[Notes for the run of July 5, 2000.]

(Segment 3, dex 23.)  Paris drops the ordinary sword she was wielding, and
draws her magic sword as she moves forward.  She crits the statue in the
torso, doing 15 damage.  Fortunately, the magic sword can stand up to that
sort of abuse.  The statue cracks a bit, and stops moving for the moment.

The rest of us delay (as our actions come up), waiting to see what the
statues do.  The statue Paris hit shifts its shield into a better position.
The implication is that it was stunned, so it's not an automaton.

Alessandro considers lobbing a spell at the statue, but he'd have to fire
through Paris's hex, so her sword would cancel the spell.

Paris swings again, and finishes shattering the first statue.  The next one
moves up and swings at her, but misses.  Rhori moves up a bit.  Calais also
moves up, dropping his sword and contorting his arm out of his shield so he
can ready his spear for two-handed use.

Mia tries an EGO attack, but it fizzles against Paris's aura.  Anton tells
Jarvon about the statues, saying they're earth magic of some sort.

The second statue swings again, missing.  Rhori hits it with a throwing axe.
Calais hits with his spear, but the spearhead bends a bit.  (The statue is a
"hard" target, so the spear's defense is halved.)  Paris hits it in the arm.
She hits it yet again, this time in the hand.  Calais hits again with his
spear, doing some more damage but shattering the spear.

Hobbes asks Rhori, "What's that?"  Rhori listens and over the sound of the
battle and Paris's sword, he hears a rumbling sound.  As he calls out a
warning, a tunnel opens up, expanding the existing crack.  In the new
opening we see two of the mounted orc/wolf pairs, with more behind them.
Immediately behind the first pairs, we also see a figure sort of like the
"Thing" from Fantastic Four, but gray.  It's wearing a pentacle, so we guess
that it's an earth mage, and that the rocky skin is a higher-level version
of Claire's earth-armor spell.  Anton shifts position to keep the mage in
sight, holding his Silence spell ready to counter any casting attempt.

Alessandro braces and lobs a spell at one of the new wolves, but misses.  The
statue on Paris misses again.

Segment 3 again.  Paris swings at one of the wolves, aiming for the chest.
She hits, for serious damage.  Rhori pirouettes over (defense maneuver) and
crits it in the torso with a pick.  The pick takes a bit of damage, but
being AP doesn't break.  The wolf, on the other hand, shatters.  The rider
lands on his feet.

Calais moves back, picking up Paris's dropped ordinary sword and heading for
his own dropped shield.

Anton spots the earth mage starting to gesture, and hears a sort of rumbling
incantation.  He looses his Silence, spoiling the spell.  The earth mage
starts mulling which spells he has racked.

The remaining lead wolf bites Rhori in the kneecap.  Paris's sword glances
off the unmounted rider.  Rhori hits the wolf in the foot.

Alessandro shoots the mage with a magic missile.  Since the mage was
concentrating on the spell this phase, Alessandro hits, doing 11 and 55
(energy) to the head.  We expect to see the earth armor spell vanish,
revealing the mage himself.  But the shape of the figure does not change,
though its color changes from light gray to a darker basalt.

Calais recovers his shield.  The wolf hits Rhori in the chest, but for no
damage.  Then the orc rider deals him a massive blow in the stomach.  Anton
readies a lightning bolt, and calls to us to clear the line, but Rhori is in
the Silenced area so can't hear him (and is stunned anyway).

Pyotr, who was braced and set on Rhori waiting to cast a combat heal,
misses.  Sigh.

Segment 9.  Paris swings at the formerly mounted orc, again glancing off its
chest.  Rhori unstuns.  Hobbes, sensing Rhori was in trouble but not being
very bright, appears by his side and tries to roar, but of course can't be
heard.  Alessandro tries to shoot the mage in the head again, but misses.
Mia tries her EGO attack on the mage, but misses.

Segment 12.  Paris finally does some damage to the big orc.  Rhori orders
Hobbes back toward Mia.  Calais starts to move forward to get Rhori to move
aside, but Rhori moves first and steps over to Paris.  His spells go down,
but Anton has a clean shot.  His lightning bolt zaps down the corridor,
doing 9 energy AP to several targets.  Calais then continues forward to
block the statues from moving out into the ravine.  Alessandro sends another
magic missile, hitting the mage in the arm.

Rhori crowds up against the ordinary-sized orc that had been fighting Paris,
pushing into the corridor.  He hits in the arm for no noticeable damage, but
does succeed in pressing forward.  That gets him out of Paris's aura, so
Pyotr is able to catch him with a combat heal.  Mia also heals him.

Paris swings at the wolf's chest again, critting for 16.  The wolf crumbles;
the rider again lands gracefully.

The mage finally gets a chance to unrack a spell.  Hobbes, sensing the
danger, starts to warn Rhori, then realises it's himself that's in danger,
and leaps out of the area in time.  A cone of magic hits everyone but Rhori
and Hobbes, encasing us all in stone.  (A 5 defense, 4 body, entangle.)
Several of us push our strength, and do some damage to the entangling stone.
Mia and Anton strain but fail to make any headway.

Paris's sword lessens the effect, but she's encased as well.  She asks
Rhori, "Am I the only one like this?"  Rhori, who's been concentrating on
the orcs, asks, "Like what?"  He looks over and, seeing her predicament,
aims carefully with his pick and manages to split her out without hurting
her.  Her feet are still encumbered, but she swings at the orc, doing a bit
more damage.

Rhori hears from Hobbes that the others are encased, and Rhori tells him to
free us, starting with Mia.  Hobbes takes Mia's stone-wrapped arm in his
jaws and gently works it back and forth.

Alessandro manages to finish breaking free on his own.  Calais works his way
a bit more out.  The earth mage starts moving back, waving more statues
forward to interpose.  Rhori disengages from his current orc and tries to
close with the mage, shouldering Paris aside.  It throws off her swing, but
she manages to keep her footing.  Rhori makes it to the mage; an orc swings
at Rhori and misses.

Segment 12, Paris misses.  Rhori brings out the big axe and hits the mage in
the arm for 16 and 48.  The axe shatters, but the mage is briefly stunned.
Calais takes a breather.  Hobbes gets Mia's sword arm free, so with his
continuing help she manages to break herself the rest of the way out.

Segment 3, Paris finishes off the orc.  Rhori searches for another weapon
and pulls out his hammer.  He crits in the chest, doing max damage: 21 body
and 105 stun.  The hammer explodes, but the mage goes down.

Paris looks at Calais, but decides he's safe for now, and goes to help
Rhori.  She takes a chunk out of another orc's chest.  Calais finishes
breaking free on his own.  Gradually we notice that the statues have stopped
moving.

We go back in to explore.  We count the statues and find one more little orc
than there used to be, presumably the orc that we heard scream a short while
ago.

Calais checks the mage and finds he still seems to be made of stone.  The
only thing that's not stone is the gold pentacle.

Further exploration (beyond the room of statues) is put off to next run,
since there's a lot of description.  We will, we're told, find 14 cards.