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Page 5
Chapter 9: The Directors Death?
Chapter 10: Dorins Darkness
Chapter 11: The Astrologers Dome
Chapter 9: The Directors Death?
The human wizard looks around at the melee and mutters, "Ahh well. Back into the fray" and heads off in the general direction of the Director clasping his staff firmly.
Collapsing from the strain, Pol drops down to one knee and watches, in shock, the battle between the three headed creature and the ancient creature summoned by his arrow.
The collision between the ancient creature and the three headed orc causes the orc to drop its two handed sword. The ancient creature recovers first as it moves a few feet away and turns back to face the rising tri-headed monstrosity.
The ancient creature has not only two monstrously sized horns on its head but also a third discolored half sized horn on its nose. Its dead black eyes reflect no light or intelligence as it bunches its legs and leaps at the orc. This time the orc is ready for the charge and braces himself behind his shield. Surprisingly, the shield holds as the creature slams into it. The two begin a contest of strength as the orc tries to shove the creature back and the creature tries to run over the orc. Though the orcs strength is mighty, his main enemy in this contest is traction and soon the ancient creature is pushing the orc across the floor. With a mighty grunt the orc wrenches his shield to one side, causing the ancient creatures head to be dislodged and the orc slips off to one side.
The ancient creature charges forward a few yards in the same direction, before it can stop. It turns around to see the orc grabbing its sword. As the creature charges, the orc swings in a desperate over head arc and the sword connects with the creatures horns, but bounces off of them. The ancient creature continues its charge and plunges all three horns into the orc creatures exposed chest. The orc gives a stunned cry as the horns plunge cruelly into its body. The ancient creature lifts its head, pulling the orc-creature off the ground and into the air. Now air borne, the orcs own weight forces it even further on to the impaling horns. All three heads of the orc scream in pain.
Suddenly, blue runes on the orcs chest flare to life and there is a sudden blast of cold air as the three-headed orc goes flying upward and outward and the ancient creatures head slams down into the ground. The three-headed orc comes falling out of the 'sky' and lands heavily on the ground and takes a few moments to get back up with no signs of damage, and retrieves its dropped sword. The ancient creature wastes no time and charges the orc again. This time the orc has had enough. For the first time the third head of the orc gets in on the battle its black eyes giving off a ghostly white glow. The ancient creature bellows for a moment then vanishes in mid-charge. Of it there is nothing left as if it never existed.
Cadar makes another attempt at standing and finally makes it to his feet he spends a few moments leaning on his sword, before he is joined by his brother Laurian who raises his shield to protect Cadar against others.
Asura moves toward the Director, past the unfortunate Dragon girl and putting herself in between the Director and the girl. The Director spies the elf woman in half-plate and says, "Ah another come to play with me." He turns his hand to her and she instinctively flares her sword again. The Director is temporarily blinded, but that doesn't stop him as suddenly the globe encasing Asura rises from the ground and goes flying off across the floor into the darkness until it looks like a star that is almost sinking below the horizon. The Director blinks his eyes until he can see again and returns to battering the poor semi-conscious Dragon girl against her faithful Tracara.
Ralandin raises his shield to defend himself as a firebird swoops down out of the sky slamming into him and knocking him to the ground. His shield clatters to the ground some distance away. Rek moves over to Ralandins side and raising his sword to the sky looking for another attack he growls, "I guess it's too much to wish for rain about now?" as Ralandin tries to get up.
Dayal looks around and sees Ralandin in dire straits and charges over to help him.
Sivad gives a surprised cry as he spots a green glow coming from the darkness, "I thought Laurian, finished you!" He rises he mace in front of him. "I guess I'll just have to do it for him." The green glow resolves into an orc armed with a long sword and a green rune covering his body.
"No, he didn't finish me. Far from it! I just left to bring my buddy back!" He gestures and an orc armed with a shortsword and a dagger appears "Where's that wench with the glowing sword? Let's see how much she likes flying when she's dangling in the air at the end of my sword!" He looks around for a moment and realizes she isn't there. At the top of his lungs he says, "ALL RIGHT WHO KILLED MY BITCH?! I WANT HIS HEAD NOW!"
