Mel follows Lucien's suit and then heads for the guard by the lamp quietly.
Lucien stabs the soldier, but Melenae misses with her strike. He cries out in alarm, alerting the other defenders to your presence!
The wounded guard draws his sword and attacks Lucien. The other guard by the nearby light fires a crossbow bolt at Melanae, narrowly missing her.
Preoccupied by trying to dodge, Lucien fails to make any offensive ground.
Melenae swears loudly as she misses and he alerts the others and tries again.
While Lucien misses, Melenae lands a blow, and the guard falls!
The other guard reloads his crossbow and fires again. From the upper floor of the tower, you hear an alarm bell ringing!
"Lucien. They know we're here. What do we do?! We never planned for this." Mel shouts out, dropping her rapier and pulling out her gun before firing at the guard with the crossbow.
"Hell, they know we're here, so why not!"
"Head for the gate!" Lucien replies, suiting actions to words!
The soldier grunts as Melanae clips him with a bullet. As Lucien rushes toward him, he draws his sword and moves to intercept, landing a telling blow!
Melenae fires her pistol at the man as she runs towards the gates with Lucien.
Lucien ducks past the man and continues towards the gate!
Melanae takes the man down with another gunshot, clearing the way for Lucien to rush into the lighthouse.
The bottom floor of the lighthouse contains the sea gate mechanism and a small hearth for warmth. However, a third soldier stands here ready to guard the mechanism. He swings his sword at Lucien!
Lucien falls to the floor, bleeding.
Swearing again, Melenae shoots at the third soldier and stands over Lucien, protecting him.
Mel lands a good hit. Grimacing in pain, the soldier nonetheless staggers forward and swings at the eladrin, but she dodges away.
Melenae takes a step back, reloads her pistol and shoots.
*Drip, drip, gurgle.*
The soldier doubles over with a groan before falling to the floor! Melenae searches him quickly, finding a healing potion to administer to Lucien.
"Lucien. Quick. Get up. We have to get out of here." Mel says, desperately trying to get him up, supporting him as he staggers to his feet.
"Can we continue? We might have blown it. I think going in all guns blazing isn't the best plan....just this once."
A tap of the wand and Lucien is as good as new!
"Perhaps no mon cherie," He says, managing a grin. "We must barr ze door and 'old out for reinforcements!"
You quickly barricade the doors to the lighthouse before operating the mechanism to open the sea gate. As the gate grinds open, several of the fortress's defenders move to try to get to the controls. What follows is a tense, minutes-long standoff in which you hold off the soldiers through a combination of barricades, fast talking, and some good old-fashioned suppressive fire. Finally, just when it seems as if the soldiers are about to break into the lighthouse, you allies arrive!
Risuri warships sail into the harbor, firing cannons, arrows, and spells at the duchess’s forces who dare to break from cover. The duchess’s forces fall back to the walls of the Outer Fort while ships line up out the mouth of the harbor. Crews lash gangplanks from prow to stern so a thousand soldiers can march to the mainland.
Within a few minutes, soldiers loyal to King Aodhan reach the lighthouse to reinforce it, and military doctors and druidic healers start to tend to your wounds.
The fort is designed to be defended by people with muskets and cannons, weapons the duchess’s forces aren’t well-trained with, so the outer wall will be overcome within an hour. The inner wall is a tougher nut to crack, however, and so the plan is basically to surround it and assault different sides in turn, then fall back, forcing the defenders to rush from battle to battle. This should eventually cause them to leave an opening that can be exploited, while minimizing casualties to loyalist forces.
You have a chance to rest and catch your breath. After about half an hour Captain Rutger Smith of the Impossible arrives at the lighthouse to speak with you and get a report. He offers you all cigars, but tells you not to smoke them until the mission is fully complete.
He explains that with the tragic death of the infiltrators, you are technically the highest authority for non-military matters, so it’s you responsibility to deal with the duchess once the soldiers reach her. Captain Smith suspects she’ll hole up in the central keep, but the military should be able to surround her within a few hours.
"You look like you can use some extra help. I'm assigning my skyseer to assist you with the rest of the mission," Smith says.
A pretty deva woman steps forward at Captain Smith's call. Her long hair is silver like the moonlight, and her eyes that sparkle like the star, exuding an aura of otherworldliness. Her pale skin has a few geometric swirls on it along her arms and cheeks. Beside her perches an owl whose dark feathers bear patterns that accurately depict the stars in the sky above.
"I am Thalia Velerin," the deva says with a graceful bow. "I will do my best to guide you to victory."
"Merci, mon Capitane." Lucien replies. "Eet has been a long night. Any extra support you can offer is most gratefully receeved."
Thalia receives a deep bow and a kiss on the back of the hand.
