From: Mike Whitaker <MIKEW@SDL.MDCBBS.COM>
Subject: STORY: Midnight's Bane - part 12
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:45:08 GMT

	The group's wait ended when the door at the other end of the room was
opened by a young deep-blue robed acolyte, who bade them accompany him down a
long corridor, and stopped at a door, slightly ajar, where he knocked. A
woman's voice said "Come in."
	The door opened into a large, well furnished room, in which sat two
women and a man. The man, clad in the grey tunic and leggings of a priest of
Lyra, was fair-haired and fairly heavily built, yet moved with suprising grace
and economy of motion, and wore his goddess's symbol, a crescent moon, around
his neck. The younger-looking woman, hair long and night-black, wore revealing
leathers, despite the unseasonable weather, displaying a tanned and muscled
body and legs, with a serious face topped by smouldering dark eyes. The older
was rapier-slim, informally clad in black tunic and leggings, and only the
ornate star of Mikanann, set with a deep blue sapphire, around her throat
revealed her to be the High Priestess. Her thick chestnut hair showed streaks
of silver, but her handshake as she rose to welcome the newcomers was firm and
her smile open and welcoming, and she studied each of them through deep green
eyes before turning to indicate the girl.
	"This is Raverna - she has knowledge of the place to which we are
asking you to go." The dark-haired girl scrutinised the three closely, and each
had the uncomfortable sensation that her eyes had seen many more summers than
any of them. "This," Cherri continued, turning to the man, who smiled, "is
Angron. He's attached to this temple, and I shall be sending him with you as
clerical backup." Next she turned to the first of the new arrivals, a slim girl
with tanned skin and lustrous long dark brown hair, braided up. "This is Anya."
Anya's teeth flashed white in a smile.
	"I am honoured." she said, in a soft and musical voice with a trace of
a Tabali accent. Cherri indicated the bearded, wiry man whose black hair was
tied back with a leather band. "Drax Stormwind, mage." Drax bowed slightly.
	"At your service, ladies and gentlemen." Finally Cherri turned to the
other man in the group, tall, black-clad and brooding. "Hawk - warrior." The
man said nothing, but bowed stiffly, and joined the others sat in the
chairs Cherri indicated.
	"I'm afraid this is going to be a very sketchy briefing, because I'm
almost as much in the dark as you are." She tapped a red-bound book at the desk
by her side. "This, or rather the original of which this is a copy, was found
recently by a group of adventurers in the far north. It contains a number of
prophecies and counsels made around 2500 years ago, which seem to be proving
remarkably accurate. One of them commands me to send a small group to
investigate the city of Irongate in Southern Andor - what for it doesn't say."
She paused and scanned her listeners. "I'm asking you four - not Raverna - to
be that group." Raverna directed an angry, yet resigned, glance in Cherri's
direction.
	"Irongate," Cherri continued, "has been supposedly uninhabited for the
past 20 years. I don't know what you're going to find there, but Raverna knows
of a back entrance. We propose to have you ride there pegasus-back - four of
the Order of Paladins whom Tal has gifted with pegasi will take you. Raverna?"
The girl, her expression still less than happy, stood and pulled over the map
on Cherri's desk, indicating a spot near the bottom of the map. Anya craned her
head to see where her finger indicated.
	"This is Irongate." She reached for a scrap of parchment and a quill
pen, dipped the pen, and deftly sketched a small map. "This valley is about
here on the big map, and there's a cave entrance, about half a mile up the
valley from the north end." She marked the spot with a small cross and set the
pen down. "It's quite well concealed. You need to look for a couple of odd
shaped boulders and an overhang, like this." Her hand reached for the pen
again, then stopped as she shook her head and sang a few words in a strange
tongue. In the space before her appeared an image of a bleak rocky gully, and
with one hand she indicated the features she had described, then, after a
minute or so, let the image fade, before turning back to Cherri.
	"The writings," the High Priestess continued, "imply that once you have
accomplished your business in Irongate, you are to go to the temple of Heslor
in Alcar. Again, I'm sorry to be so uninformative, but I know nothing more,
other than what you have to do is important in some way for Altrion as a whole,
and that you must reach Alcar by the next Darkmoon. So," she concludes, looking
round at each of you, "I can't promise vast hoards of treasure, nor have I any
guarantee about how easy or safe this will be, but will you do it?"
	Anya listened intently to the priestess, an intrigued expression on
her face.
  	"Interesting, to be certain.  Are those adventurers who located the
original still in the city?  Was the original heavily guarded?" Cherri shook
her head.
	"This is a copy taken in Mirador, where it was brought after it was
found. I gather it was found in a city under the ice in the Diamond Wastes, but