Pendran makes it over to Flamerider as the Director slams the girl again into Flameriders side. Lifting his mighty hammer he strikes at the yellowish rock that imprisons the Tracara. The rock shatters at the hammers merest touch and becomes a pile of yellowish rubble. Flamerider springs forth and charges the Director.
The rubble, now free of Flamerider melts together and rises forming into a roughly man-like shape. Turning toward Pendran its stands quietly waiting.
Seeing Flamerider free, the Director turns and tries to run only to end up impaling himself on the sword of the man in dirty leathers. He thrusts the sword in all the way to the hilt and begins twisting it as the Director screams in agony. The man in dirty leathers smiles evilly as he watches the Director's torment.
Blue light begins to leak from beneath the Directors clothing and suddenly the sword is thrust out of him. The sword crashes into the man in dirty leathers stomach and blasts him several feet back. The Director smiles as his wound is healed and turns back around only to face Flameriders open maw. The Directors scream is cut off as Flamerider removes his head and a good portion of his shoulders as well. Flamerider jerks his head to one side and the remainder of the body goes flying off into the darkness. The Tracara gags as he chokes down the head and shoulders of the Director. He makes a face as if he just swallowed something truly horrible.
For only a brief moment silence reigns, but then suddenly lightning flashes and thunder rolls across the battlefield as the old blind wizard summons a thunder storm. The clouds quickly gather and form a figure. The figure is that of the Director!
"I am not so easy to kill!" The words are barely understandable from the thunderous booms. "Freed from constraints of the flesh, my spirit has taken this form and with it I shall destroy you all!"
The old blind wizard mutters from his own throat, "I'm sorry...so weak...just kill...me...please."
The image of the director looks down at the body he has possessed and says, "Foolish old man! You had all this hidden power! You could have ruled as a Lord, instead you merely became a teacher! How pathetically disgraceful of you! I'm sure your family must be ashamed of you! Now I shall put all that you have learned to work for me!" The face turns to the darkness, "Wake up you lazy oaf!" A streak of lighting arcs into the darkness. It strikes a point and its white light is joined by a reddish glow.
There is a shout, nearly drowned out by the thunder, "Ooooohhhh! My aching head! Okay! Okay! I'm up! Wow! A thunder storm! Time for a LIGHTNING PARTY!"
A bolt of red lighting leaps from it's spot in the darkness and mingles with the clouds.
The cloud Director frowns and says, "Get off me and get to work!"
The red lighting says, "Yes sir, Mr. Director! Hey Dwarf! Remember ME!" The lighting streaks down toward Dorin who tries to get clear but still gets the tail end of the blast as several blasts of lighting hit the ground where he stood. The lighting recedes revealing the form of an orc carrying a mace with red runes on it! "Hey don't leave the party so soon!"
The lone star in the distance winks out.
Pol wearily stands and draws his bow, aiming higher this time he shoots, but his arrow passes over the heads of the three-headed monstrosity. The monster turns to look at the archer and says, "Oh yes...I almost forgot about you elf!" He turns and walks toward the weary elf confidently.
The human wizard points his hand up at the image of the Director and shouts, "Fight him old one, fight his evil from within!" He slowly begins moving toward the old man.
The Director thunders, "Oh shut up you pathetic human wizard. Watch true power in action!" Lighting begins streaking across the face of the Director. It begins to join into a giant ball of light. Suddenly the giant ball of light streaks down toward the tiny, frail human wizard. The ball of light reaches the wizard and stops mere inches from the wizards outstretched hand. The ball of light blasts back toward the face of the director where it explodes in bolts of lighting.
"What?! Hmm... So the primitives have stolen some advanced magic. It means nothing. You will still die!"
Pendran jerks his head then turns and moves toward Ralandin. The man-shaped yellow rock creature begins lumbering toward the three-headed monster.
Turning around, Ralandin looks around the battlefield and begins chanting.
The man in dirty leathers gets up off his butt looks up and groans, "oh great" and vanishes.
Rek stands ready next to Ralandin watching the circling fire birds.
The orc with the red hat laughs and says, "You're never going to hit them standing there like that."
