From Chris-Bremer@t-online.de Sat May  5 22:10:34 2001
Date: Sat, 5 May 2001 12:57:41 +0200
From: Christian Bremer <Chris-Bremer@t-online.de>
To: Philip J. Moyer <pmoyer@jurai.net>
Subject: [Amber/UnS] LOG: Keyquest - Beowulf Jones and the Mountain of Doom

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You fly up to the huge golden doors.  There's a dragon's head stamped on
each of the two golden doors.

The doors hang out, being doorlike.

Lian looks the doors over as they approach. Noting the dragon's head motif,
she shakes her head. "Reeeeally inconspicious, that."

Beowulf says, "OOC Ah. All right, then; Bey notice anything significant
about the doors, besides the dragon heads and gold? :)"

They're very doorlike, and both open inwards.

Beowulf nods. "All right, shall we go through?"

Lily nods.  "Let's go."

Mitsune keeps her wings, Lily removes hers.

Beowulf heads through the gates.

Lian nods, grinning. "Onward, brave adventurers,
into the Mountain of Doom!"

You head into a long, dark hallway.  You need a light source.

Beowulf says, "Ah." He reaches into the bag and pulls out a torch.

You soon travel by torchlight.

Beowulf asks, "OOC any signs of previous passage?"

There are dozens of footprints in the dust.

Lian looks around, curious. After a few seconds she removes a short silver
rod from her belt and slips her hand through the woven metal loop, securing
it.

You continue on down the path, soon reaching a huge chamber, some two
hundred feet high and two hundred feet wide.

There's an exit tunnel at the far end, up near the ceiling.

The room is full of rapidly forming and vanishing whirlwinds.

Beowulf says, "OOC Which presumably could be ridden to the exit tunnel? :)"

Lian looks around. "Climb the stairs, check. Ride the whirlwind ... I guess
that's what we have here."

Beowulf nods. "Indeed." How strong do the whirlwinds look?

They look pretty strong.

Beowulf watches the whirlwinds for a pattern that would sweep up towards the
exit. "Anyone think they'll want help in the ride?"

Mitsune says, "I can just fly."

Lily says, "I think I will become a cat and ride on your shoulders,
Beo-kun."  She does so, in fact.

Beowulf nods. "I suppose so, Mitsune, though I'd prefer to play it through
by the rules." He smiles, and waits to see if Lian will want help before
stepping in himself.

Lian hms, still watching the various whirlwinds.

Lian asks, "Getting up there using those," she indicates the whirlwinds with
a nod, "will be interesting. You gonna try, Bey, or do you want to cheat?"

Lian starts crossing the room, careful of the whirlwinds, trying to estimate
where she would have to catch one to get up.

Beowulf also starts across the room, waiting to catch a whirlwind up to the
exit.

You catch a whirlwind ride, but you discover they tend to carry you up to
the ceiling in the middle of the room.  There's a hole up here you couldn't
see before, with some rungs and a ladder going up inside it.

Do you investigate this hole or jump for the tunnel?

Beowulf decides to investigate the hole, and motions to Lian to show what
he's doing.

Lian nods and takes the next whirlwind up, following Bey.

Beowulf says, "OOC Perhaps a trap for those who decided to cheat and take
the 'obvious' route? :)"

Lian says, "OOC We'll see. :)"

Mitsune flies up, dodging whirlwinds with grace, then flies up the hole
ahead of you.

Beowulf smiles ruefuly, and goes for the ladder.

You all scramble up this pipe for about thirty feet, then pop up into a
room.

There is a blazing bonfire in the large fire place, and five tunnels leading
out of the room from each of the other five walls.

Beowulf smiles, and takes a closer look at the fireplace.

Lian looks around once in the room, then heads for the fire.

It's a big blazing bonfire with no source of fuel.  There's a chimney the
smoke escapes up.

Lily resumes human form.  Mitsune looks at the fire, frowning.  "I've never
liked fire."

Lian says, "We've got to go through, though."

Beowulf says, "The clue said 'pass the fires'... it seems fairly obvious."

Beowulf tries to see up the chimney; any sign of rungs/handholds/etc?

There is no sign of rungs or hand holds.

