11/04/06:

                This morning I met with a group of architects and designers to choose a final design for the Cathedral. I came to an agreement with a Dwarven architect whose proposal was what I wanted: simple and dignified. Light colored marble with a light wood trim, and he gave in to my one requested addition - stained glass windows.

                The Elves were scandalized! I told them, "Look, this is my choice to make and there simply will not be a row of marble pegasi leading to a grand archway. Nor will there be marble unicorns, My Little Ponys or Holly Hobbies. Not a single cavorting Elf immortalized in stone, paint, or frieze."

                "Not even a row of banners lining the walkway?" one of them asked.

                "Banners…those are okay. Yeah - a double row of banners leading to the entrance."

                So I guess we're ready to begin construction.

                This evening, Olivia introduced me to a nasty little Ferengi - Slash recommended him to Olivia (he used to do her books, apparently) and Olivia literally snatched him out of the back of a produce truck in Ka territory. I didn't ask how he came to be buried under a one-ton mound of avocados. Some things are better left a mystery.

11/05/06:

                Breakfast this morning brought word that one of Luxor's top secret Research and Development facilities had unexpectedly exploded. Since there was no indication of an air assault on the radar at McCarron, it wasn't being treated as an act of aggression by a foreign party; just another case of terminal stupidity. The investigation pointed squarely at improper storage of hazardous substances.

                "All those dangerous chemicals; tsk, tsk," I said. There wasn't a lot of sympathy being expressed on the morning news, either.

                We all got together for lunch in the afternoon. We all got to talking and somehow decided to take a quick trip to New Ectopia. So I used Olivia's ring to take myself, Rodrick and Yasai while Olivia used her magic to take herself and Alfred.

                Before we left, Olivia, Yasai and Rodrick went to Mandalay Bay and cleaned out all the utils that he had to exchange. Yasai also had his wormy, Oolong, get his some precious gems to barter with. It seems Yasai wants something called a gravity room. Rodrick was simply looking for more jewelry - a ring that would protect him from Mind Control (he doesn't trust the Cats, I guess).

                We popped into New Ectopia at the main gate of the Market. The guards were just as snotty as I remembered them. One of them asked Olivia, "Are they with you?"

                "Yeah."

                "Do you speak for them?"

                "Why should I?" she asked. "They all have tongues."

                The guard sighed, "Welcome to the Market."

                Olivia was looking for more body modifications, so that's where we went first. The shopkeeper greeted us; "Can I help you find something? Something to go with the claws?"

                Rodrick asked, "Do you have anything to shield the mind?"

                "Implants?"

                "Anything that would help keep someone out," Rodrick said.

                "I have just the thing! An implant - it takes only a half hour to place - but I will have to shave your head."

                Well, Rodrick was having none of that. Neither was Yasai.

                The shopkeeper said, "For an extra 20% I can make an incision, peel back the scalp and proceed that way."

                Yasai asked, "But what will the implant do?"

                "It places mind-shielding circuitry inside your head to protect the mind."

                "How much?" I asked.

                "Eight thousand for the basic procedure - including the head shaving."

                Rodrick thought for a moment, "Olivia, could you do something to make my hair grow back?"

                "Sure - that's easy."

                So Olivia, Rodrick and Alfred decided to go for that, but Yasai wanted to keep looking. I waited just long enough to point and laugh at the baldies, then went along with Yasai. We spotted a vendor that I hadn't seen when I was there before and he yelled to us, "Gentles! Come look at these fine weapons!"

                Yasai and I exchanged a look - all the guy had on display were sword hits and axe handles.

                Yasai said, "I don't use weapons."

                "Oh, come now!" the man said.

                "Really - he doesn't use them," I verified.

                "Then what about you, fine lady?"

                "I have a sword," I told him.

                "But not one like these! Why settle for the ordinary?"

                "It's not ordinary," I said. "It was Blessed by Corellon Himself."