Rek ignores him as another bird comes diving in. Going down to one knee he crouches then suddenly springs up into the air and with a mighty overhead slash his sword slices through the belly of the firebird. The bird gives a cry of surprise and pain and it shoots back up into the sky beyond the reach of the mighty ranger. The orc with the red hat stands gaping at Rek for a moment before shouting up at the birds, "Kill him NOW!" The birds look for a moment as if to ignore him before diving down again. Unfortunately the big man is nearly as agile as they are, and his sword has a much larger reach. The battle takes it's toll but is over as his sword slices into them time and again and finally the birds of fire turn to ash in mid-air and float to the ground.
Seeing he isn't needed Pendran for that battle turns his attentions to the seemingly invincible three-headed orc.
Pol shoots again his arrow thundering toward the creature. It hits the creature square in the shield and momentarily halts the forward momentum of the three headed creature.
The three-headed creature sees the yellow rock man coming and says, "Oh no! Not another one!" The black eyes glow again and the yellow rock man vanishes, leaving not so much as a dust trail. But that gives Pol enough time to aim correctly and shoot. The thundering arrow hits the green-eyed creature right between the eyes before it can raise its shield. The arrow passes clean through the head and thunders off into the darkness. The head snaps back and then forward hanging limply. The other two heads turn and the creature bellows in rage and charges Pol.
Sivad moves quickly plunging into the orc with the red mace. The two scramble for control.
The orc with the green runes all over his body runs through the battlefield shouting, "Who killed her! She was mine!" He stops for a moment looks around and says, "Wait a minute! Where's Grey hammer?"
Dayal looks around and seeing that Rek has things under control moves to help Pol with the three-headed orc.
A bolt of lighting strikes down from the clouds as the old man begins drawing two separate runes in the air with both hands. The lighting slams into Asura who was trying to sneak up on the Director/Old man. "I believe", the Directors voice thunders, "You were looking for her!"
With the pressure off of him, Dorin chants a prayer. "Oh Mighty, All Powerful, Lords of the Elements, I, your humble servant ask for your blessing. I ask that thou, oh lords of the world, aid me in this time of need, aid me in this, the righting of a great wrong. I beg that you Fiery Enerius, whose flames are hotter that the brightest star, you Eternal Obsidius, who protects all the faithful, and you Wise Solutious, who sees all, create mighty daggers of power and that thy brother Swift Arilus, who controls the destructive winds, fling these daggers created by your brothers at these abominations and cleanse their taint from our midst. Show them who truly is in command here. OH LORDS OF THE WORLD! I beseech you in the names of all those who have died by the foul plotting of these creatures. O Wind, O Water, O Earth, and Fire, hear my cry, and heed my call, I beseech you!"
As Dorin falls silent, the combatants stop and look tensely around. For hearing the desperate prayer they are fearful of the Elemental Lords reaction. The moments pass and still nothing. Finally the Director booms, "They have given you your sign little dwarf! I am supreme here!"
Dorin doesn't react to the Director's taunt. As the little dwarf suddenly seems to be shivering uncontrollably. After a moment he collapses. Dayal and Pendran rush forward to protect a retreating Pol. Pendran tosses his hammer and is yanked off of his feet once again as he goes plowing into the creature, bowling it over.
Sivad and the orc with the red mace suddenly vanish in a bolt of red light.
Flamerider curls up protectively around the young orc girl. Snorting only briefly when the young orc mage tries to get near.
In the silence that follows his prayer, Dorin hears a sound. The world fades out and he is suddenly shrouded in darkness. For a brief moment, he hears the sound of running water, the touch of the wind, the feel of solid stone beneath his feet and the warmth of a fire before his face.
In a ghostly voice he hears the words, "You call yourself one of the faithful. But who are you really? I know all about you. I find you unworthy."
As the voice fades another voice, speaking quickly and angrily, "You rude silly little demanding ungrateful dwarf! You do not know you're place! Unworthy!"
As the voice fades another voice this one expressionless and flat, "Worthy."
The sound of a thunderous waves crash against the a beach overwhelms your senses, "I find him worthy. It seems we are of two minds. Lets us decide."
The silence returns.
An eternity later, the expressionless voice calls out and says, "Dorin Rockcrusher. You have asked for a great boon yet you must prove your worth to my brethren. Until you do, no prayer from you shall be answered."
