"The Devil's Iceberg"

Told by Brandon Dragoncove, in the Golden Unicorn Tavern
Written by Richard Ryley
-----

     "This was many years ago," Brandon says, "long before I
found my Great Axe, Glimithar, or any of the other magic I
have today. I had served as a soldier in England for a short
time, but the military life did not appeal to me. I was just
a fighter, depending on my sword to survive, just like
everybody else. I was nowhere near ready to match wits with
a dragon..."

     "I had made my way to Atlantis, an island city far out
on the frontiers of my world. In those days, it was a wild,
barbaric place, populated by robbers and thieves. It seemed
to me the perfect place to look for adventure. I had a few
friends with me, Foryncia, a wizardess, and Gaildor, a
fighter, two elves that I'd picked up in the neighboring
kingdom of Biscay."

     "At any rate, it was in Atlantis that I met Kalgon." He
gestures at the rotund cleric. "He was putting his "Fumble
Fingered" act on an elven lady named Arianna, and she was
NOT amused. As he talked, however, she seemed to become more
interested -- and so did I."

     "Kalgon had heard that Morgon, a powerful wizard who
had supposedly died years ago, was still alive." Brandon
grins wryly. "Morgon was NOT a nice person. It it said that
he experimented with human victims, and that thousands had
died at his hands. We all agreed that if Morgon was still
alive, we owed it to his victims to find him."

     "Morgon was supposedly seen near an island off the
coast of northern Atlantea. The locals thought the island
was haunted, and called it the Devil's Iceberg. We arranged
for a boat, so we could sail to the island. As we arrived,
and got our first good look at the place, we found out where
it got its name."

     "It was an eerie sight. The Devil's Iceberg was a
volcanic island, and the volcano, which dominated the whole
island, was active. There was a crater, on the side of the
cone, which looked like it had been blown out of the face of
the island. Above that, about a hundred and fifty feet in
the air, what had once been the main crater was now
plugged... by a gigantic quartz crystal!"

     The big man gestures with his hand, trying vainly to
capture the size of what he is trying to describe. "The
Devil's Iceberg seemed to shimmer, in the light of the sun,
releasing beams of color in all directions. It was as clear
as the air itself, and enourmous... it looked very much like
an iceberg."

     "Kalgon had heard legends of an strange light that
appeared offshore from the island, leading ships astray, to
run aground on the rocky shoreline to the east of the
island. Supposedly, the light only appeared at certain times
of the year. Kalgon believed that the light was somehow
connected to the equinoxes, so we arrived on the island on
the first day of Spring, a little before noon."

     "The first thing we found was a rotting shack, on the
beach. There was a well next to it, an odd thing that went
down at an angle into the ground. There was no bucket in the
well, and even if it had one, the well would be useless, as
it looked like the bucket would bang against the sides of
the well."

     "In the shack, we found the old man, Ragon." Brandon
grins. "And a VERY old man he was, too. Thin and drawn --
almost skeletal, and horribly withered -- he looked to be
well over a hundred. The suprise was that he was still with
us..."

     "He was unconcious, however, too weak and ill to talk.
Kalgon used a healing spell to give him strength, but the
old man still came around for only a few seconds. He managed
to tell us that Morgon had taken something from him,
something that rightfully belonged to Ragon. He needed a
vial -- a crystal vial, he said, 'with the red of fire
within.' He then passed out, and there was nothing more
Kalgon could do for him."

     Brandon stops for a moment, taking a drink of wine. "We
almost lost him then, as well, because at that moment, eigh
orcs attacked us." He grimaces. "Remember, at this time, my
only experience as a fighter was a few months in the army.
Those orcs were a serious threat. More importantly, when one
of them snuck past us, and into the cabin, he recognized
Ragon. If Foryncia hadn't been waiting in there, he would
have killed the old man."

     "We managed to catch them all, however, and not one got
back to warn their fellows about Ragon. Just then, the light
suddenly appeared, offshore. It was a brilliant white light,
as bright as the sun, shining off to the east of the island.
We walked down the the cliffs in that direction, and spotted
a shaft of light, deep underwater, coming out from under the
island, and pointing out towards the horizon to the east."

