Edge of Chaos

by Des Pensable

‘Come quickly to the tower Sir, there’s been trouble at the Druid’s Conclave.’

  Chantalot quickly dressed and he and Helix hurried over to Featherdown’s Tower where there was a crowd of twenty of the more senior town’s people milling around.

  ‘What’s happening?’ asked Chantalot.

  ‘I don’t know the full story myself yet. Featherdown will be here soon to fill us in.’

  Shortly both Featherdown and Granwell appeared.

  ‘Thank you for all coming. Last night I had short visit from the old Grand Druid who told me that there would be a druid conclave today to discuss the recent problems, which you all no doubt have heard about. The old High Druid and many of the druids are unhappy with the methods of the new High Druid and were going to discuss them.’

  ‘A few minutes ago I received a message from Quab who is at the conclave. He said that there was a fight among the Druid Council members resulting in the deaths of some of the Council. The rest were severely injured but are being healed.’

  ‘I am not sure who died or what the problem is but I have decided to go to the conclave and find out. There is no immediate cause for alarm, but until we find out more about what has happened we should be on alert.

  ‘Consequently I am now declaring a Dragon Warning.’

  ‘Anything you see out of the ordinary, report it to the nearest town watch guard. The gateway will be closed until further notice.’

  ‘Lord Granwell will be here closely watching the situation. I’m hoping this is a false alarm but if it is upgraded to a Dragon Alert you should move quickly and calmly and wait patiently and quietly as in our drill sessions. It is absolutely imperative that everyone treats this seriously and do not move from the shelters under any circumstances. If Lord Granwell has to fight he may conjure horrible creatures, which will not care if you are a friend or foe. If you or your children get ripped apart or eaten you will be to blame.’

  With the help of several members of the guard the crowd was disbursed but reassembled in the town square near the fountain where they remained talking amongst themselves. This was the most exciting thing to happen for ages. Chantalot with Helix on his shoulder raced over to Featherdown.

  ‘Can we go too.’ asked Chantalot. ‘You might need someone to watch your back.’

  I suppose that would be okay but I suggest that Lord Helix stays hidden and keeps quiet. Take this ring of teleport and use it if there’s trouble.’ said Featherdown. ‘You do remember how to use it?’

  ‘Of, course I can dear brother. I haven’t forgotten how to use wands and rings, maybe a few other things but not them.’ said Chantalot.

  ‘Good.’ said Featherdown. Get your fighting gear on we better prepare for the worst.’

  ‘What did Featherdown mean about whether you could remember or not.’ asked Helix curiously as they went back to the inn to get Chantalot’s fighting leathers and a sword.’

  ‘Well I died and was resurrected a few months ago and I seem to have forgotten a few things.’ said Chantalot.

  ‘I’ve heard of that happening before.’ said Helix. ‘Do you remember anything from the other place.’

  ‘No.’ said Chantalot. ‘Not a thing.’

  ‘That’s normal. I wouldn’t worry too much.’ said Helix as if he knew all about dying.

  When they returned Featherdown was wearing his favourite old leather battle gown. On his hands he wore two gold rings and had an iron circlet on his head inlaid with a ruby. He was carrying a Staff of Power. He handed Chantalot a ring of teleport , a wand of fear and bandolier of small healing potion bottles. If there’s a fight, leave and come back and notify the wizards here to be prepared for trouble. The new High Druid is very unpredictable.

  Featherdown picked up the crystal ball waved his hand over it and an image formed of a scattered tents on rocky flat ground. He willed the viewing sphere backwards away from the tents to get a wider view.

  ‘I gave Quab a communication crystal which had a signal marker in it in case we needed to go to the conclave.’ he said with a mischievous smile.

  ‘They are at the Crown of Elements. It is the most amazing sight from a distance. It is circular volcanic mountain that rises a thousand paces out of the sea. On the top around the edges of the crater are seven spires evenly placed around the crater and inside the crater it is flat. It resembles a gigantic crown hence its name. It looks like the camp is set in the middle of the flat crater area.’

