Chapter 61 - the kotanese city of Shag

As we started this week, darkness was falling on our first day in Shag. Recnam was in the temple of Necros, and Vinz had left the Mercenary's Guild to join him. Kaeso was working on his armor and his secret project. Mushamee, Leif, Vladimir and Oleg went to the Temple of Bacchus in the hope of making some contacts with disgruntled locals (and of course for boozing and gambling). As for Rufus, he asked Claudius if he could see his library. Claudius obliged, but Rufus soon found out the noble didn't knew anything about books but liked to talk about them a lot. The informatore wasn't able to find anything interesting in it.

In the basement, Kaeso, having already finished his set of armor for Claudius, was happily working on whatever he was making. Then, without any special reason, he looked at the walls around him and noticed that a section of it was definitely different. He looked at the bricks and found they were much more recent than the others. He took some of his instruments and went to work on removing them. After removing the first brick, he was surprised to find an empty space. As he removed more and more, he found the space was in fact a tunnel leading into darkness. When the opening was big enough, he grabbed a lantern and went on a little exploration trip. The tunnel went on for a little while, then suddenly ended in a small cavern with small river flowing near its back.

Curious as always, he removed most of his clothes and entered the water. His foot immediately hit some kind of solid box. He felt its form with his hand and tried to move it. It didn't bulge. He went back to the basement, got some rope, came back in the cavern and put it around the box. He then tried to pull it out, but still it didn't move. Finally, Kaeso decided to get help from Josef and Ilya. This time the three of them were strong enough to move the object. They hauled it on the cavern ground. Kaeso realized the box was in fact a sarcophagus. He opened it and found the relatively intact body of a man with a dagger planted directly in the heart. The dagger was encrusted with jewelry and seemed particularly valuable. He asked Josef and Ilya to stay here while he would go find 'Freakboy' (i.e. Recnam) to try to speak with the body's soul. The guards grudgingly accepted.

Since it was now late in the evening, Kaeso had to get a special permission to leave Claudius' domain. He found Rufus and asked him for one. Rufus asked him why. Kaeso said he couldn't say right now, but he really needed to find Recnam. Rufus said he should wait for the morning. Kaeso said it was urgent. Again, Rufus asked him why, and again Kaeso said he couldn't tell (he knows about Rufus's truthfullness). Rufus flatly refused to give him the permission, and went to sleep. Kaeso was pretty pissed off, and told Rufus he should remember that his authority over us was just a mask and that he would regret it once we leave Shag.

Still, Kaeso was pretty set on finding Recnam, so he tried to sneak out of the domain. He missed his Stealth roll pretty badly and was called out by the man guarding the front gate. This guard, named Floyd, told him he wasn't authorized to leave. Kaeso offered him all his loose change (800 coppers) to let him go. The guard didn't think long and unlocked the gate (this sum represented for him more than a year's worth of pay). He said to Kaeso to use the guards' gate to get back in instead of the front gate. The engineer left the domain toward the Temple of Necros.

Meanwhile, back at the start of the evening, Vinz reached the Temple of Necros. Instead of the big rocky buildings he was used to, this one was mostly an opened area. He even had difficulty finding temple guards. He was led to Recnam, who was busy looking into Temple matters. He asked about Night Guardians and was told there were none in Shag, as the temple didn't had the money to pay them. He considered hiring some local mercenary, but Recnam and the abbess convinced him any raise in security would not go unnoticed by the spies.

He and Recnam decided to go in the catacombs to see if they could find secret passages out of the Temple. Vinz used his See Secrets spell, but didn't find any. The only hidden thing he found was a small lever on the side of a sarcophagus. He and Recnam approacjed it, and the assassin pulled it. They heard a lock unlatched. They pull the cover of the sarcophagus up. Lying in there was the body of a man. It was relatively intact, except for a small, gem-encrusted dagger he had planted in his heart. Vinz and Recnam immediately sensed the small weapon was magical. The priest tried to contact the body's soul, but failed completely; it was simply not here. Being a highly trained pathologist, Recnam started a carefull investigation of the body and found the following things:

• The body has been dead for less than a day since there was no sign of rigor mortis.
• The dagger wound did not bleed, meaning either the guy was already dead hen he was stabbed, or he didn't had any blood in his body.
• The man had some kind of lipstick on his lips. Recnam couldn't say if it was applied on the man, or was simply the lipstick left by a woman who had kissed him.

At this moment, we heard Kaeso's voice coming from the outside. The engineer was yelling after some priest about how he had to see Recnam immediately, and the priest saying the priest was not available. Vinz and Recnam decided to go see what was the matter, but before leaving, Vinz decided to take the dagger with him. But the moment he removed it from the body, it (the body) immediately stood up, grabbed the assassin by the throat, tried to snap his neck (doing heavy damage), and threw him against the wall like a ragdoll (it was incredibly strong). Recnam stepped back and started preparing a Control Zombie spell, while Vinz got on his knees, mumbling curses and fast-drewing his sword. But before they could do anything, the monster darted toward the exit at great speed.

Kaeso, who was still arguing with the priest, saw this man ran toward him and just had time to step aside. The priest wasn't so lucky; the body hit him full force and threw him twenty feet in the air. It then ran outside the temple, bouncing on walls as it was going.

After sheating his sword and hiding the small dagger on himself, Vinz asked to be led to the Temple of Bacchus to get some help from Leif and discussed what had just happened. During the trip, which was fortunately short, Kaeso explained that he had found a similar body under Claudius' domain, and had left it with Josef and Ilya. He said the dagger Vinz had removed was identical to the one he had found in the body, and just wished that the guards would refrain from removing it.

Rewind to the beginning of the evening at the Temple of Bacchus. Before entering the temple's ground, Mushamee and Leif set up their strategy. They decided to act independently from each other, and to try to attract the attention of people who seemed opposed to Ruinas. Mushamee asked his two men to refrain from drinking too much.

The four men entered the Temple. Mushamee immediately went toward the gambling area; his initial intention was to intentionally lose some money, but his greediness slowly crept in and in time it changed to win as much as possible :) Unluckily for him, he was going against a really good gambler and ended up losing. Leif went directly to the bar and started drinking (with moderation). He also inquired about what was happening in the city, and how Ruinas was horrible for all he had caused in the Empire. He claimed Vasili was the true continuation of the imperial line, and that Ruinas was only an usurper.

Later in the night, a group of three men entered the Temple. Mushamee immediately noticed that they had the maneurism of military men, maybe even officers. They went to the bar to order a drink. When they heard Leif talking, they started to argue with him. As time passed, the discussion took a dangerous turn as Leif became more and more vehement in his tirade against Ruinas.

As a side note, Leif's strategy was to irk these men enough that they would give him a beating, which, he thought, would be a sure way to make him sympathetic in the eyes of any people opposed to Ruinas. The problem was he was so antagonistic that a beating probably wouldn't be what he would receive; a sword thrust through the heart seemed more probable.

Anyway, Mushamee decided it was time to leave the gambling table and enter the conversation. He played the role (badly, I must say; he is not the subtle type) of a man who wanted to stop the hostilities, but then, learning from Leif what Ruinas had done, would become horrified of the new dictator's actions. The Temple director pleaded with all of them to refrain from starting a fight, but he was completely ignored. Finally, just as things were about to explode, a fourth man murmured something in the ear of one of the soldiers, who then said he had no time to lose with lowly swords-for-hire. The four men promptly left the Temple.

As Vinz, Recnam and Kaeso got near the Temple of Bacchus (Vinz being supported by the others two), somebody stepped in front of them, said that their two collegues were much too vocal and should tone it down, and walked away. The three men entered the Temple and walked to the bar. Leif healed Vinz discreetly, not enough to make his wound disappeared (which would be too noticeable), but enough to make him able to walk by himself. We told him and Mushamee about the bodies we had found, and we all decided to go back to Claudius' domain to investigate the one still in the cavern. As soon as we were outside the temple, Leif healed what was left of Vinz's wound.

As we got near the domain from the back, we noticed a dozen torch-carrying people walking toward the front gate. With their special visions, Leif and Recnam had no problem noticing that, under their cloaks, they all had lorica armors and badly hidden shortswords. We quickly sneaked through the gards' gate (which was unlocked, as Floyd said it would), ran to our quarters, took our swords, spears, gauntlets and helmets, and ran to the front gate (except for Recnam, who decided to go to the other sarcophagus immediately). At the front gate, we saw Floyd was not there, but the gate itself was still locked (he was probably celebrating his good fortune somewhere). As the soldiers from the road got near, Vinz climbed on a parapet and, speaking through a small window, asked who was there (passing himself as a guard). One of the twelve men threw a bag of gold at him and told him to unlock the door and move away. At Mushamee's despair, Vinz slapped the bag away and said we could not be bribed that easily. The man said in that case, we were as much rebels as the others. Four men rushed to the gate carrying a small wooden battering ram and started pounding on the wooden doors.

The gate's size only allowed two people through at a time. Mushamee and Vinz set themselves on each side, each with one Imperial Guards just behind. Leif and Kaeso both climbed on the little parapet, one on each side of the gate. The engineer grabbed his crossbow, aimed at one of the battering men through the same window Vinz had used, and fired. He hit one man right in the face and dropped him. Another rushed in to take his place.

