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"I still say this won't work." Vaahn muttered, using his shield as an umbrella.

Crouched against the walls of the castle, Simon and Jas were doing their best to keep out of sight whilst Rebecca took careful aim with her bow. Muttering an arcane phrase under her breath she let the arrow fly, watching as it carried the rope upward with unerring accuracy and wrapped itself around the battlement. Vaahn gave several hard tugs to make sure it's secure.

"You see? I told you it would work!" Rebecca announced triumphantly, but the Kyyreni was not convinced.

"See him?" He pointed at Simon. "He's wearing full plate armour, with a tower shield. How in the Nine Hells of Baator is he going to scale an 80ft wall?"

"I'll manage." Simon replied, eyeing up the climb. "Want me to go first?"

"Oh gods no!" Vaahn answered. "If there's trouble up there, we need it dealt with fast. I'll go first, Becci and Jas can follow, and you go up last."

"Who made you leader?" Rebecca asked. "Let Simon decide!"

"He is right though." Jas interrupted. "Vaahn's our heavy hitter, you can provide range support. I'm not much good head on, and if we lose Simon we're in real trouble. Now come on, let's get up there before any trouble starts."

No trouble started, and before long the adventurers were inside the keep. Rebecca's sharp eyes made out undead creatures shambling around in the courtyard below. "Well, that's proof the Lich is here, as if we needed any more of it. Okay, Simon, where too now?"

The question took some time for Simon to answer, and his chosen answer was less than inspiring. "I don't know. Maybe... maybe up that tower?"

"Why is he group leader again?" Vaahn muttered to Jas under his breath.

"It's good for him. It builds character." Jas replied.

With Vaahn on point, the group moved into the tower itself. Torches illuminated the narrow spiral staircase leading to the upper floors, and before long Jas had insisted he take the lead position. His demand was not questioned, and soon Jas' keen instinct for danger had located two potentially deadly traps, which he promptly disarmed.

At the top of the tower was a wizard's laboratory, one that had clearly seen use recently. The adventurers spread out, Vaahn twirling his warhammer in anticipation of the coming battle. Becci notched an arrow into her bow and scanned the room, the words of a spell perched on her lips and ready for casting. Jas moved over toward one of the walls, peering closely at the stonework and running his hands along the grooves between the masonry blocks. Simon stood by the stairs, looking lost.

"Umm... Jas, is there a secret door here or something?"

"I'm looking for one now." Jas answered.

"Are we even in the right tower?" Vaahn asked. "Maybe he has more than one lab?"

Rebecca shook her head. "No, this is definitely the right one."

The group waited for Jas to finish, busying themselves by trying to look for anything of interest or value. After a few minutes of fruitless work, Simon asked to see their maps.

"What are you looking for?" Becci asked, peering over Simon's shoulder as he compared their rough drawings with the physical dimensions of the room. "Vaahn... would you do me a favour and work out how big this room is? Jas, do the other same please."

The two heroes carefully paced the room, returning with a size of forty feet by forty five.

"You sure?" Becci asked, now realising what Simon had discovered.

"We're missing five feet. That wall has a window, which means that this wall-" he turned to point at a row of tables, "-is the one with the hidden door!"

Now knowing where to look, it did not take Jas long to find the secret door. After a brief round of congratulations for Simon, the party opened the secret entrance to find a tiny room beyond, containing nothing save for a dark, shimmering portal.

As the party prepared to step through they heard footsteps from behind. The door opened to reveal a female giant, who surveyed the party with mild interest.

"Are you kids having fun?"

A chorus of acknowledgements on the theme of, "Yes Mrs O'Hanna." followed the question.

"So, who's winning?" She asked in the manner of someone completely oblivious to their children's hobbies.

A voice from beyond the portal replied, "It doesn't work that way. Right now they're about to go through a portal to the Plain of Pandemonium to try and track down an evil Lich and his undead army."

"Well now we know what's beyond the portal!" Becci chuckled.

"I see. I'm afraid I have to cut your fun short. Becci, Simon, your parents will be here to pick you up soon, and they've asked me to give you a good bottom warming before they arrive.

Their faces fell at the news. "But we've been good!" Simon insisted.

"If you were good earlier you wouldn't be a Penny now, would you? Come on, I want both of you downstairs now." After a moment's thought, she added, "why don't you three stay up here?"

