Chapter Eighteen - How did this happen, how could this happen, How did the empire fall?

A new chapter had begun in the tale of our bold adventurers. As they fought and conquered the terrible entity known as Vasuthant, the armies of Darnon were at move. The date was 29th of May, 1373 DR when the mercenaries of Darnon began their pillage in the farmlands surrounding Berdusk. At that date, the war began. But our heroes didn't know about the southern events just yet. The village of Triel was devastated from the battle with that unholy entity, so our braves had to ride all night long to Scornubel. There they managed to catch few hours of rest, until the sentry of High Lady Rhessajan Ambermantle woke them up and summoned them to a meeting. There the High Lady, ruler of Scornubel, told our fellowship about the events, and suddenly our freedom fighters realized how compromised their urge for Free Darnon really was.

General Ochrefield
Father of Cidella Pepperpath

Lady Ambermantle calmed our braves and told that the supply wagons that they requested earlier were ready to go, and that the draft for thousand able warrior had been completed. Even Melkor was quite surprised as General Almatheus Ochrefield stepped forth from the shadows and declared that he would lead the troops alongside of our heroes. General Ochrefield had been exiled from Berdusk as a harbinger of ill-omens just days before the city was besieged, even though he only tried to warn the city council from the danger.

Late that afternoon, the battalion was on the move. The troops were also to escort the supplies to Asbravn, and only a quarter having a horses, the journey was going to take a while. While moving through the Reaching Woods, our heroes pondered on the strategics of coming war. General Ochrefield adviced them to collect the troops in Asbravn, and strike to the back of the besieging Darnonese army. Despite their careful plannings, they had to adapt for ill news, as a messenger from Asbravn rode to them. The freshly liberated city was facing new menace as the main force of darnonese Blackhelms had begun their march from Iriaebor, stopping only when Asbravn would be mere cinders. Troubled from the news, our valiant heroes decided to ride to the city as soon as possible, leaving General Ochrefield to advance with the Scornubelian battallion. Trustworthy aid Lot and Hero the dog would also stay with the troops, guarding the supplies and secretly watching over the Cube of Tybor that was hidden into the supplies.

Riding their steeds to death, our heroes of Free Darnon reached Asbravn by dusk, barely getting inside among the last remaining peasants before the gates were closed for good. Dortherion welcomed our adventurers, clearly relieved by seeing them, as they were the only hope Asbravn currently had. At that time the marching Blackhelms were at the horizon, and by nightfall the city was besieged. Dortherion estimated that the enemy numbered four or five thousand, as they only had one and a half - two thousand men. As the night grew darker, and hundreds of torches surrounded the city, a small diplomatic convoy of Blackhelms rode to the gate. There their spokesman, Orbald Vornhel, the mouth of the king, wished to discuss about the terms of Free Darnons surrendering.

King Osander II's terms for the surrendering of the rebels were that every notable person of the rebellion would have to be handed over (except Douglas who was presumed to be dead due his constant changes of appearance) and punished. Also, Prince Saldor was to be released immediately, the King to be nominated as the sole ruler of Darnon and the rebellion to be disolved. Our heroes laughed at these ridiculous claims and kicked the kings mouth back to the dog pack surrounding the city. And this act began the bloodshed.

During the night, the catapults and trebuchets  pounded the city, causing much damage and death. Without Jareds cunning use of summoning magics, the devastation would have been much worse, but his air elementals crippled the throwing machines for several hours.

The bombardment stopped as the new dawn peaked. The enemy forced half a dozen captives (peasants and p.o.w) to step foward, and unless our heroes would free Prince Saldor, the captives would be put to the sword. Even though some empathies for the prisoners were heard among the Asbravnians, freeing the prince was out of question, and to prevent possible torture, Melkor shot a fireball on the prisoners and their captors, killing soldiers and civilians alike. This awakened the beast, as the besieging army began their first true assault on the city.

The magics of Melkor and Jared slayed dozens and the attack was destined to fail. But a small task force of extreme efficiency managed to crawl into the city via ancient catacomb tunnels, and the broke Saldor out of the dungeons. It was really close that the enemy would have succeed in freeing the prince, but Arius and Douglas were conscious of the situation, and together they prevented the escape.

Many died during the first assault that lasted for the day. It was painstakingly obvious that as the enemy would have regroup and launch another one, the city would most likely fall. Fate of Asbravn was in the Scornubels battallion that was on it's way, and in the abilities of our brave heroes, who were the spine of defense. The coming night was restless, the bombardment continued and strange movement was noticed among the enemy ranks. When the morning came, a horrible sight awaited. The enemy had piled the corpses and carcasses of the fallen into two gargantuan piles of grotesque nature. And, worst of all, they had opened the burial mounds that served as the resting place for those who had died during the liberation of Asbravn few weeks ago, and added these heroic dead to the piles. Although intimidated by the corpse piles, Melkor also noticed that the Banners of the King himself had arrived, and even from the distance, a ominous red cloaked figure was seen standing next to King Osander II.

