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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: 6161534" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>The rogue looked down at the floor, abashed:</p><p> </p><p>“When I was next to Victor’s body, I sort of picked it up, and….well……, it sort of bonded itself to me…..I mean I suddenly felt the life of the Forest in that blade and its magic; I didn’t mean to do it; I think it happened because Victor had died and the Blade had lost its wielder so it seized the next person who picked it up….which was me.”</p><p> </p><p>He held up a rapier; it was made out of dark wood, but the point looked sharp and gleaming; quite capable of skewering anyone. It was covered in carvings but impossible to read. John was handling it very gingerly.</p><p> </p><p>I looked at it curiously and said: </p><p> </p><p>“So, you’re now the new Champion of the Living Forest of Innenotdar, with all the responsibilities that that entails. The Forest and all its inhabitants are now completely dependent upon you.”</p><p> </p><p>John looked even more ill at ease.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I realize that. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have picked it up; too late now though.”</p><p> </p><p>I looked at Victor, sadly.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, it’s too late now.”</p><p> </p><p>Then I turned to Longhelim.</p><p> </p><p>“I don’t know about anyone else but thanks to the leech and the battle, I am almost completely out of spells; literally, I have nothing left. Are we planning to do anything else at this moment?”</p><p> </p><p>“No. Drudge is roaming around, keeping a look out for anything that might be coming to attack us; John has had a scout around and apart from various corridors with several doors, he has also found a secret door in a room beyond those large double doors. Felix is checking the bodies we’re working out what to do next; once we think about it, we’ll all get together and formulate our plans. Take a few moments to yourself and then we’ll begin to work things out.”</p><p> </p><p>After that, he went to watch Felix. I drifted over to the dragon skeleton. I was fascinated by it and still extremely concerned. Every single other pile of bones in this place had animated at some point or other so it only stood to reason that this one would as well. It certainly looked fearsome and as I approached, I saw a plaque underneath. I stopped and read it:</p><p> </p><p>“Syana the Celestial, defender of Ycengled, noble foe.”</p><p> </p><p>Hmmm, that suggested a good dragon of some sort. Celestials generally were although I already knew that making assumptions in this place was dangerous. Still, sometimes we had to go by the knowledge that had served us in the past and so I had to think that Celestials were good beings. I still didn’t like the way it looked at me, though.</p><p> </p><p>Then, I walked back to the rest of the group where Felix was finally finished examining all the bodies. We sat down in a circle with the corpses of Victor, Jorine and Oller in the centre and silently looked at them for some time. I could see tears running down Grellfinn’s face. Then Felix cleared his throat.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, we managed to kill the leech and its skeletons but at a high cost. We can see that in front of us. Thankfully, Farlaghn has given me the powers to return them to us. We only have a brief moment to decide on this and I have to warn you. Their return is not without cost. They have seen the face of death and there are consequences. They will never be the same again. The miracle asks for their willingness to return to this plane and time of existence. It is also expensive. The magic needs diamonds. Now, all of us have diamonds for just this necessity; Grellfinn, do you or your other companions have diamonds?”</p><p> </p><p>The paladin shook his head:</p><p> </p><p>“No, we invested fairly much everything we have in this venture. This was going to be our greatest adventure; the one that was going to set us up for life. We never dreamed that there would be an enemy of such power here. However, I will tell you that if you do bring Jorine and Oller back, we will forego our share of the treasure of the castle. Is that acceptable?”</p><p> </p><p>I felt a little uncomfortable at this announcement. Oller and Jorine had died as allies and fighting at our side. Having said that, we hadn’t found that much in the castle as yet but there was still this whole section to search. Still, I felt that the distribution of the spoils was something to be done at the end of the expedition, preferably in a comfortable inn; so, I nodded. I saw that the others were all nodding as well.</p><p> </p><p>Then I said:</p><p> </p><p>“Longhelim also told me that the Ragesian army has arrived and is camped outside the entrance. Felix, Longhelim said that you may have some ideas how to get away past them?”</p><p> </p><p>The priest glanced at me:</p><p> </p><p>“Yes; one of the other new powers that Farlaghn has gifted to me is a miracle which will turn us all into vapour and allow us to fly at huge speed on the winds. Using this, even if we are unlucky enough to be seen, we’ll be able to travel at such speed that nothing should be able to catch us.”