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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: 6021783" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>As I watched while the others looked down the glowing shaft, I briefly contemplated that out of all the things that I wanted to be doing right now, standing underwater in the rooms of a long forgotten pyromancer, staring down a fiery shaft and deciding who was going to jump down it first, was pretty much at the bottom of the list; the only slight silver lining in this whole situation was that it was not going to be me. </p><p></p><p>So it proved, as Victor swung himself over the edge and dropped down; he was quickly followed by Longhelim, then Felix and then Drudge motioned me forward; blasted water; not only was it impossible to cast spells, one couldn’t even complain properly. So, casting caution to the winds, I moved forward and jumped down the shaft. </p><p></p><p>The red glow tended to limit vision even more than the darkness did and it was impossible for me to calculate just how far I dropped when suddenly and impossibly, the water just…..stopped. I fell down through the air for a short distance and then landed on something hard which grunted. I realised that I was in fact on top of Victor. Quickly, I moved and looked around me.</p><p></p><p>We were inside a huge cave, lit with yet more eerie red light, this time coming from a large fissure bisecting the whole floor, with a bridge over this chasm uniting the two halves of the space. However, that was all I could immediately discern as more urgent matters grabbed my attention; such as a group of figures on the far side of the bridge pointing cross bows at us; behind them, another figure, this one wearing a bear skull mask; finally, the whole area in which we were standing was unnaturally silent, thereby prohibiting spell casting, again. </p><p></p><p>Although poor Victor was still on the floor, Longhelim was already on the bridge, preparing the face the enemy. Felix was behind him and I moved forward. As I suspected, the figure wearing the bear skull was an Inquisitor while the figures with the crossbows were warriors with more than a little orc blood; they were also wearing Ragesian uniforms. </p><p></p><p>I shook my head. This must be some of Lee’s support team. He even had an Inquisitor down here. Victor had finally managed to join Longhelim at the bridge and they both readied to move forward to engage the warriors; unfortunately, at that moment, a curtain of fire literally dropped on them; and on me, as I was standing in line with them, albeit some distance away. It burned. Thankfully, I had my fire protection magic active but I winced as I thought what this must have done to the warriors. </p><p></p><p>We had seen one of these before, in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar as it was chasing us. So we knew to move back but we were not quite sure what we would do once it hemmed us against the far wall. Then I turned around and saw that clever John had managed to fix a rope to the pulley above the shaft and the end of it was now dangling from the “bottom” of the water, which was actually the ceiling. </p><p></p><p>So, we all moved back to the far end of the cave and began preparing to climb up the rope. Even when not within it, the heat of the fire curtain was such that it was still dangerous unless one was some distance away; and we were fully expecting that curtain to begin rolling forward.</p><p></p><p>Then, as we looked, several fiery projectiles burst through the fire but only just managed to penetrate the curtain. I was puzzled for a moment then I realised that the enemy warriors were shooting their crossbows through the magic, not understanding that the spell would just burn them. Then I also realised that the curtain had not moved; so, maybe it was different than the one we had experienced in the Forest. This one was a little less deadly. </p><p></p><p>We had come to a curious stand-off. We could not see what the enemy was doing but simultaneously, they couldn’t see us either; more importantly, they couldn’t shoot us full of crossbow bolts, a decided advantage to us as far as I was concerned. I watched the curtain nervously and a little later, I saw one of the warriors poke his head through the curtain. He seemed to be unharmed so they must have had some sort of magical fire protection as well. The head withdrew and a concerted rain of fiery projectiles sped through the curtain again. Some of them even fell quite close. I moved a forward a little; due to my magical protection, I was able to stand the fire a little better and the area into which everyone had squeezed was getting a little crowded. </p><p></p><p>A little more time passed as more bolts failed to make it through the curtain and finally, the fire was extinguished and a group of eight warriors, obviously ready, charged us. </p><p></p><p>They were screaming, no doubt to try to scare us but the effect became a little comical as their terrifying cries were suddenly cut off when they reached the area of magical silence; nevertheless, they ran at us, straight into Victor and Longhelim’s swords. </p><p></p><p>I saw one of them being severed almost in half by Victor’s sword; another suddenly dropped when an arrow sprouted between his eyes; Drudge’s handiwork, no doubt. I was next to John, and suddenly I was confronted by a snarling, silently grimacing maniac with a battle axe, which smashed into my ribs. I was just as angry and even managed to clout him around the head with my staff. John then stabbed him with his dagger but that was not enough to slow him and as the axe bit into my side again everything went black……</p><p></p><p>I groaned; well, that was a good sign. It meant I could hear myself which in turn meant that we were out of that infernal silent zone. Felix was bent over me with his magical wand which was blessedly soothing. Murmuring magic, he used the wand until I was feeling like my old self again and then I looked around me with great interest:</p><p></p><p>“Longhelim, what happened?”