When I woke up from the horrible nightmares, everything in the armoury was calm. The silence was deafening. I looked around and saw my companions wakening one after another. Sargon made a gasping sound and clutched his right hand. It looked as if it had been burned. Had he been out of the armoury while I was asleep? When I asked him, he simply shook his head and turned away, whispering something about having a bad dream. Xeeliah also looked hurt. But all others were fine. Suddenly I felt something deep inside. It was an urge to avenge something, to correct it. I had not noticed this feeling before the nightmares begun, but I tried to shake it off me and think of something else, for example food.

Corrin started preparing a meal, this restless night had taken a lot of energy and I could feel my stomach hurt with hunger. When Corrin finally presented the pieces of dry bread and some pieces of drooping vegetables, it was one of the best tasting meals I have had on this journey. Grax apparently did not share my opinion. He spat out the piece of bread he was chewing on and threw it all back on Corrin. “What have you done with the food!” he growled. “This tastes like eating a cadaver. You didn’t think we would notice if you put in some of your disgusting raw meat, huh? But I did! I will not eat dead humans!” Corrin looked shocked and swore that he hadn’t done anything to the food. Xeeliah eventually managed to calm Grax down.

During our meal we spoke a little about what we had learnt the last few days and Sarghon and Grax skimmed through the books and letters we had found in the library of the Hand. The Eyes and the Hand were killed, but by whom? The Hand talked about betraying the Queen of Secrets, she wanted more freedom for the city and to be queen herself. But then she would not kill all the citizens, would she? Was the Eye also a part of this plot against the Queen? Who killed them? The Eye was killed by a blow to the head with something blunt and heavy and the Hand was killed by magic and her tower blown to pieces. Was there a connection? Who is the Mind of Yaramuke? I have never heard of a city having one of these. It was her defender we met in the black fog in the armoury. Is it she who controls the Spear? Did she kill the Eye and the Hand?

The letters in the library had been well hidden, and Grax soon found out why. He read pieces from a few of them and we learnt that the Hand had ordered the murder of the Eye, by an assassin’s blade, and of the Voice, by poisonous spiders (apparently imported by the Voice herself). The Queen herself wasn’t considered important or dangerous enough to kill. One paper also said something about the spears betraying the betrayers, and them being the puppets of the real master of Yaramuke. It was the spears that attacked the tower. The Hand must have been keeping notes even during the siege. But however much they scoured around in the papers, there was no mention of the Mind…

When the reading was done I let Grax examine the stone heart again. He had been doing this a couple of times since we entered Yaramuke and he said that he could feel it waiting for something, listening… I think he made this up just to keep us alert and on the edge when walking around in this dead city. But what if he was right? If the heart was a part of the Queen of Secrets, there might be something triggering it here in her city.

Grax gave the heart back and said he wanted to go back to the library in the Hand’s tower to look for the key to the coordinates we found in documents both here and in the Tower of the Eye. To be able to help him search, I asked him what he thought this “key” would look like. I had never seen a key that unlocks symbols in a book. He answered that it was probably a picture with a lot of lines and squares on it. That sounded strange, so I pretended to look for it, but I mostly hanged around examining the fancy instruments in the tower.

Corrin was looking for traps, as usual, but this time he found something else. From a hidden compartment behind the bedroll he dragged out a very shiny metal sword. It had symbols and runes around the hilt, but Corrin had only eyes for his own reflection in the blade. Finally he had to hand it over to Legion. It was too heavy for Corrin to handle. Sarghon tried to make out the meaning of the symbols, but the only thing he could read was “Loyalty until death”. There were stands for other weapons in the room, but all are empty. The sword was very well hidden. Did even the Hand know about it?

Grax found a map in one of the piles of paper covering the floor. It showed the castle, but had no lines or squares on it. Anyway, we decided we should be going to the Tower of the Voice to check if anything had happened there. According to the map, the Tower was in the eastern parts of the castle, close to the balcony where we met the first zombies. We decided to try the door we had seen in the yard, the one opened by the swarm, and they probably hadn’t locked it behind them.

We were walking through the streets, talking about the crodlus we left at the city gates and how many food rations they might have left. If they stuck to the plan we had and didn’t eat everything the first day, they should be ok for another two or three nights. Suddenly Corrin stopped. We had come to a crossing and some way up the other street was a bunch of zombies. They seemed like they were eating something… or someone. How could they have come by fresh meat here? Was it the Hag that had been torn into pieces? We quickly decided we wanted a closer look. I tried to distract them with Claw. When I summoned him, I had a weird feeling. He didn’t respond as quickly as he usually does, but he managed to take one of the zombies down. A dozen other zombies gathered around him, and I tried to unsummon him, but the same strange sensation remained. One of the zombies reached him and he was hit badly, and disappeared. The majority of the zombies didn’t react to the ghostly lion appearing in their midst, and continued their feast.

Corrin was convinced by Grax to let him teleport Corrin up on the roof above the zombies. He must have been very curious to let the lizard use his dark spells on him. He looked down on them for a while and then threw a stone further up the alley to distract them from us when we quickly crossed the street. When I was on my way past there, one of the zombies turned its head in my direction. I could feel its stare. Before I had time to react, Claw was there, throwing himself between me and the zombie. I could feel the rotten flesh of the zombie hand when it touched my arm, its nails scratched me, but Claw finished it off by aiming his teeth to its neck. I ran…

When we reached the castle, Corrin told us, while setting up a simple trap at the door, what he had seen. First, it had been hard to get a good look on whatever the zombies were tearing and biting at, but then he had seen a reflection cast by a piece of armour. It was marked with the Urikan lion. What had he done in the city? He must have been part of an Urikan force stationed outside Urik, or how else had he managed to get out alive? Had the force got into Yaramuke before us and closed the gates? Or had they come there after us? Where were the rest of the soldiers, or did he got here alone? Even more questions without an answer!

We followed Grax and his map into the castle, looking for the right tower. It seemed like the whole castle was built with different towers, but after a few wrong turns and a couple of zombie encounters, we found the right one. When we made our way up the stairs, we didn’t see any traces of zombies, or anything at all, really. The rooms were completely empty, stripped of any furniture and other things that may have been there before. At one point we saw a spike trap that had been set off. In the area around it there were several dark patches, probably blood stains. In a small soldiers room we saw the sign of the Bow, so it seemed like the Voice was protected by his soldiers. They didn’t make a good job in protecting the tower from thieves though… The room was as empty as all the others we had seen so far.

Halfway up to the second floor, there were two additional traps that Corrin made us aware of. Those weren’t activated, though. Hadn’t the intruders got this far, or did they recognise the traps from their first experience? We would soon get the answer to that question…

Some way up the stairs, we saw the rails and walls covered with something white. When we got closer, we could clearly see that it was spider webs. I guess the plan the Hand had made had worked out. The corridor was completely covered with the webs when we made it to a cloth-covered screen that blocked the doorway of one room. When peeking in through a crack at the side, we could make out a dimly lit room with a large hole in the floor. To the right was a room that looked like private quarters, to the left we saw a library or working room. Corrin got a torch from Grax and moved the screen to enter the room slowly. Grax followed, while we stayed at the door. The hole in the floor reached all the way down to the next level, and it was filled with broken furniture, cloth, bones, skulls mixed with more spider webs, and here and there were some pieces that looked suspiciously like half-digested zombie parts.

They moved into the private quarters and found a really fancy bed. It had a mattress and everything! When looking closer there was someone lying in the bed. Corrin got closer and could make out the body of a young girl. She wore no jewellery, no bracelet or golden amulet. She was not the Voice, but must have been a servant girl or something. How did she end up in that bed?

Suddenly we heard something moving up the stairs behind us. It sounded fast. Corrin started moving towards the door and in that exact moment Grax gave a startled cry. When I looked back at him, I had no difficulties figuring out why; there was a giant spider dangling from the ceiling right before his nose…

Grax recovered quickly, and with the strange attack he has used a few times before, he sent the giant spider away in a puff of smoke. We saw swarms of smaller spiders crawling around in the corners of the room, and behind us, in the stairs, the sound of many feet on the floor, (or maybe on the walls), got closer. We started the slaughter and did not stop until the tomb spider from the stairs was chased out from a window, the swarms were scattered and killed and the blade spider was severed into pieces and thrown down into the pit in the middle of the room. There spiders must have evolved during many decades, from the poisonous ones that killed the Voice…

With all the spiders gone, we searched the Voice’s quarters. Everything seemed to have been dragged down into the hole in the middle of the room by the spiders, everything except the bed with the dead girl, which had been used as a dining table. Then someone spotted something shiny down in the pit. It is a long way down, and we could really have used that rope we left at the city gate… Corrin and Legion, who were the most athletic ones, or maybe more drawn to shiny things than us, got down into the pit and found their way through the mess of broken furniture and pointy weapons. There were small spiders crawling around everywhere, feeding on half-eaten bodies.

