The Adamantite Golem!

Port Nyanzaru, War Chess Plane.

A sizable laboratory now stood on the First Floor of the plane, beside the old Golem Factory. The factory had temporarily shut down for lack of raw materials. The hardest part of making a golem was not obtaining the basic materials, but finding a Soul Gem to serve as its core. Soul Gems were exceedingly rare on the Material Plane. Monsters almost never dropped them; only spiritual creatures wandering the Material Plane had any chance of leaving behind a natural Soul Gem.

The Spectres Soren had killed in Amber City, for instance, had dropped a cloudy gray Soul Gem.

Under normal circumstances, obtaining Soul Gems required profound spells or purchases from other planes. Matters of the soul were the most complex of all. Though Charm Monster was only a Level 8 or higher spell, few Wizards could master it, and fewer still could cast it successfully. Otherwise, the God of Death would have been furious long ago: Spellcasters who could imprison souls would have easily plundered vast numbers of them from his grasp.

Port Nyanzaru had no shortage of stone, gems, or animation spells for making golems. What it lacked were Soul Gems of every grade.

Inside the laboratory.

An uncanny light shone through the crystal Energy Transmission Pipeline. A powerful spell fluctuation suddenly burst from the laboratory, followed by the Fallen Witch's excited cry. "It worked!"

"Daughter! I did it!"

A Teleportation Spell linked directly to the laboratory, and Goria stepped out of the Teleportation Circle on its left side.

"Mother?"

"You finally succeeded?"

Excitement touched Goria's face as she hurried to the workbench. Sure enough, a fist-sized piece of diamond lay upon it.

Diamond.

Commonly known as the gemstone of the same name, it was rare on every plane.

The material was so