Raistlin's Game
This is a history, first of my Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Character, then of the adventures and misadventures of his adventuring group, the Heroes of Happenstance, as seen through his eyes. Glad to have you visiting.
 ALL MATERIAL IN THIS FILE IS UNDER COPYRIGHT BY ARIEL GOLD
 We reached Silverymoon in the late afternoon of that day. As we headed for Alustrial's palace, we passed PoisonedBlade and Seabreeze where they were play-fighting in a tavern. Some of the group stopped, but I was carrying Thelia, the young priestess of Elistraee
who had aided us, so Chantelle and I led the refugees to the palace. Those who had stopped at the tavern caught up with us as we were asking to see Lady Alustrial. We were all ushered into a waiting room, as Alustrial was meeting with her sisters at the moment.
When the doors to the meeting room flew open, it was Storm Silverhand who emerged, her armor scorched, an ugly expression on her face. She called the Heroes of Happenstance into the room. All six of the sisters looked as if they'd just been in a battle, and most, if not all, were wounded. Lady Alustrial explained that Layrel and Kelvin Blackstaff had been attacked by Chesintra, two priestesses of Loviatar, and something she termed an anti-paladin. Both were killed, though the Layrel had called her sisters to aid her, and Laurianna, the half-goddess still in their care, was taken prisoner by Chesintra.
At that point, Kayna paled, and said she had something to tell us. She had found out from Cuielue that, while Halister was her father, her mother was none other than Mystra--the old Mystra, goddess of magic. She had been the eighth sister . . . and now was the seventh. Also, she had been having direly portentous dreams about Chesintra for some time. Some of them had indeed involved Layrel's death and Laurianna's capture.
When she finished her tale, we noticed that PoisonedBlade was shaking. She demanded a description of the anti-paladin Alustrial had mentioned, and upon hearing it, fainted outright.
While waiting for her to revive, Lady Alustrial explained that the Harpers had a mission for us. It seems that Elminster had received a letter while he was plane-hopping. Raistlin, whom we had rescued from the six hundred sixty-eighth plane of the abyss only weeks
ago, though it seemed so much longer, had asked the Harpers to play a game--a game whose winners would get whatever they wished for. We were chosen to represent them.
We agreed to the mission, and would leave tomorrow--after all, we were Harpers now, too. Cuielue pointed out that we would need a cleric in our group as well, and introduced Elvanchali, a priestess of Elistraee. I wasn't at all sanguine about traveling with
another drow, but then she looked at us, and we saw that her eyes were ice-blue, and slitted like a cat's. I locked eyes with her, trying to see if this drow was different inside, as she was outside. She made no attempt to look away, and it was I who finally broke the gaze.
We finally got a pause in the conversation long enough to mention the refugees in the waiting room. The sisters agreed to help them get home, once they themselves were recovered from the battle.
PoisonedBlade roused then. She had a hatred in her eyes such as I had never before seen. Softly, she said that she very much feared Joe was the anti-paladin who had helped attack Layrel and Kelvin. She explained that also, she had been performing a ritual--a
long, time-consuming ritual--to bring him back to life. In one more day, she could have done it. Someone had beaten her to it. She wanted, now to help us defeat "the lich bitch" Chesintra--and perhaps torture her first.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon provisioning, mostly by ourselves. I bought a few things of use, most especially new clothing (my own having seen hard use recently) and a dagger and sheath to replace the one I had given to StarGazer, and a few things to have on hand before walking into an unexplained game, and a
symbol of Mielikki. I had thought of the last before then, but had somehow never gotten to it. I also left a moonstone in the temple of Mielikki. Kayna's provisioning seemed to consist of getting a half-mask from PoisonedBlade to cover the symbol of Bane still etched onto her cheek.
We slept in Alustrial's castle that night, and in the morning said a word given in Raistlin's letter, which triggered a teleport spell. We found ourselves appearing in a battered castle, with scorched walls and skeletal guards. We met Raistlin in a room which had two odd spheres on the table: one appeared to be a map of our own Toril, but distorted to wrap around that curved surface--I couldn't fathom why. The other also seemed to be a map, of a place I did not recognize. More strange still, the two spheres sort of overlapped, parts touching, and
other parts seeming to be within the opposite spheres.
Some others, presumable participants in the game, were already present. An elven male in black armor with gold trim was introduced as a Malicelassas, of the Cult of the Tarasque. A fat (as elves go), balding elf in black robes was Entropy Chaosian--quite insane, as far as I could tell: he cast a spell at us, angrily, and masses of
flowers showered us. A man of about fifty years, dressed in Cult of the Dragon robes, appeared quite irate with PoisonedBlade; his name as BloodSpiller. A huge man--or at least I assumed he was a man, for all you could see of him was the suit of scorched armor he wore and a pair of
glowing red eyes showing through the eyeholes--was Lord Quivalen Soth, whose castle this was.
A flapping of wings and the sound of claws scraping stone heralded the arrival of a man in dark blue armor with dragons and black lilies; Ariakan, of the Knights of Takesis.
The last to arrive was Fzoul Chembryol, a priest of Cyric and a member of the Zhentarim. Who was he representing? Raistlin asked. That earned him a scowl and the barked answer, "Neither."
Only when all were present did Raistlin explain the rules of the game. We were given a list of tasks Raistlin wanted performed. Some tasks could be done more than once. Each was worth a certain number of points. An hourglass through which sand flowed at random and changing paces would mark the beginning and the end of the game--no one, not even Raistlin, knew how long it would last. Killing other players of course, would also gain points for the killers.
As we appeared to be the only "good" players in the group, I was somehow not comforted.
A pale woman in blue armor entered then, and Malicelassas, Ariakan, and Soth left the room. Raistlin explained to those of us from Toril some of the less understandable tasks from the list he had given us. He kept using the word "planet", telling us that Toril was a planet, and Krynn, where he lived, was a continent on another planet, this one called Ansalon. I asked what planets were, and he mumbled something about living on chunks of floating rock . . . it made very little sense, except that I think that is what the spheres on his desk were meant to be--but no one could live on anything that small.
The others re-entered the room, then, and Raistlin turned the hourglass. He offered to teleport us wherever we wished to begin. We finally decided on Algerond, the Simbul's city. Raistlin sent us into an unobserved alley, as people there don't generally trust magic, and we split up to listen to the talk of Thay. One of the items on the list was to stop a war, and the quickest way to stop a war is to help one side win . . . and Algerond and Thay were, on and off, constantly at war.
Only as we listened to the gossip in the Bloody Thayan tavern did it occur to us that Chesintra was in Thay, and maybe this wasn't the best of ideas. We considered what we could do most easily from Raistlin's list, and decided it might be better to go back to
Silverymoon.
We went to see the Simbul, and almost couldn't get in to see her, when she came out, saw and embraced her sister, and yelled at the guard for not letting us in. We went inside with her and told her
everything about the game.
She said she'd tired herself out transporting more elves than she even liked to think about that day, but the next day she could sent us back to Silverymoon. We stayed in the Dead Thayan Inn that
night, and in the morning the Simbul sent us to Silverymoon, with a brief stop inbetween to walk the Anaroch desert in full plate mail.
When we arrived in Silverymoon, PoisonedBlade left us. We went directly to Lady Alustrial to explain the game. Elminster was there, and he said he needed to see the Heroes of Happenstance. It was about Chesintra. It turns out Chesintra was older than Kayna's true age. She was one McKarra Blackcloak, a founder of the Harpers, but she killed someone over the drumsticks of a chicken dinner. The founder of the Cult of the Dragon banished her from this world, but she grew very powerful in other worlds under other names. She probably became a lich by making a pact with some evil force.
Chantelle asked Elminster if he had any ideas what we should wish for if we won Raistlin's game. He said, "Get the Simbul to stop asking me for a kid!"
After this, Turin left us, True tagging along to annoy him. When we caught up with them again PoisonedBlade had recently come from being healed in a Temple of Sune--of what, she did not tell us. She admitted, for the first time I can remember, that she needed sleep.
We went to The Drow's Cat Inn to sleep for the night.
I had a nightmare that night. Chesintra was singing a lullaby to Laurianna, the little girl Chantelle had originally been charged to take to Layrel and Kelvin Blackstaff. In the dream, Laurianna became a unicorn, and the unicorn started burning, turning black. I woke up to the sound of Chesintra's laughter and Chantelle's
scream. She had had the same dream.
We went to the temple of Mielikki and Chantelle talked to a priest there. The man suggested the unicorn might mean that Laurianna might be the daughter of Mielikki. Or not. The black unicorn was Nightmare. One way or another, there was likely some connection with
Mielikki.
