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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cafu" data-source="post: 6286217" data-attributes="member: 6692807">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:</blockquote>

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