The next morning Torrent asked to stay in the Lyceum. She was obviously still suffering from the trauma of the previous days. I imagined that having your mind invaded and then being compelled to perform various acts that could potentially have harmed the lives of thousands of people must take some sort of toll. I just hoped that she would be able to heal over time. She did offer to take various spoils of war we had found and see if she could find a buyer. She also offered to attempt to purchase a useful defensive cloak for myself and a couple of magical storage devices for John and Felix.
Felix and I also discussed the spell which I had devised against the harm of fire in the Forest of Innenotdar. He had been very curious about it and somehow, he was able to request it and assimilate it among his divine miracles. I am not sure how this worked; it was something else to investigate when I had time; why were some spells available to both arcanists and priests?
So little time, so little time…….
Anyway, Felix and I made sure that we had enough of these spells to give to everyone in the group. We were going into a demi plane where the plane of water and the plane of fire met after all. Felix said he had also taken a spell which would give us the ability to breathe underwater, should we need to. That sounded intriguing!
Having discussed all of this, we returned to the steam tunnels, where we found Jibrand waiting for us patiently.
Now that I had slept, I was able to examine this being more fully. He was quite extraordinary, a humanoid made of fire. I was full of questions but he replied:
“Esteemed wizard, I understand you are very curious but we must go. The longer we leave Toma, the longer he will have to prepare his army; I urge you to make haste”.
I was disappointed but Victor gave me a look which said: Time and Place, Faden, Time and Place.
I used several spells to give myself some defences and also cast the fire protection spells on the others as did Felix so the whole group was warded. Then, we walked through the tunnel indicated by Jibrand. It led down for some distance until it reached a door. Initially, it was difficult to tell it was a door as it was a black piece of rock that was the same as the rock in the corridors but Jibrand assured us it could be opened. John looked at it for a long time and declared it safe; then Longhelim carefully put his hand out to push it. As soon as he touched it, the whole face of the door immolated in a flash of flame and an opening was revealed.
This led into a short corridor which our door split to the left and right. There was also a door straight ahead of us. Jibrand spoke up from the back:
“Whatever you do, do not open the door in front of you; beyond is the abode of an Elder water elemental. It could be that it would not pay any attention to you but it could also squash you completely. You are mostly beneath its notice but that does not mean that it will not notice you. There is a secret door to your left and that is the way we should go.”
Knowing that alone, we would certainly have investigated the door in front of us before searching for any secret doors, silently I thanked the powers that be that we had Jibrand to guide us. As per his instructions, we ignored the door ahead of us and John quickly found the secret door to the left.
This again led into a narrow corridor that led to another lava door. This time Victor was in the front and as he touched it, it revealed a strange room; it looked as if there was a normal floor in front of us but the whole ceiling was covered in hot coals. As we threw a small coin inside, we saw that it flew to the ceiling. Everything seemed to be reversed by magic.
John volunteered to investigate. We tied a rope to him and he climbed up nimbly. He did not worry about the coals as his defence against fire was able to absorb any harmful heat from that. However, as he cautiously made his way across, a large being made of a fire “fell” through the ceiling and swiped one of its appendages at him with a meaty thunk. I recognized it immediately as a fire elemental, the commonest inhabitant of the elemental plane of fire. These were strange, powerful beings with few human weaknesses and great strength and power. One of the most dangerous weapons known about these particular elementals was that as soon as they struck you, they could potentially set you on fire; that was after they hurt you just through sheer brute strength of course. Thankfully, again, any damage from fire was absorbed by the protective spells cast by Felix and I.
John immediately began to shout for us to pull him up which we did as fast as we could but not before the elemental was able to hit John again, eliciting curses from him. We pulled him up and fortunately, we were now out of its reach.
We had a brief discussion and decided that we would need to deal with this guardian as quickly as possible. I told the others that amongst the powers of these beings was a general resistance to physical weapons as well as no vital organs or anatomy to target, basically because they did not have any. There was also no point to try to use tactical positioning against them for the same reason. I had managed to glean this from various visits to Gabal’s library.
With this in mind, various spells were cast on the group, a grapnel was affixed to the edge of the corridor and both Victor and Longhelim began to “climb” up. Unfortunately, full plate armour is not conducive to rope climbing and they both reached a point on the rope and then they fell upwards; clattering of armour, shields and lots of cursing later, they stood up and began to move forward cautiously, especially as they were “walking upside down” by their usual perception. As they did, John and Felix also climbed up the rope, the former with grace and skill and the latter suffering the same crashing fate as the warriors. As they arrived at the ceiling in their different ways, the elemental rose from the ceiling as previously, but this time behind the warriors and in front of John and Felix.
As this occurred, I cast my speed spell on everyone except John, who had gone invisible again. Using my spell, Victor moved to balance himself and then in an astonishing sequence, struck the elemental three times with such rapidity that the creature had almost no time to react. It recoiled and crackled in anger but then Longhelim strode forward and also sliced it with his long sword, snuffing the elemental out like a giant candle.
This combat happened with such speed that barely anyone was hurt. It had consumed a large amount of our magic though. Well, no help for it, we crossed this room and using the ropes, climbed out the other side.
This time, we could see another corridor; John told us that it would be best if he moved ahead. We followed but at a little distance. As previously, the corridor was narrow and made of black, volcanic rock. This whole demi-plane seemed to be made out of this stuff at the moment.
We arrived at a door a short while later. John waited until we were quite close and then he touched the door as usual. The usual immolation took place, but this time it revealed a room of fire; nothing but pure fire. We caught a glimpse of a forge through the fire but then…..
“….that’s an Elder Fire Elemental. Get out of there and shut the door…..” a frantic shout from Jibrand.
The fire suddenly seemed to acquire a face that was slowly turning towards us; John squeaked and jumped backwards and just as an enormous brand of flame was reaching out towards him the door suddenly re-appeared.
“Let’s not do that again” this from John.
Passing the door, we continued through the tunnel. This time Longhelim was in the front. As we passed one band, suddenly John stopped and motioned to a part of the wall. Quickly he began to touch it in various peculiar ways until suddenly an opening appeared, revealing another tunnel.
We decided that going through secret doors was much more interesting than following normal tunnels, so we began advancing through the newly revealed opening, with John in the lead this time. He approached a new door and as he touched this one, it disappeared but this time with a splash of water.
