Editing Journal - A Beautiful Death (section)

==Confronting Dalryssia==

Now that we had a location where we could find Dalryssia, we set off immediately through the mountains (wanting to avoid the forest if possible). We followed the mountain contours around back to the east and then north, climbing as we went. We were fortunately in a slight gully when a band of dark elves appeared from nowhere to our right, and we were able to drop out of sight before they had scanned in our direction. We waited a couple of minutes, and Falcor heard some chanting from their direction. I moved at a crawl to the edge to peer between rocks, catching a glimpse of three of the foe out of the original five. One was still chanting, and they hadn't moved far from where they had appeared.

We decided that we should attack, using the element of surprise, so we both used dweomer to move ourselves instantly next to the chanting figure... but instead we found ourselves within a grey nothing with no sight of each other, or anything else for that matter. There was no response to my mental call, and I found that I was able to shape the place with my mind, causing a flagstone to appear under my feet, so it was clearly a transition of some kind that had taken us away from Karmana. I used more dweomer to scan for any gateways, and after a few minutes I detected a transition point not far away, so I headed towards it. I had no choice but to plunge through and hope that it would take me back... but instead I appeared right in the face of the mage we had intended to attack! There was a strange feeling about the area we were in, as if a tear was opening in Karmana, but that it had not yet been anchored.

The mage stopped his chanting and cried out in alarm, and one of his companions appeared from nowhere, striking me with daggers as the others hurried to surround me. I struck several decent blows on the mage, but I couldn't quite take him down before he opened a portal and escaped. I nearly went with him, but managed to hold myself in place... I didn't want to leave Karmana again! I cut into a swordsman instead, causing such a serious wound that he dropped, ashen-faced, to the floor although still alive. I took some hits in return, though. I managed to cut down another swordsman, but there was still one wielding daggers and an archer backing him up. The multiple wounds I had suffered, although fairly minor, were beginning to take a toll.

Falcor, meanwhile, had spoken to Aergarnion and asked for help. Help did arrive, but the pegasus was engaged by fiery elemental creatures. Falcor conjured an ice explosion, obliterating one of them and leaving a much diminished second form, although the one that was engaging the pegasus directly wasn't yet harmed. He followed up by sending ice bolts into the weakened one, punching holes in it until what little remained was whipped away in the wind. A fireball exploded around Falcor, but his natural resistance to the flames saved him from the worst of it, and he peppered the other fire creature with ice, dissipating that as well. He also healed the pegasus when it arrived at his side, noticing that it had been badly burned in the fight. The pegasus dropped Falcor off near Borarla, thanking the pegasus, Alderot, for his assistance. Alderot thanking him in turn, as his intervention had saved his life. He was apparently the first lieutenant to Aergarnion, and how considered himslef in Falcor's debt, urging him to call if he was in need.

Falcor then used his own dweomer to teleport back to the gully where we had begun this escapade. He announced that he was back in my mind as he ran towards the sound of fighting. He conjured magic missiles to strike the archer, thankfully distracting him from targeting me again. I was able to finish the dagger wielder, and as the archer started to fire at Falcor I was able to close with him and run him through. Sensing Falcor's unspoken question, I pointed out that there was one still alive where I had been stood before. I warned him, though, that it was an area of planar instability, and I grabbed a stick (one of many that the mage had apparently been setting up in a circle as part of some ritual), pulling it from the ground. I was suddenly aware that the partially open gate was collapsing explosively, and threw myself down just in time to avoid being taken with it. Annoyingly the bodies, including our potential prisoner, disappeared with it.