Corrin reached the medallion first, but when he picked it up, it did not show the mouth of the Voice, but a golden star. Then, he saw something human-sized moving under a piece of the floor that fell down during our fight with the big spiders. It was a zombie; lower parts of the body rotten, broken bones and blackened flesh. She moved her unseeing eyes towards Corrin and Legion, spiders crawling out of her mouth when she tried to speak: “You will perish in here as I perished; Betrayed and alone. This is only fitting, the betrayer was betrayed. Everything is too late now…” Legion tried to ask her who betrayed her, but she took no notice of him. That was when Corrin and Legion decided they had to bring her to us. Corrin took up his knife and Legion held her head steady. When she opened her mouth to start a new sentence: “My Queen…”, Corrin slit her throat, and she fell silent. After searching her body and finding the medallion of the Voice, they brought the head up to the room where we were waiting. They proudly presented us with the head, explaining that we would only need her mouth,since that is the talking part of the body.

Fury and extreme frustration shot out of Sarghon’s eyes when he snatched the head from Legion, and showed the two idiots away. He desperately tried to summon the spirit of the Voice to be able to question her, but the head kept its silence. Meanwhile, Grax had searched the library, only to find it empty and all books shredded, their pages spread in the pit. He sent Corrin and Legion down again to get some of them, but with very clear orders not to destroy them or take anything else. The pages were filled with comments and stories from the Voice’s travels around Athas. Grax also seemed a little obsessed with figuring out what had been standing in the middle of the room before the spiders destroyed the floor.

Suddenly, we all heard a voice in our heads. A female voice said one word, once: “Coooome”. Everything was calm and quiet outside. We left the tower of the Voice and moved towards the throne room, where everything looked exactly as when we left last time. Then, everything got dark and the large doors opened from outside. We saw the old Hag standing in the doorway, and she looked directly at us. “Come! Follow me, quickly!”, she said. “She wants us to come, the clever one, Betrayal! She wants her servants to come! Death!”.

We quickly followed her. Grax tried to get some information about the Secret Library from her by asking where he should put the new books. The answer gave no clues: “I have tried to find it for hundreds of years. If you know anything about it, you tell me.” We got out in the courtyard, where a thick mist hangs all the way down to the ground. We stopped, and the mist swirled around from our movement. For a moment it got thinner to my left and what was revealed almost made me gasp. We were surrounded by ghosts! And not the harmless ones walking around, repeating the same sentence over and over. I recognized these; we had met them before, inside the throne room. The spirits of the advisors had risen once again!

We’re down in the narrow alley. Zombies are all around us. Most of them above on the balcony we just jumped from. They follow us down. Some never get up after they fell with a strange crackling sound. We’re leaving; running away from them zombies. I don’t know where we’re heading. Somewhere more quiet for sure. Sarghon wants to look for “the eyes”. I don’t see no eyes. We need to find a tall tower to have an overview. I see a tall tower; much taller than most buildings in this rotting city. I think I know the way to it. Grax is surer about the way. So we follow him. On our way we hear more of them whispers. They whistle about pain and sufferings. This city with its tall buildings seems like a labyrinth to us. But it’s an easy one compared to the tree-top villages and town in the forest. I quickly gather the way and almost run ahead of Grax at times.

We reach the tower. There’s a locked door at the entrance. I look at the lock more closely and see the trap mechanism that will trigger once we carelessly open the door. I push my finger down on the wire to prevent the mechanism from snapping and open the lock with my bent-tip dagger. The trap’s no danger no more. We all go in and just a set of stairs. I see a flashing image of the stairs in the Black Palace under Tyr. We need to be careful about those stairs. After locking the door behind us, I go ahead again to check every step for traps. And sure as that I soon find pressure plates that would possibly trigger an arrow or other bad things. Avoiding them is faster than actually disarming them. They also give us good cover if zombies break down that door.

Up in the tower’s a room with a ghost whispering stuff. He has all kinds of strange instruments around him. He’s got one tube with weird glass, lots of maps with many dots that look like stars. One of them glasses is broken, I see. The ghost speaks again: “I was the stargazer for the queen using the sky. I unveiled the secrets for Yaramuke.” He’s floating above a skeleton. The bones got shiny metal rings. There’s a balcony outside; looking not very stable after all these years. Since I am the lightest, I go out to have a look around. Looking down I see that this tower must be higher than many trees in Algor, maybe as tall as the great sentinel. Grax and Sarghon urge me to stay in Yaramuke.

I see that this tower’s the tallest building in this region of the city. To the north I see the center with the palace. I can see the labyrinth of towers and flat buildings. I am sure there’s still something moving in there. The north and the east of the city are rising and end abruptly in a high cliff. The south is much flatter. There’re about four dozen other towers in the city, but ours is about the highest as far as I can see. It’s hard to spot things on the ground. Everything’s foggy and the darkness swallows much of the ground. Squinting, I can see 10 squares scattered around the city. I remember the one with the shield being towards the east. We came from there. To the east is also the only gate leading into the city. There’s a market place around the castle. To the north-east there’s a square with lots of towers around it. Over there’s also another tower that might the twin of this one. High and bold it stands there. There are still lots of shades and shadows moving around everywhere.

When I come back in, I see Grax doing things with that tube and some more of these glasses. He looks funny if I look at him through the weird glass. Sarghon looks at them metal rings and says boring stuff about it being gold. Xeeliah, Grax, and Sarghon look into some books. Sarghon reads “The hands: she does the dirty work for the queen. The eyes: he is looking for attacks from Urik and Raam. The voice: she travelled a lot, but stayed close to the queen when she was in Yaramuke. They all don’t take much notice of them zombies that are at the foot of the tower. Aryenne and I decide to take a nap. Legion watches the door while resting a little.

Just a little later, there’re screams everywhere. Mostly women, but men alike scream so loud as if they were with us in the tower. I look outside, but only see the zombies down at the door of the tower. To the north I suddenly see a black fog, shrouding the city. Sticking our fingers in our ears does not make the screams any quieter. The fog’s coming ever closer. We close all hatches and doors to try to keep that fog out. I see the stargazer ghost fading when the torchlight goes out. The screams get ever louder. Sarghon collapses before our eyes. The door opens and some of that black fog is coming in. Xeeliah slams the door shut, but the blackness just pushes her back. She collapses as well. I see Legion, Grax, and Aryenne fainting while my vision blackens out.

Suddenly I am in Yaramuke. I want to protect my children from the fire. But there’s no way out. I see my youngest catching fire and can do nothing about it. I want to save my oldest boy. I try to grab him out of the fire. It is really hot. My hand hurts. Flames feed on my skin. My boy is dead. I am burning. I am dead.

When I awake later, I still feel the pain in my hand. It feels black. It feels burned. It hurts so much. When I look around, I see the same fear in the eyes of my companions. Aryenne and Sarghon hold their stomachs and look pail. Grax and Xeeliah mention a woman, an advisor they call her. She was causing “it”. She was killing with her gaze. We take a while to gather all our senses and relax again.

Grax works with that tube and looks into it. He points it here and there and I wonder what he does with it. He then tells us that the plaza towards the north-east, with the many towers around it, belongs to the hand. The eyes are in the other tall tower towards the south. I don’t know how he possibly could have seen these things in the tube, but I know that Grax knows magic. I don’t want to mess with that. Now that we know where “the eyes” are, we can go there. The zombies at the foot of the tower all disappeared, so we can leave it without any problems. There’re footsteps and claw marks around the door. So we haven’t imagined that part.

The city seems quieter now. We walk straight to that tower of “the eyes”. On the way there’re more of them ghosts. On a small plaza, we see two small girls, maybe six or seven years old. She’s the first ghost reacting to us. She starts to scream when we pass by. It’s a scared scream. Then she says: “I was just a poor girl. I played hide and seek. And then I died.” She looks at Sarghon and then goes on: “My mom used to comfort me. But she is not here. It hurts too much.” We see a big black hole in her chest. Suddenly she screams: “I will show you what pain feels like!” Looking around we see that 5 ghost soldiers appeared: “We were guards of the shrine. We betrayed our kin once. We will not fail it again!” They and the two girls attack us.

I put my dagger right into the big wound the girl already has. That should kill her – anyone would die from that. She only smiles and smashes me back to the ground. Sarghon looks weird and frightening. We all keep some distance to him. I whirl around to attack the girl again, this time aiming for her head instead. Once I pushed my dagger hard into the ghost that felt mysteriously solid, it dissolves in front of my eyes. The dagger is free and the girl is no more. Seeing that, the other girl disappears in the wall next to her. I am sure that’s not the last we saw of her. Looking around to the soldiers, I suddenly feel dizzy. I am in a street full of people. I have a spear in my hand. I push it forward. I push it into the chest of a little girl. It looks at me with big eyes. It does not scream, but I see in her eyes that she feels pain. I know that my master is gone. I look around and see a woman with steely eyes. I wake up from that dream. My friends are still fighting them ghosts. I whirl around with my dagger, slashing a solid ghost here, stabbing a disappearing ghost there. In the end there’s just some ghostly mist around us, but no more solid ghosts. We killed the dead and go on our way.

