#130 - The Fate of One Vampire

The Journal of Wynn Dennavar 

Zarantyr 25th, 999 YK

The frightening thing about being charmed wasn’t the unnatural loyalty I held toward Trazzen, it was how inexplicably suicidal my behavior became. Convinced that none of my allies would strike me—though they fought each other with deadly ferocity—I waded in and out of flying weapons and spells without concern for my well being. After Trazzen struck Irakas down, I crouched beside her in the midst of the melee and patched up her wounds.

My clumsy attempt at battlefield medicine completed, I wrested the Scepter of Glyphstone from the hobgoblin's grip. For safekeeping, my addled mind reasoned. If someone healed Irakas into consciousness, she would immediately reactivate the golem and turn the battle back in our favor, and therefore out of Trazzen’s.

The vampire’s new orders for me were to stop “the warforged,” clearly meaning Clarion, who stood before him blazing with radiance. He swung again at Irakas’s still-prone form with his byeshk scimitar, impossible to miss. I flinched as her blood sprayed across me at point-blank range. I couldn’t muster so much as annoyance at Trazzen, only general frustration and confusion at the whole situation.

For the second time Bale appeared out of seeming nowhere and stabilized her with a spell, drawing Trazzen’s ire. As I dragged Irakas back, Trazzen rounded on his former ally.

I was obligated to prevent Clarion from continuing his assault on Trazzen and his allies. Rather than try to convince the paladin that the vampire was an ally—even charmed I knew that was ridiculous—I asked him to aid me in securing Irakas’s safety instead of fighting.

Before Clarion could respond, the frenzied vrock he battled spewed toxic spores and lunged at me with its beak. The jolt of pain, combined with Clarion’s rallying divine aura, broke through the charm.

On the far side the Cauldron, Trazzen snarled something in Goblin at Bale that was incomprehensible to me, though it carried an unnatural force of will. I hoped the drow hadn’t been turned in my place; he was threat enough when he wasn’t enthusiastic about the vampire’s cause.

Farther off lightning crackled as Aleae engaged with something unknown, dangerous enough to frighten her into using the single spell scroll the Cyran wizard had given her.

While I reoriented my thoughts to the correct side of this conflict, Clarion healed Irakas just enough for her to awake. She scrambled upright and snatched the scepter out of my hands. At a Goblin command, the golem resumed striking the Cauldron. I warned the grievously injured hobgoblin to stay close to me. After Trazzen’s repeated insistence that I deal with her and remove the golem, I was now determined to keep her alive and the golem fighting.

I moved to stand beside Magnus and batter down the last pair of ghouls. In the corner where Clarion fought, a hollow sound preceded a final spray of brains and gore from the vulture-headed demon. On the edge of the dais, the golem topped the cauldron onto its side, spilling dark red smoke.

Trazzen skirted the fallen Cauldron but couldn’t clear the dais, blocked by me and Magnus. More fresh blood coated his mouth. He kept glancing at Irakas between sizing us up, deciding who looked weaker. I thought it would be me, and mustered whatever mental defense I could against more magic, but he lunged for Magnus and attempted to add more holes to his already ruined throat. It actually looked personal—these two combatants have some history.

A massive stone arm reached from behind and above us—Izzeth still occupying an earth elemental form—and grabbed Trazzen. Magnus pulled free of his grip and the vampire turned his attacks against Izzeth directly, attempting to cut him free of his elemental form.

My counterattack was interrupted when we were plunged into darkness that seemed to make the rhythmic clanging of the golem striking the Cauldron even louder. Steps away from a dangling, enraged vampire and a wildly swinging barbarian, if I struck blindly I could easily hit Magnus or Izzeth. Instead it was the perfect opportunity to remove Irakas from the fray and let those who could navigate the darkness handle the undead.

When we reached light I told Irakas to order the golem off the Cauldron and focus on our active opposition. She was obviously angered at having her decisions questioned—and I had been less than tactful—but didn’t argue or hesitate, and spoke more commands in the Goblin tongue.

We were pressed into the far corner of the room and the sounds emerging from the darkness were horrific. Irakas led the way down from the knot of fighting on the dais and we finally sighted Aleae’s opposition. An oni, near twin to the one we had met on the lower stairwell, who had warned us that the next time we saw “him” it would be his evil brother. We had been warned to not kill this one and it seemed that wasn’t likely at the moment, as he wielded an impressive glaive nearly as tall as the golem and simultaneously hounded Aleae with a glowing, grasping spectral hand. He repeatedly she return to him his "jug"—so this was another bit of history as well.

I asked Irakas if she knew anything about him, and was told that for all intents and purposes it was an enemy. She ran at him, cast a spell, and got cut down for the third time that minute. I decided that I might have set myself an impossible task by trying to keep her alive.