It revealed a room that seemed to be made of a shining metal, probably brass. It also contained a table, several chairs and most importantly, four figures that resembled dwarves – except that they were made of fire. I recognized these as well; they were Aesir, again fire elementals except that they physically resembled dwarves. We were not sure of their temperament or disposition so John retreated, leaving Longhelim in front.
We were not looking for conflict but the decision was taken out of our hands when all three charged at the paladin, waving their fiery hammers. Immediately, Drudge began to fire a stream of arrows and one of them quickly fell to several of the ranger’s missiles. These Aesir seemed brave but not very resilient. Longhelim began to duel with another and it did not prove very expert with its hammer. The paladin was able to dispatch it fairly quickly; when the final elemental charged insanely, the paladin coolly waited for his opening and two quick thrusts freed our way through the tunnel.
The room contained a few of the creatures’ coins as well as four doors including the one through which we had entered.
The door directly opposite to the one we had entered was our initially chosen exit. It revealed another corridor which led to another door; as it splashed open, it revealed a sandy beach with a deep blue ocean stretching into forever. It was such an incongruous sight here that we had to take a few moments just to assimilate it. It was quite beautiful. The waves lapped gently at the shore, a cool breeze ruffled our hair and the whole picture was idyllic; too much so in fact. John silently motioned us to stay and crept into the room. He pointed out two doors which we had missed originally but then suddenly he stopped trying to creep anywhere, straightened and just walked to the water’s edge, staring at the horizon; obviously something had been affecting him magically.
Everyone else entered and was affected by a strange compulsion to go towards the water. It was at this point that a large wall of the stuff rose from the ocean and acquired a humanoid shape. As luck would have it, it appeared next to me and gave me such a wallop that it sent me scurrying back across the room, any compulsion to stare at the water now completely beaten out of my head, which was ringing very heavily.
What followed was a long battle against a mighty and powerful enemy. It was the first water elemental we had faced and although it did not burn as fire elementals did, it seemed stronger than its counterpart. It was easier to strike but like other denizens from the planes, it had an innate resistance to all weapons, and did not seem to have an anatomy which rendered it vulnerable to carefully placed blows. I knew all of this from books but it was one thing to read about it and another to actually witness it. A vaguely humanoid figure made out of pure water? I didn’t try to cast any spells against it as I knew that there were many spells which had no effect against it and it also had had a powerful resilience against most other magic. It also had an ability to interchange strength for accuracy in its blows and vice versa.
Of course, while I was doing this clinical analysis to aid any readers of this chronicle, the warriors were struggling against it and more often than not being battered by its massive arms.
Finally, after a long struggle, it dissipated into the water of the ocean but not before taking a huge toll. Felix moved forward to heal them but he could not do so fully. They were hurt too badly.
Thankfully, there was no longer any trace of the compulsion and this allowed us to examine the door on the right wall. It opened with the usual dissolution into water and revealed a small room with the whole floor covered in water to a slight depth. Unusually, there was also a waterfall at the far end of the room. This time, Longhelim and Victor entered into the room and as they did, the door suddenly re-appeared behind them. We tried to open it in the usual manner but this time it stayed shut.
There was little we could do but wait and hope. Thankfully, I little while later it opened and a stream of water ran out, quickly soaking into the sand.
”What happened?” I asked.
Victor replied in his quiet manner: “As soon as the door shut, rain started to come down from the ceiling; the room began to fill up and two more water elementals came down with it; these were smaller ones though and much easier to deal with than that monster from the ocean. It didn’t take us very long.”
They had both suffered a few light wounds though and Felix had to use some more of his carefully hoarded healing resources.
Longhelim then chimed in: “There is also a door beyond the waterfall. “
As we entered into the room, John’s attention seemed to be taken by one of the blank walls and again, he began to feel it with his hands until a few moments later another hidden opening. This one revealed a small room with a raised pedestal. On it lay a staff; we crowded around the entrance, wary of entering.
Then John cast one of his spells and the staff rose on its own and flew towards the exit and us. John said that this spell could carry it for a long time. What a useful spell! I determined to ask him to show me the formula as soon as it was feasible.
I examined this staff curiously. It was a beautifully carved piece of wood, light in colour and appropriately, the effect of the carving was to make it seem as if it was made of fire; I felt it almost pulsed with an orange glow.
We then concentrated on the last door, beyond the waterfall. It led through a corridor which ultimately led into an empty room with one strange exception: on the floor lay a bearskin rug. I wasn’t sure what to make of that but Drudge, our ranger, moved in and looked at it for a long time.
When he came out, he muttered: “That’s not right. Something was done to that poor animal. Even in death it looks…….almost sad and confused.”
As he said that, I looked at it again but I only saw a dead bear’s head; but since this was the first bear, alive or dead, that I had actually seen, I couldn’t really tell what its expression was. In fact, looking at the size of it, I felt I didn’t need to see a live one, especially if it was wild and hungry.
Feeling we had finished here, we returned to the room made of brass.
We looked at the doors which were as our choices of exit. The door to our right led much too close to the direction of the forge room which housed the Elder Fire Elemental, so we decided to investigate the door to our left. It opened in the usual manner and revealed a short corridor which led to another door. We were quite wary as we were now very low on magic but the warriors still felt quite confident. So, weapons and few remaining spells at the ready, we opened this door.
It led into a room containing the most marvelous sight I had ever seen.
The aerial battle over Gate Pass, our journey through the Fire Forest of Innenotdar, my conversation with Nelle the Unicorn, our battle against Indomitability, the wonders of the Lyceum were as nothing in comparison to what now appeared in front of our eyes.
The room revealed was more along the lines of an enormous circular shaft. There was a narrow walkway along the edge of the wall; and looking upwards we saw something that I will never forget in my entire life.
It was a stereoscopic panorama of the Elemental Plane of Fire.
