In The Cards

The Hermit is a guardian of knowledge and wisdom, and of that which lies hidden. When properly approached he may provide the reader with valuable insight. He guards his secrets closely though, and rarely will he offer them for nothing.

Excerpt from 'The Chaltar Deck Of Cards - An Introduction'

The party had been searching for some hours before they finally found the path. The steep cliffs reared high all around it, smooth and slick, blocking access to the ruins of Ulcaster. "This is getting ridiculous," Edwin said after the adventurers had walked back and forth along the mountainside for quite some time. "We'll never find that stupid mage school this way. (And besides, my feet are killing me.)" He leaned against the rock with a superior look on his face, one that immediately dissolved as he fell into the mountainside.

"A secret passage!" Imoen exclaimed once it had been established that Edwin hadn't, in fact, gone into the rock itself. "Wow, I love secret passages. I wonder where this one leads?"

"To Ulcaster, presumably," Edwin said, picking himself off the ground. "Looks like the old wizards didn't want anybody but themselves and their pupils finding their way here. Very cunning illusion there. It almost fooled even me, but obviously I saw right through it in seconds."

"And that was why you fell right through it and flat on your face just now?" Zaerini asked with an innocent smile.

"I was trying to be dramatic!"

"Um, e-excuse me," Khalid said, looking nervously at the narrow path as it wound its way upwards and disappeared from sight around the corner. "B-b-but I just thought of s-something."

"Yes?" Zaerini asked. "What is it?" She had learnt long ago that when Khalid asserted himself enough to make a point it was usually important.

"W-w-well, I don't know much about m-magic, but I just thought…with all the wizards d-dead, then who's m-maintaining the illusion s-spell?"

The rest of the adventurers looked at each other as they thought this over. "You just had to go and say that, didn't you?" Edwin complained.

"The ghost of Ulcaster?" Zaerini suggested. Nobody seemed particularly cheered by this thought. "We'll be careful," the bard said. "But I think I really need to go up there. My cards hinted as much. I'll go myself if I have to."

"Nonsense," Jaheira said, placing her hands on her hips. "I am not about to let you go traipsing off alone into unknown danger."

"R-right," Khalid agreed with a reassuring smile. "Where you go, w-we go."

"I'm not going anywhere without you," Imoen said. "Besides, I'd love to see a magic school. Think they have any cool stuff left that they don't need any longer?"

Edwin nodded. "A chance to come across any valuable tomes or scrolls is a chance worth taking," he said. "There could be other interesting artifacts left as well. (Possibly even a dragon to guard the grounds. I always did want to see a dragon.)"

The path led steadily upwards, getting ever steeper and narrower. Eventually Zaerini and her friends found themselves in the open again. The bard stood motionless, staring. For a moment she imagined she saw a huge castle floating before her in the chilly air, the towers and turrets reaching up to pierce the gray sky. Then she blinked and there was nothing but rolling mist, drifting along the ground to form strange shapes. No real castle to be seen, but there were rocks on the ground, rocks still geometrically aligned, to mark where walls had once stood. "Ulcaster..:" the bard said, and far in the distance a pack of wolves started howling their agreement.

"So what's the big deal?" Imoen asked, sounding a little disappointed. She had jumped on top of one of the ruined walls and was balancing along it as she spoke, skipping from one leg to the other. "It's just a bunch of rocks."

"How little you know," Edwin said. "The main school building may be long gone, but the dungeons still remain. (Let's just hope that some treasure remains as well.)"

"Dungeons? Why would there need to be dungeons in a school?!"

Edwin gave her a sidelong look and folded his hands into his sleeves against the cold. "The study of magic is not like other subjects," he said. "It requires not only raw power, but the intelligence to use it. Accidents are not uncommon, and thus the need to hold certain lessons in a more…sheltered…environment. In case of explosions, or a summoned creature going on a rampage. Things like that."

"Oh. Did you go to a place like this then?"

"No," the wizard said. "I was…taught privately." He turned to point at something a little ways off. "Isn't that an entrance?" It certainly seemed to be. A dark stairway led into the ground.

"Great," Zaerini said. "Let's take a closer look and…" She interrupted herself. Somebody was coming towards them. No, actually somebody was floating towards them, drifting along the ground like another strand of mist. The creature looked more or less like a wizard. He was wearing long mage robes, gray and flowing like the mist itself, and his long white beard reached well past his waist. His face was gray as well, gray and sunken, his eyes hollow. Most importantly, he was transparent. The ruined walls of the Ulcaster school could easily be seen through his floating body. Now and then he gave a hideous, bloodcurdling moan.

"Th-that's a g-g-ghost!" Khalid stammered, his face almost as ashen as the spirit's.

"You don't say?" Edwin snapped while he tried to stealthily ready a wand without attracting the ghost's attention. "Whatever gave you that idea? Could it be the way his feet don't touch the ground, the moaning and wailing, or the fashionable see-through look?"