Perhaps it was lingering confusion from the charm, or that I had spent the better part of this conflict avoiding hostilities, but I couldn’t muster Irakas’s quick aggression against the oni. It wasn’t an ally of Trazzen’s, and his brother had assisted us earlier. I decided to press my luck.

Approaching slowly, I told him that I wouldn’t attack if he didn’t kill Irakas. I didn’t receive a reply, but was able to set aside my weapon to patch her up once more. The oni remained intent on Aleae, at least.

Along the opposite wall a cloud of mist fled out of the darkness, pursued and surrounded by Magnus, Izzeth, and Bale. Trazzen couldn’t outrun them as mist, yet abandoning the chamber would concede our victory over the Cauldron. He had no allies remaining.

With Irakas revived once more by the healing power of Bale—or was it someone else?—Irakas ordered the golem to attack Trazzan directly. When it did, the bronze statue's own massive glaive sheared through the vampire's armor and into his body. Blood—much of it very likely Magnus's—showered the floor, and my allies continued to harrass him with their weapons.

Someone struck a blow, and at first it seemed that Trazzen dissolved into his retreating mist once again. But instead of remaining vapor, a small horde of rats boiled out of his transformation. They weren't healthy rats, either—they were withered, mangy, skeletal, perhaps even undead. Was this Trazzen's end or a new manifestation?

#129 - The Battle Against Trazzen (continued...)

Zarantyr 25th, 999 YK

The battle against Trazzen and his allies continued.

Wynn shook herself free of Arafin's spell of holding, but remained charmed by Trazzen himself. She pursued the battle as it advanced into the chamber where the Cauldron itself remained.

While Clarion continued his fight against the vrock, Aleae slipped past it and entered the Cauldron chamber. Still invisible, she saw that the Cauldron of Rhumdal had been righted again by another vrock, a minotaur skeleton, and hulking pair of sludge-covered hobgoblin ghouls that appeared to be newly made by the Mire. In addition, three other ghouls lurked at the edge of the chamber.

Bale soon joined Clarion and the two began to push and blast the vrock out of the hallway and into the chamber. There, Bale used his sphere of darkness to challenge the ghouls that advanced on them.

Aleae made a daring run for the Cauldron itself, while invisible, and climbed its skull-carved rim. At the top, she dropped the red pearl that Elidac had given her—which he said could disrupt its power for a long time. Although she did this, Trazzen homed in on her and attacked. Although she could not be seen, the vampire lord could hear and scent her and after failing to grasp her for the first few seconds, he managed at last to take hold—and he sank his teeth into her shoulder, draining her blood. She broke free and scrambled away, still invisible, avoiding the use of magic that would break the spell.

Meanwhile, Irakas was revived but remained badly wounded. Gaining her feet, she commanded the golem forward again and the pair of them led the charge into the Cauldron chamber. Soon everyone had arrived.

When the golem entered the room, Trazzen gave up his pursuit of the invisible elf and went to engage it directly. He seemed one of the few effectively able to wound the animate bronze statue, using his byshek scimitar. Magnus and Izzeth clashed again, trading blows, bites, and grasping hands. The vampire lord drank of the barbarian's blood and Magnus continued to punish him for it. Both human and undead hobgoblin weakened, but Trazzen commanded Wynn—who was still enthralled by his vampiric power—and quickly accepted her blood to help heal him.

When Irakas used her magic to teleport across the room, Trazzen turned away from Magnus and sought her out—he understood that she was the only one who could command the golem. If she was slain, the golem would stop.

Magnus, Izzeth in his adopted earth elemental form, Arafin, and Wynn—in her own somewhat enthralled way—moved towards the column. Whether the battle would reach its conclusion, or be further scattered, remained to be seen.

#128 - The Battle Against Trazzen

The Journal of Wynn Dennavar 

Zarantyr 25th, 999 YK

As the rest of us readied to return underground, Cypher conversed privately with Elidac. The Brelish warforged couldn’t in good conscience remain with Sharn at risk. Instead, he would take the wizard’s offer of a winged beast—a griffin—to intercept the lightning rail and do anything he could to stall its progress or disrupt the Mire of True Hunger alone. It was beyond risky but provided an unexpected benefit: Cypher’s presence at our destination would significantly improve Elidac’s accuracy with the teleportation spell for the rest of us. We wished him good luck.

I had few preparations to make and waited for the others, Fang ready in one hand, in the other hand a potion Garrek had given me with instructions to drink it as soon as we passed though the arcane gate. Bale cloaked himself in the guise of a gnoll, then hid that illusion beneath his habitual darkness. Magnus and I would enter under its cover, followed by Izzeth. Clarion assisted Aleae mounting behind him on his massive warhorse (the creature wasn’t skittish despite the increasingly crowded floating platform). Once astride, she turned herself invisible with a spell scroll.

