Chapter 5

Jack, Sue, and Aylia spent several days of R&R back at the palace in Asmia. Aylia commented that all of this easy living was going to ruin her, and she needed to get back into action before she became a lazy slob. Jack and Sue laughed, but agreed to return to Samsor and killing demons and monsters.

Sue jumped them back to the Tamoe Highlands, and they picked up where they had left off. They eventually came to a cave entrance that they felt that they had to investigate. It was well that they did, for the cave appeared to be a breeding ground for groks. As usual, Sue's moving walls did most of the killing, but Jack and Aylia had plenty to do with the zombies, skeletons, and corrupted Rogues that they encountered. Jack stuck with his sword, since it was much more effective than his atlatl darts against these monsters. The few demons they encountered were eliminated rather easily by Sue's walls of fire and lightning.

They cleared out the cave and went back to the surface. In due time, they eliminated the demons and monsters on the surface and headed for the Monastery's Outer Cloister. They entered and encountered an almost overwhelming number of demons and skeletons. These were no stronger than those they had been facing, there were just so many of them. Sue had to erect several of her barrier walls to split the foes up into manageable numbers. Aylia was especially susceptible to 20 or 30 arrows shot in her direction all at one time, but even Jack and Sue were hard pressed to stand against that number of arrows aimed at them.

At first, with each group of archer skeletons, Sue was so busy with her healing spell reviving Aylia that she had no time for anything else. Therefore, Jack had to supply the additional defensive force they needed until the number of skeletons had been reduced to a manageable level. Jack had switched to his charmed mace to work on the skeletons, since the crushing blow of the mace was much more effective than the cutting or shearing action of the sword. Jack really felt the loss of the damage amplifying curse and planned to ask Sue if she could come up with a substitute at the first opportunity.

There was a lot of work involved, but they finally were able to clear the Outer Cloister. That was when they jumped back to the Rogues' camp to give time for Sue and Hat to work on that damage amplifying spell. The spell they came up with was one that worked on Jack to give him greater strength and dexterity. The spell would last for a length of time and have to be renewed as it ran out. Because Jack might not be able to tell when the force of the spell was declining, they added a glyph that would appear over Jack's head when the spell needed recasting. This seemed like a reasonable compromise, so they decided to go with it until they saw a need for a change.

They jumped back to the Outer Cloister and Sue cast her damage amplifying spell on Jack and Aylia. Sue was not sure how much it would help the explosive fire effect of Aylia's arrows, but it would amplify the physical damage done by an arrow, and that was bound to help some.

As soon as they stepped through the doorway from the Outer Cloister to the Barracks, Sue realized that she needed to renew the spell for seeing in the dark. Somehow, the skylights had been covered, and it was really dark and gloomy inside the building. The enhanced vision that Sue was able to conjure up was sufficient to remove the hazard of not enough interior light. The result was not the equivalent of bright daylight, but it was adequate to the purpose.

The Barracks consisted of a number of large rooms, not all of which were used for sleeping. There were some offices and a small hospital included within the facility. There was even an extensive manufacturing room for fabricating weapons and armor. One of their subsidiary quests was to recover a magic hammer which was capable of imparting all kinds of useful enhancements to weapons and armor. The only problem with using this tool was that you were never sure what sort of enhancement you would come up with. Sometimes, the enhancement was actually no help at all, but there was no way to know beforehand what you would get. The use of the hammer was a gamble, but one that sometimes paid off handsomely.

The current problem was that the magic hammer was guarded by a monster of unusual size and strength. This monster had to be killed in the course of recovering the magic tool, and many heroes had already fallen victim to the monster. Jack was sure that he was up to the challenge, especially with Sue to help him.

They returned to the Barracks and searched for the room with the magic hammer. They had to wade through a lot of demons and monsters before they finally found the room they were hunting for.

The first problem was to get rid of all those demons and their shamans. This was more of a battle than they were used to, but the last of the demon shamans finally was eliminated. The monster guarding the hammer must have been waiting for the heroes to tire themselves out with the demons because he only just then showed himself.

The brute lumbered into view and headed straight for Jack. Either he was very confident or very stupid, or both, because he did not carry a weapon beyond his mighty arms and fists. Jack switched to his magic sword and waited for the monster to come within reach; Sue renewed the amplify damage spell. Meanwhile, Aylia was pumping arrows into the monster as fast as she could shoot, but they just bounced off of his tough skin. Sue had tried fire balls and lightning bolts, but neither made any detectable difference, so she switched to ice balls, hoping to slow the monster enough for Jack to get in a killing strike with his sword.

The two women did what they could, but it was up to Jack to kill this creature. He leaped in, trying to catch the monster by surprise. The surprise worked because it was the first time any hero had the temerity to make a physical attack on the monster. But the surprise was all that worked! The monster shrugged off Jack's attack and landed a mighty blow of his own. Fortunately, he hit Jack's armor in a very sturdy place and only succeeded in knocking Jack back about 10 feet.

Jack was now out of the monster's reach, but the situation was reciprocated. Sue reacted by throwing up a barrier wall between Jack and the monster so that they would have time to plan a better attack. What they were currently doing just was not adequate to the task. During this pause, Sue took the opportunity to top off Jack's health and stamina.

Jack went through his magic pack to inventory his weapons to see if he had something more effective than his current sword. It was hard to think because the monster was beating on the restraining wall with his fists and creating quite a racket. Jack was still convinced that a cutting weapon was what he needed, but he was still unsure what to use. After a lot of thought and consultation with Sue, he selected a two-handed battle ax which had a blade on one side and a point on the other side of the head.

Jack restored the weapons to his magic pack and nodded for Sue to dissolve the barrier wall. The monster was still beating on the wall with his fists and appeared to have gotten very frustrated with the fruitless exercise, because he was in the process of swinging again at the wall with his fist and fell off balance when the wall suddenly disappeared. The monster did not fall all the way to the floor, but did tip forward far enough to expose his bare back to a blow from Jack. Using both hands to hold the ax and putting all of his force into the swing, Jack caught the monster just below the shoulder blades with the cutting edge of the ax.

The blade penetrated through that tough-as-steel skin and into the creatures backbone, which it cut in twain. This was enough to cause the monster to lose control of the lower part of his body and fall forward, flat on his face. Jack had some problem working the ax loose from where it was buried in the monster's back. Part of the problem was that the monster still had control and mostly free use of his hands.

In spite of the horrible wound to his back, the monster would not give up trying to reach Jack with his still useful hands. Jack finally worked the ax loose from the monster's back and jumped out of reach. As it was, Jack barely escaped being caught by the ankle as he jumped back.