Character Sketch: Headmaster Stavros Petrovski

Stavros Petrovski was born to a side-branch of the imperial family, and raised for a life at court. He attended Starhold Academy and graduated with honors before being commissioned as the mage-assign for an obscure company on the western edge of the northern border. From there, he rose slowly through the ranks, always in front-line positions. It was therefore no surprise that he died in battle when a gnawer barreled through the line and attacked him. 

It was, however, something of a surprise when he held himself together after being killed, destroyed the gnawer, and continued providing the sorcerous support that allowed his unit to hold their section of the line. The servitors were thrown back, and afterwards Stavros' unit was able to move forward and clean out the nearest nest. He was promoted, then promoted again; by the time he retired from the Imperial Army, he was a sorcerer-general. After his retirement, he took a place at Sunhaven Academy and eventually became its headmaster. 

Headmaster Petrovski has a lean, rangy build and moves with the easy grace of a young athlete. His skin, however, is tight and withered, and there is a massive gash across his left cheek that exposes pale bone and teeth. (He uses magic to speak.) His eyes are withered back into their sockets, and replaced with gleaming red sparks that seem to be further back in his skull than should be possible.

Duendewood: Kill the Keep

 We’re considering how best to kill the forces of Vecna now that we’ve broken off negotiations for today. We definitely want to kill Kaz Drachma and Cassadia Kristiana, and rescue High Elder Kieshara and Krony/Sascha. 

We start by entering Sascha/Krony’s room, which has a nice entryway and which is where we’re supposed to be staying. Also, Sascha has asked us to retrieve his equipment -- his old equipment. Martini searches a cabinet but finds nothing interesting. However, someone’s moving around on the far side of the door. Azrael surprises a servant, who’s apparently loyal to Krony/Sascha. Apparently he’s being punished for not dying when everyone else did in the portal-tent. Also, the servant thinks the higher-ups are really mad about Drachma’s hideout being blown up. 

Martini, meanwhile, is invisible and guiding Ruin around on the second floor of this little section of the keep. Ruin opens the door for her, and she uses this moment to get all the way up to the balcony of Drachma’s room. Drachma is not immediately visible, but there are various book cases and whatnot in the room. There are also harpies lurking about on the walls outside. 

She can also hear something scuffling around downstairs, probably something big. She goes to look down the stairs. 

Drachma is writing and doing stuff at his desk by the downstairs window. Two golems are shuffling around in the room inside. She moves away and starts searching the scroll shelves. They’re trapped. She attempts to disable the trap… and succeeds. She succeeds so well that she actually steals the Phantasmal Killer trap. She takes the four scrolls. 

She moves over to the next case, the one that’s piled in less classy-looking scrolls. She checks for traps again but finds nothing, and just pulls all 60 scrolls and dumps them in a bag. 

Finally, there’s a chest. It’s covered with some sort of goo. Not a trap, as such -- just goo, which you can’t disable. She leaves it alone and goes back out over the balcony, and hangs below it to observe Kaz Drachma through the lower window. He’s at his desk and his side is to her. She considers him, studies his movements, his patterns, his profile… and then she hits him with Death Attack, because he’s an assassin. Mirror Images immediately appear around him… but Drachma is dead and Martini is visible. 

One of the archers happens to turn around, and immediately starts fumbling for his horn to sound the alarm. She runs back along the walls and into our rooms. The guard sounds his horn, and a couple of the Thoughts of Vecna in the dining hall move to charge out the door. Geddy casts Mass Suggestion in an attempt to keep the higher-level bad guys in the hall. “Everybody grab a partner and start dancing!”

Cassadia Kristiana does not grab a dance partner. 

Martini bursts into the room: “I need a new dress!”

The servant emerges and says, “Master doesn’t have any dresses…” She gets the impression that he’s lying. 

Martini makes a quick change into something more appropriate while the servant starts plating our dinners. The servant’s name is Gorf. 

Martini dumps her entire bag of scrolls in front of Azrael. “I brought these for you, brother. Find something that will help us out."

Teleport, undeath to death, mislead, and demand. Those were the more important scrolls. The common ones include: disguise self, cure light wounds, reduce person, color spray, blindness/deafness x12 each. 

Four guys come into the party and start trying to convince people to check on Drachma. Geddy: “Hey, everybody! This guy needs a drink!” He uses his song to fascinate them while the rest of the group is gathering drinks for them, and tags the four of them and Cassadia Kristiana.

Up in Sascha’s room, we eat and then Martini tries to persuade Gorf to let her into Sascha/Krony's bedroom… Gorf thinks Martini is trying to seduce him. Gorf goes into the bedroom and then starts posing against the bedpost; Martini casts Sleep and he collapses on the bed, snoring. 

 

The room is well-kept. The bed is neatly made. Everything has been dusted. There’s a nightstand, a chest of drawers, and a chest at the end of the bed. Someone has forced the lock on the chest. Inside, there’s a few coppers, and a sepia-colored dress and a trident of magic missiles with no charges left. Martini adds the dress to her collection. 

The chest of drawers contains Vecna-uniforms, which we take. The nightstand has clearly been searched as well; there are a purple quill and inkwell, along with two notes that were originally written by someone named Leira. Martini also extracts a set of letters addressed to this Leira, thanking her for saving his soul and also cursing his own weakness and vowing to kill her. Martini shoves them back into his pocket. As she turns to leave, she spots a sack tucked beside the door. She checks that, and finds a sack of old armor decorated with Helios insignia. 

We snag the bag; Geddy, the only one who really knew Sascha back before he was possessed by Krony, is still performing in the meal hall (and effectively locking down the bulk of the troops), but Martini figures we can always sell the stuff later. 

The back storage room is locked. One side is storage; one side of it has been turned into a Vecna shrine, complete with flagellation whip and human bones on the altar. 

We go to check out the Goo Box in Kaz Drachma’s apartment. It’s covered in Sovereign Glue. Ruin uses a chair to touch the thing -- it sticks immediately-- and then uses the chair to shove it down the stairs. The chest begins to wail at air-raid siren levels and the golems rush for the stairs and promptly glue themselves to the chest. They start stumbling around and breaking things. 

We Dimension Door back to our room and rush out onto the balcony, trying to look as confused as everyone else. The wailing sound is incredibly loud, but Geddy just plays louder and keeps everyone in the meal hall. 

Martini turns us invisible and we move into the room with the golems, this time a bit more subtly. The two clay golems have gone berserk. Ruin dimension doors us into the desk end of the room, and we arrive in the middle of a blade barrier trap that has already been set off by rampaging golems. Azrael’s Mirror Image contingency goes off and the images are immediately annihilated by flying daggers. Ruin takes some damage before ducking under the desk, and Martini takes none. She attempts to disable the trap, and manages to claim it for her own. 

The golems have still not noticed us. Ruin snatches a pen off the top of the desk and throws it at the outer wall; the golems immediately attack the wall and are now standing on the edge, possibly about to fall off the side of the keep entirely. 

+5 Weapon oil x2

+5 armor oil x2

Acid Cold Electricity Fire and Sonic resist energy potions +30

2 potions flying

2 potions haste

2 potions of displacement. 

Martini checks the desk for traps. The drawer is locked; but not to Martini. She finds a figurine of wondrous power, serpentine owl; a scroll of protection from spells; and dust of disappearance; and a journal, which we also take. 

Azrael whispers to Geddy: “Time to go. Gonna Coudkill.” 

Geddy: “Where are you going to be?”

Azrael: “Front door.”

Martini positions herself beside one of the guards at the door, Ruin beside the other one. They cut them down and Azrael flings the door open -- whereupon Geddy hops on his Ebony Fly and zips off the stage, still playing his music as he goes. 

Azrael casts Cloudkill into the dining hall, and Geddy rides out as the cloud expands behind him. All the low-level wizards die immediately. We close the door behind Geddy, to keep the cloud inside.

Azrael then attempts to disintegrate Cassadia Kristiana, and doesn’t even leave dust behind. 

One of the wizards cast Mass Hold Person, but fails to connect with any of us. Geddy sends Eva to detach the cage and take it down to the boat. Geddy then casts Haste. Two of the Vecna troops rush out and Ruin and Azrael hit them with attacks of opportunity as they rush by. 

All the harpies finally swarm us, but Ruin is still invisible and cuts up one of the escaping Vecna-ites. Then the harpies start singing. 

Everyone is captivated except Azrael -- including the Vecna guards all around us. Azrael drops Quickened Greater Invisibility, and then follows it up with an Empowered Fireball on the Harpy swarm, wiping out half of them -- including the ones who actually have us entranced -- and badly injuring the others. Geddy begins a countersong. The remaining harpies stop singing and attack, scratching Geddy a bit. 

Azrael blows up some more of them, and Geddy continues his countersong. The harpies attack Geddy, swarming around him and doing a little bit of damage. Azrael drops a fireball on the swarm, damaging Geddy a bit and taking out more harpies. 

The spellcaster in front of Martini tries to cast, and she stabs him instead; she fails to kill him, but a dagger in the kidney is not the kind of thing one can ignore. Geddy casts Dominate Person on one of the harpies that are on their way in to attack us, and sets it against one of its companions. Ruin, on the other hand, gets a bit of harpy poo on his head and instead of attacking his opponent manages to hurl his sword into the door.

The two mages that are standing both cast Phantasmal Killer on Martini, but she’s Death Warded. (We all are.)

