The Return to Roam

There was an extended silence while I took notes. There had been too much detail to rely on my memory alone.

After finishing my notes, I prompted my father's ghost yet again. "Did you then return to Roam and Nawab Nialha, father?"

The spirit appeared to be pleased that I had prompted him and he continued.

"Yes we did return to Roam to bring news of our success to Nawab Nialha. The journey was difficult without mounts and we did not have enough food and water for our elven archers. I passed my first day's rations to the elves thinking that I could be better able to bear the strain than an elf but I got a lot sicker than I thought I would. As it turned out I shouldn't have bothered. We were attacked by a scaled beast that was so vicious and cunning that it put me in mind of the fearsome tembo of legend.



The thing ran circles around us and killed and ate our archers at will. We managed to kill it only because of the special fang arrow I had fixed up for Rolen. Although I beheaded the beast it was only because it was staggering from Rolen's magical fang arrows. Only four archers survived the battle and once we stripped the dead of their food and water we had plenty to spare."

"When we finally reacher Roam I was well into the sun sickness. We told Nawab Nialha of what we found but we did keep details of some of the riches we found to ourselves for fear that elven greed would become elven treachery. In addition to all the mineral wealth, Jorvak had found a magical flaming sword of steel and such a treasure could get one murdered in a safer city. I rested and beat the sun sickness and we began to prepare to leave Roam. Things were not good in the city and Nialha was acting strangely, even for an elf."

I prompted my father for details, "Did anything occur before you left the city father?"

"Yes Jorvak disappeared one night and so Rolen, Rhogar, and I went looking for him. Before we found him, we were attacked by one of the huge white apes.


I had never seen one up close before and it was strange that the thing looked more like a person than a thrikeen does. Apparently it was someone's pet and it attacked Rolen's kirre. The beast was so powerful the kirre was ripped open and dying and I was badly slashed before we figured out what was going on. We quickly recovered and thanks to the magical fang arrows we killed the beast. I would not want to face one of those things alone that is for sure. Afterward we resupplied and left Roam behind us."

The 2nd Return to the Mines

I was eager to hear more of my father's 3rd excursion to the mine so I prompted him, "You returned with your allies, the Unforgiven, and 8 archers? Of what race were the archers?"

My father answered, "They were elven guards of Nawab Nialha's own house guard. Thanks to them we were not bothered by the beasts and bandits of the desert. Soon we were back at the mine again. Getting in was harder since we had burned down the stair scaffolding. I volunteered to go down first and my friends roped me off and lowered me down. In our first battle we butchered the cavefishers and their hatchlings.


Not that it was easy. I was roped and nearly dragged into the pit a 2nd time. After I was rescued one of our archers was dragged into the pit but we managed to save him. But soon enough Rhogar and I had a feast of raw hatchling. They are better cooked but not bad raw. A short time later we found what we believed to be the last stronghold of the cult. In that battle we defeated the half elemental woman Rolen saw in a burning building in Raam, and also her defiler servants.


With the 8 archers we won fairly easily, though I was the target of 3 defilers and was overcome by their dark magic. I could have died but my friends saved me once again. After this we decided that we should rest and bind our wounds mainly because I was exhausted and wounded. We continued searching and eventually we came to section that we had not explored before. In truth it seemed that no one had been through that section in sometime. I felt were going beyond our contract as it seemed to have nothing to do with the cult or the tareks. But curiosity kept us moving forward and eventually we entered some sort of a pyramid. Our group was attack by some sort of a living gem that fired magical rays. It was a near thing and a number of us barely escaped the battle with our lives but eventually the gem-thing was smashed and ceased to fire on us. Then we came upon a long hallway and a long blade swung out of the wall and slashed me. I asked Jorvek to take the lead after that because he had already shown that he understood traps and how to get around them safely. We started calling Jorvek "trap-monk", "trap-kestrekel" and "trap-master" after that in some good natured teasing. After that we entered a room with a statue made out of salt of all things. After the battle with gem I was half expecting it to attack us. As it turned out it did. The thing was very dangerous and I was nearly killed trying to protect the others.


But in making myself a target for the salt beast I bought time for the others to bring it down. It was a good thing I had thought to ask for the elf archers because I doubt we would have defeated the gem and the statue without them. We went only a little further and we found a room with an ash bin. Some flaming skeletons jumped out of the bin but we put them down quickly.


Then we came to a triangular room that we thought was the last floor but it was good that my friends were smarter than I am and they figured out that if they put these shields in the depressions some sort of a mechanism would open a secret door. When Javek removed the shields a tiny fire elemental attacked us that was almost comical, 12 of us against one tiny elemental. Then the others went searching for the missing shield-keys and eventually found them while I guarded the mauled archers. The shields moved an altar aside and we were able to go down another level. At the next level there were three flaming snake men that looked very powerful and opened fire on us with arrows of flame.


I called a retreat up the stairs and we held around a turn of the stairs and that took away their advantage with fire arrows and forced them to come one at a time. I still must have been exhausted from my injuries because I fought poorly but my allies were able to bring down the flaming snakemen while I blocked them on the stairs. After the battle we found some huge rubies held by statues but as we looted them we heard a mechanical sound so I said that we should leave the last ruby alone for now. Rhogar insisted on taking the last ruby so we let him do it alone. My drey friend was nearly killed when a trap released lava but we managed to slide the floor open by sheer strength.