The darkness fades and Dorin finds himself on a rocky field near several active volcanoes. Oddly enough he sees a glacier creeping up on one of the volcanoes. Even as he watches the speed of its movement is obvious. He shivers as he feels the chill winds that blow off of it.
A lone voice is heard in his head. "Save me before my fires burn no more and plunge the world into darkness forever."
In the distance there is a flash of light somewhere on the moving glacier.
Dorin closes his eyes and his face becomes a mask of concentration. After a moment he opens his eyes and looks toward the glacier. The dwarf finally starts moving across the field toward the volcanoes.
After a time he nears the mighty volcanoes and stops to consider them. He examines their slopes and lava tubes, eventually deciding there is nothing here he can do, he moves on past them heading on again toward the glacier.
As he nears it, he quickly realizes that the glacier is moving faster than he is! Waiting for a moment when the near edge is close he jumps onto a shallow near edge and begins the arduous journey up the icy side of the glacier when he reaches a point near the top he finds a path. He quickly climbs the not-so-steep slope up to the top of the glacier. Orienting himself, he clears his eyes as his breath freezes into a stinging mist almost as soon as it leaves his mouth and blows back into his face. Ice crystals begin forming in his beard.
Dorin moves fairly quickly for a dwarf and soon reaches what caused the glint. He comes to a sliding halt and he stands in front of an open structure that vaguely resembles a temple, but made entirely of ice.
Four columns spear straight into the sky at the four points of a square. Surrounding the square is a shallow depression that is roughly circular and a total of thirty feet from one end to the other. In the center of the temple is what looks like a large ice chair. Next to the chair is what looks like a staff planted into the ground with an orb on top of the staff. The orb itself is 5 feet across and Dorin can clearly see an image (not a reflection) of the volcanoes.
Dorin crosses over to the columns and after examining them moves over to the chair, he slams into it after losing traction and sliding across the ice. When he recovers he makes a quick inspection of the chair and the orb. Dorin decides it's best if he tries to remove the orb. He touches the freezing cold orb and tries to push it. His feet slowly begin to slide out from under him, before he resets himself and tries again.
As he does the entire glacier shudders and changes direction. A loud howl is heard coming across the glacier. The images of the volcanoes are replaced with the image of more white snowy plains. Dorin struggles to removes his hands as they have nearly frozen to the globe. With a painful yank he pulls them free. He turns toward the source of the howling and sees a large bluish-white creature moving toward him at amazing speed. Before the dwarf can react the creature picks up a ball of snow and hurls it at the dwarf catching him squarely in the chest, knocking him across the ice into one of the walls of the temple.
As Dorin recovers and stands up he realizes the creature is towering over him. Up close the creature is nearly as large as an ogre and has thick white fur all over its body, twin blue sparkles peek out from the matted fur on its face. A gaping pit of a mouth opens up and it says, "Go away or die!"
Dorin says, "Why are you doing this?" The creature responds with a swift kick in the jaw sending the dwarf sprawling and skidding across the ice.
Dorin gets back up and moves toward it again and asks, "Why are you trying to destroy the volcanoes?"
The creature shouts, "GO AWAY!!"
"NO!"
"GO AWAY!!"
"Tell me why!"
The creature ignores the dwarf and turns around and heads back to the orb.
Dorin shouts, "If I go away will you leave the volcano alone!"
The creature continues to ignore him.
"Hey ape-man!"
The creature ignores him and reaches for the orb, within moments the image of the volcanoes re-appears. The entire glacier shudders yet again and moves in the direction of the volcanoes.
Dorin pulls out his mace and charges the creature.
The creature sees Dorin coming and showing amazing speed casually swats the dwarf sending him across the ice again.
Dorin gets back up injured and cold. Looking around he decides to try a different tactic. He turns and begins running toward one of the columns, he tries to stop again and slides right into it. After bouncing off of the pole and landing on his rump, he slowly stands up and steadies himself. He swings his mace and hits the column. The sound of cracking ice echoes over the icy plain.
The creature gives a roar and runs toward Dorin, who again smashes his mace into the column. After two mighty swings it seems he's done only little damage bit of damage. But it is enough to enrage the creature who is charging upon the dwarf.
As the creature nears, Dorin sets down his mace and sits down his back to the column. The creature barely slows down as it kicks the dwarf squarely in the side. The creature curses as it hops on one foot for a moment.
