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

The next morning was bright, crisp and, judging by the ice and faint dusting of snow, cold; we couldn’t actually tell. We met Balan at the gate of the Lyceum together with Simeon, Kiernan, Katrina and a curious group of students. There were a few speeches and wishes for our success but we kept these short as speed was of the essence. A few moments later, we were joined by Balan and we set out on the first stage of our journey.

As we were walking through town, a skinny teenage boy approached Longhelim:

“Please sir, it is said that you go Bresk. Would you be so kind as to take this letter? It is to Jinis, who acts as proxy for Lord Gallo on the Council of Nine.”

I stared at this boy: “What I want to know is: how does everyone know what we are going to do so quickly? This was only discussed yesterday and we are already being used as a messenger service,” I muttered in my beard.

Longhelim gave me a pointed look and took the envelope wordlessly.

As he did that, the boy continued: “Tell him it’s from Jinir. He’ll know; and thank you so much.”

According to Balan, once we crossed the swamp, it would take several days of travel to reach Bresk; the journey should not be very dangerous but one never knew in these troubled times. If our luck held, then we would be able to cross Sour Lake Swamp, purchase dogs and sleds, and travel on the ice of the Nesham River. It led almost up to the Gates of Bresk and should be the fastest method of travel.

The journey through the swamp was uneventful. The place itself was very different when frozen. Without the stink, the noise and the sinkholes, it even gained a type of stark beauty; it was odd, I had never seen a frozen swamp before though I had to qualify that since Sour Lake Swamp was the first swamp I had seen in any climate, so that did not mean much.

As I looked around me, I heard Felix talking to Longhelim:

“On Victor’s recommendation, I purchased a couple of scrolls; they remove magical blindness. He told me that the last Inquisitor we met tried to blind him with a spell and almost succeeded. I want you to know where they are as you can use them in an emergency. There is also another scroll with a spell here which will allows us to talk to Simeon briefly, wherever we may be. It will work only once mind you but it will be very handy.”

A spell that removed magical blindness? How incredibly useful; I determined to quiz Felix about that spell in the evening. I really wanted to look at that scroll. I had a feeling that it was one of those spells that only priests could cast though otherwise I was sure he would have mentioned it to me. That set me to thinking though: could I devise a spell which could do the opposite and induce magical blindness? Hmmmm……..

I must confess that I was very distracted for the rest of my time in the swamp as I calculated a formula in my head which would do exactly that. Once I had finished it in my head, as soon as I could, I would write it down. The next thing I knew, we had traversed the swamp and then Victor came up and spoke to me quietly:

“You have been wondering around in a daze for the last day and a half; we kept an eye on you in the swamp because by this point, we knew the area quite well and also what to look for. This stops now though; I don’t know what you were dreaming about but stop it and join the real world!”

After that he walked away.

A little guilty, I looked around surreptitiously only to see John grinning and miming a sleeping gesture at me; then he rolled his eyes, shook his head and gave me a thumbs up.

The landscape around us was very different from the swamp. It was flat, with only the odd tree here and there. We had traversed through here before but now it was freezing and covered in snow. Trying to walk through this snow would not work at all; I hoped someone had a plan.

A little later, we found a small village where several sleds and dog teams had been left for us. Balan had arranged that. I don’t know how he did it but for the first time I felt a little more confidence in our erstwhile envoy. We had four sleds. Each could take two people; Drudge and John paired up, Felix and Longhelim travelled together which left Victor and I as the last pair while Balan travelled on his own sled.

Riding on a dog sled was new and interesting; several times, someone, somewhere fell off to a great deal of laughter. It almost didn’t feel like a trip, more like an outing, especially as we had no indication of the level of the temperature around us. I think everyone obtained several bruises, including me, but of course the warriors in their heavy armour were the most susceptible to a tumble. The only person who seemed familiar with this mode of travel was Balan, who was very patient with us while we accustomed ourselves to this new experience.

We did have one interlude in the middle of our new learning experience: not surprisingly, the individuals who managed to fall off the least amount of times were Drudge and John. Drudge generally smiled tolerantly as I picked myself up off the ice for the umpteenth time but John was not so restrained and generally made his merriment at my expense known to all and sundry; this, of course, could not be tolerated and retaliation was swift in the form of a well aimed snowball. That was it! A gauntlet had been thrown, a challenge issued and sides were taken, followed by a battle royale, refereed by Balan; ultimately, he ruled that honours were even, although I still maintain that John cheated by having his invisible friend join on his side; the spoils came in the form of a humorous song detailing the great battle; immediately, Balan began working on the Lay of the Great Snow Battle on the Nesham River.

Finally, we learned to move with the motion of the sleds rather than against it and managed to anticipate the jerking and tugging of the dogs so that we began to make reasonable time. We travelled on the river Nesham, which was iced; initially I was a little nervous about this but Balan assured us that it was quite safe. It was certainly fast, much faster than it would have been on land.

As we travelled some distance, suddenly Victor gave a shout and pointed far into the distance; despite his warning, initially, I couldn’t make out what he was pointing at until suddenly I saw a crowd of people desperately struggling through the snow; it was the monster among them that froze my blood. It was a huge snake, but with thousands of tiny legs, looking like an enormous centipede. It was bluish white in colour and had a pair of stunted wings on its back. Its mouth had an enormous pair of mandibles and horrified, I watched as its head dipped into the running crowd and flicked up an individual, making the figure look like a child. The poor wretch was flipped into the air and the snake caught it in its mandibles and snapped it in half.

The crowd ran to the river; we stopped and several spells were cast on individuals. I cast a spell against fire on Victor as well as various spells which would aid him in his combat. There was no doubt in our minds that we would go to the aid of the refugees. Immediately, we urged the sleds to reach the banks of the river and began to leap on to the land. By this stage, the refugees had reached the river and ran onto the ice; the snake followed them up and we watched in horror as the ice cracked under its weight and the escapees began to fall into the freezing water; as we saw it closer, we could see that in addition to its icy colour, the creature also seemed to glow a reddish hue, as if with heat.

As the ice cracked, it retreated and began to back up the shore; Longhelim and Felix were the first to reach it; Longhelim in fact moved over the snow remarkably easily. Victor and I had barely reached the bank ourselves and I could already see a steady flight of arrows from behind me. These seemed to annoy the creature more than hurt it. I unlimbered my elemental staff and for the first time, I unleashed one of its powers. A great ball of fire burst behind the snake and seared the back part of its body; it reared in pain and anger, emitting a hissing shriek. Unable to locate the author of its pain, it struck forward and closed its mandibles on Felix; the priest struggled but he was a prisoner in its mouth, which was biting and squeezing.

Then Longhelim arrived there and struck it with its sword; I saw that there was a huge flash as his sword hit it and for a moment, this flash seemed to envelop the paladin. I breathed a sigh of relief when it dissipated and Longhelim seemed to be fine. Unfortunately, this enraged the creature and it screamed and squeezed even further; Felix went limp and then burst into flame. Longhelim then struck it again, and this time, dropping the unconscious priest, it attacked the paladin. It struck him and tried to trap him in those deadly mandibles but somehow, Longhelim slipped through them.

I cast my spell of force bolts, making it rear back in pain and by that point Victor arrived, to be immediately seized by the snake. The warrior couldn’t wriggle free and he was bitten and trapped by the mandibles in the same manner as Felix. This gave Longhelim another opportunity to hit the snake in a deadly combination of blows, causing a flash to erupt from its body every time he did so. However, this last flurry from the paladin together with Drudge’s arrows, were the killing strokes; the snake gave one last great scream as it tried to contain Victor and then slumped to the ground.

Cautiously, we moved forward and I looked at our late opponent.

“What in all seven hells is this thing?” I muttered.

Balan had also come forward. “One of the Great Ice Worms; I have heard of them but never actually seen one. I didn’t even know they were around here. They burrow deeply into the ice and prey on surface creatures, erupting from the ice and striking with vicious speed.”

He looked at us with new respect: “Simeon didn’t exaggerate.”

I suddenly also remembered that I heard him playing his accordion while we were moving forward to fight it.

“What was that with the music?”

Longhelim answered: “The music helped, Faden. He has the same powers as Tiljann.”

“Ah, magical song. Why didn’t you say something, Balan? When we settle for the night, you have to tell us what other powers you possess.”

Longhelim was helping Felix in his recovery and the priest was groaning and muttering to himself; then he rose and kicked the corpse, cursing the creature, as a “misbegotten wannabe dragon with delusions of grandeur.” Except that he didn’t really use those words; but that was what he meant.

As the Felix was still healing and recovering, Drudge was looking around and scouting:

“There is no one left alive; they either drowned or the Worm ate them or just killed them. There is a set of tracks; we should follow them and see if there are any survivors.”

Under his guidance, we trekked a short distance where we saw the remains of a refugee group. Pitiful possessions were strewn everywhere. The hole from which the Worm struck was clearly visible as well as several corpses which had been bitten in half; men, women and children. As with the situation by the river, there were no survivors. So, we grouped them together, covered them as best as we could and then said a few words. Then we marched back to the river, where we picked up our sleds and wordlessly dragged them further up and then continued up the river.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully and we camped for the night. No one said anything much that night and I slept fitfully, finding it difficult to forget the screams of the drowning refugees.

The next day, our earlier exuberance had been completely extinguished. We rode upon our sleds somberly, lost in our own thoughts. There was no further cheerful banter; in fact, no one said anything and even the dogs were quieter, as if sensing our mood. We rode at a much slower speed, scanning carefully, the recent encounter reinforcing our vulnerability. We were very aware that if something suddenly erupted from the ice in front of us than all of us would be in very serious trouble.

Then, suddenly, the front sled with Drudge and John jerked to an abrupt stop. Fortunately, as I had mentioned, we had slowed down considerably so neither, dogs, passengers or sled suffered any mishap and as the other sleds stopped next to them, we saw the cause of their sudden halt. In the most extraordinary happenstance, the strut of the sled had caught on a leather loop that was jutting out from the surface of the ice. Closer examination revealed a frozen corpse under the ice and the leather loop was some part of his clothing.

We looked at this curiously. Then Victor retrieved an axe from one of the sleds and carefully chopped the corpse out of the ice; as he did so, he found another one close by….and then another. There were three bodies altogether. We pulled them out and laid them out on the bank; two of them wore uniforms with a distinct design: “a leopard under a serpent on a sunburst motif” was the correct heraldic description, according to Balan who recognized it as the symbol of the Lady Dene, one of the ruling magnates of Dassen. Both of these bodies had clear wounds made by crossbow bolts in their backs. The last corpse had a broken neck and judging by the burn marks on its neck, looked as if it had been hung.

John had stayed back on the ice and while we were looking at the bodies, he was still looking at the hole that Victor had made:

“There is something very strange going on here. This ice is different to the other ice in the river. It looks as if it was melted artificially. Someone entombed these corpses here; most likely by some sort of magic; and they were sloppy, leaving that loop out like that.”

Drudge then called out:

“Found some tracks; horsemen; at least five.”

We tied the sleds and followed. The tracks initially led to a tree. All the trampled snow around it suggested that there had been a substantial amount of activity in its environs. Drudge then examined one of the branches and said it showed some rope marks. It looked as if we had found our hanging tree. A clear trail led away. We followed it and ultimately it led to the road where Drudge lost the trail due to all the other tracks already there. Disappointed, we returned to our sleds and continued with our journey.

We were getting quite close to Bresk now and also to the main road or the King’s Road as it was known. We saw a definite increase of traffic on that road. There seemed to be quite a large amount of people leaving the city as well. As the middle of the day approached, we saw three brightly coloured wagons in the distance. They were stopped with several horsemen around them. Even from this distance, we could see that the horsemen wore the symbol of King Steppengaard.

We were not paying a huge amount of attention to this until suddenly we heard shouting. As we looked at the wagons, we noticed that their owners were halflings, the little people. Two of them were remonstrating and shouting at the horsemen, while one of the horsemen roared:

“Search the wagons now!”

The four other horsemen dismounted and began to dismantle the wagons throwing out possessions and goods onto the road. Then as we drew parallel, I saw the Longhelim was already on his way to that bank; Felix was casting spells at the paladin so I cast a few on Victor and followed. Balan stayed back and Drudge was unlimbering his bow.

Suddenly, there was a scream and a figure was dragged out from some compartment on the bottom of one of the wagons; then the leader of the horsemen drew his sword and thrust his sword though the figure. There was a feminine shriek followed by a gurgle that ended abruptly as the figure slumped to the ground. Then the commander shouted again:

“Kill the halflings!”

I didn’t care who or what they were. That was not the way things were done.

Obviously Longhelim was of the same opinion. His sled reached the shore first and he jumped out as soon as he could. Again, he ran across the snow as if it was normal ground. I don’t know what Felix had done but it was extremely helpful. Poor Victor had to negotiate wading through the snow and laboring mightily until he reached his target.

Arrows flew above my head as usual and I saw at least a couple hitting the commander who rapidly turned around and shouted an order. His four men lined up in front of him when they saw Longhelim running towards them. Then he began to exhort them when suddenly the whole area went silent. I didn’t see who but either Felix or John must have magically affected the area. He looked outraged. Then another arrow flew and hit him in the chest; rapidly he drew out a bottle and drank it. This allowed Longhelim to reach his men and confront them. There was no attempt to parley or explain anything and then I remembered that they couldn’t talk to each other because of the magical silence. The men surrounded the paladin and tried to hit him.

Then Victor finally arrived and hit one of Longhelim’s aggressors. The Living Blade of Innenotdar struck forward and one of the men fell. Despite this, they were still concentrating on Longhelim and now the commander moved forward and struck the paladin with his flail. Victor stepped up gracefully and in a series of blows dropped two more of the soldiers. Seeing this, the commander tried to withdraw towards his horse. He was followed up by Longhelim who tried to hit him but was still off balance; then as the commander swung his foot into the stirrup, another arrow flew over our heads and struck the commander in the side. That was the last arrow he could take and with the horses shuffling nervously, he suffered the same fate he had inflicted on his female victim earlier.

Almost simultaneously, Victor dealt with the last soldier and then abruptly the battle stopped. We made sure that there were no more threats and then we approached the wagons.

“Ho, halflings; it is over; come out now!” Longhelim called out.

Cautiously, a flap was flipped over and a pair of eyes looked out anxiously.

“Who’re you?” came an answer.

The rest of us were looking around the bodies and seeing if they had anything of use. Several of them had potion bottles and I did a little cantrip to verify that the commander’s shield and armour glowed with some sort of enchantment; probably something to make it better.

“Look, we just want to go” came a plea from the wagon.

“I am sure you’ll be able to go in a moment but what was happening here?” answered Longhelim.

“You mean you haven’t heard?” This time, the figure of a lady halfling crawled out from the wagon, followed much more slowly by another halfling, who looked at us with a mixture of fear and suspicion.

“No; what haven’t we heard?” replied Longhelim.

Wide-eyed, the first hafling explained: “Three days ago, the King’s family was murdered; all eighteen of his children and his wife; ever since, he seems to have gone insane. He has let the Talons loose on the city and people are being arrested or disappearing everywhere.”

John was behind me: “Well, the Ragesians have always been nothing if not thorough,” he muttered.

Glancing at him, Longhelim then asked: “The Talons?”

