Lords of the North • Chapter 03

## Forged by Fire

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### Mountain Foothills*(24th of Maer, 4E 776)*

Scattered by the storm, the warband crashes into the snow in a wide area at the base of the mountain. Unable to find each other through the haze, they search blindly amidst the foothills, trying to regroup before they run into further trouble. Through the snow, Ku'arr receives divine guidance in the form of a phoenix, a symbol of the Allfather, that guides him west until he runs into Kalahan and Marcella, who landed together.

The trio continue to push through the building snow in the hopes of finding the rest. The phoenix dashes away shortly after they find each other, seeming urgent, and they run after it at full pace, trusting to faith. It leads them to a small clearing where they find Gera, badly injured and paralysed from the waist down, having just fended off a swarm of undead in a desperate last stand thanks to the assistance of a newcomer, a dwarf by the name of Svenmar Firehammer.

Once the area is clear of danger, the phoenix flies upward and erupts into a flare of light that seems to momentarily burn away the storm's rage and drive off any lingering undead in the immediate vicinity. The light also serves to draw the last few remaining members of the warband together. With the blizzard still ongoing, they trudge westward and make a dismal campsite in the snow. Mercifully, the night passes without further trouble, though the storm continues to crash against the mountain with renewed anger.

### Eastern Reaches*(25th of Maer, 4E 776)*

When they emerge from the shelter in the morning, having to dig their way through the snowfall that buried it, they find that the storm has at last passed. The watery sunlight of the morning reveals a landscape that has been devastated by days of blizzard. Trees bent and splintered by wind, their remains covered by snow. Entire crags collapsed under sudden landslides. Plants and animals sheltering in gullies swept away by flash floods. The storm has passed, but its effects linger.

In the cold chill of morning, they construct a pyre for Arianne and say their final farewells, then move on westward towards Svalengrad. Everywhere they travel, the signs of the storm's devastation persist. Towards the evening they come across the remains of a campsite; a caravan of some sort that was swept away by the storm. From the remnants of the wagons they salvage wood for campfires and a few scattered coins and supplies. Oddly, they find no bodies in the wreckage, which they determine likely meant that the dead had risen with the storm and moved off to other places.

That night, at camp, they come to know more about their new companion, Svenmar, who is a devout follower of the Dawnhammer. He too has come north to investigate the rising threat of the fiendish undead. An expert blacksmith, he looks over the party's equipment and tends to it, and also investigates the strange glow that still persists on Kalahan's claymore. Together with Ku'arr's help, they determine that the sword had been covered in a layer of dusted solid arcana during the explosion of the Swordbreaker's core. This meant that the blade would be capable of warping arcane matter around it when swung, causing extreme damage to anything living.

### Eastern Reaches*(26th of Maer, 4E 776)*

Leaving the campsite behind, the warband moves on westward through the storm swept hillsides. More mountains rise into the sky to the north, only a day or so distant now. Around them, the dips and valleys of the foothills have been almost flattened out by the snow cover, which, slowly but surely under the sunlight has begun to solidify into packed ice and slippery sleet, making footing treacherous and slow.

Life has slowly begun to return to the countryside, though not in great numbers. They spend the days travel uneventfully, and make camp in a hillside hollow, surviving on the rations they had brought with them from the south.

### Eastern Reaches*(27th of Maer, 4E 776)*

With no sign yet of a road to follow, the warband trust in the directions given to them by the Voice of the Gods, and head on westward. By the mid morning, they come to the edges of a dense pine forest growing up the slopes of the looming mountains. The trees seem to have borne the brunt of the storm much better than the surrounding countryside, given shelter by the rock faces climbing north and west.

Fearing they may be of course, Kalahan scouts ahead that evening, eventually spotting in the distance the keep they had been told about by the scout patrol a few days back.

### Eastern Reaches*(1st of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The next morning is the 1st of Allfen, the Allfather’s month and the height of summer. As though in response, the suns are out in full splendour, reflecting in splendid arrays off the snow in blinding fashion, and giving welcome warmth to the day. It only takes the warband a few hours before they finally catch proper sight of the keep ahead of them. From this distance, it’s little more than a few jutting towers and walls atop a rocky crag.

