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

There, in a corner, we were able to see that the pit fiend was busily trying to re-establish the ritual. He also had two companions now. Creatures which superficially looked like skeletons but which also had large scorpion tails which huge stingers. I recognised immediately: they were osyluths, more commonly known as Bone Devils. Powerful denizens of the hells themselves, they were also known to act as servants to stronger devils such as pit fiends.

We wasted no time. Longhelim immediately moved in the direction of the pit fiend. Drudge tried to shoot him but was very disappointed when he saw his arrows bounce off its skin. I had told him that these devils were incredibly difficult to hurt but I don’t think he truly believed me until he actually saw this happening. I was gratified to see that the portal had not been re-drawn as yet but I had no doubts that it was only a matter of time before this happened.

Suddenly, one of the bone devils cast a spell which caused a green beam to strike Longhelim. Outwardly nothing happened but I grimaced as I recognised a spell which would prevent magical travel on the paladin for a little time. It cut down our options.

The pit fiend moved towards Longhelim and cast his various spells but this time the paladin was resistant to the foul magic. I managed to cast spell. I was able to affect the bone devils but the pit fiend’s resistance to magic proved too powerful for me. However, the bone devils were quite badly hurt by my magic which was gratifying.

I had moved to a corner to be close to Drudge while Felix and John stayed in the middle of the room to help the warriors with healing. I saw Victor move up to the pit fiend and Drudge shot one of the bone devils and sent it back to whatever hell it came from. He then fired a few more arrows into the pit fiend itself which seemed to annoy it more than anything else.

At this point, my line of sight was cut off as a wall of ice cut Drudge and I from the rest of the group. A moment later, the pit fiend appeared in the gap next to us. Drudge must have really annoyed it with those arrows. Thankfully, as it was still recovering from its spell, I moved up to Drudge and took both of us beyond the wall. He shot me a grateful look before beginning to load his bow again.

A quick look around showed that everyone else had moved to the wall of ice. Victor moved forward towards it; I could see that Longhelim had been badly mauled. . Although the wall was opaque, we could see a shape inside; unfortunately, there was no way we could reach the figure beyond. Thankfully, I had a spell which could fix that though as green beam shot from my hands and a hole appeared in the wall, revealing the pit fiend which even looked startled for a moment. Victor surged forward and even struck it a couple of times.

It was then that we could see that the devil had another couple of bone devils with him. They both cast spells but both Drudge and Longhelim managed to side step the circular walls of ice that had appeared next to them this time. That was a stroke of good luck. Drudge shot another volley of arrows at the pit fiend but again, to little effect.

More importantly, Felix cast a spell and this time a green ray shot out of the priest’s hands and hit the pit fiend. His god must have been with him because the devil began to glow green! That meant that it couldn’t transport itself anywhere. This nullified a huge advantage that the creature had. Encouraged, Victor went in and managed strike the devil several times in one of his devastating combinations. Then the devil reciprocated and Victor looked badly mauled. It was obvious that the only reason he was still standing was the magical spell which I had put on both him and Longhelim.

Felix stepped up behind the warrior and healed him only for us to see the wounds on the pit fiend closing in the same manner as those of Victor! I had never seen anything like that and in the very limited records about pit fiends, nothing like that had ever been written. This had to be written down immediately, their ability to steal healing magic. It was unprecedented! More importantly, it became obvious that the priest could not heal either of the warriors while they were fighting the devil as it would just steal their healing magic.

I cast as spell which affected the bone devils, making them slower and weaker and Drudge began to methodically shoot them. The pit fiend tore into Victor again, finally beating his way through my defensive magic. Victor and Longhelim somehow were resisting the devils spells as well as his blows and it was also badly hurt but this point. The confident grin it had been sporting was long gone. Unfortunately, Victor looked to be on his last legs and the pit fiend was obviously gearing itself up for another mighty set of blows; which promptly fell on the warrior who fell over, burning.

At this moment, though, I finally managed to get one of my spells to affect the devil as a black ray shot out from my hand and hit it. It shuddered and looked at me; there was a lot of pain and suffering promised to me in that look. Then Drudge shot a volley of arrows at him and the devil staggered. I felt a shaft of hope. He actually staggered and looked badly hurt. With a snarl he gestured furiously and the very air shimmered in darkness and enveloped Longhelim and the others but at the end, they still stood. John ran in and tried to slash at the outsider with his dagger, or Freedom’s dagger, I should say but the devil struck out and hit him; yet, as he did so, he collapsed!

As he did so, Felix made as if to heal Victor but I shouted:

“Stop! You’ll heal the devil! He’s using some sort of sympathetic magic we don’t know!”

The priest stopped himself and then Longhelim moved forward and looked at the devil on the ground in front of him.

I shouted at the paladin:

“Hit him again! He’s drawing energy from somewhere!”

Without hurry, Longhelim struck a precise and mighty blow which crushed the skull of the pit fiend. I thought a heard a small moan from the Torch of the Burning Sky, but it may have been my imagination. Be that as it may, the body shimmered and then disappeared although as he did so, a disembodied voice grated:

“If not Leska then one of you. She too had good intentions once.”

I looked at the spot where the body had been and then asked what everyone was thinking:

“What did he say?”

John, ever practical, replied:

“Don’t know. Don’t care. Let’s go.”

We gathered Victor’s body and then I transported us to the area around the city of Bresk, capital of Dessan. That was the agreed mustering point of the armies arrayed against Leska and her Ragesian troops.

As we arrived, we could hear a great deal of shouting and troop movement. There was activity everywhere and for once, there was little attention paid to us initially. Felix quickly healed Victor and warrior rose to his feet. I could hear Longhelim whispering to him, so I presumed that he was being told what happened and where we were.

A few moments later, there was a shout as we were spotted and a squad quickly ushered us to a command post. There, we saw several individuals sitting down, looking over several maps and discussing.

I recognised Xavious Foebane the overall commander of our forces, General Gaspard, commander of the forces of Sindaire, Shalaadel of the Shining Lands and King Steppengaard. Each of these individuals also brought an entourage, many of whom I also recognised. Princess Shalosha was there, attending to her father; Generals Magdus and Danaava were there, looking a little uncomfortable as the only Ragesians, yet they both represented sizeable forces of well-trained Ragesian soldiers. I must say I was still very curious to find out just why they were willing to fight against Leska but the others seemed to trust them.

Simeon, Kiernan and the mages of the Lyceum were there of course as was Duke Gallo. There were other familiar faces but my musings were interrupted as Foebane spotted us and approached:

“Oh well done, all of you, well done! As soon as the ritual ceased, we were able to pierce the illusions and the magic that had been hiding Leska’s forces. Simeon, Kiernan and all of the diviners have been casting spells non-stop and have been very successful.

“Come and see this. We need to explain the terrain to you. Also, as you are some of our most powerful individuals, I need to go over your role in the coming battles.”

He led us to the table and showed us a map:

“As I said, you have succeeded admirably. Simeon and the others have been able to scry Leska and her surroundings. This is what we have been able to discern so far.”

He began gesturing at various points on the map:

“Leska is here, inside a canyon that leads to a cave in a mountain; this cave has two large dragons carved above its entrance. Beyond the carving is a tunnel leading into the mountain and it is there, in its centre, that we believe Leska is performing her ritual with the Heart. The defences of this tunnel are being handled by the Ragesian Sixth army which is encamped here. Our plan is to have you transport the armies to the East, out of sight of their camp where we will muster and march upon the enemy.

I have discussed the role of the various armies with their respective commanders and I believe I have found the roles where they will be most effective. “

At this point, Foebane looked around at everyone else around the table but no one said a word although I did notice that Shalaadel’s face briefly lost its elven composure, as if he had smelled something bad.

Foebane continued:

“For you, I have several tasks in mind but in general, I would like to you to be a flying squad of reserves, designed to support and shore up our forces. It will mean that you will be fighting alongside the army but also be on your own; I believe that with your flexibility, that will be your best function. It will also mean that you will need to get around the battlefield very quickly and to aid you in this I have a representative of the Wayfinders.”

He gestured and a figure stepped forward from the back of the tent:

“Tiljann!” I exclaimed.

And indeed it was; our Seelah companion from the Fire Forest but very different now. The shy, nervous fey being who looked around everything with a mixture of wonder and naïve incomprehension had grown into a far more self-assured person, now wearing the bright coloured clothes which were a uniform for Wayfinders.

Foebane looked her and then turned to us:

“I will want to give you a more full briefing as we get closer to the missions but that is the overall scope of your missions. Please go and see Simeon and Kiernan now; I think they have things to tell you.”

After that he turned to the map and began to speak to Steppengaard. Obviously we had been dismissed; as we turned to Simeon, I heard Victor whisper to Longhelim:

“Amazing! He sounds as if he knows what he’s talking about!”

The paladin nodded absently and then we faced the diviner:

“Ah, Faden, Longhelim, and the rest of you…..we have been able to find out a few things about Leska’s motives and what’s she trying to do:

In essence, she’s trying to bind herself to the Aquiline Heart. In some ways, the Heart is also the Heart of our world and if she does so, than her very nature will influence the Heart and therefore the world. Since Leska is bent on conquest, so the world will be enveloped in an eternal cycle of conquest. She is immortal and will be very difficult to kill. In fact, we believe the only method of killing her would be to break the Heart and the only item that could do that is the Torch of the Burning Sky. The Torch is an artifact of Flame and thus strongly associated with the Great Dragon of Fire; the Heart is associated with the Eagle of the Air; the Heart may be the only soul that the Torch cannot consume and thus this clash should result in the breaking of the Heart and the destruction of the Torch and also in the transformation of Leska into a vulnerable mortal.”

I interrupted at this point:

“Yes, but will that not destroy the world as well?”

Simeon looked troubled:

“Yeeesss……our research suggests that that will be one of the side effects of this, yes. Obviously, we need to do more research.

One of the suggestions is that if a sacrifice of a noble soul is made at the right instant, then the Heart survives, the Torch is destroyed and Leska becomes mortal but we are not sure of our findings yet.”

We just stared at him, not quite being able to believe what he had just said. We were supposed to sacrifice ourselves or one of us for this? After all we had done already?

Longhelim quietly said:

“Thank you Simeon. You have been most helpful.”

The diviner looked as if he wanted to say or tell us more but we had already turned away from him.

Longhelim walked out of the tent and we waited outside.

Kiernan hurried after us and said:

“We have a group of traitors we have managed to capture; individuals who decided to sell Seaquen or the Lyceum to the Ragesians; we will be using their souls to enable the Torch to move the armies to the Opaline Wastes.”

After informing us of that, he walked away.

We all began to prepare for the campaign. As we did so, John asked:

“So, does anyone have any ideas about the whole Heart, Torch, Leska, souls, end of the world, noble sacrifice, elemental Lord theory?”

Longhelim grunted:

“As usual, no one seems to have any hard facts. Our divinations have revealed a lot of myths and legends together with half baked ideas. We will just have to go along and do what we think is right at the time and what our instincts tell us. It’s worked so far. One thing we do know is that we have a very long and hard fight ahead of us.”

I had also been doing a little thinking and said:

“From what I gather, immortal doesn’t mean unkillable. Look at Coaltongue: he was supposed to be immortal but he was killed by Rhuark and his two girlfriends. I am also not sure why we have to destroy the Heart to make her mortal to get rid of Leska; we can just keep knock her unconscious and deal with her later.”

Felix replied quietly:

“I think that Leska’s soul is tied to the Heart in such a way that it is invulnerable until the Heart is destroyed.”

John frowned:

“Well if that’s the case, then surely the Heart is contaminated already?”

Felix shrugged:

“Longhelim is right. As usual, we know very little, suspect a little more and will no doubt be surprised by everything else.”

I muttered something under my breath that point.

Longhelim looked at me, took out his pipe and said:

“What are you saying, Faden? You know that you can say anything you like in front us.”

I voiced my concerns with more precision:

“Whatever we do, we have to be prepared for the fact that Leska will be ahead of us by several steps. She always has been. Look, Kiernan captured a bunch of spies, which means that there will be lots of more of them around; which means that as usual, she’ll know exactly what we are planning, where we are going and how we are going to be doing it. I also don’t like the numbers. She only has one army defending her? Where are the others? She’s got far more soldiers than we do. Where are her dragons and the rest of the devils? She had a pit fiend helping her in the palace for goodness sake!

Longhelim has the best idea; the divinations are useless. We’ll just have to take everything as it comes and act on our instincts.

One final thing though; Leska will have contingencies within contingencies. She will have planned for this campaign assiduously.”

Longhelim puffed on his pipe and we carried on with our preparations.

There is no need to go into the details of the movement of the armies but suffice it to say that it was as distasteful as ever. The sooner that artifact was destroyed the better. However, we were in the Opaline Wastes and they were as inhospitable as they had been described and very much lived up to their name. Hot, white, with the harsh glare of the sun hurting everyone’s eyes.

