Campaign 1 • Chapter 15

## Enemies at the Gate

### Silverthorne *(30th of Yule, 4E 102)*

Some indeterminate amount of time after the explosion, the party slowly comes to consciousness in varying states within the ruined quarters of Evan Cairne. They are separated by rubble and debris, and have no idea where the rest of their group are. Through some effort and use of magic, they manage to escape the room, and regroup with Aldred Dwent (who had teleported out just in time), and Evan Cairne (who had been trapped with them).

They head down to the main throne room, where the explosion seems to have originated. They find it to be half-destroyed, with a large crater originating from one corner. There are also a lot of dead, chief among them being several of the delegates from the Vigil Protectorate. Fortunately, the Queen seems to be still alive, though injured. They talk with one of the surviving delegates, Julius Vex, who they had previously met in Imrafel, and he warns them that the Church would almost certainly take this as an act of aggression and declare war. He leaves to return to his country, warning the party to prepare for that inevitable outcome.

"*I did not ask for this. I did not want this, but you have left me no choice. An attack on the Church’s representatives is an attack on the Church. The clergy… my father… they will accept no other option but war. I am sorry. The next time we see each other, it will be across a battlefield. I hope that day does not come, but if it does…Good fortune to you my friend.*"
 ― Julius Vex

The party then sets about investigating the explosion. It seems to be centred around the wine cellar beneath the throne room, and they surmise that the four remaining barrels must have been brought in alongside barrels of wine. They also speak with the Queen while her injuries are being tended to in bed, who assures them that they were not to blame and that they had spared the city from a worse fate if the eight other barrels had also gone off.

Some time later, after they spend some time helping around the keep with the injured and the temporary repairs, Evan comes to inform them that they seem to have found a culprit who had handed himself over to the guards, an elf by the name of Roan. The party heads off to talk with him in the dungeons. He is surprisingly very cordial, and seems to believe wholeheartedly they would be the key to winning the upcoming war against the Vigil. Naturally, he is less friendly towards Castiel and Nemeia, typically ignoring them entirely. They find out little they didn't already know about the attack, but further investigation of the people who knew Roan and his quarters within the castle reveals that he had lost his daughter to Vigil raids in the last war, and had remained bitter about the following peace ever since.

### Silverthorne *(1st of Frostmoot, 4E 103)*

The following morning, the party attends Roan's execution, and then spends the rest of the day investigating the trial of events leading up to the explosion. They find out that the messenger Aldred Dwent had sent to inform them of the correct number of barrels had been killed some streets down from the inn where they had been staying. Taking him to the Iron Stylus campus for an autopsy, they find out he was killed by a sudden overdose of Pale Tincture, a medicinal drug usually used in small amounts to dull pain, applied directly to the bloodstream using some form of precise syringe-like device. There were no signs of struggle, so the victim had been either unaware or unsuspecting of his attacker.

By the end of the day, they have made very little further progress. While the party regroups and consolidates information at their inn, Nemeia wanders off to talk alone with Evan, finding him on the walls of the keep collecting his thoughts. They share a drink and reminisce about where they grew up, but their private moment is interrupted by a sudden glow of light on Evan's belt, which turns out to be one of the lodestones he had shown them previously. He tells Nemeia to get her friends, because the dreadborn attack they had been worried about had begun at Ashdun.

### Ashdun *(1st of Frostmoot, 4E 103)*

The party, Evelyn, Evan Cairne, Fera Lynnwel, a contingent of Silver Hand crusaders, and a small squad of Crimson Veil elite all teleport to Ashdun via the lodestone. They arrive as the garrison is making preparations for an assault, and meet up with Earl Ashford and Marlin Ashford, who are commanding the local army. The party is given command of one section of the front walls, to the right of the main gate, and tasked with defending it. The assumption is that the dreadborn had not come for a siege, but for a direct assault.

"*You hear a shriek from deep in the night. Familiar yet still jarring; otherworldly, haunting, terrifying as always. A smell of rust creeps into your nostrils. Dark storm clouds gather, descending from the mountains, and even as you take up your positions, those clouds pass over the moon, drenching the battlefield in complete black except for the torches that light up the walls. Those of you with darkvision, you see a few of the ferals begin to break free from the treeline, sprinting on all fours towards the walls. Then more, in groups of five or six. Then all of them in a wave, along with those same acid spewing creatures you fought at Leftbridge, and the smaller shambling climbers you fought at An Rath. A horn goes off at the central causeway. Once. Twice. The signal for an assault on the walls. The battle has begun.*"
 ― The Battle of Ashdun

The assault comes in three waves. The first is a swarm of cheap infantry that tries to break through the gate and climb up the walls. Though some losses are suffered to sheer numbers, the attack is easily repelled, but as the surviving ferals retreat, the second wave appears.