But then all evil broke loose. The piles of bodies began to move, as giant arms and legs were formed from the bones of the dead. Melkor identified the profane monstrosities as necronauts, one of the most sinister creations known to man. The abomination shambled towards the city walls with unnatural speed, and crushed against it like giant battering rams. Terrible was the fury of those greater evils, and as fast as they killed brave men on the wall, they added the fresh corpses to itselves, strengthening the undead vigor. As our heroes fought against one of these necronauts, Dortherion, Cidella, Count Anthrop, Karman Fatta and Dacatrin the sorceress tried to hold back another one.

Even though the creations of unimaginable evil were tough as hell, our heroes managed to destroy the first one. And as they did, they saw a glimpse of hope, as the Scornubelian battalion charged to the flank and rear of the enemy. Arius that his moment had came, and he rushed through the battlefield, his eyes locked to the King Osander II who was having his stand against General Ochrefields troops. Kings bodyguards were some of the finest warriors in the realm, and only with the help of the other heroes, Arius manage to break through and face the king. By this moment, Melkor had noticed that the  red cloaked man next to the King was not Alzarseth the Red, but just a mere look alike cleric that was to secure the king. The false Red was soon struck down and Arius swung his blade, Ilbrandir, towards the king, and look!

The King of Darnon, Osander the Second was struck down.

The defeated King lied on the battlefield with a mortal wound, but before his death, he spoke to his victor, and he said:
"Ariendur, come closer.. Yes, you look much like your mother. And now I see, and now I repent.
I could have kept you as my son... but your mother.. The betrayal was too much..
But betrayal lurked also in the words of the Red Wizard. Slay that apostate.. Save Berdusk.."

The King coughed blood and continued:
"Ariendur, now as I see you there.. You are like the son I always wished for..
Your deeds are already like the deeds of a King.. But a right for the crown you have not!
You are just a bastard of a queen bitch! Do you understand! You live in a lie!"

The Kings face distort in pain and terror:
"That man! That face! Queens Mentor
Aeliathe! How could you..."

And with those words, the King of Darnon took his last breath. Arius turned around to see what had struck such a terror to a dying man, and for his horror, he saw Melkor, his mentor. 

Arius cried in shock as he realized that Melkor was his real father!

Eventually the battle ceased. The death of the King had struck a final blow to the moral of the Blackhelms and many fled. The necronauts were destroyed, but only by the sacrifice of Karman Fatta. The bold mercenary will be remembered. Asbravn was safe. At dusk, the heroes gathered around a campfire to discuss about their next move. Melkor insisted that they would have to act against the besieging army outside Berdusk, as the Red Wizard was there. The old schemers was sure that sending the king here was just a diversion planned by Alzarseth to win more time, for what, that Melkor didn't know. The others agreed with Melkor that the rest of the army of Free Darnon had to move quickly towards Berdusk, but one of them said nothing.

Arius stared into nothingness as he began to understand that his claim for the crown was gone. The old wizard was his father and he was just his mothers bastard with no legitimacy. He didn't know how to push onwards as now or never he felt that he was just a young man, whose whole life was a lie, and whose sword was stained with the blood in a unjustified treason.

He was nothing more than a

SON OF A BITCH

Chapter Thirteen - Why To Be Just The Hero Of The Century When One Could Be the Legend Of The Millenium!

Session was held 15th of July at the Altar of Games

Life without the Wizard


Arius fitted a traditional Berduskian noble outfit,
only to find it too tight around his belly.

It had been over two weeks when Melkor left the others for his quest of personal power and wisdom. The others had struggled across Darnon while dragging the bony corpse of Jared with them, and reached Berdusk. There a High Priestress of Lathander the Morninglord had resurrected Jared in exchange of bringing back the Font of the Rising Sun aka the bowl. But before their first quest without the brain, Arius had to perform the second ritual of his legacy sword. Whilst Arius was rubbing coal and mercury to his fine blade, the others auditioned and hired a free-writer to keep track on their adventures and later on, to write up a complete biography in order to make some serious amounts of gold.


This responsible yet profitable task was assigned to certain Kaius Sapphirequill (yours truly) and he began his tremendous work by listening the complete story so far, told by the rest while Arius was wanking some enchantment on his sword.

As Arius completed his ritual, everyone were ready to began their journey to the Purgatory, burned down village some miles west from Iriaebor. There were rumored to be a man called Syrralt, ex-priest and traitor of Lathander who had stolen the Bowl for his own dark deeds. The heroes were to capture and bring justice on him, and to return the bowl to it's righfull owners. As Melkor was still missing, it was decided that Cidela Pepperpath would act as substitute for now on.

