CH37
Amity, Giles, Godfrey and Jordan all arrive in the same location just as the spell intended.
Everything was pitch black and they presently had no way of knowing where they were. Amity decided to cast a spell so they could see where they were.
Light spell - This spell causes an object to glow like a torch, shedding bright light in a 20-foot radius (and dim light for an additional 20 feet) from the point you touch. The effect is immobile, but it can be cast on a movable object.
Amity had cast the spell on a coin she had taken out of her pocket, since it allowed her to throw the coin later if the need arose.
"The ceiling is still ruff, while the floor and walls have been worked. No obvious doors and no markings obviously evident. Clearly there is a way into this room." Giles offers while the four of them look around.
"Got something?" Godfrey offers, as he kneels on the floor in the middle of the room. "No traps detected." Godfrey adds and depresses a small section of the brick in the floor. And they all watch as a section of the floor depress and slides away, exposing a metal circular staircase leading down.
"It is softly lit." Godfrey adds. Getting Amity to put her coin away plunging them into darkness until their eyes adapted to the soft light.
Godfrey was first down the stairs with Giles bringing up the rear. Godfrey was counting steps to himself to judge the depth they were going down.
The stairs ended in a 15' x 20' room made of stone. It was similar to the room upstairs however in this case there was a double wide door made of stone with a very large skeleton sitting on the floor, still dressed in a piece of metal breastplate with a very large and long sword in his lap.
Godfrey with Jordan right behind him had only just reached the floor with the skeleton rose with his weapon in his hand.
Godfrey only saw a blur as Jordan suddenly went past him and threw two punches with his fists and ended with a round house kick shattering the skeleton into multiple little pieces.
Jordan was a man of peace and didn't attack anyone for any reason. Jordan just shrugs his shoulders. "Undead have no right to exist. … They don't count." Jordan tells Godfrey, who only smiled.
"Hhhmm, standard stone door with a locking mechanism. … Stupidly simple needle trap. …. The door is now unlocked." And Godfrey steps aside.
Getting Amity and Giles to nod their head as Amity pulled out her mace to attack anyone with as necessary. Watching Jordan open one of the two doors towards them.
The room beyond was also dimly lit. Coming out the now open door were two more skeletons just like the first one.
Amity allowed the first one to enter into the room allowing the second to follow in behind the first one, and swung her mace and hit the first one shattering it into multiple little pieces.
Mace of Disruption - A weapon of disruption is the bane of all undead. Any undead creature struck in combat is destroyed. A weapon of disruption must be a bludgeoning weapon.
Jordan promptly did to the second one what he did to the first one while attacking from a flanking position.
"Looks like we are in the right place." Jordan comments, not yet impressed by the dangers and hoping he had no reason to be impressed.
This lead to another room of identical size as the previous room, however in addition to the stone double door on the far side, there were single stone door one to the right and one to the left.
"Right or Left?" Godfrey asks getting shrugs by the others. "Right it is then." Godfrey steps up. "It's not locked." And Godfrey steps off to one side.
Jordan opens the door with another nod from Amity and Giles. Smoke starts to leak out the second the door is cracked and starts to gush out after Jordan finishes pulling the door open.
This got Amity to cast a spell.
Gust of Wind - This spell creates a severe blast of air (approximately 50 mph) that originates from you, affecting all persons in its path.
This has the affect of forcing the smoke back into the room allowing Jordan to slam the door closed. "Wrong door." Jordan smiles.
"Ok the door on the left it is then." Godfrey moves over to it. "Not locked and not sealed."
Again Jordan opens the door towards them. "Eeeww, what died?" Jordan holds his nose.
Giles looks inside and sees two crates, one of which is open along with a 50 gallon barrel that is also open. "I think it used to be wine, except it has obviously gone bad. …. The crate." Giles uses a small dagger to flip the top off. "Is filled with rancid meat with maggots." Giles backs off and motions for Jordan to close the door.
"Ok, door number three. It was my first choice anyway." Godfrey steps up. "Obviously locked, just not anymore. … No traps detected."
Jordan pulls one door open and moves to the other side and pulls it open when nothing happens.
"Our first dark room." Godfrey looks inside.
Amity pulls out her coin and tosses it into the room, showing that it is only 10' wide x 20' long. There were racks for spears to be placed in them with only a couple of broken spears left behind, however behind the racks was a faded mural depicting they didn't know what.
