Journal - Conquering Fire

The Highest Temple

We knew that we would have to face Sostrol next, the last of the Sarn, but also now a Lord of Fire. Sostrol was the strongest of the Sarn, and to fight him in a place of fire would test us dearly. First we had to reach his realm, and Falcor told me of a temple in the highest place to the southeast of the island, where any world could be accessed with the right mastery over elements. We thought that such an approach would be better than trying to force our way through either the humans where the Sarn ascended from, or the frontline of battle between Air and Fire. We also ruled out Kelditch's temple as it was too difficult to reach.

So Falcor used the tapestry and the burning brazier once more to move us across the islands. We arrived in what we knew was the vicinity of the temple he had spoken of, but we could not be that accurate just using the tapestry. As we traveled, though, I sensed that dweomer was used in an attempt to divert our path to another place. Somehow we were both able to resist, though, and arrived in a snowy landscape as expected. We were enveloped in cloud so thick that we could not see very far, so it was impossible to get our bearings. Falcor hadn't realised that our travel had been contested in some way, so I spend a moment warning him that using the tapestry might not be a safe way to travel in the future.

Without any landmarks visible, we made the assumption that the direction of the wind was coming from the forge to the northwest, so we put the wind to our left and walked what we hoped was northeast, trying to get a sense of whether the land was rising. Fifteen minutes later, having not learned much about the landscape, Falcor warned that he had a sense that we might be being watched. We knew that there were guardians here, and expected to be intercepted at some point, but there was also a chance that the dark elves had followed us. We kept going, but scanned our surroundings for any sign of trouble. It was about another fifteen minutes before Falcor caught a glimpse of movement; it was one of the Guardians, he was sure.

A moment later there was a series of roars as the Guardians burst from the snow behind us, but their focus wasn't on us - they were attacking some dark elves that had been moving towards us. There were more Guardians ahead, running towards us, but we forced ourselves to stay calm and wait, and sure enough they were passing by to join the fight and did not mean us harm. Falcor turned to run with them, aiming to help with the fight, and I thought to do the same but paused as a Guardian shaman stepped out of the cloud to appear right next to me. He bowed slightly, saying "my lady" in high Elvra, before turning his attention to the fight. Falcor had conjured some magic missiles, sending them into a long sword wielding elf that he judged to be the greatest threat (the others all had daggers, although we knew what their poison could do).

I asked the shaman if it would be acceptable for me to join the fight, and he protested slightly, saying that it was their duty to defend me. I said that it would entertain me, and so he asked if I wished for them to withdraw completely. I declined, curious to see how they fought, and hurried to join the fight, drawing my swords. Falcor had already engaged in melee, cutting the one he had already hurt down with a single blow. A fireball exploded behind me as I moved forward, washing over me harmlessly but hurting the shaman. He had managed to dive into the snow to mitigate some of the damage, but his back was still charred and smoking slightly. A dark elf was also engulfed, and burst into flames before dropping dead. I changed from moving to join the fight to trying to help one of the Guardians, healing a little of the damage he had suffered.

I moved forward again, as more dark elves were approaching, without realising it I had moved just in time - fire rained down from the murky sky just behind me! Sadlyu the Guardian I had helped was killed by the flames striking the ground, and the shaman was badly burned, left whimpering in pain and unable to act. I engaged a swordsman, landing a couple of good blows, and Falcor summoned a lightning bolt to strike at the mage just on the edge of my vision, catching another swordsman in the bolt as he did so. The force of the bolt rips holes in both of them and they dropped, lifeless. I finished my foe off with another blow, but Falcor was engaged by a dagger-wielding opponent. Falcor's armour deflected the dagger blow, and he struck at the foe twice, causing the elf's legs to buckle with the power of his blow, and leaving him dead.

The group of Guardians that had been behind us initially were falling, and the dark elves turned on us as we closed, one blow scraping off my armour. Falcor was hit, but thankfully the poison didn't seem to affect him. I cut one down with multiple blows as Falcor finished off his opponent, leaving just one. I struck him twice as the Guardian shaman started chanting over one of the fallen, and finished him off as Falcor moved to help another of the fallen. Falcor was able to heal his wounds and draw out the poison so that he fully recovered, and the shaman was equally successful in reviving the warrior he was tending to.

