Splittin' this jin joint.

"One more to go," Saul said. He let the blanket fall open. The gem fell into a corner of the portable hole along with the other two. "Definitely don't touch this one, unless you like the heat."

"So that's fire," Marc said. "That leaves earth."

Outside the hole, I heard wood hitting rock. "And I think that's it."

I climbed up the ladder and out of the portable hole. I took the five steps to the edge of the precipice where I could see the water some ten feet below me. Audry and Anna had already tied it off and were climbing up. After days of searching, they brought us the last of the elemental gems.

Anna saw me and smiled. She held up a small cloth that contained the elemental gem. She smiled broadly.

"Got it!"

I smiled in return. That was the good news--we were leaving. The bad news was I had to handle that damn golden skull again.

On Earth, an object is just an object. A phone, a computer, a car, even a sword--they are just things with no will of their own. Any good or evil they project is at the hands of the wielder (and if you don't think phones can project evil then you never had a telemarketer call you during dinner--God, I don't miss that one bit).

In this world, it doesn't work that way.

Saul and Marc stood at the edge of the hole watching us. They both had the same look on their face.

"Are you sure about this John?" Marc asked. "One of us could--"

"No," I said. "My idea, I'll do it. Besides, I've already handled it once."

"That's what disturbs me," Audry said. She dusted off her hands from the climb up the cliff face. "Such things have a cumulative affect."

"The more you handle it, the harder it gets," Anna said. "Look, maybe one of us should--"

"I said no." Anna flinched. My voice was louder than I intended. "Anna, I'm sorry. I just don't want anyone else exposed to this."

"Taking all the burden on your own, eh?" Saul said.

"He'd make a good Paladin," Audry said.

I wanted to laugh. A Paladin. Me? Virtue is not one of my virtues.

"We are here for you, John," Marc said. "Never forget that."

"I won't," I said. Without another word I descended into the hole. I wanted to hurry before I changed my mind.

As soon as my feet touched the floor I could hear its voice. All four stones were here, and it knew.

I am here.

I could hear it, but I couldn't. The voice was in my head, but I knew which direction it came from. I went to a pile of gems and jewels in a corner. I hadn't touched it since I came to the elemental nodes. I covered it in gems and jewels as we found them. There was a fortune here, but I'd throw it all away to get rid of that damn skull.

I reached inside the pile. My hands wrapped around it. The coldness made my fingers numb, but I knew I could hold it for eternity if I wanted. I terrible, oily feeling slipped through my consciousness. The golden skull, the orb of death, vibrated in my hand as I pulled from under the treasure.

The gem in the blankets vibrated. It glowed in the semi-light of the water node. The gem rose from the blankets and drifted lazily toward the globe. It rest itself in a hole on the forehead. I knew that it would take powerful magic to separate the gem from the golden skull.

I pointed the globe toward the remaining gems in the corner. They slid across the floor and into the air. The planted themselves in the remaining three holes that circled the skull. A shock went through my body. The knowledge of the skull's abilities filled my mind, showing me how its powers could be used. Scenes of humans and elves dying in droves before the skulls power swarmed over me. After a minute, it was over. I knew what this thing could do. More importantly, I knew the way out.

"John?"

I felt a hand on my arm. I didn't realize I had closed my eyes. When I opened them, I saw Anna standing before me. I never saw such concern on her face.

"Do you know how to leave?" Marc asked.

"Yes," I said. My voice had no emotion in it. "This is the key." I gripped the skull tightly. "With this I can...." I thought of what I could do. I thought of the terrible destruction I could rain down on enemies and friends alike. I also remembered something about the skull from the old pen and paper game. No good can come from using the skull.

"John," Audry said. She put her hand on mine. It quivered. She must sense the evil in the skull. "John, put it down."

No!

For a moment, I almost listened to the skull. On a whim, I dropped it. I felt a rush of anger from the skull. I kicked it into a corner. It hurled insults at me in a language I did not understand.

"I'm okay," I said. I blinked my eyes rapidly. "Wow, that sucks."

"Should we leave now?" Marc said.

"No," I said. "It's all good. We've been up for a while. We need to rest. Where we're going, we're going to need it."

--------

They are resting now. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get to sleep. The skull is sulking now. It realizes I won't be the easiest target to get a hold of. Or is it trying to make me think it thinks that?

