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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 5980760" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>As mentioned previously, we discussed how to spend the next few days. I had to rest – to recover from my enforced spell cramming in the middle of Vule. I suppose one could call it “resting”, but while I was in the Lyceum Library, I was taking full advantage of the time, furthering my magical theory and research. As ever, my brain was bursting with ideas for magical formulae. I had an idea for magical horses that could run forever, for a ward against elementals; I wanted to see if I could work out how Felix flew; I was thinking of a variation of the invisibility spell that John used so often; and of course there were so many spells that I had seen being cast against us by Ivellios and the tiefling. I wanted to look at their formulae and pick them apart line by line. I also wanted to read Toma’s books on elemental lore. </p><p></p><p>There was never enough time. </p><p></p><p>I had managed to skim Toma the druid’s journal. It was nothing remarkable. He had progressed in his chosen field but had never felt at home anywhere. I wondered briefly if he was a Ragesian Druid that had gone astray but then I thought this would be unlikely as he was an elf. Anyway, Toma then found a mentor, a wizard called Tonk who had opened a door to the Astral plane for him, which ultimately led him to the elemental plane of fire. He really liked it there. That was when he started hearing voices; always a bad sign that. </p><p></p><p>The voices then told him to go to another plane, the elemental plane of water. He liked it there as well and began to hear more voices. These told him to go to the demi plane of Vule beneath the town of Seaquen on the prime material plane. He became convinced that the voices were those of the Great Elder Elementals, the ultimate rulers of Vule.</p><p></p><p>His journal did not mention the voices telling him that he needed to conquer Seaquen and the world with an army of elementals but he certainly sounded convincing when he was ranting at us during our last confrontation; and as for those transformations we witnessed as we fought him, well he had obviously received some powerful magical favours. Jibrand was also certain that he had intended to mastermind an invasion by elementals.</p><p></p><p>“Hmm, join the queue: first the Ragesians, then the Shahalesti, now the elementals, possibly followed by more Ragesians in the form of their fleet. Seaquen, or more likely the Lyceum seems to be extremely popular!” was my fairly irreverent thought as I ruminated over our experiences in the steam tunnels over a hot drink. </p><p></p><p>We were also able to gain knowledge of the function of the various items we had found, especially the staff which was carved with flames. As expected, it was a staff with an affinity with fire spells, which would be very useful offensive addition to the group. </p><p></p><p>On that first morning, I also saw something else that was remarkable. </p><p></p><p>After our adventures in the steam tunnels, Simeon had generously allowed the whole group to take guest quarters in the Lyceum. It was nice to sleep somewhere dry for once. Anyway, that morning, I was taking a little break from studying; on the grounds below, I saw that Victor and Longhelim had come out for their usual morning session of sparring; but they had added a new wrinkle to their practice. They were both wearing blindfolds and attempting to rely on senses other than sight for their sensory input. They were remarkably and frighteningly competent even with their blindfolds, much to the admiration of the crowd of students who had gathered to watch them. </p><p></p><p>Smiling, I turned back to the serious business of magical research. </p><p></p><p>That evening, everyone returned without mishap.</p><p></p><p>We sat down, had dinner and deliberately, spoke of light, simple things while eating. Much banter was exchanged together with plans for new equipment and acquisitions; or “shopping” as John termed it. Once our meal finished, we retired to the library with hot drinks. Longhelim lit up his pipe, the others sipped and, sitting in comfortable armchairs and surrounded by books, we began the serious task of planning ahead.</p><p></p><p>The first point of order of the evening was tell each other what had been found out and discovered during the day. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim had set out on his own to try to track down the civic leaders of the community of Seaquen and found it surprisingly difficult. Everything seemed to revolve around the Lyceum; ultimately, it seemed that any major decisions were made by Simeon and his advisors. Magister Lord Votberd was in charge of justice, building, planning and the Elite Town Guard. Again, it was a deceptively powerful position as a great deal of responsibility had been heaped upon him, mostly because he was willing to accept it, from what Longhelim said. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim also said that there was an individual in South Harbour, Pickins Frankart; a large, bald man, who smiled often and had a loud booming voice, which he used to denounce the Lyceum for any and all ills affecting Seaquen right now. According to Longhelim, he would have blamed the Lyceum for the military adventuring of the Ragesian Empire if he thought he could get away with it. </p><p></p><p>However, further enquiries revealed that Frankart may have talked a lot but he didn’t actually have any position in the Seaquen bureaucracy; just a very loud voice and an enormous sense of entitlement. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim then visited a small temple dedicated to the Sea God which seemed to be a civic centre for the town. There, he mentioned Torrent’s name and was made welcome. He mentioned the possibility of a unifying temple which was accepted with cautious approval but with a qualification that the leaders of the Temple had several more pressing concerns at this time: namely a spate of mysterious fires which had begun in South Harbour but now seemed to have progressed into North Harbour. No one had been able to find out how or why they had been started and more importantly, how they kept burning, considering the rain. Simultaneously, there was great concern about the mysterious disappearance of three girls in South Harbour. Various requests had been made of the Elite Town Guard to investigate, but these had been rebuffed due to the pressures brought about by the refugee situation. