Episode 35
"Nevermore"
(c) Matt Grossman and J. Sage Schreiner

Nigil Palom, noble from a far-distant land -- Kevin Osborn
Tron, a resourcefull elf -- Matt Grossman
Sapphire, a blood thirsty gnome warrior -- Corey Paganucci
Norel, a big ranger of the Adri forest -- Tom Morin
All others -- Sage Schreiner

The party decides to take the weapons out of the bugbear armory and put them in the tower.

Danic: I will stay in the tower. I want to examine Toadstool more... closely.
Sapphire: [snicker]
Toadstool: Bad touch?

The party (minus Danic) goes down to the bugbear cave, but finds that most of the "good
stuff" has already been removed from the armory. There are only some mediocre suits of
armor and three morning stars.

Norel: I'd say that about 36 hours ago six bugbears entered the cave, then left, heavily
burdened.
Tron: I have a feeling we'll be wanting those arrows.

They take the stuff in the armory back to the tower anyway, then go back to the cave.

Norel: Now let's check behind that iron door.
Soren: I can use my magic to make us a passage around it. Moraddin, shape this stone!

He creates a narrow passage around the door, and the party enters. Tron goes first.
They find that beneath the tower courtyard is a huge room, with massive arches and
pillars supporting a ceiling ten feet high, and metal gutters on the floor to collect
water that comes through the grates.

Tron: How did a girl stick her arm out the grate like that?
Sapphire: Maybe she was standing on that barrel.

The gnome points to an old barrel in the corner. Tron inspects it but finds nothing unusual.
There is enough light coming through the grates for the party to see, and they spread out to
explore the room. There are several passages and doors leading out of it, and one blocked up
passage, which looks as though it should connect with the tower basement.

Soren: Toadstool did a good job blocking it off. Almost as good as a retarded dwarf could
have done.
Tron: Hey, did you see that?
Norel: What?
Tron: There was a girl over there. She ran down that passage.
Nigil: It's probably a trap.
Tron: Let's go.

The passage runs into darkness, away from the grates. Nigil lights a lantern and leads the way
with Tron.

Girl's Voice: (from down the passage) Help me! Heeelp! [Splash Gurgle Sploosh]

The passage ends in a cistern filled with water, with a narrow ledge around the rim. There is a
girl standing in front of the cistern.

Nigil: We won't hurt you.
Norel: What's that?

The ranger hears the pad of stealthy feet behind him. Simultaneously, the girl vanishes and a
pseudopod of water lashes out of the cistern, striking Nigil and extinguishing the lantern.
Norel turns around and sees a creature with a lion body and the (naked) torso of a beautiful
woman behind him.

Lamia: (drinks a potion)
Sapphire: Shameless hussy! (charges the lamia)
Tron: Why are you all charging her? There's a monster right in front of us!
Nigil: Because it's light where she is, and there's a monster right in front of us! (charges 
the lamia)
Tron: Good point. (charges the lamia)
Soren: Moraddin grant me... Bull's Strength! Mooo!
Norel: Hey, where'd everybody go?
Water Weird: (bashes Soren)
Soren: Ohh... pain... (crawls out of the tunnel into the main chamber)
Lamia: (runs up to Soren and breathes fire on him)
Soren: Urk. [thud]

Tron: That's not good.

Sapphire: (runs up to Soren and stops him from bleeding)
Nigil: You'll pay for that! (stab)
Tron: Yeah, take that! (slash)
Lamia: (to Tron) Say, why don't you go fight that water monster? He's much more dangerous than
I am.
Tron: That's a great idea. Say, nice tits! (runs back down the
corridor)
Sapphire: Bah. Men.

Meanwhile, Norel has been fighting the water weird. However, even his mighty thews cannot wound
it.

Norel: I think it's immune to normal weapons.
Tron: Yeah, well this scimitar is no normal weapon! (slash)
Water Weird: (recoils in pain)
Tron: Take my dagger! (hands his magic dagger to Norel, and the two of them press the attack)
Water Weird: (retreats towards the cistern)
Norel: We've got it on the run!
Water Weird: (suddenly invigorated as it touches the cistern, it clobbers the ranger)
Norel: Ok, maybe not. (starts to retreat)
Water Weird: (clobbers Tron)
Tron: Oof. Medic! (retreats)

Meanwhile, in the main chamber:

Lamia: (breathes fire)
Sapphire: (ducks behind her shield) It'll take more than that to stop me!
Nigil: Your evil days are at an end! (stab)
Lamia: I'll be back! You'll regret this! (retreats from the chamber faster than any two-legged
character can follow, and is gone)
Nigil: Well, that was anticlimactic.

