There was no joy in the air as the gathering began in Stonereach. The town looked like a shell of the town it had once been, and the giant circle nearby was a constant reminder of what we were there to do. For my part, I had already been in Stonereach for several days, along with my squire, Rillien, and my friend, Duncan, and so I had seen the horror of what was going on already. I saw it on the face of every Blackstone soldier I healed, and I heard it every time one of them fell in battle. This was going to be no ordinary gathering. This was going to be, to put it quite simply, a battle with everything at stake.
I spent Friday afternoon assisting some Ducal troops in putting up some fortifications.
I believe that Rillien was on the lines assisting with healing and care of wounded
troops, and I think Duncan was trying to contact a dream elemental that had
been helpful to us.
When I arrived back from my work, I stopped in at the cabin that Rillien, Duncan,
and I were staying in, picked up some of my adventuring equipment, including
my heavy armor, and started into town. I ran into Andris Belmont, Logenn Marr,
Sathen Gor, and a few other people at a cabin right near mine, and so we all
said our usual hello’s, as we typically do at the beginning of a gathering.
Before long, though, we became aware that some people had run into trouble by
the tavern, and so we advanced towards the tavern to lend support. We ran into
a force of undead that was large, but not especially powerful. We formed up
a battle line, and prepared for the assault. They were capable of swinging for
six dagger blows worth of damage, and they could cap our blows at five dagger
blows. This gave them a bit of an advantage, but our superior skill, numbers,
and healing won out in the end over that slight advantage. We also were smart
about resource conservation. Whenever anyone got into trouble, they stepped
back off the line to refit their armor. This was a theme that was to continue
throughout the gathering.
When we got to the tavern, we confirmed that everyone was accounted for, and
then settled down for some food. During this period of time, I met two new adventurers,
a mystic named M.o.M. and a gorbe named Furball. M.o.M. apparently stands for
Mother of Many, although strangely I learned that she is apparently not the
mother of Furball, who she travels with, so I guess the many that she is the
mother of must stay at home. Truth be told, I think that’s actually pretty
smart. Stonereach was clearly not a safe place to be during that gathering.
At any rate, M.o.M. and Furball seemed like nice people, and Furball actually
ended up being extremely useful during the gathering, performing tasks like
running messages or bringing around food and water for the adventurers, even
though she was too young to swing a sword effectively yet.
Of course, even in the tavern we were not safe from attack, and so we were continually
assaulted by smaller undead, and occasionally there was a larger undead thrown
in. I killed one of the larger undead, and took off of his body a necklace made
of bone. I assumed it was a magic item, and it was later confirmed for me that
it was, but we had no celestial circle to identify it with, and it did not seem
worthwhile to waste a component for lore. I brought it to Viscount Mithrilmist,
but he asked me to hold onto it, and so I wore the necklace around my neck,
which freaked out several people. Kaelis, in particular, thought wearing it
was in especially bad taste, but I had no pouch big enough to fit it, so it
worked as far as I was concerned. After all, I certainly had no intention of
wearing it long term.
As we were fighting the undead, a dream elemental showed up, and it turned out
that it was the same dream elemental who had earlier aided several of us with
information in dream form. The dream elemental was a robed figure with a gold
mask. Hooch, Sathen, and Logenn went to speak to the dream elemental, and it
told them that there was one more thing they needed to see. It showed them a
vision which allowed us to know a little more about the mission we were going
to need to undertake. The vision made it clear that we would be standing behind
a wall defending a keep, and that the keep would have at least one door, maybe
more, that needed to be defended, and these doors would be about four or five
people wide. It also made clear that the doors could be opened at sundown the
next day, Saturday.
One uninvited guest was the Harmonomancer. He showed up tapping out some type
of a rhythm with his cane, with bone golems dancing behind him. I walked behind
him, and then walked behind his bone golems, and cast a cure light wounds spell
at one of them. It had no effect. I tried it on another bone golem, and this
time it did have an effect. I hit it with a harm undead spell, and it hit the
floor in tiny specks of dust.
“Undead!” I shouted, and everyone looked very confused.
“He has undead working with him,” I said to clarify my earlier shout,
and then I added, “I just destroyed one with a harm undead spell.”
Everyone told me that it was probably just a mistake, but I was determined to
prove my point. I looked at another one, and thought about trying a cure light
spell on it, but it looked like a bone golem. Then I focused in on one that
just looked like an undead. I tried the cure light, and sure enough it took
damage. This one began fighting back, though. It started throwing five dagger
blows of calm damage at me, but my armor soaked it as I began swinging at the
undead. The undead was dust not too long after that.
