Into the Moral Darkness: (Now a Completed Story!)

Ophee motioned for the others to stay behind her. “I am going to use a bit of magic, and I do not want you all to come under its effect. Please stay behind me and do not interfere.” Her commanding tone left little room for arguments.

Rhema immediately shot Ischarus a concerned look. In spite of the commanding tone, Charis was the first to speak. “Magic? If you need to use magic to get past the guards, perhaps we shouldn’t be here.”

Semeion slowly shook his head in disapproval. “No choice, Charis. If we turn around and leave now, we only implicate ourselves as being guilty of something.”

The whole of the party’s conversation was lost on Ophee. In truth, she wasn’t even paying attention to her riding companions any longer. Her mind focused in on the small number of horsemen coming toward her and she smiled. The horsemen couldn’t see it, but both of her hands began to slowly gesture as they loosely held the reigns of her horse. “Thizzle Umaam.” The words glided out of her mouth without her lips moving any more than would be necessary to breathe. The end result was that her voice slithered like that of a hiss from a serpent.

The second spell that she cast was done even less noticeably. Had the party been able to detect what was happening, they would have seen just how rehearsed the move actually was. She released the reigns of her horse and used her knees to grip the strong beast underneath her. Now that her hands were free, she brought her fingers up to her head and allowed them to run through the hair above her ears until they met in the back of her head. She offered up a slight chant, which lasted no more than five seconds and transferred from the root note to its third and fifth before returning to the home pitch. “Parzuhs.”

The net effect of the spell was to slightly change the appearance of Ophee’s face and the clothing under her riding cloak. The changes to her face were so subtle that they were impossible to observe from where the party sat upon their mounts behind her. Slight streaks of graying hair appeared at the top of her forehead, but the blending was so natural that by the time the streaks reached the back of her head the change was invisible to the party. The clothing under her riding cloak changed so that when the wind ruffled the cloak open just enough to observe the cloth underneath it was possible to detect that her clothing matched that of the guard of Eberdeen.

The horsemen were still a minute of riding away from Ophee when she spoke to the party. She remained facing the coming horsemen and trusted that her voice would carry enough for the party to hear. “The spell that I just cast will allow me to pick up on their initial impressions and intentions toward us. I will not be able to read their minds, but I will know if they are suspicious of something in particular or if they are merely doing what they get paid to do. It will give me an edge in dealing with them.”

There was no reply from the four riders behind her. They could do nothing at this point except trust that Ophee knew what she was doing. Deceiving the royal guard of Eberdeen was not their style, but they did not fully understand the work the Ophee performed for her master. It was important that they followed with Ophee’s plan as much as possible until they could determine if Ophee’s master could help them or not. They certainly couldn’t flee, and they dared not interrupt Ophee’s plan without knowing precisely what was going on.

Ophee made no mention of the second spell that had been cast. She returned her left hand to the reigns of her horse and relaxed her knees. With her right hand, she unclasped the topmost hook that kept her cloak near to her body. The cloak fluttered in the breeze more than before, but not enough to allow any of the party behind her to see the uniform of the city guard underneath it. Ophee did not speak again until the riders completed their approach.

The commander of the small group of city guard rode to within ten feet of Ophee’s position. When the wind caught Ophee’s cloak and blew it open enough for the commander to see the uniform underneath, the guard reacted in surprise. The rider lifted the front face of the helm that was protecting the rider’s face. When the plate was removed, Ophee was surprised to see that the commander of the group was indeed a woman. Furthermore, the shape of the woman’s eyes revealed that she had some amount of elven lineage within her.

The commander spoke first, initiating the conversation. “Pardon me, madam. We did not recognize you from our outpost.”

The commander’s voice betrayed her surprise enough that the party didn’t need the benefit of Ophee’s spell to know that something about Ophee had caught the commander off guard. They passed unknowing looks between each other in search of any explanation for why that the commander had been caught off guard. None of the four had any idea why the guard had initiated the conversation with such a strange proclamation.

Ophee bowed slightly in her saddle as the rest of the group of guards settled into position behind their commander. “There is no offense taken. I assume that your patrol is performing the duties assigned of them today?”

The commander nodded. “Yes, madam. We have been commanded that this day is about search and interrogation, but ...”

Ophee smiled as her spell allowed her to sense the woman’s respect and fear. The commanding woman was caught between duty and offending Ophee. Ophee interrupted the woman’s speech in an attempt to alleviate the commander’s dilemma. “Commander, do not allow my presence to interfere with your duties. Ask your questions. We should be treated like no others. In today’s day, there are few that you should be willing to trust outright.”

The woman relaxed, and Ophee could see the ease upon her face as well as feel the mental relief through the spell. “Thank you, madam. Since you have no cart, we can dispense with the search. As to the interrogation, can you please state your destination?”

Ophee smiled politely. She would need to choose her words carefully. It was necessary to give an appropriate response to the commander of the guard, but there was no need to say anything that might cause the party to question her comments or actions at a later date. They did not realize that she had taken on the role of a city guard. “I am escorting these travelers into the city. They carry important information and abilities of which the overseer has great need. This information may lead to significant progress for the people of Eberdeen and perhaps all of Tongra.”

The woman wrinkled her eyebrows with respect to the pause that Ophee had given before speaking the word overseer. The commander knew that the title of overseer was not a common title for anyone in a position of authority within the city guard of Eberdeen itself. However, the word overseer was equally as innocent. There were certainly no criminal mentions involving the title overseer.

Ophee could sense the woman’s confusion as soon as she had spoken the word. It had been a desperate attempt to weave together the concepts of wizard and master as well as lord and governor. Through her word selection she had been able to speak a different meaning to each of the groups listening to her. She had hoped that the city guard would interpret the word as defining a general within the national army while the adventurers behind her would interpret it as a synonym for a wizard or master.

However, the commanding officer hadn’t made the mental leap as easily as Ophee had hoped. Ophee spoke quickly, hoping to prevent the commanding officer from saying something out of place. “Our guests are new to these proceedings of our capitol city, commander. They are unaccustomed to the ways of our city and the necessity of search parties on account of our lack of walls and gates. I speak for them, but I speak in a manner and vocabulary that will aid in their understanding. Ultimately, they come from Lord Ironblood’s region and the land surrounding Fingerdale.”

The woman eased as Ophee spoke, although Ophee could tell that she had not been completely convincing. The commander looked at the foursome behind Ophee and smiled. “Very well, then. Send my regards to the governor. If these four are so important to the governor’s work, would you object if I send two of my men to help you escort them? Eberdeen is a large city and I would hate for you to not be able to protect them. As good of a job as the city guard can do, we must agree that the guard is by no means perfect. As much as it pains me to say it, crime continues to persist in Eberdeen.”

Ophee smiled. “But of course, if you deem it necessary your guards are welcome to come. The abilities and information that my companions possess are to be tested at the wizard’s college before meeting with the overseer. That is the destination to which I have been asked to deliver them. Your men are welcome to make sure we make it that far safely. From there, no doubt the wizards can provide for their safety within the city.”

The commander smiled and pivoted in her saddle. “Very well, then. Shaira and Auxis, you are my best riders. Go with them and make sure that they are delivered as expected to the wizard’s college as the governor has requested.”

The commander waited for the two riders to present themselves and leave the watch. Once the two city guards had left the small patrol, the commander turned and nodded out of respect to Ophee before turning her horse around. The patrol departed without farewell. Ophee, the adventurers, and the two city guards had been granted access to Eberdeen.

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
Ophee motioned for the others to stay behind her. “I am going to use a bit of magic, and I do not want you all to come under its effect. Please stay behind me and do not interfere.” Her commanding tone left little room for arguments.

Rhema immediately shot Ischarus a concerned look. In spite of the commanding tone, Charis was the first to speak. “Magic? If you need to use magic to get past the guards, perhaps we shouldn’t be here.”

Semeion slowly shook his head in disapproval. “No choice, Charis. If we turn around and leave now, we only implicate ourselves as being guilty of something.”

The whole of the party’s conversation was lost on Ophee. In truth, she wasn’t even paying attention to her riding companions any longer. Her mind focused in on the small number of horsemen coming toward her and she smiled. The horsemen couldn’t see it, but both of her hands began to slowly gesture as they loosely held the reigns of her horse. “Thizzle Umaam.” The words glided out of her mouth without her lips moving any more than would be necessary to breathe. The end result was that her voice slithered like that of a hiss from a serpent.

The second spell that she cast was done even less noticeably. Had the party been able to detect what was happening, they would have seen just how rehearsed the move actually was. She released the reigns of her horse and used her knees to grip the strong beast underneath her. Now that her hands were free, she brought her fingers up to her head and allowed them to run through the hair above her ears until they met in the back of her head. She offered up a slight chant, which lasted no more than five seconds and transferred from the root note to its third and fifth before returning to the home pitch. “Parzuhs.”

The net effect of the spell was to slightly change the appearance of Ophee’s face and the clothing under her riding cloak. The changes to her face were so subtle that they were impossible to observe from where the party sat upon their mounts behind her. Slight streaks of graying hair appeared at the top of her forehead, but the blending was so natural that by the time the streaks reached the back of her head the change was invisible to the party. The clothing under her riding cloak changed so that when the wind ruffled the cloak open just enough to observe the cloth underneath it was possible to detect that her clothing matched that of the guard of Eberdeen.

The horsemen were still a minute of riding away from Ophee when she spoke to the party. She remained facing the coming horsemen and trusted that her voice would carry enough for the party to hear. “The spell that I just cast will allow me to pick up on their initial impressions and intentions toward us. I will not be able to read their minds, but I will know if they are suspicious of something in particular or if they are merely doing what they get paid to do. It will give me an edge in dealing with them.”

There was no reply from the four riders behind her. They could do nothing at this point except trust that Ophee knew what she was doing. Deceiving the royal guard of Eberdeen was not their style, but they did not fully understand the work the Ophee performed for her master. It was important that they followed with Ophee’s plan as much as possible until they could determine if Ophee’s master could help them or not. They certainly couldn’t flee, and they dared not interrupt Ophee’s plan without knowing precisely what was going on.

Ophee made no mention of the second spell that had been cast. She returned her left hand to the reigns of her horse and relaxed her knees. With her right hand, she unclasped the topmost hook that kept her cloak near to her body. The cloak fluttered in the breeze more than before, but not enough to allow any of the party behind her to see the uniform of the city guard underneath it. Ophee did not speak again until the riders completed their approach.

The commander of the small group of city guard rode to within ten feet of Ophee’s position. When the wind caught Ophee’s cloak and blew it open enough for the commander to see the uniform underneath, the guard reacted in surprise. The rider lifted the front face of the helm that was protecting the rider’s face. When the plate was removed, Ophee was surprised to see that the commander of the group was indeed a woman. Furthermore, the shape of the woman’s eyes revealed that she had some amount of elven lineage within her.

The commander spoke first, initiating the conversation. “Pardon me, madam. We did not recognize you from our outpost.”

The commander’s voice betrayed her surprise enough that the party didn’t need the benefit of Ophee’s spell to know that something about Ophee had caught the commander off guard. They passed unknowing looks between each other in search of any explanation for why that the commander had been caught off guard. None of the four had any idea why the guard had initiated the conversation with such a strange proclamation.

Ophee bowed slightly in her saddle as the rest of the group of guards settled into position behind their commander. “There is no offense taken. I assume that your patrol is performing the duties assigned of them today?”

The commander nodded. “Yes, madam. We have been commanded that this day is about search and interrogation, but ...”

Ophee smiled as her spell allowed her to sense the woman’s respect and fear. The commanding woman was caught between duty and offending Ophee. Ophee interrupted the woman’s speech in an attempt to alleviate the commander’s dilemma. “Commander, do not allow my presence to interfere with your duties. Ask your questions. We should be treated like no others. In today’s day, there are few that you should be willing to trust outright.”

The woman relaxed, and Ophee could see the ease upon her face as well as feel the mental relief through the spell. “Thank you, madam. Since you have no cart, we can dispense with the search. As to the interrogation, can you please state your destination?”

Ophee smiled politely. She would need to choose her words carefully. It was necessary to give an appropriate response to the commander of the guard, but there was no need to say anything that might cause the party to question her comments or actions at a later date. They did not realize that she had taken on the role of a city guard. “I am escorting these travelers into the city. They carry important information and abilities of which the overseer has great need. This information may lead to significant progress for the people of Eberdeen and perhaps all of Tongra.”

The woman wrinkled her eyebrows with respect to the pause that Ophee had given before speaking the word overseer. The commander knew that the title of overseer was not a common title for anyone in a position of authority within the city guard of Eberdeen itself. However, the word overseer was equally as innocent. There were certainly no criminal mentions involving the title overseer.

Ophee could sense the woman’s confusion as soon as she had spoken the word. It had been a desperate attempt to weave together the concepts of wizard and master as well as lord and governor. Through her word selection she had been able to speak a different meaning to each of the groups listening to her. She had hoped that the city guard would interpret the word as defining a general within the national army while the adventurers behind her would interpret it as a synonym for a wizard or master.

However, the commanding officer hadn’t made the mental leap as easily as Ophee had hoped. Ophee spoke quickly, hoping to prevent the commanding officer from saying something out of place. “Our guests are new to these proceedings of our capitol city, commander. They are unaccustomed to the ways of our city and the necessity of search parties on account of our lack of walls and gates. I speak for them, but I speak in a manner and vocabulary that will aid in their understanding. Ultimately, they come from Lord Ironblood’s region and the land surrounding Fingerdale.”

The woman eased as Ophee spoke, although Ophee could tell that she had not been completely convincing. The commander looked at the foursome behind Ophee and smiled. “Very well, then. Send my regards to the governor. If these four are so important to the governor’s work, would you object if I send two of my men to help you escort them? Eberdeen is a large city and I would hate for you to not be able to protect them. As good of a job as the city guard can do, we must agree that the guard is by no means perfect. As much as it pains me to say it, crime continues to persist in Eberdeen.”

Ophee smiled. “But of course, if you deem it necessary your guards are welcome to come. The abilities and information that my companions possess are to be tested at the wizard’s college before meeting with the overseer. That is the destination to which I have been asked to deliver them. Your men are welcome to make sure we make it that far safely. From there, no doubt the wizards can provide for their safety within the city.”

The commander smiled and pivoted in her saddle. “Very well, then. Shaira and Auxis, you are my best riders. Go with them and make sure that they are delivered as expected to the wizard’s college as the governor has requested.”

The commander waited for the two riders to present themselves and leave the watch. Once the two city guards had left the small patrol, the commander turned and nodded out of respect to Ophee before turning her horse around. The patrol departed without farewell. Ophee, the adventurers, and the two city guards had been granted access to Eberdeen.
[/Sblock]

The net result of the conversation with the commander was that the foursome entered Eberdeen in silence while Ophee managed to make small talk with the city guards. The meeting seemed to have gone well enough, but the unexpected addition of the city guards as an escort was enough to put the adventurers on edge. Ophee didn’t seem altogether pleased with the development either, but she wasn’t about to let silence give her unease away.

The party headed directly for the twin spires that rose out of the city. The towers of the wizard’s college reached up into the sky as if to defy the ultimate and irreversible power of gravity. Normal buildings couldn’t be constructed past a second or third usable floor without running the risk of collapsing upon itself. The twin peaks of the wizard’s college stretched this boundary by a full two dozen floors. They were as permanent of a monument to the ability of magic to defy logic as any across the land of Tongra.

Only the bottom four floors of the twin towers were accessible by stairs. The rest of the towers were governed by the transportation abilities of the person desiring to ascend to higher levels. In a sense, the top twenty three stories were a hard reminder of the separation between those who were already masters of magic and those who were still mastered by the magic. The students who were still dependant upon both the physical world and stairs were prevented from joining in on the more advanced discussions of the upper level.

The approaching group of horses slowed on the street outside the nearest spire. Ophee turned slightly to her companions and smiled with a sense of deep relief and enjoyment. “Now that we have officially arrived, I will ask all of you to stay outside the wizard’s college until I have alerted the one who has been arranged to do the examination.” Ophee turned to speak to Shaira. “If the two of you don’t mind waiting until the appropriate wizard has been notified, I would be greatly appreciative. I would hate for my long journey from Fingerdale to end tragically on the streets of Eberdeen. There can be no doubt that our overseer would be greatly displeased, too.”

The female guard nodded in reply and turned to look at the four companions. They didn’t appear that they would be hard to guard. For the sake of security, Shaira nodded to Auxis and pointed. Her male counterpart drew the reigns of his horse over the left side of the horse’s neck and the trained beast slowly walked so that they were on the opposite side of the foursome as Shaira and her mount.

Ophee slipped off of her mount and disappeared on foot into the wizard’s college. She was gone for about ten minutes before she returned. The party spent the time in complete silence. They didn’t want to say anything to jeopardize what fragile sense of camaraderie seemed to be occurring between Ophee, the guards, and the party.

Ophee’s return was considerably more dramatic that her departure. The fact that she returned with one of the mages from the wizard’s college was not necessarily what made her return dramatic. It wasn’t even the fact that the wizard appeared in the full robes of his teaching office or the fact that he was carrying a gnarled staff made from the wood of the tall and broad leafed mahogany tree. What made Ophee’s return dramatic was the fact that the pair appeared out of thin air without any kind of warning at all. They had used teleportation magic to arrive.

The group of six riders waiting outside the wizard’s college was taken completely by surprise with the sudden appearance of Ophee and the wizard. In an instant the guards, Ischarus, and Charis had their weapons drawn and had spun their horses to face the intruding pair. Fortunately they each recognized Ophee before they took any action.

The wizard smiled and held out an outstretched hand. The staff stretched horizontally from the wizard’s hand as if to provide a simple defense from the steel weapons of the horsemen. “Do you plan on using those?” There was a distinct tone of amusement in his voice.

Semeion cracked a smile as those who had drawn their weapons quickly stowed them. Of course it had been a rational reaction, but Semeion enjoyed a further demonstration of the power that magic had over the world. He longed for the day when he could hold a staff and be confident of his ability to be victorious against a mounted party coming against him.

When the wizard had paused long enough to make it evident that nobody planned on speaking to him, he continued his discourse of directions. “I am the wizard that you seek. I have been planning on evaluating the abilities and testimony of the four.” He turned to the guards and spoke to them directly. “If you think it would please your commander at the guardhouse, you are welcome to observe a few of the tests so that you can be sure that what we say is true. I understand from my associate that there was some doubt to the validity of her story upon your arrival to Eberdeen.”

Shaira nodded. “I believe my commander would appreciate knowing that the words were true.” Auxis allowed a serious look to pass over his face before nodding in agreement.

The wizard smiled. “If you insist. To prove that I have nothing to hide, why do we not perform the first of the tests out here in the open where there can be no doubt? One of the tests suggested is geared to test their fighting prowess, and I am assuming we can trust the city guard to remain neutral knowing that a wizard from the wizard’s college has the situation under control?”

The guards nodded and the wizard thumped the end of his staff hard against the ground before turning to the party. “Dismount and prepare yourselves for combat. You have as long as it takes for me to cast this spell to prepare for battle.”

