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Journal - The Crown of Intelligence
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==The City of Shadows== I indicated the direction we should head for, and we set off once more. We started to emerge into drier, deciduous forest after a while, but it was getting darker again. At some point we lost our tail from the swamp, probably satisfied that we had left, but kept going for about four hours. The forest was very thin by now and we started to see the bright reflected light of a city up ahead. Falcor turned us invisible and we set camp for the night, using string to keep track of where we all were. It was actually reasonably pleasant, with forest sounds having returned since leaving the swamp and the temperature was warm enough to be comfortable. We rested well, with the only event during the night being a shrieking giant bat that flew over heading towards the city. In the morning, although it was still dark in this place of shadows, we continued on towards the city, still invisible. We took some time to circle and inspect the place, noting the fine stone outer walls in a square with a gate on each of the four sides. Each gate had a very robust double-towered defensive gatehouse, and there were armed figures visible atop them. The gates were huge and at least clad in iron. There were large fortified towers in the corners where the walls met, formed in an "L" shape to cover both walls. At the western edge of the city, but outside, was a massive stone tower about a hundred yards from the city gatehouse. This tower had only arrow slits for perhaps the first five storeys, then an open layer with many pillars on each side that was brightly lit on the outside. We could clearly see one of the giant bats perched in one of the openings there, so it seemed to be a sort of landing area. There were perhaps another couple of storeys above that with windows. The Saloroc stood guard near the gates, both city and tower, and all seemed to be moving on foot. There were some humans around, though, which surprised me. All of those that were not in armour were not armed at all and were all finely dressed. After our inspection we found a spot a few hundred yards from the tower to discuss what to do next. This, it was clear to me, was the Tower of Sins we had been directed to. Falcor wanted more information before acting, to I transformed into a Thrush (still invisible) and flew to the main door on its east side. I was able to swoop through as some civilians entered and found an internal courtyard with three oak doors, all closed. One was clearly a main entrance, with the others seemingly leading to a barracks of some kind. There were about a dozen Saloroc, not bearing any clan markings (we had seen none at all here). They were well appointed, armoured and carrying medium sized swords. The height of the courtyard was about twenty feet, with a ceiling of stone above. I noticed that the double doors that were the main entrance were not used by the Saloroc guards at all, but when civilians approached they were let through quickly with a nod. I could see no way of getting inside without alerting at least one of the guards, if not more, so I flew out and over to the city wall to take a look there. I was most surprised that the majority of light sources within the city seemed to be magical in nature, suggesting that magic was commonplace here. There were both human and Saloroc guards on the walls, although more were human. This was different to the tower, where I had only seen Saloroc guards. I flew back to the others to report what I'd found so far, and as we were discussing it the bat we had seen perched on the tower launched itself out and flew off into the darkness. Not wanting to lose the opportunity, I flew up to where it had been to take a look. Although the outside was brightly lit there was hardly any light inside so it was hard to see, but there were a couple of figures near the centre. As I hopped in I could see a bit more; there were two figures near to what might be an altar arranged diagonally in the centre of the open floor. One was slumped against this, but jumped up as I entered looking in my direction. I didn't wait to see what they did, flying straight out again. Behind me a human form jumped from the tower and turned into one of the giant shrieking bats, so I dived for the floor. I go there first, but could not enter the earth in my animal form so I instead flitted over to the edge of the tower, hoping its shaped and my invisibility would hide me. The others had noticed the movement and decided to fly up to the tower. The dweomer was much slower than flying as a bird, though, so it would take some time for them to reach it. Arad levitated himself so that he could be drawn along by Falcor without burdening him, which helped a little. The bat was circling and shrieking loudly, but it seemed to have lost me, at least for the time being. It climbed back up to the level it had started from, shrieking slightly less frequently - presumably using the noise to search for me. Arad called the Creator's protection on Falcor and himself as they approached, which would prove to be a crucial