I never understood true evil until now. All I want is to destroy this thing, and if that meant staying here in the nodes for eternity then I would do it.

Fortunately, it won't come to that.

Once we leave, both the nodes and the dungeon complex, we will destroy this thing as should have done years ago.

And I know how to do it.

Surviving the Elements, part three

"This way," Saul said. We'd been moving through the maze of tunnels for a while. He seemed to know where he was going.

"How are they?" Anna asked.

Audry, it turned out, had caught up with Saul and Marc some time ago. It was Anna and I who had been missing from the group. They spent weeks looking for us.

"Worried," Saul said. "Worried about the two of you. You know, we thought you guys were dead."

"Likewise," I said.

"So Hatrack is dead?" he asked.

I smiled. "Yeah. Hedrack is dead. Any sign of Burne and Rufus?"

Saul shook his head. "Not so far. We've been over much of the nodes. We know the Earth one pretty well, and the fire one okay. I wandered over the air node, but it's so big."

"Tell me about it," Anna said.

Saul looked at Anna and took her hand. "I tried to find you. I really--"

"I know," she said, and gave his hand a little squeeze. "It would have been a miracle if you had found me. I spent most of my time huddled in a cave. Besides, you probably would have met up with the dragon."

"Dragon? Gods, I'm glad you got out of there."

"Well, John helped." She nudged me gently with her elbow. "Actually, he did all the work."

"Me?" I said. "If you hadn't distracted him with your deadly aim I'd have been crushed."

"Wait a moment," Saul said. "What happened to this dragon?"

"Oh, he's dead," Anna said. "John killed him."

"We killed him," I said.

He stared at us both. "Impressive." He gestured at the sword in my hand. "I assume that helped. Given the way you moved fighting those ropers, I assume it's magical."

Ropers, I thought. That's what they were. "Yeah, I found this bad boy just after I arrived. It's strange to fight with."

"Strange?" Anna said. "How?"

"It's like this thing doesn't weigh anything," I said. "And if someone attacks, I know where it's coming from and what the attacker is trying to do. Well, I don't actually 'know' in words, but I know." I gave a short laugh. "It's hard to explain."

"That's magic, all right," Saul said. He tapped his one weapon at his side. "I found this in the fire node. I get a similar feeling in battle, but I don't move the way you do."

"And these," Anna said, holding up her bow and arrows. "There's a lot of neat stuff around here. I suppose if we had the time we could check it out."

"Well, we have the time, apparently," Saul said. "We can get from node to node. I guess you figured out how to do that."

"Those symbols on the floor," I said.

Saul nodded. "A different one for each node. If you stand in it, you'll eventually be transported to that node, and always to the same place in that node. What we haven't been able to find is a symbol that takes us out of here."

"Has to be one," I said. "How would the temple denizens get out?"

"Maybe they're not supposed to," Anna said. "Maybe they never come down here."

"Worse comes to worse, maybe we can leave via the plane of air," Saul said. He frowned at the thought. "Marc knows something about that place. Nothing but sky with little pockets of earth. It's more survivable than the other planes, but...well, it's a last resort only."

We rounded a corner and entered a room. On the floor of the room was another symbol. It was a sort of diamond pattern. Or rather, it looked like a square with small triangles on each side.

"Fire node?" I asked.

Saul nodded. "Ready?"

We stepped into the center of the symbol and waited. After several seconds, a glowing wall rose from the floor, outlining the edge of the symbol. It disappeared quickly and we were somewhere else.

Somewhere really hot, I might add.

"Let's move," Saul said. "It's too hot to stay here for long."

The room we appeared in was shaped just like the symbol that brought us here. The walls glowed like clay pots in a kiln. And the heat--my god, the heat was everywhere. Imagine opening the oven in your kitchen to get retrieve your brownies after the kitchen timer went off. You know that blast of heat that washes over you? Imagine having to sit there with your head in the oven for hours on end. That's what this was like.

The only exits from the room were doors. Saul pulled his pack off his back and reached into it without setting it down. The floors looked as hot as the walls, which meant it wouldn't do our boots much good. Saul pulled out a large cloth from his pack. It looked old and worn, but thick. It also looked as if it had been through a fire and rescued just in time. He wrapped it around his hand and reached for the door. He pulled at the handle and the door opened carefully. The blanket sizzled as he nodded at us. "Hurry."