We decided to continue our journey quickly so that we were not easily targeted, although I was grateful for some of Falcor's healing touch first. We kept following the contours north before starting to turn east as we passed the edge of the forest. It was getting dark, though, and Falcor was keen to rest due to all the dweomer he had expended. He turned himself invisible and settled down in a sheltered spot to sleep. I was still vitalised by the potion I had drunk, so I didn't feel any need to sleep, instead keeping watch. I suddenly had a mental flash of the golden dog thing passing me a warning: &quot;her servants are coming&quot;. I changed my shape into one of the weird dwarf things we had encountered in the forest, but kept still and waited. Sure enough I saw one of the folk appear not that far away, sniffing at the air, apparently aware of our scent but unable to pin it down. Eventually, to my relief, an angry voice drew him away back down the slope. More came hours later, though, and this time I changed my shape into one of the dark elves and walked out with the horse, knowing that they would find it anyway and wanting to draw them away from Falcor. I heard a challenge in a language I didn't know, so I responded in halting common with: &quot;who goes there&quot;? The response in common was very broken, but I made out that they were &quot;lords of light&quot;; I simply said: &quot;I serve Ilianna&quot;, and they turned and ran! We were undisturbed after that.

Falcor woke naturally, and the dog was suddenly there with us. It spoke of how the dwarves had once being great, but they had been drawn to &quot;her&quot; realm and could not handle the nature of it, so were driven mad. Now they were trapped and had to serve Dalryssia because they knew no other way. They had once sought the light, but now hunted in the dark for enemies of their mistress. They had learned to fear Ilianna's folk, though, which explained the reaction I had received. We rested to study and meditate before moving on, not wanting to confront Dalryssia in a weakened state. We eventually reached the highest peak in the north, circling south above the forest line looking for any kind of entrance.

Sure enough, as we rounded the southern slope to look northeast we could see what looked like a cave mouth in the eastern slope. We were above it, so we started to descend gently as we approached. We noticed that some of the trees here looked darker than in the rest of the forest, whilst others looked unusually verdant. Energy seemed to be leaking out of the cave in some way, for good and for ill. Our attention was soon diverted by a more mundane threat, though, as Falcor warned that he had sighted an archer just before arrows started flying perilously close to me. We both dived into what cover we could, but one arrow still struck me painfully. I crawled away from where I had taken cover, and a good job too as several more arrows landed where I had been.

I used dweomer to move instantly to one of the trees the arrows were coming from, pressing against the trunk as I recovered from the sudden shift. The archers were very hard to see through the leaves, but I seemed to be safe for a moment. Falcor sprinted between cover, trying to loose arrows back as he did so. Impressively he managed to hit one of the foe a couple of times, despite struggling to keep sight of him. More arrows flew back at Falcor, but his speed and armour saved him from damage. I shifted position, looking up to see the archers above me and suddenly arrows peppered around and into me, followed by a lightning bolt! Thankfully the bolt surrounded me and then dissipated harmlessly without causing any damage, otherwise that might have been the end for me. Some of my father's blessings were worth having, I grudgingly thought.

Falcor was struck as well, although not nearly as badly, and he returned fire, striking twice more. I stepped around the trunk of the tree, trying to keep it between me and the foes that were deeper in the forest, and sought out a flying potion from my pack. I downed it and rose into tree to face the two archers there. The tree, rather annoyingly, seemed to be helping them, almost moving to shield them as I tried to get closer. Falcor was finally able to kill his target with another arrow, and switched to another target. I was hit again, but at least this time I could see my attacker. I got close enough to engage one, but they dropped to the floor, the tree reaching out branches to slow their fall enough to avoid harm. I managed to grab the bow he dropped, which the tree had started to pass down to him, and slashed one sword across his back, but it wasn't enough to stop him.

Falcor had taken a moment to dip some arrows in poison, although I was unaware of this at the time, and found his mark with another couple of arrows, still moving to make himself harder to hit. I closed with the other archer in the tree, and again he dropped to the floor using the tree to safely reach the ground. A moment later, the tree exploded in a fireball! Not only was I badly hurt now, I needed to get out of the burning tree! I wouldn't last long on the ground, so instead I used my mental powers to step quickly away several miles in just a minute, putting me well out of harm. I paused there to heal the worst of my burns and wounds. Falcor, meanwhile, caused an ice explosion in one of the trees, seeing a body drop to the ground. He was by an arrow, though, as he paused to focus on the spell.