                "No offense was meant - but here, take this." He was holding a sword hilt like a crazy man.

                Curious, I took it from him.

                "Now - invoke the blade," he said.

                Huh?

                I thought about it for a moment and a blade 'appeared'. It looked kind of like a light saber from the movies but it was actually shaped like a sword blade.

                "I want one," Yasai said.

                The vendor was grinning, "A man of taste! Take your pick - they're all the same price, 40,000 utils."

                Yasai picked one and paid the man and we continued on. Eventually Yasai found what he was looking for - a ring that would shield a mind. He purchased three of them, "One for Maga and one for Bodyguard," he said as he put the third one on himself. Then it was back to the bald people.

                Yasai showed them his sword and Olivia immediately said, "I want one."

                I told Rodrick, "The guy's got some axes, too."

                So we took them back to the guy who was more than happy to sell Olivia a long sword and Rodrick a two-handed battle axe. Rodrick asked Yasai where he'd gotten the rings from and we went back there, too. The vendor had a ring that Rodrick wanted - it would enhance his strength even more. They haggled and Rodrick ended up trading his old ring plus some utils for the bigger, better ring.

                Then Yasai started shopping for his gravity room. Turned out he was looking for a Mage that could build one for him. Someone suggested that he post a notice at the Mage's Hiring Hall. We did that and some armor shopping. Both Rodrick and Olivia got some Black Talon rounds and then we were ready to go home.

                A nice, quiet evening all around. Boat drinks on the patio!

11/15/06:

                Today was pool day at the Bellagio for Rodrick and I (we're still rotating, you know) and we were joined by Yasai. He's gotten comfortable enough to leave the day to day stuff to his staff. He didn't really go into detail, but his Ferengi found quite a few irregularities in the books. Some of them were irregular enough that Yasai had to go to Caesar, but all that's been taken care of now.

                Anyway - after I'm not sure how many rounds by the pool - someone (I'm sure it wasn't me!) suggested that we should go play in the fountains. So we did. And that's where Olivia found us.

                Running amok.

                She finally got our attention and managed to get us into Scooby, where Alfred and Leo were waiting and trying not to laugh at us. She gave the three of us some Go-Juice to sober us up and explained that she had gotten word from one of her farms that they were being attacked, "By a hundred and fifty giant 'things'." So she drove as we dried off, dressed and armored up.

                Buzzkill.

                At the farm, several buildings were still burning. There was no fighting going on and people were working on putting the fires out. Yasai got out and flew around to get an idea of what was going on. Olivia went looking for the person in charge, while I had Rodrick and Leo help round up the wounded. We gathered them in a circle and I prayed to Corellon for healing for them.

                Olivia came back with the guy who had been third in command. Now, he was the boss, and he started briefing us on what happened. In a nutshell: big guys with big guns blew several holes in the wall, took all the food, killed a bunch of people, and left, stage right. We'd pretty much figured that much out already.

                As he was finishing up, Yasai found two big guys with bad haircuts and slightly greenish skin, both about ten feet tall, hiding behind some rocks fairly close to the farm. They spotted Yasai and he sent a fireball at them. One of the two was thrown into the rock wall and the other was knocked off his feet. He rolled and came up with a bazooka. He took no time to aim so he missed Yasai by a bunch. The first one came up with a minigun and opened fire, but Yasai was able to dodge it.

                Back at Scooby, we saw the projectile from the bazooka and tracked it back to where it had come from. Alfred did 'something' and vanished, only to reappear behind the two giants! He attacked them by surprise, pummeling one hard in the kidneys. Rodrick had his sniper rifle out by then and fired four shots, hitting and killing one of the giants.

                It was too far for me to really do much, so I could only watch. Yasai did the same 'thing' that Alfred had done and whacked the remaining guy from behind as he turned to beat on Alfred. Olivia had pulled her Glock and was firing. She hit the thing twice - not bad, considering the range! Then Leo started firing and dropped the thing with two headshots.

