Cast of Characters

Alfred Hero

Ambuse Wizard of the White Orchid

Arnie Knight

Coraline Magic users guild Healer

Devarsh Wizard, Head of the White Orchid

Ella Navigator

Emitari Wizard and Elvish Prince

Lady Fairfax Guardian of one of the sceptre parts

Lord Fairfax

Lord Holt Lord subjugated by Obar

Kabis Evil God

Kalinor Elvish ranger

Obar Evil Mentalist

The Adventurers Chronicle Part 1

“We Agreed To Do What??!?” I had recently had to skip town again and start

again trying to stay one step ahead.

I was in this town and I heard about this guy who

was looking for swords for hire. From what the

rumour mill had to say he had lost something of

his bosses and had to get it back. It didn’t sound

too difficult on the face of it and I had no other

way of feeding myself at that precise moment so

I volunteered.

We all met in an upstairs room above a tavern.

There were two elves, one an obvious ranger

type and fairly non-descript and the other was the

complete opposite. He had violet eyes and was

almost inhumanly (if you can say that about an

elf) handsome. He was a lot like our host in that

he was dressed like an academic right down to a

school satchel for his belongings. The other

person was a young knight who called himself

Arnie and was your typical tank with his plate

mail and great sword.

The job we were being offered was this. For a

cash reward we had to recover a small chest that

belonged to his master. It was being carried

under guard when it was attacked, the guards

killed and the box stolen. The interesting part

was this guy told us that the box had been

magically protected and should we open it it

would probably kill us.

Well a jobs a job so in the morning we set off!

Arnie really was a tank. Not only was he toting a

great sword but he had several axes, a spear,

dagger and broadsword! Even his shield looked

like it was used more for knocking people on the

head than knocking swords aside!

Our ranger friend certainly looks like a typical

wood elf especially the way he has to

‘compensate’ by carrying the biggest longbow

you have ever seen!

Our employer had provided us with horse so we

set off. Thankfully Kalinor, the ranger was very

familiar with this region and he led us into the

wilderness. It did not take us long to find the site

of the ambush and the rotting corpses of the

hired guards. We picked over the scene of the

ambush and one of the bodies had obviously

been tortured, bound and gagged. What we did

discover was that he was tattooed with the

emblem of the ‘Black Orchid’ a group of powerful

evil magicians. What we didn’t discover were any

bodies from the attackers.

Kalinor tracked the attackers back the way they

had come and as we followed the tracks he

learned that there were about a hundred all told

and they were all mounted and moving fast.

We followed the tracks until the weather

deteriorated. We had to take shelter in a natural

cave. It was while we camped that the two elves

revealed that they could perform magic. Emitari

dried all our clothes and kit using his magic while

Kalinor told us about the terrain ahead.

The weather threw the biggest storm for years at

us and when we tried to take up the trail again

we came to the bridge where the bandits crossed

only to find it washed away by the storm. Kalinor

knew of a second bridge to the north so we set

off in that direction.

As we rode along I spotted something coming

down stream at quite a rate of knots. I pointed it

out to our little company but within seconds a

water Dragon erupted from the river and charged

down the bank towards us.

Kalinor, I think lost control of his horse and

charged the Dragon. Arnie quickly dismounted

and drew his great sword, Emitari was

concentrating on preparing some magic I think

and I hurled a throwing knife at the beast striking

it in the eye!

Emitari unleashed a fireball at the beast while it

struck down Kalinor’s horse and knocked him

senseless. Arnie charged into the battle to save

the elf.

Surprisingly we survived the battle relatively

unscathed. I was lucky with several knives

finding their mark, Arnie fought the beast to a

standstill and took everything the thing could

throw at him and Emitari attacked with his magic.

I have to say that we killed the dragon much

more easily than I had expected and then Kalinor

used magic to create a pit in which we buried the

remains of the dragon after we had removed its

horns and Arnie had taken one of its smallest

teeth to use as a pendant and even that was over

six inches long!

Having recovered we continued north along the

river bank until the next bridge was in sight. This

was a stone bridge with an old mill on this bank.

The mill looked deserted but just to be cautious

Emitari cloaked me in magic and I went to

investigate. Hiding under the bridge was a huge

humanoid monster. Now I am no ranger but I

know my folk lore! I reported back to say that

there was a troll under the bridge which is the

obvious place to find a troll I thought. Upon

further discussion the group decided it was

probably a giant.

We approached carefully keeping our eyes on

the place where the giant was hiding. It soon

called our demanding a toll to cross the bridge.

The sum was ridiculous and so we refused and

the situation soon degenerated into a fight. What

we did not know was that the giants mate was in

the woods behind us and started to hurl rocks at

us. The first flattened Emitari so I rushed to put

myself between the giant and our fallen

companion while Kalinor and Arnie used bows to

engage the giants. Emitari was not grievously

wounded and soon started to recover so I started

throwing knives at the giant in the woods. The

giant behind us was soon dispatched and so we

turned our attention to the giant on the bridge. By

this time Arnie was fighting in hand to hand with

the giant. I did not want to risk stabbing Arnie in

the back with a thrown dagger. Emitari was not

so worried and so quickly threw a lightning bolt at

the giant which quite shocked and dismayed

Arnie!

Two giants were down and a third, younger by

far, broke from the trees and tried to run away.

Emitari was not keen on letting a giant escape

and so he continued to fire off magic at the

fleeing giant.

Soon the fight was over and we were able to

recover from the fracas. And we could cross the

river. Soon we were back on the trail of our

quarry.

Soon we found where the ‘bandits’ had crossed

the river and we followed them into the woods.

Even being a couple of days behind the bandits

did not matter too much; even we could follow

the trail left by100 mounted men. On the first

night we camped off the road.

During the night we were woken by the sound of

twenty heavy horses galloping past on the trail

we were following. In the morning we followed

the trail again now freshly churned up by the

twenty heavy horses. It seemed that the horses

did ease off in their gallop along the trail and we

soon realised that these were not mortal horses.

We followed more cautiously and soon came to a

fortress in the forest. This one appeared to have

been attacked and there were signs of battle. We

investigated carefully and soon noted that all the

defenders were dead and there were no signs of

the attackers. It turned out that there was one

defender left alive but even he did not live for

long. It appeared that some of the defenders had

simply died of fright!

The defenders of the fortress were the bandits

that had stolen the box that we were seeking. It

appeared now that the twenty knights that rode

these men down now had the box. We were now

on their trail and more worryingly these knights

seemed magically empowered and definitely evil.

We proceeded with caution following the trail left

by their horses and walked right into an ambush!

The Adventurers Chronicle Part 2

“Has Anyone Seen My Keys?” Dear Chronicle,

Last time I wrote of our adventures I finished

saying that I thought we were being ambushed

by the Eagle Squadron, the military wing of the

Black Orchid. As it turned out and you will see at

the end of this journal I was both completely

wrong and not that far from the truth.

When they sprang their ambush with their 100

warriors we were not in a position to fight them

off. They immediately offered to take us to their

leaders. This leader turned out to be one of the

senior masters of the Wizards Guild and one of

Emitari’s superiors within the guild. Arnie, our

noble born warrior and knight, was very

suspicious and did not seem to show much

respect for this wizard's position. I do not know if

this was due to a natural suspicion of wizards, or

the fact that Arnie only seems to respect those of

noble birth.

This emissary introduced himself as Ambuse and

warned us that we were in great danger because

of the adventures we had had so far and that we

were mixed up in the plans of some very

powerful players. He was not that forth coming

with useful information but then at that point

although we did not know it time was quite short.

What he did provide us with was the information

of where we needed to head to find the box that

we sought. He also gave us replacement horses

and when I asked for some robes and a more

protective set of leather armour he found them

for me. He then instructed us that we needed to

and he wanted us to try and extract the box from

a castle keep nearby. He offered to use his

forces as a diversion and we arranged that they

would assault the castle one hour after our own

attack or when we raised a signal. Having made

these plans we left with one of their men with us

as a scout and runner should we need to change

our plans.

The castle keep, when we set eyes upon it, was

not large or well-maintained being a remnant of

the more violent days in this region. It consisted

of a curtain wall, ditch and gatehouse connected

by a drawbridge and inside a keep with an

attached flat roofed tower. The walls were

patrolled by half a dozen warriors.

We set about making our plans initially for

scouting out the keep. I volunteered to scout the

castle and its grounds but I attempted to divine

whether I would survive such a mission but felt

that scrying was being magically blocked. This

both aided us but putting us on a heightened

alert for evil magic users and hindered us as we

were required to be more cautious in our

treatment of this mission. After much arguing to

no end Emitari took it upon himself to use his

power to become invisible and a hitherto

unrevealed power to fly in the air to scout out the

castle, keep and tower.

Emitari’s report revealed that the tower consisted

of a ground floor guard room which was empty

but with two warriors believed to be Chaos

Warriors guarding the stairwell. We believed that

they were probably guarding the way down into a

cellar or basement below ground. The higher

stories of the tower contained an armoury, living

quarters and bed chamber but with no other

guards. The bed chamber led out onto the flat

roof via a ceiling trapdoor. These upper rooms

seemed relatively insecure with the rooftop

access and lack of guards. We assumed that the

item we sought was probably in the basement as

this would be easier for them to defend and

harder for us to attack.

We made the rudiments of a plan of attack. Using

magic we flew into the castle grounds whilst

invisible, I lead and marked out landing positions

and where on the tower wall we wished to break

in. Next Emitari was to create a magical portal

through which we would launch our attack. The

plan was then for me to use all my stealth to

strike the first Chaos Warrior from behind and

take him down leaving a clear shot for Kalinor our

Wood Elf to strike the second warrior. When we

struck we would become visible but we hoped

that if we could eliminate both guards by surprise

we could be inside and close the magical portal

before being spotted but the wall guards.

