CHAPTER TWO: THE TEMPLE OF BACCHUS

Palladium Muse

*The Temple of Bacchus is a typical Grecian affair, with lots of Ionic columns and marble and plaster frescos. Raucous singing can be heard from a variety of voices inside. Above the lintel (there are no actual doors), is a marble cluster of grapes.

 

A man in a stained robe greets you.

 

"Welcome to the Temple of Bacchus. Excuse me! Are you here to be set on the path of Inebriated Enlightenment?"

 

Palladium Muse

*PM asks,* "What services do you have available?"

 

*Which earns her a strange look from the cleric.*

 

"What? No multiple choice? What kind of temple is this, anyway??"

 

Palladium Muse

Cleric: "This is the Temple of Bacchus, where we do not merely drink to get drunk, we study each and every level of Intoxication, so better to understand ourselves and our god, the revered Bacchus."

 

Aivanther

*Steps out of the shadows*

 

"I have questions about some of Bacchus's great wonders," he says, "we have hear rumors of a Fountain of Endless Tequila and we're curious as to it location and any dangers around it or on the way. Can you aid us?"

 

Palladium Muse

PM: *whispers* "We're here to find Captain Morgan, renowned cleric of Bacchus and very knowledgeable about the Planes of Festival, where the legendary Ever Bountiful Tequila Spring is said to be located."

 

Ravenwind

Another cleric steps forward. "You have asked about a great and sacred mystery of our faith, stranger. You must prove yourself worthy of such knowledge. We would not have the profane muddy great Bacchus' gift to the multiverse."

 

Palladium Muse

PM: "Would a suitable donation prove our worth?" *Lifts eyebrow suggestively and jingles changepurse.

 

Ravenwind

Ravenwind, although her thirst for the sacred tequila is as strong as her thirst for justice, knew she was not in her element. She decided to stand down for a while, and let these other questors employ their talents in negotiating with the temple.

 

Aivanther

Or do you need some deed performed? Some monsters slain or some fine spirits acquired? We're an experienced group, and also are quite experts on the fruits of Bacchus having just come from Che's bar.

 

Raeython

*Raeython is standing on the inside of the door as the cleric greets Ravenwind and Palladium Muse with a mug of 'strong dwarven ale' in his hands.*

 

"What kept you?" Raeython inquires.

 

Giselle Moonwitch

 *Giselle suddenly appears, newly unfrozen, albeit somewhat confused*

 

"Er, eh? Where am I? Ah.."

 

*Giselle looks around admiringly, then tugs at the Muse's chainmail*

 

"Gotta go! Gotta go! But I thought you might like a little help. This tiny chap probably knows a thing or two, common experience and what not..."

 

*Giselle tips her helm at everyone, then disappears. In her wake lies a tiny tequila worm, slowly inching across the floor toward the party.*

 

Raeython

*Raeython's keen eyes study the tiny worm as it wiggles its way closer to the party. From what he can see, this is not a variety of worm that he has seen anywhere in this area. Perhaps the origin of the worm will provide some insight into this epic quest.

 

Palladium Muse

Crouches and studies the worm. "Interesting. Gross, but interesting."

 

pure_ultima

Ultima hears about the great quest to the Temple of Baccus and agrees with himself that it is definitely worth throwing his lot in with PM and the rest. He enters through the great doors to see a priest of Bacchus casting "cure light hangover" on an unfortunate over-indulger! "Hello, PM mind if I join?" he yells over the festivites!

 

Palladium Muse

*The cleric spies the worm and immediately falls to his knees, hiding his face in the dirt.*

 

"It is a Sacred One! It is a veritable living Sacred One! Our prophecies have spoken of such! For you to be the possessors of such an holy beast speaks well and true of you! Indeed, it marks you as Those Which We Seek and Have Sought and Would Continue to Seek Had We Not Found You, as it is written in our divine text! Please, please come in!"

 

*He gestures the party in, making sure to leave a note so anyone else showing up can find you, and leads you to a stately room, lined with cushions and tables filled with shimmering blown glass bottles. He babbles at you to make yourselves comfortable, and exits, speaking excitedly about fetching a Brother Stoli, Keeper of the Text.*

 

Palladium Muse calls out to Pure_Ultima before they're dragged away by the excited cleric, "Come on in, the Temple's fine!"

