The Battle of Flamekeep



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When Moriarty learns about how Thrane is fixated on eliminating Zergiot, and has even obtained Aundair's help with this, he decides they need to be stopped. Moriarty finds Zergiot to be a profitable business partner and if he's eliminated then the wars might end which will affect his arms sales. Also, even if Aundair and New Galifar don't ally together, New Galifar will be free to possibly take territory Moriarty controls.

He decides since Flamekeep and Aundair are massing their armies at The Lurching Tower and Vathirond for an obvious invasion of Darguun, Moriarty decides to perform a massive raid on Flamekeep. If enough damage is done it will delay the invasion and also disrupt the leadership and supplies of the invasion making it not as effective. Instead of sending an agent, Moriarty sends out an armada of ships, crewed by Lhazaar pirates, and loaded with Dwarven soldiers to attack Flamekeep.

The armada consisted of:
25 small ships
25 medium-small ships
25 medium ships
24 large ships
1 siege ship

The siege ship was a specially reconstructed vessel that had a large siege tower on it and able to hold more troops then usual. However this meant unlike the other ships in the armada it was completely unarmed. The leader of this battle was a dwarven general named Harold. He was accompanied by Daragmeth and Mellos who had been hired by Moriarty.

The journey was uneventful until they reached the ruins of the White Arch Bridge in Scions Sound. A flotilla of 21 ships, flying the flag of New Galifar barred their way. One of the ships came forward and magically projected the voice of a negotiator on the ship. The negotiator demanded to know why the Mror Holds were coming in force to Thronehold. With Harolds permission, Mellos magically projected his voice and responded back. He explained that they had no intention of going to Thronehold and were headed to Flamekeep. Mellos told the negotiator that their ships were full of supplies to help the war torn area that used to be Thrane. He also said the soldiers were there join the Silver Flame's crusade against Zergiot.

Mellos' bluff was successful, the lead ship announced it would lead the armada to Flamekeep. The other 20 ships moved into an 'honor guard' position where they were in 2 lines of 10 ships each with an open channel between them. The channel only had room for one ship to pass through at a time. Their bows facing towards the center. The lead ship went through first guiding them through.

Harold received order from Moriarty that he didn't think this was a trap, but that this would be a good opportunity to damage the New Galifar fleet since they are a threat to the independence of the Mror Holds. Orders were given for the first ships to pass through being the smallest ship. The first 10 ships loaded their cannons with chain shot to disable, while all the others had normal cannonballs loaded.

When the first 10 ships were lined up they fired all at once on both sides at the New Galifar ships. The gunners aiming was spot on and most of the ships were crippled by the chain shot. Only one New Galifar ship made it through the volley unscathed. It immediately started turning to bring it's cannons to bear while Moriarty's armada continued to sail through. The following ships targeted the undamaged ship first and sank it before it could finish turning to fire it's guns. The guide ship, seeing what had happened behind them, sailed as quickly as it could to Thronehold, Harold let it go. The remaining honor guard ships got hit by a volley from some of the following ships to further weaken them and confirm no retaliation. By the end only 2 ships remained floating and they completely disabled. Harold wanted to save ammunition for the the assault on Flamekeep so they didn't go out of their way to sink all the ships or the lifeboats. The entire armada continued to Flamekeep with little damage.

Flamekeep was located on an island inside a large bay. The bay was connected to Scions Sound through a channel to the northeast. There were three bridges connecting Flamekeep to the mainland, one to the north, one to the south, and one to the east. The west side of the island is where the docks were located. The east side had a beach but then very high and steep cliffs. The north and south had cliffs as well but not as steep. On the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast corners of the island were towers with large cannon emplacements on them to protect against invadors. There was also a 5th tower cannon at the mouth of the bay under the control of Aundair.

As the armada approached the mouth of the bay they got near the range of the Audnair controlled tower and the Thrane controlled northeast tower on the island which were both positioned to protect the entrance. Warning shots from both cannons fired out at the armada. Both sides had undoubtedly seen the armada attack the New Galifar fleet. Harold decided it was too dangerous and uncertain to try and convince the Aundair tower they were only interested in Flamekeep so he decided to attack both towers. The entire armada wouldn't fit in the mouth at once so he held back the siege ship and sent in a mix of small and large ship, both firing at the two towers.