Azrael drops a Fireball around Martini, and kills off all three of the wizards that were attacking her. Martini casts Greater Invisibility on herself and slips past the two fighter-types towards the trapdoor where the elder is. Ruin retrieves his sword and attacks his opponent, and is attacked in turn. (He's still invisible, but the guy is good.) 

Azrael drops Black Tentacles on the two guards threatening his sister, and the tentacles grab them. Martini, meanwhile, unlocks the trap door a climbs up away from the tentacles; she's standing on the ceiling to avoid the tentacles. “You can’t see me, but I’m right here. My name is Martini Duentlethar.”

The elvish elder: “Really? Of House Duentlethar?” 

Ruin, meanwhile, cuts down the barbarian he’s been facing. The tentacles, meanwhile, are preventing the guards from moving; one of the guards breaks loose and tries to attack Martini (who’s invisible) and manages to connect with his sword, injuring her. Martini drops Freedom of Movement on the Elvish Elder, who flees through the tentacles; meanwhile; Geddy is taking out Harpies with Tasha’s Hideous Laughter and Azrael drops Obscuring Mist in the middle of the tentacles. 

Ruin Dimension Doors up to the wall and addresses the elder, then takes her by the arm. Azrael uses Empowered Magic Missile to take out the last Harpies, and Geddy swoops down and grabs Azrael, and heads off towards the boat on the Ebony Fly. Ruin Dimension Doors Martini and Elder Kieshara down to our ship as it’s fleeing from the docks. 

 

The treaties aren’t signed, but Ruin thinks the negotiations went rather well. 

Duendewood vs. Solari 2: Lines of Communication

Werendril reined up at the temple doors and turned to look back at his entourage: three less-experienced paladins, two scouts, and Shondrelle, the druid who had been assisting him since the beginning. They all knew their roles; he had no reason to doubt any of them. 

The two scouts, Bulinn and Adviaris, were eyeing the walls; Bulinn was a common elf, older and more experienced, while Adviaris was a true elf, talented and growing in skill. The trio of wolves that accompanied their group sniffed at the night air, but showed no sign of concern. 

"Bide," said Werendril, and swung down off his mount. He stepped up to the gate, then raised an armored fist and banged against it. Humans were not subtle; arriving just after dark and then knocking loudly had seemed like the best way to gain entry while avoiding wider notice. 

One of the gates swung inward, and for a moment Werendril just stared at the empty passageway; then he looked downward, and found a halfling looking up at him. 

"Welcome," said the smaller man. "I am Birno, a priest of Amun. What brings you to the temple?"

"I am Werendril, a paladin of the Order of the Golden Bow, and these are my companions. We come by invitation of the Abbess Hilda Sturmgart." 

"Do you now? Well, absolutely, come inside... and do keep your weapons. You've nothing to fear here, so there's no reason for you to give them up." The halfling stepped back, and the other gate swung open. 

Werendril reached back for the reins while he tried to decipher that piece of logic, and walked his mount inside. The Temple of Amun was all heavy stone walls, smooth to the touch, but elegant in their simplicity; and if anyone was pointing weapons at them, he couldn't immediately see it. 

"We've rooms for you," said the halfling, "but I imagine you'd like to see the Abbess first. She should still be awake. It's not so late as all that, though I do appreciate your tact in waiting until after dark." 

"I'm all in favor of tact," said Werendril, "but do you have any idea why I'm here?"

"The Abbess said she felt we should renew communications with the Duendewood elves," said the priest Birno. "I don't know much more than that."

"Any idea why she asked for me, in particular? I'm not at all acquainted with the priesthood of Amun, or the Order of the Titan King." 

"Ah," answered Birno. "No, I don't know. But like as not it had something to do with your friend Ruin, who came through here a few weeks back. Caused a bit of a stir, he did."

"Ruin?" repeated Werendril, eyes wide with surprise. "Ruin came through here?" And he didn't kill anybody? He snapped his mouth shut and swallowed before the words could escape.

"He did. Helped one of our novices join the priesthood, even." The little priest smiled benignly.

Werendril shook his head. "Ruin. Helped one of your novices. Join the priesthood." He shook his head again. "Please see if the Abbess is willing to meet with us. I... I very much need to hear about this." 

"Of course, of course," Birno grinned up at him. "The stables are over here. You can turn your mounts over to the handlers, or settle them yourselves as you like. I take it you're surprised?"

"Surprised?" asked Werendril. "Yes, I suppose 'surprised' might cover all of it, if you spread it very thin."

Music: Come on Eileen

 Covered by Sugarland and Sarah Bareilles:

Duendewood: Renfall and Welfort

We're back to playing the elves. 

The elves, in case you've forgotten (and honestly, it's kind of hard for us to keep up sometimes!) are: 

• Fartathren Duentlethar - "Martini" - the Grey Elf assassin
• Her younger brother Lelilian Elisbian Duentlethar - "Azrael Abyss" - the Grey Elf goth wizard
• Geddy Lee Geddy - no assumed name - a gnome and noted bard
• Eva, a very young gold dragon who's adopted Geddy as her uncle and usually looks like a young human girl
• Springblossom Sunrise - "Ruin" - a true elf Horizon Walker with minor homicidal rage issues
  

In game, it's the 17th of April. We've arrived in Renfall, where approximately half the human army of Sol Povos is gathered -- facing off, ostensibly, against approximately half of the army of Vecna, who are occupying Welfort. Welfort is directly across the river, and was connected to Renfall by a massive stone bridge which has now been destroyed. Welfort is also the location of the far end of the Portal-Tent that our elf characters destroyed just recently when they were in the middle of the rain forest. 

So: we arrive in Renfall, and Geddy immediately settles in to entertain at one of the bars. He is... wildly successful, with people rushing in off the street to see his performance. Ruin has taken a table with his back to the wall where he can watch the room, and there are plenty of humans here -- many of them soldiers in service to the King of Sol Povos. There is, however, one elf with very nice gear near the back; when the server comes by, his sleeve slips back and reveals the tattoo of a Solari. 

Martini, meanwhile, has arranged to meet with the Earl of Renfall, Gustav LaCroix, and Azrael is wandering the streets and glowering at everybody who seems to be having a good time.

Geddy finished his first set -- not his best work, but well above the standards that Renfall is used to -- and takes a break to work the room a bit, chatting with people and picking up rumors. The first one that he hears is that Malafar is gone and Kaz Drachma is in charge -- which can't be right, because Kaz Drachma was the guy that we disintegrated when we blew up the portal-tent. He settles in to compare notes with Ruin, and the Solari motions them over. 

Solari: "There was a gnome, a while back. One of the heroes of Fort Dedo. Rumor had it he died, and was brought back by the High Priest himself."

Geddy: "Oh, yeah. I heard about that."

Solari: "He was supposed to have disappeared after that. I guess you... went north." He says it like it's something filthy. 

Ruin: "You should try it yourself."

The Solari looks disgusted. "I have some information. Things you'll want to know. Important things. But I need money."

Geddy: "We might be willing to pay, if it's worthwhile." 

Solari: "I was in that battle. I was on the ships that invaded Boiler Bay, before our force was destroyed. And I know what was being carried on those ships." 

Geddy: "Keep talking." He slides over half the money.

Solari: "A group of us sailed around the coast, to catch the Dark Army by surprise. We had three flagships, and numerous support ships. Farrakan the Fantastic commanded one ship, Mistwood the Monk another, and I was set beside the druid, Sorias Saltsoul. We expected to fight mages, so each ship carried a device -- devices that would prevent teleportation over a large area. Then a monster attacked from beneath the sea! It was a horrible crab-thing, and it tore into our boats. Its masters were worse. We call them the Solari-Hunters: a dwarven necromancer who could slay the living and raise the dead, a deadly spellcasting gnome, a vampire lord, and a human woman who was fury incarnate. Of the Solari on the ships, I alone escaped." (OOC: This is the ranger that Evil!Party failed to kill, and he's wrong: Farrakan the Fantastic did escape, but the ranger doesn't know it.)

The beast that destroyed their fleet was like nothing he'd ever seen. He saw it after the battle; it crawled into the sewer entrance and now rests beneath Wellfort. The Solari Hunters left shortly afterwards, as did Malafar, but the beast is still down there. The entrance to the sewers is sealed, and of course Wellfort is protected against anyone trying to teleport in. 

So Geddy hands out some more of our money -- what remains after upgrading our equipment -- and the Solari tells us his second secret. The fleet encountered an  Elvish flagship shortly after setting out, and overcame it and captured Grand Elder Kashara of the Wood Elves and her personal guard. She was taken from them when they were defeated, and she's now imprisoned in the castle; the Solari wrote to the High Provost about this some time back, but has not received a response. 

Our business concluded, the elf finally gives his name: he is the ranger, Merrick. He plans to flee Renfall, and rethink his loyalties. Ruin suggests that he should "come north" himself (i.e. join the Duendewood elves), but Merrick says that as far as he can see, anyone who tries to stand against the Order of Secrets is going to lose. They part ways. 

Martini, meanwhile, is dining with the Earl and attempting to convince him that we've come here to help defeat the forces of Vecna. Unfortunately, she is... not as appropriate as she could be. The Earl introduces her to his friend, the Grand Marshal Benedict of the Great Eastern Army. He commands 13,000 men, and also brings word from Lady Gizelle in the north that elves have retreated into their forest. 

"Cowards," sniffs the Earl.