"Enchante, mademoiselle." Lucien says, flashing a winning smile. "With your guidance I am sure our triumph will be sweeft."
Thalia's pale cheeks blush slightly at the kiss and the praise.
You have just finished making introductions when a commotion outside draws your attention! Gunshots and screams of panic sound from one of the Risuri ships in harbor, hundreds of feet away from the lighthouse. A few flashes of fire light up the night, and then a massive ball of flame engulfs the ship. Smoke billows upward as the rigging catches ablaze, and you can faintly make out a humanoid figure striding across the burning deck. He points a flaming sword and sweeps it in an arc toward the sea wall. All of the gas lamps shatter and go dark.
With his darkvision, Lucien can see the figure leap thirty feet from the ship to the sea wall. As he does so, his cloak transforms into a cloud of smoke, obscuring the figure from sight!
"Nice to meet you Thalia." Mel says, flashing a knowing grin at the woman.
He sure is smooth that one.
Cursing, yet again, Melenae responds quickly to the sound. "Lucien, can you see anything? What's around us?"
"Zere is a man, with a sword of fire. He turned 'imself into smoke to cross the distance." Lucien says, amazement in his voice. "Zis is not good."
"Did you see the sword?" Thalia says to Lucien. "It switched shapes between a short blade and some sort of long flaming flail or whip. And look--there is some fresh blood here on the sea wall. He was injured."
She turns to Melenae. "That magic he used was fey in origin. Based on the patterns of scorch marks and the way tongues of the still-active fire takes the shape of hands, I would wager he is not only an eladrin, but a Vekeshi Mystic."
Melenae recalls stories of an eladrin warrior who wielded a flaming sword and flying shield. He fought in a battle during the First Yerasol War, two hundred years ago. His name was Asrabey, and he fought to rescue an eladrin woman who was captured by a Danoran general. He aided the Risuri forces indirectly, but was not technically an ally.
"Then this must be Asrabey. I would wager he is here on behalf of the Unseen Court," Thalia muses. "To what purpose, though, I cannot say."
Shouts come from down below, and you look down to see Asrabey heading at break-neck speed for where the Risuri loyalists are setting up their siege engines. He rushes to the top of one of those engines as it nears the fort’s outer wall, cutting down anyone who gets in his way. Then he leaps with magical force over the wall and cuts through swaths of the duchess’s warriors who make the mistake of attacking him on the far side.
He disappears among the chaos of the battle. Unfortunately, it is simply not feasible to pursue him at this time!
"Eef he is here with the Duchess, we must find 'er quickly." Lucien says urgently. "Maybe then we can end zis battle quickly!"
Despite the sense of urgency you feel, there isn't much choice but to wait until the fighting subsides.
About an hour later, a courier finds you and reports that they’ve found a makeshift brig housing dozens of Danoran prisoners the duchess had captured. Twelve of them are tieflings, and so they thought you might want to check to see if Nathan Jierre is among them. The courier can guide you to the brig, a stable that was hastily converted with iron bars to make cells out of animal pens. Along the way you spot a lot of wounded, a few dead on your side, and slightly more dead on the duchess’s side. The soldiers are busy disassembling their siege engines, hoisting them over the outer wall, and reassembling them on the far side, all by torch or lantern light, and while ducking the occasional magical missile or arrow fired from the inner wall.
The brig itself sits about 200 ft. from the inner wall, but at a location with minimal fighting. Inside, a single wounded soldier and a handful of enlisted sailors are trying to take a survey of the prisoners, but between the cacophony of livestock and the angered shouts of nearly a hundred Danorans, they’re making slow progress.
An infantryman salutes you with a bandaged hand. "Private Sander Wodeham. They put me in charge here. I was told to convince the Danorans to provide information that might make breaching the inner wall easier. Plus, my superiors want a recommendation whether it’s safe to release the Danorans and just keep them under watch, so the actual cells could be used to house prisoners from the duchess’s forces. I haven't had much luck. I'll gladly let you have a crack at it!"
"Merci, Monsieur." Lucien responds. "I will speak to them."
"Monsieurs, monsieurs. Silence s'il vous plaît!" He goes off into a long speech in danoran, which seems to gradually quieten even the rowdiest elements amongst the sailors. At the end he cries "Vive le Republic!" and the entire brig roars the same back at him.
"There monsieur, you should 'ave more success now." Lucien says to Private Wodeham.
The soldiers quiet at Lucien’s urging. An officer steps forward, a wretched wound having taken his eye. ”Lieutenant Hessar Marseine. I served in the Fourth Yerasol War, Comte. Your actions have become legendary. I understand the basics of who is attacking who here and why. I am willing to have my people provide help, on the condition that any Danoran who’s willing be given weapons and allowed to join the fight against the duchess’s forces. But I insist on a show of good faith before my people will talk. A pistol, a musket, and a sword.”
