Mass Murder at Welmars

   It had not yet been two weeks since the epic battle between Xyden, the 
Ancient Black Dragon, and the Adventurers of Kemo. During this time, I 
had ta ken the liberty of penning the events of that battle as they were 
unfolded to me.

   I had hardly lain down the quill when a brightness filled the Quest 
Room.  Looking up, shielding my eyes from the glow, I was barely able to 
see the good(?)ness that was Mat. Instantly I fell down upon my knees, 
head bowed, unable to look such beauty squarely, for my evil soul would 
be purged.  But Mat bode me to rise, and in that rumbling, deep, 
impossible-to-ignore voice of his, said, "*cheer*! Are you ready for 
another one?" I nodded vaguely.  "Come, Cyberchrist is already pestering 
me for another one." And with that he rose from the depths of the Quest 
Room. I followed.

   Taking in the fresh air, for even Kemo Temple air is fresh when you've 
been underground for twelve days, I took stock of my surroundings. 
Mercer and Cyberchrist were there, as well as Knightblade and JWV. The 
CC&M vendor was selling his wares. All looked fine for Kemo.
Cyberchrist and Mercer had recovered from that dastardly experience in
the Canyon Elemental one month ago. Knightblade, the Knight of the Rose,
was polishing his Knight's blade. And JWV was being JWV, which, for space's
sake, I will not explain.

   I had also recovered from both Ganthar and Xyden, although it was
not them that I was worried about. It was the Death Dogs, those undead 
beasts with rictus grins and serrated teeth. I had no intention 
(presently) to meet such creatures again.

   Then, the Mighty Message Citadel stated a message from King Welmar:
"Invaders in the Castle! HELP--" Strange gurgling noises, then:
"Heh heh. Hi, this is your friendly neighborhood mass murderer. I just
thought I'd hole up here for a while, if ya don't mind. Oh, by the way,
you'd best just forget that unpleasant message from the King. He isn't...
feeling to good." A plopping sound, a dull thud, and that was it.

   Everybody in the temple exchanged worried glances. Then Cyberchrist, 
without preamble, stated, "Who's coming with me?"

   I didn't go the first trip. Knightblade, Mercer, and JWV, as well as 
Sebastion, did, though. I decided to go with them when they came back. Then:
"Death Dog at the entrance!"  That was Cyberchrist. I groaned. I had had 
enough of the Death Dogs. 

   Cyberchrist and his merry band finished the Death Dog, and one by one 
they came back. Another adventurer, by the name of Xaviar, had come 
along by then and went with them the next trip. So did I. 

   This time, we went inside the castle. It was strangely empty, with the 
exception of the blood splattered against the walls. We walked in 
slowly, Cyberchrist scanning intensely around as we went. 

   A candelabra fell somewhere in the east hall. We all jumped. A moment's 
silence, then- A Death Dog, then Death Dogs, bounded from thier hiding 
places. They ALL went for Cyberchrist. The mass murderer, a skinny 
fellow in leathers, came by next, whistling a merry tune. He calmly 
withdrew a knife and jumped on Cyberchrist.

   For the next three seconds, all hell broke loose. Cyberchrist (whom I am 
sure is tired of losing buttloads of skin to these creatures) fled, then
recalled. Mercer came next But the Death Dogs were on Mercer like white on
rice. Mercer's blade bit deeply into the neck of one Dog, wounding it. His
blade came down again and again, but just as it looked as if the dog would
die, the other dogs pounced on Mercer, going for his neck. With a look of
astonishment, Mercer went down.

   Thus done with Mercer, the dogs all turned to me, smiling thier rictus 
grins.  Awakening on the cloud of life, I descended onto the temple of 
Kemo, sorely wounded. I had Manservant Nitres, my Evil Cleric, heal me. 
Cautiously I headed back towards the Castle, with only my spells for 
defense. I peered in- to the gateway of the drawbridge, to make sure it 
was safe. My elvish infravision picked up Cyberchrist and Mercer, 
Knightblade and Xaviar, all fighting the mass murderer. Cyberchrist 
recalled; Mercer fled; but Xaviar and Knightblade were not so lucky. JWV 
entered, rather belatedly, only to fall under the murderer's knife also. 
Presently Belal, the ametuer vivisectionist, arrived, looked around, and 
left. 