“The Talons are his secret enforcers. No one knows who they are but they are everywhere. Everyone is trying to leave. He is mad. Anyone who is at all suspicious gets arrested or disappears or something happens to them.”

“So the woman…….”

“I don’t know; she just wanted to leave. We didn’t ask any questions.”

I didn’t know if she was guilty or not but she certainly didn’t deserve to be killed on the road in the middle of nowhere by a thug with a sword, no matter what his uniform. That was Ragesian behavior.

“Look, can we go? We really don’t want to be here and especially in this spot. I suggest you get out of here as soon as you can as well. This lot will be missed fairly soon.”

Longhelim shook himself: “Of course. You have given us much food for thought. Both of us had better be on our way.”

John then came forward and said quietly: “It won’t be pleasant but we have to get rid of those horses. Sooner or later, one of them will work itself loose and will return to its stables. That will raise the alarm much sooner.”

We certainly weren’t proud of what we had to do next but it was quickly done and then we buried all the bodies under the snow as best and as quickly as we could. Drudge also hid our trail as best as he could. The halflings were long gone by this stage and we made our way back to the sleds.

Balan then said: “Now that we know what’s happened, we had better get to Bresk as quickly as we can. Let’s go!”

The trip to Bresk was short and uneventful after that. As we approached the city, it quickly became apparent that Dessan architecture was very much like its people: functional, unpretentious and with little decoration or frippery with one exception. The houses were square and sensible, with sloping roofs, cunningly designed to flush the large amounts of water that fell on them. The slate was dark, grey and solid. In fact, that was a very good word to describe the city: solid; and above it all, everything was dominated by the castle: huge, solid, dark and powerful.

As we approached the Southern Gate, I was mindful of what Simeon had told us about large amounts of the city being underground. Interestingly, there were few signs of this subterranean part on the surface.

Guards wearing the King’s livery were searching everyone as they arrived but Balan presented our diplomatic papers and we were allowed into the city with little fuss. As we led the sleds and dogs through the icy streets, I could see that most of the houses were decorated with motifs of huge cats: lions, leopards, tigers and even sphinxes. The city or its decorators seemed to have an obsession with these beasts.

Balan had obviously been here before as he led us to the Golden Griffin Inn, a sensible, modestly-priced rooming house which allowed us to keep the dogs and sleds in their stables. We freshened up and then decided to go on a mixture of sightseeing, shopping and information gathering trip. It was at this point that Balan showed a little inexperience:

He summoned us to his room and said: “Right, gentlemen, if you go on your tour, I will go and see various people to confirm our audience tomorrow and also see about some business.”

John just looked at him and then said in an acid tone: “So, when the Ragesians kidnap you, what exactly do you want us to do? How much ransom money do you have available?”

“Pardon?”

John continued: “Look, we were made your bodyguards and told to look after your security; and as soon as we arrive here, what is the first thing you say? Stay here while I go off on my own? You’re not thinking this through; you are now a target. Start thinking like one!”

“Ah, good point; two of you should come with me while I go about my business.”

Victor got up: “We’ll all go with you while you go about your business.”

We all followed him and walked out together without giving him a chance to reply. As we did so, I sidled up to John and whispered: “You’ve given up on this diplomacy thing haven’t you?”

He shot me a dirty look.

The sight-seeing tour was very gratifying; Bresk was a very different city to Gate Pass. Whereas the latter was a city devoted to trade, defense and built in the mountains, this was a plains city which had obviously not seen hostility for at least a decade. People were generally happy and boisterous although at the moment there was a great deal of perturbation about which I will write later.

The shopping was satisfactory; John, Drudge, Felix and Longhelim wanted to acquire magical cloaks; Longhelim also wanted to obtain an enchanted sword. Victor managed to acquire one of those tiny shields, a buckler, and this one was also enchanted. Balan, who knew his way around the city, took us to the correct merchants, which saved a great deal of time and effort.

Finally, we were also able to find out a little more about the tragedy that had struck the Steppengaard’s family. From what we were able to gather, his five eldest children, ranging in ages from twelve to seventeen, were at a celebration which was assaulted by assassins; the assumption was that it had to be more than one to cause such havoc so quickly; to this time, no trace of the culprits could be found. Almost simultaneously, the Queen and the thirteen youngest children were poisoned during the evening meal; the King himself only survived because he was called away by one of his nobles, complaining about the Ragesian ambassador. Then, just to add more mystery to the whole event, when the bodies were being taken to the Temples to see if they could be revived or analysed, it was found that their hearts had been ripped out and burned.

I must confess I didn’t understand that last bit; how could the hearts be ripped out while the bodies were being taken to the Temple without anyone noticing? However, I had to bear in mind that I was hearing street gossip and it sounded like something, somewhere was misinterpreted or hidden or just missed out.

The King was enraged and in complete despair which explained why the Talons were turning Bresk and the Kingdom upside down looking for the culprits. Apparently, their leader Nina Glibglamer, a gnomish wizard, who was also the King’s main advisor, was under great pressure to produce results. Interestingly, by all accounts, she was very hostile to Seaquen although we couldn’t find out why; nor were we able to discover if this non-aggression pact with the Ragesian Empire was signed on her advice.

There was also some gossip about the alignment of the Great Lords to the Seaquen Question as it was known: Lords Gallo, Dashgoben and Lady Timor were less than fond of the Ragesians; Lords Regor, Megadon and Lady Namin were hostile to Seaquen while Lord Iz and Lady Dene were neutral; or so gossip said.

Unfortunately, it was unknown if Gallo, Dashgoben and Timor were supportive of Seaquen whilst being hostile to Ragesian intervention in Dassen; the two were not mutually inclusive. On the opposite side of the fence, it was known that Lord Regor and Lady Namin were specifically hostile to Seaquen.

Interestingly, people also made a reference to a magical tome, the Book of the Eight Lands, which recorded all births, deaths and marriages of the great Lords of the Land; it also protected the rulers of these against magical influence. Apparently, according to this book, which was universally accepted by Dassenians, the next in line to the throne, after Steppengaard, bearing in mind the most recent events, was Lord Megadon; it was also said that Lady Namin had designs on being Steppengaard’s new queen.

We spent the rest of the day like this and then we walked back to the Inn. Once there, we had a very nice dinner and then retired to discuss how Balan was going to tackle our audience with the King tomorrow. This took several hours and but finally, we had four major points which we felt would carry weight in Balan’s negotiations. They were as follows:

The depredations of a Ragesian army of forty thousand men marching through the countryside. No one could doubt that where that army would go, then some sort of grief would follow; would Steppengaard be willing to allow a trail of suffering from the North to the South of his country.

The danger of the Scourge; the Scourge absorbed spell casters; just what exactly it did with them was unknown but its appetite was voracious and indiscriminate. Dassen had several established churches and the Scourge would be a direct threat to them. No King likes to have the Church arrayed against him.

Seaquen would be willing to provide support and help to Dassen; we all felt that it was difficult to stress this point as technically, Seaquen sat on Dassenian territory but it was an autonomous region; unfortunately, I never did get to the point of discovering if the autonomy had been declared by Seaquen or Bresk and whether it was acknowledged by both of them. We just agreed to mention that the potential of magical support was there.

Finally, we wanted to know if Steppengaard knew what the endgame to this Ragesian march was; that is, once the army reached Seaquen and took it, what would this Ragesian army do?

We were all a little dissatisfied with our ideas; I couldn’t help but feel that none of these points and ideas were particularly original; Steppengaard had been on the throne for fifteen odd years and by all accounts was a canny ruler; personally I felt that he or his advisors would have already have discussed all of the points we had made tonight.

John summed it up best when he said: “I can’t help but feel that we’ve missed something here; something obvious that is staring us in the face but I cannot put my finger on it.”

Longhelim puffed his pipe: “That’s as maybe but if we cannot think of it then there is no point in worrying about it.”

Bearing in mind what had happened to the King’s family, we all slept in the same room and set watches. Assassins in Bresk seemed to be particularly efficient and there was no need to tempt fate as far as I was concerned. Thankfully nothing happened that night and the next morning, after a good breakfast, we set out to the palace.

We reached the entrance and once we presented our papers, were led to a grand hall, where we were told to wait. The usual solid looking architecture was again carved with a variety of large cat creatures and as we waited, I looked at the stone work. I lost track of the time, trying to identify all the various beasts carved on the wall; some of them I had read about but others were a total mystery and in some cases, I couldn’t help but take a small piece of paper and attempt to sketch some the unknown creatures for later reference.

Some time later, I finished, looked around and looked at the others; everyone was slumped, sitting or doing something. I walked up to John:

“Has anything happened? How long have we been here?”

“Too long”, he smiled. “Once you get lost in that world of yours, time becomes irrelevant. I wish I could do that; but I’m bored right now.”

Finally, as I was organizing my sketches, a functionary came up to us and told us to follow him. He led us into a grand throne room. It was in semi darkness, with only one source of light in the centre of the roof; there were dozens of people on the edges of the room. All the magnates were represented via their proxies with the exception of the Lady Namin, a handsome woman with white hair although she did not seem very old; she was wearing mourning garb and was surrounded by her staff.

Drudge hissed: “Look!” as he pointed to the other side of the room. We saw an Inquisitor in full regalia of bear mask and fur cloak. This one seemed to be wearing a particularly elaborate mask, carved with runes. Next to him was an older man, finely dressed, stiff and formal, with a short grey beard and moustache and a military bearing; Balan whispered that that was the Ragesian ambassador.

The room was dominated by a pair of thrones. One was empty and draped in black. The other was occupied by Steppengaard we presumed; the King was not looking well. His beard was straggly and unkempt, his hair looked unwashed and uncut and even in the gloom we could see that he had dark rings under his eyes. In short, he looked dreadful.

In front of him was another man, dressed in gray rags, with a pair of handcuffs and desperate eyes. Around this wretch another figure paced: small, with dark curly hair and a sharp pointy nose, a female gnome moved rapidly around, a bundle of nervous energy.

“Come Relder, you are in it right up to your neck! You and your master Jinis, so Gallo by default. All three of you were responsible for the assassinations; it’s obvious. Are you really trying to tell us that in spite of the overwhelming evidence, you are innocent?”

Then her voice turned reasonable: “This is your chance. You have an audience in front of the King; His Majesty’s greatest desire is to get to the bottom of this. If you co-operate and confess, then he will be merciful. He knows you were not the one who made the decisions; you are far too low in the chain of command. We already know that Gallo gave the orders. You were just following your master’s orders weren’t you?”

The man looked confused but then straightened his back and his eyes focused on the figure in front of him: “You gnomish upstart! That is Duke Gallo to you! Show respect! The Duke’s family has been protecting this land for generations. Use his title when you say his name! How dare you impugn him and suggest he is involved in this.” Relder almost spat these words out. Then almost contemptuously, he continued:

“Surely, even you must be aware that Duke Gallo has nothing to gain from this. Lord Megadon inherits the Crown! As usual, you’re babbling, woman!”

The gnomish woman just stared at the man; and stared and stared.

Suddenly, his face became slack and his back curved again. He looked confused and a thin rope of drool appeared from the corner of his mouth. He began muttering……

“……meeting with the assassins tonight…….” Then he became a little more audible, although he spoke in a strangled voice, completely different from his previous tone: “They will give me that poison and then…….” Then his head twitched strongly several times.

Nearby I heard someone mutter: “This is useless. It’s obvious that someone is controlling or at least tampering with him mentally; and in the King’s chamber too. This would never have happened a few years ago. This place has really become…..” I lost the rest of it.

The gnome then spoke again, slowly and deliberately: “Gallo, who has the most to gain. Gallo, who wants to usurp the throne. Gallo, who wants the blame to fall on our Ragesian friends; the same friends who have promised to protect us in these troubled times!”

The gnome’s voice turned shrill: “Damn you, why don’t you just admit that Gallo and Jinis arranged it all!”

Then she turned to the throne: “Your Majesty, this is intolerable! It is obvious someone has manipulated his mind; probably to alter his memories.”

At this point, Steppengaard raised his arm and said in a wary voice: “Nina, Nina, thank you for your efforts but you can see this isn’t working. I can’t try or punish him; he barely knows what day of the week it is. Take him back to his cells until we uncover new evidence. I do have a great concern that someone is using magic in the very heart of the palace and they cannot be tracked down.

Well, I weary of this. I think I will begin to take audiences now.”

With that, drapes were removed from various windows and suddenly the throne room was lit up. Relder was led away, staggering and feebly stuttering, wanting to know what was going on. The court seemed to wake up and everyone looked expectantly at the centre of the room; at this point, Balan stepped forward.

He looked splendid in his courtier’s garb and he began speaking:

“Your Majesty, my Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Balan Bastom and I am here to speak to you; although it is the mages of the Lyceum who bid me speak, I do not do so only on behalf of Seaquen but also on behalf of the people of Dassen, the people that cannot come to Court, that cannot beg for an audience of the King; it is also on their behalf that I beg to ask…….”

Gods he was good; I had thought Longhelim was good but I could now see that difference between a gifted amateur such as the paladin and a true professional negotiator and diplomat. Carefully, reasonably and with great gentility, he made all the points that we had discussed the night before; but he did it in such a way that it was never confrontational, just reasonable questions for a subject to ask from his King. It was masterfully done and as I looked around surreptitiously, I could see that everyone’s attention was riveted on him.

“…..and so, I leave you with these questions and these thoughts, Your Majesty; please do not forget your people. No one doubts that you are making these decisions on behalf of all of us here in Dassen and you have been a very wise ruler for the last fifteen years, so ultimately, we will defer to your decisions as we have always done. Thank you for your attention and for listening.”

He bowed to the throne and applause erupted from the courtiers. Looking around, I could see several proxies looking either interested or indifferent; no one looked hostile except the Ragesian ambassador and his entourage.

Abruptly, the King raised his hand as we saw that Nina was whispering something in his ear. The applause and murmuring stopped.

The King stood up and spoke: “Fine words from a great diplomat. I know you; and I also know exactly what to expect from you. Instead, let’s ask some of your friends.”

He pointed at Longhelim: “You, what have you lost in this war? I have lost nineteen members of my family; every single one of them. I have suffered enough for the whole country! Can you say the same?”

Longhelim bowed and said in a soft voice: “I don’t know, Sire. As we speak, Gate Pass, my home city is locked in a desperate struggle for survival. I have not had news about my family. They may still all be alive or they may all be dead.”

Steppengaard then stood up and shouted hysterically: “Enough! If you were my subjects, I would have you executed for treason. None shall aid that nest of serpents that is Seaquen and her allies! I will not be party to another senseless slaughter in this war!”

Then as he glared around the room and saw that no one opposed him, he sank down on his throne. Putting his hands on his forehead, he said quietly: “However, never let it be said that my realm does not respect the neutrality of other nations! No matter how vile they are! You have three days to conduct your business here; in that time I suggest you try to convince our friends the Ragesians of your good intentions and I advise you to beg for their mercy.”

Then he made waving motions with his hands at Balan: “You have said enough! This audience is over! Next!”

There was a stunned moment’s silence and then the murmuring started again, but much lower.

John hissed: “We have to get out of here now!”

Drudge frowned: “Why?”

