All of us, including Kreven and his cohorts, stood motionless and speechless for a few moments, taking stock of what had just happened. The ground had settled and stabilized but the crevices were still there; thankfully, they were now visible and motionless and therefore easily avoided. Most of the temporary towers on the right side of the room had been completely destroyed. They had never been meant to withstand magic of such scope and power.
In the far corner, Koren and her bodyguard stood up and dusted themselves; the Wayfinder looked disgusted and her face twisted with hate as she looked towards us. She began singing; it was a discordant but strangely hypnotic tune; repugnant to me but the remaining archers and others in the room were listening raptly. As if guided by this song, these archers, as one, turned their bows on Longhelim and loosed. Despite his heavy armour, several of the arrows hit the paladin this time. They were immediately followed up by another forked lightning bolt from Kreven which drove Longhelim to the ground, a burning, unconscious body yet again. Thankfully, the flames proved that he still lived although considering the punishment he had just undertaken, it must have been a miracle.
Guthwulf stepped forward and cast a spell of magical silence over Koren, silencing her cacophony, although unfortunately, it seemed to linger in the air. John rushed forward and tapped Longhelim with a wand. Mysteriously, an arrow flew past the ear of the last Inquisitor and I knew that Drudge must have been somewhere in the room, stalking. Unfortunately, not even I could see him as he still had most of his magical defences, one of which prevented my magical sight from penetrating his veil of invisibility; particularly ironic as I had put in on him in the first place.
What was more interesting though was that by putting the magical silence on top of Koren, Guthwulf had trapped her behind the magical wall. I was quite happy to leave her there but Guthwulf shouted:
“Faden, get rid of the wall!”
He had seen my spell hitting the Obelisk and my scrolls. I was not sure just what he had in mind but I presumed that there was a plan. In the meantime, another wave of magic arrived, stripping us of yet more spells; I really had almost nothing left. This was followed by more frantic healing from Longhelim and John both on the paladin and Guthwulf on himself. We all knew what was coming imminently.
I took out my scroll and fired my ray, hitting the magical wall and making it disappear. I really hoped that Guthwulf had some sort of plan in mind as I had just turned Koren loose.
There was a shout from inside the room:
“Kreven’s disappeared!”
As that was happening, I saw Guthwulf cast a spell but this time aiming it at the archers. I suspected something unpleasant was heading their way. I could not see Longhelim at this point either but I presumed he was inside the room.
In the meantime, Felix was dragging Victor’s body from the entrance to one side of the corridor and then I saw him taking out a scroll. He knelt over the warrior and read from the scroll; Victor stirred. He looked around a little wildly and Felix spoke to him quickly and quietly. The warrior rose immediately but he must have been still befuddled a little as he strode past his weapon and shield which were still on the ground. He also disappeared into the room.
Something happened after that which became very worrying. Suddenly Koren and her bodyguard appeared almost next to me. She was wielding a staff and had a couple of arrows sticking out of her. Her face was twisted with anger and she looked at me with a twisted smile.
Immediately, I tried to slip past her but she caught me with a whack of her staff; eventually, my effort was useless as the bodyguard chased me down and caught me; several blows of his hammer later, everything went black……..
I groaned inwardly and tried to move; everything still hurt from that damned hammer. I thought I groaned aloud as well but it was impossible to tell as it became immediately apparent that I was still in the magical silence. John was next to me and was pointing imperatively towards the large room. Glancing in that direction, I saw yet another magical invisible wall in front of the Obelisk. There were strong odds that Kreven was behind it.
Simultaneously, I also caught a glimpse of a new form on the ground: Guthwulf. He was still. I could not see anyone else. There was also a new wall sealing off a large part of the right side of the room. That was the last area where I had seen Victor, suggesting that it was very likely that the warrior was trapped behind it.
Sadly, it looked as if I would never get to find out what Guthwulf’s master plan was going to be.
Suddenly, I saw a group of arrows appearing in mid-flight, streaking towards some unseen target. Good; that meant the Drudge was still around and active.
John was still jabbing at the wall so I got up and retreated out of the magical silence. As I did so, I saw another corpse, this time of Koren; she was filled with arrows; there was no sign of her bodyguard.