Thankfully, Foebane had given a speech before we used the Torch and that kept up the spirits of the troops.

It was at this point that Foebane took us to one side and said:

“As I said before, I plan to use you for a variety of roles; one of these is as raiding forces against the enemy. I and my advisors feel very strongly that the Torch should remain in the camp while you conduct these missions. It will be highly protected within our command post.”

I drew in my breath while John hid a grin. No one else said anything but Longhelim took his pipe out of his mouth and said softly:

“Thank you for your advice. I shall consider it.”

Foebane began to open his mouth when John interrupted:

“This command post of yours? Who’s protecting it? How is it protected magically? This camp is riddled with spies and agents of the Ragesians; you know it and I know it. What’s to stop them from just going in and taking it?”

Xavious replied:

“Simeon assures me that the magical protections are as secure as they can make them and the guards are the most skilled warriors we have.”

John just asked:

“So, so do the guards have access to the command post and if they do, what’s to stop them from taking the Torch?”

For the first time Foebane looked a little put out:

“I would trust those guards with my life!”

John answered that with a very simple sentence:

“Never forget, you are trusting them with your life!”

I interrupted at this point, asking quietly:

“ General Foebane, let me ask you this: would you have trusted Lee Sidoneth with your life?”

The general turned around to me, with a look of shock on his face.

I continued:

“Yes, your harbour master in Seaquen; whom you had all known of years; trusted for years; the one that was given one of the most responsible positions in the city; who then proceeded to kill several hundred people; destroy most of the town and nearly handed you to the Ragesians on a platter.”

He shook his head:

“That’s not the same.”

I looked at him sadly and said:

“No, it never is, is it?”

At this point, a runner came up to and began:

“General, you must come to the command post at once!”

He motioned us to follow him as we hurried to this tent. Obviously, it had not been set up yet as at the moment it was just a simple tent. The others were already over there and several scouts were obviously waiting for us before they began their reports:

“Sir, a large sandstorm is on its way, but instead of sand, it is actually fine grains of glass. Definitely magical in nature but so far our spell casters have been unable to identify the spell or the ritual. The enemy is also making a move, using the storm as cover. A column of infantry approaches from the east, a cavalry army from the north and a swarm of magical monsters from the west.”

Xavious rolled out his map and began to place the relative positions of the armies on it. He was muttering to himself something about pincer movements and then began to issue instructions to the various commanders. There was one tricky problem when he ordered Shaaladel to confront the swarm of magical monsters in the west and the elf initially refused, stating that his army contained an element of treants who were highly susceptible to flame and thus particularly vulnerable to the monsters.

This didn’t quite make sense to me on various levels, the first being as to why treants should be worried about fire from magical monsters as opposed to anyone else and the other being that if he was so worried about this, why didn’t he just order them to stay out of the engagement; the treants formed a very small contingent of his army but surely they could be excluded from one engagement; however, I suspected that the Elven King had a different agenda as he challenged Foebane’s orders.

Thankfully, Longhelim interfered, politely but firmly:

“Your majesty, you agreed that Xavious Foebane would be in overall command. Lyceum spell casters will be happy to cast magic on the treants that will protect them against fire. That should protect them; now please use your vast military skills against the swarm of monsters. They will be the most challenging of opponents and your knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses will be invaluable. Our other commanders do not have the knowledge to exploit these.”

Shaaladel looked torn between this mixture of flattery and rebuke but in the end gave Longhelim a slight smile and a nod, leaving the tent with his entourage. One by one, the other commanders left, ready to face the enemy onslaught.

Foebane approached us and said quietly:

“Initially, I want you to go with the Sindairean infantry. They are not as battle tested as the other forces and I believe they will react well to your presence. As you know, they are commanded by General Gaspard. Wayfinder Tiljann will go with you. Good luck!

Be ready, though. I may need to call you for other services during the battle.”

We left the tents, all of us busy with our thoughts.

Finding the Sindaireans was not difficult as they marched briefly and formed up to meet the enemy infantry. Although they were quite a mixed army, consisting of well armoured infantrymen wielding sword and shield, there were also groups of woodsmen, wielding bows and slings. Slightly to one side, there were also mixed groups of men who were mainly dressed in furs and hides and who had the most enormous swords, clubs and hammers. They were bearded and looked quite ferocious although they were milling around in apparent confusion. Finally, there were an inordinate amount of animals around; mainly wolves, dogs, various birds and several bears. These seemed to be sticking close to the bowmen.

The armoured men had formed in squares, with the archers in the center; the warriors in hides had no formations but looked like a formidable mob.

The storm of glass that was raging through our ranks proved to be more irritating than anything else and I could see that most of the army had wrapped themselves up in cloaks or clothes. This seemed to forestall the worst of its fury.

Tiljann had joined us and she looked every inch the wayfinder. She greeted us warmly and when I asked her how she had been and what she had been doing, she went into a detailed description of her time under the Wayfinders. It was obvious that they had a convert and a new member. She had been a very diligent student and her Wayfinder abilities would become invaluable in moving us around the battlefield. General Gaspard was with us, listening with interest and obviously trying to calculate our most tactically effective role when a shout was heard and the enemy appeared…….

And they literally appeared as there was a shimmer in the air and suddenly a Ragesian formation was shockingly close to our lines. Somehow, the Ragesians, or Leska had found a magic which allowed her to mask an army! Again, this was magic that had never been recorded before and for a moment, I regretted that magic in general had lost such a gifted individual as Leska. The research that she had been doing, the speed of her advances, the sheer power of her abilities easily made her Coaltongue’s rival.

This was only a brief thought though as Victor shouted:

“There, that’s their command group!”

As usual, I had let myself be distracted. I would never make a soldier. I looked up but didn’t see anything except more soldiers; there was one group looked different than the others and then I realised that it was because they were not human but rather, they were devils; bearded devils to be exact, their distinctive, stiff, strange tusks jutting from their chins. There was also a pair of very distinctive creatures; huge humanoids….giants.

Gaspard looked at the infantry in front of him and smiled confidently:

“Right, we have this lot. You go and take out their commanders! That lot!”

The others were already drawing their weapons and loosening clothes and implements when Tiljann asked:

“Where do you want to be?”

Victor and Longhelim looked at each other and the latter said:

“Right on top of them, if you can manage it.”

So, we crowded around the Wayfinder and a moment later we were in the midst of a several formations of Ragesian infantry and next to another formation of bearded devils. The two giants were coal black, making them members of the sub-group known as fire giants due to their affinity to that element. They were among the most powerful of their kind.

We had managed to put a little magic just before we moved and that served us well now. Drudge let off a volley of arrows immediately and that disrupted one of the Ragesian formations as he expertly picked off their officers, making them lose cohesion. Victor and Longhelim began to swing expertly at another of the formations and they quickly waded deep into their ranks. Felix held, waiting for his healing to be called upon but unfortunately, he was badly hurt by one of the formations; John kept still; I was aware that this only the beginning of the battle and mindful that I had only so many spells per day, I decided to use a different approach. I turned myself into a dragon; a green to be exact, remarkably similar to Your Highness, the green dragon we had met in the great swamp just outside of Seaquen.

Using my bulk and the corrosive acid breath granted by the magic, I sprayed the enemy formations; all of this allowed Longhelim and Victor to concentrate their skills on the giants and then the devils, both of which they had done admirably. After I finished by tussle with the infantry, I saw that one giant was down at Victor’s feet, while Longhelim had carved a large hole in the formation of the devils. One giant was still facing him but he looked decidedly uneasy about this; Victor was using their momentary distraction to decimate another infantry formation before turning to the devils as well and between them, he and the paladin dispersed that formation as well.

I was not sure if the commanders were in this group as I could not see anyone who looked like a general but they certainly looked like a formidable force in comparison to the infantry columns facing the Sindairians. That left just a couple more squads of infantry and one fire giant. Victor and Longhelim turned as one and began to lay waste to them. The giant was felled by Longhelim without striking a blow while Victor waded into the infantry and proceeded to decimate their ranks. The two last cohesive squads were dispersed and ceased to exist as effective fighting units, joining a general rout.

Left alone, we quickly began to take stock and Felix, together with John and to a lesser extent Longhelim, began to heal everyone of their hurts. Despite the fact that this initial conflict was not our toughest test, we were still hurt. I transformed back into a dwarf and began to look anxiously at the overall battle. Scanning the melee told me little. The battle was fierce but it was difficult to tell which side was winning. Especially since our brief skirmish was one of the first conflicts on the battlefield and not everyone was engaged yet.

Still scanning, I asked Longhelim:

“Should we be thinking about getting back to Gaspard? I don’t like the look of this, especially as there are forces of mass destruction wondering around invisibly. With that sort of power available to them, only the gods know what sort of forces Leska has managed to secret around here.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t Longhelim who replied, but Tiljann:

“General Gaspard has a corps of Wayfinder messengers at his call. As soon as he needs us, he will send one to give us our instructions.”

I stopped looking at the battlefield and turned to her:

“Are you sure that’s safe for you? Using your powers will make you a target; the enemy will recognize and target you.”

Grimly, she replied:

“We all must take a risk to win the battle and we Wayfinders find that we are most useful being employed as battlefield messengers.”

I turned back to my observation of the battlefield while saying:

“You are all very brave.”

Following our brief discussion, the others were mostly healed and were also beginning to look a little restive. Victor and Longhelim were speaking quietly, discussing the weakness of the devils, which was followed quickly by Felix turning to me and asking:

“Faden, what was that magic that masked the Ragesians? I have never heard or seen the like in any of the religious tomes I have read. Is this some sort of new magic?”

Still scanning, I replied:

“You won’t find it in any tome, because it is new magic. I don’t know where she found the time, but Leska is also a caster of fearsome ability and intellect. I do not know the source of her power or these new abilities; nor do I have any idea as to how they work.”

Victor just grunted at this point and said:

“Invisible armies; every general’s dream; if you can’t have the abilities of the Torch then this will come a close second.”

Just at that moment, a figure appeared in thin air, dressed in the Wayfinder uniform, namely very bright. He turned towards us and quickly shouted:

“The battle to the North is going badly. You……”

At that point, a huge ball of fire hit him and us. We were mostly unscathed but the poor messenger must have already been hurt previously, because he collapsed. Tiljann did not look well either and I realised that she had very little defensive magic on her.

Then, a moment later, a horde of devils appeared. Well horde is too strong a word. They were several disciplined squads, standing in formation. There were four squads of bearded devils, all of whom were controlling a series of formations of lemure devils, wretched, shapeless creatures which surged across the ground. They were the lowest of devils, slaves to most other kinds and used as blocking formations in battlefields. They were now being hurled at us.

Finally, standing tall at the back, was a creature which I assumed was the general or leader of this army. It was very large, vaguely humanoid, with large batlike wings and a long tail; it was also characterized by a pair of large, twisted horns. I recognised it immediately:

“Careful! That’s a cornugon or horned devil. They are not as powerful as pit fiends but almost. They are also the generals of hell. That’s the leader of this army. Drudge, use your silver arrows and get them blessed! It’s also very resistant to spells! They come from the hells of battle!”

That was about as much as I could say as the hordes of lemures surged towards us in a concerted mass.

Just as they arrived, I saw something strange about the devil; he had something strapped onto his back: a battle standard which jutted above the battlefield. It was an evil looking thing; a red axe on a field of black and even without any spells, I could feel its magic emanating across the whole battle.

I shouted at the others:

“That standard…..destroy it!”

And then everything was drowned in lemure devils who pretty much masked our sight. I managed to get one powerful spell into them, one which reached deep into their ranks and badly weakened them. It would make their limbs feel very heavy, as if they had run all night without any rest. It was a very good spell to use on this group and even stopped their surge for a moment as they staggered slightly.

Then their masters drove them forward and the lemures tried to overrun us again until a volley of arrows from Drudge dispersed one of their ranks. This allowed Victor and Longhelim to move into the gap provided and form a wall of swords which threatened to decimate any lemure in reach. That did not stop the creatures but it did allow the warriors to form a barrier.

Unfortunately, this had the result that the bearded devils noticed me and threw a storm of javelins in my direction. Many missed but a good collection also hit me, which sent me scurrying to Felix for some healing. Thankfully, the priest was able to help me and this also allowed Victor and Longhelim to move forward to actually begin to clear the lemure formations as opposed to just acting as a defensive barrier.

Just as it was looking as if things were beginning to get under control, the Cornugon decided to take a hand and a bolt of lightning went through me, Felix and John, who actually dodged the bolt. Ahead, I could see the dreadful sight of the devil floating in mid-air preparing to cast another spell. However, he had made an awful tactical error, or maybe he just didn’t know but as soon as Drudge was presented with such a tempting target, he didn’t hesitate. A powerful volley of silver arrows sped towards the Cornugon and I saw them strike the creature deeply, suggesting they had also been blessed. Rather than stay up there and cast another spell, the devil quickly dropped to the ground and used his squadron of devils as a shield.

