Difference between revisions of "Great Song of Kargal"

Latest revision as of 20:02, 16 February 2019

One of the most popular songs of the Paladin-Bard Theylayn, it has become among the most popular in Dwarden.

The narrative of the song below is much shorter than the actual song, which is usually told in two nights.

THE GREAT SONG OF KARGAL

With Thagdion’s spirit destroyed or at least subdued, and with Grandolin unseen since the Year of the Roar, a peace fell on much of the land. His home and family destroyed, it had been Kargal’s wish to stay in the Gallaradok and rebuild Kandoria, and this he did for some short months, but upon Galdren’s triumphant return from Thorania and his summoning of his knight to Castle Drendor, Kargal knew that it was not to be. For the second time, Kargal was ordered from his home in a time of peace, and commanded to go to the Marlamarkan, over which he was to be Master. Although Kargal resisted the command, complaining forthrightly of Galdren’s decision and reminding him of Lord Talenthar’s successful governance in that region as Master of the Erlokt, the Master-General would not be swayed. Kargal, he reminded him, was the most loyal and vigilant of his knights, and the Master-General feared that evil would rise somehow hidden in the deep recesses of the Markan Hills or in the High Mantorian mountains beyond, as the Archbishop Tradion had foreseen. There Kargal was needed, Galdren said, and there he was to rest, for the Gallaradok was still beset with monsters, which Galdren and his newfound Thorian allies would finish destroying. Kargal reluctantly yielded to Galdren’s command.

With Kargal, Lord Galdren also sent Galderok, Master-General of the Monks of St. Karant, whom Galdren commanded to convert the wavering Mandadorian faith of the region. This Galderok did, bringing with him many weary and wounded monks whose abbeys were destroyed, and many homeless and desperate peoples of the Gallaradok, leaving the Arch-Deacon Idrian master of the remaining monks of St. Karant in the Gallaradok in his stead. Galdren also sent some men of the south, refugee soldiers and militia from the Black Coast. But Kargal also brought his own allies, especially his man-at-arms Malcuin, and a company of sun dwarves that had late rallied to the safety of the new Order.

Upon his arrival, it was Kargal’s pleasure to be hosted by Lord Talenthar at his castle by the falls of Kalestrina, where he heard of Lord Talenthar and King Thrasold’s exploits against the remaining orcs of the Nargad Hills, the death of the orc king Brezan, and Talenthar’s emissaries to the dark peoples of the Kambold, where their former companion Thorian had somehow risen to some power, having converted to their dark religion, but being somewhat open and even receptive to Talenthar’s exhortations of peace and eventual reunification with Dwarden. Kargal also heard from Lord Talenthar’s gnomish friend Bartschval, who explained the situation at Sky Lake, saying that the Dragon of the Lake now was the true Master of the Nargad Mountains, for he had destroyed Thagdion’s temporal seat of power there in the Kambold, and had become great enough to make the great red dragon Grandolin cautious of ever fighting with him again. Approving of this news, Kargal informed his host of his orders from the Master-General.

A map of the Erlokt, the Marlamarkan, and surrounding regions.

Talenthar accepted Kargal’s greater commission over the general region, and swiftly Kargal settled his forces at various forts and strong points along or near the River Rans, all under the command of Karden-Lord Talenthar. They destroyed the monsters there as best they might, and Kargal appointed Malcuin the Half-Orc as his Master Forester, whose commission it was to hunt through the myriad valleys and draws of the central and westerly Marlamarkan Hills, where he was to hunt and slay the orcs and monsters that dwelt there, and to appoint lesser huntsmen and rangers to do the same.

Kargal himself saw to governance for a time, and went to the Orekon to sit with King Thrasold, and to rally other karden-lords there near the coast and appeal to their support of the fledgling Order. He met with modest success, drawing the young and bold, as well as the desperate by his grave and powerful will, and new men came to the Erlokt to rebuild ruined strongholds, and to plant new fields in the rich lands north of the Rans. Returning to the Erlokt, Kargal was for a time revisited by the wizardess Daethena, who in years past had been rescued be Kargal and his companions, and who now once again tried to love him and comfort his woes. However, still distressed by the death of his first family and by the evil things he had seen fighting the forces of Thagdion’s great evil in the Gallaradok Mountains, Kargal for a second time rebuffed Daethena’s advances, seeking instead refuge in the Church. Galderok himself and the Bishop of Kalestrina, Manthenar Half-Elven, counselled his prayers, and after a season the paladin once again took on the quest.

