carborundum
Adventurer
Good grief, that sounds positively awful - though the directions are wonderfully planar 
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
I was looking at him wide-eyed; this was priceless information he was sharing. I couldn’t help but ask:
“How do you know all this? Have you been there? Have you seen the dragon? We are all very grateful for your help; is there anything we can do for you in return?”
Sagrimar smiled wistfully and replied:
“No, I have never been to the castle nor seen Trilla; frankly, although this plane is interesting in its own way, I have been here for a very long time. It’s changing; something is happening and I don’t know what. It may be time to move on. As for what you can do for me, you’ve done more than you can imagine already. As you didn’t attack me on sight because of my appearance, well, you restored my faith a little. That is more precious than you know.
Most of the information I managed to get from the thing with scrabbling wings.”
I spoke quickly as I didn’t want to lose my thought:
“The thing with scrabbling wings? What’s that?”
He smiled a little more widely this time:
“Oh, not a what but a who; you’ll meet her. The thing with scrabbling wings looks like a young woman with wings; lots of wings. She likes to play children’s games. She’s the only one who can guide you through that cloud bank safely. You must win her games and she’ll take you through. Oh, I wouldn’t advise trying to go through without her help.”
He frowned a little as he said:
“Actually, I’d better let her know I am sending her a few new playmates otherwise she won’t know you’re coming and she’s quite volatile.”
Longhelim and Victor began to put their armour on again; when he finished, the paladin stepped forward, put out his hand and said:
“Sagrimar, it’s been a pleasure. I hope we’ll meet in the future in the same circumstances.”
We all said our goodbyes in the same way, climbed up the stairs and mounted our horses.
We left the castle and began to travel towards the cloud bank. Only one event of interest happened on the way there. As we were leaving the castle, bolts of lightning still flew around us and I was hit…..not once but twice in quick succession. This is not an experience I would recommend to anyone.
Fortunately, John and Felix were able to use their wands to heal me and we rode to our destination. As we approached, we all saw that it was in fact not quite as straight forward as a normal cloud bank with a raging storm within; although I have to use that word normal guardedly in here. It was like a wall in front of us and there were images within its surface. The colours changed as did its very shape. It was easy to forget that we were inside Trilla’s dream but this…….whatever it was, was a very stark reminder of just what that meant. The closest way that I could describe it was that the surface of the cloud bank was a book with pages turning by themselves and as they turned, we were able to witness or see different images. Each page was a different scen.
We saw events from the past: a column of fire erupting into the sky from Castle Korstull; the first destruction of Seaquen in a mighty wind; the manifestation of the Elder Elemental Lords in Seaquen; the first activation of the Torch of the Burning Sky; the Torch again, smeared in blood and then seemingly shattering.
We also saw events that were happening now: two armies in a wooded landscape, Ragesian orcs against a mixture of Shahalesti elves and humans from Seaquen; a huge airship hovering above Seaquen with a glimpse of a masked figure seen in one of its enormous portholes. We all recognised our ally Master Pilus from the Monastery of the Two Winds.
Then the wall became even more dramatic if possible: it turned into a wall of flame and in its midst, an enormous masked figure turned towards us, stark and menacing; we all recognised the form and mask of the Empress Leska of Ragesia.
We all rode away a little distance while more dramatic events unfolded on the cloud.
John spoke:
“Well what now? Nice pictures but they don’t tell us how to call our new, unknown friend. Is the thing with scrabbly wings going to come out and speak to us? I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the thought of going in there without her. Look at what happened to poor Faden; and that was just going out of the castle.”
I wasn’t paying attention to what he said; I was thinking:
“I hadn’t realised just how big this bank was. We have to get her attention somehow. I thought Sagrimar was going to get in touch with her.”
Suddenly, John began rummaging through his pack and a moment later he retrieved something triumphantly:
“I’ve got it!” he shouted as he held out a large horn. It was something he picked up a long time ago. I think it produced a bank of fog as well as making a loud sound.
He looked at all of us and Longhelim just said:
“Let’s try that. It’s the best idea that anyone has had.”
So we arrived next to the cloud again and John blew his horn. The blast was impressive, reverberating around the sky. Nothing happened initially and then a black shape appeared through the edge of the cloud. We couldn’t really tell what it was but moments later, it disappeared back again.
We looked at each other and rode to that same spot. John blew his horn again. This time there was an immediate reaction as the head poked out. As we were close, we saw that it was the head of young woman. It was a normal human face but when she saw us she frowned and stuck her tongue out at John.
Longhelim spoke tentatively:
“Hello? Sagrimar sent us. Are you his friend?”
This time the head turned to the paladin and she spoke for the first time:
“Will you stop making that horrible noise! It’s very rude!”
The face may have been that of young woman but the tone of voice, diction and general tone was that of a young girl.
She ordered:
“Come in then! Let’s play a game! Follow me!”
She disappeared and we plunged in after her.
Inside the cloud, the storm was truly intense. Bolts of lightning flashed everywhere and I cringed. I really didn’t want to be struck again. Twice was quite enough. Despite the electricity, I had to look at our guide. She was quite extraordinary. Although she was humanoid in appearance, with the face and form of a young woman, she had four butterfly wings on her back. As we approached her, I also saw that she had wings on her ankles and wrists; these looked like very small bird wings. She also had tiny wings along both sides of her arms her arms. I suspect that there were more wings on other parts of her body but I couldn’t see them as yet.
I must have been distracted because as we were following her, I was struck by another bolt of lightning. This was getting very painful.
Finally, we arrived at our destination, having dodged several more bolts. It was a large round area of calm; well calm, except for the three large wind funnels which had anchored themselves in a triangle on the three central points of the arena; which was exactly what it reminded me of. Mind you, at least there weren’t any bolts of lightning flashing around here.
As we arrived, she turned to us, hovering in the air.
Of course, we weren’t affected by the wind but surprisingly, neither was she. Seeing us unruffled, she clapped her hands and squealed:
“Oh goody! You’re still here. Oh, you, the little one! You’re looking a bit burnt. What happened to you?”
That was directed at me:
“I got hit by a lightning bolt.”
She giggled and said:
“Oh you silly goose! You’re supposed to get out of the way!”
I was about to say something back when I caught Longhelim’s eye and he shook his head minutely.
Suddenly she giggled again and pointed at Victor. We all looked a little puzzled until she said:
“What are you wearing?”
It dawned on us that Victor’s full plate armour with its lime green spikes was quite surprisingly but we had all grown so used to it that we didn’t even register any more.
She continued:
“You look like a really big hedgehog! But with green spikes!”
Ever the stoic, Victor did not react.
Longhelim smiled at her and said:
“You want to play a game?”
She spun in midair and replied enthusiastically:
“Oh yes, yes! The game!”
Carefully, she pulled a length of red ribbon out of a pocket in her robe and showed it to us:
“I am going to go to the other side. You have to chase me and take this ribbon. If you can do that, then you have to take the ribbon to the centre of the circle. If you do, you win.”
This was said in a very serious tone, as if she was instructing a class. She also looked at all of us.
Longhelim said slowly:
“Well that sounds very simple. What are the rules?”
She frowned:
“There are no rules. We can play a little rough as well.”
I didn’t really like the sound of that, but Longhelim said:
“What happens if we win?”
Her reply was:
“I’ll take you through to the other side.”
Longhelim continued:
“What happens if you win?”
This time she said:
“You go away.”
With that, she turned around and flew away at such a speed that it was dizzying and I realised just how much she had been holding back when we had been pacing her with our horses. She reached the other side and we could barely make her out but she stopped and we presumed she turned around.
Suddenly, we all feel a massive invisible blow strike us. Everyone swayed on their horse but the only one to actually fall off was Drudge; thankfully, John reacted almost instantly and cast a spell which would slow his fall. I didn’t want to think what would happen if he hadn’t done that. I knew the spell and rode forward immediately. Thankfully, our magic horses were reasonably fast over the distance. I was quickly followed by Victor who joined me but we were outpaced by Felix, Longhelim and John who used the cleric’s magical transport spell to get next to Flight.
I couldn’t quite see what happened next but I did see that Longhelim literally tried to jump on her but she performed a very adroit maneuver whereupon several of her wings seemed to get in the way and brush the paladin, who recoiled, a flash of red indicating that the wings were sharp and obviously more than just wings. I realised that when she said the losing involved us “going away” could mean a different idea than I had thought previously. As my horse approached, I saw that Longhelim was also under attack by something else; something unseen and unfortunately, I had already used my spell which allowed me to pierce that magic.
Flight herself was obviously very angry and I wondered at that since she seemed to be well in control of the game when I suddenly saw that she did not have the ribbon! John did! How the rogue managed to get it I have no idea since he hadn’t even been close to her but now wasn’t the time to try to find out. Flight cast a spell and my old friend, a lightning bolt struck Longhelim; a whole storm of bolts then crackled and also hit Victor and tried to get to John, who dodged; more importantly, they struck all of their horses who ceased to exist. The magic was not designed to be hit by lightning bolts. Victor, Felix and Longhelim plunged down through the cloud floor and disappeared.
We had one chance and I took it; my steed ran as fast as it could and as I reached John, I touched him with my hand while casting a magical transport spell which took us to the middle of the arena.
Just to confirm it to her, I shouted:
“We win! We win!”
Flight could move with amazing speed when she wanted and she was with us almost instantaneously:
Her face was screwed up as she spat:
“Oh…..bother! You cheated, you cheats!”
“How do you know all this? Have you been there? Have you seen the dragon? We are all very grateful for your help; is there anything we can do for you in return?”
Sagrimar smiled wistfully and replied:
“No, I have never been to the castle nor seen Trilla; frankly, although this plane is interesting in its own way, I have been here for a very long time. It’s changing; something is happening and I don’t know what. It may be time to move on. As for what you can do for me, you’ve done more than you can imagine already. As you didn’t attack me on sight because of my appearance, well, you restored my faith a little. That is more precious than you know.
Most of the information I managed to get from the thing with scrabbling wings.”
I spoke quickly as I didn’t want to lose my thought:
“The thing with scrabbling wings? What’s that?”
He smiled a little more widely this time:
“Oh, not a what but a who; you’ll meet her. The thing with scrabbling wings looks like a young woman with wings; lots of wings. She likes to play children’s games. She’s the only one who can guide you through that cloud bank safely. You must win her games and she’ll take you through. Oh, I wouldn’t advise trying to go through without her help.”
He frowned a little as he said:
“Actually, I’d better let her know I am sending her a few new playmates otherwise she won’t know you’re coming and she’s quite volatile.”
Longhelim and Victor began to put their armour on again; when he finished, the paladin stepped forward, put out his hand and said:
“Sagrimar, it’s been a pleasure. I hope we’ll meet in the future in the same circumstances.”
We all said our goodbyes in the same way, climbed up the stairs and mounted our horses.
We left the castle and began to travel towards the cloud bank. Only one event of interest happened on the way there. As we were leaving the castle, bolts of lightning still flew around us and I was hit…..not once but twice in quick succession. This is not an experience I would recommend to anyone.
Fortunately, John and Felix were able to use their wands to heal me and we rode to our destination. As we approached, we all saw that it was in fact not quite as straight forward as a normal cloud bank with a raging storm within; although I have to use that word normal guardedly in here. It was like a wall in front of us and there were images within its surface. The colours changed as did its very shape. It was easy to forget that we were inside Trilla’s dream but this…….whatever it was, was a very stark reminder of just what that meant. The closest way that I could describe it was that the surface of the cloud bank was a book with pages turning by themselves and as they turned, we were able to witness or see different images. Each page was a different scen.
We saw events from the past: a column of fire erupting into the sky from Castle Korstull; the first destruction of Seaquen in a mighty wind; the manifestation of the Elder Elemental Lords in Seaquen; the first activation of the Torch of the Burning Sky; the Torch again, smeared in blood and then seemingly shattering.
We also saw events that were happening now: two armies in a wooded landscape, Ragesian orcs against a mixture of Shahalesti elves and humans from Seaquen; a huge airship hovering above Seaquen with a glimpse of a masked figure seen in one of its enormous portholes. We all recognised our ally Master Pilus from the Monastery of the Two Winds.
Then the wall became even more dramatic if possible: it turned into a wall of flame and in its midst, an enormous masked figure turned towards us, stark and menacing; we all recognised the form and mask of the Empress Leska of Ragesia.
We all rode away a little distance while more dramatic events unfolded on the cloud.
John spoke:
“Well what now? Nice pictures but they don’t tell us how to call our new, unknown friend. Is the thing with scrabbly wings going to come out and speak to us? I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the thought of going in there without her. Look at what happened to poor Faden; and that was just going out of the castle.”
I wasn’t paying attention to what he said; I was thinking:
“I hadn’t realised just how big this bank was. We have to get her attention somehow. I thought Sagrimar was going to get in touch with her.”
Suddenly, John began rummaging through his pack and a moment later he retrieved something triumphantly:
“I’ve got it!” he shouted as he held out a large horn. It was something he picked up a long time ago. I think it produced a bank of fog as well as making a loud sound.
He looked at all of us and Longhelim just said:
“Let’s try that. It’s the best idea that anyone has had.”
So we arrived next to the cloud again and John blew his horn. The blast was impressive, reverberating around the sky. Nothing happened initially and then a black shape appeared through the edge of the cloud. We couldn’t really tell what it was but moments later, it disappeared back again.
