The Chapters and Cast of the Ballad
A prisoner was taken to Mystra's home;
And a corpse from Waterdeep's morgue;
From each did they for answers comb;
As to their presence within that burg.
The assassins living and dead asserted;
That they had been set to watch alone;
And seek the appearance of one Reyckirt;
Whom they were told with them had thrown.
Setting aside that problem for the moment;
The party made haste back for Red Larch;
Regrouping with Marle, her time well spent;
To the Spire they all sought to march.
Dropping wagons and all mounts but Emris;
They set out with speed to the assault;
The sentries on their vultures saw this;
And veered in to land to make the gates a vault.
Lohn started the violent festivities off;
With an arrow to a vulture's throat;
Sending the creature falling from aloft;
His rider left in the air to slowly float.
The drawbridge was up against the gate;
So the solar monk turned her attention;
And with radiant arts advanced the fate;
One chain sliced clean, no longer suspension.
Bolts and spears rained down below;
Caught by monks and deflected by shields;
The cultists faces from out of windows show;
As they reloaded to aim at the fields.
Forgotten by fate and ill-mannered gods;
Aengus observed this all with a careful eye;
Picking out patterns in ends and odds;
To find an place for his blade to lie.
The floating knight cursed his luck;
As a deurgar fired arrow found his side;
Into his flesh the barb tried to tuck;
Slipping off a rib it still tore his hide.
The teifling harper turned her bardic tongue;
Toward the task of softening iron chain;
Arcane heat flowed from words well sung;
And stretched the links against the strain.
Elivia turned her divine gift of magic;
To finish the task of taking the bridge down;
Releasing from necromancer's trick;
A barrage of magic to bring a cultist's frown.
The bridge slammed down to the cliff;
And Elivia advanced to the tall door;
Readying in her mind chant and glyph;
The bridge held stable against the furore.
Emris charged the gap with Talindra mounted;
And leaped across to clap the sides;
And with her fey power the paladin surmounted;
Passing as mist to where the cultist hides.
The paladin's blade swung hither and fore;
Biting into the Feathergale Knight's mail;
While her faithful mount rebounded ashore;
To land back upon the cliff of rock shale.
Fennle swept forward with acrobatics;
To ascend the wall and flank Talindra's foes;
Delivering spear with exalted tactics;
One of two falling to a hail of powerful blows.
The remaining knight tried weakly to respond;
But his blade was diverted easily aside;
Everywhere he struck the paladin's shield dawned;
And it seemed as if he might not have tried.
Aengus saw Elivia standing steady;
Getting ready to shove open the door;
Blades and breath all held ready;
He joined her side waiting for steel to pour.
The transformed locksmith hid away;
And used the cursed gloves to release a shaft;
A vulture found itself crossing its fatal way;
Slumping down a corpse before Lohn's craft.
Marle joined beside the cleric and assassin;
Rapier in one hand, longsword the other;
Ready to apply the training of her faction;
To strike whatever appeared to bother.
Elivia called upon the celestial heights;
Filling the air with angelic spirits abounding;
And opened the door to unleash upon the knights;
The wrath of heaven, hell, and earth compounding.
A short hall was revealed with two guards distant;
A great eagle hanging from the ceiling above;
Marle lashed out with a harsh words insistent;
Drawing one knight through the spirits to shove.
Torn apart by angelic blade;
The knight's step was slowed;
Til the assassin set his life to fade;
And upon the bridge his blood flowed.
Talindra turned her blade upon the remaining knight;
Cutting clean his hold on life;
And then deeper into the tower did she alight;
Finding initiates joining the strife.
Another knight came from a side room;
Cutting off Fennle from joining the paladin's charge;
Striking with ferocity but seeing only doom;
As Fennle returned the assault by and large.
Stepping aside, Aengus chose caution;
Switching to his crossbow and unleashing a bolt;
Which helped contribute to attrition;
As the far knight waited and seemed quite the dolt.
Lohn heard the sound of opening gates;
A hippogriff's snorts giving forewarning;
As the rider of that first vulture escapes;
The locksmith waited for feathery showing.
Marle and Elivia advanced with angelic host;
Striking at the knight who still held his post;
The fanatic held on against becoming a ghost;
And survived to pull a lever with a snide boast.
The great eagle hanging from the ceiling swept low;
Wings splayed wide to sweep all outside;
Yet Bard, Assassin and even Cleric did show;
Alacrity and skill in dodging the trap aside.
