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

As we began to check our spells, I noticed that Oller had retreated into a corner and was saying nothing and doing even less. I looked at Grellfinn and he just shook his head. It became obvious that the rogue would not participate in anything else we were going to do here in Castle Korstull. He had lost heart, hope and will. I hope he regained these at some point but I suspected that it would not be soon. Despite this, we still put our spell of fire protection on him, just in case. We also put that spell on everyone else as well as various other spells on individuals that would aid, boost, defend and prevent.

It was at this point that John, Felix and I all noticed a very strange peculiarity. All of our spells seemed to roll off our tongues incredibly fast. It was as if we were able to incant our spells at two or three times the normal speed. It was glorious! I felt I could cast all my spells in a fraction of the time it usually took. Immediately, I began to act out my movements and mouth the words of the magic; I sneaked a look at the others and saw John and Felix with the same look on their faces.

Simultaneously, I realised the danger; it was such an intoxicating feeling that it would be very easy to cast all of my spells immediately, just to see how they worked. I steeled myself and acted as if my spell casting was normal; I determined to use this ability as needed instead of just blasting off spells uncontrollably.

Turning to John and Felix, I asked:

“Any ideas? Explanations?”

Felix shook his head:

“This place is very strange; no, I don’t have the slightest idea as to what is happening here; never read, heard or come across anything like it.”

I thought very hard and then said:

“There is a technique which duplicates this but it is very advanced; only the most powerful practitioners of magic even attempt it; it means that one can cast spells almost instantaneously but it usually makes simple spells hugely more complicated. Here, it looks as if the spells remain simple but can still be cast at miraculous speed.”

As I was still conversing with Felix, I heard Victor saying to Drudge:

“Do you have any ideas what they are talking about?”

The ranger answered: “I think they can cast spells far faster than usual and they have no idea why. Faden is trying to work it out but not getting very far.”

Longhelim cleared his throat at this point:

“Gentlemen, I realize this is all very interesting but we must go. Hopefully, there’s a nice torch waiting for us here somewhere.”

I was quite flustered:

“Longhelim, you have no idea how important this is; if we can isolate the reasons why this place is producing this effect, we may be able to reproduce it and it could give us an incalculable advantage in the war.”

“Will you be able to work it out in the next few moments? Because that’s probably about as long as we can spare in this room.”

“Well, no but……”

“Then we’ve got to go. Now!”

So, despite the curious magical anomaly in the area, we finished casting all the necessary defensive spells and as soon as that was done, John’s invisible friend opened the door which was on the other side of the lift room. It opened into a narrow corridor; and……..

at the other end of the narrow corridor, there they were: the welcoming committee.

Two skeletons: one orc wearing the usual spiked armour and shield, while the other looked to be one of those which previously had been human; they both had the usual fiery aura and burning tears on their skulls.

John reacted first; he moved onto the lift and then a wall of flame to appeared in front of everyone else. I was eternally grateful that we had decided to learn our spells, despite the discomfort; otherwise, things would have been very sticky from the outset.

Victor obviously thought that speed was of the essence and as such, he moved forward through the wall. After that, there was a shout:

“Something has just gone off on me in the corridor! Some sort of magical trap! My ring has just countered its spell! There are also arrow slits; archers on each side! Pentagram drawn on the floor just ahead of me!”

We all piled onto the lift platform and saw Victor just at the entrance of the corridor and the two skeletons still in view.

I shouted at Felix:

“Cast your air walking spell on Victor!”

As I said this, I stepped up and cast my flying spell on Longhelim. The paladin immediately began to fly to the far end of the corridor. Felix used his power to try to destroy the skeletons, but as he did so, he shouted:

“It’s much harder to destroy them here! Something’s protecting them!”

Despite this, we did notice that there were not as many arrows blazing through the slits as there should have been if they had all been manned. The warriors followed Longhelim as he engaged the lead skeleton and then John stepped to the lift end of the corridor and cast a strange spell: as he finished, he put his hands on the side wall and rapidly he began to mould it as if it was clay; the stone had literally softened under his magic; within moments, he had created a hole which allowed access to the parallel passage beyond. Nothing loth, I stepped forward and as I did, I saw three skeletons in this new passage. Immediately, lightning crackled from my hands and they were enveloped in electricity; one of them blew up immediately; the other two managed to dodge to a limited extent and one of them moved up and stuck his axe into me, which hurt.

It was difficult to tell what was going on except that I still heard sounds of fighting beside me and suddenly I saw a wall of flame appear in the passage next to me, which meant that everyone else was in it as that was the main passageway to the skeletons.

Well, they would have to take care of that themselves; I had my own skeletons to worry about. Or, I thought I did but then several arrows flew in into through the arrow slit and one collapsed.

“Nice one, Drudge!” I called out.

That allowed me to cast my spell of force missiles at the other skeleton in front of me, causing it to collapse as well. That left this corridor clear to the end, a blank wall, which gave me an idea:

“Victor, get in here!” I shouted above the din.

A few moments later, I saw the warrior come up behind me; as soon as he appeared I cast a spell which opened a gap in the stone wall, right in front of another skeleton, who turned his head and looked at me. If a skeletal face could look surprised, that one did as Victor surged forward and hit it with his sword; I took the opportunity to retreat but not before I saw another wall a short distance in front of me. Again, it had several arrow slits, and there were was definitely signs of movement on the other side of them.

I took the opportunity to shout:

“More archers behind wall in front!”

There was a shout from Victor just after mine:

“More skeletons! Two short swords, breastplates!”

Longhelim shouted back:

“Sargeant attacking!”

It was becoming very difficult to see anything through all the walls of flame; these were appearing everywhere. I saw Grellfinn join Victor in the corridor as the latter dispatched the skeleton in front of him. Then I saw Victor attacking the enemy around his corner. For some reason, he seemed reluctant to step into the corridor in front.

A moment later I heard him shout:

“Ware! Skeletons stepping back! Trap!”

Then Victor stepped through the gap my spell had created and I heard an exclamation as well as seeing what looked like a thousand arrows as soon as the warrior stepped through:

“Good gods! Faden, get up here! We need your wall! Hurry! There are enough skeletons here for a small army!”

Just as he did so, a wall of flame blocked the view at the end of the corridor.

Despite this I sped up, past a bemused Grellfinn and through the same gap that Victor had just vacated……and skewered myself on the spike of the battleaxe of one of the orc skeletons! That was not pleasant but then I suddenly saw what had caused Victor such consternation!

Behind me was a wall of flame, although I could see Longelim within it, fencing with the orc skeleton. Victor was also hitting it but it was the sight to right of me that immediately required my attention.

The corridor opened into large room with several columns as supports. Two staircases led to a balcony which in turn contained two doors but the most arresting feature was the large trophy mounted on the wall. It was the skeleton of an enormous lizard like winged creature, almost certainly a dragon.

Just to add to the sense of strangeness, there were various bits of debris and rubbish just floating in the air, drifting aimlessly; and finally, there was another welcoming committee. This time there I could see at least two more of the orc skeletons and several more ranks of soldier skeletons; I didn’t have the time to count them but there must have been at least twenty. Another wall of flames appeared, right behind me this time; thankfully, although this one cut me off from the sight of my friends, it also blocked the sight of the orc skeleton who was next to me.

Using all the magical speed that was available in this strange place, I cast my spell, placing an indestructible, invisible barrier across the doorway! It left a tiny gap as I couldn’t block the flame wall which was already there, but it served to defend us against the massed ranks of crossbowmen who were aiming in our direction. Literally as I finished the spell a mass of bolts bounced off this newly created wall. I sighed in relief when I saw this and was about to move when I heard the ominous cranking of a ratchet being wound behind the wall next to me; I recognized that sound: it was a heavy crossbow being loaded!

My new course of action was fairly obvious; getting skewered by a very heavy crossbow bolt was not part of my plan today, so I scurried through the wall of fire, past Grellfin and back into the corridor.

Quickly I took stock, reviewing my options, mentally sketching a rough map of the area:

A thin corridor ran vertically for some length; this vertical corridor had arrow slits on each side, thereby, it was obvious that there were other corridors running vertically parallel to this one; we had accessed one of these parallel corridors through John’s magic.

All these vertical corridors led onto to a wider, horizontal corridor, leading left and right, the far wall of which also had arrow slits, meaning that there had to be another corridor, this time running parallel horizontally to the wider corridor. The right end of the wide horizontal passage opened up into a large circular room which had rank upon rank of enemy skeletons; thankfully, this was not blocked off; the other end showed a closed door.

At this time, the wide horizontal corridor was full of skeletons. Simultaneously, various flame walls ran across all the corridors, severely limiting vision as well as burning everyone; fortunately, we had managed to put magical fire defences which were saving our bacon. Oh, and just to add to the fun, there was a dragon skeleton mounted on the wall of the large circular room. I was expecting that to animate at any moment and join in the fun.

The main battle at this time was between Longhelim and a squad of skeletons as well as their orc commander. Thankfully, I knew that Felix had cast a powerful spell on the paladin’s sword which was particularly inimical to undead; now the very touch of the weapon was deadly to the skeletons.

Then Victor’s voice rang out:

“New enemy! Humanoid! Incorporeal! Bear mask! Tears of fire. Coming in!”

There was something familiar about that description. I couldn’t quite place my finger on it, but something was tugging in the back of my mind. Then, as I was looking forward, I saw Grellfin jump through the flame wall blocking my view of the front. Then there was a shout from Longhelim:

“Keep hitting there Victor! You’re getting him; he’s swaying!”

That sounded as if Victor was hitting through the wall of flame. I remembered the strange exercises on which the two warriors spent so much time; whereupon they would blindfold themselves and rely on their other senses. It seemed as if they were paying off now.

“The orc is down! There’s a gap in that space now!”

Immediately, I saw that the wall of flame in the main corridor ceased, allowing me to see John; the others were still beyond a wall of flame.

Longhelim’s voice rang out again:

“Good blow Longhelim, they’re dwindling……what the……so that’s where it is! John, get up here! There’s a secret door in the wall opposite. We need your wand to see if there are any more!”

Then Grellfin’s voice could be heard:

“The masked one is behind the wall! It’s spell casting!”

This last word was almost drowned out but a huge bang just ahead and a groan from one or two of others ahead.

“How’s he getting the spell through the wall?” was Drudge’s shout.

“I couldn’t seal the corridor completely. There was a wall of flame in the way. There’s a tiny gap at one edge. He must be able to see that!”

That was a shout from me. This must be a formidable enemy and then suddenly I remembered where I had seen that figure. As we first approached Castle Korstull and the black lightning crashed into the courtyard, the flames on the cliff parted briefly and I had caught a glimpse of someone or something watching us with undisguised hatred and malevolence. It was this thing!

Then there was another admiring shout from Drudge:

“Three of them at once, Longhelim; that’s cleared a path…….what the….”

The rest was drowned by a shout from Felix:

“Oh my gods! That’s a wall of blades; a very powerful priest spell! Victor, get back here! You’ve been slashed to ribbons!”

It was very frustrating. I couldn’t see anything but it sounded as if there was some very heavy magic being thrown around there. I had to move up to support. I cast a spell of invisibility on myself, and then determinedly, I moved forward, through the wall of flame.

