... fragment begins ...

[From DUBIUS' JOURNAL]:

A most strange event occurred tonight as I was resting in my
bedchamber, to which I will relate in the following journal entry. I
will not soon forget this unusual ocurrence, since it had affected
deeply my perceptions of the spiritual realm; and as had many other
extraordinary experiences that I had undergone throughout my quest to
uncover the mysteries of Life, and there had been many, this one had
greatly deepened my understanding of the Eternal Paradox, the Enigma.

It was approximately Midnight when I felt the disturbance. I had at
first thought that it was my good friend Verdan, who brings morning
meals to me and my little mice friends each day, and that it was past
dawn. But upon opening my eyes, I immediately saw that that was not
the case. Instead, I found myself looking down at a mouse bouncing on
my chest. Now, I must confess that it was not unusual now and again to
find mice crawling on me while I am sleeping, or when I am awake, for
that matter, in fact, I had once discovered that a mouse had given
birth in my beard to several mouselings when I dosed off during one of
the more insipid counsel meetings, while the other magi had their
customary quarrels; however, I had never had a mouse bouncing on my
chest before. After several unsuccessful attempts to stifle yawning, I
took a closer look at the aforementioned mouse. Then I saw it, the
Criamon symbol upon its forehead.

"What 'cha doin', Dubius?" The mouse asked, to which I replied,
naturally, "I was sleeping... uh, meditating, that is... I think..."
At this point, I noticed that the mouse, apart from the Criamon
symbol, looked somehow different from other mice. "We need your help,
Dubius," the mouse brought me out of my contemplation, "Know that
skull in Verdan's room?" 

"You mean the Skull of Adam? Yes, Verd--" 

"We don't like it. Can you help us destroy it?" the mouse demanded.

At that point, I was seriously questioning the origin of this strange
creature. I knew, at the moment I saw the Criamon symbol, that this
was not one of my mice friends. I had never put any sort of marks,
much less Criamon symbols, on any of them. Personally, I do not
believe that adorning oneself with symbols of Criamon would further
the understanding of the Enigma. Of course, I cannot say that I have
learned all the mysteries of the Enigma, or that I even scratched its
surface; however, this much I can offer to my fellow students of
Criamon: one needs to *understand* the symbols, not just blindly etch
them on one's body. Sadly, many of my colleagues have resorted to
tattooing as their main path towards the Ultimate Wisdom.

In any event, where was I? The mouse. Right. As I had stated, I had
begun to guess at the origin of this unusual mouse, if it was a mouse
at all! "Well?" The creature brought me out of my reverie yet
again. "Will you help us destroy the skull, Dubius?" the thing
urged. I needed a moment to think, so I replied, "I need a moment to
think." "Alright, but be quick!" it said as it sat down on my chest
and waited. I closed my eyes and meditated upon the wisdoms of
Criamon. At first, nothing came to my mind, then there it was, the
voice that I had often heard during my many hours of meditation, the
voice that had guided me in the direction of wisdom, the voice of
Criamon.

"Dubius," it began, "your soul is in great peril, for that which rests
so innocently on your chest is not what it seems." 

"I know," I replied, "I had suspected as much when I noticed its
forehead. But what is this creature? And what does it desire?" 

"Think, Dubius. In what did it speak?" 

"In what...?" I stumbled over the question. "Latin! It spoke to me in
Latin! None of my mice speak Latin, except Sherry! But what exactly is
it?" 

"Search deeply into your mind. What is it that this creature lacks?
Use the Wisdom, Dubius!" 

I reflected but for a moment, "Fur! This thing has no fur!" I
exclaimed. 

"Correct. Now venture further into your mind. Think! What exactly is
this thing?" 

I thought hard at this, then it suddenly dawned on me, and the
revelation was horrifying. "It's a *TURNIP*!" A fleeting moment of
panic struck me as the realization slowly sunk in, but then my years
of Criamon training set in. 

"Well done! Once again you fail to disappoint me, Dubius. Remember,
the Wisdom will be with you, always..." 