The cannons on the towers were huge and obviously magically powered. Every shot fired out 3 large cannonballs with a 5 foot diameter in rapid succession. Although they did sometimes miss, every hit completely obliterated even the largest, most heavily armored ships. It was soon obvious that both towers were intentionally targeting the largest ships in their range. Harold made certain the siege ship stayed far out of range with a small group of ships to keep it safe.

The battle was rough but one of the large ships hit a section of the cliff the Aundair cannon was on and it collapsed. The remaining ships focused on the Thrane tower and eventually wore it down and destroyed it. The armada started heading south around the island. On encountering the eastern bridge the armada simply destroyed it. The largest ships were unable to pass underneath it and while Harold didn't think Aundair would come to support Flamekeep he didn't want to take chances. As they ships reached the southeast corner they came in range of the tower there. Again it targeted the largest ships first. Again it took awhile but eventually the barrage from the armada won out and the tower was destroyed.

The armada continued around the island to the southern bridge. The siege ship was brought forward and attached to the southern bridge with it's siege tower. The dwarven fighters disembarked onto the bridge as quickly as they could. They were surprised to find the only resistance was a token guard at the point where the bridge entered the city. Apparently no one expected the Armada to unload onto the bridge and the city guard was probably at the beaches and docks which are more obvious places for a sea invasion. These guards were quickly eliminated and a beachead setup on the bridge itself. By the time the armada had reached the bridge they had lost

1 small ship
2 medium small ships, with 1 more heavily damaged
2 large ships

Which gave them a total of 26,500 surviving troops to offload amoung all th ships.

Harold ordered a defensive line south in case Aundair attacked but gave orders to make no aggressive move to that side and to have all soldiers go north into Flamekeep. He also sent a messenger to the southern side to explain that they were only interested in Flamekeep and had no interest in Aundair. Harold hoped that despite the recent treaty between them, the long time antagonism between Thrane and Aundair would result in Aundair ignoring the trouble their 'ally' was in. Once ships were offloaded they were ordered to begin a general bombardment of the city in order to damage the guard and force rescue teams to help citizens.

Although the siege tower was a success in that they could unload soldiers directly onto the lightly defended bridge. They could only unload soldiers through the siege tower itself. Even moving with dwarven efficiency it was slow moving getting all the soldiers offloaded. Realizing how long it would take to do this Harold ordered the smallest and medium-small ships, that could easily fit under the bridge, to continue moving west towards the docks. Their orders were to see if they could take the docks and possibly unload there while the medium and large ships continued unloading at the bridge. Mellos and Daragmeth were put in charge of that operation while Harold and Basil stayed at the bridge to help with the primary offensive. If it was found the docks couldn't be taken then by the time they came back the large ships should be unloaded enough that the soldiers on the smaller ships would unload through the siege tower.

As the smaller ships came up to the southwest corner of the island they came in range of the cannon tower there which started firing on them. Mellos and Daragmeth decided to continue and attacked the tower. Although it was a difficult fight without the extra firepower the larger ships provided, working together the smaller ships were eventually able to damage the cannon enough that it stopped firing with few casualties.

On reaching the docks Daragmeth and Mellos discovered that apparently most of the guards had been deployed here expecting this to be the focus of the invasion. The guards had originally set up portable cannons to fire on the invaders but had dismantled them, apparently to move them to the bridge when they realized that is where the invasion was taking place. They also saw what appeared to be regular citizens attacking the guards, though getting quickly cut down. Using magic Mellos was able to hear them proclaim for The Dragon Below as they attacked and presumed them to be cultists trying to use the invasion for their own purpose.

Seeing the guards completely unprepared the ships began firing at the docks. Docks were quickly destroyed making them unusable for a landing point but the guards' casualties were high and the dismantled cannons were completely destroyed guaranteeing that they couldn't be used on any front. As the fleet moved forward they came in range of the final cannon on the northwest corner of the island and it began firing.

