11. A lance, a story, and a ship

Leedara urged us to act quickly, to make sure that Lord Soth would not get the secret in the castle crypt.
 
We follow after his trail, through the broken door. We see that down the passage way there is a violet light. It leads to stairs that descend to a stone chamber with violet flames, but that do not create heat or hurt us. In this chamber there are 4 statues of knights, with a 5th ahead, with the head of a bison. This is the the god that Sterling follows. As we enter the room, we se a scene play out in the dancing flames. A knight saves a group of elven travelers, and an elven woman falls into his arms while a human woman turns around.
 
We check this room, but there is nothing else notable for us, so we press on. We reach the stone double doors, and they open easily, showing us another chamber with the violet fires. There are alcoves and a brazier, and the resting bodies of some knights. Here, the violet flames shows us another vision, that of the knight being cast out by the other knights, then him marrying the elf lady.
 
We look around this chamber, and notice that to the right, a wall has been smashed to create a crude tunnel leading to the catacombs beyond. We follow that trail into the unlit tunnel. It is only about 20 feet, so we feel fairly safe to try it. At the other end, there is a long hall, with mosaic decorations that show knights riding stallions. In this chamber, there are 2 stone doors leading south, and statues of rearing horses. In this place, the walls are covered in violet flames, not the floors. Here, the violet flames show us a knight receiving a vision from a divine light, while his elven wife pleads with him not to go. Still, he dons his armor and rides off. As soon as this scene plays out, we see 2 skeletal war horses manifest at the end of the hall. The start towards us, like they are going to attack. However, Sterling stands tall, and the horses stop. They bow to him, and vanish. We are all amazed - what did he do? He receives a favor from them, and will be able to summon a war horse to serve him for 24 hours, twice. We keep going, wanting to make sure that Lord Soth cannot find the secret contained within this crypt.
 
In the next room are weapons racks, along with more violet flames. Here there are mosaics of blacksmiths forging weapons. A tunnel has again been punched here, too. In the flames, we see the knight being taunted by other elves, and him slaughtering those elves. Mal is smart about this room, and looks to find magic if he can. There is a magical long sword, a breast plate, and a leafy cloak, all which radiate some sort of weapon. The breast plate is made of that elven material, mithril, There are 2 crypts in this area, both barred. One of them has an amulet, but no body, and the other has a body with a battle axe. Mal says that the axe is powerful, but the amulet is just a shiny thing. I wrestle with myself, but ultimate figure we have no time to lose. As if reading my mind, Sterling adds that we should not take things from the dead. I tell him that the weapons on the racks are for the vanquishing of evil forces, which is what we are doing. He agrees, but is against opening the door of the crypt with the man holding the battle axe. We press on.
 
Again we go into the tunnel that was recently created, but I notice that it is dangerous and about to collapse. I urge everyone to go as fast as possible, just in time for the tunnel to collapse, and for us to have to jump back. It is unfortunate that we had to return, but I'm still glad no one got hurt. We need to move on.
 
Through the crypt itself, we enter the next room through a narrow door. In the middle of the room there is an elevated marble area with some words etched into it. The flames show us the knight slaying his wife as the world falls, like when the cataclysm happened. The knight also falls, but he does not die. Instead, he fuses with his blade and becomes some sort of undead. If this is Soth, then no wonder his home was considered cursed. We keep going, ever anxious about Soth.
 
In the next chamber, we see more statues of saluting knights. They are all individuals, and as we look, one of them represents the knight Vogler! We head towards the door here, and there is a saluting knight. A spirit of a knight a Selumnia kneels before the statue. Here, we don't see a scene play out in the violet flames, but watch as skeletal beings leer at us, but soon vanish.
 