Tron: How are we going to revive Soren?
Nigil: I have two potions of healing.

They carefully feed one of the potions to the cleric, and once he is revived he heals their wounds...
somewhat resentfully.

Soren: Thanks for leaving me to face that thing.
Nigil: You were the one who chose to stay.
Tron: (pisses in the gutter so it runs into the cistern) Come on out and fight, ya pansy!
Norel: Tron, are you ok?
Tron: I'm fine. But that chick was right. We have to kill this water monster. (pours oil into the
gutter and lights it on fire, so that it flows down to the cistern and burns on the surface) Hah
hah, your house is on fire!
Sapphire: And that accomplished... what?

They eventually persuade Tron that they will fight the water creaturelater, and set out to explore the
complex. One door leads to what is obviously a cell. There are hash marks and graffiti on the wall,
as well as a crude picture of a creature which seems to be just a mouth and huge bat wings.

Norel: None of this seems to be important.

Another room is clearly the lamia's lair. There is a big box filled with skulls, bones and rotting
flesh strewn about the floor, and some treasures.

Nigil: Looks like two nice statues of Hieronyous, some coins, and a nice dagger.
Tron: Pity Danic's not here, he could tell us if it was magical.
Nigil: It's decorated with the crest of the Torquann family. I recognize it from that Dubricus guy 
at the keep.

The party goes on to explore the rest of the complex. They find a room with a nice marble table in
the shape of a demon, and an armoire filled with decaying red and black robes.

Tron: Those colors are familiar.
Nigil: I don't trust gaze... I mean, armoires anymore.

One corridor leads to an octagonal room. In the center of the room is a pillar with a circular
indentation in the top. On the wall opposite the entrance is a carving of a six-armed demoness. On
each of the other six walls is a brass lever.

Nigil: Nobody touch anything in that room.

There is another corridor leading out of the cloak room. The stench of decay comes from a curtained
doorway.

Tron: (peeks through the curtain) Just a bunch of old bodies. Probably what's left of Korlag's guys.
I'll check it out.

He goes inside and is immediately attacked and paralyzed by the ghast hiding behind the doorway.

Tron: (thinks) Didn't I used to be immune to these guys?
Sapphire: I'll save you! (runs inside) Phew! What's that smell?
Ghast#2: Rargh! Brains! (paralyzes Sapphire)
Sapphire: Urk.
Soren: I'll handle this. (enters the room) In Moraddin's name, begone!
Ghasts: Huh?
Soren: Ahem, er... I said, begone!
Ghasts: Brains!
Soren: I don't seem to be getting through here... (Taps holy symbol) Damn. This thing charged?
Nigil: Enough of this! (runs in) Gods, the stench!
Ghast: Rargh! Brain... urk. [thud]
Nigil: You have to stab them in the head, it's the only way to kill them.
Ghast#2: Rargh! Bra... [thud]
Norel: Yup.

The paralyzed party members are dragged out into the hall and allowed to revive. Tron searches the 
room, but finds no treasure. The passage goes on for several hundred feet and ends in a concealed 
trap door that opens into the outdoors. The hinges are well oiled.

Nigil: I guess that's how Alzoda got in here.
Tron: If he got in here.
Norel: There are boot tracks on the floor. Someone has been back and forth a number of times.

They go back to the octagonal room and examine it more closely.

Sapphire: The indentation in the top of this pillar looks about the right size to hold that medallion.
Tron: The function of this room seems pretty obvious. You put the medallion on the pillar, pull all the
levers, and summon Penfa-what's-her-name.
Soren: Isn't she dead? You know, anhilated by Saint Cuthbert's wrath?
Tron: Cuthbert is a wuss. You can't trust him and his people.

They try to destroy the pillar, but the metal is too hard to cut. Then they notice that it's not
attached to the floor.

Nigil: We could just roll it into the cistern. That would put a crimp in their plans. They'd have to
fight that water thing to get it out.
Norel: Stand aside, small ones. [flex flex]

The two massive humans heave at the pillar. It is heavier than it looks.

