From your friendly Neighborhood reporter, thee who was sentenced by the Gods to follow this party around in some wierd spectral form so that no one will know I am there, I must say this night adventuring was quite interesting. I saw things I did not expect from this weary band!  Imagine if you will: Ike mauling his way through people and then getting chopped down to size (well, ok, thats not wierd, but hell... keep reading if for nothing more than entertainment purposes), The Old Man using his intelligence, and Jess being noticably usefull!  But me thinks the strangest case in point must have been a short little gnome, by the name of Zarp...  This then is their story:
       Picking up where they had last left off, the party seemed to be a tad exausted.  In the hall lay four dead foes, which none in the party seemed too concerned with searching... though Jess did so diligently anyhow.  After everything of value was taken from the bodies, their weapons were customarly destroyed... and the party came into a library of sorts.
       Well... no sooner could the Paladin quiet his armor than 5 or 6 more of the black-robed bastards were hurling arrows and spells at our boys (and girls)!  Ike stepped in, Zarp stepped aside, and one of the big black-robed meanies got a taste of axe. This reporter thinks it must taste good, or else the baddies wouldn't keep trying to take on Filthy Ike!  The evil warrior fell to the ground in a heap.  The mighty Ike gladly turned his head to the Paladin, who was in the midst of his own hack-n-slash with two (poor) fellows, and a triumphant yell was heard from the half-orc, "ONE!"  The Palidan looked back at Ike with a smile and a twinkle in his eye, and went back to his two friends.  On to the black robed figure (he looked kind of sickly... orangish even) further in the room Ike marched... and proceeded to get his ass kicked!  To top things off, our hero fighter was also hit in the head with a stone of some sort, though witnesses dont know where it came from...
       On to the newly aquired Cleric: quiet most of the night, she seemed to stay at the back end of the party, perhaps unsure of her powers or her party.  My vote is with the party, if you know what I mean.  She cast a protection from evil spell which no one seemed to notice, and proceeded to stick close to the Paladin... leaving her right in the doorway!  This meant tripping up Zarp when the Gnome tried to get a look into the room!  oops!
       While the Metal beast played with his prey, Jess did some nifty little moves to get into the room...  The poor girl did her best impression of a gymnist, managing to flip and tumble her way into the room and annoy the remaining Banite the Paladin was fighting.  Backstab, sneak attack, whatever you want to call it, the Black Robe didn't see it coming... and decided to go down for the count!  The Paladin looked at Ike, Ike looked at her, she yelled, "ONE!"  The Paladin asked Ike if he'd like a tie breaker...  But don't think that'd be all that would be breaking if you take on this lass gentlemen!
       The Old Man and our friendly neighborhood locksmith (?) pulled out crossbows side by side in a manner only to be seen in plays (kind of like drawing swords and pointing them... *shrug*) and started rapidly pumping shots into... uh... CROSSBOW BOLTS YOU ILL MANNARED PIG!... into the farthest of the Robes.
       The last mage managed to get away through a secret opening in a bookcase, but Zarp would have none of that!  Something got up that gnome's ass today, cause I've never seen even an elf run as fast as he did!  He took off after the guy, taring the books off the shelf to open the secret door, and, thinking quickly, cast light on a pebble to see.  Zarp must have been a sprinter in a previous life (or a really pissed off elf) because he chased this guy down two halls at full tilt, burst into a room, and threw a rock at an ogre skeleton (stasnding still, mind you)!  The rock got stuck in its gut and, as the skeleton started to move, it exploded!  You could just hear a tiny little voice... "WHO'S YOUR DADDY YOU BITCH?!"  Ten minuites later (huffing, puffing, and sporting an ogre skull), Zarp rejoined the party... throwing the skull down and proceeding to check the books on the shelves for anything interesting.
       Lessons from this summary: Don't toy with the weak, they'll only get stronger, older is bolder, reading can be hazardous to your health, rouges can fly, and never, ever piss off a gnome.

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