John was some time but then we heard a knock on our door; the enemy wouldn’t knock, so we opened the door cautiously to find John/Serimus outside. He slipped through and then grinned at us, looking immensely pleased with himself.
Felix and I were still cramming our spells so I wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying but the he slipped a note in front of me and Felix; it said: “Combat spells – learn as many combat spells as you can. No scouting. Nothing utilitarian; something is going to kick off in the banqueting hall.”
The time passed quickly and amazingly, as I was about to embark on the final set of memory exercises, I felt a sort of lightening, as if whatever oppression or soul crush which that strange undead had inflicted on us, lifted. That was a huge relief and with renewed vigour, I threw myself into learning my spells.
When I finished, I looked at Victor and Felix: “Are you feeling better? Did you feel…”
Before I could finish, they both nodded. “Yes, we felt the soul drain leave us a short while ago,” Felix replied. “Which means that I can learn my full complement of spells; battle spells as John suggests.”
Longhelim sat as all down. Then he said: “Now, John, you have something to tell us? Something good?”
John began: “Well, I left and made my way to the Vault as we discussed; it’s quite close so I was invisible for most of the way. There was only one guard at the door which seemed quite strange considering that it held one of the most precious objects in Dassen.
Anyway, I approached the guard in this form and began to talk to him. Strangely, he greeted me as if he had seen me several times already. I had a little magical help but frankly it was just too easy to get him to open the door. Again, the implication was that Serimus had been inside the vault a fair few times.
Anyway, inside the room was a pedestal and a book was lying on it. I got my invisible friend to try to open it but that didn’t work; so I tried to open it myself and guess what? My hand went straight through it! It was an illusion; really good one as well. So, I did a little poking around and found a spot of magic just above the pedestal; I looked a little more closely and there was just the end of a rope hanging from the air; you could just barely make it out…...”
I interrupted him at that point. I couldn’t help it: “Of course! It’s that spell that creates a little pocket plane! You know: the one we used to hide when we ambushed that thieving ranger in Seaquen; the one we had to deliver to the dragon because he kidnapped one of her children? Anyway, according to theoretical magic, anything in that spell is outside the prime material plane; so……”
John got up and was pacing up and down now, excited…..”yes, Faden, you’ve got it! The Book is supposed to protect the great Lords of Dassen from being mentally manipulated; but not if it’s on another plane; or at least I don’t think even an artifact is as strong as that. So, if the nobles ingest the Red Madness which we found here, all the hells break loose in the banqueting Hall and everyone will start killing each other; including the Lords, who are supposed to be immune from that sort of meddling. I know that Gallo said he was going to take steps to protect himself but everyone else is going to be affected.”
Longhelim said: “Well, so what did you do?”
John just grinned: “I took the book out and put it in the exact place of the illusion. So it’s out of the pocket plane….”
“……and able to protect the Lords of the Land like it’s supposed to; that’s genius, John……”Felix finished.
Longhelim was murmuring: “Tricky, tricky beggars those Ragesians. The spell would then have finished and the Book would have finished up on the pedestal when someone checked up on it, and no one would have been the wiser!”
The paladin continued: “Well, we didn’t get our cast iron evidence but John did prevent a major catastrophe. The catastrophe may still happen but at least it is not as assured as it would have been. At least we have protected the Lords of the Land, hopefully. Now, we have to hurry to the banquet. We’ll be late as is.”
We put the finishing touches to our spells and then began to cast several of the ones which we knew were going to last for a fairly long time. Thankfully, several of the effects that we had cast before we began to cram were still active.
Finally, thus bolstered, left the store room and began to ascend to the banqueting hall. We saw that the hall ways were heavily patrolled but having Ambassador Serimus with us seemed to ease the way remarkably.
Finally, we reached the Hall and were shown in.
It was a large space, with braziers positioned at several points on the edge of the room providing plenty of light. The walls were covered with stupendous tapestries showing scenes from Dassen’s myths and history as well as deeds in the struggle that Steppengaard undertook to become ruler of the Land. These were exquisitely embroidered and it was all I could do to stop myself from immediately going over and examining them carefully.
Tables were set on the edges of the room. Everyone seemed in very good spirits, with much talk and laughter. Attentive soldiers lined the walls and servants scurried around, filling beakers and glasses, serving meat, vegetables, bread, potatoes and other assorted foodstuff. I must say, despite my resolution not to touch anything as I was very suspicious of that food, it all looked delicious.
Steppengaard was seated at the head table, together with Lady Namin, Lord Dashgoban and Duke Gallo. He also had a very large individual wearing heavy armour behind him. I recognized him as the King’s Blade, a honorific given to the ruler’s bodyguard.
Gallo looked up as we arrived, looking relieved and then frowned as he spotted “Ambassador Serimus” with us. We were led to a table near the corner and as we walked over to it, I could feel Steppengaard glaring at us. I glanced up and in the opposite corner to us, I saw Nina; she was also looking at us, and as usual, had that grin on her face, as if we were all a joke to her.