In the meantime, both Felix and I cast a magical defense against lightning but that allowed the bearded devils to throw another volley of javelins at me. Again, many of them hit which was eating into my magical defense so I promptly cast a spell which would render me unseen. Judging by the way the warriors were dealing with the lemures, especially Victor who had just managed to disperse two of their formations in rapid succession, I thought that this skirmish was under control.

Unfortunately, this was far from the truth and suddenly, the Cornugon appeared next to us; Drudge was overwhelmed by the presence of this creature and fled in panic. Taking advantage of the fact that he was fleeing, the Bearded devils began to throw their javelins at Drudge; thankfully, this allowed Felix to heal Tiljann, who was badly hurt. Longhelim and Victor were able to engage the Cornugon and hurt it badly.

The Cornugon realised that he must have miscalculated as he faced both warriors at once and this time transported himself away; Victor and Longhelim faced the phalanx of devils again, but it was much reduced. Drudge was more himself now and then Tiljann moved to Longhelim:

“Let’s go get the devil!”

The paladin looked at little askance at her and then the Bearded devils who had formed a defensive formation around their leader as much as they could but there were definitely gaps. Tiljann seized Longhelim they took advantage of this.

Moving next to the Cornugon, Longhelim struck him with the Torch and the devil collapsed although he did not disappear back to this plane; it was still alive and recuperating. Drudge was shooting into the formations of Bearded devils and dispersing them while Victor was cutting his way through the remaining formations of lemures. The Bearded devils reacted viciously to Longhelim and cut into the paladin. Felix moved to heal the paladin but the remaining devils struck at him and hurt the cleric badly. I had turned into the shape of a dragon and was getting ready to breathe onto one of the Bearded devil formations when I saw Victor had managed to disperse one.

Despite this, the devils were fanatics and they still surrounded the body of their leader. In my dragon form, I breathed against one of the devil formations but did not hurt them badly as devils have a very strong defense against corrosive acid. It did distract them though as my shape appeared and that allowed Drudge to put another of his volleys into them, making that unit ineffective.

While all this was happening, John and managed to sneak next to the prone Cornugon and promptly sawed off its head!

That was the final straw even for the fanatic devils and they dispersed into the rest of the melee.

We began to heal rapidly as we knew we also had to go to the battle in the North. According to the courier, our help was needed badly there.

Tiljann had obviously studied the area quite carefully as she delivered us to the Northern battlefield. There, we saw the Dassenian corps, struggling against the enemy. The main reason for this was immediately apparent as the enemy cavalry was flying! How they managed this feat was unknown but again it was a phenomenum that had been completely unknown in military history before this and therefore our army had not arrayed any tactics against it.

A flying cavalry army is not something you can wargame for.

Judging the formation and efficiency of the enemy, they had obviously trained long and hard with this new ability. Our spies had been completely unaware of this new development by the enemy and it was beginning to tell. Our forces were suffering badly.

Then we noticed a command group in the distance; a figure sat on a horse, another of those banners jutting out from his back; surrounded by at least eight squadrons of cavalry. Drudge took a look at them, gauged the wind and then let fly, hitting one of the squadrons. John also fired a spell at the mount of the commander. This caused an immediate reaction as the whole group began to move forward slowly, trotting in mid-air of course; then the movement became a canter, which turned into a gallop. Drudge fired off another volley, this time at the commanding figure and he must have had some success as we saw several arrows hitting it. It immediately took out a potion and drank it and disappeared……promptly followed by all his squadrons into invisibility!

Longhelim immediately looked at me……….

I stammered, shocked at what I had just seen:

“Some kind of sympathetic magic……never heard of anything like……..don’t know how they are all flying either…..”

Felix was immediately casting a spell, one which would turn everything around him within a certain distance, visible. I wasn’t sure if this spell would work but at least we were trying to do something. The battle continued to rage around us.

John began speaking rapidly:

“I can see them; they’re still galloping towards us. The commander has a really nasty looking bow. Oh, he’s drinking another potion, a healing one this time, he’s got better…..oh, so has his horse….obviously more sympathetic magic as Faden calls it……oh, I can see this is going to be so much fun!”

We were listening to John’s commentary with some anxiety as we could not see the enemy but that quickly changed as they charged into the range of Felix’s spell which negated their magic and the cavalry squadrons appeared, lances leveled straight at us. They had formed a ring, galloping on our position from the North and East.

As soon as they appeared, Drudge shot one of his devastating volleys at them, which badly hurt it but there remained a charging core which looked very menacing.

Immediately, I cast a spell, disguising it to fool the Inquisitors as I had been taught in Gabal’s School so long ago. Suddenly, a wall appeared between us and the squadrons charging us from the East. The wall was immediately visible as it was one of my magical walls and it had also been affected by Felix’s spell of negation but its main function was to disrupt their charge and allow us to shelter beyond it.

Unfortunately, that still left the three squadrons coming from the North; one seemed to be far quicker than the others and charged into us, managing to maul Drudge badly. As it did so however, there was a flash and it veered in the air, almost staggering. Horses and men flailed at each other and they seemed to lose their sense of direction. I remembered that Felix had warded us with a powerful spell of his God which had adverse effects on those who struck us; he told us that it literally brought down the wrath of his God on his enemies and they would go blind upon striking us; he was grinning as he told us this rhetoric but whatever the power source, it was still a very powerful and useful piece of defensive magic; it had obviously affected the Ragesian squadron, who were now blind.

The squadrons from the East had wheeled around in beautiful formation, obviously highly disciplined and began to maneuver, positioning themselves in another charge from South. I managed to put another wall to the South of us, frustrating them and forcing them to make yet another detour. Drudge, in the meantime managed to fire another volley into the squadron he had managed to diminish earlier, this time dispersing it fully and then he moved next to Felix, who healed him. John quickly took advantage of the slight gap in time and enclosed the other squadrons in the North in a mist which also solidified, badly hampering their movement.

Drudge then shouted:

“Faden, if you have another invisibility spell, give it to me! I’m going after that general!”

I complied, thankfully out of sight of various Inquisitors in the squadrons then I lost track of Drudge as I had no method of detecting him.

As the remaining cavalry squadrons wheeled around the southern wall, preparing to charge us from the West, Victor flew towards them, disrupting their ability to gain momentum. I also managed to cast another spell at one of them, this time causing a fine cloud of golden dust to settle on them, again obscuring their vision. The other squadron became embroiled in a conflict with Victor, who swept through their ranks like some vengeful god of war, leaving a trail of destruction behind him as he carved his way through their formation. This destroyed them as a fighting unit.

In the meantime, one other unit, the blind one which first hurt Drudge, had felt their way along my magical wall and was attempting to locate us by our shouting and spell casting. I had to admire their discipline. I do not believe one of our units would still be attempting to fight if they had been blind but the Ragesians were anything if not courageous.

However, Longhelim began to work his way through the ranks of these. At this point, the other three squadrons had fought their way out of the fog only to be confronted by Victor who was ready for them. Although badly hurt, the warrior positioned himself strategically and in another set of perfectly executed moves, he dispersed two of the new squadrons. No matter how often I had seen him do this, there was still something majestic in watching Victor positioned and then ploughed his way through the enemy as they fell in front of him by multiples or one by one.

However, that left one squad with a visibly faltering Victor in front of them; a squad no doubt truly raging after what he had done to their comrades. John then attempted to cast a spell on this remaining squad, the same spell of a golden cloud which I had cast but he was countered by the Inquisitor. Thankfully, this allowed Felix to heal Victor, who had been joined by Longhelim to confront the last fully functioning squad.

It was difficult to tell how Drudge was faring against the general but I assumed that the latter still lived as his squadrons were still assaulting our cavalry from the air. Since it was likely that whatever new magic allowed them to do this was linked with him, as judged by what we had seen previously. Thankfully, the situation back here was under control. Victor and Longhelim had dealt with the last fully functioning squad and now we only had the blind ones confronting us. It was difficult for me to comprehend how a group as large as this could function while they were blind but they were still a coherent unit although not as dangerous as previously. Therefore, they caused little trouble to the two warriors who dispersed them easily at this point.

Suddenly, the flying squadrons of Ragesians floated gently to the ground. The Dassenians literally roared
as they realised that their recent tormentors were now in their reach and charged them with fury. We all comprehended what that must have meant and Victor flew over the wall, presumably running towards Drudge. He was quickly followed by Longhelim, John and Felix. As usual, I was last since, as I have said before, dwarves are not made for speed. As I turned the corner, I saw a figure lying on the ground. Victor and John had reached it and a moment later, I saw Drudge appearing as Felix approached the area with his spell which negated invisibility.

I glanced back and I saw that the battle between the main forces was now far more equal and that the Dassenians had the momentum. The Ragesians must have been taken by surprise as they lost their ability to fly and were unable to recover; they were slowly being driven back with large casualties. It was a moot point if they were going to be able to recover from this tactical set back.

I reached the general’s body just as both Drudge and Victor had cut into the mount which was showing aggressive tendencies near his master’s body; so the horse joined his master. That being done, I turned around to watch the battle which had now turned decisively. The Ragesians had noticed that their general had fallen and that must have had a hugely detrimental effect on his forces, judging by the gains which the Dassenians were making.

Of course, we also made sure to take the Ragesian battle standard. I was still unsure as to what effect it was having on the battles but it was certainly highly magical and judging by the way the Ragesians were reacting after its absence, it was certainly making a difference.

We also took advantage to do some magical healing. Despite the fact that we had won, most of us were still hurt but thankfully, Felix, John and Longhelim had magical wands which were able to help us recover. We also held a brief discussion as to what our next course of action should be, whether to stay here and aid the Dassenians or return to the Sindaire army.

It was during the course of this discussion that Drudge suddenly stopped us and pointed at a spot in the distance. I couldn’t see what he was trying to show us but that changed quickly as a ball of light sped towards him. I was able to recognize immediately as the lantern archon came to a hovering stop in front of Longhelim:

“May it please you, my lord, but the Lady Shalosha requests your presence on the western front.”

Interesting; there had been no mention of Shaaladel but rather Shalosha; I suspected that the elven king would rather cut off his arm that ask for help from mere humans or dwarves. Be that as it may, we quickly organized ourselves and magically transported ourselves to the Western front.

The terrain here was different. While still a desert waste, it was hillier and therefore more dangerous. Visibility was much poorer and they had their own version of our glass storm; it consisted of black rain that did not look healthy. I didn’t get a chance to find out what it did because my attention was immediately captured by the being standing next to Shalosha. It was a female angel but no ordinary one; so far it was the most powerful good being I had ever seen; a planetar. They were often called the heralds of the good gods and some of the most powerful individuals on the celestial spheres. Only solars had a greater standing in the hierarchy of the Heavens. She had the emerald skin characteristic to planetars and looked like a tall, stunningly proportioned human female.

Shalosha looked worried by smiled at us as we appeared:

“Welcome and thank you for coming. Please, may I introduce Arisha, my companion.”

The planetar nodded at us with a smile.

Shalosha continued:

“We have been able to contain the monster horde with one exception. Three enormous flaming constructs are playing havoc with our forces. We are not sure what they are but they are extremely powerful. They seem to be made of fire, use weapons and are impervious to most magic. We would welcome your help in dealing with them; and please, hurry; the more we delay, the more damage they cause.

If you are willing, Arisha will take you to the location where they were seen last.”

Quickly we nodded to the Princess and cast a few more protective spells before we followed the angel. As we travelled, we saw several disturbing sights; the husks of several treants, burned to ash; groups of slain elven warriors, bleached white as if consumed by a wave of something; disturbingly, unlike the bleached surrounding, the ground beneath them was burned black. And as we continued, we saw a group of motionless figures, except that a group of shadows was hovering over each corpse; it took me a moment to realise what the shadows were doing: checking to make sure that each figure was fully dead rather than unconscious; if it was the latter, then they could be turned into a shadow thrall. With disgust, I realised that the creatures were literally harvesting the fallen.

I took a quick look at Longhelim; he was looking at the scene in front of us and had also realised what was happening but he told the rest of us:

“The elves can deal with the shadows; we have to harbour our resources against these fire golems.”

A few moments later, it became easy to discern a trail; the ground looked as if a small trail of lava had moved through it. The edges of the trough were still burning slightly while the ground looked hot to the touch. As we followed this trough, soon we saw a glow. We approached more cautiously and then we could see them. Fire golems did not do these creatures justice. They were veritable titans made stone, with fire bursting from their joints. Their eyes glowed with flame. Their breastplates seemed to be white hot in the dark rain. As it fell on them, it raised continuous steam, surrounding them with an eerie smoke. Just at this moment, they seemed to be stationary, looking for something and it was with horror that I saw a large contingent of humans nearby, trying to hide from these creatures; I recognised them as well. They were from Gate Pass!