It was a little thing, but it was appreciated by the hard timers - nobody liked getting spanked in front of an audience. The giant vanished back out of the room, taking the party's Arcane Archer and Cleric with her.

"Well that's a downer ending." Jas muttered.

It didn't take long for D&D night to become the highlight of the week. Simon and Becci were still both still fairly new Penitatas and so any social activity that didn't involve being spanked was a welcome one. Jas took the role of the party rogue - a Penny playing a character who specialised in breaking and entering was out of the question - and Vaahn had, after some consideration, opted for Barbarian, specialising in Berserker. The parents passed the children between them, hosting the five of them for a bit of after school fun and letting homework wait for the weekend. Jenny in particular loved having everyone over, if only because she was thrilled to see Simon coming out of his shell. It had been her idea to let Simon lead the player party, and as the weeks went on he began showing real confidence.

"You don't mind if I sit in do you? There's nothing on the holo, and this story of yours seems far more interesting!" Simon's mother asked. If anyone had objected, they were not likely to say so.

Jakob shrugged. "Feel free. Okay, is everyone sorted?"

"I still say I should have the bastard sword." Vaahn offered, fishing through a shoebox full of cotton wool to find the carefully painted miniature that represented his character.

Simon shook his head. "You're not proficient. Besides, it's axiomatic."

"So I think we're ready!" Jakob announced. "Alright, so last week we left off as you were infiltrating the Cult of Tiamet..."

Jas danced across the rafters, moving as surely as a cat and as stealthily as a shadow. Cursing under his breath, Vaahn followed the nimble rogue with some difficulty. Rebecca and Simon came next, the latter having some difficulty because of his heavy armour. In the end, Jas doubled back to help him over.

"Simon, why are we going up? Won't the Duke's daughter be in the dungeon?" Rebecca asked.

Simon shook his head. "Probably not. That scroll we found, the one written in Draconian, said something about a 'sacrifice to the moon'. That suggests she'll be up on the roof."

The party moved cautiously, following Jas' unconventional route through the cult's hideout until they at last found a way onto the rooftop by way of a small tower. There Simon's hunch was proven correct; on the next roof was a large balcony with a sacrificial altar, and the helpless damsel already chained in place. The cult leader was stood on the edge of the balcony, holding a two handed axe up toward the moon.

"I want that axe." Vaahn growled.

"Forget it! You'd have to - I mean there's no way you can get it!" Jas answered.

"Oh I think otherwise." Becci smiled, notching an arrow and taking careful aim. "Vaahn, think you can cross that rooftop?"

Simon cleared his throat. "Hey, nobody's hijacking my rescue attempt! We do this my way!"

He stepped forward, placing a hand on both Vaahn's and Rebecca's shoulders, bestowing divine enchantments to each of them. "Alright, NOW you can go and steal that axe!"

As Vaahn dashed off across the slanted tiles, Jas spoke up. "What is your plan anyway?"

Simon hesitated. "Well... to be honest, I think we're screwed. I don't see how we can outfight the whole cult, so we're going to distract them long enough for you and Becci to get Lady Esmeralda out of here."

"We?" Becci asked. "You're-"

"No arguing! You've got a shot to make!" Simon pointed at Vaahn, who was stood waiting below the cult leader.

Notching an arrow, which became shrouded in blue fire as her fingers drew back the string, Rebecca gave Simon a parting scowl. "I think this is a really bad idea."

The arrow let fly, impaling the axe-man in the forearm. He dropped his weapon in shock, only to find Vaahn rising up from below to catch it. With a feral roar of fury Vaahn grappled the demagogue by the throat and hurled him out into open air. Screaming at the top of his lungs, the Berserker smashed into the Cult of Tiamet before they were even truly aware of his presence. He span and slashed and sundered, his newly acquired weapon lopping off limbs, cracking open chests and spilling guts with every swing. Lost to the madness of his self induced rage, Vaahn barely acknowledged the wounds his enemies inflicted upon him; he simply buried his weapon into their bodies again and again until they stopped screaming, and then sought someone else to kill.

Exploiting the hole Vaahn's assault had made, Simon and Becci climbed up to the altar and cut the Lady free. The Cleric locked eyes with the Elven archer, who did not protest and helped carry the frightened young woman back to the waiting Jas.

