"Brisid? Deally?" Coraven called into pitch black. After calming his chattering teeth, he managed to mumble a glowlamp spell, and light spilled out around him. They were in a tremendously large, dusty, and freezing room. It was so large that light didn't reach the surrounding walls but only made a dim circle on the ground. The floor was made of a dark green marble. His two companions lay on the ground beside him. Checking on Deallyona, he found she had a high fever and could not be roused. He then knelt by Brisid, and after a minute of nudging and calling, woke up the Bladesinger.

"It's so cold in here! We need a fire, or these wet clothes will be our deaths," Brisid whispered, rubbing his hands together in an effort to warm them.

A circle of fire jumped up around the three elves. "I am ever so eager to please," an evil, deep voice echoed. Looking around, the elves saw the skeletal visage of a dracolich appear beyond the flames. In its eye sockets glowed balls of blue ice. As with all dracoliches, dragons which had defied death and become undead, only the skeleton remained, increasing their fearsome appearance. "Whatever you wish, I obey," taunted the dracolich. Rising to its full height, its head almost disappeared but for its shiny white fangs. They could not see the dracolich's entire body, but from the height of its head, it was at least two-hundred feet long. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am Inthealos, spell-casting dracolich extraordinaire. You can call me Inthy. Don't worry, I mean you no harm, yet. I am just terribly lonely in this abode of mine," he said and raised a claw to his head, feigning emotion.

"Where do we stand?" asked Brisid hesitantly, beginning to sweat from the intense fire. It was going to take a lot more than a fireballs and lightning bolts to defeat this monster.

"You are about a mile beneath the mansion, standing in my... reception chamber." Peering closely at the elves, the dracolich noticed Deallyona's still form. "Aw," Inthy purred, "Is Deally sick? That's not good." Before either of the elves could respond, the dracolich cast a spell. A small orb of blue energy flew from above their heads and plunged into Deallyona. Coraven watched the spell in horror and turned to the dracolich.

"What have you done, you overgrown pile of rotten bones?" He yelled.

"Oh, such hateful words to your faithful servant!" Inthy responded teasingly. "I just cast a healing spell on your lady-elf. See for yourself."

Groaning behind him caught Coraven's attention. He knelt by Deallyona who slowly regained consciousness. She first saw her brother and started to ask their whereabouts when she saw the dracolich behind him.

"Look out!" she screamed and scrambled up, unsheathing her sword.

"Oooh! What a pretty toy!" Inthy declared after examining Deallyona's blade. "Are you going to poke me with it, Deally? Go ahead. Poke me! I dare ya!" He taunted and stuck his huge snout within arms reach. Up close they could see they stood taller only slightly more than the dracolich's skull. After hesitating a second, Deallyona swung her sword into the bone dragon with a loud clang. She gasped in pain and dropped the sword as the shock reached her hands. The dracolich withdrew his head. "Too bad your toy's not magical. You might've actually chipped my nose." Deallyona looked up and yelled some very unladylike curses. The beast admonished her, "You shouldn't speak such things. I will forgive you, however."

"What are you going to do with us, Inthy?" asked Brisid.

"Well, seeing that you are such insignificant little things that I could squash with my pinkie finger-if I had a pinkie finger, that is-I propose a game." Coraven cursed under his breath. Any game a dracolich proposed could not be good.

"Now you're probably thinking you won't like any game a dracolich suggests, but I'm different than other dracoliches! I'm going to give you a game you in which you have a chance, albeit a very minor chance, of winning."

"Spit it out," said Coraven, wondering if the dracolich had read his mind.

"Oh, it's a very simple game. I set you free to roam the mansion above. I assume you're going to try to get to the clock tower. I will wait five of your minutes and then try to find you. If I find you, then I'll kill you. Slowly. If you succeed in your task of ending Alleria's little plague, which I doubt you will, you are free to leave unharmed. You couldn't wish for a more exhilarating game!

"Any questions?" Inthy asked.

"What if we don't want to play?" Coraven asked.

"Oh, obviously, you die," the dracolich responded nonchalantly. "Any more questions?"

"By any chance, ye could tell us how to get to the clock tower?" wondered Brisid.

"Well, since I've made a few changes in the floor layouts, I'll tell you. It's that way," the dracolich said, pointing to a door which appeared just outside the ring of fire."

"Any more questions? No? Then let the game begin!" the dracolich said gleefully, dispelling the fire ring. "You have five minutes. Better make the best of it!"

Hesitating only a second, the three elves quickly opened the door and stepped through. They found themselves inside the front door of the mansion. Coraven tried the door behind them.

"Locked," he muttered.

