by Luka Petrov
"Looks about right," Yves confirmed.
Agnes chimed in, "Ed, you are always so smart." She was really building my confidence since I had become slightly self-conscious of my abilities lately, especially when Yves has been appearing like a know-it-all. I see why now other students didn't like me at Draererth. Who likes a know-it-all?
We entered the maze and moved from the snowing ground to the slippery, icy floor of the maze. The blizzard was still snowing heavily on us, and as we traveled down one passageway of the maze, all the white walls looked the same. We entered the main passageway and were presented with three paths to take.
"I think we should go right," Yves suggested.
Not having a better suggestion, I replied, "Right it is!"
We took the passageway on the right and traveled down further, not knowing if it would be a dead end or not. The passageway led us to an open area, where we were presented with five other ways to go.
"Guess you were right, Yves. That way led us to this next area. Good job!" I said to Yves, I may resent her at times, but I was certainly glad she was on my team. "Care to choose the next way?" I asked.
Yves answered, "Let's take the middle path."
"You were right the first time, let's go the way you said again," I said.
We took the passageway in the middle of the five ways in front of us. As we walked, we slipped and glided on the icy floor. Agnes shouted, "It's hard to get traction in here." The ice down this pathway seemed to become more slippery the longer we traveled on it.
Unknowingly, the floor sloped slightly downward, and all three of us slid faster and faster down the slope. We hadn't realized that the floor was sloping downward until it was too late.
"Oh, no!" I shouted as I lost my grip with my feet and fell to the side of my legs, only gaining momentum as the slope incline increased. I bowled over Agnes, who was ahead of me before I slipped and fell. I sent both of us hurling faster down the ice slope. Yves was behind us. I heard her mutter a few words and grabbed my hand.
Before I had realized what had occurred, I had stopped sliding. It was almost as if I could grip the ice slope and move in any direction that I wanted.
"Agnes! Quick! Grab ahold of my foot," I screamed when I noticed that I was about to stop sliding and she would continue on without me. Thankfully, she grabbed my ankle, wrapping her hand around it.
"Ugh, got it!" Agnes replied.
"Good! Work your way up my leg and try to climb onto my back," I screamed.
Agnes's hands each grabbed around my legs, and she worked her way up, getting as much leverage from her feet on the icy slope as she could while alternating the movements of her hands, grabbing the sides of my pants. She made her way up to my back and held onto my shoulders.
I was able to move up the almost vertical surface of the ice wall. Yves was able to stop just after she cast the spider climb spell on me. She had cast a web between the two ice walls, just before she reached for my hand. I made my way up to Yves with Agnes on my back. I easily worked my way around the web, climbing on the wall over the web.
"Yves, climb on the other side of Agnes," I shouted while I came over where the web attached to the wall. She climbed on, and I crawled up the passageway with both girls on my back. We made it up, back to where we began with the five options of paths to take. It was reassuring to know Yves had her faults.
"That was a fine demonstration of magic," I shouted while I set them both down on the icy floor.
Yves replied, "My mentor, Professor Windstrap taught it to me. He instructed me that if I ever found myself falling down a ledge or slope like that, to cast a web and spider climb if I am traveling with others. I had no idea it would turn out to be so handy."
"It sure was impressive. I'm glad you had such a good mentor," I replied as I tried not to think about Hamon. I did not have time to go into that space. It was too much to sort through at this juncture. "Well, your second choice of path turned out not to be so lucky as your first," I said, half joking, half taunting Yves. "Good thing you had the ability to get us out of that quandary," I added.
"Good thing," Agnes injected. "I think we should take the path on the far left," she suggested.
"Let's do it!" I answered. Her choice was as good as any.
We stepped toward the path on the far left, entering the confines of what it held. Once again, my vision only held white walls as we turned corner after corner, which seemed to be traversing from side to side. We were met with a white wall after a white wall and forced to turn the corner to find that we were met once again by another white wall.
Getting fed up with this, I stopped in my tracks. "Guys! I don't think this way has an end to it."
"Interest, I'm not sure," Yves replied. "Perhaps we should go back the other way, back to the main chamber," she suggested.
All three of us turned around and headed back in the opposite direction. Moving back the way we came, were met with white wall after white wall. "I think we need to go just a little farther," Agnes encouraged. "The main chamber must be just around the next corner."
As Agnes suggested, we arrived back at the main chamber where we were presented with our five options. I realized that I had the new ability to sense magical power, so I decided that I could feel which way to go. I close my eyes and went into a meditative state. This new ability to detect magic was quite useful. While my eyes were shut, I could send vibrations in the atmosphere. I could feel where are the vibrations became stronger. They were coming from the second half from the left. That is where the vibrations we're the strongest, they felt like rolling waves from the ocean. I said to the others, "let's go this way. I haven't explained yet, but I have this new ability called detect magic. It allows me to detect where magical sources lie. I didn't think it was that useful, but it's turned out to be quite advantageous. My sense is telling me that we should enter the second pass on the left."
Yves said, quote well let's go!"