Almost as an afterthought, there were several mobs of humanoids nearby, no doubt scavenging after the golems or titans or whatever they were.

We surveyed the scene for a few moments. Nothing seemed to have noticed us but that would not last, so Drudge shot a volley of arrows into one if the golems. They seemed to do little but make it turn around towards us. It also caused the mobs to do the same and one immediately launched a cloud of spears, arrows, javelins and small rocks towards, or more especially, towards Drudge who was badly hurt. One of the titans lumbered towards us while the other two made throwing motions towards us; balls of fire appeared in the air and hit our group but thankfully, our magical protections absorbed the burning. Several of us also burst into fire but again, the protections took care of that.

One of the titans approached just as Arisha put up a spell, which prevented another barrage of missiles from the mobs from hitting us. Victor moved in and after being struck himself hit the titan so hard it actually flared a little from the gash his sword made. He was quickly joined by Longhelim who then became the target for the titan’s wrath and was almost pummeled into insensitivity. Thankfully, Felix moved up and healed the paladin. I was keeping my spells at this time. I had one final powerful spell left but I wanted to choose the correct target for it and one of these titans was just right.

Drudge was concentrating his fire on the mobs and they were suffering. Volley after volley went into them and they almost broke. However, a moment later I found that crafty Felix also had one spell left as he shouted:

“Faden, find out if the mobs have any magic against fire!”

So I took out a wand, a very feeble wand which spat out a small curtain of fire; however, it was enough for me to see that several goblins and bugbears in that mob were a little burned so I just nodded at the cleric.

A feral grin broke on his face and he first checked the mobs carefully; I assumed he was making sure there were no Inquisitors amongst them; when he failed to spot any, he cast his spell and a series of huge balls of fire roiled amongst the mobs, lingering and burning; they were like angry clouds of flame, engulfing it screaming victims. Suffice it to say, that was too much for the few remains of the mobs and they ran, screaming and smoking, towards some small hills nearby. They were finished as a fighting force.

Victor and Longhelim took the opportunity to finish the titan which caused the other two to lumber forward. They had been lobbing balls of fire at us, which had done little but now it they saw that the situation had changed. However, that gave me an opportunity to use my last powerful spell as a barred, invisible cage of force appeared , entrapping one of them. They were so large, my spell could only entrap one but for our purposes, he stopped being a danger to us.

That left just one. Longhelim and Victor moved towards him and I changed shape into one of the powerful frost worms which we had seen. These being fire creatures, our reasoning was that they would suffer more greatly from cold attacks. As the warriors were assaulting the last titan, I also used the worm’s breath weapon on it, which obviously had an effect. Much encouraged, I then changed into one of the strange blizzard elementals, which had assailed us and the Lyceum mages.

They were powerful creatures and one of the first things I did was send a freezing blast of air at the titan. Although it managed to dodge, it was obviously still affected by the cold to a greater extent than usual and I was determined to continue attacking it this way. So, although it hurt Victor quite badly, I and the warriors managed to destroy the final titan.

While healing, we waited for the next call for help.

The final fire golem was still being a nuisance, launching balls of fire through the cage; especially at me, and these were particularly annoying as I was still in the shape of a frost worm so I changed and moved to Felix for some much-needed healing. Simultaneously, Longhelim called out to the Gate Pass soldiers for some further information. Unfortunately, they began running away as soon as they realised we had noticed them. Ultimately, very sensible of them though as the fire golem soon began lobbing balls of fire in their direction, making them move even faster.

That decided Drudge, who had been pondering as to whether to waste his arrows on the creature or just leave it alone. With his characteristic speed, he loaded a full volley of arrows and loosed. He continued to do this as Felix was healing everyone from their hurts. The fire golems had been very tough and deadly.

As this was happening, I asked:

“So, what now? Do we stay here, go back to our first encounter or go back to headquarters?”

Longhelim thought for a brief moment and then replied:

“We should go back to Heaquarters; they are going to want to know about these battle standards; and it would be good to know just what they do. I’ll use one of the spells from the Torch to get us back.”

So, once Drudge had dealt with the last fire golem, we transported ourselves back to our camp. There, we reported out findings to Xavious Foebane; he frowned at the description of the banners:

“Well, while this is unexpected but I suppose it is no great surprise that Leska has such magic at her disposal; the Ragesians were ever extraordinary magical innovators; look at how they obtained the Torch; to this day, I don’t know how Coaltongue conjured the infernal thing, but with it, he conquered three quarters of the world; and the only reason he didn’t get Shahalesti is because Shaaladel was allied with him.”

He turned and summoned a runner:

“Go and fetch the mages Simeon and Kiernan; let’s see if they can find out anything about these standards.”

The two mages came running quickly and opened their mouths as soon as they saw us, only to be interrupted by Foebane:

“Reports can be made later; first, find out what you can about these banners.”

The two mages retired to a corner of the command tent and began casting various spells, most of which I recognised so I quickly approached and left them a pile of equipment which had belonged to General Titus.

We refreshed ourselves a little but it did not take long for Simeon and Kiernan to return with their results.

Simeon spoke first:

“From what we have been able to ascertain, commander in possession of this standard can share any spell he casts on himself or herself with his army; this can be through a scroll, potion, wand or direct casting. We have not been able to do a full divination on them but that is the gist of it. As usual with Leska’s magic, we have never seen anything like it. But if we can get these to our generals, they could make a huge difference to upcoming battles.”

Xavious looked shocked and then thoughtful. My personal thoughts were whirling as I tried to work through the permutations of what I had been told. The possibilities were staggering but I was interrupted from my musings by Kiernan, who approached us:

“This is Titus’s equipment; there are some powerful pieces here and they have the following qualities……”

He then went through all the dweomered pieces and explained their qualities. There were indeed powerful pieces there. Quickly, we distributed them and just as we were finishing, Foebane turned to us having finished talking to his advisors:

“We believe that the elves should be the first recipients of one of the banners; it sounds as if you have managed to keep the situation under control from the two other attacks but the elves seem to be under the greatest amount of pressure. Please take this banner to Shalosha, who no doubt will get it to her father.”

So we prepared to leave again and transported ourselves back to the spot where the Princess had been; she was no longer there but one of her staff was waiting in the same spot. As soon as she saw us, we were led to the Princess. She had set up her command post in a sheltered vale, with a tray of sand upon which was a remarkably drawn map. There was no sign of her father.

She looked up as we approached:

“Ah, I was just going to send for you……”

We looked around and saw that Arisha, the planetar was with her so she must have been aware of our neutralizing of the golems.

Longhelim interrupted her first:

“Apologies Your Highness but we must interrupt you. This is most important.”

He then went on to explain what we knew about the battle standards and also Foebane’s assignment of one of the captured ones to her forces. She frowned and said:

“Well, that explains much. Thank you for this. It will help with the battle. Indeed, it will greatly help with the next phase of the battle here, for which I will need you. We have managed to locate the enemy command post and the commander of the 6^th army. His name is general Euserius de Fiaba and he is a powerful necromancer, who surrounds himself with undead. If we eliminated the general, it will greatly weaken his army.”

We spoke of several plans and finally left with a force of four hundred elves and the Planetar, as well as Shalosha herself. Once we approached within a fairly short distance of the enemy’s command post, Shalosha cast fly on herself and used the power of the banner, sharing it with her force. The general plan was to attack the general from the air and try to avoid his undead bodyguards as much as possible.

We needed Shalosha’s spells as we were all desperately short of resources.

Shalosha’s force swooped down onto the General’s undead army while we flew as fast as possible to the command post. As we approached, we were able to recognize his bodyguard and it was indeed formidable. We were able to reach within a fairly short distance before a creature seemingly made of shadows flew up towards us. It looked like an enormous bat; it was Felix who shouted:

“’Ware, Nightwings!”

I had only heard of these creatures and vaguely. They were undead creatures of enormous powers, loyal only to the most powerful of practitioners of necromantic magic. I had never studied them but dimly I remembered that not only did they have a formidable array of combat skills, they were also powerful spell casters. They were true servants of evil. If this General Euserius really did command these creatures, that made him a necromancer of superlative knowledge and skill.

Briefly taking my attention from the approaching Nightwing, I saw a truly incongruous sight; the figure of the general was quite unprepossessing. Even his elaborate skull mask could not hide his receding hair line; and despite his black robes, his slight stature could not be hidden, together with a tendency to plumpness. However, the strangest sight was the presence of one of his skeletons holding an umbrella above his head, while another held his robes above the muddy ground. Another skeleton nearby was holding a banner.

The figure had turned his head towards us and was making shooing motions to his other nightshades. I counted another three nightwings and a pair of huge humanoid creatures; these were more powerful beings than the nightwings, often called nightwalkers and their nature was very similar.

Shalosha cast a spell and suddenly we were all moving much faster; as was the rest of her force. Those banners were truly powerful magic.

The first nightwing flew in and attempted to strike Longhelim but the blow bounced off the paladin’s armour. Then Victor stepped in and gave it a mighty slice; it was difficult to tell just how badly the creature was hurt as the Living Blade just seemed to sink into the shadows of the bat. General Euserius cast a spell, which I recognised. It was one that I used so often I knew it by heart. I was startled as I saw that his casting of it was quite crude but it still hurt. I braced myself as the magic attempted to wrest every drop of blood and water out of my system; I managed to resist the worst of the magic but I saw that others had not.

As the other creatures flew towards us, Drudge let loose a full volley of his arrows against the necromancer; he managed to knock one of the arrows coming towards him out of the air while the others struck him. It was difficult to tell of his reaction behind his mask but as soon as he could he cast a spell which surrounded him in a dome of stone; moments later, a high pitched voice screeched:

“Someone do something about that archer or I will flay you!”

We could not see him and therefore, Drudge was unable to fire any further arrows against him. The silver lining to that was that at least he wasn’t casting spells against us.

This had the unfortunate effect of the enemy concentrating their efforts on Drudge. The Nightwings and the Nightwalkers all let off thin black beams at Drudge. I recognised it as death magic. Drudge was highly resistant to magic but when five such powerful casters concentrated on you, it was difficult to survive. And so it was: the gallant archer fell before one of the black beams.

Things looked grim indeed.

Felix shouted:

“We need silver weapons; and they have to holy!”

Longhelim and Victor looked at each other and I was fairly certain that neither the Torch nor the Living Blade possessed those qualities.

Looking over the forces of three nightwings and two nightwalkers arrayed against us, Longhelim shouted:

“Time to go?”

John replied:

“We do not have anything else to throw at them. Faden and I are out of spells. I’m going to pick up Drudge!”

Felix began to get ready:

“Everyone gather around me.”

I joined in:

“And me….one of the few things I have left is a transport spell.”

At that point, there was a massive burst of light; so intense that it hurt the eyes. I blinked a few times, trying to rid myself of the spots on front of my vision. Still, if it was uncomfortable for me, it was devastating to the nighshades. They wailed in pain and writhed in the light, all of them literally smoking as they tried to get away from the merciless light. One of the nightwings dissipated while Victor took advantage of the confusion caused by the spell; he stepped forward and in another of those cunning moves literally decapitated two more of the nightwings, who again dissipated into the darkness. The final nightwing had already been repulsed by Felix’s holy power while other nightwalkers were staggering and pawing at their eyes.

I looked back at Shalosha who looked satisfied with the results of her spell.

It still left the formation of skeletons and General Euserius.

The nightwalkers were desperate now as they flailed wildly, obviously blind. One cast a spell at our area. I recognised it as a powerful enchantment which befuddled the its victim, making them take random actions which made no sense. Thankfully, our mental defenses ignored this but more unfortunately, it became obvious that Shalosha had been affected as she suddenly attacked the Planetar. Victor drank a potion and flew towards the dome of stone which the General Euserius had formed around himself. He did this as Longhelim was dispatching the last two of the nightwalkers. They had both been badly hurt by Shalosha’s spell already so although they did manage to cast a few spells which caused some hurt, they were ultimately spent forces. Ultimately, they dissipated into the nearby darkness.

Quickly, I approached the paladin and said:

“I have a little magic left and one of these is my ray which will destroy a chunk of that stone wall. If you and Victor get ready, I’ll do that once you give me the go ahead. I will be very surprised if he was still there but I think we have to act as if he is, just in case.”

Longhelim just nodded and also flew onto the dome, speaking quickly to Victor, who nodded. A moment later, they both set themselves and then the paladin looked at me. I cast a spell and a green ray shot out of my hand and hit the dome, creating a hole. Nothing happened. As expected, General Euserius, his skeletons and the banner had gone, no doubt magically transported to a safe place.

