As the party ascended the stairs back up to the canyon, they discussed their strategy. They needed to figure out what the dragon had meant by saying that the giant was likely under some sort of compulsion. Lance and Lucinda, being the most sneaky, were tasked with finding this out. So as they came to the final landing, everyone except the two former thieves stayed behind. Lance was now a charlatan and Lucinda had chosen mage and light making her a trickster and giving her the power of illusion.

Polly who had doubled down on being a priest cast a heal-over-time ability on them, "Just in case."

Lucinda pushed up lightly on the trap door and found it moved as it normally did removing the fear that the giant would just sit on the trap door pinning them inside until it got hungry or needed to leave for another reason.

Lance reached out to grab Lucinda's hand and whispered, "Lord bless us too figure out how this giant is being controlled and to figure out how to set it free. Let all be done for your glory."

The climb had restored Lance's Power after his enchanting session so he was ready for a fight if that happened. Both entered stealth mode as Lucinda pushed the door up just enough for Lance to roll out and she followed after closing the door as quietly as possible. Lance assisted with a blast of air from under the door but was not sure how much that helped.

As they emerged, they realized that it was night and they both moved quickly over to take position behind the bolder. Lance peaked out and found the Giant sitting across the canyon, he remained still and so did the giant.

"I think it is sleeping." Lance messaged to Lucinda.

"Let me see." She replied.

Lucinda poked her head out and after nearly a minute she replied, "I think I agree. Also, did you notice that collar around its neck?"

Lance popped his head up again and then back down, "No, but I can see it clear as day now. Doesn't match the rest of its armor or gear. That must be how it is being controlled."

Lucinda nodded. "Maybe we can sneak up on it and just undo the collar."

"Worth a try," Lance shrugged.

The two moved quietly across the canyon and then up the wall next to the giant. The collar was easily a foot wide and looked like it would be a lot of work to remove. The two looked at each other and retreated down into the stairwell, rejoining the party.

"The giant has a collar, and it is huge and thick. I think we are going to need some help distracting the giant while the two of us wrestle it off. I don't want to attack the giant, if we can get it off first without a fight, maybe it will just leave us alone and leave. The giant is sleeping last we saw, so a good time for all of us to get up there."

The party moved up into the canyon as quietly as they could taking their time and walking softly. They did make some noise but apparently, giants are hard sleepers. Lance and Lucinda climbed the wall again while the others were in position in case they were needed.

Lance grabbed onto the bottom of the collar and Lucinda grabbed the top side. As one the pulled the loose end out of the strap that held it down just below the buckle. As they did the giant's eyes popped open.

"Resisting.... Hurry get it off!"

Lance and Lucinda worked at the huge buckle that held the collar in place as the giant visibly struggled. They finally got it through but as they jumped away, the edge of the collar caught inside the buckle. The giant roared and reached its hammer up to crush Sparky, but just then Lance shot a blast of air at the collar and it dropped free. The giant swung down with the hammer and crushed the collar that had trapped it instead. It picked the item up and held it over the large stone in the canyon pounding it over and over until the buckle was unrecognizable and the leather was torn into several small pieces. When the giant was done and had stepped away, sparky pushed the remains into a pile, shot it with a bolt of lightning which caused it to erupt with flame.

"I know what it means to be bound with a compulsion and then to be set free," Sparky said to the giant.

The giant looked at the mage for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, it feels good. Hovar owes you a debt."

The huge humanoid sat down and cupped his hands focusing intently on the empty bowl they formed. Slowly the air inside his hands began to glow and condense. A coin dropped into the giant's palm. He picked up the coin gingerly in his massive fingers and offered it to Sparky. "If you break this, I will come to your aid. Unless I am nearby it may take me some time to come, but I will come."

Sparky received the saucer-sized coin with great reverence and looked Hovar in the eye, "I receive this with great reverence, we may never be friends but at the least, we can respect each other."

The giant nodded, "Wise words, we serve different forces, so we may not be friends, but we can respect each other." Having said that, the giant stood, shouldered his hammer, and strode out of the valley.

As the party entered Traville, they saw John in his normal spot on top of the hill. A group of people was surrounding him, and Lance and the others rushed to his aid.

As John saw them he held up a hand, "Hold friends, no one is attacking me today."

Heads all around John swiveled to see the party slowing in their approach.

John explained, "All of these are wanting to hear more about Jesus and the Gospel!"

Smiles broke out across the party, and Lance said, "I hope many of you will join us tomorrow for worship." Many faces smiled and nodded.