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim was left in no doubt that the local temple of Seaquen was prioritizing these two issues and that until they were resolved, progress was unlikely to be made on any other new matters. </p><p></p><p>Drudge had also used his day very productively. He had travelled the outskirts of the refugee camps and the city limits. He wanted to familiarize himself with the region and the country side. He had also visited the ruins of the city that used to be situated on the tip of the peninsula. A great deal of it was now sunk but it still attracted treasure hunters, mostly desperate refugees, according to Drudge. He had also found a strange building, a large, three storied mansion which was an inn. It was named “The Royale” and it styled itself as the premier location for warriors of all types and renown in the region. </p><p></p><p>Felix and Victor had visited the Ragesian Druids. This faction worshipped the God of Pilgrimages and Felix, as a priest of Farlanghn, God of Travel, Roads and Journeys, wanted to pay them a courtesy call. He was received with great courtesy in return. Felix was able to narrate a version of our journey from Gate Pass which was avidly absorbed by the leading druid. According to Felix, there are only about half a dozen or so actual druids in this faction but they seemed to have been very effective in building up their power base as they had approximately five hundred followers. </p><p></p><p>Once pleasantries had been exchanged and courtesies observed, the Druids let it be known that their major concern was the level of deforestation that had been necessary recently. Seaquen was a small town and had never been meant as a settlement for several thousand people. As such, these new inhabitants needed additional resources and wood was important for all sorts of reasons. Unfortunately, it was also being consumed at a frightening rate and would soon run out; this was intolerable to the Druids. The implication was that they would certainly not consider any talks with other factions until this crisis was solved. </p><p></p><p>We then sat down and discussed our plans and options. I had a quite unusual idea about the Druids which could also potentially solve a great many problems for the refugees. One of the more outrageous rumours in the camps was the presence of a dragon in the swamp. This dragon also supposedly possessed a magical instrument: a lyre which, when played for a short period of time, miraculously equaled the achievement of several weeks’ work by hundreds of builders. If, and it was a huge if, this dragon and lyre existed and if we could somehow manage to get hold of it, then we could ease the desperate shelter shortage of the refugees. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim pointed out that whilst the lyre aided in the building, material would still be needed for the shelters; I replied that we had a town full of stone ruins. This stone was lying idle at this time and could certainly used for new shelters. He puffed his pipe, lost in thought.</p><p></p><p>Drudge then spoke up with a different variation: </p><p></p><p>“While I was in the ruins, I also saw the cliffs. With this lyre, if it is as magical as you say, we could easily build shelters straight into the cliff.”</p><p></p><p>The big problem here was the several very large “Ifs”, as mentioned previously.</p><p></p><p>We were still determined that we would set out into the swamp after the goblins but not quite yet. We then decided that our next investigation would be the disappearance of the girls in South Harbour; I would still stay at the Lyceum to research more magical formulae and John would remain here also; he would research the factions and other items of interest in the library with the aid of the librarians; it was a resource we had not used as yet. </p><p></p><p>The next morning, everyone set out on their missions. </p><p></p><p>My spell for today was a very simple spell; it was a projectile of pure magical force. It became more powerful the more I used it. Bearing in mind how simple it was in its conception, it was surprising how tricky it was to actually convert into a magical formula. I managed it in the end but it was far harder than I was expecting. </p><p></p><p>Towards the end of the afternoon, the others returned and were full of news. </p><p></p><p>The camps were excited because a truce had been negotiated with the goblins in the swamp. Another group of individuals had entered the swamp, made contact with the goblins and reached an agreement to allow safe passage through a section of the swamp. The conditions of this agreement was a small tribute of “minor magic items”, whatever that meant; the word “minor” is always relative; the use of a private cook; and the death of the “the three witches”, which I presumed, referred to the three Tieflings we had met. It seemed as if goblins were just as useful an ingredient for the Tidereaver’s Tear as any other sentient being; probably more so since they had been neighbours.</p><p></p><p>No mention was made of the magical bottle the goblins were supposed to possess. A little gentle digging revealed that when the goblins were asked about it, they denied any knowledge of its existence.</p><p></p><p>Briefly, I wondered about this other group that had negotiated the truce, but then I remembered Xavius Foebane mentioning a powerful team of individuals that he was considering for a mission to retrieve the Torch of the Burning Sky, once its whereabouts had been established. Since these had now been revealed, courtesy of the Sindaire ambassador, I expected their departure to be imminent and wished them all the luck in the world. If the Resistance could wrest the Torch out of the Ragesian Empire, it would be a major victory, despite the fact that it was useless at this time. I was still wondering how they would get past the permanent fire storm said to be raging around the site, but since these individuals had the confidence of Xavius Foebane, as I stated previously, I assumed there was a plan.</p><p></p><p>I wondered if this was the same group.</p><p></p><p>In the meantime, Longhelim, Victor, Felix and Drudge had been in South Harbour, trying to establish the facts behind the disappearances of the girls. It had turned out to be quite a frustrating experience. As ever with these things, no one actually saw anything. They were able to confirm that the number of disappearances was three; the names of the victims were Mary, Martha and Jo and they all had similar characteristics: they were all good looking, in their late teens, had spotless reputations and were known to have been helping with the Ragesian refugees. They were universally regarded as “good girls”. Only one, Jo, had family; the others did not. During that day, our friends had been unable to discover just where the girls lived. They did obtain a description of each though. Further questioning also revealed that there were many other young women who matched this description and their lifestyle, therefore many other potential victims.</p><p></p><p>They had also managed to meet Pickins Frankart, who assured them that the disappearances were the work of the Lyceum. He didn’t know how it was done, why it was done, who had done it specifically but he was absolutely certain that if we followed the clues correctly, it would all lead back to Simeon and his nest of magical vipers. </p><p></p><p>I was rapidly beginning to suspect that the man was mad. </p><p></p><p>John had also had a very productive day. His research in the library had produced various gems. </p><p></p><p>First of all, he had been able to read up on various famous aerial battles which he narrated to the rest of us; we hoped that the leader of the Ostaliner mercenaries would be delighted to have these eye witness accounts narrated to him; this was in addition to our own account of the battle above Gate Pass. We had already found out that, as a former hippogriff rider, he was likely to receive us favourably if we were able to relate these to him. </p><p></p><p>Curiously, John had also been able to find out that the Sindairians regarded bears as symbol of good luck. </p><p></p><p>Furthermore, John, had also found a mention of the Order of Echoed Souls. This was a sub-group of refugees within the Sindairians; they actually had their own camp, away from the main one. They were monks, aesthetes who had mystical powers, granted to them by their iron discipline, supposedly. This order was interesting as it had originated in Shahalesti, but some great tragedy forced it to move to Sindaire and since then, the Ragesian invasion forced it to move again, this time as refugees to Seaquen. John had been unable to find out anything else about them. </p><p></p><p>Finally, John had also managed to locate references to the dragons of Sour Lake Swamp. Yes, that is correct, it was dragons; apparently when the books were written, it was definitely more than one; they were blue, green or black. There did not seem to be a consensus as to what type they were; although as Drudge drily said: </p><p></p><p>“Look, they are dragons in a swamp: you will almost certainly only glimpse them because if you have any sense you will be running away as soon as you get an inkling that there is one around and since you are in a swamp, their overriding colour will be mud.” </p><p></p><p>All of this was very useful information. </p><p></p><p>We decided that our next course of action would be to patrol South Harbour, in case there was another attempt at a kidnapping tonight. </p><p></p><p>Unfortunately, that expedition was not successful. We ventured out in the late afternoon and took a random route through South Harbour for several hours but we did not see any sign of suspicious behavior. </p><p></p><p>As we trudged back wearily to the Lyceum, disappointed with the whole experience, John said: </p><p></p><p>“Come on; we didn’t think this through. