SSSSS t TTTTTTTTTT kk SSSSSSS tt TTTTTTTTTT kk SS SSS tt TT kk SS SS ttttt aaaaa rr rr TT rr rr aaaaa kk kk sssss :: SSSS ttttt aaaaaaa rrrrr TT rrrrr aaaaaaa kk kk sssssss :: SSSSSS tt aa aa rrr TT rrr aa aa kk kk ss ss SSSSS tt aaaa rr TT rr aaaa kkkkk ssss SSS tt aaaaaa rr TT rr aaaaaa kkkkk sssss SS SS tt aaa aa rr TT rr aaa aa kkk kk ssss SSS SSS tt aa aa rr TT rr aa aa kk kk ss ss SSSSSSS tttt aaaaaaa rr TT rr aaaaaaa kk kk sssssss :: SSSSS ttt aaaa aa rr TT rr aaaa aa kk kk sssss :: MMM MMM ll t ii MMM MMM ll tt ii MMMM MMMM ll tt MMMM MMMM eee ll ttttt ii nn nnnn ggg gg MM M M MM eeeee ll ttttt ii nnnnnnnn ggggggg MM MM MM MM ee ee ll tt ii nnn nn ggg ggg MM MM MM MM eeeeeee ll tt ii nn nn gg gg MM MM MM MM eeeeeee ll tt ii nn nn gg gg MM MMM MM ee ll tt ii nn nn gg gg MM MMM MM eee ee ll tt ii nn nn ggg ggg MM MMM MM eeeee ll tttt ii nn nn ggggggg MM M MM eee ll ttt ii nn nn ggg gg gg gg gggggggg gggggg PPPPPPP t PPPPPPPP tt PP PPP tt PP PP oooo ttttt PP PPP oooooo ttttt PPPPPPPP ooo ooo tt PPPPPPP oo oo tt PP oo oo tt PP oo oo tt PP ooo ooo tt PP oooooo tttt PP oooo ttt Star Traks: Melting Pot is based on Alan Decker's Star Traks, which in turn is based on Star Trek, created by Gene Roddenberry, may he rest in peace. Welcome to the Second Season of Melting Pot - who'da thunkit? Copyright 2005. "Elemental Temple of the Elder God 2" by Paul Cloutier Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Terry Pratchett This episode draws heavily from the "Air Temple of the Elder Elemental God" a publicly available module written for TSR's AD&D gaming system by Paul M. Rokuskie Captain's Log; Stardate 58056.4 - We have arrived at the Omega Configuration, where Admiral Sontak ordered us, so that the OverMind could project us to give aid to the USS Aikido, if such aid were required. It seems that they were, in fact, able to deal with the Cattreth situation on their own and, so, we find ourselves with some time before our next assignment. In light of this, we are fulfilling an old promise that we made to the OverMind. "Sir, we have reached Foreena Four!" M'Dral announced from Ops. The main viewscreen showed the unique configuration of six planetoids orbiting a black hole. Gisech just stared in amazement, never having seen such an astonishing example of celestial mechanics ever before. "Welcome back! My friends!" the voice of the OverMind boomed all around them. "What news do you bring of the galaxy?" "Well, to start with," Seetamyn began to explain, "we are able to report that the Black Queen threat has been ended." "Good news, indeed! I/We offer my/our congratulations!" "Furthermore, we have some time between missions, so we have returned to offer additional biometric response data for you." "That is wonderful! However, I/we do have one request." "Whatever you wish," Seetamyn answered. "The previous data was all gathered while you and your crew performed pretty mundane duties. I/We would like to receive some threat response and activity data this time." "That should not be a problem. You mean exercise data?" "Actually, I/we had something a little different in mind..." "What? Another dungeon?" Banjo's displeasure was a near-tangible thing. Seetamyn had called a Briefing to discuss the OverMind's request. The twelve Senior Officers were all present, as they were for nearly every Briefing on board the all-alien ship. "Don't you remember what happened last time?" Banjo continued. "Several of us were almost killed!" "But that was before we were all friends!" the voice of Sphere Six piped up. Six and the OverMind were listening in to the Briefing, at Seetamyn's invitation. "Six assures me/us that this would be no more dangerous than an excursion on one of your holodecks," the OverMind confirmed. "He's really quite excited about challenging you all again!" "Oh, alright," Banjo finally conceded. "So, who's coming along this time?" It was finally decided that Banjo, M'Dral, Mantron, Hirthnole, Pish, Linnea, Ustrano and Zamtra would face this new challenge. Seetamyn and Gisech were looking forward to a three-way debate with the OverMind and B1 & B2 would be left to man the Bridge. It was decided that the adventurers would meet in Holodeck One. Dil retrieved his katana and Banjo his scythe before heading for the holodeck. Everyone else simply met there right after the Briefing. Once there, they all put on their bio-data monitoring suits (except for Banjo and Ustrano, whose autonomous systems were vastly different from those of humanoids). When the eight were ready, Sphere Six appeared, floating in front of them. "Thank you all for accepting my challenge!" Then, with a flash - everything changed! The party found themselves at the foot of a towering plateau. The top of its steep sides was obscured by tumultuous storm clouds and flashes of lightning strobed constantly, giving the landscape an eerie, atmospheric glow. The storms, high overhead, caused wind to whip around the base of the plateau, stirring up dust and limiting visibility. Everyone's clothing had been replaced by robes or armor and each person was now armed. Zamtra had been outfitted with a lute and a short sword. Linnea wore a pair of long daggers. Hirthnole carried two morningstars and, surprisingly enough, still balanced on his unicycle. The others were equipped as they had been on their last sojourn to Sphere Six's pocket dimension - Banjo with his scythe, Mantron with his sword, M'Dral with a bow, Jantoo with no weapons but a multitude of various potions and Ustrano with a pair of halberds. The Velvattian looked under-equipped, but they all knew it would be able to acquire additional weapons as the adventure proceeded. However, that was the question - how would they proceed? The plateau seemed to lack any openings or any way to ascend its steep sides. Banjo gathered his troops and they started off, around the base of the unscalable hill. After fighting the wind and dust for several minutes, M'Dral spotted an opening in the face of the plateau. An opening that was thirty meters above their heads! "Well, how are we going to get /up/ there?" Banjo asked. "I have a 'levitation' spell," Dil announced, "but, I'm afraid this wind will cause us problems!" "How about if I lodge an arrow into the rock face?" M'Dral offered. "If we attach a rope to the arrow it may anchor us enough to make it up there." "It's worth a shot," Banjo conceded. "We're not going to get much accomplished down here!" M'Dral's shot was true. Dil cast his spell on the party and they each tied themselves to Ustrano. The Velvattian floated up, using the rope to guide everyone into the cave opening that M'Dral had discovered. Inside the cave, where the wind was noticeably calmer, everyone took a bit of time to catch their breath. Then, they went exploring. It wasn't very long before they discovered that the cave wasn't very large - only about 20 meters by 30 meters and, more importantly, that it was inhabited! Four huge, bird-like forms dropped from near the ceiling, directly in front of the party. The creatures had the talons, tails and wings of great eagles, but their bodies and heads were those of women! The bird-women swooped down, surveyed the party and began screeching! "You came in without wiping your feet!" "Just look at the dirt on your hands!" "I bet that you left your room a mess, too!" "I work my fingers to the bone, and this is the thanks I get!" Waves of guilt and remorse washed over the party and they began weeping at their inconsiderateness. All except for Ustrano. "I can't wipe my feet," the Velvattian explained, "I haven't got any!" "Oh you poor boy! Well, did you wash you hands?" "I haven't got any hands, either," it continued, waving its tentacles. "Oh my goodness! Have you brushed your teeth?" "Yes, ma'am," Ustrano replied, opening the vast maw of gleaming, razor sharp teeth near