Session 15
Tamar, Auric and Kogali fight for their lives against unending hoardes of the dead at Caern Dum. Auric tells his friends that they are fighting for the fate of all of Middle Earth. Tamar just tells him grimly that right now they are fighting to save their own asses, nothing more. Milo awakens a mile or so away, being carried aloft on something as cold as ice. His senses clear and he sees he is being carried by the dead hobbits. They silently give him back the arms and equipment that had been taken from him and his companions. They give Milo a black leathern tunic that feels somehow magical. As he slips it on, it helps knit together some of his more grevious wounds. he is given two small knives as well, each one not much longer than his own hand. Mordante watches the battle from a distance. Auric invokes the names of the Great Elf lords to repel the dead, but it fails. Mordante sneers at him and tells him that those names no longer have power. Auric shouts out the name of Erinel, proclaiming her "purest and most fair of Elves, and future ruler of all Eregion."
In Westmarch, Erinel's flagging spirit is suddenly bolstered and she feels newfound strength and resolve. She and Tark come across a great forge with a massive bellows being operated by emaciated hobbits and humans chained to the workings and overseen by some strange feral creatures more human than orc. There are perhaps eight of them, and Erinel and Tark quietly come up with an attack that is certain to take them out quickly.
In Gondor, Ain-Ain is desperate to reopen the portal and help her friends. She tells Gandalf that she has something that will distract Mordante and hopefully allow them to gain some sort of edge, even if it is only a bargaining chip. She reveals to Gandalf the White Libram pilfered from Isengard many months ago. Gandalf visibly pales when he sees it, recognizing it as Saruman's book that contains the secrets of the Istaris power, particularly Saruman's own. Ain-Ain uses her own arcane power to aid the weakened Gandalf in opening a second portal. They see a fast field of the walking dead, all surrounding the three warriors. Ain-Ain shows Mordante the book and tells him to let her friends go or she shall destroy it. Mordante howls and appears right in front of the portal, thrusting an arm through it into Gondor and grabbing the libram from Ain-Ain. With Mordante now within reach and not paying immediate attention to them, Tamar runs up to the Istari and puts all of his strength into a blow that severs Mordante's arm. Mordante shrieks and disappears. When he vanishes, thousands of the dead sink back into the earth and those that don't begin to slow. Some of the weaker ones simply fall apart into small mounds of flesh, bone, and organs. Only a single figure moves towards them. Milo has arrived with their gear.
In Gondor, the severed arm drops to the ground as the portal snaps shut. The arm transforms into a huge serpent that goes straight for Gandalf. Kjartan, finally able to make himself useful, throws himself between the monster and Gandalf. He jumps upon the beast and shoves his blade through it's brain. Ain-Ain is totally spent bith macically and physically. She angrily waves away the guards and attendants who try to help her and retires to her room where she collapses into a deep tortured sleep.
In Westmarch, Tark and Erinel attack the beast men. It is only too late that they find that the true danger was lurking at the far end behind the forge. The earth trembles as a huge creature weighting many many tons comes at the call of the beast men. It is a mumikal, and it is easily the largest thing either has ever seen. It glares at them and starts to move forward. Tark and Erinel prepare for this rather one-sided battle. They see the creature slow, and the beast men start to edge away. Erinel and Tark look behind them and see that from out of the foliage there have silently come about five or six elves dressed in hunstman's clothing and holding bows with arrows nocked, ready to fire at the beast.
In Angmar, the four survivors finally have a few minutes to rest and bandage their wounds. As they finally begin to calm down a bit, the shadowy form of Mordante appears before them, his features twisted into a hateful sneer. "Did you grotesque little mortals really presume that I would not seek retribution?" He casts out his remaining hand and a gout of blood hits Tamar, eating through his flesh and down to his bones as he screams in unholy anguish. The Red Maw vanishes. Milo, Auric and Kogali rush to see to Tamar, but the Black Prince is too far gone, his body being little more than a skeleton with bits of flesh still clinging to it.
End of session 15