The party listened as John talked about the importance of Christ's sinless life, His atoning death, and His justifying resurrection. The party nodded along and then took their leave to get some rest.

Before they left, John turned back to the party, "The other disciples and I have created a guild building, that is where we will meet tomorrow. The hill is great for evangelism, but it will be nice to have our own place to meet on Sundays."

The next morning a much larger group gathered at the Church's building north of town, Lance noticed that it felt kind of full. They sang a few hymns, and Grog prayed for the church, for Fantasy Mainline, and for friends and family left behind. After the prayer, John took to the pulpit and began, "Friends, we want retribution for what Borgakh and her Orc minions have done to us, but we need to remember that it is God's job to repay our enemies. We need to let go of our anger."

Heads snapped up at these words; John certainly had the attention of his congregation.

"Our job is not to repay, but to be just. Our fellow players have been hurt, and the game's balance in the starting area is being ruined by our enemies. So if some of us go to do this, it is not retribution, but justice they should seek. If we believe this is God's will, then we go to do His work, not our own." After this introduction, John continued to lay down layers upon layers of scriptural evidence, aiming at the hearts of his hearers. Convincing those who were weak, convicting those who were in sin, encouraging those who walked rightly in this respect, and drawing those who did not yet believe.

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When John had closed his sermon and they had sung a final hymn and closed the service, Lance stood and said, "Friends, my heartfelt hope is that many of you who have sufficient skill and who are level ten will join us tomorrow as we set out for the temple of Dajixian to remove the AI Borgakh from this game and restore a measure of balance and justice, even as John has taught us today. Those of you who do not go, I ask you to remember us in prayer as we do go. We don't know what we are walking into, but we know we can only accomplish this if God helps us."

Then they went outside to hang out and talk some more, sharing food, picnic-style, and just enjoying the company of other believers. Lance took the time to meet many of the new converts who had been drawn in by John's work.

One was standing alone, smiling, and eating a plate of food. He stood out because he wore a white robe and a pointy wizard's hat. Lance walked up to him. "Hey, I'm Lance."

In response, the wizard stuck out his hand. "I'm Saruman."

Lance took his hand warmly, shaking it. "Are you the Saruman who was the third owner of the Witch Hut just outside of town?"

The mage nodded solemnly. "The other two couldn't stop talking about you. How you had been Christians but had also treated them with gentleness and respect. And you defended the town to the point that we only lost our place on the last attack when you were not there to defend us."

"We weren't trying to defend your establishment."

"I am aware, but your selfless actions ended up being a defense to us, which meant something. It also meant something when I returned home from my duties at the temple to find all of our hard work and inventory burned. I had been serving at the temple while the followers of Borgakh destroyed everything that mattered to me."

"I can imagine that was hard."

Saruman nodded, "It was the first time I realized what chaotic evil meant. It meant destroying stuff. Destroying systems, places, things, and people indiscriminately. Even the practitioners, I realized, will not escape the reach of that kind of evil." The mage paused for a while, looking around as they stood there. Eventually, he continued, "I was raised by my grandparents. They were good people who attended church, but it was never more than that. Their religion was a Sunday religion. Don't get me wrong, there was no obvious sin in their lives, but they also didn't seem to be affected by their religion besides giving a tithe and showing up on Sunday."

Lance nodded, letting the man talk.

"I guess I thought it was just something they did so I didn't pay it much attention. Obviously, I went the other way in life, but when everything was suddenly taken away from me, I began to wonder if there was more to Christianity than I had known growing up. When I talked to John, I was amazed at his passion, not for the system, but for the Person of Christ. He spoke of Jesus' sacrifice for sinners, and I knew I needed that. He talked about the free gift, and I simply received it. He gave me a Bible then, and I began to read it. I am constantly amazed as I read what that book has to say. There is so much in there I had no idea about. So much more than the lessons I was taught in Sunday school.

Lance looked at the arch-mage and smiled. "It is great to have you on the team, brother."

Saruman's eyes lit up when he said that. "It is good to be here, brother."

Upon setting out the next morning the party had grown by an additional three. Julie Flameright, an archmage (mage-mage) focused on fire; Nathan the Just, an orc chaplain (cleric-fighter) who apparently had not followed any sort of naming convention; and Saruman, an archmage (mage-mage) who had mastered the meta-gaming category. Nathan and Grog shared the common bond of the orc race and so they walked together as they went. The other party members also grouped up and chatted as they walked. The first part of their journey took them south through the forests, and being a max-level party for the starter area and keeping to the roads, they had no fear of an attack.