Journey to the Purgatory began with unconvential measures. Our braves loaded their mounts to a barge that was destined to sail up the river Reaming all away to the Sunset Mountains. Master of deception, Douglas, disguised our riverfaring posse and their mounts, and none of the authorities questioned these "miners" and their "beasts of burden". Journey via the river went well and our strike force stranded few miles before the Purgatory to close with it by feet/hooves. On 23rd of August 1372Dr  they began approaching the Purgatory, known as the village of Orp Sarkan before it's fiery demise in 1368dr when the Skull Riders rode in, slayed and burned the whole village.

The Purgatory, one can't wait to have a vacation there!

Everything in Purgatory was in ruins. Only stone foundations and charred structures remained. In the middle of the village was the market square, place where a great massacre occured four years ago. Dozens of stakes stood there, with charred, impaled corpses of the villagers still hanging in them. Our heroes were disgusted and upset from this heinous massmurder of innocent people. No signs of Syrralt were seen, until they discovered a tent hidden inside a ruined house. Their investigations at the tent came to sudden stop as unidentified riders approached the market square. Our defenders of justice hide themselves and eavesdropped the riders, who were mercenary vanguards lead by a Skull Rider. Fifteen men began patrolling the ruins, some of them Kothians, some Skogarrim, and five of them Blackhelms, Darnonese soldiers.

Our magnificient hiders continued to hide, and investigate the tent, and they discovered strange writings and trigonometric diagrams that depicted a certain location in the ruined village. Carefully inching to avoid the soldiers attention, they moved to the location and found a basement. Inside it they discovered a ropeladders that descended into a narrow chute. By using these ropeladders, they soon found themselves from a underground passage. Eventually the passage came into a halt and opened into dark underground cave. They saw glimpse of torchlight from the otherside of the cave, and witnessed how Syrralt tried to join into Undersea-God-Cult of fishmen, Kuo-Toa. The situation provoked combat, and a scaling began. Our seekers-of-lost-relics had quite a nuisance from Kuo-Toa harpoon-men who hurled their weapons with deadly accuaracy. Nevertheless, the bug-eyed seamen were bout to suffer a defeat, when the unexpected happened.

Curiously, the Kraken stripped Arius and clad him a loincloth!

From the middle of the cave, where a 50ft wide pool of underground water lied, rose a tremendous monster, a kraken, a creature of immense size and diabolical intelligence. The kuo-toa began shrieking "It's Moolowik the Hoarder" and the balance of the battle quickly changed, as the gargantuan entity began amassing both Kuo-Toa and our braves with it's 60ft long tentacles. Quick in wit, our bold warriors began an expeditious retreat, as Douglas managed to nick the bowl. The Kraken, Moolowik, caught Arius as he was running into the passage, but instead of eating him straight-away, the masterbrain proposed a deal to our dim-witted prince-to-be. Arius agreed with the giant-squid, and he was released to live another day. He only had to promise to bring a steady supply of human sacrifices to the abomination, and the creature would crush the riverharbor of Iriaebor when the heroes would try to seize the capital. Forthright suggestion don't you think.

Like the rat leave a sinking ship, our heroes escaped the Purgatory and began their trip back to Berdusk. And soon the Font of Rising Sun was back in the goldring-rich hands of the worshippers of Lathander. And then, yet another adventure unfolded for our heroes.

Change in Order

While our proud adventurers were in Berdusk, Cidela Pepperpath's father, General Almatheus Ochrefield suggested that they should open up the border a little bit. What he meant was that the heroes would infiltrate the borderstation Morihig, which was located at the great gate that dominated the landscape. This gate was the only way through the massive bulwark, and the camp Morihig was the main base for the soldiers stationed in the guardtowers of the bulwark. Inside the camp, they would track and assassinate General Traaghar, a evil man in responsible of many unnecessary deaths of civilians trying to leave cursed Darnon. His demise should open his post to Colonel Erebald who Ochrefield knows to have sympathies for the rebels, and much lesser thirst for blood, unlike the current commander general Traaghar.

To execute the change in order, the schemers left Berdusk and disguised themselves through the gate. While

Dash-line is the way in, dot-line is the way out.

they walked through the camp they observed everything that could aid them on their mission. After the camp they stayed in a shack village known as Hope's End. It had spontaneously sprung up after the construction of the Great Bulwark as many homeless refugees were denied to leave Darnon, so they stayd and camped near the gate. From the misery of Hope's End our soon-to-be-assassins survailed the camp, learned the basic schedule of the camp, including the changes of the watch, and took careful note on the personal customs of General Traaghar.
 