Since the floor below us was covered in lava we saw no other option than to batter down the closed door but every time we damaged the door it hurt the elves and Rhogar. So we decided just to wait until the lava cooled and then we continued down. We went down a long way by rope and there was a room with a magical portal door thing. It was sort of a trap because it was the only way down but if you did not go through at the right time you would be sent to a place with fire and wind that did not seem to be anywhere on Athas. Rhogar understood the gate magic and was able to control it long enough for us to get through. We were attacked by an air elemental but we quickly cut it down."

"Next we came to a room with three gates that had something to do with the carving at the entrance. My allies chose the fire gate first and then they fiddled with some stuff that opened the gate. Some kind of defiler magic that I did not really understand. Jorvek used the the clues from the carving to figure that he had to burn his hands on lava in order to open the gate. Defiler magic or I am an elf! It worked just like Jorvek said it would. Not sure if that makes him stupid or a genius. Jorvek scouted the room out for us but nearly got killed by a blob of flaming blood. We ran in to rescue him and soon we were fighting for our lives. I was badly burned and passed out but the others were able to kill the fire thing. We did lose two archers though. I felt bad about that. Next we went to the "body" gate. Rhogar fiddled with something that made him start to change into a tree. If that is preserver magic then good magic is as bad as evil magic! Then we went through the gate to a place that was very strange. For one thing it seemed to be outside the pyramid. For another thing there was more water than I had ever seen in one place. Also there were more plants and trees crammed into one place than I would have thought possible. Again Jorvek scouted for us. Soon we were attacked by a lot of plant creatures, and their leader, who was some sort of evil sand spirit. And again we were fighting for our lives.


The leader appeared to be a beautiful woman but it was actually some sort of powerful elemental. Despite the mauling we received from the fire room we managed to win. Not sure how though, I thought we were done. I spent most of the battle trying to escape from some plants of all things. It was lucky for me that my allies were better fitted to battling her."

"After this my allies fiddled with the strange defiler magic of the place again. The blew on a bowl or some such and opened the door to strange magical tornado. It was wasn't even a normal tornado because it was twisted and the the wind blew in different directions at different levels. Truth to tell I was pretty useless in this battle. Like all proper dwarves I prefer to fight with my feet planted on solid earth. When I tried to follow Jorvak to protect him I just ended up spending the battle spinning in circles with my butt in the air. There was what looked like a column of solid air in the center but when I tried to grab it it just slapped my hand and sent me spinning off. Fortunately Jorvak and Rolen did not need my help and they ended the weird tornado by killing some air elementals."

"Then my friends opened the final door which opened to some sort of huge bridge. It was only a few heart beats and we set on by some flaming beasts and and winged obsidian elementals. As we fought these creatures off a powerful winged fire elemental appeared. We did not know if this fire creature was a powerful servant of the fire god or the fire god itself.


I screamed the battle cry of our people and beat my way to it. The fire thing seemed very powerful and as attacked it at close quarters I thought that this was my final battle. My allies joined in and though we were badly burned we actually defeated it. As soon as the winged fire elemental died the temple began to collapse. We ran out of the temple area as quickly as we could and then the earth began to rumble in a way that made us fear for an eruption of the volcano. We grabbed what loot we could and ran to wall where the whole thing began only to find our mounts gone. The wall was the only safe place to rest in the area that we could think of. I remember that while we bedding down for the night Jorvak showed us a pouch with magical fangs in it that he had been playing with. Once he told use what happened when he pricked himself with the fang, I realized it would make a powerful weapon for Rolen. So I set to work refitting six of his arrows with the magical fangs. As it turns out it was a good thing that I did as the arrows saved our lives a number of times in the days to come."

Return to Raam

My father, Torvek Stonethew, had grown quiet again so I felt the need to prompt him, "Father was that the end of your tale of the assault on the mine?"

After a brief pause my father's shade continued, "I had thought so but I was wrong. We returned to Raam with the intention of selling the magical obsidian column to Nawab Nialha. On the way there we were betrayed and attacked by our thrikeen ally K'Liss. He ambushed us with a small horde of his kind and we were hard pressed.


But thanks to a nearby rock formation we found a defensive position and drove them off. Eventually we got back to Raam. Thanks to Rhogar and his slaver's haggling skill we got a good price for the magical column. It was enough money that I was able to afford some additional combat training from Nawab Urun-Mor. He was a dwarf, of course, and had a reputation for pulling the very best out of his gladiators. I was not happy because he insisted that the training take place under life and death conditions, and worse, with an audience. After I escaped I had promised myself that I would never step foot into an arena again but there I was anyway. The blood lust of the audience sickened me but I felt I needed the training so I went ahead with it. Urun-Mor set me up in a match against an unbeatable beast of the deep desert.


Fortunately I did not have to kill the beast to win. I just had to cut off some tentacles so that it was no longer a threat. I was only able to see the tentacles because the beast itself was buried deep in the sand below the arena. The battle could have gone either way but I managed to survive long enough to chop off down the tentacles. Urun-Mor told me that the circular tentacle scars were the secret to the training but I never believed it."

The spirit of my father had grown quiet again so I prompted him, "Where did you go next father?"

My father's tone seemed almost apologetic, "I still intended to return to Urik to look for you and your mother but Nialha offered to pay us even more if we returned to the mine and cleared it out of enemies so that it could be used again. The money she was paying us was more than I could make in years as a weapon smith so I justified the delay because I needed money to return to you. I insisted that we would only do this job for her with the help of 8 archers and to my surprise Nialha supplied them."

Assault on the Mine by Volmina Stonethew

My father's spirit had gone quiet again so I prompted him, "Father you said that you thought up a strategy to assault the tareks in the mine. What was your plan?"