</p><p></p><p>He grunted, obviously also still smarting: “Tough fight; that Inquisitor had some bag of tricks. After you went down, he first froze Drudge with some sort of magic; not sure what it was. Then he moved to Victor and tapped him his chest; Victor just dropped. Felix said he had a bruise the size of a fist there. I am not surprised; whatever that devil did, it just took Victor out. Things were looking a little tricky at that point. Felix and I were coping with the warriors but the Inquisitor was causing havoc. Then Drudge finally comes out of his spell, or whatever it was and shoots him, several times. Then he begins to shoot the warriors and they don’t like it. Felix got smacked around with those axes a little bit and he took out his magical mace and did something which made everyone feel a little better. </p><p></p><p>We managed to decimate the warriors by this stage and then I confronted the Inquisitor; then we all realised that thankfully he wasn’t much of a swordsman; he wasn’t very good at dodging arrows either, as Drudge had already proved and ultimately that’s what did for him in the end. There he is over there,” finished Longhelim, pointing at a corpse with several arrows sticking out of it.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh, by the way,” he added, “Victor is positive that our former friends were waiting for us down here. I am not sure how they knew we were coming but I think we can surmise that anything else that may be down here will also be aware of us.”</p><p></p><p>“Just marvelous” was my thought to that.</p><p></p><p>Anyway, while Felix and John were looking after the others, I looked around me with a great deal of interest. As I mentioned previously, this was a huge cave; somehow, the water was being stopped from flooding it. My mind was finding it difficult to comprehend this and just what magic was being used to produce this effect. The bottom of the fissure was full of glowing lava which provided the eerie red light prevalent throughout the cave which I had mentioned previously; while we didn’t feel the heat, I think it would have felt uncomfortable for anyone else. </p><p></p><p>A warding ring of some sort was etched into the wall in silver; I wanted to go and examine it but I knew that we did not have the time to analyse it. This was magic so far beyond me that I did not have the slightest idea just how it was achieving its end. I stared, fascinated; it may have been beyond me but I still wanted to know what it did. Then Longhelim tapped me on the shoulder and pointed wordlessly at the rest of the group who were clustered around a door on the western wall of the cave. </p><p></p><p>In front of them was a little pile of potion bottles, a wand and the Inquisitor’s mask; John was also putting away a set of keys; spoils of war from what I could tell. The other things were disappearing into magical backpacks. </p><p></p><p>We positioned ourselves in case trouble erupted and then John’s invisible friend opened the door; a humorous name for a new spell he had learned. It was a useful formula; I would have liked to have learned it, when I had the time……</p><p></p><p>The door revealed an empty room; three pallets lay on the floor but the most arresting feature in this space was a very realistic and beautifully carved dragon’s head in the middle of the wall facing the door. It looked angry with fierce eyes and there was a mysterious darkness in its open mouth. In fact, it looked so realistic that I tensed, ready to jump in case this disembodied mouth decided to breathe something unpleasant at us. </p><p></p><p>There were also two doors leading out of this room; north and south or left and right of the dragon’s head. John immediately sent his invisible friend to fiddle with the locks and examine the doors but nothing happened. Then he decided to send it into the darkness surrounding the dragon’s mouth; we baulked a little when he decided to do that and people drew a little away in case something unpleasant happened but surprisingly, nothing did. </p><p></p><p>Cautiously, we entered into the room again and this time opened the north or right door. It revealed a corridor leading into the darkness. Just on the edge of our light, we could see another door, to the north, or the right; John sent his friend with a torch ahead and then we all followed up behind. The corridor led into another room, this one slightly more sinister than the previous one. Its most salient feature was a large container sitting in a corner. It was surrounded by three other containers, smaller in size. As we approached them, we could see that all the containers were filled with some green, viscous liquid; a closer inspection revealed a figure inside the large container, just lying there; it wasn’t moving even after we shone a light on it so we approached even closer and it was revealed to be one of the bizarre fish men that had attacked us earlier. </p><p></p><p>I shuddered and spoke: “It’s that blasted Majestic Creations again; they are growing this poor creature, or changing it or something of that ilk. It looks as if they are into this whole mess up to their necks.”