The castle is FAR from complete. We're taken to a room that has a roof, floor and walls, sure… but this clearly isn't the throne room. I mean, it's a room (maybe twenty feet on a side) and there's a big fancy chair (made from stone… that can't be comfortable) with a man in fine purple clothing and a fancy hat sitting in it, with an advisor at his side… but this isn't a throne room. The room is otherwise merely bare stone, aside from the other doors (one per wall, all stone, apparently made via Fabricate from the material of the walls). But then, I suppose this castle isn't finished yet.

  The man on the “throne” is a dwarf. He's retively young: His bright orange beard only goes down to mid-neck, his skin is smooth, and he cks the muscle definition common among dwarves that actually work for a living. He does have the associated shorter stature and stocky build, however. I can't detect an alignment or any magic, which means he's either retively low level or doesn't have a particurly strong ethos.

  The advisor is a gnome, standing shorter even than the dwarf. He's fat, starting to go gray, and wearing robes and a pointy hat. He pings moderately Lawful-Evul under Aura Sight (which means he's retively high level, and has a pretty strong ethos… a bad one, but a strong one), and has several spells running (Mage Armor, Arcane Sight, Nondetection, Tongues, Bestow Curse, and a few others… odd that he hasn't gotten rid of the curse, but then, I haven't gotten rid of mine, so… who am I to talk?) and is wearing a lot of magical gear under the robes and hat. He also smells of arousal and five different women… clearly he has a harem.

  “Your majesty,” the advisor speaks up, as the captain closes the door behind us, “These people are covered in strange magics… please allow me to clear it from them.”

  “Yeah… can't be too careful…” the dwarf replies from his throne.

  The advisor casts a spell… and Wesley's eyes go very wide. I can understand that. It's a ninth circle spell… I recognize it as a Disjunction, but I don't much care: Mom throws spells of that level out like used dishwater, the stuff she makes doesn't dispel, and I've been to some of the family dinners hosted by Grandpa… I don't find it impressive. It's the peak of spellcasting, sure… *MORTAL* spellcasting. I know a lot of people that can do better, and when Mom casts something, it isn't actually magic and isn't affected by anything else that works with spells. So I don't give it much thought beyond protecting my few items from being suppressed…

  …until I realize I can't see his magical auras, alignment, his mind, nor many other things I should be able to see anymore.

  The advisor smiles, “There we go. All clear, and nobody's in a strange form… you're good to speak.”

  The dwarf nods and speaks, “Ah, thank you all for coming… ah, where's the fifth member of your party?”

  Our nominal party leader speaks up, “She's handling a few details outside the city. We expect her to finish up and rejoin us sometime this evening.” Oh boy. That's going to be a lot harder to fake now… my pocket adventurers are gone.

  The dwarf smiles far too widely, “Great,” and turns to his advisor, “As we discussed, you're up.”

  The gnome starts casting again, and I recognize a Mass Charm Monster spell… I should be immune, but with the other bit… he finishes before I complete the thought… I am SO slow now… and I feel the magic hit me… and I am still very angry with the stupid gnome, so I know it didn't nd.

  Such a pity the caster can tell, “Marty there has some nasty enchantment on him… please help me subdue him, friends,” oh, that evil gnome!

  Sadly, I can't react quickly enough to get out of Bearcw's way as he tackles me… and Roger hits me with his swords (the ft… it hurts, but doesn't DO anything), and Wesley starts casting Sleep.

  Me? I leave. I still (thankfully) have the Warp sphere, and the base ability lets me teleport short distances… so I arrive at the door, and swing it open, showing me glorious freedom…. which sts all of a second before I hear the gnome chanting again and I feel searing cold as I bck out from a Por Ray spell hitting me in the back.

  I wake up hearing a conversation.

  “...really have to kill him?” That's Roger's voice.

  “HOW IN THE ABYSS?!” Oh. The gnome. I must not have been out long.

  I open my eyes and Warp to a nearby rooftop through the still-open door… then Warp again, and again, and again, getting a good hundred feet or so with each cast, until I'm outside the palisade and in the surrounding woods… at which point, I take stock.

  Okay, so…I lost Mom's graduation present; apparently that stupid gnome managed to dispel that which isn't magic, which shouldn't be possible. But there's a lot of things that shouldn't be possible. Okay, so… think. Technically, the graduation gift came from Mom's avatar, rather than directly from actual divine power. Still, that stuff shouldn't be dispelble unless something more than mortal is going on… it doesn't seem like a demi-deity would care enough to “push” to break the rules on a routine spell wipe (it HURTS to do that, and has a very long recovery period), so we're looking at a Prophet's Gift or a Diabolic Contract. I'm on at least neutral terms with my retives, so it's unlikely to be a Gift. That leaves a Contract. And those intersect Uncle C's work, so… “Uncle C?”