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a kidnapper. You are out there looking for a likely victim and all you see are six strangers bristling with swords, bows, staves, wands, you name it they have it. Would you attempt anything that night? Or even more likely, you have already chosen your next victim and are watching to make sure she is alone when you make your attempt; then you see us marching on the street.</p><p></p><p>Actually, if we think about it, we have been successful, just not in the way we wanted. No kidnapping took place last night. The problem is that we just delayed things as opposed to stopping them. Tomorrow evening, we will have to think of a different way to do this.”</p><p></p><p>A little more heartened after this, we returned to the Lyceum where we slept well. </p><p></p><p>The next morning, as we were at breakfast, I noticed that Drudge had already gone. He returned just as we were finishing. He had risen early and had already gathered the latest news. There had been more mysterious fires, this time in the Eastern section of North Harbour. He had gone there to investigate but the rain and the general population had destroyed any tracks that could have been useful. However, he had found out that the fires did not begin exclusively at night; they had also started during the day. This definitely presented an opportunity. This time though, we would be more surreptitious and go to a high vantage point, waiting to see if we could spot anything, rather than acting as a deterrent. </p><p></p><p>Quickly, we gathered our equipment and began to walk to the area of North Harbour that was most affected. As we walked there, Drudge also mentioned that the ship wrecked off the coast, the one that was full of exotic and dangerous creatures, had been salvaged. From what Drudge had learned, many of the crew were dead, victims of the cargo but someone had gone there and gathered what was left. There was no news as to how many of the creatures had escaped, if any; or of the fate of the salvagers for that matter. </p><p></p><p>We managed to get a good vantage point in North Harbour and settled down to wait. This time our vigil was successful and after a little time, we spotted a column of smoke. We rushed down to investigate and, as expected, found a burning building. A human chain had already been formed, with buckets being rushed to the flames amidst much shouting. Drudge immediately began to scan around for any unusual tracks; moments later, he came back, looking puzzled. </p><p></p><p>“There are lots of human tracks, to be expected but there is also a trail of rat tracks; lots and lots of rats. I don’t understand that but since this is the most unusual trail, we had better follow it.”</p><p></p><p>With Drudge leading, we followed this trail. Personally, I couldn’t see a thing except churned mud but then again, that was why I relied on Drudge for this kind of thing. Finally we reached another building, an abandoned mill. The tracks stopped there. Cautiously, we entered and as we opened the door, we saw a veritable carpet of rats. The ground seemed alive with them; more importantly, they all had fiery little eyes and breathed little licks flame. The air was almost alight with sparks. It looked like we had found our most unlikely little arsonists. </p><p></p><p>We were not sure how to deal with these creatures. </p><p></p><p>“Drudge, any ideas? The last lot of these we met, the bats on fire, we hit them and it didn’t do anything. We had to douse them with water but this isn’t going to work with these. They just went through the rain,” this from Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>“I dunno,” was the reply. </p><p></p><p>The carpet had noticed us at this point; more and more twitching little snouts pointed in our direction and I could swear that there seemed to be more sparks in the air. Felix and Victor entered into the room only for the carpet to surge forward with horrible rapidity. They surrounded Victor, biting, climbing, scratching and squealing; Victor didn’t hesitate and swung his falchion; rats went flying, the squealing increased dramatically and suddenly the whole the carpet looked smaller, more manageable. Swords could hurt them! Longhelim stepped forward but it was clear that the sword swing by Victor had dispersed them. </p><p></p><p>Both Longhelim and Victor looked at each other in surprise; not only were these vulnerable to swords, they were also quite weak. </p><p></p><p>As the warriors were looking around warily, there was a shout from Drudge: </p><p></p><p>“Look”!</p><p></p><p>I looked and all I could see was more churned mud where he was pointing. </p><p></p><p>“There are more. They are going this way.”</p><p></p><p>We followed Drudge through more of the town; through various building, over the docks and then more warehouses until we came to a large single story house made of brick. It was obviously one of the very old houses and it had long been abandoned. </p><p></p><p>We entered carefully, Drudge still at the front, following the tracks and came to a spiral staircase leading down; again we followed down but then I heard a call from Drudge:</p><p></p><p>“Back, move back!”</p><p></p><p>I complied and was quickly followed by Felix and Drudge, then Victor and finally, slowly and looking down the stairs, Longhelim. Everyone was looking down the stairs as if they were expecting something. </p><p></p><p>Then they came. Whereas the previous rats before were a moving carpet, these were a veritable ocean. As previously, they had eyes that seemed to reflect the fire, there were little licks of flame everywhere and sparks flew towards the ceiling. They moved in waves, climbing over each other, under each other, besides each other in a surging motion towards our group. Longhelim and Victor stood their ground. I was swamped by them for a brief moment and as they climbed over me, into my mouth, my clothes, down my trousers, into my boots and everywhere, I felt a stab of disgust and nausea. I managed to shake them off and ran from this surge of rats. </p><p></p><p>I stood back. I did not make the mistake of trying to cast spells at them. I had tried that before and it had not done anything. I did not think it would differ this time. However, I did see Victor’s large sword swinging and each time it did so, many, many rats flew through the air and smashed against the wall, creating little puffs of smoke. The ocean surged fiercely against the fighter again and again but he swung his sword and more rats went flying. Longhelim was also