... It is in a lonely village, to the north of Nuln, that our story begins. One of the inhabitants, Elric, has just successfully cast his first spell, and goes to the local tavern to celebrate, where he meets his future fellow adventurers. The dwarf Kormak, in search of great fame, has arrived to investigate a legendary tomb rumoured to lie near the village. I, a druid, left my homeland of Brettonia in search of adventure...
Upon leaving the tavern, we caught sight of a bright light just beyond the horizon; I was certain that it was a source of great evil. We decided however that it would be best if we got some rest, and Elric kindly invited us back to his home.
Next morning, we headed off towards where we had seen the light, and entered the forest. A horse was there, standing motionless. When Elric threw a rock at it, the horse disintegrated before our very eyes! We pressed on, and found a tunnel which we entered. Kormak bravely went first, and had to deal with a huge snake. We navigated through various rooms, and had to pull levers to open doors, finding a magical scroll on the way. Eventually we reached a spiral staircase, which seemed to descend for miles. At the bottom was a huge cavern, across the middle of which ran a river. Across the river was a pyramid, with a man chanting, as if he were in the process of casting some spell. Kormak scaled the cavern wall in order to cross the river. The rest of us planned to go across using a rope held from both sides, but upon touching the surface of the river, we realised that it was just an illusion, and were able to cross, much to Kormak's amazement.
The man stopped chanting, and suddenly there was a massive explosion as the pyramid was destroyed in an intense flash that blinded us for a few moments. When he noticed us, he demanded that we gave him the scroll. Instead, Elric began to read it out. Kormak tried to distract the mage by firing his crossbow, but he missed completely, and very nearly hit Elric. When the scroll had been read, the mage was consumed by the spell, and disappeared into nothingness.
We discovered that a chest was there, which we took back with us. Leaving the dungeon proved not so easy, as a statue there had become alive, and was ready to strike us with his flail, but we soon realised that it just wanted to make sure that we were taking the chest with us, and so it let us go.
When we had left the dungeon, we were able to open the chest, and found money, as well as details of a great quest.
Elric returned to his tutor in order to tell him of the quest we had been charged with, and he generously gave us loan of some horses. We then set off for Altorf, to search the great library for information.
Only a few hours into our journey, I sensed that we were being followed, but we carried on regardless, and stopped at an inn for the night. Tucking into the meal, I was horrified to realise that it was tainted with poison, yet it was too late for Kormak who had collapsed unconscious. We took him to our room. Upon returning from the bar, we heard noises from the room, and entered to see a man with a black cloak leaping from the window, and we discovered a knife left beside Kormak.
Elric spotted a man looking similar to the one who had been in our room, on a grey horse.
In an attempt to see who was following us, I stayed behind at the inn while the others left, but I sensed that I was being watched; there was no point waiting, so I left and caught the others up. We tried stopping while the man passed, but a few hours later, he was following us again. At the inn, we ate dinner and the next thing we knew, it was the next morning - our food had been drugged! Not wishing to stay there any longer, we hurriedly continued on our journey.
I was still convinced that we were being followed, and again we saw the man on the grey horse. Upon arriving at Altdorf, we found a room for the night. We were very shocked upon awaking to find a skinned horse's head on one of the beds!
The next day, we researched in the city library, as well as buying some rations. The journey to Middenheim passed uneventfully, although we had to sleep out in the open, due to the lack of inns in the area.
At Middenheim, we bought more food, and also a tent. The journey then continued onto Erengrad. We left the forest, and had to spend the last night camping on open plains. We heard howls, which turned out to be three Dire Wolves. We managed to slay the first one which reached us, although Kormak sustained heavy injuries in the fight; thankfully, the other two fled upon seeing this. Curiously, the wolf's corpse had vanished by morning.
We decided to spend several days in Erengrad. Elric tended to Kormak's wounds, whilst Blot the Halfling got a job as a chef. We spoke to some fishermen about the island, and one offered to take us there.
We set off on the fisherman's boat without Kormak, who was still resting. We were dropped off at the island, and saw that there were teleports at several places. We followed the instructions we had received from the chest to use the correct teleports, and eventually came to a chest that contained our prize, part of the Sword of Ages.
Although the first part of our quest was complete, we had no time to celebrate. We eagerly returned to Erengrad, before heading back to Middenheim.
One night as we camped just outside the Forest of Shadows, we heard howling, which then abruptly stopped at the moment of a great flash of light. We looked out of the tent to see a man approaching, but to our terror, we could see that his flesh was all rotten, just like a corpse. I took a swing at him with my axe, which seemed to be enough to scare him off.
As we passed through the Forest, I spent a night communing with nature. In the morning, I found some runes spelling 'Loren' had appeared.
We had been warned by passing peasants that there was a plague in the Empire, but we thankfully saw no sign of it in Middenheim. We stayed a night there, and then continued. It was not long before a storm broke out, and then we were attacked by a large group of beastmen and mutants. The fight was bloody, but we managed to defeat them all.
As the sun was setting, we were fortunate to find an inn along the way, but not everything seemed right. The horses in the stable seemed agitated, and charged out when we opened the doors. Then we discovered the body of the stable boy. Inside, we could see there was blood on the back of a road warden, but we said nothing. Shortly after we had gone to our room, we heard the sounds of chanting. We eventually traced this to the cellar. Kormak and I crept down the steps, while Elric bravely guarded the entrance at the top. What we saw caused us immense terror.
The real innkeeper and his family were tied up, while the people we had seen in the inn where chanting. One of them had a skull for a face! They seemed to be in a trance, and did not notice us. Also in the room was a statuette of a daemon.
As soon as I could summon the courage, I lept into combat, taking them down one by one. Soon after, Kormak joined me. Those we were not fighting continued to chant, as if that was all that mattered. As we fought, Elric was attacked himself.
