After taking a short break from the King's feast in Castle Eryth, the three of you and Garvin went outside to relax. But Garvin noticed that the wall patrols weren't on schedule, and led you up to the Castle ramparts, where you discovered terrible treachery.
Kane senses an undead presence outside the Castle but cannot say where. He says, "This is the work of the Vorghol."
An armored figure appears from the shadows on the rampart. Sword drawn, her flaming red hair flaked with snow. It's Raelere. "Garvin! I'm so glad ye've come. There's trouble..." She points across the rampart, towards the small gatehouse, above the main gate. It's silent and dark there.
Garvin says, clutching his mace with both hands."What's this, lassie? We'll soon sort this out!"
Khom-Bei says, "Wait, Garvin..."
Garvin starts forward. As he does, Raelere plunges her longsword through his neck, the point emerging from the far side. He drops, and she turns towards you, coolly, Garvin's blood dripping from her sword, staining the snowy cobbles of the rampart. "Trouble..." she repeats.
Kane faces Raelere. "Trouble indeed. Why have you turned traitor against your own people?"
As Garvin's body falls to the ground, Khom-bei howls his rage into the night and charges Raelere with his hammer swinging, "Garvin!"
Raelere's eyes glint, as if under the Vorghol domination. She smiles, viciously, sword held before her. "Do ye want a turn, too?" she taunts.
Kane says, "Hold, Khom-Bei! She has been dominated by the Vorghol. She is not in control of herself."
Thragga hurls himself forward, furious. "Vengeance!" he roars into the silent night.
Kane shouts, "No, Thragga, she needs our help! She is under the spell of the Vorghol."
Raelere falls back before a massive blow from Thragga's axe, which resounds off her right shoulderplate. She was standing atop Garvin's mortally wounded form, but she staggers a few steps as Thragga barrels forward. Then she aims a skillful counterstrike at the oncoming Urag.
Raelere's longsword nicks Thragga's neck as he lumbers past. She regains her footing and adopts an en garde posture as Kane and Khom-Bei approach.
Garvin lies on the cobbled rampart between you, gory neck pumping red into the new fallen snow.
Thragga roars in pain and fury. "Death before slavery, Kane!" he cries.
Kane says, "Remember that you are alive today to say that."
The rampart on which you stand is a broad one, ten feet wide, with a crenellated wall about waist high facing out of the castle, and a lower rail circling the courtyard of the castle. About thirty feet in front of you, and behind Raelere, is the guard house where the gates of the castle are operated by massive levers and pulleys. No movement is seen within the guardhouse.
Kane, not wanting to hurt Raelere, attempts to disarm her.
As Kane sidles in, Raelere lunges, blade held before her. She strikes swiftly. Her Oathkeeper greatsword pierces Kane's armor, cutting into the flesh of his chest.
Raelere taunts, "Is that th'best y'have?" Her voice is a cruel mockery of the patient and kind Knight you met in the woods.
Kane brings up his blade. Lightbringer's fiery steel sparks against Raelere's Oathkeeper blade, but she clings to the sword, weaving a curtain of steel before her.
Seeing Garvin's blood flowing so freely, Khom-bei drops to his knees and places his hands over the gushing wound, "Great Father, heal your servant."
Garvin clutches at Khom-Bei's cloak, gasping in agony, as his lifeblood spills from the arteries in his neck. A glow suffuses Khom-Bei's hands and face and the edges of the Knight's wounds knit closed, the blood flow slowing.
Thragga hurls himself at Raelere again. "You shall not serve the Vorghol, Raelere! I will kill you first!" He drives his axe into Raelere's armored stomach. The wind whooshes from her, but she rallies and lashes out with her blade.
Raelere cuts deep into the flesh of the Urag's thigh and laughs. "Ye cannot win!" she shrieks. "I just need t'call to the troops below, and me brother's men'll come running and strike all ye down..." she chides.
Khom-Bei stands and raises his hands to the sky, "Great Father, banish the darkness from this place." In answer to Khom-Bei's imprecation, only the large wet snowflakes fall.