there, with his own sword. His swings were more delicate and rats flew from him as well. Then Felix stumbled out of this mess, bent over vomiting violently, as he tugged a screeching rat out of his mouth by the tail; Drudge was in the same state, while John had also moved out. This left Victor in the middle of the ocean but this now had become less an ocean and more a sea. </p><p></p><p>Drudge managed to recover and loaded his bow. A part of the rats had followed Felix as he was retching, leaning against a wall. They took advantage of his helplessness and surrounded him again, this time climbing on his back and over him; he seemed to spasm and emitted yet another convulsive belch full of bile and rats. Drudge, looking for a target, shot two arrows into this group and one skewered and disrupted a group of rats while the other glanced off Felix, still dislodging a group of the rodents but also causing the priest some discomfort, judging by his yelp. It was John, with his daggers that finally disrupted this mass of rats while Victor and Longhelim dealt with the larger concentration. </p><p></p><p>Finally, they were all dispersed. </p><p></p><p>Everyone was scratched, bitten, bruised but ultimately not hurt too badly although Felix looked at everyone very carefully; rats were notorious disease carriers and those bites could become infected. </p><p></p><p>Drudge reported that below was a basement that was full of small fissures that led below…somewhere. He didn’t know where but the rats obviously had crawled somewhere. I thought that they may have come into contact with something or someone from Vule and acquired their strange fiery affinity but this was pure speculation. We did not have the means or abilities to go through the fissure ourselves, so satisfying ourselves that there were not meaningful groups of fiery rats left, we reported back to Magister Lord Votberd. </p><p></p><p>The dwarf was a little skeptical of our story to begin with until we showed him some of the rat bodies and then he became more enthusiastic about our achievement. He sent out runners, announcing that the cause of the mysterious fires had been discovered and had been solved. He also warned everyone to check their basements and ruthlessly hunt down any rats lurking down there. </p><p></p><p>Feeling as if we had achieved something, we retired to the Lyceum for a few hours. I had an idea to discuss with everyone. </p><p></p><p>As we sat down to a snack, I said the following: </p><p></p><p>“I have been thinking about what you said about our attempt in South Harbour last night, John. So, how about this? John, you climb a high roof, a tree or another high vantage point and just stay up there watching; the same as Drudge this morning. Then, if you spot anything untoward, judge the moment; see if you can follow the perpetrators; if not, then call us immediately. We will be nearby but we can use one of the messenger tokens which Nelle gave us. Do you think that’ll work?”</p><p></p><p>John made a face: “Well it’s not much a plan but it’s the only one we have at the moment so I’ll give it a go.”</p><p></p><p>We emerged from the Lyceum that evening; we were a little surprised as several people who we had never seen before waved at us, and many others smiled. There was the odd shout of: “It’s the rat catchers” and others of that type. One or two brave souls even patted us on the back. I wasn’t sure what had happened but it looked like our rat hunting expedition was very successful. Then it clicked: what relieved people was the knowledge that the mystery had been explained. The burning buildings were bothersome and dangerous but it was more the mysterious causes of the fire that were scaring people. Now the mystery had been explained, everything seemed less tense; also rats were irritating, but they were an everyday hazard and people knew how to deal with them. </p><p></p><p>We approached South Harbour and looked around. It was discouraging. For a start, the whole area was almost exclusively residential, with little commercial property. There wasn’t even an inn. In fact, the building with the highest roof was the brothel. I had heard of brothels before but wasn’t quite sure exactly what purpose they served. When it was explained to me I was……startled. It all seemed all little earthy to me, particularly in a residential area but John assured me that brothels were successful everywhere.</p><p></p><p>As mentioned previously, it was the tallest building with two stories; the entrance was being watched by two rough looking individuals. As we approached, John whispered: </p><p></p><p>“Longhelim, see if you can get the rest of you in there while I get on the roof; it may kill two birds with one stone; you’ll distract the guards while I climb up and you may not need to shelter in some nearby wood. If you can’t then go to the forest, the place with the huge elm we admired.”</p><p></p><p>As John slunk away, John approached the two guards:</p><p></p><p>“Gentlemen, may I see the proprietor please?”</p><p></p><p>“Watcha wanta see her for?”</p><p></p><p>They seemed less than impressed. </p><p></p><p>“That’s for me and her to discuss”.</p><p></p><p>“Wrong! You tell me and I tell her and then she decides if she wants to speak to you!”</p><p></p><p>“Well, it has to do with the safety of the girls in the House”</p><p></p><p>“Yeah, well, that’s our job. What else you got?”</p><p></p><p>Longhelim carefully turned around at this point and joined us: </p><p></p><p>“There is no point in discussing this any further with these. The only way they will accept what I say now is if I beat it into them and that would destroy the objective of the exercise. Let’s get back to the alternative rendezvous.”</p><p></p><p>We moved back to the forest and spent several hours, waiting. Finally John joined us, shaking his head. Silently, we trudged back to the Lyceum. </p><p></p><p>Once back there, everyone stripped off their armour and equipment and retired to the library. John was the first to speak: </p><p></p><p>“Well, that was a bust! Look, I think that we will have to leave this one to the locals. They will have a much better chance of catching anyone. Think about what we are relying on; getting into South Harbour as six heavily armed individuals without anyone noticing; hoping that the snatchers will try the particular night that we are watching; that they will also find the right girl; that we will be in the right place; that they will not see us…….”</p><p></p><p>As he spoke, I realised he was right. We were relying on so many things falling for us just right that it was ridiculous. I also realised that we were getting into danger of letting this kidnapping business eat up our time because it was frustrating us. </p><p></p><p>John continued:</p><p></p><p>“……so, bearing this in mind, I think we should follow up on the lead which has the biggest potential reward: the dragon with the magical instrument. If we can get our hands on it, it will save many, many lives, solve a huge amount of other problems and make the biggest difference to this place that I can think of.”</p><p></p><p>I cleared my throat.</p><p></p><p>“I thought you said it was more than one dragon? Even one is bad enough”. </p><p></p><p>“It was more than one when those books were written, decades ago. Who knows how many there are now? Not only that, but Katrina said that the dragon we heard sounded in distress. Let’s find out why it’s in distress.”</p><p></p><p>“You are taking Katrina’s word that it was upset? And you are assuming that the others have just flown away?”