We joined in the general feasting and drinking although I certainly didn’t actually let anything into my mouth. Lots of gesticulation and pretence though; everyone else was too busy looking after themselves so it was unlikely they noticed.
All of this continued for a brief time and then the main course was introduced. The cooks had really outdone themselves; it looked delicious; Gallo, cleverly, invoked an ancient tradition by which the meals were switched with each other’s neighbours. This seemed to provoke amusement more than anything else, as people began to hand each other plates. Then, after this course was consumed, Steppengaard stood up:
“Soldiers, please close the doors. Now, Duke Gallo, as this feast was mainly in your honour, I hope you enjoyed it. Now, I would ask you to begin the discourse.”
Gallo looked startled. So was I for that matter. I wasn’t expecting this to be done so publicly or in such a setting; however, nothing loth, Gallo replied:
“Your Majesty, you spoke of new evidence; evidence which would prove decisive to this whole misunderstanding. I would now ask you to present this evidence.”
Steppengaard looked around and opened his mouth when someone began to laugh loudly. Everyone looked at an innocuous man sitting at one of the tables; he was holding his knife and had just pinned his neighbour’s hand to the table. Amazingly, it was the victim who was laughing. Someone else shouted as one of the ladies, giggling, poured a glass of wine over his head; he began to strangle her.
Suddenly, more and stranger incidents began happening. One of the servants took his tray and hit one of the soldiers; on his helmeted head, so little damage was done but the soldier punched him out. Another member of a Lord’s entourage lifted a drumstick and threw it at the person sitting opposite. The latter individual stood up and threw his chair at the thrower; and on and on it went.
The creepiest thing was that everyone seemed to be laughing raucously or giggling madly as this was happening; except the Lords of the Land. They were staring in shock at this behavior. The next moment, our attention was drawn to something else!
Nina, in her corner, was standing still and then began to…..change. The figure of the gnome, warped, disappeared, re-appeared, then melted and was subsumed into a huge, roiling, coiling, hissing nest of snakes. The last impression of the figure of Nina was her maddening grin which faded into the nest. This thing had appeared on top of a couple of the diners and they, poor souls, seemed to be stuck in its depths.
As the transformation completed, the hissing seemed to be almost triumphant and as I looked at it with my sight aided by my spell which allowed me to see invisible beings, I was drawn hypnotically into the coiling nest, almost by horrified fascination. It was almost at the last moment that I managed to tear my eyes away from this thing but in that brief moment when I saw its true nature, I realized that this was Madness! This creature, masquerading as a gnome and whatever else, was called Madness and it was a trillith! The same mysterious creature as Indomitability of the Fire Forest! I should have seen it sooner with its ability to go incorporeal! When the Ragesian referred to Madness and the plan, they had been referring to whatever machinations this insane monster had cooked up!
I screamed, trying to warn the others at my table: “That’s Madness! Trillith! She’s behind everything!”
By this stage though complete insanity and chaos reigned in the room. Some men and women were fighting; others were just staring at their food or wine, doing nothing; here and there, people were babbling idiotically.
I could almost feel Madness slinging spells around. I couldn’t actually see her doing it but I knew somehow she was responsible for adding to the Red Madness in the food and drink. Then, Steppengaard stood up and drawing his sword, began to attack Gallo! The snakes seemed to react in triumph.
Time for us to react: although I was pressed in by the mayhem, I managed to dodge swords and assorted weapons and cast the spell of speed on my companions. This allowed Victor to move through a gap towards the trillith. Most of the soldiers around him were busy babbling and laughing hysterically rather than worry about the figure running through their midst.
Unlike the madness in the room, the combat on the top table was far more purposeful. With a manic sneer, Steppengaard was still slashing at Gallo who was trying to defend himself; the King’s Blade entered the combat on the King’s side. There was no sign of Lady Namin but Lady Timor was standing in a corner and I just saw a ball of flame appear next to her. Gallo’s chaplain was standing behind the Duke while the latter was fencing with the King. Gallo was at a disadvantage as I saw that most of the time, he was hitting the King with the flat of his blade.
Then, to my dismay, I noticed that Drudge was sitting at the table, blabbering to himself mindlessly. It looked as if at least one of us had been affected by the mad magic in the room. As Victor sped forward, one of the snake heads struck towards him, fangs dripping poison, biting deeply; his skin glowed where it bit; so at least my protective spell worked against this monstrosity. The warrior still staggered but despite this, he was the first of us to confront Madness!
Victor began to weave that curtain of steel in front of him, using that cunning technique which made him such a difficult opponent; as he was doing this, his falchion also struck and cut through one of the snakes. It recoiled and hissed shrilly.
I cast one of my spells at it; it was the spell of force missiles but I had strengthened it. It was more difficult to cast and therefore it took longer to learn but it was much more powerful; and it had the advantage that I knew that Madness suffered from it; and as soon as I saw the missiles strike, I realised that its wounds were closing! It had some sort of magical healing!
