Dai Caled
Session Twenty-Three of the Notoriety of Kings Campaign

Vítday, 1 Lollmeadow 204 [continued]

"No kill me!" says Nicos. "I'm a pretty piss poor cleric, no one would miss me much!" Finch laughs raucously. "Such self sacrifice," he chuckles, "it gets me right here. Isn't it touching, Wren?" But Wren is not listening, she is engrossed in the small red book given to her by Nicos. Nicos smiles broadly. "However," Finch sourly curls his lip. "My resolve is unbreakable." He raises the knife.

Seconds earlier in a near-by room, a large picture swings outwards revealing a secret passageway behind. Benson, master of servants, gestures to the wall behind which Princess Celestine is being held captive. Arvan, Elias, Raza, Ravenna and Brack have their work cut out for them. Their plan: to smash through the wall, kill the guards and get Celestine out of the way as soon as possible. Brack takes one look at the wall, hefts his axe and charges toward it. The dwarf slams into the wall with incredible force, splintering the hardwood partition, but he doesn't manage to break all the through. In this he is helped by Raza and Elias charging over him, and breaking into the small room behind the main dining chamber, just as Finch was raising that knife....

It is safe to say that everything now happens at once. Finch turns to see what the noise was, and in that instant Baron Dolanz pounces on him. He wrestles Rowena from Finch's grasp and grabs the cleric firmly around the neck. All hell breaks loose in the dining chamber as thugs and Bombasts alike crane to see this peculiar wrestling match, and to hurry to the far door where Celestine is being guarded, because they can hear the sounds of fighting within.

In that room Raza and Elias leap forward to engage the two thugs standing close to Celestine. One other swordsman and four bombastics also stand in this small room, but they are all surprised by the arrival of the party. Brack staggers to his feet and quickly joins the fray, missing his opponent due to a sore nose. Ravenna sends spells against their opponents as, in the midst of the confusion Arvan calmly reaches in and plucks Celestine from danger. He places the princess in the secret passage before she knows what is going on, and tells her to stay there. Celestine nods meekly.

In the main room Bombasts and swordsmen alike are rushing to the back room, but the door is barred from the other side and no one inside seems keen to remove it. A bottle neck soon forms by the door. Many of the nobles (counts Caled and Kristus amongst them) dive under the table, while some nobles think the chaos could cover an escape attempt. Finch throws the baron off and makes a lunge for Rowena, but Dolanz grabs the Bombastic tenaciously by the ankle and brings him to the floor. Finch's men that are near-by seem too taken with the comedy of the moment to help their master. Kelton and Rembrandt are certainly enjoying the show, although Wren hardly seems to be paying it any attention. Abruptly, Aylisha stands bolt upright. "Come Nicos," she says. "It is time to act."

Meanwhile, Brack has overcome his initial ineptitude and has become a whirling dervish and pain and decapitation. Raza is also surprisingly successful against his opponents, but it is Brack who happily carves up the opponents – including Elias', leading to calls of "Brack, do you have to do that?" from his companion. In the meantime, Ravenna makes use of some well-placed sleep spells, and before they know where they are the five members of the Chosen had defeated their opponents without taking a wound between them. Such luck cannot last, surely.

Nicos agrees with Aylisha, and decides to stir things up a bit. He leaps onto the table and casts a pyrotechnics spell at the fire place. Nicos barely manages to shield his own eyes when the fire is extinguished in a powerful flash of light that blinds three quarters of the people in the room. Many bombastics and their allies are blinded and wander mindlessly in pain. Nicos had hoped to do this surreptitiously, but did not quite manage that. Kelton and Rembrandt are not blinded, and are giving their full attention to Nicos. "Now we are committed," says Aylisha, turning to greet a sword wielding maniac who is charging toward Nicos.

As Aylisha steps to meet this threat, the sorcerer-twins cast a sleep spell at Nicos. Two noblemen to either side of the cleric flop down unconscious. "I knew that wouldn't work," says Kelton. "Worth a try though," says Rembrandt. They don't appear too disappointed. The swordsmen heading for Nicos is a little perplexed when he sees an exceedingly well dressed and demure noble woman step out in front of him. Aylisha raises her palm toward the man, and has he rushes toward her touches him on the chest. It seems to Nicos to be the most gentle of pats, but the man's progress is instantly halted and he is thrown back across the room as if he had been charged by a bull. He strikes the far wall thirty feet away with enough force to leave an imprint of his broken body in the stone of the wall, as he slides to the floor quite dead. Nicos is definitely impressed.