Godfrey stepped up to the door and started looking around. "Trap, just inside the doors. … Oooo, Flame Strike trap taking up the entire doorway." Godfrey steps in moments later and starts looking on one wall for another.
Flame Strike - A flame strike produces a vertical column of divine fire roaring downward.
"Got another one." Godfrey calls out. "This one is a simple mechanical trap that is no longer functional. … The door is locked. … Make that was locked." Godfrey informs them and comes back into the room.
Jordan walks down to the far door while Amity moves in behind him and examines the damaged and faded mural. "It looks like it depicts heads being impaled on the top of long spears." Amity tells everyone.
"Lovely." Jordan offers his opinion and opens one of the two doors pulling it towards him. "It's dark." Jordan whispers to Amity.
Amity steps over to her glowing coin lying on the ground and motions Jordan off to one side and throws it into the room, watching the light be swallowed up by darkness, plunging all of them into darkness since that was their only light.
"SHIT!." Amity curses and casts another spell on still another coin.
Daylight - The object touched sheds light as bright as full daylight in a 60-foot radius, and dim light for an additional 60 feet beyond that. Creatures that take penalties in bright light also take them while within the radius of this magical light. Despite its name, this spell is not the equivalent of daylight for the purposes of creatures that are damaged or destroyed by sunlight (like Vampires).
"JORDAN!" Amity calls out as she sees something dressed in rags pop up in the light that has overcome the darkness and try to take a swing at him.
Jordan's speed as a monk allowed him to escape from being hit and ran for the room beyond Amity to be with Godfrey and Giles.
"Mummy!" Amity calls out and pulls out her holy symbol of her god and proudly displays it for the mummy to see and speaks a few short words.
Turn undead – Good clerics can channel positive energy, which can halt, drive off (rout), or destroy undead.
Amity watches the lone mummy crumble into dust down onto the floor, causing Amity to start breathing again. Only to see three more doors she hadn't seen before open and watches 3 more mummies emerge slowly with their typical damaged walking gate.
"SHIT!" And Amity turns and runs back into the far room and going around the doors where Gordon and Godfrey have already retreated to.
Giles however only backs up to the door they just came through and casts a spell to have it erupt when it reaches the stone door on the far side. Giles watches as a tiny ball of fire leaves his hand and hurtles down into the room and crash against the far wall.
Fireball - A fireball spell is an explosion of flame that detonates with a low roar and deals fire damage to every creature within the area. Unattended objects also take this damage. The explosion creates almost no pressure. Damage is a 20' radius from detonation location.
The resulting blast makes it into the room they are in and comes up just short of where Giles is standing. The stone doors the other three were hiding behind have shielded them from the blast.
After the fireball is gone two seconds later all that is left of the mummies is dust on the floor. The spear racks, spears and mural have also been destroyed.
"You do come in useful husband." Amity steps up and kisses his cheek.
Giles shrugs his shoulders. "I try."
Godfrey and Jordan step forward and find a room identical in size to the mural room, however this room has 4 open small doors. "Secret doors hidden in a greater darkness spell with mummies in the small rooms behind them." Godfrey surmises.
"I hate undead!" Jordan grits his teeth.
"I'm detecting a pattern." Amity points out.
Godfrey approaches the stone double doors. "Locked. … No traps detected, …. not locked anymore." Godfrey retreats behind Amity, allowing Jordan to open the doors.
Giles picks up the coin with the daylight spell on it just before he does.
Jordan pulls open both doors and they can all see that the room beyond is lightly lit like the earlier ones. Giles however takes the coin and steps past Amity and throws the coin and watches it hit the far wall and fall to the floor and bounce around a little, bathing the room in bright light.
Jordan steps in and goes right while Amity steps past her husband and goes left allowing Giles to step in just past the door with Godfrey right next to him.
Giles turns around and closes the doors and casts a spell.
Arcane lock. - An arcane lock spell cast upon a door, chest, or portal magically locks it.
"In case anyone has plans of coming up behind us." Giles offers as an explanation.
The room they were in now was round, about 40' across with 3 thin columns in the middle spread evenly apart. There was a single stone door to the right and a single stone door to the left. There was also a pentagram in the very center that was 10' in diameter.
The floor was made of black obsidian while the pentagram was made of red obsidian bricks.
"Lovely." Jordan offers filled with sarcasm.
"Summoning circle or sacrifice circle?" Amity questions.