Falcor sent magic missiles back at the archer, which was enough to kill them, but then had magic missiles returned from the mage that had attacked me earlier. He was able to use his rod to absorb them, though, and started moving again to avoid being caught by the two elves that had reached the ground and drawn swords. Huge hailstones thudded down in the area around Falcor, but he wasn't affected by them so he paid them no mind. I hadn't realised, but he had started digging at the base of one of the trees with a command word, and at this point the earth had moved so much that the tree started to tilt over and eventually fell with a crash. An elf jumped clear, and he targeted him with more magic missiles. This seemed to work as the elf kept running, disappearing deeper into the forest. The last one that had been chasing Falcor collapsed to the floor, succumbing to the poison at last.

I returned to find the battle over, which was a relief as I had suffered without any bow to defend myself with. We took some time to gather a quiver and arrows to go with the bow I had taken, and Falcor kindly healed what remained of my burns as I tended to arrow wounds. When we were ready, we approached the cave, each of us moving to opposite sides of a steep section in front of it so that we converged on the entrance above. I noticed an engraving above the entrance - a star shape with some runes that were hard to make out. I was still able to fly, so I moved up closer to the runes as Falcor muttered a quick cantrip to clean them up a bit. The star had the word "LERAL" in the centre (LIFE)... a natural gate? There was also a gold line extending across the top of the entranceway, and Falcor cleaned the floor to find that the line did complete a circle across the whole of the cave mouth. There were more runes there as well - ARDU? inside the line and NI?IL outside. I used dweomer to interpret the nearest runes (not wanting to cross the line), and understood them to mean "the absolute absence of divinity"... which was a little concerning!

Falcor used dweomer to harden my skin, like stone, so that I might have some protection. He also worried that we would need to use something to influence the pathway that we were about to take - perhaps using Kelditch's staff to exert my will would be enough? But then again it might be too good... we didn't want to open a path straight to the essence of radiant life, as that would kill me! I started to examine along the line, looking for any more information. I noticed that the rock edge on the inside, of which barely an inch was visible before it became unnaturally black and impossible to see, was more like old, pitted, dressed stone than the natural rock on our side. Despite this observation, I couldn't find any inscriptions or mechanisms beyond the ones we'd already seen.

Resigned to taking a leap into the unknown, and reassured a little by the runes we had found, we held each other's wrists and stepped across the line together. At least that was the plan. As soon as I started to pass over the line, though, I felt a burning sensation and instantly recoiled, fearing for my life. Falcor still had hold of my arm, though and kept moving forwards as planned. He stepped into a small stone room, well dressed, with two doors opposite that had intricate sun carvings on them. Not seeing any threat, he started pulling me through, so I flashed a slightly panicked message that it burned, and he quickly let me go. I pulled my arm back, finding that it was fine. I could hardly believe it, though, so I flexed it and checked more closely, only to find that it was completely flawless... oh no. I could see where this was going. Whatever energy was in there had changed me back, given me the form I had managed to hide for so long. Damn this fucking place! I had to go through, though. I couldn't just leave Falcor, for all that we'd joked that I might have to wait outside. How could I hide my face, though? After a moment, I took off my backpack and pulled out a sack, grabbing the void dagger to cut some eye holes into it. It was shit, but I didn't want to have to deal with Falcor seeing my normal form. I liked that he didn't constantly make passes at me, or worse; in fact he barely mentioned my appearance, which was just the way I liked it. I'm not sure it would be the same if I let him see me in there. 

While I was doing this, Falcor had found he was no longer able to reach me telepathically, and instead studied his surroundings more closely. The walls and ceiling seemed bare, and the floor too. As he looked down, though, he noticed a faintly worn path between where he had entered and the doors beyond, as if it was regularly used. He was seeing in infravision, although he could see more detail than usual, because it was completely dark. He lit a lantern to help, but just after he raised it I stepped into the room from behind him wearing my mask. He half shouted in surprise, stepping back, but recovered quickly as he realised it was me. He asked why I had a sack on my head, which was a fair question. I babbled a bit, it must have sounded like nonsense - the place had changed me back, which is why it burned... it had made me beautiful! He was confused - why would I want to be ugly? Beauty was a curse, though, it attracted entirely the wrong kind of attention. I could tell he didn't understand. He just looked baffled, but didn't know what else to say. Curse this place!

