"A New Challenge"

compiled from events in the Golden Unicorn Tavern
written by Richard Ryley

----------

[This tale follows the Ravenloft tale written by Micheal
Hourshad. If you haven't read it yet, look for RAVENLFT.TXT]

     In the aftermath of the battle with Strahd, the Tavern
strode the gap between that shadowy universe and Phantasia.
Flashing back and forth, between the two worlds, the flickering
light from outside bathed those standing around in the Tavern.

     There was a flicker of energy from the doors. They swung
open, and a brilliant flash of light discharged a single figure
into the Tavern. A lady elf, a warrior, in a skin-tight blue
outfit, tumbled across the floor, landing in a heap.

     "P'lair???" Brandon rushed forward, leaning over to help the
lady up. "What happened?"

     "I don't know." P'lair looked back at the door, and the
flickering light from outside. "I'd heard that the Tavern had
vanished, and came to check it out. When I got here, I saw the
Tavern appear, in Phantasia. I tried to go inside, but..." She
grimaced, rubbing her arm. "Something grabbed me as I opened the
door, and knocked me across the room..."

     Brandon glanced at Malfread. The time traveler had one of
his gadgets in his hand again, and was studying it. "We seem to
have come unstuck..." he said. "The Tavern's not in Ravenloft,
but it's not in Phantasia, either."

     Brandon nodded. "The next person to come through that door
could get hurt. Can you stop this?"

     The wizard reached under his cloak, pulling a small device
from his belt. It was a small thing, a box, with a large crystal
set into one end. He tossed it to Brandon, then pulled out a
second, and handed it to P'lair.

     "Put that one over at the door," he said, to Brandon, "and
point it toward the center of the room." He then pointed toward
the back corner of the Tavern, as he looked at P'lair. "And put
that one down in that corner, just like Brandon's doing." He
leaned over the device, to point something out to the elf. "And
press this button..."

     He then pulled a third device out of his cloak, and walked
over to the other corner, setting the device down at the third
point of a triangle. He activated it, and a circular, golden
portal appeared at the center of the room. An eerie whine filled
the room, as the gate swirled with energy, becoming distorted at
the edges, where it interacted with the Tavern around it.

     P'lair activated the device at her corner, and then Brandon,
turning the circular gate into an ellipse, and finally a sphere.
Malfread drew his sword, walking purposefully into the very
center of the maelstrom.

     The time traveller raised his odd-looking, golden sword over
his head. With a loud pop, the portal was drawn into the weapon's
wide blade. A beam of golden light stabbed upward, striking the
ceiling, where it turned back toward the three devices placed
around the floor. A pyramid of golden light formed over
Malfread's head, and the whine of energy intensified, until the
others in the Tavern had to cover their ears.

     As the wizard stood motionless, holding his sword aloft, the
flickering of the light outside began to slow. The throbbing
whine kept time with the light flashing outside, as it slowed,
and then stopped. The scene outside stabilized, the familiar
streets of Phantasia appearing through the windows. But the light
seemed to fade, as if the sun was setting.

     Malfread lowered his sword, sighing tiredly. P'lair looked
around herself at the bar. "Are we back?"

     Brandon stared out the door. "Was it dark when you left?"

     The elf lady glanced at Brandon, and then in the direction
he was looking. "No, it was midday..."

     Brandon held up a hand, looking at the door, not at the elf.
"Uh... Pardon me. I think..." He paused a moment, still staring
at the darkness outside. "I'll be right back."

     The fighter strode across the bar, pushing open the swinging
doors. As he looked down the street, his gaze seemed to rise
upward, further and further, and then he stepped backward, as if
dazed.

     "S***!" He yelled. "Glimithar! To me!"

     At the bar, his huge, six foot battle axe suddenly burst
with a brilliant blue light. It leapt across the room, seeking
out its wielder's hand like a missile. Right behind it, Malfread
shoved through the doors, drawing up short as he saw what Brandon
was looking at.

     "A Wanderer! It must have been drawn in behind us!"
  
     The city was gone, replaced by a spreading blackness,
curling out over the terrain from a point several yards away.
There, a wierd, otherwordly form dominated the skyline. "I have
just one thing to say:" Rav'oth said, coming up behind Malfread.
"... Yuck!" 

     It was a pulsing, shapeless mass, made up of thousands of
smaller parts -- globes and blocks and triangular shapes, all
whirling and merging into one another. It rose several stories
toward the sky, its semitransparent body revealing only parts of
the landscape behind it. Its tendrils reached out in all
directions, sucking up the light and substance of everything
around it.

