Disclaimer: this is the last time i'm putting up a disclaimer, i think four times is more than enough times to say that i don't own dungeons & dragons or the world of Faerun, only the characters and some new places that i made up.

Sephirothxx - I'm glad you liked the spellcasting, it's one of my favorite things to describe. if you like graycloak, as do i, then i might make him play a more important role later on.

Valmoth Galvador - Thanks for pointing that out, i forgot that i made reference to it faerun in chapter one.

Anbu713 - The rouge doesn't come in for a little while yet and he's only going to be a rouge, but in my next fic i'll make the rouge a rouge/monk.

And now on to Chapter 4.

Chapter 4

The End of the Trials

"Is this where the trial takes place?" Thamior asked as he, Nexal, and Graycloak stepped through the portal to find a lake and pretty much nothing else. They were on a plain that seemed to stretch forever without so much as a single tree or rock dotting the horizon.

"Yep, this is the place," Nexal replied as Graycloak made a sound that sounded a lot like laughter. "I'll meet you at the end after you've gotten the item."

"Ok," but before Thamior could finish the simple word Nexal and Graycloak had already vanished. "Well, this should be rather interesting."

Thamior laid his quarterstaff down on the ground and sat down next to it to think about what he would do next.

OoOoOoOo

"Do you think he'll actually figure this one out?" Graycloak asked when they were back in Nexal's little shack.

"It's really not that difficult to figure out, it's just a matter of how many spells will he waste on this one before he figures it out."

OoOoOoOo

'Well, it doesn't look like I have to search this plain for the item so that only leaves the lake. It's a damn good thing I decided to prepare this spell just incase.' And with this thought Thamior fell right into spellcasting.

After some wild hand motions and the mutterings of the unintelligible arcane syllables the spell was complete. Though to any onlooker it appeared that the spell had no effect, but boy were they wrong.

With the spell now complete Thamior jumped right into the lake, and quickly found out that the water was a lot colder than he expected. But the cold water did not stop him from continuing; he was determined to get whatever item was at the end of this 'maze.' The next thing Thamior noticed was that the waters were very dark.

He activated the ring that allowed him to see in the dark, but it only made the water seem blurry. So he quickly went back to spellcasting, this time though the effect was obvious. When the spell was complete the tip of his quarterstaff was glowing brightly with an inner light that illuminated everything in front of the young mage.

With a source of light and the ability to breath underwater Thamior started swimming into the depths of the lake. The bottom of the lake seemed to be an unnaturally long distance away.

Thamior took to looking all around him once he realized that the bottom of the lake was so far away, hoping that his spell didn't wear off before he found wherever it was that he needed to go. And it's a good thing that he was too.

After a while of swimming down Thamior noticed that the shadows were different off to his left. So he changed the direction he was swimming in and headed to his left instead of going straight down. 'This must be it. It's the only damn cave I've seen yet,' he thought as he headed into the little cave. Still submerged in water Thamior began to wonder just how long he'd been swimming. 'I sure hope it hasn't been as long as it feels like or I'm going to end up drowning in this godforsaken cave.'

He'd been swimming along the cave for what felt like five minutes, but you can't exactly tell time underwater so it could have been more or less. But at least the water level in the cave seemed to be decreasing to the point where Thamior would be able to breath without the help of his spell. Speaking of which, Thamior could feel a familiar tingle going through his body that he knew very well. 'This could be bad. If I don't find an air pocket soon I'm gonna be up shit's creek without a paddle,' Thamior thought laughing to himself at well the joke fit his situation, then adding to it so it fit even better, 'Or a boat.'

The water level was decreasing fast now, but so was Thamior's water breathing spell. This left him in a rather bad situation. A magical surge went straight through Thamior's body, the very same feeling he got whenever he cast a spell on himself. Only this time it meant that the spell's effect was gone.

Thamior held his breath, and prayed that the water would decrease faster. He wasn't used to holding his breath underwater for very long so he knew that he didn't have much time. His feet were pounding up and down in the water propelling him faster. Thamior held his staff up as high as he could so that he could see farther down the cave tunnel.

His lungs were burning for more oxygen and he could feel his heart beat in his ears.

And then he saw it, the tunnel opened up into a much larger room. Thamior only hoped that the cavern was not submerged in water as well. He tucked his quarterstaff into his belt so that he could use his arms to aid his feet.

