Company Log, 14th and 15th Snow, 802

We made our plans. The shroud we were smuggling into the Michaeline monastery was worth a fortune, richly embroidered with thread of pure gold. It was very heavy, so we determined that Elensul should carry it once we were inside, in the meantime, Stephen would put it into his pack of holding. We were taken to the temple of Saint Mathias by Tamara, a beautiful Angelican priestess. She reminds me of a crisp winter breeze, with her crystalline blue eyes. Fara reminded us that she has spent a huge amount of church money and her efforts must be kept from the Michaelines until the resurrection magic is complete. She is putting herself in great danger to accomplish this task.

As the fare at the Wind Shrine is usually simple to the point of being meager, we were surprised when Fara laid a sumptuous feast before us. There were cushions and rugs for us to recline upon and truly marvelous food. Fara informed us that it was a heroes feast and that for 12 hours after we would be immune to poison and be more skilled at attacking and less afeared if something frightening came upon us. We were grateful for it later, I can assure you. As the sky turned from blue to gold to red to purple, we made final preparations for our trip. The stars were gorgeous, and since the moon was new, there was no competition for their shimmering. We heard a faint hunting horn on the breeze as Fara said a blessing over us, asking Raphael to protect us. Tamara smiled and began to sing. Immediately a breeze sprang up, and we were swept up into the sky, floating as leaves in a stream. We did not fly directly over Bliss due to the warding magic there, a good thing to remember. Blackhawk spotted a large winged form above us, a dragon of indeterminate color. It roared and flew off toward the south. Below us, the countryside flashed by. We could just pick out Arbor and Grantham's Bowl. Five or so miles further, we saw a mass of candle light and knew that this must be the amphitheater of the monastery. There was a mountain range at the far end of the compound, and cells seemed to be built into the side of the closest cliff face. We slowed down and softly alit in the southeast corner of the complex, inside of a 30 foot tall wall. Luckily there were no sentries on this night, or things would have gone ill for us. The ruined chapel was before us, so we cautiously entered. I cast Rary's telepathic bond on all of us so that we could communicate in silence, and we began our task in earnest. A quick description of the chapel now. It was relatively clean, as if the rubble that must be constantly falling were often removed. The structure itself seemed quite unstable and there were large holes here and there in the walls. In the center was an altar, and a statue of an angel. The head and part of the torso were missing, and the wings were chipped, but the sword it brandished was still awe inspiring. Tamara stood before the altar and closed her eyes, clenched her fists and began to mutter under her breath. A ball of light formed at the top of the sword, growing brighter and brighter until I feared we would be found out. Then it dimmed and Tamara asked if it would guide us. It reminded me of Djerdederick. It bobbed over to the area where we had entered and there in the floor was a tomb. Blackhawk, Elensul and I moved the slab off of it and we left it canted a bit when we replaced it to make our way down, hoping that we would be able to tell if there were intruders when we returned. We went down several flights of stairs, past frescos of Michael smiting evil and finally into a chamber with stained glass windows, each embellished with an angel with a sword and some writing that near as I could tell said something about keeping evil at bay. The chamber was lit with magical flames that produced neither smoke nor heat. Tamara led us to a gate whose bronze doors were sculpted with angels, holding real swords, handles like flames. Stephen gave the shroud to Elensul as Tamara hit the doors three times with her staff. The sound was deafening and echoed for long moments. She then pointed her staff at the doors and the small ball of light slammed hard into them and they opened. A rotating ring of flame was inside of the room, with writing upon it that none of us could decipher. Tamara began to sing again an the small ball of light began to spin round the room in counterpoint to the ring. As it slowed down, we saw that a portal had opened and Tamara bade us to follow her. One by one we carefully descended through the ring, careful to avoid the flames. There was an odd twisting feeling as we went through into a great white marble chamber with massive steps leading to a giant with wings and a flaming broadsword that must have been at least 18 feet long! As we were fixed by his gaze, we noticed that there was a delicate silver gate behind him. As we planned, Stephen spoke for the party, he and Tamara and Elensul ahead and Raven, Blackhawk and I a discrete distance behind. The eyes of the figure were like looking into the sun, and he was wreathed in white flame. Stephen walked quite close to the figure and said "Greetings Guardian." The angel looked then at Stephen. Stephen bravely said, "We seek to pass the gate." He then introduced each member of the party. Stephen said he felt as if he might catch fire from the gaze. He said "We wish to find the tomb of Saint Mathias and exchange this shroud for the one of his burial. We seek to lift the ban on resurrection magic and this is the path we have chosen." Elensul held the shroud up and the golden threads shimmered in the light of the flames. The angel looked at each of us and there was a sense that we were being judged, like he was looking at our spirits with a bright light. He did not speak. 