carborundum
Adventurer
The best answer would be "one day". We're playing two campaigns at the minute, Shackled City and The Drow. When one DM gets DM-fatigue I will be stepping up.
The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign
The archers were positioned in their most advantageous placements and as soon as they saw us, they fired their first volley. There didn’t have a particular target, they just fired clouds of arrows in our general direction. Unfortunately, as predicted, they were expert marksmen, and several of them hit their target. For some reason, John seemed to be the one suffering the most hits. Drudge immediately fired back and hurt one of them badly; this was not part of their plan so they immediately changed their aim and began to target the ranger in turn.
Simultaneously, we also saw the two wyvern knights swooping down towards us; quick as lightning, Drudge changed targets from the archers in the distance and fired his full volley into one of the mounted knights. His target slumped at once, plummeting spectacularly from his aerial steed.
However, the enemy archers seized this opportunity to target Drudge again but this time, he somehow skipped nimbly between a veritable cloud of arrows.
Felix saw the situation and realised that they had more archers then we did and that they were still not quite in position, he shouted:
“It looks as if we’re expected. Let’s not disappoint them! I can take everyone bar one right into the mix before they form ranks!”
John immediately shouted back:
“I’ll stay; and I can occupy the flying idiots at least for a little while.”
So, without any further questions, we all grasped a part of Felix as he cast his transport spell and then we landed right in the middle of the soldiers, unharmed thanks to Longhelim and his ownership of the Torch.
We did not give them any time to react. As soon as we appeared, Victor and Longhelim waded into their ranks and began carve through them. I stayed as close to them as I dared, getting ready to cast spells in support while Drudge was initially hampered by the proximity of so many swinging swords, but quickly found a space for himself.
Victor immediately concentrated on one of the archers; although the fellow had a bow in his hand, he was surprisingly tough; it took several of Victor’s blows to fell the archer; both sides were surprised; the enemy were surprised that he managed to do it so quickly and we were surprised that the archer managed to withstand such an onslaught; we all knew just how expert Victor was with his falchion. Of course, as soon as that happened, nearly every inquisitor targeted Victor with their spells; these spells were those that stripped his defensive magics from him; they were of the weaker type but they were still surprisingly potent.
As this was happening, the mammoth ponderously took a step forward…..into the air; somehow, that animal was either walking on the air or flying; it didn’t matter but what it meant was that it was able to rise above the Ragesian ranks and also attack Victor, which it did, literally rearing and stamping down on the warrior with its huge, trunk like legs. Even Victor staggered after such a charge.
I managed to buy him a little time as I cast a spell, ducking and weaving as a spell duelist, using every inch of an advantage I could get; all that practice must have been paying off as I managed to slip it through the barrage of counter spells that were coming my way; this spell emulated a storm of snow and ice over a large part of the enemy. It blinded them briefly and even forced the mammoth to fly move higher into the air, away from Victor. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, this storm was quickly neutralized by one of the Inquisitors.
Felix took the opportunity to cast a bolstering spell on everyone, briefly praying to his god, while Drudge took deliberate aim at the rider on the mammoth; the ranger’s arrows sprouted from his chest and the inquisitor was visibly swaying before he was able to cast a healing spell on himself; then he turned his baleful mask onto the ranger. Victor was now carving his way through the Ragesian soldiers, who were beginning to form ranks around us several rows deep. It looked very ominous; Drudge was becoming increasingly more hemmed in and their archers were proving very competent; they were not as deadly as Drudge, but there were more of them.
Longhelim was fighting next to Victor but it was becoming obvious that we were going to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers unless we could do something very soon.
So I danced; I danced the dance of magic; moving hither and thither, watching all the Inquisitors, who were all watching me, getting ready to counterspell whatever magic I was going to attempt. All those hours of practice finally paid off; at an unexpected moment, I fooled them all and loosed off my spell; a cloud of greenish mist immediately formed around me, all my allies and most importantly, all of the enemy ranks.
Its appearance was fleeting; as the Inquisitors realised that they had missed my release, they immediately concentrated on frantically dissolving the cloud but it was too late; although the cloud disappeared, this only revealed all the ranks of Ragesian soldiers sprawled on the ground. They had perished; even my allies were a little stunned at the enormity of what that magic had accomplished.
There was shout from a distance and one of the archers released a full volley at me and that hurt quite badly but we had regained the initiative and Longhelim followed up by calling on the power of the Torch and causing a mass of flame to strike the mammoth, its Inquisitor rider and another inquisitor who perished in the inferno. This was an enormous flaming cylinder and easily the most powerful fire spell I had ever seen; all the sages were claiming that the Torch was less powerful than previously reported but if that was the case, then it was little wonder that Leska had invested so much of her power trying to get it.
Unfortunately, although this spell weakened the animal greatly, it was still active; the Ragesian archers changed target again and all concentrated their fire on Drudge at that point, who unfortunately collapsed onto the ground, bursting into flames.
The remaining few foot soldiers showed the discipline of veterans and still attempted to form ranks around Victor and Longhelim; the former continued to seize the initiative and moved into these enemy ranks, carving through them and attempting to prevent their new formations.
All in all, there were still about a dozen soldiers remaining and more importantly, there were also several archers as well as the Inquisitors and the mammoth.
Felix advanced and managed to cast a healing spell on Drudge; almost immediately after, he also cast a healing spell on Victor, who had also been hurt quite badly. I was quiet, picking my targets and getting ready to strike again. Longhelim was confronting the soldiers again. As soon as he became conscious, Drudge let loose a volley of arrows at one of the enemy archers and then using that as a distraction, he sprang up and began to sprint towards open space. Moments later, his progress was cut by the appearance of a wall flame which appeared on top of me and almost next to him. I had to move away quickly, before I was burned any further.
Simultaneously, Felix’s actions had alerted the enemy archers to his importance and they immediately began to concentrate their fire upon him. That in turn allowed time for Drudge to target them; our ranger was able to concentrate his fire on single individuals, much to their misfortune.
For some reason, at that point, several of them turned their attention to me and the last thing I saw were several volleys of arrows flying in my direction.
I stirred again as I felt a massive slam of healing magic hit my body. It was a very powerful spell and all the more welcome for it. Immediately, I guessed that we must have been badly hurt for Felix to have used magic which was this powerful. Glancing around me, I saw that little had changed with the exception that there were fewer soldiers around. There were still clouds of arrows flying towards us and Drudge was effectively being our one man archer squadron; one new addition was the arrival of the wyvern knights; my indication of this was a wyvern raking my skull with its claws as it flew by. Then I felt a little more magic hit me, this time is was my familiar speed magic but it came from somewhere else; John! It had to be since he was the only other person who could cast this spell from our allies.
An even more immediate problem was the proximity of the mammoth, which was still flying and on top of me. Desperately I tried to roll out of the way and miraculously, I managed to avoid the swing of its massive trunk but not so the slams of its two front feet, which landed square on my chest. I really felt those. Thankfully, both Victor and Longhelim were nearby and they immediately saw my distress and stepped between the animal and I, dodging swinging tusks, trunks and feet at the same time. I saw that Victor managed to catch the beast with a deep slash of his falchion across its delicate trunk. This was quickly followed by Longhelim’s sequence of blows with the Torch was in the form of a huge flaming axe and finally, the beast fell from the sky collapsed in a heap.
The Inquisitor jumped down nimbly from its back and then promptly cast a healing spell on it his mount. I groaned inwardly as the vast bulk stirred and lumbered to its feet, trumpeting shrilly in fury and rage. Neither Longhelim nor Victor were hugely impressed with this and took advantage to cut it again as it rose to its feet. I also saw with trepidation that Felix had somehow managed to get cut off from the rest of the group, with the mammoth and several enemy soldiers near him, including an archer and an inquisitor. Thankfully, Drudge had seen the danger and was already speeding through the battlefield to his aid. I also saw John moving stealthily around, a wand in each of his hands.
There was another problem: the wyverns had landed and now joined the fight. Although they were not as dangerous as the mammoth, they were still poisonous creatures and they attacked Victor, Longhelim and I; the other three had moved beyond their reach. The danger lay in that the spells of the Inquisitors had stripped us of our magical defences against poison, creating a dangerous vulnerability. In fact, their actions pulled Victor away from the mammoth as he moved to deal with the small dragons. Cleverly, the knight urged his steed to engage large warrior and as the riderless one moved towards me; if I fell to the beast, then Drudge would definitely be vulnerable, especially as he was backing closer to the wall of flame.
I timed it carefully but realised that the Inquisitors were all busy and distracted, so I cast my own spell at the wyvern, a little spell but as my golden cloud of motes and dust settled on the creature, it began flailing around in a panic. That meant that the magic had worked and the motes had temporarily taken its sight; with a sigh of relief I turned my attention to the rest of the battlefield.
Despite their movements, the Ragesians had also seen the relative isolation of the priest and the archers had taken full advantage of this, with several volleys of arrows hitting Felix, causing him to crumple to the ground and burst into flame. Moments later, I felt several arrows slam into me, aggravating the wounds already caused by the mammoth as one of the archers decided that with the collapse of the priest, I was the most viable target. That archer collapsed in turn as Drudge filled him with arrows.
I was beginning to get concerned again, as the Inquisitor hit us with his own fire spell burning Longhelim and Victor quite badly. Desperately, I tried to fire a weakening ray at the mammoth but I was still dizzy from the attack as well as the volley of arrows and this time, I found it impossible to fool the Inquisitor, who not only caught my spell, but he also stole it from me and it slammed into my body. Thankfully, the spell was a feeble one, reflecting my condition and although I was badly weakened, I was till functional.