The cavern was only another three feet.

Two feet.

One foot.

Thamior was beginning to feel light headed now as he angled his body so that he was swimming upward. With a loud splash that echoed throughout the cavern Thamior broke the surface of the water. Luckily the water level was the same height as the water level in the cave tunnel.

Thamior's vision was becoming blurry and his legs were too tired to keep him afloat. Luckily the intense training Thamior had done to sharpen his mind kept his brain functioning in the brief seconds before he blacked out. With his remaining time he took his quarterstaff from his belt and used it to keep his head above the water.

OoOoOoOo

"Master, we have yet to find the boy," a fully-grown man stammered through shaking fits. The man was looking at a throne made of bones topped off by a small dragon skull at the top giving it a rather eerie look. But that wasn't what had shaken the man so thoroughly; it was in fact the man sitting in the throne. He was masked by shadows that should not have been there.

When no reply came the man seemed to clam a bit as he backed away a few steps.

"DO NOT MOVE!" bellowed the figure in shadows as he rose from his throne. The shadows still clung to his body as he walked forward towards the man, who was shaking so bad you would think he was having a fit of random spasms.

The figure, which looked to be the size of a human, was right in front of the cowering man it stopped. The unnatural shadows still clinging to it.

After a dramatic pause the figure dropped the shadow, revealing itself to the frightened man.

The man let out a scream at the sight of his master and fell to his knees.

The man's master was definitely not human. It was a bipedal tiger dressed in expensive black robes. But that was not the most disturbing part about this creature. The fact that its palms were where the backs of a human's hand would be was the most nerving thing about this creature; this was the thing that frightened most people.

"M-m-m-master, please, it's not my fault. I just deliver the message," the man stammered.

"I don't care what you do! It's been ten years and Commander Blare still hasn't found this damn kid. Not to mention the fact that I gave him command of two hundred soldiers and five of my personal apprentices. Tell your commander that if he doesn't find this kid soon I'm going to turn him into a new dummy for my apprentices to practice their spells on," the strange creature, a rakashasa, screamed to the man as he held out his hand. After a moment the hilt of a long, jagged, pitch-black sword was resting in his hand. "If you're not gone in half a second then you'll be delivering the message without a hand!"

The man stammered out an unintelligible syllable to activate the ring he was given to transport messages faster. And in the blink of an eye he was gone, lucky enough to escape with both of his hands.

"Why can't I find good help these days? It looks like I'm gonna have to find some new apprentices, since my old ones won't be coming back anytime soon," the rakashasa said under his breath as he walked down a hallway.

"Good morn…"

"I guess I need a new servant too."

OoOoOoOo

Thamior blinked into awareness after having been unconscious for nearly two hours. He took a deep breath to test his lung. 'Owww, that's gonna hurt for a while yet,' he said when the pain spread through his lungs. 'But at least I can breathe again.'

It took a minute for his vision to return to normal from the blurriness that remained. But when his vision was back Thamior looked around the cave, taking in his new surroundings.

He was in a room with a high-vaulted ceiling that was too high for him to see the top. And the water was still there and as deep as before. The thing that caught and held Thamior's attention was the little beach on the right side of the cavern.

The light spell on Thamior's quarterstaff had long ago expired, yet he could clearly see the beach and the tunnel behind it. There was a light emanating from the tunnel.

'Looks like that's the only way to go,' Thamior thought as he swam for the beach, 'Pretty lame maze if you ask me, feels like I'm being herded like a freakin' sheep.'

He reached the beach and was finally out of the water. It was now that Thamior realized just how cold the water really was.

He was shivering uncontrollably and his teeth were chattering. But he had no way of warming his body so he just walked to the mouth of the tunnel. Once at the mouth he stopped and decided not to take any chances so he cast a detect magic spell on the mouth of the tunnel.

And sure enough the tunnel entrance was giving off the bright blue hue that signified the detection of magic.

Thamior sat down and studied the area. After a brief second he came to the obvious conclusion that whatever was there had an invisibility spell cast over it. But was under the invisibility spell was the real question.

As he studied the area more information about it came to him through his detect magic spell. And there were two different auras, one for the already concluded invisibility spell and another for whatever the other spell was.

