The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign

Man, I just realized how far your group has come in this campaign. I admit I'm a little sad, though, that Rantle didn't screw everything up by flirting with Shalosha.

Oh my, was he supposed to? That would have made things.......interesting!

So, with the aid of my spell, I was able to teleport everyone next to the walls of Gabal’s Tower; Drudge flew up to the top of this wall cautiously and then returned quickly:

“I couldn’t see anyone in the outside grounds; if there is anyone there, they’re very well hidden and there will be very few of them. Oh, there’s also a battle going on outside the city; I think it’s our lot versus the Ragesians.”

Longhelim nodded:

“Right! That’s all we need to hear; just as long as there isn’t half a regiment in there we go quickly and quietly. Faden, please describe the Tower quickly!”

I spoke quietly:

“On the lower floor, there is a large central hall which is circular; on the interior wall, there are a series of doors which lead into student dormitories which surround this hall; about a dozen of them; if we go in from the outside, we’ll burrow into one of these. Also along the central wall, there is a set of stairs which goes up into the dueling arena; that’s one of Gabal’s greatest accomplishments. Although it smarts, any harm committed inside it is not permanent; the arena also has a sand mosaic which is supposed to represent the four elements; standing on each patch conveys certain powers and spells. Duelists were able to use these without expending any of their own magic. I wasn’t powerful enough to build up any expertise in using this arena but I did see some very complicated magic being tossed around like….well, very easily.

Oh, all of these things only work on the dueling floor.

There is another set of stairs along the wall leading up to the upper floor which were Gabal’s personal quarters, laboratory and workshop. I was never allowed up there; only his best students were invited.

Finally, please remember what I said: all the doors will be magically locked; and all the corridors and open spaces will be filled with mist so don’t stray from each other or there is a very good chance you will get lost, even in such a tight space.”

Everyone had been paying rapt attention and then Longhelim said:

“Good description; right, everyone ready?”

We nodded, all grasped each other and another transport spell was cast to take us next to the Tower; there, Felix then cast his powerful spell which created a tunnel into the astral plane and which then came down into the interior of the Tower.

The aperture duly appeared, secretly surprising me as I thought that Gabal would have warded against it but for once I was glad that my master seemed to have missed a trick.

At the far end, we could see one of the normal student dormitories that had been converted into a makeshift cell; inside was a single human with a shrouded, spectral figure hovering next to him; it had red pin points where its eyes should have been. We had met them before:

“Wraith!” shouted Felix as he brandished his holy symbol and the creature turned to dust.

The two warriors quickly moved through the tunnel into the room and Longhelim concentrated. A few moments later, the paladin said:

“There are five evil creatures beyond this door.”

Then John stepped forward and took out an odd little device from one of his pouches; it was a chime. He sounded it once and nodded at Victor. The warrior tried the door with a grunt but it was still locked; looking annoyed, John used the chime again and this time the door opened into a misty wall. Victor stepped in but only just, making sure we could still all see him.

Just as he did, a voice could be heard from the mist:

“You dare intrude into my school! Your mission will fail but just in case, come and meet me upstairs!”

The voice was saying exactly what Gabal would say to recalcitrant students so I didn’t really pay any attention to it.

John then took out another little trinket and suddenly we all felt a draught sweeping the mist away from the central part of the hall; it revealed two huge dogs; and when I say huge, I meant the size of draught horses; they were coal black with red, blazing eyes; again, we had met them before:

“Hell hounds! The big ones!” I shouted as soon as I saw them.

Victor strode forward and began to stalk one. They may have been big, ugly and fire breathing but I had just put a defensive spell on Victor which helped him against fire, so I didn’t worry too much about him. Longhelim also moved forward to engage the other, again making sure not to stray into the mist. Although John had blown away a chunk of it, it was still congregating on the edges of the room, hiding the doors.

The two warriors engaged the dogs; I saved my spells as I felt that they were literally no more than guard dogs, left here to delay us more than anything. Then I saw John whispering with Metamorphosis; the trillith nodded and cast a spell on one of the side wall; suddenly it became malleable, like clay and soon, she was molding a hole into it; in the meantime, John had gone to Felix and drawn his attention to what she was doing; as soon as there was a small hole in the wall, we could see another human prisoner with a wraith next to him; Felix again destroyed the undead but I was beginning to see a pattern; the rooms must have been full of prisoners and each had a wraith next to him or her. It was diabolical; the wraiths would turn their hapless victims into undead at the first sign of trouble and command them to attack us, their potential rescuers.

If we had known what was going on, we may have devised another plan but as it was, we had to move as fast as possible now.

Felix shouted:

“Metamorphosis, use your spell to make holes into two cells simultaneously; right in the centre between the doors; all I need is just a small hole and that way I can affect two wraiths with the power of my God!”

The trillith nodded and well all stepped out of our cell except for the two prisoners. They cowered behind us.

As Metamorphosis began to cast her spell on each of the walls, more wraiths began to appear out of the walls; I wasn’t sure if all of them were coming out of the cells or from above or below as they swarmed all around us; Felix of course was brandishing his holy symbol as skillfully as Victor brandished his sword, and everywhere he pointed it, wraiths crumpled into dust.

Longhelim swung his axe with its fiery head into the enemy; the Torch completely ignored their translucent nature and the paladin was almost dropping a wraith after each blow; finally, Drudge was also getting into the act, shooting his arrows into them with surprising success, again dropping several of them.

Four or five of the creatures surrounded me and began trying to suck my soul; a couple even succeeded in bypassing my natural defences so I had to try to get to Felix. I knew he had a spell which could help.

The central hall evolved into a swirling melee of wraiths and us; the hell hounds had long been dispatched by this point; another swarm of the foul creatures came out of the ceiling only for at least half to be destroyed spectacularly by Felix; the others converged around Drudge, who dodged while shooting. It was a magnificent display of aggressive acrobatics, with arrows flying out of his bow while doing summersaults, running on vertical walls and back flipping.

Victor was cursing softly as his blade passed through them harmlessly more often than not. The creatures flew furiously but slowly and surely the combination of Felix, Longhelim, Drudge and to a lesser extent, Victor, whittled them down.

Metamorphosis had opened holes into each of the cells now and we had managed to rescue more prisoners. I had a horrible feeling though that those would be all the ones we would be able to get.

Felix was aware of my plight and took out a wand. He tapped me with it but we both knew that it would take a several moments for the magic to work; nervously, we waited for it to take effect and also for the next wave of enemy.

Suddenly, just before the spell from the wand took effect on me, there were four flashes of flame near the ceiling; these usually characterized the arrival of teleporting beings although we couldn’t actually see anything.

“Something invisible is up there”, I shouted, just as a green beam shot from the ceiling and hit Longhelim, enveloping him in a green aura. I recognized the spell immediately; it prevented magical transport; it didn’t last very long but could be very dangerous under certain circumstances, preventing emergency retreats.

As soon as the ray hit, a creature appeared on the ceiling; it was a bone devil; why they had decided to come in right now and hit us with those spells was a mystery but at least they hadn’t joined in with the wraiths.

Longhelim shouted back:

“We’re still a little busy here,” as he dodged several and fought more swirling wraiths.

John ran up to Longhelim and cast a spell, brushing his eyes:

“Now you’ll be able to see them if they go invisible again!”

Felix had finally finished casting his spell on me and I felt my normal vigor return, thank the Gods. Despite the fact that there were far less of them that there had been at the beginning, wraiths were still dangerous undead and they were a major danger to all of us, especially as all they needed to do was touch their victim. I wasn’t very good at dodging.

Finishing the spell also freed Felix and he was able to use the power of Farlanghn in conjunction with Victor and Longhelim. This renewed onslaught of the warriors and the priest finally managed to slay the last of the wraith swarm.

During this time, the bone devils on the ceiling had been shooting their green rays until all of us were glowing green. I still wasn’t sure why they chose to cast this spell at this time but I had a horrible feeling it was part of a specific plan.

Once they were finished with the wraiths, Victor and Longhelim flew up to the ceiling and began to engage with the bone devils but they began to teleport out in flashes of fire. There was one who was caught by Victor and Longhelim and who may have just about been sent back to the hell he came from but it was impossible to tell as he teleported out just as Victor hit him.

So, glowing green, the warriors flew back and everyone was healed. The wraiths had not actually done a great deal of physical damage so it did not take very long. Then we also took stock of the prisoners we rescued and told them to stay together in one of the rooms down here.