                Olivia turned to the people who were around, "Where are the other hundred and forty-eight?"

                Looking around we saw some tracks, but they indicated maybe twenty or so - going off, all in the same direction, with wheel barrows and a few horse teams.

                The third in command said, "Are you really…her?"

                "Yes."

                "I thought you'd be bigger."

                An older woman left the injured and demanded, "So what are you going to do?"

                Olivia said, "Chase down the other hundred and forty-eight."

                The woman snorted, "Hah! More like a couple dozen."

                "Well then, we'll chase them down and kill them," Olivia said.

                Third said, "But each one was like fighting ten!"

                "Those two are dead," Olivia pointed out.

                "Lucky shots," the older woman said. She ignored the glares she received from Leo and Rodrick and repeated, "What are you going to do?"

                "I. Just. Told. You," Olivia said.

                Yasai and Alfred returned and we took off in Scooby, following the tracks with Yasai up ahead and above us to give directions. He radioed to report that there were six of them, in a group, trying to set up a deadfall in the arroyo they'd been travelling in. "I'll distract them," he said. And he did - by pissing on them.

                That seemed to anger them. Go figure.

                One grabbed a bazooka, but couldn't locate a round for it. The second one had a bazooka that was loaded and ready to go - but his aim really sucked. The third had a rocket launcher and got a shot off - but it was just a signal flare! Yasai moved higher, launched an energy blast at the group, and then moved again. The first one had dropped the bazooka - but had a BFG to take its place. He connected with a shot. Yasai kept moving, which was a good thing because another one came up with a Browning and opened fire! Another rocket of some kind was launched and hit Yasai, but was deflected by his armor.

                Olivia was driving - following all the projectiles and started to stop Scooby so she could launch some grenades at the giants. But she reconsidered and kept going instead. "Leo! Program the launcher!" He did and launched a volley of grenades.

                When the smoke cleared, Yasai reported, "Five dead, I'll get the last one." He landed and attacked - but the thing had some fight left in it and returned the attack. But in the end, Yasai took it. He gathered up all the weapons and ammunition that he could find and returned to Scooby.

                I used my wand to heal him up as the others confirmed that all six of the dead bore tattooing that ID'd them as coming from lot #437. Then we tried to figure out where they'd gotten all the weapons and Yasai volunteered to back to Vegas for reinforcements. The radio clicked on a while later - it was Lucifer to tell us that something had come up that required Lord Hard Rock's attention, "But don't worry I'll meet you at the farm with some troops."

                So we headed back there to wait and were greeted by the same older woman, "What happened?"

                "We killed six more of them and now we're waiting for reinforcements," Olivia told her.

                "Good! They can reinforce the town," someone said.

                "No they won't," Olivia said. "They'll help us hunt down and kill the rest of those things."

                "But what about us?"

                So Olivia spent some time and quite a bit of power to fix some gaps in their safety wall and then Magicked up some stone to strengthen the rest of it. That impressed the old bird (at least enough to shut her up) and the others.

                While she was doing that Rodrick and Leo made a list of the weapons we'd taken off the giants, including: two Browning M-2's with a few hundred rounds of .50 caliber ammo for them and four bazookas with fifteen shells.

                About an hour or so after Olivia finished the wall, Lucifer showed up with four Hummers filled with security troops, "I'm here. Other than big and ugly, what else do we know?"

                "They're heavily armed and they're headed that way," Olivia said.

                "These are definitely the things engineered by Luxor's people," I told him.

                "You're sure?"

                "We're sure."

                "Well, we'd better follow them," he said.

                Olivia asked, "Did you bring the Azrael?"

                "No."

                "Why not?" she demanded.

                "It wasn't available," he said. "Caesar prefers to keep it for threats against the whole city."

                "Jazz - ask one of the dead ones where their camp is," Olivia said.

                Leo pulled one of them aside as I called up the Power.

                "Where is your camp?"

