Vhakizla – Chapter 16

"Winter of 13. Second Age. Nkhari Flats.
Snows’re thick. Enemy in pursuit. No longer feel my toes.
The retreat’s dragged out for weeks. Months, maybe, until the winter caught us. The enemy’s a shadow in the snows behind. Drawing ever closer. The thrak says we must push on, give them no battle, but the line is fragmented. Troops, good troops, wander into the white and never emerge. Thaosor is gone. Battle-Boast gone. Vamri...Vamri gone too.
I can see her face. I can almost...no...no. That was then. Years ago now. What is now?
Summer. Summer of...63? 66? Second Age. The swamp. The ruins. The mists.
These mists. They muddle my thinking. They are the enemy. I hear them whisper things to me. Secrets, memories, things they cannot know. What nonsense do I spill on these pages, even as battle rages about me? The company fights, while I cower? Am I mad, unmanned by mere mist? Can anyone read these scrawlings? Did I ever escape that blizzard?
Vamri. It’s not too late. Take me to that mountain lake. Vamri. Not too late for us…."
– Beholder's Log, 67 2A

As the mist cleared on the bloody battlefield, the Summer Palace lay before the Menagerie. From within came familiar screams – the voice of Griffon, crying in tortured agony. Without wasting a beat, Chimera ordered the charge and the mercenaries plunged into the palace. At the watery entrance, they were met by exsanguinated servants and Calras, Caliphar II's single remaining spawn. Battle was joined.

BATTLE STATS:
The Menagerie:

• 1 Menagerie Foot (medium standard veteran infantry)
• 1 Menagerie Artillery (medium standard veteran artillery)
• 1 Mummified Clergy (small light undead clergy)

Palace Defenders:

• 2 Exsanguinated Ambushers (small light veteran guerillas)
• 1 Vampire Spawn Ambushers (solo standard veteran guerilla)

While the rest of the mercenaries fought the exsanguinated, the Commander's Tent took the fight directly to the vampire spawn. They battled in the bloody water garden, wading through the congealing red to hack one another to pieces. Both Umber and Remorhaz quickly closed with the spawn while Mouse and Vulture kept their distance. When the Menagerie overcame their exsanguinated resistance, Chimera herself came to the party's aid and delivered the final blow with her silvered axe. Dissolving into mist, Calras led the company deeper into the temple.

BATTLE STATS:
The Menagerie:

• 1 Menagerie Foot (medium standard veteran infantry)
• 1 Menagerie Artillery (medium standard veteran artillery)
• 1 Mummified Clergy (small light undead clergy)

Palace Defenders:

• 2 Exsanguinated Ambushers (small light veteran guerillas)
• 1 Vampire Spawn (solo standard veteran guerilla)

Marching into the Summer Palace, they crossed into a vast pillared hall, hundreds of feet wide. From the side chambers poured dozens of robed tributes – humans, given to the vampire lord as sacrifices – who took up rudimentary arms to defend their dark patron. Uneasy about fighting such unarmed rabble, the screams of their companion drove the company on.

BATTLE STATS:
The Menagerie:

• 1 Menagerie Foot (medium standard veteran infantry)
• 1 Menagerie Artillery (medium standard veteran artillery)
• 1 Mummified Clergy (small light undead clergy)

Palace Defenders:

• 2 Peasant Tributes (large light conscript infantry)
• 1 Corrupted Eidolon (solo heavy elite dragon)

The peasant tribute were child's play for both the Commander's Tent and the rest of the company. It was when the corrupted eidolon – a gargantuan statue of Vhakizla, animated by the vampiric mist of Caliphar II's essence – stomped onto the field that things were complicated.
The eidolon breathed an exsanguinating breath, one that defeated an entire unit of Menagerie infantry. It attempted to ensorcel another, drawing on the company's blood that its stirges drank outside the city. Thankfully, both Umber and Vulture held fast. Climbing across its stony body, Mouse plucked the anchoring spells from the creature's stony hide and, in short order, the eidolon cracked and fell, reduced merely to mist – Caliphar II's true form. Summoning sunlight from above, Vulture vanquished the vampire, seemingly for good and all.

BATTLE STATS:
The Menagerie:

• 2 Menagerie Foot (medium standard veteran infantry)
• 1 Menagerie Artillery (medium standard veteran artillery)
• 1 Mummified Clergy (small light undead clergy)

Palace Defenders:

• 2 Peasant Tributes (large light conscript infantry)
• 1 Corrupted Eidolon (solo heavy elite dragon)

Before the mercenaries could long celebrate their victory, another scream drove them deeper into the palace. There, in a lightless chamber, they found the body of Griffon, locked in an iron maiden and barely clinging to life. When they freed him, he whispered one simple request – "Find my sword" – and then collapsed, lifelessly, to the floor.

Campaign: The Menagerie
Game Date: Gnoson 32, 67 2A
Starting Point: Akiz
Player Characters:

• Mouse
• Remorhaz
• Umber
• Vulture