Rowena, in the meantime, is trying to scramble under the table to escape Finch. Dolanz is still hanging onto Finch's legs, and it can be seen that Finch has had enough – he is both annoyed and embarrassed by the proceedings. Using his Calafax given powers, Finch engulfs himself in flame. Dolanz screams with pain and releases the cleric. Finch grins.

In the other room, Ravenna hangs back to dispatch their fallen foes as the other four race toward the door to the main dining room. Elias throws off the plank barring to door and he and Raza tumble though into a mess of fists and swords ready to meet them.

The dining room is pure chaos at this time! Aylisha picks up the sword of the fallen guard and regards the scene before her grimly. Nicos breaths a sigh of relief when he sees Kelton and Rembrandt's attention divided between him and the commotion at the door. Then he notices Wren standing on the table looking down on him, a rapier in her hand. "Defend yourself, Nicos," she says.

"Give me the fecking, sword!" Nicos calls to Aylisha, but she does not seem to hear him as she uses the fallen thug's weapon to lay into the Bombastic like a master. She spins once on her heel and five men lay dead. Nicos looks at Wren, and then at the table in front of him for a weapon. He reaches into the soup tureen and pulls out a large ladle. It will have to do. He hefts the large piece of cutlery, spewing minestrone in all directions and leaps up to meet Wren sword to soup ladle. "En garde!" Nicos says with more style than substance.

Kelton and Rembrandt stay their hand while they watch the fight on the table. "This should be interesting," they say to each other. Wren is highly skilled with the blade, but she cannot defeat Nicos' uncanny luck. With a swift flick of the wrist he disarms Wren, catching her rapier in his own hand. He then hands her the soup ladle which she takes with some disgust. Nicos smiles at her, knowingly. She cracks him over the head with ladle and he starts to take her seriously again. "Ow! I don't want to fight you!" he exclaims dodging another wild swing with the ladle, trying to parry and deflect as many of her assaults as he can. Kelton and Rembrandt give Nicos a little ripple of applause. "Let's leave them to it." "No sense poking out noses in where they're not wanted." "No, no sense at all, brother."

The twins turn their attention to Elias, Raza and now Brack who have fought their way into the room. Raza stuns and knocks down one of the Bombastics, but Elias fares less well as a swordsman disarms him of his magic sword. As it flies from his hand the blade shrinks back into the hilt. The powers of all the swords are now diminished, as only four are now active. Arvan also emerges into the fray, just at the wrong moment as it turns out. Kelton and Rembrandt, having weighed up the deaths of a couple of bombastics are a small price to pay to destroy the Chosen of Narramac, join hands and shoot two fireballs across the room toward them.

The swordsman is instantly toasted, and the party fare little better. Arvan is blown across the room to land under the table only semi-conscious. Raza is knocked against the back wall and falls to the floor, dying. Elias (on fire) runs across the room to regain his sword, trips over his own feet and goes sailing into the stairs chin first. Brack yells an unprintable dwarf-ism and charges the twins.

The fight between Nicos and Wren continues unabated. Nicos does not try to injure the girl, just to stop her from hitting him. However, the successive ladle-shaped impressions he sports on his forehead shows that he has not been entirely successful in that regard. Nicos continues trying to convince Wren that she is really Rio. He even goes as far as mentioning the birthmark that she has (and where she has it). This shakes her, and for the first time she begins to entertain the thought that Nicos may be telling the truth. This does not stop her from hitting him again, however.

Meanwhile, Dolanz is in a very bad way. Despite the fact that Finch is on fire, Dolanz is still trying to grab hold of the man. Finch is beside himself with rage, and now his followers are trying to help him. However, they can't get a firm shot at the baron without injuring Finch. Soon they have their own problems as Aylisha roars up behind them and begins to chop them into very small pieces.

