[Notes for the run of August 12, 1999.] Mia, as usual, does not come to Seventhday services at "the" Church, but Anton, who has lately stopped attending, does come along so he can hear what the vicar might know about dealing with wraiths. Brillig asks Anton if the statue in front of the church looks like anyone in the Tarot. There are actually two statues. One is of a man in armor with heraldic lions, presumably representing the Duke of Lions or some such. The other is a figure in a robe, with a staff. The closest match is the Hermit, but the statue has no lamp. Anton suggests asking the vicar. The vicar says the armored figure is indeed the Duke of Lions, and the other is his younger brother, Etienne, after whom the town is named. It is said Etienne eventually walked off one day and never returned, and is believed to have ascended into Heaven. Brillig tries to shame the vicar into coming along to help clear the mine, but Paris talks him out of it. Mia wonders if she'd be able to improve her magic skill using the cards, but concludes that, unlike the magical END reserve, improving the skill requires training. In the course of the discussion, the cards from the hellhounds come up, and in particular those of the hound killed by the lion. Paris advises that those belong to the lion; Calais picks up an undertone of importance to her words. I.e., it sounds like more than just Paris being a stickler for property rights (and peasants' lack thereof); she sounds genuinely concerned that something bad might happen if we use "the lion's share" of the cards. He rummages unobtrusively in his pack and sets three of the cards apart, just in case, though he's not really sure any more which are which. An old man approaches (must be in his forties), having overheard us talking to the vicar about going to the mine. He offers to lead us to the mine, and asks us to try to bring out his son, Kenneth. We say that's one of the things we're hoping to do there, and ask if he knows of anyone who can act as a guide inside the mines, or at least describe the paths. He says we should just follow the tracks, since those lead to where people were last working. He takes us up a trail to the mine. The entrance is quite wide, so Anton's not bothered over going in. Rhori finds the tracks of something large, with three toes. He hears someone (apparently the lion, in his head) call a warning; the lion points out a nearby bush that conceals a small crevasse Rhori might've been about to fall into. Rhori asks Claire if kobolds have three toes, and she says she's not sure but she knows they have small feet, and never get very big, so the tracks Rhori found aren't from a kobold. We cast various spells -- Mia's Blessing and her Ice Armor, Anton's magic torch, Claire's IR vision and a second magic torch. Anton also checks for magic and finds nothing unexpected. Mia and Calais ready bows. Brillig lights a real lantern. The old man goes to hide behind a tree. Anton asks him how far into the mine the work area is. The old man's not sure, but says in his days it was 5-10 minutes, so maybe now it's as deep as 15 minutes. That's too far for Anton to leave his magic sight running the whole time, so he turns it off. Rhori mutters with the lion, whom he seems to have named Hobbes, and tells it to wait outside. Fortunately, Rhori still hasn't learned not to speak aloud when talking to the lion, so we overhear his end of the discussion. (Otherwise we'd have no idea where the invisible lion was.) Mia questions the decision, and Rhori agrees to have Hobbes come with us since it's likely to spot the monsters before we do. The lion sniffs around and says there were dark creatures through here (the entrance) last night. Rhori looks around trying to see why they might've come out here, but sees nothing obvious. He tells Hobbes to track them in. We go in. Anton turns invisible and walks in the middle of a tactical blancmange. Claire tells Rhori there are footprints ahead of us; they seem to be the lion's footprints, visible to her IR for a little while after it passes. We go down a slight slope to a gallery, which looks like it was mined out long ago. The path goes on. We come to another gallery, deep in the mountain; there is no longer any light from the entrance. Hobbes reports the scent is getting stronger. We continue out of the second gallery, when suddenly we hear a clatter and a growl and snarl in front of us. It turns out Hobbes set off a tripwire strung across the passage. Calais examines it; it looks pretty ordinary, but he muses that it's odd that a supernatural monster would use such an alarm system. Calais takes the lead, but not far in front. After a bit he spots another tripwire. It looks like it's designed to make some noise when someone walks through it. He disarms it and we proceed. Some way further, we spot a light coming toward us: not a torch or a lantern. Rhori prepares his bow; Paris follows suit. As it gets closer, we see that the light itself is man-shaped, but missing the bottom part. Anton turns on magic sight; Claire preps her armor. We hold