Wandering Wolves: Pursuit of the All-Seeing Eye (3)

Sypheros 13 - Sypheros 18, YK 999

The Wolves decided to do some digging around to find out what they could about Vadis's operative in Rhukaan Draal before going through with the drop. While doing this, there was also some debate about whether they'd be using Nock for the bait, or if Pel would be taking her place. Nock was fairly adamant that it needed to be her, while Pel resisted the idea.

William, Lysander and Pel did some digging using their various skills and managed to find out that the operative they were looking for was named Bant, that he was a hobgoblin, and that he could often be found scoping out the various slave markets in the area.

With that information, the whole group went to the slave market. They assumed that Bant was actually a changeling, and that Pel would have the best chance of spotting him, and they were correct, as Pel pinned him down, although William moved up and shifted Pel out of the way right before Bant would have looked back and "made" him.

Given that Bant was an operative of Pel's father, the Wolves reasoned that he might have some way of spotting Pel, so they set Brand on Bant's trail, with Pel following Brand.

The rest of the Wolves returned to the Deneith enclave, and Luggoth had a heart-to-heart with Savannah about the Prophecy and what he'd been told. She told him that she was certain that it didn't mean what he thought, and asked him to put his faith in the Flame, which he made a half-hearted promise to consider. William spent his time networking with Deneith House members, while Lysander collected stories from the same.

A few hours later, having learned all they could about Bant's movements, Brand and Pel returned. Brand spent some time honing his combat skills in training with the Blademarks, while Pel went to have a talk with his mother, Nock. She was very convinced that he wasn't up to confronting Vadis, and that she was, and all but ordered Pel to let her go to the meet. Unfortunately for Nock, Pel wasn't taking orders from her, and whether it was concern for his mother, a desire to confront his father or something else, he decided to go on the mission.

Lysander disguised himself as the male assassin and dropped "Nock" off at the pre-arranged rendezvous spot in The Bloody Market. Brand waited nearby, and he followed Bant as he picked up the bundled-up "Nock" and began walking. Pel struggled slightly, trying to slow Bant down, which worked better than he had hoped. Bant put him down and fed him a dose of dreamlily, which he managed to vomit up, but then he decided to remain more still for the rest of the journey.

The journey was longer than the Wolves expected, as Bant headed out into the wilderness of Darguun. The rest of the Wolves followed Brand at a safe distance, as Brand used his ranger training and spotting help from Whitehearth to keep Bant in view without him realizing he was being followed.

After a somewhat tiring journey of about three and a half days, the Wolves reached a grove of scrawny trees in sight of the Seawall Mountains. In the distance, they could see a ruined fortress, with strange metal rods jutting up into the sky from what used to be the highest towers.

Bant left "Nock" on the ground, muttering to her that "it will all be over soon" and then he headed back toward Rhukaan Draal. The Wolves debated over whether or not to attack him, and ultimately decided it could blow their cover if they did.

The Wolves waited and watched for hours, camping overnight, and on the next day, Pel finally decided to climb out of the bag he had been transported in, still wearing the form of Nock, and head into the ruined fortress. The others followed him at a distance.

They descended down a long stairway, heading towards a flickering light, and soon found out what the light was coming from. An enormous entry chamber stood before them with eight batteries on the wall firing lightning across the room at each other, at metal statues in the middle of the room and at a giant set of adamantine doors in the back. Standing in the middle of these were two flesh golems who seemed rejuvenated each time the lightning struck them, and they moved up to attack.

William, Luggoth and Brand battled the golems while Pel and Lysander did their best to move in and try to disable the electrical grid without getting fried.

The first golem dropped after Luggoth hit it with a brutal howling strike, followed by a strike from William and a finish by Brand and Whitehearth. About that time, Lysander first got struck by the lightning trying to disable the trap.

With Pel having more luck turning off the electrical field, Lysander switched to healing William and assisting in the fight, and Luggoth was able to finish off the other golem that he'd been attacking along with Brand and William.

As Lysander and Pel began working on deciphering the arcane lock on the adamantine doors, William looked around and saw that while the original design was Dhakaani, a lot of the fortress had been retrofitted in a style that was Karrnathi, including the metal statues of famous necromancers and generals of the Last War era.

When the doors were opened, the Wolves saw that they led to a large gear-driven elevator, and after checking to make certain it wasn't a trap, they activated the gears and descended into the depths of the dungeon, which was clearly the only surviving part of the fortress.

