Day 1 Elensul

We awake on narrow beds of some kind. We had been aware of others in the room previously, but now do not see any. This is not right, we do not belong here. We are told we are here to fight for sport arranged by none other than the devil who conjured us here. It is then that I realize all has been lost. This is clearly what the world has become under the fist of the Ardanian Church and its Abyssal Masters...but then I remember a voice..it was as we were waking up...there is a way out at the end, a way back. By playing along, we can perhaps undo what has been done.

As we we are herded along I do not feel like 'playing along'. Killing for sport is vile, but I realize with trapped devices strapped to us, we must play or die. I do not intend to die before releasing the fury that courses through my blood on those responsible for this and may Nienna have mercy on those thrown in my path before the end.

Weaponless we are pitched into a chamber to take on a Purple Worm. The spectators seem pleased that we are to take on such a devastating opponent nearly naked. But that is where we begin to turn the tables. Jaden launches magic missiles, Stephen conjures an instrument from thin air, Raven and Blackhawk begin to transform. And I charge straight for the toothsome beast. In retrospect, my contribution was small. A small Elf amongst the coils of a the worm, a dire tiger (Raven) and red dragon (Blackhawk). With Jaden being the one going down the gullet, I feel particularly guilty. And although it seems he did valiantly attempt to extradite himself, if the worm would have only then swallowed me I could have saved him sooner. But luckily Raven, with Blackhawk's help finished off the beast and cut Jaden out.

There were chests in the room that contained our possessions. We were supposed to run to these in an attempt to better fight the creature, but by the crowds reaction, we did better by slaying the beast straight out of the gate. A purple worm, is a mindless eating machine that I has no remorse for helping to slay, but I am still fearful of the position they may place us in, before this 'dungeoncrawl' is completed. In my chest are all my belongings expect my javelins. Spear, knife and fist are more than enough. Ironically another chest provides me with more javelins, but these are soaked in poison and I discard them. Just one more score to settle with our "manager".

We are now provided an opportunity to rest. If this is the practice of the tournament, it may go easier on us with healing opportunities provided between bouts.

Round 1 Jaden

This morning, after listening to Stephen greet the dawn, ( After greeting so many, I believe he could feel it happening many miles underground) I studied my spellbook, trying to guess what I might need based on the small information I had. One of the strange scrying screens appeared and a woman came on. Suddenly, there were moving images of our battle with the worm, in brief snatches and in slow motion. Very odd. From what I was able to gather, the test was called a weapon dash and grab. This person seemed impressed that we "chose" not to use weapons to defeat the worm, and is assuming that we were competitors in this type of cruel game somewhere else on this world. There seems to be an elaborate set of rules that no one has made us privvy to. I am guessing that puts us at a significant disadvantage. When I get a chance to ask, I will try to find out if the adventurers guild exists here.

We were shown images of girls dancing, very scantily clad! And told that we were to rescue three of these "princesses" as our next task. The scrying device then showed us a mob of goblins, hobgoblins and trolls, all heavily armed, leering and shouting coarsely. We were once again forced to choose between two poles and Blackhawk took rather a nasty spill on his way down. We came into a small room and immediately 6 hobgoblins rose up and waited for us to attack them. I chose to fight with my sword as much as possible since I wasn't sure what might happen next. It seemed prudent to save my spells for foes more dangerous than hobgoblins. They were rather quickly dispatched and Stephen sang a dirge for the fallen as the rest of us searched the room. We found some sort of paper certificates which offered us $200 gold each. Elensul's packet contained two of these certificates. I sustained the most significant injuries in the party, but was healed by Raven and Stephen and we went on. Blackhawk cut a hole through one of the walls and we ended up in a cave. Well, it wasn't really a cave, more like a stage set like they had in the theatre in Ardania. Very curious. As we moved across the floor, a flurry of stalagtites fell from the ceiling. It didn't take long for Blackhawk and Stephen to determine that there was a fine network of webs all over the floor, which triggered the traps. Stephen stepped on a metal plate and was rewarded by many needles shooting up into his person. I believe he was glad for the codpiece for the first time since he discovered he was wearing it... We continued on and finally ended up in a room with a lake in it. The water's surface seethed with some unseen monsters. Three towerlike islands equidistant apart rested in the water. I had a feeling that this was where we would find the princesses we were to rescue.

The princesses weren't in the room with the seething floor (not water, as I had thought, but alive with dire rats, so many that there was not one inch of the floor visible beneath them.) As we entered, we found that the ledge was only wide enough to fit four of us. Blackhawk and Raven quickly solved that problem, Blackhawk becoming a falcon and Raven a great horned owl. We were discussing how Stephen and I could cross the 8 foot gap from pedestal to pedestal without a running start when two crossbow bolts slammed into me. Fortunately for my mage armor and my stoneskin spell, I was unharmed. Elensul flung himself toward the "island" where the bolts had come from when I heard him say "Yrch!" Orcs. I hate orcs. Elensul immediately attacked one of them with a flurry of blows. There were three to a platform, well hidden behind walls with arrow slits. Blackhawk flew to the other side of the room and was hit with two bolts. Raven flew at one of them and attacked with her claws. Stephen cast a glitterdust spell and successfully blinded some of the orcs. I then cast fear on them, hoping that they would be weak willed enought to be affected. Luck was with me, and two of them fell into the pit, to be devoured by the dire rats, who had already picked clean the bones of Elensul's foes. Stephen sang a rousing battle song and Blackhawk shot arrow after arrow. One by one, the orcs fell. I cast invisibility on myself, which I hope confused not only the orcs, but the blood thirsty crowd as well! Soon, only one orc was left. Seeing the sorry state of his comrades, he slapped himself on the chest and promptly vanished! Blackhawk was bemoaning the loss of the fine axes and crossbows that the orcs had carried, and I drank one of the healing potions Lia gave me since I was injured in the cave room. Now, our only problem was to find a way for Stephen and I to traverse the room. A plan was formulated, and between ropes, jumping and brute strength, we made it to the other side. A crack opened in the wall and more "certificates" appeared, along with an offer of a year's supply of boots for the party. This place is nearly as odd as Chaos Island. We went down a corridor and came to a door. Stephen checked it for traps. He said he heard a whirring noise so we all stood back as he threw the door open. Before us was an amazing sight. A huge staircase, magically growing out of the floor and moving upwards one step at a time into the darkness.

