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

That wasn’t part of the plan! So much for approaching the tower by stealth; we rushed forward across the open ground, surprise be damned. As we reached approximately half way, suddenly John erupted from the solid ground and threw himself to one side, shouting:

“The Tower isn’t there!”

He was immediately followed by a creature flying through the wall of the tower. It looked like a dwarf, but with its flesh somehow partly made out of ice; I couldn’t really see because I was too far away but even from this distance, I could see that it had huge, white, eyes.

The warriors almost reached the tower when Victor stopped and poked his falchion into the ground before him; it sank into the surface with no impediment. That was very odd; I looked at that tower and the ground surrounding it very carefully but I couldn’t spot anything amiss or magical; yet plainly, there must have been something as Victor’s falchion was sinking into the ground as if it was water and John has just fallen in. The others were also looking at the whole thing very carefully but no one said anything.

More of these creatures were bursting through the tower; there were four in total now. A couple of them looked like humans while the other was a dwarf. As with the first of these beings, they all flew, had the same huge white eyes that looked as if they were made of ice and they pointed their hands at John; as they did so, rays of cold blue energy erupted from them; the rogue dodged frantically and managed to avoid a couple but the other two hit and poor John collapsed, bursting into flames. As soon as that happened, one of them swooped down and rolled the body over; it disappeared through the ground again.

It was most frustrating; we couldn’t get at them as there was obviously some sort of magic covering a pit in front of us and we had no more spells that allowed us to fly. Victor was the warrior in front and although he couldn’t reach them, they deemed him the greatest threat so all four began to concentrate their blue rays on him. The warrior was sufficiently resilient that he stood the pounding for a little time and even more unusually, he managed to dodge several of these rays far more nimbly that I had ever seen him move before, but it was obvious that he would not be able to do so for much longer. Thankfully, Felix stepped forward and cast a spell on him which protected the warrior from the cold; Longhelim had also received it.

Drudge was already loosing his arrows at these new creatures, hitting them with his usual efficiency. They were trying to stop him somehow but he made sure to stay well away from them; those rays must have had only had a short range, as they didn’t fire them at him. Even Longhelim sheathed his sword and drew his bow, joining in the missile fire. Victor couldn’t as he had a complicated gauntlet which took a certain amount of time to dismantle and also to don; I remembered that it was quite a palaver to do so each morning.

While all this was happening, I incanted a few spells of force missiles at these creatures but then I began to cast a cantrip which would tell me a little more about this tower and the ground around it. It was certainly very magical! And there was a lot of illusion magic there. I probed a little further but there was almost nothing more to tell although with my newly acquired knowledge, I looked again: this time I was positive that the tower was not there! It was an incredibly complicated and powerful illusion. Whoever, had done it must have been a master magician; I really hoped that he was not going to be our opponent here because if he was then……shall we say that a diplomatic solution would have been our only hope.

As I was surmising this, Drudge’s arrows had been wreaking further havoc amongst the flying guardians; between them, he and Longhelim had managed to fell three of them with the last one shooting final ray towards Longhelim and then disappearing into the tower.

As soon as he had gone, we took a rope and, with Victor holding it, Drudge swung himself down over the pit. Then we heard a shout:

“Tie some more rope onto this one; I can see John but I can’t reach the bottom!”

We duly did so and a little time later, John came scrambling up the rope, through the floor and he was then followed by Drudge.

The rogue shuddered: “That was close! Far closer than I want to experience again!”

Drudge added: “You’re telling me! I found you at the bottom of that pit, your head inches away from a really nasty spike; and one of those nasty little things managed to smack me before I shot him!”

Longhelim said: “First things first: some of us are hurt. Drudge, John, can you provide some more healing potions please? At the same time, can you can tell just what is down there?”

As they two of them took out their magical sacks and began distributing potions to those in need, John continued:

“This illusion hides a chasm; at the bottom is a nasty set of spikes as well as that nasty group of….whatever they were. They were really strange; they looked as if their muscles and tendons had been made of ice and fused into flesh; almost as if they had been made that way only not……”

Suddenly, it clicked: “I knew they looked familiar; they looked like those fishmen we met beneath Seaquen; those that had been created by that science; biomancy…..I think? It was called something like that; anyway, they were brewed or grown in those huge vats we found. Except that in this case, instead of melding fish and men, someone put together ice and living creatures,” I said.

“Now you mention it, yes they did look similar to them. I hadn’t thought about it but you’re absolutely right,” said John slowly.

“Oh good,” said Drudge, as he was picking up arrows from the ground, “that must mean that there is some sort of mad magician running around, growing flying snowmen. Do you think he grew two headed giants with wings as well?“

Now that he mentioned them, I thought it was very likely: “Yes, although it looked as they went wrong somewhere because they couldn’t fly, despite the fact that they had wings.”

“Well, this is all very useful, but what else is down there?” continued Longhelim.

John took up where he left off: “There’s a façade on one of the walls; lots of figures doing heroic things with winds and cold and stuff; no idea who any of them are but they are bound to be gods and goddesses and spirits and elementals and other things; they always are on those things; oh, and there’s a door!”

Longhelim stopped and Drudge looked up from hunting for arrows: “A door, you say? Now we’re talking! At least we know where to go next!”

Felix nodded but then said:

“I am fairly exhausted after all of this; just getting past the guards was very hard work and I have barely any spells left.”

John agreed: “I am still feeling the effects if my recent falls as well. I think we need to rest and recover somewhere.”

Longhelim looked around at the nearby forest.

“Well, if you have any ideas as to where, then I’m all ears.”

John looked at the tower: “Well, I was thinking down the pit…..”

I thought about it; that wasn’t such a crazy idea as it sounded. The pit was covered by an incredibly powerful and elaborate illusion so it was unlikely that anyone would see us if we climbed down there. Even if they did, they were very likely to fall onto those spikes which had almost done for John. Finally there had also been some very powerful guards. The only risk, so far as I could discern, was if something came out of the door that was below.

Longhelim was stroking his chin: “I don’t like it but it seems the best option. There are just too many things lurking in those trees for us to risk staying up here.”

So, we consumed several more potions of healing and then, using ropes, we climbed down the pit.

I looked around me curiously; as John had described, one of the walls was a façade, with a collection of figures; probably mythical heros and heroines performing mighty deeds and dying at the end; there were also deities performing miracles with winds and storms; there were also spirits and elementals, all to do with air. No doubting the affiliation of the builder of this structure.

As described, there was also a door within this façade, leading into some sort of underground location.

We all looked around very carefully at the carving and were able to ascertain only one concrete fact. The door was magical and the type of enchantment prevalent on it was evocation; or the spells that go bang. John even used his wand to determine if there was a secret passageway instead of the door but the results were negative.

We exhausted all of our detection magic; the result was that it was almost certain that the door was trapped. Once we had ascertained this, we decided to rest.

We settled down to sleep and fortunately, nothing happened during the night. The next morning, I felt very invigorated, as if something had happened overnight and I found myself finishing certain new spells that I had been working on intermittently on our journey to the Monastery of the Two Winds. The time had come to test them so I memorized the formulae and hoped that they would work. Everyone else seemed to be quietly optimistic as well.

I cast several spells on myself and then cast other protective spells on Victor; most of these were against cold energy; it seemed appropriate here. I also cast my spell which allowed Drudge to shoot his arrows particularly accurately. Felix, Longhelim and John also cast various protective spells on themselves and other members of the group. The only strange thing that happened was when Drudge attempted to cast a spell on himself, suddenly his face twisted and he emitted an involuntary gasp.

“Damn! I just lost my spell. As I was finishing the casting, something twisted and I felt a sting; then I lost the spell.”

I frowned. “That’s odd. Can you take me just how you cast the spell? Maybe I can find out just what happened.”

He did so. It was quite a simple spell that would just boost his movement a little; it wasn’t one I could cast myself but the theory was similar. To me, it looked as if he had followed all the criteria for the spell. I cast my mind back to what had happened to Drudge yesterday and then I hesitantly said:

“Well, it may sound odd but the only thing that I can think of which only affected you yesterday was that you were the only person physically struck by those creatures which came flying out of the pit. Maybe, must maybe their strikes carry some sort of curse.”

Drudge grunted: “Great! Well, if that’s true then at least they didn’t hit any of the dedicated spell casters; I wouldn’t care to speculate what we would have done if Felix had been struck by one of them. Well, nothing to be done about it now; come on, let’s go.”

So, we lined up and then we looked at the door. I had foreseen this difficulty and memorized a spell which opened locked doors. I cast it and the door opened a crack; unfortunately, that set off the trap!

A crackle of electricity fizzled through the air and struck me; thankfully, we had all been prepared for something to happen and I managed to just about dodge the worst of it but it still hurt. What I hadn’t been prepared for were the many branches of the lightning bolt which struck everyone else. They had also been prepared and managed to dodge the most harmful part of the lightning but there was enough smell of burnt flesh and hair suddenly filling the cave that I was certain that everyone had been hit by those bolts.

As we all looked at each other, the door seemed to beckon mockingly.

I was healed a little thank the Gods and then John went forward, carefully, looking for any more nasty surprises. Finding nothing, he waved us forward and, having opened the door slightly, we looked inside curiously.

The first area was best described as an entrance hall, but with a difference; within it was a variety of tables lining the walls. These tables had a collection of beakers containing liquids of various colours sitting on top of candles or some sort of small torches, held by contraptions which allowed them to be boiled; all of them were bubbling away but there was no one around. Really, who left unattended liquids burning? However, it did give us a clue that there must be someone around this place. In short, it was an alchemist’s laboratory of some sort.

We entered carefully inside, John again a little ahead searching for anything untoward and what we saw next took our breath away:

Beyond the entrance hall or laboratory were three enormous chambers of a magnitude that was almost impossible to imagine under this mountain. These chambers were slightly below our level, with several sets of stairs leading down to them. In fact, I couldn’t even tell how large they were because they stretched into the darkness beyond my dwarven sight. My attention was immediately caught by the rows and rows of glass containers dotting the chamber in front of us; they were each large enough to house one humanoid about our size and they were full of a now familiar green liquid.

“What in all hells is going on here?” whispered John.

I whispered back: “These tanks looked just like the ones we saw in the lair of those madmen below Seaquen; you remember? Lee Sidoneth and his cronies? Look at those tanks and the creatures inside. Someone is growing an army, with….what was it called? Oh yes, biomancy.”

He looked forward again, this time with more understanding at what he was looking at.

Carefully, we moved forward again; this……laboratory could not be left unattended; I meant, the sheer financial investment that must have gone into building this…….it was unbelievable; even if the owner was a master magician, he still had to get the glass and all the other material up here.

More details were becoming apparent as we moved as well as an inkling as to what was in the other chambers. As mentioned previously, the chamber ahead contained row upon row of tanks which contained the green liquid as well as creatures which could vaguely be discerned inside. There were also fleshy tubes leading from each tank up into the shadows above us. The chamber to our left contained more rows of tanks except that these were larger; they had the same green liquid and fleshy tubes running upwards. The last room, to our right, had one huge tank; an enormous pool of this stuff; again, the containers in these side chambers had tubes running to the ceiling.

Finally, on the opposite wall in front of us, was another pair of double doors; no doubt, trapped again.

Horrified, John whispered again: “What was grown in there?” As he indicating the large pool.

I whispered back: “I think we may just have found the source of our green dragon; do you remember the way it shot those spikes from its tail into Drudge? I have never read or heard of any dragon being able to do that.”

Glancing upwards, I saw that not only were there a myriad of tubes running from each tank, there was also a network of walkways along the upper part of these chambers, obviously for ease of access to the tanks and a network of chains and pulleys which allowed easy movement of these tanks as well as the creatures I suppose. It was an incredibly sophisticated system; it was also taking this biomancy nonsense to an extreme on top of a mountain in the back end of nowhere in Ostalin; as I mentioned previously, it must have cost an absolute fortune.

This left me more confused than ever.