With Malcuin and Galderok, they fought remaining monsters in the Marlamarkan, encountering from time to time the undead agents of Thagdion, who still lurked in the darkness and meant woe to the leaders of the Knights-Palatine of Dwarden. At one time gravely wounded by one of these powerful undead assassins, one of the Westrel Vampires, Kargal and his companions sought shelter in the thick-walled castle of Baldon the Sun Dwarf, who gave them refuge, which he rarely did.

Despite its great powers, summoning an army of trees to his service and placing evil spirits to reside in them, it was the now powerful monk Galderok, Master-General of the Monks of St. Karant, who destroyed the monster, learning in the process that he had been a servant of Thagdion, but still unable to confirm whether or not the lich-king was truly destroyed or still lurked somewhere in Dwarden.

Securing the stern friendship of Baldon after a season of adventures with him slaying orcs and hill giants, for Baldon respected the fighting skill of the knight, Kargal and his companions returned to the Erlokt, but only upon the summons of Kellebard and Badrian, the Masters of the Horse and Infantry respectively, as they had martialed a stout army south of the Rans, for Neskor, the fell city of the Gray Dwarves was rising again amidst its own ruins, with its new king employing orcs to their service. Galdren commanded the orc army be destroyed and Neskor razed, and the power of the Gray Dwarves ruined in Dwarden forever. To this Kargal, Talenthar and King Thrasold rallied, with many others. In a skilled battle, the orcs, even though reinforced by duergar war-machines, were resoundingly defeated, and with few dead. Neskor was sieged, and the power of the Archbishop Tradion and the monk-wizard Reldian, along with their own war-machines, brought down Neskor’s high gates. The gray dwarves refused peace terms, and many were slain, but at last their psionic king was captured, and Badrian executed him with the Tradion Blade, which was powerful blessed by that great prelate. Kellebard, being senior-most of the Order there present (for the seneschal, then King Thrasold, was not yet considered the second highest great officer of the land), decreed that the gray dwarves were not to be slain to the last, but that they might be suffered to live, as long as they never again inhabit Neskor or their cities in the mountains. They were doomed instead to live in caves or in the surface as they might, and that if they rose a city in defiance of Good again, all their fighting men would be slain, and their women and children exiled into Tresia where the sun would burn and blind them.

After this victory, the great paladins rested their victorious army in the Erlokt, and with a small company rode to the gates of the Kambold Plateau, threatening the black karden lords there, and their heretic clerics, and demanding that they submit. The black knights threaten that Grandolin was near healed of his wounds, being fed their virgin women, and stirred again in their high mountains, and that they would attack their lands at their own risk. They also affirmed their belief that their Savior, Thagdion, had not abandoned them, but would return and make them great kings and lords. Still, the paladins were thoughtful to call still more forces from the west, and summon Galdren himself and another army, and siege the Kambold and end the war against the heretics once and for all. However, it was the rogue-turned lord Thorion, master of the neutral party in the Kambold, who pressed for peace and reconciliation. Thorion, who was mastering the skills of a corrupt High Bard of Dwarden, suggested to the paladins that Thagdion was indeed destroyed, and that only his undead lieutenants and most loyal priests and knights still served his cause. He suggested that at last Grandolin was growing too old, and that his wounds were not healing, and that if only time and patience were exercised, they might at last see the death of the great dragon, at which time the worst of the heretics would either be dead of old age, or in the minority in the Kambold upon the dragon’s death, and thus easily defeated. Still fearing the awesome power of Grandolin’s, lest they provoke him, and not willing to risk the lives of the few men of Dwarden who had assembled into their army, nor their own number upon which Dwarden too precariously depended, they very reluctantly yielded to Thorion’s proposal, but demanded to take the various sons and daughters of Thorion’s neutral party as hostages whom they would raise as more suitable karden lords and ladies. Thorion accepted, war was avoided, and the gathered army was dismissed.

