Remembering the experience served two purposes. The first was to remind him that though he was a powerful mage and a brilliant arcanist, he was still a man who could be hurt. He was still someone who had to be afraid and careful. His arrogance had nearly gotten him killed, and he wasn’t about to forget that lesson. The second was to remind him of how much he wanted to hurt and humiliate Victor of the Brotherhood of the Crystal Cross. Korel wanted to hurt him, but not kill. Korel wanted to punish the man for daring to think he could get the better of him. Right now Korel’s mind raced with spells and wards and curses and necromantic arts to be employed in his revenge. Nowhere in his thoughts did Korel consider killing him, for it wouldn’t be a punishment, but a release. When he had finished his torture and transmuting, Victor would be unrecognizable to his brotherhood and to himself. Letting him live like that would be the punishment Korel craved.
Just earlier this morning, Victor had attempted to scry on Korel and his party. Immediately, Korel spotted the tiny pinprick of light indicating that a likeness of himself was appearing on a mirror, or in a crystal ball wherever Victor sat staring down at him. “Smile at him”, thought Korel. “Smile to show that you are not afraid of him.” But Korel could not smile, he was still afraid. Each time that he thought of Victor, each time that his likeness came into his mind he would shiver uncontrollably. Instead, Korel lead his companions to their room at the Inn where he cast a powerful spell to block the scry attempt on them. Just before the pinprick of light disappeared, Korel swore that he could hear the cursing sounds of Victor knowing he had been blocked. It was a small measure of comfort that he could still fight Victor using the same rules that he himself applies to the world around him. Magic can only be effectively fought with other magic.
Now that Victor could not hear or see them planning, the party sat down at the table in their room and began to plot their next move. Suggestions flew of alerting the church about the Brotherhood of the Crystal Cross, but the general consensus of the table was that they wanted to put the matter of Victor and the Brotherhood behind them and continue with their mission as if nothing had happened. Korel was infuriated. Victor had attacked Hasam, Keith had been nearly destroyed by Victor’s magic and yet they wanted to forget about him and run away north with their tail between their legs. Did they have no sense of vengeance? Did they not desire to hurt Victor, to damage his plans and shame the Brotherhood that he was a part of? Korel did.
Victor had told the party that if they wanted to live long enough to leave the room in which he had them trapped, the party would have to go south and bring a cleric of Pelor to him. A simple assignment. Korel refused and was turned to stone for it. Keith refused and was nearly disintegrated for it. Hasam refused and was enthralled by Victor. We simply lied and saved our skins long enough to leave the room and escape.
Korel sat at the table in the Inn and listed to his friends try to talk him into just turning away from the Cleric of Pelor, from Victor and from the whole business of the Crystal Cross. They wanted him to forget the suffering and humiliation brought upon him by Victor. But Korel wanted to put a kink in the plans of Victor. He wanted to go and talk to the Cleric of Pelor who they were to abduct. He wanted to tell him all about Victor and about how he was now a wanted man. He wanted to spill every secret that he could about the Brotherhood. Anything to spite that man. The rest of the party sitting around the table disagreed.
Korel sat, indignant, and offered no help. If they wanted to run away like cowards and fools, let them. He would have no part of it. They would not have the benefit of his magical prowess. They would have to ride on horses instead of streaming through the cosmos. If they wanted to fly, let them bat their arms and try it. If they wanted to see into the distance, get out your looking glass. Korel wanted to deal with the problem at hand instead of traipsing off after another infernal piece of the Three Sisters.
So he sat and waited. They had been through this a hundred times. If Korel wanted something bad enough, all he had to do was refuse his skills and powers and eventually they would relent. Eventually they would come to see his side of the argument and give in, at least partially. But this time there was something different. This time they did not relent, they continued trying to persuade him into abandoning his desire to kick dirt in the face of Victor by talking to the Cleric of Pelor. Hasam left the table disgusted with Korel’s actions. What happened next was something that Korel didn’t expect.