I wasn’t the only one. Everyone else was looking at this whole set up with a mixture of awe and confusion.

Ever practical, Victor’s confusion was different, as he whispered:

“Where is everyone? This type of organization doesn’t run itself; there should be guards and supervisors. There should be people looking after the tanks and the denizens inside; there should be people making more of that green goo.”

I agreed with him but no matter how hard I looked, I couldn’t see anyone else. I saw others looking as well but no one said anything.

We stared at this extraordinary arrangement a little longer and then we cautiously moved down the stairs into the chamber ahead of us; not knowing what else to do, we just moved straight ahead in a single line, through the rows of tanks. Looking inside, there were definitely shapes there but we still couldn’t make out just what they were. Thankfully, there was no reaction to our proximity from them.

John was moving just ahead, looking for traps, Victor close behind him, followed by Longhelim, Felix myself and finally Drudge; then, as we were approximately half way into the chamber, we suddenly met our first being in this complex.

I saw John and Victor stop abruptly and then a form appeared, literally appeared, next to them. It was a large thing; it had the head of bull and the torso of a man; in other words, it was a minotaur. However, below the waist, it seemed to have wisps of vapour and smoke; no legs; despite this apparent handicap, it didn’t seem to have any trouble moving. He had a huge hammer and as he flew, he swung it wildly in a circle, smashing several vats as well as Victor and John; out the vats came creatures with which we were already familiar; they were the same as the ones we had met beneath the tunnels in Seaquen; humanoid but with atrophied limbs that looked almost like fins, a row of spines along the centre of the back and large, bulbous eyes; a horrible, unnatural human and fish hybrid.

The minotaur, hybrid thing roared at us, defiant and whirled its hammer again…….

Victor was the first to react as he calmly chopped the fishman in front of him; that creature promptly fell over in two pieces; then I stepped up and positioned myself in line with the minotaur; I cast a spell which caused a black ray to erupt from my hand and then strike it; the others had all seen this ray before; it was a weakening spell; Felix incanted his spell which caused a great column of fire to engulf the minotaur; this time the creature roared in pain as it was fully caught in the conflagration. Longhelim also had a fishman in front of him of whom he disposed quickly. The minotaur stepped forward and whirled that hammer again with devastating effect; I noticed that the weapon glowed as it struck the glass tanks; as it swept through in a circle, it struck Victor and Longhelim as well as ensuring that two more fishmen join our little party; John was also in its range but for some reason, the creature did not attempt to strike the rogue. However, then it was the turn of the warriors; Victor stepped up and struck the minotaur deeply with two strong blows.

I stepped back and cast my spell of speed.

As I did this, I noticed that one of the fishmen stepped forward and attacked one of his comrades; so, they seemed to be fairly mindless. The minotaur looked as if it had had enough and flew up into the air. This gave me the opportunity to envelop him in a ball of fire; the powerful one. It managed to dodge some of the fire but not all of it; even though he had partially dodged it, it was very apparent that he had still been burnt rather badly, especially after Felix’s spell earlier; just as well. It was noticeable that Victor’s weapon was partially resisted every time it slipped past the minotaur’s defences; this, together with Victor’s inability to find vulnerable portions in its anatomy, as well as its ability with that huge hammer, meant that this was a very skilled and powerful opponent.

Unfortunately, my spell meant that the minotaur bellowed and fixed its stare on me; I had had to move previously to make sure that I would be able to envelop it in the ball of fire; maybe it was this slight distraction that allowed Victor to fly up; as the warrior did so, he unleashed three powerful blows which bit deeply into the minotaur’s torso, despite its defences. In a fury, the creature whirled that hammer again and this time unleashed a devastating blow onto Victor; the poor warrior immediately folded and burst into flames. It then turned around and fixed its stare on me again; it flew over and hovered, getting its hammer ready.

This was not good; one blow from that weapon would completely ruin my day. So, I ducked down and cast another spell; this one would make me invisible; it was the more complicated version, which would allow me to take whatever actions I wanted without any danger of the spell being negated. Then I scurried out from under it. Despite my invisibility, the minotaur’s uncanny senses served it well and it swung a ponderous fist with the hammer, managing to get me with a glancing blow. Oh my, that hurt! If that was its strength after it had been weakened, I dreaded to think what it must have been like at full strength.

As I moved rapidly away, I saw that both Felix, John and Longhelim were around Victor, casting spells. I presumed that they were healing him; there were also several of the fishmen milling around and taking swipes at people including each other; but although they were unpleasant, they paled into insignificance in comparison with the flying minotaur.

I moved up again and this time I threw a series of force missiles at him which served to drive him into an insane fury. Victor, nothing loth, had flown full speed and struck another powerful blow. This time, something seemed to break and the minotaur gave out a mighty bellow; it suddenly changed into a raging whirlwind, tearing everything in its path; including Victor, several more tanks and me. Victor was knocked prone as was I and the tanks were smashed; as this cacophony finished, the minotaur could be seen on the ground, shaking its head and panting. Drudge, quickly nocked an arrow and fired; except that with Drudge, it was never just one arrow; another followed, followed by another and another. One seemed to sink into its flesh right up to its fletching while the others also sank deeply into its torso. This time, its magical protections seemed to be no longer in place.

With one last groan, the creature sank onto the ground, leaving us panting almost as strongly as it had been. In our case though, it was mostly relief.

Slowly, I moved towards it, making sure that it was actually slain; up close, it was quite an extraordinary amalgam. To all intents and purposes, its upper body looked very much like the minotaur which we had seen during the Battle of Gallo’s Fend; rather brusquely described as a “big cow” by John; it was solid flesh and the horns felt….well, like horns; but the lower half would best be described as an air elemental; the vapour was still present below its waist; I gingerly put my finger into it but it reacted like smoke. I could only think that this strange addition to its metabolism would explain its ability to fly, the strange resistances and also the power to become a raging, destructive whirlwind. It was truly strange; I had never read about anything like this.

As I was conducting my examination, I saw Victor walk over the hammer and pick it up with a grunt. Even with his prodigious strength, he was obvious having some difficulty in wielding it. Quickly I cast a cantrip and announced:

“That hammer is magical!”

Victor just looked at me and nodded. Then John said:

“Have a look at that big door on the opposite wall. Is that magical?”

“No,” I said, as I looked at it, “the door is normal.”

Then Drudge’s voice came from behind us: “Look at this!”

Quickly we looked around, expecting trouble; instead, he was staring into one of the tanks. We joined him and saw what he was looking at: in the tank, blurry but still discernible, was one of the clerics from the House of Healing in Eresh. The mystery deepened; how on earth did one of these clerics end up here? The figure inside seemed to have been slightly mutated which suggested that it had only been in the tank for a short period of time; this tallied as we had only seen these clerics a few days ago ourselves.

Longhelim said: “So, now we know why there are legends of people disappearing from the town. Now, I think we’ve found out what we can in these rooms; let’s go and see what is beyond those doors.”

John carefully searched the steps in front of them for any traps but thankfully there was nothing; then surprisingly, Drudge stepped forward with his set of strange, delicate little instruments and quickly picked the lock. Following that, John conjured his invisible friend and then opened the door just a little.

Beyond, part of a large room was revealed. It was luxurious, with a thick carpet just in front of the door and parts of elaborate, beautiful furniture just visible through the door crack. At the far end of the room, there was stairway spiraling upwards along the wall.

We all approached cautiously, creeping closer to the entry and pushing the door slightly wider; as we did so, our attention was grabbed by a beautiful sculpture suspended by chains above the entry. It was a stylized scene of an eagle being chased by a dragon; another reference to the myth of the two great elemental spirits and their eternal chase until the dragon lured the eagle into a cave and defeated it, ripping out its heart. The sculpture seemed to be a mixture of metal and another material, possibly ceramic and very finely made, from what we could tell.

John then quietly instructed his invisible friend to roll up the lush carpet; as it touched the cloth, the fibres grew and began attempting to grasp whatever was touching it. If someone had been standing on it…….

As we stared at this in fascination, we were startled to hear a voice:

“You don’t understand the concept of Forbidden Valley do you? Others have come before you but they were not as advanced. The best they have done is being able to serve as the guards to the entrance. You, however, if you survive, will be far more useful. I shall enjoy crafting your new forms.

A pity; if you had not come here, you may even have been able to retrieve the Torch of the Burning Sky; with that in the hands of my Master, we would be invincible! There is too much suffering in this world; it is time to put a stop to it!”

Victor looked around at us and whispered loudly:

“That’s Caela’s voice; from the Temple!”

He had no time to say anything else as a woman appeared floating in mid air in the room; she was a striking figure, dressed in simple trousers and shirt, small, slim and fair of skin, her dark hair in a ponytail; two whips were undulating behind her, suspended in mid-air.

Then she turned into a lightning bolt! Streaking through the air, she went through John, who managed to sidestep her attack; then she appeared next to me; I received a very powerful punch which nearly knocked all my teeth loose, as well as an incredibly powerful electric shock.

As she turned solid, on the other side of the entrance, we could see that there was a crackling of electrical energy in front of her; some sort of magical shield. Felix managed to cast a spell at her; I recognized it as the spell which dissolved spells but it seemed to bounce off her and then she moved almost impossibly fast again turning into a lightning bolt again; bouncing from person to person, literally almost going through them. She became solid again next to me with another clout; at this point, everything became black!

I woke up as I was healed, only to find her gone. Felix whispered:

“Victor and Longhelim are now flying. They both struck her and she was substantially wounded but she disappeared in a puff of flame. She’s gone somewhere. John’s looking for her on the balcony.”

I got up and followed the priest into the room. Earlier I had cast the spell which allowed me to spot the invisible and I saw her high in the room, above a large balcony. Longhelim and Victor were both there, as was John. I shouted:

“She’s right at the top!”

I was almost entranced by the roof! It was made of glass and I could see the storm raging outside. It was incredible to be able to witness the rage of nature like this; as I watched, my wonder turned to horror as the glass dome shattered, showering the balcony with large shards of glass. Thankfully, John was able to dodge them.

She became visible at this point, allowing Victor to fly to her and strike her deeply with the Living Blade; not at all fazed, she skipped back nimbly and cast a spell! Unbelievable! She was spell caster as well! I even recognized the spell; it was one of Felix’s favourites; the one that dissolved magic. It also bounced against Victor and I remembered that the warrior had a strange magic ring which acted as a fool proof defence against a particular spell. The cunning warrior must have chosen this spell! It certainly made sense.

I saw a grimace of annoyance on her face as this happened and then an arrow from Drudge swished past her; I could hear swearing from the ranger:

“What the…..I hit her, I swear!”

A flying Longhelim slashed her with his sword. Again, she skipped back in the air and then cast the same spell at Victor, this time succeeding and forcing him to fall down onto the balcony; after that, she flew out of the door.

John jumped down the balcony, twirling gracefully in the air and landing without any harm. Victor had to go down the stairs instead. Longhelim flew after her and Drudge also followed.

There was a shout from outside: “She’s hiding among the tanks!”

I was trying to gauge an opportunity to cast some spells but it was almost impossible. She was in the air most of the time. However, Drudge was an expert marksman and was soon shooting accurately at her, despite her best efforts to hide. Still, he was frustrated as I could hear him shouting:

“She’s got some magic against arrows!”

Then, in an almost unbelieving tone: “She’s batting them out of the air with her hands! Just what is this woman?”

I moved out to the doorway and saw her amongst the vats. I cast my spell of force missiles only to see them glance off harmlessly from another magical defence. This was followed by another arrow from Drudge; this one actually stuck into her. Longhelim flew next to her and then struck her with his sword; it was a mighty blow; she stepped back and then dissolved his magic, neutralizing his ability to fly. Then she flew up and disappeared, again.

John and Longhelim immediately ran to the initial entrance to the vat room. The rest of us looked around warily and drunk potions. This lasted for a brief period of time and then John and Longhelim returned. There was no sign that she had been intending to escape.