To the left, I could see the wall of blades, whirling dangerously all along the breadth of the corridor. More importantly, I could see Drudge, Longhelim and Grellfinn on the other side of it, separated from us. That was not good.

To the right, my indestructible barrier was visible to me due to the nature of the magic which I had cast on myself earlier, but I could see the gap through which the creature was casting its spells. Strangely, I couldn’t actually see the creature itself as it was behind the wall. However, I could see rank upon rank of skeletons so I cast the spell which had worked so well against the ghouls; tentacles sprouted from the ground and began to grasp the tentacles. I could only see a little through the gap but it looked as if they were causing a certain amount of havoc.

I heard some spell casting behind me and I hoped that Victor was being healed; he had suffered quite badly in this wall of blades; it looked as if it had almost been dropped on top of him; it also sounded as if Longhelim was still fighting the skeletons. Victor was shouting:

“Longhelim is going after the crossbows!”

Then I frowned as I saw that my tentacles had disappeared. It seemed as if my unseen enemy had dissolved the magic. So, I began to cast one of my more powerful spells, the lightning bolt which could target more than one being when I received my biggest surprise! I heard my motions being twisted, subverted, my words were corrupted and the spell was turned back on me! Everyone near me was hit by a bolt but I suffered by far the worst hurt; I was also mortified. It had been staring me in the face! Not only was our enemy undead, incorporeal and a powerful priest, he was also an Inquisitor and looked as if he had the same powers of a spell duelist! It seemed that being dead was not a barrier to being an Inquisitor. Just what had we stepped into here?

Almost in desperation, Felix stepped forward and cast his spell of magical silence through the gap.

“There! That should keep him quiet for a few moments!”

And he was right; an eerie silence suddenly filled the gap.

Except that it didn’t; a moment later, Felix whirled around with a cry:

“Aaargh! Get away from me!”

I wasn’t quite sure what had happened but somehow, this being had affected Felix despite being in a magical silent zone and behind the invisible wall. Hurriedly, I ran to him only to see him with a reddened face; closer, I saw that it was some sort of rash, now spreading across his nose and down his neck! It looked quite repulsive!

Everyone else was still in the same positions though, with that strange whirling wall of swords still keeping Grellfinn, Drudge and Longhelim at the lower part of the corridor. I could not tell what was going on in the large room but I was still keeping some of my spells as I feared that there was a long way to go in this battle.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp stab in my leg; I glanced at myself in surprise and realised that I was quite badly hurt. I had been badly hacked and slashed as I was running around putting up the wall and then when the dastardly priest had turned my spell against me, which had also been very painful. Thankfully, Felix was quite close and tugged at his arm:

“Felix, I know you can’t see it, but I’m badly hurt.”

The priest turned with a grunt and quickly took care of it.

I moved away, past the wall of flames into the corridor again but not before I noticed that Victor had taken his hammer out of the magical container. Suddenly, the corridor nearby shook. I wasn’t at all sure what was going on so I scrambled forward and poked my head through the wall of flame. Victor was poised with his enormous hammer next to the corridor wall. How clever! He had worked out that if he knocked down the corridor wall, Longhelim, Grellfinn and Drudge would be able to bypass the wall of whirling blades that was cutting them off from the rest of us. Unfortunately, the incorporeal had also worked out what Victor was doing and had just tapped the warrior; I wasn’t quite sure what that tap had done but Victor staggered; however, several arrows flew from the arrow slit and struck the incorporeal, making him flinch and flee. I suspect he had been hoping to incapacitate the warrior before getting skewered.

Victor made another titanic effort and this time he and the hammer smashed their way through the wall, creating a hole through which the others could join us. I tried to slip behind the group but the incorporeal turned its dreadful gaze on me! The creature could see through my invisibility! A moment later, it had drifted over to me and as it had done to Victor, gently tapped me on the head. It was horrible! I felt my spells leaving my memory! The powerful spells as well! Somehow, this….this thing was leeching my ability to comprehend and cast spells. It was the worst feeling in the world! Suddenly I realised just what we were facing!

I shouted:

“’Ware! It’s a leech! A power leech!”

As soon as Longhelim stepped through the hole and saw the situation, he shouted:

“Back! Into the corridors! We’ll continue our stand there!”

I quickly followed his instructions, charging down the nearest vertical corridor that led us back to the lift room. The others quickly joined me and for a brief moment, I was able to see everyone in the hall. I took full advantage of that as I cast my speed spell on everyone; Felix did the same except that he cast a spell which boosted everyone through the power of his religion. He called out a mighty imprecation to his deity and it replied to the power of his prayer.

Then everything became more complicated as another wall of flame appeared in front of us. That meant that my wall to the right must have finally finished and that the other skeletons must have pushed through. We then split into two fronts. Grellfinn quickly swept up the northern parallel corridor. As he did so, a wild eyed figure suddenly rushed in from behind us. It was Oller! His eyes were red, from weeping, his hair was disheveled and his hands were clutching a pair of bottles full of holy water. He was screaming crazily:

“Where is he? Where is he?”

I wasn’t quite sure who he was talking about but it was almost on queue that the incorporeal suddenly came through the wall next to Drudge and tapped him. I presumed that the ranger than suffered the same effect that both Victor and I had. However, the thing hadn’t counted on a berserk gnome hurling abuse, imprecations and most importantly holy water at it.

“Take this and this and this you filthy spawn of a……”

Oller was spraying the water everywhere and had managed to get quite a bit of it on the incorporeal, who recoiled visibly. In fact, as I saw, the water was burning it as smoke rose from where it landed on its robes. Everyone immediately took notice of this very effective weapon. The enemy immediately vacated the space, sinking through the floor.

As we were engaged in our own drama in the rear, it became apparent that the skeletons were making an attack. Victor and Grellfinn made a double pronged front, one in each corridor as they met and fought and stopped each of the undead. At this point, we retreated into the lift room to give ourselves somewhere to maneuver but of course those cursed orc skeletons put another wall of flame across the doorway, so we lost sight of our two warriors.

I moved up to the rear of the corridor where I could keep an eye on the warriors when the incorporeal appeared again. This time Longhelim was nearby and the paladin summoned the power of his deity and managed to land two powerful, holy blows on it, causing it to visibly stagger for the first time. Oller had rushed up the corridor, screaming again, looking for enemy to kill and as soon as he realised that the main enemy was in the rear of the group, he was quickly rushing back again.

Immediately, I tried to cast a couple of spells on the creature but they both bounced off some sort of defensive magic. In return, it dissolved most of my defensive spells which was a great problem. Without my defense against fire and with so many walls of flame around, my movement was going to be severely limited; especially as they were so intense. Then the creature sank through the floor again; that was very annoying; I could have sworn that I could see its inhuman features grinning tauntingly at me as it did so.

Suddenly, the flame wall behind me ceased to exist, suggesting that either Victor or Grellfinn had succeeded in slaying another of the orc skeletons; quickly, I scurried back into the lift room where I immediately went into a corner; and not a moment too soon as another wall of flame appeared, bisecting the lift room east and west, separating it into northern and southern halves. I was stuck in the northern half and unable to move due to the heat of the spell; the others were out of my sight now but they were in the southern half. However, they were not constrained by the walls as their fire defences were still intact.

Briefly, I saw one of the orc skeletons appear and begin to advance towards Felix and the others in the other half of the room. Just before he disappeared through the wall, I managed to cast my spell of weakening on it. Unlike the incorporeal, this enemy had no defences against my spell and it was well and truly struck.

I was now fairly much constrained in the northern half of the room; suddenly, though, I was struck with horror as I saw the incorporeal rise through the floor and confront me. It reached out and tapped me several times. That was the last thing I remembered………

The next thing that which I consciously perceived was me, lying on the floor in the large room with the dragon skeleton mounted on the wall, staring at me. Everyone was moving slowly and carefully, as if suffering the aches and pains of a major battle just past. Felix was kneeling next to me with a wand. I was feeling very groggy but then he tapped me with it, and I immediately felt better; he tapped me again, and this helped enormously again. Longhelim was also nearby and he handed me a water bottle. I swigged some of the water, trying to wash out the taste of soot and fire out of my mouth. Finally I looked around me, trying to get my bearings.

It was horrible. There were signs of fire and combat everywhere. I was still lying on the ground, but I could see that Oller was on the ground and so was…..Victor. Both were blackened and smoking.

“How’s Victor?”

Longhelim just shook his head.

I couldn’t believe it! Not Victor! He was indestructible.

The paladin continued:

“It was that leech thing. It just drained him. He was the bravest of warriors and I would back him in a fight against most things every time, but not some monstrous undead that just leeches his life from him. There are things in the realm of the undead which are so inimical to any sort of life that they will kill almost anyone and we met one of them. I have never come across anything like this before. Anyway, even then, from what we can work out, it wasn’t just that but it took him into that room.”

He pointed behind my head and I twisted my neck. What I saw made my hair stand on end.

A fairly small room contained a ring of black fire with lightning that crackled within. Even from here, I could feel that manifestation of….wrongness about the whole chamber. Shakily I stood up and walked closer to the entrance. I ventured only so close. It was one of the strangest, most evil things I had ever seen. I had to sit down again; I wasn’t feeling that well and that room really wasn’t helping.

Longhelim had come up behind me:

“Even just being in the same room will hurt you. I walked into the ring and that really, really hurt.”

Still looking at the ring, I said:

“Please tell me everything. I need to know.”

“I’m not sure up to what point you remember but you disappeared beyond the wall, into the upper part of the lift room. After that, we had a huge battle against two of the orc skeletons and the leech, as you call it. We also had to deal with some sort of giant invisible cat. It was at the front of the tunnels. In the end, Grellfinn, Drudge and Victor dealt with it but it was touch and go for a little while. The whole fight had split into various parts all of which were not visible to each other because of the walls of flame: Grellfinn and Victor were fighting the skeletons at the front of the tunnels. Adding to all of this, they discovered this cat thing.”

A giant invisible cat? That rang a few bells.

“So, what happened?”

“Drudge shot it in his own inimitable style and once he finished with it, it appeared and then disappeared again in one of those flashes of fire.”

“What did it look like?” I asked.

“Pretty much like a giant lion, but Drudge did say that for brief moments, it seemed to be full of light and sparks.”

“Ah,” I said. “It was a hell cat, a kind of devil. They’re almost invisible to see in light. Drudge must have extraordinary eyesight for him to have actually shot it. When you say it disappeared in a flash of fire, it was being sent back to its own plane.

Wait a minute! You said earlier that Drudge was with you. How did he suddenly end up in the corridor shooting a hell cat?”

Longhelim stopped:

“Yes, I did say that, didn’t I? To be honest, Faden, I lost track of people. There were so many walls around and more often than not, the only person I could actually see was my opponent; even then, sometimes I was just blindly slashing beyond the wall into a space where I thought the enemy was. The main reason why I said that Drudge got the hell cat was because I was told it was full of his arrows, so it must have been him. I suspect that he managed to do some extraordinary moving and shooting; you’ve seen him do these maneuvers; but as to when and how he did them, well that’s pretty hazy.”

