fter several hours of flight we landed on top of a mountain. Sliding off the dragons we looked around. Darnangelethian revealed: "This is snowflake mountain. If you head west, you will come upon a town called Riatavin. As you get closer, you will see the soaring towers of a very large Deneirian temple. Go there and speak to a high priest. Tell him of your quest and he may be able to help."

he dragons began arguing in their own language. I saw Darnangelethian flick her tail at Thornangelethian. Then suddenly they both stopped and Darmangelethian said, "Aerlinn, we want to continue journeying with you. Our race of dragons can take human form, which we will do, then change back to dragon form as the need arises."

" es Darnangelethian," I said, "you both may come with us. We are grateful for your help and enjoy your friendship. You will greatly shorten our traveling time, but I must ask a favor. Can we please call you two Darna and Thorny? Your names are lovely but so hard for us humans to pronounce."

arna replied, "That will be fine. Excuse us so we may take our human forms.

or roared and raised his battle hammer. When I looked his way I saw Darna was a faerie elf, with long flowing silver hair and beautiful piercing blue eyes, wearing the common clothing of the elves of her race. Looking at Thorny, my eyes widened. He was a drow elf! White hair, ebony skin and brightly lit red eyes. I noticed Gorsh holding onto Kor. I rushed over to see what was wrong. Kor said, "Drow killed my family, I must avenge their deaths." Fearing a battle, I said, "Hold and let us hear what Thorny has to say." Kor nodded slightly.

horny said, "I am drow, but I do not follow the Way of Lloth, nor any other. I do as I please. We do not know why Darna and I are not more alike, we were born of the same mother. If any of you have a problem with the way I look we can get this over with, I can kill you now and eat you later!"

" o, Thorny," I said smoothly, "We do not have any problems with the way you look, we were just taken aback at your appearance. Your drow powers may be needed and welcomed gladly."

" ome," said Silverast finally speaking, "we must venture to yon temple and find one of Deneirs' priests."

e walked silently west towards Riatavin, and found the temple with no problem. We all entered the temple except the dragons and found a high priest kneeling at the altar. He looked up at our entrance and said, "How can I be of service to you good people?"

  found myself telling the priest all about my childhood and about the Angelfire I used. Then requested his help in finding the information I needed. The priest knelt in front of the altar and prayed to Deneir. Shortly he stood up and faced us and said, "Savaras the All-Seeing God gave such powers to a mortal once. If you are indeed a descendent of his, you must seek proof that you are a true descendent. Bring this proof to Deneir in the plane Beastlands. If you should succeed, only then will he give you the knowledge you seek. I have heard of a shrine to Savaras in a place called Candlekeep. You may find your proof there if it be Deneirs will." With those words the priest knelt and continued his praying.

e left the temple and met up with the dragons and explained to them what we discovered. "We must go to Candlekeep and find this shrine to Savaras so that I may have the proof I need!" I exclaimed excitedly. Darna and Thorny took dragon form and Darna asked Gorsh, "Would you like to ride me this time Gorshy?" Gorsh groaned and said, "No thanks!" I whispered to Gorsh, "What's wrong?" He whispered back, "When nobody was looking Darna would pinch me and rub against me. If she wasn't dragon, maybe. I think I will take my chances on Thorny". Kor mounted Darna, then held a hand out to lift me up and said "Come Aerlinn, let us fly on to Candlekeep".

hortly we arrived just east of Candlekeep. The dragons left to take elven form. Suddenly we were surrounded by ogre's. They leapt out from their hiding place and began to throw stones. One caught Kor square in the back of his head and knocked him down. Gorsh saw Kor fall and rushed to his aid, then hollered, "Spell up!" Silverast cast protection spells on all of us and I rushed over behind Gorsh to heal Kor so he could rejoin the battle. An ogre mage had started casting fireball spells towards us. Kor stood and roared, "The mage is mine!"

hen the two dragons reappeared in elf form, one of the ogres saw Thorny and yelled to the others "A drow! A drow! A drow!" The ogres took off just as quickly as they appeared. We started laughing after Thorny told us what they yelled. He just grunted and walked off. He noticed something shining and went to investigate. The ogres knocked some stones loose with their hasty retreat and he found a gemstone wedged under the pile. When he bent to pick it up, more rocks tumbled down on top of him. We all rushed over to help and I noticed that some of the rocks were gems sparkling in the sunlight. Thorny cried, "They are mine! I found them first!" He gathered them all up and placed them in a leather pouch.