We looked at each other and rode to that same spot. John blew his horn again. This time there was an immediate reaction as the head poked out. As we were close, we saw that it was the head of young woman. It was a normal human face but when she saw us she frowned and stuck her tongue out at John.
Longhelim spoke tentatively:
“Hello? Sagrimar sent us. Are you his friend?”
This time the head turned to the paladin and she spoke for the first time:
“Will you stop making that horrible noise! It’s very rude!”
The face may have been that of young woman but the tone of voice, diction and general tone was that of a young girl.
She ordered:
“Come in then! Let’s play a game! Follow me!”
She disappeared and we plunged in after her.
Inside the cloud, the storm was truly intense. Bolts of lightning flashed everywhere and I cringed. I really didn’t want to be struck again. Twice was quite enough. Despite the electricity, I had to look at our guide. She was quite extraordinary. Although she was humanoid in appearance, with the face and form of a young woman, she had four butterfly wings on her back. As we approached her, I also saw that she had wings on her ankles and wrists; these looked like very small bird wings. She also had tiny wings along both sides of her arms her arms. I suspect that there were more wings on other parts of her body but I couldn’t see them as yet.
I must have been distracted because as we were following her, I was struck by another bolt of lightning. This was getting very painful.
Finally, we arrived at our destination, having dodged several more bolts. It was a large round area of calm; well calm, except for the three large wind funnels which had anchored themselves in a triangle on the three central points of the arena; which was exactly what it reminded me of. Mind you, at least there weren’t any bolts of lightning flashing around here.
As we arrived, she turned to us, hovering in the air.
Of course, we weren’t affected by the wind but surprisingly, neither was she. Seeing us unruffled, she clapped her hands and squealed:
“Oh goody! You’re still here. Oh, you, the little one! You’re looking a bit burnt. What happened to you?”
That was directed at me:
“I got hit by a lightning bolt.”
She giggled and said:
“Oh you silly goose! You’re supposed to get out of the way!”
I was about to say something back when I caught Longhelim’s eye and he shook his head minutely.
Suddenly she giggled again and pointed at Victor. We all looked a little puzzled until she said:
“What are you wearing?”
It dawned on us that Victor’s full plate armour with its lime green spikes was quite surprisingly but we had all grown so used to it that we didn’t even register any more.
She continued:
“You look like a really big hedgehog! But with green spikes!”
Ever the stoic, Victor did not react.
Longhelim smiled at her and said:
“You want to play a game?”
She spun in midair and replied enthusiastically:
“Oh yes, yes! The game!”
Carefully, she pulled a length of red ribbon out of a pocket in her robe and showed it to us:
“I am going to go to the other side. You have to chase me and take this ribbon. If you can do that, then you have to take the ribbon to the centre of the circle. If you do, you win.”
This was said in a very serious tone, as if she was instructing a class. She also looked at all of us.
Longhelim said slowly:
“Well that sounds very simple. What are the rules?”
She frowned:
“There are no rules. We can play a little rough as well.”
I didn’t really like the sound of that, but Longhelim said:
“What happens if we win?”
Her reply was:
“I’ll take you through to the other side.”
Longhelim continued:
“What happens if you win?”
This time she said:
“You go away.”
With that, she turned around and flew away at such a speed that it was dizzying and I realised just how much she had been holding back when we had been pacing her with our horses. She reached the other side and we could barely make her out but she stopped and we presumed she turned around.
Suddenly, we all feel a massive invisible blow strike us. Everyone swayed on their horse but the only one to actually fall off was Drudge; thankfully, John reacted almost instantly and cast a spell which would slow his fall. I didn’t want to think what would happen if he hadn’t done that. I knew the spell and rode forward immediately. Thankfully, our magic horses were reasonably fast over the distance. I was quickly followed by Victor who joined me but we were outpaced by Felix, Longhelim and John who used the cleric’s magical transport spell to get next to Flight.
I couldn’t quite see what happened next but I did see that Longhelim literally tried to jump on her but she performed a very adroit maneuver whereupon several of her wings seemed to get in the way and brush the paladin, who recoiled, a flash of red indicating that the wings were sharp and obviously more than just wings. I realised that when she said the losing involved us “going away” could mean a different idea than I had thought previously. As my horse approached, I saw that Longhelim was also under attack by something else; something unseen and unfortunately, I had already used my spell which allowed me to pierce that magic.
Flight herself was obviously very angry and I wondered at that since she seemed to be well in control of the game when I suddenly saw that she did not have the ribbon! John did! How the rogue managed to get it I have no idea since he hadn’t even been close to her but now wasn’t the time to try to find out. Flight cast a spell and my old friend, a lightning bolt struck Longhelim; a whole storm of bolts then crackled and also hit Victor and tried to get to John, who dodged; more importantly, they struck all of their horses who ceased to exist. The magic was not designed to be hit by lightning bolts. Victor, Felix and Longhelim plunged down through the cloud floor and disappeared.
We had one chance and I took it; my steed ran as fast as it could and as I reached John, I touched him with my hand while casting a magical transport spell which took us to the middle of the arena.
Just to confirm it to her, I shouted:
“We win! We win!”
Flight could move with amazing speed when she wanted and she was with us almost instantaneously:
Her face was screwed up as she spat:
“Oh…..bother! You cheated, you cheats!”
Last edited:
RangerWickett
Legend
Tornado rugby! My favorite!
We drew back, John keeping the ribbon out of her reach when, quick as a flash, her demeanour changed and she grinned at us naughtily:
“You are very clever though. How did you take my ribbon? I haven’t seen anyone do that before.”
Rather anxiously, I told her:
“Well, we’d love to tell you but our friends…….?”
And I pointed to the floor beneath us.
She just waved her hands:
“Oh, don’t worry about them. My friends will catch them and bring them back. Now tell me, how did you do it?”
John began explaining his technique to her:
“Well, one of my talents is for deception. My hand is faster than the eye.”
She looked at him crossly and put her hands on her hips:
“Not faster than my eye. Your hands didn’t come near me. Now tell!”
He looked at little deflated and then said again:
“Well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve and some of them are assisted by magic. One of these is to slip small items away from people while I am at some distance. You want to see?”
She nodded eagerly and he gave her the ribbon back. Then he stepped away and concentrated; sure enough, the ribbon slid out of her hand, flew half way across to John and then seemed to disappear until it was suddenly in his hand.
Flight clapped her hands and squealed again:
“Ooooh, again, again!”
John grimaced and said:
“I can only do it so many times and I can’t do it again today.”
She flew towards him with dizzying speed again until she was next to him, took her ribbon from his hand and said seriously:
“Well, it is cheating…….”
Then she grinned: “…..but its clever cheating. Will you teach me?”
Thinking quickly, John said:
“Of course; can’t do it now as I have to go with my friends but I’ll come back and teach you.”
By this stage, Felix, Longhelim, Victor and Drudge were floating around us, being held up by something unknown and looking rather bemused by this whole conversation.
I turned to them and said:
“John’s going to teach her.”
This made them look even more perplexed but wisely, they just nodded and did not say anything.
Flight nodded as if satisfied and then frowned and said:
“This won’t do! My friends can take you to the other side of the cloud but they can’t leave and as soon you leave, you’ll start to fall down again. I know; I’ll make you all fly. You won’t be able to fly fast and you won’t be able to spin and wheel and dive and lots of other things but at least you won’t fall down and you won’t have to ride those silly looking horses any more.”
As she said that, I felt a peculiar lightening and somehow, a new trillith power had joined Vigilance’s Boon and Agony’s Gift. I was already pretty certain that Flight was a trillith but this just confirmed it. In fact, I suspected that the vast majority of beings we encountered here were going to be trilliths of one of form or other. In fact, I hadn’t actually made up my mind if Sagrimar was a trillith who decided to look like a tiefling but it didn’t really matter.
Then Flight scrunched her face:
“You have to go. You won the game, even if you did cheat. Now hang on really tight!”
We barely had time to comply when she grasped Longhelim and we sped away through the cloud at such speed that I barely saw what was happening. We weaved past wind funnels and tornadoes, lightning blasting all around us; I could have sworn that a couple of times, the bolts sizzled in exactly the spot where I had been a moment before. She also dove with us and sometimes we climbed straight up. It seemed as if we were playing some deadly game of catch with wind and lightning! The speed and grace of the flight as we all hung to each other was astounding and after a few moments, I actually began to enjoy it. I was hanging on the Felix who in turn was hanging on to Victor while Longhelim clung to Flight; John’s hands were grasping my belt and at the end, Drudge had a firm grip on John ankles; our reasoning being that the most stressful position in this row would be at the end and an archer’s hands would be abnormally strong. We were screaming as we sped past all the obstacles, flying through, past, above, below and beside them.
All too soon, we stopped; suddenly, it was dark. I didn’t quite understand why it was so considering we were in the Dreamlands but there were a lot of things I didn’t understand about this plane.
Flight turned to us and said, her face serious:
“It’s dark now. I have to go but find a cave down there and stay until light. The monsters won’t get you then. Good bye! And don’t forget! You promised to come back and teach me!”
A moment later, she had disappeared back into the cloud.
We were still quite bemused by the whole event, floating gently, testing our new ability.
Suddenly, Longhelim said:
“Could someone look at my wounds? I got scratched quite badly by Flight. Oh, and could someone tell just how we won please and just what went on?”
As Felix, John and Drudge began to heal the paladin and Victor, I took the opportunity to tell everyone what had happened.
Then Drudge said:
“Flight was right. Down there is one of those strange peaks that juts out from the floor of this plane and I think I see some openings in the side which could be cave entrances.”
Testing our new flying powers gingerly we floated down in the direction that the ranger had indicated and indeed, it was one of the peaks and there were several openings. We looked into each one carefully but they were all empty.
So we chose the largest one and flew in.
It may have been in the Dreamlands of Trilla but this cave looked pretty much like all other caves we had been in; fairly featureless bar a large column in the middle, stretching into the ceiling.
We set up our usual camp and I said:
“Well, since it’s dark, I may as well try to rest and learn spells. I haven’t cast that many but there are a few I could learn.”
Longhelim took out his pipe and commented:
“Go ahead. I am not tired. Victor, join me?”
The warrior nodded and Drudge said:
“I can’t sleep either so I may as well watch.”
Leaving them to it, Felix, John and I settled down.
It seemed as if we were asleep for only a few minutes when Drudge woke us up quietly:
“There’s something out there. It looks like a cloud in the dark but it’s not behaving like a cloud.”
I frowned:
“You think it’s someone in mist form? Like when Felix casts his spell on us?”
The ranger whispered:
“No more like the spell you showed us; when you turn into mist and go under doors or into cracks.”
I nodded, remembering the spell which to which he referred.
Just then, we heard Longhelim say quietly:
“The cloud is drifting closer; yes, it’s in range and….yes, it is evil. It’s not a cloud. I don’t know what it is though.”
Drudge muttered:
“That’s good enough for me,”
And he shot off a volley of arrows into it which precipitated movement from the cloud away from the cave mouth; now that I saw it, I easily recognised it as the arcane spell which allowed one to turn into mist and hide in nooks and cracks as well as travelling under doors and through the tiniest of spaces. The major issue with the magic was that it one could only move very slowly while in this form; and it was not a defence against being shot by Drudge’s arrows.
I told the others and Drudge immediately said:
“It’s a scout for something else. It’s what I would do.”
Even as he said this, we could hear a scrabbling from the outside and suddenly several……things made an appearance, or flew in, I should say.
The first was a collection of flashing lights, another looked like a demonic figure covered in tattoos, yet another looked like a walking tree, literally and the other, well the best way I could describe it is a collection of beetles that kept swarming and changing shape but always came back to the shape of a small cat. If that sounds insane, well that was what they looked like; and we were in someone’s dream.
Finally, we could also see a huge giant, with fiery red hair but it was very pale, dressed in full plate armour and carrying a hammer of black metal looking very similar to Victor’s sword so very likely to be adamantite.
The first four beings wasted no time and spells began flying. They may have looked very strange but they were certainly no slouches at magic and the first thing I felt was being affected by a spell of speed but reversed as I became far more sluggish than normal and could only move very slowly.
After their spells, two of them moved into the cave while the other two and the giant stayed at the entrance.
Drudge was wholly unaffected by this magic and began firing into the collection of lights and Felix managed to put a wall of blades between the two ranks of enemy, across the entrance of the cave. I felt my sluggishness being cancelled as John cast a spell of speed on us and then I managed to cast my most damaging spell on the whole group. That obviously hurt them. Victor concentrated on the glowing lights and Longhelim stepped forward to meet the tattooed demon. Suddenly a new figure appeared from around the side of the entrance: a collection of swirling blades and appropriately, it put a wall of force blades between us with Longhelim and Felix on one side and the rest of us on the other, neatly separating the group.
Thankfully, Victor managed to hit the collection of lights so hard that they quickly ceased to glow. There were still so many spells flying around that it was difficult to keep track of them, including several quite mysterious ones; when the glowing lights went out, some sort of magic occurred but we didn’t know what.
Felix called down a column of fire upon the tree and the tattooed demon and then Longhelim confronted the latter at as well. The paladin hit so hard that it also disappeared, causing yet more unknown magic to be triggered.