Suddenly, all the other Heroes of Happenstance just appeared in the temple. A freezing cold breeze blew through the doors. All the torches blew out, the doors closed on their own, the place was lit in faerie fire, all symbols of Mielikki in the temple that weren't
being worn at the time shattered, and Chesintra showed up. She held a green, glowing globe in her hand and the hole in her chest was mended.
Kayna was very drunk, and acted so towards her half-sister. Chesintra threatened all the other Sisters--and said it was partly our fault. I don't know what True was up to during this, but when I next checked, Elvanchali had put both her and Kayna out with drow sleep
poison. Chesintra continued speaking, telling us that Mystra's daughters did age, however slowly. Now she planned something so that Alustrial wouldn't die . . . but would cease aging. She disappeared, and her voice whispered that Layrel was already not aging.
Elvanchali remedied the sleep poison in True and Kayna, but Kayna promptly passed out on her own. Chantelle was shaking, terrified. She couldn't even walk, so I carried her back to the inn, where Elvanchali gave her some dilute sleeping poison so she could rest. I stayed to keep watch over her. A letter appeared in the room--it seemed Raistlin was a bit upset at the mockery we'd been making of his game.
Chantelle awoke that morning, and the others came back into the room. We learned that True spent the night in the temple of Sune. Somehow, I was not comforted by the fact that we might have little kender babies running around at some point in the future. We still didn't have Turin with us, so we set out to find him.
We found him with PoisonedBlade's gold dragon, who had just returned, and who (as we found out when True first asked, and then looked) did not have nose hairs. He said he'd take a few of us to a blue great wyrm he knew of so try another item on Raistlin's list. It was
a one day trip. Turin, Elvanchali, and I went. By night we were over a desert, and from there we went west. The gold took us as close as he could, and we walked from there.
The blue came out of the ground, and it was huge. I found myself running away again due to dragon fear. (I really get tired of that). When it wore off, Elvanchali was explaining to the dragon that she wanted to play chess with it--two out of three games. The dragon,
amused, drew a chess board in the sand, and pulled out suits of armor (I really don't want to know where they came from) to move around as pieces. Elvanchali won two of the three games, and so defeated a great wyrm. She gave it a few pieces of gold--all she had on her. We walked back to where
the gold dragon was waiting and headed back toward Silverymoon. I never would have believed I could sleep on the back of a dragon, but I did, and in the morning we returned--to the sight of a fireball. I decided I didn't want to know.
We found out that Lady Alustrial was sick. When we saw her, we learned that it was a vampire's bite that was making her so ill. A man had died recently, very pale and almost bloodless--the suspected vampire. His body was burned, but we helped hang garlic all around Alustrial's room, just in case. Elvanchali turned out to know quite a bit about vampires. She kept mumbling "Barovia" over and over under her breath.
PoisonedBlade was with us again by then, and she knew a spell to transfer blood from one person to another. Kayna was the first to volunteer, and then True, and then me (though by that point it was Kayna who needed it most, so that was where mine went).
Evening came. Someone had remembered that Drizzt had friends near the Spine of the World, and might know where to look for obsidian there. Chantelle and I talked to him, and decided to set out to
look for it the next morning. We went to bed early, to get as much sleep as possible.
I don't know why we didn't stay to guard Lady Alustrial against the vampire. I will never forgive myself for not doing so, because we were awakened to someone yelling that Alustrial was being attacked. She'd left on her own, with Elvanchali trailing her, for the
vampire's lair. Chantelle and I arrived a minute too late, just in time to see Elvanchali stagger in the midst of a burning house and Chesintra appear to spirit away the vampire. Alak.
The next morning Chantelle and Drizzt and I set out for the Spine of the World. Our first, unpleasant task was to explain to Drizzt as we traveled what had happened to Lady Alustrial. We passed through Moonwood that night, but didn't run into Bolten. It took us three
days to reach the Spine of the World. We found an old volcano, and used tools Drizzt had brought to find and remove a large chunk of obsidian. We were in the process of removing it when we heard a roar. We turned and saw a forty foot-long blue alligator-headed snake, with twelve clawed
legs, attacking us. Drizzt called it a baheer.
It was attacking us. We had no choice but to fight it. Drizzt called Gwenhwyfar, and the four of us killed the thing. We finished getting the obsidian, put it in Elvanchali's belt pouch (a bag of holding) which she'd lent for the purpose of getting the stone back easily. The trip back was three more days.
Elvanchali filled us in on what happened while we were gone. Evidently they'd tracked down a high priestess of Cyric who was looking for us, learned she'd purposely lied to Fzoul and told him we were in Daggerdale, gotten a sling-key from her, and gotten a magic mace from a priest of Cyric. Elvanchali asked me if I'd like the mace, since she used longswords by her goddess's command. I took it, careful not ask just how she'd gotten it from the priest.
I gave Elvanchali back her belt pouch. She looked in it for the obsidian, and found it. She also found a severed human hand.
I knew full well when the hand had been put there, and who had put it there. I turned to True, trying very hard to stay calm. I'd warned her that I could, all unmeaning, be a threat to her if she tried to pick my pocket, and this was her reaction. I had to do something to show her, not just tell her, how inadvertently dangerous I
could be.
I looked at her, and watched all the glee leave her face. I pulled the hood of my cloak back, and took off the cloak--something I don't think any of the group had ever seen me do. Then I took off the tunic of elven chain mail I wore, and the long-sleeved tunic below that. I was having a hard time remembering to breathe, but I got it off. I let her see the scars the priestesses of Loviatar had left me with so long ago. All I said to her was that the ones who had done this to me were dead--for so I had learned while I was imprisoned for theft--and I hadn't meant to kill them. I put on my tunic and armor and cloak again, and left, not really seeing anything around me.
I found myself walking out of the city, toward Moonwood. Just outside I heard a noisy machine sound and saw a metallic sphere flying toward me. It crashed to the ground, and a gnome stepped out, talking entirely too fast. I didn't have the patience to deal with
it then. I kept walking farther into the forest. Elvanchali caught up with me, not saying anything, and healed the wounds I'd taken on our journey. Finally, we both sat down. We exchanged stories. I told her enough about my past that had she wanted to, she could have run off
condemning me. She told me about growing up in Menzoberanzan.
She was one of the few people who never thought ill of me for things I can't change. Neither of us had any family left who'd speak to us, and Elvanchali suggested we swear a blood oath, taking each other as brother and sister. I was honored by the suggestion, and we
did. We returned to Silverymoon. On the way back, she offered to let me use a ring of hers, a ring of protection. She said she had enough other objects that she didn't need it at present. She also told me about a place called Ravenloft, of which Barovia was a part, and all about
undead.
We got back to Silverymoon and learned that True wasn't the only one who'd spent the night with the Sunites several days ago. What's more, she'd just lost a bet with sex as the stakes. I suggested she go see PoisonedBlade for a spell to keep from getting pregnant (if she wasn't already). Elvanchali decided that praying for an
anti-pregnancy spell might not be a bad idea.
Back at the castle, we learned that a blue dracolich was coming to the city. It had a rider. Chantelle, Elvanchali, and I followed PoisonedBlade, who was already on her way, out to it. The rider was carrying a white flag. It landed, and we saw that the rider was
female, dressed in blue armor. She was the one we saw behind Lord Soth at our first meeting with Raistlin. She told us she was supposed to warn us that Soth was coming, so we'd have a chance to run. Then she left.
At this point, True ran out of the shadows, dragging Turin with her. She said the woman was Kitiara--Tasslehoff had told True Kit was a total bitch. Coming from a kender, I think that's serious. Lady Alustrial was there, and she immediately began making plans
for the defense of the city. We told her who Soth was, and that his coming was our fault; we'd leave, so he wouldn't be a threat to Silverymoon, if she desired. She made a beautiful speech about how the Heroes of Happenstance did an awful lot of running, and maybe we should stand our ground. So we decided to stay.
At some point, here, Elvanchali let True investigate the inside of her bag of holding. When True came back out--well, let's just say I don't think I'd ever seen a kender look panicked before.
At any rate, we set about doing whatever we could to help. I wound up helping with the construction of additional defenses for the city, as I'd told Lady Alustrial "I'll help wherever I can, just keep me away from my parents." Elvanchali offered to kill said parents, but I declined. I also found Seabreeze Moonglory in the city, and asked her if she'd teach me how to use the mace Elvanchali had given me. A week passed during our preparations. Chantelle had to buy more arrows during
that time, and I sent her to the best fletcher in town--without mentioning why I wouldn't go with her. People arrived from all the nearby areas to help in Silverymoon's defense, and by the time Soth's floating citadel reached us, we had four hundred cavalry, a hundred foot soldiers, a
hundred fifty clerics, fifty archers, fifty dwarves from Mithril Hall, the Knights of Myth Drannor, the Heroes of Happenstance, Drizzt Do'urden, and PoisonedBlade on her gold dragon. We were outside the city walls, trying to keep the battle from coming into the city itself, but where the balista and catapults could still reach.