</p><p> </p><p>Grellfinn looked dubious:</p><p> </p><p>“Won’t vapour be affected by those winds outside?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, we won’t be affected by any winds. It is something we were gifted. Unfortunately, you were not gifted in this way so you will have to take your chances I’m afraid. I can’t think of any other way of getting past that army.”</p><p> </p><p>The paladin indicated towards the room with the black fire ring:</p><p> </p><p>“What about the floating sled? That looks ideal to get out of here.”</p><p> </p><p>I answered that:</p><p> </p><p>“Well, we don’t know how it works; and even if we do work it out, as soon as that thing comes out, unless it is incredibly fast, it’ll be swarmed by wyvern knights.”</p><p> </p><p>Grellfinn looked perplexed:</p><p> </p><p>“Wyvern knights?”</p><p> </p><p>“Ragesians that ride wyverns; expert fliers, drop fire bombs, very good warriors and all around tough guys. Wyverns are like small dragons except that they have poison stingers on their tail; nasty things. We have met them before and I wouldn’t want to meet them in the air.”</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure this army has any of these wyvern knights with them?”</p><p> </p><p>“Well, no. I haven’t been able to examine this army in detail because that window seems to be the only lookout point and we know what happens when we enter into that room; but put it like this: every single large group of Ragesians that we have met so far, has had a contingent of wyvern knights with them and this is a very large contingent of Ragesians. In fact, so large they may even have a red dragon with them. We have certainly come across a Ragesian army with a dragon among its ranks before. There are even special dragon riders in Ragesian forces.</p><p> </p><p>But look, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We have no idea how this sky carriage works; nor what else is here so I suggest we bring the others back. I remember that Jorine has a very fast technique by which she can cast a divination spell on items in a fraction of the time that it usually takes; so when she comes back, let’s hope she still has that spell and ask her to cast it on the carriage.”</p><p> </p><p>Grellfinn had paled at the mention of a dragon but then frowned:</p><p> </p><p>“Won’t she still be hurt doing this? In the room, I mean?”</p><p> </p><p>Felix spoke at this point:</p><p> </p><p>“I should be able to cast a spell that protects her for the time that she needs to be in there.”</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim then spoke up.</p><p> </p><p>“Well, I think we have a way forward. We need to rest, especially the spell casters. As soon as they do, Felix will cast his spells on the three people in the centre. Once that is done, hopefully Jorine will cast her spell on the flying carriage. After that, we’ll search out this place. Then we’ll decide what to do next.”</p><p> </p><p>Everyone got up at this point and began to get ready to rest. As one last thing, I went up to Longhelim:</p><p> </p><p>“That dragon skeleton; it’s going to animate after at some point. I can feel it. Can we do something about it?”</p><p> </p><p>He looked exasperated.</p><p> </p><p>“Look, I’ll give you a boost and you can take out its teeth or something, all right; if it makes you feel better.”</p><p> </p><p>So, that is what we did, only to find that there was an invisible barrier surrounding the whole skeleton. I couldn’t get anywhere near it. I tried in several places but it surrounded the whole area.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim looked puzzled.</p><p> </p><p>“I have seen you cast those but can they be made permanent?”</p><p> </p><p>I looked back at him with a frown:</p><p> </p><p>“Theoretically, yes but it’s very costly in all sorts of ways; and requires a lot of power; it wouldn’t be something I would want to do myself. What I would really like to know though is why my spell that normally sees invisible phenomena didn’t spot this wall. I will have to go over it tonight; I wonder if that hell cat is something that I should have also seen lurking around somewhere but somehow the spell missed it. That’s two things I missed. I need to check my formula.”</p><p> </p><p>We told the others what we had found and I saw John and Felix looking speculatively at the skeleton; there was no doubt that both of them were aware just what level of magic was needed to produce a permanent defensive wall of that level around an area that large. Yet again the sheer power that Drakus Coaltongue had at his fingertips was brought home to us. He had probably had that dragon killed and mounted on the wall like that. Now it was also obvious as to why the leech was unable to animate the skeleton. He had no way to take her through that wall. How ironic. In the same way that I couldn’t get at her, neither could he; oh yes, he probably could have got into the same space through the wall behind her but then the skeleton itself would not be able to leave.</p><p> </p><p>Smiling to myself and feeling a little better, I then opened my spell book and began to go through my spell that allowed me to see invisible things and beings with a fine tooth comb.