This got Giles to cast another spell.
Detect Magic - You detect magical auras. The amount of information revealed depends on how long you study a particular area or subject.
A couple of minutes later. "Summoning." Giles informs them.
"I hate this room even more now." Jordan adds.
Amity points to the door to the right and they all watch Godfrey work his way there.
Godfrey looks it over. "No traps detected. … It's not locked." And with a nod of Amity's head he pulls the door open and out rushes 8 ghouls intent on eating human flesh.
Amity quickly lifts her holy symbol and speaks a few quick and short words and they watch all 8 of them turn to dust and fall to the floor.
"Wrong door." Godfrey smiles.
"You are useful too wife." Giles points out and kisses her cheek.
Godfrey moves to the last remaining door. "No traps detected. …. It is locked. … just not anymore."
Godfrey opens the door towards him after a nod from Amity's head.
When nothing comes rushing out Godfrey takes a peek inside. "Oooo, a library."
"Dibs." Giles quickly requests.
"We'll see honey, we'll see." Amity steps over and pats Giles cheek.
Amity and Giles check out the books while Godfrey and Jordan wait outside with their eyes on the room they are still in.
"Looks like a lot of books on necromantic lore." (undead) Amity points out.
"A number of books are missing. Dust is missing on where they used to be. …. Someone has been here." Giles points out.
"AMITY!" Jordan calls out as he watches a small door on the far side of the room he hadn't seen before open and watches someone step out.
"Oh crap!" Godfrey complains.
Amity steps out of the room she is in and hears the door behind her slam close, trapping her husband in the library room, alone.
Godfrey pulls out two daggers and quickly throws them across the room, striking him/it in the right shoulder with one and the right thigh with the other, causing him/it to cry out in pain.
"Vampire." Amity hisses and casts a spell and has it burst on the far wall of the room that the vampire came out of, praying that they are far enough away to not be affected by her own spell.
Sunburst - Sunburst causes a globe of searing radiance to explode silently from a point you select. All creatures in the globe are blinded and take damage. A creature to which sunlight is harmful or unnatural takes double damage. It has an 80' radius.
The brief flash of sunlight comes blasting out the door and while it causes Amity, Godfrey and Jordan to shield their eyes, however they are all far enough away to not be adversely affected by the spell.
The vampire however screams in pain. Since it was only a brief flash, he is only damaged and not destroyed. He is however quite blind.
Now however the vampire casts a spell and suddenly something much, much worse suddenly appears in the middle of the pentagram.
"A Bebilith!" Amity is scared now. "HUSBAND!" Amity screams and takes a step to the right, away from the door behind her.
Bebilith – An enormous, misshapen Demon spider that stalks out of its darkness. Its forelegs end in wicked barbs, and blobs of foul goo drip from its fanged mouth. It stands 14' across from leg to leg.
It is an enormous, predatory, arachnid demon that typically hunts other demons. While they favor preying upon other demons, they aren't picky.
Jordan races around the edge of the room and uses his momentum to add power to his fist strike against the vampire, causing him to crumple to the floor.
A moment later the library door comes crashing open and the door flies part way across the room to land under the Bebilith.
Knock spell - The knock spell opens stuck, barred, locked, held, or arcane locked doors. It opens secret doors, as well as locked or trick-opening boxes or chests. It also loosens welds, shackles, or chains (provided they serve to hold closures shut).
Giles steps through the opening. "OH SHIT!" Now that he can see what is in the room.
The Bebilith spins and reaches out to strike Jordan with two of its claws, striking Jordan both times, causing him to scream in pain. The Bebilith then attempts to bite him, however Jordan is fast enough to avoid it.
Since both claws struck Jordan it uses them to pull Jordan in close, making the next time it tries to bite him an instant success, likely resulting in death.
Amity steps to the right just a little to get some distance between herself and her husband, in case either of them needed it and casts another spell.
Destruction - This spell instantly slays the subject and consumes its remains (but not its equipment and possessions) utterly.
They all watched as the Bebilith crumbled to dust and watched as the dust itself disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving the injured Jordan lying on the floor.
Giles instantly cast another spell and directed it at the vampire still lying on the floor on the far side, not willing to take any chances that it wasn't dead, dead, instead of just undead.
Disintegrate - A thin, green ray springs from your pointing finger. Any creature struck by the ray is entirely disintegrated, leaving behind only a trace of fine dust. A disintegrated creature's equipment is unaffected.
