After a hiatus - where Grace and Christina had some fun harassing the citizens of Caer Lyon for Hallow'Een - it was time to explore the Nameless Knight's tomb and see if the Sword of Kings was in there. We had put it off long enough.
As soon as we entered the tomb, we were assaulted by ghosts. Fitting for the holiday.
Grace didn't a jacks daniel about it and neither did Jove. :p (I should have used Mass Storm Prism to make this attack Myth as these ghosts are Balance and would suffer more damage from it.)
"We need to be cautious," said Grace. "This place is filled with anguish and pain."
"Hey, we'll be fine," said Christina.
We ran into a room with a locked door. "What does this all mean?" asked Grace.
"I dunno," I said, playing my guitar. "I'm just the minstrel."
"Look over here," said Christina, pulling me to a tapestry of a knight. Part of the tapestry was scratched out, but I read "The Colors of Descent."
"Maybe it means the emblems on these shields," I said. Several shields were scattered all over the room - even having a background color and a gold or silver emblem etched on them.
"There are emblems like that on these headstones," said Grace. "Maybe we need to match the right emblems on the shields to the pictures on the headstones."
"Hmm," said Christina. "Stand back, let me do this." She scoured the room for a while, then...
"Amazing," I said as the doors unlocked and opened.
"You could be a fine detective, Mma," said Grace.
Christina laughed modestly. "It was nothing. Let's go."
(This is not a hard puzzle, but it can be tricky. Under the tapestry is a banner of five colors from left to right. You have to match the colors to the shields and then the emblems to the headstones, left to right. It's not that hard.)
We approached the ghostly figure in the inner sanctum and bowed. "You must be the Nameless Knight, I assume."
"Who are you? A knight come to mock me, or a wizard come to banish me?" sneered the ghost.
"We seek the Sword of Kings," said Grace.
"Ah then," said the ghost knight with an evil smile.
We gasped. "This is a trick," said Grace.
I shook my head. My gut was telling me this was the object of our visit to this world. I grabbed my axe(guitar) and scowled. "Give us the Sword or..."
Without warning, a mermaid with blue hair appeared, grabbed the sword and babbled stuff, then vanished with a flash of light. I blinked.
"Uh, relative of your 'secretary?'" asked Christina. Grace was stunned beyond speech.
I was the one to reply. "No. That woman oozed myth as powerful as an ogre's body odour. That was a powerful figure."
The knight snarled. "You thrice-cursed curs! You will pay for this!"
The fight was brutal but we survived, though I did get eaten by a couple of Stormzilla. (I forgot to switch to the boss decks, eh oops?)
The knight fell to his knees and sword. "What have I done?"
"Oh, now you're regretting your actions?" sneered Christina. "When you're about to be..."
"Wait," I said. I walked to the ghost. "Malory..."
"It has been... so long since one called me by my name," choked the ghostly knight, looking at my face. I saw his eyes and they were pained. "Come, let us speak in the fresh air." He faded away.
"My family, my title, even my name was erased to history," said the knight.
"So your name is Malory but nobody remembers it because of the curse," I said.
"That is tragic, Rra," said Grace. "But there is a chance you can still be forgiven. You can atone for your sins by aiding us in recovering the Sword of Kings."
"I will do that," said Malory. "Let me guide you on the path of a true knight, then you can be worthy of the Sword of Kings. First, show the aspect of Mercy - there is a White Hart trapped in the murky water of the Froudling Village. Show Mercy and free it."
I was wondering what a heart which was white as snow was doing in a bog...
Only to learn that it was a white stag I had seen earlier. "Okay, let's get this guy out of the muck," said Christina. She set us roles and we carefully roped a lasso around its front quarters and gently pulled it out of the bog. It shook its head in thanks and pranced into the woods.
"You showed Mercy to the beast, you are quite virtuous," said Malory. "Next you must demonstrate Loyalty. Find someone in Avalon who remembers my good name."
"Well, we'd better start looking," said Christina.
It turned out that Sophia in the Wild knew that name. "I know him, he murdered King Artorius!" said the dryad. That was a twist. "But... when he was young, he saved my mother from a giant's axe. If it hadn't been for him, I would have never heard her sweet songs and chants to this day. Yes, I do remember that name."
"It will ease in time," I said. "As long as you aid us, your sins will be forgiven."
"Well, then you must show Hospitality as well," said Sir Malory. "The virtue of Hospitality is that once you invite one into your house, the guest's safety is sacred. The witch known as the Lady of the Blue Dahlia, whose tower is in the Wild, has violated that policy, inviting knights into her home and then ensorcelling them. Teach her the ways of Hospitality."
I cracked my knuckles. "Time to carve us up a witch!"
We had to deal with her current slave, though. "If I defeat you, the curse will be prolonged just a little longer. If you defeat me, you will free me but end up her current champions, forced to fight all who enter until your defeat."
"Should you fight him?" I asked.
Grace smiled. "I am sure we can break this evil curse. Let us defeat him." (I had to defeat a couple of Red Caps first, so I didn't have Sierra join that battle.)
After a long battle, my Basilisk and a Storm Efreet that Grace invoked defeated the knight. "Where did you get that?" I asked.
