Chapter 1
The Defense of the Air Temple in Pavis

Quite soon after Dolxx initiation, when he was researching in the cult obligations, there started this rumor, that something special would happen in the Air temple in Pavis (the adventure turned out to be One High priest too many from SiP), in a few weeks. The Air temple was led by Falticus, who was considered among real Orlanthis as a Lunar puppet, but he was in charge there, though he was never installed as a high priest. Dolxx had little contact with other Orlanth rune levels except with Krogar. One day Krogar asked if Dolxx could bring some trustworthy friends, who could fight, with him to the next Windsday morning ceremony. Dolxx asked two other members of A-TEAM, Merlox and Raven, if they would care to join him. They said that they would come against a fee of 2000L each. The sum was so high because Dolxx is a man of honor and he had earlier said that if they would join him an a mission that would be the fee. The bustle in the city grew nearer the said date.

When the morning came, Dolxx, Merlox and Raven went to the ceremony. Raven took all his armor with him in a bag, but Dolxx and Merlox did not see it necessary to take their armor with them. Merlox did not even take his sword with him. There they were with a lot of other Orlanthis and other people who clearly was not Orlanthis but had presumably come there for curiosity. Krogar was there near the altar with Falticus. The ceremony begun and continued as it usually does on a morning ceremony. Then when it became time for blessings, Dolxx and Merlox went to the queue in front of Krogar. Raven said that he would never ever be blessed by an Orlanthi in an Orlanth temple. When Dolxx came for his blessing, Krogar cast a mind link to Dolxx and a shield 3. Krogar said to Dolxx, that Dolxx and his friends should guard the NE door and not let anybody, anybody at all, through the door. Dolxx said they would do it and that they would guard it with all their might. When Merlox came in front of Krogar, Merlox got a shield 1 spell casted upon him by Krogar. Dolxx then told Merlox and Raven what they should do. Five minutes went and nothing happened and six, seven, eight, nine minutes. Krogar started to look worried because the spells would soon stop working. But after ten minutes all suddenly Orvost Tintalker, the priest real Orlanthis considered as the high priest even if he was not yet installed as such, appeared on the altar and started to install himself as the real high priest with all the regalia the real high priest should have. The regalia consist of a mantel and a scepter. At the same moment Lunars started to come out of the barns in the temple. Also somebody started to chop down the doors of the temple. Dolxx casted his spells and so did his companions. Then Dolxx and Raven stood in the front-line with Merlox in behind as a reserve and spell caster. The group did not see much what happened elsewhere but there was a big fight in the center of the temple yard. Behind the door that Dolxx and his companions defended, was Nosering who is one of the Lunar Coders, with four Axe-brothers. Dolxx started to hit both of the two Axe-brothers and Raven also started to hit the other of the Axe-brothers. On the first round the second Axe-brother, who was in front of Raven, fell down mortally wounded by Dolxx. He was very surprised because he had not waited that Dolxx would hit him also. Instead of the one who fell down a new Axe-brother came to chop down Raven. He was prepared but that did not help when Dolxx also hit him. It was a killing blow and his life ended gloriously on the battlefield. The third Axe-brother came and he was not hacked down by Dolxx but by Raven in the following moments. Then there was only one man behind in the reserve and that was Nosering. He looked furious because Dolxx and Raven had so easily hacked down his Axe-brothers. He started to attack both Dolxx and Raven and also parried them both. Luckily Dolxx hacked down the last of the Axe-brothers just as Nosering entered the fight. It was an awesome fight, one that would be remembered for long by all of them. Nosering hit heavily on Dolxx and on Raven, but because they had excellent armor and very good parrying weapons, combined with their skill of parrying, they managed to avoid damage. Dolxx and Raven hit also hard on Nosering with hits as hard as his, but even if he had even a higher skill of parrying he could do nothing to the fact that his armor and parrying weapon was not of the same quality as Dolxx's and Raven's. It was Raven who scored the first serious hit on Nosering. He made a huge effort and hit Noserings right leg so Nosering almost tumbled. Dolxx was not very far to follow and hit Noserings left leg. Then he hit Noserings right leg and that was more than Nosering could take, so he fell on his back. He healed himself and started to back off because he knew he could not come through the door at least not as long as Dolxx and Raven were guarding it. Meanwhile elsewhere only one other door had been kept shut from Lunars. The main gate and the adjacent doors were lost. The Lunar army started to slaughter people when they came towards the altar. On the altar Orvost had the time, thanks to all the Orlanthis who defended their real high priest, to install himself as an official high priest of Orlanth in Pavis. When he was finished, he summoned a sylph and started to fly off on it. The leader of the Lunar Coders, Count Julan, flew after him and a big fight took place in the air as they flew against the Rubble. It was later known that Count Julan, who followed Orvost, lost the fight and fell down with his dead wyvern in the Rubble. Dolxx and the others saw that the fight was lost and started to think of a way to escape. Dolxx casted a mind speech to Krogar and asked what Krogar thought they should do. Krogar said that if he did not do anything, the Lunars would not do anything against him either. Dolxx then casted an other mind speech on the one in charge of the other door that had not been taken by the Lunars. Just when he talked about the opportunity to run through the attackers a sudden sound was heard from the main gate. It was one of the Lunar Coders, Princess Anderida, who ordered silence. After a while it became silent, and she started to speak. She said that it was unnecessary that the slaughter would continue and said everybody who left within five minutes unarmed would be spared and not killed like those who stayed here after the pardon was over. There was an issue about the weapons because nobody wanted to leave their weapons over to the Lunars. To that Princess Anderida said everybody would get their weapons back after a few days. There was some arguing that the Lunars would never give the weapons back but then Princess Anderida said that she could guarantee that everybody would get their weapons back. Dolxx, Merlox and Raven argued that they could get out by force but when Princess Anderida promised they finally agreed to leave their weapons. Raven did not trust any of the Lunars so he went straight to princess Andrida and left his mighty maul at her feet. Dolxx and Merlox soon followed his example as did also others. Raven started to insult Nosering, because he lost the fight against A-TEAM. They left the temple and went back to the Armpit of Pavis where they lived with the great magus Arlaten.