I had to keep quiet at this point; as accurate as I wanted to keep the accounts, I also realised that sometimes it was impossible to keep track of everything and everyone; especially if I was almost dead at the same time and if there were also walls of flame around everywhere which blocked sight.

Longhelim continued:

“Well, anyway, as Drudge was shooting into this devil cat, everything else was becoming more and more confused because no one could see anything. We were still fighting the leech and the orc skeletons; there were no more skeletons appearing from the corridor so we assumed that Victor must have played merry hell at his end, but there was no sign of him.

So, John moved to Victor’s last known place, at the front of the corridor and that’s when he shouted back that there was no sign of Victor or his body. John then moved into the big room with the floating debris and screamed that he could see Victor’s body. That’s when the leech disappeared through the floor again.

Once he was gone, dealing with the two orc skeletons was fairly easy, especially as one of them was as weak as a kitten. That was you I take it?”

“Yes, just before the leech got me.”

Longhelim nodded.

“Well, by this point, it was pretty much John, Drudge and I who were left. Grellfinn was alive but in pretty bad shape. I rushed to this large room and into then into the chamber with the ring of black flame, together with Oller. There, I found John, Victor’s body and the leech; somehow, it dragged Victor’s body into the ring; again, I didn’t realize that they could do that if they were incorporeal and Felix assures me that normally they can’t; then again, it wasn’t really normal, was it? Anyway, by this point, even it looked much the worse for wear and we went at it inside the black flame. Of course, the effect in the room which was hurting me, was helping it. Thankfully, Drudge began to shoot into it but all his arrows burned up so it was just me and my sword; and Oller.”

Longhelim then smiled and said:

“It must have really been badly hurt by what we all did to it as it didn’t take that much to finally defeat it. I swung my sword into it and it and suddenly it was a pile of dust in the ring of fire.”

Suddenly, something urgent struck me!

“If Victor’s dead, what’s happened to the Living Blade of Innenotdar? What’s happened to the Forest?”

Longhelim looked up and said:

“Ummm, John’s got something to tell you about that.”

I looked over and saw that John was helping Grellfinn to carry Jorine’s body into the large room at this time so I decided to ask him about this new development later.

Longhelim then asked:

“Can you get up, Faden? I want to show you the room a little better and show you a few more things in there. It’s better to show you rather than tell you.”

I was still very stiff and sore and my head felt as if someone was pounding it with a large hammer. As I was pulled to my feet, I staggered a little as I felt a sharp pain in my left ankle; this then settled into a dull ache and I knew I was going to be limping for a while unless I managed to snag Felix’s attention for a few moments. The priest looked fully occupied at the moment as he was examining Jorine’s body. It had been badly mangled on the way up the lift and frankly, it looked like a mess. Grellfinn was looking on anxiously as Felix was making his deliberations.

I looked around the room. It was still as strange as before with the various pieces of debris floating in the air. Two sets of stairs led to a large pair of doors; these were open. The floor was strewn with bones now and we had all brought our things; and above all, that dragon skeleton, mounted on the wall, still glared balefully at us. So, it had not animated…..yet.

Longhelim then helped me to limp over to the entrance of the room on the opposite end to the doors. The fiery ring was quite dim now but outlines of shapes of people in the room were quite visible. However, what immediately grabbed my attention was a carriage that was floating in the air. It was more of a sled really; it didn’t have wheels but rather runners. It was beautifully carved with intricate designs and looked as if it had padded seating. It was also fairly large and looked as if it could easily accommodate quite a group of people. It looked like an incredibly luxurious piece of magic; and if it did actually fly….. then it was also an extremely powerful piece of magic, if fairly ostentatious. Everyone was certainly going to remember if we were going to start using that.

“What’s that?” I asked.

“I was hoping you might have been able to tell us,” replied Longhelim.

“I’ve never seen or read about anything like it. Does it move? Has anyone tried to do anything with it?”

“No. We can’t really experiment by going into that room. It hurts to go in, remember?”

“Sorry, as I said, doesn’t ring any bells at all.”

Longhelim’s mouth twisted in disappointment:

“One last thing: when we were in the room, just before we left, we saw that the Ragesian army had arrived. They’re camped outside. We saw them through the window; and yes, there’s a group of elves with them. They could be prisoners but it doesn’t look like it. They’re all very nicely dressed and in their own little group.”

“Well, we knew they were coming. Any thoughts about how to get out?”

“Felix has an idea. I’ll let him explain it. I think we’re reasonably safe up for here for the moment. By the time that army sorts itself out and battles all the undead below and works out how to get up here, well I think we still have a little time. Oh, by the way, the dark fire was quite a bit stronger and brighter until we killed the leech. Then it dimmed substantially.”

I pointed at the outlines of people on the walls.

“Were those there?”

“Yes, they were already in the room. As I said, Victor was in the pyre and Oller was killed while in it, fighting the leech; brave gnome. Any idea what this is?”

He indicated at the ring of flame.

“No, again, never seen anything like it. This is another of those places that seems to be an anomaly. Any idea about the size of the Ragesian army or what’s in it?”

“We couldn’t stay in the room to look at it but it looked substantial, shall we say.”

We turned around and I went back to look at Victor. The warrior looked horrendous. He was badly burned, with oozing blisters on the skin of his face and neck. His armour was blackened and I dreaded to think about the condition of his hands beneath his gauntlets. There were still wisps of smoke coming out from apertures in his armour and charred bits of cloth could be seen beneath his greaves and parts of his breastplate. Most of his hair had been burned off with only clumps left and there was no sign of his beard, only a charred mass of skin on his chin.

There was no sign of his falchion; and that reminded me…..

I moved over to John.

“Longhelim said something about you and the Living Blade of Innenotdar…….?”

The rogue looked down at the floor, abashed:

“When I was next to Victor’s body, I sort of picked it up, and….well……, it sort of bonded itself to me…..I mean I suddenly felt the life of the Forest in that blade and its magic; I didn’t mean to do it; I think it happened because Victor had died and the Blade had lost its wielder so it seized the next person who picked it up….which was me.”

He held up a rapier; it was made out of dark wood, but the point looked sharp and gleaming; quite capable of skewering anyone. It was covered in carvings but impossible to read. John was handling it very gingerly.

I looked at it curiously and said:

“So, you’re now the new Champion of the Living Forest of Innenotdar, with all the responsibilities that that entails. The Forest and all its inhabitants are now completely dependent upon you.”

John looked even more ill at ease.

“Yes, I realize that. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have picked it up; too late now though.”

I looked at Victor, sadly.

“Yes, it’s too late now.”

Then I turned to Longhelim.

“I don’t know about anyone else but thanks to the leech and the battle, I am almost completely out of spells; literally, I have nothing left. Are we planning to do anything else at this moment?”

“No. Drudge is roaming around, keeping a look out for anything that might be coming to attack us; John has had a scout around and apart from various corridors with several doors, he has also found a secret door in a room beyond those large double doors. Felix is checking the bodies we’re working out what to do next; once we think about it, we’ll all get together and formulate our plans. Take a few moments to yourself and then we’ll begin to work things out.”

After that, he went to watch Felix. I drifted over to the dragon skeleton. I was fascinated by it and still extremely concerned. Every single other pile of bones in this place had animated at some point or other so it only stood to reason that this one would as well. It certainly looked fearsome and as I approached, I saw a plaque underneath. I stopped and read it:

“Syana the Celestial, defender of Ycengled, noble foe.”

Hmmm, that suggested a good dragon of some sort. Celestials generally were although I already knew that making assumptions in this place was dangerous. Still, sometimes we had to go by the knowledge that had served us in the past and so I had to think that Celestials were good beings. I still didn’t like the way it looked at me, though.

Then, I walked back to the rest of the group where Felix was finally finished examining all the bodies. We sat down in a circle with the corpses of Victor, Jorine and Oller in the centre and silently looked at them for some time. I could see tears running down Grellfinn’s face. Then Felix cleared his throat.

“Well, we managed to kill the leech and its skeletons but at a high cost. We can see that in front of us. Thankfully, Farlaghn has given me the powers to return them to us. We only have a brief moment to decide on this and I have to warn you. Their return is not without cost. They have seen the face of death and there are consequences. They will never be the same again. The miracle asks for their willingness to return to this plane and time of existence. It is also expensive. The magic needs diamonds. Now, all of us have diamonds for just this necessity; Grellfinn, do you or your other companions have diamonds?”

The paladin shook his head:

“No, we invested fairly much everything we have in this venture. This was going to be our greatest adventure; the one that was going to set us up for life. We never dreamed that there would be an enemy of such power here. However, I will tell you that if you do bring Jorine and Oller back, we will forego our share of the treasure of the castle. Is that acceptable?”

I felt a little uncomfortable at this announcement. Oller and Jorine had died as allies and fighting at our side. Having said that, we hadn’t found that much in the castle as yet but there was still this whole section to search. Still, I felt that the distribution of the spoils was something to be done at the end of the expedition, preferably in a comfortable inn; so, I nodded. I saw that the others were all nodding as well.

Then I said:

“Longhelim also told me that the Ragesian army has arrived and is camped outside the entrance. Felix, Longhelim said that you may have some ideas how to get away past them?”

The priest glanced at me:

“Yes; one of the other new powers that Farlaghn has gifted to me is a miracle which will turn us all into vapour and allow us to fly at huge speed on the winds. Using this, even if we are unlucky enough to be seen, we’ll be able to travel at such speed that nothing should be able to catch us.”

Grellfinn looked dubious:

“Won’t vapour be affected by those winds outside?”

“Well, we won’t be affected by any winds. It is something we were gifted. Unfortunately, you were not gifted in this way so you will have to take your chances I’m afraid. I can’t think of any other way of getting past that army.”

The paladin indicated towards the room with the black fire ring:

“What about the floating sled? That looks ideal to get out of here.”

I answered that:

“Well, we don’t know how it works; and even if we do work it out, as soon as that thing comes out, unless it is incredibly fast, it’ll be swarmed by wyvern knights.”

Grellfinn looked perplexed:

“Wyvern knights?”

“Ragesians that ride wyverns; expert fliers, drop fire bombs, very good warriors and all around tough guys. Wyverns are like small dragons except that they have poison stingers on their tail; nasty things. We have met them before and I wouldn’t want to meet them in the air.”

“Are you sure this army has any of these wyvern knights with them?”

“Well, no. I haven’t been able to examine this army in detail because that window seems to be the only lookout point and we know what happens when we enter into that room; but put it like this: every single large group of Ragesians that we have met so far, has had a contingent of wyvern knights with them and this is a very large contingent of Ragesians. In fact, so large they may even have a red dragon with them. We have certainly come across a Ragesian army with a dragon among its ranks before. There are even special dragon riders in Ragesian forces.

But look, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We have no idea how this sky carriage works; nor what else is here so I suggest we bring the others back. I remember that Jorine has a very fast technique by which she can cast a divination spell on items in a fraction of the time that it usually takes; so when she comes back, let’s hope she still has that spell and ask her to cast it on the carriage.”

Grellfinn had paled at the mention of a dragon but then frowned:

“Won’t she still be hurt doing this? In the room, I mean?”

