Zarantyr 16 - Zarantyr 26, YK 1000With Lysander offering a Traveler's Chant through chattering teeth, the Wolves were able to cover the remaining ground to the Karrnathi scout base in only a day and a half. They were still suffering from the bitter cold, with Pel suffering the worst, desperately missing the warmth of cities he had lived in his entire life.
When they got within sight of the small fortress, they realized that they weren't going to find it easy to get Lysander inside for healing. An army from the plane of Risia was laying siege to the fortress, kept at bay only by the strong stone walls and occasional bolts of alchemically-treated fiery crossbow bolts.
Circling quietly and carefully, Pel spotted a secret entrance at the rear of the castle. He and William determined that if they were able to wait for the right moment, there would be only a small patrol of ice gargoyles, an ice-touched umber hulk and a single ice archon to be taken out before they slipped inside.
Pel started things off by launching a flame strike at the archon and the umber hulk, as Brand and William closed ranks and Lysander moved up invisibly, launching an illusory decoy at the archon, which drew it's attention as Whitehearth moved in to attack.
William engaged the Umber Hulk, which bit him and held him in its jaws as he hacked relentlessly away with Terminus. An ice gargoyle, along with a frost-touched white wyrm, flew in to support the icy scouts below.
While Lysander supported William in his attacks on the Umber Hulk, Brand and Pel engaged the ice archon. Supporting fire began coming out to hit the gargoyles and the wyrm, as scouts inside the base launched alchemically-treated fiery crossbow bolts at the airborne foes.
The ice archon, battered by Brand and Pel, attempted to flee but was smashed by Pel, and Brand moved to help William and Lysander with the umber hulk.
Pel charged the frost wyrm as Lysander shifted targets to one of the ice gargoyles, and William and Brand continued to slice away at the umber hulk, which still had William in its mandibles. William drew back and stabbed the Umber Hulk through its eye, drawing strength from its screech of pain, and Pel took advantage of the opportunity to slide in and lash a deep cut across the umber hulk's back.
The ice gargoyle, suffering under Lysander's blade, bow and a dash of alchemist's fire, flew up and away, probably to get reinforcements, but it would be too late. William unleashed another deadly blow on the umber hulk, and Pel finished it off with a slash of his rapier, as Brand and Whitehearth began focusing their attacks on the wyrm.
The wyrm, though mostly undamaged by the earlier fighting, was now the focus of all the attacks, and Pel, Brand and Whitehearth used flanking and covering maneuvers to wound it and position it for the kill, which William delivered.
The battle completed, one of the scouts popped open the secret hatch to allow the Wolves access to the fortress before any of the icy assault forces could see the secret way in.
Once inside, Lysander was taken to the necromancer Roland Ochem, who cured his disease with a quick ritual. Unfortunately, this was to be the last bit of good news for a while.
William quickly realized that the man in charge was a Corporal, Drago Zhent, and Dragon revealed that he was one of General Karlach's scouts, and that most of the commanding officers and indeed many of the forces at the base had been killed when the icy creatures first attacked. They had managed to seal off the fortress, and send a courier for help, but they estimated it would be at least a week before reinforcements arrived.
Corporal Zhent explained that if this fortress fell, the Risians would immediately turn towards the citizenry of Karrnath. They had to keep the forces occupied for as long as they could, even if it meant their deaths.
Lysander, remembering his history, suggested using fiery walls built from alchemical fire to keep the Risian forces at bay, and also propped up the many dead bodies to make it look as if there were more defenders on the walls. William then used his military training to determine the best spots to fire barrels of alchemists' fire out into the enemy, where they would do the most good.
The combination of fire walls and flaming barrels kept the foes from the walls for a few days, until the fiery walls began to go out. Pel and Brand led a small force of scouts out to re-light the fires, but they encountered an umber hulk and had to flee before it brought reinforcements to deal with them.
Lysander spoke nightly to keep morale up, singing and telling tales of valor, and though the troops, and indeed the Wolves, were growing tired, on the eighth day they looked out and saw a large contingent of Karrnathi undead coming over the rise, tearing into the Risian forces and scattering them aside.
With the fortress defense maintained, Corporal Zhent, PFC PFC Fraedus Dorn, PFC Holden Kessler and PFC Sigor Hintram, bolstered by alchemist's fire from Ochem's stockpile, headed out to Iceridge Tower.
