Charity's Diary

I have a bad feeling about this

It was all going rather fine until Allaghan decided to do something clever. Well, fine would maybe too strong a word for our progress. The creature behind the door on the roof of the keep was stronger than we'd expected, but after Allaghan and I had been batted away across the roof, Cordelia's magic dropped a huge ball of lava on it, which ended that combat abruptly. Alfred had recently cast his silence spell, which was actually quite useful, and may have persuaded the demons to shore the door up and wait behind it.

Allaghan was making a meal about getting the door open, so I tripped out and pattern-scryed through it (I noted that two bars kept it shut) and saw half a dozen beasts milling about on the other side. One of them was a Rodian, one was a commander, and the rest were mercenaries. I targeted the commander for a mind-fuck. He was a seriously difficult creature to overwhelm, but not impossibly so. Once I was in I was immediately stuck for how to proceed.

Impersonating him, I beckoned two of the mercs over to me, who duly obliged me. I leaped from his mind to one of theirs, and thence onto a third, having incapacitated the second one. They were getting suspicious by then, and the Rodian child escaped to warn the others. I chose to open the door and let my colleagues in, rather than confront the other mercenaries. They objected to this plan, and ended up killing the body I was in. I did manage to remove one of the bars before it was over, and I returned to my body.

So far so good, but it soon went pear shaped, as Allaghan (who was trying to do something similar) got figured by one of the other Demon-commanders, and power worded into unconsciousness. He slumped to the floor, his poor mind ravaged. Some people should stick to what they do best.

Alfred's spell then dropped, and the enemy came through the door, and attacked. Alfred yet again got in the way, in spite of me giving Allaghan's sword to him. To give him credit - he tried. If he hadn't been wearing my queen-armour, he would have got a claw in the guts for his trouble. It must have caused him more than enough concern, and he went primal, destroying my armour in the process. I wasn't bothered about the armour, as it had served its purpose and protected him, but we would undoubtedly be left with having to search for the little bugger. Again.

Getting out was the priority for the moment, so as I picked Allaghan up and dragged him up the stairs to the roof. Losing half your attack force would put an element of doubt in anyone's plan. So choosing the fastest option, I selected Yggs trump, and once connected, threw Allaghan's body through, Cordelia followed, swiftly by me.

Having determined that none of us were seriously I trumped Deidre, who had apparently been watching the action from the sidelines. She accepted the call and we returned to the relative safety of her tower.

There followed much merriment as Allaghan kept falling over, upsetting Cordelia and generally not achieving a lot. I almost feel sorry for the man. Alfred who incidentally was continuing his pretence of not actually being "a man" was going to be incommunicado for a while.

Once recovered, Allaghan did redeem himself slightly with a "good idea"; to imbue pattern into one of our Gaus rifles which should let them work in the Keep's shadow world - but work on that line of reasoning would have to wait until he regained his senses.

I prepared a trump of Alfred, just in case he wanted to come back. I also scanned the trump deck for anyone listening. Merlin answered and we talked. He offered to help, but needed to know where Elysium was. I decided to bit the bullet, and walked through to him, and give him what he wanted.

I let him have a mental image of where it was, and he pledged 500 men to assist in defending the Tower. How they were going to get there was something I was going to have to find out by myself. He also introduced me to several other dignitaries present. Mandor, Isla, Archibald and some others whose names I forgot immediately.

For reasons only known to Merlin, Isla (a sorceress) was sent back with me. She apparently had some shared history with Cordy, which I didn't have any time for, at that precise moment. It'd best not get in the way, and I'm sure she's more than capable of looking after herself.

I did admit to Isla that I found Cordelia "cute but irritating". It was a comment I found surprising to hear myself say, as I hadn't thought of her that way before (the cute, rather than the irritating). I can't remember the last time I'd had a "personal" thought since these troubles began. I might have to revisit these thoughts if we survive this, so I pushed them to a corner of my mind and returned to the situation in hand...

I had a pressing need to find a way of getting Merlin's troops into Elysium - Trump had already been dismissed, as nobody could keep a gate open that long - hellriding would also be too time consuming - so the abyss was my last hope. After wasting far too much time talking to Habakkuk, I confirmed that "Fred" could, with the assistance of some "Shamans", keep an Abyssal gate open for long enough to let about three hundred (hopefully more) men through. Habakkuk did confirm that his support would be formidable.

Also somewhat revelatory, was the idea that Fred could "gate" himself and/or a small group into the Keep of the Four Winds, to provide backup. Merlin had been there before, and told me that only the doorway to a kind of Gallery, which itself led to the Fount of power, was real. The rest, inside, lay is some other place. I guess we would have to figure that out when, or if, we got there.

While we were doing all of the aforesaid, the Enemy was gathering its strength and was preparing to descend the chasm. While there was some concern over the durability of the micro-lights, we were assured by my Generals that they would use the terrain to their advantage.

We still needed our reinforcements - and it began to look as though we would be able to get them. Whether they'd be enough, remained to be seen.

So, Allaghan was depressed, Alfred was primal, and I was starting to feel a little weary. We still had a lot of work to do and I felt as though I was doing all of it.

Ain't life great.

I must get one.