You hear a scream from the chimney, and an armored figure plummets down the
shaft into the flames.  He lies there, failing to burn, but unconscious and
mangled.

Beowulf asks, "OOC Armored like the Therians?"

Utena says, "OOC Fairly generic full plate armor."

Beowulf says, "OOC Hmm. Well, then."

Lian says, "Silly adventurer, climbing in full plate."

Beowulf says, "Still, it seems the path is obvious." He gets out the
grappling tool in case it's needed.

Lily darts forward, turning grey.  She grabs the man's feet and pulls them
out.

The rest of the man is dragged as well. :)

Beowulf nods. "Thank you, Lily; I should have thought of that."

Lian steps closer to the fire, looking intently at it.

Beowulf quickly examines the man. "Can you check his mind to see what he ran
into, Lily?"

Lily takes off the man's helmet; he looks Cathayan.  She casts a simple
spell to reduce his injury level, then puts her hands on his brow.

Beowulf gets ready to break the contact if needed.

She announces, "A giant snake and some snake headed men, who are probably
killing his friends right now or dying at their hands."

Beowulf says, "Drat."

Beowulf asks, "They sound like the Yuan-ti, a rather nasty group of freaks
I've ran into a time or two. Most don't use magic, though a few do... we
probably should take care of them." He looks up the chimney. "Did our friend
here go up through the chimney or go some other way?"

Lily says, "He and his allies climbed up the chimney."

Beowulf asks, "Right, then. Were they hurt by the fire?"

Lian says, "Why do I have a feeling we'll be doing that too ..."

She says, "They had a protection spell."

She continues, "It's still running, I think."

Beowulf asks, "Hm. Still running on him, or the chimney as a whole?"

Lily says, "It's on them, not the chimmney."

Beowulf asks, "Drat. If it's not done by an item, suppose I'll just have to
go with it... hopefully the armor will help. Did you have any protection,
Mitsune?"

Mitsune says, "Lily and I can shapeshift ourselves to handle it."

Lian says, "We'll just have to be fast, Bey."

Beowulf asks, "Right. Let's go, then; be ready to fight as soon as we reach
the top." Will the grappling tool help them get up any faster?

Beowulf readies the whip for when they reach the top.

Lian asks, "Oh, Bey ... do those Yuan-ti have a problem with anything?"

Beowulf asks, "Going to do some illusions?"

Lian says, "Unless they're stupid enough to believe them, no. Just wondering
which sword mode to select for this, if it comes to close combat."

Beowulf says, "Ah, right."

Using your grappling tool would let you climb a lot faster, yes.

Beowulf says, "Any standard sword form should do about as well."

Lian nods and gets ready. "Let's do it, then."

Beowulf asks, "Indeed." He gets the grappling device ready to go. "Ready,
everyone?"

Lian says, "Yes, yes ..."

Beowulf shoots the grappling hook at the top of the chimney, and scrambles
up as quickly as he can.

You all quickly pass through the fire and up the chimmney to another room.

Beowulf readies the whip and looks around for trouble.

Lian drops into a crouch, short silver rod falling into one hand, drawing
her sword with the other as she looks around.

There are six dead people, eight dead serpent-men, and three live ones who
turn to run off down one of the four hallways as you pop up.

Beowulf quickly follows the three live ones.

Lian runs after Bey and the three, making a whipping motion with the silver
rod.

Lian whips one of them; it howls and collapses.

Mitsune flies after them, sword drawn.

Beowulf uses the whip to trip/bring down the others as soon as he gets close
enough.

Whack, whack, they go down.
And lie stunned.

Lian stops by the downed one, as the others seem to be in good hands. She
checks its status ...

Beowulf quickly looks past them for anything important before stopping to
restrain them.

All three lie stunned.

Lian smiles and kneels next to 'her' snakeman. "As daddy would have said ...
lunchtime!"

Mitsune makes a face.  "You're going to eat it?"

Lian rolls her eyes. "Not literally. Just its mind." She touches its head
and concentrates.

Beowulf asks, "Lily, could you examine one of the others?"

Lily nods and goes to work.

Lian blinks, blinks again, and pulls back. "Ew. Someone ate it first."

Beowulf says, "Ah, lovely."