  They saw a large central oval shaped green canopy a hundred paces long and about thirty wide. Completely surrounding the oval area scattered randomly were a couple of hundred small tents.

  To the north of the oval area they saw a large charred circular area that looked like the remains of a tent that had burnt out but the most concerning thing of all was that there were groups of druids everywhere who were arguing and with some sporadic fights here and there.

  ‘By the powers, that doesn’t look good.’ said Featherdown. ‘Hold onto my shoulder.’ and they teleported to the conclave twenty paces to the east of the central oval structure.

  Close up, the oval area was a small wonder. It was actually three linked circular areas covered with a living mesh of vines forming an open tent like structure. At the northern end there was a sort of amphitheatre with stage and the southern end were tables covered with food and goods. In the middle section there was a tiered fountain with a large statue of a rearing unicorn, surrounded by benches, pots containing unusual plants and cages containing small birds and animals.

  There was shouting everywhere. It seemed like pairs of druids would randomly start fighting, others would race over and quickly stop the fight only to have another fight break out somewhere else.

  Chantalot spotted Quab and called out to him. Quab turned, saw them and came racing over.

  ‘What are you doing here. I didn’t send the signal to come yet. It’s not allowed unless you’re invited. If the High Druid see you he’ll explode.’

  ‘I guessed he might have been one of the survivors.’ said Featherdown.

  ‘Can you feel it.’ said Helix using mindspeak to them all.

  ‘Feel what? asked Chantalot.

  ‘Close your eyes and use your mind.’ replied Helix.

  They all did and Featherdown suddenly said.

  ‘Yes. I can feel it. It’s a sort of an evil, malevolent feeling. What is it?’

  ‘It’s a Malign crystal, also called a Mutiny stone. It radiates an aura of fear, mistrust and hate. They’re used to cause rebellions and discontent amongst friends and allies. I’d say it’s the current cause of the trouble.’

  Featherdown cast a simple spell to detect magic. It was quickly evident where the aura was emanating from, the Unicorn statue. He hurried over to the statue. Close up the aura made him nauseous. He struck the head of the statue and it came off at the neck. He then bashed it a few more times until it revealed a hollow area in the chest packed with cloth and in the middle of the cloth was a fist sized milky white crystal.

  He removed the crystal and dropped it on the stony ground then crushed it with the ironclad hilt of his staff. The aura vanished and the argumentation and fighting among the druids began to subside.

  The High druid with a small retinue of half a dozen druids came from behind the building and spotted Featherdown standing by the destroyed unicorn statue.

  ‘How dare you come here uninvited and desecrate our fountain.’ he shouted. ‘Arrest that wizard he will pay for this grave insult.’

  ‘Wait.’ said Quab.

  ‘I invited them here as is my right. They found a magic crystal that was emanating some type of aura of disunity which was causing the fighting.’

  ‘What a load of utter rubbish, I don’t believe a word of it.’ said the High Druid in a shrill voice.

  ‘Arrest them all. Put them in chains. It was them causing the disunity.’

  Several druids began moving towards Chantalot and several more towards Featherdown. The High Druid smiled with glee and Helix activated h
is aura vision to check their spirit auras and looked at the High Druid whose expression immediately changed.

  ‘So there is more than one troublemaker here.’ he said to Helix using mindspeak.

  He raised an arm and a small red fireball shot skywards, he laughed loudly, disappeared and then all hell broke loose. Fireballs began raining down from the sky onto the druids below. There were screams everywhere and the druids scattered and began placing fire protection on themselves and looking furtively at the sky to see where the fire was coming from.

  No sooner had they protected themselves against fire than it began to rain large chunks of unusually cold jagged ice, which clubbed them and caused instant frost burn. Then the area was blanketed in a thick yellow green acid fog, which burnt exposed skin, caused holes in their robes and pitted any metal around. This was followed by massive bursts of chain lightning, which leapt between the coughing druids shocking, and stunning their already burnt, smashed and dazed bodies.