     "There was another hole in the cliff face, right above
the one that the light shone out of, and this one was above
the water line. We climbed down to it, and found a
passageway, leading into the island. Clearly, this was the
hiding place of the orcs. We slipped into the tunnel, and
soon found ourselves exploring a labyrinth hidden inside the
island."

     "Near the entrance we found a block of cells." Brandon
looks around him, at the others in the tavern. "The area was
deserted, covered in layers of dust. Clearly, Morgon had
once held captives here, but now, they were all gone. It
seemed that we were too late."

     "In one cell, however, a small comb lay on the floor,
as if dropped and forgotten, by some passerby. Foryncia, the
elven wizardess found it. It was a pretty thing, made out of
a shell, and seemingly harmless. As she picked it up,
however, Foryncia let out an ear-splitting scream, and
collapsed."

     Brandon pauses a moment as he considers his next words.
"It turned out that what Foryncia had found was an important
clue. At first, I thought the comb was a trap of some sort.
Foryncia was flailing about, as if something were attacking
her, but I could see nothing. She put her hands to her head,
as if in pain, mumbling to herself. Then she passed out,
collapsing on the stone floor."

      "I knew the orcs on the island would find us soon.
Foryncia's scream had been loud enough to be heard on the
mainland. I picked her up, and we all ran out of the prison
cells. There was a secret door nearby -- Arianna had noticed
it earlier -- so we decided to hide behind it.
Astonishingly, as I opened the door, I was nearly blinded,
as the room was lit by sunlight!"

     "A shaft cut into the ceiling threw a pool of light on
the floor. A second hole had been cut there, a pit
continuing further into the rock of the island. I realized
that we were standing at the base of that strange, slanted
well. The sun could just be seen at the top of the shaft,
passing off to the west."

     "The pit continued at the same angle as the well, and I
could see something glittering down at its base. There were
rungs leading down into the pit, so Gaildor climbed down to
see what was down there. Gaildor was an agile elf..."
Brandon grins to himself, "With an overabundance of energy,
so he was the perfect choice."

     "Gaildor found a mirror at the base of the shaft. It
was a huge, bronze mirror, ten feet across, set so it could
be turned to any angle. At the moment, it was casting the
rays of the sun down a second tunnel, a horizontal one,
which dipped down below the water level of the island.
Obviously, the light emerged to the east of the island,
where we'd seen the beacon shining off into the distance."

     "Meanwhile, Foryncia had shaken off the effect of the
comb. She told us, as she tried to sit up, that something
WAS still alive on this island, and Morgon was holding it
prisoner. We were all trying to make sure Foryncia was okay,
however, and, as she tried wave us away, a look of shock
crossed her face. She was hearing our thoughts, before we
could even speak them!"

     "Apparently, the comb she had found was a telepathic
device, and its owner had tried to contact her. Somehow, the
initial contact had broken down the barriers in Foryncia's
mind, and her own telepathic abilities, unknown until this
moment, had burst into full power. She couldn't even control
it... her power had become so strong, she had to concentrate
just to block out the noise of our thoughts."

     "Foryncia was frightened, but I knew that the orcs were
still looking for us. I couldn't shake the feeling that we
were being watched, and I knew the orcs would find us
eventually, even in this secret room. So we slipped back
out, and into a dusty, hopefully unused passage. After a few
moments, Foryncia began to get better control over her
power, and she seemed to relax."

     "The tunnels we had found were indeed unused. They were
in an old living area, apparently no longer in use. In
several rooms, we began to see pirate flags, and nautical
equipment. Finally, we found a large personal room, used by
the pirate captain. There we found the third piece of the
puzzle of the Devil's Iceberg."

     "In the captain's desk, we found his ship's log. The
log told of how Morgon, with the orcs as his bodyguards, had
hired the pirates to give them passage to the Devil's
Iceberg. There, they found Mermaids, inhabiting the island.
The Mermaids had a strange song, like a Siren's song, but
Morgon claimed that it had something to do with the
enourmous crystal. Morgon wanted that island, and its
crystal, at any cost."

     "They watched the island for several months, until a
school of silvery fish appeared from the north, exactly at
noon. The pirates tried to catch the fish, but the odd
creatures seemed to know when a net was being thrown into
the water, and dodged. The fish continued past the pirates,
and then past the Devil's Iceberg."

