[Notes for the run of March 16, 2000.] We don't run full tilt all the way to the inn, lest we be exhausted when we get there. So we arrive strung out roughly as Paris and Alexis, then Calais, Rhori and Hobbes, Anton, Pyotr, Lucas. At the end of segment 12, only Paris and Alexis are in the building where they can see the trolls coming out through the rift. The rest of us don't know yet what's inside, though the flickering red light in the window tells us there's a fire. Segment 3. Rhori moves up. Paris prepares her defense maneuver, and also notices a noise in the kitchen. Segment 4. Calais moves up half; a full move would take him to the door, but he reserves the rest of his move for now. Pyotr takes a full move to come up next to him. Two trolls stretch out arms to whack Paris, but miss. She smacks one of the claws, but doesn't hurt it enough to disable it. (Not that it would be permanently disabled in any case, these being trolls.) Segment 6. Rhori moves up to the door, and sends Hobbes, still invisible, toward a troll separated from the others. Calais finishes moving up to the door, behind Rhori. Segment 8. Calais notices that the troll near Hobbes, which was headed for the kitchen, suddenly backs away, apparently stunned. An armored figure emerges from the kitchen. Behind the armored figure is -- Mia?? Two trolls again fail to hit Paris. Three try for Alexis. Some number of them hit (two), and she falls unconscious. A polite voice behind Mia says, "Excuse me miss." A spear pokes past her and hits the stunned troll in the stomach. Anton looks in a window and assesses the situation; he thinks about taking some magic-skill herb to make a lightning bolt plausible, but decides against it for now. Paris again hits a claw. Then in segment 9, she moves up and whacks one in the stomach, but for far too little damage. Rhori hits one in the pouch (so to speak), also for small damage (but a lot of stun). With Rhori out of the door, Calais moves in and scoops up Alexis's magic sword. Being quicker now, Calais advances and whacks one troll, but fails to stun it. Paris finishes off another. Rhori hits the one he stunned before, but again does fairly little damage. Hobbes comes over and claws it twice more, knocking it thoroughly unconscious. Two of the trolls, further back, have big shoulders instead of the usual triangular shape. We presume they are tougher in some way. One of them reaches over and hits Rhori, the other hits the fellow who preceded Mia. Neither takes serious damage. The lesser trolls swing at various of us and miss. The three clerics converge on Alexis. Anton tries to flash the two big ones, but goes wide and catches only one of them (but none of us). When the cloud clears, the rift that the trolls were coming in through is gone. (Probably it was going to disappear after segment 12, but Anton will no doubt take credit for it when he tells the tale.) Segment 3. Rhori stuns another, and Hobbes again finishes it off. Paris hits another, for not much. Calais and the figure that came with Mia whack the remaining lesser troll. Various trolls attack, including the flashed one (having made his perception roll), for no significant damage. Mia heals Alexis. Pyotr goes up and dinks at the troll Calais is facing. Anton lobs a magic missile at one of the big trolls. Paris smacks her troll again, but still fails to do much damage. Rhori reserves. Calais swings and misses; his companion hits their troll in the stomach. The lesser trolls miss, but one of the big ones hits Calais's companion for a massive blow in the shoulder. He goes down. Anton climbs in through the window. Mia casts a combat heal on the fallen fighter, healing a little bit. Lucas hits a troll in the head, but doesn't stun it. Paris gradually whittles off the arms from her troll, but still can't knock it out. It attempts to head-butt her, but fails. One small troll and a big one try to hit Calais, but miss. Anton shifts over a bit and takes a dose of skill-herb. He calls out to us to stay out of his line of fire, but some of us can't really see where he is. The guy with the spear comes up next to Calais. Alexis wakes up and looks around for her sword. She spots Calais's elf-sword, which he dropped near her when he picked up hers. Paris finally aims a shot at the troll's chest, and down it goes. Rhori stuns a big troll. The other big troll hits Calais, who blocks with the magic sword. The sword takes 4 damage (out of its 7 body). Anton fires off a lightning bolt; the spell works -- thanks to the herb. He hits both big trolls for 6 points, armor piercing. The one Rhori had stunned -- which had just unstunned -- falls over. Hobbes finishes off the last small troll. The mob descends on the remaining big one. Paris has to block one blow with her sword -- which, unlike Calais's, does not get damaged -- and then the fight is over. Calais gets a strange, unsettled feeling in his stomach, as Paris recognises the device on the armored figure's shield. It's Ewen. Rhori recognises him and, with a nod at Paris, asks him, "You're the one who kissed her, right?" Ewen keeps his expression stoically neutral as he answers, "Yes, Miller." "You