   The entire group came back: Cyberchrist, who was looking rather..well, 
not P.O.'d, but INTENSE; Mercer, ready to back his friend up; and 
Knightblade, JWV, and Xaviar, who had died and looked about ready to 
drop dead.

   Now hell really DID break loose: For the next five minutes, Xaviar, 
Mercer, Cyberchrist, Belal, Knightblade, and (of course) me were 
attacked by Death dogs as we tried to get out equipment from our 
corpses. I was one of the lucky ones--I had gotten my equipment back. 
But for Xaviar, Mercer, and Knightblade, it was a nightmare-for cleaning 
ladies were abound, and had picked up corpses and equipment. Even 
Cyberchrist died at the hands of the murderer. Things looked bleak.

   As we stood in front of the drawbridge, about to make another run, 
Cyberchrist took me aside. "Kal," he said, "we need the vendor. Can you 
go get him for us?" 

   I assured him I could, and flew to the Canyon Elemental. There, I 
beguiled the vendor, making him my slave. He followed me to the castle. 
I set my AliasMaker9000 to "22 order fol kill mass". In I went. 

   Cyberchrist and the others were patiently wating for me. The mass 
murderer was patiently wating for us by the throne. Approaching him, I 
quickly punched in 22 on my AliasMaker, then recited a scroll of recall 
as the Death Dogs lurched out of the shadows.  Cyberchrist and the others 
followed. 

   "The vendor is fighting the murderer!" I cried, happily. But then the 
murderer shouted, "No, he is not. Here, I'll attack him for you.."
(5 seconds pass)
\c01"Ok, he's dead."\c00

   My shoulders slumped. The vendor is know for his resiliancy. Anyone who 
could kill him in five seconds must have been a strong fighter indeed.

   The next few hours passed quickly. Every hour, on the hour, someone else 
was getting slain. I looked up at the Message Citadel.
\c02
INFO: Mercer has been slain.
INFO: Knightblade has been slain.
INFO: Xaviar has been slain.
INFO: JWV has been slain.
\c00
Then:\c02
INFO: Arioh has entered the game.\c00

   When the Message Citadel displayed this message in neon green, I was 
with Cyberchrist on another run up to the King's castle. Cyberchrist had 
been running, but when this message was displayed, he came to a skidding 
halt just off of the King's Road. "ARIOH", he gossiped.

   It was as if the world had come to a standstill; as if the Eternal 
Savior had come to Landsverge.  "NO", the mass murderer cried. He knew he 
was in it deep.  With the combined forces of Arioh, Belal, JWV, 
Cyberchrist, Knightblade, and Xaviar, it seemed as if we would win. But 
as we boldly stepped into the throne room, the Death Dogs and the mass 
murderer trounced us all again, killing Knightblade and Xaviar as he did 
so. JWV fled..and became a pivotal part in the adventure.

   It turns out that JWV became our scout. He hid behind the throne, 
watching the the mass murderer and the Dogs; telling us which ones to go 
for.  Presently there were two Dogs, one sorely wounded, the other also 
badly hurt. The mass murderer had some scratches where Cyberchrist had 
managed to hit him--for although he did not wear armor, he was small, 
wiry, and wily.

   Knightblade, Xaviar and Belal still tried to get thier equipment, only 
to find it in the hands of cleaning ladies. The mass murderer, laughing, 
chased them down and lopped thier heads off. I cast a spell of deception 
on the vendor once again, and this time brought eight Kemo guards with 
me. I ordered them to attack the mass murderer. They dropped like flies.

   Arioh and Cyberchrist were busy with the Death Dogs. This continued for 
several tense moments, then- "They're dead."

