The Fall of The Dark Keep

AK510-39 Cool Summer End Week 3
[Charon Guiding, Shale Resting, Cycles Watching]

Cogaday (Afternoon)

The lizardfolk army swarmed forward, hundreds of them, standards flying in the wind under the dark morning clouds.
Death was coming to the Dark Keep.

Then like a beacon of hope, Sir Eagon Del Fuego appeared on the hill under the shadow of the keep, his armor shone like a lantern in the gloom. His powerful stallion reared in defiance of the approaching army.
"You are of The Fallen and The Chosen challenge you!" he proclaimed as he pointed his lance, which crackled with the divine power, towards the red skinned leaders of the Army.
A two-headed lizardfolk of enormous strength and limited intellect, a minion of Eirleach masquerading clumsily as a disciple of Charon, lustily answered the challenge.
"You will die today human!" he roared almost incomprehensibly in draconic.
The majority of the lizardfolk army were honourable warriors and Chosen followers. They respected a challenge declared and accepted. As the army advanced, all eyes were on the two champions. No one noticed the slim figure that appeared behind the keep and skulked to a hidden position among the reeds. It remained cunningly hidden as it unslung a powerful crossbow. It watched the incoming challengers.
"One way or another", the newcomer thought, "You are going down today."

As the challengers closed and the tension built, their speed gradually increased until they were charging at full tilt. Moments later they clashed. The giant red skinned two-headed lizardfolk swung his massive stone axe, the momentum of all his immense bulk behind it. The axe head, like a sharpened mill wheel, swept inexorably towards the metal clad horseman. Sir Eagon's ducked forward in the saddle but was caught with a glancing blow. He should have been hurled from the saddle by the blow but Sir Eagon was infused by the power of the Chosen and an exceptional horseman. He twisted with the impact and an instant later his lance pierced the giant's heart and pushed out through it's back. The lance was ripped from Eagon's hands as his mount thundered past the dying lizardfolk champion. The giant dropped his axe and clutched in disbelief at the lance that had skewered his chest. His eyes rolled up and a faint whisper escaped his lips. He was dead before he hit the ground. Sir Eagon turned and rode back, his sword already drawn for battle. He smiled in grim satisfaction as he registered that he had won a victory for The Chosen.

The lizardfolk army were not so pleased. Now that the challenge was complete, they were free to resume hostilities and several hundred warriors charged towards him lead by a muscular red scale rager. Sir Eagon turned towards the keep and realised that there was no way for him to enter the sealed building before the invading army arrived. He grimly prepared himself to make a stand beside the hidden figure and perhaps allow the stranger to flee. But the hidden figure had other ideas. He smiled as he saw the red scale rager approach . He waited. And he waited. And he waited. Just as the rager was about to crash into Sir Eagon he fired. The bolt took the seemingly unstoppable rager through the neck and severed his brain stem. Stuffitt had predicted the rager's charge perfectly and had placed the bolt right where he wanted it. The rager dropped like a felled tree inches before Sir Eagon's mount. The rest of the lizardfolk intent on slaying the Chosen Champion were shocked by this unexpected attack but their momentum carried them forward nonetheless.
"I had him," complained the Champion.
"Sorry but playtime is over," responded the assassin as he leaped onto Sir Eagon's mount.
Then all three disappeared in a puff of smoke as axe blows rained down through the air where they had just been.

"TADA!!" exclaimed Setanta's cloak as Todd appeared on the third floor of the Keep in the count's quarters. The defenders gathered there were quite surprised to see Todd arrive mounted on a massive white stallion behind a Chosen Champion. The Heroes of Woodhaven just passed it off as business as usual. Sir Eagon slipped off the horse and dismissed it. Todd taken by surprise as the mount disappeared executed an elaborate back flip and landed casually in a nearby chair with his feet in the table. "Looks like I saved the day again," he bragged. "That's two you owe me junior," he smiled at Sir Eagon. Sir Eagon patience held and he refrained from arguing with the assassin. It was rarely worth debating anything with a follower of Glick. Instead he checked his valuables and went in search of Vedic Tanner. Todd leaped to his feet as an idea struck him. "You peasants come with me!" he commanded, the fearful looking servants and guards who had survived the previous assaults. "We'll throw rubble on them from the roof!" If any of them objected to being called peasants, no one said so and after a nod of agreement from the count they followed Todd up to the rubble strewn, broken roof to look for rocks to throw at the couple of thousand attackers below. Seemed like a good idea at the time.