Then we readied to move upstairs.

Just as we began ascending, a voice suddenly spoke magically again:

“That’s good! Almost there! I hope you enjoyed the screams! Soon you will hear more!”

Longhelim carefully motioned Metamorphosis to make a hole under the stairs which would allow us to emerge through them rather than walking up them, therefore giving our potential enemy time to set up in ambush. Unfortunately, this precaution made little difference; when Victor and Longhelim emerged through the hole into the floor with the dueling arena, there was a great shout of:

“Welcome!”

This shout was magical in nature but I was able to resist the spell. I knew that it was one of the spells that was available in the arena and I had been caught by it in the past; it caused a certain amount of pain by sound and could send you deaf temporarily but that was no great loss to the warriors.

There was more shouting, this time from Victor:

“There’s another wraith up here; it’s casting spells! Powerful ones! It’s also got elementals! They must be summoned; they can’t get near me or Longhelim! He’s concentrating on Longhelim! He’s recognized the Torch!”

We all began to fly up through the aperture and saw that it was as Victor had described. The warrior had moved slightly to make room for the rest of us and we saw that he was surrounded by four elementals, one of each type. I remembered that summoning these was one of the abilities of the dueling arena. Thankfully, the warrior had been warded against summoned beings so they were charging impotently against his insurmountable magical barrier.

As soon as I flew up, I was just in time to see a set of powerful rays of fire target Longhelim; there was also a rolling ball of fire attempting to engulf anyone who was on the stairs; it looked as if the fact that we had come through a hole had obviously spoilt part of the plan; then quick as a flash, the wraith cast another spell. This time a ring of fire appeared surrounding it, like a shield. As soon as it did that, I saw that there was something hauntingly familiar about its casting style; it took me but a few moments to realise it!

“Gabal!” I shouted. “That wraith is Gabal! Bastard Ragesians!”

Then I had to stop as we were all hit with a new powerful, deadly spell; my skin wrinkled, my eyes began bleeding and I felt as if I couldn’t breathe! It felt as if all the water in my body had been sucked out! Moments later, the wraith turned invisible! Oh, he may have been a wraith, but Gabal had not lost any of his skill in the arena; he had conceived it, built it and taught us in it; but none of us students had even come close to besting him. Except that now, instead of a training exercise, it was deadly.

“Longhelim, where is he?” I shouted, remembering that John had cast as spell on the paladin, allowing him to see invisible beings; the paladin pointed at a particular spot.

Using all my paltry skill in spell dueling, I cast my spell and hoped that I would be able to slip it past him. Apparently it worked as a cloud of glittering motes materialized in the spot where Longhelim pointed and within it, they also outlined the wraith.

There was a cackle and an almost mocking inclination of the head of the wraith in my direction which was quickly cut off as a volley of arrows went through its torso. Some of them obviously did nothing but enough did hurt it; this was then followed up by Longhelim; this was a completely different proposition as the wraith suffered badly against the Torch, especially as Longhelim felt that this was serious enough to summon the power of Heironeous to aid him in this combat.

Suddenly, the wraith was retreating but then he began to cast his spells with all the speed and accuracy of the Gabal of old. Moving back in the arena, a ball of flame engulfed everyone of us and it was one of his special effects which also stripped us of magic; and another set of rays of fire hit Longhelim again, this time toppling the paladin as he was defenceless against fire; thankfully, Felix was next to him and was able to heal him. I managed to get out my wand and point it at the wraith and Victor was next to him although most of his powerful blows did little to the undead because of his translucence.

Everything was in the balance!

Or it was, until Gabal cast his next spell! With dread, I recognized the hand movements; there was nothing I could do as the room filled with a set of multi-coloured rays which enveloped everyone! Somehow, Drudge managed to step out of the worst of them while re-loading his bow; the ranger was very cool; he looked as if he was mildly annoyed at being made to move but then began to aim at the wraith again. Felix fell over this time, burning as usual, Victor looked puzzled, as if he had felt something but there was no visible effect; Longhelim had been enveloped in a small flame but looked as if he had fared reasonably well; the most dramatic change was in John; where the rogue had been, there was now perfect statue of his figure.

Thankfully, I was also unaffected.

The wraith bobbed up and down in glee when he saw what he had done to John and then, moving his hands with supernatural speed, he cast another spell; this was a far more mundane ball of fire, but as I mentioned before, since he had stripped our fire defences, it was very deadly. Everyone was badly burned and at this point, Longhelim fell over again, also burning.

Nevertheless, Victor almost staggered forward and began aiming several blows at Gabal; these were remarkably effective; so much so, that as soon as he delivered a couple of them, the warrior fell to the ground in flames as he was burned by the wraith’s shield of fire. However, he had hurt the wraith badly; there were tattered wisps of…..something floating out of the wounds where Victor’s falchion had cut and Drudge’s arrows had thrust.

This left just Drudge and I standing; the ranger quickly sighted again and fired his arrows; Gabal looked to be almost staggering now. I fired my lightning at him and the water elemental, which was still in the room, although it had done very little.

The lightning seemed to do nothing to the wraith but Drudge’s arrows must have done something because Gabal sank through the floor out of our sight!

Drudge, ever alert, was quartering the room, while aiming his bow:

“Where’s he gone?”

“Don’t know; but I am going to the others to get them up hopefully before he returns.”

Glancing briefly at everyone else, I took out one of my healing potions and poured it down Longhelim’s throat. The paladin stirred, opened his eyes and had a brief look around; seeing the room deserted, he stretched his hands and touched Victor, who stirred in turn; then Longhelim turned around and touched Felix, who immediately stopped burning and opened his eyes. It was easy to forget the magical healing touch of a paladin but it became most useful at this time.

All of this precipitated a general round of healing; it was briefly interrupted as a wraith appeared through the floor from below but Victor stepped up and sliced the creature in two; he seemed to have been gaining a certain amount of expertise in dealing with them now. The healing continued, again interrupted by a wraith, except that this one was a dwarf; my father to be exact; except that it wasn’t my father; he was obviously dead and somewhere, someone had exposed him to more wraiths; I had to tell myself that this was not my father but only his shell which had been corrupted beyond measure.

Yet another score to settle with the Ragesians!

This time, it was Longhelim who dealt with the new arrival; no one else knew it was a wraith of my father and I thought it best not to say anything; I would mourn later.

There was no further sign of Gabal, so after we healed, we proceeded up the stairs to the top floor.

Victor, who was also lugging the statue of John, spoke to the rest of us:

“I’m at the top of the stairs but the room is filled with that mist; moving forward, but slowly.”

The rest of us shuffled forward behind him until suddenly, Drudge moved in; there were gasps from above and thinking that an enemy had appeared, I hurried forward; I reached the top of the stairs and looked inside a bare room; I barely had time to register a wall of mist being blown to one side which revealed a mirror in the centre before I was rudely yanked into a place of true darkness, completely disoriented and a sensation as if I was tumbling endlessly in space; not a nice feeling.

However, that lasted only a few moments as all of a sudden I was on the floor of the same room, entangled with a whole group of individuals, including Victor and a very large stag! A very familiar stag in fact; last time I had seen it, it was by the shore of a lake in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar, with a big sword stuck in it. It looked just like the trillith, Indomitability.

That was such a shock that I didn’t spare any attention on any of the other beings which were lying on the floor with me; hurriedly I scrambled away from the stag, only for it to regard me with calm eyes; very different than the time it was trying to gore us to death. It still had the same eerie sheen to its hide and some strange element crackled along its skin; then, it shimmered and changed its shape into an old scarred orc, who regarded us with the same wise eyes.

As soon, as this figure appeared, Metamorphosis stepped forward and said:

“Vigilance, my master, greetings. We have freed you from the clutches of the Ragesians; come we must go!”

Still bewildered by this turn of events, I turned to Felix with a questioning look in my eyes.

The priest spoke:

“Victor and you were sucked into the mirror as soon as it became visible. Drudge broke it face down; this is the result.”

I looked around some more and regarded the other people who had tumbled out of the mirror; these had now stood up and were looking around the room and at us with a mixture of trepidation and curiosity; quickly, I was able to see four humans, one elf, one human but with obviously a large amount of elven blood, a brutish human with a large amount of orc features and one gnome. They all had various bits of equipment, including a lute which suggested that that person was some sort of minstrel or bard while the orc blooded human had a very large axe. He really didn’t look very civilized.

