When it was all said and done, whatever "it" was, Jess was the one who solved the dwarvish riddle and figured out how to open the door. I know, I know, you're thinking, "Jess?! Of everyone in the party, Jess solved the riddle and opened the door?!" Well, yes, she sure did. Now, surely I would have been able to do it sooner, as I was practically screaming the answer out at them, but I guess I should choose those whom I scream at more carefully. The Old Man didn't seem particularly interested, he just wanted to watch the lightning bolt pulse its black radiance as he spoke to it. Jallarzi may have overheard me, when she went up to the lightning bolt and said "dark storm", to which the lightning bolt made the entire area dark for a bit. But it was Jess who said, "black lightning". Go figure. Enough about the door! On to the chaos!
      Well, there wasn't any. The end. - Ok, fine. Stop poking me with that piece of glass! With the doors opened, the party entered a room of hexagonal shape and six round pillars. In an inlet of each pillar laid a skeleton holding a longsword. Jallarzi pulled out her holy symbol and went, "OOGA BOOGA BOOGA!" The skeletons did not move, however, and I think the action scared me more than the holy symbol scared them. Max was getting tired of being in this dark smelly dungeon of nastiness, though I don't know why (I plan on building a summer home here), and decided to just get through the room without further delay. Through being stung in the arm, he had a change of heart. No, despite my constant mockery of what happens to this party, his heart did not fall out, and he did not turn into something else... he merely got stung with a tranquilizer dart of enough potency to knock out an ettin. He shrugged it off and told Jess to inspect the other skeletons for similar traps, for these darts may come in handy. Good thinking!
      Well, it was good thinking... until Jess looked at skeleton #2 and forgot the three-foot rule. Now, try to remember that skeletons don't like their personal space violated, and you won't wonder why Jess is now two feet off the ground with a bony hand around her throat. Ike promptly shattered the arm, Jess promptly hit the ground, and three other skeletons promptly came 'alive'.
      A long battle ensued, some of the most interesting points being: Jallarzi laying waste to one of the baddies with her morning star (its constant magic missiles were just putting the half-orc out of his game)… Ike calling his customary "ONE!" as he took out a skeleton that kept blinking in and out of existence (much to Zarp's dismay)… Jallarzi taking out another (yes people, this is not a misprint, our cleric found her calling – and it's beating up undead… go figure) one of the skeletons and turning to Ike to yell, "TWO!" That promptly shut him up. Max, Zarp, and Jess were wailing on some of the skeletons in their usual way, but there's nothing interesting to report on them… for now. Even Yu managed to move into attack mode, but his target decided to claw his way through the blue curtain along the back wall and run into the room beyond. I guess the cleric's turning worked, after all.
      As the three skeletons were transformed into dust balls, the curtain at the back of the room opened up in response to Max's approaching it. The party noted a shallow pool of blood, at the end of which stood an altar to Bane. Behind the altar stood what appeared to be a wizard or priest dressed in blue and gold robes and sporting a silver hairdo and beard. Above and to the sides were four spellbound archers whom looked like town guardsmen or similar. And, finally, the huge room sported stairways on either side and to the back.
      "Welcome my uninvited guests! You must-" began the wizard/priest.
      "Yah, whatever," said the Old Man, as he let a bolt fly from his crossbow. So much for the villain explaining his evil plots to our heroes before being beaten. I guess Max, being sooo old and so um… wise… knew where this was going. Either that, or he had pissed his pants and just wanted to be done with this hike and into some new underwear. Old age can do that to ya.
      So anyway... that bolt? It bounced off the wizard. He looked down, muttered something about deviating from the script, and commanded the archers to let loose some arrows. Some hit the old man, who by now had admitted he was out of spells. Anyone casually glancing over at our friendly Paladin, expecting him to shout "EEEEEEVOOOOOOLLLL!!!" before knocking heads, would have noticed his face was a little on the colorless side. He was either overwhelmed by the evil of the place, or he'd remembered he'd left the stove on back home.
      To make a long story a little shorter, Ike went into a rage, the wizard levitated, and Ike proceeded to bullrush one of the archers, finally throwing him off the balcony. Ouch, that hurts. Especially hitting the floor. When the Old Man became a pincushion, Yu went into a rage as well… and proceeded to swing wildly at the floating mage.
      By this time, the Paladin had had enough. He charged in the room, tears streaming down his face, and a battle cry in his throat! Only his normal battle cry (see above) sounded more like that of someone's name this time around… it almost sounded as if he were yelling "David!" Drakheim unsheathed his mighty sword, ready to free the tortured soul held in the demonic body of the wizard… only to fall to the ground in a heap of ashes after being incinerated by a lightning bolt from the wizard. A quiet silence fell over everyone, including the zombie like archers for a moment, until the mage spoke: "Foolish Brother."
      Zarp, sickened by this, laid out a grease spell all over the Drakheim brother… which seemed to only annoy him. Nice move, little man. Jess proceeded to launch her dagger at the Evil Floating Man, which seemed to actually nick him. David now seemed to have a dilemma... kill the gnome, or kill the human girl? Well, a hold spell was laid on the gnome, and the Evil Brother went back to work. Soon, however, an arrow ripped itself into Zarp, freeing him from the spell. The gnome took out the magic wand he'd been saving, pointed it at the wizard, and made some off the wall comment along the lines of, "What goes around, comes around!" He uttered the trigger, "kame" (well, more like bellowed it), and discharged a lightning bolt of his own. The wizard, unable to clean himself from the grease (see where this is going?), took the lightning bolt head on… and burst into flames! Well now, that can't be good. David ended up deciding that the "he who fights and runs away, lives to kill another day" philosophy applied best here, as he sped off… leaving our friends with a little present, "My pet will finish you all off!"
      Enter: The Dragon. A small (um... relative to dragon terms, of course) black dragon emerged from a small room, and let loose yet another lightning bolt. I'd say it's about time we started carrying anti-static clothing, or perhaps expect it to rain. And what's up with a black dragon having a lightning bolt for a breath weapon anyways? Aren't they supposed to use acid? ANYWAY. The dragon was obviously not skilled in the art of combat, as it was pummeled by Ike and Jess. From the balcony, the old man let fly another crossbow bolt, which hit the dragon and caused it to topple over. He always seems to get all of the death blows.
      At this time, Yu was hit by an arrow, sending him up to the archer level and literally split one of the archers in two. Now that the wizard was out of range, the remaining live archer came out of the geas, looked around and, seeing his fallen comrade, picked up his bow and fired at Yu… whom turned around to kill his aggressor. Thankfully, Jallarzi stepped in the way, telling Yu to calm down. Meanwhile, Zarp tapped the archer on the shoulder from behind… being enraged, the archer turned and swung... about three feet too high... and Zarp was able to knock him out with a quick color spray.
      Our heroes found a pile of gold and treasure, and Yu retrieved the remainder of his stuff. So ends this chapter.

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