Palathadric

"If, as could well be the case, Rosier's main goal is to get the Fairies, then they are in worse jeopardy than anyone we know, as we discovered in the tower that she now knows where they are. "Euflear...do you believe that to be the case? Where are the fairies hiding anyway? Forgive me if you told us and I missed it."

"Well, we headed to the shrine of Fabula Sibylla to find out what happened to the Oracle. The shrine was sealed by magic, but Lord Boomingham was able to figure out the riddle and get the door open. Inside it was all a mess with pixie dust floating about everywhere...and I mean everywhere! There was a horrid stench of decay coming from the Atrium and inside there was a huge hole where a dark druid was hiding. The stench came from some slimy fungus or something, which seems to have killed all the plants in the building. We defeated the dark druid, but in the fight the tunnels from which he came were blocked off. "Instead, we found behind a rug a portal that took us to somewhere Germ believes he had been to before, Dastan. Apparently, he encountered Rosier there before. Anyway, there were tracks leading to and from the portal and it appeared that something large (the size of a small boulder or cart) had been dragged to the portal. We followed the tracks and came a place where there were dead Fairies all over. That's where we encountered Elphaba. Apparently, it was the Lost Forest of Babeleth, close to Fellcrest. There was a large strange plant that seemed to have sprung up unnaturally and when Torald and Ezeran dug around it, it turned out that that it had been growing from that book Torald has now. "When we returned to Eubric through the portal, we remembered a fresh flower we had found by the dark druid and figured it must have come from the Hanging Gardens. So that is where we went. We met a lady walking a dog. When Torald removed the dog's strange collar it turned into some kind of demon warg or something and ran off for no apparent reason with the words "Thanks, mortal" Anyway, we discovered there that there are white roots growing under the whole hanging gardens and possibly under the whole city, though it seems that the hanging Gardens were their place of origin, and the Gazebo more specifically. When we went there, we encountered Lady Luck watching over all the flowers. We fought her, but escaped when it seemed fruitless. She did tell us that she did not even know for what purpose they were raised from the dead. She seemed to feel that what they were doing here was right with the corruption Eubric was experiencing...but I guess that is obvious. "We then found Wally, here, He was shut in some weird magic door. It was then that we discovered that his fiancee, who we had just talked to in the gardens and who had told us that Wally was missing, had actually died...which made things really weird for us. Anyway, he had been investigating the white root infestation and...well, if he wants to explain more, he can, but basically he discovered that the roots were coming from the centre of the park. He took us there, our mages carved out a hole and then the ground just caved in under us. "Underground, we found a sort of village of zombies. They tried to get us to eat the roots and Boomingham did and became all weird, apparently dying. A Phoenix Essence healed him up. We then fought the zombies to free the Oracle who was held in some sort of magic cage of sorts. We cracked the code (which was Rosier the Seductress), and released the Oracle...shortly later we ran into you all."

When everyone else is busy in their hubbub of communication, I turn to Euflear. "If it is not too presumptuous of me, I must ask you how much you know of what this pixie dust may do when it comes to situations like these. I fear that you may know no more than I do, but I suppose there is not harm in asking. I am just wondering if these "founders" have more or less retained their personalities in their new, revived form or are they completely demon-controlled freaks? I really am curious as, to be honest, some of their actions I would believe your fellows would have taken as well, but...what do you think...or know?"

"Well, well, well! Seems were all back together again, then. Somehow I had a suspicion it would all fall into place for us to meet up when the time was right. We literally just bumped into these other fellows. I must ask, though, were you headed for the sewers for some purpose other than to search us out?" "Well, not sure how much you know about these "messiahs" in Eubric at present, but they most certainly aren't the original founders. Euflear here can testify that the founders all passed away a long, long time ago. These "messiahs" are made of pixie dust harvested from the Faerie, it would seem. Euflear, on the other hand, is the genuine article."

"Well, I can't say I'd be disappointed to meet with Umbra Shadeaux again. Always struck me as having a decent head on her shoulders and probably would be a worthwhile addition to our team..." "Sounds good to me. I'm with you." I then glance around me and mutter to Dyric in a voice low enough that only he can hear. "You know, we've been just trying to find out answers and things this whole time and more or less trying to stay alive, but at some point we need to come up with a plan as to what is going to happen when we put an end to all of this madness. I mean, it would seem idiotic to just restore Eubric back to its former mess..."