Then Longhelim took charge:

“From what I can sense, none of you is evil; I gather you are part of the Resistance in Gate Pass? No other reason why the Ragesians would stick you in that mirror. Now that we have found the people we were seeking, we have to return as fast as we can. Metamorphosis, we will need the powers of your flying magic again.

After that, can anyone make a door through the wall? I really don’t want to go downstairs again, as we’ll run into Gabal again.”

I spoke up:

“When we’re ready, I’ll make a hole in the wall.”

As Metamorphosis was performing her magic, I approached the orc:

“I am sorry, I don’t understand; are you Vigilance? If so, why did you look like a stag first? A stag that looked like another trillith we met, Indomitability?”

He smiled gently:

“I am both. Indomitability was my primeval self; it was the spirit of the forest, the cycle of nature, the freedom to run like the wind; but when I became more self aware, I became Vigilance, tasked to stop my mad brothers and sisters from invading this plane; since your city of Gate Pass is the weakest link in the chain, this is the place that has to be defended, especially during your Festival of Dreams.”

“Will you be able to help us against the Ragesians?” I continued.

“No. All of my magic and power will be needed to stop the invasion and even then, some of my brethren are almost certainly already here; they’ll be doing their best to overcome me; I am relying on you to stop this. You should be strong enough to do this now; that is the reason I gave you my Gift.”

Drudge was listening to this conversation and said:

“You stop the mad trillith hordes from invading from below and we stop the mad Ragesian hordes from invading above: sounds like fair exchange.”

Then Vigilance looked at me and asked:

“Did you make good use of my Gift?”

Longhelim had approached by this point and replied:

“Your Gift kept us alive more often than you could ever have imagined.”

At that moment, Metamorphosis had finished casting her magic and Longhelim looked at me expectantly. I cast a spell, a green ray shot out of my hand and a section of the wall turned to dust. This revealed another wall, this time white. Victor stepped forward and touched it.

“Ice,” he grunted and swung his sword at it, creating a substantial opening in one blow. It took him almost no time at all to crash through the ice barrier and although we all suffered slightly from the frigid air as we passed through it, we managed to fly out of the Gabal’s Tower.

We flew to friendly lines to be greeted with wild enthusiasm. Apparently, the people whom we rescued were all very well known and also very popular. They had been given up for dead and their recovery was an enormous boost to morale. This, in combination with our news of the transformation of most of the prisoners into wraiths, apparently decided more people to join in the uprising, either for revenge or because the Ragesians did not have their family members as hostages any more.

This created yet more problems for the Ragesian army.

As we rested, we began to get reports from rest of the city; the Eastern side half was well and truly in the hands of the Resistance; conversely, the western side was in the control of the enemy with fierce fighting in the ninth and tenth districts, the middle sections. There were tales of great heroism, such as the ambush which the Resistance had managed spring on one large formation of several hundred Ragesian soldiers; put simply, they collapsed one of the city towers on top of them; while, several hundred soldiers was not a huge number in relation to their whole army, it was a sore loss for no reply.

However, this tale was dwarfed by the epic that was created when the greatest of all demons, a legendary balor, was sent to aid General Danava; it was said that she placed such importance on Gate Pass that Leska herself had bargained with this creature; yet somehow, a mage of the Resistance had banished this demonic general back to its plane.

I determined to investigate this further; there was something very strange about that report.

I also assumed that the Shahalesti army was engaging the Ragesians, stretching them even further.

A little while later, as we were resting in a half ruined house in the eleventh district, Longhelim stiffened and seemed to be unusually silent for a while. Then he turned around and said:

“I have just had a magical message. Apparently, General Danava wants to meet with us! He wishes to discuss terms! On the main road in District Nine at midnight!”

I frowned at this; I was very puzzled:

“That’s odd; first of all, how does he even know you; second, why should he surrender? His position is certainly not particularly dicey at the moment; and we were told this Legate Kolvus was specifically sent from Ragos to prevent him from doing exactly this. Who was this magical message from, by the way?”

Longhelim replied:

“That’s another odd thing; Acolyte Rebecca.”

I asked:

“Who’s that?”

The paladin frowned as he said:

“I have no idea; she did mention Meekah though; that’s my cousin; he works in the guard; or he did anyway; I don’t know what he’s doing right now.”

I was beginning to become more and more skeptical about this:

“So, someone whom you have never met in your life, contacts you magically and says that General Danava wants to meet you in the middle of the night to discuss his surrender? Really? And I suppose getting you in a vulnerable position while you are carrying the Torch wouldn’t have anything to do with this by any chance? This positively reeks of treachery! We’re not seriously thinking of going, are we? I mean, look at John! We have no way of returning him to his living self right now!”

Longhelim glanced at the statue of John as Felix spoke:

“This is a difficult one, Faden; yes, you’re right in everything you say but….and it is a big but….if there is any chance to stop the fighting, I say we have to try. If the fighting stops, then people are going to be saved; we have to think that for every hour that the battle rages, more widows and orphans are being created.”

I thought about what the priest had said and then slowly replied:

“Yes, that’s a point; but this is a really harebrained scheme upon which to risk the Torch; if the Ragesians get their hands on it, then it’s all over; not only that, but we’re also charged with defending Vigilance! We can’t take him to this meeting if we go and I am very loth to leave him on his own.”

I stopped as I saw that the others suddenly realised that we would have to leave the trillith we had been tasked to defend on his own if we went to this summit. Then, I brightened:

“I know! We’ll ask a professional diplomat to go. It doesn’t need to be us!”

Longhelim grinned:

“Even better, Faden; I’ve got it! Yes, we get a professional diplomat to go but we watch from nearby cover, just in case something goes haywire!”

I smiled back:

“Let’s get Erdin Menash to go! He’s a powerful diplomat and one of the three leaders of the Resistance. This is right up his alley; he’s always wanting to talk to people; now how do we get in touch with him?”

Felix replied to that:

“I’ve got a scroll; one that does magical sending. The spell takes a little time but I can get in touch with him.”

The priest took out the scroll and concentrated. As he had mentioned, it took a little time but finally the spell activated; it didn’t take very long but I could see from the Felix’s expression that he didn’t like what he was hearing. Finally the spell finished and Felix turned to us with a grimace:

“I will quote Menash directly on this – sounds dangerous; sorry, I am trapped behind enemy lines; but you should definitely go; and take his son; also take back up.”

I smiled sardonically at this:

“My, he’s full of good advice, isn’t he? And isn’t it convenient that he is trapped behind enemy lines? The more I get to hear about this, the less I like it; our best diplomat thinks it sounds dangerous; and there’s no reason why Danava should be seeking terms. I think we need to have a good long think about this; first, if we want to go at all and second, should we decide to do so, how we’re going to do it.”

We all sat down and just stared; I thought about this new development; as I mentioned, there were several aspects to it which made me very uneasy; but I was forced to admit that both Longhelim, Menash and Felix also had very strong points; there had been rumours about Danava’s wavering loyalty to Ragesia even before we arrived. So much so, the Menash had actually predicted that this might happen; I thought it unlikely but I had been proved wrong; yet, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was too easy; and the Torch was a very powerful motivator; anyone who delivered it to Leska…..well they stand in very high in the favour of the Empress.

Then, I had another thought about something else: John’s predicament; suddenly, I had a solution; I was about to speak but Longhelim beat me to it.

“So, has anyone had any further thoughts?”

This was my opportunity:

“Yes, but not about our predicament; I think I have a solution to John’s condition though. There is a spell I have; it’s very powerful; it transforms objects; for example, see that chair over there? I can change that into a table; but, not only does it change objects, it also transforms substance; it’s not often used for that purpose but I cannot see why it wouldn’t work on stone.”

The paladin looked at me and then smiled as he said:

“That’s very good to know and also helps us; I’ve made a decision; I realise that it’s dangerous and very likely will lead to conflict and probably betrayal, but we have to go and meet Danava; if there is any chance at all that he wants to discuss terms, then we have to at least listen; the rewards of peace are too large to ignore. We’ll take his son as Menash suggested but I’m not sure where else we can get backup.”

I had also thought about this problem:

“I don’t like this and you won’t like it either but the only ones who may be able to provide us with backup are the elves.”

“No!”

That was from Drudge.