Martini has had just about enough of these two being asses, and uses her magic to cause the sound of falling plates and glasses outside the door. The Earl rises and goes to investigate, but the Marshall remains staring at Martini. She rises and takes the Marshal's arm, and steers him towards the door after the Earl. With her free hand, she drops a packet of mild poison -- diarrhea-inducing, rather than deadly -- into the Earl's drink. 

"It seems the lady would like to take her leave," says the Marshal, as if this were all perfectly normal and nothing to do with them standing there being insulting. The Earl calls for servants to conduct her out, in a grand show of elegant propriety. 

Martini manages to trick the servants into thinking she's gone out the front door while remaining behind in the hall, invisible. The servants depart, and she makes her way back to the dining room. She knocks on the door, then ghosts inside when a servant opens it to look out. Inside, she switches from invisibility to Greater Invisibility, and uses Deep Slumber to put the Earl to sleep. The Marshal stands and draws his sword: "Show yourself. Guards! Guards!" 

Martini assassinates him. 

She can hear the sounds of alarums and excursions outside, so she does a quick looting of the two men -- leaving the Earl asleep beside the Marshall's corpse. As a result, she doesn't get much; just a +2 amulet of natural armor, a +2 ring of protection, and the Marshal's +3 longsword. She departs by way of Dimension Door, and strolls off into town. 

Azrael, meanwhile, has found nothing of interest to him. Everything is darkness and despair and life is meaningless and temporary, but none of these people are wise enough to realize it. With a profound sigh, he rejoins Geddy and Ruin at the bar, just a minute or so before Martini wanders in and hands him a ring, an amulet, and a longsword. Very much in his role as Martini's put-upon younger brother, he drops all three into the bag of holding. 

Geddy, meanwhile, learns that some seven weeks ago the forces of Vecna slung a prisoner into a cage and lowered the cage by a chain to hang outside the wall. They've been keeping him alive, even going so far as to heal him when someone tried to put him out of his misery with an arrow from across the river. Most of what he hears confirms Merrick's account: the troops here believe that the Solari Hunters slew all ten Solari, and then departed the castle in a grand procession some days later. 

The next morning, Martini and Ruin hear rumors that the Grand Marshal has been assassinated, and immediately start spreading rumors that the forces of Vecna must have done it. Ruin just assumes that's what actually happened. 

Then we teleport across the river to treat with the Dark Army. We are greeted by Cassadia Kristian -- a Secret of Vecna -- and an ogre who introduces himself as King Charth. She greets us by our chosen names, so obviously they've been expecting us. She shows us around one corner of the castle; Kas Drachma is supposed to meet with us here, but of course we're looking at it in terms of opposing forces, tactics, and strategy. 

The thing is, after Geddy's performance last night, we sat down to think things through, decide what we wanted to do here, and lay out some contingencies. And what we concluded was that, well, an alliance -- or even a non-aggression pact -- with the Order of Secrets really wasn't the best thing for our Duendewood kin. And also, we killed Kas Drachma once and if it didn't stick then we needed to do it again until it does. And also-also, holding Grand Elder Kashara prisoner and hanging her guards off the battlements is just not the sort of thing we can let slide. The King -- Mythrandril, not the human tyrant -- has given us a great deal of latitude to negotiate, and we intend to use that to scout this place out and negotiate the deaths of everyone inside. 

Aside from the height and the stone walls, the defenses consist of several patrols of low-level mages, harpies all over the walls (eugh) and sturdier bodyguard types; there are also a couple of Hulking Corpses, of a sort this party hasn't encountered before. 

Martini will do the actual negotiating; the rest of us are free to wander, but we've already talked this over and we know our roles. Cassadia Kristian also mentions that should we need to stay the night, Krony's rooms are open. It takes us no time at all to connect the dots and realize that this means that Sasha -- our paladin friend who's been possessed by the spirit of Vecna's old ally Krony -- is very likely the prisoner in the cage that's hanging from the curtain wall. 

Geddy "decides" (we worked this out already) to go check out the dining hall while we negotiate the terms of the treaty, and Cassadia Kristian remains with him while King Charth leads us downstairs to where Kas Drachma awaits. There are two rooms off the corridor that leads us there: one with the ogres and a bunch of Girallons, and one full of various sorts of really nasty undead. The door at the end of the hall leads us into the negotiating room. 

We've... been here before. There's a stone platform along one side, with stairs leading up to it; a shattered stone portal behind it... it's the room we reached when we went through the portal-tent to lure the forces of Vecna in before we shattered the extra-dimensional space that connected them. Ruined, now, and with Kas Drachma standing behind a table at the far end with a pair of guards behind him. "Here," says King Charth. "Master thought this would be a symbolic place to meet."

"Hope this place doesn't blow up again," he adds, in case we somehow missed the connection. "That's why Drachma's so ugly. Ha! Oh, and Krony won't be joining you." Drachma glares, and King Charth turns and leaves, muttering, "Shouldn't have said that..."

Drachma does not look good. His body looks half-formed, unfinished in a way that's probably painful. Azrael, looking him over, concludes that he'd cloned himself but the clone hadn't finished growing when he got disintegrated and had to transfer his consciousness to it. 

Martini and Azrael seat themselves at the table, and Martini begins the discussion of terms with a monologue on Elvish history, the importance of tradition, and the need for proper recognition of Elvish lands. It's basically all irrelevant, but she pushes on with it to buy time for Geddy. Ruin, meanwhile, mounts the steps to look at the shattered gate.

Geddy, meanwhile, has settled in to entertain the troops. His performances is so magnificent that guards start shirking their duties and coming in off the walls so as not to miss it. While he has them distracted, Eva ducks out (by prior agreement) and resumes her dragon form long enough to do a flyby and see who's in the cage. She returns mostly unscathed, though the guards have definitely fired off some arrows at her. She also ate two of the harpies, and she isn't very happy about that; harpies taste horrible. 

Once he has the party going, Geddy begs off for a momentary break and ducks outside to check with Eva. It's definitely Krony/Sasha in the cage. The few guards who have not joined the massive party/near orgy in the dining hall are still very alert -- the more so now that a dragon has been spotted nearby. There's also a woman in the tower. Geddy turns invisible and climbs up, using Martini's Slippers of Spider Climbing (again, prior arrangement). It's the wood elf elder; he tosses her a note. ("I know I'm a little short for a servant of Vecna. My name is Geddy. I'm here to rescue you.") Next, he heads over to Krony/Sasha, who's in bad shape, and drops some healing on him. They talk for a little bit. Sasha is relieved to hear that Malafar and the Solari Hunters are gone, but he has a request: if we're going to rescue him, he'll need some things from his room. His old things. (Presumably, his paladin things.) Also, Gorf has some letters and he desperately needs those backs. 

Geddy heads back to the dining hall to keep the party going. When he's ready, he's going to Message Ruin with the signal, and the other three will either wrap up negotiations or (far, far more likely) kill everyone in the room and then work their way back up top. 

Will our heroes triumph? Is Kas Drachma planning some horrible treachery? Is Cassadia Kristian as drunk as she looks? Find out in next week's exciting episode of Duendewood Unleashed!

Blogging Challenge: The Saddest Book

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. (The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in!)

The prompt for today is "the saddest book I've ever read."

I don't, as a general thing, read sad books. This is because I don't find the experience cathartic; quite the opposite. They generally just make me sad, and maybe angry, and I don't like that. But that's not to say it never happens. 

The one that sticks out in my memory -- and I'm sure I've talked about this before -- is The Name of the Rose, which I read in something like ninth grade in lieu of The Scarlet Pimpernel, which I'd read already. The Name of the Rose (and this next bit is mild spoilers, but it was published in 1994 so I think this is fair) is a murder mystery set in a medieval abbey, and culminates with the library of the abbey catching fire and the whole thing -- common books and irreplaceable manuscripts alike -- burning down. 

I read the book once. I watched the movie once. I will not traumatize myself that way again. 

So that one probably gets the award. Second place would go to Emma Bull's Finder. Finder is part of the Borderlands series (now largely -- and tragically -- out of print) and takes place in a city positioned between our world and the Elflands. And it, too, is a murder mystery in its way... or at least, it starts out as one, which is how our protagonist Orient gets dragged into things. It is not, overall, a sad book -- but it has a sad resolution, and the story handles it very well.

(Do a search on Ellen Kushner or Terri Windling if you want to find more of/about Borderlands. Also, Emma Bull is not a terribly prolific author, but her work is extremely good -- War for the Oaks is probably the genesis of the modern Urban Fantasy genre.)

Character Sketch: Aiden Smith

Aiden is a Cobalt, one of the blue-skinned people who live in the Great Forest and mine the mountains beyond it. He is beginning his first year at Sunhaven, and hopes to bring what he learns there back to his people and perhaps help them achieve a better position with the empire. (Cobalts, as a general thing, are familiar with the magics of the forest rather than those of the empire; they are generally considered a separate people rather than imperial citizens, and their freedom is assured mainly by the Great Forest's evident dislike of anyone who tries to exploit its resources. Otherwise, they'd probably have been assimilated into the empire by now.) Aiden is tall and slender, and his focus is a familiar: in this case, a small semi-dragon that usually rides on his shoulder. He wears a silver ring to help him remember his family.

Duendewood vs. Solari 2: The Abbess

(FS557-07-20, so about three months after the Duendewood elves departed the Temple of Amun...)