After the adventure at the Smoking Crown we all agreed quickly to direct our way to the City of Secrets to find out more about the Stone Heart. If I say “all”, I mean all of us with more intelligence than a piece of dead tree bark. Corrin tried to convince us to join him going to the forest. But since his most convincing argument was “The forest is green!”, we quickly decided to just ignore him although he managed to keep pace with us – jumping more than walking – on one only hand followed by cart wheels and flik-flaks. We should really sell him to a travelling circus. Then we would have our peace and quiet, although I have to admit that he was always really effective during recent fights. At this point I didn’t have a clue yet that it would be just a short time until his fighting skills would be desperately needed again.

On our way to the City of Secrets lay the obsidian mines near Makla. After a two days march we finally were about the reach the small miners town and just had a few hours left to walk in the dusk and beginning darkness. Suddenly we all realized simultaniously that there was not just the fire of the Smoking Crown in our back, to which we were all perfectly used to by now but also a shimmer of light that reflected on deep hanging clouds right in front of us – something was burning in the south-east… and something was approaching us from that very direction as well. A tall figure wearing a cloak with a hood and carrying a spear came nearer and nearer and finally we could identify him as a large blue man. Grax and I were quite surprised that our companions knew that strange guy – his name was Sarghon and accompanied the other for quite some time before we met. He told us that he was coming straight from Urik, where he escaped from prison in which Alina was held captive as well. He could tell that the city was apparently burning for more than two days now.
I still don’t really trust that blue guy. Isn’t it quite surprising that he escaped the prison BEFORE Urik started to burn? If he would have left Urik in the chaos, I would have understood this, but isn’t it quite a coincidence that he could flee from the normal every-day-life in the prison and knew directly where to look for us? Fortunately, my old friend Grax is sceptical as well. I think it sounds more as if he was sent, but the others are just to blind for mistrust and just want to go quickly to Urik to search for Alina – especially her sister Aryenne.
Arriving in Makla we learnt that they already sent out riders towards Urik to figure out what happened but they haven’t been back yet. They thought that it was quite suspicious that so far no refugees arrived from Urik fleeing from the fire and I could only agree. Not to waste too much time we quickly traded some minor artifacts for some food and Corrin managed to acquire a new figurine. I swear, at some point he will need a pushcart for that junk.
Before we could leave we met a caravan that had left Urik a few days ago and they told us that the king Hamanu hasn’t been seen for quite some time now…

After a one day travel towards Urik we met the riders which were back on their ways towards Makla. They didn’t stop at all, just shouted at us: “All dead! Everyone is dead!” and rode on.
After four days we reached the city or what was left of it. The whole area looked like a burned battlefield: just ashes and ruins. The leftover of the palace was a black hulk and stood stunted against the smoke blackened sky. Sarghon led us to the Templar district where he was held captive but the cell tower didn’t survive the hell of flames – no signs of Alina as well. Aryenne was devastated. On our way through the city we found two molten swords made from metal and one obsidian one, which was still perfectly fine. We strapped them to our pack crodlus and went on to Yaramuke.

Coming closer and closer to the City of Secrets it seemed the world got darker, more desolate and lonelier with each step. Meeting in the beginning regularly travellers and passing unmanned guardhouses, these occasions became rarer and rarer. When we reached the black water, only a black mud pool was left. Approaching the city even the sounds left the world. All noises were muffled and quieter than usual. After the sounds left the light: the sky grew darker and darker and in the end we couldn’t see the sky at all although we knew that it was the middle of the day. From the corner of my eye I could make out shallow shadows but as soon as I turned the head and tried to concentrate on them, they were gone… like ghosts. This place is doomed…
Finally a really high mountain arose in front of us. On top of it, we could identify the shadowy city with a huge amount of towers. The road spiraled upwards and we followed – everything in deep silence. Died black grass ‘grew’ next to the road and I knew, everything that stays here longer than necessary will die! The moving shadows came more often and closer and the other saw them as well. Now, there were hundreds, shuffling around, never specifically looking at us. The wind carried voices towards us, hundreds and thousands of voices repeating in a choir: “We were the finest of Uriks lions. Battle for battle we brought honor to the code. Then we were betrayed by our own king!”
Carefully we wiggled trough the army of ghosts and went on until we came to a gatehouse. Next to it a gate stood open – bent and rusted. It looked like something tried to get into the city from the outside – with success. A ghost lingered next to some toppled over statues and repeated on and on: “We guarded the secrets of the queen. Through our efforts, the queen could never die. We failed.”
Although this gate stood wide open, the next gate towards the city we found was black and old but intact and closed and apparently locked, maybe barred from the inside. Grax managed to go up there and met another ghost soldier on the wall, moaning: “I was a soldier of Yaramuke. I protected its people. Then I died.”
Grax went down on the inside and opened the gate for us. A screeching sound set our teeth on edge but died away in the large city without an echo. Behind, another about twenty transparent soldiers lingered around, repeating: “I was a soldier of Yaramuke. I protected its people. Then I died.”
Fortunately Grax did find an old map of the city and led us towards the queen palace. Where else should we find out more about the Stone Heart, right? I really hoped it was not a long walk. This city really sucked all the happiness directly from the bones and just after a short time I felt empty and lonely and I could feel that Grax felt the same.
We passed streets and alleys. We met a lot of ghost lingering in the streets – bakers, merchants, watchmen and many others – repeating sentences like mantras as: “I was a dyer. Because of me, Yaramuke was always dressed in the brightest colours. Then I died.”
The city didn’t look like a large fight took place here, but each soul was dead.
Next to the merchants headquarter stood a very detailed statue that was unharmed.
The palace turned out to be a big tower complex without an additional wall around it. After crossing the prechambers we directly came to a large hall in which a dirty and tattered red carpet led the way and couldn’t believe our eyes: in front of us sat a statue of a woman on a podium, twice the size as a normal woman – made of pure gold. She didn’t have eyes nor a mouth nor hands. It was not as if they have been chiseled out by some plunderers, no. They are just not there. Where you usually expect eyes, they face was as flat as at the cheeks. The only attribute her face possessed was a nose. Was I mistaken, or did this nose a little bit like Aryennes? But maybe I was influenced by the pointy ears which perfected the statues head.
On both sides of her stood two chairs each, in which skeletons found their last place – their undead ghosts floating above them. On the left and on the right side of the hall were high pillars and eight life-sized statues on pedestals guarded the entrance, the podium and the space in front of it. Each pedestal had an inscription:

“ What the spear has pierced, will always be dead.”
“What the shield has blocked, will always be blocked.”
“What the bow has shot, will always be dead.”
“What the voice has said, can always be retold.”
“What the hands have done, can always be redone.”
“What the sword has slain, will always be dead.”
“What the hammer has forged, will always be unbroken.”
“What the eyes have seen, can always be reseen.”

Behind the statue lay a thick red tattered curtain, which apparently separated once this very part of the room from an area stuffed with tables and other old furniture.
As soon as we approached the podium, the ghosts floating above the skeletons started to whisper. The ones on the left side of the statue and the one in the rightmost chair started in a choir: “I was a revisor of Yaramuke. I provided knowledge of everything that happened in the kingdom. I did it in the duty of my queen.”
The fourth ghost started to hizz: “I was Ta Ori, senegal of Yaramuke. I cared for the city, I cared for my queen. By protecting the eyes, voice and hands, I protected her sectrets….. I protected her sectrets… and I’m still protecting her secrets!!!”
And then, the hell broke loose. All four ghosts rose and attacked us in the same moment as soldiers – dead? alive? – enter the throne room! Flashes swirled through the air, followed by shurikens and thunder. Ta Ori vanished for quite some time, sent to another world by Grax enormous powers.
While attacking and defending I see out of the corner of the eye that Aryenne was badly hurt. Both, Sarghon and Grax do their best to rescue her and they managed. She survived, we all survived… the question is how much longer will we survive in this city of perdition?

It’s the first day after we fled Tyr. The city’s still burning in most parts. The nights are bright enough to walk around even without the pale green Ral out. Guthay’s golden orb is barely visible with the city burning so close to us. We’ve seen many strange folks out here. With Aryenne desperate to find Alina, we’ve been talking to many of them. People leaving, tell us that King Shamash and Queen Ishtar reign with an iron fist; they rule more fearsome than before. They say they want to restore the city to its former glory, but those who fled don’t see how. Most of them lost family members, but none has seen even a glimpse of Alina or Sarghon. Aryenne wants to go back into Tyr to look for Alina. At dawn we went to the Caravan Gate and almost made it in. Legion then suddenly draws us back. One of the guards had started to walk decisively in our direction. We did not want to risk capture and retreated back. Aryenne wants to keep trying, but we hold her back. During day we look for shadows and wait and sleep. Aryenne’s hard to calm down; she’d keep searching with the sun out. We can keep her down with drawing Alina’s picture to show to people. Maybe this way they can give us better information.