The party quickly dismounted and commanded their horses to a safe distance away. In an instant their weapons were out and they formed a tight defensive square with their backs to one another since they didn’t know what threat the wizard would throw against them. Semeion heard the wizard chanting and easily identified the spell being cast. “He’s summoning a creature, and a powerful one at that. Brace yourselves.”

The wizard completed his gesturing and gave the final command word. “Daancrah Pashor Diast Pahl.”

A scaly creature with claws for hands and feet suddenly popped into existence and cried in frenzy. “You have summoned me again? Feel my rage!”

The creature only stood six feet tall, but its dark glowing red eyes which lacked pupils and green scaly skin made it clear that it was not native to the lands of Enigmatica – or anywhere in the known world for that matter. As the creature spoke it revealed its razor sharp teeth. The claws on its four-toed feet were blackened and the color of ebony. The claws on the end of its three-fingered and one-thumbed hand matched in terms of absolute blackness. The beast twirled a long pole in the air above its head so fast that the party did not immediately notice the voulge-guisarme end of the staff until the end shot towards Charis in the form of an attack.

Fortunately, Charis was ready for the attack. The metallic shaft of her pick blocked the first strike. She prepared herself as the creature spun around and used the momentum of the spin to swipe once more before anyone could retaliate. The hammer end of Charis’ pick met with the weapon midair and knocked it harmlessly to the side.

Ischarus leapt forward as the creature struck towards Charis. As he did, the creature spun once more with the weapon and struck hard against the charging fighter. This blow landed successfully and Ischarus winced in pain as a streak of dark blood appeared at his side. Ischarus swung his blade in retaliation, but his strike was deflected away by the butt end of the creature’s weapon.

Charis watched patiently as Ischarus approached the creature with great vigor. She knew from Semeion’s warning that the creature was meant to challenge them and she knew that tactics would play an important role in their evaluation. She moved into position so that she and Ischarus would attack from opposite sides and hopefully distract the creature. Her pick stuck deep into the creature, but as she pulled the pointed end out of the creature’s body the wound seemed to almost completely heal on its own as she removed the weapon.

Semeion saw the wound heal upon impact and knew that this was not a development in their favor. Creatures that could heal weapon damage immediately after impact were often best brought down through pure magical effort. “Rhema, we must show no mercy and give it a full onslaught. Ischarus’ and Charis’ weapons have diminished effect!”

The young mage turned and snarled at the beast. As he tried to cast a spell upon the creature he could feel the beast fighting in return. In order to put up such a magical barrier it must have been formed from either magic or a type of other worldliness. Semeion cried out in anger and the spell surged forward. “Thin-tok!” The typical blue energy flowed down his arm and collected upon his fingers before springing forward. As had happened back at the villa, the missile was quickly followed by a second. Both missiles struck the creature.

Rhema watched as the creature’s weapon bit into Ischarus and she heard Semeion’s warning. She only needed a minimal amount of prodding to unleash her full mental onslaught. Her finger pointed in the general direction of the creature and she smiled. Although no words left her mouth, the creature howled in severe pain as Rhema assaulted its mind.

Ischarus and Semeion were now too close for the creature to use its staff with the voulge-guisarme end. However, it could still use its claws. The creature’s red eyes flared in intensity as it jammed the end of the rod onto the ground and used it as if it were a pole-vaulter’s stick. The feet of the creature left the ground as its hands held onto the shaft of the weapon. Each of the creature’s claws upon the scaly feet ripped towards Ischarus. The left set of claws landed and Ischarus’ right shoulder was bloodied.

Ischarus returned the strike with a blow of his own. His sword sliced through the air with precision and landed a blow. Although the creature’s wounds partially healed as Ischarus brought his sword back into a defensive position, damage had been done. The fighter snarled as he noticed that the wizard, Ophee, and the guards were only watching this potentially lethal battle as interested observers.

Charis again swung as Ischarus struck. She had managed to use Ischarus’ attack as cover for her own and it worked. Her blow landed solidly, although again the creature healed most of the damage from the blow immediately after Charis removed her weapon from the creature’s hide.

Semeion tried to cast another spell while the creature was attacked by Ischarus and Charis, but this time his attack was defeated by the magical protection surrounding the red eyed creature. The energy from the spell shot down his arm but refused to collect itself into a ball that could be thrown at the creature. The wasted energy bounced to the ground like sparks from a smith’s anvil before vanishing into thin air.

Rhema had better luck with her attack. In spite of the creature’s ability to try and block her own magic, she was able to assault the creature with another mental attack. Wordlessly her mind entered the thoughts of the creature and the beat howled again in pain. Rhema’s face beat red with anger as she watched her husband’s defense be beaten down.

The creature could not leave. It had no choice but to stay and fight unless the wizard who summoned it desired to release it. Again the creature attacked Ischarus with his claws, but this time Ischarus knew what to expect. Ischarus dodged the assault from both claws and came through unharmed. Unfortunately, because he had been focusing on preserving his own life he couldn’t afford much of an offensive strike, either.

When the creature saw that Ischarus wasn’t putting up much of a fight at the moment, the beast turned and managed to get a hand on the shaft of Charis’ pick. Her blow was knocked to the side before any damage could be done. The shaft of the weapon was hot when Charis finally managed to wrestle the creature’s hands free.

Again Semeion tried to beat the creature’s magical defenses, but again the magical energy faded from his hand like useless sparks. Rhema was able to penetrate the creature’s mind once more, however. She knew the creature was close to defeat from her last assault; and as she focused on the creature’s mind she clenched her fists tightly. Her right palm began to bleed as her nails broke the surface of her skin. The mental control she unleashed upon the creature was horrific and she knew that she had won. The creature’s mind went blank and the beast vanished in a puff of black smoke.

All that remained was the stench of brimstone. The smell attached itself to Ischarus’ and Charis’ clothing before wafting harmlessly into the air. Semeion swallowed hard as he turned to look the wizard in the eye. There was a deep emotional venom seething through his expression.

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
The net result of the conversation with the commander was that the foursome entered Eberdeen in silence while Ophee managed to make small talk with the city guards. The meeting seemed to have gone well enough, but the unexpected addition of the city guards as an escort was enough to put the adventurers on edge. Ophee didn’t seem altogether pleased with the development either, but she wasn’t about to let silence give her unease away.

The party headed directly for the twin spires that rose out of the city. The towers of the wizard’s college reached up into the sky as if to defy the ultimate and irreversible power of gravity. Normal buildings couldn’t be constructed past a second or third usable floor without running the risk of collapsing upon itself. The twin peaks of the wizard’s college stretched this boundary by a full two dozen floors. They were as permanent of a monument to the ability of magic to defy logic as any across the land of Tongra.

Only the bottom four floors of the twin towers were accessible by stairs. The rest of the towers were governed by the transportation abilities of the person desiring to ascend to higher levels. In a sense, the top twenty three stories were a hard reminder of the separation between those who were already masters of magic and those who were still mastered by the magic. The students who were still dependant upon both the physical world and stairs were prevented from joining in on the more advanced discussions of the upper level.

The approaching group of horses slowed on the street outside the nearest spire. Ophee turned slightly to her companions and smiled with a sense of deep relief and enjoyment. “Now that we have officially arrived, I will ask all of you to stay outside the wizard’s college until I have alerted the one who has been arranged to do the examination.” Ophee turned to speak to Shaira. “If the two of you don’t mind waiting until the appropriate wizard has been notified, I would be greatly appreciative. I would hate for my long journey from Fingerdale to end tragically on the streets of Eberdeen. There can be no doubt that our overseer would be greatly displeased, too.”

The female guard nodded in reply and turned to look at the four companions. They didn’t appear that they would be hard to guard. For the sake of security, Shaira nodded to Auxis and pointed. Her male counterpart drew the reigns of his horse over the left side of the horse’s neck and the trained beast slowly walked so that they were on the opposite side of the foursome as Shaira and her mount.

Ophee slipped off of her mount and disappeared on foot into the wizard’s college. She was gone for about ten minutes before she returned. The party spent the time in complete silence. They didn’t want to say anything to jeopardize what fragile sense of camaraderie seemed to be occurring between Ophee, the guards, and the party.

Ophee’s return was considerably more dramatic that her departure. The fact that she returned with one of the mages from the wizard’s college was not necessarily what made her return dramatic. It wasn’t even the fact that the wizard appeared in the full robes of his teaching office or the fact that he was carrying a gnarled staff made from the wood of the tall and broad leafed mahogany tree. What made Ophee’s return dramatic was the fact that the pair appeared out of thin air without any kind of warning at all. They had used teleportation magic to arrive.

The group of six riders waiting outside the wizard’s college was taken completely by surprise with the sudden appearance of Ophee and the wizard. In an instant the guards, Ischarus, and Charis had their weapons drawn and had spun their horses to face the intruding pair. Fortunately they each recognized Ophee before they took any action.

The wizard smiled and held out an outstretched hand. The staff stretched horizontally from the wizard’s hand as if to provide a simple defense from the steel weapons of the horsemen. “Do you plan on using those?” There was a distinct tone of amusement in his voice.

Semeion cracked a smile as those who had drawn their weapons quickly stowed them. Of course it had been a rational reaction, but Semeion enjoyed a further demonstration of the power that magic had over the world. He longed for the day when he could hold a staff and be confident of his ability to be victorious against a mounted party coming against him.

When the wizard had paused long enough to make it evident that nobody planned on speaking to him, he continued his discourse of directions. “I am the wizard that you seek. I have been planning on evaluating the abilities and testimony of the four.” He turned to the guards and spoke to them directly. “If you think it would please your commander at the guardhouse, you are welcome to observe a few of the tests so that you can be sure that what we say is true. I understand from my associate that there was some doubt to the validity of her story upon your arrival to Eberdeen.”

Shaira nodded. “I believe my commander would appreciate knowing that the words were true.” Auxis allowed a serious look to pass over his face before nodding in agreement.

The wizard smiled. “If you insist. To prove that I have nothing to hide, why do we not perform the first of the tests out here in the open where there can be no doubt? One of the tests suggested is geared to test their fighting prowess, and I am assuming we can trust the city guard to remain neutral knowing that a wizard from the wizard’s college has the situation under control?”

The guards nodded and the wizard thumped the end of his staff hard against the ground before turning to the party. “Dismount and prepare yourselves for combat. You have as long as it takes for me to cast this spell to prepare for battle.”

The party quickly dismounted and commanded their horses to a safe distance away. In an instant their weapons were out and they formed a tight defensive square with their backs to one another since they didn’t know what threat the wizard would throw against them. Semeion heard the wizard chanting and easily identified the spell being cast. “He’s summoning a creature, and a powerful one at that. Brace yourselves.”

The wizard completed his gesturing and gave the final command word. “Daancrah Pashor Diast Pahl.”

A scaly creature with claws for hands and feet suddenly popped into existence and cried in frenzy. “You have summoned me again? Feel my rage!”

The creature only stood six feet tall, but its dark glowing red eyes which lacked pupils and green scaly skin made it clear that it was not native to the lands of Enigmatica – or anywhere in the known world for that matter. As the creature spoke it revealed its razor sharp teeth. The claws on its four-toed feet were blackened and the color of ebony. The claws on the end of its three-fingered and one-thumbed hand matched in terms of absolute blackness. The beast twirled a long pole in the air above its head so fast that the party did not immediately notice the voulge-guisarme end of the staff until the end shot towards Charis in the form of an attack.

Fortunately, Charis was ready for the attack. The metallic shaft of her pick blocked the first strike. She prepared herself as the creature spun around and used the momentum of the spin to swipe once more before anyone could retaliate. The hammer end of Charis’ pick met with the weapon midair and knocked it harmlessly to the side.

Ischarus leapt forward as the creature struck towards Charis. As he did, the creature spun once more with the weapon and struck hard against the charging fighter. This blow landed successfully and Ischarus winced in pain as a streak of dark blood appeared at his side. Ischarus swung his blade in retaliation, but his strike was deflected away by the butt end of the creature’s weapon.

Charis watched patiently as Ischarus approached the creature with great vigor. She knew from Semeion’s warning that the creature was meant to challenge them and she knew that tactics would play an important role in their evaluation. She moved into position so that she and Ischarus would attack from opposite sides and hopefully distract the creature. Her pick stuck deep into the creature, but as she pulled the pointed end out of the creature’s body the wound seemed to almost completely heal on its own as she removed the weapon.

Semeion saw the wound heal upon impact and knew that this was not a development in their favor. Creatures that could heal weapon damage immediately after impact were often best brought down through pure magical effort. “Rhema, we must show no mercy and give it a full onslaught. Ischarus’ and Charis’ weapons have diminished effect!”

The young mage turned and snarled at the beast. As he tried to cast a spell upon the creature he could feel the beast fighting in return. In order to put up such a magical barrier it must have been formed from either magic or a type of other worldliness. Semeion cried out in anger and the spell surged forward. “Thin-tok!” The typical blue energy flowed down his arm and collected upon his fingers before springing forward. As had happened back at the villa, the missile was quickly followed by a second. Both missiles struck the creature.

Rhema watched as the creature’s weapon bit into Ischarus and she heard Semeion’s warning. She only needed a minimal amount of prodding to unleash her full mental onslaught. Her finger pointed in the general direction of the creature and she smiled. Although no words left her mouth, the creature howled in severe pain as Rhema assaulted its mind.

Ischarus and Semeion were now too close for the creature to use its staff with the voulge-guisarme end. However, it could still use its claws. The creature’s red eyes flared in intensity as it jammed the end of the rod onto the ground and used it as if it were a pole-vaulter’s stick. The feet of the creature left the ground as its hands held onto the shaft of the weapon. Each of the creature’s claws upon the scaly feet ripped towards Ischarus. The left set of claws landed and Ischarus’ right shoulder was bloodied.

Ischarus returned the strike with a blow of his own. His sword sliced through the air with precision and landed a blow. Although the creature’s wounds partially healed as Ischarus brought his sword back into a defensive position, damage had been done. The fighter snarled as he noticed that the wizard, Ophee, and the guards were only watching this potentially lethal battle as interested observers.

Charis again swung as Ischarus struck. She had managed to use Ischarus’ attack as cover for her own and it worked. Her blow landed solidly, although again the creature healed most of the damage from the blow immediately after Charis removed her weapon from the creature’s hide.

Semeion tried to cast another spell while the creature was attacked by Ischarus and Charis, but this time his attack was defeated by the magical protection surrounding the red eyed creature. The energy from the spell shot down his arm but refused to collect itself into a ball that could be thrown at the creature. The wasted energy bounced to the ground like sparks from a smith’s anvil before vanishing into thin air.

Rhema had better luck with her attack. In spite of the creature’s ability to try and block her own magic, she was able to assault the creature with another mental attack. Wordlessly her mind entered the thoughts of the creature and the beat howled again in pain. Rhema’s face beat red with anger as she watched her husband’s defense be beaten down.

The creature could not leave. It had no choice but to stay and fight unless the wizard who summoned it desired to release it. Again the creature attacked Ischarus with his claws, but this time Ischarus knew what to expect. Ischarus dodged the assault from both claws and came through unharmed. Unfortunately, because he had been focusing on preserving his own life he couldn’t afford much of an offensive strike, either.

When the creature saw that Ischarus wasn’t putting up much of a fight at the moment, the beast turned and managed to get a hand on the shaft of Charis’ pick. Her blow was knocked to the side before any damage could be done. The shaft of the weapon was hot when Charis finally managed to wrestle the creature’s hands free.

Again Semeion tried to beat the creature’s magical defenses, but again the magical energy faded from his hand like useless sparks. Rhema was able to penetrate the creature’s mind once more, however. She knew the creature was close to defeat from her last assault; and as she focused on the creature’s mind she clenched her fists tightly. Her right palm began to bleed as her nails broke the surface of her skin. The mental control she unleashed upon the creature was horrific and she knew that she had won. The creature’s mind went blank and the beast vanished in a puff of black smoke.

All that remained was the stench of brimstone. The smell attached itself to Ischarus’ and Charis’ clothing before wafting harmlessly into the air. Semeion swallowed hard as he turned to look the wizard in the eye. There was a deep emotional venom seething through his expression.
[/Sblock]

Semeion turned to confront the wizard, but the wizard was already looking to the city guards. “There. You can see for yourself that the testing is legitimate.” The guards did not look particularly convinced.

The young mage broke in to address the wizard before the city guard could retort. “You summoned some kind of demon to attack us? Surely even you know that summoning any kind of evil presence from the heavens is a crime punishable by death, even if you were trying to test us!”

The guards looked to Semeion for confirmation as they drew their weapons. The wizard lifted the end of his staff up from the ground and waved it through the air as a distraction. “It was simple illusion, that’s all.” The smile on his face told the party that he was enjoying the exchange.

Suddenly Semeion felt as though the bubble of awe had burst. Before the combat he was in awe of the magical oppression of reality. Having been affected by the magical force he now saw its darker side. Magic could bring about great things such as the wizard’s college. However, just as easily the magic could oppress itself upon others as the wizard had done. Semeion shook his head. “That was no illusion.”

The wizard’s smile increased at Semeion’s accusation. “It wouldn’t be much of an illusion if you were able to recognize it, now would it? I know you have magical prowess, but do you think you can identify all the spells I am able to cast? Do you really think I would summon something evil in the presence of the city guard? If I summoned something evil, they would be obligated to try and arrest me. Why would I subject myself to that? Trust me, it was an illusion designed to make you believe it was real. I’d say it worked.”

Semeion narrowed his eyelids as he continued to distrust the words of the wizard. His companions looked to him for confirmation, but they only saw the distrust in the young mage’s face. Semeion wasn’t convinced and he made no effort to hide his doubt.

The wizard turned to the guards and continued his rationalization. “There, you have seen their testing begin. You can report to your commander at the guard post of what you saw. I realize that it was only an illusion, but their individual abilities had to be examined in addition to their approach to teamwork. I hope that as I was evaluating them that you were also capable of evaluating their performance. Please take that assessment as proof of my examination and report to your commander.”

Shaira looked to Auxis and shrugged. The man explaining away the summoning as an illusion was a member of the wizard college and there could be little reason to question the wizard’s ability to make an illusion so real that it could not be detected as an illusion. Shaira nodded to the wizard and spoke in a flat tone. “We thank you for allowing the first part of their examination to occur for our benefit. You can have no doubt that I will give a full accounting of the examination to my superior.”

The wizard turned back to Semeion once the guards turned their horses and began to head away from the wizard’s college. The smile persisted upon his face. He was enjoying the events with all the satisfaction of an adult who knew something about which nobody else had access.

Charis looked to Semeion and then turned back to the wizard. “That was no illusion, am I right?”

Ophee looked with confusion to the party and focused on Semeion. “Of course it was an illusion. Convince them, master.”

The wizard dismissed the conversation by giving no acknowledgement. “Shall we head into the wizard’ college? Where I am taking you we can only get to through magic. Opheiluka, run along and bring someone to tend their horses, would you?”