The other peculiarity was that the giant was behind the wall of blades and did not seem to be doing much except just looking at everything we were doing; I thought she was getting ready to counterspell at one point so I engaged in spell dueling at one point, but she just looked at me with interest. I cast a spell which sapped the energy of the enemy, causing them to be very lethargic, slow and weak but then I had my own troubles as suddenly I was hit from behind. Whatever it was hit me very hard and it was magically unseen and I just had just about enough time to cast a spell to outline it in light when it stepped forward and hit me again. John managed to tap me with his healing wand but it was not enough to keep everything from going black.
“You are very clever though. How did you take my ribbon? I haven’t seen anyone do that before.”
Rather anxiously, I told her:
“Well, we’d love to tell you but our friends…….?”
And I pointed to the floor beneath us.
She just waved her hands:
“Oh, don’t worry about them. My friends will catch them and bring them back. Now tell me, how did you do it?”
John began explaining his technique to her:
“Well, one of my talents is for deception. My hand is faster than the eye.”
She looked at him crossly and put her hands on her hips:
“Not faster than my eye. Your hands didn’t come near me. Now tell!”
He looked at little deflated and then said again:
“Well, I have a few tricks up my sleeve and some of them are assisted by magic. One of these is to slip small items away from people while I am at some distance. You want to see?”
She nodded eagerly and he gave her the ribbon back. Then he stepped away and concentrated; sure enough, the ribbon slid out of her hand, flew half way across to John and then seemed to disappear until it was suddenly in his hand.
Flight clapped her hands and squealed again:
“Ooooh, again, again!”
John grimaced and said:
“I can only do it so many times and I can’t do it again today.”
She flew towards him with dizzying speed again until she was next to him, took her ribbon from his hand and said seriously:
“Well, it is cheating…….”
Then she grinned: “…..but its clever cheating. Will you teach me?”
Thinking quickly, John said:
“Of course; can’t do it now as I have to go with my friends but I’ll come back and teach you.”
By this stage, Felix, Longhelim, Victor and Drudge were floating around us, being held up by something unknown and looking rather bemused by this whole conversation.
I turned to them and said:
“John’s going to teach her.”
This made them look even more perplexed but wisely, they just nodded and did not say anything.
Flight nodded as if satisfied and then frowned and said:
“This won’t do! My friends can take you to the other side of the cloud but they can’t leave and as soon you leave, you’ll start to fall down again. I know; I’ll make you all fly. You won’t be able to fly fast and you won’t be able to spin and wheel and dive and lots of other things but at least you won’t fall down and you won’t have to ride those silly looking horses any more.”
As she said that, I felt a peculiar lightening and somehow, a new trillith power had joined Vigilance’s Boon and Agony’s Gift. I was already pretty certain that Flight was a trillith but this just confirmed it. In fact, I suspected that the vast majority of beings we encountered here were going to be trilliths of one of form or other. In fact, I hadn’t actually made up my mind if Sagrimar was a trillith who decided to look like a tiefling but it didn’t really matter.
Then Flight scrunched her face:
“You have to go. You won the game, even if you did cheat. Now hang on really tight!”
We barely had time to comply when she grasped Longhelim and we sped away through the cloud at such speed that I barely saw what was happening. We weaved past wind funnels and tornadoes, lightning blasting all around us; I could have sworn that a couple of times, the bolts sizzled in exactly the spot where I had been a moment before. She also dove with us and sometimes we climbed straight up. It seemed as if we were playing some deadly game of catch with wind and lightning! The speed and grace of the flight as we all hung to each other was astounding and after a few moments, I actually began to enjoy it. I was hanging on the Felix who in turn was hanging on to Victor while Longhelim clung to Flight; John’s hands were grasping my belt and at the end, Drudge had a firm grip on John ankles; our reasoning being that the most stressful position in this row would be at the end and an archer’s hands would be abnormally strong. We were screaming as we sped past all the obstacles, flying through, past, above, below and beside them.
All too soon, we stopped; suddenly, it was dark. I didn’t quite understand why it was so considering we were in the Dreamlands but there were a lot of things I didn’t understand about this plane.
Flight turned to us and said, her face serious:
“It’s dark now. I have to go but find a cave down there and stay until light. The monsters won’t get you then. Good bye! And don’t forget! You promised to come back and teach me!”
A moment later, she had disappeared back into the cloud.
We were still quite bemused by the whole event, floating gently, testing our new ability.
Suddenly, Longhelim said:
“Could someone look at my wounds? I got scratched quite badly by Flight. Oh, and could someone tell just how we won please and just what went on?”
As Felix, John and Drudge began to heal the paladin and Victor, I took the opportunity to tell everyone what had happened.
Then Drudge said:
“Flight was right. Down there is one of those strange peaks that juts out from the floor of this plane and I think I see some openings in the side which could be cave entrances.”
Testing our new flying powers gingerly we floated down in the direction that the ranger had indicated and indeed, it was one of the peaks and there were several openings. We looked into each one carefully but they were all empty.
So we chose the largest one and flew in.
It may have been in the Dreamlands of Trilla but this cave looked pretty much like all other caves we had been in; fairly featureless bar a large column in the middle, stretching into the ceiling.
We set up our usual camp and I said:
“Well, since it’s dark, I may as well try to rest and learn spells. I haven’t cast that many but there are a few I could learn.”
Longhelim took out his pipe and commented:
“Go ahead. I am not tired. Victor, join me?”
The warrior nodded and Drudge said:
“I can’t sleep either so I may as well watch.”
Leaving them to it, Felix, John and I settled down.
It seemed as if we were asleep for only a few minutes when Drudge woke us up quietly:
“There’s something out there. It looks like a cloud in the dark but it’s not behaving like a cloud.”
I frowned:
“You think it’s someone in mist form? Like when Felix casts his spell on us?”
The ranger whispered:
“No more like the spell you showed us; when you turn into mist and go under doors or into cracks.”
I nodded, remembering the spell which to which he referred.
Just then, we heard Longhelim say quietly:
“The cloud is drifting closer; yes, it’s in range and….yes, it is evil. It’s not a cloud. I don’t know what it is though.”
Drudge muttered:
“That’s good enough for me,”
And he shot off a volley of arrows into it which precipitated movement from the cloud away from the cave mouth; now that I saw it, I easily recognised it as the arcane spell which allowed one to turn into mist and hide in nooks and cracks as well as travelling under doors and through the tiniest of spaces. The major issue with the magic was that it one could only move very slowly while in this form; and it was not a defence against being shot by Drudge’s arrows.
I told the others and Drudge immediately said:
“It’s a scout for something else. It’s what I would do.”
Even as he said this, we could hear a scrabbling from the outside and suddenly several……things made an appearance, or flew in, I should say.
The first was a collection of flashing lights, another looked like a demonic figure covered in tattoos, yet another looked like a walking tree, literally and the other, well the best way I could describe it is a collection of beetles that kept swarming and changing shape but always came back to the shape of a small cat. If that sounds insane, well that was what they looked like; and we were in someone’s dream.
Finally, we could also see a huge giant, with fiery red hair but it was very pale, dressed in full plate armour and carrying a hammer of black metal looking very similar to Victor’s sword so very likely to be adamantite.
The first four beings wasted no time and spells began flying. They may have looked very strange but they were certainly no slouches at magic and the first thing I felt was being affected by a spell of speed but reversed as I became far more sluggish than normal and could only move very slowly.
After their spells, two of them moved into the cave while the other two and the giant stayed at the entrance.
Drudge was wholly unaffected by this magic and began firing into the collection of lights and Felix managed to put a wall of blades between the two ranks of enemy, across the entrance of the cave. I felt my sluggishness being cancelled as John cast a spell of speed on us and then I managed to cast my most damaging spell on the whole group. That obviously hurt them. Victor concentrated on the glowing lights and Longhelim stepped forward to meet the tattooed demon. Suddenly a new figure appeared from around the side of the entrance: a collection of swirling blades and appropriately, it put a wall of force blades between us with Longhelim and Felix on one side and the rest of us on the other, neatly separating the group.
Thankfully, Victor managed to hit the collection of lights so hard that they quickly ceased to glow. There were still so many spells flying around that it was difficult to keep track of them, including several quite mysterious ones; when the glowing lights went out, some sort of magic occurred but we didn’t know what.
Felix called down a column of fire upon the tree and the tattooed demon and then Longhelim confronted the latter at as well. The paladin hit so hard that it also disappeared, causing yet more unknown magic to be triggered.
The other peculiarity was that the giant was behind the wall of blades and did not seem to be doing much except just looking at everything we were doing; I thought she was getting ready to counterspell at one point so I engaged in spell dueling at one point, but she just looked at me with interest. I cast a spell which sapped the energy of the enemy, causing them to be very lethargic, slow and weak but then I had my own troubles as suddenly I was hit from behind. Whatever it was hit me very hard and it was magically unseen and I just had just about enough time to cast a spell to outline it in light when it stepped forward and hit me again. John managed to tap me with his healing wand but it was not enough to keep everything from going black.
I opened my eyes to pain; not just pain from the blows which I had suffered, but something else. I was lying on a bramble bush! And there were a lot more of these all around me! Bushes and small trees with incredibly sharp thorns; not just any old thorns either, but huge dagger like things; or that’s what they felt like to me anyway as I shifted slightly. They were well and truly embedded, so much so that I felt blood leaking out of my side onto the cavern floor. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw John with a wand in his hand, making motions with his hands to stay still. I did and the pain eased slightly. I was fairly certain that this bramble field had not been present in the cave before I went unconscious so it must have been some sort of odd magic at work; probably druidic; they were into brambles and plants and things.
I could still hear the noise of battle around me but due to the brambles, I couldn’t really look around. Every time I moved was like another set of daggers stabbing me…..well everywhere. Just then, I heard a spell from nearby, a spell of defence and protection; and that was Felix’s voice. There were more sounds of battle but again, frustratingly, I could not see what was going on. Finally, John managed to tap me with a wand again and I felt a little stronger. So, I decided that it was time to get out of here.
I ignored the pain; in comparison to what Agony had done to us in the oubliette of Koren’s Obelisk, this was child’s play. Now there was an expert on pain and he had taught us much, in his strange way; his legacy was our ability to ignore pain in certain circumstances and concentrate on what was important, such as getting out of here. I managed to do so with one of my magical transport spells and made sure I finished behind the large column, out of sight of almost everyone, especially the enemy.
Behind the column, I managed to put a few spells on myself, including a spell which made me unseen as well as a defensive one which helped against weapons; I also drank a couple of my healing potions, which at least staunched the worst of the blood loss. Then, cautiously, I stuck out my head; I was still badly hurt but at least I felt a little safer. I saw that the area of brambles had moved slightly and was now surrounding Drudge, John, Victor and Longhelim. I could not see Felix anywhere.
More importantly, I did not see the creature that seemed to be made out of shadows. Hopefully, it had perished. However, the one that looked like a tree and the one that resembled a swarm of beetles were still there. My apologies for this quite bizarre description but that is literally what they looked like; this place was nonsensical but we were actually in a plane created by a golden dragon’s dream. I am not sure how else to explain it. I am also not sure what these dreams or nightmares were supposed to be.
Be that as it may, these creatures obviously decided that it was time for a frontal assault. The fire giant was also there and in the darkness outside, there were also to further patches of shadows, the wraiths, which curiously were just floating outside, watching. The creatures all advanced through the wall of knives which Felix had laid across the opening. The giant did the same thing. She seemed unaffected but the other things had certainly felt the effects. I could see them staggering slightly as they pushed through.
Felix was still out of sight.
Suddenly, I saw the priest magically appearing behind the warriors and a moment later, he touched Victor, who immediately began moving through the brambles as if they weren’t there. The warrior confronted one of the advancing creatures while the other one and the giant went around the other side of the column. I moved to keep them in sight, flying around the column. As I turned the corner, I saw the fire giant moving around towards me, obviously aware of my presence in spite of my magical spell. Unfortunately, this prevented me from casting my spells as I was very aware that trying to confront a fire giant in direct physical combat was a very bad idea; and I had a suspicion that this was certainly not just a normal fire giant. So, I stepped back a little and cast a spell at it.
Since we were so close, I decided to use one of my more powerful spells; despite its natural defences against magic, I was able to affect it; it disappeared, locked briefly in a pocket dimension. Rapidly I moved back and cast another spell; the length of the giant’s confinement was a little unpredictable although it was usually at least several moments; it was fortunate that I did as well since she reappeared almost immediately. She probably had some sort of magical aid; that spell was normally highly effective.
Thankfully, I had managed to scurry back to Felix by that point:
“Felix, a little help here if you can; oh, and I put a magical wall between us and the fire giant. If she wants to come and get us, she’ll have to do it from this direction.”
As the priest was preparing a healing spell, he also whispered:
“That fire giant is also some sort of undead; probably a vampire; the cloud and the compulsion were a give away.”
Quickly I asked:
“Compulsion? What compulsion?”
John replied at this point, as Felix was casting he spell:
“You were unconscious; you didn’t see. Longhelim nearly killed Felix!”
I looked and I could see that the priest had quite dent in his armour.
As Felix finished his magic, we were looking carefully at the gap between the rock column and the wall; Felix managed to heal me.
Nothing happened; the giant had did not re-appear. So Felix, John and I took the opportunity to cast several spells; when nothing happened still, the warriors moved forward to beard the vampire. Victor moved in one direction around the large stone column while Longhelim moved in the other; I had to take down my magical wall but the giant was there, waiting for us.