"The first part is what I told you about already. We prepared a fire at the top to burn down the stairs as an emergency escape. But that was an escape strategy we still had rescue the hostages. Trying that at the outset could very likely kill the hostages depending on how well the mine is ventilated. So I started working on another plan, one that would allow our small group to overcome far greater numbers."

"As I worked out a plan we scouted around a bit and eventually bumped into two tareks. They had no chance against the four of us and were quickly cut down. We kept one alive to lead us to the hostages but he tried to get away and we found ourselves in another battle with a group of cultists with strange powers. They were able to shapeshift to look like us. It was confusing but we cut them down quickly. Then we came across a pair of cult guards that tried to kill us by releasing a pair of jakhars. We tried to kill them before they opened the gate to the jakhars. We cut down one of them but the other opened the gate and fled. There was a narrow part of the tunnel just a few steps from the gate. It was good ground to hold off superior numbers so I ran there and held it. The jakhars were funneled towards me and with ranged support from my new friends we cut them down with little danger. After this we attempted to continue the search with our captive cultist. When we can to a room with a pit the stupid fanatic jumped in nearly dragging Rhogar with him. As far as I know he was dead when he hit the bottom but I have no way of know as it was blacker than the blackest moonlit night in that pit."

"That was when I decided to put my plan into action. I ran a practice run just to be sure everyone knew what to do. It worked like a charm. Rolen stripped down to a loin cloth and dirtied himself up to pass for a mine slave. Then it was no problem for him to trick a group of cultists into chasing him. Rolen ran up the spiraling stair complex to where I held a narrow area. I blocked the progress of the cultists while my three companions pounded them at range. Since we armed for ranged attacks and they weren't we effectively outnumbered them even though it was like six to four. Furthermore Jorvak was one level up and had a giant-hair rope so he could lower himself behind the enemy giving us the advantage of a vertical envelopment when we needed it. We took another cultist hostage but this one refused to talk as well. Rhogar was put in charge of question but he got a little out of control and I had to give him a dire warning about torture. We decided to give it one more try and this time Rolen pulled two cultists with powers. I think they were defilers because the cultist we had captured had said they were a cult called the Broken Builders or something like that. The two cultists started in with their weird powers and one made himself look like me.


Creepy that was. Then Jorvak showed us that he had more guts than brains by pulling this crazy swinging stunt that kicked the caster in the back off the stairs to his doom. Lucky Jorvak didn't follow him down. Anyway there was no way a single cultist, no matter how powerful, could stand against us with that sort of a trap going so we cut them down as well. After that skirmish we thought it best to continue to search for the captives. We thought it best to search among the human cultists as the fighting seemed more intense on the lower levels held by the tareks. We fought a couple more skirmishes against the cultist that don't stand out in my memory except for the fact that had strange powers even for defilers. Eventually we came to a side passage door that was tied shut with many knots. It obviously was keeping something in rather than out so we decided to search there for the prisoners. Gaul's wife was inside and another human. After speaking with them we discovered that the other two hostages were being held by the tareks on the lower levels. Rather than risk the gains we had already made I figured it would be wise to take Gaul's wife and the other hostage to the rendezvous point where we were to link up with Gaul's strike force. I had been mauled by beasts and men and I was suffering from blood loss so it seemed like a good time to get out of there. So we left the mine and traveled a short way into the desert. After a day or so Gaul showed up. Of course he was happy to have his wife back but he still wanted the other two hostages rescued. It seemed that one of the other two was a dwarf and there was no way I was going to leave him behind anyway. When we returned Rolen once again took over scouting for us. Eventually Rolen found this caved in section and he went to check it out. It seemed pretty senseless to me but as it turned out Rolen had discovered a forgotten tunnel that lead to a pit to the lower levels. We climbed down my giant-hair rope to the lower levels and it was obvious that this section had not been used in some time. The lower tunnel lead to another cave in very near where the fighting was taking place. I moved a enough boulders so that Rolen could fire on the flank of the tarek's position. The tareks cleared through the debris much faster than I would have thought possible but even then they could only come at us two at time because the cave was very narrow just behind the caved in section.



A furious battle broke out and both Jarvek and Rhogar received some serious wounds. The tareks fought well but bottled up as they were they could not take advantage of their numbers and we soon cut them all down. We were wounded and exhausted so we quickly moved the stone back into place and retreated to the pit to rest and bind out wounds."

The shade of my father looked troubled as if he did not wish to say something so I prompted him, "What happened then Father? Surely you did not just give up and leave, not when you were so obviously dominating the enemy?"

"No we did not leave, though perhaps we should have. I am not proud of what happened then, but when one finds your opponent at a disadvantage it is foolishness to hand them a better chance to kill you. I learned that in the arena."

"What was it father? What still troubles you?"

"Rolen and Jorvak were scouting ahead and they were under my orders, orders is probably to strong a word, to eliminate any tareks they found before an alarm could be sounded. Not that I was their commander in the way of the military exactly. It was just that these things made sense to me and so they listened to me. So they came upon a pair of sleep tareks, probably guards, and they did what they were supposed to do; silence them. It had to be done if they had given warning we would have all died. It just never sat well in my head that is all......... "

"After that we had a piece of luck and stumbled upon the captive I had been looking for, a fellow dwarf named Durum-Khar. I call it luck but it was more likely Rolen's skills as a pathfinder. Durum-Khar was tied up in a cave with many pieces of jagged obsidian that was probably meant to discourage escape. Jorvak took over and got the dwarf out with hardly a scratch, well hardly a scratch more than he already had anyway. Durum-Khar was pretty beat up and must have been tortured. They had nearly broken him and he lost his nerve and wanted to bolt before we saved the last hostage. I reminded him he was a dwarf and that brought him around.