  Many of the younger ones died. Others who were badly damaged, teleported away. A few of the older and tougher ones refused to run. They stood defiantly within spheres of elemental protection.

  This was Featherdown’s chosen profession. He knew the tactics. He knew how to survive in battle and above all he knew how to kill with magic. Before the first fireball had hit the ground he had yelled to Chantalot to flee and had teleported himself five hundred paces straight up into the sky. As he started to fall down again he activated the ring on his left hand giving him the ability to fly. He slowed his decent and cast a spell allowing him to see invisible creatures and looked around below.

  There were seven or eight Newmans flying around about hundred paces below him. Each of them was invisible to the normal eye and busily casting death and destruction on the druids below. They all wore distinctive tabards.

  ‘Damn.’ he thought.

  ‘What are Panmagican wizards doing here?’

  ‘Hello, Featherdown.’ came a mindspeak voice within his head.

  ‘I managed to create a mindlink between us before you teleported. Chantalot has left as you instructed but I decided to stay. Where are you now?’

  ‘I’m in the sky Helix.’ said Featherdown.

  ‘There are several invisible wizards wearing Panmagican colours up here as well.’ then he had an idea. ‘Can you control light?’

  ‘Yes.’ said Helix.

  ‘Good. Create the biggest zone of darkness around you that you can and don’t look up.’

  Moments later a field of darkness a hundred paces across sprung up and Featherdown cast what appeared to be a fireball down towards the zone. To the Panmagican wizards it was easily mistaken as coming from one of their colleagues. Some noticed that it looked a little different having blue tinge rather than the healthy orange-yellow glow. Before it reached the zone of darkness it exploded not with heat but with a brilliant burst of light, instantly blinding seven of the eight Yith wizards and also unfortunately, several druids outside the zone of darkness.

  Immediately, the bombardment from above stopped, giving the druids some respite. Featherdown now ignored the wizards below. If these were military wizards and this looked like a text book military ambush then they would all teleport away to some aid station where they could get their blindness fixed then they would come back.

  ‘What’s next.’ he thought.

  ‘Ground troops of course!’ and he began searching the ground around the camp. He noticed some birds fly off the ground to the south. He flew a little in that direction watching carefully, and saw what he was looking for, small flashes of light coming off drawn weapons. There were troops about four hundred paces from the druid camp, all wearing camouflage spells.

  ‘Helix, there are ground troops coming in a few hundred paces to the south. They are well camouflaged so I can’t tell exactly how many. I would expect others closing in from the other directions. Tell the druids. Where is the High Druid?’

  ‘I don’t ...’ said Helix but the communication was cut off as Featherdown felt a surge of dispelling magic around him and he began to fall like a stone. He quickly used a power he kept specifically for this occasion. It slowed his fall allowing him to float down gracefully like a feather. He then activated his right hand ring and went invisible.

  Helix felt Featherdown drop out of the mindlink.

  ‘That’s unfortunate.’ he thought then he eliminated the zone of darkness and broadcast a mindspeak message in all directions.

  ‘Attention druids, Archmage Featherdown has temporarily neutralized most of the attacking Panmagican Wizards above. He has spotted ground troops approaching from all sides. He suggests you grab an injured colleague and bring them to the central oval building, then to form a defensive ring around the area. Beware the new High Druid is an enemy in disguise.’

  ‘Quab came running towards the main building yelling.

  ‘Helix, where are you?’

  Helix guided him close then said ‘What’s up.’

  ‘They won’t believe you as they don’t recognize your voice.’

  ‘Repeat what I say.’ and he gave the instructions in the secret druid language. This got action. Druids came in from all directions, most carrying a badly injured or unconscious colleague. Several started healing the badly wounded, others cast protective spells on themselves and a few started casting defensive walls of fire in an arc around the oval building.

  In all there were about thirty relatively undamaged druids. All of them were veterans, men and women that had been around for a long time and had seen their share of fights. They would not give up easily. One of the old druids found Quab healing a young badly burnt and blinded druid.

  ‘Good job, Quab. Do you know what’s happening?’ he said.

