Cast of Characters

Alfred

Hero

Ambuse

Wizard of the White Orchid

Arnie

Knight

Coraline

Magic users guild Healer

Devarsh

Wizard, Head of the White Orchid

Ella

Navigator

Emitari

Wizard and Elvish Prince

Lady Fairfax

Guardian of one of the sceptre parts

Lord Fairfax
Lord Holt

Lord subjugated by Obar

Kabis

Evil God

Kalinor

Elvish ranger

Obar

Evil Mentalist

The Adventurers Chronicle Part 1

We Agreed To Do What??!?
I had recently had to skip town again and start
again trying to stay one step ahead.
I was in this town and I heard about this guy who
was looking for swords for hire. From what the
rumour mill had to say he had lost something of
his bosses and had to get it back. It didnt sound
too difficult on the face of it and I had no other
way of feeding myself at that precise moment so
I volunteered.
We all met in an upstairs room above a tavern.
There were two elves, one an obvious ranger
type and fairly non-descript and the other was the
complete opposite. He had violet eyes and was
almost inhumanly (if you can say that about an
elf) handsome. He was a lot like our host in that
he was dressed like an academic right down to a
school satchel for his belongings. The other
person was a young knight who called himself

Arnie and was your typical tank with his plate

mail and great sword.
The job we were being offered was this. For a
cash reward we had to recover a small chest that
belonged to his master. It was being carried
under guard when it was attacked, the guards
killed and the box stolen. The interesting part
was this guy told us that the box had been
magically protected and should we open it it
would probably kill us.
Well a jobs a job so in the morning we set off!
Arnie really was a tank. Not only was he toting a
great sword but he had several axes, a spear,
dagger and broadsword! Even his shield looked
like it was used more for knocking people on the
head than knocking swords aside!
Our ranger friend certainly looks like a typical
wood elf especially the way he has to
compensate by carrying the biggest longbow
you have ever seen!
Our employer had provided us with horse so we
set off. Thankfully Kalinor, the ranger was very

familiar with this region and he led us into the

wilderness. It did not take us long to find the site
of the ambush and the rotting corpses of the
hired guards. We picked over the scene of the
ambush and one of the bodies had obviously
been tortured, bound and gagged. What we did
discover was that he was tattooed with the
emblem of the Black Orchid a group of powerful
evil magicians. What we didnt discover were any
bodies from the attackers.
Kalinor tracked the attackers back the way they
had come and as we followed the tracks he
learned that there were about a hundred all told
and they were all mounted and moving fast.
We followed the tracks until the weather
deteriorated. We had to take shelter in a natural
cave. It was while we camped that the two elves
revealed that they could perform magic. Emitari
dried all our clothes and kit using his magic while
Kalinor told us about the terrain ahead.
The weather threw the biggest storm for years at
us and when we tried to take up the trail again
we came to the bridge where the bandits crossed

only to find it washed away by the storm. Kalinor

knew of a second bridge to the north so we set
off in that direction.
As we rode along I spotted something coming
down stream at quite a rate of knots. I pointed it
out to our little company but within seconds a
water Dragon erupted from the river and charged
down the bank towards us.
Kalinor, I think lost control of his horse and
charged the Dragon. Arnie quickly dismounted
and drew his great sword, Emitari was
concentrating on preparing some magic I think
and I hurled a throwing knife at the beast striking
it in the eye!
Emitari unleashed a fireball at the beast while it
struck down Kalinors horse and knocked him
senseless. Arnie charged into the battle to save
the elf.
Surprisingly we survived the battle relatively
unscathed. I was lucky with several knives
finding their mark, Arnie fought the beast to a

standstill and took everything the thing could

throw at him and Emitari attacked with his magic.
I have to say that we killed the dragon much
more easily than I had expected and then Kalinor
used magic to create a pit in which we buried the
remains of the dragon after we had removed its
horns and Arnie had taken one of its smallest
teeth to use as a pendant and even that was over
six inches long!
Having recovered we continued north along the
river bank until the next bridge was in sight. This
was a stone bridge with an old mill on this bank.
The mill looked deserted but just to be cautious
Emitari cloaked me in magic and I went to
investigate. Hiding under the bridge was a huge
humanoid monster. Now I am no ranger but I
know my folk lore! I reported back to say that
there was a troll under the bridge which is the
obvious place to find a troll I thought. Upon
further discussion the group decided it was
probably a giant.
We approached carefully keeping our eyes on
the place where the giant was hiding. It soon

called our demanding a toll to cross the bridge.

The sum was ridiculous and so we refused and
the situation soon degenerated into a fight. What
we did not know was that the giants mate was in
the woods behind us and started to hurl rocks at
us. The first flattened Emitari so I rushed to put
myself between the giant and our fallen
companion while Kalinor and Arnie used bows to
engage the giants. Emitari was not grievously
wounded and soon started to recover so I started
throwing knives at the giant in the woods. The
giant behind us was soon dispatched and so we
turned our attention to the giant on the bridge. By
this time Arnie was fighting in hand to hand with
the giant. I did not want to risk stabbing Arnie in
the back with a thrown dagger. Emitari was not
so worried and so quickly threw a lightning bolt at
the giant which quite shocked and dismayed
Arnie!
Two giants were down and a third, younger by
far, broke from the trees and tried to run away.
Emitari was not keen on letting a giant escape
and so he continued to fire off magic at the
fleeing giant.

Soon the fight was over and we were able to

recover from the fracas. And we could cross the
river. Soon we were back on the trail of our
quarry.
Soon we found where the bandits had crossed
the river and we followed them into the woods.
Even being a couple of days behind the bandits
did not matter too much; even we could follow
the trail left by100 mounted men. On the first
night we camped off the road.
During the night we were woken by the sound of
twenty heavy horses galloping past on the trail
we were following. In the morning we followed
the trail again now freshly churned up by the
twenty heavy horses. It seemed that the horses
did ease off in their gallop along the trail and we
soon realised that these were not mortal horses.
We followed more cautiously and soon came to a
fortress in the forest. This one appeared to have
been attacked and there were signs of battle. We
investigated carefully and soon noted that all the
defenders were dead and there were no signs of
the attackers. It turned out that there was one

defender left alive but even he did not live for

long. It appeared that some of the defenders had
simply died of fright!
The defenders of the fortress were the bandits
that had stolen the box that we were seeking. It
appeared now that the twenty knights that rode
these men down now had the box. We were now
on their trail and more worryingly these knights
seemed magically empowered and definitely evil.
We proceeded with caution following the trail left
by their horses and walked right into an ambush!

The Adventurers Chronicle Part 2

Has Anyone Seen My Keys?
Dear Chronicle,
Last time I wrote of our adventures I finished
saying that I thought we were being ambushed
by the Eagle Squadron, the military wing of the
Black Orchid. As it turned out and you will see at
the end of this journal I was both completely
wrong and not that far from the truth.
When they sprang their ambush with their 100
warriors we were not in a position to fight them
off. They immediately offered to take us to their
leaders. This leader turned out to be one of the
senior masters of the Wizards Guild and one of
Emitaris superiors within the guild. Arnie, our
noble born warrior and knight, was very
suspicious and did not seem to show much
respect for this wizard's position. I do not know if

this was due to a natural suspicion of wizards, or

the fact that Arnie only seems to respect those of
noble birth.
This emissary introduced himself as Ambuse and
warned us that we were in great danger because
of the adventures we had had so far and that we
were mixed up in the plans of some very
powerful players. He was not that forth coming
with useful information but then at that point
although we did not know it time was quite short.
What he did provide us with was the information
of where we needed to head to find the box that
we sought. He also gave us replacement horses
and when I asked for some robes and a more
protective set of leather armour he found them
for me. He then instructed us that we needed to
and he wanted us to try and extract the box from
a castle keep nearby. He offered to use his
forces as a diversion and we arranged that they
would assault the castle one hour after our own
attack or when we raised a signal. Having made
these plans we left with one of their men with us
as a scout and runner should we need to change
our plans.

The castle keep, when we set eyes upon it, was

not large or well-maintained being a remnant of
the more violent days in this region. It consisted
of a curtain wall, ditch and gatehouse connected
by a drawbridge and inside a keep with an
attached flat roofed tower. The walls were
patrolled by half a dozen warriors.
We set about making our plans initially for
scouting out the keep. I volunteered to scout the
castle and its grounds but I attempted to divine
whether I would survive such a mission but felt
that scrying was being magically blocked. This
both aided us but putting us on a heightened
alert for evil magic users and hindered us as we
were required to be more cautious in our
treatment of this mission. After much arguing to
no end Emitari took it upon himself to use his
power to become invisible and a hitherto
unrevealed power to fly in the air to scout out the
castle, keep and tower.
Emitaris report revealed that the tower consisted
of a ground floor guard room which was empty
but with two warriors believed to be Chaos
Warriors guarding the stairwell. We believed that

they were probably guarding the way down into a

cellar or basement below ground. The higher
stories of the tower contained an armoury, living
quarters and bed chamber but with no other
guards. The bed chamber led out onto the flat
roof via a ceiling trapdoor. These upper rooms
seemed relatively insecure with the rooftop
access and lack of guards. We assumed that the
item we sought was probably in the basement as
this would be easier for them to defend and
harder for us to attack.
We made the rudiments of a plan of attack. Using
magic we flew into the castle grounds whilst
invisible, I lead and marked out landing positions
and where on the tower wall we wished to break
in. Next Emitari was to create a magical portal
through which we would launch our attack. The
plan was then for me to use all my stealth to
strike the first Chaos Warrior from behind and
take him down leaving a clear shot for Kalinor our
Wood Elf to strike the second warrior. When we
struck we would become visible but we hoped
that if we could eliminate both guards by surprise

we could be inside and close the magical portal

before being spotted but the wall guards.
Maybe it was over confidence or an under
estimation of the power of our opponents but my
attempted assassination of the first guard did not
go well and rather than killing the guard and
leaving a clear line of fire for Kalinor rather I had
to drop and hope that Kalinor would fire on the
guard I had failed to kill. This he did but what had
been planned as a silent lightning fast entry to
the base of the tower became a grinding out as
we tried to fight our way into the small stairwell
and landing. Both guards turned out to be the
most frightening thing I had ever fought including
the dragon we killed a week previously. Soon we
were attracting the attention of the wall guards
that tried to fire upon us, Emitari used an
exploding ball of fire to clear part of the
battlements and Kalinor fired at others to protect
our backs. I tried to force my way in to the tower
and eventually left enough free space for Arnie to
join me. These warriors were so magically
protected that I found it almost an impossible
task to harm them with my relatively light

weaponry and I lacked the skill with my

broadsword to defeat them in a fair fight. Emitari
at this point joined the fight and through fireballs
and lightening which set the doors on fire and
added to the confusion of the battle. The Chaos
Warriors felt super humanly fast and resistant to
blows from weapons. Arnie, once in the battle,
absorbed a lot of their blows but even he did not
appear to be making much impression upon
them.
Over the last week I had frequently sparred with
Arnie and knew how effective his armour was but
also how it restricted him. I had practiced moves
designed to knock him to the floor or onto his
back, just to be prepared should such a situation
arise. Now seemed a really good time to start
putting these moves into practice and them at
last appeared to have an effect on the Chaos
Warriors. I threw one in to the burning door and
the collision with the iron bound burning door
seemed to stun him for a while and I tried to
assist Arnie with the second warrior. By now we
could hear other defenders trying to gain entry
through the door into the main keep. The second

