Chronicle - The Siege of Castle Lastar
The Siege of Lastar
Preface
Unknown to myself at the time, the original party had split. Two had remained in the South to gather friendly forces in an attempt to lift the siege at Lastar’s Castle. Two had pressed on to make contact with the allies within.
Siege
The Castle Lastar had been under siege for several months and supplies were running out. The initial forces arrayed against us had been those of Yeenoghu, but recently they were reinforced and replaced by stronger forces with a flaming flail standard. The pass to the North has always been a source of evil, and the castle has been besieged before, but these forces are stronger and better organised than ever before in this age.
In a desperate attempt to break out and create a line of supply, the Castellan (Baren Dulan) led a force of 400 mounted men, including myself, Brother Dafydd, in a sortie against the enemy. The Castle was left in the hands of the Governess (Gwendolyn) with the remaining forces (about the same number).
Despite hard fighting the sortie was cut off and encircled, and the Castellan and I were considering an attempt to return to the castle, knowing that the enemy was too strong to effect a resupply and unwilling to abandon our home.
However, a disturbance in the enemy ranks to the South-West presented a weakness that had to be exploited, and I used a scroll to call upon Odin to strike the foe with a flaming storm, opening up a breach in the enemy line. The Castellan led the men into the breach, and I again called upon Odin to create a Fire Elemental to join our cause and contain the enemy. It then became apparent that we had been assisted by two fearless individuals who had challenged the enemy without any supporting troops, calling upon dweomer and martial skills that we had not seen the like of before.
The Castellan invited them to join us and, having mounted horses, we all rode hard for the Castle’s safety. The enemy had started to regroup with a leader rallying them to his side - Guerin. He called out to the newcomers and demanded to know where “Silmar’s Fool” was, but we gave them a wide berth and came safely to our gates. A raven was seen on the field - Odin was with us!
The two oriental gentlemen who had assisted us were Lanzi (a mage of much dweomer) and Hintzu (a monk with exceptional fighting abilities).
A New Goal
The Castellan, Lanzi, Hintzu and I were called to meet with the Governess to plan our new strategy. Much information was passed between us, and I will endeavour to summarise it here.
Although the site of the castle was chosen by Lastar, who lived in the tower within the walls, the first Castellan was the Paladin Bavarik (a warrior of the 1st Age) and the current Castellan is descended from him. The stronghold was constructed by the Dwarves of Orodruin, and there is still a dwarven encampment within the walls. Lastar’s tower is now empty, there is no King and the Governess does not feel worthy to take Lastar’s tower for her own. The Governess does have much dweomer, though, and has a familiar that is an air spirit (Shaslass).
Lastar’s Castle defends the gap between the forests of Elves. Evil forces use the gap to access the South lands, pouring down from the mountains. The castle is the last bastion of an ancient empire. According to prophecy, if Lastar’s Castle falls then the lands of good will also fall. The castle can only last another three moons without resupply - the siege must be broken!
There are three females that are key to the troubles of this age: Millai (Sea Elf), Sorien (Wood Elf) and Yishmay (Oriental Princess – Daughter of Yagmato).
Three swords need to be found. One is Fastlaw, the Sword of Good, which is held by the lost souls to the North (Dwarven). Another is the Sword of Balance, or Sword of Agan, held by Millai (Elven). The third is unknown, but could be related to evil/humans?
The Governess spoke of what she had seen in her Palantir, speaking of an ally in the North somehow related to Fandor and a dwarven kingdom. This ally is a ‘light’ that opposes evil and could help us at Lastar’s Castle. Lanzi used the Palantir to speak with his Elf friend Merc in the South; they arranged to gather forces friendly to our cause and meet on the field before Castle Lastar in three moons to attempt to lift the siege.
The Governess spoke in particular with Hintzu who, it seems, is a distant ancestor of Iki-Moto, the saviour of the 3rd Age. It was his valour and an understanding of the elements that saved Castle Lastar then and it may be Hintzu’s destiny to do so in this Age. The Governess showed him her ring, a gold band with a large blue gem set in it. There are four rings in total, each with a gem of a different colour, each representing one of the elements. The Governess beseeched Hintzu to gather the other three rings, giving her word that she would surrender her ring if he was successful.