I never realised that there could so many different shades of colour within fire, depending on its size or shape. Huge mountains made of fire belched yet more flame; here and there I thought I could make out burning buildings, otherwise, the panorama was stretched by great planes of pure flame; and within this firescape, beings and creatures moved, walking, swimming or flying. Elementals of all sizes abounded, from the smallest licks of flame which flew nimbly to enormous beings the size of mountains which slid ponderously; but they were not the only ones: strange creatures, half lizard and half human basked in the heat; these were the legendary salamanders. There were large groups of Aesir, working industriously on things I couldn’t see. Strange wormlike creatures slid through the flame on missions only known to them; and amongst all of these was a myriad of creatures I had never seen or read about which were completely new to me. This hypnotic scene stretched into the distance; it was like looking into flame but multiplied by an infinite factor.
I was entranced.
And below was its counterpart but this time of the Elemental Plane of Water.
The range of colour from the deepest blue to a vibrant green provided an elemental beauty to this sight. Great water spouts erupted in some places; huge whirlpools swirled in others and a majestic calm prevailed in other parts of the panorama. Huge waves broke against walls, creating enormous gouts of water which flew upwards and crashed against the fire, creating huge gusts of steam.
As in the plane of fire, creatures abounded within this waterscape. Due to their nature, it was difficult to see that smaller elementals but I could see enormous shapes moving within the element; these must have been the Elder Elementals. There were leviathans, huge creatures of the mysterious deeps, sporting amongst the waves. Here and there, I caught glimpses of humanoids, tiny in the distance, but they must have been mermaids and mermen and there were other creatures such as squid except that when compared in size to the other leviathans, they made Lula look like a shrimp in comparison; every so often, there was a stir among the leviathans that hinted at even larger mysteries waiting to be discovered in the never ending depths; and as before, the vast majority of creatures were completely unknown to me; I have never seen them before, never read about them, never even countenanced that something like that could exist
I don’t know how long we stayed, completely mesmerized by this sight. Then I felt Longhelim tugging me gently. I had just been watching a strange creature above us. It was a huge humanoid elemental that was carrying a sword which was similar to Victor’s. I felt that quite proud of myself because I now knew it was called a falchion but it was about five times the size of Victor’s. It seemed to be striding with a purpose only known to itself when I felt Longhelim’s tugs. He pointed at a door at the far end of the walkway. It was a double door; then he pointed back the way we came. Reluctantly, I followed the others out of this room, looking back frequently.
Back in the brass room, Longhelim spoke:
“I don’t know what lies beyond the double doors but I suspect that it may be something for which we are not ready at the moment. The sights of the room beyond mean that Toma cannot be far away. That sort of magic suggests a power centre. I have never seen anything like it before.”
He took out his pipe and stuffed it from his ever-present tobacco pouch.
“I suggest our spell casters learn their spells, using that method with is much faster than usual; and of course, we need to set watches.”
I shuddered. I was already tired from the last time I had done this. To do it again would be even more exhausting. My headache had eased to just a dull throbbing but if I forced it again, I was sure it would return with a vengeance. However, there was no help for it. We needed the magical support.
So, I spent a short time learning more spells. It was beginning to feel as if someone was keeping my eyes open with needles and as predicted, my headache returned triumphant and I felt sick. Looking at Felix and John, they did not look much better.
Despite the discomfort, we determined to continue. We cast various spells, especially the defence against fire. For a brief moment, we considered changing the defence against electricity but then we shook our heads.
I reasoned to the others:
“Let’s not try to second guess him. Yes, druids are skilled in the use of all types of energy but this one has a particular affinity for the planes of water and fire. Look at where we are and what he is trying to do. We only have enough spells to defend against one form of energy. Let’s stick with fire.”
Once we had prepared as best as we could, we set out through the double doors.
The panoramas were just as stunning as before except that as we were walking along the walkway, a huge form began to slowly drift towards us from above. It was an enormous, beautiful bird made of fire, a fabled phoenix. As it drifted to our level, it regarded us with eyes made of flame and somehow conveyed an impression that it knew exactly where we were going, what we planned to do and it approved; as it was doing this, a huge leviathan used one of the waves from below to surge up and snap at the bird; it caught it but also gained several deep fiery gouges across its snout as it did so.
As we witnessed this, Jibrand stopped and said:
“I need to go now. Home is above. I wish you all luck and I will give you the Blessing of the Elemental Plane of Fire.”
With that, he made several odd signs at us.
“Goodbye my friends and thank you. I will always remember you.”
With that, he stepped off the walkway and slowly drifted upwards towards the eternal flames.
He had been a very useful ally; he had saved us several times with his guidance, especially by warning us of the location of the two Elder Elementals. We would miss him. I also determined to try to find out exactly what he was as soon as I returned to the Lyceum.
We continued walking towards the double doors on the other side of the shaft. They opened as usual and revealed a corridor leading to a sharp turn to the right but with a door on the last section of the wall on the left. Cautiously we carried on and as we reached the corner to the right, we saw a pair of double doors at the end of a short corridor. We decided to investigate the double doors first but not before John cast a small spell on the single door which would be behind his. It locked it tight for a brief period of time. Then we advanced to the double doors.
Opening them was not problematic, revealing a large room, containing one figure, with a puddle of water on one side and a fire on the other. He was cowled and then he raised his head, revealing his face.
Toma.
“So you have finally arrived. Are you the best Seaquen has to offer? Well, it doesn’t really matter whether you are or not; it has been decreed by divine right that you will fail and that I will conquer; first you, then Seaquen and then the world. So, come, let us get this over with. You are fated to lose.”
With that he threw something into our midst.
I managed to get a good look at his face while he was speaking. In all honesty, with one exception, he looked……unremarkable; just like an elf really. He wasn’t particularly short or tall, handsome or ugly, weak or strong. The exception was his eyes. They looked as if they had been immersed in vistas outside of the Prime Material Plane for decades and thus gained a starkly apparent otherworldliness.
Whatever it was that he had thrown into our midst, it exploded in a ball of fire, very similar to the spells that Ivellios had cast against us except that this one consisted of several of these fireballs; they were weaker and also much easier to dodge. Ultimately, they did burn a little but not nearly as much as Ivellios did. However, they did give Toma time to summon a pair of allies. Two elementals, fire and water from the puddle and fire next to him, came out of their respective elements and stepped in front of him.
John had turned invisible as usual and Drudge began to shoot his arrows at the enemy.
