Journal - Flames and the Guardian

A Beginning, an End, or Both?

Shit! Where do I start? At least that evil fucker was dead; I watched him burn. Enjoyed it too. But at what cost? Would I ever see... what did the Guardian call him? The Harlequin? Would I ever see him again? I miss him already.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though. After he left I headed towards shithead's tent to get my stuff back. Thankfully it hadn't been incinerated. I grabbed everything but just carried my armour - the fires must have been like a beacon and who knows how many, or what kind, of people would come looking. I thought of searching for some information, in case the mage had been seeking the sword as well, but there wasn't much left of that side of the tent. I was lucky, though - there was a mostly intact scorched map with lots of crosses on, so I grabbed it. I headed to a hole in other side of the tent, aiming to get away as soon as I could. I didn't even know where I was, really, so I peered out to look for some cover.

There was a disappointing lack of cover, but there was at least a small copse to my right so I headed that way. Then someone spoke to my mind, asking me not to go and that they wouldn't hurt me - like I believe men that say that! I spun around with swords drawn, dropping my armour and calling him to show himself. He appeared from nowhere, hidden by dweomer, but didn't look like anyone associated with the legion. He was acting weird, though, and a bit obsessive so I was wary. He at least agreed to keep his distance whilst I got my armour on. I went to the trees anyway, and managed to sort myself out just before he sent a warning - there were others approaching.

I peered through the trees as the stranger, who called himself "Falcor" walked towards the new arrivals with open hands, trying to speak to them. There were at least five of them, and three carried bows. They were wrapped in cloth that concealed most of their faces so it was hard to know their intentions. That little conundrum was soon resolved as they loosed arrows at Falcor! Whoever they were they would fire on an unarmed person trying to greet them, so that made them bad in my book. I rushed around the trees and towards the archers, leaving Falcor to deal with the other two, but I conjured a shield to help deflect arrows (I'm not completely stupid).

I have to say I was quite impressed by Falcor's reactions - he drew a bow of his own and sunk arrows deep into the chests of two of them, killing them both before I could even reach them! The last one fell to my swords as I closed the remaining distance, and I turned to see that Falcor had dropped his bow to parry the attacks of the other foes. Arrows came from his right flank - they had surrounded him! Now, though, he showed his prowess with a sword and cut both of the ones he was in melee with down with accurate strikes. The other archers turned and fled, and we let them go.

As I went to join him I noticed that he was now clad in armour, which had somehow appeared in the middle of the fight. Of more interest, though, was the star symbol on his chest - it was exactly like the one on the sword! When I asked him about it he knew of the sword, and claimed it as his own... but more than that claimed to be the Guardian himself! He was just a boy, though - strong and proficient, yes, but too immature to be a centuries old leader of clans. He did ask if we needed to get moving, which was a good point - I had been distracted! This was not over, though.

We left the remains of the camp, which from the symbology seemed to be part of the 12th legion (the Golden Cocks) and headed roughly south until we found somewhere sheltered to rest. I took up the conversation again at once - just who was he and how did he get here? He claimed to have come from "the forge" and be some kind of reincarnation of the Guardian in human form, but that he could take the form of an Elvradrak! I showed him the map, as I wasn't sure where I was either but at least I'd been in the same region before I got knocked out. One of the crosses was closest to the town I'd been in, and was marked differently, so I reckoned that was most likely to be the camp. It wasn't clear whether the other marks were potential locations for the sword or just other companies of the legion, though. All I knew was that there was one of the tree folk rumoured to wield the sword, which meant it would be near a forest. That left us with a couple of places marked, one closer to a road than another, so I suggested the latter as a place to start. It was a long way to travel, though.

I still wasn't convinced that he was the Guardian he claimed to be, so I decided to call his bluff and asked him to show me his Elvradrak form. Incredibly he did it. Transformed before my eyes into a huge beast, and then offered to take me up into the air. Sat upon his back, he leapt up and then we were soaring around hundreds of feet aloft. It felt... strangely right, and certainly exhilarating. Was this some inheritance from my mother's people, to be so at ease with such a creature? I wasn't sure what to think anymore, but perhaps he could be the key to finding the clans and being accepted? The Guardian and the sword together, if as he said he recognised something in me, then that would be irrefutable, wouldn't it?

We returned to earth quickly, not wanting to be seen, and tried to settle for the night. I was wary of sleeping with a stranger nearby, but eventually managed to drift off. My sleep was restless, though, and I was plagued with visions of the sword we sought but with a wind blowing dust and fire. When I woke Falcor was doing some martial training so I left him to it and meditated for a little, feeling the power coming back to me as always but still not knowing where it came from. When we were both done, Falcor announced that he thought we were being observed from somewhere to the southeast, but not by eyes alone - he said it was through his mind that he felt it.

We stuck to our original plan to head for one of the crosses on the map, walking northeast for a full day (Falcor had caught some hares that we could eat) and then eventually reaching a road on the second day. This put us a little farther north than we had thought, so we turned southeast and continued until we spotted some smoke rising to our south. This time it was no conflagration, but a sign of an encampment. As we approached it was clear that it was more than that, instead looking like a fortified position that might eventually become a full fort of the legion.

We halted once we realised the significance of the site and Falcor used his dweomer to turn us invisible. As long as I was close to him I would stay hidden, so we measured some rope beforehand to keep us close (and by keeping it fairly taught I had some reassurance that he wasn't too close either). The encampment was huge, easily fitting a whole legion inside in mostly canvas tents, but it was still under construction and wasn't surrounded with walls yet. Some towers gave good lookout positions at each corner and wooden stakes were positioned to funnel people through mostly the centre of each side. It was built with the usual regular shape, and was split into quadrants inside with a wooden building at the centre. There were a great many people inside and a few patrols moving around the perimeter beyond the defences. We could see the symbols of two legions here, the Sharks (which we did not know but thought might be local) and the Cocks, which I knew all too well.

We carefully made our way inside, sticking to the wide thoroughfare to the north so we could easily avoid any people nearing us, and there was plenty of noise to hide our movements so we were not discovered. As we neared the building at the centre the alarm was raised, with shouts from the south indicating that there was something coming. A cry was passed back towards us: "look to the skies"! A gigantic creature flew over about a hundred feet up, and not something we had seen before - it was not a dragon but it was as big as one, although it did not attack.

