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

John was some time but then we heard a knock on our door; the enemy wouldn’t knock, so we opened the door cautiously to find John/Serimus outside. He slipped through and then grinned at us, looking immensely pleased with himself.

Felix and I were still cramming our spells so I wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying but the he slipped a note in front of me and Felix; it said: “Combat spells – learn as many combat spells as you can. No scouting. Nothing utilitarian; something is going to kick off in the banqueting hall.”

The time passed quickly and amazingly, as I was about to embark on the final set of memory exercises, I felt a sort of lightening, as if whatever oppression or soul crush which that strange undead had inflicted on us, lifted. That was a huge relief and with renewed vigour, I threw myself into learning my spells.

When I finished, I looked at Victor and Felix: “Are you feeling better? Did you feel…”

Before I could finish, they both nodded. “Yes, we felt the soul drain leave us a short while ago,” Felix replied. “Which means that I can learn my full complement of spells; battle spells as John suggests.”

Longhelim sat as all down. Then he said: “Now, John, you have something to tell us? Something good?”

John began: “Well, I left and made my way to the Vault as we discussed; it’s quite close so I was invisible for most of the way. There was only one guard at the door which seemed quite strange considering that it held one of the most precious objects in Dassen.

Anyway, I approached the guard in this form and began to talk to him. Strangely, he greeted me as if he had seen me several times already. I had a little magical help but frankly it was just too easy to get him to open the door. Again, the implication was that Serimus had been inside the vault a fair few times.

Anyway, inside the room was a pedestal and a book was lying on it. I got my invisible friend to try to open it but that didn’t work; so I tried to open it myself and guess what? My hand went straight through it! It was an illusion; really good one as well. So, I did a little poking around and found a spot of magic just above the pedestal; I looked a little more closely and there was just the end of a rope hanging from the air; you could just barely make it out…...”

I interrupted him at that point. I couldn’t help it: “Of course! It’s that spell that creates a little pocket plane! You know: the one we used to hide when we ambushed that thieving ranger in Seaquen; the one we had to deliver to the dragon because he kidnapped one of her children? Anyway, according to theoretical magic, anything in that spell is outside the prime material plane; so……”

John got up and was pacing up and down now, excited…..”yes, Faden, you’ve got it! The Book is supposed to protect the great Lords of Dassen from being mentally manipulated; but not if it’s on another plane; or at least I don’t think even an artifact is as strong as that. So, if the nobles ingest the Red Madness which we found here, all the hells break loose in the banqueting Hall and everyone will start killing each other; including the Lords, who are supposed to be immune from that sort of meddling. I know that Gallo said he was going to take steps to protect himself but everyone else is going to be affected.”

Longhelim said: “Well, so what did you do?”

John just grinned: “I took the book out and put it in the exact place of the illusion. So it’s out of the pocket plane….”

“……and able to protect the Lords of the Land like it’s supposed to; that’s genius, John……”Felix finished.

Longhelim was murmuring: “Tricky, tricky beggars those Ragesians. The spell would then have finished and the Book would have finished up on the pedestal when someone checked up on it, and no one would have been the wiser!”

The paladin continued: “Well, we didn’t get our cast iron evidence but John did prevent a major catastrophe. The catastrophe may still happen but at least it is not as assured as it would have been. At least we have protected the Lords of the Land, hopefully. Now, we have to hurry to the banquet. We’ll be late as is.”

We put the finishing touches to our spells and then began to cast several of the ones which we knew were going to last for a fairly long time. Thankfully, several of the effects that we had cast before we began to cram were still active.

Finally, thus bolstered, left the store room and began to ascend to the banqueting hall. We saw that the hall ways were heavily patrolled but having Ambassador Serimus with us seemed to ease the way remarkably.

Finally, we reached the Hall and were shown in.

It was a large space, with braziers positioned at several points on the edge of the room providing plenty of light. The walls were covered with stupendous tapestries showing scenes from Dassen’s myths and history as well as deeds in the struggle that Steppengaard undertook to become ruler of the Land. These were exquisitely embroidered and it was all I could do to stop myself from immediately going over and examining them carefully.

Tables were set on the edges of the room. Everyone seemed in very good spirits, with much talk and laughter. Attentive soldiers lined the walls and servants scurried around, filling beakers and glasses, serving meat, vegetables, bread, potatoes and other assorted foodstuff. I must say, despite my resolution not to touch anything as I was very suspicious of that food, it all looked delicious.

Steppengaard was seated at the head table, together with Lady Namin, Lord Dashgoban and Duke Gallo. He also had a very large individual wearing heavy armour behind him. I recognized him as the King’s Blade, a honorific given to the ruler’s bodyguard.

Gallo looked up as we arrived, looking relieved and then frowned as he spotted “Ambassador Serimus” with us. We were led to a table near the corner and as we walked over to it, I could feel Steppengaard glaring at us. I glanced up and in the opposite corner to us, I saw Nina; she was also looking at us, and as usual, had that grin on her face, as if we were all a joke to her.

We joined in the general feasting and drinking although I certainly didn’t actually let anything into my mouth. Lots of gesticulation and pretence though; everyone else was too busy looking after themselves so it was unlikely they noticed.

All of this continued for a brief time and then the main course was introduced. The cooks had really outdone themselves; it looked delicious; Gallo, cleverly, invoked an ancient tradition by which the meals were switched with each other’s neighbours. This seemed to provoke amusement more than anything else, as people began to hand each other plates. Then, after this course was consumed, Steppengaard stood up:

“Soldiers, please close the doors. Now, Duke Gallo, as this feast was mainly in your honour, I hope you enjoyed it. Now, I would ask you to begin the discourse.”

Gallo looked startled. So was I for that matter. I wasn’t expecting this to be done so publicly or in such a setting; however, nothing loth, Gallo replied:

“Your Majesty, you spoke of new evidence; evidence which would prove decisive to this whole misunderstanding. I would now ask you to present this evidence.”

Steppengaard looked around and opened his mouth when someone began to laugh loudly. Everyone looked at an innocuous man sitting at one of the tables; he was holding his knife and had just pinned his neighbour’s hand to the table. Amazingly, it was the victim who was laughing. Someone else shouted as one of the ladies, giggling, poured a glass of wine over his head; he began to strangle her.

Suddenly, more and stranger incidents began happening. One of the servants took his tray and hit one of the soldiers; on his helmeted head, so little damage was done but the soldier punched him out. Another member of a Lord’s entourage lifted a drumstick and threw it at the person sitting opposite. The latter individual stood up and threw his chair at the thrower; and on and on it went.

The creepiest thing was that everyone seemed to be laughing raucously or giggling madly as this was happening; except the Lords of the Land. They were staring in shock at this behavior. The next moment, our attention was drawn to something else!

Nina, in her corner, was standing still and then began to…..change. The figure of the gnome, warped, disappeared, re-appeared, then melted and was subsumed into a huge, roiling, coiling, hissing nest of snakes. The last impression of the figure of Nina was her maddening grin which faded into the nest. This thing had appeared on top of a couple of the diners and they, poor souls, seemed to be stuck in its depths.

As the transformation completed, the hissing seemed to be almost triumphant and as I looked at it with my sight aided by my spell which allowed me to see invisible beings, I was drawn hypnotically into the coiling nest, almost by horrified fascination. It was almost at the last moment that I managed to tear my eyes away from this thing but in that brief moment when I saw its true nature, I realized that this was Madness! This creature, masquerading as a gnome and whatever else, was called Madness and it was a trillith! The same mysterious creature as Indomitability of the Fire Forest! I should have seen it sooner with its ability to go incorporeal! When the Ragesian referred to Madness and the plan, they had been referring to whatever machinations this insane monster had cooked up!

I screamed, trying to warn the others at my table: “That’s Madness! Trillith! She’s behind everything!”

By this stage though complete insanity and chaos reigned in the room. Some men and women were fighting; others were just staring at their food or wine, doing nothing; here and there, people were babbling idiotically.

I could almost feel Madness slinging spells around. I couldn’t actually see her doing it but I knew somehow she was responsible for adding to the Red Madness in the food and drink. Then, Steppengaard stood up and drawing his sword, began to attack Gallo! The snakes seemed to react in triumph.

Time for us to react: although I was pressed in by the mayhem, I managed to dodge swords and assorted weapons and cast the spell of speed on my companions. This allowed Victor to move through a gap towards the trillith. Most of the soldiers around him were busy babbling and laughing hysterically rather than worry about the figure running through their midst.

Unlike the madness in the room, the combat on the top table was far more purposeful. With a manic sneer, Steppengaard was still slashing at Gallo who was trying to defend himself; the King’s Blade entered the combat on the King’s side. There was no sign of Lady Namin but Lady Timor was standing in a corner and I just saw a ball of flame appear next to her. Gallo’s chaplain was standing behind the Duke while the latter was fencing with the King. Gallo was at a disadvantage as I saw that most of the time, he was hitting the King with the flat of his blade.

Then, to my dismay, I noticed that Drudge was sitting at the table, blabbering to himself mindlessly. It looked as if at least one of us had been affected by the mad magic in the room. As Victor sped forward, one of the snake heads struck towards him, fangs dripping poison, biting deeply; his skin glowed where it bit; so at least my protective spell worked against this monstrosity. The warrior still staggered but despite this, he was the first of us to confront Madness!

Victor began to weave that curtain of steel in front of him, using that cunning technique which made him such a difficult opponent; as he was doing this, his falchion also struck and cut through one of the snakes. It recoiled and hissed shrilly.

I cast one of my spells at it; it was the spell of force missiles but I had strengthened it. It was more difficult to cast and therefore it took longer to learn but it was much more powerful; and it had the advantage that I knew that Madness suffered from it; and as soon as I saw the missiles strike, I realised that its wounds were closing! It had some sort of magical healing!

Longhelim was also moving forward and was about to join Victor in his struggle. Madness seemed to welcome the paladin with a triumphant hiss and another of the heads flashed towards him; again my spell glowed and Longhelim also reached the trillith.

I spared a glance towards the royal table where the situation had not changed a great deal. The King was still fighting the Duke; I was surprised that they were still struggling together and then as Steppengaard landed a good blow, I saw that Gallo’s chaplain lurched very slightly as if also struck; I realised that they had magically linked their vitality; it was a spell that I had read about but it was only available to priests; I commended Gallo on his foresight for doing that; it may just have been saving his life.

Drudge was still in a befuddled state although every so often he loosed a few arrows towards Madness and so I cast another of my spells of strong missiles towards the nest of snakes. She roiled again so I knew I had done something; as I cast the spell, I actually counted no less than eight snake heads weaving and swaying but then all eight of those snake heads flashed against Victor and Longhelim. That combat was so fast it was almost impossible to follow; again and again, Victor’s falchion deflected one of the bites but he was unable to stop all of them. Some struck his body and I could see my spell glowing on his skin.

Longhelim was not so fortunate. He was struck more often and suffered more than Victor.

Despite this, the two warriors were giving a very accounting of themselves and both were landing very good blows on Madness; despite this, the monstrosity just seemed to shrug them off and continue hissing and biting.

The condition of the room had deteriorated even further, if that was possible. Most of the soldiers were now fighting each other with maddened stares; many of the nobles were simply gone. There was certainly no sign of Lady Namin although Lady Timor was still guiding her ball of flame onto the King’s Blade. The situation on the King’s table had grown more desperate as Steppengaard had slain Gallo’s chaplain, making the Duke more vulnerable. The two still continued to fence with each other and as Victor and Longhelim retreated slowly from Madness, they almost joined the combat at the King’s table.

Then I heard a shout from John who had been supporting Gallo, desperately healing him.

“Victor, attack Steppengaard!”

The warrior, concentrating on Madness and trying to defend against her myriad of attacks, stumbled slightly and swung wildly against the King, who ignored him. Madness almost seemed to laugh at this stumble and proceeded to make several attacks against him, of which he managed to avoid most. The King still concentrated on Gallo but Victor struck again and this time scored a deep slash on the King; not only did the monarch stumble but the Blade fell; he had also been aiding the King’s vitality through magic but Victor’s blow proved too much their shared strength.

Steppengaard cried hoarsely and re-doubled his efforts against the Duke, wounding him deeply but thankfully, John was behind the Duke and tapped him several times with his wand. He had been doing that for a little time already and it would have been likely that Gallo would have fallen if it had not been for Sir John.

Suddenly, as the nobles, retainers and servants managed to make themselves scarce, leaving only the soldiers, it left quite a large gap in the middle of the room. Madness slithered forward, attempting to engulf Victor with her coiling mass but the warrior was able to avoid this trap with the help of Felix’s magic; but as he moved away, Lady Timor took out a scroll and suddenly a ball of energy engulfed Madness. Unlike my balls of fire, she cast balls of cold which seemed to harm the creature far more than my meager spells. The snakes reared back and immediately glared at the author of their new pain; Lady Timor became the new target of the monster.

The snake heads swayed hypnotically and struck at Lady Timor several times, wounding her grievously; then, as if to prove that she had not forgotten him, several of them struck Longhelim. The paladin collapsed at this point and burst into flames. Felix tried to move to him but another head struck the priest, stopping him in his tracks. Then the last few heads, three to be exact, hit at Victor; only one actually struck him but it was enough to finally bypass his magical protection and wound him directly.

Lady Timor took this opportunity to scurry out of the way into a corner and I also managed cast a spell which created several powerful bolts of fire; Madness seemed to burn a little but it had been obvious that the cold had hurt her far more; then there was also that damnable healing. Her wounds seemed to be closing faster than we were causing them. The situation was getting desperate.

There was no sign of the usual hail of arrows so I had to assume that Drudge was still beffudled. Then, to my horror, I saw that Steppengaard struck Gallo and the Duke finally collapsed; the triumphant hiss from that hateful mass could be heard even above the surrounding din. Madness then moved up to Victor, as if finally losing patience with this impertinent human and with a flurry of snake heads, concentrated all her attacks solely on him; somehow, the warrior was able to dodge, deflect or block many of her attacks but some did get through and the monstrosity reared back in surprise to see the warrior still standing; bleeding, swaying and cursing but still standing! In return, Victor wound himself up and delivered three enormously strong blows to Madness which caused even her to retreat slightly.

I followed up Victor’s blows with another of my rays of fire, while the Lady Timor managed to get another of these cold spells into the creature, compounding Victor’s damage but it was not enough! With another attack, Madness struck Victor and the warrior collapsed and burst into flames.

This now left a major problem; both Longhelim and Victor were down unconscious, Felix was badly hurt and was in the process of attempting to heal Longhelim; I was in a corner but by no means safe and Lady Timor was close by, having just hurt Madness again. Drudge was obviously still affected by the madness and there was no sign of John.

Duke Gallo stirred at this point but still stayed on the ground, obviously still very badly hurt; Madness seemed to lose interest in us for a moment, as her attention was grabbed by a couple of scurrying nobles; one of them managed to get away, the other poor unfortunate was bitten several times and suffered the effects of the venom.