I noticed that I could feel a little energy flowing into me. It had taken a few minutes to register because I was used to it - but that was only when I got hurt, and now I wasn't, so why was it happening now? I was concerned that if it didn't stop then something bad might happen, so I suggested we didn't tarry and jogged towards the doors. As I approached, though, they started to glow brightly, getting stronger as I approached. I quickly stopped, and reached for the serpent staff to push against them, not wanted to touch them myself. As the tip reached them, though, there was a spark and a slight shockwave. I blinked the afterimage out of my eyes to find Falcor barrelling through the doors at a fast pace! There was a wider corridor beyond that led towards a room, but piles of rubble partially blocked the way so we couldn't be sure what might be in there. There was a diffuse glow from all the stones, walls, floor and ceiling, that brought some light to the area. Falcor stopped about halfway down, putting out his lantern as it wasn't needed, and explained that he was compelled to get away from the staff urgently... it seemed the doors had somehow used the power of the staff against him!

Falcor moved foward more cautiously, checking the wall on the left. The light was definitely coming from the stone, as he could just about see it through his hand, but it didn't feel odd in any way. The constant flow of energy was still there for me, so I moved quickly towards the room up ahead. I could just about see some regular pattern of markings or something along the walls in the room on each side, but it was too far to see the detail. Falcor picked up a stone from one of the piles, judging it a little heavy and possibly run through with ore, and then he threw it foward into the room. Nothing happened, other than the noise of it impacting, so I kept going, moving between the piles to enter the room. As I passed the heaps of stone I looked left and right, and a good job I did as I noticed a couple of short, grey figures hidden amongst the rock, their skin and dirty clothes blending really well into the background. I flashed a quick warning to Falcor and drew swords as they leapt to attack me. They yelled loudly, and others started to appear at the far end of the room from behind a much larger pile of stones. They were armed with daggers and didn't manage to find my flesh in the initial attack, but my own blows struck home and one fell to the floor, blood spurting from its wounds.

Falcor summoned a pattern of colours that mesmerised three of the new arrivals. I sliced across the chest of my other attacker, but then more burst from the walls, emerging from small stone doors - that's what I had seen from the corridor, then. They closed with me and I noticed some even smaller creatures emerge after the others, darting forward behind their larger companions (although they were all really small to be honest). The tiny ones were clothed with small knifes at their side, so probably intelligent, and had blueish skin in a variety of colours. I was surrounded now, but somehow avoided any major damage, and managed to finishing off the one I had previously hurt despite trying to avoid all the daggers.

Falcor created a mass of webs along one side of the room, aiming to catch half of the creatures within it, although a couple of them seemed to be able to ignore it. Falcor advanced towards the melee, but used his mind to blast a number of them as he did so, causing one to flee and one to collapse. We were both now completely surrounded, and to make matters worse the smaller ones were trying to steal our stuff while we were distracted! I was worried about losing the dagger on my belt, which we had planned to use on Dalryssia, so I focused on the tiny ones first. They were hard to hit, though, especially when you were wearing a fucking sack on your head and had to keep dipping your head down just to see that low! I finally managed to catch on with a reverse swing, and Aramat cut him in two with ease. One leapt at Falcor from the rocks behind him, but he had seen him coming and turned just at the right time to skewer him on his sword, flicking its small body aside with ease. Falcor was stabbed by a grey foe, but he ignored the pain and instead decapitated the other tiny blue foe. I was spending more time trying to avoid blows than land them, or that's how it seemed anyway. After what seemed like an age I finally managed to wrong-foot the other tiny thief and ran him through. I was still surrounded by the grey folk, though!