He took us in the direction that he thought they had the last hostage. Soon we came to a very large cavern that seemed to be the tareks' temple. The tareks seemed to be worshipping some red hot piece of obsidian that put me in mind of the flaming obsidian pillars we had seen when we came to a few weeks ago. The captive was tied near the pillar like he was going to be sacrificed or something. One look at the terrain and I was pretty sure we could best them even though we were outnumbered about four to one. There were no exits from the temple and the choke point between the two caves was only wide enough for two to fight at a time. That was a job for a dwarf so Durum-Khar and I took the front rank with the others behind us for covering fire. At first the battle was all ours since the tareks had to cover a lot of distance to get to us and they were all strung out.


There were like two or three terraces and a lava river and the tareks had to climb a couple of short ladders to get to us. It was then that the tarek leader, a defiler, got close enough to cut loose on us with spells. I was near to calling a retreat but Rolen and Rhogar knew what to do and they concentrated their fire on the tarek leader. As soon as they put the defiler down the battle was all ours."

"Rolen rescued the last hostage who was barely alive. But as we were getting ready to pull out of there the obsidian pillar thing shrank. It was obviously a magical defiling object of some type so Jorvak threw it into the lava to destroy it. Rhogar apparently thought that was wasteful and so he used the Way to levitate the chunk of obsidian out of the lava. It was undamaged which is further proof that it is magical. We put aside arguing about what do with the thing and focused on getting out of there. After delivering the rest of the hostages to Gaul we returned to do what I had wanted to do from the beginning; we torched the staircase. It was built of wood, hides, and bone so it burned pretty good. We hung around for a while to make sure that none of them got away. From what we could see it looked like the tareks had used the confusion caused by the fire to step up their assault on the human defiler cult. By the time we left it looked like the tareks had the upper hand and were taking over the mine."

Return to the Desert by Volminia Stonethew

The spirit of my father, Torvek, started to fade as if we were losing and therefore I used the life energy in the room to strengthen the ritual. Just a little, as we preservers never take more life energy than can be easily replenished.

After the casting I asked, "Father did anything unusual happen on the journey through the desert to the obsidian mine?"

The spirit seemed took on definition and replied, "For a desert journey it was mostly routine. There was one point where we, uh the Unforgiven, were scouting and we saw some of those salt zombies in the distance.



They seemed to be attacking some travelers and so we attacked as quickly as was safe. We opened the battle with ranged attacks. Rolen and Rhogar cut into them and by the time they got to Jorvak and I they had been mauled and were easily cut down. We were too late to save the victims and that was a shame but at least we survived. After that, the journey to mine was as easy as the desert ever gets."

My father's spirit paused unable to continue without directions. Therefore I continued my chronological line of questions, "Father, what happened when you arrived at the obsidian mine?"

"At first we came upon what seemed to be some sort of a check point that controlled access to the mine. There was one human beastmaster on the ground with a pair of jakhars and two unarmed humans in a tower of sorts. I pegged them to be users of the Way but in fact the two unarmed humans were defilers.


Rhogar tried to use his slaver haggling tricks to get us past the checkpoint but they were on to us and attacked. Jovak and I tore into the beastmaster and his pets while Rolen and Rhogar exchanged fire with the two defilers. Fortunately for us the defilers were doing almost as much damage to each other as they were to us and they were taken out before they could drain the life from us. The beasts and their master went down almost as quickly. Another victory at little cost."

"After that we entered the mine. The mine was actually a big pit with stairs and landings that spiraled to the bottom. Given the situation the first thing I thought to do was to prepare a fire at the top in case we needed to leave while being pursued. If we lit up the stair case any creature below would not be able to pursue for days and a small group could use the pit mouth as a wall in a siege, with enough supplies anyway. I never had much skill at book learning, I did not even learn to read until much later, but fights make sense to me. Might have been the gladiator training in small unit tactics but whatever it was I started come up with a plan of attack."

The Unforgiven by Volmina Stonethew

My father fell silent again and appeared to be lost in memories of the past. I felt the need to prompt him again, "Father what did you mean when you made the 'out of the frying pan and into the fire' remark?"

My father's spirit looked up and seemed to recognize me. He paused and began to speak, "All I wanted was to return to Urik and search for my wife and daughter.... you?..... but everything seemed to be against me...."

He paused and stared at me so I prompted him again, "Yes father you were going to search Urik for my mother, Frigga and me, your daughter, Volmina. But you could not know that we would have been sold around that time, probably long before you could have arrived even if you had not been detained. I do not blame you, father please continue with the story."

".......I did not know this...... and I blamed myself for the delays and for the tragedies that were yet to occur. My new friends and I did not know where we were and we did not even know each other very well yet. I was uncomfortable with telling the merchants the truth that we barely knew each other and had no memory of recent events so I came up with a lie that was close to the truth. I told them that we were a mercenary company known as the "Unforgiven" and that we hired ourselves out as caravan guards. They accepted this lie since it fit the facts and they asked us to join them as I'd hoped. Their leader introduced us to all of them but I can't recollect all their names. The leader was a human a former gladiator by the name of Gaul, I think, yes that's it. Let's see, there was a thrikeen, a pair half-elf twins trained in the Way, and one or two more. I did not figure we would be with them long so I didn't bother to remember their names. The leader, Gaul, asked us to come with them to Raam. It was not much out of my way and it was better than dying alone in the desert so I agreed to come with them. Also we were short of supplies so any city with markets would get me a step closer to my family in Urik. He also asked us to help rescue two others of their team that had been captured by the tareks but he insisted on traveling to Raam first. That did not make sense to me, unless he figured the tareks would ransom them, maybe that was it."