"But what should I do--" I started to ask, but the voice had already
faded.

I had to decide on a course of action quickly, I thought to myself,
just as the mouse--no, *turnip*--bounced once again on my chest. As I
reopened my eyes, there it stood, on my chest, glowering at me
menacingly, with death plainly written in its beady little eyes. My
resolve almost crumbled as vivid images of the dead Selwyne rushed
clearly into my mind. I did not know the details of it, but I did
learn that Selwyne was killed by a turnip, and that there almost
wasn't enough of him left to bring back for the Fairy ritual that was
performed on his corpse, and that the usually placid Flamma had been
angry enough to kill one of our Grogs. From what little I knew, these
turnips possessed more destructive power than vampire lords. 

"WELL?  Have you made up your mind yet?" the turnip asked
impatiently. I could not answer, my mouth was suddenly as dry as my
armpits. And then a brilliant idea hit me.

"I, er... that is,er... I have to... relief myself..." I stuttered. It
leaned back, and I cowered, fully expecting it to lunge for my throat
and ending my life. 

"Well, go. And hurry up!" It sounded exacerbated as it leapt off of
me. I could not tell you how glad I was, except that I discovered that
I truly needed to relief myself.

After I heeded nature's call, I rushed to Verdan's room, whereupon I
quickly related the encounter. Verdan was greatly distressed and had
immediately grabbed the Skull. At about this instant, we heard a
scream out in the fields. We both decided the wise thing to do would
be to consult Demoror, who is most adept at exorcising Demonic
beings. Thus we fled to the other tower. By this time, almost everyone
was alerted by the scream, and as luck would have it, they had all
gathered at Demoror's chamber.

After a brief recounting of events, we headed back to the first
tower. Muris and Verdan went back to Verdan's room, while Demoror and
I went back to mine. Upon entering, we at once saw a Demon Turnip
charging full speed at us, as if it had been lusting after our souls
for a century. Demoror, being the mighty exorcist that he was, is,
quickly chanted a powerful spell and the turnip was reduced to shreds
in an instant. 

At this time, I had spotted two mice which had, etched on their
foreheads, Criamon symbols. "Turnips!" I cried, as, with a courage
that even amazed myself, I picked up the two Demon Turnips. As I held
out the turnips for Demoror to exorcise, heedless of the immense
danger to myself, the turnips acted. Apparently they had spotted
Sherry, who was hiding in my beard. As the turnips turned towards
Sherry, she attempted a desperate exorcising spell of her own. But
alas, she was but a familiar, and a newly-made one at that, and her
powers weren't nearly enough to affect these potent agents of
evil. And I also tried to crush these demons with my bare hands,
desperate to save my friend and familiar, but I was too clumsy to keep
up with them. 

Just as the foul vegetables were about to set on my poor Sherry, an
inspiration hit me. "Turn into a human, Sherry!" I had almost
forgotten her ability of transformation! I knew that Sherry would
still not be powerful enough to kill these demon vegetables, but
hopefully this would gain her the delay needed for Demoror to banish
them. But to my pleasant surprise, Sherry just crushed these servants
of darkness with her bare hands as they jumped for her throat. She
must have been blessed by Criamon; even Demoror was amazed.

After we had disposed of the Demon Turnips in my chamber, we headed
down to see if Verdan and Muris had as much difficulty as we did. We
found Muris standing over a darkened splotch, presumably the remains
of what used to be a turnip, and Verdan holding the Skull with both
hands high above his head. Indubitably Verdan had used the Skull of
Adam to call down the wrath of his Christian God and smote the Demon
Turnip into nothingness. We were all greatly impressed. We then
proceeded to search both towers for signs of any remaining Demon
Turnips. Fortunately, we did not find any more that night. Although
still wary for more assaults by these demon vegetables, we were all
very tired, so we all headed to bed.

Before I went to sleep, I told my mice to be on the look out for any
more strange mice with Criamon symbols on their foreheads. And with
the knowledge that my capable mice were ever vigilantly guarding me, I
went to sleep without any cares or worries.

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