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<blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6245475" data-attributes="member: 6692807"><p>A new vision began at that point; Shaaladel was watching his warriors chaining up a Taranesti onto one of the trees in the Forest of Ycengled. The elven mage present in the room was with him; a scout rushes up and points straight at us. Shaaladel looks disturbed, takes out an amulet and disappears. The elven mage forms up a squad of warriors and appears in shadowy form in the room, ready to combat everyone; so confusingly, we had the real version, fighting Longhelim and a shadow version, seemingly just as effective, blasting spells at the rest of us.</p><p> </p><p>Katrina moved away from the Inquisitor at this point, to the far end of the room and cast another spell at us; it was another of the fire spells which was a speciality of Gabal. I did not have defences against it any longer and at this point, all I could feel was burning, burning……..</p><p> </p><p>When I came to, I felt awful. Everything was dark. I felt a terrible drain, both mental and physical. Then my eyes cleared and I found myself in the same gods accursed room filled with battling elves, Victor still confronting Katrina in the air, the walls of flame and our other enemies facing us. The one big difference was that a naked Drudge was now about and running to Shalosha who had his bow in hand.</p><p> </p><p>“What happened?” I shouted at Felix.</p><p> </p><p>“Longhelim’s mum saved us!” he shouted back cryptically. I had no idea what that meant but I made sure to remember to ask just what had happened.</p><p> </p><p>Just then, I could see another vision in the other side of the room. Shalosha and her father are sitting alone and the Princess is speaking:</p><p> </p><p>“Father, this conflict against the Taranesti is tearing our people apart. Is there no other way?”</p><p> </p><p>The King is silent for several moments and then replies:</p><p> </p><p>“I wish there was another way; I cannot think of one. I would that there was. Yet, to ensure the survival of my people and of you, my dear daughter, I would give my life.”</p><p> </p><p>Shalosha bows her head:</p><p> </p><p>“I cannot see another way either. I had hoped your greater wisdom would perhaps have conceived of one. I will go to Seaquen; I will act with honour for the good of our people.”</p><p> </p><p>The vision faded at this point. Victor was swirling his blade around Katrina and slashing through her magical images; each slash destroyed one. The elven mage moved forward and tapped Longhelim with some sort of magic because the paladin was badly staggered. Drudge managed to get his bow and quiver back from Shalosha and immediately began to fire arrows at the enemy; the mage to be exact. The elf looked shocked as he saw four arrows sprouting from his torso and he slowly toppled over. Katrina was looking desperate now. Victor had carved his way through her images and struck her several times. She flew away from him, through one of the walls of flame and out of sight.</p><p> </p><p>Another vision appears. This time, it shows the Golden Dragon Syana in her full glory, fighting against a younger Coaltongue and his orcs; the orc in the red armour is guarding a baby golden dragon, presumably Syana’s daughter, Trilla. Another notable figure is an evil outsider, a bone devil, fighting on Coaltongue’s side. Yet another outsider, this time a trumpet archon, fights on Syana’s side.</p><p> </p><p>Suddenly, a squad of Ragesian warriors appears in the room and begins to swing at us. Victor had to abandon his pursuit of Katrina and fly down to defend myself and Felix from the Ragesians. Two of them had already struck me as Victor faced them; or rather they faced him briefly before he cut their shadowy forms into pieces.</p><p> </p><p>Longhelim was now fighting Etienne. She was swinging a vicious looking claw at him and striking more often than not. Drudge began to fire his arrows at her now and she was suffering badly. Longhelim had been weakened, Drudge had not.</p><p> </p><p>Then another vision occurs; this one is climatic:</p><p> </p><p>Rhuarc confronts Coaltongue and Bright Shadow slices through the half orc’s weapon. Coaltongue snarls and turns to the Bone Devil. He rips out the outsider’s thigh bone and smashes it against the trumpet archon, killing the outsider instantly. The thigh bone flickers with the smallest of flames; the sheer ferocity of the blow staggers Rhuarc and the elf is incapacitated momentarily. Syana is flying above them and readies to fly in for a combat run. Coaltongue walks to the captive Trilla and calls out to Syana to surrender or her daughter will die. Syana flies in notwithstanding. Coaltongue screams at his warriors to fire and clouds of arrows soar into the sky. Despite this, Syana flies into this cloud of death and breathes a line of fire; simultaneously, Coaltongue smashes the thigh bone into the skull of Trilla. Everything is enveloped in the flames of a golden dragon and one end of the thigh bone bursts into fire……</p><p> </p><p>The vision clears and in the spot on the floor where we had seen Trilla, a diamond sliver lay, glistening in the light.