                I was expecting some very simple directions but he recited some GPS coordinates. Olivia entered them into Scooby's computer and it brought up what looked like an old folk's retirement trailer camp.

                "How many of you are there?"

                "One squad of twenty, plus officers."

                "Officers?" I mouthed at Rodrick and Leo - they shrugged.

                "How many other camps are there?"

                "That's need to know. Many."

                "Where are the other camps?"

                "Survive and evade. Scatter, detach. Do asymmetrical operations. Wait for the signal."

                "What signal?"

                "Officers know. Fight, kill, clean toilet."

                "How long have you been out here in the desert?"

                There was a long pause. "October 15th, 2006," he finally said - but didn't sound real sure.

                The magic faded and Olivia asked Lucifer if he was coming with us.

                "My position is not in front of the defense forces," he said, but he did get into Scooby with us. That's when I noticed that Karyn had come with him; Olivia told her to see to some arrangements for the families of those killed in the attack. We all loaded into vehicles and off we went to find the trailer park. Scooby was in the lead with Alfred driving, Rodrick riding shotgun and Leo and I manning the other controls. Olivia was drinking soda in the back with Lucifer.

                A few miles from the farm Alfred slammed on the brakes (causing Olivia to spill a soda and making her really cranky). One of Lucifer's Hummers either couldn't stop or wouldn't stop - it swerved around Scooby and as it moved in front - BLAM!

                Scooby was shaken by the concussion as the Hummer was thrown into the air, breaking up as it did.

                "Landmine," said Rodrick.

                Once the debris (both mechanical and organic) stopped falling Leo got out and Rodrick followed.

                "Wait for me!" I said. "Let me see if there are any more." They waited while I used some Magic to find the rest. They'd all been very cleverly hidden (so Rodrick said) in potholes. He and Leo marked them as I pointed them out and then they examined them and decided that there was enough room between them to get the vehicles thru (even one the size of Scooby).

                I got back in Scooby and told Lucifer, "I'm sorry about your men."

                "Thank you. I'll have to look into correcting those training deficiencies," he said.

                Rodrick stayed out on the road to guide the vehicles thru the mines and then rejoined us. A couple of Lucifer's men went back and set off the mines.

                "Make the raiders think we all got blown to bits," Rodrick said.

                We were closing in on the area that the map indicated the camp to be in a depression between two hills so we parked the vehicles before the first hill and moved closer on foot. I called the Power again to look around for more traps between the camp and us and found some towards the back of the camp. I made sure everyone knew where they were and we moved closer.

                Soon we heard the sound of heavy equipment, and then we could see what they were up to. They had some big earthmovers and tractors pushing some of the mobile homes together. Some had already been stacked on top of others and some were in the process of being moved into huge trenches to be buried. They were joined together to form a crude "complex" - it reminded me of this group I read about from the late 1980s, the Unbeaten Triumphant Church or something like that. They made bomb shelters by burying Quonset huts lined with concrete the same way.

                Looking around, we saw no 'normal' people at all - nothing but the Ditronics giants. Besides the eight or nine working the machinery, some were in bunkers and more bunkers had been dug out of the hillsides and reinforced with sandbags. Those were the ones with mortars in them. The closest was about fifty feet away.

                There were fifteen of the giants guarding the perimeter and five who appeared to be directing things. Rodrick pointed to one of them, "That one - he's in charge."

                As he took position with his sniper rifle, Alfred and Leo joined Lucifer's troops while they spread out to lay down fire, Alfred had his M-16 and Leo had taken one of the Brownings. I said I'd take the closest mortar emplacement and Olivia said she'd take the furthest. As Rodrick fired at and dropped the leader, Olivia let loose with a pain-web spell at her bunker and I sent a plague of insects into mine.

                One man ran out of it, cursing, turned and opened fire at the bunker. The people in the bunker returned the fire and then all was quiet. The men who'd been standing with Rodrick's target were looking around trying to figure out what was going on but didn't have time to reach a conclusion - Rodrick changed targets, killed a second and grazed a third.