“Look at their faces especially the Ragesians. Nina Glibglamer also looked as if she swallowed a lemon while Balan was talking. I think we threw several unpalatable truths into the open and there are several people who are very unhappy; and that is not counting the King, who was obviously livid. By all the gods, look at Regor’s proxy. If looks could kill…… Ooops, heads up! The Ragesians are coming!”

Indeed, the Ragesian ambassador, followed by the Inquisitor was making his way towards us.

“Greetings. I am Serimus of Ragesia, envoy from Her Imperial Majesty, Leska. That was quite a speech you gave there; wrong but pretty. Sorry, you were right in one thing; our army will come and take your little town of Seaquen; you allied yourselves with our enemies in the Lyceum; you made your choices so you have to live with them.

Despite your foolishness, the Empress is known for her generosity; therefore note that this is a one time offer. Reject Seaquen and the Lyceum and join us. The Ragesian Empire will finally reach its glorious destiny and you can be part of it. Reject it and face the consequences!”

Reactions to this offer were mixed. Mindful of my diplomacy lessons from Longhelim, I said politely:

“We shall take your offer under advisement.”

Longhelim, in the meantime, wordlessly turned away from the ambassador and walked out, quickly followed by everyone else.

“Right, back to the inn, now” said the paladin.

Felix whispered: “He gave us three days.”

John’s reply to that was a mutter: “Only in our dreams, my friend, only in our dreams.”

As we were walking out of the palace, a scraggly, tall individual suddenly kept pace with us. I vaguely recalled seeing him in the audience hall. His mouth seemed to be barely moving but we all heard his whisper:

“You are all in great danger. Go to the North Gate tonight. Someone will be waiting for you.”

After that, he slunk away.

We returned to the inn and rapidly collected our possessions. Then we went outside:

Felix asked: “Are we going to the North Gate tonight?”

I replied: “As much as I would like to believe in the goodness of people, I find a total stranger attaching himself to us and offering to help us out of the blue just because he liked our faces a little too convenient. Let’s go now and leave by the South Gate; we are more familiar with it.”

Everyone agreed and we sped through the streets as fast as we could. As we neared the Gate, we saw a great many soldiers; all of them carried the insignia of the King. These seemed to be patrolling the streets and stopping citizens; there were also several flying creatures; these had the bodies of lions, wings of eagles and heads of rams. They were truly fabulous and they resembled some of the beasts which I had seen carved on the walls of the city. Suddenly, we were stopped by a group of soldiers.

“Halt, your business?”

Balan stepped forward: “We are travelers wishing to leave the city. We have diplomatic papers.”

“Let me see them!”

I didn’t like the way this was shaping up.

The soldier went away for quite some time and then returned. He did not have our papers in his hands.

“You are wanted for questioning. Disarm now and come with us!”

“Wait. What is the problem? Where are our papers?”

“No questions. Do as you’re told!”

“We will go with you to answer your questions but we will not disarm!”

The soldier made a signal with his arm.

“Resisting arrest!”

Suddenly, things began to move incredibly fast. Rank upon rank of soldiers moved to surround us from all sides. Four of the flying creatures landed on roofs nearby; this only took a few moments and with a sinking heart, I realised what had taken the soldier so long with our papers. The ambush had to be set; I did not have any more time to think about it because the soldiers attacked with no warning. There was no attempt to talk, or to try to take us alive for questioning. The first man struck Longhelim with a full blooded slash, meant to kill. I looked around me in despair; there were too many of them; ranks upon ranks too many.

Then the whole battle took on a strange effect as suddenly magical silence was cast at our feet, preventing any sort of spell casting. At this point, I determined that I would just try to get out of everyone’s way; there was nothing I could except possibly strike my wooden stick against the heavy metal armour worn by the soldiers. That really wasn’t going to do anything to anyone. So, I watched with horror as I saw each of my friends brought low and burst into flames. Time after time, they were struck by the soldiers and the flying beasts flew over the battle and raked my companions with their claws. Victor was the first to fall and he was also the only one do any damage to any of the soldiers, felling at least one.

Drudge was the last and he even managed to break out of the ambush but he was stalked by the flying beasts before being finally felled.

At this stage, I was so demoralized, I did not say anything and did not resist as all my possessions were taken from me. Everyone else was stripped and carried by soldiers who were protected from flame by military priests. Yes, these soldiers had military priests attached to them. It was a very well organized ambush; we were doomed as soon as that speech in the palace finished. I saw that now.

We were taken to the dungeons. I was alive; beaten, bloody, stripped but alive. I also had a pair of cuffs; they were quite odd. They left my arms completely free but forcibly closed my hands into fists and allowed only a very limited movement of my fingers. There was also a gag in my mouth which made it very difficult to speak. I was not going to be doing any spell casting while either of those was in place. I had been given a bundle of disgusting grey rags, which I had arranged about myself as best as I could. Despite all of this, while I was alive, there was hope.

Everyone else was still unconscious, burning merrily.

The dungeon was pretty much as I had imagined dungeons to be. First of all, it stank of effluence. The smell was overwhelming. The walls were stone, dark and old. No windows and one door, although the large space was sub-divided into various barred cells. There was a little straw on the floor but it was old and matted with substances I did not care to speculate about. Just to add to the atmosphere, screams pervaded through the walls at regular intervals. Somewhere, someone was inflicting a great deal of pain on someone else. Some of the shrieks sounded female.

We were put in the same cell; I saw that there were several shallowly dug pits in the floor; those were our latrines and they were also the source of the overwhelming stench. Glancing around, I saw that we were in the largest cell, the furthest one away from the door.

My glance also gave me the opportunity to see into the other cells; in one of them I could see our erstwhile friend who had approached us out of the palace, offering to help us escape through the North Gate; he seemed to be babbling incoherently now, totally oblivious to anything around him; well, so much for his escape plan.

In another neighbouring cell, there was another individual; this one had been here for a little time and would normally have been a dignified, elder person; the dungeon had changed that. He had long grey hair and a long beard; like me, he was dressed only in shapeless rags and there was little dignity left.

The other cells were empty.

This individual looked at me and then at my friends. His eyes seemed a bit cloudy and he didn’t seem quite with it.

“Ah, new guests of Steppengaard’s hospitality. Welcome my friends; are you the latest assassins? I am Jinis and once upon a time, I had a position at Court.”

His voice was meandering and he sounded as if his mind was wondering.

Jinis? Ah, this was Gallo’s proxy. In my mangled speech, I said:

“We have a letter for you”. This took several attempts of course, due to that damnable gag. “Sorry, had a letter for you.”

His gaze sharpened: “A letter? From whom?” Even his speech improved.

“A young man by the name of Jinir.”

“Thank the Gods, he is alive. Where is he?”

“In Seaquen.”

He sighed and went to a wall on the far side of the cell. There, he leaned his forehead against the stone. I thought I heard a soft sob. After a few moments, he returned:

“My friend, you have given me the best news I have ever received in this hellish place. I am in your debt and at your disposal. I have studied the guards and their habits; they feed us twice a day and I have managed to steal a pair of knives and a fork; they are pitiful but they could be used as weapons or even primitive lockpicks. Should you need my services for escape or anything else, all you need to do is ask.”

The man was sharp. Any sign of a wondering mind had completely gone and instead, there was a keen observer and a man who was desperate to get out of here. That could be extremely useful.

At this point, the door opened and several guards came in. They ordered us to stand against the far wall. Then several more came in, quite a few of them wearing bandages. These had saps and bottles wrapped in cloth; they proceeded to beat everyone mercilessly. I was powerless to intervene but I marked their faces in my head. Finally, two of them took Victor out of the cell. I tried to shout but two of them pointed a sword into my gut and Jinis held me back.

I went to a corner and sat down. I looked at everyone else still burning and Jinis wisely left me alone. He could see I was in no state for a conversation. I thought back to all that had happened and to keep sane, I visualized my journal. All my possessions had been taken of course, but I deliberately built it in my mind as an exercise to distract myself and then thought about how and what I would write about this latest twist in our fortunes.

I don’t know how long it took; then the door opened and Victor was thrown back into the cell.

I lost track of the time; hours or days could have passed. The guards came and left us bowls with some slop and a bucket of dirty water. They also did several things to my friends which are best left unmentioned but the faces of those particular guards are etched in my memory. Their time would come.

No one else came and finally Victor’s flame extinguished itself and he stirred and groaned. He was bloody, beaten, several of his nails had been ripped out his fingers and three of his front teeth had been knocked out. His nose had been broken, judging by the huge purple bruise running down its length. He also had angry burn marks on his ribs. Lastly, there was a huge scar on his left knee. It had been recently healed, but something horrible had happened there.

Jinis looked at him shook his head.

“If he survives this then he is as strong as an oak.”

“Not an oak,” I said absently, “but as strong and supple as a willow.” I was thinking of the Living Blade of Innenotdar and the mystical bond it had with Victor. The First Tree of that Forest had been a willow.

He stared at me uncomprehendingly.

Victor was shortly followed to consciousness by Drudge, then Longhelim and then all the others, one by one. I ran around, trying to make them all as comfortable as possible, passing the rags to give them at least a little dignity and giving everyone sips of water.

As soon as everyone was capable of moving, we huddled around Victor and began to talk quietly.

Longhelim looked at Victor carefully and then the rest of us. He grunted:

“Gods, what a mess! Did anyone stay conscious? Does anyone know what happened after the fight; and why are we still alive?”

I replied: “I stayed conscious; I couldn’t do anything in the magical silence so I just stayed out of everyone’s way. This is what I remember: After everyone was knocked unconscious, we were taken………”

I related everything that had happened to us, including Victor being taken away and tortured…..” but as for why they haven’t killed us, I don’t know. I must say that I have no idea as to why they would keep us alive; or where Balan is. I lost track of him as we were being taken into the dungeons.”

At this point, Victor spoke; he is said this in his usual succinct manner although his voice was quiet and strained.

“I can shed some light on that.”

What he said after that chilled the blood:

“They brought me back to consciousness early. I was in a torture chamber. I saw Balan’s body being dumped into a pit. He is very dead. I was tortured. My knee is mangled. I won’t be doing much moving for the moment. The Inquisitor was doing it. He was asking questions about the assassinations. Then he stopped and just enjoyed the torture. I didn’t give him any answers though I passed out several times.”

Victor was pale and obviously in great pain but he wasn’t showing it with the exception of the beads of perspiration on his forehead; we did not feel the heat; we did feel pain. As usual, his report was short, factual and to the point. It did confirm Ragesian involvement and informed us of Balan’s death. We propped him up against the wall and tried to make his position as comfortable as possible. He was cradling his hand. The tips of his fingers, where the fingernails had been ripped out, looked raw. We also wrapped some wet rags around the burns. That was the best we could for him at the moment.

Longhelim unconsciously seemed to reach for his pipe and then grimaced as his hands brushed the rags

“As I said, this is a total mess; like you said, Faden, we should be dead, but we are not so let’s take advantage of this; first things first: who are our new friends?”

The question was directed at me.

“Our first friend, furthest away from us is the individual who tried to convince us to go to the North Gate; he is acting like a gibbering idiot now. Obviously, he was caught; whether this was while he was trying to convince us to follow him or later, I don’t know, but it’s pretty irrelevant at this point.

Our other friend, in the cell next to us is no other than Jinis, Lord Gallo’s proxy. He was very grateful to hear that his son is alive and in Seaquen; after I told him that, he has become our new best friend and is more than happy to help us in any escape attempt. He has also managed to secret a couple of knives and a fork in his cell. He thinks that they could be used either as some sort of weapons or maybe even something to try to open the locks.”

John grunted at this: “I’d have to look at them, but anything is better than nothing.”

Longhelim then looked around. “So, Faden, tell us how the guards work. How often do they check on us? What do they do? How many of them are there? Was there anyone else in these cells before we arrived?”

I thought hard and then replied: “No one else here except those you see already; the guards check us every hour or so; there are generally four of them including one of the priests; the abuse I described previously was prevalent at the beginning of our imprisonment but seems to have stopped now; generally, they look to see if the gags and cuffs are in place and that is it from what I can gather.”

Longhelim looked thoughtful and then said: “Faden, let me have a look at these cuffs.” After I did so, he also showed them to Victor and they both nodded at each other.

“It can be done between the two of us but we’ll have to be careful with his wrists and fingers. If we break them, it will nullify any advantage we may gain.”

I didn’t know what they were talking about.

Then Longhelim whispered to John: “Can you do it with these knives Jinis has?”

John just nodded, confidently and that grin appeared again: “As I said, I’d have to see them but I’m pretty sure I can; and you’ll have to get rid of these as well.”

He waved his cuffs at Longhelim. The other person wearing these and the gag in the group was Felix; in other words, the known spell casters.

Then the paladin asked: “Faden, how long before the guards come for their new inspection?”

“Not too long; they were here quite a long time ago. They are due quite soon.”

“Thank you. Now, please introduce us to our new friend.”

Jinis had been standing quietly while we had been whispering. Then, as Longhelim and the others approached, he straightened and said:

“First of all, thank you for bringing me news about my son Jinir; for that I am eternally grateful.”

“You’re welcome. Now, how did you end up here? You are Gallo’s proxy aren’t you? Does that position not give you any protection in court at all?”

“No,” Jinis replied, “I was accused of orchestrating the murder of the King’s family and I had no recourse or defence. They have been keeping me here ever since; basically it went like this: accusation, arrest, dungeon; that’s it.”

I frowned: “So, no come back? No ability to refute the charges? No investigation or attempt to find out if you have an alibi or anything like that?”

“No,” was the reply. “From what I understand, the accusation comes via Nina Glibglamer, either on her own or in collusion with the Ragesians.”

From what Victor had told us about the presence of the Inquisitor down here and also bearing in mind what else was happening with the non-aggression treaty as well as presence of the Ragesian army poised to pour through Alydi’s Gap, I had a fairly good idea as to which of those options was the most likely.

“What a mess of a country,” a mutter from John.

Jinis continued: “I hope you have a plan for escape. We must get to Lord Gallo; once there, we need to sway the other nobles to our cause and get the King away from that….that woman. He really isn’t himself you know!”

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was very likely too late for both the King and the Lord Gallo. I was fairly certain that John already guessed this but with such an efficient Ragesian assassination team roaming around Dassen, their next obvious target would be Gallo; that would almost guarantee a civil war and more importantly, deny Gallo’s Fend crucial leadership at a critical moment. The moves were brutally logical; and it was already several days after the assassinations of the King’s family so the team was most likely almost there if not actually in place.

It was also very likely that if Steppengaard began to show signs of breaking away from Glibglamer’s influence, then……contingencies, to put it gently, would have been put in place.

However, we had other priorities at this time; like getting out of here.

Longhelim introduced the rest of us to Jinis and I was chagrined that I had forgotten to do so; I had been distracted but even so….

Then Longhelim said: “I believe Faden said you had a trio of implements that may be of use to us later? If so, we plan to try to do something about our current state and your current state by default for that matter, after the next guard inspection. May we borrow your implements please?”

It was quite amazing. He was talking as if he was still in the palace and the effect was obvious on Jinis. The man positively grew in front of us and replied:

“It would be my pleasure to aid you in this exercise as much as possible although I suggest that I keep them until the next guard inspection as they are more likely to search you rather than me; I have been searched so many times already.”

The paladin nodded: “Of course; very good idea.”