At this point, everyone realized that I was right and the Harmonomancer did
have undead with him, but he came up with some lousy excuse about a flaw in
the ritual that he used to create his bone golems. I have never heard of a flaw
like that, and I didn’t but his excuse, but of course I am not a noble
of Blackstone. It was not my call.
The call that was made was that the Harmonomancer was to be left alone, and
so I obeyed, and instead went and vented to those who would listen. I understand
the fact that taking on the Harmonomancer could wind up being a waste of resources,
but I am also very uncomfortable with how cozy many people are with a necromancer.
If nothing else, at least now what I have been saying for years about the Harmonomancer
being a necromancer was finally vindicated.
Another person who showed up was the Boogeyman. I don’t know what he was
there for, but I had heard about his willingness to make deals, and so I thought
perhaps it would not be a bad idea to try to make a deal with him, especially
since he seemed to like the bone necklace. I got advice from Rillien, Lord Vargo,
and Viscount Mithrilmist, and eventually wound up trading the bone necklace
for information about the wall and how to get through it. The Boogeyman gave
me part of the information that he had then, and promised to get back to me
the next day with more information.
The large battle of Friday night was an assault on the warehouse of Sietche
and Baronus, which would not only weaken them, but also strengthen us. Sietche
and Baronus were not around, but they still had plenty of defenders. We fought
our way down to a building that we assumed had to be the warehouse itself, but
the ramp leading up to the building was narrow and could only accommodate two
across. Lord Dawnware had spirit forged before the gathering so that he could
swing a sword and use a shield, and he was on the right side of the ramp with
a fighter on the left side.
Lord Dawnware had a nice weapon and a lot of enthusiasm, but he still wasn’t
able to do much damage to the undead because he just couldn’t swing very
hard. I asked if he wanted me to step in, but he told me that he had it handled,
and they were throwing a lot of death spells, which he could use his displacement
spells to stop. After a while, though, I think he thought better about it and
decided to have me step in for him. I took some damage, but Rillien was right
behind me to fix me, and pretty soon we managed to get into the warehouse. Once
we got the stuff, we withdrew, not wanting to expend any more resources than
we had to.
Back in town, the treasure was divided. It was a lot of resources that we hoped
would have value in the fight on Saturday evening. Rillien was asked to sort
through all the potions and identify them, and so I joined her in order to reduce
the amount of time she would have to spend on such a boring and tedious task.
When all that was done with, I figured all the action was done for the night,
and so Rillien, Duncan, and I headed off to bed. We got a ward from Caliphar,
which I much appreciated.
As it turned out, things may not have been as done for the night as I had hoped.
I did not become aware of this until later on, but apparently a group of vampires
attacked and captured Roxi and several rescues had to be made. Apparently Jester
the Mystic Wood Elf resurrected as part of this attack, which I was saddened
to hear.
When I got up the next morning, I saw that Duncan had left the cabin, but Rillien
was still asleep. I went to the tavern to get some food, and I discovered that
Duncan and I were the only adventurers awake, but several Blackstone troops
had stopped in to get breakfast. One of them was a new recruit, and he was a
strange man who refused to wear a shirt or a tabard, but the rest of them seemed
normal enough. They told me that they had found a small pyramid shaped object
around. I remembered those things from the Blackstone-Saxony Civil War. They
apparently disrupt rifting and whispering winds and things like that, which
may have explained part of why rifts were impossible in the area. I cautioned
the soldiers not to touch it, because when you poke those things, they spit
out nasty undead driders.
After I finished conversing with the soldiers, Rainbow showed up. She was dressed
as a skeleton as a costume, and she gave me quite a scare. For a moment I thought
she was actually undead, and that would have been a disaster. Thankfully, it
turned out that it was just a costume.
Rainbow didn’t have her usual box to draw for booby prizes, but she did
have a box of candy, and so I got a couple pieces of candy that looked like
pills, but tasted pretty good. Caliphar apparently chose to take a chance instead
of taking candy, and so he wound up in the middle of an undead army, although
he was safely rifted back a moment later.
By this time, more adventurers were getting up, and I went with Algorian and
Duncan to go search for a green bottle that would help us restore a Tyrran Guardian
who had been attacked by the undead. We combed the woods for a while, but we
didn’t find the bottle. Algorian and I, though, did find a couple other
things.
First, we found a piece of paper that looked like it was ripped from a manual
on undead. It gave details on the characteristics of many undead. I suppose
that I should re-print it and publicly post it when I get a chance. It might
prove to be very helpful.
Second, we found a dead body. It was clearly beyond hope of resurrection, but
we thought it might have been a trap, so I stood back while Algorian investigated
it. We found a note in its hand that was intended for Lord Severon, and so we
took the message, but did not break the seal.
