Showdown!

Having escaped from the frying pan of Lolth's underworld into the fire of Calamus' London, our heroes meet BOWGENTLE, the blind sage and friend of Count Brass. Bowgentle says the Runestaff told him they would need his help, so here he is.

He is indeed helpful, as he knows of a sewer passage which avoids the monster-filled streets of London. JUNIUS decides to take some of the loud, violent types and create a big ol' diversion, while the sneaky sorts enter Calamus' tower and take him out. He takes BJERN, Gnorfank, Ringorix, and his last surviving officer with him.

(This plan may seem less suicidally brave if one remembers that Junius is carrying the plasma cannon of Shiro, one of the slain Knights of the Dawn. Or then again, it may not.)

The diversion does indeed attract all manner of attention. In battle with a beholder, Ringorix is frozen solid, Equitas (the officer) is killed by lightning, Gnorfank is set on fire, and Junius is slowed down. But he still manages to shoot the beholder (whose anti-magic ray does not affect the plasma cannon, which is not magical at all) long enough for Gnorfank to stab its eye out. Which, being a beholder, is pretty much everything.

POUNCEQUICK sneaks up the tower with the intention of dropping on Calamus from above and stabbing him in the head. Hey, it usually works.

Everyone else sneaks through an oddly clean sewer and ambushes Fabulus Calamus in his lair, next to his brooding balcony. Calamus calls in Andronicus, the rather unmanly governor of Britain. RETARIUS clobbers Andronicus with his shield. He goes down.

ROSA shoots Calamus with an arrow which knocks loose a vial on his vest and eats a hole in the floor. Calamus commands Retarius to slay his friends, and when he refuses, is puzzled. Anyone who talks to Calamus for ten minutes or so basically IS Calamus from that point on. Has Retarius, he asks, been killed and resurrected lately? Because that would explain it.

Indeed, way back in 532, Retarius and the leader of the wolfmen killed each other. Retarius was healed in time, but apparently he was dead for a moment or so, long enough for Calamus' snare on his mind to be broken. Darn it. He had been waiting six years to use that, too.

Calamus shrugs. No matter, the Runestaff predicted he would triumph over the Valerians. He selects another vial, but Retarius knocks it down, then finishes him with a shot in the heart. That wasn't so hard ...

... until Andronicus rises, speaking in Calamus' voice. Seems Calamus took him over long ago, so his consciousness resides in Andronicus as well! Andronicus summons a water warrior, a water crossbow, a water cataupult, and between himself and Retarius, a big water shield! Retarius fakes him out and cuts him, then cuts him again, and Andronicus backpedals out onto the balcony, where Pouncequick drops from above and stabs him in the head!

With Calamus now twice-dead, the monsters of London lose heart and flee, which is bad news for those monsters' caretakers. Count Brass is found in an elaborate water-operated death trap, then freed.

But the Runestaff predicted Calamus would win? Was it wrong? Well, no, says Count Brass. Elrond examines the Runestaff and finds one rune-tag which is brass, not gold. Count Brass added it, and of course anything including this extra rune would be gibberish.

Elrond is about to declare that the Romans have no further need of the Runestaff, so it is time to return it to Elfland. But the Romans aren't sure, and want to return to Rome to check, which Elrond agrees to. There is the little matter of Count Brass' claim to the Runestaff, but Elrond seems content to wait.