can call me Rhori." Ewen nods. He goes on to explain that he was sent to escort Mia, who has some messages for us. (We suspect Ewen volunteered for the mission.) He also asks his spearman, Julius, to check whether their horses are okay. In the exploded guts of the formerly tacked up kobold, Rhori spots a shard of broken glass. It's part of a mirror. He calls Anton over to check it for magic. Anton's magic sight seems to goes through it, deeper and deeper; it's clearly part of "The" Mirror. Calais recalls his knowledge of how to handle such things, and manages to pick it up safely and carry it outside. There's no other treasure: no crotch pouches, no silver cards. That's okay, we settle for the Mirror bit. We decide to leave it in the church when we go to the mine. We invite Ewen to join us when we fight the demon, though Paris warns everyone not to talk about that with the townspeople around. Some people are asking the innkeeper's daughter what happened. She's still a bit incoherent, but manages to explain that she and her father had been cleaning up the inn before going to church, since this was the first time in a while that it hadn't been full of people. Then, "some black thing rolled in, rolled over to the kobold, and then it, the trolls, and it..." She gets panicky again and breaks off. Calais reminds Mia that she should decide whether she's going to try to raise the innkeeper, and if so she should arrange for the body to be put somewhere safe and not let it be examined too much. Anton speaks to the assembled townsfolk and suggests they go back to the church and pray for Gillian to guide and guard us as we head for the mine to deal with the remaining evil there. We all touch the face of the statue. Pyotr also performs a ritual to the red god (god of dying). Meanwhile, Mia delivers her message from the Prince to Paris. "The Order should not take sides in the upcoming conflict. You should stay neutral." Mia also says that when she left the town where the Council had been holding its conference (_not_ Pelier), it was burning down. That same night, Princes William and Martin also left having announced they were leaving to stop an orc insurrection in the north. But they hadn't mentioned exactly how soon they were leaving, and Mia says the places in the town that were burning were the places where William and Martin and their forces had been staying. Paris checks the dates involved and realises that the hostilities actually began before the thirty days of mourning ended. Mia says the valley is held pretty much by the Crown Prince's men; the north is mostly dedicated to Martin and/or William. Westmoor is completely loyal to their Duke, since he has the moby armor. She had a little information about the status of various cavalry divisions, but I didn't catch the details. She also takes Paris aside to deliver a more private message. We head to the mine. On the way, we explain to Ewen and Mia about the demon, carefully describing its name (per our current deductions, but without detailing the actual clues) after warning them not to speak or write it. At the mine, Pyotr says he wants to cast his PD/ED blessing. Calais notes that Mia can do that too, so we discuss which blessings to do, and other details of how to approach this fight. We end up having Pyotr cast his bonus Presence blessing, and Mia her power defense plus light. Various people also fire up their standard personal spells. Pyotr gives Anton some of the magic skill herb that he took from the Empress's garden. He says he doesn't know if it's better than the stuff Anton bought in town. Calais swaps swords back with Alexis, apologising for the damage. He remarks, though, that he's not sorry to have borrowed it, since he only barely blocked the troll, so it could've been him taking all that damage. We head into the mine and go to the opening in the wall. After a short distance, the passage opens up into a cavern, which is glowing with a soft pink light. All the rock looks pink. There are stalactites and stalagmites here and there, making it hard to see clearly across the cavern. As Paris walks in, she notices the ground is a bit wet and squishy. She sees a body, partly dissolved; one hand sports a wedding band. As we go through the corridor, all our magical spells goes down, though clerical ones remain. Hobbes whines that he can't go in. He emphasises that it's not that he won't, or doesn't want to; he _can't_. He's frantic about the danger to Rhori, but Rhori tells him to stay and guard our backs, and goes on in. We file in. Except for our squelchy footsteps, everything is extremely quiet. Various of us remark on how it looks as though we might be inside the demon's body. Ick. Anton starts trying to cast Magic Sight to see if spells can be turned on after having come through the corridor. Mia starts a quick laying-to-rest ceremony on Roget's body. Pyotr is amazed at how quickly she can do it. (Mother would _not_ approve.) As Anton and Mia start their incantations, one of the stalactites opens up and a figure drops down, doing a half flip to land on its weirdly clawed feet, feet that match the prints the kobold had