The stairs continued to advance into the darkness, arising from the ground as though they were growing out of it. It seemed to be a construction such as gnomes might make. We circled warily around it, trying to figure out how it worked, and more importantly, if it were trapped. Blackhawk quickly tired of this pursuit, changed himself to resemble a faerie creature and flew up to take a look. In a few seconds, we heard a crack, and Blackhawk whirred past. He related that something strong had hit him with a club. It was obvious to him that the attack was not mechanized, but carried out by a living being with good aim. Elensul had been studying the contraption all this time and suddenly lunged forward, stabbing one of his climbing petons into the base. There was a terrible grinding sound as the gears jammed and acrid smoke drifted up between the stairs as they collapsed in on one another. After congratulating Elensul on thwarting the metal beast, we warily advanced upward. Crossbow bolts flew at us as Elensul tumbled toward one of the bugbears that guarded the top of the now stationary stairs. Blackhawk became a bugbear too, quite confusing, but for the fact that the real ones had been badly burned by one of Raven's fire seeds. I fired off some magic missiles and Stephen advanced singing. Rapiers and fireseeds, more magic missiles and Elensul's wicked punches soon took their toll, and one of the bugbears was dead, the other severely wounded. Stephen gave it the opportunity to surrender, which it did willingly. He bound the poor creatures wounds and we continued past the charred remains of some unfortunates (goblins or orcs?) that had been too near the blast zone of the fire seeds. After retrieving more of the "certificates", we examined the room for hidden doors and traps. The one visible door was trapped, but Stephen handily disarmed it and we went on. We entered a small chamber with another door, and as we came through, we found a huge arena, crowded with spectators. It was quite a ways down, perhaps as much as 150 feet, and the arena was dotted with the wall type barriers with arrow slots that we had seen before. A ragged looking suspension bridge spanned the arena, and at the far end, chained, was one of the erstwhile "princesses" we were to rescue. I conferred with the group and quickly cast Rary's telepathic bond so we could communicate without sound.Then I cast mass invisibility (the crowd gasped at that, I can assure you) and we discussed silently how best to cross the arena without provoking an attack. I am guessing we will be much harder to hit if we can't be seen... The crowd, pressed against a glass-like barrier, made a collective noise of surprise and distress as we vanished. A gutteral cry came from behind us and a cloud of dust from the arena settled on us for a moment. Raven wild shaped into a dire eagle and picked up Stephen, while Blackhawk became a dragon once more and carried Elensul and I across the arena. The hobgoblins behind the barriers were startled and shot wildly toward the sound of giant wings, but missed. Quickly, Stephen jumped toward the tree where "princess Felonie" was chained. He picked the lock on one side and the flimsy chain fell away. I was chagrined as I tried and failed to break the chain on the other side with my hands, and Elensul decided it was time to proceed with the show. He pummeled the hobgoblin who was guarding the princess, which caused the invisibility spell to fail. Stephen quickly cast a phantom voice spell that sounded like a dire tiger was on the side of the arena, taking the attention off of DeVal, who was in the middle of the suspension bridge when he reappeared. I used my long sword to cut through the chain and Elensul reduced the hobgoblin to a bloody smudge . The "princess" was so happy that she put her tongue in Elensul's ear. How forward the women must be in this place if a "princess" would behave so... The hobgoblins stopped trying to shoot at us and once again, we were given a "certificate" for gold pieces. These really mean nothing to us since our "manager" will most likely try to kill us before we can actually exchange them for gold. We also got a potion of cure serious wounds, a potion of cat's grace and a short sword, which may be magic. We went out the door and into another hallway. This one proved perilous for Elensul, as Stephen opened the door, a pit opened in the floor beneath him. It was about 50 feet deep, but his excellent reflexes helped him to catch the side. In the room outside of the door was another of those strange scrying screens that we keep seeing. DJDestiny, appeared on it and said "this is not the way. Elensul took a rope and went into the pit, reporting that there was a gap about 18 inches up from the floor. Realizing that we were expected to enter, Blackhawk stuck his head through. He was blinded by a bright flash of light. It was one of the gnomes, holding a brilliant lantern. The other gnome had one of those camera things they are so fond of. Stephen checked for traps and opened the next door, which opened out to a pit filled with sharp metal objects, the likes of which I have never seen. Fortunately, he looked before he stepped forward. There were rings attached to the ceiling. Stephen crossed, but as he grabbed for the last ring, it broke away from the ceiling into his hand. He has some fine dexterity too, and managed to save himself. Elensul and Blackhawk crossed, and then it was my turn. I am very strong, so the crossing was easy, but I somehow became tangled in my cloak and misread the distance from the last ring to the platform. Stephen caught me before I fell into the pit of rusty metal below. He had to cast feather fall on Raven as she slipped on the first ring. Finally we were all across. This door opened into another room, where a huge crowd sat once again behind the oddly strong glass they have here. At the far end of the room were more people with cameras and a "referee", and in the center of the room that sloped bowl like to a drain grate, there was a troll. I remembered him from the scrying screen from that morning. His body was pierced through with lengths of barbed wire. Knowing trolls abilities first hand, I threw a fireball at it. It was not at all happy with me, nor was the crowd, who seemed to actually like the troll. It charged forward and grabbed me, squeezing me tightly to the spikey wire. Not for the first time did I say a silent thanks to Cymric! Blackhawk began to shoot arrows at the beast, Stephen poked the beast with his rapier, causing immediate and long term constitution damage.Raven pulled out her flame blade, and Elensul never even punched the troll, who crumpled to the ground on top of me. I pushed him off and was pleased to find that I was uninjured. (OOC: Hope I got the sequence of events right, we did a lot and I didn't take notes...) The "referee" blew a whistle and some of the healers came out with a wheeled cart and took the troll away. We were again given certificates, a bottle, and a box that contained master work thieves tools. I tried to give them to Stephen, but he said Elensul should have them. This confused me until I heard Stephen say inside my head, "He's an assassin, remember. Try to keep up."

For what it's worth, we made it to the second princess, and the finale of the first XCrawl level, and yet, we are not finished. Let me start where I left off. We had just defeated the troll Vrusk. They took him away on a stretcher, gave us more "prizes" and we moved on down the hall. I hope my fellow Foxes will forgive me if I don't get the order of events exactly right. We went from door to door, listening, and decided we should try one where we heard voices. We found one of the healers, who, while not terribly proficient at his craft, did manage to make all of us feel a bit better. He seemed fascinated with Elensul, going on and on about his own exploits until he "messed up his knee." We took our leave of him and went on to a door that was icy cold to the touch. It had a hole bored out of the center, which Stephen quickly saw for a trap. He stuffed it with some fruit from the medics room and when he opened the door, there was an acrid smell and a splatter of yellow green paint on the floor. Raven and I didn't want to risk walking over it, thinking it must be some kind of poison, so we dragged some mattresses in and put them over the spot. There were hobgoblins in the frozen room, Elensul and Blackhawk did some quick damage to them, followed by Stephen and Raven and I . They were strong, but soon surrendered when they found that they were outmanned. More of the envelopes with CRAWL on them. This time, as well as the $500 GP notes we've come to expect, I also got a "certificate" that promised each member of the party a parka. We listened at the next door and there was an odd whirring sound. Once in the room, we realized that it was the sound of rotating poles that were strung up and down with flails and morningstars, whipping in broad circles around them. Blackhawk quickly became a mouse and crawled beneath the danger, and found a lever on the other side that shut off the clockworks (Once again we got prizes. There was a 1000 GP note, 2 potions of cure serious wounds and some MW crossbow bolts. ) and we were able to go into the room that lay beyond. In it, was some sort of mechanized carriage, perhaps demon powered since the scrying device showed DJDestiny riding in it with a zombie and several dead bodies in the back... We had made it to the final room, hoping we would find both of the princesses , but only one there on a catwalk about 15 feet above the ground, guarded by twelve hobgoblins. DJDestiny's visage appeared on the floor, explaining that we had reached the last room of the first level. I cannot express how very tired I am of hearing her say "If you die, you die." Nasty piece of work. Then music began to play and she commanded the hobgoblins to dance. I will never be able to erase the memory of their dance from my mind. Stephen lost patience quickly and attacked the one closest to us, and I cast an ice storm in the center of the room, being careful to avoid both Stephen and the princess. Six hobgoblins fell to the ground, bleeding, some dead, some mortally wounded. It wasn't long before the rest turned tail and ran, and the "princess" was rescued. She gave us another of the "key cards" and shook our hands. She left and we found that we were sealed in the room. We apparently needed all of the "card keys" to get out, but having not found the last princess, we only had two of them. I gathered the group around me and cast teleport without error. I felt a wrenching sensation, but it did not work. Slowly we searched the room. I became frustrated and began to throw myself against the door that we had entered through. It was only with Raven's stone shape spell that I was able to knock the door down. A very angry party retraced it's steps, but I will leave the rest of this tale to another member of the party to tell, as I am heartsick and weary at the thought of going through it all again.