Warrior was beginning to weaken, or so we

believed, but we also were suffering in the battle.
I personally was bleeding from my wounds and
Emitari and Kalinor has been badly mauled by
bow fire from the walls. Emitari ordered us all to
retreat upstairs which we all did; barring Arnie
who tried to continue to fight the remaining
Chaos Warrior as he had the advantage at that
moment. Seconds later Arnie joined us and none
too soon. The other defenders had broken into
the lower chamber and Emitari proceeded to
bombard them with fireballs. While he did that
Kalinor applied some healing herbs to my
wounds and I cleared my mind and tried to
formulate a plan of action. Arnie seeing a break
in the fireball bombardment chose to charge the
foe and I joined him, so much for having a plan.
We were faced with three opponents. A woman,
who under different circumstances would have
been considered pretty, a dark knight and a third
Chaos Warrior. Arnie lost the momentum of the
charge and left me to engage the enemy. It
appeared that his plan did not allow for the idea
of striking a woman. I took the issue out of his
hands and having prepared myself I threw two

knives at the woman the first delivering what

must have been a mortal wound and the second
dazing her. The dark knight tried to engage Arnie
and he was even faster than I am in a fight and
that is pretty fast. Arnie was forced onto the
defensive. I then started to battle the Chaos
Warrior much to the distress of my colleagues
but I had now formulated a battle plan. The
woman who I imagined to be a witch was dazed
and was susceptible to the attacks of Emitari and
Kalinor which proved very effective and instantly
fatal to her. Arnie was keeping the dark knight
engaged although he was appearing to struggle
with the knights sheer speed. While those fights
went on I then attacked the defeated the Chaos
Warrior. Finally we were facing just the dark
knight and his amazing speed. He was being
held in check by Arnie who was parrying for all
he was worth but even he was being worn down.
I joined the fight and with just a couple of offhand
blows the knight severely wounded me. I could
think of no way at first of defeating this knight. He
was so heavily armoured that my light weapons
made little impact; he was so skilled that, with my
sword, he could turn any attack I made and so

dangerous that he could kill me out of hand if I

stayed in combat with him. The only option was
to use a little stealth. I broke out of the combat,
waited a few seconds and then sneaked up on
the knight from behind and unceremoniously
dumped him on his arse. This was the break we
needed and Arnie then finished of our downed
and dazed foe. The unsung heroes of this fight
were actually Emitari and Kalinor who provided
everything from fire bolts, covering bow fire and
first aid whenever there was a lull in the fighting
without them I would not have been in a position
to end the fight.
With the immediate fighting over we quickly
looted the bodies of things that we could use.
This provided a large fortune in magical and rare
items. It turned out that the dark knight was
magically enhanced in his speed and his
weapons being made of Laen were fantastically
valuable and prized for their edge. Initially we
decided that Arnie and I could have one sword
each to enhance both of our hand to hand
fighting although Arnie really wanted both and as
they were designed as a pair I let Arnie have

both weapons. The knight also had a magical

belt that magically made him move at super
human speed. Arnie also wanted this belt
although he was not able to use such an item.
This was given to Kalinor but Arnie would like it
back once he learns to use items like that. We
discovered that most of our foes weapons and
armour were tainted by evil. When we looted the
woman it appeared that she was a witch and had
several items that were useful for Emitari but she
also had three throwing knives that were magical
and a belt that prevented one from becoming
stunned by blows in combat. These items I took
for myself and her other magical items Emitari
took.
During this appraising Kalinor became aware of
the outer guards trying to break into the keep so
he used his magic to seal up the outer door with
another thickness of wood. We then started to
search further up the tower and looked for the
black and silver inlaid box. When we reached the
top bedchamber we discovered the box. I
attempted to find and disable some of the traps
on the box but the box being magical started to

become agitated and started glowing. At that

point I decided that further probing was not a
wise course to take. We secured the box closed
by using belts and scarves. When we tried the
trap door to the flat roof but this was trapped
magically and it inflicted agonising magical pain
on Arnie and Kalinor. I did manage to disable that
trap and a further trap. We eventually gained
access to the flat roof.
We had hoped that the diversionary attack we
had arranged would have commenced by now
but there was no sign of it. We debated this for a
while as it was possible that we had been double
crossed and the guild master had no intention of
rescuing us. We eventually decided to fire the
signal arrow anyway and within a second or two
the guild master appeared, he was bloodied and
battle worn and in some distress. He instantly
told us to prepare to flee to Fey. With that he
magically teleported us about ten miles away
from the castle keep.
At this point we were still far from fully fit and
definitely not best prepared for a three hundred
mile trail south. We took a little time to prepare

ourselves and then set off on our trek. We

walked for seven hours that day before finally
coming to a rest. It was during that day that with
myself taking the vanguard position and Kalinor
coming behind covering our tracks that Emitari
and I spotted a number of demons flying ahead
and appearing to be searching for us. We hid as
they approached and they flew over without
detecting us.
After finally getting a nights rest Emitari used his
magic to teleport us into a library he was familiar
with. This took us forty miles away and out of any
search area that the dark forces could have
thrown up. We then bought horses and supplies
and set out on our trek south. This was an eight
day journey and thankfully uneventful. During the
journey I tried to learn as much as I could about
how to be a ranger and improve my skills in
those areas. I also discussed learning magic and
divination with Emitari.

Day 0
As we approached the city of Fey, a city of some
40,000 people we were met by an escort with a
guild member at its head and forty warriors for
our protection. This escorted us through the city
to the guild. Here we were offered refreshments
before being ushered into an audience with the
Mage that had helped us at the keep, another
senior guild member and another scholarly
looking mystic. They proceeded to enlighten us a
little as to what we had in fact recovered. They
revealed that they were part of a secret society
within the guild called the White Orchid. The
White Orchid appears to be opposed to the Black
Orchid. The story so far was...
200 years ago an artefact was discovered in a
tumbled down temple within a set of ruins. This
artefact was then studied by the guild and it was
discovered to be one part of a mystic key made
of seven parts in the form of a sceptre. There are
two unique properties about this key, firstly it can
be used to either release or destroy the dark god
Kabis or to free him from his prison where he has

been incarcerated for 100,000 years. The second

property is that it is fated in some way to be
wielded by just one individual. This individual
turns out to be Emitari. It was also revealed that
Emitari is not only a journeyman wizard but an
Elven Prince. 50 years ago this key was lost and
everyone has been searching for it since and it
had only reappeared.
If we do not gather all the parts of the key and
destroy Kabis then a rare conjunction of planets
will allow Kabis to escape his prison in about six
months time. This happens once every 100,000
years. If we do gather all the parts but lose them
to the dark side then they can use the key and
free Kabis at will. This is not a happy situation to
be in as all the dark side need to do is kill Emitari
and no one can wield the key so Kabis will be
able to free himself in six months. Kabiss
freedom we were told would lead to the
destruction of our entire planet.
It appeared to me that the survival of the entire
guild is dependent on our success and the guild
must be very rich. I cannot help but feel that we
had been used to some extent by the guild and

they owed us something in recompense. I do not

actually want anything for myself and I do not
really understand what motivates Kalinor. Emitari
is both an Elven Prince and a guild member, if he
saves the planet on the orders of the guild I
imagine he will become one of the most
respected wizards of all time, and he presumably
has little need for material wealth. Arnie on the
other had has been forced from his home to
make his own way in the world. I asked, if he
should die, if a small parcel of land could not be
given to him posthumously. If he has died, when
his family hear that he laid down his life to save
others and that he had won his own lands then
his family would have no reason not to be totally
proud of his achievement. Arnie has told us many
times that he was sent out into the world to earn
his own lands and fortune. He already has two
swords worth a small fortune each and now he is
guaranteed lands if he dies and the tools to earn
his own lands should he live.
The final act was when the guild opened the box
and removed the first part of the sceptre. This
should lead us to the next part and can only be

used by Emitari. Emitari tried this and felt that the

first part was pulling him to the East.
This is then the end of the second part of our
adventure.