"To be honest, I can hardly imagine taking down at archdemon without the likes of Atramor, Hoke, and Althior present. Though, I suppose with a party of myself, Benji, Karie, and Skrall, with a few others, we could make a tidy nuisance of ourselves. Still, having lost the...Skrall, would you be able to Track Down the person we are following?"

"It could just be the fact that we've just met up with friends, but I have a suspicion that it could be our other pals just around the corner. Still, caution is advised, I suppose."

"I agree. The Dark Druids do nothing but provide the arm for Rosier. I am quite certain the person we are tracing is not a mere Dark Druid, but where the Dark Druid goes, it is very possible that we may find what we are looking for...should we follow it?

"Ah, yes. You are quite right. I do recall somebody wanted to search Zoot's temple. I believe it was Hoke."

"Oh, yes. We went through a portal to Dastan and there were dead fairies all over the place. Also, there are these awful white routes that seem to be emanating from the centre of the gardens. That was where we met Lady Luck." "Do any of you recall where the other party was headed? Weren't they going to explore Zoot's Temple down here?"

Missing Boomingham's glare, Petaldan continues excited by the attention. "Yes. He drank some poison and turned horribly grey-like. I had to throw a Smoke Bomb so we could drag him to safety and heal him up. I am now a Paladin officially, you know? So I can heal people up. We fought the founder a little bit, especially Lord Boomingham and the Norseman, but I thought things weren't looking good, so I had to throw a Smoke Bomb to help us escape. I like these Smoke Bombs, nobody gets hurt. I--" Seeing that the young paladin's narrative could keep going on so long as he had a captive audience, Pretzel interrupts. "That is all good and well. Interesting to hear, by the way, but we have got more important matters to discuss such as which way we want to head out of here." I turn to Boomingham. "Since you seem to be coming this way in a hurry, I am guessing that the direction you came from is not a good direction to head in? We were pursuing one of Rosier's henchmen through a portal that took us here. You haven't seen anyone who seemed to fit that role of command, did you?"

"We rescued the Sand Queen! Just like we said we would." I boast proudly. "We also ran into one of the founders...but we politely excused ourselves. Plus, we rescued Wally here. Oh, and believe me, Lord Boomingham was very close to suffering a rather horrible fate, but we saved him too." "While this reunion is great and all, let us remind ourselves that we are on enemy territory. Our party also spotted a dark druid in these under passes and when we ran into you, I could have sworn it was them at first, especially when I saw one of your members..." Pretzel sends a look at Germ. "But we should get out of here." I bow to the Sand Queen and kiss her hand. "My lady..."

I follow Boomingham leading us southwest.

I follow the others.

"Heroica has been officially disbanded, but we still work together. They can't stop us from doing that. There are grave powers at work in Eubric."

"I may have been uncertain before, but this is certainly one of our own, if you could call him that. I've quested with him a number of times. He...has his issues, to be sure, but we can really be picky with who we choose to work with these days, can we?"

"Uh...Heckz? Is that really you?"

"Petaldan Parfenius!" I introduce myself, bowing low.

"Hi!" I say, pleasantly. "I'm so happy you're well. Are you feeling quite alright? We rescued you!" I kill the Sand Queen's hand, gallantly.

Just to confirm, is it intentional that there is a difference between "on the right" and "left of the one"? Does left of the one mean left of it, as if it were facing us, thus right for us, or am I just reading into it too much? Sorry for asking, but I've had so many people give me wrong directions because they were thinking about it from their perspective instead of from mine.

I add 19,5,4,21,3,20,9,22,5 to the numbers already listed.

If my approach is right, then these are the characters we have to work with, I believe: c,d,e,e,e,e,h,i,i,o,r,r,s,s,t,t,u,v,+two spaces Used: Rosier +space Left: c,d,e,e,e,h,i,o,s,t,t,u,v,+space I add 20,8,5

I try to be reassuring as I place a hand on the near-dying fairies good shoulder. "Does that mean we have somewhere to rush to?" I query. Unsure of who could make better use of the Ether Core between Karie and Benji, I pocket it for the time being.

Some people appear to have difficulty reading their PMs... "I'm guessing that 3 stands for C, 4 for D, 5 for E, etc. The dots probably indicate the number of times those letters are used in the phrase we are trying to make. The empty space with two dots probably means that the phrase will be three words long." I try 18,15,19,9,5,18, ,

I use the skill of Craftsmanship to dismantle the machine. I then check the knife and syringe if they're of any use.