Editing Journal - Flames and the Guardian (section)

==Gateway to the Infinite Paths==

We followed them to the top of some stairs and then descended, without them, into a large room about a hundred feet by forty. A pair of large bronze doors were set in the wall opposite the stairs, one had a relief of Kelditch and the other a relief of his staff with the sphere upon it. There were unlit torch sconces around the edge of the room. As we stood before them, I used dweomer to protect us both from fire, wary of what we might find beyond. Falcor touched the door first and heard a booming voice in his mind asking who sought to enter his temple. He referred to him as &quot;Karmana's child&quot; but it was more like a question apparently. Falcor instead spoke of his devotion to Milada, and saw her for a moment as she welcomed &quot;her Guardian&quot;, and he was touched by her power and his wounds healed in that moment (Milada is Kelditch's aunt it seems). Kelditch was appeased, and the door opened for him into a corridor running left and right but with more double doors straight ahead. I grabbed the other handle and also heard the voice of Kelditch, but he welcomed me as his niece. He noted that I did not fit well with him or his brothers, and certainly was not aligned to Kraldar. He mused for a moment that perhaps I would better match his lost uncle, although that meant nothing to me. Then he suggested that perhaps I might one day be called God and worshiped, but I shuddered at the thought of that and rejected it as strongly as I was able to. He seemed to lose interest after that, although I was allowed to pass freely.

Falcor reached for the next set of doors, but had to pause for the doors behind us to shut before it would give. After that it opened easily, though - another defence mechanism I would guess. The Gate was there, right in front of us! We could see four magma winged beasts, and two snake-like creatures with spears within the flames. The gold pattern was set around the gate in the floor but we could see that there was more to it from here. A gold-ringed hole was close to us at the intersection of the two lines, only a couple of inches across as if something could be set within it. Large (fist sized) gemstones were set evenly along the gold lines of the symbol, three on each side in each line, so twelve total. At the far side where the lines intersected again stood a shaft of wood, sticking up about three or four feet from the floor. There was one gem faintly glowing on the right a distance from us. We could feel no heat here, even though we knew that we were close to an inferno. There were also murals around the walls, completely covering them.

I moved forward to look closer at the nearest gem, noting that the fire creatures did not react to our presence. There was a carving of &quot;Death&quot; (AMAT) next to it; typical that I should see that first, I cursed my father's name yet again under my breath. Falcor went clockwise and found &quot;Life&quot; (LERAL). The others were Air (AELI), Water (MAR), Fire (HIGN), and Earth (HUM). We met on the far side and took a look at the wooden stick. It looked much like Kelditch's staff, but it was hard to say if it actually was as it had been broken off (the top was missing). I looked up at the murals to see if they might help; there were twelve of those, all variants of Kelditch with his staff aloft and energy lines coming out of the orb as he strode confidently through a variety of hostile environments: lakes of fire, a barren landscape of ash dust, pockets of air within deep soil, walking on water whilst surrounded by more water, a strangely white grainy windswept desert of sand, floating in mid-air, one with just him (which seemed a little out of place), a land of death (I knew that one), a hellish place full of fire and corpses and hideous horned headed beasts, lightning bolts and bright burning images of the sun in a chaotic confusion, a forge of teeming life, and a dusty desert of ash, all those in order clockwise.

I tried to sense any psychic impressions from the staff but I was overwhelmed by multiple images of Kelditch placing the staff into the hole followed by a massive release of energy, and I passed out. I fell across the line, the heat starting to affect the parts of me that were exposed, but thankfully Falcor saw what was happening and pulled me away. It looked like I might have got the attention of a couple of creatures, but they were scanning the area rather than looking directly at us so I could only have been visible for a moment when I passed over the protective sigil. Falcor used a potion to heal me, including my mind, and I came too a little surprised and disorientated. After a moment, though, I was able to relay what I had seen and recover my senses.

We left the temple through the doors nearest the stick, closing the doors behind us. Then Falcor used a small axe I hadn't seen before to summon a huge earth elemental, at least three times his height! He told it to retrieve the stick, and it passed straight through the wall to enter the room. A minute or so later it returned and dropped the stick at Falcor's feet. I opened the door a crack to see if anything had changed, and it seemed hotter, with the fire still visible in the centre. That hadn't done what we wanted, so we walked around the corridor to where we had entered first, meaning to try the other hole. When we looked through that door we discovered that the fire was coming and going, perhaps randomly, so the gate was no longer open to a single place. Falcor commanded the elemental to place the stick in the hole on this side to see what that did, and after a few minutes it returned. When we looked this time, there was an ash monster in the centre of a black dusty circle instead!