Ischarus shook his head violently and held out a hand to stop Ophee. “We’re not going anywhere until you answer Charis’ question. Semeion is convinced that the spell was no illusion. Is he right?”

The wizard chuckled out of enjoyment. “Opheiluka, run along. You know as well as I do that your journey was not in vain. They’ll be joining us upstairs. Go find someone to take the horses to the stables. I’ll talk with them while you are accomplishing that minor task.” Ophee nodded and once more headed into the front door of the wizard’s college.

Once she was in the building, Ischarus again looked into the wizard’s eye. “Tell us the truth, then. Was it an illusion or did you summon an essence of pure evil?”

The wizard extended his arms in an open stance as he spoke. “Look at the college before you. Magic runs thicker than air through this part of Eberdeen. What would you have me say? I already told you that it was an illusion and you chose not to believe me. The only thing I can apparently say is what you want me to say. And what is that? Sure, it was a real incarnation of evil. Now, will you go with me?” His expression had changed into a deep smirk. His tone followed that of the smirk as it took on the tenor of dark sarcasm.

Rhema grimaced at the wizard’s words. “And how can we trust you? We can’t even trust what the truth is!”

The smirk vanished off the face of the wizard and once more it was replaced by a smile of enjoyment. “Don’t blame me for the fault of your own doubt! I have said opposite statements. The truth is one of them. But the only reason I gave you opposite statements is because you have already predetermined to not believe me. Do not blame that on me; blame that on your own dark suspicions. You already decided that you knew what the truth was. Your inability to see my illusion for what it truly was has forced your pride to assume that it was real! Your pride and arrogance has left me with the option of saying only that which you expect to hear.”

Charis sneered. “Then why are we here? So far our venture into Eberdeen has been nothing like I expected. We came here to find your conception of the truth about what happened to the villa, but all we find are double-sided tales and convolutions.”

The wizard extended a pointed finger to Charis and continued to smile. “There, finally someone speaks the truth. You doubt me and my Opheiluka. But I would also argue that you did not come to me to find the truth, my dear. You came to me to find the Ephistaemi. Did you honestly expect that to be an easy task? If I were as easy to read as any book, the Ephistaemi would have nothing to do with me. They work with me because of my ability to fold the truth in upon itself and reveal it in unexpected terms. I can play with the truth like the illusions that I manipulate. But make no doubt about it. You did not come here for me to tell you a truth that I do not know. You came here to find the Ephistaemi after providing a service for me. Truth was never part of the bargain. I can get you to the Ephistaemi for a price. We are bartering here, not expounding upon the value of truth.”

Ischarus nodded, realizing that debating the ethics of the situation would get them nowhere. “Speak your terms, then. And test us accordingly.”

The wizard chuckled as he spotted Ophee exit the building with an apprentice mage at her side. He spoke softly to the party. “Not here. If you want the Ephistaemi, you need to teleport with me into the wizard’s college. If you wish to go home, now is the time to speak. And you can be assured that your examination continues even as we speak.”

Before the party could respond, the wizard lifted his volume and spoke to Ophee and the apprentice mage walking beside her. “Good timing, we were just about ready to need your services, weren’t we?”

Rhema, Charis, and Semeion instinctively looked to Ischarus. Ischarus looked only to Rhema and thought only of the villa and the necessary work therein. “Indeed. Of course, for the sake of the apprentice can you tell us when we’ll return for our horses?”

The wizard nodded approvingly to Ischarus. “You will need your horses in one hour’s time, no more.”

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
Semeion turned to confront the wizard, but the wizard was already looking to the city guards. “There. You can see for yourself that the testing is legitimate.” The guards did not look particularly convinced.

The young mage broke in to address the wizard before the city guard could retort. “You summoned some kind of demon to attack us? Surely even you know that summoning any kind of evil presence from the heavens is a crime punishable by death, even if you were trying to test us!”

The guards looked to Semeion for confirmation as they drew their weapons. The wizard lifted the end of his staff up from the ground and waved it through the air as a distraction. “It was simple illusion, that’s all.” The smile on his face told the party that he was enjoying the exchange.

Suddenly Semeion felt as though the bubble of awe had burst. Before the combat he was in awe of the magical oppression of reality. Having been affected by the magical force he now saw its darker side. Magic could bring about great things such as the wizard’s college. However, just as easily the magic could oppress itself upon others as the wizard had done. Semeion shook his head. “That was no illusion.”

The wizard’s smile increased at Semeion’s accusation. “It wouldn’t be much of an illusion if you were able to recognize it, now would it? I know you have magical prowess, but do you think you can identify all the spells I am able to cast? Do you really think I would summon something evil in the presence of the city guard? If I summoned something evil, they would be obligated to try and arrest me. Why would I subject myself to that? Trust me, it was an illusion designed to make you believe it was real. I’d say it worked.”

Semeion narrowed his eyelids as he continued to distrust the words of the wizard. His companions looked to him for confirmation, but they only saw the distrust in the young mage’s face. Semeion wasn’t convinced and he made no effort to hide his doubt.

The wizard turned to the guards and continued his rationalization. “There, you have seen their testing begin. You can report to your commander at the guard post of what you saw. I realize that it was only an illusion, but their individual abilities had to be examined in addition to their approach to teamwork. I hope that as I was evaluating them that you were also capable of evaluating their performance. Please take that assessment as proof of my examination and report to your commander.”

Shaira looked to Auxis and shrugged. The man explaining away the summoning as an illusion was a member of the wizard college and there could be little reason to question the wizard’s ability to make an illusion so real that it could not be detected as an illusion. Shaira nodded to the wizard and spoke in a flat tone. “We thank you for allowing the first part of their examination to occur for our benefit. You can have no doubt that I will give a full accounting of the examination to my superior.”

The wizard turned back to Semeion once the guards turned their horses and began to head away from the wizard’s college. The smile persisted upon his face. He was enjoying the events with all the satisfaction of an adult who knew something about which nobody else had access.

Charis looked to Semeion and then turned back to the wizard. “That was no illusion, am I right?”

Ophee looked with confusion to the party and focused on Semeion. “Of course it was an illusion. Convince them, master.”

The wizard dismissed the conversation by giving no acknowledgement. “Shall we head into the wizard’ college? Where I am taking you we can only get to through magic. Opheiluka, run along and bring someone to tend their horses, would you?”

Ischarus shook his head violently and held out a hand to stop Ophee. “We’re not going anywhere until you answer Charis’ question. Semeion is convinced that the spell was no illusion. Is he right?”

The wizard chuckled out of enjoyment. “Opheiluka, run along. You know as well as I do that your journey was not in vain. They’ll be joining us upstairs. Go find someone to take the horses to the stables. I’ll talk with them while you are accomplishing that minor task.” Ophee nodded and once more headed into the front door of the wizard’s college.

Once she was in the building, Ischarus again looked into the wizard’s eye. “Tell us the truth, then. Was it an illusion or did you summon an essence of pure evil?”

The wizard extended his arms in an open stance as he spoke. “Look at the college before you. Magic runs thicker than air through this part of Eberdeen. What would you have me say? I already told you that it was an illusion and you chose not to believe me. The only thing I can apparently say is what you want me to say. And what is that? Sure, it was a real incarnation of evil. Now, will you go with me?” His expression had changed into a deep smirk. His tone followed that of the smirk as it took on the tenor of dark sarcasm.

Rhema grimaced at the wizard’s words. “And how can we trust you? We can’t even trust what the truth is!”

The smirk vanished off the face of the wizard and once more it was replaced by a smile of enjoyment. “Don’t blame me for the fault of your own doubt! I have said opposite statements. The truth is one of them. But the only reason I gave you opposite statements is because you have already predetermined to not believe me. Do not blame that on me; blame that on your own dark suspicions. You already decided that you knew what the truth was. Your inability to see my illusion for what it truly was has forced your pride to assume that it was real! Your pride and arrogance has left me with the option of saying only that which you expect to hear.”

Charis sneered. “Then why are we here? So far our venture into Eberdeen has been nothing like I expected. We came here to find your conception of the truth about what happened to the villa, but all we find are double-sided tales and convolutions.”

The wizard extended a pointed finger to Charis and continued to smile. “There, finally someone speaks the truth. You doubt me and my Opheiluka. But I would also argue that you did not come to me to find the truth, my dear. You came to me to find the Ephistaemi. Did you honestly expect that to be an easy task? If I were as easy to read as any book, the Ephistaemi would have nothing to do with me. They work with me because of my ability to fold the truth in upon itself and reveal it in unexpected terms. I can play with the truth like the illusions that I manipulate. But make no doubt about it. You did not come here for me to tell you a truth that I do not know. You came here to find the Ephistaemi after providing a service for me. Truth was never part of the bargain. I can get you to the Ephistaemi for a price. We are bartering here, not expounding upon the value of truth.”

Ischarus nodded, realizing that debating the ethics of the situation would get them nowhere. “Speak your terms, then. And test us accordingly.”

The wizard chuckled as he spotted Ophee exit the building with an apprentice mage at her side. He spoke softly to the party. “Not here. If you want the Ephistaemi, you need to teleport with me into the wizard’s college. If you wish to go home, now is the time to speak. And you can be assured that your examination continues even as we speak.”

Before the party could respond, the wizard lifted his volume and spoke to Ophee and the apprentice mage walking beside her. “Good timing, we were just about ready to need your services, weren’t we?”

Rhema, Charis, and Semeion instinctively looked to Ischarus. Ischarus looked only to Rhema and thought only of the villa and the necessary work therein. “Indeed. Of course, for the sake of the apprentice can you tell us when we’ll return for our horses?”

The wizard nodded approvingly to Ischarus. “You will need your horses in one hour’s time, no more.”
[/Sblock]

The teleport went smoothly, and it was a testimony to the power of the wizard to be able to teleport all six of the participants in a single maneuver. The entire party had gone willingly, although they were certainly cautious in regard to the potential for a trap.

Once they were inside the building, the wizard opened his arms wide and extended them toward an area with several high backed cushioned chairs. “Please,” the wizard began, “I’ll not have my guests be uncomfortable. You are in my care now, and I must apologize for the sincere amount of doubt that must have been cast upon my presence in the last few hours. Much of that doubt has been unfairly cast upon me by the lack of good decision making processes by my Opheiluka.”

The wizard looked towards Ophee with disappointment upon his face and continued to speak. “Not everyone in the city trusts the wizard’s college. You know that, I’m sure. Each of you has some form of magical ability and its application extends in various directions. You all know that there are circumstances in which magic is welcomed. But there are far more places in which the use of magic is much less welcomed. The city guard is one such location where magic is not always trusted.”

Rhema smiled politely. “Yet, Ophee told us that the city guard was familiar with you and your work.”

The wizard grimaced, but seemed to smile through it. “Ah, the proverbial snowball itself. If you stand atop a mountain and throw an innocent little snowball, there is potential for the snowball to pick up and collect more snow as it rolls down the face of the mountain. Only one in a million do not get stuck along the way, of course. But the one that manages to make it the whole way down the mountain collecting snow is a monster by the time it reaches the bottom. Yet it still remains a simple snowball that has gotten out of control.”

The wizard sat down once his guests – Ophee included – had found chairs for themselves and were comfortable. “So it is with that simple miscalculation. Opheiluka had a decision to make, and she thought that it would be best to not assume that these guards appreciated what the wizard’s college does for their life. She believed she had control of the situation and wanted to keep you out of the equation. In that respect, I will give her credit. She knows the guards much more than any of you, I presume. By giving you the impression that she had control of the situation, she minimized the possibility of introducing you all as random variables that could have upset her ability to control the situation.”

Semeion smiled as he listened to the wizard. He was clearly enjoying the multi-layered explanation upon explanation. He knew that the truth was somewhere in the midst of the stories and it was only a matter of digging deep enough to reach the truth. “Yet she was already playing damage control, then? Was that her great mistake? Once she realized that we were going to be met by the guards she began to perform damage control and assume the worst. She had, then, already admitted defeat and was simply trying to maintain the absolute essence of her plan.”

The wizard’s eyes sparkled as Semeion spoke. “Now, with that conclusion you would make an astonishing apprentice of mine!”

Semeion knew that the comment was rhetorical, but he still had enough bile inside his stomach with regard to what he believed to be the wizard’s summoning of an evil being. He chose to answer the wizard’s rhetorical statement anyway. “The offer is uninteresting to me. I was an apprentice, once. I find my own way through the power of magic.”

The wizard’s expression deflated. “I feared that too much damage had already been done when Opheiluka came to me and told me of the guards. That is why I had to arrange for that sham of a test outside.”

Charis raised an eyebrow as she listened to the wizard. “You call the summoning of a being of pure evil a sham? You call making us fight some sort of conjuration of evil a sham?”

The wizard rolled his eyes. “How long will you all continue to doubt my magic? What display do I need to give you to make you understand that the spell was a complex illusion? If that was an actual evil presence, the city guard would be required to come and ask for my incarceration. Even the guard themselves knew enough to not believe that I would actually summon an evil being!”

Charis objected once more. “That still gives us no reason to trust you.”

The wizard interrupted Charis’ speech. “But of course! That is why I said at the beginning that I feared that too much damage had already been done for you to truly trust me. The choices that Opheiluka made were suboptimal and that is obvious now. I am sure that for the moment all we can do is make a business agreement that is free of the burden of obligation. I have a need, and you have the ability to fulfill my need. You have a need, and I have an ability to fulfill your need. We can simply exchange abilities for each other. Perhaps through that I might be able to regain the trust that Opheiluka destroyed?”

Ischarus focused on the wizard’s face. “I already asked you outside to state what it is that we can do for you. You told us then that the time was not right. Is now an appropriate time? If it is, then I would like to know what you seek from us so that we may accomplish it and leave with that for which we came.”

The wizard clapped his hands together several times and stood. “Good! Then it appears you are at least willing to exchange services. What I need comes from a place few are skilled enough to tread. But from what I understand through my research, you can obtain it. I need a root grown in a specific forest in Quehalost.”

Rhema coughed in surprise. “Quehalost? What makes you think we can go into Quehalost?”

The wizard looked down to Rhema as though she were a young child trying to hide the truth. “My dear Rhema, do not hide the truth from me. You all do it so well, but you need not hide it from me. I am sure that Opheiluka has told you that I am a master of knowledge. I know that your party specializes in travel to Quehalost and returning with people to serve on your father’s villa. Rest easy, of course. Your secret is safe with me. What good would having that knowledge do me if everyone else knew that same knowledge? Knowledge is power, but only when you have the strength to keep important knowledge to yourself!”

The wizard’s eyes gleamed with a bright sparkle, as if the conversation were exciting him. “I also know that this is no slaving operation that you all run. You do it to bring peace and freedom to the land of Quehalost. I also know that your last journey there was quite successful. It even involved the Assembly of Virtuous Dragons, I do believe.”

Rhema dropped her glance to the floor. She knew that the wizard knew more than she had hoped about them. There was no use denying it any further.

The wizard continued. “You see, the root that I need grows on the northernmost edge of Quehalost, not far from the area that you all have traveled through before. If you would be willing to travel into Quehalost for me and retrieve this root, I would be most grateful. Grateful enough, I should say, to arrange a meeting with a member of the Ephistaemi regarding the information that you so desperately need to know?”

Semeion smirked. “Teleport us across the mountains to the place where the root is found and then bring us back. The total trip shouldn’t take more than an hour, and we’ll collect pounds of the root you need.”

The wizard smiled innocently and shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way, young mage. I can surely teleport you across the mountains. I can even bring you all back when you signal me. But the area that I have previously found the root is in the grove of a particular druid.”

Ischarus and Rhema groaned simultaneously. “Let me guess,” Ischarus began. “The place is guarded by a druid who likes to manipulate the natural order of animals? The druid likes to infuse animals with a higher intelligence, greater strength, or more agile step?”

The wizard’s face brightened with appreciation for Ischarus’ understanding. “Indeed! You are aware of the place I seek! The root grows in the private grove of that very druid. I would teleport you into the place directly, but his grove has protective magic woven through it. I can get you close, however.”

Charis looked to her friends and smiled. “I know the perfect place.”

The party spoke with the wizard for another ten or fifteen minutes about the specifics of the root and how to signal the wizard once their task had been completed. As they spoke, the task seemed more and more legitimate and the party began to fear a trap less and less. The wizard promised to arrange for room and board at the wizard’s college for some last minute training and reequipping. They agreed that the expedition into Quehalost would leave in two day’s time.

As the party left, the wizard held out a hand to Ophee. “My servant, stay with me for a second.” The wizard closed the door when the party had exited the room. “You will be going with them to Quehalost.”

Ophee’s face paled instantly. “But, sir! That land is dangerous, and I am needed in Fingerdale!”

The wizard held up a single finger and looked deep into Ophee’s eyes. “Opheiluka, you have never rebelled against my wishes up to this point, and this is a bad time to begin to travel down that road. You failed me earlier as you brought the party into Eberdeen. You nearly spoiled what we have worked hard to find. This party is one of only a few groups capable of finding the root. Their trust in me and willingness to find the root for me was nearly ruined. For that, you must be punished. There is much you can learn from these four. If you go with them, it will give you time to learn from them and think about what you almost cost me. If you argue this point, I will increase your punishment. Have I made myself clear?”

Ophee’s eyes dropped to the floor as though she were being reprimanded by her father. “Yes, sir. I will do as you wish, and learn what you ask.”

The wizard placed his hand gently under her chin. He lifted her head softly upward until her eyes met his. “Tell me why you have reached this conclusion, my Opheiluka.” The wizard’s voice was soft and delicate, as if flowing with the sweetness of honey and the compassion of her mother.

Ophee smiled as their eyes met. “To serve you better, master. I live to serve you better.”

The wizard bent over the younger woman and kissed her on the forehead. In his hands, she was nothing of the strong woman that had met the party at the Shrouded Tenor and had come to them with great confidence on the site of the burned out villa. She was putty in his delicate wizardly hands. “Good, my dear Opheiluka. Do not forget that fact. You serve me well, but you can learn to serve me better. I am glad you eventually saw it my way. I can forget the confusion of doubt that momentarily crossed your mind. I love you too much to desire to have to resort to punishing you.”

Ophee blushed hard, but was unable to look away from his eyes. The wizard stroked her right cheek with the back of his free hand. “Now go, Opheiluka. Go and bond with the four. Learn from them, and serve them well in Quehalost.”

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
The teleport went smoothly, and it was a testimony to the power of the wizard to be able to teleport all six of the participants in a single maneuver. The entire party had gone willingly, although they were certainly cautious in regard to the potential for a trap.

Once they were inside the building, the wizard opened his arms wide and extended them toward an area with several high backed cushioned chairs. “Please,” the wizard began, “I’ll not have my guests be uncomfortable. You are in my care now, and I must apologize for the sincere amount of doubt that must have been cast upon my presence in the last few hours. Much of that doubt has been unfairly cast upon me by the lack of good decision making processes by my Opheiluka.”