The Abbess Hilda Sturmgart sat behind her wide wooden desk and regarded the two women in front of her: Anica, a solid and experienced human paladin, a credit to the order; and Aesa, the half-elf, newly risen to the priesthood but favored of Amun. Anica looked back at her, and Hilda thought she detected a hint of resignation behind the paladin's attentiveness; Aesa, on the other hand, kept glancing nervously at the floor. 

"You're both starting to show," she said flatly. Then she smiled. "It wasn't the bard, I take it?"

Aesa blushed and cleared her throat, but Anica just said: "No. He was busy... elsewhere."

"Indeed he was. The warrior, then?" She looked at Aesa. "The one who helped you find your way into the priesthood?"

Aesa swallowed and nodded.

She turned her gaze back to Anica. "And you?"

Anica nodded matter-of-factly. "And me." She clarified: "Also the warrior."

Aesa said, "Neither of us found out about the other one until after they left, but..."

Anica nodded: "...I don't think that was a deliberate deception on his part."

Aesa nodded her agreement. "It was all very sudden and unexpected, and there wasn't a lot of discussion involved." 

"No," Hilda said drily. "I imagine not. So what do you intend to do?"

"Well," said Anica, "Obviously we're both planning to have the babies... And we'd talked about co-parenting--" 

"When we're not busy with our duties," Aesa put in. 

Hilda nodded. That was about what she'd expected; neither Anica nor Aesa was going to abandon the order, even for the sake of raising a child. Nor was there any reason that they should have to; the Temple of Amun took in unwanted children, and maintained both a school and an orphanage as part of their care for the poor in Caristhium proper. The nursery here in the temple was smaller, but perfectly adequate for watching over children while their parents were away. "Then the only issue I see," she said, "is that you'll be raising elvish children in a very human environment. Leaving aside the politics of the moment, there may be issues there that you aren't expecting -- elves being so much more long-lived than humans, for example." 

Anica drew breath to reply, stopped, and shut her mouth again. 

Aesa said, "I had a thought about that."

Anica turned her head to look at Aesa, and Hilda said: "Oh?" 

"Ruin mentioned a friend of his, a paladin of Corellon Larethian named Werendril. He said Werendril was still in Duendewood..."

"The Exalted Order of The Bow Made Golden By The Touch Of Dawn," Hilda said, pausing for a moment as she sorted through her memories. "It sounds better in Elvish. They have a chapter house not far from Woodhill. I could send word to them, see if this Werendril is available to consult with us."

Anica frowned. "That seems like it might be... awkward." 

Hilda shook her head. "Not at all. I won't mention either of you. I'll simply ask for them to send an emissary to consult with us about coordinating our efforts, and request this Werendril as someone who was recommended to me. Our orders know each other of old; in these times, they might suspect a trap, but they'll send someone and probably him." She paused, considering, then added: "We can explain the situation when he gets here, but even if he's no help for the two of you it would do us all good to establish better communications with the Duendewood elves. If only the King..." She shook her head; there was no point lamenting things that couldn't be changed. "Well. Enough of satisfying an old woman's curiosity; both of you, get back to your duties and try to stay out of combat."

Aesa glanced at Anica, who nodded sharply before she turned and started for the door. Hilda sat quietly, listening, as the door to her office closed behind them. Her attentiveness was rewarded when she heard Anica say, muffled but unmistakable, "Old woman my shapely ass..."

Aesa said something in response, but her voice was softer and the closed door muffled it beyond deciphering. Abbess Hilda smiled, then got back to work herself. She had letters to write, now, and treaties to compose. Possibly an edict or two to outline, just in case she needed it.

Sleep is my friend

So after a week or more of thinking, "I really ought to get to sleep earlier," I finally put myself down right after we finished eating dinner -- well, not right after, but as soon as possible after. That was about seven-thirty, I think. 

I slept straight through to six-forty this morning. 

So, call that about eleven hours. And I feel much better for it. Like, I think I finally got that system reset that my body's been wanting. I'm still yawning, of course -- I haven't been awake that long, after all -- but moving, feeling, doing things? All feel like less of a struggle. 

Writing progress has been minimal this week. I had an idea for one of the D&D stories, but it's too far out on the timeline for me do anything with it right now. I may just pass it back to my DM to play with. And I need to get back to work on Shadow Academy, which is currently still just a bunch of character sketches and an intro scene; I need to get the story going. 

Work is still busy and looks like to get busier for the next several months, but there's not much to do there except ride the wave and learn as much as I can; we're going to need it. 

Oh, yeah: and get sleep. Sleep is my friend.

One interesting side-effect of getting that much sleep: I remember my dreams, and my dreams were weird. Like, I had taken a travel detour to watch a zombie movie, and that movie was also ground zero for a zombie outbreak. A lot of avoiding zombies, blocking their way, and getting out of the theater. So either my brain is deeply recursive, or it's very confused. Possibly it's a reaction to our idiot governor reopening the state before we're full vaccinated. Or the whole thing was a metaphor for this project at work...

Character Sketch: Julia Huntington

Julia Huntington is in her second year at the Shadow Academy, and while she isn't especially adept at direct combat her skill at bone magic is more than enough to make up for it. Her family has belonged to the Midnight Accord for generations, though her particular branch holds little in the way of political power; they allied with the vampires and ghouls and beastmen and shapechangers because of their skill at necromancy, for which the Houses of Light despised them every bit as much as the others. Julia is socially awkward, and frequently seems nervous or distant. Her focus is a bone mask which she wears to cast spells, and she frequently has one or more spirits hovering around her to take part in her magics.

Blogging Challenge: Best Parts of Each Season

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. (The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in!)

The prompt for today is "the best parts of each season," which is interesting because I don't generally think about seasons that way. For one thing, I work in a server room, so to some extent it's always cold regardless of what's going on outside. Mainly, though, I just don't tend to stop and reflect on things as an aspect of their seasons. 

So, for example, I don't generally think, "Ah, summer is here! We can go to the beach!" It's more like, "Dear ye gods it's hot outside! Why? WHYYYYY!?!?!" ...along with a bit of, "And now the boys are out of school and it will require extra effort to keep them on schedule." 

I'm in Texas, by the way, and it turns out our super-special not-federally-regulated power grid is not only incapable of handling extreme cold, it's also not real good with extreme heat. Given what the temperatures are doing right now, this is probably going to be every bit as much of a disaster as the loss of power was during the Icepocalypse. 

But the prompt was for the best parts of each season, so let's look on the positive side. 

Spring: Spring is usually (hopefully) a time when the temperatures are pleasant and it rains a lot (which I also enjoy). The plants are green and blooming, and despite what that does to my allergies it's always refreshing to see that. 

Summer: In summer the boys are out of school, so we can take family trips. Travel is absolutely the best part of summer, to my mind. 

Autumn: Fall is when the heat finally breaks and my allergies settle down; we usually get some rain again, too, which I love. There are also holidays (Halloween is, perhaps unsurprisingly, my favorite) and the boys are back in school so our household gets back into more of a rhythm. 

Winter: Texas winters tend not to be all that cold -- though climate change is making that less reliable than it was in my youth -- and I find the chill very pleasant. Also, it lets me break out some items of clothing -- coats and suchlike -- that I don't ordinarily get to wear. Plus, again, we get a stretch where the boys are in school and everybody's on a fairly regular schedule; that's more of a relief than I care to admit.

So... off the top of my head, those are my favorite parts of each season.

Sol Povos: The Sword of Kaz

We're down in the base of the dungeon with Old Man Kaz and the Death Door that guards the Sword of Kaz. Apparently the globes used to tingle and be warm to the touch. Neither of them are uncomfortable now. Old Man Kaz -- whatever he is -- considers this a very good sign.

We consider other ways of testing the door, and... well, some time back Leira turned a couple of young dragons into lizards. Marshall extracts one of them and tosses it through the door. It seems uninjured, but slips around the corner and there's a horrible whirring sound followed by a crunching.

Giant saw blades. It's giant saw blades cutting into the corridor from various angles. The former dragon is now a very deceased lizard.

Leira thinks it might be a variant of Wall of Blades, and tries to dispel it. She fails, but she doesn't think it's impossible; it's just harder than she first thought. She tries again, and manages it.

We advance, and find that the blades are all through this passage as we wind back and forth. Leira moves us along by alternating between teleport and Dispel Magic. We go forward until we find a key on the ground; then we try the other passage and find more blades. This method is working, but we're burning through Leira's spell slots at a ferocious rate, which might be a problem since we intend to teleport all the way out once we get the sword.

Then we hit a point where the blades prove highly resistant. Tavros: "Don't worry, when we get there you just turn invisible; we'll handle the smashing."

We blow all but the last of Leira's spell slots, and get to a door. It's locked, but we have a key. We open the door to an ancient crypt, with green marble floor titles and vines growing all through this.

There's a mummy standing behind the altar at the far end. "You have come at last! You are the servants of the dark one!"

Tavros: "Indeed we are, good sir!"

Mummy: "Wait a minute... you befoul this place with your presence, paladin!"

...We've found Destrian. Who was the personal priest of Kaz, who has clearly turned himself into a mummy.

Old man Kaz apparently didn't know.

Marshall: "Never fear. Mummies are my specialty."

Tavros charges, and in the process steps onto a magical symbol and triggers it. He is wracked with pain, and as a consequence misses his attack on the mummy.

Destrian casts Shield of Faith, making himself even harder to hit. Also, he animates the vines that have grown throughout the room. Tavros manages not to be trapped, but the only way out of here is going to be to kill this guy.

