Editing Journal - Conquering Fire (section)

==The Home of Fire==

All around the area we emerged onto was a fiery hellscape, and endless plain of lava flows and hot rocks. The only thing that served as any kind of landmark was thankfully quite close; an active volcano rose from the plain ahead and to our left, with lower volcanic hills undulating away to its right. The lower slope was only a hundred yards or so in front of us, and we believed that we had arrived at the home of the last Sarn, who styled himself a Lord of Fire. I took a moment to look at Aramat, as it was the first time I had not been in combat, and could make out some of the new runes: ".endroc.in" - hmm... we could work out that the "droc.in" meant "Essence of Gods", but the rest wasn't clear.

As Falcor climbed for height, a slight shimmer appeared between us and the volcano, which looked like the back of a portal of some kind. Falcor flew towards it, setting me down near enough that I could try to close it if needed. I jogged forward to see the "front" of the portal, and through it I could see a green forest, which put me in mind of Borarla, although the nearest trees and the earth just on the other side were scorched with heat. There were a couple of red, snake-like creatures about to step through, but more interestingly they had a column of Elvradhil in chains behind them, perhaps two dozen in all.

They started trudging through the portal, the boots of the Elvradhil smoking slightly on the hot ground, so I backed off out of their eye line and drew my swords. I heard a yell from the other side of the portal, shouting: "keep moving or we burn you and leave the bodies here", emphasised with a crack of a whip. I strode past the column, coming up behind the guards at the front but causing the Elvradhil to shy away from me. I commanded Aramat to flame, but found that I had to wrestle for control of the flames with a powerful intellect that wanted them to be hot instead of cold. Thankfully I was able to force them out, so when I slashed the blade across the guard's body it cooled the hot flesh inside, doing more damage to it. In retaliation it thrust a hot spear at me, which glanced off my armour, and I had to dodge a swipe by its tail as it tried to entwine me. Falcor summoned an ice storm to attack the other guard at the front, causing it to writhe in pain with the impacts even as the ice was melted to nothing very quickly around it.

A whip of pure fire cracked through and above the Elvradhil columns as another yell came from behind, urging them on. I struck again, taking chunks out of my foe. There was a strange sense of heat from the exposed flesh beneath, but I was protected from any burning by the oil I had applied, as if the heat was numbing instead of painful. What was painful, though, was the spears that they stabbed into me, blooming with flame as they struck, and the crushing force as one tail wrapped around my legs. Although two had engaged me, another two guards moved forward and started to drag and haul the Elvradhil through one of the narrow lava floes. Once they realised what was happening, the Elvradhil tried to help each other by using their chains to dangle those crossing above it so their feet weren't burned. I couldn't free myself to help, as I was held by the tail, and decided that it would be best to fight my way out. Another two good blows from Aramat did the trick, cleaving so deep into its upper torso that it collapsed, dead, and the coils went slack around me. I did get lashed by the fire whip, which stung, but again the flames didn't hurt as I'd expect them to.

Falcor conjured icicles that slammed into a fiery bitch that was the one using the whip; she had emerged from the portal behind me so I hadn't seen her until I'd been able to get free. She looked angry after the cold impacts, but I was immediately distracted by the other snake thing constricting me with its tail, and I was pinned again! Falcor let fly with more icicles, and this time she seemed concerned, fleeing towards the lava in an attempt to heal herself in the heat. She had a tail, I could see now, that had been aflame until Falcor's latest strike, which had caused the flames to gutter and die. I reached for the wand of elemental control and used it to convince the one constricting me that I was a friend, so it released me, which I was thankful for. That allowed me to try to free some of the Elvradhil, using dweomer to loosen the chains of about half of them. I tried to communicate with them using my mind, but found most of them to be close like stone; one, though, flashed a warning that using the mind speech would get us killed, and he seemed embarrassed to be using it at all (or was it just because he was talking to me? It wasn't clear).