Resolving to stop at the keep to get news of the countryside and directions to Svalengrad, they head towards it. The fortification is formidable, built atop steep natural cliffs and protected by high walls and cannon batteries. They note that the eastward side has seen recent battle, and spot the remains of undead against the walls.

### Khranit Tzomoy*(1st of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Reaching the keep, they convince the ranking soldier, Serzhant Aleksei Volkov of the Yodovoyy, to let them inside. He tells them they have faced numerous attacks from undead during and following the storm, and their numbers were severely low. He asks for news from the east, which they give him, and gives them a proper direction to reach Svalengrad.

Shortly after their arrival, the keep is assaulted by a rabid white wyvern, beset by a few undead creatures cutting into its sides. The wyvern kills a number of the remaining soldiers in the keep with its devastating frosted breath, but is finally brought down in a furious display of strength by Kalahan and his warband.

In the aftermath, Kalahan confronts the remaining soldiers, many of whom had cowered instead of fighting. In the heat of the moment, he ends up in a brief fight with one of them, killing him. Before things can get worse, an elder soldier begs him to leave and cause no more trouble, pointing out that these were simple soldiers who could not hope to stand against people such as them.

With Kalahan somewhat troubled, the warband moves west along the road, leaving the keep behind. They stop shortly after near the road, making camp. Kalahan spends his watch lost in his thoughts, and the night passes uneventfully.

### Road to Svalengrad*(2nd of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Leaving behind the fortress in the distance, the warband heads out across the road, following it west by northwest towards the town of Svalengrad. The good weather persists, sunlight beating down on the snow-covered plains, though a stiff breeze from the north makes the temperature chilly.

The day passes uneventfully, with a light dusting of snow beginning to fall anew that night, covering the already snow-covered land in a fresh layer of flakes and further deadening the region, which still hadn't fully recovered from the storm. That night, Kalahan talks to Marcella about what is troubling him, a feeling that matters were getting more complicated and he was worried about making the wrong decisions as they did so.

### Road to Svalengrad*(3rd of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The snowfall passes by the morning, and the warband continues down the road making good headway towards their destination. By the afternoon, they begin to see the occasional signs of civilisation. A farmstead here, a signpost there. It's summer, and the fields are full of rye, the only grain that's capable of growing in these conditions. The occasional farmers they pass, all ursine this far north, nod in their direction untrustingly, but give them no trouble.

That night, they stop near a farmstead owned by an elderly woman, who gives them some food and hospitality, for which they are grateful. It doesn't snow, though the night is still cold. The hours pass without trouble, and the warband wakes refreshed for the final leg of their journey to Svalengrad.

### Svalengrad*(4th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

By afternoon of the next day, they come into view of Svalengrad proper. The town is surrounded by a wide net of mines, and is clearly built around the forging industry. The town is built in a rough circle, circled by a steep palisade and wooden towers. A sizeable collection of slate shingled houses and other buildings make up the majority of the place, and a large industrial sector dominates the southern half. Everything is grey with smoke and coal dust, and the snow has been pressed to mud and sleet by the thousands of people that live here.

Seeming to blend in sufficiently with the crowds, the warband aren't stopped by the guards on their way in. The town is deep enough in Urskaya to not have much fear of trouble, though several soldiers patrol the walls regardless. Deciding quickly what to do, the warband first heads to find an inn at which to stay.

They find the Zhelez Varevo, a large building built of overlapping wood that was once a barracks. Talking to the owner, Sonya, they learn of only one goliath in town, known as "The Bear". The nickname, clearly an ironic one given that much of the population is ursine, elicits a laugh from the innkeep. She tells them that this goliath works at a blacksmith in the industrial sector, and points them in the right direction.

With evening drawing near, the warband nonetheless heads to the smithy in question. First they speak to its owner, Koldan Novikov, a slimy-looking human man in his late forties who appears to also own "The Bear" they are looking for. He uses him for labour, and gives him "the means to forget" as payment.

Left frustrated by the conversation, they head outside to the workyard and finally catch sight of the goliath in question, who they presume to be Arlak the Cliff. Warily, Kalahan steps forwards to speak to him.