Cautiously, they entered into the main room again. There was still no sign of her. John moved up to the balcony, where he began to rifle through the desk up there. Suddenly I saw her again just at the entrance and shouted:

“She’s back!”

She was still invisible but she flew through the air and cast a spell; this time there was a puff on the wall and suddenly the chains holding the statue shattered as the huge object fell on top of Longhelim, who just about managed to jump out of the way; she managed to fly through the exit just before the statue fell. This left us with the problem of having the doorway blocked by the statue. Thankfully, I saw John and Drudge slip through a tiny gap; somehow they wriggled through it; I would have had trouble seeing it!

After that, I saw Victor taking off his complicated gauntlet and then hefting the large hammer which I had last seen in the hands of the minotaur; gearing himself up, he swung it and struck the broken remnants of the statue an almighty blow; it shattered even further with an almighty noise. I noticed that the hammer glowed again as it struck; nothing loth, the warrior swung again and this time the statue shattered completely, allowing a path into the room.

There, we saw Caela confronting the others, still in the air. There were a couple of arrows near her, probably deflected. This time, I had another spell ready for her. A black ray sprang from my hand and hit her. She had no defence against this and was now severely weakened. She hissed in annoyance and flew past me into the room, tapping me as she flew by; whatever magic she had on her hand was powerful as I nearly fell to the ground after feeling as if all of my insides had been turned inside out.

The others all chased after her. Drudge shouted at Victor:

“Smash the stairs wall!”

I wasn’t sure why the ranger wanted that but Victor smashed the wall; he now created an open staircase for its lower part. As Longhelim and Drudge fired at her, she deflected one arrow but several others struck her. She flew up to the balcony. Drudge immediately sped after her. As he reached the top, I saw her going down again; Longhelim fired but then I saw the Drudge was falling spectacularly from the balcony and he managed to shoot an arrow at the same time. It flew true; and then he landed like an acrobat, reaching into his quiver and readying another arrow.

A moment later he obviously changed his mind and ran to Victor and throwing a bow and quiver at him.

“Now shoot her!”

The warrior immediately joined Longhelim and Drudge. There was now a peculiar rhythm to the combat. She would fly to the balcony, where she would be chased by Drudge; as she saw him and more often than not deflected his shot; then she would fly down where both Victor and Longhelim would shoot her. She still had her magical defence against arrows but slowly but surely, she was being hit; but this was being offset by her own attacks; as she flew by and tapped me, not only did it feel as if all my insides were being squeezed into nothing, to add insult to injury, she was visibly healing at the same time. It was during one of these passes that she tapped me and I could resist no more. The attack seemed even more severe than all the previous ones and suddenly, everything went black!

I woke up with a potion bottle next to my lips. Everyone looked exhausted, leaning on bows and swords but there was a figure lying on the ground! We must have got her! I had no part in it though; rather I felt sick; whatever magic she had used on me was particularly unpleasant and had lingering effects. The potions were helping though.

As Felix was giving them to me, I asked: “So, who got her in the end?”

Felix nodded towards the paladin: “Longhelim did. She had just deflected one of Drudge’s arrows but Longhelim managed a very powerful shot which did for her in the end.”

Just then, we saw a large chunk of ice land near us. We all looked up in alarm and realised that in the intensity of the fight, we had forgotten that the roof had been broken. The winds by themselves would not have harmed us but the debris flung around by the storm was another matter.

Drudge shouted: “We need to get out of here. Grab her stuff and let’s go!”

I was still staggering more than running but I joined the others as we got out of there, although I did manage to take a small sample of the green liquid from the vats as I moved past. Not a moment too soon, as more and more debris began raining through the floor, smashing the room, the vats and the walkways; snow began to fall in vast amounts into the rooms, swallowing everything; it was almost like an avalanche; I could almost smell the magic on this “storm.”

Aiding each other, we managed run into the spiked pit and climb out of it, being pummeled by flying debris all the way. Unfortunately, our horses were gone; and with them all the equipment.

As we scrambled our way over the edge of the pit, peering with our eyes almost closed in the driving sleet and snow, we watched as the storm assault the complex beneath us with unnatural fury. It was an awesome display of power. Large objects and debris swirled in the powerful wind, lightning crackled incessantly and snow was being driven almost horizontally into the opening. It was only due to the gift we obtained in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar that we were not swept up into its mighty embrace. Then, almost impossibly, we saw a break in the clouds; a moment later, this gap was filled by a mighty shape floating in the sky; it was sleek, almost fish-like in appearance with strange side protruding sections in the head; it was also impossibly huge, larger than any of the dragons we had seen; as we watched this thing in awe and stupefaction, we saw a light disc in it belly; it rotated and for a moment looked as if it was staring at us; this disc by itself looked to be larger than the Green Dragon of Sour Lake Swamp. Then as we watched, the clouds closed and we lost sight of this thing or being, whatever it was.

We looked at each other speechless. I knew that no one would be able to answer my questions about what he had just seen. Yet again we had seen something wondrous, mysterious and almost certainly incredibly dangerous.

We rose quickly and began walk out of the valley. As soon as we reached its border, we camped; we had to rest, recover and learn new spells. It would take us all days to look at the various magical items we had taken from Caela’s body. We set watches but fortunately, the night passed uneventfully.

The next day, John and I spent most of the day researching the items we had found; they were incredibly useful; Caela must have been a highly favoured disciple. Suffice it to say that Felix, Drudge and Victor were very happy after our research. Then in the late afternoon, I approached Longhelim:

“I have a spell which will conjure up some horses; they will be strange and look as they are spirit horses but they will move incredibly fast and allow us to reach Eresh very quickly; I have also made sure that they are not affected by snow.”

He nodded, puffing on his pipe; there was always something comforting watching Longhelim puffing on his pipe. It almost seemed as if so long as Longhelim had his pipe, everything was going to be all right.

I continued: “Longhelim, what do you think was going on? I don’t understand. The Forbidden Valley was being defended by monks among others and Caela was the main disciple of one of the leaders of the Monastery, Pilus. Yet, we found members of the town in the vats; at the same time, you said that the monks were not evil.”

He puffed again and took the pipe out of his mouth: “Good questions, Faden; I can’t answer them for you because I don’t know; what I would ask of you is to still them until we have finished dealing with Masters Pilus and Longinus; I have some suspicions and I will share them with you and the others but only after we leave Eresh. In the meantime, I would ask you again not to start asking questions.”

“Alright; I don’t understand, but I will do as you ask.”

That night we rested, undisturbed again. In the morning, I conjured my steeds. It took a certain amount of time as it was a complicated formula; and I had never done it before. The results were insubstantial creatures with some resemblance to horses and everyone was looking at them dubiously until I managed to clamber on top of one of them. The others then mounted, far more gracefully than I and we set off; their opinion soon changed as they realised the speed with which these magical beasts could travel; since they were not hampered by the snow, they sped on the road at great speed, galloping tirelessly mile after mile, the magic giving them an unnatural sure footedness, making the ride easy even for a novice such as I. It took us only a day to reach Eresh and everyone quickly became a convert to these “ghost horses” as they became known.

We dismounted a little outside of the town as we did not want to cause a panic and then walked; we had decided to go to the Inn at the Peak’s Shadow first and try to rent some rooms. As we arrived, it was obvious that the town was trying to get back to its feet; there was a great deal of activity as people rebuilt and the inn was a centre of activity by default. The innkeeper, Thashalnos, greeted us eagerly, wanting to know where we had been and what we had done; we gave him a very abridged version of events. He absorbed it all eagerly and then I noticed that a little crowd had gathered around us, all of whom were listening to our tale. After we had finished, Thashalnos took out a scroll and gave it to Longhelim:

“This arrived for you from the Monastery.”

The paladin unrolled it and then handed it to John:

“It’s an invitation; from Longinus; which one is he again?”

“West Wind,“ I replied.

He grunted: “Not sure what that means.”

I added: “Well, it’s the one that Caela used to follow before she switched.”

John muttered: “Well, I hope we won’t have to explain to him why we killed his former disciple.”

Longhelim stood up:

“Let’s go to bed; we will have a long day tomorrow. Thashalnos, do you have any rooms spare for us?”

As one can imagine, he had plenty or rooms and we spent the night undisturbed.

The next morning, we made sure that we looked our best and then marched up the road to the Monastery again. This time, we were obviously expected as the doors opened as soon as we reached them and inside the beautiful courtyard, stood an honour guard of approximately forty monks. They looked at us and saluted in their way; it was all very stylized but nice of them. Then one of them stepped forward and said:

“The masters will see you now; please follow me.”

We were led through the courtyard and I had a chance to admire the architecture without someone trying to kill me this time. It was even more impressive than at a distance; the walls were thick but brightly painted; the ubiquitous flags and pennants fluttered in the wind and the stone floors were amazingly even. As we entered into the interior, the change was extraordinary; due to the thickness of the stone, it was far warmer than I was expecting; the corridors were also well lit and everything was very clean. The monks were obviously good housekeepers. There was little natural light as the windows were tiny and had glass; otherwise, it would have been freezing; instead the whole corridor was a very pleasant temperature.

We were led into a luxurious chamber; there were six cushions on the floor and two figures already seated. One of these was dressed in a white robe etched in feathers. He was also wearing a mask:

“I am Longinus,” he introduced himself. As he spoke, I noticed that he seemed to wheeze.

The other was dressed in red robes, illustrated lavishly with a dragon. He was dark haired with a beard and a moustache and looked at us, eyes bright with curiosity. He looked amused at the proceedings. Their clothes were another reference to the Great Spirits, the Eagle of the Air and the Dragon of Fire yet what they had to do with the monks and their Monastery was a mystery to me.

“And I am Pilus; it is very good to meet you. Your defence of Eresh is known to us. Your defeat of the Ragesians was truly heroic.”

Longinus spoke up at this point, his voice still wheezing:

“You have performed mighty deeds; come now, present your request for the boon for which you have travelled here.”

Longhelim stood up and spoke, modulating his voice as only he knew how:

“Master Longinus, Master Pilus, we seek to enter Castle Korstull and recover the Torch of the Burning Sky. The Empress Leska makes war on all the lands; her armies attack towns, cities and countries; she uses spies, assassins, traitors and creatures beyond the ken of man; everything, anything and anyone is used to secure victory; no one is safe. If she manages to lay her hands on the artifact then we will all become Ragesians. We ask to be given the chance to recover the Torch and be given a fighting chance against the Empire.

It is said that your mastery of wind magic is such that you would be able fashion a way for a small group to avoid the dangers of the firestorm above the castle. We ask for you to grant us this boon.”

The paladin stopped and respectfully sat down again.

Pilus spoke at this point: “The arrival of the Ragesians here has confirmed what we have feared all this time; it is to be war; the longest and worst war that any of us will remember; and the most powerful artifact in this war will be that which you seek: The Torch of the Burning Sky; we can help you regain this but……so long as it is on this plane, the war will always continue; oh, there may be respites in the conflict while nations recover but sooner or later someone will want to use it, thinking themselves master strategists; therefore, you must promise that if you recover it, once the Ragesians are defeated, you must return it here; we will find a way to either destroy it or take it away from this plane.”

None of us said anything at this point. I couldn’t help but think that the monks were very naïve. If, and I would have to qualify this word strongly, we were fortunate enough somehow to obtain the Torch of the Burning Sky, I would expect it to be immediately taken by the leaders of the Resistance and given to the generals who were most likely to make the best use of it. After that happened, I would not expect to see it again; however, that was an argument to make another day.

Pilus then smiled that amused smile of his again: “My brother and I will enchant an orb; this orb will allow you to create a passage through the firestorm raging around the Castle.”

Then he clapped his hands and a monk appeared with a tray bearing eight small cups:

“Come,” he said, “a toast! A toast to our new alliance!”

We all took a cup, including Longinus, despite his mask. We toasted to our new alliance. Then Pilus said:

“As a further sign of our good faith I have another proposition for you: I have heard it said that you have gathered a great deal of the equipment from the Ragesian force which you defeated. We would be willing to purchase this equipment from you; we will open the treasure rooms of the Monastery for this purpose; your need is immediate and we are willing to fulfill it as a sign of good faith in our new alliance. Is this agreeable to you?”