When we had slain the last of them, we thought we had succeeded, but it was not over yet. We had been too late in stopping the chanting, and before our eyes, a demon materialised. We attacked, but neither Kormack or Elric, who had now joined us, could inflict any damage to it. It seemed that only my axe, which was enchanted, could be used to wound it. After a few blows, I lost my grip on the axe; Kormak immediately picked it up, and managed to defeat the evil creature.
We had suffered many injuries in our fights, but the grateful innkeeper was happy to have us stay and rest for a week.
After that, we continued on our way to Altdorf. A few hours into the journey, we saw a man approaching us, and then we realised that he was actually gliding towards us, silently. The ghost told us that had been killed by the demon worshippers at the inn, and his bones had been cast aside nearby. If we took the bones, and gave them a proper burial, he would be able to rest in peace, and we could contact his family who would reward us. We did as he said, organising a burial at the cost of thirty gold crowns.
We arrived at Altdorf to see that there were many who were suffering from the plague. We found the dead man's family, and we were given four rubies, worth fifty gold crowns each. Elric also completed his apprenticeship, to become a fully-fledged Wizard. We then continued on our way to Loren Forest, not wishing to spend more time than necessary in the disease-ridden city.
The Elves welcomed us at the forest, and gave us new black horses, on the condition that we returned them when we had completed our quest. Elric became sick, and we soon realised that he had caught the plague. He spent two weeks in isolation, we were uncertain of whether he would survive, but thankfully he recovered. Meanwhile, the elves taught the rest of us how to do some trick riding on our new steeds.
Our next destination was Mousillon. As we approached, we saw the landscape had become very hazy. The next thing we knew, we were standing in a forest, even though before we were on open plains. The sky had become dark and cloudy, and it was drizzling even though the sun was shining brightly only moments before.
We pressed on, and saw a wagon with a young boy, and an old woman. I noticed how the boy's hair was bright orange, just like my own. Before we could greet them however, we were ambushed by a large group of goblyns, perhaps twenty or more in number. To my consternation, it seemed that they were concentrating their attacks on me and the boy. I cannot remember much of what happened, just that I had managed to slay a few of them, and the next thing I knew, I must have been knocked out, as my hands and feet were now tied, and they were dragging me along the ground. I was powerless, and they took me to a settlement. I was dumped in a small room, and my equipment taken from me, and placed just out of my reach.
For hours I remained there, unable to free my hands from my bonds. I wondered what had become of my comrades; had they all been slain by the goblyns? If they hadn't, would they find me, or give me up for dead?
After many long hours, I was relieved to see my friends - but not so relieved to see that they too had been captured, and they were tied up beside me. They were able to tell me what had happened.
During the fight, the goblyns had also tried to capture Peter, the boy, but they were prevented, and the goblyns were soon all defeated. The old woman was extremely grateful, and offered to read the Tarokka. After doing so, she gave my friends a map of the area.
The next day, they headed off in the direction of the caves, in order to look for me. On the way, they were attacked by a single goblyn. He was easily defeated, but a mysterious mist left the body. It went up Kormak's nose, but he resisted, and then went up Elric's nose, where it remained.
Upon entering the caves, there were two routes, left and right. They turned left, and came to a very thin part of the passage, and the area was filled with dead goblyns, who had been cut badly. Then, for no apparent reason, Elric pushed Blot forward, who was then cut in two by an invisible blade! Kormak was shocked by this deed, but did not question it. He jumped through the gap, and managed to avoid the unseen blade. Elric followed in the same manner. They then continued onwards, and travelled through various rooms, including one filled with stalagmites and stalactites, which made it slow to traverse. They came to a room with a stone statue, that held a silver scythe. Kormak took this treasure, but when they slept in that room, he was troubled with nightmares of killing his friends and family with the scythe. Undeterred by this, Kormak kept his prize when they continued onwards. They encountered a burial room, where they were attacked by fourteen goblyns, but after a while, they stopped attacking, and ran off. In another room was a corpse on a metal mesh, and every few minutes the room was filled with a blast of steam. Along the middle of another passageway was a deep crevasse; the two adventurers decided not to risk continuing along this route.
When they slept, Kormak was again plagued by nightmares, and so he reluctantly decided to return the scythe to the statue. They retraced their steps, back past the invisible blade, and tried the other route, which led to a pool. Neither felt willing to drink from it, though. As they left the caves, they were ambushed by a large group of goblyns, who captured them, and that is how they ended up with me.
As we were awaiting our fate, a goblyn came to us, alone, and freed us! The gods must be smiling on us, I though, how lucky we were to escape execution. We took our equipment, and huriedly left the settlement. We soon met a group of druids, who all had bright orange hair like mine. They performed a ceremony, and the next thing we knew, we had all become hounds! It was a strange feeling; it was not just like me being in a hound's body, but it seemed like I had the mind of a hound too. We raced across the plains back towards the settlement, and then attacked the goblyns, tearing every last one of them apart with our teeth. Before we knew it, we had returned to our humanoid forms. We talked a little with the druids, and then bade them farewell, and continued on our journey towards the castle.
We entered through the main gate, and then entered the keep. The rooms looked as if they had been deserted for centuries. But then, to our amazement, when we walked through one door, we came to a room which was not in ruins, and indeed, the rooms that we had been through previously had now been restored. We soon realised that we were travelling in between several time eras, possibly hundreds of years apart. Also, in the older time periods, it was a bright sunny day outside, unlike the depressing dark clouds from where we had come. Unfortunately, some unseen force prevented us from leaving the castle in these earlier time zones.
In the present day era, we had witnessed a skeletal corpse pinned to a
rotting door by arrows. In an earlier period, we saw the fresh body, and
then we arrived at a preceding period, to see the events of his death take
place. We were powerless to prevent his fate
unfold as guards fired arrows into his body. It seemed unsettling to see all
of this in reverse, seeing him die when we had already seen his decaying
body centuries later.