The legion reacted in its usual fashion, with discipline and order. The Sharks seemed to gather in one quadrant, not defending the fort itself but only their area; the rest moved quickly to the outer defences, on all sides. A number of archers formed a ring around the building in the centre, and we watched with interest to see what activity there might be there, getting slightly closer. The entrance seemed to be on the west side, but nobody entered or emerged for a good ten minutes. Eventually, though, the door opened and three members of the clergy emerged, one clearly older than the other two. They summoned someone from the ring of defenders and talked for a few minutes before two returned to the building leaving the youngest clergy member by the door.

It was about another ten minutes when we heard new cries of alarm being passed back - a warning of enemies to the south that was followed by sounds of fighting. The legion maintained their positions, though, with the only reaction seeming to be the cleric by the door opening it to pass information inside. After a little while there were more cries, this time "they're through!" and alarm bells sounded. Troops in the southern two quadrants reacted, coming towards the centre to meet the threat, although those in the north remained in place.

We soon caught sight of the threat - giants were charging down the centre towards the ring around the building we were near. Falcor claimed to have seen the like before, but I had not. They were impressive in size and strength, taking several legionnaires on at once and felling perhaps three for every one of their own. They were engaged by the archers now they were in sight, as well as being chased by foot soldiers, and it was clear that despite the carnage they were causing they would not break through the defences. We thought about getting inside during the fighting, but the cleric was always by the door and enough archers covered all sides to make it difficult, so we remained where we were and watched.

As I predicted, the defence held and the few that had broken through were put down. About an hour after the initial assault the Sharks formed up and marched out to the north, although for what purpose was not clear. The rest of the defence had all been the Cocks, which was a little odd as from their equipment we thought the Sharks were more used to fighting. Eventually, though, things started to settle down and it was clear that the attack had been repelled. We made our way out of the camp, to the west this time, and around to the south to see the aftermath.

Looking around the bodies we found evidence of the tree people, with arrows that the giants would not have used to be found, but none of the bodies were theirs. I did find a shiny marble with swirling colours inside, but as I picked it up there was a moment when I thought I felt the energy inside and then it crumbled to dust. The sensation was a little like that of my father's realm, but with an aftertaste of fire and dust if there could be such a thing. That just confirmed in my mind that the tree folk had the sword somewhere. Falcor reckoned that the place they had come from was not on Karmana, and that the marble was a means of travelling between places.

We found a spot some distance from any activity and rested for the night. We were undisturbed, although a couple of carts left with solders just after dawn and returned with timber - presumably this would be used to improve the defences. We were not sure what else we could learn here, not confident that the elder cleric would not be able to detect our presence even if we could find a way into the building at the centre of the camp. Instead we looked to follow up on Falcor's feeling of being watched along with the distribution of the marks on the map, which we now suspected were previous attacks.

There was a lake near a city to the south that was a likely point of interest, so we headed that way. We reckoned we could reach the city before we ran out of fresh water and could resupply there. We reached our destination without incident and it was impressively fortified, and the amount of soldiers suggested a garrison town - although there were plenty of civilians too. The symbol of the Sharks was prominent again, but also a crossed swords that we did not recognise as well as the lightning bolt of the 10th Shock Legion - they were only supposed to be sent to places in an emergency to deal with a threat. Well we had seen a pretty significant threat, so it made sense. Perhaps this was a sign that we were getting closer.

We bought a few supplies and took a room for the night. Thankfully Falcor seemed happy enough to sleep on the floor. I was beginning to trust him a little, but was he just using me to get to the sword? Our plan was to set off in the morning on the road and then cut south to find the lake. Strangely when I had asked about fishing earlier the only direction I had been given was to head towards the mountains some way south, with no mention of the lake being made. I didn't press anyone, not wanting to raise any suspicions, so we would have to see for ourselves. The gem merchants were heavily regulated so I was able to sell a number of gems that Falcor gave me for imperial coin, and in turn buy a couple of horses.

We headed out of the city to the east and then turned southeast after a few miles towards where the map suggested the large lake would be. Around midday Falcor went hunting and came back with a deer, skinning and gutting it, then wrapping the meat and burying the remains. As he was finishing up we noticed some riders approaching from the south. We rode slowly across their path and they diverted to meet us so we stopped and waited. They warned that it was dangerous to the south and advised not traveling that way. They said that "creatures of nightmare" were attacking people, and if we wanted work we should look to the north or west.

We agreed and slowly rode west until they were out of sight, then returned to our southwest journey. By evening we started to see campfires ahead where a large force seemed to be camped, so we veered west to avoid them before making our own camp some distance away. There was some noise in the night from the direction of the fires, but nothing came too close. Possibly it was a patrol seeking to protect their camp. In the morning we continued skirting where we thought the camp was until, just after midday, we reached an expanse of water. Well, sort of reached anyway... it was visible just over a mile away and a couple of hundred feet down from the edge we had come across.

The Drained Lake

Weirdly, it looked as though the water had dropped from where we stood only in the last season or so, with the exposed land showing signs of having been a lake bed before. I hadn't known a lake to so rapidly diminish, and it seemed strangely unnatural. There was a clear step in the lake bed about a hundred feet down that extended for a mile or so before it dropped again for the final hundred feet. We started to skirt around the cliff edge towards where a river should be in the west, continuing until the light faded.

We made camp, but Falcor woke me in darkness and warned that he had seen Elvrabor appear. I rolled onto my front and peered in the direction he indicated, seeing them too - three some way to the north. They crouched down and looked towards us, then I got the sense of dweomer being used as they wrapped themselves in cloaks. It was a similar essence to Kraldar's realm, but different... definitely opposed to life, though. Whatever the dweomer was it stopped me from seeing them, and I tried to call on the power to detect evil auras instead, sensing one as it backed away and to the side.

Falcor used a mental power to sense them himself, and again warned that we were being watched - this time from the east! I scanned around, looking for more, and just as I turned to the south (behind where we had first looked) I saw four more appear and charging to attack us! This seemed to be the trigger for the attack, as two more appeared and charged at Falcor. I quickly drew more power, causing a couple of those to the south to stop in irritation, scratching furiously at their skin. Falcor used his mind against one, lashing out powerfully, and caused one foe to flee.

A couple had been hanging back, and it was clear why when they summoned missiles of dweomer that flew at us both, striking me painfully. Falcor, though, seemed unaffected as they flew around him and dissipated. Falcor was also able to parry an attack to remain unhurt. The dweomer, despite the pain, had a familiar sensation to it - like the fire and dust in my dream. I activated Aramat, the intense cold flames licking around its blade as usual, and rushed at the spellcaster. I couldn't reach him, though, before I was surrounded by the others in a fierce melee.