They all watched the green ray strike the vampire and watch him turn into a small pile of very fine dust.
Amity rushed over to Jordan and casts three spells.
Cure Critical Wounds, Remove Disease, and Restoration, lesser.
"How do you feel?" Amity asks Jordan.
"Like crap, but I'll live. …. Thanks." Jordan decides to just stay where he is.
Godfrey decides to check out the room the vampire came from and is back a moment later. "10" x 10" room with a side room that holds its coffin, both rooms are otherwise empty. …. AMITY!" And Godfrey points to across the room to the now far side where a not seen before door opens and out stumbles another Mummy.
Amity lifts up her holy symbol and softly says a few words and they watch the mummy slowly back up going back into its room.
"This won't last long." Amity warns them.
Giles reaches into his robes and pulls out a wand and points into the room and speaks the activation word. And they all watch another tiny ball of fire leave the wand and enter the room and explode against the far wall and erupt into a fireball.
"I'm glad you know how to make those husband." Amity tells him, meaning the wand, since he has others in addition to this one.
"I can also do potions and misc. magical items, like that bra I need to start work on soon." Giles smiles and arches his eyebrows a couple of times. Getting his wife to smile back.
"I'll thank you properly later." Amity smiles.
Godfrey checks out the room the mummy came from and is back moments later. "He's fried and that room is just like the vampire room, and equally empty."
Godfrey knew they would search this place properly later, after they found the mirror.
"If there are two, maybe there are three." Godfrey offers his opinion and starts searching the remaining walls.
"Got something." Godfrey calls out.
Amity helps Jordan across the room to the far side while Amity and Giles get ready for anything and nod at Godfrey.
"No traps detected, and it's not locked." Godfrey informs them and nods his head as he pulls the door open.
When nothing happens, Godfrey takes the coin that has the light spell on it that he had picked up and throws it in. "Looks empty, 10' wide by about 15' long. Totally empty even." Godfrey didn't like that; it had trap written all over it.
A minute later. "The entire floor was a trap, just not anymore." Godfrey smiles.
Amity follows Godfrey into the room and watches while Godfrey looks around. "I've got something. … Yet another secret door. …. This place is riddled with them. …. No traps detected and it is locked. …. just not anymore."
Amity readies her weapon and holds her holy symbol out ready for either and nods her head at Godfrey to open the door.
Godfrey opens the door towards him and out rushes the start of 20 Ghouls.
Amity instantly speaks a few words and 12 of them turn to dust.
Godfrey pulls his sword and strikes the first one to exit the room in the back from behind the door he just opened.
Amity swings at the next one and watches it turn to dust after she hits it.
The next one out is struck by a spell that Giles casts from the door to the main room.
Chain Lightning - This spell creates an electrical discharge that begins as a single stroke commencing from your fingertips. Unlike lightning bolt, chain lightning strikes one object or person initially, then arcs to other enemy targets.
All of the remaining Ghouls are struck by the lightning and fall dead, dead, not just undead.
When nothing else comes out Godfrey works his way inside, and is back moments later. "Empty 20' x 20' room. … Likely when the floor trap is triggered and the floor hits the floor below it, that alerts the ghouls who come out and descend on those at the bottom of the pit." Godfrey guesses.
They are all back in the main room. "We're running out of places to go." Jordan points out as he works to stand. "What haven't we searched?"
"The columns and the center?" Godfrey suggests and starts searching the columns.
It was several minutes later. "Got something." Godfrey informs them.
A few minutes later. "It appears to activate something in the floor." Godfrey points at the pentagram symbol on the floor. "It also looks like it has been pressed before."
"Someone really has been here before us." Giles was concerned.
"Spread out." Amity motions with her arms, getting everyone gut Godfrey, who needed to push the button to remain near the center.
Amity pulled out her holy symbol and readied her weapon, getting ready for more undead.
Giles decided to casts three quick spells.
Mirror Image - Several illusory duplicates of you pop into being, making it difficult for enemies to know which target to attack. The figments stay near you and disappear when struck. In this case there were now 3 Giles, only one of which was the real one.
Mage Armor - An invisible but tangible field of force surrounds the subject of a mage armor spell.
Shield - Shield creates an invisible, tower shield-sized mobile disk of force that hovers in front of you.