Dorin flies through the air landing several dozen feet away. He scrambles for purchase as he slides across the ice, nearly falling over the edge of the glacier before he stops.
He brushes himself off and moves slowly back to the temple shivering violently, his bruised and battered body aching all over in the spots where they haven't gone numb from the cold.
The glacier reaches the halfway point up the volcano and amazingly picks up speed instead of slowing down.
Dorin confronts the creature once more, "Why are you trying to destroy the volcanoes!"
"Go Away!" is its only response.
In frustration with no other options, Dorin attacks the creature.
In a spectacularly short battle, the two collide. The match ends as abruptly as it began with the creature picking up Dorin by the head and smashing him head first into an unyielding block of ice repeatedly.
Darkness enfolds the dwarf.
The ghostly voice howls, "And this performance was supposed to tell me what? He died quickly, showed little intelligence, no charm and was nothing more than a demanding little snot! No change from this corner!"
The angry voice hisses, "He didn't even put up a good fight! He kept getting booted around and around like a giant ball. Granted he did keep trying even though it was obvious that he was out matched...and he did fight even when it would have been safer to run...oh yea there was that interesting idea to drop the temple. But none of that erases the fact that this battle wasn't even up to standards of a child. UNWORTHY!!"
The thunderous waves boom, "Though he did not do well this time...I choose not to ignore his previous deeds. Worthy."
The flat voice intones, "He did his best unto the end to protect that which asked for his help, even when it would have been better for him to leave. Worthy."
The voices go silent and the darkness stretches on.
After a time, whispers can be heard. Finally the angry voice hisses, "Oh al-right just get rid of him! I'd better see some improvement or else I'll roast his sorry butt myself."
Scorching heat sears Dorin's body, until it seems his very soul is on fire!
Then the darkness fades and Dorin opens his eyes and sees the battle around him.
Chapter 11: The Astrologers Dome
Ralandin finishes his rune and points it at the orc with the green runes. A moment later a giant web appears in the area surrounding the orc with green runes and the orc with the red hat, but a moment later the webs fall without anything to hold on to and vanish.
The orc with the red hat turns around and says, "You're still here? You are beginning to get on my nerves little one." He flexes his muscles and bangs his fists together and begins to grow in size. He quickly achieves the size of a small giant and slowly moves after Ralandin. "I guess I'm just going to have to take care of you personally."
The orc with the green runes looks around confusedly for a moment then remembers, "Oh yea...Hey bitch! Here I come! I dare you to try that flaring thing again!" He heads toward Asura who is picking herself back up.
Asura however seems less inclined to fight and more inclined to retreat as she moves away from him while trying to get back to the others.
A bolt of red lighting strikes nearby and from it appears Sivad struggling with the orc with the red mace. Both are holding on to the mace for dear life. There is another flash of lightning and they are gone again.
Ralandin mutters quietly to himself a moment, then he takes out a small seemingly normal piece of rock, and starts chanting, "Obsidius, Lord of Stone, I, Ralandin Meldel, faithful worshiper of thy brother Enerius, Lord of Fire, seeks the power that you has granted to your follower, Heldax Stoneaxe! Hear me, bring to me a share of your powers!'
Moments pass and nothing happens until Ralandin in knocked off his feet by the blast from a nearby lightning strike.
Laurian joins Dayal and the two form a line between the three-headed creature and the archer Pol. Pol speaks loudly, exhaustion plain in his voice, "Aim for the head, they don't seem quite as protected as the body is."
The human wizard continues on his way toward the director muttering, "Primitives...huh? Stolen magic? Well let's see if some nice brute force can cause you to change your mind."
Dorin recovers and stands up looking around.
The old blind wizard finishes one of his runes. Flamerider instantly turns to stone. Within moments he finishes the other rune. Cadar and Zraxin are quickly covered with frost and in a moment are frozen over with a thick coating of ice.
Dorin looks around recovering from whatever seized him. After taking in his surroundings for a few moments he draws his morning star charges the giant orc with the red hat from behind. A quick swing at the back of the giants' leg brings it to its knees. The giant swings a backhand at the dwarf, but Dorin acts as if he knew what was going to happen and is quickly on the other side of the giant swinging around it's side to hit it square in the chest.