I have lost all track of time here, but we retraced our steps as quickly as possible since we must continue to compete in order to even have a chance of getting out of this obscene place. We encountered some small resistance in the large hall where we found "princess" Felonie tied to the tree. We had slain only a few of the hobgoblins before, but made short work of the ones that remained, whom we either killed or surrendered. I used the summon swarm spell for the first time there. I can't say I enjoyed the sight of one of our foes being stung to death by centipedes, but it was effective. We stopped at the medic's room since several of us were injured by Elensul's attempt at a time slip. There must be wards against such things here. The medic was a half elf. She knew very little elvish, saying she spent a lot of time in the "Maul"... These evil beasts must make even their children fight for their lives.

We left feeling a bit better and stopped in front of the door we had passed. Stephen noticed that a coated wire was attached to the door knob. Wondering what new deviltry this might be, Blackhawk touched it with the broadsword he had gotten off of one of the hobgoblins. There was an arc of white fire and the sword bubbled black as the top layer of metal melted. I am glad it wasn't one of our hands. I used an open spell to open the door in case there were more traps, but it swung to silently and I could smell chlorine. The room's floor sloped down, and it was full of water, shallow at the end nearest the door, very deep against the wall, which had a 5 foot opening at the bottom. I cast water breathing on my cohorts and we went in. Blackhawk was first through the gap and we could hear his telepathic cry of pain when one of the two sahaugin on the other side connected with his trident. Quickly then, Elensul used his javelin, I stabbed with my long sword, Raven became a tiger shark and bit, Blackhawk stabbed, and so it went, us dealing them far more damage than they dealt us. Soon after one of the lizard men fell, the other surrendered. At the far end of the pool, chained underwater was the third and last princess, Vogue. I went to try to free her, but was embarassed as my strength failed me yet again. Stephen picked the lock, and we all trooped through into the other room. Vogue kissed Stephen and thanked him for rescuing her. I felt an absurd pang of jealousy. She handed him the final card key, we retrieved more envelopes with certificates (my getting the envelope with two 500 GP certificates instead of one assuaged my hurt pride a bit) and we rushed back to the "last" room. As we entered, there was a roar of praise from the crowd, and the no go door blew off it's hinges, leaving a gaping hole. We trooped through, to cheers and applause. A young boy thrust a pad of paper and some odd kind of pen toward Raven and asked for her "Ottograf". She said, "You may have nothing of mine." By the look on his face, he was both surprised and crushed. We were ushered into palatial quarters, and for the first time, caught a glimpse of the landscape outside. It is a desert! And yet, in here it feels cool as a mountain pass in springtime. What manner of place is this, anyway!?

Round 2 Blackhawk

It is a pleasure to be awakened by Stephen’s morning song, to bad we have to face another day of this “crawl”. Our day starts with a briefing by DJ destiny via a scrying screen of our goal for today. She explains that we are to rescue four princesses and collection 4 cards keys. We pay little attention to her while we cast our buffing spells. We start by being again presented with the choice of 2 poles. We decide to take the left and before I start my way down the pole I drop the remains of an apple I was eating down the right exit to see if it opens to the same location.

As we crowd into a small room at the terminus of the pole I notice the apple core has also arrived here. The room is very small and Stephen after some time finds that a even though there are no doors here one of the walls slides away opening us onto a hallway that runs east and west. We travel to the east and to a door at the end of the hall. While checking the door we hear a hissing similar to the rushing of air. Stephen also notices that the door is quite warm. We cast protection spells from fire and open the door.

A wave of hot air greets us as we look out on a large round room. The 150’ diameter room contained a ring of molten rock with a large pedestal rising out of it in the room’s center. A bridge runs over the lava from the doorway we stand at to the pedestal. On the pedestal was one of the princesses hanging in a cage 15 feet above the structure. He is surrounded by 3 skeletons. Above the platform was a large rotating structure that had 3 more burning skeletons hanging upside down by chains attached to their ankles. The whole presentation looked quite comical. Raven starts the battle by casting a quench spell to extinguish the fires and cools the lava. Under the cover of the resulting steam I rush across the bridge and engage the skeletons. They fall quickly as we all practice out hand to bone combat. As we fight the last of the skeletons Élensûl, with Jaden’s help, manage to reach the cage and make his way to the princess. But as the last skeleton is dispatched the cage lowered on its own. The princess did not look in good health and once the cage reached the ground a voice rang out instructing us to hold our position. Bright lights came on the lava calmed and stopped its bubbling. Raven cast a cure moderate on the woman while a team of what I summed to be healers came running in to carry her out. As soon as they left the effects and lighting returned.

We acquired our key card and envelopes with 500gp notes with Jaden receiving a 1000gp note. We were also rewarded with a very finely crafted mace with the name “The Sergeant”. I look forward in using it against a few more skeletons.