As the citadel came into range, we heard eerie singing. It was Lord Soth's story. He'd evidently been a good man, once, but his wife was barren. He killed her and married an elven female, but he believed she wasn't faithful to him. She was standing with their young son when a burning chandelier shook loose from the ceiling, and she tried to hand the boy to Soth and save him, at least, but Soth turned his back on them.
Then people came out of the castle, twenty of them ghostly things, five hundred horsemen, a number of dragonmen and skeletons, and Kitiara on the blue dracolich. PoisonedBlade went after Kit and the dracolich, and the rest of us waded in. It was a tedious battle, and a lot of lives were lost, but afterward, Lord Soth showed no
signs of coming out to get us, so we went back into Silverymoon to recover.
Back inside the city, but before we even got to regroup, a blue dragon showed up and landed nearby. Elvanchali and Alustrial and True (in a bag of holding again) and I went to go see what was happening. The rider was a Knight of Takesis named Steel Brightblade. True told us that the Knights of Takesis were honorable, though their goals were considered evil. So we made a temporary truce. Steel offered to help us in our fight against Soth, and the Heroes of Happenstance and the Knights of Takesis would not fight each other for the next three weeks. Then he explained what he knew of Lord Soth and his powers.
Chantelle and I went to go pray in Mielikki's temple, but were startled by the sudden sound of dragons growling at each other. PoisondBlade's gold and Steel's blue had been incited into a growling match by True. I picked up said offending kender and tucked her under my arm (making a note to check my pockets later) and hauled her back to the castle, her sling-key following of its own accord.
We wound up riding magic carpets to the balcony of the citadel, and we were temporarily invisible to undead. That lasted until we ran into a dozen guardian skeletons we had to defeat to get any father. When we walked in on Soth himself, most of us were quite visible.
And we saw the ghosts.
Every one of us aged ten years, right then. It made no difference to the elves, but to see Chantelle go from seventeen to almost thirty was a shock. Then Elvanchali did something, and three of the ghosts and assorted other undead either disappeared or ran away. That
left three ghosts, and three elves: Elvanchali, Drizzt (who had come with us), and me. We each took off toward one of the ghosts, because while looking at the things ages you, being touched by one ages you even more. I heard True begin taunting Lord Soth, and turned around just in time to
see him point a finger at her and say, "Die." And she fell to the floor, stone dead.
Something inside me snapped. The next thing I remember is Elvanchali yelling to me that Steel needed help--when I looked, I saw he must be near sixty years old now, and a ghost was still trying to hit him. So I went. And then everything stopped.
Elvanchali lay dead atop Lord Soth's armor--all that remained of him. She'd fallen on him swords-first and destroyed him even as he killed her. The undead disappeared, except Kit, who stopped fighting us. I sheathed my swords and picked up Elvanchali's body. Then
Raistlin appeared. So did Lady Alustrial. I don't remember any of this too clearly. I do remember that I spat in Raistlin's face, and Lady Alustrial punched him. Then Raistlin left with Kitiara--his sister. And I left with mine.
I don't remember how we got on the ground again. All I remember is walking into Moonwood, realizing Chantelle was with me and not being collected enough to talk to her. We walked into the heart of the woods, and by the time we reached the spot I intended, our wounds had healed themselves. Someone watched over us. We dug a hole for Elvanchali's body, and took her gear, and put her in the ground, and buried her.
When it was done, I sat back, pulled out my dagger, and made two cuts, one on each of my cheekbones right under the eye, and let several drops fall on Elvanchali's grave. Chantelle looked panicked, so I explained. When my parents had rejected me and I'd left
Silverymoon, I said I cried tears of blood. I was wrong. Compared to this, that had been a very small thing, so now I made up for it. As we sat there, battle-weary and grieving, a drow female, completely naked, walked into the clearing. She moved to Elvanchali's grave and shed a single tear over it, and left again. I knew, then, that Elvanchali was
with her goddess.
Sometime later, Chantelle and I set out to find Bolten. He knew something was wrong as soon as he saw us. I walked right up to him and hugged him, past caring what Chantelle thought. She didn't seem to think anything of it, though. We told him of the battle that had
taken place, and I said I was staying here a few days--Chantelle was welcome to stay if she wanted, or not, otherwise. She stayed.
I don't think death had ever really hit me like that before. I remembered Cali dying, but we'd both expected it at that point, and she went peacefully. When StarGazer died, we were all too busy trying to get out of the city and stay alive in the Underdark to even think about it much, let alone grieve. True was resurrectable, but when elves die, there's no coming back. I guess it's odd for an elf to talk about feeling mortality, but I did, for what really seemed the first time.
I talked with Chantelle the next day. I told her . . . everything. All my past. I'm not sure if it was easier or harder when I realized she had no idea what sex even was. I made a note that, since she now looked twenty-seven, someone would have to explain to her
soon--before she found out the hard way.
We stayed in Moonwood for about a week, then headed back to Silverymoon. We arrived in the evening, and Chantelle went on to search for the others, but I had one more stop to make.
I went to go see my father. I found the house I'd grown up in. I knocked on the door, but no one answered, so I let myself in. As soon as I got inside, I knew something was wrong, had been wrong for a very long time. I found my father out in the workshop, and the
first words out of my mouth confirmed what had only been a suspicion in the back of my brain until then. "When did she die?" I asked, my heart aching now from two deaths.
He looked up once, to see if the face matched the voice he heard, and went back to his work. He told me it had been some ninety years now, and she'd died in childbirth. So I asked about the child, my brother or sister. I asked if he'd managed to ruin another one's life. We exchanged some harsh words, which I won't repeat, save
that I recall telling him Chantelle was a niece to me, and that I was a hell of a lot better parent than he was. And so I learned nothing of the child.
I was about to leave, and I told him something to the effect that with all the Heroes of Happenstance had done recently, I wondered that he didn't even have a kind word for that, however much he might hate me personally. And he said, softly, grudgingly, that he was
proud of what I'd done to defend Silverymoon. Nothing less, nothing more--so I left for the last time.
I found Chantelle again. The next morning we all borrowed flying carpets and went up to the floating citadel to search it. We'd gotten rid of Soth and his company, and the citadel was empty, so we decided we might as well use it. There was enough treasure in its rooms to repair it and make it livable. We found a room that was haunted, where every night at midnight the image of Soth and his second wife and their son, in that last moment when Soth let them both die, played out the betrayal and death. Kayna found a room with a dragon's claw-shaped
pedestal holding a crystal ball--and Kitiara's ghost there to guard it.
We started cleaning the place out, and eventually Chantelle and I came to the room where we'd fought Lord Soth. The death knight's armor was still there, and on closer inspection, I noticed there was a deep indentation in the breastplate, and a hole gouged through the center of the dent. I wondered what in the Nine Hells could have done that--I certainly didn't remember it from the battle. And Chantelle turned to me and said, "You did."
I stopped breathing for a moment, then slowly made a fist and fitted it into the dent. The fit was just right that if I'd been holding a dagger, both the dent and the hole were explained. And I didn't remember it.
We were distracted, then, by the yell of someone who had found the control room of the castle. We went to go see. The controls looked simple enough; we could fly the thing. Chantelle and I decided we'd had about enough of the creepy place. We went back into Silverymoon to start looking for beds and tables and such. We'd found some, and were about to take them back up when we heard a piping kender voice screaming, "Anybody wanna fuck?!" I grabbed True and we took her back with us.
At the citadel again, PoisonedBlade and Turin had arrived. PoisonedBlade was wearing her Cult of the Dragon robes again, and when I asked why, she said she'd done it because she had to--for us. I shook my head and was the only one to protest that if she did such a thing, she did it for herself, because to us it wasn't worth the price.
True had wandered off, and her scream broke the scene. We ran towards it and learned it was a scream of joy. There stood a five-foot one-inch (without the ears, she made sure to add) silver cat-woman . . . with slitted, ice-blue eyes. It was Elvanchali, sort of, come back to us by some deal. She said she'd explain later. I gave her back her things, and she put all of True but True's head in her bag of holding--on general principle, I think.
I went back to moving furniture into the castle. I probably looked like enough of a fool as it was, I didn't need anybody to see the tears leaking down over the smile on my face.
Then I remembered the problem with Chantelle. I spoke to Elvanchali, explaining to her that Chantelle had little or no idea what sex was, and I wasn't about to explain it to her if there was any way around it. Elvanchali said she'd do it. Then I had another thought. The problem right now was that Chantelle's insides didn't match her outsides. The other thing to do would be to change the outside to match the inside--that of a young elf.