</p><p> </p><p>I wondered if that meant……</p><p> </p><p>I was rudely interrupted from my ruminations as I had to dodge several axe blows from Ragesian soldiers. Then there was a shout from behind the wall of flame:</p><p> </p><p>“Your magic won’t help you now, you treacherous slut! You can run but you can’t hide!”</p><p> </p><p>As I was dodging orcs, I missed that Victor had dived through the wall after Katrina; he must have acquired more fire defence from somewhere. Longhelim was still confronting Etienne, who continued to swing at him with her metal claw hand; and striking very efficiently if the amount of blood on the paladin was anything to go by. Drudge also continued to target the Inquisitor and then I saw that she cast a powerful healing spell and all her wounds closed. Drudge hit her with another volley again and that was enough to make her to move into the acidic cloud. She was obviously protected and her magic also allowed her to move freely within. This allowed the ranger and paladin a brief respite. Drudge fired a volley at the remaining orc warriors and that dealt with most of them.</p><p> </p><p>Two things happened almost simultaneously: John ran over and scooped up the diamond sliver on the floor and immediately began shouting the following:</p><p> </p><p>“I can see a small child inside the diamond; it’s not saying anything, just staring at me.”</p><p> </p><p>Victor appeared through the wall at this point, with Katrina’s form over his shoulder. Unceremoniously, he dumped her to the ground and then landed next to Felix, who immediately tapped him with a wand. Then we all heard a grating sound behind the wall of flame which faced to the east of us. Suddenly, a gap appeared in the fire, revealing a figure standing in the flame, completely unconcerned at the heat. He was a rather small man, wearing little more than a loincloth, with curly hair and brown skin. The most noticeable feature about him were his arms, the lower part of which resembled those of a bear, including the claws.</p><p> </p><p>This was Forty One, corrupt Master of the Temple and our ultimate opponent in this Trial and probably the Temple itself.</p><p> </p><p>He cocked his head and said almost musingly:</p><p> </p><p>“So, you’ve found what you came for. Too bad you don’t know what to do with it.”</p><p> </p><p>Then he turned to the priest and just stared at him. I didn’t know what he did but Felix shuddered and grunted as if in pain.</p><p> </p><p>“He’s connected me to him magically! Somehow, whatever he feels, I feel!” shouted the priest.</p><p> </p><p>This presented the warriors with a problem as they couldn’t physically assault Forty One without a risk to Felix. The monk just grinned and shimmied a little in the fire. At first, I couldn’t understand why he stayed in there but now it became clear; any hurt he suffered, he passed on to his victim, in this case Felix. Victor ran up and struck him with the flat of his blade. It created a large bruise but did not draw blood. The monk frowned and concentrated on Victor but the warrior’s fury was evident and he shrugged off whatever it was that Forty One was attempting.</p><p> </p><p>There was still no sign of Etienne, who was hiding in the acidic cloud.</p><p> </p><p>My spell of speed disappeared so I renewed it and the two warriors now began combating Forty One in earnest. He did little to defend himself; in fact he relished both being hurt and burned because every time that happened, Felix suffered. Both Felix himself and John were using their wands to maintain the priest conscious. </p><p> </p><p>At that moment, the acidic cloud disappeared to reveal Etienne bristling against the back wall. She looked unhurt and I immediately loosed a series of force missiles against her; only to see them being sucked into an amulet she wore around her neck.</p><p> </p><p>It did not matter though as moments later, Drudge turned and using his full speed, shot a full volley into her; his aim was particularly noteworthy as he put two of the arrows straight through her throat, choking whatever devilry she had been attempting!</p><p> </p><p>She had no defence left against Sir Salubrious Drudge and Etienne powerful Inquisitor and confidant of Leska slowly slid to the ground, leaving a bloody smear on the wall behind her!