That was just as well, since the mammoth was still causing havoc to both the warriors. I looked at the beast and the inquisitors and archer sheltering behind it. The latter already contributed to the collapse of Felix and was now threatening John who had finally reached the burning priest. So, staggering slightly, sluggishly, I tried to cast my spell and fool the expectant inquisitors at the same time; it was difficult. The arrows sticking in kept getting in the way but I finally released the spell; just. The main inquisitor had been watching me and tried to counter but he must have also been badly affected by exhaustion or something else as I managed to slip my spell through his movements; a thick bolt of lightning shot out of my hands and split, hitting the inquisitors, the archers and nearby soldiers. However, its main target was the mammoth , which trumpeted in agony as a chunk of its woolen hide sizzled and blackened and then it collapsed to the ground again. Following on almost as if he had been expecting it, Drudge shot several arrows into the beast, this time making sure of its demise.
The enemy inquisitor turned his mask towards me and screamed:
“Get that dwarf! I will make sure his screams will power the Scourge for years!”
All the archers turned their attention to me and clouds of arrows flew in my direction…….
I came to as John was using his wand on me. I felt awful. The rogue was still carefully extracting arrows from my torso, a process which hurt more than I can describe. As soon as he extracted each one, he tapped the wound with a wand, which did soothe the pain slightly; as he was doing this, I saw that all the enemy had fallen. There were bodies lying everywhere; there must have been fifty or more; the chief inquisitor, the one who wanted to give me to the Scourge, was lying quite close and as John was healing me, I cast a little cantrip to see if any of his equipment was magical. Well, that was an understatement; his armour, his gloves, several items of jewellery as well as the mask of course; oh, and like Longhelim and Victor, he had a small jewel flying around his head. It was a rose spindle, so we were fairly certain what it did.
Idly I looked around and saw that there were many other magical pieces of equipment present on the soldiers, mostly armour and weapons although all the archers also had magical gloves. I pointed this out to the others and Longhelim said:
“The Inquisitor is nearby and most of his magical items are small so we should certainly get them off him but the others are very far away and we cannot carry the armour and weapons; we need to get inside the cave and blind the Eye.”
So, while the others were still being healed, I moved to the Inquisitor and began to take the jewelry. As I moved towards him, my eyes also went to the entrance of the cave and noted that there was an area of powerful magic just at the entrance.
“John, if you’re planning to go into the cave, there’s a batch of magic just about the entrance; watch yourself!”
The rogue acknowledged the warning and continued to help with the healing. Once I took all the pieces from the Inquisitor, I returned and was also still tapped a couple of times to heal me completely. Felix was looking concerned:
“We’re going through these wands quicker than I had anticipated. We’ll have to try to avoid getting hurt so much.”
The two warriors looked at him disbelievingly.
Then Longhelim stood up and said:
“Come, we have to go into the cave. I’m sure that there are more Ragesians inside but at least we’ve got through the initial guards.”
That moment, there was an odd noise emanating from Longhelim, who looked puzzled at first and then he stuck his shield in the snow and took out the Mask of Pilus, which began to speak:
“Your presence has been noted; a large force has left the fortress and is on its way to the Eye; you have a little time but hurry. They will be there quicker than you think!”
Simultaneously, we also saw the two wyvern knights swooping down towards us; quick as lightning, Drudge changed targets from the archers in the distance and fired his full volley into one of the mounted knights. His target slumped at once, plummeting spectacularly from his aerial steed.
However, the enemy archers seized this opportunity to target Drudge again but this time, he somehow skipped nimbly between a veritable cloud of arrows.
Felix saw the situation and realised that they had more archers then we did and that they were still not quite in position, he shouted:
“It looks as if we’re expected. Let’s not disappoint them! I can take everyone bar one right into the mix before they form ranks!”
John immediately shouted back:
“I’ll stay; and I can occupy the flying idiots at least for a little while.”
So, without any further questions, we all grasped a part of Felix as he cast his transport spell and then we landed right in the middle of the soldiers, unharmed thanks to Longhelim and his ownership of the Torch.
We did not give them any time to react. As soon as we appeared, Victor and Longhelim waded into their ranks and began carve through them. I stayed as close to them as I dared, getting ready to cast spells in support while Drudge was initially hampered by the proximity of so many swinging swords, but quickly found a space for himself.
Victor immediately concentrated on one of the archers; although the fellow had a bow in his hand, he was surprisingly tough; it took several of Victor’s blows to fell the archer; both sides were surprised; the enemy were surprised that he managed to do it so quickly and we were surprised that the archer managed to withstand such an onslaught; we all knew just how expert Victor was with his falchion. Of course, as soon as that happened, nearly every inquisitor targeted Victor with their spells; these spells were those that stripped his defensive magics from him; they were of the weaker type but they were still surprisingly potent.
As this was happening, the mammoth ponderously took a step forward…..into the air; somehow, that animal was either walking on the air or flying; it didn’t matter but what it meant was that it was able to rise above the Ragesian ranks and also attack Victor, which it did, literally rearing and stamping down on the warrior with its huge, trunk like legs. Even Victor staggered after such a charge.
I managed to buy him a little time as I cast a spell, ducking and weaving as a spell duelist, using every inch of an advantage I could get; all that practice must have been paying off as I managed to slip it through the barrage of counter spells that were coming my way; this spell emulated a storm of snow and ice over a large part of the enemy. It blinded them briefly and even forced the mammoth to fly move higher into the air, away from Victor. Unfortunately but not surprisingly, this storm was quickly neutralized by one of the Inquisitors.
Felix took the opportunity to cast a bolstering spell on everyone, briefly praying to his god, while Drudge took deliberate aim at the rider on the mammoth; the ranger’s arrows sprouted from his chest and the inquisitor was visibly swaying before he was able to cast a healing spell on himself; then he turned his baleful mask onto the ranger. Victor was now carving his way through the Ragesian soldiers, who were beginning to form ranks around us several rows deep. It looked very ominous; Drudge was becoming increasingly more hemmed in and their archers were proving very competent; they were not as deadly as Drudge, but there were more of them.
Longhelim was fighting next to Victor but it was becoming obvious that we were going to be overwhelmed by sheer numbers unless we could do something very soon.
So I danced; I danced the dance of magic; moving hither and thither, watching all the Inquisitors, who were all watching me, getting ready to counterspell whatever magic I was going to attempt. All those hours of practice finally paid off; at an unexpected moment, I fooled them all and loosed off my spell; a cloud of greenish mist immediately formed around me, all my allies and most importantly, all of the enemy ranks.
Its appearance was fleeting; as the Inquisitors realised that they had missed my release, they immediately concentrated on frantically dissolving the cloud but it was too late; although the cloud disappeared, this only revealed all the ranks of Ragesian soldiers sprawled on the ground. They had perished; even my allies were a little stunned at the enormity of what that magic had accomplished.
There was shout from a distance and one of the archers released a full volley at me and that hurt quite badly but we had regained the initiative and Longhelim followed up by calling on the power of the Torch and causing a mass of flame to strike the mammoth, its Inquisitor rider and another inquisitor who perished in the inferno. This was an enormous flaming cylinder and easily the most powerful fire spell I had ever seen; all the sages were claiming that the Torch was less powerful than previously reported but if that was the case, then it was little wonder that Leska had invested so much of her power trying to get it.
Unfortunately, although this spell weakened the animal greatly, it was still active; the Ragesian archers changed target again and all concentrated their fire on Drudge at that point, who unfortunately collapsed onto the ground, bursting into flames.
The remaining few foot soldiers showed the discipline of veterans and still attempted to form ranks around Victor and Longhelim; the former continued to seize the initiative and moved into these enemy ranks, carving through them and attempting to prevent their new formations.
All in all, there were still about a dozen soldiers remaining and more importantly, there were also several archers as well as the Inquisitors and the mammoth.
Felix advanced and managed to cast a healing spell on Drudge; almost immediately after, he also cast a healing spell on Victor, who had also been hurt quite badly. I was quiet, picking my targets and getting ready to strike again. Longhelim was confronting the soldiers again. As soon as he became conscious, Drudge let loose a volley of arrows at one of the enemy archers and then using that as a distraction, he sprang up and began to sprint towards open space. Moments later, his progress was cut by the appearance of a wall flame which appeared on top of me and almost next to him. I had to move away quickly, before I was burned any further.
Simultaneously, Felix’s actions had alerted the enemy archers to his importance and they immediately began to concentrate their fire upon him. That in turn allowed time for Drudge to target them; our ranger was able to concentrate his fire on single individuals, much to their misfortune.
For some reason, at that point, several of them turned their attention to me and the last thing I saw were several volleys of arrows flying in my direction.
I stirred again as I felt a massive slam of healing magic hit my body. It was a very powerful spell and all the more welcome for it. Immediately, I guessed that we must have been badly hurt for Felix to have used magic which was this powerful. Glancing around me, I saw that little had changed with the exception that there were fewer soldiers around. There were still clouds of arrows flying towards us and Drudge was effectively being our one man archer squadron; one new addition was the arrival of the wyvern knights; my indication of this was a wyvern raking my skull with its claws as it flew by. Then I felt a little more magic hit me, this time is was my familiar speed magic but it came from somewhere else; John! It had to be since he was the only other person who could cast this spell from our allies.
An even more immediate problem was the proximity of the mammoth, which was still flying and on top of me. Desperately I tried to roll out of the way and miraculously, I managed to avoid the swing of its massive trunk but not so the slams of its two front feet, which landed square on my chest. I really felt those. Thankfully, both Victor and Longhelim were nearby and they immediately saw my distress and stepped between the animal and I, dodging swinging tusks, trunks and feet at the same time. I saw that Victor managed to catch the beast with a deep slash of his falchion across its delicate trunk. This was quickly followed by Longhelim’s sequence of blows with the Torch was in the form of a huge flaming axe and finally, the beast fell from the sky collapsed in a heap.