From there, we returned to the tavern, and found Viscount Mithrilmist there,
to whom we passed on the note to Lord Severon. He opened it, read it, and declared
that it needed to go to Lord Severon, which I was confident he would find a
way to do. For my part, I was curious as to where Duncan had gotten to, as well
as where Rillien was, since I had heard that she was now awake.
Algorian convinced me to go off to continue looking for the green bottle, and
so we set off down the path. Then, who should come up behind us but Rillien
and Duncan, and our little search party was complete. We were also joined later
by Lord Vargo, who was the one who eventually found the bottle.
Well, in the course of our search, we became separated again, and ironically
into the same groups we started with. Algorian and I went one way, Rillien and
Duncan the other way. Algorian and I combed the woods for probably twenty minutes
looking for Rillien and Duncan, but we could not find them. Finally, we found
them when we headed back to the tavern and found that they had been safe and
secure there for a while. The whole splitting up thing just was not working
out that well.
From that point, I left the Tyrran Spirit Guardian thing in Duncan’s hands,
because I got called off to a meeting of arch-wizards to choose titles for a
titling ceremony. Viscount Mithrilmist and Lord Dawnware were having a hard
time coming up with titles that worked, and so they solicited help from Logenn
and I, and we came up with a few that I believe were pretty good.
The first person we were looking for a title for was Caliphar. Logenn suggested
that he should be called the Wizard of Versatility, and we all thought it was
a perfect fit.
The second person we needed to title was Rillien. She was already the Wizardess
of Lore, but she needed a second title. This one was pretty much left up to
me, given the fact that she is my squire, and I suggested the extra title of
Loyalty, which would make her the Archwizardess of Loyalty and Lore. Everyone
liked the title, and so we went with it.
The third person in need of title was Katherine. Viscount Mithrilmist told us
what he wanted in a title for his personal healer, but he couldn’t come
up with the right word for it. She was already the Wizardess of Sacrifice, and
her second title needed to complement that properly. I suggested Hope, and everyone
liked it. Thus, her title became the Archwizardess of Hope and Sacrifice.
The fourth person who needed to be titled was Cotton. We thought long and hard
about this one, as it needed to be something that fit perfectly, and none of
us knew him all that well. Logenn, though, nailed it perfectly. He suggested
the Archwizard of Marvel and Merchanting, which became the Archwizard of Marvel
and Marketing when Viscount Mithrilmist objected to the fact that Merchanting
was not in fact a word.
The final title that needed to be handed out was Fenrir. I suggested that he
be called the Wizard of Paranoia, but everything felt it had too much of a negative
connotation, although I don’t think Fenrir himself would have objected
to it. Loremar finally suggested that Fenrir should be the Wizard of Vigilance,
and it was quickly agreed upon as a title.
We would also have titled Kaelis, but unfortunately he was not present. I suppose
his time will soon come.
The ceremony itself got a little heated when Cotton did not like the chosen
method of titling, but after talking to Lord Dawnware he was willing to go along
with it. We used mock spells instead of real spells to conserve resources for
the fight ahead, and I have to say I liked that method. I would personally suggest
always using it from now on, because one never knows when spell resources are
going to be at a premium.
Immediately after the Wizard Titling ceremony, I got a Whispering Wind from
the Boogeyman, and then I started to rift out. Caliphar jumped on, and the two
of us went to visit the Boogeyman.
As a bit of an aside, I can’t think of many people I would rather go into
a situation having by my side than Caliphar. The two of us have made it through
so many close calls together that sometimes it boggles my mind.
Anyhow, the Boogeyman gave the information that he promised to, which was helpful
even if it was not as helpful as I had hoped for, and then he rifted us back
to town.
I got rifted back to the adventurers, and Caliphar got rifted back to the tavern
to retrieve his shield. I was told after I got back that Rillien was very upset
about my randomly rifting out, which I can understand. I would probably be just
as upset if the same thing happened to her. I did apologize to her for it, and
I told her I would try to avoid it in the future. That was a promise that would
not last long.
Not long after I returned, it became time to go take out an army that the Dead
Men’s Guild planned to sell to the highest bidder. It was an intense but
unremarkable fight. I got killed a few times, but we managed to take out the
bulk of the army, and I think that’s the best we could have hoped for.
It was certainly in no condition to sell by the time we were finished.
Unfortunately, the battle used a lot of resources, and some questioned the wisdom
of going after the army. I asked Viscount Mithrilmist about it, and he told
me that we either had to go after the army now or face it later, and he preferred
to deal with it now. Looked at in that light, I think the decision is much easier
to understand.
Right after the battle was over, Duncan told me that he was going to go speak
to the Tyrran Spirit Guardian that we had found the green bottle for earlier.