</p><p></p><p>“All right, I know that there are a lot of gaps in this but if this lyre exists and if we can get hold of it, then think what could be done with it…”</p><p></p><p>I didn’t have an answer for that. I remembered the state of the camps, especially those of the Ragesians, as I stared at the rain out of the window. A permanent shelter would make such a difference……..it was very tempting despite the risk. </p><p></p><p>John then launched into a further discourse about what he had found out about dragons: black ones were immune to acid and breathed it; blue were immune to electricity and breathed it while green ones again were immune to acid and breathed a cloud of acid. Also, if the ones that had been written about in the Library were still in the swamp, then by this stage, they would be very big. </p><p></p><p>Despite all of this, I saw that the others were also nodding.</p><p></p><p>Sighing, I resigned myself to another trip into Sour Lake swamp.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 5980760, member: 6692807"] As mentioned previously, we discussed how to spend the next few days. I had to rest – to recover from my enforced spell cramming in the middle of Vule. I suppose one could call it “resting”, but while I was in the Lyceum Library, I was taking full advantage of the time, furthering my magical theory and research. As ever, my brain was bursting with ideas for magical formulae. I had an idea for magical horses that could run forever, for a ward against elementals; I wanted to see if I could work out how Felix flew; I was thinking of a variation of the invisibility spell that John used so often; and of course there were so many spells that I had seen being cast against us by Ivellios and the tiefling. I wanted to look at their formulae and pick them apart line by line. I also wanted to read Toma’s books on elemental lore. There was never enough time. I had managed to skim Toma the druid’s journal. It was nothing remarkable. He had progressed in his chosen field but had never felt at home anywhere. I wondered briefly if he was a Ragesian Druid that had gone astray but then I thought this would be unlikely as he was an elf. Anyway, Toma then found a mentor, a wizard called Tonk who had opened a door to the Astral plane for him, which ultimately led him to the elemental plane of fire. He really liked it there. That was when he started hearing voices; always a bad sign that. The voices then told him to go to another plane, the elemental plane of water. He liked it there as well and began to hear more voices. These told him to go to the demi plane of Vule beneath the town of Seaquen on the prime material plane. He became convinced that the voices were those of the Great Elder Elementals, the ultimate rulers of Vule. His journal did not mention the voices telling him that he needed to conquer Seaquen and the world with an army of elementals but he certainly sounded convincing when he was ranting at us during our last confrontation; and as for those transformations we witnessed as we fought him, well he had obviously received some powerful magical favours. Jibrand was also certain that he had intended to mastermind an invasion by elementals. “Hmm, join the queue: first the Ragesians, then the Shahalesti, now the elementals, possibly followed by more Ragesians in the form of their fleet. Seaquen, or more likely the Lyceum seems to be extremely popular!” was my fairly irreverent thought as I ruminated over our experiences in the steam tunnels over a hot drink. We were also able to gain knowledge of the function of the various items we had found, especially the staff which was carved with flames. As expected, it was a staff with an affinity with fire spells, which would be very useful offensive addition to the group. On that first morning, I also saw something else that was remarkable. After our adventures in the steam tunnels, Simeon had generously allowed the whole group to take guest quarters in the Lyceum. It was nice to sleep somewhere dry for once. Anyway, that morning, I was taking a little break from studying; on the grounds below, I saw that Victor and Longhelim had come out for their usual morning session of sparring; but they had added a new wrinkle to their practice. They were both wearing blindfolds and attempting to rely on senses other than sight for their sensory input. They were remarkably and frighteningly competent even with their blindfolds, much to the admiration of the crowd of students who had gathered to watch them. Smiling, I turned back to the serious business of magical research. That evening, everyone returned without mishap. We sat down, had dinner and deliberately, spoke of light, simple things while eating. Much banter was exchanged together with plans for new equipment and acquisitions; or “shopping” as John termed it. Once our meal finished, we retired to the library with hot drinks. Longhelim lit up his pipe, the others sipped and, sitting in comfortable armchairs and surrounded by books, we began the serious task of planning ahead. The first point of order of the evening was tell each other what had been found out and discovered during the day. Longhelim had set out on his own to try to track down the civic leaders of the community of Seaquen and found it surprisingly difficult. Everything seemed to revolve around the Lyceum; ultimately, it seemed that any major decisions were made by Simeon and his advisors. Magister Lord Votberd was in charge of justice, building, planning and the Elite Town Guard. Again, it was a deceptively powerful position as a great deal of responsibility had been heaped upon him, mostly because he was willing to accept it, from what Longhelim said. Longhelim also said that there was an individual in South Harbour, Pickins Frankart; a large, bald man, who smiled often and had a loud booming voice, which he used to denounce the Lyceum for any and all ills affecting Seaquen right now. According to Longhelim, he would have blamed the Lyceum for the military adventuring of the Ragesian Empire if he thought he could get away with it. However, further enquiries revealed that Frankart may have talked a lot but he didn’t actually have any position in the Seaquen bureaucracy; just a very loud voice and an enormous sense of entitlement. Longhelim then visited a small temple dedicated to the Sea God which seemed to be a civic centre for the town. There, he mentioned Torrent’s name and was made welcome. He mentioned the possibility of a unifying temple which was accepted with cautious approval but with a qualification that the leaders of the Temple had several more pressing concerns at this time: namely a spate of mysterious fires which had begun in South Harbour but now seemed to have progressed into North Harbour. No one had been able to find out how or why they had been started and more importantly, how they kept burning, considering the rain. Simultaneously, there was great concern about the mysterious disappearance of three girls in South Harbour. Various requests had been made of the Elite Town Guard to investigate, but these had been rebuffed due to the pressures brought about by the refugee situation. Longhelim was left in no doubt that the local temple of Seaquen was prioritizing these two issues and that until they were resolved, progress was unlikely to be made on any other new matters. Drudge had also used his day very productively. He had travelled the outskirts of the refugee camps and the city limits. He wanted to familiarize himself with the region and the country side. He had also visited the ruins of the city that used to be situated on the tip of the peninsula. A great deal of it was now sunk but it still attracted treasure hunters, mostly desperate refugees, according to Drudge. He had also found a strange building, a large, three storied mansion which was an inn. It