We went through the door, weapons drawn. The hall was about ten feet wide. The narrowness of it compared to the room made the heat worse. Saul followed us and the door slammed shut on its own.

"We tried spiking them shut," he said. He patted the blanket in his hands until it stopped smoking. "However, it seems someone keeps removing them."

We walked quickly. A hot wind washed over us in some halls. Sweat poured down my back within minutes. I looked at Anna. Her matted hair stuck to the side of her face. She pulled back some strands wet with sweat.

"I could use a drink," Anna said.

"Plenty of water where we're going," Saul said.

"That's not what I meant," she said.

"Well, I won't tell Audry you said that," Saul responded. "But it means you have to share any hootch if you find it."

"Fat chance of that around here," I said.

The hall split into a four way intersection. Saul kept moving straight ahead, passing that junction and another one about twenty feet down from that one. When we entered that intersection a blast of hot air hit us like a wall. I held up my hand in front of my face, but it didn't help much.

"Oh man, someone turn it off," I said.

Saul had his own hand in front of his eyes. "You'll have to tell them."

I peered between my fingers. The hot wind stung my eyes, but I could still make them out. Two whirlwinds of fire came down the hall. They spun slowly, like tornadoes in slow motion. They moved side by side, each of them hugging the ceiling, wall, and ground as they moved, conforming to the shape of the hall. Tentacles of flame stretched out in all directions, like a blind man's cane feeling the way in front of them.

"Okay," I said. I readied my sword. I could feel it hum, ready for combat. "That's one for the weird list."

Anna's bow let out a twang and an arrow sailed through the hall. It passed through one, creating a hole in the flames. The creature shuttered, letting out a sound like someone moving office furniture across a wooden floor. The creature hesitated for the briefest second, and then the surrounding flame filled in the hole. It continued moving forward.

Anna lowered her bow slowly. "That didn't work as well as I wanted it to guys."

"Duck!" Saul shouted.

"I don't think that's going to help," I said.

Saul went to the ground, looking behind him. Anna looked where Saul looked, and then put her hand on my shoulder and her foot behind mine. She then pushed and easily tripped me. She went down with me and landed on top of me as I hit the ground. The wind rushed out of me. I tried to say something, but there was no air in my lungs. I could feel the hot floor beneath me. It wasn't hot enough to burn, at least not yet, but if I stayed there for too long I knew I'd need some aloe vera for my burns. And speaking of burns....

Ahead I saw the towering infernos moving toward us, ready to sweep over us like Satan's lawnmower. The good news was that it wouldn't hurt for long. The bad news was that it would hurt.

A shadow passed over us. A ball of white, sparkling ice floated toward the creatures. They hesitated, sensing it with sensory organs I couldn't begin to imagine. The ball flew like a lightly tossed softball, heading toward the ceiling some twenty feet away from us, and right in front of the creatures of flame.

It detonated, sending ice everywhere. Steam poured down the hall as ice impacted the super hot walls and melted. The creatures let out a shriek like fingernails on a chalk board. The creatures wailed in agony as the area cooled rapidly. Chunks of ice began to fall from the ceiling around them. At first they melted when they hit the floor. After a few more seconds, the ice remained intact as it hit the floor. Ice chips flew everywhere as more ice continued to fall from the ceiling.

Anna pushed her self up off my chest. I rolled and stood, putting my hands on the floor momentarily. I pulled them away quickly. They turned red from the brief contact. God only knew how much longer my boots would last. Saul had ducked around a corner just before the ice hit its mark. He came forward and checked on Anna and I.

"We should go now," a voice said.

Marc gestured at us desperately. We followed him without another word, running through the steam that filled the hall. Marc didn't respond to us until we turned a corner.

"Ice is a menace to those things," Marc said. "Doesn't kill them right off, but it does slow them down."

"Were those fire elementals?" Saul asked.

Marc shrugged. "Or something similar. All sorts of creatures like that in these parts." He looked at me and smiled. "It's good to see you're all right, my friend."

"Likewise," I said.

"And you," Marc said, shaking Saul's hand. "So how many is that you owe me?"

"Too many," Saul said. "Good thing I'm not paying you for it. I'd be copperless."

