SESSION 16 & 17
These sessions brought to you by Agatsu, from his perspective:
I had fallen asleep on my
horse again, so the druid rapped me awake with his stick. "Look" he
said, pointing to a moss covered ruin. As I looked at
the ruin, my imagination took over, and for a brief moment I envisioned it as it
must have stood years ago. As the vision faded a wave of saddness
passed over me, for I could just feel something good had been lost here.
We approached the old ruins cautiously, studying the
crumbling walls. A small door still stood barring our entrance. The remains of
what appeared
to be a garden ran along the path leading to the door. In an older time, one
might have described it as quaint. We cautiously made our way along the
wall until we got to the main gate, or what was left of it. We tied off our
horses and ventured into the fort, ready to perform our mission.
The damage inside was equally distressing, though besides the
gates, most of it seemed to be done at the hands of time, ravaged by age and
neglect.
Somewhat carelessly we spread out to inspect the area, some heading forwards
eyeing the stables, some to the left to check out the what
appeared to be a temple, while Arik, after briefly testing a ladder, climbed up
to the battlements.
It was hard to say what happened next, since I was underneath
the battlements at the time, except that there were several flashes of light
and Arik was yelling for help. Anson, the closest to the ladder reacted first.
He drew his sword and started up the ladder. I moved to the base of
the ladder, waiting to climb up, but not willing to trust both of our weights to
the flimsy construction. As Arik continued to yell, the thief
and Daris moved down the alley to try to see what was going on.
Time seemed to stand still as Anson peeked over the top of
the ladder to see what was up. He seemed to waver a bit as a bony handed reached
down to
try to attack him. More shouts and the sound of Daris and the rogue firing
arrows from the alley. One of them yelled "Skeletons" but I could
already
see that.
Anson Finally jumped up onto the battlements and proceded to
cleave one of the skeletons into bits as I climbed up the ladder. A small shower
of ribs
and vertebrae bouncing harmlessly off me. As I finally made the top of the
ladder, the scene shifted. Suddenly I was standing on the battlement.
Others known, yet unknown to me standing besides me. As I gazed down towards the
gate I saw a Balor disembowling a woman, the forgotten child
falling from her arms. As rage billowed up inside me I lifted my eyes to see a
dark roiling cloud pouring towards the fort. A cloud of evil.
As my vision became my own again I found myself atop the
ladder with three skeletal figures left standing. Even as I hauled my self to
the top and
started to swing, Anson killed the one nearest us. As we started to move towards
Arik, he and the archers below finished off the remainder. Arik was
alive, but a little worse for the wear.
Still pondering my strange vision to myself, we regrouped
down below. This time we vowed to stay together, for it seemed strange forces
were at work
here. So, we promptly split up with some of use investigating what appeared to
be a church and others heading down the alley to what looked to be a
stable. The second group didn't get far when cries of discovery from the temple
got their attention, and soon everyone was crowded around a book.
It was old and moldy, and much of it was unreadable. With
great care, Anson turned it to the last pages and did his best to discern the
text. One could
only wonder as he read aloud...
... was seen on the outskirts of the Elven Kingdom...
...response from the Elve...
... days since we sent word to his Majesty, time is running out.
...rizon is black as night, the men are worried. Still no word fro.....should
arrive soon. All is not lost; we have separated and hidden the keys...
...old out as long as we can. But I hold no illusions as to our survival. I will
place this log in the chapel, in the hopes that should reinforcements
arrive the keys can be found. I pray the Six re...
The Attack will commence withing the hour I am sure. This
will undoubtedly be my last entry. I wish for history to write of how brave the
men of this
fort are. Last night, I offered any man who wanted a chance to leave. This
morning all three hundred men reported. They know as well as I that we will
not survive; all we can hope for now is revenge for our comrades and to buy a
few precious hours for our famillies to retreat to the city. An elven
courier has just arrived with a small package, not quite the reinforcements I
had hoped for. I ask one last favor of any who might find this tome.
Remember well the battle we fight today, and tell our families we loved them.
Ral Palen Sulay
Knight Protector
General of the First legion
We turned our thoughts briefly to the text before we turned
back to our job at hand. After a brief discussion we decided we wouldn't split
up and we
proceded as a whole to the stable. It was a mess, the loft had fallen down,
piles of debris and vegetation everywhere. As Anson bravely stepped into
the barn, rats erupted from hiding. It might have been a challenge to rid the
barn of the vermin had not the Druid somehow controlled the vegetation
to grab the rats and hold them still. A few got away but the rest we just picked
of at our leisure with bows. After thoroughly searching the barn, we
found a few rust free horseshoes (which appeared to be magic) and a few saddles
which also had endured the elements intact. After hiding our booty
near the horses, we continued onwards deeper into the fort.
We had barely walked the length of the stable when the ground
erupted not twenty feet in front of Anson. A skeletal figure of a Balor menaced
us. It
reacted first whacked Anson with its greatsword and then snared him with it's
whip, tripping him and sending him tumbling to the ground. The rest of
us reacted quickly. Arik circled to the right and let loose lightning from his
hands. Daris stepped up and fired two arrows, one apparently wounding
it. I don't recall what the others were doing as I circled to the left and fired
my crossbow at it, wounding it I believe.
As the Balor continued to pull Anson towards it, we could see
Anson practically turn blue as the aura of the Balor chilled him to the bone. As
Anson bravely started hacking on the whip with his sword, I moved around behind
it and fired another shot with my crossbow. Gamamiel warily strode
in and cast some magic on Anson to protect him from the cold. Daris was forced
to move to get a shot as a wall of ice appeared by some means
between him and the Balor, while Arik once again let loose lightning from his
hands.
It seemed pretty grim at that point, for the Balor took one
more swing at Anson with his greatsword, leaving but a bloody mess on the
ground. As
gamamiel and I prepared to jump in and do battle with this foul creature, it
suddenly reared up and screamed, apparently frustrated. It was then I
saw the boney hands clutching at it, and pulling it inexoribly back into the
earth. One of the skeletons rose from the ground and addressed us,
though what he said escaped me as I rushed over to check on Anson.
Anson wasn't that badly off apparently. A couple of potions
and he was as good as new. As the rest of the party fussed over Anson, I thought
upon
what was going on here. Apparently there were at least two factions here, and
one of them seemed to be on our side. The battle from my vision was
still raging on here, it seemed, though in some oddly different way.
Not much else of interest happened that day as we explored
the rest of the fort. A couple of small giant spiders needed to be disposed of,
but that
was quite uneventful. Well, other than the rogue showed us some of his unique
talents in disposing of one spider and I managed to kick another of
the spiders mandibles into its buttocks. Oh, and finding a small hoard of
Admantium weapons in the smithy. A clever hiding place, obviously designed
to discourage casual theft.
As it was getting near nightfall, we retreated back to the
church and set up camp. I did what I could with my feeble healing skills to aid
the
wounded and we rested the night. Obviously, this fort would take a bit of time
to explore, and no sense going half cocked. With all the undead
around, we hoped that the reinforcements from the elves would arrive soon...
On to Session 18