was named “The Royale” and it styled itself as the premier location for warriors of all types and renown in the region. Felix and Victor had visited the Ragesian Druids. This faction worshipped the God of Pilgrimages and Felix, as a priest of Farlanghn, God of Travel, Roads and Journeys, wanted to pay them a courtesy call. He was received with great courtesy in return. Felix was able to narrate a version of our journey from Gate Pass which was avidly absorbed by the leading druid. According to Felix, there are only about half a dozen or so actual druids in this faction but they seemed to have been very effective in building up their power base as they had approximately five hundred followers. Once pleasantries had been exchanged and courtesies observed, the Druids let it be known that their major concern was the level of deforestation that had been necessary recently. Seaquen was a small town and had never been meant as a settlement for several thousand people. As such, these new inhabitants needed additional resources and wood was important for all sorts of reasons. Unfortunately, it was also being consumed at a frightening rate and would soon run out; this was intolerable to the Druids. The implication was that they would certainly not consider any talks with other factions until this crisis was solved. We then sat down and discussed our plans and options. I had a quite unusual idea about the Druids which could also potentially solve a great many problems for the refugees. One of the more outrageous rumours in the camps was the presence of a dragon in the swamp. This dragon also supposedly possessed a magical instrument: a lyre which, when played for a short period of time, miraculously equaled the achievement of several weeks’ work by hundreds of builders. If, and it was a huge if, this dragon and lyre existed and if we could somehow manage to get hold of it, then we could ease the desperate shelter shortage of the refugees. Longhelim pointed out that whilst the lyre aided in the building, material would still be needed for the shelters; I replied that we had a town full of stone ruins. This stone was lying idle at this time and could certainly used for new shelters. He puffed his pipe, lost in thought. Drudge then spoke up with a different variation: “While I was in the ruins, I also saw the cliffs. With this lyre, if it is as magical as you say, we could easily build shelters straight into the cliff.” The big problem here was the several very large “Ifs”, as mentioned previously. We were still determined that we would set out into the swamp after the goblins but not quite yet. We then decided that our next investigation would be the disappearance of the girls in South Harbour; I would still stay at the Lyceum to research more magical formulae and John would remain here also; he would research the factions and other items of interest in the library with the aid of the librarians; it was a resource we had not used as yet. The next morning, everyone set out on their missions. My spell for today was a very simple spell; it was a projectile of pure magical force. It became more powerful the more I used it. Bearing in mind how simple it was in its conception, it was surprising how tricky it was to actually convert into a magical formula. I managed it in the end but it was far harder than I was expecting. Towards the end of the afternoon, the others returned and were full of news. The camps were excited because a truce had been negotiated with the goblins in the swamp. Another group of individuals had entered the swamp, made contact with the goblins and reached an agreement to allow safe passage through a section of the swamp. The conditions of this agreement was a small tribute of “minor magic items”, whatever that meant; the word “minor” is always relative; the use of a private cook; and the death of the “the three witches”, which I presumed, referred to the three Tieflings we had met. It seemed as if goblins were just as useful an ingredient for the Tidereaver’s Tear as any other sentient being; probably more so since they had been neighbours. No mention was made of the magical bottle the goblins were supposed to possess. A little gentle digging revealed that when the goblins were asked about it, they denied any knowledge of its existence. Briefly, I wondered about this other group that had negotiated the truce, but then I remembered Xavius Foebane mentioning a powerful team of individuals that he was considering for a mission to retrieve the Torch of the Burning Sky, once its whereabouts had been established. Since these had now been revealed, courtesy of the Sindaire ambassador, I expected their departure to be imminent and wished them all the luck in the world. If the Resistance could wrest the Torch out of the Ragesian Empire, it would be a major victory, despite the fact that it was useless at this time. I was still wondering how they would get past the permanent fire storm said to be raging around the site, but since these individuals had the confidence of Xavius Foebane, as I stated previously, I assumed there was a plan. I wondered if this was the same group. In the meantime, Longhelim, Victor, Felix and Drudge had been in South Harbour, trying to establish the facts behind the disappearances of the girls. It had turned out to be quite a frustrating experience. As ever with these things, no one actually saw anything. They were able to confirm that the number of disappearances was three; the names of the victims were Mary, Martha and Jo and they all had similar characteristics: they were all good looking, in their late teens, had spotless reputations and were known to have been helping with the Ragesian refugees. They were universally regarded as “good girls”. Only one, Jo, had family; the others did not. During that day, our friends had been unable to discover just where the girls lived. They did obtain a description of each though. Further questioning also revealed that there were many other young women who matched this description and their lifestyle, therefore many other potential victims. They had also managed to meet Pickins Frankart, who assured them that the disappearances were the work of the Lyceum. He didn’t know how it was done, why it was done, who had done it specifically but he was absolutely certain that if we followed the clues correctly, it would all lead back to Simeon and his nest of magical vipers. I was rapidly beginning to suspect that the man was mad. John had also had a very productive day. His research in the library had produced various gems. First of all, he had been able to read up on various famous aerial battles which he narrated to the rest of us; we hoped that the leader of the Ostaliner mercenaries would be delighted to have these eye witness accounts narrated to him; this was in addition to our own account of the battle above Gate Pass. We had already found out that, as a former hippogriff rider, he was likely to receive us favourably if we were able to relate these to him. Curiously, John had also been able to find out that the Sindairians regarded bears as symbol of good luck. Furthermore, John, had also found a mention of the Order of Echoed Souls. This was a sub-group of refugees within the Sindairians; they actually had their own camp, away from the main one. They were monks, aesthetes who had mystical powers, granted to them by their iron discipline, supposedly. This order was interesting as it had originated in Shahalesti, but some great tragedy forced it to move to Sindaire and since then, the Ragesian invasion forced it to move again, this time as refugees to Seaquen. John had been unable to find out anything else about them. Finally, John had