Daragmeth received a magical communication from Moriarty to try and take the cannon intact and use it to take the city. It was too dangerous to try to land on the docks themselves with the bombardment going on and the remaining guards who had found shelter and pinned down. He considered taking a ship directly to the twoer but knew it would come in range of, and probably sunk by, the tower cannon. He decided the best option would be to take a small group of 4 ships, 2 small and 2 medium-small ships. He moved all the soldiers on them onto other ships leaving only the pirate crew. He put himself on one of the smaller ships and ordered the group to sail towards the tower as quickly as it could, trying to be evasive and avoid the shots. His hope was that by being evasive and moving quickly towards the tower they would be able to get below it's angle of fire before getting hit, or if they did without losing too many. Mellos stayed behind with the remainder of the smaller ships that were continuing to bombard the docks.

Harold learns that one of the pirates on his ship, a human named Basil, is a 'cannon' capable of using magic to attack from a distance. Usually he does this to assist the regular cannons in an attack. Realizing this would be a useful skill in the oncoming assault he has Basil come with him, along with a squad of Dwarven soldiers, and enter the city to make their way towards the keep.

They soon encounter a large squad of guards. It's obvious that they're all paladins and clerics. Groups of crossbowmen located on the tops of building appear and start firing bolts at Harold and his group. Although it's obvious the Flamekeep guards were highly trained and disciplined, even better then the dwarves, the dwarves managed withstand the blows and even get in some lucky hits. The paladins were not prepared for a spellcaster and Basil quickly dispatched them with blasts of arcane energy. Soon the entire enemy force, including the crossbowmen were wiped out.

Moving forward, Basil heard whisper "Hey, over here" to him from doorway. Harold and the rest of the dwarves didn't appear to hear anything and continued to move towards the cathedral. Curious, Basil decided to investigate. Standing cautiously in the doorway, ready to run or fight if there was trouble, Basil looked into the building. It appeared to be a guardroom though things were in disarray. Inside was a robed and hooded figure that appeared to have feline characteristics that Basil had never seen before.

"Stay in the doorway if it makes you feel safer" The hooded figure said. "I am hear to help you."

Basil made no reply and kept an eye out for tricks but continued to listen.

"Jaela and her priests are trying to bring the Silver Flame back to life, they have come close to succeeding a few times now and are getting closer. It's only amatter of time at this point. If this happens your invasion force has no hope of succeeding and will almost certainly be destroyed."

"That's why our primary target is Jaela," Basil replied "If we can eliminate her we expect resistance to fall."

"Even dormant, the Silver Flame is more powerful then your entire army. Once you enter the cathedral Jaela will bring it's power to bear against you and destroy you. Your only hope, is this."

The figure brought out what appeared to be a small dart, Basil detected extremely powerful magic emanating from it.

"This dart is a magical artifact, capable of killing the Silver Flame completely," the figure explained. "Once destroyed Jaela will be just another little girl and all her priests, clerics and paladins will lose all their power. I will give it to you so long as you promise to use it on the Silver Flame."

"Fine," Basil replied "What's the price?"

The figure paused for the briefest moment and then brought out a book titled "The Three Pigs". Basil detected no magic from it.

"The only price, is that you sign this, and promise to kill the Silver Flame" the figure said.

"I suppose you want me to use some magic pen that uses blood or something..." Basil muttered.

"Only if you want to," the figure chuckled. "You can use any pen you want, even one of your own."

Basil didn't have anything to write with on him so he borrowed a pen from the figure who looked amused by this. After signing the figure handed over the dart.

"The magic to kill the Silver Flame is imbued into the dart," the hooded figure xplained. "There are no special words or gestures to activate it. Simply hit the Silver Flame with it and it'll die. Remember though, that it will have no effect on any other target, even if it's channeling the power of the Silver Flame."

With that the figure teleported away leaving The Three Pigs behind. Basil left the guardroom and ran to catch up to Harold and the rest of the squad. Basil soon reached Harold who had stopped at an intersection. Directly ahead were switchbacks leading up to the cathedral but to the right another group of elite guards were coming. Not wanting to get attacked from behind while going up the switchbacks, he ordered the soldiers into a defensive position to await the guards. Basil began firing eldritch blasts at them as they charged to attack the dwarves. The fight didn't last long as shortly after it started a stray shot from one of Moriarty's ships that were still bombarding the city landed in the middle of the fray. All of the Flamekeep guards and dwarven soldiers were killed. Basil and Harold survived though badly wounded. They were soon found by another squad of dwarven soldiers who carried them back to the beachhead for medical attention.