Apparently Duncan, Tygil, and Roxi together had found most of the pieces needed
to fix him, and Roxi was doing the resurrection. When the being fully resurrected,
he explained to us how he had been destroyed by undead, and he thanked us for
fixing him, and gave us a vine. The vine was capable of casting regenerate several
times per day, and Duncan got it in a draw. We had hoped for more of a boon
for the town out of completing that task, but I suppose that every little bit
helps.
Somewhere around this time, the casters were chosen to build the two permanent
circles of power that we would put up once we got inside the wall. Count Fellmist
would build the celestial circle, and I would build the earth circle. Honestly,
I think either Lord Vargo or myself would have been fine choices, but I was
thankful for the trust and confidence placed in my casting abilities.
I was handed the set of components and scroll that would be used to cast the
circle, and I stuck them in my pouch to use when the time came. Meanwhile, the
tavern closed and asked for volunteers to help move the tavern to the Ducal
encampment, so that it would be ready for that evening’s fight. I believe
that Rillien and Katherine both went to help with the moving.
For my part, I kept helping to fight undead that were coming into town in pretty
decent numbers. It was difficult, though, to fight undead without using many
resources, and so I was trying to get people to stop chasing the undead around
outside and instead bottleneck them at the tavern doors. The only exception
to this was Algorian, who was so effective at hit and run tactics outside that
he wasn’t wasting any resources. It brought a smile to my face as people
began to realize just how good Algorian really is when he is in his element,
and this gathering he was totally in his element.
We fought off a few waves of undead, and then I saw a strange creature walk
into town. I didn’t recognize it, and it ignored my hailing it. I started
yelling for people to tell me what it was if they recognized it, and finally
I learned that it was Pox, who was seeking to kill Hooch. To make matters worse,
Pox had the pantherghast ability, and so I couldn’t hurt him or get near
him. What I could do, though, was backpack Hooch, and so I did that as much
as I could. Pox did some serious damage to Hooch, but Hooch was holding his
own while we tried to find M.o.M. and Jester, the only two other Mystic Wood
Elves around.
When M.o.M. and Jester showed up, Hooch and Jester were clearly winning the
battle, hitting Pox hard. I began to notice, though, that Pox seemed to be enjoying
it. I began telling Hooch to stop attacking, but Hooch was letting out rage,
and he kept barreling into Pox. As he did so, Pox only became more and more
powerful. Eventually, Pox lashed out with swings that could go right through
your shield for a flame bolt of damage, and they killed you if they connected.
He killed Hooch as well as several others, and then he began to put a curse
of transformation on Hooch.
I started swinging at Pox to try to distract him, but it wasn’t doing anything.
Jester hit him, but it wasn’t enough. Pox began to rift out with Hooch,
and Jester and I grabbed on. I was fairly certain it was a dumb move, since
I couldn’t even affect Pox, but I couldn’t let Pox get away with my
friend without trying to stop him.
When we arrived at our destination, Hooch was still dead, and Pox was very happy.
Jester and I got Hooch alive, and then I started pleading with Hooch to stop
attacking Pox. Eventually, the message got through, and Hooch turned away and
ignored Pox. Jester did the same. It didn’t much matter what I did, as
Pox didn’t give a damn about me since I was not a Mystic. Eventually, after
he had been ignored for a long time, Pox began to get desperate for attention,
and then a little while later, he left, looking downtrodden.
Of course, there was still the matter of the curse of transformation, but Hooch
summoned the Traveler to deal with the curse. When we stepped out of the building
we had been in since we rifted, we realized that we were still in Stonereach,
and so we promptly headed back to the tavern. We found that Caliphar and Andris
were there, and they told us that everyone had gone to the wall of the keep.
The final battle was getting ready to begin.
We hurried to catch up, although Hooch and Jester found the Traveler along the
way and began talking to him. I excused myself, because I knew that I had the
earth circle in my pouch, and no one was going to be happy if I was detained
any longer than necessary.
When we got there, we found that the wall would not let us in. Duke Blackstone
was there, and he asked us what we knew about getting in. I explained that our
theory was that someone had to resurrect in order to become a spirit to get
in and open the gate from the inside, but it was possible that someone could
become a spirit by being killing blowed and then receiving a life spell afterwards.
Duke Blackstone decided that we should try the second option first.
I had one life spell, but I needed it to cast the circle, so someone else needed
to have a life spell for it to work. Sathen Gor volunteered to be killed, and
Count Fellmist said that he had the needed life spell. The three of us went
to the gate, and I killed Sathen. He became a spirit, went inside, and a couple
minutes later the doors began to open. Count Fellmist administered the life
spell, and we were inside.
We didn’t know how much time we had, but we knew we had to get the circles
down quick. Using a rope provided by Count Fellmist, I laid down the earth circle
rep, got everyone inside who was to be invested, grabbed a light from Caliphar,
and began casting. Five minutes later, we had an earth circle.
