Journal - Kellerot's Twisted Realm

Twisted Isle

We boarded the Saloroc warship at night, the oarsmen making good time in relatively calm water. They swung around to the southwest of the island in an attempt to mask our approach, and then made the run in to shore just before dawn. We could see shapes in the water skitting away from the oars; they were like fish but seemed wrong in some way, deformed or moving oddly, and we only saw them as we drew close to the beach. The ship powered onto the beach, finding the sand to be surprisingly shallow and soft... but as we crossed the beach line and the bow rose out of the water we passed through a curtain of illusion, similar to the one around Ulric's house, and instead of a barren island we found ourselves on the edge of a densely forested region. The forest felt very wrong, again in a similar way as before, and the trees looked dead or dying but nevertheless created a thick barrier, and the sky was dark as if dawn had never come... darker even than the night we had traveled through.

Arad and I both had newly crafted symbols around our necks, mine a form of the Elvrahum burrow I had seen at the temple with a small piece of soil contained within it and set with rubies. Arad's was in the form of a metal basket on a chain with a large glowing diamond within it, which he called the star of life. Arad touched his instinctively as we made the transition from the light sea air to the dark, dank hidden realm on the island. The hill didn't seem to change much, remaining devoid of life and greenery, it was just the surrounding area. The trees were a combination of rotting leaves and dead trees, but all were still standing. It was eerily quiet, with no sounds or animal calls, but there did seem to be a worryingly random rustling from within the dark forest that just didn't seem natural. No sign of dawn could be seen, and it just felt like the sun would never penetrate this place.

I tumbled neatly over the edge of the ship, landing lightly on the sandy beach, followed by Arad who was saying a prayer to the Creator. Falcor jumped down last, drawing his sword instinctively at an unseen but perceived threat. The Saloroc were clearly nervous at the stark transition, probably not having seen anything like it before. Despite this they swore that they would stay as agreed, saying that the Red Skull Clan would not run from the dead! We left at once, deciding that trying to finish what we had come here to do as quickly as possible was all that we could do to assist our allies. We followed the beach east until it met the ridge of the hill, and started up towards the peak. None of us wished to enter the forest if we could help it.

After about an hour of gentle climbing an evil looking gigantic bat thing, bigger and faster than the others we had encountered, glided over our heads utterly silently, perhaps twenty feet above us or lower. We readied bows, looking around but unable to see anything in the complete darkness. Then it passed overhead again, this time from behind and lower - about ten feet up. Falcor stood between us and prepared to swing with his sword should it get closer, while we loosed arrows... but there was no indication that we had hit it. The third time it approached it stopped in the air, hanging without ever beating its wings, then out of each wingtip, magic missiles flew and streaked into my chest, which caused great pain. Falcor muttered a quick spell behind me as I jogged forward to get a better shot, loosing an arrow straight at it... but the arrow veered off at the last moment as if were protected in some way.

Realising it was useless, I put my bow away as I continued to jog forward, whereas Falcor ran forward and jumped impressively into the air, getting just high enough to slash at it with his sword at the apex (almost fifteen feet up!) before coming down heavily and crying out slightly as he was winded. The cut was good, though, and blood splattered out. I pulled out some foxfire and called on Karmana's will to guide it onto the creature, outlining it with a soft green shining light, making it easier to see and hit in the pitch darkness. Arad called on the Creator and summoned spears that leapt from his hand towards it, but they didn't appear to affect it. Still, it seemed unwilling to stay and suffer more, for it flew off, still silently, and we saw its glowing outline receding into the night away to our left (roughly north). The whole thing had happened in strange silence, almost as if unreal, but Falcor broke this feeling with some quick commands to draw bows and keep moving.

We continued for another mile or so, until I noticed on the edge of my vision some kind of red dots, pairs of them... like glowing eyes! I whispered to Falcor so that he was aware, and although we continued I kept a careful watch. The things became bolder and it was clear that there was at least one heat source coming in and out of our vision range, and most likely more than one. They were predators of some kind and they were hunting us! The next time I saw it I loosed an arrow, and I got lucky as I could barely see the shape of it but I heard a thud and a muffled yelp that confirmed that I had struck true. They seemed to withdraw after that, but we were not so stupid as to relax. Sure enough, a little farther on we were charged by four big cats with glowing red eyes, and an unnatural glow from their jaws as well. They bounded out of the dark straight at us, about six feet long apiece.

They closed the distance in no time, and I just managed to drop my bow and draw a sword before they were on me. I dodged a rake from one's claws, feeling another pass behind me and its claws raked at my armour, but thankfully didn't penetrate. I could feel the weight of the powerful blow, though, and turned to keep the cats in front of me. Arad had a similar experience, just avoiding damage due to his armour. We both noticed that their breath stank of death and rotting corpses. My own swing was late and went wide... they were fast!

Arad loosed arrows, hitting with both, and Falcor cut into one of the cats attacking me, then stabbed one near Arad in the throat, ripping it out and dropping it. He swung back at the first one, cutting it open and halving their numbers. Arad smashed one with his hammer but then we heard a war cry from behind us as some pale looking orcs charged at us, wearing a panther symbol on their shields and wielding scimitars. Thankfully Falcor had removed enough of the cats from the fight that we were able to shift and not expose our backs, so their attack was either dodged or parried and it became a mess of a melee. I slashed one of the cats, opening a decent wound but unable to finish it as it danced away. The other cat raked Arad, keeping its claws in him and pulling him in closer, but he managed to block its attempt to bite him (the stench was terrible though). Arad swung at it, landing a good hit and followed up with a thrust of his sword to finish it off.

The orcs continued fighting, and a scimitar just slid off Arad's armour as he escaped from the cats claws, but one bit into Falcor's thigh. I finally connected with the last cat with a swing of my long sword, and it fell with a sudden howl that ended in silence. Falcor struck back at his attacker, landing good hits and following up with another stab to finish it off. He then slashed at another wounded orc, putting that one down too. Arad stabbed one, but was slashed badly by a scimitar in return. Falcor moved over to help Arad, one blow being blocked by its shield, but allowing Arad to swing past its defence and stagger it backwards. I was struggling to connect as well, not quite having the reach to get around its shield as easily.

Falcor was cut by another scimitar blow, although not badly, but I was not so lucky and was hit by two blows, with one getting past my armour. Arad crushed one of the wounded foes with his hammer, then stabbed another deeply. Falcor stabbed that one in the back, finishing it, which just the two left fighting me. My swings were still blocked by their shields. Falcor took a moment to cut the head off one of the bodies, so Arad did the same with one near him and then they moved to assist me (priorities?!). Falcor cut into one from its rear, and Arad finished it... but then he was attacked from behind by one of the slain foes that got back up from the floor!

Falcor stabbed my last attacker from behind with ease, but mainly because it was busy slashing me with a deep wound! I managed to stab it back, and Falcor finished it with a powerful swipe. Just when I thought I had some breathing space, though, the cats awoke and leapt to attack, clawing me from both sides! Falcor cut another head off and I slayed one of the cats AGAIN. Arad and Falcor cut more heads off, but Falcor pointed out that the heads were moving even when severed... we had to get away! More cats started moving, and I was able to kill the other reanimated one. Arad decapitated both an orc's and a cat's body, and Falcor removed the head of the one I had just felled. I ran up the slope, trying to put some distance between me and the bodies so that I could tend to my wounds. Arad was clawed and bitten by another reanimated cat, but Falcor stepped in and stabbed it with a killing (if that was really the right word here) blow to get it off Arad. Falcor decapitated it to slow down its recovery. Meanwhile I was trying to call on Karmana to heal my wounds, but there were only very faint signs of life in that place so it didn't do as much good as usual.

With the immediate threat gone, the others lobbed the heads they had severed away from the bodies as much as possible. Arad called on the Creator, using his new star to help with a strong connection; the diamond strobed with light as he treated my wounds, and they melted away until I was feeling hale again. He also treated his own wounds and Falcor's before we continued as quickly as we could. Thankfully we were able to reach the top of the hill without being molested again, finding that there was a depression where the peak should have been, about a hundred and fifty feet across and about fifty feet deep.

The ground inside the depression was rocky with dried mud and dead grass, and we could see a couple of dead trees below us. The darkness made it hard to see much else, but as we descended it became clear that there was something, although low to ground, in the centre at the low point. We decided to circle around the edges first to make sure we weren't missing anything, checking one particularly steep bit carefully but finding nothing notable. After that we reached the bottom, finding a circle of protruding stones almost like a stone circle, but low - at most two feet high. Were these the crenellations of the top of the tower, and if so had the whole thing sunk into the ground?