Falcor moved to another fallen Guardian, but they were beyond his help, so instead he spoke with the shaman. He sought guidance on how to reach the temple, and had the shaman confide in him about how detached we "Gods" are - the cheek! We searched the mages body, as we had a tendency to lose them in our usual encounters with the dark elves, and found a couple of spheres we knew were part of their technique to move between worlds. One was a deep fiery red shot through with yellow, and the other green shot through with black marbling that was moving constantly. There was also a dagger that contained dweomer; although the blade was plain, the handle had organic elements woven through it in a strange design. He also carried a couple of potions: one was a sealed glass vial with a viscous, deep green liquid; the other was an unmarked metal flask, stoppered but definitely containing something.

The shaman commented on the red globe, seeing a clear link with Igsol, the Lord of Fire... was this the true lord of the fire realm? Falcor took the dagger, although we didn't know what it might be capable of. The potions we divided; one had some kind of healing properties, and Falcor took that, whilst the other offered protection against fire. That would be particularly useful, we thought, and as the most vulnerable I took that one. Falcor spoke with the Guardian shaman again, but he suddenly snapped his head around and stared intently for at least ten seconds. He said that the temple was under attack! We told him to go, and that we would follow as quickly as we could. Falcor was tossed a potion by the shaman to help with his wounds, but then he loped quickly out of sight. Falcor drank the potion down and his wounds were fully healed in an instant. We set off, following the tracks that the Guardians had left in the snow.

We eventually broke through the cloud tops and could see the temple up ahead of us. There were some huge blue-skinned giants fighting the Guardians at the base of the slope the temple sat upon. We could also see some dark elves on a hill to our left, past an unnatural patch of cloud that clung to the ground. It didn't look like the Guardians could hold the giants for long; the giants were about fifteen feet tall and towered over them! As we moved forwards, a white dragon looped above the cloud, some way to our left, and one of the elves launched a fireball at it. Falcor, on seeing this, transformed into his dragon form, his kit clutched in one claw.

The cloud was definitely not moving with the wind, so we suspected dweomer of some kind. Falcor headed towards it, but climbing to pass over it. As he nearer the hill beyond the cloud, a lightning bolt shot out from the cloud towards him, thankfully ending just a little short as he picked up speed after his climb. Seeing this, I turned towards the cloud, suspecting that it was hiding something, or someone, important. I saw one of the Guardians cut in two by the huge axe of one of the giants - they were seriously outclassed here. Falcor saw the other dragon erupt near another giant, quickly disappearing back into the snow with it, leaving no trace behind. In a moment, though, he reached the dark elves on the hill and breathed fire down onto them. There were a couple of white-winged creatures near them, but they fled in fear before Falcor had even reached them. The damage he caused melted the snow and left the elves badly burned, but it seemed they had all survived somehow. One was definitely cowering in fear, unable to act, though.

I headed into the cloud, but just on the edge of it I suddenly realised that there was a misty flying creature right in front of me. It was quite small, but the beating of its wings seemed to be refreshing the cloud, which explained why it would not disperse. I screeched to a halt, dropping my bow, and drew swords to engage it. The foe had an unnatural control over the elements, it seemed, especially as we associated them with fire and not ice or water. I sliced blades into the creature, and in response it turned its head right round and vomited green shit at me. My eyes and nose were streaming and painful, but I was able to blink away the worst of it and keep my bearings.

On the hill near Falcor, one elf tried to rouse the frightened mage, but without any success, so he drew his bow and yelled something to his companions instead. Falcor wheeled round and then slammed his body into the slope, catching three elves underneath him. One was crushed to death immediately, and the others were pinned and unable to move. I was readying a strike at the misty creature again when fire exploded around me. The creature was vaporized, but the dweomer washed over me harmlessly. The part of the cloud between me and the centre quickly started to disperse, and I could see a wall of four giants in front of a couple of sword-wielding elves that stood back-to-back. I wasn't sure I could win this fight!