Daragmeth and his 4 ships sailed towards the tower as quickly as they could. Despite moving quickly and trying to be evasive the two medium-small ships were destroyed by the cannon before they got within the cannons minimum range where it couldn't aim down enough to hit them.

Daragmeth jumps from the ship onto a small walkway at the bottom of the tower. He then runs up the tower to a ledge he saw up above. Not knowing what was up there he jumped as he reached the top to grab the ledge with his hands. He slipped and began to fall but he successfully manages to kick away from the wall and ships and put himself into a dive safely into the water. Before he slipped he did manage to see the ledge was empty of guards and apparently went around the tower. Knowing this he simply ran up the wall all the way to the top this time not being so concerned about not being seen.

Scouting the ledge he was on he soon realized that while the ledge he was standing on didn't move, the portion of the tower next to him rotated as the cannon was being aimed. He found a door going into the tower that moved as it did. He found that the ledge went all the way around the tower and on the far side was a ladder going down to a courtyard. In the courtyard were a couple guards standing in the shade of a tree but they were paying more attention for things trying to get to the tower but not so much on the tower itself and didn't notice Daragmeth. The tower door was directly opposite the way the cannon was aiming and was at a slight angle to the courtyard.

Being as careful and silent as he could, Daragmeth tried the door. It was unlocked and he stealthily snuck in. Inside he saw a human sitting in a charge with an enchanted tapestry in front of him. The tapestry showed an image from the cannon itself and moved as the cannon moved. Obviously it was a way for the gunner to arim the cannon. Daragmeth drew his dagger and crept forward to kill the gunner. He accidentally dropped his dagger and Daragmeth winced at the loud clang it made. The gunner turned around and stood up, seeing Daragmeth he began to take a deep breath to apparently shout for help. Seeing this Daragmeth dashed toward him and jammed his hand into the gunners mouth. Although Daragmeth knew he would probably be bitten by the gunner, the gunner would be less likely to break free and shout then if he just put his hand over the gunners mouth.

The move worked and although it hurt terribly as the gunner bit, he was muffled and didn't shout. Daragmeth wasn't able to reach his dagger on the floor without letting the gunner go, so he grabbed an arrow from his quiver and used that to stab at the gunner. The gunner fought back with his hands but stood no chance and was soon dead. Once Daragmeth was certain the gunner was dead he collected his dagger and checked the door. He found that there was no lock on this door. He barricaded the door as best he could with the gunners body in case someone tried to come in.

Daragmeth then said down on the chair to see about using the cannon. He'd been trained in using many magical devices however it was soon obvious this cannon was designed to be used by almost anyone. Simply by thinking up, down, left, right while in the chair the cannon moved however he wanted. He made a complete circle to see what he could from the cannon. The most obvious targets were the cathedral, which was too high to be targeted by the cannon, the docks which had been mostly destroyed by the ships already, and Thalingard which was the old royal palace but that Daragmeth had heard was primarily used to house troops after the treaty with Aundair had been signed.

While Daragmeth was considering this he heard "What's Jimmy doing with the cannon? It's moving around all wierd, instead of focusing on the fleet. Something's not right".

Daragmeth knew he had little time and decided to fire at Thalingard. Simply thinking the word 'fire' caused it to fire. Daragmeth knew that despite the power of the cannon that Thalingard was strongly reinforced as he saw shots from the ships bouncing off it but wanted to do as much as he could before the guards came. He was shocked when the shot he fired hit something on the wall which detonated in a massive explosion. This explosion detonated something else along the wall, which blew up something inside, which ended with a massive detonation that destroyed the entire fortress and rained down chunks of stone clear outside the bay.
Daragmeth heard the guards curse and could tell they had already climbed the ladder and were up on the ledge around the tower. Fortunately since the cannon was now aimed at the city, that meant the door was facing the water. Daragmeth leaped out of the chair to open the door and dive out into the water. However he'd forgotten about the body of the gunner which was still blocking the door. He tried to quickly move the body out of the way but slipped in a pool of blood and fell with the body on top of him. He saw the door open with a Flamekeep guard standing there. Daragmeth, moving as quickly as he could, rolled out from underneath the body, dove past the guards and into the water. Despite being as evasive as possible, one of the two guards managed to get in a nasty hit with his sword however Daragmeth survived and safely landed in the water where he was quickly picked up by one of his ships.

