Chapter 5 " A Path Set On Skulls And Paved In Blood " page 23 ' Pride Comes Before A Fall ' Lucian's body crumples to the ground at Dio's feet after he pulled his arm out of Lucian's body. "Lucian's dead and I killed him. This is unprecidented so I must go speak with Delphine at once," said Dio as he raised his arm creating a puddle of darkness benieth himself and his brother, Lucian. The puddles of darkness swallowed them down into nothingness as Jonis stood just a few feet from Dio. People were quick to come out to the streets with all of the remaining guards and Crimson Knights looking for any survivors. Sebastian stept out from the shadows saying, "We need to talk. But first you shall be my guests at my keep so that you can rest and heal up. We will meet tomorrow for lunch." Myr couldn't leave it at that asking why didn't Sebastian help out instead of just standing on the sidelines. "Becasue," Sebastian started as he turned to look at Myr, "That was none of my concern. It was for my Knights to deal with. That's why I created them in the first place." Nicholas had some affairs that he had to deal with and would have never accepted an invitation from the man he knows as Longinus and everyone else reguards as Sebastian. Charisma, Clive, and Elly also declined and took Phyton's body away with them to Nicholas's house only after they told the Party directions to find it. Cade had already went back into the Crimson Knight's Keep looking for Violet to see if she was alright. Violet was still back in the ballroom trying her best, with her potions and healing abilities, to help anyone that she could. Violet was very happy to see that Cade had survived and asked him to follow her back to her room, after she finished up, because she had something that she wanted to give him. Cade followed her and was surprised at Violet's skills as she gave him her present, which wasn't a potion, "I made it myself for you." Celine thanked Enutrof for everything that he did both on and off the field and gave him a small kiss before she ran off to help the other Crimson Knights. Enutrof went to fetch his horse before he came back to the Keep for some healing and rest. At that time that the Party was again assembled they were shown their two rooms and the location of the baths as well. After a very quiet and comfortable rest the Party woke up early to some breakfast and healing of their wounds. While Cade was wondering the halls that morning he ran into Jonis, who was walking around the Knight's Keep looking around at everyone, after Cade followed around with him a little Jonis asked if he'd be able to join them for lunch today and of course Cade agreed. After their very nice morning Myr and Enutrof went back out into the city to see all the damage that had occurred. They found out that there were some eighteen Bulettes that attacked the city but the Crimson Knights had cleared all of the bodies by now. Except for some structural damage everything seemed to be back at a normal pace, except for the fact that a little less than a thousand people were killed by everything that happened last night. Myr remembered about Clive and Nicholas and decided to go pay them a visit in their small house. The house didn't look that small with its wall, front gate, three stories, and small yard but they were still given a friendly greeting by the maid who took them into the lounge area where she gave them some drinks before Nicholas and Clive came down. They opened a conversation after Charisma entered the room about where Darwin might be located. Unfortuintally neither Nicholas or Charisma had seen him for over fourty five years. Charisma was also confused when they asked if her uncle Melaar was ever at Harfein with Darwin. "How do you know him, he died over fourty years ago?" she asked before answering, "Except for that one time that we past through it while chasing him he was never there. In fact after that he never came back because he was with me up until that Green Dragon killed him. That's when they needed to inform her about what happened to them when they found that 'Whisper Gallery'. She knew what a 'Whisper Gallery' was since it used to be a big thing in elven culture but had never heard of Melaar being placed in one. "In fact," she said, "I was never able to find his body after the dragon dropped out of the sky crushing him, there wasn't much left really." Charisma was confused but wanted to find this place on her own so she could ask him some questions. Enutrof and Myr then informed them that Sebastian was going to attack Micheal directly and Clive said that he wanted to come along with them since they would need all of the help that they could get. It took much effor on Clive's part to calm Elly down and make her promise to stay there. Charisma said that she would join them since it seemed like a quick way back to the forest but she would never eat with him. As the Party, Clive, and Jonis all arrived back at the Keep they were lead back to a very decorative open air room with a large table in the center. They were served food and were soon joined by Kevrin, Alminster, and Sebastian who also sat down for a meal. Sebastian started soon after he was seated, "I want to attack this so-called-god Micheal directly. I can't stand someone saying that they are a god holding their power over everyone else like an iron gauntlet. To take him down I need someone who is powerful and knows what he looks like. And I understand that you have met Micheal before and can point him out for me. I was given this key that will open up a Gate to travel directly into Micheal's base and I want you to be part of the front line attackers along with myself." When Sebastian said that he was going to lead the charge both Kevrin and Alminster objected saying that he shouldn't go and one of them should go in his stead. Kevrin offered the steel of the Knights while Alminster offered his magic but Sebastian rejected them saying that he wanted to face Micheal to kill him with his own bare hands. Sebastian restated that since Micheal was immue to anyform of scrying or magical detection he needed the Party to identify Micheal for him. As Sebastian stood up to leave Cade asked him one final question, "You know during our travels we've heard of the name Longinus quiet often. Would you happen to know anything about him?" Alminster was kind of surprised by the question but Sebastian looked back at Cade, "If you want to discuss it further we can talk behind closed doors later," and left it at that. Since Sebastian had decided to attack in only a couple of days through the Gate they didn't have much time to prepare. Both Alminster and Kevrin asked the Party to have Sebastian