The wizard looked towards Ophee with disappointment upon his face and continued to speak. “Not everyone in the city trusts the wizard’s college. You know that, I’m sure. Each of you has some form of magical ability and its application extends in various directions. You all know that there are circumstances in which magic is welcomed. But there are far more places in which the use of magic is much less welcomed. The city guard is one such location where magic is not always trusted.”

Rhema smiled politely. “Yet, Ophee told us that the city guard was familiar with you and your work.”

The wizard grimaced, but seemed to smile through it. “Ah, the proverbial snowball itself. If you stand atop a mountain and throw an innocent little snowball, there is potential for the snowball to pick up and collect more snow as it rolls down the face of the mountain. Only one in a million do not get stuck along the way, of course. But the one that manages to make it the whole way down the mountain collecting snow is a monster by the time it reaches the bottom. Yet it still remains a simple snowball that has gotten out of control.”

The wizard sat down once his guests – Ophee included – had found chairs for themselves and were comfortable. “So it is with that simple miscalculation. Opheiluka had a decision to make, and she thought that it would be best to not assume that these guards appreciated what the wizard’s college does for their life. She believed she had control of the situation and wanted to keep you out of the equation. In that respect, I will give her credit. She knows the guards much more than any of you, I presume. By giving you the impression that she had control of the situation, she minimized the possibility of introducing you all as random variables that could have upset her ability to control the situation.”

Semeion smiled as he listened to the wizard. He was clearly enjoying the multi-layered explanation upon explanation. He knew that the truth was somewhere in the midst of the stories and it was only a matter of digging deep enough to reach the truth. “Yet she was already playing damage control, then? Was that her great mistake? Once she realized that we were going to be met by the guards she began to perform damage control and assume the worst. She had, then, already admitted defeat and was simply trying to maintain the absolute essence of her plan.”

The wizard’s eyes sparkled as Semeion spoke. “Now, with that conclusion you would make an astonishing apprentice of mine!”

Semeion knew that the comment was rhetorical, but he still had enough bile inside his stomach with regard to what he believed to be the wizard’s summoning of an evil being. He chose to answer the wizard’s rhetorical statement anyway. “The offer is uninteresting to me. I was an apprentice, once. I find my own way through the power of magic.”

The wizard’s expression deflated. “I feared that too much damage had already been done when Opheiluka came to me and told me of the guards. That is why I had to arrange for that sham of a test outside.”

Charis raised an eyebrow as she listened to the wizard. “You call the summoning of a being of pure evil a sham? You call making us fight some sort of conjuration of evil a sham?”

The wizard rolled his eyes. “How long will you all continue to doubt my magic? What display do I need to give you to make you understand that the spell was a complex illusion? If that was an actual evil presence, the city guard would be required to come and ask for my incarceration. Even the guard themselves knew enough to not believe that I would actually summon an evil being!”

Charis objected once more. “That still gives us no reason to trust you.”

The wizard interrupted Charis’ speech. “But of course! That is why I said at the beginning that I feared that too much damage had already been done for you to truly trust me. The choices that Opheiluka made were suboptimal and that is obvious now. I am sure that for the moment all we can do is make a business agreement that is free of the burden of obligation. I have a need, and you have the ability to fulfill my need. You have a need, and I have an ability to fulfill your need. We can simply exchange abilities for each other. Perhaps through that I might be able to regain the trust that Opheiluka destroyed?”

Ischarus focused on the wizard’s face. “I already asked you outside to state what it is that we can do for you. You told us then that the time was not right. Is now an appropriate time? If it is, then I would like to know what you seek from us so that we may accomplish it and leave with that for which we came.”

The wizard clapped his hands together several times and stood. “Good! Then it appears you are at least willing to exchange services. What I need comes from a place few are skilled enough to tread. But from what I understand through my research, you can obtain it. I need a root grown in a specific forest in Quehalost.”

Rhema coughed in surprise. “Quehalost? What makes you think we can go into Quehalost?”

The wizard looked down to Rhema as though she were a young child trying to hide the truth. “My dear Rhema, do not hide the truth from me. You all do it so well, but you need not hide it from me. I am sure that Opheiluka has told you that I am a master of knowledge. I know that your party specializes in travel to Quehalost and returning with people to serve on your father’s villa. Rest easy, of course. Your secret is safe with me. What good would having that knowledge do me if everyone else knew that same knowledge? Knowledge is power, but only when you have the strength to keep important knowledge to yourself!”

The wizard’s eyes gleamed with a bright sparkle, as if the conversation were exciting him. “I also know that this is no slaving operation that you all run. You do it to bring peace and freedom to the land of Quehalost. I also know that your last journey there was quite successful. It even involved the Assembly of Virtuous Dragons, I do believe.”

Rhema dropped her glance to the floor. She knew that the wizard knew more than she had hoped about them. There was no use denying it any further.

The wizard continued. “You see, the root that I need grows on the northernmost edge of Quehalost, not far from the area that you all have traveled through before. If you would be willing to travel into Quehalost for me and retrieve this root, I would be most grateful. Grateful enough, I should say, to arrange a meeting with a member of the Ephistaemi regarding the information that you so desperately need to know?”

Semeion smirked. “Teleport us across the mountains to the place where the root is found and then bring us back. The total trip shouldn’t take more than an hour, and we’ll collect pounds of the root you need.”

The wizard smiled innocently and shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way, young mage. I can surely teleport you across the mountains. I can even bring you all back when you signal me. But the area that I have previously found the root is in the grove of a particular druid.”

Ischarus and Rhema groaned simultaneously. “Let me guess,” Ischarus began. “The place is guarded by a druid who likes to manipulate the natural order of animals? The druid likes to infuse animals with a higher intelligence, greater strength, or more agile step?”

The wizard’s face brightened with appreciation for Ischarus’ understanding. “Indeed! You are aware of the place I seek! The root grows in the private grove of that very druid. I would teleport you into the place directly, but his grove has protective magic woven through it. I can get you close, however.”

Charis looked to her friends and smiled. “I know the perfect place.”

The party spoke with the wizard for another ten or fifteen minutes about the specifics of the root and how to signal the wizard once their task had been completed. As they spoke, the task seemed more and more legitimate and the party began to fear a trap less and less. The wizard promised to arrange for room and board at the wizard’s college for some last minute training and reequipping. They agreed that the expedition into Quehalost would leave in two day’s time.

As the party left, the wizard held out a hand to Ophee. “My servant, stay with me for a second.” The wizard closed the door when the party had exited the room. “You will be going with them to Quehalost.”

Ophee’s face paled instantly. “But, sir! That land is dangerous, and I am needed in Fingerdale!”

The wizard held up a single finger and looked deep into Ophee’s eyes. “Opheiluka, you have never rebelled against my wishes up to this point, and this is a bad time to begin to travel down that road. You failed me earlier as you brought the party into Eberdeen. You nearly spoiled what we have worked hard to find. This party is one of only a few groups capable of finding the root. Their trust in me and willingness to find the root for me was nearly ruined. For that, you must be punished. There is much you can learn from these four. If you go with them, it will give you time to learn from them and think about what you almost cost me. If you argue this point, I will increase your punishment. Have I made myself clear?”

Ophee’s eyes dropped to the floor as though she were being reprimanded by her father. “Yes, sir. I will do as you wish, and learn what you ask.”

The wizard placed his hand gently under her chin. He lifted her head softly upward until her eyes met his. “Tell me why you have reached this conclusion, my Opheiluka.” The wizard’s voice was soft and delicate, as if flowing with the sweetness of honey and the compassion of her mother.

Ophee smiled as their eyes met. “To serve you better, master. I live to serve you better.”

The wizard bent over the younger woman and kissed her on the forehead. In his hands, she was nothing of the strong woman that had met the party at the Shrouded Tenor and had come to them with great confidence on the site of the burned out villa. She was putty in his delicate wizardly hands. “Good, my dear Opheiluka. Do not forget that fact. You serve me well, but you can learn to serve me better. I am glad you eventually saw it my way. I can forget the confusion of doubt that momentarily crossed your mind. I love you too much to desire to have to resort to punishing you.”

Ophee blushed hard, but was unable to look away from his eyes. The wizard stroked her right cheek with the back of his free hand. “Now go, Opheiluka. Go and bond with the four. Learn from them, and serve them well in Quehalost.” [/Sblock]

Chapter Five: THE COMPLETE OUTLANDISHNESS OF THEM ALL

The two days of training and equipping passed quickly and before the party could realize where the time had gone they found themselves voluntarily on the southern edge of the Tongra-Quehalost Mountains. Charis had convinced them that the safest place to blindly teleport into would be her old village. She wanted to see how the land had changed and grown up without her Drakontai kin to manage the land. She had expected it to be considerably wilder than how she had left it.

The party was not disappointed. In many respects, Quehalost was just as much home as anywhere else. Of course it was dangerous and things were always a bit on the wilder side, but there were certain familiarities here as well.

Everyone except Ophee relaxed when they saw the circle of huts materializing before their eyes. Ophee found it difficult to regain the confidence that she could normally count upon. It was one thing to work with the civilized population of Fingerdale; but it was entirely a different matter to deal with the uncivilized wiles of Quehalost. There were no rules here except survival. Everything would do what it took to survive. She knew that every fight would be for life.

Charis turned a full circle as she looked upon her old homeland. Out of habit, she lifted her eyes to the platform that had once been the perch for her father dragon. It was now vacant, and it even looked as if it were a void upon the land. Charis sighed, but it was not a mournful sigh. There was a smile upon her face even in the midst of the sigh.

Semeion wrapped his arm around her back and rested his hand upon her far hip. “Miss it, Charis?”

Charis smiled in amusement. “Yes, but not in the way that you think. I don’t miss life here. I miss the land. I miss the forest. I miss the little stream that we used to bathe in. I miss the field over the hill that we used for hunting deer and other small game. I miss the land, but not necessarily the life I lived here under my dragon father.”

Ophee shook her head in disbelief. “But there is so little control here. There is so little safety. How could you sleep at night?”

Charis laughed and pointed up to the dark void that used to house the red wyrm. “We had a dragon to protect us. I know that he was a red dragon, and they’re known for being violent and wrathful. But in terms of protecting us, he was fervent in his defense. We were his, and as far as he was concerned nothing would take what belonged to him so long as he lived.”

Rhema and Ischarus exchanged smiles, and Ischarus spoke the thought that they had passed between them without the need for words. “Until a few novitiates like us came through and pulled the wool over his eyes.”

Charis looked back toward Ischarus. “Novitiates? Do you even know what that means? What, have you been studying under Semeion or something?”

Ischarus laughed. “It’s a word I picked up at the wizard’s college. They kept referring to me as a novitiate mage. There is no hiding that my casting ability is less than a true wizard and that I focus more on my blade. At the same time, I’ll probably always be a novitiate in their eyes.”

Semeion shook his head in amusement. “I would not call your or Rhema novitiates in Quehalost, though. I’m not sure a person exists in Tongra that can do what the two of you did for a few years before meeting me.”

Rhema had wandered a few paces away from the party and she reached out to touch the smooth sacrificial stone at the center of the village. She changed the topic of the conversation as her hand felt the coolness of the stone. “Well, the good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any sign of people left behind. And it doesn’t look like a legitimate presence has taken control over the land, either.”

Semeion moved toward Rhema, and Ophee followed him. Her curiosity was getting the better of her and the conversation about Ischarus’ and Rhema’s skill regarding Quehalost had helped to calm her nerves. “So we are safe?”

Semeion rested a hand upon her shoulder. “As safe as anyone can be in Quehalost. You’re stuck with us, Ophee. But if you stick with us, do what we say, and trust us I can say that you’ll be as safe as can be in this land.”

When Semeion moved to Rhema, Ischarus and Charis drew their weapons and began to check the perimeter of the village. Ischarus called out from the edge using a calm tone. “The residents to the east are aware of the vacancy of the dragon. I’ve found tracks from a scouting party or two. As suspicious as they are, they are likely held back by the mysterious disappearance of the dragon. They’ll be unlikely to claim this land too quickly until they can understand why the dragon and his people left. They’re likely to never figure it out, however.”

Charis called out from the other side of the village. The village was certainly small enough for her to hear Ischarus’ earlier comments. “We’ve always known them to be cautious. They don’t like to expand too much, because it draws attention to themselves. The more attention they draw, the less they’ll be able to live in the quiet that they desire. I suspect you’ve found tracks of a hunting party out to find meat. When we had clashes with them it was often over the hunt and the natural prey within the land. With my people and my father dragon gone, I have no doubt they’ve begun to hunt the land. They can come and go as they please that way.”

Ophee looked long and hard at the stone. “Is that covered in blood?”

Rhema nodded. “This is a different land. Sacrifices equal protection, here. You sacrifice something to appease a higher power that has the ability to protect you. Chances are that if we are caught, we could end up on a stone altar such as this. Stick close and do what we say. You’ll be fine.”

Semeion looked to the horizon. He was scanning the sky in search of potential enemies. With a vacant perch and an undiscovered horde, this would be a prime spot to welcome another dragon looking to stake a claim for power among his kind. “I would suspect that what you say is true, Rhema. Except for the land for which we are headed. I doubt the druid will offer us up as a sacrifice to the gods that he serves. My guess is that if we were to be sacrificed to anything it would be as dinner for his creatures.”

Ophee’s face paled at the sudden change of conversation. “No offense, but you all aren’t exactly painting a pretty picture, here.”

Rhema smiled as though she enjoyed scaring Ophee. “No offense taken. But it isn’t exactly a pretty picture to paint. Now you know why it was that your master was so upset at the fact that we lost trust in him by the way in which we were introduced to Eberdeen. If we weren’t willing to travel into Quehalost for him, there aren’t many others who would. He would likely have needed to come into this dangerous land himself. For a wizard of the college, that possibility could not be very appealing.”

Ischarus approached from the other side of the stone as introduced himself into the conversation. He and Charis had made a perimeter search and found few reasons to suspect that the area would not be relatively safe. “So what kind of creatures do you suspect that we’ll find? I know that the ghostly figure we met our last time through here called them phrenic. What do you suppose that means?”

Rhema looked her husband in the eye and smirked. “It likely means that you’ll be facing the same power that you married. The word phrenic simply means something that pertains to the mind. As we guessed earlier in the wizard’s college, these creatures are likely going to be pretty intelligent. They might even be able to naturally duplicate some of my abilities. I would suspect that our opponents will use intelligent tactics and their attacks may come without warning. You all will get a taste of what others feel when I fight against them.”

Semeion completed his scan of the horizon. “I know that it is early still, but might I suggest we spend a day here? I’d like to get a feel for the place around us before we immediately strike out to the east. Besides, here we have shelter, and this may be the last time that we have this luxury until we return. We could spend the night rather unnoticed.”

Rhema agreed. “We’ll lose the rest of the day, and that is several hours of traveling. But I think the sentiment is wise. If we leave in the morning we’ll make much better use of our time tomorrow.”

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
Chapter Five: THE COMPLETE OUTLANDISHNESS OF THEM ALL

The two days of training and equipping passed quickly and before the party could realize where the time had gone they found themselves voluntarily on the southern edge of the Tongra-Quehalost Mountains. Charis had convinced them that the safest place to blindly teleport into would be her old village. She wanted to see how the land had changed and grown up without her Drakontai kin to manage the land. She had expected it to be considerably wilder than how she had left it.

The party was not disappointed. In many respects, Quehalost was just as much home as anywhere else. Of course it was dangerous and things were always a bit on the wilder side, but there were certain familiarities here as well.

Everyone except Ophee relaxed when they saw the circle of huts materializing before their eyes. Ophee found it difficult to regain the confidence that she could normally count upon. It was one thing to work with the civilized population of Fingerdale; but it was entirely a different matter to deal with the uncivilized wiles of Quehalost. There were no rules here except survival. Everything would do what it took to survive. She knew that every fight would be for life.

Charis turned a full circle as she looked upon her old homeland. Out of habit, she lifted her eyes to the platform that had once been the perch for her father dragon. It was now vacant, and it even looked as if it were a void upon the land. Charis sighed, but it was not a mournful sigh. There was a smile upon her face even in the midst of the sigh.

Semeion wrapped his arm around her back and rested his hand upon her far hip. “Miss it, Charis?”

Charis smiled in amusement. “Yes, but not in the way that you think. I don’t miss life here. I miss the land. I miss the forest. I miss the little stream that we used to bathe in. I miss the field over the hill that we used for hunting deer and other small game. I miss the land, but not necessarily the life I lived here under my dragon father.”

Ophee shook her head in disbelief. “But there is so little control here. There is so little safety. How could you sleep at night?”

Charis laughed and pointed up to the dark void that used to house the red wyrm. “We had a dragon to protect us. I know that he was a red dragon, and they’re known for being violent and wrathful. But in terms of protecting us, he was fervent in his defense. We were his, and as far as he was concerned nothing would take what belonged to him so long as he lived.”

Rhema and Ischarus exchanged smiles, and Ischarus spoke the thought that they had passed between them without the need for words. “Until a few novitiates like us came through and pulled the wool over his eyes.”

Charis looked back toward Ischarus. “Novitiates? Do you even know what that means? What, have you been studying under Semeion or something?”

Ischarus laughed. “It’s a word I picked up at the wizard’s college. They kept referring to me as a novitiate mage. There is no hiding that my casting ability is less than a true wizard and that I focus more on my blade. At the same time, I’ll probably always be a novitiate in their eyes.”

Semeion shook his head in amusement. “I would not call your or Rhema novitiates in Quehalost, though. I’m not sure a person exists in Tongra that can do what the two of you did for a few years before meeting me.”

Rhema had wandered a few paces away from the party and she reached out to touch the smooth sacrificial stone at the center of the village. She changed the topic of the conversation as her hand felt the coolness of the stone. “Well, the good news is that there doesn’t seem to be any sign of people left behind. And it doesn’t look like a legitimate presence has taken control over the land, either.”

Semeion moved toward Rhema, and Ophee followed him. Her curiosity was getting the better of her and the conversation about Ischarus’ and Rhema’s skill regarding Quehalost had helped to calm her nerves. “So we are safe?”

Semeion rested a hand upon her shoulder. “As safe as anyone can be in Quehalost. You’re stuck with us, Ophee. But if you stick with us, do what we say, and trust us I can say that you’ll be as safe as can be in this land.”

When Semeion moved to Rhema, Ischarus and Charis drew their weapons and began to check the perimeter of the village. Ischarus called out from the edge using a calm tone. “The residents to the east are aware of the vacancy of the dragon. I’ve found tracks from a scouting party or two. As suspicious as they are, they are likely held back by the mysterious disappearance of the dragon. They’ll be unlikely to claim this land too quickly until they can understand why the dragon and his people left. They’re likely to never figure it out, however.”

Charis called out from the other side of the village. The village was certainly small enough for her to hear Ischarus’ earlier comments. “We’ve always known them to be cautious. They don’t like to expand too much, because it draws attention to themselves. The more attention they draw, the less they’ll be able to live in the quiet that they desire. I suspect you’ve found tracks of a hunting party out to find meat. When we had clashes with them it was often over the hunt and the natural prey within the land. With my people and my father dragon gone, I have no doubt they’ve begun to hunt the land. They can come and go as they please that way.”