     Trapped within the vortex of the creature's body, three
women writhed in torment, their bodies distorted and skewed
where the creature passed through them. The closest was a tall,
muscular woman with long, white hair, glowing brightly with
yellow light. As she pulsed with light, the tendril wrapped
around her sucked up the glow, making itself more solid, and
passing the flash of yellow up toward the monster's body.

     Despite her agony, the woman still clutched a weapon, a
sword, a blade of perfectly transparent crystal. Though the
creature wrapped several tendrils around it, the woman refused 
to let go. The light seemed to flow from her, into the sword, and
then out into the creature.

     Muttering a curse in a language you do not know, Malfread
lowered his own golden sword at the creature. A shaft of light
shot forth, golden light in a beam as wide at the wierd sword's
blade. It went only a few feet, however, before the energy winked
out, fading away to nothing.

     The creature reacted quickly, shooting out a tendril. The
wizard raised his sword in a blocking gesture, but cried out in
pain as the tendril struck his sword. The opaque mass wrapped
around the golden blade, and began drawing pulses of gold into
itself.

     Malfread doubled over, but then steeled himself, thrusting
his sword forward, as an aura enveloped its blade. Slowly, the
tendril was forced away from the blade. Although still holding
the weapon, the tendril stopped its draining.

     Breathing hard, sweat forming on his forehead, Malfread
glanced at Brandon. "It's no use," he said. "The Renegade is too
weak here. I can't... raise the power... to dispel it."

     Brandon raised his axe above his head, holding it in both
hands, at the head, and at the grip. The blue glow enveloped
its head, and suddenly the rocks leaped from the ground, throwing
themselves at the monster. Nearby, a tree ripped itself out of
the ground, flying off after them.

     "It's no good!" Malfread yelled, as the missiles bounced off
the enourmous creature. He doubled over again, grimacing in pain,
as the creature again clutched at his sword. "It's not part of
this Universe! It's not fully here!"

     Brandon ignored him, however, keeping up the assault. Behind
him, stepping out the door, Kalgon began a chant.

     "Your weapons can't harm it," Malfread said, but suddenly
his sword flared with light. He looked down at it, as the light
faded away, but the creature had let go, it's tendril recoiling
from the light.

     "That's it! By working together, you're collapsing
Phantasia's time lines!"

     Malfread grabbed Brandon's shoulder. "You've got to
concentrate your attacks with the others." He turned to the
others. "You've all got to attack the Wanderer! What you do, how
you do it, does not matter. Just everyone attack at once!"

     Rav'oth's eyes danced with red flame, as a smile crept
across his face. "It has has been a while since I have really
been able to really cut loose..."

     The Drow elf raised his arms in a crossing gesture, two dark
gems suddenly appearing in his hands. A cluster of fireballs, in
a diamond formation, shot across the distance to the creature,
burying themselves deep inside it. An eruption of fire blazed
forth from a point deep inside the creature's opaque body, but
Rav'oth's spell didn't seem to harm it. 

     Still, the space around the creature seemed to brighten,
becoming clearer, as if a succession of scenes were being
collapsed into one. "That should collapse a few timelines,"
Rav'oth whispered.

     Malfread glanced at Rav'oth, with a smile, and a nod. "You
are indeed perceptive, dark one." He concentrated, holding his
sword up against the assaults of the Wanderer. "Just a little
more..." He gasped, as a tendril made contact. "A little more!"

     P'lair meanwhile, had rushed at the towering monster, and
was just now drawing near. She closed in on the creature quickly,
too quickly, almost. It seemed to be growing as she neared,
filling her field of view.

     Tendrils of translucent chaos whipped out towards her,
forcing her to leap and dodge the attacks. P'lair's brightly
glowing sword rose in an arc as she came in range, drawing close
to the mountain of a monster. She plunged her sword into the
creature, and it stuck there, as if the monster's body were made
of a sticky ooze.

     The light of the Wanderer flickered for a moment as P'lair's
sheer mass seemed to grow.  Then, an inhuman scream was unleashed
from the Dark Knight, as she tried vainly to pull away from the
Celestial Creature. Tendrils began to wrap around P'lair's blade,
and snake outward, toward the elven warrior.

     As P'lair screamed in agony, a figure cloaked in shadows
leapt out of nowhere, and kicked P'lair lose from the sword. The
figure turned on the Wanderer, leaving P'lair's unconscious body
on the ground. In the time it took for the eye to blink two
scimitars appeared in the shadowy figure's hands and slashed at
the Wanderer.

     Rav'oth smiled grimly, as he glanced at Malfread. "A little
more, eh?" He glanced over at Brandon, who still stood with his
axe over his head, his feet wide apart. The very earth seemed to
be leaping upward, to attack the creature, from the point where
Brandon stood.

