What peace my soul knows now!  I sit here by the temple entrance, and
watch a line of former slaves make their way up the path toward the upper
cavern.  There they will be met by more of their companions and shown to
the hillside camp that has been readied.
   We have achieved a great victory here.  We have freed almost two
hundred people from slavery, and although I know not the worth of a slave,
I am sure that we have cost their captors a pretty penny.  But this victory
did not come easy, and it is not yet complete.
   Our plan was a simple one, as the best ones often are.  The plan was
this, to charge into the corridor where the remaining several dozen slavers
were encamped, set up a wall of warriors between them and the room where
the remaining slaves were being held, and then hold the slavers off while
we freed the slaves.  Simple.
   We divided the newly freed warriors into two groups, one group to
deal with any fighting that we could not deal with, and the other group to
rescue the still held people.  We gave the rescuers  many lengths of rope,
boards and other stuff such as comes in handy for getting people out of a
pit quickly.  When all was ready, we attacked.  I brought down the runewall
that blocked the way to the corridor, and To-gurrick and Rupert rushed out
into the corridor.  Shali threw herself into the fray as well.  While the
slavers recovered from their surprise, I prepared my hand axes and threw
myself into the corridor as well.  I had to throw myself a bit farther than
I thought, for To-gurrick had been tripped by one of the more alert
slavers, and had not done anything but fall on his face in the doorway.
Rupert at least had managed to land on an opponent and engage him.
   We fought like that for some time, thrashing around on the floor with
daggers, axe and fists.  The slavers that were not borne down by our first
rushed stood up and began attacking with their flails.  Bob, and the
several armored persons struggling in the doorway prevented any of the
several dozen non-engaged slavers from getting through that portal to
Merlaine, Brianna or Vasquez.
Merlaine and Vasquez were doing their part as well.  Merlaine would cause
any particularly dangerous slaver to take a nap with her spell of sleeping,
while Bri and Vasquez waited for an opportunity to cast their spells.
   The slavers must have suspected our plan, and made plans of their
own.  For not a minute after this grand brawl started, we heard shouts of
"the rear!  We are attacked from the rear!" coming from our newly freed
warriors.  We had to trust them to deal with whatever it was, as we were
all busy.
Vasquez decided she was impatient with our progress, and so, after several
attempts, caused a wall of searing flames to erupt in the middle of the
corridor, engulfing all of us who were struggling just outside the door.
That did change the battle somewhat!  The men who had been trying to hold
onto us and stab us with daggers, now tried desperately to get away.  Since
we were still all protected by Vasquez's spell that makes us immune to
fire, both magical and normal, we held onto the would be escapees.  Now,
instead of having to stab or bash a man repeatedly until he died, we but
had to wound him once or twice, and then hold him down for a minute or so.
Watching a man burn to death mere inches from your face is not something I
would recommend to the faint of heart, or stomach.  The screams of the
dying men filled the corridor, as did a thick and foul smelling smoke.  So
powerful is Merlaine's spell of sleeping now that the several slavers hit
by her spell slept right through their own funeral pyre.   Vasquez kept the
wall alight just long enough to clear our little area of corridor, and
allow us to stand and form a defensive wall.  Then she let the wall go out,
mostly so that the rescue partys could enter the corridor to began getting
slaves out of the room of pits.  Also of course, there was the fact of the
smoke.  Much more of it and we would have to evacuate the corridor or
suffocate in its choking embrace.  As it was we could see a dozen or so
feet in front of us.  The former slaves in the rescue partys of course,
were not immune to fire, and were terrified that the wall would come back.
We assured them it would not, and with a yell Shali urged them to swarm
into the corridor behind us.
   Shali led them into the room and ordered them to begin getting the
captives out.  The captives in the pits began screaming and hollering.  So
loud was the din that Brianna almost missed Shali's yelled warning.  But
luck, or the gods were with us, and she did not.  Brianna started and cast
a spell that caused a faintly shimmering, gossamer thin wall of starlight