Marshall moves into the room and is entangled by the vines. Alexej makes his way along the edges of the room, positioning himself close enough to attack. Leira drops a ball of cold on Destrian and Tavros (who is immune) and does the mummy some damage.

The mummy casts Silence over by the door, to block off Leira and Marshall's spellcasting, but fails against Marshall. Then he reanimates the vines, entangling Tavros.

Marshall hits him with Searing Light; Alexej trips Destrian but fails to damage him. Leira sends her familiar, a talking seagull, into the room in her place. The seagull moves out of the range of the Silence and speaks her magic words for her.

Destrian dies.

Alexej and Tavros search the body:
Cloak of Resistance +2
Ring of energy resistance (fire)(minor) (+2)
Magical half-plate armor that we'll sell for gold.

Tavros casts Detect Evil on the sword on the altar, and immediately passes out. The sword is very, VERY evil.

Marshall makes his way over the sarcophagi and around the pentacle; then Marshall put his hand on the hilt. There's a whispering just outside his hearing, as the overwhelming evil of the sword tries to take him over.

He drops it, but there's still a voice in his head. He wraps his hand in cloth, and tries to pick it up without touching it. The sword is clearly still talking to him, because he's shouting answers back into the pommel (which he's holding like it's a microphone).

Tavros stirs, sits up, and says: "WHY THE HELL ARE YOU HOLDING THAT THING? ARE YOU TALKING TO IT?"

There's a switch by the door; Alexej throws it at Marshal's instruction. The sword wants us to kill Old Man Kaz, who is actually the demon Marduk.

We're... basically okay with this, but Tavros really wants Marshall to put the sword in the bag of holding first. Marshall wraps the sword up in a blanket and ties it across his back.

We take a quick show of hands, and decide that yes: we're going to kill Marduk. Apparently the servants of Asmodeus are working against the Dark Lord.

The sword continues talking to Marshall as we make ready, warning him that Marduk can teleport at will and that we probably don't have time to rest before we fight him. The sword is also trying to convince Marshall that he should wield the sword against Marduk.

Marshall cast Align Weapon (Good) on our weapons, and we teleport back to Old Man Kaz. He's been pacing the room, and we teleport in basically on top of him.

Marshall uses a Quickened Divine Favor, and slashes at the "old man" with his twin-bladed scythe ("the fangs of Artem-hiss"). Alexej and Tavros move to flank; Leira sensibly turns invisible.

Old Man Kaz reverts to his demon form, swelling into a large monster; we're all knocked away. It follows up with Power Word Stun at Alexej, and stuns him. Leira casts Greater Heroism on Tavros, which mostly counters the pain he's in from stepping on that glyph.

Marshall slashes Marduk, and nearly takes his head off. The demon staggers back, and it is pissed. Tavros attacks, but misses; then Marduk attacks Leira, clawing her twice and biting her; he picks her up and says, "You stop now or she dies."

Leira promptly teleports to the far side of the room. The demon looks frustrated.

Marshall attacks again, missing; Tavros bounces his falchion off Marduk's knee, adding a bit more injury. Marduk reaches across the room and attacks Leira again, injuring her badly and grabbing her again; she's unconscious at this point.

Alexej comes out of his stun, rages, and attacks.

"Fool! Do you want your little girl to die?" He tries to intimidate Alexej.

Alexej hesitates, then attacks anyway but misses. Marshall attacks again and finishes Marduk.

While the sword is busy telling Marshall how useless the rest of us are, Tavros uses a wand of Cure Light Wounds on Leira, and we stagger back up to the surface. 

According to the servants, here's another party scheduled for tonight.

At the manor, the sword keeps whispering in Marshall's ear while we gather the servants. We explain the situation, tell them to split up the remaining gold, and then attend the party before crashing out and getting a full night's rest.

...And now the sword wants us to go to one of the northern cities, Styre, before we find the tower and depart. The sword wants us to teleport there.

After some discussion, we teleport to Styre -- Leira casts the spell. Sture is split by a river called the Grand Gulch. There's a bridge across it called the Skybridge, but with half the city on each side it's almost two different cities.

We take advantage of the opportunity to shop for supplies, because holy hell we need some. Alexej needs +3 Mithril Full Plate... or maybe +5 Mithril full plate. Marshall also needs better armor, and Tavros needs some additional options with different compositions and damage types. Considerable discussion of strategic options ensues.

The sword guides us across the skybridge, which is a market square of its own. The sword is trying to lead us to someone who has something that we need in order to get out of this place.

At this point, we will leave these characters and return to the elves. The elves will be level 14 at this point.

This is yet another Vecna manipulation, where we're almost certainly bringing back something that the god's followers will use to try to resurrect him -- and even if we get it back to the palace, it will never be well-protected enough to avoid being taken. But at this point, we're back to the Duendewood elves and their arrival at Renfall, which is going to be... interesting, given what we know they'll find there. 

Pro-tip: if you want to negotiate with elves, don't execute elves by hanging them off the ramparts so everyone can see them if they approach.

Duendewood vs. Solari: Memento Vitae

(FS557-06-24, so about two months after the Duendewood elves departed the Temple of Amun...)

Aesa set her plate on the table and lifted her fork, then set it back down. Across from her, Tarric frowned. "Are you ill?" 

She shrugged. "Upset stomach," she said. She reached for the pitcher of water, poured herself a cup, and sipped it. "I'll be fine as long as I eat slowly."

She'd managed three bites of the scrambled goose eggs and Tarric had nearly finished his entire plate when Anica sat down beside her. Anica took the pitcher and poured herself a cup of water, sipped at it, and then looked down at her plate with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. 

Tarric looked from one to the other and said, "Okay, I can see where Aesa might have a bit of an upset stomach from something she ate--" He looked at Aesa. "--though I'd assume you would cure yourself if you were really sick. But--" He looked back to Anica. "--you're a paladin. You shouldn't be able to get sick." 

Anica sat back and sighed. "I'm not sick. I just have an upset stomach."

Aesa said, "What?" She sounded puzzled. 

Before Anica could draw breath to respond, Tarric said, "Wait... Did you...?"

Anica nodded, and ran a hand through her hair. She needed to tie it back, but that could wait. 

Aesa was still frowning, puzzled. When Tarric turned to her and asked, "Both of you?" her expression changed to one of alarm:

"Both of us what?"

Anica looked at Tarric, who drew his head back and made a helpless gesture with his hands. "I should have kept my mouth shut," he said. "It's none of my business."

Aesa flushed, and then went pale. She turned to look at Anica. "So... wait. No. Wait. You and Ruin--" 

"After I tried to kill him, yes." 

"And you think we're both--"

"Showing the first symptoms, yes."

"That can't be right," said Aesa. "It can't be. It was an offering to Amun. Well, the first time was, anyway. Amun wouldn't do that to me." Then she frowned. "Corellon might, though." 

Tarric said, "Look, I'm in no position to criticize. It's not like I was sleeping alone either." 

Aesa said, "You weren't?" but Anica, quicker to make the connection, asked: "Martini?" 

Tarric nodded. "And before that, Geddy." He looked at their expressions. "What? He was charming, and handsome, and it wasn't like I was going to see him again." 

Aesa said, "Wait, so you slept with the bard and then you slept with the assassin?" 

Tarric shrugged. "Mother Mia introduced us, and I was showing her around, and one thing led to another..." He looked around, to make sure nobody was listening in. The Temple wouldn't censure any of them for any of this, but he didn't particularly want them to be part of the gossip, either. "So maybe she's staring at her breakfast with the same expression that you two had earlier," he continued. "Probably not. I don't know. I meant to see them off, but wound up sleeping away half the morning instead."

Anica nodded slowly, then turned to look at Aesa. "I really had no idea you two were..." 

"I didn't either," Aesa replied, thinking back. "And it was all very sudden and intense, and I really didn't give him a chance to object, or explain anything like that, and anyway..." She swallowed. "...we're probably never going to see him again." 

Anica nodded again at that. "Still friends?" 

Aesa smiled, then leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. "Still friends. Besides, if you're right, we're going to have siblings. Half-siblings, anyway. So we're going to have to raise them together, when we're not busy helping people or defeating the forces of evil."

Anica laughed, then turned to look at Tarric. "You realize you're going to have to help with this, right?" 

Tarric's eyes widened. "Me? With kids? Teaching them to... do whatever it is you teach kids to do?" He grinned. "Yes, I suppose I could do that... Uncle Tarric. I like the sound of that. 'Teach us how to hit each other with sticks, Uncle Tarric.' 'Tell us about how you defeated all those kobolds, Uncle Tarric.' 'Did you really rescue all those villagers, Uncle Tarric?' Why yes, little whatever-your-names-are, I'd be happy to tell you all about it."

"Oh, no," said Anica, "You just wait until Martini shows back up to hand off your kid. You won't even know what hit you." 

Tarric made a warding gesture, but he didn't stop smiling. "Amun forbid." 

Martini isn't my character, so it'll be totally up to her player to decide whether she might be pregnant or whether she would have taken steps to prevent it. I'm pretty sure she drugged Tarric so he couldn't see her off, and she probably only failed to rob him because he doesn't really own anything that would interest her.

Character Sketch: Julian Arden

Julian Arden was heir to the chivalrous House Brightblade until he and his brothers unlocked a forbidden door in the cellars beneath his family's house. Unexpectedly bound to a bloodthirsty magic dagger, he was suspected of fratricide and refused entry to Skywall Academy. He wound up at Sunhaven by process of elimination, and is now in his third year there. The dagger serves as his focus, and gives him access to some of its own unique abilities. He has recovered somewhat from the grief-stricken mess that was he was when he first arrived, but has stayed mostly apart from the social life of the school in favor of making his own quiet way. He was disinherited but not disowned, and remains estranged from his family. Instead, he remains on campus or visits with friends on holidays.