the center of its body. "Oh! You /have/ been a good boy, then! You may go out to play!" "Well thank you," Ustrano made to move towards the cave mouth and then turned back as though a thought had struck him, "But, before I go... Just look at this floor!" The bird-women peered fearfully at the floor of the cave. "Its all full of feathers and dust!" Ustrano continued. The bird-women gasped as they realized what the Engineer was telling them was true! "And these walls!" Ustrano continued, swiping a tentacle across one of those walls and then displaying the dust it had picked up. The bird-women sobbed openly at their lack of cleanliness and fell to, dusting, sweeping and mopping. Ustrano quickly grabbed his still-sobbing friends and slid to the cave entrance. Quickly casting a 'feather fall' spell, it jumped down and floated away from the Harpies. Once outside the confining area of the cave, the guilt and remorse that they had been experiencing faded and they shook themselves free from the Harpies' influence. When they had all returned to normal, Banjo led them forward, continuing their trek around the base of the plateau. The next cave entrance that they found was barely a crack in the wall of the plateau. Ustrano couldn't squeeze through and Hirthnole's unicycle wouldn't fit, so the two of them stood guard, outside, while the rest of the party squeezed into the cave. Inside, the cave opened into a 20 meter by 20 meter square chamber with a high, domed ceiling, 15 meters above the floor. The cave was filled with fluttering, flitting flying specks of color, and, with a cry of delight, Jantoo recognized the forms as butterflies! She ran forward and held out her hand. To her joy, one of the butterflies lighted on her finger. Then another. And another. Soon the diminutive doctor was completely covered by the beautiful insects. Then they started to fly towards the ceiling - with Jantoo in tow! She didn't feel any panic, only delight that this could be happening. Well, at least until they dropped her! Banjo quickly flowed under her and caught her before she could come to harm on the hard, stone floor. Her rescue seemed to infuriate the lepidoptera, however, and they started dive-bombing the party! Their wings proved to be surprisingly sharp and they had soon opened up cuts on everyone (except Banjo, any cuts on him instantly flowed back to normal). Then the butterflies started landing and drinking the blood from the cuts! The vampire butterflies swarmed the team, obscuring their vision and threatening to overwhelm them. Finally, in desperation, Dil let loose a 'fireball' at the far wall. The flames consumed most of the butterflies and the party was able to beat a hasty retreat, back outside. Once everyone had caught their breath, again, Jantoo distributed a healing salve while Banjo took stock of their condition, "So far we've been nearly overcome by a guilt trip and a cave full of butter- flies! I think we must be slipping!" "We're just out of practice," Dil disagreed. "How exactly do you practice to combat a room full of carnivorous butterflies?" "I think that's the point," Ustrano mused. "Six is putting us in unexpected situations so that our responses can be measured and recorded. Putting us up against a room full of monsters isn't really unexpected, so we are, at least subconsciously, prepared for that. He's throwing us curves so that we can display a broader range of responses." "That certainly makes sense,' Banjo admitted, "but I don't see how it helps us." "It doesn't," agreed Ustrano. "The unexpected is impossible to prepare for - by definition!" "Well, we better get going. It looks like its going to be a long day!" The party next reached a huge cave mouth. The opening was wide enough to admit the entire party at once. Inside, the mouth became a tunnel that quickly took a sharp turn to the left. As the party continued on, the light from outside was cut off and the cave plunged into complete darkness. Ustrano, who could 'see' perfectly well without any light took the lead. After walking for about 20 meters, it stopped. "We are in the center of a huge cave," it reported, its voice echoing ominously. "There are a couple of 'things' in here with us. I can't quite make out their exact forms, but they're big and they can fly. M'Dral, pass me your rope!" The rope was handed over and Ustrano carefully wrapped it around a couple of tentacles. "OK, everyone shade your eyes. Dil, cast a 'light' spell up at the ceiling. Let's see what happens!" The 'light' spell illuminated a 35 meter by 40 meter cave. Two huge monsters, looking like a cross between a bat and a dragon swooped at the party from opposite sides of the cavern, their tails whipping forward, displaying wicked stingers! Just as they looked certain to skewer the Velvattian, it whipped out two tentacles and grabbed the beasts' tails! Quickly wrapping the rope around the two tails, it bound the beasts together and slid away, its tentacles raised, "And with a new world record in monster-tying - Commander Ustrano!" "What in the name of the Great Bird are you doing?" Dil asked. "Remember that show we watched with the cowboys, what was it? Oh yes, a 'rodeo'!" "Oh yeah! I remember! With those crazy idiots riding on top of those bulls!" "Those crazy Humans!" Banjo remembered the show, too. Even he had winced at some of the falls the bullriders had suffered - and he didn't even have any bones! The two monsters didn't seem to find the situation nearly as funny as the others did. They tried to scramble away from these creatures that didn't react in the socially acceptable manner that the Wyverns had become accustomed to. That is, they didn't flee in panic or stand and fight. This new generation of heroes was going to take some getting used to! The party split up to explore the cave, and it wasn't very long before Zamtra discovered a huge rock in the back corner. "Dorothy, on her way to Oz!" he announced. The others soon figured out that he was trying to tell them that there was air flowing from behind the rock - it must block some kind of passageway! As Banjo, Mantron and Ustrano started arguing the various merits of physically moving the rock away or turning it into mud or levitating it, Linnea began searching the walls. It didn't make any sense to put a big rock in the way like that and not provide any means of moving it! Suddenly her eye was drawn to a small nook in the wall. Sticking her hand in, she found a switch, which she threw. The rock swung away from the wall!. "Or," Banjo said, as the rock swung free, terminating the 'getting rid of the rock' discussion, "we could just wait until someone else figures out how to move it for us!" "Works for me!" Mantron agreed as the party moved into the tunnel which had been concealed behind the rock. They hadn't traveled very far when they came to an intersection. Standing in their way was a bizarre creature. It had the face of a tremendous owl stuck on the body of a huge, bipedal bear. The monster stepped forward with its arms raised menacingly. Dil, Ustrano and Banjo stepped forward to confront the beast. They were surprised when it spoke, "Before you can be allowed to pass, you must answer a question which my people have tried to answer for hundreds of years. It you do not answer, you will not be allowed to proceed!" This unexpected turn of events stopped everyone in their tracks and left them speechless. Finally, Linnea found her voice, "Ask your question, then!" "Listen ye well! This question has plagued scholars, philosophers and sages throughout the ages. The question is - "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop?" If the team had been surprised before, they were completely stunned now. "How many whats to do what?" Dil asked, summing up the sentiments of the party. "Wait a minute!" M'Dral shouted, excitedly. "I