The Inquisitor jumped down nimbly from its back and then promptly cast a healing spell on it his mount. I groaned inwardly as the vast bulk stirred and lumbered to its feet, trumpeting shrilly in fury and rage. Neither Longhelim nor Victor were hugely impressed with this and took advantage to cut it again as it rose to its feet. I also saw with trepidation that Felix had somehow managed to get cut off from the rest of the group, with the mammoth and several enemy soldiers near him, including an archer and an inquisitor. Thankfully, Drudge had seen the danger and was already speeding through the battlefield to his aid. I also saw John moving stealthily around, a wand in each of his hands.
There was another problem: the wyverns had landed and now joined the fight. Although they were not as dangerous as the mammoth, they were still poisonous creatures and they attacked Victor, Longhelim and I; the other three had moved beyond their reach. The danger lay in that the spells of the Inquisitors had stripped us of our magical defences against poison, creating a dangerous vulnerability. In fact, their actions pulled Victor away from the mammoth as he moved to deal with the small dragons. Cleverly, the knight urged his steed to engage large warrior and as the riderless one moved towards me; if I fell to the beast, then Drudge would definitely be vulnerable, especially as he was backing closer to the wall of flame.
I timed it carefully but realised that the Inquisitors were all busy and distracted, so I cast my own spell at the wyvern, a little spell but as my golden cloud of motes and dust settled on the creature, it began flailing around in a panic. That meant that the magic had worked and the motes had temporarily taken its sight; with a sigh of relief I turned my attention to the rest of the battlefield.
Despite their movements, the Ragesians had also seen the relative isolation of the priest and the archers had taken full advantage of this, with several volleys of arrows hitting Felix, causing him to crumple to the ground and burst into flame. Moments later, I felt several arrows slam into me, aggravating the wounds already caused by the mammoth as one of the archers decided that with the collapse of the priest, I was the most viable target. That archer collapsed in turn as Drudge filled him with arrows.
I was beginning to get concerned again, as the Inquisitor hit us with his own fire spell burning Longhelim and Victor quite badly. Desperately, I tried to fire a weakening ray at the mammoth but I was still dizzy from the attack as well as the volley of arrows and this time, I found it impossible to fool the Inquisitor, who not only caught my spell, but he also stole it from me and it slammed into my body. Thankfully, the spell was a feeble one, reflecting my condition and although I was badly weakened, I was till functional.
That was just as well, since the mammoth was still causing havoc to both the warriors. I looked at the beast and the inquisitors and archer sheltering behind it. The latter already contributed to the collapse of Felix and was now threatening John who had finally reached the burning priest. So, staggering slightly, sluggishly, I tried to cast my spell and fool the expectant inquisitors at the same time; it was difficult. The arrows sticking in kept getting in the way but I finally released the spell; just. The main inquisitor had been watching me and tried to counter but he must have also been badly affected by exhaustion or something else as I managed to slip my spell through his movements; a thick bolt of lightning shot out of my hands and split, hitting the inquisitors, the archers and nearby soldiers. However, its main target was the mammoth , which trumpeted in agony as a chunk of its woolen hide sizzled and blackened and then it collapsed to the ground again. Following on almost as if he had been expecting it, Drudge shot several arrows into the beast, this time making sure of its demise.
The enemy inquisitor turned his mask towards me and screamed:
“Get that dwarf! I will make sure his screams will power the Scourge for years!”
All the archers turned their attention to me and clouds of arrows flew in my direction…….
I came to as John was using his wand on me. I felt awful. The rogue was still carefully extracting arrows from my torso, a process which hurt more than I can describe. As soon as he extracted each one, he tapped the wound with a wand, which did soothe the pain slightly; as he was doing this, I saw that all the enemy had fallen. There were bodies lying everywhere; there must have been fifty or more; the chief inquisitor, the one who wanted to give me to the Scourge, was lying quite close and as John was healing me, I cast a little cantrip to see if any of his equipment was magical. Well, that was an understatement; his armour, his gloves, several items of jewellery as well as the mask of course; oh, and like Longhelim and Victor, he had a small jewel flying around his head. It was a rose spindle, so we were fairly certain what it did.
Idly I looked around and saw that there were many other magical pieces of equipment present on the soldiers, mostly armour and weapons although all the archers also had magical gloves. I pointed this out to the others and Longhelim said:
“The Inquisitor is nearby and most of his magical items are small so we should certainly get them off him but the others are very far away and we cannot carry the armour and weapons; we need to get inside the cave and blind the Eye.”
So, while the others were still being healed, I moved to the Inquisitor and began to take the jewelry. As I moved towards him, my eyes also went to the entrance of the cave and noted that there was an area of powerful magic just at the entrance.
“John, if you’re planning to go into the cave, there’s a batch of magic just about the entrance; watch yourself!”
The rogue acknowledged the warning and continued to help with the healing. Once I took all the pieces from the Inquisitor, I returned and was also still tapped a couple of times to heal me completely. Felix was looking concerned:
“We’re going through these wands quicker than I had anticipated. We’ll have to try to avoid getting hurt so much.”
The two warriors looked at him disbelievingly.
Then Longhelim stood up and said:
“Come, we have to go into the cave. I’m sure that there are more Ragesians inside but at least we’ve got through the initial guards.”
That moment, there was an odd noise emanating from Longhelim, who looked puzzled at first and then he stuck his shield in the snow and took out the Mask of Pilus, which began to speak:
“Your presence has been noted; a large force has left the fortress and is on its way to the Eye; you have a little time but hurry. They will be there quicker than you think!”
carborundum
Adventurer
Wow, that was a heck of a fight! And it was "only" the front door guards. Sound like half the buffs and powerful spells have been used up already, this will be a tough mission!
P.S.: yes, sorry, drow war from Mongoose. Got distracted due to new baby here
P.S.: yes, sorry, drow war from Mongoose. Got distracted due to new baby here
After that the mask fell silent. We formed up in front of the cave and then John went forward. He was very careful around the entrance, examining it quite thoroughly; a little while later, there was a very loud noise and then John ran back, sporting a large bruise on his forearm.
“There is a long narrow shaft leading down into the depths but there is a walkway with handholds next to it; those not wearing armour should be all right.”
He turned to the warriors:
“If you are wearing heavy armour I would have been worried but both of you have those magical boots which should allow you to walk on the ice. There is also a magical wall across the entrance but it is made of sound. That was the noise you heard; I got too close it. It hurt.”
He frowned, obviously puzzled:
“Faden, how can you make a wall of sound?”
I thought about it:
“Well, theoretically…….”
Longhelim interrupted:
“Both of you! Please not now! What’s far more important is, can you get rid of it?”
To John, I said:
“It’s powerful magic.”
Turning to Longhelim, I said:
“Yes; but I suggest that we cast a few spells on ourselves first. Whoever is in charge here will be down at the bottom of that pit. I can put my usual defence on the warriors; the one that gives them protection against weapons. There are also a few other things I can do.”
John added:
“Yes, I’ll also put a spell on Victor; it will protect him against mental compulsion and manipulation and it’ll protect people around him as well. I will also put a spell on Drudge which will allow him to walk on air; much better for him as an archer.”
“I’ll put that spell on you as well, John,” added Felix. “There are likely to be any number of traps on the way down there and walking on air will help you search for them.”
Thus bolstered, I then turned to Felix, but the priest was already ahead of me and was taking out some spell components. He took out a small pebble and taking a few moments to enchant it, suddenly the whole area went quiet around us. He had read my mind.
John went ahead of us as we entered into the cave and had a better look at the walkway and the shaft leading down at a steep angle. It was a deep, dark, opening lined with ice, almost like a child’s slide, except that I did not want to think about what was waiting at the bottom. As described there was a walkway by its side with hand holds designed to ease descent; despite these, it was still very dangerous and for someone who was not trained, it was going to be extremely difficult to keep their feet; something I proved almost immediately as I slipped and almost tumbled down the walkway; the only thing that saved me was the rope that we had wisely tied between Longhelim and myself. John was laughing for all he was worth, but silently within his magic pebble; I shot him a dirty look. He just pirouetted in mid air and then carefully moved forward again.
We all followed him down carefully but then we saw that John stiffened and seemed to be completely still. Fortunately, we had also tied a rope around him and thus reeled him back to us, to find that that he was still and motionless. I examined him and determined that he would return to us in moments but then shuddered at the unpleasantness of the trap: someone carefully making their way down the walkway, suddenly rendered motionless by a magical trap and moments later sent tumbling helplessly down the shaft.
John came to as predicted and explained:
“There’s a magical symbol down further down. I only caught a glimpse of it but that’s all you need for that kind of magic. It’s spent most of its strength now that I have been affected but I dread to think just how more of them have been cast on this walkway. We need someone or something to set them off.”
Drudge immediately began rummaging in his pack:
“I have just the thing,” he said as he took out his little figurine of a bear.
Of course! It was such a clever idea.
Felix was also grinning and it was obvious that there was some mind to mind conversation going on as Drudge was saying something to the bear and then the creature stepped on to the shaft and literally slid down the ice into the darkness, once another spell of silent magic was cast on one of its paws.
I thought that should affect any symbols quite efficiently. We followed up fairly carefully but with the exception that Longhelim was now carrying me; it may have been far less dignified but it was far safer.
