heh. Malatan was setting up the trap when his gaunlets made him fall into it himself. He died clumbisly and stupidly. Lorg picked up the charred gauntlets and was transported into another dimension. His story will be told in the future, the long non-drawn out future. Pipen and sebasian went home through a demensional rift when Malatan's body, sacrificed in a large explosion, created a small vortex in space and time due to proximity to the warding spells under the castle. Limtrot used the amulet to seal the book, banish the monsters and free the castle/monastary. he then fed-exed the book to an undisclosed place and invited both Yaroslave and Herecula to take it. Long story short they killed each other, They fought so hard against each other that they were powerless when the book sucked them into its pages after the fools broke its seal AGAAIN. This time though the book fell into a magic portable brazier of Yaroslavs after foolishly sucking the mage into it. THe magic brazier was so powerful (originally belonging to some forgotten diety) that the book was burned to a crisp taking Yaroslav, an ice demon, Herecula, and all the rest to an unknown plane where bad stories go. Limtrot took over the castle with Jerky and began to tax everyone who had called him a fool. Quite a lot of people. He lived fairly happily ever after, until he got married. But that is another tale. Suffice it to say his marrige to a poor, water sodden Gark may not have been the best idea he ever had, but anytime anyone said how ugly his wife was....well...they got devoured....not pretty mind you, but this reminded Limtrot to remain faithful to his wife...and honorable to their marrige...their children....welllll.... that too is another story. The end. Finae. that's it. That's all. finished at last.....oooohhh...the trap that Malatan set? It was a giant perfume bomb that emptied into a small pond in which he hoped to drown the heros...what a nimrod huh? SOmehow it caught fire....well...it coulda happened...the end....really.

:)

Malatan had set a trap for the companions. He knew that they had the amulet and that he must get it back. HE vowed once more that he would flay that trechorous Lorg.

WHen Pipin returned to the others he found Lorg bent over the still form of limtrot...well, not completely still, Limtrot's breathing was SHallow and there were several deep gashes on his head.
Jerky began to sparkle...

Jerky flew up into the Gark's face, blinding in the near darkness. In a rage the Gark swiped at jerky...the creature's limb passing right through the smokelike form of the dragon. The the Gark panicked and began running into walls. Almost trampling the still form of limtrot. Jerky had saved Pipen from Limtrot's fate.

The invisibility cloak was made of a soft, velvet like material....totally transparent, so he was always misplacing it. He also hoped the Gark would not see through its magic.

2nd "light" in paragraph should have been "form"

Jerky had become a creature of light, beutiful and etheral...

Jerky's balckend shell had exploded like a caccoon....out of this shell Jerky had changed...a catharsis had made jerky almost pure light...a brilliant smoke-like light had emerged...it was this light that drew the creatures attention...the brillance of it hurt the goblinkin's eyes...and the stony creature had entered an unthinking rage..chasing the creature..apparently immune to the aura of tranquility that exuded from the ghostly form Jerky had become..

Jerky Distracted the creature leading it farther from the party...only Jerky knew that its weakness was water...running water...and formed a rough plan to submerge the creature...

should have been in earlier...

They looked at Pipen shakily...no one seemed to want to confront the strange lizard-like creature...except for Limtrot who only remembered a beautiful woman...the half-demon had powers beyond understanding...there had to be another way...

Malatan entered the Castle. He would deal with that traitor Lorg and the rest after completing the mission. His men had trained for this. The party could not hinder him further, but the rare creature with them that pretended to be a dragon was to have aided him much in this treasure hunt. WHo knows what gem crusted holy relics lay below. Golden ceremonial cups and velvet tapestries...
Sure Yaroslav didn't trust him. Of course Heracula had made some tempting offers as well...He was not sure which he would sell it to, the higher bidder he supposed with an inward chuckle.
He knew the trip into the earth's depths would be trying. He also hoped that he had intimidated those villagers enough that they would cause him little harm after he escaped. He was sure that only a few if any of his men would live. Then again they were the fodder he needed. THe gaunlets he wore were one of the few items able to touch the codex and protect the wearer from the book. One of the reason the pages were made of nice thick bone, malatan supposed. Hard to turn pages with gloves on.
Hopefully he'd not have to deal with the party when he exited the monastary. Worse comes to worse he could always give them the codex he thought with an evil chuckle. Life was looking good. The party even had the fake amulet...or was it the fake amulet...
No!...That TRAITOR!!"Malatan exploded in rage. THe amulet was missing! IT had powers beyond locking the Codex. He had to get it back...the juourney would be almost impossible without it. Only with the amulet would he be able to get through the High Seer's barriers. Only with the amulet would he be protected from the creatures the book had summoned to protect itslef. Only with the amulet could the book be opened. It would be almost useless without the amulet.
Malatan cursed. He would have to get the amulet back....then he would skin that lorgs hide from his quivering body.

