The characters:
- Jack S – Dalin Light, a female tiefling Light Cleric of the Sacred Flame.
- Steve – Varis, a male drow Bard of the College of Swords.
- Morgan – Deena, a female human Sorcerer with a Haunted past
- Jon – Coulter, a male human Fighter Commander, re-enlisted Lantern
- Lee – Fezzik, a male goliath Beast Totem Barbarian, first mate from Boot’s ship
- Jack E – Tinker, a male tabaxi Rogue Thief from the streets
- Kiefer – Balor, a male human Paladin of Devotion
Tidesday 4th Sowing, Year 1.126
The heroes glared at the trapdoor but instead of trying to force their way through to the chamber below Varis cheerily declared “With Deena gone I can safely lower the rest of us to the battlement below” and so on the count of three, they all leapt from the tower top and the drow cast a feather fall spell upon them all, allowing them to land safely on the connecting battlement twenty feet below.
Their feet had barely touched the stones before Fezik charged forward to the door leading into the southern tower, the one that Deena’s spectre had previously seen the half dozen garmyr in, the goliath smashed the door open and assaulted the nearest foe as his allies rushed to support him.
Dalin chanted a prayer to the Flame and summoned her spirit guardians as Coulter and Balor strode into the tower to join Fezik. The startled garmyr quickly retaliated and with snarls, barks and growls threw themselves at the heroes, attacking with teeth and claws.
The door to the other tower opened and the trio of burly garmyr Varis and Deena had seen strode forward wielding vicious-looking glaives followed by the garmyr they had suspected of being a spellcaster. This suspicion was confirmed as it summoned its own cloud of guardian spirits (while unseen by the rest of the heroes, returned Deena to her position beside the trapdoor on the rooftop).
Seeing the new arrivals bearing down upon Dalin from the rear, Balor hoisted his greatsword, Lightbringer, and charged towards the closest. But before he could get close enough to strike his furry foe it struck him with its glaive, stopping him in his tracks.
Coulter, Tinker and Fezik quickly dealt with the remaining garmyr inside while Varis used greater invisibility to come out onto the battlements and snipe spells at the garmyr caster while hiding in the corner, and Balor and Dalin faced down the burly glaive-wielders. Deena managed to get the trapdoor open and made her way down to join her companions and lend her magical attacks in taking down the garmyr on the battlements.
With their current foes down the heroes took a moment to regroup while Deena sent her spectre to invisibly scout the floor below which, according to the blueprint the Lord Commander had given them, should contain the winches for the gatehouse portcullises. They heard the barks and yaps of a large squad of garmyr approaching along the road from the cathedral but as they neared the sky above them was filled with a volley of green-fletched arrows from the concealment of the buildings lining the road and they all were slain. Their fellow Lantern’s were keeping their side of the bargain and guarding against reinforcements.
The spectre floated down the spiral staircase and into the chamber below, finding a trio of scrawny unarmed garmyr, then it moved across into the chamber that sat directly above the gateway. Inside it saw three garmyr armed with sturdy longbows, a bigger garmyr armed with a nasty-looking meat cleaver and another of the wizened caster types. It continued through to the chamber in the opposite tower and saw another trio of the scrawny garmyr. Using her mental connection to see through its eyes Deena had also seen all of this and was relaying it to her companions as she sent the spectre back into the central chamber to watch the caster.
The heroes carefully made their way down the stairs and Tinker darted out of the door to assault the nearest of the scrawny garmyr, unfortunately, it proved sturdier than the tabaxi hoped and so he had to quickly withdraw. Varis was quick to assist his companion and slashed at the same foe with his flashing blades, but it still stood.
Deena sent her spectre back into the winch chamber, fearful that the sounds of combat would make the garmyr in there damage or destroy the winches beyond use. As it passed through the wall she saw through its eyes that the caster was glaring directly at it! Deena commanded the spectre to attack the caster but it failed and the attempt made it visible to all in the chamber. The wizened garmyr barked something to the larger one who then threw back its head and gave a mighty howl that all of the garmyr responded with howls of their own. The three bow-carrying garmyr immediately surrounded the spectre and bit at it viciously unit it simply dissipated.
Back in the northern tower chamber, the trio of scrawny garmyr bounded forward to attack Tinker and Varis with their own hungry bites. The rest of the heroes burst out of the stairway and attacked the scrawny garmyr who proved to be hardier than they looked. Fezik pushed his way through to the door into the winch chamber noting that it could be opened both ways and had no lock so he grasped the handle and set his foot against it in the hopes of preventing more garmyr from entering the room until they had dealt with the three already inside.
Between the remainder of the heroes, the three garmyr were despatched and Balor and Coulter joined Fezik at the door ready to burst in. Unfortunately the bow-wielding garmyr inside were waiting for just such an opportunity and fired a volley of black shafts into Balor and Fezik badly injuring them.
Dalin conjured a flaming sphere into the chamber but the garmyr were too full of bloodlust to fear the burns it inflicted. Deena tried to cast a ball of necrotic energy at the far end of the room to not injure her allies but the spellcasting garmyr countered her magic with a laugh.
The large garmyr hoisted its cleaver and charged out of the chamber, pushing past the warriors at the doorway to get to Dalin but thankfully the tiefling cleric’s armour proved protection enough against the vicious blade, though his snapping jaws did bite her a few times.
Dalin risked not defending herself in favour of helping her injured allies back to their feet and chanted a prayer of healing that revived Balor and Fezik, the paladin getting back to his feet and turning his greatsword on the large garmyr.
The garmyr spellcaster finally succumbed to the flames of Dalin’s sphere but the last of the garmyr archers was still fighting on, his companions having been slowly whittled away by the combined attacks of Coulter, Varis and Tinker. The three heroes charged the beast with their blades and it too fell lifeless to the floor
Deena chanted a spell, causing her hands to ooze with a sickly, sticky goo and struck the remaining garmyr brute with it. The muscles of the brute seemed to spasm and contort as they suddenly locked in place and the sorceress shouted “Now! Take it down!” at her companions. They didn’t need telling twice, Balor and Fezik hacked into the beast while it was incapacitated by the spell and brought its life to an end.
As the heroes moved into the central chamber to the winches they heard a discordant horn blaring outside. Like a combination of a braying goat and a predator’s roar, it sounded from the direction of the cathedral …