Session 44: The Solis Templars

General Summary

Preparing for War

35th of Wintercrest 22nd year of the Second Era
The Regulators headed for the Fort Solis canteen for dinner and met the fort's second in command, Callum Owen. They discussed with him why they were there and how they came to learn about the coming incursion, and he pointed out that the fort had around 300 people defending it, which would make it suicide for three vampires to try and breach the wall no matter how powerful they are.
In this discussion they came to the conclusion that they likely weren't coming to the wall alone, and returned to Decker to tell him their theory. When they arrived, they met the head ranger, Nelya Using information from Zuko she was able to determine the exact location in the Realm of the Dead that corresponds with the tomb the vampires were in. She determined they should have arrived at Fort Solis the night before, lending credence to the theory that they were raising an army to attack the wall.
Decker called the templars to meet in the courtyard and informed them of what was coming, stressing that this would likely be the biggest threat the fort has ever faced. He offered The Regulators the opportunity to command the archers on the wall during the siege and then introduced them to the quarter master. Malcolm got help constructing his two shot cartridge based sniper rifle, Zuko and Malcolm both got upgraded armor that protected them from necrotic damage, and eliminated the noise that Zuko's current scale mail made. They also equipped Serenity with 6 special radiant bomb cannon balls.

The Siege of Fort Solis

36th of Wintercrest 22nd year of the Second Era
The Regulators were called to meet Decker on the wall at around midnight, and they watched the space beyond the wall transform as the planar rift became active. For half an hour, nothing happened, and Decker was concerned that the rangers hadn't returned yet. About 15 minutes before the end of the hour they spotted the rangers returning, and Decker asked them to come with him to meet them.
Before they reached the rangers, Malcolm used his "eyes of the grave" ability and noticed that two of the rangers had been turned vampire. Before he could get a shot off one of the vampires killed a squire, but Malcolm had enough of a warning to immediately start dealing with the threat. The third ranger was charmed, but they easily eliminated all three rangers. Decker checked the charmed ranger's journal and discovered that they had witnessed the elder vampires trying to raise an army and confronted them, which resulted in one of them being charmed, and two being turned.
A few moments later a horn was sounded from the wall, and the regulators went to their posts on the the battlements. The Solis Templars and a skeletal army exchanged bow fire as some of the skeleton soldiers climbed the wall, between their troops, the vats of holy oil, and the armaments on Serenity, they kept the army back with minimal casualties, but they were unable to stop a battering ram with an explosive from hitting the gate. For the brief moment the wall was breached, three dark blurs were seen entering the wall tunnel, and the lights in the courtyard began to blow out. Meara activated her wings and Zuko used the flying carpet to reach the courtyard quickly, as Malcolm tried to find a quick way down but was forced to take the stairs.
As they try to reach the courtyard, several rangers were slaughtered in the blink of an eye, and the three dark blurs came to a stop, throwing off their dark shrouds, revealing the three ancient vampires; Rivnaerat, Silas, Cronzun.
To be Continued...

Report Date

11 Feb 2021