The Siege of NecronIn October of 1023, the forces of the lich Sir Edwyn Rainecourt laid siege to Necron (specifically its capitol of Necropolis) in order to acquire various necromantic artifacts, including a banner that empowers undead and the remains of Lucius the Red and Zermarx. In order to stop him from getting his hands on as many relics as possible, a strike force made up of many heroes of the Realms infiltrated Necron via its sewers. With intelligence and logistics from our allies - the Order of the Saintly Shadow, Silverwing Justicar, Order of the Enlightened Quill and Circle of Crows - we moved throughout Necron area-by-area between safe houses.After facing the giant rats and plagued waters of the sewers, we arrived in Necron and were beset upon by hordes of undead. We made our way north towards the location of the nearest relic, along the way encountering several ghosts that had to be chained in copper and their unfinished business resolved. After providing this mercy and setting them to rest, we saw that Edwyn's corruption had appeared in the area we entered through the sewers, somehow alerted to our presence. Soon after we discovered the first artifact, a skull covered in blood runes and locked in a cage of bones. We had to kill manifestations of blood on top of several blood seals in order to fill three blood vials, which allowed a skeletal catlike creature to open the cage. The relic rendered soulless any who touched it and converted all healing magic in the area to necromancy, but Sir Mathias of Blackwood was able to pick it up due to corruption from Edwyn and attempted to destroy it - whether this was successful is unclear, but the relic disappeared regardless. It is possible that Sir Mathias' corruption allowed Edwyn to teleport it to him, but hopefully this is not the case. Moving forwards we encountered a room full of bodies, their souls rended from their bodies by, as we found out upon raising them, opening the door out. We thankfully were able to avoid this fate by breaking an exit hole in the wall. However, just outside was a sealed demon close to breaking free, and it did so soon after we arrived, rending souls with every blow and chasing us to the next safehouse. The demon later made its way south to the corrupted area near the sewer entrance. The next area had to be traversed quite quickly as we were pursued by a creature with a ravenous appetite, carving our way through undead hordes before it could catch up and digest us for eternity. We made it without casualties, but its presence made it unfeasible to head towards a nearby relic to the south and pass back north to the dock that was our goal. On the way to the dock we had to pass through a dark passage filled with wandering undead that were far stronger than those we encountered elsewhere, but thankfully left us alone so long as we did not produce light or sound. We spent far longer here than any of the other challenges we faced, having to recover pieces of pillars from piles of rats and insert them correctly into a mechanism that would open the door - a mechanism that if not activated correctly would violently explode and send the pieces flying back out into the room. By the time we escaped it was nightfall and the gates to the inner sanctum had opened, with Edwyn's forces nearing them - we were out of time. Rather than heading north to retrieve a relic and doubling back to the dock, we needed to sail immediately to an island near the sanctum gates in order to make it before our enemy. Unfortunately this introduced a complication, as we learned that the banner which would empower undead immensely was far on the other side of the lake in an area that was a complete dead end. We came up with the idea to have Magus Rosetta swap its location with the nearest relic - a lesser-powered scroll that merely sped up undead regeneration, just one of the banner's effects - but we did not have time to grab it. Magus James Swift called in a favor from Azurewrath to retrieve the scroll quickly for us, and we were able to attach to it a bomb made from the pure rage of the Realms before performing the swap. The banner, also deadly to touch, was able to be destroyed via ritual, which prevented Edwyn from getting the most powerful relic outside the sanctum even if we couldn't save the others. Next we needed to cross the plague-filled waters of the large lake, which we did in several rickety boats during a colossal downpour. Undead in canoes and a kraken killed many of us along the way, but the boats were able to stay intact and bring us to the island from which we would access the way to the inner sanctum. On the island we encountered a large book containing trapped souls which pushed forth from the pages demanding more souls to consume. Any weapon or person that touched it was absorbed, but we were able to extract them and destroy the book through a large amount of abjury magic. We crossed (and subsequently burned) a bridge from the island to an area near the gates, where we found yet another room filled with the red corruption, though this time we could control when it was on (allowing us to hurt the enemies but preventing healing magic) or off (which enabled the reverse). We were unable to prevent the sacrifice of an infant here, but we did recover its remains and restore it to life - although this appears to have brought something else with it that slowly sucked away our souls over the next day from its place strapped to Sir Orion's chest. Finally (although having to ignore a nearby relic and dracolich that Edwyn surely got his hands on) we reached the gates of Necron's Inner Sanctum, where we were met by its lord, Calladen, himself. Far from the intelligent and helpful lich he had been when we aided him a few weeks before (when he promised us gold and safe passage), he immediately accused us of working with Edwyn to invade and turned his undead on us, refusing to listen to reason. But the fight didn't last long, for soon after Edwyn Rainecourt himself (clearly closer behind than we had thought) entered. Edwyn and Calladen had a battle of necromancers, exerting their will over each other's undead servants, but in the end it was Edwyn that prevailed. He commanded Rev to take Calladen's Dagger of Sacrifice - an artifact capable of sacrificing a being and causing their final death - and stab the lich with it, bringing Calladen's long life of schemes to an abrupt end. Edwyn soon left and took the Dagger with him, and we spent the night just within the sanctum's walls reeling from what we had just witnessed. The one good thing that came of this encounter was that Sir Mathias was able to grab Calladen's staff, which is similar in appearance to the Staff of Satrael. The next morning we considered the three primary targets within the sanctum and used seer magic to determine what they contained. While the mausoleum was far too close to enemy forces to be an option, we learned that the library contained the remains of Lucius the Red, so we set off towards it. In the first area we encountered a giant pit filled with plagued undead, but also the keys we needed to progress. Unfortunately the long drop meant only one or two people could descend at a time via rope, taking 60 seconds to reach the bottom, which led to a large number of us being stranded below under the violence-inducing effects of the plague. A combination of ritual magic and shooting arrows attached to rope was able to retrieve our bodies, and Lord Sir Elwin managed to grab a plague-infused glaive while down there. Soon after we found a hidden blacksmith's hut marked with the symbol of Aurora, where the blacksmith presented Sir Vesper with a blade that could cleave through undead like lightning. When we finally reached the library we found it home to an alchemist and his experiments - a hideous mound of flesh, plague seeds and vials of various chemicals filled the area. The alchemist needed help to gather ingredients in an attempt to create a potion that would imbue the strength to open a cage containing our goal, the box holding Lucius' remains. After three unsuccessful attempts that left those who drank the potions with deformed arms, we took the remains and destroyed them. Our escape route from Necron was a portal in a tower from which we were now cut off, so we had to perform a ritual in order to teleport there. Unfortunately Edwyn's forces had already arrived, including Sir Roman who blocked our path and Dame Carrion who had a vial of Zermarx's blood (she was willing to gamble it if we played "games" with her, but it was unable to be retrieved). After a long conversation with several Knights of Blackwood (during which an attempt to redeem Carrion failed), Sir Roman turned his forces on us and we pushed through in a deperate attempt to reach the portal and escape. After several failed attempts to make it through we finally escaped. Several of our number stayed behind to destroy the tower, but were able to be recovered, and we all regrouped in Evie's Tavern in Voraniss. Overall we succeeded in keeping several powerful relics from falling into Edwyn's hands, but there were many more we could not recover, and Calladen's death leaves Necron open for the taking. We shall see what the future will bring, but I doubt that this is the last time Necron will be relevant in the battle with the Knights of the Aberrant Gate. - 'N' |
Created by 'N' (Daniel Hudon) at 10-10-23 04:37 AM
Last Modified by 'N' (Daniel Hudon) at 10-10-23 04:41 AM