04-03-06:

                After a quick breakfast, we headed out in the vehicles the Motorpool sergeant arranged for us, already loaded with all our stuff. Olivia, Alfred and Connors took the lead in a Cherokee. Michael, Vesta and I rode in the cab of a flatbed. Dallas insisted on riding on the back, “To keep an eye on our ass.” He’s kind of an odd fellow.

                On highway 50, between Canon City and Montrose, we ran across an interesting group. A semi hauling a full trailer being escorted by some modified SUV’s; it was a scene straight out of The Road Warrior. The lead vehicle sped up towards us, then turned sideways and stopped, blocking the road. A guy got out and held up his hands, unarmed. Olivia stopped the Cherokee, returned the guys greeting and asked why they stopped us. Turns out they’re a group of traders and wanted to know if we were interested in doing any swapping.

                They told us that they’d recently done some trading with some folk who’d raided a DEA impound building right after The Change, so they had lots of drugs to trade if we were interested. No, thanks! They’d been to California but had stayed away from Southern California. “Everyone stays away from that area. Bad shit going on there.” Seem that pretty much the entire Pacific Fleet is off the coast, and it’s not an uncommon occurrence for the battleships to be launching shells at targets onshore.  “Between the sailor boys throwing shells over your head and those damned parasites from Ka, you just don’t want to be there.” More recently, they’d been to SLC, and told us that the only intact buildings in the whole metro area were some hospitals. They stopped to do some scavenging, but moved on quickly - there just isn’t anything left. They had better luck at some kind of military proving grounds out in the desert. Michael asked one of them if they had any ‘special’ weapons. The guy told him to hold on a second and went to the back of one of the trucks, and came back with a big, steel rifle case. I don’t know what was in it - “Blah, blah, blah, big gun, blah, blah, blah” Michael and Dallas looked like they were going to wet themselves.

                The one that Olivia and I were dealing with asked if we had any antibiotics. They didn’t seem to trust what we showed them. So they told us that they would give us one amp of morphine for a few of the capsules to test. They were very happy with the results, so, for 2 gross of the antibiotic they gave us 400 rounds for whatever that thing that Michael and Dallas were drooling over (I think they called it a ‘gauss rifle’) (??? – whatever!), plus something else they found on the proving grounds.

                When Olivia asked if they had anything else that was ‘special’ he brought out some blocks of walnut wood, some inks, and some cured rosewood they got from a luthiers shop. He also had a bag of bones they took off some guy they killed. They found him breaking into churches and raiding the reliquaries he found. Olivia wanted to look at them. I just wanted to take them, find a nice quiet church somewhere and leave them there, but when she opened the bag, there was a tangible wave of Evil that came out of the bag. I don’t know what that creep did to them, but there was nothing to do now but destroy them. Michael told her to put the bag on the ground and step back. He pulled his betleH, which was glowing, and destroyed the bones.

                The traders thought that was great. They want more Magic stuff to trade. “People are really interested in that kinda stuff, these days.”  Michael suggested they add Montrose to their route, that they might have some luck there. Olivia pulled me aside and pulled out the bag of CZ’s that she and Alfred found. She asked me if I could cast a spell on a couple of them so that they will cause Magic items to glow. She wanted to use them to trade with these guys. I was ashamed I didn’t think of it first. So I did 3 or 4 of them for the traders and one each for our group. She presented them to the traders and explained how they worked “So if these make something glow, it’s Magic. Bring those items to Durango and we’ll trade for them.” So Olivia got her items. I took my CZ and added it to my amulet, symbol of Correlon, and crucifix around my neck.

                Then they brought out another case; this one had “Experimental” stenciled right on the case. It had 12 little white sponges in it. Each one wrapped in plastic that says, “Warning” all over it. Apparently, you break the plastic and the sponge absorbs whatever is in the plastic. Then you inhale it and the stuff makes you faster and stronger - MUCH faster and stronger. There was literature with it that said that in people over 25 this ‘super speed’ was 25% fatal. They threw that in, too. I think they were just glad to get rid of the stuff. They thanked us, promised Olivia they’d keep her in mind and headed off to Albuquerque.      