"*Dim light through the rear window of the blacksmith building outlines a vast, pale form hunched upright near an anvil at the end of the yard. The clang of a hammer on metal rings out across the empty space. You come up to the sheet metal gate, which is tall but not tall enough to prevent you from seeing over it. It appears to be locked with a thick chain and padlock. The figure at the anvil, half-shadowed in the twilight, isn't very clearly visible, but even from this distance you can see a pale grey-skinned torso, bare to the elements, heavily scarred and tattooed. He doesn’t seem to have noticed you.*"
 ― The Storyteller

The conversation proves unfruitful. Though it becomes evident that the man was indeed Arlak, Kalahan's father, he appears to be a broken shell of a man. Weary of life, and waiting for death.

"*The hammering stops again, and now the figure turns and straightens to their full height. You see now why they called him the Cliff. He stands well over ten feet tall, with a frame to match. Thick, muscled arms and chest built like a brick wall. He radiates a cold, brutal power to him, a raw anger simmering beneath the surface. He has more scars than you can count, all knotted and ropey, clearly never healed well. Bald, with no beard or body hair, he looks almost sculpted of stone, but with skin that is paler, more like snow. His face, though still bearing hints of nobility, is...worn. He has dark bags under his eyes, a sallow, weary, expression, and a lumbering slowness to his movements. He reaches for an earthenware jug sitting next to the anvil, and takes a swig of whatever is inside. The sharp tang of strong alcohol hits you from all the way over here. He drinks it like water for a few seconds before setting it back down.*"
 ― The Storyteller

"*The man you seek died long ago. Leave.*"
 ― Arlak the Cliff

Kalahan tries to convince him that he is his son, and that they have need of him to tell them why he was exiled. He tries to convince Arlak that they must leave, but the old man stubbornly refuses to listen or to speak, and Kalahan is angrily forced to leave him be for the time being.

"*You note that, over the course of your conversation, his hands have started to tremble slightly, and as he speaks he reaches for a small pouch at his belt and takes out of it a tiny clump of this moss-like material, dull greenish-brown, that he swallows with a shudder. His posture relaxes, and his eyes go dull.*"
 ― The Storyteller

Leaving Gera behind to keep an eye on Arlak, the warband retreats to the inn to regroup. Kalahan is frustrated and angry, but Marcella speaks to him and tries to convince him to not give up on his father. Kalahan promises to at least give him the chance of deciding for himself, provided they could clear his mind of the substance that was affecting it, warmweed.

"*Sometimes, the decisions people wish to make for themselves are not what they need or deserve. When those people are family, you cannot simply abandon them to their fate.*"
 ― Marcella Roccaforte

Once things have quietened down for the night, Gera follows Koldan home from the metalyard and files away the information, then returns to keep an eye on Arlak, who appears to have retreated to his shed for the night. Deciding it was worth the risk, Gera attempts to sneak through the metalyard and into Koldan's office to find more information about Arlak. He fails to be quiet, and is noticed by Arlak, who it turned out was not asleep. The two have a brief conversation, with Arlak asking Gera about Kalahan and why he follows him, and Gera telling Arlak about their journeys so far and of Kalahan's importance in the grand scheme of things.

Eventually, after their talk ends and Arlak goes to sleep, Gera breaks into Koldan's office through the window, but finds nothing of any informational value, nor does he find the cache of warmweed he had hoped to recover. He returns to the inn with the rest, having a short conversation with Kalahan about his father during their shared watch.

### Svalengrad*(5th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The following morning, the group sets about figuring out a means to free Arlak of his willing slavery and addiction to warmweed. Kalahan, Marcella, Rylan, and Ku'arr return to speak with Koldan to see if they can barter for Arlak's freedom. They discuss things, and come to an agreement wherein they will go to an abandoned mine some half a day north of Svalengrad to recover a particular crystal that Koldan had tried to get from there.

Meanwhile, the rest of the warband attempts to break into Koldan's house while he is away, hoping to find some information that could be useful. The break-in goes poorly. Gera stumbles face first into Koldan's maid inside the house, and is forced to run. Thanks to some quick thinking by Torfin and the others, the rest are not implicated, but a manhunt begins around town for Gera. Koldan, a fairly important figure in town, is furious and enlists most of the town's garrison to look for him.

While the rest of the warband prepares their things to head to the mine, Gera is forced to make a hasty exit by climbing over the northern palisade and making a break for the trees, taking a few bullets along the way. He manages to escape to the treeline and reconvenes with the group some distance up the road, worse for wear but alive.