I hadn't realised it at the time, but Falcor saw Aramat like a beacon in the strange way that he could see heat and cold in the night and quickly used dweomer to move right behind one of my attackers, leaving the ones that had tried to separate us with no target. I connected with a solid blow but then was immersed in a swirling cloud of dust, with the heat of the desert building within it. I managed to step aside and away from its effects whilst still fighting, with three of the foe on me. They were a strange folk these tree-men, lithe and nimble but with surprising strength. Thankfully, like most men, they underestimated my ability to fight back and the wounded one fell with my next blow as I ducked under and around the others' attacks.

Falcor engaged the spellcaster, killing them with two swift blows, whilst I set to work on my next victim. The cold flames seems to work well against them, as if they were given power from heat and Aramat was sucking it from them. As I slashed the throat of my foe, Falcor conjured a pattern of lights, seeking to calm some, but it didn't have any obvious effect and he was attacked by two foes he had left behind to join me. We were both hit by blades, but my armour deflected the strike and I used his slight lack of balance to thrust my blade into his chest hard. I was out of melee for a moment. That didn't help much as the other spellcaster sent a bolt of lightning straight at me causing me to bend backwards with pain and giving me a fleeting vision of a barren, scorching desert viewed as if through a tear in the world.

Falcor struck one of his attackers, and seeing that they were losing the fight the spellcaster reached into a pouch and threw something, causing a rift in the world to appear which he stepped through and disappeared. I could see now what Falcor had meant about using the marble things to travel. Falcor finished off his wounded assailant and shouted at the other one to surrender. I was not that surprised that he did so at once, throwing down his weapons. Falcor turned his attention to me, noting my wounds and offered me aid. I was a little reluctant, not wishing to draw the attention of any Gods, but I was badly hurt so I gritted my teeth and agreed. The power flowed into me easily, not like anything I had felt before... well apart from time's healing perhaps; it was clean and felt untainted by the Gods as far as I could tell. I relaxed a little, enjoying the moment.

It was soon over, though, and I moved to tie up our captive as Falcor searched the bodies. He found one of the magic marbles, but also a scroll and a poisoned blade. I had a little chat with the prisoner, who seemed somewhat entranced by our little conversation, almost begging for me to join them, or him perhaps? It seemed that they served a power they believed was greater even than Kraldar, although I wasn't sure who that would be - certainly not Treddar by their actions. He also told me that it was a brother of Kraldar that possessed the power that Falcor sensed from the island in the centre of the lake. I asked the name of his master and he said it was "Itlak Alna’a"... not a name either of us knew. When I asked what relationship his master had with Kelditch his faced screwed up and he revealed that Kelditch was the only thing standing between his master and the domination of this land.

Falcor was insistent that we let him go, which was the right thing to do of course... my mentor had taught me that much - he had only fought us, and had surrendered quickly. So, yes, let him live. I threw his weapons over the cliff and untied him. He immediately lunged at Falcor's belt, where he kept a marble, but Falcor slapped him hard with the flat of his sword and knocked him out. He seemed to regret hitting him quite so hard, and as a token he left the marble beside his limp body for him to use later and we left. We both used mental powers - another sign that he could be the Guardian - to descend to the base of the cliff, then walked the mile to the next step and descended again to the new shoreline.

Something in the water broke the surface as we landed, possibly headed towards us, so we stayed close to the cliff until we were sure that been no sign of it for a while. Falcor approached and tried to test the water, but recoiled in fear the moment he touched it. He recovered himself after a moment, but it was clear that there was more to the water than it appeared. I tried to get a sense of emotional residue from it, and I got a sense that there had been a long history of traumatic deaths in this place.

We continued along the waterline but I caught sight of a figure up on the cliffs above, probably a legionnaire, so we tucked in tight to the cliff to stay out of sight and stayed close until the island was much nearer. We knew we couldn't touch the water, so we roped ourselves together and Falcor turned us invisible again. We stood at the water's edge and I climbed onto his back as he finished chanting a spell. We lifted into the air (he was just in human form this time) and flew steadily towards the island.

About a couple of hundred yards out an unnatural rainstorm started covering a large area, and we suspected it was a reaction to our presence. It deed mean that we were now obvious to anything close by, as the rain was heavy enough to outline our invisible forms. Falcor climbed higher, worried about attack from below, and then continued. We got past what we thought was the halfway point and then the rain started to get even heavier, with a wind rising from ahead of us as well. It was harder to see now, but it must have been about three-quarters of the way across when we were attacked. The dragon-like creature we had caught a glimpse of earlier burst out of the water from below us, surging straight up to slam its body into us before falling back into the water. I was crushed between its scales and Falcor and was stunned for a minute or so, losing my grip. Falcor was able to hang onto my legs, stopping me from falling, so at least I wasn't dangling under him like some kind of bait.

Falcor tried to climb higher, as the serpent seemed to be at the top of its arc when it hit us. The storm was intensifying, and our hairs started lifting on our arms as the air grew charged with static. Ahead on the surface, the water started to fountain up and grew until it was about a hundred feet tall and seemed to form arms and a head of sorts. The massive figure was entirely shaped from water but seemed no less threatening. It moved under us and its arms reached up, extending towards us until water splashed over us with some force, although not damaging, before it fell away again.

I asked Falcor to descend, quaffing a potion I knew could help, and I was able to exert my will over the creature, telling it to leave us be. It crashed abruptly back into the water and thankfully we did not see it again. Instead we faced a new threat as lightning started to arc around in the air in small areas of the storm; one bolt shocked us badly, and with no end in sight to the storm we decided that we could only try to talk to the guardian that assailed us. Falcor descended towards the water, and we found that the lightning was not as strong at a lower level. Falcor called out with his mind that we just sought an audience with her lord and meant no harm. There was an immediate and unexpected reaction - the dragon surfaced again and a voice reached us that was full of joy! She simply asked, the joy and hope infusing her question: "Is it you, my Lord"?