Ultimately, the walkway was not as steep as we thought and we arrived at the bottom. The shaft led to a narrow cave with walls made of ice, a light sprinkling of snow on the floor and a small patch of ice at the far end. The whole area was glowing and as we arrived, an apparition became visible above the small patch of ice. It was that of an old man, with a skull mask of a bear, so old and yellowed that for a moment it was almost impossible to discern the difference between the bear skull and his face. He probably slept with that thing on his head.
He began to talk. Unfortunately, it was impossible for us to hear him as we were still within a magical silence. He stopped and then began to talk again. Mentally, I asked Longhelim:
“What’s he saying?”
“I don’t know but I think he’s probably threatening us; in a very dramatic manner.”
Then, his face twisting in frustration as if he realised that we couldn’t hear what he was saying, he made a dramatic gesture with his hand and two huge frost worms erupted from the ice walls on either side of the cave. Simultaneously, from the floor, the ice erupted again and another figure flew up towards the ceiling. It was a huge insect but one that seemed humanoid. A gelugon! Or more commonly known as an ice devil! They were one of the most powerful creatures from the Nine Hells, usually commanding large armies of lesser devils. This one also had several spells already cast on it, such as flying and the same protective spell against weapons as Victor and Longhelim.
So, two frost worms, an ice devil and an inquisitor, probably Kreven or his shade. I did not like our odds, especially as we had just gone through a very tough battle. The first thing the ice devil did was to cast a spell; a storm of ice, wind and snow crashed on top of us, causing a certain amount of hurt.
Almost as if that was a signal, suddenly the walls disappeared making the cave far bigger, the floor lost its dusting of snow, the small patch of ice suddenly occupied almost a third of the newly revealed cave and several other figures were discernible at the other end of the cave. The new players were a blond woman, who wore a cape and tight trousers and carried a staff; her attire identified her as a member of the Wayfarer’s Guild; so, most likely Kreven’s wife, Koren; there was also an orc warrior, wearing red armour with spikes and wielding a large war hammer. There was a pair of humanoids, they may even have been human at one point but their muscles and tendons were completely distorted, stretched and dislocated to such an extent that the figures were inhumanly distended, giving them the look of one of those biomancy experiments gone horribly wrong.
I also caught a glimpse of something huge, dark and with tentacles swimming under the ice.
Finally, there was a pair of dogs; not just any dogs of course; these I also recognized. They were Nessian war hounds, the size of horses, with red, maleficent eyes and mouths which produced small trickles of smoke; more denizens from the hells; and they were racing towards us, as were all the others, with the exception of the Wayfarer, who was staying at the back, casting spells and one of the humanoids, who was staring intently at Victor.
So suddenly from facing three very powerful opponents, we were now in a crowd. This did not look good. Spells flew at us. Kreven cast a spell at us which I recognized as a spell which affected the mind, making the victims far more susceptible to other spells. Then he also cast his famous signature spell and to my horror, Drudge’s left arm was severed! The ranger looked at his arm in stupefaction at first and then with growing rage and horror as he realised that not only did he now have a stump at his shoulder but that his primary weapon now lay on the ground clutched in the fist of his severed limb.
Longhelim moved forward to the first worm, quickly joined by Victor who also managed to land a huge slash against it. Felix moved forward, out of the area of magical silence and a column of fire was cast on the strange distended humanoid.
I waited until John put the pebble with the silence in his pocket and then I managed began to cast my spell as a duelist. I wasn’t sure if there was anyone there who could counter it but I realised that I had to get into the habit of casting my spells in this manner every single time since the Ragesians were master counter spellers.
Despite the unevenness of the floor and the fact that I almost fell to the ground, I managed to get my spell through; a cloud of acidic flog appeared on top of the hounds, one of the distended creatures and the other of the frost worms. At least it held them for a few moments.
It was a good thing I had disguised my casting; amazingly, I had seen the orc in spiked plate mail watching me avidly and attempting to block my casting. The research the Ragesians had done into counter spelling was quite extraordinary; now it looked as if even their warriors had an ability to block spells.
More magic flew in. The dire bear became paralysed; and the frost worm being attacked by the warriors slithered back, opened its mouth emitted a blast of freezing cold air which froze our blood. John managed to get out of the way but the rest of us, especially the warriors suffered badly. Despite these new wounds, Longhelim shook himself free of this disgusting icy saliva and with great presence of mind smashed the torch with its flaming axe head deep into its open mouth and down its gullet, producing a huge explosion as the worm literally blew apart, shards of bone, ice, flesh and teeth flying in all directions, affecting not just us but everyone else in the cave, including the enemy. It also blew away my acidic cloud but left many of the creatures facing bleeding and staggering.
As this happened, Longhelim shouted:
“That devil is trying to tempt me!”
I had no idea what he meant but then had to ignore that shout as another wave of spells flew at us, this time a spell of mental compulsion; fortunately we were warded against this magic in various ways; this was a great help as Victor’s resistance had been greatly weakened against compulsion magic by Kreven’s previous spell.
The two devil dogs moved forward and attacked Felix; the priest had already been wounded by the explosion of the first worm but thankfully both the dogs bit his shield or armour. Victor sped towards the other worm. It was already being faced by the bear who could not move so, coiling back, it opened its maw and a blast of freezing air, saliva and shards of ice erupted from its innards; I was just out of its way but poor Felix was not and he went down in the hail of ice, his body bursting into flame as usual. Victor was also hurt but Drudge somehow dodged it. That changed my next course of action and I cast a spell which would protect me against the cold. I had also been badly hurt by the flying maelstrom of ice.
Despite this, Drudge moved towards the worm, rapier at the ready; he must have been in incredible pain due to his severed arm but he was certainly game. Then disaster struck as Victor suddenly was caught in the gaze of one of those strange humanoids with distorted features; they had been concentrating on him with an intensity that was terrifying and whatever they were doing, it had finally worked; he stopped and was completely still, even dropping his falchion although thankfully, his shield remained defending him magically. The other of those humanoids now loped towards him.
John managed to get next to Felix and tapped him with a wand, rousing the priest. Just as he did so, I managed to cast a spell of speed on everyone. Koren the Wayfarer cast various spells including one of which stripped magic; John immediately moved to tap Victor on his shoulder; I only caught a glimpse of the spell he cast but I saw that it was of a protective nature. The stretched humanoid continued jumping at the warrior with razor claws at Victor; the other kept staring at him from a distance, keeping him in a stupor.
In the meantime, the orc in the strange red armour finally reached the battlefield and the first thing he did was to point his hand and shoot a ray of fire at Longhelim; it was black flame, reeking of evil and foulness. I could smell it even from my position. Longhelim had been defending Felix while the priest readied another scroll which he managed to cast; I felt another bolt of healing magic so powerful I gasped and then determined my next course of action.
Suddenly, John ran forward through the battle, dodging and swerving, past the worm, the red orc and the devil hounds, aiming at the Wayfarer.
Unfortunately, it was too late for me to stop my action and a long and powerful wall of flame dropped on the worm and on the orc. The latter seemed unharmed but the worm exploded in another huge flash and again striking everyone in the cavern. This hurt one of the devil dogs badly and sent the other back to whatever hell it had come from. It also hurt everyone else in the cavern to a greater or lesser degree. Felix fell down and burst into flame yet again.
The only unaffected one was John and the Wayfarer. It also affectively set a barrier in the cave and Victor seemed to finally shake off his torpor, the gaze of the humanoid now blocked by the fire. The warrior shook himself free from the stretched humanoid and then stepped back and drew another sword.
The old man above the ice was casting spells repeatedly, aiming them at Victor; judging by the moments of his arms and the stance of his casting, I recognized that he was casting the same spell which had proved to be so devastating against Drudge; thankfully, although the warrior was obviously suffering, he was also resisting the most powerful effect of the spell. Thus, all of his Victor’s limbs were still attached to his body.
I stepped forward only to notice that I had stepped into a magical silence spell; at this point, I wasn’t even sure who put it there; nevertheless, I moved in, ready to help Felix with a potion only for me to be suddenly trapped within a small igloo; the ice devil had put it around me. Thankfully, that meant that the magical silence had been negated within and I was able to cast a short distance transport spell out of it.
“There is a long narrow shaft leading down into the depths but there is a walkway with handholds next to it; those not wearing armour should be all right.”
He turned to the warriors:
“If you are wearing heavy armour I would have been worried but both of you have those magical boots which should allow you to walk on the ice. There is also a magical wall across the entrance but it is made of sound. That was the noise you heard; I got too close it. It hurt.”
He frowned, obviously puzzled:
“Faden, how can you make a wall of sound?”
I thought about it:
“Well, theoretically…….”
Longhelim interrupted:
“Both of you! Please not now! What’s far more important is, can you get rid of it?”
To John, I said:
“It’s powerful magic.”
Turning to Longhelim, I said:
“Yes; but I suggest that we cast a few spells on ourselves first. Whoever is in charge here will be down at the bottom of that pit. I can put my usual defence on the warriors; the one that gives them protection against weapons. There are also a few other things I can do.”
John added:
“Yes, I’ll also put a spell on Victor; it will protect him against mental compulsion and manipulation and it’ll protect people around him as well. I will also put a spell on Drudge which will allow him to walk on air; much better for him as an archer.”
“I’ll put that spell on you as well, John,” added Felix. “There are likely to be any number of traps on the way down there and walking on air will help you search for them.”
Thus bolstered, I then turned to Felix, but the priest was already ahead of me and was taking out some spell components. He took out a small pebble and taking a few moments to enchant it, suddenly the whole area went quiet around us. He had read my mind.