Kreven was not going to be happy that we killed his wife; I suspect that he was not happy with us full stop. There must have been something going on in the other room as John was sprinting back there but it was impossible to tell as the magical silence was impeding all sound.
Well, one thing at a time; my primary concern was to free Victor so I took out my last precious scroll and cast it, casting a beam which hit the wall blocking Victor. As I had estimated, the warrior was indeed behind it.
Now I really had absolutely no spells, scrolls or wands with which to contribute to the combat. So, rather gingerly, as I was still badly hurt, I made my way through the magical silences towards the entrance in the main room again.
Once I reached the doorway, I beheld a scene of devastation which took my breath away; I had already seen the remains of what Guthwulf’s spell had done to the room; various piles of rubble now appeared in the place of the platforms which flanked the Obelisk; the strange metal gantries which served as platforms for the archers were also wrecks on the right side of the room.
There were corpses everywhere; most of the remaining archers had perished in one way or the other; here and there were signs of the Inquisitors with their bear masks, together with three of the bodyguards.
In the left side of the room, Longhelim was standing as if poleaxed; Felix was panting and looking down at the fallen figure if the last powerful, hammer wielding bodyguard. I could not see Drudge at all, but then again, I was not surprised for the reasons explained above. John was next to the priest. They were both moving towards the paladin, who looked badly hurt as well as incapacitated.
Victor was making his way to the group. He also looked badly hurt, moving slowly and carefully. I saw Felix take out a scroll. I thought he was going to cast it at Kreven even though the magician was nowhere to be seen; strangely, the priest cast the spell at Victor. I am not sure what had aroused Felix’s suspicion but thank the Gods the something did because as soon as he finished casting the spell, Victor shouted:
“Kreven’s done something to my mind. He was telling me to hurt or stop you; I had no control of myself.”
I knew the spell. It was not particularly complicated but in the hands of a powerful and skilled wizard, it could be deadly; and when it was supported by the Obelisk…….
Just then, another magical wall appeared at one end, sealing the far side of the room.
Felix shouted:
“He’s sealing himself in! Everyone, get close! It’s a good time to heal everyone!”
We all rushed to the cleric and wands began to be brandished by John and Felix. I still couldn’t see Drudge and if I couldn’t then it was unlikely the Kreven could; which was all to the good because the Inquisitor must have realised that as soon as he exposed himself then a volley of arrows would be heading his way.
He must have done so as then, I wall of flame appeared over the pit from which the Obelisk rose; suddenly I reasoned that Kreven must have realised that the pit represented a weakness in his magical defences as Drudge could just climb under his wall. I prayed that the ranger had done just that and that he was already stalking the magician on his side of the walls.
As I was speculating about this, Felix and John worked their healing magic on everyone, including me. The bleeding of my wounds was tended, bruises and crushed muscles from the battering the hammer had given me, were healed and made whole and the lumps in my head were bandaged. Suddenly I was feeling much better; and in the midst of all of this, Longhelim shuddered a little and began to move and speak normally.
Felix and John began healing him and Victor also began to tell him urgently what had happened.
At this point, another wall of flame appeared, this one on top of the magical wall already in place, effectively leaving only a small gap to the ceiling.
We were almost all recovered when Longhelim suddenly said:
“We need to split up now. We make a really juicy target as a group for him if he decides to go on the offensive.”
That was what we did; Victor went to the edge of the magical wall; John went to one of the corpses of the bodyguard and began to search it; Longhelim followed him up and I went to stand under the gantry.
A little time went by; Kreven was either watching us or plotting something or shoring up his defences. I suspected it was a combination of all three; he was very aware that as soon as he became visible or vulnerable in any way, a volley of arrows would go flying his way.
Suddenly, Victor moved; he quickly ran back into a magical silence. Clever Victor; he realised that there, he would not be subject to Kreven’s mind bending spells since he would not be able to hear them. Quite correctly, he surmised that if Kreven was able to compel him to attack the rest of the group, then it was a question as to how fast Drudge would be able to fill him with arrows, hoping to incapacitate; or how fast would we be able to run from there. Neither option was particularly appetizing.