I went back down to Silverymoon--the magic necessary to make a sort of lift to and from the citadel was in place by then--and sought out Lady Alustrial. I explained my thought to her, and she said that yes, if Chantelle wanted, she could polymorph her into an elf. When I told Chantelle later, she agreed, and so it was done.
We got all the group together so Elvanchali could explain to us what had been done to bring her back. While True was dead, she'd been in the place where Sune's followers go after life. While there, she'd seen the rest of the battle (more than I had, evidently), and she'd seen Elvanchali die. She'd worked very hard to make a deal with Sune, and Elvanchali's soul shared a body with a soul named Windsong, formerly doomed to death, on the condition that True start ten temples of Sune and find ten
followers for each temple in Krynn.
We went back to Raistlin's game. We set out for Waterdeep to find Tasslehoff, who turned out to be one of the Heroes of the Lance. When we'd gotten him aboard, we set out for Krynn. Not to long after we got him aboard, Elvanchali offered to wizard-lock the doors of anyone who wanted to protect our things from being accidentally--er, borrowed. I, of course, accepted. However, the kender were quite occupied, declaring themselves high priestess and priest of Sune and taking over one of the rooms of the castle for their first temple. Remembering exactly what worship of Sune entailed, I found Elvanchali quickly. All I had to say was, "Little kender babies." She never did get that anti-pregnancy spell, but she could keep checking to see if the horrific had happened.
It had. True was pregnant. Elvanchali promptly married them, but True protested, so she unmarried them.
Meanwhile, the dreams from Chesintra had continued. Kayna dreamed that Layrel and Kelvin were undead. She told Lady Alustrial, and Lady Alustrial set to checking. Kayna and Turin both dreamed about being underground, seeing dead Cult of the Dragon memebers, and then . . . Black Death as a dracolich.
The kenders finally changed their minds, and Elvanchali married them again. By this time, they were driving me out of my mind, and I very quietly informed Elvanchali that I was about to start climbing the walls.
We reached Krynn, passing over a huge red whirlpool on the way. Our first stop was Kendermore. Chantelle and I hid, but between a temple of Sune and Elvanchali the Cat, all frivolity was removed--temporarily--from Kendermore.
That night Kayna took her test, and turned out to be a white-robed mage. It was Chantelle who woke me so we could go down to the castle. When we reached the door, True cast a laughter spell on Dalamar, leader of the order of black robes. We had to half-carry him in. When the spell wore off, we explained Raistlin's game to him. His first reaction was amazement that Raistlin was alive. His second was was something like "oh shit," in a few more words. However, he said the wizards would support us against the Knights of Takesis, who used rogue mages.
Dalamar also found out that Ture was pregnant. "Oh gods, they're reproducing."
We went back to the citadel, and in four days we were in the town of Solace. It was an odd town, built entirely in tree houses. We went to the Inn of the Last Home where we found Caramon and Tika, two more of the Heroes of the Lance. We explained Raistlin's game again, and that we could "capture" them, if they'd allow it, for our group's points. They said they'd come, if only to unmask the man masquerading as Raistlin. Kayna and True started a second temple of Sune in Solace, and then we went back to the citadel. In less than a day we were in Havens, the area capitol. We found Tanis, another Hero. This time Caramon explained the game.
Tanis said he could probably track down Laurana, and perhaps Riverwind and Goldmoon. True started another temple of Sune. While this was going on, I left the city for a few days. Too many people for too long, I think. When I went back, a few days later, Chantelle and I wandered together. The elves here were different, we discovered, mostly in coloring. I think it had something to do with clans or races, but I didn't find out what. When Chantelle tried to talk to one, she got insulted for her trouble.
Laurana finally arrived, and we left to find Riverwind and Goldmoon. We traveled to the village of Queshu, where we found everyone had been changed into some other kind of creature. A weird man had showed up, we were told, and turned Goldmoon and Riverwind into rabbits and took them. Entropy Chaosian, of course. It took three days for our mages and priestess to change everyone back.
Elvanchali tried a divination spell to find the rabbits, and we began to hunt for them. It took three weeks to catch up with Entropy, and when we did, we were in Palanthus. There were a great many Knights there--Knights of Solomnia, we later learned. There was a tower of high sorcery as well, that was ever shrouded I night. We found Entropy himself in a tavern. He was trying to buy two chairs, and wanted to pull up an ale to sit on. The barkeep, fortunately, got the order the way he meant it rather than how he said it.
True traded him a broken watch for the rabbits, which he could no longer remember why he was carrying. Elva dispelled the spell they were under, and as we tried to get Riverwind and Goldmoon out of there, True set about picking Entropy's pocket, just to see what was there. I don't remember everything she came up with, but I distinctly remember she pulled a rather large man out of a pocket. He was dressed in tight blue breeches and a dark blue shirt with what looked to be a stylized bat on the front if it. He wore a black cape as well, but instead of a hood, it had a cowl that wraped his head and the top half of his face, and came to points like ears on top. He looked quite disturbed and said, "I have to get back to Gotham." And left.
All this time I was trying to usher people out of the tavern. I finally grabed True, who was busily occupied with a piece of paper from Entropy's pocket. When I finally got a look at it, it proved to say: "How do you confuse a kender? Over."
I headed back toward the citadel, but before I ever got there I looked back and saw that Entropy was now a monster made of black lightning, perhaps seventy-five feet tall. I handed True off to Chantelle, who was still outside, then ran back after Elvanchali, fully prepared to grab her and put her over my shoulder to carry her out of there if necessary. However, she teleported out and we went back to the citadel, where we learned that Raistlin was having a meeting on the Plains of Solomnia in a week.
When we got to the meeting, we already found a large encampment of the Cult of the Tarasque. Elvanchali disappered about this time, and when she got back she had a drow male with her, named Nyda. She said he was seemed to be mostly good, and had been a slave in Thay, which she'd just . . . visited. Chantelle and I had seen too many drow to trust easily, though. Nyda pulled some slight of hand trick and gave Chantelle flowers produced from his sleeve. It did break the tension. He spoke very little common, only elvish. I liked his style, and offered to teach him common. He asked why--I said why not.
The next morning we found a note from True. She'd left to find a place to live and a family, so she could better raise her child. Kayna also failed to appear that day, and after she missed lunch, we went to her room to see if she was alright. We found no trace of her, only a message in blood on the wall of the room. Chesintra had taken her. As we watched, the message flowed into a pool of blood, with Kayna's form reflected in it.
When we mentioned Chesintra, Nyda fainted. He was from Thay--it wasn't too hard to guess why.
The night before the meeting proper I had a dream. In my dream I was watching Bolten, back in Moonwood. As I watched, a tree's roots reached out and grabbed him, entrapping him. Chesintra appeared behind him, grabbed him by the hair, and smiled at me.
I awoke to Chantelle's screaming. I ran to her, of course, and hugged her tight. She'd dreamed of the soul of Bane being in a blue gem. Then Chesintra had put the soul into little Laurianna.
Bricks cracked around us and the citadel shuddered. Chesintra's image appeared. I knew it was only an image, but I threw a dagger through it nonetheless. She told us that Bane now threatened Shadowdale. Then she left.
Too many of Chesintra's dream sendings had already proven true for anyone to sleep easily, but we tried. In the morning, Elvanchali went to Shadowdale to warn Elminster. I caught myself watching Nyda more and more during the day, and even flipping my dagger restlessly in one hand--a nervous habbit I hadn't indulged in in years.
We went down to the meeting. A huge chunk of land dripping seaweed flew to the site on butterfly wings. Istar, raised by (who else?) Entropy Chaosian, still a black-lightning monster, though his normal--if the word can be applied--size again. Nyda offered him flowers. He snorted them up.
We sought and found Raistlin, the Heroes of the Lance with us. Caramon approached him with sword drawn, and Nyda tried to stop him, but at the last minute they looked on each other, dumbfounded, then embraced.
It was Chantelle who sat for us at the meeting table. I stood behind her, hands on the hilts of my swords. To say that I wasn't happy with Raistlin was something of an understatement. Raistlin said that as it stood now, the Knights of Takesis were in the lead, followed by the Heroes of Happenstance, then Entropy Chaosian (who pulled out a rather large horn and blew it at this announcement), the Cult of the Dragon, Fzoul, and the Cult of the Tarasque.
Raistlin had the two "planets" in front of him on the table again. As we watched, he pushed the two entirely together, until they were only one sphere. As he did so, a number of gaping holes appeared in the sky, and then closed.
After the meeting, Nyda found us and said that she'd followed Fzoul and seen that his bodyguards had red eyes, and that he'd set a beholder to following us.
