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People News:
Shari: I am studying in scotland for the semester. Any british people want to visit, I'm willing to do so.
Karelle: caught a cold, so she was sniffling and coughing all weekend. Someone please give her a hug.
Mustang:
Mustang tells you in common: Good news.
Mustang tells you in common: I'm gettin married 3/26 in Hawaii.
Mustang tells you in common: I've got a little one on the way due 10/15 too.
A triple HUZZAH HUZZAH HUZZAH to Mustang 8D
Karak:
Finished his area and got a promotion. Now if that rascal Vortex will finish the connector path!
Darkone:
Keeps trying to do Brapnor's quest but someone keeps stashing the bloody items. Humbug!
Maybe one day he will join the ranks of It, Melkor, Justin, Night and Tiberius.
Goldburg:
Was skiing in Austria all week. Gevaudian was too but stayed an extra week with his dad.
Fury: Collected a 1,000,000 coin bounty this year. I think that's a record!
Kira: Says she likes men with intelligence, a good sense of humour and good conversational skills. Is she planning to dump her boyfriend? Hmmm.
Anlashok: Says he may be joining the Royal Navy soon! Ask him "What's long, hard and full of sea men?" if you want a good laugh.
Vortex:
Finally got his new computers, finished a XML class, got sick so he plays Baldur's Gate at home while hiding from Karak about that connector area.
Wicked: Wants you to read the top clan list below.
Zappo: Went cycling.
*** The Top Clans ***
And last but not least, this month's featured..
Short Story:
The Crystal Tower
(by Vortex, Mar 1, 2000)
(May not be reprinted without author's permission)
Uneasy companions
Weldon didn't like this one bit. How in Morpheus' name had he ever been talked into this stupid quest. It wouldn't be so bad if he had his regular adventuring companions with him but the ones he had now were certifiably careless, and careless meant getting killed. He was not even sure how he got here. What Weldon did remember is leaving the pub a little tipsy (okay, a little bit of a mead fog hung over his head), and then being clubbed in the back of the head. The next thing he remembered was waking up, and running away from a wagon train with bolts and stones winging over his head. Then that meddling wizard in the woods. "You can have these weapons and mail if you help those trio over yonder..." Lying mongrel! If he had even mentioned what a mangy lot they were, he would have never! He was after all, a Paladin of the South March- a knight of noble standing and expert training, in-line to be promoted to High Paladin and perhaps even inherit his father's Paladin Lordship! (well not if they ever hear of this, he thought).
The horse hooves plodded through the saturated mud steadily, and Garbin's horse caught up alongside. Weldon wrinkled his nose. The man stunk and was decked in rags, although a new jacket of leather hid under them.
"So, do you think we'll find this...orc ?" came his whiny, shrill voice.
"Orb, thief! And don't ride so near. Your smell is revolting. "
"Revolting? Oh, I'm sorry mister high and mighty Paladin... I'll bring your breakfast and slippers right up," snickered Garbin. What Garbin really made of him was that he was a standard aristocratic, anal bastard and he would have some fun this time now that Sir Weldon wasn't where he could send guards to jail and beat him.
"Yes, we'll find it," said the third voice just now riding up. It belonged to red robed woman with long flowing hair. She wore no armour as was the custom of the mage guild. At least Weldon could stand her. She was a good looking woman, although at twenty five (he guessed) was well past the good years of child birthing. In South March, women were already married by age 16, usually by prearrangement of their noble parents. He knew some friends he had grown up and were prearranged into marriages, and it was a waste of a promising future, he sometimes thought, but that was the way things were.
"Lehara!" he exclaimed "Get this mongrel away from me."
"Gonna catch a disease, governor ?" taunted Garbin.
"If we were in South March, you'd face the rack, you dog!" he cursed, "And where is the other ?"
He spoke of their fourth companion, who wore black mail and had taken to slinking around in the woods. It was apparently rumoured he was a well experienced warrior and had fought many battles, but now he was somewhat silent and prone to fits of unsociability.
"His name is Zappo and he is about," said Lehara.
"About? Coward!" sniffed Weldon "The knights of the South March meet their enemies face to face in glorious combat!"
"How would you know ?" Lehara snapped, then softly, "What I meant to say was, I have adventured with Zappo before and he is well skilled in his trade."
"Perhaps," murmured Weldon, although he still thought this Zappo was nothing more than mercenary riff-raff. Probably had no loyalties at all.
