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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 2750070" data-attributes="member: 30035">A Feast of FamiliesI must confess I do not personally recall seeing Elder Furnael with the woman. My own memory tells me that she rushed out of the cloud crying out for aid. But my companions tell me that this was the result of some enchantment. Nikos and Erim recall the event as I do, but the woman's subsequent actions indicate that Phaele and Nekaya must be correct and that the woman somehow enchanted my memory to suit her purposes. It was fortunate that not all of us succumbed to her spell.Seeing as the evil cloud of death hovered so near, I had been reaching into my belt pouch for the antivenom potion Liadan had given me when I saw the woman. Phaele at once conjured a ball of lightning to hurl at the woman, and I was so confused by her reaction that I hesitated. Phaele shouted out a warning that she was not to be trusted. Having no better thought of what to do, I swallowed the potion.Rock then rushed the woman. The green cloud began to extend a tendril toward him. The woman chanted some arcane syllables and was surrounded by an impenetrable darkness. Erim, still under the woman's spell, began to go forward to her aid. Nekaya shouted at him angrily, trying to convince him that the woman was our enemy. Liadan drew her quicksilver mace and began to strike at the cloud, causing it to dissipate where her weapon met its substance.I began to move nearer to the area of darkness, wishing to help my friends, though I was still confused as to their cause for attacking the woman. I saw Nikos draw his blades Favor and Fortune and move into the cloud to aid Liadan's efforts, but they both found that the cloud was not so insubstantial as one might expect. It seemed able to grip them somehow and impeded their movement. Phaele spoke some sorcerous words, attempting to drive away the darkness, but her spell failed to take effect. Nekaya had begun to recite prayers to Elishar and spin her hakra above her head, and now a sunny glow issued from the weapon and surrounded her as she moved toward the dark. Erim also tried to banish the darkness without success. But Liadan and Nikos had succeeded in destroying the cloud with their blows, thus freeing us from fear of its poison. Now the darkness began to move toward them. Phaele called out a warning to Rock, advising him that the woman would be able to see within her dark shroud even if he could not.A voice from within the dark shouted out a blasphemous utterance, and I felt myself grow weak and foolish. I heard the woman's voice exclaim, "Why could this not be simple?" in a peevish tone, followed by something that resembled a prayer of healing. I called out to Rock, but he did not respond. Liadan courageously stepped into the darkness and I heard her mace strike against something metallic. Nekaya had begun to pass into the dark area also, as the glow from her hakra spread. I thought I heard Rock's hammer strike against something. The woman uttered more arcane words and I was left standing in bewilderment, unable to determine what to do.Phaele began to follow Nekaya's glowing form into the darkness, for the light of Nekaya's weapon was driving the dark away. Then a column of flames suddenly burst from within the darkness. I stepped forward, my wits having only just returned to me, and called out to the woman, demanding to know what was happening. She did not answer me. Nekaya's light had now entirely banished the darkness and I could see her flanked by Liadan and Rock. When she became visible, Pheale conjured a lightning bolt to strike her, and Nikos flung several of his darts.I felt my strength returning and moved to aid my companions. As I did so, Phaele had summoned up her thunder lance but failed to strike the woman, who wore a suit of heavy armor. Rock threw down his hammer and wrapped his arms about the woman, but she shrugged him off. Determined, he grappled her again and this time she could not get free. Erim called upon her to surrender but she continued to struggle in Rock's grip. I had by this time reached her and slashed at her with my blade but I could not penetrate her armor.Now all of my companions but Nekaya plied their weapons against her in a fury. Phaele used her lance to knock the woman into unconsciousness, and Rock pinned her upon the ground. We could now see that her armor was marked with symbols, which Liadan identified as the holy emblems of the sinister goddess Shar. She carried an odd weapon, according to Liadan the chosen weapon of Shar, a ring-shaped blade called a chakram. Rock kicked it away. He bound her with the troll-gut rope we had been given by the townsfolk. Now that we had defeated her, we prepared to enter the town hall and seek for survivors. Rock and Liadan, however, chose to go out after the remaining clouds so that they could not come to the bolthole and attack the townsfolk. Before he departed Rock took everything he could find from the captive woman.Inside the main hall of Camber's town hall, we found an unnatural silence. Phaele identified it as being under a spell, though much larger in area than such spells are usually made. Nikos bore our captive over his shoulders as we descended to the safe area. We could see that the door ahead was scorched. Then Nikos called out that he sensed something unseen in the corridor with us. He and Nekaya both called out for this invisible presence to show itself. Two men appeared in the chamber ahead of us. I did not know them, but Phaele recognized one as Burleau, vizier to the Elder Furnael, and Nekaya knew the other as the man Pascal whom she had so disliked for his spellcasting during the festival. Nikos demanded that they