Entry 6 - Stonebreaker

[Unredacted version]
 
In which we investigate the strange happenings at Heroes’ Ridge, meet a great hero of Amaranth and encounter the devils Illuminay and Agara.
 
With a day’s wait for the diplomats to be ready, we decided that rest was for those with little imagination and set out for Heroes’ Ridge, to investigate the stories of strange goings-on there while we were close enough to do so. It was a bright, clear day as we flew across Destra’s Wall. The dwarven settlements behind it, where Meena comes from, are always a hive of activity. The dwarves work hard to constantly improve the wall with trebuchets and traps, in case we must once again repel the attacks of Malthracion. The landscape showed no signs of habitation until we came to an enormous ridge covered with defoliated forest and areas of graves, many more recent than the Age of Heroes. It is still an honour to be buried so close to the last stand of such great warriors.
 
Melody’s report on the recent events at Heroes’ Ridge was grim: the forest was encroaching on the currently graveyards at an alarming pace, while purple thunderstorms and looming darkness were seen overhead. The dwarves on Destra’s Wall have reported “unchecked wailing” and “cries of the damned” issuing from the forest. We disembarked from the Star Chaser on the outskirts of the forest. I could hear nothing, but my crewmates detected a keening on the wind. Teleos, a stalwart and faithful minotaur, felt a deep-rooted shudder and a sense of wrongness - of the dead, and something not quite dead. The forest was dense nearby, showing signs of rapid but unhealthy growth.
 
We investigated the graveyard further. It was what one might expect: large, sturdy tombs and mausoleums in the dwarven style, built to last much longer than wooden grave markers. The shrines to Valeria and Somnus in the centre still stood proud, but as we pressed further in, we found a monolith, older than many of the other tombs, declaring this to be the resting place of Urhan Stonebreaker, Master of War. Pandy related the story of his heroism: he was the husband of Destra, builder of the wall, and had a reputation as a great general and warrior in his own right. The grave must be 800 years old, by the historical record, but no dates were listed upon it. To our horror, the slab covering the grave was cracked by the impact of something large and circular hitting it - something a little bigger than Teleos’ warhammer. The remains of the slab lay to either side of an empty coffin, dust the only sign of Urhan Stonebreaker’s remains.
 
Korrall noticed a scrap of brownish-red linen with rough edging like a monk’s robe caught on the fence and cloven hoofprints of the same size as a satyr’s leading into the forest. Pandy was able to sense that the cloth came from some magic clothing imbued with flame, while Teleos could tell that it was not an aura of the undead, but still dark and malevolent. Perdun guided us through the forest quietly, despite the dry, rough ground riven with pits. While this uncertain footing is part of the nature of the forest, the rot seemed to be making it worse.
 
I sensed an undead presence calling, so I drew my sword and set off into the forest. We found ourselves in a fifteen-foot-wide clearing, at the centre of which was a translucent stout bearded figure, chained with manacles that plunged deep into the ground. I know little of ghosts, but he seemed to have well-defined features - dwarven, with a well-plaited beard indicating his nobility. This, it seemed, was the ghost of Urhan Stonebreaker. Though he could not see us, he could hear usm and described a strange beastie with curved horns and brimstone around its beard that dragged him into the forest and bound him with intangible chains sunk securely in the earth. Urhan could feel himself growing weaker, and indeed, we could sense that his righteousness was ebbing away, drawn in the direction of the tracks out of this clearing.
 
Of course, we knew we had to free him, both to weaken whatever foul force was desecrating this sacred place and to restore dignity to one of Ameranth’s greatest heroes. We dug deep, eventually unearthing two twelve-sided somewhat spherical objects of metal holding the chains in place. Upon each face of the object was a burning rune, a language that none of us could translate but seemed to be of powers beyond the material. Pandy could tell us that the runes or magical language was linked to binding and necromancy, and that the hint of flame within the object was a signature of the caster. We decided not to risk smashing it for the time being - Urhan would be harmed by holding the spheres, but we could carry them safely and bring him with us. We paused as Pandy unpicked the bindings.
Korrall had noticed another keening in the distance that fell silent as we uncovered the object - it seemed something had noticed us. And indeed, Teleos spotted something batlike landing on a tree, a pair of yellow eyes meeting his gaze before flapping away. With the help of a levitated torch, Teleos was able to identify it as an imp, a form of minor devil, likely subservient to some larger devil.
 
Once Urhan had been freed of his chains, the colour began to return to his spectral form. As one might expect from such a bold warrior, he was keen to fight the thing that had chained him so, drawing his greatsword, Destra, from his back in readiness for the fight.
 
As we pressed on through the forest, the dark clouds made it like night, lit only by flashes of purple lightning overhead. We could sense something ahead and caught sight of a humanoid with curved horns, cloved hooves and a fiery beard dripping embers. His limbs moved in magical passes for some dread summoning. He addressed us directly and introduced himself as Illuminay: one of the Malthracions did a deal to bind him into this act. He claimed that Pandy was no ordinary Tiefling, which is obviously preposterous, and so she, in an understandable response, brought her sorcerous powers to bear and shot him with a bolt of energy.
An imp appeared from the shadows of the forest and another tore its way through a hole in reality, one attacking me and the other throwing a fireball at Teleos. Korrall became that primal shape she favours and batted one of the imps around like a cat, but to my horror and shame, when I was knocked over by a blast from one of the devils, flames wreathing all around me, Illuminay’s corrupted power took over my mind. The fight whirled around me, as Pandy and Kyan were harried by the imps and a female devil stepped from the darkness to try and stab Teleos in the back, thankfully with little effect as her knives clattered down his armour. Illuminay’s command was cruel: I found myself unable to resist as I charged my captain, hitting her with a mighty blow, but the shock of doing so gave me the strength to force the devil from my heart and I turned my shield in defence of Pandemonium.
 
She, in turn, rained starfire upon our foes, while Perdun caught the stealthy female devil by surprise. Finally, Urhan charged towards Illuminay and smote him with his greatsword, cleaving the devil’s physical form apart. As Urhan took his righteous vengeance on the being that desecrated his bones, his spectral form began to grow less substantial, as though what held him here was dissipating. The female devil continued to fight longer, but between Perdun’s agile blows and Korrall’s terrifying maw, she quickly fell and disintegrated into bones.
 
Our trials were not over: even as I apologised profusely to my captain for my uncontrolled actions (and she forgave me with grace), we still heard a keening sound from deeper in the forest, where Urhan’s remains lay. With Urhan’s form fading, we had little time to lose - Perdun drew upon the power of Somnus to strengthen the ghostly hero. I and Teleos placed our hands upon Urhan’s shoulders and caught a glimpse of where his body lay: a clearing, at the centre of which was a burning pyre of skeletons surrounded by runes that glowed the same eerie purple as the unnatural lightning splitting the skies. Forewarned as to the terrible sight we would encounter, we readied ourselves for a fight. The clearing was true to our vision, a vile ritual, overseen by a devil with a quadrupedal body with skeletal dog paws and human torso whose night-black skin was stretched tight over prominent bones. Its eyes glowed purple as it sensed our approach and it told us that its name was Agara, a devil from a plane called the Hells, now destroyed.
 
Agara’s task was to raise an army of Amaranthine dead. The Malthracions believe their dead to by mystically important, and so the devil will be paid 10 Malthracion souls in return for its help. Part of its soul is kept in Malthracia, so it returns there when slain rather than winking out of existence, as the Hells are no longer its home. It raised the burning skeletons of the Amaranthine dead to oppose us, but we forced that devil to its knees and slew it without hesitation.