“No! You’re the guardian,” Barius protested. “You must have it. This is a trick! You seek to gull me.” His head whipped around as he scanned the shelves.

“No trick, brother,” Ryslind said. “Ellnorein had no choice, you see. The rod needed to be safe from even the most powerful adventurers, so his first step was to trap the most powerful creature he could find and imprison him here, at the heart of the mountain. In thousands of years, no party has survived an encounter with Straum.

“Ellnorein knew this would happen. He predicted the tales of wealth, the fame that would draw adventurers from around the world in search of the rod, all of them intent on battling their way here. Many die before they reach this point. Others flee after a few encounters. A fortunate few live long enough to again see the light of the sun.”

Straum growled at that. “They see sunlight.” His claws began to flex in the sand, and Jig could imagine those claws tearing thousands of years’ worth of adventurers into scraps of meat. “I have been trapped here, alone, for so long that I cannot remember what it feels like to be free.”

Clouds of hot smoke formed around his nostrils. “I can create an entire world of illusion, but I can’t break these walls. All the illusion in the world cannot change the fact that I am a prisoner. I could grind an ordinary mountain to dust and scatter it on the wind, but Ellnorein, damn him to the lowest pit in the Shadow-elves’ icy hell, used the rod to form these caverns and tunnels. Rod-created rock resists lesser magic, including my own. Only the rod can free me.”

Ryslind ducked past Straum’s mouth, probably afraid that the dragon might loose a jet of fire in his fury. “That is why Ellnorein couldn’t leave the rod here,” he explained. “Straum, being a created creature, could not use it himself. But like all dragons, Straum collects followers. Ogres, trolls, and other creatures you haven’t yet seen. One of them could have used the rod, either to free the dragon, or for their own use. It had to be hidden, but hidden so well that nobody would ever be able to use it.”

“Why not encase it in the mountain?” Darnak asked. “Why all this nonsense with the tunnels and the monsters? He had to know that would bring adventurers like beggars converging on a feast.”

“The rod’s magic is like a living thing,” Ryslind said. “Left alone, its magic would have seeped into the mountain itself, the effects could be . . . unfortunate. It had to be left somewhere those effects would go unnoticed.”