Round 2 Continued Jaden

We left the lava room as soon as princess Fire was taken away. Raven thought she had been overcome by the heat, and tried to heal her, but she still looked quite damp and ill when she was wheeled off. We have in our possession one silver key card. Blackhawk carries a new mace, called "the sergeant". I have a $1000 gp note, each of the others, $500. We went down the hallway, stopping for a moment at a room that turned out to be a healer's station. The half-elf girl that we met in our last competition, Jaella Wonderwell, seemed a bit sad that we were not in need of her services. We continued down the hall to a triangular room with dark paneling on it's walls and a mirrored ceiling. At each corner was a statue of a warrior, and in the center, a table covered in green felt and a man sitting there, shuffling cards. Opposite the dealer was a bench. As we sat down, the dealer quickly laid 6 cards in front of us. "Draw one or two." He said. Stephen drew two. The first was a harlequin with DJ Destiny's face. It began to laugh and later, Stephen told us that he had felt the room flip. He had been cursed by Destiny. The second card brought a pack of wargs, one of which sat quietly as the others attacked. She had a jade necklace about her neck. Stephen used a spell he knows to break enchantments, and the curse on him was broken. The warg with the necklace transformed into Princess Mysterie. She presented us with some elvish boots, which we quickly gave to Elensul. We searched the room for doors, but there were none save the no go doors and the ones we came in through. Stephen believed that perhaps the way out lay in another card. I sat down before the dealer, who once more intoned "One or two." as he laid the remaining four cards on the table. Stephen suggested that I take two to expedite matters. I did and ghouls flowed into one door, hobgoblins through the other. We made quick work of them, although Raven was wounded, as was I. We searched the room again, as Blackhawk wasn't sure that we needed to choose more cards, but no new doors had appeared, so Blackhawk chose a card from the remaining two. The dealer announced that we had won an all expense paid trip to Acapulco. A voice came from nowhere, describing cliff diving and warm beaches. It made me think of Carlotta's Cove, and I wondered sadly how the halflings there were getting along. Raven picked up the last card and Deval suddenly raced across the room to cower behind one of the statues. A cold breeze blew through the room as a specter, cloaked and carrying a scythe floated into the room. I saw Raven blanch, and then she began to concentrate on something, likely starting a spell. Stephen and Elensul both struck at the creature, with no effect. I cast flame arrow and hit it twice, also with seemingly no effect. Suddenly a pillar of fire blasted down on the creature, and when it had disappated, the reaper was nowhere to be seen. Raven was shaking with relief and we decided to check around the room again when we noticed the dealer shuffling the entire deck of cards. Obviously, they were not the way out after all... Blackhawk went into the hall and soon found a hidden door. Stephen thought it was probably trapped, so I encouraged the party to move as far back as possible. From around the corner about 30 feet from the door, I cast open. An enormous explosion rocked the party, and when the smoke cleared, the door had been blown completely away, leaving a gaping hole. A bit further, there was another door. On examination, Stephen could find no traps, so we opened it. Inside there was a floor lighted from beneath and flashing different colors. Loud music blared from all around and a mirrored ball spun menacingly from the ceiling. It was very disorienting. There was a treasure chest in the center of the room, and Stephen went to investigate. As he got near it, an eerie wail began. We were all taken aback by the noise, but it paralyzed Stephen. Blackhawk ran toward him and dragged him back to the rest of the party. We wondered if there might be a princess trapped in the box, as the shabby lock and construction didn't look as if it could keep much in or out. Elensul went to investigate, and we warned him to be gentle as a large dark shape fell upon him. Knowing that it might be something we shouldn't kill (maybe even a princess) and not able to tell exactly what he was fighting, Elensul opted to try to subdue rather than kill the whatever it was. After a few moments of pummeling, The music stopped, white lights flared on and a voice said hold. We stopped as a group of soldiers trotted in with a stretcher and retrieved the cloaker, (that's what it was) and left. Obviously this cloaker was another "pet" of the vile folk who have created these tests. A door opened in the wall and once more the envelopes with CRAWL on them. This time Stephen got the $1000 GP note, the rest of us $500. And on we went.

Another hallway, another door. Behind this one we found a room which ascended like a small hill, terminating at the far wall. Atop the hill sat three gnolls with lances, mounted on barkers. At the base of the hill was a lovely horse, armoured and equipped for jousting. I walked over to look at it as Stephen cast a spell to charm the center barker. I eyed the group as Elensul ran up the hill and attacked the gnoll on the left. There was no sign of a princess, and I was eager to move on and get through this level as quickly as possible, so I cast chain lightning, making sure to avoid both Elensul and the charmed barker. Our foes were smoldering wrecks the next moment, and we were given our usual award, I got the $1000 GP note this time, the others $500. I then did something that I know I will regret for some time to come. Thinking that perhaps riding the horse to the top might cause a princess to appear, or reward us in some other way, I leapt into the saddle. I found myself on the ground, the poor beautiful animal blown to bits by some hellish explosion that was triggered by my weight in the saddle. Raven was hurt as well. I nearly wept, shaking my fist in the air and shouting to the people responsible that they were evil beasts. The only comfort I could take was that probably someone else would have been killed or injured in an attempt to ride the horse, and that it would likely have met this untimely demise sooner or later.

Thanking Cymric once more for the stoneskin spell, we traveled along the hall and soon came to another door. We could hear the sounds of a crowd. The door was locked. It didn't appear to be trapped, so Stephen attempted to pick the lock. His tools were bending, so Elensul tried to kick it down. When that didn't work, Blackhawk and I ran at it full speed and managed to knock it off it's hinges. The arena was dimly lit, and there was a smell of decaying flesh. As my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized that there were thousands of webs throughout the room. The stands for the crowd were open to the arena, which I found curious since there was obviously a gigantic spider or drider nearby. My thought was interrupted when a large arrow plunged into the wall beside Blackhawk, and another whizzed past my ear and out the door. Stephen cast light on the barker's tail, and it waved eerily as it crossed toward the center of the arena. I cast a confusion spell up at the ceiling toward where the arrow had come from. Whether it worked or not, I'll probably never know, but no new arrows came from that sector. It was hard to make out what was going on in the room, but Elensul managed to knock the giant black widow out of her web. Blackhawk knocked down an antlike humanoid too, and the melee began in earnest. Stephen sang a song to inspire courage, and Raven produced a flame blade. I shot the spider with flaming arrows. Elensul used his javelin and Stephen his rapier of wounding. We picked away at our foes for a few moments, watching with pleasure as the spider fell over on it's back and curled it's legs up, and the antman crumpled to the ground. We saw some movement up in the end of the stadium and made short work of another of the antmen. A cocoon fell slowly down from the ceiling, and as Raven raced toward it, Princess Azure stepped out holding a gold key card. There was also a beautiful gold and mithril buckler, with the image of one of the local Gods, Apollo, upon it. Blackhawk agreed to carry it after Raven joked that she could turn it to wood so she could carry it... He and I also took the two cure poison potions since Raven and Elensul are immune, and Stephen is close to immune to poison. As we were leaving the arena, I heard a familiar voice in the crowd. "Mister Jaden!" There in the first row was Irving. His (my) retinue had grown to nearly 20 as far as I could see, all holding up placards that bore images of my face. I waved uncertainly as we went by, and the group chanted "That which does not kill us makes us stronger." Shaking my head, I followed my companions from the room.

