Approaching Rimefell Mine once again, they looked up to see the walls of the Spire high overhead. There was no turning back now.
As they returned to the altar and door that had blocked them before, they drew the Runic Knife. As they broke the seal, the door flew open.
They encountered many of Meryn’s troops – cultists and orcs – on the way to the main level of the Spire Fortress. Tiana became skilled at sneaking ahead to take out Conjurers at the beginning of battles while the others attracted primary attention.
They fought Maeryn’s apprentice, the Witch Isilda and her Dire Ravens in an Arcane Library.
They fought the vicious mercenary Nyana the Bloody Valkyrie in a Mausoleum with Shambling Horrors.
In the main fortress courtyard they were confronted with the Guardian of the Spire – the Dragon Zhuvastag backed up by Sorcerers and Snipers.
In the Inner Sanctum they were confronted by Zhuvastag again, as the Witch called forth his Spirit to assail them even in death.
They met what appeared to be the elven double agent Iselyn – but she turned out to be a Sorak in disguise. She claimed that she had led the Baron and his forces into a trap, and that they had been annihilated! And gleefully described how she had tortured the real Iselyn to death… As they heard explosions in the distance she cackled that the Jade Scar were even now seizing power from Maeryn!
Bjorn did *not* take kindly to these revelations, and took it out on the unfortunate Sorak and her henchmen rather personally….
Eventually they came upon the Jade Scar General Banegraf and Wyndham. They briefly bickered about who’s fault it was that the Company still lived, before gloating about how they would free the demon Ish’ralech once they had slaughtered the company and murdered Maeryn.
Then the General *drank* some of the blood of Sorr-Tarr, and grew into a frightening countenance indeed!
Meanwhile Wyndham reverted to his own true form and took flight.
As the battle raged on, they wore down the General and shot Wyndham out of the sky.
But just when they began to get the upper hand the demoness appeared!
The demoness was a horrific fight, and the Sorak and Jade Scar remnants harassing them as they fought made it more difficult. But in the end they stood victorious over even this foe!
And then Maeryn appeared. With Lorelei in tow – the agent to whom they had delivered Cerulean’s letter at the very beginning of their journey. Maeryn was clearly injured from battling the Soraks and Jade Scars. But she defiantly claimed that Ish’ralech’s defeat would not derail her plans, as she could still use the demon Mani’vathas for her purposes!
She attempted to obliterate them with a mighty spell, but one of the figurines given to them by the Paladin Dathus shone a bright light and dispersed the magic.
Maeryn cursed in frustration, and then teleported away – looking very weak and spent from her ordeal. Lorelei summoned Golems and Demons and promised to eliminate them herself!
But a great pounding was heard outside the room, and the doors burst open… to reveal the Baron, Gunthik, and a company of dwarves! It seems reports of their demise had been…premature! The battle was on!
Tiana never let Lorelei get started – hitting her with a vicious flurry before she even began causing trouble.
It was a long battle, and they were already tired and spent from their struggles with the Jade Scars and the Demons. But with the help of the Baron and his forces they once again prevailed.
The Baron scoffed at the news that he had been “annihilated”. “Perhaps if I had not been warned”, he conceded, but it appeared that Iselyn had managed one last message before her death. He congratulated them all heartily, and formally released them from service. He considered their debt well paid. Gunthik’s final command was “go have a drink. A whole round of ’em”.
But they still had one task left to complete. They had promised to return to Cerulean and free the Red Crow Cult. And it appeared that a final confrontation with Maeryn was still in play.
Author’s Note: That was… pretty epic. Every time I though we hit a climax, there managed to be a follow-on that topped it. And the Baron riding in with the cavalry at the end was absolutely perfect. Can’t wait to see how it wraps up with the finale.
For some reason OpenAI’s Image Editor has completely ceased functioning for me. It will let me set things up, but when I actually try to kick anything off it just hangs up and never finishes. Its been like that for several days now – no idea what’s up with that. Several pics here I would have tidied up a bit more if that was working.
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