Writing Progress: Getting There, I think

So, I haven't made any visible progress on Shadow Academy. Last week was supposed to be the week when I'd regroup, re-evaluate my projects, assign some priorities, and generally just get my feet under me. Instead, well, work just fell on my head like an avalanche of snot. (It's a rare natural phenomenon, found only in the Eastern European nation of Mucosia.) I've spent most of the last couple of days trying to export data files on stored documents -- time-consuming, since some of these document types contain upwards of 65,000 documents -- and work on other projects in between, and listen in on training for a new set of applications that we're in the process of switching over to. 

Work, basically, has eaten my life. 

But I've been thinking about the story, and how it shapes itself from my opening scene, and what the vampire prince Dominic might say upon first meeting Darian, and how Darian might respond. It'll work, I think, and it'll carry the story forward, and as I bring in more characters we'll get some interesting groupings even before we get to the final arrival at the Sunhaven Academy of the Midnight Accord.

I've also had a few oblique thoughts about Remant and a book-length project set in the milieu that I've tentatively been calling A Remnant Of Heroes. But I'm not working on that one now; it was originally intended to be a series of shorts, somewhat like the Conan stories, to occupy me when I needed a break from other projects. Just take the character, throw him into something interesting, and see what he does. 

Only... he needs a longer story arc, and I'm not ready to focus on that right now. Not yet. Someday, time and attention permitting, but first I have to survive June.

Here's hoping your projects are going well, dear readers, and if you want to talk about them in the comments I'd be excited to hear from you.

Challenge: The Best Gift I Ever Received

For the last two years, I've been taking part in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge over at Long and Short Reviews. The first link will take you to the list of topics; the second one goes to the homepage, where you can find a post with everyone's responses each week. Feel free to join in! 

The prompt for today is "the best gift I ever received," which is going to take some thinking even if I limit myself to physical gifts like birthday/Christmas presents and not metaphorical gifts like Becoming A Father.

...But after thinking about it a bit, I think I do have an answer. 

Back when my mother was still alive, she made sure that my brother and I always got at least one big present at Christmas. This continued well into our adulthood, though later on she would frequently just give us some extra cash to help take the strain off the end of the holiday season. And she was very good about checking with us to see what we actually wanted and/or needed. 

So, one year -- back during my sword-collecting days -- I asked for a kindjal. And she bought one for me. 

Now, I realize that this was probably not the most practical gift ever to grace my life; in fact, the impracticality of it was sort of the point. This was a gift requested -- and given -- for the sheer fun of owning such a thing. And it was a very elegant little blade, well-balanced and every bit as pretty as it looks. 

Unfortunately, when the boys came along I decided to pack the sword collection away, so I haven't gotten this one out in years; but someday -- someday, he repeats wistfully -- I'll be able to hang blades on the walls again, and this one can return to its place of pride.

Sol Povos: The Gate, The Blade, and Old Man Kaz

When we last left our intrepid adventurers, Marshall had destroyed the giant undead and we'd beaten down the three nasty things that kept stunning Tavros. We expend cure light wounds from some wands to get everybody back up to speed, then proceed to check out the area to the south.

Tavros uses his detect evil ability. There are three sarcophagi in the area to the south, but they do not radiate evil. To the north, the way we didn't go yet, there's something evil just at the edge of his senses.

Each sarcophagus has a statue in front of it, a person holding a brazier; Marshall checks for magic -- there is definitely something there. We get Leira to start lighting braziers for us, but separately or together they don't stay lit. The sarcophagi have Roman numerals on them, but going in numerical order doesn't help.

Based on their placement, the numbers, and like that, we assume that we need to get a fourth sarcophagus to appear. We try opening sarcophagus #1, but it's empty.

We continue to the south, finding a gate blocking a small, closet-sized area. Leira uses the wand of Knock, and Marshall pulls the gates open.

Some sort of darts come flying out to hit Tavros, Alexej, and Marshall. Leira cries out in sympathetic pain: "Whyyyyy?" It probably bears mentioning that she and Alexej are still very, very drunk.

Even knowing that there had to be something here, it takes a minor miracle to find the secret door. But, there's a passage on the far side of the door that leads to a pair of ladders. We decide to leave those for later, and re-close (but don't re-lock) the gates. We head north instead.

We open the gate on the far side, and see another of the giant undead beyond. Tavros moves first, charging in and cutting it badly, and it reaches out to grab Tavros by the throat and try to rend him. "Guys!" he chokes, "Might need some help here." 

Alexej moves up and attacks past him, injuring the giant thing with his guisarme; Marshall moves up and uses a Heal spell to all-but-kill the thing; Leira finishes it.

Tavros staggers back to his feet, gasping. "Of all... the gifts... the gods... give us... air is... second only... to sleep..." He staggers a couple of steps and stabs the thing again, just for good measure.

Marshall moves north, and Tavros follows him, moving to cover a side-passage. Four undead-demon-things immediately charge out of the corridor and try to death gaze us to death. Alexej moves up, putting himself in the death gaze as well. Fortunately, we all Death Warded ourselves before we came down here.

Marshall looks at these things and speaks a Holy Word. They are blinded and deafened. Leira drops a fireball in behind them, but these things are fire resistant.

Tavros takes a swing at the closest one, and hits it once; then they all move forward, groping blindly for meat. They try to grab Tavros and Alexej, but fail. Alexej steps back to reestablish his range, and then attacks and kills the one that was approaching him.

Marshall casts Undeath To Death. It costs us 500 GP in components, but it wipes out the remaining three.

We check the side-corridor, and find a corpse. Alexej grabs gems off the corpse -- just about enough to cover Marshall's last two spells. There's another statue with a brazier to the north; this one stays lit!

We light a second brazier on a second statue, then head down the last side-passage. There's a figure guarding the statue there: Tavros charges and hits it, though again it's resistant to damage. Tavros recognizes it from the old books: it's an entropic reaper. (The Elvish party fought one of these before, but these characters have not.)

It attacks Tavros, but misses; then Alexej moves up behind him and attacks it as well. Marshall, recognizing it as something extraplanar, tries for Dismissal. The monster has spell resistance, and manages to shake off the spell.

Leira attempts to cast a Frost Sphere on it, but doesn't get through its spell resistance. Tavros carves it up a bit more, though it's both resistant to damage and regenerating. Marshall drops a Mass Cure Light Wounds, to heal us and damage the Entropic Reaper.

The monster continues regenerating, and attacks Tavros again but can't touch him.

Tavros and Alexej lay into the thing, carving chunks off it, and it goes down. Leira lights the third brazier.

We head back down to the set of three in the southern area. There's now a fourth statue and sarcophagus, but it won't stay lit for us. We head down the passage to the west, but find only a staircase leading up.

This leaves us with two choices: up the stairs, or down the ladders.

The new coffin has a roman numeral IV inscribed on it.

We stop to check the new statue, and Leira casts Greater Heroism on Alexej. So... we try the stairs up.

Tavros and Alexej come up in the middle of the hedge maze -- and find Katarina and Beatrix sitting there waiting for them. Beatrix moves over to Alexej and asks for another kiss.

So, Katarina is beautiful and Tavros is powerfully tempted, but he resists and then he hears slupring sounds and find that Alexej and Beatrix are embraced in a life-draining smooch.

This is exactly the point where Leira emerges from the stairwell; she takes in this scene and immediately recasts Greater Invisibility. Marshall followers her out; he's been saving something special for both of them: Banishment.

He doesn't get through Beatrix's spell resistance, but Katarina is not so strong; she is banished. (Tavros is relieved.)

Alexej, meanwhile, is still busily kissing the horrible life-draining monster that is Beatrix. Tavros reaches out and (using Grapple) rips Beatrix off of Alexej, who is grossly disappointed and still wants to be kissing her in spite of the fact that it's killing him.

He strikes out and trips Tavros with his guisarme, but utterly fails to hit him with the follow-up; Beatrix rolls off into the corner.

Leira drops a Freezing Sphere on Beatrix, and takes her out. There's now the corpse of a dead succubus in the corner, and Alexej's head is clear.

Alexej: "You need hand up, friend!"

Tavros: "Are you okay, my friend?"

We light the last brazier (in the garden, here) and head back down. There's a fourth coffin now, with accompanying sarcophagus; the sarcophagus has stairs down.

We decide to go back to the house and rest. We startle Tug on the way, but head back into the guest room. Alexej -- still under the influence of greater Heroism -- wanders over the table and pulls out the journal of Guslan the Uncatchable.

"Light reveals that which is hidden."

They came to see what was in the crypt; the rogue was deeply entranced by Katarina. He had trouble finding the Brazier. Also, he alerted his friends that the east wing was dangerous. Also also, he had tea with Katarina. And Guslan finally goes off to join Katarina in the hedge maze, and probably at this point his friends tried to intervene and everybody died.

Tavros takes first watch. Alexej takes second, and Marshall takes third; Leira just sleeps. Or at least that's the plan; at the end of the second watch there's a commotion outside and somebody knocks on the door.

Marshall opens the door: "May I help you?"

It's Ayleth: "Ah, good morning, sleepy heads! We do have breakfast with the master this morning."

