Guilbert the Mad

==Loot==
==Lore==
===Enter battle===
Your blade pierces your adversary's chest, driven deep into the vitals. It's a wound you've inflicted countless times before, and the sound of metal sinking into flesh has never sickened you until now. For a single moment you see your own features twist in anguish. Then they vanish, evaporating into an insubstantial colored mist that disappears entirely before your heart can complete its beat. Your enemy felt solid enough under your blade, as did the blows rained upon you. But now there's just nothingness.
You look to Solus, in time to see his counterpart vanish in similar fashion -- the scaly neck turning to mist between his very jaws. His mouth twitches, and he spits as though to remove an unwelcome taste from his mouth.
"I'm going to kill this mage," he says.
"Not if I kill him first," you reply.
You step through the doorway, into the large and lofty chamber beyond. Your anticipation of a climax is fulfilled. On one side of the cavern, running a glowing finger over the rock, is a man in dark mage's robes.
He pulls his finger from the stone, and the glow disappears. Then he turns towards you, and you recoil in surprise as you see what looks like a third eye embedded in his forehead.
The mage strides towards you, a broad, almost manic smile on his face. His robes swish around him so voluminously that it seems as if the garment is in control of his movements. As he nears, you see that his third eye is in truth a purple gem. And you see that his real eyes are focused on Solus.
"So, you wyrms have finally come to recognize my mastery?" he says, halting a few paces in front of you. You're both surprised and slightly disappointed that his voice seems perfectly normal, with a slight accent that surely originated in Rhynhart. You'd expected a mad cackle. "I accept your terms -- blue cheese and oysters, in exchange for mastery of West Kruna. But I get to keep the Kalambert. And half the Tourfort."
You meet Solus' gaze. He performs something very close to a shrug, strange as the gesture seems from a dragon's frame. You look back at the mage, who stands silent now as though waiting for the drake to respond. Under the circumstances, you decide to refrain from a long diatribe about how irresponsible his actions have been, and how much harm he's inflicted on the kingdom. He's clearly unhinged, and it would achieve nothing. Much better to find out what you need to know, and put him out of his misery.
"We need to get past the purple crystal wall," you say. "The one you put in place."
He stares at you, as though noticing you for the first time, and his eyes narrow.
"You're not a dragon." He leans forward, a look of intense concentration on his face. "No snout. Or feathers."
"Dragons don't have feathers," you reply, the words leaving your lips out of impulse even as your mind cautions against arguing with a lunatic.
"Ah, an expert. A fellow scholar and intellectual." His head bobs backwards and forwards in a rapid sequence of nods. "When I rule the land, I shall make you my librarian. With books, and ham."
"About the purple crystal..." you say, wondering if you'll have to seize him by the throat and bash his head against the ground to focus him on matters of importance.
The mage's eyes widen, and his mouth gapes open as though in shock. He points a trembling finger at Solus.
"The barrier! You can't be here, if the barrier is there. And if I'm still here, it's still there. And if it's still there, you shouldn't be here! Impossible, I say! Unless I'm dead... Am I dead?"
He turns to you, as though expecting an answer. But as you grope for a reply, wondering what might settle him down most effectively, his face twists in rage.
"No! I'd have remembered. You're trying to deceive me!"
His eyes take on a purple glow, and he begins to mutter inaudible words under his breath. The ground shudders beneath you. Whatever he's about to do, you need to stop him...
You step forward, lunging with your blade. But the weapon strikes something hard in the empty air a foot in front of his throat, the impact jarring your arm. He staggers back a step, but is otherwise unharmed -- his expression of arcane concentration unwavering. Solus springs at him, but his claws are similarly rebuffed. This time there's a slight shimmer in the air where they strike the invisible barrier. Again the mage is driven away, stumbling slightly as he backpedals. But his flesh is undamaged, his casting unbroken.
"Liar!" the mage yells. His hands are raised, glowing the same color as eyes. "Liar, liar, pantaloons on... fire!"
The whole world seems to tremble. Then there's an immense shattering sound as rock splits around you, and burning magma emerges through the cracks.
===Victory===
Magma rages around the chamber, bursting down from the cavern walls, erupting from the ground surrounding the little island of rock the three of you are standing on. The air is heavy with the blazing heat, with a stink of brimstone so powerful it's like a choking cloud.
Sweat streams down the mage's face, his body trembles -- either from the overwhelming heat, or because he's drained from casting his spells. Solus lunges at him, and this time he staggers three paces from the mighty blow against his magical shield. You force yourself to press the attack, groaning at the suffocating bulk of your armor, at the weight of the weapon in your hand.
Blade and claw smash against the barrier, again and again. The mage reels back from each of them, drawing ever closer to the red and orange river that's growing behind him.
The purple leaves his eyes, unveiling orbs of flesh with mania written clear upon them, as a final thrust sends him tumbling into the raging torrent.
It surges around him for a moment, kept at bay by the shaking, shimmering field of sorcerous protection. Then there's a popping noise, as the barrier gives way.
"The Kalambert is mine!" he cackles, before the magma swallows him.
You feel your lips twitching in a slight smile. There's the mad cackle you expected.
Solus drops into a crouch beside you, and you somehow muster the energy to crawl onto his back. His blue wings flap, and the two of you soar. An artful, curving swoop takes you over the magma that's eating away at the ground by the entrance, just under the top of the tall arch, and into the chamber beyond. It's now dark and shadowy, lit only by the glow from the magma in the cavern. The arcane light has failed.
The drake drops to the ground, and gallops into the yawning black mouth of the tunnel beyond. There he turns his head, and you do the same. The magma doesn't seem to be spreading this way. You're safe.
Solus pads his unerring way through the darkness, his orange eyes piercing the gloom. The blackness isn't left undisturbed for long. Bright light appears ahead of you, illuminating your companions.
"The purple crystals shattered into a thousand pieces," says Roland. "Whatever you did in there, it worked."
You nod, too weary even to muster up a reply. The others move aside, allowing Solus to carry you back out into the dragons' passage.
===Flee/Defeat===
"I win! I always win!" the mage yells as you flee. "Is there no one with enough hamsters to even challenge me?"