Longhelim was also moving forward and was about to join Victor in his struggle. Madness seemed to welcome the paladin with a triumphant hiss and another of the heads flashed towards him; again my spell glowed and Longhelim also reached the trillith.
I spared a glance towards the royal table where the situation had not changed a great deal. The King was still fighting the Duke; I was surprised that they were still struggling together and then as Steppengaard landed a good blow, I saw that Gallo’s chaplain lurched very slightly as if also struck; I realised that they had magically linked their vitality; it was a spell that I had read about but it was only available to priests; I commended Gallo on his foresight for doing that; it may just have been saving his life.
Drudge was still in a befuddled state although every so often he loosed a few arrows towards Madness and so I cast another of my spells of strong missiles towards the nest of snakes. She roiled again so I knew I had done something; as I cast the spell, I actually counted no less than eight snake heads weaving and swaying but then all eight of those snake heads flashed against Victor and Longhelim. That combat was so fast it was almost impossible to follow; again and again, Victor’s falchion deflected one of the bites but he was unable to stop all of them. Some struck his body and I could see my spell glowing on his skin.
Longhelim was not so fortunate. He was struck more often and suffered more than Victor.
Despite this, the two warriors were giving a very accounting of themselves and both were landing very good blows on Madness; despite this, the monstrosity just seemed to shrug them off and continue hissing and biting.
The condition of the room had deteriorated even further, if that was possible. Most of the soldiers were now fighting each other with maddened stares; many of the nobles were simply gone. There was certainly no sign of Lady Namin although Lady Timor was still guiding her ball of flame onto the King’s Blade. The situation on the King’s table had grown more desperate as Steppengaard had slain Gallo’s chaplain, making the Duke more vulnerable. The two still continued to fence with each other and as Victor and Longhelim retreated slowly from Madness, they almost joined the combat at the King’s table.
Then I heard a shout from John who had been supporting Gallo, desperately healing him.
“Victor, attack Steppengaard!”
The warrior, concentrating on Madness and trying to defend against her myriad of attacks, stumbled slightly and swung wildly against the King, who ignored him. Madness almost seemed to laugh at this stumble and proceeded to make several attacks against him, of which he managed to avoid most. The King still concentrated on Gallo but Victor struck again and this time scored a deep slash on the King; not only did the monarch stumble but the Blade fell; he had also been aiding the King’s vitality through magic but Victor’s blow proved too much their shared strength.
Steppengaard cried hoarsely and re-doubled his efforts against the Duke, wounding him deeply but thankfully, John was behind the Duke and tapped him several times with his wand. He had been doing that for a little time already and it would have been likely that Gallo would have fallen if it had not been for Sir John.
Suddenly, as the nobles, retainers and servants managed to make themselves scarce, leaving only the soldiers, it left quite a large gap in the middle of the room. Madness slithered forward, attempting to engulf Victor with her coiling mass but the warrior was able to avoid this trap with the help of Felix’s magic; but as he moved away, Lady Timor took out a scroll and suddenly a ball of energy engulfed Madness. Unlike my balls of fire, she cast balls of cold which seemed to harm the creature far more than my meager spells. The snakes reared back and immediately glared at the author of their new pain; Lady Timor became the new target of the monster.
The snake heads swayed hypnotically and struck at Lady Timor several times, wounding her grievously; then, as if to prove that she had not forgotten him, several of them struck Longhelim. The paladin collapsed at this point and burst into flames. Felix tried to move to him but another head struck the priest, stopping him in his tracks. Then the last few heads, three to be exact, hit at Victor; only one actually struck him but it was enough to finally bypass his magical protection and wound him directly.
Lady Timor took this opportunity to scurry out of the way into a corner and I also managed cast a spell which created several powerful bolts of fire; Madness seemed to burn a little but it had been obvious that the cold had hurt her far more; then there was also that damnable healing. Her wounds seemed to be closing faster than we were causing them. The situation was getting desperate.
There was no sign of the usual hail of arrows so I had to assume that Drudge was still beffudled. Then, to my horror, I saw that Steppengaard struck Gallo and the Duke finally collapsed; the triumphant hiss from that hateful mass could be heard even above the surrounding din. Madness then moved up to Victor, as if finally losing patience with this impertinent human and with a flurry of snake heads, concentrated all her attacks solely on him; somehow, the warrior was able to dodge, deflect or block many of her attacks but some did get through and the monstrosity reared back in surprise to see the warrior still standing; bleeding, swaying and cursing but still standing! In return, Victor wound himself up and delivered three enormously strong blows to Madness which caused even her to retreat slightly.
I followed up Victor’s blows with another of my rays of fire, while the Lady Timor managed to get another of these cold spells into the creature, compounding Victor’s damage but it was not enough! With another attack, Madness struck Victor and the warrior collapsed and burst into flames.
