Tad watched as everything faded back into view. He took a halting step out of the rocking wagon's door and saw a flat expanse around him. He saw the sun coming up over the horizon, and the wagons were all placed on a huge flat plateau of stone. The tents fell to one side as if the pegs had all come loose and the poles were not in the ground. A bench fell over near him. Everyone in the camp was staring, stunned by the sudden change. Zanna, Nico, Marena, and a couple of women were where the campfire once stood. Beothorn was with three of the guards. Lamruil was behind them sporting a longbow of some type. All were looking at a gate entrance that no longer existed. The gate itself was lying in front of them, still chained together a few feet away.

Tad looked around. He realized he was looking out beyond the horizon. They must be high up for that to be the case. Everyone was coming towards the center of the camp except Lamruil, who ran off to the front towards where the sun was poking up. The elf stopped suddenly and looked down. He looked back and waved to Tad and the others to come over. Lamruil started looking down again.

"You all wait here. Keep an eye out. Breamas altered the spell. We are not in the Forest of Mirth. Beothorn, you will want to post guards. I have no idea where he sent us. I'll explain in a minute, lets go see what Lamruil found. " said Tad as he jogged past Beothorn.

Tad heard Nico shout from behind the wagons, "This isn't the Forest of Mirth Tad!"

Tad made his way to the edge of what turned out to be a cliff face. The Carnival had portaled to the top of a large table of stone. A flat area of rock that had little on top other than some sand and gravel here and there in clumps. When Tad made it to Lamruil, he looked out and could see sand. Lots and lots of sand. Occasionally a clump of rock perhaps in the far distance but mostly sand. Below were dunes of it as far as he could see. Lamruil tapped him then pointed directly below them. Far below perhaps a half-mile, there was a giant circular hole. It looked to be rock with rings going down it, forming a ramp to the bottom. At the bottom was a large metallic oblong stone that might be silver and before it facing the ramp was a group of beings information and on the ramp coming down were others that looked like orcs or barbarians. The formation at the bottom, Tad thought, looked very much like dwarves. He was not quite sure what the other group on the ramp was. There were a lot of them. Around the excavation were large piles of rock and sand in various locations.

There appeared to be two people fighting between the two groups, a dwarf in armor and a larger version of the beings on the ramp.

"War duel," said Lamruil. "The winner gets something. My guess is the dig site and that egg-looking thing."

Tad could hardly make out the details. The elf must have a lot better vision to see all that.

"Look over there at that group," Tad pointed at a smaller group higher up, looking down on the area where the fight progressed. "What do you think they are doing?" Tad used his magic sight and saw a glow coming from several creatures closer to them. "They look like casters making a spell or getting ready too."

"I do not know. I'd not trust them, though. I'd trust a human or dwarf over an orc. Nothing they are casting will be good," said Lamruil.

Tad thought briefly about Lamruil's opinion of humans and dwarfs, he was hoping to change that someday, but he also knew there was probably a good reason Lamruil felt that way. Now wasn't the time, though.

Beothorn finally made it to the edge of the cliff and looked down at what was going on.

"Tad, find a way down there. Wave when you find it, I'll get the other guards," he said as he turned to jog back to the camp.

"Why are we getting involved again? " asked Tad with a bit of sarcasm.

Beothorn shouted over his shoulder, "Because I'll not sit here and watch them murder those miners. "

Tad nodded to Nico and Lamruil. "Ok, you two go opposite directions. I'll go get rope from the quartermaster." Tad knew there was always plenty of rope for the tents. He came upon tables with Zanna still following him, watching this all as if it was some sort of show or carnival act.

Marena stood there with a ball of fire and one of ice in either hand, looking at Beothorn, "Ok, let's go, we can do this. "

Beothorn just stood there frowning, and then he frowned harder as if there was some sort of secret communication going on.

Marena huffed, and the fire blinked out, and the frost dissolved into the wind, "Fine, have it your way. I'll help get the camp sorted out. " She didn't sound very happy, not at all. She was pregnant, and Tad knew this had something to do with that unspoken conversation.

Beothorn nodded, "Guards to me, we have work to do. Tad, do you have that path down yet? "

"No, I'm going to get some rope in case we need that. Nico and Lamruil are both scouting the edge of this plateau. "

Tad didn't think the top was very large, perhaps two hundred yards at most in diameter. There was a small section of a cliff above it on one side. It appeared to slant down off to the left. If that was a path, Nico would find it first. If it wasn't, then they would have to use the rope to lower everyone down.

Bernard was outside the large Quartermasters wagon fuming, "Damn it, we don't have any horses. How the hells are we to pull the wagons? " He said this just as a small nightmare pony wandered by looking around. The others followed it. Tad looked over and could see that the pen that had held the ponies was lying flat as if it was plucked from the dirt dropped on the rock. Some hay sat there in the middle in a mound. He would worry about that later, he doubted the ponies could get off the plateau, and he didn't think they were pulling any of these wagons either.

