Chapter 46: The
Battle of Stormguard
The last 24 hours have been… interesting. Our research in the Necropolis turned up
three potential sites for the planar rift, but the problem is that the rifts
would need to be consecrated in order to close them. The city has a law preventing the
consecration of anything in the graveyard because of potential conflicts with
legally-recognized temples. The only way
to accomplish our goal would be getting the Council to grant us permission to consecrate
the rift sites only.
Which is exactly what we were doing when the battle
began. The council was reluctant to
allow us to do anything but there was suddenly a blast of negative energy that
rolled over the entire city. We rushed
to the windows of the council chamber and saw a massive wave of dark storm
clouds rolling toward us from the east.
Reports began pouring in from all
over the city: Vampires and other undead were moving through the streets and
large ships accompanied by Sahuagin raiders were moving in from the docks to
the east and the King’s river to the northwest.
The unnatural storm clouds swirled directly over the
Necropolis and the council needed no further convincing. They gave us an emergency authorization to
close the rift by any means necessary.
The Lord Knight called on the wizard’s guild to coordinate
communications and mount a counter-offense.
One of the wizards allowed us to use a specialized communication spell
to contact anyone we wished. I called on
Tal, Erra, and Shane. Tal agreed meet us
at her shop in the center of town while Erra and her group, who were already in
the eastern part of the city, would meet us at the Necropolis. Shane arrived immediately to begin the fight
as well and suspected that one of his old group was involved, Nevin - follower of the Devourer. Shane suspected
that this person was also connected with the Red Fangs. Lastly I called on Oslo and he assured me
that he would be in the city soon.
As soon as I finished talking with him, a group of the
wizards became alert and began to ready teleport spells. I shouted at them to bury their grudge
against my master, but they refused, speaking of lost treasures of the Wizard
King. After they disappeared from view,
I turned to the Lord Knight to protest but I found that he was already livid and
declaring the men traitors who would incriminate the entire Guild if their
actions were supported. The council
agreed as well but I still worried for my great-grandfather. I spoke through the communication spell again
and warned him. He was already fighting
but assured me that he would be okay.
I felt terrible for getting him involved but there was
nothing further I could do. We had to
close down the rifts in the Necropolis so we gathered outside and moved into
the city. I attempted to dispel the
storm clouds using the magic I learned from the Wizard King’s book, but the
forces at work were too powerful for me to counteract. We rushed from the Council Building to
Fennic’s apartment in the Noble Quarter.
On the way, we ran into a pack of rogues who were working for the Red
Fangs. After dispatching them, we
encountered a group of Sahuagin clerics and their followers. Neither of these groups posed any major
threat, but they did slow us down.
At the apartment, Will and I took the arch to Mid-town to
meet Tal while the others went straight to the docks. Luckily there were enough spell-casters among
our groups that using the arches didn’t deplete our spells too greatly and
soon, we were all together in the right part of the city. We rushed up the street toward the
Necropolis, but we were still miles away.
Luckily, a wagon pulled up to a stop at one of the intersections and
Rish recognized her friend Moon driving.
Nothing stopped us on the way, although, Will called out as he saw a
fruit vendor being attacked by a group of raiders led by someone that Will
swore was his father.
Unfortunately, we had to press on to our destination and
soon the gates of the came into view.
Erra’s group had already found a route into the graveyard near one of
the potential rift sites: the tomb of the infamous Pirate King of Stormguard. We fought a group of undead, zombies and
ghouls mainly while Rish prepared the consecration ritual to seal the
rift. When it was over, the gaping hole
in reality sealed shut and the undead around us slumped lifelessly to the
ground (no pun intended). Overheard, the
unnatural cloud cover began to dissipate and the ever-present feeling of dread
began to fade.
We gathered back at the gate, killing a few more straggling
undead when suddenly, the clouds rolled back in, darker than ever. A new wave of negative washed over the city
that could only be caused by another rift opening; this time, even larger than
the first. Mak and Rish pin-pointed the
source and I realized that it had to be in the center of the Necropolis. With the undead rising around us, more
powerful than ever, we had to find a way there: Moon’s wagon! Rish suggested a sanctuary spell, but it
wouldn't be large enough to protect the wagon and the horses. Luckily for us, I had a solution. Rish would ride with Moon at the driver’s seat,
where her spell would protect the horses.