The instant the gateway opened we charged through. A shiver passed through me. That hadn’t happened the last time. Our destination sounded wrong—not silent but too quiet for the battle we were expecting. I cursed Bale’s darkness, couldn’t deviate from the plan without knowing what we faced, and couldn’t stop moving or be crushed by the warhorse behind me. I drank Garrek’s potion and sought the edge of the sphere of darkness. Three illusionary replicas of myself appeared, weaving around me and beguiling any who would attack me. So is this what it feels like to be a wizard? In a pitched battle, this would only buy me seconds. But sometimes that mattered.

We hadn’t emerged beside Irakas and the golem as planned. The gateway opened on the far side of the battleground, opposite the Cauldron’s chamber by the stairs. I spotted the tall bronze golem immediately, towering dented and unmoving above a crowd of undead that ringed it at a ten-pace distance. Its glave was caked with blood. I couldn’t see Irakas, but heard an eerie singing. "Dirgesinger," the hobgoblin had named herself. It was the only explanation I had for the inability of the undead to overwhelm their position.

I started to move in, only then noticing an unfamiliar presence between us and the stalled battle. It was a tall figure with the head of a tiger and robed like a caster. Backwards hands. A name dredged itself up from the depths of my memory. Rakshasa. Little knowledge came with that name except that they were some sort of fiend or lesser demon…and that “lesser” was still powerful enough to single-handedly rout our attempt at reinforcement.

Yet the rakshasa ignored both us and the battle behind him. He began to walk away. Bale would later relate his theory that the rakshasa had "repositioned" our arcane gate.

Magnus charged past the tiger-headed fiend and crushed a ghoul not a dozen steps away from the rakshasa. Still the demon ignored him. More cautiously, I gave the creature a wide berth and kept it in the corner of my eye as much as possible.

Izzeth now, apparently!

Finally, I spotted Irakas kneeling beside the golem. In front of him was Trazzen himself, still in his elaborate plate armor, wielding that purple-hued scimitar. And he merely stared at Irakas. Trazzen’s lieutenants around him, surrounding her, some of them fidgeting and eager for her song to falter. Given the hobgoblin's obvious injuries, it wasn’t going to be long, and the golem appeared inert. She held a sword in one hand and the Sceptre of Glyphstone in the other, and I had the impression she was using the latter like a wizard might use a staff to channel his power.

Clarion and Aleae charged outward away from the rakshasa and undead, skirting mounds of gnoll corpses and made for the Cauldron with the red pearl. The few ghouls who noticed them scrabbled ineffectually at the horse.

Between Izzeth’s ice storm and the continual chaos of the darkness, we cleaved a path through the undead. The sphere spewed flaming arrows and eldritch blasts without warning, in between revealing Magnus’s mace or the arm of an earth elemental right before it connected with hapless undead. I have to accept the unexpected abilities of my new companions—such as Izzeth becoming an earth elemental!—without much pause. Unwilling or unable to fight the elemental, the ghouls and shrouded shade surrounded me instead.

Trazzen completed the flank, blocking my path to Irakas, who had ceased singing and struggled against the vampire spawn. With his resting place destroyed, the vampire wouldn’t heal from the injuries we inflicted this time, though he appeared fresh and uninjured. I barely dodged his openhanded blow. The illusionary mirror images from Garrek’s potion were long since gone and the shade’s necrotic touch was already wearing me down. I ignored the lesser undead and struck Trazzen, then used the Fang’s magic to teleport out of the trap.

My escape didn’t go unnoticed. Trazzen pursued me with frightening speed, but rather than attacking, ran past me. He spoke my name again, and again I was unable to resist the magic behind it. I was, once more, his ally.

“Stop the golem,” he said, looking at me over his should only for a moment. He turned and vanished back towards the Cauldron to intercept Clarion and Aleae.

My thoughts warred. I still wanted to defend Irakas, though she directed the golem. I wouldn’t hurt her. Couldn’t. I reached out to take the scepter.

A fierce spitting hiss came from behind me, and suddenly I was paralyzed. Arafin, that traitor! Didn’t she understand that she was going to get us all killed trying to hinder me?

One of the vampire spawn struck Irakas down. The golem was stopped, but at the cost of my ally. I struggled to throw off the spell as Irakas continued to bleed out at my feet.

Out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed a blur of matted fur, then a lone gnoll leapt into the middle of the melee. There were no living gnolls here—the golem had broken their siege against its advance—except Bale, disguised. He stopped Irakas’s bleeding with a touch and snatched up the scepter.

I threw my mind against Arafin’s paralyzing spell before Bale could figure out how to reactivate the golem. I failed to break free, but one of the vampire spawn grabbed him before he could retreat. Under the illusion it looked like it grabbed the gnoll by the scruff and yanked him back over Irakas’ body. I was about to watch my allies slaughter each other, and was unable to do anything to stop it.

And little did I know, around the corner, Clarion and Aleae had been stopped short by a demon.