Both Longhelim and Victor charged at the elementals and the latter struck the water enemy a powerful blow. So powerful in fact that the next thing that Toma did was touch his ally, probably strengthening it in some way. Then Longhelim hit it and whatever Toma had done was not enough as the water elemental collapsed.
I also noticed that Victor’s sword had burst into flame, something it had not done before. It was quite peculiar.
The loss of the water elemental also allowed Victor to step up and strike Toma himself. The druid did not seem particularly well versed in combat. Having said that, he had drawn an unusual weapon, a very long, thin blade, almost a like a long skewer except that it too was on fire. Worryingly for John, Toma swiveled as if without purpose except that he must have been following an invisible person. It seemed that the invisibility spell did not work against him.
The druid moved towards Drudge and hit the ranger. It was not a mighty blow but it did show the enemy’s mobility. The fire elemental followed his master and struck Longhelim; thankfully, a great deal of the burning damage was stopped by our magic.
Victor pursued Toma doggedly with his flaming falchion and the struck him with a combination of blows; my speed spell was up at this point of course. I had not neglected my duties. Suddenly Toma collapsed but like us, he also had a strange effect when he went unconscious. A circular shield appeared and swirled around his body; a mixture of fire and water. Longhelim tried to hit it but it was impervious to his blows. It was difficult to see what was happening behind it.
Victor in the meantime finished the remaining fire elemental; for a few brief moments we watched the swirling shield. Drudge in particular was mistrustful and hollered:
“Retreat!”
I am not sure what he saw as I was quite far away but I began to retreat as per his instruction. I moved around the corner. A few moments later, I heard a desperate cry again from Drudge:
“Faden!”
I sped around the corner again to see an enormous humanoid made of water where Toma had been. There had been some sort of transformation inside the strange shield. It was moving its huge arms ponderously and Victor was already down on ground, his body on fire. Longhelim was desperately fighting with it along with arrows from Drudge. The paladin hit it and he collapsed. It must have been hurt previously, possibly by Victor; I couldn’t believe that a couple of blows from Longhelim would take something like that down.
The shield appeared again. This time, we had a better understanding of what was happening. The shield seemed to be part of some sort of transformation but it took a little time. We made as much use of that time as possible. Felix and John healed Victor and Longhelim and we also readied the strange whip tokens which we had. Ivellios had used them to great effect against us so we hoped they would also be of use to us.
Longhelim and Victor were still hurt but as the swirling shield dropped, we were ready. I had cast all the spells I could. Toma was very resilient to my magic, not surprisingly, so I cast several spells to help everyone else.
This time an enormous elemental made of fire appeared from behind the shield and this time began to strike at everyone even from the ground. He managed to hit Victor and the poor warrior collapsed to the ground on fire again, although not before he was able to get a good blow back in return. Then Longhelim confronted it but somehow it dodged their blows and was able to rise up. Two quick blows from it and both Longhelim and Felix fell to the ground, again in flames. Drudge kept up a continued stream of arrows and they took their toll. I took out my wand and fired several bolts of concentrated cold into it. Surprisingly, they were very effective. As Drudge shot again and again, the creature seemed to stand still and then, as an arrow burst into flame in its chest, it finally collapsed.
This time, there was no swirling shield but rather Toma’s body. As we watched, it began to contort and crack. There was a horrific, involuntary scream from the form and then suddenly the body burst into flame. We watched warily for another transformation but this time, there were only ashes left. Then from the puddle, a wave of water appeared and washed them away.
It seemed as if there was a price for the pay for the power granted by the Elder Elementals.
We had a little healing left. We managed to bring Felix, Victor and Longhelim back to consciousness, if barely. Then we had a little time to look around us. There was a door in the far end of the room. Opening it revealed a library, a desk strewn with papers and several sacks of coins. We debated the dangers briefly and then Victor stepped in. He said that he felt two waves of cold and a feeling of maliciousness and evil but then nothing.
We were able to extract the books, the coins, papers and also a journal. A brief glance at the books suggested they were books on elemental lore, which I couldn’t wait to read. There was also a smaller book among the papers on the desk; again, another quick glance suggested that it was a journal, Toma’s journal to be exact.
After that, we decided to retreat. There were still a few doors we could have explored but this would have entailed another session of accelerated spell learning and I don’t think my system could have taken that. It was under great strain already. Anyway, we had achieved our goal.
The return journey through the demi plane was uneventful although I had to be dragged away from the shaft with the panoramas of the two planes again. I thought I caught a glimpse of the phoenix but I couldn’t be sure.
We passed through the rest of Vule, then through the steam tunnels until we finally climbed up the shaft onto the street. There, we caused a bit of a commotion. I had forgotten what we must have looked like. All of us were battered and bruised, healed or not. Several of us showed signs of being badly burned; our clothes and armour were either burned or tattered and of course, we were loaded up with books, coins, armour, staves and other accoutrements from the tunnels. Thankfully, Victor, Longhelim and Felix were all strong individuals as I wasn’t able to carry anything else of any great weight. My contribution was to carry the staff carved in flames which we had found in the secret room.
Everyone was soaked from the ever present rain of course, just to add to our bedraggled look.
Our entrance into the Lyceum was just as sensational. The students immediately gathered in little knots as we entered and began pointing. We must have been a sight. Quickly, we were met by Simeon, who asked us what happened.
Longhelim answered:
“Well, there is a demi plane beneath Seaquen. It is ruled by great Elder Elementals of a power that is immeasurable to us but also so alien that it is truly incomprehensible. I am sure Faden can go into the technical details with you but let us say that whatever designs Toma had, they will no longer be fulfilled.”
Simeon looked at me.
I quickly gave him a summary of what we had achieved:
“I will be writing this up in my journal as usual and of course, you will be welcome to read it but in the meantime, this is a journal of some sort kept by Toma the druid; I have not had a chance to read it; he also had quite a collection of lore about the elemental planes of fire and water. Oh, and I think that there is enough research material below the town to keep anyone interested in the planes busy for the next several centuries. The panorama room alone is a priceless observatory.”
Simeon looked stunned. I was quite surprised that no one had explored the steam tunnels but I would have bet that it was one of those situations where the masters of the Lyceum never had any time to pursue unusual projects such as those and the students usually had other things on their minds, such as their next assignments; or the local taverns.
I suspected this would now change.
