Journal - New Purpose, but what of the Elvradhil?

Custor's Revelations

Custor was able to tell us much in thanks for saving him from his prison.

Ulric was once a humble and well-liked human king, but when he was corrupted by chaos he had become the wraith (Sarn) that we banished under the house of death. Custor gave me Ulrik's crown - a great artifact that belonged to the king but that he could not keep when his soul was corrupted. Apparently it was aligned with my own soul, which was one of humility. It was a single band of gold, with a large eye-shaped ruby soul stone set in it. It would allow me to heal my friends, although not myself, and gave some protection from magic and fire. I was most grateful for such a lavish gift, but he insisted that it was meant for me. This also implied that there were other artifacts like it, and some would be aligned with the souls of my friends.

Indeed, Custor confirmed that the other kings (now Sarns) were also aligned with aspects of humanity, and that two would match Falcor and Arad in the same way. The aspects were: Truth, Strength, Beauty, Wisdom, Intelligence, Humility.

He also spoke of the children of Treddar - Kraldar, Melrach, Olghar, Kelditch, and Soldar. These matched locations that Falcor was aware of in the empire, and he showed us a map. The scale was vast, far greater than I imagined possible, and I recognised none of it. Custor showed us a map of the islands near to us, which was more familiar. We were in the south east of a chain of islands forming a circle around a volcano in the centre - that was the forge of life! The orc empire was centered on a large island to the south west.

Of course I asked about the location of Cor'kurmar, where he said that there were others like me, and he showed a place far to the north, to the west of where he thought the Elvrabor warriors had their home. The meaning of Cor'kurmar was "Heart of the Custodians of the Dead".

Custor also warned us that he had scryed the arrival of imperial warships at Freeport - which he had not known in his time. This was worrying... had we brought their attention here in some way? It looked like they had endured a rough voyage, as the quinquiremes were heavily damaged. He said that as they moored a black robed mage had appeared instantly of the deck of one of the vessels.

Arad and I wanted to return to the village to rest and practice our skills, but Falcor understandably wished to remain in the tower to learn from Custor how to control his dweomer. We lit a beacon so that a fishing boat would stop at the island, gratefully accepting a lift back to the village, and taking with us an invitation from Custor for the Red Skull clan to join him in his fortification and provide protection - an arrangement that would offer mutual benefit, and an offer to pay for their services.

When we arrived at the village, we were surprised to find an old priest within the church - it was Gilrad, but he had aged markedly! We asked him what had happened, and he revealed that he had spent time with the Creator himself, learning to be a good warden for the village, and now he had returned to lead his people in the present. It was clear that fate had meant for Arad to lead him to this path, and now he was happy to teach his former master some of what he had learned.

Whilst Arad spent time with Gilrad, I occupied myself with honing my skills and practicing new techniques, as well as spending some time with the orcs trying to learn more of their language. I also spent some time trying to make a bow for Arad that was just right for his strength, allowing him to get the most power behind his arrows. Thankfully my time as a hunter and then surviving on my own had given me the skills to create one that was well attuned to his needs, and he was very pleased with the result. I made a few arrows to go with it, but Falcor had returned and we talked of what we would do next.

Halls of the Elvradhil

We learned that the orcs had investigated the goblin hole we cleared out on our first visit to the island, and had also investigated the stone door we found. I was incensed to hear that there were more of the undead vermin there, similar to the former legionnaires we had found in the death house. We had to destroy them and ensure the villagers were safe!

Once our preparations were complete we headed north with a party of half a dozen orcs who were returning to their stockade in the north west of the island. As we neared the goblin hole we separated and headed for where we had come out with the villagers. We found the ramp guarded by Red Skull orcs, although they seemed fairly relaxed. They recognised us as we approached, and warned of the danger from the skeletal warriors below. They had found, as we had, that they would not die!

Despite the warning we headed down the slope towards the stone doors. We suffered from an increasing feeling of dread as we neared the bottom, although the doors were still closed and the orcs had marked the floor in front of the door - they had scratched out a star symbol with a humanoid skull in the centre, removing the blood circle we had found before.

Arad was leading, and placed his lantern down to listen at the door, but heard nothing... these things could stand motionless and silent for centuries it seemed. I checked for any traps, at my colleagues behest (although the orcs had been in there so I wasn't expecting to find anything). I was about to announce that it was safe when Falcor, reaching the corner behind us, screamed in terror and fled back up the ramp! The feeling of dread seemed to have affected him more than us.

Arad thought that he might be able to calm his mind, but he had to catch him first! He sprinted around the corner, leaving me by the door. I promised not to touch them in their absence! I wasn't so foolish that I would wander in without any support, especially as the orcs hadn't been able to clear the area. Arad couldn't catch Falcor, though, exhausting himself as he tried to pursue him... thankfully, although we didn't know it at first, Falcor was exhausted as well - just a short distance from the entrance.

Whilst I was waiting I was sneaking a look up the ramp to see if they were coming back... only to find Arad panting for breath there! I hurried up the ramp as best I could, but needed have worried because as I emerged I saw Falcor not far away bent double trying to catch his breath. The orcs seemed to be sniggering at him, possibly having finished outright laughing before I got there. Once everyone had got themselves together we met at the entrance and I tried to encourage Falcor to return, saying that we must go down for the sake of every living thing on the island. Falcor was not willing to listen to reason, so Arad tried to call on a divine power to aid him. He prayed to fortify us and give us courage in the face of evil, which just about reassured Falcor enough for him to let us lead him down the slope. We also took a moment to check that it was the orcs that had made the star symbol before the door, which they confirmed - apparently it was the mark of "Korman" (= "Karmana"), the dark mother, meant to bring luck.

We approached the door again, but despite the Creator's blessing Falcor could not resist the aura of fear and turned to flee again! When we finally got everyone back together again, Falcor was refusing to go anywhere near the tunnel, let alone the door. Thankfully the orcs came to our aid, once they had finished pissing themselves with laughter, and offered us a draught of stinking liquid that would apparently "help" - saying that one swig should be enough.

Falcor drank it first, being most in need, and almost immediately threw up as the foul brew overwhelmed him. In fact he threw up a lot - probably because he was always eating! We decided that we should show solidarity and also drank a gulp each. It was horribly bitter and the smell was nauseating, but we were able to keep it down thankfully. After exchanging some words with the orcs about the frailty of human constitutions, we ventured once more down the ramp. The orcs were true to their word, as this time none of us really had any emotional reaction to the aura as we approached, and Falcor made it to the door. Phew.

Falcor was obviously feeling much braver, as he strode to the front and opened the door. There was a large room beyond with a star deeply carved in the floor at the centre, but with a circle of old dried blood around it. The ceiling was about twenty feet high and vaulted, and there were doors in every wall, all closed. There were statues in each corner, but with their faces removed and heavily eroded; they had been roughly five feet high stocky humanoids originally. There were also three of the skeletal legionnaires with gold dragon symbology, shields and short swords stood near the centre.

Arad chanted, brandishing his amulet, and called on the Creator's power to banish the foul things. A glow that grew to as bright as the sun emanated from his hands, and rays of light shot to each of the things, forcing them to flee to the far side of the room. I was enraged by these dark things, animated as they were by the same dark energy that had claimed my folk, so I charged at them anyway (although really slowly compared to the humans, it must be said).

Falcor crossed the threshold, and as soon as he did the four statues all turned to face him. He grunted in pain, apparently being drained in some way but without visible injury. I finally reached the nearest skeleton and whacked it with the short sword I took from the Black Hand orc in Custor's tower, and I was relieved to see that it had some effect on the thing, although swords still struggled against bone as there was nothing else to them.

Arad tried to call on the Creator's power again, this time against the statues that were draining Falcor, but this time nothing happened; they did not seem to be the same as the undead foes. Falcor stepped back, shouting to us that the statues were causing him injury but that he didn't know why or how. I was busy fighting, hitting the unnatural thing again and again until it was on the floor. Arad tried to destroy one of the statues, swinging his hammer at it solidly... but it was as if he had swung it at Falcor, who fell to the floor screaming "stop!" in pain, clutching his side.

The one I thought I had felled started to move again, so I kept smacking it just in case. Then I tried to pull its head off, but it proved fairly difficult this time. Arad was still trying to help Falcor, especially as he had now indirectly brutalised him. He prayed to the Creator to protect Falcor from evil, hoping that it would offer some protection. It didn't. Falcor ran to the door in the south, feeling the draining effect of the statues once again, and quickly opened the doors to step into the corridor beyond. It was dark, although he could see that a short corridor opened into a room beyond. There were some heat sources some way off, about dog sized, but they quickly moved away to his right out of sight.

Falcor shouted at us to leave the room and the evil behind and join him. I was not going to just leave them here! I shouted that I couldn't get its head off, and could Arad bring his hammer please? Arad shouted to Falcor not to worry because the Creator would protect him from any evil attack, but Falcor's response made it fairly clear that he begged to differ. They were both shouting at me to leave the skeletons, but there was no obvious threat elsewhere so why wouldn't we destroy them before we continued? I carried on wrestling with the skeleton's head, ignoring them. Arad tried to heal Falcor with a prayer to the Creator, but he felt no better... however, I saw the stone of the nearest statue repair itself as if it had been healed in some way - it nearly had a whole face again!