I closed with whip bitch and a lot happened all at once; Falcor slammed a couple more icicles into her just as Aramat bit deep into her side, and a fireball suddenly exploded around us. The flames were painful, although not quite as devastating as the damage I had seen Falcor inflict, but after my vision cleared I could see that she was lifeless at my feet. The hilt of the, now extinguished, fire whip was on the ground and I grabbed it and tucked it into my belt. Falcor sent two more icicles streaking into another creature across the lava, then swooped to pick up the body of the dark elf mage he had brought with him, dropping it near to the Elvradhil and saying (in their tongue) that it might have a soul stone they need. There was an immediate response that "...they probably do because we made the bastards fucking enough of them!" They shouted instructions between each other, and some of the free ones ran to the body and searched for the stones they could use to travel with.

Some of the other Elvradhil tried to pin a snake thing with their chains as another started to chant something. The last few attacked the guard that Falcor had targeted with icicles. One Elvradhil was stabbed in the struggle and sagged back, near death. Falcor flew forward and conjured a black orb that he threw at the attacker, killing it instantly! I jumped across the lava to fight and ended up constricted by the guard's tail again! I was able to cut it down with several sword blows, though, so I was soon free. Falcor glided over to the body of the whip lady but found nothing on her, and could see that the body was already crumbling to ashes. I tried speaking to the Elvradhil in the Elvra tongue that I knew, but they just turned their back on me. I was just trying to get them to stand together so that I could free the rest of them! One of them called out to Falcor, who flew over to join us. The caller tossed a diamond studded ring and a wand towards him, whilst keeping hold of the stones they had been searching for.

After I asked Falcor to speak to them, we discovered that they spoke Common so I tried that instead. Apparently they hated the Elvra "language of the Gods", which is why they didn't like speaking to me (well, that and the fact that I was apparently "a fucking goddess"). They still didn't seem happy about me doing anything for them, but at least started to shuffle together. I tried to reassure them and then used dweomer to release their chains as I had their companions. One called out and they all started reaching into their clothing, beards, hair, and perhaps other places I didn't want to think about - they each pulled out a tool of some kind, and quickly established that they had what they needed to shape the stones in a way that would enable them to get home.

I asked about Aramat, and they recognised it as the "Godslayer", which confirmed what we had begun to suspect - it was created to destroy a God, probably Treddar. I also asked about the particularly evil sword I was carrying in my pack for fear of it falling into the wrong hands. There was lots of "ohhh... that's a nasty one", and discussion about how it would dominate weak minds, but eventually I surrendered it to the Elvradhil as they seemed unperturbed by it (I think the exact words they used were "I'm not going to let a fucking sword tell me what to do"). They pointed out that all the weapons with soulstones were technically theirs, as they had created them, but they seemed to agree that I could keep Aramat as I intended to use it against Kraldar... although they would prefer that it was used against He Who Seeks Dominance Over All (Treddar).

At around this point, Falcor transformed back into human form, which seemed to surprise the Elvradhil. As I talked about how we were, in some strange way, related through my mother, though, they seemed to realise that "he was the one that fucked humans". They had learned of Ilianna's betrayal of their people (or at least misleading them as to her purposes) and that's why they had been captured and traded to the Lord of Fire. They knew her by another name, though - Arxeler-Veral. They were particularly amused to learn that I had parts of her birth tree with me, and that more than anything else seemed to be enough for them to begrudgingly accept that I "might be alright". The three leaders introduced themselves as Thawn Thawnsson, Engir Thawnsson and Ballsir Grettirdotri, and said that they owed us a blood debt (well, Falcor anyway).

We looked to heal some of our wounds, which were extensive. The Elvradhil offered to show us how to use "real healing" power - and it was astonishing! They tapped into the divine energy of fire, but but ignored any influence the patron might have had on them and shaped the power with their own will. I asked how they did it, and they unhelpfully replied "just show the Gods no fucking respect, ever". They were also able to carve, at Falcor's request, the other soulstone into a twenty-sided shape that we could use to escape if we had to. They told us that if it was broken against rock then it would take us to a "civilised" land. Anything within twenty feet or so would be transported, and quickly. It must be rock that it was broken upon, though, that was very important. After they handed that over, they all gathered around the leaders, and with a chant they smoothly disappeared from view.

