The Danger Gang Meets Another Modron And Plays 20 Questions

At five am Arben hears a knock on his door. Its B The Beholder and he's being chased by a ten armed Modron. "Woah!" says Arben and he starts running down the hall, trying to wake everyone up. He tries to offer the big guy a job, but before he can say, "What are your references?" the modron Holds him fast.

Luckily, Eorl is already awake and kind of ready for this kind of thing. He grabs the Mithral Bead off the Change Into Substances Necklace, and turns into Solid-Mithral Eorl.

Everyone is soon awake and ready to fight this interdimensional paper pusher. HZ starts Chanting in praise of some Owl. Beau is quickly brushed aside by the beasts mighty tentacles. Can tries the old Color Spray, and on the second attempt, the vivid, fanshaped spray soon stuns (realing and unable to respond) the creature for one round. Gershom Silences it, leaving only it's ten mighty psuedopods to defend itself. Even Oeonoe gets in on the act, after being woken with a splitting headache. She Free Actions Arben, who is soon whipping Magic Missiles at the beast. This thing is bleeding numbers everywhere. With a few rounds of melee, the creature soon is sent back to its native plane. As it leaves, it cries out, "We shall return on June 22".

Everyone considers that quite decent of him.

Before they head back to Samothrace, there are a few things to take care of in town. Arben goes to take stock of who's still around that might want to get in on this wall killing. Liten (looking a little worse for wear) and Abner both are interested, but everyone else decides against it. Indeed, almost everyone else is gone. Naum and Signy have left town, possibly with sexy results. Leo got his hands on Ezio's Comprehend Languages and is freaking out with glee.

Still, two more sets of hands couldn't hurt. Someone casts Divination, and they response tells them that they got, possibly a 50/50 chance, but there's going to be something behind that wall that is also kind of bad news. C'est la vie.

The other thing they want to check out is the 20 questions jar. It's already down to 19, so they figure they should get cracking. They get Maya the Chicken in on it, knowing her intelligence and love of riddles. Gershom translates questions in to Hebrew.

19. Are there keyword(s) needed to open the jar? - Yes 18. Is it a person? - No 17. Is it a thing? - Yes 16. Is it mentioned in Rabbi Tarphon's Letter? - No 15. Is it a thing of religious significance? - No 14. Is it man made? - No 13. Is it organic? - No 12. Is it larger than the jar? - Yes 11. Is it larger than the mansion? - Yes 10. Is it a proper noun? - No 9. Is it the world? - No 8. Is it bigger than a mountain? - Yes 7. Is it smaller than the world? - No 6. Is it the sky? - Hmmmm, no 5. Is it a concept? - Define concept (this answer didn't count) 5. Is it reffered to in the first five lines of the Torah? - No

At this point, everyone seems a little stumped. They decide to take a little breather and come back to it.

Then, suddenly, inspiration strikes Eorl. He grabs Gershom and tells him to ask some more questions.

4. Is it plural? - Yes 3. Is it the stars? - Yes

The jar opens revealing a cache of scrolls. Gershom is beside himself and rushes off flip through them.

That settled, Eorl takes steps to fill the hole in the ranks opened by Xenon's retirement. He posts a sign in the town square, saying that there will be a tournament. Beau rushes to sign his name at the top. Eorl shakes his head and hopes better candidates show up.

Indeed, later that day, he notices that the sign up sheet has several names; some familiar, some not so much. In addition to Beau, there is also Zahrah, Probus, Kotrag, Abner, and Lugurix. Also, for the title card of the evening, Xenon will challenge Pantigathus for the captainship of the guard of Chrysopolis.

Soon after dark, a crowd assembles in town square and Arben annouces the beginning of the evening's entertainment. Eorl draws lots for the entrants and the first fight is going to be Abner versus Probus. Everybody finally gets a good luck at the Probus character, and he seems like quite the dandy, (hence his nom de guerre, "Probus the Dandy").

Probus and Abner go at it a few rounds, and the Dandy defeats the Mathematician. Indeed, Abner seems greatly outclassed; but takes his licks with no ill will.

In the next round, Lugurix takes on Kotrag, and is a bit intimidated. It turns out the Kotrag is a mountain of a man, barely capable of speech. He carries a small, blind girl on his shoulder, but plunks her on a wall before the fighting begins. Neither of them seem praticularily good at hitting the other; each deftly dodging blows. None the less, Kotrag soom takes down Lugurix with his mighty club (perhaps due to Can's distracting shots of "You suck, Lugurix!") and the crowd goes wild.