As we walked down the next hall, I ruminated on how this experience is causing us to function as a team, as opposed to the autonomous collective we've been in the past. If there is a silver lining to this very dark cloud, that is it. We came up to a door and Elensul leaned in to listen. He reported hearing a kind of squelchy wet sound, and when he went to pull away from the door, he was stuck fast. We couldn't figure out whether the door had some kind of glue on it or what, but I believe it was Stephen who used a piece of cloth to wrap a blade and try to slip it between Elensul's ear and the door, and the cloth got stuck tight too. Stephen shot magic missiles from the wand at the door and it quivered. When Elensul tried to pull away, a pseudopod popped out and hit him hard enough to stun him a little. Now that we knew that the door was actually some kind of creature, we attacked it as such. I cast fear on it, but it did not seem to be affected. Raven created a flaming blade, and Blackhawk set the edge of the door on fire with some oil. This only seemed to make it angry, and Elensul, stuck fast, indicated that he was not fond of that plan. He tried again to escape and this time was able to pull free, leaving a bit of his skin behind. We then peppered the thing with magic missiles, flame arrows, regular arrows and Raven's flame blade and Elensul's javelin eventually did it in. It crumpled and became a puddle of muscular flesh that Blackhawk identified as a "mimic". The now open doorway led into a hall which terminated in a triangular room. When we opened the door, a giant Ogre in plate mail and holding a huge sword came into view. Elensul, bold as always tried a flurry of blows against our foe, but they mostly glanced off of it's armor. Raven entered the room with her flame blade and the creature took a hard swing at her, knocking her down. This angered me greatly and I hit it with a bolt of lightning. Smoldering, the ogre still stood, but Stephen used his rapier of piercing and Blackhawk and Elensul picked away at it with arrows and fists. Soon the massive form slumped to the floor. We searched his body and found a necklace with a talisman that I was chosen to carry, and on the back of his shield, an ingenious strap with vials of liquid. They held 3 cure moderate wounds and 3 endurance potions. One vial, seperate from the others, was without markings. There was a magic ring, huge enough almost to be a bracelet, a magic cloak, tentlike, and magic boots. The armor and shield were beautifully made, but way too large for any of us. We were examining the paintings on the walls of the room, one a beautiful lady, one a leaping tiger, when Blackhawk suggested he polymorph into an ogre so we could carry them with us for a while...

Raven was talking to the tiger door, and Blackhawk made the decision to polymorph into an ogre so he could use all of the equipment we had just liberated.Stephen searched both the tiger door and the lady door for traps. finding none, we proceeded into the tiger door. Through it was a large room, white marble and gold, and in the centre, a beautiful fountain with a sculptured tiger playing in the water. Raven talked to the statue, with no effect, while the rest of us investigated the room. We noticed that the fountain's pool was filled with a variety of coins, and thought maybe taking them out would cause the tiger to come to life. We decided that we weren't that desperate for money, and Raven and I went to investigate the lady room. The others followed and as we opened the lady door, a throwing axe flew out of it. Inside the room were two orcs (female?) dressed in armor with silk veils attached. With Blackhawk's new and improved size and bastard sword, Elensul's flurries of blows and an ice storm, the first was dispatched. The second attacked me and I was able to try Ragsdale's Bitchslap, a spell from the "vending machine" in the giftshop. I will buy more as it was most effective. Elensul began to punch it and it dropped like a stone. We were awarded 200 gp notes, with an extra 200 in my envelope. Both Stephen and I had been hurt in the combat, so took a moment to heal ourselves and went on through the tiger room, checking for motion, and down the hall. One of the doors led to a healer, Huckabee by name, but we didn't feel that we needed his services, so we went to the next door, which was free of traps and we opened it. It was a very large room with high beamed ceilings. There was a wooden floor with stripes painted on it, a semi-circle at one end and a hoop with a net hanging from it a little over halfway up the wall. Around the room, there were 5 goblins in shirts with numbers on them. Blackhawk had a brief scuffle with one, but when it looked like they might dance, Raven became impatient and cast firestorm in the room. The goblins fled quickly through the no go door. We walked into the room to check it out. The floor was still smoking, so we were careful. No amount of care on our part prepared us for the two figures that dropped from the ceiling on stretchy cords though. One hit Stephen in the head with a bat, and another attacked Raven. She hit it with her flame blade and Elensul and I took on the one that had hurt Stephen. Blackhawk shot the one that had attacked Raven and eventually the two goblins shot back up to the ceiling and vanished. A bell rang and once again we were awarded CRAWL envelopes, these containing 500 gp notes, except R which had the extra 500. We also got a "billiard entertainment center" whatever that is, and a divine scroll that removes blindness, curses and disease. We talked for a moment about what to do next, and fearing that we would repeat our mistake and miss a princess, went back to the tiger room. Blackhawk tied up the tiger statue and Elensul and I got into the pool. Elensul spotted a grate in the floor of the pool which contained a trunk. Elensul couldn't open it with brute strength, so I cast reduce on it. Immediately the water began to boil and we were both badly scorched. We still needed to find out what was in the trunk, so Stephen cast knock on it and it opened. Inside was a certificate for a tropical cruise (like our "manager" is going to let us go anywhere) and a 2000 gp note. Frustrated, we went back down to the goblin and basket room and out the door. As we stepped out, glitter began to fall from the ceiling, and a voice said "don't go away mad". Princess Success floated down from the ceiling and handed us the bronze key.

Elensul listened at the next door, careful not to touch it with his ear... Stephen checked for traps, noting only that the key hole seemed larger than it should be. Some of the ogre personality must have been infecting Blackhawk, because he suddenly charged at the door and hurled his entire weight at it. He was stung by a number of thick steel needles which must have contained a potent toxin as he couldn't move or speak well after they pierced him. He took a potion of neutralize poison, but of course the effects that were immediate remained for some time, making him slow and clumsy even for an ogre. The door fared less well, it was bent so that it was an easy task for Elensul and I to remove it from it's solid metal frame. The floor and walls were reinforced steel in this hallway as well, and at the end, an immensly heavy door. After checking for traps, Stephen opened it. The room was covered in tile, and at the far end, Princess Passion was caged atop a small platform. Stephen sent in his barker and we braced the door open, feeling sure that the small holes in the ceiling were likely a method of dispensing water, or perhaps poison. I then made a gross error in judgement when I used "I can't believe it's not teleport" and took myself into the cage with the princess. I found much to my dismay, that there was some kind of anti-magic zone in the cage and neither Rary's telepathic bond or teleport worked from there. We wasted a lot of time trying to bend the cage's bars and trip whatever mechanism was in the door without being locked in, but finally gave up and let it lock. The room began to fill with water. A vile looking beast (a Chewl, it turns out) dropped from the ceiling, splashing the princess, who looked none too pleased. I offered her my cloak to dry off with and we began to fight the abberation. Elensul's spear found it's mark, then I shot it with a crossbow bolt. Stephen activated the wand of magic missiles and the beastie began to make a noise somewhere between a scream and a roar. Blackhawk hit it with his bastard sword, and it made a noise like an elephant trumpeting. Stephen's barker went to bite it and was ripped limb from limb. Poor creature, but it did allow us to see what kind of power our foe possessed. Elensul jumped into the water and speared the chewl, and it curled it's claws and tentacles up and died. The princess handed me a steel key and a compartment opened up, with the familiar CRAWL envelopes inside. Each contained a 1000 gp note, Raven got an extra 500gp. There was also a beautifully crafted suit of leather armor, a certificate for a dining room set and armoire worth 16,000 gp and a wand of mage armor, which Stephen found it necessary to secret away in his boot. I was very confused by this behavior, but once we were away from the crowd, he kindly passed it on to me. It will come in handy I'm sure. Once we had emptied the safe, there was a flash and an explosion and once again, we went through a hole into a swarm of well wishers and people asking us questions. Someone thrust a bouquet of red roses at Raven, saying we had the best time for the level. And so we will advance. Stephen was in no mood and pushed through the crowd, a grim expression on his face. A man with a padded stick shouted to me, "Where are you from?" I pushed the stick away and yelled back "Ardania". Some of the people began to write furiously and we quickly fled to our rooms. Respectfully submitted by Maxfield Jaden Fox