The guards did not have any ranged weapons and from the ship Daragemth saw one of them go and apparently take control of the cannon while the other stayed on the ledge watching the ships. Daragmeth wanted to rejoin the rest of the fleet but didn't think they could dodge the cannon enough to survive. He considered if he could fire his two ships cannons up high enough to hit the cannon while still remaining within it's minimum range but he wasn't certain enough how far down the tower cannon could go and didn't want to run the risk of getting blasted by it. He eventually decided his best option was to leave these ships where they were and head out on foot alone to report back to Harold. He gave the ships instructions to rejoin and support the fleet as best they can but to not take any unnecessary chances. Daragmeth swam to shore and stealthily made his way across the island towards the bridge where most of the troops were being unloaded.

Mellos, seeing no further signs of enemy movement near the docks, ordered a halt to the cannon bombardment. The devastation was severe and could see the casualties of Flamekeep guards were high. With the docks completely destroyed and unusable for offloading troops he had his ships return back to the rest of the armada to offload through the siege ship.

When Thalingard detonated, Harold sent some scouts to find out what happened. The scouts that made it back reported that it appeared a magazine room was somehow detonated, causing a chain reaction that destroyed the entire structure. They reported that there was a very large number of casualties and suspected that the Flamekeep guards had been rendezvousing most of their forces at Thalingard for a coordinated attack when it blew wiping out a large percentage of their forces.

Realizing that the cathedral almost certainly had no more external defenses Harold ordered a cessation of the ship bombardment and all soldiers to besiege the cathedral. Mellos arrived then with his fleet and joined the assault. As expected the Dwarven soldiers encountered no resistance going up to the cathedral except for one trap that had been left behind but it was meant to be used as part of an ambush and by itself wasn't dangerous.

There was a large dry moat surrounding the cathedral. The dwarves filled part of it to make an impromptu bridge to a window. Most of the dwarves stayed outside to keep the defenders distracted while Harold and a squad of Dwarves broke the window and went in. Mellos used a grappling hook and climbed up onto the roof. Basil claimed that he'd be more useful staying outside the cathedral zapping defenders though as soon as he was alone he went behind the safety of a wall and sat down to relax.

On top of the roof Mellos saw a chimney on the far end and also a flock of seagulls that had decided to perch up there. He decided to check out the seagulls. They seemed like normal seagulls but for some reason Mellos decided to try and befriend one. Mellos brought out a bit of food and offered it to one of the seagulls. The seagull looked at him quizzically, snatched the food, the telephically communicated feelings of gratitude and friendship to Mellos. Mellos wasn't certain why this particular seagull apparently happened to be magical but for some reason it was and it had latched on to Mellos. He went over to the chimney and looked down. It seemed big enough to climb down and there was no fire at the bottom, but he couldn't see where it came out. Mellos also heard some strange chanting coming from the chimney that he didn't recognize.

Harold and his squad found themselves in a large hallway with doors. They started going down it exploring. The doors led into various rooms, mostly storerooms, though there wasn't every anything particularly valuable. Sometimes they encountered guards or workers in them but Harold on the other dwarves were able to make quick work of them. It started to worry them that they never encountered any kind of elite soldier.

Daragmeth had been making his way across the rooftops towards the bridge the ships were offloading. Part way there he noticed that the primary action was around the cathedral so he went there. On arriving at the cathedral he encountered Basil who told him about the status of the siege. Basil also told Daragmeth that he had been given a dart that could be used to kill The Silver Flame and eliminate the powers of all the clerics and priests. Basil claimed that he didn't bother going in as he couldn't sneak close enough to The Silver Flame to use it so was waiting for things to quiet down. Daragmeth said that he would take the dart and sneak in to use it instead. Basil gladly gave up the dart.