The efficacy of Victor’s tactics was quite clearly audible as a very nasty word could be heard from the other side of the magical wall. It seemed as if Kreven had been readying a spell for exactly that and Victor escaped just in time.
So, another wall of flame appeared, this time sealing Felix within it. This also added the problem that we were not able to even see the magical wall.
Suddenly, there was a shout from beyond:
“Kreven’s gone to the corner!”
This allowed us to not only to realise that Felix was still alive, but also gave us an indication that Kreven was still beyond his walls. Then I saw John rushing back, with one of his wands in his hand; he reached the space next to me under the gantry and speculatively aimed his wand at the Obelisk; he shook his head and expertly climbed up the gantry.
Immediately, I replaced him in the magical silence and began to strip the body of one of bodyguards, or Claws as Guthwulf had called them. Victor was still in his own position within the magical silence and was also moving towards us when I saw John aim and fire his wand at the Obelisk; something streaked out of it and a tiny amount of dust rose from the surface.
At this point, judging by the reaction of the others, Felix may or may not have been shouting something but I could not hear it. I was still busy stripping items from the body but I was still looking around; John aimed another shot of his wand at the Obelisk; I recognized what they were now; bolts of acid; and the Obelisk was vulnerable to them! This was great news; I knew that wand; John could do that all day.
Suddenly, there was activity from the far end of the room as I saw Kreven fly from his end of the room to the entrance. He was abandoning the Obelisk! Leska would flay him alive! However, before I started rejoicing about the wizard’s failure, we had other problems as he put an invisible wall right across the entrance. We were all trapped inside the room!
The wall of flame had ceased by this point and Felix was pointing at the Obelisk; we still couldn’t hear anything but I could see it shattering into thousands of knife-like crystal shards, shooting across the room. Thankfully, the vast majority of them hit the magical wall, protecting us.
I saw John kiss his wand and put it back in his pack, before jumping down from the gantry.
Then, turning back to the Obelisk, I watched with horror as a black miasma began to roil out of the shattered stone and fill the room. I didn’t need magical knowledge for this; instinct told me that getting touched by that……stuff would be a very bad idea; turning to the others, I saw that they were very much of a like mind and Victor was already carving his way through the wall next to the magical barrier.
His adamantite sword went through the stone like a hot knife through butter but it was slowed down slightly by the metal lining the walls. He needed to move fast as well; the cloud was spreading fast.
Moments later, the hole in the wall was big enough for John to squeeze through, quickly followed by Drudge. I followed up and was met with a very nasty surprise; there was a wall of flame just outside the hole where I had to exit; obviously another nasty surprise left by Kreven and one I could not see because of the magical barrier in front of the door; and then to top it all off, there was another right behind the first one: this was going to burn. So be it; I could not stop and hold up the others, not with that cloud behind us. So I went through.
I could see both Drudge and John ahead of me; I was also out of the magical silence and I could just see Kreven move out of the end of the corridor.
“I’ve got a plan!” John was shouting as he raced up the corridor. Drudge was following him up and I was getting away from the flaming walls. Just as I did so, a burnt Felix came out of the wall, followed by an equally burned Longhelim.
“What about Victor?” I shouted.
Longhelim replied grimly:
“He had stay behind and chop a bigger hole for us; because of our armour. I hope he makes it!”
Just then, Victor just about stumbled out of the wall of flame. If someone who had just almost been burned to death could look as pale as death, then that was the warrior right now.
Grimly, he said:
“Don’t get caught by that dark thing. You wouldn’t like it.”
Felix then went to him and tapped him with a wand just as we heard another shout, from Drudge this time:
“John, what in all hells are you doing?”
“Oh, Kreven’s not such a bad old stick really; and Leska is going to do for him anyway. I think we should just let him go.”
“What! No! Get out of the way!”
Longhelim said quite calmly as he strode forward:
“What’s he done?”
“He’s locked the bloody door!”
Longhelim looked at me with a question and I answered:
“Kreven’s bespelled him; either he just told him to lock the door or he did it on his own because Kreven’s now his best friend and asking him to attack may break the spell; whatever it may be, Kreven has now bent John’s will to his own.”