Longhelim replied: “More than agreeable; and you may rest assured that the leaders of the Resistance in Seaquen will receive a full report of your generosity and willingness to help in our mission.”

Longinus nodded at the paladin and Pilus smiled a little crookedly and said:

“We will begin to work on the orb immediately; please return later and the monks will take you to the chambers where negotiations will begin. It was very good to meet you.”

We had been politely dismissed so we rose up and left the room. Once outside, a monk led us out of the monastery and we returned to the Inn. There, we immediately went up to our room. Longhelim cleared his throat and then began:

“Now that we are out of the Monastery, I have to tell you all something: this is a lesson is what is called a “diplomatic necessity”. When we went to the Forbidden Valley, one of the guardians was a group of monks; the main guardian inside the complex was Caela, principal disciple to Pilus and former disciple to Longinus. There was also a permanent storm above the valley. So what does that tell us? Well, personally, I would be stunned if Pilus and Longinus were not aware of the complex; they would have had to have been deaf, blind and stupid not to have realised that something of that magnitude was happening about a day’s travel from their monastery; having now met them, they both strike me as very shrewd and powerful individuals; that means that they must also be directly or at least indirectly responsible for whatever unsavoury activities were going on there; however, we are not from here and most importantly, we need their help; without their orb, we cannot enter Castle Korstull.

So, we are pretending that we are not aware that they are responsible for whatever was going on and they are pretending that we don’t know who was responsible. If we force the issue, then they will not give us the orb and we will not be able to enter the Castle. There is also the little matter that when Lord Onamdammin asks “his good friend” Master Pilus for a report, then we can also forget about any alliance that Ostalin may be thinking about forging with Seaquen. It stinks to high heaven but I cannot think of any way of confronting them without reaping some fairly heavy consequences.”

All of these events were something I had been thinking about and had roughly deduced myself but Longhelim was so much better at laying them out for us examine so to speak.

The paladin continued: “All of this grates on me quite badly because there were obviously some very nasty things going on in that complex, not least the kidnapping of various townsfolk and also the previous mission from Seaquen but……we have to compromise.”

He took out his pipe and bit on it sharply:

“What I would suggest is that we conclude our business here, take whatever they are willing to give, leave as fast as we can and hope we never set eyes on this bunch or this blasted monastery ever again!”

As I remembered the face of the cleric from the House of Healing whom I had found in the vat, I couldn’t help but feel sullied but what we were about to do but ultimately our mission was so important that personal beliefs had to be set aside. If there was any chance that we could recover the Torch, than that had to take precedence over almost anything else; its strategic value was incalculable.

Frowning, I asked one last question: “We’re not really going to give them the Torch, are we?”

John just rolled his eyes: “You must joking! We won’t have it! If we can get it, as soon as the leaders of the Resistance hear that, you can bet your bottom copper that they’ll actually leave the safety of their stronghold to get their hands on it! And that’s the last we’ll see of it!”

“Now, John……” admonished Longhelim gently. Then he added: “Everyone agree?”

So, swallowing bile, I nodded; I saw the others emulating me one by one.

The next few days were very busy; we had to hire several mules to transport all to the equipment to the Monastery; there, the monks had their own experts who assessed the quality of the armour; not surprisingly, they pronounced it standard Ragesian work, in other words, of superior quality; all the suits of armour, the weapons, the ammunition and other miscellaneous pieces of equipment were valued and the totals added; it was a handsome figure and then we were led into one of the treasure rooms of the Monastery; there, we spent a great deal of time discussing what we should obtain amongst the equipment available and for whom.

Finally, it was all done. We had obtained several wands of healing; these would be invaluable. All of us also had magical sacks which were deceptively large; these were the same as the ones already carried by Drudge and John; they could also double up as backpacks; just in case, we also purchased a magical bag with the same characteristic, only bigger; our large hammer went in there: I had discovered that it had a name: Kiano and that it was particularly potent in smashing objects.

We also exhausted the Monastery’s supply of diamonds and diamond dust; both of these were invaluable as spell components. Finally, everyone also received a cloak which bolstered their defences against magic. Then individually, both Drudge and John purchased a couple of lenses between them; these would allow them to use magically aided perception; John also purchased a headband and a helm; the former would stimulate his spell casting and learning, while the latter would allow him to read ancient and unknown languages; both magical and mundane. This sounded like an intriguing addition to his repertory. Drudge also purchased a set of shoes which allowed him to climb walls vertically, just like my spell.

I obtained an amulet that would bolster my general well being but the warriors returned with a very peculiar sight; both Longhelim and Victor now had strange small shapes whirling around their heads; Longhelim had one, a pink rhomboid; Victor also had one of those as well as an additional one: a dusty rose prism.

I had heard of those; they were called ioun stones and they had various different powers.

Finally, both the warriors sported new amulets around their necks. These provided additional defences.

Unfortunately, for my purposes, there were no magical formulae to be had.

All of this took approximately a week. At the end of that time, we had a final meeting with Pilus and Longinus; we met in the same luxurious chamber again and this time Longinus spoke to us in his wheezing voice, through his mask:

“Here is the Orb.”

He handed a small pouch to Longhelim. The paladin took out a crystal sphere which had a miniature storm blowing inside.

Longinus continued:

“Upon activation, the Orb will release a storm which will blow the fires away, creating a pathway; be warned though. It will not last for long. At most, you will have a week, maybe even less. You must complete your mission quickly.”

He paused briefly then continued:

“You are not the only group interested in the Torch. The remnants of the First Ragesian Army, under General Magnus, has been encamped outside of the fire storm for some time. They patrol the area. They also have a contingent of the Shahalesti with them. There may also be others; we do not know.”

I was so startled that I asked without thinking, finding it difficult to believe what I heard:

“A contingent of the Shahalesti? With the Ragesians? How? The two nations are at war; a Ragesian army is invading the Shining Lands as we speak.”

Longinus turned that masked face towards me: “Are they? We did not know.”

Then, he dismissively turned away. At this point, Pilus approached with a small box, which he gave to Victor.

“We incanted a divination about your mission and it was revealed that you will need protection from deception. This is the Earring of the Whispering Wind; it will aid you in this. When you wear it, you will have acute hearing; and three times, you will be able to tell truth from lie. Use it well.

Now it is time for you to go. Guides will take you to the borders of the lowlands.”

We thanked the masters for their gifts and their help. Then we left the Monastery.

With the help of our guides from the Monastery of the Two Winds, our return journey through the mountains was much faster and quicker. More importantly, it was uneventful. The monks were very respectful but silent. There was no discourse to be had with them and in turn, their presence inhibited any conversation we may have wanted to have about our recent experiences or future plans, making us far more reticent than normal. We really did not want to discuss any of our plans or thoughts while we had their company. I had no doubt whatsoever that the actions, speech and details of our journey would be reported exhaustively to the two Masters, Pilus and Longinus. All of us also agreed that, bearing in mind the discoveries we had made in the Forbidden Valley, the Masters were not to be trusted; they were only helping us because at the moment, we had a common cause: the recovery of the Torch of the Burning Sky.

Finally, we reached the edge of the plains and the monks turned back.

As soon as they were gone, John exclaimed:

“Thank the gods for that. They were very nice, very polite and all that but it was like being watched all the time.”

Drudge added: “Well, that’s pretty much what they were doing; watching us. But, like you said, it was all so very polite and civilized so they won’t have anything interesting to report. Now, let’s go to Ronda.”

Ronda was the small town on the way to Castle Korstull and which had been recommended to us if we wanted to purchase horses.

As we travelled through this new land of Sindaire, I looked around me with interest. It was flat, green and looked very fertile, although there was a surprising amount of trees growing throughout this landscape. As it was such flat country, we felt a little more secure since it was easy to see people or creatures approaching from a distance but thankfully, we managed to get to Ronda without any incidents.

The village was little different than various other farming villages we had seen in other lands; the whole settlement revolved around agriculture, depending on the produce of the farms around it and in turn they used it as a fulcrum for their activities in buying and selling. The only difference between Ronda and a village of the same type in Dassen for example, was that there were more halflings and gnomes to be seen amongst the inhabitants. Remarkably, even the houses looked similar.

People looked at us with interest; I suspected that strangers were unusual in these parts. We asked guidance to a livery, if there was one here; there was one indeed and finding it in a place of this size was not so difficult. The liveryman emerged from a building with the requisite sign:

“Good day sirs. May I help you?”

He was human and fairly garrulous. We did not bargain too hard for the horses and once our business was done, he said:

“If you don’t mind me saying so sirs, you have the look of those that go to the Castle.”

We just stared at him.

He continued: “Well, maybe you are and maybe you’re not but just in case, there’s a lot of Ragesians around there.” His face twisted as he said the name Ragesians. “They patrol the land near the castle; think they own it. They cause all sorts of trouble in Gathin.”

Then he muttered almost inaudibly: “I wish we could kick them all out!”

We had also heard of Gathin. That was the nearest town to the Castle just under a day’s travel from there. It was supposedly a couple of days travel on horseback from here.

We still looked at the liveryman. We were not going to say anything to a complete stranger, especially not here. Politely, though, we thanked him and mounted.

We rode away and as we travelled out of the town, I said:

“I don’t want to go to Gathin.”

Longhelim looked at me with an unspoken question on his face.

“Well, think about it. If the Ragesians patrol the area rigorously and it is the only settlement around, they are bound to have spies in there. I realize that it will not be long before they realize that someone has entered the firestorm but there’s no need for us to make the job easier for them.”

John then added: “The Masters said that their encampment is to the East of the storm. We could come from the West.”

Drudge shook his head: “That would add days to our journey and we wouldn’t gain much anyway. From what the liveryman was saying, they patrol widely. I agree that we should avoid Gathin though. We don’t need to go through it and the less people see us the better I think.”

Longhelim just nodded and we kept riding.

The trip took us about two days. We did avoid Gathin but we knew we approached the Castle as we began to smell the fire; sulfur and that peculiar burning smell. I remembered it from the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. Once one has smelt it, one cannot mistake it. It is the smell of hungry flame. Even if we hadn’t smelled it, we could see a crimson glow in the distance; after the Fire Forest, there was no mistaking that sight either.

We camped that night, with the knowledge that we were about to attempt the impossible; pass through the firestorm, recover the Torch and then make sure to keep it out of the hands of an army of Ragesians who surrounded the area numbering in the hundreds if not the thousands; oh, and get to the Resistance with it.

We discussed which magic to take. I said to Felix:

“There was talk of many undead there; please bear that in mind.”

The priest frowned: “Undead? Where did you hear that? I don’t remember anything like that.”

I took out my accounts and flipped through them: “Ah, yes, there. Cranston Snord, the gnomish representative of Sindaire to the Council of Seaquen. When he first told the Council about the location of the Torch, he also spoke of the Firestorm of stories of the dead walking the land.”

The priest took my journal and read it through. Then he nodded.

Soon after, it was time to go to sleep. Just as we were settling down, the first watch shook us quietly. It was not even full darkness yet; in the distance, we could see a group of mounted figures, together with a huge dog-like creature. We recognized them immediately as Ragesians. The dog was most likely to be a hell hound; they seemed to have an interminable pack of those things.

I spoke quietly to Longhelim:

“Do we talk?”

He shook his head.

“No point. It’s only going to finish one way. We may as well take advantage of the distance.”

I replied: “Good! There’s a new spell I want to try out anyway; although they have to be a bit closer.”

The mounted group rode briskly towards us and as they reached my maximum range, suddenly a green cloud appeared on top of a large part of the patrol. Four of them dropped. Two others rode through it but they were retching; effective spell.

Drudge in the meantime, was doing some target practice. One of the figures was obviously in full plate mail and he was the ranger’s designated target; using his own skills, Drudge aimed into the sky, three arrows flew and his target, at an impossible range, almost fell off its horse. I could barely see the enemy at that distance; he was aiming at individual figures.