Maybe it was over confidence or an under

estimation of the power of our opponents but my

attempted assassination of the first guard did not

go well and rather than killing the guard and

leaving a clear line of fire for Kalinor rather I had

to drop and hope that Kalinor would fire on the

guard I had failed to kill. This he did but what had

been planned as a silent lightning fast entry to

the base of the tower became a grinding out as

we tried to fight our way into the small stairwell

and landing. Both guards turned out to be the

most frightening thing I had ever fought including

the dragon we killed a week previously. Soon we

were attracting the attention of the wall guards

that tried to fire upon us, Emitari used an

exploding ball of fire to clear part of the

battlements and Kalinor fired at others to protect

our backs. I tried to force my way in to the tower

and eventually left enough free space for Arnie to

join me. These warriors were so magically

protected that I found it almost an impossible

task to harm them with my relatively light

weaponry and I lacked the skill with my

broadsword to defeat them in a fair fight. Emitari

at this point joined the fight and through fireballs

and lightening which set the doors on fire and

added to the confusion of the battle. The Chaos

Warriors felt super humanly fast and resistant to

blows from weapons. Arnie, once in the battle,

absorbed a lot of their blows but even he did not

appear to be making much impression upon

them.

Over the last week I had frequently sparred with

Arnie and knew how effective his armour was but

also how it restricted him. I had practiced moves

designed to knock him to the floor or onto his

back, just to be prepared should such a situation

arise. Now seemed a really good time to start

putting these moves into practice and them at

last appeared to have an effect on the Chaos

Warriors. I threw one in to the burning door and

the collision with the iron bound burning door

seemed to stun him for a while and I tried to

assist Arnie with the second warrior. By now we

could hear other defenders trying to gain entry

through the door into the main keep. The second

Warrior was beginning to weaken, or so we

believed, but we also were suffering in the battle.

I personally was bleeding from my wounds and

Emitari and Kalinor has been badly mauled by

bow fire from the walls. Emitari ordered us all to

retreat upstairs which we all did; barring Arnie

who tried to continue to fight the remaining

Chaos Warrior as he had the advantage at that

moment. Seconds later Arnie joined us and none

too soon. The other defenders had broken into

the lower chamber and Emitari proceeded to

bombard them with fireballs. While he did that

Kalinor applied some healing herbs to my

wounds and I cleared my mind and tried to

formulate a plan of action. Arnie seeing a break

in the fireball bombardment chose to charge the

foe and I joined him, so much for having a plan.

We were faced with three opponents. A woman,

who under different circumstances would have

been considered pretty, a dark knight and a third

Chaos Warrior. Arnie lost the momentum of the

charge and left me to engage the enemy. It

appeared that his plan did not allow for the idea

of striking a woman. I took the issue out of his

hands and having prepared myself I threw two

knives at the woman the first delivering what

must have been a mortal wound and the second

dazing her. The dark knight tried to engage Arnie

and he was even faster than I am in a fight and

that is pretty fast. Arnie was forced onto the

defensive. I then started to battle the Chaos

Warrior much to the distress of my colleagues

but I had now formulated a battle plan. The

woman who I imagined to be a witch was dazed

and was susceptible to the attacks of Emitari and

Kalinor which proved very effective and instantly

fatal to her. Arnie was keeping the dark knight

engaged although he was appearing to struggle

with the knight’s sheer speed. While those fights

went on I then attacked the defeated the Chaos

Warrior. Finally we were facing just the dark

knight and his amazing speed. He was being

held in check by Arnie who was parrying for all

he was worth but even he was being worn down.

I joined the fight and with just a couple of offhand

blows the knight severely wounded me. I could

think of no way at first of defeating this knight. He

was so heavily armoured that my light weapons

made little impact; he was so skilled that, with my

sword, he could turn any attack I made and so

dangerous that he could kill me out of hand if I

stayed in combat with him. The only option was

to use a little stealth. I broke out of the combat,

waited a few seconds and then sneaked up on

the knight from behind and unceremoniously

dumped him on his arse. This was the break we

needed and Arnie then finished of our downed

and dazed foe. The unsung heroes of this fight

were actually Emitari and Kalinor who provided

everything from fire bolts, covering bow fire and

first aid whenever there was a lull in the fighting

without them I would not have been in a position

to end the fight.

With the immediate fighting over we quickly

looted the bodies of things that we could use.

This provided a large fortune in magical and rare

items. It turned out that the dark knight was

magically enhanced in his speed and his

weapons being made of Laen were fantastically

valuable and prized for their edge. Initially we

decided that Arnie and I could have one sword

each to enhance both of our hand to hand

fighting although Arnie really wanted both and as

they were designed as a pair I let Arnie have

both weapons. The knight also had a magical

belt that magically made him move at super

human speed. Arnie also wanted this belt

although he was not able to use such an item.

This was given to Kalinor but Arnie would like it

back once he learns to use items like that. We

discovered that most of our foes weapons and

armour were tainted by evil. When we looted the

woman it appeared that she was a witch and had

several items that were useful for Emitari but she

also had three throwing knives that were magical

and a belt that prevented one from becoming

stunned by blows in combat. These items I took

for myself and her other magical items Emitari

took.

During this appraising Kalinor became aware of

the outer guards trying to break into the keep so

he used his magic to seal up the outer door with

another thickness of wood. We then started to

search further up the tower and looked for the

black and silver inlaid box. When we reached the

top bedchamber we discovered the box. I

attempted to find and disable some of the traps

on the box but the box being magical started to

become agitated and started glowing. At that

point I decided that further probing was not a

wise course to take. We secured the box closed

by using belts and scarves. When we tried the

trap door to the flat roof but this was trapped

magically and it inflicted agonising magical pain

on Arnie and Kalinor. I did manage to disable that

trap and a further trap. We eventually gained

access to the flat roof.

We had hoped that the diversionary attack we

had arranged would have commenced by now

but there was no sign of it. We debated this for a

while as it was possible that we had been double

crossed and the guild master had no intention of

rescuing us. We eventually decided to fire the

signal arrow anyway and within a second or two

the guild master appeared, he was bloodied and

battle worn and in some distress. He instantly

told us to prepare to flee to Fey. With that he

magically teleported us about ten miles away

from the castle keep.

At this point we were still far from fully fit and

definitely not best prepared for a three hundred

mile trail south. We took a little time to prepare

ourselves and then set off on our trek. We

walked for seven hours that day before finally

coming to a rest. It was during that day that with

myself taking the vanguard position and Kalinor

coming behind covering our tracks that Emitari

and I spotted a number of demons flying ahead

and appearing to be searching for us. We hid as

they approached and they flew over without

detecting us.

After finally getting a nights rest Emitari used his

magic to teleport us into a library he was familiar

with. This took us forty miles away and out of any

search area that the dark forces could have

thrown up. We then bought horses and supplies

and set out on our trek south. This was an eight

day journey and thankfully uneventful. During the

journey I tried to learn as much as I could about

how to be a ranger and improve my skills in

those areas. I also discussed learning magic and

divination with Emitari.

Day 0 As we approached the city of Fey, a city of some

40,000 people we were met by an escort with a

guild member at its head and forty warriors for

our protection. This escorted us through the city

to the guild. Here we were offered refreshments

before being ushered into an audience with the

Mage that had helped us at the keep, another

senior guild member and another scholarly

looking mystic. They proceeded to enlighten us a

little as to what we had in fact recovered. They

revealed that they were part of a secret society

within the guild called the White Orchid. The

White Orchid appears to be opposed to the Black

Orchid. The story so far was...

200 years ago an artefact was discovered in a

tumbled down temple within a set of ruins. This

artefact was then studied by the guild and it was

discovered to be one part of a mystic key made

of seven parts in the form of a sceptre. There are

two unique properties about this key, firstly it can

be used to either release or destroy the dark god

Kabis or to free him from his prison where he has

been incarcerated for 100,000 years. The second

property is that it is fated in some way to be

wielded by just one individual. This individual

turns out to be Emitari. It was also revealed that

Emitari is not only a journeyman wizard but an

Elven Prince. 50 years ago this key was lost and

everyone has been searching for it since and it

had only reappeared.

If we do not gather all the parts of the key and

destroy Kabis then a rare conjunction of planets

will allow Kabis to escape his prison in about six

months’ time. This happens once every 100,000

years. If we do gather all the parts but lose them

to the dark side then they can use the key and

free Kabis at will. This is not a happy situation to

be in as all the dark side need to do is kill Emitari

and no one can wield the key so Kabis will be

able to free himself in six months. Kabis’s

freedom we were told would lead to the

destruction of our entire planet.

It appeared to me that the survival of the entire

guild is dependent on our success and the guild

must be very rich. I cannot help but feel that we

had been used to some extent by the guild and

they owed us something in recompense. I do not

actually want anything for myself and I do not

really understand what motivates Kalinor. Emitari

is both an Elven Prince and a guild member, if he

saves the planet on the orders of the guild I

imagine he will become one of the most

respected wizards of all time, and he presumably

has little need for material wealth. Arnie on the

other had has been forced from his home to

make his own way in the world. I asked, if he

should die, if a small parcel of land could not be

given to him posthumously. If he has died, when

his family hear that he laid down his life to save

others and that he had won his own lands then

his family would have no reason not to be totally

proud of his achievement. Arnie has told us many

times that he was sent out into the world to earn

his own lands and fortune. He already has two

swords worth a small fortune each and now he is

guaranteed lands if he dies and the tools to earn

his own lands should he live.

The final act was when the guild opened the box

and removed the first part of the sceptre. This

should lead us to the next part and can only be

used by Emitari. Emitari tried this and felt that the

first part was pulling him to the East.

This is then the end of the second part of our

adventure.

The Adventurers Chronicle (part III)

“I Didn’t Drop It, It Jumped!” It occurred to me that the parts of this sceptre

could be hidden anywhere within any of the

kingdoms of Shadow World and as such we

could be directed back to where I have been

running from. I felt it was only fair on my

companions that they should know that I am a

wanted criminal in my own country and on the

run. I told them the basic outline of what I have

been accused of and the truth of the matter. That

I was accused of killing my betrothed and the

attempted murder of my local lord’s son when he

tried to arrest me. I also told my friends the truth

of what happened that I found the lords son

molesting my betrothed and that he killed her and

tried to kill me, I defeated me but I foolishly left

him alive hoping for justice. As it was, his word

was believed and I was forced to run to avoid

being executed for his crimes. I confessed all of

this in front of the mages of the white orchid and

Arnie insisted to know if I told the truth, which the

mages confirmed through magical means. I also

explained to all that about the only way I can

clear my name in a court of law in my own lands

is probably to return home as a hero who has just

saved the world or as a powerful mage with the

backing of the magic user’s guild behind me.