As soon as Victor poked his head around a corner, a flying boulder nearly took it off. Felix stepped up and cast a spell; a beam of intense light hit the giant in the chest, making her recoil. This gave the warrior a chance to get near her; Drudge let loose his usual barrage but unfortunately, his arrows individually did not seem to be as effective as usual. She was a truly fearful opponent; as soon as she was able, she struck Longhelim with her fists. Not only was that truly painful, but every time she struck, it seemed to take something out of the paladin; he would stagger and his blows seemed to lack their usual force and venom.
Victor then managed to get near and slashed into her with his usual grace and power; whirling around, for the first time, we saw her open her mouth and flash her long fangs in a grimace; this time, she struck at Victor with the same deadly results. Drudge was firing silver tipped arrows at her but it seemed odd as for some reason she led a very charmed life against them; somehow, she was dodging them with uncanny speed and agility.
The situation was getting quite frustrating; the strikes of the warriors were getting weaker and weaker and she, to the contrary, seemed to be recovering every time she struck; then Felix stepped forward again and this time an intense beam of light, almost a sun beam struck the vampire; she wailed as smoke rose from the place where it touched her; it was not a direct hit as she managed to dodge that but it was obviously still extremely painful.
Now, in desperation, she turned to the paladin and struck him again; Felix continued with his beams and the result was the same. Next, the giant struck Victor, who finally fell over. I was also shooting my force missiles at her but they were fairly minor in comparison to Felix’s beams. He shot her again and this time it was the last straw as with another wail which rose into a shriek, she collapsed.
The priest looked pale as he muttered:
“Thank the gods for that! That was the last one of those I had!”
Longhelim in the meantime was rapidly searching through is back pack until he found a wooden tent peg:
“Felix, will this be enough?”
The priest ran forward and hurriedly he made some hand gestures over the peg:
“Blessed be in the name of the Traveller! Blessed be in the name of Farlanghn! Let this holy wood stop the beast from awakening!”
As soon as he said that, he then took out a vial and poured a little water over the wood; Longhelim then rammed the wood into the chest of the giant, where it began to smoke and the injury it created immediately began to get larger and larger until it destroyed most of her torso.
Felix then shouted:
“Now chop her head off!”
Longhelim obliged.
As soon as he did that, the body crumbled into dust in a most satisfying way, leaving only some quite valuable equipment behind. Next, John quickly grasped a wand and tapped both Victor and Longhelim. I assumed that the wand would repair the damage done to their spirit and indeed, they quickly shed the ghastly pallor that they suffered as they fought the vampire.
While John was helping the warriors, I was looking with interest at the pile of equipment she had left behind. I cast a small divination cantrip and called out:
“Well, whoever she was, she was certainly well equipped; look at this, armour, full plate armour in fact and mithril at that; a ring, a vest, a cloak, all magical……I wonder what they do?”
Suddenly a thought occurred to me and I whirled around:
“The wraiths! Where are they?”
Drudge called back from the entrance:
“They’re gone! I have been watching for them to make a move but they just flew away as soon as the vampire was killed.”
I was puzzled and spoke to quietly to myself:
“I wonder what that was about? Why didn’t they attack?”
Victor just smiled grimly:
“They were scouts; their job was to watch and see what we did, how we fought, what our strengths and weaknesses were. The vampire giant and her cohorts were only a scouting party; more like a probe at our abilities. There is something else out there; something that commands vampiric fire giants. We’ll have to rest here tonight; we can’t go anywhere in our current state but we will need to be very vigilant. Another group like that and we will not be here for much longer.”
I thought about what the warrior had said and tried to remember what spells I had cast in sight of the wraiths; thankfully, I still had my most powerful spells and come to think of it, another one of my powerful spells was cast behind the stone column, out of their sight. Well, we would have to see if anything would come after us during our rest period.
Once we healed everyone and disposed of the corpses, we settled down to sleep again. This was a little strange as there was no real day or night in this realm but we did manage to rest; after all this time, I knew instinctively when I had had enough rest to learn new spells and both Felix and John were the same. Thankfully nothing came to disturb us.
Finishing our rest, we learned our spells as the warriors watched. Then we ate our breakfast provided by Felix as usual. Fortunately, the plane did not interfere with the magic endemic to his food. Then I cast a divination spell which told me the properties of the various items we had managed to obtain so far from the vampire and the crystal dragons from the entrance cave. Then we all cast various long lasting spells and finally decided to exit the cave.
As per Sagrimar’s instructions, we all concentrated on a sorrowful aspect of our lives. Personally, I thought of my father and brother, turned into wraiths by Gabal. Amazingly, something or someone prodded me; it was as if I was being pointed a particular way. There was no visible path or trail; just a very strong feeling that this was the way to go. Everyone else was looking in the same direction. We could not explain the feeling but somehow our Path of Sorrow must have resonated with Trilla’s dream.
We launched ourselves into the air and used Flight’s boon.
The sun shone, the sky was a brilliant blue and there were faint wisps of cloud in the distance. Again, there was a thick cover of pristine, white fog or cloud beneath us that looked almost solid. Peaks jutted out of this cover and attracted wisps of cloud by their presence.
It was into this skyscape that we launched ourselves. The path seemed straight as we flew but glancing back behind me, I noticed that it did curve and vary over distance, often taking us very close to the clouds and peaks, if not sometimes right over them. It was one of these clouds that provided the first unusual occurrence of our journey. As we approached, we could see the sides of the cloud glinting and the closer we flew, we began to see a shower or curtain of gold coins cascading down the side of the cloud, like a waterfall. Even in the dreamworld, we were immediately on our guard. While it would have been nice to fill up our sacks with gold, all my instincts were screaming that this was a trap of some sort.
I could still hear the noise of battle around me but due to the brambles, I couldn’t really look around. Every time I moved was like another set of daggers stabbing me…..well everywhere. Just then, I heard a spell from nearby, a spell of defence and protection; and that was Felix’s voice. There were more sounds of battle but again, frustratingly, I could not see what was going on. Finally, John managed to tap me with a wand again and I felt a little stronger. So, I decided that it was time to get out of here.
I ignored the pain; in comparison to what Agony had done to us in the oubliette of Koren’s Obelisk, this was child’s play. Now there was an expert on pain and he had taught us much, in his strange way; his legacy was our ability to ignore pain in certain circumstances and concentrate on what was important, such as getting out of here. I managed to do so with one of my magical transport spells and made sure I finished behind the large column, out of sight of almost everyone, especially the enemy.
Behind the column, I managed to put a few spells on myself, including a spell which made me unseen as well as a defensive one which helped against weapons; I also drank a couple of my healing potions, which at least staunched the worst of the blood loss. Then, cautiously, I stuck out my head; I was still badly hurt but at least I felt a little safer. I saw that the area of brambles had moved slightly and was now surrounding Drudge, John, Victor and Longhelim. I could not see Felix anywhere.
More importantly, I did not see the creature that seemed to be made out of shadows. Hopefully, it had perished. However, the one that looked like a tree and the one that resembled a swarm of beetles were still there. My apologies for this quite bizarre description but that is literally what they looked like; this place was nonsensical but we were actually in a plane created by a golden dragon’s dream. I am not sure how else to explain it. I am also not sure what these dreams or nightmares were supposed to be.
Be that as it may, these creatures obviously decided that it was time for a frontal assault. The fire giant was also there and in the darkness outside, there were also to further patches of shadows, the wraiths, which curiously were just floating outside, watching. The creatures all advanced through the wall of knives which Felix had laid across the opening. The giant did the same thing. She seemed unaffected but the other things had certainly felt the effects. I could see them staggering slightly as they pushed through.
Felix was still out of sight.
Suddenly, I saw the priest magically appearing behind the warriors and a moment later, he touched Victor, who immediately began moving through the brambles as if they weren’t there. The warrior confronted one of the advancing creatures while the other one and the giant went around the other side of the column. I moved to keep them in sight, flying around the column. As I turned the corner, I saw the fire giant moving around towards me, obviously aware of my presence in spite of my magical spell. Unfortunately, this prevented me from casting my spells as I was very aware that trying to confront a fire giant in direct physical combat was a very bad idea; and I had a suspicion that this was certainly not just a normal fire giant. So, I stepped back a little and cast a spell at it.
Since we were so close, I decided to use one of my more powerful spells; despite its natural defences against magic, I was able to affect it; it disappeared, locked briefly in a pocket dimension. Rapidly I moved back and cast another spell; the length of the giant’s confinement was a little unpredictable although it was usually at least several moments; it was fortunate that I did as well since she reappeared almost immediately. She probably had some sort of magical aid; that spell was normally highly effective.
Thankfully, I had managed to scurry back to Felix by that point:
“Felix, a little help here if you can; oh, and I put a magical wall between us and the fire giant. If she wants to come and get us, she’ll have to do it from this direction.”
As the priest was preparing a healing spell, he also whispered:
“That fire giant is also some sort of undead; probably a vampire; the cloud and the compulsion were a give away.”
Quickly I asked:
“Compulsion? What compulsion?”
John replied at this point, as Felix was casting he spell:
“You were unconscious; you didn’t see. Longhelim nearly killed Felix!”
I looked and I could see that the priest had quite dent in his armour.
As Felix finished his magic, we were looking carefully at the gap between the rock column and the wall; Felix managed to heal me.
Nothing happened; the giant had did not re-appear. So Felix, John and I took the opportunity to cast several spells; when nothing happened still, the warriors moved forward to beard the vampire. Victor moved in one direction around the large stone column while Longhelim moved in the other; I had to take down my magical wall but the giant was there, waiting for us.
As soon as Victor poked his head around a corner, a flying boulder nearly took it off. Felix stepped up and cast a spell; a beam of intense light hit the giant in the chest, making her recoil. This gave the warrior a chance to get near her; Drudge let loose his usual barrage but unfortunately, his arrows individually did not seem to be as effective as usual. She was a truly fearful opponent; as soon as she was able, she struck Longhelim with her fists. Not only was that truly painful, but every time she struck, it seemed to take something out of the paladin; he would stagger and his blows seemed to lack their usual force and venom.
Victor then managed to get near and slashed into her with his usual grace and power; whirling around, for the first time, we saw her open her mouth and flash her long fangs in a grimace; this time, she struck at Victor with the same deadly results. Drudge was firing silver tipped arrows at her but it seemed odd as for some reason she led a very charmed life against them; somehow, she was dodging them with uncanny speed and agility.
The situation was getting quite frustrating; the strikes of the warriors were getting weaker and weaker and she, to the contrary, seemed to be recovering every time she struck; then Felix stepped forward again and this time an intense beam of light, almost a sun beam struck the vampire; she wailed as smoke rose from the place where it touched her; it was not a direct hit as she managed to dodge that but it was obviously still extremely painful.
Now, in desperation, she turned to the paladin and struck him again; Felix continued with his beams and the result was the same. Next, the giant struck Victor, who finally fell over. I was also shooting my force missiles at her but they were fairly minor in comparison to Felix’s beams. He shot her again and this time it was the last straw as with another wail which rose into a shriek, she collapsed.
The priest looked pale as he muttered:
“Thank the gods for that! That was the last one of those I had!”
Longhelim in the meantime was rapidly searching through is back pack until he found a wooden tent peg:
“Felix, will this be enough?”
The priest ran forward and hurriedly he made some hand gestures over the peg:
“Blessed be in the name of the Traveller! Blessed be in the name of Farlanghn! Let this holy wood stop the beast from awakening!”
As soon as he said that, he then took out a vial and poured a little water over the wood; Longhelim then rammed the wood into the chest of the giant, where it began to smoke and the injury it created immediately began to get larger and larger until it destroyed most of her torso.
Felix then shouted:
“Now chop her head off!”
Longhelim obliged.
As soon as he did that, the body crumbled into dust in a most satisfying way, leaving only some quite valuable equipment behind. Next, John quickly grasped a wand and tapped both Victor and Longhelim. I assumed that the wand would repair the damage done to their spirit and indeed, they quickly shed the ghastly pallor that they suffered as they fought the vampire.
While John was helping the warriors, I was looking with interest at the pile of equipment she had left behind. I cast a small divination cantrip and called out:
“Well, whoever she was, she was certainly well equipped; look at this, armour, full plate armour in fact and mithril at that; a ring, a vest, a cloak, all magical……I wonder what they do?”
Suddenly a thought occurred to me and I whirled around:
“The wraiths! Where are they?”
Drudge called back from the entrance:
“They’re gone! I have been watching for them to make a move but they just flew away as soon as the vampire was killed.”
I was puzzled and spoke to quietly to myself:
“I wonder what that was about? Why didn’t they attack?”
Victor just smiled grimly:
“They were scouts; their job was to watch and see what we did, how we fought, what our strengths and weaknesses were. The vampire giant and her cohorts were only a scouting party; more like a probe at our abilities. There is something else out there; something that commands vampiric fire giants. We’ll have to rest here tonight; we can’t go anywhere in our current state but we will need to be very vigilant. Another group like that and we will not be here for much longer.”
I thought about what the warrior had said and tried to remember what spells I had cast in sight of the wraiths; thankfully, I still had my most powerful spells and come to think of it, another one of my powerful spells was cast behind the stone column, out of their sight. Well, we would have to see if anything would come after us during our rest period.
Once we healed everyone and disposed of the corpses, we settled down to sleep again. This was a little strange as there was no real day or night in this realm but we did manage to rest; after all this time, I knew instinctively when I had had enough rest to learn new spells and both Felix and John were the same. Thankfully nothing came to disturb us.
