7-8 Rova 4713 AR

7 Rova 4713 AR

Before making camp for the night, the Archangels send out Veri and Adlo to scout the perimeter of the Citadel for more information about the current situation. After three hours of scouting, Veri and Adlo come back around 1 in the morning with some important information.

Southbank

Hundreds of tieflings and cultists alike are camped in Drezen’s southern district, and they’re guarding a large amount of what appears to be captured crusader gear. Defeating these cultists would decrease the city’s defenses and could help better equip your army.

Paradise Hills

A large amount of schir demons currently hold Paradise Hill. It was once a district of warehouses and food stores that sat atop the high ground east of the citadel. Inside it appears that the demons are now using the area as a prison for captured crusaders. Rescuing them could provide the archangels with additional forces on their assault against the citadel.

Ahari Bridge

From what Veri could gather, the Ahari gorge provides a powerful natural barrier between the outer city and the citadel itself. It’ll be difficult for mounted paladins to navigate if they don’t secure one of the bridges to cross the gorge. There is only one remaining bridge left to the citadel and it is critical that the Archangels secure it to help their army’s mobility when the time comes to attack the citadel.

Drezen Watchtowers

Citadel Drezen is surrounded by a wall and four watchtowers. Each watchtower seems to be guarded by a few figures, and each is armed with a large trebuchet. Disabling as many of these catapults as quickly as possible is crucial in order for the army to reach the footsteps of the citadel without incurring any further casualties.

Drezen Cemetery

There are large numbers of undead lurking in Drezen’s cemetery, particularly ghouls and skeletons. They seem to be more ravenous than the ghouls the Archangels saw earlier at the Chapel of Sarenrae.

Haunted Vault

Inside Drezen’s cemetery, the largest vault amongst the many tombs inside seems to be surrounded by eerie shadows, as if some vile magic were at work within. The very air around this crypt is cold and biting, so much that even the ghouls and skeletons outside stay away from it.

With this information at hand, the Archangels discuss battle strategy and decide to move through Southbank first to acquire the crusader gear, head to Paradise Hills to save the captured crusaders, and then proceed forward from there. Everything settled, the Archangels rest for the night.

8 Rova 4713 AR

The first night in Drezen is quite rough. Everyone in the encampment experiences the worst of nightmares causing them to become fatigued and mentally wounded.

• Praetoril dreamed of being drowned by cow udders.
• Fynna dreamed of being alone again, watching her parents die a gruesome death over and over.
• Hakim dreamed of losing Aravashnial, failing to defend Kenabres, and Khorramzadeh returning with a host of demons destroying all that is good in the world.
• Adlo dreamed of watching his sister die right before his arms and being unable to stop it.
• Leon dreamed of losing all of his family members to the demons of the Worldwound, especially his older brother and closest family member Terkon Ardoda.

The nightmares are particularly hideous and unsettling as they wake up mentally wounded from the slumber. As they walk out to greet their army and notice their tiredness. Many of them also had a restless night as well as they hear whispers from the other crusaders about the unsettling phantasmal visions they had and how defenseless they felt having their mind attacked from within. The Knights of Kenabres are able to quickly relieve themselves of their fatigue, but it’s obvious that their morale is shaken somewhat from their restless night in Drezen.

Hakim addresses the army before the day begins, rallying them to fight on and not let the nightmares from malevolent forces in Drezen deter them from their mission. Inspired, the troops assemble in formation and follow their commander, Master Praetoril, into their first confrontation.

@ 10:00 AM

The heroes and their army arrive to the southern bank of the Ahari and confront the tiefling army in front of them. They brutally decimate the tiefling soldiers with their ranged superiority and heal themselves a little bit before moving in. The quick elimination of the tiefling army disrupts the enemy’s ambush, and the cultists from inside the houses move in to fight the knights head on. The cultist are quickly destroyed as well, not until they deliver a heavy blow on the knights with their dirty tactics bringing down many paladins.

As the heroes and their soldiers attempt to gather any goods they can find, Veri runs back to them from the east informing them another large army of tieflings is fast approaching. Badly wounded, the heroes retreat back to the choke point in order to heal themselves before continuing their assault.