The Governess also ordered me to accompany the foreigners, although I was reluctant to leave the defence of my home; I was not given a choice.
We were given a 2nd Age text that might provide some useful information.
The Governess used the Palantir to open a portal and send us through in search of the ally to the North.
Dwarven Halls We appeared in a room that was ornately decorated. On the ceiling was a relief of Ragnarak. The four walls were also decorated, with the following: Bifrost Bridge with Fenris (still chained), an armed Ninja (Loki), armed, with red emerald eyes, Odin armed and victorious, and Thor. The relief of Thor had been desecrated and an image of Hel roughly painted over the original artwork.
We proceeded down a dark passage, fighting off a demon of some kind, but were then caught in an ambush by ghoulish warriors (Grimlocks) that came from all sides. We struggled with the lack of light, and only Odin’s blessing (and Lanzi’s dweomer) allowed us to see by the light of our burning dead foes. Eventually the foes’ courage failed and they ran from us. We advanced cautiously to find that they had met their end at another hand - or hook in this case. A group of Hook Horrors had devoured them and we had to fight for our lives.
After these hard fights we thought it prudent to retire to the original room to take stock. Hintzu had the idea that the decoration in this room might provide a clue as to which direction to proceed. Investigating the red emerald eyes, we found that an evil glyph was protecting something in the room.
Dispelling the glyph we revealed a hidden doorway, and Hintzu located the mechanism to open the door. Above the doorway was the carved head of a dragon and a rune that probably represents the house of Frastor.
The stairs behind the hidden door were trapped and led to a Dwarven guardroom that was strewn with skeletons as if a great fight had taken place a long time ago. A stained glass window illuminated tapestries portraying several dwarves, one of which was larger than the rest and had the same rune underneath it as we had seen above the door. Two spiral stairwells wound up into the ceiling.
Several parchments were scattered on the floor at the back of the room, and they made interesting reading. The first referred to the 1st Age history that we had already learned something about. The second was an ancient text that made reference to the rings that we sought. The last was a recent note entitled Band of Fate.
Scorpionmen infested the dwarven halls above, but Lanzi’s curiosity discovered a way of sealing the stairwells, and almost embedding a crossbow bolt in my head (thank Odin I have always been nimble), regardless, we were not disturbed from above. We were not alone, however, and a section of the back wall moved to reveal a lone dwarf who urged us to follow him to avoid any scorpion attacks.
We followed into the passage that had been revealed, and the door sealed behind us. We passed through a room with a book written in the dwarven language; unable to interpret this book and fearful of offending the dwarves we left it in its place. However, we later retrieved and translated this book, as you will read later, and the text gave a history of the 1st Age.
The dwarf took us further to a chamber with a font carved in the shape of intertwined Nagas and a table laden with food. Upon the walls were two tapestries, one with the figure of Lastar holding his staff with a large green gem embedded in it accompanied by the Paladin Bavaric, and the other with Iki-Moto kneeling by a font that looked just like the one in the room with the four Rings of Power and a watery hand rising out of the font with a gem in its grasp.
I did not know it at the time, but Lanzi and Hintzu saw a different tapestry - instead of Iki-Moto kneeling by the font they saw his throat being slit by a Loki. This was to be an indication of things to come.
Invited to drink from the font, Lanzi did so only for the liquid to induce vomiting and nausea. As he did this, the illusions in the room disappeared and the ‘dwarf’ was revealed to be a six armed female demon or Tanar’ri. Doors opened all around us and scorpion men skittered into the room. The demon used some kind of dweomer and the torch in my hand exploded in a fiery display and then went out. All was dark, but we knew that foes were all around us. It was a hard fight and we barely survived. Both Lanzi and I were poisoned, but an Elixir of Health and Odin’s powers of healing saved us from a terrible fate. Hintzu was less lucky, being struck down by the demon after inflicting grievous wounds on her. Fortunately, I was again able to call on Odin to save him, using a powerful scroll given to me by my order. His final blows won us the battle, although he was too weary to continue our quest without rest. In truth we all were.