                We made it to Montrose without seeing anybody else. Outside the gates to town, there were a lot more people trying to get it than the last time we were here. Olivia flashed her ‘pass’ and the guards cleared a path for us to get through the gates. It was almost sundown so as we were making our way to the Inn, the constable were chasing out those who didn’t have overnight passes. At the Inn, we could see some ‘improvements’ the Overlord had made since the NDR attack. He now has 2 Giants standing guard. When we got out of the vehicles, they said, “It’s them” and picked up the concrete barricades that had been blocking the entrance to the parking lots and waived us in. When Olivia questioned them, they told her that the Overlord had described our group to them and told them that we had a standing invitation and that any and all vehicles we had with us were to be guarded as if they belonged to the Overlord himself. We tipped them generously with some chocolate and went inside. The Overlord met us and said, “Your rooms will be ready immediately”. He didn’t even bat an eyelash when Michael said that he and Vesta would take a room, too. All he said was “So, you finally approve of my security?

                Olivia asked him if “Dillywhoop the Stupendous” was around, “or is he still off polishing his knob?” The Overlord grinned and said, “I believe that Vaschanka is currently seeing to improving the Enchantments on the town”. She asked if he knew anything about Ridgeway. He told us that a border patrol disappeared and then some search and rescue teams went missing. And so far, the only trace found was a leg, or part of one. Found at the base of a cliff, half-eaten. Sounds nice, doesn’t it?

                After our bags had been taken to our rooms, we split up to do some shopping. Michael to Brother Aaron’s and Olivia and I to the New Age shop. The gal there was glad to see us and showed us some items she had set aside for Olivia: some lengths of titanium for wands and some sterling silver tubing - for rings, maybe? Olivia traded her some of the gold crucifixes for it all.

                Back at the Inn, we rounded up Connors for a trip to the spa. Michael and Vesta spotted us on our way in and asked us to wait, they wanted to join us! As we were getting our massages, I told Vesta that if she and Michael weren’t careful they were going to ruin that “Tough as nails, wilderness loving, civilization hating, Wood Elf” reputation of theirs. She told me she wasn’t all that worried about it.

                After that, we had some dinner and went to bed.

04-04-06:

                It took longer to get to Ridgeway than we thought it would - the roads were a mess! When we finally got there we found a good-sized squatter's village outside the gates. For a minute I thought we were going to have to fight our way through But they moved back after the gate guards fired off a few rounds over their heads. The guards took us to the Baron, who was very glad to see us. He offered us some tea, and started to explain his problem. Something has moved into the area and 14 people are missing. The first to vanish was a patrol of 6 people, 10 days ago. A search group found some evidence of where they must have been attacked. There were spent cartridges, lots of blood and what was left of a person in a tree - 30 feet up. It looked as if the thing that had ambushed them had hidden itself in a pit in the snow. The most recent disappearance had taken place 3 days ago. All they found this time was a leg. It was at the base of a very steep cliff. Climbable but not easily, especially still coated with ice like it is.

                I asked the Baron why he didn't just keep his people close to home, make whatever was doing all this come to them. He pointed to the gates and said "Because of them" "Those squatters?" I asked. "Almost every single one of them is an escapee from the correctional facilities around Canon City. I don't know why they picked us, but we got 'em and we have to keep a constant eye on them." Oh.

                So we got some maps from him and went to get our gear. I was taking no chances; I took my Walther, a shotgun I got from the Nazi's and the sword. Olivia wanted to take the flamethrower, but Alfred convinced her that tramping through the woods with napalm strapped to her back wasn't a real good idea. The Baron armed up and came with us, along with 2 of his men. They provided snowshoes for us all; they haven't had much melting up in this canyon of theirs.