eading west, just south of the river Chionthar, we saw a cluster of towers perched on volcanic rock. When we arrived at Candlekeep, we headed towards the largest tower which housed the great library. We all entered, including the dragons. A tower sage approached us and asked, "How can I be of help?" After explaining to him my story he then replied, "Thirty nine years ago a woman was here and asked the same questions. There is a scroll that must be read and this scroll is reported to tell how to open and read the book. This woman could read it, but she was unable to remove the warding from around the book. Thus not being able to bring Deneir proof to gain the knowledge she desired." The sage gave the scroll to me and I could feel the magic. I handed it to Silverast, and asked for his help. He does a detect magic spell and realized that the scroll was warded with glyphs and runes. The scroll read:


he sage pointed to the center of the room and there was a book set on top a pedestal that was surrounded by soft glowing lights.

ilverast walked toward the book and was thrown back by unseen magic. "What did you see? What does it mean?", we asked in unison.

fter several hours of discussion, we came up with a possible meaning. Silverast said, "The two dragons and myself must unite. Please hold hands but no one must touch the book." He motioned for me to stand in front of the three of them and wait until the magic was dispelled to open the book.

ilverast then placed his hand on top of Darna and Thorny's entwined hands, holding tight and chanted the spell. His hold on the dragon's hands began to slip, he held on tighter, stronger, he recited the final words. The room blazed ever brightly, and I stepped forward and placed my hands on the book. My hands trembled as I slowly opened the cover and began reading.

xcerpt from the book:

During the times of trouble when I, Savaras, was walking among mortals. I fell in love with a beautiful woman. Her name was Demimora, and she was a beautiful petite lady with long blond hair. Her green eyes sparkled with specs of gold. I found out Demimora was with child and knew I could not live with her in the mortal world. Feeling guilty for having to leave her, I gave her a part of my magic. This magic is an all healing power and will be passed down to all first born daughters of my beloved. I call it Angelfire. I found out later that my Demimora died in labor giving birth to a female child. I do not know what became of this child. I would so dearly have loved to see her grow. Since Demimora died before she could tell her child of this magic, I fear it may become dormant for many years. Should any one of my descendants discover this magic within them, they must seek out the God Deneir. He is the only other besides myself that has knowledge of Angelfire. Bring this book with you as proof of being a descendent to me.

here is a portal located in the caverns below. Little help can I give you in your task, for there is a testing in its accomplishment. Seek it out and speak these words "Usstan darthiir sargtlin faern". Touch the rune that glows and then say "Draa Abbil's". The Portal will then take you and any who enter with you to the plane Beastlands.

ootnote in spidery script, Looked like it was added later:

>

Savaras the All-Seeing God. At one time he was as powerful as Azuth and was worshiped by the same people, namely mages, but these two contended and Savaras fell. These words he left should any of his descendants survive.

  closed the book and took it in my arms with tears streaming down my face and whispered, "We are almost there."

eaving the tower we began heading out of Candlekeep with each of us deep in thought of where the portal could be. All except Thorny who began chanting softly "I have gems and you don't. Beautiful gems, sparkly gems, I have gems and you don't" over and over again. Darna whopped him on side the head and said, "Be quiet, we need to figure this out." Thorny glared at her and said, "I know of a portal that may be the one mentioned, all you had to do is ask!" We stopped. Thorny said, "it was odd, but those magic words were drow. There has to be some meaning behind it. This portal is nine days travel from Menzoberranzan and is well guarded by them. I can lead us there, but we will need help. He looked Kor and Gorsh up and down and said, "big they may be, but not good enough to handle these drow!" There is a drow town not far from here called Eryndlyn. It's located in a hidden cave somewhere in the High Moor. Perhaps we can find help from drow that follow Vhaeraun."

or tensed up at the mention of more drow. I whispered to him "Your time for revenge will come."

or nodded then stated: "I've recently had reason to study the drow. While I don't like the idea of trusting these people, the followers of Vhaeraun may be a good idea. From what I've learned I believe they would love to help us defeat the followers of Lloth." Kor glanced over at Thoney as he rubbed a gem. Then said "If we had something of value to pay them, then I know they would help."

orsh said, "Those gems that Thorny found look like black sapphires and are a favorite among the drow, they are very valuable and would be perfect.