Mitsune says, "It was being controlled?"

Beowulf asks, "Nothing there to look at?"

Lian says, "According to its tiny little mind it was kidnapped by a mage it
identifies as the Great Gazoo. Silly name, if you ask me. That guy ordered
it to kill anything that followed the Great Gaga."

Beowulf asks, "The Great Gaga being its rival?"

Lily asks, "Great Gazoo...I've heard that name somewhere."

Lian says, "Gaga, Gazoo ... all the same. Silly names."

Mitsune says, "Bedrock.  It's that annoying little green guy."

Lian says, "So we have another competitor here."

Beowulf says, "Bedrock, hm? They might be at some advantage here, since high
tech isn't working, and neither is Pattern or Logrus."

Mitsune says, "We'd best press on, then."

Beowulf says, "Right."

Beowulf moves carefully down the hallway.

Lian follows closely behind, sword ready in hand.

You head down the hallway.  It runs on a ways to a large room blocked by a
chasm.

There is a bridge--it's a giant sword, turned so that the edge of the sword
points upwards.

Beowulf nods. "Cross the Bridge of Swords."

Beowulf looks at Lian. "I forget, did you armor the soles on this outfit?"

Lian says, "Looks more like the Bridge of Sword to me. And yes, the soles
are armored too."

Beowulf nods.

Lian . o O ( OOC: How edgy and how wide is that edge? )

The blade is fairly sharp relative to its size.

The chasm is about a hundred feet wide.

Beowulf asks, "I could probably make it across, and at worst use the
grappling tool to catch the other side and climb up if I fall off. Lily and
Mitsune could probably fly, assuming that doesn't break the rules." He
smiles. "Lian?"

Lian walks around this end of the sword, looking at it from all sides. "I'm
thinking ... "

Beowulf smiles. "Looking for the angle where the illusion of the sword blade
is broken?"

Lian says, "No, trying to figure out how big something would need to be to
move the sword. I don't like the idea of walking on any blade's edge."

Lian smiles, apparently satisfied, and steps back from the blade.

Beowulf asks, "Ah, clever." He smiles. "You have something in mind?"

Lian nods, and starts doing ... something. Stone flows, slowly forming a big
but crude humanoid shape ...

Finally, a large stone golem stands there. Not particularly good-looking,
but it wasn't made for show business. Lian grins and points at the sword.
"Mighty golem, turn the blade on its side."

It goes over, and very very slowly, it begins to rotate the blade.

Beowulf keeps an eye out behind them while it works.

Lian watches the golem work ...

Finally, the blade rotates all the way.

Beowulf says, "Right. Safe to go across? Let's go. See if you can have it
guard the bridge against anyone following us."

Mitsune walks across the bridge.

Lian pats the golem's leg. "Good boy. Now you stay here and make sure noone
follows us, okay? Mommy'll be back soon."

It nods.

Lian smiles and crosses the sword.

Beowulf crosses the sword.

You all cross the sword and head down the tunnel.

Lian looks at the others, "I hope you're good at dancing, 'cause dancing
with death is the next attraction in the Mountain of Doom."

Beowulf says, "Well, I had a very good tutor a week or two ago..." He smiles
at Lily.

Beowulf says, "After all, we'll always remember Rick's Place."

You come to a twenty foot cube of a room.  A skeletal figures with scythe in
robes sits at a table by a chess set.

Lily smiles. "I hope Death enjoys waltzes."

A waltz begins to play.  Death looks amused.

Death points to the chess set.

Beowulf bows and nods. "A play for a pass?"

Death nods.

Lian asks, "Looks like he is more into intellectual dances ... " She looks
at Bey, "You going to play?"

Beowulf says, "I suspect I'd be best-suited."

Beowulf sits down. "Very well... let us begin." He smiles up at Lily. "If
things go wrong... it's been wonderful."

Lily kisses your cheek.  "You'll be fine, Beowulf."

Lian nods, "You'll manage, Bey."

Beowulf starts playing (or waits for his turn, if Death has the first move,
and replies).

Death holds out two hands, each holds a piece hidden in his bony clutch.
Left or right?

Beowulf closes his eyes. Eeeny, meeny, miny, moe...