"We are here !" cried Lehara after ten more minutes of riding. The trail suddenly opened up to reveal a wide, oval-shaped vale. At the bottom, there was a lake. And in the lake there was an isle, and now and then between the drifting fog, they could see the white structure on the island, and the large, magenta crystal tower in the center, which Morannon said would contain the crystal orb (the same which Morannon also said to be very careful with for it could mean the end of the people looking for it).
"I see no defenders," sniffed Weldon, "This should be easy."
"Looks can be and usually are decieving," came a voice.
They turned about as their black mailed, black helmed fighter strode out of the wood.
"By Morpheus!" Weldon spat angrily, "Where were you? We could have been ambushed on the trail or in the woods!"
"And because I was in the wood, you were not ambushed," grinned Zappo.
"Insolent dog! I'll have you hanged!" cursed Weldon.
"Not today, Sir Knight," Zappo alerted him, briefly fingering the hilt of his magic blade.
"At any rate, we should get the crystal first, and then you can hang me."
Weldon steamed under his plate armour.
They led their horses easily down the path and came to the dock. A boat was there waiting for them, tied to a column.
The Isle of Fog
The boat carried them easily over the strange waves they dared not touch nor drink, to the crunching shore of the small isle. The white structure revealed itself to be many marble pillars standing around in many circles like a henge. At the center, they could barely make out the looming shadow which was the tower.
"Damn this cursed fog," cursed Weldon, not for the last time this quest, "We could be facing a hundred chargers and not see them at fifty paces!"
"There's no chargers, milord," warned Zappo, "A hundred horse would be a blessing."
His eyes squinted at the fog.
It came on the sixteenth step with a great whooshing, sideswiping Weldon (and would have killed him if not for the heavy armour) and aiming for Garbin, who deftly dove aside yet still was scored heavily on the arm.
"AHHHHH!" he screamed "It has me! It has me!"
Zappo's red blade spun out of its scabbard as his other hand raised a crossbow. And now he saw the thing, which seemed like a long tendril of fog, snaking out of the fog with jaws clenched around Garbin's scratched and bleeding forearm. Zappo heard the twang of the crossbow but the bolt flew right through the fog beast.
Weldon gasped for air and stood up on one knee, sword now withdrawn.
"By Morpheus' beard!" he swore.
He charged it screaming, but an arm or leg lashed out and he fell back another ten feet.
Then he heard Lehara's voice over Garbin's screaming.
"Hear me Macron! Hear me Mold!"
"Heed my call, and grant me strength!"
"Hear me creature and heed my words!"
"Back back, foul beast and return to thy domain!"
And a strong, magenta light filled the air as she uncovered a pulsing jewel. The effect was almost immediate as the beast lifted another head (or tendril, or something the like) and seemed to waiver for a second, before releasing the thief and withdrawing to a corner of the light. They hastily made for the door.
Once inside, Garbin was deemed not to have been hurt too bad, albeit bandages covered his forearm. Weldon was bruised and angry on top of it. He swore several times about sorcery and cursed all mages everywhere. As soon as they were settled, they began exploring again.
The Crystal Tower
The place had several long halls, all alike and made of a pinkish crystal. It was easy to see how this maze would confused a lesser, inexperienced adventurer but Garbin noted how there were only six rooms, and at last they came to a large room with one wall filled with a mirror.
"What do you make of it, Zappo," blubbered Garbin, who was definitely on edge now.
Zappo held his torch up. The mirror was perfectly placed into this room which boggled them, as there was no entrance large enough to fit the whole thing through.
"A sorcerous trick!" spat Weldon, "Let us smash it and go through. "
"No," said Zappo, "Where there is wizardry, there is always another way," and he sat down on the floor and was lost in thought.
"Tis kind of strange, milady," shivered Garbin, "the figures in the mirror are just like us, but not us..."
"What do you mean," she asked, and then she saw, for the four adventurers in the mirror were a distorted version of themselves, with a drooping cheek or scarred forehead. Even bandoliers or belts were off just a little.
"As if it was a window into another world," Lehara murmured.
"A vile, evil world," answered Weldon, "A world of darkness..."
"That's it!" cried Zappo, "Quickly, extinguish your torches."
The others looked at him perplexed.
"Just do it," he said. They extinguished their torches.
"Now walk forward," he said.
They stumbled forward where the wall, the mirror, should have been, but it was not. When they had gone the distance to the hall entrance, Zappo struck up his torch again and they found themselves in another room. This one had dark crystalline walls and had one exit, to the north.
"Morpheus!" Weldon spat.