Longhelim, Drudge and Victor than went to the back of the cell and looked at the wall. They held a brief conversation and Drudge nodded eagerly. Then suddenly, there was a rattling of keys at the far end of the cell block and everyone leapt to the back of their cell as the door opened and a group of three soldiers and a priest walked in. They gave us a cursory glance although they did not seem surprised that we were awake. The priest in fact nodded as if satisfied. As before, we were subjected to an inspection to see that the cuffs and gags were in place; then the guards looked around for a few moments and then withdrew, making comments about the stink and vague threats about what would happen to us.

As soon as they left, Victor and Longhelim moved to John and looked at his cuffs. Then they talked quietly and gripped it carefully; using all their strength, they exerted pressure. They pain must have been excruciating for Victor but he bore it stoically. It took some time, but finally John exclaimed:

“There! A crack in the metal! See, just there!”

Encouraged, Victor and Longhelim continued with their attempt to free John’s hand until finally with one great gasp from the both of them, it cracked and fell. Immediately, they began to work on the other; John was also able to help with the removal of this one, so it took less time and a little while later, John’s hands were free.

Immediately, he went to Jinis and asked him for the two knives and a fork; as soon as he was given them, he came over to me and began to work on my cuffs; Longhelim and Victor began exerting pressure on the cuffs binding Felix’s hands; Drudge took one of the knives and began to scrape at the wall in one corner of the cell.

It took a while; the fork was blunt and the locks were small. John’s face contorted in concentration as he tried to open the locks using these makeshift tools. The two warriors were grunting and gasping next to Felix until there was another soft crack and the first of Felix’s cuffs fell to the ground. Only a moment later, John managed to get the first one of mine unlocked; that left two and these were removed faster as John became more familiar with the lock and Felix was able to help with the removal of his.

Then we had to spend more time spent removing the gags; they were just as troublesome as the cuffs but in a different way. Since they were inserted in one’s mouth, one had to be even more careful in breaking them; mouths were very sensitive and delicate parts of the body.

Finally, those were removed as well.

Both Felix and John began to prepare to heal everyone immediately. Victor was the first priority and I heard a gasp from him as Felix healed his wounds; the open burns disappeared from his torso; the bruises also disappeared and nails magically grew back on his fingers. They teeth were still missing but Felix said that given a little time, he would be able to do something about those as well; and about the knee as well. In the meantime, Victor would still limp. More importantly, the warrior said he was no longer in so much pain, which must have come as a great relief to him. Simultaneously, everyone else was also being healed although in their case, it was mostly bruising.

At that point, Drudge grunted and triumphantly brought us his prize: a brick; actually, a very hefty, heavy brick that would make a very good weapon.

As soon as everyone was healed, we set about obtaining more bricks. We needed two more: for the warriors and Drudge. Again, this took a little time and we were getting a little close to the next inspection so we quickly formulated a plan.

Longhelim said: “I don’t know why they kept us alive or even together but we have to take advantage of this. I suspect that we will be separated sooner or later so we have to take our chance as quickly as possible.

No time for subtlety. We don’t have either the capability or the equipment for it. Faden, your cuffs and gag still look whole as they were picked by John. So, you stay in plain view; from distance, it should not be obvious that they have been tampered with. Felix and John, curl in the corners of the cell, making sure your mouths and hands are out of sight. Victor and I will stand next to the cell door and jump them as they get close.

John, you can get this door open, right?”

John just looked at him with raised eyebrows and then knelt next to the lock with the fork. It took him a very short time before the door was opened. Then, for good measure, he went and opened Jinis’s door.

“Good,” said Longhelim. “Can anyone else do anything?”

I replied: “I have a couple of spells I can do but not very many without my components.”

“Same here,” said Felix, “although I can do the spell of magical silence so that will stop the alarm from being raised.”

“Good. Now, everyone ready? Let’s get this right. As I said, we’ll only get one chance!”

As soon as we saw the door opening at the far end of the corridor, we assumed our positions. The guard that came was another set of three soldiers but this time, the priest with them was a female dwarf.

The plan worked as discussed. They came forward, unsuspecting and when they reached a short distance away from our cell, Longhelim leapt forward and opened the cell. Victor then stepped forward and clouted one of the soldiers around the head with is brick. It made a sickening crunch, despite the helmet; Victor was very strong.

The soldiers were stupefied. It took them time to react and before they were able to do so, Victor had already limped aside, letting Longhelim step forward and clout the same soldier. I realised that if we could create gap, we would be able to surround them so I cast one of the few spells available to me; a shower of force missiles sped out my hands and hit the same soldier. He staggered and almost fell. It was obvious he was badly hurt.

Drudge tried to move around the crowded combat in a series of flips and summersaults but I think he was still suffering the after effects of his beatings because he kept being driven back, unable to get past. Felix had cast his spell of silence behind the combat so clashing of swords and the shouting of soldiers went eerily quiet; but then everything went completely silent as the same spell was cast at us.

The other soldiers finally recovered from their surprise and drawing flails, began to lay about them with a will. The priestess turned around and began running away.

Longhelim hit the wounded soldier, who finally fell and John took advantage of this to run after the priestess. I watched from the back; in the magical silence, there was little I could do except get in the way.

Victor and Longhelim moved expertly to position themselves to block the two soldiers and strike them with their bricks. They managed to hit the second soldier again and again until he dropped and the third one, now outnumbered, stepped back, allowing Victor to pick up a flail. Both the paladin and the warrior were bleeding from flail wounds but they stuck to their task with a desperate rage until the last soldier was finally struck down, leaving a path to the guardroom.

Drudge had already sped past, joining John in the outer room, trying to prevent the priestess from escaping. There was no sound through the magical silence, so it was impossible to tell just what was happening but as soon as the final soldier fell, Longhelim ran forward, leaving a limping Victor to follow.

During the combat I had noticed just how badly Victor was still affected by his injury. He may have been very strong but he moved oh so slowly. I remembered him sparring gracefully with Longhelim previous to this debacle and the contrast was distressing. I hoped Felix would be able to do something about that as soon as he could.

Both Felix and I moved out of the cell and the magical silence. We ran into the guardroom. As I remembered, there was a table, a bed and two doors. The priestess was cornered against one of the doors, flail in hand. I was unsure as to why she was still here but it was obvious that she was unable to open the door. She was initially faced by Drudge, John and Longhelim but this quickly changed when Victor finally arrived and was able to join the fight. Just before he did, the warrior limped over to Drudge and tossed him the flail from the last warrior. The ranger grinned and gave him a thumbs up.

John got out of the way. He had been hit several times and was bleeding. The priestess was grimacing; she had just finished casting a spell; I could see wounds on her body stop bleeding and closing but then both Longhelim and Victor struck which caused her to stagger. She struck out at Drudge and hit him but for every blow she meted out, she was struck several times in return and this was a ratio that could not go on; and it didn’t as she fell over after only a little time, cursing us to her last breath.

We scavenged what little weapons and armour we could from the soldiers and the priestess and then had a quick discussion. Jinis had joined us and told us that that the door next to the priestess led through the dungeons and no doubt more guards; he was also fairly certain that the other door here led to the torture chamber. Victor also reminded us that there was a pit there into which Balan’s body had been thrown there. It could lead somewhere or maybe not but it was better to investigate that instead of trying to fight our way through the dungeons.

On the priestess’s body, we also found a ring of keys; something about this bothered me a little but I couldn’t quite pin it down. Before I could think on it further, John opened the door to the torture chamber but instead revealed a narrow corridor with three doors on the wall to our left. After making sure that everyone was ready, he checked the first door, to find that it was locked. Using his makeshift tools, he was able to open it and reveal a store room containing various chests and barrels; the first thing he saw was a cage which contained his snake familiar. He almost stepped forward but then he caught himself and cast a small cantrip; then he relayed that there were several magical auras within the chests. Then, carefully, he stepped in and examined the chests; using the keys this time, he opened them revealing our equipment; all of it with the ominous exception of my journal and Victor’s reports. I blanched; I didn’t like that at all but then I remembered that Lee Sidoneth had learned a great deal about us already so it was very likely that Ragesian intelligence were well aware of us and our achievements, such as they were. Everything else we had done was common knowledge around Seaquen and the refugee camps were crawling with agents from all nations so again, there was no point in worrying about secrets.

We spent a little time finding and putting on our equipment; this included any magical aids we had as well as Balan’s equipment including his accordion and his shortsword. I looked at them sadly. I hadn’t known him well but he certainly did not deserve the end he had met.

Thus bolstered, John opened the second door to reveal another store room with this one having far more mundane goods, such as dried rations, blankets and the like. A quick search did not reveal anything of interest.

The final door revealed the aforementioned torture chamber. A large table facing us dominated the room. It had restraints on each corner and a wheeled arrangement made it double up as a rack. There was also shelf with a variety of small pain inducing instruments. There was also a large grate which was obviously covering a pit. The table also had a notebook on it.

John entered first, with great caution but nothing happened as he looked around the room so he motioned the rest of us inside. He had looked at the notebook but he handed it to me and said:

“I can’t read this; see if you can make anything out of it.”

As a matter of fact I could. It was written in orc. It was inscribed to someone called Torrix from one Guthwulf and the inscription read: “The Road of Education is painful - Enjoy it!”

The rest of the notebook recorded the information gleaned from the torture of Balan about the defences of Seaquen, which were basically none as they had all been destroyed in the storm, and also information about the powerful people in the town. Some of the facts were patently untrue but there was also a great deal of useful information about the important locals.

Unfortunately, there was no sign of our notebooks or journals.

Then John looked down the grate and muttered: “I don’t like this. Longhelim, could you use your ability down this pit.”

The paladin stepped forward and concentrated; he declared: “I cannot feel any evil down there.”

Suddenly, what had been bothering me about the keys, the priestess and the main guardroom crystalised but at that point John sent his invisible friend with a light through the bars down the pit, to reveal a depth of about thirty feet and then possibly a tunnel leading away. It didn’t look very appetizing.

I was going to speak about my thoughts when Victor and Longhelim lifted the grate. As they did so, a hidden door opened in the corner of the torture chamber and a creature lurched out.

It was quite horrific and disgusting; obviously undead, it looked like a corpse, with writhing viscera in its ribcage and a long, purple tongue lashing out of its mouth. It even had a claw at the end of that appendage.

It rushed at us.

It certainly didn’t waste any time, whatever it was. Stepping forward, it lunged at John, its tongue lashed out and suddenly the rogue stopped moving, paralysed. Then it moved again, this time stepping next to me. The tongue lashed out again, the claw bit me and I felt a freezing sensation, a coldness which I managed to shake off. It hissed in frustration as the rest of the group erupted into movement. Longhelim stepped into its path, with sword drawn and a grimace of distaste on his face. Victor, limping as fast as he could, was also moving around to confront it; I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and got out of the way; my place was immediately taken by the warrior, who promptly slashed at the corpse or whatever it was.

Felix moved up to Longhelim and touched him, doing something which I didn’t catch but which made the paladin grin. I cast a spell at the thing and a set of force missiles hit it in the chest; it hissed again and lunged in my direction, only to be stopped and driven back by Victor’s falchion; frustrated, it twisted and its tongue lashed out at the warrior instead; Victor didn’t even slow down as I could see him limbering up for the next blow. Longhelim then hit it again a couple of times and for the first time, it seemed to hesitate, as if sensing that it had potentially picked a fight which was beyond it.

As it began to retreat slowly, Victor slashed it again and then Longhelim drew a deep breath, concentrated and then seemed to whisper something, maybe a prayer or an imprecation; his weapon seemed to gleam and suddenly, he thrust forward and his long sword erupted from the back of the creature; disgustingly, the viscera writhed frantically around the blade and letting out a shriek, one last lunge of the purple tongue bit Victor who stopped moving. This happened just as an arrow thudded into its chest, finally felling it.

The group recovered quickly. Felix checked both John and Victor, shaking his head:

“They are both just paralysed, thank Farlanghn but who knows for how long? It could be days; I hope not otherwise our escape just became even more complicated.”

As the others looked after the paralysed victims, this delay allowed me to investigate something that had been bothering me. I took the ring of keys from John, the one that had belonged to the dwarven priestess and went to the initial guardroom; there I checked and found that none of the keys fitted the main door exiting this room. Yet, that door was locked. Who locked a jailer in their own jail? It left me scratching my head. It also explained as to why she was unable to escape.

Next I went to the priestess and confirmed that she was indeed dead as opposed to just unconscious. Puzzled, I returned to the torture chamber. John had just become mobile so thankfully, the paralysis did not last for days as we had feared. As we waited for Victor to recover I said:

“I don’t understand; the door into the guardroom was locked. Why would anyone lock that door? The priestess was not able to escape and raise the alarm purely for that reason.”

John looked thoughtful: “When I chased her down, I saw her pull the handle and she looked stunned when she couldn’t open it. I don’t understand it either Faden; is someone in this benighted place actually helping us?”

I shrugged: “Maybe; I don’t know but frankly, I am not sure what we can do about it. Let’s just assume he or she are friendly and take this gift. If the priestess had raised the alarm, we would be back in the cells; or at least some of us would be. I suspect others would no longer be with us. We need to remember this though; in case all is not as it seems; just for a change.”

Victor was finally beginning to stir. Felix immediately began to attend and heal him. As he did so, I began to cast a few spells at myself and others; then I had another thought; it was distasteful but quite necessary.

To broach it, I said:

“Victor, you said you saw someone throwing Balan’s body into the pit under the grate?”

The warrior nodded.

“So, where’s the body?” I continued.

The others looked down again, comprehension dawning on their faces.

Longhelim concentrated and then said: “There is a presence of evil down there.”

I continued: “We should take one of the bodies and throw it down there, to see what happens.”

The two warriors left and quickly dragged several bodies back: “Just in case we need more.”

We lifted the grate and threw the first body down the pit. It fell to the bottom of the shaft and then we saw it being rolled and drawn into the tunnel beyond. It was difficult to tell but it looked as if arms snagged the body; dessicated, undead arms.

Felix stepped forward: “If we can throw another body down there, I may be able to affect them.”

So, we the procedure and as the arms appeared again, Felix roared:

“Back to whatever hells you came from!”

The arms stopped moving but it was only one pair. Felix turned to the rest of us, grimaced and said:

“I can only affect what I can see. I suspect that there are others of his type down there.”

Longhelim concentrated briefly and then confirmed this: “Yes, I can still feel the taint of evil from down there.”

I thought about it a little more. Then I said to the others: “Stand back!” I pointed my elemental staff down the pit and released a ball of fire into its depths. The flame rose just to the upper edge, toasting my toes, but then subsided.

After that conflagration we decided to descend.

Amongst the equipment in the chamber was a rope ladder that looked just about the correct length to climb down the pit. Without speaking, we knew what to do.
Longhelim was down first but Felix followed up quickly and then everyone else with Drudge taking the rear as usual. Carefully, Drudge replaced the grate above our heads.

Below a horrific yet bizarre sight met our eyes. We stood on a stone floor, in a wet circle; beyond this circle was ice, a frozen body of water or possibly something more unpleasant, like sewage. Within this dirty, brown ice, trapped up to their waists, was a veritable sea of waving arms belonging to an enormous amount of undead corpses. Felix breathed that they were “zombies”. They swayed and rocked hypnotically, trying to reach us; tugging endlessly at the ice, drawn by our movement or life force. Their dead eyes tracked our movement uncannily.