Hail! I go by the name of Fabrice and by trade I am a watchman. It was on one particular watch that this all started.
I was on patrol that evening, and I heard some suspicious sounds coming from the direction of a small wood that was along my patrol. I investigated. As I entered the wood a strange fog fell about me, and I was afraid that I didn't know where I was, so I was about to turn back. As I did so I heard the crack of a snapping twig and I felt a blow land on the back of my head. Needless to say I was thus deprived of my senses.
I awoke, feeling a little out of shape to say the least, in a strange room. Fairly small, it had various mechanisms within it, similar to those used for raising a drawbridge. Alas I was not able to experiment as I was chained to the wall with manacles, which to be honest did allow a fair degree of movement - as was lucky exploited later. I was not the only occupant of this room, but my companion had obviously had longer to sample the pleasures of such an experience - all that was left was a skeleton. I pretty much gave up hope - I had no reason to have been treated to such indignities, yet I could see no way out. In my boredom I even resorted to counting and recounting the 529 cracks upon the wall.
Then I heard a knocking on the door. After confirming my presence I heard sounds of hacking, and all of a sudden the door burst open - the hinges burst and the door flew towards me at great speed. Luckily the chains were quite long and I was agile enough to dive out of the way. When I looked up I saw the face of a dwarf, a druid and a magic user grinning apologetically down at me. They introduced themselves as Kormak, Marie and Elric. Elric muttered some strange words and my chains unlocked to my horror! I have never been a fan of magic users.. still I was free, and after explaining what they were doing in such a place I agreed to join them on their adventure, in the hope of returning home.
We explored more of this castle that I found myself in. I was very puzzled by the appearance of the castle changing beneath our feet, sometimes things were new, other times dusty, yet others had objects smashed and ransacked. The time of day also fluctuated. We found an armoury, in which I helped myself to a sword, which wasn't in very good condition, but I needed a weapon. After smashing through a locked door we found an armour display room with shields and suits of armour, and all was dusty save one polished suit of armour. I opened the visor and a ghost flew out! Elric collapsed in revultion on the floor, parting with whatever he'd had for lunch. Kormak and myself managed to stay calm, but the ghost did not look best pleased - he flew right at me, went through me and vanished into the wall.. His touch was icy cold and hurt me.
I was determined to try to find some order or law to the changes in time
zones we were experiencing, and as an experiment I left my sword in a room
before shutting and opening the door. Fools pay, and I lost my sword.
However all was not lost as we happened upon the armoury in a time zone
where all was clean and in good condition, and I equipped myself with
sword and shield. Yet more foolishly our group split, to see if something
was moving us as a whole group. I went with Kormak, but when we returned
to where we had left Marie and Elric, they had disappeared. However we
were not left alone for long as 4 Goblyns charged in. Kormak leapt straight
into battle, but I followed cautiously, having never seen such creatures
before. Sadly my lack of experience showed and I was unable to land many
blows. Fortunately Kormak had a better time of it, and neatly split several
of them in half, before finishing off the goblyn I was fighting.
Shortly afterwards Marie and Elric entered the room and we were once more
united.
Our next area of exploration was the courtyard of the castle. I found another way of determining roughly the sequence of time frames we'd been moving in, by looking at the thickness of an oak tree. There were also three sepulchres and a statue, and depending on the time zone we saw either 2 sepulchres, 3 sepulchres or 3 sepulchres and a statue.
I heard a voice crying I've found it, my Lady Isolt!, but none of the rest of the group heard it. Just before I thought I was mad Elric also heard it, but at a different time. We all heard it at different times eventually. We went into one of the sepulchres to look around, and the same ghost that appeared out of the armour was mourning at a sarcophagus. He turned around angrily and flew at Kormak, wounding him before leaving. We eventually plucked up enough courage to open one of the sarcophagi (there was one in each sepluchre).. Inside we saw a few gnawed bones. We also saw a mural on the wall of a young boy holding a dog in his arms. We also looked in the sarcophagi in the other two tombs, but we had to get into the right time frame before entering the third. In the other two sarcophagi we saw a man in plate mail, but with an obvious stomach wound and an old lady with dry cracking skin, as well as murals on the walls, depicting a young man with a small angel holding a spear above his shoulder and a middle-aged lady. The statue outside was also examined.
Having gained this information we set about exploring the castle more systematically - going up a tower level by level, planning to work our way around a complete circle before climbing up to the next level. Kormak was pretty bored by this... However the approach worked, for we heard eerie harp music coming from a room. We investigated and saw two goblyns waltzing! There was also a ghost of a teenage man in a very poor state - looking as if he had been horribly burned. Upon seeing the party the ghost fled through a wall. The goblyns fell to the floor, revealing to us that they had been animated corpses. The party headed downwards to find a duelling room, with two duellists fencing. One, a peasant, stabbed the other, an aristocratic looking young man. We offered to help but the young man got up and left. The peasant followed and beckoned for us to follow. However they were not seen again. The next thing we heard was sounds of metal clashing. I peeked through the door to hear the clashing was from further up the corridor, so I went out to see what was going on. I saw a mercenary in combat with a ghost. The mercenary screamed 'I don't want your book! Have it back!' and he throw the book towards the ghost. However the ghost killed the mercenary with what looked a powerful sword. The ghost departed but we could make out the symbol of crossed swords tatooed on his shoulder . I removed a breastplate from the corpse - reluctantly, but in need of armour - and the symbol of a mailed fist clutching a white feather was revealed on the mercenary's tunic.