With peace affirmed, Kargal returned to the Erlokt, where he came to Thalone, where he and his companions had first considered the Order. Making Thalone the seat of his command, he built a church and monastery there, and improved and enlarged its defenses. It was at Thalone where he at last fell in love with Daethena, and he was married to her by the Bishop Manthenar. Pleasant years passed, and the powerful paladin took to farming and governing the slowly healing lands within the Erlokt and Marlamarkan.

Growing restless, Kargal adventured alone in the High Marl, seeking adventure there, and to make alliances with the isolated karden-lords that were said to rule there, fighting as mysterious warriors against the forces of evil in the years before the recent peace. Kargal however found few men at all there anymore, save for ruins and a few hill giants, but the hills and winding paths were pleasant for the paladin, and he took his fill of nature and solitude. Discovering and contending with several powerful enchanted creatures there, Kargal at length met a man who looked slightly familiar, but whom he could not place, but who introduced himself as the Karden Theylayn, who was to have great impact on Kargal’s life, for he was the legendary the Paladin-Bard who would enter into so many other tales. Hearing his voice from the hills, Kargal was amazed, for the high bards were then nearly extinct. Introducing himself and mentioning his high office as Master of the Marlamarkan and Erlokt, Theylayn refused to submit to Kargal’s authority. At first they wrestled, but Kargal was thrown, and so Kargal demanded trial by blade, and to let Mandador decide the victor. To his amazement, Theylayn drew the Summer Sword, the lost holy avenger of House Anthor of Wetham, and blessed by St. Yathamian himself, for so Kargal recognized it by its markings and gleaming in the sun. Upon seeing the great blade, Kargal no longer demanded the bard’s submission, and so heard his tale.