There was shout and the riders split, obviously well experienced or even trained in avoiding magical spells. Simultaneously, the dog which I had thought was a hell hound, charged towards us at full pelt. As it approached, I had to revise my initial assessment; the thing was the size of a draught horse! It was also wearing chainmail; that was an unpleasant innovation.

The Ragesian group was divided into three distinct types; the heavily armoured riders, whom I recognized from earlier battles as knights; these were expert riders, used as heavy cavalry and I saw them handling large crossbows while guiding their horses effortlessly with their knees; I wouldn’t even begin to guess how they did that; then there were normal soldiers; these wielded short bows and did not seem quite as expert with them; then, there was the final figure, their leader; he looked human as he charged forward but then suddenly he just disappeared! Somehow he had turned invisible!

We couldn’t worry too much about that now as the huge hound had arrived to be confronted by Victor and Longhelim; both warriors were only in their night attire, or light chain shirts and therefore were far more vulnerable than normal.

I stopped paying that much attention at this point though as several of the knights were targeting me with their crossbows; of course they hit me; I was an easy target and I had just incanted one of my most powerful spells on their cohorts causing four of their number to perish; they were not happy; even more worrying was that the bolts they were using were very nasty; I wasn’t sure just what they were but they seemed to go right through me; literally. For this reason, as soon as the opportunity arose, I made myself invisible and moved away. I noticed that the hound began to sniff immediately but in the surrounding air so heavy with sulfur and the general stink of burning, it was difficult to discern one clean dwarf, thankfully. So, the dog, with a growl, bit Victor instead.

The warrior was not impressed and slashed the dog back immediately but he was not nearly as impressive as Longhelim. With a cry of “For the glory of Heironeous”, the paladin invoked a power and he almost glowed. Whatever he did, he hit the dog and caused a massive wound in its leg. The dog yelped and whipped around, snarling at his new foe.

The crossbowmen, in the meantime, had also found a new target: Drudge. In normal circumstances, I would have backed our archer even against three of them without any qualms but then Drudge began to turn his head wildly and then was struck by an unseen foe; in other words the invisible leader had joined the battlefield! More worryingly, the leader stayed invisible! Simultaneously, I noticed that the bolts that had struck the ranger, embedded themselves so deeply that I suspected that they were having the same powerful effect they had had on me.

I realised that we had to begin to thin out the enemy as quickly as possible; with being caught asleep, our warriors were unarmoured and vulnerable. Therefore, I did my spell of speed; it was always useful and helped the whole group; John by this point had also turned invisible and must have been healing Drudge, who was taking dreadful punishment; Felix had cast a spell which bolstered all of us and then incanted another which made a stone wall appear around Drudge, John and himself; hopefully that would hinder the striking capability of the invisible commander; or so I thought.

Then there was an agonized shout from Drudge:

“Faden that invisible….ugh…….”

He had obviously been hit again and I cast the spell which allowed me to see the invisible; and yes, there he was, the commander, close to his dog, and stabbing with a lance from horseback; he was very good with it.

Longhelim was still fighting the dog and using his strange holy power, making the dog withdraw with his might. Victor was also hitting the canine although he seemed to be going through his periodic balance loss as he was missing just as often as he was hitting; then… yes…..there he managed one of his mighty strikes and the dog retreated from both the warriors. I saw the commander raise his lance for another strike when two bolts shot and struck Drudge; the lancer quickly followed by his own strike and Drudge fell to the ground, in flames; the lancer then switched targets and hit Longhelim, causing the paladin to grunt and cast a glance in my direction. Then he stopped momentarily and clasped himself around the waist; his hands glowed and some of his wounds closed.

I already knew what I was going to do: incanting a spell, I caused a cloud of golden dust and motes to appear around the lancer. Unfortunately, Felix was caught in it as well, but he just shrugged it off; most importantly, the lancer appeared; as he did, Victor slashed the hound and for once found his balance. His strike felled the hound and in one smooth movement, he pivoted and struck the lancer at the same time; then with the speed given to him by my spell, he struck him at least twice more.

One of the soldiers rode in and attacked Longhelim with an axe. The paladin ignored him and then struck the lancer who finally fell. Victor stepped up and hit the soldier who also fell. This was enough for the rest of the Ragesians. They had lost their commander and their pet as well as several of the knights and soldiers. The others then decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Most of them were able to get away; we were on foot and they were on horses; we were also in no great shape to continue the fight with the warriors in their light armour and Longhelim badly wounded. Drudge had just been brought around but he was spitting mad. I managed to trap two of the knights in my spell of fog which obscured vision and severely restricted movement; this gave us a little grace while healing was being administered. Then I cast my ball of fire at the area. This had the effect of removing the fog and as soon as that happened, both knights rode as if all the devils from the different hells were after them; in different directions.

Drudge was not to be denied though. Drawing a deep breath, he first managed one shot as he moved into position and hit one fleeing knight; then, gathering himself while the knight rode into the distance, he aimed his bow high, seemed to wait for an age and as the knight reached slightly higher ground, fired three arrows with amazing speed. One of them struck the target at an almost impossible distance, causing him to topple from his saddle.

Unfortunately, there was no way we were going to be able to catch any of the others so the Ragesians were now aware of our presence; this was no great disaster; this was going to happen fairly quickly anyway but unfortunately, the survivors of this patrol would be able to give them an idea of our capability; as well as our location at this moment. It was with this in mind that we quickly gathered whatever spoils of war were possible and moved some distance to another camp. There we examined our little haul briefly and I found several crossbow bolts with coloured tags; they must have been made especially for the knights and magically enhanced; that was why they hurt so much when they hit their target. I rubbed my chest, remembering when one of them was fired at me earlier.

We spent the rest of the night undisturbed and in the morning, we began to prepare our spells, knowing the in a few hours time, we would be in Castle Korstull, last resting place of Emperor Drakus Coaltongue.

Apologies but there will be a brief hiatus at this point while actual play catches up with the SH.

Cafu said:

Apologies but there will be a brief hiatus at this point while actual play catches up with the SH.

Click to expand...

You've earned yourself a break, man! The regularity of your posts continues to be astonishing.

By the way, is this still adventure 4 or has the group already begun adventure 5?
I am not that familiar with the AP, but from your description it appears to be purely awesome!

Thanks. Hopefully normal service will be resumed once we manage to sort out a few details which I will not go into as they could be classified as spoilers; or they could sort out us!

As for the adventure number, I am not sure. The GM doesn't always tell me when we have finished one book and started another. However, we are Level 10 at this time so I think we should be about half way through the AP. From what I remember, the AP is twelve books in total so we may be at the end of Book 5 or beginning of Book 6.

Oh, and if you get the chance to play the AP, I recommend it.

Both Felix and I, with input from John, carefully discussed what spells we were planning to take and why; once that was decided, we prepared them and then mounted and set out.

As we approached the fire storm, the view became even more spectacular but in an intimidating way. Little dust clouds of ash began to be disturbed by our horses as we rode; the impossible wall of flame became brighter and hotter, reaching high up into the sky; droplets of liquid fire erupted continuously along its length, splashing up, up into the air before raining down. Looking at these, we realised that we would have to be very careful as even one of these small splashes could deliver a bad burn.

Finally, we reached a point where we felt that travelling any further without some sort of protection would entail too much risk. Reverently, I took out the magical orb provided by the Masters of the Monastery of the Two winds and activated it in the manner instructed. Immediately, a glistening, semi transparent sphere, centered on the orb, appeared around us; thus protected, we advanced slowly and the fiery rain began bouncing off this sphere; then, as if from a great distance, we began to hear the roaring of mighty winds rising; so, the monks had really done something. The horses rolled their eyes and looked frightened at both the flames and the winds but we were able to coax them gently forward.

Tentatively, we approached the flaming wall and saw the magical sphere force a gap. We were forming our own personal gateway through the firestorm! The rain of fire was still falling onto the barrier but we began to see the flames abate and be blown backwards by the winds; and these were still rising in strength. Suddenly, Victor, at the front, cursed as his horse stumbled but managed to scramble back as a fissure opened in the path just in front of it; thankfully, the warrior also managed to stay in the saddle rather than taking a swan dive into a pool of lava.

This served to warn us that there were other hazards apart from the flames. Drudge immediately went forward and began to look carefully at the ground in front of us, trying to gauge a safe path. As we advanced, there were several times when the ranger told us to stop and we changed our path as more of these fissures opened and closed around us. This was further complicated by having to avoid puddles of liquid fire which had collected from the fiery rain. All in all, it was certainly not a straight path and much harder going than the Fire Forest. Thankfully, we still had our protection against the heat, providing we did not get touched by the flame directly.

Finally we managed to traverse the section of unsafe ground. Safely past this hazard, we were able to take a closer look at the landscape around us; we could see that amazingly, the flames were being slowly driven away by the unremitting strength of the howling winds from the Orb. They were not only giving us a safer passage but also a view of what was in the distance.

Further forward, another fiery glow became apparent in the far distance; this looked to be the centre of the storm. We could not be sure just what was causing the glow at this point but we moved in that direction. It was an eerie ride; we were still surrounded by the barrier from the Orb, the winds had driven the flames away from our vicinity and there was ash everywhere, also stirred into vast clouds by the winds; there was no sign of life anywhere, the air stank of sulfur despite the wind.

The distance to the glow of the central point shortened as we approached it and soon became even brighter and taller than the perimeter of the storm; it took us several more hours to ride close enough to see just what this phenomenon was, but once we did, we had to stop for a moment just to comprehend what we were staring at:

A huge pillar of flame rose spectacularly hundreds if not thousands of feet into the sky. It looked like something from the elemental plane of fire; I had seen columns similar to this under the steam tunnels of Seaquen, while searching for a mad magician; yet there, I had been looking at the plane as if from a great distance high above; this was far closer. This pillar rose from the top of an outcropping of harsh, gray stone. It was the centre of the firestorm so it was very likely that Castle Korstull was at the top or within this outcropping. Carefully, we moved closer and it was not long before we saw a crevice or crack into the gray rock; well, the term crack was relative; it could easily accommodate two or three horses riding abreast.

When we rode up to the entrance, I looked up in awe; the rock face on each side of the crevice rose up hundreds of feet; it was impossible to see the top.

As I was looking up, I realised that Victor and Longhelim had stopped and were whispering to each other. I rode up behind them:

“…….about as good ambush spots as you’re likely to get.”

Longhelim concentrated for a moment: “I can’t feel any evil inside.”

Victor snorted. “Looking at the size of that place, frankly I would be stunned if you could.”

Longhelim mused: “There can’t be anyone there. They would have been burnt to death by now, surely.”

I joined the conversation at this point: “Remember what Cranston Snord said? About the dead walking the land? Felix will probably confirm this but I am sure that there are undead around who have no fear of fire. I mean, we met several of them in the Fire Forest already.”

The paladin grimaced: “Thanks, Faden; I had hoped to forget that place.”

Victor looked a little pained and gestured to his waist: “Longhelim, I’m carrying the Living Blade of Innenotdar, remember? - That place – as you call it - is always going to be with us.”

John spoke up at this point: “Right, so are we going in there or are we just going stand here and talk about it?”

Victor straightened in the saddle: “Yes, I suppose so. I’ll take point.”

So, we formed up again and began to ride through the crack, slowly, tense and alert. It was a good thing I was used to tunnels as this was the closest thing to a tunnel on the surface I had ever come across. The walls rose on either side of us endlessly and there was no sign of an exit as we travelled on. The entrance was quickly lost from sight.

Fairly quickly, we began to spot arrow slits up on sections of the walls; these were obviously defensive positions. I shuddered to think how an enemy would be able to assault the castle if the only entrance was this winding tunnel with various defensive positions high up on the walls. Unless the enemy would be able to fly, then it would have been impossible; then I remembered the enemy had dragons.