A few days passed and many Orlanthis were arrested, among them Krogar Wolfhelm, but the most wanted man, Orvost, was nowhere to be found. Many Orlanthis were sentenced and crucified. It was clear that there had to be a traitor among the Orlanthis because the Lunars knew that Orvost was to be installed as the high priest in Pavis. Many of the rune levels of Orlanth were arrested and sent to the salt mines but not killed, and Krogar himself was put in house arrest. One of the wanted was Raven, because of the insults he had made to Nosering, but he was neither found anywhere, because he kept himself outside Pavis. His only problem was how to get his weapon from the Lunars. Dolxx had no problem because he was not wanted so he just went and got his two swords back. Raven had to ask Arlaten to cast an illusion so he looked different from his usual ugly look. To get one's weapons back you had to show that you were allowed to carry your weapons in Pavis, i.e., being a master in that weapon. It was very lucky for Merlox that he had not taken his weapon through the gate that morning, because he was not a master in his weapon and then he would have had to pay a big fine for carrying an unallowed weapon into the city. There was one rune level that was not arrested besides Dolxx and that was Frekor Firmfarer. He lived on the Badside and did not come to the city very often. One day when Dolxx sat at Gimpy's a shadow cat came to him and to his surprise it started to talk. It was Aeolius, Krogar's Allied spirit, who had orders from his master to give to Dolxx. Orvost was to be contacted by Dolxx and Frekor. Even if Dolxx did not know where Orvost was Frekor did and they had to meet to discuss these problems. Dolxx and Merlox went to see Frekor and after a while they found him. They agreed that a few of his men would come and pick up Dolxx from the Armpit. The day came and Dolxx waited. He heard the signal they had agreed on but Dolxx noticed that it was not correctly whistled. He told Raven and Merlox about it and they agreed to let the men inside. First they thought of killing them and especially Raven was for it but then Raven came to the idea that there was a toll for people who wanted to leave the tower. They said it was 1000L. The men did not believe and said that they did not have money on them and turned to Dolxx for help. Dolxx said that it was not his idea but Arlatens and that they should not annoy a mighty magus like Arlaten. In the end they had to give all their clothes away and they left into the Rubble naked. Dolxx noted these men's faces so he could recognize them if he ever saw them again. A-TEAM then decided to meet Frekor and this time they agreed on meeting each other in the Real City in the Rubble.