  ‘A little, my Lord. After the explosion I notified Featherdown of what happened and he decided to come here to help. He was accompanied by a Traveller bug friend as an observer. His friend discovered a magic device causing the disruption and fighting among our fellows and Featherdown disabled it. The High Druid was very upset at this and seemed to signal the start of this onslaught, then disappeared.’

  ‘Okay seems as though we have given the bastard enough rope to hang himself.’ said the old druid and his face changed to that of Heteronymous.

  ‘Now where is Lord Helix? I want to talk with him.’ asked Heteronymous.

  ‘I’m over here.’ said Helix.

  ‘First flower pot to the right of the unicorn statue.’

  Heteronymous and Helix talked until the first of the ground troops became visible near one of the walls of fire. Helix agreed to act as a communications link broadcasting using mindspeak to the defenders. His first job was to give them some general information about the strengths and weaknesses of the Panmagican ground troops.

  ‘We are under attack by Panmagican ground troops. They are likely to be mainly Newmans but will have a few half giant brutes from the outer colonies with them. For the benefit of those who are not familiar with Panmagican troops’ tactics I will quickly run through some of their main features.’

  ‘The military ground units are based around a platoon of fifteen made up of ten fighters, two brutes, an officer, a priest and a wizard. All of them will be wearing chain mail and have elemental protections cast upon them. The ground troops are equipped with javelins, swords and shields. They often use javelins at the start of an attack then close in with their swords. They often fight in a V shape formation with the brutes in the centre at the front. The officer, priest and wizard will be found in the middle of the V.’

  ‘The wizards will generally use a fire ball or two if they have the range but close up they may use fear, paralyse, confusion, nausea or poison gas to soften up the enemy so that the fighters and brutes can kill them quicker. They are usually equipped with dispel magic wands to neutralize any enemy magic used against their group. The priests will heal their group and replace magic protections on them. They are also known to use a variety of attacks similar to the wizards.’
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  ‘Be careful of the brutes they are very strong and very tough. They might also be in a religious frenzy which will mean they can’t be feared or feel pain and will fight with terrible wounds until dead.’

  Helix could hear a few of the druids laughing, so he asked the Heteronymous why?’

  ‘Many haven’t had a good fight for years. They thought that this sneak attack might fizzle out before they could get a little revenge. Druids usually work alone. They have to be both good fighters and magic users. The third day of the conclave is usually devoted to fighting prowess. They have been honing their skills for weeks.’

  Suddenly Featherdown appeared in the camp beside the statue and walked over to Heteronymous.

  ‘Why are you and your colleagues still here? There are possibly a couple of hundred ground troops coming in from all directions and those wizards will be back soon.’

  Heteronymous chuckled.

  ‘You obviously don’t know us well enough. That onslaught has only whetted our appetite for a fight. Soon you will see what druids are made of. Those bastards will pay for interfering with our conclave.’ said Heteronymous then he walked outside the building and looked at the clear cloudless sky.

  ‘The conclave is not here because of the scenery. You are about to see why this place is called the Crown of Elements.’

  He held up both arms and began chanting and as he did so dark clouds appeared in the sky covering the whole of the mountaintop and began swirling ominously in a circular pattern around the druid camp. The breeze picked up and the air became cooler. Soon snow began sprinkling down from above then chunks of ice began falling with great thumps as they hit the ground.

  He chuckled some more then yelled,

  ‘Let there be lightning!’ and there was. Massive chains of lightning struck down from the sky reaping havoc in the area around the druid camp. In between the thunder they could hear screams of pain from the Panmagican troops exposed to the devastation.

  ‘Why don’t they attack?’ wondered Quab aloud and at that moment the new High Druid appeared next to the fountain.

  ‘You people never learn, do you!’ he screamed and began shape changing. He grew larger and larger until he broke through the vine covered roof of the central area of the druid camp and kept growing until he was at least eight times as tall as a Newman then gave an enormous bellow. The circle of druids all looked around to see what was happening and saw a huge green dragon right in the middle of their camp. Some of the druids fell to the ground frozen with fear.