Leira and Marshall head to the dining room; Alexej and Tavros go back to sleep.

Old man Kaz: "Have you seen my wife?"

Marshall: "Which one?"

Kaz: "Never mind. Have you seen Katarina!? I dearly hope she hasn't forsaken me."

Marshall: "Yeaaaahhhh about that. I just want to point out that we just did you a massive favor here. MASSIVE."

Leira: "Did you know your wife was a succubus? And Katarina was a succubus?" 

Marshall: "Both soul-devouring demons, my friend. You're better off without them."

Ayleth and Alice slip out of the room. Marshall considers, and decides that this is servants being discreet rather than some sort of deliberate complicity.

Kaz: "Never mind that, where's my daughter? Gail? GAIL???"

Marshall throws Restoration on him.

He's suddenly a lot less confused. Marshall starts filling him in again, with the succubi and everything else, and...

Leira: "Oooh, Katarina's dead! I could go back to her room and steal her smut!"

Alice returns with a very fancy breakfast. Kaz continues rambling, and Marshall just says reassuring things to him; it's not worth arguing.

The very fancy, very good breakfast takes about an hour.

While they're waiting for the others to wake up, Leira and Marshall decide to go toss Katarina's room. Lug is in the foyer polishing the columns; Leira asks him where Katarina's room is. He looks disturbed. "Not my business, ma'am."

She tries to convince him, but he doesn't want any part of this. Knowing where Alice, and Ayleth, and Beatrix's room are, Leira concludes that probably Katarina was just... sharing Kaz's room. She grabs a candle, turns invisible, and sets off for Beatrix's room.

Beatrix's room is weirdly separate. There are bones under the altar/table and not much else in there. She passes through the office, ignoring Ayleth, who in turn decides to ignore the randomly opening doors, and passes into the bedroom. There's an unused pallet, a much-used bed, and a tapestry depicting a great warrior holding a mighty sword as his troops pour over the hill behind him; the sword is very detailed, and there's a tower in the background. Someone with a knowledge of Fanaxian geography might be able to locate the area where this was set.

At the man's feet is a single dead body with an insignia: the symbol of the magiknights.

There's also a backpack, which clearly belonged to a rogue; it has a lot of basic equipment, and some bloodstains on the outside: "A backpack contains Gussalen’s possessions: Lockpicks, a hand crossbow, a sap, some caltrops, ingredients for making smoke powder, 6 torches, several tinderboxes, multiple candles, and some oil."

She finds and open a large chest, containing three thousand gold; there's also a tapestry, depicting a figure in the center with his hands on the chopping block. In the background is a sobbing young boy, a stoic evil-faced man, and the warrior from the tapestries -- Kaz, who is struggling to get to the sword. Next to the warrior, resting a hand on the warrior's shoulder and evidently praying, is a priestly figure in back robes; he is holding up a holy symbol that she recognizes as the Eye of Vecna. A prominent figure is preparing to cut off a hand from the obscured figure of the dark one.

Tavros and Alexej wake up to a platter of very fancy food, and immediately stuff themselves. Once they've had a chance to make their ablutions, we head to the cemetery.

Lug is following us; he warns us to be careful and then walks away. Tavros resolves to hand him some gold if we survive this.

We return to the crypt, then head down the newly-revealed staircase: Tavros first, then Alexj, Leira, and Marshall.

The stones here are very old. We follow the passage down, and find Old Man Kaz standing with the remains of the last group of dead adventurers behind him. "Ah, good. So few adventurers even make it down here, and I could use the help."

Tavros: "So what do you need help with?"

Kaz: "You could help me turn my fortunes, and I would gladly split the spoils with you."

Tavros: "What do you have in mind?"

Kaz: "My grandfather's sword was brought back with Destrian's help, and taken through this door behind me. It is a very valuable sword, but everyone who tries to retrieve it dies in trying to pass through. The only clue is the glimpses of another world we have seen in these two globes beside the door."

We enter the room. There are two statues here: one to indicate Kaz: a powerful warrior holding a mighty sword. The second statue is pointing with its right hand to the statue of Kaz, but this one is worn down and almost featureless.

Tavros Detects Evil, on both the statues and Old Man Kaz. (Marshall, as usual, steps out of the way.) Tavros tries to keep a neutral face, and apparently Kaz doesn't notice when Tavros detects overwhelming evil from him. The northern orb shows the top edge of Mar Dentro, where the eye of Vecna was; the other one shows the area of Titan's Reach, where the Hand of Vecna is supposedly resting. 

Old Man Kaz: "I fear the priest sealed the door against anyone of this world, or perhaps until the time was right."

Tavros, half reluctant and half fascinated: "It is true that if you have sought for adventurers from outside this world, you have found some."

The treasures upstairs, which we grabbed before heading down here:
Divine Scroll (Animal Growth (1125 gp), Summon Nature's Ally V (1125 gp), True Seeing (1375 gp), Mass Cat's Grace (1650 gp), Move Earth (1650 gp)) (total 6925 gp)
Lots of money.
Manual of Bodily Health (+3) (82500 gp) (design provides clue to function)
Staff of Life (14 of 50 charges) (43610 gp)

Tavros feels he is strong enough and has no need of the Manual; Alexej could certainly use it, but Marshall has also recently lost some of his constitution and the improvement would restore what he lost. We table that conversation for later.

Duendewood vs. Solari: The Many Ways of Worship

"So," said Ruin, "You're telling me that... Grandfather... asks for sex as a sacrament." He couldn't believe he was having this conversation with someone who looked like a young human girl, but there was nobody else in Midgard he could have it with.

Eva shook her head. "Not exactly. Understand that we don't worship him the way you do--" 

Ruin nodded fervently. Eva and her sister Rita were dragons, descended -- it seemed -- from Amun Himself.

"--but as I understand it, what you and Aesa did in the chapel wasn't anything like his regular worship. It's accepted as sort of special offering, like a sacrifice. A very old way of making an offering." 

"Ah," said Ruin. "That... makes more sense." 

Eva smiled at him. "You needn't worry, you know. He's pleased with you." 

Ruin's eyes widened. "You're saying He... knows who I am?" 

"He knows who everybody is, silly." Eva grinned as if Ruin had been making a joke. "You just have a little more of his attention than most." She tilted her head and looked off into the distance, considering that. "Not as much as Aesa, though. But then, you're not a priest." 

"...And Corellon?" 

Eva shrugged. "We're not close family. He doesn't talk to me. But it did kind of sound like he was paying attention to you. And he does have a sense of humor."

"Well," said Ruin, and then stopped to consider whether this made any difference at all before concluding that as far as he was concerned, it couldn't. "As long as they aren't angry with me, I suppose." 

"Oh, no!" said Eva. "They're very pleased." 

"Wait," said Ruin. "How pleased?"

Eva shrugged. "Very." She smiled, looking perfectly innocent and not at all ominous; she seemed genuinely happy that her grandfather liked her traveling companions.

Ruin nodded slowly and then very deliberately turned his mind to something besides the gods.  His blade, for instance. Geddy's singing, maybe. Azrael, and his half-mumbled attempts to compose poetry. The way Martini managed to seem absolutely focused on the knife in her hand as she ran her thumb down the edge of the blade. The gentle swaying of the wagon as they moved down the road towards Renfall. 

Anything, really.

Sol Povos: Old Man Kaz and The Demons, live in concert

Note to self: I should really go back and edit these before I post them, because there's some weird syntax that creeps in when I'm roleplaying and taking notes...

Leira and Tavros are on their way to join the party. As we pass the front of the house, we notice a lit window; naturally Leira and Tavros stop to stare in. Leira makes us invisible and we look.

It's a mess; lots of clothing, especially dresses, scattered around. There are three well-worn but bound texts lying on the table.

Leira proceeds to them. The first is about a beautiful servant girl who is taken from her life of drudgery by a handsome noble who sweeps her away and debauches her thoroughly. The other two texts are similar: beautiful girl is swept away by rich, dashing noble; smut ensues.

Leira regretfully decides not to steal any of them, and searches the room instead. There really isn't anything in here; it's probably Alice's room. Leira stops to listen, then jumps back out the window.

At Leira's suggestion, Tavros tears off a tree branch and throws it at the window. It smashes the shutters open, revealin Beatrix -- Kaz's wife -- hunched over a chunk of meat which she's chewing on. She gestures and mutters something in a way that's clearly casting a spell. Then she spends a few second looking around, and seems to focus on us. Then she reaches out and touches Tavros. She tries to do something -- possibly teleport, but Tavros tears loose from the effect and we flee (still invisible) into the party.

Our arrival results in pants-wetting terror for Tug, but Marshall manages to calm him down and Lug takes him off to put him to bed.

Marshall starts looking around for anybody with a key ring. Alice has one that seems to have a bunch of keys on it; Brom and Joseph each have a single key.

Brom comes and sits beside Tavros, and confirms that Brom thinks Katarina is a golddigger, and neither she nor Beatrix eat much of the ordinary food. Tavros keeps speculations about hag covens to himself.

Joseph and Alice are getting closer to hooking up.

Leira goes ahead and has a drink. Alexej: "In my land, is bad luck to pour your own drink." He pours her some shots.

She's very excited, and starts trying to convince Alexej to go shot for shot with her. Alexej, unfortunately, has switched to beer.

Joseph and Alice are pretty much wrapped up in each other at this point. Brom rolls his eyes. "Those two. They're indefatiguable."

Brom, meanwhile, tries to switch Alexej's beer for more liquor.. but Alexej notices and reclaims his beer. "Now, you must do the shot!"