Felix spoke at this point:

“I should be able to cast a spell that protects her for the time that she needs to be in there.”

Longhelim then spoke up.

“Well, I think we have a way forward. We need to rest, especially the spell casters. As soon as they do, Felix will cast his spells on the three people in the centre. Once that is done, hopefully Jorine will cast her spell on the flying carriage. After that, we’ll search out this place. Then we’ll decide what to do next.”

Everyone got up at this point and began to get ready to rest. As one last thing, I went up to Longhelim:

“That dragon skeleton; it’s going to animate after at some point. I can feel it. Can we do something about it?”

He looked exasperated.

“Look, I’ll give you a boost and you can take out its teeth or something, all right; if it makes you feel better.”

So, that is what we did, only to find that there was an invisible barrier surrounding the whole skeleton. I couldn’t get anywhere near it. I tried in several places but it surrounded the whole area.

Longhelim looked puzzled.

“I have seen you cast those but can they be made permanent?”

I looked back at him with a frown:

“Theoretically, yes but it’s very costly in all sorts of ways; and requires a lot of power; it wouldn’t be something I would want to do myself. What I would really like to know though is why my spell that normally sees invisible phenomena didn’t spot this wall. I will have to go over it tonight; I wonder if that hell cat is something that I should have also seen lurking around somewhere but somehow the spell missed it. That’s two things I missed. I need to check my formula.”

We told the others what we had found and I saw John and Felix looking speculatively at the skeleton; there was no doubt that both of them were aware just what level of magic was needed to produce a permanent defensive wall of that level around an area that large. Yet again the sheer power that Drakus Coaltongue had at his fingertips was brought home to us. He had probably had that dragon killed and mounted on the wall like that. Now it was also obvious as to why the leech was unable to animate the skeleton. He had no way to take her through that wall. How ironic. In the same way that I couldn’t get at her, neither could he; oh yes, he probably could have got into the same space through the wall behind her but then the skeleton itself would not be able to leave.

Smiling to myself and feeling a little better, I then opened my spell book and began to go through my spell that allowed me to see invisible things and beings with a fine tooth comb.

It took me a couple of hours but yes, I spotted the possible mistake. I had to rearrange a couple of words and symbols but hopefully that corrected the problem.

After that, I settled down to sleep.

I woke up and was relieved to realize that nothing had attacked us; especially the dragon skeleton. I yawned, stretched and saw that Felix and John were stirring as well. Good, we would need to speak with each other about what spells to take. I felt that I had shaken off whatever effect the leech had had on me and was ready to learn a full complement of magic; surprisingly, as I was looking over my spells in anticipation, I felt that I could learn more than previously. I wasn’t sure how that had come about but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

A little time later, John, Felix and I huddled together and began our discussions:

“…..right, need enough spells to cover everyone against fire. We still don’t know what else we’re going to find in this place……”

“……need to learn the magic to bring back Victor, Jorine and Oller; as well as healing spells for them as well…….

“……need to get my invisible friend again…..”

And so it went on until we all were satisfied with all of our mixture of spells.

After that, we all sat in a circle again, with the exception of Drudge who roamed around, making sure that nothing was sneaking up on us. Then the priest began a long and complicated ritual on the three bodies. They had been stripped and I watched in fascination but it was magic that was so divine in nature, so intricately connected to the relationship between Felix and his god that it was incomprehensible to me. I didn’t have his faith, his mindset or his willingness to surrender himself to his god to become such a conduit for this sort of magic. Be that as it may, the results were extraordinary; truly miraculous. As Felix finished leaning over Oller, he seemed to be whispering in his ear, brushing his eyes and heart, flexing his limbs until suddenly, there was movement from the gnome; spasmodic, involuntary movement but motion nonetheless. As soon as Oller began twitching, Felix took out a sachet and began to sprinkle sparkling dust over his twitching corpse; the dust settled over his body and then disappeared as it was absorbed; Oller opened his eyes and for a moment they sparkled like diamonds; the motes still lingered there before they disappeared in turn; then Felix moved to Victor and began the process again; this time it seemed to take longer, as if Victor was finding it more difficult to return to us; however, Felix was whispering longer and seemingly more urgently in his ear and he finally began to twitch.

By that point, Oller was moving groggily and Grellfinn was next to him, helping the locksmith to sit up. Longhelim went to Victor and began to do the same; then Felix began to perform the same rite on Jorine and her recovery was far faster; she recovered consciousness almost immediately but began screaming as the extent of her injuries became apparent; I remembered that she had been crushed against the invisible wall as we were moving up on the lift. Felix was obviously ready for this and began to tap her with his healing wand. As soon as he began to do that, she was soothed and began to look around her with curious eyes.

As soon as her screaming began, Grellfinn had rushed over to be at her side while Oller began to try to crawl over to her as well, until John grabbed him by an ankle, dragged him back and exasperatedly said:

“Come back here! She’s fine! Let me heal you!”

Jorine had stopped screaming by this stage and was coughing and recovering. In fact, Victor was the person who looked to be in the worst shape with his scarred face and his badly burnt equipment. His lips were pressed together in a grimace but that was the only sign of the pain that he must have been feeling. I saw that he had lost his large magical bag, with everything in it, including all the pieces we had gathered so far. Most importantly, his very useful hammer was also gone.

The warrior of course was not saying anything, even when told that John was now the new Champion of the Living Forest of Innenotdar. He just nodded. Then he asked softly:

“Does anyone have a spare falchion? I had two in my magical bag but they’re gone now.”

Drudge stepped forward and handed the warrior a falchion.

“It’s not magical”, said the ranger.

“Thank you. It will serve,” Victor said, as he swung it experimentally. “A good blade.”

Felix then approached Victor and touched him. The warrior visibly swelled as he took a long shuddering breath.

“Thank you. It doesn’t hurt any more.”

He still looked awful, scarred, with his hair in patches and his beard and eyebrows burnt off; but he moved freely although he suddenly said:

“The under cloth of this armour has been burned off. Anyone have any spare clothes. It’ll make movement a little easier.”

Various shirts and trousers, mostly from Drudge, were handed to him. Victor nodded his thanks and began to take parts of his armour off.

The three gnomes were huddled together and I presumed that Grellfinn was telling them everything that had happened. That must have been the case as suddenly there was a yelp from the other two:

“You did what? No treasure for us? After all this?”

“Look! You’re alive! They didn’t have to do this you know!”

That kept them quiet but I was still uncomfortable with the arrangement but decided to open that discussion at a more suitable time. I went to Jorine and gently took her hand:

“Welcome back. Your clan fought very bravely and we wouldn’t have been able to do this without them. Come, I would like to show you something.”

I led her to the entrance of the chamber with the sky sled and showed it to her. She was just as puzzled about it as I was.

Then I asked her:

“You know about the army outside?”

She nodded grimly and replied:

“Let’s discuss that later. The sled, well, never seen anything like it.”

I was disappointed but not surprised; I spoke to her about my next idea:

“Would you be willing to do your fast divination on it? Just to see what it can do? Felix has got a miracle which will protect you against the harm inside the room. We have to make sure that it lasts long enough so that you’re not hurt of course but if that’s the case, would you be willing to do it?”

She thought and then said:

“Yes, I’ve got that spell available and I’ll certainly cast it on that floating carriage.”

Felix and Jorine consulted, making sure that his spell would protect her for long enough; thankfully, that was the case and so, duly protected, the gnome entered the room and cast her spell. Fortunately, the procedure went without a hitch and Jorine returned to us, wide eyed and pale.

“Well, that was a surprise! I need a drink.”

I handed her a water bottle. She swigged it and then spat the contents out!

“I mean a drink! I’m thirsty, not dirty!”

Oller grinned and handed her another water bottle; this one was much smaller. She swigged that one and then said:

“That’s better! Well, that sky sled is quite something! Come on everyone, I need to show you some things!”

She led us to the entrance and began to point out features on the carriage.

“First: size; it will fit eight people as a last resort; and a driver but there won’t be any room to move. We can make people stand on the runners; for those inside the carriage, there are some very good protections, against fire and weapons. I’m not sure if those count against people standing on the runners though. The carriage flies, not very fast and not very high; about the speed of a heavily armoured warrior and at about the height of a three storey house at the most, so as I said, not very well really. It also maneuvers like a flying cow. Finally, it allows people to fly next to it. Not very far away but you don’t necessarily have to be in it to fly. It’s also quite handy in that if someone doing that strays too far from the carriage, he or she can either try to fly back or if unable, then they’ll just float down gently.”

I was looking at her with raised eyebrows:

“That’s all quite impressive. If we use it, we’ll be swamped by wyvern knights but apart from that, it seems quite safe; and the protections sound nice as well.”

She looked at us.

“Well, I haven’t got to the bad bit yet.”

She pointed at the sled:

“Do you see that sun with a face that it has etched on the front? Well, to power it up, you have to put a soul gem in its mouth. Once you do that, then the runners start to crackle and a team of griffins appear and give the appearance of pulling the sled and giving it all its abilities.”

I gaped.

“A what in its mouth?” I asked, just to make sure I had heard right.

“A soul gem” she replied.

I turned to Felix but Longhelim was ahead of me.

“Is that what I think it is? It sounds more like your realm than the wizard’s.”

The priest thought for a moment and then replied:

“Well, I’ve never actually seen one but theoretically, yes, I have heard of receptacles for souls.”

I asked the priest: “That sounds like very nasty necromantic magic. What’s involved in taking a soul and putting it in a gem?”

“Probably everything that you’re imagining and more,” was the priest’s reply.

Grellfinn spoke up at this point, sounding a little desperate:

“Maybe it’s the souls of criminals, or volunteers. We don’t know for certain.”

He seemed keen to use this carriage. I didn’t know why, bearing in mind what we had just found out. I would have thought he would have wanted to smash it up there and then.

The paladin continued:

“Look, it may be the only way for us to get out of here. You say you’re protected from the winds but we’re not!”

I thought I had already explained the situation, especially the very likely presence of wyvern knights in the army below; obviously, I had not made it clear enough.

However, Longhelim was always telling me that I had to be more diplomatic, I had to phrase things differently; that if I acted in rude, then people were more likely to be rude in return.

So, bearing all this in mind, I turned to him and said quietly and gently:

“I do take your point about the winds and your safety into account Grellfinn, but unfortunately, as Jorine said, the sled only flies at the speed of an armoured man under a fly spell and at the height of a three story building. We’re considerably higher than that. She also said that although the passengers would be protected from fire and weapons, the wind would still be problem, whether outside or inside the sled; so even if you are inside it, that gale outside is still likely to affect you. So, if we decided to use the sled as our means of escape, we would have to use this window, drop like a stone for a considerable distance, hope that that won’t harm the sled or us, then fly slowly and serenely at a low altitude above the Ragesian army, hope they don’t have dragons, or wyvern knights, or soldiers with potions of flying, or troops with missiles or spell casters with lightning bolts or any other ranged spells for that matter.

To be frank, I think you’re better off taking your chances with the winds.”

Grellfinn was looking at me thoughtfully; obviously he hadn’t taken offence but he was also just realizing the enormity of what we would be facing outside if we went out via the sky sled.