Hasam returned to the table only moments later wiping his mouth on his sleeve after taking a drink. He than began to speak to Korel, but something was amiss. When Hasam spoke there was a slight tingling sensation just behind Korel’s eardrum. Korel heard what Hasam was saying, but there was something underlying to it as well. He was making perfect sense, but what he was saying was totally opposite of what he Korel believed. Korel closed his eyes and listened only to what he was saying before he finally detected what was happening. Hasam had imbibed his potion of Glibness that they had retrieved only weeks before. Hasam was using magic to try to persuade Korel. For a moment, Korel was shocked and hurt. His companion Hasam was attacking Korel’s mind and trying to be discrete about it. He was trying to force Korel by using rudimentary magic against him. He was trying to control Korel using magic, just as Victor had done the day before! The shock and hurt was instantly replaced by anger; white hot anger that burned. He reached for his spell component pouch intent on proving once again his superiority, showing those beneath him why he should be feared, but stopped.
If he were to risk a visible fight, than the others in the party would be alerted, and might interfere. He knew that he could take on one or two of them at once, but wasn’t sure about all four. His alliance with this party was based solely on greed. He needed the gold and gems that this party accrued. It is what furthered his magical research and helped to make him the mage that he is. No, he couldn’t chance an open combat, so instead he seethed silently and plotted just what he could do to Hasam to dissuade him from attempting a magical attack on Korel ever again.
The rest of the table around Korel seemed to notice his change in mood and left him to his own devices while they consulted their newest addition to the party, the Cleric Gaylon. Gaylon apparently had the power to shift from one plane of existence to the next. To him, this was a simple task given to him by his god. Korel stared in amazement. In order to achieve this same feat with arcane arts, Korel would have to spend months trying to perfect the spell Gate. Not something that he believed could be achieved easily. Korel would have to watch out for Gaylon carefully, but for now, his focus was turned toward Hasam. Instantly Korel could think of a few different ways to sabotage Hasam while the Plane shifting was taking place. In his dark mind, Korel thought out a plan of action. Just as the Cleric begins casting his spell, Korel would cast a spell of his own. He would surround Hasam with a green energy preventing him, and only him, from shifting with the rest of the party. That left Korel and Hasam in the same room together, while the other party members were miles and miles away. Korel smiled to himself at his own brilliance. He could almost taste the air filled with the charred remains of Hasam the warrior.
But revenge would have to wait for Korel that day for Gaylon must have sensed Korel’s unrest and proposed an action that caused Korel to listen to the short man in armor. Gaylon proposed using the abilities given to him by his god to ask questions of an extraplanar creature who was aligned with his deity. In essence, Gaylon was going to talk to an angel. For a moment Korel thought of finding a way to trap the extraplanar creature when he came to talk to Gaylon, but that course of action would most likely not endear Gaylon to Korel’s cause.
Quietly sitting at the table, still seething over just how he was going to punish Hasam and Victor, Korel watched as Gaylon called down an angel from the heavens before him. It was a truly magnificent sight. The being was bright white and clothed in a loose fitting garment. Its wings were covered in multi-colored feathers of every hue. The being floated in front of Gaylon while he reverently proposed yes or no questions to the creature. During the exchange, all in the room learned what they had all been thinking all along, but was now confirmed. Victor was indeed a foul man who had earned the ire of the Church of Pelor. The task of apprehending the Cleric of Pelor from the south, the same task that had been given to us by Victor himself would, in fact, bring us all doom should we complete it.
Gaylon drafted a letter to the Cleric to the south and sealed it with the symbol hanging around his chest. Gaylon gave the letter to the Angel who waited patiently for him to finish and clutching it in his graceful hands, ascended from our room to take the letter south to the cleric who was about to find out that a very powerful man wanted him dead.
Now that my desire to visit the cleric and tell him of Victor and the brotherhood had been nullified, there was no reason for me not to go with the rest of the party to find the second piece of the Three Sisters artifact. The Cleric of Pelor would find out, and Victor’s efforts to capture him would be either thwarted, or at the very least, delayed.
Angry still with Hasam, Korel voted that we should take watches tonight and in the morning, Gaylon could Plane Shift them to the Location of the second fragment of the Three Sisters. Unknowing what Korel was planning, the rest of the party agreed, but they wanted protection. Korel offered to use a simple trick he knew to create extradimensional space for them to rest in. What Korel was planning for Hasam wasn’t going to take place until his watch. For he knew that Hasam would be sound asleep thinking himself safe while Korel invaded his mind. With a slight giggle, Korel drifted off to sleep ready to wake and claim his superiority over the simple minded Hasam.
