Bardas Phocas is killed

Well, naught for the Danger Gang to do but re-descend to the Shadow Palace in pursuit of Bardas Phocas, having garnered directions to the opposite of the Porphyry Chamber. THIS TIME aided by a Silent Stone and wielding a sprig of moly taken off the dead insect man (however one wields a plant, and whyever one is doing so). The plan is to just run like heck through the room with the lions; Cormac tries to get all fancy by going into wraithform, is whomped to a negative by said big brass cats, and thus spends the rest of the adventure unconscious in a bag. Which could happen to anybody, really.

Exciting interior design abounds! There's a hall of obscene statues, there's double doors to dead silence & absolute blackness (they don't go that way), there's a hall of smashed statues, and a pretty little arboretum of six laurel trees casting weird and unsettling shadows, fun! The DG finally figures out what "Hall of Daphne" refers to, and what they need the moly for: so they breeze through without turning into trees, and catch up with Bardas Phocas and entourage (John Crescentius and four bug-men) in a room of enchanted stained glass (missing several figures, who are shattered on the floor). The bug-men, sharing a hivemind, are neutralized by Zombres's possessing the lot; and while JC and BP fight hard, the latter is finally beheaded by Kolya. HUZZAH THE ATTEMPTED USURPER HAS PERISHED!! It's kind of an exciting moment.

Here's the deal with these insect-guys: they eat people and gain their powers, and the head bug can amplify a spell through the whole group. Bardas Phocas hoped to teleport the entire Porphyry Chamber to Africa, enabling a princess he got preggers to give birth within it and voila, legitimate heir to the throne! (An argument against having legitimacy decided by location, yes?) The DG is filled in on the plan by Lugurix, who was hoping to gain a kingdom once BP became emperor. Oh well, too late now. JC having absconded with BP's head, Eorl concocts a plan for the body, entailing bringing it to the queen of the dryads and reincarnating him as a halfling...except, you know, transit time, and her attempts to raise him fail, as his soul resides elsewhere. Probably throwing him into the Sphere of Annihilation might have been a better idea? Says the Monday-morning magic user.