What has gone before..
Unknown forces have declared war on the Karazthan, culminating in a devastating attack on their complex in the city, involving a tentacled monster of a species unknown in Kalyr, leaving many dead. Meanwhile all contact with the Academy of the Mind's remote retreat in the hills to the north-west of Calbeyn have been lost. Senior figures in both organisations have met, and concluded these two incidents are related (for reasons too complex to go into here). To investigate, they sent our a small scouting party to investigate the wilderness retreat, to report back on what they found.Things went wrong early on, as the group were attacked by a force of vordral while striking camp. This attack cost them their leader, Jathren, who was seriously wounded and had to be left behind in the care of some local tribesmen. Now the depleted party are approaching their goal...
Chapter 1
The party travel through wooded hills for much of the day, following a well worn trail running roughly parallel with the line of towers, although it eventually leads away to the north, while the towers head west. The sun is low in the sky when the fortified retreat comes into view.The tall stone tower is silhouetted by the setting sun. It's surrounded by a defensive wall, with a stone-built gatehouse giving access. In short, it's a typical fortress built in the times of the Second Empire, although no doubt it's been extensively rebuilt by it's present owners. The place fits the image Reylorna saw in the vordral's mind.
From this distance, there is no sign of life. The gatehouse is unmanned; one would expect a mageguard or two, at least. No smoke curls from any of the many chimneys. Both Reylorna and Duplar feel uneasy; there's a presence here, and it's not pleasant.
"Well, either it's uninhabited, or it's a trap," states Jal flatly. "and given previous events, I'd vote for the former. I think going cheerfully in through the front door would be a bit unwise."
He scans around a bit to see if there is any sign of a postern gate or sally-port around the back.
Kylar the legionnaire holds his hand up to bring the group to a stop.
"At least the sun is ahead of us," he murmurs to himself. Then to the others, "Jaldaric's right. Now's not the time to do anything stupid. Reylorna or Duplar, is there anything you can do to find out if anyone's here without being found out yourselves?"
Kylar's eyes intently scan the area for cover. If they can see the fortress, than anyone inside who would just happen to take a walk on the walls would see them.
"This place gives me the creeps", replies Reylorna, "It shouldn't feel like this. I think that what was feared has come to pass. Just a moment and I will see what I can gather."
"I need either line of sight or something which has been in the possesion of my target for some time before I can do anything useful", says Duplar, rather unhelpfully.
"I agree with Reylorna though, something is really wrong here, and if I can feel something from an unknown source like this then it must have signifcant raw power. Not necesarilly intelligence or wisdom, but power, and it has the mental equivalent of the pong comming off the city sewers towards the end of a hot day. Yuck!"
"Something evil", remarks Ryzar, never one to avoid repeating the obvious, "The Kolder have been here".
Reylorna concentrates, sensing with her mind just what it is that might be out there. Now she's consciously searching, the all-pervading sense of evil is much stronger. Reylorna detects the dim presense of something. As far as she can tell, someone or some thing in the general direction of the castle is using a telepathic power.
Meanwhile Jaldaric gets a closer look at the ancient building, and closer up it's bigger than it first appeared. The central stone keep is of four or five stories at least, and a tower at one corner stands taller still. The defensive wall totally encircles the keep, unlike many smaller castles, and he realises it will take a while just to walk round the outer wall looking for another entrance. The gatehouse stands some way outside the wall, a walled ramp leads to the castle proper.
Although it's now approaching dusk, no lights burn from any window, and no guards patrol the walls, all of which adds to the unnatural sense of foreboding.
While failing to locate a rear entrance, he makes a more grisly discovery. The body of a guard, or rather what's left of him, lies about 50 tavers from the gatehouse, wearing the tattered remains of a robe over leather armour. He's been torn limb from limb beyond recognition.
- o0o - Kylar the legionnaire mutters a plethora of obscenities, loosening his vyrn blade in its scabbard for what seems the thousandth time in the past week.
"Everyone stay together then. I don't want anyone wandering out of sight for any reason until we have as much idea about what we're up against as we can get from here."