After the fourth of fifth hit of the ram, the doors flew open. Vinz and Mushamee immediately stepped forward to block the way. Vinz feint-and-attacked the man in front of him to the brain, instantly knocking him out. Mushamee feint-and-attacked his opponent to the throat, killing him. Leif threw a hunga munga at a third man, decapitating him. He then grabbed his giant sword. Kaeso took, from his inside pocket, a bottle of Tenosian fire and casually threw it in the middle of the soldiers' group. The small explosion damaged four of the enemies, with three of them actually catching fire. Mushamee stepped forward through the fire. Vinz jumped over it using acrobatics and killed a fourth guy. Kaeso and Leif both jumped over the wall, with Kaeso missing his default acrobatic and sprawling on the floor. Mushamee killed two soldiers with attacks to the brain (again, imitating what Vinz was doing). Vinz killed another. Two of the remaining ones decided to go at Kaeso, which seemed a much easier and less dangerous target; one hit him in the torso. Another two attacked Leif, who parried the first and took small damage from the second. Mushamee and Vinz finished the ones in front of them. Kaeso was hit two other times, and was seriously wounded. One of the guys attacking Leif decided to pick off, and Leif decided to go after him. The other guy was about to hit the barbarian from behind, but Vinz stepped in and hacked him to death with an all-out attack to the brain before he could do anything. The assassin then took off after Leif. Mushamee ran to help Kaeso and quickly finished the two assailants. Leif took only a couple of seconds to catch up with the fleeing soldier, being naturally quicker and the soldier being encumbered). He hit him two times from behind, almost cutting him in two.

We killed all the survivors and carried their bodies inside the gate. In addition to their weapons, we found on them rags soaked in oil, hatchets, hammers, and many other tools useful for busting doors and setting fires. A guard inside the mansion finally noticed the fire outside and rang a bell frenetically. Vinz ran to join Recnam.

Rewind a bit as Recnam left the others to go find the body. In the basement, he found a big cauldron with some liquid cooking in it. He tasted it. His Alchemy skill told him this should have been an elixir to speak to the dead, but it seemed to have been deliberatly weakened to just provide visions of death to the drinker. Recnam left all this for later and went through the tunnel. When he arrived in the cavern, he found Ilya and Josef asleep on the ground, and the body still in the sarcophagus with the dagger in place. The two guards woke up. Recnam told them never to remove the dagger. Josef said that earlier, they thought of removing it since it seemed valuable, but given their recent experiences with undead bodies, they had finally decided to refrain.

Less than a minute later, Vinz joined them. Recnam sat against a wall and put himself to sleep to contact the Serpent Queen. He succeeded, and found himself in the dream world. He asked the Queen about the bodies and the daggers. After he gave her a thorough description of the bodies' conditions (including an exact description of the lipstick's color, due to his Appreciate Beauty skill :)), she took a moment to think. Then she said it could be the act of a particular succubus, a nasty demon chick named Queen Hepshet. According to her, this demon clouds men's minds, screws them, and turns them into half-demons that are a bit like vampires, but not undead. Supposedly, she can turn invisible or into mist, change her shape, and all the other good stuff that mythic mind-controlling demons can do. Of course, most of the acts attributed to her are hooey made up by people who do evil deeds and blame it on demons that nobody can see. But some of it could be true... and she thinks Hepshet is a demon princess on par with a lesser goddess in power, not just a monster for a warrior to kill with a sword. Guess our greedy, glambing, bloodlusty, bad-tempered, uneducated "Paladin" will soon find an occasion to test his new demon-slaying sword :) The Queen also said that the daggers were probably one of the means of stopping the half-demons, but they were only a temporary measure, working only as long as they were in the monsters' hearts.

Recnam woke up and shared his information with Vinz. The assassin took out his sword, walked to the body and tried to cut its head. His sword went right through the neck without doing any damage. We decided to wait for the others.

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Chapter 62 - the kotanese city of Shag

Leif healed Kaeso, who was still badly wounded. Mushamee joined Recnam and Vinz in the cavern. The priest told him what the Serpent Queen had revealed about the succubus. The legionnaire walked to the sarcophagus and tried to cut the body's head, but like Vinz, his sword just went through the neck without doing any damage. Obviously, although created by a demonic being, those things were not demons themselves.

The three walked back to Claudius' basement. Recnam carefully examined the bricks that were part of the wall section Kaeso had removed. He concluded that although they were newer than the rest of the house, they have been put there at least a couple of decades ago. Vinz theorized that the bodies' freshness simply came from the fact they were not really dead, ant not because they had been killed in the last day.

At this point, it was almost 4h00 A.M., so we all went to sleep. Needing a lot less of it, Recnam woke up not long after dawn and went back into the cavern. There, he tried to contact a spirit. He succeeded, but the spirit only spoke Kotanese, a language Recnam doesn't know, so he cut the contact and went back to the basement. To his surprise, he immediately noticed a spectral presence in one of the corners. The priest asked what it was doing here. The spectre said he was strangely attracted to a thing here, pointing to Kaeso's cauldron (which contained a lessened version on an elixir to talk to the death). Recnam looked around and saw other spectres gathering around the cauldron. He asked the first spectre if he knew who had put the not-quite-dead thing here. The spectre said it was himself, fifty years ago, on the order of friar Nebulus. But then he died and came under the influence of a curse that stopped him and everybody else who helped him (i.e. every spectre here) from going to the afterlife. Recnam thanked them and started his ritual of sending. A couple minutes later, the ground opened and all the spectres were sucked in it. In his head, Recnam heard the voice of his father thanking him for sending these lost souls to him; as a reward, he (Necros) would favorably look on any of his son's demand for the next day.

Recnam went outside to talk to the spirits of the dead soldiers. When he reached the gate, he saw a crow perch on a wall. He contacted the soldier leader successfully, but the spirit told him he could go screw himself, that Necros was a false god and that he was allied with another god. Pissed off, Recnam immediately started his ritual of Sending. When it was completed, he sensed some kind of resistence, then a hole in reality appeared, and the spirit of the soldier was sucked through it, laughing.

At this same instant, Mushamee, Leif and Vinz instantly woke up. Mushamee went to check the basement, while Vinz ran outside.

Meanwhile, Recnam was still wondering what had just happened. Then he heard the voice of his father coming from the crow. It said to him all the soldiers' spirits had been sent to another dimension and were now out of his reach. It also said we should abandon this bogus journey we were on and should go to Kapital as quickly as possible to destroy the summoner, as it was the real danger around here. Recnam wanted to ask him some precision on what he had just said, but Necros had already left the crow before he could even begin.

When Vinz later joined the priest, Recnam told him what Necros had just said. They then joined the others (except for Rufus) and improvised a little discussion. Together we realized that the "opening" of the gates of chaos the ritual was supposed to do could already have happened, what with all the supernatural happenstances we have met lately, including this mysterious "summoner", various elementals, and our discovery of the system of arches. Vinz even suggested that it could have had happened the same night he had his fantastic nightmares many months ago, remembering how it had actual effects in the real world (people hurting where they were wounded in the dream, Leif's shield's actually changing to what it ended up in the dream, etc). We finally agreed to follow Necros' council, and estimated that if we used the godly arches, we could have the time to go to Kapital and come back within the next five months, which was the original estimated time our trip was supposed to take. Still, given the potentially hostile situation here in Shag, we decided to check if there would be a way to get rid of the imperial recruiters before leaving.

Later in the morning, Leif transformed into a crow and went for an extensive aerial look at the garrison hosting Ruinas' men. Vinz disguised himself as a young woman and went back to the Mercenary's Guild to meet Kobov. Recnam decided to go back to the Temple of Necros, with Mushamee as his bodyguard.

At the Mercenary's Guild, Vinz gained quick access to Kobov. The mercenary admitted he had contact with those opposed to Ruinas. He also mentioned that although Ruinas' garrison here in Shag was not that big (maybe the size of a single century), there was an entire legion approximately two weeks' march away, and that we should be ready to deal with it if we go for an open confrontation. Vinz thanked him for his information and left the Guild. He then decided to join Recnam and Mushamee at the Temple of Necros.

Recnam and Mushamee were walking toward the temple when suddenly they got hit by crossbow bolts coming from the roofs of nearby houses. Luckily, their armor shielded them from any damage. They jumped through the nearest door and found themselves in a small shop. They asked the merchant to be let out through the back door. The merchant was somewhat reluctant at first, but relented when he was offered a zoloto. Mushamee ran to the back while Recnam stayed behind to check the main door.

The moment Mushamee opened the back door, he had to dodge/parry the swings of a powerful two-handed hammer and a shortsword. He attacked the sword wielder first and killed him. He then turned toward the other man, who didn't had the time to re-ready his weapon, and killed him too. A brief visual examination of the bodies showed Mushamee that those men were not legionnaires.

Meanwhile, at the front door, an assassin tried to get into the store. Recnam impaled him with the pointy metallic end of his staff, right through the throat. The guy instantly felled on the ground.

Mushamee called to the priest and they both exited the store through the back door, with Mushamee in the lead. They didn't get very far before two assassins jumped in the alley to attack them. One landed between Mushamee and Recnam and successfully put a garrotte around the legionnaire's neck! The other landed behind Recnam and tried the same trick, but the priest moved aside. Mushamee tried to break free, but failed. Recnam hit the man garrotting Mushamee, not hard enough to distract him, then turned around to face his own assailant. Mushamee tried something extremely dangerous; plunge his sword point inside the armor covering his neck in the hope of cutting the garrotte's cord quickly enough that his attacker would not have time to react. But even with his great sword skill, he had a 50% chance of cutting his own throat (and he was out of Luck). Still, he went ahead and succeeded. He immediately turned around and severed his attacker's head from his neck. As for Recnam, he parried his own attacker's knife attack and hit him with his staff. Then Mushamee stepped in and finished him off.

From now on, they decided to keep to the back alleys. As they reached the street in front of the temple of Necros, they saw Maria standing on the steps leading to its door. Four men were standing behind her. As the two men got nearer, they recognized the four men as the snipers who had ambushed them. One of them had a knife on Maria's throat. Another one told them to drop their weapons. Recnam slowly leaned down, seemingly to put his staff on the ground, but in fact to ask his father for help. He felt himself infused with immense magical powers. He immediately casted Madness on the guy holding the knife on Maria's neck; the man failed to resist, dropped the knife on the ground, pushed Maria aside, and stepped toward Recnam while making gestures and talking as if he was about to cast spells himself. Mushamee charged the other three men and quickly dispatched them. The mad man decided to run away, but Recnam, still full of energy, slowed him considerably with another spell. This allowed Mushamee to catch up and kill him.

