The Captives of the Lost City of Alhassar

Mobius began to laugh. I did not find our situation very amusing and I did not think having me send off a fireball at this moment would be very conducive to our survival.

"It is already cast," Mobius boasted in his high-pitched echoing voice.

"I did not notice anything," Cadwey noted. "Is your spell the ability to make me believe you are a powerful mage? If it is it has already failed." The crowd surrounding us broke into laughter.

"You!" Mobius nodded his head to a particular necromancer with a staff. "Does that staff serve a purpose other than keeping you upright?"

"Aye, lord Ozymandias," the mage replied with respect. "It doth shoot lightning of the highest degree. None can survive its impact."

"I can and I will," boasted the skull. I now saw where Mobius headed and I took and appropriate stance as if to ward off the imminent lightning attack.

The necromancer's staff started to crackle as the mage summoned its power. The smell of ozone permeated the air just a second before a loud thunderclap filled the chamber. A bolt of white-hot electricity flew at us and as with all hostile magic aimed at me while I wore my shield; it just fizzled away to nothing.

The crowd stood there stunned in silence. Mobius broke into a haughty laugh before he replied, "You can see that I am impervious to your spells. Do any of you now doubt my powers?"

The crowd moved back a bit in awe. Not a word escaped from anyone. Finally, Cadwey bowed his head in defeat.

"You have won the test of magic," the lich said respectfully. "We welcome you lich-lord Ozymandias from the Lost Continent."

Mobius and I were about to walk off when Cadwey forestalled us by grabbing my sleeve. "My lord what will you do now?"

Mobius laughed mightily before replying, "I shall commit 'chronocide' by heading toward the library."

"Pardon my lord," Cadwey said in a puzzled voice. "I am not familiar with that."

"I just said I was going to 'kill time'," Mobius laughed again. "Get it chronocide..."

I again jerked the cloak bringing our two craniums in contact. Mobius again remembered himself and merely cleared his throat in a manner of speaking.

"Are you well, my lord?" Cadwey asked.

"'tis nothing," Mobius responded before I marched us off.

A few discreet inquiries brought us to a partially destroyed library. Inside oil lamps lined the wall and on tables and shelves, books and scrolls lay in disarray. We had the ancient library to ourselves for the moment.

"What are we looking for?" Mobius asked in a hushed tone.

"Look for any books about opening gates to other worlds or anything doing with resurrecting long dead lich-mages. You know all that evil sort of stuff," I whispered back.

I kept a hand on the clasp of the cloak as we searched through the material laying about the building. I did not want Mobius to be flying about while I, his body, was somewhere else. It would be somewhat hard to explain how a lich could be in two places at once.

"I think I found something," Mobius said. "There the title of the book in front of us. Escaping the Traps of the Lower Nine Hells."

I looked at the book and corrected Mobius, "The title is Escaping the Traps of the Lower Nine Holes. It is obviously a book about a golf resort in the Northlands."

"Hmmm, golf. I never heard of it," Mobius continued in a bemused voice.

"Yeah, it's an ancient Northman game. They don't have much except sticks, rocks, and gopher holes. So they made a game using all three," I explained as I continued my search.

"Aha!" I exclaimed in a low voice. "This is it." I lifted up a book with the title Planar and Planar. A quick search through the pages confirmed my suspicions.

"I've got to get this book to Gandelf," I said.

"Uh, don't you mean 'we'?" Mobius asked.

"No, you are going to stay here with a body double," I explained. "I also will need to gather some things for our friends."

"But...but...but, what am I supposed to do if someone needs me?" Mobius continued.

"Improvise."