"Agreed, this place is not as uninhabited as it looks", replies Duplar, "The snag of staying as a party is that one of us can be set against another should the bad guys have sufficient metal control, yet if we split we can be picked off as the occupants desire".
The legionnaire smirks a bit at Duplar's musings, nodding in agreement. "There's far more benefit in staying together....if one of us is turned, at least we'll outnumber that person more significantly than if we split up".
Meanwhile, Jaldaric gasps at his grisly find, and quickly signals the others to come take a look. As they do, he looks more closely at the body. As far as he can tell, the body has been dead for at least two or three days. It's been torn apart by some kind of large animal, he thinks; the wounds look to those of claws or teeth, rather than weapons.
"Someone coming!", cries Ryzar. A figure, dressed in brown, apparently unarmed, can be seen running towards the party, from the direction they had come.
- o0o - Kylar wheels around at the sound of Ryzar's shout, eyes fixing upon the closing figure. Reylorna too watches with a bit of apprehension upon her face. She shares Kylar's concern, and glances behind the figure to see if there is something apparent that he or she is running from.
Although there are much more competent fighters in the party, Jal's fingers touch his hilts as he turns to watch the newcomer's approach; just checking. But the lesson of the Vordral - not everything is as it seems - is not lost on him and he does not draw.
As the figure gets closer, everyone can it's a human man, unarmed, dressed in the plain brown tunic that Reylorna and Duplar recognise as typical of the domestic slaves owned by the academy of the mind. He can't be older than his late teens.
"No! Go away! Turn Mad!", the figure screams. The expression on his face is one of abject fear.
- o0o - Both Kylar and Reylorna are concerned as to just what he is running from, but they see or hear nothing, apart from the man's cries.
To Reylorna, it is obvious that the man was in some distress, and they need to know why, though she already suspected it had something to do with the malevolent presence she had felt. A look of concern crosses her features as she concentrates for a moment attempting to reach out to the frightened man's mind. She finds the overwhelming sensation in the man's mind is one of fear. There is more than a touch of the same fear as she felt in those vordral.
these fools... If they stay here they'll die... Just like the others....
Speaking to her companions she says "I don't know for sure, but I believe that the same thing that frightened the vordral, has frightened this man. He is sure that we will die if we stay here."
Kylar shakes his head. "We're too far along to turn back now".
Ignoring the frightened human, the legionnaire lets his gaze roam the darkening horizon before he turns to face the others. "It probably be best if we got indoors for the night anyway. We could hole up in a gatehouse for the night before exploring the keep at daybreak."
Jaldaric looks disappointed at not getting a chance to explore straight away, but defers to the legionnaire's expert judgement. He eyes the gatehouse warily.
"Do you think that that's any safer than the rest of it?" he asks, indicating the shadowy structure. "I suppose we can block off any doors leading into the castle proper. Let's go and have a look."
Without further ado, he approaches the gatehouse, giving his eyes a moment to adjust to the darkness within. The outer door of the two-story building stands open, but the solid wooden inner doors are firmly closed, and apparently barred from the inside, preventing entry. Looking up, there is a portcullis, currently raised.
Meanwhile, the mysterious frightened man tries to persuade the party to leave. "Go!", he says, waving his arms in an agitated manner. "They kill! The madness".
But before he can explain any more, he keels over, a crossbow bolt piercing his heart. It seems to have come from the castle walls.
- o0o - Kylar's hazel eyes widen at the sight of the fletching protruding from the hapless man's body.
"Everyone get down!"
That said, he takes his own advice, flattening himself on the grass and scanning the walls for the archer.
Reylorna, being the rational person that she is, she immediately seeks cover, even before she hears Kylar's shout. She looks for the closest solid object or wall that would serve, but has to settle for some scrubby undergrowth, which gives her at least some cover from further crossbow fire.
Duplar also dives for cover and draws his lightning wand, making his best guess as to where the quarrel came from and seeking to establish line of sight to the crossbowman.
"Nobody is to handle that quarrel until I have scanned it for impressions!", he says.
Jaldaric and Ryzar likewise seek cover.
Nobody can be seen on the battlements of the castle, although there are many arrowslits on the keep, the gatehouse, and on a second smaller tower. Myriad places for a sniper to hide.