Theylayn had been the karden lord of his own keep in the High Marl. But during the rise of evil in his lands in his youth, when Thagdion sent his victorious evil minions throughout all the Markan Hills, Theylayn took the mantle of paladinship alone in the dense hills of the High Marl, blessed by a simple deacon, and fought. He fought well, with great strength killing many orcs and other fell foes over fierce years of fighting. At length however, force of arms could do little. Eventually, a red dragon came crawling down from the manless and wild realm of the Mantorian Mountains, lying between Dwarden and Thousiers. In a matter of weeks all his allies and the lords of the High Marl were slain, their treasures stolen. Hiding, Theylayn followed the dragon back up into High Mantorian Mountains, starving and exposed, and tried to slay the dragon at a mountain pass like a hero of the ancient world. Instead, the dragon’s breath melted the ice upon which he fought, and Theylayn fell from a great height, yet somehow living. Avoiding the dragon’s orcs and trolls, young Theylayn fled back down into the Marlamarkan, hoping to find refuge, but instead found the valleys filled with yet even more orcs and other evils. Despairing of the sword, Theylayn abandoned his paladinhood and took to hiding, and thieving, slinking in the shadows and between trees to survive and do harm to the enemy. Thusly he acquired treasures and learned secrets, finding a ring of fire command in ancient ruins, and gauntlets of power he stole from an orc chieftain. He walked deep in the high hills, learning ever more secrets, and finding more hidden treasures, and stole from the dungeons of bugbears who raided the hills, taking from them jewels and a magical items. Wounded in this encounter, he stumbled into Wetham to find succor from the monks of St. Keldam the Good in Malenmar Valley, where dying from his wound the Autumn Saint appeared, granting him healing and hope, and brought him to the abbot for rest from his weary and lonely travels. Restored, Theylayn asked the abbot to help him understand the magical items he had recovered, but the abbot and his monks knew little of such things, and instead bade him ask the Monks of St. Gandol, who maintained a tiny monastery hidden along the Markan. Theylayn however preferred to stay in Wetham for a time, and enjoyed its blessed peace, protected as it was by the Autumn Saint, or so it was believed. He became friends with its knight-protector Talnar son of Trethian of Anthor, and when the time came he went with Talnar to the Battle of the Red Sun as his man-at-arms and squire, and even was with Lord Talnar at Thalone when the paladins of Dwarden discussed the Foundation of the Order. However, upon Talnar and Theylayn’s return to Wetham, they and their company were set upon by the bugbears who had long been stalking Theylayn. Talnar and all his companions were slain, but Theylayn hid in the rocks and trees and escaped, taking with him the Summer Sword upon Talnar’s dying command to save it from the hands of the bugbears. Theylayn attempted to return the blade to Wetham, but the Autumn Saint protected the hidden vail, and search though he might, he could not find it. With all his skill, he avoided the tracking of the bugbears, who still sought his stole treasures, and in a hidden chase Theylayn ascended the Markan Hills until reaching the Markan itself, the border between Dwarden and Thousiers. Holding to this high ridge, Theylayn was at last set upon by the bugbears, and taking forth the Summer Sword prepared to fight them to the death, but it was Mandador’s will that a great song burst forth that brought terror to the monsters, and a singing man appeared, whose songs caused the very earth to quake, the rocks of the Markan to fall and crush the bugbears, and the thunder of the sky to destroy their number and send them running in terror. Theylayn then beheld Kabastold, a High Bard of Dwarden. A refugee from the Kambold in the early days of Thagdion’s rise, Kabastold was now very old, and had abandoned the Kambold, bringing with him the most stalwart of the Monks of St. Gandol, and some of their treasures, and built a remote monastery high on the Markan, to protect the lore of Dwarden and keep the Order of Bards alive. Theylayn was taken there to the monastery, a tiny fortress amidst the boulders, and it was revealed to him the nature of the magical items he had brought, among which was a golden figurine that could transform into a small gold dragon named Perthakor, a crystal ball that could see afar, and a bowl that could summon elementals of water. There Theylayn stayed for years, deciding to learn from Kabastold all that he knew, and absorbing all his lore and honed skill. For some ten years Theylayn remained on the monastery, until Kabastold’s death. At last descending from the mountains, Theylayn returned to the High Marl, and with the power of the water elementals and gold dragon he could summon, he destroyed most of the great monsters there, and caused the rest to flee. He then began to slowly, by himself, rebuild his family keep, but as the months passed saw more and more futility in this, and instead came to singing and patrolling his lands. Too proud to go to other lands or serve other knights whom he could see through his crystal ball, Theylayn still sought after Wetham and the peaceful Monks of St. Keldam the Good, but the magic of the Autumn Saint continued to cloud even his new magic, and so he sang at the border of his lands, hoping to bring friends to him by the power of his voice.