By the point, the Planetar had managed to dispel the enchantment on Shalosha and we quickly gathered ourselves. The Princess was now facing leaderless forces so her task would be much easier while we decided to report back to headquarters.

We managed to return via the Torch and immediately reported to Xavious. He was looking a little less tense and told us:

“We are not in such dire straits any more; thanks mainly to your intervention, we have managed to get things under more control. I still need a word with our intelligence department about how they managed to get things so wrong; we have calculated that Leska has somehow managed to hide her Fifth Army without our knowledge; that is what we are facing. There are approximately twenty thousand soldiers and forces which had appeared in this desert without our knowledge.”

I cleared my throat and said to him:

“Don’t be too harsh on them; it has almost certainly something to do with those banners and that is magic that took all of us by surprise. In all my reading and research I have not come across anything like that; neither has anyone else to my knowledge.”

He nodded to me and continued:

“Well, after your actions this morning, my reports indicate that the enemy has lost roughly twice as many soldiers as we have; so far as we can tell their casualties number about six thousand. They have also lost several high ranking beings, including the two you have managed to eliminate. We believe that the enemy is withdrawing all on fronts.”

He looked us over more carefully and then said:

“I can see you are exhausted; I know you have also had your adventures before this battle so please go and rest. You deserve it.”

Without any further prompting, we quickly left his presence and retired to a small corner of the command tent. Mindful of treachery and assassination attempts earlier, we wanted to be inside a safe area but made sure to keep out of everyone’s way. The exception to that was when Xavious would consult with either Longhelim or Victor about some matter; he obviously respected their insights.

The day passed remarkably quickly in that manner and we finally managed to relax a little. In the late afternoon, I even felt a little more refreshed and energetic, especially bearing in mind the forced cramming we had been forced to do the day before.

Towards evening, Longhelim came to us:

“We need to leave here. We cannot relax and we will always be in demand. It will be impossible for the spell casters to learn their magic if we stay. I have been asking around and command already has a mission planned for us tomorrow, whether we are ready or not.”

I looked curiously at him at that comment and he continued:

“They found the source behind these strange storms and weather. There is a powerful druid sitting on top of a column near the Dragon Gates. The column is huge and magic has been cast on it which prevents anyone just transporting themselves there. So we will have to fly up there I guess. He is also being defended by a squadron of Wyvern Knights; and you can bet that he will be a very powerful individual.”

I looked at everyone and added:

“And no doubt he will have several devilish friends.”

Longhelim just nodded and continued speaking:

“I know of a place we can go where no one will disturb us; it is far away but that is not an issue if we have the Torch. It is quiet and peaceful and above all, deserted. We’ll go there and rest. Command can get in touch with Felix magically if it becomes necessary.”

So that is what we did.

The night passed uneventfully; for once, there were no urgent summons to camp, no emergencies for which we were uniquely qualified, no threats to the mission. The spot we chose as our resting point was near the sea and the sound of the surf was soothing and relaxing. The next day, I woke up very refreshed
and ready to deal with Leska’s druid; I was also intrigued as the previous night, I had formulated a theory which would allow me to somehow change the nature of the energy of my spells. Usually, when I cast a spell such as a lightning bolt or a ball of fire, I had to specify the energy to which it was attuned at the time I learned it; but by changing a couple of details in the spell, I was sure that I could vary the type of energy at the time of casting; I had never tried that before but I was determined to see if my postulation was worked. I must confess, in a strange way, all of the different types of magic on show from Leska and her minions had inspired me; they had pushed the barriers of the study of magic by years in seemingly only a few months. It had shamed me; I was supposed to be one of Gabal’s more gifted students and here I was, just repeating everything I had learned; Leska and her followers were so far ahead of me in not only developing but also in the use of and practice of new magic that it beggared belief. Every time I met one of her more favoured followers or disciples, they showed an unexpected and exciting development in the discipline of magic. It was quite astonishing; they must have been working on the theories for years if not decades.

In my own small way, I was determined to advance in new directions as well.

So, I memorized my spells that morning with my new changes. It made my spells longer and more complicated so I could not learn as many of them but I felt it was going to be worth it. John and Felix also learned their spells and as usual we put our heads together to make sure we complemented our defensive spell capabilities which would cover everyone. Drudge, Victor and Longhelim practiced their combat disciplines as usual.

Once the magic was ready, it was cast on various people. Defences against energy attacks, mental manipulation, physical blows, movement restriction……all of those were counted and discussed. Once we felt as ready as possible, one of Felix’s special breakfasts inside us, the priest also used one of his transport spells to get us back to command in the Wastes……..

And we arrived at a scene of chaos, confusion and devastation. People were running around, there was no leadership or cohesion and it looked as if there was no one in charge. Most importantly of all, where the command tent had been, there was only a gaping, black hole in the ground.

We approached the space and looked at each other. I already had a dreadful suspicion as to what had happened. It was very much in keeping with Leska’s extraordinary foresight as well as her spy network that she was able to assassinate the leadership of her opposition in one devastating strike. I was not sure how she did it, especially as Simeon had taken me through the security measures present on the command post quite painstakingly; and they were indeed very impressive. Unfortunately he seemed to have forgotten one specific factor; time and again, Leska had shown that she was usually two or three steps ahead of the leadership of the Resistance, in both strategy and tactics and that she developed spells and magic in such unusual and innovative ways that had never been used before. Whether she was inspired by her hellish allies or she just had an extraordinary ability to improvise, re-think and invent was moot; the end result usually meant calamity for her enemies.

As we examined the smoking hole and Longhelim was just turning in my direction, there was a shout:

“Longhelim!”

We turned around to see Torrent hurrying towards us. She looked disheveled, her hair askew and dark rings under her eyes.

“Where have you been?” was her first question.

The paladin replied: “Nowhere in particular but a pleasant place far away where we could recover and learn our spells.”

She looked distressed and angry, almost shouting: “No one knew where any of you were. We looked for you all over the camp!”

The priestess was obviously distressed and Longhelim answered gently and evenly:


“We decided to leave the camp for the night. We have had a long exposure to Leska’s assassination squads and her ability to recruit traitors. We were not happy with the security measures employed by the command group and told them so; we also left word with both Simeon and Kiernan where we were and how to get in touch with us.”

Torrent grimaced:

“Simeon and Kiernan were both victims of the first strike!”

Victor stepped forward at this point:

“Could you please tell us what happened?”

Her shoulders slumped as if a great weight had been placed on her shoulders and she spoke in almost a monotone:

“It was very early in the morning; a group of trusted guards, including some of those who were stationed outside the tent suddenly turned and began forming a perimeter around the tent, killing anyone who wanted to approach; others took out some sort of containers and began throwing them at the tent. Then they began throwing more things inside the tent which produced a series of explosions. It was horrible. The guards all fought to the death; they were fanatics and killed many skilled fighters before succumbing. From what we can gather so far, the command group is a total loss. General Gaspard of Sindaire, King Steppengaard of Bresk, General Xavious Foebane, Magister Simeon and his deputy Magister Kiernan have all perished.”

Longhelim turned to me and asked:

“How could this have happened? What were these things that they were throwing at the tent? Could Leska really have suborned squads of guards without the command group knowing about it? It seems incredible!”

I was thinking furiously, trying to remember certain things I had read and heard in the corridors of Gabal’s Tower and the rooms of the Lyceum.

“The guards could have been possessed or bribed or Ragesians all along. We have certainly seen elements of Leska’s extraordinary ability to penetrate Resistance security. Let’s face it, we have said it ourselves many times, when it came to spies and assassins, the Lyceum and the Resistance were amateurs; do you ever remember meeting any member of the Resistance command who was the spy master or in charge of security? I certainly don’t! So, the fact that Leska was able to place a phalanx of guards around the command tent is no great surprise. It’s also the reason we left it and chose our own camp. We all said that we were not happy with many elements of the security around the camp and the tent.

As for the containers, I have heard of a type of weapon called a null spellbomb which has a similar result; the Sindairians were experimenting with them but in a very limited way because they were fiendishly expensive for what they were but bearing what I read about them, they certainly should not have been able to affect the magic in the command tent; having said that, we have seen Leska and her cohorts do things which break the laws of magic as we know them time and again so I suspect that these spell bombs were the basis for what caused the collapse of the command tent.

Once that happened, they probably began throwing in enormous amounts of alchemical fire.”

Torrent was staring at me with horror as she suddenly began to envisage what had happened and how remiss the command group had been not taking these possibilities into account. Then she began speaking again:

“That is not all that happened last night; somehow, while this was happening here, another group of Leska’s spies penetrated the elven encampment and took Princess Shalosha.”

We all looked at each other and John spoke for all of us:

“That is very unfortunate. I think that there will heads rolling in the elven encampment this morning; literally. Shalaadel will not take this lightly.”

Torrent nodded and continued:

“Indeed not. Shalaadel has taken over command of all the armies and declared that all Ragesians will be wiped off the face of the earth. He has also left orders. If anyone should find you or see you, he has said that your priority is to eliminate the druid on the top of the column. His creation of the glass storms severely curtail his tactical movement.”

We nodded. Despite our dislike of the elven king, he made military sense. While the storms were in existence, it was difficult for our armies to move.

Victor spoke up at this point:

“So, Shaaladel is in overall command now, which makes sense but who is in command of the individual national armies?”

Torrent replied:

“I don’t know about the Sindaire army, but I assume it is Gaspard’s deputy; Duke Gallo is in command of the Brescian forces; and I believe you are in command of the Lyceum forces, Longhelim.”

The paladin grimaced as he realised the truth of her words. Then he said:

“I need to do something about that druid first and then we will see to our forces. Hopefully, we will be seeing you soon, Torrent.”

Our mission had suddenly become far more urgent. There was no doubt that by decapitating the military structure, Leska had entered into her end game. So, Felix cast a spell and we all turned into clouds and flew high up into the air and sped on the wind until we reached a location above the druid. This did not prove difficult and as we flew above, we could see both the squadrons of wyvern knights who defended him as well as the infantry formations on the ground who were acting as his guards from a ground assault. Although it was difficult to ascertain, some strange runes seemed to have been carved on top of the column and the druid himself was in the shape of a bear.

We communicated mentally and decided that the simplest and most direct tactic was the same that we had used in the Imperial Palace in Ragos; that was to fly above the column and then dismiss this spell and drop from the air onto the pillar with me casting a spell that would guarantee us a safe landing just before we hit the stone. That would allow us to engage the druid face to face for a few moments before his wyvern guards became involved.

So, without more ado, we turned into mist and flew high above the column. As previously, this tactic worked brilliantly again and as we suddenly dropped in front of the bear, we saw that the creature’s head had part of its skull exposed, making his visage appear as if it was wearing an Inquisitor’s bear skull mask. Longhelim and Victor immediately attacked!

The first thing that became immediately apparent was that the bear had the same sort of defensive spell that made his skin look like rough granite. We knew that spell; in fact, I had cast it on Victor and Longhelim before we embarked on this mission. We also saw that the bear did not seem at all fazed to see us; obviously, the enemy had been briefed on our presence; yet another sign of the incredibly efficient intelligence service that Leska employed.

Several arrows impacted upon the surface of the bear, chipping at its fur slightly. The beast just seemed to shrug and the chips replaced themselves; it was impossible to tell if it had cast some magic or if it was some magical ability. Then, it let out an enormous roar and if wyvern bodyguards had not been aware of us previously, they were now. Another unpleasant surprise was just how hard both Victor and Longhelim were finding it to penetrate its skin. They had both struck him several times but he seemed to be unaffected by their blows.

I tried to cast my spell to speed everyone up but suddenly I felt as if it was being suppressed. Again, I knew what that was immediately; it seemed that the wyvern squadrons had inquisitors as well. The warriors attempted to hit the druid again but were still finding it very difficult; he must have had powerful magic to resist them. Drudge managed to fire an enormous volley of arrows at one of the wyvern squadrons and he decimated it; unfortunately, the other two flew by and as they did, they let loose two volleys of crossbow bolts at Victor, who fell over, burning. Longhelim managed to land several blows on the bear this time but even so, it looked as if it was barely hurt.

Suddenly we all began to glow; I was not sure what that had achieved but the druid must have done it. A moment later, a whirlwind arose around us but as usual, wind had no effect on our group. More importantly, to those of us who were inside it, we were immune to any bolts fired by the wyvern knights as they flew by. Unfortunately, this was not the case for Drudge, who was very badly hurt by their volleys. Suddenly, they seemed far more dangerous than the bear. Then there was a shout from Longhelim:

“I can’t get close to him! He’s blocked me somehow!”

Again, I wasn’t sure what he had done, but somehow, the paladin could not get close enough to hit him with the Torch. More importantly, he then moved and literally sat on Victor’s burning body. I stepped out of the whirlwind and cast a powerful draining spell at the druid. It was difficult to tell if he was affected but everyone else was more concerned with the wyvern knights; John managed to cast a spell which enclosed them in a cloud of fog. As he did, he shouted:

“They’ll have a hard time flying out of that one!”