                After about an hour of tramping through the snow, we got to the spot where the first group was attacked. Blood everywhere, broken branches in the trees 20-30 feet up and the pit the thing had been in. The hole started in the snowbank but went into the side of the hill itself. All told, it was 20 feet long, 5 feet tall, and 8 feet wide. Michael spotted some tracks, but couldn't figure out what they were made by. He also found a couple of different types of hair. Some animal, some Human, but all waaaay to long to be human. Vesta found chips of obsidian, as if someone (something?) had been knapping a blade. I pulled out my CZ to see if it could detect any traces of Magic being used here, but found nothing. Outside the pit, about 20 feet up a tree and up the hill, Michael spotted a skin of some kind. So, lacking any other "trail" we headed towards it.

                A little further on we heard some snuffling sounds coming from behind a grove of trees. Michael told us to stay put while he and Vesta moved in. They were back after just a few minutes to tell us that it was a bear. A 25-foot long bear! It was in the river on the other side of a small hill, eating fish. They were also able to see a cave with what looked like the remains of an old fire in front of it. Lots of gnawed, burnt bones. Now, that bear could be eating people, but we all doubted it was building a fire and cooking them. Perhaps this is some kind of were-creature? A GIANT were-creature? Seemed a bit farfetched. Then someone suggested that maybe the bear was just a bear (albeit a pretty damn BIG bear) and it was a companion to what ever was building the fires and doing the cooking. Oh goody! Two things we have to deal with!

                Dallas asked, "If this is some kind of Magic creatures, how do we kill it?" "Magic weapons," Olivia and I said at the same time. "Really big Magic weapons" Alfred said. Michael broke out some grenades and handed one to each of us. "Magic hand grenades?" the Baron asked. Michael said "Not yet. Ladies, if you would be so kind?" So Olivia and I Blessed each of the grenades. "On three" Michael said, and as one, we through them over the hill.

                Flashes, explosions, debris! Then it got very quiet. Then we all jumped as the skull of the bear dropped to the ground, not 10 feet from us. It was almost entirely clean. Olivia just had to have it! Alfred suggested that we find someplace to stash it and pick it up on the way back, rather than carry it with us. We went over the hill to where it had been. Ewwwww!!! Bear parts everywhere! Michael showed us the cave he'd seen. There was a ledge in front that had pools of blood on it as if bodies had been stacked there and left to bleed out. A bit further down the river, Vesta found a rubbish pile. It had been dug out and haphazardly covered with stones. Under the stones there were broken weapons, scraps of clothing and lots of bones.

                We took a few minutes to discuss what we were going to do next. Michael pointed out that if the bear had been something's 'pet' than we were potentially dealing with something even bigger and badder, something that we might be hard pressed to handle with the weapons with us. He was pretty upset with himself for not bringing that gauss rifle that he'd gotten from the traders yesterday and he wanted to go back to town to get it. So it was decided that he and Vesta would go get that, some more ammo and a couple more of the Barons 'security forces' and then catch up to us. The rest of us would continue to follow the trail and see what we could find.

                So they took off and Dallas and Connors went ahead a little to do some tracking, doing the expanding circle thing. Dallas spotted some drops of blood leading up a hill. Connors thought it looked like the trail had been made by something going down the hill towards the river. We decided to backtrack it. Dallas took point with Olivia behind him for a little Magical support. Alfred and I took the rear. When we reached the top of the hill, Dallas had us all take cover behind a ledge. He'd seen smoke coming from a small valley below. A better look showed smoke coming from behind some trees but nothing else was visible. Dallas led us down the hill. I'm not sure which I heard first, Dallas yelling. "Oh shit!" or the clanging from the pots and pans that were attached to the rope he tripped over. But then we all heard a voice yell, "Get him!"