His tale told, Theylayn heard Kargal’s own story, and decided to adventure with him, but on the condition they not return to a castle or keep in which Theylayn might be made to serve, for Theylayn was a proud man of karden rank, and would submit to no lord. Deciding to search for Wetham, which to Kargal’s surprise could not be found, they instead found a beautiful forest in warm autumn months, and there they fashioned a humble lodge, and Kargal heard many of Theylayn’s songs. But shortly amidst this leisure, orcs appeared suddenly and in great numbers, but they hid first, and watched as a red dragon came amidst them, crawling upon the earth, and bellowed a demand that Wetham be revealed to him, and all its beer, and trees, and the treasures of its saints, and the holy sword it guarded. When no answer came, the dragon blew his breath upon the forest, causing it to roar aflame, but Theylayn called up a storm of rain to weaken the flames, then summoned a water elemental from his bowl to quench them, while hiding them with his magic. The dragon then roared himself and anger, and spat fire again, but at this the water elemental strode into the flames, and Perthakor was released to breath a magical gas to cause the orcs to sleep, and Theylayn and Kargal charged, both delivering wounds with spells wrapped around their weapons from Theylayn’s enchantments, but the dragon nonetheless smote them, near slaying them, and Perthakor, much smaller, was bitten and thrown into a small lake. Theylayn then caused the lake to boil with a spell, and the steam cloaked them. Still the dragon hunted for them with hearing and smell, but subtle illusions appeared of his foes, and led the dragon away. After this combat, and aggrieved by their wounds, the small figure of a richly dressed gnome appeared. Presenting himself as Gelberlemthen, he stated his great thanks that Kargal and Theylayn had so valiantly fought the dragon, for although his illusions protected Wetham and the kind monks of St. Keldam, his illusions could not stop flames. Theylayn then explained that it was the selfsame dragon that had attacked his lands in his youth, to which Gelberlemthen explained that the dragon was called Garkalandor by the men who knew the monster, and that the dragon was a son of Grandolin who inhabited the Mantorian Mountains, which was pleased to raid the valleys of the Marlamarkan for the last two hundred years when it pleased him. Gelberlemthen further explained that he was patriarch of a small family of gnomes that remained in the valley, for the rest of his clan had fled centuries ago to Sky Lake, but that he remained because in his youth St. Keldam himself had appeared and healed his wounds delivered by wolves, and that he had since then converted to the faith of Mandador, and embarked to find power enough to protect Wetham, which he had now done for centuries. For it was himself, Gelberlemthen explained, who now kept Wetham hidden, for it was the Autumn Saint’s will that in this time the vail be closed and invisible to outsiders. Theylayn, who wished to return the Summer Sword, was told that Talnar’s son was still in his minority, and that it was not yet time for him to take the blade, and that for now it was the divine wish that Theylayn carry it himself. However, Gelberlemthen permitted a door to his illusions, and they entered the blessed farmlands, vineyards and orchards of that place, and there they healed, and Kargal saw many wondrous things.

The Marlamarkan.

At House Anthor, the central keep of Wetham, as Master of the Marlamarkan, Kargal declared he wish to slay the dragon, but the gnome said that even amongst them they had not the power, but that perhaps with the help of Kandadren of Trendel Castle, they might perhaps succeed, for Kandadren, a human wizard, had grown very powerful over the years, and Gelberlemthen boasted that Kandadren was in fact the mightiest wizard in Dwarden. His knowledge of illusions however was very great, and he had hidden his castle and his people with similar illusions to protect them from the woes of the last century. Kargal demanded to meet this karden-wizard, and so they quested.

After traveling to the western Marlamarkan in a difficult course, high in the hills they came to Kandadren’s hidden domain, but with Gelberlemthen’s magic the illusionary monsters that assailed them were seen through. However, Kandadren’s spells had grown so great that even the gnome illusionist found them difficult, and so Kargal was permitted to bear the Summer Sword, and with its light in the hands of a paladin the illusions were breached.

Kandadren’s prosperous realm received the heroes warily, and the wizard-lord descended from his high castle to meet his old master. Long had Kandadren adventured in far lands abroad, in Tresia and even Trans-Thorania, where he had uncovered great treasures and found masterly lore. Kargal then commanded the wizard’s assistance, but Kandadren refused, and that he would not bow to a man not born karden, nor submit to an Order of Paladins who would claim to rule his realm. Angered, Kargal left, and returned to Thalone and his budding family, where he stayed for a time. Gelber returned to his home, but Theylayn was bidden to stay at Thalone as an honored guest, and the great bard spent time seeing the lands and farms of the Erlokt, and using his magic to spread growth and healing to the land.

Theylayn even was part of a deputation to the Kambold, and there he met with Thorion, to perceive his intentions. Thorion, who had grown to be the premier lord of the Kambold, agreed to yet even more hostages to guarantee the peace, which placated the paladins, and led them to believe that in slow and easy steps, the Kambold might return to a state of general grace, and open war, and the risk of waking Grandolin would be avoided.

A few years, in the Year the Skyfall, a great storm, the size and intensity of which had never been seen before, came to Dwarden. Rivers overflowed and floods inundated the land, and such lightning came that many died, a forests caught ablaze. The event had been foreseen by Tradion, who had circulated his prophecy by encyclical, and so upon seeing these prodigies, Kargal braced his lands for the worst. For after three days of this extraordinary storm, an enormous cloud seemed to descend upon the north, and there was suddenly an immense earthquake, and those castles closest to the north were severely damaged, with many collapsing entirely. This was when Kargal knew Tradion’s prophecy was true: fore Tradion had foreseen that an army of giants would come with the storm and destroy the land.