Ophee looked long and hard at the stone. “Is that covered in blood?”

Rhema nodded. “This is a different land. Sacrifices equal protection, here. You sacrifice something to appease a higher power that has the ability to protect you. Chances are that if we are caught, we could end up on a stone altar such as this. Stick close and do what we say. You’ll be fine.”

Semeion looked to the horizon. He was scanning the sky in search of potential enemies. With a vacant perch and an undiscovered horde, this would be a prime spot to welcome another dragon looking to stake a claim for power among his kind. “I would suspect that what you say is true, Rhema. Except for the land for which we are headed. I doubt the druid will offer us up as a sacrifice to the gods that he serves. My guess is that if we were to be sacrificed to anything it would be as dinner for his creatures.”

Ophee’s face paled at the sudden change of conversation. “No offense, but you all aren’t exactly painting a pretty picture, here.”

Rhema smiled as though she enjoyed scaring Ophee. “No offense taken. But it isn’t exactly a pretty picture to paint. Now you know why it was that your master was so upset at the fact that we lost trust in him by the way in which we were introduced to Eberdeen. If we weren’t willing to travel into Quehalost for him, there aren’t many others who would. He would likely have needed to come into this dangerous land himself. For a wizard of the college, that possibility could not be very appealing.”

Ischarus approached from the other side of the stone as introduced himself into the conversation. He and Charis had made a perimeter search and found few reasons to suspect that the area would not be relatively safe. “So what kind of creatures do you suspect that we’ll find? I know that the ghostly figure we met our last time through here called them phrenic. What do you suppose that means?”

Rhema looked her husband in the eye and smirked. “It likely means that you’ll be facing the same power that you married. The word phrenic simply means something that pertains to the mind. As we guessed earlier in the wizard’s college, these creatures are likely going to be pretty intelligent. They might even be able to naturally duplicate some of my abilities. I would suspect that our opponents will use intelligent tactics and their attacks may come without warning. You all will get a taste of what others feel when I fight against them.”

Semeion completed his scan of the horizon. “I know that it is early still, but might I suggest we spend a day here? I’d like to get a feel for the place around us before we immediately strike out to the east. Besides, here we have shelter, and this may be the last time that we have this luxury until we return. We could spend the night rather unnoticed.”

Rhema agreed. “We’ll lose the rest of the day, and that is several hours of traveling. But I think the sentiment is wise. If we leave in the morning we’ll make much better use of our time tomorrow.”
[/Sblock]

The party left Charis’ homeland behind them as the sun was rising above the treetops. They had decided to rest in one of the abandoned cabins around the sacrificing stone and had thus been able to block the windows to seal out the light. Once the light was able to be blocked, they were able to convince their bodies that it was nighttime and had gotten an early start on sleep. With several hours of sleep under their belt before the sun actually went down, they were able to rise in the morning quite refreshed and with several hours of darkness to cover their travel.

Under the cover of darkness, the party made good time in reaching the edge of the land that was once controlled by the red wyrm. Ischarus wanted to travel next to the mountains as they moved through the next domain to the east. He had wanted to travel next to the mountains the last time they were through this land, but the light-gray figure that they had met had other plans for them. This time, he would keep the mountains to one side. The mountains would help minimize the potential for ambush.

The party made good time and passed through the land unchallenged. By nightfall they arrived at the entrance to the mountains that they had used the last time entering Quehalost. According to the directions given by the ghostly figure, this meant that they were transitioning into the druid’s land. There would be no telling what they could expect from here on until their mission was complete.

The party camped and set watches for the night. They decided to pull double duty and post a double watch. They had an extra person available for the watches, and it was unlikely that Ophee was in a position to not be trusted. If she were to do anything to the party, she would be stranded in Quehalost. If she were stranded without the party, she’d likely wind up dead before another sunset.

Morning came quickly for the party. The prior day’s journey had tired them and they had slept well. As they headed into the sunrise and to the east, it didn’t take long to realize that they were being watched. It started with an eerie feeling, not unlike the feeling that they had before they discovered the ghostly figure. They continued to travel toward the east as if they were unaware of the fact that they were being watched.

After traveling for another twenty minutes, they intentionally passed into an area where the vegetation was not quite as thick. They had long been suspicious that the being that was keeping tabs on them was hiding high above them in the trees. When the vegetation thinned, it became easier to discover the presence behind their suspicion.

The creature following them was at least smart enough to realize what the party was doing. However, rather than keep itself hidden, the creature decided to challenge the party. A large ape swung out of a nearby tree and let out a shrill cry for battle. Spittle flew out of its mouth as it yelled, and the creature exposed his sharp fangs. Its canine teeth looked quite capable of sinking deep within the flesh of its opponents.

The ape beat its breast and called out once more. This cry was not nearly projected as much as the one before. At the conclusion of the cry, a glimmer appeared for an instant before the ape. The beast snarled and peered directly into Rhema’s eyes.

Rhema returned the glare as her mind identified the effect. “This ape’s advanced! We’ve got the right land, that’s for sure. My guess is that the first call was for help. The second call must have been a trained response to bring up some kind of barrier. Expect it to fight with a shield in ways that you don’t expect!”

Ischarus drew his sword. Rhema’s challenge was an outlet for tension that had been building for over a day now. Charis joined him by drawing her trusty pick. They exchanged smiles and knew the plan.

Before Ischarus and Charis could charge, Rhema decided to make one desperate challenge. If it worked, it would alleviate the need for combat altogether. She locked her eyes with those of the beast. The ape seemed willing to focus on her. “You do not need to challenge us, creature of the forest. We have not come to harm you; we have only come for a root specimen. It is a plant we seek, not your destruction.”

Ophee snickered as Rhema spoke. When Rhema was finished, Ophee asked a question. “Do you actually think that it understood you?”

Rhema smiled as she continued to hold the creature’s stare. “Words are often not the most important part of communication. The ape can understand me.”

She couldn’t have timed her words to any greater perfection. The ape shrieked and howled and beat its breasts once more. It slowly leaned forward and screamed a war cry in the direction of the party.

Ischarus allowed a grin to pass from ear to ear. “Apparently it can, Rhema!” His legs leapt into motion and he quickly closed the distance between himself and the ape. The beast took a swing towards Ischarus, but Ischarus ducked upon the swing and brought his own sword up hard against the creature. A small patch of static crackled along the edge of his blade as his sword pierced the magical barrier protecting the ape. In spite of the protective barrier, Ischarus managed to land a solid blow against the ape.

Semeion smiled as Ischarus’ attack landed. “Ayal nuan.” A gray cloud formed over both of Semeion’s shoulders. With a smile he gestured toward the ape. “Stick the fury beast.”

As if the gaseous cloud were responding to Semeion’s command, a blade shot forward out of the cloud as if shot from a bow. The head of the blade spun as it streaked towards the ape and landed. The blade caught the beast solidly in the chest and punctured deep. Red blood began to pour out of the creature’s chest.

Charis was quick to follow Ischarus’ assault. Semeion’s magical attack flashed over her shoulder as Charis moved to attack the ape from the opposite side as Ischarus had attacked. Her pick sliced through the air and caught the ape from behind. The ape howled in pain as Charis penetrated the creature’s hide and then withdrew the point in preparation for another attack.

In pain, the beast spun around and unleashed a vicious attack against Charis. It attacked with a serious assault from its claws. Both claws flashed across Charis face and cut deep gashes along both cheeks. The creature’s claws were so nasty that after finishing slashing up Charis’ face they moved on to her shoulders.

Charis cried out in pain as her skin tore. She dropped to her knees in an attempt to catch her breath and regain her focus. Her chest labored as her mind attempted to block out the pain.

Rhema knew that another attack from the creature would tear Charis completely in half. As it were, she was still able to heal her own wounds through magic. Rhema allowed anger to rise up from her gut and fill her mind with its rage. She thrust the anger towards the ape and allowed the creature to feel the effect.

In spite of its enhanced mental ability, the creature was no match for Rhema’s mental assault. The beast howled as its oversized palms wrapped around its head. It fell to its knees and slipped onto its side. It lay nearly motionless. The only detectable movement was that of a shallow breathing.

Semeion charged to Charis’ side in order to check if she was alright. “Charis? Are you okay?” His hand struck out to meet those of his wife. He didn’t notice that her hands were wet with her own blood.

Charis cried in pain, but forced the healing magic to surge upward through her arms and into her hands. As painful as it was, she forced herself to embrace her wounds. The pain from the touch was brutal until the warmth of her magic sealed the wounds. Enough magic poured through her hands to ensure that her flesh sealed without leaving a scar. The pain would no doubt remain for hours, if not days. However, she would eventually show no scar.

Rhema approached the beast as its enormous body lay upon the ground. “It will live if we leave it here. It isn’t dying, simply unconscious. But this is only the beginning of what we can expect. I would imagine that most of the creatures we face will be able to shield themselves. That is one of the most basic of mental projections. I’ve heard of beings who can teach animals to accomplish it, but this is the first time I’ve seen actual proof.”

Ophee breathed in deeply. In this battle, she had frozen. Fortunately, they hadn’t needed her. But there could be no doubt. Quehalost would take her life without regret if she let her guard down. She’d frozen once. If she froze again it might mean the end of her.

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
The party left Charis’ homeland behind them as the sun was rising above the treetops. They had decided to rest in one of the abandoned cabins around the sacrificing stone and had thus been able to block the windows to seal out the light. Once the light was able to be blocked, they were able to convince their bodies that it was nighttime and had gotten an early start on sleep. With several hours of sleep under their belt before the sun actually went down, they were able to rise in the morning quite refreshed and with several hours of darkness to cover their travel.

Under the cover of darkness, the party made good time in reaching the edge of the land that was once controlled by the red wyrm. Ischarus wanted to travel next to the mountains as they moved through the next domain to the east. He had wanted to travel next to the mountains the last time they were through this land, but the light-gray figure that they had met had other plans for them. This time, he would keep the mountains to one side. The mountains would help minimize the potential for ambush.

The party made good time and passed through the land unchallenged. By nightfall they arrived at the entrance to the mountains that they had used the last time entering Quehalost. According to the directions given by the ghostly figure, this meant that they were transitioning into the druid’s land. There would be no telling what they could expect from here on until their mission was complete.

The party camped and set watches for the night. They decided to pull double duty and post a double watch. They had an extra person available for the watches, and it was unlikely that Ophee was in a position to not be trusted. If she were to do anything to the party, she would be stranded in Quehalost. If she were stranded without the party, she’d likely wind up dead before another sunset.

Morning came quickly for the party. The prior day’s journey had tired them and they had slept well. As they headed into the sunrise and to the east, it didn’t take long to realize that they were being watched. It started with an eerie feeling, not unlike the feeling that they had before they discovered the ghostly figure. They continued to travel toward the east as if they were unaware of the fact that they were being watched.

After traveling for another twenty minutes, they intentionally passed into an area where the vegetation was not quite as thick. They had long been suspicious that the being that was keeping tabs on them was hiding high above them in the trees. When the vegetation thinned, it became easier to discover the presence behind their suspicion.

The creature following them was at least smart enough to realize what the party was doing. However, rather than keep itself hidden, the creature decided to challenge the party. A large ape swung out of a nearby tree and let out a shrill cry for battle. Spittle flew out of its mouth as it yelled, and the creature exposed his sharp fangs. Its canine teeth looked quite capable of sinking deep within the flesh of its opponents.

The ape beat its breast and called out once more. This cry was not nearly projected as much as the one before. At the conclusion of the cry, a glimmer appeared for an instant before the ape. The beast snarled and peered directly into Rhema’s eyes.

Rhema returned the glare as her mind identified the effect. “This ape’s advanced! We’ve got the right land, that’s for sure. My guess is that the first call was for help. The second call must have been a trained response to bring up some kind of barrier. Expect it to fight with a shield in ways that you don’t expect!”

Ischarus drew his sword. Rhema’s challenge was an outlet for tension that had been building for over a day now. Charis joined him by drawing her trusty pick. They exchanged smiles and knew the plan.

Before Ischarus and Charis could charge, Rhema decided to make one desperate challenge. If it worked, it would alleviate the need for combat altogether. She locked her eyes with those of the beast. The ape seemed willing to focus on her. “You do not need to challenge us, creature of the forest. We have not come to harm you; we have only come for a root specimen. It is a plant we seek, not your destruction.”

Ophee snickered as Rhema spoke. When Rhema was finished, Ophee asked a question. “Do you actually think that it understood you?”

Rhema smiled as she continued to hold the creature’s stare. “Words are often not the most important part of communication. The ape can understand me.”

She couldn’t have timed her words to any greater perfection. The ape shrieked and howled and beat its breasts once more. It slowly leaned forward and screamed a war cry in the direction of the party.

Ischarus allowed a grin to pass from ear to ear. “Apparently it can, Rhema!” His legs leapt into motion and he quickly closed the distance between himself and the ape. The beast took a swing towards Ischarus, but Ischarus ducked upon the swing and brought his own sword up hard against the creature. A small patch of static crackled along the edge of his blade as his sword pierced the magical barrier protecting the ape. In spite of the protective barrier, Ischarus managed to land a solid blow against the ape.

Semeion smiled as Ischarus’ attack landed. “Ayal nuan.” A gray cloud formed over both of Semeion’s shoulders. With a smile he gestured toward the ape. “Stick the fury beast.”

As if the gaseous cloud were responding to Semeion’s command, a blade shot forward out of the cloud as if shot from a bow. The head of the blade spun as it streaked towards the ape and landed. The blade caught the beast solidly in the chest and punctured deep. Red blood began to pour out of the creature’s chest.

Charis was quick to follow Ischarus’ assault. Semeion’s magical attack flashed over her shoulder as Charis moved to attack the ape from the opposite side as Ischarus had attacked. Her pick sliced through the air and caught the ape from behind. The ape howled in pain as Charis penetrated the creature’s hide and then withdrew the point in preparation for another attack.

In pain, the beast spun around and unleashed a vicious attack against Charis. It attacked with a serious assault from its claws. Both claws flashed across Charis face and cut deep gashes along both cheeks. The creature’s claws were so nasty that after finishing slashing up Charis’ face they moved on to her shoulders.

Charis cried out in pain as her skin tore. She dropped to her knees in an attempt to catch her breath and regain her focus. Her chest labored as her mind attempted to block out the pain.

Rhema knew that another attack from the creature would tear Charis completely in half. As it were, she was still able to heal her own wounds through magic. Rhema allowed anger to rise up from her gut and fill her mind with its rage. She thrust the anger towards the ape and allowed the creature to feel the effect.

In spite of its enhanced mental ability, the creature was no match for Rhema’s mental assault. The beast howled as its oversized palms wrapped around its head. It fell to its knees and slipped onto its side. It lay nearly motionless. The only detectable movement was that of a shallow breathing.

Semeion charged to Charis’ side in order to check if she was alright. “Charis? Are you okay?” His hand struck out to meet those of his wife. He didn’t notice that her hands were wet with her own blood.

Charis cried in pain, but forced the healing magic to surge upward through her arms and into her hands. As painful as it was, she forced herself to embrace her wounds. The pain from the touch was brutal until the warmth of her magic sealed the wounds. Enough magic poured through her hands to ensure that her flesh sealed without leaving a scar. The pain would no doubt remain for hours, if not days. However, she would eventually show no scar.

Rhema approached the beast as its enormous body lay upon the ground. “It will live if we leave it here. It isn’t dying, simply unconscious. But this is only the beginning of what we can expect. I would imagine that most of the creatures we face will be able to shield themselves. That is one of the most basic of mental projections. I’ve heard of beings who can teach animals to accomplish it, but this is the first time I’ve seen actual proof.”

Ophee breathed in deeply. In this battle, she had frozen. Fortunately, they hadn’t needed her. But there could be no doubt. Quehalost would take her life without regret if she let her guard down. She’d frozen once. If she froze again it might mean the end of her. [/Sblock]

Charis looked into the forest. “I wonder how long we’ll have until the next one?”

Ischarus breathed in deep and listened to the wind. “Well, if the first call that the creature gave out was any indication, I don’t think it will be long. The call before the one that brought up the magical barrier was definitely one for alarm.”

Semeion turned and looked at the fallen beast. He knew it would live. Hopefully they would be long gone before it recovered. “I’ve read that many primates actually will use a call as an alarm when intruders enter their area. This one certainly was trained enough to not call immediately, but only when it felt it was necessary to fight.”

Semeion was barely able to complete his thought when a blur made up of light brown and blue flashed by his face. His shoulder immediately throbbed in pain as two fangs jabbed through the skin and drew blood. His head turned and saw that he was being attacked by a very large baboon. The baboon easily weighed over one hundred and forty pounds and when it stood it was almost five feet in height. The creature bounced of Semeion and hopped to its feet.

From above the party in a set of trees, another baboon leapt into the air. This baboon crashed to the earth on top of Rhema. It was almost as if the baboons were intelligent enough to know which party members to assault. Semeion and Rhema were clearly the weakest of the party and would go down first. Yet, Rhema was able to evade the blow from above as she rolled out of the way.

As she rolled back onto her feet, Rhema drew out her crystal sword. The blade hummed with its own psychic energy within. Rhema sliced through the air with the edge of the blade, but her sword bounced off of an invisible barrier in front of the baboon. In her mind, Rhema heard the mutterings of the scarlet crystal that she had come to know intimately since it had called out to her from within Braagh’s case at the Translucent Corymb. “This one already has its defenses up. We’ve been ambushed!”

Rhema took no time in relaying the message. “The baboons are advanced and prepared! They were waiting for the right time to attack!”

Ischarus stepped up beside his wife and swung hard with his sword. His blade had not yet been sheathed since the end of the assault by the ape. However, the hurry to come to her aid made his aim less than stellar. The baboon hardly needed to move to evade the blow.

Charis’ blow against the same baboon didn’t miss its mark. She desired to rush to Semeion’s aid, but she knew that if she helped Ischarus by fighting from the opposite side of the baboon that they would finish the battle more quickly. While her pick sunk into the flesh of the baboon and left a slice along the creature’s leg, Charis yelled out instructions to her husband. “Just don’t get hit, we’ll be there in a second!”

The baboon that had originally attacked Rhema now found itself surrounded. Ischarus and Charis fought from opposite sides while Rhema attacked from Ischarus’ flank. The beast had no outlet but to try and fight madly and bring down the weakest of the trio. It lunged forward in an attempt to bite Rhema, but she was able to duck and dodge again to avoid being hit.

In spite of her defensive posturing, Rhema was able to manage to land a clean strike against the creature. Her crystalline friend shouted victoriously at the strike, praising her in her mind for managing to slip past the baboon’s invisible barrier. Had she not been quite so defensive, Rhema had a chance to strike at one of the creature’s vital organs. Instead, she merely left a bloody streak across the baboon’s belly. She had only grazed the skin.

Ischarus had enough of the baboon’s attacks. “Thin Zecka Egro.” He called out the magical words as he lined up a massive strike against the baboon. His sword flashed through the air and landed with considerable aim.

