(“Rolled a one,” said Don.

“So did I,” said Tonia.

“So did the golem,” said Gary. He scratched his head. “Never seen that before. Roll again.”

“Six this time,” said Don.

“Seventeen,” said Tonia.

“The golem gets a three,” said Gary. “What is Andrea's plan?”

“We know the others want us to lead the thing to them,” said Tonia. “So I am going to use my throwing knife on its head to get it's attention.”

“Roll to strike,” said Gary.)

Andrea pulled her knife and threw it across the sewer. The golem saw the blade coming, but it stuck out of its face anyway. The enraged clay mechanism charged the rogue.

Ardath had time to fire two shots at the golem as it closed the distance. The first arrow punched a hole through the golem's face and kept going. It was too low to erase the empowering word.

The second went into the creature's chest and barely did any damage at all. It shivered there as the golem ignored it to swing at the rogue trying to stop its movement.

Andrea let the fist go by her head, then counterstabbed. The creature tried to jerk back from the blade but the knife went through the word on its forehead. It froze in place.

(“Dueling twenties,” said Tonia.

“But you took it out,” said Don. “Good job.”

“What are you guys going to do now?,” asked Gary)

Ardath collected his arrows while Andrea walked back to let her friends know what had happened. One golem wrecking the sewer didn't seem that big a menace.

“It was just one golem,” said Andrea. “We beat it pretty fast. I don't know what we'll tell the Sisters.”

“We'll tell them we did the job and thank them for it,” said Parzifal.

“Then we hire on with people that pay?,” asked Andrea.

“I don't see why we shouldn't,” said the paladin.

“That will be great,” said Andrea.

“We will still have to help the Sisters if we want to keep Boudicca with us,” said Parzifal. “This might be the first of a raft of church missions now that they know how good we are.”

“I can't say that's something I want to hear if we are working for free,” said Andrea.

“I'm sure the Sisters will give us some kind of reward for work well done,” said Sister Boudicca. “We help everyone we can.”

“They have a great reputation,” said Parzifal. “Let's see if we can prove our claim and move on to other business.”

“They have the greatest reputation in the world as healers,” said Houdin.

“How do we get the golem back to the temple to prove we killed it?,” asked Andrea. “That seems to be our main problem right now.”

“Houdin and Sister Boudicca will have to carry it to the nearest exit, while you get us a cart for the body,” said Parzifal.

“And we better hurry if we don't want the sewer water to wash all of it away,” said Houdin.

“I will be back with the cart as fast as I can,” said Andrea.

She vanished in the darkness of the sewer. A light appeared in the distance. The other three nodded. Now they had to find their victim and ranger before they could do anything else.

(All right, Don,” said Gary. “I need you to make a perception check.”

“Fifteen,” said Don. “What am I checking?”

“Sound,” said Gary.)

Ardath stood on the platform above the water. He didn't stand too close to the golem, preferring to keep an eye out for other problems in the dark. He heard a churning sound in the water.

He looked over at where the golem lay, body being pulled in the water.

It stood up, water falling from its body. It looked around. A new word was written on its forehead. It looked around as it tried to decide what it should be doing.

Ardath pulled his bow from his quiver. He hadn't thought the golem could come back to life after being rendered nameless. He stepped back to give himself some room if he had to shoot in the tunnel. What would his enemy do?

The golem turned and started walking down the tunnel. It paid no attention to the bowman. It still had a job to do.

Ardath watched it walk away. It didn't seem inclined to attack unless he attacked first. He decided to follow it where it was going and find out what it had been commanded to do. Some patience might lead him to the commander of the automaton so he could do something with his arrows.

The others would have to trail after him since there was only one path for them to follow, or try to get ahead via the street above so they could intercept the thing if it started punching walls again.

(“A regenerating golem?,” asked Ted. “That's something new. Usually they just fall over if you can take their name away from them.”

“Is this what is driving the rats up to the streets?,” asked Katie.

“If we can stop this guy, we can stop the rats at the same time,” said Adam. “That will take care of two of the twenty charges.”

“I wouldn't get too excited,” said Gary. “We still have three days, and the others might be able to finish their challenges faster than we can. It's a random draw that we are facing, and trying to integrate into the adventure.”

“I think this is something new that the Sisters haven't seen before,” said Katie. “When we get out of the sewer and clean up, we can talk to the Mother Superior about it and see if she can tell us anything.”

“This could be what was stolen,” said Tonia. “Someone knew how to make indestructible golems. Someone stole it. Now it's running around in the sewers and driving the rats out for whatever reason.”

“So if we can grab this, we might be able to answer the third plot point too,” said Adam. “I like it.”

