The Wrathbreakers have been led into a trap beneath the strongold of Ar, which ended in a pitched battle against a human woman who could use deep magic, her cultist followers, and allied deepfolk. The Wrathbreakers prevailed and captured the cultist, who they now prepare to interrogate before they resume their assault on Ar. The roster for today’s session:

  • Bao Tap, human stormcaller
  • Itzel, elven Astrologer
  • Kyansei of the Eilika Tribe, wildling barbarian
  • Ella, spume dwarf scoundrel
  • Xu, human weaponmaster from Ariaka

In the aftermath of the battle they tied the cultist leader and gagged her, while Calim healed their most badly injured party members. Unfortunately, though, they had not searched the area or secured it, and as they were recovering from the battle a new fusillade of arrows flew out of the shadows of the room, injuring Calim grievously and destroying Itzel’s left arm before they could react. Battle was rejoined!

They charged into the shadows to take on the new threat, and found themselves facing a team of Grigg archers and goblin raiders in a large side chamber. As they attacked these foes another team of Grigg archers and goblin raiders flanked them from the far side of the main chamber, attacking Bao Tap and Itzel with arrows as the goblins moved forward. Once the initial surprise attack had been triggered though the goblins and grigg were no match for Xu and Kyansei, who tore through them in short order. Soon 16 more deepfolk lay dead in the chambers of this strange, ancient temple.

The Hidden Temple

Having cleared away the last of the deepfolk, the Wrathbreakers decided to check the entirety of the hidden temple, to be sure there were no other surprises lurking in the dark. They moved from room to room in the dark, checking for lurking goblins and traps, and found no other threats. The temple was very old, with an altar of dark stone under a leering skull statue at its northmost end, and statues of skulls with twisted features on the walls and corners of some of the rooms. In some places runes they could not read had been incorporated into the stones of the floor, and in other rooms raised dais and platforms suggested an ancient ritual purpose to the entire complex that they could no longer hope to guess at.

Behind the main altar to the north they found a small hidden door that led up to the Stronghold of Ar, but they were not yet ready to use it. First they needed to recover, and interrogate the strange deep magic-user they had defeated. They also discovered a deepfolk camp in the rooms on the eastern side of the temple. This camp consisted of a cluster of tents against the walls in two of the rooms, with equipment and supplies stacked neatly and carefully in place and signs of long habitation. These deepfolk had obviously been based beneath the castle for some time, undiscovered and working on whatever filthy alliance they had forged with the cultist.

Unfortunately, they could not interrogate the woman they captured. They learned her name was Anyara, but as soon as they tried to interrogate her in any greater detail she used her remaining magic powers to try to force Kyansei to attack Xu. After her first spell was successful and Kyansei swung her axe at Xu, the Wrathbreakers wasted no more time on the cultist: Xu killed her and, to be sure that no deepfolk might slip behind them and raise the bodies, dismembered the dead and scattered their parts in different rooms. It was gruesome, dirty work, but with their Rimewarden down they had no way to sanctify the dead, and thus no way to prevent them being raised as an army if any deepfolk (or indeed human) enemies remained down here. After this gory work was done they crept into the secret door behind the main altar and headed for the Stronghold itself.

The Changeling’s Deceptions

From the subterranean temple they ascended a narrow set of stairs to a hidden door in an old cellar. Although there were footprints and scuffs in the thick dust on the floor of this cellar there was no evidence that it had been used recently for anything, and the room was full of a jumbled mess of boxes, crates and sacks. They crept through it carefully into a hallway and from there to a junction, with doors opening to their left and right and straight ahead. The doors straight ahead opened into a small guard room, and those on left and right to what they guessed might be prisons. They moved first to the prisons, thinking to save whoever was here. In the right hand hallway they found a single cell, in which a scared, dirty dark-haired woman with a scarred face sat – Emily. But they had just seen Emily escaping from them in the hall below – how could she possibly be here now in prison? And how could this Emily be so much dirtier and thinner than the one who had betrayed them just an hour ago? They guessed that they had been fooled below by a Changeling, and that this might be the real Emily on which the Changeling had based itself. When they spoke to her they discovered that she had been regularly visited by Sara, who they guessed must be in the other branch of tunnels. They freed her and took her with them down the left hand pathway to another cell, where they found Sara. Her reaction was quite different, however – she was shocked at Emily’s appearance, saying she looked too thin and worn, and that she never looked so bad during her weekly visits. Now Emily protested that she did not visit Sara, Sara visited her. This confirmed that there was a Changeling in the hallways, that either of these two could be that Changeling, and that they could not confirm who was who. They considered locking them both away, but if neither was the Changeling then the Changeling might return, kill one and take her form, then be able to escape under their noses. They decided it would be safer to take both women with them, and be wary.