The sky was literally clearing and the sun emerging as she spoke with Falcor about how he was the Guardian, but how he wasn't ready yet or not himself - it was hard to follow to be honest, but this meant he really was who he claimed to be, didn't it? She unhelpfully pointed out that I reeked of death, which is apparently why she didn't recognise Falcor. She also said that it was He that had ordered her to defend this place long ago, and her name reflected her task: "The Last Defender of the Infinite Paths". She knew of the "False Elvrabor" as they had tried to cross many times, and agreed that they were probably the ones draining the water. There was a bit of an awkward conversation about how I was Falcor's "daughter" (the Elvradrak apparently have no words for more distant relations). I sort of understood what she meant, but it still seemed weird looking at the young man that allegedly fathered my mother's clan and others beside. She confirmed that Kelditch was definitely here, as he had created the paths. She claimed that he could be weak of mind, and that he sought power, but also that he could be a powerful ally if he could be controlled. By the time we had finished this exchange the sky was clear again as if had never changed.

She told us to seek the high point of the island if we wanted to find Kelditch, and we continued our journey safe in the knowledge that she would protect us. She stayed to carry on her task, at least until Falcor understood more about the place and the importance of it. Once we had flown as far as Falcor dared we landed and walked into the forest away from the cliff edges, still invisible until we decided it was time to rest.

With the relative calm came the moment I'd been dreading. The Elvradrak had pointed out what Falcor clearly hadn't noticed, because I doubt that he was just politely ignoring it: that the stink of my father's realm hung around me and tainted everything I tried to do. Falcor asked what she had meant when she said that I reeked of death. At first I avoided answering, instead talking about my mother and how being somehow related to him didn't make me a fire-breathing beast that could transform and fly, and it followed that who my father was wouldn't make me like them either. Then I half-pleaded with him not to judge me by association, asking that he wouldn't abandon me just because of where I had come from. It was like I was a little girl looking for favours, Ohh I'm so mad with myself. He must think I'm pathetic!

Eventually though, I just had to tell him, still nervous despite his promises that he had come to find me and wasn't about to just up and leave. Yes, my father is Kraldar, ok?! That doesn't mean I serve Death or owe anything to him. I hate him! His face said it all - amazement, realisation, oh my fucking... what?! To be fair he didn't just leave, which I half expected, or brand me a curse. It remained to be seen if he would think differently after a night's sleep. Damn that dragon for forcing me to tell him!

We camped for the night undisturbed, and I felt safer than I had for as long as I could remember. Somehow being around the Elvradrak seemed right to me in a way nothing else quite had. I was well rested in the morning, and took time to meditate and train a little before we packed up. It was as we were doing this, however, that we heard a loud screeching somewhere to the southeast.

It sounded like the creature we had seen over the legion camp in the north, and after a minute or so we caught sight of it, probably a mile or so away. It started circling ahead of our path, but we continued until quite close. It was then that we noticed a stone structure just beyond where it was circling. It was not a design I had seen before, being some twenty to thirty feet high with slightly sloped sides. It looked old, and rubble on top suggested that there had been more to it at some point. There was a horned figure kneeling near the structure holding a sword point down and looking contemplative. The creature was taller than Falcor, with red baggy trousers but no top. The flying creature continued to circle and was to our northeast as we drew closer still. The temple, if that was what it was, seemed sunken into the land, and all the sides were similarly sloped but not steeply. The rubble looked from this distance as if it had once formed a statue, but there was no obvious entrance on the side nearest to us.

We tried to sneak around the far side, but just as we had got there a twig snapped loudly underfoot and "red pants" reacted immediately. He chanted and we were outlined in glowing red and orange light, making our invisibility somewhat ineffective. He gave a shrill, trilling call and the flying beast dived towards us, swerving around the trees as it got lower. Falcor made a noise that sounded a lot like "fuck!" and started chanting just as I did - both calling on our unusual dweomer (neither of us seemed to know where the power came from). Falcor's power was directed at the rapidly approaching beast, but didn't seem to affect it noticeably. I tried to protect us from evil instead, and this proved wise as the creature reared in front of Falcor raking at him with its claws but being repelled by the dweomer.

I warned Falcor to stay close, not used to having someone I wanted to protect; in fact it took a moment before I remembered to warn him not to attack anything physically if he wanted to keep the protection. Falcor tried a psionic attack, but again it had no impact - the will of the flying creature was strong. Red pants summoned a great dusty, swirling creature between us and, although it seemed focused on Falcor, the debris whipped up by the strength of the wind within it was a danger to us both. At least the flying creature had veered away - it landed beside red pants, although we weren't sure what it intended next. Could it use dweomer too?

Falcor chanted again, this time affecting red pants. He visibly drooped, struggling to hold his sword up and eventually sheathing it, clearly weakened. He struggled to climb on to the flying beast, and then it leapt into the air and climbed lazily to the west. Falcor tried one last attack with his mind, but again it was able to resist him. He started to sense that another mind was beginning to notice his mental assaults, and he ran forward towards the building, ignoring the dust creature's attempts to strike at him. I moved forward as well and the dust creature dissipated harmlessly behind us.

The Ancient Temple

Falcor saw that there was an entrance in the side of the building red pants had been near, and there was a body sprawled across the threshold - one of the false Elvrabor. Runes were carved over the entrance, which Falcor was able to partially decipher, although I had not seen the like before. The letters were: "ELLE?IA E? RA?ACCAN" and Falcor recognised "Accan" as some kind of crossing of a barrier or boundary. There was a stone floor inside and, although it was unlit, we could see three large bronze cylinders rising from floor to ceiling spaced equally with one in the centre of the room and one either side. There were what looked like doors in each, with keyholes, also fashioned out of bronze.

I joined Falcor, noting that what had once been a stone door looked like it was broken from the inside. I suggested taking a look on top if we could get up there, and Falcor had some dweomer that could help - it allowed me to jump vertically right up to land on top, despite it being at least eighteen feet above the floor. From there it seemed that the rubble was clustered around the points where the cylinders rose from blow, so it was possible that they emerged at this level. There was a bronze hand poking out near the centre, which I could pick up as it wasn't connected to anything any more, so there had been at least one statue decorating the top. I took a moment to focus on the psychic residue of this place, and for a moment I felt like I was looking through eye cutouts in a mask, looking out over a sea of bodies - hundreds of humans on the ground, all on their knees prostate before me. The vision was gone in a moment, but it was clear that this had been a place of worship.