This now left a major problem; both Longhelim and Victor were down unconscious, Felix was badly hurt and was in the process of attempting to heal Longhelim; I was in a corner but by no means safe and Lady Timor was close by, having just hurt Madness again. Drudge was obviously still affected by the madness and there was no sign of John.
Duke Gallo stirred at this point but still stayed on the ground, obviously still very badly hurt; Madness seemed to lose interest in us for a moment, as her attention was grabbed by a couple of scurrying nobles; one of them managed to get away, the other poor unfortunate was bitten several times and suffered the effects of the venom.
As Madness was distracted, Gallo took advantage and struck at Steppengaard, hitting him a slicing blow; the King was obviously also badly hurt and collapsed to the floor, drawing an outraged hiss from Madness who immediately swayed to Gallo and bit him; the Duke collapsed again but Lord Dashgoban bravely bounded forward, beard flowing, and struck the creature as well; finally, Victor, healed by an invisible John, stirred and swung from the floor, hitting Madness with an enormously strong slash. Madness reared and two of her heads struck at Dashgoban, felling the dwarven Lord; another couple struck Victor, causing him to burst into flames again and finally another struck the Duke, making sure of his death.
Then, with a wave of my staff, I cast another ball of fire which caught Madness fully. She shrieked reared and the snakes seemed to come apart, sloughing off another form: images of madness, suffering and other things not meant for mortal eyes flashed before me before whatever this trillith actually was, disappeared from this plane!
There was still carnage and mayhem as the soldiers and nobles continued to suffer from the effects of the Red Madness but without the fell driving force of the trillith, it was beginning to die down as more and more people either recovered or were driven into unconsciousness.
Felix immediately went to check all the unconscious bodies near him: namely Steppengaard who was still alive and Gallo, who unfortunately was not. Thankfully, both Victor and Longhelim were only unconscious and were quickly roused.
Steppengaard, who was also fed a potion, stood up and slowly looked around the death and destruction in the hall. He put his head in his hands briefly and then moaned:
“What have I done!”
Then he took his crown off and seemed about to throw it into the wall when Longhelim shouted:
“No! If you throw it away, then all of this will have been in vain! All this destruction, all of our pain and sacrifice! Gallo’s death!”
He pointed to all the corpses of soldiers, nobles and servants.
“All their deaths will be pointless! This is what they want, the Ragesians. We just faced Madness. All this was her plan! And the Ragesians were to follow it through the Alydi Gap. If you give up now, their success will be assured. All of this started with the deaths of your family!”
Steppegaard stiffened at this.
Longhelim pressed on: “Think about it! Nina, Madness, or whatever else she was, walks through walls! They had no chance! She probably made most of them kill each other! Rule for their memory if for no one else! Be the King they wanted you to be! We will show you missives we found! These connect Madness to General Revulus and Serimus and Inquisitor Torrax. If Dassen doesn’t have a strong leader now, the Ragesians will just walk in! Would your Queen have wanted that? You must keep your country united in remembrance to her!”
Longhelim was pulling out all the stops here and playing a little dirty as well; but it was necessary. The Ragesians were still on the verge of succeeding with their plan and they weren’t even here!
Steppengaard’s face hardened as he listened to us: “You say you have proof of the Ragesian’s connection with this monstrosity? If that is true, then there will be war! They have gone too far! They have taken all that I held dear! Thus they have gained a lifelong enemy! Never in my lifetime will Dassen forgive the atrocities committed by this Madness!”
Quickly we produced the precious notes which we had recovered from the Watchtower on Alydi’s Gap which first mentioned Madness and her plan; then we showed him the notes found in the Ragesian’s quarters next to the dungeons; finally, John explained what he had found in the vault and the King quickly dispatched one of this mages to verify this. He also sent the notes to be checked by his own spell casters.
As these were being checked and he waited for the return of his magician from the Vault, he bade us tell him how and what we had done. His people returned before we finished but he bade them to be silent until we had finished. It was noticeable that he did not ask any questions; he just listened. Then his servants whispered in his ear.
He almost whispered. I could see him shaking with rage: “You have done us a great service. A far greater service that we deserved. My mages confirm that all you have told me is the truth. So, I will protect this realm and all who live in it; including Seaquen.”
He then directed several soldiers: “Take these bodies to the Chapel of the Aquiline Cross.”
Then he looked at us: “Please, you have already done so much; go and recover. My servants will take you to guest quarters and I will see you in the morning.”
Led by a couple of servants, we were taken to the guest quarters. The few people we saw in the corridor shunned us; considering our state and appearance, I wasn’t surprised. The warriors were in the worst state; they looked as if they had been mauled by something huge and unnatural; which wasn’t far from the truth as it happened. Scratches, punctures, dents and abrasions dotted their armour. Felix wasn’t much better off. We were all leaving bloody footprints on the floor. I was reasonably healthy but bruised and battered. Drudge had been badly cut several times by mad soldiers standing next to him.