"Wait!" Amity calls out and steps up to Godfrey and casts a spell and then touches him.
Bull Strength - The subject becomes stronger.
And then walks over to Jordan and casts another spell and touches him.
True Seeing - You confer on the subject the ability to see all things as they actually are. The subject sees through normal and magical darkness, notices secret doors hidden by magic, sees the exact locations of creatures or objects under blur or displacement effects, sees invisible persons or objects normally, sees through illusions, and sees the true form of polymorphed, changed, or transmuted things.
"You are now our backup just in case." Amity tells him.
Amity steps back to her location and gets ready again, and nods her head.
Godfrey pulls out his special weapon which is a dagger of venom and gets ready to press the button.
Dagger of Venom - This black dagger has a serrated edge. It allows the wielder to use a poison effect (as the spell) upon a person struck by the blade once per day. The wielder can decide to use the power after he has struck. The poison effect must be invoked at the same time that the dagger strikes.
Godfrey pushes the button and they all watch as the floor where the pentagram is located falls into the floor a little and then breaks away from itself like an iris opening.
Once it is open they can all hear another set of items clicking and the mirror in question quickly rises up out of the floor, which has all of them surprised, since they all know the one on their Earth weighs countless tons.
"The damn thing is still operating." Godfrey yells out and reaches for the controls to close it.
However he is too late and something comes out of the mirror before he can shut it down.
"HEZROUS." Amity yells out.
Hezrous – This creature looks like a massive, roughly humanoid toad with arms in place of forelegs. Its wide mouth has rows of blunt, powerful teeth, and long spines run down the length of its back.
Hezrous are demonic sergeants, overseeing the formation of armies and commanding units in battle. They don't have the scheming instincts of the more powerful demons, but Hezrous are cunning in battle.
Giles quickly casts a spell and centers it on a spot just an inch in front of the mirror.
Dimensional Lock - You create a shimmering emerald barrier that completely blocks extradimensional travel. Forms of movement barred include astral projection, blink, dimension door, ethereal jaunt, etherealness, gate, maze, plane shift, shadow walk, teleport, and similar spell-like or psionic abilities. Once dimensional lock is in place, extradimensional travel into or out of the area is not possible.
A dimensional lock does not interfere with the movement of persons already in ethereal or astral form when the spell is cast, nor does it block extradimensional perception or attack forms. Also, the spell does not prevent summoned creatures from disappearing at the end of a summoning spell.
This spell effectively blocked the Hezrous from being able to summon any help for this fight. (think no ability to summon a Natures Ally).
Amity was next and quickly let go of her holy symbol and allowing it to fall from her hand from the chain around her neck and quickly cast a spell.
Summon Monster IX – Leonal.
Leonals are the wisest and most powerful of the guardinals. They're chieftains and leaders when guardinals gather, but a leonal prefers to keep to itself when the forces of good allow it to rest. A leonal resembles a tall, muscular human with short, tawny-golden fur covering its body and a great red mane for hair. Its lower legs are formed like a great cat's, and its arms conceal steal-hard talons. The leonal's face is noble and terrifying at the same time: its mouth and nose meet in a subtle, flattened, lionlike muzzle, and a yawn reveals long, sharp fangs.
A word of advice: Don't pick a fight with a leonal. They're superhumanly strong, packing the power of a frost giant in their compact, athletic frames. Their talons can inflict devastating damage, and their bite can be lethal. Leonals're incredibly fast and agile.
The Leonal immediately roars at the Hezrou and they all watch as small pieces of its skin are blown away here and there exposing damaged pink flesh beneath on the Hezrou.
Amity knew from her knowledge that the Hezrou could have suffered paralysis, blindness and deafness from the roar, so she now knew this Hezrou had something protecting it from those affects.
The Leonal then stepped up and bit the Hezrou, getting it to roar in rage and pain.
The Hezrou responded by hitting the Leonal with its left hand, forcing the Leonal to let go of its bite hold and then swung its great right arm hitting the Leonal, sending him flying across the room to crash into the stone wall, causing the stone to indent and crack around him. With the Leonal falling to the ground.
Godfrey takes a short running start and leaps onto the head of the Hezrou and thrusts his dagger of venom straight into the nose area of the Hezrou, causing it to roar again in rage and pain. Hezrou's are immune to poison, still the dagger did cause damage even if it didn't kill him.
This is followed by Giles casting yet another spell, since against this foe spells are all he has.