As we drew closer a ghostly apparition appeared about thirty feet in front of us, like an animalistic wild orc, stocky and advancing menacingly. Falcor screamed in fear, turned and started to flee in terror, stumbling slightly on the uneven ground. More of them seemed to phase into sight making four, they acted as if they were screaming with rage and ready to strike but there was no sound at all. Arad called on the Creator to drive the unnatural creatures away, and his symbol strobed with light once more... but it had no discernible effect on them. We knew that Kellerot was a lord of deceit now, so I didn't believe that these were real, just an illusion or trick to scare away anything that approached. I walked forward confidently, doing my best to ignore them, even brushing through one, which had no adverse effect, so my confidence was redoubled and I carried on calmly.

Falcor had sprinted off in fear, though, though there was nothing we could do about it at the time. One of the apparitions floated up to me and completely enveloped me as even more appeared, to the point where I was looking through it from the inside! Arad swung his hammer at one, but it passed straight through meeting no resistance. I continued walking straight through the "ghost" and up to the edge of circle. It was obvious that the stones had once been masonry and that they were deeply embedded in the ground, confirming that they had probably once been a part of the tower.

Falcor had left our sight, and was probably still fleeing into the darkness. I hoped that he was ok, but had no way of reaching him or communicating with him (we did not think that using our mental powers would be safe here). Arad jogged into the circle, where we noticed the apparitions would not follow us, and he tried to use the Creator's power to drive off the new arrivals; again came the pulsing flash of bright light, but again it had no obvious effect. I tried to reassure him that they did not exist, and we were safe as we met in the centre. The apparitions closed around the circle, but did not cross to the inside at any point.

Fortunately it was only a few moments later that Falcor came back within our sight, having got his fear under control. He was still nervous at approaching, but we shouted reassurance - Arad that they could not enter the circle, and I that they were not real and couldn't harm us. He sprinted across to join us in the centre, making it without incident, so we were back together at least. We couldn't see anything on the ground except the stones, and there were no obvious hidden entrances or changes in the ground that would suggest a specific place to look. Arad suggested digging, but we had no tools - just a few pots and pans!

I asked them to wait a moment and decided to use the ability Karmana had gifted me to swim through the soil. I dived into the ground, finding that I could "see" what was around me a short distance away. I located what had clearly once been the top of the tower about ten feet down, and started searching in a circle until I located a trapdoor. At that point I knew that I did not have the energy to stay underground for much longer, heading straight up and emerging back into my friends' view on the exact point at which we would have to excavate. I passed on what I had seen and the likely depth we needed to get to, which seemed like it might take a good while to reach.

Fortunately Falcor had a trick up his sleeve, and warned us to stand back, brandishing the wand he had recovered. He spoke a command word, at which point soil started to throw itself away from the spot I had indicated, eventually forming a perfectly shaped hole with earth all around it, revealing the trapdoor beneath.

Tower of Darkness

I jumped into the freshly excavated hole, digging out the ring on top of the trapdoor with my dagger, and tried pulling it... but it didn't budge at all. I shouted up that it was stuck, and Arad passed down arope for me to loop through so that they could try from outside. Falcor was strong enough to move it... except that he managed to pull the ring right out of the wood, rather than open the trapdoor! The heavy ring smacked me in the face as Falcor staggered back when the rope went limp. Still no better off, I swapped places with Arad, who applied the direct approach with his hammer instead. It only took a couple of blows and the wood splintered, the stone holding it crumbling and collapsing underneath Arad. The dug hole widened rapidly, like a sinkhole, and Falcor and I scrambled to stay away from the edge and on our feet.

Arad fell straight down twenty feet, landing heavily (and painfully) after falling through thick cobwebs and dirt in a circular room about fifteen feet across. He had landed beside a cauldron inside a pentagram, itself within a circle inscribed on the floor. He could hear skittering movements above and around him, worryingly. I called down to check he was alright, receiving a positive response, then took a moment to light a lantern so that we would be able to see clearly when we descended. He had spoken prematurely, though, as spiders literally looking like skulls with legs and fangs started to drop on him and swarm towards him!

One of the spiders bit Arad on his neck, having landed on his shoulders. Arad swiped in panic at it, his sword swipe connecting but not well. Falcor jumped down, slowing his fall with his mind and landing softly, then started stabbing and cutting at the spiders. He was connecting with most of his blows, but knew that it wasn't doing as much damage as it would normally. More spiders swarmed down towards Arad and Falcor, and both of them were bitten... although they didn't seem to do much serious damage on the face of it. I jumped down to join them, also landing painfully even though I was able to soften the blow with my tumbling skills. I heard a terrible wailing and moaning, like a hundred souls being tortured, emanating from the cauldron. I struck quickly at a spider, hitting it, but getting the same sense as Falcor that it wasn't doing as much damage as normal.

We all felt a cold emanating from the spiders, which we associated with the undead we had fought previously; Arad grabbed his holy star, held it aloft, and spoke a prayer loudly to call on the Creator to drive the creatures away. There was a pulse of light, as before, but it did not seem quite as strong... perhaps his link with the Creator was having to stretch farther in some way here? About a half dozen of the skull spiders were driven back and away, so the Creator still had some power here. Arad collapsed after this, though, dropping to the floor!

Falcor kept fighting, landing more blows but still unable to damage them as much as he would like. He also spoke to Arad's mind, finding that he could respond. He was paralysed but not unconscious, and his mind was still able to act even though it was foggy from (presumably) the poison in his system. Worse, though, was that I saw a flaming winged demon with a flaming whip and spear climbing out of the cauldron! Falcor shouted that it wasn't real, asking for help, but its weapons just barely scraped off my armour so I was not convinced! I did manage to land an attack on it, cutting deeply... the spiders would have to wait.

Thankfully Arad came to and stood up, back in the fight but surrounded by spiders. Falcor landed two more powerful blows, finally sending one spider to the floor, legs curling up in its death throes. Unfortunately he was bitten twice, feeling venom being injected into at least one of the wounds. I continued fighting the huge demon, landing another good hit, but it struck with its spear into my shoulder and levered my right arm off! The stump burst into flames, which at least cauterised the wound so that I was not bleeding to death! I screamed in terror at the wound, but had no choice but to continue fighting for my life.

Arad smashed a spider clinging to Falcor, swatting it off him without a scratch on his armour, and it stopped moving. Falcor stabbed another spider, but was bitten again in return. Arad was able to help, though, moving around outside the circle to line up another hammer swing at the other spider on Falcor's back, finishing that one off too. One more was clinging to his legs, and Falcor tried to turn so that Arad had a clear shot, trying to stab it himself as well, but finding that it slid off the dome of its skull.

I was stabbed by the demon's spear again, in my torso, and was barely able to stand. I still managed to stab it before it could pull back, but I knew that I wouldn't last long at this rate. In desperation I tipped the cauldron it had come from over, and an evil-reeking sludge oozed out, but sadly it didn't affect the demon at all. The demon whipped around my legs, drawing me in, and the last thing I saw was its spear skewering me through my chest.

The others were still fighting the spiders, Arad shouting "hold still" and swiping with his hammer, landing a good hit but leaving it just barely hanging on. Arad tried to grab it instead, but couldn't get a good grip. Falcor was finally able to stab it cleanly, killing it, but then he collapsed unconscious. Arad took a moment to pull my body out of the circle, but then noticed that some of the spiders were coming back to life! Two of them twitched and skittered to their feet, attacking Arad, one biting him again. One of the reanimated spiders headed for Falcor's twitching body, starting to wrap him in dark and sticky web-like strands, as the other attacked Arad ineffectually.

Arad smashed one spider to the floor again, stopping it from working on Falcor's body, as Falcor started to come around. Falcor grabbed his weapons and started scurrying backwards across the floor screaming "get gone you horror"! Another spider twitched back to life and also focused on Arad. Some fangs scraped off the armour on his thigh as Arad brought his hammer down on another spider, which curled up again. Falcor seemed to come to his senses a bit more, rolling out of the circle he had backed into, and standing up with his weapons ready.

Arad was bitten on his head, with the spider latched on behind him. He tried to scrape it off, failed to get a grip the first time, but then managed to flick it to the floor and followed up with his hammer, killing it again. Falcor kept moving away from the fight, which was unlike him, to the far side of the chamber. He tried to protect his mind with a mental exercise and got slightly more control over his fear. He steeled himself and ran around to me, moving my body away from Arad and whatever threat he could see that was terrifying himt. He shouted "come back", seeing that my eyes were open, but got no reaction.

