Jagged rocks spread in endless cascades, fading into the haze of distance and the snow-capped peaks of the seemingly insurmountable mountain range. Only the eyes of an eagle could have seen the four small figures climbing through this forbidding wasteland. Ishra stretched every ounce of her unnatural strength to keep up with her husband, and the barbarian Lonewolf. The huge master thief climbed as though he was a spider glued to the wall, his hands and feet finding hold, where all others could only feel a tiny denture in the rock. Lonewolf approached this task, as all tasks of travelling with her superior barbarian vigour.

All three had to help Nirahr from time to time. The fighter despaired of the hard going often. Lonewolf hauled him over another border with more than human strength. Braktus said: "Did you consider that not all of us are as good climbers, as you and me?" Lonewolf nodded. "Yes. We should meet a path in two or three hours, leading us to one of the passes through the Rudan Mountains. It is steep, but for most part it is possible to walk." She allowed the group a few minutes of rest before climbing on with undiminished speed and strength.

The adventures mastered three more steps of the rock cascade, before they came to a small plateau. Nirahr slumped down, drained by the effort of climbing with sheer force, were the others used skill. Ishra was exhausted, but too proud to complain or settle down. Braktus stood close to her, gently supporting his wife. She flashed him a thankful smile. Lonewolf surveyed them with smouldering eyes. Ishra realised there was no mercy in them. The young mage summoned a potion out of nowhere and gave it to her husband. "Leave some for Ishra," she said softly.

Magic refreshed the two, but they had the feeling of having been given false strength. "This is not a safe place to rest", Lonewolf said. "Strange beasts lair here and the scarred ground was formed by rock avalanches." Ishra looked at the ground and the rock surrounding the plateau, which suddenly felt ominous. At the same time she felt strangely exposed in this barren landscape. "The tree border is still above us," Lonewolf said. "Yet nothing will grow here. My people tell strange tales of this place. Some may be superstition, but others will be true."

She led the way, moving quickly. All four were suddenly gripped by a strange sense of urgency. Ishra felt reverberations of strange powers at work. After her recent experiences she was not keen on finding their source. Lonewolf never paused or doubted, but Ishra suspected that at least some of the barbarian's security was an act. Suddenly they came to an halt. "This crack is too wide to jump," Ishra said as she came alongside Lonewolf. "It was not here the last time I used this path," the barbarian said. She looked along it doubtfully.

Lonewolf threw a pebble into the chasm, carefully listening to its descent. "If it is an illusion, it is a very good one. I will try to dispel this magic, but I fear this will have little effect." The young mage concentrated on a spell, then she called her mana, which was there instantly as it was supposed to be. Nothing happened. "It cannot be caused by an earthquake," she said. "I have seen the damage done by that before. It looks as though..." She paused and looked at the ancient marks of beasts, who had been surprised by the crack like her, but moved at higher speed. "Someone aged this area by an unfathomable amount of time," Lonewolf finished her sentence.

Closing her eyes, she visualised the area in her mind. Returning to the cursed plateau was out of question. "I could plane shift two times, going almost directly to Siema, but only alone," Lonewolf said, not realising she had vocalised her thought. The other three adventurers looked at each other, recognising the merits of this plan, but they were all quite terrified of being left alone in this strange mountain area. Ishra had a sense of Lingering evil, but its source had gone. "I think the thing beneath our village was imprisoned here. It does have power over time."

Pointing at the opposite side, she said: "There are still remains of human construction there, faded almost beyond recognition. We are in area of ill repute, but the main source of trouble is gone. I have my bearings again." Lonewolf walked along the crack at a fast pace. The cliff face to the south hid the sun, bringing darkness, ever companion of hideous monstrosities and fear. There was a strange feeling of death. No sound of bird or beast, no wind and no other daily or nightly noise interrupted the silence, except for the echoing steps of the four companions. Ishra had the strangest feeling of shifting from mortal reality into the Gray Waste of Hades.

The crack narrowed to a distance that could be jumped, quickly fading into one to be crossed with a courageous step. Lonewolf walked into a shadowed path between two rugged walls of rock. There still was a fissure beneath them, but it seemed negligible. "We have to climb again," the barbarian said. Braktus and Lonewolf clawed their hands into the rock and moved up its surface like spiders. The barbarian was more energetic, while Braktus' movement was more smooth. Nirahr and Ishra pushed their legs against one wall and their arms and backs against the other, making their way up slowly.