Insanity - This spell causes the target(s) to become confused, making them unable to independently determine what they will do.
However Giles can instantly see that the spell does not affect the Hezrou in any way. "Damn resistance to my spells, I hate these creatures."
Amity risks casting a spell that will affect the Hezrou instead of summoning another person to help them fight this foe, and prays that it will work.
Dictum - Any nonlawful creature within the area of a dictum spell suffers the following ill effects. (slowed and deafened).
The spell appears to be working since the sound of the Hezrou's roar is being dragged out. This allows Godfrey to yank out his dagger and plunge it back into the face of the Hezrou twice.
It also allows Giles another opportunity to cast still another spell.
Flesh to Stone - The subject, along with all its carried gear, turns into a mindless, inert statue (think Medusa). If the statue resulting from this spell is broken or damaged, the subject (if ever returned to its original state) has similar damage or deformities. The creature is not dead, but it does not seem to be alive either.
Everyone watches as the Hezrou quickly transforms from flesh into stone from its feet up to its head.
Godfrey yanks out his dagger and jumps off just before the transformation to stone reaches the Hezrou's head.
Everyone slumps thankful that the combat was over. "Well that was fun." Godfrey comments with sarcasm heavily laced in each word.
"We need to take this thing somewhere else before whoever was here before us comes back." Giles points out. "And I think I know just the place, if it exists on this Earth."
"Get started my husband, while we search this place." Amity tells him.
Giles gets to work on his spell that will take him 10 minutes to draw on the floor and complete.
"Ready, everyone step inside the circle." Giles tells them and then activates the spell, after they recover their coins with light and daylight spells on them.
Teleportation circle - You create a circle on the floor or other horizontal surface that teleports, as greater teleport, any person or object touched who stands within it to a designated spot.
"Where are we?" Jordan looks around. The cavern they were now in was bordering on huge. Only parts of it were within the area of their daylight spell.
"I know of a cavern deep below a desert, hundreds of miles away from any possible town or settlement. I believe the closest thing here is a well about 50 miles that way." Giles tells them. "Or that way." Giles points a different direction since he wasn't sure which way was which down here.
"We need to rest and figure out how to keep this thing guarded at all times." Amity tells them.
"And I have just the thing." Giles responds and forms his spell so that the mirror is dead center of his spell.
Mage's Magnificent Mansion - You conjure up an extradimensional dwelling that has a single entrance. The entry point looks like a faint shimmering in the air that is 4 feet wide and 8 feet high. Only those you designate may enter the mansion, and the portal is shut and made invisible behind you when you enter. You may open it again from your own side at will. Once observers have passed beyond the entrance, they are in a magnificent foyer with numerous chambers beyond. The atmosphere is clean, fresh, and warm.
You can create any floor plan you desire to the limit of the spell's effect. The place is furnished and contains sufficient foodstuffs to serve a nine-course banquet to 300 people. A staff of near-transparent servants (2 per person in the mansion), liveried and obedient, wait upon all who enter. The servants function as unseen servant spells except that they are visible and can go anywhere in the mansion.
Since the place can be entered only through its special portal, outside conditions do not affect the mansion, nor do conditions inside it pass beyond it.
"There is a pool, sauna, Jacuzzi, living, dining, kitchen, 5 bedrooms each with its own bathroom, library and a crow's nest up there." Giles informs them.
"I knew there was a reason why I keep you around." Jordan grins as he heads for a bedroom to get out of these clothes and into the Jacuzzi.
Unseen Servant - An unseen servant is an invisible, mindless, shapeless force that performs simple tasks at your command. It can run and fetch things, open unstuck doors, and hold chairs, as well as clean and mend. The servant can perform only one activity at a time, but it repeats the same activity over and over again if told to do so as long as you remain within range. It can open only normal doors, drawers, lids, and the like. It can trigger traps and such, but it can exert only 20 pounds of force, which is not enough to activate certain pressure plates and other devices.
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This chapter while seemingly meaningless and possibly unwanted by some readers, is a necessary setup for a future chapter. It is meant to show just what these four can do.
Now add the power of Rikki, Dara and Luke with help from Kate and what have you got?
And don't forget Elka, Henry and Dara's possible future animal companion to replace the Dire Lion she has lost.
This is just a taste of what is to come later. But then I'm betting most of you have already guessed that.
Jim and Johanna are next, never fear.