 

Aivanther

*Figuring something maybe gained by doing some 'exploring', Aivanther sneaks off, exploring the temple hoping to find some useful information by less obvious means*

 

OOC: Hey, I'm Evil, I do what I thinks best and don't hold it against me Tequila is something all alignments can agree on.

 

pure_ultima

Ultima flops down onto one of the heavily cussioned chairs (I suppose to stop drunkards injuring themselves in their state of drunkeness) he gazes around in awe at the rows of shimmering bottles!

 

Palladium Muse

As Aivanther creeps stealthily amongst the halls of revelers’, he finds a dark hallway that leads to a seemingly little used room, judging by the dust and lack of stains.

 

He hears two voices, both male, and a reference to "Those We Seek and Have Sought and Would Have Continued to Seek Had We Not Found You.”

 

As he skulks closer to listen, the voices become clear, and he manages to make out words, but no faces, as the hinges on the door are quite rusty and he knows if he attempted to open it wider it would make a horrendous sound.

 

"The fools. We can now send them on The Glorious and Very Deadly Quest That Will Get Someone Killed Or So We Hope, with a promise of the reward of Captain Morgan's knowledge."

 

Evil laughter. Another voice sounds, it is an odd voice, an eerie voice, and it would send shivers down the back of a less experienced adventurer.

 

"Yesssss...Ssssend them on this idiotsss errand, ssssso that we may consssserve Temple Fundssss and Temple perssssonnel. It issss good, Brother SSssstoli, be on with it."

 

Raeython

*Raeython notices Aivanther sneaking off, and smiles slightly to himself. Yes, there are definate uses for thieves, just so long as you watch your back. He then turns his attention back to the conversation at hand.*

 

Aivanther

*overhearing this Aivanther considers his options 1) he could listen longer 2) he could confront these people 3) he could go back 4) he could continue on his exploring

 

Deciding that he could learn no more from listening and that confronting two clerics and an unknown was not the best way to gamble his life, and realizing priests might miss him Aivanther makes his way back to the others.

 

Raeython

*Raeython suddenly goes into a convulsive state. His body violently thrashing around, and a white foam is frothing at his lips. Before any healing spells can be cast, Raeython exhales his last breath...

 

Palladium Muse

*Palladium Muse races to Raeython, but alas, too late.*

 

"Well," she says cheerily, "Good thing we're in a temple!"

 

*Just then a man walks in in long, wine coloured robes.*

 

"Greetings," he says to the group. "I am Brother Stoli. I am so very honoured to meet you."

 

"Yeah, good to meet you, too, but we've got a man down and he needs clerical attention STAT!" she says.

 

*Brother Stoli, a handsome human male in his late forties, with greying black hair and blacker eyes, smiles in concern.*

 

"Have no fear. We will attend to your comrade."

 

Aivanther

*Blinks as his temporary existence failure ends. Proceeds back to join his companions*

 

*Seeing the priest, Aivanther refrains from joining the group quite yet*

 

Brother Stoli: "Some acolytes will attend to your friend. Meanwhile, come and join me for some refreshments while we discuss your...ah...quest."

 

*Recognizing the voice, Aivanther slides over to Ravenwind and whispers to them what he overheard*

 

Ravenwind

Ravenwind leaped forward as Raeython fell. She whispered a prayer to Torm, and the god's infinite mercy boiled in her veins, emerging as a pale white light from her hands as she touched the fallen ranger's face. Raeython's eyes opened, and he convulsed again.

 

Suspicious, the woman sniffed cautiously near his mouth, and then swore--much startling those who believe that followers of Torm never do. Another quick prayer, and another gentle touch, and the poison flowing in the ranger's veins was nullified.

 

Keeping Aivanthar's words in mind, she steps over Raeython as he struggled to sit up, to the tiny jar where the tequila worm was peacefully doing laps in a small pool of anejo. Her hands lingered near the hilts of her swords, giving everyone in the room the indication that if they wanted to get to that worm, they'd have to go through her to do so. Eyes icy daggers, she glared at the clerics in the room around her. "It is traditional for there to be some sort of tests or challenges for seekers of the truth before they are permitted to seek that ultimate goal," she gritted out. Observers were surprised to see her breath puff out around her icy words. "I shall assume, for your sake, that this noble ranger's 'illness' was one of them. Now, set our no doubt wondrous 'opportunity' upon us: how shall we seek out this Captain Morgan?"