Suddenly, Victor stopped and help up his hand. Immediately, we stopped as well. He took off his helmet and turned his head, as if trying to hear something. The earring that had been a gift of the monks, glistened for a moment. He waited until we rode to his side and then he whispered:

“I think I can hear some moaning; and something scraping on stone.”

We all strained to listen as well but no one else could hear anything. Then Longhelim said:

“I can just about reach the arrow slits with my power, but I can’t sense any evil in there.”

We watched for a few more moments but with nothing appearing, we moved on, taking even more care.

Some time later, in the distance, we saw some figures on the ground. Approaching with great caution, we saw that these figures were skeletons. What was surprising was that they were all well armoured; Felix softly called for us to halt for a moment as he jumped off his horse and approached several of them; we all tensed, expecting some if not all to rise but thankfully that did not happen. Felix returned:

“There are cuts and blows on those skeletons which happened after they were dead; those cuts are also quite recent.”

“Interesting,” murmured Longhelim.

Then we carried on for a short distance until we came to another bend in the path. As we cautiously came around it, several things became apparent. I wasn’t quite sure what to gape at the most.

We had finally arrived in the central space of the huge stone outcropping and faced a large open space; beyond it, in the centre of the far wall was a huge, hideous structure: the skull of a bear carved into the face of the rock; it was enormous; the road upon which we travelled was easily discernible through the open ground and led straight into its maw. Above the sculpture, the wall rose and began to be covered by a curtain of flame. This curtain intensified until it became a fiery column shooting hundreds of feet high into the sky. Bolts of black flame danced around the flame.

This was the titanic column of fire we had seen from the distance.

The flames seemed to dance upon the rock, eddying, moving and changing in shape and structure. At one point, they seemed to part and reveal another structure above the bear’s skull; a black window in the rock face became visible and I felt as if something or someone of great malevolence was watching us from there. A sense of foreboding came upon me.

The whole area surrounding the Bear Skull was obviously a killing field. There was a myriad of bones scattered about, together with weapons, bits of armour, the remains of siege engines and several steel cages. In the middle of this area, we were shocked to see a group of gnomes and halflings with several wagons; they looked just as shocked to see us.

As we were still taking in these sights, a black bolt crashed into the ground sending up a cloud of debris of bones and other remains; as it settled down, however, this was all superseded by the sight of lots and lots of bones assembling and becoming skeletons which immediately arraigned themselves in ranks; two ranks of five to be exact. They were still in their partly ruined armour and armed with swords and crossbows; their eyes bled tears of fire and their jaws clacked together in a way that would have been comical if it hadn’t been so frightening.

One other skeleton formed, some sort of commander. Judging from the tusks he sported, he must have been an orc when live. Now, he was surrounded by a nimbus of flame and, like the others, bled tears of fire from his eyes. He immediately began to act as if he was in charge, pointing his axe at us and emitting a harsh and guttural cry.

Glancing further forward, I could see that several more ranks of skeletons were forming and these immediately began to advance towards the halflings.

We were still on the road between the walls of the escarpment road at this point; one of the steel cages blocked our way into the open ground, but this did not stop the skeletons rushing towards us. They just squeezed through the partly destroyed bars. As we moved forward, I could also feel a strange atmosphere from the field; it was as if the barrier between the prime material plane and two other planes was weak here; the two other planes were the negative plane and the plane of fire; not surprising considering what we were facing; undead who bled tears of flame.

Two of the skeletons assaulted the warriors, rushing towards them and flinging bolts of black flame from their hands. Amazingly, both Victor and Longhelim managed to dodge these quite nimbly considering their armour. The other skeletons were firing the crossbows but thankfully with little success. The commander gave us a very nasty surprise as he cast a spell and a wall of flame appeared behind us. This was problematic as we were in close proximity to it but hemmed in by the skeletons at the same time.

Victor struck one of them several times and the thing crumpled into shattered bones so they were not actually very tough but they were still extremely dangerous, not least because there were ten of them. Several more rushed to the attack. Longhelim and Victor were hewing mightily although their weapons were not affecting them as much as they could have been. Drudge was shooting his arrows into them although he was being overwhelmed by sheer numbers, and to be blunt, arrows were not the most effective of weapons against skeletons. I quickly cast my spell of speed and then watched in dismay as Felix tried to cast a spell but it was disrupted by his cry of pain as he was caught by part of the wall of flame licking out. Unfortunately it set a part of his clothing on fire. The commander then put another wall of flame on top of our front rank of Victor, Longhelim and John, who had rushed forward to form a line against the skeletons.

Quickly, I moved forward and realised what had to be done. The wall of flame seemed to be even more intense than usual and our warriors could not stay there for long. So I stuck my hand into it, concentrating against the pain and put my spell of fire protection on Longhelim, who was closest to me. A few moments later, Felix did the same for Victor. The warriors were now protected against the flames and could stay against in the wall if necessary. Unfortunately, Felix and I were not.

The skeletons then showed another interesting power. They were able to walk on the flame as if it was air; thus they were able to put ranks of warriors above those on the ground to face Victor and Longhelim. This was going to be a very formidable fight.

At this point, it became a little more difficult for me to keep upright; the commander skeleton moved through his wall of flame and cast another parallel to it, but this time through the space where Felix, John and I were standing; that was the last thing I remembered until I found myself waking up next to the roaring wall of flame. Those blasted skeletons were still walking all over it; I couldn’t see Longhelim anywhere although everyone else was around. I could see that Felix had just finished casting a spell, which had brought me back to consciousness although I was still very weak. John skipped next to me and used his wand, which made me feel a little better. The orc skeleton was still visible and Victor charged towards him. He managed one hefty strike even though his weapon did not seem to penetrate as deeply as usual. Annoyingly, the smaller skeletons were also still around. The orc skeleton then disappeared beyond the wall but we could hear sounds of combat beyond it, so we assumed that it must have been fighting with Longhelim. This was the proved as Victor plunged into the flame and managed to drag an unconscious Longhelim back to our side of the wall.

I had to crawl away from the wall of flame to my front, which of course brought me closer to the other one at my rear again and they both burned me. I stood up and gritting my teeth against the burning, I cast spell last remaining spell which protected me from the fire. Aaah, thank the gods! We were still in danger but not being continually burned was a blessed relief. The situation was then improved immensely as Felix summoned his power, brandished his holy symbol and the five remaining skeletons exploded into sherds. It was very impressive. Suddenly, the orc skeleton became visible again, this time looming above us, on top of the wall of flame; I could have sworn he was grinning malevolently at us, although that could have been my imagination. We couldn’t reach him but we could see that many of the nicks and gashes on his bones were closing due to his immersion in the fire. Rapidly, I ran to Victor and cast a spell on him; it allowed him to fly.

Nothing loth, Victor flew up there and began to swing. He missed several times but he also connected and it was one of those unearthly blows which finally shattered that skeleton. Immediately, the walls of flame disappeared.

Drudge was there, unharmed. He had obviously had his own battles. Beyond, was also the cage with the hot steel bars as well as the mysterious group of gnomes and halflings. Now that the battle was over, Drudge and Longhelim joined us and John began to heal everyone with his wand. Once that had been done, Victor took out his hammer, Kiano and smashed the bars. Then, we cautiously approached the other group, who watched us with equal care.

I counted four gnomes and four halflings; several of them were obviously retainers but one of the more interesting figures stepped forward. She was wearing a short hooded cloak and looked at us with bright, curious eyes:

“Well met! I’m Jorine Wareye of Clan Millorn and these are Grellfin Flintflindercandle and Oller Pennyteller.”

The first person she pointed out was a halfling who loomed almost freakily over his whole group. He wore heavy armour and his shield bore a symbol which identified him as a follower of Heironeous, Longhelim’s god; I wasn’t sure but he was probably another paladin; the other looked like a thief, notably by the large amount of lockpicks, pouches and little tools spread over his clothing.

She continued:

“These others are retainers and cohorts: Kalelia, Rendles, Reuben, Verane, Ernest and Zooten.”

We introduced ourselves and then I asked:

“Excuse us, but what are you doing here? I am sure you know just how dangerous this place is. No, something else first: how did you get here? It’s supposed to be impossible to get through the Firestorm. There’s a sizeable Ragesian army out there who have been trying to do exactly that for months. I mean, good for you and your ingenuity in doing the impossible but still……”

Jorine smiled proudly:

“We’re treasure hunters! There’s a fortune in there just waiting to be picked up! Think of it! The last known palace of the Emperor! The spoils of his conquests will be in there! The riches of the world! The treasure vault will be enormous! And to top it all off, there is the Torch of the Burning Sky! We have a person who is very interested in buying that!”

I was finding it difficult to believe all this; yet in a way it did make perfect sense. There should be a huge treasure vault in this place; but I was still completely in the dark as to how they managed to get here!

John interjected at this point:

“Look, I am sorry but the Torch must go to the Resistance! The fate of several countries depends on this.”

A crafty look appeared on the gnome’s face:

“Well, if we give you a clear run to the Torch, we get to keep ninety per cent of anything else we find in the treasure vaults.”

I sputtered: “Ninety percent? Are you mad? Fifty fifty!”

Only to be followed immediately by John with:

“Done!”

I turned on him, muttering:

“John, what are you doing?”

He shook his head at me:

“Faden, get your priorities right. We’re here for the Torch. Nothing else.”

Longhelim joined in at this point:

“Yes, we accept your deal.”

Jorine grinned and nodded. Then she said:

“Look at our wagon. See how it’s been treated? That red coating is alchemical and protected us from the fire storm. It cost a pretty penny, let me tell you but it will be worth it as soon as we get to the vaults.”

I just shook my head, finding it difficult to believe that it was that simple but I couldn’t argue with their presence in front of my eyes. Then another thought struck me! If it ever became known to the Ragesian high command that a group of Sindarian gnome treasure hunters managed to get this treatment for their wagons and penetrated the firestorm, then heads would roll, literally. Someone really wasn’t doing their alchemical research properly.

Jorine continued:

“We’ll separate. That way we can cover more ground. Don’t forget our deal now!”

Then she returned to her group:

“Oller, check the entrance.”

As I mentioned previously, the path on which we had been travelling actually led into the maw of the bear; but there were also a pair of double doors at the back of the maw, barring the way into the interior.

While the locksmith was checking this doorway, we did a little cantrip on the equipment worn by the orc skeleton; both his armour and shield were spiked and magical; his axe was also magical. It all went into Victor’s magical bag. By this point Oller announced that the entrance was safe and both groups approached the entrance, into the bear’s jaws, metaphorically of course.

Just as we were about to enter into the complex, something in me rebelled; maybe it was my mercantile background or just being a dwarf but I approached John:

“Are you sure about this deal? Ninety to ten? I realize we are only here for the Torch but…..they’re obviously not. Also, what happens if the Torch isn’t actually here?”

“Look Faden, we’re here for the Torch and nothing else; but, if you want to try to re-negotiate the deal, then go ahead; just make sure you don’t antagonize them; I suspect we’ll have enough enemy inside to keep us more than busy.”

Longhelim had also approached us and had overheard the conversation. He nodded but as I approached the gnomes, I noticed that he kept quite close to me.

The three gnomes were talking quietly together.

“…….right, we will go right and clear the place out. There’s supposed to be a lift to the upper stories so let’s make sure to keep an eye out for that. Now, these are the spells I have available…….”

She stopped when she saw me approaching.

“Yes…… Faden, isn’t it?”

“Yes, my name is Faden; Jorine, I have a couple of requests. I am collating accounts of what we are doing for posterity and of course, I will include you in them, unless you specifically forbid me to do so; also, I am fascinated by your alchemically treated wagons. I hadn’t realised it was possible to do that to a wagon so it could travel through fire like that; may I take a sample of the formula? Finally, I would like to re-visit the deal we made. I realize that we said yes initially, but I would like to propose an eighty twenty share with exclusive rights to the Torch if it is here; otherwise, sixty forty in your favour if the Torch is not here.”

She looked at me closely and then whispered with her companions briefly.