know this one!" They all looked at her as though she were crazy. "We studied this in Advanced Comparative Philosophy at the Academy!" "You studied 'Tootsie Roll Pops'?" Banjo asked incredulously. "It was a special alternative program," she explained. "It went along with the 'If nobody licks a lollipop, does it have any flavor?' sub-studies group." "I must have an answer," the monster reminded them. "Yes, sir," M'Dral acknowledged. "It takes an average of 316 Human licks to reach the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop! Assuming 'center' to mean the exposure of at least 40% of the Tootsie Roll part!" The beast narrowed its eyes and studied the earnest face of the Benzite. "Very well. You have answered the question and may proceed!" The party moved on, marveling at the unexpected value to be found in a Liberal Arts education. Only Ustrano seemed vaguely ill at ease. Dil moved up next to his friend, "What's wrong, Ustrano? Not having fun?" Dil asked jokingly. "I haven't gotten any new weapons, yet!" the Velvattian complained. "Patience, my friend. The day is still young!" The tunnel ended in a huge iron door, easily 8 meters wide and 10 meters tall. A new discussion broke out over how best to proceed. "We could 'fireball' it?" Mantron suggested. "Nah! If the 'fireball' reflects back at us, there's no cover in this tunnel," Banjo decided. "We could 'dig' out the rock under the door and come up that way?" Ustrano tried next. "No - we'd be at too great a disadvantage crawling up out of the floor," Banjo disagreed. "Ummm, why don't we just knock?" asked Jantoo. "This is a dungeon, honey," Banjo shook his head at the naivete of the Bajoran. "You don't 'just knock' on big, metal doors!" It was finally decided that they would cast a high-powered 'rust metal' spell on the door to dissolve it and then the entire party would jump through the opening. Dil cast the spell and they all watched the heavy, black door melt away into an orange pile of dust on the floor. They then dashed into the room behind the door. And what a room they found! Easily 40 meters to a side, the gigantic room held gigantic inhabitants. In fact, the inhabitants were actual giants! On the far wall, a massive throne held an annoyed looking 8 meter tall humanoid, idly toying with a huge sword. To either side of the throne stood a slightly shorter giant, next to a pile of beachball-sized boulders. Behind the piles were several giant-sized spears. The giant on the throne addressed the party, "Whaddaya think youse guys is doin' to mah door? Ya neva hoird of knockin'?" Jantoo just shook her head as Linnea and M'Dral came over to her to commiserate on the bullheadedness of men. Zamtra, comparing the relative size of his shortsword to the giants' weaponry, stepped back to help 'protect' Jantoo. Hirthnole, Banjo, Ustrano and Dil stepped forward to face the annoyed giants, and the battle was joined! The two shorter giants each grabbed a boulder and hurled them at the party. Ustrano swung its halberds and batted the rocks back at the giants, who easily caught them. Dil cast a 'freeze' spell at the giants, but the leader giant flipped his hand in an almost casual manner and the spell was reflected towards the ceiling. Seconds later, a small storm of ice cubes fell in the middle of the room. Seeing that direct confrontation wasn't achieving very much, Ustrano cast a 'haste' spell on Hirthnole. With super-speed, the Tellarite pedaled over to the giants' side of the room, easily dodging the rocks that the giants hurled after him. Zipping in, seemingly, four directions at once, the unicyclist got within range of one of the giants and swung a speed-enhanced blow at its knee with his morningstar. The huge blow elicited a small grunt from the giant and opened a nasty little cut on its knee. Hirthnole, seeing the futility of continuing with hand-to-hand (well, hand-to-foot, really) combat, sped away, back to the protection of the rest of the group. Dil, cast a quick spell and called, "M'Dral! Shoot!" Thinking it was extremely unlikely that her little arrows would even get the giants' attention, she nocked and loosed an arrow. As the missile passed through the spell that Dil had cast, it grew to the size of a catapult bolt! This caught the giants by surprise and the arrow pierced the shoulder of one of the shorter giants, pinning him to the wall! The leader giant, didn't seem to like this tactic very much. He pulled a golden horn out of a pocket and blew into it. There was no sound, but a thick, roiling fog began pouring from the horn! The giant tossed the horn into the center of the room, which was quickly filling with the fog. The second shorter giant helped his companion tear the enlarged arrow out of his shoulder and the three giants moved away from the throne, into the room. A deadly game of 'blind-man's bluff' began. Banjo quickly ushered his party back into the corridor behind the ruined door. Banjo knew that the corridor was more easily defended than the open room, since only one giant at a time would be able to come through the doorway. "That 'freeze' spell of yours," Banjo turned to Dil, "can you focus it on an object and delay its release?" "Yeah, I think so. Why?" "If you can cast it on one of Ustrano's halberds, it can toss it into the center of the room. The giants will hear the noise and come to investigate. Then the delay goes off and they're all frozen!" "What! I'm already low on weapons! Now you want me to give up half of my armaments?" Ustrano didn't sound real happy with the plan. "I counted at least six spears left behind those rocks! This way you'll have a net gain of five weapons!" Ustrano considered this, then held out its halberd. Dil cast the spells that Banjo had requested, and Ustrano flung the halberd like a javelin, sticking it into the floor near the center of the giants' room. Footsteps could be heard rushing to the spot where the halberd quivered, invisibly in the fog. Then a tremendous 'whoosh!' filled the room. The frozen fog fell as snowflakes around the room making the tableau of frozen giants appear as though they were in some sort of monstrous snow-globe! Ustrano slithered over and seized its new weapons as the rest of the party searched for another door. They had no luck. Linnea finally called everyone to the center of the room, just under the watchful eyes of the flash-frozen giants, so that she could turn her thief's eye to the problem. She soon noticed that the snow was being blown away from one section of the wall. There must be a breeze there! But how could a breeze blow through solid rock? Quickly making her way to the spot, she stuck out her hand to examine the wall. Her hand passed right through the stone! Once she had touched the illusion, the spell was broken and the exit was revealed! The team hurried through the small corridor before the giants could thaw! The corridor dead-ended in an odd, circular room. The room was about 10 meters in diameter and went straight up for longer than could be easily seen. A faint smell of ozone was present in the otherwise completely featureless room. "What do we do now, levitate up?" wondered M'Dral. "That looks like our only..." Banjo's reply was cut off as a huge gust of wind came out of, literally, nowhere and hurled the party up the shaft. The wind cut off at about halfway up, just as the team reached a ledge in the shaft. They quickly grabbed hold and pulled themselves to the safety of the narrow ledge. Of course 'safety' is a relative term! From across the shaft, odd, glowing figures appeared on an opposite ledge. Extending their hands, the vaguely humanoid creatures shot electrical bolts at the party! M'Dral readied her bow to return fire, but one of the shock bolts hit her as she aimed, stunning her and causing the bow to drop from her numbed fingers! Thinking quickly, Ustrano