We finally reached our quarters and as soon as we arranged watches, we fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
Felix and I were still cramming our spells so I wasn’t paying any attention to what he was saying but the he slipped a note in front of me and Felix; it said: “Combat spells – learn as many combat spells as you can. No scouting. Nothing utilitarian; something is going to kick off in the banqueting hall.”
The time passed quickly and amazingly, as I was about to embark on the final set of memory exercises, I felt a sort of lightening, as if whatever oppression or soul crush which that strange undead had inflicted on us, lifted. That was a huge relief and with renewed vigour, I threw myself into learning my spells.
When I finished, I looked at Victor and Felix: “Are you feeling better? Did you feel…”
Before I could finish, they both nodded. “Yes, we felt the soul drain leave us a short while ago,” Felix replied. “Which means that I can learn my full complement of spells; battle spells as John suggests.”
Longhelim sat as all down. Then he said: “Now, John, you have something to tell us? Something good?”
John began: “Well, I left and made my way to the Vault as we discussed; it’s quite close so I was invisible for most of the way. There was only one guard at the door which seemed quite strange considering that it held one of the most precious objects in Dassen.
Anyway, I approached the guard in this form and began to talk to him. Strangely, he greeted me as if he had seen me several times already. I had a little magical help but frankly it was just too easy to get him to open the door. Again, the implication was that Serimus had been inside the vault a fair few times.
Anyway, inside the room was a pedestal and a book was lying on it. I got my invisible friend to try to open it but that didn’t work; so I tried to open it myself and guess what? My hand went straight through it! It was an illusion; really good one as well. So, I did a little poking around and found a spot of magic just above the pedestal; I looked a little more closely and there was just the end of a rope hanging from the air; you could just barely make it out…...”
I interrupted him at that point. I couldn’t help it: “Of course! It’s that spell that creates a little pocket plane! You know: the one we used to hide when we ambushed that thieving ranger in Seaquen; the one we had to deliver to the dragon because he kidnapped one of her children? Anyway, according to theoretical magic, anything in that spell is outside the prime material plane; so……”
John got up and was pacing up and down now, excited…..”yes, Faden, you’ve got it! The Book is supposed to protect the great Lords of Dassen from being mentally manipulated; but not if it’s on another plane; or at least I don’t think even an artifact is as strong as that. So, if the nobles ingest the Red Madness which we found here, all the hells break loose in the banqueting Hall and everyone will start killing each other; including the Lords, who are supposed to be immune from that sort of meddling. I know that Gallo said he was going to take steps to protect himself but everyone else is going to be affected.”
Longhelim said: “Well, so what did you do?”
John just grinned: “I took the book out and put it in the exact place of the illusion. So it’s out of the pocket plane….”
“……and able to protect the Lords of the Land like it’s supposed to; that’s genius, John……”Felix finished.
Longhelim was murmuring: “Tricky, tricky beggars those Ragesians. The spell would then have finished and the Book would have finished up on the pedestal when someone checked up on it, and no one would have been the wiser!”
The paladin continued: “Well, we didn’t get our cast iron evidence but John did prevent a major catastrophe. The catastrophe may still happen but at least it is not as assured as it would have been. At least we have protected the Lords of the Land, hopefully. Now, we have to hurry to the banquet. We’ll be late as is.”
We put the finishing touches to our spells and then began to cast several of the ones which we knew were going to last for a fairly long time. Thankfully, several of the effects that we had cast before we began to cram were still active.
Finally, thus bolstered, left the store room and began to ascend to the banqueting hall. We saw that the hall ways were heavily patrolled but having Ambassador Serimus with us seemed to ease the way remarkably.
Finally, we reached the Hall and were shown in.
It was a large space, with braziers positioned at several points on the edge of the room providing plenty of light. The walls were covered with stupendous tapestries showing scenes from Dassen’s myths and history as well as deeds in the struggle that Steppengaard undertook to become ruler of the Land. These were exquisitely embroidered and it was all I could do to stop myself from immediately going over and examining them carefully.
Tables were set on the edges of the room. Everyone seemed in very good spirits, with much talk and laughter. Attentive soldiers lined the walls and servants scurried around, filling beakers and glasses, serving meat, vegetables, bread, potatoes and other assorted foodstuff. I must say, despite my resolution not to touch anything as I was very suspicious of that food, it all looked delicious.
Steppengaard was seated at the head table, together with Lady Namin, Lord Dashgoban and Duke Gallo. He also had a very large individual wearing heavy armour behind him. I recognized him as the King’s Blade, a honorific given to the ruler’s bodyguard.
Gallo looked up as we arrived, looking relieved and then frowned as he spotted “Ambassador Serimus” with us. We were led to a table near the corner and as we walked over to it, I could feel Steppengaard glaring at us. I glanced up and in the opposite corner to us, I saw Nina; she was also looking at us, and as usual, had that grin on her face, as if we were all a joke to her.