horny argued, "These are mine! I found them!" Darna threw her hands up in disgust and went over to Thorny and said, "You WILL let them have those gems. Remember, when this quest is over, we are going home. I will make you regret this if you don't cooperate." Thorny said "I will let you use some of them but I get to hold them. Since I am drow, I will be the one they will talk to any way," Darna sighed and said, "Fine you can keep some of them, but give me the rest now, I would like Gorsh to hold them." Thorny reluctantly handed most of the gems to Gorsh.

or muttered, "Greedy bastard".

e moved on and with the dragons help reached the caverns entrance very quickly. Gorsh removed the concealing screen of brush piled before the mouth.

horny said, "If the mage here can cast infravision, it would be best we travel with no light. Silence is very important. I can teach you some basic hand signals, but some kind of spell needs to be cast on the big guys to lighten their steps, you can hear them walking from miles away." Thorny snickered, causing both warriors to take a step towards him. I sighed and said, "Let's please get started".

fter the spells were cast, Thorny lead us in, descending slowly, with Kor just behind him and with Gorsh at the rear watching for a possible attack. Thorny walked silently ahead listening for creatures to avoid them. He lead us along a confusing network of tunnels, with a sure sense of confidence.

any miles later we stopped to rest in a large chamber. Thorny took this time and taught me the pronounciation of the drow words and what they stood for. Meanwhile, some creatures had flew silently into the overhead space above us and hung motionless in the air, and formed a ring around our camp. Gorsh noticed them and rushed over to us and whispered excitedly, "look up! There are flying manta rays! Prepare for battle!" Darna walked up to Gorsh and placed a hand on his shoulder and told him, "These are sinister deep bats and they are merely curious about us. If we do not attack, they will even help us. They communicate telepathically and if we can peak their interest may even help us find other drow more quickly."

horny (mind reading) said, "They will help us. Now lets hope the first drow we find are not followers of Lloth!"

" ome" I said "Let us continue on our journey."

horny took the lead again. After several hours, true to their word, the bats warned Thorny of others in a cavern nearby. He snuck up close and read their minds and determined that they were indeed followers of Vhaeraun.

horny said, "Darna, cast a spell of illusion to make everyone appear drow, but let me go and talk to them alone first and see if they are willing to help. Hopefully we can gain their trust before the spell wears off".

horny returned to us with thirty drow following, then signaled for Gorsh to give them half the gems. He said, "They will help, but do not give them all the gems until we reach the portal."

fter several days travel with only a few minor skirmishes, we finally neared the portals' location. One of the drow scouts returned and said, "We could detect about twenty fighters guarding the portals' entrance. This should be no problem. We will keep them busy and you just go on to the portal. This shall be quite fun."

orsh handed the remaining gems to the drow. They signaled their farewell and rushed in to do battle with the other drow. It was a very impressive site. A deadly silent battle. I could see the look on Kor's face, he wanted to join them badly.

eanwhile, Silverast began to cast invisibility on all of us, as we ran toward the portal. It was set into the wall like a glowing door with runes carved around its edge shaped in a half circle. Silverast was able to determine that each rune represented a different plane. I was afraid because if I spoke the words wrong there would be no telling where it would send us.

or asked, "Can't I just kill one?"

" o", Silverast replied, "The invisibility would wear off and we can't give away our location, but I understand your feelings."

  said "With Thorny's help to understand these words, these seem the logical steps to take. The first four words represent myself, a faerie elf, a drow and a wizard. We must hold hands as I speak these words. The next two words mean two trusted friends, who must place their hands on top of mine once the rune glows." I smiled over at Kor and Gorsh, letting them know they were indeed, trusted friends.

  said a quick prayer to Deneir, then opened the book to recite the magic words. We four joined hands as I uttered the words, "Usstan darthiir sargtlin faern". The forth rune started to glow brightly and drew the attention of a few drow near by. I quickly placed my hand on the glowing rune, along with my two barbarian friends and spoke the last words "Draa Abbil's. The rune glowed even brighter. The invisibility wore off just as we entered, and landed somewhere in the plane Beastlands. Just before the rune dimed one renegade drow followed us through. We all looked Kor's way and Gorsh said, "He's all yours".

he drow was a good fighter, but was no match for Kor, who poured out all his built up rage over losing his family. The fight was soon over. Kor said "That felt good, thanks."

  looked around and saw evergreen forests and a what looked like a temple far off to the north. It took us a few hours to reach it, and we discovered the building was in fact a massive library. After several attempts to enter, we were not successful. A minion of Deneir's finally came out and spoke to us. I told him why we were there and showed him the book. He told us, "Wait here", closed the door and left us outside.

uddenly I felt myself floating in the air and heard these words in my mind, "Someone demands your presence NOW!" Then I was transported suddenly into Deneir's throne room. I was all alone.

  gazed around and saw large bookcases lining all four walls filled with books of lore and literature. To the far end of the room was a throne with a large oaken table before it. Not knowing what to do, I knelt down and began a prayer to Deneir.

uddenly I heard the voice again. It said "Stand my child, I have been waiting for you. Each member of your party was needed to succeed. You did well in your efforts to keep them together. Now please place the book on the table, as it must be returned to the shrine of Savaras."

stood and walked over to the table and placed the book down. It disappeared immediately. Folding my hands nervously I whispered, "Can you help me my Lord?"

