The colossus is forty feet tall, a vortex of green light and spiraling shapes, vaguely in the shape of a man, with elongated arms and legs. The sight is horrid to behold, casting a sickly emerald glow over the ramparts of Castle Eryth. It emerges slowly from the treeline before the castle, moving ponderously, barely touching the ground, a a sweeping breeze running swiftly alongside it, carrying snowflakes, leaving and debris with it and hurling them wildly about.
The giant lumbers forward towards the great gate of the Castle. Kane, Khom-Bei and Thragga stand atop the forward rampart, near the guardhouse, watchful. The Oathkeepers and Companion knights also watch, never having seen its like in all their time defending the Westwall. This abomination is a creature from legend.
The breeze bears the rank odor of death, spilling over you like a fetid cloud. The vortex swirls with the souls of those trapped in the spell which created it.
Garvin snaps at the men on the rampart, "Man the walls! We are under attack!" Even in his weakened state, he hoists his giant mace.
Men scramble to their posts, manning the giant arbalests, the great crossbows that look out from the walls. Archers hustle into place, lining up on the walls and setting arrows to strings.
Garvin says in an aside to Khom-Bei, "This ain't your fight, lads..."
Kane scans the ground around the colossus to see what is accompanying this monster.
Khom-Bei shakes his head sadly, "But it is. That....thing...is made up of the remains of my kinsmen. They must be allowed to go to their ancestors."
Kane says, "You are wrong Garvin, this fight belongs to all men."
The colossus strides forward, in a mockery of the motion of a living thing. You three, who are closest to the construct, now can hear voices over the breeze, like a hundred different mutterings, pleadings for help, cursing, crying, shrieking in madness. They emanate from the flashing fragments that whirl in the vortex.
Thragga nods. "We stand with you." he tells Garvin.
Garvin nods. "Very well then. Let's send it cryin' back to its mother!"
At a signal, the great crossbows loose a hail four foot bolts at the colossus. The bolts lance into the vortex, smoking and fizzling, but it comes on.
Khom-Bei raises his hands and calls out in a clear voice, "Great Father, we call on you now to aid us in this fight."
You and the Ress take heart at Khom-Bei's pagan words, and cry out in fury as they engage the foe.
As you watch, the bolts dissolve into green light, and the Ress archers now loose a storm of arrows. They pierce the colossus, wounding it, but still it comes on, approaching the great gate that you stand above.
Khom-Bei says, "Great Father, give me the strength to fight this foul creation."
Kane says to Garvin, "Garvin, what about flaming arrows? Do your archers have pitch buckets?"
Garvin shakes his head. "As a last resort, Kane. If we light it afire, and it comes near t' the Castle, th'flames could spread back to us."
The colossus reaches out for an Oathkeeper standing behind Garvin. The swirling green arm, glowing brightly, slams him easily against the rampart, shattering his skull. With its other swirling arm, the colossus slams the great gate, which holds, solidly.
Khom-Bei faces the abomination and calls out to it, "Foul creation, the Great Father commands you to release his people and to be gone from this earth."
The colossus turns its head towards Khom-Bei, where he stands on the rampart with his arms spread. The thing's great green arm, that so casually hurled the Oathkeeper aside, now stretches for the Northerling.
Thragga whirls his bloody axe into motion, crying out in wordless fury as he springs for the arm reaching for Khom-Bei. His axe hacks into the great appendage.
Kane springs into action a moment after Thragga and whirls Light Bringer at the advancing arm.
The arm swings about the rampart wildly. It relents its quest to grab Khom-Bei and both arms now batter at the great gates of the castle. A great fragment shatters from the gate, but it holds.
The warriors on the walls pour down fire on it now. The thing stands right before the rampart where you stand, within striking distance of your weapons.
Khom-Bei steps back from the fray and calls out again, "In the name of the Great Father, I command you to be gone!"
Garvin clobbers the thing with his mace, standing beside Kane.
The archers reload and fire, releasing another volley of arrows into the snowy night.
Below you, in the courtyard, comes the voice of Castellan Rhyan, barking orders to his men. Without the King in sight, he is like a horse freed of its traces, now. They hurry to comply, well trained and dutiful. The Castellan spies you on the wall and scrambles up a ladder to join you there.
Thragga climbs atop the wall and hacks down at the giant.
In the great glowing vortex, you can see faces, some contorted in agony. One swirls past Khom-Bei's eyes, screaming in madness, the face of an old Northerling woman.
The colossus reaches up to strike at the Urag.
Kane runs over to aid Thragga, driving Light Bringer into the giant monstrosity.
