It should be not difficult to find such a powerful weave as a teleportation spell.

You close your eyes and enhance your trained mental senses to a point where you can feel the pattern of the world around you.

But although you search the point where Farhan has disappeared, you do not find any traces of the weave. You ponder this fact, and come to the conclusion that Master Brownhand must have masked the weave. This is a very difficult to achieve while casting or maintaining a spell, and your respect for the other Magus grows, whatever he might have done.

Yet your insight does not help you, and you are unsure of how to go on - a state which you, as an Ice Magus deeply dislike.

You are not in the possession of all the facts, and thus need to find out more about Master Brownhand. So you attempt to find him together, for eight eyes see more than two, and it is logical to have protection.

Kor and the guards do not like your decision, and express clearly so, but they accept your status as the group's leader.

Quickly, you are packed with light gear, and, abandoning the coaches, you head into the hills in the approaching nightfall.

The moon is young, and the ground is not easy to see, yet you march through the hills slightly away from the road, as not to be so easy a target.

An hour passes, and nightfall becomes a beautiful starspangled sky, were you in a mood to appreciate this.

Suddenly, Kor stops and points towards an approaching goblin patrol. They have spotted you too, and seeing that you equal their size, decide to make a run for it after the disaster of the ambush earlier.

"Get 'em 'fore they gets to their fellows!", Kor bellows, and, axe drawn, charges them.

You will attempt to strike down the goblins from afar, using the meager mental resources remaining to you.

You close your eyes and focus your mental view on the goblins' Patterns. You weave a few simple strands of air and fire, to keep low the strain on your already overtaxed mind, and cause one of the goblin's chest to explode.

Shocked by this display of power, the remaining goblins stop approaching you and appear to discuss what to do now - they are obviously not very bright.

This distraction is all the guards need to reach them, and the goblins fall under the blows of the men.

Seeing you have been victorious, you gently fall over, already fast asleep, as the spell takes its toll from you despite your rigid concentration.

You continue...

You awake when someone shakes your shoulder.

With an aching head, you stretch and stand up to face Kor, who woke you.

"Quickly", he hisses. "I know yer in no shape, but we need ya here. Dem's buggers found out bout us somehow, and dere's about two dozens creeping all 'round us, closin' in. We're trapped like rabbits!"

With that, he thrusts a short sword into your hand. You do not feel in any shape to weave spells at the moment, and this is bad as you realize what Kor just said.

The goblins are approaching, and you see them... indeed, at least two dozens of them encircle the tiny camp the men made. You're uphill, but there's too many of them to really use that advantage.

The men, and you, form a square, each one guarding one side. The blade in your hand is unfamiliar, but you feel that it would be a good idea to become familiar with it rather quickly.

There is a moment of silence, and then, the goblins charge with cries in a gutural language you do not - and if the accompanying gestures are any indication, you are glad that this is so - understand.

With an answering battlecry that you join in, you intercept the first wave of the attack. Kor's great axe slices through the goblins' bodies, and the man to your right spits two goblins at once on his sword.

You are barely capable of deflecting the wicked spears and knives of the creatures, but you manage to bring in a well placed kick that causes one of the foul beings to yelp in pain, loose the balance and roll back down the hill, taking another one with him.

Although the four of you manage to hold the goblins at bay, it is clear that you cannot do so for very long, and after a minute of frenzied fighting, a scream of pain indicates the guard in your back going down.

Quickly, the square becomes a triangle, as you move to protect your fallen comrade, yet the battle appears to be without hope.

Determined not to be the next to fall, you fight on, and it is by sheer luck that you survive the next minutes.

Suddenly, a spooky howl fills the night, and the goblins cower in fear for a moment, then abruptly the break of their assault and turn to flee.

Kor caughs something, and you notice that the giant of a man is wounded, as is the other guard. You, by none less than a miracle, are the only one not seriously wounded.

"After em, lad," Kor cries and throws you a bottle of that evil smelling medicine the guards use. You drink a gulp, pocketing the last remains, and the fire within refreshes you sufficently to grab your sword and hurry after the fleeing goblins alone in the dark, towards the source of that ghostly howl that has now ceased...