The Adventurers Chronicle (part III)

I Didnt Drop It, It Jumped!
It occurred to me that the parts of this sceptre
could be hidden anywhere within any of the
kingdoms of Shadow World and as such we
could be directed back to where I have been
running from. I felt it was only fair on my
companions that they should know that I am a
wanted criminal in my own country and on the
run. I told them the basic outline of what I have
been accused of and the truth of the matter. That
I was accused of killing my betrothed and the
attempted murder of my local lords son when he
tried to arrest me. I also told my friends the truth
of what happened that I found the lords son
molesting my betrothed and that he killed her and
tried to kill me, I defeated me but I foolishly left
him alive hoping for justice. As it was, his word
was believed and I was forced to run to avoid
being executed for his crimes. I confessed all of
this in front of the mages of the white orchid and

Arnie insisted to know if I told the truth, which the

mages confirmed through magical means. I also
explained to all that about the only way I can
clear my name in a court of law in my own lands
is probably to return home as a hero who has just
saved the world or as a powerful mage with the
backing of the magic users guild behind me.
Anything less than that then the local influence of
the Lord would probably outweigh the truth. It is a
brave magistrate that finds against his own
Lords son and sentences him to death after all.
After that revelation I asked the mages of the
guild if they would extend us credit against the
value of the dragon we had slain so that we may
prepare for this quest and may we have access
to their craftsmen and artificers. This was not a
problem and I arranged gifts for each of the
party. Cloaks in greys and greens (reversible) to
aid hiding in shadows and moving stealthily for
everyone that needed one, a fine saddle for Arnie
and an especially balanced pair of short swords
for throwing for Kalinor. Referring back to my
need to prove my innocence I asked if the guild
would help me in my efforts to learn magic and

they have given me learning materials so that I

study as we travel. Finally they gave us two
navigator tokens.

Day 1
Once we were prepared they used magic to
transport us to a small hovel some 30 miles
outside of the city so that our going would not be
observed and we started riding north towards the
shattered hills. We travelled by imperial highway
as this was the safest and least suspicious way
to travel and in only a few days we reached the
point where we had to leave the highway and
strike north into the shatter hills themselves.
Three days later we came upon the ancient ruins
of a castle. The part of the sceptre that we hold
told us that this was our destination. We camped
and prepared to scout out the ruins. Kalinor is so
light of step that he is almost invisible and he is
definitely the lead scout even if he is not as
observant as I am. We scouted the above ground
parts of the ruins and there was very little left that
was not tumbled down and scattered. We found
the entrance to the dungeon levels and at that
point we withdrew.

Day 7
On the morrow we woke to an unnatural quiet
and it seemed that all of the wildlife had taken to
ground or fled the area. We secured our horses
and started to scout below ground. We soon
discovered that below ground there were several
rooms all in a state of ancient decay all bar a
stone doors chamber. Emitari identified this as a
crypt and one that was trapped and locked.
Between Emitari and me we managed to disable
the traps and open the door to the crypt. The
crypt was of an ancient dynasty and held the
sarcophagi of tens of generations along with
busts and likenesses of the family line showing
how they rose in status of the centuries. This hall
of sarcophagi ended in a small blank chamber. I
probed around and soon discovered a false
stone that acted as a lever to open a false wall.
This lead into a short bare corridor. A
suspiciously bare corridor. I cautiously probed my
way forward and I was right, we found a pressure
pad designed to set off a trap. I disabled this and
then we made our way further into the crypt.
When we reached the final chamber there were

three sarcophagi behind which stood two

thrones, one of which was occupied by a
beautiful queen. There was no way on earth that
this was going to end well or that this was
natural. I declined to enter the room, staying in
the corridor outside. The queen stood and
walked down to greet Arnie saying that she had
not had any human company for so long. Arnie
stepped forward to meet the queens embrace
and then fell to the floor, Emitari was the first to
react and he unleashed a bolt of lightning that
destroyed the queen, dispelled the illusions
covering her true undead form and destroying
her undead army that was closing in on us from
the hall of sarcophagi we had passed through
earlier.
We had not at this point found the missing part of
the sceptre so we set about searching this room
and a small anti chamber to one side. I
discovered a secret panel and behind which was
a sword and a necklace decorated with a swirling
magical stone. When I tried to examine that
stone it leaped from my hand and smashed, a
cloud of gas rose and formed into the form of a

man so claimed he had been trapped there for

10,000 years. He thanked us for releasing him
and gave Emitari a ring through which we could
call on him should we be in dire need of help. At
that point he vanished magically. Once we
recovered from that shock we examined the
sword and the hilt of the sword was actually the
missing piece of the sceptre that we sought.
From then on our mission was finished so we
grabbed what treasure we could find and left.
There was no point in leaving it, although we
here not intentionally grave robbing the crypt, we
had defeated all of the security measures
protecting this place so anyone else could now
just walk and steal whatever they wanted.

Day 13
With two pieces of the sceptre secured, we
needed to head south and east across the inland
sea. The city port from which we had to leave
was at the heart of a dispute and almost on a war
footing. I managed to secure us a passage under
assumed names but four days into our passage
we spotted a squadron of Demons high in the
sky, then we saw more until there were three
groups, ten demons in all circling above us.

Day 17
The sailors manning the ship started to jump
overboard and trying to swim to safety but we
stood our ground, Kalinor taking to the rigging
with his bow, myself at the bow with my knives,
Arnie on the starboard side armed with sword
and shield and Emitari to port looking generally
mean and battle ready. This time we tried a new
tactic and Emitari used magic to give us
supernatural speed. As the demons swooped
they were met in a hail of swords, knives, arrows
and lightening and a third of their number died, I
took a glancing blow from one of their demonic
great swords as did Arnie, but their losses were
greater, the demons swooped again and half of
them either died or were deflected in this strike.
At their third attempt, the only survivors were
either downed with broken wings or floundering
in the water. I never thought I would say that
demon slaying would be like shooting fish in a
barrel but that is what it was like.

We then helped the sailors back into the boat, it

seems that two had tried to defend the boat
bravely and had died but it could have been
much worse!
Later that day we landed. Having had that close
shave with demons we did not want that to
happen again in a populated area so we left town
immediately and headed in the wrong direction
hoping to either misdirect any search for us or
avoid any traps already laid in our path.

Day 20
The land we travelled through was controlled by
the church. There were three arms to the church,
a priestly branch, a healing branch and an
inquisitorial branch that held the people in fear.
As we entered a village, we came upon a pair of
inquisitors guards and in the village square, we
witnessed an inquisitor and his guards dragging
out a man as his wife begged for mercy. Every
one of us wanted to step in but we dared not
interfere in something that really should not
concern us. The churchmen proceeded to then
try and torture a confession from the village and
when his wife tried to appeal to them again the
guards dragged her away and killed her. To be
honest at this point I was amazed that Arnie had
not stepped in, the only reason I had not tried to
kill the whole lot of them was that none of my
companions had shown any sign of being about
to attack. Next the guards silenced the wifes
crying baby by killing it and that was the final
straw.

Emitari ripped the Inquisitor in half with a

lightning bolt killing him and the guard behind
him. It was like bursting a damn of violence. We
all poured all the arrows, knives, lightning and fire
into the remaining guards while Arnie laid about
him with his swords. Pity stayed our hand; it was
a pity that a guard escaped from the edge of the
village. Once the fight had been won we gave the
villager who was to be tortured a sword and he
then took revenge on the last remaining and
wounded Inquisition guards. We then decided to
put some distance between ourselves and the
village before reinforcements came.

Day 24
Some while later we came upon a village that
had been sacked. Villagers had been strung up
and the fields had had salt ploughed into them
rendering them infertile. Again, the next village
we saw was the same. It was shortly after this
that we met the vanguard or patrol. We had
introduced ourselves as Lord Arnie and Prince
Emitari. We were definitely out numbered and the
officer who approached us did so in a cautious
but courteous manner and asked us to
accompany him to his lords castle and this we
agreed to as not only was he taking us in the
right direction but also he had also not attempted
to disarm us. When we reached the castle the
whole place was covered by a sombre mood. We
were offered rooms and invited to dine with the
Lord, Lady and his knights. During the meal we
learned that they had been at war for ten years or
more with their neighbours and that it was the
neighbouring lords men that was responsible for
the scorched earth policy we had noticed and
that this was a new twist in their conflict. While

we were discussing this we noticed that the Lady

was wearing a ruby around her neck and Emitari
was convinced that this was the part of the
sceptre that we were seeking. This left us with a
bit of a dilemma. How do we get the ruby from
around the neck of the Lords wife and get out of
there alive? We decided to sleep on it and in the
morning to try and find out a bit more of what is
going in the area and hope that an opportunity
would present itself. Kalinor and I were going to
go down to the marshalling yard to see what
soldiers gossip we could pick up.

Day 25
As I was crossing the court yard a rider came
galloping into the yard, his horse lathered from
hard riding. He was met in the yard and hurried
into the keep. Soon we were all summoned to a
private audience with the Lord. It transpired that
his daughter had been kidnapped by their
neighbour and they had been given one week to
surrender everything to the neighbour. The lord
then offered almost anything to get his daughter
back. Emitari immediately offered our assistance
and he said that afterwards we would ask for just
one thing in return.
It did not take us long to kit up and roll out. The
lord had given us a guide to get us from here to a
suitable hiding place to camp in their neighbours
lands. We set up camp and after some
discussion we set about scouting the enemy
castle. The castle turned out to be a manor
house that had been fortified over the years and
surrounded by a curtain wall and moat. Using
Emitaris magic he made himself and I invisible

and able to fly. We flew in and settle on the roof.