also managed to locate references to the dragons of Sour Lake Swamp. Yes, that is correct, it was dragons; apparently when the books were written, it was definitely more than one; they were blue, green or black. There did not seem to be a consensus as to what type they were; although as Drudge drily said: “Look, they are dragons in a swamp: you will almost certainly only glimpse them because if you have any sense you will be running away as soon as you get an inkling that there is one around and since you are in a swamp, their overriding colour will be mud.” All of this was very useful information. We decided that our next course of action would be to patrol South Harbour, in case there was another attempt at a kidnapping tonight. Unfortunately, that expedition was not successful. We ventured out in the late afternoon and took a random route through South Harbour for several hours but we did not see any sign of suspicious behavior. As we trudged back wearily to the Lyceum, disappointed with the whole experience, John said: “Come on; we didn’t think this through. Let’s put ourselves in the shoes of a kidnapper. You are out there looking for a likely victim and all you see are six strangers bristling with swords, bows, staves, wands, you name it they have it. Would you attempt anything that night? Or even more likely, you have already chosen your next victim and are watching to make sure she is alone when you make your attempt; then you see us marching on the street. Actually, if we think about it, we have been successful, just not in the way we wanted. No kidnapping took place last night. The problem is that we just delayed things as opposed to stopping them. Tomorrow evening, we will have to think of a different way to do this.” A little more heartened after this, we returned to the Lyceum where we slept well. The next morning, as we were at breakfast, I noticed that Drudge had already gone. He returned just as we were finishing. He had risen early and had already gathered the latest news. There had been more mysterious fires, this time in the Eastern section of North Harbour. He had gone there to investigate but the rain and the general population had destroyed any tracks that could have been useful. However, he had found out that the fires did not begin exclusively at night; they had also started during the day. This definitely presented an opportunity. This time though, we would be more surreptitious and go to a high vantage point, waiting to see if we could spot anything, rather than acting as a deterrent. Quickly, we gathered our equipment and began to walk to the area of North Harbour that was most affected. As we walked there, Drudge also mentioned that the ship wrecked off the coast, the one that was full of exotic and dangerous creatures, had been salvaged. From what Drudge had learned, many of the crew were dead, victims of the cargo but someone had gone there and gathered what was left. There was no news as to how many of the creatures had escaped, if any; or of the fate of the salvagers for that matter. We managed to get a good vantage point in North Harbour and settled down to wait. This time our vigil was successful and after a little time, we spotted a column of smoke. We rushed down to investigate and, as expected, found a burning building. A human chain had already been formed, with buckets being rushed to the flames amidst much shouting. Drudge immediately began to scan around for any unusual tracks; moments later, he came back, looking puzzled. “There are lots of human tracks, to be expected but there is also a trail of rat tracks; lots and lots of rats. I don’t understand that but since this is the most unusual trail, we had better follow it.” With Drudge leading, we followed this trail. Personally, I couldn’t see a thing except churned mud but then again, that was why I relied on Drudge for this kind of thing. Finally we reached another building, an abandoned mill. The tracks stopped there. Cautiously, we entered and as we opened the door, we saw a veritable carpet of rats. The ground seemed alive with them; more importantly, they all had fiery little eyes and breathed little licks flame. The air was almost alight with sparks. It looked like we had found our most unlikely little arsonists. We were not sure how to deal with these creatures. “Drudge, any ideas? The last lot of these we met, the bats on fire, we hit them and it didn’t do anything. We had to douse them with water but this isn’t going to work with these. They just went through the rain,” this from Longhelim. “I dunno,” was the reply. The carpet had noticed us at this point; more and more twitching little snouts pointed in our direction and I could swear that there seemed to be more sparks in the air. Felix and Victor entered into the room only for the carpet to surge forward with horrible rapidity. They surrounded Victor, biting, climbing, scratching and squealing; Victor didn’t hesitate and swung his falchion; rats went flying, the squealing increased dramatically and suddenly the whole the carpet looked smaller, more manageable. Swords could hurt them! Longhelim stepped forward but it was clear that the sword swing by Victor had dispersed them. Both Longhelim and Victor looked at each other in surprise; not only were these vulnerable to swords, they were also quite weak. As the warriors were looking around warily, there was a shout from Drudge: “Look”! I looked and all I could see was more churned mud where he was pointing. “There are more. They are going this way.” We followed Drudge through more of the town; through various building, over the docks and then more warehouses until we came to a large single story house made of brick. It was obviously one of the very old houses and it had long been abandoned. We entered carefully, Drudge still at the front, following the tracks and came to a spiral staircase leading down; again we followed down but then I heard a call from Drudge: “Back, move back!” I complied and was quickly followed by Felix and Drudge, then Victor and finally, slowly and looking down the stairs, Longhelim. Everyone was looking down the stairs as if they were expecting something. Then they came. Whereas the previous rats before were a moving carpet, these were a veritable ocean. As previously, they had eyes that seemed to reflect the fire, there were little licks of flame everywhere and sparks flew towards the ceiling. They moved in waves, climbing over each other, under each other, besides each other in a surging motion towards our group. Longhelim and Victor stood their ground. I was swamped by them for a brief moment and as they climbed over me, into my mouth, my clothes, down my trousers, into my boots and everywhere, I felt a stab of disgust and nausea. I managed to shake them off and ran from this surge of rats. I stood back. I did not make the mistake of trying to cast spells at them. I had tried that before and it had not done anything. I did not think it would differ this time. However, I did see Victor’s large sword swinging and each time it did so, many, many rats flew through the air and smashed against the wall, creating little puffs of smoke. The ocean surged fiercely against the fighter again and again but he swung his sword and more rats went flying. Longhelim was also there, with his own sword. His swings were more delicate and rats flew from him as well. Then Felix stumbled out of this mess, bent over vomiting violently, as he tugged a screeching rat out of his mouth by the tail; Drudge was in the same state, while John had also moved out. This left Victor in the middle of the ocean but this now had become less an ocean and more a sea. Drudge managed to recover and loaded his