@ 11:00 AM

As the Knights of Kenabres are being healer, Adlo scouts ahead to Southbank again to see what reinforcement arrived. From what he could gather, another large army of tieflings and cultists have gathered from Paradise Hills across the bridge to defend the choke leading toward where are the warehouses and storage silos. Adlo comes back with this information and, after being fully healed, urges the Archangels to continue the attack. They move.

@ 12:00 PM

The Knights of Kenabres re-enter into the fray against the tieflings with new, more defensive tactics. They are able to quickly slay the tieflings. With Adlo’s information, Praetoril decides to prepare an ambush against the cultists (which Hakim strongly disagrees against but agrees to follow nonetheless). The ambush is surprisingly effective, as the cultists are caught flat-footed against the paladins. A long battle ensues but the war of attrition is won out by the Knights of Kenabres. With no further reinforcements coming in, Praetoril commands the knights to search the area where they find magical armor to better help defend themselves. During this time, Adlo moves on ahead to Paradise Hills to investigate and finds two decent sized armies of schirs are preparing to sacrifice the captured crusaders, possibly due to the activity of the Archangels. He runs back on his mount to inform his allies, who rally the troops to proceed to Paradise Hills and save the crusaders.

@ 1:00 PM

Paradise Hill is a key tactical position as it is surrounded by fortified guildhouses on the outside with warehouses and storage silos filled with goods in the middle. The schirs seem to have dug inside the hill, providing them strong fortification against enemy attacks. The Knights of Kenabres are quick on their feet and are able to deliver a decisive blow to the first army before taking any unnecessary damage from the second army of schirs. Once the schirs are defeated, the Archangels are able to free the other mix of captured crusaders and mercenaries who are eternally grateful for their freedom. The majority of them are quite capable fighters and pledge themselves to the Kingdom of Mendev to defeat the demons of Drezen. As they are outfitting themselves with the paladin’s old armor, Leon asks the freed crusaders about how they got here. The current acting leader of the group, a female human fighter named Leandra, informs Leon that their groups was part of a large group led by Knight-Commander Terkon Ardoda (Leon’s older brother). Two years ago Terkon and his knights launched an assault on Greengrave Keep to recover an important artifact for Mendev, but were defeated and captured. A couple of hundred of their crusaders were able to escape though, and launched an attack on Drezen six months ago due to rumors that Knight-Commander Terkon was still alive within Citadel Drezen’s walls. Unfortunately, they were defeated and captured and one-by-one, their peers were taken and sacrificed to the demon lords and have been held against their will ever since.

Leon is disturbed by this news, but is excited that his older brother is still alive! Rallying their new 200 outfitted soldier to their side, they make Paradise Hill their new base of operations as they proceed with their assault. The Archangels heal themselves and decide to dismantle the citadel’s watchtowers before proceeding any further. At this time, terrible roars from within the citadel begin to emanate to the outer city causing grave concern to many of the crusaders and paladins. The Archangels brush it aside and proceed as planned.

@ 2:00 PM

The Archangels decide to take the more stealthily approach and lower themselves down by rope down to the bottom of the gorge and climb back up thanks to Fynna’s ability to levitate. As they stealthily approach the northeast watchtower, Leon uses his mythic power to recall stone shape and uses it to create an opening into the inside of the watchtower from the outside. With this, they are able to barge move up the staircase and attack the three guards above, two orc rangers and a tiny, crazed demon known as the brimorak. The brimorak casts fireball above his head which bring in other brimoraks into the battle field. Fighting is fierce as the tiny little creatures do their best to wound the Archangels.

However, during the fight, the heroes see in the far distance a malevolent flying creature resembling a great lion with its head flanked on one side by the head of a chromatic dragon, and on the other by the head of a goat. They do their best to dispatch the current group of enemies as quickly as possible, but the chimeric beast enters into the fray before they can unhinge and move the trebuchet to attack the chimera. Its mere presence brings a heavy weight onto many of the Archangels and its cold breath attack brings many of them to the brink of death. Unlike other mythical beasts, the heroes notice that its eyes grow green in power and it seems to have demonic qualities (suggesting its mythic power comes from Abyssal origins).