The shade paused again and I gave my father some wait time and then prompted him once again, "What happened after that father? Did anything occur on the road to Raam?"

The spirit continued, "Yes we can across a pair of baazrags and we killed them for food, they are good eating they are, the baazrags. Gaul sent us to see if we could find some more of them perhaps even a clutch of eggs. So the four of us went off together hunting baazrags, Rhogar and I in back, with Rolen and Bo scouting ahead........"


My father's eyes went wide, clearly something had upset him. I asked him, "Did something go wrong during the hunt? What are you remembering father?"

"I remember it all now. The hunt went well at first. We found a number of the pups and I lured them to attack and Rhogar struck them down with his acid vomit. But then we located the brood mother and everything went to crodlu dung. I did not know it then but the big baazrag sows have psionic powers that can render a person helpless. The sow used this power on Bo and then tore into him. I tried hard to save him. I tried to distract it from Bo but once he passed out from the sow's poison she ignored me and fed on him. There was nothing I could do. By the time the three of us killed the sow Bo was gone."

The face of my father's shade showed obvious regret and grief. I thought it best to give him time to collect himself. In a short time he continued.

"I had only known Bo a short time, well, not counting whatever went on during my memory gaps. He was a tough kid and I already thought of him as a friend....... He was half a dwarf and of an age to be one of my own kids if I had ever been forced to breed muls. It just didn't seem fair that a young one like that was taken before he had really lived. But I guess that is the desert for you. Wyrd bi ful araed."

I was struggling not to weep myself and I felt my eyes start to tear up. "Father I think that the mul Bo was taking the place of your missing family, maybe all of the members of your company were filling a void."

My father's ghost considered that and started again, "Yes...... that may be so. I would not have given up on my family, and changed my focus, but my new friends became very important to me."

That was something of a revelation to me as the "official" records of the city-states named my father a bellicose pariah.

My father continued, "We buried Bo near a large rock in hopes that his body would not be found by the hungry desert beasts."

The ghost seemed to be far away so I prompted him again. "Father did anything else happen during the journey to Raam? How did the other members of your company fair?"

"The rest of the journey was as uneventful as it is possible to be the deep desert. When we arrived Raam my companions and I explored the city while we tried to resupply. Strange, I had always thought Raam to be near the shore of the Silt Sea but the sea was a number of miles away, far enough to avoid any serious danger of dust-lung disease. It was my first time in Raam and I have to say I did not like it there. Urik is not any sort of a paradise but being in Raam made me appreciate what I once had at home. There were many starving beggars and most of them were just children and many others were oldsters. I could not help but think of my own family........ While we were shopping Rolen and I decided to give some money to the poor wretches, though Rolen would have given away more than we could afford, had I let him. He is strange for an elf. Proves the old saying my Da' used to say is true, 'You can't tell what someone is like until you travel wearing their sandals.' Who would have thought an elf cares more for poor homeless human pups than a dwarf? Anyway it did not go well, even though I had already guessed that throwing ceramic golds would start a riot. As it turned out they were so poor that even the ceramic coppers spread all over were enough to fight over. 'No good turn goes unpunished' as we dwarves say and so it was. Wyrd bi ful araed."

My father looked grieved over this incident and so I thought to move him forward with the narrative in hopes that a pleasant memory might be located. "Father you mentioned that you resupplied, was there anything in particular that you needed?"

He looked up at me, "We needed a lot of things but we did not have the money to pay for them so we sold the baazrag sow's eggs, which did not help as much as I had hoped it would. But we got our basic supplies and there was enough money left over for me to purchase a coat of plates made out leather and kank chitin. Also I remembered that Rolen had told me that he was looking for a kirre cub when we were all captured in Draj and so I asked the merchant if he had any.

As it turned out he had a sickly one that was the runt of a litter and would probably have died before reaching of an age to be of use in the arena. Rolen bought the furry little beastie and it seemed to make him happy."

My father was actually almost smiling so I left him to his thought for a few seconds before I interrupted, "Did anything unusual happen while you were in Raam father?"

"Unusual? Yes I suppose so, though unusual seemed to have a very different meaning in Raam. As my friends and I were finding our way around the city we came upon a burning building. We heard voices inside screaming for help. There were two soldiers in front of the building but they were not definitely NOT helping. Rolen and I moved towards them and they made it clear that our help was not appreciated. I told Rolen to ignore them and save the prisoners and I closed with the guards. Before further angry words could be exchanged Rhogar took matters into his own hands and blasted the soldier on my left. With regret I thought the time for words was over and the time for wet-work had begun. Wyrd bi ful araed. My arena training took over and I beheaded the wounded soldier in a single stroke and immediately turned on the other. Rhogar joined me and in a few seconds the other guard was dead. By the time we struck down the other guard Rolen had sprinted though the burning building while avoiding a flaming defiler and had rescued the two prisoners and then escaped out a second story window! That elf was a wonder........ But a crowd was forming and I had two dead guards at my feet."