I was too focused on killing the undead creatures to have any interest in moving on, and I argued with Arad until he agreed to help dispatch them. He swung his hammer at the one I had put on the floor, and its entire body exploded into shining light fragments and disappeared. The other two suddenly became violent again, but we were half expecting it and both dodged their blows. I got two strikes in on one, and Arad swung his hammer into the other; they both went down. I try to rip the head off one again, and eventually with a bit of effort it came off and I stuck it in my backpack to stop it reforming. Arad swung at the last one, somehow missing with the first attempt but then smashed the skull and grabbed a handful of bits.

Relaxing for the first time, I decided to investigate the statue to the left of me that had reformed its features. The (we presumed) Elvradhil depicted carried a battleaxe and an engraving said "Helrig Draksaron, Curmcordrak" with two symbols above it. The statue was made from white marble. Arad looked at another statue, but it had not repaired itself in the same way. I turned my attention to the centre of the room, trying to scrape a gap in the circle to break any curse it might have on the place, but the blood was old and really heavily embedded, so I could only really remove the surface layer.

Arad shared some food with Falcor, whose appetite had come back after heaving his guts up earlier. Then Arad had an idea - what about pouring ink over a section of the circle to break it? He walked over, fishing a pot of ink out of his bag that Jeanette had gifted him, then crouched and started to dribble it in a line. As soon as the first ink connected with the circle a spark traveled like a flash up the ink stream to the bottle, causing it to explode! Arad was a bit singed and staggered back, but was remarkably unscathed despite the fiery mess that had just detonated beside him. There was one positive - a scoop was now missing from the stone where the ink impacted, breaking the circle.

I tried to use the crown on Falcor, knowing that it would likely affect the statues instead of him, but feeling that they were not evil in nature. The crown warmed and then started to burn hot, and I was only just able to throw it off my head as it became painful, leaving me a little scorched this time. I realised that it was healing all of the statues at once, and the power was incredible!

At least the statues were fully reformed afterwards, and I was able to put the crown back on once it had cooled (which it did quickly). The one in the southwest I have already described, but the others were: southeast, holding a massive warhammer, made of grey granite, inscription: "Dreillik Hammerhand, Camtelum Cordrak" with more symbols; north east, also holding a warhammer, made of black basalt, inscription: "Hanrick Semdhil, Capla Ubradhil" and symbols; north west, with a battleaxe, made of red marble, inscription: "Bultar Draksaron, Capla Curmcordrak" and symbols.

Falcor risked stepping back into the room... the statues all turned to face him and track his movements as before, but this time he felt no pain - they had been draining his essence to repair themselves, I am sure. He walked into the centre of the star, but even there the statues no longer reacted in any way. Falcor tried a little bow of respect to each, but nothing. It felt like we were missing something but didn't know anything about this place or these figures so there was nothing more we could do. It was clear on closer inspection that the star used to be inlaid with gold, but that was no longer there and now it was just engraved in the stone floor.

Arad tried once more to heal Falcor, calling on the Creator... and this time it worked, Falcor felt better even though he still had no visible wounds. He became confident again, saying that there was nothing to the south but a vermin hole, and striding to the north doors to open them. There was another short corridor beyond leading to a room, similar to the southern room. It was dark so Falcor lit and threw a torch into the room, and Arad lit one to carry so that there would be enough light. They quickly realised that there were three more of the skeletal legionnaires in the room!

Arad charged to engage, but there were two more lurking to the sides and he was surrounded. He smashed one to the floor with his hammer, but it was not destroyed. Falcor charged forward to help, tackling one to the ground and hitting another so that it fell to its knees, relieving some of the pressure from Arad. Arad's armour saved him from not one but two blows, giving him the chance to step back and chant, holding up his amulet again, and the familiar rays of light blazed out to each of the skeletons, forcing them to turn and flee in whatever passes for terror in their unnatural existence once again.

I start to get closer, knowing now that there were more undead to destroy. Arad smashed the one on floor, but I kept coming to go after the others. Falcor grabbed me, trying to stop me from getting closer, but I wriggled free, dodged under Arad's arm and stepped into the dark. I had to slow to light a lantern so that I could see them, dodging Arad's obvious attempt to grab me again as I did so, but then Arad started to spout off about some "controller" that if we killed it or them it would destroy all of the undead without having to fight them one by one.

We had a heated debate, but eventually I asked him to swear that he would immediately, before any other task, seek out this controller with me and destroy them... and that he would complete this task before we left this place. He swore on the Creator, which I knew would hold him to the task better than I ever could, and I reluctantly backed out of the room, watching the skeletons with anger and revulsion for any excuse to attack, but eventually turned and jogged back to join Falcor next to the western door in the statue room.

I checked for traps first, finding none, and we opened the doors to reveal another short, wide corridor. This time it ended in another set of doors, and Falcor crossed to them quickly and opened them to reveal a staircase on the far side of a small room, leading down into the gloom beyond. As we entered this new room we saw that there were six murals on the walls, and that there used to be another on the ceiling that had been utterly destroyed. They all depicted battle scenes, and in every one there was a single figure (a warrior, taller than any other there) wearing Falcor's armour. The armour was fully bejeweled (blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, and green in that order clockwise). He was also wearing a full face guard and winged helmet, large ornate golden gauntlets, fully metalled boots with interwoven plates, bracers with tracery on his arms, and greaves to match. There was a two-handed sword aflame in hands and another six-pointed bejeweled star on the sword. In the background there was always a smoking volcano, although in some it was a minor feature on the horizon, whilst in others it was nearer to the foreground and more clear.

In each he was at the head of an army of the elvra of Karmana... in the north east it was Elvradhil with Elvrabor, to the north Elvradhil with Elvrahum (but dour looking, not quite like my folk), to the north west all of those three combined (although still predominately Elvradhil), to the south west it was a litorral battle with Elvradhil and Elvramar, whilst to the south and south east all four races were involved. All had Elvradrak of all colours flying overhead and supporting them. They were all fighting against the legions of Treddar. The good (non-human) forces were always on the right, with humans on the left. In the "all together" murals there could just be seen figures on the left and right of the great warrior - to the right a human sized figure wielding a hammer and to the left a human sized figure with energy around his fingers... although these figures seemed to be deliberately vague and hard to make out.

We were all studying various murals when Falcor staggered back slightly, Arad noticed and asked him if he was alright. He said that he had been "there but not there" and had made a connection of some kind between his mind and the mural in the south east, urging us to search there. Arad looked closely, but got a blindingly sharp pain in his head and reeled back. He said that he had also made a connection, but not a good one! Falcor tried to connect with his mind and urged Arad not to fight it but to allow the power to enter him. I didn't see anything although they seemed to be concentrating, but apparently they had forged some kind of connection between their minds. Arad asked Falcor to look again at a mural as he held the connection. He saw for a moment what Falcor saw - he was actually in the battle as the great warrior for a moment, feeling the great power of the Elvra commander, but could not discern any more about him. The sensation was overwhelming and he had to close the connection after a moment.

I took a look down the stairs as this was going on, and there was a hideous mass of sticky green goo going up wall and onto ceiling and part of the stairs on the right side. It glowed slightly and I resolved to stay well away from it. We started down the stairs together, staying to the left. There were cobwebs ahead below, and they were getting thicker. Falcor threw a torch into the webs ahead and there was a flash of flames as the entire staircase combusted and the flames rushed down into the distance. Arad offered another torch to Falcor as a replacement.

We didn't get far when we noticed some angry, slightly crispy, spiders scuttling up stairs towards us. There were swarms of them, all over the stairs, walls and ceiling! They closed the distance quickly and Arad was bitten, although not too badly. Falcor killed the one that bit Arad and Arad in turn started loosing arrows, killing another one. Falcor got another cut in, but now we were completely overrun by them, with legs and eyes everywhere! Somehow I managed to avoid being bitten initially, although one got to Falcor. We all landed hits, but it was not enough to kill any of them.

I stabbed one with my dagger, but felt fangs sink into me from behind, a nasty bite, but thankfully the venom didn't take hold. Arad was also bitten, just unable to keep them all off him. I thrust my sword through the spider above me, as that was frankly freaking me out, and it curled up and dropped dead! Luckily I was just able to side step its falling body. Falcor thrust a dagger into one of the eyes of a spider in front of him, killing that, and then cut down heavily into one behind Arad, almost cleaving it in two.

As we started to thin them the situation didn't seem quite as desperate... Arad thrust his sword through one, killing that. I did the same with another, pinning its head with my sword and pulling it out with a spurt of ichor, killing another. Falcor cuts another, not quite killing it, but threw a dagger at the one that had bitten me... just as I turned and buried both of my weapons in its body. It basically exploded with all of the damage, and I pulled Falcor's dagger out of the mess once I had sheathed one of my own. Unfortunately it had bitten me just as we killed it, but at least I was not poisoned.