We also looked at the book that had been thrown, it looked like some sort of diary, and we nervously picked it up to read it. It was the diary of Duncan ApDuguid, and it opened on the last entry, in which Duncan wrote of a spirit accosting him in his room, which he repelled with holy water. This happened after Duncan had had a meal with Morholt, who had taken the guest room so Duncan could have his room. The diary was dated 1833 and the ghost looked similar to one of the murals in the tomb (in Morholt's tomb). Flicking though the diary we found passages suggesting that Morholt would make an excellent priest of Morrigan, and that he had recently gained such a priesthood . Duncan also wrote of a strange relationship between the family and ghosts.
We explored more and found a door that was locked - I smashed it in a rare display of strength but found 6 goblyns behind it. Again my lack of experience showed, for as I was about to finish one of them off a goblyn struck a lucky blow that knocked me off my feet and backwards, injuring me critically. When I regained my senses I tried to flee, being critically wounded, and hoping the others would follow. Elric had no problem fleeing, but as I turned to flee, another goblin struck a strong and well placed blow that would have killed me had it not been turned by a stone lodged in my armour from when I was knocked down. As we turned the corner I heard a cry of pain from Kormak. I decided to go back and help, even if wounded, but when we turned back there was nothing there! Even the door I had smashed open was just a blank wall - we had shifted time frames again - just when Kormak needed our help! In my desperation I tried dashing in and out of doors to get back to the right time frame. Eventually it worked, but when we rounded the corner all we could see was blood on the floor - they had all gone and we didn't know what they had done with Kormak. I had some hope as there were no corpses, and I didn't think the goblyns would be gracious enough to take him to burial. We had to find him, and quickly for fear of what they might do to him.
The first thing we did was rest - I was not in a particularly good shape, and neither was Elric. We took turns to watch whilst the other slept. I was woken up by a ghost which petrified me with fright. Elric was unaffected and he followed her beckoning to find some vials of healing potions. I took one and was healed before further exploration.
We at first went back to where I had been held prisoner, but to no avail. Then we went back out to the courtyard, and along the way we found several rooms that looked like the guest room spoken about in the diary, and also we found Tristan's room. Here there were two murals, one of Tristan, and the other of Isolt. Upon searching a desk we found some inheritance papers. The first was dated 1869 and written by Brangain ApBlanc, leaving the keep and possessions to her son Sean ApBlanc. A second was written in 1908 by Sean ApBlanc leaving the keep to his son Marc ApBlanc.
Once, when we were out in the courtyard, at night and near the sepulchres a bunch of wolves approached us. Elric shut himself in a sepulchre, leaving me to fight the wolves; however I didn't have to for long, as out of Gilan's tomb a ghost of a 12-year old boy flew out towards the wolves screaming 'No! Get off him!'. He jumped on the wolves and vanished. I took the opportunity to enter the other Sepulchre. Here the ghost of Morholt challenged us to a fight. He seemed worried that Morrigan had abandoned him, muttering 'something's not right' Upon questioning he was amazed that 'Duncan ran away' It appears that he was friends with Duncan, and was puzzled as to Duncan's disappearance. Morholt did not appear to realise that he was a ghost, or that he had been killed. Morholt also revealed that his father's name is Tristan. He explained a little about Gilan, his dear brother. There was a dog that Gilan was fond of, that one day got attacked by wolves, Gilan was angry and ran out trying to save his dog, unfortunately both him and his dog died. This explained the gnawed bones in Gilan's tomb, and the bone from a different animal which was mixed up with them. Our conversion with Morholt was going well, until Elric made him look at himself to see he was dead, whereupon he vanished.
Puzzling though this was we had to press on and find Kormak. Having looked around the towers we decided to search a further 4 storey building, where we found spiral staircases leading down that had not been explored yet. At one door we heard screams... I swapped armour and weapons with Marie, as she didn't feel inclined to take part in much action and then I burst open the door. Beyond was a torture chamber, with someone at the centre of attention on a table, and 4 goblyns who turned round to see me and charged...
Marie's equipment made a significant difference - I now felt I could fight and I became engrossed in the battle between myself and the 4 goblyns. I managed to be a lot more successful than previous fights, not only was I severing arms but also the goblyns often did themselves more harm than good by swinging their weapons! Elric took this opportunity to creep around the room and search further rooms beyond. The next thing I knew was he was running back into the room, and out to where we came from where he shut the door on me again! Then I saw the reason why, as 6 more goblyns ran into the room - help! Fortunately only 4 of them could get at me at a time, and Marie's equipment enabled me to establish a fairly healthy rate of goblyn chopping, taking the odd wound in reply. For a brief period in the battle things went against me - I fumbled and they got a couple of nasty blows in. I just about managed to hang in there, and towards the end, when I was on my last legs I struck some very lucky blows to decapitate the remaining goblyns. Tired, and a little annoyed with Elric I searched the goblyns and found some keys, and then I went to the rooms beyond and found some cells, one of which contained Kormak. I released him, and he was very glad to see me. We then went back and released the poor victim of the goblyns' torture.
The poor soul we rescued from the torturing was a druid called Shela. He was able to tell us more of the history of the castle that we were in:
The druid also muttered something about sanctuary and wanted to leave the castle. We took him to the gate where he was thankful and left. On our way we met up with Elric, only he looked slightly different than when we last saw him. He stooped low to the ground, as if wanting to constantly get on all fours, and he was also a little hairier...
We descended into the dungeon of the castle, and entered a room which was clearly a torture chamber. I shuddered at the thought of what poor victims had suffered here. Fabrice noticed that there were spy holes in the walls looking into the chamber, and then after searching the walls, discovered a hidden door. I stayed their with Kormack while Fabrice and Elric went off to explore; it was pitch black, although Elric was strangely able to see still.