Under the table, Arvan uses the last of his energy to heal himself. Looking up he sees the faces of counts Caled and Kristus staring down on him. "What do we do, Arvan?" asks Caled. "Tell us what to do and we will do it!" says Kristus. Arvan shakes his head to clear it. "Get everyone together and get them out of this place!" says the druid. As he does so, his sword pulses and his voice is greatly magnified. It fills the room, spurring the nobles into action. In moments Kristus and Caled are organising the evacuation of the nobles. Arvan is a little perplexed, but struggles to his feet and rushes to save Raza. Meanwhile, Elias has recovered his sword and wades into help Dolanz. "And not before time!" croaks the baron.

Brack throws himself bodily into the twins, badly injuring Kelton. They shake their heads and look at one another, they are not pleased. Holding hands, the pair reach out to Brack. Ravenna sees the magical energy form around them and sees that they are doing. They both quicken the True Strike spell and then reach out with Vampiric Touch. Both grab Brack and drain him to near death. The wounds on the twins heal before the dwarf's eyes. Ravenna is impressed, but surely the pair of them cannot be that powerful? And then it hits her. "Separate them, Brack!" Ravenna cries. "They're more powerful together!" Brack lunges forward.

Finch gives up on Rowena and turns his full attention to Elias and Dolanz. Dolanz grabs a nearby chair and cracks Finch over the skull with it. It is enough to bring tears to the baron's eyes. He then draws Elias' spare sword and, although he can't use it, is as effective as Elias against this foe.

Brack brings his axe down severing the link (and almost the hands) of Kelton and Rembrandt. They scream and leap backward. Their jokey demeanour has completely gone. "That's it!" "No more playing!" "No more playing with you." They both unleash magic missiles at Brack. He stands up to the first barrage, but even Brack has his limits and falls to the ground, direly wounded.

Thinking they need help to defeat Finch, Elias calls to Nicos and throws Nicos' sword to the cleric. Nicos turns at the sound of his name, missteps, and falls off the table. He lands in a painful heap as the sword bounces off his skull. "Sorry!" yells Elias. Nicos scowls and turns back to Wren. She has taken the opportunity to flee. "Feck," says Nicos. Such an opportunity is not lost on the twins. Looking at their own wounds, at the fact that the Bombastics have been completely routed, that Aylisha is helping in the escape of the nobles and that Finch is being pummelled to within an inch of his life, they decide that now is the time to leave. "Finch is going to regret hiring us I suppose." "Who doesn't?" With so much self exposition they join hands and teleport to safety. Ravenna believes that they have not seen the last of them.

Now it is only the Chosen, Finch and Dolanz in the room. Everyone else has scarpered. Nicos is all set to charge out after Wren with is sword drawn when there is a terrible humming from the swords and the blades begin to vibrate in their hands. The temperature in the main chamber plummets. The party can hear the cracking of soup freezing in the tureens, and can see their breath before your face. The cold is numbing, almost painful. One by one the torches that line the wall begin to wink out, until the only light in the chamber is the light shed by the swords. Nicos retreats to the others. Raza has managed to (painfully) get to his feet, and Arvan drags Brack to the others, trying to heal him. Finch asks what is going on, but everyone ignores him. The Chosen stand alone, a spot of light surrounded by infinite darkness. Suddenly, dark-on-dark, they can see shapes moving through the ether. Several large insubstantial figures surround them and chill them to the bone.

The shapes begin to swirl around the party. Raza can feel some force tugging at his kukri, trying to wrench it from his grasp. They can all hear the inhuman resonance of voices that are filled with evil and bile. "The swords," say the voices, "The swords.... ours.... ours.... ours by right...."

Brack steps forward and swings his axe at one of the shapes. When it connects it sends a bolt of brilliant white energy are the wraith-like creature. There is an explosion of energy and the creature falls back, shrieking. "No……," exclaim the voices, "tainted…… tainted……" Brack looks at his companion, the swords have done nothing like that before. And yet it makes sense to each of them. It is as though these are the creatures that the swords were designed to kill, they each feel it. Even Nicos momentarily forgets Wren as he loses himself in the swords. As one the Chosen strike out against their foes, as one the shapes cry in pain and fall back, returning each time to demand the swords they say belong to them. But each time, less shapes return, and each time the cold is less biting, until – minute by minute – the assaults become less and less threatening and more and more desperate. In the end the creatures, whatever they are, are driven away. They fade back into the darkness that spawned them. As they do so the torches in the room flicker back into life. Both Finch and the badly burned Dolanz are at a loss for words.