Then Victor spoke. He didn’t speak often unless answering questions but…..:

“So, that thing up there is powered by the souls of conscious beings trapped in gems. From your description Jorine, it bears all the hallmarks of a trapping of Drakus Coaltongue; an accessory to be precise. Think about it! It’s his imperial carriage; he flies slowly and at a low altitude in front of the general populace to awe them. The souls he uses aren’t from criminals or volunteers. They’ll be from people who have been torn from the arms of their loved ones in the middle of the night by inhuman Inquisitors wearing bear masks. The same unfortunate people will have been taken to the dungeons of Castle Korstull, held down on some unholy altar and the inquisitors will have cut open their chests and taken out their beating hearts. Then, using some gruesome rite, they will have forced their souls into those gems just so Drakus Coaltongue could fly in his carriage and look powerful. After that, their souls are destroyed forever.

I’m not setting foot on that thing, not matter what anyone says!”

My oh my, Victor didn’t speak a great deal but when it mattered to him, he could be very eloquent; and he put it far better than I could. I kept forgetting, there was a very agile brain in that warrior’s head. It hadn’t occurred to me but he was almost certainly right; it did have all the hallmarks of a trapping of the emperor.

Everyone was quiet for some time, left to ponder their own thoughts after these revelations; and probably rather shaken by the brutality of Victor’s analysis.

Then Longhelim called out:

“Right! We need to go. Casters, can you sort out the usual magic for everyone. Victor, you’ve at least got a falchion? Yes? Good. After that, which direction do we want to try first?”

I had an answer to that:

“The secret door you mentioned in the room beyond those two doors. Secret doors are usually there for a reason so let’s find out why it’s there.”

The others nodded, and then Felix, John and I began to cast a whole variety of magic on various individuals. Once that was done, we set out, John scouting at the front.

The room beyond the double doors was empty but a fierce fire had raged there at some point. There were burnt remains on the floor and walls and there was a clear trail of humanoid footprints leading up to the point where John had indicated as the location of the secret door. John checked the room thoroughly and reached the opposite wall; he pressed a certain section several times and a previously unseen door swung open; it was a handy wand he had; I determined to get one myself at some convenient point. Looking inside, he said:

“Long, thin corridor; looks quite dangerous; I’m going in.”

We followed him up and watched as he carefully checked the corridor for traps but again found nothing. It opened up into another room with a pair of doors opposite; more checking, again finding nothing and we joined him in this latest room. Then John asked his invisible friend to open these doors. As he did so, he revealed a big impressive new room.

It was massive, portrait in shape and with three pairs columns. The walls were covered by a series of stunning tapestries; I was no expert in these matters but from the entrance, the workmanship looked exquisite. A raised dais stood at the far end, on which sat a throne.

Just in front of the door were several bodies, one of which was curled in a fetal position and also had a mace next to it. We were immediately alert, waiting for the bodies to animate but fortunately, nothing happened. I was curious as to why they hadn’t turned into skeletons like the others but there was probably some sort of magic in the room. There was an intricate image on the ceiling that seemed to shift subtly and there were torch sconces on the columns that were shining brightly, obviously magical. The whole place was beautifully clean and unspoilt, especially in comparison to the semi burnt other parts of the castle. There was one blemish: an area around the nearest body which had some strange scratching on the floor. There was also another pair of doors at the far end of the room.

For a few moments, we just looked at this place in wonder and waited for the bodies to move. When neither happened, I moved up to John and whispered:

“Do you think this is Coaltongue’s audience chamber?”

“Probably. Put a rope around me. I’m going in.”

I grasped his hand and whispered again: “Let me put up a divination before you do anything. Let’s see if there’s anything magical in there apart from the sconces.”

I cast the little cantrip and wasn’t surprised to see that the whole space radiated magical energy, especially the throne.

“The whole place shines like a beacon. I can’t tell much more than that. I have to keep concentrating to see what happens.”

John thanked me and then tried to move into the room only to find that he was impeded. Something inside his shirt was stopping him from going in. A little investigation later, we found that his snake familiar was unable to enter into the room; oddly, John could but the snake couldn’t. Therefore, John gave his snake to Drudge for safekeeping and then entered.

The rogue looked around carefully, especially at the corpses and then he approached the figure with the mace.

“Hey, this one’s alive!”

John retreated and readied but relaxed a few moments later. Then he approached him again and was looking at the floor with great interest.

“He’s written something here in blood; scratched it; can’t make head or tail out of it.”

I spoke to him from the doorway:

“Get a piece of paper and some charcoal and make a rubbing of it; we’ll look at it later. See what else you can find.”

Just then John seemed to slip a little and looked at his gloves.

“Umm, that’s not so good. I don’t think my gloves are working here.”

That was bad news. If his gloves didn’t work, then that meant that it was unlikely that my skullcap would work; I depended on my skullcap to be able to learn various spells and if it stopped working in that room I would lose them; Felix also had a periapt and faced the same problem.

I spoke to John, telling him the problem.

“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’ll keep the doors open and scream like a girl if I get into trouble.”

I’d heard that one before.

As soon as John moved to the doors at the far end, I noticed that the three gnomes had gone into the room. Inquisitive as ever, both Jorine and Oller looked around everything while Grellfinn stood guard. Once they found nothing new, they joined John, who had already opened the far doors.

We couldn’t see what they revealed but thankfully John was providing a running commentary:

“Gods, what a bedroom! The Emperor really appreciated his comforts. That bed would sleep a normal family. Shame about the blood splotch though; that would put most people off. Oh, there’s also a holder for a torch next to the bed; a really big torch; empty by the way.”

“If you had to guess, do you think that’s where our Torch of the Burning Sky would normally live?” I shouted at him.

“No idea but it’s a fairly obvious place to put a torch so you decide. It’s empty anyway, as I said.”

In a normal voice, I spoke to Longhelim and the others:

“I didn’t think it would be here; too many devils and other things that could move magically. Only the gods know where that torch is now; frankly, it could be anywhere.”

Longhelim frowned:

“He hasn’t finished searching yet; though it’s looking unlikely I grant you.”

John was continuing with his commentary:

“Nothing else in this room so far; I did a little cantrip and the sheets on the bed are magical. There are other doors here by the way; one on each wall, left and right. Oller and I gave this place a good search but there’s nothing else here. I’m going to try the left door.”

We waited for a few moments. Then there was another shout:

“Gods, what a bog! Sorry, I meant garde-robe. All of us could fit into this bath here. Huge cupboard as well. Let’s see what’s in it……. Ah, Victor, got a present for you. Hold on!”

A little time later, a grinning John came out, draped with a sumptuous set of clothes which he handed to the bemused warrior.

“You are never, ever, ever in your life going to wear a finer set of clothes. This should stop that chafing that is bothering you. I know you haven’t said anything but that armour can’t be very comfortable right now.”

The warrior smiled faintly and nodded his thanks to the rogue; then he began to unbuckle his plate mail.

John then turned around to the others:

“There’s a whole bunch of these; they’re also in a cupboard that doesn’t look big enough to hold all of them; I checked and it’s magical as well; I think it’s like our magical bag; holds more than it seems to be able to from the outside; can’t quite work out how to get it out of the castle though; I’ll get the rest of the outfits though; they look as if they’re worth a pretty penny.”

With that, he trotted back into the room and rapidly began to return with the finest collection of clothes and robes I had ever seen. They were simply magnificent; silk, ermine, brocade and the finest cotton dyed in purpure; beautifully embroidered azure caps and hats; in short, clothes fit for an emperor, which they probably were; I wouldn’t have like to have been the tailor who had offended Drakus Coaltongue; I suspect one would soon find oneself in a soul gem if that was the case.

When he had finished bringing out the clothes, John ran back into the bedroom, when I heard:

“No Oller; I know that if we angle the wardrobe this way, it’ll go through the door but it’s getting it out of the castle that’s the problem; and your cart is below us. Sorry, I just can’t think of a way of getting it out!”

Then the John’s voice was raised for our benefit:

“Going to check the other door now.”

Again a little time passed. Longhelim was helping Victor put his armour back on and the latter was looking a little odd as he had sections of very fine clothing peeking out from apertures in his full plate. However, the warrior looked substantially more comfortable now.

Suddenly, there was a wordless exclamation from the front and suddenly I began to get my components ready as I expected John to come rushing back to us, screaming like a girl and being pursued by something unpleasant. Instead, what I got was:

“Nothing to see here; the room is empty; quite empty, I say.”

Followed by a brief amount of muttering and then another shout:

“Jorine, leave that chocolate alone!”

This made me look at Longhelim in askance and mouth:

“Chocolate?”

Soon after, John and the gnomes began to come out, carrying sacks of gold and platinum coins as well as various strange objects including several floating ioun stones, a figurine of a bear, an old spell book that looked completely useless but interesting due to its antiquity; I would have to investigate it later; and a dish that continually spouted white and dark chocolate. Jorine couldn’t keep her eyes off that. Amongst all of this, there was also a full set of gold dragon hide plate; sadly I remembered the skeleton on the wall; this was another of the emperor’s trappings, no doubt.

When it was all out of the room and it had been thoroughly searched, we all looked at the pile in front of us for a few moments:

I heard Oller mutter sadly:

“Well, at least we can look at it; the haul of a lifetime.”

John was the last to come out of the room. He carried a pouch in his hands and approached us. He took a beautiful diamond out of it, which he then showed to us. It was an extraordinary gem; large, flawless and no doubt very valuable; there was also something else about it…..and then it struck me:

“Is that a soul gem?”

John replied:

“Well, I don’t know for certain; but it is magical and looking at the size, it would fit beautifully into that hole made for a soul gem in the sky sled.”

“How many are there?”

John held up three fingers.

Longhelim then said:

“Well, let’s keep them for the moment. We’ll see if we can do something about them later; if we get out of here.”

I was scratching my head:

“How on earth are we going to get this lot out of here?”

“I have an idea about that,” replied John, “but before I go on, are we going to do anything about matey here?” and he indicated at the figure on the ground in front of us, the one person who we knew was alive.

Felix said:

“Well, if you drag him out, I’ll see if I can do anything about his condition. I have to find out what it is first.”

That reminded me:

“John, can I take a look at the rubbing you took of the scratching you took from around his body?”

Wordlessly, the rogue handed me his piece of paper and I transcribed it to a scroll. Reading it from a rubbing was a little awkward. As I did so, I read it out loud and the reaction was mixed to put it politely.

“Interesting,“ from Longhelim.

“That is quite a lengthy ode he’s scratched there, for someone who’s unconscious; I wonder how he managed that?” I muttered, as I stared at the results, intrigued.

“I can’t make head or tail of this; it’s pretty useless,” from John.

He added:

“Listen to this: ….The bright shadow returns to its homeland and the sky may burn for its last time…..that’s how it starts.”

He continued to read silently and every so often he would quote sections out, looking at us expectantly, as if hoping for a clue as to the meaning:

“……..bells toll at the gate and winter grips like a wolf as the fire bleeds from the world…….”

“…….serpents writhe in an eight armed stone and soldiers shall feast upon the rubble of madness……”

“…..o wintry song of agony, o long walking betrayer, as balance shatters like waves against the shores, your vengeful wing guides the motes of the burning sky, strong by search and guile, to seek annihiliation at the heart of history……”

And that wasn’t all of it by any means.