'How am I going to find out what this damn spell is,' Thamior thought as he looked around the beach area. His gaze swept the entire area and he came up with nothing, but then something made him look again and his gaze lingered on a piece of wood sitting on the beach. 'Hmmm, a piece of wood should solve this problem rather well.'

Thamior went to retrieve the piece of wood and snapped it on his knee a few times to break it into four smaller pieces. He then went back to the area still radiating a blue hue.

He tossed one of the pieces of wood through the area. As the wood passed through the area a wall of flames burst up from the ground and rose all the way to the ceiling.

"At least I'm nice and warm now, and my clothes are dry as well. I guess I'll have to thank who ever put this spell here," Thamior said sarcastically and then sat back down. 'Now the only problem is getting past it. There's no chance of going above it, but it didn't look that wide. So if I can keep it down for a second I should be able to cross it. Or if I can get a cold enough attack maybe it will counter a small area of the effect for a short period of time.'

As a light went off in his head Thamior went right into casting a spell. After the spell was complete Thamior was inside of a red bubble, one that would slightly, but not completely, protect him from fire. Then he started to cast another spell but didn't finish it, just let it hang there with only one syllable left. Then he picked up two more pieces of wood to test his newly formed theory.

OoOoOoOo

"What on earth is that kid planning," Graycloak said as he and Nexal sat watching Thamior via Nexal's scrying mirror.

"Who knows at this point, he seems to be full of unexpected tricks. Looks pretty in depth though," came Nexal's simple reply as he studied the mirror intently. "We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

OoOoOoOo

With a piece of wood in each hand Thamior positioned himself in front of the spot where the wall of fire shot up.

Thamior threw each piece of wood in quick succession, then immediately shouted the final word of his spell as he charged the wall of fire that had not gone back up to burn the second piece of wood.

With the spell complete his hands had turned the bluish color of ice. As he neared the wall it reared back to life. Thamior stuck his hands out and the icy coldness countered the fire from the wall leaving a small doorway for him to pass through. But the door was not big enough for his entire body. But that was where the red bubble came in; it would give him some protection but would not be able to last very long.

So Thamior continued his charge through the miniature door. The heat from the fire all around him caused the bubble to glimmer and seem to come to life, but it did not falter. Yet.

The wall turned out to be a bit wider than Thamior had expected, not much but enough to cause some problems. As Thamior was about to exit the other side of the wall it started to come back down. Now the bubble really seemed to come to life as fire rolled over it. The protection spell lasted right up to the end of the wall. As Thamior was about to burst out the other side of the wall the bubble disappeared, but there was nothing Thamior could do about it so he just kept on running.

Since he was so close to the end not much damage was cause by the fire but his clothes were singed and quarterstaff and turned to ashes. But everything else had survived.

Thamior sat down to catch his breath and to examine the new area that he found himself in.

The tunnel continued on for a few yards and then opened up into another large cavern. And from this cavern came the glow of the light that Thamior had noticed back in the water. From his vantage point in the tunnel Thamior could also see a pedestal sitting in the center of the cavern, which was where the light was coming from.

He decided that since he didn't have his weapon anymore he should take a moment to prepare himself for whatever might be in that cavern. So he started right into spellcasting. As he finished the spell his body was outlined in a bright blue color that disappeared after a moment, but the spell was still in effect. Then he started another spell, his personal favorite. But didn't finish it, just left the final syllable like he had before so that he could use it quickly. After Thamior felt that he was ready he started walking toward the cavern.

Once in the cavern Thamior didn't get the chance to look around and take in his new surroundings, since something flew out of the shadows and landed on the ground. From where the object landed arose a mighty minotaur with a huge axe in hand. The axe's head was huge but the handle was small, which limited the minotaur's reach.

At the sight of the seven-foot tall creature Thamior almost forgot about his spell. But when the minotaur let out a feral roar that shook the cavern Thamior remembered it. The creature was about to charge, it's favorite opening move, when Thamior uttered that final syllable of his favorite spell.

The minotaur was in full charge as the spell was activated and a lightning bolt jumped from Thamior's fingertips to it. As their two favorite attacks's clashed the minotaur's charge was halted and Thamior started another spell before the minotaur could recover. Smoke was rising from the minotaur's singed fur when it finally recovered and continued its charge as though it had never stopped.