</p><p></p><p>The others didn’t say anything but began looking around. Our attention was grabbed by two pillars of lava running up and down the wall at the far end of the room, the western wall. Again, this was magic that was incomprehensible to me and which broke the natural rules which I had read about in the tomes of learned men. The more I stayed in Seaquen, the more I determined that these men were obviously not learned at all; in fact, from my recent experiences, they seemed to have very little education; yet something more to ponder in the future.</p><p></p><p></p><p>On the opposite wall, to our left or the east, there was a book shelf and as well as another shelf on which sat a whole collection of various bottles. Some of these had strange liquids, others didn’t. </p><p></p><p>A brief look revealed that the books were reference works on this discipline of Biomancy and a cantrip revealed that one of the bottles on the shelf was magical in some way. There was also another door in the Eastern wall, or to our left, which we suspected led back to the original room with the dragon’s head and another door to the south or straight in front of us. </p><p></p><p>We continued to examine this room carefully but found little else of interest. So, we returned to the door we passed in the first corridor, the one leading north. John was again able to get his friend to open it and it revealed a plush, luxurious room with a beautiful carpet and which was dominated by an antique desk; however, what drew our immediate attention was an object on the desk. An oval wooden setting, carved with the figures of two wind deities blowing into the universe, held a dark orb; it was made of black crystal with odd, beautiful silver veins tracing a mysterious pattern on its surface. </p><p></p><p>Another cantrip revealed that this orb absolutely shone with magic. Carefully, we took it and put it into Drudge’s magical backpack, after wrapping it carefully in a spare cloak. </p><p></p><p>Having finished our search, we confirmed that the door to our east led back to the room with the dragon’s head and then tackled the door to the south. This turned out to be surprisingly simple as it was unlocked. Opening it revealed another huge cavern; again it had a massive chasm which glowed red running through its centre over which a bridge had been created. </p><p></p><p>Cautiously, we entered. This time there was no hail of cross bow bolts to welcome us. As we edged forward, with John’s friend carrying the torch in front, some sort of man-made features were revealed in the Eastern or left wall of the cave: a door had been built into the cavern wall to our left while in the southeastern corner, there was a series of doors which looked very much like cell doors.</p><p></p><p>At this point, John motioned us to stop and he turned invisible; mentally, I reminded myself that I had to get that formula off him. I could see him due to my own recently perfected formula which allowed me to perceive invisible beings but I still wanted to be able to go invisible myself. </p><p></p><p>Anyway, John snuck off, looking into the cells. He stared into the first one for a long time and cast a couple of spells; he also looked into the second one for a little time. The other two merited only a brief glance, suggesting that there was nothing there. Then he made beckoning motions at us.</p><p></p><p>“Come on, John is telling us to get to the cells”, I said to the others. </p><p></p><p>“You can see him?” this from Longhelim.</p><p></p><p>“I know you think I was wasting my time in the Lyceum”, I replied, “but I did manage to put together a few tricks. This is one of them.”</p><p></p><p>Longhelim looked thoughtful as we moved to the cells.</p><p></p><p>I told the others that John was waiting for us just at the other side of the bridge. </p><p></p><p>He reported: “The second cell contains a figure; seems to be dead; could be unconscious; I didn’t check. The first cell is the weird one. It has some sort of obelisk in it. It also reeks of really powerful magic; not just the obelisk, but the whole cell; not really sure what is going on there. Faden, can you take a look?”</p><p> </p><p>Before I could move, the paladin stopped and positioned himself at a little distance from the cells and then concentrated. </p><p></p><p>“Well, there is no evil coming from those cells. That means that the figure is either dead or unconscious or not evil.”</p><p></p><p>John then took out the set of keys he had taken from the Inquisitor and they fit the doors. Both cell doors were opened; checking the figure in the cell, it turned out he was one lucky fellow; he was only unconscious, especially as we noticed that the bars to his cells seemed to have been blackened as if burned. We decided to leave him in his current state until we investigated the last door in this cave. </p><p></p><p>We then began to look at this obelisk; I found it very intriguing; as John had described, at first glance, it looked like an obelisk made out of a light stone; a cantrip confirmed that the whole area was just pulsing with magic of all schools. None of this made sense, especially the location of something that was so highly magical but then I remembered that we were wondering around in a dry cave which was technically underwater and in addition I threw a glance at the chasm which glowed red nearby. Then I told myself to stop trying to make sense what was happening around here and just add this cell to the list of magical wonders. </p><p></p><p>With a shrug, I turned to the others: “I can’t tell you more than John; highly magical, radiates several different types of arcane schools; I have no idea of its function; in short, do not touch under the current circumstances. I think we can just about look at it but I wouldn’t do that too much either. You never know…..”