Longhelim spoke after a moment:

“Drudge, sorry but Faden is right; it hadn’t occurred to me but we have entered into an alliance with the elves and if we are talking terms with the Ragesians, we have to let them know what is going on; hopefully it will also mean that they will go with us and provide backup.”

The rangers insisted:

“I really don’t like that idea.”

I replied to that:

“I really don’t like the idea of going at all but that decision has already been made; I will be surprised if Danava actually turns up; and if he does, I bet Kolvus will not be far behind. I agree with you on this Drudge: Going there is a really bad idea and inviting the elves is a really bad idea; it’s just that the consequences of not doing so may be even worse.

What about Vigilance?”

Longhelim turned to the venerable orc:

“Vigilance, you have heard our quandary; we would ask you to go one of the safe houses in the 11^th district. As soon as we finish, we will come and collect you. If we don’t return, no doubt you will have heard about it by the next day.”

Then he turned to us:

“Gentlemen, if we are going to do this, we will need your magic; I know you don’t like doing this but you had better learn your spells again. In the meantime, we’ll send a messenger to the elves and let them know that we want to meet.”

A little grumpily, I complied with Longhelim’s request; I was convinced that it was a trap yet it was difficult to argue against the possibility of a peace treaty, no matter how remote. I reflected that that, of course, that was the essence of a good trap: the bait had to be pitched just right.

Force learning my spells was as unpleasant as ever; the splitting headache, the exhaustion, the lethargy and sluggishness, they were all there as usual. Looking at Felix’s red-rimmed eyes and drawn countenance, I knew I looked little better; but, I had managed to learn my magic.

The first thing I cast was that powerful transformation spell on John. The rogue turned into his old self and we spent the next few moments telling him all that happened; when he found out about the meeting with Danava, his immediate reaction was that it was a trap, as we all said; when the whole situation and background was explained to him, he was just as reluctant as the rest of us to go to the talks but ultimately, he agreed that we had to go. Then he said:

“Well, if you force learned your spells, I should as well; do I have a little time?”

Longhelim replied:

“While Felix and Faden were busy, I sent a messenger to the elves; there was a reply that we should meet them here at the Gate in a little time; while you are learning your spells, we’re going to see their messenger, just to let them know what we plan.”

So, while John was studying, we cast a few spells with a long duration and then departed to meet the elves. At the appointed place, we found the Princess Shalosha:

“Greetings Princess; how goes your campaign?” asked Longhelim.

She didn’t smile and was actually quite brusque:

“You requested this meeting; please continue.”

All business again, Longhelim explained the latest developments to her.

She nodded and said:

“I will explain all this to my father; we will comply with your request and someone will greet you at the Gate to the Ninth District just before the appointed time.”

After that, she nodded and walked off.

I stared after her:

“What’s bitten her?”

Victor dismissed the Princess:

“I doubt it’s us; something must have happened somewhere else; anyway, it’s not important; what is important is that we have elven backup; we’d better get back to John.”

So we returned to the rogue who had just finished learning his spells. He looked at us and raised his eyebrows in a silent question:

“It’s set,” answered Longhelim, “and we should be getting ready.”

So, a few more spells were cast; these were of a slightly shorter duration and once that was finished, we set out to the Gate. As we approached, we saw a group of men coming towards us; cautiously, we called out but were relieved to see that it was Rantle at the head of a large group of Resistance fighters. As he saw us, he stopped and asked:

“What are you doing here?”

So we explained the situation to him quite quickly and he nodded:

“Ah, that explains why the Ragesians seemed to be pulling out. Look, if you can pull this off…….I and my men will be eternally grateful.”

Then he shook his head:

“As you said, though, it’s certain to be a trap; but I do have Kothar Danava with me; do you want him to go with you?”

Longhelim nodded and the younger Danava was called over; again the situation was explained; he seemed reluctant to accompany us initially but he did agree that if there was any chance that terms could be agreed and that hostilities would cease, the possibility had to be explored. So finally he agreed.

It took a certain amount of time to get to the Gate where four figures waited for us. The two astral devas, King Shaaladel himself as well as a stunning, dark haired elf, with perfect features and dark eyes; as well as a dress that plunged deeply in the front.

She walked towards us, inhumanly graceful and confident, introducing herself:

“I am Aurana Kirondaal, advisor to His Majesty. It is good to meet you personally. I must say, I am quite surprised that the Ragesians are willing to talk terms so rapidly.”

With that, she turned around and walked back to Shaaladel; I stared after her and then turned to the others:

“We’d best be very careful of her; she must be very powerful; did you see, she had almost no jewellery or magical equipment that I could see; that speaks of huge confidence. That was also the person to whom Eritae the Ghaele swore personal allegiance.”

Felix just grunted, shook his head and then said:

“Well, we’d better cast our last few spells before we venture any further.”

As we began to cast our last set of spells, those that were only effective for a short period, we all heard Shaaladel’s voice:

“Well, this is all disappointing but not surprising; I suppose the humans did better than I would have believed but it is hardly unexpected that Danava wants to talk terms as soon as we arrived.”

Longhelim immediately looked at all of us and warned us with his eyes:

“Not a word” was what I understood.

Thankfully, all of us, including the younger Danava, ignored that last comment. We finished casting our last spells; one of these was cast by Felix; it was a very useful spells that allowed him to see anyone or anything that was trying to hide behind magical illusions or transformations and he immediately glanced at our elven companions but he gave slight negative shake of his head.

Then we entered into the Ninth District just before midnight.

As we walked on the road, we began to discern a series of bright dots in the distance which we quickly recognized as torches in the darkness; there were seven of them. A little time later, the people holding these torches became visible; General Danava was there, surrounded by six hard bitten, veteran warriors, a mixture of men but with a large amount of orc blood. As we met, the elves faded discreetly into the background, letting us take the lead. Danava’s face changed when he saw his son. Obviously, he wasn’t expecting his presence and he seemed to be very glad to see him.

He was the first to speak; his voice was deep and trained. Looking at all of us he said:

“I didn’t think you’d come; that you’d be afraid this was a trap. The fact that you have speaks volumes about you and your characters; not many would have. This kind of courage is amongst the greatest of things that I admire about the people of Gate Pass. We should never have done this….the siege that is; it was misguided from the beginning.

Now that you have the Torch, this is just folly. You can keep bringing more and more men to face me from the South, the East, everywhere. I may win against your first army, even your second but sooner or later, you will grind me down and there is little I can do about it; and in the meantime, more and more of my men die.

You have to know this though; while Kolvus is here, I am under a powerful magical compulsion which prevents me from withdrawing or surrendering; but if Kolvus were to…….”

As if on cue, another three more figures came around the corner from some ruined buildings. The first was a tall, charismatic human wearing a cloak which almost hid his large bow; he was flanked on one side by a stocky, dark haired young man and by a tall, long legged blonde woman on the other.

“No,” hissed Felix. “The one in the middle is a devil, an erinyes; the other two are like something from a nightmare. I’ve never seen anything like them!”

That set my alarm bells ringing; the term nightmarish was used several times to describe one set of creatures which were already here in Gate Pass; and devils served Leska. I knew it was trap!

Another break I am afraid, the SH has caught up to actual play.

Oooh, I missed this update. I wonder if Danava knew about this trap. Looking forward to the next instalment

Except that if it was a trap, it was being shut in a very leisurely manner; the three newcomers sauntered between us and Danava and as they did, the figure in the forefront spoke and a drawling, bored tone:

“Ah Danava, I knew that it was only a matter of time before you betrayed the Empire. I told my mistress so. Well, I have prepared for this day. Most of your officer corps now belongs to me; it only remains for me to arrest you for treason before we take this wretched shell of a city and add it to the Empire! Though why anyone would want it is beyond me!”

He spoke in such a clear tone of voice and with such an accent that it was obvious that he had been taught to project his voice to intimidate or charm; much like Longhelim, except that the paladin’s talent for this was innate. The odd thing was that he seemed to be almost ignoring us. His conversation was directed at Danava alone.

As he finished talking, the general and his bodyguards were already to beginning to edge back while Shaaladel turned towards Longhelim and asked casually:

“Which one shall we kill first?”

Without hesitation, Longhelim replied:

“The three in front!”

The talker in front of us made a minor sign with his hand, almost a twitch but this had a dramatic effect; a black miasma of evil, like a pall of despair descended upon our group. I recognized it; it was an ability natural to evil outsiders but it usually took more effort to cast; this individual, Legate Kolvus I assumed, looked to be most powerful. Just to prove this, a moment later, with consummate skill, he drew his bow and shot the paladin several times in succession.