Adlo and Hakim charge into battle fearlessly trying to attack the beast with their weapons while Praetoril teleports on top of the creature itself. Adlo’s kukris do nothing against the creature’s epic damage reduction while Hakim’s crucial critical hits damage the creature considerably. Unfortunately for Adlo, he is mauled by the chimera’s bites, gores, and claws bringing the aasimar rogue down in one blow. Fynna, desperate to save Adlo, casts a clutch glitterdust spell which causes the creature to scream in annoyance. Underestimating the archangel’s resilience, the chimera flies away not before crying out for help (which causes Praetoril to fall 40 feet from the air). Within the citadel, the heroes see two other creatures moving up crying out as well; one a large red dragon with glowing green eyes flying towards them from the southwest of the citadel, the other a huge gorilla-like creature with four arms and six different colored eyes (three in the front of its face and three in the back) climbing to the highest tower of the citadel. Praetoril sees near the top of the tower a menacing looking dwarf with a face of disdain as it looks down upon the five of you standing next to what you believe to be Miss Nurah Dendiwhar, the halfling bard you believe that betrayed you before.

With time of the essence, the Archangel quickly move to the second watchtower before the red dragon notices them.

@ 2:30 PM

The heroes successfully sneak over to the second watchtower before the hunting red dragon notices them. They are able to make it to the top of the watchtower and buy some time for Adlo to disable the trebuchet. Hakim is able to land a crucial hit with his bow as the speeding dragon approaches. Its eyes also glows green with Abyssal power. The dragon attacks with a fury as it makes its way to the watchtower, dealing powerful blows with its bite attacks and a considerable damage with its fire breaths (which the heroes have prepare for in advance thanks to resist energy fire).

After several rounds, the young, mythically-infused red dragon realizes the healing being done by Leon and moves to bite and grab the life oracle in its mouth as the aasimar is helpless to stop it. The other heroes watch in horror as Leon is quickly swallowed whole by the demonically infused dragon beast as it burps and smirks at the heroes. Satisfied with its meals, the young red dragon warns the Archangels that it will return for them next and flies off back to the tower full with its meal.

Leon, quickly being digested by the young, mythic red dragon, does some quick thinking (realizes that the red dragon is mythically infused with demonic power) and begins to alignment channel relentlessly in order to bring the dragon down. The other Archangels watch as the red dragon squirms with intense pain being attacked from the inside and not being able to regurgitate the life oracle. Refusing to let its meal get the last laugh, the red dragon decides to fly back to the citadel as high and quickly as possible to prevent any possible escape or survival for Leon. The life oracle is able to bring the red dragon down and the beast falls down from 1000 feet in the air straight down to the ground, immediately killing the dragon and bringing Leon to the brink of death.

As the beast is falling, Hakim sees an opening to save (or at least recover) Leon. He casts expeditious charge on himself and quickly jump off the watchtower straight to the impact zone of the falling dragon. He quickly races against an army of tieflings from within Citadel Drezen and reaches to the dead young red dragon first. Hakim quickly pulls out Radiance, slashes open its chest to free Leon, finds out that he’s still alive, lay on hands him twice to get him conscious again, and quickly sprints away from the hundreds of tieflings. When conscious again, Leon quickly springs into action and turns himself into a sasquatch and follows Hakim. The other Archangels see the other two running for their dear life to the third watchtower and quickly change gears and rush down to the third watchtower to meet up with them.

@ 3:00 PM

The Archangels meet up at the third watchtower and Adlo quickly locks the bottom doors before moving up. They get up to the top and Adlo, Fynna, and Hakim quickly work to unhinge the latches on the trebuchet while Praetoril defends the doorway as tieflings start rushing in to burst through. They are able to move the trebuchet towards the last watchtower and after a minute of attempts (four tries) Hakim gets a hit and is able to bring down the last watchtower. Hakim does one last shot with the trebuchet to damage the tieflings a bit before having Adlo dismantle the last trebuchet. Praetoril and Fynna are able to hold off the remaining tieflings inside before all five jump from the watchtower to the outside of the Citadel and run for their dear lives back to the camp.

@ 5:00 PM

Successful in their mission in dismantling the watchtowers, the Archangels are severely wounded and out of resources but are safe now from any more threats inside the citadel. The roars from the Beasts of Drezen echo violently throughout the surrounding area, clearly indicating that the demonic forces inside Drezen know that the Archangels and the Knights of Kenabres are here. With a brutal but successful day of work completed the Archangels rest up for the coming battles ahead.