The passage lead to a stairwell, which they climbed carefully (for Garbin recalled a castle once which steps that flattened into a slide), and finally exited to the tower chamber. And there, on a glowing pedestal was a glowing orb, that looked like a miniature sun clouded by a miniature world of black lava.
"We've done it!" shouted Garbin ecstatically and ran forward.
"NO, GARBIN!!!" the others shouted too late as he grabbed the orb and exploded into a ball of fire.
"Fool!" Weldon spat angrily, though he remembered that he wanted the urchin hanged anyway and wondered why he was so angry about Garbin's fate.
"We all choose our own fate!" growled Zappo, walking forward, "What do you think ?"
"The pedestal says 'The Orb. It was hidden here by the Great Paladins for all time and beyond. Remove it at the peril of all existence,'" Lehara translated.
"I am versed in this tale, lady," offered Weldon, "After the Lords of Law and the Lords of Chaos fought each other nearly to the end, the Great Paladins carried the Orb from the field of battle and hid it in an secret location. It was the duty of the Grand Watcher (or the Grand Archmage of South March as some would call him) to move it to a new hiding place every score years, but little else I know."
"It would seem, sir knight, that you would have a purpose after all," said Zappo.
Weldon nodded, although inside his sense of reason and judgement screamed out no. As if in a dream, he stepped to the pedestal and put his gloved hand over the orb. He said one last, silent prayer to Morpheus then grabbed the orb.
Nothing happened.
"Praise be to Morpheus!" he cried smiling as he picked up the heavy stone.
"Damn, it's heavy," he cursed.
Suddenly, the building shuddered.
"Friends, praises to Morpheus two fold if we can escape and live to tell about it," said Zappo, "Let us be off."
"Wait," moaned Weldon. His arm had begun to feel warm, and now it felt a bit stiffer.
"Weldon, your arm!!" cried Lehara in alarm.
And then he saw. From the tips of his fingers right up past the elbow, the thing had turned grey like wet shaping clay.
"By Morpheus!" he swore. The tingling was now a steady pain now like being held over a fire.
"moooooorfeeeeeuuuuussss!" answered a shrieking howl at the door. It was then they turned and saw their mirror opposites. In the passageway now stood the distorted version of themselves, a distorted-Garbin, a distorted-Zappo, a distorted-Lehara and a distorted-Weldon.
Like the real world Garbin, the distorted-Garbin was the first to die, from a crossbow bolt to the head. The bolt caught the opposites all by surprise and gave Zappo and Weldon a brief moment to charge the other three. But the distorted-Zappo seemed just as dangerous as the original and roundhoused his opposite in the jaw.
Weldon had better luck, leading with his sword (knowing it would be blocked) but then slamming his body into his opponent, and knocking the disfigured creature out of breath. He swung his stone arm to the right, smashing Zappo's opposite in the temple.
"eeeeeyyyaaaaagggghhaaaaaa" shrieked Lahara's disfigured opposite.
A smoky cloud began to take form in the room. Lehara understood what that meant.
"Lords of the Water, Oceans, Seas!"
"Hear my call! Hear my call!"
"Send me a champion of water!"
The elementals formed almost simultaneously, one of water, one of fire. Upon seeing each other, they attacked each other instantly, viciously, sending a wave of steam scalding everyone else in the room.
The tower rumbled again, more violently this time and dust broke free of the ceiling.
Zappo looked up. Damn, his chin hurt. Next to him, Weldon and his opposite wrestled each other in mortal combat and against the wall, Lehara had fallen to the floor drained from her casting. Both elementals slammed each other with tremendous blows of energy, locked angrily in their eons old battle of mortal emnity.
Distorted-Zappo cursed in his otherworld, primitive tongue. He wasn't sure where he was or why he'd come but he was angry. Someone had smashed him in the head and that someone would pay. In fact, that someone was standing right next to him. His scarred arms found Weldon's leg. His jagged teeth sank into soft flesh.
Weldon screamed and hammered his stone arm down into the opposite's head. For some odd reason, it crumbled like a thin sheet of copper. He was feeling much stronger now. It was as if some kind of supreme power flowed through down his arm and through his body. He punched at his own opposite but the misfigured paladin managed to bounce the blow off his shield and into the wall.
"Get the lady and get out of here, warrior!" yelled Weldon.
Distorted-Weldon was in trouble and he sensed it. He was too close, too close to this stone-armed savage who had just slain Zappo moments before. As his opposite swung and punched into the wall he saw his chance. He stepped back and brought his heavy blade down with all his force, and smashed the stone arm into a thousand chips of rock and powder.
