As they approached the Severed Hand Fortress, they were immediately accosted by guards with Chimera beasts. Clearly they were expected! They met resistance again upon entering the fortress – and again by a large ground of guards explicitly expecting their description.
One they cleared the initial forces, however, the first level of the Severed Hand appeared remarkably peaceful. There were workers hard at work restoring and renovating long collapsed corridors and rooms all over. Most refused to speak with them at all, but come were braver. They learned that most of them were slaves, kept in line by large demons which, strangely, appeared utterly uninterested in the presence of Katarina and her band. They easily agreed to help the slaves, but were told the demons were made immortal by some magic in the tower. They would have to work out a way around that magic to free the slaves. And it seemed likely that such demons were also used to guard Isair and Madae. One way or another they would have to find a way to deal with them.
They briefly conversed with the Legion’s diplomatic envoy, who confirmed much of what they already knew about why the Legion was at war with the Ten Towns. Amazingly, he was *not* aware that the construction workers were slaves! And upon being presented with proof he promptly resigned and quit! Kordaal and Solstice in particular were quite conflicted about the Legion at this point. On the one hand, they understood better than anyone being cast out and scorned for mixed heritage. On the other, everything about the way the Legion went about addressing the issue was just reversing roles rather than solving anything.
The Legion used Chimera beasts in numerous places to supplement their forces, but Garin noticed something. The Chimera were not treated as allies and guardians. Or even as valued pets. They looked chained, starved, and abused. And to Garin, an animal was an animal. No matter how many heads it had. Most of the others considered it crazy, but he insisted that he could get through to the beasts. And amazingly enough, he could! He unchained as many as he could find, and directed them to abandon the fortress and flee for safety.
Further exploration led them to discover a number of potential “allies” – or at least “persons with compatible agendas” in various parts of the Severed Hand.
On one level they were approached from the shadows by a Drow woman claiming to be a Matriarch! The woman, Rikki, claimed that while the Drow had no interest in a direct war with the Legion, they wished the twins to be removed. Katarina was rather skeptical of the Drow’s hidden agenda, but Rikki starkly claimed the root of the animus was simple. The Drow considered themselves a pure and superior race, and a nation of half-breeds and misfits which was attempting to form alliances with the likes of Drider was essentially blasphemous to them. Katarina was not terribly fond of fanatic racism as a cause for cooperation, but Rikki had intelligence and supplies too valuable to dismiss. And while her suggested methods (poisoning the barracks) were unacceptable, in the end she was working for the same short-term goal.In the former Warrior Tower they discovered the prison was now being used to contain people the Legion considered valuable hostages. They freed the envoy from the Ten Towns, a priest of Ilmater named Toral , and the missing delegation of Black Raven monks. The priest gave them valuable information on how to weaken the twins power, while the Black Raven monks offered to directly assist in the final assault in exchange for the cure for a curse laid on them by a Banite priest.Finally, they discovered that the Wizard tower had been claimed by Orrick the Grey, formerly of Kuldahar. And he was currently in a tenuous cease-fire with the Legion as he was uninterested in their activites and they were not confident they could attack him directly without losses too great to justify the sacrifice. While he was unwilling to confront the Legion directly, he was able to tell them exactly how to eliminate the layers of protection making the demons invulnerable. He also claimed to have been teleporting escaped slaves back to freedom, and offered that he would continue to do so for any others that were sent to his tower.
Using what they had learned from Toral, Orrick, and Rikki they came up with a plan to undo the nested layers worth of corruption and rituals the twins had wrought in the tower. This would both significantly weaken them and remove the power from their demon guardians.
First, they would have to purify the shrine in the Severed Hand Temple. What had once been a shrine devoted to the likes of Corellon and Ilmater had now become a glorification of Iyachtu Xvim, Son of Bane! The shrine now depicted the other deities as being forced to bow in subjugation before his dark power. Toral had given them the proper ritual, but when Katarina began it she was mentally contacted by none other than Xvim himself! Xvim offered to betray the twins in an alliance since he believed they no longer served his interests. Katarina had already made a tentative alliance with a Drow Matriarch, and considered one with a Thayan wizard. But this?? This was too much. She emphatically refused the proposal, resulting in the appearance of an Avatar of Xvim himself, assisted by demonic followers!Once Xvim and his demons had been defeated, they were able to complete the ritual – allowing Ilmater to sever Xvim’s direct link to the fortress. Ilmater also gifted them with a vial of Holy Water to counteract the corruption elsewhere in the Tower.Then they had to cleanse the Radiant Pool in the Severed Hand arboretum. Elara was able to use the Holy Water given them by Ilmater to accomplish this, bringing the sacred elven trees back to life. This not only prevented the twins from using the Pool’s power to replenish themselves, it also removed the protection around the Orb of Power protecting Xvim’s demons.Next – to destroy the Orb of Power making the Demons of the Tower invulnerable. And the Banite guards of the Orb were not *remotely* prepared – once engaged in battle – to defend against how fast Percy can really move!With the Orb destroyed, the Demons were now vulnerable, and so they wasted no time making good on their promise to the slaves. Solstice held as many as she could enthralled and inactive while the slaves ran to Orrick’s portal and safety.And Kordaal took on straight the demons who would not submit to her control. With that completed they were ready for their final assault. Rikki informed them that there were two major forces they would have to eliminate. First, they would have to eliminate a contingent of representative from the Cabal of Dragonkin – a powerful group of half-dragons considering an alliance with the Legion. Then, with their powers reduced and their allies scattered, it would be time challenge the twins themselves…
3 responses to “IWD2 Winter’s Warriors: Final Fortress”
atcDave
Wow, you got a Chimera! That is amazing looking. I also really like all the eccentric demons you’ve got. A lot of fun stuff here.
That Chimera was a big pain in the butt. Used two days worth of account quotas to get it. Spent a really long time trying to get a proper Glabrezu for Kordaal to fight as well. Didn’t quite get there, but the one above certainly looked demonic enough to be a proper adversary.
My favorite in this set was Percy, simply because Percy being awesome is always awesome. And having a variety of dead, injured, and still actively chasing him guards as he hit the orb took some finagling.
Now I just have to actually complete the final battles…
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