Shadow War campaign In-Game: Chapter 67- Return to Union Point

The Shadow War

Chapter 67
Return to Union Point

It has taken almost eight hours of travel through the Plane of Shadows. Though you seem to virtually glide through the realm of murky shade, the sheer length of the trip wears on you. It has not prevented aching feet, blisters, or the desire to rest.

Faerun's name is mentioned many times. For many, it is simply wishing he was present to provide his amazing Nexus shift ability. For some, his absence is felt far deeper than weary bones and aching flesh.

Still, none can deny the great boon provided by Tren "Ark" Moonstride as you cover half the continent in a single day. The Plane of Shadow is not like the Grey Realm. Rather it is filled with the shadows for which it is named but they seem almost tangible.

The shadows swirl and move about you like living things. Sometimes you think you hear whispers but the words are gone before your mind can gather them.

It is cold here. It is a chill unlike the Grey Mountains but more reminiscent of the chill you felt when touched by Lyric Blackthere and her kind.

The wraith-child of Evanard Blackthere looks about curiously as she glides effortlessly through the black. Tren, you sometimes hear her speak briefly to nothing; words of greeting and curiosity. When asked of her conversations, she shrugs incorporeal shoulders and says the sleeping people are talking to her.

It is impossible to distinctly perceive the material plane as you pass by it. However, Tren, you realize the mortal world is far more perceptible than it has ever been. The borders between the two seem vague, like transluscent silk curtains drawn over the world.

At one point, you are able to notice a large contingent of people traveling south. Some two-thousand strong, you realize they must be the Legion/Kaazradi party led by Sir Peter Carrigan and Field Marshall Aeslindorn. Now that word has reached them that Monarch City is inexplicably safe from the Vaadjori invasion, they have turned south to meet you in Union Point.

Another two hours later, you find yourselves drifting through an ancient wall made of huge boulders and dozens of buildings left black and grey by the shadows around you. As you sense a large open arena to your left, you know you must be in West Wellington.

Home for Donovan, Moira, and Erika, it seems like home to several others.The place where it all began, West Wellington beckons you with memories of a cold ale at the Oak Haven Inn, the light and sound of the capitol city, and the comfort of good friends.

Bedlor, you feel a twisting ache in your heart and it takes no effort to discover its source. Heather Donnell is close, perhaps mere feet from you as you drift through West Wellington.

Yesterday was a difficult day of discovery about your past but the yearning for the future holds as much grief. Like Kallum, you find yourself making the hard sacrifices of love for the sake of duty. You promise yourself it will have its reward when the Shadow War is done.

Before you can hope to look for the bountiful blonde hair, curvaceous shape, or heart-stopping smile (even though you know you can sense none of that from here), you are drawn past the city at rapid speed as you head on southward.

Not long after you know your destination is near. You slow, as if drifting into the docks from a long river journey.

Tren, you sense something above you. Some two-hundred feet from what should be ground level in the mortal plane, something shimmers in the ether.

It seems to be some sort of rift in the Plane of Shadows; a tear that pulsates like a living thing. It may in fact be invisible to you, for you feel it more than see it with your eyes.

But it beats like a heart. With every beat you feel the pulse reverberate through your body. As you draw beneath it, you realize the rhythm of the rift, your own heart, and the pulsing of your shard are the same.

You push lightly at the borders of the Shadow Plane and find yourselves exiting it into the material world. It is near sunset, The Eye casting long rays from the west that turn the now-red clouds a brilliant orange.

For those who left only two days ago, Union Point is not the place you last saw. What was once nothing more than a small, humble gardening village has been transformed into a fortress of staggering design.

All of the homes and shops that were once simple affairs now have iron shutters that can enclose them if needed to thwart intruders. Some doors have been reinforced and the thatch roofs have been replaced with slate to prevent them from catching ablaze.

The Temple of Dalophor still sits at the south end of the city. The eighty-foot tall dome and key-shaped structure has had its front door replaced. The symbols of Celestryn and Aurora once again shine, literally, from the doors as Master Landru has made the necessary repairs.

The Temple doors stand open. Although you cannot see it, most of you know the invisible barrier erected by the god Ximon to turn away Angels-now-dragons is still in place.

At the north of Union Point, the old community temple is dwarfed by the one-hundred-twenty foot Alabaster Tower behind it. Once the home to the world's most powerful wizards, the tower rises like a white spire over the city.

The former home of Master Landru Lothnaru...as well as Master Hayden Hyde and his lieutenant, the elf Evanard Blackthere...the magical protections against scrying provide a safe sanctuary for meetings.

Surrounding Union Point is now a wall one-hundred feet in height. It wasn't there two days ago but has now almost magically appeared to encompass the entire city. But you know it is not magic that has erected the wall but the terraforming power of the Earthkin race befriended long ago by Landru.

The wall is octagonal, cutting in shorter segments on the north-east, north-west, south-west, and south-east corners to both match the original configuration of the village and to prevent a mass insurgance by felling a single wall. The stones are five feet thick and equally as tall.

As you study the layout more carefully, you see that there are in fact two walls around the city, each of equal depth and separated by a ten foot area in between. The double walls provide not only a multiple defense but allow for the safe and rapid movement of personnel and arms within the closed wall system.

The outer walls sport a crenelated parapet with a wall walk on the interior to allow archers and mechanical defenses to fire from the tops of the walls. The parapet also features machicolation over stone corbels, with murder holes facing straight down to rain arrows on would-be attackers.

You see the commoners brought from West Wellington working to also erect giant pots near the holes that you assume will contain boiling oil if needed. The bloodfall may not be the worst rain the Ravager's forces encounter.

At the juncture of each wall segment, a high round tower has been placed. There are eight in all. Each stands slightly higher than the wall but the tops are enclosed.

Following Aphra's suggestions from before, the towers have been constructed to defend from attacks from above as well as below. Numerous arrow slits with sealable openings dot the lower portion of the tower domes while the points of huge ballista cannons can be seen angling toward the sky to defend against flying dragons.

There are four gates, two to the west and two to the east. Each sports a gatehouse to defend these vulnerable areas of access into Union Point.

The gatehouses each feature two portcullises, one on the inner wall and one on the outer, as well as a drawbridge on the outermost section. The Knights of Bragendol, whose own hold of Madrell's Rock has never fallen, have instructed the Earthkin on the construction of barbicans on the outer wall of the gatehouses, fitted with additional turrets and an enfilade to catch anyone attacking the gatehouse in a crossfire of arrows.

The drawbridges are down and you can see that the industrious Earthkin have built a moat around the outer wall of the city, most likely filled by diverting the water from underground. You see more commoners and some Knights out in the river, diving below with chests carried out into the thirty foot wide moat on rafts.

Looking into a few of the open chests, you see large ground spikes and an assortment of bear traps being taken below the surface. Any man or horse, even warhorses, who charge the moat are in for a dastardly surprise.

As you take all of this in, you hear steel sliding from a hundred scabbards and spears being leveled in your direction as you suddenly appear en masse in the middle of Union Point's defenses. The dwindling sunlight glints off the shields of the Knights Bragendol, Aeslindorn, and Stowell as a voice sounds nearby.

"If you wanted to prove that all this work to keep people out was a waste of time, I think you've done it."

"Welcome home, everyone," Tom Knox chides you good-naturedly as he approaches, his new Magistrate's tabard a deep blue over silver chain mail and his silver badge of office reflecting red in the sunset.

"What do ya think?" he asks, holding his arms open and turning slightly in place as he gestures to Union Point.