Hawaii:Sessions:19901208:The Arrival

At noon all members of the mission team arrived at the stable to find all their horses saddled and ready to go. Tanisha found a saddlebag of gold, which she split among the party. Then at noon Enigma appeared, confirmed that they were ready, and sent them on their way.

Tanisha and Two-Leaf saw the flash of a clearing at dawn just before they all appeared in a large gray room with a black floor. All of the team felt a gut-wrenching jerk. Only Dr. Ill felt it so strongly that he lost his breakfast. The team was distributed about the inside of a pentagram. Tanisha was in the middle on the right, Lara Lee was in the middle on the left, with Two-Leaf between them. They were facing the northeast corner of the large room. The point in front of them (point one) contained Whitetop. The point on his right contained Gary Cartwright. The point behind him, which pointed toward the door, contained Dr. Ill. The next point contained Kristi (point four), while the last point (point five) contained Tormac. All of the team was facing the northeast corner of the room. A quick look at the room showed it to be over twenty feet high, with a six-foot ledge about halfway up. Just under the roof were a series of light globes.

Just after they appeared a tall man in a black robe and hood exclaimed "What, so many". Then he paused for a couple of seconds. Then in a commanding voice he spoke again, "Demons, obey me, I have summoned you. Tell me your names." Tanisha started to move out of the pentagram, but the man nervously yelled for her to get back in. She hesitated, and the man repeated his earlier command. Tormac and several others took this time to scan the entire room. There was a robed man at each point of the design. There was also a man on the ledge at each southern corner of the room. Tanisha asked the man what he wanted. He said he wished them to kill all the people in Duke Kariz's castle in Carcross. Lara Lee had stepped toward the edge and was told to halt. Dr. Ill moved to the point in front of him (he was now facing southward) and stopped to examine it. The short fat man in front of him almost ran, but did stay in his place.

At that moment Tormac, who had grown tired of the man's arrogance, fired a warning blast over his head. The fat man at the third point bolted for the door. The mage at point one and the one at point two started forming fireballs. Cartwright put a bullet into the leg of Mage Two, who then dropped his fireball in front of him. Dr. Ill threw his net at the fleeing Mage Three. It just missed, and the mage reached the door. Kristi jumped the man at her point and knocked him to the ground with her on top. She had her gun drawn. He tried to jerk free but Kristi chopped him across his throat, taking him out of the action. Tormac advanced on the man at his point and shoved his still warm weapon into the mage's crotch. The heat and the obvious threat kept him still.

Whitetop released Fred, hit the ground, and sent Fred to stun Mage One. The two guards on the ledge fired crossbows at the center of the team but missed to the side. They dropped their bows and went for their short bows. Fred slapped Mage One upside the head, stunning him. Two-Leaf had drawn her stunner and knocked out Mage Two. As Mage Three opened the door, screaming for the guards, Cartwright managed to put a bullet into his left shoulder. He got through the door and two guards entered. Kristi rose from her victim and turned to face the door. Tormac fired at the guard at the southwest corner but missed, however the man did move back. Tormac had been holding the mage in front of and facing him.

The guard on the southeast corner got close to the wall, staying out of sight. Lara Lee aimed at and shot the other guard, hitting him in the torso and knocking him back into the corner. Fred left Mage One, heading to the southeast corner guard. Kristi and Cartwright pumped shots into the two guards entering by the door, hitting them in legs and arms and bringing them down. Two more guards started in, but backed out as one got hit by Cartwright. Tanisha burst into flame and started moving to the door. Dr. Ill went up the wall toward the guard at the southwest. The mage at point four was almost through a spell when Tormac shoved the gun muzzle into his mouth. The spell went off, dazing Tormac, but left the mage in a bad position. Fred reached the southeast guard and chopped off his left hand. Cartwright climbed to the ledge and killed that guard.

Tanisha arrived at the door and opened it and stepped through. Three bowmen pointed pulled arrows at her, with two swordsmen behind them. She intoned that she was a demon come for the puny mortals. All of the bowmen froze. One of the others tried to run and slam the door on Tanisha, but he was so shocked he missed and hit the wall. Tanisha approached one in the middle and ordered him to bow. He did so, but another of the bowmen was so impressed that he prostrated himself on the floor. Kristi followed her out. The guard behind the door peered around the door's edge and stuck his head back in when she hissed at him. Two guards turned and ran, but Kristi chased them down. Seven guards were captured and three killed. Four of the mages were captured. Lara Lee stripped and searched Mage Four. Dr. Ill worked on the southwest guard.

(Mage Three had hit the antechamber, taken the horse there, and ridden down the tunnel. He turned the lights off behind himself and opened the tunnel entrance. He collected the five external guards and headed toward Carcross, leaving the bulk of the stuff behind.)

