The Gate Pass Irregulars: A War of the Burning Sky Campaign

We recognized the danger immediately; if they were scouts, and their actions suggested that they were, then there must have been a larger force nearby; one that must have somehow slipped past the vigilance of Master Pilus. In fact, it was amazing that this had not happened before, considering the density of the enemy forces in the valley and what we were attempting to do; Pilus’s observation must have been extraordinary.

Be that as it may, Drudge sprinted after one of the enemy, stopped briefly and let loose a devastating volley of arrows, causing his target to stumble but then keep going; so the ranger sprinted after him again. I managed to cast my spell of speed and this allowed Longhelim to catch up to another enemy.

Victor shouted:

“Someone guide me! I’m closing my eyes!”

Obviously, the warrior thought that the enemy attacked him through their gaze. Unfortunately, this proved to be not the case.

One of the enemy decided to attempt to stun Felix but failed; the last one attempted to stun Victor and succeeded, causing the warrior to stop and stand still and proving the closing your eyes did not make any difference.

Drudge was still running after the other enemy, but it was fast disappearing into the distance; there was little I could do about this first runner but I was able to cast my acidic cloud on top of the other enemy which had attacked Victor. This stopped it in its tracks.

Longhelim’s fiery bone handled axe flashed and struck the foe next to him several times with great accuracy. This proved too much and it collapsed, staining the snow red; John in the meantime, moved to Felix and cast a spell. This time, it was a speed spell which also affected Drudge, who took off after his enemy with renewed pace and rapidly began to catch up. It was at this point that I lost track of them in the distance.

The final enemy had not come out of the acidic cloud and Victor went in after him. One of the spells that Felix had cast upon the warrior was the ability to ignore the cloying depths of the magic so he was able to enter the cloud freely. He must have found the creature quite quickly because the sounds of combat could be heard almost immediately. Victor emerged and just nodded to me. Longhelim was still ahead in the distance, also looking in the direction of Drudge and John.

Victor went to collect his falchion which he had dropped upon being stunned and then went to Felix to ask for a little healing. He had suffered in the acid. The cleric took out a wand and tapped him a few times until the wounds were closed and the acid burns had disappeared.

A few moments later, Drudge and John returned. They did not look any the worst for their sprint. As they reached us, John muttered:

“The speed spell may have been a bit of waste but we couldn’t risk that thing returning to its force; it could have ruined everything if we got bogged down in a hit and run fight against the Ragesians.”

None of us said anything; John was right.

Longhelim then took out Pilus’s mask and we received further directions.

It did not take very long to reach our destination after that. Pilus was still guiding us and a few times we had to move rapidly to the left or right, probably to avoid roving patrols but fortunately, we didn’t see anyone and that suggested that no one saw us.

Our target could initially be seen as a glow in the distance. We were still cautious but it was becoming very obvious. We approached and then dropped to the ground. John took out a spy glass and looked at the glow; he whistled and then handed it to me. In the lens, I could see a huge ball of multi coloured barriers, intermingling with each other. The sphere positively crackled with magical energy. I recognized the spell; the multi coloured barriers were specific defenses; all of them very powerful. Some of them just injured anyone who attempted to pass through them; some of the others had more exotic effects, such as turning one to stone, or virulent poisoning. There was a way to by pass them but it needed a very specific set of spells cast in a particular order; I did not have all of those spells.

Another complication was the ring of several hundred soldiers around the sphere. They were just standing there, obviously on guard.

Silently I handed the spy glass over to everyone else and then told them of the spell.

Longhelim looked at me and asked:

“Just how difficult is it to bypass that barrier? Will it actually kill us?”

I thought about it a replied:

“Even a normal one would have a pretty good chance; and this one has undoubtedly been augmented by the Koren Obelisk; it just wouldn’t be that big otherwise. Kreven has obviously adjusted it and frankly I have no idea just what he has done but I would say he has certainly made it even harder to circumvent or pass through. I am sorry but at the moment, I just can’t see how we can do this.”

In that moment, there was a noise from Pilus’s mask and it spoke:

“Hold back a moment; when you are ready, I will suppress the barrier; but hurry! It may not stay down for long!”

I said to Longhelim:

“If he can do that, then that is true power! I know that spell! What he is doing has never been recorded before and he is doing it at a spell that has been augmented by an artifact! I can’t wait to try to work out how he did it, if I get the chance!

Anyway, time for that later! I think it is time to use some of the powers of the Torch; let’s go inside the Obelisk.”

The paladin shook his head:

“No; in our conversation the gelugon said that there was magic forbidding such magical movement into the obelisk. I can however take us right to the entrance of the fortress.”

I made a face and replied:

“Well, it’s not ideal but it’ll have to do. I just hope we can get through the doors. Now, does anyone have any last spells which can bolster us? If so, I think now is the time to cast them.”

A final few spells were cast on us and then we spoke to the mask:

“We’re ready!”

The suppression of the barrier began slowly; initially the earth vibrated slightly and we all looked to the sky. There, we could see the clouds being pushed down towards the earth as if by a truly colossal entity above them; moments later, the vibrations became a shaking and thunder began booming in the vicinity; lightning crackled and a small sliver of light lanced through the cloud; this sliver grew and grew until it became a full circle emitting an overwhelming beam of light which finally gained a black pupil in its centre.

It was a fascinating spectacle.

The noise of thunder intensified and a veritable gale drove snow horizontally against everyone nearby; we were too far away and couldn’t see anything except the beam which became a green light, growing in intensity until we had to close our eyes. Even then, the light seemed to seep through my eyelids and became almost intolerable.

Finally, there was one more impossible pulse and even though we were some distance away, we were all thrown back with the exception of Longhelim, who stood firm against the shock wave.

We stood up and looked around; the barrier was gone; there were traces of a whole collection of buildings around the tower, probably barracks for the soldiers; these were also gone. The large tower still stood defiantly together with another smaller lookout tower next to it.

There was no sign of the soldiers which had been around the sphere.

Longhelim shouted:

“Quick! Everyone get around me! There’s no time to lose!”

We complied and without further preamble, the paladin activated the Torch.

We landed right in front of the main Tower; there was a small wooden walkway leading to a pair of double doors made of a metal which I recognized as adamantite. The smaller tower was nearby and I spotted the muzzle of a ballistae at its top, together with the head of a Ragesian soldier peering down at us in surprise.

We were fairly surprised ourselves as standing in front of us, on the walkway, was a giant! For the sake of the accuracy of these journals, judging by its silvery beard and hair together and its milk white skin, it was a cloud giant; I suspected that neither Longhelim nor Victor cared at this point.

More and more heads began to look at us from the lookout tower; one of them wore the hated bear mask. I thought about casting my last powerful offensive spell towards this new enemy but Drudge was already on his way to deal with them. There was a stairwell winding its way around the tower and the ranger was half way up it before I could react; as I didn’t want the get the ranger in my spell, I held my magic.

The soldiers began to fire at Drudge, but somehow the ranger managed to dodge their arrows. The same could not be said in the combat against the giant. Victor activated his shield and moved forward. Longhelim had already advanced and hit the giant; it in turn, had been waiting for the first warrior to reach it and pummeled the paladin with a series of fearsome blows from his morning star; Longhelim coughed blood and staggered, only just remaining on his feet. Even with the magical hardness on his skin, that had been a very powerful blow!

Felix moved up behind the giant and just about managed to heal the paladin but it was a weak spell. With dreadful certainty, I knew that we were getting very close to exhausting our magic! John in the meantime had spotted the danger of the archers to our rear and put a powerful barrier of winds between them and us; theoretically, this spell should protect us from arrows.

At this point, my attention was drawn back to the tower; an archer had shot a couple of arrows at me and they had been both indeed been deflected upwards by John’s spell; instantly, I heard some shouts from up there and the ballista on top of the tower was moved in our direction with practiced ease; then it spat out its massive dart and a moment later, I was looking at a huge shaft of wood sticking out of my shoulder. John looked at me, stunned in shock.

I reacted immediately; this could not be allowed to continue; that ballista commanded the whole area and everyone was vulnerable. With a grimace, I pulled out the shaft; I couldn’t feel the full level of pain yet; that would come later after the shock wore off. So, I drew out one of my precious scrolls and, after thinking about it briefly, began to try to disguise my reading of it. I was positive that the inquisitor was up there, just waiting to thwart my spell.

After several twirls, flourishes and false starts, I let loose; a green ray shot out at the ballista and as it washed over it, a large part just disappeared. The Inquisitor had desperately tried to stop me but he was just a whisker too late. I could feel his glare of hate even from here.

Then, just to make things even more interesting, a wall of flame engulfed both John and I; the inquisitor no doubt and I could almost see his grin from here. John was forced to step out of the wall and beyond his defensive spell. There, unfortunately, he became a target for the other archers on the tower, who immediately began to take advantage of his new vulnerability. I saw arrow after arrow hitting him with the rogue shuddering at each strike.