Anything less than that then the local influence of

the Lord would probably outweigh the truth. It is a

brave magistrate that finds against his own

Lord’s son and sentences him to death after all.

After that revelation I asked the mages of the

guild if they would extend us credit against the

value of the dragon we had slain so that we may

prepare for this quest and may we have access

to their craftsmen and artificers. This was not a

problem and I arranged gifts for each of the

party. Cloaks in greys and greens (reversible) to

aid hiding in shadows and moving stealthily for

everyone that needed one, a fine saddle for Arnie

and an especially balanced pair of short swords

for throwing for Kalinor. Referring back to my

need to prove my innocence I asked if the guild

would help me in my efforts to learn magic and

they have given me learning materials so that I

study as we travel. Finally they gave us two

navigator tokens.

Day 1 Once we were prepared they used magic to

transport us to a small hovel some 30 miles

outside of the city so that our going would not be

observed and we started riding north towards the

shattered hills. We travelled by imperial highway

as this was the safest and least suspicious way

to travel and in only a few days we reached the

point where we had to leave the highway and

strike north into the shatter hills themselves.

Three days later we came upon the ancient ruins

of a castle. The part of the sceptre that we hold

told us that this was our destination. We camped

and prepared to scout out the ruins. Kalinor is so

light of step that he is almost invisible and he is

definitely the lead scout even if he is not as

observant as I am. We scouted the above ground

parts of the ruins and there was very little left that

was not tumbled down and scattered. We found

the entrance to the dungeon levels and at that

point we withdrew.

Day 7 On the morrow we woke to an unnatural quiet

and it seemed that all of the wildlife had taken to

ground or fled the area. We secured our horses

and started to scout below ground. We soon

discovered that below ground there were several

rooms all in a state of ancient decay all bar a

stone doors chamber. Emitari identified this as a

crypt and one that was trapped and locked.

Between Emitari and me we managed to disable

the traps and open the door to the crypt. The

crypt was of an ancient dynasty and held the

sarcophagi of tens of generations along with

busts and likenesses of the family line showing

how they rose in status of the centuries. This hall

of sarcophagi ended in a small blank chamber. I

probed around and soon discovered a false

stone that acted as a lever to open a false wall.

This lead into a short bare corridor. A

suspiciously bare corridor. I cautiously probed my

way forward and I was right, we found a pressure

pad designed to set off a trap. I disabled this and

then we made our way further into the crypt.

When we reached the final chamber there were

three sarcophagi behind which stood two

thrones, one of which was occupied by a

beautiful queen. There was no way on earth that

this was going to end well or that this was

natural. I declined to enter the room, staying in

the corridor outside. The queen stood and

walked down to greet Arnie saying that she had

not had any human company for so long. Arnie

stepped forward to meet the queens embrace

and then fell to the floor, Emitari was the first to

react and he unleashed a bolt of lightning that

destroyed the queen, dispelled the illusions

covering her true undead form and destroying

her undead army that was closing in on us from

the hall of sarcophagi we had passed through

earlier.

We had not at this point found the missing part of

the sceptre so we set about searching this room

and a small anti chamber to one side. I

discovered a secret panel and behind which was

a sword and a necklace decorated with a swirling

magical stone. When I tried to examine that

stone it leaped from my hand and smashed, a

cloud of gas rose and formed into the form of a

man so claimed he had been trapped there for

10,000 years. He thanked us for releasing him

and gave Emitari a ring through which we could

call on him should we be in dire need of help. At

that point he vanished magically. Once we

recovered from that shock we examined the

sword and the hilt of the sword was actually the

missing piece of the sceptre that we sought.

From then on our mission was finished so we

grabbed what treasure we could find and left.

There was no point in leaving it, although we

here not intentionally grave robbing the crypt, we

had defeated all of the security measures

protecting this place so anyone else could now

just walk and steal whatever they wanted.

Day 13 With two pieces of the sceptre secured, we

needed to head south and east across the inland

sea. The city port from which we had to leave

was at the heart of a dispute and almost on a war

footing. I managed to secure us a passage under

assumed names but four days into our passage

we spotted a squadron of Demons high in the

sky, then we saw more until there were three

groups, ten demons in all circling above us.

Day 17 The sailors manning the ship started to jump

overboard and trying to swim to safety but we

stood our ground, Kalinor taking to the rigging

with his bow, myself at the bow with my knives,

Arnie on the starboard side armed with sword

and shield and Emitari to port looking generally

mean and battle ready. This time we tried a new

tactic and Emitari used magic to give us

supernatural speed. As the demons swooped

they were met in a hail of swords, knives, arrows

and lightening and a third of their number died, I

took a glancing blow from one of their demonic

great swords as did Arnie, but their losses were

greater, the demons swooped again and half of

them either died or were deflected in this strike.

At their third attempt, the only survivors were

either downed with broken wings or floundering

in the water. I never thought I would say that

demon slaying would be like shooting fish in a

barrel but that is what it was like.

We then helped the sailors back into the boat, it

seems that two had tried to defend the boat

bravely and had died but it could have been

much worse!

Later that day we landed. Having had that close

shave with demons we did not want that to

happen again in a populated area so we left town

immediately and headed in the wrong direction

hoping to either misdirect any search for us or

avoid any traps already laid in our path.

Day 20 The land we travelled through was controlled by

the church. There were three arms to the church,

a priestly branch, a healing branch and an

inquisitorial branch that held the people in fear.

As we entered a village, we came upon a pair of

inquisitors guards and in the village square, we

witnessed an inquisitor and his guards dragging

out a man as his wife begged for mercy. Every

one of us wanted to step in but we dared not

interfere in something that really should not

concern us. The churchmen proceeded to then

try and torture a confession from the village and

when his wife tried to appeal to them again the

guards dragged her away and killed her. To be

honest at this point I was amazed that Arnie had

not stepped in, the only reason I had not tried to

kill the whole lot of them was that none of my

companions had shown any sign of being about

to attack. Next the guards silenced the wife’s

crying baby by killing it and that was the final

straw.

Emitari ripped the Inquisitor in half with a

lightning bolt killing him and the guard behind

him. It was like bursting a damn of violence. We

all poured all the arrows, knives, lightning and fire

into the remaining guards while Arnie laid about

him with his swords. Pity stayed our hand; it was

a pity that a guard escaped from the edge of the

village. Once the fight had been won we gave the

villager who was to be tortured a sword and he

then took revenge on the last remaining and

wounded Inquisition guards. We then decided to

put some distance between ourselves and the

village before reinforcements came.

Day 24 Some while later we came upon a village that

had been sacked. Villagers had been strung up

and the fields had had salt ploughed into them

rendering them infertile. Again, the next village

we saw was the same. It was shortly after this

that we met the vanguard or patrol. We had

introduced ourselves as Lord Arnie and Prince

Emitari. We were definitely out numbered and the

officer who approached us did so in a cautious

but courteous manner and asked us to

accompany him to his lord’s castle and this we

agreed to as not only was he taking us in the

right direction but also he had also not attempted

to disarm us. When we reached the castle the

whole place was covered by a sombre mood. We

were offered rooms and invited to dine with the

Lord, Lady and his knights. During the meal we

learned that they had been at war for ten years or

more with their neighbours and that it was the

neighbouring lords men that was responsible for

the scorched earth policy we had noticed and

that this was a new twist in their conflict. While

we were discussing this we noticed that the Lady

was wearing a ruby around her neck and Emitari

was convinced that this was the part of the

sceptre that we were seeking. This left us with a

bit of a dilemma. How do we get the ruby from

around the neck of the Lords wife and get out of

there alive? We decided to sleep on it and in the

morning to try and find out a bit more of what is

going in the area and hope that an opportunity

would present itself. Kalinor and I were going to

go down to the marshalling yard to see what

soldiers’ gossip we could pick up.

Day 25 As I was crossing the court yard a rider came

galloping into the yard, his horse lathered from

hard riding. He was met in the yard and hurried

into the keep. Soon we were all summoned to a

private audience with the Lord. It transpired that

his daughter had been kidnapped by their

neighbour and they had been given one week to

surrender everything to the neighbour. The lord

then offered almost anything to get his daughter

back. Emitari immediately offered our assistance

and he said that afterwards we would ask for just

one thing in return.

It did not take us long to kit up and roll out. The

lord had given us a guide to get us from here to a

suitable hiding place to camp in their neighbours

lands. We set up camp and after some

discussion we set about scouting the ‘enemy’

castle. The castle turned out to be a manor

house that had been fortified over the years and

surrounded by a curtain wall and moat. Using

Emitari’s magic he made himself and I invisible

and able to fly. We flew in and settle on the roof.

He then refreshed the flying spell so that I could

spend more time scouting. Our first scouting

sortie was by day and we identified halls studies

and bed chambers but did not see many people.

We were able to estimate their military strength

and I did see one unusual warrior that stood our

due to his armour and weaponry. He was

wearing plate mail when everyone else was in

chain and he wore two swords. We have had bad

experiences of warriors that fight with two swords

so this was a bit of a sore point. I did notice that

the hall was being prepared for a meal so we

decided to return to camp and come back later.

We flew back and let everyone know what we

had learned and prepared to return after dark.

Kalinor at this point was to sneak into the keep

and see what he could learn. Emitari made him

invisible and being both and elf and a ranger he

could move so silently that he was almost

undetectable (ha ha or so we thought). We

returned after dark and repeated the same

routine. I flew around and peered into each

window to see what I could learn. When I got to

the study it was occupied by a scholarly

‘gentleman’ who most disconcertingly seemed to

be able to see me! I quickly finished the round of

the windows and flew back to Emitari on the roof.