As Madness was distracted, Gallo took advantage and struck at Steppengaard, hitting him a slicing blow; the King was obviously also badly hurt and collapsed to the floor, drawing an outraged hiss from Madness who immediately swayed to Gallo and bit him; the Duke collapsed again but Lord Dashgoban bravely bounded forward, beard flowing, and struck the creature as well; finally, Victor, healed by an invisible John, stirred and swung from the floor, hitting Madness with an enormously strong slash. Madness reared and two of her heads struck at Dashgoban, felling the dwarven Lord; another couple struck Victor, causing him to burst into flames again and finally another struck the Duke, making sure of his death.

Then, with a wave of my staff, I cast another ball of fire which caught Madness fully. She shrieked reared and the snakes seemed to come apart, sloughing off another form: images of madness, suffering and other things not meant for mortal eyes flashed before me before whatever this trillith actually was, disappeared from this plane!

There was still carnage and mayhem as the soldiers and nobles continued to suffer from the effects of the Red Madness but without the fell driving force of the trillith, it was beginning to die down as more and more people either recovered or were driven into unconsciousness.

Felix immediately went to check all the unconscious bodies near him: namely Steppengaard who was still alive and Gallo, who unfortunately was not. Thankfully, both Victor and Longhelim were only unconscious and were quickly roused.

Steppengaard, who was also fed a potion, stood up and slowly looked around the death and destruction in the hall. He put his head in his hands briefly and then moaned:

“What have I done!”

Then he took his crown off and seemed about to throw it into the wall when Longhelim shouted:

“No! If you throw it away, then all of this will have been in vain! All this destruction, all of our pain and sacrifice! Gallo’s death!”

He pointed to all the corpses of soldiers, nobles and servants.

“All their deaths will be pointless! This is what they want, the Ragesians. We just faced Madness. All this was her plan! And the Ragesians were to follow it through the Alydi Gap. If you give up now, their success will be assured. All of this started with the deaths of your family!”

Steppegaard stiffened at this.

Longhelim pressed on: “Think about it! Nina, Madness, or whatever else she was, walks through walls! They had no chance! She probably made most of them kill each other! Rule for their memory if for no one else! Be the King they wanted you to be! We will show you missives we found! These connect Madness to General Revulus and Serimus and Inquisitor Torrax. If Dassen doesn’t have a strong leader now, the Ragesians will just walk in! Would your Queen have wanted that? You must keep your country united in remembrance to her!”

Longhelim was pulling out all the stops here and playing a little dirty as well; but it was necessary. The Ragesians were still on the verge of succeeding with their plan and they weren’t even here!

Steppengaard’s face hardened as he listened to us: “You say you have proof of the Ragesian’s connection with this monstrosity? If that is true, then there will be war! They have gone too far! They have taken all that I held dear! Thus they have gained a lifelong enemy! Never in my lifetime will Dassen forgive the atrocities committed by this Madness!”

Quickly we produced the precious notes which we had recovered from the Watchtower on Alydi’s Gap which first mentioned Madness and her plan; then we showed him the notes found in the Ragesian’s quarters next to the dungeons; finally, John explained what he had found in the vault and the King quickly dispatched one of this mages to verify this. He also sent the notes to be checked by his own spell casters.

As these were being checked and he waited for the return of his magician from the Vault, he bade us tell him how and what we had done. His people returned before we finished but he bade them to be silent until we had finished. It was noticeable that he did not ask any questions; he just listened. Then his servants whispered in his ear.

He almost whispered. I could see him shaking with rage: “You have done us a great service. A far greater service that we deserved. My mages confirm that all you have told me is the truth. So, I will protect this realm and all who live in it; including Seaquen.”

He then directed several soldiers: “Take these bodies to the Chapel of the Aquiline Cross.”

Then he looked at us: “Please, you have already done so much; go and recover. My servants will take you to guest quarters and I will see you in the morning.”

Led by a couple of servants, we were taken to the guest quarters. The few people we saw in the corridor shunned us; considering our state and appearance, I wasn’t surprised. The warriors were in the worst state; they looked as if they had been mauled by something huge and unnatural; which wasn’t far from the truth as it happened. Scratches, punctures, dents and abrasions dotted their armour. Felix wasn’t much better off. We were all leaving bloody footprints on the floor. I was reasonably healthy but bruised and battered. Drudge had been badly cut several times by mad soldiers standing next to him.

We finally reached our quarters and as soon as we arranged watches, we fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

The next morning Felix decided to learn a spell which would relay a magical message to Simeon, the master of the Lyceum in Seaquen. He began casting his spell. It was a long and complicated procedure and as was my wont, I watched with interest; I began making various notes and I realised that at some point, there was no reason why I couldn’t also cast the same spell; I understood the concept and most of the verbal components; it was the somatic aspects that were going to be more tricky as I did not have a holy symbol which I could use to concentrate and focus my magical energy in the same manner that Felix used; more thought needed.

Anyway, all that aside, Felix’s message to Simeon went along these lines: “Ragesian plans in Dassen thwarted; Steppengaard now fully supports Seaquen; Dassen has declared war on Ragesia; trillith involved; urgent research on these required.”

The reply of the spell came instantly: “Congratulations! Knew we could rely on you. Return to Seaquen as quickly as possible. New mission imminent.”

Just as we finished receiving this message, there was a knock on the door and a voice called out:

“Sir Longhelim, the King requests you and your companions join him in the banqueting room. Please follow me.”

Rapidly, we tidied ourselves up and opened the door. The servant outside the door was quite elderly, dignified and magnificently attired; judging by his dress, he must have been one of the most senior in that hierarchy. He turned around in front of us and walked in a stately manner to the hall. As he neared it, he slowed down; as we turned the corner, I immediately saw why: the whole corridor was lined with people; castle staff, soldiers, servants, functionaries, officers, courtiers, they were all there; and they were clapping and cheering; the majordomo led us slowly up the corridor, making sure that everyone saw us as we progressed; it was very cleverly done. We fell behind him naturally walking at the same pace. All in all, it was a procession.

We entered the banqueting hall and it also was lined with people clapping and cheering, again from the castle. For once, there didn’t seem to be a division in rank amongst the audience. Even Steppengaard was standing and applauding our entrance; glancing behind him, I almost stumbled as I saw a familiar smiling figure: Gallo!

A flourish and a blast of trumpets could be heard as we advanced.

Wide-eyed, I turned to Felix next to me and mouthed: “How?”

He turned to me and mouthed: “Later!”

As we finally, reached the King, he raised his hands and the noise died down:

“My friends, we have called you here to express our appreciation. During our wicked deception and our magical descent into madness by the thrice cursed Nina Glibglamer, you were a shining beacon of faith and light. You joined Duke Gallo, when you could have left this land and this King to wallow in deceit! You could have allowed a civil war to erupt! You could have allowed the Ragesians to slaughter the Eight Lords of this Land. You could have allowed them to conquer this proud Land and subject it to the rule of Leska the Foul. Instead, despite the evil actions ordered by the thrice cursed which saw you thrown into the dungeons and at great personal risk to your own lives, you determined to find and stop the Ragesian plans: and this you did!

You saved the Lords! You saved the Land! And finally, you saved the King! And made us see the Ragesians for what they truly are!

Gentlemen, step forward and kneel!”

In total silence, we knelt in front of the King. Gallo handed him a thin sword and he laid it on each of our shoulders.

“For honour! For courage! For faith! For truth! For strength! For knowledge! For all of these and more I dub thee Knights of Dassen. You will be given manors and lands within Bresk for you and your heirs to hold for evermore!”

Cheering erupted after this announcement again. Steppengaard held up his hands and it died down.

“As of now, we have realised the perfidy of the Ragesians! As of now, Dassen and Ragesia are at war!”

There was more cheering at this and soldiers clashed their swords against their shields.

Then the noise died down and Gallo finally came forward.

“My friends, thank you for all you have done. As my King has said, Dassen stands in your debt. A civil war would have been devastating. With the breaking of the gnome’s curse, the snows are beginning to melt. It is a good omen; our soldiers will be able to feel the soil of Dassen beneath their feet once more. I return to Gallo’s Fend once more. General Revulus will no doubt be up to some more mischief and I must see to my troops. Should you ever be near my city again, please come and see me. Good luck!”

At that, he strode out of the hall, followed by his escort and advisors.

Steppengaard asked us: “What will you do now?”

“We have been in touch with Master Simeon of the Lyceum in Seaquen and he wishes us to return. Another mission awaits,” replied Longhelim.

“Ah,” said the King, “duty calls; how well I understand that. I will send you with an escort as far as the city. When will you be leaving?”

“We would like one final day to tidy things up here and then we will leave. Your Majesty, we have one boon to ask. It is quite a specialized reward otherwise we would not ask; Faden, my colleague, wishes to cast a specific spell to research various pieces of magic we found on your enemies. This magical spell requires pearls of a certain value; would your magicians see to letting us have some pearls for this spell?”

Steppengaard quickly turned to one of his advisors: “See to it.”

Then he turned to us again: “Please come and say good bye before you leave.”

With that, we left the hall to more cheering and returned to our room. Felix then cast a couple of spells to try to magically contact Torrent and Tiljann. Worryingly, there was no reply from Torrent but there was a reply from Tiljann who was still with the Wayfarers and very happy.

A little time after that, there was a knock on the door and a person stood outside with a little sack on a tray. Looking inside, we could see a collection of pearls; many more than we had expected. This was obviously another expression of Steppengaard’s gratitude for helping to save his Kingdom.

Thanking the man, I took the satchel and saw that there were more than enough pearls for our needs. I readied my spell. As I was doing this, I asked:

“Felix, what about Gallo? I was sure he was dead.”

The priest replied: “One of the most important and influential spells that a priest can ask of his or her deity is the miracle to restore life. Even though it is extremely powerful magic, there are limits: it can only be done for a short period after death; it cannot be done to restore life from death of old age or from natural causes; only from death by unnatural or artificial means, such as being run through by a sword; and it is exhausting and expensive; but it is possible. Steppengard must have ordered this spell to be used to bring Gallo back to life. It is one of the most powerful and secret of a priest’s powers. The Duke must be truly regarded as a pivotal figure in the Land. As I mentioned previously, not only is the spell complicated and hugely expensive, the individual brought back is enfeebled and weakened. It takes a long time to recover from this magic.

There are legends and rumours that even more powerful versions of this magic exist but I have yet to meet anyone who could confirm this, never mind actually cast these spells.”

“That is a truly extraordinary magic. It is a school that I have never even heard of! Is it something we magicians could learn?” I asked eagerly.

Felix smiled: “I suppose it’s not impossible but I have never heard of magician being able to do so.”

My thoughts were whirling in a familiar way as I was preparing the research spells. I was already thinking what it would entail for a wizard to bring back someone from the dead by magic.

The rest of the day was spent in researching the magical items, determining who would make the best use of them and resting. The warriors were still sore and battered from the battle and grateful for the rest.

There was a brief interlude when Gallo and his entourage came to say goodbye. We also said farewell for Lord Dashgoban who was returning to his lands; in fact, all the Lords were going back to their lands to make ready for this war. They knew that what the Ragesians couldn’t gain by treachery and magic, they would try to gain through military might.

We avoided Lady Timor.

Once Gallo left, we settled down for the day again and thankfully, the night passed uneventfully.

The next morning, bright and early, we sought a last audience with Steppengaard. The King was already hard at work, sitting behind his desk, repairing the harm that had been done to his Kingdom; but what a difference! He looked as if he was a King once more. The grief was still there, in his eyes, but it was contained. I suspected that it would never go away. He had become another casualty of the Ragesian madness. Despite this, for the first time I had seen him, he looked rested and in command; his eyes were clear, he was well dressed and groomed.

“So, gentlemen, you are ready to leave?”

He opened a drawer and brought out various documents, which he handed to each of us. I opened mine with curiosity.

“These are your patents of nobility in Dassen; there are also deeds to each of your lands and manors. Copies of these rest with my scribes here in the palace. May they bring you fortune.

Now, as promised, I will give you an escort to Seaquen. I know that the Lyceum has plans for you but remember that you are always welcome here in the Land.

Farewell and good luck.”

We all bowed and Longhelim replied: “Thank you for the documents and the escort, Your Majesty. We promise that we will return when we can.”

With that, we collected our baggage from our quarters and joined our escort. People waved and cheered us as we rode through Bresk.

The journey back to Seaquen was uneventful. Our escort left us on the edge of Sour Lake Swamp and we managed to cross this hazard without any mishap. We approached Seaquen with much less ceremony and without seeing a great many people. It looked as if everyone was busy re-building. We entered the town and saw that while some progress had been made, there were still the remains of a depressing amount of destruction wrought by the unnatural storm conjured by the traitor Lee Sidoneth.

What was heartening was that everyone was helping clear the streets; even children were carrying small rocks to specific mountains of rubble. I assumed that these piles of stone would be re-used for more buildings; and everywhere we looked, people were cleaning, sweeping, building, carrying, shouting, working and generally putting Seaquen to rights.

We progressed to the Lyceum and even there, we could see that people were still repairing the damage; thankfully, there, it was mostly superficial: broken windows and such like; it was just that there were a great many of them. We went to the main hall and were immediately admitted to Simeon’s study; we were obviously expected and the magician had left instructions that we were to be led to him as soon as we arrive.

On entering his study, we saw Simon and Kiernan, his dwarven chief of staff. The wizard, smiled tiredly at us:

“At last! It is good to see you! You must be tired and hungry. Let me call for food and drink and then I want to hear everything that happened in Dassen. It sounds as if you have had quite an adventure.”

Food and drink were duly brought. Simeon asked us to talk of inconsequential things until the servers had left the room; it seemed that he was being very careful about security nowadays. I smiled inwardly, pleased that Simeon had obviously taken the lessons from the Lee Sidoneth debacle seriously. The druid must have attended many council meetings in the Lyceum over a long period of time in his capacity as the Harbourmaster of the town, becoming privy to many secrets; his betrayal would have hurt deeply but also driven home some very valuable lessons about trust and the presence of Ragesian spies.

As soon as the servers left and we sat down to eat, Simeon said:

“Now, please tell me what happened; leave nothing out; one never knows what could be important.”

This time it was John who took it upon himself to relate everything that had happened to us after we left Seaquen the first time. Simeon and Kiernan waited until he finished and then the questions began:

“Are you sure this Madness creature was a trillith?”

I fielded that one: “Yes, its abilities were consistent with those of Indomitability so far we could tell; the power to occupy solid bodies, the incorporeality; Indomitability, Deception, now Madness; they seem to take after human traits and then take them to an extreme but in a bad way. Have you been able to find out anything about them?”

“No,” admitted Simeon. “I had never heard of them until your reference. Now, even though I am actively scouring all my sources, I am still stumped. No one seems to have even heard of them, never mind know anything about them. I am at a loss though: Incorporeality? Possession? Spell casting? Something so powerful yet completely unknown? It doesn’t make sense. We will continue researching but I must admit, I am discouraged right now.”

Kiernan then asked: “You are sure that the Ragesians are aware that the Forest of Innenotdar no longer burns?”

Longhelim replied: “Yes, I think we can take that for granted. A note to this Guthwulf, whoever he is, recommends scouting the Forest, specifically for this reason.”

Simeon continued: “So, just to confirm, both Steppengaard and Gallo have promised to protect Seaquen?”

John replied to that one: “Yes, from their own mouths, they both promised that Seaquen would be protected; bear in mind though, they are both nobles and politicians so you work out what their promises are worth…..”