Falcor and Arad split the last two spiders almost casually with only one opponent to worry about. Arad dashed forward to help treat some of my wounds, although it didn't seem to do much of substance. Falcor stopped to extract some venom sacks from a spider (weirdo) and then we continued down the stairs cautiously, with me checking the stairs for any obvious traps as we did so. As I was leading, I was the first to see the end of the stairs ahead, and there were two vaguely humanoid shapes that were not warm there. I heard swords being unsheathed and immediately suspected that these were more undead fighters. I put my lantern down, drawing my sword, and warned the others of the threat ahead. Sure enough two more ancient first legion skeleton things ran towards us from the gloom.

They were on us really quickly, but Falcor came charging from behind, smashing his body into one and bearing it down to the stairs. I was stabbed, but at least landed a hit in return. Arad moved up, flanking my attacker and swinging his hammer solidly into its back; as the hammer connected all the bones separated and collapsed to the ground in a pile. Falcor smacked his sword flat-bladed into one on the ground, trying to crush it. Despite this it started to stir as I stepped up, trying to grab at Falcor, but I swung my sword into its back and it dropped to the floor again. Falcor stuck his sword into its spine and levered the head off, sending it rolling down the stairs. I quickly darted after it, grabbing it and putting it into my pack with the other one, then retrieved my lantern.

As we moved to the bottom of the stairs we could see that there were more stone doors that were well sealed. The same two symbols were upon them as on the doors on the first ones we had come to. Before I even approached them, I asked if Arad could take another look at my wounds, as I was feeling a bit weak. He did so, and called on the Creator to heal me, which really helped. With a warm feeling still ebbing inside me, I stepped forward and examined the door for any traps, although there were none to be found.

The symbols, based on the statues we had found, were of Hamrik Sendral (First Elvradhil, Lord of All Rock) and presumably marked this place as being linked with him in some way. Although we tried the door, with Arad and I both touching it as Falcor covered with his bow drawn, it would not move. Eventually we got a reaction when I pressed the soulstone from my crown on the door - the symbols glowed... but that was all. Falcor called forward, remembering that the focus had been on him at the entrance hall, that he would try to get a reaction. As he moved forward the doors swung smoothly open to admit him!

Beyond was a thirty foot corridor and again, just beyond my lantern's light, were two shapes about the same temperature as the undead we had already encountered. Arad started chanting, holding up his amulet again, but this time nothing happened. I charged forward almost at the same moment they did, and Falcor came barrelling up from behind, smashing one to the floor like the last time. I clashed with the other one, both scoring hits, but I seemed to have the better of the exchange. I tried swinging my lantern at him as well as the sword, but it didn't connect. The thing tried to hit Arad as he approached, but his armour deflected the blow.

Arad followed up by smashing it with his (now large) hammer, knocking it down. Falcor had come around behind it and stabbed down into its neck area, separating its head from its body as he smashed through part of the rib cage with the weight of his blow. I finished my swing into its body even though it was clearly not moving any more. The other one started climbing to its feet, hacking towards Falcor's legs as it did so, but missing badly. Falcor tried to grab it, but failed, so stabbed into its neck with a dagger instead. Arad stepped forward and swung his hammer into its side, and again all the bones separated and fell to the floor in a pile.

There were now more skulls that I could carry, so I asked Arad to pulverise them with his hammer while Falcor jogged back to where he had dropped his bow. He took a while, apparently also stopping to take a leak, and eat a bit of the food we packed. Hopefully not in that order. Eventually we were ready and walked forward to the corner ahead. There was a really large space beyond, and we couldn't even see the ceiling. Falcor ignited a torch then threws it as far forwards as he could, but that still didn't reveal any more.

Tentatively we started exploring the room, spreading out to do so. We discovered gaps, presumably more corridors, to both our right and our left. Falcor lighted his lantern and moved further, finding more exits straight ahead of where we entered. Arad tried to fashion a makeshift a fire arrow using a normal arrow thrust into a torch, then half drew his bow and fired it nearly straight up to see what might be above us. Sure enough, shapes scuttled away from the arrow but then a web burst into flames and a quick sheet of fire flashed across the ceiling, illuminating a mass of spiders up there! As quickly as the light came it darkened again... there was a reasonable chance that we might have pissed them off!

Arad tossed a torch into the air, seeing lots of spiders scuttling around on the ceiling, but this time starting to make their way down the walls walls and dropping down on webs. Falcor and I were already running to the nearest corridor (in what we thought was the north east), but Arad was too far out - right in the centre of the large room! Falcor kicked over my lantern to shatter it, spreading burning oil in a pool by the corridor we were in, then used his mind to attack some spiders... but also noticed another mind present out there somewhere! One spider fell into the flames and didn't move again, so was probably dead.

Falcor grabbed me and ran into the corridor, which I didn't resist but asked where we were going - we needed to help Arad! Arad was, somewhat predictably, getting completely swarmed and needed our support. He swung his hammer into one and slashed at another, hurting them both, but they were too strong to kill so easily. Falcor dropped me, turned and cast a spell quickly, then ran back into the room, attacking with his mind again and slaying almost half a dozen of the spiders that were all trying to reach Arad. He felt two minds probing him now, though! Finally he leapt forward an unnatural distance to engage the spiders.

Both Falcor and Arad were surrounded now, with a larger spider (I didn't think this was possible until we saw it) joining the fight against Falcor. Arad turned the power of his mind against this larger one, dominating it and forcing it to back off. They were both bitten, although Arad retaliated by crushing one with his hammer and cutting another one down with his sword. I moved back to the room, drawing my bow, and stuck an arrow into the nearest spider. Falcor cut deeply into one of his attackers, but not quite enough to put it down for good.

Arad was bitten again, and all the spiders I could see had swarmed my friends, so I put an arrow into the big one on the wall instead, rather than risk hitting one of them by mistake. Arad was desperately defending himself, and managed to hit another spider with his hammer. Falcor cut the injured one down and cut into another, although it kept fighting. Arad was seriously injured and decided to force the giant (well, even giant-er) spider to attack one of the others, which it did, biting it nastily. Then Arad finished another one off with sword. Falcor was bitten again, but not too deeply. I charged forward, having drawn sword and dagger, stabbing a spider in the back, then Arad took advantage of it being off balance, killing it.

Arad moved on to attack one of Falcor's assailants, killing that too, whilst leaving the big spider to fight its "friend" as they were having a go at each other at this point. Falcor lay into another one, cutting it up and leaving just the two fighting each other that we could see. Arad sprinted toward the corridor we had been in. He shouted that the big spider was no longer under his spell. Falcor shouted "fall back!" and then picked me up and ran with me into the corridor, despite me shouting "we can take them"!

We reached Arad to see that he was healing his wounds, both with ointment and spell, restoring his health from what had been a precarious state. I readied my bow, looking back towards the room nervously, asking more than saying: "I would not go into more trouble... should we stop here?" Falcor had a lantern so we at least had some light. He replied: "Garret, just go straight ahead for now - the queen has been left behind but has a powerful mind. We need to choose our battleground more carefully."

We moved up to the crossroads just ahead, and I could just see what might have been a junction to the right, but crossed straight over. Arad took a moment to heal Falcor's wounds as he had been bitten a few times before they joined me. Moving on we came to another junction on our left, just before the corridor turned right at the end. Initially we headed right, but following it round we found that it doubled back, so we returned and went left instead. Falcor was getting impatient at the careful pace, so he picked me up and carried me.

That passage opened up into a T-junction, and as Arad reached the junction he noticed two cold shapes to our right. We heard swords being drawn and they charged straight at Arad. Falcor dropped me and I charged forward to meet them. Arad once again started chanting and used his medallion, bright beams shooting out at the former legionnaires once more. They immediately turned to flee, with me chasing them down. I managed to hack at the nearest one but I was struggling to keep up with their long paces and eventually I had to rest, losing sight of them in the dark, winding corridors. This place was a maze!

Arad picked me up and continued in the direction they had disappeared, but too slowly to catch them. We did find a dead end on our left that he insisted on inspecting, despite my protests. There was nothing to be found there, but at least it allowed me to rest and catch my breath. We eventually continued on, with Falcor carrying me again, the corridor swinging left, right, and left again, making it difficult to keep track of our direction. As we kept going it seemed that we were starting to double back on ourselves, having made more left turns than right.

We had come to another T-junction and Falcor (with me on his shoulders) was investigating to the left as Arad was looking right. Suddenly the floor dropped away beneath our feet! Arad manage to fall to the side and roll away from the drop, but Falcor had no chance - he was standing right above the drop. I quickly pushed off his shoulders and somersaulted to the edge, landing on firm ground as the floor swung back up, sealing Falcor in the cavity below. Falcor fell about twenty feet, landing heavily and breaking his lantern. Flaming oil spread out, scorching his arm, but he was able to move to the far end of the pit before the flames could take hold on his clothes.

I fell to my knees, shouting "Falcor!" and looking for a way to open the mechanism, but with no luck. Falcor shouted back, sounding as if he was in some pain. He started to check his belongings, finding that he had shattered an oil flask, a potion, and one spider poison sac. He extinguished any patches of fire he found on his pack, then lighted a torch using the burning oil. He could see many humanoid remains in the small chamber, but all were ancient with bits of rusted weaponry here and there. Some scratch marks on the wall were a fairly ominous sign of failed attempts to get out, but otherwise it was bare stone.

