Lion Guard

Not long after that, we got the assignment to close Dark Anchors in Glenumbra again, so we went to the Lion Guard Redoubt wayshrine, to see if Gabrielle was still there. It was on our way to the King's Guard dolmen, anyway.

She was there, and had news for us. The talisman we'd helped her try to restore had been analysed, and replicated. It had a specific resistance enchanted on it, and she thought she knew what it was for. The Lion Guard had sent a squad to follow up reports of the Bloodthorn cult at the nearby Cath Bedraud cemetery, and they hadn't returned. A second, larger, squad had followed to investigate the first, and potentially rescue them. Now they were overdue, too.

"They were probably overcome by whatever this talisman protects against. We have enough for you and Isobel, if you'd help me go and find out."

Cath Bedraud was nearer than the dolmen, although there was a rock ridge in between, and we'd have to come back here to get to the other side. We decided to go with Gabrielle, especially as she seemed determined to go herself, and whatever was there had already overcome two squads of Lion Guard.

"It wouldn't be knightly to let her go alone," Izzie declared, so we were going, too.

Closer to the cemetery, we could see a thick mist surrounding the place. An unnatural one, not pooling in the valleys, but staying on top of the hill inside the cemetery gates. We started to find some of the Lion Guard soldiers, mostly dead, but one was lying wounded, or at least choking from the effects of the mist. Gabrielle stayed with him, to try and heal him, while Izzie and I went ahead, to look for more.

It wasn't just the mist guarding the place. Hostile skeletons, and the necromancers who'd raised them, were everywhere. No sign of more Lion Guard inside the fence, so far, not even dead ones.

And then we found them. Half a dozen, all lying unconscious side by side, and another seemingly unaffected, trying to heal them, or at least keep them alive.

"We should have brought more of those amulets," Izzie remarked.

The unaffected Lion Guard introduced himself as Darien Gautier, leader of the squad. He told us that the necromancers all had amulets like the one she'd mentioned, but he couldn't leave the soldiers to try and get some. Maybe we could?

"How did you get one?" I asked.

"I haven't got one," he replied. "Somehow the mist isn't affecting me, and I have no idea why not. These men need them, hurry!"

When we got back with enough amulets for the men, we found that Gabrielle had caught up with us, and was helping attend to the poisoned men.

"This beautiful woman from the Mages Guild just arrived. Says she knows you! You can introduce me later," Darien said. 'I was right about the amulets, though, wasn't I?"

Once the knights all had their amulets, and were getting back to their feet again, Gabrielle told Darien to get them back to the redoubt. The three of us would remain and try to clear up the source of the poisonous mist, in the crypts below. He agreed, but he was coming back to assist, as soon as he'd done so.

"Count on me to get the knights out of here. You just protect Gabrielle. If this mad plan actually works, I'll see you inside the crypt."

We collected a few more of the amulets on our way to the middle of the cemetery. Gabrielle's plan, as she'd described to Darien, was to amplify the enchantment to open the entrance to the catacombs. Once inside, she could open a portal for reinforcements to join us from the redoubt, bypassing the mists completely. She was sure that Angof the Gravesinger, leader of the Bloodthorns, made the crypts his headquarters. That would be a level further down, so the catacombs were a good place to assemble our forces.

We had to defend her as she opened the catacombs door. The spell took a long time to cast, and doing so attracted the attention of just about any remaining skeletons, or necromancers, that we hadn't already fought. But eventually it was done, and we entered the catacombs. Now to find a good spot for the portal into the crypts.

"Some of the dead were protected by wards designed to prevent desecration. Look for a tomb with these wards and use this stone there. That should be safe enough for my purposes," Gabrielle told us, handing me a binding stone. "I'll stay here and open one for the knights to join us.'

As soon as we had placed the binding stone, a portal appeared and Gabrielle caught up with us. "Go on. Through the portal with you. There's no time to waste."

We stepped through into the crypts. "Good, you found the perfect spot for ... Wait, where are the others?"

"Others?"

"Yes. Sir Lanis and his knights volunteered to come with me, but I only see Dame Alexine. There must have been too many of us for the binding stone. This isn't good. The other knights could have been scattered throughout the crypts."

"So we need to round them up first," I replied.

"Right. But listen - there's only one way to get out of these crypts. You have to kill Angof. I don't have any other way to deal with his various protections and defenses now that I'm down here. He dies or we never leave. Those are our choices. And everything was just starting to go so well, too."

The final group of knights we found included Sir Lanis, and Darien.

"Dear Gabrielle's spell seems to have misfired. Luckily, a few of us were able to find each other. I also convinced a Bloodthorn cultist to tell me how to reach Angof. I can be persuasive when I put my mind to it."

Apparently, reaching Angof would require collecting some shard keys. We left him with Gabrielle, and set off to collect them.Two of the three were simply guarded, and all we had to do was defeat the guardians. The third had a riddle to solve, sort of. There was an incantation we needed to read, and repeat, word for word, back where the guardian spirit stood. So we had to find that, first, before we got the shard key.

With all three keys in hand, we assembled at the door to Angof's sanctum. Gabrielle, Darien and Sir Lanis entered with Isobel and me.

"There's not a lot of room to fight him," Gabrielle declared, "so here's my plan. You two take on Angof directly, and I'll defend you with a magic barrier when you need it. Sir Lanis and Darien will need to defend me while I'm doing that. We'll do what we can to help. Just stay away from his vines."

Whenever Angof started to cast one of his major attacks, she cast her barrier to counter it. "Get to the light, before his magic destroys you!"

The minions Angof summoned seemed to want to target the larger group, and Sir Lanis and Darien were kept busy, too. But that left Angof more exposed to Izzie and me, and we were able to wear him down, and finish him off. Gabrielle could now open another portal, back to the redoubt.

"Well, now, wasn't that fun? I'd fight alongside you anytime," said Darien. "But I'd rather carouse. You do carouse, don't you?"

Gabrielle almost agreed. "All right, maybe fun isn't the right word. But you were glorious! Angof is finally dead. We can't thank you enough for what you've done."

That reminded me what we hadn't done. Isobel and I ran off to attend to that dolmen. It would be an anti-climax to the day, but we needed to complete our daily quest for the Fighters Guild.