The Captives of the Lost City of Alhassar

Skeletons of the elves and dwarves of Alhassar began to rise from the ground. Not to mention that now there were a few fresh new zombies. They were supplied courtesy of the battle earlier in the day. The party quickly readied themselves for battle, except for Nanoc who still had a hard time removing his sword from his sheath.

"Come on!" growled the barbarian. "This is no time for your bruised ego!"

Mobius floated over to the barbarian who was yanking on his stuck blade.

"I say old chap," the skull began speaking to the sword, "if you don't behave, you will find yourself in the hands of a more ghastly master."

Once Mobius said that, Nanoc pulled Biter out of his sheath. Once freed, the blade released a crack of blue lightning that resounded throughout the cavern. The skull certainly did know how to motivate the blade.

The party of adventurers flung themselves into the fray. Skeletal and undead mages were no match for this band of adventurers. I almost stood back and let them handle it all. In fact, I was quite proud to see how far Mogutz and her party had come along in the last few hours.

"Once more into the breeches, dear friends, once more!" quoted Mobius.

I too flung myself headlong into the fight. As I passed the skull, I yelled over my shoulder, "I believe it is 'unto the breach'."

"I told you I did mostly parodies and comedies," Mobius countered. The skull did not have any weapons so he would knock heads with the necromancers interrupting any further spells they would try to conjure.

I soon made my way past the undead and concentrated on the necromancers themselves. As each one fell before my blade, the group of undead that that particular necromancer summoned would crumple to the earth devoid of further animation. It was not long before Mogutz and Nanoc were at my side cutting down the last of the necromancers.

The fight could not have lasted more than ten furious minutes before the last of the necromancers fell to our weapons. I searched around us as Mogutz and Nanoc caught their breath. For the most part everyone appeared to have weathered the combat in one piece. Treena would cast a heal spell here and there for the few minor cuts that the party received.

"Good job!" I crowed. "Good job. I'm proud of you."

"Thanks," Mogutz replied. "That looks like it was their last stand."

Mobius floated over. "I didn't do too bad myself seeing as how I don't have any arms and therefore no arms." The skull began to laughed, "Get it? No arms and therefore no arms as in weapons."

"Yeah, I get it," I replied dryly.

"Well, if everyone is done with this self-appreciation society. I think we should secure this building," Gandelf ordered.

Now some of you more astute readers may be wondering how killing more mages who may be possible members of the Mages Guild was going to help me reconcile myself with the guild. Well the answer is rather quite simple. Firstly, even in the Mages Guild necromancy is illegal. Secondly, to be a member of the guild you have to be alive and that leaves out liches and vampires. Finally, having been suspended, I was technically no longer a member of the Mages Guild. However, I suppose that last argument is splitting hairs. Nonetheless, the mere fact the dark mages were working with necromancers makes them fair game.

After searching the library, we did not encounter any more members of the dark cabal. Gandelf, upon seeing the ancient texts and scrolls, immediately set a lit lamp upon the table and began to search through the material. He looked like cat in an aviary. He could not determine where to begin. I suggested that he should make sure we had stopped the gate between the worlds from opening.

The rest of the party did one more search of Alhassar. But, we could not find any trace of Cadwey. We did stumble upon the cache of equipment and goods that belonged to the previous victims of the cabal. Amongst them Aly was reunited with his goods, including a strange device he called a 'rifle'. It looked like it was a crossbow with a steel tube attached.

He demonstrated his invention to us. Once the thunderclap stopped resounding off the cavern's walls and the foul smelling acrid smoke cleared, we could see that he had indeed put a hole in his intended target. I do not think this weapon will be very practical to a thief. It draws too much attention to whoever fires it. I can appreciate its military significance. Fortunately, gnomes take decades perfecting their inventions, and I do not think we will see them in large numbers anytime soon.

The party spent one more night in Alhassar before we made our way topside. It was during this night Quint noticed his loss of goods. I walked over to the novice thief and told him I could recommend him to the guild. At first, he pretended not to know about what I was speaking. At least that was until I produced the dagger I had pick-pocketed from him. His eyes gleamed and he whispered, "I didn't think thieves were supposed to rob from fellow thieves."

"We don't rob from fellow members. I think it would be best if you joined just so we don't get the rest of your stuff," I returned softly.

With that, Quint smiled and nodded his head. Then a great laughter racked his small frame. Everyone looked over to us wondering what was going on.

"I'll have to make sure I get that joke you told," Mobius said.