Beowulf picks left.

You get white, which means you move first.

Beowulf nods and makes his move.

Sana_Kurata falls asleep.

He is very very good.

But not quite as good as you.

You think if you play carefully, you can eventually beat him fairly
reliably.

Beowulf nods and plays carefully. :)

You play through the game.  It's close, but eventually your surviving rook,
king, and three pawns finish off his king and final pawn.

Despite losing, Death seems pleased by your skill.

Beowulf bows respectfully to Death.

Death rises, and...gets into a waltzing position.  He looks at you
expectantly.

Mitsune giggles.

Beowulf grins, bows and hopes he remembers well. Shall we dance?

You waltz with death.

Lian says, "I so wish I had a camera on me ... " She blinks, "Wait. I think
I have." She removes the crystalcomp from its pocket. "Start audio/video
record of this event."

Death is a very good dancer, and his footsteps leave a tracery on the floor
as you dance.

Lian makes sure the tracery is also on the the recording.

Beowulf begins humming a joyful tune.

Beowulf continues the dance.

As the music winds down, a door opens in one of the walls.  Death releases
you and points.

Beowulf nods and bows again in thanks. "Is the way opened for all of us?"

Lian turns the crystalcomp off and puts it away, looking at Death.

Death nods, then goes back to his chair.

Beowulf smiles in reprised thanks, and leads the others to the door.

Lian follows the leader, as usual.

You head down the new hallway.

Beowulf asks, "And so, who can sing well?"

Lian looks at Lily.

Lily says, "I can sing fairly well.  Just don't let Mitsune do it."

Lian smiles at Mitsune, "I'm sure she's not interested in singing. Am I
right?"

Beowulf asks, "I think we can manage that." He smiles. "Who should conjure
the gag, Lian? You or I?"

Lian says, "You do the gag, I make the restraints. Can't have her remove the
gag, after all."

Beowulf asks, "Ah, true. Need full strength there, don't we?"

Lian nods, "Uh-huh."

Mitsune snorts.

You come to a long staircase, which you spend some thirty minutes
descending.

Beowulf says, "Or perhaps we could just release her on her own
recognizance?" He winks at Mitsune.

Mitsune say, "No singing, no singing, I get it already."

Lian chuckles. "Good."

You finally emerge into a vast cavern in which crystalline bells hang from
the celing, rather than stalactites (mites?)

Dozens of tunnels snake away from it.

Beowulf says, "Ah, a musical key. A tune like... A tune like..."

Beowulf oocly looks for portraits of Rassilon playing a harp, but suspects
he won't find any. :)

Lian says, "Sing for joy ... hm."

Lily starts trying to decide on a good song.

Lian says, "It probably has to be a specific song ..."

Beowulf says, "There's always 'Joy to the World'..."

Beowulf says, "Question is, are we talking about the Christmas carol or the
Three Dog Night song?" He smiles.

Lily looks thoughtful.

Mitsune says, "The Three Dog Night version, of course."

Beowulf grins. "Lily? I defer to your musical sense... though where we'll
find a bullfrog here, I don't know."

Lily laughs.  "I will try the Christmas Carol."

She begins to sing, and the bells begin to ring to the tune.

Soon, the entire cavern is chiming.

The cavern echoes beautifully, and as the music dies down, a staircase opens
up in the floor.

Going down.

Beowulf says, "Well, onward and downward!" He frowns slightly. "Since we
haven't run into anyone else that we know is ahead of us yet, I suspect
they're waiting down there in some way; be ready."

Mitsune says, "Or they may have fallen into some of the side traps if they
didn't have the clues."

Lian takes sword and whip in hand again. "That's too much to hope for,
Mitsune."

Beowulf says, "Take it as it comes; just be ready." He smiles fiercely.

Beowulf says, "I suspect the Master is probably too good to get caught by
most of them... although..."
Lian shrugs and walks over to the stairs. "We'll see. Be prepared for
everything, and hope for the best."

You head down the stairs to a sphinx's cavern.

Beowulf says, "Well, he is very good at strategy, even if he's not that good
at feats of arms, so it's quite possible he made it past the chess game."

Lian says, "We might meet him here, then. Or more likely after we get the
key."