</p><p> </p><p>It took me a couple of hours but yes, I spotted the possible mistake. I had to rearrange a couple of words and symbols but hopefully that corrected the problem.</p><p> </p><p>After that, I settled down to sleep.</p><p> </p><p>I woke up and was relieved to realize that nothing had attacked us; especially the dragon skeleton. I yawned, stretched and saw that Felix and John were stirring as well. Good, we would need to speak with each other about what spells to take. I felt that I had shaken off whatever effect the leech had had on me and was ready to learn a full complement of magic; surprisingly, as I was looking over my spells in anticipation, I felt that I could learn more than previously. I wasn’t sure how that had come about but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth.</p><p> </p><p>A little time later, John, Felix and I huddled together and began our discussions:</p><p> </p><p>“…..right, need enough spells to cover everyone against fire. We still don’t know what else we’re going to find in this place……”</p><p> </p><p>“……need to learn the magic to bring back Victor, Jorine and Oller; as well as healing spells for them as well…….</p><p> </p><p>“……need to get my invisible friend again…..”</p><p> </p><p>And so it went on until we all were satisfied with all of our mixture of spells.</p><p> </p><p>After that, we all sat in a circle again, with the exception of Drudge who roamed around, making sure that nothing was sneaking up on us. Then the priest began a long and complicated ritual on the three bodies. They had been stripped and I watched in fascination but it was magic that was so divine in nature, so intricately connected to the relationship between Felix and his god that it was incomprehensible to me. I didn’t have his faith, his mindset or his willingness to surrender himself to his god to become such a conduit for this sort of magic. Be that as it may, the results were extraordinary; truly miraculous. As Felix finished leaning over Oller, he seemed to be whispering in his ear, brushing his eyes and heart, flexing his limbs until suddenly, there was movement from the gnome; spasmodic, involuntary movement but motion nonetheless. As soon as Oller began twitching, Felix took out a sachet and began to sprinkle sparkling dust over his twitching corpse; the dust settled over his body and then disappeared as it was absorbed; Oller opened his eyes and for a moment they sparkled like diamonds; the motes still lingered there before they disappeared in turn; then Felix moved to Victor and began the process again; this time it seemed to take longer, as if Victor was finding it more difficult to return to us; however, Felix was whispering longer and seemingly more urgently in his ear and he finally began to twitch.</p><p> </p><p>By that point, Oller was moving groggily and Grellfinn was next to him, helping the locksmith to sit up. Longhelim went to Victor and began to do the same; then Felix began to perform the same rite on Jorine and her recovery was far faster; she recovered consciousness almost immediately but began screaming as the extent of her injuries became apparent; I remembered that she had been crushed against the invisible wall as we were moving up on the lift. Felix was obviously ready for this and began to tap her with his healing wand. As soon as he began to do that, she was soothed and began to look around her with curious eyes.</p><p> </p><p>As soon as her screaming began, Grellfinn had rushed over to be at her side while Oller began to try to crawl over to her as well, until John grabbed him by an ankle, dragged him back and exasperatedly said:</p><p> </p><p>“Come back here! She’s fine! Let me heal you!”</p><p> </p><p>Jorine had stopped screaming by this stage and was coughing and recovering. In fact, Victor was the person who looked to be in the worst shape with his scarred face and his badly burnt equipment. His lips were pressed together in a grimace but that was the only sign of the pain that he must have been feeling. I saw that he had lost his large magical bag, with everything in it, including all the pieces we had gathered so far. Most importantly, his very useful hammer was also gone.</p><p> </p><p>The warrior of course was not saying anything, even when told that John was now the new Champion of the Living Forest of Innenotdar. He just nodded. Then he asked softly:</p><p> </p><p>“Does anyone have a spare falchion? I had two in my magical bag but they’re gone now.”</p><p> </p><p>Drudge stepped forward and handed the warrior a falchion.</p><p> </p><p>“It’s not magical”, said the ranger. </p><p> </p><p>“Thank you. It will serve,” Victor said, as he swung it experimentally. “A good blade.”</p><p> </p><p>Felix then approached Victor and touched him. The warrior visibly swelled as he took a long shuddering breath.</p><p> </p><p>“Thank you. It doesn’t hurt any more.”</p><p> </p><p>He still looked awful, scarred, with his hair in patches and his beard and eyebrows burnt off; but he moved freely although he suddenly said:</p><p> </p><p>“The under cloth of this armour has been burned off. Anyone have any spare clothes. It’ll make movement a little easier.”</p><p> </p><p>Various shirts and trousers, mostly from Drudge, were handed to him. Victor nodded his thanks and began to take parts of his armour off.