The blow itself would not have been enough to drop the baboon. As the sword cut into the creature’s shoulder, light green electricity jumped out of his fingers and danced for an instant upon the hilt of the sword. Once they found their direction towards the baboon the green electric sparks leapt down the blade in a zigzag pattern – often passing through the sharp steel in route from one side to the other.

The baboon jerked and convulsed for several seconds before Ischarus could remove his sword. The blade separated from the baboon and the creature’s eyes rolled back into its head. Its body had been pushed to the brink of death.

Ischarus couldn’t stand the thought that his blow might have been too powerful. “Charis, try to save the monkey. Rhema and I will get the one off of Semeion.”

Charis nodded and knelt beside the helpless baboon. There was life still inside of it. Much like the ape only moments before, Charis was able to help the baboon stabilize and rest naturally before it could die. “Done!”

Semeion and the baboon made no concrete efforts toward damaging each other during the contest. They had each swung several times, but neither of them could land any blows. Semeion wasn’t exactly trying to hit, however. Semeion’s goal was to keep the baboon at bay while using his sword to parry any incoming assault. He knew that if he could stay on his feet long enough that Charis and Ischarus would eventually come to help.

Ophee had approached the baboon from the side, but the creature managed to dodge each of Ophee’s attacks as well. When she realized that she lacked the necessary skill with the blade to do any significant damage, she brought a familiar set of arcane words to mind. “Daancrah” On the exact opposite side of the baboon as she stood, a panther appeared. Ophee hoped that the panther would be close enough to a natural predator that it might scare the baboon.

The baboon had an advantage over Ophee, however. The baboon’s nose told the creature that although its eyes were seeing a panther immediately beside it, the panther simply wasn’t there. The baboon blinked and focused on the panther for a second and watched it vanish from sight. Ophee knew that her simple illusion hadn’t quite done the job. The baboon turned to Ophee and laughed as if it understood exactly what had happened.

Semeion didn’t expect that it was Rhema who would come to his aid first – much less through the use of her sword. As Rhema approached, the baboon landed a glancing blow with its fangs. Rhema took advantage of the distraction from the primate and moved behind the creature. While it occupied itself with Semeion, she drove the dark crystalline sword into the baboon’s back. The primate howled from the unexpected attack.

Ischarus moved in to help Semeion as he had promised to Charis. The baboon saw him coming, however. The creature realized that it was alone once Rhema had managed to attack it. With the warning from Rhema’s attack, the baboon dodged out of the way of Ischarus’ sword.

Charis rose up from her knees once she knew that the baboon that had already been gravely injured would not immediately die. Her fingers reached out for the end of her pick, which she had laid upon the ground. Her fingers fumbled at the grip and she rose without managing to grab hold of the weapon. She thought about stopping to pick it up, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to help Ischarus flank the creature if she stopped. She quickly unfastened the clasp which held the end of her hammer to her belt and approached the baboon for a strike. The timing of her attack was just off, and the head of the hammer sailed wide.

The baboon was no fool. It was now completely surrounded. The only escape that it could possibly hope for was to leap into the air and hope to latch onto a branch that was strong enough to hold its weight. As the primate left the ground, each of the party took a free swing at the retreating creature’s body. The baboon used its powerful legs to spring into the air and its dexterous hands found a branch to which it could cling for a second.

Ischarus, Rhema, and Semeion were each able to land a successful strike as the primate leapt out of the center of the battle. Although the blows were more than glancing strikes, the cumulative effect was not enough to bring the creature to the ground. The baboon hung off of the branch for a second while it regained its momentum and shot upwards into the tree.

In an instant Ischarus, Charis, and Ophee each had their bows drawn. Semeion swore they had knocked an arrow before their dropped blades struck the ground around their feet. Ischarus’ arrow sailed through the air with tremendous accuracy and nearly plucked the primate to the ground single-handedly. Charis’ arrow had a nearly devastating effect as it snapped in half when she released the string. Ophee’s arrow sailed through the air and stuck the primate in the back.

The baboon gripped the tree tightly as it fought for life. After several seconds the baboon fell out of the tree to the ground. Although it struck the ground with a decent amount of force, the baboon was lucky enough to land on a side that didn’t have arrows sticking out of it.

Charis ran over to the creature’s side and checked for signs of life. “It’s only stunned! It should live.” In spite of the fact that the creatures had been trying to kill them, she wore a smile upon her face. She turned to Ophee and nodded affirmatively. “Nice shot.”

Ophee smiled back. “Well, after watching you make sure the other baboon didn’t die after Ischarus’ great strike, I knew I couldn’t kill that one. I was just trying to keep it from escaping. I had to hope the fall wouldn’t kill it.”

Rhema patted Ophee on the shoulder in congratulations. “You learn quickly. We don’t kill anything with intelligence, ever. These things are animals, of course. But they are animals with intelligence nonetheless.”

Ischarus also congratulated Ophee. “Good shot, Ophee.”

Indeed, it was a good shot. Perhaps more importantly, she hadn’t frozen this time. She hadn’t quite been effective in the beginning, but she had come through gloriously in the end.

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
Charis looked into the forest. “I wonder how long we’ll have until the next one?”

Ischarus breathed in deep and listened to the wind. “Well, if the first call that the creature gave out was any indication, I don’t think it will be long. The call before the one that brought up the magical barrier was definitely one for alarm.”

Semeion turned and looked at the fallen beast. He knew it would live. Hopefully they would be long gone before it recovered. “I’ve read that many primates actually will use a call as an alarm when intruders enter their area. This one certainly was trained enough to not call immediately, but only when it felt it was necessary to fight.”

Semeion was barely able to complete his thought when a blur made up of light brown and blue flashed by his face. His shoulder immediately throbbed in pain as two fangs jabbed through the skin and drew blood. His head turned and saw that he was being attacked by a very large baboon. The baboon easily weighed over one hundred and forty pounds and when it stood it was almost five feet in height. The creature bounced of Semeion and hopped to its feet.

From above the party in a set of trees, another baboon leapt into the air. This baboon crashed to the earth on top of Rhema. It was almost as if the baboons were intelligent enough to know which party members to assault. Semeion and Rhema were clearly the weakest of the party and would go down first. Yet, Rhema was able to evade the blow from above as she rolled out of the way.

As she rolled back onto her feet, Rhema drew out her crystal sword. The blade hummed with its own psychic energy within. Rhema sliced through the air with the edge of the blade, but her sword bounced off of an invisible barrier in front of the baboon. In her mind, Rhema heard the mutterings of the scarlet crystal that she had come to know intimately since it had called out to her from within Braagh’s case at the Translucent Corymb. “This one already has its defenses up. We’ve been ambushed!”

Rhema took no time in relaying the message. “The baboons are advanced and prepared! They were waiting for the right time to attack!”

Ischarus stepped up beside his wife and swung hard with his sword. His blade had not yet been sheathed since the end of the assault by the ape. However, the hurry to come to her aid made his aim less than stellar. The baboon hardly needed to move to evade the blow.

Charis’ blow against the same baboon didn’t miss its mark. She desired to rush to Semeion’s aid, but she knew that if she helped Ischarus by fighting from the opposite side of the baboon that they would finish the battle more quickly. While her pick sunk into the flesh of the baboon and left a slice along the creature’s leg, Charis yelled out instructions to her husband. “Just don’t get hit, we’ll be there in a second!”

The baboon that had originally attacked Rhema now found itself surrounded. Ischarus and Charis fought from opposite sides while Rhema attacked from Ischarus’ flank. The beast had no outlet but to try and fight madly and bring down the weakest of the trio. It lunged forward in an attempt to bite Rhema, but she was able to duck and dodge again to avoid being hit.

In spite of her defensive posturing, Rhema was able to manage to land a clean strike against the creature. Her crystalline friend shouted victoriously at the strike, praising her in her mind for managing to slip past the baboon’s invisible barrier. Had she not been quite so defensive, Rhema had a chance to strike at one of the creature’s vital organs. Instead, she merely left a bloody streak across the baboon’s belly. She had only grazed the skin.

Ischarus had enough of the baboon’s attacks. “Thin Zecka Egro.” He called out the magical words as he lined up a massive strike against the baboon. His sword flashed through the air and landed with considerable aim.

The blow itself would not have been enough to drop the baboon. As the sword cut into the creature’s shoulder, light green electricity jumped out of his fingers and danced for an instant upon the hilt of the sword. Once they found their direction towards the baboon the green electric sparks leapt down the blade in a zigzag pattern – often passing through the sharp steel in route from one side to the other.

The baboon jerked and convulsed for several seconds before Ischarus could remove his sword. The blade separated from the baboon and the creature’s eyes rolled back into its head. Its body had been pushed to the brink of death.

Ischarus couldn’t stand the thought that his blow might have been too powerful. “Charis, try to save the monkey. Rhema and I will get the one off of Semeion.”

Charis nodded and knelt beside the helpless baboon. There was life still inside of it. Much like the ape only moments before, Charis was able to help the baboon stabilize and rest naturally before it could die. “Done!”

Semeion and the baboon made no concrete efforts toward damaging each other during the contest. They had each swung several times, but neither of them could land any blows. Semeion wasn’t exactly trying to hit, however. Semeion’s goal was to keep the baboon at bay while using his sword to parry any incoming assault. He knew that if he could stay on his feet long enough that Charis and Ischarus would eventually come to help.

Ophee had approached the baboon from the side, but the creature managed to dodge each of Ophee’s attacks as well. When she realized that she lacked the necessary skill with the blade to do any significant damage, she brought a familiar set of arcane words to mind. “Daancrah” On the exact opposite side of the baboon as she stood, a panther appeared. Ophee hoped that the panther would be close enough to a natural predator that it might scare the baboon.

The baboon had an advantage over Ophee, however. The baboon’s nose told the creature that although its eyes were seeing a panther immediately beside it, the panther simply wasn’t there. The baboon blinked and focused on the panther for a second and watched it vanish from sight. Ophee knew that her simple illusion hadn’t quite done the job. The baboon turned to Ophee and laughed as if it understood exactly what had happened.

Semeion didn’t expect that it was Rhema who would come to his aid first – much less through the use of her sword. As Rhema approached, the baboon landed a glancing blow with its fangs. Rhema took advantage of the distraction from the primate and moved behind the creature. While it occupied itself with Semeion, she drove the dark crystalline sword into the baboon’s back. The primate howled from the unexpected attack.

Ischarus moved in to help Semeion as he had promised to Charis. The baboon saw him coming, however. The creature realized that it was alone once Rhema had managed to attack it. With the warning from Rhema’s attack, the baboon dodged out of the way of Ischarus’ sword.

Charis rose up from her knees once she knew that the baboon that had already been gravely injured would not immediately die. Her fingers reached out for the end of her pick, which she had laid upon the ground. Her fingers fumbled at the grip and she rose without managing to grab hold of the weapon. She thought about stopping to pick it up, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to help Ischarus flank the creature if she stopped. She quickly unfastened the clasp which held the end of her hammer to her belt and approached the baboon for a strike. The timing of her attack was just off, and the head of the hammer sailed wide.

The baboon was no fool. It was now completely surrounded. The only escape that it could possibly hope for was to leap into the air and hope to latch onto a branch that was strong enough to hold its weight. As the primate left the ground, each of the party took a free swing at the retreating creature’s body. The baboon used its powerful legs to spring into the air and its dexterous hands found a branch to which it could cling for a second.

Ischarus, Rhema, and Semeion were each able to land a successful strike as the primate leapt out of the center of the battle. Although the blows were more than glancing strikes, the cumulative effect was not enough to bring the creature to the ground. The baboon hung off of the branch for a second while it regained its momentum and shot upwards into the tree.

In an instant Ischarus, Charis, and Ophee each had their bows drawn. Semeion swore they had knocked an arrow before their dropped blades struck the ground around their feet. Ischarus’ arrow sailed through the air with tremendous accuracy and nearly plucked the primate to the ground single-handedly. Charis’ arrow had a nearly devastating effect as it snapped in half when she released the string. Ophee’s arrow sailed through the air and stuck the primate in the back.

The baboon gripped the tree tightly as it fought for life. After several seconds the baboon fell out of the tree to the ground. Although it struck the ground with a decent amount of force, the baboon was lucky enough to land on a side that didn’t have arrows sticking out of it.

Charis ran over to the creature’s side and checked for signs of life. “It’s only stunned! It should live.” In spite of the fact that the creatures had been trying to kill them, she wore a smile upon her face. She turned to Ophee and nodded affirmatively. “Nice shot.”

Ophee smiled back. “Well, after watching you make sure the other baboon didn’t die after Ischarus’ great strike, I knew I couldn’t kill that one. I was just trying to keep it from escaping. I had to hope the fall wouldn’t kill it.”

Rhema patted Ophee on the shoulder in congratulations. “You learn quickly. We don’t kill anything with intelligence, ever. These things are animals, of course. But they are animals with intelligence nonetheless.”

Ischarus also congratulated Ophee. “Good shot, Ophee.”

Indeed, it was a good shot. Perhaps more importantly, she hadn’t frozen this time. She hadn’t quite been effective in the beginning, but she had come through gloriously in the end. [/Sblock]

Semeion scanned the horizon. “I don’t know about either of you, but I know that my power is being drained fairly quickly for the day. We’ve got a fair amount of traveling yet to do; and if we keep up this pace we’ll be in trouble.”

Rhema nodded. “I agree. My powers are not as limitless as Ischarus’ strikes with the sword. But even then we can each only stand as long as Charis has the power to heal.”

Charis pointed deeper into the forest with the handle of her pick. Her fingers tightly gripped the joint where the head and the handle met. “I can heal a good bit more. So far we’ve been lucky. And I have a feeling that the best way to stay safe is to stay one step ahead of reinforcements. The quicker we move, the harder we’ll be to find.”

Ischarus slipped his blade back into the scabbard once he was sure that another attack wasn’t looming in the trees. “I’ve got to agree with Charis. We can’t stop here; we’re on the border of territories and are likely to attract attention from both of our enemies. If we move deeper into the land we will have a better idea of the form that our opponents are going to take.”

Semeion acquiesced. “Lead on, then. I’d assume the druid’s grove to be near the center of his land?”

Semeion’s question passed unanswered as Ischarus pushed aside the thin branches of a nearby sapling. His eyes had spotted a rough trail made by the passing of several animals. With any luck, trails like these could eventually lead them to the druid’s grove. With any luck, they would find the root that they needed before they met the druid.

The journey through the druid’s land was slow and painstaking. The land had formed around the druid’s wishes and control. Since the land bowed to the will of the druid, he didn’t need to worry about the dangers of difficult terrain or complicated underbrush. The earth and the plants had enough respect for the powerful druid that they removed any obstacles before the druid needed to cross them. Wherever the druid wanted to walk the ground was easily graded and a trail was present.

However, this also meant that the druid could shape the land into a foreboding landscape as well. As difficult as he could make the land, it would always reform itself for his passing and then revert to difficult terrain once he passed by. His creations would quickly learn how to traverse the difficult terrain. Intruders upon his domain were put at a great disadvantage from the landscape, however. It was as if the land conspired against them at every turn.

The five adventurers passed through an area of rocky ground and Ischarus had more than once nearly turned an ankle in trying to find a passable path. They had been slowly descending in elevation into a small valley. If the rate of the growth of vegetation had anything to indicate, the druid’s grove was on the other side of the valley. The hills across the valley were significantly richer in plant life; although the hills on this side of the valley were not insignificant themselves.

As Ischarus passed the halfway point in descent into the valley, he also passed by what appeared to be a blue lupine plant. Its flower spike was already stretching toward the sun and many of seedpods on the main stem had begun to turn blue in maturity. When Ischarus passed by, the flower spike wavered as though a breeze had blown it closer to Ischarus.

In an instant the blue seeds atop the main flower spike revealed their true nature. The flower spikes were merely a disguise for a more sinister plant. The plant bent the spike away from Ischarus and then snapped itself forward as though the flower spike was a short whip. Several of the seedpods shot off the flower spike and nearly struck Ischarus in the leg.

Charis had been right behind Ischarus when she saw the plant fire its attack. She turned, ducked, and yelled as Ischarus dove forward. “Watch out!” Semeion, Rhema, and Ophee heard the warning and ascended to a safe distance along the trail they had been working their way down.

Rhema turned and called to Ischarus as she retreated. “Ischarus, are you alright?”

Ischarus didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he watched as the plant seemed to be able to uproot itself and use its roots to crawl in the general direction that it had thrown the false seedpods. Two tendrils on either side of the plant swept the area in front of it, clearly looking for any victims who might have been hit with the attack.

Charis gingerly reached to pick up one of the blue seedpods. The seedpod was secreting a clear liquid and Charis’ eyes grew wide. “Toxin! This plant has a poison that is designed to stun a person and strip them of their strength!”

Ischarus charged up the hill past the slow moving plant. There was little doubt that he could outrun the plant and thus there wasn’t any need to stay around and fight the odd creation. As he approached Charis, he reached out and knocked the poisonous seedpod from her hand and lifted her off of her knees. “No need to stick around, Charis. If that thing can throw a toxin to stun a person, I don’t want to see what would happen if it succeeded. Let’s get out of here.”

The pair retreated up to the safer distance and together with the three who had already retreated they watched with morbid curiosity as the plant swept across the ground in search of a victim. Rhema was deeply intrigued by the movements of the plant. “Well, it obviously doesn’t have eyes, or it would have known that it missed all of its marks.”

Semeion nodded. He had also taking a deep interest in the plant. “I imagine that the blue seedpods are supposed to be a lure. They likely attract attention and cause its victims to stop and observe them. The tendrils must have some sort of hairs upon them that are sensitive enough to the movement of air to know when a victim has passed by. Of course, that would mean that the plant would have to search for any victims it strikes, rather than see where the poison took hold.”

Ophee frowned as she looked to the plant. “But, if it has no eyes nor a mouth, how does it eat its victims?”

Semeion smiled. “I’ve heard of plants who behave in a similar manner. Once their victim is subdued or dead, the plant simply excavates a hole to set the body of its victim in. Then, it settles its own roots upon the body so that as the body decays the roots can absorb the flesh as it begins to break apart.”

Ophee shuddered. “That’s a horrible thought.”

Ischarus looked up to the top of the valley that they had begun to descend. “Indeed it is. And I would suggest we continue to backtrack and find another way around the valley. I’d like to think that the druid has provided trails for his minions that aren’t in danger of these plants. If that’s the case, I’d like to find one of them.”

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
Semeion scanned the horizon. “I don’t know about either of you, but I know that my power is being drained fairly quickly for the day. We’ve got a fair amount of traveling yet to do; and if we keep up this pace we’ll be in trouble.”

Rhema nodded. “I agree. My powers are not as limitless as Ischarus’ strikes with the sword. But even then we can each only stand as long as Charis has the power to heal.”

Charis pointed deeper into the forest with the handle of her pick. Her fingers tightly gripped the joint where the head and the handle met. “I can heal a good bit more. So far we’ve been lucky. And I have a feeling that the best way to stay safe is to stay one step ahead of reinforcements. The quicker we move, the harder we’ll be to find.”