“Generally a deal is a deal but in view that the arrangement you offer is more detailed and takes into account circumstances as to what would happen if we cannot find the Torch, then we accept your offer. As for the sample, well, possibly, but let’s leave that until the end shall we?”

I still wasn’t happy with the deal but I had been negotiating from a position of weakness as John had accepted the previous deal on our behalf; still eighty twenty plus the Torch was a better deal than ninety ten and we had clarified the position if the Torch was not around.

Once we had finished, I returned to the others. Longhelim was already there; he had gone back as soon as he realised that the gnomes were going to the civilized about this. I arrived just as I heard Victor asking:

“Felix, do you have that spell that allows us to be immune to paralyzing magic; you know, the one that also stops us from being grabbed by huge creatures?”

The priest replied:

“Yes, I have two of those; I will put them on both you and Longhelim.”

Finally, I put up the spell the allowed me to see beings that had made themselves invisible and then we were ready. Various other spells were still working, such as the defences against fire and the spell that allowed Victor to fly so the quicker we managed the better.

The doors in the maw of the giant bear skull were opened, revealing a large chamber. Opposite our entrance doors, on the far wall, a small tunnel led to a small, dark door. It was difficult to tell what it was made out of as the only light at this point was the flickering red from the flames outside. We lit some torches and our attention was immediately captured by the walls. These were covered in elaborate murals depicting military scenes. I couldn’t tell from this distance, but usually they celebrated glorious moments from someone’s military history. There were also two large statues of female goddesses standing on top of a pile of bear and dragon skulls; each was wielding a sword. The statues were made of sandstone while the swords were made of marble with red veins and they were flanking the small tunnel which led to the door. I assumed they were some sort of guardian deities; they looked very menacing. Finally the floor was strewn with the ubiquitous layers of bones.

The whole area gave me a creepy feeling; it was almost certain that those bones were going to rise to form skeletons again; the main question was; what kind of skeletons? No matter what my concerns were though, we had to go on. So, John and Oller Pennyteller from the Clan, carefully stalked into the room. Oller edged his way along the left wall while John carefully took a more central path, directly towards the door. He was checking each flagstone very carefully and everything was going well until he reached a point just adjacent to the stone statues, coincidentally at the entrance of the little hallway leading to the silver door.

As soon as he reached there, he must have tripped some hidden magic as the bones immediately began forming into skeletons and the two stone statues began to move, extricating themselves out of their small hill of dragon and bear skulls and striding towards our collective, swords swinging ominously.

As they advanced towards us so smoothly, something began to nag at the back of my mind: stone statues, the movement and suddenly I realised:

“Victor, Longhelim, those are constructs! Stone golems! Very strong, difficult to hurt and impervious to almost all magic! Be very, very careful!”

Both Victor and Longhelim were at the front and the former spared me a glance and nodded. Then they both stepped into the room. They were quickly followed by Grellfin Flintflindercandle, the gnome paladin and several of the halflings. As soon as I finished calling out to the others, I moved into the hallway myself just in time to see a horde of skeletons swarming the front of the group. There were at least two dozen of them but several quickly burst into sherds from the power of Grellfin, who brandished his holy symbol at them. He had the same powers as Felix and Longhelim. While getting rid of the skeletons was useful, the major danger were the golems and Victor moved quickly to confront one while Grellfin moved to block the other before they reached the less combat orientated members of the group.

Victor strode past two skeletons which he dropped with a pair of swift swings and then began to fence his sword in that strange manner which seemed to weave a defensive shield in front of him. The golem swung her marble sword at him but it was parried with heavy clanks of the supernatural wood from the Forest of Innenotdar.

John had scampered back to the safety of the near wall but he was still embroiled with a couple of skeletons until they exploded into sherds again. This time it was Longhelim who sent them back into whatever hells they had come from. His ability was a little stronger than Grellfinn’s so there were no more of them after he brandished his symbol. Then he strode forward to join Grellfinn and confront the other golem; unfortunately, the gnome did not seem to be as expert in defence as Victor for the golem struck him heavily a couple of times and he was visibly staggered, with blood pouring out of deep wounds made by the stone sword. To add insult to injury, it had also breathed a nasty noxious substance from its mouth which made its attackers move at a much slower pace. This did not affect Longhelim due to Felix’s magic but it certainly did affect Grellfiin, who desperately tried to scramble out of the way.

I did have one piece of magic that could work against golems; although they were incredibly tough and impervious to all magic cast directly against them, they were susceptible to spells which did not affect them directly. So, I cast a little piece of magic on the floor beneath the feet of the golem facing Grellfinn; I made it slippery, like ice. Golems were known for many things but physical dexterity was not one of them. At first, nothing seemed to happen but then the statue attempted to move and its feet slipped, sending it crashing to the ground. This gave the two paladins a much greater chance of striking it as well as curtailing its own offensive capability.

Drudge had moved to the far side of the room and was firing arrows relentlessly at the golems but unfortunately, most of them bounced off although the cold of his arrows seemed to be leaving a series of white frozen patches on it.

At that point, Jorine cast a speed spell which countered the golem’s gas effect as well as affecting Longhelim and Victor. The latter was methodically demolishing his opponent while weaving his defence; his blows were chipping off great chunks from the surface of the statue. John had bravely leaped to the other side of the enemy, thus distracting it and allowed Victor to aim his blows even more accurately. The statue was finding it difficult to concentrate on both enemies. A couple of Clan Millorn halflings had also courageously stepped up to Victor and were helping him! Brave souls indeed!

The other statue was still on ground, making little attempt to get up but still striking at Grellfin while prone. The paladin was not very good at dodging blows. Felix had to move over to heal him several times. Then I saw that the golem had breathed the slowing gas again so I had to cast my remaining speed spell to counteract its effects.

Finally, there was a shattering sound as Victor struck a final blow against this enemy and it crumbled into sandstone; without wasting a moment, he moved to the other. By this stage, it was also looking very chipped and with a combination of blows from everyone it finally crumbled.

The atmosphere became far more relaxed. The two groups had shared a victory at arms and that crossed many barriers. We healed everyone and then prepared to go deeper into the castle via the dark door.

As we looked at it, initially, I thought it was iron, judging by the colour but I was staggered to see that that it was actually a deep brown; there was only one metal that was deep brown: Adamantine, the hardest and rarest of all metals. Dwarven merchants travelled hundreds of miles and waited years to find or trade a small bar of the stuff and here was a whole door made out of it! I determined that if possible, I would find a way to get this door out of here and take it with us. I didn’t mention it to the others though, as I could just imagine Longhelim’s answer to that. I did see the gnomes looking at this door with the same awe as I; obviously, they recognized it as well.

John went forward and checked to see if the door was trapped; then he attempted to pick the lock and after some time, he gave up.

“This lock……..I’m not sure but however it’s made, it’s beyond my expertise.”

Oller went forward and began to pick the lock; as with John, it took him some time; he swore a lot when things were not going well. I didn’t know gnomes had such a colourful vocabulary. Jorine had the grace to look a little abashed and whispered to Longhelim:

“The words…..they help him concentrate……really.”

Finally, Oller stepped back:

“Right, you son of a…….” then he seemed to realize just who was watching him and he verbally retreated:

“Ah, I mean, it’s open now, ready.”

Victor replaced Oller and began to push the doors. They refused to budge. Then I saw him begin to strain further; still they refused to budge. Finally, he put his sword away and gave it his all; the doors finally swung open. There were some snapping noises as they did so and when I glanced into the room, I could all see some strange mechanism that had been attached to them; unfortunately, it was now broken.

It was difficult to say what was beyond initially, except that something was happening there, since there were eerie flashes of some sort from beyond; John sent in his invisible friend with a torch, flying around. It revealed a room; actually it was some sort of reception hall really; hugely impressive.

The flashes of light drew the eye first; they were ribbons of flame that appeared randomly in mid air. I wasn’t even sure what sort of magic that was; in fact I had almost given up in trying to work out what sort of magic was doing what in this place; it was all new. In an odd way, I was enjoying the experience of seeing what was possible if enough power was available.

The combination of the torch and the ribbons of lit up the ceiling, which showed a huge mural of a bear chasing enemies in the countryside; obviously another allegory and further confirmation of the Sindarian obsession with all things ursine. Stains, like dried blood seemed to have fallen on the floor from this mural.

Apart from that, we the other major feature of the room were the doors. A quick survey revealed four pairs of double doors: one each on the left and right walls while the wall facing us had one pair on the floor level and another pair above; two sets of steps running along from the ground on the far wall led to a balcony just in front of the upper pair of doors.

Jorine turned to us and whispered:

“Right: as we discussed, we’ll go right, you go left. Let’s make sure we clear this level before going up to the next one. Good luck!”

With those words, she and her group moved south. They were all remarkably quiet, even the paladin in heavy armour. They were obviously relying on stealth, unlike us.

We moved to the left.

The door was unlocked, so Victor pushed and it swung open. John then sent his invisible friend with a torch. The most immediate impression was of a large amount of beds, bunks to be exact. It looked like a barracks of some sort; there was also a myriad of skeletons, lying as if they had been killed where they stood; and they had been fighting. John’s torch bearer flew around for some moments but we could see little else apart from a door on the wall to our left. It was just on the edge of the reach of John’s light.

So, carefully, we entered into the room. As soon as that happened, I began to hear a noise I already recognized: a rustling sound followed by a strange clacking, as if pieces of wood were being fitted together; or bones in this case. Yes, bones were rising from the ground and forming into skeletons again. Everyone else recognized it for what it was and made ready although we could see little into the darkness. Suddenly, another wall of flame appeared behind us, cutting off Drudge and John who were in the main foyer at this point. Everyone else was already in the room with the bunks. Then the skeletons began to rush at us mindlessly; only to be met with Felix’s holy power. There were a whole series of small bursts of bone shards as skeleton after skeleton was destroyed. I lost count how many of them Felix blew up but ultimately, it left four of the orc skeletons. Along with their ability to create the walls of flame, these were a tougher proposition; another of those blasted walls appeared on top of us; it was getting very tiresome; thankfully, most of us were still protected from being burnt at this point.

The four more powerful skeletons rushed us and they even managed to reach the warriors to engage in a flurry of axe strokes until Felix managed to use his holy power again, forcing them to retreat. He had to do it several times to make sure that they were all affected: three of them ran down the entrance foyer, all the way to the other end; another ran into the darkness of the barracks, pursued by Longhelim.

Victor and I went after the trio that had run to the far end of the entrance hall. Victor chased them down while he was still flying, so he was much faster than I. They were trapped and cowering, rendered so by Felix’s powers; therefore Victor was able to heave mightily at them with his falchion, not worrying too much about defence. When I finally arrived there, panting from the unaccustomed run, I positioned myself and sent a powerful lightning bolt through two of them. Both Victor and I were very aware that we had to deal with them very quickly otherwise the effects of Felix’s power would dissipate and the skeletons would attack again. Victor had just finished smashing through his main opponent and then continued through to the two others; they had been sufficiently weakened by my lightning bolt that Victor dealt with them very quickly. As soon as he finished, he flew up the room, through the wall of flame, into the barracks room, very aware that Longhelim was also fighting the last of these tougher skeletons.

Thankfully, Felix was also up there, just in case, but Victor managed to fly up there and with one blow smashed the last of them. It had obviously been badly weakened by Longhelim already.

Still ready for more trouble, we searched the room but found little; then I did a little cantrip and found that the armour, axes and shields belonging to the skeletons were magical. I also found a small patch of magic on the ceiling; some sort of trapdoor, tucked away in the upper right corner of the room. The other corner was full of rubble; a cave in. I looked at it, but judged that it would take quite some time to clear it; more trouble that it was worth almost certainly and I sincerely doubted that the Torch was behind the rubble. The final small door that was left almost certainly led to the tunnel which allowed access to the room with the arrow slits looking from the entrance hall. That left the patch of magic on the ceiling.

John looked at Victor:

“Can you give me a boost?”

