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

The next morning Torrent asked to stay in the Lyceum. She was obviously still suffering from the trauma of the previous days. I imagined that having your mind invaded and then being compelled to perform various acts that could potentially have harmed the lives of thousands of people must take some sort of toll. I just hoped that she would be able to heal over time. She did offer to take various spoils of war we had found and see if she could find a buyer. She also offered to attempt to purchase a useful defensive cloak for myself and a couple of magical storage devices for John and Felix.

Felix and I also discussed the spell which I had devised against the harm of fire in the Forest of Innenotdar. He had been very curious about it and somehow, he was able to request it and assimilate it among his divine miracles. I am not sure how this worked; it was something else to investigate when I had time; why were some spells available to both arcanists and priests?

So little time, so little time…….
Anyway, Felix and I made sure that we had enough of these spells to give to everyone in the group. We were going into a demi plane where the plane of water and the plane of fire met after all. Felix said he had also taken a spell which would give us the ability to breathe underwater, should we need to. That sounded intriguing!

Having discussed all of this, we returned to the steam tunnels, where we found Jibrand waiting for us patiently.

Now that I had slept, I was able to examine this being more fully. He was quite extraordinary, a humanoid made of fire. I was full of questions but he replied:

“Esteemed wizard, I understand you are very curious but we must go. The longer we leave Toma, the longer he will have to prepare his army; I urge you to make haste”.

I was disappointed but Victor gave me a look which said: Time and Place, Faden, Time and Place.

I used several spells to give myself some defences and also cast the fire protection spells on the others as did Felix so the whole group was warded. Then, we walked through the tunnel indicated by Jibrand. It led down for some distance until it reached a door. Initially, it was difficult to tell it was a door as it was a black piece of rock that was the same as the rock in the corridors but Jibrand assured us it could be opened. John looked at it for a long time and declared it safe; then Longhelim carefully put his hand out to push it. As soon as he touched it, the whole face of the door immolated in a flash of flame and an opening was revealed.

This led into a short corridor which our door split to the left and right. There was also a door straight ahead of us. Jibrand spoke up from the back:

“Whatever you do, do not open the door in front of you; beyond is the abode of an Elder water elemental. It could be that it would not pay any attention to you but it could also squash you completely. You are mostly beneath its notice but that does not mean that it will not notice you. There is a secret door to your left and that is the way we should go.”

Knowing that alone, we would certainly have investigated the door in front of us before searching for any secret doors, silently I thanked the powers that be that we had Jibrand to guide us. As per his instructions, we ignored the door ahead of us and John quickly found the secret door to the left.

This again led into a narrow corridor that led to another lava door. This time Victor was in the front and as he touched it, it revealed a strange room; it looked as if there was a normal floor in front of us but the whole ceiling was covered in hot coals. As we threw a small coin inside, we saw that it flew to the ceiling. Everything seemed to be reversed by magic.

John volunteered to investigate. We tied a rope to him and he climbed up nimbly. He did not worry about the coals as his defence against fire was able to absorb any harmful heat from that. However, as he cautiously made his way across, a large being made of a fire “fell” through the ceiling and swiped one of its appendages at him with a meaty thunk. I recognized it immediately as a fire elemental, the commonest inhabitant of the elemental plane of fire. These were strange, powerful beings with few human weaknesses and great strength and power. One of the most dangerous weapons known about these particular elementals was that as soon as they struck you, they could potentially set you on fire; that was after they hurt you just through sheer brute strength of course. Thankfully, again, any damage from fire was absorbed by the protective spells cast by Felix and I.

John immediately began to shout for us to pull him up which we did as fast as we could but not before the elemental was able to hit John again, eliciting curses from him. We pulled him up and fortunately, we were now out of its reach.

We had a brief discussion and decided that we would need to deal with this guardian as quickly as possible. I told the others that amongst the powers of these beings was a general resistance to physical weapons as well as no vital organs or anatomy to target, basically because they did not have any. There was also no point to try to use tactical positioning against them for the same reason. I had managed to glean this from various visits to Gabal’s library.

With this in mind, various spells were cast on the group, a grapnel was affixed to the edge of the corridor and both Victor and Longhelim began to “climb” up. Unfortunately, full plate armour is not conducive to rope climbing and they both reached a point on the rope and then they fell upwards; clattering of armour, shields and lots of cursing later, they stood up and began to move forward cautiously, especially as they were “walking upside down” by their usual perception. As they did, John and Felix also climbed up the rope, the former with grace and skill and the latter suffering the same crashing fate as the warriors. As they arrived at the ceiling in their different ways, the elemental rose from the ceiling as previously, but this time behind the warriors and in front of John and Felix.

As this occurred, I cast my speed spell on everyone except John, who had gone invisible again. Using my spell, Victor moved to balance himself and then in an astonishing sequence, struck the elemental three times with such rapidity that the creature had almost no time to react. It recoiled and crackled in anger but then Longhelim strode forward and also sliced it with his long sword, snuffing the elemental out like a giant candle.

This combat happened with such speed that barely anyone was hurt. It had consumed a large amount of our magic though. Well, no help for it, we crossed this room and using the ropes, climbed out the other side.

This time, we could see another corridor; John told us that it would be best if he moved ahead. We followed but at a little distance. As previously, the corridor was narrow and made of black, volcanic rock. This whole demi-plane seemed to be made out of this stuff at the moment.

We arrived at a door a short while later. John waited until we were quite close and then he touched the door as usual. The usual immolation took place, but this time it revealed a room of fire; nothing but pure fire. We caught a glimpse of a forge through the fire but then…..

“….that’s an Elder Fire Elemental. Get out of there and shut the door…..” a frantic shout from Jibrand.

The fire suddenly seemed to acquire a face that was slowly turning towards us; John squeaked and jumped backwards and just as an enormous brand of flame was reaching out towards him the door suddenly re-appeared.

“Let’s not do that again” this from John.

Passing the door, we continued through the tunnel. This time Longhelim was in the front. As we passed one band, suddenly John stopped and motioned to a part of the wall. Quickly he began to touch it in various peculiar ways until suddenly an opening appeared, revealing another tunnel.

We decided that going through secret doors was much more interesting than following normal tunnels, so we began advancing through the newly revealed opening, with John in the lead this time. He approached a new door and as he touched this one, it disappeared but this time with a splash of water.

It revealed a room that seemed to be made of a shining metal, probably brass. It also contained a table, several chairs and most importantly, four figures that resembled dwarves – except that they were made of fire. I recognized these as well; they were Aesir, again fire elementals except that they physically resembled dwarves. We were not sure of their temperament or disposition so John retreated, leaving Longhelim in front.

We were not looking for conflict but the decision was taken out of our hands when all three charged at the paladin, waving their fiery hammers. Immediately, Drudge began to fire a stream of arrows and one of them quickly fell to several of the ranger’s missiles. These Aesir seemed brave but not very resilient. Longhelim began to duel with another and it did not prove very expert with its hammer. The paladin was able to dispatch it fairly quickly; when the final elemental charged insanely, the paladin coolly waited for his opening and two quick thrusts freed our way through the tunnel.

The room contained a few of the creatures’ coins as well as four doors including the one through which we had entered.

The door directly opposite to the one we had entered was our initially chosen exit. It revealed another corridor which led to another door; as it splashed open, it revealed a sandy beach with a deep blue ocean stretching into forever. It was such an incongruous sight here that we had to take a few moments just to assimilate it. It was quite beautiful. The waves lapped gently at the shore, a cool breeze ruffled our hair and the whole picture was idyllic; too much so in fact. John silently motioned us to stay and crept into the room. He pointed out two doors which we had missed originally but then suddenly he stopped trying to creep anywhere, straightened and just walked to the water’s edge, staring at the horizon; obviously something had been affecting him magically.

Everyone else entered and was affected by a strange compulsion to go towards the water. It was at this point that a large wall of the stuff rose from the ocean and acquired a humanoid shape. As luck would have it, it appeared next to me and gave me such a wallop that it sent me scurrying back across the room, any compulsion to stare at the water now completely beaten out of my head, which was ringing very heavily.

What followed was a long battle against a mighty and powerful enemy. It was the first water elemental we had faced and although it did not burn as fire elementals did, it seemed stronger than its counterpart. It was easier to strike but like other denizens from the planes, it had an innate resistance to all weapons, and did not seem to have an anatomy which rendered it vulnerable to carefully placed blows. I knew all of this from books but it was one thing to read about it and another to actually witness it. A vaguely humanoid figure made out of pure water? I didn’t try to cast any spells against it as I knew that there were many spells which had no effect against it and it also had had a powerful resilience against most other magic. It also had an ability to interchange strength for accuracy in its blows and vice versa.

Of course, while I was doing this clinical analysis to aid any readers of this chronicle, the warriors were struggling against it and more often than not being battered by its massive arms.

Finally, after a long struggle, it dissipated into the water of the ocean but not before taking a huge toll. Felix moved forward to heal them but he could not do so fully. They were hurt too badly.

Thankfully, there was no longer any trace of the compulsion and this allowed us to examine the door on the right wall. It opened with the usual dissolution into water and revealed a small room with the whole floor covered in water to a slight depth. Unusually, there was also a waterfall at the far end of the room. This time, Longhelim and Victor entered into the room and as they did, the door suddenly re-appeared behind them. We tried to open it in the usual manner but this time it stayed shut.

There was little we could do but wait and hope. Thankfully, I little while later it opened and a stream of water ran out, quickly soaking into the sand.

”What happened?” I asked.

Victor replied in his quiet manner: “As soon as the door shut, rain started to come down from the ceiling; the room began to fill up and two more water elementals came down with it; these were smaller ones though and much easier to deal with than that monster from the ocean. It didn’t take us very long.”

They had both suffered a few light wounds though and Felix had to use some more of his carefully hoarded healing resources.

Longhelim then chimed in: “There is also a door beyond the waterfall. “

As we entered into the room, John’s attention seemed to be taken by one of the blank walls and again, he began to feel it with his hands until a few moments later another hidden opening. This one revealed a small room with a raised pedestal. On it lay a staff; we crowded around the entrance, wary of entering.

Then John cast one of his spells and the staff rose on its own and flew towards the exit and us. John said that this spell could carry it for a long time. What a useful spell! I determined to ask him to show me the formula as soon as it was feasible.

I examined this staff curiously. It was a beautifully carved piece of wood, light in colour and appropriately, the effect of the carving was to make it seem as if it was made of fire; I felt it almost pulsed with an orange glow.

We then concentrated on the last door, beyond the waterfall. It led through a corridor which ultimately led into an empty room with one strange exception: on the floor lay a bearskin rug. I wasn’t sure what to make of that but Drudge, our ranger, moved in and looked at it for a long time.

When he came out, he muttered: “That’s not right. Something was done to that poor animal. Even in death it looks…….almost sad and confused.”