Beowulf says, "Indeed."

The Sphinx looks at all of you thoughtfully

The Sphinx asks, "Who among you will gamble your life for passage?"

Beowulf says, "I suspect that's my role." He bows.

The Sphinx nods.  "Very good.  The question is simple."

Beowulf nods.

The Sphinx asks, "Why do we exist?"

Beowulf says, "We think, so therefore we exist?" He smiles.

It says, "Flippant and meaningless.  I'm afraid I have to eat you now."

And then it lunges at you.

Beowulf ducks out of the way.

You dodge the first massive swipe of its paw, giving ground.

Lian hms, "I doubt that he exists to become a Sphinx snack ... "

Mitsune asks, "Would it be considered cheating if we all beat on it?"

Beowulf continues to dodge. "We exist to learn, to think, to grow. To defend
against evil."

Lian says, "Well, I think at this point it doesn't matter much anymore,
Mitsune."

The Sphinx says, "Much better, but too late.  I'm afraid it's my duty to eat
you."

Lian says, "Hey, is there a way to solve this peacefully? I mean, a lot of
people would be really unhappy if you tried to eat him."

Mitsune nods and summons a Defensive Hand.

Beowulf dodges again. How far away is it?

The sphinx swipes again, you dodge again.  "It is my duty to eat those who
fail."

Utena asks, "OOC How far is the sphinx?"

Beowulf asks, "OOC Yes; far enough away to use the whip, or would the jitte
form be better?"

Utena says, "OOC Ahh.  Better to use the Jitte, you think."

Lily tries using Irresistable Dance Dance Revolution on the Sphinx...but it
proves to be Resistable after all.

Lian nods, "Alright. We can't let Bey become lunch."

Beowulf nods, and switches the whip to the Jitte.

There is a discharge of energy under the creature, which bellows with rage.
It glares balefully at Lian, then launches itself at her.

Beowulf slams it with the jitte, trying to trip/knock it away from Lian

Beowulf then dodges away.

Lily becomes a winged cat and starts another spell.

Mitsune shouts, "HAIL OF PIMPSLAPS" and unleashes a flurry of magical blows
at the sphinx.

Lian begins to release a spell as the Sphinx bats her with both paws and
bites her, nearly severing her left arm.

Beowulf asks, "OOC Did the jitte blow do anything to it?"

The Jitte blow mostly annoyed it.

Beowulf says, "OOC Ow."

Lian cries out as the sphinx lands on her.

It is rather vulnerable to assault at the moment, however, as it is
obsessively focused on Lian.

Beowulf darts in from an unnoticed angle to slam it again, trying to go for
an eye shot.

Lian is well placed to unleash her neuronic whip on it.

Beowulf pokes out one of its eyes.

Lily keeps casting.

Mitsune shouts, "FLAMING FISTS OF FURY!"  Her hands and swords ignite into
flame.

It chews on Lian, howling in pain itself.  Lian is bleeding profusely.

But Beowulf waits, and when it opens its mouth to bite again, he whips Lian,
yanking her free.

Beowulf shifts back to the jitte and goes for another eye shot or an ear
shot, whichever's easier.

Mitsune begins to pound on the creature with flaming sword and flaming
fists, making nasty wounds.  It turns to face her.  Lily-cat flies down and
dumps a heal on Lian, saving Lian's arm.

Beowulf pokes out the sphinx's eardrum.  The Sphinx lunges at Mitsune...who
turns into a fox and leaps right past its teeth down its throat...with paws
on fire.

Lian just lies there, unmoving.

It howls in agony as its throat begins to burn, and it slowly begins to turn
to face Beowulf again.

You go for an eye, but you have to abort and fall back to avoid being pawed
and bitten.

And then from the far side of the cave, the Master emerges.

Beowulf gives more ground, freeing up enough space to use the whip, then
uses the whip to swing the Master into the Sphinx's claws.

The Master falls into the Sphinx's grip.  So it eats him, ripping off his
head and upper body.  how strange, the Master didn't USE to be stuffed with
straw or make loud ticking noises...

Beowulf shouts, "Get back!"

Beowulf exclaims, "Mitsune, get out!"