John went ahead of us as we entered into the cave and had a better look at the walkway and the shaft leading down at a steep angle. It was a deep, dark, opening lined with ice, almost like a child’s slide, except that I did not want to think about what was waiting at the bottom. As described there was a walkway by its side with hand holds designed to ease descent; despite these, it was still very dangerous and for someone who was not trained, it was going to be extremely difficult to keep their feet; something I proved almost immediately as I slipped and almost tumbled down the walkway; the only thing that saved me was the rope that we had wisely tied between Longhelim and myself. John was laughing for all he was worth, but silently within his magic pebble; I shot him a dirty look. He just pirouetted in mid air and then carefully moved forward again.
We all followed him down carefully but then we saw that John stiffened and seemed to be completely still. Fortunately, we had also tied a rope around him and thus reeled him back to us, to find that that he was still and motionless. I examined him and determined that he would return to us in moments but then shuddered at the unpleasantness of the trap: someone carefully making their way down the walkway, suddenly rendered motionless by a magical trap and moments later sent tumbling helplessly down the shaft.
John came to as predicted and explained:
“There’s a magical symbol down further down. I only caught a glimpse of it but that’s all you need for that kind of magic. It’s spent most of its strength now that I have been affected but I dread to think just how more of them have been cast on this walkway. We need someone or something to set them off.”
Drudge immediately began rummaging in his pack:
“I have just the thing,” he said as he took out his little figurine of a bear.
Of course! It was such a clever idea.
Felix was also grinning and it was obvious that there was some mind to mind conversation going on as Drudge was saying something to the bear and then the creature stepped on to the shaft and literally slid down the ice into the darkness, once another spell of silent magic was cast on one of its paws.
I thought that should affect any symbols quite efficiently. We followed up fairly carefully but with the exception that Longhelim was now carrying me; it may have been far less dignified but it was far safer.
Ultimately, the walkway was not as steep as we thought and we arrived at the bottom. The shaft led to a narrow cave with walls made of ice, a light sprinkling of snow on the floor and a small patch of ice at the far end. The whole area was glowing and as we arrived, an apparition became visible above the small patch of ice. It was that of an old man, with a skull mask of a bear, so old and yellowed that for a moment it was almost impossible to discern the difference between the bear skull and his face. He probably slept with that thing on his head.
He began to talk. Unfortunately, it was impossible for us to hear him as we were still within a magical silence. He stopped and then began to talk again. Mentally, I asked Longhelim:
“What’s he saying?”
“I don’t know but I think he’s probably threatening us; in a very dramatic manner.”
Then, his face twisting in frustration as if he realised that we couldn’t hear what he was saying, he made a dramatic gesture with his hand and two huge frost worms erupted from the ice walls on either side of the cave. Simultaneously, from the floor, the ice erupted again and another figure flew up towards the ceiling. It was a huge insect but one that seemed humanoid. A gelugon! Or more commonly known as an ice devil! They were one of the most powerful creatures from the Nine Hells, usually commanding large armies of lesser devils. This one also had several spells already cast on it, such as flying and the same protective spell against weapons as Victor and Longhelim.
So, two frost worms, an ice devil and an inquisitor, probably Kreven or his shade. I did not like our odds, especially as we had just gone through a very tough battle. The first thing the ice devil did was to cast a spell; a storm of ice, wind and snow crashed on top of us, causing a certain amount of hurt.
Almost as if that was a signal, suddenly the walls disappeared making the cave far bigger, the floor lost its dusting of snow, the small patch of ice suddenly occupied almost a third of the newly revealed cave and several other figures were discernible at the other end of the cave. The new players were a blond woman, who wore a cape and tight trousers and carried a staff; her attire identified her as a member of the Wayfarer’s Guild; so, most likely Kreven’s wife, Koren; there was also an orc warrior, wearing red armour with spikes and wielding a large war hammer. There was a pair of humanoids, they may even have been human at one point but their muscles and tendons were completely distorted, stretched and dislocated to such an extent that the figures were inhumanly distended, giving them the look of one of those biomancy experiments gone horribly wrong.
I also caught a glimpse of something huge, dark and with tentacles swimming under the ice.
Finally, there was a pair of dogs; not just any dogs of course; these I also recognized. They were Nessian war hounds, the size of horses, with red, maleficent eyes and mouths which produced small trickles of smoke; more denizens from the hells; and they were racing towards us, as were all the others, with the exception of the Wayfarer, who was staying at the back, casting spells and one of the humanoids, who was staring intently at Victor.
So suddenly from facing three very powerful opponents, we were now in a crowd. This did not look good. Spells flew at us. Kreven cast a spell at us which I recognized as a spell which affected the mind, making the victims far more susceptible to other spells. Then he also cast his famous signature spell and to my horror, Drudge’s left arm was severed! The ranger looked at his arm in stupefaction at first and then with growing rage and horror as he realised that not only did he now have a stump at his shoulder but that his primary weapon now lay on the ground clutched in the fist of his severed limb.
Longhelim moved forward to the first worm, quickly joined by Victor who also managed to land a huge slash against it. Felix moved forward, out of the area of magical silence and a column of fire was cast on the strange distended humanoid.
I waited until John put the pebble with the silence in his pocket and then I managed began to cast my spell as a duelist. I wasn’t sure if there was anyone there who could counter it but I realised that I had to get into the habit of casting my spells in this manner every single time since the Ragesians were master counter spellers.
Despite the unevenness of the floor and the fact that I almost fell to the ground, I managed to get my spell through; a cloud of acidic flog appeared on top of the hounds, one of the distended creatures and the other of the frost worms. At least it held them for a few moments.
It was a good thing I had disguised my casting; amazingly, I had seen the orc in spiked plate mail watching me avidly and attempting to block my casting. The research the Ragesians had done into counter spelling was quite extraordinary; now it looked as if even their warriors had an ability to block spells.
More magic flew in. The dire bear became paralysed; and the frost worm being attacked by the warriors slithered back, opened its mouth emitted a blast of freezing cold air which froze our blood. John managed to get out of the way but the rest of us, especially the warriors suffered badly. Despite these new wounds, Longhelim shook himself free of this disgusting icy saliva and with great presence of mind smashed the torch with its flaming axe head deep into its open mouth and down its gullet, producing a huge explosion as the worm literally blew apart, shards of bone, ice, flesh and teeth flying in all directions, affecting not just us but everyone else in the cave, including the enemy. It also blew away my acidic cloud but left many of the creatures facing bleeding and staggering.
As this happened, Longhelim shouted:
“That devil is trying to tempt me!”
I had no idea what he meant but then had to ignore that shout as another wave of spells flew at us, this time a spell of mental compulsion; fortunately we were warded against this magic in various ways; this was a great help as Victor’s resistance had been greatly weakened against compulsion magic by Kreven’s previous spell.
The two devil dogs moved forward and attacked Felix; the priest had already been wounded by the explosion of the first worm but thankfully both the dogs bit his shield or armour. Victor sped towards the other worm. It was already being faced by the bear who could not move so, coiling back, it opened its maw and a blast of freezing air, saliva and shards of ice erupted from its innards; I was just out of its way but poor Felix was not and he went down in the hail of ice, his body bursting into flame as usual. Victor was also hurt but Drudge somehow dodged it. That changed my next course of action and I cast a spell which would protect me against the cold. I had also been badly hurt by the flying maelstrom of ice.
Despite this, Drudge moved towards the worm, rapier at the ready; he must have been in incredible pain due to his severed arm but he was certainly game. Then disaster struck as Victor suddenly was caught in the gaze of one of those strange humanoids with distorted features; they had been concentrating on him with an intensity that was terrifying and whatever they were doing, it had finally worked; he stopped and was completely still, even dropping his falchion although thankfully, his shield remained defending him magically. The other of those humanoids now loped towards him.
John managed to get next to Felix and tapped him with a wand, rousing the priest. Just as he did so, I managed to cast a spell of speed on everyone. Koren the Wayfarer cast various spells including one of which stripped magic; John immediately moved to tap Victor on his shoulder; I only caught a glimpse of the spell he cast but I saw that it was of a protective nature. The stretched humanoid continued jumping at the warrior with razor claws at Victor; the other kept staring at him from a distance, keeping him in a stupor.
In the meantime, the orc in the strange red armour finally reached the battlefield and the first thing he did was to point his hand and shoot a ray of fire at Longhelim; it was black flame, reeking of evil and foulness. I could smell it even from my position. Longhelim had been defending Felix while the priest readied another scroll which he managed to cast; I felt another bolt of healing magic so powerful I gasped and then determined my next course of action.
Suddenly, John ran forward through the battle, dodging and swerving, past the worm, the red orc and the devil hounds, aiming at the Wayfarer.
Unfortunately, it was too late for me to stop my action and a long and powerful wall of flame dropped on the worm and on the orc. The latter seemed unharmed but the worm exploded in another huge flash and again striking everyone in the cavern. This hurt one of the devil dogs badly and sent the other back to whatever hell it had come from. It also hurt everyone else in the cavern to a greater or lesser degree. Felix fell down and burst into flame yet again.
The only unaffected one was John and the Wayfarer. It also affectively set a barrier in the cave and Victor seemed to finally shake off his torpor, the gaze of the humanoid now blocked by the fire. The warrior shook himself free from the stretched humanoid and then stepped back and drew another sword.
The old man above the ice was casting spells repeatedly, aiming them at Victor; judging by the moments of his arms and the stance of his casting, I recognized that he was casting the same spell which had proved to be so devastating against Drudge; thankfully, although the warrior was obviously suffering, he was also resisting the most powerful effect of the spell. Thus, all of his Victor’s limbs were still attached to his body.