been leaving around. The figure is nine feet tall, with a face that's halfway between a man's and a goat's. It has two tentacles coming out of its back, and hands that end in sharp claws. It hisses at us. Paris's sword glows as bright as a light saber. Thanks to the bonus PRE we have, we do not hesitate, though Anton and Mia fail even to notice the demon because they are concentrating on what they are doing. Ewen steps in front of Pyotr, issuing the immortal soliloquy: "Geez, that thing's big." Rhori heads away around the cavern. Calais, who was also nearer the demon than he'd like, pulls back and starts to move around as well. On segment 3, at dex higher than 20, the demon's tentacles extend out and whirl like a mixmaster around Paris and Ewen. They could try diving for cover, but since their armor levels are on DCV instead of DEX, they're not likely to make it. They stand and take it. It does normal damage: 22 stun 5 body. Paris takes a bit of stun from it. Rhori suggests spreading out to keep it from getting more than one at a time with that attack. He himself keeps heading deeper into the cavern. Paris and Ewen split up to get to either side of it. Lucas looses a smoky cloud around the demon. Segment 5 (speed 5). The demon steps out of the cloud, apparently totally unaffected by it, and its claws rake across Ewen's shield, but he is not hit. Ewen crits it in the head for 10 and 50. Not bad. Paris uses her reserved move to come up behind it and, on segment 6, crits it, but in the arm. She can tell its skin is tougher than the trolls'. On segment 8, it unstuns, and she sees the arm wound start to close, faster even than the trolls healed. Alexis, having also moved up, tries to hit it before it can start to dodge or something, but she misses. Ewen puts his levels on offense (since he'll be able to abort to block by the time the demon acts again), and hits it again. Segment 10. The demon turns to strike Paris. She blocks with her magic sword, but it'll get to act again before anyone else in 12. Rhori, having reached most of the way to the far wall, spots an opening of some sort. Calais has a better angle for seeing into it, but is further away so doesn't notice it yet. Segment 12. The demon misses, as does Lucas. Alexis not only misses, she fumbles and slips. Ewen stabs the demon in the stomach, but rolls pitiful damage and fails to penetrate. The floor bumps up under Pyotr, who had been moving out to explore the cavern. Anton finishes casting his Magic Sight. He sees Dark Magic all around. Pyotr shouts out that the floor is moving where he is, and moves away. (Apparently Ewen's poor damage roll meant we missed out on seeing a giant sword poking up into the cavern.) At dex 0, another stalactite turns into a second demon, dropping down directly in front of Calais. Calais, having reserved a half move, runs toward Rhori, screaming for help. As he's headed toward the alcove that had caught Rhori's attention, Calais notices it now as well, and sees a glint of gold in it. (But he can't say anything about it yet, having used his soliloquy screaming.) Segment 3. The first demon whacks Paris, who fails to block this time. She takes 14 body, armor piercing, in the chest. She is knocked unconscious, as well as being stunned. The second demon whirls its tentacles out around Calais, doing noticeably more damage than the first such display. Calais goes down. (Must be a twin thing.) Continuing into the alcove, Rhori sees a large gold plaque with seven dashes. Not six. Segment 4. Alexis stands up and whacks the first demon. It goes down at last, though it will soon recover. Anton unracks his force wall to try to seal in the second demon. Mia casts a combat heal on Paris, bringing her barely to consciousness. Segment 5. The second demon contemptuously walks up to the disturbed air marking the force wall, and slashes at it. But it does only 5 body, armor piercing, and that's exactly NOT enough to bring down the 10 point wall. The demon is embarrassed. Segment 6. Rhori goes up to the plaque, and sees there are little wheels he can turn. He touches one, and a set of bars drops down to seal him into the alcove. They're spaced wide enough to let tentacles through. Rhori fiddles with the wheels, and finds letters on them. Dropping his axe so he can use both hands, he gets an N and A into place. Segment 8. The demon slashes again at the force wall, this time managing 6 AP, and barely knocks it down. (It is not having a good night.) Several people start charging across the cavern, leaving Lucas to keep beating on the first fallen demon. Pyotr stands between Calais and the second demon. This will likely mean that the demon will continue to use its area effect tentacles attack since it can get both of them that way, but Pyotr figures both he and Calais are more likely to survive that than we are to survive its claws. As Calais begins to stir, Mia lobs her last combat heal at him, healing all the BODY damage. Segment 9. Rhori goes to the other end of the plaque and gets the U and Z in place. Sure enough, the demon slashes out at Pyotr and Calais on segment 10, and again on 12. Calais falls unconscious