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