After a while, they returned, and told us that they had discovered a way into some caverns, which came to a large drop, which could only be descended by an old ladder. We followed them along the dark tunnels, and came into the cavern that they had spoken of. There was no telling how huge it was, out torch light only illuminating the nearby walls.
What happened next, I can barely bring myself to recall. At the end of the cavern where numerous dead corpses, clearly druids, with orange hair like my own. It seemed they had only recently been killed, and I tried not to think about what might have happened to them, and swore to punish with death whatever evil creature had ordered their execution.
But however dreadful that may seem, to my horror, there was even more. As I stood watching over the bodies, I heard the sound of Fabrice and Elric arguing. It was difficult to make out, but it appeared to be about these corpses, and then the sound of someone being kicked. I went over, and Fabrice told me what had happened; he had discovered Elric had... been eating the corpses. I was overcome with shock and anger at the same time. I did not know whether to cut the foul being down with my axe, or just pity him for his sickening actions. In the end, Fabrice calmed me, telling me that Elric was not himself.
We continued, and came to the ladder that they had found earlier. It seemed ancient, and we doubted how safe it would be to climb down it. Nonetheless, I bravely went first, not knowning what dangers might await me in the darkness below. I almost slipped half way down, dropping my torch in the process, but I luckily managed to hold on myself. Further down, I did fall; for a terrifying instance, I feared I would die, not knowing how far I had to fall, but thankfully I almost immediately hit the ground, having only fallen a few feet.
Next came Kormack, who descended without problems, and we began to search for secret doors, as there appeared to be plenty of them in these dongeons and caverns. After a while, Fabrice and Elric were ready to descend; they had discovered a room in the passageway above, and told us there was plenty of treasure - along with some rubies and potions. Kormack's eyes lit up at the sound of this!
But this great news was to be followed by something terrible; no sooner than Elric had began to descend to shaking ladder, he slipped and plummented to the ground with a sickening crunch.
As I tried to take in what I had just seen, I heard this strange hissing sound. I walked over to Elric's backpack, which was where it seemed to be coming from, and took a look inside. The potions were smashed - and then I saw the cause of the hissing. One of the rubies was corroding away what was Elric's equipment; much of it was already useless. I also noticed a strange smell, a disgusting, foul smell. It wasn't the ruby. Then I remembered what Elric had done to those dead corpses... it was too much for me. I fear I vomited, covering the backpack, and most of Elric's body.
By now, Fabrice had descended safely. Looking around the cavern we were now in, we could see large pools of water. Fabrice decided to test their safety; he hacked off Elric's arm, and took it to dip it into the water. It was just water. It seemed strange, almost humerous, the lack of respect we were paying to our dead comrade.
We pressed on, more eager than ever to continue with our quest, so that Elric's death would not gave been for nothing. I remembered how I had almost lost my grip on the ladder half way down, and with a shudder, I reflected how it could have been me who met my death.
Indeed, my concentration must have been wandering as I pondered these thoughts; as we headed down a dark tunnel, a huge rock crashed down - I was first in line - my senses quickly returned to the situation, and I managed to jump back just in time to avoid being crushed by the massive boulder which now completely blocked the tunnel.
We headed along an alternative route, and soon came to a room, rather like a study. There was a bookshelf with a vast number of ageing tomes. The contents would be meaningless symbols to me though, Ithought with sadness as I wondered what great amounts of information the volumes would contain. Kormak, who was endowed with the ability to read, went to the shelves and selected one of them; it had a lock on the cover, which we were able to smash off.
Our hope and eagerness soon gave way to dread and terror as the book was opened. There was an eruption of smoke from the pages, and a humanoid figure appeared before us, covered completely in bandages. I had heard of such evil creatures in legend, but never thought I would see one with my own eyes.
The unnatural creature lumbered its way towards Fabrice, who tried to edge away, but was confined in the small room. For a moment, I stood still, trapped by my own terror, but then I gathered my thoughts. As Fabrice was cornered by the powerful mummy, I took my torch and hurled towards the beast with all my might. My aim was true, and the ancient bandages burst into flames. It howled in agony, but was still able to fight, and exchanged blows with Fabrice; I went in with my sword to help. Soon though, the mummy collapsed to the floor in a pile of smouldering ash. We decided not to remain in this room of evil for any longer, and quickly hurried on.
We came to a room that had skeletons of what we thought to be druids. Here, we found a most interesting artefact; it was a decanter filled with water. But when we tipped a little of the water out, and then turned it upright again, it refilled itself!
We came to a trapdoor in the ceiling, which seemed the only way to go. I climbed through first, and cautiously walked along the passageway that I had climbed up into. But all of a sudden, the corridor was filled with flames! I did not realise them as flames, as they were jet black in colour, but the heat was as real and as painful as ordinary flame. I ran forwards, hoping to break through the flames, but was met by a door which seemed impenetrable. I heard a voice asking me to speak a name, and my mind quickly raced through the names we had been given. I must have eventually said the right one, as the door opened, and I stumbled forwards into a room, badly burnt.
I looked around to see that the room was full of thick webs. On the other side I could make out a bed with a man lying asleep on it. My comrades by this time had joined me, and I and Fabrice made our way through the webs to the bed.
He had a sword by his side, on which we could see a notch, matching a piece of metal we had found earlier, and had the initials 'T A' enscribed upon it. We decided to wake him up, although in retrospect, we should have slain the evil being as he lay asleep. Afterwards, Fabrice said that he could have never killed someone in cold blood, no matter how evil they may have been, and I fear I may have been in shock from my terrible burns to be thinking clearly at that point. Fabrice had his sword held firmly against his neck, but as he woke, he managed to move away, and take his sword... what happened after seemed strange; we exchanged a few blows, and then Fabrice severed his head with one mighty swing, and at that instance, we were plunged into darkness!