"From Skull Island," laughed Grace. (Had to use that Treasure Card sometime.)
"Alas," he said. "You have defeated me and thus you must serve her... but wait, you are not a full knight. Perhaps you can defeat her and break the curse on yourselves."
"Flee the tower," I said. "We'll take out this witch and make her learn some manners."
"You are rude," I said. "Time for your lesson in Hospitality 101!"
After dealing with a couple of Spriggans, we went all in... and Christina nearly got wiped by that evil wood witch and her freaking Medusae! (I was grateful the LoBD didn't use Quake but Christina got smacked by TWO Medusas, the second critical hitting and NOT being blocked, so the second shot shows Christina re-entering battle after fleeing to potion up. She was stunned for two rounds anyways so she was dead weight. :( )
Grace slapped some sense into the owl. "I give!" she moaned.
"Remove the curse on us," I said. "And swear to Artorius you will never do this again."
"I shall," whimpered the Lady. "I will swear to be truly Hospitable." She chanted a spell and we felt the curse lift from us.
Which was good as Hilda Brewer needed her business today. (She sure got a lot - Christina had to potion up twice and the others potioned once. :( )
The next enemy we had to defeat, the vile Spriggan Heidi Ironnails, was easy by comparison... though the fact she ensorcelled Penny's sisters to her cause ticked me off when I lost my blades. Medusa punished the freak. (Yeah, Heidi is Storm, and you have to deal with two Foul Skirkers beforehand if you came in with three wizards, so again Sierra sat out that fight.)
We showed it to Sir Malory, for he had been the one to steal it as one of his crimes. He sighed. "I saw the future it showed me but could not deny my own fate. Return this to the Three-Color Serpent in the Chromatic Tower."
I recalled that place, that was where the fountain was where I got the water to douse the imp's tree.
Luckily, the Three Color Dragon was very benevolent when we returned his mirror. "Ah, you have returned thisss to me," he hissed.
Ecstasy flowed from us. We were going to get some information about how to recover the Sword of Kings at long last!
"She's beautiful," whispered Christina as the mirror showed a fox lady wearing a tiara.
"A queen lossst in exile," hissed the Serpent. "That is who you must speak to to continue your quessst."
We saluted. "Thank you!"
"You mean, the wife of King Artorius?" I asked. "The one who the Dark Knight committed crimes against? That Queen?"
"There is only one Queen in Avalon," laughed Sir Malory. "Queen Gwendolyn of the Silver Rose. I know where she is, she is hiding in the Ring Fort, Dun Dara. That is where me and my sister Morganthe were raised..."
We three gasped. "SHUT UP!" cried Christina in shock. "MORGIE WAS YOUR SISTER?"
"You know her?" asked Sir Malory. He sighed. "She had such a warm smile that could melt a Winter Wyrm, but she had a cruel streak."
"I'll say!" snarled Christina. I held her mouth and shook my head. Malory was tormented enough, the thought that we were getting the Sword of Kings to defeat his sister was even worse.
"Oh ghosts and dire goblins!" snapped Sir Malory. "Go to the path left of the Chromatic Tower. You will find Dun Scaith, a vile fortress. The path to Dun Dara lies there."
We approached and saw a creepy sight - people trapped in cages. They saw us and screamed. "Turn back, fair maidens!" said one. "This is Dun Scaith, home of the foul Indigo Giant! He hungers for all human flesh! Run whilst thou can!"
"Oh really?" said Christina. "You know what they say, the bigger they are, the harder they thud. Come on, girls, let's defeat this indigo freak."
"Ew," I said. "You can go burn in Tartarus!"
We engaged. Christina launched a spell that destroyed the giant's aura. "A new trick I learned," she said. "Just like that last one I used to take out that Spriggan, Mana Burn." (Christina completed the two spell quests and got Mana Burn from defeating Sir Agravaine and this spell, Supernova, from defeating the Raven witch who stole Fiana's bag. This spell destroys a target's Star aura and inflicts 525 damage... which can be enchanted. ^_^)
The giant roared and summoned Levi to crush my friend...
But Grace prismed him and gave him a taste of his own medicine, knocking him into the flames of his pot and roasting him alive. Good riddance! (I already gave the stats of this guy because due to a bug, an earlier giant boss in the Dread Keep had two of these giants as mooks if you enter with three wizards. Yeah, they retain their stats. :( )
We released another guy. "Thank you, kind ladies!" he said. "In exchange for your succor, I can give you the ability to craft mighty spells."
"That sounds cool," said Christina, who later found that only I could learn the recipes. (That goat monk in Shiritaki Temple past the Plague Oni sold half of the Lore spell recipes, this druid sells the other half, including the Loremaster Treasure card spell and the Loremaster spell. I have to get Christina to Legendary Artisan.)
We released the people who introduced themselves as druids from Dun Dara. "We wish to go to your home," I said. I explained about our quest.
"I see," said Doran. "We will use our own magic to open the way for ye. Speak to our leader."
The way was open, it was time to enter Dun Dara, find the Queen, and hopefully find out who that mermaid was who took the Sword and how to get it back.
[To be continued...]
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