We stared at this strange obstacle; there was no way through them unless they were destroyed. However, towards the South or behind us, we could only see a tiny tunnel leading away; it was far too small for any of us; that left the swaying zombies guarding the only way out.

So, we decided to plough a way through them. Felix would make them cower with the power of his faith, leaving them fairly helpless. Then Longhelim and Victor would step forward and put them out of their hellish existence, aided by the arrows of Drudge. I lost count of how many they put down in this manner, but we advanced slowly until we saw a blank wall at the far end, together with a tunnel exiting on the upper right of this large cavern. Then, we stopped, as Felix said:

“Right; that’s it. I can make them cower only once more today and I would like to save this last use of my power for the day just in case we need it against something more……substantial.”

So I told everyone to stand back and unleashed another ball of fire at the remaining zombies. This served the dual purpose of frying the undead and melting the ice again. There was little left of the charred corpses and as we advanced, we saw that there was a grate over the tunnel exit. It had been held in place by the ice which had now been melted.

Cautiously, we approached it and I looked down its length, using my dwarven ability to see in the dark. It led into more darkness, as far as I could see. John then looked at the grate and managed to get it open. Carefully, we began to follow it in a single file.

It wound and twisted its way for a very long distance, or so it seemed to me until we began to see glimpses of light in the distance; we moved more cautiously and slowly until we emerged into the sunlight. The entrance to the tunnel was situated in a graveyard. It was a peaceful place; small, soft flakes were falling, adding to the pristine blanket of snow covering the ground.

In the distance, we could see the city; we were well outside its walls.

As we looked around cautiously, the first thing we saw was a small tower; Drudge asked us to stay in place and went off the scout it. He returned a little later:

“The tower is empty now and provides good shelter but it’s been used very recently. Half a dozen or so beings, humanoid by the feet; they stayed there and then moved back to the city; only a few hours ago.”

He led us to the tower and John looked at the lock. It took him a little time, but he managed to pick it and we entered. As Drudge said, it was deserted and surprisingly well furnished. We decided to stay here for a little time.

I cleared my throat: “So, what next? Our initial mission is a complete failure and we need to think about we want to do now.”



Jinis immediately jumped in: “We need to go north and contact Lord Gallo. I am sure that he will be able to sway the rest of the Council of Nine and set this situation to rights.”

I looked at him patiently and said, gently: “Jinis, I am sorry but there is a very strong possibility that Duke Gallo is dead. We all believe that the Ragesians are behind the assassination of the King’s family, using it to destabilize the kingdom; and doing a very good job of it as well. The next logical step here is for them to travel to Gallo’s Fend and assassinate the Duke.”

“All the more reason to go up there as quickly as possible, to either verify this or if not, to warn him,” was Jinis’s immediate reply.

“That is certainly a strong point,” I conceded, “but we still need to discuss all of our options.”

“So,” I continued, “I think we have three main courses of action to choose from: as mentioned previously, we can go North to Lord Gallo with Jinis and report our suspicions; we can return to Seaquen, telling them of recent developments in Bresk and trying to help the Resistance there; we need to report to Simeon via that Sending spell anyway. It is important that he realizes just how bad things have become. This seems to be the safest but least pro-active option.

Finally, and this is something we must consider, we could return to Gate Pass. The city is getting pounded, our families and loved ones are in danger and we have already lost two districts to the besieging Ragesian armies. The situation is fairly desperate.”

Jinis insisted: “We have to go North. The Ragesians are threatening the Gap; forty thousand of them. Surely you must see that the Duke’s presence there is imperative.”

I looked at him; he looked imploringly at us. “Jinis, you make a very persuasive case but Steppengaard is almost certainly going to declare the Duke an outlaw or possibly even march an army into his lands. Think about it: you were arrested without any explanation or proof; your secretary was being questioned in the middle of the court and it was obvious that he was being mentally manipulated; and in such a crude manner that everyone could see it. This shows such a disregard and even contempt for any sort of law that protestations of innocence or even a request for proof will be ignored. Steppengaard has decided or I should qualify that, Nina Glibglamer and the Ragesians have decided that Duke Gallo is responsible for the assassinations and has to be brought to justice; by force if necessary; thus conveniently leaving Gallo’s Fend bereft of leadership and an easy route for the Ragesians into Dassen. The stakes here are your country’s freedom.”

Jinis drew himself up proudly: “Duke Gallo’s family has been defending Alydi’s Gap for centuries.”

I replied: “Yes, but how often have they been defending it from the Ragesians and from their own King.”

“Well, I’m no military expert but…..”

John interrupted at this point: “Let’s go North”. He didn’t give an explanation why but he must have had his reasons; he usually did.

Longhelim puffed his pipe and slowly said: “Y…ee..ees “ in drawn out manner as if not completely sure and still thinking about it.

That fairly much settled it. Personally, I didn’t have any objection to going North; I felt that Gallo was an important individual and possible leader in the conflict against the Ragesians; the fact that Leska had developed such a convoluted plot to weaken Dassen rather underlined the importance that she assigned to him; therefore, keeping him alive would be a priority for us, to thwart whatever plans she had if nothing else; and if we could find and capture some of that Ragesian assassination squad, so much the better.

So, thus decided, Jinis said: “There is a village called Macon nearby here. We can buy horses there. It will take just a short walk to get there.”

Before we left, we also cast the Sending spell to Simeon. I cannot recall the exact wording but to paraphrase, we told him that Balan was dead; Steppengaard was totally compromised and we were heading North to Lord Gallo to help defend Alydi’s Gap against the Ragesians.

We also debated recommending that Simeon initiate a possible alliance with Shahalesti; finally Longhelim decided that, to use John’s wording, “a deal with the elven scum” was possibly not suitable at this time, either diplomatically or politically.

This village, Macon, was a fairly typical settlement of this region; peaceful, prosperous farmers in large, neat farms and houses; we were able to purchase horses and no one paid us any undue attention. Once mounted, we spent began to ride north as quickly as possible.

We followed the river and fortunately did not meet any further incidents as we travelled, following the frozen River Nesham again. Tempers were short after our experiences in the dungeons and no one was feeling particularly garrulous so the journey was mostly silent. Several days later, we crossed the border into Duke Gallo’s land and almost immediately, at Jinis’s instructions, began to travel inland.

It was that evening that Felix began to look at Victor’s knee in earnest. He cast various detections spells on it and asked Victor a great many questions. He poked and prodded and asked him to walk several times, asking him what was painful and what was not. Then he asked the warrior to run and made detailed notes.

The next morning, he performed various rites and one complicated spell; when the priest finished, the warrior wordlessly rose up and began to perform one of his series of martial exercises; he managed to do them without limping or losing speed, unlike the previous days. The ritual even managed to replace the teeth that Victor had had knocked out during his ordeal.

When he finished, Victor simply said: “Thank you”, softly. Everyone could tell that he conveyed a great deal in that simple statement.

As the landscape was covered in snow, travel was still slow but Gallo’s lands were densely settled. Judging by the pattern of the settlement, they must have been widely cultivated and it was rare for us to be of out of sight of some village, hamlet or farm.

It was on that day that we saw a group of horsemen in the distance. We tensed, readying weapons just in case and slowly walked our animals towards them. As we approached, we saw that it was a patrol, led by a dwarf; fortunately he was known to Jinis:

“Commander Hertiage, well met. Please, how is His Grace? I must get to him immediately. Will you help us?”

“Lord Jinis? Is that you? We were not expecting you. Where have you been? Are you all right? We have heard all sorts of rumours from the capital and about the King. What has happened?”

“I will tell you all but please, take me and my companions to the Duke as fast as you can. It is very urgent.”

Hertiage immediately formed his patrol about us and we began to travel. As previously, he was full of questions and Jinis told him of events so far.

“Those treacherous Ragesians! What is the King thinking? Allow an army of forty thousand into the country? To get at Seaquen? I don’t know a great deal about Seaquen but at least they had the guts to stand up to that madwoman Leska and say no more; and good for them! Someone should have done it years ago. Coaltongue was bad enough but at least one knew where one stood with him; if you upset him, he sent an army after you. This Leska, she uses assassins, traitors and spies. Bah, it’s no way to fight!”

Commander Hertiage had strong opinions on everything but especially about Ragesians and Seaquen. The former was bad, the latter good. It is to be noted that I do not mean that he was simple; no, his reasons for his opinions were very valid and well thought through. It was very refreshing to meet someone who did not attempt to hide or layer his opinions.

As we approached Gallo’s Fend, the settlements became even denser and in each the Commander would speak with the person in authority, warning them of possible Ragesian aggression and telling them to prepare for war. His audience usually received the news with remarkable equanimity and I realised that these people lived with the threat of Ragesian raids and potential outbreaks of war throughout their lives; they trusted the Duke implicitly and knew exactly what to do upon receiving Hertiage’s warning.

During the journey, I had also been thinking about the most recent events. I was disturbed; there was so much going on and we knew so little. It was imperative that we tried to find out more so one evening, I took the others to one side and told them of my concerns; there was one that worried me most of all:

“I still fear assassins in Gallo’s Fend; people think they are safe but I am sure that the King’s family was protected by the best bodyguards in the Kingdom and it did not help them at all. Does anyone realize how difficult it is to synchronise eighteen murders within minutes of each other, in two separate locations? And by different methods?

Anyway, Felix, you have a cantrip that detects poison in the vicinity, don’t you? I have not been able to find an arcane version of it otherwise I would be taking every day. We must have access to it as much as possible and use it whenever we feel appropriate, no matter how embarrassing it may seem. I think we are past the stage of embarrassment and now have to concentrate on survival.

Above all, we have to be truly alert. Those assassins are out there somewhere“.

The others nodded grimly.

A couple of days later, in the distance, we saw an enormous structure which Hertiage confirmed as Gallo’s Fend; we were curious about this fortress and Hertiage was more than happy to enlighten us.

Although there were other passes through the mountains, they were narrow, difficult to negotiate and heavily defended by fiercely independent clans of mountain dwarves, who had been allied with Gallo’s family for generations. The only pass which an army could feasibly use was Alydi’s Gap; it was overlooked from the heights by several outposts along its length and at its exit into Dassen, it was blocked by the River Nesham, which was of substantial width at this point. The river curved naturally around a rocky rise of land upon which the fortress, Gallo’s Fend, was built; so, not only did the settlement have a river running around it, providing fresh water and preventing a siege, it also had a formidable natural defence in the form of jagged, rocky cliffs, disrupting any sort of organized enemy approach; this combination of natural obstacles had been artificially augmented over generations, making it an almost insurmountably strong redoubt.

Without going into details, Hertiage also referred to an extensive network of underground tunnels which were not only escape routes but also supply points and defensive conduits; it seemed as if the rocky rise upon which Gallo’s Fend was built was just as much an underground defensive strongpoint as it was an overground fortress.

It was also fortified from the Dassenian side although those walls were not nearly as strong or formidable as there were no rocky cliffs to negotiate. Hertiage mentioned that during the summer, small ships patrolled the river adding another layer of defence; they could not do this over the winter but winter campaigns were less likely and brought their own unique set of problems.

All in all, this would be a very strong nut to crack, even for a Ragesian army of forty thousand and its non-human auxiliaries.

As we came into sight of the city, we could see another cavalry patrol galloping towards us. Hertiage greeted them and they immediately formed around us and said that Duke Gallo would like to see us immediately.

As we entered into the city, we saw that it was bustling, busy and preparing for war; everyone and I mean everyone, including the children, was carrying some sort of weapon. Even the houses were built in such a way as to add to the defense of the fortress; house to house fighting would be very difficult and dangerous. I could see that Victor and Longhelim were exchanging a few words here and there, pointing at corners and down streets; John was looking around as well, as if seeking exits and Drudge was looking at the rooves of the houses, possibly for more ambushes. Obviously they had taken my warnings about assassins already in the city to heart; as well they should have.

We rode to a substantial castle where a group of people was waiting. At its head was a tall, dignified man, dressed simply; he looked solid and calm, like the fortress around him; he had blonde hair, some of which had turned gray and eyes that seemed to take in everything at a glance; I thought he and Simeon would get on very well.

Jinis jumped off his horse and knelt: “My Lord, it is good to see you.”

“And it is good to see you as well Jinis; I feared I never would again. Come inside; please introduce me to your friends”.

Introductions were quickly made and Gallo just looked at us as he steepled his fingers in front of his chest. The courtiers behind him looked at us with a mixture of curiosity, impatience and indifference. We were an unknown quantity.

Duke Gallo led us into a small chamber inside and asked us to sit down.

“Now, please tell me where you are from and what you are doing here.”

So, Longhelim, using that marvelous voice, gave an abbreviated version of events; or tried to anyway. The Duke was very canny and wanted to know various details and refused to allow the paladin to skim over events because he didn’t deem them important. In truth, they were not important in the grand scheme of events but the Duke still wanted to know about them. Thus, finally, he had obtained a far more complete outline of events that Longhelim had initially planned to give. This was not an attempt to hide anything but more an attempt to give an account of events achieved by the group as a whole as opposed to the roles that various individuals played. However, I realised that by the end the account, Duke Gallo had cleverly drawn out our professions and capabilities in his quest for details. Thus, even Hertiage was staring at the warriors with a great deal of respect after Longhelim told them of our battle with the Great Ice Worm or our dealings with Her Mightyness, the Green Dragon of Sour Lake Swamp.
In the end, he stood up and said:

“Thank you for rescuing Jinis. For that alone, you have my gratitude; as for everything else, you have given me a great deal to think about.”

He rang a little bell and a small non-descript man appeared at the door.

“This is Roger. He will look after your needs.”

He turned to the man: “Roger, please take these gentlemen to the Blue House. It will be their quarters for the forseeable future.”

Then he turned to us: “Gentlemen, I hope you will forgive me. I would like to continue my conversation with Jinis and I also need to talk to my advisors. Could we please meet tomorrow morning? Here?”

We knew a dismissal when we heard one and followed Roger to the aptly named Blue House. There, we were offered food; and after checking it for poison, we partook gladly. After that, we had the evening to ourselves.

We wondered around the town. It was a cheerful, bustling place; full of shops, shouting people, crowds and markets. Unlike Bresk, where everyone was looking over their shoulders all the time, this was a far more irreverent setting. Although people were fully aware of the importance of Gallo’s Fend in the strategic sense, they had not lost their sense of humour; this could change if the Ragesian decided to besiege it of course.

Victor decided to sell his spare set of armour and after some dickering with an armourer, received a very good price; it seemed as if, in the case of arms and armour, demand was outstripping supply.

Once we ate a good meal at one of the many inns, we returned to the Blue House for a good night’s sleep. After camping out in the wilderness and the hospitality of Bresk’s dungeons, it was good to be in a bed again.

The next morning, we had a long breakfast; the conversation was animated and things were finally beginning to return to normal, especially now that Victor no longer limped; that had been a vicious reminder of our recent ordeal; then we left for our appointment with Duke Gallo.

As soon as we reached the castle, we were met by a servant who quickly led us to a room full of people. We saw various tables and there were scrolls and maps strewn around everywhere. It was obviously some sort of planning chamber. Apart from Gallo, we recognized Commander Hertiage and Jinis among the group; the others seemed to be functionaries, runners, advisors and servants. I hoped they were trustworthy but from what I saw, Gallo certainly had a better grasp of security than Steppengaard; not having any Ragesian Inquisitors in his Court was certainly a start.