When the two had mastered half of the distance, they had the strange feeling of the shadowy depth beneath them becoming bottomless. "Pay no heed to what lies below you," Lonewolf said in a clear voice, echoing along crooked paths and forbidding alien rock formations. Ishra gave up waiting for the warrior and climbed up at her own pace. The young mage looked down, concern written in her face. Something uncanny was going on. "The gap is widening," Nirahr said. Ishra was to exhausted to say something. She was not sure she could trust her senses.

Nirahr stretched out, but then he lost his footing. Lonewolf swore in some harsh language, at the same time calling for her magic. Nirahr screamed as he dropped, then he was catapulted upwards in the air, to be dropped unceremoniously next to Lonewolf. "You could not have done that for all of us?" Ishra asked. "This spell affects only one creature," Lonewolf replied. "The curse of land magic is having little control, which spells are currently available. I can chose when focusing my mind after resting, but not in the middle of the day. Each spell in my mind I can cast only once. I know a few spells several times, but this is not one of them."

A piece of rock broke away near the group. "Let us get the hell out of here," Lonewolf said. Words became action before she finished speaking. The rest of the group followed suit with little delay. They ran over a plateau, a crack seeming to follow them. Sweating they reached another wall of rocks, part of another cascade. "Climb," Lonewolf shouted to be heard of the strange creaking of strained and splitting rock. This time she stayed behind to support her partner. The crack stopped at the foot of the rock, but the companions were not sure this was a good sign.

When they reached the top, they saw two things. First, the next step of the rock cascade was behind a smooth path. Second, the crack in the rock closed again, moving away, the power behind it utterly spent. "Will the villagers also be hunted by this?" Ishra asked. "No," Lonewolf said. "They are not a threat. Only we are powerful enough to challenge this villain. Let us get down to the path and move as quickly as we can. I want to see as much space between us and the Plateau of the Damned as possible, before the night falls."

No-one argued, because the other three felt the same. They slid on the path and walked quickly upwards. "The path is a thing of living beings," Lonewolf said. "The damned only have power over dead things." Ishra felt the worn path beneath her feet, but there were no other travellers. The mountains still felt as lonely as before, but there was a soft rustle of wind. A scream in the distance spoke of a predator catching prey. There was the clash of arms also, which seemed to be closer, but there was no way of telling with the strange echoes of this rock labyrinth.

The companions rounded a corner and found themselves in sunlight. A single woman was facing a band of large beings, their skin reflecting sunlight in strange ways, as though it was crystal. They had gaunt arms and legs, strangely misshapen on their massive bulks. The woman fought them with a sword seemingly too large and heavy for her. She stumbled and Nirahr wanted to rush to her, but he was restrained by Lonewolf. A swing with a club, almost as large as the woman, widely missed. The woman suddenly lunged forward, stabbing her sword through the belly of the troll. The creature collapsed, as she viciously pulled the sword out of the wound, twisting it while doing so.

Without stopping her movement, the woman chopped the legs from the second troll and leapt to stab into the throat of the third. All three had collapsed to the ground, but their wounds were already closing. Strangely, the woman put the sword away. Lonewolf grinned. An unnatural shout echoed through the mountains, shattering the bodies. The woman sprinted towards the adventurers, but no rock avalanche came. She had auburn hair, full lips and eyes the colour and strength of steel. There was a powerful resemblance between her and Lonewolf.

"You are sisters?" Ishra asked. "I am her mother," the woman said. She had not closed the top buttons of her dark white blouse, but her decolletage showed only the fine mesh of moonsteel chain mail. She was wearing leather trousers, sturdy boots and a sword belt holding the large blade. The woman was as tall as Lonewolf and her shoulders were as broad as those of Braktus. Ishra shivered, when she realised how strong she actually was. A look at her husband revealed he was thinking the same.

"I am Egania Visad," she said. "There is no need for you to go all the way to Siema. I know what you are facing." Ishra said: "You are the Iron Doom." Egania smiled sadly. "After more than two thousand years that bloody story still clings to my name. I prefer to be called the Eternal Wanderer." She looked at the path behind the travellers, then at the sun. "We should move," she said. Egania now led the way, closely followed by Lonewolf. "I thought the village was built on ruins of the temple," the young mage said. "But on the way here I found the ruins of another temple."