</p><p> </p><p>Victor and Longhelim finally struck Forty One so heavily with the flat of their blades that the monk fell and then disappeared! We all looked at each other, suspecting some sort of trick or illusion; something was not right. This was proved right as Forty One appeared again, in the middle of the wall, grinning maliciously at us. We looked at each other perplexed.</p><p> </p><p>Victor shouted rhetorically:</p><p> </p><p>“How do we kill him?”</p><p> </p><p>Almost has if he had heard, an apparition appeared in the middle of the room. It was the old monk:</p><p> </p><p>“Remember the powers of the Temple. He’s immortal in this form……”</p><p> </p><p>With a shriek of rage, Forty One contorted his face and concentrated on the apparition which then literally burst into fragments. However, he had said enough!</p><p> </p><p>It was John who first shouted:</p><p> </p><p>“He’s absorbed the powers of the other monks! That’s how he’s got so many powers! And why he’s invulnerable in this form; he’s absorbed the abilities of the most powerful people who wanted to test their skills!”</p><p> </p><p>Simultaneously, something occurred to me:</p><p> </p><p>“John, try using the Temple’s abilities with the soul in the gem. See if you can make contact with it and find out how to put it into the Torch.”</p><p> </p><p>As he was fighting, it was Longhelim who the shouted:</p><p> </p><p>“John, come and get the Torch; Faden, use your magical wall; we’ll get behind it and try all this there. It should keep Forty One out.”</p><p> </p><p>Shalosha joined in at this point. The elven princess had been quiet up to that point:</p><p> </p><p>“I’ve got that spell. I’ll put it up now and move behind it!”</p><p> </p><p>She cast the spell, almost sealing off one corner of the room but leaving a small gap for us to join her; then she and her bodyguard moved behind it. John was concentrating and did not say anything; he was obviously in communication with someone or something else. He did go to Longhelim and took the Torch; then he joined the elves; rapidly, everyone else began to move behind the magical wall. Drudge was still helping Felix, who was still being hurt; I was last and as I moved, I cast my spell to seal us behind our spells.</p><p> </p><p>There was a shriek of rage from Forty One as he felt that he had been thwarted somehow; he was almost like a child; every time something didn’t go his way, he started screaming and stamping his feet. We had troubles of our own though; John was not looking very well. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong while he had been communicating with the gem/child/soul fragment. The rogue was pale, shaking and almost collapsed:</p><p> </p><p>“The Torch is sentient! I’m not strong enough to master it! Longhelim, you take it! You have the best chance!”</p><p> </p><p>The paladin took the Torch gingerly and the strain could be seen on his face momentarily. There was another petulant shriek from Forty One and it looked as if he almost struck himself several times, each one eliciting a shudder from Felix. Thankfully, he was still able to heal himself. Longhelim then straightened and said:</p><p> </p><p>“The Torch is mine! I know what to do now!”</p><p> </p><p>Forty One disappeared from the wall. The sliver of diamond in John’s hand dimmed. John was still suffering, whimpers of agony escaping from his lips. We didn’t know what to do. Through shaking lips, he gasped:</p><p> </p><p>“The Torch! It’s trying to take my soul. I wasn’t strong enough to master it so it thinks it can master me! Make it stop, Longhelim!”</p><p> </p><p>“I can’t! This is part of the ritual. If you cannot master it then it gets a chance to master you. It does that by taking your soul. There is nothing I can do about that. Felix?”</p><p> </p><p>“There’s nothing I have that will help him now. He’ll just have to ride it out.”</p><p> </p><p>John fell to the ground and began to retch blood. It was very worrying; Felix was next to him and tried to make him comfortable while wincing as he was obviously still suffering blows every so often. Then the wall of flame dimmed and revealed the wall; in its middle, there was now a raised portcullis which had not been there before.</p><p> </p><p>“We have to go through,” said Longhelim, “he’s back there. We’ve got to finish this.”</p><p> </p><p>Just before we left, I turned to the Princess:</p><p> </p><p>“Your Highness, your presence here is surprising?”</p><p> </p><p>I turned the statement into an invitation, hoping she would explain. She took my cue immediately:</p><p> </p><p>“We, at Shaaladel, knew there was a traitor high in the council at Seaquen; we needed to flush him or her out. I did that although I must say, I was surprised by her identity. Leska must be truly desperate to reveal such an important asset to us.”