Arad smacked a twitching spider before it could get up, smashing its skull covering into pieces and pulping the creature inside. He shouted over to Falcor: "these are undead, six are held by the power of the Creator, there are three I am dealing with, but the rest is in your head. I am not attacked"! Falcor didn't seem convinced, but instead focused on shouting at me, but I was still completely unresponsive. Falcor then looked around and noticed some difference in the stone floor near where he dragged me from... but it would take him closer to the spot he was afraid of.

Arad managed to pulverise another one, shouting that there were two left to deal with and then there would be no threat. Falcor did run towards Arad, but was still shielding himself from some perceived threat; he searched the floor for what he had noticed, finding a stone that looked like it might open, and used his dagger to lever it open. He grabbed and hefted the stone away, revealing a spiral staircase leading down. He shouted "here" so that Arad knew he had found something.

Arad shouted: "Falcor, you are unopposed, grab Garret and take him down, I will cover your back"! As if to emphasise his point, he pulverised another spider, leaving just one that was not running in fear. Falcor got hold of me and dragged me down the stairs, calling back to Arad to grab my swords, shifting me on to his shoulder once he was out of the room. He met a spider coming up, and quickly tried to stand on it; our combined weight was enough to crack its skull once he pushed down on it, and he managed to keep his feet when it collapsed. He saw another spider coming up a little farther on.

Arad somehow managed to miss the last motionless spider with one swing, but his second smashed it to pieces. He scooped up my swords as he thought his hammer back into his belt, almost dropping one but controlling it as he ran into the stairwell. I started to come around, slowly realising that the demon that had "killed" me was an illusion.. but then saw a skull spider scurrying up and around me, feeling its horrible legs as it landed on Falcor from above. Falcor shouted back to Arad: "more down here, bring the swords, come quickly"! He tried to stab over his shoulder at the spider, landing a hit but not doing much to it.

Falcor kept moving, despite the spider on him, and entered a small room on the next floor with no obvious exit. He put me down then slammed his shoulder into the wall, trying to crush the spider, but it shifted as he did so and he only managed to hurt his shoulder instead. Arad started chanting, holding his star aloft, as he entered. I screamed, a horrible dream about enslaved elvrahum still fresh in my mind, shouting: "Are we free?! Where are we?" and then "My arm! My arm!" but found it intact. Confused, but knowing there was still a threat, I frantically threw my pack down and pulled out the morning star. I felt slightly dizzy and sick, but kept my wits enough to stay focused. I could soon relax a little, though, as Arad once more used the power of the Creator to drive the spider away and up the stairs behind us leaving us alone for a moment.

We took the chance to talk about the dreams or visions we had seen... Falcor saw the death of my people by the Sarn, which I knew had happened, whereas I saw them captured and taken by the red hand clan. Strange... He said that they all died, they were slaughtered, it was the Sarn, so much blood. Great, now I wasn't the only mental case in the party. I wasn't sure what was real any more. Instead I focused on the moment, seeing that they were both badly injured, I used the power of the crown to heal them. Falcor picked me up in a big hug in thanks. Told you he was mental.

Arad healed me in return, although my wounds were nowhere near as severe as I had first feared due to the illusory nature of the demon. He advised us that we needed a bigger space so that he could offer us protection from the evil here. Falcor looked around for an exit and almost immediately spotted a concealed door. He heard nothing, although that didn't mean much in this place. Falcor spotted a mechanism and pressed to click the door open, allowing me to pull it the rest of the way. There was a decrepit, rotten, but once fine bedroom inside with cobwebs everywhere... but not like the ones we found above us, thankfully. A door to our right was closed, there was a large wardrobe beyond the door, an arrow slit or narrow window on the far side with just darkness beyond. In fact there was no light at all. An old desk sat under the window. I asked with little hope whether anyone had picked up the lantern I had placed down in the last room, but nobody had of course. Instead Arad called on the Creator to create light, causing Falcor's breastplate to shine like a target for any creature in the vicinity.

I stepped into the room and dropped straight through the floor! It was almost twenty feet down, and the landing was painful although I was able to roll to soften it a little. This new room was once a sitting room, with rotted once-fine tapestries and broken furniture and a door to the north, barred from my side. There were three windows, only two of which were blocked by earth an the other opened into a dark nothingness. I called up to the others to watch their step. Arad tapped at the floor with his hammer, and it seemed solid to him, likely a really good illusion. He inched out with his feet to find the edge, and almost fell forward when he reached it but managed to stop himself as Falcor grabbed him. Falcor then started to tie a rope around Arad to help lower him.

As I was looking at the strangely open window a couple of things flew in, almost like congealed smoke with wings, they were smallish not counting their wings and were able to pass through the narrow window with ease. One of them spat a ball of soot at me, which exploded in my face, blinding me. The other one attacked then disappeared (not that it made any difference to me as I couldn't see anyway). I dropped the morning star, drawing my swords and slashing in front of me, but not connecting.

Upstairs, just as Falcor was about ready to lower Arad, a weird thing lumbered into sight from around the corner. It was a vaguely humanoid form with flesh hanging off a collection of bones, every bit of it not quite matching making a hideous mish-mash of a rotting form. Falcor ran forward, but started sinking very slowly (he was using a mental power to stop himself falling quickly) so he turned back and grabbed the floor near Arad. Gutted I missed seeing his legs dangling through the ceiling! The flesh creature growled and a putrid stench washed over Arad briefly. Arad called on the Creator to banish the flesh thing, sending light pulsing from his star again. It worked, as the thing needed to get away from him... unfortunately the shortest way of doing that was to jump down through the floor to where I was!

I leapt forward wildly, feeling a swipe just passing behind me, but then when I landed I smelt something else... not having seen the flesh creature I didn't know what it was, but it even smelt ugly. I thought I felt it swiping near me, so I swung back, connecting with my short sword but only slightly. Falcor was lowering Arad to help, although he did it a bit quickly so he lost his footing when he landed. Thankfully he recovered quickly and untied himself. Falcor followed by falling really slowly, shouting to Arad to get out of the way.

My sight stared to return, and I could see vague shapes... including the thing that had attacked me, although not in detail. It seemed to be turning, so I slashed at its leg, cutting it off and causing it to collapse to the ground in a heap. Another shaped moved towards me, but thankfully I recognised the voice as Arad shouted "behind you, and a little to your left!" As I turned I was raked by a claw, but only superficially. It was still hard to see the forms of the smoky things. The other one reappeared, spitting a ball of soot into Arad's face, blinding him as I had been.

Falcor conjured a yellow orb and threw it into one of the creatures, definitely connecting but not seeming to affect it in any way. I slashed into one as it swooped down to attack Arad; my sword went straight through it, with the smoke reforming behind it, but it deep seem less well defined in shape, so it had been affected in some way. Falcor was scratched on his face, but not deeply, and stabbed the thing with his dagger, again affecting its shape. Arad, unable to see, spoke a prayer of protection, hoping to keep himself safe until his vision returned. It certainly seemed to work - one of the things swooped down straight at him, but at the last moment recoiled and struggled upwards away from him.

Falcor was cut again, more deeply this time. He retaliated, connecting with both his weapons... but only his dagger had any effect, the sword passed straight through as if through actual smoke. Now both of the things were attacking Falcor, but he dodged away from one and his armour protected him from the other. I was struggling to reach them as they were flying too high for me, so I had to wait for Arad to move forward, his sight returning. He swungs at one of them and landed a good hit, its smoky form exploding in a small fireball. The flames washed over Arad, but he was protected by the power of his hammer. The other one decided that this was a fight it couldn't win and flew away out of the window.

I retrieved my morning star, thanking my friends for coming to my aid. Arad had a rummage in his part of the room, and found some crescent moon gold earrings amongst the detritus. I went over to the window and look out... and down - it was about forty feet to ground. We seemed to be in a vast underground space, in which I could only see the sloping wall to one side - the rest was dark beyond my ability to see. I caught the occasional glimpse of a heat source at ground level, but not enough to tell what might be down there.

I checked the only door for traps, not finding any, then lifted the bar for Falcor to open it. There were stairs leading down in a curve and I checked the first few steps very carefully after the "false floor" trick in the last room. To help us move on, Falcor tied a rope to me, wrapped it around himself, and then tied it to Arad, each with about fifteen feet of rope between us so that we had room to move around. I went down first, reaching a small landing but finding no foes. I checked for traps, then tapped the floor before crossing to a door on the far side. There were no traps there either, and I couldn't hear anything when I listened.