Sterling, ever gallant, also kneels with the spirit. She looks at him, and says she is sir Janden. Sterling tells her he is a squire, and that he is caught in troubled times, and that invaders have come to free the Lord. She stares at him, and tells him that the Lord Soth is the one who raged through here. This is where the knights who served a Knight Salimar rest. Sir Salimar, a long time ago, received a divine quest from the God Paladine. He was tasked with finding peace between the dragons and the flying city created by the King-Priest Istar. His ability to make his city fly enraged the metallic draons, who had remained hidden since the dragon wars. Sir Salimar agreed to the quest to speak to the dragons, but also brought his family's greatest treasure, the dragon lance. He found and reached the city, and stood before the dragons. The King Priest refused to return the city to the ground, and the dragons refused to stop their attacks. Seeing no way out of this, Sir Salimar attacked the golden dragon with his spear. This rusted the lance, and destroyed it. There was much fighting, and Sir Genden was one of the surviving knights who brought Sir Salimar back. She points to the next chamber, where there is a tomb. She asks Sterling if he can help. Janden says that she tried to hide Salimar's shame, by telling people that he defending the city from the dragons. Because of her, he was buried a hero. But she now hopes that Sterling will take the lance so the weapon can find redemption. Sterling goes to find the lance.
 
Here, we see the tomb, surrounded by violet flames. Again there is a hole broken into the walls on both sides. There is a statue of a dragon impaled by the spear that surrounds the tomb, and we hear knocking from inside it. In the flames, we see the knight from the previous visions step through the wall and approach the brazier. He is holding a scepter, which he lights. He then points it at the statue, the tomb, and the flames spread through the entire crypt. He continues to walk and vanishes.
 
Again, Sterling approaches. He goes to the tomb, kneels beside it, and tells him to settle because we will take care of this. As he is trying to convince Sir Salimar, the cover of the tomb breaks, and his remains attack up. As we fight, the old knight makes it clear he does not wish to fight us. He is being called to attack us by Lord Soth himself. He says he is being called to go North to the City of Lost Names, the place of his dishonor.
 
Once Salamir is defeated, the flames vanish, and we are left in the dark. Luckily I replaced my oil lamp since we left the watchpost. Sterling looks into the tomb and finds the head of a rusty spear. He takes it.
 
Looking out into the tunnel, we are about 60ft over the city, but there is no sign of Lord Soth. We decide to return to the council room, and we don't see Leedara. We do see the councilman that had been possessed by Lord Soth, and he survives. We tend his wounds.
 
While we wait, I spend some time getting to know the cloak I picked up. We wait for the knight to wake, and when he does, he tells us his name is Dustin Real. He was ambushed about 2 weeks ago near the Dargaard Mountains. He does not remember much, but asks Sterling what order he is part of, since he is wearing the fancy armor of the knights of Selumnia. They talk a little more, and realize that they both had the same mentor. We show Dustin the scroll he had been holding, and he says that he cannot send a squire to fight against such fowl foe. Therefore, he can only knight him here. Sterling is now a knight of the Order of the Sword. Dustin says this is a field promotion, and that he will contact their mentor for his support, but all that is a technicality. Waah and I cheer!
 
After a few hours, Darrett, Vendri, and Bakkaris return. She tries to ensure order. We brief Darrett, with some embelishments. We are ready to rally, but Darrett insists we rest and discuss our plans the next day. After all, Vendri still has to assume leadership of Kalaman. We rest, and regroup the next day. We wake up and are summoned to a meeting with the former Marshal Vendri, in a room down the hall from the council chamber. The room has a stunning view of the city and harbor.
 
As we enter, we see Bakkaris is there and tells her that if it were not for us, the governor would be alive, and his own son around. Vendri dismisses him from her office before we can retort. We brief her, and say that we think our next step is to scout out the north, because that is where Soth had compelled Salimar to go, unwillingly. I say that we need to redeem the dragon lance, but Vendri and Darrett don't seem to catch that. Sterling motions for me not to bring it up, so I let it go. Vendri doesn't seem very keen to let us head north with the current dragon army, but Darrett steps up and supports us! While they discuss the pros and cons of our request, we are sent to the library to research more about the northern wastelands and the City of Lost Names. Before we go, Darrett tells us that in our absence, Bakarris had been trying to blame us for the current challenges. Time to actually find a bard to start that song about Bakkaris' cowardice in the fight he picked.
 