Everyone exploded into action at that point; Aurana flew into the air but not before she cast a spell on Shaaladel, making it look as if he moved slightly to the left; he looked oddly translucent. Then she cast another spell on herself; a mass of shadowy tendrils enveloped her form; I recognized the spell; it was a very powerful form of defense as the tendrils could make attacks against any foes who approached her too closely.

The two devas reacted differently; one had to heal itself; they had both been affected badly by the first power which Kolvus had emitted but that one had suffered in particular; the other began to radiate an aura which enveloped all of us; I had seen it before as Felix had used it; it had powerful defensive abilities.

Shaaladel began to shout in elvish while Kolvus’s two companions began to act; one of them made a waving motion with his hand and suddenly Victor flew some distance into the air, as if flung by a huge force. Thankfully, he was able to fly magically and immediately began flying back. The other just seemed to concentrate and suddenly I saw a blade made of force appear in the middle of our group and begin whirling around; in many cases, it struck armour or shield but it cut me badly; thankfully, I had my magical defense active, which took the brunt of the blow.

Drudge immediately began to fire at Kolvus while Felix began praying to Farlangh; then another unpleasant surprise arrived in the magical appearance of a large creature behind us, an enormous snake with the torso and upper body of a woman with six arms, each of which bore a weapon.

I recognized it immediately! It was a marilith! One of the most powerful of all demons. I gaped; a demon working with an erinyes? It was impossible! Demons and devils had been foes for millennia, to the exclusion of everyone else; unless the marilith somehow had been subjugated by the devil; which meant that Kolvus indeed was far more than he seemed.

Fortunately, Victor had returned and landed next to the demon; John took that opportunity to cast a our spell of speed while Kolvus did his trick with the black miasma again; the devas suffered very badly once more and Aurana cast a spell on Shaaladel; he looked at the two bodyguards and seemed to start slightly as if he had never seen anything like them before. Then he struck the one nearest to him with his swords, shouting in elvish again; I wasn’t sure if he was swearing, shouting orders or uttering elven war cries. Drudge exchanged arrow fire with Kolvus but then had to hurriedly step away from the marilith; it was actually concentrating mainly on Victor, who was skillfully using his floating shield as usual but as it had six arms and was so large, it was actually quite difficult to dodge its attacks; thankfully, he also had been magically protected.

Despite the danger, I began to edge back and cast a powerful debilitating spell towards Kolvus and his bodyguards; I knew I did not affect the erinyes but it was impossible to tell with the other two. Felix, in the meantime, had cast a powerful spell on his hand; if successful, it could dismiss the demon from this plane; unfortunately, she recognized it and stalked the priest, slicing him with her weapons again and again until he slumped over, his body a wreath of flames; Victor took the opportunity to assault her viciously, but I knew that her flesh was unnaturally resilient to his adamantite weapon; one needed cold iron which had been blessed to hurt her fully.

Just as the priest fell, I managed to land a black ray the demon; it weakened her badly and she reacted by casting a spell which aided her defences; I recognized it as well. It was the evil equivalent of the spell which the deva had cast; one of its most dangerous aspects was that every time she was hit, there was a possibility that the striker could be badly weakened. It was very powerful magic!

Kolvus triggered his miasma again, and poor Felix’s flames went out; on our side though, Kolvus’s female bodyguard dropped under concentrated blows from Shaaladel and Longhelim; then Shaaladel was flung high into the air; he hung up there, obviously flying but also looking so outraged that I was sure that something like this had not happened to him for centuries.

“Welcome to our world!” I couldn’t help but think, rather mischievously.

John’s hands emitted a ray of light which went into the other bodyguard, the first time that individual had been hurt and Victor continued to concentrate on the marilith. Unfortunately, before he was able to do so, the erinyes hurled his rope at Drudge; it wrapped itself around him and prevented the archer from doing anything; the marilith then edged towards me and proceeded to use every single one of its attacks on me. Even in its weakened state, it sliced its way through my magical defence as if it wasn’t there.

A strange thing happened a moment later as Aurala called out:

“That…..thing; whatever it is, is now under my control!”

And indeed it moved over to Kolvus and attempted to hit him as the Legate ducked rather hurriedly. At the same time, the one remaining deva in the battle cast a powerful spell; a barrier of whirling blades appeared on top of the bodyguard; I could hear an exasperated hiss from above as this was very likely to interfere with Aurala’s controlling magic.

Be that as it may, I had other things to worry about; the marilith was still in front of me, readying its swords for another strike. Thankfully, Victor moved up in a studied manner and almost as an afterthought, aimed, struck and moved at the same time; yet his blow was of such speed, accuracy and power that the marilith was sucked back into its plane; but not before she looked at me and one of its hands made a universal slicing motion under its neck and it mouthed:

“You and me; next time.”

Sighing in relief, I looked up to see that Drudge had somehow freed himself from the rope that had been wound around him and began to shoot arrows at Kolvus again. Despite these, Kolvus still managed to produce his dark miasma but that was his last action as more sword blows and arrows found him.

Just before he was pulled back to his plane he just grinned and shouted:

“Goodbye my friends. It has been fun but there are plenty of other evil empires out there who have need of my services!”

That only left the last bodyguard which was quickly subdued by Shaaladel, Aurala and Longhelim.

We still looked around for a few moments until the two elves came down. Then Danava edged forward again, speaking as he approached:

“Well done! I am under magic which compels me to serve Ragesia but with Kolvus gone, the compulsion is far weaker and I can prepare for the surrender of the army; after all, as I mentioned, with all the forces of men and elves now arrayed against me, as well as the power of the Torch, this can only result in the destruction of my army and the Empire of Ragesia can certainly ill afford to lose a whole army!”

I knew of the compulsion magic about which he spoke and thought that he was taking a risk in interpreting it that way but ultimately, it was not my decision and anything which aided the surrender of the Ragesians was not something I was going to argue about.

Danava continued:

“So, what next?”

Longhelim thought briefly and then spoke:

“You have to make your declaration of surrender somewhere. I would suggest Summer’s Bluff.”

Summer’s Bluff was a large mound upon which stood the colossal statue of Drakus Coaltongue; it was also the largest open area in the city and the place where the Festival of Dreams took place. It had long been mooted that the only reason why Coaltongue put his statue up there was to remind people of his presence as they celebrated the Festival; it was the largest annual gathering of Gate Pass inhabitants and the statue was no doubt an important psychological prod when the city was under Ragesian domination. It would be a fitting irony to take the surrender of a Ragesian army under the watchful eyes of their dead emperor; particularly since we were carrying his head in our luggage.

I came to the conclusion that it would be better not to mention that to anyone in the Ragesian side; or the elves for that matter.

Danava just nodded replied:

“I will go and order my army to stand down.”

Then he left with his bodyguards.

Victor, in the meantime, had gone over to Felix and was examining him; moments later his just stood up and sadly shook his head; Shaaladel noticed the movement and said:

“You have done quite well for humans and the lesser races; better than I expected.”

With a motion of his hand towards Felix, he added:

“I have people who will be able to do something about him, if you have the diamonds.”

We all nodded and immediately began rummage through our possessions, getting the gemstones together; having put them all in one container, we gave it to the elven King who took them and then motioned for one of the Devas to pick up the priest ‘s body.

As he was getting ready, I had to ask:

“Your Majesty: my friend the priest described the creatures who were Kolvus’s bodyguards; in fact I believe the Aurana cast a spell on you which allowed you to see through their illusions; please tell me if you would: in all your centuries, have you seen anything like them before? Or anything even related to them?”

Shaaladel gave a moue of distaste, as if admitting this was painful:

“No! Neither Aurana or I have ever seen anything like them! Something I find very disconcerting. Your friend will be back in the morning.”

With that, he and his entourage turned on their heel and flew away.

Longhelim watched them go and then said softly:

“Faden? From the description, do you think you know what they were?”

“I think, they are some form of trillith we have not seen before; we have heard them described as something from a nightmare and those were the exact words that Felix used when he was describing them; that was what made me think of them. Let’s go and speak to Vigilance; he may know what they are.”

Slowly, we retreated back to a Resistance safe area.