I spent some time excavating the cylinders, with no help from Falcor I notice. Too busy "keeping watch" to do any fucking work. I enjoyed the simple exercise, although it took time. Sure enough I revealed the tops of the cylinders that had been hidden by the rubble. Each of the three were broken at the top, and each had ladders leading down. The central one, though, continued down below ground level and there seemed to be a faint light source somewhere below. I conjured some lights and sent them down the other two shafts just to make sure that they were empty, which they were, and then the central shaft as far as ground level. The ladder seemed intact, but the shaft opened out into a room below and I would not be able to see any more without descending.

Falcor came up to join me using a rope with a grappling hook, and then let himself down the central shaft with the same rope. As he neared the room below he heard what he thought might be movement so he flipped himself upside down, somehow, to poke his head into the room. There were five glowing beetles in the corner over a dead body, feeding it seemed. Three doors were in the walls, two on one side and one opposite them, and there was an old anvil near some large storage amphorae. Falcor returned himself upright and lowered himself slowly to the floor, unnoticed by the beetles. I could feel the tension release in the rope, and started to move onto the ladder.

Just then Falcor was noticed and a loud chittering sound echoed up the shaft as they advanced with surprising speed, surrounding him. One bit Falcor and spurted a gel that burst into flame, thankfully mostly missing him. I hurried down, getting over halfway but then losing my grip and falling heavily into the mass of beetles and catching Falcor. I rolled off the shells to my feet, though, so it could have been worse. Falcor assailed them with his mind and two collapsed; I guess their basic minds couldn't put up much defence. I landed a hit on the one nearest to me and gel spurted out of a crack in its shell, splashing me a little. Thankfully I had taken the time to protect myself from fire before climbing down, and I didn't suffer any damage.

I was bitten, again avoiding fire damage, so I ignited Aramat and stuck the sword through the creature's carapace, the cold sucking all heat from it and leaving a dark husk behind. I struck a blow on another beetle as Falcor also killed one, before he turned and struck the injured creature to kill that as well. It was suddenly quiet again, and I returned Aramat to its scabbard. The room was lit gently with the glowing bodies, apart from the one that had been drained of course. We picked a door to try but found that it was locked. I tried forcing it but it seemed quite solid. Falcor strained at it, though, and managed to rip the lock mechanism apart! Bits fell away as the door shifted and we were able to force it open more easily.

We followed a corridor that turned back on itself, finding another door on the right after two turns. There were some signs of movement inside, so we left it for the moment. The corridor opened into another room at the end which had tables on the side nearest us, and two large fire sources against the wall to our right - more like strongly glowing coals than blazing flames, despite giving off quite a bit of heat. There were pots and a pestle and mortar on the tables, like an alchemist's bench. On the far side was another opening, closer to the glowing coals. We went back to the door and Falcor forced it open. As he did so there was an explosion of cold, like an elemental blast, that flooded the doorway and the vicinity. It was very powerful, but thankfully we were both protected in some way and it washed over us without effect.

The room inside was composed of a strange off-white stone. In the far corner, coiled around each other tightly, were a pair of red serpents with intense heat and impressive plummage along their backs. It's possible they had recoiled from the cold and were sharing heat in some kind of defensive reaction, but we shut the door quickly as we didn't want to start a fight we didn't need to. Falcor shouted telepathically through the door but received no response. We decided to press on, even if it was just to learn more. As he entered the next room, though, flames started to ignite within the coals and the heat built in intensity. Figures started to form within the flames so Falcor ran to the far door, entering a cooler room with a glistening floor. I dashed across as well, pushing past and into the room. I was put off, though, when I found that the floor was soft underfoot so I stopped fairly quickly to investigate.

Tendrils of flame shot at Falcor from the figures in the last room, just missing him twice but then splashing across him. It was elementally hot and should have caused searing pain, but Falcor resisted it well and was only burned a little. I had pushed forward, not able to identify the liquid on the floor although it wasn't just water. I found the skeleton of a serpent in the corner, similar in size to the two we had seen in the other room, but with nothing else catching my eye and no clear exit other than the way we had entered. We were forced to run back through past the fiery creatures. Falcor was missed but I was engulfed in flames, and only saved by the dweomer protection I had put upon myself. It was still intensely hot and painful. I was grateful, then, when Falcor healed most of the damage, although I could not stop myself flinching away as he reached out to touch me without warning.

We headed back to the room we entered through to find another way onward. I tried the opposite door, but it was locked and neither of us could shift it, and the third door was not only stuck but the handle came off when Falcor tried to force it! Going back to the first one we passed a rope through the ring and put both of our weight to work, eventually forcing the door open. There was a corridor beyond, and thankfully no hint of fire. There were doors on both sides before the corridor turned to the right beyond them. As we cautiously made our way forward, we noticed that the door on the left was ajar. Falcor edged up to it, and I ran past to position myself on the other side.

I gently eased the door open with the tip of Aramat, revealing what had once been a living space, but the items inside had been shoved to the sides and were all trashed or rotten. Falcor noticed some kind of lizard thing on the ceiling in the far corner, so I pulled the door to (the latch was broken) and left it. Falcor opened the door to the south, revealing another living quarters but in a much better state. It looked recently trashed rather than derelict, and an ominous mark of blood on the floor suggested someone had been killed or seriously injured recently. A wooden staff was lent against the wall in the far corner; it looked simple, like a tree branch but with a claw shaped group of branches at the top. As we entered we saw an old painting on the wall that showed a three-quarter length portrait of bearded human holding a staff like the one in the room, but with a sphere in the clawed part. It wasn't clearly identical, but it was very similar.

I tried to gain some psychic impressions from the blood on the floor, and I had another flash of vision: I was sat at the desk in the room, but looked up as the door exploded open violently and three 'dark elves' swarmed in and rapidly overwhelmed me. Their leader struck me down with a glistening dagger, and with my last vestige of dying will I committed my soul to the figure in the painting. Falcor, meanwhile, noticed that there was a stone without mortar set within the wall opposite the painting. He was able to remove it and found two scrolls within; I recognised one as enabling someone to communicate with a soul in my father's realm - to speak with the dead! The other I didn't understand, but I took them anyway in case they proved useful. Finally, we approached the staff and I reached out to touch it... noticing a slight jolt as the energy within it reacted to my touch. I wasn't damaged, though, so I tried to get a psychic impression from it. I received a very clear message, from Kelditch it seemed, that his power was not for me. His voice was commanding and authoritative but not cruel, but he did refer to me as "niece". I felt like my father (well not quite the same, but similar) had scolded me to warn that I should avoid a thing that could harm me.