The day came when Dolxx and all his fellow A-TEAM members where to meet Frekor on their way to Orvost. It was a building quite near the Real City and they were there in no time. When they walked to the building Dolxx tried to see if anybody was following them, but nobody was to bee seen. Orvost, Frekor and Dolxx discussed what to do in the present situation. Of the seven men Frekor had with him, a few were on watch. After about two hours, there were some noise outside the building. To the horror of everyone it was Count Julan with ten other soldiers and all of them had wyverns. In a fast war council Orvost, Frekor and Dolxx decided that Orvost and Frekor would teleport themselves away. Frekor would take the regalia with him. Dolxx and the rest of A-TEAM had to find a way by themselves from this house. Orvost could help them by throwing a big mist cloud. He did it to help A-TEAM. The seven other men wanted to charge against the Lunars and were allowed to do that. They charged and the mist started to pour out of the house. A-TEAM prepared all their spells including a mobility 6, which Dolxx threw on everyone. As A-TEAM charged out the seven other men were losing out to the overpowering Lunars. A-TEAM wanted to pass by one side of the surrounding Lunars. Dolxx and Kaid-aw attacked one man and his wyvern and Raven and Merlox an other. Dolxx and Kaid-aw managed to kill both their opponents but Merlox and Raven did not. Two arrows came from somewhere and killed Dolxx and Merlox with a single hit each. The hit on Dolxx was a critical hit in the head and on Merlox it was a special hit in the abdom. It now occurred that they had been followed by Tracker, one of the Coders, and it was she who shot these two arrows. The mist now was way out of the house and Kaid-aw grabbed Dolxx, as Raven took Merlox and they fled into the house. In there you could not see a thing. Dolxx and Merlox were resurrected and A-TEAM started to think of an other way of getting out from this house. They decided that they would be quiet for a while. Outside the house the battle died out as the last of the Orlanthis died. Inside the house they could hear that Count Julan said: "Good, now we got him!". The only thing it could mean was that the Lunars knew were Orvost had teleported himself. Then they heard that many wyverns started to fly away. It was clear that Count Julan and many other fighters flew away with only a few men left to clean up the mess. When the mist started to disappear after an hour, A-TEAM went to the two side rooms of the house on each side and prepared themselves with spells. Except Merlox who said he would sit in the big room at a table. Soon four men came in to the house and were completely surprised by A-TEAM. The battle did not last for long. Then A-TEAM went to see if there were any other men outside but there were no one. Dolxx insisted that the Orlanthi should be buried accordingly to the Orlanth tradition but he was in a hurry to talk to Krogar. Raven said he would do it but Dolxx was not completely sure about it. Raven might ask his troll friends to come and have a feast with the dead bodies.

When the rest came to Krogar he already knew what had happened. Frekor had not been captured so the regalia was still safe. A-TEAM had to transport the regalia to the Paring Stone, an Orlanth holy place, a few hundred kilometers away. To get there they got a true stone with enough guided teleportations to take them there. The following day they should go to Frekor's hiding place. They tried to look behind to see if anybody was following them but saw none. The house was empty when they arrived. There were bloodstains and marks of a fight. Dolxx started to search for the regalia and found them. At the same moment there was a shout outside. It was Count Julan who told them to come out with the regalia or they would be killed. Dolxx said he would teleport himself with the regalia and anybody who would follow to the Paring Stone. No one of the others wanted because they said they had nothing against the Coders so it would be no problem to get away. Dolxx then said the magic word and teleported himself away.

What exactly happened then at the house was never completely clear to Dolxx, but the rest made somekind of deal to get out of there. They had to get a body and alter it with an illusion by Arlaten to look like Dolxx so the Coders could say that they did not get the regalia but they killed Dolxx. Dolxx had to pay for Arlaten's services and for changing his own looks not to look like himself but different. It was a heavy cost for Dolxx to pay for their stupidity. Dolxx is officially dead now and only a few people know that he is in fact alive.

Dolxx was celebrated as a hero, at the Paring Stone, and in the evening a big ceremony was held. Dolxx was awarded for his bravery and saving the all important regalia with an allied spirit. It was a very powerful (POW 21) spirit that emerged to a shadow cat. The cat was very small (SIZ 1) but otherwise a good creature for the allied spirit. The ceremony was led by a Windlord called Garath, better known later in history as Argrath, and Dolxx joined Garath's powerful group for the journey back to Pavis. Dolxx took the name of Windi in his disguise and thought out a story how and why he was in Pavis. Dolxx will hold a lower profile now for a year or two until he is nor remembered anymore. After this A-TEAM decided that it was time for a training pause for those who could train. For Dolxx it was partly training and partly doing his day to day duties. They used a whole season for that purpose. Dolxx celebrated his birthday with a big birthday party for his friends at Gimpy's.

Under the training period Kaid-aw got married with the girl he fell in love with in Eldarad a longtime ago. She had followed with the A-TEAM all the way from Eldarad to Pavis. It was a huge wedding party he arranged and everybody except Raven was there, or so it felt, with the amount of people invited. As a wedding gift from Yelmalio he got a house in Pavis for his own. He had to get married now because, he also became a Yelmalio priest under that training time, and after that you are not allowed to get married any longer, but if you are married, your marriage does not have to be broken up. Kaid-aw had the good luck to get an allied spirit, when he became a priest, and he put it in a hawk.

Do you want to read how the A-TEAM managed to survive in the Puzzle Canal?

Chapter 1The Defense of the Air Temple in Pavis

Chapter 1
The Defense of the Air Temple in Pavis