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My name is...

Well, my name is not important. At least that's what I was told when I first arrived here, by some guy named Diego. Quite a decent fellow really. He showed me around, took me under his wing so to speak, while I learned the ropes in the prison.

You must have heard of the place, it's in southeastern Myrtana, where the ore mines are. We are all locked in this huge area which is surrounded by an impenetrable barrier, inhabited by prisoners, guards, orcs, and monsters.

Lovely.

Ever since I've been here all I have been trying to do is get out. Of course almost everyone here wants out, but that doesn't seem to be happening, at least not until I arrived on the scene. Various schemes for penetrating the barrier, or even bringing it down have been tried, all to no avail. The best hope seems to be with the mages.

Yes, the same ones that set up the barrier and locked themselves in here, by accident of course. Seems to be quite a few accidents can happen with magicians, or to them. All the fire mages are dead except Milten. They died by the sword when they resisted Gomez's plan to attack the New Camp. That leaves only the water mages and Xardas.

That's where I am now, at Xardas' tower. I just brought back this magic sword from the Sleeper temple. Xardas calls it Urizel, or something like that. But, get this, to activate its magic I have to insert it in a huge mound of ore, and have a mage read a spell at the same time.

There is only one mound of ore big enough to fill the bill. That's the one that Saturas and the other water mages have been building for years. Their plan was to blow it up and bring down the barrier. When I told Xardas about that, he gave me this worried look, and told me it wouldn't work. Big surprise there.

So I am about to embark on this prelude to the final mission, which is going back to the Sleeper temple, and banishing the Sleeper, after I get Urizel... re-magicked. I thought I'd better write some of this down in case I don't come back, or forget what I'm supposed to do.

*

I looked down from Xardas' tower into the land that had been my home for the past months. Even with all the horrors I had encountered here it was still beautiful. I knew almost every rock and tree. Every path, and where it lead...

I pulled out the magic crystal, inscribed with the teleportation rune to Saturas' inner sanctum and activated it. I arrived in a magic pentagram amidst concentric rings of blue magic energy. Saturas was at his usual place, reading a tome on a pedestal by the entrance to the room. He was so engrossed that he apparently didn't notice my arrival.

I turned around to see Milten motioning me towards the tunnel that led to the ore mound. As we walked down the spiraling tunnels cut into the rock a feeling of vague foreboding came over me. We passed the last mercenary guard and arrived at the huge mound of glowing irridescent blue ore.

"The scroll," whispered Milten, "do you have it?"

"Of course," I said handing it to him. He perused the scroll for a moment. He pointed to the top of the mound. I climbed up slowly, trying to keep silent. I drew the sword, and Milten began the incantation in a loud voice. I brought Urziel over my head and planted it in the mound with all my might.

The sword began to glow and streaks of magic energy licked like flames along the exposed parts of the blade. I heard alarm bells sounding and voices shouting. Milten's voice was near to a shout now too, and I could hear the strain in his voice as he fought to complete the spell.

I heard a booming voice above me and looked up. It was Saturas. He had a scroll out. A counterspell?

Another water mage threw a lightning bolt at me through the grate above. My head jerked back and my teeth clenched, as the chain lightning danced over my body armor. The mound began to shake, but I could not remove the sword, nor could I free my hands, which were locked in a death grip around its hilt.

The mound began to smoke and pieces of ore began popping up, like droplets of water poured into a pan of hot grease. I screamed in pain. There was a huge explosion, and I felt myself being hurled into space and hitting something, then... everything went dark.

*

A while later I woke up and looked around. I was thunderstruck. Above me was the ore mound, partially fused with a big section from the center missing. I was standing on darkness. My knees began to wobble. I was uncertain what to do. A certain giddiness came over me. I still held Urizel? Urziel? locked in my fist. It glowed with an unearthly light.

"At least that worked," I muttered to myself. "Good old Milten."

The name echoed in my mind and something began to materialize in front of me. I watched in horror as a ghastly apparition formed nearby. It was Milten, the last of the mages of fire. He spoke to my mind as Xardas' demon did, though his touch was more gentle, and less alien.

'My friend,' he intoned. 'Seek Xardas, he will be able to help you.'

'But, where am I?' I asked internally.

'You are in the nether realm, the ethereal plane that connects all worlds,' he replied. His apparition began to fade.

"Don't leave me," I cried.

'In darkness, remember... purifying fire,' were his last thoughts to me.

Only now did I realize I was badly wounded from the explosion and reached for a healing potion. To my horror I found that all my potions had been smashed by the concussion of the eruption of the ore mound.

I took an inventory of my equipment. I only had fifty crossbow bolts left. I looked around for the remainder on the surface I was standing on. They were nowhere to be seen. I had a sudden thought and pulled a coin out and dropped it. I watched it fall through the dark plane. I pulled out a torch, lit it and let it go. I watched it fall away from me.

I continued with my inventory remarking to myself that I should hold on to everything I had left. I had half a dozen scrolls. Two of healing, two transformations, and two rain of fire. Remembering Milten's words, I loaded the two fire spells for quick access. All of my imbedded spell icons were cracked and worthless. I dropped them into the darkness. I ate as much food as I could and used one of the healing scrolls to regain my health.

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