I could ride inside with everyone else and use my Rune of Chalk to
protect us there. The only problem left
was Mak and his worg, but he assured us that they would be fine on their own.
We reached our destination quickly and after releasing the
protection spells, we approached a large mausoleum. The ground around the building was broken by
writhing and grasping skeletal hands.
Will tried to move through but became stuck immediately. Lilly leaped gracefully from the wagon to one
of the six doors and began dealing with the traps and locks. Mak circled around the building to find
another way in and from the length of his disappearance he must have found one.
Once Lilly opened the door, we all made our way into the
mausoleum. Inside, we spotted the rift
immediately, but other than that, we saw nothing. As soon as we entered, the doors slammed shut
and sealed us in. The floor dropped away
to reveal a group of skeletal warriors surrounding Mak and his worg as they
faced their leader. It gave of waves of
evil magic that seemed to warp the air around him and though he was battered
and bloody, the half-orc faced it bravely.
Before we could join the fight, another surge of magic
flared around us. I recognized the
energy as a teleportation spell and instinctively reached out for Tal. As I grabbed her hand, the world shifted and
we found ourselves standing on a dark, barren landscape. Cold tendrils of darkness surrounded us and
began to sap our life force and I realized that we were standing on the
negative energy plane. If we stayed too
long, we would be turned into undead husks, but looking around, there was
nothing that we could see to help us.
Tom spoke suddenly and when we turned, he appeared to be
completely solid but the worry on his face was obvious. He couldn't help us directly, but he was able
call on someone that could. He chanted
in a low booming voice and on the “horizon” a figure came striding toward
us. He was a large man, dressed very
strangely in a yellow, high-necked shirt.
His hair and beard were snow white and he wore a strange red-crystal
visor over his eyes. He greeted as all
with a blinding toothy smile and introduced himself as Othar Tryggvassen,
Gentleman Adventurer.
He and Tom spoke quickly and Othar assured us that he could
get us back to our correct plane of origin.
We just had to find a horrible monster, subdue it, and force it to open
a portal to send us back; which is exactly what we did. In an odd twist, the creature plane shifted
back to Tal’s bedroom and though our celebration at being alive was enthusiastic
(and sent Tom rushing out of the room), it was brief and fully clothed. Taking a quick inventory we found that both
of us were slightly translucent around the edges, almost ghostly in appearance. I also discovered that my flight ring was
gone but there was a rolled up carpet in the bed with us.
I eagerly examined the rug, hoping that it was of the flying
variety, but the thing attacked me, wrapping around my body and making it
impossible to move or even breath. As my
vision was going dark, Tal saved me, using a setup of clamps, wires and pulleys
on the carpet (don’t ask) and stretching it out so that it released me. We emerged from the room and Tom narrowed his
eyes disapprovingly. I decided not to
protest and asked for a way to contact everyone. He offered a way, but it involved me trusting
him more than ever. Seeing no other
option and having no reason not to trust the man, I agreed. He stepped into me and suddenly my
mind was filled with all the spells he knew; and they were powerful spells
indeed!
I (he? We?) cast a telepathic communication spell that
allowed me to contact all of my companions at once. I was pleased to learn that everyone was
alright, more or less, and informed them that we needed to get back to the
Necropolis as fast as possible. Oslo
(who I included in the telepathic message) told me that he could teleport two
of my companions to me. Lilly and Fasa
were the farthest away so, I chose them and after burning a few more spells in
the teleportation room, we were racing
back through the streets toward the Necropolis.
On the way, I spotted an injured guardsmen slumped against
an abandoned shop. His wounds were
severe and he couldn't walk. He'd been
run down by a flaming wagon as he and his unit tried to advance on the necropolis. I healed him enough to get him back on his
feet and we moved on. As we neared the
graveyard, we spotted a flaming wagon careening down the street toward us. Seeing no other good option, we headed up to
the roofs and continued there. When the
graveyard came into view, we stopped and stared at the nightmare the place had
become. Packs of powerful roving undead
wandered everywhere but as we watched, a force pushed into the area from the
west: the clerics and paladins of the city’s temple district had arrived and
were cutting a swath of destruction.
Mak’usk arrived, preforming an exceptional jump on his worg
over one the flaming wagons. We met with
him down on the street and soon after, Will hobbled up to us, looking and
smelling like he had been through hell.