</p><p></p><p>Longhelim nodded and then headed towards the door that was more to the east. Another of John’s keys opened this one and revealed a torture chamber; a remarkably sophisticated one to my untrained eye; most of the things there I had never seen before or even read about for that matter. </p><p></p><p>One of the tables had a figure on it. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim paused very briefly and then strode forward: “Not evil” he grunted. Felix then moved forward, took her hand, nodded and then began to free her. He administered some healing with his mace and her eyes fluttered open. </p><p></p><p>Immediately upon opening them, she began screaming. </p><p></p><p>Longhelim strode forward and gently put his hand over her mouth. Then Felix poured some more healing energy into her; those two twin sensations seemed to almost wake her up and she stopped and looked at us. After Felix had helped her, many of her surface abrasions had disappeared. </p><p></p><p>“Thank you and my apologies for that” said Longhelim, “my name is Longhelim and these are my companions; the man who just healed you is named Felix. Please, could you tell us your name and what you are doing here?”</p><p></p><p>As ever, he sounded unruffled and reasonable, as if finding a semi nude woman in a torture chamber under the sea was something he did every day. I moved in and watched her curiously. Her pointed ears and physique immediately revealed her to be an elf. </p><p></p><p>She began: “My name is Faquaniel and I was on my way to join the Resistance in Seaquen. We protected ourselves with a ward against fire and then teleported. As soon as we did, the spell was subverted by some strange magic; I was able to work out that it had something to do with that obelisk in the cell. Somehow, it acts like a beacon for planar magic in this region. We landed next to it and set off enough traps to subdue an army.”</p><p></p><p>She swallowed and Felix offered her some water, which she took gratefully. </p><p></p><p>“We didn’t stand a chance. My companions were killed and I survived; in some ways I wish I hadn’t;” she continued. “There is a Ragesian Inquisitor here; have you seen him?” </p><p></p><p>She looked around, still obviously terrified but became calmer when she saw we were alone. </p><p></p><p>“He was the torturer. At first, he asked the same questions again and again about what I was doing here, what was I planning and everything about me.” She shuddered: “I couldn’t hold out against him and in the end, I told him everything I am telling you. It didn’t seem to stop the torture though; in the end, it was obvious he just liked to torture people.</p><p></p><p>There was someone else as well; I only saw him once. He came in several hours ago and took something he called a “control wand”. He said he needed in case the weather had to be changed. He was human, tall and totally bald.”</p><p></p><p>That was the first concrete lead that Lee had been here. Tall and bald matched his description. </p><p></p><p>“First, the Inquisitor is dead. Second, so you say you are here to join the Resistance?” asked Longhelim. </p><p></p><p>“Yes, that was my aim until I ended up in this hellish place. Thank you so much for getting me out”, she answered.</p><p></p><p>Victor, who had been standing in the doorway, joined me in watching her: “Why do they always have to lie?” he muttered. I looked at him. He just looked at her, shook his head slightly and then left the chamber. </p><p></p><p>Felix then stood up: “Excuse me Faquaniel but I have to attend to another prisoner.”</p><p></p><p>With that, John and Felix went to the other cell and John, having opened the door, Felix revived the other prisoner. He groaned and was helped to the wall where Felix propped him up. He also showed traces of torture on him.</p><p></p><p>With gentle prompting, he told the following story: </p><p></p><p>“My name is Teymour and I was on my way back to Seaquen with a Wayfarer via a teleport spell. Even though we were protected, we ended up here, near this obelisk. The poor Wayfarer was killed.”</p><p></p><p>Again I stood nearby as I heard this but I wasn’t sure if I believed this Teymour. After what Victor told me about the elf, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if this Teymour wasn’t lying through his teeth as well. </p><p></p><p>Then he said: “I am only an apprentice mage and I was on my way back to Seaquen.”