I understood that it was the more powerful version of that spell, which also hampered movement. Clever thinking. The other squadron was attacked by Felix, who caused a column of flame to strike them from above; this was devastating to their formation and they almost broke up but somehow managed to maintain their discipline. This must have been one of their most elite squadrons. I then cast a spell which caused a storm of lightning bolts to erupt in the centre of the formation and that finally dispersed them.

I then turned my attention to the druid. I began to pepper him with a series of force missiles. They were not particularly powerful but they were very difficult to defend and I could see that they were penetrating his granite carapace. Longhelim had also had a very good idea: he summoned his horse and mounted it. The steed also had a powerful magical lance, which, ironically, we had also take from one of the wyvern riders in the past.

He then lunged forward and managed to skewer the bear with it. For the first time, the bear roared in anger and frustration. John then hit him with another black beam, another draining spell although this one was not as powerful as mine. The beast, with another growl, scooped up Victor’s body in his paws, waddled over to the side of the column and threw it over the side. It was then that we noticed that the bear was also flying. John, with his usual extraordinary reflexes, cast a spell on the body which slowed its fall. Then immediately afterwards, he cast a flying spell on himself and dove after our plunging companion.

Felix moved up to Longhelim and cast a spell on the horse, which allowed it to move onto the air, allowing Longhelim to skewer the bear again. Despite this, it seemed to be more frustrated at being unable to hurl Victor off the precipice as it looked at Victor’s corpse. I couldn’t see what happened but whatever it was caused the bear to roar again, so I assumed that whatever it was, had not worked. I pumped some more force missiles into it and then Felix cast another spell which finally caused the bear to slump and begin plummeting to the ground.

The reaction to that was instantaneous. Bolts of lightning began to rain from the sky, many of them hitting this column, which could not stand this sort of treatment. Over the howling wind and the bolts, we were able to hear a shout:

“I……got ….’tor. Help……”

Longhelim moved over to me and shouted:

“I need to fly. John has Victor but he’s only just holding onto him.”

Thankfully, I did have a flying spell and quickly cast it on the paladin. While I was doing this, he caused the Torch to manifest a column of fire over the last squadron of wyvern knights who were laboriously extricating themselves from John’s spell. The sheer power of the Torch’s spell dispersed the squadron and then allowed Longhelim to fly down and retrieve Victor’s body. As soon as he arrived, Felix cast a powerful healing spell on the fighter and moments later we had transported ourselves back to the main encampment. I suspect it was not a moment too soon as we felt the column tilting beneath our feet as we cast the spell.

Even in those few moments after we arrived at camp, we could feel that the storm of glass had abated slightly so we hoped that the druid was out of the struggle for the time being.

Back at the camp, we found that the army was getting ready to mobilize. With the abatement of the storm and the defeat of the Ragesian forces, Shaaladel, now commander in chief, decided that it was the best moment to assault Two Dragon Arch, the entrance to the fissure that ultimately led to the Heart of History, Leska’s lair.

As I watched the camp being packed, I approached Victor and Longhelim who were talking quietly to each other:

Interrupting them politely, I asked:

“Should we go and see Shaaladel to ask about Shalosha?”

They had obviously thought about this as Victor replied:

“We think it is best to leave it for the time being; Shaaladel knows where we are. If he wants us to do something, I can guarantee that he won’t be shy about telling us what it is.”

And through his magic of the mind, John added:

“And I bet that there are at least half a dozen elven spies watching us as we speak. Let’s not forget that Shaaladel will do anything to get the Torch as soon as we defeat Leska.”

I did realise the remark about the spies; we were all aware that the Torch was Shaaladel’s most pressing priority after the defeat of Leska. After all, his Shining Lands had been complicit in Ragesian conquests for decades, happily riding on Coaltongue’s coattails. We had already discussed this and agreed that it would have to be a bridge that we would cross when we came to it.

I nodded to the two warriors:

“You’re probably right. It is better to leave the supreme commander to the task of winning this war,” I said, mindful of potentially listening ears.

Longhelim smiled and added:

“Now, I am debating whether we should use the Torch for transporting the armies to the Arch. While we think that we have cleared the way, I just don’t trust Leska not to have prepared more surprises along the way.”

I thought hard about it and then said:

“She has consistently been several steps ahead of us; the one thing she cannot do anything about is our use of the Torch; if there is something unpleasant waiting for us at the Arch, it would be far better to face it with an army behind our backs as opposed to our own; and you know Shaaladel will send us there first.”

Victor nodded while John said:

“Let’s use the Torch.”

Longhelim nodded in agreement and began to look for someone with whom he could consult so that the troops could be assembled in the easiest manner. Torrent was nearby, reading a dispatch. He began to walking towards her and then spoke quietly to the cleric.

Soon a group of commanders were clustered around the paladin and everything was being organized; including the distasteful aspect of the sacrifices.

Thankfully, nothing impeded our progress and after some organizing, our army was assembled in front of Two Dragon Arch. It was a vast stone gateway leading into the cliff, rectangular in shape, with an unusually constructed arch on its upper edge, as if trying to make the cliff into an elaborate building. Each side of this archway was grasped by a vast carved dragon.

The gateway was a tunnel that led into darkness.

We were all looking at it dubiously. Victor was shaking his head and talking quietly to the rest of us:

“Going in there would be suicide. The tunnel is so fortified, Leska could easily hold out for months; and I don’t think we have months.”

John was looking straight into the darkness:

“Scouts?” his voice rising as if asking a question.

“Only if we want to kill them,” replied Drudge. Then he added: “We have good scouts but this is underground scouting, which is a completely different discipline.”

Longhelim looked at me:

“Any possible magical methods?”

I replied: “Possibly but we lost many of our most powerful diviners in the raid last night; and to be frank, we don’t have any particularly sophisticated, experimental spells to scout. Leska will have thought of all the obvious ones.”

We continued discussing various ideas and theories as I saw that Torrent was approaching us, with a companion in tow. He was a dwarf, a slightly strange individual with a pale countenance, bulging eyes and a white beard.

The cleric spoke first:

“Longhelim, Victor, let me introduce you to Master Dougal Haius. Dougal here built the Ragesian defences on the tunnel ahead.”

We all looked at the strange dwarf with interest. This could be a goldmine of information but we were also very cautious. If our past adventures had proved anything, it was the Leska was a mistress of intrigue and treachery.

The dwarf spoke in a throaty voice as if it was dry or he wasn’t used to speaking a great deal:

“As the priestess said, I am Dougal Haius and until recently, I was an unwilling member of the Ragesian Seventh Army. I built the defences on the tunnel ahead.

I will give you the details of these if you help me. At the end of this tunnel, there is a command bunker. It contains the leadership of the 7^th Army: namely General Kavalla, Inquisitor Sinaelius and Phaaugsmat, an enormous green dragon. The second in command of the army is Commander Anastasius. He has been in secret communication with the Resistance and should you be able to eliminate the three previous beings, command of the army falls to him; he is willing to surrender the army to your commander.”

We looked at Torrent, who nodded her assent at this claim.

Dougal continued:

“The 7^th army has been asked to fight to the death in the tunnels. Those boys don’t deserve that. Especially not for that masked harpy!”

Longhelim looked at him and said:

“Will you excuse us please Master Dougal? We would like to discuss your proposal in private.”

We went a little apart and Longhelim began:

“So, is this an opportunity or a trap?”

I mused: “It does seem very convenient; and tempting. Leska has proved herself to be a mistress of assassination and treachery time and again. The one thing that I don’t understand and that makes me think that there may a grain of truth in his words is, why do it? Why spend weeks if not months planning an incredible defense and then just tell your enemies exactly what and where it is? Surely, one of the most powerful aspects of a defense like this is surprise.”

Victor was nodding:

“That is quite true. We have no doubt that that tunnel is as fortified as one could make it. There is no point in saying it is a trap because we already know it is. As Faden said, the next most powerful aspect of the tunnel is the nature and combination of the defenses and that is what he is willing to give us.”

Longhelim took out his pipe and began loading it:

“Ultimately, we have very little choice. We will have to go into that tunnel. The more information we have the better. So, should we accept the dwarf’s proposal?”

Slowly, we all nodded.

Approaching Torrent and Dougal, we looked at him and Longhelim said:

“We will accept your proposal.”

He then gave us the details and they were as formidable as we expected.

The tunnel was approximately a mile long. Overlapping zones of magical defenses were spread along this distance. They included wards which were inimical anyone who was not by nature a Ragesian. These were complimented by traps which threw sheets of flame, bolts of lighting and cones of acid. There were also magical diseases and waves of negative energy. Symbols which drained your strength and glyphs which caused the rupture of internal organs. All of these were supplemented by cunningly disguised areas trapped for rockfalls and there were murder holes and killing grounds all along the tunnels. In fact, it would be fair to describe the whole tunnel as a killing ground.

Transportation magic was highly restricted within the tunnel and it was also warded against divination.

Should we be able to negotiate the tunnel, it led to the round entrance of a chasm leading down into the depths; this entrance was girded by a walkway which contained several defensive bunkers including the command bunker that Dougal had mentioned previously. The command was inside said bunker with the exception of the dragon who usually settled itself on the roof.

The description, while expected, left much room for thought.

We debated possible solutions and tactics to deal with these defenses for some time but in the end were always thwarted by our limited knowledge as well as our perception of the resources available to the enemy. While we could possibly neutralize some of the magic present in the tunnels, we could not deal with all of it. John was an expert in finding and dismantling traps and deadfalls but he could not dismantle all of them and unfortunately, all it would take would be one mistake. He could even dismantle some of the magical traps but the same problems applied. We could throw our army at them, employing Shaaladel’s tactics for these situations but that would cause many, many deaths.

And that did not even take into account what state we would be in to face the command group, who sounded like a very serious proposition indeed.

In the end, I broached an idea which I had been thinking about for some time but hesitated to put forward because it was risky for Felix:

“All right, this is a last resort, but the only course of action I can think of is that Felix re-learns one of his most powerful spells. The spell he would re-learn would allow us to travel through the ethereal plane for a brief time and by pass the defenses; it would also allow us to assault the command group directly, without engaging the defenses or the bunkers around them.”

The priest looked levelly at me:

“We all know what re-learning spells at short notice would do to me.”

I replied:

“Yes and that is why I said it was a last resort. If anyone can think of another way to do this, then I am willing to listen; but it’s a mile of corridor, heavily fortified magically and mundanely with all the resources of the Ragesian Empire and under the supervision of the most gifted mage of her generation. Even under these circumstances, I am gambling quite heavily that she has not managed to defend the ethereal plane either. If she has, then we will have rethink and I am not sure if we have the time to do that.”

Felix sighed:

“Yes, I know you’re right but I’m not looking forward to meeting her in such a weakened condition. Anyway, I’ll do it! I can’t think of any other way to getting there either so we’ll just have to jump the command group through the ethereal.”

John interrupted our conversation:

“Why do we have to jump the command group at all. Why don’t we just move through the ethereal, past the command post and go straight down the chasm?”

Victor frowned at this:

“I don’t think that leaving a powerful enemy behind us is a good idea.”

John replied to this:

“Normally I would agree with you but in this case, there are several unusual circumstances which we have to take into account. First, the bunker is guarding the chasm named the Heart of History; it’s supposed to be bottomless, a place where time has no meaning as well as various other strange effects. Now, I think all of us take quite a large part of this with a pinch of salt and put it down to mythical poetic license but we hope that Leska is down there somewhere. I would also take a gamble that she is quite deep inside the chasm so this general will probably take some time to reinforce her. Also, it is unlikely that she will go herself because that would mean abandoning her command and generals do not usually do that. More likely, she will send the Inquisitor and possibly the dragon. However, by the time they get there, I am willing to take the chance that our fight with Leska will be over, one way or another.

I am also thinking that if we take on the command group, we will not be in any shape to fight Leska and her guards.”

We all stood silent and still; I was pondering John’s words and I presumed the others were as well.

Victor was the first to speak:

“Those are very good points, John.”

I had come to a decision:

“If we are going to do this in the manner I suggested, then John’s course sounds the like the best way of achieving our confrontation with Leska.”

Longhelim took out his pipe and loaded it with tobacco. As he lit it, he said:

“Good. We are decided then.”

Felix, Drudge and Victor all nodded and the priest retired to re-learn his spells. It was going to be a very tiring process as I well know from experience.

In the meantime, Longhelim and Victor went to brief the commanders of our army.

The hour went by fairly rapidly. Felix did not look at all well after his studies and prayers but that was to be expected. The warriors returned, looking at little put out. Longhelim told us:

“Well, overall, we have an hour to reach Leska and defeat her. After that, the army is determined to charge the defenses.”

I started at this:

“Charge the defenses? What would be the point of that?”