"Pay me, eh?" Marc said. "That's a grand idea, come to think of it."

"Hey, you didn't forget about me I hope," Anna said. She reached up and embraced Marc.

"Never," Marc said, returning her embrace. "Not for the all the elemental planes."

------------

Marc guided us to another room with another symbol. The room looked like every other room in this god-awful node--red, glowing walls. The symbol, however, looked different from the other two I had seen. That meant it led to the node of air or the node of water.

"Water?" Anna asked. "Please let it be water."

"More than you'd know what to do with," Saul said.

We stood in the symbol and the wall of light surrounded us. A few seconds later the wall disappeared and my feet were wet.

I inhaled and nearly choked. The air was thick with moisture. Every breath felt labored as I sucked in as much water as air. I put my hand over my mouth vainly hoping it might block out some of the moisture. It didn't.

"What the hells?" Anna said.

"When teleporting via the symbols you always appear in the same place," Marc said. He gestured at the knee high water around us. "You don't think about it after a while."

I lifted my foot out of the water. Water dripped off my boot in rivers. "How long?"

A haze hung in the air. Everything got blurry after about a hundred feet or so, but I could clearly make out large cliff faces in three directions. They looked to be maybe four or five hundred yards away, maybe more. In one direction I saw an endless blue. Like the air node, this one probably had an egress into the elemental plane of water. And beyond that point were monsters that would make Cthulhu look like an angry puppy, not to mention a complete lack of air.

Water, water everywhere, as Coleridge said (or Iron Maiden, take your pick). We stood on an outcrop of rock some ten feet over the surrounding sea. For a moment, I wondered how water could get onto this plateau until I saw a swell in the distance. It moved across the ocean like a snake, rising higher than the plateau before moving off into the distance. I wondered what caused the swells when there was no moon, at least none I could make out in the endless haze above me. Maybe the movement of water in the nearby elemental plane of water caused it. God only knew what other storms it caused.

There were small islands of rock here and there. I use the word "island" loosely. Most looked like giant rocks dropped in the ocean like a gamer's abandoned dice. One rock in the distance looked different than most. It looked pure black, like lava rock. Abruptly, the rock moved. It lifted out of the water along with another smaller rock. The "rock" was the back of some creature, and the smaller rock its head. The head continued to rise, sitting upon a long neck. It looked around. The Lochness Monster was fable back on Earth. Here it was frighteningly real.

After a moment it let out a trumpet snort, and then sank beneath the waves.

"Where's Audry?" Anna asked.

Saul pointed toward one of the cliff faces. "We found a little plateau above the water nestled against the cliff face. It's dry, mostly."

"It looked like some creature's lair at one time," Marc said. He wrinkled his nose. "We managed to clean it out. It's actually fairly isolated from the rest of this node. It's a good place to stay until we get out of here."

"Pretty private," Saul said. "Difficult to see from the water or the air. We call it the fortress of solitude."

I snorted, and nearly fell over laughing. They just stared at me.

"Maybe you can explain that outburst when we get there," Marc said. He gestured for us to follow him.

Marc climbed down one side of the plateau. About five feet off the water was a row boat resting on a ledge. "It's still here," Saul commented. He and Marc went to either end of it and lifted it. They carried it down a path that led to the water. The water around the base of the plateau seemed relatively calm. I didn't know if that was because the water was shallow near the plateau or if we were just lucky. Carefully, they set it in the water. Marc and Saul stepped inside. It tilted slightly under their weight.

"Permission to come aboard?" Anna asked.

"Of course," Marc said. He offered his hand and she took it. I climbed in after her and grabbed one of the two oars. Saul grabbed the other and pushed us off.

Only then did it occur to me that I once went deep sea fishing. The sea was rough and I spent most of the time below deck puking my guts out. Now, ahead of me, was a swell much higher than the boat. The boat rode the swell to its crest and then back down again. Ahead was another swell.

"You take starboard," Saul said behind me. "I'll steer."

"Sure," I said. I put my oar in the water and started paddling. Marc sat next to Saul while Anna sat next to me. She looked across the water into the distance. She carried a look of innocence as if this was some big adventure. Well, I guess that's exactly what it was. Playing the game we sure thought of it that way. Now that I am here, all I can think about is getting the hell out of here (or hells, rather).