</p><p></p><p>That was fairly much all I needed to hear. How did an apprentice mage gain access to a teleport spell? Through a Wayfarer was the obvious answer but how did he convince said Wayfarer to use teleport magic bearing in mind that everyone was aware how dangerous it was; I had to assume that the beacon had come as a very unpleasant surprise but the sheer wealth needed to convince a Wayfarer to use his abilities as well as the magical defences needed for protection suggested that again there was far more here than met the eye. </p><p></p><p>Well, let them keep their secrets; we had more important things to worry about. </p><p></p><p>I was fairly certain that everyone else was aware of the missing parts of both the prisoners’ stories as the atmosphere turned decidedly more brusque. I didn’t want to talk to them any further as we would most likely just be told more lies. </p><p></p><p>We armed them as best as possible from what we found and then asked them to stay outside of the cells as we had more exploring to do</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6021783, member: 6692807"] As I watched while the others looked down the glowing shaft, I briefly contemplated that out of all the things that I wanted to be doing right now, standing underwater in the rooms of a long forgotten pyromancer, staring down a fiery shaft and deciding who was going to jump down it first, was pretty much at the bottom of the list; the only slight silver lining in this whole situation was that it was not going to be me. So it proved, as Victor swung himself over the edge and dropped down; he was quickly followed by Longhelim, then Felix and then Drudge motioned me forward; blasted water; not only was it impossible to cast spells, one couldn’t even complain properly. So, casting caution to the winds, I moved forward and jumped down the shaft. The red glow tended to limit vision even more than the darkness did and it was impossible for me to calculate just how far I dropped when suddenly and impossibly, the water just…..stopped. I fell down through the air for a short distance and then landed on something hard which grunted. I realised that I was in fact on top of Victor. Quickly, I moved and looked around me. We were inside a huge cave, lit with yet more eerie red light, this time coming from a large fissure bisecting the whole floor, with a bridge over this chasm uniting the two halves of the space. However, that was all I could immediately discern as more urgent matters grabbed my attention; such as a group of figures on the far side of the bridge pointing cross bows at us; behind them, another figure, this one wearing a bear skull mask; finally, the whole area in which we were standing was unnaturally silent, thereby prohibiting spell casting, again. Although poor Victor was still on the floor, Longhelim was already on the bridge, preparing the face the enemy. Felix was behind him and I moved forward. As I suspected, the figure wearing the bear skull was an Inquisitor while the figures with the crossbows were warriors with more than a little orc blood; they were also wearing Ragesian uniforms. I shook my head. This must be some of Lee’s support team. He even had an Inquisitor down here. Victor had finally managed to join Longhelim at the bridge and they both readied to move forward to engage the warriors; unfortunately, at that moment, a curtain of fire literally dropped on them; and on me, as I was standing in line with them, albeit some distance away. It burned. Thankfully, I had my fire protection magic active but I winced as I thought what this must have done to the warriors. We had seen one of these before, in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar as it was chasing us. So we knew to move back but we were not quite sure what we would do once it hemmed us against the far wall. Then I turned around and saw that clever John had managed to fix a rope to the pulley above the shaft and the end of it was now dangling from the “bottom” of the water, which was actually the ceiling. So, we all moved back to the far end of the cave and began preparing to climb up the rope. Even when not within it, the heat of the fire curtain was such that it was still dangerous unless one was some distance away; and we were fully expecting that curtain to begin rolling forward. Then, as we looked, several fiery projectiles burst through the fire but only just managed to penetrate the curtain. I was puzzled for a moment then I realised that the enemy warriors were shooting their crossbows through the magic, not understanding that the spell would just burn them. Then I also realised that the curtain had not moved; so, maybe it was different than the one we had experienced in the Forest. This one was a little less deadly. We had come to a curious stand-off. We could not see what the enemy was doing but simultaneously, they couldn’t see us either; more importantly, they couldn’t shoot us full of crossbow bolts, a decided advantage to us as far as I was concerned. I watched the curtain nervously and a little later, I saw one of the warriors poke his head through the curtain. He seemed to be unharmed so they must have had some sort of magical fire protection as well. The head withdrew and a concerted rain of fiery projectiles sped through the curtain again. Some of them even fell quite close. I moved a forward a little; due to my magical protection, I was able to stand the fire a little better and the area into which everyone had squeezed was getting a little crowded. A little more time passed as more bolts failed to make it through the curtain and finally, the fire was extinguished and a group of eight warriors, obviously ready, charged us. They were screaming, no doubt to try to scare us but the effect became a little comical as their terrifying cries were suddenly cut off when they reached the area of magical silence; nevertheless, they ran at us, straight into Victor and Longhelim’s swords. I saw one of them being severed almost