                4 Ogres popped up from holes they'd been hiding in, throwing snow-covered burlap out of their way. They were firing as they leapt up; I got shot twice before I had time to react. Alfred managed to hit the ground and take the Baron with him. Dallas, being closest got the worst of it, he was bleeding badly. I pulled my gun and took cover behind a tree as 4 more Ogres appeared. They fired more shots towards us, and took out one of the Baron's men. We started firing back. I killed one and injured another. Olivia used her wand to send a fireball at one group, hitting 4 of them. Alfred injured two more and killed one. The Baron killed one of the injured ones. His other man freaked out, turned to run and was shot. Alfred moved closer. The Baron got shot by two of them, but from where I was, it looked like his injuries were slight. As I was leaning around the tree to see him, a bullet hit the tree next to me; I wheeled and managed to kill two more. Alfred injured another, while yet another shot Olivia. It had moved right out into the open to get a line of sight on her, so I killed him with one shot. The last Ogre tried to get away, running through the trees, Olivia stopped that with another fireball.

                I went to Dallas to do some healing for him, while Olivia took care of the Baron. He was calling to his man trying to get him to come back. He finally got back as Olivia and I finished healing the group. He looked horribly ashamed as Olivia went to him with her healing wand. Then he helped us bury his comrade in the snow and put up a marker, so someone can see that he gets buried properly. After I said a prayer for him, we moved down to where the Ogres had been,

                As we got closer we saw some pit traps spread around. It looked as if the Ogres had been camped here for some time; they'd laid out trip wires and some other traps. The ones I found interesting (or disturbing) were the trip wires they had spread between some trees, about 15 feet off the ground. They were either expecting an attack from the air or from something a lot taller than we are. We found weapons and ammunition that we set aside to take with us. A bit further back in the trees, Dallas found 6 graves. They were outside the barrier of traps that the Ogres had made and there was a very distinctive path that led to them. Able to detect that trap all on his own, Dallas found a tripwire that led to 4 claymores, 2 on each side of the path. He disarmed them and put them aside also.

                I went back to the camp and used the CZ to look for any signs of Magic. Didn't find any, but I did find a nail in a tree that had 6 sets of dogtags hanging from it. Above it, someone had carved an Airborne Rangers insignia in the bark. I showed them to Connors. We searched the Ogres we'd killed and they each had a set of tags, too. They'd all been members of the 101st Airborne. The 6 sets on the tree…one for each of the 6 graves? Connors and Dallas decided to check them out. I went before Dallas and did my spell to detect traps and found an anti-disturbance trigger. Dallas took care of it and dug down enough to see a dead Ogre holding a live grenade. He buried it again and told the group "This is a bad situation. Those Ogres out there were trying to lure something in here using these corpses as bait. And judging by the firepower they planned on using, something big"

                It was getting dark, so we moved the 'fresh' bodies so they were close to the graves, reset all the tripwires and went back into the trees to 'lurk'. I took the first watch with Connors, and now she's waking Alfred and Dallas for their watch. It's awful cold; I hope I can get some sleep.

04-05-06:

                Well. I can say with all certainty and honesty that today is a day I hope to never repeat.

                We were having a cold breakfast when a rock bigger than my head came flying into camp and almost hit the Baron. It proceeded to bounce right onto the path and into the trip wire. The claymores exploded! The blast knocked Dallas and the Baron's man unconscious. Olivia was still conscious, but stunned. I grabbed her by the collar of her coat and hauled her behind some rocks while Alfred and Connors grabbed Dallas and the Baron. When I dared look up I could see something standing on top of the hill across the clearing. It was big; 15-18 feet tall with fangs and claws. It was still vaguely human-looking, but what it looked like to me was a ghoul. A Giant Ghoul. Alfred opened fire at it. It didn't even try to dodge - the bullets appeared to bounce right off. It bent over and 'breathed' at us. Even as far away as it was, we could feel the cold coming at us. Behind the rocks, Olivia and I got hit with less of it, but the rest were only behind trees, so it really affected them.