advantage later, although of course I didn't know that they were approaching at this point. That changed when a lightning bolt, conjured by Falcor, lit up the sky above me and Falcor became visible. He had struck the bat with it, and then sent a second bolt arcing out. The crazy fools were going to alert the whole city! I decided that I'd better go and help in some way, perhaps to engage the second figure they wouldn't have been aware of. There was also a mental battle going on between the creature and Falcor, although that was invisible of course. The thing launched itself at Falcor, aiming to slam into an attack, but was repelled by the invisible barrier of the Creator's protection. Arad was still praying, adding additional blessings to Falcor and himself, and the bat was clearly angry that it couldn't touch either of them. Arad threw bolts at it, striking true, and it flew away to disappear into the darkness. I reached the open floor again and flew in, changing into my normal form to attack the other one. She was in female human form, not that the form could be trusted. Unfortunately all of my weapons passed harmlessly through it! Thankfully Falcor was nearing an entrance and cast some spell on my foe that weakened it. It certainly looked like she was struggling, no longer as quick or powerful in her movements. She had stabbed me once and grabbed at me, and I could feel a pull on my essence like Karmana's power was flowing the wrong way from me, but I was just able to resist it. Thanks to Falcor's aid, though, I was able to shake free of her grip quickly. She missed me a couple of times after that - all I could do was dodge and parry as I couldn't hurt her - then thankfully Falcor arrived to engage her in melee. Arad was also there, holding up his holy symbol and chanting. In a strange vision, Falcor became an Elvradrak as he ran at her and roared at her. She froze in terror, allowing Falcor to strike her with his rod (which was strange given that he had changed form) and shoot bolts of energy at her. Light flooded the chamber from Arad's holy symbol as he finished chanting, although it didn't seem to have any obvious effect on her, and then Falcor returned unusually quickly to his human form; was that an illusion? She seemed to all outward appearance to be helpless and fragile, but such an evil creature could not be trusted at any time, and it was still dangerous, of that I was sure. Falcor was similarly unconvinced and continued to bludgeon her even as Arad tried to bind her hands, urging us to relent. We in turn asked him not to be deceived! We were right, of course, and she suddenly turned into a gas and disappeared through some small holes in the floor! I moved towards the stairwells in two of the corners, noting that both went down. We really wanted to go up though, so I didn't continue. Arad poured holy water into the sarcophagus in the centre of the room (what had looked like an altar from a distance was definitely not an altar... I had opened it but found nothing inside except a lining. He said a blessing over it, hoping that it had been purified in some way. Falcor flew out and up to look at the windows of the floor above, and I ran to the corner and leapt into the air, creating a pocket of Cernurros' realm using my wand to stay at that height and to penetrate the ceiling. I had called Arad, but of course once I was inside the "bubble" we could no longer communicate. I jumped out and up, emerging into a dark room lined with bookcases and with study tables towards the middle. Arad joined me after managing to reach the bubble and make his way up, and I learned from him that Falcor had made his own way onto this floor, into a corridor nearby. I took a moment to light a lantern so that we could see more clearly, and idly looked at the nearest open book - and I was slightly alarmed to see that it recorded known vulnerabilites of the Elvradrak! I took it, with Falcor's blessing, and put it in my pack to look at later. We linked up with Falcor as he opened the door and all made our way into the corridor. There were several doors leading off this, as well as another corridor at a corner. I opened the nearest and found a lady's bed chamber with a huge four-post bed, wardrobes, and so on. As I stepped in, though, there was a sudden sucking drain of energy from my mind, taking some of Karmana's power from me. I warned the others and stepped back out quickly! Falcor opened a door farther down and found an alchemist's laboratory, collecting several potions of interest for study later. He asked about the book I had taken, and I flicked through to look at the main points. The vulnerabilities of Elvradrak were listed as:<br> a. The Elvradrak are intrinsically linked to Karmana.<br> b. They cannot sustain dragon form without a link to Karmana.<br> c. Their ability to use dweomer is linked to Karmana.<br> d. They are more prone than others to having power drawn from them by another power.<br> e. They cannot achieve true birth without the power of Karmana's Forge.<br> f. All Elvradrak bar one are female and without the King the race cannot continue.