     "Suddenly, the Mermaids' powers doubled in strength.
The story would have ended right there, had not the orcs
been immune to the song. Even Morgon looked ready to jump
overboard. In the end, though, Morgon realized that the fish
were responsible. He tried again the next day to catch
one..." Brandon laughs, "at a safer distance from the
island, of course."

     "For a while, they had no luck at all. The someone
noticed that the fish avoided the shadow of the boat. Morgon
began to realize that the fish were following the sun. He
produced a mirror, and cast a reflection of the sun in the
water. Sure enough, the fish gathered around the spot of
light, and the pirates caught several."

     Brandon grins as he looks at the others in the tavern.
"Of course. You've guessed it. The fish arrived at every
equinox, migrating from north to south, and back again. The
reflected light we saw off the shore of the Devil's Iceberg
was used to divert the fish away from the island."

     The warror takes a drink of his wine. "The first time,
however, Morgon had to mount his bronze mirror on the bow of
the pirate's ship. He guided the fish in a huge arc around
the island, leading them with the reflected light of the
sun. The merpeople, for there were mermen now, along with
their mates, began to swim out to the ship, but their powers
were already fading. Within a few days, there was nothing
they could do to stop the pirates."

     "Morgon was ready for the final assualt. The last entry
in the log stated that Morgon had left to find 'an old
friend'. As for what happened after that, we could only
guess. The log said no more."

     Brandon leans forward on his stool. "Now the secrets of
the Devil's Iceberg were beginning to be revealed. Foryncia,
as I had mentioned before, had sensed that Morgon was
holding prisoners, when she touched the seashell comb. Ever
since that moment, Foryncia had been trying to avoid us. Her
ability to read our thoughts worried and frightened her."

     "After we discovered the captain's log, however,
Foryncia became even more agitated. At first she wouldn't
talk about it, but I kept at her, trying to get her to tell
me what was wrong."

     "'I've been hearing voices," she finally told me, 'Ever
since we entered this area of the labyrinth.'"

     "I asked her if she could make out what the voices were
saying, and she said that she couldn't. She was not hearing
thoughts, only a feeling. 'It's an overwhelming feeling of
fear,' she said, 'And I don't know how much longer I can
take it...'"

     "Foryncia could, however, tell where the voices were
coming from. So, we set off back toward the front part of
the maze, where we found that the orcs were waiting for us.
Again, it seemed as if they had known where we were all
along. We had to fight our way past about six orcs that had
been posted in a corridor, to block our path."

     "Finally, we arrived at a huge chamber, blackened with
soot and marked with gashes in the floor. The north wall was
roughly hewn, and cut into a massive door, several yards
across. The door was warm to the touch, and we could hear
the volcano rumbling behind it. Remember, we had seen a
secondary crater, when we were on the surface, blown out of
the side of the mountain. The Devil's Iceberg was an active
volcano, and we were standing at a door that lead to its
heart."

     "The south wall bore a painting, a mural, which showed
Morgon, and his 'friend' from the pirate captain's journal."
Brandon pauses a moment. "Morgon's friend was a dragon, a
huge, red dragon. The room we were standing in bore the
marks of his claws on the floor, and his flame on the
ceiling... and at the head of the room was a pit, lined with
bones."

     Brandon shakes his head, chuckling to himself. "I'd
never run into a dragon before in my LIFE! I knew I was
horribly out of my league, but I was also beginning to piece
together what was going on. There was just one piece to the
puzzle left, and Foryncia found it. Still drawn by her
strange voices, she found a secret door, in the dragon's
huge chamber. Behind it were the merpeople."

     Brandon's expression hardens. "The room was cold...
deathly cold. It was lined with columns of crystal, frozen
solid, as if they were made of ice. In each one was a body,
of a mermaid, or a merman. The room was as still and
unmoving as death. The merpeople were not even breathing."

     "But Foryncia could hear them, with the gift that their
comb had given her. Their thoughts were weak, and fading,
but the merpeople were still alive. Morgon was keeping them
alive, using their psychic energy, but keeping them trapped.
Their only hope of escape, the silver fish, had been neatly
taken care of by Morgon's beacon."