They both helped Maria to her feet and escorted her inside the temple. She told them how the four men had tricked her into coming out of the Temple to use her as hostage.

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Chapter 63 - Shag

In the Temple of Necros, Recnam and Mushamee descended into the crypt, looking for some supernatural "means of defense" for the Temple (probably of the zombie type). But before doing anything drastic, Recnam decided to simply ask his father for his protection on the temple. To his big surprise, Necros said "I cannot protect which doesn't want to be protected. You must get rid of the traitor."

Meanwhile, Vinz finally arrived at the Temple. An acolyte told him where to find Recnam, so he joined him and the legionnaire in the crypt. He told them about the legion not that far away, and how it could spell doom for this city if we should decide to attack the garrison openly.

Wanting to learn more about the traitor mentioned by his father, Recnam called for any wandering spirit to come talk to him. One answered, but said he couldn't move. He told the priest where he was, which was just a couple meters from where we were standing. Recnam found that strange since spirits are usually free to roam.

Recnam went to the indicated place, and noticed the dim outline of a magical symbol on the floor. He knelt to get a closer look, and recognized the symbol as one used in an exorcism ceremony. The spirit told him he was bound in the space formed by this symbol. Recnam realized that someone had performed the first step of an exorcism on this spirit, i.e. the binding of the soul in one place. But since the other steps were not performed, the spirit stayed bound to this place from now on. Recnam asked the spirit who had done this. The spirit said that it was friar Nebulus, more than fifty years ago. Recnam asked why. The spirit didn't answered. Recnam guessed that maybe he was not free to reveal this information.

The priest knew the only way to free the spirit was to perform the exorcism ceremony anew. He spent the next hour reciting prayers, moving ceremonial objects, etc, but all that was in vain as he blew his Exorcism roll :). Since he had to wait a full week before being able to try again, he went to found Maria and asked her to perform the ceremony. She accepted.

While Vinz was staying with the priest and Maria for protection, a bored Mushamee decided to inspect the Temple in its entirety. It consisted of a single two-story-high central area surrounded by windows ten to twelve feet above the ground. In the front wall was the main Temple door. On the left wall was a single door leading to a small one-story monastery hosting all the sleeping and living quarters.

As he got near the door of friar Nebulus' room, the legionnaire heard some furtive noises coming from inside the room. As he got nearer, he realized someone was trying to unlock the door. He drew his sword, retreated back in the corridor, and waited. Soon, there was a click and he heard a voice annoucing success.

The door opened, and a man wearing a black mask stepped in the corridor. Mushamee sprang foward and hit him in the face with his shield, knocking him out. Two other men irrupted from the room to attack the legionnaire, but he stopped them easily and promptly killed them. He removed their masks and recognized them as some of the people who had ambushed him and Recnam earlier the same day. He promptly killed the unconscious man, then asked some of the Temple people to remove the bodies. He went back to the crypt.

In the crypt, Maria successfully completed the exorcism ceremony and freed the spirit. It told Recnam that friar Nebulus was killed more than fifty years ago, and that something had taken its place. That thing then killed him and bounded him to this place, with the interdiction to reveal what he knew. Recnam thanked him for the information, then sent him to his Father.

By this time it was getting very late. In Claudius' domain, Kaeso was busy teaching some armory to Leif (who came back from his recon mission many hours ago), when one of the four High Imperial Guards showed up. He said that Mushamee should have come back a while ago. Kaeso and Leif said he was right, and decided to go seek the missing men. They gathered the three other guards, and they all left Claudius' home. They decided to look first at the Temple of Bacchus.

Back at the Temple, Recnam and Vinz decided to investigate friar Nebulus' room. At first, all seemed fine, except for the window left opened by the three intruders. Vinz casted See Secrets on himself. Only the bed showed up as something bizarre. The assassin moved the blanket aside and inspected the wooden frame. He found a small bump in the wood and pressed it. He heard a small declic and the top moved up a bit. He pushed it aside, revealing a compartment full of robes of Necros. He removed them carefully, but found nothing. He inspected the wooden plank at the bottom and found a small knot in the wood that he could push down. He put his finger in the hole and was able to lift the bottom plank. In the new, much smaller compartment, he found some feminine dresses and make-up, of the kind usually used by whores. He quickly put everything back in place.

Meanwhile, Recnam carefully studied some of the scrolls left behind by "friar Nebulus." He soon realized that although some of the scrolls had been carefully maintained so as to appear relatively knew, none of them had been written later than 50 years ago.

At this moment, everyone heard someone banging on the main Temple door. Mushamee looked through a small window and recognized Kaeso, Leif and the four guards, who had decided to come here after their fruitless visit to the Temple of Bacchus. Recnam, Vinz and Mushamee informed them of their findings. Leif said it would be better if we were all sleeping in the same place, so he volunteered to go get Helena, Diandra and Rufus. Vinz made him realize that he should be the one to do it, as he was already disguised and he could do the same for the others. Leif accepted, but said he would still go in his crow form for reconnaissance. He also asked Vinz to carry his big sword so that he could morph back into human form and help in case of trouble. That made perfect sense, so Vinz accepted.

The trip back to Claudius' place was uneventfull, with Vinz keeping to the back alleys. When he reached the gate, he asked to speak to Rufus. The informatore let him in, but when Vinz explained why he was back, Rufus categorically refused to leave Claudius' place. Vinz warned him not to pull rank on him, but still he refused, argueing that a trip to the Temple at this hour would be risky, and that if we leave, Claudius would be left defenseless. Vinz replied that they should be safe since they would be disguised, that being separated like they currently were was too dangerous, and that our mission was surely more important than Claudius' safety. Still, Rufus refused to buldge. Vinz gave him five seconds to comply, but just as he reached 0, Leif came out of the door house, followed by Helena and Diandra (he had obviously flew through their windows and talked to them). Helena pulled rank over her husband and said we were all going to the Temple of Necros. As Vinz was busy disguising the trio, she gave her husband a good tong-lashing about his responsabilities to the Empire, and how their mission was much more important than the security of some uncle she had met only once when she was a little girl.

Mostly because of Vinz's great disguises, the trip back to the Temple was as uneventful as the trip from. When they reached their destination, it was well into the night. Maria assigned each sleeping bunks to each member of the group. Since we had slept little the night before, we quickly went to bed.

Four or five hours later, Helena, who was on guard duty with (I think) Mushamee, heard some noise coming from the back of the Temple. Everyone was woken up and put their armor on. Mushamee went to the back wall, but since there was no door and the windows were too high, was unable to see anything. Leif, standing in the middle of the Temple area, heard other noises, this time coming from the roof. He shapeshifted into a crow and flew out one of the windows. He immediately saw ten to fifteen human shapes walking on the roof with ropes. He flew to the back of the Temple and saw, put against the back wall, a big scaffold made of metal and wood used by other shapes to climb on the roof. He counted more than 60 of them.

Leif flew back inside to told the others what he saw. We guessed that they were planning to come from the roof through every window of the Temple at once. Basic tactics showed Mushamee that the Temple was undefendable against this tactic, and the only "secure" place would be the crypt, with its only way in using the stairs. We gathered everyone and ran down.

We knew we had some minutes before the assault, so we did some preparation. While Kaeso was busy greasing each stair step with oil, the others built a barricade high enough to cover us completely, leaving small holes to shoot bolts through. Recnam used the time to ask his father for his help. We saw some immaterial skull-shape forms rise up from the surrounding tombs; Recnam recognized them as skull spirits. There was a dozen in all. He ordered them to hide under the floor on the other side of the barricade.

We heard a lot of noises coming from the Temple. The soldiers were probably searching the entire place. Luckily for the Temple, it was almost completely made of stone, so was basically fireproof. After a couple of minutes, we heard someone, probably the commanding officer, saying the basement was the only place left to search. Vinz and Kaeso took their place just behind the barricade, armed with their crossbows. In the Temple, the soldiers designated to climb down the stairs complained about the strange stuff on the steps, fearing it could be a horrible trap made of some demonic stuff. The C.O. had to threaten them before they finally obeyed their order.

They reached the bottom of the stairs and saw our barricade. They informed their leader, and soon four men carrying a ram appeared from the stairs. Vinz shot the one on the front left to the brain, dropping him instantly. Kaeso did the same thing, with the same result, to the guy on the front right. At Recnam's order, the skull spirits raised from the floor and attacked a third carrier, sucking his life force before disappearing back in the floor. The surviving guards, having seen the skull spirits, started yelling about the presence of demons. The C.O., still up there, told them we were playing tricks on them, that there was no demons. He sent down a group of shield carrying men to form a line of protection. Other men came down and picked the ram up. Kaeso and Vinz shot at two shield guards, but both bolts were blocked. Recnam sent his spirits against a shield man on every other turn, but more were coming down.

When the soldiers got close to the barricade, the ones at the front used their spears to poke through the small holes. Vinz and Kaeso stepped back, letting Mushamee and Rufus break the wood shafts (of course, Rufus missed his attack, thus forcing Vinz to dodge). Then the shield men moved aside and the ram hit the barricade with force. Kaeso and Vinz took a snapshot at the ram wielders, hitting one of them. Recnam made his skull spirits attack them, successfully. Many guards yelled again about the presence of demons. This time, the C.O. was forced to admit that they were right, and told them to back off a bit. He then asked one of his men to be ready to use something. The man in question said he didn't want to use it right now. The leader said they needed it now. The man grudgingly complied. Kaeso and Vinz took their initial position saw a man in a strange armor appear at the top of the visible stairs, holding a glowing sphere. Recnam made his skull spirits come out of the ground to attack him. When he saw the skull spirits, the man threw his sphere on the ground they were coming out of. Some kind of hole appeared in the ground and the spirits were sucked through it. Recnam had the distinct impression that this hole was the same type as the one through which the spirits of the dead soldiers at Claudius' house had disappeared through. Before the man disappeared back up the stairs, Kaeso and Vinz took a pot shot at him, with Kaeso hitting for light damage. The man cursed and disappeared up the stairs.