We continued over swell after swell. Behind us I could see the exit plateau between swells. In time, it disappeared in the haze of moisture. In all directions I saw only the hazy sky and the endless swells of the node sea, broken up by the occasional outcropping of rock. I wondered how deep the water was. I then realized that with the armor I wore, even though it was magical chain armor, I'd probably find out if I fell over the side.

"Nice weather," Anna said. She wheezed. "It'd be nice to be able to catch my breath."

"You get used to it in a few days," Saul said.

"A few days?" I said. "I take it you're not very close to finding a way out of here."

"Sadly no," Marc said. "The most likely egress is via the symbols that brought us here and take us to the other nodes. What we don't know is by what means they can take us out of here."

"Simple," Anna said. She coughed. "We wait for someone from the temple to come here. Then we nab 'em and you big strong men can lean on him until he sings."

"Fat chance," I said. Everyone looked at me strangely, which was my cue that I used another Earth aphorism without thinking. "I don't think there are many left, if any."

Saul stopped rowing. "What happened?"

"When I escaped," I said. "There was a lot of fighting."

"What, they killed each other?" Anna asked.

"I don't think so," I said.

Marc snapped his fingers. "Yes, of course! Thrommel made good on his promise, yes?"

"I guess so," I said. "I didn't stop to investigate. When I got free I killed Hedrack--"

"You what?" Saul said.

"Yeah, I killed him," I said. "Long story. Anyway, I grabbed our gear," I showed them the folded portable hole in my pocket, "and ran for one of the nodes."

"Why didn't you help whoever it was?" Anna asked.

"Hedrack told me about the nodes," I said. "I even saw them bring a creature from one node to another. Whoever was attacking the temple made it all the way to the lowest level in pretty large numbers, so I knew they had to be doing something right. So I came looking for you guys."

"You knew what the nodes were like," Marc said, "and yet you came here anyway."

"Well, yeah. I couldn't leave you guys here."

Anna threw her arm around me and hugged me. "I told you he was a good guy."

Saul continued rowing. "Actually, I believe you said...."

Anna silenced him with a glare. Wryly, I started to ask Anna for a bit of clarification. I didn't even get a syllable out when the fly by happened.

A shadow passed over us, a shadow big enough to cover the boat ten times over. Anna let out a squeal of shock as massive wing tips forced the main body back into the air. The wing tips touched the water briefly as the creature lifted higher into the air. The tail swung downward as it passed. I could have reached out and touched it as the tip slammed into the water near the boat. The splash drenched us and pitched the boat.

The creature soared upwards with a grace that would have made eagles jealous. We watched as it sailed off into the sky. Leathery wings, scales the size of my head, a tail longer than several cars set end to end--it had all the hallmarks of a dragon. But what kind of dragon?

"Water dragon?" I asked.

The creature disappeared into the haze above. "I would imagine such things are possible on the plane of water," Marc said. "Even on the node of water."

"Faster John," Saul said. He rowed frantically. "Marc, you see where it's going?"

Marc stared for a moment. "Oh Gods. Yes, by all means row faster."

"Is it heading for the fortress?" I asked.

Anna had her bow in hand and an arrow nocked. I rowed as fast and as hard as I could. We went over swell after swell. I had a hard time telling if we made any headway, but I kept rowing. By the time I thought my arms were about to fall off I could see a rock wall emerging from the haze. It stretched to my left and right as far as I could see. Over the sloshing of the waves on the side of the boat and on nearby rocks I heard the tremendous whooshing sound of the things mighty wings. After a moment, I saw it. The dragon--there was no question now that that's what it was--hovered like some impossibly huge hummingbird. Its head swiveled back and forth on the end of its long neck, searching the surface of a precipice on the side of the cliff face.

"Oh Gods," Anna said. "What if it finds her?"

I set the oar down inside the boat. Something in my head encouraged me to reach for my sword. I did so. I pulled if from its sheath and stood. I no longer felt the rocking of the boat. The ache in my arms faded. The boat fell away from me as it slid down the side of a swell. I remained where I was, above the waves. I floated in the air, holding a glowing sword in my hand. Energy crackled along its blade. I knew what I wanted to do, and I suddenly found myself doing it.

The waves passed below me. I moved through the air as gracefully as the dragon had before. I gained speed as I approached the dragon. I made no sound as I flew. It didn't know I was there until I was almost on top of it. It jerked its head toward me just in time.