I could still hear combat from behind, but unfortunately, I couldn’t see anything due to the presence of the fire. I just hoped that the others could cope with the giant. Then, as I saw that other archers reloading again, I stepped forward, out of the wall and cast my own impenetrable wall in front of John and I, shouting that I was doing so to the rogue at the same time; however, we noticed that the wall remained invisible.

John gave a little whoop of joy and moments later, Drudge, who was scaling the walls and also suffering badly from arrows raining down upon him, became invisible. I am not quite sure how he did that, and then I remembered that the rogue still had his disembodied ghostly magical hand floating around; a handy little spell which allowed him to reach out and touch recipients for his magic.

Drudge had been exchanging fire with the archers above him, and although it looked as if he had been threatening them to an extent, the sheer numbers up there had resulted in a bloody stalemate. However, John’s spell had brought an immediate reaction from the Inquisitor, who flourished a scroll and suddenly, my wall became visible, an opaque sheet in front of us and a wall of flame behind us; unfortunately, that meant that Drudge must also have been revealed. John immediately began moving away from me, following the wall towards its edge. I followed him but at a much slower pace, being a dwarf.

Following John, I finally reached the edge, looked around it and saw the rogue next to the burning figure of Drudge; he was already administering healing magic. I was also expecting hails of arrows flying towards us but as I cautiously looked up, I saw that the archers were busy; there were now three additional figures on top of the tower. Victor, Longhelim and Felix! They must have dealt with the giant and Longhelim had used the Torch! Even in the brief moment that I saw, Victor advanced and lopped the head off one of the archers; then the Inquisitor moved in and tapped the warrior with his hand; I am not sure what spell he had on that hand but it must have been potent as Victor collapsed.

Not deterred, Longhelim waded in, swinging his axe and causing similar mayhem amongst the archers. I couldn’t really see the detail of the conflict from here but John had managed to heal Drudge and the ranger sprinted towards the tower, quickly followed by John. I followed up but as I have mentioned before, dwarves are not made for sprinting so I was quite far behind. I did witness more conflict on the top of the tower and both John and Drudge were almost there as well, when suddenly, Drudge and my wall disappeared. This meant that the Inquisitor had perished! I wasn’t sure who had killed him but at least that was another of them gone.

I finally reached the top of the tower, only to witness one of the archers jumping off it and the final one above being cut down by Longhelim. Drudge casually shot the one who had jumped down. Victor was still collapsed, burning on the floor while Felix and Longhelim also looked hurt.

The paladin, priest, John and Drudge immediately began to used their wands while I poked around the pockets and pouches of the Inquisitor and his cohorts up here, finding all manner of interesting things. Thankfully, Felix and the others also looked at the dreadful mess that ballista bolt had made of my shoulder.

Overall, it took a little time but we finally felt ready, or we felt as ready as we could be, to enter through the doors into the fortress.

As we passed the body of the giant, we gave it a cursory search but he had little of interest except for an enormous morning star which was just not practical to carry. Therefore, we left it and approached the doors. As we arrived, Longhelim took out a scrappy piece of parchment; it had been folded, torn, stained and had burnt edges but as he unfolded, we saw a series of drawings of rooms and corridors.

Longhelim announced:

“This is a plan of the complex inside. We are here.”

He pointed at a point on a corridor outside a pair of huge doors.

I was flabbergasted!

“Where on earth did you get this?”

Longhelim smiled slightly and replied:

“Let’s just say that the gelugon was not as inimical as he could have been. In fact, Kreven must have really, really upset it. I had to bribe it a little; it is a devil after all and has a reputation to keep but the amount of money we are talking about is paltry in comparison to what it gave us. This map could literally save our lives; it stops us from blundering blindly around the fortress, bumping into everything and everyone inside.”

I thought back and remembered thinking that the gelugon had acted oddly; from my limited knowledge of these devils, they were renowned for their prowess in physical combat yet this one opted to pepper us with spells from a distance. There was also that odd incident where Longhelim had shouted that the devil had been trying to tempt him. I had forgotten to ask him about that.

Now, the paladin was still speaking:

“I think that as Kreven had been using the gelugon as some sort of focus for the Scourge, and it probably hurt the devil quite badly; from what little I could make out, he was furious at being here and at how Kreven used him. Therefore, he was willing to come to an arrangement with us. There was obviously no bargain; the gelugon was just told what to do. This is the result.”

Longhelim pointed at the map and then said in a musing tone:

“He almost came across like quite a nice chap; very linear, proper, kept to his word.”

His tone changed:

“So, this is the most viable route. We go inside the first room; there is a portcullis here, in this corner. However, we have to go this way so we’ll make our way through it. After that, up this corridor until we reach this room and then turn right. Then carry one until we reach here, then turn right again up to this door. This will then reveal a corridor leading to the left and down a set of steps.

This is going to be the most difficult section. There are two balconies above this room and they can only be reached through doors at the far end of this room.”

Victor, who had been following the Longhelim’s sketching of the plan silently, interrupted:

“That is as classic a killing ground as I’ve seen or read about. Nothing we can do about it, but we should be prepared.”

Longhelim nodded in agreement:

“Yes, as you say, that is where they will put their strongest defence. See that trap door at the far end of the room? That’s also supposed to be the way into the prison holding the spell casters who power the Scourge.

Anyway, we have to go the right door, up the stairs to the balcony and there, in the corner is a secret door. That, in turn, leads to another corridor which takes us to the room which has the Obelisk. That’s where we have to go.”

John added:

“So, now we know the way, easy then.”
 

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I wasn’t quite as sure about that. The first problem was the doors in front of us. They were huge, heavy and made of adamantite; there was no sign of a lock and they were firmly closed. John examined them and then gave the all clear. Victor tried pulling, pushing, up, down and sideways but made little impression. John then signed for everyone to turn back and cast a spell at them; thankfully, that worked and they cracked open very slightly.

Carefully, we pulled them open, with Longhelim intensifying the light the Torch emitted to allowing us to see inside. There was quite a large, square room with what had been a carpet but which now was a partly burned, mouldy mess. In a corner, there was a large pile of rubble, which had obviously been caused by the recent explosion.

As shown on the map, there was also a door on the opposite wall, which led to another room which was actually a dead end; the portcullis was down but had not quite reached the floor. There was enough room to crawl under it but the person doing so would be extremely vulnerable. As we were looking around, we also saw a foot jutting out from under the rubble.

There was very little point in stealth as the Torch was emitting enough light to announce our presence to all and sundry. So we entered cautiously but without any attempts at stealth.

Longhelim then asked:

“Faden, do you still have your spell which makes a doorway in a wall?”

“Yes,” I replied. “It’s proved to be so useful that I usually carry it with me.”

He was looking carefully at the map:

“Well, by my calculations, if you cast it here, it should make a doorway which will take us straight into the balcony with the secret door.”

He then pointed at a spot on the wall in the corner of the room. As per his instructions, I cast my spell at that wall only to see, with dismay, that a thin layer of stone disappeared, to leave a wall of metal. That spell did not go through metal unfortunately.

As I was still looking at the gap in the wall, suddenly, I heard John whispering urgently:

“Shhh! Listen!”

I stopped still, trying to listen but didn’t hear anything; others did though, as Drudge was staring at the corridor beyond the portcullis and aiming his arrows there. Victor was also getting ready and Longhelim had already moved to the exit blocked by the portcullis; then around the corner, I saw several figures appear; they were obviously undead, animated corpses but quite different from the ones we had met previously since they were moving normally. They were also moaning so loudly that even I could hear them now.

Seeing what they were, Longhelim waved his holy symbol at them and with concentration screwing on his face, he used the holy power supplied by Heironeous to repel them from his person; with a groan, three of them turned around, leaving the fourth standing behind the portcullis; moments later, another three came from around the corner and joined their compatriot. At this point, Felix waved his holy symbol at them almost negligently and all four crumpled into dust; it was quite spectacular.

Victor then stepped forward and tried to lift the portcullis; however, it must have been stuck or damaged as he was unable to move it. He shrugged, looked at it momentarily as if debating something in his mind and then drew his adamantite sword and literally carved a passage through it.

Just as he did so, a voice boomed out of the air, freezing everyone in place:

“Savages! Barbarians! I’m sure you’re looking forward to looting this complex but the reality is that you’re trapped. My staff and I are safe, protected by the obelisk. That leviathan in the sky will be destroyed soon and my army will return. You may as well try to hide. There is nowhere to go and you won’t find me! Your doom is almost upon you!”

Victor just muttered:

“They do like their speeches,” as he stepped through the hole in the portcullis and stood next to a door in the corridor just beyond it; as it happened, this was a door through which we needed to go.

He was quickly joined by Longhelim and John when the door swung open and one of the distorted humanoids stepped out, staring intently at Victor; for once, the warrior stood his ground and swung at the creature. Longhelim then joined in and Drudge began to shoot his arrows at the enemy; it was staggering at the multitude of blows that were raining on it; just as well really, as I suddenly caught a movement at the far end of the corridor.

A formless mass of black began to ooze its way down the corridor towards us.

