Mergil

(Khundrakar, 23^rd September, 1600)

The adventurers reacted to the reappearance of their old commander in various ways. Most were at least willing to see what he had to say; but Sack was gripped by a bone-deep instinctive detestation for the man he was sure was a vampire, and would have nothing to do with him other than to constantly attempt to project threatening bodylanguage at him.

Mazahir appeared unbothered by this, and, putting up his weapon, knelt over the unconcious Vollun and checked his pulse. He looked across at Hildraft. "He needs your attention, I think," he said. Then he stood up and back, allowing the priest to attend to his acolyte undisturbed. Hildraft healed the younger dwarf's wounds with a touch, and then proceeded to deliver a stiffening pep talk in tones which had the acolyte squirming with shame at his cowardice. Even the hard-bitten Surya was moved to intervene, pointing out that Vollun was only young (and cheerfully ignoring the fact that the dwarf was actually twice his own age).

Kobort, meanwhile, had faced Mazahir. Looking him in the eye, he demanded to know why he was following them. Mazahir responded by saying he'd come to warn them that they were in big trouble. Kobort and Surya immediately started bombarding him with a mixture of demands for the truth, accusations that he'd lied to them the last time they'd met, and assorted threats. Finally, Mazahir raised his voice over the hubbub and took back the initiative.

Working around the frequent interruptions, he explained that he had been sent by those for whom he worked to locate the adventurers for specific and very good reasons. He was stopped at this point by more demands to know what exactly he was. In the end, he answered this by saying he was a Daywalker; a vampire who, for one of a variety of reasons, can function to a greater or lesser extent in sunlight as well as nighttime. "What can you do?" asked Kobort. "Would you like to find out?" Mazahir snapped back instantly with a toothy grin.

Continuing, Mazahir revealed that he was operating as a messenger and agent for what he described as "the Clans of my people", by which the party inferred he meant the vampire kind. He had tracked the party into Khundrakar and ascertained their purposes before approaching them; he had several basic points to make.

• He looked at Surya and said that the vampires were entirely aware of the fact that the Sword of the Dead Legions had resurfaced and that Surya was carrying it. Surya attempted, unsuccessfuly, to look innocent. Mazahir raised his hands placatingly. "We have no problem at all with you possessing the Sword," he said, "indeed, we may well wish to come to ...an arrangement... with you at some future time. Be aware, though, that unlike the lesser Undead, we are not slaves to its' power." He also stated that no vampire, himself included, could wield or use the Sword.
• It was apparent, despite the party's attempts to be non-comittal, that he was completely in the know as to the goal of their quest. Again, he disavowed any ambition to himself take possesssion of the sword Mergil, on the grounds that its' very touch would probably kill him. But he had been sent by his masters with two very definite instructions.
  1. Under no circumstances was the sword to fall into the hands of the Dragon Varkar Barduric.
  2. Under no circumstances was the sword to fall into the hands of the Elves.
  Either eventuality would be disasterous for the vampire kindred. Varkar was already trying to exterminate them, for he could not control or bargain with them; and the Elves had been trying to wipe out the vampires for thousands of years. His task was to attempt to influence the party away from either of these actions (although they had up til now, along with the rest of the human world, believed that there were no more Elves!) either by negotiation or by other means.
• Finally, he brought a warning. Outside the valley of Khundrakar, the storm had broken. Varkar had unleashed his long-awaited assault on the dwarfkingdoms, and the whole of the Erean mountains were aflame with war and alive with Dragonarmy troops.

There was quite some discussion among the party about this. No-one really trusted the Daywalker; Sack wanted to kill him there and then, but the others thought he might be useful, and not even Surya really fancied his chances having seen him fight. In the end, with dire warnings as to what would happen if he reneged on the deal, they agreed to work with him for the moment.

That settled, they set off back to the cavern where the dragon had lived, to look for its' hoard. En route, however, they had to re-cross the stone bridges where the dragon had attacked them. The band walked across the river without thinking twice, but Mazahir flinched and stepped back, before leaning with studied casualness against the rock wall. "I'll wait for you here," he declared. The group looked at each other, and agreed. They pressed on.

Working around the shore of the underground lake, they came into sight of a small island, out in the water. It was only 30' away from the bank, and they could see the tell-tale glint of gold and jewels already. Using Spider Climb to get a rope pitoned into the ceiling, they swung over to the island, and took stock of the dragon's hoard.

Mergil There was gold, and platinum, and silver, but what they were really looking for was at the top of the pile. Two mighty weapons rested there; a beautifully crafted dwarven greataxe, bearing Durgeddin's personal smith-mark (Hildraft immediately claimed this) and a slender longsword, of a simple magnificence sufficient to make all their own weapons look like rough sticks, with a word graven in elvenrunes on both sides of the blade:

Mergil.

They all hesitated for a moment; and then, almost unable to stop himself, Surya bent down and lifted the weapon.

His expression went dreamy for a moment or two, as his hand tightened on the hilt. Then he gave a sigh, and put the weapon down again; he looked relieved and maybe a little disappointed. Once he'd reassured the others that he'd come to no harm, each in turn drew the last Sword of the Noldor and, in turn, experienced the mystic vision that the sword conferred.