"Merci, Monsieur Lieutenant." Lucien replies, before turning over his own weapons without hesitation. "I 'ave no musket I am afraid, but I would rather have my countrymen beside me than any weapon!" He waits for the approving noises to die down. "I will speak to ze commanding officers at once. Now, have you seen Monsieur Nathan Jierre? 'is sister is worried about him."
Once his queries are resolved he keeps his word and conveys the danorans offer to the officer in charge, adding his strong recommendation to the proposal.
Having been treated fairly and with respect, the soldiers tell you what they know. They report that the duchess’s initial assault used the teleportation circle located inside the walls of the fort. No one out of the group here knows much about how magic works, but they were led to understand that the key to activate the portal was secret. They suspect someone on the inside betrayed them.
Additionally, Lieutenant Marseine has a key to the roof door of the central keep, hidden under a pile of hay in his cell. An architect prisoner knows the route of the sewer system under the keep, and can provide a map to let you sneak into the basement of the central keep, avoiding the hedge maze labyrinth that the duchess’s fey allies raised around the keep. The map starts in any of several buildings in the Outer Fort, and the only obstacle in the way to the central keep is some stinking offal and a couple of iron grates. Removing them triggers alarms, but the duchess’s forces won’t know enough about the fort to respond to the breach.
Marseine tells you that Nathan Jierre and several other astronomers were inside the keepe when the duchess seized it. He can only assume that the tiefling is still inside.
Lucien accepts all the information offered with sincere thanks and then takes his partner(s) to inform the CO. On the way he fills them both in on his new information.
"Zis passage will make things much easier non?" He says, "Avoiding ze fey, I think is very good."
Melenae nods. "Everything I've heard about them, I agree. This Asrabey worries me." She says, ready to follow Lucien further.
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As if summoned by Melanae’s words, a flash of red-orange light illuminates the street from above, and as it streaks by you hear footsteps sprint across the roof of the brig. You hear shouts of dismay outside, a gunshot, and then more shouting. A soldier runs in from the street and yells, “The fire monster’s coming!”
Outside you see an entity leap from the roof and into the street, sprinting for the inner wall. The figure resembles a cloud of smoke with a faint humanoid outline inside illuminated by an orange glow.
A couple of defenders on the wall start firing arrows, and you hear an audible curse of pain from the smoky entity. He ducks behind a bit of debris down the street, 80 ft. away from the wall, 120 ft. from the brig. He pulls out an orb that glows with white light, which pierces even his smoke shroud.
The whole street begins to shake, and the brig with it. Iron nails and iron prison bars shudder in their mountings, and a few rip violently free. In the street outside, cobblestones shatter upward and iron spikes burst out of the ground and float inches off the ground. Some of the Danorans in the brig cry out in shock as the space they’re occupying becomes a tangle of jungle. Up on the wall, the duchess’s defenders scream as the wall beneath them turns to mist and they plummet down into a lightly-wooded field.
In an area roughly two-hundred feet across, the landscape that was the fortress is comingled with a day-lit jungle landscape. Only in places with enough iron does the original landscape remain, while in a few pockets, typically along the edges, other landscapes flicker in and out—a fiery rockslide, a swamp with yellow frogs, a beige bank of clouds. You notice the edges are shrinking inward slowly, and you can guess the wildly powerful magic will only last a minute or two.
On the other side of the comingled terrain, you can make out the keep where you suspect the duchess is, and a huge tangle of brush around it. The smoky entity discards his orb and runs forward though the temporary gap in the inner wall. He casually lashes out a whip of flame to kill a defender who tries to get in his path, and then sprints onward toward the keep.
The light in the orb is slowly fading; the effect will end in a minute or two. You can either hurry after him with minimal backup, or wait and take the more cautious route through the sewers.
"Mon dieu!" Lucien exclaims, watching the creature at work. "We must not follow 'im! We cannot match 'im!" He glances at the ladies for agreement. "To the sewers, vite vite!"
Without a second thought for her own safety, Melenae dashes forwards towards the keep. "We don't have time Lucien! We must follow him directly!"
Trying to stop Melenae will take more time than he has so Lucien lets out a long suffering sigh and chases her.
Thalia hikes up her skirts as she races behind you. You pass through the strange, humid air of the overlaid world, which is lit from a sun you cannot see. Moments after you clear the gap the orb’s magic ends, and the fortress wall snaps back into existence. In the sudden darkness, a handful of the duchess’s soldiers on distant walls fire errant bowshots.
You make a beeline for the hedge maze only a few dozen feet away. The tops of the hedges are already on fire from Asrabey’s passage.