“Ware enemy in corridor”, I shouted at the others. The others glanced up there but were still engaged with the humanoid. Seeing it, I cast one of my precious few spells; an invisible wall was conjured across the corridor, blocking the path of the black mass.

At this stage, the humanoid finally fell, unable to take further pounding. The others saw the black mass slithering towards us but I said:

“We have a few moments, I hope. I put a wall in front of it.”

As it moved, I saw that it was leaving smoking marks behind it, as if it was burning the stone or material on it. This must be the mysterious source of the burn marks we had seen in the first room; and it was obviously not fire but acid that was causing the damage; that thing must have had powerful secretions to be doing that sort of reaction even with stone.

John cast a little spell and a strong glow manifested itself from his hand; it was much stronger light than usual and it pierced the darkness into the distance; not quite as good as the Torch but still pretty powerful; I knew the spell. The undead did not like it at all.

Rapidly, we moved into the room from which the humanoid had emerged; it was full of maps and papers and I began to move there almost involuntarily.

Longhelim hissed:

“Faden, come on! Now is not the time!”

I moved back into the group but looked longingly at the papers; there could be priceless information there but it would useless to us if we were dead and we had no idea how long before Kreven was able to restore the multicoloured barrier around the fortress; once he was able to do that, then our mission was over and a failure.

We moved through this room and another which was empty, before emerging into the corridor again. As we did, John was saying:

“That black thing! I have read about it; some clown called it a black pudding and that’s a big one. They move over everything and just dissolve it with their acid; just roll over you. Their other big trick is that you can’t hit them with sharp weapons; that just splits them into more puddings. You can only hurt them with blunt weapons. Apart from that, they are dumb, slow and easy to hit. It’s just one big stomach really.”

Longhelim and Victor nodded in thanks to what John was saying and Victor said:

“Felix, can I borrow your mace?”

The priest handed it over to the warrior, who swung it experimentally and stuck it in his belt.

This time, we had to move to our right; as we did, another half a dozen of the undead appeared from around another corner. As they did, we also saw that, something, probably the black pudding, had created a huge hole in the wall. It was irregular but quite smooth, as if eaten by acid.

The undead advanced but Felix again waved his holy symbol at them and again, four of them turned into dust. The other two advanced mindlessly to be met by Victor. The rest of us waited patiently while the warrior dealt with this menace; the last two zombies swung at the warrior who avoided their blows and then they burst into dust as Felix engaged the power of his god again. However, at that point, the other menace we had seen suddenly made an appearance, slithering and oozing out of the side corridor.

As soon as that happened, John, who had been just behind Victor, tapped him with a spell on his back and then ran back; Longhelim stepped forward to deliver a devastating blow with the Torch; whatever power he was using, it was obviously acting as a blunt weapon as the creature rippled and moved, but did not split. Victor put almost no effort into accuracy and just swung his mace at the pudding; he didn’t need to really; it was a black amorphous mass, filling up most of the corridor. Again, the mace seemed to sink into it almost to the hilt but it was difficult to make out just how badly he had wounded it.

Unfortunately, we had a disaster after that. It slithered forward, surprisingly fast for something like that, and caught Longhelim in its grasp, drawing the paladin into its mass. Longhelim struggled but he was held fast. We could see almost all of his possessions begin to smoke and melt. In desperation, Drudge shot it with an arrow only to see it split into two.

Longhelim shouted:

“That’s not going to work! Get back!”

Moments later, a huge cylinder of fire came down on the creatures and Longhelim. It was one of the powers of the Torch and its intensity all but did for the puddings; poor Longhelim swayed and there was a moment when even the puddings seemed to be stunned. Victor took full advantage and swung, once, twice and they became inert, sloughing off the paladin.

Unfortunately, when that happened, much of Longhelim’s gear also fell to the floor, its fastenings eaten through by the acid of the creature. We helped him gather it up and then everyone began to heal him. We managed to jury rig most of his things, such as shoulder straps for his back pack and a belt for his trousers and then we continued cautiously down the corridor.

There was a corridor leading to the left which was not marked on our map. John took a quick look around the corner and then motioned us forward:

“Seems deserted except for some bodies; it looks like a crypt.”

Longhelim said:

“Interesting but we have to ignore it.”

Like the paladin, we all felt the pressure of time; Kreven was full of bravado but Master Pilus had also warned us that he had only suppressed the magical defences of the fortress. Sooner or later it would be back; we had to be done and finished before then. This was one of those situations where we would be finished….one way or another. Therefore, since there was no obvious danger from the crypt, we moved past it cautiously, turning right into the corridor.

This corridor was lined with doors ending with one at the far end. According to our map, it was this last door that was most important to us. Beyond it were a set of stairs leading down, which in turn led into the room which Victor called a perfect killing ground. Normally we would investigate the other doors, concerned about leaving potential foes behind us but again, time was of such essence that we had to gamble; at this point we did not have enough resources for a protracted assault on the full complex; we could only hope that Kreven had been caught out to such a degree by our assault on the Eye and then Pilus’s assault on the fortress that his resources had also been unexpectedly stretched.

So, we reached the door at the end of the corridor. There, we made a final check of our equipment and Victor opened the door. As usual, the corridor was dark but quickly illuminated by the Torch. The steps angled to our left for a short distance and then there was an opening down to the right which, if the map was right, led into the killing ground.

“Well, there’s no help for it. Let’s go!”

“Wait! Let me check for traps,” John said. Victor stopped and the rogue quickly checked the steps, coming out again, shaking his head:

“It’s clear.”

Victor started forward again.

“Wait!”

This time, it was a cry from Felix.

“I have my spell, which can obscure you. If I put it on you, it may help your defence.”

As the priest began to cast, he then had the grace to look abashed:

“Sorry, I thought I had that spell; actually I don’t.”

Victor started forward for a third time. Again, there was another cry:

“Wait!”

This time, it was from John again. Victor gave him a look and said slowly:

“Now what?”

The rogue looked slightly abashed but determined.

“I’ve got an idea. Just give me a few moments.”

John took out a horn and went down the stairs. Shortly, he came back up again.

“This is not so good. I blew my horn into that room; as you know, it’s supposed to emit fog which obscures the owner. I was hoping it would obscure the opening. By the way, Victor, you’re right. The walls of the opening are full or arrow slits; there are also two doors on each of the corners the far end, just like the map shows; there’s also a pit with a winch at the far end; but…..when I blew my horn, the fog was repulsed by a barrier. I think that Kreven has somehow suppressed all magic in that room; none of our spells or magical items will work in there.”

That did indeed change things; it was very likely that John was right and we began to make more preparations. Floating stones above our heads were snagged and put in pouches; floating shields were fastened onto our backs; magical potions were stowed away. Once this was dealt with, Victor looked at John, Felix and I for a few moments with a question on his face and then stepped down the stairs.

We all followed.

It took us but a short time to descend the stairs. We crowded the entrance, poised, tense and ready. We had to enter the room as there was not enough room for everyone on the stairs and we felt the magic on our bodies fail; with the exception of the light from the Torch which illuminated the room; even the magic suppression in here could not subdue the might of the Torch.

The place just…..looked wrong; John mentioned the arrow slits on the walls on each side; as he described, there were also two doors, one on each corner; the one to our right was the one we needed to take to get to the room with the Obelisk.

All of this took only moments as we formed up and led by Victor and Longhelim entered into the room. We did not have to wait long for a reaction; we were about half way into it, when volleys of arrows flew at us from both sides. Ragesian archers were expert anyway, but without our magical defences, for them, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. Almost simultaneously, the doors at the far end opened and teams of Ragesian soldiers ran out; they were half orcs, lightly armoured, fast, lithe and deadly, wielding swords.

One individual was slightly different from the others. Although he was also lightly armoured, he had a bandolier of daggers around his torso and with practiced ease, he drew one and threw it at Drudge. The knife stuck in the ranger’s arm but more worryingly, as I watched its progress, I saw that its blade was glistening with some sort of paste. Poison of some sort, no doubt.

Drudge staggered a little and grimaced but continued to fire into the arrow slits; although I had two arrows stuck in me courtesy of their skills, I smiled grimly as I thought that the archers really had not counted on someone actually shooting at them through the slits.

The half orcs ran forward, avoiding sword blows by summersaults and extraordinary swerves, feints and maneuvers of their bodies; they positioned themselves in such a way that they were able to strike at undefended parts of their targets; they managed to surround Drudge and as well as Victor. In the case of the former, they stabbed him, badly, especially the individual with the daggers who again stabbed with a glistening knife and this time Drudge was unable to resist the poison on the blade and collapsed, bursting into flame. However, it did not go so well for those facing Victor, who, instead of letting himself be surrounded, stepped forward and slashed at one of them so strongly that he dropped him in one blow. This allowed him to attack the other soldier, who had been trying to position himself on the other flank. This one took two slashes to finish off; then, with a flourish, Victor spun and slashed the last soldier badly across the stomach.