stabbed several of the iron spears it had gotten from the giants' room into the ledge. The metal shafts of the weapons attracted most of the shock bolts, though the team still had to keep on their toes. "Zamtra! Maybe you were given that lute for a reason!" Banjo decided. "Try singing something at them! Maybe it will calm them down!" "Mirab with his sails unfurled, His muscles big, his hair was curled, He went to Shaka, but its walls fell, He wasn't too happy so he said 'What the Hell' He tried Diraftra, where the water flows, His boat was big, but not as big as his nose!" The water was wet, as it often is, He drank quite a bit, so he had to..." It was at this point that the electro-men all shot at Zamtra at once. The young Tamarian yelped and ducked out of the way. "OK, I guess that's not going to work," Banjo sighed. "Wait a minute!" M'Dral yelled, recovering from her shock. "I still have my arrows and Zamtra's instrument /is/ stringed!" "So?" Dil, Ustrano and Banjo asked in confusion. M'Dral and Zamtra sat down on the ledge. Zamtra slung his lute across his lap and M'Dral grabbed one of her arrows from the quiver across her back. She nocked the arrow in the lute-string and let it fly at the Shockers. A hit! Its electrical system disrupted by the non-conductive, wooden arrow, the Shocker 'poofed' out of existence! The Shockers, sensing their danger, redoubled their efforts to get to M'Dral and Zamtra. Ustrano quickly arranged its spears to shield the pair and it wasn't very long before their electrical foes had been eliminated. As the last of the Shockers faded away, the wind started gusting again. M'Dral's broken bow came sailing up the shaft and the wind continued. The party stepped off the ledge into nothingness, but the wind carried them upwards, into a room very much like the one at the bottom of the shaft. They floated out of the wind onto a platform. M'Dral sadly examined her smashed bow. Linnea took the pieces from her and recited a spell over them. A blue blow surrounded the bow and the pieces seemed to flow together. When the glow had faded, Linnea handed back the completely repaired bow to the delighted Benzite. Ustrano hopefully held up it's spears, with their battered points. "Sorry, big slug," Linnea laughed, "that spell's only for broken things. Your spears are only a little dulled. You'll have to take care of that on your own!" Dil and Banjo tossed the Velvattian their sharpening stones and Ustrano set to work. Seeing that this would probably take a little bit of time, Banjo called for a rest break and everyone sat down to relax for a bit before continuing. Ustrano finished up about 30 minutes later and the party headed out of the door, on the opposite side of the room from the elevator shaft. The corridor they emerged into was completely smooth, as though any irregularities had been worn away by centuries of wind. This was a likely scenario as, nearly as soon as they had stepped into the hallway, a huge gust of wind started blowing. Ustrano wedged itself against the floor and side walls while nearly everyone clung to its side. Hirthnole wasn't so lucky. He had been slightly ahead of everyone else and the wind pushed him several meters down the corridor. Though he pedaled furiously, the floor was too slick to allow his unicycle any purchase. "Try breaking the wind!" Banjo guessed. Mantron made a rude noise and a terrible scent wafted over the party. "Sorry! I should have said, 'Blocking the wind!'" Banjo corrected. Linnea whacked Dil on the head as he turned red with embarrassment. "I THOUGHT that was an odd request," he apologized. "Use your morningstars to wedge you in place!" M'Dral called out to Hirthnole. The elderly Tellarite swung his arms wide. The morningstars were just long enough to reach the opposite sides of the corridor. The massive, spiked heads of the flails embedded themselves in the surface of the corridor. Hirthnole hung on, and the flails held, stopping his uncontrolled flight down the corridor. Unfortunately, his problems weren't over. The wind caught the Tellarite's feet, spinning him over and over around the axis made up of his arms and the chains on his morningstars! Finally, Ustrano managed to whip out a tentacle to stop the wild spinning of the unicyclist. Almost at the same time, the wind stopped, but a low, shuffling could be heard from ahead of them in the corridor. Something was coming their way! A huge spider came into view, its fangs dripping greenish venom and its multitude of eyes viewing the party hungrily. It approached the helpless Tellarite, who was still spread, suspended in the hallway! Just as it seemed that Hirthnole was done for, Ustrano let go of Hirthnole's legs. The built-up torque contained in the chains was released, all at once, and Hirthnole started spinning, extremely quickly, in the opposite direction that the wind had wound him up in. The spider had the misfortune to pick that exact moment to spring, and the soles of Hirthnole's boots caught it square in the head. And then again. And again. 'Round and 'round spun Hirthnole and each revolution whacked the hapless spider once again. By the time Hirthnole had stopped spinning, the spider was no longer a threat and Hirthnole's boots were a real mess! <> he thought, <> Collecting themselves (and Hirthnole's unicycle) the party moved on. The corridor spiraled around and around, finally ending in an opening approximately half-way up the side of a huge room. The room was easily 40 meters by 50 meters and 30 meters tall! On the wall opposite where the corridor ended, were three platforms set at various heights on the wall. Two of these held large creatures that appeared to be lions with wings! The third platform held a man-sized creature who was shrouded by a cloak. Floating around the room, at various levels, were six large nests. The man-sized creature threw back the hood of its cloak, revealing a head like that of a giant hawk. He then discarded the cloak, altogether, showing a body that had obviously evolved from that of a bird. His feet were talonned and his arms, long and feathered. Two-fingered 'hand's' held a longsword. The bird-man spoke, "Trespassers! You will give me one of your females as tribute or I shall smite ye!" "'Smite ye'," Banjo echoed, "who talks like that?" The rest of the Menagerie group started giggling. This seemed to annoy the bird-man, for, with a screeching cry, he reached behind his back and hurled a javelin at the group! From the nests, above, came even more javelins and more bird-men swooped to the attack! Dil waved his hand, throwing up a 'divert' spell and the javelins harmlessly speared the wall around the opening. Well, not so harmlessly as it turned out, when the javelins suddenly discharged lightning bolts through the wall at the party! Dil and Ustrano quickly cast 'fly' spells on the whole party and they swooped out into the room to do battle with the bird-men and their bird-lions. Ustrano and Banjo tangled with the cat-birds while Dil, putting his Helmsman's talents to the test swooped and whirled amongst the bird-men. Swords clashed and arrows confused things even more as M'Dral and Zamtra joined the fray. Linnea held her position, close to Jantoo, in case any of the bird-men tried to take out their Healer. One seemed intent on exactly that and Linnea's daggers flashed as that battle was joined. The battles continued like this for some time. Neither side seemed able to appreciably threaten the other. Then, the bird-lion that had been dueling with Ustrano, suddenly leapt on the Engineer! Digging its claws into Ustrano's gelatinous flesh, the lion tried the rake the Velvattian! Ustrano calmly 'flew' the two of them into the floor as hard as it could, easily snapping the wings off the beast. Unable to fly, the lion merely meowed piteously as his 'playmate' swooped back to the battle. Being unencumbered with an opponent for the time being, Ustrano surveyed the situation. Finally making up its mind, Ustrano loosed a 'fireball' at one of the nests. The nest exploded with a very satisfactory 'whomp!'