However, we had another priority. First, we arranged and paid for research to be done on the new magical spoils of war we had found in Vule. Then, Simeon kindly said that he would arrange for us to be healed and then we changed our clothes, cleaned up and hurried to the first meeting of the War Council of Seaquen.
Felix and I also discussed the spell which I had devised against the harm of fire in the Forest of Innenotdar. He had been very curious about it and somehow, he was able to request it and assimilate it among his divine miracles. I am not sure how this worked; it was something else to investigate when I had time; why were some spells available to both arcanists and priests?
So little time, so little time…….
Anyway, Felix and I made sure that we had enough of these spells to give to everyone in the group. We were going into a demi plane where the plane of water and the plane of fire met after all. Felix said he had also taken a spell which would give us the ability to breathe underwater, should we need to. That sounded intriguing!
Having discussed all of this, we returned to the steam tunnels, where we found Jibrand waiting for us patiently.
Now that I had slept, I was able to examine this being more fully. He was quite extraordinary, a humanoid made of fire. I was full of questions but he replied:
“Esteemed wizard, I understand you are very curious but we must go. The longer we leave Toma, the longer he will have to prepare his army; I urge you to make haste”.
I was disappointed but Victor gave me a look which said: Time and Place, Faden, Time and Place.
I used several spells to give myself some defences and also cast the fire protection spells on the others as did Felix so the whole group was warded. Then, we walked through the tunnel indicated by Jibrand. It led down for some distance until it reached a door. Initially, it was difficult to tell it was a door as it was a black piece of rock that was the same as the rock in the corridors but Jibrand assured us it could be opened. John looked at it for a long time and declared it safe; then Longhelim carefully put his hand out to push it. As soon as he touched it, the whole face of the door immolated in a flash of flame and an opening was revealed.
This led into a short corridor which our door split to the left and right. There was also a door straight ahead of us. Jibrand spoke up from the back:
“Whatever you do, do not open the door in front of you; beyond is the abode of an Elder water elemental. It could be that it would not pay any attention to you but it could also squash you completely. You are mostly beneath its notice but that does not mean that it will not notice you. There is a secret door to your left and that is the way we should go.”
Knowing that alone, we would certainly have investigated the door in front of us before searching for any secret doors, silently I thanked the powers that be that we had Jibrand to guide us. As per his instructions, we ignored the door ahead of us and John quickly found the secret door to the left.
This again led into a narrow corridor that led to another lava door. This time Victor was in the front and as he touched it, it revealed a strange room; it looked as if there was a normal floor in front of us but the whole ceiling was covered in hot coals. As we threw a small coin inside, we saw that it flew to the ceiling. Everything seemed to be reversed by magic.
John volunteered to investigate. We tied a rope to him and he climbed up nimbly. He did not worry about the coals as his defence against fire was able to absorb any harmful heat from that. However, as he cautiously made his way across, a large being made of a fire “fell” through the ceiling and swiped one of its appendages at him with a meaty thunk. I recognized it immediately as a fire elemental, the commonest inhabitant of the elemental plane of fire. These were strange, powerful beings with few human weaknesses and great strength and power. One of the most dangerous weapons known about these particular elementals was that as soon as they struck you, they could potentially set you on fire; that was after they hurt you just through sheer brute strength of course. Thankfully, again, any damage from fire was absorbed by the protective spells cast by Felix and I.
John immediately began to shout for us to pull him up which we did as fast as we could but not before the elemental was able to hit John again, eliciting curses from him. We pulled him up and fortunately, we were now out of its reach.
We had a brief discussion and decided that we would need to deal with this guardian as quickly as possible. I told the others that amongst the powers of these beings was a general resistance to physical weapons as well as no vital organs or anatomy to target, basically because they did not have any. There was also no point to try to use tactical positioning against them for the same reason. I had managed to glean this from various visits to Gabal’s library.
With this in mind, various spells were cast on the group, a grapnel was affixed to the edge of the corridor and both Victor and Longhelim began to “climb” up. Unfortunately, full plate armour is not conducive to rope climbing and they both reached a point on the rope and then they fell upwards; clattering of armour, shields and lots of cursing later, they stood up and began to move forward cautiously, especially as they were “walking upside down” by their usual perception. As they did, John and Felix also climbed up the rope, the former with grace and skill and the latter suffering the same crashing fate as the warriors. As they arrived at the ceiling in their different ways, the elemental rose from the ceiling as previously, but this time behind the warriors and in front of John and Felix.
As this occurred, I cast my speed spell on everyone except John, who had gone invisible again. Using my spell, Victor moved to balance himself and then in an astonishing sequence, struck the elemental three times with such rapidity that the creature had almost no time to react. It recoiled and crackled in anger but then Longhelim strode forward and also sliced it with his long sword, snuffing the elemental out like a giant candle.
This combat happened with such speed that barely anyone was hurt. It had consumed a large amount of our magic though. Well, no help for it, we crossed this room and using the ropes, climbed out the other side.
This time, we could see another corridor; John told us that it would be best if he moved ahead. We followed but at a little distance. As previously, the corridor was narrow and made of black, volcanic rock. This whole demi-plane seemed to be made out of this stuff at the moment.
We arrived at a door a short while later. John waited until we were quite close and then he touched the door as usual. The usual immolation took place, but this time it revealed a room of fire; nothing but pure fire. We caught a glimpse of a forge through the fire but then…..
“….that’s an Elder Fire Elemental. Get out of there and shut the door…..” a frantic shout from Jibrand.
The fire suddenly seemed to acquire a face that was slowly turning towards us; John squeaked and jumped backwards and just as an enormous brand of flame was reaching out towards him the door suddenly re-appeared.
“Let’s not do that again” this from John.
Passing the door, we continued through the tunnel. This time Longhelim was in the front. As we passed one band, suddenly John stopped and motioned to a part of the wall. Quickly he began to touch it in various peculiar ways until suddenly an opening appeared, revealing another tunnel.
We decided that going through secret doors was much more interesting than following normal tunnels, so we began advancing through the newly revealed opening, with John in the lead this time. He approached a new door and as he touched this one, it disappeared but this time with a splash of water.