At one point I thought I saw a flying eye ball

hurtle by(!) but things were starting to get a bit

weird. I told Emitari that I had seen the lord’s

daughter at the top table in the main hall where a

meal was in progress. Also in the hall were the

Lord, Lady, their son and all their knights. Emitari

then flew down to look through the same window,

he then used magic to appear (invisibly) inside

the room, placed a hand on both the daughter

and son and he then teleported back to our

rooms in our patron’s castle. I then hightailed it

out of the castle and back to our camp to tell

Arnie and Coraline the good news that we had

accomplished the mission. We would have to

wait until Kalinor returned as we could not

contact him directly and he was not expected

back until after dawn when they opened the

castle gates and he could leave. When I got back

to the camp site it was deserted all bar the

horses and our belongings. I scanned the area

for tracks and could only find where it appeared

that Arnie and Coraline had apparently fallen

over but then it looked like they had either been

teleported out of our own camp or had been

carried away by flying monsters like the demons

we fought at sea. There certainly was no

evidence of any kind of struggle. Not being

particularly confident fighting an untold number of

flying demons on my own, I decided to wait for

Emitari to return as we had arranged. I hid myself

in a tree and waited. Emitari by this time had

returned the daughter to our hosts and magically

rendering the neighbour’s son unconscious had

enabled them to take him captive without a

struggle. When Emitari returned to the campsite,

I told him all I could read from the tracks. We

then set about quickly formulating a planned

rescue of our friends.

While we were discussing how to proceed a

squire or page entered our camp and (while we

hid) pinned a notice to a tree. After he left we

read the note and it was from the evil wizard from

the castle. He said that he had our friends

captive and we would exchange them for the

sceptre including the part we have yet to collect

from the lord’s wife. He also said that the sceptre

had to be “freely given” so we needed to come of

our own accord. The exchange was to take place

at a mill a day’s ride from our camp, about

equidistant from both castles.

The Adventurers Chronicle (part IV) To rescue our friends we needed all the parts of

the sceptre together, our existing two parts and

Lady Fairfax’s ruby. At first we were not keen on

giving up the sceptre and endangering the entire

world and we set off striking our camp outside

Lord Holts fortified manor and rode through the

night to get to the mill ahead of the dastardly

mentalist and his minions. Once we arrived we

spied on the mill and although there were signs

of Lord Holt’s soldiers there was no sign of our

friends or their captor. We decided to back track

up the approach rode a few miles and prepare an

ambush. I prepared traps and snares either side

of the road and a few other surprises to create a

little confusion for when we sprung out trap.

Emitari and I could then launch our attack and try

and kill the evil mentalist and his lieutenants in a

sudden strike and we could free our friends.

Day 29 We laid in wait for nearly a day until eventually

the deadline had passed and we had to accept

that we had been out manoeuvred and they were

not coming down this main road. We returned to

our new camp not far from the Mill. Emitari and I

then concluded that would have to try and

negotiate the release of our colleagues. Emitari

and I teleported back to Castle Fairfax and asked

Lord and Lady Fairfax for the ruby heirloom that

we had asked as our price for rescuing their

daughter. Lady Fairfax handed over a ruby but

when Emitari tried to fit it to the sceptre it did not

join together as we had expected. As it happened

we did not really have that much time to look into

it. We then teleported back to the Mill camp and

prepared to confront the evil mentalist who we

now knew was called Obar.

When Arnie had been captured he was resting at

our camp and by chance his great sword was still

stowed on his horse. I took his great sword and

slung it on my own horse before we rode into the

mill.

As we approached the mill we saw that it

comprised the water mill itself, a two storey

house for the miller and a barn fronted with a

corral for horses. Erected in the courtyard were

two iron cages holding Kalinor and Arnie,

stripped of their equipment but conscious. In the

corral were approximately twenty horses and

around the mill compound were an abundance of

bowmen from Lord Holt’s army. As we entered

the compound Obar came from the miller’s house

with Coraline. Emitari proceeded to negotiate

over the release of our friends. Emitari wanted to

ensure their safe release before handing over the

sceptre. Suddenly it came to me that the best

way to save our friends was to just give Obar

exactly what he wanted and I really didn’t want to

see them get hurt. Emitari eventually handed

over the sceptre once our colleagues were freed

from the cages. Obar then teleported out

immediately after telling the archers to kill us.

The Battle of the Mill

The exact order of what happened next is a little

confused; I was very upset that people were

trying to hurt my friends so I naturally enough

started killing the bad men. Emitari blew the mill

up turning it into a tower of flame. We had

archers in the house before us, in the barn to the

right and on the ground all around. Kalinor

created a wooden wall cutting the courtyard in

half and protecting us from half the archers,

Emitari started hurling lightning. I gave Arnie his

great sword and Kalinor my longbow. The arrows

were coming thick and fast so Kalinor called a

dense fog to fill the mill compound making it hard

to pick out targets and magically opened pits

under guards. Arnie lay about with his great

sword. Emitari spotted a group of guards trying to

come at us through the trees so he killed them all

with a cloud of sparking magic and I slew as

many guards as I could see. During the fight, I

came across Coralline’s body. She had been

shot through the throat and had been killed

instantly. Eventually we were running out of foes

so I vaulted the wooden barrier and began to

hunt down the stragglers. I believe as we rode

away there were less than five left alive and all

bar one was grievously wounded. The only one

not hurt had fallen down a pit but had his fall

broken by a guard that had fallen in before him

as they came through the fog.

Obar had obviously teleported to somewhere he

knew. We knew so little about him that we could

only assume that he had returned to Holt Manor.

We took all of the horses from the corral at the

mill so we had plenty of spare mounts. This

allowed us to travel quickly changing mounts as

they tired from the ruined mill back to the Manor.

On route we saw that Lord Holt had raised his

entire host and was marching on Lord Fairfax’s

lands. We made for our old camp ground and

from there Emitari teleported back to Castle

Fairfax and gave them a warning about the host

marching on them, before he returned to us.

The Raid on Holt Manor

Day 30

That evening as it got dark we prepared to raid

the manor house looking for Obar. Kalinor and I

scaled the walls and dropped down beside the

smithy whilst Emitari and Arnie used magic to

pass through the wall. I then silently crossed the

courtyard and unlocked the door to the inner

keep. As the door was barred on the inside.

Using a technique I had heard about from a

friend of a friend and with Arnie’s help I lifted the

bar and opened the door. Inside we crossed the

inner courtyard and into the manor. We spied

one guard sleeping at the foot of the stairs and I

subdued him but as I lowered his body to the

floor his spear fell with a clatter and we heard a

second guard come down the stairs to

investigate the noise. I dived for cover and

Emitari put the second guard into a magical

sleep. We hid the guards in a side room and

made out way up to the first floor where we knew

Obar had his rooms. Once up stairs we made our

way into the library which leads to Obar's

chamber. So far the raid had gone almost without

a hitch, so far so good. Emitari tried to create a

portal through the door from the library to Obar’s

rooms but was protected by magical runes and

these exploded outwards. Emitari, Kalinor and

Arnie then rushed into Obar’s quarters to try and

catch him before he fled but his rooms were

deserted with just an open chest left empty on

the floor.

We still had to find our friends possessions and

we did hope that Obar had just escaped to

another part of the keep. We proceeded to

search the keep working down through the floors

until we reached the cellar. Some kitchen maids

were startled by us but I made my best effort to

calm them down and convinced them to stay

calm and that they should stay in the kitchen

where no harm will befall them. While I was doing

this the others discovered the dungeons where

they had been held and the treasury. I soon

opened the door to the treasury and the chests

within. It was here that most of our friends’

possessions were found. Unfortunately Arnie’s

Laen Glass swords and Kalinor ring of speed and

all our herbs were not amongst the items we

recovered.

Eventually we heard the sounds of the manor’s

guards trying to break into the keep so it was

time for us to leave. Emitari teleported us back to

our camp and from there we travelled to meet

Lord Fairfax and his army as they prepared to

face Lord Holt’s host. Lord Fairfax had chosen he

battle field and was laying out his forces when we

met up with him. We explained what had

happened and Lady Fairfax revealed that the

ruby she had given over to us had been a fake.

As a child the ruby had belonged to her mother

and she had a fake one of her own she could use

for dressing up. It was the fake one that she had

handed over to us. Lady Fairfax then handed

over the genuine gem and Emitari was

immediately able to sense where the rest of the

sceptre lay, about 200miles to the east. We

stayed with Lord Fairfax until the hosts met,

heralds exchanged terms and finally Lord Hold

and Lord Fairfax held talks. Both finally realised

that Obar had been influencing events and they

agreed to end hostilities, battle was averted

although Lord Holt’s son remained as hostage

reparations were negotiated and Lord Holt’s host

withdrew. We then agreed with Lord Fairfax who

said that we had done enough. It was time for us

to resume our quest and try and reclaim the

sceptre.

Day 33 Setting out eastwards we were entering land

populated by Centaurs. Centaurs lived in

smallish family groups which farmed the land and

these sometimes gathered into tribes. As we

rode east we noticed smoke on the horizon and

as we investigated we came upon the burnt

remains of a Centaur farm. There were no signs

of life but Kalinor found the tracks of three

centaurs that had left the village and iron shod

footprints of maybe twenty to thirty attackers.

Orcs! We tracked the Orc column back the way

they came until we spied an ‘abandoned’ watch

tower, the lower two levels seemed to be intact

but the upper formerly wooden levels were

mostly missing and decayed.

Emitari made me invisible and I scouted ahead,

hidden in the upper levels of the tower were two

Orc guards. I reported this back and then went

back and killed them. With surprise, being

invisible and with time to prepare it took me just

seconds to mow the two guards down with these

magical knives. The guards were guarding a trap

door in the floor which Emitari vaporised

magically. Dropping down into the Orc hold we

started to investigate. We dispatched a few Orcs

that we encountered and searched rooms as we

went until we discovered what is best described

as a mess hall. Emitari created a death cloud in

the room and then sealed it with a wall of stone

and we then just listened to the Orcs dying en-

mass.

Moving on we eventually came upon a hall filled

with Orcs that we could not kill by surprise or

avoid. We attacked with bows, knives and magic

before rushing in to the attack. The Orc leader

was here with is lieutenants and about a dozen

other Orcs. We laid about us killing Orcs left right

and centre. It was at this point that I was hit by a

spear through my thigh which severed an artery.

* * *

I awoke to find the battle over and my leg in

bandages. Kalinor and Emitari had managed to

use a herb to stop the bleeding which would

otherwise have killed me. The Orcs were

defeated and we had rescued the centaurs that

the Orcs had captured.