The hour for Korel’s watch came, and Keith Longwalker gently shook him awake. Korel climbed the rope down from the extradimensional space he had created and waited until the rope was pulled up, seeming to disappear from sight. He than sat on the ground comfortably, but making certain to keep his back strait and rigid. Thousands of times Korel had sat in this position of meditation and deep spell preparation, but tonight was different. Instead of memorizing spells for the day ahead, he instead focused his energies into a dangerous and deadly spell. The spell being employed would leave Korel’s body vulnerable to attack, but the effect far outweighed the disadvantage. Slowly Korel began forming his will, shaping it into a surgical knife. He didn’t want to kill Hasam outright, he wanted Hasam to know who had done this to him. Korel wanted to talk to Hasam before imploding his mind.
Now that he had his energies focused, he sent a small part of his consciousness into the small extradimensional space into the mind of Hasam the fighter. At first Hasam tried to resist the mental intrusion, but Korel’s will far overpowered what little Hasam could bring to bear. Slowly Korel entered his mind and began to see the images appear before him. Thoughts, feelings and fears coursed at Korel through the brittle connection between the two minds. Congealing the thoughts into a coherent consciousness, Korel spoke to Hasam in his dream state.
“I’ve come to kill you Hasam,” he spoke “I know you used a magical potion on my mind earlier this day. It is no secret that you had it in your pack, and I was not as easily fooled as you believed.”
There was a feeble attempt to dislodge Korel’s control of his mind, but it was quickly repelled by the expert mage. Hasam was trying to get away, but what surprised, and angered Korel, was that he was not afraid. Hasam was annoyed.
“Get out of my head you funny little man.” Hasam replied.
“I’ve had to prove to you once before where I stand in this group. Now I am going to have to prove it again. Tell me why you used magical means against me.”
“You were being a jerk, Korel. Everyone but you wanted to go save the world. We thought it was a higher priority than saving the life of some stupid cleric down south.”
“I didn’t want to save his life. I couldn’t care less about any living being. I simply wanted to get back at Victor.”
“Victor has been foiled. The cleric Gaylord has seen to that. What we need to do now is find a way to continue with our quest for the second part of the Three Sisters. We need your help on this, not your Ire. Killing me will do no good; it will only lessen our chances of being successful. You may be able to use your magic to teleport yourself to a new planet, but this is my home, and I want to fight for it, not go around pissing off people who are more powerful than myself.
“Besides, you aren’t really angry with me as much as you are with Victor. The attack I used against you was an attempt to get you to see reason. I am not Victor, and I didn’t turn you to stone, so don’t push off your feelings of insecurity onto me.”
Korel listened to what Hasam was saying and realized that perhaps he had played his cards wrong after all. Perhaps if he had chosen his words more carefully he would have been able to make the others sitting around the table understand what he was thinking. But it wasn’t his place to be a diplomat, it was Hasam’s. Korel realized that killing Hasam would serve no purpose. It would only alienate the others from him more and perhaps cause him to no longer be able to travel with them any longer. Carefully he weighed the consequences of what he was about to do, and in the end, he relented.
“If you swear that you won’t use any magical effects against me in the future, I won’t try to kill you anymore.” Said Korel.
“Agreed, now get out of my head so that I can get some sleep.” Replied Hasam.
Angered that Hasam treated the pending attack so lightly, Korel again thought of simply turning his party member comatose. He already had both of the spells ready to go. One to turn Hasam’s mind into one filled with nightmares and creatures of his own worst imaginings, and another to leave him in a perpetual state of unconsciousness. The combination would drive him mad. Deciding that his current situation was better with Hasam alive than dead, he retreated from Hasam’s mind, back into his own body. There would be other opportunities. It wasn’t Hasam that Korel really was angered with he now realized. Hasam didn’t know better than to use magic against him. Besides the type of magic used was so trivial as to be considered childish. Korel really wanted one man: Victor. He would save his energies until he was able to come face-to-face with him. It was then that Korel would unleash all his anger of being cast in stone, all his hate of those who ridiculed him when all he could do magically was burn dinner, he would use all of the acquired knowledge that he had gained over these last two years and pummel Victor until he was no longer a threat, but something to be pitied.
Korel calmed his emotions, and opened his eyes. The room around him was dark and quiet. He breathed deeply the night air and began to stand up. Korel, having finished with his confrontation of the night, stretched his arms behind him and began preparing his spells for the upcoming day feeling relieved and refreshed.
Little did he know that there was a second pair of eyes in the room with him. Studying him and realizing that he was not alert during his watch that night…