As he said that, I looked at it again but I only saw a dead bear’s head; but since this was the first bear, alive or dead, that I had actually seen, I couldn’t really tell what its expression was. In fact, looking at the size of it, I felt I didn’t need to see a live one, especially if it was wild and hungry.

Feeling we had finished here, we returned to the room made of brass.

We looked at the doors which were as our choices of exit. The door to our right led much too close to the direction of the forge room which housed the Elder Fire Elemental, so we decided to investigate the door to our left. It opened in the usual manner and revealed a short corridor which led to another door. We were quite wary as we were now very low on magic but the warriors still felt quite confident. So, weapons and few remaining spells at the ready, we opened this door.

It led into a room containing the most marvelous sight I had ever seen.

The aerial battle over Gate Pass, our journey through the Fire Forest of Innenotdar, my conversation with Nelle the Unicorn, our battle against Indomitability, the wonders of the Lyceum were as nothing in comparison to what now appeared in front of our eyes.

The room revealed was more along the lines of an enormous circular shaft. There was a narrow walkway along the edge of the wall; and looking upwards we saw something that I will never forget in my entire life.

It was a stereoscopic panorama of the Elemental Plane of Fire.

I never realised that there could so many different shades of colour within fire, depending on its size or shape. Huge mountains made of fire belched yet more flame; here and there I thought I could make out burning buildings, otherwise, the panorama was stretched by great planes of pure flame; and within this firescape, beings and creatures moved, walking, swimming or flying. Elementals of all sizes abounded, from the smallest licks of flame which flew nimbly to enormous beings the size of mountains which slid ponderously; but they were not the only ones: strange creatures, half lizard and half human basked in the heat; these were the legendary salamanders. There were large groups of Aesir, working industriously on things I couldn’t see. Strange wormlike creatures slid through the flame on missions only known to them; and amongst all of these was a myriad of creatures I had never seen or read about which were completely new to me. This hypnotic scene stretched into the distance; it was like looking into flame but multiplied by an infinite factor.

I was entranced.

And below was its counterpart but this time of the Elemental Plane of Water.

The range of colour from the deepest blue to a vibrant green provided an elemental beauty to this sight. Great water spouts erupted in some places; huge whirlpools swirled in others and a majestic calm prevailed in other parts of the panorama. Huge waves broke against walls, creating enormous gouts of water which flew upwards and crashed against the fire, creating huge gusts of steam.

As in the plane of fire, creatures abounded within this waterscape. Due to their nature, it was difficult to see that smaller elementals but I could see enormous shapes moving within the element; these must have been the Elder Elementals. There were leviathans, huge creatures of the mysterious deeps, sporting amongst the waves. Here and there, I caught glimpses of humanoids, tiny in the distance, but they must have been mermaids and mermen and there were other creatures such as squid except that when compared in size to the other leviathans, they made Lula look like a shrimp in comparison; every so often, there was a stir among the leviathans that hinted at even larger mysteries waiting to be discovered in the never ending depths; and as before, the vast majority of creatures were completely unknown to me; I have never seen them before, never read about them, never even countenanced that something like that could exist

I don’t know how long we stayed, completely mesmerized by this sight. Then I felt Longhelim tugging me gently. I had just been watching a strange creature above us. It was a huge humanoid elemental that was carrying a sword which was similar to Victor’s. I felt that quite proud of myself because I now knew it was called a falchion but it was about five times the size of Victor’s. It seemed to be striding with a purpose only known to itself when I felt Longhelim’s tugs. He pointed at a door at the far end of the walkway. It was a double door; then he pointed back the way we came. Reluctantly, I followed the others out of this room, looking back frequently.

Back in the brass room, Longhelim spoke:

“I don’t know what lies beyond the double doors but I suspect that it may be something for which we are not ready at the moment. The sights of the room beyond mean that Toma cannot be far away. That sort of magic suggests a power centre. I have never seen anything like it before.”

He took out his pipe and stuffed it from his ever-present tobacco pouch.

“I suggest our spell casters learn their spells, using that method with is much faster than usual; and of course, we need to set watches.”

I shuddered. I was already tired from the last time I had done this. To do it again would be even more exhausting. My headache had eased to just a dull throbbing but if I forced it again, I was sure it would return with a vengeance. However, there was no help for it. We needed the magical support.

So, I spent a short time learning more spells. It was beginning to feel as if someone was keeping my eyes open with needles and as predicted, my headache returned triumphant and I felt sick. Looking at Felix and John, they did not look much better.

Despite the discomfort, we determined to continue. We cast various spells, especially the defence against fire. For a brief moment, we considered changing the defence against electricity but then we shook our heads.

I reasoned to the others:

“Let’s not try to second guess him. Yes, druids are skilled in the use of all types of energy but this one has a particular affinity for the planes of water and fire. Look at where we are and what he is trying to do. We only have enough spells to defend against one form of energy. Let’s stick with fire.”

Once we had prepared as best as we could, we set out through the double doors.

The panoramas were just as stunning as before except that as we were walking along the walkway, a huge form began to slowly drift towards us from above. It was an enormous, beautiful bird made of fire, a fabled phoenix. As it drifted to our level, it regarded us with eyes made of flame and somehow conveyed an impression that it knew exactly where we were going, what we planned to do and it approved; as it was doing this, a huge leviathan used one of the waves from below to surge up and snap at the bird; it caught it but also gained several deep fiery gouges across its snout as it did so.

As we witnessed this, Jibrand stopped and said:

“I need to go now. Home is above. I wish you all luck and I will give you the Blessing of the Elemental Plane of Fire.”

With that, he made several odd signs at us.

“Goodbye my friends and thank you. I will always remember you.”

With that, he stepped off the walkway and slowly drifted upwards towards the eternal flames.

He had been a very useful ally; he had saved us several times with his guidance, especially by warning us of the location of the two Elder Elementals. We would miss him. I also determined to try to find out exactly what he was as soon as I returned to the Lyceum.

We continued walking towards the double doors on the other side of the shaft. They opened as usual and revealed a corridor leading to a sharp turn to the right but with a door on the last section of the wall on the left. Cautiously we carried on and as we reached the corner to the right, we saw a pair of double doors at the end of a short corridor. We decided to investigate the double doors first but not before John cast a small spell on the single door which would be behind his. It locked it tight for a brief period of time. Then we advanced to the double doors.

Opening them was not problematic, revealing a large room, containing one figure, with a puddle of water on one side and a fire on the other. He was cowled and then he raised his head, revealing his face.

Toma.

“So you have finally arrived. Are you the best Seaquen has to offer? Well, it doesn’t really matter whether you are or not; it has been decreed by divine right that you will fail and that I will conquer; first you, then Seaquen and then the world. So, come, let us get this over with. You are fated to lose.”

With that he threw something into our midst.

I managed to get a good look at his face while he was speaking. In all honesty, with one exception, he looked……unremarkable; just like an elf really. He wasn’t particularly short or tall, handsome or ugly, weak or strong. The exception was his eyes. They looked as if they had been immersed in vistas outside of the Prime Material Plane for decades and thus gained a starkly apparent otherworldliness.

Whatever it was that he had thrown into our midst, it exploded in a ball of fire, very similar to the spells that Ivellios had cast against us except that this one consisted of several of these fireballs; they were weaker and also much easier to dodge. Ultimately, they did burn a little but not nearly as much as Ivellios did. However, they did give Toma time to summon a pair of allies. Two elementals, fire and water from the puddle and fire next to him, came out of their respective elements and stepped in front of him.


John had turned invisible as usual and Drudge began to shoot his arrows at the enemy.
Both Longhelim and Victor charged at the elementals and the latter struck the water enemy a powerful blow. So powerful in fact that the next thing that Toma did was touch his ally, probably strengthening it in some way. Then Longhelim hit it and whatever Toma had done was not enough as the water elemental collapsed.

I also noticed that Victor’s sword had burst into flame, something it had not done before. It was quite peculiar.

The loss of the water elemental also allowed Victor to step up and strike Toma himself. The druid did not seem particularly well versed in combat. Having said that, he had drawn an unusual weapon, a very long, thin blade, almost a like a long skewer except that it too was on fire. Worryingly for John, Toma swiveled as if without purpose except that he must have been following an invisible person. It seemed that the invisibility spell did not work against him.

The druid moved towards Drudge and hit the ranger. It was not a mighty blow but it did show the enemy’s mobility. The fire elemental followed his master and struck Longhelim; thankfully, a great deal of the burning damage was stopped by our magic.

Victor pursued Toma doggedly with his flaming falchion and the struck him with a combination of blows; my speed spell was up at this point of course. I had not neglected my duties. Suddenly Toma collapsed but like us, he also had a strange effect when he went unconscious. A circular shield appeared and swirled around his body; a mixture of fire and water. Longhelim tried to hit it but it was impervious to his blows. It was difficult to see what was happening behind it.

Victor in the meantime finished the remaining fire elemental; for a few brief moments we watched the swirling shield. Drudge in particular was mistrustful and hollered:

“Retreat!”

I am not sure what he saw as I was quite far away but I began to retreat as per his instruction. I moved around the corner. A few moments later, I heard a desperate cry again from Drudge:

“Faden!”

I sped around the corner again to see an enormous humanoid made of water where Toma had been. There had been some sort of transformation inside the strange shield. It was moving its huge arms ponderously and Victor was already down on ground, his body on fire. Longhelim was desperately fighting with it along with arrows from Drudge. The paladin hit it and he collapsed. It must have been hurt previously, possibly by Victor; I couldn’t believe that a couple of blows from Longhelim would take something like that down.

The shield appeared again. This time, we had a better understanding of what was happening. The shield seemed to be part of some sort of transformation but it took a little time. We made as much use of that time as possible. Felix and John healed Victor and Longhelim and we also readied the strange whip tokens which we had. Ivellios had used them to great effect against us so we hoped they would also be of use to us.

Longhelim and Victor were still hurt but as the swirling shield dropped, we were ready. I had cast all the spells I could. Toma was very resilient to my magic, not surprisingly, so I cast several spells to help everyone else.

This time an enormous elemental made of fire appeared from behind the shield and this time began to strike at everyone even from the ground. He managed to hit Victor and the poor warrior collapsed to the ground on fire again, although not before he was able to get a good blow back in return. Then Longhelim confronted it but somehow it dodged their blows and was able to rise up. Two quick blows from it and both Longhelim and Felix fell to the ground, again in flames. Drudge kept up a continued stream of arrows and they took their toll. I took out my wand and fired several bolts of concentrated cold into it. Surprisingly, they were very effective. As Drudge shot again and again, the creature seemed to stand still and then, as an arrow burst into flame in its chest, it finally collapsed.

This time, there was no swirling shield but rather Toma’s body. As we watched, it began to contort and crack. There was a horrific, involuntary scream from the form and then suddenly the body burst into flame. We watched warily for another transformation but this time, there were only ashes left. Then from the puddle, a wave of water appeared and washed them away.

It seemed as if there was a price for the pay for the power granted by the Elder Elementals.