We went back to the citadel, and found that Elvanchali had returned. That night, I heard Nyda cursing. I was concerned, so I knocked on the door. He wasn't happy, and wouldn't talk, but I offered to teach him to curse in orcish, and that he accepted. I was starting to notice that there was something a bit odd in how he acted, but at that point I was too tired to think much about it.
The next morning Turin said that he'd dreamed of Alak and the drow priestess with the metal arm (now his vampire servent). They'd drained most of PoisonedBlade's life to bring Joe back for her.
We were trying to decide which of Raistlin's tasks to tackle next, when Chesintra appeared. She suggested that we should be trying to kill Raistlin, not her--after all, we had no idea why he was running this game, but he was evil, and that should be a clue. I seem to recall telling her she could do her own dirty work. Turin challenged her on the subject of PoisonedBlade, and to make us believe her, she brought both PoisonedBlade and Joe to us. PoisonedBlade collapsed to the floor immediately. Nyda wasn't at all happy with Chesintra, and had been yelling at her for awhile, but I did a doubletake when she shouted, "Did you die with PMS?!" Chesintra finally left.
Something was definitely odd about Nyda. Unfortunately, I found myself liking it.
We took PoisonedBlade out of the room. She felt like she only weighed maybe eighty-five pounds--and she's about 5'8". Joe/Bob told us she was drained by the undead. He also said that Black Death was now in Chesintra's employ, and that Chesintra was acting motherly toward Laurianne, who was friendly with Chesintra's undead, and that Chesintra was contacting other planes . . . and he didn't know why.
The next morning we heard claws on the stone balcony outside the common room. It turned out to be Lord Ariakan of the Knights of Takesis. He told us that a group of wizards from Thay, wearing red robes and proclaiming themselves neutral, were claiming to speak for the Realms. We explained the truth to him, and agreed to ally with the Knights to try and stop this farce.
That afternoon we were all startled by the roar of Ariakan's blue dragon and spotted PoisonedBlade's blue dracolich trying to land. It didn't take long for Ariakan and Joe to be at each other's throats. Nyda and I, the two small elves, appointed ourselves the task of pulling the two apart. PoisonedBlade emerged at this point and had some tea to wake herself up. Then she came out and talked sense to the blue dragon.
We headed the citadel toward Palanthus to try to get help for PoisonedBlade. Someone remembered, then, that PoisonedBlade had once transfered blood--or maybe life--to Lady Alustrial after she'd been drained by Alak. We got her to do it again, this time taking a bit of life from all of us who volunteered so that she could function. She went back to sleep, but when she woke up later she was in an absolute panic. She'd just learned that the vampires had taken so much from her that she cold no longer cast all--or even most--of the spells she had in her spellbook.
That night I found myself sitting outside of Nyda's door again for some reason, on the verge of laughing--or crying--over my fear for Bolten and my fascination with Nyda. I fell asleep there and dreamed of the river in Shadowdale. Laurianna--or was it Bane?--was there. Chesintra snatched her away. Then we saw a dark tower--Chesintra's?--and we saw the tower disappear. She'd be back for us later.
Chantelle woke me up. She said that Elminster had arrived, wanting to speak to Ariakan. Then he'd arrived again, having been told that he was to meet Fizban here and acting quite strangely. Chantelle was at a loss. We went to find the first Elminster, who I simply told, "There are two of you. The other one is in the kitchen." When we got there, the second Elminster was in the middle of casting someting--fireball, I was later informed. The first Elminster frantically did something to stop him. He explained to us that the second him was Fizban: a very powerful wizard with very weird motives.
I went back to sleep, in my own room this time, and didn't wake up till mid-morning. When I went out to the common room I found Lord Ariakan leaving, due to Fizban, whose presence seemed to be an affront to him. He decided to stay, on the condition that Fizban left. When we got inside, Fizban suddenly disappered, and the citadel was, just as suddenly, over Palanthus.
I was sitting in the windowsill when I saw three silver dragons circling us. I went with Chantelle to another part of the castle, where one of them landed. We had to explain why we'd just appeared and why we had a blue dragon and a blue dracolich sitting on our balcony. The rider asked that we go with them down to Palanthus, so the truth of our story could be learned. We went, disarmed--or all but Nyda, who was nowhere to be found. We were taken to deep cells in the castle--fairly nice as cells go, but I don't like prisons, and I found myself flipping an imaginary dagger and practicing throwing it at the wall.
Nyda walked in, still invisible, not to long later and explained that he'd met a woman named Chrisania, who might heal PoisonedBlade. Nyda almost gave himself away in the process. Then a group of guards came into the prison and took Ariakan, PoisonedBlade, and Chantelle out of the cells. I suggested that Chantelle go as our speaker--I would have been more than happy to get out of my cell, but I was happier still to have her out of there, and taking the responsibility for our group. When she returned, we were released from the cells. We immediately went back to the Citadel to get our weapons. When we got back, PoisonedBlade was running out to meet us, happily. Chrisania had said she was good! and had healed her somewhat. She couldn't manage a total healing, but it was enough. Joe said something at that point, and PoisonedBlade slapped him--and then kissed him. Everything was back to normal.
Ariakan left the city quickly, being taunted with words and thrown objects all the way.
I sat down in the shade to wait for the others to finish their buisness. I was almost dozing, when two large men rolled out of the tavern across the way from me. It was called The Flaming Red, and a red-haired, yellow-eyed elven woman in a white dress stepped to the doorway, hollering after the men, "Dont pinch me!" I blinked, then smiled at her when she looked my way.
Turin, Chantelle and Nyda showed up later, and we went into the tavern for food. The waiters were strange--they looked half-elven, but they were very tall and almost scaled, and when one coughed, a spurt of flame left his mouth. Turin strayed to another part of the tavern, but Chantelle and Nyda and I ordered meals. We quickly learned that the elven woman was actually a polymorphed red dragon named Flicker. When two men started a fist fight, she pulled out a long tube, took a swallow of liquour from a flask at her belt, and breathed flame thorugh the tube at them. Then the litterally threw them out.
Nyda asked about the liquor in the flask, and upon sipping it, passed out. Chantelle carried Nyda back to the citadel. I stayed in the tavern and spoke with flicker. She had a very odd outlook on things, but was interesting to talk to. Then PoisonedBlade entered the bar. I forget what she was saying, but something to do with dragons. Flicker got very annoyed, very quickly. I hid under the table while Flicker flamed PoisonedBlade--but the flames didn't seem to harm her. She walked up to Flicker and whispered something in her ear, and soon they were talking like the best of friends. They walked into the back of the tavern. Joe joined me at the table--I offered him any of the remaining food that he wanted--the gods know there was more than enough. PoisonedBlade and Flicker came back later, and PoisonedBlade asked if I thought anyone would object to Flicker traveling with us for awhile. I said probably not . . . but there were some flamable things in the citadel. PoisonedBlade took the hint and convinced Flicker to leave her fire-stick behind.
Back in the citadel that night, I found myself waiting outside Nyda's door agian. Seeing the tower of high sorcery that day, I had remembered about the magical tests--and I'd seen Nyda casting spells. Somehow I thought I didn't want to miss this. I heard two voices from inside, then silence. And not too long after that, Nyda screaming, "I hate this color!"
I warned Chantelle against entering just then, and Flicker arrived also, and then PoisonedBlade, mostly naked, carrying her now-white robes in her arms. When Nyda opened the door, Poisonedblade took one look and asked, "They got you, too?" All the clothing Nyda had was white, not just what he was wearning. He asked to borrow someone's cloak, for something of another color. Joe lent him his--and as soon as he put it on, it turned white. He clutched it around him tightly anyway, screaming all the while, like he thought the world would end if someone saw his skin.
PoisonedBlade first went for her tea--she'd made it even stronger. I tried to remove all the pots, but she had her own. Then she and Nyda both fireballed all their white clothing. Then they were so wide awake they decided to clean the castle with toothbrushes. Whatever toothbrushes are. Maybe Zola suggested it, she was the best place to look for words I didn't know.
I tried to go go sleep, but was awakened by someone yelling that Fizban was back--with a mated pair of astral dragons. I went to see, and there they were. Evidentally, Nyda had sent him after them, just to get him out of the citadel. They were perched on the landing pad (I think Zola gave us that term, too) with the dracolich (who looked very subdued). They were both more than a hundred feet long, nose to tail, silver-white in color, with what looked to be stars for their eyes. Chantelle gave Fizban a symbol of Paladine (the goodly good associated with metalic dragons) that Nyda had given her for that purpose, and Fizban seemed quite content.
Raistlin appeared not two minutes later, and said that was good enough. The dragons left, bearing Fizban with them. I went back to sleep, and awoke to Ariakan's return, along with a second dragon ridden by a grey-robed mage. He told us that three Red Wizards had avrrived in Palanthus.