I heard a shout from above and a storm of arrows all targeted the warrior; he went down and burst into flames but not before I counted a total of fourteen shafts protruding from his body. Victor’s sacrifice had dented the soldier’s confidence badly; they were hesitating, not nearly as sure of the attacks as they had been; whereas previously, they sprang and ran with a sure confidence, now they looked far more cautious and Longhelim took full advantage, stepping forward gracefully and almost tapping one of them with his flaming axe; except that this was the Torch of the Burning Sky and the soldier dropped immediately.

This now only left two others, one of which had been badly wounded by Victor as well as the knife wielder. I moved forward, just keeping out of everyone’s way, but this did not deter the archers from targeting me. The knife man now selected John as his next target, mainly because one of the soldiers was in position of great advantage to him. The poor rogue did not stand a chance and moments later had joined Victor and Drudge on the floor in flames; however, this allowed Longhelim to step forward into the two soldiers and begin combat with them.

In the meantime, I had managed get to John’s form and begin dragging him to the edge of the room but it was difficult; it was quite incredible how heavy even someone of John’s slight build was when they were inert; getting burned by his flames was not very pleasant either.

Longhelim had finished the two healthy soldiers and was now facing the knife man. Although the latter managed to slash the paladin with his dagger, Longhelim was more resilient against poison than either Drudge or John and showed no reaction to wound apart from bleeding. Purely on a combat basis, the Ragesian stood no chance against someone like Longhelim and the fight did not take long, with the paladin dropping the knife man with a combination of two ax slashes; in the meantime, Felix had managed to deal with the wounded Ragesian soldier.

The archers had been shooting all of the survivors of our group and Longhelim began jogging rapidly towards one of the doors at the far end.

“Faden, leave him! We have to deal with the archers now!”
 

The doors to the balconies had been left open and we ran into the stairwells out of sight of the archers but not before they managed to score a few final hits, especially on me. I was perilously weak by the time I had run up the stairs, with several arrows sticking out of my legs and torso.

Not wasting time, Longhelim swept up the stairs like a force of nature. He was quickly followed by Felix and finally by me. I saw that the archers had lined themselves up at the end of the wall and were trying to use their bows but the paladin was too swift for them; despairingly, two of them drew their swords while their comrades still had their bows but it was to little avail. Longhelim fell upon them and the Torch seemed to almost howl in triumph as it was swung one way and another, through limbs, torsos, ribs and necks. Again, once bows had been taken out of the equation, these soldiers were quite ordinary; they only had one area expertise.

It did take us a little time however, especially as Felix administered a little healing to both Longhelim and I. Then we ran down into the killing ground again, only to see that only the body of Drudge was there, although Victor’s sword and shield and John’s wooden rapier were strewn on the floor. We also saw one other Ragesian archer who was just running back to his balcony.

Felix shouted:

“What happened to the others?”

I looked meaningfully at the pit and sudden horrified realization appeared on his face. Then he said a very bad word and ran after Longhelim, who had already caught up with the Ragesian archer. I had to wait in the other corridor while Longhelim dealt with the archer. The other archers were aiming pot shots from the slits and we had to make sure we did not give them a target. The Ragesian archers on the other side did not seem to be any stronger than previously and it took Longhelim only a few moments to sweep past his opponent.

That should have left only three others up there; I waited for a few moments, making sure that Longhelim was well and truly engaged with them before I crossed the room; I was still perilously close to falling unconscious; one arrow would do it. By the time I had arrived up there, Felix was watching as Longhelim dealt with the last archer; again, he had optimistically drawn his sword and again he did not last long.

Once it was over, Longhelim was looking around:

“Where are all the others?”

I replied:

“They threw them down the pit; that’s the entrance into the prison, where all the spell casters are kept.”

Longhelim grimaced and then said:

“Well, we’ll have to go after them then. Felix, we both need some healing and I need to bring Drudge up here so we can heal him as well.”

The priest took out one of his wands and to heal everyone. A short while later, the paladin brought in Drudge’s body and the ranger was soon on his feet although he was still suffering from the effects from the poison.

“That bloody…..Where is he anyway?”

I assumed he was talking about the Ragesian who stabbed him so I motioned to the pit and added:

“Along with John and Victor.”

Drudge then said the same word as Felix and said:

“Well, we’ll have to go and get them.”

Once we had been healed, Felix took out another wand and began to counter act the effect of the poison coursing through Drudge’s blood. This took a little longer and gave me a chance to examine to see if the soldiers had anything of value on them. Not surprisingly, they did not. So, a little while later, we were ready to go into the pit.

Since there was no magic in the room, the obvious way of getting down there was by the winch. Drudge said:

“I am the most suitable person to go down there.”

So we lowered him; it was quite some distance but not so deep that we lost sight of the ranger. He reached the floor and began to point to something on the floor; I could only just make it out but it looked like a lump of some sort. Then he began to motion us to come down.

So, one by one, we went down, leaving the winch chain down. As I descended, I realised that as I reached a much closer point to the floor, my magical defences and spells returned. I also noticed that the winch began to drift slowly to the floor as if affected by a spell of slow falling.

We all arrived at once and Drudge said:

“Mind the body,” as he pointed to the lump of rags. “He’s been burned to death.”

Then we began to look around briefly. We were in a curving corridor, quite wide, certainly wide enough for two of us to go abreast if we wanted to. It was made of stone and curved gently into the darkness. In the distance, we could see a turning on the outside of the wall, so to our right if we were going counter clockwise and to our left if we went clockwise.

Then Drudge continued:

“I had a look around; there was a fight here; between elves and orcs; judging by the depth of the footprints in the dust, I was able to work out that two separate groups took John and Victor; those that took John went counter clockwise while those that took Victor went clockwise. I think we should follow Victor first because his fighting ability will then make it easier to retrieve John.”

Longhelim just nodded:

“Right; Victor it is.”

We began to move in the direction Drudge had indicated. We had one moment of concern as something lumbered towards us in the darkness. As it approached, we realised it was a huge lumbering construct made out of stone; we had seen these before, as guards in front of Castle Korstull, but these were different; they had been made to so that their frame resembled that of a gigantic bear skeleton with a proportionate bear skull. It stomped towards us but then just turned around and disappeared into the darkness again. We all breathed in relief and quietly I explained that constructs needed specific instructions and attacking was obviously not amongst those given to this one; thinking about it, that made sense; from what I understood, the whole point of the scourge was to keep the spell casters alive and even reasonably healthy; that way they could keep powering the Obelisk, however that was done.

We carried on, but shortly after the real reason why the Scourge was named as such, struck; fortunately, I was not affected, probably due one of the few magical defences I had left but suddenly, I saw Longhelim and Felix stumble.

“I’ve just been hit but such agony as I’ve never felt before,” Longhelim managed to grate out from between his teeth after he gathered himself. He continued:

“I don’t know what’s causing this but it is almost unbearable. It feels as if my soul is being ripped in half, over and over again.”

I could see the sweat forming on his forehead as he fought with the pain. The paladin had an iron self discipline but even he was finding it almost impossible to remain completely stoic in the face of this pain.

Felix was suffering almost as much although he seemed to be bearing up a little better than Longhelim. We had to adjust to this new phenomenom and stumbling and staggering a little every so often, we carried on. Drudge was also unaffected; he seemed to have the same defence on his mind as I.

As we walked further on, we began to come across other denizens of this prison; one poor wretch was rolling on the ground, almost slashing himself with his nails, causing bloody furrows on his back and screaming for the pain to stop.

Finally, we came upon a group of writhing figures, lost in their own world of pain. Nearby was a burning figure, easily recognizable as Victor. Some of his equipment was strewn across the floor; some of it was being worn by one of the figures writhing on the floor.

Rapidly, Drudge stepped forward and tapped Victor with a wand which stopped the warrior from burning; he opened his eyes and rapidly took in his surroundings:

“What’s happened? Where are we?”

I replied:

“We are in the prison below the fortress. They chucked you in here while Longhelim was dealing with the archers. John is down here as well.”

Victor stood up and looked at the figures writhing on the floor and then suddenly gasped:

“Gods, what’s that! It feels as if someone is running a red hot iron needle under my finger nails and keeping it there.”

It looked as if Victor had also lost his mental defences but he also had a great deal of discipline; so he began to collect his equipment from the floor. He also thanked Longhelim for his sword and shield which had been collected from the killing ground.

Leaving the other figures, we began to retrace our steps and going after John.

Our progress was a little slower this time; Victor, unfortunately, seemed to be a little more susceptible to the agony that was permeating through this whole prison; having said that, the only visible sign he gave of the suffering he was undertaking was a slight stumble or a momentary stiffening of his torso, which was far ahead of the piles of shrieking, writhing wretches we found in the corridor every so often. No one paid any attention to us; the agony had reverted them back to a primeval state where only the pain existed.

After some time, we came to another group of writhing figures except that amongst them was a burning figure which could only be Slippery John. More unusually, there was another figure, slightly apart, lying on the floor but with his back propped against the wall and watching us through rapidly blinking eyes and rapid breathing.

“A paladin of Heironeous!” he exclaimed before we even had a chance to heal John.

“We are delivered,” he continued.

Cautiously Longhelim approached him while Felix went to John’s body and began to tap him with a wand.