I had a closer look at the painting, as this was the first time we had seen an image of Kelditch. There was a faint symbol on his clothes over his heart in fine gold, like two circles but crossed over top and bottom. Then we continued down the corridor to the turning at the end. I peered around the corner and saw two doors on the right some way down, with light coming from the cracks around them. There was some kind of humanoid shape at the end beyond the doors, which became clear was a statue of Kelditch as we drew nearer. There were shouts from behind the doors and Falcor doused his lantern. Figures ran out of the, hastily opened, doors with one wearing a long golden mask embossed with a visage of Kelditch. That one had a sword at his belt, but a staff similar to the other one held in front of him. He challenged us, the others beside him with swords in hand. We called out that we were seeking an audience with Kelditch. He wanted us gone, though, calling us demons - apparently because we had blood of Karmana. He called me a blasphemer for claiming a distant relation to Kelditch.

The priest started chanting, and Falcor reacted (I was going to wait, hoping that he might be trying to divine our intent, but Falcor was less patient it seemed); Falcor waved a rod and chanted, seeming to mesmerise a couple of the swordsmen. More barged past, though, attacking Falcor as the priest continued his chant. Falcor's armour reappeared as he was struck, although the blow still drew blood. I conjured a spray of colour and three of the swordsmen dropped unconscious... and still the priest chanted. We he finally finished there didn't seem to be any noticeable effect, though. Falcor also conjured a spray of colour, but the priest stubbornly remained on his feet. I tried to grapple him to the floor but ended up just grabbing his leg, although I was able to disrupt whatever prayer he was directing at us. I shouted at him to stop, as we did not wish to fight them. He resisted, though, still yelling at us to leave, so I pulled his leg out from under him and he fell flat on his back. Falcor was able to restrain and tie him up, although he made sure to leave his staff with him.

Unfortunately one of the others came round before we could bind the rest, but Falcor faced up to him and threw the rope to me to sort the others out. We could see inside the first room now, and there were half a dozen bunks in the room, which looked well lived in. There was a slight smell of burning, although the source was not clear. The door at the far end of the room was spiked and had wood nailed across it, clearly barred from this side. I tied the unconscious swordsmen up with the rope, noting that they were starting to come round as I finished. The one that had recovered seemed nervous and backed away from Falcor whilst waving his sword in fear, asking that we leave, but not looking very sure of himself.

Falcor asked him to sit, reassuring him that he would not be harmed. He did sit, keeping his weapon in hand but not seeming very proficient with it if I'm honest. Falcor relighted his lantern and asked why the door was spiked. Apparently the "fire creatures" had run amok and were free so they had tried to defend themselves. Falcor offered our help, listening at the door but not hearing anything - it did seem slightly warm though. I picked up the priest and carried him towards the statue of Kelditch, but as I approached a powerful force of negative energy washed over me. Thankfully I had inherited a resistance to such energy from my father and I was unaffected. I kept saying that we meant no harm and were only looking to help Kelditch, and a voice spoke as if from the statue, still wary of our intent. I finally managed to convince them that we might be able to help, although I had to admit that I was a child of Kraldar. That shocked them, of course, but did seem to mark a turning point in their willingness to hear us out.

The short version is that they were willing to seek an audience with Kelditch for us if we were able to drive away or defeat the Fire that had overwhelmed the temple below. The gate to fire was open, and had been for countless years - it seemed that Kelditch had been experimenting on the creatures of fire, and some of them remained bound by his will. Perhaps he had sought power over them for some aim, or to travel through their realm to somewhere else? He seemed to care little that the gate allowed creatures to enter the temple and that his followers had dwindled to the point that they could no longer contain them. I had a debate with Falcor as to why we should help at all, and Falcor was particularly confused as to why anyone would worship such a God. I had seen for myself that there were people willing to worship the most viscous, uncaring Gods so it did not surprise me. We were ultimately looking for the sword, and there might be other ways to find it, but as Kelditch's realm was attacked by the dark Elvrabor it seemed that an alliance would make sense, at least temporarily.

The priest was at least willing to give us a key to pass through the entrance room to the other side where the fire creatures were loose. Thankfully we were able to open the unlocked door despite the lack of a handle, and we entered a corridor with a door on the right and a corner ahead. There were sounds of movement behind the door, but it was closed and seemed contained so we moved on. Turning left, we could see that the corridor turned back on itself ahead, but there was a door on the opposite wall in the corner. The door was warm to Falcor's sight, and we warily advanced on it, noting that the corridor on the left was empty until it turned right just ahead. We could feel the warmth here, but again it seemed contained so we moved on to the next corner. There was a doorway on the left after another stretch of corridor that had been spiked; it seemed we had reached the dangerous section. Falcor fished a cooking mallet of all things out of his pack, and struck the spikes on alternate sides until they loosened enough for him to open the door.

We entered a bedchamber, but immediately noticed that there were holes in the stone floor as if something had melted through it. There were four in total, each just over three feet across. There were also two fire serpents in the room, like the ones we had seen contained before, but these were feasting on a corpse (the smell of burning flesh was sickly sweet in the air). They reacted quickly to our entrance, though, so I charged forward and activated Aramat as Falcor launched icicles into them from the doorway. As they were still reeling from the ice striking them, I cleaved one in two with Aramat and the other, sensibly, dived down a hole and disappeared. Glancing down I saw that the hole turned about ten feet down so it was out of sight.

We moved to the other door and threw it open, but there was no sign of foes here. The room had an iron cage on the right with a chain-locked gate, and inside were some chests and a stone lecturn with a leather-bound book on it. There was an ominous pit of glowing coals to the left, like the ones we encountered before that had proved so painful! I was all for leaving this place, as it belonged to the temple priests, and heading down instead. Falcor, though, seemed obsessed with the book and used an item to conjure a wall of stone to seal off the pit of coals while he entered. He ran in and strained to bend the bars of the cage, forcing his way in as I kept an eye on the holes, unwilling to be a part of robbing the people here. In fact I took a closer look at all of the holes, finding one that opened into a room below at the side against a wall. It was noticeably hotter than the others, so it got my attention. Falcor returned carrying a chest, and not the book (apparently it was a holy book and he didn't want to take it); the chest contained two glass vials with a clear liquid inside as well as a metal flask.