Both Hurcula and Yaroslav, unbeknownst to the party, desired a codex that lay beneath the Castle. THe codex held much power in the way of magic, and the monks had sworn to protect it. It was an evil book, its pages made from slivers of bone upon which the letters of the writing was carved. Its cover was said to have been bound in the flesh of children.
This foul work that the monks had sworn to hide from the world, being unable to destroy it, was created by an ancient and evil sorceror named Lulach. It was this codex that had driven an unsuspecting monk insane. It was this that had called to the unprotected monk, staining his soul, and reaching into his very dreams....
the Key to the book was an amulet used to lock it by the Holy Seers. It was their order charged to protect it. THe book had some kind of sentience of its own. It did not like being locked. It had acted. Tempting the young monk and seducing him. He had died screaming out spell out of spell from the book that briefly took over his body when he touched it...an ice demon was just one of the creatures summoned. Dead turned undead, and many other horrors were unleashed.
The head monk had used his powers to seal the deepest caves, burrows, ans catacombs of the monastary...trapping the evils within. One monk fled with the medalliion. He had been a younger alcolyte.
Yaroslav had sent Malatan to get the medallion. His plan had been to use the man to get to the book. his own agent had been with him. Only that agent had disappeared....
Hercula too needed that amulet, it was the only garantee of safety to get to the codex. If Yaroslav was not spending so much power combatting Herucla and her powers retreiving the book would be easier...

Jerky's eyes were like pearls, his scales like black onyx...the glow from Jerky's eyes was haunting....and unreavealing...

Safir was glad to help the small group find their way home. He sincerely hoped they would be able to bring Malatan to justice. Malatan had caused a lot of harm.
Once Malatan was dealt with Safir would be free to remove the man's influence from his own world. Queen Hercula was an evil woman but she was just a woman. She was a cambion. Half-demon, half human. Her magic made her a powerful sorceress, but she was not allied with Malatan. He was on her world working for King Yaroslav, a wizard in his own right...known for conjuring invisible things and animating things that had never lived....

How did Safir know this weakness? IT was part of a pact that Malatan made with certain unearthly entities for the magic gauntlets he wore. At one point Malatan enjoyed the smell of his lovers perfume, this most wonderful memory was perhaps the reason the entity chose such a restraint on Malatan. Of all thi Malatan enjoyed it was the smell of women...their hair, their perfume, etc. Now he was as chaste as a monk...fearing church girls and harlots alike. he learned to breathe out of his mouth rather than his nose...an effect that made him appear to gape like a fish.

The more horribly smelling...the weaker he got...especially perfume made from....

Safir knew which portal would lead the strangers home...he also knew the secret weakness of Malatan...Malatan actually served a far greater master....

How would Jerky even carry a full grown man if he WAS the same? And How would they find the right portal?

Safir knew the reason that Malatan fled....

Pipen was upset...he thought that Mariam deserved a good "christian" buriel....whatever that was thought "Lorg".

The cannibles had an elaborate ceremony for those who had fallen..the ashes of the dead and ground up bones were passed around in a soup. That way the dead would be apart of the tribe forever...

THere was something odd about Jerky when he came back to life. The tiny dragon had changed a strange ebon colour and his eyes began to glow a milky white...he was not alive...not completely, nor was he dead...somewhere inbetween...
"coward." Limtrot muttered about Malatan.
"I don't think so," spoke Lorg," I think there was a reason he left. He had us dead."