The tower stood right at the foot of the Icetop Mountains, its exterior glowing with blue energy from the plane of Risia. Floating out over the ice, defending the only entrance, was an undead Bloodkiss Beholder. It spotted the Wolves and their scouts and, screeching, moved to defend against them.
The ice was slippery, causing the Wolves and their scouts to fall, until they found their way to some snow-covered patches that were easier to stand on. The Beholder's death scream pierced the ears of William and Lysander, and was especially effective on Lysander. Lysander responded, however, with an inspiring refrain that struck at the core of what remained of the undead monster's soul, and Brand followed up by slashing into the creature. It responded by sucking the life out of William to restore its own health.
William, bloody but unafraid, went into his rain of steel stance, landing several blows on the Bloodkiss Beholder as the scouts began firing bolts into it. The Beholder lashed out, hitting the Wolves in turn, but they dealt their own damage as well, and as Pel and Brand healed themselves, Lysander and William poured on the attacks.
As William moved up to attack, he dealt a vicious blow to the Beholder, causing it to unleash another death scream, which finished off the downed PFC Hintram. However, this was the last casualty of the battle, as William, Pel and Brand closed ranks on the creature, and the other scouts showed uncanny accuracy, peppering the hideous beast with bolts into its deadened eye stalks.
Brand laid in the final attacks, stabbing his short sword into the creature's central eye and slicing at its stalks with his longsword, allowing William to finish it with one last kata of his rain of steel stance.
The Wolves, panting and bloodied, carried their gear over to one of the smaller snow hills surrounding Iceridge Tower and sat down to catch their breath. William insisted that they bury Private Sigor before they went any further, so he and Brand dug into the frozen ground enough to put the soldier into a shallow grave and then covered him up. William scowled at Pel's offer of last rites on behalf of the Traveler, but Pel had studied enough of the Soveriegn Host to say a few prayers for the young soldier, and Lysander offered up a short but stirring eulogy on behalf of their fallen ally.
Pel strayed a bit toward a nearby snowdrift, and the other Wolves looked up when they heard a loud clang in response to Pel's knock. They were soon gathered around a warforged, inert and half-frozen. As William stepped closer, his dragonmark began glowing, and the identification rune on the warforged's forehead glowed in response.
William shrugged and grunted, and so everyone turned to look to Lysander. Lysander scrutinized the mark on the warforged's forehead and said "Hmm. You know, I think I have heard of this. His name is Resolute, and he worked for the Sentinel Marshals during the Last War. But nobody has seen him for close to two decades. I wonder what he's doing here?"
Just then, the ice began to crack, as the warforged's eyes popped open, and he began flexing his mechanical muscles to get out of the frosty prison.
"What--- where's Orlok? Where's Hannah?"
William and the others were taken aback, to say the least. But they quickly determined what had happened.
Resolute was a warforged Sentinel Marshal and servant of Dol Dorn of the Sovereign Host who, along with Hannah and Alarich d'Deneith, was a deputy to Sentinel Marshal Sigor d'Deneith. He was the first one assigned to track down Count Orlok when the Emerald Claw was outlawed, and he had tracked him here to Iceridge Tower. Unfortunately, it was a trap for him, and Orlok's troops and undead were ready. About to be utterly destroyed, Resolute instead activated a plan he and Hannah had developed, allowing himself to become inert. The plan was that she would come after Orlok next, and when she found Resolute, she would use her dragonmark to "restart his systems" and the two of them could take down the necromancer together.
Apparently, William's dragonmark, just one generation removed from Hannah's, had been enough to trigger the contingency. And now the Wolves had an ally who had been waiting twenty years to pursue Orlok into Iceridge Tower.
William smashed down the double doors leading into the tower, encountering two pale blue Icetomb Wights, one Battle Wight in chainmail and a tattered Karrnathi military uniform, and one greenish undead creature seemingly stitched together. Pel warned the group that it was a blaspheme. As the creatures charged, the Wolves noticed that the floor of the first level was frozen solid with a thick layer of ice that made movement difficult.
Pel unleashed a holy light from his holy symbol, causing two of the wights to shriek in pain, as Lysander slid easily across the ice thanks to his eladrin agility, firing arrows at the wights as he charged. William and Resolute charged in to engage the Icetomb Wights, as Brand and Whitehearth moved to flank the Battle Wight.