Arad suggested that the mechanism might be on his side (had he triggered it?), so I ran down to his location. I didn't immediately find any mechanism, so we decided to try weighing the floor down enough to open to see if we could jam it. Arad gave me his backpack to weigh me down, then supported my weight and lowered me onto a part of the floor that gave way... sure enough it snapped open, but then closed after a second despite my attempt to stop it. We did see the flames below, and a puff of black smoke billowed up as the floor opened. Falcor looked up in a moment of hope before it closed again. A moment later he screamed: "they're affecting my mind!" It wasn't clear whether he was talking about us or someone else.

Falcor had actually felt a mind scanning his, reacting to the trap being triggered I would guess. He searched for any way out, without luck, but as he inspected the stone walls a face emerged right out of the stone itself, humanoid with wild looking, unkempt beard and hair, looking shocked - then quickly disappeared again. Falcor's mind was assaulted, and we could hear him screaming even louder! Arad tried smashing the floor with his large hammer in desperation, but it did not have much impact. More minds were joining the assault on Falcor, and he was worried that it would be too much for him.

Finally I found a trigger in one of the walls, which disarmed the trap, but didn't open it. At this point Falcor had a "flee" emotion put into his mind as some kind of encouragement... if only he could have! He tried to convey that he was trying to get away, but was trapped. Meanwhile we had a plan... we used my weight again to trigger the trap, with Arad holding me, but then he reached out and pressed the button just at the right time to hold the floor open. I took a rope from Arad's pack and threw it down to Falcor, who was able to climb up to relative safety.

Resting against the wall, massaging his temples as if in pain still, Falcor spoke of the face he had seen and how it had told him that "his mother had abandoned them" and that they wanted to banish him from this place. As Falcor recovered we reset the trap and switched it off so that I could examine the wall. I asked Arad to tie a rope to me, just in case, but thankfully it wasn't needed. There was nothing to be found, though, so we returned the rope and decided to continue. Before we did so, Arad said a prayer to the Creator to make him aware of any traps that might threaten us.

Arad took me on his shoulders this time, as apparently it was partly my fault for "pushing" Falcor down the hole that Arad created... hah, like that clumsy human could have avoided it! It wasn't long before we saw two more dark spots of cold ahead around a corner. I reacted quickly, knowing what they were, leaping off Arad and rolling forwards, meeting the skeletons as they charged towards us with sword and shield. Arad once again called on the Creator's power to drive them back, but this time I was able to chase one down and fell it with quick sword hacks before it could get away from me.

Arad was kind enough to pulverise the skull with his hammer, hopefully putting an end to it, but the other one got away despite me trying to chase it. We returned to Falcor, who was looking down the other corridor, and it seemed that we had come full circle back to the large room again. Arad put me down at edge of the room and used his crude makeshift fire arrow technique in an attempt to illuminate the ceiling above us. He loosed three arrows, but could not see any threats above us in the limited, flickering light of the arrows.

Falcor started towards the right of the chamber (opposite where we had left it), finding rubble in what might have once been an entrance. Despite it being collapsed and blocked to some extent it was not completely sealed, and with a bit of effort we could force a passage. Arad was able to read some of the runes above the entrance, which said: "Welcome friend, the dark embrace awaits you." Well, that wasn't at all terrifying.

Falcor started to climb over the rubble, spotting a spiral stair leading down beyond the rubble. Arad followed, although I was hanging back to cover them both with my bow. Falcor said that he sensed great loss and sadness in that place, like he had "no forebears or connections to anything and was lonely". It was apparently "not a nice place" - because the halls so far had all been full of fucking feasts and sweet smelling baths of course!

By this stage I had crossed and we were all at the rubble now. Falcor approached the stairs beyond, reaching out with his mind and suddenly falling unconscious, drained of life. Apparently he had been hit with an overwhelming feeling of grief, sadness and loss and the emotions had been too strong for him to deal with. Arad shouted for me to stay at the entrance as Falcor had fallen, then ran to his side to apply ointment and pray for the healing of his wounds. That seemed to work, and did revive him - filling his mind and body with warmth and bringing his consciousness back.

The Elvradrak

Falcor suddenly zoned out, going almost limp although he was still standing; his eyes glazed over for quite a few seconds. He blinked and came back to life, explaining that his mind kept wandering... he had found himself in a vast cavern that seemed familiar, although not quite the same in some way. He had felt that same overwhelming sense of loneliness as when he had first passed out, as if he had lost his ancestors. The other emotion was hopelessness, and he had heard a voice saying "help me my liege". It all sounded very strange, making this place seem even more oppressive.

Falcor had apparently had visions before of large caverns, and they had been to do with the Elvradrak (dragons to the humans) in some way, but he was not sure whether this was connected in any way. He was now determined to press on, though, despite the danger. Just as he was about to stride on he suddenly zoned out again!

I joined the others, crawling over the rubble, and reached them just in time to see Falcor snap out of his latest trance. He had seen the same thing, but this time there was a distant roof with giant bats flying around – not something we were keen on after our previous encounters. This time the voice, a female one he said, had called out "Save me father"! Falcor believed that there was an imprisoned female dragon in a great cavern. It had said "Release me so that I might die free" – was it here somewhere, is that why Falcor was hearing it so strongly now?

Yet again Falcor zoned out, this time for much longer, and he was shaking. When he came to he opened his eyes wide and said that he had seen her captors! He had taken the dragon's form in his vision, finding himself chained, cold, hungry, and weak. The captors were not the Elvradhil, though; they were bipedal humanoids with heads like frogs but tricorn ears and sharp teeth, and they took pleasure in tormenting the dragon. They were brown-skinned with primitive clothing, spears, man-catchers, human sized, and reptillian with spikes down their backs.

There were others there, seemingly in charge of the lesser creatures; they were taller humanoids and much more reptilian, with long spiked tails, green skin, plated armour, and fancy weapons (swords, bows etc.) to hand. Their heads had small dragon-like features, plumes of orange and red, and evil looking eyes. A relatively small group was bossing around the frog creatures, and acted cruelly and vindictively towards both them and the dragon. Once again the dragon had pleaded with Falcor to free her so that she could die in freedom.

Hearing of this, Arad spoke of how he had once seen an Elvradrak being tortured by the evil god Treddar, and that his people, the Elvrabor, were forced to put it out of its misery. He would not see that happen again, and resolved to rescue this “beautiful creature” as he put it if at all possible. If the dragon was linked to this place in some way, which it seemed to be, then we agreed that we should try to rescue her.

Arad would take lead, as he still had his Creator’s blessing to warn him of traps, and if we were to meet any Elvradhil it would be better to have one of the Elvra at the front rather than Falcor; instead our large friend carried me again, following Arad as he started down the stairs.

We continued down the well fashioned stairs for some time, but eventually our luck ran out and we reached a worrying dead end – the stairs had fallen away so that the shaft continued down but there were no more stairs. Arad bravely (foolishly?) approached the last step and peered over the edge, shouting that he could just make out the bottom about forty to fifty feet below.

I backed away from the last few steps a little as Arad and Falcor discussed using rope and spikes that they carried between them to enable us to continue. We needed to use the wall to secure the spikes, as we were not confident the stairs could safety support our weight. Arad hammered two spikes in with his warhammer, and then tied the rope to the spikes.

Falcor was just handing a second rope to Arad when he zoned out once again, although just for a few seconds. Apparently “she” was no longer being tortured and was reaching out in an attempt to guide Falcor to her location, which was working but he was unable to connect back to her in any way.

Falcor started to belay Arad down into the void, using a rope tied around Arad, but with a safety rope connected to the spikes. Falcor insisted on standing on the spikes to ensure the safety rope would not just slip off, though. Lowering him down was an effort for Falcor and took a while, but he reached the bottom without incident. The base of what used to be the stairwell was covered in rubble from the fallen stairs, but there was a small opening just at the top of the original archway leading to a passage off to one side. Unfortunately, as Arad had to drop his torch to untie himself, the torch had landed badly on the rubble and broken up, spluttering out and leaving him reliant on his infravision to make out his surroundings.

Falcor started to lower me next, but I had a small heart attack about halfway down when a spike gave way and came out of the wall! After a small drop the rope stabilised again, as Falcor had managed to shift his weight onto the stairs and the last spike. I was about ten feet from the floor when he started lowering again, and thankfully I was able to make it to the bottom safely. It did leave Falcor in a bit of a sticky situation, though.

Arad was thankfully sympathetic and willing to send his hammer back up for Falcor; he used it to secure the second spike again, and also gaves the other one a few taps for good measure! He tied the rope he had been using to belay around himself to leave his hand free and then went hand over hand down the secured rope to begin lowering himself down the shaft.

Falcor was most of the way down when he felt a jerk, similar to when I had dropped, as something gave way up above, but thankfully didn't fall. Just as he thought he’d got away with it, though, there was a loud crack and three of the stairs broke off, tumbling down towards him! Unable to avoid the chunks of masonry in any way, Falcor was hit by a large piece on the head, leaving him a significant wound and a ringing head. Somehow he managed to cling to the rope despite the blow, quickly dropping down the last few feet.