Crossing over the river and moving around the lake was slightly more eventful as a pair of brave water elementals attacked the party, but the fight was quickly over, especially with a fire mage in the group. As they continued south, they first began smelling and then later hearing the swamp. It smelled of rot mixed with an unidentified sweet smell and sounded like a creaking boat. As they neared, the creaking was joined by the sounds of bugs, millions of bugs. The land began sloping down, and soon the great bog was visible. The trees all seemed stunted in their growth, their leaves constantly a fall yellow-brown, their branches and visible roots twisted. Between the trees, the ground looked solid enough under yellowed grass but there were areas where the damp ground gave way to visible water.

The other way to Borgakh's temple was to pass through the orc village and then along a single track through the swamp. That way would be a lot easier, but seeing how the priestess had marked them out as a party, it would likely have been a suicide mission. Sparky had purchased an old map from a vendor showing pathways through the swamp, and they planned to augment that map with the sketch Lance had made from the high ground near the Wraith's area. They would follow that map as much as possible to avoid slogging through the swamp directly, but they expected that like any swamp, those pathways may shift.

Sparky directed them to a piece of solid-looking land jutting out into the swamp like a finger pushing into an underfilled water balloon. They walked down the peninsula, and it was solid. As they approached the end, Sparky pointed out a winding path through the dense trees and grass, and they began following it.

"I really hate this place already," Lucinda complained, slapping away some sort of biting bug.

"This is nothing; wait till we get closer to the center," Saruman responded.

Lucinda just groaned while crushing a mosquito between the palm of her hand and an exposed bit of skin on her arm.

"Okay, everyone", Lance said. "Let's review the plan and remind ourselves of our roles." Anything to get our minds off this awful swamp, he thought.

Sparky was the first to speak up, "My responsibility is to guide us safely through the swamp. And bring us to the back door into the temple."

Julie was next, "My part is to melt the lock on that door and get us inside."

Lucinda, speaking irritably, said, "Then I will create an illusion that the door is still closed and the lock is still there."

Lance nodded. "Good, that gets us inside the building safely, what next?"

Saruman was the next to speak up, "I will change the appearance of Grog and Nathan's character alignment to Chaotic Evil and everyone else's apparent level to four."

Nathan beat Grog to the punch, "Then Grog and I will bring out the special manacles and put them on all of you except Saruman."

Grog chimed in, "Then we will walk all of you toward the dungeon inside the temple. If anyone stops us, we will tell them that we caught you wandering outside behind the temple and that we are taking you to the dungeon."

Lance nodded, "That will get us moving in the right direction."

Lucinda spoke again, "I have the map that Saruman provided." She pulled out the map, pointing at a specific intersection, "I will break away here and find the door to the inner sanctum and will return to find you once I have picked the lock and verified that Borgakh is inside and alone."

Grog spoke up again, "While she does that we will walk the rest of you around in a big circle until she finds us. If we enter on schedule, this should not take a very long time."

Lance nodded again, "Then all we need to do is take out the High Priestess using the dagger the dragon gave us and escape the temple."

Caisin grinned, but for now, we need to make it through the swamp, directions are Sparky's job, mine is your protection and sanity. With that he began a military marching cadence, loud enough for the whole party to hear it, but not loud enough to be heard very far away over the creaking of the trees.

"Wake up to mortar attack

Hit the ground, I'm out of the rack

My sergeant rushes me off to chow

But I don't eat it anyhow

Oh hail, Oh hail, Oh infantry

Queen of battle, follow me

Oh, airborne ranger's the life for me

For nothing in this world is free

From a big bird in the sky

All will jump and some will die

Off to battle we will go

To live or die, heck I don't know

Hit the ground with American pride

A bullet through a commie's eye

He ought to be damn glad he died

He'd hate for me to take him alive

It's true that some of us will die

Airborne rangers learn to fly

But not today as I hit the ground

Lock and load another round

Over the hill, some men I've seen

Head to toe in Army green

Moving tactically, not a sound

Infantry soldiers on the ground

Assault, support are all in place

The enemy unaware of his fate

Claymores blast the 60's roar

Again, the airborne ranger scores

It's true that someday I'll be dead

Before I go I'll take more heads

Before us enemies all will flee

'Cause we're the airborne infantry"

As they tromped through the swamp singing along with Casian's increasingly silly marching songs the pathways became darker and the safe paths became increasingly narrow. Sparky's map proved to be valuable despite a few dead ends and they made steady progress toward the temple.

As they were passing through a particularly narrow path where the gnarled trees seemed to lean in much closer Caisin suddenly fell right through the pathway with a splash.

"Illusion!" Lucinda yelled, "The path is an illusion!"