Deallyona looked around the room. A chandelier of glowlamps hung from the ceiling. The walls were made of the same green marble as Inthy's "reception chamber." Doors lined the sides of the room, and a larger door stood in front of them. Deallyona wondered aloud how Inthy, with his tremendous size, could fit in the rooms to find them.

A voice rumbled from beneath them, shaking paintings from the walls. "I may not stay in the form you've seen me in. Oh, and before I forget, there is another group of elves looking for you. I'm playing a similar game with them. If they manage to kill you three, they live. Four minutes and thirty seconds," the dracolich teased.

"Our best choice would seem the center door," suggested Brisid. The other two, lacking suggestions of their own, agreed. They readied their weapons. Brisid cast a missile shield and stood in front of the door. Deallyona stood a few feet behind him with her bow drawn. At Brisid's nod, Coraven pulled the door open and moved away. Brisid was glad of their precautions as an arrow bounced off his invisible barrier. Raising his free hand, he tossed a dozen magic missiles into the room. When all was silent, he cast a light ball into the room, illuminating a few luxurious padded chairs, a table with a model of a city atop it, and the slouched form of a dead gray elf.

The three walked into the room, watching for any more threats. Deallyona examined the model on the table. It was an exact model of Alleria, she remarked. Brisid approached the body. The dead elf had twelve smoking holes across his body.

"Perhaps a dozen magic missiles was overkill," Brisid reflected grimly.

A tall figure stepped out from the shadows. "You will pay for killing my son," said the new person. Deallyona turned to launch an arrow but found she couldn't move. She saw her brother was in the same state. Brisid felt the effects of a holding spell taking place but managed to shrug them off. He was curious about the new stranger though and decided to play his own little game by remaining motionless.

"Aren't you going to ask who I am? Oh, of course! You can't talk, courtesy of that hold spell," the figure said, stepping forward into the light. The owner of the voice was a middle-aged gray elf, dressed in a dark cloak and ring mail and twirling a rapier in one hand. He turned to Brisid and spoke slowly and deeply, "Brisid, I am your father!" He broke his composure. "Oh, you can't imagine how long I've been waiting to say that!" Brisid struggled to contain his reaction. "Yes, I am Rithyll. Isn't it shocking to find out your father is also your enemy? I can see it in your eyes. I wonder, do you want to hug me or kill me?

"Hug you?" Brisid thought to himself. "Why would I hug you, you slimy piece of..."

"Here's another surprise. I'd like you to meet your sister, Lorianna." Another figure stepped out of the shadows.

A tall elf walked into the glowlamp's range. Lorianna had a slim, almost fragile appearance. Over her shoulders spilled dark brown hair, the same tint as Brisid's. She wore a simple tunic and a gray cloak, which, when she moved, revealed numerous pouches hanging about her-the mark of a mage. Brisid had wondered who had cast the hold spell. Rithyll, being an Allerian fighter, could not cast such powerful spells.

"Vedui', brother. I've been wanting to meet you for quite awhile." She circled his still body while she spoke. "When I heard you were a Bladesinger... Certainly no minor feat! I applaud your achievements. You would have made our family proud-if you weren't against us. Unfortunately, you are the enemy, so you must die, dear brother. And you killed my half-brother, Taulin. Heh, I suppose he's your half-brother too?"

As if on cue, Taulin's missile-burnt figure groaned and started to rise. Rithyll turned and ran to Taulin.

"You're alive!" Brisid's father said excitedly.

"No!" Taulin raised his head. Rithyll looked into his son's eyes and saw only ice-blue orbs. "Time's up!" the elf declared and whipped a dagger across Rithyll's throat. The older elf fell to the ground, suffocating. "I told you I wouldn't be in the same form!" The elf grinned.

Lorianna jumped back. "Inthealos!"

"Inthy, my dear, Inthy," the dracolich-in-disguise corrected as Lorianna cast a stinking cloud over him. Inthy stumbled out of the cloud, coughing. Lorianna drew her dagger to strike the monster but stopped in mid-swing, frozen under a hold spell.

"I can cast spells too, Lorianna!" teased the disguised dracolich. "Did you know Taulin was training to become a Bladesinger just like your first brother? Yes, I was surprised too when I discovered it. But no matter. Back to business." He pulled a long dagger from his belt and stabbed Lorianna's biceps. He pulled it out and poked the elf again, this time in her thigh. "Don't you wish you could scream, my dear?"

While the dracolich was occupied with butchering his sister, Brisid quietly cast dispel, freeing Deallyona and Coraven from the hold spell. He cast a minor globe of invulnerability around himself and told them to get to the clock tower.

Brisid had noticed Inthy had suffered the effects of Lorianna's stinking cloud. The dracolich had the same weaknesses as his assumed form-a common polymorphism disadvantage, Brisid recalled. He quickly prepared a few of his more destructive spells.