Thamior was still in the middle of spellcasting as the minotaur drew closer. The spell was almost complete but the minotaur would reach Thamior before he could finish it.

The minotaur lowered it's head and caught Thamior between it's horns. It then flipped it's head back and Thamior was sent sailing through the air and into the wall. Thamior slumped to the floor, but through some miracle he had kept his concentration on his spell and was still moving his hands and uttering different syllables.

The minotaur was slightly confused by the fact that Thamior was still alive let alone still casting his spell. It started another charge, only this time it rose it's axe in the air so it could cleave Thamior in half.

But Thamior had other plans. He shouted the final syllable and the spell was complete. The minotaur halted it's charge and readied itself for the spell. From Thamior's outstretched hand three blue bolts of pure magical energy darted toward the minotaur.

The minotaur tried to cut one of the bolts in half but missed, and the three bolts slammed into it's head killing it almost instantly. Instead of falling to the ground with a thud the minotaur simply turned into wisps of smoke and disappeared, leaving behind the object on the ground.

Now the fore of the minotaur's attack was seeping through Thamior and the pain was taking affect. He had to sit there for a few minutes to recover from it, and when he rose the pain was still present. Thamior went over to the object on the ground and picked it up. It was nothing more than a card with a picture of a minotaur on it, but the image was fading.

"Must be a summoning device," Thamior said aloud.

"That it was," a small voice said from up in the air somewhere, "That card was one of the cards from something called the deck of illusions."

"Who are you, and what is the deck of illusions?"

"Well, I'm Dimble the pixie. And the deck of illusions is a deck of cards that can summon certain creatures. And when you throw a card to the ground the creature on the card is summoned to fight for you, but once the creature is killed that card cannot be used again."

"I guess the next question is why the hell did you summon that minotaur and have it try to kill me?"

"Well, that's my job to protect this item from everyone except the one that can beat me. But since I'm not much of a fighter I made this deck of illusions to summon creatures to fight for me. And then I'm supposed to give the person who beats me the item over there on the pedestal, so go on and take it," the pixie said has he motioned toward the pedestal.

Thamior walked up to it and took what was on the pedestal, a book. "What am I supposed to do with this book, it's empty," Thamior said as he flipped through the pages.

"Well, that I do not know. I was only supposed to guard the damn thing. But, since you managed to beat my minotaur, and you kept your spell going after that attack, I guess I'll give you my deck of illusion. The only card that was used was that minotaur so it's almost a complete deck."

"What are you going to use to protect you then," Thamior asked, as the question was finished there was a bright light to the side and a portal appeared. Out of the portal stepped Nexal with Graycloak on his usual perch on Nexal's shoulder.

"Well, it looks like my job is complete, so I wont need anything to guard me anymore," Dimble said.

"That's right. You are free to go wherever you like Dimble. And I thank you for helping me with this task," Nexal said as the effects of teleporting wore off.

"Well, I'm glad I could help, I guess. I'd like to go home now so I'll just leave," Dimble said as he flew off.

"Looks like you managed to pass yet another test," Graycloak said from Nexal's shoulder.

"What does this book do anyway?" Thamior asked looking at the book again.

"I'll tell you when we get back to my house," Nexal said as he led the way through the portal that led back to his house.

Thamior followed Nexal through the portal, and when the disorienting affects of teleporting took hold Thamior was not surprised for he was getting used to it now. He waited for the effects to wear off and then asked again, "What does this book do?"

"It's a special spell book. Any spell in it can be brought to mind without having to spend time every night memorizing spells. The book is permanently linked to your mind and it's pages can be accessed from your mind at anytime. The only downfall is that it can't hold very many spells so you had better choose wisely. And make sure to save some space for future spells that you might learn," Nexal said matter-of-factly.

"Sounds good to me. Are there any more trials or was that it?"

"That was the last official trial, but there is one more thing that I would enjoy very much," Nexal said as his eyes seemed to light up.

"And what would that be?"

"A game of chess," Nexal said with a mischievous smile coming to his face.

"That doesn't sound too bad. Let's go," Thamior said simply.

"Do you have and summon monster spells prepared?"

"Yea, plus I've got the deck of illusions too," Thamior said looking through the cards.

"Only spells can be used, no magic items," Nexal said bursting Thamior's bubble before it could grow any bigger. "What level of summon monster spells can you cast?"