I finished off one of the taller ones, but suddenly started to notice I was taking damage... Falcor's stoneskin dweomer had been protecting me without me even realising, but had clearly had its power expended. I didn't feel too bad, though, as there was so much energy infusing the place that it seemed I had life energy to spare! Falcor, on the other hand, had suffered a few hits and didn't seem happy about it! He clubbed one to death with his rod, but was cut a couple of times again. I slashed another grey one to death, but was still surrounded; did these things ever stop coming? As I was cutting into another one, the walls suddenly glowed more intensely, and the light was almost like daylight. We noticed that, in the new light, the wounds on the foes we were fighting started to knit before our eyes!

Falcor struck one and activated his rod, causing one foe to stop and stare wide-eyed in terror at him. That didn't stop Falcor running him through with his sword, though, and he then turned and cut down another foe. I was surprised, given how much I had to move around to dodge (and to have any hope of seeing through my sack), that my opponents had suddenly stopped moving as well; they were all standing stock-still staring over my shoulder in fear at Falcor. I tried grabbing and shaking one, but there was no reaction even when I shouted at him, so I ran forwards instead, spotting a way out behind the large pile of rocks at the far end of the room. The walls were getting painfully bright now, so I kept going and to my relief found that the corridor beyond was not as bright. There was a pile of rubble up ahead, covering the way forward from floor to ceiling, but a passage branched off to the left just before it. As I was taking this in, the room exploded with a bright flash of light behind me. I turned, looking for Falcor, but he came striding out with a grin on his face as it had apparently made him feel much better!

Falcor got out a wand and created a passage into the pile of rocks, but it wasn't enough to reach the other side so I jogged around the corner to see what was that way. This proved to be a mistake, as the floor parted at my feet! Thankfully I had stepped near the edge of the circular opening that had been revealed, so I managed to shift my weight backwards to fall away instead of down. I caught a glimpse of blades below before the stone slid smoothly back into place to hide the pitfall again. Now it had moved, though, I could make out the area that I needed to avoid; it stretched across the whole width of the corridor, but I was still able to fly so I could pass it easily. Falcor was now shifting rocks with his mind, making slow but steady progress through the blockage, so I flew up to the door and left him too it. As soon as I put the slightest weight on the floor, another pit trap opened beneath me, but this time I just floated above it and let it close again. I listened, hearing nothing through the door, but then Falcor called out that he'd found a way through, so I flew back to the relative safety of the main corridor. I climbed through the passage he had dug and joined him at a crossroad just past the end of the blockage.

There was a minecart track running left and right across the junction, with the way straight ahead blocked by yet more stones. We turned right, entering some mining tunnels with the rails turning to our right before a door and more corridors. There was nobody in sight, and I approached the door to find it locked. A bit of dweomer opened it easily, but only revealed a lot of abandoned rubbish - sleepers, machinery, iron bars, basic storage boxes, small sacks, that sort of thing. It seemed futile to get diverted down these side corridors, so we headed back to the main corridor to see if we could get through the next blockage. Falcor focused his mind on the rocks, and somehow picked up and threw a huge chunk of them past us back along the corridor with a flick of his head. The mass crashed into the stones we passed earlier noisily, and chunks scattered across the floor as it moved. Fragments exploded back towards us with the force of the impact, pinging off Falcor's armour, and dust hung in the air. The sack on my head at least kept the dust out of my mouth. Once the last fragment had finished skittering across the floor it fell eerily silent. We moved into the corridor, seeing that there were still rocks blocking the way, although a good ten feet had been cleared, and then we felt a vibration on the tracks. Looking down the other side-corridor, I saw an empty minecart coming towards us on the tracks.

I created a light some distance ahead, hopefully beyond the blockage, and started moving it back towards us. Falcor hoped that if we could see any glimmer of light through the rock then it would give us an idea of how far back it went. Now we heard a different sound, like a heavy wood club or log striking stone, coming from up beyond where the cart had appeared. Falcor used a wand to dig through one side of the blockage, and immediately saw light beyond as it opened into the far side. I jogged through and found a completely clear, undisturbed corridor. The walls were of a different construction that the corridor we had just left, being white granite veined with reds and oranges, although grimy with dust. The ceiling was slightly arched, where previously it had been flat slabs. Falcor looked at the cart, seeing some small figures stick their heads up and punt the cart forward with poles before ducking down below the lip again, and then joined me. As I entered the new section, for the first time ever, I lost connection with my father's realm. I'd never felt this loss before, or even noticed that the connection was there... until it wasn't. I wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or bad, to be honest. I'd wanted to be free of him for so long, but at the same time I realised that some part of who I was could not be separated from the place he called home.