Arad hurried to treat the wound on his head where the stone hit, finding a large gash over his eye that was bleeding profusely. Arad applied himself to applying a bandage, at least stopping the bleeding. As he was doing this the rope came thudding down beside them – someone had cleanly sheared the end so that we couldn’t return!

I was just entering the passageway at this point, which looked quite crude and shored up compared to the passages above. The walls had been cut out of dark stone and were not quite regular. The others joined me shortly afterwards, and we moved on until we reached a reasonably large cavern, like a natural cave with a high ceiling (about thirty feet) and about sixty feet square but irregular.

The ceiling was lined with stalactites... but there were no stalagmites or dripping below them, in fact it was quite dry, so our suspicions were aroused. There were two exits - one across from where we had entered, and the other to the right. Falcor stated with confidence that he sensed we should head straight across.

As we were wary of the unnatural stalactites we edged along the wall to our left, trying to keep as close as we could. Arad tried to shield me as well as himself, holding his shield above us in case we were attacked. We got nearly halfway along the wall when the attack came. Two of what we now knew were creatures, fell straight down towards us. One crashed through Arad's shield defence and scraped down our armour; Arad’s attempt to shield me might well have put it off its aim as it struck the shield centrally but came down right between us, and we just managed to avoid damage. Arad immediately sprinted for the passage, hoping that speed would be a better defence. The thing looked quite pathetic on the floor, so I had no thought of attacking it, so I followed Arad’s lead. Falcor managed to dodge the fall of the other one, and he ran as well – overtaking me as we reached the safety of the enclosed passageway.

We continued along the passage, which was similar to the last one, for about seventy-five feet before we felt some free-flowing air from the side. From the smell of it there was some kind of mechanism bringing fresh air from above, and the cracks in the wall were engineered in some way to facilitate the process. I checked for any traps, in case this spot was significant in some way, but found none so it was probably just clever ventilation of some kind.

We kept moving, eventually reaching a vertical shaft downwards with an iron ladder bolted to the wall. Although it seemed solid we took no chances, and Arad tied a rope to me before I climbed down with our last torch. There was nothing to worry about, well at least not from the ladder, and I reached the bottom safely, shouting up that I was down, and untied myself.

Arad pulled the rope up as I saw some frog things charging at me from a passage beyond the door at the bottom of the shaft! I managed to reach the entrance before them, just, and then we clashed. It was probably expecting a larger foe, and its large, unwieldy weapon was easy for me to dodge, allowing me to get in close and stab it as the first one tried to use its momentum to crash past me. I leant in to my blow and it hit the wall instead of getting past, causing the one behind it to swerve to my left, effectively stopping its progress too.

Arad hurried down the ladder, with Falcor holding the end of the rope attached to him. He took a moment to untie himself, but luckily the creatures seemed quite unable to coordinate their attacks and I was able to hold them at the passage entrance while he freed himself.

Arad tried to use the power of his mind against them, but then found that his own mind was assaulted, although not by the creatures I was fighting. He had his mental energy drained by three different sources, so decided to do things the traditional way. Arad joined the combat, distracting the injured frog just for a moment, which was all I needed to run it through.

Falcor looped the rope through the ladder’s top rung and let himself down quickly. He also felt the draining effect on his mind, and he tried to retaliate but discovered that the things draining them were not complex minds, instead it was almost an animalistic hunger. Arad joined the attack, connecting in some way.

Falcor charged past both of us, straight into the frog at the back, thrusting his dagger into its chest. Arad flanked the other frog, as I got my sword into him, then Arad hammered it down leaving just the one standing.

We surrounded the last one, but Falcor cut it down without needing our help. He confirmed what we suspected, that these were the things that he had seen tormenting the dragon in his visions. I retrieved the torch as the others wound up ropes, getting ready to move on. The others spoke of their mental battle and how they were depleted by it, being aware of three distinct but basic minds out there.

Falcor suddenly stopped, saying that the captors were “hurting her again”, urging us to hurry. He picked me up and followed Arad up the passageway as fast as they could sustain. Despite the sense of urgency, they had to slow down as the tunnel continued for literally miles, certainly taking us far from the island we had started on, so we must have been trekking under the sea itself. It was damper, although not uncomfortably so, and the passage continued in a pretty straight direction. It took hours before we finally approached the end.

Arad realised first that the passage was ending, with some widening ahead - but also some faint natural light as well. We could just see the bulk of a massive red Elvradrak (about two hundred feet long it turned out) curled at the far side of an even larger natural cavern. The torch was spluttering out, but thankfully was no longer necessary as the light was enough for us to see by as we drew closer.

Arad raised his hand and we stopped, listening carefully. He came back and whispered: “we have found her, this is the cavern. She is magnificent! She is huge! There is faint light, but I can see her. She is at least as long as the tallest tree I have ever seen.”

We heard heavy chains rattling ahead, further spurring us on. A quick plan was agreed; we would use bows to draw the foe to us, rather than fighting in the open due to the threat the bats posed. Arad dabbed some ointment on our wounds, restoring our strength before the battle ahead.

Unfortunately we were not left undisturbed; another three frog things entered the tunnel just after we finished our preparations. I was drawing my bow, as per the plan, but Falcor almost immediately charged forward screaming – I think he was just a bit too keen to save the Elvradrak! Of course, as he did this the frogs shouted a warning loudly, so we had at least got all of their attention. Arad ran forward as well, trying to support Falcor.

Falcor stabbed one and slashed another, causing both serious injuries, but one managed to thrust a weapon into Falcor's side in return. Arad hammered the nearest foe as he got there, splitting its skull and dropping it.

I cursed "Treddar's hairy balls!" and ran forward, stowing my bow and drawing dagger and sword instead. There were now clearly more of the frog things moving towards the passage, with others around the dragon and some bigger ones to the far right of the cavern. Falcor stabbed into a frog’s neck and it fell dead. Arad threw his hammer at another frog, striking true, but leaving his best weapon on the floor. Falcor was clearly worried, or perhaps incensed, that some of the creatures were attacking the dragon rather than us.

Falcor used his mind to lash out at the approaching frogs, forcing one to run off screaming as his mind was filled with whatever passed for horrors for such a creature. More frogs closed on us, though, bar one that seemed to have taken an interest in Arad's hammer, which still lay on the floor where he had thrown it. Arad quickly dominated its mind to stop it from keeping the hammer, then turned his attention to the fight, cutting down the frog that he injured earlier.

Falcor sprinted off, dodging a blow as he did so, trying to reach the dragon as quickly as he could. I threw a dagger at the one he dodged away as I drew near, striking true but only really vaguely annoying it. Arad finished it off whilst trying to get the dominated frog to move to our right and attack a new wave of frog attackers. Above us we heard the abnormally loud screeching of the massive bats as they dropped towards Falcor, although they hadn’t reached him just yet. Arad cut down the last one near us, but Falcor warned of even more near the wall to our right.

The dragon was in great pain and Falcor could hear its screams in his mind. He decided to act wildly in desperation, doing something that neither Arad nor I ever expected. First Falcor pulled out a scroll and conjured a fireball, which streaked into the group of frogs to our right, exploding in a colossal burst of flame. The shock of the noise and heat washed over us, and all fighting paused for a moment as everyone looked to see what had happened. Most of the group that had been standing there just a moment before had simply disappeared, turned to dust, and the rest were just smouldering corpses, the rock of the cavern sizzling and cracking as it cooled. The only creature left to our right was the one that Arad had dominated who was not a threat.

Whilst that would certainly qualify as a totally unexpected act, it was what happened next that really surprised us… his armour disappeared, his equipment started bursting off him and falling to the ground as his body swelled and deformed, and he turned into a small red dragon! He was about fifteen feet long, and with a jump and beating wings he took to the air, grabbing his mirror in one set of talons, and flew low and fast towards the (other) dragon. Arad felt an immense power pulling on his mind as this happened, although I have to say that I was somewhat stunned as well. The bats, unsurprisingly, reversed their descent and scattered up and away from the dragon in panic!

The reptilian leaders on the far right of the cavern desperately tried to climb the ladder beside them, a ladder which climbed dizzyingly all the way to the cavern roof, some hundred feet above. The frog things that were attacking the large dragon instead turned their attention to Falcor Dragon, and one managed to draw blood even as the others could not penetrate his scales. I grabbed Arad’s hammer almost by instinct as I was still gaping at both Falcor’s new form and the smoking hole of the exploding fireball. Arad was still moving, though, and picked me up as he ran to follow Falcor. Falcor Dragon roared, looking at us, and then raked and bit at his attackers, ripping the head off one and swallowing it (in hindsight as I write this, it might explain Falcor’s extraordinary appetite if he is actually a dragon that’s much larger than he normally appears).

As the fight continued the bats descended towards us again, although they appeared to be avoiding the dragons. The frogs kept fighting Falcor Dragon, landing another hit, but a couple on the edges decided that it would be wised just to leg it and ran off. Despite his scales, Falcor was badly wounded by multiple hits, but used his mind to instantly heal himself and continued to retaliate with tooth and claw. One of the lizards, in his haste to get away, lost his footing on the ladder and fell screaming to the floor, landing with a sickening crunch and squelch… he wouldn’t be getting up again.