We knew the barricade would probably collapse on the next hit from the ram, so we all prepared for hand-to-hand combat. At this point, Kaeso, Vinz, and Recnam's skull spirits had killed eleven of the 75-men force that had invaded the Temple.

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Chapter 64 - Shag

FIGHT TIME!

On one side, eight fighters, a priest, an engineer, a lady and her maid. On the other side, 62 soldiers, 1 commanding officer, and 1 priest (11 soldiers were already dead, mainly thanks to Recnam's skull spirits).

Poor guys. They were only out-numbering us 5.3 to 1 (5.8 if you don't count Diandra, which didn't participated in the fight).

As always happen for a big fight, I can't simply say everything that happened. What I will do is separate the fight in four phases and try to briefly explain what each of us did in each.

Phase 1: Fight Preparation And Initial Contact.

With such odds, our main objective was to stop the enemy from overwhelming us by maintaining the front line at all costs. Our actual position helped us a lot with this, since the barricaded passage was only two yards wide, allowing only two people through at the same time. Our two strongest guys, Mushamee and Leif, took position directly behind the barricade, while Vinz took position on the left and Rufus on the right. Recnam, armed with his two-hex staff, put himself behind Mushamee and Rufus. Three to four yards behind, the four guards had spears and shields ready, while Kaeso and Helena prepared their ranged weapon.

Each enemy soldier was wearing lorica armor and a large shield, for a PD of 7. They each had an effective block and parry of 15 and a dodge of 10. They also had DR5 on their body, and DR4 on their heads. Excluding the eleven we had killed last week, there were 64 of them in total.

We decided it would be better to get rid of the barricade ourselves, and so controlling where it would fall. The four men at the front combined their efforts and pushed. The barricade slowly tilted, until it reached a big enough angle and crashed down on the floor. The soldiers immediately stepped in and the fight began.

The soldiers' first tactic was to break our line by slamming us repeatdly and push us back, or make us fall on the floor. Leif evaded the first man, who found himself behind and his back to the barbarian. The four guards threw their spears at him, while Kaeso and Helena fired their weapons. The soldier stopped two of these and his armor stopped three others; only Helena did some damage. Leif thrusted his sword backward, plunging it in the soldier's body for serious damage. The man dropped on his knees. The four guards then drew their swords and closed in on him, while Kaeso and Helena reloaded.

Another one tried to slam Mushamee; the legionnaire was not able to evade, but tied the ST contest. He then proceeded to cut the guy in two, in close combat, with his sword.

For the next four or five rounds, things were somewhat chaotic, with each of us acting more or less individually. The soldiers's high defenses proved to be a real pain in the neck. Only Mushamee had any real success, but even he could not drop one every round. Leif, Recnam and Rufus weren't very successful; the barbarian and the priest each hit only once for some damage, while Rufus did not hit anything at all. Vinz had a really bad streak of rolls on his feints, not being able to roll less than 13 on any one of them, and was thus unable to penetrate the soldiers' defenses.

In one of the later rounds, a soldier tried to slam Vinz, but the assassin evaded him. The soldier went passed him. Kaeso, Oleg and Josef stopped attacking the soldier already behind the line to concentrate on him. At this moment, we all realized we couldn't evade any further slamming, otherwise the guys in the second rank would be rapidly overwhelmed. Another soldier tried to slam Leif. The barbarian didn't move this time, and the soldier fell to the floor. Vinz finished him with a single attack to the brain.

A round later, Vinz's bad luck came to an end when his player changed dices. :)

Phase 2: Teamwork Defense

If we ever hopped to win this fight, we had to change our tactics. The stranglehold we were able to maintain made it impossible for the soldiers to swarm us, but their high defenses and DR were really troublesome. And sooner or later, they would get a lucky shot.

Deciding that Mushamee did not need any help (duh), Vinz, Recnam and Leif adopted a tactics to force the enemy soldier to use their best defenses against the less powerful of them. While Leif and Vinz delayed their attacks, Recnam, safe behind Mushamee, would all-out attack the soldier in front of Leif, for two attacks. The soldier had to use his block and parry to stop them. Then Leif and Vinz would attack in turn. Even if he could evade the barbarian's attack with his dodge of 10, he was no match for Vinz's feint-and-attack to the brain combo. With Vinz's back luck over, this resulted in the death of one soldier practically every turn.

In the back rank, the two soldiers proved real nuisance. Although they weren't able to hit anyone, their armor made them tough to kill. After being slightly wounded two or three times, the one behing Leif saw Recnam and decided to all-out-attack him, yelling how the evil priest must die. Recnam successfully stepped out of the way. Helena shot the soldier for minimal damage, then Rufus attacked and missed. Recnam all-out-attacked in turn, but he missed once and the other shot glanced on the soldier's armor. Before the soldier could do more damage, however, he missed a HT roll and fell unconscious.

Ylia, Vladimir and Helena joined the other three against the second soldier. Kaeso shot him almost point-blank with his crossbow, but missed the eyes. He then drew his Sword of Su to help the four guards. Encircled by five men, the soldier was hit repeatedly before finally succumbing to Helena's arrow (she rolled maximum damage with her fine bow and arrow). Kaeso did hit once, but since he was not hurt himself, he didn't absorb any demonic healing energy coming from the sword.

The enemies tried another couple of slam attacks, but both were resisted, with the enemy falling on the ground and killed each time. After getting rid of the two soldiers in the back, the four guards reformed the second line just behind the first one, so that any enemy successful in their slam would immediately have to face them. The soldiers realized this and abandoned their slam tactics, reverting to simple steps-and-attacks. This didn't prove to be a success as for the next couple of rounds, we were killing soldiers as soon as they got in our range.

At this point, we had killed maybe thirty soldiers. The place was filled with corpses and the walls and floor were smeared with blood. It was time for the next phase.

Phase 3: The Best Defense Is Offense

Mushamee knew that unless we wanted to kill all of them, we had to put the fear into the enemy soldiers with some flashy act. So, backed by the guards, we decided to step beyond the passage to the small stairroom where soldiers were piling on each other. Mushamee was the first to do this, decapitating one guy in the process and yelling that we were going to kill them all. He failed his Intimidation roll miserably. Vinz killed another soldier, but before he could step forward to take his place, Kaeso ran in front of him, effectively cutting the assassin from the fight. Pissed off, Vinz casted Wallwalker on himself and used the wall to go over his companions and continue the fight.

Around this time, one of the soldiers hit one of the imperial guards with a critical success. Although no damage was done, the roll on the table was a 3, and the guard fell down, unconscious. Kaeso became even more overconfident in his superior armors when a soldier hit him critically for triple damage, and rolled a 1 on his damage roll, resulting in no damage. Vinz took a small hit to the body, for three points of damage. Another soldier critically hit Mushamee with a shot bypassing all armor, but the legionnaire only took four points of damage. That was all the damage we took for the entire fight.

At that point, we were gaining a real advantage and killing soldiers quite effectively. Rufus cut the hand of a dead soldier and prepared to throw it at the remaining soldiers to freak them (tho at the end, he didn't get the opportunity to do it). Mushamee was killing one soldier every round, attaking normally two times to make them use their defenses, and then feint-and-attacking them to the brain for killing damage. Now on the ceiling, and with the help of Kaeso and Recnam, Vinz continued his brain attacks (upsided down from the ceiling reduced the penalty from -7 to -5, thus canceling the -2 penalty because he was Wallwalking). Although he mostly used his attacks to make enemies use their defenses, Leif did hit a couple of times, hard enough to knock his enemy out.

Phase 4: The Rout

Down to less than 20 soldiers, with heads flying around and obvious displays of magic being used, the Commanding Officer ordered his troops to retreat. The priest at his side, however, failed his will roll and ran toward Mushamee, laughing maniacally. He was bare-handed, but his hands were glowing a strange shade of violet. Vinz remembered seeing this kind of glow in his fantastic dream, where it was used to drain the life force of other people. He ran on the ceiling to intercept the priest, but his two attacks were dodged (the priest rolling 8 or less both times). But the priest's luck ran out as Mushamee was actively waiting for him and cut his head off as soon as he got in range.

As we continued the killing, the soldiers still in the stairs started retreating up. All was left was a trio of soldiers who had their way out cut by us. Mushamee resisted his urge to kill them all, and ordered them to surrender. They obeyed, and dropped their weapons. We thought of going after the others, but we're not sure it would be a good idea. We have the moral high ground for now, since they were the ones who attacked a religious Temple, but if we go chase them outside with our weapons drawn and attack their base, we would probably lose all advantages we would have.

Recnam saw a hole appeared in the spirit world, like the one he's seen before. The spirits of the dead soldiers started moving toward it. He immediately asked his father to stop them from going through. As the spirits were about to reach the hole, a load "No" resonated, and a gigantic form with a scythe appeared between them and the hole and embraced them in one big swoop. The spirits started yelling. A hole appeared in the ground, and the form and all the spirits went through it. Necros thanked his son for the gift, and said they're gonna be thoroughly interrogated in hell, especially the priest, so that we can learn what the hell is going on.

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Chapter 65 - Shag

Right after the fight was over, Leif ran up the stairs to follow the fleeing soldiers. Once in the Temple itself, he shapeshifted into a crow and left through a window.

After the three prisoners had been taken away, the rest of the group discussed the current situation. According to standing army procedure, Mushamee guessed that some couriers had already been sent to the legion not far away, and that we had a little more than a week before it got here. Our plan to run away before the legion was called upon ruined, we decided to find a way to protect the city.

According to Mushamee's strategical analysis, we do have some advantages. Shag is on higher grounds because of its proximity to the mountains, and those same mountains provides protection on at least one side. Also, the city is surrounded by a thick, easilly defendable stone wall. If we use the whole gamut of our abilities (i.e. magic, undeads, advanced weaponry and traps, long-range scouting and assassination), could find a sufficient number of persons to help, and had the resource of the entire city to build new war machines, Mushamee concluded that winning the fight was a real possibility.