My reverie was broken by a loud crash as the cart hit the debris on the tracks on the other side of the rocks behind us. We looked back to see that the four grey humanoids had leapt clear and landed on their feet; they were looking right at us, and from their stance were about to come after us. Falcor started reading a scroll, so I stepped towards them, ready to protect him. Sure enough, they sprinted towards us through the gap in the rocks... but as they reached the change in the corridor to the white, flecked rock they slowed and started to look around in joy and what looked like rapture. They all touched the wall, and one started chanting in a loud calling voice - too loud to just be calling on dweomer. Falcor finished his scroll, and the chanting cut off abruptly as the one speaking was held fast by dweomer.

A different voice took up the chant, though, as we picked up the pace and ran down the corridor. Falcor paused to use more dweomer, and the chant was cut off again as the area the greys were stood in became unnaturally silent. In the sudden silence, I noticed that that there was a little rhythmic surging to the energy I had been feeling flowing into me, like a heartbeat. Could the very place we stood in be alive? I jogged forward, but stopped as the energy began to make me feel uncomfortable; my skin was irritable, like it was inflamed all over, and I felt bloated, like every part of my body was filling up with too much energy. Slightly panicked, I ran back whilst communicating the sensation to Falcor. He was a little confused, and asked where I was going; I irritably flashed back that the last time I had felt some relief from the energy was when the creatures had struck me in the fight we had earlier, so I wanted to start a fight! Falcor said: "I can hit you if you like?" That threw me a bit, but sort of made sense, as much as anything could in this crazy place anyway. What the hell, go on then, I just said: "okay!" Falcor punched me in the head, which I wasn't quite expecting, although I guess the sack made it easier for him. Although he hadn't pulled the punch, it weirdly felt good as I felt the energy diminish as it tried to heal the damage. I might have vocalised that it felt good, which was probably a bad idea.

Falcor was a bit suspicious of the sudden change in the corridor, and he reached out with his mind, sensing at least half a dozen neutral auras that were between five and twenty feet beyond the walls around us. The walls still seemed real to him, though, and he placed a hand on one without any noticeable change. I could feel the energy building within me again, and on a whim I half-drew the sword that Falcor had given me just to draw blood on my arm to give me some relief. As the first drop of blood touched it, though, I could sense that it was starting to call out for something. I managed to suppress it by force of will, but stopped and sheathed it straightaway. Where did Falcor get that sword?! I started to question him on it, but found his mind closed - apparently the minds he had sensed had drained power from him and his head hurt. He spoke, for the first time in ages, out loud: "It's dangerous to use our minds. We've got to get to end of the corridor!" He started moving forwards, picking up speed quickly, but also shouted something about dweomer in the corridor that could be masking something.

I jogged forward towards him, but searched for a scroll as I did so; it would allow me to disperse dweomer in an area, which I hoped would help confirm Falcor's theory. I aimed the effect just ahead of Falcor, so that we could both see it, and we saw the coloured flecks disappear from the walls after I finished casting it. Otherwise they seemed unchanged, though - the simple white stone did stand out from the surrounding area, but was otherwise unremarkable. Falcor was still suspicious, though, and thought that it would be worth trying the same effect at the beginning of the white corridor, reasoning that if someone wanted to hide a mechanism or alternative route then that would be the best place to do so. We backtracked down the corridor, and once more I felt the pressure of the energy around me building up inside. I called to Falcor to hit me again, and he obliged with a strong blow that relieved some of the discomfort. He asked: "again?". I nodded, then realised the sack didn't make that obvious, so just said: "yes". He swung again, and this time I felt much better. I wasn't sure I liked that Falcor seemed to be enjoying his role of inflicting pain. It brought back some memories I'd managed to forget about for a while... no, I would have to find another way. I turned and ran towards the rocks and the grey figures that were still there.