It revealed a room that seemed to be made of a shining metal, probably brass. It also contained a table, several chairs and most importantly, four figures that resembled dwarves – except that they were made of fire. I recognized these as well; they were Aesir, again fire elementals except that they physically resembled dwarves. We were not sure of their temperament or disposition so John retreated, leaving Longhelim in front.
We were not looking for conflict but the decision was taken out of our hands when all three charged at the paladin, waving their fiery hammers. Immediately, Drudge began to fire a stream of arrows and one of them quickly fell to several of the ranger’s missiles. These Aesir seemed brave but not very resilient. Longhelim began to duel with another and it did not prove very expert with its hammer. The paladin was able to dispatch it fairly quickly; when the final elemental charged insanely, the paladin coolly waited for his opening and two quick thrusts freed our way through the tunnel.
The room contained a few of the creatures’ coins as well as four doors including the one through which we had entered.
The door directly opposite to the one we had entered was our initially chosen exit. It revealed another corridor which led to another door; as it splashed open, it revealed a sandy beach with a deep blue ocean stretching into forever. It was such an incongruous sight here that we had to take a few moments just to assimilate it. It was quite beautiful. The waves lapped gently at the shore, a cool breeze ruffled our hair and the whole picture was idyllic; too much so in fact. John silently motioned us to stay and crept into the room. He pointed out two doors which we had missed originally but then suddenly he stopped trying to creep anywhere, straightened and just walked to the water’s edge, staring at the horizon; obviously something had been affecting him magically.
Everyone else entered and was affected by a strange compulsion to go towards the water. It was at this point that a large wall of the stuff rose from the ocean and acquired a humanoid shape. As luck would have it, it appeared next to me and gave me such a wallop that it sent me scurrying back across the room, any compulsion to stare at the water now completely beaten out of my head, which was ringing very heavily.
What followed was a long battle against a mighty and powerful enemy. It was the first water elemental we had faced and although it did not burn as fire elementals did, it seemed stronger than its counterpart. It was easier to strike but like other denizens from the planes, it had an innate resistance to all weapons, and did not seem to have an anatomy which rendered it vulnerable to carefully placed blows. I knew all of this from books but it was one thing to read about it and another to actually witness it. A vaguely humanoid figure made out of pure water? I didn’t try to cast any spells against it as I knew that there were many spells which had no effect against it and it also had had a powerful resilience against most other magic. It also had an ability to interchange strength for accuracy in its blows and vice versa.
Of course, while I was doing this clinical analysis to aid any readers of this chronicle, the warriors were struggling against it and more often than not being battered by its massive arms.
Finally, after a long struggle, it dissipated into the water of the ocean but not before taking a huge toll. Felix moved forward to heal them but he could not do so fully. They were hurt too badly.
Thankfully, there was no longer any trace of the compulsion and this allowed us to examine the door on the right wall. It opened with the usual dissolution into water and revealed a small room with the whole floor covered in water to a slight depth. Unusually, there was also a waterfall at the far end of the room. This time, Longhelim and Victor entered into the room and as they did, the door suddenly re-appeared behind them. We tried to open it in the usual manner but this time it stayed shut.
There was little we could do but wait and hope. Thankfully, I little while later it opened and a stream of water ran out, quickly soaking into the sand.
”What happened?” I asked.
Victor replied in his quiet manner: “As soon as the door shut, rain started to come down from the ceiling; the room began to fill up and two more water elementals came down with it; these were smaller ones though and much easier to deal with than that monster from the ocean. It didn’t take us very long.”
They had both suffered a few light wounds though and Felix had to use some more of his carefully hoarded healing resources.
Longhelim then chimed in: “There is also a door beyond the waterfall. “
As we entered into the room, John’s attention seemed to be taken by one of the blank walls and again, he began to feel it with his hands until a few moments later another hidden opening. This one revealed a small room with a raised pedestal. On it lay a staff; we crowded around the entrance, wary of entering.
Then John cast one of his spells and the staff rose on its own and flew towards the exit and us. John said that this spell could carry it for a long time. What a useful spell! I determined to ask him to show me the formula as soon as it was feasible.
I examined this staff curiously. It was a beautifully carved piece of wood, light in colour and appropriately, the effect of the carving was to make it seem as if it was made of fire; I felt it almost pulsed with an orange glow.
We then concentrated on the last door, beyond the waterfall. It led through a corridor which ultimately led into an empty room with one strange exception: on the floor lay a bearskin rug. I wasn’t sure what to make of that but Drudge, our ranger, moved in and looked at it for a long time.
When he came out, he muttered: “That’s not right. Something was done to that poor animal. Even in death it looks…….almost sad and confused.”
As he said that, I looked at it again but I only saw a dead bear’s head; but since this was the first bear, alive or dead, that I had actually seen, I couldn’t really tell what its expression was. In fact, looking at the size of it, I felt I didn’t need to see a live one, especially if it was wild and hungry.
Feeling we had finished here, we returned to the room made of brass.
We looked at the doors which were as our choices of exit. The door to our right led much too close to the direction of the forge room which housed the Elder Fire Elemental, so we decided to investigate the door to our left. It opened in the usual manner and revealed a short corridor which led to another door. We were quite wary as we were now very low on magic but the warriors still felt quite confident. So, weapons and few remaining spells at the ready, we opened this door.
It led into a room containing the most marvelous sight I had ever seen.
The aerial battle over Gate Pass, our journey through the Fire Forest of Innenotdar, my conversation with Nelle the Unicorn, our battle against Indomitability, the wonders of the Lyceum were as nothing in comparison to what now appeared in front of our eyes.
The room revealed was more along the lines of an enormous circular shaft. There was a narrow walkway along the edge of the wall; and looking upwards we saw something that I will never forget in my entire life.
It was a stereoscopic panorama of the Elemental Plane of Fire.
I never realised that there could so many different shades of colour within fire, depending on its size or shape. Huge mountains made of fire belched yet more flame; here and there I thought I could make out burning buildings, otherwise, the panorama was stretched by great planes of pure flame; and within this firescape, beings and creatures moved, walking, swimming or flying. Elementals of all sizes abounded, from the smallest licks of flame which flew nimbly to enormous beings the size of mountains which slid ponderously; but they were not the only ones: strange creatures, half lizard and half human basked in the heat; these were the legendary salamanders. There were large groups of Aesir, working industriously on things I couldn’t see. Strange wormlike creatures slid through the flame on missions only known to them; and amongst all of these was a myriad of creatures I had never seen or read about which were completely new to me. This hypnotic scene stretched into the distance; it was like looking into flame but multiplied by an infinite factor.