There we were met by an anxious command group; Rantle had obviously spread the word that the Ragesians had retreated. Both he and Diogenes were waiting anxiously and ran towards us as soon as we were spotted.

“Well?” demanded Rantle.

Longhelim said:

“Danava will formally surrender at midday tomorrow at Summer’s Bluff. In return, we will allow him to withdraw his army”.

There was an enormous cry as Rantle shouted:

“The Ragesians will surrender!”

There was no stopping people after that; some of the people began crying, others laughing; there were cheers, shouts and laughter. Someone took out a lute, someone else a pair of drums and soon there was an impromptu musical group; that of course meant that people began to dance.

Longhelim spoke briefly to Drudge, who nodded and ran into the night. I looked askance at the paladin who said:

“I told him to get to the Resistance of Seaquen and let them know what was happening. They should be there tomorrow as well.”

The celebration was in full swing at this point; Erdin Menash had also arrived and was being his usual voluble self.

“I can’t believe it! A few days ago, we were wondering how we were going to last the month and now, the Ragesians are going to surrender! And the elves are here! This will be a tale that will be told for centuries to come!”

I was keeping quiet; I couldn’t help but remember that nearly a third of the population of Gate Pass had died; thousands of people; among them my father as well as Victor’s brother; we didn’t know where his father was and I had no clue as to where the rest of my family was. Most spell casters of any power in the city had been killed and many of the structures in the city had been destroyed. It was going to take generations before Gate Pass was going to recover fully from this catastrophe, if it was going to at all. Skilled workers were going to leave the city because there will be no jobs for them; except for stone masons; they would be busy; providing there was enough wealth to pay them of course; as for everyone else, there was no money in the city. Most of it either become dragon’s treasure, now melted slag, loot for Ragesian soldiers or had been used to buy supplies. There had been no true commerce of any type in over a year.

So I wasn’t really in a celebratory mood; neither was Victor; I could see that the soldier was just looking into the darkness; thinking about his brother no doubt.

Some time later, Drudge returned; he nodded to Longhelim:

“The Resistance know; Kiernan, Simeon and the others will wait for us. Then we’ll need to get them back to Seaquen as soon as possible.”

The paladin nodded and then continued to watch the celebrations, smoking his pipe as usual.

John had disappeared into the crowds; I couldn’t see him; but I did see Felix approaching; that shook me out of my funk and I stopped thinking so morbidly. Longhelim had also spotted him and together with Victor, we approached the priest:

“Felix! You’re back!”

He just grinned and spoke:

“Elven hospitality has its advantages and they did manage to snag my soul before it flew to the heavens; so yes, I am back. Now, what’s been happening here?”

Longhelim took his pipe out of his mouth and smiled:

“I’ll let our chronicler tell you in but as you can see from the celebrations, Danava pledged to surrender tomorrow at noon, at Summer’s Bluff.”

Felix squinted a little as he remembered just where Summer’s Bluff was and then turned to me. Quickly, I related events to him after his demise; he nodded, looked at the celebrating throng and joined in. I went back to my seat, a little apart but much happier now that the priest was back among us. I spotted John, who was dancing with a pretty girl. I was glad that despite our relative ascension, some things never changed.

Then the music stopped and I could see that Erdin Menash got up on a table and called for silence:

“Friends! This is a momentous day. The Ragesians promise to leave tomorrow! And tomorrow is the Festival of Dreams! We will hold the Festival to celebrate the liberation of Gate Pass! Start writing your wishes! The acolytes will begin the collect them as soon as soon as you are ready!”

I started and looked wide eyed at Longhelim; the paladin’s reaction was such that it was obvious that this was Menash’s own initiative. I really wish that he had spoken to us about this. First, with the trillith lurking, we had already been told that the Festival was the time when resistance to their invasion of people’s dreams was at its weakest. In fact, the timing was such that suddenly I felt a suspicion that maybe it was too convenient; unfortunately, judging by the enthusiastic reaction of the crowd, they thought that holding the Festival of Dreams was a marvelous idea. There was very little we could do.

On a personal note, I also felt that holding the Festival so soon after we had lost so many relatives and friends was distasteful; I am sure they would have liked to take part as well, but they couldn’t because they had been killed. Due to this reason, when the acolyte came and asked me for my wish, I politely declined; I noticed that Victor did not react to the acolyte either; he just stared into the night; maybe it was his method of grieving; I didn’t know but I didn’t want to disturb him.

A little time later, I had had enough and went to bed.

I woke up the next morning only to find that it seemed as if no one had slept. There was still an overwhelming feeling of excitement in the air. I saw the others. We all gathered, together with Vigilance and Metamorphosis as Felix conjured his magical food. We lingered over the meal as usual and then I learned my spells for the day.

Once I had finished, I remembered something and approached Vigilance:

“Sir, last night, as we began to negotiate with Danava we were attacked……”

I then went on to describe our opponents, actually asking Felix to continue as he was the only person who had actually seen them. The old orc listened attentively and a few moments later sighed:

“They are closer and more powerful than I feared. What you describe are primeval trilliths; only half formed, dreams of pure emotion, with no substance or even description still open to be shaped and influenced. The fact that they are here means that the barrier to your world grows ever weaker. We must be vigilant! We must be careful!”

All of us were deep in our own thoughts. If beings of such power were only half formed trilliths then heaven only knows what fully formed ones would do to the general population; then again, having met a couple already, I have a pretty general idea of that already.

With those thoughts in mind, I decided to take short walk through the city. As I walked around, yet again I was struck by the scale of the destruction and the rebuilding that would need to be done. So many structures were little more than shells. If they hadn’t been destroyed by the dragon, then they had been damaged by Ragesian siege engines; and if they had escaped those two fates, then they had been burned down.

Almost unconsciously, my feet took me to my former home; or what was left of it. Like many of the buildings in the city, it was now four walls with no roof. The interior was rubble. I went inside and looked around desultorily; I spotted a flash of colour and, removing some rubble, I found a battered soft toy; I recognized it immediately; it belonged to one of my sisters and had been her constant companion. I tucked it away in my pack. I’d give it back to her when I found them.

After that, I walked a little further before making my way back to the camp. As I arrived, Longhelim approached me:

“Faden, last night, I watched the acolyte approach you; you didn’t write a wish.”

“I didn’t really feel like making a wish; too many dead, too many missing, too many crippled, too many destitute.”

He took out his pipe again:

“You should write one; people are watching us; and you’re part of us. If you don’t participate today, it could be perceived as…..disrespectful. I don’t like the Festival being held either; it feels uncomfortable, especially after what we were told about the trillith. Yes, we are both aware that the Festival is the most likely moment when the trillith are going to make their move but we can’t do anything to stop it now.

Anyway, write a wish; don’t spoil if for everyone else. I’ve already had a word with Victor and he’s agreed. People are influenced by what we are, what we do. Whether we like it or not, we are being looked upon as the best of Gate Pass. We have rescued and possess the Torch, we brought the Resistance to aid the city, even the elves speak with us. The Ragesians fear us and we killed their champion.”

I realised he was right and took out a scroll. My wish was short and to the point. Once I wrote it, I approached one of the acolytes and stuffed it into one of the little clay urns.

Then we all cast our longer term spells on us and joined the crowds that were already on their way to Summer’s Bluff. As we arrived, I saw that the open ground by the statue had already been cleared. The crowds were capering, dancing and celebrating. There was some singing but it was off key and quite bad; not that anyone cared at this point.

In the open ground around the statue, there were three distinct groups: one was the Shahalesti consisting of Aurana, Shaaladel, Shalosha as well as the devas and assorted heavily armed elves who I assumed were bodyguards.

The next group was the Ragesians, consisting of Danava together with an assortment of officers who I assumed were his staff; I spotted a group of hard bitten orc warriors who again must have been bodyguards.

And then there was the Gate Pass contingent: mainly ourselves, Erdin Menash, Diogenes and Rantle together with Vigilance and Metamorphosis, who were also with us. The others were talking to each other but I was distracted; as Longhelim had said, if there was an opportunity for the trillith to do anything, this would be it.

Finally, Shaaladel moved forward and raised his arms; slowly but surely, the crowds quietened and the elf launched into an assured speech; he was very good. He praised us, telling the crowds that despite our humble origins, Gate Pass would not have survived without our efforts; yet he was also very canny in that he made sure that everyone understood that without elven intervention, the city would now be a Ragesian possession. He was extremely convincing; he made it sound as if it was a symbiotic relationship and that from now on, the elven kingdom would look after the independence of Gate Pass; which in itself sounded contradictory but he managed to suggest that having an independent Gate Pass between his kingdom and Ragesia was very advantageous, to both sides. He received a rousing reception after he finished.