It was hard to go back to the XCrawl game after being free of it for two days, but I'm embarrassed to admit, I am beginning to enjoy thwarting DJDestiny and our "manager" by staying alive and by killing so many of their minions. When we were taken to the location of Crawl level three, we were surprised to find that it was housed in a completely different building. Instead of the false stone and metal that the other levels were made of, this one seems to be real stone. As we entered the building, a storm of flashing lights erupted, and the padded sticks that so many of the people here seem to carry were thrust in our faces. We were introduced to local nobles and important people. We were not impressed. Raven, Stephen and I were the chosen targets of what are called "reporters", the pathetic folk who bring the news of this barbaric sport to the masses. The reporters asked Stephen about his performance at the Kamakaze lounge a few nights ago. The odd scrying screens showed him playing, perhaps by a time warp spell? It matters not. He has become quite popular with young women, if the screaming hoards shown on the screen are any indication. The person who spoke with Raven was very intrusive, asking about her love life. If she knew anything about Raven, she would have known that even those of us closest to her know little about that aspect of her existence. The "reporter" who talked to me asked me about my "fan club". I guess that's what they call the strange band of adolescent followers I have acquired. He also asked me how I would answer allegations that I am an "unlicensed magic user" and accused us of not being Guild members! He has no idea how lucky he is that at that moment the "referee" pushed them and the rest of the crowd out of the building. DJDestiny appeared on one of the scrying screens and said, "Well done. You may be heroes, but are not yet champions. You must now retrieve the sun, moon and star keys from princesses Victory, Electra, and Janet. The princesses flashed up on the screen, Victory and Electra dancing in a very suggestive manner, and Janet, hanging back and looking very frightened. A spotlight hit the door, and with "If you die, you die," echoing behind us, the door opened and we once more approached two poles. As has been our wont, we chose to descend the same pole. This one was much longer than the others had been, perhaps a hundred feet or more. We ended up in a small room. There was only one door out, so Stephen checked it for traps after Elensul and Blackhawk listened at it. There was a trap mechanism in the door knob, which Stephen couldn't disable. As he tried, we heard a grinding noise and I looked up to see that the high ceiling was coming down. After a few abortive attempts at opening the door, Stephen used oil of knock on it and it opened in the nick of time. As we walked into the room, the first thing we saw was a scrying screen with a hypnotic pattern on it. Blackhawk was enraged by it for some reason and went charging at it with his sword drawn. When he made contact with it, there was a horrible acrid burning smell and Blackhawk was flung across the room by an unseen force. Bugbears appeared around the room and after a brief battle, all but one were killed. The last one raised it's hands in surrender. We took the familiar envelopes out of the opening in the wall and again found 500gp notes. The C had an extra 500. There was also a full set of "magic golf clubs" After a brief debate about the nature of golfs, what they might look like if these clubs were used to kill them, etc. Blackhawk, still full of blood lust threw them across the room at the screen. He then picked up the wounded bugbear and flung it at the door. Stephen took pity on the thing and bound it's wounds. It really was quite pathetic. He then opened the door and we found a hallway with two doors. The first was a healer's room, which Blackhawk took advantage of since both his encounter with the screen and the bugbears had dealt him damage. We went to the next door and could hear a wind howling on the other side. Was it possible that they would actually let us outside? Stephen checked for traps and opened the door, which creaked very loudly. The room was dimly lit, gloomy and grey. The floor was covered with earth that sloped up toward the far wall. In the center of the room was a gallows, a corpse swinging lazily from the rope. The ground was covered with tombstones, tilting at odd angles and in disrepair. Stephen cast light on his rapier as ghouls erupted from the ground. Nasty, slimy things they were, too. Raven cast flame blade, Blackhawk shot some arrows and Elensul tried Saba's spear. I didn't want to risk the ghouls actually making contact with my family, so I cast chain lightning. All but two of the ghouls crumpled. Those two were quickly dealt with but then we noticed with dismay that the figure hanging from the gallows had reanimated and was struggling to free itself from the noose. I cast a flame arrow at it but it dissolved without doing damage. The creature must have had magic resistance. Slowly but surely though, it was worn down by rapier, arrows, spear and sword. We defeated it, and we were rewarded by more envelopes, these containing 2000gp each and the letter R an extra 500.

I forgot to mention that each of us also won a "subscription" to Lamp and Dagger Magazine. I saw some of these "magazines" in the gift shop. They are like books, only with soft covers, and they are painted in such a masterful fashion that the items and creatures depicted look almost alive. I am sad that this gift will likely not make it's way to Bliss, as I find the technique quite intriguing... There was a door at the top of the hill and after listening and checking for traps, Elensul elected to open it. We came into a large room with a high vaulted ceiling. More of the scrying screens were on the wall and some kind of mournful hooting music was playing. We looked up and saw a large crowd assembled in a high crows nest-like affair, behind glass, as usual. At the far end of the room stood two horrible 3 legged insect creatures, about 8 feet tall with round bodies and gaping mouths full of razor sharp teeth. Raven conjured a flame blade, Stephen attacked with his rapier, I threw a fire ball, and Elensul and Blackhawk attacked with fists and arrows. In a matter of moments, the creatures curled their sickly legs to their bodies and expired. I heard a collective groan from the crowd. Had they wanted the creatures to win? Stephen had been bitten, but seemed little the worse for wear. A compartment in the wall opened and we were awarded free meals at the Kangaroo Chop Restaurant for a year and a day, along with CRAWL envelopes containing 1000gp notes and an extra 500 in the W one. We went to the only door out of the room, where Elensul listened and Stephen checked for traps as Blackhawk checked for hidden doors. Stephen picked the lock and we entered a long corridor. Once at the door, Stephen and Elensul checked and reported hearing a horrible screeching sound on the other side. We entered warily what appeared to be a school room. There was a necromancer at the desk, a screen that showed an absentee list with our names on it and 8 desks that held 8 "students". I cast Rary's telepathic bond on the group and Stephen sprinted to the front of the classroom. The "teacher" Gil Finch, hit his non-com badge and disappeared as we heard Stephen say "oh, shit," inside of our heads. The student's heads flew off and began to fly around the room. Raven hit one with her flame blade and it collapsed. Wondering if I was wasting a powerful spell on weak opponents, I followed my instinct and cast chain lightning on the remaining creatures and reduced them to cinders. The lights dimmed in the room and the screen lit up again, showing an unfortunate orc tied to a chair. DJDestiny's voice was heard, describing the action. Apparently the orc had been bitten by a Varghoul, the thing we had just fought. We watched in horror as the orc writhed, twitched and ultimately became a varghoul himself. At the end of the projection, DJDestiny began to talk about how to reverse the affects of a varghoul attack, but as she began to state the remedy, the screen went dark and the machine that seemed to be responsible for the projection burst into flames. It was apparent to us that if one of us had been bitten, we would have been helpless. That the bitch would pretend to give the remedy to some poor adventurer and then at the last moment, not, is only more proof of her ruthlessness. I hope to kill her before we go. As usual there was a compartment with envelopes containing 500gp notes. The letter R had an additional 500gp in it. There was also a certificate for 5000gp worth of tattoos from "Insidious Ink". Elensul seemed mildly interested in it, not that we will have a chance to redeem it... We went down another corridor which diverged. There were two doors, we chose the closest. A referee appeared and told us that we had reached the Fighter's challenge and that only one of us could participate. Elensul volunteered and we watched as he was assailed by a machine shooting clay pigeons. Darts also came down from the ceiling, but he managed to avoid any major injury. He made his way to the machine and attempted to break it, but it must have been very strongly constructed because he was unsuccessful. Confetti rained down and a number 10 came up in lights. The whole thing seemed meaningless to all of us, most of all to Elensul. He came out disgusted and we went to the other door. Once Stephen ascertained that there were no traps, we entered a familiar seeming room, triangular, with a card table, a hooded and cloaked dealer and statues. The statues were in odd unflattering poses. One was a wizard, holding a pouch and wearing a look of surprise and dismay. One was a fighter with his shield hanging loose from his arm. The third was a thief, stepping on a broken plate. A menacing hiss came from the figure with the cards. I heard Elensul inside of my head, suggesting that we flee. We carefully left the room, we think a basilisk or medusa might have hidden behind those robes... We headed back down the hall and came to two doors, standing opposite one another. Guarding one was a nasty looking ogre with an oversized halberk. Stephen approached it and asked, "May we pass?" The ogre said, "You may not enter the door behind me." Stephen, at his most intimidating, said,"If you know what's good for you, you'd better leave before we kill you." The ogre didn't answer and I heard Stephen chanting a charm monster spell in his head, but to no effect. "Come on, let us pass." Stephen said...