It is at this instant that tramping of heavy footsteps can be heard. A large force of Duke Nethgar's men race into the chamber led by Captain Orthus and Gaston. "Nobody move!" yells Orthus. Gaston pauses and looks around at the walls covering in ice, at the carnage, and at the maggots and other indescribables worming their way through the appetisers left on the table. "What in Hell has happened here?" the archwizard asks.

Sighing with relief at the arrival of Gaston just after the nick of time, the party recount everything that happened to him and Orthus. The captain is a little unbelieving regarding Caled's part in the proceedings as Celestine enters the room and confirms the party's story. Dolanz races over to Celestine and hugs the princess in a manner most undignified, but she does not seem to mind. She has been saved, and so have the noblemen. Most of the Bombastics have been apprehended by Orthus' men, and Finch himself is now taken away into custody. The once glib cleric says nothing, the events of the past few minutes evidently had a profound effect on him. Nicos asks Orthus is they have captured a woman, and gives a description of Wren. Orthus is unsure but he will find out.

Gaston explains that when the Bombastics made their demands to Alberdark, he was determined not to cave in. Gaston teleported himself and Orthus to a nearby town and rounded up a contingent of Duke Nethgar's finest infantry. They came as fast as they could, but Gaston had a difficult time in disabling the wards on the castle walls. Gaston has heard of Kelton and Rembrandt and is impressed that the party was able to best them. He they not been distracted by the battle, he does not think he would have been able to dispel their magicks as easily. Nicos rushes outside to see if he can find Wren. Dolanz, Celestine, Gaston, Orthus and the party follow him. When they emerge from the keep they discover that they have been fighting all night, and that sun is just emerging from behind the horizon.

Terday, 2 Lollmeadow 204

In the courtyard of Caled Castle, Nicos can find no trace of Wren herself. All he manages to discover is the soup ladle she was using in her fight, he picks it up lovingly. Elias puts his hand on Nicos' shoulder and says encouraging words that Nicos seems to appreciate. He also says that it is a good sign that Wren still has his diary. Hopefully it will make her remember. As the rest of the Chosen stand around their friend they are approached by the uninjured Lady Aylisha who smiles and nods at them. She congratulates them for their bravery. "However," she says, "let us be clear on one thing. Whatever you may have thought you saw in there this evening, you did not see." At that she walks away from them back to Princess Celestine.

At this point Elias can feel Gaston breathing down his neck. "Ah yes," he says turning. "About the Heart of Llysallian." Gaston mentions with some rancour that the heart is now contained within a magically silenced chest, but not before it blew out all the windows of his private quarters twice. He is not very happy with Elias. He tells the Chosen to gather their things, that they are all returning to Uris. He will leave a contingent of Nethgar's men to guard what was once Caled Castle.

The party can see Count Caled himself being wrestled into the back of a waiting wagon. His wife cannot even look at him, although Linton and Linley regard their father with some sympathy, as does Kristus. Dai Caled catches sight of the Chosen and Baron Dolanz and cries out to them. "Fools! You are all fools! Especially you Dolanz! You think you've saved my daughter, you have killed her! Yes, killed her as surely as if you had slit her throat. She was promised you see! Promised to the sorcerer Mínaris! What will happen now when Galahyde comes? She will be married to you: a fat, indolent wastrel. She'll have no mercy! No mercy, you hear me? Not when Galahyde comes, and he is coming! He is coming!" With that, the count is thrown into the back of the wagon, and his cries are muffled by his fellow prisoners. The party regard each other with some worry. But that is worry for the future, they have enough to occupy them for the present.

The Chosen gather their things quickly from the castle. Hedwig returns to Elias after wisely remaining outside the castle for most of the night. It sits on his head and affectionately chews his ear. Within two hours a long procession of carriages, wagons and horse-riders are heading back to Uris. Gaston won't led Elias ride in his carriage with the rest of the Chosen. Elias sits on the roof and tries to earwig as best he can.