Gallo had been leaning over a table, studying a piece of paper. He turned around:

“Ah, gentlemen, thank you for being so prompt.”

He then looked pointedly at the servants and the runners in the room. They all left, leaving only Jinis, Hertiage and a group of advisors.

Gallo continued: “First, as I mentioned yesterday, again I would like to extend my gratitude for your timely rescue of Jinis. His predicament was most troubling. Please accept this token of my esteem.”

One of the advisors handed Longhelim a piece of paper who handed it to me as usual. It was a promissory note on the Duke’s treasury for a sizeable amount of money.

“Should you wish to convert that into anything else apart from gold, please let one of my people know and I am sure we will be able to accommodate you.

Now, to business; I am sure you will not be surprised to hear that there have been developments: Steppengaard has committed himself and is marching up the river as we speak. My scouts tell me he has an army of ten thousand men. Now, normally, this would be a laughable amount……but the situation is complicated. It is complicated by the army of forty thousand Ragesians on the other side of Alydi’s Gap. If I march out to meet the King but leave enough men to man the walls of the Fend against the Ragesians, then the King’s army will outnumber mine; especially as he is aided by three other nobles: Lord Iz, Lady Namin and Lord Megadon.

I can call on help from several nobles, namely Lord Dashgoban and Lady Timor, who are my neighbours; but……you are not from around here and you don’t know how wary we are of a civil war. Before Dashgoban and Timor join me in resisting the King, they must be convinced that this is a ploy by the Ragesians to weaken the Kingdom and that if the King takes possession of Gallo’s Fend he will no doubt be convinced to leave it undermanned and weak because “the Ragesians are our friends and have promised to defend us in these troubled times” to quote several individuals in court.

Having discussed it with my advisors, it is obvious that if Steppengaard is marching than something should be happening on the Ragesian side. If they decide to march to force me to fight on two fronts, then they will have to go through the Alydi Gap. As you know, the Gap is overlooked by various outposts whose sole purpose is to watch for exactly this eventuality.

I need you to ride to these watch posts. They are built every five miles up to a distance of thirty miles. First, please look for any sign of increased activity by the Ragesians yourselves; if you cannot find it, then record what the soldiers say; they are not aware of recent developments and they may not have registered any increased activity by the Ragesians. It is hard, boring duty out there and I am very aware that it is not easy to determine a genuine emergency from a false alarm.

In addition I would like Lady Timor and Lord Dashgoben to interview the guards from the most forward post. Therefore, please collect and return with two soldiers from there. If I am right and the enemy has suddenly become more active, then their first hand accounts should convince the two nobles of hostile Ragesian intentions; this ought to be enough for them marshal their forces and join them with mine.”

He looked at us, waiting for an answer.

Longhelim looked at the Duke: “Of course, Your Grace.”

I added a question at this point: “My Lord, please tell us: what is the method by which your soldiers alert you, should something untoward happen?”

“Each of the posts has a chaplain and this individual has access to a spell which magically warns over a long distance,” he answered.

Then John had a brief whisper into Longhelim’s ear, who nodded. After that, the rogue stepped forward:

“Your Grace, we have decided to take advantage of your generous offer and substitute this promissory note for a set of magical gauntlets: these strengthen the wearer. Is this feasible?”

The Duke made a small sign and one his gentlemen moved and took the sheet from John. Then the Duke continued: “So, if there is anything else, please let me know. Finally, Commander Hertiage will accompany you; he is known to all the garrisons of the outposts; this will allay any suspicion my men would have of you as well lending my visible seal of approval to your mission.”

And I had no doubts that the Duke would be getting a full report about any of our abilities and powers that we chose to show the good commander; ah well, I couldn’t blame the Duke; I would have done the same if I had been in his position.

“Horses will be provided for you. So, gentlemen, thank you for taking this task and I will see you after your return”.

As we exited the castle, we were already planning how to proceed.

As we walked, I spoke quietly with the others. I noticed Hertiage was already with us, at the rear:

“This is a test; perfectly understandable. The Duke wants to see how we cope with the environment, taking orders and how quickly and efficiently we will manage this. There is also a strong possibility that he has a very good reason to worry about his forward outposts. This tallies with our own thinking about Steppengaard. Even in his beffudled state, the King must realize that his sortie is hopeless……unless he or his advisors know something; like a plan for a Ragesian advance through the Gap; in which case, suddenly, his sortie makes a great deal of strategic sense and makes it very dangerous indeed. So, the quicker we perform this inspection and retrieval, the better.”

Felix spoke then: “I have a spell; a very useful spell which usually makes us walk on water but it also works on snow; if we cast in on the horses, we would cut down our travelling time considerably. It would mean taking an hour out to cram my spells though.”

“Do it”, said Longhelim, “ the amount of time you spend doing that will be more than made up by the ability of the horses to travel over the snow drifts at speed.”

So, we returned to the Blue House, where Felix retired and the rest of us prepared for our journey. By our calculations, with Felix’s spell, a two day journey would now be done in one. John and Drudge left to collect the horses and they returned just as Felix emerged from his room. He looked very tired and drawn but he took his pack and as we approached our horses, he touched each of them, muttering over them.

When we left Gallo’s Fend, the horses were obviously slightly spooked and restless as the snow did not sink beneath them as they were expecting but it did not take them long to get used to this strange firmness and they rapidly settled down. Commander Hertiage did not say anything but I could see his mind working; I was not sure if this use of the spell had been seen by his own priests but I suspected that it either had been or if not, it would rapidly become a common use.

The landscape was bare, snow covered and flat. There was little cover; Hertiage told us that the area above the Gap was a plateau and that the outposts were built into the cliffs overlooking it, thus providing a very efficient lookout system.

The first outpost was only a short distance away and at our rate of travel, it would not take a very long time to arrive.

As it was the first one, we all paid a great deal of attention to it. It was quite simple: basically a squat, stone tower, not particularly tall but sturdily built. It was partially hidden under the snow and earth on the cliff side. A switch backed path led up the steep cliff to the door. As this one was so close to the Fend, we took slightly lesser precautions than normal and rode up to the gate, hailing them.

A soldier bellowed out from the roof of the structure:

“Commander Hertiage, we weren’t expecting you, sir”.

The dwarf replied: “Ah lad, it is good to see you’re alert; be a good fellow and let your chaplain know we are here. We bring news.”

The gate was opened and we were quickly ushered out of the cold; inside, we met the garrison of dwarves with their human chaplain. We introduced ourselves and imparted our news about Steppengaard’s march. Everyone looked shocked and began babbling questions…..

“…..the king is mad! He marches against the Duke?”

“……the Ragesians are behind this; mark my words. Now they’ll be coming as well. We have to be more alert than ever.”

“….what are the other Lords doing? Is it to be civil war again?”

“…..has the Book of the Eight Lands failed?”

That last question did trigger something in my thoughts; it was quite true; this was the legendary artifact that recorded all the births and deaths in the families of the Great Lords of Dassen and simultaneously guarded them against any sort of mental compulsion; maybe it was failing as one of the soldiers was speculating; or maybe its fabled power was just a hoax; or the King was not being mentally manipulated; rather he was just insane.

Anyway, Longhelim waited until the questions died down and then finished:

“So, these are the news that we bring you; I am sorry but we do not know any more than this but if you have any more questions, please direct them at Commander Hertiage. Be warned though, we must leave in a short while and continue checking on all the outposts.

Now, has anyone seen anything suspicious?”

Longhelim looked at them and they all shook their heads.

Remembering dragons and Wyvern Knights, I added:

“What about any strange flying beasts or creatures?”

Another soldier replied: “No, nothing like that although you can he assured that there are always men on the roof, manning the ballistae.”

“Ballistae?”

“Well seeing as you are with commander Hertiage, I see no reason not to tell you; there are two ballistae on the roof, specifically for flying creatures serving the enemy.”

I was beginning to see why Gallo had emphasized the importance of these outposts; by themselves, they would not be difficult to take for an army of forty thousand, but…..they had to be subjugated; otherwise, as well as acting as the eyes and ears of Gallo’s Fend, they could cause a certain amount of disruption in the rear of an advancing army; and subjugating them would take time; and time was always precious for both an attacker and a defender.

“Thank you for your co-operation; unfortunately, we must go now.”

After that, we left and continued to our next destination.

The journeys to the next two outposts were pretty much the same as the first one with slight variations; mostly in that the garrisons were a grater mix of human and dwarf; however, pretty much everything else remained the same.

As we left the third post, Longhelim, John and I had a conversation.

Longhelim began:

“Right, it’s all been too easy so far; but, if the Ragesians have done anything, it is the last three outposts that are the most vulnerable. We had better take far more precautions from now on.”

John nodded and said: “Drudge is the best of us outdoors; hopefully he may be able to tell if something untoward has happened; I’ll ask him to scout the paths.”

I added: “Well, if anything has happened, it will have been in the last outpost; it is the most logical for the enemy to strike and therefore the most vulnerable. I think we should save most of our important scouting magic for that one.”

The next two outposts were also in Dassenian hands although it took us longer to confirm this as we were far more careful in our initial approach. It was slow and painstaking, with Drudge ranging ahead of us and checking the paths for any unusual tracks or features. Commander Hertiage did not say anything and he certainly did not object to us taking all this time, despite the fact that each time the garrison was proved to be friendly.

Finally we approached the most forward outpost; this was the one that most realistically could have fallen to the enemy and therefore the one to be approached with the most caution.

With this in mind, Felix cast a spell on John, enabling him to fly while I made him invisible; the intention was to fly up to the watch tower and survey it from the outside for anything out of place. John flew off and we waited; not for very long as it turned out. The scout was back very quickly:

“Right, we’ve got trouble. There is a large dragon thing on the roof; with two Ragesians; one in armour the other in leather; I don’t think it’s a full dragon, more one of those wyverns we saw in Gate Pass; probably means that the armoured man is one of those Knights? Anyway, it means that the garrison is most likely dead and there are probably a great many Ragesians below.”

“With an Inquisitor or two no doubt,” I chimed in.

Commander Hertiage spoke up: “So, my Lord was right. The Ragesians are up to mischief. Well, if we can get a couple of Ragesian corpses or even just their heads, then that would certainly help to convince the other Lords to ally themselves to us. Of course, if we can recapture the outpost and return with Ragesian corpses, that would be even better; and if we return with an Inquisitor’s Mask, well then that would be at least some sort of tangible evidence; it would not be cast iron proof but if there are no surviving witnesses, it’s the best we can hope for.”

Longhelim said: “So, John, you have seen the situation; can you devise a plan to get us in there?”

“I would need to know what magic we have at our disposal first.”

I began to tick it off on my fingers:

“If Felix and I cram my spells here for an hour, between us we can make everyone fly, I can make an area around someone invisible so that we can all get in there unseen; I would be able to cover part of the tower with a thick viscuous fog which would at least give us a little time to assault the wyvern; hopefully that would allow us to concentrate our force on the lizard.”

Felix then chimed in: “I can cast a magical silence as we fly in, make both Longhelim and Victor both very difficult to contain and stop with magic as well as very strong and make everyone immune to poison for a time.”

Then I added: “I can also make Victor very resistant to enemy weapons. It is an expensive spell but worth it in this case, I think. You have to bear in mind though, that both Felix and I will be out of our best spells by this point.”

Longhelim just nodded and then said: “Right John, those are our resources, now how are we going to do this?”

John thought about it for a time and then the first thing he did was draw a rough sketch of the roof of the tower, with the positions of the enemy as he remembered them. Then he said:

“Commander Hertiage, it would be best if you stayed here for the time being.”

Then, led by John, we all be began to plan our path to the Tower, the sequence of spells we would cast on whom and when, and the actions we would be taking to capture or kill the enemy.

It didn’t take very long. After all, one could only plan so much; if our plan worked, then we would be able to approach the tower undetected and land a surprise strike against the wyvern; after that, well, we would have to see how things developed. I knew what I wanted to do; I just wasn’t sure if it was going to be possible.

So, an hour passed as Felix and I crammed spells. I felt very tired, with a pounding headache but I could only imagine how awful Felix must have felt as he had done this twice in quick succession. Then, we were finally done and all the spells were cast on various individuals. Thus nearly everyone bar myself and John were given a temporary immunity to poison as we were the least likely to face the wyvern; Victor, Drudge and Longhelim were given the ability to fly and they would carry everyone else; Felix would be the centre of an invisibility spell which would hide all of us; finally, I cast that expensive but powerful spell on Victor which hardened his skin, giving him an uncanny resistance to weapons; it would last only for a certain amount of time but it would be priceless while it did. Both warriors stared in wonder as they struck some quite hard blows against Victor without doing any harm. It was the first time I cast that spell on him and I hoped he found it “tactically advantageous” to use his own words.

Then, John put a spell of magical silence on a pebble which would make sure that the guards on the top of the tower would not notice a clank from a stray piece of armour swinging in the wind. Finally, I cast some minor defensive spells on myself.

In the meantime, Felix also cast a spell on everyone which allowed them to walk unhindered on snow as well as the powerful spell which countered paralyzing effects; unfortunately, that could only be cast on the warriors; the priest also increased Victor and Longhelim’s strength greatly for a short period of time, while Victor handed the magical gauntlets to Drudge.

So, finally ready, the three fliers launched into the air, carrying everyone else and we flew to the tower.

The flight there was short even though we flew around the tower rather than approach it directly; as planned, we landed next to the wyvern and then the warriors let loose; both Longhelim and Victor managed to take the creature by complete surprise and it suffered, especially as Victor nearly severed one of its legs with a vicious swipe. John then threw the magical silence pebble away and I was able to cast my fog spell on one of the Ragesians and one of the two sets of stairs leading down; so that also went as planned. Felix also cast a paralyzing spell on the last Ragesian soldier but that had no effect.

The wyvern hissed and writhed, desperately trying to attack the warriors but then Drudge shot it with several arrows and it succumbed; the last Ragesian began to shout an alarm and charged; he was met by the two warriors; a brave man or orc I should say; he was dressed in leather, looked as if he was one of their scouts and he was charging two heavily armed warriors; we all realised that speed was of the essence so I cast missiles of force into his body, causing him to stagger and then Victor, almost casually slashed him with his falchion and that was the last of him. The last soldier was still in my magical fog, as planned. Quickly, we took stock and then I moved away while the two warriors led by Felix and Longhelim moved towards the other set of stairs on the far side of the tower.

We miscalculated the size of the tower a little and while the fliers were able to get there very quickly both Felix and I were struggling with the distance, I more than most. Briefly, as I was beginning to move, the Ragesian soldier, this one dressed in much more substantial armour, emerged from my fog. With a brief deviation, Victor swooped to meet him and landed a huge blow on him which almost decapitated the fellow. Then he immediately flew to help the others.

Everyone else had gathered at the top of the stairs. I could see Drudge slightly in the air and firing his bow down there so there must have been further contact with the enemy. Poor Longhelim also jerked several times and involuntarily stepped back, several wounds visible on his torso. I was still hurrying to the stairs myself as the sniping duel continued. Drudge was still firing down the stairs and having some success, judging from John’s shouts of encouragement.