The Blaspheme bolstered his allies with whispered words of undead power, and blasted away at Pel with unholy rays, as Pel joined Brand and Whitehearth in attacking the Battle Wight.
Resolute swung his two bastard swords with speed and deadly precision, chopping deep into the flesh of the Icetomb Wight and then into the Blaspheme, moving around the battle as one of the Icetomb Wights grabbed Pel, even as William used a reaping strike to bring down the other one. Pel felt a chill go through him from the Wight's touch and saw ice form over him, freezing him in place, although he took heart as he watched Brand cut down the Battle Wight.
The Karrnathi scouts, who had been firing their crossbows and using their longswords, were mostly ineffective against the powerful undead, and PFC Halden found himself in the sights of the Blaspheme. Before it could blast him with an unholy ray, however, Resolute charged into it, slashing his swords across its neck and leaving its head hanging by a mere thread, which Resolute then cut off with another quick swing.
Lysander pulled out his scimitar and moved to engage the remaining Icetomb Wight as Pel struggled with his icy prison. William tried to charge the Wight but fell afoul of the slippery floor, resorting to his rarely-used bow, which he fired wide, missing the target.
Brand moved over to help Lysander as the eladrin bard unleashed a sting of vicious mockery on the Blaspheme, laced with arcane power that struck even the undead's heart with shame and doubt. William got to his feet and charged as well, and before long, the Wight was surrounded by all of the Wolves, plus their ally Resolute. Brand swung the final blow, stabbing the Wight through the eye with his longsword to finish it off.
The Wolves took a short rest, their breath escaping in frozen clouds in the frigid room. Pel was feeling exhausted, but ready to go on, and the Wolves and their allies pushed forward into the spiral staircase that led higher into the tower.
On the first floor, they found a kitchen and a series of storerooms, all empty and broken down, and then moved on. A floor above, they found a decrepit dining room, once well-furnished, and a library filled with Karrnathi books, including two valuable first editions. Lysander, always welcoming new stories, stuffed the deep pockets of his magical cloak to bursting with books.
On the third floor, they interrupted a second gang of undead (Reapers, Karrnathi zombies, another Blaspheme and a female Battle Wight) in a large semicircular room full of blood, torture tools, and large tables. The Wight referred to "Orlok's machinery," and her voice and appearance was that of Hannah d'Deneith. She wielded Vendetta, a family righteous execution sword similar to William's Terminus, and it was clear that Orlok had turned his greatest foe into a twisted mockery of life, now an ally.
Resolute and William gritted their teeth, realizing there was no cure for the thing that had been their friend and relative, respectively, and that she had to be destroyed.
Hannah swung Vendetta in a high arc and slashed into Pel, who was nearest to her, and the Wolves moved in to fight. Pel, weakened and immobilized, turned invisible to regroup, while William pulled Hannah and a Reaper to him to fight. Resolute quickly joined in, swinging his swords at Hannah and the Reaper and moving to support William, as Lysander moved in through the other door in the room to take up position. The zombies moved up and attacked, knocking William back a few feet, and the Reapers demonstrated an ability to attack and then teleport and remain insubstantial for a few seconds after a successful attack.
Hannah offered mocking words to Resolute and William, but spent her attack on Brand, who teleported away, using his dragonmark to put William back into the fight in his place. Pel once again unleashed radiant light from his holy symbol, blasting all of the undead with the vengeful fury of the Traveler.
William continued to attack Hannah as Resolute swung his swords in a whirlwind at the Karrnathi zombies and Lysander unleashed disturbing visions on the Reapers.
Finally, Hannah turned her sword on William, and the two great swords of the Snow family met in combat for the first time. Brand and Whitehearth moved up to assist, biting and slashing, as William struck back with a lasting threat. Simultaneously, Pel unleashed a flame strike on the Reapers, with bursts of the flame singeing Hannah and the zombies as well.
The Blaspheme continued to bite at William as Resolute, Brand, Whitehearth and William poured attacks onto Hannah, who was weakening from the onslaught. Lysander leaped onto a table and healed William with a majestic word before launching a saga of vengeance involving Karrnathi tales he had recently learned against Hannah.
The zombies moved in to attack Brand and Pel, but the Wolves kept up their focus on Hannah. As Brand activated his dimensional bond to make sure she didn't get away, William swung Terminus in a high arc and decapitated the thing that was once his aunt.