Finishing our rest, we learned our spells as the warriors watched. Then we ate our breakfast provided by Felix as usual. Fortunately, the plane did not interfere with the magic endemic to his food. Then I cast a divination spell which told me the properties of the various items we had managed to obtain so far from the vampire and the crystal dragons from the entrance cave. Then we all cast various long lasting spells and finally decided to exit the cave.
As per Sagrimar’s instructions, we all concentrated on a sorrowful aspect of our lives. Personally, I thought of my father and brother, turned into wraiths by Gabal. Amazingly, something or someone prodded me; it was as if I was being pointed a particular way. There was no visible path or trail; just a very strong feeling that this was the way to go. Everyone else was looking in the same direction. We could not explain the feeling but somehow our Path of Sorrow must have resonated with Trilla’s dream.
We launched ourselves into the air and used Flight’s boon.
The sun shone, the sky was a brilliant blue and there were faint wisps of cloud in the distance. Again, there was a thick cover of pristine, white fog or cloud beneath us that looked almost solid. Peaks jutted out of this cover and attracted wisps of cloud by their presence.
It was into this skyscape that we launched ourselves. The path seemed straight as we flew but glancing back behind me, I noticed that it did curve and vary over distance, often taking us very close to the clouds and peaks, if not sometimes right over them. It was one of these clouds that provided the first unusual occurrence of our journey. As we approached, we could see the sides of the cloud glinting and the closer we flew, we began to see a shower or curtain of gold coins cascading down the side of the cloud, like a waterfall. Even in the dreamworld, we were immediately on our guard. While it would have been nice to fill up our sacks with gold, all my instincts were screaming that this was a trap of some sort.
carborundum
Adventurer
Wow, what an amazing fight! Well done to the party, and the scribe
No one else had any inclination to interfere with the coins so we left the whole thing alone; I wasn’t quite sure what would happen if we began to collect the coins but it was probably for the best. We were in a dreamland anyway, so it was unlikely that these coins would stay as gold once we managed to leave; I had the same concerns about the items we had found here so far but at least they would help us while we were here.
We all flew on, concentrating on our thoughts; the Path of Sorrows seemed to preclude conversation as we all pictured sad memories. Suddenly, Longhelim stopped and looked intently into the distance; I followed his gaze and saw a figure, a rider approaching; his horse was flying but was not moving particularly fast; nor did he have any sort of lance or spear. He moved towards us in a leisurely manner and as he approached closer, Longhelim hailed him:
“Ho, Sir Knight!”
There was no reaction, just a steady approach. We all tensed and Drudge nocked an arrow.
Longhelim tried again:
“Greetings, Sir Knight!”
Again, no reaction but by this stage, he was close enough that we saw that the armour was badly torn and pierced, the helmet askew and partly broken while the barding of the horse was in fairly similar condition. Just as Longhelim was about to shout again, a strange sound, almost a gurgle came from the rider and then we saw that he had no throat; we could see right into the back of his neck. At this point, he was next to us, the horse stopped but again, there was no hostile move.
Seeing that he could not speak, I took out a quill and parchment and approached him, but as soon as I touched his hands, the whole figure, armour and all, collapsed. Oddly, he stayed on the cloud cover, as if it was a solid surface.
I looked at Longhelim, who just shrugged. In the meantime, Drudge managed to catch up to the horse and calm it down.
Felix was rummaging through his pack:
“Do we want to talk to him?”
Longhelim replied, rather surprised:
“Umm, how? He’s dead!”
The priest continued rummaging:
“I have a scroll here somewhere; I picked it up ages ago; it allows me to ask the spirit questions; not very many and it may not work but it would be nice to speak to this fellow if we can, don’t you think?”
Felix finally found his scroll and cast the spell. Unfortunately, although it worked, it did not produce a great deal of knowledge; the figure answered all of our questions with the phrase:
“Beware of the dragons!”
It repeated this over and over again, in answer to every question asked of it; so, all in all, not a great deal of help, especially as we were in a dragon’s dream.
Leaving the remains behind, we continued on our journey, this time with horse in tow; at this point, the air began to burn in solid blocks parallel to us; the flames were in quite colourful hues, mostly blue and orange; we tried to stay away from these strange walls as much as possible but suddenly there was a shout from John:
“Drudge! Wake up! This isn’t a good place to sleep!”
The ranger blinked as if rousing himself and said:
“Something’s wrong! I shouldn’t be this tired!”
He did look very pale and his skin was quite pale. Felix took out a wand and tapped him; this seemed to counteract whatever it was that was affecting the archer as he straightened up and began to move more energetically.
I looked at John with a question and he just said:
“No idea what was going on there but he looked as if he was dropping on his feet.”
We began to fly again when this time, Felix stopped, gazing into the distance. Whatever it was, he saw it some time ahead of us; but, moments later, I was able to see a dark shapeless lump flying towards us. It moved fast and seemed to be quite large. As it approached, we could begin to see that it was a mass of chains some of which waved in the air. They seemed to weave and slither like a huge assortment of snakes; I really didn’t like the look of them and I began to get ready to move out of this thing’s way.
There was a shout from Longhelim:
“Stop, Faden! If we stray from the Path of Sorrows, we may not be able to find it again!”
Glancing forward, I replied:
“That thing, whatever it is, is on the same path and it’s heading right for us. We either move or it runs us over!”
John was still looking at it when he shouted:
“No! Look, it’ll go right by us!”
I looked at it skeptically:
“If you say so, Longhelim, but be ready; I don’t like the look of that at all!”
He muttered in reply, as he drew his axe:
“Neither do I, Faden, neither do I.”
Everyone else was readying weapons and as it approached, we could hear thin wailing emitting from it, like the crying of a child. Then, as it flew by, one of its chains lashed out and wrapped itself around Victor, drawing him into the mass. Longhelim reacted immediately, flying up and hitting it with his axe; Drudge loosed off a barrage of arrows at it but individually they did not seem to do a great deal.
Seeing that swirl of chains, I cast a spell which turned me invisible and then moved slightly. Longhelim was given a spell by Felix which made him impossible to be entangled by the chains while John retreated. There were still thin, child-like wails coming for the chains but among them I heard a groan from Victor and I saw that the chain had tightened around him; I realised that he did not have very long before he was squeezed to death. Under invisibility, I flew up and, touching him, cast a spell which transported both of us just behind John. Simultaneously, Longhelim began a sequence of powerful blows onto the mass; the wails rose to shrieks and sobs and then there was a barrage of arrows from Drudge which caused the mass to go inert.
Longhelim poked it mistrustfully, ready to rain more blows on it but it just floated there.
Felix administered healing to both Victor and Longhelim and then we continued on our travels. The Path of Sorrows was as evident as ever. We bypassed several islands and had to wonder into a couple of clouds travelling the Path but the it was not until the next section of clear sky that we came across another peculiarity. It seemed incongruous at first; initially it resembled just another of the peaks which jutted out through the cloud cover; however, as we approached, we could see that its colour was different and as we stopped and observed it more closely, we could see that this was due to water pouring over its surface; curious, we approached cautiously and saw a spring gushing foaming water out of the crag, sending it tumbling down the side of the mountain into the cloud. This was unusual in itself as we had not seen anything of this type before, but it became even stranger when we approached closer.
There were solid things in the water, also tumbling down the mountain. By this point, our attention was firmly on this rather peculiar waterfall or spring or stream or whatever one could call it. Closing on its location, it became obvious that the solid things were actually creatures; all sorts of creatures: frogs, toads, snakes and even tiny dragons; I recognised these as pseudo dragons, the rarest of all dragons; a mischievous, capricious but good hearted type who often formed strong attachments to magically gifted humanoids.
I was highly tempted to attempt to form one of these attachments but then I remembered we were in a Golden Dragon’s dream and also where we were going; in the first case, it was unlikely that either the dragon or the attachment would last beyond the dream and in the second, even if one of these did decide to attach itself to me, the chance for the poor thing to survive where we were going was minimal. However, I was curious about the water from the spring so I asked everyone to stop, took out a small bottle and caught a little of it; as soon as I did that, I felt something very strange happen to my skin and glancing down as I was astonished to see that it had turned green and now had a distinct reptilian look to it.
How odd! Faden the reptile dwarf!
However, that was not the only peculiarity; there was something else. I couldn’t quite work out what was going on so I did a few quick experiments; first, I tried cutting the skin with a dagger; it was only shallow cut and my skin did not seem to be any harder than normal; it also hurt the same. Then I tried to cast a couple of tiny spells and they seemed to work; after that, I tried a few sparring moves with Victor with my dagger but that was no different; I was as clumsy as ever with weapons; finally, I lit a small taper and rapidly passed my hand through it; I didn’t feel anything; thinking I had done it too quickly, I passed it through the flame more slowly and again did not feel anything.
More excited, I cautiously left my hand in the flame…….and felt nothing; really nothing; it was as if the flame did not exist. The others stared at me with bemusement and I moved to Longhelim:
“Your axe; unsheathe it for a moment!”
Dubiously, the paladin took out his axe and the head burst into flame as usual. Cautiously, I put my hand into that flame, ready to withdraw but again I felt nothing; it was as if I had become fireproof. This was very exciting.
I turned to the others:
“Look, no pain! Fire doesn’t hurt me!”
John raised his eyebrows and quipped back:
“Yes, but you look like a lizard!”
However, Victor was looking with interest and cautiously approached the spring. Gently, he put his hand in the water and let it run over it. Immediately, his skin turned green and scaly like mine; again he asked Longhelim for his help and using the flame from the axe, saw that it did not hurt him. And despite his comment earlier, irrepressible John immediately got some water as well and also joined the scaly group. Longhelim, Felix and Drudge looked dubiously at the rest of us and politely declined to partake of the waters.
After that, we continued on our journey.
The region began to have more islands at this stage and on one of them, we saw the strangest thing. As we approached, we could see a great deal of movement; it was incredibly fast, jerky movement as if time moved differently there. We approached as cautiously as usual and upon closer examination, we saw small people, a swarm of tiny individuals in fact; they were building castles, cities, dams, rivers; we could see that some were fighting, others were sitting and talking; we could see tiny schools, farms and settlements; it was as if the whole mountain was a world and we were seeing the tip of the civilization, with its peaks and troughs; it was the strangest sight, being able to see history being made. I passed this peak reluctantly; I was very curious to know what this group and I would have dearly liked to have observed them, but unfortunately, we had to go.
Journeying on, we saw another peak in the distance, although this one had the most peculiar shape; upon closing on the location, we saw that it wasn’t a peak at all but a rather strange animal; as we approached, I saw that it wasn’t a strange animal at all but in fact it was a cow; but a cow the size of a mountain.
Again, we approached; the Path of Sorrows took us straight past this creature. Silently we walked and as we came closer, I could see that blood was pouring out of wounds in the creature’s body, forming enormous rivers. It was quite grisly and became even more so as I realised that the creature’s eyes were alive and rolling to follow us. It did not make a sound; there was no sign that it was in pain. Again, as we walked past, there was no sound.
As we left it behind, I muttered to myself:
“That has to be the biggest cow I have ever seen. Even for a dream that was strange!”
Drudge was right behind me and as he flew past me, he whispered, shaking his head:
“Faden, it was an ox!”
Oh! I must confess I felt a little foolish.
We continued travelling, following the Path of Sorrows.
We all flew on, concentrating on our thoughts; the Path of Sorrows seemed to preclude conversation as we all pictured sad memories. Suddenly, Longhelim stopped and looked intently into the distance; I followed his gaze and saw a figure, a rider approaching; his horse was flying but was not moving particularly fast; nor did he have any sort of lance or spear. He moved towards us in a leisurely manner and as he approached closer, Longhelim hailed him:
“Ho, Sir Knight!”
There was no reaction, just a steady approach. We all tensed and Drudge nocked an arrow.
Longhelim tried again:
“Greetings, Sir Knight!”
Again, no reaction but by this stage, he was close enough that we saw that the armour was badly torn and pierced, the helmet askew and partly broken while the barding of the horse was in fairly similar condition. Just as Longhelim was about to shout again, a strange sound, almost a gurgle came from the rider and then we saw that he had no throat; we could see right into the back of his neck. At this point, he was next to us, the horse stopped but again, there was no hostile move.
Seeing that he could not speak, I took out a quill and parchment and approached him, but as soon as I touched his hands, the whole figure, armour and all, collapsed. Oddly, he stayed on the cloud cover, as if it was a solid surface.
I looked at Longhelim, who just shrugged. In the meantime, Drudge managed to catch up to the horse and calm it down.
Felix was rummaging through his pack:
“Do we want to talk to him?”
Longhelim replied, rather surprised:
“Umm, how? He’s dead!”
The priest continued rummaging:
“I have a scroll here somewhere; I picked it up ages ago; it allows me to ask the spirit questions; not very many and it may not work but it would be nice to speak to this fellow if we can, don’t you think?”
Felix finally found his scroll and cast the spell. Unfortunately, although it worked, it did not produce a great deal of knowledge; the figure answered all of our questions with the phrase:
“Beware of the dragons!”
It repeated this over and over again, in answer to every question asked of it; so, all in all, not a great deal of help, especially as we were in a dragon’s dream.
Leaving the remains behind, we continued on our journey, this time with horse in tow; at this point, the air began to burn in solid blocks parallel to us; the flames were in quite colourful hues, mostly blue and orange; we tried to stay away from these strange walls as much as possible but suddenly there was a shout from John:
“Drudge! Wake up! This isn’t a good place to sleep!”