We both floated down the tube I had taken an interest in, emerging in a corridor that was much warmer than the previous room. The corridor met with a junction of other corridors a short distance away, but the junction had been cut open with a forty-foot wide tube from below. The edges were glass-like, similar in appearance to the smaller tube we had used to get here. We cautiously approached the edge, and saw that the corridors leading away from the tube were spaced evenly around it, so it had been a central nexus of some kind before it was cut through. Looking down, we could see that it was a perfect tube that cut through maybe forty feet of stone before emerging into a large space below. There was a writhing sea of fire at the base below that, which must be the gate to Fire that Kelditch had opened. The heat was intense even from this far away so it was difficult to look for long, but one thing we did notice was the glowing gold embossed lines around the gate that matched the symbol on Kelditch's clothes we had seen in the painting.

As we watched the fire we noticed a couple of squat things that might have been formed from magma emerge, with what looked like wings just about visible in the heat. We backed off, resolving to find another way to progress, and Falcor uttered an incantation that suddenly engulfed him in a dark blue flame. It gave off no heat, and didn't seem to do him any damage, though so I assumed it was a means of defence. There was no other sign of movement so we walked back towards a turn in the corridor. As we neared the holes we had entered through, though, a fire worm emerged from one of them. Falcor reacted first, grabbing a staff and sending icicles at it, which caused it to recoil as the cold clearly caused it pain. I moved forward to engage it, but it fled back through a hole as I reached it, so I let it go.

We were distracted by the sound of a high pitch whistling coming from the shaft behind us, almost like steam escaping through a crack. Falcor scanned down towards the base of the shaft with his mind, finding a lot of neutrality and some shades of good, but definitely some evil farther down. A new thing came into sight within the shaft at our level, a flying smallish imp-like thing made almost entirely of flames but with a solid black core. Falcor ran back, peering over the edge to see what was going on, and then turned to come back. The shaft was massively hotter than the corridor, and Falcor's face was blistered and burned despite his protection. It was clear that something was containing the heat within the shaft or we would have been much hotter in the corridor! Falcor noticed that the surface of the fire seemed more active than before, which explained the heat, but otherwise saw nothing new. He healed himself using mental powers, repairing most of the damage to his face - a few eyebrow hairs were still missing, quite comically.

We continued to the corner away from the shaft, finding a corridor that extended for fifty feet or so before turning to the right again. We moved forward together, wondering how we could affect such a powerful force as elemental fire, and looked around the next corner. The corridor continued a short way and ended in door. We were about to head towards it when I noticed something slightly off about the wall on the corner, and when I took a closer look I found a hidden mechanism in a hole in the mortar that, when Falcor inserted a knife, popped open a concealed door. It swung towards us to reveal an empty, dusty room.

There were a couple of short swords lent against a wall, but the new room was otherwise empty and abandoned. Falcor found another concealed door in the far corner, though, and opened it as I stood ready beside him. There were shouts of alarm as the door popped open, which I thought might be a good sign as the fire beasts hadn't done much talking so far. A shout in common came as a challenge: "who's there?" I stepped inside with my hands out and said that I came in peace. There were more priests here, wearing the now familiar mask of Kelditch. They were not convinced that I was there to help (I had only revealed myself so far). A couple of lanterns illuminated the room, and I could see there were five priests in all, one carrying a staff like the others we'd seen.

The "leader" with the staff used a prayer to confirm that I was telling the truth about being sent to help, and he introduced himself as Baltheus, a priest of the 3rd Order. He acknowledged that Kanadius, the high priest, had sent us. I revealed Falcor and there was a similar reluctant acceptance that he could help them. We asked about the false Elves, which he referred to as "Ilianna's folk" (Ilianna being the Queen of Lies)? Yes, they had been here but it was the fire creatures that troubled them. He offered to guide us down to the temple below, but insisted that we leave their people alone; we readily agreed to his terms as we did not want to disturb them or put them at risk of harm.

Gateway to the Infinite Paths

We followed them to the top of some stairs and then descended, without them, into a large room about a hundred feet by forty. A pair of large bronze doors were set in the wall opposite the stairs, one had a relief of Kelditch and the other a relief of his staff with the sphere upon it. There were unlit torch sconces around the edge of the room. As we stood before them, I used dweomer to protect us both from fire, wary of what we might find beyond. Falcor touched the door first and heard a booming voice in his mind asking who sought to enter his temple. He referred to him as "Karmana's child" but it was more like a question apparently. Falcor instead spoke of his devotion to Milada, and saw her for a moment as she welcomed "her Guardian", and he was touched by her power and his wounds healed in that moment (Milada is Kelditch's aunt it seems). Kelditch was appeased, and the door opened for him into a corridor running left and right but with more double doors straight ahead. I grabbed the other handle and also heard the voice of Kelditch, but he welcomed me as his niece. He noted that I did not fit well with him or his brothers, and certainly was not aligned to Kraldar. He mused for a moment that perhaps I would better match his lost uncle, although that meant nothing to me. Then he suggested that perhaps I might one day be called God and worshiped, but I shuddered at the thought of that and rejected it as strongly as I was able to. He seemed to lose interest after that, although I was allowed to pass freely.

Falcor reached for the next set of doors, but had to pause for the doors behind us to shut before it would give. After that it opened easily, though - another defence mechanism I would guess. The Gate was there, right in front of us! We could see four magma winged beasts, and two snake-like creatures with spears within the flames. The gold pattern was set around the gate in the floor but we could see that there was more to it from here. A gold-ringed hole was close to us at the intersection of the two lines, only a couple of inches across as if something could be set within it. Large (fist sized) gemstones were set evenly along the gold lines of the symbol, three on each side in each line, so twelve total. At the far side where the lines intersected again stood a shaft of wood, sticking up about three or four feet from the floor. There was one gem faintly glowing on the right a distance from us. We could feel no heat here, even though we knew that we were close to an inferno. There were also murals around the walls, completely covering them.

I moved forward to look closer at the nearest gem, noting that the fire creatures did not react to our presence. There was a carving of "Death" (AMAT) next to it; typical that I should see that first, I cursed my father's name yet again under my breath. Falcor went clockwise and found "Life" (LERAL). The others were Air (AELI), Water (MAR), Fire (HIGN), and Earth (HUM). We met on the far side and took a look at the wooden stick. It looked much like Kelditch's staff, but it was hard to say if it actually was as it had been broken off (the top was missing). I looked up at the murals to see if they might help; there were twelve of those, all variants of Kelditch with his staff aloft and energy lines coming out of the orb as he strode confidently through a variety of hostile environments: lakes of fire, a barren landscape of ash dust, pockets of air within deep soil, walking on water whilst surrounded by more water, a strangely white grainy windswept desert of sand, floating in mid-air, one with just him (which seemed a little out of place), a land of death (I knew that one), a hellish place full of fire and corpses and hideous horned headed beasts, lightning bolts and bright burning images of the sun in a chaotic confusion, a forge of teeming life, and a dusty desert of ash, all those in order clockwise.