With their leader fallen, the remaining undead fell quickly to the assault of Resolute and the Wolves. Brand and Whitehearth finished one zombie, William finished off one of the Reapers with his rain of steel stance, Brand finished another with an acrobatic strike and then combined with Whitehearth to destroy the last zombie, and Resolute finished off the Blaspheme.
Resolute pulled out one of his firestorm arrows and struck it into Hannah's corpse, incinerating his body as he said a prayer to Dol Dorn. William offered up his own farewell to his aunt while Brand and Resolute threw the remaining corpses of the undead out the hole in the tower, onto the ice below.
Weary and battered, the Wolves decided to chance a long rest. The air was cold, but not quite as cold as it was outside, allowing them to cover up in heavy blankets and sleep, albeit fitfully. While they did, an undead ward cast by Lysander and William's eye of alarm guarded the stairwell. Nothing disturbed it during their rest, and after about eight hours, the Wolves were ready to move upward to finally confront Count Orlok.
On the next level, they found a sacred chapel, decorated with Karrnathi art and centered around a polished stone altar and a twelve-foot statue of Lady Vol. The Wolves recognized it as a lich, but didn't know who it was. The altar began to glow with a sickly black unholy light, and the chapel's defenders, a group of Mummies and Karrnathi Skeletons, moved to attack the interlopers.
William called out a battle cry that drew the mummies to him, and he swung Vendetta into them as Brand and Resolute moved in to join the battle. Lysander opened fire with his bow and Pel blasted all of the undead with holy light. The altar's glow turned out to have a sinister meaning, as a black light flashed across William's eyes, and he found himself doing the bidding of the altar.
William spun in place and stabbed Vendetta through Pel's gut, nearly killing the very surprised priest of the Traveler. The scouts, unsure what was happening, began firing from the stairwell, launching crossbow bolts at the mummies and skeletons. The Wolves scattered away from their dominated ally, as Lysander gave a word of healing to keep Pel from bleeding out. The mummies focused their attacks on Resolute, but turned to attack William as well as the domination faded.
Pel, wounded but not out of the fight, distracted one mummy's attention with a changeling trick before destroying it with a sly flourish, and Resolute swung both of his bastard swords through another one to finish it off, right before the altar dominated him.
William charged the altar and began slashing at it with Vendetta as Resolute moved, unable to reach any foes due to the slowing effect of the domination. Lysander began trying to climb up behind the statue to topple it onto the altar, and when Brand found that his swords weren't able to damage the altar, he moved over to help.
The mummies focused their attacks on William as Pel slid over, ran his rapier up along a skeleton's ribs to give off a strange musical sound before slashing into the confused skeleton. The altar once again dominated William, and now both he and Resolute were under the sway of Vol's power.
As Pel ducked narrowly away from another swing from William, the skeletons focused their attacks on Pel and Lysander, as did the mummies. Pel slashed at another mummy, doing most of the damage in the fight while Lysander and Brand focused on staying alive and trying to topple the statue. The altar glowed once more, and Brand fell under its sway, just as Resolute managed to shake off its effects and leap up onto the altar.
William slashed at Resolute, who endured the strike, and the solid hit allowed William to regain his bearings and shake off the altar's effects momentarily, just as a skeleton moved in and tore a nasty gash in his side. Brand swung his swords at Lysander, who managed to duck long enough for Brand to regain his wits, and then the two of them began pushing against the rear of the statue. It began to tilt, but was fully pulled over when Resolute jumped up and put all of his weight on the front, bringing it down with a crash.
The altar cracked, but did not break, and William resumed attacking it. The Wolves dodged most of the attacks of the skeletons and mummies, returning fire between their attempts to destroy the altar, which continued to dominate Resolute and William in turn.
Fortunately, with the effects spotted, the Wolves were generally able to stay out of the way of their dominated allies, focusing their attacks on the altar and its skeletal and mummified allies instead. Brand finished one of the mummies off, and Pel finished the other one.
Brand and Whitehearth destroyed another skeleton, and Pel finished the last one, and a few seconds later, the Wolves turned their attention to the altar and destroyed it completely.