I gave a thumbs up to Falcor and he swung the door open... but it was a trap! Undead legionnaires were waiting with spears pointed at us. Falcor and I moved forward to attack but we all suffered damage before we could get close. I only took a glancing blow, but Falcor took a nasty stab to the gut. I smashed my morning star into one, but heard Arad chanting behind us, asking the Creator to shatter the foes. They turned to flee - making perfect targets! Arad was shouting about "attacking will break the spell..." blah blah. I didn't want them to flee anyway! I screamed a quick response: "these foul things must die!" and charged to attack.

Two more came from our left flank, not having seen the light of the Creator, and attacked Arad. He tried once more to use the Creator's power to force them away, but they seem unimpressed. We all rushed to help him, with Falcor landing a good hit with his dagger as Arad struck the same one with his hammer. Falcor also struck a blow with his sword, but edged weapons were not as effective on the skeletal creatures. I smacked the closest one with my morning star, and it responded unusally by dropping its spear and trying to pick me! I managed to slip away from its grasp.

Arad's armour protected him from a spear thrust, but then two of the undead fleeing from him surprised us by walking straight through one of the walls! Falcor struck another blow, and Arad followed up with a thunderous strike that went straight through the thing from top to bottom, bones falling and splintering to either side. The one I was fighting tried again to grab me, and although I dodged his first attempt, he rushed forward and pushed me to the floor. Unable to avoid him, he grabbed hold and lifted me into the air, turning to run off with me. Both Falcor and Arad landed blows on it, but it wasn't enough to stop it and it carried me through the wall after its brethren.

Undead Legion Barracks

Arad sprinted through the wall after it and me, so the stone was clearly not real! He found a hidden passage with doors on both sides, but saw the fiend moving rapidly down it with me struggling to get free. I finally forced my way out of its grip, dropping to the floor in the corridor. Falcor followed at a run, passing us and attacking the one that had dropped me... we saw that there were even more of them here! He landed a couple of hits and I got to vent my anger and smashed the one that had carried me off. Arad started chanting again as Falcor's armour deflected a spear thrust. Light flashed once more from Arad's star and the new undead backed off, Falcor just watching them retreat.

Then the door at the end of the corridor opened, revealing a fleshier, larger undead legionnaire. About the same time, Arad heard skittering as some skull spiders come around the corner on the ceiling behind us. He was bitten by one from the wall beside him, and another dropped onto his back. Falcor charged through to attack the large foe to our fore, forcing his way through by brute strength to stab it. I smacked the skull spider on the wall by Arad, but not quite forcefully enough to crush it. Arad called on the Creator again, forcing the spiders away into the shadows.

Falcor was fighting alone for the moment, stabbing his foe again. I smashed the skull of a downed skeleton to dust, just to be sure. Falcor was striking true with almost every swing, but again his weapons did not do as much damage as normal. Arad turned again to the Creator in an attempt to drive it off, but this time it failed. Falcor stabs again, and also landed a heavy blow with his sword; such strikes would have felled most foes, but not this one apparently. As I approached I saw the dragon symbol of gold on black marking this foe as one of the first legion twats we had fought before. Two others fell back as Arad moved forward, and I smack my morning star heavily into one as it retreated.

Arad tried to convince me that they were being controlled by another, greater mind, but I'd heard that bullshit before and all he did was stop me from destroying a nest of undead! Arad struck at the big one with his hammer, connecting well, then caught it with the back swing and smashed it to the floor in a mess of flesh and bones. Again he shouted: "hold your actions, they will not attack you; they are controlled by another being, so allow my Creator's power to keep them from us". He turned to open the nearest door, revealing a well appointed room that was old and decrepit like the others. It did seem that some effort had been made to keep this one straight, though. The tapestries were slightly less rotten, and beside the door was a shield with the first legion symbol covering it. There was a bed, an iron bound chest, a desk, and a chair.

Arad called for me to handle the chest, imploring me to leave the undead as he would keep them at bay. I was too busy charging at them to really hear, though, unfortunately being stabbed with a spear as I smashed my morning star into the closest one. Arad shouted "he will not attack you, the power of the Creator will hold him at bay"! Yeah, I get it, just shut up and fight already. I replied: "I don't want it held at bay, I want to smash it to pieces!" Falcor was interested in the chest, using his boot to try and break the lock, connecting well but not able to force it.

Arad moved towards me, forcing the undead back, so I struck a blow as they retreated. Then he tried to grab me, but I slipped away, pulling my arm free. But then he did something despicable, dominating my mind by force of will and I couldn't move of my own free will. I also felt a probe from another mind, a darker one... Arad commanded me to check the stupid chest for traps, the greedy bastard, like that was more important than destroying the foul undead. I was forced to move towards the room with the chest in, but walked slowly whilst trying to resist the control. After a minute or so a new, more powerful, mind forced its way in and instead compelled me to attack Arad! Fortunately I missed with my swing, and he tried to tackle me to the floor.

My mind recoiled from the new intrusion, and I was just about able to force it out, just in time to get slammed into the floor by Arad and stunned, my head hitting the stone floor. I had a massive headache and started shouting at Arad that he had put us both in danger by exposing our minds. Falcor picked up my morning star, asking Arad to leave me alone. Arad was losing it, though, shouting that he would "stay until he understands". So this was the true nature of a servant of law... obedience over free will, compulsion for those that would not submit. I found the very idea of it repellent.

We then, all of us, had a long and heated conversation, well argument I guess, about the undead and our goal, as well as their belief that they were trying to protect me. I begrudgingly agreed not to chase down every undead creature we met that was not able to fight us - but only if we hunted down and destroyed the mind that was controlling them, the one that had intruded on us already I supposed. I would not leave the island until it was destroyed, whether they stayed or not. Arad was at least contrite enough to ask the Creator to heal some of my wounds, especially as he caused some of them!

Falcor, as he stepped forward towards us, juddered as if we blinked but without actually blinking. Something definitely happened to him that seemed wrong. He almost stumbled forward as he finished his step, but managed to stop himself. He dropped the weapons in his hands and put his arm out, dropping it to my shoulder and said "you are one of the six". Then he put the other hand on Arad's shoulder, saying: "we are three, we are bonded. We have to move together. For the sake of Karmana, for the sake of the Gods on high we must stay together". He seemed to be in some kind of religious fervour now, going on: "I understand some of the suffering of your folk, having seen it, but that strengthens us so we will fight together for your cause. But you cannot forsake yourself and leave our bonds. That way is lost. There are six, we are three, we are bonded. We must restore the forge, must overcome all six. As much as your heart desires the death of those around you, you cannot leave us and we must fight together. I am told this by Milada". At that he bowed his head as if the name brought back a memory. Well that was weird.

But I felt Karmana's spirit willing me to follow him, feeling energised as I had thought her unable to reach into this place. I went pale for a moment, realising that there truely was a greater goal that we should pursue here - that foul mind that had forced me to attack Arad, and that it should be Kellerot that was our focus here, not these petty minions. Then I felt flushed with health as Karmana's warmth flowed into me, encouraging and welcoming my thought. I apologised to Falcor, in shame, vowing to stay together whilst the undead were not a threat to us. Arad also embraced us, also apologising for going too far.

Arad offered to kill some of the undead together with me, together rather than apart, as a sort of peace offer I think. I agreed readily of course, so I charged with him towards the nearest pair of legionnaires. Arad missed with his first strike, but as the target moved across my own swing crashed into its side. Arad shouted back to Falcor that the others would advance on him, but that they should not attack unless he first attacked them. I crashed a strong blow into our target's shoulder, and Arad struck its chest. It sagged under the force of the blows, but somehow stayed standing. Both of the foul things tried to retaliate, but they seemed weak and didn't come close.

Falcor attacked behind us, stabbing one twice with his dagger and slashing the other twice with his sword. The blades had less impact, though, so he was still struggling to put them down. The things started to fight back properly then, Arad's armour stopping a blow, but Falcor and I getting stabbed, although they were only glancing blows. Arad swung one final time at our foe, this time dropping it, and Falcor smashed his sword into a rib cage, dropping one too. Arad stomped on the skull of the one we'd downed, cracking it under foot, and hearing the splintering sound Falcor also smashed a skull under his boot.

We turned our attention to the last foes. Falcor landed two strong strikes and his foe went down. Arad hammered our foe and I moved to its flank, stabbing and smashing with both my weapons, but it kept its feet. Another stab scraped off its bones, but my morning star struck clean and it collapsed. Falcor smashed one skull and I the other, and we were done for a moment.

