Let's Play Wizardry 6, Part 10

Previously on Bane of the Cosmic Forge, our heroes found themselves in a vast underground cavern, deep gorges gouged into its floor, except at the very centre, where rose an inner mountain reaching up almost to the ceiling. The party immediately elected to ignore this wonder, and instead investigate a mine dug into the eastern wall of the cavern, its tunnels winding deep underneath the castle on the surface. After encounters with dwarves, giants, ants and roasted corn in a mine seemingly in chaos, the party are now ready to enter its darkest corners in search of clues as to what happened on the surface over a century before.

Apparently none of the party thought to bring a light.

With a large swathe of the mine in complete darkness, the party are forced to navigate blind, feeling their way through rough-hewn corridors. The first dark zone is at the east of the mine, farthest from the mines' entrances.

"This is impossible. How are we supposed to find our way?!"

"Not to worry! As a dwarf, Motoko has excellent vision in dark places."

[Walks straight into a wall.]

After much blundering into rock faces, the party manage to chart a path through the dark places. To aid in this endeavour, Whisker finally starts using the direction spell he found in the castle some time ago, granting him perfect knowledge of where north lies, having acquired the necessary magical capacity in his earth spell pool when he learnt knock-knock (a spell that has seen no use so far, due partly to Shaana's skill and partly to the fact that there have been no doors to pick the locks of in quite some time). In one seemingly abandoned chamber at the end of a winding corridor, Motoko the dwarf demonstrates her stone-cunning by finding a hidden switch, revealing a hidden room, in which a hidden chest is found.

[Turns to the party in triumph.]

"Uh, Motoko? Your nose is bleeding."

Yes of course it was trapped, what kind of question is that?

Within the chest is a night stick, a miner's key and a cloak of shadows.

"Oh hey, this is quite a nifty cloak." [Whips the cloak on.]

"Yoink." [Takes the night stick.]

The cloak of shadows is a protective item that can only be worn by thieves, ninja and bards. The night stick is a wand that can only be wielded by faeries. Motoko casts identify, and determines that the wand can both be used as a weapon, and used to cast blinding flash up to fourteen times. The key is also probably important.

Past the eastern dark zone, the party find themselves no longer in a mine, but rather in an older section of dungeon reminiscent of the castle basement. Progress further is stymied however by a couple of locked gates, and an empty chamber devoid of anything of particular interest, other than a few empty shackles.

Waaah.

As well as direction, Whisker and Shaana both take alternating turns casting detect secret, so as to ensure that no hidden button or clue tucked in some shadowy corner go unnoticed.

"Didn't you tell me once that you didn't need that spell, as long as we paid close enough attention to our environment?"

"That was before we started blundering around in complete darkness. Besides, I feel that it would be good practice for Shaana, to help develop her thaumaturgy."

"...you don't have any better use for the mental spell pool either, do you?"

The other dark zone is in the southern reaches of the mine, one level deeper below the surface. The party proceed carefully, using Motoko's instincts and Whisker's magic to navigate, and emerge in a new area of the mine, cut off from the rest by the darkness. This area seems to serve as a kind of armory for the dwarves; Shaana unlocks and disarms no fewer than three chests containing potions and pieces of miscellaneous equipment. Most are of no particular use to the party, but Alva gets a new helmet, and the rest are stashed to sell to Smitty later. More interesting however is another secret compartment found by Motoko, and what she finds inside...

"It appears to be... a chisel?"

[Nods proudly.]

[Growls.] "What cause do we have to care about engineer's instruments?"

[Stares at Whisker]

"..."

[Taps the mine wall with the point of the chisel.]

"The crystal barrier! Well what are we waiting for?!"

"I don't know why she doesn't just say what she means..."

The party proceed to retrace their steps through the winding tunnels at the bottom of the mine, finding their way back to each place where the dwarves had dug their way up against the giant crystal gem buried in the earth. In each instance, Motoko carefully positions her chisel against the surface of the game and strikes it, creating a hairline fracture about the entire circumference of the gem. After having visited all four locations around the gem...

[Frowns.]

"Is it done?!" [Peers into the gem.]

"Looks like we've cracked the crystal along its entire circumference, but it's still holding together..."

[Hisses in frustration.]

[Leans in to listen as she taps the gem with the handle of the chisel.]

[Leans over to Motoko.] "Well? What now? Must I drag a cannon into the mine to break this blasted thing?!"