in half by Victor’s sword; another suddenly dropped when an arrow sprouted between his eyes; Drudge’s handiwork, no doubt. I was next to John, and suddenly I was confronted by a snarling, silently grimacing maniac with a battle axe, which smashed into my ribs. I was just as angry and even managed to clout him around the head with my staff. John then stabbed him with his dagger but that was not enough to slow him and as the axe bit into my side again everything went black…… I groaned; well, that was a good sign. It meant I could hear myself which in turn meant that we were out of that infernal silent zone. Felix was bent over me with his magical wand which was blessedly soothing. Murmuring magic, he used the wand until I was feeling like my old self again and then I looked around me with great interest: “Longhelim, what happened?” He grunted, obviously also still smarting: “Tough fight; that Inquisitor had some bag of tricks. After you went down, he first froze Drudge with some sort of magic; not sure what it was. Then he moved to Victor and tapped him his chest; Victor just dropped. Felix said he had a bruise the size of a fist there. I am not surprised; whatever that devil did, it just took Victor out. Things were looking a little tricky at that point. Felix and I were coping with the warriors but the Inquisitor was causing havoc. Then Drudge finally comes out of his spell, or whatever it was and shoots him, several times. Then he begins to shoot the warriors and they don’t like it. Felix got smacked around with those axes a little bit and he took out his magical mace and did something which made everyone feel a little better. We managed to decimate the warriors by this stage and then I confronted the Inquisitor; then we all realised that thankfully he wasn’t much of a swordsman; he wasn’t very good at dodging arrows either, as Drudge had already proved and ultimately that’s what did for him in the end. There he is over there,” finished Longhelim, pointing at a corpse with several arrows sticking out of it. “Oh, by the way,” he added, “Victor is positive that our former friends were waiting for us down here. I am not sure how they knew we were coming but I think we can surmise that anything else that may be down here will also be aware of us.” “Just marvelous” was my thought to that. Anyway, while Felix and John were looking after the others, I looked around me with a great deal of interest. As I mentioned previously, this was a huge cave; somehow, the water was being stopped from flooding it. My mind was finding it difficult to comprehend this and just what magic was being used to produce this effect. The bottom of the fissure was full of glowing lava which provided the eerie red light prevalent throughout the cave which I had mentioned previously; while we didn’t feel the heat, I think it would have felt uncomfortable for anyone else. A warding ring of some sort was etched into the wall in silver; I wanted to go and examine it but I knew that we did not have the time to analyse it. This was magic so far beyond me that I did not have the slightest idea just how it was achieving its end. I stared, fascinated; it may have been beyond me but I still wanted to know what it did. Then Longhelim tapped me on the shoulder and pointed wordlessly at the rest of the group who were clustered around a door on the western wall of the cave. In front of them was a little pile of potion bottles, a wand and the Inquisitor’s mask; John was also putting away a set of keys; spoils of war from what I could tell. The other things were disappearing into magical backpacks. We positioned ourselves in case trouble erupted and then John’s invisible friend opened the door; a humorous name for a new spell he had learned. It was a useful formula; I would have liked to have learned it, when I had the time…… The door revealed an empty room; three pallets lay on the floor but the most arresting feature in this space was a very realistic and beautifully carved dragon’s head in the middle of the wall facing the door. It looked angry with fierce eyes and there was a mysterious darkness in its open mouth. In fact, it looked so realistic that I tensed, ready to jump in case this disembodied mouth decided to breathe something unpleasant at us. There were also two doors leading out of this room; north and south or left and right of the dragon’s head. John immediately sent his invisible friend to fiddle with the locks and examine the doors but nothing happened. Then he decided to send it into the darkness surrounding the dragon’s mouth; we baulked a little when he decided to do that and people drew a little away in case something unpleasant happened but surprisingly, nothing did. Cautiously, we entered into the room again and this time opened the north or right door. It revealed a corridor leading into the darkness. Just on the edge of our light, we could see another door, to the north, or the right; John sent his friend with a torch ahead and then we all followed up behind. The corridor led into another room, this one slightly more sinister than the previous one. Its most salient feature was a large container sitting in a corner. It was surrounded by three other containers, smaller in size. As we approached them, we could see that all the containers were filled with some green, viscous liquid; a closer inspection revealed a figure inside the large container, just lying there; it wasn’t moving even after we shone a light on it so we approached even closer and