It jerked away from me as I brought my sword down on to its neck. I cut a deep gash across its neck. Enough to hurt, but not enough to kill. It beat its wings, pulling away from me. It smashed into the cliff face and sent a shower of rocks on top of it. I dodged falling debris like a sparrow. I brought my sword up again and swung. The dragon moved away from me. It inhaled sharply, ready to exhale that terrible halitosis dragons are noted for. Instead, it let out a screech. It beat its wings furiously, propelling itself straight for me.

I dodged to the side with a thought. I dropped in altitude as it brushed passed me. One claw smashed into my legs and sent me tumbling. I took a clumsy swipe at it as it passed, missing by a mile. As it continued on, I saw a deep gash in its leg. That wasn't my doing.

I managed to right myself just as the dragon moved out of range. It roared as it climbed in altitude and flew away from the cliff face. It disappeared into the haze. I readied myself for the return attack, but it never came. The sound of its beating wings faded and soon the only sound was that of waves pummeling the cliff.

I lowered myself to the precipice that overlooked the ocean. I did it without even thinking, as if it were as natural as walking. When my feet touched the ground all knowledge of flying and how I had done it fled me. My sword continued to glow, but it was more subdued.

"Wow," I whispered.

"Indeed," a voice said. Audry came up behind me, wiping the dragon blood off her sword and then sheathing it. "Does everyone on your home world fly as well?"

"Fighter pilots maybe," I said, realizing immediately she wouldn't know anything about F-14s and what not. "But they need a plane."

She smiled at me, never asking me what I meant. She walked toward me, her blond hair flowing gently in the breeze. She looked like a valkrie. She rubbed her chin with her finger. "I was worried."

"What, about me?" I said. "Didn't think I could handle it?"

"You'll have to tell me what 'it' is one day," she said. She kissed my cheek gently. "It's good to see you my friend."

I felt my face grow hot. "I missed you too." I gestured over my shoulder. "And I'm not the only one."

Anna ran to Audry at full speed. She nearly knocked her down when she embraced her. Audry returned the embrace, laughing. The held each other for a moment while Anna cried into her shoulder.

Marc and Saul came up behind me, watching the girls. "It's good to be together," Saul said.

"I would rather it would have been under better circumstances," Marc said. "But, yes, it's good to be together once more." Marc looked at me and then gestured to the sky. "You have some explaining to do."

I looked down at my sword. Yeah, as soon as I figured out what happened.

---------

That was a while ago. I have no idea how long we have been here.

We wander from node to node, looking for a potential way out. By this point, we're pretty stumped. The only means of transportation we have found have been the giant runes. It seems there is one of each type--fire, earth, water, air--on each node (with the exception of the rune that represents the node you are currently on). They immediately take you from one node to another. We have found nothing else, and at this point we pretty much have the nodes memorized.

It has to be something with the nodes themselves. I couldn't remember how we got around in the original adventure. So, we've been stuck here.

We never saw our dragon friend again. I guess he learned his lesson. There's been many others, though. Lots of fish (very tasty, I might add), the occasional whale, a giant turtle, and a bunch of intelligent manta rays. Marc told me what they were called.

"Icksy what?"

He said it again. I think I remember something about it from the monster manual (if I had a copy, I could make a killing in this world). Whatever they are, those things are fracking mean. They attacked our boat at one point as we made our way from the landing plateau in the middle of the water node. They capsized us and we had to fight in the water. You have no idea how difficult that is. Fortunately, they seem to be pretty chicken. We managed to kill three of them, and we never saw them again.

Of course, we lost a lot of gear in the process, including my journal.

Days later, we found a cave on the water node we hadn't noticed before. We found a single chest in the center of the room. Anna started checking it for traps, when it reached out and grabbed her. It was like the chest was made of puddy, and tentacle grew out of the side and wrapped itself around her neck. We hacked it to pieces quickly.

Anna threw off the remains of the pseudo pod. It melted into goo and dispersed in the puddle of water the thing rested in. "Mimics," she said. "Gods, I hate these things."

And, yeah, the Mimic had treasure, including a special little potion that would allow the imbiber to breathe underwater.