We had a little healing left. We managed to bring Felix, Victor and Longhelim back to consciousness, if barely. Then we had a little time to look around us. There was a door in the far end of the room. Opening it revealed a library, a desk strewn with papers and several sacks of coins. We debated the dangers briefly and then Victor stepped in. He said that he felt two waves of cold and a feeling of maliciousness and evil but then nothing.

We were able to extract the books, the coins, papers and also a journal. A brief glance at the books suggested they were books on elemental lore, which I couldn’t wait to read. There was also a smaller book among the papers on the desk; again, another quick glance suggested that it was a journal, Toma’s journal to be exact.

After that, we decided to retreat. There were still a few doors we could have explored but this would have entailed another session of accelerated spell learning and I don’t think my system could have taken that. It was under great strain already. Anyway, we had achieved our goal.

The return journey through the demi plane was uneventful although I had to be dragged away from the shaft with the panoramas of the two planes again. I thought I caught a glimpse of the phoenix but I couldn’t be sure.

We passed through the rest of Vule, then through the steam tunnels until we finally climbed up the shaft onto the street. There, we caused a bit of a commotion. I had forgotten what we must have looked like. All of us were battered and bruised, healed or not. Several of us showed signs of being badly burned; our clothes and armour were either burned or tattered and of course, we were loaded up with books, coins, armour, staves and other accoutrements from the tunnels. Thankfully, Victor, Longhelim and Felix were all strong individuals as I wasn’t able to carry anything else of any great weight. My contribution was to carry the staff carved in flames which we had found in the secret room.

Everyone was soaked from the ever present rain of course, just to add to our bedraggled look.

Our entrance into the Lyceum was just as sensational. The students immediately gathered in little knots as we entered and began pointing. We must have been a sight. Quickly, we were met by Simeon, who asked us what happened.

Longhelim answered:

“Well, there is a demi plane beneath Seaquen. It is ruled by great Elder Elementals of a power that is immeasurable to us but also so alien that it is truly incomprehensible. I am sure Faden can go into the technical details with you but let us say that whatever designs Toma had, they will no longer be fulfilled.”

Simeon looked at me.

I quickly gave him a summary of what we had achieved:

“I will be writing this up in my journal as usual and of course, you will be welcome to read it but in the meantime, this is a journal of some sort kept by Toma the druid; I have not had a chance to read it; he also had quite a collection of lore about the elemental planes of fire and water. Oh, and I think that there is enough research material below the town to keep anyone interested in the planes busy for the next several centuries. The panorama room alone is a priceless observatory.”

Simeon looked stunned. I was quite surprised that no one had explored the steam tunnels but I would have bet that it was one of those situations where the masters of the Lyceum never had any time to pursue unusual projects such as those and the students usually had other things on their minds, such as their next assignments; or the local taverns.

I suspected this would now change.

However, we had another priority. First, we arranged and paid for research to be done on the new magical spoils of war we had found in Vule. Then, Simeon kindly said that he would arrange for us to be healed and then we changed our clothes, cleaned up and hurried to the first meeting of the War Council of Seaquen.

The time for the War Council had arrived.

We were still exhausted and battered after the events in the steam tunnels but the Lyceum requested divine casters to help us with healing as well as several natural fortifying potions which kept us awake. I must confess that I was feeling incredibly tired and I was determined not to make an idiot on myself.

“Do not speak, listen and keep your thoughts to yourself.” That was what I kept repeating to myself.

We had changed our clothes and made ourselves more presentable. Toma, the elemental druid had played havoc with our attire and our personal appearance as he was battering us on the demi-plane of Vule less than a day ago.

As the time of the meeting approached, we could see several figures striding into the courtyard, soaking wet from the rain. These were the Council members. They were led inside the building and subjected to a clever little spell by the Lyceum students. The soaking guests were completely dry in a few moments; very useful as it improved their mood immensely.

Once that was done, they were led to one of the taller towers and led upstairs. We lost sight of them after that and were led by Katrina to the Council chamber. This was a large lecture hall in the upper parts of the tower. As we stepped in, we recognized Torrent, Laura Beck Adelsberg, Lee Sidoneth, and Kiernan Stekart, the dwarven mage of the Lyceum.

There was also a goodly number of council members who were unknown to us by sight although they had been mentioned by Katrina.

One figure immediately drew attention, a man dressed in flamboyant clothes with a beautifully carved staff, fine leather boots and a large, wide brimmed hat. He also had extraordinarily prominent cheek bones, mustachios and a goatee; Katrina whispered that that was Giorgio of the Wayfarer’s Theatre and deputy to Guildmaster Sheena Larkins.

A small elderly gnome stood by himself, watching everything and everyone. He looked old and sleepy but I made a bet with myself that he missed nothing. Katrina whispered that that was Cranston Snord, the Sindaire ambassador.

Also on her own was a lady who obviously had a great deal of elven heritage; the most prominent feature about her was her arrogant and supercilious expression and her black painted fingernails. She looked as if she would rather by anywhere else but here and although she wasn’t quite sneering, she may as well have been. According to Katrina, this was Kazha Lohnam of Ostalin.

Laura was talking to a tall elderly man, obviously military by his bearing. He stood tall and almost as if he was at attention in a military parade. He was listening intently to what the paladin was saying. His focus was impressive. He exuded a natural authority. Katrina whispered that that was Commander Xavius Foebane, leader of the Dessani refugees.

Finally, a dignified elderly man was engaged in conversation with Kiernan. He was richly dressed in fine robes and looked every inch the statesman. Katrina then whispered that that was Kiefer Numhaut, the representative of King Steppengaard of Dassen.

Almost as soon as Katrina had finished briefing us on the strangers, Simeon walked in. He was dressed in loose, comfortable clothing and looked more like a farmer than ever. He welcomed everyone and then asked them to follow him. I was a little puzzled but Simeon led us out of the Hall and into a smaller side chamber. It looked like a classroom but it was eminently more suitable for the meeting as everyone was much closer and it felt far less formal. The only strange thing was a large stone tree set in one corner. Everyone sat around a table. Kiernan then produced a small, carved, stone rod and placed it on the surface.

“It is now impossible for anyone to spy on us. We also have guards set outside and inside for added security; please look at our friend”.

With that he motioned to the stone tree. He made a little sign and it moved one of its branches! I nearly fell off my chair!

“That is a shield guardian. It is under my control so I hope this will make everyone feel secure.”

With that, he sat down and waited.

Simeon stood up: “Welcome everyone and thank you for coming. This is a War Council to help us chart a course to resist and ultimately win against the aggression of the Ragesians. For hundreds of years, this empire has been conquering and abusing these lands. Well no more! For the first time there may be hope! Drakus Coaltongue is dead and Leska may be a great magician but she is not a great ruler or general. Her armies march for no reason. She abuses her own people and drives spell casters into the Scourge. It is only a matter of time before all the lands rise against her and we, here in Seaquen, will be the first great shining beacon to all those who would resist the Ragesians.

The purpose of this meeting is to give everyone a platform for their thoughts, their ideas and plans to move forward and ultimately to defeat that Ragesians. Now, without further words, I cede the floor to Magister Lord Votberd.”

Votberd stood up: “Good day ladies and gentlemen. As I am sure everyone here knows, I run the administration for Seaquen and as such I have bad news. The current system cannot go on.

Seaquen was never meant to be a refugee camp. It is a sizeable fishing town but that is all it is. While it has one, in fact now two very good natural harbours, it does not have the facilities to cater to thousands of immigrants coming from every part of the country. These travelers bring their own customs, manners and culture with them and it often clashes with our own. This is creating a great deal of tension. My recommendation to solve these problems is as follows: we should recruit a group of special men, special constables if you like; then the able bodied men among the refugees should be rounded up and given a citizenship test. If this test is passed, then they should be conscripted and made to serve the community. The other refugees ought to be systematically organized into camps which should be laid out far better than the current ones which are frankly a mess. This would allow for better logistics and support such as rubbish collection and it would also cut down greatly on the criminal activity that these…..people always bring with them. All of the above would be organized by the special constables.”

Simeon nodded and was about to speak when Laura Beck Adelsberg stood up:

“While I agree with many of the things that the Magister states, I think that there are far more urgent needs in the camp at the moment. Rather than worry about citizenship tests and security, we should be looking at the disease which is causing deaths every day, the lack of facilities, the amount of people that keep arriving, the rubbish, the misery, the profiteering and the waste. The crime is a problem but it is not nearly as serious…..

An angry Votberd shouted: “You don’t know what you are talking about, woman…..”

Simeon stood up at this point and quietly said: “Laura, your concern and your passion does you credit but those are all details. What this council is trying to determine is the best method of resisting the Ragesians and of possibly taking the battle to them. While I realize that it is important, the refugee problem is but one of the many decisions that we must make. Yes, we have acknowledged that there is a problem within the refugee camps; now we must go on.”

At this point, Zavius Foebane stood up and cleared his throat: “The most important and fundamental priority right now is to find the Torch of the Burning Sky…….”

I couldn’t help it. I blurted out: “The Torch of the Burning Sky is missing? Since when and how do we know this? Excuse me but we were unaware of this.”

Foebane looked at little annoyed until he saw that it was I who had spoken; he turned to me and said:

“Our intelligence confirms that the Torch has not been seen or used since the death of the Old Dragon himself. No one knows where it is. Leska is looking for it as well…..quite vigorously from what we can gather. If we get any idea as to where it may be, I have a small group of powerful individuals in mind; they will be sent to retrieve it. With the aid of the mages of the Lyceum, I am sure they will be more than capable of doing so. All that remains is to contact the King of Dassen; if we can gain control of the Torch, then the whole game changes.”

He sat down and then Lee Sidoneth stood up:

“As the Harbour Master, my concern is the naval aspect. The North harbour is completely full and ships are being sent to the South Harbour. That is also full and it is not even fully built or functioning. The best chance to protect and fit as many ships as possible into the harbours is not to moor them to the piers. It is also the best way to make sure they escape if a sea borne invasion occurs. As regards the conflict, it is imperative that we hold and build our strength. This is long and deep game we play and if we go into it unprepared, we will be sunk.”

Next, Giorgio stoop up with a flourish and began to walk around the table, thumping his staff on the floor dramatically as he did so:

“We Wayfarers have always been neutral in the conflicts of our lands but we are willing to forego this neutrality if the problems evident with planar travel are resolved. The speed, flexibility and mobility that could be enjoyed by your forces if we regain our powers and put ourselves at your disposal would give you a significant tactical advantage. We would be willing to do so. Please consider this and give it your urgent attention.

Also, please accept these…….”

He began handing out various tickets for their Theatre.

“The Wayfarers invite all of you to a special performance of The Trial of Toteth Topec. It is in your interest to attend. That spectacular beauty, Guildmistress Sheena Larkins believes your presence at this event will significantly boost the confidence of the town. Although the premiere is in a few days, these tickets are valid for a performance in three weeks, by which time the show should be perfect.”