The knight stared in helpless dismay;
His failure clear to all present;
Bolt and rapier and angelic host did flay;
Survived all to make no achievement.
The Rosethorn Blade in Talindra's hand;
Slipped to and fro and sliced the ether;
As one foe fell a burst of fey magic grand;
Slipped through stairs up, down and either.
Foes applenty upon the steps dazzled in sunny rays;
Their blows turned weak and falling away;
While above them the Spire's master to patron prays;
For speed and power his enemy to slay.
Fennle's enemy fled away;
Leaping out the window;
Unwilling here to stay;
And seeking safety below.
The fool did not get far;
As a disc of pure light;
Sliced through him like a star;
Cutting through dark night.
Aengus moved into the tower to watch;
Crossbow loaded and seeking a target;
But none yet were available to snatch;
This the fates struggled not to forget.
Marle looked into a small side door;
Seeing an armory of weapons and mail;
At first it seemed safe but hid more;
Something unseen gave an unwitting tale.
Elivia advanced forward, host following;
And pushed open the inner door;
In celestial wrath the cultists were drowning;
One upon another in radiant gore.
Two warriors fanatic and austere;
Taking to themselves the name of hurricane;
Faced against the paladin with no fear;
Fey sparks remained their skill's bane.
That first knight whose vulture was felled;
Stepped up out of stairs into celestial hail;
By miracle to his life he somehow held;
And out of the room he did quickly bail.
The hippogriff and rider rounded the corner;
And met an arrow from Lohn's bow;
The hippogriff tumbled a lifeless goner;
While the rider floated helplessly below.
Talindra responded with blade and shield;
Sending the storm-named monks into a fall;
Down stone stairs and into celestial field;
And pressed up to meet Merosska in the hall.
Then her stag caught up the deurgar locksmith;
And carried Lohn into the battle;
Joining Elivia, Marle, and Aengus forthwith;
Within the entry hall so little.
Invisible priest of Howling Hatred revealed himself;
Casting a devil of swirling dust;
Tossing the tiefling as fimrly as he did stealth;
The whirlwind then further was thrust.
Struggling past radiant blades;
A hurricane cast his own wind;
Pushing against the enemy who raids;
And forcing them with it to fend.
Fennle swiftly ran to the stairwell;
Sending blades of ki spinning downward;
The hurricanes quickly fell;
Then she looked to where the Rosethorn flowered.
Aengus pushed to the edge of the armory;
His crossbow ready and aimed;
He gave the priest a primer on archery;
But in the wind the bolt failed.
Thurl Merosska's hasted blows;
Struck with no grace or accuracy;
Battering Talindra's shield in harmless flows;
Greatsword sparking the unnaturally.
Elivia stepped forward once again;
Holding valiantly to her spirit host;
Poured a barrage of fiery rays thin;
Only one struck through the enemy boast.
But searing pain did slay the focus;
And the dust devil settled to the floor;
Leaving the hall free of hostile hocus;
As Marle stood up a wrath to pour.
A song of heated iron rose to bardic lips;
To the priest's crown she hailed;
And from his skull the searing metal slips;
Before the heroes the fanatic quailed.
Once and twice with radiant smites;
The paladin struck true against Merosska's life;
A final blow from the shield advanced his plights;
Once again with clutter the stairs were rife.
Merosska landed before Fennle Pthalien;
Whose training proved true and most pragmatic;
The monk pushed Thurl on without failing;
Down another flight into floor with angels thick.
Torn and battered by stone and blade;
The fringes of life with angels did strain;
Thurl turned to sound of fey glade;
By Emris's antlers was Thurl thus slain.
Upon Emris's back, Lohn rode inside;
Turned to look upon the sly priest;
Thanking the stag for the ride;
The locksmith did finally end the pest.
As the tower was searched a last knight remained;
He strove heroically against all hope;
Climbing up the tower's side he strained;
To find resources with which to cut the enemy rope.
For all of his incredible effort and pressure;
He still found an ignoble fate;
Shoved and trapped in Thurl's upstairs dresser;
The paladin sat atop and did wait.
The party marveled at the Knight's mithril scale;
And found messages from Aerisi to Thurl;
As well as a musical blade left sitting stale;
Around which Marle's hands did curl.
The Feathergale secured messages were then sent;
To the aarakocra within the canyon misty;
And arrangements were made the Spire to rent;
In case the Howling Hatred returned frisky.
Ahead of them lay another task;
To escort a caravan from Red Larch to the North;
And not allow any bandit to bask;
In the knowledge that they had stolen it forth.
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