Arad kept sprinting forward with me, but the bats swooped down to attack. A tail stabbed me, causing a nasty wound, and the next wave bit and slashed me, so I was really hurting. Arad was also raked but his armour saved him from the worst of the damage. Falcor Dragon grabbed one of his attackers, flew up high into the air and dropped it to the ground, causing another sickening splat and another dead foe. He flipped over and dived again, turning to land neatly near the larger dragon's head.

Arad ran towards the dragon, dropping me, but I followed, reaching its tail and touching it, willing my crown to heal its wounds. The sudden shock of power was immense, and my brain felt like it had been kicked just before I passed out, slumping to the floor.

Arad swung a blow at the last frog; already weakened by Dragon Falcor’s attacks it collapsed twitching to the floor. Then Arad commanded a bat to defend him, and it moved to intercept the first one to swoop in, putting it off and forcing it to climb again. Another bat landed next to Arad as it tried to overwhelm him, although it wasn’t very effective at doing so.

Falcor started a mental conversation with the dragon. Apparently she had been called "Born in Darkness to Protect the Light" but was now "Lost Without Hope" due to her predicament (and/or a link to the fate of the Elvradhil, perhaps?) – she needed healing of her power and essence, not just health. She also spoke to Arad, calling him “Caphelon Draklac” (Prince of the Dragon Warriors we would later be told); in return Arad called her “Hope”. She called Falcor "My Lord" and knew “of course” who he was. She wanted only to travel to Valduarum so that her soul could join with Karmana / Our Mother.

Although there were now two bats fighting each other, there were still plenty attacking Arad. He took a few hits and then ended up with a bat on his back with its teeth in him! He bravely ignored it and instead chopped cleanly through a bat in front of him, killing it instantly. Falcor flew over to my side, using the mirror to heal me and in doing so using the last of its energy as it crumbled to dust.

Falcor leapt up again, flying towards a bat above him, but couldn’t land a blow before swooping down to land again. There were bats fighting in front of Arad, so I was a bit confused as to which were foes and which not as I had just come to. I elected to go on the defensive, standing back-to-back with Arad ready to defend from any attacks.

It was then that I had my first exposure to psychic messaging as I heard the conversation between “Lost Without Hope” and the others, talking about how they might restore her strength. It was clear that she would need dweomer or soulstones of Karmana to be properly restored, although we would need to win the fight first! The voices in my head were a bit of a mind-fuck, although I could feel Falcor’s empathy as he had experienced a similar change not that long ago. Arad was excited, though, as he was more used to conversing in this manner.

Falcor suddenly transformed back into human form, stark bollock naked, which was almost as big a shock as him turning into a dragon! He sprinted towards his things, although he quickly found that his clothes and backpack were ruined.

We were still under attack, and a bat hurts me with its tail and claws, although at least it stayed near the floor so that I could fight back. Arad was also attacked, but again his armour saved him from damage, and there was still one bat fighting another. Despite staying close the things were hard to hit, although I at least managed to cut one with my dagger. Falcor grabbed his quiver, sword, and dagger then ran to Arad's bow, which he had dropped on the floor, and piled everything up as he notched an arrow.

Arad commanded a bat to attack the one I was fighting, and it swooped into its rear, savaging it with tail, claws and teeth before it could react. Two of the creatures sensed that this was a fight that they could not win and started to climb for the exit above us, and Arad cut down his attacker leaving just the one he was controlling still near us.

Falcor dropped Arad’s bow whilst talking once more with “Lost Without Hope” – he offered his stored power (spells that he had memorised) to the dragon, and she gratefully and instantly took the offered dweomer, erasing them from his memory. As she did so Falcor could sense that she needed much more than this, so he offered his scrolls as well. They turned to dust but did not really touch her aching need for more. Falcor then offered a wand, the one he had taken from the orcs in the tower, and she drained that too. I offered my crown, knowing that it was a powerful artefact, but she could not use it because it was not of Karmana, and she also refused to take from Arad’s hammer as that was a relic that should not be used so cheaply.

Falcor did sense that the dragon’s strength was returning, as he remembered to will his armour back from wherever it disappears to when he cast spells – at least this made him slightly more decent. Arad offered a scroll of his own, which she also drained, and that seemed to be enough to satisfy her. She had seemed to swell with energy and power with each item given, but now a palpable sense of relief swept over us as she sensed that she had the strength she needed. She thanked us, saying that she was now able to depart.

Restored and looking even more majestic “Lost Without Hope” spoke to us once more. First she addressed Arad, saying “Caphelon Draklac, I thank you, I know that you are not born to this life, the glade of warriors await the return of your soul - they need a war leader, and that is you!” She expressed hope that the Elvradrak and Elvrabor would fight together once more in the future. More cryptically she said: “If you can temper your fury in battle with the patience of the trees of your birth then a great future awaits you.”

She then offered Arad a blessing, beckoning him by thought to approach her. He was proud but humble and approached, placing his hand on her face tentatively, in awe of being so close to her great head. A tear formed in her eye and rolled down onto his hand, enveloping it and coating his forearm, and then was absorbed into his skin. She said: “Now you carry my blessing and the dragon warriors and my sisters will know you.” She went on: “The Draklac of old wore armour of scales, and I would be honoured if you would wear armour fashioned from my scales so that a part of me will fight on with you.”

Arad was in tears, but wished to save her rather than lose her. She laughed and said that he had saved her, as her soul will return to Karmana. Several scales, each the size of a body shield, fell from her body. She reiterated: “Please take these with my blessing so that in you I can seek battle once more.” Then came the catch… “Only the Elvradhil have the secret of fashioning the armour, but perhaps She will guide you to them when the time is right.”

To Falcor she said: “My liege, I would not ask anything of you, but if my sister "Mother of Hope" knew that I had met you and that my soul returned to Valduarum... if she would hear that from you it would be a blessing.”

Falcor asked where he could find “Mother of Hope” and again she laughed, saying: “I forget that you are so young. I was born to defend her. She rests, of course, in the forge- awaiting the relighting of the forge.”

Arad recalled the poem that we had found in the death house and recited it, wanting to see her reaction. She laughed again, saying “but he is here, and she is not”. So was it true then, was Falcor the king of the Elvradrak somehow reborn? It must be – who else could transform in such a way and command the respect of such a noble creature?

She spoke of how she had come to be trapped here. She had only left the forge when the earth shook, but recently (well in dragon terms I guess), which she had taken as a sign from the Gods themselves. She had left her charge (Mother of Hope), which prompted a wave of regret and guilt from her. Falcor reassured her that Mother of Hope would not be alone for long, saying “we have our next quest!”

Finally she turned her attention to me, which was quite overwhelming. She said: “Curmar, it is rare to see one of your people so far from the holy city. Will you be my Curmkanoroc? Will you travel with me to Valduarum to witness my soul return to Our Mother?” I said at once that I would do anything for her, she was a legend to our people and I never thought to witness such a great creature in the flesh. I may have blabbered a bit… but this was to be a turning point in my life.

Once again she said that we had already done all we could for her. She was saved. She knew not what had captured her - they were like shadows of death and a mockery of her very being - Elvradrak yet Drakaroc? Dark, the opposite of life, they fought as though Elvradrak but they were so very not. There were too many and as she plunged to her death she was certain that they thought her gone. She had landed drained, unable to fly and unable to call on her powers. The lizard and frog things had held her in her weakened state only, as she had no power to call on to escape.

Arad was keen to free her of her bonds as soon as possible. At this thought she asked a strange question, asking Falcor if he trusted "these" (us). He truthfully said that he was not sure of anything. He had but newly come to this place and found his form. He said: “As Elvradrak of course I trust them, they are born of Karmana, but I have spent more years in human form and that is the opposite - I trust them because they have saved my life, but I would not trust them not to kill humans.”

Although he admitted that in Elvra form he would trust us implicitly, he was still conflicted. The dragon seemed satisfied, though, and before our eyes transformed into a human form as Falcor had, although far more attractive! The naked female figure before us was older, but still attractive, and said “my lords, I am free of my chains”. Falcor laughed, relieved and suddenly understanding. Arad rushed forward to cover her with his cloak, which confused her slightly. A moment later she transformed back into a dragon, so the cloak was not required, she had simply shed the chains that had held her by shifting forms.

She wanted me to climb on her back, which I did willingly, but I was a little worried about leaving my friends - not sure where I went to or when I might see them again. She had no hesitation, though, and leapt into the air with me, which was quite exciting. As she hovered she bid Arad farewell, telling him that he would be a great leader, and offered Falcor something for him to stay alive long enough to fulfil his destiny – a small gemstone fell towards him and moved through the air to clip into place in his armour (it was an orange soulstone). Finally she announced that she was now "First to be Saved" - and with that she rose quickly out of the cavern and took to the air above.

New Horizons

As “First to be Saved” leapt from the cavern floor, I was struck by how little her wings moved relative to the force as my whole body was forced against the dragon’s unyielding scales. After seeming to hang briefly in mid-air while she conversed briefly with Falcor, “First to be Saved” sent a thought straight to my mind, a sensation I was rapidly becoming familiar with, as somehow seemed natural despite the impossibility of it. She said: "Come little one, our Mother awaits but she will allow me one last sight of our birthplace, I am sure.” The thought was accompanied by an emotion, hope, which immediately reminded me of the name that Arad had tried to give to “First to be Saved”. “Hope indeed!” there was humour in her thoughts now, as I realised she was reading my unguarded thoughts. “Such a short title for an Elvradrak, and yet so wonderful. How it would confuse my sisters. I like it!”

