Title: 1.0 At Castle Caltreen Post by: St.Drewcifer on 19 June 2009, 17:14:47 A grand meeting takes place at the roof garden of Castle Caltreen, present are the King and his two sons the younger, Amon, is heavily bandaged and permanently blinded after an explosion inside the kings chambers of which Amon and four adventurers, Crow, Matrix, Dancing Bear and Brock barely survived.
The table was circled by the Kings Mages who were incanting a spell to keep prying eyes and ears away. The King has convened the meeting to discuss the forthcoming eclipse and the rise of the threat of Dragoth. Various important personages were called upon to give their interpretations and predictions of recent and forthcoming events. Also at the council were Doctor Whack, a necromancer; a warrior known as Ditch; Caerlith, a warrior of Atheana and Brin, an Elven scout. As part of the Kings men there were Sorcerors, holy men, and Astologers present. The astrologers were divided on opinion of the suns stationary presence in the sky, the senior astrologer, Loken, talked much but said little, his assistant was eager to speak and was allowed to do so by the King, he confirmed others suspicions that the moon had changed it’s orbit following the explosion of light at the temple of Raynar (which also blew back into the kings chambers killing and injuring those mentioned before). The King questioned Loken as to the importance of the information that the apprentice was willing to share and that he was not. Loken made it obvious that he was a traitor and broke a crystal about his neck which took him out of the area and emitted a sound that whisked the other Magicians away as well. The table was then partially surrounded by orcs and undead ogres together with several nosferatu. The non combatants and king and his sons managed to get away in good order and it was left for the adventurers and the kings bodyguard Brightblade to deal with the incursion, a tough battle followed and the evil creatures were defeated with the escape of two of the spell casting nosferatu into gaseous form. A safer meeting room was found and the council reconvened. Decisions were taken and parties dispatched across the kingdom to seek further answers and to develop strategies to deal with an imminent invasion by Dragoths forces. It wasn’t long before Thule took 100 men to harry Dragoths forces to the South. After an interminable time of unending day and the moon spiraling towards a spot in front of the sun, the eclipse was unstoppable. Several days passed before one of Thules men approached Castel Caltreen and gave a report of the build up of the forces of evil and the proposed hit and run tactics of Thule. A shadow had started to envelop the land. Brin flew South on his Griffon to reconnoiter the forces and came back quickly with an estimation of numbers and siege equipment. It was decided that Castle Caltreen would be defended at all costs and preparations made. More time passed during the accursed everlasting shadow which now enveloped most of the land, before another rider approached the castle, the man was injured and weary and his horse was on it’s last legs, we whisked him to the castle and he told of the heroic exploits of Thule and gave more information on the build up of the forces. It was not long after when the forces could be made out in the distance – a black wall of bodies as far as the eye could see. All of a sudden there was a disturbance on the flank and out burst several horsemen. Several members of the party that could fly went to their assistance and Thule and a few of his men made it safely back to the safety of the Castle. The King made an impassioned speech which swelled the morale of the defenders. At the end of his speech a servant of the castle informed him that his younger son Amon and Thules fiance were taken from the palace, taken by some shadow the party learned. The hordes halted just out of bowshot of the castle, an archer in the party then made them move further back as he fired a mighty magic bow deep into their ranks Parley was called for and Dragoth rode forward on a nightmare, several warriors joined the King who rode out to talk. Offers were made by Dragoth to spare the King and his retinue, these were quickly rejected and Dragoth made a second offer, that he would not kill Amon and AnnaLynda if King Arron stays and fights until he or Dra-Goth lay dead. To that Arron agreed as long as Dra-Goth would promise their freedom if he died. Then both sides prepared for a mighty battle. Trebuchets were bought up by the dark forces and flaming pitch was launched beyond the first wall, though the trebuchets were at extreme range Brin managed to harry the crews of goblins with deadly arrow fire, once the area beyond the wall was scorched the siege tower was wheeled forward and Dragoth standing atop poured forth a white light, which ran over the walls and settled on the scorched earth, simultaneously the trebuchets started firing rocks at the walls and thousands of enemy archers started their approach. Cries soon went up from the walls defenders that undead started rising from the ground and attacked the forces of the King from within the walls. As one skeleton was slain the soul would leave it then enter a corpse nearby which would then rise and attack. The first wall was lost and haste was made to retreat to the second wall, this battle was similarly doomed. Crow, Matrix and Brin were flying over the bulk of the enemy forces and hurling spells and arrows into their midst, causing the burning of the siege tower in conjunction with four massive salamanders conjured by Dancing Bear. The King was observing the battle on the fourth wall together with several warriors, when a reoccurrence of the sudden appearance of three Nosferatu and a horde of skeletons appeared around the kings party, Dancing Bear managed to whisk the King out of harm with her magic carpet but the battle was grim with first Doctor Whack then Ditch falling to the undead horde, Caerlith managed to get Doctor Whack back on his feet just as Crow, Matrix and Brin made their way speedily back to assist the Kings men. Crow got blindsided by a wraith like dark form and the battle hangs in the balance……. |