The centaurs took us to their village where we

were greeted as heroes and made welcome. The

centaurs gave us a bit more information about

where we were headed, the undead marshes,

and offered to guide us most of the way there. It

was while we were staying with the centaurs that

I successfully cast my first spell and summoned

up a small ball of light. With practice I could turn

this ball into a beam of light, change the size and

brightness, make it flash until it dazzled and even

wear it like a halo if the fancy took me. To a

wizard this was probably child’s play to me it was

truly amazing and proved that I was really

capable of casting magic. I moved my magical

studies on to detecting magic, the next chapter in

the books given to me by the guild weeks before.

Eventually we left the centaurs and continued

into the marshes on our own. As we ventured in

a sea mist rolled in and soon we were travelling

blind. Up ahead a rock loomed up in the path and

I heard a suspicious sound. Kalinor and I scouted

ahead and spotted a troll trying to lay an ambush

for us. To be honest a single troll did not stand

much of a chance against us and we all piled in

and ripped it to pieces, almost literally. We then

tracked the troll back to its lair just in case it was

not alone and we managed to find a couple of

magical items from previous victims. We found a

glove that gives greater strength, unfortunately

too small for Arnie to wear; flint stones that will

start a fire first time every time and a dagger of

undead slaying. Given the name of the marshes

we are in this could easily be the most useful

item we found.

Aware of the nature of the marshes and now with

more than undead to worry about we found the

best camp site we could, the ruined remains of

an old lighthouse which was not little more than

raised foundations. We made a cold camp and

rested ‘til morning.

Day 37 As dawn broke we spotted the tower we were

looking for and the start of the causeway out into

sea that lead to it. Leaving the horses at the

camp we struck out for the tower. The causeway

jinked back and forth to confuse attackers but we

made it to the base of the tower without

drowning. We avoided the main door and used a

magical portal to enter. Inside were two Uruks

armed with heavy crossbows.

At such close range the crossbows took a terrible

toll on all of us but we soon dispatched the

guards and made our way up into the tower. On

the first floor we met four more Uruk guards.

Emitari fire balled them and in the confusion

Arnie and I charged in against a volley of

crossbow bolts. The fight was short and bloody.

The only way was up and so we had to take the

stairs, the lift not having been invented yet. As

we climbed the spiral stairwell the guards above

poured oil down on us followed seconds later by

a flaming torch. I ran up into the room to get

away from the flames whereas Kalinor and

Emitari both created walls of water that protected

themselves and Arnie.

I was facing four angry Uruks alone! This was not

good and they had those damned crossbows

again!

I laid into them taking out two with my

broadsword before the rest of the party arrived

and then the tide turned against the Uruks they

were killed. Unluckily I had been short by a

crossbow bolt and was bleeding profusely. I am

not that far from passing out from loss of blood!

By the end of the fight I don’t think any of us were

much fitter, the party has no healing herbs left,

no healing magic and we are, none of us, in a fit

state to take on another four Uruks let alone the

evil mentalist and his henchmen!

The Adventurers Chronicle Part V

“Boom, Boom Shake Da Room”

It is entirely possible that we were a little

concussed or even a little stressed by the past

battle. After I had bandaged my bleeding

wounds, at the bottom of my first aid pouch I

discovered the magical wound clotting ring that

not only would have stopped me nearly bleeding

to death but would have closed the wound

allowing me to continue fighting without

reopening the cut. We had found that ring in the

troll’s hoard. On the bright side putting the ring on

sealed my wound and meant that I could take off

the bandages. I would have been embarrassed

but at that point Emitari discovered he had been

carting around a wand of healing!

This moment of stupidity put a completely

different complexion on our situation. We had

been seriously contemplating withdrawing to rest

and recuperate, putting the tower under siege

until we were in a position to strike again. Now

we were realistically able to consider pressing

our advantage.

We explored the floor we were on and the only

sign of life I could hear through any of the doors

was coming from one room. At that point we had

not found any stairs up so they had to be behind

this door and probably an ambush in the offing.

Taking the bull by the horns I flung open the door

as Emitari let rip with a fire ball. When the smoke

cleared all that remained of the kitchen was the

two charred bodies of the potential ambushers

but no stairs!

We search the floor again an Emitari noticed that

there was some dead space, one room was too

small or the wall was too thick. We all examined

the dubious wall and I soon spotted the

mechanism for opening a sliding wall panel that

should open to reveal a corridor and we hoped

the stairs up. I opened the door with everyone on

full alert but luckily it was deserted and as we

had hoped there at the end of a short corridor

were the stairs.

Now the simple fact that we were dealing with

sophisticated hidden doors and lock mechanisms

should have been enough to put me on alert but

as I said I think I was concussed! I walked quietly

down the corridor right onto the pressure pad and

shot myself with a crossbow bolt. Luckily for me it

wasn’t fatal. Arnie then took the blunt approach

to trap finding by leaning back and prodding

every flag stone with his foot until he set off the

next trap. With the way cleared we quietly

climbed the stairs with me in the lead and Arnie

as back up (I am pretty sure this is not the wisest

choice but it seems to be our norm now. If we

keep doing this I need a bigger shield!).

In these confined spaces Arnie’s great sword

was pretty impractical. Our plan was obviously

for he and I to charge in and take the flak. To

give Arnie a fighting chance I gave him my

sword. I hoped at this point that I wasn’t making a

big mistake as I had no other weapon than a

dagger.

Subtly and sophistication is not necessary our

strongest suit and to save being shot at

immediately as we crested the stairs we put an

Uruk’s helmet on the end of a sword and poked

that up first to draw their fire…

Nothing happened…

I stuck my own head up carefully…

Nothing happened…

There were no Uruks at the top of the stairs. The

stairwell opened out into a small landing, There

was a door ahead of us beyond which I could

hear the sounds of humans and Uruks getting

organised. The left of the stairs was a blank wall.

We really did not want to open the door and face

a barrage of crossbow bolts so it was time for

Emitari to be inspired!

Using his magic he created a portal in the blank

wall and we stepped through into Obar’s alchemy

lab. Thankfully it was deserted at this time. The

only door in the place opened back out into the

room filled with the blood thirsty Urucks so we

didn’t really want to go that way either. Emitari

was on a bit of a roll. Creating a wall of stone

across the door would prevent anyone bursting in

on us and would dampen down any noise we

may make. He then created another portal in the

ceiling above us and levitated me up into the

hole. I found myself on the roof of the tower! I let

down a rope and hauled the others up one by

one. To be honest we had not expected to be

almost outside the tower. The roof was

comprised of a dome above us and positioned

around the perimeter were thirteen stone

sentinels carved like female warriors all facing

outwards. Each sentinel weighed many tons and

veritably radiated magic. It was Kalinor’s time to

use his magic. I do not know what he did but

apparently he used some kind of necromancy

and learned from a dead sea gull that anything

flying towards the tower would be blasted from

the sky by lightning hurled by the sentinels. The

entire roof was part of the towers defences.

What we had expected was to be in Obar’s

private chambers where we could have

confronted him and hopefully retrieved the

sceptre before his Uruks and lieutenants came to

his rescue.

Emitari tried to focus his mind on the sceptre and

located it below us. Moving across the roof

almost as if water divining we worked out that the

sceptre and presumably Obar was directly below

us.

We arranged ourselves around his position and

prepared our bows and knives. One Emitari’s

mark we prepared to fire and Emitari then

created another portal directly over Obar’s

position.

“You Reap What You Sow”

Obar was somewhat surprised and in fact did not

even notice us initially although one or two of his

Uruk guards did see the portal open. Obar was

seated upon a thrown with his two human

henchmen either side of him.

Fire!

We all let him have our best shot but to our shock

and dismay he was protected by a magical shield

that threw our weapons back at us with deadly

accuracy! The fact that I am so fast with my

knives was almost my own downfall as I cut

myself up quite badly and played no more part in

the battle although I was still awake at this point.

Realising that firing more arrows would not be a

good idea, Emitari thought that dropping

something big and heavy on Obar may break his

shield. He created a wall of stone above him and

let it fall. When the wall hit the barrier it exploded

in a hail of jagged shared that hurt many of the

unprotected Uruks and quite shook the tower.

Obar himself did not look in the slightest bit

injured but certainly disturbed about us being

above him and out of reach.

Emitari, not being someone to let a good plan go

to waste looked around for something even

bigger and heavier to drop on Obar. It seemed

that the only suitable object was about 30 tons of

ancient magical artefact in the shape of one of

the sentinels fitted the bill.

Using his levitate spell Emitari lifted the sentinel

and wafted it over the open portal and simply

dropped it. It seemed that Obar did not want to

leave his throne with its protective shield so he

sat there and took it like a man.

What happens when you try and destroy an

ancient artefact seem to be one almightly

explosion. The ceiling came down, Uruks were

blasted into or through the walls, Obar was

thrown off his throne, which incidentally dropped

the protective shield and his henchmen were

crushed where they sat. At this point I was no

longer with us. Stunned by the blast wave,

dropped through the ceiling and down for a hard

landing amongst the rubble was more than my

battered body could take.

According to the retelling of the tale afterwards I

actually landed pretty close to one of the few

Uruks not killed in the blast and it was Kalinor’s

bow work that saved my life. Emitari took care of

the stunned Obar with a lightning bolt or two and

Arnie raked anyone who moved with his bow.

By the time I had recovered the group was ready

for me to start trapping clearing and lock

breaking. We soon rounded up the most

important magical treasures. I myself gained one

of the bodyguards’ swords that crackled with

electricity when used in battle a ring that allowed

me to see in total darkness, Arnie got an identical

ring, and magical boots that allowed me to

teleport from one place to another. Arnie

regained his Laen glass blades and Kalinor got

his ring of magical speed back. We also gained a

very evil longsword that could summon demons,

and items that allowed a mentalist to cast more

magic every day which we have kept and a

magical eye that could fly up to a quarter of a

mile and Emitari could see what it saw.

We also regained the parts of the sceptre again

and secured the ruby to the parts we already

had. Now we had three parts Emitari was able to

not only tell what direction the next part was but

how far and it seemed, to get glimpses or fleeting

visions of the location we needed to seek out.