[Smiles and gestures the party to follow as she strides back up the passage.]

It is not enough to use the chisel against all four interfaces onto the gem. A fifth and final strike is required on one side in particular. Approaching the gem from the south:

[Places the chisel against the crack and strikes.]

The diamond shatters.

The pieces are evaporating in the air, leaving naught but smokey steam...

Stepping into the space once occupied by the gem, the spectral form seen previously within now appears once again before the party, ready to provide some much-needed exposition.

Achievement unlocked: actual plot.

"Free at last!"

"Don't mention it."

"I do not know thee, but I have known of thee, since the times when it all began..."

"I have many questions, wraith."

"My time is short, for as you can see my body has long ago died. And it is only through the last vestiges of my power that my spirit has held this final grasp upon your world, so that I may speak to you now, and aid you in your quest. I will tell you a story, and let this story serve as a warning to you and they who will try to follow in your steps..."

"Yes, yes, very good—"

"I am half of the former wizard known as Xorphitus, whose bones you see on the mantle before you."

"Half?"

"Presumably the top half."

"A hundred and twenty years ago, I engaged upon the quest for the Cosmic Forge, the bane pen from which are writ the workings of all the universe. To speak of the pen, I must speak of the Circle, the blessed altar from which the pen was stolen. To protect the power of the pen, it was written that the pen was only to be used upon the holy circle and thus it came to be."

[Eagerly.] "But you found a way around this didn't you?"

"In order to wrest the pen from the circle, so as to free it from this mandate, it was necessary to contrive the exception, the singular exception which ensures the freedom of the pen, and likewise does not violate the original order. Thus the great exception was formed, that whosoever shall scribe with the pen not upon the cosmic circle, will suffer his writ as a bane, and shall not rest or be freed from it until a new generation has passed, that time being exactly one hundred and twenty years, and after that shall he be of his own doing and free from the writ and the bane."

[Frowns.]

"My time is at an end, for thee has come and set me free, and as my bones lie before you, this becomes my doing, a fate that releases me from my curse. Now listen, as I reveal to you those events which long ago transpired, so that you may act wisely and rightly. Once I was Xorphitus, a great wizard of magic and power. And like all who taste of power, the more I drank of it, the greater became my thirst."

[Looks pointedly at Whisker.]

"So it was that I came to make an unholy pact with another whose hunger was a copy of my own, and together we held the dream of universal domination. When at last we heard of this cosmic pen, we knew that to make it our own would make our triumph complete. And so we plotted a scheme which yielded us the 'cosmic forge'. But how soon we learned of the bane that follows, should the forge be removed from the circle as we had done."

[Starts to nod off.]

"Yes, once I was Xorphitus, and I was determined to defy the fates, and so scribed the words which told of this mortal wizard which should be called Xorphitus, and how he shall know all things in the universe, that he will then know how to evade that dreadful bane. And yes I came to possess full knowledge of everything, and with it was I ripped asunder, twain into two beings, for the nature of all things is divided. That which it is, and is not, and thus as the knowledge lived in me as one. Thus it must pass that I then become divided, for as I know all, I must also know nothing. As it was that a man shall know 'good', so was I compelled to also know 'evil'.

[Nods sagely.] "I see."

[Crossly.] "Oh, you do not!"

"Everything which is known is divided and that which is not divisible will never be known. Thus shall men forever seek to know, and thus will men always be divided. This is the nature of knowledge. And I tell you that this is how it lives inside of you. This is how you know, this is how you think, this is how a mind believes, and how a mind speaks unto itself."

[Wails.] "Why won't he stop taaalkiing?!"

"But time grows short and there still remains much I must tell you. Though I, Xorphitus, am dead, Xorphitus, my other half lives on! And as I do but aid thee, he shall do naught but harm thee."

"I see where this is going..."

"His knowledge is incomplete, since I possessed its complement, and he can but stumble blindly, half-right, and half-wrong, in everything he does, a mind forever floating through a pool of darkened waters."

[Look at Whisker.]

"He is insane, as am I, but you must seek him out, for as I know of the pen and why, and do tell you, he will know the where and the when of it, but not what, and he will not tell you. That is what must be discovered from him, and with him lives the fate of the forge, the pen and hand of destiny..."

"..."

"I am free at last!"

And the vision softly fades...

And so the shade of the wizard Xorphitus, ally of the Bane King, finally fades from the world. Half of him, anyway.

"This is what you were looking for all along, isn't it mage?"