We descended at the outskirts of town. We passed Dalamar's tower on the way in. It was surrounded in a cloud of eternal night. We warned Dalamar that the Thayans were mis-representing themselves by wearing red--that is, we warned him after he quit lunging for the grey-robed mage's throat.
We headed for the castle, and had no problems getting in, due to Dalamar's presence. We found Chrisania and several others in conference with the Thayans. Dalamar quickly took the Thayans away to take their test, and they all came back . . . red robed. Fortunately, Chrisania and the others were not taking any chances with they Thayans. They agreed to visit Thay to see support for the fact that Thay were good governors. Chantelle pointed out that they should probably visit Algerond, Thay's enemies, as well. Chrisania agreed. We told Chrisania about the Realms as the Thayans went back for more wizards to teleport us all. They returned with several who looked like humans, only slightly odd, and one figure in brown robes who was so hidden it was impossible to tell its sex or race.
Thay turned out to be a very brown city. There were quite a few new temples to good gods, of all things. One had no priests, and we recognized some of the priests in the others as prominent priests of Cyric. As we inspected the town, I pointed out that the Thayans had called Elvanchali a criminal, yet she wore white robes. The Thayans backtracked immediately, of course, going on about a mistake having been made, but Chrisania seemed to have taken an interest in the issue.
Algerond was much brighter when compared with Thay. The temples to goodly gods were quite full of priests. However, we'd barely been in town two minutes when the Simbul came running down the street, fury on her face. I babbled something about terrible news, Chesintra Thilofar had taken her sister, Midnight, captive. It was the first thing that popped into my head, and I knew she would already know it--but it did cause her to pause long enough not to kill the Thayans out of hand. I explained to her the situation, and she only required the Thayans to leave the city. At a dinner with the Simbul, Chrisania said that she wasn't planning to ally with anyone. When a former Thayan slave (Nyda not being with us) came to tell her about the treatment of slaves in Thay, she seemed even more convinced not to make any alliances.
Before leaving the city, I mentioned to the Simbul that I had news of Bolten being in dire trouble in Moonwood, and asked that if she knew of anyone travling that way, she'd pass the message on. Then we returned to Palanthus. When the Thayans learned that Palanthus would not ally with them, all their red robes changed to black. They said that we were responsible for starting a war between Thay and Krynn, and then teleported out--all but one. I think Elvanchali did something to stop him.
We took the now-black robed mage to Dalamar, to show him that his test could be . . . tampered with. Dalamar solved the current problem by calmly inserting a dagger from his sleeve into the wizard's heart. He then helped us figure out where the wizard would strike next. Taladus, was the consensus. And the only way to gain any weight in Taladus was to become a champion of the arenas. I knew what that meants. Chantelle could not do it--she couldn't hit someone who was on the ground, and that might well be required, nor could she fight that coldly. The only other real fighter in the group was Elvanchali, but as priestess and mage she was too powerful for us to lose. That left me.
We left to return to the castle. Outside, we saw the brown-robed figure that had been with the Thayans. The Thayans had called it, and had charged it with our deaths--just not yet. When it shed its robes, it had two head, one a wolf's and one a snake's, and it grew suddenly to twelve feet tall. It held a double-bladed axe.
I did the first thing that popped into my mind: I cast entangle on it. It simply said that it would be back, later, and disappeared. We finally got to go back to the castle, and Ariakan gave us directions to Taledus. It would take about a week and a half to get there.
Flicker cooked that night, a dish she said she often cooked for hr suns. I thought it was nicely spicy. Nyda took one taste and fainted, and Ariakan began sweating and looked like if he had less decorum, he'd join her. Turin refused to try the dish, grumbling and heading to the kitchen for something safe.
The next morning, Elvanchali's . . . Windsong's . . . robes turned red. She'd been acting less and less like Elvanchali all the time, and I can't say as I was really surprised, but . . . it felt like Elvanchali had died twice. I knew she was not my sister any longer. I spent the rest of the day moping on the windowsill, looking out over the sea.
Eventually, we reached Taledus. We stopped about two hundred yards from the city so as not to alarm anyone. Unfortunately, this put us still over the ocean. A ship sailed out, stopping directly under us. Everyone but Turin went down to it. There had to be close to eighteen minotaurs on the deck. They were still expecting Lord Soth. Windsong explained Lord Soth's death. The speaker laughed when we told him we wanted to fight in the arenas. The fearsome Cuddles was the current champion, we were told (with a name like that, he'd have to have gotten tough among minotaurs), and we had no chance. We weren't the first outlanders to try recently, though. A strange, black-lightning man had attempted the feat. All he'd managed was to turn half the gladiators into posies.
The ship sailed in, with us on it. We were offered a meal--our last meal (this with a great deal of evil laughter). Zola was trying to explain a particular dish to the minotaurs, I'd quit paying attention to what. I couldn't eat. Not knowing what was coming.
Windsong and I argued about who would fight, but I was right about being more expendable, and she finally backed down. She would try next, if I failed. She loaned me her longsword in the place of my weaker one--it had a name, was heavily enchanted, and could heal once a day. I knew I wouldn't use the healing, though. It would defeat the purpose of the matches.
They led me away to a small room with a great many weapons in it. All I could do was wait and pray, and I did a good deal of both.
The first battles were quite easy. After a few, the crowd stopped actively cat-calling at me. The minotaurs I managed to only leave unconscious, not dead, I would not kill, but as they were dragged out of the arena, a large minotaur with an axe chopped off their horns. They'd been beaten by an elf, and so weren't worthy to be minotaurs. I felt sick to my stomach, and was very glad I hadn't eaten.
The last fight before the champion I won . . . bloodily. The gods have a sense of humor. I managed to catch both his horns with my swords at such an angle and with such force that it nearly pulled his skeleton out of his flesh. Some who were watching might tell you it did, but they're prone to tall tales. When I won that bout, the crowds actually cheered.
Then for the last fight. They introduced Cuddles the Destroyer. There were many more descriptive words before that. I was introduced as Talian the elf. Nothing like making one feel important. Cuddles was the biggest minotaur I'd ever seen--he had to be at least nine feet tall. His legs were badly burned, he was scarred all over, and he had an eyepatch over one eye. He carried two serrated swords, both longer than I am short.
Another bloody battle, and this one . . . I think I should have died. I dealt a lot of damage, but it wasn't long before I can only presume I was hurt enough to be unconscious, because the next thing I remember is getting up, still badly hurt. I think Zola must have healed me somewhat, but I didn't have time to find out, because she was running away, trying to get out of the crowd of minotaurs fighting all around us. They were completely crazed and didn't seem to care whom they were fighting. I looked around to see Nyda--in black robes!--and Windsong arguing over who was going to replace me. Not an entire new fight. Cuddles had agreed to let one of them become my champion, and finish the bout.
Nyda won the argument, and handed off to me a black-robed bundle she had over her shoulder. Evidentally, it was the man who had started this chaos with the minotaurs. Nyda fought him weaponless, causing Cuddles to fight weaponless as well, but the smaller drow was unconscious very quickly.
Fortunately, none of the surrounding crowd of battling minotaurs seemed to be interested in us. Windsong partially healed Cuddles, and then they two went at it. Windsong won. She killed him, all unmeaning, in the process, and then used magic to raise him from the dead. About this time, Nyda got up again. I didn't have time to see how he was doing, though, because I heard a high-pitched voice shout, "Li!", and True had wrapped herself around my leg before I had any say in the matter. I managed not to fall over, though I'm sure I dripped blood on her, for all my wanting not to.
Cuddles said that we fought well, and at this point someone must have noticed that the planned fight was over, because I heard them announce Talian the elf as victor. The words were bitter in my ears, though I can't say exactly why.
A black-caped minotaur made his way through the remains of the melee to us. If you've never tried to bow when you're half-dead, carrying a human taller than you are over one shoulder, and have a kender clinging to your leg with a death grip, I suggest you continue the trend and don't. He called himself Riktal, and told us he was the head of the city, and that this fight would go down in history. Just then, "going down" seemed like the operative words. Someone finally healed me before I fell over.
We took the damnfool black-robed mage (I'm told he strolled into the arena and told the minotaurs to come with him: he was going to put them in heards and milk them and make interesting steaks from them) back to the castle and Windsong wizard-locked him into an spare room. Then we returned to the town and had dinner with Riktal.
There was a Thayan at dinner. Nyda wanted to rip into him right away, but I managed to convince him to wait. I hadn't eaten since the night before and I'd been fighting all day, and I was about to pass out. Nyda still had some fun with the fellow, though. She tried to get him to put some of Flicker's dragon-drink into his wine, but he declined. However, he did seem to have considerable trouble with sliding off his chair during dinner, finally electing to stand--and the way Nyda politely asked him if something was wrong with his seat made me think (or know) that he couldn't possibly be innocent.