Fortunately we were able to rest without interruption; Lanzi poured over his spell books, I prayed to Odin for more of his power to be granted to me and Hintzu rested to recover from the terrible ordeal he had endured. We also found a great deal of interest in this room; obviously this had been a lair of the evil creatures that we had defeated. The tapestries were clearly evil, one had already been seen by companions, but the other depicted Guerin killing Bavarik whilst wearing a crown of some kind. We also recovered some items that could prove to be of use, which are listed below.
A hammer that requires great strength to use. A highly enchanted spear. A wand of magic detection. A wondrous set of field plate armour. A girdle inscribed with dwarven symbols. A haversack that proved to hold a great number of items without any burden. A black robe. I donned the girdle in the hope that it might give me the strength to wield the hammer, but it did not. Instead it gave me powers that are similar to that of the dwarves - the ability to see in the dark and sense our distance underground. Lanzi suggested that I take another look at the book we had passed whilst wearing the girdle, and to my surprise I found that I could now read it as if it was in my own language!
Confrontation in the Upper Halls We found stairs behind the doors that the creatures had emerged from and climbed through halls to the highest levels of the stronghold. There we found a statue of Thor and a carving of a great serpent over a nest of Nagas.
Adjacent to this room was another that was even more highly decorated. The floor contained symbols of Thor, Frey, Odin, a book and a tree. My companions thought that the tree might represent an elf, Silmar, but it looked much like Yggdrasil, the World Tree to my eyes - perhaps they are one and the same.
The domed ceiling was decorated with flying creatures of many kinds and seemed to represent the element air. Along one wall was a scene with a giant serpent wrapping itself around a great sword and that appeared to represent the element of water. Opposite this was a dwarf defending himself from a great serpent breathing fire at his shield, perhaps representing the element of fire. The floor depiction must represent the element of earth - perhaps through the World Tree? Opposite the entrance arch was a great double door with a carved dragon across it; flanking the door were two dwarven warriors in relief.
As Hintzu used his great strength to ease the door open a crack, we were set upon! The dwarven warriors came to life, turning to metal Golems as they stepped away from the wall. Meanwhile, the nest of Nagas behind us began to writhe, and they too came out of the wall towards us. An ancient voice called to us from beyond the door, urging us to run and warning that “the Tanari’i have guardians here”. Lanzi defended himself and held back the Naga, whilst Hintzu engaged the golems to great effect. We were surrounded and outnumbered, so in an effort to divide the enemy force I called upon Odin to cause blades to shoot across the room behind us, causing terrible wounds against the Naga and forcing many of them back out of the room. This gave us the edge that Lanzi and Hintzu needed to dispatch the remaining foes. We were not out of danger, though, and a battle of spellcasters took place between Lanzi and the Naga in the other room. Lanzi destroyed them all, but with their last act a fireball erupted amongst us. Although Hintzu and I were lucky, Lanzi took the brunt of the attack and suffered terrible damage from the flames.
With time to converse with the voice that we had heard earlier, he identified himself as Dracor Augusta and warned that fiends from the Abyss would attack us as soon as we opened the doors any further. He urged us to flee and to not bother trying to rescue him from his captivity. Hintzu urged us all to find the courage to face these foes, for we had not yet found the help that we had come to seek.
We devised a strategy; if fiends were to enter from the Abyss then there must be a portal somewhere in the next room. Lanzi would endeavour to seal the portal before too many foes could enter whilst Hintzu and I held off whatever stood against us. With this in mind Lanzi turned himself and Hintzu invisible, leaving me to act as a decoy to draw foes away from the portal. I summoned salamanders from the Plane of Fire to assist me in drawing foes to my side and called upon Odin to bless us with his favour. Lanzi used his dweomer to shield me from any evil spells, at least for long enough for him to accomplish his task. All set, we opened the doors.