Drudge said words that were slightly stronger but gave the same impression of incomprehension while Felix was too busy with the chap from the floor to pay any attention and Victor, well, if Victor had figured anything out, he would have said so but since he was silent, one could assume that he was as stumped as the rest of us.

We showed it to the gnomes but they just shook their heads although Oller did ask if it was part of the treasure.

I thought for a bit and then said:

“Well, I think……”

Longhelim interrupted me:

“Are you going to speculate or do you have anything which you can actually prove; because, if you are going to speculate, then we can all do that; and we’ll be here for a week though and we won’t have any proof but lots of speculation.”

Sheepishly, I replied:

“You’re right; some of it is tantalisingly familiar but it is all purely speculation; maybe the people in Seaquen might be able to tell us something about this; or the Wayfarers but this is so obscure that it will probably take months if not years to research. So, why don’t we find out what they mean from the author himself?”

We looked expectantly at Felix, who stood up and said:

“This man’s brain has been turned to mush; I have no idea how he was able to scratch all that on the floor; look at how long it is! Hopefully, I may have something that will be able to cure him. It’s a powerful spell and even then I can’t tell what state he’ll be in when I cast it on him though.”

Longhelim replied:

“Well, let’s do it and find out.”

Felix frowned:

“I need another look at him; to confirm if my magic will actually help him; I would look extremely silly if I cast one of my most powerful healing spells on him and it didn’t actually do anything because I hadn’t examined him properly; so give me a little more time please.”

As Felix was doing this, John sidled up to Longhelim:

“Uh, there were a few times that I heard you mention something; something which I thought would help us with one of our problems.”

Longhelim just waited and looked at the rogue, who continued:

“Well, you know your horse? The one that you said you could summon? Do you think you could maybe summon him? He could carry a few bits and pieces. Help us get them out of here.”

Of course! It was brilliant! If we could summon Longhelim’s nag and load it up with all the treasure from the castle and he then dismissed it; it was a beautifully elegant and simple method of carrying huge loads. That horse was enormous; I had seen it a couple of times. I think it wanted to eat me; well, actually I think the only person it had any time for was Longhelim. I had seen it eyeing up John with disdain several times as well. I stayed as far away from it as I could. More importantly, it was more than capable to carrying everything we had collected so far; with the exception of the magical wardrobe in the bathroom, unfortunately; it wasn’t so much that it was too heavy, just too awkward.

Longhelim looked at the rogue for a long time and then said:

“You are talking about Grenadier my mystical steed, aren’t you? The steed that is a direct boon from my god and who will take me on quests to far lands and help me fight against great evil? My one faithful companion who will stay with me no matter what trials or tribulations I should face?”

Then he grinned:

“That’s a great idea, John! I’ll have him here in a moment and then we’ll load him up like a pack mule; then I’ll dismiss him. Bear in mind though, I can only do summon him once a day so if there are any of these pieces that we need now, don’t put them on Grenadier.”

Victor spoke up then:

“The four ioun stones; they’re the same as mine. I suggest that they are distributed among the warriors.”

I was looking through the various pieces as well and I noticed a bag; it had four scrolls as well as a collection of twelve potions; they were all labeled. Most of them were healing but two were of a different nature, including one that was a powerful piece of magic which I took to Felix.

I showed them to the priest and he immediately seized the potion which I had given him:

“Yes! This is definitely going to help him! I wasn’t sure about my spell; but this definitely will! Everyone, are we ready?”

“Hold on. We’re still loading up the horse.”

I looked up. Yes indeed, Longhelim had summoned Grenadier, a huge bay war horse with intelligence in its eyes. It was being a little skittish.

“Hold still, you misbegotten nag!” this from John.

This was followed by a hurried side step, followed by an indignant:

“Longhelim, your horse just tried to bite me! Tell him to stand still!”

“It was only a love bite; he likes you John. Just be gentle with him; how would you like it if someone was tying a piece of plate armour on you; and watch out for those spiked shields!”

John kept muttering after this, but kept a wary eye on the front end of the beast after this.

Finally, everything was on the horse, which looked like a mountain of equipment with four legs but it still moved quite freely; it was still edging towards John, thinking that the rogue didn’t notice him. Then Longhelim made a motion with his hands and it vanished.

After that, Felix said again:

“Right, everyone! Are we ready to revive this individual?”

As we stood and watched, Felix poured the potion down the man’s throat. Nothing happened for a few moments and then the man spasmed, choked and coughed. His eyes opened and he opened his mouth and gasped:

“Water.”

Felix helped him drink a little water and then he helped him to his feet. The man looked around wildly and seemed completely taken aback at the state of the castle:

“What’s happened? Where’s the emperor? Who’re you? What’re you doing here? Why is everything burnt?”

John piped up:

“We’re here, looking for the thingymajig of the whatsit. What was it again, Faden?”

I answered, mildly exasperated:

“It’s the Torch of the Burning Sky and John, please, I would be very grateful if you could let Longhelim do the talking from now on please.”

Longhelim then began to use his charm on him; with his quiet, gentle voice he replied:

“My name is Longhelim and these are my companions; the Emperor perished seven months ago. His death is a mystery. Now, please tell me who you are?”

The man looked at Longhelim but he seemed disoriented; fortunately, Longhelim’s personality did the trick and the man seemed re-assured:

“My name is Darius and I was one of the Emperor’s bodyguards. I was stationed on guard in the audience chamber with two of my companions, when suddenly one of them was killed; a figure, looked elven or half elven, jumped out of the shadows and slashed his throat; then it vanished again. The door to the Emperor’s quarters crashed open and an elven woman with dark skin and violet hair lashed out with a bladed whip and dragged me to her side; then she kissed me and I suddenly felt weak and the world began to spin; I saw more of our guards appearing and another elven woman with dark skin jumped out and began to fight them; then I saw other elves take out the Emperor’s body but I began to lose consciousness; last thing I remember is feeling a roar of fire and remembering that that was what happened when the Torch was activated. I don’t remember anything else after that.”

“Thank you Darius. As I said previously, it is seven months since the emperor has died and everything has changed. Leska now rules the Ragesian Empire and her armies rampage throughout the land. There is a Ragesian army outside this castle, as we speak.”

Darius started:

“A Ragesian army? Here? I must go to them now. Are you coming?”

I replied at this point:

“It’s not quite as easy as that, unfortunately; the castle has been overrun by undead and there is no way down from here at this time. You can go and see the army when we see them but I would caution you about repeating your story. There are people who may not want it known how the emperor died; there is also a time honoured tradition of slaying the messenger.”

“No, master dwarf, you don’t understand; these are my people and I have to report to my superior officers.”

I looked at him and shook my head:

“So be it. If that’s what you want…..but I suggest that for the time being, you stay with us for your own safety. As I said previously, this place is overrun with undead and there may be more coming any minute now.”

He nodded and then said:

“I feel underdressed; does anyone have any armour or shield.”

I made a motion at the fallen skeletons with their armour, shields and weapons.

“Help yourself.”

I had one final thought: coming up to him, I took out the transcription of the ode and showed it to him. He read it, looked at me uncomprehendingly and asked:

“What’s that?”

I turned to the others and said:

“Well, that answers that particular question.”

Then I motioned to all of us from Gate Pass to step apart for a quick conversation:

“Dark elves?” I asked. “Where did they come from?”

Longhelim just snorted:

“Faden, you of all people ought to realize that at this sort of power level, physical appearances don’t mean anything.”

Victor spoke quietly:

“Remember that gnome in Dassen? The advisor to the King? Nina Glibglamer? Well, she wasn’t exactly a gnome, was she? It’s the same way that these may have looked like dark elves, but they could have been demons, devils, trillith or even normal humans magicked to look like someone else. Misdirection is often key in these power plays; and when you’re playing for these kinds of stakes…….”

They were right. Even I was capable of altering my shape thoroughly if only for a short time, but certainly well enough to fool a soldier or bodyguard on watch who was being attacked.

I was about to say something else, when suddenly, there was a mighty crash from the southern part of the castle.

John immediately exclaimed:

“The lift room!”

Hurriedly, we formed up and moved down there. The corridors were narrow so we had to go in single file, Victor first. He arrived at the lift room, only to find no lift. Every one stopped as there was only a shimmering barrier below him. I was stuck in the corridor, just behind Felix.

Victor called out:

“John, I thought you said you disabled that lift?”

“I did,” came the reply from the back.

“Well it’s gone now.”

“It must be the Ragesians,” I said. “Somehow they must have managed to circumvent the disabling. Felix, do you still have your spell which forms a stone wall?”

“No, but I may have something else……..”

Suddenly there was a collection of cries from the rear of the group:

“What the…….?” in Drudge’s voice.

“Ernie? Is that you? How did you get up here?” from Jorine.

“What’re you doing, Ern?”John was shouting, obviously alarmed.

Then we all heard a thin nasal voice, grating and irritating, like a whining child:

“Rebels, new longwalkers and songbearers, your blindness has pleased me, but now, with the blessing of my brothers, and with our grandmother as my witness and my destructive hand, you shall be silenced.”

I looked at Felix, puzzled and with a silent question on my face.

He shook his head but looked concerned and then there was a huge cry from the back. Drudge roared:

“Dragon! ’Ware.”

That bloody skeleton! I just knew it would animate at some point! I wish I could have worked out some way to get at it. Mistakenly, I thought that the nature of the wall which was keeping me out would also keep it in. Obviously, I was mistaken.

Then another shout from John:

“Run! Run for the sled!”

So to make things even better, we would be forced to use that sled, despite its patently evil nature. I knew there was no choice; John was perfectly aware of my opinion of it and he would not shout that at us unless it was absolutely necessary; a true emergency! Everyone immediately began to run towards the room where the sled was situated.

As we all exited the corridor, it was all I could do not to stumble and freeze in fear; it was not the skeleton of the dragon that was in front of us but rather the beast itself, in its fully fleshed glory, beating its wings, writhing, rearing, hissing its madness, tears of fire streaming down its face. That rattled me; I was in a panic, finding it difficult to concentrate and think; all I could do was run. I saw that Drudge, Jorine, Oller and John were already ahead of me, as I joined them in the large room on the way to the sled.

The warriors and Felix were behind me and hampered by their heavy armour, still in the corridor. Longhelim, Victor and Grellfinn bravely confronted the dragon as with a lunge of its enormous head, it opened its mouth and emitted an enormous curtain of fire, engulfing the warriors and the priest. Thankfully, they were all protected against the element but even so, judging from how they looked, the fierceness of the flame must have burnt them badly. Poor Darius, with no protection at all and only just recovered from seven months of idiocy, was a set of black, smoking remains on the floor.

The warriors took advantage to close with the beast and unleashed their full repertoire of offensive moves against it…….and failed to even make it flinch; I didn’t really notice the dragon being sliced by any swords. The only person who nicked it was Grellfinn and the beast seemed to take such offence at this tiny cut that it proceeded to rip the poor gnome paladin into pieces, savaging him with jaws, talons and wings.

Even though it was too late for Grellfinn I still cast my spell of speed at everyone within range, which was mostly myself and the warriors.