again. Pyotr is still standing. Neither takes any BODY this time. Rhori finishes constructing NA-KRUZ, but nothing happens. Having taken another dose of herb, Anton tries a lightning bolt, but flubs it. (If he'd grabbed the Empress's herb, it might've worked. But he didn't.) Luckily, the side effects are relatively weak; 4 body 12 stun. At the end of segment 12, a third demon appears. On segment 3, the second demon flogs Pyotr and Calais some more. The third demon tries for Ewen and Alexis, but Alexis is a bit too far away, and the tentacles fail to do much to Ewen. Rhori changes the last letter to L, and waits to see what happens. At the end of segment 3, the gold plaque starts to melt away. Rhori uses his remaining half phase to ready his axe again. Anton tries a magic missile, but it goes wide. Lucas, having hacked on the first demon enough to break it open, reports that its chest is empty. The second demon hits Alexis, hurting her but not stunning her. (The demon decides it needs to have its claws checked, or something.) At the end of segment 5, the gold plate finishes melting away. Behind it, Rhori sees a large heart, beating. He smacks it with his axe. Black blood spurts out of it, eating away at the axe. The demons howl, and something else emits a deeper roar. The demons crumble, and all the pink rock turns into ordinary rock. The pink light goes away, leaving Rhori's torch, Paris's sword, and Mia's clerical light spell as our only sources of light. Anton looks around. There's no magic left. This is just a cavern. Hobbes comes running in, but can't get to Rhori because the bars are still blocking the alcove. We go out and fetch some picks and whatnot to break them down with. While he waits, Rhori checks the alcove. There's no sign of the heart. In its place are 30 silver cards. Pyotr casts his Glorious Revitalization Amen on Paris and is elated when her chest wound closes. "Never healed such big wound before!" (He did, in fact, roll extremely well, as even this mighty healing spell would not normally have been potent enough to cure the whole wound.) Even so, Paris has some trouble breathing for a while (losing her post-segment-12 recoveries). At the same time, Mia casts her G.R.A. on Alexis, and then heals Anton as well. Back in town, Mia decides she does want to raise the innkeeper, and asks the rest of us to run interference while she finds a quiet place to do it. Rhori doesn't think it's the right thing to do. We discuss it a while, but ultimately she opts to go through with it. Rhori says he doesn't want to have to answer the questions that will be asked, so he heads west with Hobbes, saying the rest of us can catch up. [Since we actually are likely to go back to Tauban to get our armor and weapons tended to, I presume we decide this before Rhori sets out, so he'll know whether to head that direction instead.] Most of the townsfolk think it's a miracle that the innkeeper was brought back, apparently from the brink of death, although there are a few who say he really was dead. Overall, though, it seems that bringing him back had the positive effect that many who were planning to leave town change their minds and decide to stay. Mia says she has to head back to Westmoor. Ewen will, of course, escort her again. She also has a note from Westmoor's padre, summoning Lucas back as well. Alexis asks to keep the (damaged) magic sword. We also divide up the thirty cards, giving three each to Mia, Ewen, and Lucas. [Unless I hear otherwise, I will assume Alexis and Pyotr take three each, plus another one each from the previous sets of trolls, and I keep Anton's, Paris's, Rhori's, mine, and the few extra for later roundoff.] [Note to Pat: My character sheet also says I had 4 cards of Mia's, but it seems likely she got them before we parted in Pelier. In any case, she certainly has them now. Since you have her character sheet, Sunny would like for you to note that she now has 7 cards that, she hopes, she will be able to combine with training during the period before she rejoins us in May.] Paris also gives Mia a complete description of what had happened in Gillian- town since our arrival for her report to the duke, but cautions her that the sections about the Other Party not realizing that there was stuff left undone and about the presence of a real demon should only be told in private, not being the sort of information likely to make the general populace feel safe and secure. [Hm, shouldn't Sir Ewen make the report?] Also, in a brief back-in-time as we were wrapping up, I mentioned that back when Alexis asked what was in the trolls' crotch pouches, Calais showed several lumps of silver and one of gold, and estimated that the lot was worth about 30 silvers (judging by the weight). The later set of four trolls turned up some coins (3 gold, 25 silver, the gold being slightly smaller than we're accustomed to), with unfamiliar markings that resemble the angular script on the statue of the "giant dwarf". Calais estimates the net value at about 50 silver unless we find a collector of odd coins. As mentioned in the last summary, the eight trolls had no treasure except the Mirror shard.