Count Fellmist laid down the celestial circle, and also built into it an extended
hearth. As it turned out, that was rarely if ever needed, but at the time it
seemed like a good idea. The celestial circle was designated as our spot from
which potions and the like would be distributed. The earth circle was mostly
for DFM’ing any spirit bottles we found.
We realized that we had three doors to guard, which we cleverly code-named doors
one, two, and three. One and two were on the front of the keep; three was a
side entrance.
The team assigned to guard Door Three was Crimson and several of his associates,
including a panda scavenger and the barbarian Blue. Also included were Cotton,
Ro, Jester, Ander, Kaelath, and possibly some I did not see.
The team assigned to guard Door One was headed by Viscount Mithrilmist and Captain
Elintari, and I don’t have a very good idea of who was on it, except that
I know that Cormyn was.
I was assigned to Door Two, with a team that I was extremely comfortable working
with. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I couldn’t have been much
happier with my team. The team was headed by Fenrir and myself. Also on the
team for fighting types were Kaelis, Kale, Andris, Caliphar, and Dame Kaiya.
For healing types, we had Rillien, Boo, and Chika. It was a group of people
I had worked with many times before, and that I knew were competent and trustworthy.
I knew we could all work as a team.
We set our formation up as a five man front with two substitutes. I held the
far left, with Kaelis to my right. In the center was Kale, and then Andris to
his right, with Fenrir holding down the far right. The sub for the left side
of the line was Dame Kaiya, and Caliphar for the right side. Rillien was positioned
behind me, Chika behind Kale, and Boo was usually behind Rillien with a bane
of the dead active, or behind Andris when she did not have one active.
We also subdivided our team into two smaller groups in case we needed to split
up. When that happened, my team was Dame Kaiya, Kale, Chika, Rillien, and I.
Fenrir’s was him, Caliphar, Andris, Kaelis, and Boo.
There was also a roving team that moved to reinforce hard hit lines, and that
team was made up of Lord Vargo, Baron De’Kiernan, and Lord Dawnware. Algorian
and Duncan were also assigned as rovers and scouts, and Algorian in particular
did a masterful job of letting us know what was coming and when. That help proved
invaluable in the fight.
There were also several code words developed for the fight. A “wine bottle”
was a spirit bottle. An “empty wine bottle” meant that a spirit bottle
had been destroyed. “Contact” meant that an enemy was at a particular
gate. With the organization and the code words, I almost felt like I was in
an actual military unit instead of a group of adventurers. It was quite a sight
to see.
As the battle began, the first group, made up of a bunch of liches and death
knights, smashed hard into Door Three. For a moment it looked like they might
hold, but then the call for reinforcements went up. Door One went over to reinforce
Door Three, and we held at Door Two. Door Three was secured, but the enemy moved
around to Doors One and Two. Since everyone was at Door Three except for our
group, we had to split our forces to defend Doors One and Two. Fenrir’s
group went to guard Door One while my group stayed to guard Door Two.
Unfortunately, the action was a little bit heavier than what we could hold with
half a force. I got bowled over with spells, and some of the undead made it
inside. Eventually, someone got me some healing, and then I turned around and
started forcing the undead back out. Once all the undead were gone, I asked
Rillien for a shield magic. That’s about the time that I realized that
Rillien wasn’t there.
I started calling out to her, figuring she had to be somewhere around. She didn’t
answer. At this point, I was getting worried. I called out to her again, and
then I started searching. Over in a corner, near where the walls of the keep
came together, I saw a green light. I ran over to it, and sure enough it was
Rillien. I administered the one life spell that I had (I had gotten my last
one back when I received an inspiration from Lord Vargo), and I was very glad
to see that I had gotten to her in time. The incident made me realize just what
a fine edge we were walking.
Eventually, we were able to bring down the lich that was leading this force,
and a few minutes later the cry went up throughout the camp that we had an empty
wine bottle. The first victory of the long battle was ours!
A couple minutes later, we received notification that the next fight would be
against Rotlung the Reanimator. I had not heard too much about him, but apparently
he specialized in creating zombies, and had found ways to create bigger and
more powerful zombies than most others before him had managed. We didn’t
think he would be too tough, but we knew every monster would be a threat.
We had a wall of force up, figuring that it might keep zombies out, but it got
dispelled by Rotlung himself and the battle began in earnest. The zombies were
large and powerful, but they had few extra abilities, and this meant that all
we really had to do was soak the damage they were throwing at us.
The key part of this fight came when Duncan got dropped behind Rotlung’s
lines. Rotlung turned Duncan into a zombie and sent him off into the woods.
Thankfully, Kaelis threw a miracle pin spell that caught Duncan and stopped
him from walking off into the woods. Not long afterwards, we were able to recover
Duncan.