</p><p> </p><p>I glanced at Katrina’s body:</p><p> </p><p>“I have a horrible feeling that she won’t be the last one; after Lee Sidoneth and now Katrina, I have come to the conclusion that Seaquen just does not have the mindset to look for betrayal. They’re magicians, academics, loremasters and librarians; they’re not spies or assassins. Leska is unlikely to have been willing to reveal Katrina if she did not have someone else in place.”</p><p> </p><p>Shalosha nodded thoughtfully and then said:</p><p> </p><p>“We will talk about this later, Master Tarabond. Are we ready to confront the monk beyond the portcullis?”</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cafu, post: 6245475, member: 6692807"] A new vision began at that point; Shaaladel was watching his warriors chaining up a Taranesti onto one of the trees in the Forest of Ycengled. The elven mage present in the room was with him; a scout rushes up and points straight at us. Shaaladel looks disturbed, takes out an amulet and disappears. The elven mage forms up a squad of warriors and appears in shadowy form in the room, ready to combat everyone; so confusingly, we had the real version, fighting Longhelim and a shadow version, seemingly just as effective, blasting spells at the rest of us. Katrina moved away from the Inquisitor at this point, to the far end of the room and cast another spell at us; it was another of the fire spells which was a speciality of Gabal. I did not have defences against it any longer and at this point, all I could feel was burning, burning…….. When I came to, I felt awful. Everything was dark. I felt a terrible drain, both mental and physical. Then my eyes cleared and I found myself in the same gods accursed room filled with battling elves, Victor still confronting Katrina in the air, the walls of flame and our other enemies facing us. The one big difference was that a naked Drudge was now about and running to Shalosha who had his bow in hand. “What happened?” I shouted at Felix. “Longhelim’s mum saved us!” he shouted back cryptically. I had no idea what that meant but I made sure to remember to ask just what had happened. Just then, I could see another vision in the other side of the room. Shalosha and her father are sitting alone and the Princess is speaking: “Father, this conflict against the Taranesti is tearing our people apart. Is there no other way?” The King is silent for several moments and then replies: “I wish there was another way; I cannot think of one. I would that there was. Yet, to ensure the survival of my people and of you, my dear daughter, I would give my life.” Shalosha bows her head: “I cannot see another way either. I had hoped your greater wisdom would perhaps have conceived of one. I will go to Seaquen; I will act with honour for the good of our people.” The vision faded at this point. Victor was swirling his blade around Katrina and slashing through her magical images; each slash destroyed one. The elven mage moved forward and tapped Longhelim with some sort of magic because the paladin was badly staggered. Drudge managed to get his bow and quiver back from Shalosha and immediately began to fire arrows at the enemy; the mage to be exact. The elf looked shocked as he saw four arrows sprouting from his torso and he slowly toppled over. Katrina was looking desperate now. Victor had carved his way through her images and struck her several times. She flew away from him, through one of the walls of flame and out of sight. Another vision appears. This time, it shows the Golden Dragon Syana in her full glory, fighting against a younger Coaltongue and his orcs; the orc in the red armour is guarding a baby golden dragon, presumably Syana’s daughter, Trilla. Another notable figure is an evil outsider, a bone devil, fighting on Coaltongue’s side. Yet another outsider, this time a trumpet archon, fights on Syana’s side. Suddenly, a squad of Ragesian warriors appears in the room and begins to swing at us. Victor had to abandon his pursuit of Katrina and fly down to defend myself and Felix from the Ragesians. Two of them had already struck me as Victor faced them; or rather they faced him briefly before he cut their shadowy forms into pieces. Longhelim was now fighting Etienne. She was swinging a vicious looking claw at him and striking more often than not. Drudge began to fire his arrows at her now and she was suffering badly. Longhelim had been weakened, Drudge had not. Then another vision occurs; this one is climatic: Rhuarc confronts Coaltongue and Bright Shadow slices through the half orc’s weapon. Coaltongue snarls and turns to the Bone Devil. He rips out the outsider’s thigh bone and smashes it against the trumpet archon, killing the outsider instantly. The thigh bone flickers with the smallest of flames; the sheer ferocity of the blow staggers Rhuarc and the elf is incapacitated momentarily. Syana is flying above them and readies to fly in for a combat run. Coaltongue walks to