Longhelim was also asked to do a speech; the paladin seemed a little flustered as he was unprepared. We had not realised that we would have to do a speech and we were all tense and edgy as we were expecting the trillith to attack. As it was, Longhelim did manage to give a speech but it sounded stilted, slow and above all depressing. He concentrated on the sacrifice of those who died as well as self- sacrifice and for once, the paladin misread the mood of the crowd who were far more interested in celebrating their victory rather than thinking about the past the or the future.

His speech also compared badly with that of Shaaladel, who had been so erudite in emphasizing the elven contribution to the victory.

The Ragesians, in the meantime, stood rock still and impassive as Danava rose and gave a short speech surrendering to the forces arrayed against him and then sitting down again; this was a cue for wild celebrations. Then finally, it was time to open the urns of the dreams.

The eight priests each picked an urn and opened it. The wishes were the usual mixture; from a young man who wished that his boss would pay him and his co-workers to a man who wanted to sleep with two women at once; distractedly, I wondered how the priests were going to facilitate that one! Then there was a wish from a little girl who wished that her mother was able to talk to chickens as well.
Finally, there was only one wish left and everyone was fidgety as there should have been at least one urn asking for spring and that had not happened yet; as the last urn was about to be opened, a figure stepped forward; this was certainly not one of the priests and nor had it been there before; it was fully masked and dressed in enveloping and flowing robes; completely out of place in Gate Pass; exotic and mysterious which presumably was the intention. It was also holding a group of urns and then I heard a voice in my head.

This voice was mesmerizing and promising, stirring urges and creating images; even Longhelim’s voice could not match it for beauty and seduction. It intoned some sort of poem but I must admit I was too busy resisting its allure to pay a great deal of attention to what it said; then it threw the urns to the ground and huge serpentine creatures arose from the smashed vessels.

They looked like nothing I had ever seen before:

Think of a child’s monster under the bed, the creature in the cupboard, that elusive, sinister something that you catch from the corner of your eye as you walk in the dark, the thing that is behind you in the pitch black night and the nightmare that stalks you in your sleep. It was all of those combined but bigger.
They flew towards us with evil intent, six of them. Briefly, I looked around and saw that the crowds were full of these as well; and the elves; in fact the elves seemed to have more than any other group attacking them.

Oddly, the Ragesians were unaffected; or not so oddly maybe. Whatever the case, they retreated rapidly from the Bluff. The elves left just as quickly, albeit in a more spectacular manner as Aurana rose majestically and cast a powerful transport spell, allowing the complete elven group to disappear.

That left us.

I felt an odd mental attack; I found it difficult to understand just what it was but I managed to shrug it off. I was lucky. Everyone else began groping around; they were blind! Almost as an aside, I noticed that Metamorphosis began to switch forms and faces far more rapidly that she had previously. Longhelim managed to disappear from the reach of the trillith facing him thanks to the Torch while Felix cured his blindness magically.

I cast a powerful spell but then I received another surprise; somehow this creature not only realised I was casting my spell, she took it from me and twisted it so that it struck the rest of the group; it was my most powerful spell and almost killed everyone. I was dumb struck; Ragesian Inquisitors had perfected a technique to neutralise spells and in some cases turn them back onto you but with that, at least you understood what was happening; in this case, I had no idea what had been done or how she had done it! She just took my spell as I was casting it and used it against us. This was something unprecedented in the laws of magic.

This was then followed by a swarm of arrows from Drudge; into me! Somehow he had been subjugated by the enemy and forced to use his skills against the group. Thankfully, the group rallied; Felix positioned one of his columns of fire which caught four of the nightmares. Victor then followed up with a series of powerful blows which dissipated one of the things and this was followed by Vigilance also forcing another to dissipate. He had turned into a stag and gored it to death.

Unfortunately, that left several still unaccounted for and one of them cast a very powerful spell. A veritable wash of fire swept through the whole area; although we were mostly protected by our magic and Vigilance and Metamorphosis seemed to shrug it off to an extent, Diogenes, Erdin Menash and Rantle were not so lucky. The former two were instantaneously turned into ash while Rantle was badly burned and immediately sped off into the crowd, barely alive; the loss of two leaders of the Resistance was another tragedy amongst many in the recent annals of the city; I really hoped that Rantle would survive the coming battle.

The other creature also let loose another powerful spell, but this time it was exclusively aimed at Vigilance as an intense beam of cold left it to hit the stag squarely in its chest.

John flew up towards the human figure and suddenly a whirling swarm of blades left her robes and scythed into the rogue. Bizarrely, Drudge jerkily put away his bow and began to cast a spell; glancing at it, I recognized the movements, even if they were quite inexpert and amateurish; it was a powerful and complicated spell; and also one that took a long time to cast. I didn’t look at him for long though as I whirled and cast a series of force missiles at another of the nightmares; moments later this one also dissipated.

John had managed to tap Drudge and cast a spell, which seemed to snap him out of his mystical reverie and the ranger immediately drew his bow again, shooting another of the nightmares. Felix managed to cast a spell on Victor and he immediately flew up and crashed into the veiled figure. Her swarm of force daggers shredded at him but he burst through it and sliced deeply into her robes. I am not sure if it was trying some more tricks of the mind but if it was, they were not working as Victor followed her up ruthlessly.

Drudge let off a volley of arrows into one of the final nightmares leaving only the veiled figure, who was struck by Victor just before it fled again. Then it turned around in the air and pointed at the colossal statue of Drakus Coaltongue.

A voice screamed in my head, a clarion call of glory and beauty:

“Behold our victory!”

Immediately, another wave of trilliths flew out of the ground and entered the statue through its head, its chest and into the Torch. This last faintly flickered into life and with a groaning lurch and a sound of screeching metal, tearing rocks and falling earth, the enormous statue freed itself from the ground as its head swiveled towards us.

It moved jerkily, ponderously but it was deceptively fast. As I saw its head, several things became apparent; the original sculptor had faithfully reproduced Coaltongue’s face scar; from below, it had been almost impossible to see at that height but now, it was glowing a bright red; simultaneously, the Torch it was holding, had burst into fire while its whole chest area consisted of a curtain of red, pulsing energy. It looked disturbingly similar to Ernie the Halfling’s possession of the skeleton of the great dragon Syana in Castle Korstull. The same strange aura, the power and the control.

The crowds were now screaming and running in panic. I saw the cloaked figure who initiated this event flying towards the statue, ardently pursued by Victor and Longhelim. Etinifi strangely, was flaying and performing aerobatics in the air; he seemed ecstatic to see the statue; a moment later, he even landed on its shoulder and seemed to be speaking to it although I couldn’t really hear what he was saying in the general screaming. However, it can’t have been that important as the statue was paying him as much attention as everyone else did; that was none.

The warriors closed on their quarry but the statue ponderously swept up its arm and struck Victor a glancing blow almost knocking him out of the sky. I tried one of the my most powerful destructive spells, as a green ray shot out of my hand and hit it in the chest; I could not see any visible effect.

Despite our efforts, all of its attention was focused on Vigilance, as it raised its arm and brought down the head of the Torch on with full destructive force. Just as I thought that the noble stag would finally perish, the very earth rose and formed a roof over the head of Vigilance deflecting the titanic blow.

“Master! Run! Get away!”

Metamorphosis screamed as she continued to cast frantically; she was casting far more complicated spells than I had seen her perform previously; I didn’t have time to wonder about his though, as the statue groaned with strain as it arched and began to recover for another swing; I was still very weak, having suffered from Drudge’s volley of arrows earlier, with several of them still stuck in my chest and side; so I cast a spell to make myself unseen.

I saw that Vigilance was already running away. Glancing up, Drudge had aimed and shot at the cloaked humanoid figure, which finally fell to the ground. Then, suddenly, the Torch held by the statue glowed and a ring of fire appeared around it. We were all within it but it was still a powerful defense. Longhelim had seized the moment to heal Victor with his paladin powers and I had yet another attempt to deal with the statue, as I cast one of my most powerful spells at it.