Everyone was quickly assigned his tasks. Kaeso was to immediately start his work on some new weapon concepts. Rufus was to interrogate the three prisoners. Vinz was to go see Kobov and ask him to meet the leaders of the resistance this same night. Recnam, escorted by Mushamee and the Imperial Guards, would go from Roman Temple to Roman Temple and ask for their help in the incoming battle.

Meanwhile, Leif followed the surviving soldiers back to the garrison. After they all disappeared through the front door, he spotted some arrowslits on the second floor big enough to let him through. He flew into an empty room and transformed back to his human shape. Naked, he opened the door, walked into an empty corridor, and started exploring. The place seemed uncharacteristically empty. In a room, he found a knife and a wooden practice sword called a rudis. He picked them up, and continued his exploration. He soon reached a closed door and put an ear against it. Hearing some noises, he slowly opened it and saw a couple of clerks sitting at a table, writing. He threw his knife at the back of the head of the nearest clerk, knocking him out. The other clerk, who didn't see the knife, stood up and ran to check the wounded man. Leif jumped onhim and hacked him down with his wooden sword.

The barbarian then went to the next door, and heard some people on the other side talking of the rumor that things had gone very wrong at the Temple. He stayed there a little while, not noticing the blood of the wo clecks slowing spilling under the door. One legionnaire on the other side noticed it and yelled. Leif immediately ran back toward the corridor, while the door was swung aside to let two fully armed soldiers through. They started running after the barbarian. Being really quick and unencumbered, however, Leif outdistanced them easily. He reached the same room he had used to enter the place, closed the door, changed into his crow form and flew out.

Rufus proceeded to the initial interrogation of the three prisoners. Explaining to them the deep trouble they were in for attacking a religious Temple, he was able to learn from them the following information:

• There are approximately 180 officials, officers, and bodyguards in Shag, here from the XXXII Legion, which is based in Kapital. These men represent a cadre sent to raise a new legion, and that *many* other such teams were detached from the XXXII and several other Kapital legions on similar missions, months ago (mere *days* after Ruinas took over).
• The men from the XXXII Legion called Legate Sextus Phinus their commander (although Rufus didn't learn if he was here in Shag or back in Kapital).
• The leader of the temple raid was Centurion Marcus Nobilus, who is either a primus pilus or some other very senior centurion.
• The legion one week's march to the west is not the XXXII at all, but the XVII. In other words, not the legion of these men in town. There is thus a chance that they have not been "cursed" like the XXXII (see below).
• The strange priest who accompanied the troops during the temple raid was a last-minute addition who showed up in town unannounced. The men were not told who he was -- they assumed he was one of the soothsayers and such attached to the legions.

Vinz went to the Mercenary's Guild to meet Kobov for a third time. This time he went as himself, even carrying his official papers making him an official Imperial Agent. He quickly explained the current situation to the mercenary, and requested a meeting with the leaders of the resistance the same night. Kobov explained that to ally themselves with us, they would probably need an official promise that when the war is over, Kotan will have its independence from the Empire. Vinz said that as an Imperial Agent, he was making this promise (although he has no idea if Vasili will honor it, and frankly, doesn't care).

Vinz left the guild and went back to the Temple of Necros to help Rufus interrogate the prisoners.

Recnam, Mushamee, and two of the Imperial Guards went to visit the twelve most important imperial Temples to ask for their help (he didn't bother with the Kotanese Temples because he has no status toward them). He explained the actions of Ruinas' soldiers, and invited the priests to visit the Temple of Necros during the afternoon to see the damages for themselves.

Ten of the twelve Temples decided to support him: the God of Justice, the God of Luck (or "of Gamblers," as Mushamee would have it), the God of War, the God of Wisdom, the Goddess of Home & Hearth, the Goddess of Marriage, the Harvest Goddess, the Moon Goddess, the Sea God, and the Sun God. All were fairly powerful temples, with the exception of the Moon Goddess. Only the Temple of Bacchus (decidedly non-martial) and the Temple of Fertility (which is kind of in direct opposition to Necros) refused to help. Recnam asked those who decided to help to talk to their followers and prepare them for the upcoming insurrection.

Around noon, Vinz joined Rufus to interrogate the prisoners. He asked them if they had taken part in some kind of strange ceremony before leaving Kapital. They answered that aside from Ruinas' Blessing, they didn't remember anything. Vinz asked them about this blessing, but they couldn't remember it. At Leif's suggestion, Vinz offered the prisoner a good afterlife free of any curse if they would consent to let themselves be hypnotized. Curiously, two of the three men refused repeatedly, saying they would not partake in such sorcery; the third one suddenly lost his mind and started yelling and spitting and had to be taken away.

Around one in the afternoon, the ten priests arrived at the Temple. Recnam organized a little tour of the Temple to show them the damage the soldiers had done; most of them were revolted. They soon joined Rufus and Vinz in the interrogation room. The priest of the God of War said we should kill the prisoners right now; the priest of the God of Justice said they should be judged fairly. Rufus used this interruption to look at the ten priests with his special sense. To his surprise, he detected that the priestess of the Moon Goddess was in fact a mage.

After a couple of minutes of bickering, the priests left the room and went back to the main Temple. Recnam decided to stay behind to help the interrogation. Vinz and Rufus told him about Ruinas' "blessing". He called for his father to remove this curse. Suddenly, all the torches in the room were snuffed out, plunging it in complete darkness. We all felt some kind of powerful presence. Rufus immediately activated his special sense and was able to see the two prisoners surrounded by some kind of dark halo. He then saw the powerful form of Necros "materialize" above them and litterally rip their souls from their bodies, killing them instantly. Necros said to his son that it was the only way he could remove the curse from these men.

(That made Vinz think that maybe the third man was in fact about to accept Vinz's proposition, and the mysterious curse made him go mad to stop him.)

Recnam, Vinz and Mushamee left the interrogation and joined the others in the main Temple. Recnam spoke a bit with the other priests still present, then bade them goodbye.

It was the end of the afternoon at this point, so we decided to talk a little more about the town's defense. Leif said he had the idea of asking for the help of the Earth Elementals in the mountain. Not only could they help, but if we ever wanted to be able to go back to the arches, we would need their permission to cross the mountains. The problem was what could we offer them in exchange for their help and safe passage?

Vinz thought of the Tablet of Elder Stone we stole in Tecl� He knew this tablet hold some power over any form of earth and stone, and could possibly be used to control Earth Elementals; offering them the Stone would guarantee them that no one could use it against them. Recnam also postulated that it was possible that breaking the stone could free us from the binding of the Inquisitors.

There is of course many problems with this. First, we do not know where the Tablet is, and we only have seven days to find it, days that we wouldn't be able to use to prepare for the upcoming defense. More importantly, that would mean betraying the Inquisitors (from what we knew of them, we were pretty sure they would not give us the stone willingly). Although I don't think anyone had any problem with that, it could also mean betraying Vasili, and that caused a big problem for Mushamee (and probably others). Also, breaking the Stone meant it would be impossible to conduct the famous ritual; then again, maybe that was a GOOD thing (our path ahead is so muddy that we simply don't know what leads to what, and what is preferable to what).

After supper, we decided to take a little nap.

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Chapter 66 - Shag

After supper, we all took a good nap. Recnam used this time to contact the Serpent Queen. She told him that she didn't know anything more about the big Ritual than she did before, i.e. she didn't know if it was a good thing to perform it or not. When asked about which direction we should follow, she said she didn't know, as she was still bound by the rules of the world. Recnam said that Necros had told us to abandon the search for the artifacts and go to Kapital to take care of the summoner. She said that Necros was existing outside the rules of the world, and so was probably more apt to guide us.

Recnam also asked her about a way to track the Inquisitors. He told her of the place we have met them when in Roma, and how we had to go through some kind of portal. He also told her that neither Rufus' nor Leif's special senses were able to pick them up at all. She said that could mean a lot of things, for example that we have seen projections, or illusions, or maybe the Inquisitors had some kind of special protections. The description of the gate we went through was not enough to be useful to her, but she said that if we could gather more information on its nature, she could probably be able to do what Recnam had asked her.

Late in the evening, an acolyte came to wake Recnam up. He said that some men were waiting for us in the Temple. The priest woke the rest of the group. We all put on our armors and went to meet the visitors.

In the main Temple, we saw half a dozen men wearing hoods and masks. They first talk Kotanese with Mushamee. They said that Kobov had told them to meet us here. After a couple of minutes, the conversation finally switched to Imperial (which these men talked with a heavy accent). We told them about the attack on the Temple, and of the upcoming arrival of the XVIIth Legion. We also told them of our plans for protecting the city and asked them how many people they could gather in seven days. They said they could probably found 800 able people here and in the next couple of cities. A small strategical analysis by Mushamee showed him that, with the other advantages we had, it could be enough to repel the attack of the 4800-strong Legion.

The six kotaneses showed a lot of enthousiasm for our plans and accepted our offer. We asked them if the city leaders would go ahead with the insurrection; they said that the city council was completely made of kotanese and would back us down all the way. This made us happy as it would mean that Kaeso would have all the help he would need to build his engines of war. Tiger, the leader of the kotanese, said that to his knowlegde, at least one Imperial tribune was in Shag. Vinz said maybe we could use him as hostage. He agreed wholeheartedly.

But for now, our first action was to get rid of the rest of the Ruinas garrison in Shag. We quickly decided that there was no time like the present, and decided to strike this same night. The Kotaneses were somewhat suprised at first, but then got really excited. We showed them the pile of armors and weapons collected from the dead soldiers the previous night and told them to equip themselves with the best equipment available.

Meanwhile, Leif took out the plans of the garrison he had made the previous day. We decided that Vinz would climb on top of the guard tower and kill any guard there. Leif would then fly to him and together they would set up ropes to allow the others to climb. We would them invade the fortress from above, and make our way down by killing everyone we met.