Leira and Brom both drink a toast with Alexej, "To sausage!" Brom has some that he made himself, and he and Alexej head out to eat sausage. Josef and Alice head out the door.

Marshall: "So I think we have an in if we can get ahold of that keychain of hers."

Tavros looks at him: "AM I the only one sober here?"

Marshall: "No, I am also."

Tavros is strangely reassured.

Brom is disappointed in Josef; he knows he's no good for Alice. He wishes Ayleth would buy better materials, but admits that the house would fall apart without her. Still, he's saving up to help Josef open his restaurant someday.

Brom: "Problem is, Alice and Joseph are the only two young ones here, and they can't keep their hands off each other."

He leads Alexej into the kitchen, and cuts some sausages for Alexej.

Alexej: "Tell me what kind of sausage this is!"

Brom: "Boar, but with fancy seasonings."

Alexej: "I think you should make sausage restaurant!"

Brom: "Naw, I like it here."

Alexej: "Is it hard to focus on food with all the action happening around here?"

Brom: "It is kind of strange. You're the first visitors we've had in about a month."

Alexej: "We found book in room, would like to return it. Do you know what happened to them?"

Brom: "No, but if it's the rogue's diary I'll bet it's pretty spicy. Just mind your business and stay out of trouble, it'll all work out."

The door to the kitchen opens and Ayleth comes in. "Are they at it again?"

Brom: "What can I say? They get drunk and they do their thing."

Ayleth shakes her head and leaves again.

Meanwhile, Leira and Tavros and Marshall; Leira has decided that the thing to do is dance on the table. Tug looks out from the back door and he just... stares... at her. He closes the door again.

Marshall and Tavros consider strategies. Tavros tries to convince Leira to drink a glass of water by telling her it's unflavored beer.

After a few minutes, we head back towards the house. Leira can hear suspicious thumping sounds through the open window up ahead. Leira is learning many important things about adult life. When she recovers, she makes Marshall invisible. He casts Silence on himself, and peeks in the window to locate the ring of key (not a euphemism). He goes into the house and looks under the door. His silence effect is now muffling them, so he tries to scoop the keys out from under the door.

Marshall asks Leira to use Mage Hand; then he returns to the door. Leira makes herself invisible and positions herself at the window; when they go silent, she Mage Hands the keys over to Marshall.

We go inside (eventually) and Marshall starts trying keys on the game room door; when he finds one that fits, he moves on. Tavros has kept an arm on Marshall and follows him around the house to the door to the demon sauna.

Alexej stumbles out of the kitchen, relieves himself on one of the columns in the foyer, and then follows the sound of Leira's singing since she's invisible. He wanders into the dining room by mistake, stumbles around, and then heads towards the guest room and runs into Invisible Leira.

Alexej: "I must go to sleep, I hurt." He continues on, and runs into Marshall and Tavros; Tavros taps Marshall on the shoulder, and then steers Alexej back to the guest room and puts him to bed.

Tavros returns to Marshall, and they climb out a window to avoid detection. Interestingly, there's a light coming from one of the windows, and Tavros and Marshall go over there to look into a very well-appointed room. They then slip into the kitchen, and consider whether to start murdering now with the element of surprise, or wait for our friends to sober up and start murdering as a team.

Beatrix, meanwhile, has crept into the guest room and awakened Alexej, suggesting that he was sneaking around; then she suggests that he kiss her, and he does; and again...
He's getting negative levels from this.

Leira, meanwhile, is passed out on the bunk overhead.

Beatrix kisses him one last time. He finally manages to shake of her evil charms, and she disappears; leaving Alexej with four negative levels.

Tavros and Marshall decide to smite evil. We head for Beatrix's room. Ayleth interrupts us, but we let her go back to sleep and find a key that lets us in.

Marshall steps inside and consecrates the room. Then we search it.

The stone table has human bones in a crevice under the cover. Under the bed we find...
700 GP
Scroll of hypnotism 25 GP.
Wand of Magic Missile, 30 charges, level 1

We leave and close the door behind us, deciding to head for the east wing and start trimming down the number of evil outsiders around. We start going through the keys looking for one that will get us into the Game Room.

"Who goes there?" asks a voice. "You need an invitation to enter the game room." Tavros seriously considers kicking the door in, but Marshall unlocks the door. We have interrupted a bunch of clearly-inhuman *things* playing poker.

"I'm sorry," says Marshall, "we forgot our invitation, but here..." He casts Banishment.

One demon vanishes in the process of trying to scrape his money off the table; two others disappear it. The fourth one remains.

"Ne-Jung means no harm! Don't banish Ne-jung back to the castle. "

Marshall: "So, friend, tell us what we need to know and I won't send you back to the castle. And these winnings? As far as I'm concerned, they're yours."

Ne-Jung explains that Kaz doesn't know they're here, though his father did. ...But, he's lying. Okay, he tries to tell us about wine in the servants' shack. We don't care.

The master and katarina are not their rooms. This time, he isn't lying... but he doesn't know where they are. Master Kaz lets them stay here. Beatrix, however, is "very nasty". What are the things in the sauna? Dretches. They're very dumb.

How is Ne-Jung planning to get back home? "To the abyss? Noone can travel between planes from here. I came from the castle."

Tavros: "Is Katarina human?"

Ne-Jung: "I get in big trouble if I answer that."

Tavros: "Good to know."

Ne-Jung: "So, a secret instead. The secret is in the fourth coffin."

We cross to the guest room. Alexej is lying on the bed, and he looks terrible. Not only is his skin turning black, but he's got lipstick all over his face.

Marshall moves to check him out.

Alexej: "I need you to find me hair of dog. I dream of woman kissing me, and I feel terrible."

Marshall casts Restoration, restoring him to health.

We catch everybody up on the current situation, and Marshall puts his armor back on. Marshall casts Light on his shield, and we Death Ward ourselves, and then we head out for the cemetary. We've given up on subtlety; Alexej and Leira are still drunk, and Leira is singing.

The cemetery is fairly dilapidated, and also unhallowed. (Formally. By magic.) With Tavros leading the way, we are unafraid. There are a lot of graves here, but they seem to servants and coattail relatives. There's a stone sarcophagus at the far end; this one is unmarked, and a bit cleaner than it should be. It looks as if it's been opened recently.

With a bit of effort, we get the lid off; there's a staircase leading down into a spooky crypt. We are, at least, out of the rain at last. There are shrines down here, and it looks like we've found the main family. Ahead, the passage opens up with stone pillars with wrought-iron fences between them; there's a gate to the north and another to the south.

Marshall alerts us to critters to both the north and the south; he moves up to flank Tavros.

Slightly ahead, a creature slams itself against the fence and snarls at us; another hits the fence farther down, and a third hits the south gate, which give a little.

Alexej moves forward and Tavros moves up with him, observing several large undead (or possibly flesh golems of some sort -- whatever they are, they are no simple zombies) to both the north and the south. Marshall moves up with them, and Turns Undead. Leira turns invisible.

The creatures are undeterred. The one in the middle throws itself at the gate, and nearly breaks through;  Alexej and Tavros move forward to block the gate. Leira moves up a bit, sees the horrible undead beasties, panics, and drops a fireball behind the fence.

It catches two of them in a massive burst of flames, but they're not nearly as damaged as we might hope.

Marshall once again attempts to turn, but his faith is not strong enough for this. The one in front of the gate bursts through, and Tavros and Marshall cut at them as they come through. Two of them pound on Tavros, damaging him and leaving him dazed.

Alexej steps back and trips one of them, then slashes it a lot. It does *not* finish him, but he's damaged.

Tavros is dazed, and the giant undead from the north side wanders closer. Leira drops a Sphere of Cold on Tavros, which he's immune to; unfortunately, these undead are too.

Marshall tries to turn them again, and again fails.

The undead continue their attack, but only one of them hits Tavros this time. Still, he's stunned again; he's basically their punching bag until these things are destroyed.

Alexej trips another one and slashes it up with his guisarme.

The giant thing from the north reaches over the gate and grabs Alexej from behind, pulling him back against the gate.

Leira unleashes some scorching rays, and finishes one of the undead that are pounding on Tavros.

Marshall is fed up with all this, and casts Mass Cure Light Wounds. Which, at Marshall's cleric level, as actually fairly devastating -- plus it heals us while damaging the undead.

The undead attack Tavros again, but only one of them hits him; unfortunately, that's enough to daze him.

Alexej tries to escape his grapple and fails; the horrible giant undead starts crushing his throat. Leira tries more scorching rays, but misses.

Marshall steps over to the thing that's crushing Alexej's throat, and casts Heal on it. It doesn't kill the thing -- it can't -- but it does a huge amount of damage.

The undead attack Tavros again, damaging and dazing him; Alexej pries the fingers back from his throat. Leira lets loose with a burst of Scorching Rays, and this time manages a sort of drunken hyper-focus: she finishes the big one, and adds more damage to the other two.

Marshall steps back and uses a quickened Divine Favor, then tags the lesser undead with his silvered elfbane scythe.

The remaining undead misses Tavros, and Alexej tries to trip it but fails. Tavros, finally able to move, reaches over and lays on hands for everything he's worth, essentially healing the undead thing to injure it; Leira follows up with Scorching Ray, damaging it further. Marshall moves in and attacks it with his scythe, hitting it twice.

It tries to attack Tavros, but misses; Alexej slashes with his guisarme, and finishes it.