[Nods.]

"The Cosmic Forge..."

"Which, I got the impression, is sort of horribly cursed?"

"Apparently."

"And for what purpose would you use it if you found it?"

[Scowls.] "To study it, of course. I'm no mad wizard..."

[Stare at Whisker.]

[Flits about impatiently.] "So lets get it! It sounds cool!"

"Ah...wait, we need to decide—"

"Decide what? A bad person has the magical reality rewriting thingy, so we should get it to stop bad stuff happening with it!"

[Looks at Konata with surprise.] "As she says."

Just a little further into (good) Xorphitus's prison can be found his remains. Upon them can be found a new key and some of his apparel, including a protective ring that Whisker can use. Also present is a stave of missiles, good for a few castings of magic missile, and a book that teaches the slow spell, which is duly learned by Motoko.

Alas, poor Xorphitus. You had it coming.

Although having uncovered the mine's greatest secret, it is still necessary for the party to search for more clues as to how to proceed. Picking up from where Motoko had found the miner's chisel (and so set the party off on shattering the crystal gem), there is one other secret to be yielded by careful search through the southern dark zone. Off to one side is a chamber, different from those hewn by the dwarf miners. In that chamber, seemingly sealed within the rock an age ago, is a fountain, from which still trickles fresh water...

Well this is nice.

"This is most fortuitous."

"Really? I think its mostly water with some minerals."

"This appears to be part of a prior construction, from before the dwarves started mining. It is impressive that the fountain survives and flows still."

This healing fountain provides the party with welcome respite, and serves as a new base-camp away from the increasingly distant castle.

Refreshed, the party backtrack to Smitty's forge to unload some of their accumulated loot. Smitty does not seem to particularly mind buying back weapons and armour taken from his own mine, which suggests that he might not be on totally friendly terms with his fellow dwarves. He has, after all, set up shop in an easily-defensible chamber in the mine separate from the excavations of his fellows, trading with anybody who is willing rather than getting involved in any fights.

In any case, with the miner's key and the wizard's key in hand, the party is able to quickly finish exploration of the remaining tunnels in the dwarf mine and gain access to a few leftover chambers, hacking their way through a motely assortment of dwarves, giants, ants, slimes and wyrms. Oh, and one final rubber beast.

[Both sigh wearily at the sight of the final beast, and then glare at each other.]

"I'll raise a couple of skeletons to draw its attacks, then the rest of you just...just hit it until it stops moving, will you?"

There were two chests sealed behind gates in the mine that the miner's key can now open.

Now you're mine.

The first such chest yields a crystal wand and a resurrection potion, among other treasure. The crystal wand is quite interesting, being able to put targets to sleep and invoke the wizard eye spell to survey the party's surroundings, though it's lack of reach makes it difficult to make use of at present as a weapon by either of the party's primary spellcasters. The second chest provides some healing potions and a book of rapture, from which Konata learns the charm spell, which can be used to compel a group of enemies to refrain from attacking the party.

"We can trust Konata with such a spell, can't we?"

"It only works on the weak willed."

"So we're fine?"

[Glances to one side.] "Sure. 'We'. Why not?"

Meanwhile the wizard's key is used to open up the first locked gate past the first dark zone, to the northeast of the dwarves' excavations.

Skeletons lying within open alcoves of the room are so numerous that it seems likely this was the castle morgue. One of the skulls has had several cubes of bone removed, curt reminder that brain surgery has always been a hit and miss kind of proposition.

A rather macabre link between the wizard's cave and the castle above.

"That's a lot of bones..."

"And a great many rats! Defend yourselves!"

Yes, that is a great many rats.

While being attacked by a huge swarm of vermin could hardly be called a pleasant experience, the party has come a long way since Motoko decided to waft old cheese at suspicious mouse-holes. With Shaana able to put the nearest wave of rodents to sleep with her lute, and Konata able to blind the next wave, Whisker demonstrates the virtues of the iceball spell by freezing and shattering a good half dozen rats with a single gesture. The fighters are able to take care of the rest, with minimal scratches.

Once the rats feasting on the remains of the dead in the morgue have been dealt with, the party proceed to investigate the area with the possibility of another passage back to the castle on the surface in mind. Unfortunately, such a passage eludes them, leaving open the question of how this morgue could even be reached from above.

"Hmph. Let us look elsewhere for answers."