Finally, I reached the stairs and I unlimbered by staff. I stepped up to top of the stairs, steeling myself to a hail of missiles but before then, I let loose a huge ball of fire from my staff. It engulfed the only person on the stairs I could actually see but the fire also spread into the corridor at the bottom of the stairs. I wasn’t sure if it caught anyone else but Longhelim gave some quick instructions:

“Victor, go! Felix, a little healing please! Faden, we saw another three Ragesians beside this one; there was also one who seemed substantially tougher than the rest! No sign of an Inquisitor as yet!”

Victor was already flying down as Longhelim was finishing. He stopped briefly to deal with the badly burned Ragesian on the stairs and the continued down, followed by everyone else; Victor flew around the corner and very quickly we heard his shout:

“Five enemy with an Inquisitor!”

I ran down the stairs; as usual, I was the last but even from that distance I could hear the clash of swords; then the sounds stopped as if cut off abruptly and immediately I realised that a magical silence spell had been cast or produced somehow; I just wasn’t sure whether it was on our side or theirs.
As I approached the corner, everything went silent; turning the corner at the bottom of the stairs, I saw a long, central corridor with various doors leading off; from my experience with the other towers, I knew these led to living quarters on my right and a large entrance hall accessed by a single door on the left at the far end of the corridor.

I had to stop my inspection as Longhelim and Victor were fighting two Ragesians; another Ragesian was already on the floor and I was just in time to see Victor drop two more of them each with a single swing of his falchion; whatever strength magic Felix had put on him was really working!

Drudge had been shooting at a figure at the rear; his target had the characteristic bear mask on and already had several arrows stuck in him. I was just in time to see him open the door and get out of the corridor. As Victor created a gap in the Ragesian line, Drudge took the opportunity to fly through it and avoiding desperate swings by the other Ragesians, he reached the door and opened it; whatever he saw, it didn’t deter him and he flew through it. I waited for Victor and Longhelim to finish the last soldier and then we followed up, intending to help Drudge in his battle; only to find the ranger with his bow aimed at a figure fallen at his feet with several arrows sticking out of it.

Still looking around carefully, we stripped the bodies of the spoils of war and then began to search the actual location. Although we were sure that there was no one else in this watch post, we did not relax. Who knows what traps or surprises could have been left for us by the Ragesians during their occupation?

As per the layout of the previous towers, we searched the main sleeping quarters first; in one of the sleeping cots we found a priceless item: a piece of paper on which was written the following:

“Take the first outpost, then stay put, receiving supply drops every other day. When we learn of the success or failure of Madness, our weather mage associates will break the winter over the Alydi Gap. When the thaw begins, prepare to take additional outposts.”

This was our evidence! The paper was signed by General Revulus, the Ragesian commander poised on the Imperial side of the Gap and if Gallo needed a something to convince his allies that the Ragesians were getting ready to invade, this was a very strong indication; why else capture the outposts and “break the winter over the Alydi Gap” if you were not planning to invade!

As I read the paper, one thing did puzzle me:

“What’s Madness? It writes about the success or failure of Madness; what is that?”

John was looking over my shoulder: “It’s a code word for their plan; very apt too. Think about it; everyone thinks that Steppengaard has gone mad; therefore Madness.”

I frowned: “Makes sense I suppose.”

Having found the most important thing in the whole tower, we continued to search but could find nothing else. There was a book about Ragesia which proclaimed all sorts of things on behalf of the Empire, its creed, its power, its generosity, its destiny and many other glories and achievements; reading the first few pages, I did get an idea of what the book was. I put it away; I thought that if I had time to read it later, it could possibly give me an insight into just what the Empire was telling its citizens.

Apart from that, we could find little else; we left the post and went to see Commander Hertiage; when we showed him the orders, he whistled and slammed his fist against his palm:

“You’ve struck gold lads! That’s exactly what we needed! Lord Gallo will be delighted! Now let’s go back! We need to show this to him yesterday!”

“Let us have a few moments, Commander! We have some things to get from the post and then we will be on our way,” John was saying as he prepared to lead the horses up the steep path to the post.

Once we led them up there, it took us a little time to load the animals with our spoils of war, but as soon as that had been done, Felix cast his snow walking spell on them and we began the ride back to Gallo’s Fend.

I was a little concerned about Felix. I could see he was swaying in his saddle. I knew that we had both crammed our spells very recently, which caused abnormal exhaustion and he had done it twice in succession without resting so he really must have been on his last legs. He had that glassy eyed look on his face which people get when they have driven themselves beyond their natural strength.

Thankfully, the ride back was uneventful. We made quick stops on each of the other posts as we passed them, warning the garrisons of imminent attack and telling them what had happened to their counterparts in the furthest posts. They accepted the news grimly and a new sense of purpose and alertness suffused the troops.

Finally, late that night, we viewed the welcome sight of the fortress; with no hesitation, we sped up to the Gate and once allowed entrance, rode rapidly to the Castle gates; there, we asked for an audience with the Duke immediately and surprisingly were allowed into a waiting chamber; it didn’t take a long time before, even in our bedraggled, unshaven, dirty state we were allowed into the presence of the Duke.

Before we were taken for our audience, some of the castle chaplains tended to our wounds, which made us feel a lot better; then, led by one of the castle majordomos, we were led into a war room; there was a quantity of people there, including the Duke and several military advisors. One of these was making a strong point to the Duke; a topographical map of the lands of Gallo, Dashgoban and Bresk, laid on a table, showed the potential route of Steppengaards army. The advisor was just finishing an explanation of his strategy:

“…..the Breskian commander has to take his troops up the river; otherwise they will have to go through Pitchwood and by the gods, they will not want to do that, unless they absolutely have to, for all sorts of reasons; so they will go up the river; if we can soften or melt the ice just before they reach this point, it will delay them; it could gain us precious time to prepare; and for our allies to get here.”

Gallo looked at the map and steepled his fingers in front of his chest; I was beginning to recognize this as a sign of thoughtfulness.

“Yes, but how do we melt the ice?”

“My Lord, it may not fully succeed but here, next to Pitchwood is the town of Pitchwoodsburg; a farming settlement; they have lots of pitch; if they can spread this pitch over the ice and set it on fire, then that will melt the ice; or if not melt it then at least weaken it enough to make it impassable for an army.”

Gallo looked at his advisor sharply: “You realize that burning that pitch will ruin their harvest for next year, don’t you?”

“My Lord, one small village or a priceless military advantage…….”

The Duke looked at the map for a little longer than turned around to us.

“So, gentlemen, what have you found out? What news have you brought me?”

Wordlessly, Longhelim handed him the precious set of orders we found. Gallo stared at them wordlessly; nothing could be read on his face.

Then, he just looked weary; he went to a chair and then sat down:

“So it begins; the true foe finally shows his hand. As we thought, Steppengaard’s march is just a feint while the true enemy is on the other side of the Alydi Gap. We must gather our allies: Lord Dashgoban and Lady Timor. Jinis?”

Jinis stepped forward: “Yes, My Lord.”

“You will go to the Lords tomorrow morning. Ride as fast as you can and go straight there. Use the traditional call to gather Gallo’s allies. While you are on that mission, inform the farmers of Pitchwoodsburg to spread their pitch on the ice and burn it just before it is reached by Steppengaard’s forces.”

Then he turned to us: “Gentlemen, will you go with him? You know each other already and I will feel better if I know that you are escorting him.”

Looking at Felix’s pasty features and glassy eyes, I said carefully: “Your Grace, we have just been on our feet for the past two days with little rest; my friend is almost on the verge of collapse; we need a few days rest.”

One of the advisors slowly shook his head: “Steppengaards army is only seven days away; if you delay then our allies will not be able to reach us. You have to go tomorrow; and I would advise you to go through Pitchwood, otherwise you will not reach Dashgoban in time, never mind Lady Timor.”

I stood my ground: “But……” then I felt a touch on my shoulder as Felix gently said:

“Leave it Faden; at least I will get a good night’s rest in a bed tonight which will go a long way to aid my recovery.”

Despite feeling some concern, I conceded the point.

Felix stepped forward and said: “We will escort Jinis as per your wishes.”

“Excellent,” said the Duke and then returned to his map.

We then surrounded Jinis and said: “So, Jinis, could you give us further details as to where we are supposed to go and what will we have to do?”

Jinis took us out of the war room and took us to a dining area where we were served bread, cold meats and hot drinks. Suddenly I realised I was ravenous. Once we were sated and now seated with hot drinks and a pipe for Longhelim, Jinis began:

“Dashgoban is to the South of Gallo. Most of the border between the two lands is covered in a forest called Pitchwood; as time is of the essence, we will have to go through it; going around it would take too long. This is complicated by the presence of the Pitchlings, a clan of warlike fey who do not like trespassers. They are likely to attempt to stop us from travelling through the forest.”

“Never heard of them,” grunted Longhelim. “What do they do?”

Jinis sipped his tea and replied: “Little is known about them except that they have one weakness; unlit torches exposed to the open air will light up within some distance of their presence. It is a sure way of knowing if they are nearby. They only speak Sylvan. If possible, I would like to avoid conflict with them.”

I nodded:” I like that thought; so, providing we manage to get through this Pitchwood, what then?”

Jinis continued: “Well, we get to Dashgoban, present the evidence and formally request aid in the name of Duke Gallo. After that, we go to the lands of Lady Timor, by way of the River Nesham and through Pitchwoodsburg, where we have to convince the people to spread the pitch on the ice and burn it.”

I already had one or two ideas about how to approach that so I said: “So, what after that? Where are Lady Timor’s lands.”

Jinis replied: “Lady Timor’s castle is a short distance away from the edge of the Glasskeel Cliffs. They are a natural border between the lands of His Grace and the Lady and lie a day or so North of Pitchwoodsburg. We will have to climb or fly to the top from the ground. It is the only way of getting up there. When we get to Lady Timor’s castle, we will again need to present the evidence and formally request aid.”

Longhelim drew on his pipe: “What do we have that will get us up those cliffs? How tall are they again Jinis?”

“Several thousand feet,” was the reply, “and there is a lot wind as well.”

Felix thought out loud: “From your description, Jinis, I don’t think that our flying magic will last long enough to negotiate those cliffs; we will have to think of something else.”

He yawned: “Gentlemen, my apologies. I think we have heard enough for tonight. I have to go to bed now.”

Following his example, we all went to bed.

The next morning I woke up a little late; Felix was not the only one feeling exhausted after excessive spell learning. Downstairs, I saw everyone already up with the exception of Felix, not surprisingly; there was a large amount of cash on the table which was being divided into six shares:

“Where did this come from?” I asked.

Drudge answered: “Longhelim and John were very enterprising and took it upon themselves to sell our spoils of war; the various potions and magic are still with us but the armour and weapons fetched very good prices on the open market here. Here’s your share.”

I stared at the pile of gold in front of me.

“Ummm……could someone carry that for me. I don’t think I will be able to move with all that.”

John burst into laughter: “Of all the…..give it here. I’ll put it in my sack. Of course, I’ll make sure that none of it gets lost in there.”

It was at this moment that Felix made an appearance. He looked so much better.

“That’s a nice table. Spoils of war I presume?”

Unlike me, he was able to take his share and put it in his backpack. After that, we had breakfast and met Jinis outside. Our horses were ready and, mounting, we rode out.

Once outside, Felix was able to cast his spell which allowed the horses to run on top of the snow without hindrance allowing us to ride along at normal speed. It was a very pleasant ride overall; the sky was blue and clear and I presume that it must have been very cold as all of our breaths produced steam; the countryside flew by as the horses ran. It was all I could do to hold on; I was not a good rider but I managed to hold on and most of my aches and pains produced by my previous rides had disappeared by this time. Every so often, we would see figures in the distance but we did not stop and they did not approach us so, by the late afternoon, we were able to see the dark mass in front of us.

Jinis shouted: “That’s Pitchwood!”

As we reached the edge, I heard Drudge murmur: “Look at those pines! They are magnificent!”

So, evidently, the trees were pines. At the edge of the forest, we stopped and discussed matters briefly. Drudge and John would go in front, speaking Sylvan, calling out friendly greetings intermittently. To ease matters, there was a definite trail leading into the Pitchwood. John would also have an unlit torch in his hand.

Felix then said:

“Here Longhelim, take this.” He was holding out a strange necklace. I remembered we had found it in the Forest of Innenotdar. “It will allow you to speak and understand Sylvan,” he continued,” but unfortunately, you will not be able to speak our language when you are wearing it.”

“Understood,” said Longhelim as he slipped it on.

Thus prepared, we took the trail into the forest. We had not travelled very long when suddenly the unlit torch flared into life. Both Drudge and John began speaking loudly; then Longhelim joined in. Even in Sylvan, his voice sounded soothing, slow and friendly. Then, another voice replied from the forest darkness; it was high pitched, almost a child’s voice. Again, Longhelim replied and this time, he removed his necklace briefly and said:

“We are safe, providing we ride now! So, let’s go!”

Nothing loth, we moved swiftly on the trail and traversed the forest, unharmed.

We emerged on the other side of the Pitchwood to dusk over a snowy landscape of plains. As we rode, in the distance, this time, we could see a huge amount of cavalry; they were wheeling and charging in both small and large formations, obviously on maneuvers. As we sped past, a huge rocky outcrop loomed in the distance. Jinis aimed towards it and as we approached, I could see that a huge castle formed part of the outcrop.

Some distance from the outcropping, we were challenged but Jinis was recognized and we were escorted to the castle. Once inside the main courtyard, we were met by Lord Dashgoban and his advisors.

Jinis dismounted, followed by the rest of us. He bowed and said:

“My Lord, we bring irrevocable proof that the Ragesians plan an invasion. Therefore, by right of ancient treaty, Lord Gallo calls for aid in his time of need.”

Dashgoban was an aged dwarf with lines on his face and wise eyes. He had a luxurious beard and white hair. He dressed in a fine robe but I had no doubt that he had worn armour for most of his life. He held out his hand: “The proof?”

Longhelim stepped forward, bowed and handed Revelus’s orders to him. Dashgoban read them and nodded to himself. He stroked his silky beard and asked:

“What does Duke Gallo plan? He has Steppengaard sending a force to his rear.”

Jinis replied: “Whilst I do not know the details of the plan, I believe that he plans to deal with this force first my Lord, before concentrating on the Ragesians. However, he is aware of the danger from the Alydi Gap and will certainly keep enough troops in Gallo’s Fend to deal with any but the greatest of forces sent by the Ragesians.”

Dashgoban nodded: “Quite right. Gallo was ever the strategist. Does he have any ideas about dealing with Steppengaard’s force?”

“Several ideas my Lord: one of them concerns one of your villages in fact; Pitchwoodsburg. He has requested that you command the villagers to spread their pitch on the ice of the River Nesham and burn it at an opportune time; this will delay the King’s army.”

Dashgoban grunted: “Sound tactics. I know the place. I would do the same in his position. I will draw up the orders tonight and you can take it to their Elder. Now, let’s go inside and have a drink to this new alliance!”

He led us inside and there, we were given some very strong dwarven drink. I may have been a dwarf but this stuff was not to my taste; before I tasted it, I thought about asking Felix to cast his spell to find out if the drink was poisoned but I realised that this was not practical for several reasons, not least because Dashgoban would be deeply offended, so I did not suggest it. A good thing too; no one fell over after drinking and Dashgoban became distinctly friendlier after we shared the drink with him. I managed to get away with imbibing just one horn of this horrible concoction but the warriors and Drudge managed to put away quite a large amount of this stuff. Everything became quite merry.