“Aye, I’m a paladin of Heironeous, my friend. Who might you be? You seem to be stronger than most of these others.”

Gasping and obviously in great pain, the other fellow, who I now noticed had a considerable amount of elven blood in him, replied haltingly:

“I am…..Thorun Willen…..paladin of Heironous; when we are ourselves, I lead the……Sons of the Resistance; we…..try to keep some…..semblance of civilization in …….. this hellish place. When….your friends fell in the hole…….we tried to get……them but the Redjacks were…..there before us. They are nothing but thugs. They took one of your friends……we manage to rescue the other. I…..see you managed to retrieve…..your other friend. Good…..I beseech you…..as a paladin of our God…….you must try to……..do………..

He was truly wracked in pain this time, his body contorting to such an extent that it was almost inhuman; in fact these contortions triggered a memory; they looked like a less extreme version of the mindless, feral humanoids who had attacked us earlier; the ones who seemed to have their tendons and muscles stretched and contorted to an inhuman level. I wondered if prolonged exposure to this agony was in fact responsible for creating them.

Thorun was continuing to gasp:

“The golems will……leave you alone…..they are little better……..than cleaners. They……pick up the deceased………The pain comes from……down here……somewhere………its impossible……but it does……..there is also the choir…….some claim to hear the rocks sing………..the pain stops then.

His body contorted again and then he forced out more:

“There is one…….who could help…….you………we met him…….he disappeared……..go back the way you came……..until you find……..the smallest tunnel……..leading into the circle of………..the prison. His name is Guthwulf………..

As soon as he said that name, it rang a loud bell in my head. Simultaneously, John also began to speak although his speech was also punctuated by breaks as he was also being affected by the pain.

The rogue spoke haltingly:

“This mysterious………pain….only one kind of creature…..could create….something of like this. I…..think we….have found….the pain….Trillith….or agony Trillith…..or whatever it is calling itself.”

I thought about it. That did make sense. A mysterious source of such agony that it could drive people insane and turn them into mindless feral primitives? There had to be a Trillith involved in there somehow.

I spoke quickly:

“I’m with you on that John; which means that its somehow connected with the Obelisk as well. Why am I not surprised? Oh, something else; Guthwulf: that name has come up several times. I remember it; the first time is from the vision in the Temple in Ycengled; the one where we were in Coaltongue’s palace and Katrina’s treachery is confirmed. He mentions the name Guthwulf, and it is heavily associated with Leska; he must have been a trusted confidant.”

Something else was tickling in the back of my brain but I couldn’t quite remember……

Then Longhelim was saying:

“We’ll go and see this Guthwulf.”

Another gasp from Thoren:

“Thank…..you, brother. Heironeous will be watching.”
 

We began to walk back the way we came, albeit lurching to an extent as so many of us were suffering from the pain. It was quite extraordinary though; there was not a word of complaint from anyone.

I remembered the tunnel that Thoren mentioned. It was very narrow and would accommodate our marching order one by one. Then, as we were slowly making our way, I recollected more about the mysterious Guthwulf:

“That’s it! Guthwulf! The Ragesian ambassador to Bresk; whatever his name was. There were various letters and replies from him to a Guthwulf; John, you remember? You stole most of them. It all points to someone who was high in Ragesian councils and who liked torture.”

So, stumbling and lurching, we finally managed to get to the entrance of the narrow tunnel; we saw several of the stone bears moving around but as Thoren had said, they left us alone; one or two of them were carrying people, corpses we assumed. Everywhere, we saw writhing wretches, moaning and screaming on the ground; several were comatose and obviously on their last breath.

By coincidence, the tunnel was very close to the way out. We turned into it; as we had been warned, it was narrow, cold and slippery; fortunately, Longhelim’s Torch was able to illuminate it a long way, both forwards and behind us. Again we began to lurch forward; I did my best to help John who was right behind me and I could see Felix helping Victor, who seemed to suffer the pain more than most but who also bore it the most stoically.

Finally, after travelling for some time, we saw a bridge some distance away; or at least a walkway across some fissure in the ground; it was covered in ice; this would not bother those who wore the magical boots but I was quite apprehensive about it. Dwarven magicians wee not very good at keeping their balance on narrow icy ledges, as had been proved several times previously. It also looked like a trap. I did not need John to tell me this.

Thankfully, despite his pain, John bravely lurched forward; he really wasn’t in much of a state to find any traps but he tried; as he moved forward, there was a bang and a spell went off followed by a yell from John; fortunately, we saw that he was still standing but he had obviously set something off. Then the rogue motioned us forward. As we approached, we saw that he didn’t seem very harmed although there were little wisps of smoke furling from his clothes and some sort of acidic liquid was trying to eat away at his equipment; he was obviously protected against this.

We moved to the bridge and then Victor suddenly stopped; he tried to go forward but could not make any headway, not matter how much he pushed. Felix and I pushed past him and we both felt a magical barrier; we were able to pierce it but obviously the warrior could not; Drudge also failed to pierce this magical barrier and the ranger stayed with the warrior.

I knew of the spell; it was a complicated magic which prevented individuals from approaching specific points. They would not be able to pass now. I spoke to Longhelim and let him know.

He grunted:

“It’ll be one of Guthwulf’s defences. Let’s go and see if we can find him.”

The paladin approached the narrow bridge over a chasm. As he did so, there was a shout from the other side:

“Have you come to talk or fight?”

“Talk,” was Longhelim’s reply.

“Come forward then.”

All of us that could, moved across the chasm. Just in case, I had a rope tied to me and tried to look ahead at Longhelim; I made sure not to look down; looking down would be a bad idea. When I finally reached the other side, it was into a room which was unusual to say the least. At first glance, the walls were carved with lots of different scenes, most of which had been vandalized or defaced by magic; on the far wall was the carving of a face and across its lips was a tiny horizontal sliver of an opening.

However, our attention was immediately captured by our host. He was a tall, man, dressed elegantly in black robes with a high collar. He carried a stone mace and had a skull dangling from his belt. His head was totally hairless and he had sharp patrician features with a particularly aristocratic nose. His eyes widened when he saw us:

“My dear fellows! It could only be you! You must be Longhelim and you are Faden, the only dwarf in your group. Ah, John and Felix, the priest; where are Victor and Drudge? Ah, there, outside my little fence. Oh my dear boys, I have read so many reports about you and in fact from you, eh Faden? Your journals were most entertaining, such good reading too. I was very amused.”

“Where are they?” I asked stonily.

“Oh, I don’t know now. I had a falling out with the Ragesians. Especially with Kreven; really, what an awful man! Simply ghastly! I gave my best years to the cause only to be betrayed and kicked down this hole. Now, I only have him for company!”

He stepped aside slightly and pointed at a creature that had been skulking behind him; I recognized it immediately: it was a ghoul.

Guthwulf beamed at us and put his hands together as if he was praying before resuming his speech:

“Well, I could stand here and talk about old times all day but this place is terribly dreary; look at the walls! They’re all about Leska and how great she is; I had a little fun with that but now that’s got a little boring as well. So, how are we going to get out of here?”

Longhelim just looked at him:

“We don’t know; we were hoping you could tell us. After all, you’ve been here far longer than we have and certainly we’re sure that you have thought about this. Surely you must have a plan?”

He scratched his nose and then smiled winningly:

“You know me too well; I do have one or two tricks up my sleeve but first you must do something about this tiresome thing that’s causing all the pain; its somewhere beyond that dreadful sculpture. I really don’t know who carved that but the sculptor deserves to be sent here for a hundred years just for that! Look at that style, that weight on the brow, why a first year……”

“Yes, yes, it’s a very bad sculpture but what’s beyond the wall,” interrupted Longhelim.

Guthwulf looked a little hurt by the interruption to his art appreciation but then he brightened:

“I don’t know but the pain that powers this place seems to come from there; there is also some singing; when that begins, the pain stops and allows people to recover their strength; then the pain begins again.”

John said:

“I bet it’s the Song of Forms.”

Guthwulf turned his attention to him:

“What’s that? Oh yes, the Song of Forms; Faden mentioned that you learned it in the Fire Forest of Innenotdar; from the….what were they called…….ah yes, the Seelah. By the way, you met one of my devils there, didn’t you? Fine fellow! Shame you couldn’t come to an understanding. If I had more resources, I would have sent lots more of them after you, just to insist that we could come to some sort of arrangement; as it is, ironically, we are both here, in this pit. Oh, Kreven, Kreven, you bad man, you.

Talking about understandings, do we have one?”

Longhelim looked at him:

“Could you let my friends through your magic please. We are going to need them when we go through this face.”

“Oh, yes, Victor and Salubrious Drudge; what fine fellows they are as well but let’s leave them out there and have a chat about our understanding. If we come to an agreement of course, I would be delighted to have them join us. You help me and I help you.”

Slowly, Longhelim nodded:

“Yes, we have an understanding; let us go and have a look at this being that is causing all this pain.”

“Splendid, splendid! I do like it when people see reason. See, there is no need to just go rushing into fights willy nilly all the time.”