Norel: I can't quite get a grip...
Nigil: Oooh! I think I pulled something!

Sapphire: Bah. This is how it's done.

The gnome steps up to the pillar and lifts it clear of the floor. She looks like an ant lifting a
piece of gravel.

Sapphire: (muffled) Where do you want it?
Norel: Just drop it and we'll roll it.
Sapphire: Ok. [clang] That wasn't too heavy. Don't lift with your back -- you have to use your legs.
[flex flex]
Norel: Bah.

They roll the pillar across the central chamber and down the corridor leading to the cistern.

Nigil: That takes care of that. [splash] No demon worshipping on my watch.
Voice: I really, really, wish you hadn't done that.

They turn around to see a well dressed young man, who seems to have appeared from nowhere.

Norel: Why not? [shing]
Man: Because now we'll have to kill that thing to get that pillar back.
Nigil: That was the plan, demon-worshiper. [shing]
Man: Hold on, I think we got off on the wrong foot there. Let me introduce myself. I am Jainos
Torquann, sometimes known as Odals Alzota.
Soren: (whispering loudly) He isn't evil.
Tron: Maybe it's a ring of mind shielding. Not that I know anything about them.
Torquann: Bah -- (tosses them his only a ring, signet ring which bears the Torquann crest).
Soren: (whispering) He still isn't evil.

Jainos explains that he has come all the way from Alhissa to retrieve a ring belonging to his
great-grandfather. The ring was taken by Yenejg Togan years ago and vanished, along with
all of Togan's treasure. Jainos says that the octagonal room is a teleport device that leads
to Togan's treasure. When the medallion is placed on the pillar and the levers are pulled,
everyone in the room is transported to some other cave, where, presumably, Togan's treasure is
stored.

Jainos: Unfortunately, that fool Goloda wouldn't give me the medallion, and then he sent his
pet thug after me. It wasn't my idea to send him back to Marner like that, but Gleir got to
him first.
Norel: Why were you working with her?
Jainos: We had an arrangement, the same that I'm now offering to you. Equal shares in the
treasure, if we can get it. Thanks to you, that's a bit more difficult now.
Tron: This story is different from the one you told Goloda. Why didn't you tell him the truth?
Jainos: I didn't want to have to split the treasure any more. As it is, this venture will be
barely profitable.
Sapphire: How do you know that you won't be summoning Penfavasta?
Jainos: She's dead, destroyed forever. A powerful cleric of St. Cuthbert can do that.
Tron: Bah. Wuss god.

The party huddles and discusses the situation.

Nigil: Ok, we were going to kill you, but this talk of treasure is interesting. If you lend 
us your signet ring, we'll convince Goloda that you're dead, then get him to give us the
medallion, come back here, kill the water thing, and get the treasure.
Jainos: Hmm... ok. I'll want that ring back though.
Norel: Do you know Dubricus?
Jainos: Yes, he's my second cousin twice removed. The North Province Torquanns. How did you
know him?
Norel: Oh, we were at a keep. [cough]
Tron: You know, _the_ keep.
Jainos: No way? I love that play! Are you Tronus?
Tron: Well... kinda. I think that play isn't entirely accurate...
Jainos: And Norelus?
Norel: Yup.
Jainos: Nigilus?
Nigil: That's me.
Jainos: (to Soren) You must be Hrothgarus then?
Soren: I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
Jainos: "We band of brothers..." I just love that part! And when Tronus expressed his --
completely brotherly, of course -- love for -- I just tear up every time.

They exchange information about current events in the North Province. Hallderm, patriarch of
Hextor in Bellport, has been assassinated, and Shalister has marched on Bellport to pacify its
orc-crowded streets. Shalister also took the city of Stringen from Hastern and burned Rinsharn,
Hastern's newphew in the square. It seems as though full-scale civil war has erupted in the
former Great Kingdom.

Jainos: The real struggle is between the priests of Hextor and those of Nerull. I suppose I
favor Hextor in this struggle, but I myself worship... different... gods.
Norel: As do we.
Nigil: It's been kind of hard on Hastern's nephew's recently.
Tron: Where have you been hiding down here?
Jainos: I have a secret chamber nearby. Those bugbears didn't know about it.

The party debates some more what to do. Although Tron really wants to kill the water weird, 
they decide to return to the tower and rest for the night, then go back the next day with
Danic and destroy the monster. They bid Jainos farewell and return to the tower.

