We decided that it was really imperative to get the book of Selheim back. Allagahn's previous attempt had failed, but they he had gone alone without much of a plan. Or maybe humans always thought like that. Anyway, this time we would do it properly.
There was to be a few of us - myself, Charity, Benedict, Isla, and Fred. The Keep itself has been gradually getting more and more guarded as we went there more often, and we weren't exactly sure where the book was, so instead we decided to use the pattern to take us there.
It would have been so easy to use the pattern to travel around before, but we only have access to the pattern at Carnelian, and Fiona wasn't accepting trump calls. She seems to be now, so trumping to her then using the pattern itself was a matter of minutes.
Our plan was to use the pattern to get in, then each trump out separately to Ygg (for speed reasons). I had been practicing my trump calling for a few hours beforehand, and was sure that I could trump out quickly when we left. I'd also racked a mage lock spell to try to help us and slow down any demons.
So we trumped to Carnelian, used the pattern to take us to the book, and ... arrived in a library with a single demon in it. Plenty of books as well. I immediately started to cast my mage lock on the door and Charity turned to face the demon.
I'm not entirely sure what happened then - the next moment everybody had suddenly moved. Charity later told me that I'd gone grey, which sounds similar to what happened to everyone else during the 13th hour. My guess is that some of these demons can use their power to stop time, but it only seems to effect certain people. It's quite localized, and seems to effect only those that id didn't effect during the 13th hour. At least Allagahn, Benedict, and myself have been hit by this, but Charity seems to escape.
When I did come to again, it was nearly over. I cast my spell at the door anyway, but about the same time it got slashed by Benedict and never stood a chance.
Charity seemed to be concentrating on something, but using my gnomish common-sense I realized that we couldn't search all of the book shelves. I look to see if there was anything odd in the room - eg a pile of things, and sure enough in one corner was my old bag. It contained the book of Selheim and Allagahn's (very) damaged armour.
Charity also seemed to find another book that she wanted to take. Wasting no further time we trumped out - not to Ygg but back to Elysium as time wasn't of the essence.
Back and safe. Well, we would have been if Charity hadn't decided to look at the book that she found, and disappeared. Thinking that we were under attack, I tried to find out what had happened to her. Quickly trumping Fiona we determined that it had been a trump tramp which Charity had activated. What do these humans think that they are doing?
I was quickly working through several options for what to do to retrieve Charity, when it seemed that the tower itself came under attack. Something was coming out of the Abyss. We managed to get down to the courtyard, and charged out, weapons at the ready, only to find that Charity had managed to extricate herself. Of course she didn't warn us how she was going to turn up,did she - that would have been far too useful.
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| Hero of the Hour - Alfred | The Keep of the Thirteenth Hour |