Longhelim was just looking at him when Guthwulf negligently waved his hand and motioned at Victor and Drudge to come over. This they did with the help of boots and rope until they were able to reach Guthwulf’s lair.

He greeted them as effusively as he greeted us previously and then said cheerily:

“It’s that way.”

He pointed at the face and then began to cast a spell which would soften stone and allow him to carve an entrance way into the rock. This time, there was no metal sheeting inside.

We moved through the hole carefully. There was a short hall way and then it led to a large circular room with a round section of utter darkness in the centre. This area was surrounded by a series of blazing runes. The light in the rest of the room was dim and on our left was chained figure, the source of the singing. As he looked up at us, we immediately recognized the elven features and wings of a Seelah!

He looked at us and we could hear his whisper even as far away as we were:

“Oh, more nightmares to haunt my dreams; why don’t you just kill me and that will finally set me free!”

Then the Seelah began to sing again.

We looked around cautiously; I looked carefully at the runes and as I did so, I noticed something very odd; I don’t know how I missed it but the room was crawling with scorpions of all sizes; they crept and rushed around everywhere; some of them were already crawling over out boots. Victor carefully stepped on one, just to reassure himself that they were just scorpions. The creature was crushed and there was no reaction from anything else. As we shuffled in, the warriors took the front Felix went to the back. John went to the Seelah and tried free him.

“There’s no lock on his chain!” he said in a frustrated tone. So, he drew his adamantite scimitar and slashed the chain, putting a tiny nick into it.

At the moment, Felix said:

“Quiet, everyone, quiet! Listen!”

We all stood still and obeyed the priest. Personally, I couldn’t hear anything.

A moment later, Longhelim looked at the priest with a question on his face.

“I heard a noise, like lots of crawling insect legs on stone; thousands of them.”

Drudge looked around us and asked:

“The scorpions?”

“No, it was coming from inside the darkness.”

Longhelim looked at me and said:

“Faden, can you look at those runes. What are they?”

“They’re runes of protection and imprisonment. They are meant to keep things in and certain magic out. Beyond that, they are outside of my purview; it looks more like divine magic.”

The paladin looked at Felix:

“Don’t look at me! Faden’s right, it is more divine magic but he’s already worked out more about it than I could have done.”

John called out into the discussion at this point:

“Victor, can you give me a hand? It’ll take a very long time for me to cut through this chain.”

Victor advanced to the singing Seelah, not taking his eyes off the darkness. As he arrive, he took a swipe at the ring that was holding the chain in place on the floor. That’s all it took. The ring was sliced through and John helped the still singing Seelah to join the group. Then we reformed again with the warriors at the front.

“Well, what now?” asked Longhelim.

We were all staring at the circle of darkness but nothing and no one came out of there. Then John moved forward with Bright Shadow in his hands and stopped next to one of the glowing runes.

He looked at us and then said:

“Ready!”
 


The warriors nodded and John gently and carefully slit one of the runes; it ceased glowing immediately and the rest of the circle flickered and then dimmed. For a few tense moments nothing happened and then a figure half crawled, half shambled out of the darkness. It was a peculiar shape, wearing a cowled robe over its humanoid body; it even had the face of a man and its arms looked human; but something stirred under its robe and then we all saw something move independently around its torso. As it shambled forward, four other appendages appeared from under the robes each with five scorpion stingers instead of fingers. In vicious mockery, they resembled four extra arms.

It launched itself at the Seelah and punched him in the face; I don’t know just what else that punch packed but the Seelah dropped as if pole axed, bleeding from every aperture in his head. With a shock, we realised that his sightless stare meant that he had been killed.

The song stopped and the creature we faced became incorporeal.

Despite the sudden death we had just witnessed, the warriors moved in, swinging with a will; or at least Victor did since his falchion just swept through the figure without hurting it in any way. Longhelim however was a different story, as the Torch swung into it, completely ignoring its semi transparent its incorporeal nature. Even John moved behind it. Realising its danger, Agony struck Longhelim and the paladin grunted; again, I wasn’t sure what it was doing but it was obviously no ordinary blow.

I had been carrying a spell against just such a possibility as this; it had been something I had been researching ever since Castle Korstull and it was meant to counter act this incorporeal nature and emulate the Seelah song of forms; as soon as I cast it though, it became obvious that I had to go back to my research as it shrugged off my magic with such ease that I doubt that it even registered it.

Longhelim grunted:

“Felix, I’m badly hurt!”

As this was happening, the four appendages were finding nooks and crannies in the paladins armour and trying to burrow and sting. They succeeded as well but fortunately, most of us were still warded against poison. Victor was still swinging and finally connected although his falchion did not penetrated into the creature’s carapace as deeply as it should have done; not only that, but Victor grunted as he had been struck himself as the blow connected.

This trillith was just full of unpleasant surprises. As usual, they were re-writing the known laws of magic.

Drudge had been shooting arrows at it but individually, his missiles were scratching it at best. This time, it turned its attention to Victor and hit him; as before, the warrior staggered and was almost down. Suddenly, Felix took out a scroll and his burst of healing power affected everyone. Both warriors struck the trillith with renewed energy; many of Victor’s were still passing through its body when suddenly the song of forms began again. The Seelah had returned……somehow.

This mystery could wait though as the warriors began to flash their swords at the enemy with greater speed and precision. This time, they were connecting solidly; equally they were suffering as cuts and blood were appearing every time they struck a blow, but it was finally faltering. Desperately, it concentrated its attacks on the Seelah, knowing that the song of forms was its greatest enemy but it was too late as Victor and Longhelim surrounded it with a net of steel.

Having said that, it was Drudge who felled it, shooting a volley into its torso and as his last arrow struck, it exploded in a blinding pulse of total agony, even more intense than the pain that everyone had felt previously. Even I felt this one, despite my protection.

Something changed within me after that explosion; like Indomitability, Agony had left a gift, this time it was something enhancing will and focus. I had no time to explore it further but something had definitely changed within all of us.

As we Felix and John were healing everyone, Guthwulf poked his head into the opening:

“Finished yet? How is everything going? Oh splendid! The agony is gone! How marvelous! You really are on the wrong side, you know! How Leska could have done with you!”

I turned to him:

“Right, you said you had a plan to get out of here?”

“Did I? I don’t believe I did. I thought you said you had a plan to get out of here?”

“No, I distinctly heard you say you had a plan.”

“My dear dwarf, you must be mistaken.”

While my attention was being monopolized by Guthwulf, I heard someone else talking behind me; it was the Seelah so with a very polite excuse, I turned to hear what he had to say. I will paraphrase his narration as he spoke in verse and several times we had to stop him to repeat himself as he was very difficult to understand; but in short this is what he told us:

His name was Etinifi and he was the best and brightest of his generation of Seelah; he had managed to escape from the Forest of Innenotdar it burned; it was not clear to me whether that was when Indomitability assaulted it or when Shahalesti embarked on their crusade against them; anyway, Etinifi came across the legend of the Aquiline Heart, which was supposed to grant miracles and immortality; he joined in a quest to find this artifact with another adventurer, a young lady named Leska.

After many trials, they found the Heart, but its defenders proved too strong for them; so Etinifi betrayed Leska, drained her of life force and left her for dead and claimed immortality for himself.

I made a few notes to ask for a few more details about the above later; it would be good to know just how that was possible.

I was not sure what happened to the original plan to use the Heart to help the Forest of Innenotdar but whatever it was, it did not work. Certainly there was no further mention of trying to retrieve it.

Instead the next part of the story was about how Leska survived, claimed immortality, gained favor with Coaltongue, rose in his service, searched for and found Etinifi. Once she had captured him, she threw him into the hole which would become the Scourge prison and irrevocably tied him to the trillith Agony.

I must hasten to add that this was a very shortened version of what he actually told us. His speech was full of purple prose, poetry and song. In fact, he spoke as if he was reciting an epic poem.

I saw John whispering something to Felix and just about heard the priest reply:

“Poor soul! I think that he has been in agony for such a long time that this manner of speech is his refuge from pain. He has been using this refuge for such a long time that it will take him some time to realise that he can begin speaking as if he wasn’t reciting a poem again. Just give him time; although I suspect that it will be a long while before this happens.”

Just as he finished saying this, Etinifi launched into another epic poem; this one mentioned Gate Pass and seemed to refer to the Festival of Dreams but apart from that seemed so obscure that I recorded it and decided that we would look at it later……if later was relevant to us considering that we still had to contend with Kreven and his staff.

If possible, I made a note to make a copy for Simeon the Loremaster.

Longhelim then turned to Guthwulf:

“Well, we seem to have a problem. We have no method of getting out of here. Drudge was considering trying to fire a grappling hook with his bow but once we looked at the hook, we realised that this was impractical. I still have some of the powers left from the Torch but this whole area is warded against transport magic.”

This time the paladin looked the bald man pointedly.

“Well……..maybe I could do something about this warding.”

Longhelim just continued to look at him and then said:

“That would be very good of you.”