Also during this fight, Rillien and Caliphar had their transforms go off, and
so Rillien could basically throw a great amount of elemental fire. This proved
to be very helpful to us during the battle. Caliphar became much more powerful
with his swings, and that also helped us out a lot.
Rotlung was eventually defeated, although I am not certain if his spirit bottle
was destroyed. I think it was, but I cannot be sure.
We got a little rest and recuperation time before the next fight, and I took
the time to wrap myself in some slightly warmer clothes. I also got a chance
to get a little bit of food, but it was raw and not very good. Still, it provided
some nourishment, and I was happy with what little I could get. There was also
a campfire which provided some warmth, but I knew that if I stayed there for
too long, I would become tired and lazy and less effective in coming fights.
We also had a couple amusing conversations during the time in between fights.
Boo had a bane of the dead up, and so she couldn’t speak except to say
“magic harm undead thirty.” I said that it was not a problem, as my
great deal of experience as a formal caster made me able to speak in the mystical
language of “Magic harm undead thirty.” The key to speaking it is
to change your intonation in order to get your point across without breaking
the spell. Boo and I had a conversation, which roughly translated, involved
us both talking about what a great job the town as a whole had done so far and
how we were going to continue to do just as well. It was basically motivational.
Another similar incident occurred later while Caliphar had a magic storm up.
Caliphar was speaking in “magic storm 5” when I came up with an idea.
I suggested we should build a large box, make it take up half the doorway, and
then mystic lock it. Doing so would make half the doorway inaccessible, which
would allow us to funnel oncoming attacks.
As soon as I said we should make a box, Caliphar replied, “of magic storm
five?” This broke the magic storm he had been trying so hard to keep up,
and produced one of the few funny moments of the evening. The truth was, with
the power his transform gave him, Caliphar should have been fighting instead
of casting magic storms anyway.
Algorian, who by this time was pretty much the official scout, constantly going
outside the wall to find out what was occurring, came running by and told us
that the next wave was coming. We put up another wall of force, but it did not
last long, and pretty soon we were beset by driders.
I felt bad for Rillien during this fight. The amount of things I got hit with
was unbelievable. I was getting physically entangled, magically webbed, and
gassed to sleep, and that’s in addition to all the damage I was taking.
One of the most controversial parts of this fight came when Fenrir ordered a
charge out the door to take advantage of an imprison we had gotten off. It was
a good call at the time it was made, but the monsters regrouped faster than
we expected. Before long, we were getting beaten pretty badly. Rillien fell,
and I went for her, and then I got hit with about ten things at once and blacked
out.
When I came to, Meilah was standing over me, apparently having gotten me a life
spell, which I was very grateful to her for. I went to get Rillien, but apparently
she had already been saved, which I was also obviously very happy for.
We rejoined the fight, and I continued to be the target of every sleep poison
thrown on the field. Rillien went through all her awakens on me, and then she
started awakening me from potions, and then she had to start begging for awaken
spells. Every time I got back up, I was hit with another sleep poison. I do
not believe it is an exaggeration to say that I must have gotten hit with fifty
sleep poisons over the course of the battle.
Eventually, the driders were driven back, although I do not know if we managed
to capture a spirit bottle or not. My memory of these things is a little blurred
by now, unfortunately.
After the drider fight, we got some time to re-memorize our spells. Apparently
time fluctuations in the area had pushed our spell re-memorization time back
to nine o’clock, which was actually an advantage for us, as it meant that
we would have spells left for the big nasty fights at the end. Rillien covered
me while I memorized spells, and then I in turn covered her while she memorized
spells.
The next fight after the memorization was Lord Malik Baine. We had been waiting
for this one for a while, as Malik had not shown his face since the Great Dark
Swamp, and had posted quite a bit on the fey trees before the gathering. We
also knew that he had been called out by Strider De’Kiernan, a permanently
dead adventurer who was now a chaos lord, and so the two of them were expected
to clash.
Things played out basically as we expected them to. Malik and his forces showed
up and crashed into our lines, and we did the best we could to hold him off.
Then Strider and another permanently dead adventurer, Tomas, showed up, and
attacked Malik. The adventurers quickly teamed up with Strider, and allowed
him behind our lines to heal himself on occasion. Some people even tried to
jump out of the keep to aid Strider, but I quickly put a stop to that. We would
hold our line, and stop Malik from coming in, but anything more than that was
a waste of resources that we might later need.
We held Malik off at Door Two, but he finally pushed all his forces against
Door Three and got through. By this point Strider and Tomas were pretty beaten
up, and so the adventurers were going to have to stop Malik. When the call went
out for help, Fenrir and I looked at each other to decide which one of us was
going to take our team. It was decided that I would take mine, and so I went
off with Rillien, Kaiya, Kale, and Chika to help reinforce Door Three and stop
Malik from attaining the prize.