Nigil: What in the nine hells is going on in here? Why is Toadstool naked?
Danic: I was just examining his tattoos.
Toadstool: Uncle Danic told me not to tell anyone.

The party eats dinner and goes to bed, keeping watch as usual. Around midnight they hear the
sound of horns blowing in the forest.

Tron: Guess it's those bugbears coming back.

The noise of the horns gets louder and louder. Over the next hour, it becomes apparent that a
force of bugbears has surrounded the tower and is preparing to attack.

Nigil: Sapphire, you can see in the dark. How many are there?
Sapphire: Um, all of them, I think.
Tron: We're screwed now.
Norel: We've survived worse. Remember the keep!
Tron: We lost the keep.

The bugbears shout insults and fire flaming arrows at the roof of the tower. Simultaneously,
they begin to pound on the wall separating the tower basement from the bugbear cave.

Soren: It will take them a few hours to get through that stone wall, but they will.

Bugbears (in goblin): Death to the elf! Death to the dwarves! Death to the humans! Death to
the short thing with the pointy teeth! Revenge our women! No mercy!
Tron: Boy, they seem really mad about something.
Sapphire: Gee, I can't imagine what.
Nigil: Tron, this is all your fault!

By this time the roof of the tower is burning.

Norel: It would be bad if this fell in.

The roof is only sitting on the wall of the upper floor of the tower, held down by a number
of heavy stones. The party removes the stones and heaves the flaming roof off of the top of
the tower. This has the side effect of creating a fighting platform from which the party can
fire in all directions.

Nigil: Toadstool, why don't you take care of getting rid of any flaming arrows that land on
the floor? You can use this bugbear armor for cover.
Toadstool: Ok. (steps on a fire arrow) Ouch! (stomps the fire out and throws the arrow over
the side)
Norel: You don't have to step on the arrows before throwing them over.
Toadstool: Ok. (steps on an arrow, pulls it out and throws it away)

The party soon realizes that Toadstool is basically invulnerable to the arrows and javelins
of the bugbears. They just bounce off of his skin. He leaps around, wearing the heavy bugbear
cuirass on his head as a kind of helmet.

Meanwhile, Tron has fired several fire arrows into the woods, setting the tops of the trees
around the tower alight. By this light the party can see bugbears running out of the woods,
firing bows or throwing javelins, and running back under cover. Tron and Norel keep up a
counterfire with recovered arrows, but do not have much effect.

Tron: I knew we would want those arrows!
Nigil: Danic, that raven feather! Remember, they said that if you broke it you would get help.
I'd say that we're going to need help.
Danic: That sounds like a good idea. (breaks the feather)

The party waits, but nothing happens.

Tron: So much for that.

From out in the darkness, the party can hear the sounds of the bugbears preparing for another
attack.

Bugbear #1: (cough cough)
Bugbear #2: Hey, pass it to me.
Bugbear #3: Dude. Whoa. (cough cough)

With loud cries, a force of bugbears emerges from the woods carrying a huge log between them.
They run towards the door, ignoring the arrows that Tron, Norel, and Sapphire rain on them,
and deliver a tremendous blow to the door.

Nigil: See how ya like this! (pours water into the magical frost device mounted over the door)

The blast of cold kills several bugbears. The characters on the roof throw rocks and shoot
arrows down on them and kill several more. But for every one that falls, two bugbears run
from the woods and take his place. Soon it is clear that the door will not hold.

Soren: (from the basement) They're almost through down here!

The party quickly takes up positions for a final defense. Nigil, Norel, and Toadstool stand
in the basement. Sapphire, Danic, and Soren stand on the first floor. Soren operates the frost
device, Danic stands to one side of the door while Sapphire prepares to block the opening with
her body. Tron remains on the roof, ready to fire arrows or drop rocks on bugbears as they 
cluster outside the door.

In the early dawn light Tron notices several small black clouds gathering in the distance. They
seem to be moving against the wind.

Tron: Hmm, maybe that feather wasn't a dud after all.

The attack comes with terrifying swiftness as dozens of bugbears rush the door and burst
through the wall of the basement. The ice blast and Tron's rocks kill several, and for a while
the party is able to hold the line.

Norel: Take that! [hack]
Nigil: Spring attack! Ha! [chop]
Bugbear: Oof! Urgh!
Toadstool: (suddenly opens his mouth enormously wide and bites off the bugbear's head) Gulp.
Nigil: Wow.
Toadstool: Rarrgh! Bite off heads! Raargh!