Jorine and John were shouting at everyone to run to the sled. Longhelim quickly realised the futility of attempting to fight and began to retreat. I cast my obscuring fog spell on top of dragon, to follow up on my spell of speed. This allowed Victor to pick up Grellfinn’s body and run back to the sled. I could see the strain of the warrior. I had also moved into the sled just in time to witness John taking one of the soul gems and shoving it into face of the sun; with dreadful resignation, I saw a light go out, a movement within the gem still and then electricity flashed around the sled and a team of griffins appeared at the front, moving, flapping their wings and getting ready to fly. Drudge sat in the driver’s position and continued to shout:

“Everyone get in here! We’re leaving now!”

With a sinking heart, I saw that there was another flash of fire from the other room. The dragon must have burnt through my cloud; and Victor and Longhelim were still in the other room; and the dragon was going rip them into little pieces. I had one chance to do something; I hoped that it would work. It hadn’t before but maybe enough had changed that this time it would, if only for a short period of time; after that, I was out of tricks.

If it did work, then we would only have the Ragesian army to contend with!

I prepared myself; readied to cast my spell as soon as the warriors appeared through the doorway; any moment now……

I had just finished getting ready when Longhelim appeared and jumped on to one of the runners, looking anxiously behind him. Just a few moments behind him, Victor lumbered through, carrying the body of the gnome paladin in his arms; as soon as he was through the doorway, I cast my spell and an unbreakable wall shimmered into being across the whole wall and the doorway.

It had only just appeared when the whole castle shook as the dragon crashed into it just behind the warriors. This was almost like a small earthquake and chunks of dust, plaster and other debris rained down on us. We couldn’t see her after that but we didn’t really care at this point; our main attention was fixed on getting out of here. There was a window in front of us and Drudge was just getting ready to take us through.

The hippogriffs, strange beasts, with the heads, chests and front claws of eagles and the back end of horses, stirred restlessly and began to move to Drudge’s strange cry:

“Mush!”

I didn’t know what it meant but it seemed to do the trick. Just at that moment though, something clicked in front of my eyes and that correction I made to my magic which allowed me to see invisible things suddenly switched my perception and I “saw” a wall that had been hidden by magic! If we had attempted to drive through, it was very likely that the chariot would have been smashed into smithereens.

“Stop” I screamed and jumped out; “there’s an invisible wall there! I’m going to put a hole in it!”

Thankfully, I remembered my spell which allowed me to put a doorway into walls and this time I had two of them; I would need both to allow the chariot through. I had just cast the first spell when there was an ominous crash from the ceiling, causing more debris to rain down. My second spell was cast, an escape route was open to us and I had just managed to dive head first into the chariot when Syana came crashing down through the ceiling, just in time to catch the chariot a glancing blow as it swept past her, into the emptiness beyond!

Our immediate relief to escape the dragon was forgotten as the chariot plunged to the ground below; I wish I could say that we all kept our stoic mien as this was happening but I suspect that I was screaming; Jorine certainly was, shrilly, next to my right ear; there was more unidentified bellowing which finished in an undignified gulp as the chariot pulled up sharply just before it crashed into the ground; to the utter astonishment of the crowd gathered below! The hippogriffs screamed and took the strain; we began to fly through the canyon.

I suspect that the Ragesian army was expecting many things but a flying chariot with a tail of fire, crashing through the castle walls, drawn by mythical beasts, almost plunging to the ground and pulling up in the last minute, was not one of them; especially a chariot stuffed full of screaming gnomes, dwarves and humans. That was certainly obvious by the looks on the faces of the audience below!

And what an audience! There were massed ranks of Ragesian soldier and archers; then there were the officers, staring at the Castle; there was also a pair of wyvern knights…at the moment. I was expecting more to appear at any moment, with a group of this size. Finally, and most astonishingly, there was a group of elves, finely dressed and armoured, standing by themselves; and amongst them was one whom I only glimpsed but recognized! It was Shalosha, Crown Princess of Shahalesti and only daughter of Shalaadel, King of those lands. My mind immediately began trying to think: why was she here but then I had to concentrate on other things…….

Several of the ranks ducked as we nearly took off their heads off and there were a few attempts to shoot at us but most of the archers were so surprised that they had not had time to react to our rather interesting exit from the castle.

At this point, I lost most of my interest in the army below and watched the window with a desperate anxiety. Syana would not allow us to escape so easily. Victor, who had swapped driving duties with Drudge, was urging our noble steeds as much as he could although it was difficult to tell just what effect it was having on magical constructs; everyone else was beginning to get ready for whatever was coming. I managed to cast a spell of flying on Drudge, reasoning that having a flying archer in our midst was to our greatest advantage in this situation; not a moment too soon either, as suddenly, two wyverns with riders rose up behind us and began closing. They were quickly followed by several elven figures, who must have drunk potions or cast spells. Shalosha was among them, and she had an escort of warriors.

Drudge shot off several arrows towards the nearest pursuing wyvern, hitting him and trying to discourage him but that did not work, so the ranger departed from the sled, leaving Victor in the driving seat. Shalosha caught up to us almost immediate and was shouting something from behind, most of which was lost in the wind:

“……land……not harmed…….talk……..”

That was what we were able to catch and we assumed that she wanted to let us know that we were to land and that she guaranteed our safety. We continued on and I shouted back, hoping that she would be able to hear us:

“You’re not the one we’re worried about!”

I was stabbing behind her with my finger, as I was shouting this!

I was too late as at this point; all eyes turned back to the castle as Syana the dragon erupted from the tower in an explosion of gold, stone and flame, with eyes of liquid fire and screaming her rage to the world.

This dramatic intervention brought an immediate reaction from the flying forces pursuing us; the elven warriors immediately tried to catch up to their princess but they were all wearing heavy armour; Shalosha stared uncomprehendingly at this new development for a few moments and then immediately began to cast spells; a moment later, she disappeared; wise woman.

Syana then leisurely opened her mouth and suddenly I lost all my fear and felt an overwhelming anger towards this noxious beast! After all the trouble we had gone through, all the battles we had fought in the Monastery of the Two Winds, the pain and humiliation we had undergone fighting the undead, the wounds and the death of Victor, it all culminated in a battle with this unnatural bag of lizard bones! And it was all for nothing anyway! The bloody Torch wasn’t even there! I was at the end of my tether and without even thinking about, I took out my sling and fitted a bullet into it; with a scream, I shot it in the general direction of that big flying newt! I may have screamed but if I had, it was lost in the roar I heard from behind me as Victor seemed to be of a like mind and shot his crossbow at her as well; in fact, we all seemed to have had enough and were shooting, throwing or just screaming at her.

I could still see Drudge in the distance; he was having his own private duel with the wyvern knights; well, duel may have been an overstatement; shall we say he was using them as targets in his very own range; I couldn’t remember if Drudge had ever flown as freely as this before but he was certainly reveling in it; his opponents weren’t; I don’t think these Ragesian Knights had ever come across someone like Drudge before; they were unlikely to again though as I saw the first one tumbling through the air, several arrows in his torso.

Shalosha was still casting spell on herself but I wasn’t paying that much attention. I was staring at the oversized newt! Come on, come on, just a little closer……there. I shot her with my sling again but it only bounced off. Syana did fly closer though, but she was met with a masterful combination of blows from Longhelim who engaged her with calculation and skill, while balancing precariously on one of the runners of the sled; although she hurt the paladin badly, she certainly had not been expecting to be so badly slashed in return. Victor and I were still ready to fling anything we could at her but she had flow off; John crawled over to Longhelim and cured him.

Suddenly, a lightning bolt appeared in mid-air and struck Syana, causing a hiss of anger and eyes of fire to seek the skies for the author of this new hurt. Unable to find this enemy, Syana opened her maw again and this time a sheet of fire washed over us. All of this made me realize that by mindlessly shooting with a sling, I was losing all of my advantages, namely my spells, and I managed to calm down a little. Then, I cast a lighting bolt into her gut, causing her to emit another roar; she certainly felt that; she didn’t like lightning; this time, she flapped her wings and flew over our chariot, biting me on my torso as she swept by. I was badly mauled; still conscious, but with blood pouring out of most of my chest, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to withstand another attack of the same magnitude; so I cast my spell of invisibility and moved to one of the sled runners.

Not a moment again, as she flew in again, but this time she went after our driver Victor; as if he needed more scars!

Thankfully, this was allowing John and Felix to heal both themselves and Longhelim.

I am afraid that there will be a brief hiatus again as this is as far as we have got in actual play.

So, a few more things have happened. Latest update:


Briefly I glanced at the invisible elven princess but she was just keeping up and making sure that she attracted as little attention as possible. Drudge was far in the distance behind us now; he still seemed to be dueling with the one remaining wyvern knight. The rest of us were standing back and looking at Syana with trepidation; well, except me, who cast a spell at her; a lightning bolt shot out of my hands and struck her in the chest, causing her to hiss angrily; it even left a dark mark on her skin so it must have hurt her; just as a precaution, I moved to the other side of the sled, in case she had seen the location from where the bolt originated.

The dragon swooped down again and opened her mouth, spraying us with….something; I wasn’t really sure of what but again, I felt this overwhelming surge of anger at this creature that was pursuing us; I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t think of anything else except hitting it and hitting it and hitting it…..I took my sling again and loaded it with my best bullet. She was really going to get it this time!

Felix in the meantime, was moving calmly, healing Jorine who had been badly mauled earlier. Victor, in his usual manner, wasn’t saying anything but his gaze was fixed on the dragon in such as manner that his rage was palpable while Longhelim unusually, was shouting imprecations in its direction. Even John got into the act as he took out his sling and whirled it above his head. The bullet shot out but didn’t go anywhere near her.

After this, Syana approached and as she flew closer, I let out a roar and fired my sling at her! The bullet flew true and hit her right on the nose; but just bounced off without doing much. That sobered me a little and I berated myself. What was I doing, firing sling bullets at a dragon? My most powerful weapon was my magic.

Syana swooped in and took a mighty bite out of Longhelim; the paladin staggered and even though there was a little flash which showed that my defensive spell was still working him, the dragon’s bite was still incredibly powerful. Thank the gods for his tough skin, otherwise he would have been bitten in half by now! More frustratingly, the dragon was staying out of his reach, using her long neck to strike with snake-like speed and then withdraw.

She didn’t have it all her own way however; I cast a spell but this one did bounce off her hide; then, almost miraculously, from a huge distance away, an arrow hit her in the juncture between wing and torso. She screeched angrily and whipped around to look behind her; we could barely see him, but Drudge was flying at approximately the same height and was calmly keeping his distance and preparing to fire at her again.

Shalosha was still doing nothing but had been joined by her bodyguard; or she had joined him. Syana still flew forwards and bit Longhelim again; the paladin looked very badly hurt this time, with blood pouring out of him from numerous wounds.

I had received a little healing from Felix but realised that many of his most powerful healing spells had been cast already. Then suddenly I remembered!

“Felix, use the healing scrolls we found in the castle!”

“Yes!” I heard a shout from behind me. I also heard a small scuffle from behind me again:

“Give those back to me! You’ve no idea what you’re doing!”