The ranger blinked as if rousing himself and said:
“Something’s wrong! I shouldn’t be this tired!”
He did look very pale and his skin was quite pale. Felix took out a wand and tapped him; this seemed to counteract whatever it was that was affecting the archer as he straightened up and began to move more energetically.
I looked at John with a question and he just said:
“No idea what was going on there but he looked as if he was dropping on his feet.”
We began to fly again when this time, Felix stopped, gazing into the distance. Whatever it was, he saw it some time ahead of us; but, moments later, I was able to see a dark shapeless lump flying towards us. It moved fast and seemed to be quite large. As it approached, we could begin to see that it was a mass of chains some of which waved in the air. They seemed to weave and slither like a huge assortment of snakes; I really didn’t like the look of them and I began to get ready to move out of this thing’s way.
There was a shout from Longhelim:
“Stop, Faden! If we stray from the Path of Sorrows, we may not be able to find it again!”
Glancing forward, I replied:
“That thing, whatever it is, is on the same path and it’s heading right for us. We either move or it runs us over!”
John was still looking at it when he shouted:
“No! Look, it’ll go right by us!”
I looked at it skeptically:
“If you say so, Longhelim, but be ready; I don’t like the look of that at all!”
He muttered in reply, as he drew his axe:
“Neither do I, Faden, neither do I.”
Everyone else was readying weapons and as it approached, we could hear thin wailing emitting from it, like the crying of a child. Then, as it flew by, one of its chains lashed out and wrapped itself around Victor, drawing him into the mass. Longhelim reacted immediately, flying up and hitting it with his axe; Drudge loosed off a barrage of arrows at it but individually they did not seem to do a great deal.
Seeing that swirl of chains, I cast a spell which turned me invisible and then moved slightly. Longhelim was given a spell by Felix which made him impossible to be entangled by the chains while John retreated. There were still thin, child-like wails coming for the chains but among them I heard a groan from Victor and I saw that the chain had tightened around him; I realised that he did not have very long before he was squeezed to death. Under invisibility, I flew up and, touching him, cast a spell which transported both of us just behind John. Simultaneously, Longhelim began a sequence of powerful blows onto the mass; the wails rose to shrieks and sobs and then there was a barrage of arrows from Drudge which caused the mass to go inert.
Longhelim poked it mistrustfully, ready to rain more blows on it but it just floated there.
Felix administered healing to both Victor and Longhelim and then we continued on our travels. The Path of Sorrows was as evident as ever. We bypassed several islands and had to wonder into a couple of clouds travelling the Path but the it was not until the next section of clear sky that we came across another peculiarity. It seemed incongruous at first; initially it resembled just another of the peaks which jutted out through the cloud cover; however, as we approached, we could see that its colour was different and as we stopped and observed it more closely, we could see that this was due to water pouring over its surface; curious, we approached cautiously and saw a spring gushing foaming water out of the crag, sending it tumbling down the side of the mountain into the cloud. This was unusual in itself as we had not seen anything of this type before, but it became even stranger when we approached closer.
There were solid things in the water, also tumbling down the mountain. By this point, our attention was firmly on this rather peculiar waterfall or spring or stream or whatever one could call it. Closing on its location, it became obvious that the solid things were actually creatures; all sorts of creatures: frogs, toads, snakes and even tiny dragons; I recognised these as pseudo dragons, the rarest of all dragons; a mischievous, capricious but good hearted type who often formed strong attachments to magically gifted humanoids.
I was highly tempted to attempt to form one of these attachments but then I remembered we were in a Golden Dragon’s dream and also where we were going; in the first case, it was unlikely that either the dragon or the attachment would last beyond the dream and in the second, even if one of these did decide to attach itself to me, the chance for the poor thing to survive where we were going was minimal. However, I was curious about the water from the spring so I asked everyone to stop, took out a small bottle and caught a little of it; as soon as I did that, I felt something very strange happen to my skin and glancing down as I was astonished to see that it had turned green and now had a distinct reptilian look to it.
How odd! Faden the reptile dwarf!
However, that was not the only peculiarity; there was something else. I couldn’t quite work out what was going on so I did a few quick experiments; first, I tried cutting the skin with a dagger; it was only shallow cut and my skin did not seem to be any harder than normal; it also hurt the same. Then I tried to cast a couple of tiny spells and they seemed to work; after that, I tried a few sparring moves with Victor with my dagger but that was no different; I was as clumsy as ever with weapons; finally, I lit a small taper and rapidly passed my hand through it; I didn’t feel anything; thinking I had done it too quickly, I passed it through the flame more slowly and again did not feel anything.
More excited, I cautiously left my hand in the flame…….and felt nothing; really nothing; it was as if the flame did not exist. The others stared at me with bemusement and I moved to Longhelim:
“Your axe; unsheathe it for a moment!”
Dubiously, the paladin took out his axe and the head burst into flame as usual. Cautiously, I put my hand into that flame, ready to withdraw but again I felt nothing; it was as if I had become fireproof. This was very exciting.
I turned to the others:
“Look, no pain! Fire doesn’t hurt me!”
John raised his eyebrows and quipped back:
“Yes, but you look like a lizard!”
However, Victor was looking with interest and cautiously approached the spring. Gently, he put his hand in the water and let it run over it. Immediately, his skin turned green and scaly like mine; again he asked Longhelim for his help and using the flame from the axe, saw that it did not hurt him. And despite his comment earlier, irrepressible John immediately got some water as well and also joined the scaly group. Longhelim, Felix and Drudge looked dubiously at the rest of us and politely declined to partake of the waters.
After that, we continued on our journey.
The region began to have more islands at this stage and on one of them, we saw the strangest thing. As we approached, we could see a great deal of movement; it was incredibly fast, jerky movement as if time moved differently there. We approached as cautiously as usual and upon closer examination, we saw small people, a swarm of tiny individuals in fact; they were building castles, cities, dams, rivers; we could see that some were fighting, others were sitting and talking; we could see tiny schools, farms and settlements; it was as if the whole mountain was a world and we were seeing the tip of the civilization, with its peaks and troughs; it was the strangest sight, being able to see history being made. I passed this peak reluctantly; I was very curious to know what this group and I would have dearly liked to have observed them, but unfortunately, we had to go.
Journeying on, we saw another peak in the distance, although this one had the most peculiar shape; upon closing on the location, we saw that it wasn’t a peak at all but a rather strange animal; as we approached, I saw that it wasn’t a strange animal at all but in fact it was a cow; but a cow the size of a mountain.
Again, we approached; the Path of Sorrows took us straight past this creature. Silently we walked and as we came closer, I could see that blood was pouring out of wounds in the creature’s body, forming enormous rivers. It was quite grisly and became even more so as I realised that the creature’s eyes were alive and rolling to follow us. It did not make a sound; there was no sign that it was in pain. Again, as we walked past, there was no sound.
As we left it behind, I muttered to myself:
“That has to be the biggest cow I have ever seen. Even for a dream that was strange!”
Drudge was right behind me and as he flew past me, he whispered, shaking his head:
“Faden, it was an ox!”
Oh! I must confess I felt a little foolish.
We continued travelling, following the Path of Sorrows.
The skyscape had not changed, with the odd crag jutting out of the cloud cover here and there; I was looking at a peculiar configuration of clouds when I noticed that everyone had stopped. This time, it was Victor who was looking at a distant point. Squinting and concentrating, I was finally able to see a group of flying somethings. Just the fact that we could see them from this far away suggested that they must be quite large.
Cautiously and carefully with our attention firmly on our new guests, we continued to follow the Path. Somehow, it seemed to take us very close to the area where the creatures flew. Since we could not deviate from the Path without losing it, we became more and more cautious and finally we were able to discern their form to a slight extent. They were serpentine in shape and as we approached, I realised that they were golden in colour. Thankfully as it was, we were going to bypass the flying golden serpents although it was going to be close.
As we flew ever closer to their position, I spoke quietly to everyone:
“Just to make sure nothing untoward happens, I have a spell which will cover us with magic of the unseen. I don’t know if these things are hostile but I would rather avoid any unpleasantness if at all possible. We only want to get past after all.”
Longhelim nodded and we all grouped together as I cast my spell. It was not going to last for any great length of time but hopefully long enough to avoid them. Unfortunately, as we continued flying, my magic did not seem to make any difference as one of the serpents lazily flew from its circling position and arrived directly in front of our path. It did not have any difficulty in discerning our position as it opened its mouth and a veritable flood of fire spewed out of its gullet. This was the time when I proved that my newly acquired scales were completely fireproof! John and Victor did not suffer either but this was not the case for either Felix or Longhelim; Drudge managed to dodge out of the way.
Seeing that my unseen magic was useless, Victor flew forward and landed a powerful blow from his falchion onto our newly declared enemy. The creature reared back, coiling on itself before lashing forward and settling its coils on Longhelim. Drudge shot out a volley of arrows, the missiles hitting the body of the snake unerringly. It shuddered, as the arrows took their toll. Then Victor struck again, with a mighty series of blows which sliced deeply.
The snake seemed to squeeze Longhelim but the paladin used the magic of his Torch, appearing just behind the group; this gave both Victor and Drudge another opportunity to employ their weapon skills against it. After one last blow from Victor the snake became an inert mass in the sky.
Slowly, I moved forward to examine it further. I looked at it curiously, trying to see if it resembled anything that I had ever seen or read about. The answer was negative. I opened its mouth and looked at its impressive teeth and then noticed that it didn’t have a forked tongue.
Puzzled I looked at Drudge, our wildlife expert:
“Is this not a snake? It hasn’t got a forked tongue.”
He looked at the creature with me and then shook his head:
“Looks more like a worm; an enormous, golden, flying worm that breathes fire.”
I was shaking my head:
“We really need to wake this dragon up as quickly as we can. Her dreams are getting stranger and stranger.”
After the others were healed we moved on.
We travellied for some time further and suddenly everything went dark; literally; one moment it was sunlight and then it turned to dusk and the Path stopped, the cloud parted and we could see a group, almost a forest of natural stone columns rising from the dark depths.
As I stared, I whispered to the others:
“The Abyssal Pillars I would guess; where the nightmare trillith abide. According to Sagrimar, we should pass through here quietly and if we do it quickly enough, we shouldn’t disturb them; when we get to the bottom, we should reach the Ocean of Stars and there, follow a blood slick which will take us to Trilla’s castle.”
John commented drily:
“You make it sound very simple.”
We looked at the warriors in their full plate armour; they were the most likely to be the noisiest. We took out pieces of cloth and tried to insert them into varoous joints and strategic points on the armour attempting to quieten it. We also looked carefully for any loose buckles, bits of metal of glass, anything that could make a noise if it swung in the air. We made sure that those pieces were fastened. Finally we decided that we were ready. I wasn’t sure how effective it was going to be but it was better than nothing.
Simultaneously, suspecting the worst, we cast various defensive spells.
Thus prepared, we flew down.
As we flew, saying nothing, our precautions were more effective than we had hoped as we were in fact remarkably silent. We flew down and down for quite some time through the dark, the wind whistling in our ears, with only the massive presence of the Pillars beside us. If I hadn’t known better, I could have sworn that these were alive.
I was just beginning to think that we would actually be able to accomplish this when suddenly there was a horrendous trumpet blast from below which shattered the silence. Not only did it shatter the silence but even the Pillars were affected as the blast caused one to topple into another, setting off a chain reaction which caused yet more noise, dust and spectacle into the distance. Something down there had made sure that the trillith became very aware of us; these reacted like hornets and with uncanny agility, streaming out of every nook and cranny nearby, they surrounded us with unearthly speed, swooping down from above.
From below, several other creatures also flew up. These were different but instantly recognizable as wraiths, but big ones, very big ones; the ones that Felix had previous described to us as dread wraiths. Four of them charged but only three managed to get next to us from below; the fourth ran into a barrier of some sort and was unable to approach. I had a flash of memory as I remembered that Bright Shadow, the soul binding scimitar had magical defences against these creatures and John was carrying it.
As the whole area descended into a mad swirl of flying combat between trillith, wraiths and us, the clouds below us parted and not far below, we could see another floating group of opponents. A swarm of wraiths surrounded the leader of this musical party. Superficially from a distance, it resembled a trumpet archon; we had seen those before in the retinue of Shaaladel; but we had never seen one like this, with the tattered robes and insubstantial nature of a wraith! I could only think that it was a trumpet archon that had been corrupted and turned into a wraith. Considering what had happened to Gabal in Gate Pass, could the Ragesians somehow have somehow inserted one of their agents into the Dreamlands? The indications were that Freedom was allied with the Empire so it was possible……
I had to stop speculating at this point as I was hit by a trillith; or to be exact, this trillith had an entourage of creatures flying around it; these seemed to be small, insubstantial trillith that were not fully formed or parts of them; whatever they were, as the trillith proper flew towards me, they buffeted everyone in the area; I attempted to dodge and was partly successful but they still managed to hurt. I noticed that nearly every trillith which was attacking us seemed to have this entourage or swarm around it.
Then the trillith proper began to pummel everyone with their limbs and appendages. They were the formless nightmares we had met in Gate Pass; not as well formed as those we had fought in the cave previously; still, they were still very agile and powerful; and there were lots of them; lots and lots.
Judging by the numbers we had stirred up, our only chance was to try to deal with this current group as quickly as possible and then try to fly down and engage with the corrupted archon. The first thing I did was to cast my spell of speed; I could also hear Felix asking his god to give us a boon.