I took one of the boats back out to where we were attacked by the...uh, Icksies, or whatever. Marc spent a long time trying to find the exact spot via magic (he found a new book full of neat spells). I rowed out there by myself and weighed anchor. I swallowed the potion. The stuff tasted vile, but I gagged it down while wishing for a beer as a chaser. I dove into the sea. I swam straight down. I felt the pressure on my ears, but it didn't hurt. I inhaled the water. It was like inhaling air.

You know, the sea here is only about sixty feet deep or so.

I found Saul's helmet and my cloak. I also found Marc's belt pouch (it had a lot of his spell components in it). I also found my journal. The pages were in good condition and the ink had not run, not even a little.

Whoever made this thing knew what they were doing.

I saw sharks coming my way. I swam to the surface slowly. One bumped into me and I pushed it away. It didn't come back. I surfaced and boarded the boat in a panic. Shark fins circled the boat. They seemed like just regular sharks, which meant they were more concerned about fish then a big human. I rowed back to shore quickly. Usually where there are sharks there is also a Meg. I don't mean megabyte, I mean Megaladon. Yeah, they're here and they are mean as all get out.

Much to Anna's delight, we accumulated a lot of treasure. We collect everything we find. Marc has a theory that perhaps we need a key of some sort to teleport elsewhere. They "key" could be anything, but he suspects it is a gem of some sort. So we keep everything. The portable hole is getting full.

"We can retire," Anna said, which made Saul laugh louder than I had ever heard him laugh before.

"You?" he said. "Retire?"

"Anna, your spirit would never allow you to stay in one place for very long," Audry said.

"Until now," Anna said.

We were all getting desperate to leave, but Anna suffered the worse. The more treasure we brought the more it seemed to distract her. Even Audry helped carry in gobs of gold and what not. We found whole treasuries of the stuff. It looked like the temple agents kept their stolen goods in the nodes. We collected it all, partly because we're adventurers and that's what we do, but also because this gold belonged to the surrounding towns and villages. They had been plundered and they deserved their money back.

We also knew that it gave Anna something to do. She would sit and fidget endlessly. She paced back and forth for hours on end like a caged animal. She was close to cracking, I could see it. I brought up the suggestion that someone should catalog all of this for future reference. At first she did it for something to do. Now she spent most of her time keeping track of everything and organizing it all inside the large portable hole (it was as big as a 10 x 10 x 10 foot room). We brought back everything. Anna sorted it every bit of it. I have no idea how the system works, but it doesn't matter. She has something to do now.

Yesterday, I came back with a bag of loot. "Here's some more for you."

She grinned as I poured it on the floor of the open portable hole. She sorted through it with a twig she found earlier (wood is hard to come by in the nodes). She pushed aside one gem in particular. "Look at that. Another one."

"Another?" I looked at it. It was huge, maybe the size of the Hope diamond. It shined in the dim light, perhaps more so than it should have. "Magical?"

She shrugged. "Saul brought another one yesterday." She wandered to a pile nearby and snatched one off the top. She held it up. It looked virtually identical to one sitting before me. "Everything we've found thus far is similar to one degree or another."

"Who's we?" Saul said. He slid down the rope into the portable hole, carrying another bag of loot we found on our last expedition.

She ignored him. "I want Marc to look at these. If they are magical, I want him to identify them."

"We've found a lot of magic," I said. I reached down and picked up the gem on the floor. "He's going to busy for...."

As soon as I touched the gem I was elsewhere. We all were. It got terribly cold terribly quick. The wind howled around us, and we had none of our gear on us. One moment we were at the fortress. The next, we were on the node of air.

"What happened?" Saul asked.

Anna only had a shirt and pants on. She had taken off her boots earlier. I took off my cloak and handed to her. My armor would protect me somewhat.

"Marc," Audry said. "I assume you didn't--"

"No, I bloody well did not," Marc said. "What was everyone doing just prior to our teleportation?"

"May I suggest we study this back at the fortress," Anna said. Her teeth had already started to chatter as she danced back and forth on the cold, bare rocks.

We descended the air node plateau quickly. It was maybe twenty minutes to run to the water rune that would teleport us to the water node (we had run it in the past--there's a lot of nasty creatures in these parts). As we ran, I looked at the gem in my hand. I knew immediately what had happened. I remembered it from the module we played as kids.

I knew how to get out of here.

I knew how!