 

Sister Comfort softly drawled, "Well, now, y'see, the problem, (hic, the problem is, the great Captain Morgan was last seen ten years ago (hic). He'd gone on kind of a, a, vision quest. Now, we're not rightly sure WHAT he was a-seeing round then," she smiled briefly, and swayed in her seat, "but he said there was a group of puritannical mages--did he say mages?" she asked the other clerics woozily.

 

"Mages," they confirmed tight-lipped. Ravenwind's senses tingled. They did not appear to be entirely telling the truth. Sister Comfort certainly seemed to believe what she was saying, but. . . .

 

"Mages," Comfort agreed. "Mages in a fortress deep in the wilderness to the east of Athkala. Only Captain Morgan knows the secret to building the planar gate that will lead to Bacchus' bountiful fountain. And that secret was lost with him." She drinks deeply from a goblet beside her. "Lossht!" she suddenly wails, and bursts into tears.

 

At this point, Palladium Muse etherealized, and vanished from the room. . . .

 

SkippyDumptruck

Skippy, bard of great renown, strolls into the temple. Tired and a bit irritable, having spent the better part of two hours wandering around the city, Skippy glances around at all of the nice carvings. One of them, a freize of a naked woman riding a panther and drinking from a large cup occupies his attention, until a priest approaches.

 

"Excuse me... sir... how may we help you?" the priest sniffs.

 

"It is I, Skippy, come to bless your temple with my tunes and meet with some friends of mine..."

 

The priest rudely interrupts, saying, "Skippy! You are definitely NOT allowed back in after that debacle involving the All Girl Choir and the Fount of Mead, and furthermore..." The preist cocks his head as if listening to an unseen voice (much the same pose Skippy himself uses when listening to Lester the lute) and hastily ushers Skippy in. "My apologies, come in, come right this way... your friends are right through here, fool!"

 

Pleased with the honorific (although the priest doesn’t seem to understand the difference between a bard and a fool - hey, not everyone’s perfect), Skippy strolls into the richly appointed room, and trills out a resounding "Hello, chaps!"

 

Ravenwind

Ravenwind's heart sank into her stomach as she viewed the newcomer. Suddenly, she understood, in part, what Aivanther had overheard in his spying mission. Could this be the fool whose mission they would be sent on? Could this odd-looking person be the reason for all the lies and deception they had encountered in this temple? Subtly, she detects for evil. . .

 

"Ouch!" she cried. "Now my head hurts."

 

Raeython

*Raeython comes back into awareness gasping for breath, his lungs heaving like bellows. Purple and black blotches dance before his eyes, and the world seems to be spinning. Of course his first instinct was that he was drunk, but then the memories of the last few minutes start to come trickling back. He wobbles unsteadily back to his feet, and leans against the wall to catch his breath.

 

After about a minute, the effects start to fade, and his mind begins to work normally (for him anyway) again. His eye's take on a vacant look, and his body seems to go limp against the wall for about a minute. His eyes then suddenly snap back into focus, and Raeython leaps across the room and puts  'Forest Friend' (his magical longsword) to the throat of Brother Stoli. Raeython leans in close to Brother Stoli and says:*

 

"I don't think there is anything you can say that can save your miserable life at this point, but, if you want to continue to draw breath, you had better give it one hell of a shot. I don't take kindly to being poisoned, and before you try to deny anything lets just take a look in that pocket you have sewn into the arm of your robe. The only reason your head is still attached to your neck is that we may need you to fulfil our quest, so start talking."

 

*Raeython's arms are trembling, holding the sword to the throat of Brother Stoli. He has never faced his own death before, and his eyes nearly burn with the anger he holds inside, at himself for becoming so careless after so many years, and at Brother Stoli. If he were by himself, Brother Stoli's blood would already be staining the plush rug that covers the floor in this room. But he is committed to the quest, now, and it looks like he owes Ravenwind a debt of considerable magnitude.