We decided that it was better to leave it without control, if it kept moving between the fire and ash then neither would be dominant and the temple could be more easily contained. Falcor told the elemental to retrieve the stick one last time. We crossed via the corridor to the far doors again and this time left the temple, finding more stairs leading up in a similar fashion to the ones we had descended earlier. I tried to sense psychic impressions again, and this time it was insightful. I saw through the eyes of, I thought, a priest of Kelditch: I was panicked and out of breath looking into the temple through open doors. The fiery circle was there with the complete staff (but no sphere) set before it. There were two people beside it, one in simple, plain robes (a priest of Treddar I thought), and the other an imperial legionnaire with the golden cock symbology clearly displayed. The legionnaire grasped at the staff and snapped it, sending a shudder of utter dread through the one I was &quot;seeing&quot; from. The priest conjured a creature of pure fire between us and I just saw him creating a doorway in the air for them to step through before the fire creature consumed me and I snapped back to the present.

At least we knew what had happened, even if it didn't help much right now. We returned to Baltheus by the same route we came, as he asked, and were offered food and water as he sent for Kanadius. I was particularly glad for the water after the heat we had endured at times. We recounted what we had found and done, trying to reassure him that fire could no longer fully dominate the temple. Kanadius recognised the names of Custor (Falcor knew this one) and Ilianna as they had both been taught by Kelditch. Custor now had the all-seeing eye (the orb) with him, and the broken part of the staff was with the Golden Cocks - perhaps what the priests had been guarding in the fort we had seen.

I handed over the staff, or what was left of it, and he chanted for a full minute before fire erupted in the air, without heat this time, and Kelditch's face within spoke to Kanadius before facing us. Kelditch wanted to return here to his temple, but needed the staff to do so... remade (although without the orb there was a chance it could work). He would help us to strike at Ilianna if we were to help him to return. It was clear that he had been able to draw power from fire, although we were a little wary of what he might do with such power. He forced Kanadius to return the part of his staff to me, which was a bit awkward - he seemed to consider me as more important than &quot;mere humans&quot; in some way. It was clear that he expected us to repair the staff and enable him to come back, but we would have to talk about whether that was a good idea another time. We were a little surprised to hear that he wasn't aware that the lake was being drained, but he did seem fond of the guardian within it.

We were able to rest for the night near the temple, by the stairs. We still weren't welcome amongst the priests but they did provide food and water, so I suppose we shouldn't complain too much. In the morning Falcor was able to use the power of his helm to learn more about the half of the staff I had been given. It had the power to open a gate to a chaotic place that we weren't keen on, but more interestingly it had a chance to close gates as well. I had to try, at least, so I entered the temple again. It was linked to fire when I walked in, the blazing inferno once again in the centre and some creatures of fire starting to form within it. I ignored it this time and instead focused on the staff, raising it in front of my and trying to will the gate closed. As I did so the doors slammed behind me in Falcor's face, narrowly missing me... stupid! I should have known it would seal itself when the device was being used - the whole place was built to contain the forces in the centre. Falcor started banging on the door, but I ignored that and refocused on the staff and gate.

It was a strange feeling, as if my senses were expanding beyond my body, and I felt my mind start to meld with the gate from all around and within simultaneously. I could sense the instability, as well as the bonds holding it in place within the symbol on the floor, I could also sense its tether to the gemstone on the floor, although the &quot;other end&quot; of that tether was loose. I concentrated on the gate reducing and being removed and was surprised at how easily it responded, almost as it if sensed my will before I had fully formed the thought. In a moment the gate was gone entirely and the gem stopped glowing. For just a moment afterwards I had a sense of an airy space full of endless sky, which I intuitively knew was far away, and a dark shadowy space that was here in this world, quite close, but with no clear features I could identify it with - near a forest it seemed, but which I could not say. Then I returned to myself and had a pang of frustration as my senses suddenly seemed limited and weak in comparison.

I immediately had a sense of revulsion at myself - was this how my father had started? A taste of power and then a desire for more? I dropped the staff and stepped back, sickened that I might be like him after all. No, I wouldn't give in to it! Falcor said &quot;are you all right?&quot; and I started, turning a little too quickly. How long had he been here? &quot;Yes,&quot; I managed, then: &quot;it's closed.&quot; A statement of the fucking obvious. I shook my head, then stepped back to the staff, picking it up. I looked at Falcor and said &quot;this thing is too dangerous to stay here, we have to take it with us.&quot; It was as much a challenge as a statement, but he seemed to agree and gave no argument.

Eager to get away from this place I walked past him and he joined me as we made our way back up to the next level. The priest guided us to the entrance we had used and we climbed up the tube, getting a welcome taste of the cool forest air outside.