to appear in the corridor on the opposite side of the room of pits.  And
just in the nick of time too, for what Shali had seen as she poked her head
around the corner to see if the corridor was clear, was a dozen of the
armed and armored ogres charging full tilt down its length, right toward
the rescuers, whose arms were busy not with weapons, but with ropes, and
sobbing women and children screaming and crying at the chaos around them.
   Shali watched as the first ogre encountered Brianna's wall of
starlight.  Since the ogre is a creature with a soul steeped in darkness,
the wall caused its flesh to burn and sear, and the ogre screamed and
turned around, running away from the wall.  The lead ogre ran straight into
the following ogres and all went down in a tangle of immense weapons and
overly thick armor.  The din from that corridor drowned out almost all else
in this whole yelling, screaming and cursing battle.
   Out in the corridor, we took advantage of the space Vasquez's wall of
fire had given us, and we formed a defensive wall, myself and Rupert in the
front, with Bob, Vasquez and Brianna in the rear.  To-gurrick did not get
up, he had taken a bad dagger wound and was unconscious on the floor.
Merlaine, near to overwhelmed now by the dying souls around her, had all
she could do to drag him back to the relative safety of the room where we
had so recently assembled this raid.
Then, for a brief time, this battle went as planned.  We held off the
slavers, but it was not easy.  Their whips lashed out and grabbed at wrists
or ankles.  Several times a whip found my leg, and then I was suddenly on
the floor, being pounded with flails as the slavers took advantage of the
fact that I was on the floor.  But while I worked my way free of these
entangling whips, Bob, Bri and Vasquez would pepper the whip holder with
arrow and crossbow bolts.  That would usually give me enough time to stand
up again.  There was one bad turn when I aimed my greataxe at an opponent's
head, but the combined heat of the fire, as well as the blood and sweat
that drenched me, caused the weapon to slip from my grasp.  I was
momentarily amused to watch the whole crowd of slavers duck as the axe spun
just over their heads.  But that distraction was brief, and as I readied my
battle axes, they surged forward to take advantage of my distraction.  I
fought then with two battle axes, and often as not one was busy cutting a
whip that was wrapped around my leg, or freeing Rupert from a similar bind.
Then, as they usually do, things got worse.
   The ornate door at the far end of the corridor opened, and through it
we could barely make out the form of two giant warriors, clad in partial
plate and wielding huge maces emerge.  Then followed a loud and foul
smelling puff of smoke, and a winged red skinned imp was now fluttering
just behind the head of one of the giants.  The only thing that was in our
favor now was the fact that there was still a wall of whip and flail
wielding slavers between us and the giants.  So, until we killed all the
slavers, the giants could not attack us.
   The imp peered out at us from around the giant's head and screamed "
what a bunch of assholes!  Damn, I thought this was gonna be tough!"  He
then fluttered down and lit a huge cigar from one of the bodies that was
still burning.   Brianna fired one of her trueshaft specials at the foul
thing and with a snicker it retreated behind the giant once again.  With no
way to reach the fluttering demon, Rupert and I fought on with the slavers.
These slavers were good with their flails, and did not need for us to be
on the floor to wound us, and by this time both Rupert and I had taken
several small wounds and were getting very tired.  The imp, who had been
mumbling for a while, then pointed his finger at me, and a thin silver beam
shot out and struck my chest.  Where it touched, the metal of my armor
became so cold ice crystals formed instantly and the metal shrieked its
protest at the immense temperature change.  The flesh beneath my armor did
not go undamaged either and the pain was immense as bits of my skin froze
solid, and the surrounding flesh was frostbitten in an instant.
   Brianna kept up a steady stream of slivered arrows, if the imp was
too sheltered behind a giant, then she feathered the giant.  These giant
warriors were none too fond of standing around behind a bunch of humans and
being peppered with arrows, so the hollered at the slavers to either finish
us off or get out of the way.  Well, with the help of our axe and sword,
the slavers did get out of the way, they fell to the floor.  However, it
was then I noticed that Shali had been struck down by another headache and
