15 - 11/14/25 : Mortui Vivos Docent

 

"If my memory doesn't fail me, the current crusade is called the Fifth. The Fifth Crusade - and with all the support of the church of Muir and multiple other allies provided to Galfrey, no progress has been made in resolving the crisis at the Worldwound. The best they could manage was to create a chain of Wardstones, and even they turned out to be inadequate. I suppose that should be reason enough for my 'skepticism'."  

Paralictor Regill Derenge

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  The battle against Nulkineth commenced as more gargoyles broke from their stone disguises and descended upon the battlefield. Nulkineth deployed powerful death magic against the party and swarmed them with summoned ghouls.   After the cambion flawlessly survived a fireball that had annihilated several ghouls, Hilda realized in horror that Nulkineth's mythic power rendered him completely immune to her arsenal of evocation spells. With her main tool rendered moot, she ducked out into a nearby room to take cover. She discovered that the room was completely silent, as if under the effects of a permanent silence spell.   As Hilda hid and began to plan her next move while her companions continued the fight, she was surprised to see another figure appear in the room after dispelling their own invisibility spell; Sylvia, who had somehow escaped from her gargoyle captives and hid away in this strange room. However, given the nature of the area, they could not verbally communicate to each other at that moment.   Nulkineth put up a fierce battle and (quite literally) threw his weight around, picking up Sosiel and throwing him several yards away with a single arm, and also badly wounding an already injured Regill. However, in his hubris he attempted to drop down from the sky onto Elseth, who responded by couching her lance and mortally wounding him. It was a simple matter then for Satomi to follow up with an attack of her own, finishing the cambion off as he cursed Minagho's name for lying to him about the potency of the mythic power he had received.   With everything quieted down, Hilda peeked out of the silenced room with Sylvia in tow. The party was glad to have found one of their primary targets, but Irabeth remained missing. After taking a bloodstained aspergillium from Nulkineth's rapidly disintegrating corpse and giving it to Regill, the party launched their investigation to find their comrade while Sylvia, Regill and Sosiel stood guard against any potential remaining enemies.   The party started with the curious silenced room that Hilda had found. As Alanis entered the room, she was surprised to see the Wand of Zacharius glowing brightly when brought into proximity with the eastern wall. She decided to raise the mace and tap it against the wall, causing the bricks to silently unravel and reveal a staircase leading down.   The party proceeded downwards, finding the permanent silence spell to end at the threshold of the staircase. The further they went, the brighter the wand glowed, and the closer did a greenish light in the distance draw to them.   At last they stepped through a large doorway, finding themselves in an old and ruined library alight with green-flamed torches and candles. In its center sat a large glass orb, within which raged a storm of green fire. Satomi elected to place the Nahyndrian Chisel away from the library on the last step in case there were any spell scrolls inside, and Alanis decided to approach the glowing orb.   As Alanis stepped forward, the orb began to react, the fire within it spiraling violently as if responding to her presence. From out of the orb stepped the form of a hooded skeleton who grasped Alanis by the throat, raising her up and inspecting her before a spark of recognition lit up its empty eye sockets. The skeleton placed Alanis down and correctly surmised that she was the one who had found the wand at the Tower of Estrod, and then confirmed what the party suspected; that he was in fact the lost hero of the First Crusade, Zacharius the Martyr, reborn in undead form.   Zacharius explained his situation and his imprisonment within the library. When he was still alive at the time of the First Crusade, nearly a full century ago, he had come to the conclusion that the mortal forces of the crusades and their heavenly allies from the upper planes were not going to be enough to fight back the demons and close the Worldwound, and that they would have to resort to measures that would be looked down upon by the holy and the righteous; that of necromancy on a massive scale, to raise an undead army large enough to wage total war against the bloodthirsty monsters of the Abyss.   To this end, Zacharius vanished from the crusades and became a recluse, researching lichification rituals to bestow lichdom upon himself. In his mortal state, however, his conscience and remaining attachment to the righteous cause of the crusades forced him to take restrictive precautions against himself, so that he would not be able to act against the crusades should he succumb to evil after reaching lichdom.   Zacharius eventually achieved his aim, but the many seals, magic oaths, and binding enchantments he placed upon himself severely limited his ability to act. He arranged for his wand, bearing his phylactery as the figurehead, to be brought to Kenabres, where it would await one worthy enough to harness the fruits of Zacharius' labor.   