He then refreshed the flying spell so that I could
spend more time scouting. Our first scouting
sortie was by day and we identified halls studies
and bed chambers but did not see many people.
We were able to estimate their military strength
and I did see one unusual warrior that stood our
due to his armour and weaponry. He was
wearing plate mail when everyone else was in
chain and he wore two swords. We have had bad
experiences of warriors that fight with two swords
so this was a bit of a sore point. I did notice that
the hall was being prepared for a meal so we
decided to return to camp and come back later.
We flew back and let everyone know what we
had learned and prepared to return after dark.
Kalinor at this point was to sneak into the keep
and see what he could learn. Emitari made him
invisible and being both and elf and a ranger he
could move so silently that he was almost
undetectable (ha ha or so we thought). We
returned after dark and repeated the same
routine. I flew around and peered into each
window to see what I could learn. When I got to
the study it was occupied by a scholarly

gentleman who most disconcertingly seemed to

be able to see me! I quickly finished the round of
the windows and flew back to Emitari on the roof.
At one point I thought I saw a flying eye ball
hurtle by(!) but things were starting to get a bit
weird. I told Emitari that I had seen the lords
daughter at the top table in the main hall where a
meal was in progress. Also in the hall were the
Lord, Lady, their son and all their knights. Emitari
then flew down to look through the same window,
he then used magic to appear (invisibly) inside
the room, placed a hand on both the daughter
and son and he then teleported back to our
rooms in our patrons castle. I then hightailed it
out of the castle and back to our camp to tell
Arnie and Coraline the good news that we had
accomplished the mission. We would have to
wait until Kalinor returned as we could not
contact him directly and he was not expected
back until after dawn when they opened the
castle gates and he could leave. When I got back
to the camp site it was deserted all bar the
horses and our belongings. I scanned the area
for tracks and could only find where it appeared
that Arnie and Coraline had apparently fallen

over but then it looked like they had either been

teleported out of our own camp or had been
carried away by flying monsters like the demons
we fought at sea. There certainly was no
evidence of any kind of struggle. Not being
particularly confident fighting an untold number of
flying demons on my own, I decided to wait for
Emitari to return as we had arranged. I hid myself
in a tree and waited. Emitari by this time had
returned the daughter to our hosts and magically
rendering the neighbours son unconscious had
enabled them to take him captive without a
struggle. When Emitari returned to the campsite,
I told him all I could read from the tracks. We
then set about quickly formulating a planned
rescue of our friends.
While we were discussing how to proceed a
squire or page entered our camp and (while we
hid) pinned a notice to a tree. After he left we
read the note and it was from the evil wizard from
the castle. He said that he had our friends
captive and we would exchange them for the
sceptre including the part we have yet to collect
from the lords wife. He also said that the sceptre

had to be freely given so we needed to come of

our own accord. The exchange was to take place
at a mill a days ride from our camp, about
equidistant from both castles.

The Adventurers Chronicle (part IV)

To rescue our friends we needed all the parts of
the sceptre together, our existing two parts and
Lady Fairfaxs ruby. At first we were not keen on
giving up the sceptre and endangering the entire
world and we set off striking our camp outside
Lord Holts fortified manor and rode through the
night to get to the mill ahead of the dastardly
mentalist and his minions. Once we arrived we
spied on the mill and although there were signs
of Lord Holts soldiers there was no sign of our
friends or their captor. We decided to back track
up the approach rode a few miles and prepare an
ambush. I prepared traps and snares either side
of the road and a few other surprises to create a
little confusion for when we sprung out trap.
Emitari and I could then launch our attack and try
and kill the evil mentalist and his lieutenants in a
sudden strike and we could free our friends.

Day 29
We laid in wait for nearly a day until eventually
the deadline had passed and we had to accept
that we had been out manoeuvred and they were
not coming down this main road. We returned to
our new camp not far from the Mill. Emitari and I
then concluded that would have to try and
negotiate the release of our colleagues. Emitari
and I teleported back to Castle Fairfax and asked
Lord and Lady Fairfax for the ruby heirloom that
we had asked as our price for rescuing their
daughter. Lady Fairfax handed over a ruby but
when Emitari tried to fit it to the sceptre it did not
join together as we had expected. As it happened
we did not really have that much time to look into
it. We then teleported back to the Mill camp and
prepared to confront the evil mentalist who we
now knew was called Obar.
When Arnie had been captured he was resting at
our camp and by chance his great sword was still
stowed on his horse. I took his great sword and

slung it on my own horse before we rode into the

mill.
As we approached the mill we saw that it
comprised the water mill itself, a two storey
house for the miller and a barn fronted with a
corral for horses. Erected in the courtyard were
two iron cages holding Kalinor and Arnie,
stripped of their equipment but conscious. In the
corral were approximately twenty horses and
around the mill compound were an abundance of
bowmen from Lord Holts army. As we entered
the compound Obar came from the millers house
with Coraline. Emitari proceeded to negotiate
over the release of our friends. Emitari wanted to
ensure their safe release before handing over the
sceptre. Suddenly it came to me that the best
way to save our friends was to just give Obar
exactly what he wanted and I really didnt want to
see them get hurt. Emitari eventually handed
over the sceptre once our colleagues were freed
from the cages. Obar then teleported out
immediately after telling the archers to kill us.

The Battle of the Mill

The exact order of what happened next is a little
confused; I was very upset that people were
trying to hurt my friends so I naturally enough
started killing the bad men. Emitari blew the mill
up turning it into a tower of flame. We had
archers in the house before us, in the barn to the
right and on the ground all around. Kalinor
created a wooden wall cutting the courtyard in
half and protecting us from half the archers,
Emitari started hurling lightning. I gave Arnie his
great sword and Kalinor my longbow. The arrows
were coming thick and fast so Kalinor called a
dense fog to fill the mill compound making it hard
to pick out targets and magically opened pits
under guards. Arnie lay about with his great
sword. Emitari spotted a group of guards trying to
come at us through the trees so he killed them all
with a cloud of sparking magic and I slew as
many guards as I could see. During the fight, I
came across Corallines body. She had been

shot through the throat and had been killed

instantly. Eventually we were running out of foes
so I vaulted the wooden barrier and began to
hunt down the stragglers. I believe as we rode
away there were less than five left alive and all
bar one was grievously wounded. The only one
not hurt had fallen down a pit but had his fall
broken by a guard that had fallen in before him
as they came through the fog.
Obar had obviously teleported to somewhere he
knew. We knew so little about him that we could
only assume that he had returned to Holt Manor.
We took all of the horses from the corral at the
mill so we had plenty of spare mounts. This
allowed us to travel quickly changing mounts as
they tired from the ruined mill back to the Manor.
On route we saw that Lord Holt had raised his
entire host and was marching on Lord Fairfaxs
lands. We made for our old camp ground and
from there Emitari teleported back to Castle
Fairfax and gave them a warning about the host
marching on them, before he returned to us.

The Raid on Holt Manor

Day 30
That evening as it got dark we prepared to raid
the manor house looking for Obar. Kalinor and I
scaled the walls and dropped down beside the
smithy whilst Emitari and Arnie used magic to
pass through the wall. I then silently crossed the
courtyard and unlocked the door to the inner
keep. As the door was barred on the inside.
Using a technique I had heard about from a
friend of a friend and with Arnies help I lifted the
bar and opened the door. Inside we crossed the
inner courtyard and into the manor. We spied
one guard sleeping at the foot of the stairs and I
subdued him but as I lowered his body to the
floor his spear fell with a clatter and we heard a
second guard come down the stairs to
investigate the noise. I dived for cover and
Emitari put the second guard into a magical
sleep. We hid the guards in a side room and
made out way up to the first floor where we knew
Obar had his rooms. Once up stairs we made our

way into the library which leads to Obar's

chamber. So far the raid had gone almost without
a hitch, so far so good. Emitari tried to create a
portal through the door from the library to Obars
rooms but was protected by magical runes and
these exploded outwards. Emitari, Kalinor and
Arnie then rushed into Obars quarters to try and
catch him before he fled but his rooms were
deserted with just an open chest left empty on
the floor.
We still had to find our friends possessions and
we did hope that Obar had just escaped to
another part of the keep. We proceeded to
search the keep working down through the floors
until we reached the cellar. Some kitchen maids
were startled by us but I made my best effort to
calm them down and convinced them to stay
calm and that they should stay in the kitchen
where no harm will befall them. While I was doing
this the others discovered the dungeons where
they had been held and the treasury. I soon
opened the door to the treasury and the chests
within. It was here that most of our friends
possessions were found. Unfortunately Arnies

Laen Glass swords and Kalinor ring of speed and

all our herbs were not amongst the items we
recovered.
Eventually we heard the sounds of the manors
guards trying to break into the keep so it was
time for us to leave. Emitari teleported us back to
our camp and from there we travelled to meet
Lord Fairfax and his army as they prepared to
face Lord Holts host. Lord Fairfax had chosen he
battle field and was laying out his forces when we
met up with him. We explained what had
happened and Lady Fairfax revealed that the
ruby she had given over to us had been a fake.
As a child the ruby had belonged to her mother
and she had a fake one of her own she could use
for dressing up. It was the fake one that she had
handed over to us. Lady Fairfax then handed
over the genuine gem and Emitari was
immediately able to sense where the rest of the
sceptre lay, about 200miles to the east. We
stayed with Lord Fairfax until the hosts met,
heralds exchanged terms and finally Lord Hold
and Lord Fairfax held talks. Both finally realised
that Obar had been influencing events and they

agreed to end hostilities, battle was averted

although Lord Holts son remained as hostage
reparations were negotiated and Lord Holts host
withdrew. We then agreed with Lord Fairfax who
said that we had done enough. It was time for us
to resume our quest and try and reclaim the
sceptre.

Day 33
Setting out eastwards we were entering land
populated by Centaurs. Centaurs lived in
smallish family groups which farmed the land and
these sometimes gathered into tribes. As we
rode east we noticed smoke on the horizon and
as we investigated we came upon the burnt
remains of a Centaur farm. There were no signs
of life but Kalinor found the tracks of three
centaurs that had left the village and iron shod
footprints of maybe twenty to thirty attackers.
Orcs! We tracked the Orc column back the way
they came until we spied an abandoned watch
tower, the lower two levels seemed to be intact
but the upper formerly wooden levels were
mostly missing and decayed.
Emitari made me invisible and I scouted ahead,
hidden in the upper levels of the tower were two
Orc guards. I reported this back and then went
back and killed them. With surprise, being
invisible and with time to prepare it took me just
seconds to mow the two guards down with these

magical knives. The guards were guarding a trap

door in the floor which Emitari vaporised
magically. Dropping down into the Orc hold we
started to investigate. We dispatched a few Orcs
that we encountered and searched rooms as we
went until we discovered what is best described
as a mess hall. Emitari created a death cloud in
the room and then sealed it with a wall of stone
and we then just listened to the Orcs dying enmass.
Moving on we eventually came upon a hall filled
with Orcs that we could not kill by surprise or
avoid. We attacked with bows, knives and magic
before rushing in to the attack. The Orc leader
was here with is lieutenants and about a dozen
other Orcs. We laid about us killing Orcs left right
and centre. It was at this point that I was hit by a
spear through my thigh which severed an artery.
***
I awoke to find the battle over and my leg in
bandages. Kalinor and Emitari had managed to
use a herb to stop the bleeding which would
otherwise have killed me. The Orcs were