     "There was an ominous rumbling from the volcano, as the
orc leader and his troops caught up with us. We would have
been trapped in the Ice Room, so we retreated into the
dragon's feeding chamber. Unfortunately, the orcs
outnumbered us better than three to one, and in that huge
chamber, they had the advantage."

     "Again, however, Foryncia came to our rescue. As if
guided by unseen hands, she walked over to another wall of
the room, and opened a second secret door. We ducked into
the passage, jamming the stone slab shut behind us.  The
passage was smaller that the others we'd seen before, and
from the thick layer of dust on the floor, it appreared to
be unused."

     Brandon sits back again, taking another drink. "When
the passage finally ended, we had found ourselves in a
garden. Words can't describe it. It was as if we had made
our way into the very heart of the mountain, and there was a
hidden world inside it. What had once been the floor of the
main crater was now a lush forest, wild and overgrown, but
flourishing in the volcanic soil. The merpeople had built a
paradise here, deep within the Devil's Iceberg."

     "Most incredible of all, the roof of this massive
chamber was the crystal, the huge quartz crystal, which
glowed brilliantly above our heads. The garden was as bright
as if it were lit by the sun, which, of course, it was.
Except for the occasional patches of color, there was no way
to tell that the light from far above was being filtered
through a crystal."

     Brandon grins. "Don't ask me how I knew it was there. I
just did. I sent my teammates off in all directions, to
search the huge chamber. At the far end, the garden gave way
to a tiled floor. In the very center of this area was a huge
pit, with a spiral staircase along its rim, descending into
darkness. Far below, I could see the shimmer of water, where
the staircase dropped below the water table, and vanished
from sight."

     "Nearby, Arianna found the secret door I was looking
for. Behind it was a small room, and, sitting on a wooden
table, as if forgotten, was a crystal vial, no bigger than
my fist. It held a red liquid, that glowed fitfully. This
had to be Ragon's bottle, with the 'red of fire within.'"

     "... and then there was the clanging of swords, and
mail, as the orcs filed out of the passage we had come
through. There were at least thirty of them, maybe more.
They arranged themselves in three long ranks, at the other
end of the garden room, as their leader took his place at
their head."

     "'So,' the orc leader said to me, 'you are the would-be
invaders of Morgon's lair. It is too bad you will die for
nothing. There is nothing here but us, nothing here but
orcs, nothing here but death."

     Brandon has set his wineglass aside, and is standing
now, as he continues his story. His voice has taken on an
intensity, as his tale draws toward its conclusion. "The orc
leader was a half-orc, by the way," Brandon says, "bigger
and stronger than his fellows, if not less ugly. I'd picked
up his name from the pirate captain's log, and I decided to
use it."

     "'We know of the merpeople, Garzog!' I told him. 'We
come to free them! Where is Morgon?!'"

     Brandon grins widely. "Garzog's face turned as white as
a sheet. The orcs behind him began to mumble to themselves,
but Garzog was still playing dumb."

     "'Morgon is not here,' he said."

     "'Ah, but he is," I said. 'That's why you're here.
Morgon is down that stairway' -- I pointed to the big pit
behind us -- 'Which is why he's ordered you to stop us,
here.'"

     "The orc's eyes narrowed. 'You'll never reach Morgon,'
he said, his voice low and dangerous. His orcs drew their
weapons, readying to attack... but I knew I had the upper
hand."

     "'Stand back!' I yelled, pulling out Ragon's vial, and
holding it over my head." Brandon gestures dramatically,
holding one fist high in the air. "'If you make one move
against me, this vial hits the floor!"

     "The ground suddenly began to shake under our feet, as
the volcano rumbled, loudly, this time. The orcs began to
back away, muttering to each other. Even Garzog seemed
stunned. I grabbed the chance, and gestured for Arianna and
the others to follow, as I darted into the trees."

     "The volcano rumbled again -- I could swear the sound
was getting closer -- and suddenly the orcs were on our
trail. We ran through the underbrush of the garden, and back
into the corridors beyond. The orcs were right behind us all
the way. As we made our way back into the labyrinth of the
orc's lair, however, Arianna took the lead. She apparently
had memorized the maze already, for she led us down some
twists and turns, and quickly lost our pursuers."