Daragmeth decided that going through the open window was too obvious and decided to see if there was an entrance on the roof. He ran up the walls onto roof and saw Mellos at the far end near the chimney. Mellos had started trying to tie a rope he had around the chimney but was slipping on the tiles. Daragmeth ran over to Mellos and pulled him up. Daragmeth noticed a seagull perched nearby looking at him strangely but decided it wasn't important. Mellos explained that he had been planning on climbing down the chimney to sneak in. Daragmeth showed Mellos the dart and told him what he had been told that it can kill The Silver Flame and eliminate the oppositions power. Mellos suggested that he cast a spell on the rope to lower Daragmeth down which would be the most stealthy option, Daragmeth agreed.

Daragmeth was lowered down the rope upside down. As he cleared the mantle he got a good look at the room the fireplace was in. It appeared to be the central chamber of the cathedral. In the center, on top of a series of raised pedastals was what could only be The Silver Flame itself. It appeared to be a metallic fire but he saw that it frequently would shift into a dragon-like creature briefly. Directly in front of it was a young girl, presumably Jaina, chanting and praying to it with her back to him. There were 4 heavily armored paladins on the pedestal directly below her also praying to The Silver Flame. Beyond the pedestals where The Silver Flame burned, Daragmeth saw a pair or very large/barred doors. While the path from the doors to the flame, and from the flame to the fireplace were open, the walls along the side were full of clerics who all were in some kind of trance with their eyes rolled up in their head. Although Daragmeth was as silent as possible with Jaina and her guards having her back to him, something caught her attention and she turned around to look right at Daragmeth. She and her guards stopped chanting and there was a brief awkward pause as both Daragmeth and Jaina realized what was happening.

Daragmeth flipped out from the chimney into a full on sprint towards The Silver Flame. He made it up the first pedestal but as he did so he saw Jaina begin to cast some sort of spell. Afraid that she was about to obliterate him he threw the dart as hard as he could as The Silver Flame. Jaina did not try to dodge or block the dart and simply focused on her spell. She completed it right after the dart hit the flame.

The Silver Flame instantly turned black, the dragon-like creature stopped appearing. The eyes of Jaina, her guards and every other priest in the room instantly turned black and stopped moving. The ground shook and a massive demon appeared from the flame as it fizzled out. Daragmeth was immediately struck with fear and dread at the sight of it.

"Rejoice denizens of Eberron" it said. "Bel Shalor, your one true god, has returned."

Daragmeth didn't recognize the name but realized what must have happened and prostrated himself to Bel Shalor and began groveling as best he could, pointing out that his actions had freed him. Bel Shalor was not impressed with Daragmeth and with just a look Daragmeth exploded quite messily.

On the top of the roof Mellos felt the ground shake and heard the chanting from within stop. Assuming that Daragmeth must have been successful he climbed down the rope. At the bottom he saw Jaina and all the Silver Flame priests and paladins with their eyes completely black. He didn't see Daragmeth anywhere but did notice a rather suspicious stain on the floor. Most obviously he noticed the massive demon standing on the top pedestal in the middle of the room. Mellos was also filled with instant terror on seeing Bel Shalor and also dropped to the floor and began groveling.

"You amuse me," Bel Shalor said finally. "You will be my messenger, tell my servant Durastoran to prepare for my coming."

Bel Shalor gestured and Mellos' appearance changed. His clothing looked like it had been drenched in blood with screaming faces on it. Mellos' maracas were now made out of human skulls. Mellos barely had time to register what had happened before he was teleported away.

Harold had been fighting against a paladin when suddenly the ground shook and he saw the paladins eyes turn black. The paladin appeared to be comatose and didn't respond to anything. Harold continued investigating and soon realized that everyone that used the power of The Silver Flame had black eyes and was comatose though no one else. He and the rest of his dwarven squad felt unnatural fear and despair. Not knowing what had happened but afraid that it wasn't good Harold and his dwarves ran back towards the window they had entered in through. Before they made it outside they were killed as the entire cathedral was destroyed by Bel Shalor.


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