I thought that was a little harsh myself.

Kiernan then asked: “This Book of the Eight Lands…..?”

At that point, the doors burst open and Katrina marched in, accompanied by another figure, a fellow who looked remarkably like a member of one of that strange community of spell casting monks who had settled nearby.

“How come I wasn’t informed that the Resistance is back?” Katrina demanded from Simeon. Suddenly, the tension in the room rose dramatically for some reason. It didn’t take a diplomatic genius to work out that relations between Katrina and Simeon seemed to be fraught.

Katrina then sat down firmly on chair, obviously meaning to be part of the meeting from now on. I watched this interplay with concern; the last thing we needed was another internal conflict. The Gods knew, the Ragesians had won enough victories recently without us making it easier for them by fighting amongst ourselves.

Simeon cleared his throat and said:

“Well, gentlemen, we do have another urgent task for you; it has suddenly become very important and it needs to be attended to urgently. Please, let me hand you over to Katrina, who will brief you further.”

Katrina gave Simeon another sulfurous look and then turned to us:

“Now that we are all here;” there was a distinct pause at this point, accompanies by another glare at Simeon, “first let me introduce you to Three Weeping Ravens.”

The bald man who had accompanied Katrina gave a slight bow.

“His reason for being here will become obvious in a few moments; first, let me update you on what has been happening as regards the aftermath of the Lee Sidoneth fiasco.”

Both Simeon and Kiernan shifted uncomfortably at this. I suspected that they hated being reminded that they had nurtured this spy in their midst for a very long time without any suspicion. The full consequences of his treachery were still unknown at this time.

“Thanks to your very detailed accounts, there were clues that Lee had other allies than just the Ragesians. His reference to his “Master” at the end of his life was very odd. The description of his expertise in unarmed martial arts together with his shape shifting ability and his knowledge of storm magic suggested a connection with a mysterious sect. They are based in the Monastery of the Two Winds, a structure on the border between Dassen and Ostalin. The monks there are particularly skilled with wind magic, according to the lore we have been able to find.

So, we sent a mission of five men and women from the Lyceum to make contact with this Monastery. They kept in regular magical contact every other day or so but discovered little of interest. They were based in a small town nearby, called Eresh. They had made contact with the masters of the Monastery, two brothers named Longinus and Pilus; however, these gentlemen, while polite, refused them entrance.

The expedition was making little progress but about a week ago, they reported that a company of Ragesian soldiers had arrived in Eresh and were attempting to take the Monastery. Strangely, they seemed very calm about this new development; it was just after this report that communications ceased. It was also at this point that we suddenly realised that this expedition could be far more important than we had initially thought.”

Kiernan had taken out a scroll and unrolled on the table. It was a map, showing the respective Kingdoms on our peninsula; the Monastery of the Two Winds was clearly marked on there, as well as the borders of Ostalin and Dassen.

Just in case we hadn’t seen it, the dwarven mage pointed out the monastery:

“That is the target; after communications with our expedition ceased, we performed a divination.”

He took out another piece of paper and gave it to Longhelim, who read out the following:
“No single wind can destroy the Torch’s fire, but a second wind could be its ruin.”

I thought about all this and began to get a little impatient. This was a little too mysterious for me and more importantly, I was thinking that it was getting beside the point. Divinations were often more trouble than they were worth as well as being generally very distracting. Looking at Simeon, I said:

“Well, this is very interesting, and the divination actually produced something for once but I am quite confused here. I mean, while it would be nice to know if Lee Sidoneth had been working with someone else, why does it matter so much; we knew he was working with the Ragesians, that is enough, surely?”

Kiernan smiled at me:

“Normally, I would agree with you. Lee’s treachery was proved beyond doubt; but…….”

He then pointed to a spot on the map in Ostalin, quite close to the Monastery:

“That is the location of Castle Korstull.”

“Ah,” I said, “that does indeed make a difference; a huge difference.”

We all knew the significance of Castle Korstull. It was the mysterious location in which the late unlamented Emperor Drakus Coaltongue of Ragesia had met his end. He had been at the head of a Ragesian army, indulging in his favourite pastime: subjugating other kingdoms. More importantly, he was supposed to have the Torch of the Burning Sky with him. This was the artifact that allowed the magical transportation of whole armies. Even a military layman such as I, was aware of the strategic advantage that conveyed. If our side could get its hands on the Torch……

Simeon added at this point: “Before you ask, yes the fire storm is still raging above the castle. No one is getting in there until it abates. The remains of Coaltongue’s army is still lurking outside the castle, trying to get in there somehow, presumably to recover the Torch. We think that the Ragesians who appeared in Eresh may be from that army.

Anyway, our interpretation of the divination is that the heads of the Monastery, being skilled in wind magic, can blow away or at least neutralize the fire storm for long enough so that a group can investigate the Castle and find and recover the Torch; or at least find out what has happened to it.

However, to do that, we have to get in touch with the Masters of the Monastery, help them against the Ragesians, find out if they can do something about the Firestorm and then convince them to go along with our plan. Hopefully, if we help them against the Ragesians, this will make them well-disposed towards us.”

Having seen the sort of power that Lee had conjured up in his storm to level Seaquen, that idea may just have been feasible. I also remembered that Commander Zavius Foebane was supposed to be preparing a powerful group of agents to send to Korstull for exactly this purpose. If we could co-ordinate with the command back here, we could possibly send a magical communication and they would move immediately upon our success, thus potentially stealing a march on the Ragesian army, who would also notice the fire storm abating. It was good plan.

Of course, if it was feasible, we would be hot footing it to the castle as well.

Simeon continued: “So gentlemen, this is where you come in. We would like you to go to Ostalin, travel to the Monastery and help the monks in every way possible, especially if they are being pressed by the Ragesians. If the enemy manages to overcome the monks, then the Gods only know what would happen but I am certain that it would not be good for us.

Assuming you succeed, then, please carry on as we discussed. I don’t need to tell you the importance of getting hold of the Torch. The war could potentially be over in a few days if we managed that.”

Katrina took over at this point: “Three Weeping Ravens was part of the exiles who travelled through Ostalin to Seaquen; not only did they pass by the monastery, they actually spoke to the Masters. Ravens?”

The tall bald man stood up. For the first time, noticed that he had a small raven tattooed on the back of his hand. As he walked to stand in front of us, I saw a larger tattoo of the same bird on his back.

He spoke gently: “Yes, we came upon the monastery and had a conversation with the Masters. They were very polite but very firm. They would not give us sanctuary. It was nothing personal; they just did not wish to attract the attention of the Ragesians.”

Well, that policy had obviously not worked, considering what we heard from Eresh.

Simeon spoke at this point: “Well, since you actually saw them and know where the Monastery is, you are the closest thing we have to a guide. I hope you will accompany our emissaries here.”

Three Weeping Ravens nodded.

We stood up, thinking that our audience was over. Simeon waved us back down again.

“There are several other things to go over. None of these affect you directly right now, but you need to know of them.”

He stood up and took a deep breath.

“There is no gentle way of telling you this: The Second Ragesian Army has taken Gate Pass.”

We looked at each other. Subconsciously, I had been expecting it. Gate Pass was city of merchants, craftsmen and farmers, not soldiers. It could not have stood up against the Ragesian war machine for any length of time; but it was still devastating news. I just hoped that the sack of the city had not been too bloody; but these were orcs and worse that we were talking about. It was going to be messy, no matter what I hoped.

Looking at my friends, none of them looked shocked. I think we had all been expecting it at some point or other; everyone looked worried. They knew the capabilities of the Ragesian military just as well as I did.

Simeon continued: “This news is less than a week old: although the city has fallen, the Ragesian hold is still tenuous. However, we don’t know what the orcs plan next.

As for further enemy movement, we know that the Fourth Ragesian army is trying to flank the elven forces in Northern Shahalesti around the mountains; we do not have any more detail than that at the moment. The Third Ragesian Army is facing Dassen and you have a better idea as to how long that engagement will take. The Western Ragesian Naval Fleet is blockading the capital of Sindaire and the remains of the First Army are lurking outside Castle Korstull.

Oddly, Gate Pass is the only place where the Ragesians are actually holding land; bar that, their strategy so far seems to be to cover as much land as possible. We think they may be looking for the Torch, but we are not sure.”

Simeon smiled mirthlessly at us: “The good news is that we’re not dead; or not yet at least.”

Evan Katrina looked around at him after that comment, obviously shocked. This was the first time that Simeon actually said something which showed that he realised just what stakes we were playing for here. The more we did, the greater targets we became. We had already seen that the Ragesians were masters of the art of assassination. Steppengaard would certainly attest to that. We were under no illusion: we were already targets; hopefully, just minor at this stage. This may have changed after the Ragesians found out about our actions in Dassen.

There was a period of silence as we all absorbed the ramifications of Simeon’s last comment.

Then the mage seemed to shake himself. He straightened and said:

“We have also been doing some research into the whole fire tunnel and magical transport issue; we have been able to ascertain certain things. First, the fire effect is at its weakest in the midnight hour. So, due to the urgency of this mission, we propose to put spells on which will protect you from fire; then Mistress Sheena Larkins of the Wayfarers will magically transport you to a city near the Monastery.”

I was a little concerned. It seemed a little too easy:

“Are you sure that those spells will be enough to shield us?”

Simeon replied: “No I am not sure; if you have any spells against the element of fire yourselves, I suggest you use them as well. They certainly couldn’t hurt. You will also be travelling through various mountain passes and high ground; I suggest that those of you who can use it, should purchase specialist equipment for that purpose.

I will see you here in a few hours.”

John and Drudge left immediately, presumably to buy the ropes and stuff. Simeon approached me:

“Faden, I’m sorry to hear about your journals; especially the circumstances under which they were taken from you. I have had some copies made; would you like a set? Just to help with your own reference?”

“Yes please; that would be most helpful.”

Soon, an acolyte arrived with a book and I happily began to read some of our past deeds; mostly to see if they could give a clue as to what we could expect at our destination. I lost myself in the narrative.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I looked up, blinked in surprise. Everyone was there; Drudge and John were loaded with rope, grapnel, various hooks and pitons; Sheenah Larkins had arrived and was talking quietly to Longhelim. Kiernan was there with several other magicians.

Sheena turned to us: “It is good to see you all! What tales you must have to tell! Promise me that the next time you return, you will come to the Wayfarer and tell me all you adventures. I’m sure they would make a very good play!”

Longhelim bowed and kissed her hand: “Of course my Lady! We would be delighted.”

Personally, I thought it would be a cold day in hell before I set foot on that ship of theirs again.

Sheena continued: “Of course, I have been in Ostalin many times but the closest location to the area you want to go to is the city of Yen Ching. It is a few days away from where you need to go. A dear friend of mine owns a lovely house there and I plan to take us to his garden; it is a delightful place and so discreet.”

“My lady, any help you can give us would be most appreciated. It is good of you to help us,” replied Longhelim.

“Excellent, then I will see you all tomorrow evening. Good night!”

The next day, everyone prepared. Personally, I summoned a familiar. It was something I had been thinking about and now it was time. My chosen creature was a black rat. I deliberately chose this animal as it had a great many advantages; above all, rats were known as great survivors and the gods knew, it would need all of its survival traits to live through the next few years with me.

As the ritual was completed and the little animal approached me, it grew a little bigger, sleeker and it looked up at me; its eyes lost some of its animal nature began to sparkle with awareness. It ran up my hand, arm and settled itself on my shoulder.

As I joined the others, they looked at the new addition to our group and smiled, especially John, who already had a little viper as his familiar.

The ritual had taken me almost all day so we were nearly ready to go. Sheena was already here, talking to Simeon, while we began to cast the various spells before we went through the tunnel of fire.

Thus, all the spells were cast, mostly to protect against fire and then we waited until the appointed time. On the midnight hour, Sheena cast the spell.

The next few moments were ones I do not wish to repeat in my lifetime; it seemed as if we were hurtling out of control through a tunnel of fire; a tunnel that twisted endlessly and seemed to pulse, haphazardly becoming stronger and weaker without any logic. I could feel the terrible heat eating through our fire protection and I was getting uncomfortably hot when we seemed to be almost wrenched from our path and then we were thrown into an exposed courtyard.

Or, rather we were thrown inside a cage, with a strange pillar in its centre; the same pillar we had seen in the caves below Seaquen; we now had direct evidence that it did indeed disrupt magical travel. I had only the briefest moment to register this before someone began to scream at us:

“In the name of Lord Onamdammin, drop all your weapons. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

A quick glance revealed that not only where we all in a small cage, the courtyard was surrounded by four towers, full of archers; and their bows were leveled at us; many, many, bows.

The annoyingly loud woman began shouting again: “In the name of Lord Onamdammin, drop all your weapons and possessions. You are summoned to his august presence.

Longhelim shouted out in reply: “We are from Seaquen. We go on a peaceful quest on behalf of the Lyceum. We mean no harm or foul.”

Then, Longhelim, with a grimace, dropped all his weapons. When I saw the paladin doing that, I did the same; as did Felix, Victor and finally and most reluctantly, John and Drudge. All of our movement was watched zealously by the loud mouthed woman and the archers.

Our possessions were taken away; as this was happening, I suddenly realised: Lord Onamdammin, or Khagan Onamdammin to give him his title, was the ruler of Ostalin.

What was he doing here? This was supposed to be a small city near the Dassen border. Then I looked at that blasted pillar and realised that it was not even guaranteed that we were even in Yen Ching. These pillars were going to play absolute havoc with the Wayfarers and their way of life.

Our weapons and equipment were taken away, the loudmouth, shouted again:

“Lord Onamdammin will see you now. You are most fortunate to have been granted this audience; the Lord is leaving tomorrow morning. Be most respectful. We will not tolerate disrespect to our Lord.”

We were led out of this courtyard into a large, luxurious room. I still had no idea where we were. The room was beautifully furnished with dozens of plush beds; several veils hanging in the room, obscured the full dimensions and décor but some of them had been pulled back, creating an open space; the ceiling was bronze and so polished that it was like a mirror. A young man was sitting down at a desk. He was exquisitely dressed, in white silk, with a bright red belt. He wore a sword and as we entered, he was picking up a small handless cup of tea; he looked at us with interest. I noticed that he was remarkably tall and that he had a lot of elven blood.

As he looked at us, he said:

“Tell me, you are from Seaquen, yes?”

Longhelim replied: “Yes, we are.”

“What is the status of the Lyceum and the town now? I heard it had suffered in the storm.”

“Ah indeed, but the Lyceum is mostly unharmed; there was only superficial damage and Masters Simeon and Kiernan are there, running thing and supervising the rebuilding of the town; that was destroyed, as I am sure you have heard.”

“Interesting.” The Khagan went back to his tea. “This is a time of great change in our land. A ruler must be careful lest he makes the incorrect decision. Tell me, what would the advantages be to Ostalin if I allied with Seaquen?”

There were so many nuances to that question, I didn’t even begin to know where to begin. For a start, there was the whole Seaquen/Dassen question; then there was the issue that the Khagan had a dreadful reputation abroad, supposedly a weak, dithering ruler who allowed himself to be guided by favourites.