Falcor advanced towards the end of the side corridor, finding what looked like an abandoned room with a curved wall, crap and cobwebs everywhere. A weapons rack was just in front of him with a single long sword resting on it. A short corridor led to a barred door on his right. He approached the weapons rack, but as he came closer it morphed and grew teeth and a long tongue, lunging at him! Instinctively he thrust his dagger into the thing, but then it seemed to stick fast and he couldn't pull it back. The mouth lashed out with its tongue, hitting him in the chest, but his armour absorbed the worst of it. He struck out with his mind, and that seemed to help as the creature lolled passively, tongue hanging down. He followed up with his sword, a heavy swing that connected well, but then left the sword held solidly in place as well!

Meanwhile, unaware of Falcor's predicament, I had opened a door back in the first corridor, revealing what was possibly an old bedroom. A rusty iron chest was sat in a corner, but otherwise it was all deteriorated beyond use. I opened the chest, and as I did so fire burst all around me! Thankfully the crown protected me from any harm, and Arad's hammer kept him safe even though he tended to stand back whenever chests were being opened. I found two glass bottles with cork stoppers and wax inside, one a viscous dark blue liquid, and one completely clear. There were also two rubies, and two scrolls tied with silk ribbons. We moved back into the corridor, and Arad opened a door on the other side, revealing what looked like an old library.

Falcor was still trying to wrest his weapons free, managing to pull his sword away, jerking backwards as he did so such was the force required. He was still struggling with his dagger when we reached the library. I shouted for him, suspecting that he would be interested in the library, but there was no response. A little concerned, Arad went to look, seeing him wrestling with his dagger stuck in the weird sagging weapons rack creature as Arad turned the corner. He was not impressed that it had hold of his favourite dagger! Arad charged up to help, swinging with his hammer... and getting that stuck too. Sigh.

I joined them, and they explained the strange problem they were facing. I retrieved some spears, at least willing to try getting someone else's weapon stuck in it, but Arad booted it in frustration and got his foot stuck! I stabbed one spear into it, offering the other to Falcor, and sure enough that got stuck too. At least I didn't care about it, although I wondered if Arad had to pick between his hammer and his foot which he would go for... Strange that it affected a foot as well as the metal weapons; maybe it was a glue of some kind? If it were then perhaps a solvent would work? Water, alcohol, oil, or something more exotic?

We tried water first, but it just ran straight off, although Arad tried a drop of holy water and it bubbled a little and then seemed to solidify, fixing his boot even more firmly in place! Arad tried wine next, as he was the only one with any alcohol. As soon as it splashed onto the surface it bubbled violently and a pungent smell filled the air... more importantly his boot came free almost immediately! He hurried to apply some to his hammer and Falcor's weapon, freeing them just as easily. Falcor also managed to free the long sword he saw there originally, which seemed nicely balanced.

I turned my attention to the metal vertical bars forming a gate to the right of where we had entered this circular room. It was secured with a very rusty iron padlock and behind it was a short corridor ending in a closed door. I decided that there was no point trying the lock itself as it would have seized with rust, and instead smashed the padlock off with the hilt of my sword, pulling the gate open with a loud and piercing screeching sound. We all winced, but Arad walked over to help force it wide enough to enter comfortably, asking me to check the door.

As I went about checking the floor for any traps, I remembered to tell Falcor about the library we had found, and this caught his interest. He and Arad set off to the south as I completed my search. I didn't find any traps but I had worked out that the floor was very weak, being planks of wood unlike the stone around it. Falcor went straight to look at the library, but Arad stopped at the room the chunky legionnaire had emerged from, calling for me to help with the chest. I headed back, but at the same time Falcor heard an ominous click as he moved towards a bookcase, the floor sinking slightly under him. The door to the library slammed shut and there was an audible clunk.

He reached out with his mind to say that he was trapped, so I ran to the door and found that a bar had dropped into place to seal it from this side. I was able to lift it off easily and throw it to the side, pulling the door open... thankfully to find Falcor looking hale and without any other movement in the room. He was reluctant to move, though, in case doing so might trigger something else. As I stepped into the room to check, a mouth appeared above the fireplace (part of the stone) and started shouting loudly "the soul stealers are here, the soul stealers are here, summon the guard!" - obviously some kind of magical alarm system.

Arad came in at that point, saying that he thought he knew what it was and to leave it to him. Phew, what would his clever solution be, a prayer, a magical artifact, some clever trick... oh, no, he just smashed it with his hammer! It took a couple of blows but it cracked and then crumbled, leaving an eerie silence after the cacophony before. Falcor had spotted part of the bookcase that outlined a door, and pointed it out to us, still not moving. I couldn't find any obvious mechanism on the floor, besides the one already activated, and meanwhile Falcor pulled at the books he could reach, sweeping them off the shelves until he found one that was attached to a mechanism. We heard a click and the door popped slightly open into the room.

I could see faint runes above the fireplace, but Arad claimed not to be able to see any. I ducked into the fireplace anyway, as Falcor opened the door he had found, revealing a cupboard sized nook with four iron-bound chests inside. He called on me for assistance again, so I stepped back out as nothing seemed to have exploded. Arad, though, asked us to wait while he called on the Creator to help him find any traps around him. He noticed the spent trap on the mantlepiece, then confirmed that there were no active traps around Falcor, and then warned that there was something just in front of the chests - a glyph of some kind. He also confirmed that the chests themselves were fine, it was just the floor in front of them.

We had no knowledge of how to disable a magical glyph of this nature. We tried throwing a book into it, but that had no effect. We moved one of the former legionnaire's bodies closer and Falcor chucked it onto the glyph... the floor exploded as it landed and a wave of heat and flame washed out followed by a cloud of grey green smoke. Falcor choked a little, but recovered enough to move back and away from it. We waited until the smoke eventually cleared, and Arad decided to check the chest in the other room as we did so. He shattered the lock with his hammer, but found nothing of value inside.

Falcor approached the chests when he judged it safe to do so, flipping the lids open to see what was there. He found silver, gold, a rotten pouch, an ivory scroll case, a small cigar shaped gold case with the star within a circle containing Ulrik's mark set upon it, a gold handled comb and brush, a silver mirror, gold earrings in the shape of hearts, a clasp of bone in the shape of the tree of life, and a pale blue gem. The scrolls were not legible to Falcor, so he called for Arad and he gratefully took them. Then Faclor tossed me the cigar case because there was a tenuous link between the mark on it and Ulrik, and therefore my crown (I suspected that it was evil, though, because of the circle).

I started searching the other bookcases... until one book fell open and a spider that was inside expanded into a fucking massive hairy nightmare beast that attacked me! It tried to climb on top of me and I saw venom dripping from its fangs, but I managed to duck away from the initial lunge and scramble backwards. Arad got behind it and walloped it with both hammer and sword. This didn't make things much better, though, as an acrid liquid spurted out of its stab wound, which Arad just about dodged, and fizzed angrily when it hit the floor.

I was still backing away, and somehow managed to keep it from biting me as Arad kept hammering it hard, splitting it open in places. We both had to dodge the spurting acid blood, but eventually I managed to thrust my sword into its eye cluster, killing it... at least for now. I still had to dodge back quickly to escape its twitching body as it went into its death throes. After that excitement Arad and Falcor were interested in collecting the gold and looking at books, but I was more interested in getting the fuck out before the spider came back to life! I shouted a warning as I reached the door, ready to slam it shut, and Falcor look round to see that the spider had started twitching. Thankfully my friends made it to the door first, and I slammed the bar into place just in time behind them. There was a loud thump as the beast threw itself into the door, but it held.

There was one other door almost opposite the library that we hadn't opened. When we did so there was a strange whiff of the sea that seemed completely out of place here. It looked like yet another decrepit old bedroom, with nothing obvious that we could see associated with the ocean or saltwater. Whilst we were puzzling on this, Arad realised that he had left his backpack in the spider room! Nooooo! Worse, it had his prayer book in it so we couldn't just leave and replace it later. Sigh. I tried to call on Karmana for help, but found no connection to her in this place. Wherever we were it was not a part of our Mother any more. Instead I just threw the bar off and jumped to the right as it swung rapidly open, the spider emerging legs first and heading straight for Arad. Fast. It bit him before we could react, but thankfully the venom didn't seem to affect him. Arad did put an arrow into it at the last second, and that was enough to drop it again.