our bow-fire as the figure approaches. Hobbes brings Rhori some rocks to throw, but they're rather slobbery. The figure comes closer, and we see its mouth is open, but due to helms and/or poor perception most of us can't hear it moaning. Rhori fires an arrow through the middle of it; it passes right through. Another shot to the head goes likewise through. We wait for it to get a bit closer. Calais shoots an arrow down at its feet; the arrow skips off the ground beneath it and continues down the corridor. Rhori, Calais, and Paris switch off from their bows and ready other weapons. Mia braces and sets, preparing to cast Dispel on it. It closes to 10"; it's been moving a steady 5" at speed 3. Mia casts her clerical dispel. A cascade of rainbow colors arcs from her to the figure, which disappears in a blaze of color. Calais asks Mia what she did, and wonders why a dispel would make a wraith completely vanish. We look for any signs where the figure was, but find nothing. We pick up our discarded weapons and move on. Rhori looks around for his bow; eventually Paris notices that Calais is carrying an extra bow. A minute further along, we spot two more glowing figures coming toward us. Paris suggests we try to find out if they are able to hurt us. Rhori wants to find out if our melee weapons can hurt them. Anton wants to get a better look with magic sight, and moves closer to the front line. Paris tries to move out in front so the party will have more time to react, but Rhori suggests we let them get close enough that Mia can help if necessary. Paris and Rhori end up moving about 10" in front of the party. When the figures are one move away, Anton casts magic sight and reports each figure is magical, but he can't discern more details yet. The figures close to just in front of Paris and Rhori. Paris swings and her weapon passes through it. She manages not to hit anyone else. Mia dispels one figure; the other continues to advance, and Paris loses her nerve and backs away before it. Claire tries a magic missile, which also passes through it. Paris tries again to stand her ground. Rhori tries to stop her but can't bring himself to interfere. The figure goes through Paris with no effect and heads for Mia. In doing so it passes right by Anton, who gets a good look with magic sight. Anton reports it's just an image; it can't hurt us. Mia nevertheless ducks out of the way. It ignores her and keeps going. We let it continue up the passage. Anton says it's some type of "dark magic" he hasn't seen before, perhaps Fell magic? (The one other time we saw a Fell creature cast magic was the goblin, which cast Fire magic.) As we approach another gallery, we see another two glowing figures. Calais again drops back behind the front line. Anton steps around the front line and walks toward the figures, invisible, with his sword held out to see what happens if the figures pass through it. The lion tells Rhori there's the smell of a dead body up ahead. Anton suddenly turns visible, apparently having hit the figures with his casually held sword and thus broken his spell. We mostly can't see him due to the advancing figures, but we hear him yelp as arrows hit him in the thigh and arm. The party pushes forward; Rhori and Paris make it through the ghostly figures, with the others still a bit behind. Rhori tries to give Anton some cover. An arrow hits Rhori in the arm. Various other arrows miss. Rhori starts to move forward, and sees some kobolds up ahead, but it's dark further out in the gallery. Calais suggests to Claire that she move her magic torch out there, but moving the torch will take a while. Paris and Calais also move forward. Rhori and Paris each step up to a pair of kobolds. Rhori swings but misses. Paris clips one in the foot and it squeals and tries to crawl away. Calais runs up and whacks it in the head, but it's such a glancing blow so it's not even stunned. The ghostly figures disappear; presumably whoever was producing them wants to use their magic for something else. Indeed, a smoky darkness envelops the combatants. Mia looses another rainbow cascade, and the darkness dissipates. But then a second kobold casts a spell and the smoke returns. Alas, Mia told us earlier that she can dispel only three times per day, so that's all for today. Rhori had previously told Hobbes to hang back, but now calls him forward. Hobbes rushes up to join the front line. The lion thinks there's something else bad besides kobolds in here. Rhori moves out a bit, and Hobbes warns that he's gotten close to something. Brillig goes out and has a look, and finds half a dead body, with something white materialising above it. He warns that he thinks there's a real wraith forming. Rhori flips up his visor and looks around and sees the other half of the dead body. Rhori tells Hobbes to go scare the kobold mages. The lion goes and roars at them, and munches one. The other is panic-stricken, but the darkness remains. Paris's combat sense lets her tell where the nearby kobolds (and Calais) are, and she whacks one in the knee for nominal damage. The wraith