His wounds were severe and he was coated in filth so I used a few spells
to clean and heal him. I also gave him
one of my baggier shirts to wear under his armor as his seemed to be in tatters
and the leather was chafing and aggravating his wounds. As we looked around we spotted Rish further
in the graveyard and rushed to meet with her.
There were two knights with her, one was undead and the
other was Half-dwarf I’d seen her working with before. We were all taken aback when Sir <name>
announced that he and Rish were courting, but before we could get any
confirmation of that, we were set on by a massive force of powerful undead, led
by the original Lord Stormguard himself!
We all fought to keep them away from Rish as she began the consecration
ritual. I don’t know exactly what she
did, but a wave of positive energy exploded outward with three major
consequences: the rift was sealed; all of the undead including Lord Stormguard
and the unknown knight helping us collapsed; and lastly but most distressing of
all, the entire Necropolis was consecrated.
I’m sure that won’t go over well.
Many heroic-types would have called it a day then, but we
still had something personal to deal with: Will’s father. After regrouping and healing, we set off
through the city again, noting the distinct lack of undead. There were some Sahuagin to deal with but
those only slowed us down. We found
Will’s father stalking through the street with murder and mayhem in his
eyes. I tried to fascinate him with bard
song, but whatever enchantment held in its grasp was simply too strong. (That’s my story, and I’m sticking to
it!) Luckily, we were able to render
him unconscious and Rish, Tal and I could study the magic which was emanating
from a collar around his neck. Judging
by the scarring from the worn leather, it was clear that this collar had been
on the man, a long time.
Very carefully, we managed to disengage a trap mechanism and
remove the strip of leather. If we
hadn't been successful, Will would have suddenly been made an orphan. Once the collar was removed, we revived his
father, but the man was completely confused.
His last memories were of falling asleep in his home. We had seen other men with Will’s father
when they were rampaging through the streets and if they were under the control
of devices like this, we could help them.
Luckily, Rish had an idea. Using
a bit of creative thaumaturgy, she rigged up a tracking spell using the collar
we had to track the device it was linked to.
Moving quickly through the city, we followed Rish’s spell,
first to the docks where we found two large ships in port. Men stood guard; all wearing the same collars,
but the spell directed us to a nearby tavern.
As we scouted the building, we found a group of city guardsmen, many of
whom were badly injured. We healed them
quickly and they told us about a sniper firing alarmingly large arrows at
anyone who approached the tavern. We
left them to watch our flanks and went up onto the roofs to get a better view. Moving as stealthily possible, we formulated
a plan.
Dropping water into the single fireplace would produce a
large amount of smoke, driving the men inside to the exits. We sealed the back door so that they could
only come out the front where we were waiting in ambush. As our stealth experts were carrying out their part of the
plan, I spotted something interesting: a
dead body, surrounded by blackened smears of ash which were vaguely man-shaped. Next to the corpse was a sword, driven deeply
into the tiles. I could sense the magic
from the weapon and as I drew it easily from the roof, I noted a distinctive red
colored blade. It was a Sun Blade,
legendary for its devastating effect on vampires and the like, as evidenced by
the ash surrounding the swords fallen wielder.
I stowed the sword for now as every was now in place for the
attack. The first wave went down quickly
and during the fighting, Will got impaled with what looked like a harpoon
attached to a heavy cord. He was pulled
away from the fight, but quickly recovered.
Raging fiercely, he almost disabled the sniper while we were forced to
deal with a second wave of much more competent attackers. One spellcaster tried to turn Tal to stone,
but she resisted and Lilly killed the man by burying her sword in his
back. (I still need to thank her
properly for that.)
When the battle was over, we found the control collar and
disabled it. All of the collars linked
to it and dropped off the enslaved men, leaving them stumbling around in
confusion. None of them could remember
anything and hopefully that will be taken in consideration at their
trials. Exhausted from our encounters,
we all stumbled back to Fennic’s dockside apartment for a well-earned
rest. My mind was racing, so I stayed up
to write out the experience while it was still fresh in my mind, but sleep is
beginning to win the battle for my attention.
Plus there is a lithe, warm body in my bed to cozy up to.