Weldon screamed although he felt no pain. Fire and flame burst from the broken stone and he felt the heat emanate from every orifice of his body. He swung his sword underneath and stabbed upwards into his opposite. Distorted-Weldon's wild eyes slowly flickered then went out. Zappo wasted no time as soon as he saw the explosion. He the now unconscious Lehara, slung her over her back and lept for the passage as another violent shudder wracked the building.
The tower shook as if Macron himself had pushed against the building. The force slammed Zappo into the wall.
"modoooohh modooooh nabarreeeee" screamed the crooked teeth Lehara as Weldon screamed for them to run.
A dark mist began to form in the room.
"By Morpheus' beard! Run, damn you or I'll kill you myself!" cursed Weldon.
Zappo leaped down the stairs, fell down half the flight and tumbled onto the landing. He swore, half in pain, half in prayer then picked up Lehara and ran for the mirror room in the darkness. The tower was really shuddering from side to side now. He heard either large thunderclaps or the sound of rock tearing into pieces on the other side of the wall. Then, in the darkness, he sensed the mirror and lunged for it. That was when he heard the crack. Then blackness.
The Place Between Worlds
The rowboat rocked back in forth in the bright fog. Nothing at all was visible. Zappo felt like he'd been here for days, or was it mere minutes. Or had he been asleep for days, or minutes. A blue robed man with a pointed, brimmed hat sat across from him. He held an oar in each hand and looked comical trying to row the boat. Hence the wild rocking motion in the bright fog.
"I know you," murmured Zappo.
"So you do! So you do! We meet again, milord," chuckled the old man.
"What is your name again ?" mumbled Zappo. He noticed there was a figure cradled in his arms.
"I'm just Someone passing through," grimaced the old man. Zappo frowned so he quickly continued, "But you can call me Morannon if it makes you feel better."
Zappo nodded. His mind seemed so cloudy. Everything he knew and that was familiar to him seemed lifetimes away. He started to shake the figure in his arms.
"Shhhh shhhh," chided the man, "Let her sleep."
Zappo looked dumbfoundedly at the man.
"I have something for you, don't I ?"
The man chuckled at Zappo.
"Why, yes, I believe you do."
Zappo reached in and pulled out the small sphere. It burned like the sun but he looked at his hand but there was no trace of any damage. The man took it from him, grinningly pored over it then nodded and stuck it in his robes.
"Morannon..." asked Zappo, "Am I dead ?"
The man smiled at Zappo.
"What do you think ?"
Zappo rubbed his eye.
"I am not dead, but I am not alive."
"Excellent! Excellent! They said you were a bright one," then he looked up and shouted to the sky, "Quite right!!!"
He looked back at Zappo, "You'll do very well in the days to come, yes indeed."
"Morannon..."
"Yes, my lad," said Morannon.
"Is she... ?" asked Zappo, unable to finish.
"She will not wake. I'm sorry, my lad," Morannon said softly.
"And now we near the end of our trip, milord."
And Zappo feel the boat turning. The fog seemed to lift and the shore became visible some forty paces hence. The boat glided closer and closer to shore then Zappo felt the gentle bump of the land.
Zappo scanned the shore, then turned back to the old man, who was placing the oars in the boat and securing some items.
"Morannon... will I remember any of this ?" Zappo asked.
Morannon looked Zappo softly in the eyes sympathetically.
"One day you will, my lad," Morannon answered, "One day."
"Then tell me what is going on," implored Zappo, "and why Wizards roam the land in disguise and hurry about in matters of great secrecy."
Morannon sighed and ruffled the bewildered fighter.
"The time of the elder gods is passing, my son. And with them passing or gone, the Lords of Chaos will seek to gain a dominance over the land, and the Lords of Law will seek to stop them. It shant be a pleasant time for anyone, at least until the new gods are born," explained Morannon.
"I have no knowledge of what you talk about, Morannon," Zappo replied.
"Ah but you will, my lad. You will. And now you must go. O'er yonder there is a small town. I think you have enough wits to get by. Only for a few days anyways. There will be another coming through. I believe his name is Huma," chatted Morannon as Zappo stepped off the boat.
"Here, give her to me," said Morannon. Zappo handed the figure over.
"What then ?" asked Zappo.
"You'll know, my lad. You'll know! At any rate, I must be off! There's something brewing in another time, another place. We'll meet again soon. Just try not to lose your head!" laughed Morannon on the rapidly withdrawing rowboat (that was sailing now by neither oar or sail).
The wizard and boat dissapeared in the fog. Zappo turned around and began walking up the hill.