A fey creature with skin like bark and a shaggy beard made of leaves is beating his club at a burning hedge at the edge of his labyrinth. The fire goes out and the bit of hedge withers to ash, opening up a path into the maze. When he spots you, he shouts, “Your flaming friend may have gotten by me, but I shall not let you pass! None shall harm Lady Ethelyn!”
"We are not here to harm the Lady, we are here to question her!" Melenae replies, hoping to avoid a fight where she can, fingers twitching near her pistol.
"He is not am-, friend of ours!" Lucien adds, trying hard to repress his danoran accent to make the 'concerned countrymen' act more convincing.
”Yeah? That guy didn’t look like he just wanted to ask questions. You plan on stopping him?” the fey asks.
"That man is not with us." Melenae confirms. "If he gets in our way or harms anyone unnecessarily, we may be forced to stop him." She adds.
"Yes." Lucien says, opting for simplicity.
”Fine. Off with you, then! I’ve got more fires to put out!” The fey turns away in a huff.
When you reach the front door of the tower, you find it ajar and burning, having been blasted open from within. The bodies of dozens of soldiers lie about slashed and charred. You ascend the stairs to the top floor, where double doors are closed. You can hear voices raised in argument beyond the doors. You can listen in, or you can charge into the room!
Melenae, having learned this lesson a few times in the pas, listens in for a few moments, holding her finger to her lips at Lucien and Thalia.
Mel cracks the door open a bit to peek inside. The room beyond is an observatory. Within, she sees Asrsbey, the duchess, and a tiefling who must be Nathan Jierre arguing in the observatory chamber. A few of the duchess’s advisors lie nearby, killed only moments earlier, as well as a dozen soldiers who had been protecting the roof. The duchess sits on the ground, holding a hand over her stomach, which is blackened and bloody. The bodies of slain summoned wolves are slowly fading away. Nathan Jierre cowers on the far side of the chamber, trying to hide behind an orrery.
Asrabey circles the duchess, limping slightly. He’s covered in small cuts and bruises, and is managing to stay standing despite a handful of arrow and bullet wounds across his legs and arms. His wooden, lion- faced shield bears fresh blood on its fangs, and his flaming sword flares whenever he wants to emphasize a word or sentence. The smoke shroud does not hang around him.
“Asrabey, don’t do anything you’ll regret,” Ethelyn says.
Asrabey scoffs. “Save your pleading breath for prayer.”
“If you have come for the reason I suspect, you should pray with me as well. You are a murderer, Asrabey. Did I so displease the Court that you needed to slaughter a hundred to reach me?”
“To forestall war, yes! Your people must not think we ally with a kingslayer. And worse,” Asrabey sneers at the tiefling, “one who consorts with devils.”
Nathan clears his throat. “Um, perhaps reason is bit much to expect at this time, but can we talk about this?”
Asrabey flicks his sword, which extends out to a flaming whip and cracks the tiefling across his face, then snaps back to a longsword. “You are lucky your cursed flesh will not burn. But I have other ways to make you suffer.” To the duchess he says, “Prepare yourself, and you may die with dignity.”
Ethelyn holds up a hand. “Wait! My brother won’t execute his own blood, and so long as I live I can still oppose him. There are more important matters than-”
Asrabey interrupts. “You struck the first blow. Aodhan was a soldier, as I am, and forgiveness does not come easily to our kind. He’ll never listen to you, not in the short years he has left. Already you are vilified. You promised your land would pull away from these fiends, would return to the old ways, yet you have fallen in with them yourself.”
“You don’t understand. Nathan is on our side. There’s a threat to Risur and the Unseen. I told the Court as much-”
“Enough. Ethelyn, please do not make me watch you beg.”
Ethelyn glares. “Asrabey Varal, your closed mind has doomed us all.” She sits up straight despite her stomach wound. “Very well. Finish it.”
Nathan perks up. “Wait a minute, Varal? Are you kin to a Kasvarina Varal?”
The eladrin stops before he has managed to raise his sword for a killing blow. He turns away from the duchess, grabs the tiefling by his vest, and leans close. “How do you know Kasvarina?”
“Um, what? She— she was here, months ago! She was on the arm of a Crisillyiri man. In the company of my cousin. They took a tour of the mines. They left a few days later. I...I think she was the one who crafted the portal ring.”
Ethelyn chimes in. “Asrabey, I’m trying to tell you, he’s an ally. He’s seen things, and we’re trying to find out what it all means. I think Danor means to destroy both our nations. My brother wouldn’t listen, even the Court ignored me, but you have to believe me.”
Asrabey considers this for a long moment. Then he starts heading toward the double doors...
Melenae considers the task at hand. They have to bring the Duchess and this tiefling in alive with the information they clearly know, and getting in the way of Asrabey is sure to be a death sentence.
Lucien can't make out anything of what is going on through the doorway and waits, poised on his toes, for whatever Melenae decides to do.