Both Duplar and Kylar think the missile came from a section of the wall to the left of the gate. Duplar spots what he thinks is movement in one of the arrowslits on the battlement. But before he can take any further action, a second crossbow bolt comes flying his way, missing his head by less than a handsbreadth.
- o0o - Kylar begins to belly-crawl toward the arrow slit, hugging the ground in a faint hope of making himself a tougher target to hit. "Someone return that fire! And leave the quarrel to Duplar!"
That was close!, thinks Duplar as he looks for better cover. Not that there's much around: he advances in an erratic weaving style rather than making a straight line on the door, where he sees Jaldaric already apparently safe.
I wish I had better protection, but obviously this will work for the moment. Reylorna concentrates, trying to see if their activity had awakened whatever it was that left the malevolent impression. That was something she didn't want to deal with, but she wanted to be prepared if they had to.
To her senses, the pervading evil seems stronger now, more focussed perhaps. While Reylorna has no idea whether the evil and the attacks are connected, it's a reasonable assumption to make. She considers telling the others, but in the heat of an assassin's strike, it doesn't seem like the wisest move. So for the moment she remains quiet.
Oblivious to the danger, Ryzar takes aim with his strange and alien weapon. His shot goes wide, an orange bloom exploding against the side of the battlement. His attack is immediately answered by return fire, and he his the ground just before the bolt flashes past the point where his head had been. With the archer's head momentarily exposed, Ryzar risks a second shot. This time he's lucky. The fire-bolt hits something; there's a cry of pain and the figure of the archer drops from sight.
- o0o - "Well Done," Reylorna calls to Ryzar.
The outworlder may be odd in many respects, but he has been an asset in keeping them alive. However she doesn't stick her head above the flimsy protection of the bush yet, rather continues to look around trying to see if there is any other trouble soon to be on them.
"The presence that I sensed a bit ago seems to have grown stronger", she tells Duplar and Ryzar, "I don't know if it is because we have interacted with the sniper or not, but I think so. Be prepared that might not be the only form of attack we will be subject to".
"I know", replies Ryzar, "I can feel it too".
Duplar does not reply.
Meanwhile, Kylar the legionnaire redoubles the already desparate pace of his advance in an effort to keep the attacker from recovering, if he or she is still alive.
Tiny successes dot the battlefield, much to his satisfaction; Reylorna's mental reconnaisance, Ryzar's excellent shooting, Jaldaric's speedy advance. Now it is time to secure their position, and stop mistakes from happening.
"Duplar!" The Karazthani's advance being once of those mistakes. Duplar is far too vulnerable and far too valuable to lose at this point. "No closer! Use that wand of yours to cover me!"
Once Duplar has the wand out, Kylar crawls a few more paces, then makes a dash for the doorway beside Jal. He makes it to the relative security of the gatehouse without attracting any more hostile fire. But immediately he notices something odd about Jaldaric. Something is not right here.
- o0o - Reylorna continues to watch, trying to spot the next potential problem, really not sure what to expect. She scans the wall for further snipers, but there are none.
Meanwhile Duplar is aware of an telepathic attack, from a cold, alien source. It's not quite strong enough to batter down his mental defenses. Not yet anyway...
Then Jaldaric is suddenly aware of an almost overwhelming force trying to take over his mind. There is a horrible alienness about it. He grimly tries to resist the alien entity in his mind, but the oppressive presence in Jaldaric's mind is persistant. It insists that Duplar, of all people, is a terrible evil who must be destroyed, lest he kill everyone.
He just about manages to resist, but only by focussing his entire will to the task. To submit and go with the flow would be so, so much easier.
Kylar is alarmed at the expression on Jaldaric's face. He's seen this before, in the citadel dungeons, that time when the imprisoned wizard took control of the hapless guards. Jal is standing bolt-upright and stock-still, his hands clenched into white-knuckled fists and his face pale and damp. At first the symptoms resemble panic fear, but closer study reveals a desperate struggle of some sort going on within the man. As Kylar watches, Jaldaric slowly draws one of his smaller knives, appearing to resist this every inch of the way. Though the blade isn't balanced for throwing, he takes it by the point and cocks his arm as if to throw the weapon.