I could not see or hear anything, and calling out yielded no responses. After a few moments, I decided to walk cautiously forward. The ground seems to be gravel. Then, all of a sudden, I found myself standing in a desert! Looking around, I saw Kormack and Fabrice, and made my way over to them; they had had similar experiences, but had also found themselves falling before they landed (safely) on the desert.
We then saw a figure in the distance - someone already here, or another traveller teleported from some distant place? What happened next created even more amazement; we saw three... images of ourselves run forward from where we were standing, and charge towards the figure in the distance. They seemed completely lifelike, and looked identical to each of us. Seeing that they had drawn weapons, we ran after them. The doppelganger of Fabrice attacked the figure we had seen! The other two stood off a little distance away. The real Fabrice charged in to attack the doppelganger, and slayed it with one hit, and as a result it disappeared. But we saw that the stranger had already been knocked out. We waited - the other two doppelgangers were just stood there, and my copy was watching me, which gave me an eerie feeling. Then, Fabrice took this staff, which was lying next the stranger (we presumed he was a magic user of some description), and snapped it in two! Before I or Kormack could react, our friend lept up and attacked Fabrice - a foolish move, as he was no match for Fabrice, who knocked him out again. An hour and a half leter, he was still lying there - unconscious or pretending, we did not know at that point, and Fabrice tried to roll him over. He lept up again, and had time to make some strange gestures. Fabrice collapsed to the floor, but Kormack stepped in and once again, knocked him out. This time, we tied his him up. We saw that Fabrice was actually asleep from the spell, and he soon woke up; later, the magic user, came round. He introduced himself as Lothar, and we tried to sort out the mess we had got ourselves into. We explained that it was the doppelgangers who first attacked him, and we only kept knocking him out when he attacked us. Fabrice blamed his doppelganger for snapping his staff - I did not wish to tell Lothar the truth myself, deciding that a white lie might help us get on to friendly terms more easily. Lothar said he could not see the two doppelgangers that we could see still standing there, and he was conviced that Fabrice was always carrying his axe, even though he had it sheathed.
I decided I did not want to risk attacking my own doppelganger, or that of Kormack's. As Lothar led us in the direction of a nearby city, we saw the doppelgangers followed us, keeping a distance of a few yards. I hoped they would have kept their distance, but sometime into the journey, they all of a sudden attacked! I launched myself into combat, fighting with all my might against my own double, matching my strength and fighting abilities perfectly. Somehow, I managed to defeat my unnatural counterpart. Kormack was not so lucky, and was himself knocked unconscious before we finally cut down his image.
The rest of the journey was slow and uneventful, as we carried Kormack to the safety of the port. Lothar took us to his house, where I and Kormack rested. Fabrice, who was not at all so badly injured as us, spent the time offering his service as a judicial champion, whilst Lothar managed to fix his staff that Fabrice had broken, and researched some spells.
Lothar had told us that he had heard of great treasures hidden in some caves not too far from the port, and we offered to accompany him.
We entered the caves. After only a little exploration we heard voices. We hid and a small group of Bandits went outside the cave to investigate a noise they'd heard. Lothar investigated where they'd come from and discovered that infact there were about 80 or so bandits in a campfire lit cavern. He was clearly a little flustered at this as on his way back to tell us he made the most enormous clatter, slapping his feet and bumping into walls. Another group made it's way towards us, but Lothar redeemed himself by making them hear a strange sound which they decided to investigate.
I decided to sneak around the cavern and managed to do so. Kormak and Lothar tried to do the same later, only couldn't quite manage it. The first few times that they were heard they cleverly avoided arousing too much interest but eventually one bandit got suspictious and came over to investigate where Kormak was..... and became bandit bolenaise. Eventually they joined me and we found ourselves in a smallish maze.
One passageway had a pile of bodies at one end. On closer examintaion we were all shocked to discover they had punctured arms and had bled to death. This left a scar on all of our minds and it was a while before we could continue.
One section went along for ages and we felt lost, when we came across as switch in the wall. This opened a door which led back to before the bandits. We were very tired at this point and had to rest. We took turns to watch. In the morning (by our bodies reconing anyhow) we discovered the door had shut and there was no way of opening it. We had to get through the bandit cave again. This time they were more alert so we tried something different.
Lothar creating a noise like men getting ready to storm the cave, and made the bandite hear it outside the cave that drew off quite a few men to investigate. Then he made the remaining men think that the first lot had just shouted and incredible insult directed at the remaining men. Several more were insensed and charged off into combat with the first group. We drew weapons and advanced on the group that remained.
Lothar started the fray by launching fireballs at the bandits, before Kormak and myself charged into the melee. We dispaced then without too little trouble, although they had managed to get a few lucky blows in that wounded me slightly. We then proceeded on to the maze.
We explored randomly at first, not knowing the size, but we soon learned to make marks on the walls to identify where we had previously been. One cavern of notice was one in which there was a pedastal and a golden key lying upon it. After searching the room carefully we replaced the key with a pebble. This was ominously greeted with a low rumble from the maze. Having explored all of the maze we headed back towards the bandit cavern, only to see a new door had been slid open, and now there came out of it some skeletons. Initially both myself and Kormak were routed to the spot with fear, but the advance of the skeletons continued and we snapped out of it to fight them. They turned out to be easy foes. Little of interest was found in the room.
We were then puzzled as to what to do when we decided to search for any secret doors. Eventually we found one. it lead into an ornate room, with two skeleton warriors standing stationary either side of a great bronze door. We knew there would be trouble and prepared to attack the skeletons. They were dressed in plate armour and wielded two-handed flails.