After dinner, Riktal tried to recruit us to help take over Ansalon with the Thayans' help. We explained our knowledge of fame. After a moment, Riktal stepped out of the room and returned with Cuddles--whose eyepatch was now over the other eye--and asked us to repeat what we'd just said. We weren't at all sure that was Cuddles, since the eyepatch being reversed could be a sign of worse things yet, but we finally did.
Riktal calmly walked over the the Thayan, smiling, and broke his neck. Cuddles's other eye, he informed us, detected truth.
I was asked if I wanted to defend my title in the arena. I most emphatically did not. So we finished returned to the ship and from there to the castle.
What next? Nyda and Windsong wanted to try to get the creatures from the Nine Hells--Windsong thought she knew someone who could help. I had another idea. If we could talk to one of the Harpers who basically controled a region of Faerun (since it was the Harpers we were actually representing) and convince him or her to put one of our group nominally in charge for a few days, it would constitute taking over a region. Nyda and Windsong agreed to stop in Algerond, the first place we could think of, and speak to the Simbul.
They left. Then someone thought to talk to PoisonedBlade about the dragons' eggs. We went to go find her. She smiled and asked someone to give her a coin and meet her on the balcony in three minutes. She teleported away. We went out to the balcony, and three minutes later she returned. She had a topaz dragon's egg safely tucked away in a sort of closet of holding. She'd flipped a coin to get it. Then she explained about the other dragons to us. She didn't know where they could be located, let alone which ones might have eggs.
The next morning we found out that Nyda and Windsong's errand had been successful. No sooner had they told us than Raistlin appeared. He told us that Fzoul had dropped out of the game, for reasons unexplained. Then the walls turned flourescent pink.
Entropy Chaosian appeared--as a black-lightning kender. He was trying to kill Raistlin, who promptly disappeared. Suddenly, we all looked like Raistlin, and so did Entropy--"Must kill Raistlins!" he shouted. The following battle is something I hope to all the heavens is never even envisioned again. Almost every time something touched Entropy, whatever touched became strange. My weak sword wanted to work for Entropy. My strong sword turned itself into a hell hound--with the mind of an inanimate sword. I kicked the sword into entropy while I was drawing my mace, and it suddenly became intelligent, saying, "I will do what you way, Entropy."
Chantelle and I took the hell hound out, just in time to see Joe, who had already lost his sword to something, punch Entropy . . . and disintigrate. I didn't have time to think about it, because then my mace turned into some sort of a monster (not intelligent, thank the gods). Then Nyda tried some spell--and suddenly we had an effigy of Joe made out of some semi-solid, red substance that jiggled entirely too much to be safe.
Then Entropy himself changed. He went shapeless, with tentacles all over, and each of the tentacles was attacking.
Things got worse. Turin hit PoisonedBlade and the Joe-thing with arrows. (The thing jiggled alarmingly with a squishy sound). Nyda's robes turned red. Someone's spell misfired, causing a young woman in green tight breeches and a black and yellow cape and a red tunic, emblazoned with a bright yellow R in a circle on it, and a black half-mask, to appear. PoisonedBlade turned around and said, "I will do what you say, Entropy." True just fell over and made no move to get back up.
Entropy became a puddle and then disappeared.
We went to look at True, and found her alive, but lifeless. Her mind was gone. We took her to a room and did the only thing we could think of. We headed for Palanthus, hoping we could find help for her there.
The next day we found PoisonedBlade had painted the Joe-thing to look like Joe, and had somehow animated it. Zola was going quite nasty about it, and Nyda stalked off. I followed him, and we talked. I don't even remember about what, but I got him to return.
We returned to find utter panic. The Knights of Takesis were both gone, and there was blood under Ariaken's pillow and under the sheets on his bed. It was fresh--I guessed it had happened last night, during the earlier part of the night. Flicker tasted the blood and confirmed that it was his, but she couldn't smell or taste any trace of any intruder. When we checked the grey-robed mage's room, the state of it was much the same.
I found Nyda and Chantelle with the idiot black-robed mage--Garmen was his name. PoisonedBlade screamed, and Chantelle left, running for her. I was about to turn and leave, when I heard Garmen say to Nyda, "So why don't you just turn into a girl again?"
Then I was busy keeping Nyda from ripping his throat out, but when I had time to think, I realized I'd almost been expecting that she was really female. She might have magic to make her look like a male, but she most definitely did not act like one.
We ran for PoisonedBlade. We found her standing next to the Joe-thing, which lay headless on the ground. "I guess I hit him too hard," she said. Then she ran for the edge of the balcony. Windsong drow-poisoned her. Nyda took her to a room with no windows, and we followed. We took everything we could find that might be dangerous away from her, and Nyda and I stood watch over her.
Flicker came in at some point to tell us that she couldn't smell anyone in the grey-robed mage's room, either. Then Windsong came in. She'd tried a spell to learn more about what had done the killings. What she got was that they were indeed dead, by claws and teeth, eaten partly from the back, and left in the keep. Windsong and Chantelle and Turin went to try and find the bodies.
Chantelle came back telling us that Kitiara's ghost, or whatever it was in the room with the dragon-claw stand and the crystal ball, and so were the bodies. And Kitiara wasn't saying anything. Nyda stormed off, on the verge of yelling. I wasn't paying much attention, but I heard one word, "Loviatar," that brought me up short. I looked at Chantelle, who nodded, and then ran after Nyda.
Nyda was about ready to kill something, whether it was the murderers or not. She said that Ariakan had been her first friend, and was about her only friend. None of the Heroes of Happenstance had accepted her as readily as he had. That hurt, badly, but I held it in. We talked a little about patience. I told her you could stand anything, if you knew it served your end purposes. She finally calmed down and we returned to PoisonedBlade.
She was frantic, asking where Joe was. Someone finally, very worridly, told her, "Dead." She broke down crying. Then Windsong and Turin entered. Ariakan and the mage, Windsong said, had been killed by Flicker. Flicker did not deny it, and laughed. I was getting very angry, very quickly. I vaguely remember Zola removing PoisonedBlade from the room. Then nothing, until I was standing on our landing pad, both my swords half-out. Flicker was gone.
Four days later we reached land. There were blue dragons circling us. One landed. A woman in armor and a flowing robe slid off it, twelve other riders joining her as quickly as their dragons could drop them off.
We explained what had happened, and took them to the bodies. We helped them remove the bodies and their equipment. We asked if there was anything more we could do, and she woman said, "Pray to Zeboem. Tell her that her son has died." I managed to keep my mouth from falling open at that, and they left. When they returned, the woman told us that the grey robe was gone, but Ariakan had been saved.
We followed the dragons to Gulf Port so we could reprovision. We had to wear scarves marking us as guests while we were there. Most of us went into the city, but Nyda and Turin went hunting. A roar from that direction informed us that all was not going well. Windsong teleported us out there and we saw Turin's dragon, Black Death, there as a dracolich. The battle was already underway. Windsong tossed me her sword again, and said it could make me fly. We killed the thing--again. Turin struck the final blow. The Knights of Takesis finally showed up--they were prevented from helping us.
We did get to reprovision, and we got salve for the wounded at one of the temples. Then we went to a tavern for some food. Dalamar showed up and took Nyda for a moment. When he brought her back, she was unconscious. He looked a little sheepish, and said, "He wanted to get drunk." I took her, and took her back to the citadel.
It was nearly night. I slept some, and then took a turn watching over PoisonedBlade, who had used a scroll of fireball on something that wasn't there earlier and gotten herself in the process. She was babbling uncontrolably, and I heard quite a bit of her life story.
That set the routine for the next week. We reached Palanthus, and Chantelle, Nyda, Zola and I took True and PoisonedBlade down. The girl who had appeared during the battle with Entropy (she called herself Robin) came with us--someone had mentioned to her the man with the bat on his chest who had come out of Entropy's pocket earlier, and she recognized the description--she called him Batman, logically enough--and she wanted to try and find him in Palanthus.
To make a long story short, the only thing that could be done for PoisonedBlade was for Dalamar to put her through a sort of a long test--let her play most of her life out over again, and hope it would help.
Raistlin showed up again. The Knights of Takesis had left the game. He said it would soon enough be apparent why. He also said there was only one grain of sand left in the hourglass.
We took True to Chrisania, but after hours of Chrisania's efforts, it appeared nothing could be done from her. The baby, at least, was fine, but if we didn't find something to do for True, the birth would have to be assisted. There were no stronger priests in Krynn.
That reminded someone, I don't remember who, of the priest who had helped Nyda and Windsong with the creatures from the Nine Hells. Nyda would take us there with True. We had to borrow Windsong's bag of holding. While she emptied it out, she suggested we go to our rooms--there was something we'd want to see. In mine I found a longsword made of dragonclaw on my bed.