Longhelim puffed on his pipe and Victor replied:

“Well, according to them, the world is going to end imminently, so they will try to rush the defences to belay that. That is what Shaaladel is planning anyway.”

I snorted:

“That’s Shaaladel’s plan? Charge the defenses? Why am I not surprised. Well, we’d better get going then. Oh, by the way, I will have to take the shape of a dragon and you will have to grab hold of me as I tug you along. We’ll move faster that way.”

You're driving me nuts here. So close to the finale.

Everyone nodded and we roped ourselves together, just in case something happened and someone lost their grip. Then we were all ready and suddenly everything became gray and insubstantial. I could see the surrounding area but it was as if I was staring at it through a murky window on a dark winter’s day. The outline of everything was blurred. I changed my shape and everyone took hold of me. Then, tentatively, I tried to move through the ground. Although I moved slowly, it was effortless and so I moved down quite some distance and then changed direction and moved towards the Heart of History.

The journey there was short and without incident although quite peculiar. I had never travelled in this manner before and I took a little time to get accustomed to it but we managed. No one fell off, lost their grip or drifted off in the ethereal plane. We did not see any other creatures either. It was as if we were swimming in a grey sea.

A little time later, we emerged just on the cusp of the entrance into the chasm. The reality matched the description we had been given with one exception. It was a huge opening; but suspended above it was one of the teleportation beacons. Clever really: if one used a transport spell, he or she would be sucked into the vicinity of the beacon and then drop into the chasm. As we moved in, we also noticed a large serpentine shape on the roof of the most substantial of the bunkers. It was a very different dragon than the one we had me previously, more like a giant serpent with wings, but there was no mistaking its green colouring and the intelligence in its eyes.

As we emerged, it stirred and raised its head, as if it could feel that someone or something had entered its lair but after glancing around momentarily, it settled down again. We noticed all of this as we flew past and then made our way down the chasm.

Again, the journey was uneventful and we went down some distance until we could hear rushing water. As we approached, we could see a rushing river below us. The noise was caused by the emergence of several jagged rocks emerging from the surface. As we approached, we also saw a few skeletons impaled on the rocks. The river disappeared into a tunnel in the distance.

Suddenly, as we neared the bottom, our eyes were caught by movement. A large shape flitted around us, obviously capable of looking into the ethereal. It was another dragon, this one of a kind I had never heard of before. It was insubstantial and did not have any wings. We could see through it as if it was undead yet it was not. Its skin was a kaleidoscope of images, a running narrative of famous historical events. I recognised many of them, including Shaaladel’s crusade against the Fire Forest of Innenotdar, the creation of the Torch and Coaltongue’s death at the hands of the assassin Rhuarc in Castle Korstull. I only had a moment to notice this though as the dragon looked at us and then seemed to spin around and disappear. In that instant though, we suddenly felt a wracking pain and a feeling as if we had aged decades; I spun around and suddenly I saw lines in the faces of my friends I had never seen before; gray hair as well as grey beards whereas they had been young before. Everyone seemed to sag as if time had settled on their bodies and souls for that matter. Somehow, the mere presence of this being, whatever it was, had aged us all. I had no doubt it had affected me as well.

Then the dragon disappeared in the darkness.

At this point, we all had to leave the ethereal plane as Felix’s spell was about to run out. Thankfully, we had all managed to either fly or walk on air so we didn’t fall into the water. Then we began to follow the river.

A few moments later, I felt as if some magic had been triggered and Victor’s ring flashed. The defensive capability of the ring had been triggered which meant that there were magical defenses down here as well. This warned us to cast various divination spells, which indeed proved useful.

As we followed the river, we found several more magical traps which John managed to dismantle. He was proving very skilled at this. As we advanced, we began to hear the roar of a waterfall. This indeed proved to be the case and as we descended even deeper into the Heart, we suddenly saw the same insubstantial dragon again. It repeated the same ritual as it flew towards us, and then it flipped itself in midair, almost like a fish quickly changing direction but causing us a brief flash of agony; by the time he had gone, we were all old. Our hair was white, our faces truly lined, gaps had appeared in our teeth and we ached. We ached all over. I was even feeling the weight of my magical pack.

I suppose it is not everyone who is given the ability or privilege of seeing what they looked like at an advanced age but I could have happily foregone this. Dying of old age was one of the few things I had not anticipated when the decision was made to follow Leska into the Heart of History.

Then, in the distance, we saw the flicker of a fire, or torch. As we approached it, Felix warned us that there was another magical trap; thankfully, John again proved equal to its power and removed it. Once he had done that, we saw that the fire marked an entrance into a tunnel leading into a wall; a narrow winding tunnel, perfect ambush terrain.

Unfortunately, we had no choice and with Victor leading and John second to deal with any possible traps, we began moving down the narrow, twisted way.

I am not sure how long we walked down that narrow, twisted passage, but it seemed like hours. Although we had our own light, it still felt dark. Every so often, we would bump into a stone out cropping or trip over an uneven bit of stone on the ground. Well, at least I did; I suspect that more nimble individuals such as John and Drudge avoided all of this easily but despite my subterranean heritage, I was fairly useless in this environment. To make things worse, as we walked, it was definitely getting warmer and more humid, making us sweat and my backpack definitely began the chafe. Of course, the fact that physically I was several hundreds of years old didn’t help either.

Thankfully, nothing untoward occurred to us during this very unpleasant walk and when we finally emerged from the tunnel, we beheld an very unusual sight. In front of us was a huge cavern which literally resembled a dragon’s maw. It was full of lava which was the main cause of the heat; several strange spires spew lava from some source even deeper than this one and at the far end of the cavern was a flickering curtain of fire which briefly seemed to reveal a continuation of the corridor beyond.

Our side of the cavern showed many husks of people or beings who must have made it as far as here before succumbing to old age, if the dragon we met was responsible. The eerie red glow, the flickering of the flame, the corpses on the shore all gave this opening a very sinister feeling.

Just as we were beginning to look at the curtain of fire and discuss our next course of action, our friend, the ghostly dragon rose out of the lava and looked at us again. I steeled myself for the next aging process but this time it did not happen. It seemed to look at all of us and then waited, as if expecting something.

The others looked at me and puzzled, I asked:

“What?”

John rolled his eyes and replied:

“I forgot! You’ve got that spell which blocks your mind from enchantments, don’t you? The dragon, it spoke in our minds and told us to prove our worth. The only way we can think of doing that is to tell him what we are doing here and why. Get you notebooks out, Faden!”

Grumbling slightly about why it couldn’t just have asked that in the first place, rather than giving us a taste of what it felt like to be old, I took off my backpack and took out my narrative. As usual, Longhelim was going to be our spokesman and although he had done this many times to different people, it didn’t harm to have a look at the latest things we had done.

So, after a little time, Longhelim began.

I wasn’t sure why but the paladin seemed to be off. His voice did not resonate as usual, he forgot several of our earlier exploits and had to stop and consult my notebooks several times. It made of a very disjointed, halting narrative. It wasn’t like Longhelim, who usually had an extraordinary memory and used the tone of his voice to either slow or quicken his story telling. Usually, I thought he was far better than even the Wayfarers, but not this time. He kept stumbling over the words and most importantly, it felt as if he knew he was making a hash of this which made him irritated and made the performance even worse.

Thankfully, he finally got into his stride and his tale improved around the telling of our adventures in Castle Korstull. Everything became all right when he began to narrate our meeting with Jorine and the gnomes. It may have been that meeting them recently had calmed him down after that, the tale he told became the usual Longhelim masterpiece.

Having become very nervous as to how the ghost dragon was going to react to the earlier tales, it became obvious that the dragon accepted our tale as our muscles began to strengthen, our limbs younger and aches and pains generally disappeared. I saw that everyone’s hair had turned back to its natural colour rather than the white it had been; backs straightened and skin became tighter. In short, we were back to our original age. That done, the ghostly dragon sank back into the lava.

Longhelim breathed loudly and said:

“Well, I pulled that one out of the fire.”

“Or the lava,” quipped John, receiving a dirty look from the paladin in reply.

While the others were still discussing these developments, I was looking at the lava and the curtain of fire. I had an idea and said to the others:

“I am going over there to take a look.”

With that, I became a fire elemental and stepped into the lava.

The others just looked at me as I glided through the cave and approached the curtain. Thankfully, nothing attacked me and I was able to move to the far end and ascertain that the curtain did indeed block the way onto the corridor. Satisfied, I moved back to the others and changed back. I told them what I had discovered and what I wanted to do next:

“We could transport ourselves with the Torch just beyond the curtain but……if I was Leska, that would be exactly the place where I would put a magical trap of the kind we found earlier. I am not sure what it did but it certainly did not seem very nice.”

John added:

“Those magical traps were evil and I concur. That would be exactly the place to put one or more.”

Longhelim looked down the cave and asked:

“So, what would you suggest?”

John grimaced:

“I don’t know. Ideally, we would send someone like me down there look down the corridor but I don’t have Faden’s talents to get through the lava; simultaneously, sending Faden down there would just put him at risk; I have a lot of respect for your magic, Faden, but in this case, even if you were able to find one of those traps, you would not have the slightest idea of how to dismantle it. It takes expertise of a particular type.”
I just nodded; everything John said was true.

At this point Felix chimed in. The cleric had been quiet and was obviously thinking.

“I could get us there; past the initial part of the corridor which could be problematic. I have a spell which burrows partly through another plane. It’s not a long corridor but it would get us past the initial part of the corridor which is the problem area.”

With that, Felix began to walk above the lava and cast a spell that went through the corner of the cave next to the corridor and made a short parallel corridor through another plane. The cleric, together with Victor, then carried everyone into the corridor and we moved into the existing pathway, well ahead of the area guarded by the curtain of fire.

After that, the corridor seemed to be the same as previously, stone, very narrow, twisting and turning with jutting stones specifically designed to trip me up or jab me in the side. Again, John was checking ahead for any traps but thankfully, he did not find any.

As before, we moved along like this for some time until we came onto another barrier. It was fairly similar, except that this time the curtain of fire was solid and did not flicker. It did seem a little odd though so I studied it for a few moments.

The more I studied it, the more familiar it became until I was certain I knew what I was seeing:

“That is one of the indestructible walls; the ones that even I can cast; but someone has combined it with another wall, this one made of fire. It is a clever combination if a little needless. Still, we must be close.”

Suddenly, the dragon appeared. I am not sure what happened but all of my defensive spells expired but my memory became filled with all the spells I had that morning.

I was quite put out:

“What happened?”

John spat out:

“That….bloody dragon! It turned up, said: Be bold – you have my aid to defeat the tyrant – and then all of our spells expired but I have all the spells I had this morning. I think it was trying to help.”

At this moment, Victor raised his fist, an old signal that told everyone to be quiet. A few moments later, the warrior said:

“I can hear chanting beyond the wall. If I can hear it, they can hear us.”

John said:

“It may have been trying to help but it did exactly the opposite. Leska knows we are coming and because we have to stay here, casting our defensive spells again, she has the time to do exactly the same. “

Then he voice down became a mutter which I could just make out:

“Be bold he says – easy for you to say; you’re already dead.”

Longhelim said:

“No help for it. We might as well get on with it. Leska is probably behind that wall so this is it. Faden, you can get rid of that flaming wall, can’t you?”

I nodded but was already busy, working out what to cast on whom and when.

Combining my magic with Felix, John and even Longhelim on occasion was quite time consuming and it took some time to make sure that the spells were as effective as before. One notable omission was the spell that Felix flippantly called the breakfast of champions but which among other things made us immune to all poisons. It took too long to cast and consume so we had to do without it.

Finally we were all ready and with a nod from Longhelim, I cast a spell which destroyed the flaming wall.

We advanced slowly until we came to an opening which seemed to lead into a cavern. As usual, Drudge ghosted ahead and then rapidly returned. He looked wide eyed as he whispered:

“There is an enormous cavern beyond. A slow, massive heartbeat is reverberating around it. In the distance, I saw a massive red crystal which pulsed in time to this beat. This has to be the Heart of the World. There’s a lot of other white crystals were around the cavern and several streams of red lava or boiling blood or something like that which lead from the Heart Crystal into the walls. The whole cavern is lit with an eerie red glow coming from the crystal.”

He narrowed his eyes as he continued to whisper quickly:

“You can hear this beat through the very walls. I saw that there were also numerous stalagmites from the ceiling. There were also jutting stalagmites from the floor. A figure in the distance was standing next to the heart; probably Leska but it’s difficult to tell from this distance.”

It was at this point that we all heard a voice. No doubt augmented by magic. It spoke of faithful service, a trust betrayed, a treacherous lover, endless maneuvering and plotting and finally a loss of hope and a determination to plunge the world into eternal crucible of war, thus honing the people for future trials.