• Surya: felt tendrils of foreign thought touching his mind. Without quite knowing how, he was sure that they came from the sword Mergil itself. In an instant he felt it empathise with him as a warrior, resonating that deep bond that exists only between warriors and swords. But underlying this were two other sensations, undercurrents of emotion coming from the weapon. First is a sense that Surya, while a swordsman, was in some way "wrong" from the sword's point of view; second was a massive antipathy towards the Sword of the Dead Legions. This was unmistakable; Mergil was quite aware of the Necromancer's blade and hated it.
• Sack: Distantly, in the back of his mind, he heard drums and trumpets, playing a triumphant march. All at once, a vision enveloped him; he himself, bearing the sword Mergil and armoured in magnificence, leading a vast army (it wasn't quite clear of whom) to victory in battle after battle. Always at the front, invulnerable and indefeasible, he hacked his way into a vast underground throne-hall, where a grizzled Orc king awaited, armed with a dour mace. In an epic duel, Sack threw him down and wrested his bloodstained crown from his twitching body before seating himself on his throne to the adulation of his subjects. Lifting his eyes from his soldiers, he looked across to the back of the hall, where the three Orc elders of his earlier vision smiled, and bowed slightly in grave approval.
  Dimly, as this unfolds, he was aware of another set of images trying to make themselves seen to him, but he couldn't make them out with any clarity.
  After these had ended, Sack released and re-lifted the sword, and received - as they all did - a less intense version of the same thing. This time, he made a mental effort to deny the heroic images, and reach through to the others; he gained a vague impression of mountains, trees and seashores, which may or may not have been the ones Kobort had seen.
• Kobort: He found he was looking at a city from a distance of some miles; somehow, he knew it was the Elven port-fortress of Belegond. It was, however, intact as it was in his day, rather than the ruin it was in this time. Suddenly, he realized his point of view was moving, as if he were flying. Quickly, he passed over Belegond towards the sea; as he did, it transformed itself into a heap of rubble, as it must now be. Accelerating, he hurtled over the ocean, and soon an island came into view. Green and pleasant, it was clearly inhabited; plains to the north were dotted with strong fortresses, the hills in the centre had mines and towers, and the thick forests ringing the hills contained large but graceful cities. Swift ships like white gulls plied the nearby waters. Finally, on a peninsula, he saw a great complex of forgeworks and smithys, clearly the abode of a master craftsman.
• Hildraft: He felt a kinship grow between himself and the sword, a shared objective. A vision of a dragon, vast beyond belief - Varkar Barduric, certainly - passed briefly before his eyes, together with a mighty hoard of powerful magic weapons, racks and racks of them. An insight grew, and suddenly he knew why the Dragon collects these things. He believes that if he releases the power enchanted into them - all of them - at once, he will have enough power to make the leap to Divinity. Aside from his own feelings about this, the part of him that was linked to Kord knew that not only did he abhor this possibility, but so too did all the Gods, or at least all the ones Kord was on good terms with. Moreover, Mergil itself was extremely unwilling that this should come to pass, not least because it was well aware that it, Mergil, embodied enough power to enable the Dragon to embark on this plan Right Now.

In common, each in turn formed the impression that, despite being the most impressive enchanted sword any of them had ever seen to look at, Mergil felt to their hands like a lump of lead; dull, clumsy, passive and uninspiring.

There was a brief pause, as each of them considered whether to tell the others what he'd learned. At last, the comradeship of years won out, and they fell to discussing what the visions had meant. They reached several basic conclusions:

• Whether or not they trusted Mazahir, he was dead right on one issue; the Dragon shouldn't be allowed to gain control of Mergil.
• The visions Sack was given were not all that they seemed.
• The weapon was designed for and probably attuned to one or more specific people; either the hero for whom it was intended (though historical record showed he never received it), or perhaps its' maker.
• The elves had made some sort of refuge on an island westwards out to sea.

Finally, Surya tucked the weapon into his backpack and the band started to think about leaving the complex of Khundrakar. Working onwards along the edge of the lake, they found a deep pool, attached to the end of the lake, in a sub-cavern of its' own. Unlike the rest of the cavern, this showed signs of considerable "slop"; that is, the lake had washed quite high up the walls from time to time.

Hildraft picked up a small rock, cast Light on it, and dropped it into the pool. Bending over, the five watched it sink until it was about 100' down, at which point it stopped, still just visible. This looked promising, so Kobort stripped off his armour, borrowed Hildraft's Ring of Water Breathing, and slipped into the water, Spider Climbing down the side of what turned out to be an underwater tunnel.

At the bottom of the shaft, it turned 90° and led horizontally eastwards. Following this for several more hundred feet, the sorcerer found that it sloped upwards, and finally he began to see daylight ahead. Eventually, he emerged from the tunnel onto the bed of the dark lake which lapped around the eastern side of the Stone Tooth. It was indeed a way out; presumably the one the dragon had used to get in and out of its' cavern.

Turning back, he retraced his steps, and described what he'd found to his comrades. As they exchanged glances, it was clear everyone was thinking the same thing: leave through here, ditch Mazahir, be off over the hill and out of the valley before he was aware they'd gone.

Kobort brought out his Wand of Polymorph and changed Surya, Sack and Vollun into otters, equipment and all, while Hildraft retrieved his ring of Water Breathing and cast the equivalent spell on Kobort. Then all five plunged back into the water and swam out through the tunnel, across the lake and emerged at the far side.