“So, Jinis, where do you go next?” asked Dashgoban.

“Our next call will be to Lady Timor; but we will go through Pitchwoodsburg as we mentioned,” was the reply.

“Well, I must not keep you. I suggest, you sleep here and tomorrow morning, we will speak again.”

I was so tired that night, I took little notice or our surroundings. I felt that with our ride through the Pitchwood and our meeting with Lord Dashgoban, it had been a very full day. So, as we were taken to a large room with six cots, I just said good night to everyone and fell asleep almost immediately.

I'm a little amazed I never took a crack at reading this thread before. It's excellent, and I'm thrilled that you've kept it up for 3+ adventures. I don't think I'll be able to spare the time to read the whole length, but overall how are you enjoying the campaign?

Oh, and hey, kapoacinth are totally in the Monster Manual. Swimming creatures made of stone are silly, but not my fault.

Thanks for reading. You put this whole piece together didn't you? Great job.

We are having a very good time of it; GM says the campaign has a very epic feel to it. I hope the accounts give an impression of the scope of the game. There is a heck of a lot to it and a great deal of the fun is that you can do so much with the actual plot yourselves as players; either get involved or not.

Most of us a fairly tactically minded as players so, this being a military based campaign it is right up our street; having said that, there is a lot of diplomacy and role playing to do as well and one of us is very good at that.

Oh, and as for the kapoacinth; yes, our GM did point that out to us after the encounter. I hadn't come across them before but the comments about them being stone swimming things was made in jest as opposed to anything else.

The next morning, I woke up remarkably refreshed. One of the advantages of not suffering the cold or heat was that one was not woken up in the middle of the night by the cold. There is little to beat an uninterrupted night’s sleep.
At breakfast, we met Lord Dashgoban. The aged dwarf was sitting at a table, sipping a hot drink, with a scroll in front of him. He looked up as we entered the room:


“Ah, Jinis, gentlemen, sit down, sit down.”


When we did so, he continued: “As I stated yesterday, Gallo has called for aid and I will answer; one thousand of my cavalry will join his forces within days; with them I shall also send two thousand of my infantry and I will make sure they reach Gallo’s Fend before Steppengaard’s forces.”


Then, he handed us the scroll. “This is a letter instructing the Elder of Pitchwoodsburg to follow your orders. Now I suggest you have your breakfast and ride. I hope to see you all again soon.”


Nothing loth, we followed his instructions and left his castle after breakfast, riding towards Pitchwoodsburg. We skirted the southern edge of the forest and rode hard. Reaching the settlement was accomplished without any mishap. Truth be said, it was little better than a hamlet, but as was the wont in this region, it was well ordered and looked prosperous. However, it was obvious that it relied solely in its farming for both survival and income. As we arrived, the few people that were outside stopped and looked at us, surprised to see travelers here in these conditions. We dismounted and led our horses to one of these individuals. Longhelim approached him:


“Good sir, we seek your Elder. Would you be so kind as to tell us his name and where he would be please?”


The man gaped at him, startled to have someone in heavy armour address him as “good sir” and above all, being polite.


He replied: “That would be Father Albert and he be over there,” pointing to the largest building in the hamlet.


Longhelim thanked him and then we walked to said building. There was a tree nearby and we were able to tie our horses before knocking on the door; it took a little while, but it was finally opened by a tall man with a beard, a weathered face and the wide shoulders of someone who had done hard physical work all his life.


“Yes?” he asked.


“Father Albert?” asked Longhelim. “If that is you, please invite us into your house. We need to speak with you.”


The man wordlessly opened the door. It led into a large room, almost a hall, which contained several other people; men, women and children. Several of them bore a distinct resemblance to Father Albert. He turned to us and Longhelim handed him the scroll written by Dashgoban. Albert took it and then called to one of the younger men. As this individual approached, Albert handed him the scroll and the younger man read it. He paled as he informed Albert what it said.


It was then that Longhelim interrupted:


“While we bear Lord Dashgoban’s authority to order you to spread and light the pitch on the ice as stated on the scroll, we also have the authority to make reparations in lieu of the harvest that this will spoil next year. Please name the amount that will be needed to cover this loss.”


In fact, we were acting on our own initiative in this case but we had discussed it and both Felix and Longhelim, who were acquainted with farms and farming, were aware that a loss such as this would devastate this community for years if not destroy it outright. Thanks to our spoils of war, we had a little spare coinage at this time and we were willing to share it with the farmers.


Father Albert quickly went to his family and guests; they consulted for a little time and then he returned. Rather tentatively, he said:


“A thousand gold pieces?”


We found the coinage from various sources. If it was the opening gambit in a bargaining session, then he won out but frankly, we did not care. If a thousand was more than they would expect to gain in a year’s harvest and it provided coinage they could either use for a few luxuries or put away for a bad year then good luck to them. They deserved it. Their hamlet was likely to be razed by Steppengaards forces as they swept past anyway and they would also need funds to rebuild.


We spent the next few hours discussing what we wanted them to do; namely, to spread the pitch and begin burning it at a specific time; the timing would have to be just right; that is, making sure that it was done at a point when Steppengaard’s army would be delayed, yet at the same time allowing enough time for those responsible for the fire to be able to get away. Father Albert assured us that this would be possible.


After that, we left, mindful that time was of the essence.


As we were travelling on the frozen river, suddenly Drudge softly called for us to stop. Quickly he rode ahead for a moment and then returned:


“There is a patrol ahead. It’s still quite far away but it is wearing the King’s colours. They also have some huge being with them; definitely not human. They haven’t seen us as yet.”


Longhelim frowned: “If we go ahead, we’ll have to fight them; if we avoid them, we’ll have to go into the Pitchwood and meet the Pitchlings again no doubt; mind you, they know us now so maybe they won’t be as hostile.”


That swung it to the latter option and again we prepared, giving the magical necklace to Longhelim; then we entered into the outskirts of the Pitchwood. We did meet the Pitchlings again almost immediately; they must have been on high alert with all this activity around the wood; yet again, Longhelim managed to talk us through their domain. The man really did have a silver tongue.


It was dark as we emerged on the other side and settled for the night. Looking around, we finally saw the Glasskeel Cliffs, the natural borders of Lady Timor’s domain. They did look forbidding; sheer, hostile, grey, windswept and without any signs of a path to the summit. To get up there, we would need to think of a way to get up there by magic or we would need to try to climb up. This last option filled me with trepidation; we dwarven magicians were not reknowned for our climbing ability.


We decided to camp before attempting to scale them in the morning. As we were settling down for the night, John said pensively:


“Faden, do you remember one night in Seaquen, we were discussing a spell that would allow one to stick to walls; we were discussing how it could help me to scale buildings. Did you ever develop that magic?”


“Yes, very recently in fact. I haven’t tested it yet, but I don’t see why it shouldn’t work.”


John took a mouthful of his stew and added:


“Well, I can’t think of a better opportunity to try it out then tomorrow.”


Everyone else was listening with interest.


“What new magic is this Faden?” asked Longhelim


“John and I were talking in the library at Seaquen about a spell that would allow him to scale surfaces, even sheer ones; basically I got the idea when I was watching a spider on a wall. John said that it would be very useful. I have been developing it for the last few weeks. Thankfully, there was a very similar spell in one of the books in Seaquen that pretty much duplicated what I was trying to do, so it didn’t take that long.”


The paladin shook his head: “You and that book of yours; you’re always full of surprises. How many people can you cast this spell on?”


“Well, it’s one person per spell, but it’s not that complicated, so if we have to, I can cast in on everyone.”


Felix chimed in at that point: “I was going to cast some magic on two people tomorrow which would achieve the same but in a different way. It will allow them to walk on air as if it was normal ground. It is not like flying but scaling the cliff should be like going up a set of steps to the top. In case something up there decides it doesn’t like us, it would be good to have a couple of people with hands free. Who do you think it would be best on?”


John thought briefly: “Drudge because he needs his hands for his bow and he can cover the enemy from a distance; and Victor as he is our close quarters warrior.”


Longhelim puffed his pipe: “So, we are agreed; Victor and Drudge will walk on the air alongside us as we use Faden’s magic to scale the cliffs.”


Everyone nodded and after a little time, settled down for the night.


The next morning, the appropriate spells were acquired and then we looked at the Glass Keel Cliffs. They looked formidable indeed. I was very excited. I had never tried to use this new spell before; if it worked, well that would be very gratifying. Felix used his magic on Victor and Drudge initially and they gingerly stepped on thin air……again and again and again until suddenly Drudge was a little distance above our heads, almost without realizing it. Then I cast my spells on everyone else and then I tried to scale up one of the walls of the cliffs; and it worked! It was hard work as I still had to support my weight on my hands and legs but I did climb up a sheer surface which would have been impossible for me to do without the spell!


Everyone was looking at me. No one showed a great deal of reaction with the exception of Jinis who was looking amazed; I suspect that such overt demonstrations of magical powers were not common in is world. I think our group was more used to seeing Felix, John I and to a lesser extent Longhelim slinging spells around.


So, we roped ourselves together and began the ascent. Drudge was walking in front, keeping a good lookout for trouble, with this arrows ready; Victor was in the back just in case someone had an accident and dropped. Judging by the whipping of our hair and clothes, I presumed that it was very windy which could have been a problem…..had we been affected but due to our strange transformation since our emergence from the Forest of Innenotdar we did not feel anything at all.


We were about half way up the Cliffs and began to encounter a series of small ledges; as we climbed up one of those, suddenly another creature made an appearance: it looked like an enormous ape, except that it had snow white fur…..and four arms; oh, and very big teeth and very long claws. It was territorial as it gave out a scream and charged. It was on a ledge slightly above us and thankfully the person nearest to it was Victor, who calmly drew his falchion and readied to meet it; not before several accurately placed arrows sprang from its chest, showing that Drudge was also alert to the danger. Blood began gushing out of its wounds almost immediately, forming a powerful contrast to the white of its fur; Longhelim also reacted, reaching just under its lodge and swiping at it with his sword; unfortunately, the paladin had to also cling to the cliff and therefore his blow was off balance; no such problems with Victor though, who stepped in and began to methodically dismember it with accurate slashes of his falchion. Every so often the creature would swipe out with its claws or try to bite either Longhelim or Victor but it was a difficult for it to make an impression on their heavy metal armour. Drudge also began to use it almost like target practice; it did manage to hit and batter Longhelim a few times but the outcome of this conflict was resolved fairly quickly as the creature toppled over just after Victor slashed at it again.


After this, we continued our ascent and reached the summit of the cliffs without further incidents.


Discerning the location of Lady Timor’s castle was not difficult. One couldn’t really miss it, so once everyone was ready, we set out towards it. It looked to be a fairly short distance away. As we approached, I could see that the castle was in fact a series of towers that were joined by several bridges. Various figures could be seen patrolling these bridges and it quickly became obvious that our approach had been noted. As we reached the gates of the nearest towers, we were met by a functionary who invited us in; Jinis presented his credentials and we were informed that the Lady Timor would see us shortly.


As we were led into the towers, I could see that amongst the patrols on the bridges were many magicians, or at least individuals who looked like magicians and I remembered that Lady Timor styled herself a mage with an affinity for the arcane arts.


We were led to a comfortable reception chamber and a short time later, the Lady herself entered; she was young for her position with a severe face, long hair and a slim figure clothed in a simple, expensive dress; she would be judged beautiful as humans perceived these things.


Jinis bowed: “My Lady, I bring news. By right of ancient treaty, Duke Gallo calls for aid. This document proves the perfidy of the Ragesians.” He then handed over the papers we had found. She unrolled the scroll, read them and then handed it to one of her advisors.


In a low voice, she murmured: “Take these to the mages; check them.”


As the man left, she turned to us: “Gentlemen, I believe I know who you are; the Resistance from Gate Pass; who did the impossible, going through the Fire Forest of Innenotdar and putting out the fires. Are you aware what you have done? For decades, the Alydi Gap was the only feasible invasion route for the Ragesians; with the quenching of the fires in the Forest, another route has been opened into Dassen.”


I was startled. I had no idea as to how she knew that it was us. I realised that Ragesian intelligence would know about our achievements, mostly through the reports of Lee Sidoneth; there was also the absence of my journals, stolen during our captivity in Bresk. However, neither of these explained how the Lady Timor knew that we had put out the fires.


Before I could say anything though, John jumped in: “You are stating this to us as if you think we had a choice. Do you know everything that happened?”


She replied: “No, but the fires are out and once the Ragesian army that is besieging Gate Pass finishes sacking it, there is nothing stopping it from marching through my lands.”


None of us said anything to that; it was a feature of her character that she casually mentioned the sacking of our home city with all of our families as if it was only a matter of time and a fait accomplit in the same breath as a possible invasion of Dassen through Timor; which may or may not happen bearing in mind that Gate Pass was on the direct trade route that led to the capital of the Shining Lands of Shahalesti.


“Just don’t say anything and think diplomatically, Faden. After all, we are trying to obtain aid from this woman” I thought to myself.


Obviously everyone felt the same way I did because no one else said anything after that and the tense silence stretched until the advisor returned with the order and whispered to the Lady.


She turned to us: “Nevertheless, I see that these papers bear the truth. Whatever my feelings about the Fire Forest, for this at least you have my gratitude; the Ragesians play many games and we shall have to see how this plays out. Thank you.”


Then she turned to Jinis and louder and more formally she announced: “Duke Gallo seeks aid by right of ancient treaty and I will respond to his call for aid: I will send a squadron of fifty war mages, with an escort of eight hundred foot soldiers and two hundred cavalry to aid his cause. Furthermore, a powerful elemental ally will be lent to him for the duration of the conflict. My forces will muster with the Duke’s before the imminent battle.


Please return to him with this news. My magicians will aid your descent of the cliffs. Fare you well.”


With that she swept out of the room.


“Well, that could have gone better,” murmured Longhelim. “She is obviously not our greatest supporter.”


I replied quietly: “Not surprisingly, Timor is the most important thing to her; Gate Pass can burn for all she cares; as for the people inside the Forest itself, they were an irrelevance; she didn’t even ask for details…… Let’s just avoid her from now on. Hopefully, we won’t have to see her again. We managed to get what we needed.”


At that moment, a servant arrived and guided us out of the castle to the gate. After that, we were escorted by a group of mages to the edge of the cliffs; there, they put a flying spell on us and we flew down to the river this time. Thankfully, our horses were still tied where we left them. Felix put his usual spell on them and we rode back to Gallo’s Fend. As we approached the city, we saw that most of the outside villages had now been evacuated and the inhabitants had moved into a tent city inside the walls.


The ride back to the fortress was uneventful and as soon as we arrived, we were conducted to the presence of the Duke in the war room as usual. I presumed the man slept sometime but…….


Jinis bowed and related our success. He did not embellish the account, just gave Duke Gallo the results of his call to aid. When he heard the report, the Duke visibly brightened.


“Jinis, gentlemen, you have done very well; I am very aware that the task I gave you was not the simplest and you have my gratitude; I promise that when this is all over, I will do my utmost to protect Seaquen.