This marked the 40th day of our quest so far and

then end of the first month since we met.

We finally prepared to leave Obar’s tower, in

addition to the magical items I have listed we

also had a vast wealth in gold, gems and

jewellery and weapons and armour so our horses

were quite heavily laden. It made the most sense

to head north back to the manor of Lord Fairfax

across the lands of the Centaurs. There we could

buy more pack animals to carry our loot and then

we could make faster progress.

We set off leading the loaded horses through the

swamp and up onto the grasslands. We didn’t

see any signs of our friends, the centaurs, so

they obviously had not stayed around to see if we

survived at all but then we had not expected

them to either. The journey that had taken us

nearly a week on horseback to get here took

seconds by magic to materialise in the campsite

we had used when preparing to free Kalinor,

Arnie and the late Carolina. This put us a day’s

ride from Lord Fairfax’s manor. The intention was

for Kalinor to ride to Lord Fairfax’s manor and

bring horses to us. We could then go on from

here at a better pace. While Kalinor when to the

manor we rested and I continued my magical

studies. I had been making fairly steady progress

since I had managed to control simple lights. I

could now detect magic in many of its forms and I

was trying to learn how to heal people and stop

bleeding.

Kalinor approached the manor and soon saw

signs of the church and the Inquisition! He

returned and told us what he had seen and he

and I went back for a closer look. It soon became

apparent that Lord Fairfax, his wife and entire

family had been hung and their bodies left as a

warning to others. This is what happens if you

help us, because we had defied the church.

Ministers often carp on about churches facing

challenges. There is one church that has no idea

what kind of challenges it is going to face as

soon as we are free of this world saving quest.

We will be back.

Right now we had neither the time nor resources

to rip the church limb from limb, we had to save

the world and their sorry arses along with it. We

had to turn away and the best course open to us

was to head due north and look to the Wood

Elves. This is Kalinor’s home land and we should

be able to make contact with the wizards guild

and resupply and plan our next move to recover

the parts of the sceptre.

Day 43 We had been walking through the centaur lands

for three days when we spotted a patrol or

raiding party of centaurs on the horizon. They

soon zeroed in on us and charged down and

surrounded the group. We held up our Centaur

Friend brooches and as soon as they were

recognised the lead Centaur immediately showed

us great respect and deference. We explained

that we were only passing through their lands

and needed to visit the wood elves and the

Centaurs were more than happy to act as guides.

At least this meant that there was little or no risk

of us being set upon or robbed! That evening the

Centaurs fed us well with their usual vegetarian

cuisine and we shared what news we could. We

told them that we had killed the Uruks in the

tower and the troll in the swamp which should

make the coast a bit safer. In the morning we

travelled on with the centaurs.

Day 47 The Centaurs took us as far as the elven trading

post which marked the edge of their territory. We

parted friends and thanked them for escorting us.

That night we camped on the edge of the Wood

Elves forest. Arnie and I kept watch as the elves

meditated as they do. It was well after dark when

I thought I sensed something, not sure what and

however hard I listened I could not detect

anything else. I settled back down and suddenly

a huge demon wielding a great sword in each

hand and huge bat-like wings materialised in the

centre of our camp site! I shouted, firstly in alarm

and secondly to raise the alarm as Arnie drew his

swords and prepared to attack. Now Demons are

nothing new to us but this one was big and it was

scary, not just worrying but it seemed to radiate

an aura of fear.

Before we could react much further the Demon

launched itself at Emitari bringing both swords

down on his meditating body and leaving not

much more than a bloody mess. Kalinor seemed

to ‘sleep’ though all the warnings and clamour so

far and I did the only thing that seemed sensible

and dived for cover behind the nearest bush to

hide.

Arnie our plate mailed hero doesn’t hide. He

made himself big and imposing and launched

himself at the Demon swords whirling.

It is fair to say that Arnie had the Demons

attention so I crawled from my bush and tried to

cast one of the healing spells I had been learning

and it worked! It seemed obvious to me that the

person most likely to defeat a Demon was

Emitari and I thought the Demon thought so to.

That is why he had singled him out for the first

sudden strike when Arnie was physically so

much more imposing. With Emitari regaining

consciousness, Kalinor finally woke up to the

danger and he grabbed his bow and high tailed it

out of the came and disappeared into the woods

surrounding us. I could not really blame him as I

had also chosen to hide rather than fight.

And talking of fighting at this moment I heard the

horrible sound of Arnie crashing to the ground

and the breath going out of him. I willed him to

get up but he just lay there.

It looked to me that the demon was about to

finish Arnie off when I heard the distinctive sound

of a bow string and an arrow sailed through the

camp and hit the demon. Even Emitari seemed

more awake and preparing to cast magic. The

Demon wasn’t looking in my direction so I rolled

away.

There was a sudden flurry of magic. It appeared

that the demon had spotted Emitari was alive and

he magically ripped rocks up through the ground

to create a wall between himself and Emitari.

Emitari had cast one of his portal spells and

opened a pit under the feet of the demon

dropping him into it. I took the chance and cast

that same healing spell that had worked on

Emitari on Arnie. Kalinor had returned to the

camp but now with an arrow nocked and ready.

Arnie gave a moan and raised his head. At least

he wasn’t dead!

I think we all expected the Demon to fly out of

that pit but Emitari created a thick block of ice

over the mouth.

I drew my magical knives and prepared to throw

them at anything that came out of the pit. It was

obvious that no block of ice is going to stop a full

on Demon and when it came out it was going to

come out hard and fast and with a bad attitude.

Even Emitari was preparing another spell as fast

as he could. Right on cue the ice shattered and

our Demonic friend launched himself into the air

beating his massive bat-like wings to gain height.

I slow motion we all opened fire with magical

lightning, flying daggers and arrows. The Demon

described a slow arc up and over as the barrage

was enough to finally kill him and he crashed

onto to the forest floor on his back before boiling

away until nothing remained. I looked around and

both Emitari and Arnie were not in a good way.

Yes I could heal, to some extent, but my magic

was very, very limited. It was generally agreed

regardless of how weak those two were it was

time to break camp and try and get to the safety

of the elven trading post.

We made it to the trading post and at last we

could relax. We bought some horses at last that

make travelling a bit more practical and we could

stock up on rations, fresh food and Arnie could

buy a new bow and some arrows. From here we

also got directions to the elvish town where we

hoped to contact a representative of the guild.

Day 49 It took two more days to reach the elven town, a

collection of tree houses and aerial walk ways. At

one point we met an eleven patrol but they were

friendly enough and gave us directions to keep

us on the right track.

There were many things we needed to

accomplish while we were here. We made

contact with a member of the wizards guild that

lived with the elves. We gave him the magical

longsword that could summon demons and the

two great swords used by the actual demon that

had attacked us and the spell books used by

Obar. We really didn’t want to be carrying around

evil items either in case they started to exert an

influence but also we didn’t really want to risk

taking them to and evil wizards lair and then

losing them! Kalinor wanted to visit his family,

Arnie and I visited an armourer. We had two very

fine quality suits of plate mail armour, one was

too tight on Arnie who is bigger than your

average bear and one was too large for me and I

admit I am not built like your typical knight. What

we wanted was to have to two suits made to fit.

The original estimate would take far too long but

we paid the armourer to hire in additional help. It

cost us a small fortune but then we were carrying

a large fortune so that was OK. I clanked out of

there like a man with a pole up his back but Arnie

started to show me how to move properly in

armour. This was not an opportunistic choice for

me. I had been waiting for us to defeat a villain

with a either magical or at least exquisite quality

plate mail. If I am to clear my name then it may

well come down to either trial by combat or

calling the bastard out.

We were also carrying a ridiculous amount of

gold and silver. We found a merchant or repute

and exchanged the hard currency for a letter of

credit totalling over five thousand gold marks

worth.

By the end of the week we were armed,

armoured, resupplied and ready to leave.

Day 57 We knew where we wanted to go and we had a

plan on how to get there. We needed to get to

the far east of our continent. The dangers facing

us were many. Between us and our destination

were several essence barriers preventing us from

taking a direct route. The easiest option was

across land to Fenrik where the wizards guild

was and then by ship but the way by sea was

blocked by and essence barrier. The next option

was by river then when we hit an essence barrier

we could go north through jungle, where few

people ever returned from or south across a

desert r through mountains inhabited by Orcs,

goblins, trolls and Wargs, the giant wolf mounts

favoured by Orcs. We eventually decided that

skirting the mountains on the desert side was the

lesser of four evils. It was early in the morning

when we boarded the barges that would take us

down river to the essence barrier. This was a four

hundred mile journey where we would not have

to walk for a change!

Day 61 The journey by barge was both easy and

productive. I have been studying my magical

lessons whenever we had leisure time and by the

end of the journey I could cast nearly twenty

spells covering healing, detecting magic,

manipulating light and my attest trick allowed me

to create walls of water, fire and draw tree trucks

out of the ground to create a wooden wall. What

is more Arnie had taught me how to move quite

will in armour and I had bought a spear that I was

happily learning how to use. This came much

more naturally to me than the bow I had tried to

learn.

At the end of the fourth day the river turned away

from the direction we needed to go in so we

disembarked. It was nearly 100 miles from the

jetty to the essence barrier as the crow flies so

starting early in the morning we saddled up and

set off. The road itself was easy enough. It was

frequently patrolled by the Xan Legion which kept

it safe for travellers and when we eventually left

the road we were not troubled at all until we

encountered the essence barrier.

Day 66 An essence barrier is a shimmering, shifting wall

of force stretching miles into the sky and even

below ground. Sometimes they are opaque at

other times they appear as little more than the

shimmer of heat haze. Right now this one was

shimmering and milky stopping us from seeing

anything clearly beyond. Emitari took out one of

the two Navigator passes that we had been given

by the wizards guild and called a Navigator.

A portal seemed to open from thin air and out of

it stepped a pretty girl who introduced herself as

Ella. Surprisingly we all resisted the urge to chat

her up, maybe it was because we knew on the

other side of the barrier we would have to tread a

tight rope between death in the desert and death

in the mountains. Ella took out pass and

accepting it used a mystical looking sextant,

gathering us around her she seemed to shift the

world around us until we appeared fifty miles

beyond the barrier well and truly on the Orcish

side.