Drudge let go with his arrows and one of the creatures recoiled but as usual, the arrows did not seem to penetrate as much as they should. Next, I saw something that was quite extraordinary. In a series of dazzling blows, Victor almost danced his way in the air through two of the creatures and with the utmost skill he managed to slice his way through both of them. Almost delicately, he cut off their limbs and then their heads! I didn’t usually associate Victor with dancing but this was the best way to describe his devastating series of movements.
I was still admiring this feat when I felt a pain that almost sent me whirling into darkness; I glanced down to see a green ray hitting me from the trumpet archon; it was a familiar spell, which I also knew; its primary function was to destroy; not just people but also objects and anything that stood in its way; it had almost destroyed me. I thanked the gods for my inborn dwarven strength which had somehow withstood it but I immediately made myself invisible. If the creature had another spell like that, I was gone.
The battle was still a flying swirl with the wraiths attempting to touch people and trying to hurt them that way. We had fought them many times before so we knew what to expect. Longhelim was fighting the wraiths as the Torch, in the shape of an axe, ignored the insubstantial nature of the wraiths. Victor continued to play merry hell with the trillith as did Drudge. I also noticed that Victor’s sword seemed to be unaffected by the natural resilience of the trillith; that was new; in Gate Pass it had been, but then I realised that Victor had undergone some changes recently; that was the only difference I could think of.
It was time for me to use my most powerful magic; more trillith were still swooping down and the corrupted archon was getting up to some more mischief below. The spell I cast was really a modified version of my spell of speed; but it was so powerful that it affected only my person and for a very brief period I moved so fast that no one could see, react or stop me; I couldn’t touch anyone or anything as the sheer speed would hurt me but I could cast spells on myself and around me; which is what I did. One of the spells I cast allowed me to change my shape and because by the state my health, I turned myself into the one creature that I knew of which had truly supernatural survival abilities to the point that it was almost unkillable, especially if it was immune to fire:
A troll!
Then my spell finished; just as it did, I felt a wash of healing energy as Felix managed to cast his most powerful healing spell on all of us. Not a moment too soon either as more trillith began to fly down towards us, only to be met by a barrage of arrows and a flying net of steel weaved by Victor, who had already dispatched another three while I was casting my spells. The warrior was reaping the benefit of his ability to bypass the resistance which was protecting the trilliths from Drudge’s and Longhelim’s weapons. His ferocity was also paying huge dividends; both metaphorically and physically.
As I was above the rest of the group, one of the large wraiths flew over to me; I met it with a bolt of lightning that went through it, punching through its torso and scattering black stuff; unfortunately, it did not stop it completely and it swooped forward and touched my shoulder; I had experienced their touch before and I had no desire to go through that again so I activated the magic which allowed me to slot all my resistance together; this ensured that I shrugged off its attack.
The creature below us had cast a spell which healed its companion wraiths while Longhelim, Victor and Drudge were combating the trillith. Longhelim in particular was badly hurt but John was making sure that the paladin stayed upright with judicious use of his healing wand. The warriors were also making sure to use their concentration of force, as Victor had called it in the past; that was to make sure that they all chose one opponent and as one warrior struck it with a series of blows, the others followed up; this ensured the rapid demise of individual opponents. It was fortunate that they used this tactic as yet more trillith had appeared and joined the flying dog fight.
Again the corrupted angel below saw her trillith forces being decimated, so she attempted to cast a powerful spell on Victor, judging him to be their most dangerous opponent. It was a spell we had met before, designed to strip the warrior of his magic spells but thankfully, he had an item which countered this particular spell. He took full advantage as another trillith fell before his falchion and another was badly hurt; this last one was then finished by Drudge with his arrows.
The next event was a blast from the angel’s trumpet; this blast hurt us all, including the last remaining trillith but thankfully, it was not too severe; it also served to bring down a shower of rocks on top of us. Felix was able to concentrate and drive the last wraith away from me and then he cast a powerful fire spell on top of the angel and her accompanying wraiths. This was almost like a field of fire, with rolling balls of concentrated flame hitting all creatures within; although she seemed only mildly hurt, the wraiths around her were mostly burned away, bar two and I managed to finish those with force missiles.
Finally, as Longhelim finished the last trillith, we saw that the last enemy left was the corrupted archon. The other trillith seemed occupied by other matters at that point; Drudge immediately fired a barrage of arrows at her. Several of them passed straight through her but at least a couple seemed to encounter some resistance.
Felix shouted:
“We need to get her now! Before more trillith arrive!”
Victor dove down towards her. She immediately blew her horn and all of us with the exception of the warrior felt another wave of magic. I wasn’t sure what it did but then I saw the John was completely still, with a grimace on his face. Some sort of wizardry that prevented movement; several of us had preventative measures in place for that, including the two warriors and Felix, who had been given god given powers that ignored that magic; unfortunately, John had nothing, so Longhelim touched him, before swooping down towards her. Felix had also touched him, making sure that his wounds closed. The paladin had been badly mauled by the trillith.
The dark angel then cast a spell at Victor and flew away with uncanny speed; as we saw this, we all realised that we would never be able to match her movement. We all gathered together next to each other, deciding what we could do next. I had no hesitation:
“Everyone get together; I’ll move us next to her!”
So, I did using my transport spell. As she finally confronted us, I could see the full horror of what she had become! Ghostly black wings with tattered edges were a caricature of angel’s wings. Her face was pale and so drawn it was almost a skull while her eyes seemed bottomless black pits full of madness. Her armour was a shimmering veil of darkness with glimpses of silver which moved and shifted as if trying to break free from some other plane. A large trumpet nestled on her back.
Victor immediately flew forwards only to be prevented from reaching her by some magic, as if he had struck some sort of barrier. It was difficult to ascertain just what it was; we were in a dream after all.
So, Drudge shot her; that seemed to work as she turned her baleful gaze on the ranger. Moments later, Felix cast a magic stripping spell on her and shouted:
“Try again, Victor!”
Unfortunately, he was prevented from approaching her as she cast a spell and sped away with uncanny speed. The spell was a burst of negative energy which hurt everyone bar Felix and Longhelim who were protected against these effects. Thankfully, her rapid withdrawal played into our strengths as Drudge sent one of his usual volley of arrows at her. Some of the arrows did little more than pass straight through her but others again certainly met some resistance as they passed through her torso. We took advantage of this little lull to cast several more spells, including one from John which blessed Drudge’s bow, as well as further defensive magics.
Our strategy immediately became obvious to everyone; her ability to move with such speed and freedom in the Dreamlands neutralized any advantage we may have had in numbers. However, no matter how far or fast she could move, she could not outrun Drudge’s arrows. Therefore, she would have to come to us at some point or other.
Indeed, that was what happened for the next several phases of the combat. She would cast a spell at us, usually something involving negative energy; Drudge would shoot her and then we would heal the hurt that she caused to everyone. She also used her trumpet several times, blasting us with its screech. That was also painful until John cast a spell of magical silence on a pebble; this neutralized the harm but it also made spell casting impossible.
Simultaneously, we used the opportunity to fly down for some distance.
As she realised that she would finally have to approach us, the fallen angel came to within a close distance and cast her spell of negative energy again; this time, instead of flying down, the rogue flew towards her and tried his magical trick which worked so well with Flight; the one that allowed him to place or take an object magically on someone from a distance. Unfortunately, this time she was far too canny and saw the silenced pebble all the way. She dropped the pebble but ignored John; instead a ray of black energy flew at Felix, striking him. The priest grunted and had obviously felt it but as we looked anxiously at him, he just grinned:
“Just a flesh wound!”
I flew up and tried a powerful spell on her; a green ray flew out of my hand but just passed through her harmlessly. Longhelim flew towards her, he was still repulsed by her barrier. Victor also flew towards her and mapped out a circle of the magic around her. Unfortunately, despite his closeness, he was unable to penetrate it and so he flew out again. This left Drudge, who managed to inconvenience her with several arrows as usual. As she looked at us, even from our distance, I could tell that she was getting quite vexed with him.
Suddenly, she seemed to make a decision; she cast a spell on herself.
Felix shouted:
“She’s healing herself!”
I could see all the rents that had been in her torso from Drudge’s arrows, repairing. After that, she flew around us at dizzying speed and arrived next to Drudge, without being affected by the repulsion effect. As she arrived, her trumpet turned into a sword and she landed an almighty blow on the ranger! Drudge not only suffered from the cut but I could also see him paling and almost shrinking in front of our eyes.
Poor Drudge had no hand weapon so John flew in and tried to hit her with the Sword from the Forest of Innenotdar but missed. Then Victor arrived but his first blow also just passed through her with little effect. Longhelim cast a spell on himself and I flew forward and made Drudge invisible, trying to give him a better chance against her. Victor then performed one of his extraordinary graceful moves which seemed to scythe enemies apart. Even though she was incorporeal, several of his blows must have harmed her because even she recoiled from the strength and ferocity of the warrior’s blows; unfortunately, this meant that she completely ignored Drudge and concentrated all her blows on Victor. They all struck and this time it was Victor who was obviously physically affected by her sword as he obviously shrunk in front of our eyes.
John cast another spell of speed and I cast a spell on Victor which made him look as if he was standing in a different place than he actually was; as the warrior hit her again and again, she was staggered by his speed and co-ordination; she reciprocate and struck Victor again; the first time she missed due to my spell but the next time she hit but somehow Victor managed to shrug off her powerful undead ability and swaying, he managed to recover defiantly, although it was obvious that he was on his last legs.
Then Longhelim came forward and clinically hit her twice. His axe was now glowing curiously and with that last blow, the fallen angel suddenly froze and for a moment, her wings turned white, her armour golden and we saw her in her full glory, as she must have looked when she was in the heavens. Then her face aged and with a despairing and deafening cry she crumpled into fine dust which disappeared in the wind.
As this happened, another movement caught my peripheral vision: all the trilliths which had been flying in the distance or even quite close to us reacted as one; they seemed to be deathly afraid of what had just happened and flew away in all directions.
Rapidly, we began healing and John took out his powerful wand which repaired the horrendous spiritual and physical damage done by the angel’s sword. It took a little time as he had to do it for both Victor and Drudge and during this time, the last remaining large wraith returned but he was confronted by a now healthy Victor and Longhelim so he did not last very long.
Once we were all ready, we began flying downwards again.
Cautiously and carefully with our attention firmly on our new guests, we continued to follow the Path. Somehow, it seemed to take us very close to the area where the creatures flew. Since we could not deviate from the Path without losing it, we became more and more cautious and finally we were able to discern their form to a slight extent. They were serpentine in shape and as we approached, I realised that they were golden in colour. Thankfully as it was, we were going to bypass the flying golden serpents although it was going to be close.
As we flew ever closer to their position, I spoke quietly to everyone:
“Just to make sure nothing untoward happens, I have a spell which will cover us with magic of the unseen. I don’t know if these things are hostile but I would rather avoid any unpleasantness if at all possible. We only want to get past after all.”
Longhelim nodded and we all grouped together as I cast my spell. It was not going to last for any great length of time but hopefully long enough to avoid them. Unfortunately, as we continued flying, my magic did not seem to make any difference as one of the serpents lazily flew from its circling position and arrived directly in front of our path. It did not have any difficulty in discerning our position as it opened its mouth and a veritable flood of fire spewed out of its gullet. This was the time when I proved that my newly acquired scales were completely fireproof! John and Victor did not suffer either but this was not the case for either Felix or Longhelim; Drudge managed to dodge out of the way.
Seeing that my unseen magic was useless, Victor flew forward and landed a powerful blow from his falchion onto our newly declared enemy. The creature reared back, coiling on itself before lashing forward and settling its coils on Longhelim. Drudge shot out a volley of arrows, the missiles hitting the body of the snake unerringly. It shuddered, as the arrows took their toll. Then Victor struck again, with a mighty series of blows which sliced deeply.
The snake seemed to squeeze Longhelim but the paladin used the magic of his Torch, appearing just behind the group; this gave both Victor and Drudge another opportunity to employ their weapon skills against it. After one last blow from Victor the snake became an inert mass in the sky.
Slowly, I moved forward to examine it further. I looked at it curiously, trying to see if it resembled anything that I had ever seen or read about. The answer was negative. I opened its mouth and looked at its impressive teeth and then noticed that it didn’t have a forked tongue.
Puzzled I looked at Drudge, our wildlife expert:
“Is this not a snake? It hasn’t got a forked tongue.”
He looked at the creature with me and then shook his head:
“Looks more like a worm; an enormous, golden, flying worm that breathes fire.”
I was shaking my head:
“We really need to wake this dragon up as quickly as we can. Her dreams are getting stranger and stranger.”
After the others were healed we moved on.
We travellied for some time further and suddenly everything went dark; literally; one moment it was sunlight and then it turned to dusk and the Path stopped, the cloud parted and we could see a group, almost a forest of natural stone columns rising from the dark depths.
As I stared, I whispered to the others:
“The Abyssal Pillars I would guess; where the nightmare trillith abide. According to Sagrimar, we should pass through here quietly and if we do it quickly enough, we shouldn’t disturb them; when we get to the bottom, we should reach the Ocean of Stars and there, follow a blood slick which will take us to Trilla’s castle.”
John commented drily:
“You make it sound very simple.”