Falcor's shot ripped through its body in a burst of acid blood that sprayed over Arad's legs! He lost a pouch and his trousers suffered burn holes below the knee, with the acid starting to burn his skin. I ran in to grab Arad's backpack, bringing it back to the corridor, only to have Arad rush up, grab his wineskin and pour wine all over his legs to stop the burning. I could have given him some water if he'd asked! Instead I went over and started to drag the spider back to the room, but found that it separated into two pieces! I was fairly happy with this, so I dropped it and headed back.

Falcor said that he could sense the broadsword and chainmail of the big legionnaire had dweomer about them. Arad volunteered to carry them, now that he had his pack back, although it did mean he could not carry much more if he wanted to move freely. As Arad was sorting out his kit Falcor investigated the smell that we had discovered, picking through the contents of the room and discovering a six-foot square tapestry that was remarkably intact, and definitely the source of the smell. He lifted it up and brought it to the door to show us, and we agreed that it was no normal tapestry. I could sense a strong connection to Karmana, and as I reached out to touch it that sense became more powerful and even began to pull me in; I was able to resist and draw back, but warned the others not to touch the face of it. Perhaps, though, it might prove to be a way out of this realm if we needed it? Falcor rolled it up and folded it once, securing it to his pack so that we could take it with us.

With no spider threat any more, we also went back to the chests behind the library in order to retrieve the blue stone and look inside the decayed pouch. Arad picked up the pouch, but the powder inside burst out of the holes and Arad started coughing uncontrollably, even dry retching. There was nothing we could do to help him, as he couldn't even stop to swig some water, so we just had to wait for several minutes until he started to recover. The offer of water was then gratefully taken as he had quite a sore throat.

Done with this floor, we headed back to the iron gate and dodgy floor. I asked for a rope to be tied around me and then edged along the wall to the door. It opened easily enough to reveal stairs leading down. Arad jumped across to join me, followed by Falcor, and after a moment to rearrange our kit and the rope we made our way down. The stairs turned to the right and ended in a hallway with doors on all sides, an opening to the right, and stairs in the far corner. When we reached the bottom and looked to the right we could see two undead legionnaires moving to attack! Falcor stabbed one as they closed on us and we managed to block or dodge their attacks before Falcor followed up with a heavy sword blow. Arad used the Creator's power to force them back, but two more burst out of a door to our left.

One stabbed me in my shoulder, so I cracked it with my morning star in return, but it was a short-lived conflict as Arad called on the Creator to force the new arrivals back as well. I edged towards the door they had come through, watching the foe warily. I was itching to attack, but I was trying to stay true to Karmana's will as well. The room they had come from was just as trashed as the others we had seen. Before we could look properly Falcor shouted that he was being attacked! We both ran to aid him. Falcor was defending himself well, landing blows with both dagger and sword, and Arad swung his hammer in its larger form, landing a good blow and causing the undead filth to visibly sag.

Falcor was stabbed by both of the creatures... Ouch! He retaliated with a sword blow, and Arad's hammer finally put one down, smashing it to the floor. I did the same with the other one, although my morning start didn't quite splinter the bones in the same way. I tried to smash the skull as well, cracking it, and Falcor jumped on it to finish the job, crumpling it under his weight. Arad smashed the other skull with his hammer, giving us a moment of rest. Falcor looked badly wounded, and he said to Arad: "I thought they weren't going to attack us"? Arad wasn't sure why they did unless it was because he went too far away, and there was a powerful force driving them in this place. He feared that there might be more. Well... yeah!

As if to emphasise the point another door opened in the corridor behind us and more zombie legionnaires poured out, coming around the corner to attack us. Falcor was closest, and only saved from the first strikes by his armour. Falcor struck back with his sword and I pushed in front of Arad to strike a blow with my dagger. Arad had lifted his holy star and was chanting again, and shortly the familiar flashes of blinding light strobed out from behind us and the Creator's power forced the evil things back once more.

I moved forward, itching to attack but wary of Karmana's guidance; I knew that if I got too close they would certainly try to kill me. I called back to Arad that he would need to stay with us or we would be forced to fight, wondering whether I might "accidentally" get to destroy some of the foul abominations. Arad was tending to Falcor's wounds, calling on the Creator to heal him and knitting the cuts neatly in front of our eyes. In just a minute Falcor looked hale and bright again. He bowed to Arad, thanking him and the Creator for the aid. As I waited I noticed that one undead legionnaire near me was wearing a strange brooch, like a winged beetle with a gem set in the body. None of the others had it, so I called my friends' attention to it.

Arad walked forward, aiming to split the one nearest me from the others. He forced most of them down the corridor, but one returned through the door they had come from and beetle boy was forced into the room to my left, which is just what we wanted. As soon as it was clear that he was going inside I followed and attacked him. Falcor blocked the side of the corridor to stop any others getting around Arad and ended up fighting one that had tried to. Arad now acted as a shield, forcing the others away so that only the two were able to attack.

The fight was initially frustrating; I was nicked by its sword as I closed on it, but it only just drew blood. I connected with both dagger and morning star, but its armour deflected the worst of it so it had no real impact. Falcor did smack the other one with his sword, but as always the edged weapon had less of an impact than usual on these things. Falcor called to Arad to take a pace back to make sure the one in the side room didn't flank him, then struck the foe in front of him again. Its return strike rang loudly on Falcor's armour where it struck but could not penetrate. Falcor hit a heavy blow again, and his foe collapsed to the floor. Then he jumped on its head, shattering it into pieces.

I finally landed a crunching blow on the one I was fighting with my morning star, but was stabbed again more heavily for my efforts. That gave me an opening, though, and I landed another blow, forcing it back. Falcor comes to help, and we went either side of the foe and both stabbed with our daggers, and it finally fell motionless. Falcor swung his sword at the skull, smashing it into fragments. I let Falcor do his thing with the brooch, and he did sense some dweomer about it; he put it in a pouch to study later.

We advanced to the next room on the right, which looked like an old barrack room with rusty weapons and armour at the sides, and a fireplace at the far end. Remains of manky decrepit furniture littered the centre of the room, and there was one of the undead legionnaires that had been forced in here by Arad clearly straining against the Creator's power in a futile attempt to attack us. Once Falcor had got past it, I rushed it from the front scraping off its armour with my dagger as Falcor attacked from its other side with two well-placed blows. I aimed a powerful blow to its chest, and it collapsed to the ground instantly at the impact. Falcor followed up with a heavy swing at its skull, smashing it easily.

Arad moved down the corridor further, shuffling the other creatures onto the stairs. He noticed that the stairs seemed to have partially collapsed so the creatures were trapped. Falcor returned to the corridor and crossed to a door on the far side, opening it to find an old living quarters for two but as was normal here, it was trashed with bits of furniture and rotting clothing everywhere. Arad was clearly getting bored because he started moving back and forth to watch the undead do a little zombie dance on the stairs. At least we weren't there to see him toying with them; I was searching the fireplace in the barracks room, but found nothing. Falcor came back into the corridor, but moved straight to the last door. He noticed that it had once been barred from the outside, although nothing was holding it shut now.

Falcor opened the door to find three once female but now undead creatures, their fingers ending in claws and teeth sharp and oversized. They were both shocked by the other, and for a few moments nobody moved. Falcor recovered first, and quickly conjured a pattern of light in the room, mesmerising a couple of the creatures. The lights also filled the top of the stairs and the room Falcor had just come from, even protruding slightly into the corridor. He warned Arad not to come too close. One of the creatures was not affected by Falcor's spell, and charged straight at him; it clawed at his neck, drawing blood, and then bit him there too! Falcor stabbed it with his dagger, at least forcing it to loosen its grip, and somehow managed to keep up the pattern of lights, waving a burning piece of incense around.

Arad called on the Creator again to force back the new foe, but this time his prayer was unanswered. Perhaps the Creator didn't like his gift being used to make zombies dance? Gods, eh? No sense of humour. Falcor managed to dodge back away from the creatures attacks for a moment, and hearing the commotion I ran back into the corridor to help. Seeing that Falcor was under attack I dropped the morning star and drew my sword instead, rushing up and stabbing it in the side. It definitely penetrated, but there was no blood from the wound at all. Arad also came to help, on the other side, and slammed his hammer down into its head. It collapsed under the powerful blow, and I stabbed into its neck, trying to separate its head from its body. I created a gaping hole on one side of its neck, but it was not quite separated. Arad shouted "stand back" and hefted his hammer, but didn't give us time to get clear as he swung it down. The creature's head exploded and a stinking mess splattered all over Falcor and I. The stink was incredible, and we both dry retched, struggling to keep our stomach contents.