The attackers finally reached the keep. The single combat, assassination and escape sideshow had distracted both the attackers and the defenders enough that there was little bow fire or spell casting until the enemy was only a few dozen yards away. They began to swarm around the keep. Black Scales raised ladders to scale the walls. Priests blessed the troops. The Siege towers were hauled forward by hundreds of warriors at amazing speed. The Dragon clan sorcerers disguised among the other clan's warriors cast mist spells around the upper floors to blind the defenders. The rubble throwers started falling through the holes in the roof. Then the catapults was fired and two red dots came flying through the air. Two of the lizardfolk army's elite troops, massively muscled red scale Rager barbarians landed heavily on the roof of the keep. The rubble throwers scattered. The Ragers drank a couple of potions and smashed the vials on their foreheads. This hurt. This made them angry. They called on Fraoch and he fuelled their fury. They screamed and charged to the stairs. The rubble throwers leaped out of the way.

Meanwhile Ethan Namer's battle plan was being posthumously carried out. Ivellios burned the mists away from the front of the keep with a great ball of fire. John Appleby stopped one of the siege towers in it tracks by commanding the plants of the swamp to entangle all of the hauling crew. Todd and Bob picked off some of the elite troops below. Then they heard the Ragers approaching. Tanner and Sir Eagon went to defend one of the stairs. The count and his knights went to the other. The ragers leaped down the stairs and dealt vicious blows to the defenders. Never had they encountered such savagery from lizardfolk. Tim recognised the fire of Fraoch's wrath burning in his foes eyes and traded blows with him with equal fervour.

Outside the battle raged on. Ivellios and Appleby used a combination of spike stones and a wall of fire to trap and kill a couple of hundred lizardfolk at the front of the keep. A brilliant execution of Ethan's plan. But soon the magic entangling the siege tower was dispelled and so were both the wall of fire and the spikes. Delayed and hurt the lizardfolk army move on relentlessly. The siege tower arrived at the walls. The scaling ladders went up on all sides.

The ragers had exacted a terrible toll on the defenders. Tim and Sir Eagon were hard pressed and called for support from Charmer. Then, as if in a nightmare, Sir Eagon was felled. His foe was almost defeated having endured an incredible amount of punishment from the champion's sword, the vedic's mace and Charmer's arrows. The rager was about to collapse, only Fraoch fire was keeping him on his feet. But so was vedic Tanner and each was capable of slaying the other. Only luck could decide this. Both enemies slowly backed off. Bob's arrow's splintered against the stone steps as his target retreated.
At the other stairs the Count had been felled by the other rager. But he was still alive. This rager was also barely standing. The rager wanted to retreat and heal, while the knights wanted to rescue Arkthuus. A gesture and a look brought them to a standoff. He backed off and they let him go. Both Sir Eagon and Arkthuus were still alive! The ragers had been pulling their blows to avoid killing them. What was going on? Who had ordered this restraint? Was is Deshok? Why?

Upstairs the ladders were being scaled and lizardfolk warriors were stepping onto the roof uncontested. The siege tower's reinforced door slammed down onto the stone wall and the warriors inside charged out. Many looked almost disappointed to see that they were uncontested. Two more red ragers slammed into the ground, rolled and stood up looking slightly shaken after the impact. A couple of steel captains leaped from the ladders and glanced suspiciously at each other. This was too easy. The only humans to remain contesting the roof were a pitiful looking rabble, some clutching bits of rock others simply shaking in fear. Something was wrong. They ordered a halt to the onslaught and tried to figure out where the trap lay.

Meanwhile below, the heroes realised that they, or more accurately Todd, had sent the commoners to the roof to die. Todd feigned concern and sent the knights to the roof to help the helpless commoners to retreat. The knights were honour bound to protect the weak and had no choice but to ascend the stairs and join the battle. Behind their turned backs Todd grinned and move to assist the Count in his battle between life and death. After brief discussion Charmer grabbed Sir Eagon's body and began to descend the stairs. The druid decided to call the power of the storm while the elf started down the stairs. Vedic Tanner sighed and walked up into the light.