To our north there was a continuous mountain

range running from east to west. To the north of

that would be cliffs dropping down into the sea.

The mountains ran all the way to the sea in the

east. To our south was the desert the home of

countless orgs, goblins and trolls. Running to the

east ahead of us was a rough track like road.

This was our road.

Day 69 We had been traveling east for three days

covering about thirty miles a day when up ahead

and coming in our direction was a rising dust trail.

We got off the road and Kalinor used his magic to

hide our tracks and we stopped and watched to

see what was coming our way. To be honest we

were pretty keyed up to kill anything evil but what

we saw did give us cause to pause. We were

watching a company of thirty to fifty orcs

mounted on wargs. To be honest that is too

much for us especially as we had a more

important quest ahead. Discretion had to be the

rule of the day and when the track was clear

again we decided to quit the road and head

further into the mountains and run parallel to the

track. It would be slower but it should be safer.

We carefully moved off the road but the Wargs

must have had our scent and they followed trying

to find us. For three days they followed with

Kalinor doing everything to hide our tracks.

Eventually we dropped them but for safeties sake

we stayed off the track. Kalinor was able to find

caves where we could camp in relatively safety.

As we made our way out on the plain we saw a

massed host of orc and wargs.and as the days

passed we saw more bands of orcs heading to

join the army. One morning we woke to find the

army had marched off to the west, towards the

populated lands.

Day 80 We finally found where the track turns north. And

we knew we were not far from our destination.

Emitari had been having visions of what to look

for and he was confident that this was the place.

We headed north and soon we spotted two

towers each designed like a Dwarfish warrior with

a double portcullis between them. We found a

safe place to hide the horses and we prepared to

investigate. Emitari used his magic to make me

invisible and able to fly. I took off and headed up

to the towers. The towers seemed very lightly

defended. I spotted on sleeping guard in one

tower with a very slack companion and in the

other tower there were two sleeping guards.

I flew back to the party and reported what I had

found. We decided to go in en-mass using the

same plan we had used for our very first tower

assault by flying in invisible. We could coordinate

with each other by me going in first and laying

out a pattern of copper coins. As the others

arrived they pocketed the coins so others knew

to stand where a coin lay so they did not bump

into an invisible colleague. We entered the tower

and agreed that I would kill the orcish guards.

This way the rest of the party would remain

invisible as the spell is only broken by violence.

We approached the first the guard room, Kalinor

acted as door opener and I was fully keyed up to

take our the guards as fast as I could. The

sleeping guards were no trouble. In the second

tower we tried to repeat the same routine. The

guard that was awake reacted quite fast and tried

to shield himself with the chair he was sitting on.

Hi yanked it up so the first knife I put into his leg.

He dropped the chair so I put the next one into

his belly. He tried to up turn the desk he was sat

at so I threw one at his shoulder which knocked

him back and up so I finally put a knife in the

centre of his chest and that at last was the end of

him.

With the towers cleared Emitari wanted to stay

here and try and rest. Our attack had used a lot

of his power and he needed at least eight hours if

we were going to hit the citadel beyond at full

strength. We had never done this before and

most of us wanted to press our attack before the

alarm was raised. In the end having Emitari at full

strength was far more important than any rush for

glory. It still didn’t sit too comfortably with us and

to be honest we prowled around that tower

looking for relief guards or other defenders.

Eventually just before we had chewed our nails

down to the quick Emitari announced he was

ready.

We headed up the approach to the citadel.

Emitari had had a vision of this place and he

knew what to expect. Eventually we reached a

stone apron before the doors. There were arrow

slits above us and arrow slits to the right. To the

left was a sheer drop to a rushing water course.

The party was still invisible and Emitari had cast

that spell on me again before he had rested so

although we felt exposed we were fairly safe from

any watchers. Emitari used the flying wizards eye

to scout out as much of the interior as he could.

The eye could fly around but obviously could not

open doors. He looked in through the arrow slits

and followed it down corridors until he a

reasonable idea of the layout of the front of the

citadel on the level above us. To gain entry

Emitari used his portal spell and we simply

strolled right on it. Right inside the doors was a

mustering hall with a passage running off dead

ahead and another passage running off the to the

right which we believed went to a guard room

that had arrow slits overlooking the front apron.

Emitari believed that the part of the sceptre we

were looking for was above and to the right of

where we were so we started to head right. At

that moment a group of five orcs came from deep

within the citadel, right into the hall, they pressed

a panel on the wall and the whole front door

seemed to un-interlock and fold back. Four orcs

passed though the door way and the fifth orc

used the same panel to close the door. We now

knew how it operated. We knew that when the

relief guards discovered the bodies of their

companions they would raise the alarm so we

started to head back down that right passage

way. What we didn’t expect was for an alarm

horn to sound within the citadel quite so quickly.

They could obviously operate an alarm from

those first guard towers. Soon there were tens of

guards steaming from guard rooms into that

mustering hall.

As we watched them form up one of the orcs

touched the door mechanism and proceeded to

take about half of the assembled defenders out

of the citadel, obviously to investigate the alarm.

When the alarm went off I was just listening at a

door to check if a room was empty. This should

have been one of the rooms overlooking the front

apron. We had assumed that there had to be an

observer in there to see the outer guards

returning to open the door for them and until the

alarm went off I could hear them moving around

and talking.

Now we had defenders behind us in that room

and thirty or so defenders in front of us in the

mustering hall. The corridor between these was

not exactly straight but had a little dog leg nearer

our end. I just knew that Emitari could not resist

tossing a fireball at a massed group of evil

creatures. I flattened myself against the wall at

the dog leg. We were all still invisible and the last

thing I wanted was to be in the direct line of fire

and get a face full of Emitari’s magic.

Bang on cue Emitari appeared right in front of me

stood at the head of the corridor, hand

outstretched as a ball of fire streaked away from

him towards the orcs. I gave the fireball a second

or two to explode and then I was around the

corner and sprinting for the door mechanism. I

was kind of relying on the flash of fire, dead,

burning and mangled bodies and general

surprise to cover my entrance. What I didn’t want

was a particularly aware orc from realising we

were already inside the citadel and opening the

door and calling another thirty orcs down on us. I

skidded to a halt under the touch stone and

turned to face the defenders with throwing knives

out, pumped and ready.

Arnie I think was caught a little flat footed. He

knows I am not really that keen on charging into

the massed ranks of enemy. That is normally his

job! He must have heard or sensed me setting off

because seconds later he must have entered the

room.

As soon as I let fly with my first knife the

invisibility spell was broken and I materialised in

the room. I threw knife after knife at the most

aware and organised orcs. I was happy for the

burning ones to roll around in agony if they were

no threat to me. One orc screamed in pain as a

sword blade erupted from his chest and Arnie

appeared behind him, his invisibility spell broken.

I defended the touch stone, stopping any orcs

from getting near it, Arnie swept along their flank

with a sword in each hand dealing out death to

any one in reach. Emitari had by now blocked a

barracks door way by bringing up rocks to seal it

and Kalinor was picking off individual orcs with

his bow. It was then that their morale broke and

the last orc still on his feet tried to break and run

only to be brought down by a lightning bolt that

nearly took his leg off.

So with half the garrison dead, half marooned

outside with no way to get back in we effectively

had control of the inner defences. While I had

been holding the doors Emitari and Kalinor had

taken out the other defenders behind us using a

mix of magic and arrows, filling a room with a

death cloud and picking off anyone who

struggled out.

We could not afford to leave one or more of us in

the muster hall so we had to hope that either

there was no one left behind us or that no one

doubled back and let the other defenders back in.

We had come to get then next part of the sceptre

and we knew that was in the hands of an evil

wizard and that he was on a higher level of this

citadel.

We started to explore the citadel trying to piece

together the bits that Emitari had seen in visions,

the bits he had seen with the wizard’s eye and

what we could see on the ground.

We son found a wide flight of stairs leading up

and as we knew that the sceptre was above us

we definitely had to take them. Kalinor has

obviously been turning an idea over in his mind

for a while. We all knew that he could create a

blazing halo around a person. This magic, while

not actually preventing you from getting hurt, did

a hell of a lot to put off your opponent. He cast

this on me. Then we all expected him to cast the

same spell on Arnie but instead he cast another

protective ward on me that would protect against

magic and then yet another, a sort of forest or

natures blessing that should protect me from evil.

He told me that these protections would last a

quarter of an hour at most.

We were now on a ticking clock. I took the lead,

checking doors for sounds of life, if I heard

nothing we moved on. At the top of the stairs

there was a long corridor ending in a ‘T’. to the

left was a dead end. Emitari could sense the

sceptre was to the right so that is the way we

went. The corridor was lit by flaming torches so

we could see along its length and it culminated in

a heavy set of double doors.

We positioned ourselves so that I was going ot

go through the left door. Arnie was behine the

right but was going to wait for me to enter first.

Emitari has a special spell that could suck the

magic from another wizard leaving him

defenceless. He prepared that and waited behind

me. Kalinor had his bow drawn and was ready to

cover Arnie.

On Emitari’s signal I kicked open the door and

rushed the room.

The room was not just a room, it was a hall or

throne room at the very least. The most stiking

feature was not the architecture, it was the four

war trolls lined up to intercept us. Each was in a

mix of plate and chain mail and where it took a

man both hands to wield a battle axe or maul

these beasts had one in each hand. Beyond our

welcoming committee at the far end was a

thrown carved with the likenesses of dwarfish

lords was a thrown and on the throne was a

white robed figure holding a staff like a rod of

office.

Here is what I was thinking. This guy is a wizard,

if we get pinned down fighting trolls he is going to

slaughter us. If his throne is as bad as the last

one anything we throw at it could bounce back

only harder and faster. I don’t want to fight trolls if

I don’t have to.

I took off like a hare out of a trap. I angled away

from the trolls aiming for the wall about half way

down the hall. I don’t think anyone expected that

and the trolls certainly didn’t more to intercept

fast enough. By the time it had turned and started

after me I had veritably bounced off the wall and

was running hell for leather at the wizard.

