A21

After a week in a coma, Nemo revived with his father, the town blacksmith, standing watch over him. Dominic soon came down to meet his old ally (and take him aside to tell him the cover story about his return). The party (Dominic, Ignatius, and Jack with Drusila) showed Nemo around and updated him somewhat on what had happened.
     After a brief trip to Zandran to get Rigg, the party was called to another town council meeting. The subject was planning the upcoming winter solstice festival. The town began their preparations and construction on the citadel continued. Of course after a while the party began to get suspicious about Dominic�s covered arm and the truth of what he had done to himself was out. Party opinion was mixed at best.
      Before the festivities began, Ignatius decided he wanted to know what happened to his father, once and for all. Dominic scryed through time to the moment of Ignatius�s father�s death. What they saw was the Dark Master in his trophy room, while Ignatius�s father quietly snuck up on him. Though he managed to stab him in the back, he was no match for the sorcerer�s fury and soon Ignatius�s father was no more. The Dark Master�s final comments were cryptic; cursing the elf and those he was allied with. He promised to destroy them all some day.
      With these thoughts in mind, the winter festival began. The first event was a pie contest. Dominic and two council members acted as judges, as some of the most amazing pies ever were brought before them. Far and away the best were those of two halfling witches, Gilda and Circe. Despite the noticeable enchantments on the pies, the judges were able to determine that for the most part they were harmless. In the end Circe was declared victor, much to Gilda�s irritation. A pie fight broke out and the women had to be dragged off the field. But their harmless fight was the prelude to a very humorous danger.
      The day ended with a surprise win by Drusila in the wrestling contest. That night a distant burbling sound awakened Dominic. As he descended from his tower he found that a halfling had taken up residence in the castle. Named Vex, he proved impossible to argue with and so Dominic was forced to take him along with him. After waking the rest of the party (except for Jack who was sleeping off some pie), they set off to the far end of town to investigate. Once there they notice deep depressions in the earth heading towards the town gate, and then disappearing through a thin slit. As they hailed the gate guards, Dominic magically read their minds and discovered that they were thinking �mmm...pie�. They quickly entered town searching for some creature spawned by the pies. Unfortunately Dominic was the only one not to spot the huge mass of pie filling in a nearby building and was soon engulfed. He too fell under the creature�s sway, to defend the pie. As the party tore into the regenerating mass, Dominic shot at them and Nemo too was engulfed. Luckily he retained his mind and was freed when Ignatius was able to blast it to death.
     That done the party retired for the night along with the halfling Vex. As before Vex was impossible to argue with and the best they managed to do was have him look for a place the next day. Of course the next day he was still there, devouring his second breakfast. The party then decided to use some divinations on him. Ignatius detected many magical effects and items, but Dominic used true seeing and saw the troublesome halfling�s true form. Insulted, Vex told Dominic to get him some new shoes now, which he quickly hurried off to do. Vex even managed to defeat Ignatius�s attempt to seal Dominic in a force ball. Finally as Vex went up to the trophy room, Dominic explained that Vex was an ancient brass dragon, the legendary Vivex whose tooth they had in their trophy room. As they talked to Vex, he explained he was seeing, who the new rulers of Avalon were and retrieving his lost tooth. That done he gave them the wand of Lavena and teleported off (for now).
     The next day the archery contest ended in a close match between Jack and Nemo, with Nemo winning. The festival soon ended and the party decided to investigate what really happened to Ignatius�s mother. That scry attempt showed that she wasn�t even an elf but a hybrid of elf and chaotic outsiders. That and that she had not died in childbirth. Further divination yielded little save that she had died and that she had worshiped a destructive god.
     They soon traveled to Zandran to use its extensive library to find out more. In the end little was found except for a prophecy that seemed to predict the rise of a powerful leader who would rule the world soon. It referred to an alliance of orcs, elves, and darkness that would fight a false army before the prophesized coming.
     While there Dominic was appointed Archbishop of Umbria and given the mission of helping to form a council of nations by bringing Umbria into the fold. It was the Patriarch�s dream to create a council to prevent war and bring nations closer together. Once the party returned to Avalon, Dominic (with his arm exposed) told the town council about this and urged them to ally with the rest of the southern nations. Distrustful of alliances, the council was split 4 to 4 with Ignatius abstaining. Henry Teran, who ran the hospital in town, put forth the idea that they send delegates to this council to see what help they could offer and thus decide then if they would join them. Gwenydd and Ignatius were made the delegates.
     Finally, Jack learned of a hidden treasure discovered by a wizard during the Great War and guarded by a massive stone golem. The party went there and quickly dealt with the powerful foe. As they descended into the abandoned mine shaft, they saw that the walls contained the petrified bones of massive beasts. Eventually the tunnel opened into a workroom full of bones and containing some aged furniture. Also there were two fossilized triceratops (which attacked). After dealing with that they inspected a journal on a table. This triggered a trap, a force cage that encircled almost everyone and releasing a huge fire elemental. Teleporting out they destroyed the elemental and retrieved the journal.
      Beyond the room was a tunnel down to a large cavern. An elder earth elemental waited here and mashed the party a great deal. At the end of the cavern were the massive doors to buried fortress. Reading the journal, they discovered that this belonged to a race of lizard people who lived over a million years ago and who where destroyed by some massive catastrophe. The designs surrounding the doors warned of the terrible wrath of the Scaled Kings and also stated that the servant of the Red God of the Hunt will destroy thieves.
      After blowing up the doors, the party found themselves in a large room with ornately carved walls and a mammoth 50-foot high ceiling. As the party cautiously moved into the room something stirred in the dark recesses of the ceiling. Swiftly the ancient guardian fell from the ceiling and attacked. It was a raptor with blood red eyes, black scales, and red teeth and claws. After unleashing terrible spells and slaying Yarol it was defeated. Beyond the final door was thousands of gold worth of strange electrum rings, weighing almost a ton.

Humorous Troubles