 

Ravenwind

"Thank all the gods, my friend!" Ravenwind exclaims to Raeython. "I worried for you, so still you remained. It was possible that the insidious power of the venom might be more powerful than my humble prayers could overcome."

 

*Not moving far from where she guarded the tequila worm, she updated the ranger in a low voice of Aivanther's discovery, and the entrance of the potential fool's errand, embodied in Skippy, who still stood in the doorway, disconcerted by all the drawn blades in the room.*

 

"If you like, I could leave you to wring," Ravenwind's lips twisted a bit over the last word, "information from these 'holy' men and women. Aivanther would be most helpful to you in such an endeavor."

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle pops into the temple. Unfortunately she has misjudged the teleportation floor level and appears several feet above the sacred floor. Screaming...*

 

"Eek! "

 

*..she starts to fall. Luckily, her dress billows about her (showing quite a bit of panty, thank God they weren't her holy pair), and she floats unharmed to the floor*

 

*Spotting her buddy Ralphy the Tequila Worm floating in the jar in Ravenwind's excellent custody, she squeals in delight, grabs the jar, and spins around in hopeless spasms of joy*

 

"Ralphy, yer okay!"

 

*Suddenly she stops in mid-twirl, seeing Raeython with blade pressed to a sweating grey-haired man*

 

*Giselle starts to wriggle her fingers, then decides Raeython has got matters well in hand, stops, and looks around interestedly.*

 

*Suddenly she spots Skippy. In utter amazement she stares at him, shocked, appalled, discombobulated*

 

"Could it be?"

 

bernard the brave

I say, I say, I say

I went to the doctors the other day, I said doctor I can't stop singing Delila. The doctor says " It

sounds like Tom Jones syndrome"

 

"Is it common?" I ask and the Doc replies

 

"It's not unusual"

I thankyew

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle looks around furtively, seeing if anyone has noticed her staring at Skippy. Thinking no one has spotted her, she turns around and sees...*

 

*Bernard!*

 

"Giselle spins him around and laughs*

 

"Well I'll be a catfish in a pool of pond scum! It's Bernard!"

 

bernard the brave

“Hello my darling cherubim. Why are we in a temple? I thought we were in a bar - last I knew I was in the cellar of a bar - there was lots of tequila being brewed here have some"

 

*chucks Giselle a 'fresh' bottle of gold*

 

“Anyways, next thing I know I'm standing here, telling crap jokes. What's the story, Morning Glory?"

 

Ravenwind

Ravenwind studies Giselle's fingers for a moment, wondering if there's a ring of human influence on one or another. . .nope. Amazing innate powers!

 

At any rate, feeling the plot begin to thin, she joined Raeython as he stood over the shrinking cleric of Bacchus, she set the flaming sword she aquired in her recent trip to the Abyss somewhat. . . lower on the man's anatomy. "I believe we were discussing some answers that you owe us," she reminded helpfully.

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle spots the bottle of Jose Cuervo, smiles with joy, and takes a swig from the bottle!*

 

"This will DEFINITELY come in handy! Thank ye, thank ye! Er, okay, I was in the bar, getting drunk on tequila, as usual, when remarkably this fighter comes in..."

 

*Giselle takes another swig, this one a much larger gulp*

 

"Well, er, okay, maybe a fighter coming into the bar isn't very remarkable, but bare with me..."

 

*Giselle takes another large gulp*

 

"Okay, this fighter, PM is her name, by the way, destroys my bottle of tequila!"

 

*Giselle turns and whispers to Bernard, "It was a mistake, bad magic, exploding hedgehogs, well, anyway..."

 

*Giselle takes another mighty swig of tequila*

 

"Anyway, she's really sorry, REALLY sorry, as you can well imagine, and suddenly she gets this INCREDIBLE idea!"

 

*Giselle gulps down another belt of tequila*

 

"She says to me, she says, there's this Everflowing Bountiful Fount of Tequila"

 

*Bernard looks confusedly at Giselle, which Giselle interprets as disbelief*

 

"I know, I know, hard to believe, but it ACTUALLY exists, can you imagine?"

 

*Giselle takes another gulp, coughs, and continues...*

 

"Anyway, we're on a quest, to find this endless fountain of tequila thing, and, of course, we ended up here, at the Temple of Bacchus!"