Glancing back, I saw that Victor was snatching back the reins from John’s hands, glaring at him while the rogue was looking abashed.

Suddenly I saw the Longhelim’s wounds closed miraculously and the blood stopped pouring out of him; Felix had used one of the scrolls; they must have been very powerful. Thus encouraged, I threw another spell at Syana; another lightning bolt left my hands and struck her in the chest, leaving another black mark. I moved again, just in case. Then, she was struck by another arrow from behind. She roared and looked behind her, as if unsure if she should pursue her archer tormentor or continue to attack the paladin who held out against her so stubbornly. She opted for the latter but fortunately, Longhelim had just been healed so although hurt, he managed to stand up to her attack.

After that, I cast my last offensive spell against her, a shower force missiles but they barely scratched her; of far more import were the two arrows which hit her again and this time she had had enough! Wheeling around with almost magical agility, she flipped around and with several beats of her wings sped towards the archer in the distance. Suddenly, she was next to him and I was shouting at Drudge to fly away! I don’t know if he heard me but he certainly had the right idea as he flipped acrobatically through the air and rose above her; being Drudge he shot her as he was flying by. Syana roared one final time and after this last arrow struck her, began to plummet into the ground; as this happened, the flesh sloughed off her skeleton and disappeared; the newly revealed skeleton, bleached white and looking just like the trophy that had been mounted on the castle wall, crashed into the ground below, smashing itself into a myriad pieces!

We all cheered in the sled; we couldn’t help it! This was something from legends. I suspected that no one would believe our escape but we didn’t care! We were alive! When I saw the dragon coming after us I feared the worst but against the odds, we had survived! Not only survived but triumphed! Drudge was tumbling through the air towards us, punching his bow in the air triumphantly and then, with a final flip, landed in the sled with the rest of us.

A few moments later, our celebrations were interrupted by someone clearing their throat and the Princess Shalosha appeared on one of the sled runners.

She was as stunning as before and her voice was as melodious as that of Longhelim:

“Congratulations! That was a most unusual gold dragon; I have never heard of one that had so many different abilities.”

We stopped talking and composed ourselves. The gnomes had no idea who this person was but they took their cue from us. Longhelim gave a small bow and replied:

“Yes, thank you. As you heard, we were expecting several casualties as Syana pursued us.”

Then John interrupted:

“That wasn’t Syana; she was probably possessed by a trillith; Deception.”

Shalosha looked him in the eye:

“So, that was Syana the Golden? The great dragon which was slain by Drakus Coaltongue in single combat? You say she was possessed? By a…..trillith? What is a trillith? Oh, apologies, we can come to that in moment. First, if you don’t mind, I have a very important question:

You must have been inside the castle. Tell me, did you find the Torch of the Burning Sky?”

The tone of her voice belied her anxiety.

This time, Longhelim spoke:

“Yes, we were inside the castle. Yes, we found where the Torch had been but it was gone. You didn’t really think it was going to be still there, did you?”

Longhelim was being remarkably guarded in his conversation with Shalosha. I wanted to ask several questions of the elven princess but I held my peace. Longhelim was being careful for a reason and I didn’t want to spoil his game. This time, he asked her a question:

“Your Highness, it may not be my place, but it is rather unusual to find you with a Ragesian army, especially due to recent developments. Please, would you explain that?”

Shalosha looked at the paladin for a time and then suddenly said:

“Of course! You were one of the groups in Seaquen, weren’t you? That is why you are familiar. Ah yes, this army is led by General Magnus. The general is not happy with Leska’s ascent to the throne. I have convinced him to join us in our war against the Ragesians; providing that we promise him Leska’s throne once we are triumphant of course.”

She smiled, obviously proud of her diplomatic accomplishment.

Longhelim kept his face smooth; I did my best to follow suit although I had to contain myself.

Then, carefully she continued:

“We still seek an alliance with Seaquen; will you join us? The more of us who stand together, the better chance we will all have against Leska.”

Longhelim took his time considering his words and then replied:

“We will of course convey your words to the council in Seaquen. We cannot speak for the council ourselves.”

“Surely, you have great influence. The very fact that you are here in Castle Korstull suggests that Seaquen holds you in high regard. Are you not able to accept my proposal on their behalf?”

Longhelim was very careful in his reply again:

“It is very difficult to tell; we have not been in Seaquen for some time. We may indeed have some influence but we certainly cannot speak for the Council. We will of course relay your proposal to them.”

Shalosha tried another tack:

“Well, that will suffice; you are in favour of an alliance with the Shining Lands of Shahalesti are you not?”

Longhelim said:

“We are in favour of an alliance at this time.”

Ah, clever, clever Longhelim; that last qualification made that statement meaningless. It was not an outright no but at the same time, as an experienced diplomat, Shalosha would be fully aware that it was a polite phrase of saying something without meaning anything.

However, the elf took it with good grace and then changed the subject:

“Do you know where the Torch has gone?”

“In truth, we do not have the slightest idea. It could be anywhere.”

“And you found no clue as to where it could have gone?”

“No clue. We really have no idea.”

At this point, John whispered something in Longhelim’s ear.

Longhelim seemed to lean back towards the rogue and I suppressed a wince as I saw that his armoured boot was on top of John’s foot.

Then the paladin smiled and said:

“Well, I wouldn’t call this a clue but my colleague suggested it; it is in the form of a poem; someone called Darius wrote it while he was unconscious.”

Shalosha was obviously very anxious as she did not even query that last comment. She almost snatched the sheet from Longhelim’s hand as he produced it and absently murmured:

“Darius, Darius….yes; he was Coaltongue’s chief inquisitor.”

Longhelim raised his eyebrows:

“Really? He said he was a bodyguard. Unfortunately, he’s dead now; although if you go back to the Castle, you’ll probably be able to find him again; although I don’t think you’ll like him very much.”

That got her to raise her eyes from the paper.

Longhelim went on to explain:

“The strange flame ring we found; we think that was the Dark Pyre. It was dimmed but not extinguished. It is quite possible that it will re-kindle in time and cause the bodies to rise again. That may be your chance to question Darius again if you wish.”

She didn’t reply but I was obvious that the idea did not appeal. Instead she scanned the paper but then looked up in disappointment:

“This is all metaphysical, metaphorical and allegorical. I think these three lines here could mean something: The earnest lie deceives, and his grandmother weeps echoes of souls primordial but the golden ship carries word to safe shelter.

You mentioned this trillith creature? Deception? So – the earnest Lie Deceives; then his grandmother weeps souls primordial – I don’t know what that refers to but then we have – the golden ship carries word to safe shelter – that could refer to this sky sled and word being the information carried by yourselves to safe shelter – maybe Seaquen?”

Longhelim looked back at her:

“You actually got all that just from those three lines? I mean you may be right; who knows? That’s the problem; no one knows if you are right or not. The trouble is, if all the poem is like that then, if anything, we’ll be looking at it for things that have happened in the past and saying – well this could be that and that could be this; but everything else is so hidden and obscure that it is virtually useless as a tool for predicting the future or as a clue to locate the Torch for that matter; unless you know different of course?”

In reply, she shook her head handed him back the piece of paper. Then she said:

“Please remember me to the Council in Seaquen and let them know I am waiting for their communication. We will go back to General Magnus now. It was good to meet you all. Good bye.”

Then she and her bodyguard flew off, back towards the castle.

Longhelim stared after her for a long time. Almost to himself, he said:

“Well, that was interesting; on so many levels.”

I was lost in my own thoughts and murmured:

“Quite.”

John limped over to Longhelim and said:

“You two are being very annoying you know that? Why didn’t you want tell her what happened in the castle? Are we really going to recommend an alliance with the Shahalesti to Seaquen? We do so have clues about the Torch; why didn’t we want to tell her that either?”


Longhelim smiled at John:

“Apologies for stepping on your foot. I felt that Shalosha should be told as little as possible. In their own way, the elves are as bad as the Ragesians, they just paint themselves in different colours. You yourself have already said that before. Let me put it another way:

Say theoretically if we had had recovered the Torch and we had it with us now; and she found out, what do you think would be happening now? She would be taking it away from us.”

Longhelim smiled and took out his pipe. The sled was still flying and he settled down on its cushions. He then nodded at me:

“Faden, what did you think of that?”

I started out of my thoughts:

“I believe she has a very inflated sense of her own abilities; especially in diplomacy; this supposed deal with the general. I am not sure exactly what she thinks he will do. Do we honestly believe that when one army of Ragesians confronts another army of Ragesians, they’ll start fighting each other? The very best she can do is to keep him here, uninvolved with Leska’s campaign, but he’s been here for seven months already and his army has been badly mauled. So what does she gain? My feeling is that there is a lot she’s not telling us; probably to do with the Torch.

Also, one final thing: she was definitely holding back against the dragon. I recognized some of the spells she was casting. She could have helped us but she didn’t.

I definitely agree with your initial assessment John; the one you made back in Seaquen; I wouldn’t trust the Shahalesti as far as I could throw them. Let’s remember, this bunch were the ones who wanted to – how was it they put it? – oh yes, here we are: test the purity of our spirit in anticipation of the conflict ahead whatever that means. They are also the ones who wiped out their elven kin in the Fire Forest.”

John looked back, obviously thinking about everything that had been said:

“To be fair, she didn’t look happy when she laid out those terms to Seaquen.”

I snorted:

“It doesn’t really matter thought, does it? I’m sure there are lots of things about which she disagrees with her father, but she’s still going to do them. I agree with Longhelim. The less we tell anyone from now on the better; we need to keep our own council and make our own decisions. If there is a clue about the location of the Torch among all that stuff we found in the Castle, then we have to make sure that it ends up in the hands of the Resistance; not in the hands of the Shahalesti, the Ragesians, Ostalin, or any other group.”

Another voice broke into our conversation at this point: Victor:

“There’s another thing that everyone seems to be missing; and its right in front of their noses. This general Magnus is just the latest to miss it. Leska is running rings around everyone; that includes Seaquen and the Resistance. Militarily, she’s doing everything right. In seven months, she’s ascended to the Imperial Throne; taken Gate Pass, a thorn in the side of Ragesia for decades; invaded Shahalesti; destroyed Seaquen without losing a single army and barely a few men; oh and she destroyed a large chunk of the Shahalesti fleet at the same time; almost did the same to Dassen and even having failed, weakened the Kingdom severely by sparking off a succession crisis that is waiting to happen; sent an army to Sindaire as a threat; that army is moving around so Sindaire is incapacitated until it is gone. She has done other things of course but the key is that she is always acting and her opponents are reacting. That gives her a massive advantage.

Strategically speaking, those are all brilliant moves. You would almost think she had them all planned out in advance…….”

I stared at Victor, working out the ramifications of what he had just said. He was quite right; I had not considered the military aspect before but it had all happened in the way he said.

Longhelim puffed his pipe and stared into the distant sky, murmuring:

“Food for thought, food for thought indeed.”

I was looking behind us; the orange glow of the firestorm had dimmed noticeably, but it was still there.

Fantastic stuff, thanks for another great update!

Thank you. We've managed to get a bit more done now so I will be able to put a few more updates in the coming weeks.