Our heroes and the gnomes journey to a passageway adjacent to the city and begin the tenday-long task of sealing the adjoining passageways to keep the gnomes safe from the evil Beholder. Dalin offers his expertise and his stone shaping abilities and is able to completely seal a passageway himself in five days. When the work is completed at the end of the tenday, no sign of the Beholder has been seen. Grateful the party was able to help out and protect them in case of any trouble, the gnomes tell them the hemisphere may be found in the Micanid (fungi people) city a ways north and just east of the gnomes. In fact, these are the only directions given... just head north until your way is blocked, then backtrack and head a little east. And so our heroes set out, following the sign reading "Certain Death: 2 miles".
Along the way, out heroes must negotiate rubble, and areas filled with mold and spores. Although alternate routes around these areas are tried, eventually the party must go into one of these areas. Even moving slowly and being careful not to touch anything, twice party members succumb to the mold and spores, and slump to the ground, dying.
Luckily, Dalin (the cleric of no sphere whatsoever) is able to save his fallen comrades with Cure Disease spells, and the party bravely trudges on to its density, oops, destiny.
Eventually a huge, impressive looking stairwell is reached. The party, thinking the gnomes would have mentioned such a grand-looking stairwell if the party was meant to go up it, continues on. Shortly, a group of Micanids approach! Our heroes duck for cover and they pass by, paying the party no heed. Delf and Cel decide to follow them (and do whatever else one can imagine, no doubt) and return shortly with news the fun guys were heading for the stairwell. After some curses uttered the gnomes' way, the party heads up the stairwell...
And encounter another area filled with mold and spores. Entering cautiously, the party is forced back by three gnomes with blank, glassy eyes (zombie gnomes?). Not wanting to kill the unfortunate creatures, the party is able subdue them by punching their lights out. Further exploration of the Micanid city is halted by the appearance of forty or so Micanids who back the party out into the stairwell. Momentarily thwarted, Cel uses her ESP device (you knew I was going to write that, didn't you? :) on the Micanids to convince them of our heroes' honorable intentions. They agree to give the party an audience with their king, and lead the party to him. The party immediately recognizes him as the king -- 'e 'asn't got shit all over 'im. The king tells the party of the Micanids' difficulties with the tentacled ones (Mind Flayers...) and states that they have created a poison which is fatal to all Micanids. He agrees to trade the hemisphere in exchange for a pouch of the toxin so that an antidote may be developed. The party agrees to his terms, and heads out of the city, down the stairwell, and southwest toward two more stairwells, located close to one another... the lair of the Mind Flayers.
The party eventually arrives at the shores of a lake, the lake containing one of the Shards! Realizing they're under no time constraint, our heroes decide to search for the Shard now and get the toxin later. Suddenly twenty creatures, bipedal with fish heads, appear out of nowhere, coming up out of the lake and from the cracks in the wall next to the path on which the party stands. Completely surrounded, Cel uses her ESP device and receives a single impression from the creatures: attack!
With no choice left to them, the party joins the battle. After dispatching of most of the fish people (mainly by area of effect spells from Jordan and Raphael), a wave of reinforcements arrives, consisting of more fish people and Kaotaons (Dalin's sworn enemy). Most of them are dispatched of, but not before Jordan is captured and yet more reinforcements arrive (Kaotaons and Troglodytes, this time.) The last of the enemies are finally subdued, Jordan is rescued, and two hostages are taken. Final score: Party 78, Enemies 0.
After a little while, three more creatures emerge from the lake, one with a sign which simply reads "TREETI". Cel determines their intentions are honorable and the party agrees to not wipe out the whole lake creature population. As a show of good faith, our heroes release the hostages and then get an idea: Raphael draws a picture of the Shard the creatures are known to possess and gives it to them just before they disappear into the lake.
After spending the night in a nearby room, our heroes walk back out to the lake where they discover the Shard of Noon, left there by the creatures overnight! I guess when you send out 78 of your best men to stop 8 people, and all of the 78 are either killed, injured or captured, you do what they say...
So the party sets out in search of the lair of the Mind Flayers. The stairwell is found relatively quickly and our heroes cautiously head down it. Expecting a confrontation with the Mind Flayers, the party is attacked by three trolls instead. After dispatching them, three more trolls attack the party with more dire consequences. Dalin goes down, then Tiron! The trolls are finally killed and the two unconscious clerics are stabilized before death can claim them.
The party heads back up the stairwell and goes to the lake. There, Tiron and Dalin are left with Delf and Rolonda while the rest of the party travels back to the gnomes for help. After a gnome is brought back and heals the clerics, everyone heads back to the gnome city. There they receive the horrible news of powerful men, after slaughtering the gnomes sent to the city's entrance to defend against them, heading towards the gnome city. Knowing this can only be Draylin and Melcor, our heroes decide to set up an ambush in a room just to the northeast of the gnome city. Their plan: Jordan and Raphael will use fireballs and lightning bolts to soften them up, Tiron and Dalin will try to hold them and silence them, and a Silence spell will be cast on Brau'ni, who will close with Draylin after he has been softened up by Jordan and Raphael. Delf will also try to take Draylin out with his poison darts. Our heroes take their positions in the room: Brau'ni and Raphael in one corner (Brau'ni out of sight in a passageway, Raphael invisible), Jordan in another corner (also invisible), and Delf, Tiron, Dalin, and Cel & Rolonda hidden in passageways just off of the main room.