Before leaving the Temple, Leif decided to do a little reconnaissance flight in the immediate vicinity of the Temple. He transformed into a crow and flew out. Circling around the Temple, he noticed a man on the roof of another Temple just across the street who seemed to be unusually interested in the Temple of Necros. Leif came back in the Temple and warned the others. Vinz put his large knife on the floor in front of the barbarian, then climbed on the roof of the Temple using one of the ropes still hanging. Leif changed back into a crow, grabbed Vinz's knife with his feet, and flew out. On the roof, Vinz saw that the spy was carefully hiding behind a small wall, and as long as he stayed this way, there was no way he could get him with a crossbow bolt.

Leif stealthily landed behind the spy, then shapeshifted into his human form. He took the knife and silently walked toward the man (rolling a critical success on his Stealth roll). As he got really, really close, Leif aimed at the man's head and threw his knife; unluckily, it stuck into the man's cranium without doing any damage. The man turned around and tried to get a knife out (and failed). Leif kicked and punched him hard. The man finally got the knife out and tried to stab Leif, but the barbarian dodged. Leif slammed the man to the ground, but was stabbed seriously to the torso for his effort. He then successfully grappled the man and broke his arm. He got up, still grappling, and threw the spy off the roof. The body did a satisfying 'SPLAT' as it hit the ground. Leif healed himself and returned to the Temple.

We gathered everyone in the Temple and left toward the Temple of the God of War. There, the priest graciously accepted to lodge Maria, her acolytes, and Diandra for the night.

It wasn't long until we all reached the garrison. While the others were staying hidden, Vinz grabbed all the ropes and Leif's sword and walked toward the main tower. He casted Wallwalker on himself and started up. Leif transformed into a crow and flew over the tower.

Vinz quickly reached the top of the towers and looked over the protection wall. He was able to make out six soldiers standing guard. Behind them, he could see a small set of stairs going down for maybe two meters and ending at a door. The stairs were partially covered by a stone ceiling. He also noticed crow-Leif perching himself on top of the stairs roof and disappearing from view. He gave the barbarian enough time to change into his human form, then jumped onto the parapet. He used the surprise to quickly dispatch one man. Four others stepped toward him, while another decided to go warn his superiors. As he got to the stairs, Leif tried to piledrive him from above, but completely missed and fell down the stairs before hittting the door in a great bang. The attacked soldier and of his companions immediately charged the barbarian. Vinz got rid of two other men, leaving only one up. The men downstairs attacked Leif repeatedly, hurting him grieviously. Vinz finished his attacker and ran to Leif's help. He attacked the two soldiers from behind and killed them both in one shot.

Leif healed himself with all his energy, but still it was not enough to put him out of negative HT. Vinz helped him stand up and they went back to the parapet where they proceeded to install the ropes to allow the others to climb. Approximately two-third of the way through, Leif finally fell unconscious. Vinz finished the job by himself, then piled the six cadavers in front of the door to block it.

The others saw the ropes coming down and walked toward the garrison. As Mushamee, Kaeso and the six kotanese started to climb, one of the Imperial Guards rolled a fumble on his stealth roll and ended up throwing his spear at the main door, hitting it loudly. We immediately heard some activity from inside the garrison. Those who were already climbing reached the top safely. Those who were about to start noticed some bows loaded with flaming arrows appear at some of the arrowslits of the garrison and immediately stopped; all except Recnam who stubbornly decided to continue his climb. He got shot a couple of times as he passed near the arrowslits, but his armor stopped all damage. Rufus, Helena and the four imperial guards, still on the ground, retreated a little farther away from the wall, then finally decided to try the backdoor.

On the tower parapet, Kaeso announced he had heard, while climbing, some officer ordering a dozen soldiers to go to the recruits barracks and kill them. The kotanese decided to intercept them; Vinz decided to accompany them (he didn't want anything to happen to them because of their importance in the upcoming week). They pulled a couple of ropes up from the street, threw them in the inner yard, and slid down their lenghts.

Meanwhile, those who stayed on the parapet heard some hacking tools hitting the door. They went down the stairs and formed a small line, with Mushamee and Kaeso (armed with his Sword of Su) in the front and Recnam behind the engineer. Soon the door broke down; the bodies piled against it rolled in the room thus revealed, confusing the attackers for a second. Our guys saw that behind the door was a small room now almost completely filled with legionnaires, so they decided to stay in the stairs to force their assailants to come at them only two at a time. After Mushamee killed his first pair, Kaeso grabbed a flask of Tenosian fire he was carrying and threw it in the room. Fire immediately irrupted, causing a thin smoke to fill the room. After the next couple of soldiers were killed, they stopped their assault and regrouped behind a set of tables, eight in number. Mushamee charged them from one side, while Kaeso and Recnam went the other way. As expected, Mushamee just plowed through his opponents, but most surprising was the efficiency of Kaeso and Recnam, with Recnam all-out attacking from behind the engineer to use up the soldiers' defenses, and Kaeso hitting them with his Sword of Su. Then again, those soldiers were good, but were not of the level of those who had attacked the temple. Luckily for Kaeso, he was not wounded, so the Sword of Su didn't had any effect on him.

Sometimes during this last assault, Leif, who has the Recovery advantage, woke up and, hearing the sound of battle from below, grabbed his sword and ran (or more accurately, staggered) down to help. He got behind Mushamee and started hacking soldiers.

Needless to say it didn't take long for the four men to clear the room. By this time, some of the fire was threatening to reach the roof (which was NOT a good thing since we had planned to use this building as HQ from now on).

Meanwhile in the courtyard, Vinz and the kotanese splitted in two groups: Vinz and Tiger, and the four others. They each went to one of the two recruits barracks.

When Vinz and Tiger reached their objectives, they looked inside and saw six of the assassins discussing how they should proceed with the executions. The two men didn't give them time to elaborate as they jumped in the room to surprise them. Vinz got two in one second, while Tiger downed another. Two seconds later, it was all over. Vinz and Tiger immediately ran to the other barrack, where they found the four other kotaneses fighting the last six assassins. One kotanese was hurt, one assassin was down and another was hurt. With the arrival of Vinz and Tiger, the fight became a massacre.

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Chapter 67 - Shag

After getting rid of the 12 assassins sent to kill the kotanese recruits, Vinz and the six kotanese warriors looked around for more targets. They saw a group of eight imperial soldiers leaving the back gate and running toward the main building. They intercepted them and made mincemeat of their bodies. They then heard some noises coming from outside the back gate. Vinz climbed one of the deserted guard tower and looked in the street; he saw Rufus, Helena and the four Imperial Guards on the other looking for a way in. He signaled them, climbed down, and with the help of the kotaneses, removed the big log keeping the gate shut. They all ran toward the main building.

Meanwhile in the main tower, Mushamee, Leif, Recnam and Kaeso were facing an imposing number of enemy soldiers two at a time, at the top of some stairs. All was doing well, until Mushamee got a critical failure on a defense roll and crippled his right arm. He had to switch to shield bashes with his left arm. Still, it wasn't that bad since the three others picked up the pace, Leif decapitating people from behind Mushamee, Kaeso hurting people with his Sword of Su, and Recnam impaling soldiers in the throat with his staff-spear. A couple seconds after the first incident, another critical failure left Mushamee's shield unready. With his right arm crippled, he found himself unable to ready it. Luckily, the next round was relatively calm, giving Leif the time to remove the unready shield. Mushamee immediately grabbed his sword with his left hand and went back to decimating soldiers.

As for Kaeso, even with his good armor, he eventually sustained a couple of sword wounds. When he got a moment's respite, he drove his own sword in one of the unconscious soldiers' throat. A jolt of energy immediately rushed through his body, healing him in part.

Back to the yard group, we quickly decided to ignore the armory and go directly for the enemy's back. We pushed open the main tower's door, disrupting a group of officers shouting orders to some soldiers up a flight of stairs. The officers turned around, saw the intruders, and quickly ran up the stairs. Two decurions stayed behind for protection. Vinz quickly dispatched the first one, while laughing at the "skills" of officers in general. The other parried Rufus' attack, then wounded him slightly. On the next turn, Vinz brained him.

We quickly ran up the stairs after the officers and found ourselves in a big rectangular room. Soldiers were packed against another set of stairs at the other end of the room. We could also hear sounds of combat coming from the top of the stairs. We formed a straight line covering the entire room width, with four of the kotaneses and Helena in the second row. Some of the officers saw us and ordered a dozen of soldiers to turn around and attack us. Vinz yelled to the others he guessed were at the top of the stairs to push forward and close the trap.

At the top of the stairs, our guys noticed that their enemies were not coming at them as quickly and numerously as before, so they decided to push down the stairs. For a reason I can't remember, Kaeso actually slipped down the stairs and landed amidst a group of four enemy soldiers. He was hit a couple of time, but luckily for him, all but one soldier had to leave him to support the group fighting Vinz, Rufus and company (which was going very badly for the soldiers). Mushamee, Leif and Recnam quickly catched up with him and massacred the couple of soldiers still left on their side of the room. They then jumped the soldiers still figthing on the other side from behind.

When the enemy force was down to three soldiers and two officers, Mushamee ordered them to surrender. The two officers looked at each other, then plunged their swords in each other's throat. The soldiers dropped their weapons. Recnam started a long prayer to send all the dead soldiers to his father.

Being seriously hurt again, Kaeso walked between the corpses, cutting the throat of any soldier still alive. Vinz noticed him. He walked to him and started a discussion about Kaeso's use of the sword of Su to heal himself. The assassin insisted that Kaeso gave up his sword. The engineer, of course, refused, since he didn't believe in demons. The discussion got quite heated. Leif got involved, arguing that it was Kaeso's choice if he wanted to turn into a demon. Vinz said he didn't care about that; he only cared that a possessed Kaeso would hit him in the back during a fight. Finally, before things went too far, Vinz decided to leave.

Meanwhile, Mushamee, Rufus and Recnam explored the rest of the abandoned garrison. They eventually found really recent horse tracks leading into the street; evidently, the high-ranking officers had abandoned the place during our assault.