"Thinking quickly I threw the bodies into the flaming building just in case Raam had deadhearts like Urik. After that we attempted to flee in order to avoid more guards. Things did not work out as I had hoped and we were attacked. A group of four of the Mansbadar guards cut us off. Two were on the ground and two were on a roof firing crossbows. I rushed the pair on the stairs and Rolen and Rhogar attacked the two on the ground. One of my two Mansbadars dropped his crossbow and charged me with a bone halberd. The guards were skilled combatants and I was badly slashed by the halberd and I took a crossbow bolt in the thigh. I tore into the one in front of me on the stairs like a hungry kirre and soon he fell and I was upon the sniper. By then my allies had defeated their pair and were firing on my opponent. The guard was so shaken by my charged that he jumped off the roof. Bad mistake. His leg shattered and bone cut out through his flesh and he soon bled to death. I felt sort of bad about the whole thing so I bound the halberd guard's wounds. He was the only one likely to live. A few hours later we arrived at a gate that was guarded by a noble skilled in the way and two guards, or was it three? I shouted that Rolen and Rhogar should put down the noble and then I attempted to distract two of the guards in front of me. One ran past me and I was forced to attempt to dispatch the one in front of me. I have to admit I thought we might lose. The noble was just in front of me and a guard was charging the two people I had counted on to put her out. Then out of nowhere this unarmed human made this impossibly high jump and lit into her. By the time I finished the guard, this human had beaten the noble senseless with his fists. It reminded me of poor dead Bo."

My father paused again and he seemed to be waiting for instructions and so I pushed him, "Father, this human, what did he look like? What was his name?"

My father nodded as if he had been waiting for me to press him for details. "Jorvak, his name was Jorvak. Most of him looked right, almost like a dwarf but too skinny. What I didn't like was that he had one of those gross and ridiculous hairy things on his face. Humans call them beards, I think. Ugly dirty thing. I'm glad dwarves can't grow them. Most humans have the sense to cut the things off, but not this guy."

My father fell silent again lost in thought once again so I prompted him, "Father what happened after the battle? Did you escape Raam?"

My father continued, "Yes we escaped the city. We returned to Gaul and he in turn led us to an elven woman by the name of Nialha. Somehow she was some sort of noble.


An elf noble? Makes about as much sense as a dwarf defiler. Well anyway we talked for awhile and Nialha droned on and on with that annoying elven accent but I finally perked up when I thought she going to tell one of my favorite jokes. Nialha thought I was being disrespectful and she asked if I was the brains of the group. Now that was a joke. I just looked at Rhogar and kept my mouth shut. The gist of it was that she wanted us to finally rescue the two that had been captured just before we met Gaul. That was a lot of wasted breath since I already said that I was not going to leave anyone to the mercy of the tareks. The only thing that could be worse than that is to be held prisoner by elves or thrikeen. So Nialha asked what gear we needed and then she gave us the kanks we asked for. Yeah and she managed to find a few fire arrows for Rolen. After that we mounted up and headed back into the desert."

The Memories Begin Again by Volmina Stonethew

My father's shade seemed to be lost in thought again, struggling to remember the past and so I interrupted his revere, "Don't let the memory lapse trouble you father. Please pick up the story where you left off. You said that you awoke in the desert with a dray slaver, an unarmed mul, and an elf. What happen after you awoke?"

The spirit looked at me as if noticing me for the first time and then it slowly began to speak, "Yes I awoke laying next to three beings that were strangers. Though I do remember speaking with the mul at the arena in Draj."

"Yes father you told me this. His name was Bo."

"Bo, yes that is correct. The dray later told us his name was Rhogar and the elf's name was Rolen. I remember being reluctant to tell them my name because my last memories had me wondering if I was still a renegade gladiator with a price on my head. I remember flaming pillars of obsidian all around us. As I tried to put my thoughts together a flock of kes'trekel attacked us."


"The four of us, mul, dwarf, elf, and dray, made a temporary alliance and worked together against the kes'trekel. Our weapons were nearby but there was no time to get my armor on so I fought in a loin cloth. Without armor I got shredded by the kes'trekel's jagged beaks and I fell unconscious from blood loss. Luckily for me the mul, the elf and the dray; uh Bo, Rolen, and Rhogar; were stout folk and defeated the kes'trekel where I could not. When I came to and was trying to get a grip on the situation the mul, Bo, started yelling at Rhogar, the dray slaver and then began to beat the reptile senseless with his bare fists."


"I stayed out of it because I was considering the same thing. Generally dray all look alike to me, except maybe for their color, but this dray was unusually tall and thin and so I think I remembered him as one of the slavers that bought me in Urik and carried me off to Draj. If that wasn't enough the dray vomited acid on me while he was aiming at the kes'trekels. At least I think he was aiming at the kes'trekels. The dray didn't fight back and soon was stretched out in the sand."

My father's shade fell silent and so I was forced to prompt it yet again, "What happened after that father? Did the mul kill the dray?"

The shade began to speak again, "No he did not. Though it seemed to me that he would have liked to. People will tell you that there is no mercy in the open desert, but just like the city, mercy can be found in surprising places sometimes. Or perhaps it was just that we knew we would need each other to get out of the desert alive. For whatever the reason the four of us made a temporary alliance and ventured out into the desert."

After a brief pause I felt compelled to prompt my father's spirit once again, "Did anything happen on your journey father? Surely you did not cross the desert unscathed and without incident?"

The spirit continued its narrative, "A couple of days into our journey we stumbled on what seemed to be several dried out corpses, or so we thought. It was the first time I had ever fought undead, and while it tends to rattle you, they fight too poorly and with too little regard for their own safety to be any real threat to someone arena trained.


