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Report from Father Sorgia to Vicar-General Alister Paulin of the Order of the Griffin
Eirmont, 999AC
I would pray for guidance and the
rest of the group would prepare our equipment for the trip to the White isle. God bless
us.
We arrived at the cliffs and had few problems, aided by the flight
spells of the mages, to get our party to the top of the summit, though during our work,
the persons at the top of the cliff were attacked by maniacal white apes. The beasts
were relentless in their attack and though
I tried to charm as best I could, there were far too many. Aria and Alexanders
magicks slew many from a distance while Illyana, Alexi, myself and Vlaadimir faced them up
close and personal. It took us little time to clear the apes, though we all felt the
blows of the beasts and Vlaadimir took a bad injury to the hip; truly we missed the
presence of Mikhail the Axe ! We soon had Vlaadimir on his feet with the grace and
healing power of God. Resting later away from the incident, Aria's owl felt ill at
ease and there were many sightings of white owls in the night which disturbed our
companion Socrates continually. The next day we decided to do a circuit of the isle
and get an idea of our terrain and land marks. Travelling the whole edge of the
small isle took a few days but we soon found jutting off from the northern edge of the
land mass a tower that looked as though it had been joined to the island by a bridge long
ago, now eroded and fallen into ruin. Surely such an old structure as this must have
clues as to the rods where abouts. Our course was set then. We set about
getting ourselves across the chasm with the aid of the mages flight magics.
Within the tower the gigantic doors were aged and falling apart.
They actually fell inward as we attempted to open them. Within we found a great pit,
somewhere in the area of one hundred feet deep. The mages flight spells would be
needed again to get us down to the bottom. This pits aged stairs had long ago fallen
in on themselves and lay in a ruin at the bottom of the shaft.
Ferried to the bottom of the towers shaft we found a normal sized door
that had no handle nor means to open. Alexi soon found that it was a sliding door.
We managed to pry it open and block it with reckage and preceded to enter the
tunnel beyond.
Had we heeded the riddles warnings, we would have continued to the
endof the corridor, but instead we opened the four doors that we found inthe hallway as we
went along and found them all trapped in some manner or another. Alexi braved the
dangers of all the doors and took many risks to ensure that nothing lay beyond them of
importance.
Heading to the end of the hallway we entered a chamber that had sixteen
pillars, eight to either side of the room and that the room was lit by a dim green glow.
Alexi attempted to scout forth and found himself unable to go past the fourth
pillar. Illyana then attempted to fly forth, using the magicks left over from Aria
and Alexanders spells, but she too was halted.
Finally I stepped forth to see what would halt us. I was unimpeded and moved up to
the fifth pillar with relative ease, though I knew that some force did stand before me.
By the sixth and seventh pair of pillars I felt a great strain and could only
continue with great concentration. Reciting all manner of blessings and hymns I
managed to force myself past the eight set of pillars and make it to the doors beyond.
The doors here were well made of some odd metal, seemingly perfect and had to
arrows pointing to the roof inset on them. I pushed upon the doors and they opened
soundlessly.
Stepping forth I entered the most perfect room I'd ever seen. The
room was flawless, perfectly square. I could tell by some innate sense of balance
within me that this room was completely perfect in all ways. My voice, when I spoke,
dropped tonelessly upon the air, as though even my voice was not allowed to intrude on the
perfect neutrality of this room. What a completely stirring experience.
Within the room stood a dais with a box upon it. Not wanting to
set off any traps I attempted to move off to the side in the room and walk around the box,
but that was not to be. A being stepped forth out of nothing and intoned the words,
"What is the path?" It was an odd being, a walking cylinder with arms and
legs and a face that spoke to me.
I answered "The path lies neither left nor right."
Seeming appeased by this answer the being asked why I had come. I
answered that I had come to claim the piece of the rod, to make the rod of seven parts
whole, so that Chaos might be combated. It seemed appeased by this answer as well
and said that it was mine to take. With that said, it disappeared.
The rest of the group were in awe when I returned with the rod piece
and we were quite happy to have completed this next stage of our long quest. Surely
it was a long road we were travelling.
Heading back the way we came, we ascended to the top of the tower to
head back to the island. No sooner did we get our bearings within the tower when a
voice rang out in challenge telling us to surrender the piece of the rod and that they
knew we were in here. Quite perplexed we attempted to talk things out, but it was
quite clear that the agents of chaos would have none of that. Setting
ready to defend ourselves, the agents gave us five minutes and then attacked.
We were beset by a group of flyers who came in fast, while one of their
group attacked our mages from behind. The battle didn't go well from the start.
The small person who appeared behind our mages suddenly became a giant while one of
the attackers charmed Illyana against us and were it not for the intervention of good
Alexi defending me, I surely would not be
standing this day. With the aid of God I managed to gain Illyana's support for our
side again, but not before she wounded Alexi gravely, dropping him to the stone floor of
the tower. Alexander held his own against the giant, while Aria dropped two of the
foes simultaneously with her lightening bolt after the fighters in the group
softened them up a bit. However there was little left after her deadly strike,
leading us to beleive that her strike was a final end to their evils.
Their mage, still flying, fled the scene with an enraged Illyana on his
heels. She soon found him and paid him back for his groups magicks upon her.
Regrouping ourselves at the tower, we rested up, searched the
bodies for information and awaited til we felt in better shape to travel. Upon one
of the persons was a wicked blade that had flown in the air and struck at Alexi all by
itself, but now that its owner was dead, it laid motionless. None of us liked the
sword and so we tossed it into the pit to be lost for a
time.
After resting, we gathered our gains and set out back to Ierendi, and
from there back home, at last, to Karamiekos.
Return to the Aerie
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