I formed up on the line at Door Three, and soon found myself face to face with
Malik himself. Thankfully, Malik uses clumsy weapons, so even though he can
swing very hard, he is not an especially dangerous opponent. With Rillien giving
me occasional healing, I cut away at Malik, chopping off little pieces of undead
flesh with every swing. It just wasn’t doing enough, though. I hit Malik
two hundred times, and I swing fairly hard, and it barely even fazed him.
Thankfully, some other adventurers joined in, and eventually, with four or five
of us hitting him, we managed to take Malik down. We captured his spirit bottle,
and this one I know for sure was destroyed. It was quite a victory, to finally
destroy Malik Baine, who had been a general under Nekros before he came to power
himself. He had been an enemy of Blackstone for a long time, and it was strange
to think of him being gone.
Apparently Malik had some type of a will that was read out, but I was not there
for that and so I know precious little about it. I heard that it was actually
quite honorable, but another will have to post the contents of what it said,
as I am unaware of them.
My understanding is that Pox also showed up again at some point while we were
in the keep, but he was ignored by everyone, especially Hooch, and so he just
faded away. Apparently this means that he is now gone and so Hooch does not
have to worry about him anymore. If this is the case, then that makes me very
happy for Hooch.
At this point, there were two major battles left. First, a regiment of Blackstone
soldiers showed up, under a Captain William. I thought they looked suspicious,
but I had no reason to doubt their authenticity until Ramsus Belmont, who is
permanently dead and currently a vampire, showed up and warned us that they
were not what they seemed. Given my earlier suspicions, that was enough to make
me yell down to Door One not to let them in. Sure enough, a moment later they
showed themselves to be vampires and werewolves under the control of Meschach
and Viktor. Ramsus helped us during this fight, and eventually Father O himself,
the most powerful vampire in the area, showed up and ordered the vampires and
minions away with his voice control, and so they left. They never mounted as
much of a threat as I expected them to.
That left us waiting for one last fight. As we did, something unexpected happened.
Every single transformation on the field went active. We knew something big
was happening, but we didn’t know what. Not long after, we were assaulted
by a corrupted version of the dream elemental in the mask from Friday night.
This thing was ridiculously powerful, and could not be killed by any conventional
means. Every time we knocked it down, it got right back up at full power and
devastated us again.
Eventually, I suggested to Dame Kaiya that it might be hurt with awaken spells,
and right after that others figured it out as well, and began pelting it with
awaken spells. Still, though, it kept getting back up. Finally, Count Silvercord
discovered that if one was to kill it with an awaken spell channeled through
a blade, it would stop getting up. Apparently Lord Dawnware was the only person
with channeling in his cantrip tome, and so they had to get him over there in
order to deliver the killing blow.
Once the dream monster was defeated, all that was left to do was to wait for
the final encounter. We had learned that McLaurius was engaged in battle with
Sietche, and we would be taking on the winner. Until they finished, though,
all we could do was wait. Most adventurers went to the fire to wait, but I guarded
the door with Dame Kaiya and Squire Rillien, and occasionally Fenrir or Kaelis.
I wanted to be ready in case they suddenly showed up, and I told Dame Kaiya
that it would take us two or three minutes to mobilize everyone at the fire.
Unfortunately, my words turned out to be all too prophetic.
Also at this point, Crimson’s group left for a while, and so Sathen and
Loremar put up circles of power to block Door Three. We didn’t think they
would hold, but we figured they might buy us some time.
Given the blocks in Door Three, we figured that the attack would hit either
Door One or Door Two. Algorian came running down the trail telling us to mobilize,
but unfortunately it took us too long to do so. We got the guard up at Door
Two in time to see the undead march by and head for Door One. They hit Door
One with a vengeance with a bunch of banshees commanded by Mary Death, and Door
One called for reinforcements, drawing us off Door Two. That was just what McLaurius
wanted.
McLaurius hit Door Two like a forty point explosive trap, and we could not deal
with him and Shatterborn coming in at once. We had to step back, and that let
the rest of McLaurius’s forces in the door.
I spent some time one on one with Shatterborn, who I have always had a pretty
easy time with. He’s tough, but not any tougher than any other major villain
I have fought, and he doesn’t have a massive swing or carrier attack, and
that makes him much easier to fight than most. Of course, I was also lacking
a key piece of information about Shatterborn. He can apparently be calmed by
music, which I did not know. When he is in this calmed state, he should not
be attacked. Of course, not knowing this, I attacked him after he had been calmed,
which broke the effect of the music.
I spent some time chasing after an undead who was swinging a lot of spellstrike
wither limbs, and with help from Duncan and Benn I managed to take him out.