Next up, the comic relief: Zahrah versus Beau. Zahrah gets a lick in, but Beau's quick hands prove too much for her. However, Arben the referee doesn't notice her weakened state. Gershom tries to Hold them from the stands, but they both make their saves (for once). Arben soon catches on and calls the fight in favor of Beau.

Next up, the battle royal between Beau, Probus and Kotrag. Probus, quickly sizing up the situation, decides to take out Beau first, and does so with amazing allacrity. Beau waves to the crowd as he retreats to his corner, knowing that he has once again been knocked down, but that he will live to fight again. Kotrag and Probus continue to go at it and much to everyone's surprise, Probus the Fancy Lad is not being crushed under Kotrag's boot. Kotrag swings and swings, but it seems the aristocrat is too nimble for him. Kotrag soon falls to smaller man's long sword. There is a round of applause. Eorl approaches the gentleman and shakes his hand. "It seems you're quite good with a sword, my friend. If you're looking for a real challenge, maybe you'd like to fight me." he says. Probus seems interested.

But first, the title card. Xenon squares of against Pantigathus. Xenon looks resplendant in his magical, royal platemail with matching crown, his magical sheild and sword glinting in the torchlight; while Pantigathus looks less so, in his rags and hand-me-down, ill fitting chainmail (chopped full of holes, marking the demise of its previous owner). Pantigathus fights bravely, but he's no match for the magical mummy man from the year zero. Xenon quickly chops him down, but, just as quickly, offers Pantigathus the position of second in command in his new regime.

It is then time for the top secret main event. The crowd goes wild, anxiously awaiting the beating this dude should lay on their newly appointed, yet already unpopular governor. The two go at it, and Eorl soon yeilds to the fighter's superior abilities. It is then that eleven more fancy lads appear in the crowd, doffing their beggars cloak disguises. One of the fancier lads wades to the front and declares that he is Oblobius, and that the city now belongs to them. Can and Arben are Held fast. Eorl spies a Dandy with a priest-style beard and figures he's responsible. Oblobius explains that he knows that Basil II was in town, and if they don't lead them to him, Oblobius is going to start murdering Chrysopolites. Xenon tells a few guards to position themselves around the crowd, two on each fancy lad.

Eorl explains that they don't know where Basil is, but if they want to wait for someone to Scry on him so they can go to be slaughtered by the emperor himself, that's fine with him. Oblobius says he's had enough of this, and Eorl agrees. A battle ensues. Gershom Holds Probus and Oblobius. Beau hobbles back to the governor's mansion to see if he can find some help. HZ starts picking pockets. Zahrah wades into battle (her heart promptly explodes...again). A dude swings down on a banner (later identified as Hlotius), carrying a sword in his teeth. He makes a beeline for Xenon (who has been cutting a swath between his enemies). The bearded fancy lad (whose name is Presuntinus touches Oblobius, freeing him from his Holding. Martialis lays into the two of them in the form of a bear. Leo shoots out a web, snatching the three of them together. Gershom benevolently Heals those he can (though he decides against healing Zahrah to teach her a lesson about humility, or, bloodlust, or something). Meanwhile, Beau has tracked down Oeonoe and B the Beholder, asking them for help. Oeonoe stumbles out of the mansion, upset that she wasn't invited to the tournament, but willing to help. She Free Actions Arben, who promptly starts shooting Magic Missiles at jerks. B the Beholder teleports Marty the Bear out of the web so he can start hurting people. Despite all these level characters hurting jerks, the real heroes of the hour are the Chrysopolis guards who, having made their morale check, are laying into these jerks. Soon the fancy lads are all cowed. They are led into the holding cells.

They question these jerks and learn that they are from the nearby town of Nicomedea; a town apparently inhabited entirely by rich assholes. They work for Bardas Phocas, though they claim to not be operating under any one's direct orders. They just decided it would be a good idea to storm in C-town like they own the place, not considering that the world famous Danger Gang would be ready for them.

Everyone muses how lucky it was that these guys showed up before the Gang left town.

This leaves the giant Kotrag as the defacto winner of the tournament. They offer him the job of hired muscle for the D.G. in exchange for food and adventure. His ward (named Hush) explains in their native tongue and he grunts, "Kotrag...take...job!" He also demands some armor.

That night, the town guard are welcome at the Governor's Mansion Inn, where the drinks are on the house. Arben tries to learn a little bit more about the mysterious giant and his blind, ten year old girlfriend, but the two of them are a little tight lipped. Nice enough, though. Everyone is a little worried about Kotrag's hatred of magic, but hopefully Hush will be able to keep him under control.