In the centre of this new room was a Palantir inside a pentagram and beyond that a shimmering field that must be the portal we anticipated. To our left was a tapestry depicting an evil figure plunging a sword into the head of Bavarik whilst holding a crown in his other hand. To our right was another tapestry, this one of Demogorgan plunging a tentacle through the chest of a kneeling dwarf who was holding a shard of a green gem. Could Demogorgan be Fandor and Frastor’s bane?
I could not see Lanzi, but knew that he was running to the portal on the other side of the room to seal it. In this he was successful, but not before a flying demon had come through and soared up high above us. The ceiling of this room was high above us, and this was to cause us many difficulties. The demon was supernaturally fast and swooped down to attack and then climbed before most of our party could react. He seemed to know where Lanzi and Hintzu were despite their invisibility to my eyes. Hintzu’s arrows were turned aside before they could hit, as were my sling’s bullets. The salamanders’ weapons were also ineffective and we began to fear that we could not harm this beast. Hintzu showed great agility and courage and leapt into the air to strike at the demon, despite the risk of injury as he fell back down - he did some damage, but that only forced the beast higher above the floor. Even Lanzi’s powerful dweomer was turned aside by this aberration.
Meanwhile I had gazed into the Palantir and had seen the body behind the voice that had spoken to us - it was a Golden Dragon, potentially a mighty ally, but there was no obvious way to free him from his captivity.
Regrouping at the portal, we tried to land as many hits on the demon as it dove at us as we were able. I had passed a magical spear to a salamander to use against it, and called on Odin to aid us in our struggle. Lanzi finally managed to turn the tide of the battle by draining the demon’s defences before using a minor spell that it cannot have been expecting. Stunned for a minute or so, the beast fell back and gave us a chance to retaliate. Unfortunately it had also managed to open the portal again, and another demon emerged behind us. While Lanzi locked the portal again, Hintzu dealt with the new threat with the help of the salamanders. We then turned our attention to the original demon, and again Hintzu proved his skill with a weapon as he hacked the vile creature from the air and finished it with a quick succession of mighty blows.
Hardly able to believe that it was over, we assessed our injuries and caught our breath. Thanks to Odin’s favour we had healed most wounds and were in surprisingly good shape. None of us doubted, though, that the battle had balanced on a knife edge and we had been lucky to triumph. Amongst the spoils of victory, Hintzu found a ring that looked the twin of the Governess’ but with a red gem - this must be one of the Rings of Power, the Ring of Fire!
It only remained to attempt to free our new found ally, Dracor Augusta, from wherever he had been banished to. Lanzi sat down with a pile of books and scrolls about him and was lost in concentration…
Return to Lastar I do not pretend to understand how, but Lanzi used all manner of tomes and devices to open a portal to the Dragon's location, at which point the majestic and imposing form of Dracor entered the room. Fortunately he was grateful for our part in his release and offered his assistance in our quest.
Then we had the nightmare journey back to Lastar. I had heard of the other planes, as any learned man has, but had never left our own Prime Material plane before - and hope to never have to again. We crossed through all manner of strange states at speeds beyond reckoning and at the end of it all I felt as if I had spent a heavy night on the mead followed by one of the 'special mixed' pies from Berti's Bites in the Dwarven Quarter. Fortunately an epic battle was on hand to take my mind off it.
Lanzi and Hintzu's friends, Merc and Morweth had gathered a force of Elves in an attempt to break the siege and had attacked the enemy from the rear. However they were outnumbered and, after the initial shock had worn off, the enemy forces were regrouping to drive our new allies back. The battle was balanced on a knife edge, and fortunately we were able to tip that balance.
Dracor's awesome might coupled with our efforts in securing the battlements put our enemies back on the defensive. At this key moment I witnessed a sight that I never thought to see. The Lady Gwendolyn had entered Lastar's tower and now appeared atop it and rained down elemental destruction amongst the ranks of the enemy. Such power, coupled with the attacks from in front, behind and above were too much for the evil forces and they started to break. They could not be rallied and the siege was finally lifted.