Sapphire: None shall pass! [stab hack slay]
Bugbear: Urk. [thud]
Soren: How about some frost, monsters?
Danic: (standing to one side of the door, he is ready in case any of the monsters get past
the gnome)

Bugbear: Outta da way, shorty! (shield-bashes the gnome ten feet back across the tower)
Sapphire: Whoaah! (frantically backpedals and manages to keep her
feet) We need some help up here!
Norel: I'm on my way!

Even as the ranger leaps up through the trapdoor, a wave of bugbears pours into the first
floor of the tower. Danic and Soren are cut off near the door.

Soren: (operates the frost blast one last time, then readies his ax) VaanDrager!
Danic: VaanDrager! [hack]

With Norel gone, the bugbears flood through the basement wall.

Nigil: (leaps for the ladder leading to the first floor) Toadstool! Let's go!
Toadstool: (berserk, he ignores the fighter) Raargh! Bite off heads! Bite off heads!

As the fighter disappears through the trapdoor, the last thing he sees is Toadstool surrounded
by bugbears, still fighting. Their weapons seem to have very little effect on the demonic valet.

Tron: (on the roof, dropping rocks on the bugbears) Enough of this. They need me downstairs!
(heads for the stairs, readying his bow)

The fight is going poorly on the first floor.

Soren: VaanDrag... urk. [thud]
Danic: Soren! Noooooo! Die, monster! [hack]
Norel: Hang on, Danic! We'll get to you! [chop slash stab skewer kill]
Nigil: Hey, leave some for the rest of us!
Sapphire: They're on the stairs! We're trapped!

Suddenly the two bugbears on the stairs fall, riddled with arrows.

Tron: Heh. Come on, guys! This way!
Bugbear: Keel da elf!

Bugbears charge up the stairs, but again a volley of arrows from the elf's bow sweeps the
stairs clean of monsters. However, a bugbear strikes Sapphire to the ground.

Sapphire: Urk. [thud]
Norel: (grabs the gnome, cuts his way to the stairs and passes her to Tron) Go up, we'll
follow!
Danic: What about me?
Nigil: Hang on!
Bugbear: Die, dwarf! [whack]
Danic: Urk. [thud]
Norel: Uh-oh.
Bugbear: Ow! Birdy?
Raven: Squak! Lenore! Squaaak!

The three surviving party members, carrying Sapphire, retreat up the stairs. They are all
badly wounded. A few scattered ravens flutter through the windows and peck ineffectually
at the bugbear horde.

Nigil: I'll use my last healing potion on Sapphire.
Sapphire: No... I'll... be... ok...
Tron: Hang in there!
Nigil: We've got to stop the bleeding! Tron, hold that artery closed!
Norel: What's that sound? It sounds like... bugbears screaming.

Suddenly a huge raven flaps down the stairs, followed quickly by dozens more. Within
seconds the tower is a maelstrom of black feathers and blood. Thousdands of ravens
have descended on the area and is hunting down and killing bugbears. Within a few minutes
it is all over. The huge flock of ravens gradually disperses.

Raven: Squawk! (flies away)
Nigil: I think she'll pull through. (pats Sapphire on the head)
Norel: What about Danic and Soren?

Miraculously, both of the dwarves were just knocked unconscious and will be fine in a few
hours. The first floor of the tower and the woods outside are full of dead bugbears. Everywhere
the eye falls on torn flesh and white bone. The flaming treetops, spread over many acres,
add a thick pall of smoke to the macabre scene.

The exhausted survivors are covered in blood, head to toe, and smudged with dust and ash.

Norel: (surveys the devastation) Often, for undaunted courage, fate spares the man it has
not already marked.
Tron: That wasn't fate, that was Danic's feather.
Nigil: If you'd said "the will of Pholtus" I was going to kill you.
Tron: I think Pholtus was taking a nap or something. That was too close.
Norel: I hope we don't need that feather again later. I wonder if we should have saved it.
Nigil: I don't think we would have lived to use it, if it hadn't saved us.
Toadstool: (emerges from the basement, slightly bruised and cut) Burp. I don't feel too good.
Too much junk food.
Jainos: (also emerges from the basement) What was that all about? By the gods, what happened
here?

TO BE CONTINUED...