I stepped forward only to notice that I had stepped into a magical silence spell; at this point, I wasn’t even sure who put it there; nevertheless, I moved in, ready to help Felix with a potion only for me to be suddenly trapped within a small igloo; the ice devil had put it around me. Thankfully, that meant that the magical silence had been negated within and I was able to cast a short distance transport spell out of it.
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Wow, just wow! This seems to be one of the hardest adventures I've ever seen. Kudos to Mr. Anderson for devising such a sadistic challenge
. BTW, what level are the characters at now? I'm guessing 15th at the least. Great update as always, Cafu!
@carborundum : Weren't you a member of Jolly Doc's troupe? Please tell him I always loved his journals and would really appreciate him returning to the boards at some point. Alternatively, you could also provide a summary of your group's antics yourself...
. BTW, what level are the characters at now? I'm guessing 15th at the least. Great update as always, Cafu!@carborundum : Weren't you a member of Jolly Doc's troupe? Please tell him I always loved his journals and would really appreciate him returning to the boards at some point. Alternatively, you could also provide a summary of your group's antics yourself...
RangerWickett
Legend
My friend Jeremy Anderson recently completed this Kickstarter for a boardgame, if you're interested in more of his work. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gamesalute/shadowrift-archfiends
carborundum
Adventurer
@carborundum : Weren't you a member of Jolly Doc's troupe? Please tell him I always loved his journals and would really appreciate him returning to the boards at some point. Alternatively, you could also provide a summary of your group's antics yourself...
Hey Azkorra,
I was just a fairly regular poster in the JD Story Hours - as a fan. I haven't heard anything from him/ them in a long time. Time to go investogating, methinks!
As I came out, the situation was just as desperate as it had been before I was trapped except that now Longhelim was beside Felix and the other devil hound was gone; and I couldn’t even see John as he was beyond the wall of flame although the orc in red armour had gone back through it so he must have been doing something threatening.
Victor was bleeding badly and staggering as he faced the distorted humanoid while Drudge, with his one arm, was skewering the creature with his rapier. Poor Victor looked as he had been pummeled by spells, teeth, claws and swords but even in his state, he drew his other falchion and stepped forward. Drudge had just withdrawn his rapier when the warrior used his falchion with a precise cut and finally the humanoid fell over.
As I was watching this I almost missed the fact that the Gelugon had flown over the wall and landed on the ground, where he had bent over, scooping up some shiny objects. I squinted at them; I could have sworn that they had not been there before and I really wasn’t sure what the ice devil was doing, but simultaneously, I really didn’t want to draw its attention so, leaving it alone, I went to the prone Felix and poured a healing potion down his throat.
The priest stirred and opened his mouth, trying to say something but no sound came out; he grimaced, as if just remembering that he was in a magical silence spell. Longhelim was next to the priest, watching over him. Drudge sprang forward, skewering the Gelugon, only for the rapier to bend against the creature’s skin in an almost comical manner. The Gelugon just ignored the ranger and continued scoop the shining objects; Drudge looked disgusted and retreated.
At this point, I could not tell what was happening on the other side of the wall of flame but the fact that the orc warrior was not coming through to attack us suggested some success from John at keeping the enemy busy on the other side. Kreven’s apparition cast a spell at me and a bolt of electricity flew coruscatingly out of his hand and hit me; I did manage to dodge just in the nick of time and thus did not take the full brunt of it but it still hurt enormously and left a blackened, smoking patch on my ribs. The bolt then split and hit Felix and Victor, also hurting them both badly. In fact, the latter fell over, a burning body, with even more smoke than usual rising over him.
Despite this spell, Felix managed to get up on his feet and scrambled out of the magical silence, quickly followed by myself. Mysteriously, Longhelim had been left untouched by the bolts. The priest scrambled a scroll out of his magical pack and suddenly, we all felt hugely better. Victor stopped burning and began to get up, only to be enveloped by a strange flashing set of lights which seemed to absorb all of his attention. He stopped doing anything and began to stare at them; or stare at them until another ice igloo enveloped him this time.
I saw that the apparition of Kreven had flown much closer to us and wondered what new deviltry it was planning when I saw it casting a spell at Victor; it was the usual magic dissolving spell which had proved so effective against us. Then, Felix flew at the Gelugon and touched him; I stared in disbelief as, against all odds, the ice devil disappeared; even more oddly, I could have sworn I saw the outsider nod at the priest, as if acknowledging something. Well, however odd that may have seemed, there was no denying the truth of the situation which was that the ice devil had gone and moments later, I realised that the Kreven apparition had also disappeared; the two must have been linked somehow.
However, at that point, my attention was suddenly grabbed by the enormous tentacle that had risen out of the ice as if the solid cap wasn’t even there. It smacked Longhelim across the chest, causing the paladin to stumble and almost fall. I cast a green ray at the ice and it destroyed the cap above it but left the creature unharmed. It allowed us to see a mass of swirling tentacles and three separate eyes before it scuttled back under the ice.
Victor rushed up to stand beside Longhelim but the paladin shouted:
“Go through the flame wall Victor; we can’t fight this thing while it’s hiding beneath the ice; just get out of its reach.”
Felix had already flown over the wall and then Victor just walked through the wall; as if to confirm what Longhelim had shouted, as he was leaving, a tentacle snaked out and brushed the warrior; Victor clutched his leg and looked at a tear in his clothing, as if staring at the wound; something had obviously happened that he was not expecting; then he walked through the wall.
I braced myself, waiting for the tentacle to appear. I took out a scroll and readied it; I was going to cast one of those spells at the tentacle if it made another appearance. Thankfully, Longhelim then also went through the wall, without any interference from the tentacle, which left just me behind the wall.
I waited. There was no point in going through the wall. I had very few spells left and even those I was carefully husbanding for future conflicts. I was very aware that this was just the first stage of the plan. Blinding the eye was essential but not the point of our assault on the valley. I could hear shouts from behind the wall of flame but the creature with the tentacles had disappeared, no doubt licking its wounds under the ice. Suddenly, a swirl of bright lights began dancing in front of my eyes but I managed to ignore their magical attraction, staring at the fire of the wall instead. That seemed to aid my concentration.
Finally, the wall of flame ceased and I saw that there was no sign of the enemy beyond. There was a corpse of one of the distorted creatures at the far end of the cave. Victor was just picking up his falchion from the ground and Drudge was still wielding his rapier one handed. Longhelim looked badly hurt; surprisingly, the others less so. There seemed to be a lull in the combat at the moment.
I saw that John was on possession of a large hammer that he was in the process of stuffing into his magical sack.
John, Felix and Longhelim all began heal everyone with wands; one disturbing aspect ice cap on the lake became apparent at this point: although the area where my wall flame had been and also emitted heat had been melted, the area of ice that had been destroyed by my spell was now restored. It seemed as if the monster under the ice was also able to somehow repair any damage done to the Eye. He was not only its guardian but also its maintainer and only the gods know what else.
Longhelim looked at the lake distantly. It was very blurred but now that we knew what to look for, we could just about see the dark mass of the creature below the ice as it lurked at the far side of the cavern.
“What now?” asked the paladin, “there is no way we can get at the creature.”
Victor replied quietly, striding forward at the same time:
“No, but we can get at the ice. If we begin smashing the Eye, it may react; if not then we will smash the ice and at least delay their visions. I don’t know how long it will take it to repair the whole lake but that could be a lengthy task even for something like that.”
Longhelim nodded, moved forward and reached the shore of the ice quicker than Victor as he had been closer. He took a huge swing and brought his flaming Torch with a resounding crash onto the surface. The ice did not break but it certainly cracked and more importantly, it evoked an immediate reaction from the creature which could be seen moving towards the warriors.
The rest of us stared in fascination at the two warriors as they began to smash their way through the ice along the shore; however, a moment later I cleared my throat and spoke to Felix:
“I will keep watch but I think that Drudge would really appreciate getting his arm back now.”
The priest started a little and then nodded:
“Drudge, come with me.”
Both of them retired behind a rock, Felix took out a scroll and began casting the spell; it was going to be a complicated and delicate piece of magic. He had to get just right, otherwise poor Drudge was going to remain a one armed archer.
I turned my attention back to lake shore where the warriors were still smashing the ice around the edge. The enemy was trying to do something; although I could not see anything, the air was humming with magic; yet whatever it was attempting to do, it was having little effect as the warriors continued to smash the Eye in a systematic way.
This continued in a little while and I was glad to see Felix and Drudge step out from behind the rock; the latter now had both arms, thankfully. Simultaneously, four tentacles erupted out of the ice and smashed into Longhelim. They caught him badly, just as he was off balance, recovering from another mighty smash into the ice; one of them crashed into the side of the head and I saw blood begin pouring out of his ear. The others all struck his body, whirling him around uncontrollably.
Felix ran forward to the paladin, but as he did, a tentacle sliced out of the ice and clouted him badly across the body. The priest staggered but carried on.
An arrow went straight into the tentacle and stuck in its rubbery flesh; then Victor moved and sliced at one of the tentacles so efficiently and with such power that I could see that it had almost been severed; not quite, but almost.
That caused the creature to change its target and re double its efforts. The tentacles erupted out of the ice again, this time at Victor but there was a wildness to their attacks this time, almost a lack of precision; I wondered what had happened; not that Victor minded; he managed to dodge one of the attacks completely and although the other three struck him, he held firm an set himself; then, lightly, he stepped onto the ice, using his magic boots for surety and in a series of moves and steps and he sliced and cut his way through all the tentacles with such speed, accuracy and strength that he severed two of them completely and the other two flopped onto the ice and became inert, before sliding slowly back through the ice, obviously now part of a deceased creature which was floating to the bottom of the lake. Victor held his position of readiness for a few moments and then sliced his falchion through the air, spraying a thin stream of some dark liquid from the blade; finally he stepped off the ice and walked to Longhelim.
