Author's Note: It may seem like I've forgotten this poor tale. I haven't! OK, it's been almost a year without an update but I did recently rewrite the first chapter. Unfortunately, I introduced a number of continuity problems that I'll have to weed out, but bear with me. As usual, I'm taking liberties aplenty with the game events.

Chapter 18…The Paladin Strikes a Blow

"Let us settle this between us," Casavir said. In the stark mage light, his pale eyes shone, intense and vivid.

"Do you mean to challenge me?" Logram Eyegouger took a step forward and looked down at the human. One of his ears flicked forward like an irritated dog. Casavir was tall and broad shouldered—Logram was taller and broader still.

"I do. Let us spare your followers, and mine."

Logram grunted. "You insult me, Katalmach. I do not—"

"Let me kill him," the ghast said. "Let me kill him for you, father."

"No." The ghast ignored this refusal and grasped his father's arm. The chieftain moved as if to shake his son's hand loose, but stopped. His lips pulled away from his tusks. The two began to argue, and as their voices rose, the other orcs began to look at each other uneasily and mutter in their guttural tongue.

"What are they saying?" Carona whispered to Khelgar.

"Yon ghast wishes to stand as his father's champion."

"Why?"

Khelgar shook his head a little. "I'm thinking he's trying to prove himself to his father and his clan."

As the father and son continued to growl at each other, Carona caught the word Katalmach several times. She glanced at Casavir who, patient and motionless, watched the orcs wrangle. She would not enjoy having that calm, stern gaze measure her, she thought.

"Sounds like our friend here has killed Logram's other sons," Khelgar said. "This stinky beastie is the last of them. That's why he wants to fight so bad. Wants to show he's stronger than the rest."

"What does that mean for us?" she asked.

"Hard to say," Khelgar said. "They'd have to treat with Casavir as an equal, should he win. Won't happen anyway. No orc will accept a challenge from any other race."

Logram exchanged a long look with a gray haired orc who had a red eye painted on his robe. Painted in blood, Carona thought. That would be his shaman. Logram gave him an order he clearly didn't like. The shaman then jumped into the argument while the ghast rocked back on his heels and gave Casavir a wolfish stare. Logram roared. The shaman growled and walked away.

"What is it?" Carona whispered.

"Watch and see," Khelgar said.

The ghast took a step toward Casavir. "I will open your belly and throttle you with your own guts." He flexed his claws and grinned. Casavir turned to Logram.

"Does this—does your son fight in your place?" he asked.

"He fights," Logram said.

"If that is your wish, so be it," Casavir said. "I warn you, though—he will be destroyed."

Logram bared his teeth but said nothing. The ghast laughed and bounded toward the shaman, who returned with a weapon. The heavy mace he carried had an almost greasy sheen in the shifting light. Enchanted, Carona thought. The ghast snatched it from the shaman's grasp.

"After I have killed the Katalmach, you will give me the elven to feast upon." The ghast leered at Carona and Elanee.

"After," his father said. Something in his voice—an unexpected bleakness—pulled Carona's attention.

He knows Casavir will kill his son. He knows it can't win. Perhaps it's an abomination to him as well as to us. Her mind sped through the possibilities. Once the ghast was dead, what would the orcs do? Kill us, of course. She gave Casavir an urgent look but his eyes were half closed and his lips moved silently. She wanted to shake him. This is not a good time for prayer! The gods had never answered any prayer of hers but maybe his experiences were different.

His eyes opened and he beckoned her forward. Casavir leaned down so his mouth was close to her ear.

"I will draw this fight out as long as possible." His voice was a low rumble. His warm breath stirred her hair. "Get Issani to safety." He clapped her shoulder and turned to face the ghast. In something close to exasperation, she moved to Neeshka's side.

The orcs formed a half circle. They shouted and stomped their booted feet as the man and the ghast squared off. Carona tapped Issani to get his attention.

"Neeshka's going to get you out of here," she said.

"What?!"

Carona gave the squealing tiefling a hard pinch. Issani opened his mouth but Carona shook her head at him. The orcs paid them no attention.

"I don't want to leave you again," Neeshka said. "Besides, I don't know the way back to Old Owl Well."