defeated and we had rescued the centaurs that

the Orcs had captured.
The centaurs took us to their village where we
were greeted as heroes and made welcome. The
centaurs gave us a bit more information about
where we were headed, the undead marshes,
and offered to guide us most of the way there. It
was while we were staying with the centaurs that
I successfully cast my first spell and summoned
up a small ball of light. With practice I could turn
this ball into a beam of light, change the size and
brightness, make it flash until it dazzled and even
wear it like a halo if the fancy took me. To a
wizard this was probably childs play to me it was
truly amazing and proved that I was really
capable of casting magic. I moved my magical
studies on to detecting magic, the next chapter in
the books given to me by the guild weeks before.
Eventually we left the centaurs and continued
into the marshes on our own. As we ventured in
a sea mist rolled in and soon we were travelling
blind. Up ahead a rock loomed up in the path and
I heard a suspicious sound. Kalinor and I scouted
ahead and spotted a troll trying to lay an ambush

for us. To be honest a single troll did not stand

much of a chance against us and we all piled in
and ripped it to pieces, almost literally. We then
tracked the troll back to its lair just in case it was
not alone and we managed to find a couple of
magical items from previous victims. We found a
glove that gives greater strength, unfortunately
too small for Arnie to wear; flint stones that will
start a fire first time every time and a dagger of
undead slaying. Given the name of the marshes
we are in this could easily be the most useful
item we found.
Aware of the nature of the marshes and now with
more than undead to worry about we found the
best camp site we could, the ruined remains of
an old lighthouse which was not little more than
raised foundations. We made a cold camp and
rested til morning.

Day 37
As dawn broke we spotted the tower we were
looking for and the start of the causeway out into
sea that lead to it. Leaving the horses at the
camp we struck out for the tower. The causeway
jinked back and forth to confuse attackers but we
made it to the base of the tower without
drowning. We avoided the main door and used a
magical portal to enter. Inside were two Uruks
armed with heavy crossbows.
At such close range the crossbows took a terrible
toll on all of us but we soon dispatched the
guards and made our way up into the tower. On
the first floor we met four more Uruk guards.
Emitari fire balled them and in the confusion
Arnie and I charged in against a volley of
crossbow bolts. The fight was short and bloody.
The only way was up and so we had to take the
stairs, the lift not having been invented yet. As
we climbed the spiral stairwell the guards above
poured oil down on us followed seconds later by
a flaming torch. I ran up into the room to get

away from the flames whereas Kalinor and

Emitari both created walls of water that protected
themselves and Arnie.
I was facing four angry Uruks alone! This was not
good and they had those damned crossbows
again!
I laid into them taking out two with my
broadsword before the rest of the party arrived
and then the tide turned against the Uruks they
were killed. Unluckily I had been short by a
crossbow bolt and was bleeding profusely. I am
not that far from passing out from loss of blood!
By the end of the fight I dont think any of us were
much fitter, the party has no healing herbs left,
no healing magic and we are, none of us, in a fit
state to take on another four Uruks let alone the
evil mentalist and his henchmen!

The Adventurers Chronicle Part V

Boom, Boom Shake Da Room
It is entirely possible that we were a little
concussed or even a little stressed by the past

battle. After I had bandaged my bleeding

wounds, at the bottom of my first aid pouch I
discovered the magical wound clotting ring that
not only would have stopped me nearly bleeding
to death but would have closed the wound
allowing me to continue fighting without
reopening the cut. We had found that ring in the
trolls hoard. On the bright side putting the ring on
sealed my wound and meant that I could take off
the bandages. I would have been embarrassed
but at that point Emitari discovered he had been
carting around a wand of healing!
This moment of stupidity put a completely
different complexion on our situation. We had
been seriously contemplating withdrawing to rest
and recuperate, putting the tower under siege
until we were in a position to strike again. Now
we were realistically able to consider pressing
our advantage.
We explored the floor we were on and the only
sign of life I could hear through any of the doors
was coming from one room. At that point we had
not found any stairs up so they had to be behind
this door and probably an ambush in the offing.

Taking the bull by the horns I flung open the door

as Emitari let rip with a fire ball. When the smoke
cleared all that remained of the kitchen was the
two charred bodies of the potential ambushers
but no stairs!
We search the floor again an Emitari noticed that
there was some dead space, one room was too
small or the wall was too thick. We all examined
the dubious wall and I soon spotted the
mechanism for opening a sliding wall panel that
should open to reveal a corridor and we hoped
the stairs up. I opened the door with everyone on
full alert but luckily it was deserted and as we
had hoped there at the end of a short corridor
were the stairs.
Now the simple fact that we were dealing with
sophisticated hidden doors and lock mechanisms
should have been enough to put me on alert but
as I said I think I was concussed! I walked quietly
down the corridor right onto the pressure pad and
shot myself with a crossbow bolt. Luckily for me it
wasnt fatal. Arnie then took the blunt approach
to trap finding by leaning back and prodding
every flag stone with his foot until he set off the

next trap. With the way cleared we quietly

climbed the stairs with me in the lead and Arnie
as back up (I am pretty sure this is not the wisest
choice but it seems to be our norm now. If we
keep doing this I need a bigger shield!).
In these confined spaces Arnies great sword
was pretty impractical. Our plan was obviously
for he and I to charge in and take the flak. To
give Arnie a fighting chance I gave him my
sword. I hoped at this point that I wasnt making a
big mistake as I had no other weapon than a
dagger.
Subtly and sophistication is not necessary our
strongest suit and to save being shot at
immediately as we crested the stairs we put an
Uruks helmet on the end of a sword and poked
that up first to draw their fire
Nothing happened
I stuck my own head up carefully
Nothing happened

There were no Uruks at the top of the stairs. The

stairwell opened out into a small landing, There
was a door ahead of us beyond which I could
hear the sounds of humans and Uruks getting
organised. The left of the stairs was a blank wall.
We really did not want to open the door and face
a barrage of crossbow bolts so it was time for
Emitari to be inspired!
Using his magic he created a portal in the blank
wall and we stepped through into Obars alchemy
lab. Thankfully it was deserted at this time. The
only door in the place opened back out into the
room filled with the blood thirsty Urucks so we
didnt really want to go that way either. Emitari
was on a bit of a roll. Creating a wall of stone
across the door would prevent anyone bursting in
on us and would dampen down any noise we
may make. He then created another portal in the
ceiling above us and levitated me up into the
hole. I found myself on the roof of the tower! I let
down a rope and hauled the others up one by
one. To be honest we had not expected to be
almost outside the tower. The roof was
comprised of a dome above us and positioned

around the perimeter were thirteen stone

sentinels carved like female warriors all facing
outwards. Each sentinel weighed many tons and
veritably radiated magic. It was Kalinors time to
use his magic. I do not know what he did but
apparently he used some kind of necromancy
and learned from a dead sea gull that anything
flying towards the tower would be blasted from
the sky by lightning hurled by the sentinels. The
entire roof was part of the towers defences.
What we had expected was to be in Obars
private chambers where we could have
confronted him and hopefully retrieved the
sceptre before his Uruks and lieutenants came to
his rescue.
Emitari tried to focus his mind on the sceptre and
located it below us. Moving across the roof
almost as if water divining we worked out that the
sceptre and presumably Obar was directly below
us.
We arranged ourselves around his position and
prepared our bows and knives. One Emitaris
mark we prepared to fire and Emitari then

created another portal directly over Obars

position.
You Reap What You Sow
Obar was somewhat surprised and in fact did not
even notice us initially although one or two of his
Uruk guards did see the portal open. Obar was
seated upon a thrown with his two human
henchmen either side of him.
Fire!
We all let him have our best shot but to our shock
and dismay he was protected by a magical shield
that threw our weapons back at us with deadly
accuracy! The fact that I am so fast with my
knives was almost my own downfall as I cut
myself up quite badly and played no more part in
the battle although I was still awake at this point.
Realising that firing more arrows would not be a
good idea, Emitari thought that dropping
something big and heavy on Obar may break his
shield. He created a wall of stone above him and
let it fall. When the wall hit the barrier it exploded
in a hail of jagged shared that hurt many of the

unprotected Uruks and quite shook the tower.

Obar himself did not look in the slightest bit
injured but certainly disturbed about us being
above him and out of reach.
Emitari, not being someone to let a good plan go
to waste looked around for something even
bigger and heavier to drop on Obar. It seemed
that the only suitable object was about 30 tons of
ancient magical artefact in the shape of one of
the sentinels fitted the bill.
Using his levitate spell Emitari lifted the sentinel
and wafted it over the open portal and simply
dropped it. It seemed that Obar did not want to
leave his throne with its protective shield so he
sat there and took it like a man.
What happens when you try and destroy an
ancient artefact seem to be one almightly
explosion. The ceiling came down, Uruks were
blasted into or through the walls, Obar was
thrown off his throne, which incidentally dropped
the protective shield and his henchmen were
crushed where they sat. At this point I was no
longer with us. Stunned by the blast wave,

dropped through the ceiling and down for a hard

landing amongst the rubble was more than my
battered body could take.
According to the retelling of the tale afterwards I
actually landed pretty close to one of the few
Uruks not killed in the blast and it was Kalinors
bow work that saved my life. Emitari took care of
the stunned Obar with a lightning bolt or two and
Arnie raked anyone who moved with his bow.
By the time I had recovered the group was ready
for me to start trapping clearing and lock
breaking. We soon rounded up the most
important magical treasures. I myself gained one
of the bodyguards swords that crackled with
electricity when used in battle a ring that allowed
me to see in total darkness, Arnie got an identical
ring, and magical boots that allowed me to
teleport from one place to another. Arnie
regained his Laen glass blades and Kalinor got
his ring of magical speed back. We also gained a
very evil longsword that could summon demons,
and items that allowed a mentalist to cast more
magic every day which we have kept and a