tell us who they sought. Burleau casually asked if we knew who waited within the chamber beyond the scorched door. He then asked if we knew of Gadron, and Nekaya, not being one to dissemble, admitted that we knew him and that his stronghold lay in the Winterwood. This was not news to the two men. Phaele and Nikos then ordered them to surrender themselves to us, and Nekaya demanded that they tell us if they were responsible for the attack on the town. Burleau showed no remorse when he answered in the affirmative. Phaele angrily summoned a lightning bolt to strike Pascal, and Nikos fired his bow. Phaele then surrounded the two men with a circular wall of electricity. Pascal responded by sending a line of fire down the corridor, burning us all. I drew my bow and fired into the electrical circle, but could not strike either man. Nekaya dodged past the flames and rushed into the room where the two men stood. Then Liadan and Rock reappeared, accompanied by an unknown man.Nikos and I continued to fire arrows while Phaele plied more lightning, though both Burleau and Pascal seemed preturnaturally agile at avoiding our attacks. Pascal began to ask Erim if he was Gadron's apprentice, and also chanted a spell that transformed his fists into stone. Nekaya charged into the circle, heedless that it injured her, and attacked  Burleau, who attempted unsuccessfully to relieve her of her hakra. Erim mouthed the words of a spell to slow their agility, but his spell had no effect. Rock charged down the corridor and into the circle of dancing electricity. Liadan ran behind him. The stranger with them began firing arrows. Phaele chanted a spell that made a terrific noise and left Pascal deafened, but this did not prevent him from casting his own spell back at her. She stood as one dumbstruck, and I rushed into the circle to attack Pascal with my blades. When Nekaya swiped at him with her hakra a moment later he fell. Left alone, Burleau began to back away, but Liadan summoned her magic mace behind him. Rock, Nekaya and I all attacked him almost as one and he was slain. Nekaya dragged Pascal out of the electrical circle, but he too was dead. Rock then went to the charred door and knocked, but his knuckles made no sound on the wood. The door was evidently guarded by some powerful magical protection. I went to Phaele to see if she had been hurt, and found that though she responded in some manner to my voice, she seemed unable to speak or move on her own. While I watched over her my companions attempted to force the door open, though they failed to make any impression upon it. Suddenly a greenish cloud appeared at the end of the corridor, with a bright light at its center. As we all turned, expecting to face another of the deadly cloud spells, a wall of flame shot down the corridor and completely filled the chamber. Though I cringed from it, I found that it did me no harm, nor did it injure any of my friends. Only the stranger who had arrived with Rock and Liadan was burned. When the flames cleared, Gadron appeared.The wizard told us that the evil folk we had slain had hunted him. We had already discovered that our captive, who had been caught by Pascal's flame and then Gadron's, was dead. Gadron did not say why these people sought him. He seemed older than when we had last seen him, and weary to the bone. We asked him if he could aid Phaele, and he summoned his familiar, an owl, which seemed to converse with Zahi the hummingbird for a few moments. Then Gadron touched a diamond to Phaele's forehead and she was restored to herself. We despaired when Gadron told us that there had been no survivors of the townsfolk beyond those we had found outside the walls - the door was sealed to hold in some horror, not to save the people of Camber. Nekaya grew angry when it seemed to her that the wizard had failed to do anything to save the townspeople. He denied this claim but gave no further explanation. For myself I think that though his efforts may have been less than ideal, he was doubtless nearly outmatched by these fiends. Gadron also told us that he had been unable to find any information about our missing companions. He suspected they were in some place where no magical scrying could detect them. When Liadan asked about Califax, he insisted that she could not possibly have seen Covenant's steed for the horse still waited at his stronghold.  Gadron then asked Erim and Phaele to assist him in cleansing the area of Camber, and took them to the prayer rock. Nikos went with them to keep watch. The rest of us went out to search in the event that Gadron's claim of no survivors was incorrect. While I did not see any of this, Nikos told us later that while they cast their spell he saw a vision of two places at once. He was both at the prayer rock and at Gadron's stronghold, which he had of course never seen before. He found himself at a pasture which held a great old horse, which he realized must be Califax. The horse did not behave in at all the same manner as when we had last encountered him. When Nikos attempted to lead him out of the pen he seemed reluctant to depart, but followed along docilely. Then the vision of Gadron's stronghold faded, and Nikos found himself standing within the walls of Camber holding Califax's halter!Gadron announced that we must leave the town within the hour. He then surprised us all by asking Phaele to become his apprentice! He claimed that he had some great mission, of far greater import than our own efforts, in which Phaele could aid him. Phaele declined, but Gadron did not take his refusal as a permanent choice and remarked that he expected he would see Phaele again. I have little doubt that we will all see Gadron again.</blockquote>

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