The second day we ran into a group of Toothcutters. They’ve not recognized us from the start, but after Aryenne showed them the painting of Alina, they must’ve realized who we are. They drew their daggers, but I grabbed their leader quickly. He stopped the others while I put my dagger on his throat. He yielded and dropped his dagger. Most of the group did the same. One of them was bold enough to attack Legion. He merely got out his sword and stuck it into the belly of the attacker. That stopped all those who had more attacks in mind. They all dropped their weapons. The leader told us that they’ve been in the Warrens when king and queen came back. They are flattened, no building survived the attack. Every building there’s burning, they say. They decided that fleeing people would be easy targets. So they went out The Stadium Gate. On their way out, they saw mostly rubble and fallen buildings such as towers. That raised Aryenne’s awareness and she kept asking about that tower and whether any of them saw Alina. None of them did though. They said they wanted to get back into the city. With most of the guards dead, it was probably easy ground as well. They’d go for the Merchant or Noble district, because it’s much less destruction and more loot to take. They might even try raiding the Shahram’s house. There’s none to protect the house after they’re all dead, the leader said. That’s all he knows he says. We let them go on their way. I wonder whether Sariel would’ve done that.

The third and fourth day we’ve been wandering more and more around and talked to several refugees searching protection in the city. Aryenne’s showing them all the painting of Alina and hope that someone will find her in the city. The refugees talk about troops from Urik passing them, going north-east. Some heard about Nidaba, the Voice of Urik, being speechless now. They say that King Ishtar struck her silent and want to seek the wisdom of such a mighty man. One man swears he has seen and talked to Musa Dyan. He’s gone exile the man claims, but he’s no clue why or how. Dyan wouldn’t talk about that he says. I think it’s unlikely the man really met Musa Dyan. He probably just heard rumors. There are more rumors about Musa Dyan around. Some say he seized the Senate before King and Queen came back. Others claim he died defending the city. Even others talk about conspiracies by rivaling houses. None of them says anything about a vault. Many talk about his brother, Harharu Dyan, who’s now chasing Azera Semira in the Valley of Tyr. Some, however, swear that Azera Semira, leader of the Urikan forces, died during the invasion.

It’s going on for days now. We’re walking round and round that city of Tyr. All Aryenne’s doing is looking for Alina. Since that tower fell between us and Alina and Sarghon, we didn’t see either. She’s gone crazy, listening to no reasons. We must’ve gotten round the city twice at least by now. None of the people streaming in or out of the city know anything about them. At least she agrees to make camp now. Legion’s going to report back to his kin, so I’ve got some time to check on my latest recipes.

Legion’s just gotten all excited after he contacted his others. He says that one of his kin has seen a blue man. He doesn’t know where the Deva’s been spotted, but he’s seen an image of him in a green background. It must’ve been in the forests then, I say immediately. It’s the only place I know where you can have a green background. Neither Legion nor Aryenne really believe there even is a forest. I tell them I know the way and that’s the only lead we’ve got so far.

We finally agreed to go – when Legion spotted some people approaching us. Aryenne walked ahead to talk to them – she wanted to ask about Alina, as usual. But those men weren’t as friendly as most we’ve encountered here. They’re from the Tyrian guards from the looks of them and they started to shoot at us. They’re many more and we’ve only got two really fighting since Aryenne is still very confused. But luckily two wanderers came to assist us – a Dra named Grax and his associate Xeeliah. Grax’s been using quite a nice bow and Xeeliah is chasing the enemies as if she were an arrow herself. With their help we fought off those guards quick and clean. We questioned the last of them very shortly before we killed him. He says that they were promised rewards and seat in the senate if they bring our heads and plundered goods. We asked for our charges and he said that we conspired to kill Queen Ishtar and that we stole a “family heirloom” from the Golden Tower.

They’re a queer people those two. Grax’s talking often in riddles and rhymes while Xeeliah doesn’t talk much at all. She’s got a big tattoo, but we can only see the upper bits – the rest’s hidden beneath that robe of hers. Grax seems to be very interested in all that stuff we found in the vault. He takes this in hand and that and tells us whether it’s a good hand-wrap or a nice dagger. I know that sharp daggers are good daggers. I don’t know what makes any hand-wraps better than others though. It seems a little fishy to me what he’s doing. But he didn’t do anything bad so far. Our way leads us north and those two want to go north as well. We can use some good fighters, so decide to team up for our trip to the forests.

Moving! Finally we’re moving again! We‘re heading to the forest ridge! I hope we’ll get to visit Algor. I can’t wait to see Algor again. Derlan, Garret, Merric, Kithri, Verna and Wenna – and father! I wonder what they have been doing while I was gone. Merric’s gone to the crystal forest, Jana said. But I’ve never heard of anyone else. I am leading us north-east. We need to get to the passage close to the Mausoleum of Shivarm. From there I can lead them on good trails through the forest. But the Mausoleum, I remember from last time: It still gives me unrest. The strange feeling we had, the creatures that attacked us. Last time we barely escaped – but this time I will not run!

Since we met Grax and Xeliah, our spirits went up a bit. They’ve gone through our stuff and explained us some the engravings. These lines and circles will stay a mystery to me. He gave me some hand wraps that look a little red. They’re supposed to make me stronger somehow. I haven’t felt it yet. I still can’t lift Legion. Well, they are comfortable, so I’ll wear them. The Dra knows all kind of things and still often surprises us. We talk a little on our trip. For the night he took us to a good place. Here we have the cliff to one side and can see wide in the other directions. It’s good to rest our legs for the night. Grax is taking watch and Legion is edging his new shiny blade a little at the camp fire. I’ll get some good sleep now!

In the middle of the night Legion woke us from our slumber. There was this hag almost right in the middle of our camp! She’s got some dogs with her – some big dogs. Before I was entirely awake and aware of what’s going on, the hag grabbed Grax and put a dagger on his throat. She keeps asking for a “sister”, but we all can’t make any sense of it. Grax is getting annoyed be her and shoves her off. She tells us that these dogs are the “hounds of the seven”. Well, there are only three dogs here… I hope she did not bring all seven.

Then the hag ran for Aryenne. She threatened her; she said that she wants Aryenne’s heart! That was too much! I put her to the ground showed her my sharp dagger. During more talking and discussions (How I hate these long discussions! I can barely think straight during these long talking times.), one of the hounds attacked us. The hag killed it with a single blow of her dagger. Suddenly we were in the middle of a fight. The hag disappeared right before our eyes! This must’ve been evil magic! I just saw this and then I ran to fight one of the two remaining hounds. I was so sure I could strike it down with me dagger as the hag just did. I was so wrong! I not only missed the hound, it also stroke back on! That did hurt a lot! It made me run back to my friends. Together we fought against the two remaining hounds who gave us a good fight. But in the end we killed them both.

The hag appeared again later while we were fighting the hounds. She’s more powerful than she looks like. Put we’re stronger than her! In the end she ran off, probably frightened. After we pulled all of us together and made sure that we weren’t in immediate danger any more, we’ve discussed what just happened. That hag was curiously interested in Grax and Xeeliah. She’s mostly buffing on Grax, but also seemed to be drawn a little to Xeeliah. These new companions of ours have some ‘friends’ as it seems. There were also some other interesting things we’ve seen. Grax was breathing a flash of lightning that made one of the hounds whimper and retreat for a few seconds. He also vanished in the middle of a fight and popped up several feet off. That must be magic! Magic is evil! Also the vanishing hag must’ve had something to do with magic. It might have been her or Grax doing this. Xeeliah did some strange things as well. I am getting weary around them!

Who are these new companions of ours? Can we trust them? They maybe do magic, but magic is evil! Aren’t we better off leaving them as soon as we can?

For a long moment, the heroes stood there frozen to the ground, as the scenery around them went up in flames. The two silhouettes floating high up in the air covered the sun, but the roaring fire that shot out from the King and Queen of Tyr forced the bystanders to cover their eyes. No invader was spared as the fire hit the city, quarter after quarter, and agonizing screams from both friend and foe reached all the way to the Golden Tower where they were standing. Shortly thereafter, the stench of burning flesh woke the heroes up from their paralysis.

Everything was now clear to them. In hindsight, it had all been so obvious, but who could really have guessed? The notes of Aziru’s dreams that Arannis had written down, the similarities between the new King and Queen and the statues of the Seven in Kalak’s Vault, the fairy tale rise of two gladiators fighting against an oppressive Tyrant. But who would be able to kill a Sorcerer-King if not another user of Defiling magic? And who else but someone with the power of a Sorcerer-King could do what these two were doing right now? King Shamash and Queen Ishtar could be no others than Oronis the Dirge and Myra the Scorcher. The nightmarish monsters from the tales that children of all cultures were taught by their mothers to fear. “Don’t be out in the sun by mid day, or you will be almost as bad off as the victims of Myra the Scorcher”. “Watch who you are wooing, young man, or you might end up as Oronis the Dirge.” They were back to destroy the world. It was the only possibility.