Within days, the giants came, in war parties with steel armor and magical weapons. With Theylayn’s crystal ball they discovered the passes which the giants were taking, and gathering what forces he could, Kargal met them at the mouth of the Kalthanis Valley, which opened up to his own castle at Thalone and the village surrounding it, and sent the rest of his forces to bolster Lord Talenthar’s forces at Kalestrina. At the defense of Thalone, Theylayn’s spells struck, and Kargal’s wife Daethena trapped them in the mud by turning it to stone, trapping the giants and saving them from rampage. Even then more giants came, but Gelber’s magic deceived them into vast pits they had dug during the rains, having set them with massive stakes. Even still many died, crushed by their boulders, stomped under their heels, or blasted to cinders by bolts of lightning the giant priests called from the skies. At the end of the battle, Theylayn’s crystal ball revealed that Lord Talenthar had been defeated, for although Galderok was with him and other heroes, the dragon Garkalandor had come, burning them alive, and the giants overturned his castle and were preparing to loot the lesser keeps in the eastern Erlokt.

Learning the sun dwarf lord Baldon was being sieged at his stout castle, Kargal led what remained of his followers into that valley. They may have been doomed, as the mighty giants were all but unstoppable, but when some of the giants left the siege to destroy Kargal and his band, Gelber deceived them in a forest of illusions from which they could not escape, allowing them to attack the remaining besieging giants in a desperate melee. The dwarves sallies, including Baldon himself and his spellcasting elders, and by Mandador’s grace they prevailed, with yet more dead. However, breaking Gelber’s illusions, the other giants left the magical forest maze and came to destroy the wounded and exhausted heroes, but at this time Galdren himself appeared with the Master of the Horse and a sizeable force of cavalry, and the mighty archbishop Tradion and monks-militant. The giants were destroyed, with the rest retreating into the mountains.

The gathered heroes then turned, and under the command of Galdren himself, the army of the Order met the evil army of the Kambold, for Thorion had betrayed them, and had sent a host to destroy the Erlokt paladins, and perhaps even march on inner Dwarden and unseat the Order from power. Instead they met them on the field, and the black knights and their evil clerics were slain south of the Rans in the Battle of Trust Betrayed. Victorious, they meant to march on the Kambold, but Galdren then learned that Grandolin had been awakened by the quake, and had flown to Pro-Praetoria, and sacked and burned, killing the young royal scion there, and killing thousands. Galdren then learned that in the Gallaradok, an evil power had risen up the skeletons of the slain fire giants of the past decade or more, and that this army of giant undead were marching into the heartlands of Dwarden, and that yet another force of cloud giants besides those already fought were marching towards the rich farm lands of Manifold. Galdren was forced to turn his force and return, once again leaving Kargal Master of the Erlokt and Marlamarkan.

Desperately undermanned, Kargal saved people as he could, for small bands of giants roamed and pillaged and word came that the giants were constructing a fortress befitting of their size on the Markan overlooking the east. Knowing that King Thrasold and his army had entered the Kambold and were sieging the castles there, Kargal turned his mind and forces against the giants, sending out patrols and learning of their affairs, but although he had heard they had a king deep in the Mantorian Mountains, no spell or magical item could reveal the cloud giant king’s location, or his purposes. After a time however, the mighty wizard Kandadren came before Kargal, and begged his assistance, for the cloud giant lord Gandonom had broken his illusions and seized his castle and all his treasures, and even his mighty magic had not been able to stop them. Kandadren swore he would yield to the assistance of the Order if they relieved his lands of the evil giants.

Now without a meaningful army, instead the tiny band of great heroes, including the gnome Gelber, the dwarf lord Baldon and his mystical brother Dolkor, Malcuin the Half-Orc, Galderok the War-Monk, Theylayn the High Bard, Lord Talenthar, the wizard Kandadren, the sorceress Daethena, and others besides and all led by Kargal, they fought the giant Lord Gandonom in a series of adventures, until at last Gandonom was thrown down and slain, with his followers fleeing the Marlamarkan to return to the great castle of their cloud giant king, somewhere high in the Mantorian Mountains.

