The party stands before the door of the central chamber on Day 958. Three shards pulse with the same purplish-magenta light emitted from the room beyond. Only one shard left…
The plan had been to bring the acolytes from the Red Temple and the maesters from the Citadel into the next battle. But first, they need to rest, and there is a familiar sense that they are about to gain some new abilities when they do.
The party decides to head back to the Nightfort to get a good night’s sleep. Farron asks the Lord Commander to have a private room set up for him without giving any more details as to his reasons. When they awake the next morning, the group is ready to dive back into the chaos, but Farron asks to stay just one more night. He is later seen bringing a set of clothes and studded leather armor into his room. When he emerges, now Day 960, he has a friend with him; a strange Farron duplicate, dressed for battle… as much of a battle a Bard could ever look like he would be getting into.
They Teleport back to the icy necropolis then open the Ioun portal to retrieve all of the Citadel and Red Temple allies. Once everyone is situated in front of the white door, they go over the plan to spread out to prevent heavy losses.
Just before pushing open the door, Farron and the Simulacrum, let’s call him Simon, cast Foresight: one on Qhortho, the other on Aran. Farron and Simon then both cast Crown of Stars.
FARR: Ok, ready.
The rest of the party looks at each other and shrugs – just another day of weird for the Assembly. Looking across the sea of allies, they also seem unfazed after all the unlikely things they’ve seen from this group.
They push open the doors to a wide corridor to what seems like an extension of the halls around the central chamber. The corridor is dimly lit from the reflections off its icy white walls, indicating the source of light must be around the corner. As they cautiously proceed, a voice stops them in their tracks.
VOICE: My friends.
This voice is very familiar but they cannot quite place it yet.
VOICE: So capable. So resilient. So… impressive…ly hopeless! We could have made such a great force, the five of us. And ya know… it’s not too late… we could ditch these other clowns and rule together. What do you say to that?
Dorleck? What the fuck?!
QARZ: Rule what?
QHOR: It doesn’t matter. We’re on a trajectory that cannot be stopped. If you stand in our way, you will fall.
DORLECK: Well, I tried. I’ve BEEN trying.
The doors behind them slam shut, leaving an eerie calmness in its wake.
They follow the corridor to the left, then back to the right. A portion of the hallway continues onward, dead-ending in a pile of rubble.
QARZ: Somebody could have cleaned up.
Here they can see the area open up to a large wooded, frozen landscape. It is currently dusk with a full moon above. Three birds of prey up fly high above the area, visible as they pass across the moon, potentially looking for a bite to eat.
They notice glowing blue eyes across the landscape, hovering above the ground. As their eyes adjust, they can make them out to be undead archers atop towers scattered across the periphery of the frozen woodland. It looks like the towers each have a ladder to get to their battlements.
Beyond the towers is nothing but a seemingly never-ending arctic plain.
Looking across the ground within the woods, they notice large piles of bones in various areas.
The archer towers would be easier with some dragonglass arrows, but all of the party’s primary physical weapons are melee. They still have their ranged magic, which will just have to do.
All of the party’s artifacts begin to glow.
Farron is the first to venture out and blasts a mote from his Crown at the closest archer.
Qhortho dashes past Farron to another archer tower and climbs to the top before the archer can get a shot off.
Aran decides to check out one of the piles of bones and dashes towards it. As he gets near, it bursts open, stopping him in his tracks and revealing a Wraith, a Banshee, a Revenant, a Ghost, and a Frost Giant Skeleton.
The Wraith attempts to drain some of Aran’s life force, but Aran’s Foresight allows him to deftly evade the attack.
The archers with clear lines of sight to the party attack at once, and almost all of them miss Aran and Qhortho. The ones that hit don’t do too much damage. The undead archer next to Qhortho uses a blade to attack, but it also misses.
Simon Hastes Qhortho, and then shoots a mote at the archer that Farron attacked. It connects, but the one strike is unable to kill it. Simon then moves to put a few more trees between him and the archers.
Qarzdaq moves into the arena, Hastes Aran, the shoots a Firebolt at the Banshee, killing it with a single strike.
The Revenant attempts to instill a paralyzing fear into Aran, but it fails.
The Frost Giant Skeleton swings his greataxe, but misses Aran with each attempt. Aran retaliates, dealing tremendous damage to the skeleton but not quite enough.
The Ghost flies towards Farron, causing him to be Frightened, then moves towards Qarzdaq.
The allies divide into 2 waves, each a mix of the maesters and acolytes. The first wave moves out into the battlefield and fans out as instructed. The second wave holds back to reinforce the first wave once they get far enough into the woods. The allies attack, destroying the archer near Farron and damaging the Frost Giant Skeleton a little more.
Just after the archer crumbles, a Coldlight Walker and an Animated Breath spawn from the base of the tower. The Coldlight Walker sheds bright light in its immediate vicinity, causing mild confusion.
Psychic Whispers fill the minds of Aran and Qhortho, but Foresight again helps them win the day, allowing them to push the voices out of their minds without any lasting impact.
Farron destroys the ghost that had Frightened him with a mote, relieving himself of that debilitating condition.
FARR: I ain’t afraid of no ghosts.
The party makes their way around the woods. Aran and Qarzdaq team up, popping off the bone piles, then Fireballing the creatures into oblivion. Qhortho uses the trees to Misty Step through the woods and crush his foes up close. Farron and Simon continue to take down archers and the creatures that spawn from the towers. The allies do everything they can to help, with many of them dying in the process.
With all of the bone piles gone and only 15 archers remaining, the birds of prey suddenly descend upon the battlefield. As they get closer, the adventurers and their remaining allies realize these birds are a little bigger than they seemed in the distance. Wait… they’re a LOT bigger… With wingspans of over 150 feet, these things rival the largest dragons they’ve seen to date!
We end this session at the top of Round 7 on Day 960. With these new threats on the field, the party realizes they may need to change tactics. Or not. We shall see!