</p><p> </p><p>The three gnomes were huddled together and I presumed that Grellfinn was telling them everything that had happened. That must have been the case as suddenly there was a yelp from the other two:</p><p> </p><p>“You did what? No treasure for us? After all this?”</p><p> </p><p>“Look! You’re alive! They didn’t have to do this you know!”</p><p> </p><p>That kept them quiet but I was still uncomfortable with the arrangement but decided to open that discussion at a more suitable time. I went to Jorine and gently took her hand:</p><p> </p><p>“Welcome back. Your clan fought very bravely and we wouldn’t have been able to do this without them. Come, I would like to show you something.”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6161534, member: 6692807"] The rogue looked down at the floor, abashed: “When I was next to Victor’s body, I sort of picked it up, and….well……, it sort of bonded itself to me…..I mean I suddenly felt the life of the Forest in that blade and its magic; I didn’t mean to do it; I think it happened because Victor had died and the Blade had lost its wielder so it seized the next person who picked it up….which was me.” He held up a rapier; it was made out of dark wood, but the point looked sharp and gleaming; quite capable of skewering anyone. It was covered in carvings but impossible to read. John was handling it very gingerly. I looked at it curiously and said: “So, you’re now the new Champion of the Living Forest of Innenotdar, with all the responsibilities that that entails. The Forest and all its inhabitants are now completely dependent upon you.” John looked even more ill at ease. “Yes, I realize that. It was a mistake. I shouldn’t have picked it up; too late now though.” I looked at Victor, sadly. “Yes, it’s too late now.” Then I turned to Longhelim. “I don’t know about anyone else but thanks to the leech and the battle, I am almost completely out of spells; literally, I have nothing left. Are we planning to do anything else at this moment?” “No. Drudge is roaming around, keeping a look out for anything that might be coming to attack us; John has had a scout around and apart from various corridors with several doors, he has also found a secret door in a room beyond those large double doors. Felix is checking the bodies we’re working out what to do next; once we think about it, we’ll all get together and formulate our plans. Take a few moments to yourself and then we’ll begin to work things out.” After that, he went to watch Felix. I drifted over to the dragon skeleton. I was fascinated by it and still extremely concerned. Every single other pile of bones in this place had animated at some point or other so it only stood to reason that this one would as well. It certainly looked fearsome and as I approached, I saw a plaque underneath. I stopped and read it: “Syana the Celestial, defender of Ycengled, noble foe.” Hmmm, that suggested a good dragon of some sort. Celestials generally were although I already knew that making assumptions in this place was dangerous. Still, sometimes we had to go by the knowledge that had served us in the past and so I had to think that Celestials were good beings. I still didn’t like the way it looked at me, though. Then, I walked back to the rest of the group where Felix was finally finished examining all the bodies. We sat down in a circle with the corpses of Victor, Jorine and Oller in the centre and silently looked at them for some time. I could see tears running down Grellfinn’s face. Then Felix cleared his throat. “Well, we managed to kill the leech and its skeletons but at a high cost. We can see that in front of us. Thankfully, Farlaghn has given me the powers to return them to us. We only have a brief moment to decide on this and I have to warn you. Their return is not without cost. They have seen the face of death and there are consequences. They will never be the same again. The miracle asks for their willingness to return to this plane and time of existence. It is also expensive. The magic needs diamonds. Now, all of us have diamonds for just this necessity; Grellfinn, do you or your other companions have diamonds?” The paladin shook his head: “No, we invested fairly much everything we have in this venture. This was going to be our greatest adventure; the one that was going to set us up for life. We never dreamed that there would be an enemy of such power here. However, I will tell you that if you do bring Jorine and Oller back, we will forego our share of the treasure of the castle. Is that acceptable?” I felt a little uncomfortable at this announcement. Oller and Jorine had died as allies and fighting at our side. Having said that, we hadn’t found that much in the castle as yet but there was still this whole section to search. Still, I felt that the distribution of the spoils was something to be done at the end of the expedition, preferably in a comfortable inn; so, I nodded. I saw that the others were all nodding as well. Then I said: “Longhelim also told me that the Ragesian army has arrived and is camped outside the entrance. Felix, Longhelim said that you may have some ideas how to get away past them?” The priest glanced at me: “Yes; one of the other new powers that Farlaghn has gifted to me is a miracle which will turn us all into vapour and allow us to fly at huge speed on the winds. Using