We began walking down the path second from the left. It was snow and ice cover just like the others. Except it was a straight hallway, with a light at the end of the tunnel. The light was bluish gray and it looked like it was coming just over the horizon. As we stopped further into the hallway, I could see that the light was not as far away as it first appeared. Soon we were by the light, it was a glowing orb of white light. Yours was slowly rotating, it was the size of a large boulder that I could barely open my eyes.
“Wow! What do you think this is?" Agnes asked.
Yves responded, "I am not sure what this is.” We marveled at the brilliance of this orb which continued to rotate and emit white light. My eyes were adjusting to the brightness of the light and I could look at it.
Before I realized what was occurring, the orb opened in half, splitting itself down the middle. From the orb, which opened down the middle vertically, emerged a white bird creature.
“Oh no! That is a frost wolf. Frost wolves are magical wolves that have white fur and live in snowy environments and icy regions. They are well adapted to the snow and they have sharp transparent teeth made of ice. This is not what I want to encounter right now!" Yves explained.
“What do you think we have to do?" I asked.
"I'm not sure, but I think we'll find out,” Agnes said.
Just then, the Frost Wolf lunged toward us. The frost was struck at my face and rendered me four points of damage.
On Top of the initiative, the order was the Frost Wolf. The Frost Wolf struck at Edward with a bite, hitting him for 4 points of damage.
Thankfully Agnes came to my rescue and cast magic missile at the Frost Wolf dealing 12 points of damage.
It was now Agnes’ turn. Agnes cast magic missile at the Frost Wolf dealing 12 points of damage.
Yves was able to jump in and she cast burning hands, but the frost was managed to dodge out of the way.
Next up was Yves. Yves cast burning hands, the frost wolf just at the right time managed to dodge out of the way.
Yves used another sp
ell and cast firebolt at the frost wolf.
Yves used another spell slot to cast firebolt, dealing 10 points of damage plus another four points of damage for weakness to fire.
Agnes cast a shield around herself. It was a poor move on Agnes's part because the frost wolf used this moment for an attack opportunity and bit at Agnes dealing her damage.
Agnes cast shield on herself and used her move action to move out of the way, in doing so; the frost wolf uses his attack of opportunity to bite at Agnes, hitting for 7 points of piercing damage.
Agnes was near death; I could tell as I looked over at her.
Agnes Myers became in grave danger from this attack. She missed her Strength saving throw, and the situation for Agnes turned grave.
Next, the wolf began clawing at Yves. It almost clawed at her face. Thankfully, the frost wolf was lacking in accuracy as a result of the blows we were able to deal with it.
The next round began with the wolf clawing at Yves, barely missing Yves with an inch.
I summoned the last bit of strength that I had. I gathered my energy. My friend was in grave danger, and I needed to defeat the frost wolf so we could heal her. I rearranged the glyphs of the runes to aim directly at the center of the frost wolf. Summoning all of my energy, I watched the flash of light leave my palm. Using lightning bolt, hitting the frost with damage. I was spent, exhausted.
Edward used a lightning bolt, hitting the frost wolf for 10 points of damage.
The frost wolf fell to the ground dead.
The group gained 300XP a piece.
With every ounce of our strength, we manage to defeat the frost wolf.
“Guys I need you to save me!" Agnes yelled. Yves and I quickly rushed to her. Being that I was not a great healer, Yves closed her eyes and put her hands above Agnes.
She sent her healing energy into Agnes, and Agnes became restored.
The fight with the wolf felt like hours, but it only took minutes to subdue the beast. The wolf was very powerful, it was almost too powerful for us. I realized that we got lucky this time. I was pondering just how lucky we were when Yves chimed in, “Wow! That was a close one! Thankfully Agnes only sustained a few injuries, otherwise, we would have been done for. We did not allow the frost wolf to render the melee attack that it is known for which frostbite is. That would have taken all of our hit points.”
The frost wolf soon disappeared into magical energy and formed into a small gemstone.
“Wow! A gemstone! This must be what we need to give the dragon,” I concluded.
I grabbed at the gemstone that laid in the snow, and we soon were transported back to the construct.
Teleporting back to the Dragon Tomb, I was able to present the gemstone to the dragon.
“I see you killed the frost wolf, well done!” the dragon said as I handed him the scarlet red gemstone that was the larger than my closed fist. You have gotten the first part of your mission. You have two more trials to go,” the dragon explained.
“Gees, I’m still tired from the last mission,” I relented.
“I realized that,” the dragon said as he flapped his bone wings. We watched the loose red flesh that was loosely attached to the bones of the dragon fan us. Our hit points were restored. I felt my innards vibrating and my mana was restored as well. We were replenished with all of our abilities, and we would have the next task befallen upon us.
“Good luck on your journey,” the dragon said as he muttered a few words. Once again, a rift opened in the ground and we fell what felt like thousands of stories down to the ground.
It felt as though we were falling forever. We landed on the hard ground of wet grass in front of an old mansion. The mansion was large, with gargoyles on the corners of the cement rooftops. The stone-brick walls. The mansion, enclosed by a rod-iron gate, led to the courtyard which led to the front door.
“I think we go in?” Agnes said, making her statement sound like a question.
“I believe you are correct, let’s go,” I confirmed.