Simeon then gave Katrina a little nod:

“I am Katrina of Gate Pass. I represent this great city and its people who, as we speak, are valiantly fighting against the Ragesian foe. My brother Rantle is a major figure in the Resistance of Gate Pass and I would also like to name to you Longhelim the Farmer, Felix the Traveller, Faden Tarabond, Salubrious Drudge, Slippery John and Victor Trask. These individuals have become a major thorn in the side of the Ragesian Empire; not only have they defeated an Inquisitor, they have also contributed a set of military secrets stolen from under the noses of the Ragesians and have become so notorious that the Ragesians have sent not one but two Children of Hell against them. More recently, they have just come back from making momentous discoveries in the steam tunnels under Seaquen, solving the problems caused by the dropping temperature and even preventing an army of elementals from sweeping across the land. I will now cede the floor to my friends.”

We all looked at each other. This had not been part of the plan and for a moment we froze. Then I whispered:

“That’s your cue Longhelim. You are good at speeches.”

The Farmer stood up:

“Esteemed council member…….” That voice was working fully, firm and commanding as needed in this situation……”my first thought is that we will never defeat the Ragesians unless we are all united. That must be the key. We from Gate Pass work well as a group and we will do our utmost to help the Resistance and defeat the Ragesians but please bear in mind that we are only a small group. We will accept whatever missions are handed to us to further the cause providing they are suitable for a small group.

In addition, let me say that it is an honour to meet so many people committed to the cause and I thank you all for seeing us and listening.”

Kiefer Numhaut, the Dessani ambassador stood up at this point:

“Dessan considers itself to be friends with both the Ragesians and Seaquen. It has no wish to take sides in this affair, either supporting the Ragesians or seeming to support this misguided effort in Seaquen. Dessan wishes to proclaim their neutrality in any forthcoming conflict.”

Simeon smiled sadly and shook his head:

“Kiefer, my friend, when we finish this meeting, I will take you and show you intercepted dispatches which will state exactly what the Ragesians plan in Dassen and what they think about your vaunted neutrality.”

The wizened, old gnome from Sindaire, Cranston Snord stood up next:

“We from Sindaire have a direct border with Ragesia and we have to be very careful about arousing their ire. Although the people are angry at Ragesian actions, wiser political heads urge caution. Before any commitment from our land, we would need to see if the Ragesian armies can be defeated in battle. We can however provide one piece of information to this gathering: we believe we know the location of the Torch of the Burning Sky.”

This caused an excited murmur around the table.

“On the night of the death of the Old Dragon, there was a storm of fire above his castle, Korstull. Since then, the storm still rages, the region has been inaccessible and there are stories of the dead walking the land. We, the Sindaire, are certain that the Torch is in Korstull.”

Finally, the half-elven lady Kazha Lohman of Ostalin rose up:

“What mighty warriors you all are! What fine words! Strangely, I don’t see many of your armies though. Where are your soldiers? Oh yes, you are going to recruit them aren’t you? I am going to be very interested to see just where you find them. I don’t think any of you know what you are doing. The mighty Resistance of Gate Pass? All six of you? Oh, sorry, forgot the girlie in the red dress but you have a cute dwarf…..well not that cute if you look at him but he only counts for half; and you Adelsberg, can your heart bleed any more?

Well count yourselves lucky. My Khagan has sent you an offer; one time only and turn it down at your peril. He will provide you with an army. All it will cost is a third of your lands. Take it or leave it!”

As we looked at this person, suddenly the door opened to reveal a man hurrying in but he was suddenly shoved back violently as if suffering from a magical blow. Kiernan had turned and cast a spell so quickly and expertly that it had happened before anyone even noticed.

Simeon looked shocked:

“That was Jonan”.

The dwarf looked unrepentant.

“He should have known better”.

The unfortunate Jonan, looking battered and scared, moved into the room.

“There’s a big elven ship just arrived in the harbour and there’s a bunch of elves…….ummmm……flying towards us. What do we do?”

Simeon said:

“Well, we had better get ready to receive the elves. Everyone, please be polite. It is an embassy after all.”

It wasn’t very long before a group of seven elves walked through the door. Two of them immediately took up positions at the side of the door, obviously some sort of bodyguards. Two other stood slightly behind but next to the figure at the front, a truly stunning elven lady; insofar as I had read about these things, she was as close to an elven ideal of beauty as one could imagine with long, silky blonde hair, delicately pointed ears, surprisingly full lips, eyes of a very light shade of blue, almost gray and with a slight slant.

All of the elves were dressed in perfect silver armour and wore long, straight swords. In fact, their accoutrements looked very similar to those we had already seen but of vastly superior quality. In looks, they were almost as perfect as their leader.

“Greetings in the name of King Shalaadel of the Shining Lands of Shahalesti. My name is Princess Shalosha and I speak in the name of my father the King. It is so good to see that there is still the will and capability to resist the Ragesians and their Scourge. We had not thought that any such brave souls were left. As soon as my father heard about this marvelous place, he determined that the seed of Resistance must be watered and grown. To show his good faith he has sent a mighty fleet of no less than seventeen warships to protect and foster this movement. My father invites you to join the Shining Lands as allies and proposes the following:

That Admiral Telshanth be appointed as Governor of Seaquen.

That the Admiral and his staff be allowed to test the purity of spirit each person in the land to judge their fitness as warriors in the conflict ahead.

That the fleet be allowed to inspect and control all marine traffic in and out of the harbours of Seaquen……”

At this point everything broke down. As she was stating these “requests”, muttering and voices could be heard rising until various comments were said out loud:” Preposterous”; “ludicrous”; “out of the question”.

There was even a “Shalaadel can kiss my………” but I couldn’t catch the rest of it or where that came from although ex-privateers were well known for their salty language.

Shalosha stopped speaking and waited until the noise died down.

“I see that these proposals do not meet with your approval. That is unfortunate. This will be difficult. Please wait. I will get in touch with my father and see if there are alternatives and we can reach a compromise. However, in the meantime, it is known that there is a Ragesian fleet marauding in the high seas; allegedly, it is on its way to the Sindaire capital but…….; anyway, for security purposes, our ships will still surround Seaquen, for your protection of course.

Please understand; there is a strong possibility that that Ragesian fleet is on its way here. ”

With that, the elven group left and flew out of the tower.

The rest of the Council members broke into little groups and began talking to each other.

We retired to a corner.

“Well that was interesting,” said Longhelim. “I will tell you this. Shalosha seemed quite uncomfortable in laying down her father’s terms for this “alliance”. She also left awfully quickly after everyone made their objections. Anyone have any thoughts: Faden?”

In fact I had been thinking furiously about what I had seen and heard. Facts, people and words swirled in my head as I remembered who said what where and how; I was finding it difficult to vocalize what I thought. Longhelim smiled, took out his pipe and lit it.

“It’s all right. Take your time. It’s only us now.”

Victor motioned us to one end of the table which was now empty, as everyone else was standing, clustered in groups. All of this calmed me a little. Then I ordered my thinking and began to speak quietly:

“Votberd and Laura are purely focused on Seaquen and its region. They don’t know or care what is happening with Ragesian armies in the North. Their attention is very much on internal matters and will remain so; at the moment, their concerns revolve around mainly the refugees, as they both stated.

Of course these are important but ultimately they are not our priority. We are here on behalf of Gate Pass. I think that helping the refugees is certainly something we should consider and do as and when we can but we should never forget our priority.

Zavius Foebane is here because he is the closest thing that Seaquen has to a general. I have no idea if he is any good. We either have to ask around or find out if he has fought or even commanded in any battles. In my opinion, his information that the Torch is missing is potentially the single most important piece of news that has come out of this Council. I am not surprised that Leska is turning the Empire upside down looking for it.

His statement that he has access to some sort of powerful group or team is also interesting. Presumably, now that more information about the whereabouts of the Torch has come out, he will be sending them on a retrieval mission imminently; not sure how they are going to get around the permanent fire storm though. I presume that there is a plan? I am confused as to why Steppengaard has to be contacted about this though; considering that his ambassador has been declaring his neutrality to all and sundry, I would have thought that this is the last thing he would want to know about. At the moment, we are too ignorant about this.

He is right in that if we can get hold of the Torch, it will make an incalculable difference to our efforts.

Kiefer Numhaut was here purely to tell both us and the Ragesians that Dassen is neutral. Probably quite rightly, I got the impression that he thinks that details of this Council will leak to the Ragesians imminently and he was at pains to point out that Dassen does not want to be perceived as inimical to either side.

Cranston Snord was obviously in a difficult position as the population of his country has an antipathy to the Ragesians but vested interests in his lands have no desire to pursue a conflict that they will most likely lose; so their politicians are being very cautious. The purported location of the Torch was his justification for even attending the Council as otherwise he would have had nothing to contribute. It is a fairly large bone to throw to us though. I am not sure why he is stressing the point that Sindaire has a border with Ragesia; everyone has a border with Ragesia. He is right that the Ragesians will lay waste to his land if the Sindarians decide to resist but I believe that that is happening already? I suspect that some people’s plans are going heavily awry there.

Which brings us to Kazha Lohnam who really didn’t have anything to contribute although it could be that her Khagan is crazy enough to convince himself that his proposal was reasonable…..I suppose. I cannot think of any other reason for her proposal. I suspect she is only here because they want to know what’s going on and Simeon cannot afford to alienate anyone who is not a Ragesian, insane or not.

Lee is an expert in the local marine conditions as we thought although I suspect that his attendance here was a matter of courtesy to his rank as Harbour Master and his standing in the local community more than anything else. I am not sure what the marine conditions and the amount of ships have to do with anything. Anyone can already see that there are a huge amount of ships in both harbours. His advice not to moor them to the piers seems a little counter intuitive but then, what do I know about ships?

Katrina surprised me. I thought she did a very good job in selling Gate Pass and what we had done and offered. Let us not forget, there are only six of us and she really pushed our achievements. We are by far the weakest of the factions in this Council. I could be wrong and there may actually be more to her than the red hair and large chest.

Shahalesti obviously wants to annex Seaquen. We knew that already but I am not sure what we can do about it. A fleet of seventeen warships is a very substantial force. Also, let’s not forget that the coinage in the swamp that was found in the tiefling’s lair, the payment for the Tidereaver’s Tears, was of Shahalesti denomination. Those potions would be extremely helpful for a marine landing in stormy conditions. To be blunt, I believe that they could take us whenever they wanted but I think they are trying the diplomatic approach first. I suspect that they know far more than they are telling about the Ragesian fleet that is somewhere on the high seas and they feel they will need every ship before too long.

That leaves Giorgio and the Wayfarers. They are obviously desperate. They need to find out what is happening to planar travel at the moment. They have pretty much stated that they are willing to help us if the Lyceum discovers what is going on. Again, not surprising; the vast bulk of their power and wealth relies on this magic and without it, well they are just a bunch of…..actors with tricks. The major carrot here is that they have specifically stated that they will forego their neutrality if we help in returning their powers. That is a pretty irrevocable step; although one does wonder if another Wayfarer ship in Ragesian waters has made the same proposal to the Ragesians; if there is another Wayfarer ship of course. We don’t know a great deal about them.