magical eye that could fly up to a quarter of a

mile and Emitari could see what it saw.
We also regained the parts of the sceptre again
and secured the ruby to the parts we already
had. Now we had three parts Emitari was able to
not only tell what direction the next part was but
how far and it seemed, to get glimpses or fleeting
visions of the location we needed to seek out.
This marked the 40th day of our quest so far and
then end of the first month since we met.
We finally prepared to leave Obars tower, in
addition to the magical items I have listed we
also had a vast wealth in gold, gems and
jewellery and weapons and armour so our horses
were quite heavily laden. It made the most sense
to head north back to the manor of Lord Fairfax
across the lands of the Centaurs. There we could
buy more pack animals to carry our loot and then
we could make faster progress.
We set off leading the loaded horses through the
swamp and up onto the grasslands. We didnt
see any signs of our friends, the centaurs, so

they obviously had not stayed around to see if we

survived at all but then we had not expected
them to either. The journey that had taken us
nearly a week on horseback to get here took
seconds by magic to materialise in the campsite
we had used when preparing to free Kalinor,
Arnie and the late Carolina. This put us a days
ride from Lord Fairfaxs manor. The intention was
for Kalinor to ride to Lord Fairfaxs manor and
bring horses to us. We could then go on from
here at a better pace. While Kalinor when to the
manor we rested and I continued my magical
studies. I had been making fairly steady progress
since I had managed to control simple lights. I
could now detect magic in many of its forms and I
was trying to learn how to heal people and stop
bleeding.
Kalinor approached the manor and soon saw
signs of the church and the Inquisition! He
returned and told us what he had seen and he
and I went back for a closer look. It soon became
apparent that Lord Fairfax, his wife and entire
family had been hung and their bodies left as a

warning to others. This is what happens if you

help us, because we had defied the church.
Ministers often carp on about churches facing
challenges. There is one church that has no idea
what kind of challenges it is going to face as
soon as we are free of this world saving quest.
We will be back.
Right now we had neither the time nor resources
to rip the church limb from limb, we had to save
the world and their sorry arses along with it. We
had to turn away and the best course open to us
was to head due north and look to the Wood
Elves. This is Kalinors home land and we should
be able to make contact with the wizards guild
and resupply and plan our next move to recover
the parts of the sceptre.

Day 43
We had been walking through the centaur lands
for three days when we spotted a patrol or
raiding party of centaurs on the horizon. They
soon zeroed in on us and charged down and
surrounded the group. We held up our Centaur
Friend brooches and as soon as they were
recognised the lead Centaur immediately showed
us great respect and deference. We explained
that we were only passing through their lands
and needed to visit the wood elves and the
Centaurs were more than happy to act as guides.
At least this meant that there was little or no risk
of us being set upon or robbed! That evening the
Centaurs fed us well with their usual vegetarian
cuisine and we shared what news we could. We
told them that we had killed the Uruks in the
tower and the troll in the swamp which should
make the coast a bit safer. In the morning we
travelled on with the centaurs.

Day 47
The Centaurs took us as far as the elven trading
post which marked the edge of their territory. We
parted friends and thanked them for escorting us.
That night we camped on the edge of the Wood
Elves forest. Arnie and I kept watch as the elves
meditated as they do. It was well after dark when
I thought I sensed something, not sure what and
however hard I listened I could not detect
anything else. I settled back down and suddenly
a huge demon wielding a great sword in each
hand and huge bat-like wings materialised in the
centre of our camp site! I shouted, firstly in alarm
and secondly to raise the alarm as Arnie drew his
swords and prepared to attack. Now Demons are
nothing new to us but this one was big and it was
scary, not just worrying but it seemed to radiate
an aura of fear.
Before we could react much further the Demon
launched itself at Emitari bringing both swords
down on his meditating body and leaving not
much more than a bloody mess. Kalinor seemed
to sleep though all the warnings and clamour so

far and I did the only thing that seemed sensible

and dived for cover behind the nearest bush to
hide.
Arnie our plate mailed hero doesnt hide. He
made himself big and imposing and launched
himself at the Demon swords whirling.
It is fair to say that Arnie had the Demons
attention so I crawled from my bush and tried to
cast one of the healing spells I had been learning
and it worked! It seemed obvious to me that the
person most likely to defeat a Demon was
Emitari and I thought the Demon thought so to.
That is why he had singled him out for the first
sudden strike when Arnie was physically so
much more imposing. With Emitari regaining
consciousness, Kalinor finally woke up to the
danger and he grabbed his bow and high tailed it
out of the came and disappeared into the woods
surrounding us. I could not really blame him as I
had also chosen to hide rather than fight.
And talking of fighting at this moment I heard the
horrible sound of Arnie crashing to the ground

and the breath going out of him. I willed him to

get up but he just lay there.
It looked to me that the demon was about to
finish Arnie off when I heard the distinctive sound
of a bow string and an arrow sailed through the
camp and hit the demon. Even Emitari seemed
more awake and preparing to cast magic. The
Demon wasnt looking in my direction so I rolled
away.
There was a sudden flurry of magic. It appeared
that the demon had spotted Emitari was alive and
he magically ripped rocks up through the ground
to create a wall between himself and Emitari.
Emitari had cast one of his portal spells and
opened a pit under the feet of the demon
dropping him into it. I took the chance and cast
that same healing spell that had worked on
Emitari on Arnie. Kalinor had returned to the
camp but now with an arrow nocked and ready.
Arnie gave a moan and raised his head. At least
he wasnt dead!

I think we all expected the Demon to fly out of

that pit but Emitari created a thick block of ice
over the mouth.
I drew my magical knives and prepared to throw
them at anything that came out of the pit. It was
obvious that no block of ice is going to stop a full
on Demon and when it came out it was going to
come out hard and fast and with a bad attitude.
Even Emitari was preparing another spell as fast
as he could. Right on cue the ice shattered and
our Demonic friend launched himself into the air
beating his massive bat-like wings to gain height.
I slow motion we all opened fire with magical
lightning, flying daggers and arrows. The Demon
described a slow arc up and over as the barrage
was enough to finally kill him and he crashed
onto to the forest floor on his back before boiling
away until nothing remained. I looked around and
both Emitari and Arnie were not in a good way.
Yes I could heal, to some extent, but my magic
was very, very limited. It was generally agreed
regardless of how weak those two were it was
time to break camp and try and get to the safety
of the elven trading post.

We made it to the trading post and at last we

could relax. We bought some horses at last that
make travelling a bit more practical and we could
stock up on rations, fresh food and Arnie could
buy a new bow and some arrows. From here we
also got directions to the elvish town where we
hoped to contact a representative of the guild.

Day 49
It took two more days to reach the elven town, a
collection of tree houses and aerial walk ways. At
one point we met an eleven patrol but they were
friendly enough and gave us directions to keep
us on the right track.
There were many things we needed to
accomplish while we were here. We made
contact with a member of the wizards guild that
lived with the elves. We gave him the magical
longsword that could summon demons and the
two great swords used by the actual demon that
had attacked us and the spell books used by
Obar. We really didnt want to be carrying around
evil items either in case they started to exert an
influence but also we didnt really want to risk
taking them to and evil wizards lair and then
losing them! Kalinor wanted to visit his family,
Arnie and I visited an armourer. We had two very
fine quality suits of plate mail armour, one was
too tight on Arnie who is bigger than your
average bear and one was too large for me and I

admit I am not built like your typical knight. What

we wanted was to have to two suits made to fit.
The original estimate would take far too long but
we paid the armourer to hire in additional help. It
cost us a small fortune but then we were carrying
a large fortune so that was OK. I clanked out of
there like a man with a pole up his back but Arnie
started to show me how to move properly in
armour. This was not an opportunistic choice for
me. I had been waiting for us to defeat a villain
with a either magical or at least exquisite quality
plate mail. If I am to clear my name then it may
well come down to either trial by combat or
calling the bastard out.
We were also carrying a ridiculous amount of
gold and silver. We found a merchant or repute
and exchanged the hard currency for a letter of
credit totalling over five thousand gold marks
worth.
By the end of the week we were armed,
armoured, resupplied and ready to leave.

Day 57
We knew where we wanted to go and we had a
plan on how to get there. We needed to get to
the far east of our continent. The dangers facing
us were many. Between us and our destination
were several essence barriers preventing us from
taking a direct route. The easiest option was
across land to Fenrik where the wizards guild
was and then by ship but the way by sea was
blocked by and essence barrier. The next option
was by river then when we hit an essence barrier
we could go north through jungle, where few
people ever returned from or south across a
desert r through mountains inhabited by Orcs,
goblins, trolls and Wargs, the giant wolf mounts
favoured by Orcs. We eventually decided that
skirting the mountains on the desert side was the
lesser of four evils. It was early in the morning
when we boarded the barges that would take us
down river to the essence barrier. This was a four
hundred mile journey where we would not have
to walk for a change!

Day 61
The journey by barge was both easy and
productive. I have been studying my magical
lessons whenever we had leisure time and by the
end of the journey I could cast nearly twenty
spells covering healing, detecting magic,
manipulating light and my attest trick allowed me
to create walls of water, fire and draw tree trucks
out of the ground to create a wooden wall. What
is more Arnie had taught me how to move quite
will in armour and I had bought a spear that I was
happily learning how to use. This came much
more naturally to me than the bow I had tried to
learn.
At the end of the fourth day the river turned away
from the direction we needed to go in so we
disembarked. It was nearly 100 miles from the
jetty to the essence barrier as the crow flies so
starting early in the morning we saddled up and
set off. The road itself was easy enough. It was
frequently patrolled by the Xan Legion which kept
it safe for travellers and when we eventually left

the road we were not troubled at all until we

encountered the essence barrier.

Day 66
An essence barrier is a shimmering, shifting wall
of force stretching miles into the sky and even
below ground. Sometimes they are opaque at
other times they appear as little more than the
shimmer of heat haze. Right now this one was
shimmering and milky stopping us from seeing
anything clearly beyond. Emitari took out one of
the two Navigator passes that we had been given
by the wizards guild and called a Navigator.
A portal seemed to open from thin air and out of
it stepped a pretty girl who introduced herself as
Ella. Surprisingly we all resisted the urge to chat
her up, maybe it was because we knew on the
other side of the barrier we would have to tread a
tight rope between death in the desert and death
in the mountains. Ella took out pass and
accepting it used a mystical looking sextant,
gathering us around her she seemed to shift the
world around us until we appeared fifty miles

beyond the barrier well and truly on the Orcish

side.
To our north there was a continuous mountain
range running from east to west. To the north of
that would be cliffs dropping down into the sea.
The mountains ran all the way to the sea in the
east. To our south was the desert the home of
countless orgs, goblins and trolls. Running to the
east ahead of us was a rough track like road.
This was our road.