We joined in the general feasting and drinking although I certainly didn’t actually let anything into my mouth. Lots of gesticulation and pretence though; everyone else was too busy looking after themselves so it was unlikely they noticed.
All of this continued for a brief time and then the main course was introduced. The cooks had really outdone themselves; it looked delicious; Gallo, cleverly, invoked an ancient tradition by which the meals were switched with each other’s neighbours. This seemed to provoke amusement more than anything else, as people began to hand each other plates. Then, after this course was consumed, Steppengaard stood up:
“Soldiers, please close the doors. Now, Duke Gallo, as this feast was mainly in your honour, I hope you enjoyed it. Now, I would ask you to begin the discourse.”
Gallo looked startled. So was I for that matter. I wasn’t expecting this to be done so publicly or in such a setting; however, nothing loth, Gallo replied:
“Your Majesty, you spoke of new evidence; evidence which would prove decisive to this whole misunderstanding. I would now ask you to present this evidence.”
Steppengaard looked around and opened his mouth when someone began to laugh loudly. Everyone looked at an innocuous man sitting at one of the tables; he was holding his knife and had just pinned his neighbour’s hand to the table. Amazingly, it was the victim who was laughing. Someone else shouted as one of the ladies, giggling, poured a glass of wine over his head; he began to strangle her.
Suddenly, more and stranger incidents began happening. One of the servants took his tray and hit one of the soldiers; on his helmeted head, so little damage was done but the soldier punched him out. Another member of a Lord’s entourage lifted a drumstick and threw it at the person sitting opposite. The latter individual stood up and threw his chair at the thrower; and on and on it went.
The creepiest thing was that everyone seemed to be laughing raucously or giggling madly as this was happening; except the Lords of the Land. They were staring in shock at this behavior. The next moment, our attention was drawn to something else!
Nina, in her corner, was standing still and then began to…..change. The figure of the gnome, warped, disappeared, re-appeared, then melted and was subsumed into a huge, roiling, coiling, hissing nest of snakes. The last impression of the figure of Nina was her maddening grin which faded into the nest. This thing had appeared on top of a couple of the diners and they, poor souls, seemed to be stuck in its depths.
As the transformation completed, the hissing seemed to be almost triumphant and as I looked at it with my sight aided by my spell which allowed me to see invisible beings, I was drawn hypnotically into the coiling nest, almost by horrified fascination. It was almost at the last moment that I managed to tear my eyes away from this thing but in that brief moment when I saw its true nature, I realized that this was Madness! This creature, masquerading as a gnome and whatever else, was called Madness and it was a trillith! The same mysterious creature as Indomitability of the Fire Forest! I should have seen it sooner with its ability to go incorporeal! When the Ragesian referred to Madness and the plan, they had been referring to whatever machinations this insane monster had cooked up!
I screamed, trying to warn the others at my table: “That’s Madness! Trillith! She’s behind everything!”
By this stage though complete insanity and chaos reigned in the room. Some men and women were fighting; others were just staring at their food or wine, doing nothing; here and there, people were babbling idiotically.
I could almost feel Madness slinging spells around. I couldn’t actually see her doing it but I knew somehow she was responsible for adding to the Red Madness in the food and drink. Then, Steppengaard stood up and drawing his sword, began to attack Gallo! The snakes seemed to react in triumph.
Time for us to react: although I was pressed in by the mayhem, I managed to dodge swords and assorted weapons and cast the spell of speed on my companions. This allowed Victor to move through a gap towards the trillith. Most of the soldiers around him were busy babbling and laughing hysterically rather than worry about the figure running through their midst.
Unlike the madness in the room, the combat on the top table was far more purposeful. With a manic sneer, Steppengaard was still slashing at Gallo who was trying to defend himself; the King’s Blade entered the combat on the King’s side. There was no sign of Lady Namin but Lady Timor was standing in a corner and I just saw a ball of flame appear next to her. Gallo’s chaplain was standing behind the Duke while the latter was fencing with the King. Gallo was at a disadvantage as I saw that most of the time, he was hitting the King with the flat of his blade.
Then, to my dismay, I noticed that Drudge was sitting at the table, blabbering to himself mindlessly. It looked as if at least one of us had been affected by the mad magic in the room. As Victor sped forward, one of the snake heads struck towards him, fangs dripping poison, biting deeply; his skin glowed where it bit; so at least my protective spell worked against this monstrosity. The warrior still staggered but despite this, he was the first of us to confront Madness!
Victor began to weave that curtain of steel in front of him, using that cunning technique which made him such a difficult opponent; as he was doing this, his falchion also struck and cut through one of the snakes. It recoiled and hissed shrilly.
I cast one of my spells at it; it was the spell of force missiles but I had strengthened it. It was more difficult to cast and therefore it took longer to learn but it was much more powerful; and it had the advantage that I knew that Madness suffered from it; and as soon as I saw the missiles strike, I realised that its wounds were closing! It had some sort of magical healing!
