(Finding the skellies) Shroud: Looks like someone is living…uh, was living…in here. Baron: They must have gotten…a HEAD of themselves! (pause) Stoic: Can we please leave him in one of those jail cells? Laurel: They may not have their heads….but they are conscious. I can sense the dark magic sustaining them. Stoic: Well, they won’t bother us just sitting there like that. Let’s keep moving. (Spike room) Baron: What is up with this room?! Stoic: Someone obviously doesn’t want us going any farther. Baron: What are we supposed to do now? There’s no way we’re getting over there unless we want big holes in our feet! Stoic: This from the guy who scaled that ice wall by himself? We’ve gotten past worse than this. There’s always some way to get around. Baron: Yeah, I guess….but right now, I’m drawing a blank. Laurel: What about the skeletons in that other room? Shroud: I don’t know how much help they can be without their heads…they can’t even talk. Laurel: Maybe that’s what we should be looking for. Stoic: They also might attack us if we put them back together. Don’t forget we’re dealing with a necromancer here. Shroud: We may have to take that risk. We’re not going anywhere like this. (Locke’s Head) Voice: Hey! Shroud: Who said that? Voice: Look up here! Skull: Thank Arcadius you’re here! Shroud: Who are you and how the hell did you end up over there? Locke: The name’s Locke, and you can blame those pack rats for that! They ran off with my head while I was sleeping! They’ll grab anything that isn’t tied down! You guys gotta help me get back to my shoulders! Baron: Hey man, we got necromancers to deal with! Why should we mess around in here? Locke: I dunno….Hero’s Code or something? Isn’t that why you guys are wearing those goofy masks? Shroud: We’ll help. But after we put you back on straight, we could use some help ourselves. Locke: Anything! Just get me out of here! (instructions) Laurel: What’s your plan? Shroud: I’ll grab the skull with my wind magic and try to steer it out of there. Baron, you shoot the rats. Baron: What?! Do you see how many there are?! I only have so many bullets! Shroud: Fine. Can you at least shoot the ones that chase after the head? Baron: Okey dokey. (Returning Locke’s head) Locke: Ahh…much better. (pause) Locke: I don’t suppose I could ask for another favor? Shroud: This is the part where you’re supposed to help us. Locke: I will….but I don’t make any decisions without the rest of my group…and as you can see, they’re all in the same situation I was. Shroud: So you won’t help us until we track down their heads too? Locke: Hope it’s not too much trouble. Stoic: You owe us big for this. Baron: Man, I didn’t sign up for this hero business to be an exterminator! Shroud: I don’t like it any more than you do, Baron, but we don’t really have any other options. Back to head hunting. (TSB’s head returns) TSB: Sorry for the rudeness earlier. This has been an out of body experience. Stoic: Can everyone just stop with the puns?! That’s all I ask! (Before Head Shuffle) Baron: Well, we helped you. Now all of you put your heads together and tell us how to get past those spikes! Stock: What you need is in the next room! Locke: But you’ll need a key! Stoic: Let’s have it, then. TSB: We could give it to you…..but first you have to play our new favorite game! Shroud: What?! We don’t have time for that! Locke: Oh, sure you do! Won’t take long at all. Laurel: You all are really bored, aren’t you? Stock: Lady, you have no idea. TSB: But we like you! Come on, it will be fun. Shroud: Fine. Tell us about the game. Locke: It’s simple! We’re gonna switch heads a bunch of times really fast, and you just have to keep track of where each one of us is! Guess right and you get the key! Baron: Okay, everyone look carefully. (Finding the Golem) Baron: Wow, what is this massive thing? Laurel: Oh my goodness! It’s a real golem! Oh wow, it’s so neat! Shroud: What does it do besides take up a lot of space? So far, I’m not as impressed. Laurel: Are you kidding?! It does so much more! I’ve always wanted one! (pause) Laurel: Okay….anyway, golems are creatures created with magic that will do the bidding of its creator! I actually tried to make one once….but I wound up just blowing up a bookshelf. Stoic: I bet Dasani loved that. Laurel: She took away my spellbooks for a while. Baron: But how come it’s not doing anything? Laurel: It will just sit idly until it gets a command. The command usually comes from the sorcerer who created it, but sometimes it can be controlled by a remote device. Shroud: You mean this thing? (item get) Shroud: It even comes with instructions. (instructions get) Shroud: We can always read them later if we forget how to control the golem. Laurel: Now that we have a controller, we should be able to move it by issuing it orders. Baron: Oh man, this is going to be fun! Laurel: Yeah! (Cauldron) Baron: Hey! Someone’s making stew! Laurel: No silly, this is a classic mixing pot. If we use the right ingredients, it could help us create some enchantments! Maybe even upgrade our golem! Bones: I hate to use another tool of that necromancer, but it may be the only way to get through his playhouse. (Ritual Room) Shroud: Hmm….pretty empty in here. Laurel: This must be a place for major spells. (After checking the door) Stoic: I hate this type of door. Never opens easily. Laurel: We have a room full of magic circles. Chances are we have to use them. Baron: But for what? Laurel: Well…..this is a necromancer’s hideout…what kind of spells would he be interested in? Baron: We gotta bring back dead people?! That’s a lot for just opening a door! Shroud: No…come on, now. This can’t be where he really casts his spells, or he’d probably be here right now. There’s hardly any tools or anything in this entire room. I have a feeling it’s meant for practice. Laurel: Exactly. We probably just need to go through the motions of casting a spell without actually doing so. Baron: But what spell…. (Checking the book) Laurel: Wow….this is scary and powerful dark magic he’s looking into. Stoic: There’s some illustrations about the different aspects of the ritual. Shroud: This one here has a lock of hair in it. We don’t have one of those, do we? (Stoic yanks Baron’s hair) Baron: Yowch! Stoic: Now we do. Laurel: Here’s another picture….just looks like your basic dark spell. Shroud: This picture is another spell…caption says it breaks a seal. Stoic: And this one over here depicts someone drawing a magic circle with some kind of weird gunk. (pause) Shroud: Hmm….so there’s four steps for casting this….but it doesn’t say anywhere what order we need to do it in. Stoic: There has to be something around this dump that might give us a hint. Laurel: And there’s something sitting here next to the book. (pause) Laurel: An obsidian charm. These are often used as symbols for dark magic. Shroud: Okay, so once we figure out the order these steps go in, let’s see if we can recreate the process of casting this spell. Solik’s Notes: Once the hair is in place, all that’s needed is the spell itself. It would exhaust me to cast just for these practice sessions, so I have taken to substituting obsidian charms in the meantime. It is imperative that the existing seal on the altar be dissolved before I proceed any further. If I were to skip that and pour the toxins in place instead, they would be rendered useless by the lingering holy magic. The toxins will do nothing without something to focus their dark energies on. Once they are on the ground and active, I must apply the sample of hair. (Prep room, after the heroes pass through the blocked passage, leaving the golem behind) Laurel: Bye bye, golem. (Solik calls the golem) Solik: I had not used this contraption for some time….I suppose I should thank you for releasing it. Baron: We still have the controls, don’t we? Solik: That will do you no good….the golem will now only obey its true master. Baron: Oh….crap. Laurel: Don’t do it golem….I’m exhausted…I don’t know if I can fight anymore.