Kylar - and Duplar! - just have time to register that the target of this is Duplar before a convulsive twitch that seems to cost the young bard everything he can muster sees him fling the dagger off to the side. He drops to his knees, hands locked in front of himself for a moment; but then, despite everything he can do, he turns and begins to crawl towards the knife again....
Reylorna sees the desperate struggle Jal is going through. She sends a telepathic probe towards Jaldaric, and she too can feel the terrible alien presence in his mind. She's felt it before: those vordral. Only this time, instead of just an alien taint, she's faced with the 'alien' itself. Whatever it might be. The fact that it's trying to control Jaldaric is blindingly clear. So far, Jal is resisting. But he's weakening.
Jaldaric recognises a second presence in his mind, and is dimly aware as to who it is. But the thing also notices her....
Reylorna makes sure that her mental defenses are in place. She knows that this is going to be a battle that she had better win. Jal needed her help. She didn't honestly know what it was she could do, but protecting herself seemed the best first step. And just in time: the alien presence turns away from Jaldaric, and Reylorna faces the full force of it's power. The first probe rebounds from her mental defenses, but she can feel it gathering up it's power for a second attack. There's nothing poor Reylorna can do by way of counterattack. She can't see it, and can't find it's mind in the ether.
Jaldaric is now free (for a while) from the creatures influence. But both he and Kylar hear footsteps on the other side of the gatehouse door.
Then without warning a bolt of energy from the castle wall strikes the ground between Duplar and Ryzar, leaving the air smelling of ozone.
- o0o - "What the..?" Duplar gimaces as he forces the mental assult out of his mind. That the sudden attack missed him must be due to some good fortune, for he was not actively dodging.
Inside the gatehouse, all Jal's hatred of Kandar magic comes flooding back as the alien force leaves his mind. He's stricken with horror at what he almost did at the behest of an outside control. His revulsion leaves him virtually paralysed for a few seconds, until gradually the reality of approaching trouble impinges on his misery.
To Duplar it is obvious that he must get close to the gatehouse proper, hopefully by doing so he will get under the arc of fire of whoever has this energy projector. Jaldric seems to have a problem and Duplar's powers always work better with touch, so he has another good reason to head that way. With some distance to cover, he's forced to make a run for it, and makes it to the gatehouse just as another bolt of something hits the ground behind him. He wasn't sure if Ryzar was following or not, but the young borderer leaps relative safety of the gatehouse, his hair and clothing singed the blast. It's not clear if he's hurt.
Knowing she had no other options, Reylorna remains in Jal's mind hoping to act as a decoy long enough for someone with ability to do something about the creature. She tried to protect herself as best she could having no other choice. The expected attack comes, and almost overwhelms her mental defenses. Seemingly against the odds, he mental shield holds. For now. Then, without any reason, it's gone; The expected next attack doesn't come.
She does see the second bolt of fire arcing that so narrowly missed Ryzar, as he and Duplar reach the tower. She realises that she's the last one left outside.
With a massive effort, Jaldaric masters himself and stands up, turning towards the door ready to meet whatever is about to come through it. He can still feel Reylorna's presence inside his mind.
Nothing comes through the door. Instead, Kylar hears something coming from above them. "The Portcullis!", he cries. Before Jal can react, the portcullis comes crashing down, trapping Jaldaric on the wrong side.
- o0o - With a loud cry of "Oh bugger!" Jal flinches violently at thirty tons of crude iron slamming down a few inches from his nose.
He doesn't waste his time trying to lift it; he looks up to check for obvious murder holes above him in the gateway. His worst suspicions are confirmed, there are some obvious ones on both sides of the portcullis. He places himself as far away from 'directly below it' as he can get, which probably won't help much.
He looks at Kylar, safely located on the other side, and even in these dire straits, his basic humour wins through. "Well, I'm halfway in," he comments, and points to the murder holes.
Reylorna had kept up her mental shield, but started foward. She followed a dodging path as the others had hoping to make the gatehouse. Only to be surpised as the Porticullis comes down. What should she do now? She scanned the area for another way in, and for cover. Out here she felt like a target.