I rushed the four figures, and saw that two reacted to my approach. I thought this would be easy, but when I swung my swords the balance felt off and it was harder to control them, like the very place was deflecting them away from my targets. I connected with the first blow, carried by my momentum, but several more swings went wide of the mark. I was struggling so much that I sheathed one sword and threw down my staff instead, willing it to turn into a serpent. It worked far more quickly than usual here, and seemed even larger than normal, filling most of the corridor near me. Falcor was forced back again, as if all the power of the staff were being discharged at once. The snake entwined one foe and started to crush them, leaving me to focus on one and try to get my sword to cooperate. I finally managed to finish them off, more by brute force than finesse, and shortly afterwards heard the cracking of bones somewhere within the snake's coils. I commanded it to come back and resume staff form, stowing it across my back again.

I moved one of the held foes back past the boundary, giving space for Falcor to dispel the dweomer near the boundary without freeing them. Once Falcor finished chanting we examined the walls, but there was no obvious effect visible at all. I started to search the wall by touch, but found it really hard to concentrate. I told Falcor, and he came to examine the same place, and I took a moment to pick up a dagger from the floor and stab myself in the thigh! I could feel the relief again as the energy flowed towards the wound, and I could see it knitting before my eyes. Now at least I had control of the pain, and swiftly turned down Falcor's offer to punch me again. I'd had enough of people that enjoyed inflicting pain already!

We then discussed what effect it might have if we used an artifact that was opposed to this place, of which I seemed to have many! The sword that Falcor gave me seemed as good as any, so I touched one of the coloured veins with it and sure enough the colour started to disappear slowly in a circle around the tip. It was only a foot, if that, in radius but it had a huge impact as the walls seemed to recoil from the sword, almost as if they were organic. Falcor tried pushing the axe he had used to good effect against stone before, but that was different. He paused for a moment and then told me that Karmana was crying out for a connection to this place, but he was not sure how to help her. We just had to admit that we didn't know how and carry on; perhaps removing Dalryssia would be enough?

Once again we turned and this time advanced down the corridor resolved to continue as far as we could. As we did so we reached the area I had dispelled the dweomer from, and I had an instant relief from the pressure of the energy when I entered it, pausing to enjoy it before we continued. The rest of the time I had to keep bloodletting with the dagger just to stop the pressure from growing. At least I felt in control... for now. It took about five minutes before we spotted some doors up ahead, again carved with sun symbols like the ones we saw when we first entered the cave. Falcor approached as I hung back, knowing how they reacted to me last time. These seemed to be made of a different, darker material though, although not as dark as the walls in the earlier corridors. Falcor touched one of the doors, feeling a slight change in energy before it opened slowly towards him.

The room beyond had a pair of gold doors at the far end, and they were glowing with a golden light that filled the room. The walls were a similar white veined marble, as was the vaulted ceiling, all flowing together without any visible joints. Set in the walls on each side were three alcoves, about five feet above floor level, and stone statues were set in each alcove, made of the same veined marble. They resembled winged gargoyles, and I couldn't help but feel that they weren't just statues and my walking past them without incident was unlikely!

The transition in the material the corridor was made of behind us had seemed like a significant change, strengthened by the loss of my connection with Kraldar's realm. I tested this further by drawing Aramat and speaking the words that usually caused it to burn with a cold flame. As I suspected there was no reaction this time, so it too depended on a connection with my father's realm. I used the dagger to self-harm again, bringing the energy within me under control as it was expended to knit my wounds, and then spent the time to raise my strength with dweomer, which took about ten minutes.