The ghost turned his head at the sound of the wizard's voice and set course for the adventurers, a very determined look on his face. At least Rini thought it was determined, but with the transparency it was a bit difficult to tell. She shivered as the temperature of the air around her dropped by several degrees. The hilt of her sword felt like ice against her hand. "Nice tactic there, Eddie," she said. "Just invite all of the resident undead over, why don't you?" Next to her she could see her friends readying weapons of their own.

His eyes burning with a terrible mixture of hope and despair the ghost reached out a thin hand towards the half-elf. It passed right through her arm like the mist itself, leaving only coldness behind. "...the best of schools..." the spirit moaned. " ..a storehouse of arcane knowledge... ...lost, all lost... a common dungeon, now... ...we all shall live again... someday... ...all for knowledge did we strive...nothing left...Hope would return with the retrieval of the simplest of tomes...beneath the rubble...on the lowest floors...return hope...history is so important..."

The Hermit, Zaerini thought. I know him from my foretelling. "Who are you?" she asked in a voice that trembled just a little bit. "Are you Ulcaster himself? What do you want?"

The ghost was silent for a moment, and his eyes seemed to clear a little. "I…was once known by that name," he said. "Yes. I was…Ulcaster. You…I know…you. I…have seen your spirit, shining in the…darkness. You…will aid me."

"She will do no such thing, ghost," Jaheira said and pointed her scimitar at Ulcaster. "Not unless you tell us all exactly what you want."

Careful, Jaheira! Zaerini thought. We cannot fight him. He is far too dangerous, and I doubt our weapons would even touch him.

"Very…well," Ulcaster sighed, stroking his long beard. "This school…my pride and joy…was destroyed. Long ago now. The attackers…they were too many. My poor students…dead. The school…in shambles. The knowledge…lost."

"So what do you want with us?" Edwin asked.

"I was…getting to that! Dust and…ashes, I'd forgotten how…annoyingly impatient…students could be. Inside the…dungeon…lies a certain book. 'Dream Magic'. Next to it…a small hand-mirror with a handle shaped like…a dragon. Bring me that, and I shall…reward you."

"Reward us?" Edwin said, looking very interested. "How, exactly?"

"With…knowledge. Knowledge that you all…need. No treasure…is greater than…knowledge."

"Perhaps. But why can't you just fetch this book yourself? (I have no particular wish to wind up inside a hungry dragon, or be blasted into tiny fragments by some ancient magical trap simply because he wants some reading material to help pass the millennia.)"

"The wards…of the school…were activated upon the night of the…attack. Some of them…misfired. None may now pass in…or out…except for students come to take the Tests. Live students. No ghosts…or other undead."

"Tests?" Rini asked, not liking the sound of that much.

"The…examination tests. Designed to weed out…the unworthy. Once done…you will be teleported…into my study. There you will find…the items I need."

"And if we don't want to take your stupid Tests?"

"Then…you may stay here. Eternally. The road to Ulcaster…only opens…at my command. I sensed you…I led you here…only I…can release you. Verify my words…if you will. I speak truth."

"Very well," Jaheira said, her voice grim and her jaw set. "We will do as you ask."

"Not…all of you. Ulcaster…only accepts those…with magic in their blood. The school…knows. The rest of you…must wait without."

Zaerini exchanged a swift look with Edwin. It was pretty obvious what the ghost meant. The Red Wizard gave a small nod. "All right," Zaerini said. "Edwin and I will enter. The rest of you, wait for us here."

"No!" Jaheira protested. "This is too dangerous, I forbid it!" Her green eyes flashed with stubborn fury. "You will both get yourselves killed!"

"It's no use, Jaheira. We have to do as Ulcaster asks, you said it yourself. And if the school will only accept those with magic inside…"

"It does seem to be the only available course of action," Edwin agreed.

Jaheira sighed. "Just be careful," she said.

"Of course we will," the bard said with a quick grin. "We're always careful, right Eddie?"

"Exactly," Edwin agreed. "Careful is the very word for what we are. And besides, a few pitiful little Tests are hardly any match for my magic and mental skills." The druid simply shook her head in silence.

The stairway leading into Ulcaster ended in an even black surface, impossible to see through.

"Well…," Zaerini said as she stared at the uninviting doorway. "Guess this is it. Are you ready?"

"I am ready," Edwin said in a supremely confident voice. "I will handle this with preposterous ease, you know. I'll show you, you'll see."

I'm ready too, kitten, Softpaws answered from inside the bard's pack. Ulcaster had assured her that the familiar, being a creature of magic, should be able to enter the school.

"Right," Rini said and drew a deep breath. "Here we go." She and Edwin touched the inky blackness at the exact same time. It rose up around them like a black tidal wave. There was no sight or sound, no taste, smell or feeling. Only the blackness all around.

I wonder if this is what dying feels like, Rini thought. And then the world came back to normal around her as she found herself in another place. Or maybe not exactly normal. She saw Edwin stare around himself with incredulous wonder and knew that she herself must look equally stunned. Ulcaster School was like nothing she had ever seen before, even as a ruin of its former self, and the magic of it filled her heart with song.