was laying on the floor unconscious.  The imp mumbled a bit more, and a
silver beam struck Rupert, stunning him.
   By now, the Troll skin spell Bob and placed on To-gurrick had healed
him enough so that he was conscious again.  He took stock of the situation
and immediately began bullying the slave/soldiers who were standing around
doing nothing.  He formed them up into a line with threats like "Move dog
meat, or I'll ram my fist into your face so hard you'll have eyes in the
back of your head!".  Then with the  inspirational "Now your gonna fight!
We saved your sorry butts, now show us what you can do with them, or I'll
kill you myself!" he lead the mob of slave soldiers into the corridor.
   At this point a strange thing happened.  Merlaine emerged from the
room where she had been holding her stomach, or tending the wounded, as her
strength allowed.  But when she emerged, she was standing straight and
tall, as if all the death and dying around her effected her not at all.   I
did not have much time to see what she did, but she must have cast  a
spell, for one of the giants blinked his eyes a couple of times, and then
fell over, asleep.  With nothing to hide behind, the imp was easy prey for
Brianna's bow.  Within a few seconds she had peppered it with enough
silvered arrows that it shrieked and vanished in a foul smelling cloud of
greasy smoke.
   I checked to see that Rupert was allright, and he was.  He was badly hurt,
but recovered from the shock of his latest wound.  Between To-gurrick and
his mob of soldiers we finished off the last of the slavers, and were about
to get to the sleeping giants, when Merlaine screamed, clutched her head
and toppled to the ground.
   Our advance instantly became a withdrawal.  To-gurrick had his mob of
soldiers get Shali and Merlaine to safety.  While we were about this,
Rupert screamed and went down clutching his head.  With Vasquez and I
dragging Merlaine, To-gurrick dragging Rupert and several soldiers carrying
Shali we made our way to the tunnel that lead out of this complex and into
the caverns.  Once at the tunnel, we saw what had come upon our group of
slave/soldiers from behind; ogres.
There was a huge mass of three ogres, and several dozen men.  Each ogre had
several soldiers clinging to it trying to hold it down to the ground, while
others stabbed at it with daggers.  There was a huge amount of blood on the
floor here, as well as several soldier's bodies.  The ogres looked pretty
near the end of their strength as well, being so badly cut up there must
not have been an inch of skin that was not slashed open or punctured.
   Vasquez was still in a near frenzy with the heat of battle, and
prepared a spell, intending to blast the ogres, soldiers and all with
searing magical flames.  But, since To-gurrick had just shaken off a
blinding headache attack, and knew that if we lingered we may well all
perish, he backhanded Vasquez on her helmet, thereby interrupting her
concentrating.  He barked the words " We go now!" at her, and she followed,
as did I.
   We made it to the stairs, and then up into the courtyard without
suffering further attack.   We waited, and eventually those slave/soldiers
who had survived the battle with the ogres emerged.  Six of them had died
in the fight they told me, and all of the rest of them were badly wounded.
Once they were up, I used the last of the energy in my runewand to cast a
spell of Locking on the altar, once I had redrawn the rune of course.
   Then we began the work of patching up.  Those of our party who had
been brought down by the headaches soon recovered.  Shali healed Bob,
enough so that he could cast several of his healing spells.  Those of us
that were so badly wounded that our Troll skin spells had started to
function were not so bad off, just exhausted.  Merlaine spent the better
part of the afternoon healing what she could of the damage the
slaves-come-soldiers had suffered, and when she was too exhausted to heal,
she brewed tea.  We sat like that for some hours, just resting and
recovering.  Once they felt well enough, the soldiers who had fought with
us said that they wanted to rejoin their companions on our hillside
encampment.  We told the method of getting there to those that did not
already know it.  They thanked us again profusely for rescuing them from a
fate far worse than death.  Even those who had died fighting the ogres had
died fighting for their freedom, and for the lives of others, rather than
face down in the mud under some slavers boot.  They told us that if we
needed them to fight with us again, they would gladly do so.  So, with many
thank-yous and farewells, the now free soldiers set off to our other camp.