When I was ready, Falcor ran over to the doors on the other side whilst I hung back to see what happened. He suffered no ill effects, but as he reached to open the doors the items in his hands were triggered by the energy. Magic missiles shot out of his staff into the ceiling, and the blade of his sword burst into life, forcing me to dive behind the closed door beside me to shelter from the burning light. The door in front of Falcor opened easily, though, and he saw another white marble corridor beyond, this time with no veins in the walls though. The floors and walls were not grimy, either, instead having a perfectly glossy finish. More gold doors stood closed at the far eng of the short corridor, again with the sun symbols within them. This time, though, they looked like they were cut from massive sapphires.

I tried to use dweomer to skip the room with the gargoyles, aiming to appear in the new corridor beside Falcor. Something went wrong, though, and I appeared in the room behind him with the door slamming shut in my face as I accelerated into it painfully! The gargoyles, predictably, rose into the air to attack. They moved in eerie silence, and one grabbed my shoulders, causing an agonising pain as the stone claws crushed my flesh and bones. The veining from the walls was now covering the gargoyles, leaving the room a pristine white, although I didn't really appreciate it right at that moment. The gargoyles' eyes glowed with golden light, and my captor completely ignored a lightning bolt that Falcor sent into its chest.

I stabbed upwards with Aramat, connecting and causing the veins to shrink away from the blade as well as making cracks appear in the stone (not that I could see this clearly at the time). The pain from the crushing grip continued, though, and Falcor was raked by another but managed to avoid getting picked up. Meanwhile I was being lifted almost to the ceiling, presumably to be dropped onto the hard floot below. I didn't find out its intent, though, as Aramat struck true again and it shattered above me. I fell heavily, with chunks of the (now veinless) rubble falling on and around me. It was some relief in my shoulders at least, although the pain was still there for the moment. As I picked myself up, I sensed a hunger in Aramat that I hadn't felt before - a hunger for souls. Did it need the energy, was it the type of soul energy here, or was it freed from the influence of my father here? I didn't have time to think about it too much, though, as we were going to be attacked again.

I stood next to Falcor with my back to the door as he held up his hands and willed the doors to open. Unfortunately he stepped through before I could react, and the doors slammed shut immediately. The gargoyles swooped down, and I cut off the foot of the one that had raked Falcor, but another managed to grab me and lift me into the air again. I struck true with Aramat, knowing that it was effective against them, but I couldn't see the impact. Falcor tried to open a gap in the wall beside the doors, but it didn't work... possibly the walls weren't made of stone exactly, but something else? I struck with Aramat again, and again the gargoyle was smashed into pieces. After another heavy landing, as well as more damage to my shoulders, I was in a great deal of pain. My shoulders were a mess and the rest of my body battered, so I ran for the doors we had entered through, managing to parry off the gargoyles that swooped to attack me along the way.

Falcor teleported into the room behind me, and was aware of a blinding light behind him that was trying to divert his spell to another place. He managed to focus his will on reaching me and appeared just behind where I had been before I ran He followed behind me a bit slower. He followed me out, and as he did so the remaining gargoyles returned to their alcoves, thankfully. I rested against the wall, feeling the energy that I had worried might destroy me actually mending my bones and wounds. Falcor healed some of his wounds as we waited, but with no immediate threat we waited about half an hour before I was feeling well and ready to try again.

Falcor walked across the room, which again didn't react to his presence, and opened the doors. This time, though, he held them and waited for me. I sprinted for them, this time seeing the veins in the walls skitter rapidly towards the gargoyles as they started to come to life. The doors slammed shut as I approached again, but this time I was ready and just managed to slide through the gap, ending up on the floor beyond the doors. Falcor was trapped this time, though! I shouted to him several times, but there was no response. The doors wouldn't respond to me, of course, so there wasn't much I could do. Just as I started to get really worried, Falcor opened the doors again, holding his energy blade that was radiating its fearful light. I could not help but sprint away, but didn't get far as the sapphires in the other doors started to glow, and then dazzle, with a pure blue light that I found equally destructive. I ended up cowering in the middle of the room against the wall, my cloak over my body in a rather pathetic attempt to keep the light out. Once Falcor stepped through the doors, though, he was able to extinguish his blade, and I immediately noticed the change in light. I stood and backed away from the doors until I was more comfortable, the blue light diminishing as I moved away.