Further exploration quickly reveals that this area is the 'Wizard's Cave' encountered when the party first entered the great cavern area, but was unable to get far into, lending credence to the possibility that the dwarves had been primarily concerned with excavating Xorphitus's cave under the castle. However it is behind a final locked gate in the corner of the cave that the party encounter another leftover from the past...

Aaargh! Not again!

"Well! It's about time someone came and let me out of here!"

[Falter mid-charge; look at each other.]

"Do you have any idea how long I've been locked up in here! Huh?! Do you?!"

"...no?"

"A hundred and twenty years, that's how long! And let me tell you, if I ever get my tail on that stupid imbecile Xorphitus then I'll make mincemeat out of him!"

"...okay?"

"Well anyway, um...thanks, for letting me out of here...by the way, my name is Mystaphaphas..."

"Greetings Mystaphaphas, I am Wrath, and this is my comrade Alva."

"..."

"I was once the apprentice to Xorphitus the wizard, that is until he locked me up in here and forgot about me...I know, I know, you're wondering just how did a big snake like me become the apprentice to such a great wizard? I'll tell you how!"

"Oh good, because I was wondering." [To the others.] "Well, I was."

"Because I'm not a snake! Or at least I wasn't until that foul pen came along! That accursed pen! Oooo! That really burns my skin just thinking about it..."

"You used the cosmic forge to turn yourself into a serpent?"

"Villains like to do that."

[Nods.] "Oh yes, it happens in the stories all the time."

[Glares at Konata and Shaana.]

"All I did was to sneak in and use it just once...just a few words to make me 'dashing' and 'attractive', so that the Queen might have me as one of her lovers...and that I would live in 'safety' from the wrath of the King...and now look at me!"

"We're looking."

"The queen loves snakes! So I was transformed into a snake! And the wizard locked me in here! He thought I would make a good pet! And so I was safe from the King! Oh that stinking wretched pen!"

And so the party heard the tragic tale of the wizard's apprentice who used a cursed artefact to get together with his boss's partner's wife. Having heard the tale, they are now able to converse further with Mystaphaphas.

"Tell me, Mystaphaphas, how might we find Xorphitus (the living half that is) or what happened to the Bane King?"

"The wizard's lair is under the castle, near the skull door. And I know that you need two gems to open the skull door."

[Frowns.] "Skull door?"

"The skull door leads to death!"

"You mean that steel door at the bottom of the castle basement?"

Indeed he does. The door with the skull face with the empty eye sockets, that the party never managed to get open, awaits them back at the castle.

"How do we get into this lair?"

"There is a magic ring which opens the entrance to the lair."

[Eyes the ring he is now wearing.] "I see."

But where are the gems to open th door to death?

"Xorphitus hid them to seal off death."

"And the Bane King? Where is he?"

"Don't know and don't care!"

"Right. And the Queen?"

"I don't know what happened to her..."

Since it seems impolite to slaughter a giant serpent after having a civil conversation with it, the party bid Mystaphaphas good day and take their leave. It seems that the skull door directly beneath the castle is key to progress, but without the two gems needed to open them, there will be no way through. It seems that the party will have to figure out where Xorphitus hid them.

Thus, having surveyed the mine completely, it is time for the party to move on. The mine actually has multiple entrances dotting the east wall of the great cavern, and by entering the mine and leaving via a different exit, it is possible to circumvent some of the chasms riddling the floor of the cavern and explore the system of rope bridges and ridges that stretch across it. By following one ridge from one of the middle mine exits, the party are able to make their way to the base of the mountain at the centre of the cavern, and find a likely point to ascend.

Before you looms the peak of the great mountain, and its many rocky crags and crevices bode a treacherous journey to the top.

Look at it soar skywards.

[Looking up.] "That doesn't look to be an easy climb..."

"The summit of this mountain overlooks the entire cavern floor; if we can find our way to the top, then we might identify our next point of investigation."

There is a small foothold up the face of the mountain which may be climbed.

Ascending the mountain's eastern slope requires finding the correct place to climb, and hoping you don't slip and fall. If you do, then you will take some amount of damage and have to try again (or withdraw).

"Ha. A spell of levitation would allow us to bypass such travails."

"..."

"What? I don't know the spell; I was simply making an observation."

[Shrieks as she slides several feet down the mountainside.]

The party clamber from ledge to ledge. Atop one such ledge however, the party encounter a small group of hill giants hurling boulders down upon them.

Three lads up on a high place chucking rocks at the small creatures below.