wait while someone else was sent through along with them. "Sebastian is very single minded," said Alminster, "so he won't listen to us but since he needs you he might delay going through the Gate if one of us goes instead." Later in the day the Party returned to Sebastian with their answer saying that they would do it as Kai said, "as long as we are outfitted with some protective help against Micheal's forces" and they were given the 'key'. Sebastian said that they were welcome to any of the treasures that Micheal had left over as well as they key and gave them each one magical item to help them. The Party was also able to make him agree to send Alminster along with them through the portal with him following a few hours later. Sebastian reluctently agreed to it and seemed slightly annoyed when Kai told him, (something very inciteful and directed at Sebastian about his past and being forgiven but I forget it since it was all off the cuff, I need a recorder). The next day the Party was lead into the anti-chamber where Sebastian was keeping his Gate. Sebastian lifted the 'key' up and a beam of light came from the coin hitting the center of the archway creating a gateway that seemed to dance around like fairies on the water. Alminster was first to enter with Myr, Cade, Enutrof, Kai, Clive, Charisma, and Jonis following behind while Violet waited a few minutes behind them before she would enter. In only a few seconds they found themselves standing right back in the middle of Micheal's Fort. With no one around it seemed as empty as a dwarven whorehouse. That was until they say Moray standing on the roof of the farthest and tallest building, "Micheal knew that you would return and told me that I had to take care of you when you returned. Now I can prove to him my worth by bringing your heads back on pikes, Attack." As Moray yelled that some dozen of his men ran out to attack everyone. Charisma was quick to her bow as she took down almost four of them. Soon after Kai closed in on the other group taking out a couple of those guys. Moray saw that the battle was already going bad for him and after casting shield on himself released the two clay golems that Micheal left him to use. "They may not be the most recent models," Moray yelled out, "but they are more then enough to take you down." The Clay Golems moved in slowly towards the group while Kai tumbled around them to go after Moray directly. It didn't take long for Kai to get over to the building but it was a little work to get up on the roof of the building and lucky for him Myr had just launched a fireball right at Moray distracting him. As the two golems approached Alminster was able to stop one for a few minutes by shaping some stone around its legs. But the golems had another trick up their sleves and they hasted themselves after they got in close enough to everyone. Golem Two was able to run right in the middle of the Party while Golem One used all of its strength to pound Alminster down. Alminster used all of spells which were mostly fire-based to slow the construct down. Golem Two however took a heavy fist to Cade dropping him to the ground while beating the hell out of everyone else. Kai had problems of his own after Moray drank a potion that turned him invisible. After Moray shot a few arrows at Kai and still didn't appear it was know to be improved invisibility and Kai knew that this would be difficult. Back down near the Gate Charisma dragged Cade away so she could heal him while Clive jumped into the melee. Although he did get hurt a few times Alminster was holding his own against Golem One. Kai got an idea of how he could find the invisible Moray and poped the cork off of his jar of Saki. In a large sweeping arch Kai released the rest of his Saki hitting Moray with some of the liquid Kai was able to see him again. Wanting to drop him off the roof of the building Kai ran up to grapple Moray but was unable to due to Moray's protective magics. However hearing what was happening with the Golems Kai knew he needed to help everyone else and ran down the side of the building to help his friends leaving Moray behind. Alminster had just cast a wall of fire around Golem One right before he turned invisible to hide from its attacks. Charisma, Clive, Cade, and Enutrof were holding their own against Golem Two until it got some lucky hits in taken Enutrof down. The Gate activated again this time with Violet stepping through. She was kind of surprise about what was happening around her but soon came to her senses and ran to Enutrof's rescue. Charisma was feverishly attacking Golem Two with her enchanted Falchion slowly chipping away at the golem's life when she made her final attack bringing the beast down. Although Moray had gotten off of the roof and came down to fight he was continuisly being stunned by Cade and was unable to make anymore actions. With Moray unable to move Cade launched bolt after bolt at him giving Moray a nice electrical charge to go along with the bolts that were now protruding from his body. With Golem One still moving around, it was doing some heavy damage to Kai while Kai did some damage to it. Even blurred Kai was barley standing after the golem hit him hard with its arms a few times. Kai kept pounding down on the hard clay shocking it with his gloves as he went along. With Golem Two down Enutrof approached Moray cocked his arrow back and imbued it with Myr's Fireball. The arrow was released and although it landed some ten feet away he was still close enough for the fireball explosion which dropped Moray like a sack of burned potatoes. With Moray down Golem One became enraged and didn't stop attacking. Lucky for Kai the Golem tried to attack Cade but missed leaving him an opening to do some damage to Golem One finally brining an end to its rampage. Alminster took charge asking Enutrof to scout around while everyone else searched the inside of the keep. Looking through each building and each room all they found were some left over crates and barrels. It seemed that Micheal didn't think that his secret base was all that secret anymore and decided to leave. With their only lead burnt to a crisp they had no way of finding Micheal again. The Gate activated again with a pool of dancing water apearing inside of the Gate. This time as he stepped through he took a look around and Sebastian asked, "Where's Micheal? I want to see his power." But when Alminster told him that Micheal wasn't here an retreated from this base Sebastian said an incantation and blew it into the wind. The Gate opened one last time as a legion of Crimson Knights walked through taking this keep over as their own. Session on Saturday February 28th, 2 - 6 pm page 23