Finally as all the in's and out's, cons and pro's were mapped, our vigilantes begun to move. They assaulted four soldiers patrolling at the Hope's End and escorted a coal cart to the camp. Cidela was to drive the cart, and as they would close the inner gates, a cart wheel would broke to cause distraction. Douglas managed to jury-rig the wheel perfectly and the distraction went as planned. Cidela coloured it futher with her womanly virtues.



Cidela used pair just like these.

Our braves crossed the campbridge to the southern portions and stayed hidden inside a tent, until the time was right. Approx. 2.am Douglas began to sneak towards the HQ. He climbed to the Generals window with the aid of Jareds air walk spell. Luckily the general was asleep, although just faintly, and Douglas performed the notorious Coup-de-Grace, and the assassination was done. They escaped the camp by going out to meet some local girls, and the gateguards didn't notice their hoax. As they left the camp, they forced the whole shacktown of Hope's End to escape with 'em, as they knew that when the murder would be discovered, a great deal of violence would rain down on the civilians.

After the incident at the Morihig borderstation, our heroes once again crossed the Crossing of Hastur, from where they met commoners who were willing to join the rebellion. This oppinion was shared by many that they came across and one led to another and our alpha-rebels found themselves from village of refugees known as Treeward, located in the northern parts of Reaching Woods. There they stayed for three months, instructing able men and women in the secrets of martial warfare. Many were ready to sacrifice themselves for the better tomorrow, and our humble revolutionares soon understood that Darnon was changing, and the moment of truth was closing rapidly. Familiar foresters, Constantin Almert and his sidekick Viril Massar, continued to hone the skills of their upcoming rebel army, as the heroes were needed elsewhere. A call of distress came from the Pass of the Setting Sun in the eastern borders of Darnon, at the Sunset Mountains. There the Order of The Black Cliff had outsourced the responsibility to direction thats atrocity triumphed even the infamous Captain Irongrave. Place where the evil lurked was called Mor Shathûr.

Man Called Tree

It was mid-november and our fellowship proceed towards the city of Hluthvar. Day before it, a curious incident occured. On a small hill lied a rustic cabin accompanied by a weathered tree with dark red leaves. This aroused our adventurers attention. They rode past four gravestones and at the cabin they found one yet to be buried. A skeleton of a man rested on a small bench nect to the cabin door, holding tight on a rusty sword. Before our dear anthropologists managed to search the cabin for loot, a deep whispering voice caught their attention. In the old tree was a man, chained to it. He was old, grey and his skin was rindy as the tree. Bark had covered over half of the chain around the tree, and was slowly engulfing the man itself. Man was bent to the shape of the tree trunk, and his bones were clearly dislocated. The man told our heroes how he had been chained to the tree over a lifetime, as his captor rested under the first and most worn-out gravestone, near the cabin. Man who's skeleton rested near the cabin was his last guard, and the grandgrandson of his captor, Alestur Grimmoir.

Man Called Tree, as he called himself, had murdered and raped Alesturs young wife somewhere around the late 1240's. Rightfully enraged, Alestur had fastened him around this tree outside their homevillage of Hluthvar which now was a city. There he sworn to see the Man to wither and languish until the end of his miserable life, as death would be to pleasant for a murderer like him. Fed only to keep him barely alive, the Man outlived Alestur, who's son Sarmald continued his fathers duty. Eventually Sarmalds son, Farmald put his father to rest and continued his grandfathers calling. But the chained man lived on, and the decades turned into a century. Eventually, Alesturs grandgrandson Haravald, last of his dried out lineage, died somewhere around 1350's and the Man Called Tree was left unguarded. He believed this to be a boon, as none would feed him anymore. But he didn't die.

Man Called Tree suspected that the tree had something to do with it, as he recalled the leaves to be bright green when he was tied around it. Now the leaves were blood red, and Man Called Tree was sure that the wretched plant had grown roots inside him. He asked the heroes for amnesty, and hoped them to strike the rusty blade of Alestur through his heart into the rotten core of the cursed tree. Although he showed no signs of regret, the heroes agreed to do so. Man Called Tree's last wish was that the adventurers would bury poor Haravald who had died in watch over two decades ago. And as the blade reached the trees core, Man Called Tree finally had his rest.

After burying Haravald, the tree dropped it's first red leaf, that slowly floated to Haravalds grave. Our scales of justice continued their journey and left the site that had confined four generations in a one act of revenge, and continued towards the pass of Setting Sun. They passed Hluthvar, a small city that was just a village when Man Called Tree had done his heinous act, and decided to liberate it as soon as Melkor would return as they had heard that great terror was practised in there.

And as their mounts hooves struck lightning, the darkness of the Pass of Setting Sun rose before them, and the darkness had a name,

MOR SHATHÛR