Not wishing to be knocked off the mountainside (or smeared into fine paste upon it), the party scamper up the slope and engage the giants in battle. Lacking appreciation for fine music, the brutes are unaffected by Shaana's lute, but are easy prey for Konata's blinding flash spell, rendering them incapable of landing any further hits on the party's front-line fighters, who are able to get behind them and drive them off the mountainside into the deep gorge below with some vicious prodding.

[Pushes the last blind giant over the edge of the ledge with her spear.] "That'll teach them to hurl rocks at us!"

"Speaking of rocks..."

Huge piles of rocks and boulders cover the ground, probably the remains of a recent rockslide...

It is possible to come to this location to pick up large boulders; these boulders are heavy however (meaning that the carrier is likely to take encumbrance penalties affecting their combat performance unless very strong or carrying little else). Lacking any particular reason to do so, nobody in the party elects to do so at this time however.

[Studying mountainside above.] "Unfortunately I see no way to proceed further here."

Unable to climb the rest of the way up Giant Mountain from here, the party are forced to descend and find another direction from which to approach the mountain. Returning to the mine and taking a different exit, they are able to pick their way to a location on the southern slopes of the mountain to try again.

Most of the way up the summit on the south side, a small crevasse is spotted, and wedged within is a battered old treasure chest. Could this be the Captain's treasure left behind by the pirates that would eventually hole up in the castle basement?

Yes.

Ominously, the chest is neither trapped nor even locked. Shaana flips the lid, only to find a note that reads:

Thanks for the info! —Queequeg—
P.S. Please keep this gift as a token of my appreciation and gratitude.

"Oh that's nice."

[Mutters something rude under her breath.]

All that is left are 'a bauble and trinkets', which appear to have no particular value or magic to them.

"They...might come in useful later?"

[Looks doubtful.]

"I do not think we can climb any further up here either. Though I can see—"

"A house!"

"—yes, a house. Odd."

Thwarted yet again in their attempt to reach the summit of the mountain, the party withdraw once more to the dwarf mine. Creeping through the southern dark zone to find the southernmost exit of the mine deposits the party near the southern wall of the great cavern, well past Giant Mountain, on a rocky outcropping with no clear way to proceed except by lowering a raised drawbridge that could be used to bridge the gap across a narrow part of the gorge to a west-leading ridge. Looking for clues as to how to do such a thing, they find embedded in the rock face some kind of panel:

Konata pressed the button the moment the party stepped onto the ledge.

Unfortunately, simply pressing the button achieves nothing:

The control panel has rusted and won't come open...

[Pulls out mystery oil and applies it to the rusted panel.]

"I completely forgot we had that. How do you keep doing things like that anyway?"

Inside the control panel are six tiny buttons, each with a tiny label. Some instructions engraved on its face are as follows:
Caution. Safety detachment required prior to inchoate winder advancement. Do not activate coilwrap until a wait of five seconds post pump nascency, over safety interdigitation."

"Were...were those words? They look something like words."

"I'm afraid I am not familiar with this language."

Truss ascension may follow, but under no circumstance should fall extrinsic to pump and winder immurement. Final winder engagement induction for draw dridge facilitation.

[Looks at her companions and shrugs.]

"There is absolutely no way that makes any sense."

It is good to know that the engineers responsible for the bridge wanted its operation to be accessible by anyone, and thus took the time to create such specific instructions, in that unique way that only real engineers can do.

[To Konata.] "—so after operating the pump, we activate the coilwrap, then re-engage the safety mechanism—"

"After truss ascension!"

"—ah yes, my apologies. Truss ascension, then re-engage the safety mechanism, then the winder. Simplicity itself."

Whisker quickly presses the necessary buttons (safety toggle, pump, coilwrap, truss, safety again, and finally winder), lowering the drawbridge.

[All look at the spellcasters.]

"You're all stoopid."

"It appears that we now have another means of egress at our disposal."

"An 'egress' is a female eagle."

With the drawbridge down, the party can continue their journey. They traverse the southern edge of the great cavern, across to the west side, until they reach a single rocky cliff edge hanging over the southern gorge, upon which they find some incongruous piece of siege engineering.

The remains of a large wooden machine are resting upon the precipice. After looking it over, you decide it is for hurling heavy objects through the air much like a catapult. On the opposite side of the precipice, you see a tiny ringed target standing all by itself.

[Looks over the machine.]