As a slight aside, I cannot figure this: why are they so keen for everyone to attend this new performance? He seemed almost desperate to have everyone there. I would have put it down to a sales gimmick if he hadn’t been giving the tickets away for free. As he was, I have no idea what is going on there…..but it does seem quite odd that they want so many important people in the same place at the same time though.”

The others were all looking thoughtful and Longhelim was puffing away on the pipe. Victor was looking around at everyone else in the room but I knew from past experience that he was listening to everything that was being said. He grunted and I looked up to see Simeon approaching us.

“Thank you for attending and your contribution. I need to get the Shahalesti off our backs and once I have done that, I would again ask you to do something for us. It will take some time though.”

Longhelim pulled out his pipe and puffed:

“Of course Simeon. We are at your disposal.”

After that, Simeon walked away.

Then I began speaking about an idea I had thought about albeit briefly.

“Right, I have an idea which I want to put in front of you. Simeon said that he wouldn’t commit the Lyceum magicians without an army to support them. What do you think of beginning a recruitment drive amongst the refugees? We could use Foebane’s Dessani and Makung Shaftabam’s Ostaliner mercenaries as a cadre who would train other recruits. That way, we could potentially have an army for Simeon and the Lyceum magicians could begin to make a difference.”

John immediately replied: “Faden, you are talking through…..let’s just say you don’t know what you are talking about. Most of the refugees are untrained and we would be able to get maybe a thousand recruits if that. Put that against a Ragesian army and they would last less than an hour.”

I replied: “Do we know how big a Ragesian army is?”

Victor said quietly, staring into the room: “No, but we know a man who does”.

We followed his gaze and saw Commander Foebane, talking to Torrent at the moment.

We all rose and approached the pair.

Longhelim spoke first as usual: “Forgive us for interrupting commander but we were hoping you would be able to help us. Your experience in military matters is well known and therefore, you are the most qualified person in this room to answer our question: Do you know how big a Ragesian army is?”

He looked at us with a slightly questioning look but then said:

“Gentlemen, first, let me congratulate you on your achievements. I have been talking to your friend here and what you have done is impressive. As for your question well, we have a fairly accurate description of the army that was sent against Gate Pass in fact. That army was over ten thousand men with auxiliary units of Wyvern Knights, the Red Dragon and his Riders and unspecified monstrous allies.”

I was shocked. John was absolutely right. Against that sort of force, even if we managed a thousand recruits from the refugees, they would barely provide a morning’s sport for a force like that.

Foebane continued:

“Tell me gentlemen. You are obviously interested in military matters. Have you ever heard of Conquest? No? It is a game of strategy and skill and taught to junior army officers everywhere. Would you care to learn it?”

John and Longhelim nodded and thanked him.

After that, the Council broke up.

We briefly discussed what to do next. The drink which perked me up, whatever it had been, was wearing off, and I was getting dreadfully tired. I told the others that I had to get some rest and I had to finish my spell so I planned to spend the rest of the day in the Lyceum.

John and Longhelim had accepted Foebane’s invitation and disappeared with the old Commander. Drudge, Victor and Felix decided to go into town and try to sell some of our spoils of war and potentially buy some more pieces to help us. Unfortunately, they returned a little tired, a little grumpy and disenchanted as they had found very little that would be of use to us.

Longhelim and John returned. They said that the game was complicated and interesting and they had been thoroughly beaten. If Foebane was as good a commander in real life as he was in the game, then according to them, he was a gifted general.

Finally, we had a discussion at the end of the day as to what our next course of action would be. We decided that we, or rather I, needed more rest; after that we would go to the swamp to see if we could deal with the goblin menace and simultaneously try to prove or disprove this mad rumour about the dragon with its magical instrument.

As mentioned previously, we discussed how to spend the next few days. I had to rest – to recover from my enforced spell cramming in the middle of Vule. I suppose one could call it “resting”, but while I was in the Lyceum Library, I was taking full advantage of the time, furthering my magical theory and research. As ever, my brain was bursting with ideas for magical formulae. I had an idea for magical horses that could run forever, for a ward against elementals; I wanted to see if I could work out how Felix flew; I was thinking of a variation of the invisibility spell that John used so often; and of course there were so many spells that I had seen being cast against us by Ivellios and the tiefling. I wanted to look at their formulae and pick them apart line by line. I also wanted to read Toma’s books on elemental lore.

There was never enough time.

I had managed to skim Toma the druid’s journal. It was nothing remarkable. He had progressed in his chosen field but had never felt at home anywhere. I wondered briefly if he was a Ragesian Druid that had gone astray but then I thought this would be unlikely as he was an elf. Anyway, Toma then found a mentor, a wizard called Tonk who had opened a door to the Astral plane for him, which ultimately led him to the elemental plane of fire. He really liked it there. That was when he started hearing voices; always a bad sign that.

The voices then told him to go to another plane, the elemental plane of water. He liked it there as well and began to hear more voices. These told him to go to the demi plane of Vule beneath the town of Seaquen on the prime material plane. He became convinced that the voices were those of the Great Elder Elementals, the ultimate rulers of Vule.

His journal did not mention the voices telling him that he needed to conquer Seaquen and the world with an army of elementals but he certainly sounded convincing when he was ranting at us during our last confrontation; and as for those transformations we witnessed as we fought him, well he had obviously received some powerful magical favours. Jibrand was also certain that he had intended to mastermind an invasion by elementals.

“Hmm, join the queue: first the Ragesians, then the Shahalesti, now the elementals, possibly followed by more Ragesians in the form of their fleet. Seaquen, or more likely the Lyceum seems to be extremely popular!” was my fairly irreverent thought as I ruminated over our experiences in the steam tunnels over a hot drink.

We were also able to gain knowledge of the function of the various items we had found, especially the staff which was carved with flames. As expected, it was a staff with an affinity with fire spells, which would be very useful offensive addition to the group.

On that first morning, I also saw something else that was remarkable.

After our adventures in the steam tunnels, Simeon had generously allowed the whole group to take guest quarters in the Lyceum. It was nice to sleep somewhere dry for once. Anyway, that morning, I was taking a little break from studying; on the grounds below, I saw that Victor and Longhelim had come out for their usual morning session of sparring; but they had added a new wrinkle to their practice. They were both wearing blindfolds and attempting to rely on senses other than sight for their sensory input. They were remarkably and frighteningly competent even with their blindfolds, much to the admiration of the crowd of students who had gathered to watch them.

Smiling, I turned back to the serious business of magical research.

That evening, everyone returned without mishap.

We sat down, had dinner and deliberately, spoke of light, simple things while eating. Much banter was exchanged together with plans for new equipment and acquisitions; or “shopping” as John termed it. Once our meal finished, we retired to the library with hot drinks. Longhelim lit up his pipe, the others sipped and, sitting in comfortable armchairs and surrounded by books, we began the serious task of planning ahead.

The first point of order of the evening was tell each other what had been found out and discovered during the day.

Longhelim had set out on his own to try to track down the civic leaders of the community of Seaquen and found it surprisingly difficult. Everything seemed to revolve around the Lyceum; ultimately, it seemed that any major decisions were made by Simeon and his advisors. Magister Lord Votberd was in charge of justice, building, planning and the Elite Town Guard. Again, it was a deceptively powerful position as a great deal of responsibility had been heaped upon him, mostly because he was willing to accept it, from what Longhelim said.

Longhelim also said that there was an individual in South Harbour, Pickins Frankart; a large, bald man, who smiled often and had a loud booming voice, which he used to denounce the Lyceum for any and all ills affecting Seaquen right now. According to Longhelim, he would have blamed the Lyceum for the military adventuring of the Ragesian Empire if he thought he could get away with it.

However, further enquiries revealed that Frankart may have talked a lot but he didn’t actually have any position in the Seaquen bureaucracy; just a very loud voice and an enormous sense of entitlement.

Longhelim then visited a small temple dedicated to the Sea God which seemed to be a civic centre for the town. There, he mentioned Torrent’s name and was made welcome. He mentioned the possibility of a unifying temple which was accepted with cautious approval but with a qualification that the leaders of the Temple had several more pressing concerns at this time: namely a spate of mysterious fires which had begun in South Harbour but now seemed to have progressed into North Harbour. No one had been able to find out how or why they had been started and more importantly, how they kept burning, considering the rain. Simultaneously, there was great concern about the mysterious disappearance of three girls in South Harbour. Various requests had been made of the Elite Town Guard to investigate, but these had been rebuffed due to the pressures brought about by the refugee situation.

Longhelim was left in no doubt that the local temple of Seaquen was prioritizing these two issues and that until they were resolved, progress was unlikely to be made on any other new matters.

Drudge had also used his day very productively. He had travelled the outskirts of the refugee camps and the city limits. He wanted to familiarize himself with the region and the country side. He had also visited the ruins of the city that used to be situated on the tip of the peninsula. A great deal of it was now sunk but it still attracted treasure hunters, mostly desperate refugees, according to Drudge. He had also found a strange building, a large, three storied mansion which was an inn. It was named “The Royale” and it styled itself as the premier location for warriors of all types and renown in the region.

Felix and Victor had visited the Ragesian Druids. This faction worshipped the God of Pilgrimages and Felix, as a priest of Farlanghn, God of Travel, Roads and Journeys, wanted to pay them a courtesy call. He was received with great courtesy in return. Felix was able to narrate a version of our journey from Gate Pass which was avidly absorbed by the leading druid. According to Felix, there are only about half a dozen or so actual druids in this faction but they seemed to have been very effective in building up their power base as they had approximately five hundred followers.

Once pleasantries had been exchanged and courtesies observed, the Druids let it be known that their major concern was the level of deforestation that had been necessary recently. Seaquen was a small town and had never been meant as a settlement for several thousand people. As such, these new inhabitants needed additional resources and wood was important for all sorts of reasons. Unfortunately, it was also being consumed at a frightening rate and would soon run out; this was intolerable to the Druids. The implication was that they would certainly not consider any talks with other factions until this crisis was solved.

We then sat down and discussed our plans and options. I had a quite unusual idea about the Druids which could also potentially solve a great many problems for the refugees. One of the more outrageous rumours in the camps was the presence of a dragon in the swamp. This dragon also supposedly possessed a magical instrument: a lyre which, when played for a short period of time, miraculously equaled the achievement of several weeks’ work by hundreds of builders. If, and it was a huge if, this dragon and lyre existed and if we could somehow manage to get hold of it, then we could ease the desperate shelter shortage of the refugees.

Longhelim pointed out that whilst the lyre aided in the building, material would still be needed for the shelters; I replied that we had a town full of stone ruins. This stone was lying idle at this time and could certainly used for new shelters. He puffed his pipe, lost in thought.