We also found out they were much higher skilled than our previous opponents. kormak fared badly and took a crushing blow to his leg that brought him to his knees. The skeletons were merciless and the following attack smashed though his shin bone. I was significantly luckier. Not only were their blows mostly missing, but perhaps inspired by the fate of my partner at the time I managed to find a strength and skill I never had before to land some stunning blows if I may say so. The first of these spectacular blows slayed my opponent in one destructive explosion. My second severly weakoned the other, from where I went on to smash off it's arm. Kinda handy when they're using two handed weapons.
Although Kormak was in dire need of medical attention he showed great courage as he gritted his teeth and with my patchy splint moved on. The bronze doors swung open effortlessly and we were in a room of great beauty. The centre of which had a bleamish-free marble sarcophacus. I would not open it. We moved on and beyond was a door leading to a passage way ending in a locked door that our key unlocked. We heard chanting and moved in cautiously. Before us we saw a skeletal priest in robes chanting over a mummy. Next to this was a man tied to a chair with a bamboo cane leading from his arm to the mummy.
I was angered at this, and aware of the last time procastination had nearly cost. I charged at the priest screaming. The priest stopped chanting and pulled out a two-handed mace. As he swung it compitantly the end glowed blue. I was afraid but coped with my fear. The priest swung powerfully, but slowly. His first swing I was able to dodge, and that goodness I did so. For the mace crashed to the floor where a whole multitude of sparks and light flew out. There was a crater in the marble floor... I was quick off the mark and set about launching my own fierce attack. Sometimes our weapons would meet, but never did his mace touch my body. Eventually my nimbleness prevailed and I slew him. I examined his weapon of such power, and felt it was holy. I then turned to the mummy and used the mace to strike at it. The blow created a large hole in the mummy, and caused a large crack to run down the marble stand on which it was placed. I think I shall be using it more in the future...
Meanwhile during the battle Kormak was examining the prisoner and his connection to the mummy. At a loss of anything better to do he smashed the cane where upon blood splurted out of the wound in the prisoners artery. Kormak tried to stop the flow but failed miserably. The prisoner died, and Kormak took on a rather bright red hue...
Next we went through a wooden door behind where the priest ahd been. It lead to a room that bristled with magic. In the centre was a stone block, sticking out of which there was a jagged shard of metal. I was puzzled, while Kormak grinned. He took out the hilt of a sword from his backpack and held it against the jagged edge. Then the next thing I saw was Kormak shaking violently and being lifted slightly off the ground. His hair stood on end and he was now surrounded by a bright blue/purple aura. This lasted about a minute before Kormak recovered, the sword had been made whole. Kormak hefted it from the stone with a flourish at which point he died horribly. Oops I mean the stone cracked in two, to reveal a decorated scabbord. The sword was a great two handed weapon, covered in strange runes. Lothar reconised these as being somthing like greater death...
Upon returning to the port, we heard news that war had broken out in the Empire. It was also here that Kormack's old flame turned up - a fully recovered Kormack spent a few days with her to catch up on old times.
We were eager to return to Brettonia to continue our quest, such a great distance to travel. We decided to travel on a ship, but it turned out that the rumours were indeed true; the Empire was in the midst of war. As such, the captain of the ship refused to take us further than the city of Magritta. Even entering the city presented some difficulty. Under preparations for war, they were reluctant to allow visitors. We offered our services, and persuaded them to put us on an intelligence mission, rather that joining the general army, in the hope of finding out the true cause of this war.
We were informed that one of their cities had been completely destroyed. The neighbouring state had been blamed, and they were now at war. We were sceptical at this - would people have been capable of such destruction as was described? And why would they wish to do such a thing? We suspected it was one of the Essences of Hell Himself, either acting through Skaven, or maybe directly. We had heard rumours of a nearby Skaven city, but the captain we had been speaking with doubted that Skaven even existed.
We were sent to find out any information we could, and set out immediately towards the raised city that had been Tobera. We soon decided to remove our livery, lest we were attacked by an enemy patrol. As we travelled east through the mountains, we did indeed meet patrols, but evaded them without combat.
We came to the city, and saw ruins and devastation surrounding us. We were alone save for a few patrols that we could see in the distance. We searched the city, looking for any clues as to what might have happened here, although at first, this seemed to be futile. Eventually, we discovered a trapdoor in one of the ruined houses. We lowered ourselves down, and found ourselves in a dark cellar, with no visible exits. Maybe this was just an ordinary cellar, I thought, but we felt compelled to search in nonetheless, and indeed, we discovered what appeared to be a door, concealed, but we were unable to open it. Reluctantly, we climbed back up, and set up camp for the night.
During my watch, I began to hear strange scuffling noises in the distance. They came from no direction in particular, but seemed to be all around. To be sure, I woke Fabrice, and then moved to investigate - the next thing I knew, these hideous creatures lept out from the ruins, surrounding us. They were huge rat-like beings that stood tall on their hind legs, and had long, lethal claws and fangs. The combat was furious; thankfully, Kormack and Lothar soon woke and came to aid us. After a while - there must have been only a few Skaven left alive, I noticed one of them who had been standing away from the fight, watching. He then made some gestures, and the next thing, I could only feel intense pain. I did not know how or why, I just prayed it would end.
It did. I saw that we had all been affected, including the Skaven, who were now all lying dead on the ground. Fabrice charge towards the remaining Skaven, the one who had cast the murderous spell, and struck him at once. I saw his magical mace connect with the evil fiend's knife, and then there was a blinding intense light combined with a deafening explosion.
When I came to, I realised I must have been thrown some distance by the blast. Looking to the place where Fabrice and the creature had stood, I saw in dismay only a huge crater, the rock molten hot. We could see no... remains of Fabrice, and with great sadness presumed him dead.
