By Brian P. Clausen 11/10/98
The next day Alec takes Aliou to the palace, there to meet Bertram, the ruler of Middenheim. In a pile before Bertram are the unconscious forms of Demek, Oxander, and Pole. Bertram gives Aliou a stern warning about bringing calamity to Middenheim and then has the rest of the party awakened and their items returned. It turns out that Oxander's drink at the forge he was working at was drugged, and Pol was induced to slam two drug-laden drinks of potent alcoholic content. Demek was incapacitated when, on taking a gondola down to investigate the announcement that Pol's torm was acting up, someone cut the rope.
The party agrees to cooperate with Bertram. Aliou sends an earth elemental into the mountain to see if the Middenheim's protection might be orichalcum. The elemental returns telling of catacombs and an underground lake. Oxander and Aliou wish to explore these, but Demek wants to stay atop to look for the guide they seek and also the ork woman of his vision. The party agrees to delay the question of whether they will go spelunking for the time being.
The search does not go well. They fan out across the mountaintop to no avail. Demek tries to attract the ork woman's notice by entering in the arena, only to lose to Pol. Aliou hires all the town criers with no success. Oxander holds a contest in a bar (the Home of the "Widowmaker," and now featuring the "Pol") for the bravest tale, but none involve going beyond the World's Edge Mountains. Nethe slips from bar to bar, unnoticed because of his talents, but does not locate the people they seek. Pol drinks copious amounts of alcohol, but this plan also fails.
Meanwhile, Miles flies off alone to try and make it over the sea to Windling country.
The search having been fruitless, the party descends into the catacombs. They encounter an underwater lake which a water elemental summoned by Aliou helps them navigate. They then encounter a series of wards. The first prohibits magic items and active spells, the second prohibits metal, and the third prohibits clothing or armor of any kind. And so the party is quite naked when they stride into a great chamber in which they encounter Aurum, a huge old golden dragon. This fulfills the "mountain of gold" prophecy that Aliou had so long ago.
Aurum is friendly if reluctant to help the party. He tells them that he killed Energia because Energia "was no longer of the dragon kind" and then he apparently fought the Horror of Horrors Verjigorm, casting it into a volcano "to distract it enough to get away." Indeed, Aurum has only one eye and bears numerous injuries from that fight. He tells the party that when the magic ebbed Verjigorm went beyond the World's Edge Mountains. A great battle had been fought around the time of the Scourge in Barsaive, a battle that seemed to be fought over the once plentiful elemental material, and now all that material is beyond the moutains. He says the ancient Slaan went to the stars.
Aurum is marvelling at this thing called thread magic and asking the party where each of the threads connected to their beings goes to when he notices a thin purplish thread attached to Pol that heads off in the direction of the World's Edge Mountains. The party realizes to their chagrin that Pol was horror-marked by Verjigorm when he encountered Tula the Ork in her room.
Aurum asks his attendant, Meacan the beautiful Ork, to show the party to their
rooms. The naked Demek slaps the heel of his hand to his forehead and then sets
up a camp with Pol on the other side of the lake.
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Copyright © 1998-1999 by Brian P. Clausen. All rights reserved.