Somewhere around that time, I turned and came face to face with McLaurius himself.
He was swinging for a flame bolt worth of massive damage, the type that can
go right through a shield. I managed to stand up to him for a while because
Rillien was behind me healing me. Eventually, he got wise to it, and reached
over and beat her down. I hit the ground not long after.
I don’t know how long I had been down when I got back up, but it couldn’t
have been long. Rillien, though, was gone. McLaurius had done the most effective
thing he could have done to take me out of the fight – he forced me to
go look for Rillien. I called out to her a few times, but I did not get a response.
I found Duncan, and he told me that Rillien had been created as an undead.
Right about then, I hurt Viscount Mithrilmist curse to himself next to me, and
I knew what had happened. McLaurius had accomplished his goal. We had failed
in our objective. Everything was lost.
I kept calling out for Rillien, and eventually I found her. I don’t know
who saved her, but whoever it was, I owe you a great debt of gratitude, and
I hope you will come forward and let me know who you are.
Shortly after, Lord Dawnware called a retreat, but it was not clear if it was
supposed to be a fighting retreat or an all out run for your lives retreat.
McLaurius started throwing arcane obliterates, and it quickly became an all
out run for your lives retreat. I had three thoughts going through my mind.
First, find Rillien. Second, find Duncan. Third, get out of there!
Thankfully, I found Rillien and Duncan pretty quickly, and we beat our way back
towards the tavern, and then around it, down a dark ambush path, with undead
hot in pursuit. We picked up Fenrir, Logenn, Kale, and Benn along the way, and
I just told everyone to keep moving. Fenrir and Logenn thought about stopping
at their cabin, but I asked if they were crazy and they thought better of it.
Rillien and I made a beeline towards a spot we had picked out earlier as an
escape route, and everyone else followed us. When we got there, I suggested
we split into two groups, because seven people would be too easy to spot in
the woods. Fenrir, Logenn, Benn, and Kale went one way, and Rillien, Duncan,
and I went the other way.
We first chose a spot roughly twenty feet back into the woods, but Rillien thought
that she heard undead searching the woods, so we moved further back. Eventually,
we found a spot roughly sixty feet back in the woods, and we hunkered down there
to wait for the storm to pass.
I was not proud of my action, but I saw no other alternative. Duncan said to
me, “No regrets. You can’t have any regrets.” He’s right,
technically, but I still can’t help having regrets.
As it turned out afterwards, our losses were pretty bad. Dame Kaiya was forced
to resurrect, Sathen was forced to resurrect, Blue the barbarian was forced
to resurrect, and Guido was forced to resurrect, but at least they all resurrected
successfully. My understanding is that neither Boo nor Panda resurrected successfully,
and I cannot state how much I am saddened by that. I do not as of this writing
know what happened to Meilah.
By now, the town of Stonereach has been cleared out by the Blackstone troops
and is once again abandoned. McLaurius and his minions have gone off to some
unknown location. The adventurers are a little grimmer than before. Still, under
everything else there is a tide of hope, and a knowledge that we are not finished.
We have lost a battle, but there is still a long war ahead of us. I can think
of no more appropriate way to end this journal than with the inclusion of a
poem that Algorian wrote about the battle. It expresses my thoughts in far more
eloquent a way than I ever could.
A Band of men and women came
To stand in walls of stone
To form a breaker against the night
One army all alone
The evils came one through the black
To feast of hope and death
But tide on tide was hurtled back
With every will and breath
Huzzah the heroes of Blackstone
Who stood upon the field
Who fought the long hours of the night
And bled but would not yield
Huzzah the fallen valiant dead
Who gave their lives that night
Whose courage is measured greater than life
And may we near loose sight
For hours and hours the battle ragged
And the heroes would not yield
And the dust of hundreds of fallen foes
Began to cover the field
And every man and every woman
And every single page
Each fought and tended and grimly defended
To object of so much rage
Huzzah the heroes of Blackstone
Who stood upon the field
Who fought the long hours of the night
And bled but would not yield
Huzzah the fallen valiant dead
Who gave their lives that night
Whose courage is measured greater than life
And may we near loose sight
But in end the line could not hold
And Mclearus claimed his prize
And many fell and many lived
And all shall fight again
For the battle lost the war begins
And one weapon the heroes hold
Their hope and their memory of how they stood
Through one long night in the cold
Huzzah the heroes of Blackstone
Who stood upon the field
Who fought the long hours of the night
Hope the great weapon that they yield
Huzzah the fallen valiant dead
Who gave their lives that night
Whose courage is measured greater than life
And lingers on to add to our might
And Huzzah to those who will return
Pained memory in their hearts
To end the war of passions now begun
Till the foe rues what he did start