the captive Trilla and calls out to Syana to surrender or her daughter will die. Syana flies in notwithstanding. Coaltongue screams at his warriors to fire and clouds of arrows soar into the sky. Despite this, Syana flies into this cloud of death and breathes a line of fire; simultaneously, Coaltongue smashes the thigh bone into the skull of Trilla. Everything is enveloped in the flames of a golden dragon and one end of the thigh bone bursts into fire…… The vision clears and in the spot on the floor where we had seen Trilla, a diamond sliver lay, glistening in the light. I wondered if that meant…… I was rudely interrupted from my ruminations as I had to dodge several axe blows from Ragesian soldiers. Then there was a shout from behind the wall of flame: “Your magic won’t help you now, you treacherous slut! You can run but you can’t hide!” As I was dodging orcs, I missed that Victor had dived through the wall after Katrina; he must have acquired more fire defence from somewhere. Longhelim was still confronting Etienne, who continued to swing at him with her metal claw hand; and striking very efficiently if the amount of blood on the paladin was anything to go by. Drudge also continued to target the Inquisitor and then I saw that she cast a powerful healing spell and all her wounds closed. Drudge hit her with another volley again and that was enough to make her to move into the acidic cloud. She was obviously protected and her magic also allowed her to move freely within. This allowed the ranger and paladin a brief respite. Drudge fired a volley at the remaining orc warriors and that dealt with most of them. Two things happened almost simultaneously: John ran over and scooped up the diamond sliver on the floor and immediately began shouting the following: “I can see a small child inside the diamond; it’s not saying anything, just staring at me.” Victor appeared through the wall at this point, with Katrina’s form over his shoulder. Unceremoniously, he dumped her to the ground and then landed next to Felix, who immediately tapped him with a wand. Then we all heard a grating sound behind the wall of flame which faced to the east of us. Suddenly, a gap appeared in the fire, revealing a figure standing in the flame, completely unconcerned at the heat. He was a rather small man, wearing little more than a loincloth, with curly hair and brown skin. The most noticeable feature about him were his arms, the lower part of which resembled those of a bear, including the claws. This was Forty One, corrupt Master of the Temple and our ultimate opponent in this Trial and probably the Temple itself. He cocked his head and said almost musingly: “So, you’ve found what you came for. Too bad you don’t know what to do with it.” Then he turned to the priest and just stared at him. I didn’t know what he did but Felix shuddered and grunted as if in pain. “He’s connected me to him magically! Somehow, whatever he feels, I feel!” shouted the priest. This presented the warriors with a problem as they couldn’t physically assault Forty One without a risk to Felix. The monk just grinned and shimmied a little in the fire. At first, I couldn’t understand why he stayed in there but now it became clear; any hurt he suffered, he passed on to his victim, in this case Felix. Victor ran up and struck him with the flat of his blade. It created a large bruise but did not draw blood. The monk frowned and concentrated on Victor but the warrior’s fury was evident and he shrugged off whatever it was that Forty One was attempting. There was still no sign of Etienne, who was hiding in the acidic cloud. My spell of speed disappeared so I renewed it and the two warriors now began combating Forty One in earnest. He did little to defend himself; in fact he relished both being hurt and burned because every time that happened, Felix suffered. Both Felix himself and John were using their wands to maintain the priest conscious. At that moment, the acidic cloud disappeared to reveal Etienne bristling against the back wall. She looked unhurt and I immediately loosed a series of force missiles against her; only to see them being sucked into an amulet she wore around her neck. It did not matter though as moments later, Drudge turned and using his full speed, shot a full volley into her; his aim was particularly noteworthy as he put two of the arrows straight through her throat, choking whatever devilry she had been attempting! She had no defence left against Sir Salubrious Drudge and Etienne powerful Inquisitor and confidant of Leska slowly slid to the ground, leaving a bloody smear on the wall behind her! Victor and Longhelim finally struck Forty One so heavily with the flat of their blades that the monk fell and then disappeared! We all looked at each other, suspecting some sort of trick or illusion; something