"*As the remaining ferals retreat, scattering back towards the trees, climbing over the dead and broken bodies on the battlefield, a drum begins to beat. Deep, rhythmic, like a heartbeat. From the trees comes a rumbling sound, the sound of marching to the beat of the drum, and from the treeline emerges something you’ve not encountered before. In fact, they look humanoid, dressed in plate armour, carrying swords and shields, marching in perfect synchronisation. But, what you notice as they begin to approach is that they are made, entirely, out of what seems to be dense black crystal. Everything, every part of each individual soldier, the armour, the weapons, the limbs, seem to be one single moving chunk of crystal. And there’s hundreds of them, marching in perfect battalions ten wide and fifteen deep, all holding their weapons in exactly the same way, shields locked together. There’s a collective murmur from the walls, panic at something completely unknown approaching.*"
 ― The Battle of Ashdun

This assault is much more intense than the first. Some of the crystalline soldiers unleash volley after volley of crossbow bolts at the walls as the front lines reform parts of their body into ladders and begin scaling the battlements. The fighting is touch and go, and the defenders suffer heavy losses. Dreadborn spellcasters harry the walls and use their magic to protect the crystalline archers from attack. Realising that the defenders were near breaking point, Castiel flies out to deal with the spellcasters, and manages to kill them before the dreadborn overrun the walls. Once the spellcasters are dead, the crystalline soldiers crumble into dust and the first night of the assault comes to an end with the first sunlight of the day breaking through the clouds.

### Ashdun *(2nd of Frostmoot, 4E 103)*

The party spends much of the day resting and recovering from their wounds. So far, everyone seems to have survived. They meet up with Evan, who tells them that the brunt of the attack seems to have shifted towards the party's side of the wall once they started using their Precursor Weapons. He suspects that the next assault would focus on the same. He is also concerned by the crystalline soldiers, being called Shard Knights and Shard Archers by the defenders, which there had never been any record of before this night.

During the day, there are flashes of arcane light and coiling shadows from the treeline where the dreadborn had come from. Those on the walls can tell that the dreadborn are active, and are doing *something*, but they don't know what. Once again as the suns set, the clouds regather and the attack begins anew. This time, the attack does not begin lightly. The dreadborn spellcasters use magic to catapult chunks of crystal at the walls. Wherever the crystal lands, it immediately reforms into Shard Knights. More battalions march in with ladders and begin climbing again. The fighting is frenzied and desperate, but the walls hold. Just as the defenders seem to be turning the tide, there is a crash from the treeline and a hulking giant that seems to be stitched together from bits and pieces of different creatures charges the gate, bursting through it and charging into the city.

Along with a few remaining defenders, Castiel and Malus manage to stop the creature from entering the city proper, forming a choke-hold at the gates, while the rest of the party continues to hold the walls. Namfoodle loses part of his ear in the fighting, and the others are all heavily injured, but finally they manage to kill both the Stitched Aberration and the remaining dreadborn spellcasters, bringing an end to the assault, though not without cost. More than half of the garrison is dead on the walls, and Marlin Ashford died at the gate alongside Castiel and Malus, but the city stands.

### Ashdun *(3rd of Frostmoot, 4E 103)*

With the new day comes what seems to be an end to the fighting. While the party regroups with the remaining defenders, scouts report that the dreadborn seemed to have completely retreated after the second night of assault had failed to win them the city. While preparations are made to burn the dead, the party picks through the battlefield, finding a few magical items and weaponry. Malus uses the heart of the Stitched Aberration they had killed to refuel the crystal on Urathain, reawakening the sword and hearing its voice once again.

A messenger arrives some time later, bearing word from Scedon. The message states that Lor Dulhir, a dwarven fortress at the western tip of Maíandir, had been assaulted and taken by the dreadborn. The attack on Ashdun had, seemingly, been a diversion. Lor Dulhir had not been one of the weak spots of the planar barrier that protected the Material Plane, and the garrison had been mostly unprepared. As the party tries to understand why it was a target, The White Lady shows up, walking into the city through the destroyed gates.

The White Lady, who reveals her true name to be Mitrhawen, tells them that Lor Dulhir held the key to the only thing Salakai desired, the return of his queen. She tells them about an artefact called the Orb of Creation, which some of them had already seen in their visions, and how it could be used to destroy the planar barrier that stopped the dreadborn from returning in full.

"*When the dread war ended and the pieces began to fall, the Orb of Creation, the one thing that could manipulate the borders of reality, was lost in the chaos. I’ve been tracking it for centuries, but never have I been able to find it. Until now. The dwarves hid it well, but Salakai is persistent, and his reach stretches further than my own. With the orb in hand, Salakai could rip apart the barrier entirely given enough time, especially now that it is so unstable. He has laid the pieces of this very carefully. Very carefully indeed. Luckily, I placed other defences on the orb before it was taken. It will take a long ritual and a good deal of patience for Salakai to unlock its secrets. Which means, with luck, we have time.*"
 ― Mitrhawen

Having this new information, the party decides to travel immediately to Lor Dulhir. Mitrhawen offers to teleport them part of the way, to the extent of her ability, and they accept. Sending their mounts and some unneeded supplies to An Rath, they teleport to edge of the Everglades and make camp on the outskirts of the forest, planning to continue the journey northward the following morning.