Ischarus slipped his blade back into the scabbard once he was sure that another attack wasn’t looming in the trees. “I’ve got to agree with Charis. We can’t stop here; we’re on the border of territories and are likely to attract attention from both of our enemies. If we move deeper into the land we will have a better idea of the form that our opponents are going to take.”

Semeion acquiesced. “Lead on, then. I’d assume the druid’s grove to be near the center of his land?”

Semeion’s question passed unanswered as Ischarus pushed aside the thin branches of a nearby sapling. His eyes had spotted a rough trail made by the passing of several animals. With any luck, trails like these could eventually lead them to the druid’s grove. With any luck, they would find the root that they needed before they met the druid.

The journey through the druid’s land was slow and painstaking. The land had formed around the druid’s wishes and control. Since the land bowed to the will of the druid, he didn’t need to worry about the dangers of difficult terrain or complicated underbrush. The earth and the plants had enough respect for the powerful druid that they removed any obstacles before the druid needed to cross them. Wherever the druid wanted to walk the ground was easily graded and a trail was present.

However, this also meant that the druid could shape the land into a foreboding landscape as well. As difficult as he could make the land, it would always reform itself for his passing and then revert to difficult terrain once he passed by. His creations would quickly learn how to traverse the difficult terrain. Intruders upon his domain were put at a great disadvantage from the landscape, however. It was as if the land conspired against them at every turn.

The five adventurers passed through an area of rocky ground and Ischarus had more than once nearly turned an ankle in trying to find a passable path. They had been slowly descending in elevation into a small valley. If the rate of the growth of vegetation had anything to indicate, the druid’s grove was on the other side of the valley. The hills across the valley were significantly richer in plant life; although the hills on this side of the valley were not insignificant themselves.

As Ischarus passed the halfway point in descent into the valley, he also passed by what appeared to be a blue lupine plant. Its flower spike was already stretching toward the sun and many of seedpods on the main stem had begun to turn blue in maturity. When Ischarus passed by, the flower spike wavered as though a breeze had blown it closer to Ischarus.

In an instant the blue seeds atop the main flower spike revealed their true nature. The flower spikes were merely a disguise for a more sinister plant. The plant bent the spike away from Ischarus and then snapped itself forward as though the flower spike was a short whip. Several of the seedpods shot off the flower spike and nearly struck Ischarus in the leg.

Charis had been right behind Ischarus when she saw the plant fire its attack. She turned, ducked, and yelled as Ischarus dove forward. “Watch out!” Semeion, Rhema, and Ophee heard the warning and ascended to a safe distance along the trail they had been working their way down.

Rhema turned and called to Ischarus as she retreated. “Ischarus, are you alright?”

Ischarus didn’t bother to respond. Instead, he watched as the plant seemed to be able to uproot itself and use its roots to crawl in the general direction that it had thrown the false seedpods. Two tendrils on either side of the plant swept the area in front of it, clearly looking for any victims who might have been hit with the attack.

Charis gingerly reached to pick up one of the blue seedpods. The seedpod was secreting a clear liquid and Charis’ eyes grew wide. “Toxin! This plant has a poison that is designed to stun a person and strip them of their strength!”

Ischarus charged up the hill past the slow moving plant. There was little doubt that he could outrun the plant and thus there wasn’t any need to stay around and fight the odd creation. As he approached Charis, he reached out and knocked the poisonous seedpod from her hand and lifted her off of her knees. “No need to stick around, Charis. If that thing can throw a toxin to stun a person, I don’t want to see what would happen if it succeeded. Let’s get out of here.”

The pair retreated up to the safer distance and together with the three who had already retreated they watched with morbid curiosity as the plant swept across the ground in search of a victim. Rhema was deeply intrigued by the movements of the plant. “Well, it obviously doesn’t have eyes, or it would have known that it missed all of its marks.”

Semeion nodded. He had also taking a deep interest in the plant. “I imagine that the blue seedpods are supposed to be a lure. They likely attract attention and cause its victims to stop and observe them. The tendrils must have some sort of hairs upon them that are sensitive enough to the movement of air to know when a victim has passed by. Of course, that would mean that the plant would have to search for any victims it strikes, rather than see where the poison took hold.”

Ophee frowned as she looked to the plant. “But, if it has no eyes nor a mouth, how does it eat its victims?”

Semeion smiled. “I’ve heard of plants who behave in a similar manner. Once their victim is subdued or dead, the plant simply excavates a hole to set the body of its victim in. Then, it settles its own roots upon the body so that as the body decays the roots can absorb the flesh as it begins to break apart.”

Ophee shuddered. “That’s a horrible thought.”

Ischarus looked up to the top of the valley that they had begun to descend. “Indeed it is. And I would suggest we continue to backtrack and find another way around the valley. I’d like to think that the druid has provided trails for his minions that aren’t in danger of these plants. If that’s the case, I’d like to find one of them.”
[/Sblock]

The party was able to find a trail through the valley that didn’t involve being attacked by flower spikes of any sort. Since they lost time by backtracking until they could find another path through the valley, the sun had begun to descend in the sky as they started to climb out on the opposite side. The valley wall loomed against them as though the druid had intended the climb to be intentionally steep. It hadn’t quite looked so steep from the other side, but the lush vegetation helped disguise the truth.

The trail that the party followed switched back and forth as they made slow progress in climbing out of the valley. The wide switchback trail added miles to their walk, and when they were able to finally reach the top of the valley they noticed that the additional miles had taken more time than they had anticipated. The sun had almost completely descended in the sky.

Ischarus sighed out of frustration. “The valley disguised how late in the day it was getting. We’d best find a defensible position and make camp for the night. We should scout out the area before dark hits. Somehow I have a feeling that the nights are more dangerous here than the days.”

Charis peered down the trail and agreed. “One thing is for sure about us. We’re far weaker in the night than the animals around us. Many of them are quite equipped for a night hunt.”

The party split up into two groups. Charis and Semeion took Ophee and scouted to the south of the path. Ischarus and Rhema scouted out the northern portion of the immediate area. After the designated half hour passed they returned to the path and reported.

Rhema shook her head in disbelief. “Nothing but trees to the north. We could go back into the valley if we wanted to find some rocks to use as protection, but that would seem to defeat our purpose. If we wanted the protection of the valley we should’ve stayed down there.”

Ophee reported the findings of her group. “We found only one reasonable place to the south, but it would seem that it is our best offer.”

Ischarus picked up on Ophee’s inflection upon her use of the description of the site. “Reasonable? Just what do you mean by that?”

Semeion looked off Ophee and looked Ischarus in the eye. “The girls thought the place was defensible, and it truly is. It is almost too defensible. The place gave me the feeling of being contrived, if you ask me. No good places to rest to the north – and only one good place to rest to the south. That just seems artificial.”

Charis smiled. “But it is defensible, Semeion. Contrived or not, we should be able to protect ourselves even if we are being set-up. We’ll just post watches. We can’t be caught off-guard, there. There is only one way out of the cave!”

Ischarus raised an eyebrow at the mention of a cave. “Cave? I don’t like the thought of going into a place with only one exit. It’s easily enough protected, but we’re just as easily trapped while reinforcements come against us.”

Rhema countered Ischarus, officially turning it into a male versus female argument. In truth, gender had little to do with the argument. “But, I’ll agree with Charis and Ophee. We could get by with one watch per shift in a cave. We could get better sleep than last night, and Ophee wouldn’t need to take a watch. No offense, Ophee, but we still don’t exactly know you well enough to trust you.”

Ophee shrugged. It didn’t mean anything to her that she wasn’t trusted. “Fine by me, anyway. This way I’ll get a full night’s sleep.”

Ischarus breathed in deeply and allowed the exhale to slowly emerge through his nose. “Well, let’s go and look at this cave. There’s no harm in looking, especially since if we don’t pick the cave it doesn’t really matter where we sleep. Any place in the woods is as good as the next around here.”

Several hours later, Ischarus stood first watch within the cave. The voices of the women had outnumbered the voices of the men. Semeion and Ischarus had given way against their better judgment. Yet, Ischarus found himself crouched just inside the cave entrance. He had a good enough view of the outside, and in that respect the women had been right. There was no way that they could be taken by surprise.

The first two shifts passed by quickly. Rhema took the watch after Ischarus, and Charis took the watch after Rhema. Semeion had requested to go first or last so that his sleep could be uninterrupted unless there was an emergency. His arcane arts demanded more of his sleep than those of anyone else, so Semeion often was given the role of last watch.

Charis yawned as she turned her head to look back at her sleeping husband. For all the more logical and put together he was during his waking hours, she couldn’t help being attracted to the cute drool spot developing on his pillow underneath his mouth. He slept with his mouth open, and often woke with a drool spot beneath him. She would tease him about it in the morning just to make sure he didn’t get too high on himself first thing.

As she started to turn her head back to the forest outside the cave, her ears picked up on the sound of a twig snapping. Charis drew her pick and moved to Ischarus’ side. She maintained her crouched position and was grateful that they had not made a fire for the night. The absence of light from the fire allowed her eyes to transition from the darkness of the cave to the darkness outside with relative ease.

When she reached Ischarus’ side she paused a moment to make sure that it would be worth waking Ischarus. Her ears picked up the rapid movement of paw pads along the ground outside the cave. Something with a significant amount of mass and four feet was headed their way. “Ischarus, we’ve got company. An animal comes.”

Ischarus blinked quickly and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Is it phrenic?”

Charis shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Ischarus sat up and pulled himself to his knees. He quickly removed his blade from its scabbard, and the ring of metal raised Rhema from her sleep. Ischarus reached out with his free hand and rested it on Rhema’s forehead. “Don’t get up, yet. Something is coming, but I don’t want to alarm it with much noise.”

With his sword in hand, Ischarus crept back to the right of the entrance of the cave. Charis followed him until he stopped to peer out of the cave entrance. She crossed to the left of the entrance and peered out. Both Ischarus and Charis spotted the pair of green eyes peering into the cave.

Several events happened at the same time once the eyes of the party locked with the green pair outside. Ischarus and Charis both immediately recognized the eyes. They had met these eyes before. Ischarus called out with a smile on his face. “Froves.”

Charis turned her head to face the rest of her party. She called out with more alarm than Ischarus. “Froves!”

Rhema’s eyes flashed open wide as the frove leapt into the cave. Semeion’s eyes popped open and he was on his feet in a second. He almost tripped as his feet made contact with Ophee, but he was able to keep his balance. Semeion’s feet brought Ophee out of her deep sleep.

As the large green-eyed wolf leapt into the cave, Ischarus’ sword swung against the assault. The sword penetrated the invisible barrier that the frove had raised before attacking. Ischarus called out with the discovery of the invisible barrier. “Phrenic! Beware!” His sword would not be denied, and the blade bit through the thick coating of hair. While the blow was solid, the frove was far from gravely wounded.

Rhema lifted her hand and locked eyes with the frove. Her hand waved in a large circle before her as she spoke. “You do not desire to come any further into this cave, frove.” The creature immediately looked as though it had a distaste for moving past Ischarus and Charis and challenging the spell casters. Its body positioning changed so that it was more concerned with defending its own ground rather than claiming more territory.

Knowing that morning was almost due to come and his magical energies would soon be replenished, Semeion expended his most powerful spell. “Thin-tok arash.” A green ball of acid formed in his fingers. He flung the acid in the direction of the frove, but the ball of acid skipped by over the frove’s head and into the darkness of the forest.

Ophee rose to her feet and in an instant she had a dagger in her hand. She stepped toward the frove and sliced with a quick flick of her wrist. The blade also penetrated the frove’s invisible barrier and dug into the creature’s thick fur. The frove yelped in pain as the blade bit into the muscle covering its right front shoulder.

The frove turned on Charis as if it knew that she had been the subject of attacks throughout the day. The beast caught Charis on the shoulder and gave a mighty tug. When the frove released Charis’ arm its maw was stained with her blood.

Charis returned the strike with little regard to her own condition. Her pick dug into the frove’s left side, but didn’t manage to puncture any vital organs. The creature spun to protect itself from another assault, but Charis was not planning on another attack at the moment.

Ischarus pounced when the frove turned to face Charis. His sword sailed directly towards the frove’s neck and would have likely decapitated the beast had the creature’s invisible barrier not gotten into the way. At the last second, Ischarus’ sword made contact with the barrier and his strike was deflected to the side.

Rhema now knew that she was safe. Ophee had challenged the frove’s position and between the three attackers and her earlier power the frove was unlikely going to advance toward her. Knowing that she was in no immediate danger, Rhema used her mind control to stab deeply into the frove’s own mind. Her thoughts spiked into the mind of the overgrown wolf and the creature snarled in pain. A small trickle of blood appeared out of the frove’s right nostril.

Semeion paused without attacking the frove. He had spent his greatest spell in an overconfident failure. He now decided to conserve his power for when the party might truly need it. He watched as Ophee swung at the frove but was unable to penetrate the creature’s barrier.

Apparently the cumulative damage to the frove had been enough. The creature allowed a loud and pained howl to leave its chest as it retreated out of the cave and into the night. A thin trail of drops of blood showed the path that the creature had taken. It was obviously wounded and had decided that the party – or perhaps access to the cave – was not worth the fight tonight.

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
The party was able to find a trail through the valley that didn’t involve being attacked by flower spikes of any sort. Since they lost time by backtracking until they could find another path through the valley, the sun had begun to descend in the sky as they started to climb out on the opposite side. The valley wall loomed against them as though the druid had intended the climb to be intentionally steep. It hadn’t quite looked so steep from the other side, but the lush vegetation helped disguise the truth.

The trail that the party followed switched back and forth as they made slow progress in climbing out of the valley. The wide switchback trail added miles to their walk, and when they were able to finally reach the top of the valley they noticed that the additional miles had taken more time than they had anticipated. The sun had almost completely descended in the sky.

Ischarus sighed out of frustration. “The valley disguised how late in the day it was getting. We’d best find a defensible position and make camp for the night. We should scout out the area before dark hits. Somehow I have a feeling that the nights are more dangerous here than the days.”

Charis peered down the trail and agreed. “One thing is for sure about us. We’re far weaker in the night than the animals around us. Many of them are quite equipped for a night hunt.”

The party split up into two groups. Charis and Semeion took Ophee and scouted to the south of the path. Ischarus and Rhema scouted out the northern portion of the immediate area. After the designated half hour passed they returned to the path and reported.

Rhema shook her head in disbelief. “Nothing but trees to the north. We could go back into the valley if we wanted to find some rocks to use as protection, but that would seem to defeat our purpose. If we wanted the protection of the valley we should’ve stayed down there.”

Ophee reported the findings of her group. “We found only one reasonable place to the south, but it would seem that it is our best offer.”

Ischarus picked up on Ophee’s inflection upon her use of the description of the site. “Reasonable? Just what do you mean by that?”

Semeion looked off Ophee and looked Ischarus in the eye. “The girls thought the place was defensible, and it truly is. It is almost too defensible. The place gave me the feeling of being contrived, if you ask me. No good places to rest to the north – and only one good place to rest to the south. That just seems artificial.”

Charis smiled. “But it is defensible, Semeion. Contrived or not, we should be able to protect ourselves even if we are being set-up. We’ll just post watches. We can’t be caught off-guard, there. There is only one way out of the cave!”

Ischarus raised an eyebrow at the mention of a cave. “Cave? I don’t like the thought of going into a place with only one exit. It’s easily enough protected, but we’re just as easily trapped while reinforcements come against us.”

Rhema countered Ischarus, officially turning it into a male versus female argument. In truth, gender had little to do with the argument. “But, I’ll agree with Charis and Ophee. We could get by with one watch per shift in a cave. We could get better sleep than last night, and Ophee wouldn’t need to take a watch. No offense, Ophee, but we still don’t exactly know you well enough to trust you.”

Ophee shrugged. It didn’t mean anything to her that she wasn’t trusted. “Fine by me, anyway. This way I’ll get a full night’s sleep.”

Ischarus breathed in deeply and allowed the exhale to slowly emerge through his nose. “Well, let’s go and look at this cave. There’s no harm in looking, especially since if we don’t pick the cave it doesn’t really matter where we sleep. Any place in the woods is as good as the next around here.”

Several hours later, Ischarus stood first watch within the cave. The voices of the women had outnumbered the voices of the men. Semeion and Ischarus had given way against their better judgment. Yet, Ischarus found himself crouched just inside the cave entrance. He had a good enough view of the outside, and in that respect the women had been right. There was no way that they could be taken by surprise.

The first two shifts passed by quickly. Rhema took the watch after Ischarus, and Charis took the watch after Rhema. Semeion had requested to go first or last so that his sleep could be uninterrupted unless there was an emergency. His arcane arts demanded more of his sleep than those of anyone else, so Semeion often was given the role of last watch.

Charis yawned as she turned her head to look back at her sleeping husband. For all the more logical and put together he was during his waking hours, she couldn’t help being attracted to the cute drool spot developing on his pillow underneath his mouth. He slept with his mouth open, and often woke with a drool spot beneath him. She would tease him about it in the morning just to make sure he didn’t get too high on himself first thing.

As she started to turn her head back to the forest outside the cave, her ears picked up on the sound of a twig snapping. Charis drew her pick and moved to Ischarus’ side. She maintained her crouched position and was grateful that they had not made a fire for the night. The absence of light from the fire allowed her eyes to transition from the darkness of the cave to the darkness outside with relative ease.

When she reached Ischarus’ side she paused a moment to make sure that it would be worth waking Ischarus. Her ears picked up the rapid movement of paw pads along the ground outside the cave. Something with a significant amount of mass and four feet was headed their way. “Ischarus, we’ve got company. An animal comes.”

Ischarus blinked quickly and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “Is it phrenic?”

Charis shook her head. “I don’t know.”

Ischarus sat up and pulled himself to his knees. He quickly removed his blade from its scabbard, and the ring of metal raised Rhema from her sleep. Ischarus reached out with his free hand and rested it on Rhema’s forehead. “Don’t get up, yet. Something is coming, but I don’t want to alarm it with much noise.”

With his sword in hand, Ischarus crept back to the right of the entrance of the cave. Charis followed him until he stopped to peer out of the cave entrance. She crossed to the left of the entrance and peered out. Both Ischarus and Charis spotted the pair of green eyes peering into the cave.

Several events happened at the same time once the eyes of the party locked with the green pair outside. Ischarus and Charis both immediately recognized the eyes. They had met these eyes before. Ischarus called out with a smile on his face. “Froves.”

Charis turned her head to face the rest of her party. She called out with more alarm than Ischarus. “Froves!”

Rhema’s eyes flashed open wide as the frove leapt into the cave. Semeion’s eyes popped open and he was on his feet in a second. He almost tripped as his feet made contact with Ophee, but he was able to keep his balance. Semeion’s feet brought Ophee out of her deep sleep.