I called on my mysterious patron to give me the power to dispel evil, and also flashed a quick image to Falcor of what I had found. I received a response from an unfamiliar mind of being pinned to a rock and molested by giants in a hot, dusty red realm. I retorted that I had already been there and it wasn't to my liking. Falcor took off again, killing another elf with a flick of his tail as he did so, and stretched forward to bite the archer in front of him. The power of his jaws almost killed them outright, and snapped his bow, but he released him and kept climbing. Falcor flew towards the cloud, and me, just as I was surrounded by the four giants. My patron's power protected me as I kept moving forward, making it incredibly hard for the giants to land a blow on me (thankfully). I knew it was of limited duration, though, and was grateful to see Falcor fly low overhead, roaring a challenge.

I ran into the cloud, barrelling past the dark elf swordsmen, and quite by accident found the mage I was looking for right in front of me! I kept up my speed and deliberately charged into him, sending him sprawling to the ground. I staggered to a stop just past where he had fallen and found a massive wall of icy blizzard just next to me. I sensed that this was a transition between places, and suspected the mage had opened it to summon the attacking force. Falcor had wheeled around again by now, and once more breathed fire at the foes below him. Two of the giants were consumed by fire, utterly destroyed by it, and the other two were badly burned. It should have been no surprise, I suppose, that they had a weakness to fire.

I sheathed my swords and reached for Kelditch's staff, thankfully finding that I could instantly dismiss the portal with a thought. The remaining giants let out a great roar as I did so, being cut off from their home. Falcor flew into to the cloud, looking to aid me against the mage, and saw the heads of the giants first. Having a target, he used my own mental image to gauge where the mage would be and lunged his head into the mist. As he got close he could see his target, and bit down on the mage, following up with a claw. I turned and cut into the mage's neck with Aramat, killing him. By this time I had been hit a few times, but the stoneskin dweomer that Falcor had prepared me with before we left protected me from harm.

Falcor clawed at one of the dark elves, and his target seemed to be struck with terror when he realised what he was facing. I engaged in a protracted fight with the other swordsman, eventually managing to best him and cut him down. Others had appeared from the mist, though, so I engaged another in melee. The cloud started to dissipate as we fought, and I took down one elf as Falcor clawed at another until that fell, leaving just one elf and the two singed giants. Finally I felt a pain in my back as a sword slash connected - I could no longer rely on the stoneskin dweomer to protect me. The giants were still finding it impossible to connect, though, which had certainly saved my life.

Falcor's wings buffeted one of the giants, as I finished off the last elf. I knew that hitting a giant would discharge the dweomer that had protected me, but I judged that it didn't have long left anyway so I ducked under its blow and lightly scraped its leg as I moved past it. It was enough - it seemed to scrunch into an impossibly small space and then disappeared with a slight "pop". Now there was only one... except that three more giants were moving up from our flank! Falcor bit the last giant, and it was enough to finish it off; then he grabbed me and took to the air, heading for the temple. A frankly scary amount of giants were converging on the temple, and another unnatural cloud on the far side suggested there might be another mage, and supposedly another portal, as well.

Falcor asked me to reach across to his pack and find some powdered gemstone in a pouch, then throw it over myself as he focused his dweomer - this caused my skin to harden like stone again. He also told me where I could find a tinderbox, ready to make the ash we needed to open a portal to fire. Falcor also called out to the other dragon, saying that we were there to help defend the temple against the attack. There was some doubt in the response he received, although he was at least acknowledged. We flew towards the northern pagoda and Falcor set me down before starting to circle. I set fire to the tinder, letting it burn out completely, and the I lifted it up near (but not within) the pagoda. Falcor landed heavily behind me as he concentrated his mind on the ash, which started to lift and drift towards the centre of the pagoda despite the wind.

As he lowered the ash into the bowl with a grunt of effort, a huge column of fire erupted into the air within the temple with a roar. Falcor warned that he would be picking me up again and heading towards it, but I warned of the magical mist and the creatures that created it. If we were able to deal with at least one of them then it would make life easier, as even my sight could not penetrate the cloud it created. Falcor lifted into the air as we saw giants running as fast as they could away from the temple, sensibly afraid of the elemental nature of the fire within. As Falcor took me in his talons again, I took the Creator's ointment from his satchel, as we needed an essence of life to control and focus the elemental force.

We could not see any of the misty creatures as Falcor flew overhead, so he descended slowly into the cloud until I met the ground beneath him. There was no visibility, as I had expected, but Falcor's descent had been roughly above where the pedestal was within the temple, and looking at my feet I could make out some of the gold lines of the star. Using those as a guide, I found the pedestal and daubed some ointment into it. The column of fire disappeared at once, and instead a neat gate opened very close to me. It still contained the very essence of fire, but there was no heat at all (it reminded me of the radiant cave after the Sarn's influence had been removed).