Day 69
We had been traveling east for three days
covering about thirty miles a day when up ahead
and coming in our direction was a rising dust trail.
We got off the road and Kalinor used his magic to
hide our tracks and we stopped and watched to
see what was coming our way. To be honest we
were pretty keyed up to kill anything evil but what
we saw did give us cause to pause. We were
watching a company of thirty to fifty orcs
mounted on wargs. To be honest that is too
much for us especially as we had a more
important quest ahead. Discretion had to be the
rule of the day and when the track was clear
again we decided to quit the road and head
further into the mountains and run parallel to the
track. It would be slower but it should be safer.
We carefully moved off the road but the Wargs
must have had our scent and they followed trying
to find us. For three days they followed with
Kalinor doing everything to hide our tracks.
Eventually we dropped them but for safeties sake

we stayed off the track. Kalinor was able to find

caves where we could camp in relatively safety.
As we made our way out on the plain we saw a
massed host of orc and wargs.and as the days
passed we saw more bands of orcs heading to
join the army. One morning we woke to find the
army had marched off to the west, towards the
populated lands.

Day 80
We finally found where the track turns north. And
we knew we were not far from our destination.
Emitari had been having visions of what to look
for and he was confident that this was the place.
We headed north and soon we spotted two
towers each designed like a Dwarfish warrior with
a double portcullis between them. We found a
safe place to hide the horses and we prepared to
investigate. Emitari used his magic to make me
invisible and able to fly. I took off and headed up
to the towers. The towers seemed very lightly
defended. I spotted on sleeping guard in one
tower with a very slack companion and in the
other tower there were two sleeping guards.
I flew back to the party and reported what I had
found. We decided to go in en-mass using the
same plan we had used for our very first tower
assault by flying in invisible. We could coordinate
with each other by me going in first and laying
out a pattern of copper coins. As the others
arrived they pocketed the coins so others knew

to stand where a coin lay so they did not bump

into an invisible colleague. We entered the tower
and agreed that I would kill the orcish guards.
This way the rest of the party would remain
invisible as the spell is only broken by violence.
We approached the first the guard room, Kalinor
acted as door opener and I was fully keyed up to
take our the guards as fast as I could. The
sleeping guards were no trouble. In the second
tower we tried to repeat the same routine. The
guard that was awake reacted quite fast and tried
to shield himself with the chair he was sitting on.
Hi yanked it up so the first knife I put into his leg.
He dropped the chair so I put the next one into
his belly. He tried to up turn the desk he was sat
at so I threw one at his shoulder which knocked
him back and up so I finally put a knife in the
centre of his chest and that at last was the end of
him.
With the towers cleared Emitari wanted to stay
here and try and rest. Our attack had used a lot
of his power and he needed at least eight hours if
we were going to hit the citadel beyond at full
strength. We had never done this before and

most of us wanted to press our attack before the

alarm was raised. In the end having Emitari at full
strength was far more important than any rush for
glory. It still didnt sit too comfortably with us and
to be honest we prowled around that tower
looking for relief guards or other defenders.
Eventually just before we had chewed our nails
down to the quick Emitari announced he was
ready.
We headed up the approach to the citadel.
Emitari had had a vision of this place and he
knew what to expect. Eventually we reached a
stone apron before the doors. There were arrow
slits above us and arrow slits to the right. To the
left was a sheer drop to a rushing water course.
The party was still invisible and Emitari had cast
that spell on me again before he had rested so
although we felt exposed we were fairly safe from
any watchers. Emitari used the flying wizards eye
to scout out as much of the interior as he could.
The eye could fly around but obviously could not
open doors. He looked in through the arrow slits
and followed it down corridors until he a
reasonable idea of the layout of the front of the

citadel on the level above us. To gain entry

Emitari used his portal spell and we simply
strolled right on it. Right inside the doors was a
mustering hall with a passage running off dead
ahead and another passage running off the to the
right which we believed went to a guard room
that had arrow slits overlooking the front apron.
Emitari believed that the part of the sceptre we
were looking for was above and to the right of
where we were so we started to head right. At
that moment a group of five orcs came from deep
within the citadel, right into the hall, they pressed
a panel on the wall and the whole front door
seemed to un-interlock and fold back. Four orcs
passed though the door way and the fifth orc
used the same panel to close the door. We now
knew how it operated. We knew that when the
relief guards discovered the bodies of their
companions they would raise the alarm so we
started to head back down that right passage
way. What we didnt expect was for an alarm
horn to sound within the citadel quite so quickly.
They could obviously operate an alarm from
those first guard towers. Soon there were tens of

guards steaming from guard rooms into that

mustering hall.
As we watched them form up one of the orcs
touched the door mechanism and proceeded to
take about half of the assembled defenders out
of the citadel, obviously to investigate the alarm.
When the alarm went off I was just listening at a
door to check if a room was empty. This should
have been one of the rooms overlooking the front
apron. We had assumed that there had to be an
observer in there to see the outer guards
returning to open the door for them and until the
alarm went off I could hear them moving around
and talking.
Now we had defenders behind us in that room
and thirty or so defenders in front of us in the
mustering hall. The corridor between these was
not exactly straight but had a little dog leg nearer
our end. I just knew that Emitari could not resist
tossing a fireball at a massed group of evil
creatures. I flattened myself against the wall at
the dog leg. We were all still invisible and the last

thing I wanted was to be in the direct line of fire

and get a face full of Emitaris magic.
Bang on cue Emitari appeared right in front of me
stood at the head of the corridor, hand
outstretched as a ball of fire streaked away from
him towards the orcs. I gave the fireball a second
or two to explode and then I was around the
corner and sprinting for the door mechanism. I
was kind of relying on the flash of fire, dead,
burning and mangled bodies and general
surprise to cover my entrance. What I didnt want
was a particularly aware orc from realising we
were already inside the citadel and opening the
door and calling another thirty orcs down on us. I
skidded to a halt under the touch stone and
turned to face the defenders with throwing knives
out, pumped and ready.
Arnie I think was caught a little flat footed. He
knows I am not really that keen on charging into
the massed ranks of enemy. That is normally his
job! He must have heard or sensed me setting off
because seconds later he must have entered the
room.

As soon as I let fly with my first knife the

invisibility spell was broken and I materialised in
the room. I threw knife after knife at the most
aware and organised orcs. I was happy for the
burning ones to roll around in agony if they were
no threat to me. One orc screamed in pain as a
sword blade erupted from his chest and Arnie
appeared behind him, his invisibility spell broken.
I defended the touch stone, stopping any orcs
from getting near it, Arnie swept along their flank
with a sword in each hand dealing out death to
any one in reach. Emitari had by now blocked a
barracks door way by bringing up rocks to seal it
and Kalinor was picking off individual orcs with
his bow. It was then that their morale broke and
the last orc still on his feet tried to break and run
only to be brought down by a lightning bolt that
nearly took his leg off.
So with half the garrison dead, half marooned
outside with no way to get back in we effectively
had control of the inner defences. While I had
been holding the doors Emitari and Kalinor had
taken out the other defenders behind us using a
mix of magic and arrows, filling a room with a

death cloud and picking off anyone who

struggled out.
We could not afford to leave one or more of us in
the muster hall so we had to hope that either
there was no one left behind us or that no one
doubled back and let the other defenders back in.
We had come to get then next part of the sceptre
and we knew that was in the hands of an evil
wizard and that he was on a higher level of this
citadel.
We started to explore the citadel trying to piece
together the bits that Emitari had seen in visions,
the bits he had seen with the wizards eye and
what we could see on the ground.
We son found a wide flight of stairs leading up
and as we knew that the sceptre was above us
we definitely had to take them. Kalinor has
obviously been turning an idea over in his mind
for a while. We all knew that he could create a
blazing halo around a person. This magic, while
not actually preventing you from getting hurt, did
a hell of a lot to put off your opponent. He cast
this on me. Then we all expected him to cast the

same spell on Arnie but instead he cast another

protective ward on me that would protect against
magic and then yet another, a sort of forest or
natures blessing that should protect me from evil.
He told me that these protections would last a
quarter of an hour at most.
We were now on a ticking clock. I took the lead,
checking doors for sounds of life, if I heard
nothing we moved on. At the top of the stairs
there was a long corridor ending in a T. to the
left was a dead end. Emitari could sense the
sceptre was to the right so that is the way we
went. The corridor was lit by flaming torches so
we could see along its length and it culminated in
a heavy set of double doors.
We positioned ourselves so that I was going ot
go through the left door. Arnie was behine the
right but was going to wait for me to enter first.
Emitari has a special spell that could suck the
magic from another wizard leaving him
defenceless. He prepared that and waited behind
me. Kalinor had his bow drawn and was ready to
cover Arnie.

On Emitaris signal I kicked open the door and

rushed the room.
The room was not just a room, it was a hall or
throne room at the very least. The most stiking
feature was not the architecture, it was the four
war trolls lined up to intercept us. Each was in a
mix of plate and chain mail and where it took a
man both hands to wield a battle axe or maul
these beasts had one in each hand. Beyond our
welcoming committee at the far end was a
thrown carved with the likenesses of dwarfish
lords was a thrown and on the throne was a
white robed figure holding a staff like a rod of
office.
Here is what I was thinking. This guy is a wizard,
if we get pinned down fighting trolls he is going to
slaughter us. If his throne is as bad as the last
one anything we throw at it could bounce back
only harder and faster. I dont want to fight trolls if
I dont have to.
I took off like a hare out of a trap. I angled away
from the trolls aiming for the wall about half way
down the hall. I dont think anyone expected that

and the trolls certainly didnt more to intercept

fast enough. By the time it had turned and started
after me I had veritably bounced off the wall and
was running hell for leather at the wizard.
The wizard was using his staff to fire waves of
frost at my friends but when he saw me coming
his looked pretty confident and it looked to me
like he tried to cast a spell at me. Whatever all
these charms on me did, they did it well enough
because I was not fired to a crisp or turned into a
frog. Now with me baring down on him,
broadsword drawn but in a fist pumping sprint
and a war troll going flat out waving a pair of
mauls directly behind me I am not sure which of
us scared the wizard the most but at the last
second he flinched and I brought my sword down
and nearly took the bastards head off. As it was I
hit him almost as I went past, my blade bit in to
the back of his neck and he just went sort of
floppy and slipped down his throne. I almost ran
over him as I put one foot on the arm, another on
the back as I tried to change direction and started
to hare off down the hall towards my friends.