Inspecting the machine, it appears to be operational, except for a sprocket which has cracked and fallen out, and a long band of rubber, which has lost its spring and begun to crumble...

[Takes out two rubber strands and braids them together.]

"Um, Motoko, what are you...?"

[Holds out hand to Wrath and Alva impatiently.]

[Look at each other and then hesitantly bring out their rubber strand trophies.]

[Braids all the rubber strands together into a band.]

Naturally, to replace the rubber band of the catapult, it is necessary to use the harvested trophies from slaughtered rubber beasts. Conveniently, four rubber strands are sufficient.

[Picks up the sprocket.]

"Oh great! Motoko can fix up the sprocket, 'cause she's a dwarf and good at that kind of thing."

[Stares witheringly at Shaana.]

"Or...we could get an expert craftsdwarf like Smitty to fix it?"

"May I ask why we're trying to fix this old machine?"

[Glare at Alva.]

"...and what does our expedition leader think of this?" [Looks to Whisker.]

"Honestly, I've stopped caring."

The party head back to the mine to visit the dwarven blacksmith Smitty. On the way, they encounter some strange fellows escorted by dwarves.

Strange fellows indeed.

As Shaana lulls the dwarves to sleep, Whisker takes the opportunity to whip out his newest spell, prismic missile, a scintillating blast that inflicts random ailments on multiple foes. A single missile cast at the humans paralyses one trickster and petrifies two more.

"Oh, this is most satisfactory."

The remaining enemies are quickly dealt with.

"Um. Do you think that we're being a little too quick to use deadly force on anything that comes our way?"

"..."

[Giggles.] "You're funny Shaana!"

Once back inside the depths of the mine, the party find Smitty in his forge as normal. Motoko shows him the sprocket.

We've murdered so many of your fellow dwarves since we last came here. You...don't care, do you?

Smitty takes a look and agrees to fix it—for a price.

"It'll costs ya 1000 gold pieces."

"What?" [Scoffs.] "We're not going to spend 1000 gold pieces to fix some random machinery we found lying—"

"Give him the money Motoko!"

[Drops a purse of gold in front of Smitty.]

The dwarf sets off to work immediately, possibly because the party are his only actual customers. He takes the broken sprocket to the forge and begins whistling.

"Tums-da dum... this's only takes a second, folks..."

[Looks at Motoko and Konata.] "Seriously? We could use that gold for all sorts of things, like, like..."

"Spears?"

[Glares at Shaana.]

[Hides behind Wrath.]

"Only be's a few more minutes..."

The dwarf makes various industrious noises as the party twiddles their thumbs waiting for the result.

"Here's ya go! Good as new!"

The party retrace their footsteps back to the catapult. The repaired sprocket gently nestles into place within the old machine. Having now repaired the catapult, the party can...not really do anything with it, because they've nothing to launch (nothing easily replaceable anyway).

[Scowls.] "Well that was useful."

[Absently.] "The boulders."

"What?"

"On the mountainside, that those giants were so fond of throwing down at us. If we must do this, then we can collect some of those."

"Good idea Mr. Whisker! Let's go!"

The party thus once again go back the way they came, in this case to return to the eastern slopes of Giant Mountain in search of some nicely shaped boulders that could be launched from the repaired catapult. This is managed without incident—unless you count being attacked by giants again. Now laden with a few choice boulders, the party return to the catapult, load it up for a test firing, and let loose.

"Miss."

"No! Do it again!"

[Adjusts the catapult's aim and band tension.]

The second launch is far more successful, scoring a direct hit! Striking the bullseye serves to lower a drawbridge, allowing the party to proceed over another chasm onto another ridge, letting them explore a new part of the great cavern.

[Whoops with joy.]

[Crosses her arms and nods her head in satisfaction.]

"But...but why?"

Crossing the chasm allows the party to approach Giant Mountain from the west, where there seems to be a more reasonable path to ascend to the top. Thus with only limited grumbling, the party hike up the mountainside, this time getting higher than before.

The climb to the summit continues all the way to the top, whereat the party finds a rather large house built on top that had not been visible from the cavern floor.

This seems hospitable enough.

"Maybe whoever lives here can give us information!" [Looks at Wrath and Alva.] "No killing the first thing we see. Let me do the talking."

"FEE—FIE—FOE—FUM!"

"Ve smell das blaud af human schums!"

"Um, well, that would be me I guess, but—"

[Grabs Shaana and throws her out of the way.]

Two giants hostile to home invasion by adventurers.