Falcor was all for going straight through, but I asked what would happen to the temple if we left it like this? Falcor paused to scan the area with his senses, and I took a moment to apply an oil that should offer some protection against fire. From out of the mist, though, some of the dark elf swordsmen rushed me, and Falcor was surrounded by small, ashen flying things. I dodged one blow, but several of their attacks connected and only Falcor's dweomer stopped me from suffering significant injury. Falcor felt an energy drain from one of the creatures as they breathed an ash cloud from their mouths. Falcor didn't hesitate, though, grabbing the two swordsmen and lifting them into the air, climbing above the temple wall and flying away to the southeast - he had sensed a creature in that direction that might be causing the misty vapour. He was right, flying straight into the creature and biting it whilst tossing the elves towards the cliff edge. At least one disappeared and crumpled, dead, in a heap below. The other slipped off the edge, but seemed able to control his descent a little.

I took out the wand of elemental control, but as I reached out with my mind I sensed a connection with another sentient mind... which seemed to be the temple itself! It was powerful, and wished to know if I wanted the target of my wrath (the creature I was about to use the wand against) to be gone... I was surprised, but tentatively answered: "erm... yes"? In an instant the flying creature was gone as if it had never been there. I sensed that the temple was both ancient and powerful, but there was no malice there, it was just... functional. I was distracted by more swordsmen that came running in to engage me, so I drew Aramat to fight. As I took a defensive posture, I noticed lightning sparks along the side of Aramat where the runes were no longer showing, but there was no time to look closer as the foe was on me. I connected well with one attacker, and the stoneskin kept me from harm, but I knew that I would start suffering soon if I could not take them down quickly.

A beam cut through the air from the east end of the temple (it was from outside, but I couldn't see that yet), and I just narrowly dodged it as I moved with the melee. Falcor was suffering badly from the ashen creatures, but at least had the misty thing in his jaws, so he was able to crush it and spit its broken body out. I reached out with my mind again, asking the temple to clear the mist from around me, which it did so in a moment. That revealed some localised columns of steam with vague shapes within them clustered around a pit in the centre of the temple, seemingly engaged in a ritual of some kind. As the mist started to rapidly dissipate in the wind, Falcor spotted the dark elf mage outside the temple. He swiped the creatures following him with his tail, causing them a fair amount of damage and stunning at least one, then he crashed his bulk into the mage in a heavy landing on the snow.

The remaining ash creatures flew off, clearly sensing that they were outmatched, and the cloud no longer prevented us from seeing around the temple. I noticed that the ointment I had added to the pedestal was being used up, as its essence was being consumed to maintain the portal; I had to quickly sheath a sword to dab some more on the pedestal to sustain it for longer. I continued to fight with Aramat, though, and managed to cut down one attacker. I could now see that Falcor was fighting, but I needed to keep the portal open and didn't want to leave the pedestal's side. I flashed him a quick message about what I had discovered in the temple, and he half acknowledged me as he tore into the mage with teeth and claw, leaving him dead, his body in tatters.

I fought with the last swordsman in the temple, trading blows fairly evenly, but Falcor's stoneskin gave me the edge. Suddenly the chanting of the steam creatures stopped, which was ominous, and I sensed a new elemental presence being introduced to the temple - some kind of negative energy near to my father's realm from what it felt like. I quickly spoke with the temple again, asking it to remove the steam things and close this new portal... but it seemed confused as to why I am asking - did I mean to ask a question or give a command? I told the temple to do as I wished instead, and at once it was done.

Falcor grabbed the dead mage, slapped a dark elf swordsman with his tail, and lunged forward to kill the one I had been fighting with his jaws. I sheathed my swords, ready now to enter the portal, but the lone elf ran after Falcor... did he have a death wish? I ran to intercept him, bodily checking his run and sending him staggering backwards. I drew Aramant and slashed it across his body, killing him easily. It was only then I realised he had followed the mage because he had no way of returning without the marbles they used to travel. Falcor grabbed me and squeezed his bulk through the portal, wrapping his wings tightly against his body and around me in the process.

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).

They were 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!