this, even if we are unlucky enough to be seen, we’ll be able to travel at such speed that nothing should be able to catch us.” Grellfinn looked dubious: “Won’t vapour be affected by those winds outside?” “Well, we won’t be affected by any winds. It is something we were gifted. Unfortunately, you were not gifted in this way so you will have to take your chances I’m afraid. I can’t think of any other way of getting past that army.” The paladin indicated towards the room with the black fire ring: “What about the floating sled? That looks ideal to get out of here.” I answered that: “Well, we don’t know how it works; and even if we do work it out, as soon as that thing comes out, unless it is incredibly fast, it’ll be swarmed by wyvern knights.” Grellfinn looked perplexed: “Wyvern knights?” “Ragesians that ride wyverns; expert fliers, drop fire bombs, very good warriors and all around tough guys. Wyverns are like small dragons except that they have poison stingers on their tail; nasty things. We have met them before and I wouldn’t want to meet them in the air.” “Are you sure this army has any of these wyvern knights with them?” “Well, no. I haven’t been able to examine this army in detail because that window seems to be the only lookout point and we know what happens when we enter into that room; but put it like this: every single large group of Ragesians that we have met so far, has had a contingent of wyvern knights with them and this is a very large contingent of Ragesians. In fact, so large they may even have a red dragon with them. We have certainly come across a Ragesian army with a dragon among its ranks before. There are even special dragon riders in Ragesian forces. But look, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. We have no idea how this sky carriage works; nor what else is here so I suggest we bring the others back. I remember that Jorine has a very fast technique by which she can cast a divination spell on items in a fraction of the time that it usually takes; so when she comes back, let’s hope she still has that spell and ask her to cast it on the carriage.” Grellfinn had paled at the mention of a dragon but then frowned: “Won’t she still be hurt doing this? In the room, I mean?” Felix spoke at this point: “I should be able to cast a spell that protects her for the time that she needs to be in there.” Longhelim then spoke up. “Well, I think we have a way forward. We need to rest, especially the spell casters. As soon as they do, Felix will cast his spells on the three people in the centre. Once that is done, hopefully Jorine will cast her spell on the flying carriage. After that, we’ll search out this place. Then we’ll decide what to do next.” Everyone got up at this point and began to get ready to rest. As one last thing, I went up to Longhelim: “That dragon skeleton; it’s going to animate after at some point. I can feel it. Can we do something about it?” He looked exasperated. “Look, I’ll give you a boost and you can take out its teeth or something, all right; if it makes you feel better.” So, that is what we did, only to find that there was an invisible barrier surrounding the whole skeleton. I couldn’t get anywhere near it. I tried in several places but it surrounded the whole area. Longhelim looked puzzled. “I have seen you cast those but can they be made permanent?” I looked back at him with a frown: “Theoretically, yes but it’s very costly in all sorts of ways; and requires a lot of power; it wouldn’t be something I would want to do myself. What I would really like to know though is why my spell that normally sees invisible phenomena didn’t spot this wall. I will have to go over it tonight; I wonder if that hell cat is something that I should have also seen lurking around somewhere but somehow the spell missed it. That’s two things I missed. I need to check my formula.” We told the others what we had found and I saw John and Felix looking speculatively at the skeleton; there was no doubt that both of them were aware just what level of magic was needed to produce a permanent defensive wall of that level around an area that large. Yet again the sheer power that Drakus Coaltongue had at his fingertips was brought home to us. He had probably had that dragon killed and mounted on the wall like that. Now it was also obvious as to why the leech was unable to animate the skeleton. He had no way to take her through that wall. How ironic. In the same way that I couldn’t get at her, neither could he; oh yes, he probably could have got into the same space through the wall behind her but then the skeleton itself would not be able to leave. Smiling to myself and feeling a little better, I then opened my spell book and began to go through my spell that allowed me to see invisible things and beings with a fine tooth comb. It took me a couple of hours but yes, I spotted the possible mistake. I had to rearrange a couple of words and symbols but hopefully that corrected the problem. After that, I settled down to sleep. I woke up and was relieved to realize that nothing had attacked us; especially the dragon skeleton. I yawned, stretched and saw that Felix and John were stirring as well. Good, we would need to speak with each other about what spells to take. I felt that I had shaken off whatever effect the leech