By Beth Griese

Date:  March 27, 1999

Quote of the Day:
"If I lose a point of intelligence, all I'll be able to eat is pudding." -- Brian

To Garen Thundersson, cleric of Mielikki. From your faithful friend, Jade.

We had beaten Qhyjanoth, but his work remained behind: we had to find the book he had stolen and escape with it before the demon he had dealt with came to claim it, in a little under two hours. We found a small box with elaborate traps on it. Borreau dispelled the magical traps around it, and we opened it up to find the box filled with a murky gray fog. It was a magical holding box. Verence fished around in it and came up with quite a few items of rarities and treasures, but most importantly, also with the book.

Verence was nearly split with pain when he tried to read the book. The metal gear pattern on the cover fascinated Nory; he made a rubbing of the cover and tried to read it. He didn't end up suffering the same brain-twisting that Verence had, and was able to confirm for us that this was the golem-making book. We had what we had come for; now it was time to make our escape as quickly as we could.

We left the body of Qhyjanoth on the floor of the temple where the demon was supposed to appear; we hoped he would decide his deal was off and perhaps be unable to leave the temple floor. We rode away from the temple, toward home, at breakneck pace, finally making camp when it was too late and too dark to continue our travels.

About an hour past midnight, we found out that we hadn't nearly been clever enough. A ball of glowing red fire was headed our way directly from the temple. We were about to be found. We set ourselves to meet the charge as best we could; I blew my magic horn to call four berserkers to our aid. When the demon was finally within range, a huge, red, horned beast that looked like everything ever scrawled across temple walls, we were as ready as we'd ever be.

I shot four arrows deep into its body before it had come within range to do us damage. It flew above us, hovered... and then the whole earth erupted in flames. It scorched most of us, and then hit us again with a ball of fire, with all of us scrambling madly to get out of its way. I kept shooting arrows, and Mielikki was helping guide those shafts, I'm sure of it, but we were still in deep trouble. My arrows weren't going to do nearly enough damage before this thing's fireballs wiped us all out.

Verence used the powers of Mystra in a truly impressive way; he cast a spell that opened a huge circle in the air to the side of our camp, and through that circle stepped Kendarr, the titan we had released from the giants' lair. Kendarr joined the fight and turned the tide for us, although The Wayfarers still gave the demon plenty to remember us by. Lorivar threw a mace that rung off the demon's head like a hammer striking a bell filled with wet clay. Unable to stand against six adventurers and a titan, the demon fell to the earth like a gigantic lightning bug.

But before this demon died, he managed to summon help of his own. This time, demons of ice, looking like 9' blue ants, dropped to the ground in a circle around where the demon now lay. The berserkers I had called for at the beginning of the battle finally appeared at the same time, and while they didn't seem to have much luck against these unholy monsters, they were at least a distraction. Telaran and I charged with our swords, Lorivar threw his mace again, and the battle was rejoined. More demons started appearing, and at first they were arriving faster than we could kill them off. Within seconds, we had three more demon bugs, one chasing down Verence for taunting him, the others squared off against us fighters.

These demons had claws that tore like cold fire. I was raked from shoulder to hip by one of them, and I knew for certain that one more hit would be my end. Everyone was hurt badly, but we were taking our toll on the bugs, too. Lorivar threw his mace again to crush the head of one of the bug-demons. Verence made a flying leap at a bug and broke his staff across the monster's back. Telaran stabbed one clean through its chest. Before long, our group stood tattered and bloody, with the bodies of demons littered around us and a titan standing with us. The book was still ours, and the battle was done.

Kendarr provided us with some magical help getting home, so we made it back in record time and was able to hand the manual back to its guardians, Lorivar's former mentors. In the end, we also finally got time to check that new hat of Nory's for curses. Sure enough, it was cursed, and it had been stealing away Nory's intelligence ever since the moment he had put it on. And we all had just thought he was getting more annoying.

Faithfully yours,

-Jade

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