After a few hours, the warband reaches the abandoned mine, where they discover the remains of mining equipment and tools scattered in a small gully, where the ground is oddly sandy and soft. Warily, they spread out and approach the mine entrance, preparing for a fight. Suspecting something to be burrowing beneath the earth, Kalahan plunges his claymore into the sandy soil with a thunderous spell, and draws the attention of a giant frost wurm that promptly swallows him whole.

A fight ensues, wherein multiple of the group are stunned by the wurm's thrills or eaten, however eventually Kalahan manages to blow himself out of the creature's stomach, and let's the remaining members of the warband finish it off above the ground.

After a brief rest, they enter the mine itself, only to find that they had not arrived first. Inside, they encounter a group of devils that appear to be searching for something, potentially the same crystal as they. In the narrow confines of the tunnel, they fight their way through the swarm of lesser devils, and manage to drive away the leader, though they fail to kill it.

After some investigating, they find the object they are looking for hidden in a lockbox: a small orb of solid arcana. Camping outside the mine for the night, they experiment with the object a little bit, deducing it to be a magical battery of sorts. The experiments result in some magical surges that cause Kalahan to lose all his hair and in several members of the warband going temporarily deaf.

### Svalengrad*(6th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

They return to Svalengrad the next morning. Outside the town, they notice increased activity in the form of a large caravan of wagons being loaded and troops of the Urski Voyska Narodna infantry armies marshalling to march. After returning to Koldan, they learn that the army was moving south due to an offensive launched by the Kavah at the frontlines. Koldan of course seems pleased by this development.

"*War is good for business! Soldiers go south...need weapons, armour, equipment. I am happy to provide.*"
 ― Koldan Novikov

Despite the merchant's sleaziness, he is true to his word and allows Arlak to go free, as well as providing a single bag of warmweed to prevent him from immediately dying due to his addictions. With Arlak now wordlessly in tow, the warband prepares to march south, hoping to cut across the wilderness and beat the army to the borders of Kavavhik.

### Exile's Reach*(6th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

With a quiet and reticent Arlak in tow, the warband heads off into the wild flatlands of Exile's Reach. Though signs of the blizzard and storm have all but faded by this point, some snow still remains. The warband pushes on at a fast pace, hoping to make up ground and overtake the army by several days if at all possible.

Over the course of the day, Arlak begins to tremble and shake, as though freezing cold, the effects of the warmweed fading. By the evening, he is unable to walk and is looking physically ill. Under Ku'arr's supervision, a portion of the warmweed given to them by Koldan is given to Arlak, a tiny bit less than a handful to begin the process of weaning him off the drug. Upon swallowing the substance, Arlak turns glassy-eyed and dull, in an almost trance-like state, and remains unresponsive for the rest of the night, eating only when forced.

### Exile's Reach*(7th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The next day, the process repeats itself. Arlak is quiet and well-behaved, but does not respond to conversation or display any particular lucidity. Once again, the warband marches south at speed, well-suited to the journey in such terrain. The day passes uneventfully, with only the few glimpses of wildlife breaking the monotony of the landscape.

That evening, Kalahan attempts to accelerate the process of recovery by using some of his divine magic to restore Arlak's ailments. He succeeds only in clearing the effect of that day's portion of warmweed, causing Arlak to very quickly worsen. By this point, Kalahan has begun to grow greatly impatient with Arlak's state, but is persuaded by Marcella to remain patient and give him time. He goes on a long walk to cool off and think, and returns to keep an eye on Arlak, who does not appear to be sleeping, for the remainder of the night.

Despite his drug-addled state, Arlak displays a brief moment of lucidity that night, asking Kalahan how his mother had died, and seeming satisfied with the answer. He remains morose and overall bound to the drug's effects. Nonetheless, the brief glimpse of his true self is encouraging.

"*You have the same fire in your eyes that she did. I see it. You are more her son than you are mine. That is good.*"
 ― Arlak the Cliff

### Exile's Reach*(8th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

By the following morning, Arlak has returned to his glassy-eyed, dull, state. Pushing on, the warband marches with haste for a third day running, making good ground over the course of the morning. That afternoon, they walk headlong into an ambush by a hunting pack of ice trolls, escaping disaster only at the last second thanks to the keen eye of Ku'arr flying above. They defeat the ambush, killing the shaman that leads it.