     P'lair's rescuer slashed at the wall of the creature's side,
not letting it get a grip on the two scimitars. As the attacks
cut into the strange, gelatinous matter, the blades seemed to
bend and distort. They looked unharmed by the treatment -- but
then, the Wanderer seemed unharmed, as well.

     The figure continued to unleash it's fury with blows that
would normally kill. Tendrils slithered their way around the
newcomer's waist and wrists, but in an instant he vanished,
blinking a few yards further along the creature.

     "Looks like you have it," continued Rav'oth, then smiled
widely and unsettlingly, "And then some...!"

     Rav'oth held his arms out to his sides, with his cloak
hanging along them, and two katana seem to form from the shadows
around him. The sky darkened further, taking on the aspects of
twilight. The shadows around Rav'oth began to writhe and twist,
as shadowy black flames sprang from the blades of the katana and
spread to immolate his entire body.

     Rav'oth's eyes vanished behind the red light that spilled
from his sockets. His body seemed to blend into the twilight as
he lifted off the ground, floating free. Only the glow of his
eyes truly marked Rav'oth's position in the air.

     A wordless song drifted back on the breeze on which Rav'oth
appeared, almost, to be dancing. He moved easily from tendril to
tendril, as the creature reached for him. Long streams of Eldrich
Darkfire licked from the tips of Rav'oth's swords, cutting into
the gigantic creature. Bits of it seemed to fall to the ground
below Rav'oth, tiny blobs of clear goo, that instantly melted
away to nothing.

     For just a moment, the enourmous beast continued to drain
away the very stuff of the Universe. Malfread strained to hold
his sword aloft, against the grip of the creature's tendrils.
Then, without warning, there was, for a moment, a glimpse of
layer upon layer of realities... a convergence of universes, just
out of step with one another, all in this one place and time.

     "Now!" The golden sword flared with light, bathing the
worlds around it in its hue, and then there was only one. The
blinding light drove the tendrils of chaos back, out of range,
and then Malfread swung his sword in an arc, leveling it at a
point high on the Wanderer's face. A shaft of gold lanced forth,
slicing through the air, towards the white haired woman trapped
within the monster's powerful grip.

     The Wanderer roared with fury as the beam slashed through
it, cutting its captive free. The warrioress dropped like a
stone, from the high summit of the creature's enourmous bulk.
Tendrils tried to grasp at her, but missed, as the woman
continued to fall, limp and unmoving, toward the ground far
below.

     "Morgwaine!" Brandon yelled. "Glimithar, grab her!"

     "I can't!" answered the weapon, its silver voice strained.
"I'm out of power!"

     "I thought you had enough left!"

     "So did I!"

     "It's the time protraction!" cut in Malfread. "Time is a
relative term here... Now that I've collapsed the time lines,
Glimithar's used up his charges!"

     "Then its up to you..."

     Malfread nodded. "Ironic, isn't it..."

     The golden beam again sprang from his sword, as he aimed it
at Morgwaine's falling body. It struck her unerringly. For a
moment, it seemed to have no effect, but then, slowly, the
woman's path began to curve. She slowed, and landed some feet
away, rolling across the ground to cushion her impact.

     Morgwaine forced herself up on her hands and knees, moaning,
as Malfread charged over to her. He blocked a few tendrils from
the Wanderer, with a single slice from his sword. "Get up! We
don't have much time!"

     Indeed, Malfread's actions seemed to have infuriated the
monster. It reached out in all directions at once, redoubling its
efforts to consume all around it. P'lair and her partner could no
longer be seen, and even Brandon and Rav'oth were caught, lifted
into the air as the Wanderer wrapped its tendrils around them.

     Malfread slashed at the tendrils, only barely keeping the
Wanderer away. With agonizing slowness, Morgwaine pulled herself
to her feet. Finally, she managed to raise her crystal sword, and 
drive the assault away with Crystal's yellow light.

     "Can you do this?" Malfread asked.

     Morgwaine glanced at him. "I needed the Guardian's help
before. I will need your Guardian now."

     "I don't know. This universe weakens him."

     Morgwaine closed her eyes, tiredly. "We have no choice."

     The two humans raised both arms over their heads, pointing
their swords skyward. Their light began to grow, gold and yellow,
becoming beacons of brilliant color, centered on the two swords.
The wizard let go of his sword first, and then Morgwaine followed
suit, spreading her arms wide.

     The swords floated in the air, suspended. Darkness seemed 
to close in around them, as all else faded into oblivion, but
Malfread and Morgwaine still stood, bathed in the circle of
light. A faint, glittering grid of silvery lines seemed to appear
from the nothingness around them, but then even that began to
fade.