Now I was facing the wrong way I could see

how everyone else was doing. Emitari was in the
middle of casting a spell at a troll looming right
over him. Arnie had killed one troll but one arm
looked broken to me as it just hung by his side as
he fought. Kalinor was hanging back and firing off
arrows as fast as he could. I had hoped that
more of the trolls would be dead already but
things looked pretty even down the other end of
the hall. I picked my line and ran for it taking the
troll away from Arnie and Emitari and I aimed to
drag my pursuer down and around the room as I
did another circuit of the hall. When Emitari had
told us about the part of the sceptre we were
looking for he had told us that it was part of the
wizards staff. I was about to make another loop
and go get the staff.
I now know that war trolls are generally faster in
a straight line than armoured adventurers. I made
it to the wizard again who really was still alive
amazingly, and grabbed his staff before heading
back down the hall. By now the troll had the idea
and I nearly made it back to the others when the
troll caught me, one maul smashed into my back

sending me flying and the other would have

taken my arm off if I had not been wearing a
shield. Anyway the shield or what was left of it
pretty much disintegrated on impact and I hit the
floor and rolled.
By now we actually had the upper hand. Two troll
were dead, Arnie was moving to engage my big
ugly friend and Emitari was trying to fry another
with a lightning bolt. Kalinor was still supporting
the others. As I tried to get to my feet I saw
Emitari take a huge blow to the shoulder from the
flat of a great sword. I at least had time to draw
my knives when Emitaris opponent went down.
Arnie was on the back foot against the one who
had been chasing me and suddenly Emitari
made the floor under the troll simply disappear
and he fell down the hole with a crash.
Well there was no immediate danger and it
looked like we had won when Emitari suddenly
went all alert again. He felt like he had been
attacked magically. I told him that the wizard was
still down there alive but probably dying. I had
thought that we could interrogate him for useful
information but by the look of Emitaris face it

was euthanasia time for Mr Wizard. Not

something I am proud of but you cannot really
leave an extremely angry powerful wizard around
to plot his revenge.
It was then that we heard the front doors opening
from below!
We immediately went in to prep mode. There
were two entrances into this hall that we knew of.
Kalinor sealed one with a wall of stone. Emitari
covered the main entrance with a fireball
prepared. There were four more doors leading off
this hall, I quickly checked out each one
discovering a vestry, altar and what were being
used as quarters for the trolls. At least there were
no other possible entrances. I took up position at
the point where I could look to the left at the
sealed passage and to the front at the main
corridor where we expected the main assault to
come. I had a pair of knives out and I was totally
focused.
The orcs came around the corner of the main
approach and Emitari let fly with his fireball.

Moments later the war troll started beating at the

sealed corridor trying to break down the
magically created stone wall.
The forward passage as a scene of carnage with
burning bodies hurled down the corridor. A few
brave orcs tried to make it around the corner with
crossbows but the distance was to great for them
to be too much of a threat.
Emitari threw another fireball and cleared that
corridor.
At that point the war troll broke through the stone
seal and right into a hail of knives from me
including one straight to the head. The troll
crumpled and with it the orcs resolve. We soon
heard them fleeing and the door to the citadel
opening again as they fled for their lives.
This had been a hard fight. Arnie had a broken
shoulder, Emitari was no better off. I had lost my
shield. The only person unscathed was Kalinor.
Luckily for us to either side of the altar were
substantial incense burners. We used this to set
up a kettle and started to prepare healing herb,

cleaning the wounds. Within a cuple of days with

the herbs help the bones should be almost as
good as new. While Kalinor treated the patients I
started collecting the most obviously valuable
items together as well as anything that I thought
may be magical. It was while doing the search
that I found the vault. It was obviously protected
by a huge magical rune. We had come across
runes before, or should I say I have been blown
up and thrown across a room by a rune before.
I stood back and contemplated it. That didnt
work so I went and got Emitari and the others. At
first Emitari tried to decipher the run but that told
him nothing. This was ancient magic and not a
runic language he was familiar with. Then he
tried to drain the magic from the rune but it
resisted. There was only going to be one way
through this and that was to try and activate the
rune and that could be lethal. We could of course
walk away and never find out what was behind
the vault door.
Well that was never going to happen was it!

It then thought of a solution. I asked Kalinor to

cast every protective ward he knew over me, the
other retired to a safe distance. I had imagined
this would be just ourside the door but it turned
out their idea of safe was out the door, down the
corridor, around the corner along another corridor
and then behind the heaviest double doors they
could find in the great hall.
I opened the vault.
I picked myself up off the floor on the far side of
the room to find the floor and walls blacked and
there was a silhouette of me scorched into the
wall behind me as well but I was alive and
unharmed. In the vault was a book. I was kind of
disappointed. Books are almost never fun and
almost never useful for me.
It turned out that the wizard we had been fighting
was an evil sorcerer one of the most destructive
schools of magic and this was his spell book. We
decided to take it with us so that it did not fall into
anyone elses hands. We also found a dwarfish
battle helm that suited Arnie. It conferred a
certain amount of magical protection against fire.

All of the other magical treasures Emitari took for

himself including magical robes and a wizards
staff. At least we gained the next part of the
sceptre.
What Emitari did learn was that by holding the
sceptre he could feel that the next piece of the
puzzle was many thousands of miles away to the
far north. Off our continent and almost on the
opposite side of the world. There was no way we
could reach it in time!
Well whatever the dilemma we certainly would
not solve it by sitting in this old citadel so he had
to head out. It was decided easily enough to
head back to Fey and the wizards guild. We
could give them the sorcerers spell book and we
could consult with the White Orchid. Emitari and
Kalinor then strted a heated debate about the
most efficient route, across the desert and
around the bottom of the mountains or west to
the mountains and then south or west to the
mountains, south to the marches and then south
on the far side. When they had argued
themselves to a stalemate I pointed out that there
was an orcish horde marching on nearly a million

unsuspecting people and the only ones how

could give a warning was us and only then if we
returned the way we had come, fifteen days
along the path edging the mountains, then use
the navigator pass to cross the essence barrier.
We could then use relatively safe roads to warn
the Xan Legion that the horde was on the move
and then take a boat part way to Fey and ride the
rest of the way.
That ended the discussion and we mounted up
and left the next morning.

Day 81
We rode out of the citadel very aware that there
were roaming bands of orcs heading in the same
direction as us and there was a orc hoard up
ahead. Whilst we didnt really want to ride
straight into it we wanted to get ahead of it to
give a warning to the Legion. What we hoped is
that the horde would have to run south at the
essence barrier and take days to circumnavigate
it. We on the other hand could jump the barrier
using a last navigator token.

Day 95
We reached the essence barrier in the early
afternoon and decided to cross the barrier as
soon as possible. Emitari used the navigaotro
token to call a navigator. We had expected Ella
but we were disappointed that it was some guy
we had never met before.
Four grumpy heroes handed over their token and
our navigator took our a compass and jumped us
over the barrier.
It was now a case of retracing our steps. The Orc
horde if it was cming this way would have to have
gone south, around the bottom of the essence
barrier and that would have taken them a weeks
so we could be fairly confident that we were
ahead of the horde.

Day 99
It took us another four days to reach the Xan
Legion fort and we made a report to a Centurion
about the Orc horde, its sie and movements as
best we could. He seemed weary and not
unsurprised. He told us that there were many
dark forces on the move but most lands were
unaware or unwilling to accept the danger
building up.
We soon left the fort and took the fastest route
we could to get to Fey. We overnighted at
taverns and inns to keep the horses in good
condition, well fed and cared for. We travelled by
boat on the river as much as we could until we
reached the city.

Day 110
We rode into Fey two months to the day after
accepting this quest. We stayed at the magic
users guild as Emitaris guests as he is the only
member and then requested an interview with
Devarsh of the White Orchid.
Firstly, Devarsh was not too happy with us riding
straight into town and staying at the magic users
guild. We are after all meant to be on a secret
mission and not for the guild but for a secret
society.
Anyway, we explained that the next piece of the
sceptre appeared to be many, many months
away by the fastest boats or horses and there
was no humanly possible way of us getting there
in time. Devarshs first suggestion was that we
had amassed quite a fortune in treasure from our
mission so far and that we could commission a
combination of ships and navigators to sail and
jump our way across the world. Well I thought
that Emitari was going to choke on his own

tongue at his outrage at this and his was nothing

compared to Arnies upset. What xxx was trying
to get across was that we were working for the
White Orchid not the magic users guild and as
such he could not draw on the wealth of the guild
without arousing suspicion. He was pointing out
that the magic users guild was politically neutral
and would not take sides.
I took this as just another way in which those in
power try to screw those below them in the
pecking order. How can you be politically neutral
when faced with the end of the world? Are they
thinking that it wont affect them because they
are not involved?
Since the last time we had met Devarsh we had
undergone a couple of changes. One of our party
was dead, I had been mortally wounded only
saved by chance that Emitari managed to apply a
herb in the nick of time and we had faced defeat
twice once by Obars Uruks and at the hands of a
Demon. We had lost some of our innocent happy
go lucky adventurers spirit and the idea that we
were not coming back from this was very real. It
was also obvious if even we were successful no

one wold ever be told of the threat we had faced

and the deeds we had done. No heroes home
coming for us.
Faced with an open rebellion from us xxx left us
to talk things over with the navigators guild.
When he returned he had managed to negotiate
a deal. They would transport us to the next
continent for free if we would deal with a rogue
navigator and return the navigators compass to
the guild. We were happy to accept this condition
as it furthered our quest.