At the bottom, they found another pair of arcane-locked adamantine doors, and thanks to the keen senses of Luggoth and Brand, they realized that there was an enormous amount of water pushing through from the other side. Several of the Wolves climbed to the top of the elevator while Brand followed Pel's instructions to open the doors.

The doors opened and a flood of dank water came spilling in, starting to fill the elevator almost immediately. In the nearly-flooded hallway beyond, they saw two Karrnathi skeletons and two Karrnathi zombies, who yelled that they wouldn't get into "Count Orlok's laboratory" before attacking.

They hear the water, try to decide what to do, Brand climbs to top of the elevator

The Wolves slid down ropes into the room and began attacking, but the zombies and skeletons put up a brutal fight, knocking Brand down and slashing into Luggoth as the water rose around them. William responded with a powerful attack that nearly cut one of the skeletons in half, and Lysander spotted inoperative pumps around the room which he began activating, causing the flow of water to slow down.

The skeletons were fast-moving and deadly, and the zombies protective and brutal, reminiscent of the fighting styles of Brand and William respectively. However, the Wolves worked together very effectively, and Pel finished the one that William had attacked almost immediately.

William dealt out damage to all the zombies and skeletons, and Luggoth shifted into his more bestial form to engage the other skeleton. As Lysander turned on the other pumps, causing the water to drain from the room, William finished off the other skeleton and then Brand and Pel struck the final blows to kill the remaining zombies.

After a brief rest, the Wolves cracked open the next set of doors to find that it opened into an enormous laboratory, clearly one that had belonged to Count Orlok, judging from the electrical machinery, the blood-stained cage, the brains in jars and the Karrnathi art throughout the room. Perhaps most notably, there was some sort of machine at the back that looked like it might be used for some kind of brain-swapping operation.

Standing at a large table was Vadis. He confirmed that his plan had been to use the device to steal Nock's knowledge and replace her, becoming effectively a House Medani agent, which would have served his masters well.

Vadis tried to convince the Wolves to join him, hinting broadly that he worked for the Lords of Dust and that they could provide temporary wealth and power, for a price that would be paid by, at best, their long-future descendants. He also revealed several tidbits of information, from the identity of Pel's mother to the fact that Xain was one of Pel's brothers, and offered up bribes of influence to Brand, Pel and William in turn.

Lysander tried to bluff that the Wolves were considering the offer, but Vadis saw through it. He did allow the Wolves to come in, though, and when they were close, he drew his rapier with a sigh and started the fight by stabbing Pel.

Brand dimensional bonded with Vadis immediately to keep him from getting away, and Pel responded to his father's attack by stabbing him deep in the heart, leaving him pouring blood that would make him easier to trail. Each attack on Vadis earned a response with his blade, and he was quite good with it.

Vadis very nearly killed Pel with his attacks, but Pel stepped back to recuperate and yelled to his father, "I've gained a few things you don't have, father. I've gained friends... and I've gained faith!" He blasted him with daunting light, but Vadis dodged out of the way and turned invisible, avoiding a few attacks from the Wolves before Brand used dimensional bond to teleport to him and attack, which caused Vadis to reveal himself with a counter-attack.

Seeing that the tide was turning, Vadis tried to bargain with the Wolves, offering up valuable information about Count Orlok and other tidbits if they would agree to let him surrender rather than die. Pel responded that they were going to use Orlok's machine to draw the memories out of his corpse.

He downed a potion to heal and then continued his attacks on Pel and Brand, as Luggoth flew into a rage and struck, allowing both Brand and Pel to follow up, including Pel stabbing Vadis in the thigh to slow him down.

Summoning reserves of strength, Vadis ran to the other side of the room despite his wound, drawing attacks from three of the Wolves that further injured him. He slashed the wires and destroyed the brain-reading device, and confidently said, "I suppose now you have to take me alive."

Luggoth and William immediately charged, serving notice to Vadis that surrender wasn't an option, and Pel, with encouragement from the two warriors, called down a flame strike on the three of them.

Vadis, growing weary from blood loss, tried to defend himself against the Wolves as they all moved in with melee weapons, but finally Pel was able to flank with William and stab his father again in the heart, causing him to fall.

The Wolves debated what to do with Vadis, as they could tell that he wasn't dead yet. The general consensus was that he was too dangerous to live, but they also realized that he had vital knowledge of a great many things. In addition, he was Pel's father, after all.

After much consideration, Pel made the decision, saying that he was too dangerous to live, and with a final rapier strike to the throat, the threat of Vadis was ended.