In the aftermath of the fighting, a still glassy-eyed Arlak has a full blown trauma-induced panic attack, collapsing to his knees, trembling violently, and hyperventilating. It takes several minutes for him to calm down, and only once the warband has covered the bodies and blood as best they could. Despite the mental break, Arlak remains largely unresponsive, even when Kalahan pleads to him directly.

They carry on for the rest of the day, with Arlak showing gradual improvement that night under the continually dwindling portions of warmweed that he is being given, but not enough improvement to really be lucid just yet.

### Exile's Reach*(9th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

The next day is an uneventful one. The snows are rapidly melting under the continued heat of summer, and the warband carries on through barren grassland and hillsides towards the Kavah border. That night, Arlak displays a few more moments of lucidity, coming to the fireside of his own volition and action, and remaining there for the night staring wordlessly into the flames.

### Exile's Reach*(10th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Another day of hard travel passes, with some of the group growing weary under the high pace they are taking. They decide to slow things down for the next day in the hopes of recovering some of their strength, fearing that reaching the border will thoroughly exhausted might prove dangerous. That night, Arlak once again returns to the fire in much the same way as the previous day. He is overheard muttering to himself about faces in the flames, but is not responsive enough to elaborate.

Kalahan remains worried by this, fearing there are still larger things at play in his father's state. He attempts to talk to his father, pleading with him once again to speak to him, to let him help. For the time being however, Arlak continues only to mutter incoherently, and Kalahan ultimately gives up and goes to sleep.

### Exile's Reach*(11th of Allfen, 4E 776)*

Early the next morning, just before first light, Arlak suddenly stands from the fireside and goes to Kalahan's bedroll, shaking him awake. He seems more lucid than he has been in days, although still in a semi-trancelike state.

"*Why did you have to come find me? You should have left me dead.*"
 ― Arlak the Cliff

Having woken Kalahan from sleep, Arlak goes to the edge of the camp, staring east. Kalahan, still bleary-eyed, goes up to him and again asks him to tell him the truth, to let them help. Without a word, Arlak begins to walk due east at great pace, and the warband scrambles to follow. Kalahan follows his father to a hillside, atop which a massive pillar of rock juts from the grass. Buried into the side of the stone, silhouetted against the rising suns, is a large war axe with steel of a faint blue tinge.

Stopping, Arlak collapses to his knees in front of the axe, and finally tells Kalahan his story. He tells him of how he became Iron Lord at the age of fifteen, slaying the previous lord, a tyrant named Zygfrid, in ritual combat. He tells him of how war consumed him, how it became all he cared about. He fathered no children and took no wife, and had no patience or mind for administration. He speaks of how with each battle and slaughter he grew less satisfied, how slowly the killing became less and less sufficient to sate his appetite for bloodshed, and how those around him suffered for it. And finally he speaks of the innocent man he killed in cold blood, and how he butchered his entire family in a haze of blood, fire, and laughter.

"*They watched me do it, and because I was Iron Lord, they could do nothing. I killed them. One by one I ran them down and killed them. And all I could hear was laughter. A haze of blood, fire, and laughter. And I do not think it was my own. There were voices laughing with me. A chorus. Do you know how many men and women I have killed? I remember none of them. Except for these. I still see their faces. I hear their please. They haunt me. I know they will be waiting, in the underworld, were I belong. The honour of dying with blade in hand is denied to me. I am forsaken.*"
 ― Arlak the Cliff

Finally, sounding thoroughly spent and defeated, Arlak speaks of how he walked away into exile, leaving everything behind in fear of the man he had become. Something within him remained broken, he says, for every day he would wake with relentless fury in his heart, and the haze would still try to creep in. He gave up the axe, gave up his life, and chose to live in drug-addled solitude.

When the story is done, Kalahan stands by his father's side, realising how much of the story aligns in many ways with his own. He speaks to his father of finding redemption not by runnning, but by facing it and accepting the blame and consequence. Arlak fears taking up the axe again, fears what it may bring back, but as Kalahan continues to speak of taking a stand in the face of the past, he stands resolutely and steps toward the pillar of stone. He places a hand on the handle of the axe, and as the runes begin to glow fierce and blue along its blade, wrenches it from the stone.

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