"The complete ward was a group of five temples placed at the corner points of a rune of protection," Egania said. "I felt the breaking of the rune even in the planes and returned as quickly as possible." She smiled. "I cannot plane shift as easily as you. Something must have dulled your senses, for you not to have felt it." Lonewolf said: "Indeed. The only warning we had was the death of an adventuring group, who had fled through the wild to give this message to someone, but they were killed by war trolls before telling anything to me or Nirahr, not to speak of someone else."

Sunset turned the sky surrounding the sun crimson, fading to scarlet and a soft rosy haze. The mountains themselves became a dreamscape of fantastic colours, bizarre shapes and eternal majesty, softening the harsh landscape. Egania smiled. "I will never get used to the lack of sun and horizon in the planes," she said. Ishra felt an impulse to argue, but it faded quickly. The effect of the strange evening light was incredible. "How often does this happen?" she asked. "Almost every evening the sun is not hidden by the clouds," Lonewolf replied.

Egania led the companions to an area of overhanging rock, almost forming a cave. A fireplace had been prepared to reflect the heat of the flames from the wall, which would keep the warmth when the fire failed. "We will rest here tonight," Egania said. There was no need for a fire, thanks to the warm vernal air. Night fell. "The creature you are facing is named Phane in the libraries of Esgara and Isparan," she said. "It has power over time, as you have already guessed. Defeating it is your quest, not mine, but I will help you along the way."

Lonewolf shivered. "I have studied in Siema," she said. Siema was the capital city of Esgara. Egania spoke: "The creature would be found under the heading Abomination. The book would then trace them to be the unwanted children of gods, imprisoned because they are too powerful to be destroyed by direct use of divine might. I have fought a few of those creatures in the many long centuries of my life, but none of them were the offspring from gods. Most are broken gods retaining a shard of divinity. Two pantheons have already been cast from the sky on this world, each leaving behind a number of those... things.

"The pantheon of the Blood Empires had a god, whose acolytes taught self-sacrifice for the greater good. Many of their temples were built on spots were Abominations were imprisoned. Their holy strength kept the might of these creatures at bay. The pantheon failed and was destroyed in the Blood Dance, the names of the gods forgotten, because they truly died. The holy wards were no longer renewed and eventually failed. This one was made in a particularly clever way to defeat a creature able to command time."

"What is so special about controlling time?" Lonewolf asked. Egania chuckled. "You are a timewalker," she said. "I met you before you were born. All others can only travel to time in a linear way." Lonewolf closed her eyes and remembered the meeting. Egania and Lonewolf had nearly tried to kill each other. "You will have to find the River of Steel and use it to fortify your weapon or your armour against the dangers of this quest. One of the gates leading to its maze is not far from here. Be warned. Trying to use the powers of the River for any other purpose will be punished harshly.

"You will have to go without Lonewolf, whose power is sufficient not to need additional strength." Ishra suspected, the young mage had looked backwards through time to identify the temple and forward to find their path. Lonewolf would claim it to be barbarian instinct. Ishra was still a bit worried moving into the strange mountain without the young barbarian as a guide. Currently there was only one path, which was hard to miss, but there had to be other ways. Ishra, who had led armies in the bloodiest war of the multiverse, who had climbed the impossible mountains of Arborea, who had navigated the endlessly twisting caves of Pandemonium, where the wind carries madness, was simply out of her league.

She would never have believed a prime world could be that strange, stark, powerful and beautiful at the same time. The planes were more concentrated, but the material plane had a strange feeling of, well, reality, alien to the outer planes. Lonewolf was already sleeping. She implicitly trusted the other woman. Ishra yawned, but she found it hard to sleep, her conflicting nature raging against itself. There was something elemental about Lonewolf. Strength and innocence coupled with unquenchable vitality. Nirahr was a strong warrior, but he seemed strangely restrained and pale next to the wild vigour of the young mage.

Braktus unconsciously cradled his wife in his arms. Some would have been surprised to see the berserk madwoman so docile and gentle. Finally she fell asleep. Braktus smiled. Ishra had a hard shell, but she was a gentle woman beneath. She could only kill in berserk rage without suffering from doing so, unless she fought fiends, of course. The big thief wanted to stay vigilant, but he dozed away. Only Egania's smouldering eyes burned into the lonely night.