. The bird-men suddenly whirled and attacked Ustrano, /en masse/! Ustrano dodged and weaved, keeping just ahead of the enraged bird-men. Dil's frantic signaling caught the Velvattian's attention and he swooped in that direction. As he passed his friend, Dil cast a 'web' spell that caught the pursuing bird-men, tangling them up and, ultimately, pasting them to the wall! Several additional 'webs' ensured that they wouldn't be 'smiting' anyone, today. The last bird-lion, seeing the way the battle had gone, tucked its tail between its legs and hid in the corner. Making sure everyone was OK, the party split up to find the room's exit. It turned out to be another shaft leading up from the ceiling in the center of the room. Their 'fly' spells still in effect, the party flew on up. Their flight was rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of a spider web strung across the shaft. This must have been the lair of the spider that Hirthnole had disposed of, earlier. Thinking that they could simply brush past the webbing, the party continued on - only to get stuck fast in the gooey mess! "Well, this is a fine mess!" Hirthnole observed. "Agreed," agreed Banjo, "but let's worry about getting out of it rather than pointing out what a big mess it is." "I could burn the webs away," suggested Dil. "What? With us in them?" Jantoo asked. "OK - bad idea," Dil acknowledged. "Hacking at them doesn't seem to work," Zamtra observed as he swung his shortsword at a strand, only to have it stick to the tough webbing. "What we need is a power saw!" Ustrano decided, eying Hirthnole's unicycle speculatively. Several sticky minutes later Hirthnole was pedalling for all he was worth while Ustrano's tentacles held the Tellarite on his unicycle and maneuvered the man-powered buzzsaw around the webbing. Strand after strand gave way before the onslaught of that combination. The group was still stuck together, but they were quickly being freed from the imprisoning shaft. Just as the last bit of webbing attached to the shaft's wall gave way, M'Dral observed, "Its a good thing those 'fly' spells are still in effect!" Following the laws of narrative causality, the spells chose this exact moment to wear off. The screaming team plummeted down the shaft! Ustrano who, due to its slime-coating, had more freedom of motion than anyone else, quickly cast a 'reverse gravity' spell. This fast action kept the party from falling down any further. Unfortunately, they were now 'falling' up just as quickly! Just before they would have been squished against the ceiling of the shaft, Ustrano dispelled its spell and pushed off with it's tentacles against the wall, flipping the still stuck-together team onto the upper landing of the shaft. There was still enough webbing left to adhere them firmly to the floor, so, with a sigh, Hirthnole started cutting, again. After removing the last bits of webbing the eight aliens moved out of the room, finding themselves in a large corridor. The hallway was six meters wide and four high. After walking down it for several minutes, they came to a new landing, opening out from the side of the corridor. This landing wasn't the bottom of another shaft, however, this opened out into the very underneath of the gigantic storm that they had seen from the ground! Black clouds, overhead, seemed close enough to touch and wind and rain whipping onto the landing. The party took advantage of the available water to wash away the remnants of the webbing from their armor and themselves. Ustrano kept watch and was the first to spot the glowing orbs that started drifting their way, out of the storm. The Velvattian shouted a warning as the balls of light drifted closer. "What are they?" Dil asked the obvious question. No answer was forthcoming from the rest of the party. The orbs, however, seemed happy to provide some information - at least enough to belay any further questions, as they shot out lightning bolts at the party! "What is it with this place and lightning?" Banjo complained as the party headed back into the corridor, sparks and zaps following them as the lightning bolts impacted on the wet, and highly conductive, surface of the landing. "Yeah, like you've got anything to complain about!" Ustrano wasn't having a good time. "Its not like most of your body is in contact with the floor, you know!" "Kinda makes you wish you had rubber underwear!" Dil joked as the team reached the safety of the corridor again. "Yeah! I know what you mean!" Zamtra agreed. "Those things scared me, too!" Zamtra started to walk down the corridor when he noticed that his companions weren't following him. Mentally replaying the last few minute's conversation, he suddenly understood why. "But you meant rubber underwear so that it could provide insulation, didn't you?" Embarrassed the young Tamarian hung his head, "Patis, after lots of laxatives!" he said to himself. Everyone just laughed at his downcast demeanor. Banjo and Dil came up on either side of him and put an arm over his shoulders. Zamtra looked up with a rueful look on his face, prompting even more laughter. This time the Transporter Chief joined in. There was plenty of 'laughing with' on board the Menagerie, but the crew was too close of a family for there to be much 'laughing at'. Further down the corridor, the party found an ornately carved door. It was unlike anything that they had encountered thus far in this adventure and they braced themselves before opening it. Something special must surely be behind this dread portal! The 'something special' turned out to be a 20 meter by 30 meter room. The far wall was filled by a huge altar to some dark deity. Hovering over the altar, at either end, were two amorphous clouds and kneeling in front of the altar were a man and a woman wearing grey, robes and carrying battleaxes. Sensing intruders in their sanctum, the man and woman jumped up and whirled to face the interlopers. The worshippers' eyes glowed red as they each unleashed a 'fireball' at the party. Ustrano was so busy being happy that it wasn't being electrocuted that it almost forgot to duck the fireball, only dodging away at the last moment. As it was, one of its tentacles was scorched and the delicate aroma of fried slime filled the room. The worshippers, after unleashing the fireballs gestured at the floating clouds which took on the forms of medieval gargoyles as they solidified and jumped into the fray. Still, the Menagerie party outnumbered their enemies two-to-one. This fact wasn't lost on the man and woman who, while their pets kept the heroes busy, ripped off their robes. This was rather unusual, but not nearly as much so as when they then ripped off their skins, revealing three meter tall, grey, bipedal frogs! Frogs with huge, clawed hands, glistening with poison! Banjo, Dil and Hirthnole took on the frogs while Ustrano and Zamtra tried to deal with the gargoyles. M'Dral stood back and loosed arrows when opportunities were presented. Jantoo stood by with some healing and cure poison potions while Linnea stood with her and utilized her daggers when possible. The killer frogs fought fiercely, attacking with each clawed hand, separately. Banjo was fending off the right hand of one frog and the left hand of the other, while Dil and Hirthnole kept the other hands occupied. With a nod to his friends, Banjo suddenly jumped to his left, now he occupied the full attention of one of the frogs while Hirthnole and Dil kept the other frog busy. Smiling an enigmatic smile, the Changeling suddenly dropped his defenses. His opponent gleefully dug it's claws into the body of the