 

*Giselle looks a little unsteady at this point. She takes another swig and looks at Bernard woozily*

 

bernard the brave

"O-kaaayy" says Bernard both alarmed at the rate of the tequila disappearance and at the quest they are on

 

"So let me get this straight....you have left the tavern that is currently brewing up hundreds of gallons of tequila in its cellar to try and find.....hundreds of gallons of tequila in a field somewhere...but no one exactly knows where....and you have no way of taking it back with you if you do find it....so the plan is......to do what exactly? Drink it and stay there until you die? Hmmmm, it's a good job I'm here--whose bloody idea was this anyway?"

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle appears totally nonplussed. She blinks, looks around, then blinks again.*

 

"Um, er, well..."

 

*Giselle sits down and attempts to think through a somewhat foggy noggin*

 

"It seemed like a good idea at the time!" she mutters absently.

 

*She stares up at Bernard hopefully*

 

bernard the brave

"Right!" says Bernard in his best manly voice

 

"Back to the pub anyone? By now Che will have tequila by the bucket load"

 

"And, maybe the furniture will be fixed"

 

With that Bernard span on his heels and walked straight into a Doric column.

 

"Arsebiscuits!" said Bernard, rubbin his noggin.

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle looks up with concern, takes a couple more swigs of tequila, and attempts to get up.

 

"Are ye okay?" she asks worriedly.

 

For some reason, however, her legs do not seem to be working correctly. Ralphy the Tequila worm begins to squirm to and fro on her shoulder alarmingly as she weaves back and forth. Wisely, she decides to remain seated. With a drunken sly grin, she wriggles her fingers. Suddenly Giselle disappears with the tequila bottle.*

 

*Everyone hears a thump, then a squeal from up high. Up above on the shoulder of the Temple Bacchus statue sits Giselle, swinging her feet from side to side*

 

"Oops!"

 

*Giselle starts to chuckle.*

 

Ravenwind

Since no response seemed to be forthcoming from the cowering cleric, Ravenwind opted for a new tactic. Sheathing her sword, she grasped Skippy by the arm and drew him forward. "Are you in truth the famous bard, Skippy Dumptruck?" she gasped. "Perhaps you would do us the honor of playing your most famous opus, 'Song of Persuasion.' I know this gentle priest," (glares at Stoli) "for one, would be delighted to hear anything you play."

 

  Skippy grins, and with a dramatic flourish, produces a lute.

 

Beads of sweat popped out on Stoli’s forehead. What swords and confusion could not do, the prospect of a bard's music seemed to produce.

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle waves at Bernard from the statue, then blows him a kiss. She considers the situation and decides (very wisely) not to attempt the climb down or any magic. She takes a last swig from the tequila bottle, finds a comfortable position and with one hand snuggling the bottle, falls asleep. Little snores waft down from on high*

 

Mageman

CRASH!!! BOOM!!!!! KABLAMMM!!!!!!!!

 

*Mageman comes in crashing throught the roof*

 

*steadies himself, looks around and sez*

 

"Damn those displacement spells, looks like I'm back in the prime materia plane!"

 

*changes into a slayer, and disappears in a loud crash through the floor*

 

MMMMuhahahahahha!!!!!!!!!!

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle turns restlessly in her sleep*

 

"Honestly, papa, I don't know how that guy got here! Must be a displacement spell."

 

*mumble, mumble, snore*

Ravenwind

Undeterred by the mages popping into and out of existence, Skippy struck the first chord from his lute.

 

Ravenwind cringed. Giselle snapped from her slumbers and sat bolt upright in shock, but then the tequila once again overcame her, and she slept again. Raeython lost his grip on "Forest Friend," which dropped to the flagstones with a clatter. Ralph the Tequila Worm cried out, tiny, almost noiseless whimpering for mercy. Such is the persuasive power of a bard. . .

 

"No more!" The priest screamed. "No more! I beg of you! I'll tell everything I know--aargh!"

 

Stoli fell over dead, bleeding from every orifice. Oddly, there didn't seem to be a gutter near.

 

Raeython

*Raeython unclenches his teeth, and grabs the lute from Skippy's hands.*

 

"Skippy please, no more."