However, by this time much had happened in greater Dwarden and beyond. Giants had raided deep into the heart of Dwarden, and many castles fell to their wrath. Galdren however became adept at slaying them if they ventured forth alone or in small bands, and may have further resisted, but it was soon after that Grandolin again appeared, and in his fires slew King Thrasold, and dispersed or burned alive his army. Thorion, declared High King of the Kambold, appeared in Dwarden at the head of a small force, and said that Grandolin was now master of all that was in Dwarden, and that the dragon demanded the return of his horde of the holy avenger that Galdren now wielded, and demanded an immense number of maidens to sate his hunger and punish Dwarden. He also demanded that the religion of the Savior St. Thagdion be reinaugurated, and that the saint’s rule as King of All Dwarden be acknowledged. Galdren instead slew Thorion in a raid with his few remaining knights, then fleeing the wrath of the Black Knights, the giants and Grandolin himself, quested in High Tresia, meaning to appeal there to the King of Tresia and to the Mandadorian gold dragon Striastamacius that had aided Dwarden in the last century, for it was said the dragon dwelt there in those mountains at the highest peak of Nalcoria. Meanwhile, it was heard that Grandolin’s scion Garkalandor had dared to fly into the heart of the Kingdom of Thousiers, for that country was then in the midst of invading Encyclon and expanding its empire. Coming in tandem with a an army of cloud giants, Garkalandor sacked the royal palace itself, slaying many knights, and stole many great and priceless treasures, including the Princess of Thousiers named Alethena, whom the dragon held as a hostage. The cloud giants destroyed many other palaces and castles in that country, stealing vast quantities of food and treasures, and taking them back to their great and hidden castle atop the Mantorian Mountains. Additionally, more and powerful undead began to stalk Dwarden, terrifying the few living humans who remained, and demanding worship of St. Thagdion the Redeemer, lest the undead creature release a plague on their village, steal their infants, or otherwise torture and execute the desperate people. The land began to grow dark once again, and it was heard by Kargal that the Master of the Horse Kellebard, was seized by the remaining people of Pro-Praetoria, and burned for the pleasure of the Black Priests that came from the Nargad to see the spectacle.

Seeing darkness return to the land, and the long absence of Galdren, Kargal set his mind to destroy Garkalandor and the Cloud Giant King. He and his companions braved the wild borderlands, and descended into Thousiers, to appeal to knights and lords there fore their aid, cementing his appeal by helping them slay giants, where in a battle with giants Lord Talenthar was slain, pulverized by a giant’s iron boot. Swearing to help rescue their stolen princess, the Duke of Veronay, Sir Celeston, the regent of Thousiers, pledged himself and his knights to the cause of the Order of Dwarden. Their forces combined, they destroyed the cloud giants that remained in Thousiers, and began to plan the final siege of the Mantorian Mountains.

For this affair, the mighty wizard Kandadron, at last impressed by Kargal’s worthy efforts thus far, elected to craft his a special weapon better able to destroy dragons and giants. With the help of the sun dwarves, they forged a great halberd axe at Trendel Castle, crafting it from the star metal of vorpal blades. Kandadron poured his magic into the pole-axe, so that it seized with magical power, and upon embedding itself in the flesh of its enemy, it would release bolts of pure wizardry to blast to pieces his foes. In addition to holy armor blessed by Galderok, Kargal and his companions prepared for their attack.