I rummaged in my backpack for a waterskin, and used it all to wash myself down as much as possible, and what was left went on Falcor's legs. The smell was still there, but we could at least move away from the worst of it. I went back for my morning star and rearranged by backpack ready to continue. Falcor wanted to seal the door before the other two could recover from his enchantment, and told Arad that he had spikes in his backpack that he could use on the door. Falcor kept weaving his incense around as Arad hammered the spikes in, only stopping when Arad was happy it would not open.

Falcor searched the body on our side, finding that whatever it was had been wearing a shirt with a star embroidered over its heart that contained a hammer symbol in the centre, all in gold thread. It looked just like Arad's hammer and must have related to it in some way when they were still living. Falcor started moving towards the legionnaires on the stairs, and Arad and I both shouted a warning that they might attack when we saw him go. I scrambled for my morning star again, knowing it was better against the skeletal undead, and Arad moved up to force the foe back. As he was doing this, though, they suddenly sprang forward and attacked!

Falcor stabbed and cut with his swords, chipping away at the bones, and his armour turned aside the blows aimed at him. Arad swung his hammer heavily into another, and my own blow connected but its armour kept it from doing much. Arad's second swing smashed one to the floor, and Falcor's next two blows dropped another. I stabbed one between its armour with my dagger, but almost fell over a body as I swung my morning star! Falcor moved to the flank of the two attacking Arad, landing sword and dagger blows but it wasn't enough to stop Arad from getting stabbed in his gut. At least it left it open to attack, and I finished it off leaving just the one standing. Arad thumped it with another powerful blow, I stabbed it from behind, then Arad hit it again and I finished the job; it had no chance with both of us pounding on it. Falcor smashed most of the skulls, although I did for one, allowing us to take stock once more.

The stairs had collapsed after about five feet, so Arad passed a rope over and Falcor lowered me to the floor, followed by Arad. Then he used a mental power fall slowly down beside us. However, after doing so he warned of a threat to our minds similar to the one in the Elvradhil halls. I did actually tell everyone this earlier but they were too busy shouting at me for actually wanting to destroy the undead. They'd probably complain if I had to stab them when they lost their mind as well. Sigh. He did say something new and interesting, though, apparently he had a "smell of the sea" in his mind. That was strange, although it didn't tell us much.

There was a door beside where we landed, which the stairs would have led to if they were still intact, but the corridor went back behind us, like the one above, and turns to the right. Arad called on the Creator and used some ointment to heal the worst of his wounds before we did anything else. I opened the door after checking for traps, finding an old dining area, with the remains of a large table and ruined benches. There was a door to the left halfway down the wall that almost certainly rejoined the corridor. The only notable thing, really, was that a chandelier was still hanging from the ceiling... but the chain looked in a bad way and I wouldn't have wanted to disturb it.

Arad checked around the corner in the corridor, finding that it turned to the left further on with a door facing him in the wall. Falcor moved to the next corner, and the corridor twisted again to the right with a door in the left wall. I moved through the dining room into the corridor between them and then checked the next door, indicating that I was ready to open it. Arad moved past Falcor to check the next corner and found that it ended shortly afterwards, with another door on the right. Falcor went to the door on his left, opening it to find what was once a kitchen, although in a really bad state, with another door to his right.

I opened the door on my side to find an old entrance way, so at least we had reached what used to be the "ground" here. It was strewn with mud and rubble, but bizarrely opened into what looked like a pleasant, sun-dappled deciduous forest. I could smell the spring breeze on the air and it reminded me of home. I was sure it could not be real, especially considering what I had seen from the windows above, but it also seemed very real. Reluctantly I moved away, telling my friends what I had seen. Of course they said it was an illusion, but if it was then it must have been a very powerful one to seem so vivid to all my senses. I went up to the door that Arad had found and checked it for traps, finding nothing. I opened it to find two undead legionnaire guards, who had been watching the entrance way and were very surprised by us coming up behind them.

I rushed in to attack one; my dagger was turned away by its armour but the morning star struck true. Arad joined combat with the other one, landing a forceful blow with his hammer. They turned to fight, but were slow and their initial attacks were ineffectual. I stabbed again, dodged the return swing and connected again with my morning star, knocking one of them back. Then Arad and I both swung together, and both foes went down. Admittedly Arad's opponent was in more pieces than mine, but we destroyed their skulls so neither would be getting up any time soon.

Falcor was watching our rear, moving back to the kitchen... and was confronted by undead mockeries of former rats! These were aggressive, but no match for Falcor's swift blows and he soon dispatched them. He ground them into the floor to make sure they didn't just get straight back up again. While this was going on, I was encouraging Arad to look through the slits in the southern wall that the former legionnaires had been using to cover the entry way. I could still see the forest, but he only saw an opening into a dark empty space beyond. That's what I had expected to see after looking out of the window above, but I just couldn't see it.

We returned back to the kitchen, noticing the remains of the rats smeared across the floor, and we gathered around the door. We expected a larder or something like that, and we weren't far off; the door revealed a wine store, with maybe a few bottles still intact. The floor was muddy, more so than anywhere else we'd been so far... and of course it was muggins that got to explore first. Typical. I tied a rope around me in case of emergency and made my way around the edge of the room to the right, reaching the old racks on the far side. I grabbed a bottle, but when I did another bottle came sailing through the air from the far end of the room, narrowly missing my head! I yelled: "Poltergeist - get me out of here"! I was yanked back by Arad, barely keeping my feet, and got out just as another bottle smashed against the door frame.

Falcor tried using the rod he used on the surface to move the mud, but nothing happened; he thought it was something to do with the realm we were in and the dweomer not working here. Arad started a chant to call on the Creator, and I took a moment to clean the worst of the mud off my boots. As Arad finished his chant a familiar bright beam of light struck the far corner of the room and, even though we didn't see anything there, he had a sense that something had departed. I peered around the corner at Arad, but he seemed fine and he went on to search the corner that the apparition had been in. He didn't find anything of value, or any hidden doors, so we headed back to the corridor.

Falcor went up to the guard room we had cleared, and noticed an illusion across the wall next to it which concealed a hidden door. He traced his hand over it and as he did so I was able to force myself to see it as well. There was an exceptionally well concealed switch that took a while to find, but I was able to pop the door open my slipping the point of my dagger into the gap. As soon as I did so, a clawed scrawny figure burst out and leapt onto me. I saw a snarling mess of mud, slime and teeth that was trying to bite me. Thankfully my armour held, but the rancid stink coming from the thing made me choke and retch slightly, fighting to keep my stomach.

Arad struck it, and I felt the impact of his hammer even as it was absorbed by the thing's body. I was glad for the help, though, and Falcor also attacked - stabbing it with his dagger. I forced the tip of my short sword into it, but it was hard to do much with it so close. It finally found purchase with its teeth, sinking them in just as I was able to force my short sword deeper and kill it. I rolled it off and gagged at the stink, but at least I was alive. The space it had jumped out of looked like the bottom of another tower, with just an earthy floor scattered with chewed bones and circular stone walls. Looking up there was a wooden floor a couple of stories above, and perhaps a trapdoor in the centre.

Arad stepped inside to take a good look, finding the body of an Elvrahum that was headless and interestingly not as old as the rest of the tower contents. It seemed that wherever the Sarn had cast their evil shroud my people had tried to get inside to lift it. At that point the thing on the floor started twitching, so I swiftly beheaded it and kicked its head down the corridor. Arad returned with a few things he had found on the body: some money, a diamond, a nice dagger (which I took), and a ring with a feather etched on it (Falcor took that).

Falcor said he would check behind us and disappeared down the corridor past the kitchen, looking to check other corners for illusions or hidden doors. Then he took a look out of the entrance, seeing the same forest that I saw. Only Arad saw it as a cavern, although I knew that's what it should be from having looked outside from above. Arad offered to go forward first to show that the trees weren't real. But he stopped in the entrance, having seen undead goblins and more legionnaires ahead! A shame we couldn't see the same thing...

Kellerot's Cavern

Falcor walked up to Arad and asked why he had stopped, then was surprised as Arad raised his hammer and a crackling bolt of lightning shot out into the forest, although we couldn't see where it went. What Arad was seeing was quite different, the lightning arced between a dozen creatures that were relatively close to the exit we stood in. Over half a dozen dropped to the floor smoking from the burns, and several others were badly injured.