     The Renegade disappeared from view, becoming a glowing ball
of energy. Morgwaine's crystal sword remained stubbornly solid,
but her light continued to grow brighter. Morgwaine herself began
to glow, with the yellow brilliance of a sun, until it was not
clear what was her light, and what was Crystal's.

     As one, the two humans lowered their arms at the Wanderer.
Twin beams, of yellow and gold, blasted forth, enveloping the
enourmous creature. The Renegade reappeared in the beam, riding
it into the monster's body. Morgwaine's sword also rode its beam,
slamming into the Wanderer in the exact same spot.

     At that point, a tiny, shimmering spot of silver appeared.
It spread slowly, too slowly, across the massive bulk of the
Wanderer. The field spread over the monster's body, drawing the
creature into itself. Then, just as the silver energy covered the
Wanderer's enourmous form, it closed, with an inrush of air.

     Everything was as it was before. The city moved busily with
the traffic of the day, and Rav'oth, P'lair, and the others
stood, unharmed, in the street out front. Malfread glanced down
at his empty hands.

     "Of course," he said, sadly. "I should have known he could
not stay."

     Morgwaine stared at him for a moment. Oddly, her expression
was one of compassion... and pity.

                 *     *     *     *     *

     A single figure sat in an infinity of empty darkness. She
huddled against the cold nothingness, her arms wrapped tightly
around her legs.

     "Hello, Morgwaine," the wizard said.

     "Lord Sysop," Morgwaine said, without looking up. "It's all
my fault."

     "Your fault?"

     "The Wanderer. It was drawn to me. It was drawn to my
energy. I should never have come here."

     "What, because you're one with a Guardian? On the contrary.
It's been a lot of help to have one of you here."

     "You don't understand." Morgwaine looked up. "I can't
control it. I can't even run my OWN time line. I've been
robbed... of everything I was. When the Dark Lord imprisoned me
here, in this woman, he made me mortal. I am not what I was
before."

     "And I am not what *I* was before."

     "But you are not a Guardian."

     Morgwaine stood, putting a hand to her forehead, as she
walked away from Lord Sysop. "I know what this place is now. I
thought at first that you might be a Guardian, but I see now...
you are a mortal, just like me."

     She grinned, just a little, as she turned around. "I've been
in literary universes before. It's not easy to penetrate those
barriers, but I've been in books, and stories, and... what do
they call them? Mo-shun pictures?"

     "Phantasia, though... it's more than just a good story.
You're not the only writer. There are..." she sighed, "hundreds
of Guardians here, hundreds of Lord Sysops, all working together
to create this place. That's why the strange protraction here.
Each creator has his own point of view, his own time line, just a
little different from everyone else's."

     Lord Sysop nodded. "That's why I set up this place. So that
those who have the magic -- those who create universes -- can
come together, and share them."

     "And now I've destroyed it." Morgwaine spread her arms wide,
at the darkness around her.

     Lord Sysop harumphed. "I created it once. I can create it
again. This is nothing."

     Morgwaine shook her head, turning away again. "As long as
I am here, your world will always be in danger. As long as I hold
a Guardian within me -- the creator of a 'real' universe -- the
Wanderers will return. That is their job, to destroy universes
that have no Guardians, to return them to the chaos from which
they came."

     "And is that such a crime?" Lord Sysop shrugged. "Nothing
lasts forever, certainly not literature. You think I don't know
what happens to books that don't get read... to stories that
aren't told any more? I don't expect this to last forever."

     "No. But I'm attracting them. I'm drawing the destruction
here before its time." Morgwaine held up a hand. "I must leave.
You can't change my mind."

     "But you HAVE been of help to me. A lot of help."

     Morgwaine walked over to the wizard, smiling, as she looked
him in the eye. "Thanks... Before I go, I want to give you
something."

     Morgwaine held out her hand. There was a glowing ball of
yellow in her palm. "I do not have much power now, but I am
growing. Right now, my time line is vague, half formed..." She
looked down. "... since I do not have the strength to shape it."

     She looked back up. "But because of that, I could imbue your
world with some of my energy... in effect, make your universe
part of mine. It wouldn't be enough to attract Wanderers, but
it might be enough to keep this place going... in the face of
the changes that are threatening it."

     "And maybe someday..." Morgwaine placed the glowing ball
in Lord Sysop's hand, closing it. "When I'm strong enough...
Maybe I'll be able to make this a REAL universe."

     Morgwaine grinned. "As if my universe is any more 'real'
than any other..."

     The two figures faded away, leaving only darkness.