I gave the walking dead everything I had and cut them down without mercy as I would do with any creature created with defiler magic. Unfortunately that was not to be our only battle that day and so I was a little tired when we came across what remained of a caravan and their foes. It was tareks, four or five of them, I lost count."



"I would have just avoided them but Rolen told us they had prisoners and the tareks seemed to be torturing them. We made a quick plan and split up. Bo was going to release the tareks' crodlu mounts and chase them off while Rolen, Rhogar, and I snuck up a nearby cliff and kept their attention with ranged attacks."

"My job in the raid was simple I was just guarding the goat trail to the cliff so that Rolen could use his bow and Rhogar could spell cast without fear of hand-to-hand combat. My two allies opened the battle with a deadly volley that quickly took out the tareks' own caster. When the captives were clear I rolled a boulder down on one of the tareks. It was strange but the tareks never tried to come at us up the goat trail but one tarek with more guts than brains tried to scale the cliff. I figured the best way to do protect our two ranged members and to get to grips with the remaining tareks was to drop on him from above. Somehow the tarek managed to keep a grip on the cliff and Rolen put an arrow through him before I could finish him off. Unknown to us Bo was keeping two tareks busy by throwing stones at their crodlu mounts. By the time I was off the cliff the tareks figured out what was going on and they were chasing Bo around a large boulder. Bo caught a bone pick in the shoulder and dropped just as I got close."


"I cut loose with our traditional dwarven battle cry to distract the two tareks just in case Bo was still alive, and it was a good thing too because he was alive, just unconscious from blood loss. It was a tough fight but my arena training gave me just the edge I needed to kill the last two tareks."

The spirit of my father paused again and so I quickly prompted him, "Father you did not mention what happened to the caravan's merchants and guards."

"Yes the caravan, I remember...... We saved most of them from slavery or worse. There were about six of them still alive. I used the healing skills that I picked up in the gladiator pits to treat their wounds as best as I could. While helping to organize for desert travel someone found a strange bowl with a ball in it. After some investigation it seemed to be enchanted perhaps even some sort of a magical navigation device. We should have destroyed the thing when we found it as it was to lead us out of the frying pan and into the fire as they say."

My Father's Tale Begins by Volmina Stonethew

Given that the shade of my father, Torvek Stonethew, was gaining access to his living memories by working forward from when we were parted as slaves I felt it was wise to continue with this line of questioning.

I asked, "Father you spoke of training as a gladiator from a lanista in Urik but there is no record of your participating in an event in any arena in Urik."

The shade spoke slowly, "Yes this is true. I was trained in Urik and fought in practice bouts but I was fortunate that my lanista sold me before my first death match."

That explained much, "Father who bought you and where were you taken?"

"It was those cursed slavers the dray. It seems that there was a shortage of dwarven gladiators in Draj and I was worth far more there than in Urik. My guess is that they were looking for dwarven gladiators to breed muls, something I would never do."

"Father even in Draj I found no record of a gladiatorial match in which you participated."

The shade of my father paused again, "That is strange........ but perhaps not impossible. It was one of the small arenas with cheap seats I don't even recall the name. Unknown novice gladiators and an audience from the poor quarters so it was likely to escape notice."

The shade paused, "Hmmm also someone may have covered it up as it ended in a minor gladiator revolt."

"Tell me of the match father."

"I was waiting in the holding area with other gladiators, eyeing them trying to decide what tactics to use against each. As it turned out it was a one of those crazy 'capture the flag' events. There were four of us; a tarek with a bone pick, a human with two obsidian short swords, the weaponless mul Bo or Beau or something, and myself. I remember the mul because I had spoken with him in the holding pen. The tricky part was that the crier had declared that a gladiator that got hold of the flag and kept it would be freed."


"The match began and the tarek, the mul, and the human charged up the pyramid ignoring the webs that seemed out of place. I will never claim to be some sort of gladiator champion and hero so I waited to see what happened. I just wanted to get out this alive so that I could return to my family someday but the flag was tempting too temping. The human and the tarek where attacked by some kind of eight legged glass-like creature that looked sort of like a kank. Once it seemed that the trap had been played out I started climbing the pyramid but it was harder than it looked. The mul, Bo, also avoided combat and went for the flag but he was having a rough time of it since it seemed to be tied to something inside the pyramid. To my shame I have to admit I briefly considered hacking down the unarmed mul to get the flag myself. But in the end my kinder nature won out and I figured it was better for one of us to return to his family than none of us. If I had to choose it someone else it would have to the one that carried dwarven blood in his veins anyway. I hacked the leather rope and the flag came free in the mul's hand. With this done I thought I should probably help the other two gladiators. The human looked to be in worse shape so I joined him against the eight legged crystal kank. I killed the creature but not in time to save the human's life. By then the tarek had died and the mul was having a rough time of it on the other side of the pyramid. I ran over and distracted the creature and the severely injured mul finished the beast off with a spinning kick to the head."

"What happened then father? You spoke of a minor gladiator revolt?"

"Yeah right. I sort of didn't really pay attention at the time but while we were fighting there was a cage close by that held some baby crystal kank thingies. The cage opened and released the little monsters on the crowd and the handlers. The crowd started to stampede and the mul Bo and I thought to use the confusion to escape. I saw an elf, an archer, nearby and since they spend most of their time running from the templars I figured that following him was our best bet to escape. It didn't turn out that way though the elf led us right into an ambush and we were out numbered and taken out..........."