After decades of being restricted to his self-imposed confinement, Zacharius' conscience had faded, and he lamented his younger self's insistence on adhering to things like morals and consideration for matters of faith and safety. However, Alanis' arrival and her mastery of his old wand meant that the time had finally come for his work to be unleashed. Zacharius made a formal offer to Alanis to become his apprentice in the ways of ascendant necromancy, and to be subjected to a lichification ritual of his own design - a proposal to which Alanis eagerly and excitingly agreed.   The lich asked for his wand back, and Alanis acquiesced. Zacharius took the wand in his hand and plucked the glowing crystal at its end, which was in truth his phylactery. He then handed Alanis the rest of the wand back, stating that she had fulfilled the condition of one of his many seals; one that forbade him from leaving his library underneath the Lost Chapel until someone returned his phylactery to him.   Although still bound by many oaths and safeguards that prevented him from participating directly in the crusades (out of a fear of bringing harm to the crusaders themselves; a fear that the present Zacharius bemoaned as pointless), Zacharius promised that he would aid Alanis in her studies once she proved herself. To this end, he bestowed upon her his ultimate creation; a jade skull, a magic item that contained the power of thousands of necromancy spells packed all into the shape of a human-sized skull. Alanis intuitively understood the power of the item, but chose to remain silent on the matter to her companions for the time being.   Zacharius bade Alanis to use the jade skull at the siege of Drezen. Although this would render the skull inert afterwards, it would still be enough to truly turn the tide against the fortresses' demonic defenders. Once this was done and Drezen was captured, Zacharius would return to Alanis' side to begin her instruction in earnest.   Turning to Hilda, a mostly disinterested Zacharius offered the clearly magically inclined elf the opportunity to become a lich as well. Her refusal was expected, but out of curiosity, Zacharius raised a finger to Hilda, only to be blocked by a magic ward bearing the Elder Rune of Halaster. Zacharius, like most renowned spellcasters, immediately recognized the distinct presence of the mad mage, and truly lost all interest in Hilda afterwards. After laying out his plan and promise to Alanis one last time, Zacharius stepped back into the glass orb and disappeared into the flames within.   Alanis expressed her glee at meeting a true lich, and her excitement for what was to come. Although Elseth expressed some doubts against utilizing necromancy magic to such a degree, Alanis remained convinced that this was exactly what the crusaders needed to take back Drezen. She stowed away the jade skull and accompanied the rest of the party back up the staircase, her mind racing with thoughts of the power now at her fingertips.   Once back upstairs, the party saw that their companions had recovered a few crusaders, including Yaker Ankelle; the Hellknight who had made contact with the Fifth Crusade in the first place and was subsequently kidnapped during the mission to rescue Regill's squad from the gargoyles.   Joining their companions, the party searched the remaining parts of the chapel, finally finding Irabeth in a grim state; the paladin had been chained to a wall, flanked by a dead crusader and another that was actively succumbing to ghoul fever. Although Irabeth was immune to disease thanks to her paladin oaths, she was not immune to the horror of watching the crusader next to her become a bloodthirsty monster, despite her pleas for the soldier to keep her mind and composure. The party quickly freed the shaken Irabeth and ushered her to Anevia, who stumbled upon the room shortly after they did.   With as many people rescued as they could find and with the battle at the foot of the Chapel's outcropping coming to an end, the Knight-Commanders returned to the crusader camp to rest and begin planning the siege of Drezen.   Satomi spoke to Alanis alone before the planning began, indulging her curiosity by asking her companion what led her to pursue necromancy in the first place. Alanis expressed an academic curiosity about the matter of undeath, especially given how taboo of a subject it was. She reasoned that curiosity would serve her long 'unlife' very well, and would hopefully keep the warlock from losing sight of herself as she participated in Zacharius' rituals.   Alanis also informed Satomi about the jade skull's capabilities at this point, revealing that it could be used to summon a veritable army of undead soldiers once before losing its potency. She reasonably expected the crusaders to not be entirely thrilled about this proposition; while Satomi agreed, she stated her personal belief that it was better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.   The camp made its final stop within sight of Drezen, and the crusade mustered a council to deliberate the coming battle and their approach to taking the fortress of Drezen. Present at the meeting were:  

