Pall Recalls (cont.)

"Look," Fred says as the group follows the tottering duke into the "lair of damnation" as one person called it. "As much as I would like to go charging into the lair and hack the damn bastard to pieces, I well remember the last time I went in unprepared.

"Though some good came of it," Fred smiles a faint smile as he glances meaningfully at Alicia....and then the rest of the adventurers. "I rather doubt Minestus will be happy to see me again. We have a bit of unsettled business......the whole of humanity and the Pack has some unsettled business with the wyrm. I'd really hate us to die needlessly in a trap that my father could lead us around. Yet, we need something a bit more. Something from both Synizn and our.....mechanical friend here is needed to just be sure. But for the most part, we need to find out just what the Hell Minestus is up to......."

"Well," murmurs the former dragon. "I have a few spells that can conceal our presence from casual magical probes that Minestus might have set up...... How about what YOU can provide, puppet man?" There is a trace of a sneer in Synizn's voice as he addresses Probe.

"Well," says Probe, running off a mental inventory of his equipment in his pack. "I just happen to have some bugs.....listening devices that could just prove handy. As for some other things......"

So Fred and the AI hash out a plan. The duke is stopped for a second (much to his anger) and a bug is placed on him. The spell cloaked group follows Drederigo as he wanders forward and deactivates (and doesn't even think to reactivate) traps and alarms. At one point......

"So that's were I was discovered," Astra whispers excitedly, pointing to an innocent seeming set of rocks. "That's how the dragon knew I was coming. And when the cage slammed down from above and that gas trap knocked me out......"

"Almost like the electronic eye beams back home," murmurs Probe absently, mildly impressed. He keeps scanning the corridor for danger.

The Golem had in the discussion on tactics, let it be known that while his Avatar unit was a veritable force of nature when fighting humans, it was a different story concerning dragons of Minestus' caliber. He had seen recordings from past battles with other Avatars where dragons had been able to snap of spells that had wrecked the cybernetic humanoids. Lightning bolts were the most effective, but other spells had worked as well. The only thing that had carried the day for the Alliance forces was the fact that the soldiers worked in large teams....and basically swarmed over (or blasted in mass) the poor dragons that they had targeted.

This is known to the adventurers, but not revealed to the cyborg. Synizn had told them about how he had been ambushed, and swarmed over. He had smiled a cold smile and revealed that NOW he had a few rabbits in his hat to take care of Probe.....if things fell apart.....and it didn't just involve mere destruction of a golem body......