And now, the city around them was burning. They had to get away from Tyr, and quick! The area around the Dragon’s Gate was strewn with dying or dead men belonging to both the Tyrian Guards and the Urikan Lions, and there was no one there that could stop them as they fled. Their path continued through blocks of burning buildings, and even though the fighting and screams were everywhere around them, there was never anyone in their way.

Suddenly, however, one of the tall buildings near the Artisans’ Square emitted a deafening blast that must have been heard halfway to Urik, and the explosion sent two floors of stone right over them. Exactly what happened at that point is still unclear, but Legion and Corrin remembered a burning and hysterical Aryenne searching for her lost sister. Sarghon was also nowhere to be found. Exactly how or when they finally managed to carry the gravely burned half-elf through the Northern Gate, no one really know, but after an eternity, they had finally reached the relative safety of the wilderness north of Tyr.

The low hills around Tyr were full of fugitives that were trying to either flee the burning city or seek refuge there from the wandering bandits and rebels in the rest of the Valley. As the days went by and the three remaining heroes; Corrin, Legion and Aryenne, recuperated and searched in vain for their lost friends and allies, the rumors started spreading around the campfires. The beloved King and Queen of Tyr had saved the city by setting a clever trap. And it did seem that although the city was in ruins and parts of it was still burning, thousands had been saved, and the rebuilding had already started. And so many celebrated, because the King and Queen were back, and the Urikan army had been spotted fleeing back to their own city, and the few remaining soldiers of Azera Semira had fled south out from the Tyrian Valley. The city was once again safe, and they had shown to everyone that the new Tyr was a power to be reckoned with!

But the remaining heroes mourned their dead and lost, and they knew that it had all just begun….

As we got closer to the wall surrounding the Golden Tower and the Templar district, we tried to make up a plan. Some of us were skeptical of helping Sariel to get the relic, but we finally decided that the vault would probably contain other valuable things, that all of us could enjoy.

When we came to the gate leading into the Templar’s district, we saw a big group of soldiers outside. They seemed to be waiting for something, or someone. Suddenly a smaller group of soldiers came running towards the gate from the city. They were protecting a man in the middle, but we could not see who it was. As he disappeared into the gate, the guards started to retreat. Peikka realized that the opportunity to get into the city was falling out of our hands and he called out to the captain of the guard. When he turned towards us, we saw a familiar face. It was Melehr Shahram, the son of the Titan.

He commanded the guards to let us in. He had orders from his father to bring us to him if we showed up at the gate. The guards at the gate were not convinced but during the confusion we were able to get inside. I had to knock down a pair of guards so that Sariel and Sarghon could make it. Then Melehr and a bunch of his guards led us into the Golden Tower and down into the cellars. This was the last task his father had given to him, and he left us at the top of some stairs. The Titan was waiting for us down there, he said.

We went down and found ourselves in a large chamber with a heavy gate covered with mystical symbols on the one side, and crossing a bottomless chasm were four sets of stairs leading down from other parts of the Tower. The Titan was nowhere to be seen. As we tried to force the door open, Musa Dyan came down the stairs accompanied by two Panthers and a group of archers. Peikka continued working on the door, which showed to be quite difficult, while we threw ourselves into the fight with Dyan and his forces. Sariel threw one of the panthers into the abyss between us and Musa Dyan. Claw fought the other one bravely. As Peikka finally managed to open the door with some help from us, we all rushed in and closed it behind us, barely escaping the wrath of the furious Templar.

We found ourselves in a room with seven statues. Over the door were familiar words written, an old nursery rhyme, known by every child in Athas:

Going back in time, to an age of which little is known,
The Princes some of the mightiest swayed,
For they wanted the world for their own.
Of the Seven that Betrayed,

Myra the Scorcher was the First,
Burning the lands to quell her thirst,

Saeke of Arala was the Sage,
Forsaking his people to learn from another age,

Wylin of Bodach, she was the Blight,
Doing what was needed for the Princes, that was her plight,

Oronis the Dirge was a prince of Kurn,
For his love to the blight, he would watch the world burn,

Daginor of Eldaarich fought ironclad,
Until the lure of the Princes drove him mad,

Kalid-Ma the Stranger was unknown to her kin,
And with blood magic, she killed them all with a grin,

Dregoth the Dread King was the fiercest of them all,
By sacrificing a generation, he survived the Downfall,
And in his stronghold he sits even today,
Plotting and scheming in the city of the Dray.

We soon realized that the statues represented the Seven, on each side of the room stood three of the Betrayers. There was Myra with her flowing robes and wild hair, Wylin of Bodach surrounded by snakes, Daginor of Eldaarich clad in armor with great sword by his side, Saeke of Arala with a feather pen and an open book, Oronis the Dirge with his lute and a sad smile on his lips and Kalid-Ma with a hood over her unseeing face and a knife in her hand. In the middle stood Dregoth the Dread King with dragonwings on his back. One of his hands held a broad sword and the other was extended, palm up, as if he was about to be given something.

There were dark spots beneath some of the statues, and we soon realized it was blood. As we examined the statues closer, we found out that the knife of Kalid-Ma was removable. Suddenly I stood with the stone knife in my hand and tested the edge at my thumb nail. It was sharp, very sharp. Behind the statue of Dregoth we found a door which could not be opened. There had to be a connection between the blood stains and the door.

We used the knife of the Stranger and all of us tried to please the dead gods and goddesses with our blood. Nothing happened… Not until I laid my bloodied hand on the cold stone formed as the hand of the Dread King. The door behind the statue opened and revealed a small passageway.

In a poorly lightened room, we found the Titan lying on the floor. He was dead. By his head sat the one legged child. He played with the Titan’s head and started to speak slowly. ”HE is in there, he is still very upset, you know.” Behind his back was a large, thick door. The boy continued. “He heard her thoughts, the restless wanderer. She has forgotten her nearest. They were wrong. They took the wrong child. But it is his turn now. He wants her, he wants the crimes answered for.” Suddenly the boy looked up and turned his head to me. “He has the Adar Na Tia, he has her heart now. The wanderer has forgotten her name, she used to be the queen of secrets, but she kept them so well that she has forgotten even who she is.” Then he fell silent and turned back to the corpse in front of him. He started patting the head again and then he slowly faded away before we could ask him about his mysterious statements.

While Sarghon and Sariel had a totally stupid discussion about what should be done with the body of the Titan while trying to keep Corrin and Legion away from it, I realized that we had to keep going. I pushed the door open and entered the Vault of Kalak.

A gigantic hall was revealed. The floor was covered with sand and in the middle was the top of a pyramid. Then I saw him, Aziru! My brother was sitting on one of the lower steps of the pyramid. There were paths leading out to the pyramid over the sand and as I walked towards the closest one, I heard the others coming through the door.

As I walked cautiously towards the pyramid, I heard the others gasp. When I turned around I saw them standing behind me, hindered to follow by some invisible force. Suddenly, a giant tentacle shot up through the sand some steps behind them. I tried to point at it and shout out a warning, but at the same time I felt something forcing me to continue the walk towards Aziru.

I tried to stop walking, I tried to talk to him, but I was forced to take first one step, and then another. There were more tentacles shooting up through the sand and in the corner of my eyes I could see my allies fighting furiously. Close to Aziru’s face I was stopped. I saw that he was holding a strangely shaped stone in his hand. It looked almost like a heart. Suddenly, I had a knife in my hand and realized that my arm moved it closer and closer to my neck. I pleaded him to stop. Alina tried to remind him of all we had done together, that we were siblings, that we had the same blood and a history together. The knife was pressed harder against my skin, I could feel the blade and a few drops of blood running down my neck. One drop landed on the stone in Aziru’s hand and I could feel a burst of power flowing from it. For a short moment it looked as if the stone shimmered.

Alina continued talking, but I heard her voice as if she was standing far away. Suddenly I saw a flicker in my brother’s eyes and I felt the pressure from the knife lighten. I could move again and quickly took the few steps up to my brother. I put the knife to his neck and only needed to do a quick cut to kill him, but I hesitated. He is my brother, whom I have been searching for since he was taken from us in the attack that killed my father. Maybe I could save him…

My hesitation was enough for Aziru to regain his mind. He looked in my eyes and laughed. “Your time has come, sister”, he said and then forced my arm to make a deep, deadly cut in his neck. The heart shaped stone fell to the ground. I picked it up and could feel it vibrate to my touch. When I looked around I could see the group still fighting what appeared to be a huge sand snake with tentacles spread all across the room.

Sariel defended Alina from one of the tentacles and slashed at it repeatedly. It seemed as if she was about to defeat it when it suddenly made a last swing, which hit Sariel. It was a hard hit, and Sariel fell to the floor with her spear still clutched in her hand.