Safir was the medicine man and one of the few survivers of the cannible tribe. He saught peace after the slaughter Malatan and his men caused. Why they fled when they did left the survivers wondering. Malatan could have easily regrouped his men and stormed back.
Limtrot hadn't caught him, no small suprise, but he did discover that Malatan had droped this weird amulet thingy when the youth had grabbed him.

Yet, Malatan's magic and luck held out. A horse without a rider came running through the camp, nocking Pipen off his feet and trampling the body of the young cannibal. Malatav grabbed the reins and pulled himself up with another grimace.
Amazingly Limtrot finished with the three mercenaries and charged after the horse...

Malatan smiled in a half-grimace and snatched the spear from the young cannibal warrior. With great strength he snapped the shaft ih half and thrusted the tip into the gut of the youth. He then used the broken end shaft to bludgen Lorg across the face. The gauntlets made Malatan almost invincible on the battlefield.
Limtrot watching in horror as the mercenary bashed the net with Jerky in it against the ground lost all self-control. The mercenary, whose arm had been set on fire by the dragon had decided Jerky was not worth the bounty.
Limtrot saw red, foamed out of his mouth and went berserk, in true form of the word. A fury of rage overtook the village idiot and with a broken sword in hand he leaped at the mercenary, hacking his flaming body to pieces. Then charged a large group of Malatan's men who had been laughing at the scene..

The cannibles formed a defensive circle, one strong youth barking out plans to break from the mercenaries. Short spears and hide sheilds fell to steel swords, yet not without a toll. Even the women fought, for Malatan was not interested in captives at this point.
One mercenary caught Jerky in a net, no doubt thinking he would fetch a prime price for the Dragon.
Lorg saved the cannible youth from a spear thrust. The youth looked at Lorg,"partners?" he grunted.
Lorg nodded, although it looked as if the partnership would be short lived. The mercenaries were verterans, well armed and had them outnumbered and surrounded. Arrows fell like rain....

I'll say, poor Skyking was cutting and pasting my posts fer me:)
Hey the more nasty plotlines the more interestin it gets right?:D Besides with out the occasional limb writin gets a little bland does it not:)

Lurking in the shadows, beyond the sight of the party, stood Malatan with a wicked grin across his face. Pure vindictive hatred showed upon his vistage as he glared at Lorg. A raging hatred at this betrayal by his closest confidant. Malatan was not alone, nor was he anything but the shallowest of allies with the cannibal cheif.
At a signal from Malatan, one of the mercenaries he'd hired in this world nocked and arrow and drew back his bow. In an instant the unsuspecting Mariam was almost decapitated by the arrow that found her throat. Regretably for the cannibal chief, the arrow also took him in his eye...being slightly shorter than the woman he had held captive.
Malatan thought the loss of the chieftain to be akin to losing a nail clipping. THe chieftain had failed to dispose of Limtrot who had become a bigger threat than Malatan had expected. Malatan's hundred or so mercenaries could dispose of all those involved. Starting with that traitor Lorg....
Little did any suspect that Malatan was more than he appeared. On Limtrot's world he was but a bandit, on this one he was a powerful Lord, and on yet another one...he ruled with an iron fist.

you filled the forms out all wrong...*gasp* I've never seen them so badly done...what did you ...write them with?...can you even read....?

began to searh through the satchel of w2s he carried with him....trying to see if he had a copy of one from Limtrot..."let's see, he muttered,"Malatan,Lorg,peter,paul and mary....."

he had tried to be a fletcher once...but the feathers he had used were too big and he kept bending the arrows when he tried to put the arrow heads on...he had tried to be a...

"You see," spoke the agent," The monks ran a non-taxable buisness while they remained there," as he pointed to the castle. "Now the castle lays unclaimed and must revert bvack to the government..along with all the spoils....er...revenue that needs to be liquidated for the purposes of back taxes on the property. They stopped making exeption claims so therefore they are no longer exempt." At this the man grinned wickedly and was probably mentally rubbing his hands together at the thought of prime real estate prices."consider the amulet part of the estate."
Limtrot began to wonder what the king could possibly want from such a ruin. Especially haunted as it was...briefly pretending to pay attention as the man rambled about whether demons and ghosts were squatters or illegal residents...THe Inter-realm revenue service had a category even for dead bodies it seemed..."and a fine for each unburied dead body on the premises (health code violation you see) and another for unpaid death tax...." the old man seemed definately sparkling...Limtrot wished he had a profession that made him so happy....instead of getting pelted with rancid tomatoes...