 

*Raeython then stoops to pick up FF from the floor, and sheathes it under his cloak. He then turns to regard the corpse of Brother Stoli. He then turns to Ravenwind:*

 

"Well, it doesn't look like we're going to get much out of him now. We need to find some other way to

figure out what is going on around here."

 

*Raeython scans the room, a look of consideration on his face.*

 

Palladium Muse

*POP*

 

*And yet another person comes unexpectedly into the room.*

 

*cough, cough*

 

"Um, why is the cleric dead? What in the nine hells did I miss??"

 

*The cleric that originally showed you to the room you now wait in reappears, sees the body and the various new tenants, gulps, yelps, and runs, robes flapping between his legs.

 

*Soon, you can hear the hue and cry of the temple as sodden patrons rouse themselves to the shrieks of "Murder! Murder most foul! Call for the Defenders! Call for the Defenders!*

 

Mageman

"Being invisible to those poor folk is so boring, maybe I should show myself?" "Naah!"

 

*quickly looks around to check if anyone heard*

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle turns restlessly*

 

"Defend himself? Papa, he's not even dressed!"

 

*mumble, mumble, snore*

 

    Ravenwind

Ravenwind gingerly unstoppered her ears, and nodded her thanks to Raeython for ending the bard's song.

 

"It's fairly evident that, since none of the rest of us seem to be dead, it couldn't have been the music slew the so-called Brother Stoli," she concluded, after getting her brain to function again. "The question becomes, who or what did? And why? What was he about to reveal?"

 

To Raeython, "What do you know of tracking? For surely, we must find this Captain Morgan, if he truly exists, to uncover the answer to these mysteries."

 

She flipped her hair back over her shoulder, and squinted up at Giselle's recumbent form. "Can a Tequila worm follow the smell of alcohol?" she asked, almost to herself.

 

Raeython

*Raeython sees the cleric enter then exit yelling for the defenders. Raeython is concerned not so much for the saftey of the party, as to the continuation of the quest. Also, he would really hate it if he were forced to take part in a battle where innocent people are hurt. Raeython makes sure both of his magical swords are ready at a moments notice, but he doesn't draw them yet. He hopes these 'defenders' will listen to reason, but doesn't have faith that it will be so.*

 

Giselle Moonwitch

*Giselle mumbles in her sleep*

 

"Invisible, YES!!!"

 

*Deeply dreaming, she begins to wriggle her fingers. Suddenly all the players below are rendered invisible*

 

"I don't know where he went, papa! Maybe he displaced again"

 

*mumble, mumble, snore*

 

pure_ultima

Pure_Ultima awakens from his deep slumber to see a crowd of agitated people disappear in front of his eyes. He looks down at himself and sees nothing there. 'ARRG!' He runs aroung saying. Until he sees that slumbering Giselle, puts two and two together and draws his sword. A small owl going by the name of Alfred appears from his pack and sits on his shoulder, blinking and taking in the situation. Ultima turns towards the door as he hears the sounds of feet thundering down the corridor. 'ARRG!' He says again and steadies his grip.

 

Aivanther

An acolyte comes stumbling blubbering about being to young to die. Aivanther appears out of the shadows behind him and says, "Shut up, stupid. I'm not going to kill you if you cooperate." Looking up and not seeing anyone, Aivanther is momentarily perplexed at what he missed during another one of his temporary existence failures. However, he hears the murmuring of Gieselle and the shifting off feet and realizes that his companions must be invisible. Speaking to them he says, "Well, there's a whole lot of very disturbed priests heading this way. I set up a few surprises to slow them down, but that won't give us much time. This one," letting go of the now fainted acolyte, "had a map on him with the Spring of Endless Tequila marked, but he claims he knows nothing. However, once I mentioned my past experience on ranches, um, producing steers and how I need to keep up practice and that he might be a lucky candidate, his tongue loosened. Let's leave so we can learn more and not be disturbed.

 

Ravenwind

 As the mass of confused, invisible people crowded for the exit, a mass of rather singed and bloodied priests entered, along with three massive iron golems, each of which had the word "bouncer" chiseled into its massive chest. "Ah," thought Ravenwind. "Those would be the defenders, then."

 

Stepping on invisible fingers, mashing invisible toes, and occasionally getting the odd invisible elbow punched into her invisible kidneys as she went, she ran to Aivanther. "Check for secret doors, something! Maybe over on that pillar that Bernard ran into--I thought I heard a click, but that could have been his skull."