The orc with the green runes catches up with Asura and attacks. Asura deflects his attack and scores a hit upon him. The wound closes almost as soon as her sword leaves his body. After a few more parries the orc manages to get several consecutive hits upon the young elf. Finally in frustration Asura attacks flaring her sword to its brightest, momentarily blinding everyone. As the blinding light fades, the orc charges in scoring a severe hit upon her. Asura falls back nearly dropping her sword, but clearly in no shape to fight further.
The three headed creature separates itself from Pendran. This time one of the hands tries to pick up Pendran's hammer and the entire creature falls back over on the ground, dropping the hammer.
Pendran gets up and moves away from the creature to join Laurian and Dayal. "Okay, lets put this sucker to sleep for good." He calls his hammer to his side.
The three headed creature stands up and begins moving toward the group.
Pol barely manages to get a last shot off, but the creature raises the shield and the arrow bounces off of the shield and strikes the head with the black eyes a glancing blow. "All right I have had enough!!" He stops moving forward. "Prepare to die!" He turns to Pendran and his eyes glow black for a moment. Pendran's hammer seems to shatter into dust, but then it suddenly reform as is back to normal!
"What?!", bellows the creature. "Fine, then let's see if your bodies are as resilient!"
The human wizard gets near the old man when several bolts of lighting streak down slamming the ground in front of him. The resulting blast sends the wizard sprawling back several feet to land on his back.
The blind wizard begins drawing more runes with of all things his foot!
The orc with the green runes, completely unharmed by any attacks made to him, smiles as he faces the badly wounded Asura. "I think I'm going to take my time and enjoy this."
The orc with the red runes reappears in a blast of red lighting, nearly landing on top of the human wizard. He roughly shoves Sivad back a few steps, where he stumbles over the prone form of the human wizard. "Now its time to end this and bring this fight to its final shocking conclusion." He laughs at his own joke.
The Director's voice booms, "Stop all this ridiculous posturing! And KILL THEM NOW!!!"
Dorin hits the giant orc with the red hat in the head and there is a giant explosion...at least it sounds like a giant explosion.
Dorin's backpack shatters as his rod flies out of his backpack. The rod flares up in mid-air. A strange grayish aura and a dagger appear on top of it. Then it turns red as a flame appears to replace the dagger. It changes again a misty white and the flame vanishes in a puff of smoke. Water explodes out of his waterskin and circles up and around him to his medallion. The rod slowly begins to drop to the ground. The flame reappears and arcs around until it reaches the dwarves neck. A moment later it is followed by a short blade with no hilt and then followed by a stream of swirling smoke. Each one moves to the dwarves neck and is absorbed into his medallion.
All this occurs within a moment of Dorin hitting the creature in the head. As reality itself seems to have come to a near stop.
Dorin's medallion emits a globe that cycles between blue, clear, red and brown several times in two seconds. Again there is a loud explosion this time it's source is the medallion, streaks of red flame shoot out from the globe slamming into and the orc with the greenish runes catching it in the back. The orc screams in agony as the runes turn red. Asura takes advantage of his distraction and uses the last of her strength to remove the orcs head from his shoulders. The body bursts into flames and Asura instinctively flares her sword to raise her protective shield. The flaming body flies up and outward into the darkness.
Streaks of bluish-white light shoot outward toward the frozen forms of Cadar and Zraxin. After a moment, the two stand freed of their icy prison. The bluish-white light returns to the globe then shoots outward toward the three-headed orc. The orc raises his shield and the light smashes into and through it hitting the orc freezing it completely. Laurian hesitates only a moment before charging and attacking the frozen creature. Seconds later the only thing left of the three-headed orc are pieces of frozen shards scattered all around Laurian.
The orc with the red mace says, "That's it I'm out of here!" A beam of dark light shoots out slamming into the ground behind him. As the orc raises his mace behind him rises a metal pole. The orc transforms into lighting and is sucked straight into the metal pole. The metal pole sinks into the ground vanishing leaving no trace that it ever was.
Another darkish beam blasts outward from the globe striking Flamerider returning him to his normal form.