Nyda took us to the priest--his name was Cadderly. When we climbed out of the bag of holding, we were in front of a castle that just seemed to have an aura of good around it. Nyda's robes were still red, so she was unaffected.
It was the same as with Chrisania. Hours of prayer, and still nothing could be done. He suggested we find a mage--a very powerful spell might do the trick. Something like a wish spell was my guess. It seemed we'd have a use for Raistlin's prize if we won, after all.
When next I was pulled out of the bag of holding, we were were someplace I wouldn't have expected, talking with Ariakan. He agreed to help us win the game, since the Knights of Takesis were no longer competeing.
Back in the Citadel, Nyda celebrated by getting drunk on dwarven holy water and passing out. PoisonedBlade suddenly appeared, wearing white robes embroidered with silver and gold dragons, and with a lance in her hand. Her eyes were totally black, and she almost seemed to be fading in and out of reality. Windsong asked if that was a dragonlance. I don't know what a dragonlance is, but she said, "That's what Paladine told me."
After she left, I took Nyda to her room. I went back to moping on the windowsill, so I saw Raistlin appear. He said he was going to be traveling with us for the next part of the game. He made himself scarce, retreating to an unused portion of the citadel. Windsong took Chantelle to represent us in "taking over" Algerond for the next few days.
The next day, Nyda was absent for two meals. I was a little worried, so I started seaching the castle for her. I found her in a little room, which was very full of books. She was mumbling about dragons and stomachs and cooking and hearts and fireballs, and seemed not quite sane at the moment. I finally got her to explain to me what in the Nine Hells was going on. She'd let Takesis out of the abyss--or rather, told Dalamar what level of the Abyss let out into Myth Drannor, and Dalamar had done the rest.
I couldn't think for a moment, and when I could all that came to mind was to say, "We'll help you fix it." And then, as sort of a by-the-way, Nyda cast something and was suddenly very female in form. She thought she should--or maybe it was might-as-well--tell us now.
I found Windsong, and then Zola, and had to tell them about Takesis. Windsong promptly left for Shadowdale, the city closest to Myth Drannor, to explain to Elminster and tell him exactly how Takesis had gotten out. I went back to my habitual windowsill to mope.
Then we were abruptly half-under a mass of very unnatural black clouds. We all descended to find out what in the Nine Hells was going on. We found ourselves in Shadowdale, shaded by what Elminster refered to as the butter-lich-tar (the decaying remains of Istar). Not long after we hit the ground, Halfthere's boat suddenly appeared. A blond girl in her mid-teens, dressed all in black and with a black sash over one shoulder (upon later inspection, the sash proved to be covered in some sort of memorial tokens, with words like "Poisoning," "Cutting," and "Whipping" on them), jumped out of the boat, followed shortly by Halfthere (screaming, "Those cookies are terrible!"), a purple bobcat, and a human woman of perhaps twenty years, dressed in blue breeches and (barely) a shirt in a style I'd never seen.
When Halfthere finished his tirade, the purple bobcat walked over to him and said, "Don't mess with my bud." Halfthere, without explanation, simply vowed to destroy Liz Gratton if it killed him.
A howling, cat noise drew our attention, then. We looked up, and saw Dove falling out of Istar. Windsong was quickly airborne and touched her with some sort of spell that slowed her falling so she wasn't hurt when she landed. She wasn't at all coherant and kept clawing and biting. She slashed Elminster across the face with nothing but her nails. Windsong and I grabbed for her hands, getting clawed for our efforts, but managing to hold her until Elminster cast something that made her relax.
At this point, Windsong bothered to inform us that something on Istar was calling for us. We didn't seem to have much choice but to go up there. We were trying to figure out how to get there, when the butter-lich extended a leg for us to climb. Somehow, I was not reassured. All the Heroes of Happenstance went, and so did the group that had arrived on Halfthere's boat--the oddly-dressed woman seemed to love heights, and pulled the cat up by the tail, and the girl in black simply said that she'd never pulled the wings off a butterfly that big before.
It was almost pitch black when we reached Istar itself. Windsong cast a light spell, and we saw a city that must have been beautiful, once. Now it was dripping wet and decrepit. And cold. We didn't know what we were there for, so we simply started walking.
A door opened, and a woman emerged crying for help. She was a sea elf, with pale blue skin and grey hair, and she was obviously not solid. She ran up to Windsong and grabbed her, yelling that someone must give her water. And then she screamed.
I was in a dense, very beautiful forest. I didn't recognize it, and somehow I knew that I was dead. I knew I should feel something, some dread or horror or at least sadness that I had left my friends when we'd needed all the help we could get, but all I felt was a peace like none I'd never known before.
Then something grabbed me by the neck. I heard Chesintra Thilofar's voice, and couldn't get free, though I struggled. We were falling up through a hole in the sky, and then down through clouds. I could see my body below for a moment before I was slammed into it. Suddenly I could feel the incredible pain of being nearly-dead, and something like an earthquake inside my head, just a terrible sense of knowing that I shouldn't be here.
I managed to pry my eyes open and saw what could only be Silvanus himself, in the guise of an oak elf, and a man in green with bad teeth whom I recognized all too well from our earlier encounters as Cyric. Silvanus immediately began arguing with Chesintra that she couldn't do what she'd done. Chesintra's response was a request that he talk to Mystra to see what else she was doing that she shouldn't. She didn't really give a damn, herself. And she did something, and Silvanus went up in smoke.
Chesintra was still yelling, "I don't care if elves aren't supposed to come back." Meaning at least one other had also died . . . Chantelle was in Algerond, so it must have been either Windsong, or . . .
Cyric was protesting that she should have been his. I think Nyda would have been furious that he gave away her sex before she got to do so herself, but she was in much the same position as I was at the moment: lying almost dead on the ground, and cowering away from Cyric.
Chesintra did something that made Cyric leave. Then she got right down and looked into my face. I didn't feel like I could do much by the way of protest at the moment, but I managed to spit in her face. She simply smiled and said that blood would taste better. She was waiting to kill us herself, later. I cursed at her in goblin and orc before she disappeared.
I managed to peel myself off the ground and saw that Turin and the oddly-dressed woman were already battling the sea elf banshee. Windsong moved over to me and touched me once with her sword, and I felt almost completely well again, and charged into the fight against the banshee. After only a few more minutes I hit her for the last time, and she smiled, and took a deep breath, and disappeared.
I moved away and finally got to stop moving. I think that was a mistake, because as soon as I did, my stomach decided it didn't like being dead very much, and I lost my lunch to the remains of Istar.
We went on. It was too quiet. When we checked the house the banshee had come out of, we found the banshee's corpse in the back room, chained to the bed. It looked and smelled like she'd been dead three or four days. Worse, she'd been tortured. Her eyelids had been sewn open; shards of glass had been shoved under her fingrnails and more neatly punctured the rest of her body. It's just as well I'd thrown up outside--I didn't have to think much to know which of Chesintra's thrice-damned associates had done this.
We got out of there quickly, trying to find the bitch who called us. Turin had other ideas, concerned only with finding the red gem that housed Black Death's soul. He seemed certain it was somewhere on Istar. Wherever we walked the feeling of being watched was with us. A few of the buildings were intact, as were three high arches connecting two sides of the street we walked down. At the far end lay the ruins of a building long since crushed to rock. From out of the ruins, Turin saw a gleam of red. He and the others ran for it. I stayed behind, watching our backs.
They hadn't even reached the rubble when I had to sound the alarm. A mob of sea elves was approaching us, some solid and some not, some horribly blackened and mutilated even in death. The boxed us in before we could do anything about us.
A voice asked us if we knew what revenants were. I looked up and saw the head priestess of Loviatar on one of the arches above us. The entire world started to get white as she explained that they usually try to kill their killer, but these had been turned on us.
Then the clouds were clearing out and I was standing in the midst of absolue carnage. I don't know how much I was responsible for, and I don't want to know. All I know is that the priestess was not part of it. I noted, distantly, that the rest of the party was taking Black Death's horde (the red gem was no longer in sight; I assume Turin destroyed it). Then we ran for the leg of the butter-lich, trying to get off Istar before it died entirely.
The moment the last of us was on the ground, the butter-lich took off and flew straight up, bursting into flames and exploding high in the air.
Dove became herself again once it was gone, rather upset and wanting to know what the hell had happened. That was the good news. The bad news was that Raistlin wanted to talk with us. We were healed in Shadowdale, and then returned to the citadel. A red dracolich was perched on the landing pad. Raistlin, Malice, and BloodSpiller were waiting in our common room. The game was over. We'd won.
Read the next section of Li's story.
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