 

Just then, the planar continuum twitched, and a GATE rose up before her. Her invisible body flashed briefly into view as she was sucked away to someplace else. . .

 

Aivanther

Looking around, Aivanther tosses the unconscious acolyte towards the sounds of invisible people trying to get through the door. Searching the indicated wall, Aivanther finds a niche and pushes on it.

 

NOTHING HAPPENS!!! Cursing creatively in multiple languages, Aivanther gives the wall a kick, and a door flies open. Pointing at the main exit, Aivanther dashes down the secret passage, Golems and priests following him. "I'll meet up with you all later," is heard as he disappears down the passageway.

 

SkippyDumptruck

Highly incensed that someone would die just as he was starting a jig, and doubly angry that someone would put their hands on Lester, Skippy glares around the temple searching for someone to smite.  Mumbling about the lack of respect in the youth of today, Skippy suddenly notices that there are many angry priests (and those accursed golems) tromping around the room, spoiling for a fight. Just as he is about to do something heroic and legendary, there is a *poof!* and a large number of people are rendered invisible. Eyes widening at the sight (or lack thereof), a large and none-too-polite grin lights up Skippy's transparent face. With a snort of delight, he runs around the room, handing out Wet Willies like candy on All Hallow's Eve. Soon he intersperses wedgies into the Wet Willie-ing, and waits for one of his companions to lead the way to more fun (yeah, giving wedgies is fun, but things can get a little tricky when one finds that priests don’t wear anything under those robes...) Hopefully there will be a place to wash hands at the adventurers' next stop.

 

Raeython

*Raeython notices that he and his companions have become invisible thanks to the drunken finger twitchings of Giselle. Just then, he sees the door burst open and priests and golems alike come bursting into the room. He hears Ravenwind yelling to Aivanther to find a secret door, then she becomes visible just long enough to get sucked into a planar rift.

 

Aivanther then finds the solution to many a locked door, a good swift kick. Having an avenue of escape open, Raeython decides to exact a little revenge. Raeython draws 'Forest Friend' in his right hand and his short sword mate in his left. Hoping that this,  like most of Giselle's spells, is a good one, he launches himself at the leg of the closest golem.

 

Both of Raeython's blades find purchase, biting deeply into the golem's left leg. The golem then topples over to the left and onto the unfortunate foot of one of the priests, due to the fact that its knee joint is torn beyond functioning. The priests scanning the room notice the form of Raeython blink into view as he attacks, then fade away after. They are shocked at the speed at which one of their golems were disabled.

 

The priests begin various chants and cast trueseeing on the room. Raeython then turns his sights onto the next golem as his form, and those of his remaining companions come shimmering back into view.  Raeython then notices the quicksilver form of Skippy grunding the various priests with a colossal grin on his face, which is why it took them so long to dispell Giselle's invisibility. Seeing two remaining

golems, and hearing the shouts of yet more priests coming down the hall, Raeython decides that it is time to leave this place. He yells:*

 

"Meet back where the quest began."

 

*He then grabs Skippy under one arm and flees out the secret door.*

Aivanther

Warlord

*Perched in a nook a distance down the ancient corridor, Aivanther had set an ambush for the following golem and priests. As the golem lumbered past, he threw a potion of explosions past the golem. The potion did not damage the golem of course, however the support beams were destroyed and as the marble ceiling fell on top of the golem, the ancient floor collapsed underneath the golem.  Then he spun around, hurling a pair of knives at the two front priests who were caught off guard from the blast. Aivanther then turned and lept across the pit left by the explosion and snuck a little farther down. And began to position himself to jump the 3 remaining priests...*

 

pure_ultima

Ultima steps from behind a pillar and challenges the two remaining priests. He floors one that runs at him, arms flailing, by smacking him around the chops with a well placed sheild. The next then feels the wrath of his long-sword as the priest casts 'draw upon holy might'. Hearing yet more footsteps he remembers his motto 'Discretion is the better part of valour!' Turns and runs after the form of Raeython. He pases a patch of black, blacker than the shadows and smiles to himself, realizing that it is Aithanther lying in wait.

 

END OF CHAPTER TWO