At the same time, in another part of the chamber, the mouth of the tentacled beast broke through the sand close to where Peikka and Legion were standing. Both started to attack it and Peikka prepared his most powerful attack, the one that saved us from the gigantic sandworm in the caves. This time, for some reason, it did not work fully as planned. The attack hit, but when the beast closed its mouth, Peikka managed to push Legion out of the way, but he himself got caught…

Suddenly the chamber was still and quiet. At my feet lies my brother, but we soon realize that he is not the only one who lost his life in the battle. We will have to leave the chamber and continue our journey without Sariel and Peikka…

Before we left we picked up as many of the Vault’s treasures as we could carry. There were metal weapons, armors, rings, necklaces and gems. Then we got out from the vault, outside the Golden towers and the Templar districts. Outside the walls we met the fire. Tyr was on fire! We decided to try for the north gate and started running through the burning streets.

The heart shaped stone was still in my hands and I could not help but wonder why it had reacted with that shimmering light when my blood touched it. Does that mean that my blood is special in any way? How? Does that mean that I am part of something big? Something evil? I have so many questions and cannot wait until I can discuss them with my sister.

Corrin’s eyes flickered as he told us what awaited us beyond the peak of the hill, but we knew what he was going to say already before his mouth spoke the words. The city is already burning, the trebuchets being assembled in front of our eyes and lining most of what we see of the walls of Tyr. The city has fallen before even the first stone has been flung against its walls, a city with not much defense more than shelters of stone built my man, and now to be destroyed by man. The prideful city that I once considered my flawed diamond but now view in disgust as the true faces of the men inside it have revealed themselves after the events of the last few days.

The host of the Urikan army is immense with thousands and thousands of soldiers wielding the flag of the city-state of Urik. And in the midst of this is my old friend Nidaba. What has become of her, if only I could reach into her heart and find that gentle personality that I once knew her for.

Ahead lies this city, and we have a whole army to get through, thick walls to climb and desperate soldiers inside the city to fight off as well. We have a choice of trying to trick our way in past the soldiers and somehow through the city gates, or finding an old smugglers’ tunnel leading from a small town south of the city, and into the heart of Tyr. My thoughts went to finding Nidaba, but her rejection last time didn’t bring me much hope that she would in any way help us.

It seems that our best choice is to look for that smugglers’ tunnel, but it could take days to go through every building of the town and find it. After much discussions we decide that Piekka and Legion would approach a commander of the army and persuade them that they are smugglers looking to earn a great reward for the important information and leading troops through the tunnel.

However things did not go as planned, as the rest of us who were traveling to the town where we would wait and hide until the troops would find the tunnel, we were discovered by scouting troops. In the night it was difficult to see where we were going, but after much time we met our friends again. But in the company someone rather unexpected, namely my old employer Azera Semira, and the man was still as full of himself as last time I saw him, and he hadn’t forgotten about me either.

He knew an awful lot about my companions as well, no way of knowing how or why but I became aware of one of his men who seemed to be feeding him with information. Entering the room, I felt immediately that there was something foul in the air, I could almost smell the darkness in the man’s heart, there was something wicked about him. Azera however was not out to kill me or the poor servant girls, neither the others, but we were sent with an escort led by Ashad the Flayer. I expected no foul play from Azera, the man glorifies himself so much that he thinks he can control everything around him.

The walk through the tunnels accompanied by some 30 soldiers and Ashad the Flayer did not go as easy as I had expected, but luckily Piekka seemed to know his way around the place, and after a long walk we reached the exit and found ourselves in the Warrens of Tyr.

When we got closer to the group of people approaching us, we realized that it was a group of soldiers. Three of them were armored with lances and rode on Crodlus that looked quite muscular as if trained for fight. One of them was limping, so apparently they had also experienced one or another fight. This was certified by their worn-out and dusty looking clothes.

Getting nearer, we could identify a handful of people behind the crodlus armored with crossbows. They all seemed to hesitate to come closer to us, but a loud and commanding voice shouted from behind them “Attack!”. So the crodlus and their riders came closer, the bowers spread out tactically and the group revealed finally a muscular man, who was apparently the leader of the small group. The bowers load their bows… the fight has begun.

The bowers were trained to a very high hit rate. Through a rain of arrow, constantly hidden by some of them, I could see the others hiding on the right side of the dried river behind a huge rock. Jana and Teki sprinted to the other side and hid as well. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Claw, Aryennes spirit, flashing back and forth, providing healing and attacking. This… “thing” is really awesome. But after a short time of shock, I realised that the fight was indeed not one-sided. Every now and then I could see some shurikens flying and hitting very precisely. Although I couldn’t see the small Halfling, his efficiency is not disputable.

I jumped away from my hiding place and built up my thorny wall right at the thinnest place of the dried out river bed in order to provide some cover. Nevertheless, our biggest problem were the crossbowers, who climbed up pretty high on the rocks on the left and the right side of the valley and constantly covered us with a hail of arrow. Jana and Teki climbed up the rocks as well and tried to attack the bowers. But with only one arrow at a time, this undertaking didn’t really look successful.

The sardonic voice of the leader resounded again: “Give up! You don’t have any other chance! I say it again: The Scourge of Tyr tells you to surrender!” But I just couldn’t consider this option! The mission to get to the Vald of Kalak is just too important!

Suddenly I heard a terrible scream. Right behind the thorny wall lay Sarghon, apperently badly hurt. Although my trust in him has been pretty unsettled in the last days, we couldn’t let him die there. So we concentrated our attacks on the riders and the leader of the group in order to chase them away from Sarghon. But they really had it in for him. Every now and then, one of the lancers steered away his crodlu and turned around again in order to hit Sarghon with full speed.

Suddenly the leader of the group fell to his knees. One of Corrins shurikens stuck deep in his face. He kneeled there a moment, in his face the clear impression that he knew he will die and fell face forward into the dust.

As soon as the leader was dead, the two remaining lancers threw down their weapons and unmounted the crodlus. One of them ran quickly to one of the fallen lancers and kneeled next to him.
As the bowers realized that their leader was dead, they climbed up the rocks further and vanished from the line of sight.

The man who was kneeling next to an apparently dead one begged: “Please, save my brothers life! We had to obey the orders of Jaddid Vordon. And the leader of the bowmen, ”/campaign/in-the-shadow-of-kings/wikis/rahbani" class=“wiki-page-link”>Rahbani, was none of our friends! You have to believe us! We’ll do everything you want, but please, save my brother! I feel that there is still a rest of his life in his body! Please!"

Since they already threw away there weapons and we needed desperately some answers, what was going on in Tyr and with the Urikan army, we agreed to help him and save his brother. Sarghon, finally conscious again, searched through the dead body of Jaddid and found a ring with the emblem of the House of Vordon. Also his worn-out clothes show the emblem and he put both the ring and the armor shirt in his backpack. The others had the same rings and we took them as well. Maybe we’ll need them, when we try to get back into the city of Tyr.

Jana pulled Corrin to the side and whispered: “Why didn’t you kill them all as you had the chance? I can not understand this! Their lives are not worth it not to be taken!” Corrin whispered back: “Maybe they’ll have some answers to our questions. Just wait.” Jana shook her head. “I still can’t understand this, but I trust your judgement!”

The three of them were, after we rescued the life of the dying one, very talkactive and told us everything they knew. The introduced themselves as Hanud, Yangi and Albekela. They thought we are from Urik, but after they heard us speaking they realized that we aren’t.
They told us that they fled from the city of Tyr because it is “doomed”… whatever that means.

They were fighting against the Uriken army in front of the northern gates of Tyr for his master Davith Vordon from the house of Vordon. But they abandoned him. That’s why they had to leave. So they fled northwards together with Daviths son Jaddid, the fallen leader, and the crossbower group under the lead of Rahbani. They tried to reach a village in the northern parts of the mountain, because all the other inhabitants of Tyr tried to flee southwards. They tell us that, when they left the city and the battlefield five days ago, Davith was still fighting. Shamash of Tyr hasn’t been seen for some time and the queen is since long gone. No one was left to rule the city. The possibility that the city is already taken by now, is pretty high we realized.

They heard that the Voice of Urik arrived at Tyr and rumours about her are already spreading quickly: people tell that she wears a mask and no one has ever seen her uncovered, that she wears golden clothes and is outlandish. Also people tell stories about here brutalness. Apparently she pins overpowered enemies to the ground and let their animals eat their hearts… Yesterday the gang plundered a supply wagon and took a lot of food rations, which we indeed found in the backpacks of their crodlus.

Since the heat of the day was coming pretty fast, we decided to go southwards in order to find a hiding place for the hottest part of the day. We took the soldiers with us. One had to be carried by a Crodlu. We decided not to go in the middle of the dried out river bed but a little higher and look out carefully for the men of Rahbani. During the whole trip all three soldiers kept on reminding us of their terrible deeds when breaking their sworn oaths to their master. As oathbreakers, they wanted to do everything they could to make up for what they had done, and repeatedly asked us to kill them. But I finally could convince them that this was not what we were aiming for. “At least not right now…” I thought.