First Officer! Of course, there was no gush of blood or tearing of organs. Banjo's smile grew wider as he brought his scythe around against his confused enemy - and swiped clean through the frog-monster's neck, sending its head flying off of its body! This, however, didn't really have the effect that Banjo had been hoping for, as the now headless body continued to fight and the head began swooping around the room, biting with a mouthful of savage-looking teeth! The head swooped over to harass Ustrano where the huge Velvattian and young Tamarian were trying to handle the gargoyles. This was proving to be no easy task as the monsters seemed to be made out of stone, and the crewmates' mightiest blows merely chipped the stone hides of the creatures. The flying head chomped down on one of Ustrano's tentacles, drawing the attention of the otherwise occupied Engineer. With a negligent-seeming twitch of a tentacle, the Velvattian tossed one of it's spears through the head, pining it to the wall and ending its involvement in the battle. Meanwhile, Hirthnole had scored a lucky hit on the frog-thing that he and Dil were fighting, crushing one of it's shoulders with an overhead blow from one of his morningstars. The creature spun away from the fight for a moment and used its good arm to rip off the damaged extremity, hurling the ruined arm at the surprised unicyclist as a new arm began to grow in, replacing the damaged one! The shattered arm missed the ducking Tellarite, but, somehow still 'alive', jammed itself between the spokes of his unicycle, spilling the Shuttlebay Chief to the floor. The frog then advanced on Dil, ready to focus all of it's attention on the Helmsman. Linnea had been watching all of the battles, lending a hand (or a dagger) when needed. She had mostly concerned herself with keeping Jantoo safe. She had noticed something odd about the altar in all of the confusion, however. Once the battles had been joined, the altar had taken on a reddish glow - a glow that seemed to pulse with a steady rhythm. It was almost as though the altar were, itself, a living being! Deciding to explore the possibilities that that theory opened up, Linnea dove across the floor and rolled over to the center of the altar. Raising her arms above her head, she plunged a dagger down into the surface of the altar! With a scream like a host of devils being forced to watch 'The Waltons', the altar /writhed/ under the blow! The gargoyles froze in place and then crumbled to dust. The frog creatures and their stony pets began to evaporate, their flesh sublimating to a grayish fog as they dissolved into nothingness. The altar, itself, now silently screaming as it seemed to collapse into itself, shrank down to a point of pulsing, red light before that, too, vanished. A doorway was revealed in the wall, behind where the altar had stood. They way forward was now clear. Everyone looked around in shock as their opponents dissolved before their eyes. Dil came over and hugged Linnea, "Nice save, honey," he congratulated her. Zamtra was trying to piece it all together, "So that altar was somehow alive and creating our opponents?" "That appears to be the case," Ustrano confirmed. "Fortunately, Linnea managed to get her 'point' across!" Ustrano patted itself on the back as the rest of the party just groaned. "Do I have to 'point' out that that was entirely unnecessary?" Banjo asked, to more groans. Linnea skillfully concluded the episode with a twinkle in her eye and, "Gentlemen! I've saved your butts yet again. More discussion on the matter is entirely 'point'less!" She high-fived M'Dral and Jantoo as the four men and Ustrano just sat back, out-punned by the Orion. "That's my girl!" Dil finally offered, as they walked through the doorway, into another corridor. The corridor continued on for nearly 100 meters before ending in an archway. A gate was set into the archway and intensely bright, dazzling light shone through the gate. The gate proved to be unlocked and the party passed through it to a large room. The room was 40 meters by 50 meters with a 30 meter high ceiling. The room's walls were covered in mirrors and piled up along the far wall was a massive pile of glittering gems! The pile was almost painful to look at as light was reflected off of the sparkling gemstones. The pile was easily several cubic meters in volume. Squealing with delight, the girls quickly ran over to the pile and started selecting their favorites from the stones. Banjo and Dil looked on indulgently as Hirthnole and Zamtra checked the room for exits. Ustrano just looked at the pile of gems. Something was decidedly odd about it, but the Velvattian couldn't put its tentacle on just exactly what it was. Ustrano was still pondering the problem, as Linnea was crawling over the pile to get a particularly choice gem, when the pile opened an eye! <> Ustrano thought to itself as a massive, crystalline dragon emerged from the pile of gems. In point of fact, it /was/ most of the pile! Apparently annoyed that someone would try to steal from his hoard, the dragon didn't seem to be in any mood to talk. Rather, he opened his mouth and breathed a stream of glittering, crystal fragments at the party. Razor-sharp, glittering, crystal fragments! The party was sliced to ribbons! The last conscious thought that Banjo had was <> The party woke up outside the archway which led to the dragon's lair. True to his word, Sphere Six hadn't allowed the party to be killed by his monstrous creation. Of course, they still had to figure out how to get past the dragon, but at least they had a chance to try. "Wow!" Dil offered, as they all checked to make sure that all of their various pieces and parts were still where they were supposed to be. "Makes me wish for some of Zamtra's rubber underwear!" "This time let's all try to stick together," Banjo ordered, ignoring Dil's weak attempt at humor. "Dil can you set up some sort of wall to protect us?" "Certainly," Dil answered. "OK, we'll head back in. Dil will set up his wall between the dragon and us and then Ustrano can toss a spear at the dragon to wake it up. With the cover provided by Dil's wall, we can fire arrows and spells at the dragon and sortie out when it's attention is diverted to hit it with our weapons." Everyone agreed and the party slipped back into the lair. Dil cast his 'wall of stone' spell about halfway between the gate and the dragon and, when everyone was ready, Ustrano tossed it's spear at the beast. The dragon was roused from it's peaceful slumber by a sharp pain in it's side. Someone had thrown a spear at him! Looking around, the dragon noticed a stone wall in the center of it's lair. <> the beast thought to himself as, without a second thought, he slammed his tail against the new feature, hurling it back against the wall, and out of his way. The party woke up outside the archway which led to the dragon's lair. Being squished to death wasn't noticeably more enjoyable than being cut to shreds they noticed. "OK - time to try Plan B," Banjo said. "And what is Plan B?" everyone else wanted to know. "I haven't worked that out, yet," Banjo admitted. "Maybe we can create an illusion of a female dragon and distract him?" Dil ventured. "Do you even know what a female dragon looks like?" Linnea wanted to know. "Well, no," Dil admitted. "Probably won't be very convincing, then," Linnea concluded. Dil was forced to admit that she was probably right. "Wait a minute!" Hirthnole suddenly shouted. "Weren't dragons traditionally offered maidens as a sacrifice?" "How does that help us? We don't want to sacrifice any of us." No, but I'd be willing to bet that that dragon hasn't even /seen/ a maiden in a while. Maybe the novelty of one will distract him." "Only one problem," Banjo observed. "Where are we going to get a maiden?" "Sorry! Can't help you," Linnea