We continued on, with no more signs of life in this barren place, and started climbing the first slope along what looked like some sort of path, reaching a slight plateau before two peaks. The path seemed to climb again before veering left up ahead, and the flat section had a red, powdery earth before rocks emerged again on the other side. I got a sudden, although slight, sense of life within the earth as I moved forward, so I stepped back and warned Falcor. He encouraged me to throw a rock onto the soil ahead, but there was no reaction. He tried a grappling hook, dragging it back towards him, and at the last moment we just about saw a linear bulge in the sand just in front of the hook, a few feet across but just a few inches high and not very long. There was something under the soil!

I started to use dweomer to enable Falcor to fly over, but as I was chanting a few obvious disturbances within the sand formed, about fifteen to twenty yards into the plateau and six feet or so across. Three large humanoid figures emerged from the sand within these areas, not fully corporeal and with sand falling all around them as if they were constantly falling apart and reforming themselves. A fourth one emerged as I finished my spell, but they didn't close with us. They seemed almost to be moving, but not as we understand it, rather that bits of them dispersed and reappeared in slightly different places. Despite this they seemed confined to particular areas for the moment.

Falcor asked, simply, "may we pass" in Common. A raspy, sandy voice responded from the nearest in bad Common saying: "Death may walk, but not Air. Stench of Air not welcome. Enemy may not pass". They had been given the task to defend against forces of Air, it seemed, and the dweomer had triggered them. Falcor tried levitating vertically, which caused three of them to get closer, with one right at the edge of the sand, thankfully unable to move farther. Falcor began to move over the sand, at quite some height, but the nearest creature reacted by swirling his arm and shooting a column of sand up towards Falcor, just narrowly missing. Sand was falling everywhere, and for a moment I contemplated where and when I might next be able to bathe, but the the creature caught the sand still in the air within a swirling vortex and whipped it towards Falcor, although he missed again. I spoke in High Elvra, as much to see if they reacted as to actually speak with Falcor: "perhaps we should heed their warning." I did not see any recognition or reaction from the creatures, though.

Falcor started half-running, half-jogging around to the left where the steep slope of the volcano rose beside the sand, trying to get around it. He almost seemed a little winded, but it could have been that he had some sand in his mouth and was trying to get rid of it. It made me itch just thinking about it. One of the sand creatures tracked his movements, staying close, but others disappeared back into the sand as he moved away. I just walked along the path, which was a bit easier to see after the rest of the sand had been disturbed by the creatures. As I neared the other side I met one of the creatures in red that had carried us to Itlak Alna'a - probably her on Ilianna's behalf to barter for power. His flying mount was walking awkwardly behind him, clearly forced to stay on the ground by the guardians here.

He hailed me as I approached, seemingly unaware of my allegiances or history with the dark elves, as the last one had been. He asked if I had been forced to walk as well, and we had a mutual moan about not being able to just fly across. Apparently Igsol, the Lord of Fire, was in a bad mood because some woman killed his favourite. No idea who that might be; ahem. He said he would just make an offering and leave, if he was me, because that's what he had done. He paused after that... and asked: "you did bring an offering, right"? I pointed back at Falcor, who was still headed towards the volcano at this point. He commented that my offering seemed to be getting away! I responded that he didn't know that he was an offering yet, which made him laugh deeply.

I waited for his mount to catch up, and was licked as he passed. Yuck. Apparently she liked dead things. Great. Once they had passed I noticed that he conversed with the guardians in a complex tongue before starting to walk across... perhaps they were native to Itlak Alna'a, and had been a gift? It would make sense. By this time Falcor had started climbing and traversing, watched by a sand creature below him. I slowly climbed higher and saw that the path swung to the left, towards the volcano, after another stretch of sand. It looked like it ended in a concave rock formation, a darkness within suggested there might be an entrance, which made sense. As I drew nearer I could see that there were two massive obsidian doors, about twenty feet high and each ten feet across, closed as far as I could see. There was a slight descent before reaching the doors, and I veered left off the path and secreted myself in the rocks, out of sight of the doors but able to watch over the sand creatures below. I couldn't see Falcor, but thankfully it was only five minutes or so before he came into sight, traversing around a rocky outcrop on the slope.