Khom-Bei steps forward and calls to his Power as he touches Thragga's shoulder, "Great Father, give your servant strength for this struggle."
Kane drives his blade between a pair of ghostly eyes, dark as a warrior of the Northern plains.
The colossus seizes the Urag in its grip, the arm retracts and Thragga is pulled within the great glowing figure. You can see him within, kicking furiously.
Kane's blade slices a ghostly face, one of the souls that forms the giant.
Garvin strikes, fast and deadly for a fat man, just as Khom-Bei recalls.
Oathkeepers rush up to join your position. One is struck down by a stray arm, collapsing dead at Kane's feet.
Thragga wrestles and struggles, kicking free of the green vortex. He is suspended thirty feet above the ground, stretching for the wall. His hand stretches for the warriors on rampart. His head emerges with a scream of pure animal fury.
Kane grips Thragga's arm and the Urag leaps clear, landing on the rampart beside Kane with a grunt. Green vapors flutter about him and his skin is icy cold to the touch.
The Castellan races towards you on the rampart. He sees the lifeless body of his sister lying close beside you. Khom-Bei stands closest to him, Garvin and Kane face the creature.
The multiple voices of the colossus shriek in agony as Thragga fights clear, and the thing hurls itself against the gate in fury.
The gate shudders and thunders, but holds.
Garvin leans over the wall and strikes, but the giant is too far to reach for Garvin's mace.
Khom-Bei steps forward and calls to his Power as he touches Kane's shoulder, "Great Father, give your servant strength for this struggle."
Rhyan studies the body of his sister, bloodied but peaceful now, in death. He stoops over her to stroke her red hair.
The great crossbows unleash more bolts into the colossus, which recoils now under the heavy fire.
Kane turns to Khom-Bei and says, "Look in the woods behind the monster. That is where its Vorghol masters hide!" He points. The shapes he indicates are out of bowshot, shadowy figures moving in the trees, hard to see in this windblown snowy night, even for a Selandri.
Thragga spits a great green glob at the abomination. "Is that the best you got?" he cries. He clambers up on the rampart as if he wants to leap on the thing's back.
Rhyan looks up. He lifts his sister's sword, which is spattered with and red Reith and green Urag blood.
Thragga looks back to Kane. "Who's with me?" he says, edging up to the ledge for a leap.
Khom-Bei says, "Thragga, no!"
Kane says, "You great oaf, do you want to be sucked into that thing again! You can do more damage to it from the outside!" He spares a look for Rhyan to judge his intent.
Thragga scowls. He hefts his axe and strikes at an arm as it slides past him, groping for Khom-Bei again. The whirling axe spins and misses the great glowing arm.
Kane once again charges the giant monster hoping to drive it back.
Rhyan kisses his dead sister's forehead, then rises, furious. He lifts Raelere's sword and then strikes alongside Kane.
Garvin adds his own blow from his mace.
The arm recoils in agony at the triple blows, spewing green mist.
Khom-Bei staggers back and slumps against the wall, "Great Father, preserve me in your service."
Ser Joric appears behind Rhyan. He tells the Castellan, "Treachery, Castellan, foul treachery."
Kane leans over the wall to strike at the beast with his flaming sword. The great horror slips from Kane's range, taking another lumbering step backwards.
The Oathkeepers on the wall fire arrows furiously. The colossus seems to wither, almost, like a plant exposed to too much light,
Thragga tells Kane, "We have it on the run! Look!" As Thragga points, the great creature takes a step back from the wall. Then another, appearing confused.
Khom-Bei hauls himself upright and looks around for casualties to assist.
The colossus takes a running charge at the gate now, in one final attempt to bring it down.
The gate shudders, but the Vulkah built well. "She'll hold!" Garvin says. "Khom-Bei here helped jam them shut just i'th' nick o'time."
Thragga strikes at a swinging arm. The Urag slips in his hurry and his blow goes wide of the mark.
Kane, seeing the colossus come back in range of his sword, dashes to the wall and slashes at the great abomination. Kane's blow strikes at nothing but green mist.
More fire pours down on the creature, from Ress archers, and it staggers back.
Garvin laughs. "Go back to hell, y'cursed thing!"
The creature withdraws a pace. Then another. Then a third. As it does so, shadows emerge from the trees.
With a cry and a roar, the figures charge forward, with the swiftness of Vorghol. There appear to be dozens of them. And the great colossus charges forward as well, great shape and small ones racing forward towards the wall. The colossus has been joined by a small army of Vorghol warriors, racing for the wall.