"Bernard, I need rope and possibly some anchors and a maul to drive them in," said Tad looking over at Lamruil and then Nico. Nico disappeared. Tad had seen this before. His friend was beastkin, and his tribe was a type of large lynx-like cat. He could teleport a few times an hour, and his friend used it to jump around in combat. He must have found something.

"Bernard, I'll be right back, " Then Tad took off towards where Nico had disappeared. Before Tad reached the spot, Nico reappeared just above the lip of the stone and dropped the few remaining inches to the ground.

Nico waved to Tad, then to Lamruil and Beothorn.

"Tad, I found a ledge. I followed it down a ways. I do not know where it stops. It might wrap around the whole area, or it might end in a cliff. I took it a quarter way around and down from here. " said Nico breathing heavily, having run most of the way around and back.

Beothorn and the guards were just reaching them. The dwarf wore chainmail, and he had his large square shield unslung and ax out. The guards had halberds and shortswords in sheaths and were wearing their chainmail and helms.

"OK, we are going down here. Beothorn leads with the shield. I'll be behind him. You guards follow us. Keep your weapons ready. Nico stays with Lamruil and Zanna behind the group. Lamruil, do not shoot anything till we know what's going on, or there are no other options. " said Tad looking around those gathered. Beothorn nodded to him, and they all started down the trail.

The ledge was worn with sand and gravel here and there in piles. It wasn't so steep as to make it hard to travel, but then again, stepping in that gravel or sand might make for a quick trip over the edge. Looking down, it was several hundred feet to the bottom.

Tad could not see the dig site yet or the orc casters they had spotted earlier. He knew the place they went down was more than halfway around the plateau, though.

"Do you think they are going to attack? We saw some sort of duel going on," said Tad.

"If they were going to honor whatever agreement they had, they would not have snuck a bunch of casters up on this cliff. Never trust an orc," said Beothorn grimly. "Also, never trust any Warband that has you outnumbered. They have no reason to abide by their word. My guess is, it is not the leader fighting the duel, which means he is hoping to win. If his champion loses, he will still win. It will just be messier."

Tad thought about that as they traveled.

They passed a large space where the path widened then narrowed again as it continued down. This spot looked like the one the orc casters were on farther down. The path looked like someone had carved it into the cliffside. They paused a second to catch their breath, and Tad noticed Kettle was following them down the path. He wasn't running, but he was going faster than normal.

Tad projected to the smaller creature, "Kettle, go back. This isn't your fight. "

"There is something down there Tad, I will stay back. " projected Kettle back.

Kettle wasn't a pet to be ordered around Tad knew, he was his friend, "Fine, don't let anyone see you. We do not even know if these dwarves are friendly. "

Kettle didn't respond. He moved back up the pathway out of sight.

The party took off down the path again and rounded another more prominent protrusion from the mountainside. They could hear screams and cracks of lightning from below the cliffside, reverberating up the stone.

Then the orcs came into sight, and they were closer than the Tad expected because the protrusion had blocked the view in front. Beothorn never even slowed. There were four armored orcs in various pieces of copper mail and plating to the left, standing at the end of the ramp. They were positioned to stop anyone coming up towards the casters. The three guards took after the dwarf. Tad already knew from past experience, Beothorn expected him to take out the casters.

Tad motioned to the left and right casters. They were smaller than the one in the middle, who was much older with greying hair and stood a head taller than the lesser creatures beside him. Shortly there was a thrumb, and the smaller caster on the left sprouted an arrow from its skull coming out the eye socket. There was a subtle poof, and Tad knew Nico was off towards one of them also. Below, Tad could make out the image of a small cloud full of lightning that was raining bolts down upon a formation of dwarves, all holding their shields above their heads. The bolts didn't look like full lightning strikes, but he could still see several dwarves laid out around the small formation. The orcs were on the sides of the dig, waiting on the ramps for the lightning to stop. Obviously, the dwarves had no interest in trying to charge up the ramp either. Tad took this all in as he increased his speed, trying to close the thirty or so feet to the tall caster before it could turn around on them.

Tad summoned his soulmancy tent and expanded it out around the orcs and his group. To Tad, this made everything appear as if it moved slower than normal. It also allowed Tad to sense things inside the area of the tent. Only he could see it around them. It was one of the skills of soulmancy he had used many times before.

One of the Guards let out a battle cry just as the group charged into the side of the orcs in armor, and that caused the larger caster to stop his lightning spell and spin quickly with his right arm coming around, and several stone spears shot out of his hand in a fan. One caught a carnival guard in the hip, one ripping through his mail. One came directly at Tad, who summoned a soulshield, deflecting it left as he dodged right. Another shot past Tad, and he could hear Zanna give a scream behind him. Several slammed into the cliff wall with no effect.