announced impishly, causing Dil to blush bright red. "Me neither!" Jantoo asserted. Banjo couldn't blush but he /did/ look embarrassed. A certain silence seemed to emanate from one particular party member. As all eyes turned toward her, M'Dral thought of several protests that she could use to try to argue her way out of this. Realizing that they would all be, most likely, futile, she said the only thing that she could think of, "Oh crap!" The dragon was roused from it's peaceful slumber by the most delicious of aromas! Raising his head and sniffing, the dragon cast about, trying to locate the source of that delectable odor. Finally remembering what that scent was, the dragon snapped fully awake. Somewhere, in this very chamber, there was a maiden! Where could she be hiding? Then his attention was drawn to a small humanoid, standing directly in front of him. What was this? The maiden was right here in front of him? "Excuse me! Mister dragon! Yoohoo!" It appeared as though the maiden was trying to get his attention. He had heard about this sort of thing, years ago, but he had never expected to meet someone with a dragon fetish! "Ummmmm, we were wondering if my friends and I could pass through your lair, if its not too much trouble?" <> the dragon thought to himself as the little maiden kept on speaking. That was one thing that hadn't changed in all of his years - maidens could still blather on and on and on....ZZZZZZZZZZZ. The dragon had fallen back asleep while listening to M'Dral lay out the party's proposal. Fortunately, he had shifted a bit upon first waking up and the back door out of his lair was now exposed. Quietly the team crept past the sleeping beast and snuck out the door, finding themselves in yet another of the vertical shafts. Dil and Ustrano were beginning to run a little low on spells so Jantoo rummaged around in her robe and came up with eight vials of flying potion. The party drank up and were soon flying up the shaft. Much to their relieved surprise, there were no enemies in this shaft and their trip up was without incident. The shaft opened into the largest room they had yet visited on this adventure. This room was easily 100 by 120 meters and had no ceiling! Instead, the room opened directly into the center of the storm raging about the top of the mountain. The party felt like tiny insects hovering in a huge bowl - a bowl that was topped by the most incredibly furious storm any of them had ever witnessed. Inside the protection offered by the room's walls, it was merely windy, but above the level of the walls, 250 kilometer per hour winds were generated between the black clouds. Lightning flashes provided pretty much continual light, with stray bolts striking down, inside the room, from time to time. The party simply hovered over the top of the shaft, stunned by the awesome destructive power of the mammoth storm. Of course, staying stationary, in a combat situation isn't the best battle tactic ever developed, as they were soon to discover! From directly above them dropped a swirling whirlwind. Hirthnole, Zamtra and Jantoo were plucked from the air and sent spinning towards one of the several floating islands that somehow danced about in the air. Banjo and Ustrano split away from the group and went in search of their quarry. Dil and Linnea ended up back-to-back, ready for the next attack. M'Dral, her eyes flashing with an anger that Dil had never seen there before, nocked her bow, anxious to find a target. Suddenly, an odd looking man blinked into existence next to Dil and Linnea. Although he was surprised, Dil recovered quickly and slashed at the man. The man simply 'blinked' away, a meter to the side and sent out a flying kick that connected with the Betazoid's head, knocking him over. M'Dral loosed her arrow, but the man simply 'blinked' away. Faster than the eye could follow, M'Dral nocked another arrow and loosed it, but still it wasn't fast enough. Her opponent 'blinked' out of harm's way, grinning at the impotent Ops officer. Undaunted she loosed still again, and, again, the strange man 'blinked' away - but this, last time, she had loosed /two/ arrows and the man reappeared directly in the path of one! He had no time to employ his odd 'blinking' as the arrow caught him in the chest! He seemed more annoyed than disturbed by this and had raised his arm to cast some sort of retributive spell at M'Dral when Dil, recovered from the kick to his head, stuck his sword through the man! This seemed to disrupt the spell he had been trying to cast and the man was consumed by fire, from the inside out! Linnea swooped back to the others (she had ducked out of the way when M'Dral had started her rapid-fire arrow barrage), but M'Dral was off, searching for more targets. "What's gotten into her?" Dil asked, slightly afraid of this new, angrier M'Dral. "'Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned'," Linnea quoted by way of explanation. "Huh?" Dil responded, not understanding a word of it. "She offered herself to a man for the first time, and he just fell asleep!" Linnea explained. "I'd be pissed, too!" "But he was a dragon! And she was going to be eaten, right?" Dil was even more confused, now. "Trust me, hon," Linnea said, laying her hand on Dil's arm. "In M'Dral's mind it makes no difference at all!" Still not understanding, but trusting his lover, Dil only shrugged. Giving him a quick kiss, Linnea flew away, looking for more enemies. Dil shrugged again and flew off, too. Banjo had, by now, found an opponent of his own. Another of the odd-looking men had popped up next to the flying Changeling. Banjo whipped around and swung his scythe at him. ZZZZZAAAAAPPPPP! As the scythe contacted the man there was a huge spark and Banjo yelped in pain and surprise. His opponent was protected by an electrical field! "Why is it that /my/ targets are the electrified ones?" Banjo asked plaintively. No answer was forthcoming so Banjo collected himself for another pass. This time, before he could even hit his opponent, the odd man had shot a lightning bolt at the Changeling. Banjo changed tactics, flying away from the man as fast as he could. The man followed him, sending out bolts of electricity as he pursued the First Officer. Hirthnole, Jantoo and Zamtra found themselves a tangled mess on the magical floating island where they had landed. Hirthnole had lost his unicycle and one of his morningstars, but, by some miracle, no one had gotten stabbed by Zamtra's sword. As they picked themselves up, Hirthnole noticed the whirlwind heading their way, again. Their flying potions had worn off when they had 'landed' on the island, so there was no readily available escape route. "Would any of your potions be helpful against this thing?" Hirthnole asked Jantoo. "Hmmm let's see... Elixir of Health - no. Potion of Wisdom - no. Can of Laughter - no. Cup of Chicken Noodle Soup - no. Wait a minute! 