The paladin nodded gravely, whereupon both of them moved to the far end of the frozen lake and began to systematically destroy the ice. I just hoped that the creature was the only one that was able to repair the magical ice.
As they were doing this, I moved to John:
“What happened while I was on the other side of the fire wall? Last time I saw, there was the orc in red armour, the Wayfarer, presumably the wife and the humanoid. I can only see the humanoid now.”
John grinned:
“It was a little hairy at times; I was up there when ugly over there grabbed me;”
He pointed to the far end of the cave and then continued:
“I managed to slip away and we were playing tag for a little while until Drudge came through. He evened things up a bit but then the orc arrived and things got messy again. I managed to keep away from them and he was a bit hurt from before so that witch was healing him up a bit. Reinforcements arrived a bit later, with first Victor and then Longhelim appearing. They came through the wall and Victor got in between me and the orc. Drudge was in the melee as well; he’s far handier with that rapier than one would think. Anyway, Victor then showed us a new party trick; somehow, he twisted with his sword and suddenly the orc had his huge hammer pulled out of his hands; I’ve never seen anything like it. The orc just dropped it! He was so mad! He almost bent down to pick it up but then thought the better of it and began to punch everyone but by that point Victor smacked him again and he was on his last legs; that’s when that infernal bint ran up and touched him; they both disappeared, back to the fortress no doubt. We almost had him!”
John then frowned:
“Ugly then began to use that power of theirs on Victor, who seems to be very vulnerable to it. Longhelim ran up and smacked him one; that’s all it took really but it’s something to bear in mind though, if we ever meet any of them again. Victor is very susceptible to them.”
I nodded absently. I was not sure how to help the warrior but I had one or two ideas.
The warriors were still chopping away and Felix and John were taking advantage of this to heal everyone else. That being done, we gave the cave a cursory search which revealed little else.
Finally, the warriors were done and the lake was now water with bits of ice broken ice all over it. The two warriors looked over at it grimly and then Longhelim said:
“Well, that’s the best we can do for now. Let’s go up and out.”
We still had to smash our way through the gelugon’s ice wall and that was also a little painful but Felix managed to heal everyone on the way up.
When we reached the top, I asked:
“So, what now? The army from the fortress is on its way. Do we go to the fortress now?”
Longhelim was reaching inside his magical bag.
“Ultimately yes, but we have to do something first.”
With that, he pulled out the mask of Pilus and engaged its magic. As before, it took on a vague resemblance of Pilus’s visage and a voice came out of it:
“Greetings and congratulations! You have survived again! So, what has happened? I see many, many Ragesian dead around you. Tell me all but quickly. The enemy forces are already moving towards you. You have a little time but……”
Longhelim gave him a very shortened version of what and whom we had faced and how we had overcome them.
The mask seemed to smile:
“Excellent! Excellent! Now to the next part of the plan! You must go northwest for two miles and then turn. By doing this, you will avoid the vanguard of the enemy army. Their commander has about two thousand soldiers and he has kept the bulk of them together but he has sent out roving patrols. I will guide you past as many of them as I can but there may be situations where you will need to fight your way past some so you can avoid the others. Come, quickly now!”
Urged by the voice of Pilus, we set out and began moving northwest as per his instructions. Then, again at his instructions we began to move north. His instructions rang true as we saw little of the enemy as we moved; which was remarkable in itself. As we had been told, it was a small valley and we were being stalked by a large army. Of course, it didn’t help them that a storm was brewing and visibility was getting less and less. No doubt it was getting bitterly cold and windy, with the wind chill getting particularly bad but we were protected by this; thus it was only the swirling snow that was bothersome.
Still, Victor’s eyes were nothing if not remarkable as he suddenly tensed and pointed something out to Longhelim; I couldn’t see what he was pointing at but the paladin certainly could and in turn, he pointed it out to Drudge; soon everyone but me stood and waited for whoever or whatever was approaching; finally, even I was able to discern a small figure moving towards; it was humanoid and looked fairly incongruous; in fact, it was such a strange figure that I was scratching my head, trying to work out just what was happening.
As it approached, we all became aware that it was a gnome; he was dressed lightly and more interestingly, he looked to be semi transparent.
“There’s no evil!”
This was a whisper from Longhelim.
The figure reached us and stopped.
“I am Ander Folthwaite,” he announced and without waiting, he launched into a long monologue.
It was full of typical gnome bravado, vernacular, slang, swagger and spoken in a very uncouth accent but once we were able to work it out, it seemed to be his story. From what we were able to ascertain, he was caught harboring a magician, somewhere; this mage was on some mission, about which the Ragesians wanted to know. They first attempted to enchant the gnome with magic and failed; they then tortured him in the old fashioned way and failed as well. Finally, they brought him here, intending to feed him to the Scourge; he attempted to fight and escape and got himself killed for his efforts. Then he “took on Death” as he put it and was wondering this valley being pursued by various monsters they sent after him and also listening to a song coming from under the earth.
Towards the end of his tale, he seemed to be solidifying and blood suddenly began to pour out of his body. Actually, it was very reminiscent of the various phantoms and visions we had seen in the Haunted Forest of Ycengled.
It was certainly due to this vision that we were distracted and allowed three of the stretched and distorted humanoids to get so close to us.
We managed a couple of quick spells before they were able to spot us and react; the tundra was still full of swirling snow and freezing winds; our gifts from the Fire Forest helped us again. The actions of the distorted humanoids were unusual; instead of attacking with their devastating ability to stun their enemies with their stares, as soon as they saw us, they scattered!
Despite their lightning reactions, Drudge was even faster; as soon as he saw what was happening, he shouted:
“They’re scouts! After them!”
Victor was bleeding badly and staggering as he faced the distorted humanoid while Drudge, with his one arm, was skewering the creature with his rapier. Poor Victor looked as he had been pummeled by spells, teeth, claws and swords but even in his state, he drew his other falchion and stepped forward. Drudge had just withdrawn his rapier when the warrior used his falchion with a precise cut and finally the humanoid fell over.
As I was watching this I almost missed the fact that the Gelugon had flown over the wall and landed on the ground, where he had bent over, scooping up some shiny objects. I squinted at them; I could have sworn that they had not been there before and I really wasn’t sure what the ice devil was doing, but simultaneously, I really didn’t want to draw its attention so, leaving it alone, I went to the prone Felix and poured a healing potion down his throat.
The priest stirred and opened his mouth, trying to say something but no sound came out; he grimaced, as if just remembering that he was in a magical silence spell. Longhelim was next to the priest, watching over him. Drudge sprang forward, skewering the Gelugon, only for the rapier to bend against the creature’s skin in an almost comical manner. The Gelugon just ignored the ranger and continued scoop the shining objects; Drudge looked disgusted and retreated.
At this point, I could not tell what was happening on the other side of the wall of flame but the fact that the orc warrior was not coming through to attack us suggested some success from John at keeping the enemy busy on the other side. Kreven’s apparition cast a spell at me and a bolt of electricity flew coruscatingly out of his hand and hit me; I did manage to dodge just in the nick of time and thus did not take the full brunt of it but it still hurt enormously and left a blackened, smoking patch on my ribs. The bolt then split and hit Felix and Victor, also hurting them both badly. In fact, the latter fell over, a burning body, with even more smoke than usual rising over him.
Despite this spell, Felix managed to get up on his feet and scrambled out of the magical silence, quickly followed by myself. Mysteriously, Longhelim had been left untouched by the bolts. The priest scrambled a scroll out of his magical pack and suddenly, we all felt hugely better. Victor stopped burning and began to get up, only to be enveloped by a strange flashing set of lights which seemed to absorb all of his attention. He stopped doing anything and began to stare at them; or stare at them until another ice igloo enveloped him this time.
I saw that the apparition of Kreven had flown much closer to us and wondered what new deviltry it was planning when I saw it casting a spell at Victor; it was the usual magic dissolving spell which had proved so effective against us. Then, Felix flew at the Gelugon and touched him; I stared in disbelief as, against all odds, the ice devil disappeared; even more oddly, I could have sworn I saw the outsider nod at the priest, as if acknowledging something. Well, however odd that may have seemed, there was no denying the truth of the situation which was that the ice devil had gone and moments later, I realised that the Kreven apparition had also disappeared; the two must have been linked somehow.
However, at that point, my attention was suddenly grabbed by the enormous tentacle that had risen out of the ice as if the solid cap wasn’t even there. It smacked Longhelim across the chest, causing the paladin to stumble and almost fall. I cast a green ray at the ice and it destroyed the cap above it but left the creature unharmed. It allowed us to see a mass of swirling tentacles and three separate eyes before it scuttled back under the ice.
Victor rushed up to stand beside Longhelim but the paladin shouted:
“Go through the flame wall Victor; we can’t fight this thing while it’s hiding beneath the ice; just get out of its reach.”
Felix had already flown over the wall and then Victor just walked through the wall; as if to confirm what Longhelim had shouted, as he was leaving, a tentacle snaked out and brushed the warrior; Victor clutched his leg and looked at a tear in his clothing, as if staring at the wound; something had obviously happened that he was not expecting; then he walked through the wall.
I braced myself, waiting for the tentacle to appear. I took out a scroll and readied it; I was going to cast one of those spells at the tentacle if it made another appearance. Thankfully, Longhelim then also went through the wall, without any interference from the tentacle, which left just me behind the wall.