With that, the rogue climbed on top of Victor’s shoulders and began looking at the patch of magic.

“Yeeesss…..I can just see this. The faint scratching; it’s a glyph, type unknown; that means that it is going to go bang in some way or other……now where does it start and where does it finish….yes, I see…..it’s making sense now.”

With that, the rogue jumped down:

“There’s a magical trap up there. I can see it; getting rid of it is another matter. I’ll have a go but there’s a risk; oh, and I’ll need another boost.”

We all retired to a safe distance while Victor helped John onto his shoulders again. I couldn’t quite tell just what the rogue was doing but it looked as if he was rubbing out the glyph with some sort of abrasive cloth; whatever he did, it worked; after a few moments, he gave the ceiling a little push and the trapdoor that was there revealed a small opening. Victor pushed John further and he slipped in and soon began to call out:

“There’s a whole bunch of weapons up here; for a lot of people and all types; oh, and a glass case; it was trapped; got rid of that; it’s got a horn in it and its magical. Well, it’s ours now; oh, and there’s a magical mace as well. Nice room this.”

John threw down a rope just in case anyone else wanted to come up, which we did; it was fairly much as he described; a small room containing racks upon racks of weapons all around the walls, certainly enough to supply several dozen people. There was also a now empty glass case and John showed us the horn. It was a handsome piece, engraved with runic script and with a golden mouthpiece connected to a fine gold chain which allowed it to be carried over a shoulder. Then he also showed Felix the mace and the priest decided to keep it, just in case.

We finished searching this room and left this part of the Castle. We decided that our next destination was going to be the chapel.

When we returned to the entrance foyer again, there was no sign of Jorine and her clan so we crept up the stairs, towards the chapel entrance. There, we looked at the doors; they were very well crafted, iron bound doors and looked very solid. John immediately went down to the lock and began to fiddle with his tools. As he was doing so, my eye was caught by the arch above the door; what I had thought initially to be gold paint actually looked like gold leaf and worth a pretty penny. I made a mental note to see if we could evacuate that gold as we left.

“There, that’s done! Now, someone please open those doors.”

Victor pushed them but there was no give. He tried a little harder but there was no sign of give to any of them, no matter how hard he tried. So, he took out his hammer, the one looted from the minotaur in the Forbidden Valley, and began to hammer the doors. This weapon was particularly effective against objects so the doors did not last long, although he did create a terrible racket while smashing them into splinters; however we reasoned that we had pretty much lost the element of surprise while we had had the long fight with the skeletons and golems.

When the doors were smashed, the reason for their immovability could be discerned quite quickly; two rods were magically suspended in mid air, obviously supporting the doors. Beyond was a reasonably large hall with a pair of doors in the right corner and a single door to the left, in the middle of the wall. Straight ahead of us was another pair of double doors, not quite closed; soft music, like a hymn, was faintly audible from beyond them.

John went into the room and first went to the two doors to the right; they both opened easily to show a pair of privies. He closed both doors and then walked up to the door on the opposite wall or to our left. That one proved to the locked, so he took out his tools and picked it although it must have been difficult as again, it took a little time. Then he called us over and Victor opened the door again. There were no inconvenient rods to hinder us this time and as it swung open, we saw a corridor in front of us, running left and right.

John again moved into it and quickly turned right; he told us that the left turn was very short and led to a dead end. We waited for a few moments and then he came back:

“The corridor goes right and then turns sharply left; then it ends with a door to the right, at the end. I checked the corridor with my wand and there is also a secret door just where it turns left. The hidden door is on the right wall, opposite to the turn. I came back to get the rest of you; not opening a door on my own; you never know what’s behind it.”

So, we all marched into the narrow corridor, closing the door behind us. The corridor was only just about wide enough for one person. John went first, to the visible door; it was unlocked so his invisible friend opened it, revealing a kitchen. There was some horrible smell coming out of it and there were also two doors inside. We decided to leave that alone; the secret door seemed far more interesting.

John fiddled a little on the wall and then he opened it; just as he did, we all saw a flash of orange light on the walls of the corridor. John whispered quickly:

“That was a flash of fire; as if someone was using transport magic or something of that type.”

Then he slipped inside. We waited outside in the corridor, just in case something decided to return. Then he came out again:

“There are four glass bowls in there; they look like offering bowls; like in a church.”

Longhelim was next to him:

“Well, we are in a chapel.”

At that point, Drudge shouted from the rear:

“There is a block of ice in front of the door.”

I ran back and looked:

“That’s not a block of ice. It’s a wall made of ice: powerful magic; Victor, it can be smashed. Use your hammer!”

Wordlessly, the warrior strode back and, taking out his hammer, swung it against the ice. Even such powerful magic as the wall of ice could not take such punishment for any length of time and it crumbled; however, there was still a frigid layer of air in the place where it had been. It also revealed the caster.

I had been hovering near the doorway, to see what was beyond the wall: a tall humanoid creature, with moist, slimy skin and a horrible, scraggly beard, wielding a huge serrated glaive. We had met one of its friends before, in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar. It was a Bearded Devil, an evil outsider. He wasn’t alone either: there was also a beautiful woman with large feathery wings and glowing red eyes. She was carrying a sword and had a bow. I just managed to cast a spell of force missiles into the bearded devil when Victor shut the door, calling out:

“There’s devils on the other side of the door: woman with wings and sword; Bearded Devil as well!”

The door opened again and another opponent had made an appearance. This one looked like a desiccated human; all of its bones stood out prominently in skin that looked like parchment and it had a tail with a huge stinger at the end. It was also quite a bit larger than anything we had seen so far. It stuck its tail into Victor, who grunted. I could almost feel the poison pumping into him but fortunately, the warrior managed to shake it off.

I recognized it as well, shouting:

“That’s a Bone Devil! This place is full of devils!”

The woman did something with her hand and a rope snaked out towards Victor but did not connect. The warrior then closed the door again. This time, I watched in horror though as one of the bearded devils appeared in the doorway, right in front of Victor. The warrior did not hesitate though, as he smoothly put away the hammer and then in a bright flash of flame, the Living Blade of Innenotdar appeared in his
hand; my eyes widened; that was new; it had certainly not done that before. I made a mental note to ask the warrior about it, but he was a little busy right now. Despite this, though, he set to with a will and began to slash the foe in front of him with fearsome strokes; the bearded devil looked surprised at this ferocity but not for long as he began to get his own back with his glaive.

Suddenly there was a shout from Longhelim:

“More devils up here; Bearded and Bone!”

Just how many devils were there in his hell-damned chapel!

Suddenly, the door opened and a stinger snaked in, hitting Victor in the chest again. The fighter staggered but apart from lots of clear poison oozing around on his armour, he did not seem the worse for this strike; then a viscous, cloying magical miasma appeared in the corridor; it was inimical to all life, some sort of hell born magic which sucked life and poisoned the very air around. All of us in the hallway contorted as it enveloped us but Victor still managed to slash the bearded devil in front of him; it was looking decidedly dejected as it attempted to swing the glaive but it was obvious that it making little headway against the warrior.

There were also sounds of battle from ahead but it was difficult to tell what was happening. Then John shut the door that was open to the woman again and this time he locked it. Unfortunately, that did not stop the bone devil too long as the door was ripped off its hinges and the woman again sent her horrible miasma down the corridor. This time I had to stop her, otherwise she seemed to have the ability to do it endlessly. So, I put a barrier across that wall. It was one of my most powerful spells; it did not last very long, it was invisible and was not that large but for the time that it was up, it was an nigh on indestructible; only very specific magic could bypass or destroy it; not a moment too soon as the bone devil saw Victor and surged forward in a flurry of claws, teeth and stinger, all of which bounced off my spell. The woman narrowed her red eyes and hissed in controlled anger; then she made a motion to the bone devil and they both disappeared in bursts of flame.

As that happened, I shouted:

“I sealed the rear attack point; they’ll be coming from the front!”

Felix and John were taking advantage of the lull in the fighting to cast some much needed healing on Victor and as soon as he was a little healthier, he quickly went to the strategically placed point at the bend of the corridor. There, he could guard the secret entrance to the offering chamber while at the same time blocking the corridor on the corner from the kitchen. It was tactically a wise choice; a bearded devil was soon attempting to attack him from the entrance of the larger chamber but Victor began to use that strange sword fighting technique again; somehow, his falchion was always in the way of an enemy blow simultaneously incorporating his little shield to ward off glaive, tooth, claw and stinger. The Living Blade was struck by the stingers of the Bone Devils so many times, it began to gleam wetly in the firelight from all the poison that spattered it.

It was a strange sight; from where I was standing, I could not see what he was fighting; all I saw were weapons of various types striking at Victor through the doorway and his offensive blows back into the room. Another added advantage to Victor’s position was that it allowed Longhelim to move up and down the corridor as needed. Just before Longhelim moved out, I saw that John cast a spell and touched the paladin’s sword:

“There! Now your weapon’s good! Go get ‘em!”

Longhelim gave John a look of thanks before moving up the corridor, around the corner. There were sounds of fighting from there. More of the roiling, horrible miasma began to appear in the corridor. I heard Longhelim call out:

“The…..nasty woman is up here!”

Whatever it was that she was doing was affecting everyone although Drudge was already moving to the far end of the corridor. There was little I could do at this point as I couldn’t see anyone but I knew that would not last so I just held my spells back. Felix was vigilantly watching Victor, making sure that he was not being hurt too badly. The devils were certainly taking their toll on the warrior but he was obviously giving out as good as he received. I could see that he had finished however many Bearded Devils he was facing as only the much larger claws, teeth and tail of the Bone Devil were reaching out of the doorway towards him now. Again, he was dodging and weaving adroitly. Then Longhelim retreated around the corner. He had been hurt and had come for some healing:

“The woman is round the corner; as well as another bone devil. Victor’s managed to defeat two bearded devils and is now fighting a bone devil in the offering chamber. He’s going to get surrounded by both bone devils in a moment. The only thing he’s got going for him is that one of them is going to have to squeeze into the corridor; they’re big. That one won’t find it as easy.”

So it proved, as I saw two sets of bone devil claws, teeth and tails assaulting the warrior, one from either side; again, his defense was astonishing. What was extraordinary was that not only was he able to defend so adroitly, he was obviously hitting his opponent as well.

That was not to say of that he was unhurt of course; no, he was slowly being ripped by the claws but Felix was able to heal him several times, just before he fell over. His armour was acquiring some very impressive dents. Then, suddenly, the attacks from the secret chamber ceased and Victor shouted to us:

“He’s gone back to hell; I’m going after the others up the corridor.”

We were about to follow him when suddenly the woman appeared at our end of the corridor in a flash of flame. Her eyes were blazing and she looked at us with the cold calculation of a hunter looking at her prey. We were already trophies on her wall. Drudge immediately began to shoot a steady stream of arrows at her; and John, clever John cast his spell of magical silence on the floor in front of her; when he did this, I could see her open her mouth and she seemed to scream in frustration, then she moved forward with her sword. Longhelim stepped forward and confronted her; she did not like that. It was obvious by the contortions on her face that she found the paladin a much harder opponent that she was used to. Things were just not going according to her plans.

Drudge’s arrows constantly hitting her were annoying although not as threatening. I moved back and managed to spear her with my spell of force missiles; then suddenly, she moved out of the corridor through the shattered door. My magical wall had obviously run out. She must have been trying to get away as she was bleeding badly from Longhelim’s blows.

Longhelim of course followed up quickly and she retreated again, but he managed to catch her as she was about to cast a spell of some sort. There was a look of utter surprise on her face as his sword transfixed her torso and she immolated and went back to wherever she had come from. Obviously, this had not been part of her plan either.

Victor had also returned from around the corner, having dealt with the last bone devil. As Felix was healing him, he turned to me and asked:

“Well, that was interesting; not quite what I was expecting here. Anyone have any ideas about what’s going on and why they were here?”

John muttered: “Probably looking for the Torch of the Burning Sky; everyone else seems to be.”