     "We slowed to a halt, and just in time, too, because
Kalgon, who was in no shape for all this running, had to
stop and rest. Even I felt a little winded. Gaildor, on the
other hand, wasn't in the least bit tired, and he was
spoiling for a fight. 'Why did we run?' he asked me. 'We had
the orcs right where we wanted them.'"

     "'If we'd stayed in that room a moment longer,' I told
him, 'we'd have all been dead.' I didn't have time to
explain it to him, but I knew one thing -- The only way we
were going to get off the Devil's Iceberg alive was with
Ragon's help."

     "I knew I might need Kalgon, so I told the others to
distract the orcs, while the healer and I made our way to
the surface to get Ragon. We made it back to the entrance
without attracting attention, and climbed back up the cliff
face. When we finally reached the shack, Ragon was waiting
for us, supporting himself weakly against the doorpost. 'The
vial,' he said. 'You've brought it.' It wasn't a question.
He KNEW we had it."

     "He seemed to grow stronger as we neared, pushing
himself away from the shack, and taking a few, tenative
steps towards us. He even seemed to grow a bit younger,
though it could have been the light. At any rate, Kalgon
seemed to be worried about him, as he rushed up to the old
man. 'You shouldn't be trying to walk,' he said. 'Tell us
what to do, and we'll take care of Morgon."

     "'NO!' Ragon's eyes flared with hatred. 'I must face
Morgon! I MUST!'"

     "He looked up at me, at the glowing vial that still
hung from my belt. 'I suppose you won't give me the vial
unless I tell you the whole story.'"

     "I nodded." Brandon chuckles to himself. "'You can tell
us on the way, and I'll give you the vial when you get
wherever it is you're going.'"

     "Ragon stared at me for a moment. 'So, you don't know
where Morgon is?'"

     "'I know where he is,' I said. 'I want to know if YOU
know.'"

     "That got him. He frowned at me a second, and then
said, 'He is waiting for us, like a lion in his den... or a
dragon in his cave. We must go, now!'"

     "With Kalgon helping Ragon to walk, we returned to the
shoreline, and climbed down to the entranceway. Inside, we
found only silence. The corridors were empty. There were no
orcs, no Arianna, or Foryncia, or Gaildor... there was no
one around, anywhere. We continued cautiously through the
tunnels, but our passage was easy... too easy. Finally, we
reached the door to the dragon's feeding chamber."

     "Garzog and his orcs were waiting for us. They
obviously knew that the only way to get back to the garden
room was through this chamber, so they had simply returned
here when they lost us. I tried the same challenge as
before, but Garzog shook his head. 'Break the vial,' he
said, 'and you will die here. We will not let you pass.'
Once again, I faced an army of orcs, but this time I was all
alone, except for Kalgon, and Ragon."

     "Before I could make a move, the secret door, on the
other side of the room, slid open. Confused, the orcs
turned, and were struck down as Gaildor and Arianna,
stepping into the room, picked the orcs off with arrows.
Suddenly Foryncia's voice was in my mind: 'We snuck in ahead
of the orcs when we figured out what their plan was. Come
on, we'll hold them off.'"

     "I charged at Garzog, slamming into him with as much
force as I could muster. He hit the gorund, and I took out
two of his henchmen with two quick swordthusts. Kalgon made
a break for the secret door, Ragon in tow, while Arianna and
Gaildor joined the fray. The orcs were thrown into total
chaos, as they tried to fight off attacks from two sides."

     "I slipped through the secret door, again jamming it
shut behind us. That hadn't held them back for long the last
time, however so we took off down the passageway, back to
the garden room. Although Ragon limped along, he no longer
needed Kalgon's support, and was almost pushing past us in
his haste."

     "As we reached the circular pit, on the far side of the
garden room, Ragon paused, his hands on his knees, to catch
his breath. Arianna took advantage of the moment to ask him,
'What's going on, Ragon? How do you fit in to this story?
And why is Morgon hiding from us?'"

     "'Your questions both have the same answer,' Ragon
said. 'It has to do with the merpeople, who originally
inhabited this island.'"

     "'We know all about them!' Gaildor interrupted. 'What
about the orcs? They'll be right behind us! If we're gonna
go, let's go!'"

     "Ragon put up a hand to silence him. 'The orcs will not
follow. They are too afraid. But you are right, we must
go.'"