bow. A part of the rats had followed Felix as he was retching, leaning against a wall. They took advantage of his helplessness and surrounded him again, this time climbing on his back and over him; he seemed to spasm and emitted yet another convulsive belch full of bile and rats. Drudge, looking for a target, shot two arrows into this group and one skewered and disrupted a group of rats while the other glanced off Felix, still dislodging a group of the rodents but also causing the priest some discomfort, judging by his yelp. It was John, with his daggers that finally disrupted this mass of rats while Victor and Longhelim dealt with the larger concentration. Finally, they were all dispersed. Everyone was scratched, bitten, bruised but ultimately not hurt too badly although Felix looked at everyone very carefully; rats were notorious disease carriers and those bites could become infected. Drudge reported that below was a basement that was full of small fissures that led below…somewhere. He didn’t know where but the rats obviously had crawled somewhere. I thought that they may have come into contact with something or someone from Vule and acquired their strange fiery affinity but this was pure speculation. We did not have the means or abilities to go through the fissure ourselves, so satisfying ourselves that there were not meaningful groups of fiery rats left, we reported back to Magister Lord Votberd. The dwarf was a little skeptical of our story to begin with until we showed him some of the rat bodies and then he became more enthusiastic about our achievement. He sent out runners, announcing that the cause of the mysterious fires had been discovered and had been solved. He also warned everyone to check their basements and ruthlessly hunt down any rats lurking down there. Feeling as if we had achieved something, we retired to the Lyceum for a few hours. I had an idea to discuss with everyone. As we sat down to a snack, I said the following: “I have been thinking about what you said about our attempt in South Harbour last night, John. So, how about this? John, you climb a high roof, a tree or another high vantage point and just stay up there watching; the same as Drudge this morning. Then, if you spot anything untoward, judge the moment; see if you can follow the perpetrators; if not, then call us immediately. We will be nearby but we can use one of the messenger tokens which Nelle gave us. Do you think that’ll work?” John made a face: “Well it’s not much a plan but it’s the only one we have at the moment so I’ll give it a go.” We emerged from the Lyceum that evening; we were a little surprised as several people who we had never seen before waved at us, and many others smiled. There was the odd shout of: “It’s the rat catchers” and others of that type. One or two brave souls even patted us on the back. I wasn’t sure what had happened but it looked like our rat hunting expedition was very successful. Then it clicked: what relieved people was the knowledge that the mystery had been explained. The burning buildings were bothersome and dangerous but it was more the mysterious causes of the fire that were scaring people. Now the mystery had been explained, everything seemed less tense; also rats were irritating, but they were an everyday hazard and people knew how to deal with them. We approached South Harbour and looked around. It was discouraging. For a start, the whole area was almost exclusively residential, with little commercial property. There wasn’t even an inn. In fact, the building with the highest roof was the brothel. I had heard of brothels before but wasn’t quite sure exactly what purpose they served. When it was explained to me I was……startled. It all seemed all little earthy to me, particularly in a residential area but John assured me that brothels were successful everywhere. As mentioned previously, it was the tallest building with two stories; the entrance was being watched by two rough looking individuals. As we approached, John whispered: “Longhelim, see if you can get the rest of you in there while I get on the roof; it may kill two birds with one stone; you’ll distract the guards while I climb up and you may not need to shelter in some nearby wood. If you can’t then go to the forest, the place with the huge elm we admired.” As John slunk away, John approached the two guards: “Gentlemen, may I see the proprietor please?” “Watcha wanta see her for?” They seemed less than impressed. “That’s for me and her to discuss”. “Wrong! You tell me and I tell her and then she decides if she wants to speak to you!” “Well, it has to do with the safety of the girls in the House” “Yeah, well, that’s our job. What else you got?” Longhelim carefully turned around at this point and joined us: “There is no point in discussing this any further with these. The only way they will accept what I say now is if I beat it into them and that would destroy the objective of the exercise. Let’s get back to the alternative rendezvous.” We moved back to the forest and spent several hours, waiting. Finally John joined us, shaking his head. Silently, we trudged back to the Lyceum. Once back there, everyone stripped off their armour and equipment and retired to the library. John was the first to speak: “Well, that was a bust! Look, I think that we will have to leave this one to the locals. They will have a much better chance of catching anyone. Think about what we are relying on; getting into South Harbour as six heavily armed individuals without anyone noticing; hoping that the snatchers will try the particular night that we are watching; that they will also find the right girl; that we will be in the right place; that they will not see us…….” As he spoke, I realised he was right. We were relying on so many things falling for us just right that it was ridiculous. I also realised that we were getting into danger of letting this kidnapping business eat up our time because it was frustrating us. John continued: “……so, bearing this in mind, I think we should follow up on the lead which has the biggest potential reward: the dragon with the magical instrument. If we can get our hands on it, it will save many, many lives, solve a huge amount of other problems and make the biggest difference to this place that I can think of.” I cleared my throat. “I thought you said it was more than one dragon? Even one is bad enough”. “It was more than one when those books were written, decades ago. Who knows how many there are now? Not only that, but Katrina said that the dragon we heard sounded in distress. Let’s find out why it’s in distress.” “You are taking Katrina’s word that it was upset? And you are assuming that the others have just flown away?” “All right, I know that there are a lot of gaps in this but if this lyre exists and if we can get hold of it, then think what could be done with it…” I didn’t have an answer for that. I remembered the state of the camps, especially those of the Ragesians, as I stared at the rain out of the window. A permanent shelter would make such a difference……..it was very tempting despite the risk. John then launched into a further discourse about what he had found out about dragons: black ones were immune to acid and breathed it; blue were immune to electricity and breathed it while green ones again were immune to acid and breathed a cloud of acid. Also, if the ones that had been written about in the Library were still in the swamp, then by this stage, they would be very big. Despite all of this, I saw that the others were also nodding. Sighing, I resigned myself to another trip into Sour Lake swamp. [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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