The lizardfolk had finally overcome their suspicion once they had seen the knights arrive and the battle had been joined with considerable ferocity. The knights had formed a loose barrier around the commoners and were fighting for their lives, some of the commoners had limited skills in battle and had recovered enough to fight. The battle was still in the balance but as more lizardfolk were streaming up the ladders and as the steel captains and the red ragers were approaching, it was obvious that the small knot of defenders would soon be overwhelmed.

"You have won this day and we will quit the field of battle. In the name of the Chosen I implore you to let us take our wounded and leave you to your victory. Shed no more blood this day. The Dark Keep is yours," Vedic Tanner towered over the battlefield, gravely wounded and bloodied and leaning heavily on his mace.
"I can only keep these animals leashed for a limited time Vedic," one of the Steel Captains shouted in common. Then in draconic he loudly commanded his troops to draw back.
"The day is ours, the humans are shamed! Give them half a breath to flee before we start the hunt".
The lizardfolk warriors, followers of Cogadh not of Eirleach, were honourable and good soldiers. They stood back and let the wounded bedraggled humans go. The red ragers were not so eager to end the slaughter.
"We must kill these humans!" they screamed at the Captains in guttural enraged draconic.
"Go now! You do not have long!" urged the Captain as a violent argument erupted amongst the lizardfolk.

Todd Stuffitt moved to the count who was unconscious but breathing regularly. He pulled out a slender dagger and stabbed him to death.

Then praying to Glick to guide his hand, he raked the dagger across his chest expanding a red rager axe wound to cover the dagger's mark. His prayer was answered and his hand was guided and the lacerations looked convincing. He added a small drop of poison to the wound and smiled at a job well done.
"He must have been poisoned by the Rager," he practiced his lies in his mind.
Then he noticed the druid standing behind him, with a look of utter shock on his face.
Todd didn't flinch, "Contract" he stated, as if that explained everything.
And a very lucrative contract it was too. Casually he reached over to cut off a couple of fingers as evidence of his successful completion of his contract. Then the knights reappeared, racing down the stairs dragging wounded commoners with them.
"Grab the Count!" one of them ordered another, "I don't trust that little sneak".
Todd dropped the hand and slipped the dagger back into it's hidden sheath unnoticed.

The flight down the stairs was chaotic and panicked. Sweat, blood, fear and fatigue led to a clumsy descent punctuated with cries of pain. The curses echoed down the entire stairwell and throughout the keep. Somehow Todd managed to slip past everyone to reach the ironstone block that barred their escape through the keep's lower levels. He pulled out the scroll he had purloined from the abandoned wizard's chamber. He handed it to Ivellios.
Ivellios read it and whistled, "Impressive."
The last of the routed rabble had arrived by now and had slammed and barred the dungeon's iron door. It wouldn't hold the lizardfolk for long though. Ragers were incredibly strong.
Wasting no time Ivellios started chanting and completed the spell stored on the scroll. A thin green ray of light sprang from his fingertip as he finished chanting and struck the iron block. It glowed for an instant and then disintegrated. Only a fine layer of dust remained of the impregnable block.
"The power of Croi compels you!" shouted Vedic Tanner as he hurled the power of Croi at the shadows that raced forward from the darkness beyond. They never stood a chance and were destroyed, utterly. Then the others charged into the darkness and attacked a nest of shadow asps. Within seconds the snakes were slain.

The room they had entered was an antechamber that linked four corridors. The decorations carved on the walls resembled those in Setanta Fochlachan's tomb, marking this as a DéDannan Ogre built complex dating back thousand of years.
Ethan's ghost had told them that the exit lay to the north and that a great stairs lay directly in front of them. But what caught everyone's eye was the massive glowing symbol on the southern wall. Ivellios had started examining it before the last asp he been slain. This was ancient and powerful magic from the DéDannan era. "It's a shunt," he explained to the gathered refugees. They didn't seem impressed. Odd thought Ivellios, because he was incredibly impressed. Shunts were very powerful and hideously expensive and usually only encountered in buildings protected by the Church.
"We can use it to escape the lizardfolk," he continued.
That was much more like it, thought the refugees. A crash reverberated through the dungeon. The lizardfolk were coming.