" es, my child" the voice said "I will help you. Because of the unusual circumstances of your parentage, you and your descendants will live twice the normal human lifespan. Were you slow maturing little one? You now know the reason. Within you lies dormant an ability far beyond those around you, and in time you will come to know it well. First let me show you the day Savaras gave this magic to Demimora. Kneel before my altar and close your eyes. Do not be alarmed, for it is just a vision of the past."

oing as he commanded, I knelt at the altar feeling very nervous. Suddenly my head began to spin and swirling colors danced behind my eyes. Then what seemed like right before me two people materialized.

he woman was lovely, much more beautiful than I. She was smaller and darker of color. Otherwise we were much alike.

he man had his back towards me and was kneeling before her, rubbing absently at her rounding belly. Then he spoke. "Little one, spark of my life that kicks inside my beloved. Now that the moment is here, I do not know how to say what I must. Let me assure you that you were conceived in love. How will you see me child? I did not desert you willingly. Since my time as a mortal must end, I would give you a part of myself. Receive this magic from me, that I will call Angelfire. As my beloved angel has sparked a fire in my heart that will burn for all time."

aking Demimora's hand he gazed up at her and said, "This magic within you is an all healing magic to keep you and your loved ones safe. You must learn to find the weave of magic that is only yours. Look deep into your mind. You must enter the plane of subconsciousness. Concentrate fully on the one whom is in need of your healing. Once the tingling inside you reaches your hands, reach over to touch the injured one. A white fire will erupt from your fingertips and enter into them, healing them fully."

he last thing I saw before the vision cleared was Demimora nestled in crook of his arms, tears streaming down her face.

lowly they begin to fade away, but I heard Savaras say, "should you have troubles and I am not able to help, look to Deneir for guidance, for he is one you can trust to lead you true."

  opened my eyes which were moist from tears, then heard the voice once more. "What Savaras hadn't counted on was the Angelfire invoking on its own in times of great stress. This is what happened to your mother and her mother before during childbirth. They were unable to control this magic. Now this is what you must do. Go to a place that you will not be disturbed. Sit quietly and meditate to find your weave of magic, concentrate fully on Angelfire. Once the tingling begins, place your hands on yourself and let the magic find you and become a part of you. You will feel it burning within you to escape, but you must persevere and control it. Once this is accomplished you will be able to invoke Angelfire with only a fleeting thought. Practice it my child, your life could very well depend on it."

he room brightened and I blinked my eyes several times to get used to the light again. Deneir said, "Now you have the knowledge you need. Learn all you can of this world, and your wisdom with grow with time. In your travels you will be a revered and virtous errant novice of wisdom, and I see in you great promise. Go child with my blessings. I will transport you and your companions to any destination. Tell me and it will be so."

  was transported back to my friends. We discussed where to go for a few minutes and Silverast said, "Waterdeep." Everyone agreed.

" o be it" said Deneir, and we were transported east of Waterdeep.

fter I explained to everyone what I learned, and knowing the journey was over, I gave every one a hug. I said, "I will miss you all very much, I could never have done it without your help."

fter teary goodbyes Silverast headed west into the city of Waterdeep. Kor and Gorsh offered to escort me back to my foster parents. Gorsh said, "This way if you fall into any pits along the way....." not finishing as he was remembering how we met. Kor laughed, "Yeah." I agreed.

horny looked over at Kor and blew a little steam and said, "While I still don't like you, I've learned though our travels that perhaps all you humans are not bad. Should you ever need to enter the Underdark again, you know where I am."

arna thanked us for a wonderful adventure, then whispered softly, "while he won't admit it, his pain is much like yours Kor. It was a drow from Menzoberranzan that raped and left our mother for dead. Your quest Aerlinn, was something they both needed". Darna joined Thorny and they began their flight home.

orsh, Kor and I started companionably to my home.