I was entranced.
And below was its counterpart but this time of the Elemental Plane of Water.
The range of colour from the deepest blue to a vibrant green provided an elemental beauty to this sight. Great water spouts erupted in some places; huge whirlpools swirled in others and a majestic calm prevailed in other parts of the panorama. Huge waves broke against walls, creating enormous gouts of water which flew upwards and crashed against the fire, creating huge gusts of steam.
As in the plane of fire, creatures abounded within this waterscape. Due to their nature, it was difficult to see that smaller elementals but I could see enormous shapes moving within the element; these must have been the Elder Elementals. There were leviathans, huge creatures of the mysterious deeps, sporting amongst the waves. Here and there, I caught glimpses of humanoids, tiny in the distance, but they must have been mermaids and mermen and there were other creatures such as squid except that when compared in size to the other leviathans, they made Lula look like a shrimp in comparison; every so often, there was a stir among the leviathans that hinted at even larger mysteries waiting to be discovered in the never ending depths; and as before, the vast majority of creatures were completely unknown to me; I have never seen them before, never read about them, never even countenanced that something like that could exist
I don’t know how long we stayed, completely mesmerized by this sight. Then I felt Longhelim tugging me gently. I had just been watching a strange creature above us. It was a huge humanoid elemental that was carrying a sword which was similar to Victor’s. I felt that quite proud of myself because I now knew it was called a falchion but it was about five times the size of Victor’s. It seemed to be striding with a purpose only known to itself when I felt Longhelim’s tugs. He pointed at a door at the far end of the walkway. It was a double door; then he pointed back the way we came. Reluctantly, I followed the others out of this room, looking back frequently.
Back in the brass room, Longhelim spoke:
“I don’t know what lies beyond the double doors but I suspect that it may be something for which we are not ready at the moment. The sights of the room beyond mean that Toma cannot be far away. That sort of magic suggests a power centre. I have never seen anything like it before.”
He took out his pipe and stuffed it from his ever-present tobacco pouch.
“I suggest our spell casters learn their spells, using that method with is much faster than usual; and of course, we need to set watches.”
I shuddered. I was already tired from the last time I had done this. To do it again would be even more exhausting. My headache had eased to just a dull throbbing but if I forced it again, I was sure it would return with a vengeance. However, there was no help for it. We needed the magical support.
So, I spent a short time learning more spells. It was beginning to feel as if someone was keeping my eyes open with needles and as predicted, my headache returned triumphant and I felt sick. Looking at Felix and John, they did not look much better.
Despite the discomfort, we determined to continue. We cast various spells, especially the defence against fire. For a brief moment, we considered changing the defence against electricity but then we shook our heads.
I reasoned to the others:
“Let’s not try to second guess him. Yes, druids are skilled in the use of all types of energy but this one has a particular affinity for the planes of water and fire. Look at where we are and what he is trying to do. We only have enough spells to defend against one form of energy. Let’s stick with fire.”
Once we had prepared as best as we could, we set out through the double doors.
The panoramas were just as stunning as before except that as we were walking along the walkway, a huge form began to slowly drift towards us from above. It was an enormous, beautiful bird made of fire, a fabled phoenix. As it drifted to our level, it regarded us with eyes made of flame and somehow conveyed an impression that it knew exactly where we were going, what we planned to do and it approved; as it was doing this, a huge leviathan used one of the waves from below to surge up and snap at the bird; it caught it but also gained several deep fiery gouges across its snout as it did so.
As we witnessed this, Jibrand stopped and said:
“I need to go now. Home is above. I wish you all luck and I will give you the Blessing of the Elemental Plane of Fire.”
With that, he made several odd signs at us.
“Goodbye my friends and thank you. I will always remember you.”
With that, he stepped off the walkway and slowly drifted upwards towards the eternal flames.
He had been a very useful ally; he had saved us several times with his guidance, especially by warning us of the location of the two Elder Elementals. We would miss him. I also determined to try to find out exactly what he was as soon as I returned to the Lyceum.
We continued walking towards the double doors on the other side of the shaft. They opened as usual and revealed a corridor leading to a sharp turn to the right but with a door on the last section of the wall on the left. Cautiously we carried on and as we reached the corner to the right, we saw a pair of double doors at the end of a short corridor. We decided to investigate the double doors first but not before John cast a small spell on the single door which would be behind his. It locked it tight for a brief period of time. Then we advanced to the double doors.
Opening them was not problematic, revealing a large room, containing one figure, with a puddle of water on one side and a fire on the other. He was cowled and then he raised his head, revealing his face.
Toma.
“So you have finally arrived. Are you the best Seaquen has to offer? Well, it doesn’t really matter whether you are or not; it has been decreed by divine right that you will fail and that I will conquer; first you, then Seaquen and then the world. So, come, let us get this over with. You are fated to lose.”
With that he threw something into our midst.
I managed to get a good look at his face while he was speaking. In all honesty, with one exception, he looked……unremarkable; just like an elf really. He wasn’t particularly short or tall, handsome or ugly, weak or strong. The exception was his eyes. They looked as if they had been immersed in vistas outside of the Prime Material Plane for decades and thus gained a starkly apparent otherworldliness.
Whatever it was that he had thrown into our midst, it exploded in a ball of fire, very similar to the spells that Ivellios had cast against us except that this one consisted of several of these fireballs; they were weaker and also much easier to dodge. Ultimately, they did burn a little but not nearly as much as Ivellios did. However, they did give Toma time to summon a pair of allies. Two elementals, fire and water from the puddle and fire next to him, came out of their respective elements and stepped in front of him.
John had turned invisible as usual and Drudge began to shoot his arrows at the enemy.
Both Longhelim and Victor charged at the elementals and the latter struck the water enemy a powerful blow. So powerful in fact that the next thing that Toma did was touch his ally, probably strengthening it in some way. Then Longhelim hit it and whatever Toma had done was not enough as the water elemental collapsed.
I also noticed that Victor’s sword had burst into flame, something it had not done before. It was quite peculiar.