“Right! Just leave him for the moment. We’ll deal with that later. Victor, we need you!”
In the far corner, Koren and her bodyguard stood up and dusted themselves; the Wayfinder looked disgusted and her face twisted with hate as she looked towards us. She began singing; it was a discordant but strangely hypnotic tune; repugnant to me but the remaining archers and others in the room were listening raptly. As if guided by this song, these archers, as one, turned their bows on Longhelim and loosed. Despite his heavy armour, several of the arrows hit the paladin this time. They were immediately followed up by another forked lightning bolt from Kreven which drove Longhelim to the ground, a burning, unconscious body yet again. Thankfully, the flames proved that he still lived although considering the punishment he had just undertaken, it must have been a miracle.
Guthwulf stepped forward and cast a spell of magical silence over Koren, silencing her cacophony, although unfortunately, it seemed to linger in the air. John rushed forward and tapped Longhelim with a wand. Mysteriously, an arrow flew past the ear of the last Inquisitor and I knew that Drudge must have been somewhere in the room, stalking. Unfortunately, not even I could see him as he still had most of his magical defences, one of which prevented my magical sight from penetrating his veil of invisibility; particularly ironic as I had put in on him in the first place.
What was more interesting though was that by putting the magical silence on top of Koren, Guthwulf had trapped her behind the magical wall. I was quite happy to leave her there but Guthwulf shouted:
“Faden, get rid of the wall!”
He had seen my spell hitting the Obelisk and my scrolls. I was not sure just what he had in mind but I presumed that there was a plan. In the meantime, another wave of magic arrived, stripping us of yet more spells; I really had almost nothing left. This was followed by more frantic healing from Longhelim and John both on the paladin and Guthwulf on himself. We all knew what was coming imminently.
I took out my scroll and fired my ray, hitting the magical wall and making it disappear. I really hoped that Guthwulf had some sort of plan in mind as I had just turned Koren loose.
There was a shout from inside the room:
“Kreven’s disappeared!”
As that was happening, I saw Guthwulf cast a spell but this time aiming it at the archers. I suspected something unpleasant was heading their way. I could not see Longhelim at this point either but I presumed he was inside the room.
In the meantime, Felix was dragging Victor’s body from the entrance to one side of the corridor and then I saw him taking out a scroll. He knelt over the warrior and read from the scroll; Victor stirred. He looked around a little wildly and Felix spoke to him quickly and quietly. The warrior rose immediately but he must have been still befuddled a little as he strode past his weapon and shield which were still on the ground. He also disappeared into the room.
Something happened after that which became very worrying. Suddenly Koren and her bodyguard appeared almost next to me. She was wielding a staff and had a couple of arrows sticking out of her. Her face was twisted with anger and she looked at me with a twisted smile.
Immediately, I tried to slip past her but she caught me with a whack of her staff; eventually, my effort was useless as the bodyguard chased me down and caught me; several blows of his hammer later, everything went black……..
I groaned inwardly and tried to move; everything still hurt from that damned hammer. I thought I groaned aloud as well but it was impossible to tell as it became immediately apparent that I was still in the magical silence. John was next to me and was pointing imperatively towards the large room. Glancing in that direction, I saw yet another magical invisible wall in front of the Obelisk. There were strong odds that Kreven was behind it.
Simultaneously, I also caught a glimpse of a new form on the ground: Guthwulf. He was still. I could not see anyone else. There was also a new wall sealing off a large part of the right side of the room. That was the last area where I had seen Victor, suggesting that it was very likely that the warrior was trapped behind it.
Sadly, it looked as if I would never get to find out what Guthwulf’s master plan was going to be.
Suddenly, I saw a group of arrows appearing in mid-flight, streaking towards some unseen target. Good; that meant the Drudge was still around and active.
John was still jabbing at the wall so I got up and retreated out of the magical silence. As I did so, I saw another corpse, this time of Koren; she was filled with arrows; there was no sign of her bodyguard.
Kreven was not going to be happy that we killed his wife; I suspect that he was not happy with us full stop. There must have been something going on in the other room as John was sprinting back there but it was impossible to tell as the magical silence was impeding all sound.