  That cold, comforting wind of a voice answers, “I saw the fight… with anything that might lead to death, I am there. I'm guessing you're after information?”

  Duh, “Yeah. Is that stupid gnome under contract?”

  “I am allowed to talk about those when asked… and yes.” Death seems to consider, “specifically his magic bypasses immunities. So his mind-affecting spells bypass that ‘Constructed’ trait your mother assigned and his Disjunction spell destroyed the treasure trove of power your mother gave you. You still get saves, though, and you don't roll the dice much thanks to ‘Divine Providence’ so he couldn't compromise your mind.”

  “He got everyone else's, though.” Ugh. Okay, so… Uncle C hates murder, and given what I saw before he turned that off… “Is the gnome a murderer?”

  “I am limited on the topics in which I can give you information you don't already have,” my uncle starts with a non-answer, “but I can tell my Prophet I have no particur objection to any actions taken to decrease that abomination's opportunities to corrupt the world further.”

  That's a really big yes, “I understand.” I probably can't fight him directly very effectively… “are there any terms in his contract of which I might be able to take advantage?”

  My uncle deys a bit in answering, “part of his deal is that he is delivering souls to his sponsor monthly, and directly, by way of a cacodaemon familiar. This gets him out of directly being condemned….”

  I can finish that, “...but it's a trap. The familiar is liable to capture his soul on his death too, and even if that doesn't happen, he's going to spend his time with a very bad lot due to his actions.”

  “Yeah,” The Comforter continues, “that's my interpretation too. The people he captures aren't contracted, so your mother can - and does - easily retrieve them when there's an opening for a reincarnation… but yeah. It's horrid.”

  “What happens if he's prevented from delivering?”

  “Then he's in default on his contract, and his sponsor can cim his soul immediately for a full term.”

  “Can, not will?”

  “It's an option which the sponsor will likely take. He's not technically required to do so, but the duration of a stay for a non-contracted soul isn't much, comparatively, thanks to my letting your mother know about them and her acting on it. The gnome would need to get a lot of souls very quickly to beat break-even on the daemon collecting now.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You're welcome… do be careful, though: He bypasses most immunities. Had he disintegrated your body, your Regeneration would not have revived you, you would have needed to wait on your Rings. If he traps your soul himself… well, I'm not allowed to interfere directly.”

  “Right. Thanks.” So information first… l let the conversation with Uncle C fade, and think… how strong am I now? I test a bit… no, can't pull off a Fireball… I can manage Scorching Ray, though. So second circle spells… I can work with that… starting with Ears of the City at first.

  I focus on the stream of fragments of conversations held recently in the city, and think of my first question: Where are all the womenfolk?“Eh, I couldn't convince my dy to come… ‘too risky,’ she said.”“Good for her! I wouldn't want my daughter stuck in that bordello the lord built like all the other girls.”“That's just the ones he doesn't take for himself… or his advisor.”

  Hmm. I can do this all day… how's he getting the girls to go along with it?“Ugh… okay, the bordello girls are creepy. They get my rocks off, sure, but that smile is just so empty…”“Ah. Yeah… the advisor does some mind-whammy stuff on them.”

  Mind doing controlled pleasure sves? Eugh. How does he keep the rest of the popution in line?“So what happened to Fred anyway?”“Ah… you know that new girl in the bordello you really like?”“Oh, Francine? Yeah, she knows EXACTLY what a man wants, and gives it out. But what's that got to do…”“That's what's left of Fred after he didn't make quota.”

  Ugh. So mind-control AND polymorph to make pleasure sves. Nasty, nasty guy. Where's he getting his ‘tribute’ to his sponsor?“Hey, what happened to Rose? She is my favorite rod polisher.”“She was ‘rotated out’.”“But there haven't been any caravans….”

  And then he kills the pleasure sves so he can capture their souls and send them to his master to pay for his power. Okay, so… mind control is seldom permanent, and the permanent types tend to be very expensive. So he has to renew it periodically, so there's a limit to how many people he can keep under his thumb. That said… we're out in the middle of nowhere. If I want to beat him… I just need to cut off his supply. Starting with his magic…..