Drudge then spoke up with a different variation:

“While I was in the ruins, I also saw the cliffs. With this lyre, if it is as magical as you say, we could easily build shelters straight into the cliff.”

The big problem here was the several very large “Ifs”, as mentioned previously.

We were still determined that we would set out into the swamp after the goblins but not quite yet. We then decided that our next investigation would be the disappearance of the girls in South Harbour; I would still stay at the Lyceum to research more magical formulae and John would remain here also; he would research the factions and other items of interest in the library with the aid of the librarians; it was a resource we had not used as yet.

The next morning, everyone set out on their missions.

My spell for today was a very simple spell; it was a projectile of pure magical force. It became more powerful the more I used it. Bearing in mind how simple it was in its conception, it was surprising how tricky it was to actually convert into a magical formula. I managed it in the end but it was far harder than I was expecting.

Towards the end of the afternoon, the others returned and were full of news.

The camps were excited because a truce had been negotiated with the goblins in the swamp. Another group of individuals had entered the swamp, made contact with the goblins and reached an agreement to allow safe passage through a section of the swamp. The conditions of this agreement was a small tribute of “minor magic items”, whatever that meant; the word “minor” is always relative; the use of a private cook; and the death of the “the three witches”, which I presumed, referred to the three Tieflings we had met. It seemed as if goblins were just as useful an ingredient for the Tidereaver’s Tear as any other sentient being; probably more so since they had been neighbours.

No mention was made of the magical bottle the goblins were supposed to possess. A little gentle digging revealed that when the goblins were asked about it, they denied any knowledge of its existence.

Briefly, I wondered about this other group that had negotiated the truce, but then I remembered Xavius Foebane mentioning a powerful team of individuals that he was considering for a mission to retrieve the Torch of the Burning Sky, once its whereabouts had been established. Since these had now been revealed, courtesy of the Sindaire ambassador, I expected their departure to be imminent and wished them all the luck in the world. If the Resistance could wrest the Torch out of the Ragesian Empire, it would be a major victory, despite the fact that it was useless at this time. I was still wondering how they would get past the permanent fire storm said to be raging around the site, but since these individuals had the confidence of Xavius Foebane, as I stated previously, I assumed there was a plan.

I wondered if this was the same group.

In the meantime, Longhelim, Victor, Felix and Drudge had been in South Harbour, trying to establish the facts behind the disappearances of the girls. It had turned out to be quite a frustrating experience. As ever with these things, no one actually saw anything. They were able to confirm that the number of disappearances was three; the names of the victims were Mary, Martha and Jo and they all had similar characteristics: they were all good looking, in their late teens, had spotless reputations and were known to have been helping with the Ragesian refugees. They were universally regarded as “good girls”. Only one, Jo, had family; the others did not. During that day, our friends had been unable to discover just where the girls lived. They did obtain a description of each though. Further questioning also revealed that there were many other young women who matched this description and their lifestyle, therefore many other potential victims.

They had also managed to meet Pickins Frankart, who assured them that the disappearances were the work of the Lyceum. He didn’t know how it was done, why it was done, who had done it specifically but he was absolutely certain that if we followed the clues correctly, it would all lead back to Simeon and his nest of magical vipers.

I was rapidly beginning to suspect that the man was mad.

John had also had a very productive day. His research in the library had produced various gems.

First of all, he had been able to read up on various famous aerial battles which he narrated to the rest of us; we hoped that the leader of the Ostaliner mercenaries would be delighted to have these eye witness accounts narrated to him; this was in addition to our own account of the battle above Gate Pass. We had already found out that, as a former hippogriff rider, he was likely to receive us favourably if we were able to relate these to him.

Curiously, John had also been able to find out that the Sindairians regarded bears as symbol of good luck.

Furthermore, John, had also found a mention of the Order of Echoed Souls. This was a sub-group of refugees within the Sindairians; they actually had their own camp, away from the main one. They were monks, aesthetes who had mystical powers, granted to them by their iron discipline, supposedly. This order was interesting as it had originated in Shahalesti, but some great tragedy forced it to move to Sindaire and since then, the Ragesian invasion forced it to move again, this time as refugees to Seaquen. John had been unable to find out anything else about them.

Finally, John had also managed to locate references to the dragons of Sour Lake Swamp. Yes, that is correct, it was dragons; apparently when the books were written, it was definitely more than one; they were blue, green or black. There did not seem to be a consensus as to what type they were; although as Drudge drily said:

“Look, they are dragons in a swamp: you will almost certainly only glimpse them because if you have any sense you will be running away as soon as you get an inkling that there is one around and since you are in a swamp, their overriding colour will be mud.”

All of this was very useful information.

We decided that our next course of action would be to patrol South Harbour, in case there was another attempt at a kidnapping tonight.

Unfortunately, that expedition was not successful. We ventured out in the late afternoon and took a random route through South Harbour for several hours but we did not see any sign of suspicious behavior.

As we trudged back wearily to the Lyceum, disappointed with the whole experience, John said:

“Come on; we didn’t think this through. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a kidnapper. You are out there looking for a likely victim and all you see are six strangers bristling with swords, bows, staves, wands, you name it they have it. Would you attempt anything that night? Or even more likely, you have already chosen your next victim and are watching to make sure she is alone when you make your attempt; then you see us marching on the street.

Actually, if we think about it, we have been successful, just not in the way we wanted. No kidnapping took place last night. The problem is that we just delayed things as opposed to stopping them. Tomorrow evening, we will have to think of a different way to do this.”

A little more heartened after this, we returned to the Lyceum where we slept well.

The next morning, as we were at breakfast, I noticed that Drudge had already gone. He returned just as we were finishing. He had risen early and had already gathered the latest news. There had been more mysterious fires, this time in the Eastern section of North Harbour. He had gone there to investigate but the rain and the general population had destroyed any tracks that could have been useful. However, he had found out that the fires did not begin exclusively at night; they had also started during the day. This definitely presented an opportunity. This time though, we would be more surreptitious and go to a high vantage point, waiting to see if we could spot anything, rather than acting as a deterrent.

Quickly, we gathered our equipment and began to walk to the area of North Harbour that was most affected. As we walked there, Drudge also mentioned that the ship wrecked off the coast, the one that was full of exotic and dangerous creatures, had been salvaged. From what Drudge had learned, many of the crew were dead, victims of the cargo but someone had gone there and gathered what was left. There was no news as to how many of the creatures had escaped, if any; or of the fate of the salvagers for that matter.

We managed to get a good vantage point in North Harbour and settled down to wait. This time our vigil was successful and after a little time, we spotted a column of smoke. We rushed down to investigate and, as expected, found a burning building. A human chain had already been formed, with buckets being rushed to the flames amidst much shouting. Drudge immediately began to scan around for any unusual tracks; moments later, he came back, looking puzzled.

“There are lots of human tracks, to be expected but there is also a trail of rat tracks; lots and lots of rats. I don’t understand that but since this is the most unusual trail, we had better follow it.”

With Drudge leading, we followed this trail. Personally, I couldn’t see a thing except churned mud but then again, that was why I relied on Drudge for this kind of thing. Finally we reached another building, an abandoned mill. The tracks stopped there. Cautiously, we entered and as we opened the door, we saw a veritable carpet of rats. The ground seemed alive with them; more importantly, they all had fiery little eyes and breathed little licks flame. The air was almost alight with sparks. It looked like we had found our most unlikely little arsonists.

We were not sure how to deal with these creatures.

“Drudge, any ideas? The last lot of these we met, the bats on fire, we hit them and it didn’t do anything. We had to douse them with water but this isn’t going to work with these. They just went through the rain,” this from Longhelim.

“I dunno,” was the reply.

The carpet had noticed us at this point; more and more twitching little snouts pointed in our direction and I could swear that there seemed to be more sparks in the air. Felix and Victor entered into the room only for the carpet to surge forward with horrible rapidity. They surrounded Victor, biting, climbing, scratching and squealing; Victor didn’t hesitate and swung his falchion; rats went flying, the squealing increased dramatically and suddenly the whole the carpet looked smaller, more manageable. Swords could hurt them! Longhelim stepped forward but it was clear that the sword swing by Victor had dispersed them.

Both Longhelim and Victor looked at each other in surprise; not only were these vulnerable to swords, they were also quite weak.

As the warriors were looking around warily, there was a shout from Drudge:

“Look”!

I looked and all I could see was more churned mud where he was pointing.

“There are more. They are going this way.”

We followed Drudge through more of the town; through various building, over the docks and then more warehouses until we came to a large single story house made of brick. It was obviously one of the very old houses and it had long been abandoned.

We entered carefully, Drudge still at the front, following the tracks and came to a spiral staircase leading down; again we followed down but then I heard a call from Drudge:

“Back, move back!”

I complied and was quickly followed by Felix and Drudge, then Victor and finally, slowly and looking down the stairs, Longhelim. Everyone was looking down the stairs as if they were expecting something.

Then they came. Whereas the previous rats before were a moving carpet, these were a veritable ocean. As previously, they had eyes that seemed to reflect the fire, there were little licks of flame everywhere and sparks flew towards the ceiling. They moved in waves, climbing over each other, under each other, besides each other in a surging motion towards our group. Longhelim and Victor stood their ground. I was swamped by them for a brief moment and as they climbed over me, into my mouth, my clothes, down my trousers, into my boots and everywhere, I felt a stab of disgust and nausea. I managed to shake them off and ran from this surge of rats.

I stood back. I did not make the mistake of trying to cast spells at them. I had tried that before and it had not done anything. I did not think it would differ this time. However, I did see Victor’s large sword swinging and each time it did so, many, many rats flew through the air and smashed against the wall, creating little puffs of smoke. The ocean surged fiercely against the fighter again and again but he swung his sword and more rats went flying. Longhelim was also there, with his own sword. His swings were more delicate and rats flew from him as well. Then Felix stumbled out of this mess, bent over vomiting violently, as he tugged a screeching rat out of his mouth by the tail; Drudge was in the same state, while John had also moved out. This left Victor in the middle of the ocean but this now had become less an ocean and more a sea.

Drudge managed to recover and loaded his bow. A part of the rats had followed Felix as he was retching, leaning against a wall. They took advantage of his helplessness and surrounded him again, this time climbing on his back and over him; he seemed to spasm and emitted yet another convulsive belch full of bile and rats. Drudge, looking for a target, shot two arrows into this group and one skewered and disrupted a group of rats while the other glanced off Felix, still dislodging a group of the rodents but also causing the priest some discomfort, judging by his yelp. It was John, with his daggers that finally disrupted this mass of rats while Victor and Longhelim dealt with the larger concentration.

Finally, they were all dispersed.

Everyone was scratched, bitten, bruised but ultimately not hurt too badly although Felix looked at everyone very carefully; rats were notorious disease carriers and those bites could become infected.