"Up to level three."

"Alright, we'll restrict the game to level three monsters and below. Follow me to the board," Nexal said as he walked outside of his little shack.

They walked through the forest for a few minutes until they came to a clearing that was big enough for the game board. Once they found the clearing Nexal put a small mat on the ground. On the mat was a five-by five square grid. After the mat was on the ground Nexal cast a spell and the mat grew in size until it covered nearly the entire clearing.

"How does four summoning rounds sound to you?" Nexal asked as he moved to one side and motioned for Thamior to move to the opposite side.

"Sounds fine to me."

"We'll have one round for each monster level and the last round will be for an extra level one monster. And we will start with level three monsters and work backwards. You can start," Nexal said and then waited for Thamior to summon his first monster.

Thamior went into spellcasting and after he was finished there was a large ape standing in the square directly in front of him. "You're turn," he said to Nexal once he finished.

Nexal cast his spell and there was a hippogriff standing in front of him with its wings folded against its body.

The process continued until they each had four of the five squares in front of them occupied by some kind of creature. On Thamior's side of the board stood the ape, wolf, dire rat, and hawk. While on Nexal's side of the board stood the hippogriff, scorpion, owl, and small viper.

"Make your move," Nexal said as he thought of possible strategies.

"Very well," Thamior said as he ordered his hawk two squares closer to Nexal's viper.

Next Nexal moved his hippogriff in toward Thamior's ape.

They continued moving their creatures and setting them up for the battle that was to come, but neither wizard attacked until each one of their monsters was where they wanted it.

And then the first attack round started. Thamior's hawk attacked and killed Nexal's viper. Next, the owl under Nexal's command killed the dire rat, and in retaliation Thamior had his wolf jump up and bite down on the owl after it killed the rat. The wizards didn't have their remaining creatures attack so they could each regroup.

So after the first attack round Thamior was winning with three monsters to Nexal's two. But Nexal stayed calm as he thought of a new plan.

Thamior was still sending his creatures where he wanted them, but before he could finish Nexal went back on the offensive and had his scorpion attack Thamior's wolf. The scorpion's stinger hit the wolf under its chin and the poison spread throughout its body killing within the next round. Nexal smiled to himself as he evened the score, and came up with the perfect strategy to finish the game.

Nexal put his hippogriff and his scorpion in adjacent squares and waited for Thamior to make his move. After some thought Thamior sent his agile hawk in to take care of that deadly scorpion.

The hawk flew in as Nexal had predicted and when it was about to grab his scorpion in its talons he ordered his hippogriff to intercept the attack. The hippogriff's mouth closed on the hawk before it could react to the sudden attack.

Thamior winced at the loss of his hawk, while Nexal smiled at having the lead for the first time in the game. At least Thamior still had his strongest monster left, his ape. So he ordered it to stay where it was and wait to see what happened next.

Nexal was surprised that his strategy was working exactly as he planned it to. He was expecting the unpredictable nature of Thamior to make something go wrong, but it didn't. So he ordered his hippogriff to attack form the air and kept his scorpion behind it where he hoped Thamior would forget about it.

And he did. Thamior ordered his ape to jump on the hippogriff's back and snap it's neck. The ape completed the task and landed in the square the hippogriff had previously occupied; with it's back to the forgotten scorpion.

"Attack!" Nexal shouted as his scorpion launched itself onto the apes back.

"No! Throw it off before it can sting you!" Thamior ordered his ape, but it was too late.

As the ape reached back to grab the scorpion it's stinger bit into his back, and his arms, numbed with the poison, fell to his side. The scorpion jumped off the ape's back and let its poison do all the work. Within a few more seconds the poison had complete control over the ape and it slumped to the ground and turned to wisps of smoke as it died.

Nexal dismissed his scorpion before saying, "Good game, best I've had in a while. Especially since I have to play against myself or the animals."

"It was rather fun, even though I lost," Thamior said as Nexal shrank the mat back to it's original size.

"Well, let's get back to my house and get some rest. Tomorrow you have a decision to make, whether you want to stay and learn some of what I have to teach you, or start you mission right away." Nexal said as he started back through the forest. "Sleep on it, don't answer now,' he added when Thamior started to talk.

there you have it, chapter 4. i hope you liked the game of conjurers' chess, cause i liked writing it. please remember to review.