I tried to sense any psychic impressions from the staff but I was overwhelmed by multiple images of Kelditch placing the staff into the hole followed by a massive release of energy, and I passed out. I fell across the line, the heat starting to affect the parts of me that were exposed, but thankfully Falcor saw what was happening and pulled me away. It looked like I might have got the attention of a couple of creatures, but they were scanning the area rather than looking directly at us so I could only have been visible for a moment when I passed over the protective sigil. Falcor used a potion to heal me, including my mind, and I came too a little surprised and disorientated. After a moment, though, I was able to relay what I had seen and recover my senses.

We left the temple through the doors nearest the stick, closing the doors behind us. Then Falcor used a small axe I hadn't seen before to summon a huge earth elemental, at least three times his height! He told it to retrieve the stick, and it passed straight through the wall to enter the room. A minute or so later it returned and dropped the stick at Falcor's feet. I opened the door a crack to see if anything had changed, and it seemed hotter, with the fire still visible in the centre. That hadn't done what we wanted, so we walked around the corridor to where we had entered first, meaning to try the other hole. When we looked through that door we discovered that the fire was coming and going, perhaps randomly, so the gate was no longer open to a single place. Falcor commanded the elemental to place the stick in the hole on this side to see what that did, and after a few minutes it returned. When we looked this time, there was an ash monster in the centre of a black dusty circle instead!

We decided that it was better to leave it without control, if it kept moving between the fire and ash then neither would be dominant and the temple could be more easily contained. Falcor told the elemental to retrieve the stick one last time. We crossed via the corridor to the far doors again and this time left the temple, finding more stairs leading up in a similar fashion to the ones we had descended earlier. I tried to sense psychic impressions again, and this time it was insightful. I saw through the eyes of, I thought, a priest of Kelditch: I was panicked and out of breath looking into the temple through open doors. The fiery circle was there with the complete staff (but no sphere) set before it. There were two people beside it, one in simple, plain robes (a priest of Treddar I thought), and the other an imperial legionnaire with the golden cock symbology clearly displayed. The legionnaire grasped at the staff and snapped it, sending a shudder of utter dread through the one I was "seeing" from. The priest conjured a creature of pure fire between us and I just saw him creating a doorway in the air for them to step through before the fire creature consumed me and I snapped back to the present.

At least we knew what had happened, even if it didn't help much right now. We returned to Baltheus by the same route we came, as he asked, and were offered food and water as he sent for Kanadius. I was particularly glad for the water after the heat we had endured at times. We recounted what we had found and done, trying to reassure him that fire could no longer fully dominate the temple. Kanadius recognised the names of Custor (Falcor knew this one) and Ilianna as they had both been taught by Kelditch. Custor now had the all-seeing eye (the orb) with him, and the broken part of the staff was with the Golden Cocks - perhaps what the priests had been guarding in the fort we had seen.

I handed over the staff, or what was left of it, and he chanted for a full minute before fire erupted in the air, without heat this time, and Kelditch's face within spoke to Kanadius before facing us. Kelditch wanted to return here to his temple, but needed the staff to do so... remade (although without the orb there was a chance it could work). He would help us to strike at Ilianna if we were to help him to return. It was clear that he had been able to draw power from fire, although we were a little wary of what he might do with such power. He forced Kanadius to return the part of his staff to me, which was a bit awkward - he seemed to consider me as more important than "mere humans" in some way. It was clear that he expected us to repair the staff and enable him to come back, but we would have to talk about whether that was a good idea another time. We were a little surprised to hear that he wasn't aware that the lake was being drained, but he did seem fond of the guardian within it.

We were able to rest for the night near the temple, by the stairs. We still weren't welcome amongst the priests but they did provide food and water, so I suppose we shouldn't complain too much. In the morning Falcor was able to use the power of his helm to learn more about the half of the staff I had been given. It had the power to open a gate to a chaotic place that we weren't keen on, but more interestingly it had a chance to close gates as well. I had to try, at least, so I entered the temple again. It was linked to fire when I walked in, the blazing inferno once again in the centre and some creatures of fire starting to form within it. I ignored it this time and instead focused on the staff, raising it in front of my and trying to will the gate closed. As I did so the doors slammed behind me in Falcor's face, narrowly missing me... stupid! I should have known it would seal itself when the device was being used - the whole place was built to contain the forces in the centre. Falcor started banging on the door, but I ignored that and refocused on the staff and gate.

It was a strange feeling, as if my senses were expanding beyond my body, and I felt my mind start to meld with the gate from all around and within simultaneously. I could sense the instability, as well as the bonds holding it in place within the symbol on the floor, I could also sense its tether to the gemstone on the floor, although the "other end" of that tether was loose. I concentrated on the gate reducing and being removed and was surprised at how easily it responded, almost as it if sensed my will before I had fully formed the thought. In a moment the gate was gone entirely and the gem stopped glowing. For just a moment afterwards I had a sense of an airy space full of endless sky, which I intuitively knew was far away, and a dark shadowy space that was here in this world, quite close, but with no clear features I could identify it with - near a forest it seemed, but which I could not say. Then I returned to myself and had a pang of frustration as my senses suddenly seemed limited and weak in comparison.

I immediately had a sense of revulsion at myself - was this how my father had started? A taste of power and then a desire for more? I dropped the staff and stepped back, sickened that I might be like him after all. No, I wouldn't give in to it! Falcor said "are you all right?" and I started, turning a little too quickly. How long had he been here? "Yes," I managed, then: "it's closed." A statement of the fucking obvious. I shook my head, then stepped back to the staff, picking it up. I looked at Falcor and said "this thing is too dangerous to stay here, we have to take it with us." It was as much a challenge as a statement, but he seemed to agree and gave no argument.

Eager to get away from this place I walked past him and he joined me as we made our way back up to the next level. The priest guided us to the entrance we had used and we climbed up the tube, getting a welcome taste of the cool forest air outside.