It should also be remembered that Coaltongue had been killed while he was in the process of conquering Ostalin at the head of the Ragesian First Army, so it was difficult to know just what choice Onamdammin had as regards allies. There were the Shahalesti I suppose but Dassen was in the way.

Cleverly, Longhelim dodged the question: “Your Majesty, I am no diplomat. I have no doubt the advantages would be many but I cannot list them as I have only just returned there recently and had to leave very quickly. May I suggest you send an envoy to the Lyceum? I do not doubt that they will be very happy to listen to any proposals you may have.”

The Khagan nodded and sipped: “Indeed, so what are you doing here in Yen Ching?”

Well, at least we were in the right city. I was quite relieved.

“We are here to make contact with the Monastery of the Two Winds. We believe that there are various matters with which they will be able to help us; mostly with the mysterious storm that devastated Seaquen. It is no secret that it was not natural and the Monastery’s expertise with wind magic is well known.”

Onamadammin nodded again, seemingly satisfied with the explanation:

“Master Pilus is a very learned man. I will be in contact with him after he has helped you. I will be most interested to find out what he has to report. If he tells me that you have conducted yourselves with honour and if he believes you are worthy, then I will pledge my forces to fight Ragesia.”

Then he turned to the woman who had led us here: “Felpan, our guests are to be given beds and entertainment; see that they are allowed to leave tomorrow with all their equipment.”

After that, he rose and left the room, leaving us in this unaccustomed luxury.

A few moments later, a group of young men and women joined us; overall, they were the most comely group I had ever seen. They all looked as if they had been picked for their physical perfection. Wide-eyed I stared at them as they arrived and stood in front of us.

Longhelim smiled at them but continued to unpack his back pack. Victor took out a little scrap of paper and wrote something on it; he didn’t do it surreptitiously, but it was discreet; he then handed the scrap to Drudge, who in turn handed it Longhelim; the paper made its way all the way to me; I was the last to see it; it said: “the walls have eyes and ears”. Of course they did! It hadn’t occurred to me but in retrospect, it was obvious. I took the piece of paper and fed it to my rat; one of the nice things about rats is that they will eat anything.

Longhelim had finished making up his pallet. Then he turned around to our group of guests:

“Ladies and gentlemen: you honour us with your presence. I realize that you are here for to provide for us but please feel as if your duty has been fulfilled. My group and I plan only on sleeping here. I would like to stress that this is in no way a slight on your talents.

I cannot speak for Mistress Sheena.”

I didn’t sleep well that night. Every time I woke up, there they were, watching us. Obviously, they had been tasked to spend the night here, no matter what we did. They made me quite uncomfortable.

The next morning, Felpan arrived to collect us. She looked a little surprised when she saw the arrangements in the room but didn’t say anything. She said:

“His Majesty, the Khagan wishes you well. Follow me and I will lead you to your horses.”

As stated, we were led to the horses and rode out as quickly as possible. We managed to have a quick look at the city before as we walked. Surprisingly, it looked very wealthy; the houses were substantial and there were many aqueducts, which suggested a sophisticated water supply; there were also many flags and banners fluttering in the wind, giving the whole city a bright, colourful, cheerful look.

As soon as we were a short distance out of the city, Sheena cast several protection spells on herself and said:

“Farewell and good luck. I need to return to Seaquen. I will report on what the Khagan said.”

We rode over the rolling country side. The mountains could be seen in the far distance and they were our ultimate destination. As we rode, John was complaining:

“I can’t believe I just spent the night in a harem and the only thing I did was sleep!”

Victor replied quietly: “Just as well, I think; those men and women were trained; I don’t know for what, but the way they moved, they were definitely trained; it may have been just as harem dwellers, if that’s the right term, but it could also have been in something else.”

“Yes, but did you see those girls……”

The conversation went on for quite some time after that.

I knew what a harem was; I just didn’t realize that we had just spent the night in one. Then I remembered that the Khagan said that we were to be “entertained” as he put it. It seemed that our lexicon was far apart; my understanding of the word “entertainment” was wholly different than his.

I was learning all the time.

The journey to the foothills took two uneventful days. We did not meet any other travelers on our trip. The land was devoid of roads or other settlements. Our camping routine was well rehearsed these days and as we did not feel the vagaries of temperature, it was also very restful. We still used tents of course, since waking up covered in snow was annoying. Three Weeping Ravens was also very hardy. So far, the monk had not been particularly talkative but he was an undemanding companion and slotted into our routine without any problems. Thus our progress was rapid.

As we reached the foothills, we noticed that the mountains became far more imposing and that the peaks were covered in clouds, adding an air of mystery to the panorama in front of us.

Initially, Three Weeping Ravens led us up various paths in the foothills until we came to the first steep cliffs. Fortunately, in the distant past, someone had carved a set of steps up the cliffs; at the top of each of these stairs, there was even a large winch, designed to raise horses up to that level. It was extraordinary foresight.

The surrounding terrain was steep cliffs; we were careful in ascending the first set of steps but thankfully, no one ambushed us in this most vulnerable of positions. We managed to winch the horses up the stairs. They were less than happy. There was lots of neighing.

This was repeated once more.

We continued ascending and then reached the third set of stairs; or rather where the third set of stairs should have been. It was here that the terrain changed; the steps had been turned into rubble. They could still be climbed, but it became a far more difficult feat to accomplish, especially for anyone wearing heavy armour. It also immediately made us cautious.

Drudge was looking carefully at the bottom of the steps and then he came back:

“I found some tracks; Three Ravens, do you know if there are any wolves around here? Really big wolves?”

“No.”

“Well, there seem to be some now.”

Longhelim said: “I don’t like this.”

I added: “Drudge, I can make you fly. You’re very good at finding things; can you fly up there and tell us what you can see? There may well be someone on the top cliff.”

Drudge nodded and it was actually Felix who cast his flying spell on the ranger. Drudge flew up the cliff face and as he reached approximately half way up, he was met with a hail of arrows. Simultaneous to this, a figure at the top the stairs rose up and cast a spell; or almost capered a spell to be truthful. It was a goblin and his style of spell casting was like nothing I had ever seen before, incorporating lots of shaking of bones and little dolls and fetishes; it was just as effective as any other style though, as a wall of flames appeared right behind us; to make things even more difficult, I noticed that there were a series of images darting about the goblin; I recognized that spell: it was a very effective defence as it was difficult for someone to spot which was the real goblin and which was an illusion. These illusions disappeared as soon as they were struck but they did gain the caster precious time.

This was not good; as I saw the Ragesians rise out from behind various outcrops above us, it quickly became obvious that this was an expertly laid ambush; and we had walked straight into it. The Ragesians had the initiative and we could only react at this time. I saw Drudge jerk several times as he was hit by arrows; then I had to take care of myself. Scrambling up the loose rubble was difficult but it was even harder for the warriors in their heavy armour. Thankfully, we all managed to do it and then I cast my flying spell on Victor; the warrior immediately flew off towards Drudge.

The most surprising individual was Three Weeping Ravens, who seemed to gather himself and then turned into a raven! How extraordinary! I remembered that Lee Sidoneth, when he was fighting us, also showed some of the characteristics of a shape shifter and I wondered if all these monks had this ability of transformation. The raven also flew in Drudge’s direction.

Felix was able to cast a spell on Longhelim, which allowed him to walk on air as if it was solid ground; in turn, he also walked in that direction, although less speedily as it was walking speed.

I hoped that these various spells cast on the warriors would negate the obvious height advantage enjoyed by the Ragesians; I shuddered to think what would have happened if the warriors had had to scramble up the rubble to the enemy and then be forced to fight upwards. I don’t think that would have been a very long fight, no matter what expertise Victor, Longhelim and Ravens possessed.

While this was happening, the goblin spell caster was also busy. Another peculiarity I noticed was that he was mounted on an enormous wolf; I recognized it immediately: it was a worg, not an animal, but an intelligent and evil monster that just looked like a huge wolf; they often made alliances with goblins, as was evident with this one as he also had a series of illusory images darting around him; so, a magical alliance in this case. The goblin was not wasting any time. He cast a spell on each side of his allies; it was a speed spell, the same one that I used so often. This enhanced the speed of the gobbling archers, much to Drudge’s distress. Another set of arrows was loosed at the ranger and this time, after bursting into flames, he floated gently down to the ground.

By this time, Victor had reached his enemy and three orcs quickly converged on him. I was looking carefully at this when suddenly my view was obscured by another wall of flame, this time in a circle around me. Again, I suffered burns from the fire; as did Felix, who was nearby. The one advantage I did have was that I was out of sight of the archers on the nearby slopes.

Gritting my teeth and with single minded intensity, I made sure to carefully enunciate another spell, the one which protected me from the ravages of fire. In spite of the heat raging around me, I managed to get it working and immediately felt blessed relief from the flames. Then I drew my staff and stepped through the flame.

Outside, I saw that many of the Ragesians had half stood to get better aim with their bows. They looked very well armoured; only one was dressed in leather; all the others had full plate mail. Their attention was drawn to the fierce combat between Longhelim, Victor and three of their warriors, including one who was substantially taller than the others and wielded a battle axe very skillfully. I didn’t let that distract me and I aimed a ball of fire carefully, to catch the goblin with his unnatural mount and two other orcs around him.

This brought an immediate reaction: the worg jerked to one side, almost miraculously coming out unharmed; the soldier in leather, dexterously jumped out of the way but the spell caster and another soldier were both caught in it, to a lesser and greater degree respectively.

At this point, Felix also stepped through the flames, seemingly little harmed and cast a spell at the top; it was a spell of magical silence. The worg immediately jumped a huge distance, landing nimbly about half way down the cliff, its rider keeping his seat nonchalantly; as I saw the goblin closer, a huge scar across his neck and running under his clothes became apparent; it looked as if someone had almost decapitated him.

As the worg landed, he was met with another spell cast at him by Felix. I recognized it; it neutralized ongoing magic; or it had a chance of neutralizing ongoing magic and from what I was able to tell, it was partly successful against the goblin, although the darting images remained around the enemy pair. Unfortunately, the archers on this side of the stairs now concentrated their fire on me; very effectively; so effectively that I cast another ball of fire, again in the goblins’ direction and then had to retreat into the circle of flames, out of sight of the archers; another volley like that again and I was liable to have to forget about having any further interest in this combat.

Inside the wall of flame, I cast another spell; this was a spell of invisibility but with a twist; it was of much shorter duration but unlike that other spell, which was negated by violent movement or attacks, this one allowed the caster to do whatever was necessary. So I stepped through and took quick stock.

The fight between Longhelim, Victor and the Ragesians was on a knife edge. Both sides were bleeding badly and just as I stepped out, I saw Victor burst into flames in mid-air and float gently down to the ground. However, Drudge was flying again and I saw that Three Weeping Ravens was now in human form and had joined the fight. There were also several spheres of fire floating around; this was very surprising; it looked like the same spell that Lady Timor had used in Steppengaard’s banqueting hall but I was under the impression that the caster could only control one sphere at a time; the goblin was controlling four and suddenly I felt an urge to ask him how he was doing that; I didn’t think that would appropriate at this moment though.

I began to rain balls of fire on the Ragesians; I did not do so on the goblin as he was on his own but I managed to catch two of the soldiers together. Drudge had already felled one of the other soldiers with his arrows. I caught the individual in leather armour and another soldier. The former dodged skillfully again and the latter was burned, again.

Longhelim and Three Weeping Ravens seemed to be gaining the upper hand in their conflict; Victor had managed to defeat the tall orc before he fell, leaving two lesser soldiers. Longhelim had just managed to vanquish another, leaving only one for the monk.

Felix and the goblin were conducting a spell duel; not in the dueling sense but exchanging spells until the goblin tired of this and his worg jumped straight in front of the priest. Felix then cast a huge cloud of misty fog which obscured the area around him; it also caught me on the edge and even Victor, who seemed to be stirring. I couldn’t see John anywhere but I suspected that he may have been helping the warrior while invisible. I just caught sight of the last Ragesian warrior on the upper parts of the stairs so I caught him with another ball of fire; I saw him fall.

Then, after moving out of Felix’s cloud, I began to cast spells of magical force onto the soldier with leather armour, who seemed so adept at dodging. He couldn’t dodge these; he couldn’t dodge Drudge’s arrows either and it was those that did for him in the end. Longhelim and the monk had also managed to deal with the final two soldiers, leaving everyone facing the goblin. It was obvious that he was going to fight to the death; he had plenty of chances to get away, which he didn’t take. The worg emerged with his rider and there were several more spells on him; I had managed to cast my spell of speed on Victor and this helped greatly. Even though there were only two of them, they were still very tough opponents.

As Victor went into the fray, now partially healed, he did manage to strike the goblin, even through his illusion; however, he was immediately sent crashing prone by the worg. He still swung at the goblin from his position on the ground but only succeeded in eliminating various illusions. Longhelim had joined him and finally Drudge’s arrows were having a great effect on the same spell. Still game, the goblin began trying to stab people with a small trident, shouting shrilly about the glory of the Ragesian Empire but then a particularly accurate volley of arrows silenced him forever. Immediately, the worg also lost his protective spells and although he still bit Victor ferociously once, the warrior smashed the Living Blade through his torso.

We all looked at each other. It had been a close run thing; we had also made a serious blunder; we had been far too careless about scouting and stealth. We were certainly not the most stealthy of groups but in Drudge, we had a very good scout and we had not used him. As such, we had walked into this ambush and almost paid the ultimate penalty. This would have to change. We were now well and truly in hostile territory.

As we began to recover, we also checked the bodies for spoils of war and surprisingly found a magical ring on the worg. I was very curious about that.

Then, another thought struck me and I asked:

“Weeping Ravens, just how close are we from this town, Eresh?”

“Oh, a few miles away.”

I hadn’t realised that we were that close; then again, I hadn’t asked either. I had to remember to pin down these details. If I had realised we were that close to Eresh, I would have advocated greater caution.

As we were disassembling armour and stowing it on horses, John and Felix were using their magical wands to heal everyone who had been hurt, mostly the warriors. Then, using the winch at the top of the escarpment, we winched the horses up and with much greater caution, rode off.

Thinking about caution, brought me to another point. I stopped my horse and fell in beside Three Weeping Ravens.

“My friend, that was a very powerful ability you showed below; being able to change shape into a raven is something I have never seen before. I have a great interest in all sorts of magic: if this is not personal, would you be able to tell me a little about this?”

The monk looked at me serenely and just smiled: “It is something that was granted to me through my study of the disciplines and the rigours of my training. It is no secret that some members of my order are capable of this but we do not propagate this information. If necessary, I can stay in the shape of the raven for nine hours; however, I can only do this once a day.”

Silently, I thought about this; it was a most intriguing ability. Druids were said to be able to do this but I had never heard of anyone else being able to do so. Yet, here was Three Weeping Ravens, telling me that his order had the same power. This was yet another instance where scholarship and practical reality diverged.

As I was thinking about this, we came to the edge of the high ground; the path had widened slightly at this point and going on the path below this point would involve quite a steep descent. Three Weeping Ravens motioned us to stop:

“Should you advance over the high point, you will become quite visible.”

Thus warned, we left the horses and then crawled to the edge of the highest point. The view below was quite breathtaking.