The three of us walked through the open rod-iron gate and through the courtyard up to the stairs that surrounded the stone mansion.
Once inside, we took it all in. The oil lamps were lit, and the inside had rugs that appeared to have been acquired from other villages as their handiwork was not recognizable by anything that I was accustomed to. Apparently, the person who lived in this mansion was one who traveled.
After taking in the great room, which had artifacts, paintings, and what looked to be expensive furniture, we made our way to the study just off of the great room.
In the study, they lined the walls with books from floor to ceiling.
The books were leather bound and appeared to be expensive. “Where in the world do you think we are?” Agnes asked.
“I am not sure, nor do I know what we are supposed to do here,” I responded.
I saw in the study that between two of the bookshelves stood a door. Using my detect magic ability, I said, “Hey guys, I think we should go in that door. Something is feeling very strong coming from behind that door.”
“Let’s do it!” Agnes said.
Yves, Agnes, and I went to the door, and I turned the knob. I found they have not locked it, so we proceeded to the next room.
We entered a crazy laboratory of some sort.
Exploring the laboratory, we saw many things were out of the ordinary. Things I was not accustomed to. Lisa shelves cluttered with jars of organs, Burning incense to cover the stench of the rotting flesh, and they section trays with pins small creatures on them.
“What kind of room do you think this is?” I asked.
“It looks like it is the laboratory of an alchemist,” Yves replied. “Judging by all the experimentation and what is left, I've left with the conclusion that an alchemist we’re here.”
We explored further and found shelves with small jars on them. Continuing on, I saw on the shells that there were vials of dark blue liquid labeled with the names of local villagers or creatures. Some jars contained organs we’re twitching and muscles that contracted. Other shelves contained shriveled body parts outside of the jars with tattooed cryptic symbols on them. Arms feet legs were all set around on the shelf.
Small cages were left with feathers and scales. For of them hung from the ceiling several cages all left with no creature just remnants of what used to living there. A life-sized diagram of the human body loomed over a cabinet filled with more vials and jars. Over at the wall there was a fire still burning, and over the fire hung small vats of molten metal bubbling over the vet.
Mighty alchemist bench laid a scar which appeared to have been caused by acid. The burning of the wooden bench was wide and deep a lot of acids was built. A strange stench, a combination of several chemicals along with a heavy burning smell, hung heavily in the air. The snow became stronger as I moved in crouch down to the floor. A fake yellow haze hung in the air against the ceiling. The room oddly smelled like ozone. At another bench, there was a small cauldron over an open flame. The cauldron contained a greenish goop and an arm and hand are stuck out of the cauldron. It appeared to be the arm of an Orc.
A wet rag—covered in some golden yellow sticky material—lied discarded under the alchemist’s counter. A small coffer atop a huge shelf contained several crystal potion vials. Each comprised a potion of a different color; sadly, the alchemist did not identify them. Several small bowls contained differing volumes of water. Each of the basins also had a particular stone—all the various types. A narrow red cloth covered something small on the bench—a cracked eggshell shattered into several parts. However, the egg is considerably heftier than could be reaped from a hen or similar bird. White string bound a stack of hand-drawn plans for some kind of fiendishly complicated apparatus or machine together. The sheet of notes lined on a shelf next to the alchemist’s desk. Several grubby fingerprints marred the top sheet. A short shelf had a dizzying display of microscopic glass jars and vials. Each involved a particular liquid. A nauseating, obno
xious smell floated in the air around the shelf. A dry liqueur bottle stood atop a narrow, unlocked coffer. Thin wooden panels separated the interior into a dozen spaces. Each section contained different sand, earth or powdered rock. A ragged piece of blue velvet had a particular plume. The feather is overly large—perhaps one-foot—and is brilliantly white (except for its tip, which bore a golden, lustrous sheen). This perfectly flat metal ball the capacity of a man’s fist glistened as if it had just been drenched in water. It is, however, dry. A leather bag stuffed down the back of a chair contained several small cartilages. The cartilages were fractured and pitted. A short glass jar comprised a broad, pale blue syrupy liquid. Three large fangs were at the bottom of the jug. A small vial rested on a plate alongside two dirty quills. The vial was about half full of red ink. A tattered book—with a much-stained cover—contained a basic formula for the most common alchemical items. A close reading of the text, however, revealed deliberate errors in the formulas that provided anything made using the instructions inert. A perusal of the text revealed the formulas were unusually well penned and illustrated. A perceptive searcher discovered a loose section of floor. Below lied a storage niche that contained four (empty) exquisite glass potion vials wrapped in a black velvet material. Mottled brown and green mold grew up one leg of the alchemist’s counter. The mold smelled like decaying flesh.
Just then we found what this alchemist had been working on. We discovered the most frowned upon the type of magic. Changing the human body. Turning the surrounding villagers into homunculi. “What in the world are those?” I asked with a gasp.
“Oh, my wonderment!” Yves proclaimed. She was always very book smart. A ravenous reader and was difficult to keep up with her growing knowledge. Even for me with my eidetic memory. “This is the most frowned upon magic in all the land,” explained Yves.