I waited. There was no point in going through the wall. I had very few spells left and even those I was carefully husbanding for future conflicts. I was very aware that this was just the first stage of the plan. Blinding the eye was essential but not the point of our assault on the valley. I could hear shouts from behind the wall of flame but the creature with the tentacles had disappeared, no doubt licking its wounds under the ice. Suddenly, a swirl of bright lights began dancing in front of my eyes but I managed to ignore their magical attraction, staring at the fire of the wall instead. That seemed to aid my concentration.
Finally, the wall of flame ceased and I saw that there was no sign of the enemy beyond. There was a corpse of one of the distorted creatures at the far end of the cave. Victor was just picking up his falchion from the ground and Drudge was still wielding his rapier one handed. Longhelim looked badly hurt; surprisingly, the others less so. There seemed to be a lull in the combat at the moment.
I saw that John was on possession of a large hammer that he was in the process of stuffing into his magical sack.
John, Felix and Longhelim all began heal everyone with wands; one disturbing aspect ice cap on the lake became apparent at this point: although the area where my wall flame had been and also emitted heat had been melted, the area of ice that had been destroyed by my spell was now restored. It seemed as if the monster under the ice was also able to somehow repair any damage done to the Eye. He was not only its guardian but also its maintainer and only the gods know what else.
Longhelim looked at the lake distantly. It was very blurred but now that we knew what to look for, we could just about see the dark mass of the creature below the ice as it lurked at the far side of the cavern.
“What now?” asked the paladin, “there is no way we can get at the creature.”
Victor replied quietly, striding forward at the same time:
“No, but we can get at the ice. If we begin smashing the Eye, it may react; if not then we will smash the ice and at least delay their visions. I don’t know how long it will take it to repair the whole lake but that could be a lengthy task even for something like that.”
Longhelim nodded, moved forward and reached the shore of the ice quicker than Victor as he had been closer. He took a huge swing and brought his flaming Torch with a resounding crash onto the surface. The ice did not break but it certainly cracked and more importantly, it evoked an immediate reaction from the creature which could be seen moving towards the warriors.
The rest of us stared in fascination at the two warriors as they began to smash their way through the ice along the shore; however, a moment later I cleared my throat and spoke to Felix:
“I will keep watch but I think that Drudge would really appreciate getting his arm back now.”
The priest started a little and then nodded:
“Drudge, come with me.”
Both of them retired behind a rock, Felix took out a scroll and began casting the spell; it was going to be a complicated and delicate piece of magic. He had to get just right, otherwise poor Drudge was going to remain a one armed archer.
I turned my attention back to lake shore where the warriors were still smashing the ice around the edge. The enemy was trying to do something; although I could not see anything, the air was humming with magic; yet whatever it was attempting to do, it was having little effect as the warriors continued to smash the Eye in a systematic way.
This continued in a little while and I was glad to see Felix and Drudge step out from behind the rock; the latter now had both arms, thankfully. Simultaneously, four tentacles erupted out of the ice and smashed into Longhelim. They caught him badly, just as he was off balance, recovering from another mighty smash into the ice; one of them crashed into the side of the head and I saw blood begin pouring out of his ear. The others all struck his body, whirling him around uncontrollably.
Felix ran forward to the paladin, but as he did, a tentacle sliced out of the ice and clouted him badly across the body. The priest staggered but carried on.
An arrow went straight into the tentacle and stuck in its rubbery flesh; then Victor moved and sliced at one of the tentacles so efficiently and with such power that I could see that it had almost been severed; not quite, but almost.
That caused the creature to change its target and re double its efforts. The tentacles erupted out of the ice again, this time at Victor but there was a wildness to their attacks this time, almost a lack of precision; I wondered what had happened; not that Victor minded; he managed to dodge one of the attacks completely and although the other three struck him, he held firm an set himself; then, lightly, he stepped onto the ice, using his magic boots for surety and in a series of moves and steps and he sliced and cut his way through all the tentacles with such speed, accuracy and strength that he severed two of them completely and the other two flopped onto the ice and became inert, before sliding slowly back through the ice, obviously now part of a deceased creature which was floating to the bottom of the lake. Victor held his position of readiness for a few moments and then sliced his falchion through the air, spraying a thin stream of some dark liquid from the blade; finally he stepped off the ice and walked to Longhelim.
The paladin nodded gravely, whereupon both of them moved to the far end of the frozen lake and began to systematically destroy the ice. I just hoped that the creature was the only one that was able to repair the magical ice.
As they were doing this, I moved to John:
“What happened while I was on the other side of the fire wall? Last time I saw, there was the orc in red armour, the Wayfarer, presumably the wife and the humanoid. I can only see the humanoid now.”
John grinned:
“It was a little hairy at times; I was up there when ugly over there grabbed me;”
He pointed to the far end of the cave and then continued:
“I managed to slip away and we were playing tag for a little while until Drudge came through. He evened things up a bit but then the orc arrived and things got messy again. I managed to keep away from them and he was a bit hurt from before so that witch was healing him up a bit. Reinforcements arrived a bit later, with first Victor and then Longhelim appearing. They came through the wall and Victor got in between me and the orc. Drudge was in the melee as well; he’s far handier with that rapier than one would think. Anyway, Victor then showed us a new party trick; somehow, he twisted with his sword and suddenly the orc had his huge hammer pulled out of his hands; I’ve never seen anything like it. The orc just dropped it! He was so mad! He almost bent down to pick it up but then thought the better of it and began to punch everyone but by that point Victor smacked him again and he was on his last legs; that’s when that infernal bint ran up and touched him; they both disappeared, back to the fortress no doubt. We almost had him!”
John then frowned:
“Ugly then began to use that power of theirs on Victor, who seems to be very vulnerable to it. Longhelim ran up and smacked him one; that’s all it took really but it’s something to bear in mind though, if we ever meet any of them again. Victor is very susceptible to them.”
I nodded absently. I was not sure how to help the warrior but I had one or two ideas.
The warriors were still chopping away and Felix and John were taking advantage of this to heal everyone else. That being done, we gave the cave a cursory search which revealed little else.
Finally, the warriors were done and the lake was now water with bits of ice broken ice all over it. The two warriors looked over at it grimly and then Longhelim said:
“Well, that’s the best we can do for now. Let’s go up and out.”
We still had to smash our way through the gelugon’s ice wall and that was also a little painful but Felix managed to heal everyone on the way up.
When we reached the top, I asked:
“So, what now? The army from the fortress is on its way. Do we go to the fortress now?”
Longhelim was reaching inside his magical bag.
“Ultimately yes, but we have to do something first.”
With that, he pulled out the mask of Pilus and engaged its magic. As before, it took on a vague resemblance of Pilus’s visage and a voice came out of it:
“Greetings and congratulations! You have survived again! So, what has happened? I see many, many Ragesian dead around you. Tell me all but quickly. The enemy forces are already moving towards you. You have a little time but……”
Longhelim gave him a very shortened version of what and whom we had faced and how we had overcome them.
The mask seemed to smile:
“Excellent! Excellent! Now to the next part of the plan! You must go northwest for two miles and then turn. By doing this, you will avoid the vanguard of the enemy army. Their commander has about two thousand soldiers and he has kept the bulk of them together but he has sent out roving patrols. I will guide you past as many of them as I can but there may be situations where you will need to fight your way past some so you can avoid the others. Come, quickly now!”
Urged by the voice of Pilus, we set out and began moving northwest as per his instructions. Then, again at his instructions we began to move north. His instructions rang true as we saw little of the enemy as we moved; which was remarkable in itself. As we had been told, it was a small valley and we were being stalked by a large army. Of course, it didn’t help them that a storm was brewing and visibility was getting less and less. No doubt it was getting bitterly cold and windy, with the wind chill getting particularly bad but we were protected by this; thus it was only the swirling snow that was bothersome.
Still, Victor’s eyes were nothing if not remarkable as he suddenly tensed and pointed something out to Longhelim; I couldn’t see what he was pointing at but the paladin certainly could and in turn, he pointed it out to Drudge; soon everyone but me stood and waited for whoever or whatever was approaching; finally, even I was able to discern a small figure moving towards; it was humanoid and looked fairly incongruous; in fact, it was such a strange figure that I was scratching my head, trying to work out just what was happening.
As it approached, we all became aware that it was a gnome; he was dressed lightly and more interestingly, he looked to be semi transparent.
“There’s no evil!”
This was a whisper from Longhelim.
The figure reached us and stopped.
“I am Ander Folthwaite,” he announced and without waiting, he launched into a long monologue.
It was full of typical gnome bravado, vernacular, slang, swagger and spoken in a very uncouth accent but once we were able to work it out, it seemed to be his story. From what we were able to ascertain, he was caught harboring a magician, somewhere; this mage was on some mission, about which the Ragesians wanted to know. They first attempted to enchant the gnome with magic and failed; they then tortured him in the old fashioned way and failed as well. Finally, they brought him here, intending to feed him to the Scourge; he attempted to fight and escape and got himself killed for his efforts. Then he “took on Death” as he put it and was wondering this valley being pursued by various monsters they sent after him and also listening to a song coming from under the earth.
Towards the end of his tale, he seemed to be solidifying and blood suddenly began to pour out of his body. Actually, it was very reminiscent of the various phantoms and visions we had seen in the Haunted Forest of Ycengled.
It was certainly due to this vision that we were distracted and allowed three of the stretched and distorted humanoids to get so close to us.
We managed a couple of quick spells before they were able to spot us and react; the tundra was still full of swirling snow and freezing winds; our gifts from the Fire Forest helped us again. The actions of the distorted humanoids were unusual; instead of attacking with their devastating ability to stun their enemies with their stares, as soon as they saw us, they scattered!
Despite their lightning reactions, Drudge was even faster; as soon as he saw what was happening, he shouted:
“They’re scouts! After them!”
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