   JWV had seen the last Death Dog fall, a stinking mass of meat, bone, and 
maggots, to the floor under Cyberchrist's sword. The mass murderer then 
got an insane look in his eye. Yanking his sword out, he gutted Cyberchrist
hard. Cyberchrist, Arioh, and the murderer fought, but the murderer was
the better fighter. The heroes recited scrolls of recall and landed back
into the temple, with armor cracked, bones broken, and in considerable pain.

   Mercer's left arm was missing. Knightblade and Xaviar lamented thier 
equipment.                 

   Then Cyberchrist rushed out of the temple before anyone could stop him, 
looking like a human fire hydrant. He raised his head toward the heavens 
and shouted, "MAT! This is actually impossible. I can only go one round 
with the murderer. You must put him at nasty wounds or something."

   In response, the heavens parted, and a light shone down on Cyberchrist, 
closing his wounds. Then the light moved to each one of us, encasing us 
in the warmth that is the God-Heal. The skies then grew cloudy as four 
bolts of lightning arced out of the sky and struck the mass murderer.  
The mass murderer was inhuman, evidently.  Burned, but unfazed.

   Arioh took the initiative. Using the tried and true Backstab! Flee! 
method that is common to master assassins, he carved his intials into 
the mass murderer's back before the murderer knew what had hit him. 
Cyberchrist also tried several times to kill the murderer, only to be 
sent reeling and wincing in pain from several deep, flowing gashes.
Seeing how it was not working, Cyberchrist had an idea.  "Hey Kal. Meet me 
at common square."  Upon arriving, he told me his idea: That we spam the 
murderer.

   Spam! Spam is the one word that makes the most heroic hero cringe; the 
word that gets newbies muted. Spam is the most serious and dangerous 
mode of attack. But the situation was drastic; it called for it.

   We walked into the pet shop and bought some fifty-odd large, trained 
wolves.  This was dangerous; as we were liable to spam ourselves. On we 
went to King Welmar's castle, wolves in tow. The mass murderer was 
sitting on the throne (the very same one that JWV was hiding behind). He 
stood up as we entered, an evil grin on his face. Then his grin froze as 
the wolves entered, all licking thier chops and glaring at him 
menacingly. They weren't Death Dogs, but it was way too many to fight.

   The murderer's face slowly melted into a scowl as he realized what we 
were about to do. With a cry of outrage, he jumped off of the throne and 
attacked Cyberchrist.  He was one second too late. Grinning, Cyberchrist 
executed his order to the wolves:  "Kill murderer."  Wolves galore jumped 
on the mass murderer. It looked as if the murderer had suddenly grown a 
grey fur coat. He fell down under the onslaught. I watched, fascinated, 
and would have stayed there had Cyberchrist not tugged my sleeve.
"Come on, we gotta do this again," he said.

   We left to get more wolves. While we were gone, Arioh saw his chance and 
backstabbed the murderer repeatedly. When we came back, the murderer 
looked like strawberry jam. We ordered the wolves on him again, a fresh 
fifty. The murderer then gave a cry of defiance, and in a last burst of 
strength, shrugged off the wolves, a look of death in his eyes, and, 
howling, attacked Cyberchrist. Cyberchrist, in a reflex action, backed 
up a step and fell over a wolf, putting his sword in front of him as he 
did so. The murderer, his blade held high, did not have time to reverse 
his momentum, and thus he did also fall over a wolf, impaling himself on 
Cyberchrist's sword as he did so. A blood-bubble burst upon the 
murderer's lips, and he was limp.

   The death of the murderer was a highly celebrated event. However, no-one 
fully recovered from the massacre. Much equipment was lost. Xaviar,
Knightblade, and Belal lost some of thiers.

   The body count was high. Let us hope there will never be another such 
massacre again.

-Kalistes of the Dark Robes
33rd Day of the Month of the Grand Struggle, year 194, the year of my Lord.