'Cup of Chicken Noodle Soup'? What the heck is /that/ doing here?" "Wait!" Zamtra called out. "I know what to do with that!" Eagerly Jantoo handed over the soup. Zamtra grabbed it and pulled a tab on the top of the cup, magically heating the meal. When it was hot, he pulled the top off and quickly drank the soup. Looking up, after finishing his snack, he saw Jantoo and Hirthnole staring at him. "Oh! You thought I was going to use it as a weapon! Sorry! I was just hungry!" Hirthnole resisted the urge to offer Zamtra as a sacrifice to the whirlwind, desperately trying to come up with a plan to deal with the beast. But how could you fight air? Ustrano swooped over to the island. "I'll get you all off of here, but first we need to deal with that whirlwind!" "Agreed!" answered Hirthnole. "What did you have in mind?" "Just hold tight and we'll see if this works!" "'Just hold tight'? What, did you think we were going to jump down from here?" The whirlwind, well whirled, closer to the island and Ustrano sprang its trap! A 'wall of stone' spell popped into existence, right over the whirlwind and then dropped, directly on the creature. Any ordinary monster would have been squashed by the spell, but, as Hirthnole had pointed out, this beast was made from /air/. Rather than being squashed, the beast simply plucked the wall out of the air and swung it like a baseball bat against the floating island. The island was bashed to bits and Hirthnole, Jantoo and Zamtra were sent flying away! Had their flying potions still been active, this would have been no big deal, but, as it was, it was a MAJOR big deal! Ustrano whipped out two tentacles and grabbed Hirthnole and Zamtra, but Jantoo had been sent too far away for the Velvattian to reach! Just as it looked like she would go 'splat' against the floor, Dil swooped in and caught the relieved physician! "Ustrano!" Dil called out. "We need to take this to the ground! That thing has too much space to maneuver up there!" Seeing the sense behind the Helmsman's words, Ustrano swung down and landed next to Dil, Jantoo and Linnea. Hirthnole and Zamtra gratefully jumped to the ground as well. M'Dral had searched the entire chamber and, much to her displeasure, not found any more enemies. Seeing Banjo swooping around, being followed by the last of the pair of odd men, she decided that she'd join in the fun. Coming up behind the pair, she loosed an arrow at Banjo's pursuer. She hit him, but he barely seemed to notice it as he continued his chase. This didn't do much for M'Dral's state of mind. She was tired of being ignored by the men in this dungeon! Swooping down to where the rest of the crew was plotting their next move against the whirlwind, she borrowed a couple of Ustrano's spears. <> she decided. The chase continued and Banjo deliberately led the man past the Ops officer. M'Dral launched an iron spear at her target and scored a direct hit! This, the man noticed, all right! Sparks traveled along the length of the spear as the man spiraled around the room, seemingly out of control. "M'Dral! Again!" shouted Banjo. M'Dral took careful aim and sent the other spear true - now both spears pierced their enemy! The man writhed in mid-air, although he appeared more concerned with removing the spears than for his life. Banjo slipped off his boots and, wrapping the heavy, leather around his hands, swooped in and grabbed the ends of both spears. Gritting what passed for his teeth, he crossed the spears! A huge flash of light filled the room and the odd man was vaporized by the short-circuit! Banjo and M'Dral landed with their friends. Banjo ruefully examining the tattered leather scraps that were all that were left of his boots. The whirlwind, seeing that he, alone, was left to oppose the party, started to whirl even faster! Picking up some of the wreckage from the island and from Ustrano's 'wall of stone' it flung the debris at the party! Everyone ducked for cover. "How can you fight a big bag of wind?" Dil asked. "That's it!" Banjo shouted, excited. "What's it?" Ustrano wondered. "Fight fire with fire, fight wind with wind! Dil, you said you could make an illusion of a dragon?" "Yes, but we didn't know what a female dragon looked like." "Doesn't matter! Can you make other illusions?" "Sure, as long a I know of, or can at least imagine the subject..." "That shouldn't be a problem!" Banjo grinned as he explained his plan. Dil's eyes widened and Ustrano, Linnea and Hirthnole burst out laughing as Banjo described his plan. M'Dral, Jantoo and Zamtra seemed shocked at what the Changeling was suggesting. Regardless of their reaction, everyone seemed to agree that the plan was their only hope. The party quickly ran to the far side of the room, where Ustrano, Banjo and Hirthnole set up a protective screen around Dil. He would need all of his concentration if he was going to pull this spell off. Slowly at first, then with greater and greater clarity, an image was forming above the party. The figure appeared to be humanoid, but details were still sketchy. The 15 meter tall figure seemed to solidify and then, like an image seen through a lens being adjusted, the features of the figure jumped into focus. There, standing above the party was Captain Seetamyn! As soon as he had fully formed, the illusion of the captain began to discuss his philosophy of the value of multiple points of view. The whirlwind quickly sped over to confront this new foe, but found that he could only approach so far. The wind being generated by the illusion's mouth was such that the whirlwind was being held at bay! The whirlwind exerted more and more force, trying to reach his opponent, but, by this time, the illusion had gone past his introductory arguments and had begun to thoroughly expound upon his subject! Sweat began to bead up on Dil's forehead as his creation began to utilize ever more esoteric opinions in his monolog. The illusion was now using arguments so complicated that Dil barely recognized one word in every four! The whirlwind, never having faced so tremendous a foe, before, worked harder than he ever had, desperate to even reach the illusion. It was all in vain! The inhuman recitation continued without any signs of abating. How was it possible for a mere humanoid to continue on in such a manner? Defeated, the whirlwind spun out his winds, spreading away and dwindling into nothingness. Exhausted, Dil released the illusion, which also faded to nothing, the last whispers of it's discussion drifting away on the whirlwind's dying breezes. The death of the whirlwind seemed to trigger some sort of event, high in the sky. The storm clouds broke apart and dispersed and sunlight peeked through the darkness. The room started to dissolve around them, and the team found themselves back in Holodeck One. The presence of the OverMind and of Sphere Six welcomed them back, "I/We thank you, my/our friends! The data captured from this jaunt will be invaluable to me/us in our further attempts to regain my/our corporeal body/bodies. I/We wish you the best of luck on your continued adventures!" The presence that was the OverMind faded away, leaving the excitedly piping dot of light that represented Sphere Six. "I must say! Some of your solutions were most ingenious! I look forward to playing with you again, in the future! Farewell!" And then Sphere Six was gone, too. "Well, I guess that's it!" Banjo decided. "Let's all get cleaned up and we'll meet in The Pirate's Cove in an hour. Drinks are on me!" An hour later, the eight members of the adventuring party were seated around their usual table in the lounge. Seetamyn, Gisech and B1 & B2 were also there. It turned out that the adventure had taken the better part of the day and it was now ship's evening. Seetamyn and Gisech shared tales of their bold debate against the OverMind. B1 & B2 discussed a particularly rousing game of Hearts that they had played against the ship's Computer. Finally, Banjo regaled them with his tales of the dungeon adventure. When he had finished, Seetamyn looked thoughtful, "It sounds as though you all enjoyed yourselves as much as Gisech and I did. You make it sound so interesting that I almost wish that I could have been there with you." "Oh, you were, Sir. You were!" Dil agreed, fervently. Seetamyn couldn't figure out why this should set off such intense laughter with the adventurers. Next Time: Dil Mantron is trying to come to grips with his new powers. Maybe a trip to a backward planet in the grip of a dastardly crime gang is just what he needs! Ummm, then again, maybe not! If you miss it, you'll be "Pushing Your Luck" Available December 26th! I welcome Reader Feedback! Please let me know what you've thought of Melting Pot so far, and, in particular, this story! Contact me at: meltingpot@khobrah.net