"And then his Lordship'll drink y're blood..." Raelere says, savagely.
Kane shouts, "Fight the Vorghol spell, Raelere! You are stronger then they are, girl!"
"I'll show ye strength, Kane!" Raelere hisses.
Thragga gives a full-throated roar and charges Raelere. Surely the din is audible below you in the courtyard, and every Ressi would know the sound of an Urag battle roar.
Thragga is berserk now. "I will save you, Raelere!" he shrieks.He hacks with his axe, driving her back into the bloody snow. She aims a riposte at his eyes.
While Raelere trades blows with Thragga, Kane makes a run for the gate house.
Far below, in the courtyard, some soldiers have noticed the battle on the walls and call up to you. "Ho there! Who's that? Alarm! Alarm!" They bang swords on shields to make noise and draw help.
Holy fire lances from Khom-Bei's hands into Thragga, and the Urag grips his axe with renewed vigor. Thragga cries, "Now we finish this!"
Kane yells back to Thragga, "Hold back your blow brother, she is still our friend!"
Thragga slams Raelere with his axe, knocking teeth from the woman's head. But she's made of stern stuff, and lunges at the huge Urag.
Thragga knocks her blow aside with contempt.
Garvin tries to rise, pulling himself up on the crenellated wall.
Thragga hisses, "The Vorghol have made you weak, girl! Death is a favor for you!"
Kane sprints to the gate house to ensure that the gate is still secure.
To Kane's horror, the main gate is just slightly ajar. Possibly Raelere was interrupted by your arrival. The gates are secured by a system of winches and pulleys. Someone has sliced the cable that links the winch to the counterweight, which sits at the foot of the gate. The rope is still wrapped around the pulley, and if enough weight were attached to the rope, and that weight dropped, the gate would surely slide closed.
Khom-Bei swings his warhammer wildly and catches Raelere a glancing blow. Raelere, reeling from Thragga's blow, is battered back by Khom-Bei's great hammer.
Kane grabs the rope and attempts to haul the gate closed. Now he can see a breeze tickling the tops of the trees just outside the gates. He spies that a greenish light has begun to glow over the snow-covered trees. "Something is coming this way!" he shouts to his comrades.
Shaking her head, Raelere cries, "Murder! Oathkeepers, arise! Arise!"
Kane's not strong enough to haul the gate closed with his arms. He shouts again, "Thragga, come here I need your help with the gate!"
Below, in the courtyard, Knights and soldiers charge for the rampart stairs, the same way you came. They will climb the stairs in a moment.
Thragga spins his axe and redoubles his efforts to slash Raelere.
Kane shouts again, "Khom-Bei, Garvin, quick! The gate must be secured!"
Khom-Bei says, "Garvin, talk to them! Explain what's happened to her."
Thragga's axe catches her under the neck and she staggers back, spouting blood, and collapsing between two crenellations. The red-haired knight lies still.
Thragga moves forward to kick her over the edge.
Garvin tries to rise, still weakened from loss of blood, and lifts his own blade.
Khom-Bei runs to answer Kane's call.
Kane seeing the blood shouts, "Thragga no!!!!"
The green light outside is brighter now, and an electric charge tickles your hair. A breeze now blows just outside the castle, stirring the falling snowflakes, although no breeze blows within.
Kane stares in disbelief. He says to no one in particular "We could have saved her, we should have saved her..."
The cable is still attached, and it will take a new counterweight to replace the old one. But if a sufficient weight were put in its place, and sunk, the gate would close.
Kane continues to stare in disbelief at the spot where Raelere was felled. He does not let go of the rope, but neither does he maske a move to do anything else.
Shadowed figures lurk in the treeline away from the Castle wall.
Khom-Bei says, "Thragga! Help us here!"
There are voices in the air. Snippets of sound, like people talking in the Northerling tongue.
Khom-Bei takes hold of the rope next to Kane and throws his small body into it. He says, "Kane! If we don't get the gate closed, there will be more victims to mourn over."