We thought that maybe the Skaven that attacked us came through the trapdoor we had seen the previous day. We descended into the cellar, and with indeed, the secret door we had found now lay open. The three of us headed down there, and after quite a distance, the tunnel began splitting up into many different paths. We did our best to map the way, lest we got lost in these dark passages. We had heard sounds of movement, and soon we were attacked! The tunnels were thin, only allowing one of us to attack the Skaven at a time. After that first attack, we decided it best to leave the tunnels, fearing we would find only an endless supply of these hideous creatures, but as we retraced our steps, we were attacked several more times. Sometimes Kormack fought, other times I did. Kormack had been badly injured, and as we fled, he became weaker and weaker, until eventually we had to carry him out, and returned to the relative safety of the surface.
--missing bit----
As we reached the ruins, darkness was falling, and we set up camp. I slept, and the next thing I knew, I had been woken - it was night. I soon saw the reason. I could see Kormack and Fabrice running towards me, out of one of a ruined palace. I saw that it was beginning to collapse, with stone crashing down onto the ground, but then with a shock, I sighted several strange beings in the distance, swiftly moving towards us. I took this in within a few seconds as I rose and picked up my newly purchased long bow. At the back of my mind, I wondered if such earthly weapons would effect these strange creatures, but I fired anyway. My aim was perfect, but as I feared the arrow soared right through the unholy creature. Not wishing to waste anymore time, I flung my bow aside, and charged forward with my axe, having more confidence due to the magical qualities that were bestowed upon this weapon. I met the creatures, which I later learned to be wights, just outside the crumbling building. Fabrice joined me in the fight, while Lothar sent fireballs upon them, but I became aware that Kormack was not with us! When the last wight was slain, we saw with horror that Kormack lay dead on the ground, there was nothing we could do. We buried his body, and paid our last respects.
There was now the question of who was to have the Sword of Ages. The great weapon would only bond to one owner at a time. Now that Kormack was dead, it was time for someonne else to wield it. Fabrice attempted to pick it up, but was thrown away by an unseen force. We decided that I was to try next. I agreed, but the next thing I remembered, I was on the ground. My friends told me that I had picked up the Sword, but was then knocked unconcious by a great blast. I had, however, been successful, and the Sword of Ages was now under my control.
At daylight, we began searching the ruins, and soon found a trapdoor, which we eagerly descended down into. We went along a passage, and then started to descend down a spiral staircase. It is difficult to imagine how far down into the depths of the world we went, for we travelled down the staircase for many hours. Eventually, we came to a huge cavern, which seemed to be empty, and having no other exits, but we weren't going to give up after that huge journey, so we naturally searched for hidden doors, and indeed we found one. After a short passageway, we saw a room, at the centre of which was a staff. This was not to be quite so easy, though, for ten skeletons stood in alcoves in the walls of the room. They were currently motionless, but we feared what would happen if the staff was taken. To be guarded so well, though, meant that the staff must have had some wonderfully magical properties; Lothar was eager to get his hands on it. Rather than have Lothar take the staff and be trapped in the room, we decided to attack the skeletons first ourselves. I and Fabrice attacked a skeleton each at the entrance of the room, and then retreated back into the corridor, where there was only room for two skeletons to attack us at a time. Lothar was also able to send great fireballs across to the skeletons at the far end of the room. This was the first time I fought with the great Sword of Ages, and was filled with a great sense of power as I saw the skeletons collapse before me at a single blow from the Sword.
Once the skeletal guardians had been defeated, Lothar went up and took the staff. He had no idea of what exactly it could do, but sensed it contained immense power. We then made the long journey back up to the surface, and from there, made our way to Brettonia.
We arrived at the city of Quenelles. Although I felt pleased to be back in my native lands, the barbaric cities of Brettonia were a stark contrast from the beauty of the countryside where I had spent much of my life. It seemed that Lothar too did not enjoy these rough cities, but Fabrice I guess was used to such places.
Having spent time training as a squire, Fabrice was now seeking a knighthood. He sought one of the knights at Quenelles, and, with a little bribe, obtained a letter from him which he was to take to the King. As such, we parted, Fabrice off to seek his knighthood, while I and Lothar headed east along the river towards Loren Forest.
Upon entering the great forest, we were surrounded by elves, bows readied towards us. I explained that we had been here about a year previously - with sadness, I realised that I was the only surviving member since that time. I showed them the wooden token, which they remembered, and took us in. I spent time practising archery; although I considered myself to be quite good, I noted that all the Elves around me fired significantly better. Lothar spent his time stuck in a hut researching spells, or some such activity. I believe he got some advice as to the nature of his staff, too.
In the evening was a great feast, bigger than anything I had ever seen before. A great fire was lit in the centre of the clearing, and I saw more Elves than I knew existed. At the feast played a flautist, whose performed the finest music I have ever heard! Interestingly, we learned that the Elf, named Ceremathar, was eager to travel the Old World and seeking adventures. We met him, and he told us that this was indeed true, and that he was seeking inspiration for his music. We told him of our great quest, and he agreed to join us. As a result, a leaving party was held for him - to our surprise a greater feast than the night before!
Before we left, I purchased an Elven Long Bow. Although these were especially hard for non-Elves to master, I was intrigued by the greater strength and power that these bows offered, and was prepared to spend much time mastering it.
We headed west, and then north along the coast. Here, we were attacked by bandits, and Ceremathar got his first taste of battle. It was also here that Lothar found out the great power of his staff. As I fought with one of the bandits, I saw a fireball rise into the sky above us, which he had fired from the staff. Then, it split into many fireballs, which all suddenly flew down at us! At first, I thought that I would be burnt, but then I realised with excitement that all of the bandits had been targetted, but none of us were hit. We stopped off at Bordeaux, as Lothar and Ceremathar needed medical treatment for their injuries, and I too needed to rest, although I was not hurt as badly.
We then headed north, and were once again attacked by bandits, this time as we were passing a caravan. We managed to defeat them eventually, although sadly one of the men with the caravan was slain.