                Leo was firing into the center of camp and dropped at least seven. Alfred shifted his rifle to his back, closed his eyes and vanished! He reappeared behind the guy Rodrick had grazed. He seemed to whisper something and his hands began to glow. He slammed a hand into the guy's torso and the guy dropped - quite dead.

                Leo switched fire and finished off anyone who had survived Olivia's pain-web. Some of the perimeter guards made it to a bunker with a Browning in it and Rodrick opened fire on them, injuring one of them. Another one lobbed a couple grenades towards Alfred, but he calmly sidestepped the explosions and dusted himself off. One of the men working on an earthmover pulled a gun and shot Leo. He was injured - but only enough to make him mad,

                There was another bunker with some kind of repetition gun in it and Olivia sent a pain-web their way before they could start firing. But there was another one on the other side of camp. I sent a plea to Corellon, which was answered with a bright light just above the bunker. It vanished and there was a cave lion in the center of the bunker. There was lots of snarling and screaming.

                Then Alfred 'reappeared' back with us. With him out of the line of fire, Leo began firing the Browning again, dropping six of the construction crew then he sent a burst into each of the bunkers. Rodrick had swapped his sniper rifle for his Stoner and fired at the bunker that Olivia had targeted.

                While all that was going on, the people in the bunker with the lion dropped their weapons and as one attacked the lion with their bare hands. When it was over, the lion was dead and they calmly picked their weapons up again. I saw that and called upon the Power, again. This time I was able to conjure a flame strike that hit the bunker and killed them all. At the same time, Olivia sent another pain-web at the other bunker, killing off a few more of them.

                Some of Lucifer's men finally opened fire - killing one or two - and then Leo finished off the last one. Lucifer stepped out of Scooby, removed a pair of earmuffs and approached us. Rodrick fired one last time, making Luci flinch and jump.

                "I have to protect my hearing! It's very sensitive you know," he told us. Rodrick just grinned an evil grin. Lucifer ignored it and yelled, "Captain! Assemble your men and salvage all weapons and ammunition available, also any coin of the realm."

                We went looking for any information we could find. Olivia searched the leader that Rodrick had taken out and found a little black book with some ciphers in it. Then we started in on the trailers. The connected ones had had walls, floors and ceilings ripped out to make them large enough for the giants to use. One of the trailers had a radio room in it; there were papers ordering them to, "Set up a base and conduct operations in your area. Prepare to receive the signal to re-join the group. Keep a low profile." The orders were dated 11/08/06. There was also a list of radio frequencies along with dates and times to listen for further instructions.

                Another set of trailers had the food taken from Olivia's farm plus some others. We left that area and followed Rodrick and Leo who were about to enter another set of trailers. Rodrick stopped, pulled out that axe of his and signaled that he'd heard something inside. He crept inside and found the camp kitchen.

                And the camp cook.

                She charged him, brandishing a large frying pan. They both swung their weapons but Rodrick missed. The woman nailed him with the pan. KABONG!!! Rodrick stayed on his feet and swung the axe again - and again missed. She swung and connected again. This time she knocked him off his feet. She stood over him, waving the pan around. Rodrick rolled and kicked at her knees. He connected and she screamed, dropping the pan.

                Then she fell on him with a flying elbow to the chest that she must have learned watching the WWF! She knocked the air out of him, but he still had one hand on the axe and managed to swing it up and over and planted it in her back. She jerked a few times and died.

                Now, Rodrick had a three hundred-plus pound corpse laying on him that he couldn't budge. And it was a sweaty, smelly corpse.

                "Um, Leo? Alfred? Get this smelly, disgusting thing off of me!" he requested.

                It took both of them to move her enough for Rodrick to free himself. Once he was free, he was a mess - that was some frying pan! I took some time and Healed him up properly. Before we left the trailer I noticed what the woman had been cooking: there were some rat carcasses hanging on the wall. Seven-foot long rat carcasses. There were also some butchered giant scorpion…parts.