A small fireball appears in Lian's hand as she sits up. Her eyes go wide as
she hears the ticking noises and she scrambles back, as far back as
possible.


The Sphinx, sadly, doesn't know ticking = Bomb

It gulps down the Master-Bomb

Lily teleports herself and Lian back to the entrance.

Beowulf runs for the exit.

Lian says, "Neo, release Impenetrable Shield, NOW."

A forcefield goes up.

And then the Sphinx explodes into bloody gobbets.

A strange mist rises from the charred remains.

Beowulf blinks at the mist. "Mitsune?"

Beowulf says, "Lily, is that..."

The mist coalesces into a person.  "Next time, Beowulf, please don't stuff a
bomb down the throat of the monster I'm inside," Mitsune says. "Please."

Beowulf shakes for a moment. "Don't worry, I don't plan on it." He smiles
weakly.

Then she gets shot with the Master's Tissue Compression weapon and turns
into a doll.

Lily stares blankly for a few seconds.

The shot came from the far doorway.

Lian blinks and looks in the direction of the doorway. "I take it -that- is
the master?"

Beowulf says, "Probalby. Avoid eye-contact."

Lily then screams in anger, goes to demon form, and charges all out.

Beowulf exclaims, "Lily, be sure not to damage the TCE!"

Lian drops the shield before Lily runs into it, and lobs the small fireball
in her hand in the direction of the door.

Beowulf unleashes a stream of capsules from his airgun into the darkness
beyond the door.  A fireball explodes in the hallway.  The Master screams.

And then Beowulf hears someone approaching, thoguh he doesn't SEE anyone.

Lily charges into the hallway.  More screaming ensues.

Beowulf uses the whip to slash in the direction of the sounds of someone
approaching.

The large burly barbarian with an axe appears as he gets whipped by Beowulf.
He continues to charge, though he looks like he didn't enjoy getting hit.

Then you hear Lily scream.

Lian mutters. "Bey, go for Lily! I'll deal with Conan here."

Beowulf begins to sprint across the room.  The Barbarian gleefully charges
Lian instead.

Lian retreats from the charging barbarian, smiling as she swings her whip
again.

He parries your whip.  You give ground; you have the feeling he is a better
fighter than you, but not good enough to break through if you fight
carefully.

Beowulf charges to the hallway entrance.  You can see Lily in close quarters
with a short, wiry, dark haired man.  He fights with dagger and longsword,
she fights frenziedly with claws.  No sign of the Master except for a trail
of blood leading back and roudn the next corner.

Lian mutters again, something that sounds like a curse, as she goes into
defensive mode, slowly retreating back to where she dropped her sword as the
Sphinx pounced her.

Utena says, "OOC Unfortunately, the man is between you and the sword; you
had to retreat towards where you came into the room earlier to escape the
exploding Sphinx"

Lian . o O ( OOC: Okay, trying to circle around, then. )

You begin to circle around slowly, holding him off

Doll Mitsune starts to grow.

Beowulf nails the unfortunate Mouser with a capsule.  Knockout fluids begin
to seep into him, and he gets groggy enough for Lily to beat him down.

Beowulf exclaims, "Lily, help Lian if she needs it, then follow me!"

Beowulf chases after the Master.

Lily shouts, "YOU SHOT MY SISTER!" and charges after the Master.

Lian whispers, "Neo, release a Cardiac Arrest on Mr. Blahbarian here
whenever ready."

Beowulf holds his whip at the ready to attack as soon as he spots the
Master.

You dump the spell on him.  You feel a flair of power from him.  One of his
rings shatters, and you feel the spell bounce back on you.

Beowulf and Lily charge into a room with hundreds of nearly identical keys
up on the far wall.  The Master has just finished using his hyposprays on
the first set of wounds she gave him.

Beowulf attacks with the whip as soon as he can, trying to grab away the TCE
first, then pull him off his feet.

Lian concentrates and wards off her own spell with Broken Pattern Defense.
Meanwhile, Fahfrd gives her a nice new open round right down teh front of
her torso, sending her flying back to her sword as she takes up bleeding
profusely again.

The Master loses his TCE to Beowulf's whip.  Then he gets pulled off his
feet and Demon-Lily leaps onto him, reopening all his wounds and giving him
some fresh ones to boot.