   It was as we were watching the last of them make his way up the trail
to the cave, that we saw a most unusual sight.  A woman came walking out of
the woods, and approached our resting place.  She had a bow in her hand,
but no arrow nocked.  We watched her approach until she was within a dozen
yards or so, then we bid her approach no more.  This woman wore leather
armor of surpassing craftsmanship by its looks.  Also, she had a pair of
hand-and-a half swords crossed over her back and a dagger at her belt.
From what we could see of her weapons, they appeared to be of as fine
workmanship as her armor.
   We asked her her name, and where she had come from.  She told us her
name was Melody.  And she told us she had come from the woods.  We asked
her how she had gotten here, and she said that she had walked.  This Melody
woman has an accent which I cannot place, nor do I think I have heard it
before.  She is attractive for a human, but her evasive answers had begun
to annoy me already.  Melody told us the she was friends with some spirits
that lived in the forest.  She looked around the temple and asked what had
transpired here, she had heard that there were explosions and fire, and
there were obviously a lot of dead bodies lying around.  We told her, in
general terms, of what we were doing here, and what this place was.  It
became obvious that Melody has had some military experience, for when we
told her that we suspected that there was a Sorcerer of the Mind still down
in the corridors beneath the temple, she said that leaving a powerful mage
running around was a lot like leaving a unit of heavy cavalry in one's
backfield.  We sat and talked for some time of ideas, and Melody seems to
be resourceful, if still overly evasive in her answers to our questions.
   As we were sitting and conversing with Melody, Merlaine yelled
"Everybody down!"  Knowing that Merlaine does not raise the alarm casually,
we all threw ourselves to the ground, except for Melody, who knelt down,
but did not throw herself in the dirt.  A second later a loud buzzing whine
flew directly over our heads at great speed and headed into the temple
ruins.  By the time we had lifted ourselves up to see what it was, it had
already circled the altar in the rear of the corridor and was heading back
our way again.  I could not see much of it, so fast was it moving.  Sensing
that it could not be good whatever it was, several of our party fired
arrows at it, having prepared our bows when Melody showed up.  I of course,
had prepared my axes, and so this, rather than an arrow was what I hurled
at the buzzing thing.  It was by sheerest chance that as it swerved around
an arrow that would have struck it, it slammed right into the edge of my
spinning axe; wounded, it swerved and hit the temple wall at high speed
with a loud metallic twang.  As we watched, this thing, which now appeared
to be a wasp of gigantic size, bussed angrily in the corner where it had
crashed.  Vasquez and Melody both fired their bows at it, and Vasquez
impaled the thing, killing it.
   On closer examination however, we are not sure if this thing was ever
alive.  For it was indeed a wasp, but a wasp made of iron.  Vasquez was
beside herself with its intricacy, and announced that it had literally
hundreds of moving parts, one of which was a very nasty looking stinger in
its rear.  She also announced that it's body appeared to be a container of
some sorts.  After hacking at the thing a bit more, she separated its front
from its rear.  Then, with a bit of work, she found the opening mechanism.
The second Vasquez opened it, she was engulfed by brilliant white flame
that hurt the eyes of all looking her direction.  It lasted only a second,
and when the flash of fire was gone, Vasquez announced that it was a damn
good thing she had been immune to magical fire, for she thought that that
had to be a spell of White fire, one of the most difficult, and deadly
spells her collage knows.  Obviously the canister had been warded with that
terrible spell.
   Vasquez then popped the canister open, and removed the scroll tube
she found within.  The second she touched it, she hollered for Merlaine,
for the burning sensation in her fingers told her she had just touched a
contact poison of some sort.  Merlaine rushed to her side and began her
ministrations.  It is fortunate that the poison was not a particularly
virulent one, and Merlaine was able to counter its effects with only
moderate difficulty.
   After that, Vasquez was a bit more careful.  Suspecting yet another
trap on the tube, Vasquez used a large file from her mechanicians tool bag
to file to rear end of the tube away, rather than open the front end.  And
fortunate it was that she did so!  For once the end was filed away and she
used a candle to peer within, Vasquez saw that there was indeed a piece of
parchment, right next to a glass tube of greek fire and a spring and hammer
mechanism attached to the front end.  Had she opened the tube as it was
meant to be opened, the trap would have destroyed the parchment inside.
   Vasquez gingerly, using a pair of tongs, pulled the parchment out and
unrolled it.  None of the party could make heads or tails of the scrawlings
on the sheet.  After looking at it for a bit, I realized that it was a
code.  I told the party that this could take a while, and set myself down
in a corner with my paper and quills.
   It did indeed take many hours, but finally, just as the party was
setting up arrangements for bedding down for the night, I had the message.
The code was an ingenious one, dependent on the sender and receiver both
knowing a series of three letters, but a little pen and guess work had done
the trick as well.  And once the code was broken, the message was most
disturbing.  I copy it here in its entirety, for you who read this journal,
whomever you may be, should know what we discovered this day.  The message
read as follows.