As the large green-eyed wolf leapt into the cave, Ischarus’ sword swung against the assault. The sword penetrated the invisible barrier that the frove had raised before attacking. Ischarus called out with the discovery of the invisible barrier. “Phrenic! Beware!” His sword would not be denied, and the blade bit through the thick coating of hair. While the blow was solid, the frove was far from gravely wounded.

Rhema lifted her hand and locked eyes with the frove. Her hand waved in a large circle before her as she spoke. “You do not desire to come any further into this cave, frove.” The creature immediately looked as though it had a distaste for moving past Ischarus and Charis and challenging the spell casters. Its body positioning changed so that it was more concerned with defending its own ground rather than claiming more territory.

Knowing that morning was almost due to come and his magical energies would soon be replenished, Semeion expended his most powerful spell. “Thin-tok arash.” A green ball of acid formed in his fingers. He flung the acid in the direction of the frove, but the ball of acid skipped by over the frove’s head and into the darkness of the forest.

Ophee rose to her feet and in an instant she had a dagger in her hand. She stepped toward the frove and sliced with a quick flick of her wrist. The blade also penetrated the frove’s invisible barrier and dug into the creature’s thick fur. The frove yelped in pain as the blade bit into the muscle covering its right front shoulder.

The frove turned on Charis as if it knew that she had been the subject of attacks throughout the day. The beast caught Charis on the shoulder and gave a mighty tug. When the frove released Charis’ arm its maw was stained with her blood.

Charis returned the strike with little regard to her own condition. Her pick dug into the frove’s left side, but didn’t manage to puncture any vital organs. The creature spun to protect itself from another assault, but Charis was not planning on another attack at the moment.

Ischarus pounced when the frove turned to face Charis. His sword sailed directly towards the frove’s neck and would have likely decapitated the beast had the creature’s invisible barrier not gotten into the way. At the last second, Ischarus’ sword made contact with the barrier and his strike was deflected to the side.

Rhema now knew that she was safe. Ophee had challenged the frove’s position and between the three attackers and her earlier power the frove was unlikely going to advance toward her. Knowing that she was in no immediate danger, Rhema used her mind control to stab deeply into the frove’s own mind. Her thoughts spiked into the mind of the overgrown wolf and the creature snarled in pain. A small trickle of blood appeared out of the frove’s right nostril.

Semeion paused without attacking the frove. He had spent his greatest spell in an overconfident failure. He now decided to conserve his power for when the party might truly need it. He watched as Ophee swung at the frove but was unable to penetrate the creature’s barrier.

Apparently the cumulative damage to the frove had been enough. The creature allowed a loud and pained howl to leave its chest as it retreated out of the cave and into the night. A thin trail of drops of blood showed the path that the creature had taken. It was obviously wounded and had decided that the party – or perhaps access to the cave – was not worth the fight tonight.
[/Sblock]

The party watched the frove retreat into the forest. Ischarus and Charis thought about pursuing the frove into the darkness beyond, but a gesture and a comment from Rhema stopped their pursuit. “We don’t need the victory that bad. Stay in here where it is safe. For all we know, there could be more out there, waiting for us to come out and give chase.”

Semeion’s face wrinkled in puzzlement for a moment. “Either way, the retreat sure was strange. The frove was clearly phrenic. It was able to use its mind to conjure up the same kind of defenses that we’ve seen in the others.”

Charis finished his thought for him. “But the others didn’t retreat. The others fought until they were taken down. Something isn’t right about this one.”

Ophee was beginning to feel more comfortable among the party. “Well, we’re not all the same level of intelligence. Perhaps the frove was just smarter than the others?”

Before anyone could honestly answer Ophee’s assertion, a booming voice echoed throughout the cave. The voice was so loud that each of the party cupped their hands over their ears to muffle the sound. “Those who wake the earth once seldom live to do it a second time!”

Prior to the party being able to exit the cave, a mass of rock emerged from the wall to the right of the exit and blocked the way out. As the rock emerged from the wall, pieces of stone began to separate from the mud and clay. The stone arbitrarily migrated to the top and side of the emerging form while the clay and mud stayed in the center and began to separate into a torso and the proper corresponding appendages. Many of the stones gathered together on what appeared to be the emerging head; and the stones gathered themselves into the eyes, nose, and even teeth of the form. The stones that had migrated to the sides of the figure became the claws and nails on the emerging feet and hands.

The party found themselves too intrigued by the process of the forming earth creation to do anything about it. Charis and Ischarus watched with mouths agape as the figure formed from the earth. Semeion had tilted his head to the right side as his innate curiosity regarding magical summoning was piqued. Rhema and Ophee quickly scanned the rest of the walls to make sure that this figure was the only one that would be forming out of the earth.

Once the figure was formed, the booming voice of the cave spoke once more. “Prove yourself worthy of sleeping in my cave. You have awoken me, now you must earn your stay. Defeat my guardian!”

Suddenly the attack made sense to Semeion. “The frove knew what was going to happen. The attack was simply bait! The howl woke up the cave. The frove was sent here to let the cave finish us off!”

At Semeion’s words, Ischarus brought his sword around in the first attack. The speed of his assault caught the earthen guardian by surprise and Ischarus landed a clean blow. A small rock chipped away from the creature’s midsection and clumps of mud and clay sprayed across the party.

Rhema knew that her powers would be of little help against the creature. She drew her crystalline sword, but also knew she didn’t have any place to launch an attack. “Draw the creature deeper into the cave! Semeion and I can only use our blades if we have room to join the assault.”

The earth guardian acted as though it did not hear Rhema’s speech, or else it could not understand it. Since Ischarus had already moved to join the attack, the creature swung its clay arms and rock nails toward Ischarus. The blow was easily turned aside by a simple duck. The guardian’s attack was slow, but quite substantial.

Semeion drew his own sword, but had to pause for a moment for space to open up within the combat area. He didn’t want to risk wasting spells if they would do no damage against the creature. Ophee and Charis each held their weapons aloft. Charis sliced the pointed end of her pick through the air and lodged it solidly into the creature’s side. When she pulled the pick free, more rock and clay pulled away from the side of the creature. Ophee’s attack missed, but both Ophee and Charis stepped back a pace so as to force the earthen guardian to come further into the cave to assault them.

Ischarus saw the strategy on behalf of his female counterparts. He brought his sword around in a quick strike and made simple contact. The blow chipped more rock and clay from the creature, but his intent was to allow his attack to give him a chance to take a step back and join Ophee and Charis in setting up a new defensive line.

The rock creature seemed to have little understanding of the tactics being employed by the party. The creature stepped forward and swung to hit Ischarus. Although Ischarus had easily dodged the last attack, he had difficulty dodging this particular blow. The rock and clay arms of the earth guardian struck Ischarus hard and nearly knocked him to the ground. Ischarus looked unsteady for a moment before regaining his composure.

Rhema and Semeion took the opportunity presented to them by the advance of the earth guardian. Although they couldn’t get around to the earth guardian’s backside without exposing themselves, they were each able to sneak in along the creature’s sides. Rhema flanked his right side beside Ischarus while Semeion flanked the opposite side beside Charis. Both Rhema and Semeion swung at the creature, but neither was able to connect with a damaging strike.

Charis and Ophee had a bit of better luck. Ophee distracted the creature with a well-intentioned miss. Charis followed the assault with another good blow from her pick. More rock and clay chipped away from the creature. Although enough of the rock and clay had been chipped away from the creature’s midsection to make it appear as though it should tumble over, the earth magic that animated it kept it upright and still a significant threat.

Ischarus lined up another strike and landed a solid blow as soon as he had recovered from the previous attack. His sword bit deep into the earth guardian’s massive right arm and tore rock and clay away. The creature returned Ischarus’ strike with one of his own, and this time the blow was enough to knock Ischarus flat on his back. The earth guardian had struck with such violence that as the uppercut landed Ischarus was lifted off of his feet and fell square on his shoulders.

Rhema saw her husband fall to the ground and knew that there was little that she could do except fight hard against the creature in front of her. The best way to protect her husband would be to dispatch the threat. She stepped to her left, so that she and Charis were fighting the creature from opposite sides. Her deep blue crystalline sword struck the creature’s back and removed even more rock and clay from its midsection. Much to the party’s amazement, the creature continued to remain on its feet.

Semeion stepped opposite Ophee and swung with his rapier. The weapon made contact, but his strength was not enough to harm the thick rock surface that formed the creature. His blow glanced off to the side as Ophee also swung toward the creature and missed.

Charis wanted to knock the creature onto its back, but she knew that Ischarus’ life was more important. She stepped behind Ophee and crouched onto the ground so that she could touch Ischarus. Her lips parted to allow the soft words of healing to come forth. “Bondras-tol Egro.” The white aura surrounding her hand dissipated to cover Ischarus, who immediately opened his eyes as if being woken by cold water splashed on his face. Ischarus slid backwards away from the creature and rose to his feet from a safe distance.

The earth guardian noted that Ischarus was no longer in range, so it turned its mighty fists to Semeion. Although the blow almost connected with the young mage, Semeion was able to duck out of the way before the strike could do any harm. Semeion changed his grip on his rapier and waited for an opening to strike.

Rhema swung while the creature assaulted Semeion, but her blow was ill timed. Ophee managed to swing and land a solid blow as Rhema missed. When the earth guardian turned to react to Ophee’s strike, Semeion swung. His blow sliced through the air without making contact. Charis had managed to get to her feet and as Semeion swung she also approached the earth guardian to land a blow, but her strike was not forceful enough to land with any kind of authority.

Ischarus had enough of the battle, and once he noticed that the earth guardian had turned upon the more fragile members of the party he knew that it was time to finish the battle. “Thin Zecka Egro!” As he charged into battle his sword rippled with static electricity. His blade swung hard toward the earth guardian and the energy arced across the space between his blade and the creature, guiding the blade in. The strike was damaging enough, but the stored static energy upon his blade surged into the earth guardian and overcame the earth magic that kept it together. The earth guardian exploded. Clay, mud, and even pieces of jade sprayed throughout the cave. The party each appeared as though they had just emerged from a mud bath once the effects of the explosion were concluded.

Ischarus breathed heavily as Rhema approached him. He held out his hand to hold her back. “Wait until my blade has fully discharged. I don’t want you to get shocked.”

Rhema didn’t care. She pushed his blade out of his hand and embraced him in a loving hug. The rest of the party relaxed and began to breathe normally. Ophee, Charis, and Semeion each wiped chunks of mud and rock away from their faces.

Nobody was prepared for the voice of the cave to return. Nobody was prepared for the gift that they were about to receive. “You have proven yourselves worthy. Stay in my cave until the sun rises. My guardian will protect you.” As the voice echoed, another earth guardian formed from the rock wall and exited. Much of the mud, clay, and stone from the previous earth guardian was magically reabsorbed into the cave walls and floor.

Just in case the cave had set them up for a trap, the party lifted their weapons to challenge the new creature at first. Instead, the new earth guardian ignored the party and turned to face outside the cave. It remained constantly vigilant until the sun rose above the treetops and into the cave.

[Sblock=Color-Free Speech Section]
The party watched the frove retreat into the forest. Ischarus and Charis thought about pursuing the frove into the darkness beyond, but a gesture and a comment from Rhema stopped their pursuit. “We don’t need the victory that bad. Stay in here where it is safe. For all we know, there could be more out there, waiting for us to come out and give chase.”

Semeion’s face wrinkled in puzzlement for a moment. “Either way, the retreat sure was strange. The frove was clearly phrenic. It was able to use its mind to conjure up the same kind of defenses that we’ve seen in the others.”

Charis finished his thought for him. “But the others didn’t retreat. The others fought until they were taken down. Something isn’t right about this one.”

Ophee was beginning to feel more comfortable among the party. “Well, we’re not all the same level of intelligence. Perhaps the frove was just smarter than the others?”

Before anyone could honestly answer Ophee’s assertion, a booming voice echoed throughout the cave. The voice was so loud that each of the party cupped their hands over their ears to muffle the sound. “Those who wake the earth once seldom live to do it a second time!”

Prior to the party being able to exit the cave, a mass of rock emerged from the wall to the right of the exit and blocked the way out. As the rock emerged from the wall, pieces of stone began to separate from the mud and clay. The stone arbitrarily migrated to the top and side of the emerging form while the clay and mud stayed in the center and began to separate into a torso and the proper corresponding appendages. Many of the stones gathered together on what appeared to be the emerging head; and the stones gathered themselves into the eyes, nose, and even teeth of the form. The stones that had migrated to the sides of the figure became the claws and nails on the emerging feet and hands.

The party found themselves too intrigued by the process of the forming earth creation to do anything about it. Charis and Ischarus watched with mouths agape as the figure formed from the earth. Semeion had tilted his head to the right side as his innate curiosity regarding magical summoning was piqued. Rhema and Ophee quickly scanned the rest of the walls to make sure that this figure was the only one that would be forming out of the earth.

Once the figure was formed, the booming voice of the cave spoke once more. “Prove yourself worthy of sleeping in my cave. You have awoken me, now you must earn your stay. Defeat my guardian!”

Suddenly the attack made sense to Semeion. “The frove knew what was going to happen. The attack was simply bait! The howl woke up the cave. The frove was sent here to let the cave finish us off!”

At Semeion’s words, Ischarus brought his sword around in the first attack. The speed of his assault caught the earthen guardian by surprise and Ischarus landed a clean blow. A small rock chipped away from the creature’s midsection and clumps of mud and clay sprayed across the party.

Rhema knew that her powers would be of little help against the creature. She drew her crystalline sword, but also knew she didn’t have any place to launch an attack. “Draw the creature deeper into the cave! Semeion and I can only use our blades if we have room to join the assault.”

The earth guardian acted as though it did not hear Rhema’s speech, or else it could not understand it. Since Ischarus had already moved to join the attack, the creature swung its clay arms and rock nails toward Ischarus. The blow was easily turned aside by a simple duck. The guardian’s attack was slow, but quite substantial.

Semeion drew his own sword, but had to pause for a moment for space to open up within the combat area. He didn’t want to risk wasting spells if they would do no damage against the creature. Ophee and Charis each held their weapons aloft. Charis sliced the pointed end of her pick through the air and lodged it solidly into the creature’s side. When she pulled the pick free, more rock and clay pulled away from the side of the creature. Ophee’s attack missed, but both Ophee and Charis stepped back a pace so as to force the earthen guardian to come further into the cave to assault them.

Ischarus saw the strategy on behalf of his female counterparts. He brought his sword around in a quick strike and made simple contact. The blow chipped more rock and clay from the creature, but his intent was to allow his attack to give him a chance to take a step back and join Ophee and Charis in setting up a new defensive line.

The rock creature seemed to have little understanding of the tactics being employed by the party. The creature stepped forward and swung to hit Ischarus. Although Ischarus had easily dodged the last attack, he had difficulty dodging this particular blow. The rock and clay arms of the earth guardian struck Ischarus hard and nearly knocked him to the ground. Ischarus looked unsteady for a moment before regaining his composure.

Rhema and Semeion took the opportunity presented to them by the advance of the earth guardian. Although they couldn’t get around to the earth guardian’s backside without exposing themselves, they were each able to sneak in along the creature’s sides. Rhema flanked his right side beside Ischarus while Semeion flanked the opposite side beside Charis. Both Rhema and Semeion swung at the creature, but neither was able to connect with a damaging strike.

Charis and Ophee had a bit of better luck. Ophee distracted the creature with a well-intentioned miss. Charis followed the assault with another good blow from her pick. More rock and clay chipped away from the creature. Although enough of the rock and clay had been chipped away from the creature’s midsection to make it appear as though it should tumble over, the earth magic that animated it kept it upright and still a significant threat.

Ischarus lined up another strike and landed a solid blow as soon as he had recovered from the previous attack. His sword bit deep into the earth guardian’s massive right arm and tore rock and clay away. The creature returned Ischarus’ strike with one of his own, and this time the blow was enough to knock Ischarus flat on his back. The earth guardian had struck with such violence that as the uppercut landed Ischarus was lifted off of his feet and fell square on his shoulders.

Rhema saw her husband fall to the ground and knew that there was little that she could do except fight hard against the creature in front of her. The best way to protect her husband would be to dispatch the threat. She stepped to her left, so that she and Charis were fighting the creature from opposite sides. Her deep blue crystalline sword struck the creature’s back and removed even more rock and clay from its midsection. Much to the party’s amazement, the creature continued to remain on its feet.

Semeion stepped opposite Ophee and swung with his rapier. The weapon made contact, but his strength was not enough to harm the thick rock surface that formed the creature. His blow glanced off to the side as Ophee also swung toward the creature and missed.

Charis wanted to knock the creature onto its back, but she knew that Ischarus’ life was more important. She stepped behind Ophee and crouched onto the ground so that she could touch Ischarus. Her lips parted to allow the soft words of healing to come forth. “Bondras-tol Egro.” The white aura surrounding her hand dissipated to cover Ischarus, who immediately opened his eyes as if being woken by cold water splashed on his face. Ischarus slid backwards away from the creature and rose to his feet from a safe distance.

The earth guardian noted that Ischarus was no longer in range, so it turned its mighty fists to Semeion. Although the blow almost connected with the young mage, Semeion was able to duck out of the way before the strike could do any harm. Semeion changed his grip on his rapier and waited for an opening to strike.

Rhema swung while the creature assaulted Semeion, but her blow was ill timed. Ophee managed to swing and land a solid blow as Rhema missed. When the earth guardian turned to react to Ophee’s strike, Semeion swung. His blow sliced through the air without making contact. Charis had managed to get to her feet and as Semeion swung she also approached the earth guardian to land a blow, but her strike was not forceful enough to land with any kind of authority.

Ischarus had enough of the battle, and once he noticed that the earth guardian had turned upon the more fragile members of the party he knew that it was time to finish the battle. “Thin Zecka Egro!” As he charged into battle his sword rippled with static electricity. His blade swung hard toward the earth guardian and the energy arced across the space between his blade and the creature, guiding the blade in. The strike was damaging enough, but the stored static energy upon his blade surged into the earth guardian and overcame the earth magic that kept it together. The earth guardian exploded. Clay, mud, and even pieces of jade sprayed throughout the cave. The party each appeared as though they had just emerged from a mud bath once the effects of the explosion were concluded.

Ischarus breathed heavily as Rhema approached him. He held out his hand to hold her back. “Wait until my blade has fully discharged. I don’t want you to get shocked.”

Rhema didn’t care. She pushed his blade out of his hand and embraced him in a loving hug. The rest of the party relaxed and began to breathe normally. Ophee, Charis, and Semeion each wiped chunks of mud and rock away from their faces.

Nobody was prepared for the voice of the cave to return. Nobody was prepared for the gift that they were about to receive. “You have proven yourselves worthy. Stay in my cave until the sun rises. My guardian will protect you.” As the voice echoed, another earth guardian formed from the rock wall and exited. Much of the mud, clay, and stone from the previous earth guardian was magically reabsorbed into the cave walls and floor.

Just in case the cave had set them up for a trap, the party lifted their weapons to challenge the new creature at first. Instead, the new earth guardian ignored the party and turned to face outside the cave. It remained constantly vigilant until the sun rose above the treetops and into the cave.
[/Sblock]