The wizard was using his staff to fire waves of

frost at my friends but when he saw me coming

his looked pretty confident and it looked to me

like he tried to cast a spell at me. Whatever all

these charms on me did, they did it well enough

because I was not fired to a crisp or turned into a

frog. Now with me baring down on him,

broadsword drawn but in a fist pumping sprint

and a war troll going flat out waving a pair of

mauls directly behind me I am not sure which of

us scared the wizard the most but at the last

second he flinched and I brought my sword down

and nearly took the bastards head off. As it was I

hit him almost as I went past, my blade bit in to

the back of his neck and he just went sort of

floppy and slipped down his throne. I almost ran

over him as I put one foot on the arm, another on

the back as I tried to change direction and started

to hare off down the hall towards my friends.

Now I was facing the ‘wrong’ way I could see

how everyone else was doing. Emitari was in the

middle of casting a spell at a troll looming right

over him. Arnie had killed one troll but one arm

looked broken to me as it just hung by his side as

he fought. Kalinor was hanging back and firing off

arrows as fast as he could. I had hoped that

more of the trolls would be dead already but

things looked pretty even down the other end of

the hall. I picked my line and ran for it taking the

troll away from Arnie and Emitari and I aimed to

drag my pursuer down and around the room as I

did another circuit of the hall. When Emitari had

told us about the part of the sceptre we were

looking for he had told us that it was part of the

wizard’s staff. I was about to make another loop

and go get the staff.

I now know that war trolls are generally faster in

a straight line than armoured adventurers. I made

it to the wizard again who really was still alive

amazingly, and grabbed his staff before heading

back down the hall. By now the troll had the idea

and I nearly made it back to the others when the

troll caught me, one maul smashed into my back

sending me flying and the other would have

taken my arm off if I had not been wearing a

shield. Anyway the shield or what was left of it

pretty much disintegrated on impact and I hit the

floor and rolled.

By now we actually had the upper hand. Two troll

were dead, Arnie was moving to engage my big

ugly friend and Emitari was trying to fry another

with a lightning bolt. Kalinor was still supporting

the others. As I tried to get to my feet I saw

Emitari take a huge blow to the shoulder from the

flat of a great sword. I at least had time to draw

my knives when Emitari’s opponent went down.

Arnie was on the back foot against the one who

had been chasing me and suddenly Emitari

made the floor under the troll simply disappear

and he fell down the hole with a crash.

Well there was no immediate danger and it

looked like we had won when Emitari suddenly

went all alert again. He felt like he had been

attacked magically. I told him that the wizard was

still down there alive but probably dying. I had

thought that we could interrogate him for useful

information but by the look of Emitari’s face it

was euthanasia time for Mr Wizard. Not

something I am proud of but you cannot really

leave an extremely angry powerful wizard around

to plot his revenge.

It was then that we heard the front doors opening

from below!

We immediately went in to prep mode. There

were two entrances into this hall that we knew of.

Kalinor sealed one with a wall of stone. Emitari

covered the main entrance with a fireball

prepared. There were four more doors leading off

this hall, I quickly checked out each one

discovering a vestry, altar and what were being

used as quarters for the trolls. At least there were

no other possible entrances. I took up position at

the point where I could look to the left at the

sealed passage and to the front at the main

corridor where we expected the main assault to

come. I had a pair of knives out and I was totally

focused.

The orcs came around the corner of the main

approach and Emitari let fly with his fireball.

Moments later the war troll started beating at the

sealed corridor trying to break down the

magically created stone wall.

The forward passage as a scene of carnage with

burning bodies hurled down the corridor. A few

brave orcs tried to make it around the corner with

crossbows but the distance was to great for them

to be too much of a threat.

Emitari threw another fireball and cleared that

corridor.

At that point the war troll broke through the stone

seal and right into a hail of knives from me

including one straight to the head. The troll

crumpled and with it the orcs resolve. We soon

heard them fleeing and the door to the citadel

opening again as they fled for their lives.

This had been a hard fight. Arnie had a broken

shoulder, Emitari was no better off. I had lost my

shield. The only person unscathed was Kalinor.

Luckily for us to either side of the altar were

substantial incense burners. We used this to set

up a kettle and started to prepare healing herb,

cleaning the wounds. Within a cuple of days with

the herbs help the bones should be almost as

good as new. While Kalinor treated the patients I

started collecting the most obviously valuable

items together as well as anything that I thought

may be magical. It was while doing the search

that I found the vault. It was obviously protected

by a huge magical rune. We had come across

runes before, or should I say I have been blown

up and thrown across a room by a rune before.

I stood back and contemplated it. That didn’t

work so I went and got Emitari and the others. At

first Emitari tried to decipher the run but that told

him nothing. This was ancient magic and not a

runic language he was familiar with. Then he

tried to drain the magic from the rune but it

resisted. There was only going to be one way

through this and that was to try and activate the

rune and that could be lethal. We could of course

walk away and never find out what was behind

the vault door.

Well that was never going to happen was it!

It then thought of a solution. I asked Kalinor to

cast every protective ward he knew over me, the

other retired to a safe distance. I had imagined

this would be just ourside the door but it turned

out their idea of safe was out the door, down the

corridor, around the corner along another corridor

and then behind the heaviest double doors they

could find in the great hall.

I opened the vault.

I picked myself up off the floor on the far side of

the room to find the floor and walls blacked and

there was a silhouette of me scorched into the

wall behind me as well but I was alive and

unharmed. In the vault was a book. I was kind of

disappointed. Books are almost never fun and

almost never useful for me.

It turned out that the wizard we had been fighting

was an evil sorcerer one of the most destructive

schools of magic and this was his spell book. We

decided to take it with us so that it did not fall into

anyone else’s hands. We also found a dwarfish

battle helm that suited Arnie. It conferred a

certain amount of magical protection against fire.

All of the other magical treasures Emitari took for

himself including magical robes and a wizard’s

staff. At least we gained the next part of the

sceptre.

What Emitari did learn was that by holding the

sceptre he could feel that the next piece of the

puzzle was many thousands of miles away to the

far north. Off our continent and almost on the

opposite side of the world. There was no way we

could reach it in time!

Well whatever the dilemma we certainly would

not solve it by sitting in this old citadel so he had

to head out. It was decided easily enough to

head back to Fey and the wizards guild. We

could give them the sorcerers spell book and we

could consult with the White Orchid. Emitari and

Kalinor then strted a heated debate about the

most efficient route, across the desert and

around the bottom of the mountains or west to

the mountains and then south or west to the

mountains, south to the marches and then south

on the far side. When they had argued

themselves to a stalemate I pointed out that there

was an orcish horde marching on nearly a million

unsuspecting people and the only ones how

could give a warning was us and only then if we

returned the way we had come, fifteen days

along the path edging the mountains, then use

the navigator pass to cross the essence barrier.

We could then use relatively safe roads to warn

the Xan Legion that the horde was on the move

and then take a boat part way to Fey and ride the

rest of the way.

That ended the discussion and we mounted up

and left the next morning.

Day 81 We rode out of the citadel very aware that there

were roaming bands of orcs heading in the same

direction as us and there was a orc hoard up

ahead. Whilst we didn’t really want to ride

straight into it we wanted to get ahead of it to

give a warning to the Legion. What we hoped is

that the horde would have to run south at the

essence barrier and take days to circumnavigate

it. We on the other hand could jump the barrier

using a last navigator token.

Day 95 We reached the essence barrier in the early

afternoon and decided to cross the barrier as

soon as possible. Emitari used the navigaotro

token to call a navigator. We had expected Ella

but we were disappointed that it was some guy

we had never met before.

Four grumpy heroes handed over their token and

our navigator took our a compass and jumped us

over the barrier.

It was now a case of retracing our steps. The Orc

horde if it was cming this way would have to have

gone south, around the bottom of the essence

barrier and that would have taken them a weeks

so we could be fairly confident that we were

ahead of the horde.

Day 99 It took us another four days to reach the Xan

Legion fort and we made a report to a Centurion

about the Orc horde, it’s sie and movements as

best we could. He seemed weary and not

unsurprised. He told us that there were many

dark forces on the move but most lands were

unaware or unwilling to accept the danger

building up.

We soon left the fort and took the fastest route

we could to get to Fey. We overnighted at

taverns and inns to keep the horses in good

condition, well fed and cared for. We travelled by

boat on the river as much as we could until we

reached the city.

Day 110 We rode into Fey two months to the day after

accepting this quest. We stayed at the magic

users guild as Emitari’s guests as he is the only

member and then requested an interview with

Devarsh of the White Orchid.

Firstly, Devarsh was not too happy with us riding

straight into town and staying at the magic users

guild. We are after all meant to be on a secret

mission and not for the guild but for a secret

society.

Anyway, we explained that the next piece of the

sceptre appeared to be many, many months

away by the fastest boats or horses and there

was no humanly possible way of us getting there

in time. Devarsh’s first suggestion was that we

had amassed quite a fortune in treasure from our

mission so far and that we could commission a

combination of ships and navigators to sail and

jump our way across the world. Well I thought

that Emitari was going to choke on his own

tongue at his outrage at this and his was nothing

compared to Arnie’s upset. What xxx was trying

to get across was that we were working for the

White Orchid not the magic users guild and as

such he could not draw on the wealth of the guild

without arousing suspicion. He was pointing out

that the magic users guild was politically neutral

and would not take sides.

I took this as just another way in which those in

power try to screw those below them in the

pecking order. How can you be politically neutral

when faced with the end of the world? Are they

thinking that it won’t affect them because they

are ‘not involved’?

Since the last time we had met Devarsh we had

undergone a couple of changes. One of our party

was dead, I had been mortally wounded only

saved by chance that Emitari managed to apply a

herb in the nick of time and we had faced defeat

twice once by Obar’s Uruks and at the hands of a

Demon. We had lost some of our innocent happy

go lucky adventurers spirit and the idea that we

were not coming back from this was very real. It

was also obvious if even we were successful no

one wold ever be told of the threat we had faced

and the deeds we had done. No heroes home

coming for us.

Faced with an open rebellion from us xxx left us

to talk things over with the navigator’s guild.

When he returned he had managed to negotiate

a deal. They would transport us to the next

continent for ‘free’ if we would deal with a rogue

navigator and return the navigator’s compass to

the guild. We were happy to accept this condition

as it furthered our quest.