As dawn rose in the sky, Ruinas' flag over the garrison was replaced by a kotanese flag. The young recruits were freed and sent back to their families. Recnam, having just finished his prayer, wondered where Vinz was. Helena took him apart and told him about the discussion he, Kaeso and Leif had. She also said that even if Vinz went at it the wrong way, he seemed to have a point; we should try to get a new sword for Kaeso, as beautiful and as damaging as the sword of Su. If we could find such a sword, maybe Kaeso will accept to trade in his weapon.

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Chapter 68 - Shag

As we started this week, dawn was raising over the newly conquered garrison. Mushamee went in search of the loot; he was quite lucky and found a chest containing some tens of thousands of gold zolotos. Five or six thousands were given to each of the Kotanese rebels. Once done, Mushamee asked them about the city Tribunes. They said there was two, named Cadmus and Plumbas respectively, and living in the administrative quarters of Shag. Mushamee thanked them and told them it was now time for them to leave and try to find the 800 or so people they said they could recruit.

Meanwhile, Leif healed himself while Recnam was busy creating a zombie to get rid of the dead soldier bodies.

Once the kotanese rebels gone, the healing done and the zombie created, everyone in the garrison went to sleep.

Outside the garrison, Vinz, still pissed at Kaeso and Leif, decided to take a walk to the nearest city gates to make sure the escaped soldiers had really left the city. At the gate, he met a couple of city guards who confirmed that a group of imperial soldiers full of disdain left the city on horses some time earlier. Vinz decided to return to the garrison. As he walked, he noticed that some unusual activity was taking place in the city. Many more people than usual were walking around, furtively looking at him. A young boy approched him and asked him if he was part of the group that had chased Ruinas' men away. Another lady thanked him because her boy had just returned home. When he reached the garrison, the assassin found an empty room and fell asleep.

Toward mid-afternoon, Mushamee, Helena and Rufus decided to visit the two city Tribunes, escorted by two of the Imperial Guards. They started with the one called Cadmus, who had his offices nearest to the garrison. After Mushamee knocked on the door, they were escorted inside where many people were waiting to see the Tribune. When Mushamee announced who he was, a man came to tell him the Tribune was busy right now, but would be pleased to welcome him at the end of the day for a chat. Mushamee accepted, and the group left the house.

When they reached Tribune Plumbas' house, it was near the end of the afternoon. The guards at the door were somewhat brusque in their questioning, but when Mushamee announced himself as the Legate of the First Legion in Roma, the group was immediately let inside. They were led to the dining room where Plumbas was entertaining some guests. Claudius, Helena's uncle, was one of the guests. Plumbas asked Mushamee, Rufus and Helena to join him. They accepted.

The whole group started a conversation that lasted through the entire dinner. Mushamee was very frank about his association with Emperor Vasili, and exposed his plans about creating a third front against Ruinas on the eastern side of the continent. Helena presented some official papers to Plumbas confirming the group was speaking in the name of Vasili. Plumbas said that since the death of Emperor Nicholai XIV, he never had the choice of aligning himself with whom he wanted since only Ruinas had a presence here. He admitted that he believed Vasili to be the real successor of Nicholai XIV. Because of his somewhat newly developped empathic sense, Mushamee knew the Tribune was telling the truth.

When the discussion turned on the XVIIth Legion, less than a week away, Plumbas said that instead of fighting it, we should try to talk to his Legate and convince him to join our forces. He said this Legion hadn't been in Kapital for a long time (meaning it was probably not under whatever curse Ruinas was putting on his soldiers). He even suggested that on the next day, he would ride with us to the Legion to try and defuse the situation.

The meal over, Mushamee and his group left Plumbas and returned to Cadmus' domain. They were led to the Tribune who offered them some wine. Mushamee again presented himself officially, with Helena showing the official documents. Cadmus also declared himself for Vasili, but this time Mushamee sensed that he was lying. When asked if he had been to Kapital lately, he said no; a second lie the legionnaire picked up easily. Without letting anything show, Mushamee put a quick end to the discussion. The group went back to the garrison, while discussing how they should ask Vinz to make a little visit to the Tribune in the night.

Meanwhile, Leif decided to scout outside the city gate. He transformed into a crow and quickly left the garrison. Once outside the city, he flew around a couple of hours without noticing anything. Then, as he was coming back, he noticed the entry of a cave hidden behind some bushes. No one had go in or come out for quite some time. Leif flew inside. He saw a couple of obvious obstacles, mostly holes in the ground, but flew over them. The cave was quite long. He finally reached a door encased in the cavern's ceiling, which was approximately four meters high. Since there was no ladder, he could only reach it as a crow, but in this form was not strong enough to open it. Leif decided to let it go for now, and continue farther into the cave. He quickly found himself in a little room filled with huge barrels, each of them filled with a highly flamable substance made of tar. This being end of the cave, the barbarian decided to return home. Once outside, he flew around a bit to remember the position of the cave.

Vinz decided to explore the garrison in detail, using his special detection spell. After an hour, he discovered a hidden pivotal plank in the floor. When he pushed it aside, he found the body of a dead officer, possibly a general. The body was still fresh, with a familiar dagger plunged directly in its heart. He asked Recnam to help him investigate the body. Recnam only found that the man was probably there since a long time ago. Vinz proposed to burn the body, but the priest said it wasn't a good idea, as we could very well create a much more dangerous spectral undead in the process.

After putting the plank back in place, Vinz continued his investigation. While searching an office, he found a roll of official scrolls that seemed to be orders. Later, he discovered that a small chapel could actually be moved aside. He did it and found a set of stairs leading down in the dark. He grabbed a torch and started down. Six or seven stairs later, he found himself completely paralyzed by a sense of great and imminent danger. Looking around, he saw nothing out of the ordinary. A quick examination of the ceiling, walls and stairs showed no signs of traps. He went back up to the room, grabbed a helmet lying around, and returned in the tunnel. He threw the helmet in front of him; the helmet flew a couple of feet before encountering an insivible substance. Silver streaks appeared around the object, and it slowly disappeared into a now-visible gate. After the helmet completely disappeared on the other side, the gate disappeared from view.

Vinz went back to the room and called Recnam. He told the priest about the gate. Recnam decided to try a little experience and attached a rope around a candle. Then he went in the tunnel and threw the candle through the gate. The rope was instantly cut in two. Him and Vinz talked about about how the gate could be closed, but concluded that for now there was no real way they could do it. They decided to wait for the others, and used the time to read the bunch of scrolls Vinz had found.

Amidst all the documents, they found two that were especially interesting:

• The first was the order, coming directly from Ruinas, for a new cohort of young men; specifically, his orders said that, "he absolutely needed his new cohort". Which is strange since boys of 12 or 13 years of age would take years to be ready to participate in the war. We are seriously starting to wonder if he really needs these young boys for the war, of for something much more sinister.
• The second was a long document written in a flawless writing, that seemed to be some kind of journal in which someone was detailing his hunt for us. This document contained more or less precise descriptions of each member of our group. The more detailed was Mushamee, with quite a good sketch of the legionnaire. Recnam was also really detailed, but his sketch was that of a skeleton. Vinz's portrait was poorly done and not really resembling, but a list of all the aliases he had used lately was given. Rufus and Helena were described, a sign that this document was not old. Kaeso was also mentioned, but no sketch given as the author said that he had never seen the engineer.

Not long after supper, we all met to discuss our findings. Vinz accepted to pay a "visit" to Cadmus during the night (his first real assassination mission since he joined the others). Leif insisted to take a good sniff at the journal we had found, on the ground that it probably had spend most of its existence in the clothes of his owner and thus is probably impregnated by his odors.

As Mushamee was standing up, he suddenly found himself weak and with stomach cramps. Rufus, Helena and the two Imperial Guards followed soon after. Helena and one of the guards even fell unconscious. Vinz recognized the effects as those of a poison extracted from an extremely dangerous snake found in the eastern part of the Empire. He didn't knew any antidote. The sicks were led to their beds. Leif tried to heal the poison, but failed (he was rolling at 6 or less). The best he could do was to heal the damage as it appeared. Vinz told him that if the sick could survive the night, they would probably be fine.

The assassin reasoned that if Cadmus had acted so openly, it's because he knew he would be gone from the city once the poison take effect, so there was no need to go to his house. He asked Leif to show him where the cave was, but that proved to be outside the barbarian's capabilities. Leif decided instead to show the way to Vinz and come back once the assassin would reach the cave.

Vinz grabbed his stuff and followed crow-Leif outside. They quickly left the city. Leif successfully remembered where the cave was, and led the assassin to it. As they arrived at the bush, Leif was able to notice some new tracks of people coming out of the cave and moving away. As Vinz entered the cave, he decided to follow these new tracks. He did for many minutes, then noticed they seemed to merge with those of a bigger group with horses. Guessing that the Tribune has probably met the soldiers who had fled the garrison, Leif decided they would probably be far by now and decided to go back to the garrison.

Warned by Leif, Vinz was easily able to bypass the many obstacles of the cave. When he reached the door in the ceiling, he noticed a big ladder on the side. He took it and hang it to the door (there was a couple of nocks expressely made for it). When he touched the door, he found it a little warm. He casted WallWalker on himself, move beside the door, and opened it. Nothing fell down, but he could feel the heat coming through the opening. He put his head through it and found himself in some kind of basement on fire. There was plenty of highly flamable material deliberately left all around, proof that this was a deliberate fire. He decided that it wasn't worth risking his life for nothing, so he decided to leave the cave and return to the garrison.

As Vinz and Leif separately went back to the city, they noticed that the house of Tribune Cadmus was on fire.

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Chapter 69 - Shag

Once again, we found ourselves at the garrison to spend the night. After a last round of healing our poisoned victims by Leif, we all went to sleep.