Suddenly, two beefy fighter types appear in the passageway leading to the room, followed closely by Draylin, Melcor, and a mid-level magic user. They appear to scan the room for a few moments, then retreat back down the passageway, leaving the two fighters behind. Confused at this turn of events, the party hesitates, unsure what to do next. Suddenly a lightning bolt crashes into Brau'ni and Raphael, its apparent source the center of the room. Raphael quickly throws a fireball centered there but no one appears to be caught in its area of effect. He then changes positions to get a direct line of sight down the passageway into which Draylin retreated. Brau'ni, meanwhile, charges the fighters and takes a well-aimed swing at the closest one...
And hits nothing but open air. The illusionary fighter, its spell broken, winks out. Brau'ni disbelieves the other fighter and it, too, disappears. Lightning bolt number two smashes into Jordan and Dalin, knocking Dalin unconscious and badly injuring Jordan. Jordan quickly moves to where Brau'ni is, and Brau'ni backs up along the wall to get the magic user out of the area of effect of the Silence spell cast on him. Delf, meanwhile, has looped around and now finds himself behind Draylin with a wide open poison arrow shot. He cocks his bow back and lets fly its deadly cargo...
The arrow smashes against the wall next to Draylin. Enraged, Draylin casts a Light spell toward the source of the shot, but sees no one, thanks to Delf's Cloak of Elvinkind. Suddenly the passageway is filled with fire, engulfing everyone in it. The four people in it are hurt, but not down. It seems that Raphael has underestimated the area of effect of his fireball, however, as it blows back out into the room, engulfing and killing Jordan. Raphael, able to detect invisible objects, sees Jordan go down and vows to place his next fireball more carefully.
Tiron rushes over to Dalin and manages to revive him. Dalin sits up, grateful for the heal, and suddenly sees a fiery ball of light heading straight at him. Dalin's last living thoughts are, "Oh, bloody hell!" Lightning bolt number three washes over Tiron and Dalin. Tiron is able to withstand the bolt but Dalin is not so lucky.
| Unknown Assailant: | For, since Dalin... who, when he seemed about to recover, suddenly felt the electric hand of death upon him... |
| Dalin: | <AAUUGH> |
| Tiron: | Oh, he's died! |
In the confusion in the passageway, Delf shoots another arrow at Draylin. This time his aim is true, and Draylin pales, visibly shaken, but does not go down. Delf decides discretion is the better part of valor, and retreats down the hallway. Just in time, too, as Raphael's second passageway fireball turns Melcor and the other magic user into charred carrion, and hurts Draylin even more. Now, Raphael did aim this fireball further down the passageway, but evidently not far enough, as the fireball once again washes out into room, catching Brau'ni and the empty husk which used to house the soul of Jordan.
Delf positions himself at the end of the passageway, waiting to ambush Draylin, now heading directly toward him. Brau'ni, still silenced, sneaks down the passageway behind Draylin, keeping him just out of range of the Silence spell's effects. When Draylin reaches the end of the passageway (and the hidden Delf), Brau'ni attacks from behind, but his battle axe cleaves nothing but empty air. Delf also misses Draylin. Draylin, enraged not only by the two clumsy attacks but also by the area of silence surrounding him, suddenly hears the word "banana" shouted from the other end of the passageway. "Banana?" wonders Draylin. It is the last thing he ever wonders as the illusionary fireball does its job, killing the evil mage. Delf chops off his head, making sure the effects of illusion will not wear off. He advances up the passageway, out of the area of effect of the Brau'ni Silence spell and lets Raphael know that all of the enemies are dead. "Not only all of the enemies," thinks Raphael sorrowfully as he heads down the passageway to meet up with his comrades. Wrapped up in his own thoughts, he does not see the tiny figure flying just above him...
Lightning bolt number four, directed down the passageway, proves that not all of the enemies are dead, as its force smashes into Raphael's back and washes over Brau'ni and Delf. Delf yells, "Tiron! Raphael's down! Get over here now, but come here the way I did! There's still something going on in the room!" Cel finally springs into action and runs across the room and into the passageway. She picks up Raphael's unconscious body, and lugs him down the hallway to adjoining room. Just in time, too, as lightning bolt number five illuminates the passageway, barely missing her. After Tiron revives Raphael, the party hears an evil voice, sarcastically calling to them from the other room. "Thanks for all the fun, guys! And a big thank you for offing Draylin and Melcor for me! Until we meet again!" The sound of someone teleporting is heard, and then nothing more.
"Damn it," snarls Delf. "How could we have forgotten about the magic user bitch?" After a search of the bodies reveals no trace of the Shard known to be in their possession, our heroes know this has been a hollow victory. Yes, Draylin and Melcor are dead, but their Shard has not been recovered, and, more importantly, two of their own are dead, one by Raphael's own hands. Grief-stricken, confused and uncertain what to do next, not knowing if they have the resources to get the Shard and the hemisphere with Jordan and Dalin gone, our heroes trudge back to the gnome city, their thoughts with their fallen comrades.