It took a while for him to reach me, but the time passed without incident and we were reunited again. I moved back towards the doors, but as I moved around the rock I saw a massive bull-like figure walking on two legs and carrying two large swords near the doors. I ducked back quickly and told Falcor what I had seen; we could hear bellowing from around the corner, though... had it seen me? Falcor turned himself invisible and I strode out to talk to the creature, slightly apprehensively. I said that I wanted to talk to Igsol about a trade of power, and had to explain that the offer was from me and not my father. He sensed Air, though (Falcor was still able to fly) and wanted to cleanse me with fire! I wasn't so keen, and decided to leave to "prepare" myself.

We moved into some rocks past the doors, because we could find a spot that was out of sight of the doors and the path that approached them. There we waited until the dweomer wore off, hoping that the "stench" of Air would now be gone. I returned and as we approached the bull creature emerged from the doors once more. It seemed happier that I no longer had a scent of Air, and impressed that I now had a scent of Fire instead, saying I could enter. Falcor was following close behind, so we both entered a long, Basalt corridor with a vaulted ceiling some thirty feet above us. The way was lit by veins of fire within the walls. After about a hundred feet the corridor opened up a little and veered to the right, with a smaller corridor to the left. The bull guardian stepped in behind us and the doors swung shut with a resounding, slightly ominous booming noise.

We left the guardian at its post and walked down the corridor. The right fork was clearly the way we were intended to go, and it became almost a hall with massive columns of basalt supporting an even higher roof in two rows, although that changed to a single row after a corridor to the left about halfway down. The wall at the far end, after this single row of columns, was not lit at all and was just black. There were two-headed giants by the corridor entrances on our left, rough looking in appearance. Another two-headed giant, looking slightly better dressed, stood in the centre of the hall and bowed as I approached. He expected to be given an offering to take to Lord Igsol before an audience could be granted. I politely refused, which didn't go down well, but he at least agreed to convey a message for me; I said that I was willing to offer Ilianna's staff pieces in return for his aid, saying that I sought power to help overthrow my father. I was asked to wait, and leant casually against a pillar.

As I waited, Falcor rather clumsily followed the giant as he walked towards the black wall at the end of the hall. The giant passed straight through, so Falcor followed and emerged into a room on the other side. There was a blazing fire within a suit of armour stood at the front of a raised section of floor, with two women stood behind. One woman was black-clad and white-skinned with literally flaming hair, whilst the other was white-clad and black-skinned; both were apparently human. They were conversing together, but as Falcor walked in the flaming figure looked at him and said: "Lord of Dragons, welcome". Falcor responded with tact and diplomacy... no, actually he just threw an ice ball at them! To be fair, we were expecting to be confronted by a Sarn... things were not as they seemed, though.

The flaming figure moved forward, lines of fire extending into the air like swords from his hands. A fireball exploded around Falcor, but he was able to ignore it. The giant had suffered badly from the ice explosion, looking badly wounded, and struggled to react. A ring of fire appeared around Falcor, radiating heat inwards and trapping him unless he was willing to risk being burned. Meanwhile, I had heard the explosion and decided that I needed to join Falcor quickly. I used dweomer to move instantly past the wall, although I wasn't sure where I would end up or what I was getting into. I appeared and found that there was a giant right next to me, although badly injured, and a couple of very angry women behind me! The armoured fire figure had moved to stand inside the wall of flame, which curved away from me and was quite cool on my side.

I guessed, correctly, that Falcor was inside the ring and the centre of attention, but then the world exploded in ice! The giant was completely ripped to shreds as razor sharp shards of ice tore through him, and there were screams from one of the women behind me. The other one seemed unaffected, and thankfully I realised that it hadn't harmed me either. The fire person stepped into the ring, out of my sight, and engaged Falcor, connecting with one blow that was so searingly hot it burned even Falcor badly. The woman that had ignored the ice finished chanting something and flame leapt from the flaming figure to arc around and fall onto me. For a moment it felt as if my Father was wrapping his arms around me, which was quite horrible, but it did deflect the flames away from me and kept me safe. I moved to engage the woman, and as I moved flames streamed from the sky like rain where I had been. Unfortunately, Falcor appeared in the area just before it happened so he took some damage from it.