Fritz and Klaus Gryns are two powerful giants living atop Giant Mountain, immediately hostile to the party, apparently driven to violence by the scent of human blood—though actually Shaana is the sole human in the party, so possibly the giants only want to eat her. This is deemed unacceptable to her companions, and so they fight back against the two brothers. Alva casts armourplate and enchanted blade before battle is joined, while Shaana blesses the party with the clarion call of her angel's tongue. Wrath and Motoko move in for the kill, while Konata uses blinding flash to steal Fritz's sight and Whisker tries to cast prismic missile on Klaus.

Fritz is even more powerful than a regular mountain giant, but is unable to deal much damage blinded. It is Klaus that provides the biggest surprise, proving to be a potent spellcaster who brushes off Whisker's spell and puts Shaana and Whisker to sleep in retaliation. On the next round he gets revenge on Konata for his brother by blinding her with the same magic she used.

"Hey! That's not fair!" [Pauses.] "Actually, it doesn't matter."

Wrath, Alva and Motoko turn their attention to Klaus as Fritz lashes out ineffectually. Konata wakes up Whisker with a spell. Whisker casts prismic missile a second time, and succeeds in driving Klaus insane, causing him to gibber incoherently in lieu of using more magic. Shaana decides to whip out some offensive magics, bombarding the two giants with energy blasts and magic missiles while the party fighters grimly hack at the two disabled warriors before they can recover their senses. Victory quickly follows.

"Well, we've climbed all the way up the mountain and killed the people who live there... now what?"

[Shrugs.]

[Sings nonsense songs to herself as she prepares to dissolve the bodies.]

Map, Dwarf Mine

Party review, level 9

At level 9, most of the party are highly skilled in their core competencies and all have access to broad array of spells (albeit perhaps underused by the more martial characters).

Sword 100, Oratory 11, Ninjutsu 63, Mythology 12, Thaumaturgy 40, Kirijutsu 15.

Wrath remains the most deadly of the party, with the highest number of kills to his name. Wrath can now cast detect secret, supporting Shaana and Whisker to make sure that no hidden switch or treasure will pass the party by. Given Wrath's greater ability (and usefulness) as a fighter rather than a spellcaster, future advancement will likely focus on his kirijutsu skill, increasing his ability to inflict instant death with each strike.

Sword 72, Shield 15, Pole & Staff 77, Scouting 3, Oratory 25, Ninjutsu 54, Mythology 14, Theology 50, Kirijutsu 11.

Alva's skill with spears now exceeds her original skill with the sword, and it transpires that backstabbing enemies with ten-foot polearms is actually quite effective, possibly because of how very surprising it must be for the victim. Alva can now cast dispel undead, which can be used to damage or even outright destroy any zombies or other abominations against the natural order that show up.

Hands & Feet 100, Oratory 16, Ninjutsu 70, Mythology 12, Theosophy 45, Kirijutsu 17.

Motoko is still (barely) the party's best critical strike specialist, and the most adept at sneak attacks. Motoko's mastery of mental powers has been expanded, giving her the mindread power, which can be used to read NPCs' minds. As the only psionic in the party, this power will remain hers alone, despite it possibly being more useful if the others could cast it on her.

Sword 49, Shield 4, Music 86, Oratory 30, Skulduggery 57, Ninjutsu 54, Mythology 13, Thaumaturgy 45.

Shaana continues to concentrate on her music and her skulduggery (recently tested against various trapped treasure chests). As part of her preferred role in support, Shaana has learned to cast fire shield, on the off-chance that the party encounters hostile pyromaniacs in the future.

Bows 93, Artifacts 36, Mythology 13, Alchemy 68.

Konata is actually quite an accomplished archer. More exciting (for her) however is that she can now cast acid bomb.

"Hooray!"

The acid bomb spell is a cloud effect, dealing acid damage to an entire group of enemies over a number of rounds roughly proportional to the level at which the spell is cast, giving the party greater ability to deal with larger numbers of enemies.

Mace & Flail 97, Oratory 87, Mythology 8, Scribe 6, Thaumaturgy 84.

Whisker is very almost the master of flails. His high oratory means that he will almost never flub a spell in combat if he has the power to cast it. His high thaumaturgy, far in advance of dabblers like Wrath and Shaana, now allows him to cast prismic missile, a rather nasty spell that randomly afflicts damage or status effects to several enemies, including but not limited to paralysis, petrification and insanity.