Drudge reported that below was a basement that was full of small fissures that led below…somewhere. He didn’t know where but the rats obviously had crawled somewhere. I thought that they may have come into contact with something or someone from Vule and acquired their strange fiery affinity but this was pure speculation. We did not have the means or abilities to go through the fissure ourselves, so satisfying ourselves that there were not meaningful groups of fiery rats left, we reported back to Magister Lord Votberd.

The dwarf was a little skeptical of our story to begin with until we showed him some of the rat bodies and then he became more enthusiastic about our achievement. He sent out runners, announcing that the cause of the mysterious fires had been discovered and had been solved. He also warned everyone to check their basements and ruthlessly hunt down any rats lurking down there.

Feeling as if we had achieved something, we retired to the Lyceum for a few hours. I had an idea to discuss with everyone.

As we sat down to a snack, I said the following:

“I have been thinking about what you said about our attempt in South Harbour last night, John. So, how about this? John, you climb a high roof, a tree or another high vantage point and just stay up there watching; the same as Drudge this morning. Then, if you spot anything untoward, judge the moment; see if you can follow the perpetrators; if not, then call us immediately. We will be nearby but we can use one of the messenger tokens which Nelle gave us. Do you think that’ll work?”

John made a face: “Well it’s not much a plan but it’s the only one we have at the moment so I’ll give it a go.”

We emerged from the Lyceum that evening; we were a little surprised as several people who we had never seen before waved at us, and many others smiled. There was the odd shout of: “It’s the rat catchers” and others of that type. One or two brave souls even patted us on the back. I wasn’t sure what had happened but it looked like our rat hunting expedition was very successful. Then it clicked: what relieved people was the knowledge that the mystery had been explained. The burning buildings were bothersome and dangerous but it was more the mysterious causes of the fire that were scaring people. Now the mystery had been explained, everything seemed less tense; also rats were irritating, but they were an everyday hazard and people knew how to deal with them.

We approached South Harbour and looked around. It was discouraging. For a start, the whole area was almost exclusively residential, with little commercial property. There wasn’t even an inn. In fact, the building with the highest roof was the brothel. I had heard of brothels before but wasn’t quite sure exactly what purpose they served. When it was explained to me I was……startled. It all seemed all little earthy to me, particularly in a residential area but John assured me that brothels were successful everywhere.

As mentioned previously, it was the tallest building with two stories; the entrance was being watched by two rough looking individuals. As we approached, John whispered:

“Longhelim, see if you can get the rest of you in there while I get on the roof; it may kill two birds with one stone; you’ll distract the guards while I climb up and you may not need to shelter in some nearby wood. If you can’t then go to the forest, the place with the huge elm we admired.”

As John slunk away, John approached the two guards:

“Gentlemen, may I see the proprietor please?”

“Watcha wanta see her for?”

They seemed less than impressed.

“That’s for me and her to discuss”.

“Wrong! You tell me and I tell her and then she decides if she wants to speak to you!”

“Well, it has to do with the safety of the girls in the House”

“Yeah, well, that’s our job. What else you got?”

Longhelim carefully turned around at this point and joined us:

“There is no point in discussing this any further with these. The only way they will accept what I say now is if I beat it into them and that would destroy the objective of the exercise. Let’s get back to the alternative rendezvous.”

We moved back to the forest and spent several hours, waiting. Finally John joined us, shaking his head. Silently, we trudged back to the Lyceum.

Once back there, everyone stripped off their armour and equipment and retired to the library. John was the first to speak:

“Well, that was a bust! Look, I think that we will have to leave this one to the locals. They will have a much better chance of catching anyone. Think about what we are relying on; getting into South Harbour as six heavily armed individuals without anyone noticing; hoping that the snatchers will try the particular night that we are watching; that they will also find the right girl; that we will be in the right place; that they will not see us…….”

As he spoke, I realised he was right. We were relying on so many things falling for us just right that it was ridiculous. I also realised that we were getting into danger of letting this kidnapping business eat up our time because it was frustrating us.

John continued:

“……so, bearing this in mind, I think we should follow up on the lead which has the biggest potential reward: the dragon with the magical instrument. If we can get our hands on it, it will save many, many lives, solve a huge amount of other problems and make the biggest difference to this place that I can think of.”

I cleared my throat.

“I thought you said it was more than one dragon? Even one is bad enough”.

“It was more than one when those books were written, decades ago. Who knows how many there are now? Not only that, but Katrina said that the dragon we heard sounded in distress. Let’s find out why it’s in distress.”

“You are taking Katrina’s word that it was upset? And you are assuming that the others have just flown away?”

“All right, I know that there are a lot of gaps in this but if this lyre exists and if we can get hold of it, then think what could be done with it…”

I didn’t have an answer for that. I remembered the state of the camps, especially those of the Ragesians, as I stared at the rain out of the window. A permanent shelter would make such a difference……..it was very tempting despite the risk.

John then launched into a further discourse about what he had found out about dragons: black ones were immune to acid and breathed it; blue were immune to electricity and breathed it while green ones again were immune to acid and breathed a cloud of acid. Also, if the ones that had been written about in the Library were still in the swamp, then by this stage, they would be very big.

Despite all of this, I saw that the others were also nodding.

Sighing, I resigned myself to another trip into Sour Lake swamp.

The next day dawned as we were getting ready. We had a brief discussion about what we remembered a regards travelling through the swamp and everyone recalled that we needed boats. John’s research indicated that the dragons used to live in the Southwestern part of the swamp, not too far away from the city.

We remembered our friend, the ragged half orc who was doing a roaring trade in boats from the refugees that continued to cross the swamp endlessly from the North. Along with that, John, Felix and I put our heads together and carefully chose spells which were likely to aid us in this environment and thus bolstered, we set out.

We also re-iterated to ourselves that the whole idea was to talk to the dragon; to ask it to borrow this instrument or lyre or whatever it was; or come to some sort of deal with it; and we were going to be very polite. Longhelim fixed me with a gimlet eye:

“And Faden, I do the talking. No blurting out of questions about obscure pieces of lore that you feel are of the utmost importance.”

I was a little offended. I thought I had been doing well recently. After all, I had only blurted out one question in the War Council; and that one was really important. I opened my mouth to protest at Longhelim but he just cocked his head and looked at me, so I kept quiet.

We purchased our two boats for an exorbitant price; I suddenly began to feel far less concerned about the well being of a certain half orc and suspected that if we followed him one evening, he would lead us to one of the newly built mansions around South Harbour. So once my brief rumination was over, I began to theorise about a spell that would freeze undead in place and next thing I know we had reached the edge of the swamp; there we boarded the craft and set out.

From my point of view, it certainly wasn’t the case of absence making the heart grow fonder for the swamp. The place was still as nasty, smelly, creepy and generally unpleasant as I remembered. The only thing that was missing were the groups of goblins that could sometimes be glimpsed in the distance. Those seemed to have disappeared; but the crocodiles, the flying things, the other lizards and even odder animals were still all there; and I was sure they were ready to pounce.

To make things even better, we knew that there was a strong possibility we would have to stay for the night as the strange cries that we had heard only became audible at dusk. Before then, our best chance was to row in the general direction towards the abode of the dragons that we had deduced from the books; thankfully, Drudge proved quite expert at guiding us through the swamp without running into angry crocodiles and other equally unpleasant beasts. When we finally reached our general destination, we hoped that once the cries began, we would be quite close to their source.

However, before that, we were pre-empted.

As our boats rounded one of the large islands, we glimpsed a much larger body of water in the distance. We looked closely, and indeed, it was a beautiful, clear, large lake in the middle of the swamp. The water was fresh and must have been fed from underground springs because it looked very different from the fetid swamp. Even more unusually, around the open shores of the lake, we saw a collection of stone buildings. These were of a variety of styles, from quite plain stone or wooden boxes to elaborately decorated mansions; many of them looked as if they had been subjected to enormous blows.

As we stared at them, John breathed softly: “Oh my, so this magical lyre does actually exist.”

We backtracked quietly and then Drudge said:

“I am going to have a look around. Wait here.”

Before he did so, Felix pulled all of us around him and blessed us all quietly, saying:

“There! Now, by the power of Farlanghn, we can walk on water.”

That was a very nifty trick. Taking the opportunity, I also cast a few defensive spells on myself.

Drudge moved softly away and we lost sight of him, until we suddenly saw him walk onto the lake. Felix’s spell worked impressively.

After watching him for a little time, we saw Drudge stop, turn towards us and begin jabbing frantically downwards into the water next to him. Then, using his hands and he began to sign to us something that had huge jaws. It did not take a genius to work out that he had found our dragon or at least a dragon.

Carefully, he moved back to us.

“Well, there is something down there. It’s enormous and if it’s not a dragon, it may as well be. Anyone have any ideas as to what to do next?”

“Well, we could try to wake it up?” this from John, sounding dubious.

Drudge shook his head.

“Let’s not. I have a better idea.”

With that he disappeared into the swamp.

A little puzzled, we waited for him.

It took him a while, but he returned, laden with a variety of various denizens of the swamp: lizards, fish, the odd rodent of some type. Rapidly, he began to make a fire and soon, most of his catch was being roasted on a spit. Suddenly, we realised what he was doing.

When the dragon woke up, it would be greeted with the smell of its dinner; that would hopefully put it in a better mood; or at least a talkative mood and one where it didn’t decide that we were going to be its dinner.

So, thus prepared, we waited until dusk. Suddenly, as the sun set and we dozed in one of the buildings, we heard a huge splash of water and saw a magnificent creature burst into the air. Its scales glistened emerald in the waning light as it bellowed in rage and power. It most certainly was a dragon!

I felt a primordial, unreasoning fear of this being. It was something primitive, as if running away from this creature was something my ancestors had been doing for thousands of years; somehow, I managed to control myself and I steeled myself to keep looking at it; and it was magnificent as it flew around the lake; magnificent, majestic and enormous.

Looking around, I could see that everyone else around me was pale and trembling as well with the exception of Victor and Felix, who had curled into a foetal position on the floor, unable to do anything. This primitive feeling of terror had completely incapacitated them.

After a few moments watching this extraordinary sight, Longhelim stepped forward onto the shore:

He shouted: “Your mightiness, your mightiness, we seek a parley and a bargain.”

The dragon swooped down and breathed a cloud of acid onto a neighbouring building, destroying most of it.

A thunderous voice, deep, loud and……female boomed: “Return the egg that was stolen”.

At that, I couldn’t resist and crept out of the building, followed by everyone else except Victor and Longhelim who were still incapacitated.

Longhelim shouted: “If we return the egg, we would like to borrow your magical instrument for a time.”

“Return the egg and bring the thief and I shall consider it.”

I whispered to Longhelim: “Fantastic! We have her talking; and she’s not trying to eat us; but having her consider it means nothing. We could do what she wants and then she could come back, telling us that after due consideration she has decided against it and then eat us on general principle.”

Longhelim shouted back: “We bring the thief and your egg; you lend us the instrument. Can we call that a bargain?”

She swooped down again, looking at all of us: “We can call that a bargain.”