I had found a spell in one of the books in the Lyceum which sent individual creatures to a small pocket plane. It was in the form of a maze and although no one ever stayed there for very long, it could give a group a much needed respite under the right circumstances. However, there was also the possibility that the victim of the spell could also find their way out of the maze and return to our plane before the spell ran out. It did not look as if the spell I had copied had been examined for a very long time and that was not surprising as it was very long and complicated but I liked it and I hoped that it would do something against the statue.

Amazingly, as I cast it, the statue disappeared.

We looked at each other and quickly began to prepare again.

I approached Metamorphosis, made myself known and asked her:

“New spells?”

She replied:

“The Festival! Its made me stronger; I can make the very earth do my bidding.”

John had come nearby and immediately began shouting:

“Can you make a pit? A really big one! Something into which that thing could fall?”

She shook her head:

“Yes I can make a pit, but not big enough for that!”

The rogue shook his head in frustration but then we were interrupted as the statue appeared again. It must have managed to work its way through the maze extremely quickly.

The very first thing it did was point at the distant figure of Vigilance and the stag instantly appeared in its hand!

I didn’t understand how that happened; Vigilance had been some distance away; an ability like that…..to just point at someone and they appeared in your hand, well that seemed almost god like. I tried to cast a bolt of lightning at it, but it didn’t even notice. The one advantage I did have was that it looked as if it could not see me.

As I was trying to rack my brains as to what we could do to this thing, I did notice that Drudge was firing volley after volley of arrows at it; or at the torch specifically; it was difficult to tell if they were having any effect but it was possible to see little puffs of steam every time one landed.

Victor then moved against it, only partially dodging a blow which quite casually almost knocked him out of the sky; it seemed to be most intent on crushing Vigilance in its hand. The warrior also looked quite burned as he had to fly through the ring of fire. The warrior then geared himself up and unleashed an enormous blow against the statue:


There was no reaction.

Victor then flew towards the hand that was slowly crushing a struggling Vigilance; methodically, he began to smash the fingers around the stag; this time, it did seem to be doing something as the hand suddenly dropped and then opened, as if the statue had lost control of that part of its limb. Vigilance dropped down and fell quite heavily, but scrambled up immediately and again sped away as fast as he could.

I tried to cast a spell which would weaken it, but it was completely unaffected; however, just as it was reaching down towards Vigilance again, suddenly the earth underneath it rose smoothly. It caused some major disruption as gravel, grass and stone loosened but most importantly, the statue was now atop a small hillock and out of reach of everyone.

“Nice one, Metamorphosis!” shouted John; I glanced behind me to see that the rogue had made himself magically unseen; wise man. Unfortunately, that left the statue with little option but to start blasting us with fire spells, courtesy of its version of the Torch of the Burning Sky. Yes, I had worked out that the statue was not only a duplicate of Drakus Coaltongue but it also had a duplicate Torch in its hand; I wasn’t sure if this was some distorted reality being dreamed by Trilla, where she saw the Emperor with the Torch, or if the Trillith possessing the statue had some strange power which also possessed the artifact but whatever it was, its Torch seemed to have duplicate powers to the one we possessed.

Thus, first, a column of fire blasted Vigilance as the stag was running away. Then, it swung the Torch in a ring around its head and a huge fiery cloud enveloped us. Thank the gods we had our magical defences against fire otherwise we would have burned to a crisp a long time ago. Even though we were defended, the intensity of the heat in the cloud was such that some of the burning even penetrated the magic and it hurt! Quickly, I moved to Felix just as I saw Longhelim return the compliment to the statue, with his own column of magical fire, courtesy of the Torch. I am not sure if it did much but suddenly it rose yet again; it looked as if Metamorphosis was still concentrating on her magic.

Felix healed Victor but then the statue cast another fire spell and this time I could not withstand the heat, even with my magical defence; everything went black.

Thankfully, I felt Felix’s healing energy and I opened my eyes; there had been changes. The statue was still up on a huge mound but its Torch had been dimmed and the ring of fire around it had gone. Its other fist was grasping Vigilance again, squeezing. It must have done the same trick.

Now, the Torch was flickering brightly again and the statue had another ring of fire around it again.

The situation was desperate. I shouted:

“Longhelim, Victor, are we going up there? I can do that!”

The two warriors nodded together with Felix, I transported us right next to the hand grasping the stag. Everyone was flying so there were no worries about being up in the air. I saw one of Drudge’s volleys hit grasping hand but nothing happened. So, Victor began bashing the it again. Felix also touched the stag with his staff and it recovered much of its vitality. Suddenly, the statue raised the Torch and a column of transparent fire enveloped us; it didn’t hurt but it did make us look as if we were in two places at once. I tried to cast my destructive green ray at it again, but it did not do a great deal at all.

Then suddenly, the statue was gone! It must have used one of its Torch powers! It appeared right next to Drudge inadvertently putting poor Metamorphosis right in the ring of fire. Immediately it tried to stomp on the ranger; thankfully, Drudge managed to roll out of the way. He squirmed away and the statue swiveled its head towards us, who were some distance away at this point. Then, another column of fire crashed on top of us, immediately followed by another curtain of flame which washed over our group. I was almost on my knees from this magic despite my protection; I saw that the warriors, while badly hurt, were waiting to see what the statue would do next. So was Vigilance. I also saw that Metamorphosis had managed to get out of the ring of fire.

Suddenly, I had an idea; it was so simple, I berated myself briefly for not thinking of it before. I quickly cast a spell on Vigilance, making the stag invisible. I reasoned that if the statue could not see an invisible dwarven magician nor an invisible human rogue, then it would not be able to see an invisible stag trillith. Therefore, Vigilance would avoid that annoying magic where the statue pointed at someone and that being just appeared in its hand.

As I finished, I whispered to Vigilance:

“Run! Run like you’ve never run before!”

The stage gently lowered its head to me slightly and then sprang away; aided by my spell, I could see that it was taking my advice, quickly disappearing into the distance. It seemed to be working as the statue did not seem to register Vigilance’s escape. Simultaneously, I felt a touch and healing magic coursed through me as Felix had realised my peril. I had been badly bashed, burned, shot by Drudge and magically harmed…….by my own spell, to add insult to injury. I had been healed a little previously but I was still perilously injured.

Almost immediately after, the statue yet again combined the power of its Torch as two fire spells enveloped us again in quick succession. At this point, Longhelim and I both had had enough.

Quickly I shouted:

“Longhelim, what do we do? Neither you nor Victor can hurt this thing with your weapons. I can’t touch it with my spells. Believe me, I’ve tried. It’s about to trample all over Drudge; John is over there but he’s not doing anything either. Either we need a plan or we move away to regroup. We can’t let it cast those fire spells at us time after time; it seems to have an unlimited number of them and sooner or later, it’ll burn us to a crisp.”

Longhelim replied:

“What about the city?”

John joined in as this conversation was being conducted via magic spells:

“The city is lost! Go! I’ll stay here and let you know what happens to Drudge!”

Victor said:

“What about Drudge?”

John shouted back:

“You’ve got to go! If you don’t, then we’ll all die! There’s just no way we can harm that thing!”

Very reluctantly, Longhelim nodded at me. I readied to cast the spell.

Then, something quite extraordinary happened. Metamorphosis seemed to do something as she looked at the ranger and Drudge disappeared into the ground as if the very earth had swallowed him up; next, she deliberately stepped into the ring of fire and just….burned.

A moment later, something massive, something enormous rose out of the ground. It was Drudge! But a gigantic Drudge fully the size of the statue that was facing us. His equipment and clothes had grown with him; for a moment, he looked just as surprised as us but then let loose with his gigantic bow. Unfortunately, his arrows, or tree trunks really, had little effect on the statue. So, shrugging, Drudge the giant dropped his bow and drew his axe; he let loose with a mighty swing and this time even the statue visibly staggered.

I could hear John’s voice in my mind:

“Now that’s more like it! Now we have a chance. You lot get back to the Resistance camp! The only person who has a chance of winning against this thing now is Drudge. I’m going to stay behind; see what happens. Wait for us; don’t come back here; you can’t hurt it anyway!”

Felix also spoke up:

“Leave me as well. I’ve still got a few tricks and I could heal Drudge if he needs it.”

Time was getting short as well. The statue looked surprised to see Drudge but ominously, it was turning towards us again; Felix quickly moved away and I cast the transport spell on Victor and Longhelim.

We appeared safely in the camp of the Resistance. There, we quickly went to find Simeon and Kiernan to report.