Four hours later, Recnam woke up. Bored to tears, he decided to take a little walk around the garrison. Eventually, he climbed to the top of the guard tower to look at the sleeping city. As he climbed the last of the steps, he noticed two grappling hooks attached to two different ramparts. Each one had a rope attached to it going down toward the street. Recnam stopped to listen, and heard some shufflings coming from the garrison wall facing the street. He discreetly took a look over one rampart and saw two human forms actively climbing the ropes, while two others were keeping them well stretched. Recnam immediately put his staff between one of the hooks and the rampart it was grappled to and heaved; with a snap, the hook was let free and fell down the street. The priest heared a small cry, then the sound of a body hitting the ground. He also heard the climbing rhythm on the second rope accelerate. He put his staff against the second grappling hook and pulled; this time it didn't bulged. He tried again, but this time failed critically. His stuff flew over the rampart and fell in the street.

As Recnam took a step backward, the head of the still-climbing man appeared over the rampart. Recnam concentrated on Death Vision in the hopes of stunning the man and make him fall to his death, but the three seconds it took him to cast was enough for the man to be halfway across the rampart when the spell hit him; he was stunned for an instant, but immediately recuperated. As an unarmed Recnam retreated again and yelled Vinz's name, the man jumped on the tower floor. For the first time, Recnam was able to see his face. From head top to nose, it was quite human, but instead of a normal mouth it had a star-shaped opening. It also had eight-pointed star-like suckers for hands instead of human hands -- exactly like the "things" Kaeso and Recnam fought outside the house of Altov a couple of months ago. The entity grabbed a small glass sphere with a swirling purple light inside, strangely reminiscent of the one used by the mage-priest to send the skull spirits away in the recent attack on the temple of Necros. Recnam immediately called his Father for help, but Necros was not available (missed his Divine Intervention roll, even using his Luck).

Recnam desperately looked around for a way out. He knew that armored as he was, he would never reach the door before his enemy could catch up with him. The only way out was to jump down to one of the lower roofs on each side of the tower. So, after a really quick prayer to Necros, he stepped on one of the rampart and jumped. He landed on roof tiles some stories below, landing flat on his face, bruising all over his body. As he stood up, he saw the creature leap from the tower and land on its feet just before him, still brandishing the small sphere. Recnam successfully grabbed the thing's weapon hand. It broke free. Recnam tried to grab it again, but failed. The thing tried to hit Recnam, but the priest dodged. Recnam successfully grabbed the thing's hand again, and this time stopped it from breaking free. He then tried a headbut, but failed miserably. The thing broke free. Recnam tried to grab its hand a third time, but failed. This time, the thing threw his sphere at Recnam's feet. A purple circle appeared under the priest's feet. Recnam tried to jump aside, but was not quick enough. He quickly sank and disappeared into the purle vortex.

Meanwhile, waken by Recnam's scream, Vinz and Kaeso grabbed their respective sword (and Kaeso his shield) and ran toward the tower. As they were about to reach the top, Vinz was immediately warned of danger by his special sense. They just had time to notice the two dark shapes over them before two violet spheres were thrown at them. They both jumped back successfully. The two shapes dropped on the floor in front of them, drawing short ebony swords that looked strangely like swords of Su, except for their curved saber-shaped blades.

Vinz first feint-and-attacked the thing in front of him, but missed the brain and hit the torso, for minimal damage. Kaeso hit the same entity, cutting a lengthy line across the thing's torso and pushing him back. Its companion, judging that Kaeso was the most dangerous fighter of the two, went after the engineer and inflicted a terrible wound to him, knocking him back against the wall. Vinz didn't let him finish the job, as he feint-and-attacked him two times to the brain, cleaving him in two. A violet halo appeared under the entity's feet and its two parts disappeared into it. The second creature stepped forward and attacked Vinz, who parried. The assassin then feint-and-attacked him to the brain, sending it back to its dimension.

As Vinz took a second to catch his breath, he noticed that where the two violet vortexes had appeared, the place seemed to have been completely cleaned of dust and particules, leaving a perfectly visible circle on the floor.

Seeing that Kaeso was in no danger of dying, Vinz resumed search for Recnam. He reached the tower top just in time to see a third entity climbing back on it, coming from the inside of the compound. Again it was no match for the assassin, who destroyed him in one round. Noticing the two grappling hooks on the tower floor, Vinz looked into the street. He only saw two ropes dangling freely in the wind. A little farther in the street, he noticed Recnam's staff and a small, round clean spot like the ones he had seen before. Looking down in the direction the third entity had come in, he saw a fifth round clean area on one of the roofs below. He climbed down to it, and by analyzing the traces left on it, was more or less able to reconstitute what had happened. Still, just to be sure, he made a quick tour of the entire place looking for the priest.

As we finally regrouped in the sleeping quarters, we discussed what could have happened to the Priest, and how we could bring him back. We spent a good hour doing so, without getting nearer to an answer. Finally, Vinz and Leif decided to try and trace the entities to their point of origin; this way, maybe they would find a way to get to the "other side" safely.

The two men first went to the tower so that Leif could get the entities' scents. They then went out in the street where the barbarian had no problems picking up their trace. It led them directly to the burned house of Tribune Cadmus. By this time, it was morning and the fire was out. They entered the ruins. The scents led them to a small compartment that seemed perfectly normal, but when Vinz tried to touch its bottom with his hand, his fingers touched an invisible gate and went immediately cold. They looked around, but nothing else could be found. The only interesting thing was that they could confirm the idea that the door found in the cave the day before was indead directly connected to Cadmus' basement.

When we were all back to the garrison, Vinz mentioned the portal he had found the day before. Rufus decided to take a look at it with his special vision. The others followed him. Vinz opened the secret passage behind the chapel and led Rufus down the stairs. They stopped in front of the invisible gate and Rufus "switched" to his special sense. He suddenly turned toward the others and said he could actually hear Recnam moaning in pain from the other side of the gate.

None of us had any idea how to get the priest out of there without killing ourselves. Then Leif got the strange idea of using his Sword of Su as a hook, i.e. he would impale Recnam with the pointy hand and try to pull him out (which would be pretty hard since swords are made specifically NOT to get hooked in flesh). Since we had no other plan, we decided to let the barbarian try. Leif got as near to the gate as he could, then plunged his sword in. Three fourth of the way in, he felt his sword hit flesh. Asking for the help of Necros in saving his son, he tried to maneuver his sword into a suitable position. He suddenly felt himself infused with a poweful energy, making him much stronger. Each of his hooking attempt failed, with horrible damage inflicted to whatever was on the other side. After approximately five turn, the thing on the other side died, and Recnam's body appeared before us. Although no visible wound were apparent, it was easy to see the priest was grieviously wounded (in fact, he was one HT removed from automatic death at -5xHT). Leif immediately healed him as much as he could.

After transporting the priest to his bed, we were able to figure out a couple of things. First, it was really Recnam that Leif had hit repeatedly with his sword (and the help of Necros). We know that creatures from the other dimension return to it when dying, so it is logical that the same thing happens to us when dying in another dimension. As for why the gate in the garrison led to the same place, we don't really know why; maybe all gates in a general area leads to the same place in the other dimension. What happen is probably akin to someone with groceries opening the door of his appartment, drop the bags he his carrying in, and then immediately going for his other bags; only when all the bags are in the appartment will he carry them away to the kitchen. And Vinz killing the three entities made sure no one was left to carry Recnam away, thus leaving the priest just on the "other side" of the gate.

After that little episode, it was time for Leif to go back to healing our poisoned members.

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Chapter 70 - Shag - Kotanese Wilderness

We spent the next day resting and nursing our wounds. Leif alternated his time between healing people and sleeping to recuperate his energy. Toward the end of the day, our poisoned people finally got better, with the poison losing his debilitating effect.

The next morning, we were more or less in shape, so we prepared ourselves for the trip to find the XVIIth Legion. Vinz decided to disguise himself as one of Helena's maid named Yolanda.

When we arrived at Plumbas' domain, we were immediately introduced into the Tribune's presence. We told him we were ready to leave the city. He immediately gave the orders for his personel to get ready for the trip.

After a couple hours of frenetic activity, we were all ready to go. Plumbas had decided to bring practically all his household with him, including his servants and personal guards. A couple of carts were put to our disposal, but Mushamee insisted in having a horse.

A little later, we pass through the city gates and were on our way. We rode for the rest of the day. When night came, we formed a small camp and ate. After establishing guard duty, we all went to sleep.

Three-forth of the night in, Vinz suddenly woke up with a sensation of danger. He quickly woke up the rest of the group. While we were equipping ourselves, Leif transformed into a crow and flew out. He soon came back and warned us that a medium-sized group of people were coming toward us, armed and ready. We decided to leave Josef, Ylia, Vladimir, and Oleg behind to guard the camp, and went ahead to meet this new threat.

We were stealthy enough to reach the approximate location of the soldiers without being seen. There, we got in formation, with Mushamee and Vinz in the front, Recnam and Leif immediately behind them, and Rufus and Kaeso guarding the two sides. We eventually saw a group of four people ahead, two armed with a swords and two farther on the sides armed with long bows.While Vinz took one archer out with a crossbow bolt, Mushamee, Leif and Rufus rushed forward to engage the two swordsmen. They made mincemeat of them, as the enemy was not particularly good. Then one swordsman appeared on each side of our group. Vinz, Kaeso and Leif went toward the one on their side, while Mushamee and Rufus went toward the other. As for Recnam, he ran toward the last archer and attacked it repeatedly with his staff, succeeding in knocking him out.

As the two groups neared their respective prey, they noticed the crude and easily detectable ambushed their enemies were trying to pull. That backfired quickly, as we went through their ranks with ease.

I'm not gonna bother with the fight, as they were largely inferior to us and were only protected by wholly unsufficient studded leather armors. When it was over, we had killed or knocked out 31 of them. When we had time to look at their clothes more attentively, we saw they looked more like guards than soldiers. Those who've been to Cadmus' place realized that in fact they were wearing the same clothes as Cadmus' personal guards.

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