After many adventures, the heroes found a secret underground entrance to the lair of the Cloud Giant King, with the help of giants that were not under the king’s spell. Coming up through the Underdark, they learned that the Cloud Giant King was none other than Thagdion reborn within the unliving flesh of the Cloud Giant King, and that it was through Thagdion’s purpose that the cloud giant kingdom had descended upon Mount Mantoria, for they saw the secret cults of the Abomination below the gigantic palace. But they were not alone, for Galdren had returned successful, and riding Striastamacius, the gold dragon flew into the cloud giant king’s court, putting his mighty guards to sleep with sleeping breath, then tried to consume the possessed king in flames. A melee then came, as Thagdion’s remaining guards betrayed him as the Dragon Blade revealed his illusions and the corpse body he inhabited. The dragon burned and Galdren destroyed Thagdion’s summoned fiends and invisible undead lieutenants, but at last Garkalandor arrived and the red and gold dragon fought. Garkalandor was losing until Thagdion took a massive black spear wrapped in demonic magic, and slew the gold dragon with a single stroke. The loyal giants guards smashed Galdren, nearly to death, while Thagdion healed his dragon to ensure his victory, but it was at this time that Kargal and his companions came through their secret entrance. In a mighty melee they fought, and here Malcuin died, and Galderok was consumed by black fires summoned by Thagdion, and Sir Celeston was crushed alive, but Mandador here smiled on them, and Theylayn wielded the Summer Sword as would a paladin, striking at Thagdion along with Kargal’s new pole-axe, blasting his bones to pieces. It was the wizard Kandadron however that held the final duel with Thagdion, matching spell for spell in a brief exchange, until Kargal regained his senses and struck Thagdion in the black, pumping blue bolts of magical energy into him until he blew the Lich Priest-King’s golden skeleton body apart in a massive explosion, which caused Kandadron’s protective spell to trigger and send him back to Castle Trendle.

In the aftermath, Theylayn, blessed with his restored powers as a paladin, healed Kargal, and Gelber, who was near to death himself, told Kargal that he had bewitched the dragon with a spell, losing him in a magical maze of tunnels of his own mind, for the dragon had fled the gigantic palace for his own caverns in the adjacent mountain. Terribly wounded and exhausted of spells and magical prayers, Theylayn offered to go with Kargal to slay the dragon, but Kargal refused, ordered him to stay and watch over the wounded. Giving his respects to the shattered but alive Galdren, Kargal took the paladin’s last hand of healing, and readied himself, knowing he must slay the dragon before he might return and slay them.

Climbing to the nearby mountain over treacherous paths, Kargal descended into the dragon’s lair, and sensing him still lost in Gelber’s spell illusion, Kargal took the advantage and mocked the dragon, calling him a coward for fleeing. The dragon roared up from his pit to attack him, and Kargal struck him in the chest. Wrestling into themselves in a great melee, Kargal dealt the lethal blow with Talenthar’s jeweled sword, which he now carried. Kargal then rescued the princess of Thousiers, and using a magic potion in the dragon’s hoard, flew back to the cloud giant king’s palace. Taking the Dragon Blade from the broken body of Galdren, he then sought with Theylayn for the Abomination, and with their holy avengers they pierced Thagdion’s illusions and smashed through sealed doors to find his secret inner sanctum. Finding the golden Abomination, Kargal struck it with the long axe, piercing its gold. The enchanted halberd seemed to overload, and a large chunk of gold blew apart from the Abomination, revealing inky shadow within. A great demon manifested from the shadow, his blazing eyes staring out from the darkness, then appearing from the golden blood in a wave of superhot fire, wearing golden chains and wielding a sword of lightning. They fought him, but from the blackness of the interior of the Abomination came shadows that took the broken piece of the monstrous fetish, and as if from the very shadow of the cult object itself, drew forth a veil of blackness, and taking the Abomination dragged it through the blackness. They slew the fiend quickly enough, its lightning sword falling to the ground, but in the moment, with the Abomination gone and the darkness from which it went disappearing, Kargal prepared to leap through the darkness. Theylayn however stopped his friend from this boldest of acts.

Descending into Thousiers, the weary survivors were hailed as heroes. With the Princess of Thousiers returned, and many of their treasures, the knights and lords of Thousiers sponsored the return of the heroes by sail, the new regent of the kingdom submitted to Galdren that the duchy of Veronay was now his, and the Master-General of the Order’s ever thereafter. Many lords of Thousiers pledged to support the heroes of Dwarden, including the king himself, having returned from the war with Encyclon.