The loss of the water elemental also allowed Victor to step up and strike Toma himself. The druid did not seem particularly well versed in combat. Having said that, he had drawn an unusual weapon, a very long, thin blade, almost a like a long skewer except that it too was on fire. Worryingly for John, Toma swiveled as if without purpose except that he must have been following an invisible person. It seemed that the invisibility spell did not work against him.
The druid moved towards Drudge and hit the ranger. It was not a mighty blow but it did show the enemy’s mobility. The fire elemental followed his master and struck Longhelim; thankfully, a great deal of the burning damage was stopped by our magic.
Victor pursued Toma doggedly with his flaming falchion and the struck him with a combination of blows; my speed spell was up at this point of course. I had not neglected my duties. Suddenly Toma collapsed but like us, he also had a strange effect when he went unconscious. A circular shield appeared and swirled around his body; a mixture of fire and water. Longhelim tried to hit it but it was impervious to his blows. It was difficult to see what was happening behind it.
Victor in the meantime finished the remaining fire elemental; for a few brief moments we watched the swirling shield. Drudge in particular was mistrustful and hollered:
“Retreat!”
I am not sure what he saw as I was quite far away but I began to retreat as per his instruction. I moved around the corner. A few moments later, I heard a desperate cry again from Drudge:
“Faden!”
I sped around the corner again to see an enormous humanoid made of water where Toma had been. There had been some sort of transformation inside the strange shield. It was moving its huge arms ponderously and Victor was already down on ground, his body on fire. Longhelim was desperately fighting with it along with arrows from Drudge. The paladin hit it and he collapsed. It must have been hurt previously, possibly by Victor; I couldn’t believe that a couple of blows from Longhelim would take something like that down.
The shield appeared again. This time, we had a better understanding of what was happening. The shield seemed to be part of some sort of transformation but it took a little time. We made as much use of that time as possible. Felix and John healed Victor and Longhelim and we also readied the strange whip tokens which we had. Ivellios had used them to great effect against us so we hoped they would also be of use to us.
Longhelim and Victor were still hurt but as the swirling shield dropped, we were ready. I had cast all the spells I could. Toma was very resilient to my magic, not surprisingly, so I cast several spells to help everyone else.
This time an enormous elemental made of fire appeared from behind the shield and this time began to strike at everyone even from the ground. He managed to hit Victor and the poor warrior collapsed to the ground on fire again, although not before he was able to get a good blow back in return. Then Longhelim confronted it but somehow it dodged their blows and was able to rise up. Two quick blows from it and both Longhelim and Felix fell to the ground, again in flames. Drudge kept up a continued stream of arrows and they took their toll. I took out my wand and fired several bolts of concentrated cold into it. Surprisingly, they were very effective. As Drudge shot again and again, the creature seemed to stand still and then, as an arrow burst into flame in its chest, it finally collapsed.
This time, there was no swirling shield but rather Toma’s body. As we watched, it began to contort and crack. There was a horrific, involuntary scream from the form and then suddenly the body burst into flame. We watched warily for another transformation but this time, there were only ashes left. Then from the puddle, a wave of water appeared and washed them away.
It seemed as if there was a price for the pay for the power granted by the Elder Elementals.
We had a little healing left. We managed to bring Felix, Victor and Longhelim back to consciousness, if barely. Then we had a little time to look around us. There was a door in the far end of the room. Opening it revealed a library, a desk strewn with papers and several sacks of coins. We debated the dangers briefly and then Victor stepped in. He said that he felt two waves of cold and a feeling of maliciousness and evil but then nothing.
We were able to extract the books, the coins, papers and also a journal. A brief glance at the books suggested they were books on elemental lore, which I couldn’t wait to read. There was also a smaller book among the papers on the desk; again, another quick glance suggested that it was a journal, Toma’s journal to be exact.
After that, we decided to retreat. There were still a few doors we could have explored but this would have entailed another session of accelerated spell learning and I don’t think my system could have taken that. It was under great strain already. Anyway, we had achieved our goal.
The return journey through the demi plane was uneventful although I had to be dragged away from the shaft with the panoramas of the two planes again. I thought I caught a glimpse of the phoenix but I couldn’t be sure.
We passed through the rest of Vule, then through the steam tunnels until we finally climbed up the shaft onto the street. There, we caused a bit of a commotion. I had forgotten what we must have looked like. All of us were battered and bruised, healed or not. Several of us showed signs of being badly burned; our clothes and armour were either burned or tattered and of course, we were loaded up with books, coins, armour, staves and other accoutrements from the tunnels. Thankfully, Victor, Longhelim and Felix were all strong individuals as I wasn’t able to carry anything else of any great weight. My contribution was to carry the staff carved in flames which we had found in the secret room.
Everyone was soaked from the ever present rain of course, just to add to our bedraggled look.
Our entrance into the Lyceum was just as sensational. The students immediately gathered in little knots as we entered and began pointing. We must have been a sight. Quickly, we were met by Simeon, who asked us what happened.
Longhelim answered:
“Well, there is a demi plane beneath Seaquen. It is ruled by great Elder Elementals of a power that is immeasurable to us but also so alien that it is truly incomprehensible. I am sure Faden can go into the technical details with you but let us say that whatever designs Toma had, they will no longer be fulfilled.”
Simeon looked at me.
I quickly gave him a summary of what we had achieved:
“I will be writing this up in my journal as usual and of course, you will be welcome to read it but in the meantime, this is a journal of some sort kept by Toma the druid; I have not had a chance to read it; he also had quite a collection of lore about the elemental planes of fire and water. Oh, and I think that there is enough research material below the town to keep anyone interested in the planes busy for the next several centuries. The panorama room alone is a priceless observatory.”
Simeon looked stunned. I was quite surprised that no one had explored the steam tunnels but I would have bet that it was one of those situations where the masters of the Lyceum never had any time to pursue unusual projects such as those and the students usually had other things on their minds, such as their next assignments; or the local taverns.
I suspected this would now change.
However, we had another priority. First, we arranged and paid for research to be done on the new magical spoils of war we had found in Vule. Then, Simeon kindly said that he would arrange for us to be healed and then we changed our clothes, cleaned up and hurried to the first meeting of the War Council of Seaquen.