After a while we found a good hiding place and seddled down. While Jana did her magic with the herbs and the seeds from the Crystal Forest, we kept on talking. They told us further that they had seen at least one thousands Urikan soldiers in the way northwards, but the last people they had seen recently were twenty to thirty soldiers of the Dyan Family who were following Harharu Dyan. Apparently they had seen them heading for the mines in order to look for supplies.

Jana pushed us to ask for the old hag that we had seen the last time a few days ago going southwards with the dagger we found in order to kill the king of Tyr. Indeed they had seen the woman one day after they had raided the supply wagon. They had seen her walking southwards and they all thought it is just an old lady. But Rahbani sent nevertheless an arrow towards her and they are all pretty convinced that it hit her deadly because of his great experience with the bow.

Jana jumped up furiously: “We have to go! Southwards! She can’t be far! Let’s go, this might the only chance to catch her!” Wen could convice her to wait until the highest temperature was gone and we all had a chance to rest after the fight. The soldiers promised us to lead us to the camp, from where they had seen her last.

Many hours later the sun set slowly and we could walk on. Jana ran always a little further in the front although she did not know, where the camp was located. In the dawn we could see a light at the horizon, a big light and we realized it could be fire… right in the direction of Tyr.
The camp was located on a ridge, some rocks were overhanging the place and shielded the leftovers of a camp fire. They showed us, where they had seen the old hag the last time and indeed we found a puddle of black sand…. blood. But no dead body… Just tracks of blood leading away from the puddle…

The soldiers were confused. They were quite sure that the old hag was dead but apparently she survived the attack and was even still heading southwards. Didn’t they look for her corpse in the morning? They thought so, but could not say for sure. Strange. We followed the tracks a while and realized that the blood was getting less and less frequent and finally we just saw apparitional footsteps. We decided to follow the tracks southwards and Corrin and Jana sneaked in the front while we are following carefully with the crodlus.

Jana was really impatient and was really careless in hiding. Teki was always at her side. When Corrin realized that she is too careless and that he couldn’t follow that quickly without beeing carless as well, he grapsed here arm and tried to stop her. She reacted pretty angry, shaking away his hand and hissed “What is up? We have to go on!”

After a while they reached an almost vertical part of rock. Without hesitating Jana climbed up the wall quickly. Teki was very agile and followed here closely. Corrin looked back. It was getting later and later and there were no signs of the others. With the crodlus and the injured men they wouldn’t be able to follow, he realises. But he had to follow her.

When they reached the top, Corrin grabbed her arm again and tried to slow her down. “Don’t try to stop me!”, she hissed. “We can not wait for too long, or the hag will be gone again. And no, don’t try to convince me that she can wait. They are relying on me in the Forest.” Why, Corrin asked her. “There is something happening”, she admitted. “We saw something that we shouldn’t have seen!”

Corrin hadn’t seen his brother for a long time but now her words made him shiver. “Did something happen to my brother?” he asked. “Please, I have to know this! Did something happen to my brother?” “He was wounded”, she admitted. “But he is not dead, and I am sure he is well by now. Listen, there is something stirring in the Crystal Forest. It’s coming from the Underground. We have to protect certain things in the Crystal Forest. I have to hurry and get back there. But we can handle it ourselves.”

“Does it have to do something with the old hag?” Corrin turned her around so that she was forced to face him. “Does this all has to do something with the old hag?” “We just know that this old evil woman killed my friend! But please Corrin, I have to go know!” She shook off Corrins hand and vanished with Teki silently in the darkness.

Corrin sighed and looked some moments after her until he could not make her out anymore between the dark rocks. He turned around and started his way back to the group. He realized, how far away he had been. As he reached the vertical rocks, he could identify his companions at the bottom of the steep hillside, waiting for him. He turned around once more. From his raised position, he saw flickering light at the southern horizon. He squinted his eyes and could identify smoke rising to the sky. It is Tyr, he realizes, the city is buring…

When we came back to this temple after fetching Sarghon, we saw a skeleton lying at the temple entrance we had dug out. It had its face pointing down, but when I lifted the head it somehow seemed to grin. Scary! The path divided into two, one heading left, another heading right. Since one seemed as good as the other, we flipped a bone and headed left. There are those signs everywhere, on every wall, even on the ceilings. Sarghon does recognize some signs but they don’t make any sense in that arrangement to him. The path turned right and we headed into a big room that seems to be stripped to the stone. There are two huge statues lying face down at the entrance and two alcoves with a raised floor on each side. Apart from that this room is empty. There are still these signs everywhere.

After a little investigation we discovered that there must have been a gate on the far side of the room. It is sealed shut with some stronger stone than the surrounding walls. That gate got three big signs on it. The first one is distinctly an animal with a beak and wings, maybe a bird. The second one looks like some hills on the horizon, but with a very regular pattern. And the third one shows a line with a circle on one side. I don’t know what to make of that and neither does Sarghon or anyone else in our group. Our torches don’t reveal any hidden treasures here, so we decide to go back and take the other path. On our way out, I put a trap on the entrance that would alarm us when someone or something enters or leaves this room. Scary thoughts, but after all those weird creatures we’ve encountered in these mountains, we’ll better be safe.

The other path is also covered with scribbles and signs all over the walls. We gave up on trying understanding any of them. We now focus on finding that cave of Sariel’s. If that old hag wasn’t lying, there must be some connection to it within these stones. We found three more rooms, each more puzzling than the last. Two of them are filled with dried corpses, coffins, and rubble. One of the rooms has five men; the other has five women bodies. There are enough coffins for the bodies, so they were most likely pulled out by plunderers, looking for valuables. There are paintings in those rooms, but none of it makes any sense to any of us. The third room is bigger than the two with the dead bodies. It is filled with rubble and on one side there is a stone basin. But all this doesn’t help us and there seems to be no path to the cave we are looking for.

We further follow that path and come to a sudden end. At first glimpse I thought that this is the end of the caves and we have to head back out and find another way. But when we got closer, we heard a very silent swooshing sound of whirling wind. I saw that the path ended in a vertical shaft with stairs leading up and down. The ones to the bottom were made of stone and the ones up were made of wood. Well, there were made of wood at some time. Now the wood was mostly rotten away, leaving a climbing path. I spot immediately an easy path up. Securing myself with a rope I start to climb up. When the rope ended, I was still in the dark and couldn’t see anything of interest – just more rotten wood. So, we decided to go down first. Kicking a stone down for estimating the depth of that shaft made us all feel a little unwary. Not because it made any odd sound, but because it made no sound at all. It seems to be endless. We make our way down, staying close to the walls.

At the bottom of the stairs we found a big room. In the middle was a bed and on top of it was a dried corpse, a woman from the looks of it, with a mask over her face. There was jewelry and gems all over her and around her. I already wanted to fill my pockets when we heard a ghostly voice speaking with the voice of the wind. ‘Leeeeeaave!’. I stopped my hands before I could touch any of the stuff and looked a little further in that room. There were six huge sarcophagi standing beside the bed. That ghostly voice became louder, saying ‘Leeeeeeeeeaaaaaave!’ and ‘Goooooo!’ – we decided to follow its advice. It was all very scary and the trap I left down there is probably of no use. At the very best, it will alarm us if anything comes out of that room. Going further down was no option, because the stairs ended here. The shaft however did not end. Bottomless? Maybe, but I don’t intend to find out.

Now we are back to the place where the stone stairs ended. Sariel turned into a cat and climbed up that shaft very easily. When we did not hear anything for a few moments, I decided to follow her – this time I took the whole rope with me to help my friends when I get to somewhere. I counted about fifty times my height until I finally reached some ground to stand upon. I saw Sariel kneeling on the floor, a burned corpse in front of her. Helping my other friends up was the more pressing issue, though. So I put the rope down and helped them, one after another. Peikka, who was afraid at first, managed to climb up easily; he even neglected the rope. Aryenne wanted to help Sariel, but she wouldn’t let her. It is a male body with nice clothing, but it was burned very badly on one side. He has some features that are similar to Sariel’s, so he might be the one we were looking for. But these rooms do not look much like a cave. He must have come from somewhere. We look a little around and find a hole inside a smaller room that looks like the way that guy came from.

When we come back, Sariel seems to talk to that man. But he was dead earlier, wasn’t he? I am very confused and only get parts of their conversation: “They are after the same as we are.” “He is after Edalot.” “He told me where it is. It is in the Vault of Kalak.” “She wants me.” “She is calling me.” That is all weird stuff and I don’t know what to make of it. What is in the vault of Kalak? Who is Edalot? What is who after? And who is ‘she’? While we are still confused about all this, Sarghon suddenly begins to talk loudly: “Wait, there is something here!” Then his voice changes and becomes some kind of stretched and cracked voice that I didn’t know Sarghon is capable of talking in.