Both women told them the same story: that they had been held in the prison for a long time, but every week the other woman would visit them to talk, apparently with permission from the Warlord of Ar. Emily was always visited by Sara and never left her cell; Sara was always visited by Emily and never left her cell. They talked about personal matters, events back in Sara’s home town in her past, Emily’s scholarship, the secrets under the castle and in the Valley more generally, and life as an apprentice with Siladan. Emily remembered Sara as inquisitive and always asking questions while Emily did not talk much; Sara had the same impression of Emily. Obviously they had been played by a clever Changeling, who had learnt enough about them to copy them, and was continuing to mimic Emily, pretending to act as a traitor to the Argalt when in fact she was setting a trap. It was a cunning ploy, and they guessed after several months of such deception the Changeling might be able to infiltrate Siladan’s compound under the pretense of Sara returning from a failed elopement. They needed to find that Changeling!

They crept back down the hallway to the junction and stormed the guardroom, killing three of the guards and taking the fourth prisoner in seconds. They interrogated him to find the likely location of the Argalt and his men, then locked him in one of the cells from which they had just freed the two women. The time had come to kill the Warlord of Ar.

Dethroning the Warlord

The battle with the Warlord of Ar was over almost as soon as it began. They found him in his “throne room”, a shabby visiting room on the third floor of his castle, easily accessible by spiral stairs from the basement. He was lounging on his throne, a large chair with a fading animal skin of some kind cast over it, and talking about matters of security with two sergeants and a group of about 8 bodyguards. Even though it was late Argalt was clearly paranoid: he was wearing his half plate armour and had a large, vicious looking sword near him as he sat in his heavy chair. A fire burnt in a large hearth suffusing the room with smoke and fumes, and a collection of wines and small treats sat on a large, plain table in the middle of the room.

With no particular strategy to lure him out or find a way to surround him, and with time running out now that they knew there was a Changeling at large in the stronghold, they simply crept up the spiral stairs into the throne room and attacked him. Ella crept in first, taking a position behind a pot plant, and Itzel followed her with the plan of casting a fireball in the room. Unfortunately Itzel’s fireball failed and Ella’s first sniper’s shot missed, so the entire group of enemies was alerted before they could seriously harm Argalt. He charged forward straight into battle, smashing Itzel with his sword and almost knocking her unconscious immediately. She struggled out of the way and was replaced by Xu, who engaged the warlord as Bao Tap slipped by to conjure his nature’s champion in the room. This caused a huge centipede to appear on the table in the middle of the room, and while some of the bodyguards rushed to engage Xu half of them plus one of the sergeants rushed to fight the centipede. Finding herself free of combat, Itzel conjured a barrier of acid on Xu, Kyansei and the centipede, which covered them in a powerful aura that splattered acid over anyone who hit them. After the centipede killed one of them and the sergeant was destroyed by a horrible gout of acid when he struck it, three of the bodyguards turned and fled. Meanwhile the other bodyguards and Argalt himself struck at Xu and found themselves covered in acid, and in seconds the combination of waves of acid plus heavy strikes from Xu and Kyansei destroyed the entire force. Another group of guards entered the room to support their lord but seeing him and all his allies writhing and screaming on the floor as acid consumed them, the room filled with the stench of dissolving flesh, and a giant centipede advancing on the door, they immediately turned and fled. They had control of Ar!

The Warlord was able to tell them little except that he had allowed Anyara the cultist to work in his castle in exchange for her help when he needed it. He knew about her little arrangement with deepfolk, though nothing of the details, and they soon learned why he did not care – his sword was a cursed magical sword of deepfolk origin which had no doubt ruined his mind long ago. He died of his wounds and the creeping acid before he could tell them more, and they only just managed to find the keys on his body before the acid consumed his clothes and ruined his armour. Truly this place was a nest of despicable evil, and the sooner it was handed over to Elizabeth the 4th and they could escape it the better.

With that in mind they sent her the alert that the battle was won and, accompanied by Bao Tap’s centipede, carried Argalt’s severed head to be paraded through the castle grounds. At the entrance to the stronghold they were met by a particularly sensible sergeant, who had gathered 30 of the Warlord’s men and had them throw their weapons down at the Wrathbreakers’ feet when they emerged. Their job was done, and Ar was theirs.

As soon as she arrived they warned Elizabeth about both the cultist and her deepfolk ties, and the possibility of a Changeling. With unerring accuracy for treachery and double-crossing she immediately had her men kill the competent sergeant, whose body began to twist and change before their eyes – the Changeling had been trying to hide in plain sight! With that done she thanked them, held a brief ceremony appointing Argalt’s distant relative Alad as the new Warlord of Ar, and bade them loot what they could from Anyara and Argalt’s rooms before the new order took charge. They needed no urging – Anyara had many secrets, and they needed to uncover all they could about whatever sinister and heretical scheme had been in place here before they could rest for even a moment. They took their leave and headed back into the stronghold, to find the truth of whatever deep treacheries had been festering here.