"Well it could have been worse, at least you aren't trapped with half of you inside!", comments Duplar, helpful as ever, "Keep an eye out for holes in the roof, standard tactic is to attack from above...".
"If it looks safe come across where I can catch hold - I find it far easier to repair people's minds when I can touch them and I think you could do with a....."
Instead of a volley of arrows, a bolt of fire aims at Duplar, hitting him the chest, setting his cloak on fire and throwing him backwards out of the gatehouse.
Kylar immediately hits the ground, while Ryzar returns fire with his dartgun, trying to hit the murder-hole, unfortunately without success.
Nobody tries to attack Jal. Since he's trapped, they're saving him for later.
- o0o - One he hits the ground Duplar rolls over trying to smother the flames, which is sufficiently successful to avoid any more serious burns. His cloak, though, completely ruined. He keeps moving so as not to present an easy target.
If Reylorna were the type she would swear, but since she's not, she stares up in an attempts to catch a glimpse of whatever was the source of that bolt of fire. Sure enough, she sees the outline of what might be a person, and immediately tries to enter the figure's mind in order to put him or her out of action.
Her mental probe is skillful enough to slip beneath her target's mind-shield, and she immediately feels that same alien presence that so recently attacked her. To her horror the alien presence immediately notices her, and tries again to enter her own mind, battering against her own mental shield.
While this is happening, Jal begins to scramble up the portcullis, with the intent of reaching the murder hole. The murder hole, unfortunately, is far enough away from the portcullis to require a considerable feat of acrobatics to reach.
There are no more immediate bolts of fire from the ceiling.
- o0o - Reylorna shrinks back in mental horror. She attempts to leave the man's mind, rather than have to combat something she has not skill to fight. ...but... As she senses the alien presence gathering it's mental forces to attack again, she gets some kind of hazy mental perception of it. It's as if she can detect it's mind, even though she can't see the creature.
Lashing out in a futile attempt to stop the creature, she attempts to put it to sleep. She doubts very seriously it will have any effect, but she has to try. As she does so, she does her best to try and get as clear a picture of it as possible; The information might be seriously useful for the little troupe. Unfortunately the creature has a powerful mental shield, as she should have expected. Her mental probe bounces off, it will take great skill to get beneath it. The alien presence is strong; she's more convinced than ever that she's up against the same being that was ultimately responsible for that vordral attack.
Meanwhile Jal pauses to remove his gloves and stick them securely in his belt. He gathers his strength and courage for a few moments, and then leaps for the hole in the ceiling.
Meanwhile Kylar realizes that as Duplar rolls about on the ground, he's still vulnerable to being shot at again by whatever is lurking in that murder hole. Tugging his vyrn blade loose from its scabbard with a raspy scrape, the legionnaire draws himself to his full height in the cramped space next to the portcullis, thrusting up into the murder hole if he can reach it. He may not be able to hit anyone, but the distraction could be enough for the scorched Karazthani to get to his feet and out of the sniper's line of sight. No attack comes. Yet.
Jaldaric just manages to grab hold of the edge of the hole with one hand. That was too close for comfort! As he hangs there by his fingertips, he catches a glimpse of a figure with it's back to him through the murder-hole. With a heroic effort, the minstrel hauls himself up and through the hole, biting down hard on his grunt of effort in an attempt to surprise the person above.
The figure appears unarmed. He stands stock still, as if concentrating. Jaldaric has witnessed Reylorna and Duplar using their mental powers enough times to be able to guess what the figure might be up to.
- o0o - Seeing no other options Reylorna attempts to extract herself from the man's mind. She needs to tell the others what she has determined, about the alien presence she has felt.
In the upper room of the gatehouse, Jal doesn't stop to think - a failing of his... he yanks his heavy dagger out of his belt, reverses it with a belated touch of humanity, and make for the seemingly-oblivious figure with the intention of conking him hard enough on the back of the bonce to have him off with the fairies....