The director screams "No! You Must DIE!" A dozen bolts of lighting shoot out toward Dorin and strike the giant orc with the red cap, frying him instantly. Dorin however is lifted on invisible winds and is hurled toward the cloud form of the Director. "So you come to me? FINE! Wait he's an Elementalist! Get away! NOOOOOOOOOOO!" he shouts as Dorin nears the image of the Director.
As the dwarf gets near the image, it vanishes, as does the support that carries Dorin and the dwarf plummets to the ground, heading for a spot near the blind orc.
The blind old man stumbles around shouting in an odd voice, "No I won't ever let this body go! Not with all of this power!" Dorin lands heavily next to the old orc and the old orc stumbles and recovers. In a more familiar voice the old orc says, "Well that is just what the doctor ordered. Instant banishment!" He cocks his ear sideways a moment then homes in on the sound of a dwarf in pain. He goes and helps the fallen dwarf up, "You must be a powerful Elementalist to have banished the Director like that."
As he speaks, the darkness lightens and space seems to contract as reality reasserts itself. Within moments they are back inside the Directors office. Both the desk and the Director are missing. Besides the group and the blind orc the only things in the office are Flamerider, the injured Dragons girl who is being attended by the young orc mage and another orc hiding in the corner holding a pair of small knives.
The man in dirty leathers reappears in the center of the room, "I take it we won that battle, but now what?"
Asura says, "What about the rings that bastard gave us? What will happen if we touch four of them together?"
The ground shudders and man like creature of stone rises out of the ground stands quietly in front of Ralandin.
The blind orc looks blankly around and says, "Odd, the surroundings seem different now." He reaches out and touches a wall, "Ah! We are back in the Directors office and not in that fathomless place." He sniffs, "The Director usually wears some rancid cologne that he thinks smells good. I cannot smell it, so am I correct in assuming that the he isn't here?"
The young orc looks up and says, "I think he is gone as are the bodies of those slain."
Still not sure of what to expect many of the group stay on guard.
Pol leans heavily on his monstrous bow and weakly says, "Can anyone help me before we decide to do something with the rings." The sentiments are echoed by Asura who has one hand solidly on her glowing sword and the other on a large bleeding wound in her side.
The young orc says, "If I had some paper and a pencil, I could write some healing runes. They wouldn't be very strong but they would help a little."
The human wizard offers a vial of ink, a feather quill, and a few pieces of paper. The young orc takes a look at them and says, "You write with these? Whoa! I thought they were kidding when they said..." He is interrupted by a cough from the blind wizard. "I've never written with a quill before. Will it work?" He says to the blind wizard.
"It will if it is precise enough." The blind orc commands, "Hand me the quill." After touching the point with his hand the orc shakes his head and says, "No! No! No! Much too coarse for such a rune. Does anyone have a dagger?" After procuring a dagger, the blind orc quickly shaves off nearly invisible slices off of the already fine quill. Another quick test with his hand and he pronounces it worthy of use. "Don't use too much ink! Almost none per dip! And remember no mistakes! This isn't like pencil where you can erase and start over again."
The young orc rolls his eyes and sits down and concentrates.
Rek moves over to Asura and helps her bind her wound.
Sivad moves through the group bandaging minor wounds.
Dorin begins a thankful prayer.
The blind orc turns in the direction of the cowering orc, "Don't worry son, you probably won't get into too much trouble if you cooperate. I guess the Board of Regents will have to get a new Director for the school. I hope this time he isn't such a..." He turns as if remembering there are others in the room. "This won't do at all. Tensions were bad enough before. The council had just decided a week ago to send a peace party to your village of Telor in hopes of resolving our differences and bringing the murderers to justice. Now with news of this attack, war is inevitable. I can't even fathom why the Director would try such a thing at this time."
Pendran looks around and says, "Personally I don't plan on trying those rings, my bet is that they are a one-way trip to the grave."
Dayal turns to the blind orc and says, "You seem to have quite a bit of power. Do you know of anyway that we can return home? If not, how about a map of the area, so that we may try to return on our own."
"Oh no! no! no! That is definitely out of the question. If people see you wandering around here the army will be here in half a day and they'll slaughter every last one of you."
Flamerider's head shoots up and he stares at the doorway to the Director's office. A huge shadow can be seen through the milky glass set in the door. The room falls quiet and they vaguely hear two people arguing on the other side.