We looked over a valley. It wasn’t huge but it was surrounded by mountains and covered in snow. The far end contained a town with a defensive wall. The entrance to the valley nearest to us contained a military camp; there was a collection of neatly laid out tents, brightly coloured with a myriad of flags and banners flying in the wind. Although we could not feel it, there was obviously a strong wind throughout this region.

Strangely, although it was difficult to see from this distance, there was little activity in the military camp, which we all assumed was Ragesian. There were certainly figures around, but it didn’t look to be at high readiness; having said that, it was straddling the entrance to the valley and it would prohibit our progress into the town.

Slowly, we withdrew.

Longhelim lit up his pipe.

“So, anyone have any thoughts?”

Felix rubbed his chin: “Well, I still have another spell which allows people to walk on air. That would allow one person to just bypass the camp. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t stop the danger of a company of archers firing into the individual walking up there.”

I had also been thinking how to help.

“I’ve got a few spells left as well, including one invisibility spell; it won’t last that long but it should at least get someone over the Ragesians. I’m willing to go, but I just don’t move as fast as everyone else.”

Longhelim stood up.

“I’ll go.”

He began to take off his armour. We all stared at him.

“What? There’s no point in keeping my armour. I need to be able to move fast.”

We waited until the paladin took off his armour and then Felix and I cast our spells on him. Then we waited. Since my spell didn’t last very long, we didn’t have to wait that much; after the appointed time, Longhelim appeared some distance away from us but fortunately, there were no shouts of alarm from below. He ran towards us and stopped, breathing hard; he had obviously been running for a while.

“It’s all very curious,” he said, as he took a water bottle which I had handed to him.

“The camp first: well, it’s the most unmilitary Ragesian camp I have ever seen; yes, there are men around; or figures at least; and they seem to be sitting around; a few of them are even holding weapons so far as I could tell from above but…..and this is where it gets very curious….. there are no sentries, no patrols, no men drilling or marching, in fact no military maneuvers whatsoever. Then it became even curioser as I left the camp behind to try to get above the town. The main gate through the wall is open! There are no guards on the wall or the gate; the town seems very quiet. I saw some movement which were probably people but no details; lots of banners and flags over the buildings though. The structures are built to complement the mountains around them and are quite impressive in many cases, but the dominant building is the monastery. It has been built into the side of the mountain, high up, overlooking the town and the valley; how it manages to stay up there is an architectural mystery but the whole effect is quite astonishing. It is a series of tall structures, with those odd curving roofs; again, many, many flags and banners. I am not sure if they actually mean something but if they do, unfortunately none of us are skilled in reading them.”

I was becoming confused as Longhelim was describing this.

“So let me get his correct,” I said, rubbing my head, “we have a besieging Ragesian camp, with a goodly amount of soldiers, an open gate, a town with obvious signs of habitation but seemingly unconcerned about being besieged, a monastery that’s perched up on a hillside by willpower alone, or magic or whatever. Tell me, Longhelim, did the Ragesians have enough men in their camp to take the town?”

The paladin thought about this: “Yes, judging from what I saw, they would have no trouble in taking it; as for the rest, yes, that pretty much describes the situation.”

John was looking thoughtful: “Could there have been a spell effect on the Ragesians, stopping them from taking the town? Was there magic around?”

I remembered something I had heard from Simeon’s initial briefing: “It’s possible; when Simeon was telling us about the last message received from the members of the previous mission, he did say that they sounded curiously passive and unperturbed about the prospect of a Ragesian invasion. Weirdly calm – I believe were the words he used.”

John frowned: “If that is the case, then, that is some magical effect.” Then he grinned: “If we could convince whoever did it to go to Gallo’s Fend and cast it on that Ragesian army that’s preparing to invade, we would get a Lordship out of that in no time!”

Longhelim spoke up: “ In answer to your question John, no I did not see any overt magical effect apart from what I have already described; but, then again, I wouldn’t know what to look for; not my field of expertise. Your theory may well be right, but if so what can we do about it; mind you, just to be safe, I don’t think we particularly want to go down there, in case it affects us as well.”

I looked towards the far end of the valley: “So, you’re thinking of bypassing the town as well as the camp and going straight to the monastery?”

John said: “That’s a good plan. We were supposed to investigate both the monastery and the town, weren’t we? And when Three Weeping Ravens was here last, the leaders of the monastery talked to him; they told him to go away but at least they did speak to him. So, hopefully, they will speak with us.”

Felix joined in at this point: “I could learn three of the spells that allow someone to walk on air. We could easily just walk up to the monastery from the top of these mountains without actually setting foot in the valley.”

“And I could learn my spell which makes an area around the recipient invisible; that way, if things go wrong, we have at least some chance of getting away,” I chimed in.

Longhelim took another drink and then said: “So, we have a plan; let’s sleep on it and do that.”

We retired back to the site of our recent battle and settled down for a night’s sleep.

The night passed and in the morning we learned our spells. Once that was achieved, we advanced to the previous day’s vantage point; Felix cast his spells on Longhelim, Drudge and Victor who carried the priest, John and myself respectively. Three Weeping Ravens, in bird form, was sitting on Longhelim’s shoulder. Then we set out, walking across the sky.

We were quite high up, pretty much on the same level as the monastery, so it was impossible to tell if someone spotted us from the ground; we could barely see the camp, never mind any individuals within it. As we approached our destination, Longhelim’s initial description was accurate although it did little to prepare me for the reality of the amazing architecture of the monastery: a series of buildings and towers were literally perched on mountain tops and cliff sides. The rooves of these buildings were red and had peculiar upturned edges; for added drama, a great many of the rooves were covered in clouds, with several of the edges and tops poking out of these, making it look like parts of the monastery were flying.

As I was staring entranced at these extraordinary structures, I almost missed Victor tensing and slowing down; then he hissed:

“Look, those clouds!”

Suddenly I saw the “clouds”, large ones, flying rapidly, towards us. I recognized them immediately and screamed:

“Those aren’t clouds! They’re air elementals! Big ones! Huge ones! We can’t fight these while we are in the air. Down, we need to go down!”

These elementals were normally brought to our plane for specific purposes and these were flying towards us with great speed, showing a mastery of flight that was uncanny; if they decided to attack, then we were in very serious trouble; they were fearsome opponents, with finely attuned senses, enormous strength and an incredible flying skill that was granted to them due to their affinity with their element.

One of them reached Longhelim and took a swipe at him. Well that answered that particular question. The inhabitants of the monastery had obviously changed; they had gone from indifferent and polite to hostile and rude. This did not augur well for any fact finding mission! Rapidly, I cast my spell of invisibility which cloaked all of us.

This did confuse the elementals up to a point although both Felix and John cast several spells; the muttering of their spell casting in turn drew the elementals; as I had mentioned, they had uncanny senses and pursued any noise or murmur relentlessly. Then John cast his spell of magical silence and this allowed us to descend rapidly to the mountain path leading to the monastery. As we landed, the elementals were still flying around, still swiping the air where they thought we would be; by this time, John’s spell ran out and they used the noise made by the armour of the warriors as they moved to track us. They would not give up. We would not be able to run away from these. Poor Longhelim was their favoured victim.

We reached the door of the monastery and John shouted:

“Let us in! We’re friends! We want to talk!”

I was beginning to get ready for battle. My spell of invisibility was going to run out soon. Despite all of this, we continued in the same manner for a little time. John was getting no reaction from the doors. There was an obvious slit in the doors which could be opened and through which the inhabitants could communicate without opening them. That slit remained stubbornly shut.

Everyone was shuffling desperately around me as the elementals would step forward and swing wildly in spaces where they believed to be occupied. More often than not, they missed but a few times they managed to strike someone; Victor, Longhelim and Felix were all thumped in this manner. John then stepped back and cast a spell on the doors; I recognized it immediately: it was a spell that could magically unlock any door; except this one. It remained firmly shut. The rogue than stepped back and I could hear him muttering:

“Just how many locks do they have on that door? More than two anyway……”

The elementals were immediately drawn to the noise of spell casting again but thankfully, John had moved right away. Seeing the inevitable, I moved to Longhelim and gave him the spell which made it so difficult for weapons to penetrate his flesh. Then I moved just in time as an elemental swung into the space which I had just occupied. John, cleverly, took an alchemical thunderstone, designed to make a loud noise for distraction, and threw it behind the elementals; one of them was immediately drawn to the noise. The other continued to strike at a square uncomfortably close to Victor; then, moving slightly it had struck the warrior several times.

I moved to Victor and attempted to cast the spell which would make his body hard to weapons but just as I was about to release it, I had to dodge and sway as a misty fist swept towards me; that movement completely spoilt my spell and I had to move back quickly before the elemental decided to give it another go. As I withdrew, I heard some sort of noise from the gate and a voice began to say something but only Victor was close enough to hear the words. He avoided a blow and then said:

“But we’re not from the village. We have come from far away. Let us in!”

Victor stepped away as the elemental swung several into the space where he had been; the senses of these things must have been incredibly keen. Another burst of words from the gate which I couldn’t hear as I was trying to avoid the elemental; the howling wind didn’t help either. Then Victor said in a loud voice:

“We have to fight these. I don’t want to fight them; they are just guardians and mindless but the monks won’t let us in.”

With that, he suddenly took several mighty swings at the elemental. Most of these connected although it was visible to everyone that it was difficult for even the Living Blade of Innenotdar to penetrate the cloud fully. It was definitely meeting some sort of resistance. Of course, as soon as he did this, he became visible.

I sighed. There was nothing for it; we had to fight them. Like Victor, I didn’t want to but we would be unable to move away now and everyone was hurt to some extent; so I moved away, exposing several of the other members of the group. Then I cast my spell of speed on everyone.

As soon as we became visible, the other elemental suddenly flew back with incredible speed. It was confronted by Three Weeping Ravens, John and I. Everyone else was concentrating on the other elemental. Longhelim, Drudge and Victor were laying a wave of steel on the outsider and they needed to; it was also using its massive fists to bludgeon and batter the warriors. Of all of them, Victor was suffering the most. The enemy was concentrating on him.

I cast another spell; this time it was one that was designed to hinder the movement of an enemy, slow him down and stop him from having full movement ability. It was a powerful spell although it was difficult to push through. This time it worked on one of the elementals; the one facing Ravens. This allowed us to concentrate on the other; and we needed to. Victor was swaying, bloody from a continued battering. John had leapt across to try to help the warrior by trying to distract the elemental. Longhelim was also hitting it but like Victor, was finding it difficult to make his blows count fully. I began contributing by shooting my force missiles into it but it was such a tough opponent that it seemed to just shrug them off.

Victor swayed ever more alarmingly and Felix ran to the fighter, staggering as he took a glancing blow on the way. He healed Victor just in time but some pain must still have lingered as the warrior swung wildly and missed a series of blows, allowing the elemental to hit him with two mighty blows. This time Victor burst into flames and collapsed.

Swinging my staff, I let loose a fireball. The elementals nimbly dodged some of the fire but were still singed to the extent that the elemental that had been facing Longhelim and the others finally disappeared, sent back to its plane.

Thankfully, the other was still hindered by my spell which curtailed its movement. Longhelim and Drudge immediately set upon it but poor Victor was still on the ground, wreathed in flames. Felix healed him again, as did John and despite still being badly hurt, Victor was game and moved to the new enemy. He swung a mighty blow and connected, visibly making the creature shudder. I used the fire ball once more; it dodged some of the flame but again it was singed. It hit out at Ravens, who had been facing it from the beginning but then Longhelim and Victor embarked on a sword dance of such skill and might that it left the elemental reeling badly; again and again, the swords of the warriors bit into it with such depth that it could not withstand them; these blows, in combination with another ball of fire, a strong one this time and a series of arrows flashing blue with cold, finally dissipated this enemy.

We took stock and decided we had to leave here as quickly as possible. The spells which allowed Longhelim, Victor and Drudge to walk on air were still functional and as before, they carried the rest of us high up and back to our previous camp site. As we were returning, I turned to Victor, who was carrying me and asked:

“The person in the Temple, what did they say?”

Speaking loudly, so that the others could hear, he replied:

“The first time, she just told us to leave; that we were not welcome here as outsiders; and to take our curse with us. The next time, she said that they wanted nothing to do with the curse laid on the village below and that until it was removed they wouldn’t speak with us. If we removed this curse of stillness as she called it, then she would ask for an audience on our behalf from the Masters. Frankly, from the way she sounded, she could have cared less if we lived or died at the hands of the elementals. ”

I thought about this. I was still puzzled as to what was going on here. This curse of stillness suggested that the valley was being affected by some sort of magical lassitude, possibly explaining why the Ragesians were not being their usual offensive selves. It did not explain why the air elementals had not attacked them. Those creatures could create a powerful whirlwind and that would soon put paid to any military camp. Possibly, they had been conjured to defend the town or monastery or both; however, from what Victor said, the monk from the Temple definitely did not seem to have any control over them.

Be that as it may, one could indulge in endless speculation about these events; the here and now involved our group being badly hurt and most of our spells being used for the time being. As we landed in our usual campsite, we immediately began healing. This involved using the last of Felix’s and John’s spells as well as some of our rapidly diminishing wands. By the time we finished, we were all still mildly bruised but feeling much better. After that, we settled down, some to watch, others to begin learning more spells.

Suddenly, a while later, Longhelim called everyone to the overlooking ridge. The Ragesians were moving…….

It was only a small group of infantry, no more than a dozen or so, but of greater interest were the two wyverns that rose lazily into the sky. The infantry swept into the town and even in the distance, we could see that they tore into the inhabitants with a fury; as the group passed passive figures, we could see them falling to the ground.

Three Weeping Ravens had been growing more and more agitated:

“Faden, you said you had a spell that can make the recipient fly? Please cast it on me! I must go and defend those villagers! They are innocent and defenceless!”

“You plan to go there and start fighting a whole contingent of Ragesians?”

“Yes!”

I looked at Longhelim, who just nodded. Shrugging, I cast the spell on the monk. He turned to us, incredulous:

“Are you planning to let them kill all those innocents?”

I wasn’t having that: “If you’re so concerned with innocents, where were you when so many of them were being slaughtered in Sour Lake Swamp? I certainly didn’t see you or your bunch lift a finger while people were dying because of the goblins, the dragon, the Three Witches…..nor did you do anything while everyone was huddling miserably in the camps near Seaquen. The only person I saw trying to make a difference there was the paladin, Laura Beck; and us, later. You and your lot were too busy keeping yourselves apart! We had to drag you in to talk to the other factions; not quite kicking and screaming but…..”

His face twisted: “That was different. They weren’t fighting Ragesians.”

John was having none of that either: “Dead is dead. Doesn’t matter if it’s done by a Ragesian, goblin or being killed for your blood by a mad tiefling; the end result is the same!”

“Well, I’m doing something about it now!”

And with that, he jumped into the air and, straining as much as he could, he flew into the town as fast as the magic would allow him.

I was watching him, wondering when the first volley of arrows would fly towards him from the Ragesian camp. Behind me, I could hear Longhelim pacing about, cursing and kicking the odd stone on the road; I wasn’t really sure what the matter with him was. Victor was watching developments with me. Then, as Ravens flew over the camp, a strange thing happened; nothing……literally nothing; no arrows, spears, javelins, no spells, or even shouts. He had definitely been seen; I could see one or two figures pointing up at him but there was no action from the camp.