Chapter 47: Aftermath
Much of the city is in ruins and our group has all gone
their separate ways for a bit. I've been
spending most of my time with Tal. We
had business plans to arrange, especially with the Lord Knight. He has already commissioned some lightning
cannons to be placed on the city walls and to defend the docks. I also have finalized my plans for my “Tubes
of Distant Missives”. The enchanted
scroll tubes use the teleport spell I developed to instantly send messages over
long distances, a fraction of the cost of other forms of magical
communication. We finalized the
contracts with the Lord Knight and having heard rumors and accusations of his
incompetence, I made sure the documents were “accidentally” dated weeks ago.
To support these business ventures, we needed to assemble a
work force. There weren’t enough hours
in the day for Tal and me to build all of these things by ourselves. We moved through the streets of the crafters
district around Tal’s shop and drove off looters from partially destroyed
shops. We offered the victims work and
they gladly accepted because they needed the work to get back on their feet.
The evening following the attack, I was suddenly teleported
away to Oslo’s tower. He looked
terrible, older than ever and obviously in quite a bit of pain. One of the attacks that the guild wizards
used on him, a vile spell called “Soul Daggers”, was slowly and steadily killing
him. He was so drained by the ordeal
that he didn't think that he would survive long. Guilt welled up inside me because I was the
one that called him to Stormguard. I was
responsible for his current state. I
rushed to my room and collected the vile containing the essence of the second
vampire that I had killed. It took some
convincing, but he mixed the potion and took it and though the effect wasn't as
pronounced as the first one, he looked much stronger and assured me that he
could deal with the curse.
Later, he told me that he was beginning to consider study
the wizard king’s secret for longevity and I certainly hope that he unlocks that
mystery. Oslo is the only family that I
currently have contact with and I don’t want to lose him. We discussed some of the things I had learned
and encouraged me to keep working. I can’t
read the old man’s moods very well, but I suspect he’s proud of what I've
managed to do so far. It’s a good
feeling.
…..
Back in the city, Tal and I continued recruiting a work
force and making business contacts.
Inrus’s grandson, Quentin agreed to work with some of the rehabilitated enchanters
we rescued from Lilly’s father and they are already working on the first batch
of Missive Tubes for the Lord Knight. I’m
currently working on a custom one for myself.
It’s nice to share a workspace with Tal as she toils on projects of her
own. Strangely, Rish showed up at the
shop as commissioned a very unusual clock for some unknown purpose.
Seeing how urgent the project was, I decided to find some
other skilled help. I contacted the
Feldor family, the gnomish tinkers who owned the mansion where we recovered our clockwork golem and one of Rish’s swords. The family was in dire straits and was very
grateful for the work. As a show of good
faith, I also informed them that the mansion was inhabitable again and I gave
them back the engineering texts that were written by their ancestors; after
having copies scribed, of course. The rest
of the library is still with us though – call it a “service fee”. I also worked out a contract with the De'Jay family to supply the iron needed for our projects.
I had little contact with my friends but I assume they are
all doing well. I heard a rumor that
Lilly was taking over some of the brothels and other businesses on Pleasure Street. Good for her!
I’ve come to love that girl like a little sister and I want to see her
happy. Maybe I should set up a date with
one of Erra’s adventuring group. Or that
dishwasher at the Hobbit House… That boy
is positively smitten!
…..
Over the last week, I've been spending my evenings at the
Observatory, studying Runic magic. The two
runes I've learned so far have been incredibly useful and I am close to
unlocking a third. Tal’s been spending
so much time working that I don’t think she minds having me out of her
shop. Oh! And Shane stopped by with some water from
Riverton and my experiment was a complete success! Treating the lenses of my spectacles with the
water does allow me to see through the invisibility enchantment and it has no
adverse effect the perception-enhancing spells already on my glasses.
Yesterday, I also met with the Gray Elf merchant and purchased
a length of cloth for a future project. I
was lucky to catch him because he was in the process of packing to depart the
city for a prolonged period. Now I need
to find a really proficient tailor, but that’s for a project for another
time. I really need to check in with
everyone. I heard some interesting rumors
about an Admiral from Rengar and group of thugs down at the docks who seemed
very pleased that the Royal Navy was here.
Also, I heard about a crazed ranger going attacking someone who I
suspect was Will. That boy collects
enemies like a camel collects flies! I
hope the others have managed to keep out of trouble, but knowing them, it’s
quite unlikely.
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