it was revealed to be one of the bizarre fish men that had attacked us earlier. I shuddered and spoke: “It’s that blasted Majestic Creations again; they are growing this poor creature, or changing it or something of that ilk. It looks as if they are into this whole mess up to their necks.” The others didn’t say anything but began looking around. Our attention was grabbed by two pillars of lava running up and down the wall at the far end of the room, the western wall. Again, this was magic that was incomprehensible to me and which broke the natural rules which I had read about in the tomes of learned men. The more I stayed in Seaquen, the more I determined that these men were obviously not learned at all; in fact, from my recent experiences, they seemed to have very little education; yet something more to ponder in the future. On the opposite wall, to our left or the east, there was a book shelf and as well as another shelf on which sat a whole collection of various bottles. Some of these had strange liquids, others didn’t. A brief look revealed that the books were reference works on this discipline of Biomancy and a cantrip revealed that one of the bottles on the shelf was magical in some way. There was also another door in the Eastern wall, or to our left, which we suspected led back to the original room with the dragon’s head and another door to the south or straight in front of us. We continued to examine this room carefully but found little else of interest. So, we returned to the door we passed in the first corridor, the one leading north. John was again able to get his friend to open it and it revealed a plush, luxurious room with a beautiful carpet and which was dominated by an antique desk; however, what drew our immediate attention was an object on the desk. An oval wooden setting, carved with the figures of two wind deities blowing into the universe, held a dark orb; it was made of black crystal with odd, beautiful silver veins tracing a mysterious pattern on its surface. Another cantrip revealed that this orb absolutely shone with magic. Carefully, we took it and put it into Drudge’s magical backpack, after wrapping it carefully in a spare cloak. Having finished our search, we confirmed that the door to our east led back to the room with the dragon’s head and then tackled the door to the south. This turned out to be surprisingly simple as it was unlocked. Opening it revealed another huge cavern; again it had a massive chasm which glowed red running through its centre over which a bridge had been created. Cautiously, we entered. This time there was no hail of cross bow bolts to welcome us. As we edged forward, with John’s friend carrying the torch in front, some sort of man-made features were revealed in the Eastern or left wall of the cave: a door had been built into the cavern wall to our left while in the southeastern corner, there was a series of doors which looked very much like cell doors. At this point, John motioned us to stop and he turned invisible; mentally, I reminded myself that I had to get that formula off him. I could see him due to my own recently perfected formula which allowed me to perceive invisible beings but I still wanted to be able to go invisible myself. Anyway, John snuck off, looking into the cells. He stared into the first one for a long time and cast a couple of spells; he also looked into the second one for a little time. The other two merited only a brief glance, suggesting that there was nothing there. Then he made beckoning motions at us. “Come on, John is telling us to get to the cells”, I said to the others. “You can see him?” this from Longhelim. “I know you think I was wasting my time in the Lyceum”, I replied, “but I did manage to put together a few tricks. This is one of them.” Longhelim looked thoughtful as we moved to the cells. I told the others that John was waiting for us just at the other side of the bridge. He reported: “The second cell contains a figure; seems to be dead; could be unconscious; I didn’t check. The first cell is the weird one. It has some sort of obelisk in it. It also reeks of really powerful magic; not just the obelisk, but the whole cell; not really sure what is going on there. Faden, can you take a look?” Before I could move, the paladin stopped and positioned himself at a little distance from the cells and then concentrated. “Well, there is no evil coming from those cells. That means that the figure is either dead or unconscious or not evil.” John then took out the set of keys he had taken from the Inquisitor and they fit the doors. Both cell doors were opened; checking the figure in the cell, it turned out he was one lucky fellow; he was only unconscious, especially as we noticed that the bars to his cells seemed to have been blackened as if burned. We decided to leave him in his current state until we investigated the last door in this cave. We then began to look at this obelisk; I found it very intriguing; as John had described, at first glance, it looked like an obelisk made out of a light stone; a cantrip confirmed that the whole area was just pulsing with magic of all schools. None of this made sense, especially the location of something that was so highly magical but then I remembered that we were wondering around in a dry cave which was technically underwater and in addition I threw a glance at the chasm which glowed red nearby. Then I told myself to stop trying to make sense what was happening around here and just add this cell to the