapons being drawn, and a voice saying there is trouble below and they should try to get the guards.

We decided at this moment that since there were only two of them, we might as well risk it all by attacking them; if we succeed, we will at least have some magical weapons for when we will meet more. We opened the door and saw two armed wraiths going in two different occasions. The moment they saw us, they turned around to attack. Recnam used his will to repel one of them while the rest of the group ran toward the other. Leif was first, followed by Mushamee, Vinz, Kaeso and Rufus. The wraith attacked Leif, but the barbarian dodged it and slammed the monster... but the wraith was so strong that even with the bonus for charging, Leif just bounced back and fell on the floor. On the same second, Mushamee put his arms around its torso, Vinz grabbed its sword arm, and Kaeso its left arm. On the next turn, even with three people grabbing him, it was strong enough to break free and attacked Leif on the ground. Miraculously, the barbarian evaded him again. Leif grappled both its legs. Mushamee re- grabbed its torso. Vinz re-grabbed its right arm. Rufus grabbed its left arm. This time, the wraith failed to break free (he had a ST around 20, but our combined grabbling gave us an effective ST of 22, and Lucky Leif was rolling since he was the most powerful of us). On the next turn, we all maneuvered to take him down, and succeeded. It tried again to break free, but we resisted, although barely. On the next turn, we pinned it. Then Vinz simply took the sword from the undead, turned around, and started hitting it in the eyes. It took him four attacks before the thing dissipated, his armor falling down on the ground. Vinz gave the sword to Mushamee who turned toward the second wraith, but then saw he wouldn't have to use it.

While we were fighting the first wraith, Recnam was able to keep the other at bay (it was a quick contest of will each second). Then Recnam stepped forward and decided to impose his will upon the undead by asking it to put his sword down. But it was not his voice that came out of his throat, it was Necros'. Those looking at the scene also saw Recnam's head transform into a flaming skull. The God told the wraith he could save its soul, but it had to surrender it willingly. The wraith walked to Recnam and put one of its hand on the priest's forehead. Its body immediately disintegrated, its equipment falling on the ground.

Vinz walked to the priest and grabbed the second sword. We then tried to put the armors to use, but realized none of us was strong and bulky enough to wear them without penalties. For now, we'll to continue as we are.

That's where we stopped.

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