Then the paladin looked to at the rest of us:

“Once Guthwulf gets rid of his warding, sorry I meant the warding and we get out of here, we will let the chain down from above. We’ll go to see Thoren Willen; he seems to have his head screwed on. We’ll help the Sons of the Resistance get up there and they can then organize the other inmates.”

He turned to Guthwulf:

“Just how many inmates are there in here anyway?”

The inquisitor thought for a moment and then replied:

“Oh, about a thousand. Many of them are quite mad of course.”

I blinked; that was considerably more than I had anticipated. I just hoped that they would all be able to escape before the army returned. Unfortunately, we would have to leave them to their own devices and trust that Thoren had good organizational skills.

Longhelim must have realised the same thing but he also came to the conclusion that there was little we could do about it except lower the chain to enable the escape route. So, he just nodded and then turned to us:

“Well, first things first. Let’s go see Thoren Willen.”

So, we marched through the narrow corridor to the main circular walkway; everywhere, figures were stirring as the pain was gone. Rapidly, we avoided them and finally reached the area where we met the Sons of the Resistance. Thoren Willen was there. The paladin was far more dignified and seemed to have gained a sense of serenity now that he was no longer in agony.

“You have succeeded. I feel that the presence has gone. Truly Heironous has sent you!”

Longhelim bowed:

“I am here to do his will; but Thoren, please listen. We must move. Time is very much of the essence as Kreven and his forces only wait for their defences to establish themselves again. So, this is what will happen…….”

Longhelim outlined the plan and Thoren nodded without interrupting:

“Of course we will do as you wish. We will gather at the bottom of the pit and wait for you to lower the chain. Once that is done, we will begin organizing what prisoners we can and begin to get them out of here. We will see you up there!”

I could see that the rest of the Sons were looking at us with animation; for the first time I could see excitement and hope in their eyes. They began to pick up their meager possessions and crowded around Thoren. He waved to us and began to lead them out of this section of the corridor.

Longhelim then made sure that everyone was touching him and then nodded to Guthwulf. I couldn’t catch just what the Inquisitor did to lower the ward. I was even watching for it but whatever he did, it was totally beyond me. I sighed: still so much to learn.

Longhelim transported us to the balcony which contained the secret door. We looked around us but the area was empty. Then we looked down into the room with the chain to see four small children around the hole dropping into the prison. We were immediately suspicious; what where children doing there? They were just crouching around the hole, watching below.

Led by Longhelim we all went below and approached them. They did not react to us, did not change their stance and did not attack; they just crouched around the hole; most unusual; unnatural even. So, Longhelim stepped around them and attempted to lower the chain down; that was when they did finally react, jumping on him and trying to wrestle the chain away from his hands. The paladin was at loss; he did not want to hurt children but at the same time, we had to get the chain down.

Longhelim shouted:

“I think they’re possessed!” as he attempted to fend off one of them without hurting the little tyke.

John ran in and began subdue them with his sap. That proved the ideal weapon for this situation. With little trouble, he managed to subdue them all, much to Longhelim’s relief.

As soon as that was done, we lowered the chain and in no time at all, Thoren was in the room, quickly followed by one of his cohorts and another and another and so on…….they soon had a system of escape going so we just left them to it.

We had to get ready for our final battle.

We took stock of just what we had left:

“…….I still have one spell of speed; we’ll have to wait until we are about to enter the room before I cast it though; it doesn’t last very long unfortunately……”

“…….there is one spell left which will protect against spells of mental compulsion; since Victor seems to be particularly weak in that area, I plan to cast it on him……”

“…..Guthwulf, do you have anything you can add to this?”

The former Ragesian was busily casting spells on both him and his ghoul companion, but he broke his concentration to say:

“I do not have many spells with which to help; I must protect dear Augustus and myself, don’t you know.”

I persisted:

“We understand but can you tell us just who Kreven’s staff is? We can guess that he will have Inquisitors but can you think of anyone else? Specific people or companions with whom he is particularly associated? People like his wife? We know she will be with him as well as the orc with the red armour but individuals like that. Can you think of anyone else?”

Guthwulf thought for a little time and then replied:

“Much as I am racking my brains, dear boy, I cannot think of anyone bar possibly some Claws.”

“Claws? Who are they?”

“Special bodyguards for high ranking Inquisitors. Fanatically loyal; powerful warriors with some magical abilities.”

“You mean like the orc we met before? The one in the red armour who spewed some unholy fire on Longhelim?”

“From your description, that sounds a little powerful for a normal claw. I don’t really know.”

I thought Guthwulf was being deliberately evasive; considering he had spent years working with Kreven, I was fairly sure that he was very aware of who his staff was but I couldn’t tell him that to his face. So, I just looked at him for a little while but ultimately held my peace; I was learning.

Then I turned to the others:

“Do you think he will have any more of the stone golems with him; the ones that are made to look like bears?”

Longhelim shrugged again but John replied:

“I don’t think he’ll have those; I think those are just jailers.”

Longhelim then added:

“Faden, I know what you’re trying to do; but you can over think these things. Ultimately, we will put our spells up on go in there, face the odds and do our best; it’s what we came to do. At the moment, we don’t have the resources to pick and choose. We are all down to our last spells; we’ll only get one chance at this.”

He was right; I had fairly much cast all the spells I had on myself; the priests still had a few but they were all minor; all the powerful spells had been cast in the previous conflicts. So, it only took a few moments to finish and then John advanced to the corner where we knew the door was hidden.

John had no problem in finding the hidden catch; opening it however was another matter:
 


“Blasted thing is trapped; have to be careful…….”

It took him some time but finally, he was happy that he managed to bypass the trap, whatever it was.

“It was some magical trap; not sure exactly what but it was better to get rid of it.”

Then the rogue opened the opening and rapidly checking the door in front, stepped into the corridor, with his invisible friend taking a light with him.

There was a shout from around the corner:

“There’s a whole group of cisterns in here! They’re full of water! I think if the water is released, it’ll wash us down the corridor and into the prison.”

John came out:

“There are seven huge cisterns in there, as I said.”

Guthwulf added:

“Oh that Kreven! He’s so fiendish! He will just be waiting for us to enter into the corridor and then he’ll release the water! But I know that you’re all far too clever to fall for something like that! After all, you survived Castle Korstull! You must tell me just what you did there! I am sure it’s fascinating!”

John thought for a moment, then he took out a couple of wands and said:

“So, these useless wands we took from the Inquisitors way back when? The ones which lock doors and such? I think they’ll lock sluice gates in cisterns as well.”

With that, he went back into the corridor; he was gone for a little time and then he emerged again:

“I used the spell on five of the seven cisterns; if Kreven releases the last two, I don’t think it’s going to inconvenience us too much; and it’s two empty cisterns in case we get trapped in the corridor.”

It was a good idea and we all got ready to run in; just before we left, I shouted at the prisoners coming out of the hole:

“Brace yourselves! There may be some water coming your way!”

Longhelim lit the Torch to such a level that the whole corridor was lit. As John had described, there were seven large cisterns standing on one side; the corridor ended with two large doors made out of adamantite. As soon as the last rank of our group, Guthwulf and Augustus, entered into the corridor, the last two cisterns released their contents but as we thought, it was not enough water to wash us away, although it did wet my boots, which was irritating.

When the water finished rushing away and we approached the door, there was an odd sound; it sounded like some sort of atonal moaning or singing. It increased the closer we got to the door. It sounded magical and sinister.

However, there was another, more immediate problem; John looked and then said:

“There is no lock or handle on this; and it looks firmly shut. How do we open it?”

I turned to the Inquisitor:

“Guthwulf, any ideas?”

He replied:

“Oh, it will just take a little positive energy from young Felix here.”

Felix looked at the doors dubiously:

“Positive energy? Are you sure? It does a lot of things but it doesn’t usually open doors.”

“Trust me dear fellow, trust me!”

So, some last minute spells were cast, the ones with the shortest duration and then John ran back behind us and set off a little item we had also collected a long time ago. It was shaped like a small fan and created a strong wind which blew away from us, into the room.

I looked at him a little askance and he said:

“Just in case there is some nasty gas or something behind the doors; we used it very effectively right at the beginning against the guard at the Eye and Kreven then used something on us in the Cave of the Eye so this time, I hope to blow it back in their faces.”

That was the last effect and a moment later, Felix concentrated and the doors swung open!

They revealed a huge round room with several odd metal constructions hugging its walls: these looked like small towers which provided platforms for groups of archers; I also glimpsed several individuals with bear masks up there. The moaning became much louder and reached overwhelming levels; it sounded like thousands and thousands of beings in utmost pain and for a brief moment, I wondered if this was the energy that Agony had been channeling to the Obelisk; columns of fire within the room provided light and the walls were embossed with huge glowing red runes which flared and pulsed as if to a heartbeat. At the back stood a series of jagged red crystals which acted as a bed for a huge column of pulsing red ice rising to the ceiling; obviously the Obelisk.

On either side of it were another couple of steel towers, one supporting Kreven and two of his Claws while on the other stood Koren and the orc in the red armour.