He's only partly successful; the creaking floorboard ruins his chances of complete surprise. The figure, now identifiable as a male kandar, starts to turn, but can't get out of the way quite quickly enough. Jal's blow knocks him sideways and stuns him, but fails to take him down. His face is visible now, looking completely blank.
"What the blazes was that anyway?", exclaims Duplar, who stops ducking and weaving for a few moments and shrugs off the remains of the cloak.
Keeping one eye on the castle he takes various items out of the cloak's pockets. Out of more pockets than one might think a cloak could have. He looks at some singed objects and discards them, others he hides about his person. Then he is left with just the one object which won't fit in an pocket at all. His lightning wand.
"Right," he says holding the wand in his useful hand, "Someone is going to pay for a new cloak. The hard way".
"Up there!", says Ryzar, pointing upwards to the upper floor of the gatehouse, "Jal's gone up there, be careful". He has his alien dartgun ready and loaded, but he doesn't fire yet.
The alien creature seems to have vanished, for now...
Reylorna turns to the last couple of her associates and comments "the creature that controlled the vordal, it is controlling the man attacking us. I can't fight it, but its presence is stronger here. I think we are much closer to it."
Not allowing his opportunity to slip, Jal follows his man down - trying to soften the noise of his fall if possible - and then whacks him more scientifically on the temple. He'll err on the side of success if he has to, rather than not hit hard enough.
Jal's target is concentrating, no doubt to attack Jal mentally. But Jal feels no incoming attack upon his mind.
The stranger seems not even to feel the blow coming. There is a sickinging crack, and he crumples to the floor.
Those downstairs hear a muffled thump. Then silence.
Gasping for breath, the minstrel looks around himself, in case there are any other enemies in the area. If there are not, he drags the felled fellow into a corner out of the way and begins to search around for the portcullis mechanism.
There is silence. If any nasties out there are attacking Jaldaric's mind, he's not aware of them.
The portcullis mechanism is fairly prominent. A large capstan connected to a lot of ropes and pulleys are probably it.
Carefully positioning himself so that he can see the doorway, so that he's not crept up on, he begins - as quietly as possible - to crank the gate up.
Without warning, there is low rumbling noise, and the portcullis slowly begins to lift.
She hopes that it is Jal's doing and not some other mysterious force. But she will move foward to take advantage of the opening.
There no sign of any hostile activity. No more bolts of fire or volleys of arrows assail the party.
"Jal", exclaims Ryzar in a voice loud enough to alert any guards, "That is you up there, isn't it?".
Still no surprise volleys of arrows.
Beyond the portcullis is a second wooden door, currently closed.
A low voiced response drifts down from the gatehouse: "Who did you think it was, Naranu the Blockhead?".
Jal looks around, investigating whether he can get down to the back of the main door unobserved.
There are two doors on this level at the back of the top floor of the gatehouse. One stands open, and leads out onto some the battlements. Looking through the door, Jal can see a flight of stone steps leading down from the battlement to ground level. As stealthily as possible, he creeps out of the door and down the stairs.
It's still unnervingly quiet. Jal finds himself on the 'inside' of the inner door of the gatehouse. The gate is closed with a heavy wooden bar on this side.
Behind Jal is the walled ramp leading to the castle proper, with battlements on either side.
Reylorna moves inside the porticulus and heads towards the door.
-o0o- Duplar mutters a rude comment about not having a safe line of fire on a target with the wand. He then ducks beneath the portcullis, and approaches the inner door. He gives it a brief visual examination, but doesn't spot anything unusual.
Though Reylorna respects Duplar's powers, she doesn't know what he is doing. She waits quietly hoping that the door will be openned soon. She can't help but feel like she is in a cage at the moment.
The heavy wooden door is apparently barred from the inside.
Duplar puts his hand to the door and concentrates... The door has an overwhelming sensation of doorness. People have passed through it. Some of it can vaguely remember having once been a tree.
There is a faint sense of unease, of something bad and unnatural. But Duplar can't quite put his metaphorical finger on quite what.
Then there's the sound of a bar being moved, and the door slowly begins to open. At the sound of the bar Reylorna's head snaps around instinctively. She prepares her mind for any assault, and readys herself for trouble.
- o0o - Continue to the next exciting episode