     "He led us down the winding staircase, continuing his
story as he went. 'Morgon came to the island at night,'
Ragon said, 'concealing himself, and his dung-brained
pirates, by a spell. They dug a huge tunnel out of the rock
itself, burrowing from a cavern, in the wall of the active
crater of the volcano, to this pit."

     "'There is an entrance down there,'" Brandon points at
the ground, much as Ragon must have done. 'It opens out into
the sea, so the merpeople can enter and leave their lair.'"

     "'But Morgon had used his powers to find out about this
entrance, and knew exactly where to dig his tunnel. It ended
right about here...' Ragon stopped, staring at the blank
wall. We had come full circle on the stairway, and stood
right below the spot where we had started. 'There is a
secret door, here...' Ragon said."

     "Arianna stepped in, and quickly found the catch. There
was a sudden blast of warm air, and the stench of sulphur,
as the huge doors swung open. It was an enourmous tunnel,
just as Ragon had said, easily thirty feet square, and it
seemed to go on forever into darkness. Well... almost
darkness. At the end of the passage was a dim, red glow, and
the rumbling had grown loud, coming from directly ahead of
us."

     "'That's when the dragon came,' Ragon said. 'It flew
down this very passage, entering through the open crater,
and swooping up into the very heart of the merpeople's home.
It was the grandest, mightiest dragon ever seen, red as the
rising sun, and its name was Ragon, the Invincible!!!'"

     "Ragon held his hand out to me. 'The vial. You have no
chance unless you give it to me now.'"

     "I gave him the vial. Ragon strode purposefully into
the darkness. I followed more cautiously, making sure the
others were still behind me, but trying not to lose Ragon.
By the time I reached the end of the passage, Ragon was
already there. 'Morgon! It is I, Ragon! I come for my own!'"

     "The dragon rose out of a pillar of flame, filling my
field of view. The heat was so intense that I had to look
away, but Ragon stepped right into the conflaguration, the
vial in one upraised hand, his other arm raised, too, like
the wings of some vengeful demon. He turned to face us,
still holding that dramatic pose. 'Behold, my friends! A
dragon, in the body of an old fool! And an old fool... in
the body of a dragon.'"

     "'The crystal that towers above our heads in a
storehouse for Mana, the power of magic... and of the mind.
The merpeople used it to give themselves the power of
Telepathy, but Morgon saw other possibilities. Morgon
discovered a spell that would take my body, my dragon's
body, that had lived a thousand years, and leave me with his
old, dying body.'"

     "'Even the spells Morgon had cast to extend his life,
over the years, he took from his body, and used it to extend
the life of his new body, MY body. He then dropped me into
the sea to drown. I WOULD have drowned, but for my will to
live... the will of a being that had once been the mightiest
of creatures.'"

     "'But now, look at him!' Ragon rapped the dragon on the
nose with the vial. Morgon was roaring and snarling, but he
didn't dare take action with Ragon holding that vial. He
cringed as Ragon gloated. "He is growing weak, even as I get
stronger. The vial is returning his power to its rightful
owner!"

     "Then, taking one last look at Morgon, Ragon said,
simply, 'Goodbye. Your time has flown.'"

     "The vial shattered on the floor, as Ragon threw it
down. Morgon reared up, drawing in his breath, hoping at
least to take Ragon with him, but he was too late. The vial
erupted into a roiling column of fire, which enveloped both
man and dragon, surrounding them in a field of blinding
energy. There was an ear-splitting report, sheets of flame
shot through the chamber, and then it was over."

     "Ragon, now returned to his body, let out a roar, as he
breathed out the flame that Morgon had not been fast enough
to summon. The flames engulfed Morgon, until all that was
left was the old man's charred, smouldering bones."

     "With Morgon's death, his spells were broken. The
merpeople were freed. But as I told Ragon, the merpeople
were not the only ones that we had come to help."

     "Once I realized what had happened to Ragon, I knew I
had to help him. Sure, there are those that might have seen
Ragon as an adversary, a monster to be killed, and his
treasure stolen. But I saw that he had been imprisoned, by
Morgon, no less than the merpeople had, and no one deserved
such a fate."

     "By seeing things from Ragon's point of view, and by
helping him, I had made a friend out of a possible enemy.
And with the help of that friend, I was able to defeat
Morgon."