An aura of terror seemed to surround the Hooded figure...In a muttering, barely audible, voice he spoke briefly before both sides fled him in utter panick and fear,"I am a special agent for the IRS."

He asked....dost thou have a pen, Mr. Limtrot?

Malatan cursed and then realised that it was the fake that he had dropped...for the real one was still tied to his wrist. Meanwhile, Lorg his aide got out the rope. It would be a long climb down", thought Lorg.
Meanwhile, Limtrot, the Dimrot(as they called him as a boy), idiot of the people...

not to mention clumbsiness when not in battle...

The slight head wound which Malatan had recieved from walking into a doorframe throbbed as the dizziness began to subside...he remembered his plan...he'd gotten the real amulet and duped the fool blacksmith into making a duplicate...conning the fake from him and not having ta pay for it was part of the fun....he'd wear the fake copy around his neck openly and pretend great safeguards around it...while the true amulet he wore around his wrist, hidden in a steel gauntlet, magic in itself. THe gauntlet gave its wielder the power tocatch thrown spears or javilins in the air, and cast them back at their owner with 3 times its original force...he knew that the gloves worked on daggers and sling stones as well....

*chuckle*

little did Limrot know that the Castle was REALLY haunted and that Malatan had the only amulet that would garuntee safety from the dark powers that now inhabited the abandoned monastary. Legend had it that there had once been a mad monk who dwelled there and after practicing forbidden rites from forbidden tombs, his arcana had unleased an evil that had killed all the other monks and himself as well. Malatan had dug the amulet from the lone survior's tomb. The monk who had snatched the amulet from his crazed brother and fled while the ill-fated man was in turn devoured by his creation...

The village was named after its most famous idiot who had escaped the bounds of his serfdom and become the Lord of the castle above...in his rule he had quite a few setbacks...this is his story...it was on a night like this

cool with me

Forbidden, dark, arcane knowledge...along with the secret ingredients of twinkies, Juicy Fruit Gum, and the addictive properties of Doritos.
Torg Sickfoos the Janitor was considering why he was thinking of himself as Troog again. It was an old High School nickname. It had started out as Trog for Troglidite. Maybe it was because of the old bat...screeching he vileness...he could feel her eyes searching for him, her dark presence hunting him...it was like she could smell his fear...wait a second...he thought...are there 2 of me...who is that guy leading those people with HIS...or MY...amulet?

Troog looked fer someplace to hide, finally finding a...

The biker chick with green hair a nose ring and a tatto of an orchid on her right breast who was already eating algae by the handful. Little did Troog know but the change to Mrs. Wartzog was only temperary...When it wore off she would be twice as bad as before...

when actually it was a combination of chlorine and chlorine resistant algae that Troog had never seen before in any gym locker, the goblin assured him that it was quite delishious and nurishing. The scientists on this planet were chosen for stupidity after many of their experiments went wrong and almost destroyed the planet once. Now all inhabitants believe in magic. He also warned Stickfoos that the majority of the surface land was four foot deep mud and that he would have to include stilts "or something" to his desognes. Mrs. Wartzog grabbed Troog by the ear then and threatened....

The strangest hundred people that Torg had ever seen...He was glad that at least HE was normal. He looked at the odd gathering....man. There were some dirty, some greasy, some both and others just wierd. It was like a 7-11 at three a.m. on saturday night.

Mrs. Wartzog. "You accomplished a lot. Cheap Plaster and scribblings on the walls that look like a three year old did them. Never did care for brass much. Gaudy and Junky looking if you ask me..." As the cranky woman droned on and on, all Torg could think of was...

Tiny purple goblin with a gigantic nose and big smelly feet...

Little had he relised that they were all to be converted back to ages 18-25 at the other end of the journey. Mrs. Wartzog had become a bombshell in an instant! A tiny thought popped into the hapless janitor's mind..."oh no...now I'm REALLY gonna suffer"...as he clenched his favorite greasy rag tight in fear...her face still looked like a hawk, despite the new curves she had regained.