Even in the few seconds it took to exchange thoughts, Hope had already crossed the short distance to the roof of the cavern, accelerating all the time. I looked up in terror to see the unforgiving rocks of the cavern roof racing towards them, the dark low clouds of a passing storm the only thing visible beyond. My people had remarkable instincts when it came to small spaces but it still took me a moment to realise that the hole above was only about 10’ across at its widest point, nowhere near enough for Hope’s vast frame, even without her outstretched wings. Too frozen by fear to look away or even close my eyes, I felt the dragon’s muscles bunch tightly as she snapped her wings in close to her body and soared through the hole. I watched, dumbfounded, as her body passed through the surrounding rock, soil and vegetation as though it were no more than a shadow. In that same moment, my vision blurred with multiple images overlayed simultaneously, an impossibly vast tree, an endless maze of tunnels through soil, a fiery volcano and, underneath all the images, a multitude of swirling colours like fine quality lamp oil spilled on water.

As soon as they burst free to the skies beyond, my vision cleared and I almost immediately realised where they were. To our right, no more than a mile or so away, was the ruins of a watch tower, almost the twin of Custor’s and, as we climbed away, I saw the familiar ‘Bear Paw’ islands laid out beneath and behind us. Hope banked left, still climbing and accelerating until we were quickly enveloped in the cloying dampness of heavy clouds. I glanced anxiously all around, suddenly wondering if lightning only struck on the ground. He heard Hope's reassuring voice in his head once more: “Worry not, Curmkanoroc, you are under my protection. Nothing of Karmana can harm you.”

Even as the thought and accompanying shared sense of reassurance steadied my nerves, Hope broke through the tops of the clouds, water vapour boiling off the tips of her fully extended wings accompanied by a massive mental blast of joy that caused me to laugh out loud, experiencing true happiness for the first time since the attack on Carseld. The warm Summer sun, in front and to my left, was well past its zenith and I guessed that it would be dark in a few hours. It was difficult to mark the passing of time soaring without fear above the thick clouds, laid out before us like the freshest Winter snow. Nonetheless, I gauged it to have been almost an hour before Hope dived once again into the clouds, bursting through directly atop an island that I recognised from my dreams.

No longer desolate, the island was almost entirely covered by fresh greenery, none of it yet taller than an Elvrahüm, but still I recognised many saplings that would become mighty trees akin to those in the forests around Carseld. As before, a single peak dominated the centre of the island, the occasional wisp of smoke drifting lazily up from the crater. “The forge is stirring little one. I knew it! I knew the cracking of the ground was a sign from our Mother!” The thought arrived accompanied by a memory of the sharp retort of an earthquake, sending me spiralling back into dark memories of the terror of our party's encounter with the Sarn, deep under the House on the Hill. “That was the Caphelon Draklac?” Hope’s question reminded me once again that my own thoughts were seemingly an open book. “He channels a great power for one so young. Maybe there really is hope.”

“Did we do that?” I asked, my words whipped away by the wind. “The Bringers of Death are the lock with which the False God bound our Mother’s power but when he lost them to the Chaos Lord, he too was denied Her power. Now we all wait on the whims of chaos. But if the Great Creator acts through the Caphelon Draklac then maybe now is the time that was prophesied.” “What do you need of us?” I shouted into the wind, prompting more waves of laughter in my mind. “Just think Curmkanoroc, you don’t need to use the speech of idiots! Our thoughts are one.”

“What do you need of us?” I formed the sentence again, but this time only in my mind. “What would you have us do?” “For me Curmkanoroc, I ask no more than that you guide my soul back to our Mother. As for what tasks She has for you, only She can say. But I know that you seek new life from the forge, a rebirth for your people, I feel the loss in your soul. For that to happen, the souls of the six must be free to return to their true hosts. Only then can the forge be relit and Justice returned to the world. Ulric was always the weakest but, if the prophecies are true then his brother, Kellerot, must fall next. Be careful though, once the embodiment of Truth, he is now a Lord of Lies and Deceit. One more warning, Curmkanoroc, if it is truly your destiny to free the Forge of Life, then the six must fall in their right order, or the cycle of darkness will start again.”

“The right order?” I felt my subconscious mind trying to twist away from the topic and I wondered briefly if that was Hope’s influence, but he knew that Falcor would only complain if he didn’t ask! “Enough!” Hope’s mental command contained no malice but the overwhelming power of it was compelling beyond my ability to resist. “My strength is failing fast and we still have far to travel if I am to reach my Valduarum and complete the Kanoroc. Our Mother will reveal to you the truths that you need to know.”

Hope completed one last circuit of the volcano, seeming to draw strength as she looped through the smoke rising from the volcano’s heart, using it to power once again through the clouds and break free to the glorious skies above. We continued in silence, lost in our own thoughts, the Summer sun warming my back as I strangely felt no chill from the air. As I dwelled on that thought, I realised that there was no sensation of moving air at all, even though I could see the cloud tops racing past underneath - another marvel on a day of wonders.

After another hour or more of flight, the clouds started to dissipate beneath us, becoming much lighter and more broken, affording me an uninterrupted view of a magnificent city, nestled in the shadows of vast mountains, with the sea at its feet. ”Corcurmar, the City of Lost Souls. Truly yours are a doughty folk, Curmkanoroc. No others could bear the weight of my Kanimea and ensure safe passage back to our Mother. It is a wonder to me how you bear such power without being overwhelmed yourselves. You must spend many years studying the ancient arts to channel so much energy without harm?” I didn’t even need to form a coherent question for Hope to read the obvious confusion straight from my mind. Her laughter once more filled my head, washing away any trepidation. “An adventure for us both then! We shall learn the secrets of your people together for my Lord brought you to me so I will accept no other as my Curmkanoroc.”

Hope swooped low over the city as we approached and the air was filled with the deep resonant bass notes of mighty horns atop every tower on the city walls, rippling like a wave across the city as each tower reacted to either the noise of the others or the huge dragon now filling the sky overhead. We passed low enough over the walls that I could clearly see the inhabitants and all that I saw were Elvrahüm, which was joyful to see. Other than those working the bellows that powered the huge horns, it seemed as though all had their heads bowed as Hope passed above. As we neared the centre of the city, my heart leapt as I saw young halflings of all ages, rushing out to see the Dragon, their laughter and shouts drowned out by the horns before they were grabbed by their parents and hushed into silence.

Almost as soon as we cleared the northern-most wall of the city, Hope flicked her vast head underneath herself and saluted the city with a massive burst of fire overhead, hotter than anything I had ever witnessed or experienced. The horns fell silent and she climbed once more, following the rapidly rising edge of the vast mountains beyond. As soon as Hope crested the snow-speckled peaks, she dropped again into a vast valley beyond, stretching all the way to the horizon, fully enclosed by mountain ridges to the east and west. With the sun now shielded behind the mountains, the start of the valley seemed a suddenly dark and ominous place.

My eyes dropped to the largely desolate valley floor below and I saw a vast canyon, running almost the full length of the valley, fully two hundred feet below the valley floor at its deepest point. The valley near the top of the rift was littered with skeletons that I immediately recognised as Elvradrak, although all were smaller than Hope. Gliding now and dropping all the time, Hope headed straight for the canyon, its scale becoming clear to me when I realised the edges were almost half a mile to either side of her huge wing tips.

Where the skeletons on the valley floor were all smaller than Hope, those that lined the canyon were much closer in size, some even larger, and I was stunned by the immense power that they must have represented. How could the Elvrakarmana ever have been defeated with scores of ancient Elvradrak on their side? How powerful was their enemy to have defeated an army of Elvradrak? I had become accustomed in recent months to feeling small compared to Falcor and Arad, but I had never in my life felt so small and helpless as I did now.

Somewhere near the mid-point of the shadowy canyon, Hope finally came to rest beside an obelisk, the twin of the one in the village in all bar colour. The landing was heavier than I expected and I was almost sent flying from Hope's back before whatever force had held me in place during the flight reasserted itself. “Forgive me Curmkanoroc, my life-force is almost spent.” “There is nothing to forgive.” I tried to express reassurance in the unfamiliar mental language of the Elvradrak. As I did, I allowed myself to slide from her back, exploiting my acrobatic skills to roll nimbly away and tumble back to my feet in one smooth motion. “Come closer Curmkanoroc, I think it is time that I return to our Mother.”

Through some combination of instinct and the mental images generated by “First to be Saved”, I confidently stepped into the space between her huge head and the obelisk, placing one hand on each. As I did so, I felt a burning sensation spread rapidly from “First to be Saved”, through me, to the Obelisk. Every fibre of my being burned with energy and I knew that I should have been in unimaginable pain and yet, somehow, I wasn’t. As the last of her soul left her body, it came with one final thought in my mind: "Your faith will return you to where you need to be little one."