I was still watching with Victor when a voice spoke behind me:

“Coming Faden?”

I turned around and with shock I realised that everyone else bar Victor was already mounted on a horse.

Victor was also watching and he spoke in his usual quiet manner:

“If we go down there, you realize that we trap ourselves, don’t you? In our current state, we have no way out.”

In answer, the others rode past us. Wordlessly, Victor and I mounted our horses. I felt we had just made a truly fateful decision.

Victor and I joined the others and wordlessly we automatically arranged ourselves in our usual formation. In the distance, we could just see that the initial group of infantry continued their rampage in the village. However, as we approached, we saw that the wyverns and their riders banked towards us and swooped to attack.

As they reached us, they both released their dragon bombs; we recognized these from the attack on Gate Pass. They were a combination of a thunderstone together with several small containers of alchemical fire tied together; they were quite annoying missiles but their greatest threat was to buildings; upon hitting, the alchemical fire was adhesive and continued to burn for some time later. The Knights paid a heavy price for this audacity; as they both flew in to perform this attack, I hit them with a ball of fire from my staff and both Longhelim and Victor managed a mighty slash at the wyverns as they flew by; however none of these were anything in comparison to the devastation that was wreaked by Drudge and his bow.

The Wyvern Knights were experiencing their worst nightmare; they were flying in the air, defenceless, exposed, while facing an expert archer. Both creatures banked, sharply, desperately wanting to get back. I was saving my staff, so I didn’t stick another ball of fire on top of them; Drudge was far more effective with his arrows anyway; not only that, but I had other concerns. One of those blasted bombs had hit me and I was on fire; I had to roll around on the snow to put out the flames around myself.

The Knights picked their least worst option and landed near us; this put them in reach of the warriors and still left them exposed to Drudge but at least now they could attack their tormentors; or at least that was their intention. As soon as the first one landed, Victor stepped forward and employed another of those blows which I had seen him practice endlessly, night after night, by the campfire. Except that this time he used it on a real enemy and the wyvern collapsed after having its throat slashed with such accuracy that it had no time to react; the rider jumped clear but seemingly straight into a volley of Drudge’s arrows. That was the end of his war.

The other also landed, near Drudge and the wyvern lashed out with its tail to hit Drudge; the stinger glistened with the poison but thankfully, the ranger seemed unaffected. The stinger still hurt though. Again, I was still saving my spells and that was the wise thing to do as Victor stepped forward again and walloped the wyvern which again collapsed. The last Knight was then struck by Longhelim, Drudge and Victor so he also lasted a very short time.

Healing was given out quickly to those that needed it and then we resumed our quick advance to the village. We passed the Ragesian camp and receive a most peculiar reaction:

“Hey, you shouldn’t go there! You shouldn’t even be here actually!” said one soldier in a bored, disinterested voice. Others raised their heads but didn’t even say anything. I shook my head; there was something really peculiar going on. It was obviously some sort of magical effect that dampened aggression to a level that made a fighting force completely useless.

Since the soldiers were taking no steps to impede us, we hurried past, through the wall surrounding the town, until we began to reach the outskirts of Eresh; we began to see corpses everywhere, evidence of the passage of the small group of Ragesians that had lost their inhibition against violence.

As I walked through the town, I began to wonder why were we here again? Oh, yes, something about some Ragesians; I couldn’t quite remember what they were doing but surely they must have been reasonable people; I began to wonder why we just couldn’t all get along….

I heard a voice; Victor’s I think:

“Grab Faden and Longhelim; it looks as if they have been affected by this magic cloud or whatever it is.”

Yes, it was Victor, that’s right. My good friend John came along and helped to hurry me wherever it was that we were going; oh yes, it was to save another good friend, Three Weeping Ravens; he had got himself into a spot of bother. He was surrounded by a lot of soldiers and he was desperately trying to get away and fight his way out but they had surrounded him….it was a bit unsporting really.

I sidled up to Longhelim:

“Shame about Three Weeping Ravens isn’t it? I quite liked him.”

Longhelim had been looking at a group of villagers who were strewn around the street, bleeding.

“Hmmm? Oh, yes, shame; but one against eight? He was never going to survive that, was he? Victor’s doing well though. Look at him go. Not even the hell hounds stand much of a chance.”

I looked again.

“Oh, yes the hell hounds. I hadn’t seen them before. How many of them are there?”

“Two….no, one; Drudge just shot one. Ah, there goes another Ragesian; my, Victor is getting that combination right, isn’t he? Look at the way he is moving; yes, right foot forward…..now! Time that slash to the thigh…..block with the buckler, now duck and bring the slash up to the groin….yes, now another into the ankle….oh, yes madam?”

I looked around and saw Longhelim disappearing into a house. How curious; why would he go into a house now? Well, I was sure he would tell me when he returned.

I saw another hell hound leaping towards Victor who dealt with it as well. I didn’t see John around anywhere; my friend John; he was a good friend. Drudge, though, now I saw him; he was raining death on a dwindling number of Ragesians; yes, there, that was the last one; gone with lots of arrows in him.

Oh good; I saw Longhelim coming back to me.

“All the Ragesians are gone. Where did you go?”

“Oh, a lady invited me into her house. It was quite odd. I went in there and couldn’t see her. Then her voice said….actually, it was both her voice and a man’s voice which came from behind me. Anyway, they said: We are balance and you have met our kin. The scales are heavy and you will tip them. I wonder what that means?”

I shrugged: “No idea. Look we better go up there; they are making signs for us to join them.”

As we approached, we could see that Victor was quite a mess; covered in blood, mostly not his. John was running around, taking things from Ragesian bodies when an old man approached us, scurrying rapidly.

“I’m Becchus: You’re strangers? From outside the valley? Come, come quickly. I will take you to another traveller. He came with a previous group. He is almost gone…”

I heard John say: “Yes, in a moment. We will come with you but first we need to take a few things from here. Also, wasn’t there a so called House of Healing in Eresh somewhere? We could do with going there first. Some healing would be very handy right now.”

The old man said: “Yes, yes, I will take you there. Then we must go to the traveler.”

I was still standing around; I didn’t see the point of going anywhere, doing anything really. After all, what will be, will be. Then Drudge spoke up:

“Before we go anywhere, we have an opportunity here; if Longhelim and Faden are anything to go by, then the Ragesians in the camp are defenceless. Now is the time to get them; otherwise, they’ll come out of this……trance or whatever it is and become normal Ragesians.”

I heard Victor speaking:

“Bechus, we’re going to have to go to the Ragesian camp now; Drudge is right; we won’t get an opportunity like this again. I’ll grab Longhelim; John, you grab Faden and let’s go.”

We went to the Ragesian camp and then we just followed Drudge around; he was shooting lots and lots of arrows into Ragesians. Again, it seemed quite unsporting but ultimately nothing to get too excited about. He shot the dogs first; that was all right; I didn’t like the dogs; they were black and had nasty red eyes. I was looking back into the town, back at the huge building high up in the mountain; I was vaguely remembering something about having to go up there; oh, another Ragesian fell over with arrows in him.
Drudge really was a very good shot.

I don’t know how many arrows Drudge had but he changed quivers several times. None of the Ragesians showed any interest as to what was happening. Mind you, I wasn’t particularly interested either; the only reason I was there was because John was pushing me around.

Anyway, we were there for some time and then I could hear shouts and drumming in the distance; I looked up and saw a huge crowd of Ragesians in the distance. They were led by a tall, commanding figure, riding at their head. He was dressed in a beautifully polished set of full plate armour that glistened in the sun. Tall and bearded, he rode on a strange creature. I couldn’t quite make out what it was at this distance, but it certainly wasn’t a horse.

The crowd of Ragesians was walking in formation. It was very pretty. They walked in step and carried lots of flags; I couldn’t make out what the flags showed but the whole thing looked much more soldier like than the ones in the camp; or the ones that were left in the camp anyway; which admittedly wasn’t very many by this point.

Drudge had almost finished; John and the others suddenly began to plan a retreat into the town to stay away from this new group. I couldn’t have that; this was another fantastic target!

“What are you all doing? Those are Ragesians out there! They have to be killed! Now! Victor, Longhelim, if you get into formation, we should charge them! Immediately!” I screamed at them.

Drudge said: “What’s got into him? He’s usually so busy thinking he forgets to actually do anything. Anyway, a moment ago, he was a docile little lamb.”

John replied: “It’s that bloody curse. It’s flipped him; or he’s flipped I should say.”

“Great; that means Longhelim’ll be the same doesn’t it? We better grab both of them again, before they go off in a mad charge or something.”

Then John stepped in front of me: “Faden, we plan to kill lots and lots of Ragesians; more Ragesians than you can dream about. We just can’t do it here; we have to choose our battle ground. I promise you though, there’ll be loads of them to kill.”

I looked at him suspiciously; after all, this was John who was telling me this: “You promise? Loads and loads of them?”

“Yes, just follow me. You won’t even need to go after them. After what we did to their camp, believe you me, they’re guaranteed to come after us.”

Longingly, I looked back at the bunch coming towards us; there were even two wyvern knights flying above them; they made such a tempting target. As they came closer, I could also make out more details of the thing their commander was riding. It had huge, muscled legs with big talons. It vaguely looked like a lizard but its most prominent feature was its head; it had large ears and a big mouth. I still had no idea what it was.

As I followed John, I could also hear a conversation between Longhelim and Victor:

“…….yes, I promise you can be in the front to get your pick of the Ragesians that come at us; and you get to kill as many as you can, need, or want.”

“And you won’t get in front of me; or steal any of my kills. They’re going to be my kills!”

“There’ll be plenty for both of us; don’t you worry about that.”

Somehow, everything I saw had a tinge of red, as if I was seeing through some gauze or haze. Some of the villagers running around like headless chickens; I didn’t like them. They should be charging the Ragesians; so should be the monks front the monastery but they were a bunch of lightweights. I felt like giving them a little encouragement with my ball of fire, just to point them in the right direction but I felt a hand on mine, lowering it; John was shaking his head:

“Save those for the Ragesians.”

Great idea. Burn the Ragesians to death! Now there was a plan! But when were we going to get started?

We wondered aimlessly through the town; I was getting more and more impatient. The Ragesians could be changing their minds and turning around! That must not be allowed to happen!

Finally, Victor stopped at a particular point on a street. It was surrounded by buildings. He inspected it carefully and then went to talk to John and Drudge. Then he said to everyone:

“This is a good place; this is where we’ll make our stand!”

Good! This was the place where we would kill lots of Ragesians. I couldn’t wait!

We didn’t have long to wait. A small formation of soldiers advanced, shields ready and weapons out; didn’t matter. I fried them with a ball of fire. They screamed a lot; music to my ears. I was concentrating very hard, looking for other formations. A few individuals leaked through but the others could deal with them. I saw that Victor was smashing lots of the soldiers and Drudge was shooting another bunch; Longhelim was also fencing with some more; he was spitting and yelling something about their mothers. Felix was getting smashed about a bit but suddenly another small formation made an appearance; another ball of fire from me appeared on top of them and they all fell down; I almost danced in glee! Oh bother, there was a group of the leather clad Ragesians, who turned up from the side streets. No great point in putting them in balls of fire; they dodged through the spells somehow; thankfully, Victor went over and dealt with them. Then a more imposing figure strode forward, straight into Drudge’s next volley; with three arrows sticking into him, he wasn’t strutting quite in the same way as previously. In fact, he looked seriously worried. He was some sort of command figure; he even had a bodyguard but they were not quite as adept at dodging balls of fire; I tested that theory several times. I laughed as I released the spells.

It was all getting a bit hazy. I still kept a look out for Ragesian formations but strangely, there hadn’t been any for a little while. The battle still raged between the Ragesian tough and what was left of this entourage against Victor, Longhelim and the others but things were under control; I controlled the urge to take my staff and go and kick their teeth in; my staff was useful in other ways and anyway, any time one of them got a little strong, Drudge just drilled him. I suddenly noticed that Longhelim was on the floor. That was when, Victor decided that enough was enough and finished the Ragesian commander; about time too. Drudge then shot three arrows at the three remaining members of his squad and each time an arrow hit, a Ragesian fell over; and then there were none left.

I shouted at them: “Yes, that’s the way to do it! What took you so long? Now, where’s the rest of them?”

John immediately went to rummage for potions and things. I was looking around, waiting to kill more enemy; I was getting annoyed with the villagers as well. Why didn’t they come and help us? Ungrateful scum! And as for the monks in their monastery……..

I was just turning around to walk back into the village and give them a piece of my mind when everything went black……

I woke up to find Longhelim pouring a potion down my throat and shouting at Victor at the same time:

“You didn’t have to hit him so hard! Just thank the gods you used the flat of your blade. Look at that lump on his head.”

Victor shrugged and said: “Sorry Faden; I pulled my blow but even so, I clouted you on the head a little harder than I intended.”

“A little harder than you intended? Do you have any idea how many potions we had to pour down him to get him conscious?”

“I said sorry.”

I felt woolly headed and lay back down for a little time.
“What happened? I remember Ragesians, lots of dead Ragesians, a Ragesian camp, a Ragesian army and a vicious fight……”

Longhelim came up: “We’ll tell you on the way but first, we have to get to the House of Healing here in Eresh. We’ve drunk a bunch of potions here but most of us are still very injured and hopefully, there they will help us.”

I stood up, swayed and leaned on the paladin who was next to me. My head was splitting and the paladin shot Victor a glare.

Longhelim helped me and told the others: “Right, let’s go! John, can you tell Faden and I what happened please?”

John spoke quietly: “Faden, you and Longhelim were both affected by the strange curse that permeated through this town, affecting everyone, villagers and Ragesians. Thankfully, the others were not; after the first battle, we went to the Ragesian camp where Drudge mostly, eliminated a large group of Ragesians; unfortunately, before we were able to finish, we spotted another large contingent of the enemy approaching. They are about to arrive. Just about when they reached the edge of the valley, everything flipped and you both became frothing berserkers; that was strange enough on you Longhelim, but on Faden, well it was downright ridiculous. Still, suddenly there were fire balls raining everywhere and lots of Ragesians burnt to a crisp.

So, the remains of this first group of Ragesians came and attacked us and they were also in the same state as you two; it must have been some sort of commander and his staff as they were significantly tougher than any of the others we had met. Now, we are going to the House of Healing, where hopefully they will help us and then we have to go and confront the new Ragesian army group.“

I nodded, absorbing everything he said. I felt that my staff, formerly so attuned to the elemental plane of fire, was much weaker than previously; well, at least it had been in a good cause.

We arrived in the House of Healing; it was just a normal townhouse really but there were about six priests there, shaven headed and who looked more like monks but they took one look and immediately began to tend to our wounds. Several of them brought out healing wands and quickly used them on us; at the same time, one of the priests approached Longhelim and spoke quietly to him. A few moments later, the paladin returned and said:

“That was interesting. The priests said that they saw a phantom figure appear here briefly a little earlier and then it dissipated, as if it had ceased existing on this world. It was about the same time as Faden and I flipped from passive to berserker. I wonder if it was Balance?”

John frowned: “Balance?”

Longhelim then went on to recount his strange encounter with the woman who called herself Balance.