Lian cries out again, but tries to grab her sword when she gets close to it.

Mitsune finishes reverting to normal.  She looks groggy.

Lian's wound begins to heal.

She holds off further assaults by him.

The poor Master ALSO gets hosed down with knockout capsules by Beowulf, who
then heads back to the room.

The barbarian gets his ass kicked swiftly as Beowulf charges into the room,
Mitsune charges at him, and Lian holds him in place for those two to stomp
him flat.

You pretty quickly beat the poor boy down.

Beowulf runs back to the Master as soon as the barb's down, kicking the wiry
man to keep him unconscious in passing.

You run back.  The Master is a bloody mess; he's not getting up.  Lily is
using his shirt to clean the blood off herself.

Beowulf asks, "OOC as in dead?"

Utena says, "OOC He's not dead, but he needs help."

Lian indulges in a time-honored tradition ... loot the bodies of her
enemies.

Mitsune leans against the wall.  "Ugh."

The barbarian has two nice rings and a nice axe.  The thief in the hallway
proves to have a spellbook, two potions, and a pair of enchanted blades.

Lian says, "Neo, reload primary bank. Fusion Lance. Ghost Form."

Lily holds up a key.  "He had this."  It's a simple black shimmering key.

Lian stretches, wincing as various bits and pieces of her complain about it.
"Is that our key?"

Beowulf blinks. "Right." He looks lost in thought, sighs, sighs again, and
uses the racked healing spell in the ring to save the Master's life. "It's
my duty to bring him in for justice."

Lily nods grimly.

Lily says, "I hope it's our key."

Beowulf ties up the Master as securely as he can manage, then asks Lily to
put compulsions on him again. "Can you find out what he's been up to since
we lost him the last time?"

She looks at the hundreds of keys up on the wall.  "As if it isn't..."

She nods and goes to work in the master's brain.

Beowulf asks Lily, "What other powers does he have? Anything we can disable
with something like cold iron?"

Lily says, "I suggest we keep him drugged unconscious."

Beowulf says, "We'd better tie up the others as well."

Beowulf says, "That works."

Lian concentrates, then peers closely at the key. "Well, it is full of
logrussy goodness. If that doesn't say Anno Was Here ... "

Lily uses the memories to find the Master's Tardis Key, which she passes to
Beowulf.

Beowulf asks, "Where did he hide his Tardis?"

She says, "He hid it out in the jungle once he discovered it couldn't enter
the mountain."

Lian idly conjures up a sturdy bag to put the loot in.

Beowulf conjures up some stronger drugs to keep him completely unconscious
for a long time.

Beowulf says, "Better tie up the others as well."

You tie him up and the others.

Beowulf asks, "Anything unusual about any of the other keys, Lian?"

Lily announces, "There used to be a clue up on the wall as to which key to
take, but he erased it."

Lian puts the loot away, then goes to look at the other keys. "Let me
check."

Beowulf smiles. "Any nearby reflective surfaces?"

Beowulf asks, "That would show that spot?"

Lian says, "They're just magical. Nothing unusual about them."

Some of the keys are reflective, but that's about it.

Beowulf hmms. "Anyone have a mirror, then?"

Lily hands you her compact.

Beowulf holds the mirror to reflect the clue spot. "How long would it take
you to do a temporal scrying so we could read the clue, Lily? Or should I
use the racked one from my ring?"

She says, "Oh, good idea.  I can do it fairly quickly.  Although I could
just pluck it out of the Master's brain."

She says, "He already plucked the key off the wall, though."

Beowulf blinks and looks embarrassed. "Ah. So you could."

Beowulf says, "True, but I would kind of like to know what it said."

She kisses you on the cheek.  "But it was a good idea.  Right."

She goes brain-diving.

Lian wanders over and taps Bey on the shoulder. "Oh, by the way ... " she
whispers, "we still need to talk regarding certain business some time. Maybe
call Kanna once we're back in Amber."

Beowulf nods.

She says, "Not all that glitters is gold/not all that shines is silver/the
darkness holds glories too"

Beowulf nods again. "Thank you, Lily."



THE END ... FOR NOW