   The news your messenger brought was most distressing.  We have sensed that
you may be in peril for some time now, perhaps even greater than you
yourself realize, and have taken precautions.  We are familiar with those
who attack you, and we advise you;  do not attack them.  Do not
underestimate them, they are a danger.
We have sent the Deathwings, they will arrive two days after the Solstice.
        
   This above all else, the appointment with the House of Vermilion Shadows
must be kept.  The fires must be lit and the cargo given over.

   Now that it is discovered, we are leaving the valley.  Your duty, after
delivering the brides of ice, is to delay those who invade, make sure they
are in the valley when the Deathwings arrive.  You will probably have to
die to achieve this.  Your new home is ready and your precious trinkets can
be replaced.    The valley, and all in it will be Scorched.  I have sent
you something for the pain, you always were such a sniveler when it came to
that.

   The payment from the House of Vermilion Shadows should only be transported
if the invaders are killed before the Deathwings arrive.  If it looks a
close thing, let the Vermilion Shadows keep their payment and the brides.
All other transactions have been canceled.  Other sources have been found
for the important ones.  All merchandise but the brides are expendable, use
them as you will.   Deliver the brides at all costs.  Do not worry about
any survivors, the inhabitants of the valley, or any evidence the location
may contain; all will be extinguished by the Deathwings.  The Deathwings
have their orders, and will execute them, without delay and without
question.  Prepare yourself.

   Well, this message, once decoded, caused much consternation and debate let
me tell you!
   It was as we were standing around debating the meaning of this
message, that Melody, whom we had not seen for some time, fired two arrows
in quick succession, both of them piercing an Imp which had been hiding in
a corner spying on us.
   Melody then stepped out of the doorway in which had been concieled and
apologized for vanishing from us for a while, but said that if she had told
us about them imp, the minor demon would have been alerted, and vanished.
We thanked her for her vigilance.  Yet it is passing strange, that Merlaine
with her Elven eyes, nor Brianna with her mage's talent of seeing invisible
things did not spot this demon.  Ah well, for now we shall set our watches
with even more care and bed down for the night, letting sleep heal what
minor wounds Bob or Merlaine could not.  Perhaps the dawn shall also shed
some light on this dire message.  But for now, a few hours sleep before my
watch.


                                 By My Calloused and Ink Stained Hand,
                                               This 17 th Day of Juno
                                             The Year of Our Lady 540.


                                                

                                              Drashak Khea Milari

        
        




holwinkle@oocities.com