During the journey, Gaston tells the party that he identified both the rings the party presented them with. The ring taken from Damodred O'Hare is one of a set of five that was made for the King of the Five Colour Kingdom decades ago. All five were apparently lost at sea in a terrible storm around 166 LE. This is a Ring of Quickening. Cast one spell into the ring and it is held there indefinitely; any spell caster can then draw it forth as a quickened spell. Ravenna begins to salivate messily in the back of the coach. Gaston hands her the ring.

The second is quite a puzzle, Gaston reports. It is a bone ring, obviously of Hadradan manufacture but it is not an ancient item left over from the occupation, it has been crafter within the last five years. It increases the wearer's strength by no small margin says the archwizard. He also says that his sources point out that this ring originally belonged to a wizardess called Danask. The party should be careful stealing things from Fenton Pryde. The rest of the day's journey involves a indepth argument as to which member of the party is the best suited to claim this ring. Gaston quickly tires of it.

Zephday, 3 Lollmeadow 204

During the journey, Gaston tells Ravenna that the dwarf Thorangrim was still incarcerated at the palace when he left. The first thing the sorceress does on her return is to speak quickly to Lucien. As the rest of the Chosen are resting after their long journey, Lucien tells Ravenna that bad news that Warmaster Grimm and the other dwarves left with Thorangrim just yesterday. Alberdark had no reason to keep him here. Ravenna is not happy, and Brack is a little put out about it as well, particularly after the message was sent. Ravenna finds Alberdark who tells her that her message arrived in time, but there was nothing he could do. He is sorry, nothing more could be done. Ravenna meets briefly with her uncle and explains the situation to him. Jhasik is distraught at the loss of Thorangrim and his business.

Gaston takes the swords from the party when they return to continue his research into their make-up. He finds his lack of progress a little disconcerting, it is almost as if someone was working against him to stop him finding anything out. The ring of strength passes to Elias via almost every other member of the party. Raza cannot believe that he keeps giving Elias his magical items.

Soon after they arrive, Nicos heads to the Grand Conflagration to check on the status of Julian Maynard. Maynard is in bed when Nicos arrives, and is particularly frail and quite ill. However, Nicos' news regarding Wren/Rio perk the old priest up a bit. He is so glad that, after seven seasons, Nicos' quests are finally bearing fruit. Maynard also tells Nicos that their message arrived in time and O'Keef's men were liberated from their incarceration in Scaldarnus. They have since been turned over to the Watch.

Ravenna undertakes some swift investigations of her own as soon as she returns. It seems that their message about the Heart of Llysallion and Thorangrim did reach Alberdark, but this message did not arrive soon enough. Grimm and his warband left Uris with Thorangrim in tow on the first of the month. She is three days too late. Thorangrim has been taken to Kulhâzan for execution. She is mighily depressed.

When Nicos returns to the White Suite, he and the rest of the Chosen are approached by Lucien. Lucien tells them that a ceremony is being held in their honour tomorrow morning to mark their bravery in rescuing Princess Celestine.

Caladay, 4 Lollmeadow 204

Early in the morning the Chosen of Narramac and Baron Dolanz are presented before King Yaddagon XIV and Princess Celestine in a crowded throne room. Their deeds are recounted before the assembled with great vigour. They are heroes, and as such the seven of them are elevated to the Order of Valour, the most prestigious award for bravery the Crown can bestow. Celestine places medals around the necks of our heroes, particularly fondly in the case of Dolanz. The notoriety of the Chosen increases in leaps and bounds. By lunchtime the story of how they rescued the princess is all over town.

"For you Dolanz, a greater recognition is called for," the King says. "You have been without lands for a long time, but your loyalty has never been questioned. From this day on you are baron no longer. The land of Hessex is yours to do with as you see fit. By their actions the Caleds have relinquished any right they may once had had. You are most welcome at court….. Count Dolanz."

There is much applause and whistling. Countess Caled and Rowena are very happy with the way things have gone, although Baron Linley Caled is beside himself with rage. These are problems for another time, however. The Chosen of Narramac and Count Dolanz are the subject of every conversation all over Uris and beyond. It seems there is no limit to what these heroes of Narramac can achieve. Little do the people of the city know that the Chosen have yet to meet their greatest challenge.

The End of Dai Caled
The adventures of the Chosen of Narramac continue in
The Deeper Shadow, The Darkest Night

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