From the diary of Silvan the Dryad Session date: 21.12.2003 I've been thinking of the demon magic we were taught. At first, I felt repulsed by the thought of using magic related only to fire and corruption, but lately I've been rethinking this. Perhaps demonic magic could also be used to more creative purposes - after all, new races have been created using it. Could the corruptive power of it not be used to instead improve existing beings? It is with this in mind that I've began practicing demonic magic, using it to improve already existing beings. It's best to start out simple - I've decided to try boosting some ladybugs to the next level of evolution. ***** We returned to the city. It was getting pretty late. We went to the better inn to eat. It was pretty empty. We went to Master's Place and slept. Then we woke up, surprise surprise. We ate and headed for the mage school. Somebody who either was undead or had a very bad case of a flue came towards us. He said Lord Wiltshire had requested us to visit. It was urgent, and he wanted to see us today. We visited Tonica. She was resting in a bed, her right hand missing. She apologized for not being able to rise and greet us, but thanked us for our help. Due to the demon magic used in attacking her, life magic could not be used to completely heal her. She'd heard that we were traveling towards Aleandor over the orcish lands, and also that we'd learned demonic magic, she asked if we could join us. Her missing hand made traveling using teleportation impossible. After discussing magic courses, we went to talk with the Master and asked if he could get us into the local training courses. He said he could get us 60% off a course. We told the Master about Lord Wiltshire's invitation. The Master advised against it, since Wiltshire's holdings might be confiscated by the crown for not supplying troops to the aid of the city. He told us to be careful if we did. After discussing magic for a while, we went to the mage school and signed up for basic courses - Life for me, Conjuration for Buran, and Light for Longfoot. We saw a notice saying that there'd be an award ceremony this evening. It had a list of names for people who'd do well to be present, and it included us. Buran went back to the mage school to nitpick on our names. We reached Wiltshire Keep. The guards admitted us in, and we entered. The keep really looked like an undead keep - there were burning torches and closed windows inside, even though it was a sunny day outside. We were led to a waiting room. We waited. Hylas Nocturne the half-elf entered. He was the ruler of this keep, and the one who'd asked us here. Wiltshire had stepped aside from ruling this keep. Nocturne's unholy mission for us was to demand guarantees from us that we wouldn't tell the Master anything about the unholy mission in question. He told us that he was the one who'd tried to get us killed via the thieves guild, but now the price for killing us was too high, and he preferred to hire instead. He had a mission that he wanted carried out on the orc side ASAP. He wanted us to go to the orc side and clean out a mine before the orcs would, but he wouldn't tell us more before he had our agreement. We agreed. We also made a deal to get Longfoot's ring removed. We also got the undead a week's worth of training with 50 sp. We were led to a hall with several people present, including Verner the Jolly Good Dwarf. Nocturne didn't want to tell us the names of everybody involved, but mentioned that one of them was a translator. The Wiltshire Keep had been built on an ancient library, a library which predated the mortal colonization of Karya. The library on the orcish side had an incalculable value, with information regarding the First Age of Godkind. Sometime next week, the orcs intend to hold an auction for this information, which is when everybody'll find out about it. For this reason, we were sent to the library before that to copy the information contained within. As soon as the elves would hear of the library, Nocturne was sure, they would attempt to take it from the orcs. After making the deal with The Great Nocturno, we went to sell Longfoot's ring, which we got sold for 1½ gold. Then we went to The Greato Awardo Ceremo-nyo. The Queen was awake again, giving medals and nominations for the officers. Galileo had gotten a position as the Queen's advisor, and the last advisor had been revealed as a demon doppelgangster who'd slowly been poisoning the Queen. A great number of infiltrator demons had been sentenced to death. One of the leading demons, Juliena, had not been sentenced to death, since the crown thought they might have some use for her in the future. The ceremony slowly ended without our names ever been mentioned, when a royal messenger came to tell us that the prince wanted to talk with us. We followed him and were taken to the palace. The prince was in a very dark room. He was grateful for being rescued. We were given a royal letter of service, which would given us the right to request any service we wanted from the crown, after which he dismissed us. We talked about exchanging the letter of service for equipment. Eventually, we headed out for the orc lands together with Wiltshire's party. We crossed the orcish bridge. Wiltshire gave the orcs a purse of money, and they let us pass. On the next gate, Wiltshire gave them a new purse of money, and they, too, let us pass. We traveled through the orc lands, and at one point Wiltshire said we'd been noticed. We began to run, hoping to get to the more forested parts of the land before they reached us. Most of us didn't do very well, though - we're no distance runners, it seems. The orcs reached us and we killed them. We then carried them to a nearby orc burial ground and dumped the bodies there. We found orcish writing there, and Longfoot & The Magnificient Undead dechipered it together. The grave had some of the Slaver Clan's elders, and a warning saying that should they rise from the dead, their descendants would pay the price. We continued onwards. To avoid detection by some guards, we crashed and rumbled into the nearby forest. One of the orc guards began to approach, and Wiltshire told us not to move while he tried to take care of it. He stalked to it and killed it pretty quietly. When the second orc tried to do something, Wiltshire went and finished it as well. We hid the bodies in the bushes. I and Wiltshire noticed that there were people coming out of the mine. Wiltshire told our undead to pretend that he was a guard, figuring it was too dark for the orcs to notice anything. One of the orcs, apparently the leader, swore that they hadn't gotten past the second door. They'd tried every possible number, but to no avail. Half of the men had died. The leader asked the undead tough questions, after which Wiltshire attacked him when the leader began to go back to check things. The orcish leader was slain. We entered the dig. // /loading dungeon graphics... done /loading dungeon sounds... done /loading dungeon monsters... done ------------------------- DUNGEON: THE ORCISH DIG ------------------------- We found two chambers. There were dead orcs lying on the ground in the first chamber, apparently burned to death. In the second chamber, some orcs were discussing something by torchlight. "So the first seals have been opened," Wiltshire commented. The orcs in the second chamber were speaking out lists of numbers, first in Orcish, then in Old Human. The chambers had paintings on the walls. Wiltshire asked us what we thought we ought to do, kill the orcs or try to take them alive. We had no real answers for him. Wiltshire raised some of the dead orcs from the dead, and had them attack the enemy orcs. The enemy orcs were slain. After that, Wiltshire reported that there seemed to only be one instruction for opening the main door: in the human tongue, speak out the number of gods. The writing on the wall said "the one who says it wrong, is already dead in my eyes". Verner managed to get some information off the dungeon walls. After studying it, we considered the riddle and decided that thirteen might be a good answer. Wiltshire said it, and apparently it was the right answer, and the gates opened. In the next chamber we found three doors. There was a list of names of the gods - Galileus and Abram among them, and the ice god missing -, and a number of riddles above the doors. "We don't need a container (4 names)." "I'm responsible for this place (1 name)." "We're responsible for souls (2 names)." [indechiperable] (8 names) We guessed Tamaol, Ulenlan, Tundas, and Lorenlan for the first riddle. The list seemed to be correct, for the door opened. The place looked like a living chamber with equipment on the shelves. Our expert tried going and saying Watcher for the second riddle, but apparently it wasn't the right one. Then Lord Wiltshire went to the door and, by our advice, suggested Galileus. The door opened to the third chamber.