John said immediately: “That was a trillith. One descriptive name; totally unknown magical powers and she also told us that we had met her kin? Ten to one that we have met yet another trillith.”

Due to my state at the time, I hadn’t put the pieces in place but now I believed John was correct. Yet again we had come across one of these mysterious creatures. At least it hadn’t been overtly hostile, like the last one. This one just seemed to have affected most of the valley with some strange aura or malaise. I made a mental note to add another power which could possibly be associated with trilliths.

As I was considering all the ramifications of John’s surmise, Victor said:

“We’re forgetting the most important problem here: The large detachment of Ragesians approaching the town. Unless the people here get organized, we are going to lose a lot of them.”

Longhelim stood up and left, going outside.

Drudge asked: “Where’s he going?”

Victor replied: “I think he’s going to see if he can find the town mayor or leader to try to organize them.”

As we were waiting, I asked: “Drudge, can you tell me what happened during the battle while I was….not myself?”

This took a few moments and as he was finishing, Longhelim returned, looking disgusted:

“I couldn’t find anyone in authority; not enough time; the Ragesians are already on the outskirts of the town and when I tried to rally folk, they just ignored me.”

“They’ve no idea who you are,” I said to him.

“I know,” he sighed, “I was just hoping……..”

Victor just said: “Well, you tried; now come on, we’ve got to get ready.”

We thanked the priests for their help again and again looked for the best location in the town to set up defensively.

As previously, it was a fairly narrow street with several tall, wooden buildings on each side. There were alleys between these but they were very narrow that only one person could actually emerge from these at a time. We did not have the time to barricade them but we could at least limit the emergence of the enemy from the side. The street was going to be our battleground; as well as possibly our deathground.

We set up our formation as usual; the two warriors at the front, facing the direction from which the enemy was most likely to come; Felix, John and I were a short distance behind, ready to support with our spells, while Drudge was lurking wherever he felt he would be most effective with his arrows.

The first attack was not long in coming; the two wyvern knights swooped down from the sky; they had obviously been sent to soften us up as they glided down low and dropped their dragon bombs. Thankfully, I had managed to cast my spell of fire protection by this point and although the loud bang was annoying, I was able to shrug off its more extreme effects. However, the knights miscalculated. When they dropped their bombs, they realised that they would not be able to bank and attempt to turn as rapidly as usual due to the narrow confines of the street; so, they had to glide, in a straight line, completely exposed to Drudge’s archery.

They weren’t too keen on this so, instead they landed and turned on the ground; this was not ideal for either them or us; they lost their ability to strike from the air. But wyverns were very dangerous creatures even on the ground: they had landed at the rear of our group and one of them moved forward and rammed its tail stinger into my chest. Being poisoned by a wyvern is not something I would recommend; it makes one feel weak, dizzy, nauseous and hurts like the very devils. I managed to stagger back, tearing the stinger out but I could see the tip dripping with a colourless liquid and there was a burning pulse coursing through my body. I just about stayed on my feet when I saw Victor moving up, Living Blade of Innenotdar raised above his head, ready to deal mayhem; which is exactly what happened as with one continuous move, he slashed the beast to death, making the rider leap off and confront Victor.

Longhelim had also tracked back, facing the other wyvern; this time, the battle took longer but there was never any doubt as to the outcome; Longhelim’s swordsmanship was just as strong as Victor’s albeit in a different way. He fenced with the beast and its rider for some moments, inflicting heavy wounds all the time; Victor, at this point, had managed to deal with the Knight from the previous wyvern.

The burning in my body was getting beyond control and I felt a wave of weakness sweep through me; I sank to my knees and retched; that made me feel a little better; there was no time for weakness right now. The other wyvern, seeing me incapacitated briefly, ignored the danger presented by Longhelim and was urged forwards and by his rider; they both struck me; as the wyvern bit deeply into my arm and suddenly everything went black.

I was brought awake by someone pouring a potion down my throat; I couldn’t see anyone so I assumed it was John, invisible. As I looked around, I could see yet more trouble.

From behind us, another set of figures appeared. They were more of the Ragesian scouts with their studded leather and stealthy movement. I shouted at Victor to be careful but he had already seen them and was getting ready for the new foe. Longhelim, had managed to finish the last wyvern and its rider and then also turned his attention to the squad of infiltrators. They showed their usual aggression, bounding forwards, short swords flashing; they decided to try to surround us; however, their plan was hampered by Victor’s and Longhelim’s swings. These slashed, cut and incapacitated while the enemy then had to face Drudge’s arrows; the ranger was raining death on all enemies, to wax poetically. Every time one of Victor’s blows did not finish that opponent, one of Drudge’s arrows would sprout from his torso, causing him to crumple, more often than not. The infiltrators had just been defeated with the exception of their leader, a half orc, when a new danger made its appearance.

A formation of Ragesians came up the street; there were about ten of them. They were huddled together and covered almost fully with huge shields. It was obvious that they had heard of Drudge’s archery prowess and had taken precautions. Despite the unwieldiness of the formation, I could see immediately that this was a tried military tactic as they shuffled forward as one. The formation looked impregnable.

Drudge took one look at it and said:

“Those are tower shields; there is nothing I can do about that; my arrows will just bounce off.”

Then he turned around and shot the infiltrator leader. I looked at that dead wyvern lying next to me and shuddered; they had almost killed me. Then I took my staff, sat up, positioned myself and shot a ball of fire just above the slow-moving formation so that the flame would rain down on them. I had so few of these charges left in my staff that they were becoming very precious but, as the formation dissolved and the soldiers all perished in flame, thereby never being able to take part in Ragesian conquests again, I thought it was well worth it.

As the others finally tidied up the infiltrator leader, another formation, the same as the previous one, appeared from down the road; I aimed again, and the result was the same; all in all, the Ragesians tried that two more times and the result was always the same, with the exception of one situation when I had to use two of my balls of fire for the same formation.

There was a slight break at this point. We took full advantage of this, drinking healing potions taken from the enemy. Nearly everyone was fully recovered except that I was still suffering from the wyvern poison. Then the final enemy arrived.

Another squad of soldiers appeared; these were different. They were wearing full plate armour and wielded axes. Their equipment was polished and they looked like someone’s chosen guard; which they were for behind them, advanced the impressive, mounted figure we had seen before; he was almost ambling as if we were just the last obstacle to be mopped up in this silly little town. This must have been the sole commander of the army that had just entered the valley. Closer, I could see that he was a truly imposing figure; a bearded human with full plate armour and obviously an experienced leader of soldiers. I wondered what someone like that was doing here, in this gods forsaken place in the back of nowhere? Then I remembered Castle Korstull and the Torch of the Burning Sky again.

The beast which bore the commander was closer now, so I could make it out in more detail. I have already described it but now I could add that it had a head with large ears but no sign of eyes; suddenly, the commander dismounted and with a quick burst of acceleration, this creature sped to the frontline. We steadied, waiting for the onslaught. I thought it would charge us but then the really nasty surprise occurred. It opened its mouth and let out a dissonant sound; and I mean it was so dissonant and loud that we could feel it in our bones and bodies. It was so jarring and loud that it was painful, very painful. Everyone clutched their ears as blood poured out of them.

The commander then made a sign for his squad to finish us. Despite the roar of the creature, I managed to get one ball of fire off, burning some of the soldiers. Also, as some of them were charging forwards, I put a wall of flames in their path, again managing to burn them quite badly. This also had the effect of separating the commander from his bodyguard. They were brave though; I have to give them that as I saw them leap through the magical flame and attack Victor and Longhelim. Then came another surprise: another pair of squads of infiltrators had managed to sneak up on either side of us; I contained one side with another wall of fire, managing to burn several of them again. It also made the infiltrators move away, I assumed. I couldn’t see them anymore; unfortunately, that was on one side only though; on the other side the situation was different.

The remaining infiltrators together with the soldiers combined and formed a solid formation with the unfortunate Victor and Longhelim in its middle. That may have been a mistake for the soldiers though; it gave them the advantage of being able to use their teamwork to strike at the two warriors more easily; conversely, it allowed Victor and Longhelim to concentrate on one target at a time; and they did. Systematically, they began to lay about them with a series of thrusts, parries, slashes in a dazzling display of swordsmanship. Of course, as usual, Drudge was also laying down and almost continuous rate of fire into the melee with unerring accuracy and I managed create another wall of flames on one edge of this formation, isolating them from any reinforcements, as well as burning some of the enemy badly; all of this was weakening them considerably.

The creature ridden by the commander lumbered off to the side, riderless, seemingly on some quest of its own. Felix was close to the warriors; he saw the wounds they were taking and decided to join in the melee himself. All of his healing, his wands and his spells were gone. Despite the desperation of our positions though, slowly but surely, we were beginning to thin out the military wedge around the warriors.

Then, almost in a moment, the battle turned. Suddenly, Longhelim struck twice and two soldiers collapsed, unable to stand against him; then Victor struck and another soldier fell, leaving only a three. The warriors carefully made a withdrawal as the group had become dangerously spread out. In the background, I could see that the commander was standing back and drinking potions. He had obviously been hurt all the magic flying around.

Then the creature suddenly came at us from the opposite direction. There was only one soldier left now, fighting Victor but the warrior immediately switched opponents. Longhelim came to engage the soldier. Oddly the beast did not use its sound attack, possibly because there was one of its allies in our group.

Victor was getting badly beaten and slashed by the creature; then suddenly, everything went black again.

When I was brought around again, John was feeding me a potion, as usual.

I saw that the beast was dead and the body of the commander was nearby, his torso bristling with arrows; someone had already stripped him off his armour.

I looked around me at the devastation. There were seemingly hundreds of corpses strewn around, many of them partly burning; broken spears and javelins lay around, some of them stuck in the ground; there were arrows everywhere, many of them stuck in orc bodies; the stench of burning flesh was everywhere and smoke whisped thinly into the sky.

“What happened?”

“One of the infiltrators got you. We didn’t see him in time. He was greatly weakened though and we got him before he managed to kill you.”

“What about the commander, the beast and all the soldiers?”

“Well, we beat them. You should have seen it! Victor went head to head with the beast……whatever it was. It nearly skewered him to death. It’s got some really nasty claws. He managed to chop its head off it but he was on his last legs; after that, we began to drink any old potions we found desperately, before that commander arrived; we managed to get rid of most of his bodyguard so it was pretty much him against us, thank the gods; we wouldn’t have been able to cope with him and them together; thankfully, most of the potions were healing.

Anyway, so the commander comes up and that’s when Victor and Longhelim show their nous. They engage him together, but the person who is really giving him all the grief is Drudge. The two fighters are basically just trying to stay up and hit every so often while keeping him away from Drudge, who just shoots and shoots and shoots; and it was the arrows that did for him in the end.”

I lay back down, staring at the sky: “Thank the gods. I really thought we were done for this time.

I shook my head; all of a sudden, I felt so tired; and that damned wyvern poison was still affecting me.

“So what now?”

John grinned: “Now we gather all those lovely things that the army left lying around; the armour, the weapons, the magical stuff, the potions, everything.”

I groaned: “John, there were hundreds of soldiers in the camp and in that army. How are you going to pick up all their things?”

“Don’t you worry. I’ll think of something.”

Longhelim then came up.

“Come on you two, get up. We’re going to the House of Healing.”

So, I stood up and joined the others. I saw that everyone was carrying lots of potion bottles. There must have been more than fifty. As we were walking, Victor gave me several and told me to start drinking them. Nothing loth, I began quaffing. Immediately, I began feeling better.

Walking through the town was eerie. There were bodies everywhere; mostly of townsfolk but also of Ragesians. This could not be mistaken for anything but a battlefield. Here and there fires still burned, although they were dying. There were no wounded which gave us hope that someone may have come and collected them.

Arriving at the House of Healing, we found that it had been attacked and smashed. There was no sign of the priests. We searched the place cursorily and John waved a wand briefly, before declaring that there were no secret doors or openings in the building. Then we discussed what to do next. John still wanted to loot the battlefield. Then Longhelim said:

“Why don’t we go to the Inn?”

“What inn?” I asked.

“Oh, Three Weeping Ravens told me about it. It’s called the Inn at the Peak’s Shadow; apparently it’s the only one in town. I think that if any of the people are going to be anywhere, they will be there.”

Finding it wasn’t too difficult and the paladin was right. There were people around; weeping, wounded, in shock, some desperately looking vainly for family, others hysterical upon seeing a corpse, but at least alive.

The only person with some sort of authority was the Innkeeper, Thashalnos.

Upon seeing us, he shouted: “You!”

Heads turned towards us.

“You saved us! You saved the town! I saw you, fighting the Ragesian general! You have our gratitude. The Ragesians would have killed us all. Who are you? What are your names? You killed so many of them. You must be mighty heroes of legend to come and save us.”

He looked at us expectantly and Longhelim introduced himself and the rest of us. Then he took us into the inn where he introduced us to two monks, a man and a woman; they were disciples of the East and West Wind Styles. These were the two forms of training which were followed by the monks in this place. Pilus and Longinus were the masters each discipline: Pilus of the East and Longinus of the West. They were friendly enough, in manifest difference with their colleagues in the Monastery. They even gave us a warning:

“You must beware of the guardians who guard the way to the Temple; very powerful air elementals. However, there is a way to get past them; a safe word.”

Longhelim, being unfailingly polite, thanked them for their information while I was still sputtering and then turned to Thashalnos and asked:

“Is Becchus around?”

“No, I haven’t seen him. I fear the worst.”

“Well, can you direct us to his house, please. We need to find him.”

The innkeeper gave us directions and after thanking him, we left, reaching the house without mishap.

Reaching the house, we approached cautiously. It had obviously been attacked. Part of it showed signs of fire and there was still some smoke rising from it. We called out to Becchus, not wanting to startle him if he was inside, but there was no answer. Going inside through a door that was only partly hanging from its hinges, it was quickly obvious that Becchus was not there; the place was ransacked and there was wreckage everywhere. A cursory search revealed nothing. Then I said:

“John, you know that handy wand of yours? The one that finds secret doors?”

He was ahead of me; he already had it out and within moments, he unerringly found a bit of floor that looked like any other but then he reached down, gave a cunning twist to the board and suddenly, a ring pull was apparent. John looked at Victor, who stepped forward. He took the ring and gave it a strong pull; it didn’t budge. So he braced himself and gave it a long sustained pull: again, it failed to budge so Longhelim stepped forward and the two of them managed to pull it open with a crack as the trap door was pulled out of its frame. Beneath was a cellar, inside of which stood a man, blinking rapidly in the light. He was thin, disheveled, wizened and looked weak and hungry.

I looked down at him:

“Are you one of the team from Seaquen?”

He sagged to the floor, looking immensely relieved:

“Thank the gods; you’re finally here. Yes, I’m Eril and I am part of the initial group from Seaquen.”