He said: “I knoooow yooouu! You have hurt the tomb of the old king! Thisssss isssss the tomb of King Azzzzinath of Yorum. I am Meishann of Yorum, the lasssssst guardian, and thissss creature hasss betrayed meeee.” Meishann! This name sounds vaguely familiar. I think it had something to do with that story Sarghon was telling us about recently.

We asked about Sariel’s friend Arannis. Meishann answered only “He came to me burnt.” Then we asked how Sarghon betrayed her. She said: “Thatari betrayed me. He sssssent my brother to his death and killed usssss all.” And to Sariel: “Thatari destroyed your world. He opened the leech that is slowly ssssstrangling the Landssss Within the Wind. He killed my brother in hisssss betrayal. He convinced us with lies and promisesss.” We want to know what Sarghon says about all this and tell it to her. She says that she can feel his thoughts.

She says that she betrayed her king, that she in her last act of madness killed him, and that for a person whose sole name sends a shiver down my spine. Myra the Scorcher. The betrayer of mankind. The tortured guardians stops making sense after that. She talks about torturing this body, torturing her enemy Thatari. But she would also torture Sarghon with that! “Leeaaave meee with thissss body. Leaaaaave.” Again and again, she tells us to leave and leave him with her. For a brief moment I was all up and set to go. But Sarghon has become a friend to us in the last moon cycle. She insists that we shall leave. We wouldn’t let her alone with Sarghon, we draw our swords, and shurikens to show her that we won’t leave without him.

We all know that Sarghon can do some amazing stuff and that more power lies within him. But we did not think about how severely they could hurt us. The blue man started one of his mind attacks. I’ve seen it often before and so I reacted immediately. My shuriken hit him in the shoulder, but he did not even interrupt his motion when he got hit. He used his mind powers to push us around and we almost fell down the shaft we came from. Not enough, suddenly two ghostly figures appeared in front of the sarcophagi and also Arannis got up. They all attacked us with evil mind powers – you never knew where an attack was coming from next. Aryenne was hit badly several times and must have been confused. She attacked Peikka instead of the ghosts. Then I saw Sariel going down the shaft, moments after I could throw myself on the ground to not get pushed down myself. I am sure that I saw our leader falling, but suddenly she was up and fighting again. The next thing I know is that suddenly I am attacking my friends. I try to fight it, but my hand grabs a new shuriken and throws it at Legion, my friend! With my second hand I can control myself and avoid grabbing more shurikens. Then the dizziness disappears and I see the fight clear again.

I see Arannis attacking Sariel and I decide to push him down the shaft. I see him falling as I saw Sariel falling before him. Then I see Sarghon getting down – unconscious or dead, I don’t know. There are still the ghosts, though. My shurikens run right through them, but some little part of their essence seems to move away with the weapon. After striking the ghosts with many blows of our weapons, they disappear. Probably they didn’t like being torn apart by us. After the fight was over, we checked on Sarghon. He was lying face down on the ground, but he was breathing and alive. He was just unconscious. The room revealed another bed, this time with a male dried corpse. It was wearing a crown and had a huge iron sword in his hands. The bed was covered with jewels, gems, and interesting figurines. I wanted to grab one, but the others stopped me and decided that it was better to leave everything as we found it.

That hole we found in the smaller room lead to the very cave we were looking for. Sariel and I crouched in there and had a look around. If she did find something, she didn’t tell me; so we went back to our friends. Sarghon was still unconscious, but he will have to answer many questions when he wakes up! Meishann called him Thatari. We heard the Voice of Urik calling him the same. What is it with that leech Meshan was talking about and what connection does Sarghon have to all that?

When Sarghon finally ended his tale about the events in the ancient times, the sun was setting. Before the darkness fell, we hurried down from the hill with the altar and found a good spot for a camp someway up a hill nearby. The story seemed to set most of the group in a thoughtful mood. I am usually not interested in these old stories, it is much more important to know about events that might affect me here and now. Nevertheless, I couldn’t stop thinking of this old world with its trees, seas and large cities. Is it really the same world as ours? Sarghon told us that he was a part of the story, but I’m not convinced. Can someone really be that old? He’s probably just trying to brag and impress us.

Suddenly Corrin froze with his hand in one of the supply bags. He was most likely trying to sneak away with some extra food (how can someone with his body size eat so much?!) but he got distracted. He told us to be quiet and pointed at a shadow standing beside a rock not far away. Corrin sneaked closer and when he came back he reported that it was a very old woman standing there alone and muttering something he didn’t quite understand. Suddenly she came closer.

Her voice sounded very old when she said “Give me the knife”. Legion, who had just been sharpening his knife and therefore had it in his hand, looked at her. “Why would you want my knife”, he asked. “Not your knife. I want THE knife”, she said. Corrin, who is the collector of the group, had previously taken care of the knife with the strange symbols we found at the altar. He was complaining about the feeling of unease you got when you carried it. It affected all of us the same way. Now he took it out and asked the old woman why she wanted it. “It is the knife that killed me and my family”, she answered. After some questioning we found out that she, her husband and their three children had been among the slaves sacrificed by king Kalak in this place a hundred years earlier. Her family died but she had “gotten better”. Now she wanted the knife to get her revenge. She wanted to kill the king. It didn’t seem to matter that Kalak is dead; she still wanted to kill the king of Tyr. It was not easy to get the story out of her. She seemed very confused and shouted bad words like “murder”, “death” and “betrayal” in every second sentence. Finally we promised her she would get the knife if she showed us the cave Sariel was looking for in the morning. Surprisingly she kept the shouting at bay most of the night and we could rest well with Legion and Peikka watching the old hag. Before I fell asleep I even saw Peikka offer her a piece of that bread Corrin tried to steal earlier.

In the morning light we could all see the wisps of white, dirty hair that covered parts of her head. She was thin and wrinkly and her clothes seemed to have been worn for the last century. Maybe she was as old as she had said the night before. She also had a nasty scar on her neck from ear to ear, as if someone had sliced it with a knife. She slowly led us the way back to the hill with the altar. There she stopped and said “It is gone. See, the landslide destroyed it.” Corrin found a piece of metal in the mud, but before anyone could get a good look at it, Sariel snatched it from him. When he objected, she said “It belonged to a friend of mine”, and put it in her pocket. Then she turned to the old woman. “Is there another way in”, she asked. ”Oh! You want to get into the cave. Why didn’t you say so”, the old hag answered and started climbing the hill. It was full of holes and big rocks, but after a while she seemed to find what she was looking for and led us down to a stone beside one of the large holes. There was a tunnel leading into the hill. Then she put out her hand. “Now I want the knife”, she said. Corrin, who was probably glad to get rid of it, gave it to her. Sarghon tried to object but as soon as the old hag got it in her hand, she turned around and went down the hill with an impressive speed for a woman of her age. She was laughing.

Sarghon, who was still in a bad mood after losing the knife which had been the origin of his storytelling, stayed at the entrance of the tunnel, while we started to make our way through. After a while we got into a chamber with five different tunnels leading in diverse directions. As we tried the largest one, we found a brick wall with strange inscriptions. Corrin drew some of them in his recipe book to show Sarghon later. The blue man seems to know things about symbols.

When we got back into the chamber I suddenly saw that most of it was covered with a green slime. That can only mean stone snakes… However, as we still needed to find the cave, we went into the next tunnel. Corrin went first and I waited to the end. Suddenly, as I took my first steps into the tunnel, the others stopped. I thought they had found another wall but then they all started to back off in a hurry. Corrin had stepped into a tunnel with teeth, which showed to be one of the inhabitants of the hill. It was not the only snake living here, as we would soon discover.

I was the only one left in the chamber but suddenly the place was crawling with snakes. I started to fight them and shouted to the others to hurry out from the tunnel and help me. I staved one off with my spear, but in the meantime another one attacked me from behind. Claw tried to get its attention and then Peikka was by my side. He blew up a few snakes and healed me at the same time. In that moment, the floor began to move and sand and stone was sucked away in the middle of the chamber. The head of a giant snake appeared. Legion came rushing out of the tunnel where he had fought the first snake and started attacking the big one with a roar. Peikka sent lightning and fire towards the beast, which drew the attention of the other snakes to him. I had to repay my dept immediately and healed him as much as my powers allowed. There was a flash of light from the area where he was standing. It was so strong I had to look away, and then suddenly everything was silent. As I looked back every single snake was dead.

When we all had caught our breaths, we continued our exploration of the tunnels and in one of them Corrin found a small hole in the wall. As he dug a little at the sides, the wall collapsed and reviled a shaft, clearly built by humans. They were probably plunderers because as we followed the shaft, it led in to a brick-built corridor of some sort of ancient temple. The walls were covered with the same type of inscriptions we had found earlier. We decided to get Sarghon and let him take a look at it.