Session 05 - The Final Assault

[avisarr]

Session 05 - The Final Assault

The characters had captured a spell book from one of the Surge Disruptors. This was a major turn of events. Needless to say, the rulers of the siege army were furious. The spell book was written in Bendothi, the secret language of the Black Sorcerers. But even so, there was a chance that the Myranor wizards would be able to decrypt it and learn the secret of the Surge Disruptors and find a weakness.

An assault was prepared. A ghostly magical eye was sent into the castle to find out where the book was being held. Katharana was in a room studying the book with two wizards. A score of guards defended them. A drellisite crystal sat next to her. The magic eye floated through walls and find her and the book, but immediately winked out of existence because of the drellisite crystal. Still, it had been enough. Duthelm knew where the book was. A special one-way only teleport bubble was prepared and three dozen soldiers charged through. (The soldiers didn't know it was a one way bubble and a suicide mission). The bubble had to be formed several rooms away (again, because of the crystal). The orcs fought to get down the hall. Callister and the others fought to stop them. The battle was long and bloody. In the end, the assault was foiled. From the hand of the dead leader, Callister took a small rock of reddish mineral which radiated magic. Identify spells could not identify the rock. He kept it.

Katharana, being a linguist, did manage to decipher the bendothi code. She translated the book with the help of the wizards. The Surge Disruptor worked on a certain frequency. Only spells that matched that frequency would be unaffected. All other spells were foiled. By translating the book, they discovered the frequency and the two wizards working with her figured out how to alter their spells to successfully cast them. This information was quickly given to the other magic users in the city. Each magic user would have to "retool" his spells. This would take time and study.

As the wizards hurriedly worked to retool their spells to the new frequency, the siege army outside was massing for one final push. Huge catapults were being set up south of the city. The siege army was massing at the south gate. That is where the strike would take place.

A new legion of soldiers crested the hill to the west and come down toward the city. This new legion of soldiers turned out to be a horde of demonic creatures and they were being led by none other than Lord Caramus himself. The horde of shambling beasts joined the siege army and came to a stop all along the banks of the river/moat a mere 50 yards from the city inner wall.

Two great beasts thundered forward from the assembled host. These creatures were massive six legged things, covered in a thick, horny grey hide. The head of each consisted of nothing more than four massive symmetrically aligned jaws. The tail ended in a hammer shaped bone. These two monstrosities waded through the river and began ripping out chunks of stone from the south gate guard tower with their powerful jaws.

As this was going on a horde of whip spiders (strange spherical bodies, ten symmetrical legs around the body, no visible eyes or other organs and a strange whip like appendage sprouting from the top) began scaling the city walls by the hundred.

I won't try to capture that battle with words. It was fierce. It was bloody. All the while the two catapults to the south were raining down death upon the defenders on the wall. The first wave of barrels contained explosive oil. The second wave contained rotting body parts, filth and disease. The ninth barrel that hit unleashed a gelatinous creature that ate several of the guards. The whip spiders were fierce, but were eventually taken care of by an air elemental summoned by one of the myrian brothers. One of the great four jaw beasts at the front gate was killed by Callister who dropped the red mineral stone on it. He thought it would teleport the creature back to its summoner (they thought that was had been its intended function - to teleport the disruptor spell book back). Instead, that small red rock disintegrated the beasts head. The lifeless body toppled into the river. During all of this battle, the wizard myrian brother was using a spell to possess various duthelm soldiers and cause all kinds of havoc. He even possessed one of the four jawed siege beasts at one point.

The highlight of this session was the next fight. A knight in black armor crossed the river, ignoring arrows fired at him. He then scaled the city inner wall with ease. He crested the wall and clashed blades with Callister. A duel of legendary proportions followed. It ranged all over the tops of the city walls. It was witnessed by hundreds. At one point, the knight cast of his helm only to reveal a terrifying visage underneath - he was a skeletal knight. The myranor brothers used all their magic on Callister - spells of healing, spells of strength, etc. Even so, this was the hardest battle the mariner had ever fought. After dozens of rounds, both combatants were badly wounded. The knight called his steed to him (a bat winged horse) and leapt off the wall to the horse as it hovered next to the wall, wings flapping. However, Callister threw his blade and impaled the knight, knocking him off balance. Callister then leapt onto the hovering horse, grabbing a stirrup. Battle was joined again as the two warriors struggled upon the winged horse, that struggled to maintain its altitude with the two scrambling all over it. Rothgar had been pumping arrows into the skeletal knight continuously. He then turned his attention to the horse and killed it. The horse and both warriors plunged into the river. By the way, the skeletal knight was regenerating the whole time. Each time they thought they had almost killed him, he would get back up. He just... wouldn't... die. It was horrifying. I'm very pleased with how this battle went. They finally finished him off with four more arrows and a fire ball. Callister then proceeded to hack the knight into pieces. (Just in case). It took the combined efforts of both myrian brothers, Callister and Rothgar to kill this knight. And it took just about every bit of magic and strength that they had. But in the end, they were victorious.

This skeletal knight was the leader of the Knights of the Abyss and the right hand man of Caramus. A lieutenant of sorts. Now that he had been slain and the Myranor wizards had their spells back, the tide of battle began to turn. The final battle raged all that day. In the end, Caramus, called for a general withdrawal. The Duthelm horde began the long march back to the Citadel.

The siege was over. The day was won. Myranor was saved.