                Outside, Lucifer's troops had found four more Brownings (with ammo) and two mortars with forty rounds each. Olivia told Lucifer that she was taking all the food back to her farm.

                "Okay."

                Then she demanded two of the Brownings; "We did all the work, after all."

                He wasn't okay with that so they rolled for them. He won. He looked around and said, "Captain - you and your troops stay here. Finish what was started. This should make a good defensive post."

                We returned to the farm with the food and the smaller weapons that we'd scrounged for them. Olivia told them, "Remember your Overlord was here, in person, to defend you."

                Leo whispered, "Just leave it with, 'Veni, Vedi, Vici'. It sounds imperial."

                Karen joined us and handed a list to Olivia of the families to receive bonuses and she assured Olivia that it had already been taken care of. On the way to Scooby we saw a newly crucified man who'd had his throat cut. Olivia turned to Karyn with a look.

                "Personnel issue," Karyn said with a shrug, "It was a judgement call."

                "The charge?" Olivia asked.

                "Being inhospitable." Olivia wasn't satisfied with that as an explanation, so Karyn elaborated. "An older woman and her daughter needed support. Both of their husbands had been killed in the raid. This one offered to take them both in, saying that he's always fancied a mother/daughter threesome. I explained to the community that in difficult times such as these, we should all work together and that selfishness is a bad thing. He didn't agree with me."

                "Oh. Okay," Olivia said, then she addressed the people again, "You can call me anytime, but keep in mind, Karyn here screens my calls. But of course, I am always looking for new harem girls…"

                There were no takers for that.

                Lucifer came back to town with us and insisted that we bring some of the bodies to show the Powers That Be. We dropped them off at the Venetian and then we dropped Alfred at the Excalibur. We made sure to tell Allison all about the fierce battle that Rodrick had been in and she promised to fuss over him, later.

                Back at the Aladdin, we retired to the hot tub. Olivia said that she hoped things would stay quiet for awhile so she could focus her attention on the casino as well as New Babylon. I told her I was hoping for some quiet, too, "I hope to be able to keep an eye on the construction of the cathedral."

                Rodrick said he just wants the chance to find a new barrel for his sniper rifle and to spend some time with Allison.

                She wouldn't object to that at all, I'm sure!

11/17/06:

                I went to the Temple today - feeling a little sheepish that I'd waited so long to speak to Thomas about the Cathedral. I assured him that I had meant no insult and that he was always welcome at the new Cathedral. In fact - if he was interested in a position there it was his for the taking.

                But he said he'd be more comfortable in his Temple.

                I told him, "I understand that! I'm not so sure about this whole business yet myself."

                He laughed and told me that I was welcome in his Temple anytime.

11/23/06:

                So tired - can't stay awake!

                So full - about to explode!

                Olivia had everyone over for a big, traditional Thanksgiving dinner - Alfred, Rodrick and Allison, Leo and myself (of course), even Connors came. Slash joined us, as did Bunny and Jennifer. Debbie and Ilsa were pretty much inseparable - I bet Karyn has a grand old time keeping those two out of trouble. Malcolm and Ellen came in to town for a couple of days with Cordelia, Izzy and Morag. Jim and Maisara were here, as were Caesar and Binion and Lucifer as well.

                Must sleep now.

11/30/06:

                Olivia told me that she had an idea to make a magic staff that would hold some ice-type spells, so she was going to go into 'isolation' to do so. I wished her luck with it and she said that Karyn had instructions to handle things on her own - but to interrupt her if anything important came up.

12/25/06:

                Olivia took the day off from working on the staff for Christmas today. It was a nice, quiet holiday all around.

                Admittedly, it was a little bizarre - 80 degrees, tree by the pool, boat drinks all around, with harem girls wearing Santa hats passing out the gifts - but, besides that, it was nice.

continued...