                Connors stepped out and opened fire with her M-16. This time the bullets hit and injured it. Olivia, still shaking the cobwebs out of her head, pulled a wand and launched a fireball at it. That seemed to hurt it, too. Alfred took the opportunity to fire at it again, but his hands were shaking from the cold and he missed. The Giant let loose with a horrible bellow, jumped down from the hill, and landed about 20 feet from where we were. Connors was trying to reload, so Olivia let another fireball fly at the same time that I channeled power from Corellon to call down a column of searing light on it. Alfred moved in and punched and kicked at its Achilles tendon - it didn't even react. It moved closer and swung at Olivia. She was able to dart out of the way, but took a glancing blow anyway and got up limping. Connors, now reloaded, rolled UNDER the Giant and fired up at it, point blank, and emptied the clip. But again the bullets just bounced off.

                When I saw that, I realized that we were not going to be able to kill that thing with the weapons we had, we needed help. I remembered a time, right after the change, when I was trying to heal someone and it went all wrong. I ended up sucking all the energy out of the earth around me, kinda' like a waster. I'd sort of figured that if I could heal with a touch, then I should be able to do something like I did that time, but actually inflict injury with a touch. So with a quick plea to Corellon, I jumped in and laid my hands on the Giant. I threw all the power I usually use to heal and tried to hurt the thing. Hurt it as much as possible. Hurt it for killing those people. Hurt it for hurting my friends. Something happened, it screeched in pain and swung at me with the club it had in one hand. It hit me and I went flying. Then I hit something, a tree maybe? The last thing I remembered was that club coming at me again.

                Olivia, Alfred, Connors and Dallas told me what happened after that, later.

                After the Giant swatted me away, they could see a small black cloud moving in behind it. It was a swarm of giant mosquito-like things. While the Giant was distracted with me, Olivia set up another fireball, this one aimed in the air just above its head. The fireball exploded and the Giant started to fall. Alfred said it hadn't even bounced when the swarm of bug-things moved in and attacked. Connors fired her handgun and killed 3. Olivia sent a charge from her zapper wand and killed another. Connors fired again, but only injured one. Olivia brought out her wand of summoning and a huge, nasty-looking bat appeared and started an aerial attack. About that time, Dallas was able to get to his feet, and he killed 2 and injured another. By then the bug-birds had started to inflict injuries - 2 of them attached themselves to the Baron's man, another to Alfred. One tried to get Connors, but she swatted it away with the butt of her gun.

                Olivia was able to get to me then, to do some healing. (She didn't want to tell me, but I could tell it had been bad, so I made her tell me.) When she got to me, I was dead. She used her wand of healing anyway. She told me that she could see a little 'spark', and something happened. It was the beads - the beads that I got from Randall that had been made from the bones of a holy man. The beads that Morag had helped me enchant. We had worked healing protections into them and hoped that they would be able to hold someone who had died closer to this world, so that there would be more time to get healing to them. Also, magical healing would work faster. Morag will be so pleased that all his effort worked (I know I'm pretty pleased with the results!!).

                Alfred had killed a few more, as had Connors. Then one attached itself to Olivia and started to drain blood from her. Since she'd already been stunned by the explosions and then injured by the Giant, she was soon unconscious. Dallas closed in and shot the bug-bird that was feeding on Olivia, point blank. Alfred ran over, grabbed the healing wand and used it on her. It was enough to bring her back to her senses. While he did that, Connors killed the last 2 bugs.

                Alfred then used the wand on me, and that was when I regained consciousness. I hurt so badly that part of me didn't really want to be conscious. As I lay there, being miserable, I was looking at the Giant and I could see it moving. The damn thing was regenerating! I yelled out to the group to let them know what I'd seen. They all went scrambling for the weapons they'd put down. I grabbed the healing wand from Alfred and used it on myself.

                While it was still laying there, Olivia fireballed it. It woke and tried to get to its feet, so she fireballed it again. It fell back down. She let it have it again. It finally started to burn (actually it was more of a smoldering). When the flames died down we could see that in the center of his chest there was a glowing, pulsating chunk of ice. Olivia tried to fireball that, but it didn't have any affect. She pulled a hunting knife and cut it out of his chest. She suffered some minor injuries to her hands from the cold, but nothing that couldn't be healed. She laid the thing on a stone and asked if anyone had an idea. I did. I pulled my sword, and asking Corellon for his Righteous Might to add to my strength, I swung at it. As I did, I could feel Olivia doing something to add even more strength to my swing.