I was rendered close to unconscious, but elated with a new found joy. Barely capable of rational thought, I sensed a new mind merging with my thoughts, this time from the obelisk not the dragon. It was a loving, nurturing and welcoming mind, “thank you for returning my child to me dear Garret; through you your people will be restored”. I felt at once full of warmth and gently slipped from consciousness.

Reunited

While I was on my little dragon jaunt, light was starting to fade above the cavern the others were left in. They started to explore the walls, looking for another way out, and made a gruesome find - one of the frog things was stuck half in the rock, with just an arm and leg visible. They stayed back from the rock, and it was clear from the temperature of the limbs that the thing was only recently deceased. The rock was unbroken, like it had just consumed the creature. Arad tried to communicate with what he suspected were Elvradhil, but there was no response. Unsurprisingly they were somewhat reluctant to stay in the cavern as a result of this potential threat. Another reason to worry about staying was the attention that a massive dragon leaving via the roof might bring to the little island.

As they continued their search the talk turned to Falcor's transformation into a dragon, with Arad asking "when were you going to tell me about that?" The response was simple: "Never!" It was clear now that Falcor was the "Him" of legend, the king of the Elvradrak reincarnated, and Arad pledged his service to him.

Their attention was drawn once again to the rock walls, on the other side of the cavern, where they found another frog stuck in the rock. This time the face was showing and it looked like it had tried to escape; its body was arched forward trying to get out, but it was clear that it had died in agony as its vital organs merged with the rock. At that point they also heard motion over by the water, and they hurried back to see what was happening. A spur of rock was growing out of the wall and sealing over the water fairly quickly, and in moments it was effectively as if the water had never been there, with just a rock floor that looked much like the rest of the cavern in its place.

They decided, looking at the rather unwelcoming ladder that rose above their heads, arching back with the cavern roof, that they needed to rest despite the possible danger. Falcor would rest first, and Arad would restring Falcor's bow that his transformation had snapped. Then Falcor studied as Arad rested, taking them through the night so that it was light again when he awoke, although still overcast outside.

They had a discussion about possibly flying out on Falcor, but he wasn't sure that he could safely carry Arad on his back. He was happy to try and lift Arad and all the kit out with his talons, though, but it would help if Arad could climb some of the way before he took flight. So Arad started to climb with a grappling hook safety line on a short rope in case he lost his grip, then Falcor transformed and flew up whilst carrying all of their kit tied up in a crappy pile with some rope they had found on the dead bodies scattered around the cavern. Falcor cleared the cavern quickly and landed to drop the kit, but held onto the rope connected to Arad.

There was vegetation around the hole, like gorse and tall grass, but not much significant cover. Falcor saw six lizard warriors nearby and slightly below him with me slumped unconscious between the middle two, although I didn't know where I was at the time. The ruined tower was nearby, but the hole was up on a ridge running roughly east to west with another ridge from the tower intersecting with it not too far from where we were. The whole island was fairly small, and the coast was visible about a mile or two to the west and south. There was only scrub around, and no major foilage. The overcast heavy, grey clouds were doing a good job of disguising that it was around midday.

Falcor tried to look scary, flying up and roaring at the creatures, who looked like scarier versions of the lizard creatures they had seen below. Falcor felt a jerk, though, as Arad fell - his arms giving up as he tried to swing towards the hole in the roof. He was saved from falling by his safety rope, but Falcor checked that he was ok with their telepathic link, also sending an image of what he could see up above.

The lizard things didn't seem too impressed by Falcor's display, with one hissing at the others, causing them to move. Four stepped towards Falcor, shielding the two carrying me, and drew bows. Falcor dived to ground, trying to get some of the ridge between them as cover from the bow fire. Arrows flew and two still found their mark, and Falcor sent a rather forceful message to Arad to hurry up! Arad was still dangling on his safety rope, needing a little time to rest before he get his burning muscles to pull his weight up again.

Falcor was hit again, although his scales deflected some of the arrows. He panicked and mentally shouted at Arad to let go, just as he was starting to climb back up and along the rungs. Falcor flew swiftly away from the hole, dragging Arad up and out, smacking into the ceiling before being dragged around the edge and deposited some distance from the hole. Despite the battering, he quickly drew his sword and slashed through the rope. Falcor landed and turned back into human form, and they both converged on the heap of kit. Falcor's armour fortunately returned to him, as he was otherwise naked.

Arad grabbed his bow and loosed an arrow, which flew true and struck one of the foe. Falcor was hit again, although his armour deflected another shot. Arad's second arrow finished off the first lizard he had hit. More arrows landed near Falcor, and they had advanced to the top of the ridge so there was no real cover available. Falcor healed himself with his mind, then charged into a lizard near the centre striking into it with a strong blow. It was about this time that I started to wake, struggling weakly to get free. Arad charged forward, attacking and striking with both weapons to cut one creature down.

Falcor took another arrow, but it was more of a glancing blow this time. It didn't slow him down as he stuck a dagger in to finish off the second lizard. I regained my senses and spun around to hack at one of my captors, landing a good hit. Falcor saw that I was awake and charged in to help, running the one I had hurt through from its flank. Arad started to loose arrows at the last lizard with a bow, who returned fire right back at him, but Arad won the fight as the better marksman, killing it with two clean shots.

I sensed, for the first time without Hope there to help, Arad's telepathic connection as he reassured Falcor that he would avoid shooting him. I sarcastically responded with "don't I fucking count then?!" Arad's mind responded with pleasant surprise, welcoming me, but Falcor cut in to make it clear that he didn't want to harm the last lizard. I was in mid-swing, so I quickly turned my blade to strike with the flat just before Falcor jumped on it, knocking it to its knees. It dropped its weapon, with Falcor wrapped around it and holding it fast. Falcor put a knife to its neck and it wisely didn't move. Arad stood on its weapon, just in case.

Falcor asked me "what" I am, which was confusing. I was still a bit disorientated, and my vision was a little fuzzy (well, I thought it was - turns out I had spontaneously sprouted a bushy ginger beard, but I wasn't to know that at the time). I said "give me a moment" and looked around to get my bearings, recognising the ruined tower and quickly realising that I had returned to the island somehow whilst unconscious. The others continued to ask some confusing questions about what I was and whether I was a friend.

Arad, meanwhile, untied the ropes from their kit and bound the lizard instead. They asked me my name, which surely was obvious, but then I remembered how Hope had changed hers and I realised that my own name should change too, for I had rediscovered hope of my own. A title also came to mind, perhaps from Karmana herself, I responded that I was now "Brightglade Curmkanoroc Primsalvi" although that seemed to baffle them as well.

They asked what they should call me, to which I said "what's wrong with what you've always called me?" Finally it dawned on them that I was Garret, returned to them. I had changed! Actually I had changed far more than I realised. It wasn't just the beard and the bright ginger hair... I had become a giant! I was over four feet tall now, perhaps halfway to five feet! No wonder they hadn't recognised me at first. What a blessing from Karmana, although perhaps a little accidental.

I had a thought about our new prisoner - I believed that this was a former Elvramar, fallen from Karmana's grace having turned its back on the Mother. Our questions were mainly rebuffed, but it was clear that he did not believe in Karmana's love, saying "why would I follow her when she abandoned us?" I tried to convince him that Karmana was still with us, but he was disgusted with us, and particularly "the Sarn" as he referred to Falcor as. I tried a new approach, reaching out with my mind and attempting to convey the experience of being touched by Karmana telepathically. A brief, but intense, connection of motherly love with the goddess was felt by us all, perhaps familiar only to me. The lizard slumped, his resistance breaking, and I told him that there was still hope for his people.

Arad was affected by the connection, as he worried that he had also turned his back on Karmana to follow the Creator... then he said a quick blessing in her name. It worked instantly, healing the lizard's wounds, and he bowed his head again. Then something very odd happened, although Arad had seen it before; a door into the world opened from... well, somewhere and possibly some "when" else - Jeanette looked out, a perplexed look on her face, she looked at the lizard and then at Arad, in apparent confusion. Arad tried to stammer out an explanation about how the lizard would only respond to Karmana. Jeanette responded that "the Creator accepts all and loves all", and then she (still looking confused) left as quickly as she had appeared. Well that was fucking freaky!

Arad helped the creature to his feet, offered his sword back to him, and asked him to go and take the message of Karmana's love to his people. The rather sorry looking creature looked at Falcor, who nodded, and then slowly walked down the ridge to the west. Arad was still feeling guilty, and tried to explain to us who Jeanette was, and he also suggested that we should try to combine the races together to heal the rift we had seen.

Falcor had some concerns about the origins of the Creator and his goals, bearing in mind that as a human he had heard Treddar called the "Creator", and worried that this God had taken Arad away from Karmana. Arad believed that the Creator could create both light and dark, but did not favour one over the other. Falcor of course was worried that Treddar (one "Creator") was actually his arch enemy "He Who Seeks Dominance Over All" and that they were destined to fight once again. Arad, to be fair, pointed out that he was unable to create chaos as his "Creator" would not allow it. There was some caution about both sides beliefs or understanding, and definitely some differences in our collective understanding of the Gods. I for one felt drawn to Karmana like never before, having felt her touch on my mind, and vowed to myself to fight for her and in her name in my quest to relight her forge.