"They'll try to cut us off." Simon said calmly, using his magic to treat Vaahn's wounds and relieve the exhaustion he felt. "We need to cut them off first."

Vaahn nodded, shaking his head to clear the feral urge to kill. "Don't worry; I've got plenty left."

The two ran down the stairs and into the main hall that acted as a communal area for the cultists. Over a dozen had gathered there now, armed with spears, axes or in some cases their own mutating bodies.

"Plan?" Vaahn asked.

"Murder our way through." Simon replied.

Vaahn laughed, drawing upon his inner reserves of fury. "My kind of plan!"

The two warriors charged together, Vaahn swinging his axe, Simon the bastard sword. Vaahn channelled everything he had into a frenzy of destruction, drawing upon reserves of strength and endurance his body simply did not have. Whilst Simon ducked and parried, desperately trying to fend of blows and look for an opening to exploit, Vaahn showed no interest in self preservation. Instead, he set his sights on the largest, most draconic member of the cult, and pulverised everyone who came between him and his chosen victim. By the time the Berserker clashed with the dragon disciple he had taken enough wounds to kill a lesser man, yet he showed no sign of stopping. Simon was lagging behind, still engaged with a pair of reptilian soldiers who had evaded Vaahn's butchery. He himself had been injured several times despite his armour, but had no time to use healing magic to seal the wounds.

"Come on!" He roared, knowing he had to keep the cultists occupied as long as possible. "Come and get us! Come if you dare!"

Becci sent a charging barbarian sprawling onto the ground with a shot to the knee. Two more cultists came at her, but Jas had taken up an ambush position behind a statue of a Black Dragon and buried his knife into the spine of the rearmost attacker. He twisted the blade, yanked it free, and before the other man could raise his shield to block Jas plunged the blade into his heart.

"Behind you!" Becci cried, but the warning came too late. Jas toppled to the ground in pain as a sword bit into his shoulder. A pair of arrows made the attacker stagger, and before he could regain the initiative Jas gutted him with a pair of quick slashes.

"This isn't going well!" Jas punctuated the order with a throwing knife, which he hurled into the throat of the barbarian who was trying to pull the arrow out of his leg. The burly creature fell back onto the stone floor, making a wet gulping sound as he bled out onto a mosaic depicting Tiamet's victory over Bahamut.

"This is why we should have left!" Rebecca notched another arrow, which began to burn fiercely. She let it fly toward a side door, and the moment the arrow buried itself in the breastplate of her target a massive fireball consumed the knight and his allies.

"It wasn't the right thing to do! We succeed or fail as a team, remember? Look!"

Becci turned to follow Jas' pointing dagger. A large pair of double doors opened ahead of them and four heavily armoured cultists poured out, yet they were not interested in the adventurers or the rescued sacrifice. One of them raised his shield to try and deflect a blow from an unseen attacker, but a two handed sword impaled itself through his visor. A split second later, Vaahn exploded through the doors and cut two men in half with a single swing. The last man stabbed out at Vaahn, but Simon put himself in the way and the sword glanced off his plate armour. Vaahn promptly removed the man's head from his shoulders.

"You're alive!" Becci cried out with joy.

"And you're disobeying orders! We've got over a dozen cultists on our heels!" Simon snapped back.

Vaahn and Simon staggered forwards, the former clearly suffering as his body finally gave in. He had pushed himself longer and harder than ever before, and he could push no more.

"Leave me." He growled, gulping in air like a fish out of water. "I'll only slow you down."

"Not a chance!" Jas replied. "Get to the door! We've got the horses waiting!"

It was easier said than done. Vaahn and Simon struggled onwards, but the sounds of pursuit were closing fast, and the doors of the temple seemed so far away...

"Boys, are you ready to go home?"

Everyone turned to look at Chloe as she entered and gave a warm smile to Jenny. "I hope they've been well behaved."

"Far from it! Your boys alone are guilty of multiple counts of trespass, theft and murder!" She tried to deliver the news with a straight face, but cracked halfway through. "Oh they've been good as gold, don't you worry."

Whilst Jakob made notes and packed his books away, Vaahn and Jas took their figures and left with their parents.

"So, do you think we'll get out of this one alive?" Vaahn asked casually.

Jas shrugged. "Who knows? I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

The Kyyreni boy smiled and said, "for what it's worth, I am glad you came back for me."

"Any time." Jas replied.