We helped him out and gave him some water and food. He took them gratefully but immediately began to fill us in, as if he felt that this was his most important mission:

“To the East, there is a mysterious valley. It’s called the Valley of Storms and local legend has it that it is always covered by a storm cloud, hence the name. These legends also tell of people who have gone there and never come back; well, after the storm in Seaquen, as you can imagine, our attention was drawn by this legend and the other members of the expedition were convinced that there was a connection between this valley and the storm in Seaquen. Everyone wanted to go to the Monastery and ask them if they could confirm this; but the team had been refused entry for over a week. Every time we went up there, we just met this pair of eyes through a slit in a door: they belong to Caela, who is one of the main disciples up there. She was just getting irritated with us; first she said that the storm had nothing to do with her masters; then she said that we were really rude to even suggest something like this; finally she just told us to……go away; only she didn’t use those words.”

He paused.

“Later we found out that some gossip. Apparently, she is the main disciple of Pilus, but……she used to be from Longinus’s school. This is the source of some tension between the brothers, so it is said.
Anyway, we were getting ready to try again when the Ragesians arrived; at that point, I didn’t feel like doing anything but I do remember a silver raven coming from the monastery with a message. The team was very excited and said that they had finally received an invitation. They all hot-footed it up there; I didn’t feel like it but I do remember that they didn’t return; that gave me enough of a shock to go and see Bechus. That good man hid me every since. Where is he by the way…...?”

Longhelim, ever the diplomat, replied: “We don’t know. We haven’t seen him either.”

Eril then said: “What is happening with the Ragesians? Are they getting ready to attack? Do you have a way of getting out of here?”

Longhelim gave him a very quick recitation of events.

Eril became very excited: “Oh my! The Ragesians are defeated? And you helped? Why, you must go to the Valley of the Storms! That’s where the answers are! If you can find out what is going on there, then that will be a huge step forward in solving the whole mystery of the storm.”

“Just how far is this Valley?”

“It’s about a day away; there is even an ancient road going straight there.”

That was interesting; if there was a road going directly to that valley, then it must have been in use for something at some point or other.

Longhelim looked at Victor and everyone else. The warrior replied to the unspoken question:

“It has to be the Valley. The Monastery will not open its doors; it is borderline hostile and is willing to let the Ragesians kill hundreds of people to preserve its non-involvement. By the use of those guardian air elementals, it is even willing to kill directly to preserve that neutrality. At the moment, these monks aren’t allies; the best that could be said is that they are not enemies; we need to find something that they want or need; that is the only way we would gain access. This may be the Valley; there is nothing else here at the moment.”

It was John who stepped in this time:

“Before we go anywhere, we should gather our loot.”

“What loot?” I asked.

He looked at me as if I was insane: “How many times do I have to tell you! The armour, the weapons, the potions, the equipment. It’s worth a fortune!”

This time I looked at him strangely: “Yes, it is but it would also take a fortune to pick it up and take in anywhere. Just how are you planning to get to a market?”

“Like I said before, I’ll think of something. Let’s just gather it all in one place at the moment.”

Victor spoke up: “We can do it with our horses; we have to go and get them from the mountains anyway; it will be much easier if we load up the horses.”

I added: “Good idea; I want to stay here today anyway; that wyvern poison is still making me feel sick.”

We went to the mountains to pick up our animals. Fortunately, they were still there, waiting patiently for us. As we rode them back through so many corpses on the battlefield, they became a little skittish, but despite this, we managed to collect all the equipment, armour, weapons and other supplies from the Ragesian fallen.

It was as we were doing this that the enormity of what we had done struck me again; there were literally hundreds of Ragesian corpses strewn around, killed in oh so many ways; if we had been minor targets for the Ragesian war machine previously, when they found out what had happened here, that would change; I really hoped that when the news arrived at their high command, we would be very far away.

The gathering of the equipment took the rest of the day; simultaneously, we began to organize the townsfolk into digging graves and lugging the corpses into them; Longhelim quickly pointed out the dangers of disease to them. Unfortunately, little could be done about the scorch marks, the broken weapons, the stench and the missing townsfolk. In their various forms, the memories of those would linger for a long time.

We stored all the armour and sundries in Bechus’s house. The underground cellar was large and provided much-needed extra storage space. Then we retired for the night.

The next day, Felix was able to cast a very handy spell that made me feel much better after the wyvern poison; simultaneously, John and I cast several spells which were able to discern the abilities of the various pieces of equipment we had gathered from the enemy commander. Amongst other things, Longhelim obtained a new suit of armour, a new pair of gauntlets which made him stronger and a shiny new shield: it was very shiny indeed.

After that, we set out on the road to the Valley of Storms.

As we rode, it was obvious that the climate was becoming warmer, although we couldn’t feel it of course. Certainly, the local landscape looked different; we even rode into a green and lush pine forest; very unusual for this climate and altitude.

Having travelled most of the day and getting close to the edge of this valley, we decided to camp and learn new spells.

The night passed uneventfully and the next morning, after our usual preparation, we mounted our horses and continued. Sometime later, we began to catch glimpses of another strange phenomenon; a layer of thin fog which rapidly became thicker and thicker; in fact, it became so thick that it made it difficult for us to see anything at any sort of distance. Longhelim stopped:

“This is not good; we should rope ourselves together; just in case the fog gets even worse; we could easily lose each other.”

So we stopped and took a little time, doing exactly what he suggested. We dismounted and then we carried on, leading our horses, this time with Drudge at the front; the ranger had preternaturally good eye sight.

Suddenly, Drudge stopped and I heard Longhelim’s voice:

“Greetings: we come in peace and wish to progress to the Valley of Storms. Will you come down and share some food and news with us?”

Frowning, I looked at the paladin. Who was he talking to? I saw him looking up into the trees and following his sight, I caught side of a figure, hugging the tree. It was dressed all in white and therefore very difficult to see in the mist. How Longhelim had seen it I had no idea.

Everyone else was looking around at the same time and John subtly pointed out with his chin three other figures, again hugging the trees and dressed in white; it became obvious that they had been trying to hide. There was no reaction to Longhelim’s speech.

The paladin continued: “We plan to ride forward now; I hope this will not offend you but we really do need to go to the Valley of Storms.”

Then he whispered to the rest of us: “There is no stain of evil on these people.”

As we began to walk down the path, the figures in the trees exploded into movement; they were incredibly fast. Two of them glided above us from branch to branch and lashed out with whips; as these flew towards us, I saw the glint of a small blade at the tip of each one; then the two figures at the front also glided in front of us and handfuls of tiny missiles sped towards the group; most of these either rattled off the metal armour of the warriors or missed altogether with the exception of one, which struck John. I noticed that it was glowing.

Victor was muttering audibly but was then caught by surprise as another figure burst from the undergrowth; this one was again dressed in robes and also holding a scroll. The command for the scroll was completed and a bolt of lightning sped down a line through the middle of the group; it wasn’t the most powerful of lightning bolts but it still hurt. It looked as if these monks also had arcane powers. That was not the last of them either as three other figures appeared, one after the other, all targeting the glowing bit of metal stuck in John. He managed to dodge one of these bolts but the other two caught him full on.

The other figures then literally ran down the trees and rushed the group. For some strange reason, they were attempting to punch Victor and Longhelim through their full plate armour in a stylized manner, obviously trained to punch people in a particular way. I am not sure if their training included punching through metal armour though.

Then I managed to cast my spell of speed and watched as Drudge began to target the enemy with the scrolls; that was something that they obviously hadn’t counted on, as two of them rapidly succumbed to the ranger’s arrows. Another of the figures approached too close to Victor who did not hesitate and chopped him down.

I just got out of the way at this time; the warriors and Drudge seemed to have things under control. Then more lightning bolts shot out of the other figures at the rear of the group and again targeted poor John, who was looking decidedly the worse for wear. Felix did a powerful new healing spell; amazingly, this one affected everyone and at a distance; he had been given another boon by his god.

Seeing this, one of the enemy suddenly shouted: “Lords of the Two Winds, bring down your fury!”

I could have sworn that in the distance, I heard a huge roar after this call. Then I saw the enemy all casting spells of magical force missiles at Felix. There was another shout from the enemy:

“If in doubt, take the healer out!”

Hearing this, I quickly handed my brooch to Felix. It absorbed these missiles. Then I scurried out of the way again. I wanted to save my spells for the Valley and the warriors had things under control as I saw both Longhelim and Victor wade through two more opponents. That only left two others at this time; no, just one as Drudge’s arrows found their mark again. The last one fought fanatically, without asking for quarter or wishing to surrender; and that is how he died.

We took advantage of a brief respite to recover when all of us heard an ominous sound: huge wings flapping towards our location.

I didn’t like that; I didn’t like that at all. Huge flapping wings could be an awful lot of beasts; all of them nasty; and huge. I quickly used my spell and turned invisible. I was almost too late.

Swooping out of the sky was a majestic dragon; it was coloured green although it was a little darker than the Green Dragon of Sour Lake Swamp. The other difference was also its tail: in this case, rather than ending in a tip, it ended in a collection of black spikes. Its arrival was heralded by a sweeping wind from its wings, which shook the trees and blew away all the fog which had obscured our vision. Then, it opened its mouth and let out a mighty roar; I was not in the effect of this sound but everyone else was and I could see them reeling, clutching their ears at the noise.

Quickly, I moved forward and gave Victor a spell which allowed him to fly. The warrior immediately took off and confronted the dragon. I saw Felix move and cast the same spell on Longhelim; the paladin readied to join Victor. Drudge hit it with a couple of arrows that seemed to annoy it more than anything else. Victor and it engaged in combat and Longhelim joined in; thankfully, my speed spell was still active so they were able to reach it. I recognized the danger of this creature; if it let out another of those roars, things could get very dire indeed.

Still bolstered by the speed spell, Drudge, stepped to the side, took out an arrow, breathed deeply and aimed: then, with astonishing rapidity, he drew another arrow, followed by another and a final missile. These were all in the air before the first struck its target. One of arrows hit the dragon straight in its eye, sinking almost to the fletching; another flew into its throat just as it was opening its mouth, disappearing deep into its gullet; the other two thudded solidly into its torso; the beast roared its pain and anger and as it flew by, the spikes from its tail flew out; all six of them hit Drudge in various parts of his anatomy; Victor and Longhelim were in pursuit and I hit it with a spell of force missiles but Drudge, despite the spikes, jutting out from various parts of his body, stepped up again and in another exhibition of speed and accuracy, a volley of arrows struck the mighty dragon who crashed out of the sky.

We all looked at each other with wonder; we had slain a dragon! It was something out of which legends were made. As he looked at it, Drudge had the last word, when he wryly said:

“Now I can see why it is said that no one has returned from this valley!”

We then healed ourselves by drinking various magical potions and continued on the path.

We were getting quite close to the edge of the valley by this point; as we neared the lip, we became more and more cautious; we roped ourselves again, this time just by slipping the rope through our saddle girths, in case we needed to release ourselves quickly. The mist was still there so again, we had to be very careful.

Therefore, when the four huge misshapen creatures appeared from the deep mists, we were not very surprised; except by how ugly they were maybe. They really were horrible; we had not seen anything like them before. They looked like brutish humans, but with two heads! Not only that, they had wings on their backs; three of them. They were completely atrophied though; I couldn’t see how they could fly with them. The creatures wasted no time as they produced more whips, again with small blades attached at the end.

Victor and Longhelim jumped off their horses, realizing that they had to close quickly with the enemy, otherwise, they would just use their whips from range and inflict dreadful wounds with those daggers.

Unfortunately, before the warriors were able to reach them, the giants were able to strike from a long distance away with those damnable whips; one of them managed to entangle Victor’s legs together and yank the warrior’s feet from under him.

Another attempted to do the same to Longhelim but the paladin sidestepped nimbly. The other two attacked the rear of our group; Drudge fired several arrows into one of the attackers almost immediately. I released my first spell, the magic which prevented normal movement, slowing everything down. I targeted three of them but it affected only one. Unfortunately, the other two continued whipping the warriors, especially Victor as he attempted to get up from the ground. Drudge was keeping out of the way of the last enemy while the giant that was slowed had made me his target, with the whip flicking out and causing me considerable pain; thankfully, he did not seem to be able to wrap it around my legs.

A moment later, I incanted another spell; this one was a ball of fire except that it was one that had been boosted; it was more complicated to cast but it certainly burnt those giants. Victor and Longhelim had finally been able to close with the front two and they engaged in melee although poor Victor looked to be badly wounded. He managed to land a couple of good blows to one of the enemy but only after the enemy hit him with the whip and also with his fist; that was when we received the next surprise as a crackle of electricity flashed as the fist hit Victor’s armour. It was at this point that Victor burst into flames and sank to the ground.

I managed to cast another spell, this time a ray which weakened an opponent badly; I did this twice in quick succession and succeeded both times. Both of the creatures roared loudly when I did this and my stalker re-doubled his efforts to hit me; he had already been very dangerous for me and this time, I had to move away from him. He was getting too close and I was running out of places where I could dodge.

Then, finally, with one volley, Drudge slew his attacker. This was quickly followed by Longhelim hitting his opponent with such accuracy that he also fell. That left my enemy and the enemy who had concentrated on Victor. By coincidence, they were the two that were suffering from my weakening ray.

Longhelim then stepped forward and engaged the enemy closest to him. This time, he summoned the power of his faith and I could have sworn I saw that sword of his attain an extra gleam as he struck the creature once, twice with mighty blows; it gave out a mighty roar but then, slowly, it toppled over. The last one was stalked by Drudge who sniped at it mercilessly, shooting arrow after arrow into it torso, despite its roars of rage. It was trying to get at the ranger but it was just too slow.

I looked at these creatures; I had seen nothing like them before. Two heads and wings were the most peculiar combination. I wrote down a quick description of them while everyone was drinking more potions. I had to take some myself of course as I had been struck several times by the whip but thankfully, I was not hurt too badly, unlike poor Victor, who had been at death’s door.

After a little time, everyone was finally recovered and we also waited a little time for everyone else to gather themselves and then we finally looked over the lip of the valley.

The lush pine forest continued into the valley, but the most prominent feature we could see was a tower in the distance, rising above the trees. This was a pleasant surprise as it was the first time we had seen any indication of human habitation. Slowly, we rode our way down into the valley, being careful to look around as much as possible. There was still a lot of thick mist, hinting at the likelyhood of ambushes. In fact, we could all see various misshapen shadows creeping in the forest; some of them ran away as soon as they saw us; others watched us from the undergrowth but none of them made any attempt to stop us. Thankfully, nothing attacked us and we reached a clearing. The tower stood in the middle of it, a short distance away. It had a door at its ground level as well as a balcony and another doorway at its uppermost level.

“So, how do we handle this?” I asked. “We have no idea who lives here, but whoever they are, they really value their privacy, so they won’t appreciate callers; and that tower just looks ominous, standing here, in the middle of nowhere.”

John was looking thoughtful. “We have to scout the area.”

“I still have that spell which allows you to climb walls as if you were walking. Would it help?”

The rogue replied: “That would be very useful. If you put it on me, I’ll go and have a look at this tower; maybe even climb it.”

I cast the spell and then John sped into the clearing. I quickly lost sight of him, although oddly, I could hear his footsteps.

Then, I managed to catch sight of him as he approached the tower; suddenly, with a yelp, he plunged through the ground and disappeared!

Great stuff as always, Cafu! The foes are gettin' harder to beat it seems...but I have complete confidence in your party.

Yes, the foes were never easy but four ettins with whips (20 foot reach) and the Improved Trip feat almost did for us; and I suspect its only going to get harder!