<br> Arad was still able to check for traps so I was sticking close to him, but then Falcor asked me to check the door opposite. We knew there was a magical trap of some kind but I could not find a mechanism for it. Then Falcor used dweomer to open it in my face! I was immediately burned with radiant energy, which Falcor seemed able to absorb. He apologised, not having intended to open it with me stood there. Before I could respond we heard shrieks from down the corridor in front of Arad, coming from both sides. Ignoring that for now, though, and curious about what might be behind the trapped door, I stepped into the room. There were lots of large chests all around the room, which was slightly smaller than the last one. I suspected some kind of hidden area on one side, and Arad confirmed there was a trap in the corner. I opened one of the chests and found that it was full of gold coins. Arad said that he had no way of disabling the trap and then muttered a prayer to the Creator. Falcor had an alternative, though, and pointed a wand at the wall to create a hole - now we didn't have to use the hidden door so we didn't need to worry about the trap! I stepped inside and was confronted by a tall figure... but it was hunched over and not moving thankfully. It was stood beside a plinth with a book on it. As I stepped closer I could see that there were two such creatures, seemingly guarding it, but both inactive. The book had a stylised "S" on the front within a blood red circle. Gas started to seep into the room from below us and formed the man and woman we had fought earlier, although clearly undead shadows of real people. I ran and leapt past, getting touched as I did so and feeling the drain of energy begin again. I managed to resist to some extent and landed near to Arad, who was preparing the prism for us to escape. Falcor struck the man and suddenly transformed into his dragon form again, just like he had on the floor below, roaring and leaving his foe frozen in fear. Falcor also sent ice spikes shooting into him. Seeing that Falcor was engaged, Arad tried to use the Creator's power to force them away from us, but despite the usual bright light shining from his holy symbol there was no noticeable effect on the creatures. The creature shrieked in Falcor's face and tried to punch him, but Falcor's armour reappeared just in time to block the blow. I was nearly seduced by the woman, but thankfully just managed to snap back to alertness in time to sway out of the way of her blow. Arad prayed for me, offering the Creator's protection. Falcor landed more hits and ice strikes, but the creature he was fighting just managed to stay on its feet. The female tried to strike at me again, but this time she recoiled from the Creator's shield, and in doing so her true evil nature showed for a moment on her face. I felt a rising anger and compulsion to attack her, but I knew none of my weapons would have any effect. Instead I impulsively reached out and grabbed at her with my hand, calling on the power of my crown to pass positive healing energy into her. After a moment of concentration when things seemed to slow around us, she started to shriek in pain before being silenced as she exploded in light, being utterly shattered by the energy. The light dissipated quickly into the room and she was gone. Arad healed my wounds, and for the first time in this foul place I felt like we might be winning. Falcor struck the other one and it become gaseous again, sinking into the floor in retreat. As we checked the corridor for more foes, Shalleth appeared at the far end near where we had entered! She was as surprised that we were there as we were to see her. She seemed genuinely shocked that we had killed one of the bat creatures, and claimed to be here simply for profit although she hadn't previously seemed interested in such mundane treasure. I followed her into the room full of chests... and suddenly I was transported outside the tower into mid-air! I fell, activating the ring of blink that Falcor had given me in panic, but hit the ground before it could activate. I sank into the earth instinctively, which certainly saved my life. Meanwhile the others were attacked by the two guardians, having been activated somehow. Falcor fired his bow at one of them, landing several hits. Arad conjured a fireball, sending chunks of burning goo out from where one guardian was stood and untold damage behind it. Falcor was pissed off with Arad for using a fireball in such a tight space, and with possible allies inside the room... in fact he thought that Arad had killed me! More guardians started to arrive so they went back to using the prism to escape, arriving sage within the Elvradhil hall. The flames within the brazier died when they had finished the transition. They did surprise the Elvradhil with their sudden appearance, but they relaxed when they saw who it was. I was not dead, of course, or not exactly. I found myself in a grey foggy nothingness after the ring activated, and took out the pegasus figurine that Falcor had given me to summon the impressive steed. I mounted it and it blinked around with me for a while until the ring's effects wore off, and then I focused on trying to get back to Karmana.
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