We fought our way past the ogre and came through the door into a huge auditorium. DJDestiny's voice described the small town set, which included a post office, library, halfling restaurant, fire station and more. She informed us that there was only one trap, but that it was a "doozy" whatever that is, and directed our attention to princess Janet, suspended from the ceiling in a giant hour glass. Apparently Janet had been convicted of treason and sentenced to death. If we could find the hour glass talisman somewhere in the town, her sentence would be commuted to life in prison. If we could not find it, she would suffocate beneath the sand which would pour into the hourglass when we began to search. I cast Rary's on the party so we could communicate if we had to split up. Elensul noticed that the doors of the post office and library faced each other, and he and I agreed that that could make searching two buildings at once easier. The decision was made and Blackhawk used his polymorph feat for the first time in a few days, becoming a red dragon. He flew Elensul, Stephen and I up to the library and post office corner of the arena. Raven, still in cat form, leapt up by her own power. Stephen opened the rather flimsy door of the post office and was greeted by a black, obviously magical darkness. He stepped through it into a bright room. A wizard was standing there, beginning to cast a spell. Stephen encouraged him to surrender or die, and he hit a teleport badge and vanished. As there was nothing of interest in the post office, Stephen prepared to go to another building. Meanwhile, Elensul and I looked into the library. The lock on the door was easily picked, and Elensul saw a library set, with false books on shelves. At the back of the library, on a very high shelf, was the hour glass talisman! What was the liklihood that it would be in the second room we searched? I'll bet DJDestiny was not at all pleased that we found it so quickly... About that time, Elensul noticed that the floor was covered with sand and it suddenly swirled into the air, making a choking, inpenetrable cloud. Elensul would not be thwarted, however, and stepped into the room. He detected some sort of sleep spell, but it had no affect on him. He threw Saba at the wall where he had seen hour glass. I was preparing to go and help Stephen, but then there was a flash of bright light, a thunder clap, a shrill scream, a bestial cry. After a moment, Saba returned to Elensul, smoking, but humming happily. That could only mean that it had connected with something evil. He asked that I stay and assist him... He moved farther into the room and saw two red glowing points of light. I fired a crossbow bolt at the area where the hour glass was, but failed to hit it. Raven showed up about then, and prepared a flame strike, feeling that whatever was guarding the hour glass was powerful and dangerous enough to risk any residual damage that the party might take in the aftermath. As she saw the eyes, she cast this incredibly destructive spell. Blackhawk, outside of the library, was injured quite badly. The room cleared immediately and we could see that the talisman had been destroyed. The hour glass that held Janet burst open and we went down to greet her. She was shaky and relieved as she handed us the sun key. The no go door opened to admit armed guards. She leaned forward and said, "I hope you are ready, the path has been laid for you." The guards chained her and led her away, her death sentence commuted to a life sentence. How I longed to rescue her as she walked bravely out of the auditorium. After Stephen healed Blackhawk, in the ubiquitous compartment, we found a 1500GP note, a scroll of divine magic, an Elvish make short bow (named the "Down Towner") with a magically enhanced scope and a certificate for a crate of Doc Malone's Serf board wax. This surprised us, since the people here tend to treat servants badly... Puzzling that they would want to do something to make their boards nicer. Raven was given the scroll and I was given the bow. Blackhawk has been very unlucky when it came to the CRAWL envelopes, so Stephen handed him the 1500 GP note, and action we all endorsed. We briefly considered searching the rest of the room, but discarded the idea and once more moved down the hall. The next door was inspected and Elensul reported hearing a sound like rain. Sure enough, when we went in, it was raining from the ceiling and there was a narrow path like a trough that was collecting the water as it fell. On the path was a troll, larger than Vrusk, but with the same barbed wire piercings. (He turned out to be Vrusk Sr.) We found quickly that flame spells did not work, so Elensul tumbled over and began to beat on the troll. Stephen used his rapier and the troll was not happy. He hit Stephen hard with his huge spiked chain and I was sure Stephen was a goner. Raven cast heat metal on the troll, and slowly the chain and the barbed wire piercings began to heat up. I shot off some magic missiles and Blackhawk hit the troll with multiple arrows as Elensul continued to pummel him. Stephen hit again with his rapier of piercing. By now the troll was bleeding profusely, but still strong enough to do severe damage to Stephen. Raven used her opportunity to heal Stephen, and when Elensul hit the troll again, he crumpled to the ground. Through the rain, we could see princess Electra in a cage. She gave us the moon key, thanked us for rescuing her and left. The rain shut off suddenly, and sodden, we trudged to the compartment that had opened, revealing the CRAWL envelopes. Each held a 500 gp note, and C had an extra 500gp. There was also a double bladed sword, "Seattle Slew", a potion of cure serious wounds and a potion of water breathing.