Well, one thing at a time; my primary concern was to free Victor so I took out my last precious scroll and cast it, casting a beam which hit the wall blocking Victor. As I had estimated, the warrior was indeed behind it.
Now I really had absolutely no spells, scrolls or wands with which to contribute to the combat. So, rather gingerly, as I was still badly hurt, I made my way through the magical silences towards the entrance in the main room again.
Once I reached the doorway, I beheld a scene of devastation which took my breath away; I had already seen the remains of what Guthwulf’s spell had done to the room; various piles of rubble now appeared in the place of the platforms which flanked the Obelisk; the strange metal gantries which served as platforms for the archers were also wrecks on the right side of the room.
There were corpses everywhere; most of the remaining archers had perished in one way or the other; here and there were signs of the Inquisitors with their bear masks, together with three of the bodyguards.
In the left side of the room, Longhelim was standing as if poleaxed; Felix was panting and looking down at the fallen figure if the last powerful, hammer wielding bodyguard. I could not see Drudge at all, but then again, I was not surprised for the reasons explained above. John was next to the priest. They were both moving towards the paladin, who looked badly hurt as well as incapacitated.
Victor was making his way to the group. He also looked badly hurt, moving slowly and carefully. I saw Felix take out a scroll. I thought he was going to cast it at Kreven even though the magician was nowhere to be seen; strangely, the priest cast the spell at Victor. I am not sure what had aroused Felix’s suspicion but thank the Gods the something did because as soon as he finished casting the spell, Victor shouted:
“Kreven’s done something to my mind. He was telling me to hurt or stop you; I had no control of myself.”
I knew the spell. It was not particularly complicated but in the hands of a powerful and skilled wizard, it could be deadly; and when it was supported by the Obelisk…….
Just then, another magical wall appeared at one end, sealing the far side of the room.
Felix shouted:
“He’s sealing himself in! Everyone, get close! It’s a good time to heal everyone!”
We all rushed to the cleric and wands began to be brandished by John and Felix. I still couldn’t see Drudge and if I couldn’t then it was unlikely the Kreven could; which was all to the good because the Inquisitor must have realised that as soon as he exposed himself then a volley of arrows would be heading his way.
He must have done so as then, I wall of flame appeared over the pit from which the Obelisk rose; suddenly I reasoned that Kreven must have realised that the pit represented a weakness in his magical defences as Drudge could just climb under his wall. I prayed that the ranger had done just that and that he was already stalking the magician on his side of the walls.
As I was speculating about this, Felix and John worked their healing magic on everyone, including me. The bleeding of my wounds was tended, bruises and crushed muscles from the battering the hammer had given me, were healed and made whole and the lumps in my head were bandaged. Suddenly I was feeling much better; and in the midst of all of this, Longhelim shuddered a little and began to move and speak normally.
Felix and John began healing him and Victor also began to tell him urgently what had happened.
At this point, another wall of flame appeared, this one on top of the magical wall already in place, effectively leaving only a small gap to the ceiling.
We were almost all recovered when Longhelim suddenly said:
“We need to split up now. We make a really juicy target as a group for him if he decides to go on the offensive.”
That was what we did; Victor went to the edge of the magical wall; John went to one of the corpses of the bodyguard and began to search it; Longhelim followed him up and I went to stand under the gantry.
A little time went by; Kreven was either watching us or plotting something or shoring up his defences. I suspected it was a combination of all three; he was very aware that as soon as he became visible or vulnerable in any way, a volley of arrows would go flying his way.
Suddenly, Victor moved; he quickly ran back into a magical silence. Clever Victor; he realised that there, he would not be subject to Kreven’s mind bending spells since he would not be able to hear them. Quite correctly, he surmised that if Kreven was able to compel him to attack the rest of the group, then it was a question as to how fast Drudge would be able to fill him with arrows, hoping to incapacitate; or how fast would we be able to run from there. Neither option was particularly appetizing.
The efficacy of Victor’s tactics was quite clearly audible as a very nasty word could be heard from the other side of the magical wall. It seemed as if Kreven had been readying a spell for exactly that and Victor escaped just in time.
