On the Wonders of Ironpeak: Chapter 13 (and an addendum by the author)

When we woke up today we all knew that this days' events would have long-lasting consequences. I don't know what the attitude of my companions was, but I certainly couldn't portray the optimism they showed towards me.
At noon we reached the valley where the vault was supposed to be located. The very first thing we encountered was a massive stone statue, who was animated by some magic and very interested in my dwarven friend. The statue started speaking and addressed him as "Son of Doznirgit". Neither him nor myself could make any sense of the name, but it seems his lineage left quite the imprint on this realm? Immediately afterwards, the statue went ahead and tested our wits and wisdom with a riddle, which we were able to solve. It then continued to speak and granted us a boon, which it called the Protection of Aelindra.
 
Should you not be familiar with the folklore of the Silverpine heights, let me enlighten you: Aelindra is a mystical Silver dragon which aeons ago watched over my home region. It hasn't been seen for centuries, and I always considered it to be fictional. No matter if the dragon still lives, the effects of its protection were very real. I don't believe we'd have survived what was to come without it.
 
Upon entering the valley, the hunters we encountered previously found the tracks of a mighty beast and we said them fairwell. We were on our own now.
We approached the vault, tried to hide our horses and made for inside the cave in which it is hidden. No clues pointed to Avorath already having reached this place. We opened the vault, entered and immediately locked it again. But once we actually entered the room in which the spire is located, all nine hells broke loose.
 
Avorath was there. He was a horrendous sight to look at, and just by recalling it now it sends shivers down my spine. A half-physical, half-ghostly appearance towered before us. He had breached the whole back wall of the vault, letting us walk into his trap without a clue. Luckily for us, he was injured. A bunch of disabled guardian automata were scattered across the room, dying while trying to fulfill their duty.
 
Zephyras confronted him. We were even offered to join him! As if we'd ever even think about that! A fight ensued, the most ferocious we had so far. An idea of mine didn't... quite go as planned. Before encountering our enemy we found a door blocking a section of the vault which required a sample of the "blood of the ancestors". I put two and two together and told Kniv about it. I was hoping it would lead to some more of the guardians whose bodies we found in the other room. In the end, my planned worked but also wasted a lot of time for little gain. I'll spare my readers the details.
 
When we thought we had finally struck him down, he called upon his god Orcus, the Lord of the Undead and transformed into a far more frightening, demonic creature. In this form, he all but destroyed some of the rooms the fight was taking place, striking the walls, roofs and the bare rock of the mountain over and over again until he dug his way through to our hiding places.
With combined efforts, we still managed to hold on. In a moment where I could feel the forces of fate and Aelindras protection flow through me, I leaped in the air, thrusted my sword into the chest of this demon, and kept holding on until I sliced the chest of this demonic manifestation in two. A demonic voice reached into our minds, announcing that he will return stronger than before.
 
We survived, and Avorath was dead. Or at least this form. After securing the perimeter and investigating the rest of the vault (superficially), we looked into how he entered the vault.
We ventured into the wall breach. At some point we saw that the stone around us drastically changed. We found a full lair further in, what must have been Avoraths home. It was scattered with coffins. In these coffins, Orin found the gruesome confirmation about his fears. His former troupe members layed there, dead and preserved to serve a necromantic demon. However, two were missing.
 
We investigated further, until we came into a room full of white, steamy smoke that was contained by some force field. Curious, Zephyras and Orin stepped inside. For us it looked like the completely disappeared, and from their telling of the events they found themselves in a dimension of full white, surrounded by about 80 people from all walks of live. Orin even found a single member of his ensemble still alive. For them it felt like they were stuck in there in an eternity.
 
Meanwhile, Kniv, Bean and me scrambled to find a way to get our friends back. We found an eye sculpted from stone that was emitting a strong magical aura which was connected to all magical effects in the building. It was also alive in some way, or rather a soul was contained in it. We evaluated our options, but in our desperation we decided to go for the destructive approach. And with that I mean Kniv and a strong slice of his sword.
 
A wave of necrotic energy first struck us and then quickly dissipated, followed by the despair of a soul who was loosing its grip to our sphere. May his spirit burn in the hottest parts of the hells. With this flash, all magical effects disappeared and our friends, together with 80 victims who we could presumably save from the fate of becoming a soldier in an undead army of zombies. I also felt like I could sense a slight trembling at the same time, and unfortunately we soon found out why.
 
We decided to lead the survivors outside, Bean portraying confidence and direction. However, the change of stone was no longer present, and when we emerged on the surface, we realized we were miles and miles away from where we started! In fact, in the far distance we could spot Attensham, Orins hometown. It was a turn of events nobody of us expected, and nobody of us is prepared for it either.
 
Furthermore, we will have to continue without Zephyras. He was approached by one of the survivors who told him he had some fast magic passage towards some faraway place where he can continue his quest for knowledge and understanding of the necrotic domain.
The farewells were short, but heartfelt. While he is quite eccentric and perhaps a bit naive in regards to the dangers he puts himself into, I really grew to like Zeph. I will miss him dearly and hope I will get to encounter him again someday. Perhaps he will be waiting for us in Ferrumhold, at least I can hope for it.
 
 
**Addendum**:
Let me interject here and give a retrospective of events up to this point.
 
This is how the overlap between our journey and that of Zephyras ends. It was but a week, but it felt like so much longer. I considered him a dear companion and friend by now. His character, never-ending optimism and general friendliness are not things you would expect from someone dealing with death and decay regularly. I hope he finds what he is looking for and can satisfy his desires without hurting others (or himself, for that matter). I also wonder what other people we might are yet to encounter on our journey, which feels more it its infancy than ever before.
 
I also wish I could get word to my parents that I'm alright. They are completely clueless about what their daughter is up to (and that getting nearly killed by undead monsters has kind of become a pastime of mine...) While I still don't regret my decision to leave home for this journey, I have come to regret the way that I did it. I hope they can forgive me some day for my lack of courage to tell them of my plans face to face.
 
So here we are now, in the middle of nowhere without supplies, 80 hungry survivors on our hand and clueless about how to proceed. We have unfinished business and loose ends in Diobri, and we are not prepared for the cold night that is ahead of us. Getting back to Diobri would take weeks, we're told... I hope we can come up with something quickly.