Bloody and battered from the attacks, the Wolves took a few minutes to rest before exploring the rest of the level. They discovered a chamber full of little pools of blood, which Pel guessed were the sacraments of various Blood of Vol cults in the area. He destroyed them with a flame strike before exploring the other room, a mostly unused alcove where priests of Vol probably rested. The Wolves again barricaded doors and set defenses and rested for another eight hours, assuming that Orlok would be the next foe they would face. Lysander treated the mummy rot of most of the group, and resisted its effects himself, but Brand was unable to shake it, and went into the final battle still suffering the curse's effects.
The next three levels of the tower were abandoned, but not entirely empty. They found unused barracks, no doubt used when this was an Emerald Claw base during the war. They found an elaborate private chamber which wasn't covered in dust, but didn't seem to see a lot of use. The bath chamber was dry and the bed never slept in. However, they did find a chest with gold and a valuable ivory bowl.
On the next level, they found the first locked door the tower had presented, and Pel picked the lock so they could go in. There, they found the tower's treasure vault, which had several bags of gold and a magical short sword that Brand claimed for his own. Lysander spotted a secret door, which led to several ritual circles. Brand identified them as locked portals, and after some discussion, the Wolves destroyed them, cutting off Orlok's avenue of escape.
Finally, the reached the top level of the tower. They listened, but couldn't hear anything beyond some whirring machinery, so William knocked down the door.
The 30-foot-high ceiling was alive with a view of the plane of Dolurrh, and below that grisly image there were putrescent zombies and Karrnathi skeletons. William charged in and found that the zombies exploded with putrescence when destroyed, calling out a warning to the others as they moved into the room.
On the other side of the room they spotted their foe, Count Orlok. He was nothing more than a brain in a jar, floating above the floor in a grotesque mockery of life, and guarding him was a stitched-together golem made up of different cadavers.
Resolute swore an oath and charged into battle against Orlok, with Brand close behind, summoning his own dimensional bond. They were making certain the creature wouldn't escape them. Before they reached him, Pel summoned a flame strike on Orlok and his golem.
The zombies and skeletons moved in to attack William and Brand, and the Cadaver Golem swung a meaty fist, punching Brand in the face. Orlok dominated Resolute briefly and turned a fearful burst of psionic energy on Brand, who was forced to flee, but who quickly came back, running up along the wall, teleporting next to Orlok and the golem and slashing out with his swords.
Pel turned his holy light on the skeletons as Lysander unleashed another Karrnathi-flavored saga of vengeance on Orlok. William, disregarding the gooey explosions of the zombies, chopped through them, spitting out putrescence and moving purposefully to destroy Orlok's skeletal allies.
The skeletons, undead warriors of Karrnath, unleashed withering attacks on Resolute and William, but the warriors paid little mind, focusing on destroying Orlok. Orlok, disturbed by the damage he had taken and the relentlessness of his foes, hovered up into the air and headed for the stairwell, hoping to escape through his portals.
As Resolute called out his name, he charged through the skeletons and golems, slashing and swinging, moving to the stairwell to prevent Orlok from escaping. Brand teleported up to slash at Orlok and then grabbed the wall, but a petulant Orlok mind-controlled him, forcing him to leap thirty feet to the floor, crashing with a sickening thud. Brand got up, woozy but still alive, and still under Orlok's sway, taking his attacks to William.
Pel, meanwhile, blasted the fleeing Orlok with daunting light, and Lysander sent out disturbing visions, and the brain in a jar was still human enough to be vulnerable to these effects. William, ignoring the attacks of his dominated ally Brand, continued to pour furious attacks on the Karrnathi skeletons and resist the angry swings of the Cadaver Golem.
Resolute finished off one of the skeletons with an off-hand strike while Pel moved in to help William with the golem.
As William and Pel continued to assault the golem, Lysander turned invisible and snuck down into the portal room, preparing a clockwork bomb for Orlok's arrival. Orlok used his mind control powers to get Resolute out of the way and flee down the stairwell, drawing flaming crossbow bolts from the scouts who waited there.
One of the skeletons moved down the stairs to help his master escape, but Resolute chased it down and destroyed it, and Brand ran past him, charging down to attack Orlok, unaware of the clockwork bomb waiting for them both.
Meanwhile, Pel stabbed deep into the golem's forehead, causing it to scream in a surprising mimicry of living pain, which William ended by slashing its head off with Vendetta.
Brand pulled up short and slashed into Orlok, cracking his glass chamber, and fluids began pouring out. The bomb detonated, destroying Orlok's brain and mechanical mechanisms, as Brand shielded his eyes from the fallout.