My father stopped and appeared to be concentrating with a troubled expression on what would be his face had he been alive. I asked, "What is wrong father?"

The shade answered with a grimace on his 'face', "My memories end here and I cannot account for where I was or what I did for some time."

I responded, "Please father try. Please concentrate. I know it is hard but the ritual should be linking you to your living memories."

My father responded in an apologetic tone, "I am sorry......... daughter. I feel other memories stirring but these are denied to me."

"How can that be father?"

He paused, "It seems that these memories were denied to me while I lived as well."

That was extremely strange but at least it made sense. "Father please then tell me of whatever you remember next."

Concentrating he replied, "The next thing I remember is awakening in the desert next to the weaponless mul Bo, the elf I followed on our failed escape, and a dray slaver......."

Shade of the Father by Volmina Stonethew

As I finished the ritual a misty figure coalesced before me. At first I thought there had been a mishap and that the ritual had gone awry. The figure forming before me was almost a hand span shorter than I am. I remember my father as giant but of course I was just a toddler when we were enslaved. As the figure gained definition it became clear that it was indeed my Father, Torvek. His shape is what I remembered most of all. The first impression one had upon meeting my father was that of square masonry block.


Torvek was nearly as broad a he was tall. The impression was further emphasized by his powerful build. Father was a weapon smith and an armorer and was accustomed to hard physical labor. His face was not handsome, even by dwarven standards, but on the rare occasions when he smiled one could not help but smile in return.

Once the figure had formed I asked it, "Spirit speak truth; are you the shade of Torvek Stonethew?" The part of the spirit that contained what would be eyes on a living creature shimmered and looked around.

Then it responded, "Yes that was my name while I lived. In the Grey names have no meaning and are forgotten."

"I am your daughter Volmina. Father I have summoned you to uncover and record your trials and exploits for the Veiled Alliance. That is, at least, what I have told my superiors. The truth is that I need to speak with you, to know who you are, so that I can know who I am."

The shade said nothing. So I continued. "This ritual can restore you your memories, Father, if you have the will to try."

After a short pause the shade spoke again, "Yes I think can remember some things about my life...... I had a wife and a daughter named 'Mina....."

Despite my best efforts a tear began to form in the corner of my eye, "Yes father that was your nickname for me. Please remember more. Think back to the time when you and I and mother were a family. It was a happy time for us. We lived in two story house in Urik with your shop on the first floor."

The spirit gave one of my father's rare smiles and said, "Yes the memories are returning. It is pleasant. I loved my family enough that when it came time to declare my focus I surprised everyone and said that my focus would be my role as husband and father. Dwarves that knew me always expected that I would declare my focus to be the forging of a metal weapon and I have to admit that I surprised myself." Then the spirit frowned. "The memory is all the more pleasant in contrast with what was to come."

That was quite an atypical choice of focus for a dwarven male and I would have to ponder the significance later. "Speak please tell me what occurred when we were enslaved. It was too painful for mother."

"I remember now. It all began when I was offered a sum of money to craft a bone and obsidian sword for a noble that was seeking a quality weapon to duel a rival. The noble, Davus was his name, told me to make a weapon that would allow him to win a duel against a more skilled opponent. I worked very had on that sword and it was one of my best. The nobleman never told me he was dueling a rival that had access to an heirloom steel sword. The metal sword broke mine and Davus was slain but it was no fault of the weapon. Stone and bone can't stand up to metal. Of course Davus' family did not see it that way. They had me arrested and they made it look like I had encouraged Davus to duel with the weapon I had made. Everything we owned was confiscated to pay the blood-debt but it was still not enough and so I was sold to die as entertainment in the arena. Even this was not enough to satisfy them so they sued to enslave both my wife and daughter.............."

I had to struggle to speak but eventually I said, "Thank you Father. Much of this I did not know but it makes sense of what little I remember. We were taken as slaves but mother would not serve them no matter how they beat her, and so in the end they sold us for coin...... Please father tell me what happened to you after we were parted."

The shade paused and then said, "These memories are not pleasant but they are returning to me. I was sold to a lanista to train as a gladiator. You have to understand I had no particular problem with being trained to fight. But that was not enough. We had to learn to kill in the bloodiest ways possible so that crowds would could see the gore and would be entertained. We had to learn to kill people that were our friends the day before. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. And what is worse is I was good at it."

Memories of My Father by Volmina Stonethew

I, Volmina Stonethew, artificer of the Veiled Alliance, do hereby testify that the proceeding information is true.

I requested and was given leave to create this avocational record by the Alliance in my spare time. I chose this course for one simple reason. I do not truly know or understand the person my father was and this drives my research.

Nobles and pampered scholars will tell you that slaves hate and fear the beatings more than anything else. I can personally assure you that this is not the case. What slaves most dread is having family members sold and then never seeing them again. I was a slave and the daughter of a slave and I know what I know. I was very young when our family was violently sundered and my mother and I were enslaved. My father was sentenced to slavery in the gladiatorial arena of Urik for some unknown and probably inconsequential crime. My mother and I were sold into slavery at the same time as a further punishment. Afterward my mother only wept when I asked where father was and eventually I learned not to bring him up. At puberty I was sold as well and I never saw my mother again.

Fate has now provided the means to learn about the father I never knew. In an old book of rituals I found a spell that allows one to summon spirits from the Grey. Significantly this ritual stimulates the memories of a spirit so that shades with sufficient willpower can recall the events of their lives on Athas.



I will now begin the ritual that will, if fortune smiles, summon the shade of my father, the dwarf Torvek Stonethew.