A whisper here, a shriek there, a mutter here, a cry for pity there. The green light glows brighter now, outside the castle, and now a breeze buffets the trees. Something is forming out there, before the Castle gates.
Kane tries one more time, "Thragga, get over here, you oaf before I cut your ears off myself!" he yells.
At the top of the stairs, Ser Joric and ten royal Companions burst onto the rampart, weapons drawn.
Thragga whirls on them, axe in both hands, covered with blood, breathing furiously, about to hurl Raelere into the darkness.
Garvin draws himself up. "Nae! Don't kill th'Urag! The Vorghol are 'pon us!"
Khom-Bei yells, "Oathkeepers! The gate is open and the cable cut! Help us close it before they are upon us!"
Joric, the King's nephew, barks out orders. "Murder! Treachery! Kill the Urag and the Nedri!"
The only way to close the gate would be to attach a suitable counterweight to the cable and drop it. The counterweight lying at the base of the gate looks to be about the weight of a man, maybe more.
Kane looks around for another suitable counter weight.
Khom-Bei grabs the cable and jumps off the wall, hanging on with all his strength. The Northerling flies off into space and the cable snaps taut. He lands roughly at the base of the gate, his palms fiery with friction. The pulley creaks and grinds and the great gate slides closed.
Thragga hisses, "I...saved her." He looks relieved as he turns to confront Joric.
Some of the Companions are looking towards Kane and Khom-Bei in the guard tower, confused. One points in astonishment as Khom-Bei swings into midair and closes the gate with his own weight. There's a huge thud as the great Vulkah-made gate slides closed.
Khom-Bei turns and runs back up the stairs to the top of the wall, "Oathkeepers, to arms, to arms! The enemy is upon us!."
A vortex of green light has begun to spiral in the trees before the gate. Within the vortex spin forms, perhaps human, perhaps not, ghostly and incorporeal and casting a baleful glow. Kane has not seen that glow since he explored the ruins of an ancient tower in Anghara.
Thragga, impossibly, tenderly pulls Raelere from the wall and takes her in his arms.
Joric looks from Khom-Bei to Thragga. "This...this..what is this?" He is a royal Companion, a court knight, and no Oathkeeper. He doesn't know the realities of the frontier.
Kane shouts, "The abomination is upon us! All men to arms!"
The vortex begins to take a new shape. In the snowy wind, lightning strikes, once, and then twice, followed by thunder. This must be the storm which Dhar-bo spoke of.
Alarms ring out in the castle, shouts, the racing of booted feet.
Thragga cradles Raelere's head.
Khom-Bei stops next to Thragga and places a hand on his friend's shoulder, "She is at peace now and safe from the Dark Ones, but there is more to be done."
Everyone watches in awe and astonishment as the shape forms. The shape of a vast giant, forty feet tall, a green, glowing colossus, a thing of unholy, unclean light, but writhing with life. The life of the dozens of souls that make it up, whirling about like leaves in a storm. Faces form in the mass, and then vanish. Voices scream, plead, gibber, howl.
Kane stares out at the creature taking shape and wonders what evil magic could bring such a thing to life.
Thragga nods to his friend. He sets down his burden, and takes up his axe again.
Garvin bellows at the Companions: "Don't gawk, y'worms! Take up arms!" Even Joric steps back, impressed by the older knight's command voice.
Thragga stands alongside Kane and Khom-Bei, looking out at the colossus as it approaches the wall.
Kane says to his companions, "Let's pray to the Powers it doesn't like the taste of steel."
Khom-Bei says, "Let us pray that it doesn't like the taste of us, as well."
A tall figure stands atop the central keep's roof, a torch held high. The torch is hurled into the castle beacon, and it flares to life, the great blaze sending the signal out to the other castles on the mighty Westwall. SEND AID! The blazing firelight reveals the figure to be Rhyan, the Castellan and Raelere's brother.
Rhyan calls out, fist held high in defiance, "We are Ress! We guard!"
The Ress words are taken up by the other Oathkeepers and even Joric joins in. "We guard! We guard! We guard!!"