• The four Knight-Commanders
• Paralictor Regill Derenge, representing the Order of the Godclaw Hellknights
• Ser Ashus Striegher, representing the Order of the Sunlight Sword
• Wenduag, representing the mongrelman irregulars of Neathholm
• Staunton Vhane, representing the forces of the Condemned
• Irabeth & Anevia Tirabade, as well as Erodel Zanec, representing the scouts of the Eagle Watch

  Erodel took the honor of laying out the basic layout of the battle. There would be three fronts that the crusaders would have to tend to in order to successfully gain a foothold in Drezen:  

• The vanguard of the crusade would need to assault and break through Drezen's front gate to secure the inner courtyard.
• A saboteur force would need to exploit the damaged, vulnerable western wall to surprise and flank the demonic forces.
• The siege engines pelting the walls of Drezen would need to be defended out on the open fields, where they were vulnerable.

  As the deliberations proceeded, Regill had a few terse arguments with both Erodel and Ser Striegher; however, the meeting was truly upended when Irabeth, who had been quiet and distant for most of it, expressed that she believed that the siege was pointless, and that the crusaders would all meet their deaths in Drezen.   Irabeth shouted and yelled in despair at the gathered council, expressing her broken and traumatized spirit that had been battered by her experience in the Lost Chapel. The Knight-Commanders were forced to relieve Irabeth of active duty, and Anevia quietly ushered her wife out. Erodel and Regill both noted that such dissent was tantamount to treason, but it would need to be tended to later.   Alanis attempted to bring up the topic of her impending undead army gently; despite the room holding several peoples of faith who would likely object to the presence of undead at the battle, she was able to spin it as her "calling upon the spirits of the fallen crusaders". This was incredibly dubious to some of those gathered, particularly Elseth and Ser Striegher; Regill, however, deduced what Alanis meant, and was rather pleased by such a pragmatic approach to the battle. Ultimately, the mystery surrounding the party's mythic powers was enough to subdue any deep examination of Alanis' intent, and the 'spirits' were considered as an additional force to be deployed in the siege.   Staunton, whose clan had built Drezen after the First Crusade, pointed out that there was a secret entrance that the party would be able to access to enter the dungeon of Drezen straight away, bringing them closer to where the Sword of Valor was likely hidden. Erodel brought up the possibility that the crusader forces might not like their commanders being absent from leading the charge, a point of view which Regill bluntly and contemptuously shot down as a non-concern. The commanders stopped the ensuing argument, and agreed that the objective of finding the Sword was paramount, and thus they would take the entrance while the siege was carried out.   Staunton also requested that the party assign him to the defense of the siege engines, so that he would not have to enter Drezen and possibly encounter his brother. Given his past, he feared what he might do or what allegiances he might forsake to save Joran from the fate he had brought down upon himself. The commanders agreed to this proposition, opting for someone else to directly lead the Condemned during the siege.   After examining their forces, leaders, and the fronts to be taken, the council settled on the final plan for the impending battle:  

• The Condemned and Alanis' 'spirits' would assault the front gate, led by Seelah and Ulbrig.
• The Neathers and the Eagle Watch would sabotage the western wall, led by Wenduag and Erodel.
• The Hellknights and the Order of the Sunlight Sword would defend the siege engines, led by Haliel and Staunton, with Sylvia present as support.
• The Knight-Commanders would enter the fortress through the secret entrance alongside Regill and Sosiel.

  With their battle plan finalized, the party all took their final rest before the first true trial of the Fifth Crusade; the Siege of Drezen!