finishes forming and starts to move toward Rhori, who dodges away. Mia, Anton, and Claire move forward. Brillig throws a rock at the new wraith. The figure swirls, but appears otherwise unaffected. Still, that's more reaction than the images gave, so this is definitely something different. The lion mauls the other kobold mage, and the darkness vanishes. Rhori tries to taunt the wraith to lead it away, but trips over a kobold and falls down. The wraith manages to connect with him, and drains some STUN and STR. Fortunately he has some power defense, but he's still shaken. Paris and Calais finally manage to bludgeon the wounded kobold into oblivion. Anton casts Flash on the wraith. Rhori is also in the area, but seems unaffected. Rhori stands up and warns everyone not to let the wraith touch us. Claire fires a magic missile at it; the missile blows open a hole, which stays open. Brillig hits the same spot with his staff, but he again has no lasting effect. (The hole stays open, though.) The wraith makes a beeline for Claire. Brillig steels himself and tries to block it, but it moves right through him. It feels cold, but doesn't hurt him. Claire tries to dodge, but is hit anyway. She screams, and looks very pale, as if she's growing insubstantial. Mia races through an abbreviated ceremony for laying a body to rest. She brought some dust for this purpose, and from talking to his father we know a bit about the person (assuming it's Kenneth), which she works into the ritual. As she is almost done, she notices a claw reaching out toward her on a very long arm. She decides not to dodge but to complete the ritual. She is then hit in the shoulder, but her armor(s) mostly absorb the damage. Anton tries to hit the wraith with his sword, but misses wildly. Brillig wants to grab Claire to drag her out of the way, but it's too hard since she's dodging. He reaches for his lantern to see if that will affect the wraith. (Is it affected only by energy, or only by magic? We don't know.) Rhori looks around at the clawed arm that hit Mia. He follows it back through a crack in the rock, where there's some sort of rubbery creature hiding. He can't get at it behind the rock, so he whacks at the arm. He puts a gash in it, but it doesn't bleed. The wraith heads back to Mia, or perhaps to the dead body. Mia shouts to everyone that there's a monster over by her, and not to step on Kenny's body. She then turns around from the clawed arm, and sees the wraith right in front of her. She shouts an oath and dodges. Claire tries to shoot the wraith, but misses both it and Mia. The claw reaches for Mia again, but misses due to her dodging. Anton warns us that he's going to try to flash the monster. The wraith moves past Mia; Mia feels very cold. The wraith hovers over the two halves of the body, as if puzzled. Mia starts to put the body together, and gets whacked by the claw bigtime; she falls over. Rhori drops his shield and climbs onto the rock to try to swing at the monster behind it. He smacks it in the head, which splits open but doesn't bleed. There's a big conical body extending below it. Paris moves up and tries to put Kenneth's body together while saying a prayer. The lion keeps asking Rhori if he needs help, but Rhori keeps telling him he's okay, so the lion chews up some more kobolds. Calais eventually connects with the last one that's been dodging the whole time. Rhori lets go of his middle-sized axe (still embedded in the monster's head) and draws a big honkin' axe, and whacks the monster's head again. This time he stuns it. (40 STUN didn't do it; 65 did.) Brillig pokes his spear at it, and hits. He considers whether to leave the spear in it and pound it in with a rock. Anton manages to chop through the outstretched arm. Rhori hits the monster again for minimal damage. The lion, having run out of kobolds to chew on, asks what to do next, so Rhori invites it to come see how this thing tastes. It jumps over the rock and lands on the monster. Paris finishes arranging the body, and the wraith begins to settle into it. Claire asks if it's safe, and then moves forward to tend to Mia. As the turn ends, Brillig observes that the wounds and severed limbs of the monster seem to be growing back. Even the severed parts themselves are growing back. We continue to beat on it to keep it unconscious, while Anton finds some spare shoring timbers and prepares a fire to roast it for good. It smells awful. Brillig, Claire, and Paris tend to Mia, and she's soon feeling much better. Brillig also tends to Anton's arrow wounds. There seems to be nothing we can do about the injuries caused by the wraith. Brillig retrieves his favorite rock, and also picks up a couple from the rubble. (Since they have some silver content, they're smaller and easier to cart around while doing the same damage. None of us yet have any reason to suspect they might be more effective against wraiths.) Behind where the troll was is another tunnel. It's in an unusual place compared to the other galleries. We search for cards but don't find any. Obviously, we're not done here yet.