Tad reached the caster bringing Galadinidú in two fast sweeps at neck height against the caster. He felt a magic shield around the caster crumple as the staff hit one side of the orc's neck, then used the momentum of the collision to reverse the strike and hit the caster from the other side with the opposite end of the staff. Tad felt and heard a snap. The third smaller caster started to turn as he realized something was wrong, and Nico appeared behind him in cat form, bringing both paws straight down, nearly severing the smaller orcs arms off at the shoulder blood sprayed out in both directions as if the smaller orc had wings. The orc let out a scream and fell to the ground bleeding out in shock. The bigger caster lay next to him with his head turned at an odd angle with a broken neck, eyes wide open, staring at nothing. All three orc casters were down.

Tad glanced briefly over at Beothorn. There two orc warriors were down, one was wildly swinging its own copper ax while backing down the trail. The fourth orc was missing. Tad figured he must have been flung off the edge with Beothorns charge.

Tad turned quickly back towards Zanna and Lamruil. He was hoping she was still alive; he had heard the scream after the orc caster's bolt spell. Zann was sitting up, and she looked livid. There was no blood, or any injury Tad could see as he ran over. Tad nodded to her, and Lamruil was just standing there watching at this point. Tad turned back to the fallen carnival guard near Beothorn, who was trying to extract the stone spear from his hip.

Tad stepped up to him, seeing the last orc fleeing down the path away from the group, "Hold a moment, this will hurt."

Tad didn't wait. He grabbed the spear of stone and yanked it out of the man's upper leg. Blood poured out. The guard who Tad now remembered was called Ronald, or was it Thomas screamed in pain? Tad gathered energia and cast heal on the man. The wounds started to close and the scream cut off as most of his pain went away. Tad cast the spell once more, placing his hands directly on the remains of the wound, now holding them there as yellow light left his hands into the guard's wound. When Tad lifted them, there was a bloody hole through the chainmail, but the bleeding had stopped, and the rent in his skin had closed. It would take a few more minutes to heal the inside fully, but hopefully. The man would have no pain when he walked after that. The short stone spear had gone in several inches.

Tad saw Lamruil, a naked Nico, and an angry glowing Zanna standing on the edge of the cliff where the orc casters had been a few moments before. Fire was coursing off Zanna's shoulders down her arms. She reached back and threw, and a small expanding ball of flame shot down towards the orcs near the bottom of the dig a hundred yards away.

"Hey Nico, nobody wants to see all that. " said a mocking Tad at his now naked friend. Nico couldn't transform the clothes when he went into his large cat form.

Tad looked back down to the battle below. He could see the orcs looking up at his group and specifically Zanna, and then the panic took them. They started to run up the ramp, but it was too late. There was a whoosh as the fireball detonated and orc bodies flew. In a moment, several laid unmoving along the base of the dig site. Flame covering some and more of the flame was on the pathway. The rest of the orcs scrambled out of the dig site ramp, not stopping at the top, around the cliff into the desert out of view of Tad's group.

Tad could make out a larger group of orc also running. One turned back and looked at him. Tad knew that he must be the leader. He watched as the leader turned and followed the rest out of sight around the curve of the cliff away from the dig site.

Beothorn was making his way over to Tad. He had seen the fireball from where the guards were farther down.

"You three loot all the armor and weapons and make a pile there, you, take everything you find on these orc casters, bundle it up in a shirt and take it to Marena. Do not open or touch anything by hand on them other than their clothes. They are casters and most likely have charms or protection against theft. Do not touch anything by hand. " said Beothorn with a wave to the guards to begin the task.

"Tad, we will have to go down once that fire is out and talk to those miners down there. It is best if you let me do the talking." Beothorn looked at Lamruil and Zanna. Nico was back to his human form, dressed, and was standing picking his fingernails with this thumb, pretending he wasn't paying attention.

Tad nodded. It was almost like he could read the dwarf's mind. He reached into the pouch at his waist. "Zanna, can you use this? Make yourself look like something other than a succubus, please. I'm sure they saw the fireball and a demoness throwing it. Lamruil, keep the bow over your shoulder for now and stay in the back, please, till we find out what's going on. " Tad handed Zanna the Amulet of Disguise.

Kettle had come down the trail into sight. "Tad, there is an artifact down there. " projected the automatron.

"Do you know where it is? " asked Tad back.

"No, but it's old, very, very old. I know that we broke my connection to Bismuth, but you know my primary directive is to find and catalog artifacts. I'm having a very hard time not running straight down there without you. I'll wait but understand this is my primary directive. It is not something I can ignore for long. " projected Kettle back. Kettle's language had improved dramatically after he had observed that mana siphon. This still amazed Tad. For years the little creature had hardly been able to put more than three or four words together.

Tad wondered how Kettle kept his balance so well on the path without toes. Tad remembered reading in the book of Automatrons that Samphire had loaned him about how the plane of Bismuth was a plane of Law, and they spent most of their time looking for artifacts that were lost to bring back and catalog. Hopefully, Kettle could contain himself. Having the small creature run off to pilfer the artifact off some dead dwarf was not going to be a good first impression.

"We will hurry. Just stay back till we know it's safe," said Tad out loud to his metallic friend.

***