                And I struck it with great force…and nothing happened, I had to drop the sword, the pain in my hands was so bad. I tried a spell to dispel any magic on it. Nothing. Then I tried a spell to shatter the thing. Once again Olivia lent me her power, and this time it worked. The ice shattered. The heart that was inside of it and the body itself started to shrink. When it was finished, there was a human man, kind of a fat, dumpy, middle-management type, lying in front of us.

                Olivia and I took the opportunity to heal the group as best we could. Then we headed off in the direction that the Giant had come from. We found a cave with a blood trail leading into it, Dallas led us in. Just inside the mouth of the cave there was a door, made out of the wing of an airplane. Alfred opened it and we went in. Inside were more plane parts - seats, cushions, and a section of fuselage. The fuselage was pretty badly damaged. I muttered something about, "It must have been a bad crash." "Like there's a good crash?" Olivia asked. There were furs and skins scattered about. Some bodies, mostly eaten, were still sitting in some of the plane seats.

                I checked the cave for traces of Magic and found none. Olivia found a briefcase and opened it. Electric schematics, diagrams, instruction books, memos, and a Tiffany's box with a pair of $250 pearl earrings. Dallas found the flight logbook. The last entry was 2/16/05, a flight from Buffalo to LA. Alfred spotted a Palm Pilot and started 'leafing' thru it. It belonged to our Giant. We took everything to look at later.

                On the way back, Olivia stopped to take the 'beaks' off those things that attacked us. They're long and sharp who knows what we might be able to do with them. We picked up her bear skull on the way back and got back to Ridgeway late. Michael and Vesta had run into problems getting through the prisoners and had wound up having to thin their ranks a good bit in an all-night running battle. They had only made it into Ridgeway a few hours ahead of us, but were getting set to head back out without stopping to sleep. At least they were OK; we had been getting worried.

                The Baron arranged rooms for us all. They have no hot water, so Olivia and I conjured enough for everyone to get a bath. Alfred scrubbed both Olivia and I before I hit the sack. I was in my room alone when the reality of what Olivia told me hit. Then the shakes hit. Then the crying. I thanked Corellon, first for His assistance in our victory over the Giant, and then I thanked Him for the friends I have. Friends like Olivia and Alfred who would risk themselves to save me, even after I was dead. Then I wasn't afraid anymore; I felt a wave of peace come over me. I thanked Corellon for that as well, and now I'm sure I'll be able to sleep.

04-06-06:

               We slept in late today and after breakfast started for the House. I swore the group to secrecy about my little 'experience' yesterday. The last thing I need is for Malcolm to lock me in the House, trying to keep me 'safe'.

                Izzy had her people help unload the truck of goodies, and Michael made arrangements to have someone drive the 2 vehicles back to the Academy. I asked Izzy to include a gift for the sergeant at the Motorpool; he'd really been quite helpful. Olias helped me take my stuff back to our rooms. Then we had to go to Malcolm's offices to make our report. He was more than a little disturbed by the presence of something that may or may not have been The One Ring.

               When we were done with all that, I stayed behind and showed him the sword I'd gotten in 'Moria' and explained to him what it was. I asked him for the name of the best swordsman in the Kingdom or at least the best swordsman who would be willing to teach me. He told me to see the Lord Marshall of the List. He'll be able to get me the teaching I need.

               As I was turning to leave, he stopped me and asked if I was really all right. I told him I was, "Why do you ask?" "You just seem different. That's all." I told him that I had some time to do some reflecting and to discuss some things with Corellon. He gave me a long look and said, "Okay then. You'd better go find Olias and get yourself something to eat."

Well, who am I to disobey my King? So that's what I did, and then went to bed.

continued...