However, our immediate attention was captured by the four very large red dragons standing at the cave entrance, staring at us.

Felix immediately shouted:

“ ’Ware! They’re undead!”

Now that he said it, it was obvious. The dragons were indeed undead.

We had delayed long enough. Victor surged forward and engaged one of the dragons. I managed to cast a spell of speed on the rest of us. Unfortunately, in fact we had delayed too long as suddenly a thick, viscous cloud enveloped us. It was a spell I recognized; there would also be an acidic element to this fog as well, I guessed; thankfully I had protected myself against this eventuality but others were suffering. To make matters worse, it was difficult to find out what was going on as I could barely see anyone except Longhelim and John who were next to me. Suddenly there was a shout from behind us, from Drudge:

“She’s put a wall in front of the fog. Longhelim, you’ve got to use the Torch; Victor is getting burned, slashed, bitten and spelled to death!”

Longhelim waited until we all clustered around him and then, using the Torch, he transported us into the cave.

It was very much as Drudge described but it was still an incredible sight to see it physically. As I appeared, I saw that poor Victor was suffering badly against the dragons. I had managed to make myself unseen just before we had moved so I confidently forked a set of powerful lightning bolts against the dragons. The spell did cause them hurt although unfortunately, it also drew the attention of the masked figure in the distance. Suddenly, cloud of glittering motes surrounded me, revealing my location. That was inconvenient; but even more problematic was the other effect of that spell, which could cause blindness; and that was exactly what it caused to Drudge.

Leska then cast several spells with such shocking speed and skill that it left me open-mouthed. I had never seen spell casting of such quality and it left me just staring at her as she suddenly engulfed Victor in a sea of fire. Thankfully, the warrior was well protected against this element but even so, it must have burned a bit. He had already been badly mauled by the dragons so any more hurt would be very dangerous. And finally, the whole area around us went silent.

As if we needed any reminding, Leska was no common spell caster.

There was another figure in the distance: Shalosha! However, not the Shalosha we knew, as she shot arrows in our direction. She also cast several spells at us at the same time, revealing a skill that she had kept secret up to that time. She had either been dominated or she had been a traitor all along. As ever, it was impossible to tell just who was on Leska’s side.

At this point, Longhelim had engaged and managed to dispatch one of the dragons; another had bitten Victor and the warrior fell over, burning. Things were getting quite bad. Drudge was blind, Victor was unconscious and a moment later, most of us were in an area of magical silence, courtesy of Leska.

John stepped out and cast a spell at Leska, a magical projectile made of acid. The spell was turned on back on him. It was useful to know that she had that ward running.

Thankfully, Felix managed to find a hiding place behind one of the crystal columns. There, he cast his main healing spell, which not only helped Victor but also cured Drudge from his blindness. Simultaneously, the archer, as if waiting for this moment, shot his arrows and killed one of the dragons. Longhelim killed another leaving only one at this point; suddenly, Leska made a gesture and two huge, prehistoric lizards appeared. They walked on two legs, had tiny forepaws and lots of teeth. Indeed, to me, being quite close, they seemed to be nothing but teeth. A moment later, I felt a powerful, life sucking magic, which seemed to drain all the water from by body; it affected all of us; again, it was a spell I knew and it was powerful, complicated magic. The speed of her casting……

Thankfully, I managed to step next to Felix, hiding from Leska, so she couldn’t counter spell me, and then I cast a spell which froze the two lizards. A moment later, I was hit with a green beam. This magic prevented me from using or being part of any transport spells.

Suddenly we were buffeted with three balls of sound in quick succession. That was magic of such high order that I could not even describe it. It was as if a ball of energy had been concentrated and then had its very nature changed. Leska’s arms blurred as she cast the spell; she was so fast that it was almost impossible to see her cast the individual spells.

Drudge, now able to see again, fired off a volley of arrows at her. Several of them hit her; worryingly, she did not seem concerned, plucking the arrows from her torso. Then John cast a cloud of fog around her; just as he finished, he shouted:

“It’s solid!”

He meant that normally, movement within the cloud would be curtailed but there were spells to get around that. Suddenly, there was a blinding flash of light all around us, bright as the sun. This spell came from Shalosha, who was getting to be increasingly annoying. This spell caused several burns but above all, Victor suddenly became blind.

At this point, Leska walked out of the fog, not hindered in any way and unhurt. She repeated her previous spell and again the sound balls ripped into us. She then followed that up by conjuring an enormous sword to appear next to Drudge and engage him. Again, that was a powerful conjuration. Drudge tried to get out of the way but the sword followed him.

Victor looked badly hurt again after Shalosha’s spell but fortunately, Longhelim moved to him and healed him with his paladin ability. Then John was able to make him see again with his magic. Drudge in the meantime, shot one of the dinosaurs this time and Victor and Longhelim managed to get rid of the last dragon.

I tried to shoot Leska with a powerful green ray but was unable to affect her with magic. Her resistance was too strong. She then used another spell which I had never seen before; suddenly, all of our magically enhanced items started attacking us; in other words, our rings began squeezing our fingers, cloaks began to strangle us, boots became like vice on our feet and circlets and headbands began crushing our skulls. The warriors and I had a few defences against this but it still hurt; and again, it was magic I had never come across previously.

Since I seemed to be having almost no effect on Leska, I turned my attention to Shalosha who was also very dangerous. I cast a ray which drained her badly. Felix was healing everyone as all of us were badly hurt at this time. Victor bravely moved to towards Leska but she treated him with disdain. It was very frustrating; it was obvious that she was only toying with us. I am not sure what Victor would have done even if he reached her; I was sure she had defences even if he managed to reach her. John also shot a powerful ray against Shalosha and she began to shoot arrows at us now. Either she really had become Leska’s ally or she was so dominated that it made little difference whether she truly was or wasn’t.

Leska smiled at Victor as she gestured and an enormous group of force missiles hit the warrior. Despite this, he still struggled on to reach her, only to meet a barrier around her person. He was unable to breach it. I must confess I was not hugely surprised by this defense. It kept out all living things and it was an obvious one to use.

At this point, we were nearly all dead again; Felix had to ask for a miracle from his god and restore us to health, at great sacrifice to himself; it was thanks to that that I finally managed to cast a powerful spell which managed to hurt both Leska and Shalosha, who finally fell over.

In despair though, I suddenly saw all of Leska’s wounds close.

This time Leska concentrated her fire on Felix, subjecting him to three enormous balls of energy which was made of sound. The priest reeled from each one and was left with bleeding ears and nose. The way he held his head showed he was badly hurt. She then turned her attention to John and I. She cast a spell which again sounded like a great shout, a wordless noise that spun my senses and made me feel as if my head would explode.

When it was over, I couldn’t hear anything.

Thankfully, due to John’s spell, I could still talk mentally and I shouted to Longhelim:

“Longhelim, try to hit the red crystal with the Torch!”

The paladin ran and did so, only to produce nothing. Still desperately searching for any further clues, I spotted the other crystals, the clear ones and I began gesticulating furiously to Victor to try to see if he could smash those. It was our only option left; it was obvious that we would be unable to hurt Leska in any way. Not only was she immortal, with her healing ability, she seemed to be invulnerable as well.

Fortunately, when Victor saw the results of Longhelim’s blow, he was already on his way to one of the other crystals and with one swipe of the Living Blade, he shattered it! Immediately, the vivid crimson hue of the crystal around the Heart seemed to dim slightly. Everyone saw that and was immediately aware of the change. The emphasis of our attack changed immediately.

Leska did not seem concerned insofar as we could tell behind her mask. Certainly her demeanour was still unhurried as she turned towards Felix again and cast an impossible number of force missiles at him. Despite John’s efforts to heal him and Felix’s own magic, the onslaught was such that the cleric slumped, his body burning, testament to Indomitability’s Gift.

Drudge shot another of the crystals, again causing a slight lessening of the red crystal’s power and I managed to shoot my own version of the spell of force missiles at another crystal, not completely destroying it but badly weakening the its structure.

At this point, she cast one of her most powerful spell; although we were not able to see her, it caused time itself to be distorted and by the time she finished, I could see that the place where Drudge had been was now blocked by a couple of magical walls, opaque to me as usual since I had magic which allowed me to see magically unseen beings or features. She was also standing next to the crystal I had damaged, using her own repelling magic to defend it.

Not a moment too soon as Victor rushed forward but was blocked by the magic. He began prowling around the crystal, looking for a gap or weakness. I was trying to cast a spell which would allow me to get to Drudge. As soon as I did, Leska contemptuously counter spelled it as if it was beneath her notice. I moved towards the exit of the cave. Longhelim had also shattered another crystal earlier and was moving towards another.

At this moment, I saw that someone else had managed to enter the cave; as the figure approached, I saw that it was a woman, pale and dark haired. It was difficult to tell anything else at this distance but suddenly she shouted something; I still couldn’t hear anything but a moment later, John mentally told me:

“She says she’s Aurana Kinodel and that Shaaladel sent her!”

I vaguely remembered seeing her in the elven king’s entourage now that I thought about it.

At that moment, black tentacles surrounded Leska and Victor. Neither of them were affected due to defensive spells and I really hoped that she had better and more powerful spells than that in her arsenal.

It was at this moment that I noticed that Felix was still slumped on the ground but not burning any more, which meant only one thing. I tried to run even faster to a safe nook where I could cast my spell. Leska had turned her attention to Victor, who was almost next to her but could not approach. A barrage of spells left him on slumped on the ground – again like Felix, not burning.

I managed to get to a safe nook in the cave, out of her sight and cast a spell, transporting me next to Drudge, who had been waiting patiently within his walls. A moment later, we transported ourselves to the far side of the cave where he proceeded to run towards the red crystal while shooting at the other instead. It was all very fast and acrobatic until…..he missed. I don’t know what it was; whether the light, the uneven ground, Leska’s magic but somehow that ranger missed the crucial shot.

This left him exposed to Leska.

That was the last thing I saw briefly as I was suddenly enveloped in a dome of stone. Thankfully, I was able to take the form of an earth elemental and sink into the ground. Thus concealed I made my way towards her. I wasn’t sure what I could do yet, but I made my way towards her.

I rose out the ground next to Leska and the crystal; or at least close to her, minding her defensive magic. Quickly I glanced around and saw that in the distance, there was another dome of stone; Longhelim was next to it and it had been partly smashed, with Drudge climbing out of it. Thinking quickly, I changed into the form of an iron golem, a construct, thus not subject to Leska defensive magic. In fact, I used the form of one of the bears in Leska’s palace and smashed my fists against the crystal. Numerous cracks appeared on its surface but it still held until literally a moment later a single arrow plinked against it, shattering the object into a myriad of pieces.

This produced an immediate result on the red crystal around the heart. It shattered, exposing its contents to our sight for the first time. The legendary Heart of the World, or the Aquiline Heart as it was also known turned out to be a huge….well heart, much larger in size than any of us; it was lying in what was now a pool of blood which had previously been held in the crystal and pounding rhythmically.

Seeing her last white crystal destroyed, Leska moved towards the Heart and cast a spell at John, Drudge and Longhelim. I recognized it as the most powerful of all spells which stripped magic. It did carry an element of risk as it could rebound on the caster in very rare circumstances but obviously Leska did not care. It was difficult to see the results from here but I felt fairly certain that my three friends had been stripped of all magic.

My attention was taken by another movement. Aurana suddenly shimmerd and changed, becoming a humanoid creature with many tentacles and a completely alien mien. It was vaguely humanoid with four larger tentacles which could roughly correspond to arms and legs but that was about it. I recognized it immediately; it was the Trillith, Deception; we had last seen it in Castle Korstull where it had been Ernie the Halfling and then proceeded to animate the dragon skeleton which nearly burnt us to death.

It was also transparent as usual, so not wholly of this plane.

Its first action was to twitch its tentacles and suddenly there was a shout from Longhelim:

“Something’s tried to take the Torch”.

It must have been the Trillith since Leska had not done anything. The Trillith, as usual, were playing their own game so I put this one in a little prison of force. I was hoping that would keep it quiet for at least a few moments. After that, I moved towards the others.

At this point, someone else appeared at the entrance of the cave. Etinifi, Leska’s former Seela partner and boyfriend made an appearance and began to move towards us. Last time we had seen him, he had been directing hostile trillith to our positions so he was no friend either. Leska did not react to his presence either so she probably considered him beneath her notice. One of the dinosaurs that she had summoned was now squaring up to John while a spell which produced a giant hand was grasped around Drudge. She then proceeded to blast the ranger with a lightning bolt as I finally arrived next to the others. A moment later, I used my last transport spell to take Drudge and Longhelim next to the Heart and Leska. Due to the size of it, she could not quite protect the artifact from our approach. I made sure that the spell allowed Longhelim a clear swing.

The paladin looked at both of us in a questioning manner and I said to him:

“Go ahead! We have nothing left!”