'May we have your permission to pass? To do this deed?" Stephen asked. No response. "We assure you that we will treat his remains with the utmost respect due to such a pious man, the replacement shroud is the finest that money could buy. While we understand that the ban on resurrection was requested, it has put us at a disadvantage. The forces of darkness use necromantic magic to raise their champions, but we have no way to raise our valiant dead to counter them." The angel was like a statue, only his eyes moved, closing ever so slightly. We discussed what this could mean and decided that since this was a mortal affair, that the angel would not involve himself either way, either to help, or to hinder us. With another bow, Stephen assured the angel that we would do nothing to profane the place or Saint Mathias. We began to pass by and the angel spread his wings and there was suddenly a strong hot breeze. We passed through the gate into a marble hallway. Tamara and the little ball of light once more led the way and stopped before a plain door which Tamara rapped with her staff. It opened onto a narrow corridor that led to an octagonal room made of honey coloured marble, in the center of which was a spiral staircase going down. At the bottom, we passed many doors and hallways, finally ending at a fenced tomb. Tamara touched the gate with her staff and it opened. We were in Saint Mathias' tomb. We prayed as we moved the slab that we would be allowed to do the task we had been sent to do. The bones of the saint were wrapped in a shroud of fine gold fabric. We realized that the outer shroud of linen must have disintegrated over the centuries. A voice came out of the air, "Who disturbs my rest?" We introduced ourselves and the voice said, "Yes, I see the Fox blood in you. Why do you disturb me?" Stephen explained once more that we sought to take his shroud to the Wind Shrine so that the guardian there could restore resurrection magic to the world. Saint Mathias said, "They offered that magic to me, but I thought it was wrong. I don't mind, I never liked the shroud anyway. Take it and go with my blessing. But remember, there will be a price to pay, not to me, but to others in my name." Stephen agreed and Elensul began to move the bones and remove the shroud, and Stephen replaced it with the new one. It didn't feel haunted or disturbing in any way so we were reassured that the Saint was at peace with our actions. Raven prayed and Stephen sang, but replacing the cover of the sarcophagus went badly and it was cracked. Raven cast stone shape to repair it and then things began to unravel. There was a breeze and a faint moaning sound. Tamara said we should probably go. We pelted down the halls as quickly as possible, but at the stairs we were met by a figure with fiery wings. It said it sensed the presence of foreign powers and asked what we were doing there. Stephen told it what we had done and it said that the Michaelines would be aware of what had transpired and that we should go quickly. We ran as fast as we possibly could and found the silver gate closed and the angel standing astride the steps with the sword over his head. He looked at us, but made no move to stop us as we ran past, just continued to look around as if he expected something to be following us. Tamara quickly opened the portal when we reached the room and we stepped back through into the tomb. As we moved toward the door, the ball of light zipped back to us, somehow managing to indicate that there was danger ahead. We were startled to hear voices. "You can't imagine what a pleasure it is, your eminence, to have you here." "I've always planned to come here, I've never been through the veil before." The second voice had a cultured Alyusian or Ardanian accent. We held our breaths as the voices moved off toward the cathedral. Tamara looked at the sky and said with relief "There's still time." She began to sing and we were once more lifted by the wind into the winter night. We could see the two distant figures walking sedately toward the cathedral and then suddenly, two figures sprinted toward them from the amphitheater. I know not what their errand was, but I fear that it concerned us. We flew back to the Wind Shrine, hoping that we weren't leaving a trail that led straight to Sister Fara.

Respectfully submitted by Maxfield Jaden Fox