We go to the library, and meet the librarian, a part elf young woman. She looks at us, and we ask for information of the northern lands, the city, Lord Soth, and on the history of Bakkaris. She brings these books for us to read, and we find out that after the Cataclysm, the NW region became very prone to floods that are fast and violent and deadly. The area is littered with ruins, but not well explored as adventurers don't always survive there.
 
As for Bakkaris, I found out that he is Bakkaris Us Esteed, a lesser noble not from Kalaman. His family is known because of the long line of Knights of Solumnia. They are still wealthy to this day. After the Cataclysm, it was hard for a family to be in support of the knights, but his family did and have been rewarded.
 
I speak more to the librarian, and find out that she is a bard. Like most of her profession, she is a member of the High Tower of Sorcery. She loves books, and talks about how happy she was to apply and get this job. Upon learning that she is a bard, I make sure to be as pleasant as I can to her. We tell her we have adventures and that we would be happy to share our stories, such as what we witnessed at the fall of Vogler. With this, Waah shows her that she has been writing books about our adventures, and that she wants to donate it to the library! The librarian then issues her a receipt, and gives her 25 gold for her trouble, which I add to Waah's pile. More importantly, this will help us build our relationship with the librarian, and give us an in with the local bards.
 
I ask for her name, and she is Alara Brightleaf. I promise her more stories, but as best I can, try to convince her that a good story about our success in the Steel Springs will help everyone these day.s I make sure to tell her that we valiantly and at great trouble went from the battle of Well Watch to assist a beleaguered army. When we arrived, we had to fight the Dragon Army, trying our best to save our soldiers. Unfortunately, we had to content with the enemy, and with the commander, who ran away, abandoning not only his army, us the heroes, but his own poor son. I find that painting the son as a poor soul would help sell the image we would like to create. I make sure to mention the chosen heros Sterling. Mal, who was chosen by Meshekal herself to heal (with a demonstration), and Sterling, the first person to be knighted in Kalaman in so many years! I think it is working, especially since Alara asks if she can share these stories with her friends. I promise her many more books and adventures if she can do that.
 
Soon Darrett arrives at the library, looking satisfied in a way we do not see much. He will be joining us to investigate the dragon army going north, with a small group of 100 soldiers to avoid the notice of the Dragon Army. Some ships will ferry us at night, and we are tasked with figuring out what Soth is doing and return. The idea is that we will scout ahead, and the special ops team, and he'll bring the small army behind us. We will carry the communications devices from Tatina, and we consider maybe bringing something to help us swim in case of the floods we read about.
 
As we talk, Arinona arrives! She has returned, and has passed her test! We brief her on what she has missed so far. That night, as we get ready to board the ship, we see that Cudgel and Tatina are both joining our forces, and we are happy to have them. On the way, Waah and Tatina talk about creating flotation devices, and work on creating a plan for those involving logs and sheep bladders. In the meantime, Sterling asks me about how to better speak to others, without lying. I coach him through what I know.
 
At dawn, we arrive where we want. It is a very craggy section, and we need to find a place where we can dock securely. Darrett asks us to take a row boat and scout ahead. After some searching, we find a narrow cove, with some wooden buildings. It looks like it has been abandoned by smugglers, except that a ship there doesn't look that old. We go to the cove, and beach our row boat and scout. Most of the structures are falling apart. Arinona goes to the boat, and I sense something off, so I pull her down. We talk about it, and decide to be prepared as a group, in case there really is something there.
 
This time, I step on the boat first, and it looks great, albeit a bit old. I jump on the main deck, and get behind the hatch door so that I can open it and someone can take a look into the hull. Before we can do anything, a translucent creature comes to the deck and sees me, and comes to attack me. Later on, as we are fighting this windbag, another one shows up and joins the fight. We finally defeat the two creatures. Then a man walks up to us, speaking Salumnic with an evlish accent, and asks us, "what are you doing to my ship?"