Longhelim was also moving forward and was about to join Victor in his struggle. Madness seemed to welcome the paladin with a triumphant hiss and another of the heads flashed towards him; again my spell glowed and Longhelim also reached the trillith.
I spared a glance towards the royal table where the situation had not changed a great deal. The King was still fighting the Duke; I was surprised that they were still struggling together and then as Steppengaard landed a good blow, I saw that Gallo’s chaplain lurched very slightly as if also struck; I realised that they had magically linked their vitality; it was a spell that I had read about but it was only available to priests; I commended Gallo on his foresight for doing that; it may just have been saving his life.
Drudge was still in a befuddled state although every so often he loosed a few arrows towards Madness and so I cast another of my spells of strong missiles towards the nest of snakes. She roiled again so I knew I had done something; as I cast the spell, I actually counted no less than eight snake heads weaving and swaying but then all eight of those snake heads flashed against Victor and Longhelim. That combat was so fast it was almost impossible to follow; again and again, Victor’s falchion deflected one of the bites but he was unable to stop all of them. Some struck his body and I could see my spell glowing on his skin.
Longhelim was not so fortunate. He was struck more often and suffered more than Victor.
Despite this, the two warriors were giving a very accounting of themselves and both were landing very good blows on Madness; despite this, the monstrosity just seemed to shrug them off and continue hissing and biting.
The condition of the room had deteriorated even further, if that was possible. Most of the soldiers were now fighting each other with maddened stares; many of the nobles were simply gone. There was certainly no sign of Lady Namin although Lady Timor was still guiding her ball of flame onto the King’s Blade. The situation on the King’s table had grown more desperate as Steppengaard had slain Gallo’s chaplain, making the Duke more vulnerable. The two still continued to fence with each other and as Victor and Longhelim retreated slowly from Madness, they almost joined the combat at the King’s table.
Then I heard a shout from John who had been supporting Gallo, desperately healing him.
“Victor, attack Steppengaard!”
The warrior, concentrating on Madness and trying to defend against her myriad of attacks, stumbled slightly and swung wildly against the King, who ignored him. Madness almost seemed to laugh at this stumble and proceeded to make several attacks against him, of which he managed to avoid most. The King still concentrated on Gallo but Victor struck again and this time scored a deep slash on the King; not only did the monarch stumble but the Blade fell; he had also been aiding the King’s vitality through magic but Victor’s blow proved too much their shared strength.
Steppengaard cried hoarsely and re-doubled his efforts against the Duke, wounding him deeply but thankfully, John was behind the Duke and tapped him several times with his wand. He had been doing that for a little time already and it would have been likely that Gallo would have fallen if it had not been for Sir John.
Suddenly, as the nobles, retainers and servants managed to make themselves scarce, leaving only the soldiers, it left quite a large gap in the middle of the room. Madness slithered forward, attempting to engulf Victor with her coiling mass but the warrior was able to avoid this trap with the help of Felix’s magic; but as he moved away, Lady Timor took out a scroll and suddenly a ball of energy engulfed Madness. Unlike my balls of fire, she cast balls of cold which seemed to harm the creature far more than my meager spells. The snakes reared back and immediately glared at the author of their new pain; Lady Timor became the new target of the monster.
The snake heads swayed hypnotically and struck at Lady Timor several times, wounding her grievously; then, as if to prove that she had not forgotten him, several of them struck Longhelim. The paladin collapsed at this point and burst into flames. Felix tried to move to him but another head struck the priest, stopping him in his tracks. Then the last few heads, three to be exact, hit at Victor; only one actually struck him but it was enough to finally bypass his magical protection and wound him directly.
Lady Timor took this opportunity to scurry out of the way into a corner and I also managed cast a spell which created several powerful bolts of fire; Madness seemed to burn a little but it had been obvious that the cold had hurt her far more; then there was also that damnable healing. Her wounds seemed to be closing faster than we were causing them. The situation was getting desperate.
There was no sign of the usual hail of arrows so I had to assume that Drudge was still beffudled. Then, to my horror, I saw that Steppengaard struck Gallo and the Duke finally collapsed; the triumphant hiss from that hateful mass could be heard even above the surrounding din. Madness then moved up to Victor, as if finally losing patience with this impertinent human and with a flurry of snake heads, concentrated all her attacks solely on him; somehow, the warrior was able to dodge, deflect or block many of her attacks but some did get through and the monstrosity reared back in surprise to see the warrior still standing; bleeding, swaying and cursing but still standing! In return, Victor wound himself up and delivered three enormously strong blows to Madness which caused even her to retreat slightly.
I followed up Victor’s blows with another of my rays of fire, while the Lady Timor managed to get another of these cold spells into the creature, compounding Victor’s damage but it was not enough! With another attack, Madness struck Victor and the warrior collapsed and burst into flames.