I sighed with relief and then whispered to Longhelim: “Can you ask her what happened and get a detailed description of the egg?”

Longhelim shouted again: “Please Your Mightiness, what may I call you; what is your name?”

“I like Your Mightiness”, was the reply.

“Well Your Mightiness, can you tell us what happened and also tell us what the egg looks like, in as much detail as you can.”

“Ten days ago, some disgusting thief snuck in here while I was away and took the egg. It is so big. I saw his tracks as they led in the direction of Seaquen where I cannot go; but I will have my revenge. Especially now you are here. Remember, I want the thief as well. He is a child kidnapper. The egg may be newly laid and many months away from hatching but it is still of my brood. And I want it back! And I want him as well! Oh, how I want him!”

Then she gave us a very detailed description of the egg itself.

“Enough! Now go! Get my egg back! It is in Seaquen and it lies that way.”

I looked into the dark swamp with a certain amount of trepidation but then looked at the green dragon kicking us out of its lake; choosing the lesser of the two evils, we picked up Felix and Victor and made our way back the way we came. Drudge made an aborted attempt to find a trail for the thief but after that amount of time and so much rain, it was beyond someone of even his skills.

Amazingly, we managed to return to Seaquen and the Lyceum before the night was out without mishap. There, we talked a little further about how to find the thief. Felix had powerful magic which could find the egg, providing that the thief was not aware of that kind of magic; or aware that someone with those sorts of skills was looking for it. Unfortunately, bearing in mind that this thief was brave enough to defy a dragon, it was likely that he would be very aware of this type of divination.

Another approach was to ask Simeon if someone had offered the Lyceum something as exotic as a dragon’s egg. The problem with that was that it may have been done but on a private basis and if questions were asked, it could tip off the thief.

Finally, John said: “We have been here for a few days now. It’s about time I began to get to know the lay of the land so to speak. Let me work on a few things in the morning. I may be able to dig something up. Drudge, you want to come as well?”

The latter nodded.

So, the next morning, John and Drudge disappeared. Everyone else was busy with their own things.

Personally, I began to delve into Toma’s books on elemental lore. The elf may have been mad but some of what he recorded in his books was astonishing and incredibly interesting knowledge.

The two did not return until the late afternoon, but when they did, John looked immensely pleased with himself. Quickly, we all convened.

John stood up: “Right, well I managed to convince several people that I was looking for a dragon’s egg; that I was willing to pay good money for it; that the thief was someone who killed my brother. In the process, I managed to set up a meeting with someone this evening in the ruins. Apparently, he has access to a dragon’s egg……”

We all burst into spontaneous applause.

“Of course he won’t have it with him but it is an initial meeting and we take things from there. Oh, I also managed to meet someone who is a representative of a group here in Seaquen; a group that specializes in……lost and found is probably the best way to put it”.

I said: “You mean that they find lost things; by magic? How do they do it? Are they connected with the Lyceum? Do people lose lots of things in Seaquen?”

Victor just looked at John and said quietly: “Be very careful there John. We are in a strange place; and we have an important mission. Faden, a little quiet and I will explain later.”

Then we discussed how to handle the meeting. We decided that we would attempt to give the thief some coinage as an initial payment. One of these coins would be marked in such a way as to make it easy for Felix to find with his magic. Once we decided on that course of action, we all set out for the evening meeting in the ruins.

We decided to be close but out of sight of the meeting place while John slipped off. We waited for some time, and then to my relief, he returned. He looked a little different though; subtle changes but enough to mislead in terms of his appearance.

“We have a deal. Seven thousand, here in two days, for the egg. I gave him a deposit of five hundred including the coin. The messenger was unremarkable; human, good longbow, chain shirt, normal sword; looked handy in the woods. It could even have been him. I took the long way around to get back to you but it’s still worth trying to see if we can use the spell to follow that coin. It may not work but we won’t know until we try. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait for the two days.”

Felix made ready to cast his spell. Unfortunately, it showed nothing; this was not a great surprise. We had not been expecting a great deal. Still, mildly disappointed, we returned to the Lyceum, where we retired.

The next day, we convened in the library after breakfast and had a brief discussion. I emphasized to the others that I thought it unlikely that I would have such an opportunity as this again to do spell research. The facilities here were ideal and the sources were unrivalled. It would be unavoidable that we were going to be sent on other missions in the near future and I very much wanted to take advantage of my time here. So I proposed to the others that as much as possible, I wanted to stay in library and continue my research.

The others agreed. I believe that they realised that the more I studied, the more useful I would be to them in the future. With this in mind they decided that they would leave the Lyceum and visit the Ostaliner mercenaries. They would regale their leader, the former hippogriff rider, with an eye witness account of the battle above Gate Pass between the Wyvern Knights and the Red Dragon of Ragesia against the Griffin Riders of Gate Pass and their druidic allies. As the mercenaries worshipped the God of Battle, it had also been indicated that a formal sparring session to indicate the worth of the negotiator would be appropriate. If the latter won, his proposal would be given more consideration.

I spent the day scribing more spells, more research and more reference. It was never ending. The more I unraveled one mystery, the more I was tempted by other directions. This particular spell was a powerful divination which allowed me to observe specific areas, as if I was looking at them from above. It was like throwing my sight some distance ahead of me; as I wrote it though, I realised that with a few changes, I would make it even more interesting and make it go through doors, through walls and other barriers; all I had to do was visualize the space behind the barrier. I couldn’t wait to try it out.

Of course, scribing something like this took me most of day but I did manage it. Then, this line of research took me in another direction with another formula; this one was a spell that would allow me to see invisible opponents. Invisibility was a powerful ability and when I had seen John using it, I realised that we would need to find counters against it lest it be used against us. Unfortunately, at the moment, I could theorise a spell that could be used only by me, but it was early days.

John returned a little earlier than the others. He had been to the opening performance of The Wayfarer’s performance of the Trials of Toteth Topec. He was full of praise for a spectacular performance by the Theatre. He also spoke of the Wayfarer’s truly magical ship. By some magic, it had a huge auditorium below decks, much bigger than the actual ship. It contained a stage, space for hundreds of spectators and whatever other accessories a theatrical performance needed. Even music was provided; as were sound effects representing anything from the soothing sounds of waterfalls to the crashing thunder of storms. It all sounded most impressive.

John then went on the praise the acting of the leading man, Giorgio as the druid Toteth Topec. He also described the plot, a truly convoluted multi-generational adventure story full of deeds of derring do. To be absolutely honest, I lost track of the plot fairly quickly as I was trying to work out what the magic of the ship was; I did gain the impression that the play was very…….long.

The others returned late that evening; everyone looked very tired so I restrained myself from telling them about my day. Although I was sure that they would have been very interested in learning how my spell worked, I was beginning to learn and decided to let everyone else speak first.

Longhelim and Felix in particular looked as if they had been awake for a week or more, with hollow eyes, an unhealthy pallor and dark rings under their eyes. They had been cramming spells; I recognized the signs.

After dinner, we all retired to the library and sipped hot drinks while Longhelim lit up as usual. After several puffs, he began:

“Well, what a productive day! The Ostaliner Marcenaries are now fully behind the plan, as are the Ragesian Hospitallers.”

“What!” I squeaked. “You got two of them! How did you manage that?”

“The Mercenaries went fairly much as we planned. Their leader, he is called Arick by the way, was very interested in the battle as we guessed; then we had the sparring session. He is a canny fighter and a very worthy opponent. I beat him, but only just.”

Victor nodded: “We don’t see too many people fighting with hammers but they can be very effective weapons and Arick is obviously an expert. I am glad it was only a sparring session.”

Longhelim continued: “Anyway, after the contest, we explained the situation, our plans for the future and the necessity for unity and organization; they were remarkably amenable and proclaimed that providing that the Temple was somewhere suitable for their worship, they would support us fully.”

He took a sip and continued: “Felix and I then went to the Ragesian Hospitallers. Those ladies, under their Mother Superior, are performing miracles every day and at great risk to themselves! We have to help them as much as we can!”

Felix was nodding at this; or he may have been nodding off. His head was bowed and his eyes were closed. Gently, Drudge, took the cup out of his hand.

“Anyway, as soon as the ladies heard who we were and what we represented, they became far more interested in what we could do to help the refugees above everything else. Filth Fever, Consumption, Ague, Flux, you name, they’ve got it. I want to think we made a little difference; well several children are now running around as opposed to coughing blood on a pallet, but really, what we did was but a drop in the ocean. The sooner we can help to sort out this situation, the better. We had to stay there and cram spells twice!”

They had crammed their spells twice! No wonder they were looking like death warmed up.

I stood up. “You have to go to bed. What are you doing here? You must be on your last legs. Go!”

“Wait, Faden; a few minutes more. So, at the end of the day, we had a brief audience with the Mother Superior. She was grateful and impressed after our efforts. In the end, it took but a few moments. In fact, she looked surprised that we had to ask. I recited a parable of course, but it was quite transparent and she stopped me fairly quickly and just said that it would be fine with them. They would give it their full support; as long as there was a provision made for the sick in our new system.”

Drudge the stood up: “Just quickly, I went to the druids; nothing new there I am afraid but one of them does have a little bear; a cute little thing. I think that Order of Echoed Souls would find it a great symbol of good luck.”

“Well done, Drudge, now let’s go to bed. Busy day tomorrow.”

With those words, I shooed everyone out of the library.

Cafu, this is a great story hour that I hope will be continued till the very end. Lovin' both the AP itself, your excellent writing and the reliability of your regular Tuesday evening posts . Kudos!

Same here.

do you mind if we story hour the WotB campaign we just started, too? It's also partly in journal style I think because I have the players write up parts of it, usually.

Azkorra, thank you for the kind words. I must confess that I am running out of prose at the moment. August is holiday time for my group and we haven't played for a little while; so unfortunately, I have enough for two more updates and then I will have to stop for a little while so we can play and provide the material.

We do have a little FG session scheduled for next Wednesday so I hope we will get a few bits and pieces done then.

And yes, the AP is a lot of fun; I think everyone involved in writing and publishing the WotBS deserves a big pat on the back.

Are you playing/have you played it by the way?

Lwaxy, please join in. The more the merrier so far as I am concerned. In fact it would be very interesting to see how your players cope with the same situations and if they make the same choices that we did.

I know that there are one or two accounts of the AP on the ENPublishing forum but my DM has told me to stay away from it as there are fairly obvious spoilers there, in some cases even in the thread titles.

Which system are you planning to use by the way?

We are using a mix of D&D (mostly 3.5 but with elements from other editions), PF and a heavy load of homebrew. Our magic/religious system for the campaign world we put the AP on works very different (no Vancian magic but a spell point system, priests aren't granted spells but have to pray or use rituals to achieve anything), we don't use levels either.

I asked the group to make characters, but what they did was more, they played a prelude as to how the heroes, which are from another part of the world, ended up in Gate Pass. I just got the log from that.

Intriguing. Looking forward to reading that if you plan to Story Hour it.