“How are you going to grab it?,” asked Will. “Every time you take it out, it will get up and go back to what it was doing.”

“We'll think of something,” said Adam. “Wait. Don is following it. Maybe he can find the lair of whomever brought it to life. Then we can swoop in, grab the golem, grab the thief, figure out how to do the other plot points.”

“And stop the rats as a side effect,” said Tonia.

“The only problem is maybe there is more than one golem we'll have to subdue for the Mother Superior,” said Ted.

“Why do you do that?,” asked Adam.

“Do what?,” asked Ted.

“Give him ideas,” said Katie.

“I already had this idea,” said Gary. “I don't always rely on Ted for everything bad that happens to you. It's just funnier for me when I do.”

“That makes me feel better,” said Ted.

“So I should keep following it until it leads me to something?,” asked Don.

“I think that's the smart move,” said Adam. “But don't try to take it on until we catch up. That way we can deal with one golem, or twenty golems.”

“Who's giving ideas now?,” asked Ted.

“I know,” said Adam. “It can't be helped.”

“Let's get going,” said Katie. “I'll let Andrea and Jed know that we lost the golem when we reach the dead site, and that we are going down the tunnel. I assume that if I message Ardath, he will tell us how far ahead he is.”

“Any objections?,” asked Gary.

The chorus of negatives started the tiny miniatures moving down the sewer. Two more walked along the street above.)

Ardath waited as the golem paused ahead. It hadn't struck any of the walls on the way to wherever it was going. He wondered what was going on.

Who created a golem and sent it into the sewer to wreck things? What was the point? Scaring rodents couldn't be the real point of the exercise. What would he do if he had a golem at his beck and call?

Adventuring would be easier since he could just send in a golem to drive off any monster that tried to stop him while he was exploring a ruins. He wouldn't have to split any reward with a party. He wouldn't have to drag along anything he didn't need as support since the golem could carry it for him like a pack horse.

Or he could retire to the forests north of the city and let the golem work a farm for him while he hunted for food. Everything would be neat and orderly with inhuman hands doing everything as precise as the tax man's bill.

The others would understand his dream if he stated it, but they wouldn't want to stop. It was in their blood to die fighting monsters.

(“I wouldn't say that,” said Ted.

“This is my inner monologue,” said Don. “You're fated to die fighting monsters while my golem and I are running my ranch.”)

Ardath wondered how much he would need to buy such a valuable piece of property. Maybe he could take on jobs by himself to get that money.

The golem pushed on part of the wall. It slid back out of the way. The clay monster stepped inside and closed the door behind it.

“Secret passages under the city,” said Ardath. He walked over to the door. He lit a torch to examine the wall carefully. He didn't see any cracks he could exploit. He pulled one of his arrows from his quiver and dug it in so he could find the passage when he came back.

Boudicca or Houndin might be able to open the door with their extra abilities. The group might want to leave things alone and report back to the nuns and let them handle things from this point on.

He doubted Parzifal would go for that. He liked to fight tangible enemies when he could. He would come back on his own to try to deal with this.

The ranger might have to save everyone with his archery before this was through.

It wouldn't be the first time.

He traced his steps back to where he had left the others. He wanted to talk to them outside the messages left in his mind by Boudicca. If they decided to punch a hole in the secret door, he wanted a plan of attack that didn't involve setting everything on fire and running around like scared chickens.

That might be what this situation called for but he would rather they tried something else before falling back on their old standby. Maybe his explanation of stealth would finally sink in so they didn't just kick the door in and proclaim the Dungeon Delvers were on the scene.

“What did you find, Ardath?,” asked Parzifal. The paladin's hand didn't stray from the hilt of his sword.

“There is a secret door the golem uses to get in and out of the sewer,” said Ardath. “I suppose you will want to open it so we can follow the thing instead of reporting this to the Sisters.”

“There's nothing to report without a dead monster to give her,” said Parzifal. “And she would be right. As long as that thing is down here knocking down walls, it will be trouble for the city above. It is up to us to do something about it.”

“I couldn't find a switch to open the door,” said Ardath. He pointed back down the tunnel. “I did mark it for us, so we knew where it was.”

“Let's look at this secret door,” said Parzifal. “If we can't handle it, we'll see how many of the Sisters will give us a hand to knock it out of the way so we can find the golem and its creator.”

“What do we do when do that?,” asked Ardath.

“We ask some questions and make sure he can't make more of these golems,” said Parzifal. “An army of those could overrun the armies of the world and take over every city state.”

“Are you serious?,” asked Ardath.

“Always,” said Parzifal. “I would do something similar if I had the ability.”