Defense of Eldvale (12/05/2021)

## Following a River of Blood

Milldale was decimated. Villagers were still fleeing for their lives. The giant mill that stood for many years was toppling and flowing down a river of blood. A blinding flash of red light had left Talek blind, his eyes milky white, while the rest of the party had avoided that fate. Glancing up at the sky, Talek could see that a large river of blood was flowing strongly south. With this knowledge, the Inquisitors disappeared, heading straight for the city of humans, Eldvale.

The party was exhausted and needed to camp for the night. After resting, they made a 3-day journey to the south. Talek insisted on being blind so they could continue to follow the river of blood and it never deviated. During the journey, both Talek and Hadrian offered some insight into their checkered past. Talek provided much more information about the cult he was a part of and the breaking from them as well. Hadrian described his Aasimar heritage which explained his glowing wings. At the end of the journey, the tree line broke and in front of them was a massive city with closed gates bearing interlocking metal Elk horns. Archers bearing down on them from the top of the walls, they spotted Graves who quickly let them into the city and directed them to the War Room for further instruction.

## The War Room

In the War Room, they were met by none other than Tobrin Shadeglory of the Council of Six, magistrate of Eldvale. Alongside him were numerous guard captains and the Inquisitors. They laid out the basic plan of holding the outside gates of Eldvale, followed by a defense of the inner gates if necessary, then the final fallback point of Eldvale's enormous realm shard. Not looking to argue with the plan of action laid forth by experienced natives of Eldvale, the party offered aid and were told that defending the outer gates would be the most effective place to be.

## A Secret Weapon

As they left the War Room, Tobrin pulled the group aside along with Graves to have a side conversation. He demanded secrecy and showed them that Eldvale had created a weapon from realm shards called the Lance of Daylight, which was very explictly against the Shard Accords. The Lance was a large ballista with a massive spear loaded into it. The spear tip itself was a realm shard. Graves was very displeased by this news, but now that it was here the general consensus was to use this against the blood cultists as a last ditched effort if all else were to fail. Tobrin agreed that the weapon would be destroyed after this whether it was used or not. It was kept a secret in a locked cathedral that was near the realm shard itself.

## Defending the Wall

With nothing left to do but man the outer walls and wait for an attack, the party did their best to pass the time. Alluin and Hadrian investigated the Lance and the inner walls, planning any final defenses. Leaf cleaned his weapons. Fen secretly drank from his jug. Ryafyrie entertained Kizzik. After a long wait, three blasts from a horn sounded signalling cultists were identified outside the outer gates. The party rushed to defend. The amount of cultists that showed up was staggering. In addition, they brought with them weapons of seige: large ballista that began hurling blood magic imbued objects at the walls. The inquisitors arrived to help defend and Aegis created large shields that deflected most of the ballista shots, but defenders were knocked from the walls.

As they landed on the ground below and their blood spilled, cultists were somehow able to transport themselves from outside the walls using these pools of blood. A number of them were now inside of the walls. The party actively engaged these invaders. For each that was brought down, more seemed to appear and they were actively heading for the gate controls. Realizing that the outer walls were likely lost, the inquisitors and the party made a call to fall back to the inner gates, as the seige continues...