However, standing right in front of us were two stone golems built to resemble bear skeletons; these stepped forward to engage the warriors while all the archers loosed their arrows at them as well.

There was a shout behind us as Guthwulf bellowed:

“I said I’d kill you, you bastard!”

This seemed very different from his usual manner of speech but it also acted as some sort of summoning as a bearded devil suddenly made its appearance next to him and bowed.

Kreven then cast a hugely complicated spell with a speed and power that was breathtaking; he was obviously aided by the power of the Obelisk but even so, his skill was astounding; he cast it at Victor and thankfully, the warrior staggered but seemed to resist the other effect; I had already recognized the wizard Inquisitor’s signature spell which severed limbs. Kreven then cast another spell which created a magical wall in front of him and the Obelisk; although strangely, it did not cover the whole Artefact, just part of it and he himself was also partly exposed. I did not understand that quite yet but I had a nasty feeling that there was a good reason for him doing and we were going to find out why sooner rather than later.

This last must have come as a great relief to Victor; despite his heroic resistance to Kreven, the warrior was the wizard’s main target at this point and was showing the results as he bled copiously from many wounds.

The only people who could see into the room were Longhelim and Victor and they met and faced the golems with their swords; one of the constructs tried something on Victor but it did not work while the other just attempted to hit Longhelim; Ragesian inquisitors began to cast spells which dissolved magic on the two warriors with great success as usual. However, both the warriors also concentrated one of their attacks on the first golem and brought it down.

Unfortunately, two ranks of Ragesian soldiers then rushed from around the corner and blocked the entrance into the room while another couple of Ragesian Inquisitors revealed their presence, one by casting another spell that dissolved magic while the other put a wall of flame on top of the two warriors, damaging Victor even further; the fighter was looking very hurt by this point. Drudge had managed to shoot one of the archers but the odds against us were looking overwhelming.

Things became even worse as I heard the distinctive sound of electricity crackling; I couldn’t see what was going on but I saw both Victor and Longhelim shuddering and the former stumbled and almost fell but then became still in a peculiar way. I would have expected Victor to begin dodging and weaving but he just stood there; and he dropped his sword as I had seen him do many times before; obviously, he had been affected by some other magic; I remembered that Kreven had been augmented somehow by the Obelisk and this allowed him to fire off spells at an unprecedented rate.

Then I began to see various arrow heads flying through the wall of flame; these were red hot but at least they weren’t stuck in either of the two warriors. Then Guthwulf spoke:

“I can either heal the warrior or try to get rid of the wall; decide!”

Longhelim shouted back:

“Heal Victor!”

So Guthwulf stepped forward and touched Victor who suddenly was able to move. Felix then cast a spell and was able to negate the wall of flame. I saw that two ranks of soldiers were now blocking the way into the room; behind them stood the stone bear construct and lurking slightly further behind was an Inquisitor; as I watched him, he was suddenly filled with arrows and collapsed.

After that, Longhelim softly spoke and an enormous column of fire landed just behind the two ranks of soldiers; it was awesome and shocking and when it finished, the soldiers were simply gone; there was nothing left of them; the intensity of the magic was such that it left no trace. There was a slight pause as if even the enemy were a little stunned at the intensity of the Torch but then Koren’s song came to a crescendo and as she reached a high, grating note, she stopped and then she disappeared with her orc bodyguard, the same who had been with her in the Cave of the Eye.

Another wall of flame appeared, this time just behind Victor and affecting Longhelim, John and Guthwulf; this was followed by yet another crackle of lightning. Guthwulf managed to get rid of the wall and we saw that the orc in red armour was lurking on one corner of the entrance. This time it was Longhelim who had dropped his Torch and was standing still seemingly unable to move.

I had almost no magic left but I did have one useful spell left; stepping forward, I weaved and using all of Gabal’s teachings, managed to fool the last visible Inquisitor; Drudge became invisible and he immediately stepped forward and aimed at the Inquisitor. This individual could not stand up to the ranger’s onslaught and was felled. Victor managed to pick up his sword and activate his shield, which immediately put itself in mid air between him and other attacks.

Victor followed up by advancing towards the construct and his sword bit deeply, seemingly unaffected against this enemy.

Then everything went quiet! The Inquisitor must have cast a magical silence into our area. I watched Kreven; ominously, he just smiled and did not do anything; suddenly, Koren appeared next to him and nodded; with a grin, he gestured and more forked lightning erupted from the orc in red armour who was lurking around the corner, obviously transported there by the renegade Wayfinder. This time, the target was Victor as well as the rest of us. Although the warrior managed to dodge most of the blast, he was still spun and almost knocked over by the impact; following up immediately, Kreven shouted a magical word: in a familiar ritual, Victor suddenly stood stock still, dropped his weapon and was oblivious to all his surroundings.

So, now both Longhelim and Victor were in the same state.

Both banks of archers fired volley after volley of weapons on Victor; thankfully, most of them bounced off his armour although a couple stuck in painful places; not that he could do much about it.

Guthwulf stepped out of the magical silence and then cast a spell; it was an arcane spell, which was interesting; I had not realised he was an arcane caster; be that as it may, a green ray erupted from his hand and hit the magical barrier which Kreven had erected earlier, destroying it.

It was a golden opportunity and I seized it; taking out one of my precious scrolls, I cast the same spell, taking care to disguise it as I had been taught all those months ago by Gabal. I managed to fool the Inquisitors and Kreven, who were all watching me; the green ray shot out of my hand and struck the Obelisk……..only to fizzle harmlessly. Obviously, this stone was impervious to my level of magic. Considering all the cracks that Kreven was causing every time he cast his spells, he was causing it far more damaged I could ever do.

So, realizing that there was very little I could do at this point, I prudently retreated a little, just out of range of those forked lightning bolts.

Felix then attempted a spell to counter act the magical effect on Longhelim but whatever he did, it failed. Suddenly, a whole swarm of arrows appeared in the torso of the red orc; Drudge was obviously busy. The orc staggered and almost fell over but he recovered and with a snarl he sprang at the helpless Victor and clawed him. Then the bear like construct stepped forward and also clouted the warrior who finally went down in flames.

One of the Inquisitors cast another spell which dissolved magic and this was then followed up by yet another forked lightning bolt from Kreven, this time aimed at Longhelim. The paladin fell inertly; another fork hit Victor on the ground and everyone else with the exception of myself who had moved out of range; ominously, both Victor and Longhelim stopped burning but were still inert.

Watching carefully, I noticed another spell from Kreven.

I shouted:

“He’s put up another magical barrier!”

The archers had a new target; Guthwulf’s outsider had unwisely exposed himself and paid the penalty as the archers concentrated their fire upon him; he disappeared in a flash of fire.

At this point, I moved towards Felix and handed him one of my last healing potions, which he drank gratefully. Then, I saw John dragging Longhelim’s body back to the priest.

In the meantime, two more spells came in; these stripped magic from our group, leaving us with very few protections. The construct also seemed to be ready to do something and then somehow, Felix managed to use his scroll of resurrection; it was an incredibly powerful spell and beyond anything Felix could learn; he was following the instructions on the scroll and he managed to perform it; even more surprising was the fact that no one from the enemy counter spelled him.

However, it happened, suddenly Longhelim was getting up; however, while collecting the Torch he was met by another powerful forked lightning bolt. Somehow, the Obelisk seemed to be giving Kreven a never ending supply of that spell.

Guthwulf also cast a spell and a whirling wall of blades appeared in front of the corridor; the blades were translucent but deadly nevertheless.

Drudge managed to get into position again and this time he finished off the orc with the red armour, much to the fury of Koren, who screamed from the back of the room and launched another spell which stripped magic from us.

I was thinking about my scrolls, wondering when yet another wave of magic came in from an Inquisitor and this time the wall of blades disappeared; it was followed up by another bolt of forked lightning and this time, unfortunately, I was in range. I was beginning to feel all those lightning bolts, even if they were the weaker forks.

It was Guthwulf who surprised me next though; he had also been hit by a fork of the lightning; judging by his smoking torso, he had lost his magical defence against that spell and looked hurt; I also noticed that that bonhomie that he had been cultivating had disappeared from his face. Stepping forward and with a feral look, he cast another spell; it was a complicated powerful spell and as soon as he finished, the earth began to rumble, the walls began to shake and fissures appeared in the floor; one of these was perilously close to Victor. The corpse of the warrior almost toppled over into it, but providence ensured that he stayed on the surface.

This did not help one of the banks of archers; rocks and debris smashed on them from the ceiling; most of them were buried under rubble. At the far end of the cave, Kreven was unperturbed and hovered in mid air but Koren and her bodyguard were now on the floor although fully behind the magical barrier.

They looked a little put out but unhurt.

Longhelim, even though he was badly hurt, advanced onto the bear like construct and applied the last few blows onto it, finally breaking it up.

The ground settled but the moans and screams of the hurt and the dying began to be heard.

In the midst of this, the Obelisk was completely unaffected.
 


Spectacular! I'll be waiting with bated breath for a ping from Tapatalk :-)
Compliments to the players, they're really delivering the goods in this war of attrition!
 

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