We went out into a corridor. After Stephen checked the door at the end of it for traps, Elensul and Blackhawk listened to ascertain what might be waiting on the other side. They reported that some kind of tinny music was playing. We opened the door and found something very odd... A giant nursery, replete with huge blocks, plush toys and a giant Kobald baby in a diaper. Blackhawk's keen eye picked out a non-com badge on the large tot immediately. It seemed like any other small child, following us as we swept through the room, saying "Toy". We all tried to appease it in our turn, giving it toys from the room. Nothing worked and we tried to leave, the lumbering toddler following us through the door. Blackhawk gave it a mace. It threw it against the wall. I did a little prestidigitation, juggling some glowing orbs, but although the tot was amused, it continued to beg "Toy." One item after another was tried and rejected. Frustrated, I began to pry open the blocks. Inside each one was a normal sized Kobald, armed and cranky. The baby gave a big smile, a trickle of drool running down it's chin. "Brudder!" it exclaimed. On observation, I found that the block had a latch on the inside, and we surmised that had we injured the baby, the blocks would have popped open, disgorging a small army of Kobalds. Finally, I pulled out my spellbook and asked "Toy?" The baby's face lit up and it affirmed "Toy!" Realizing that the babe wanted something magical, Blackhawk gave it one of his enchanted arrows. Delighted, it ran about the room stabbing stuffed animals. The small compartment opened next to the door, assurance that we had passed yet another test. CRAWL envelopes, 500gp each, with an extra 500 in the C. A gift certificate for 1000gp at the Imperial Infant Baby Store (They sell babies?!) and a case of Blurber's strained carrots... Baby Snookums was a delight compared to most of the XCrawl challenges, but we were not sad to move on. I can't speak for my cohorts, but the smell of pablum was making me dizzy.

The next room was a bit more challenging, a cavern with stinging plants against the walls... Our solution was to dash straight down the middle of the cave, avoiding the outer edges. Thus only Stephen was bitten.

The next door was trapped, but handily disabled by Stephen and we were met by a most disgusting sight. A big dance hall, billowing clouds of smoke or steam, and more of Destiny's nasty dancing goblins. But wait, one of the goblins looked familiar. It was bandaged and rather scorched. A look of sheer terror passed over it's face, it shrieked and ran towards it's friends, gabbling something to them. As one, they darted to the nogo door and disappeared. I began to laugh as I saw an ogre, dressed as a girl, look around, find himself alone, and panic and run out the nogo door too. Our reputation doth precede us.

Down another corridor, we saw one of the scrying screens. DJ Destiny was watching, her lovely face twisted into a grimace. I do not think she expected us to get this far. She announced to Stephen that this was the Rogue's challenge. Sure enough, the door had six locks on it and Stephen's objective was to pick them. He confidently disabled traps and picked three of the locks, but the others eluded him. Frustrated, he asked Elensul to try and between the two of them, they managed to get the door open.

Before us, we saw another door, the last door. Images of death and pain were carved over the face of it, and in the alcoves on either side of it, Gnomes with the now familiar black boxes on their shoulders. I can only guess that these boxes are somehow connected to the scrying devices. Stephen checked the massive door for traps and finding none, we entered to an explosion of crowd noise. The room appeared to be huge, based on the echoes of the crowd, but it was hard to tell because it was quite dark, and a thick fog obscured the far end of the stadium. A bright light focused on us and then another toward the end of the room. Gods and angels! A red dragon's head appeared in the fog, and another, and another! Then we heard DJDestiny say, "...But you know this group needs a bigger challenge". Horrified, we watched as the light revealed another head, and another, and another... Soon the main lights in the room came on and revealed, a hydra. I was almost relieved, as one slow moving, ten headed beast seemed much preferable to ten red dragons. Princess Victory was sitting behind the monster, which indicated to us that this was indeed the last room of level three and soon we would be going home, one way or another. All of us were more eager than ever to defeat this foe, since Janet's assurance that a path was ready for us. Raven struck first, casting a powerful quenching spell. The hydra roared in pain and frustration. Elensul hit it with Saba, I hit it with an ice storm, Blackhawk shot it, Raven cast chill metal and I cast chain lightning. The creature lurched forward, shaking the room as it fell. Wild applause broke out in the crowd, and into the room, trundled the Vindicator, pulled on a sledge by a team of horses. The princess came toward us, DJDestiny striding alongside. How we had waited for this moment! Princess Victory handed us the stars key and a 5000gp note. (Also a bar tab certificate for 500gp to Pilsner and Hell's Tavern... I doubt that we'll be using it.) As Destiny reached us, our collars (and Stephen's codpiece) popped off, affirming that we had indeed finished our unholy task.

Banners unfurled from the ceiling and one in particular caught our eye. Flying Fox Movers, it proclaimed. As we looked, the sign above the nogo door let loose and spun, then dropped. We thought we saw a small dog looking out of the door at us. Everything seemed to move very quickly then. Stephen cast a charm monster spell on Destiny to make her come with us. I'll admit I was itching to wrap my hands around her throat, but it didn't work. He began then to sing a greater song of peace. The princess liked it very much but it was unclear if anyone else was affected since we were now running full speed toward the nogo door. We crashed through it and saw a small fox looking at us, as if urging us to follow it. We did, and found ourselves in a room full of lockers. All of our property, taken from us, (could it be only a week before?) was there, intact. We grabbed it quickly, and were leaving as we heard a voice we recognized. Gresivious snarled, "Where do you think you're going? It is a capital crime to use magic here if you're not a guild member. The authorities have been summoned." The small fox whined to get our attention and near some old laundry carts, began to scratch at the floor. A door! We followed him into a brightly lit room where a man dressed in short pants said, "Crikey, what's that?" Through a big warehouse style door, there was a huge crowd, more gnomes with "cameras", furniture and a sign proclaiming "Relics Roadshow." The fox ran to one of the tables and disappeared. A man was standing behind the table and we heard Stephen's thought, "I think that's the monk I saw at Spruce Bluff!" We headed toward him, but Blackhawk, possessed by who knows what daemon, grabbed for some merchandise on an old man's table as we went by. The old man's viselike grip surprised Blackhawk, and he was unable to break free for a moment. The old man began to yell for security, as if it were something he could summon. With a mighty wrench, Blackhawk freed himself and joined the rest of us. The man Stephen recognized was wearing dark glasses with a price tag hanging from them. On the table in front of him were and odd assortment of goods, primitive woven baskets and moccasins, carved pipes and bowls, and in the middle of the table a mace. It was so unlike the other items, that I thought it must be a clue, I picked it up and started to ask it's price when I heard a clap of thunder and saw a bright flash like I had been hit by a bolt of lightning. When I recovered, with Stephen's help, the man said, "Oh, there you are. I was waiting for you." He looked at me with concern. "Did your friend try to pick up the mace?" I shook my head. "He doesn't like that."

With a touch Jaden was revived and lifted to his feet. The fox that led us here seemed to shimmer and transform into a large, but skinny feral dog with an amused look on its face. Our benefactor swirled a cloak of raven feather’s about us and we were taken away from this evil land. A gentle voice told us that this was not the first time it had done such a thing as this.