was not right. This was proved right as Forty One appeared again, in the middle of the wall, grinning maliciously at us. We looked at each other perplexed. Victor shouted rhetorically: “How do we kill him?” Almost has if he had heard, an apparition appeared in the middle of the room. It was the old monk: “Remember the powers of the Temple. He’s immortal in this form……” With a shriek of rage, Forty One contorted his face and concentrated on the apparition which then literally burst into fragments. However, he had said enough! It was John who first shouted: “He’s absorbed the powers of the other monks! That’s how he’s got so many powers! And why he’s invulnerable in this form; he’s absorbed the abilities of the most powerful people who wanted to test their skills!” Simultaneously, something occurred to me: “John, try using the Temple’s abilities with the soul in the gem. See if you can make contact with it and find out how to put it into the Torch.” As he was fighting, it was Longhelim who the shouted: “John, come and get the Torch; Faden, use your magical wall; we’ll get behind it and try all this there. It should keep Forty One out.” Shalosha joined in at this point. The elven princess had been quiet up to that point: “I’ve got that spell. I’ll put it up now and move behind it!” She cast the spell, almost sealing off one corner of the room but leaving a small gap for us to join her; then she and her bodyguard moved behind it. John was concentrating and did not say anything; he was obviously in communication with someone or something else. He did go to Longhelim and took the Torch; then he joined the elves; rapidly, everyone else began to move behind the magical wall. Drudge was still helping Felix, who was still being hurt; I was last and as I moved, I cast my spell to seal us behind our spells. There was a shriek of rage from Forty One as he felt that he had been thwarted somehow; he was almost like a child; every time something didn’t go his way, he started screaming and stamping his feet. We had troubles of our own though; John was not looking very well. Something had gone terribly, terribly wrong while he had been communicating with the gem/child/soul fragment. The rogue was pale, shaking and almost collapsed: “The Torch is sentient! I’m not strong enough to master it! Longhelim, you take it! You have the best chance!” The paladin took the Torch gingerly and the strain could be seen on his face momentarily. There was another petulant shriek from Forty One and it looked as if he almost struck himself several times, each one eliciting a shudder from Felix. Thankfully, he was still able to heal himself. Longhelim then straightened and said: “The Torch is mine! I know what to do now!” Forty One disappeared from the wall. The sliver of diamond in John’s hand dimmed. John was still suffering, whimpers of agony escaping from his lips. We didn’t know what to do. Through shaking lips, he gasped: “The Torch! It’s trying to take my soul. I wasn’t strong enough to master it so it thinks it can master me! Make it stop, Longhelim!” “I can’t! This is part of the ritual. If you cannot master it then it gets a chance to master you. It does that by taking your soul. There is nothing I can do about that. Felix?” “There’s nothing I have that will help him now. He’ll just have to ride it out.” John fell to the ground and began to retch blood. It was very worrying; Felix was next to him and tried to make him comfortable while wincing as he was obviously still suffering blows every so often. Then the wall of flame dimmed and revealed the wall; in its middle, there was now a raised portcullis which had not been there before. “We have to go through,” said Longhelim, “he’s back there. We’ve got to finish this.” Just before we left, I turned to the Princess: “Your Highness, your presence here is surprising?” I turned the statement into an invitation, hoping she would explain. She took my cue immediately: “We, at Shaaladel, knew there was a traitor high in the council at Seaquen; we needed to flush him or her out. I did that although I must say, I was surprised by her identity. Leska must be truly desperate to reveal such an important asset to us.” I glanced at Katrina’s body: “I have a horrible feeling that she won’t be the last one; after Lee Sidoneth and now Katrina, I have come to the conclusion that Seaquen just does not have the mindset to look for betrayal. They’re magicians, academics, loremasters and librarians; they’re not spies or assassins. Leska is unlikely to have been willing to reveal Katrina if she did not have someone else in place.” Shalosha nodded thoughtfully and then said: “We will talk about this later, Master Tarabond. Are we ready to confront the monk beyond the portcullis?” [/QUOTE]
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