We looked at the warriors in their full plate armour; they were the most likely to be the noisiest. We took out pieces of cloth and tried to insert them into varoous joints and strategic points on the armour attempting to quieten it. We also looked carefully for any loose buckles, bits of metal of glass, anything that could make a noise if it swung in the air. We made sure that those pieces were fastened. Finally we decided that we were ready. I wasn’t sure how effective it was going to be but it was better than nothing.
Simultaneously, suspecting the worst, we cast various defensive spells.
Thus prepared, we flew down.
As we flew, saying nothing, our precautions were more effective than we had hoped as we were in fact remarkably silent. We flew down and down for quite some time through the dark, the wind whistling in our ears, with only the massive presence of the Pillars beside us. If I hadn’t known better, I could have sworn that these were alive.
I was just beginning to think that we would actually be able to accomplish this when suddenly there was a horrendous trumpet blast from below which shattered the silence. Not only did it shatter the silence but even the Pillars were affected as the blast caused one to topple into another, setting off a chain reaction which caused yet more noise, dust and spectacle into the distance. Something down there had made sure that the trillith became very aware of us; these reacted like hornets and with uncanny agility, streaming out of every nook and cranny nearby, they surrounded us with unearthly speed, swooping down from above.
From below, several other creatures also flew up. These were different but instantly recognizable as wraiths, but big ones, very big ones; the ones that Felix had previous described to us as dread wraiths. Four of them charged but only three managed to get next to us from below; the fourth ran into a barrier of some sort and was unable to approach. I had a flash of memory as I remembered that Bright Shadow, the soul binding scimitar had magical defences against these creatures and John was carrying it.
As the whole area descended into a mad swirl of flying combat between trillith, wraiths and us, the clouds below us parted and not far below, we could see another floating group of opponents. A swarm of wraiths surrounded the leader of this musical party. Superficially from a distance, it resembled a trumpet archon; we had seen those before in the retinue of Shaaladel; but we had never seen one like this, with the tattered robes and insubstantial nature of a wraith! I could only think that it was a trumpet archon that had been corrupted and turned into a wraith. Considering what had happened to Gabal in Gate Pass, could the Ragesians somehow have somehow inserted one of their agents into the Dreamlands? The indications were that Freedom was allied with the Empire so it was possible……
I had to stop speculating at this point as I was hit by a trillith; or to be exact, this trillith had an entourage of creatures flying around it; these seemed to be small, insubstantial trillith that were not fully formed or parts of them; whatever they were, as the trillith proper flew towards me, they buffeted everyone in the area; I attempted to dodge and was partly successful but they still managed to hurt. I noticed that nearly every trillith which was attacking us seemed to have this entourage or swarm around it.
Then the trillith proper began to pummel everyone with their limbs and appendages. They were the formless nightmares we had met in Gate Pass; not as well formed as those we had fought in the cave previously; still, they were still very agile and powerful; and there were lots of them; lots and lots.
Judging by the numbers we had stirred up, our only chance was to try to deal with this current group as quickly as possible and then try to fly down and engage with the corrupted archon. The first thing I did was to cast my spell of speed; I could also hear Felix asking his god to give us a boon.
Drudge let go with his arrows and one of the creatures recoiled but as usual, the arrows did not seem to penetrate as much as they should. Next, I saw something that was quite extraordinary. In a series of dazzling blows, Victor almost danced his way in the air through two of the creatures and with the utmost skill he managed to slice his way through both of them. Almost delicately, he cut off their limbs and then their heads! I didn’t usually associate Victor with dancing but this was the best way to describe his devastating series of movements.
I was still admiring this feat when I felt a pain that almost sent me whirling into darkness; I glanced down to see a green ray hitting me from the trumpet archon; it was a familiar spell, which I also knew; its primary function was to destroy; not just people but also objects and anything that stood in its way; it had almost destroyed me. I thanked the gods for my inborn dwarven strength which had somehow withstood it but I immediately made myself invisible. If the creature had another spell like that, I was gone.
The battle was still a flying swirl with the wraiths attempting to touch people and trying to hurt them that way. We had fought them many times before so we knew what to expect. Longhelim was fighting the wraiths as the Torch, in the shape of an axe, ignored the insubstantial nature of the wraiths. Victor continued to play merry hell with the trillith as did Drudge. I also noticed that Victor’s sword seemed to be unaffected by the natural resilience of the trillith; that was new; in Gate Pass it had been, but then I realised that Victor had undergone some changes recently; that was the only difference I could think of.
It was time for me to use my most powerful magic; more trillith were still swooping down and the corrupted archon was getting up to some more mischief below. The spell I cast was really a modified version of my spell of speed; but it was so powerful that it affected only my person and for a very brief period I moved so fast that no one could see, react or stop me; I couldn’t touch anyone or anything as the sheer speed would hurt me but I could cast spells on myself and around me; which is what I did. One of the spells I cast allowed me to change my shape and because by the state my health, I turned myself into the one creature that I knew of which had truly supernatural survival abilities to the point that it was almost unkillable, especially if it was immune to fire:
A troll!
Then my spell finished; just as it did, I felt a wash of healing energy as Felix managed to cast his most powerful healing spell on all of us. Not a moment too soon either as more trillith began to fly down towards us, only to be met by a barrage of arrows and a flying net of steel weaved by Victor, who had already dispatched another three while I was casting my spells. The warrior was reaping the benefit of his ability to bypass the resistance which was protecting the trilliths from Drudge’s and Longhelim’s weapons. His ferocity was also paying huge dividends; both metaphorically and physically.
As I was above the rest of the group, one of the large wraiths flew over to me; I met it with a bolt of lightning that went through it, punching through its torso and scattering black stuff; unfortunately, it did not stop it completely and it swooped forward and touched my shoulder; I had experienced their touch before and I had no desire to go through that again so I activated the magic which allowed me to slot all my resistance together; this ensured that I shrugged off its attack.
The creature below us had cast a spell which healed its companion wraiths while Longhelim, Victor and Drudge were combating the trillith. Longhelim in particular was badly hurt but John was making sure that the paladin stayed upright with judicious use of his healing wand. The warriors were also making sure to use their concentration of force, as Victor had called it in the past; that was to make sure that they all chose one opponent and as one warrior struck it with a series of blows, the others followed up; this ensured the rapid demise of individual opponents. It was fortunate that they used this tactic as yet more trillith had appeared and joined the flying dog fight.
Again the corrupted angel below saw her trillith forces being decimated, so she attempted to cast a powerful spell on Victor, judging him to be their most dangerous opponent. It was a spell we had met before, designed to strip the warrior of his magic spells but thankfully, he had an item which countered this particular spell. He took full advantage as another trillith fell before his falchion and another was badly hurt; this last one was then finished by Drudge with his arrows.
The next event was a blast from the angel’s trumpet; this blast hurt us all, including the last remaining trillith but thankfully, it was not too severe; it also served to bring down a shower of rocks on top of us. Felix was able to concentrate and drive the last wraith away from me and then he cast a powerful fire spell on top of the angel and her accompanying wraiths. This was almost like a field of fire, with rolling balls of concentrated flame hitting all creatures within; although she seemed only mildly hurt, the wraiths around her were mostly burned away, bar two and I managed to finish those with force missiles.
Finally, as Longhelim finished the last trillith, we saw that the last enemy left was the corrupted archon. The other trillith seemed occupied by other matters at that point; Drudge immediately fired a barrage of arrows at her. Several of them passed straight through her but at least a couple seemed to encounter some resistance.
Felix shouted:
“We need to get her now! Before more trillith arrive!”
Victor dove down towards her. She immediately blew her horn and all of us with the exception of the warrior felt another wave of magic. I wasn’t sure what it did but then I saw the John was completely still, with a grimace on his face. Some sort of wizardry that prevented movement; several of us had preventative measures in place for that, including the two warriors and Felix, who had been given god given powers that ignored that magic; unfortunately, John had nothing, so Longhelim touched him, before swooping down towards her. Felix had also touched him, making sure that his wounds closed. The paladin had been badly mauled by the trillith.
The dark angel then cast a spell at Victor and flew away with uncanny speed; as we saw this, we all realised that we would never be able to match her movement. We all gathered together next to each other, deciding what we could do next. I had no hesitation:
“Everyone get together; I’ll move us next to her!”
So, I did using my transport spell. As she finally confronted us, I could see the full horror of what she had become! Ghostly black wings with tattered edges were a caricature of angel’s wings. Her face was pale and so drawn it was almost a skull while her eyes seemed bottomless black pits full of madness. Her armour was a shimmering veil of darkness with glimpses of silver which moved and shifted as if trying to break free from some other plane. A large trumpet nestled on her back.
Victor immediately flew forwards only to be prevented from reaching her by some magic, as if he had struck some sort of barrier. It was difficult to ascertain just what it was; we were in a dream after all.
So, Drudge shot her; that seemed to work as she turned her baleful gaze on the ranger. Moments later, Felix cast a magic stripping spell on her and shouted:
“Try again, Victor!”
Unfortunately, he was prevented from approaching her as she cast a spell and sped away with uncanny speed. The spell was a burst of negative energy which hurt everyone bar Felix and Longhelim who were protected against these effects. Thankfully, her rapid withdrawal played into our strengths as Drudge sent one of his usual volley of arrows at her. Some of the arrows did little more than pass straight through her but others again certainly met some resistance as they passed through her torso. We took advantage of this little lull to cast several more spells, including one from John which blessed Drudge’s bow, as well as further defensive magics.
Our strategy immediately became obvious to everyone; her ability to move with such speed and freedom in the Dreamlands neutralized any advantage we may have had in numbers. However, no matter how far or fast she could move, she could not outrun Drudge’s arrows. Therefore, she would have to come to us at some point or other.
Indeed, that was what happened for the next several phases of the combat. She would cast a spell at us, usually something involving negative energy; Drudge would shoot her and then we would heal the hurt that she caused to everyone. She also used her trumpet several times, blasting us with its screech. That was also painful until John cast a spell of magical silence on a pebble; this neutralized the harm but it also made spell casting impossible.
Simultaneously, we used the opportunity to fly down for some distance.
As she realised that she would finally have to approach us, the fallen angel came to within a close distance and cast her spell of negative energy again; this time, instead of flying down, the rogue flew towards her and tried his magical trick which worked so well with Flight; the one that allowed him to place or take an object magically on someone from a distance. Unfortunately, this time she was far too canny and saw the silenced pebble all the way. She dropped the pebble but ignored John; instead a ray of black energy flew at Felix, striking him. The priest grunted and had obviously felt it but as we looked anxiously at him, he just grinned:
“Just a flesh wound!”
I flew up and tried a powerful spell on her; a green ray flew out of my hand but just passed through her harmlessly. Longhelim flew towards her, he was still repulsed by her barrier. Victor also flew towards her and mapped out a circle of the magic around her. Unfortunately, despite his closeness, he was unable to penetrate it and so he flew out again. This left Drudge, who managed to inconvenience her with several arrows as usual. As she looked at us, even from our distance, I could tell that she was getting quite vexed with him.
Suddenly, she seemed to make a decision; she cast a spell on herself.
Felix shouted:
“She’s healing herself!”
I could see all the rents that had been in her torso from Drudge’s arrows, repairing. After that, she flew around us at dizzying speed and arrived next to Drudge, without being affected by the repulsion effect. As she arrived, her trumpet turned into a sword and she landed an almighty blow on the ranger! Drudge not only suffered from the cut but I could also see him paling and almost shrinking in front of our eyes.
Poor Drudge had no hand weapon so John flew in and tried to hit her with the Sword from the Forest of Innenotdar but missed. Then Victor arrived but his first blow also just passed through her with little effect. Longhelim cast a spell on himself and I flew forward and made Drudge invisible, trying to give him a better chance against her. Victor then performed one of his extraordinary graceful moves which seemed to scythe enemies apart. Even though she was incorporeal, several of his blows must have harmed her because even she recoiled from the strength and ferocity of the warrior’s blows; unfortunately, this meant that she completely ignored Drudge and concentrated all her blows on Victor. They all struck and this time it was Victor who was obviously physically affected by her sword as he obviously shrunk in front of our eyes.
John cast another spell of speed and I cast a spell on Victor which made him look as if he was standing in a different place than he actually was; as the warrior hit her again and again, she was staggered by his speed and co-ordination; she reciprocate and struck Victor again; the first time she missed due to my spell but the next time she hit but somehow Victor managed to shrug off her powerful undead ability and swaying, he managed to recover defiantly, although it was obvious that he was on his last legs.
Then Longhelim came forward and clinically hit her twice. His axe was now glowing curiously and with that last blow, the fallen angel suddenly froze and for a moment, her wings turned white, her armour golden and we saw her in her full glory, as she must have looked when she was in the heavens. Then her face aged and with a despairing and deafening cry she crumpled into fine dust which disappeared in the wind.
As this happened, another movement caught my peripheral vision: all the trilliths which had been flying in the distance or even quite close to us reacted as one; they seemed to be deathly afraid of what had just happened and flew away in all directions.
Rapidly, we began healing and John took out his powerful wand which repaired the horrendous spiritual and physical damage done by the angel’s sword. It took a little time as he had to do it for both Victor and Drudge and during this time, the last remaining large wraith returned but he was confronted by a now healthy Victor and Longhelim so he did not last very long.
Once we were all ready, we began flying downwards again.
carborundum
Adventurer
What a battle! That will keep me going for a while
Happy Christmas, you guys!
Happy Christmas, you guys!
Similar Threads