had had on me and was ready to learn a full complement of magic; surprisingly, as I was looking over my spells in anticipation, I felt that I could learn more than previously. I wasn’t sure how that had come about but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. A little time later, John, Felix and I huddled together and began our discussions: “…..right, need enough spells to cover everyone against fire. We still don’t know what else we’re going to find in this place……” “……need to learn the magic to bring back Victor, Jorine and Oller; as well as healing spells for them as well……. “……need to get my invisible friend again…..” And so it went on until we all were satisfied with all of our mixture of spells. After that, we all sat in a circle again, with the exception of Drudge who roamed around, making sure that nothing was sneaking up on us. Then the priest began a long and complicated ritual on the three bodies. They had been stripped and I watched in fascination but it was magic that was so divine in nature, so intricately connected to the relationship between Felix and his god that it was incomprehensible to me. I didn’t have his faith, his mindset or his willingness to surrender himself to his god to become such a conduit for this sort of magic. Be that as it may, the results were extraordinary; truly miraculous. As Felix finished leaning over Oller, he seemed to be whispering in his ear, brushing his eyes and heart, flexing his limbs until suddenly, there was movement from the gnome; spasmodic, involuntary movement but motion nonetheless. As soon as Oller began twitching, Felix took out a sachet and began to sprinkle sparkling dust over his twitching corpse; the dust settled over his body and then disappeared as it was absorbed; Oller opened his eyes and for a moment they sparkled like diamonds; the motes still lingered there before they disappeared in turn; then Felix moved to Victor and began the process again; this time it seemed to take longer, as if Victor was finding it more difficult to return to us; however, Felix was whispering longer and seemingly more urgently in his ear and he finally began to twitch. By that point, Oller was moving groggily and Grellfinn was next to him, helping the locksmith to sit up. Longhelim went to Victor and began to do the same; then Felix began to perform the same rite on Jorine and her recovery was far faster; she recovered consciousness almost immediately but began screaming as the extent of her injuries became apparent; I remembered that she had been crushed against the invisible wall as we were moving up on the lift. Felix was obviously ready for this and began to tap her with his healing wand. As soon as he began to do that, she was soothed and began to look around her with curious eyes. As soon as her screaming began, Grellfinn had rushed over to be at her side while Oller began to try to crawl over to her as well, until John grabbed him by an ankle, dragged him back and exasperatedly said: “Come back here! She’s fine! Let me heal you!” Jorine had stopped screaming by this stage and was coughing and recovering. In fact, Victor was the person who looked to be in the worst shape with his scarred face and his badly burnt equipment. His lips were pressed together in a grimace but that was the only sign of the pain that he must have been feeling. I saw that he had lost his large magical bag, with everything in it, including all the pieces we had gathered so far. Most importantly, his very useful hammer was also gone. The warrior of course was not saying anything, even when told that John was now the new Champion of the Living Forest of Innenotdar. He just nodded. Then he asked softly: “Does anyone have a spare falchion? I had two in my magical bag but they’re gone now.” Drudge stepped forward and handed the warrior a falchion. “It’s not magical”, said the ranger. “Thank you. It will serve,” Victor said, as he swung it experimentally. “A good blade.” Felix then approached Victor and touched him. The warrior visibly swelled as he took a long shuddering breath. “Thank you. It doesn’t hurt any more.” He still looked awful, scarred, with his hair in patches and his beard and eyebrows burnt off; but he moved freely although he suddenly said: “The under cloth of this armour has been burned off. Anyone have any spare clothes. It’ll make movement a little easier.” Various shirts and trousers, mostly from Drudge, were handed to him. Victor nodded his thanks and began to take parts of his armour off. The three gnomes were huddled together and I presumed that Grellfinn was telling them everything that had happened. That must have been the case as suddenly there was a yelp from the other two: “You did what? No treasure for us? After all this?” “Look! You’re alive! They didn’t have to do this you know!” That kept them quiet but I was still uncomfortable with the arrangement but decided to open that discussion at a more suitable time. I went to Jorine and gently took her hand: “Welcome back. Your clan fought very bravely and we wouldn’t have been able to do this without them. Come, I would like to show you something.” [/QUOTE]
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The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
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