This now left a major problem; both Longhelim and Victor were down unconscious, Felix was badly hurt and was in the process of attempting to heal Longhelim; I was in a corner but by no means safe and Lady Timor was close by, having just hurt Madness again. Drudge was obviously still affected by the madness and there was no sign of John.
Duke Gallo stirred at this point but still stayed on the ground, obviously still very badly hurt; Madness seemed to lose interest in us for a moment, as her attention was grabbed by a couple of scurrying nobles; one of them managed to get away, the other poor unfortunate was bitten several times and suffered the effects of the venom.
As Madness was distracted, Gallo took advantage and struck at Steppengaard, hitting him a slicing blow; the King was obviously also badly hurt and collapsed to the floor, drawing an outraged hiss from Madness who immediately swayed to Gallo and bit him; the Duke collapsed again but Lord Dashgoban bravely bounded forward, beard flowing, and struck the creature as well; finally, Victor, healed by an invisible John, stirred and swung from the floor, hitting Madness with an enormously strong slash. Madness reared and two of her heads struck at Dashgoban, felling the dwarven Lord; another couple struck Victor, causing him to burst into flames again and finally another struck the Duke, making sure of his death.
Then, with a wave of my staff, I cast another ball of fire which caught Madness fully. She shrieked reared and the snakes seemed to come apart, sloughing off another form: images of madness, suffering and other things not meant for mortal eyes flashed before me before whatever this trillith actually was, disappeared from this plane!
There was still carnage and mayhem as the soldiers and nobles continued to suffer from the effects of the Red Madness but without the fell driving force of the trillith, it was beginning to die down as more and more people either recovered or were driven into unconsciousness.
Felix immediately went to check all the unconscious bodies near him: namely Steppengaard who was still alive and Gallo, who unfortunately was not. Thankfully, both Victor and Longhelim were only unconscious and were quickly roused.
Steppengaard, who was also fed a potion, stood up and slowly looked around the death and destruction in the hall. He put his head in his hands briefly and then moaned:
“What have I done!”
Then he took his crown off and seemed about to throw it into the wall when Longhelim shouted:
“No! If you throw it away, then all of this will have been in vain! All this destruction, all of our pain and sacrifice! Gallo’s death!”
He pointed to all the corpses of soldiers, nobles and servants.
“All their deaths will be pointless! This is what they want, the Ragesians. We just faced Madness. All this was her plan! And the Ragesians were to follow it through the Alydi Gap. If you give up now, their success will be assured. All of this started with the deaths of your family!”
Steppegaard stiffened at this.
Longhelim pressed on: “Think about it! Nina, Madness, or whatever else she was, walks through walls! They had no chance! She probably made most of them kill each other! Rule for their memory if for no one else! Be the King they wanted you to be! We will show you missives we found! These connect Madness to General Revulus and Serimus and Inquisitor Torrax. If Dassen doesn’t have a strong leader now, the Ragesians will just walk in! Would your Queen have wanted that? You must keep your country united in remembrance to her!”
Longhelim was pulling out all the stops here and playing a little dirty as well; but it was necessary. The Ragesians were still on the verge of succeeding with their plan and they weren’t even here!
Steppengaard’s face hardened as he listened to us: “You say you have proof of the Ragesian’s connection with this monstrosity? If that is true, then there will be war! They have gone too far! They have taken all that I held dear! Thus they have gained a lifelong enemy! Never in my lifetime will Dassen forgive the atrocities committed by this Madness!”
Quickly we produced the precious notes which we had recovered from the Watchtower on Alydi’s Gap which first mentioned Madness and her plan; then we showed him the notes found in the Ragesian’s quarters next to the dungeons; finally, John explained what he had found in the vault and the King quickly dispatched one of this mages to verify this. He also sent the notes to be checked by his own spell casters.
As these were being checked and he waited for the return of his magician from the Vault, he bade us tell him how and what we had done. His people returned before we finished but he bade them to be silent until we had finished. It was noticeable that he did not ask any questions; he just listened. Then his servants whispered in his ear.
He almost whispered. I could see him shaking with rage: “You have done us a great service. A far greater service that we deserved. My mages confirm that all you have told me is the truth. So, I will protect this realm and all who live in it; including Seaquen.”
He then directed several soldiers: “Take these bodies to the Chapel of the Aquiline Cross.”
Then he looked at us: “Please, you have already done so much; go and recover. My servants will take you to guest quarters and I will see you in the morning.”
Led by a couple of servants, we were taken to the guest quarters. The few people we saw in the corridor shunned us; considering our state and appearance, I wasn’t surprised. The warriors were in the worst state; they looked as if they had been mauled by something huge and unnatural; which wasn’t far from the truth as it happened. Scratches, punctures, dents and abrasions dotted their armour. Felix wasn’t much better off. We were all leaving bloody footprints on the floor. I was reasonably healthy but bruised and battered. Drudge had been badly cut several times by mad soldiers standing next to him.
We finally reached our quarters and as soon as we arranged watches, we fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.