As Arad advanced he disappeared completely from our sight! I ran up to the edge of the forest and cautiously put my hand forward... there was clearly an illusory barrier of some kind as I couldn't see the end of my hand but could still feel it. I stuck my head forward and with a jolt the reality of the cavern and Arad's fight came into sharp focus. At the same time Arad and I heard a voice in our head urging us to come and join "him" and fight by his side, which thankfully we were both able to resist. Apart from the foes in front of us, much farther to our left and pulsing with light in the darkness was an obelisk; next to it was the body of a black dragon and a pile of Elvrahum remains! A wraith was stood by a crude stone altar chanting with an undead human in robes next to him. Legionnaires advanced slowly in a line from their direction, backlit by the obelisk's light, and I could see the strange skeletal goblin things around Arad.

As I was taking this in, Falcor walked past serenely and completely oblivious to the threat. He was strolling into the pleasant forest and stopped to sit and start eating a picnic! I rushed forward, hitting one of the goblin things to try and keep it away from Falcor, but the others were closing in on him. Arad dropped a goblin with a hammer blow, but he was still fighting two of them. We both made other blows count, but it wasn't enough to keep them all back and inevitably Falcor was struck - clubbed and stabbed. As he looked down at the blood the reality of his situation forced itself on his senses and he quickly realised the danger. In a flash his sword was out, slashing at the nearest foe, but he was still a little disorientated and the swing was turned by its armour.

I finished off the goblin I was fighting... then had to strike it down AGAIN as it started to rise after a moment. I smashed its skull with the flat of my blade to make sure. Falcor was in the fight now, and felled a goblin before striking the legionnaire that had attacked him. Painfully aware that these things would start getting up again I shouted that we "...needed to get to the source"! Arad knocked another one down but then noticed a snake-like thing, about twice as long as Falcor stood high, dipping in and out of the ground away to our right and headed for us.

I ignored the foe around us and charged at the line of legionnaires standing between us and the obelisk, engaging one in melee. The others backed off, clearly intending to protect the obelisk area from attack. I managed to turn aside just in time to avoid its sword thrust at me, which scraped across my armour. Falcor deflected an attack aimed at him, then charged forward at the defensive line to my right, knocking one of the foe to its knees with the sheer power of his charge. Arad called on the Creator's power to turn aside the undead in our way, and was thankfully answered with the usual strobing flashes of light shooting out in multiple directions, which included all but one of the legionnaires.

Arad and Falcor both advanced towards the obelisk, and both started chanting. Sticky web appeared all around the wraith and its robed companion; the robed thing jumped clear just in time, but the wraith just ignored it. Arad's chant had no obvious effect, but he had made himself invisible to the undead; this allowed him to get into a place to attack the wraith unseen... but also meant that the undead were no longer trying to get away from him because they couldn't see him anymore!

The robed figure stepped forward and sent a wave of terror washing over Falcor, which thankfully he was able to shrug off. I was quickly getting surrounded by foes, unable to keep up with the others' rapid advance. I tumbled forward in an attempt to avoid three enemy blows, and felt weapons striking my armour, managing to get away with it and landing the other side.

As we drew closer we could see that a circular channel had been carved in the ground around the obelisk and was filled with blood. Falcor reached the robed creature and stabbed it with his dagger, although it barely reacted. Then Falcor found that he was mesmerized by the, increasingly rapid, pulsing of light from the obelisk and he didn't follow up with another attack. When he did finally wrest his eyes away he was shivering and felt icy cold. There was a faint memory of a malevolent presence that was almost overwhelmingly evil.

I sprinted forward again, but I was caught by the legionnaires behind me and stabbed in the back. I knew I was badly wounded, but had to try to get to the wraith. I slapped some ointment on, forgoing any attacks just to try to keep myself alive. Falcor was struck too, but threw his dagger at the wraith anyway. It passed through, and we could hear it landing on the floor beyond, but it did seem to disrupt it slightly and it turned bright orange eyes to look at Falcor before turning back to the altar and continuing its chant.

Now I was surrounded by legionnaires, a goblin and the snake thing that Arad had seen earlier! I was bitten and stabbed, thankful for the ointment that Arad had given us, but now I had no other means of healing my own wounds. Arad was with Falcor, so he was able to help him; he raised his holy symbol and with a flash Falcor was fully hale and all his wounds had disappeared. His soul was warmed and the cold, dark feelings from the obelisk pushed out of mind. Falcor shouted at Arad to set the web alight, and as he moved the robed figure morphed into a sucking maw reaching out for him. He realised that it was another illusions, though, and ignored it.

I tumbled forward again, trying to escape the scrum of enemies surrounding me. I dodged most of them, but the snake thing was fast and managed to bite into my arm. Thankfully I was able to rip away from it, even though it left me bleeding, and escape the circle around me... for the moment. Arad sprinkled oil over a patch of the web and set light to it, it was initially quite slow but then with a flash spread quickly to burn fiercely across the whole area. The wraith's eyes turned to stare at Arad this time, but still it turned back and kept chanting.

I was still tumbling around dodging blows, moving slowly forward. Although my attackers were able to keep pace they failed to land a blow this time. Falcor stabbed a legionnaire that had closed with him, then swung his sword at the centre of the maw that had been the robed figure, shouting "for Maladan"! He connected, but not as he expected; it turns out that the source of that illusion was a metal rod the thing had been holding and his blow knocked it to the floor. Arad swung his hammer at the wraith, now that he could get closer, and as his swing passed through it there was a flash of almost blinding light from the obelisk and an in-rush of air. The temperature dropped noticeably and waves of energy that felt like a touch of death itself surged outwards.

Now there was a response from the wraith as it raked Arad with its ghostly hand and drained his life energy slightly. I tumbled forward one last time, judging that I would finally land close enough to engage the wraith, but as I crossed the blood circle the cavern disappeared and I found myself in a nothingness, losing my sense of self and awareness of anything around me.

--

Back in the cavern, Falcor conjured a spray of coloured light that covered the gaggle of foes I had left behind, transfixing them. He was raked by the robed creature just afterwards, but it was a light blow and he responded with a mighty swing of his sword, smashing the thing to the floor almost in pieces. He was clubbed from behind by a goblin, though, so he wasn't safe just yet.

Arad just managed to dodge another draining swipe of the wraith's hand. His return blow was decisive... as his hammer connected his holy symbol glowed with light and the wraith exploded with a blinding flash from within, leaving nothing behind once Arad's sight returned. There was the strange sound of a crying baby from the obelisk and all of the other creatures dropped to the floor lifeless - and this time they wouldn't be getting up again. A tremor shook the cavern, suggesting that the place might collapse as the house had done the last time we slayed a Sarn.

--

I regained consciousness to see that I was in a rocky tunnel surrounded by elvradhil, which was the last thing I was expecting. I asked if I was dead, but they just laughed and replied: "no, you're alive laddie"! One of them was knelt close to me and laid his hands on my side, and I could feel some of my wounds knitting. I started to feel a little more myself, but was still confused about how I had ended up there. I had thought I was dead for sure, and explained that we were fighting Kellerot and I was trying to help my friends to stop them summoning Kraldar. Could we rejoin them, I asked?

They asked if I wanted to return to the surface. Was I beneath them then? I said I would rejoin them if I could, and they laughed again saying: "no problem, laddie"! I thanked them and said that if there was ever anything I could do for the Elvradhil then I would gladly pledge to help them.

They started to take me up through the rock above us, and we emerged just after Arad had poured some holy water on the blood circle. The blood was consumed and burned away as it spread, and as the circle was cleansed so was the obelisk. It changed from the dark colour it had seemed before to something resembling jade. My friends were glad to see us (suspiciously more so the Elvradhil than me it seemed), but were also hurrying to take anything of value from the area before the place collapsed completely. As well as the remains around us there was now a fallen tower beside the barracks we had entered through, hidden to us before but now clearly visible.

I won't bother describing all of the searching here, although I will note what we found. After we were done the Elvradhil were kind enough to take us through their tunnels back to the village with the Creator's temple (they wanted to avoid Custor for some reason). We found it more fortified and with more Saloroc in the area, although thankfully they seemed to get on well enough with the Elvradhil.

We found the following:

Mahogany box 1' sq inlaid but defaced - contained the Crown of Truth! Staff (Arad) Rod (Falcor) Dagger that Arad recognised with a black diamond soulstone, which he took. As many gems and coins as we could carry (the rest left for the Elvradhil) Morning star of exceptional quality (I replaced mine with this) 4 scrolls each for Falcor and Arad Silk 7' x 6' pale blue and midnight blue on each side An orange garnet soulstone for Arad's hammer Periapt Quiver with gold filigree (bigger on inside than outside) A velvet pouch with 5 black spheres the size of a child's marbles Smaller mahogany box with a dragon motif in gold tracing.