Tormac, Tanisha, and Whitetop began to interrogate the two mages who were still conscious: Mage One and Mage Five. The team had collected all four at the northwest corner of the room. They did find out that they were members of the Dark Circle. They had wanted to have everyone in the Duke's castle killed. They then recognized Tormac as a dwarf and Tanisha as an elf. They were terrified, and Mage Five fainted.

They hadn't gotten much information when a seven-foot-tall red being popped in behind them toward the corner of the room. The creature had a fireball in its hand. This was dropped among the captured mages. Tormac fired and hit it with a ten-bullet burst, which had no effect. The being began a dialogue with the group as he formed another fireball. Two-Leaf advanced on it and shot the fireball with her squirt gun. It created some steam but had little effect. This fireball was dropped into the bunch also. Whitetop and Cartwright started putting out the fire. The being suggested that they leave. As it was creating a third fireball, Tanisha did an extinguish fire on it. The being noted that there was a mage in the group. He then fired what looked like a blaster shot from his hand into one of the mages' head. Tormac then grabbed up Mage Five and headed for the door. The being vanished, and reappeared in front of Tormac. He then killed the mage. Tormac was very upset and almost went berserk. The being talked a lot but would not tell them who its 'master' was. The team tried to talk it out of killing the mages, but met with no success. The being didn't care. It said they should leave and see if they could find the one they wanted to help. After it had killed the last mage, it vanished.

The team then began interrogating the guards. They didn't know much, but did point to their leader (who was the badly-wounded guard in the southwest corner). They then put up the main Black Hole and placed him in the autodoc; it said the man would require two days to heal, and at least three hours to reach non-critical state. When Cartwright passed this information on to Tanisha, she went to the infirmary and performed a major healing on the guard lieutenant. She ushered him out of the Hole and toward the others. They found out a little more from him.

While this last interrogation was going on, Dr. Ill headed down the tunnel on the roof. He found a deserted camp. He informed the others and then went to hunt for food. Whitetop was the next one out. He left his gear on the ground and transformed to eagle shape for a scout of the area. Meanwhile, the rest of the team began slowly moving up the tunnel (due to a tired Tanisha and the still-hurt lieutenant).

Whitetop, on his circling of the area, spotted a clearing to the southwest of the mages' camp. In it he saw the team's horses. Flying inward, he spotted a young man heading toward the camp. Whitetop lit in a tree on his path and waited. Meanwhile, Dr. Ill had come upon the young man. From a tree he dropped down upon him. Just as he started the drop, the young man (Alon) heard him and successfully performed a stun spell. However, the force of Dr. Ill's fall still took them both to the ground. Alon lifted Dr. Ill off him and did a search. He found nothing, but did start removing the pouches. At that time, Whitetop introduced himself and determined that Alon was the person that they were to meet. Whitetop told him Dr. Ill was part of the team. Therefore Alon returned his pouches and picked Dr. Ill up and started to the camp, while Whitetop went back to get the horses. Dr. Ill woke up; Alon put him down, and Dr. Ill rushed on ahead.

Meanwhile, the team and its prisoners had reached the end of the tunnel. They put the prisoners into the coaches and began a search of the camp. Tanisha sat down near the tunnel's mouth to recover her strength. the search of the camp didn't turn up anything of great interest. Tormac did collect three daggers and the fat mage's food. Dr. Ill was with Tanisha when Alon reached the camp. Alon approached her, introduced himself, and began giving them information.

Alon had been expecting them because of a dream he had had. He had seen a short, bald man who told him that help was arriving at dawn. Their horses had appeared. He was a member of a wizard's guild. They had captured a member of the Dark Circle and found out about a plot to kill the King within two weeks. That had been a week ago. Alon recognized Tormac as a Dwarf and Tanisha as an Elf. He therefore saw them as the beginning of the return.

Just before the team left, it was decided to destroy the pentagram. So Kristi got some thermite grenades out, and then Dr. Ill, Tormac, and she headed back to the chamber. Dr. Ill preceded them on his skateboard. When Kristi and Tormac arrived, they found the lights beginning to dim. Kristi placed the grenades on the northeast point and told Tormac and Dr. Ill to get out of there. Once they had cleared the door, she pulled the pins and headed at a high rate of speed out of there. The pentagram was destroyed as the grenades melted that portion of the floor.

The search of the camp ended, and at 11 am the team, with Alon and one prisoner (the one who had prostrated himself), headed toward Carcross. The team had released the other six with orders to head due south, which they did. Two-Leaf drove one of the coaches, and Lara Lee drove the other one. Tanisha and Kristi rode point. Whitetop and Cartwright rode drag. Tormac rode in the middle of a coach, and Dr. Ill rode on top of one of the coaches. They drew many stares from travelers, but no problems occurred.

Next- Go to EXCITEMENT IN CARCROSS

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