I struck the women with two good blows, as Falcor threw another of the black orbs he had used earlier. This time it had no effect, though, and then he was gone again, blinking away and appearing at the far side of the room. The fiery figure emerged from the flames and chased him down, though, striking at him again with the blades of pure fire. The woman I'd been ignoring drew a large sword and cut into me from behind, and I could feel dweomer trying to draw power from me, but I was able to resist it. I hacked at the shaman/cleric, trying to finish her, but she just sank to her knees and kept praying, despite the pain she was obviously feeling. I felt a bit bad about that, so I shouted "why do you serve this creature?" in frustration and turned to face the new threat. She said: "Better him than your father", to which I spat and said: "I do not serve him." She knew how to wind me up, that's for sure, as she responded with: "I felt him save you"; I just said: "It was disgusting", and concentrated on fighting. Icicles slammed into my opponent, I assumed from Falcor, and I struck with Aramat and Ulric's sword and she collapsed, the large sword falling from her hands.

The praying woman tried to call on my power, seemingly seeking help and forgiveness, so I permitted it... but then she tried to use it against me! I rebuffed the attempt and angrily struck out at her. Falcor was blinking all over the place now, having used the ring he had been passed by the Elvradhil, and suddenly appeared in front of a bunch of giants in the corridor outside! He quickly jogged back in, seeing that I had become the focus of the fire figure in his absence. The embodiment of fire struck me with one blade before I could dodge, but spoke with me, demanding that we leave his realm. I tried to get Aramat to flame with cold, but sensed that same will fighting me... but it wasn't here - it was below us! I responded to the figure, acknowledging that he was the true Lord of Fire, and asking why we fought. Surely we should be allied against the foe beneath, Sostrol?

Could we not find a truce, I asked, and he demanded that I sheath the Godslayer first, which I did at once. I was relieved to see that the lines of fire diminished and disappeared in response. Lord Igsol admitted that Sostrol had control of most of his realm, and that he was confined here, and was more willing to speak to us when we said we were here to destroy Sostrol. I shouted to Falcor that we should stop, that we had made a mistake as this was the true Lord of Fire. Falcor seemed ashamed that he had acted hastily, but I tried to reassure him, saying that it was only my sense, through Aramat, of the will below us that warned me that we had been misled.

The woman that was still alive revealed herself to be Elvradrak, but said that she belonged here now having found a new life until the death bringer arrived. Falcor said that she was free to choose her own path, and she assumed the name "Given Power to Choose Her Own Destiny" graciously. The other woman was dead, but Igsol seemed content that her light burned within him now, so there was no need to help her. Falcor knelt now that he knew this was the true Lord of Fire, whilst Igsol incinerated the mage's body, leaving just ash. We talked at some length, but ultimately it was clear that if we could destroy the interloper Sostrol then we would be considered allies for life. He had no quarrel with Air, and the fight was all Sostrol's doing, so we would be helping Aergarnion as well.

There was no time to rest, as there was nothing to stop Sostrol's minions from eventually entering this place, but Igsol did offer to restore some of Falcor's power. In turn, Falcor healed most of my wounds so that I was ready to fight again. We established that Sostrol was misusing Igsol's name (as all knew that Igsol was the Lord of this realm), which explained some aspects of the conversation I had on the way in. He also explained that Aramat had the power to destroy a God if struck true! No wonder none of them liked me being around. More immediately useful, though, was the image that Igsol showed us of the heart of the mountain. We saw a giant lava pool with stone paths leading to a central stone reception area. The throne, though, sat within the lava lake just beyond this platform. Now we had an idea of what we were getting into, and the image gave us a way of getting there.

Igsol made an offer to Falcor; if we could free his realm, then he would gladly open the gates to Karmana to help relight the Forge. Igsol also had his Elvradrak priestess inscribe Sostrol's name upon a blade that Falcor carried, which would help him strike true. I called on Falcor's strength, using dweomer to channel it into my own, and also gave us both the ability to fly. Falcor summoned some mirror images as I protected myself to some extent from fire. We were ready.