I don't know any more than that." Anya nodded.
	"How specific are the prophecies in question?  I've heard some that
have only made sense after the fact, and others that are amazingly clear and
understandable.  Is there a general theme to the book?  Does it give any
indication of what sort of task we are expected to attempt and - hopefully -
accomplish?" As Anya spoke, Drax rose to his feet and paced the room,
watching Raverna with a speculative gaze.
	"Hmm..." Cherri frowned, and flicked through the book's few pages. "The
prophecy that concerns you is very vague, but we have asked Tal for guidance,
and he has indicated that this interpretation is probably correct." She paused,
as if considering. "The prophecy refers to five people known to me, not four,
but the word of Tal was that I should only send four out, and the fifth was not
my concern." She shut the book with a snap. "The prophecies are those of the
High Priestess of Sterma of the time, and cover both then and now. Some of them
have been fulfilled - others are as yet a mystery."
	Hawk, meanwhile, had been examining the map, and his dark eyebrows came
together in a deep V as he considered what has been said. Looking up from the
map and around at the assembled people he stopped to address the High
Priestess.
	"How does Raverna know so much about this place and yet cannot indicate
what might be within?" Angron nodded at this question as Raverna looked up to
meet Hawk's gaze, her dark eyes unreadable.
	"Some years ago, I and some companions needed to enter Irongate without
being noticed. It has been a while, but I can't see why the passage shouldn't
still be there, being cut from the solid rock."
	"Where does it come out in Irongate?" asked Angron. She ran her hand
unconsciously through her black hair, revealing briefly the pointed tip of an
ear.
	"In the vaults under the main keep. There are no signs of habitation,
as Cherri says - the liberation of Andor cleared out the priesthood of Bazuul
who were using it twenty years back," she paused, then smiled, "and I haven't
been back since to check." Drax waited patiently for her to finish, taking his
seat again, before addressing Cherri.
	"With all due respect, High Priestess, can you tell me why it is that
you are going to have the Order of Paladins fly us all the way out to this
mountain-pass, back-door entrance, rather than take us directly to this
uninhabited city?", he asked.  "If we are as pressed for time as you say,
certainly it would be far quicker to have us deposited on the outskirts of this
abandoned town, rather than having us risk becoming lost in these mountain
passages."  Cherri looked across at the raven-haired half-elf.
	"Raverna?" Raverna sang the words of another spell softly under her
breath, both Anya and Drax watching her intently, and wove an illusion of a
daunting walled fortress right across a narrow pass between sheer rocky cliffs.
She let the four examine it for a moment, then spoke.
	"This is Irongate itself as I remember it. I'd be unwilling to risk
dropping you in the pass, in case there *is* anything in Irongate. As I said, I
don't *know* it's uninhabited, but it isn't being used as a major settlement -
no signs have been seen from the air." Hawk examined the image until it
vanishes, then turned to speak to Cherri.
	"I cannot speak for my companions, but if someone has written about me
2500 years ago, I'd at least like to find out what is going on! Count me in."
He looked across at Drax, who nodded.
	"Myself also, friend Hawk."
	"Me too," said Anya softly, and Cherri permitted herself a smile as
Hawk continued. "However, if we must leave immediately I would ask your help in
a matter of most urgency to me. There is a woman whose small son has been
kidnapped by an individual within your city and made to perform criminal acts.
I would ask that you do something to locate and free this child." Anya nodded
in agreement as Hawk continued. "I would consider this a personal favour. I am
not happy that we must leave with this unfinished, but your tale carries with
it some urgency." Cherri nodded approvingly at Hawk.
	"You won't be leaving till dawn tomorrow, so you have the rest of today
to deal with it. Angron too, if he wishes." Raverna's expression darkened
as Hawk spoke, and she leant forward to emphasise her point.
	"And if you leave it unfinished, I will deal with it. Do not worry."
Cherri frowned.
	"Be on your guard - it may be that someone seeks to prevent you taking
on this quest." She looked at Drax, who was examining Raverna's sketch map with
a thoughtful frown. "There is a better plan of Irongate in the library. It's
somewhat old, so I will have a scribe copy it for you before tomorrow.  ." She
paused, then sighed. "If there's nothing else, then I'll see you at dawn
tomorrow..."
--
This story is a compilation of a PBeM campaign, by:

	Mark Little ...................	Hawk
	Janet Huss .................... Anya
	Rob Holden .................... Drax
	Alan Braggins ................. Angron

	Mike Whitaker ................. GM and high priestess
	Anne Rundle ................... Raverna

Back episodes of Midnight's Bane are available by anonymous ftp from:
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Internet address:  	129.71.32.151