So, another wall of flame appeared, this time sealing Felix within it. This also added the problem that we were not able to even see the magical wall.
Suddenly, there was a shout from beyond:
“Kreven’s gone to the corner!”
This allowed us to not only to realise that Felix was still alive, but also gave us an indication that Kreven was still beyond his walls. Then I saw John rushing back, with one of his wands in his hand; he reached the space next to me under the gantry and speculatively aimed his wand at the Obelisk; he shook his head and expertly climbed up the gantry.
Immediately, I replaced him in the magical silence and began to strip the body of one of bodyguards, or Claws as Guthwulf had called them. Victor was still in his own position within the magical silence and was also moving towards us when I saw John aim and fire his wand at the Obelisk; something streaked out of it and a tiny amount of dust rose from the surface.
At this point, judging by the reaction of the others, Felix may or may not have been shouting something but I could not hear it. I was still busy stripping items from the body but I was still looking around; John aimed another shot of his wand at the Obelisk; I recognized what they were now; bolts of acid; and the Obelisk was vulnerable to them! This was great news; I knew that wand; John could do that all day.
Suddenly, there was activity from the far end of the room as I saw Kreven fly from his end of the room to the entrance. He was abandoning the Obelisk! Leska would flay him alive! However, before I started rejoicing about the wizard’s failure, we had other problems as he put an invisible wall right across the entrance. We were all trapped inside the room!
The wall of flame had ceased by this point and Felix was pointing at the Obelisk; we still couldn’t hear anything but I could see it shattering into thousands of knife-like crystal shards, shooting across the room. Thankfully, the vast majority of them hit the magical wall, protecting us.
I saw John kiss his wand and put it back in his pack, before jumping down from the gantry.
Then, turning back to the Obelisk, I watched with horror as a black miasma began to roil out of the shattered stone and fill the room. I didn’t need magical knowledge for this; instinct told me that getting touched by that……stuff would be a very bad idea; turning to the others, I saw that they were very much of a like mind and Victor was already carving his way through the wall next to the magical barrier.
His adamantite sword went through the stone like a hot knife through butter but it was slowed down slightly by the metal lining the walls. He needed to move fast as well; the cloud was spreading fast.
Moments later, the hole in the wall was big enough for John to squeeze through, quickly followed by Drudge. I followed up and was met with a very nasty surprise; there was a wall of flame just outside the hole where I had to exit; obviously another nasty surprise left by Kreven and one I could not see because of the magical barrier in front of the door; and then to top it all off, there was another right behind the first one: this was going to burn. So be it; I could not stop and hold up the others, not with that cloud behind us. So I went through.
I could see both Drudge and John ahead of me; I was also out of the magical silence and I could just see Kreven move out of the end of the corridor.
“I’ve got a plan!” John was shouting as he raced up the corridor. Drudge was following him up and I was getting away from the flaming walls. Just as I did so, a burnt Felix came out of the wall, followed by an equally burned Longhelim.
“What about Victor?” I shouted.
Longhelim replied grimly:
“He had stay behind and chop a bigger hole for us; because of our armour. I hope he makes it!”
Just then, Victor just about stumbled out of the wall of flame. If someone who had just almost been burned to death could look as pale as death, then that was the warrior right now.
Grimly, he said:
“Don’t get caught by that dark thing. You wouldn’t like it.”
Felix then went to him and tapped him with a wand just as we heard another shout, from Drudge this time:
“John, what in all hells are you doing?”
“Oh, Kreven’s not such a bad old stick really; and Leska is going to do for him anyway. I think we should just let him go.”
“What! No! Get out of the way!”
Longhelim said quite calmly as he strode forward:
“What’s he done?”
“He’s locked the bloody door!”
Longhelim looked at me with a question and I answered:
“Kreven’s bespelled him; either he just told him to lock the door or he did it on his own because Kreven’s now his best friend and asking him to attack may break the spell; whatever it may be, Kreven has now bent John’s will to his own.”
“Right! Just leave him for the moment. We’ll deal with that later. Victor, we need you!”