"Put your weapons away!", hisses the blind orc.
With surprisingly little noise the weapons return to their resting places. The blind orc gestures for them for the group to move to the far side of the room. "You there in the doorway!", shouts the blind orc, "Enter!"
The door opens and in walks a six foot tall orc built like a tank.
"Who are you?" the blind one demands.
"I am Pwe' tre, of the Keyson garrison.", he glances at the group, "Pitiful barbarians. I see our students gave them their comeuppance..."
The blind orc interrupts, "These barbarians were brought here by the former Director of this..." He stops and begins sniffing. "Oh no!"
A familiar face pops in the doorway, "What's going on in my school! I go away for three days and... What the HELL happened to my office! Where's my desk! Who brought these barbarians here!" He pauses for a moment then angrily turns on Pwe' tre, "Wait a minute, if the army thinks for one minute I'm going to allow these...these *things* to learn in my school, you are out of your collective minds!"
Pwe' tre tries in vain to get a word in edgewise but the Director is having none of it, "I don't care what kind of resolution any stupid council made! You can't trust them! They'd probably threaten any teacher who tried to fail them and attack our young students! I refuse to allow them into my school! Not even as an experiment you hear me!"
The young orc finishes drawing runes on five pieces of paper. He places one on the young Dragons girl, under the watchful eye of Flamerider. A moment later he turns to the old blind orc with four other pieces of paper and hands them to him. The orc holds the pages in one hand and waves his other hand over each page. "Good work boy. I take it this is your third year here."
The young orc says, "Second, sir."
The blind orc raises his eyebrows and says, "When all this is over come see me in the dome. You show great promise."
The blind orc turns and hands the sheets of paper to Cadar and then turns to the arguing pair and says loudly, "I'm going to take this bunch over to the Astrologers dome." As Pwe' tre begins to bluster he continues, "It's a much more secure location that what we have here."
Pwe' tre relaxes a moment then, turning his back on the Director whose face begins changing shades, he shouts out the open door. "Form up a detail to escort these barbarians over to the Astrologers dome!" Turning back to the blind orc, "Revered one you should be safe with my men surrounding them."
The blind orc nods and turns to the cowering orc, "You boy come." He frowns and says, "What are those in your hands..." The orc promptly drops the two small knives.
Pwe' tres eyes nearly pop out of their sockets, "You defeated the barbarians with armed with those?!?!" A condescending smirk appears on his face as he faces the group. He opens his mouth as if to say something then visibly changes his mind, "All right move out and don't try anything funny! My men are armed with *real* weapons."
The blind old orc starts moving without hesitation toward the door, gesturing for the others to follow.
"Good take them out of my office! Out of my school! Just get them out of here!" The Director rants, "And when this is done Bal' tor..."
"The name's Pwe' tre."
"...I want you in my office to explain just what happened to my desk!" The Director rants.
The cowering orc seems even more terrified of the Director than of anyone else in the room and practically runs out.
As they leave the building they find that the school has been turned into a virtual army camp. With several large winged creatures and dozens of armed orcs scattered all over. Some of the weapons are strange variations of swords, and spears, and there are one or two weapons they can't even guess at.
Dayal laughs at the irony of the situation.
They are escorted by several orcs around a large group of trees to where a large white dome is situated on a hill. Upon entering the dome they realize that most of it is open space. Looking up there is a large cone-shaped tube resting in an opening in the dome. "Stand there on the star shape!" The blind orc commands. "Not you!" As the cowering orc scampers first on then off the giant pattern of stars embedded into the ground.
"I'll probably regret this, but heck I've got tenure so they can't get rid of me!" He smiles and chants a rune. The guards stand there smiling.
Their smiles fade as the star pattern begins to light up sending streaks of light to the ceiling.
As the stars light up, the scenery begins to fade out. Eventually all they can see is white light. Suddenly the white light begins to fade and they see a stone wall with a window in it. In the window they see a young woman getting dressed. A moment later the light fades completely and they fall several feet to the ground. Asura, Ralandin, and Pendran land on a barren wagon. The others crash on a hard dirt packed floor.
The young woman peeks out of her window, looks down and lets out an ear-piercing scream!
Fin.