list of magical wonders. With a shrug, I turned to the others: “I can’t tell you more than John; highly magical, radiates several different types of arcane schools; I have no idea of its function; in short, do not touch under the current circumstances. I think we can just about look at it but I wouldn’t do that too much either. You never know…..” Longhelim nodded and then headed towards the door that was more to the east. Another of John’s keys opened this one and revealed a torture chamber; a remarkably sophisticated one to my untrained eye; most of the things there I had never seen before or even read about for that matter. One of the tables had a figure on it. Longhelim paused very briefly and then strode forward: “Not evil” he grunted. Felix then moved forward, took her hand, nodded and then began to free her. He administered some healing with his mace and her eyes fluttered open. Immediately upon opening them, she began screaming. Longhelim strode forward and gently put his hand over her mouth. Then Felix poured some more healing energy into her; those two twin sensations seemed to almost wake her up and she stopped and looked at us. After Felix had helped her, many of her surface abrasions had disappeared. “Thank you and my apologies for that” said Longhelim, “my name is Longhelim and these are my companions; the man who just healed you is named Felix. Please, could you tell us your name and what you are doing here?” As ever, he sounded unruffled and reasonable, as if finding a semi nude woman in a torture chamber under the sea was something he did every day. I moved in and watched her curiously. Her pointed ears and physique immediately revealed her to be an elf. She began: “My name is Faquaniel and I was on my way to join the Resistance in Seaquen. We protected ourselves with a ward against fire and then teleported. As soon as we did, the spell was subverted by some strange magic; I was able to work out that it had something to do with that obelisk in the cell. Somehow, it acts like a beacon for planar magic in this region. We landed next to it and set off enough traps to subdue an army.” She swallowed and Felix offered her some water, which she took gratefully. “We didn’t stand a chance. My companions were killed and I survived; in some ways I wish I hadn’t;” she continued. “There is a Ragesian Inquisitor here; have you seen him?” She looked around, still obviously terrified but became calmer when she saw we were alone. “He was the torturer. At first, he asked the same questions again and again about what I was doing here, what was I planning and everything about me.” She shuddered: “I couldn’t hold out against him and in the end, I told him everything I am telling you. It didn’t seem to stop the torture though; in the end, it was obvious he just liked to torture people. There was someone else as well; I only saw him once. He came in several hours ago and took something he called a “control wand”. He said he needed in case the weather had to be changed. He was human, tall and totally bald.” That was the first concrete lead that Lee had been here. Tall and bald matched his description. “First, the Inquisitor is dead. Second, so you say you are here to join the Resistance?” asked Longhelim. “Yes, that was my aim until I ended up in this hellish place. Thank you so much for getting me out”, she answered. Victor, who had been standing in the doorway, joined me in watching her: “Why do they always have to lie?” he muttered. I looked at him. He just looked at her, shook his head slightly and then left the chamber. Felix then stood up: “Excuse me Faquaniel but I have to attend to another prisoner.” With that, John and Felix went to the other cell and John, having opened the door, Felix revived the other prisoner. He groaned and was helped to the wall where Felix propped him up. He also showed traces of torture on him. With gentle prompting, he told the following story: “My name is Teymour and I was on my way back to Seaquen with a Wayfarer via a teleport spell. Even though we were protected, we ended up here, near this obelisk. The poor Wayfarer was killed.” Again I stood nearby as I heard this but I wasn’t sure if I believed this Teymour. After what Victor told me about the elf, I wouldn’t have been at all surprised if this Teymour wasn’t lying through his teeth as well. Then he said: “I am only an apprentice mage and I was on my way back to Seaquen.” That was fairly much all I needed to hear. How did an apprentice mage gain access to a teleport spell? Through a Wayfarer was the obvious answer but how did he convince said Wayfarer to use teleport magic bearing in mind that everyone was aware how dangerous it was; I had to assume that the beacon had come as a very unpleasant surprise but the sheer wealth needed to convince a Wayfarer to use his abilities as well as the magical defences needed for protection suggested that again there was far more here than met the eye. Well, let them keep their secrets; we had more important things to worry about. I was fairly certain that everyone else was aware of the missing parts of both the prisoners’ stories as the atmosphere turned decidedly more brusque. I didn’t want to talk to them any further as we would most likely just be told more lies. We armed them as best as possible from what we found and then asked them to stay outside of the cells as we had more exploring to do [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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