"Can you guide her?" she asked Issani.

"I don't want to leave either." he said.

"But—"

"If I die here, so be it. I do not fancy being hunted across these mountains." The ringing clash of the ghast's mace on Casavir's shield made him jump. "Nor do I wish to be a prisoner again." He gave her a faint smile. "The hospitality I have received so far leaves much to be desired."

"Casavir is fighting that monster to buy you time to escape," she hissed.

"That is brave of him. But it makes no difference." Issani frowned. "You two and the druidess should sneak out, if you think you can. This is no place for a woman."

Carona shook her head. "This is no place for any of us. Besides," she said, "My life isn't worth much if I return to Neverwinter without you."

Issani gave her a questioning look but they all jerked around at the loud chorus of hoots. Casavir had fallen. Carona didn't know if the ghast knocked him down or if he'd tripped on the uneven surface.

"Get up, lad," Khelgar shouted but Casavir bounded to his feet as if he hadn't hiked half a day and fought his way through a wave of undead. Carona stared. Where does he get all that energy? "Stop playing around! Take him down."

"Take him down, Casavir." Carona added her shout to his. Perhaps he heard her. At any rate, he attacked the ghast with a sudden fury that drove him backwards. Orcs parted to let the combatants through. Casavir's chant rang out clear over the clamor of the orcs. A pure white light streamed from his hammer. The ghast recoiled from the sudden glare. The orcs squinted and some shaded their eyes with their hands. All the yelling and stomping stopped.

Casavir's hammer rose. He struck the ghast in the shoulder with such force that the head punched through his leather and half buried itself in the creature's rotten flesh. The nearest orcs jumped back from the splatter of thick foul liquid. Casavir jerked his hammer loose with a quick twist. The ghast hit the floor. His mace dropped beside him with a loud clatter.

Casavir hesitated.

"Kill him," Khelgar shouted.

The ghast bared its tusks and rose to his hands and knees. He sprang towards Casavir, who pivoted and smashed his shield into the ghast's chest. The ghast staggered back. With practiced timing, Casavir stepped in, swung his hammer and split his skull.

Ignoring the angry mutters, Casavir turned to face the warlord.

"Logram Eyegouger," he said. "I have defeated your champion."

"You killed my son."

"No. I released his spirit from its unnatural bondage."

The shaman pushed his way through angry orcs to stand beside Logram.

"Do you expect my gratitude?" Logram asked.

Casavir met his eyes. "No."

The shaman made a gesture Carona didn't recognize.

"Kill them all and offer their blood to Gruumsh," the shaman said.

"And will that win us the favor of One-Eye?" Logram asked. "You gave me better advice a season ago. The dark priests bring a curse, you told me. You told me to leave this place. If I'd listened then, at least one son would be left to me."

"We have lost too much to leave now," the shaman said. "You can sire other sons."

"In this cursed place? No. We go. Now, before we lose more. Now, before more of the dark priests come. Let the humans reap the darkness that grows here."

"Yaisog Bonegnasher will not go along with this."

"Then he and his clan can die here. The Eyegougers go."

Logram pushed through orcs to a lurid banner that hung from spikes driven into the cavern wall. He pulled it down. His claws had been trimmed short, Carona noticed, but they shredded the heavy cloth like knives. All the orcs stood silent and tense. Logram let the pieces flutter to the ground. He turned to Casavir.

"Take this place, Katalmach. You cannot hold it. When darkness devours you, we will return to spit on your corpses."

"What will Logram's departure mean for the Greycloaks?" Issani asked.

They'd holed up for the night, while the orcs were active, in a shallow cave Elanee had found. Carona's eyes drooped. Elanee had healed the worst of her wounds but she'd been too tired to eat more than a few mouthfuls of dinner. Issani was likely more tired than any of them but he sat beside Casavir and spoke as if he hungered for conversation more than food. Since all they had was travel bread and jerky and scarcely enough water to wash it down, Carona found that quite understandable.

Elanee leaned against the rock wall, so quiet that she may have been in reverie. Neeshka and Khelgar, who had the late watch, lay in their blankets. Khelgar snored.

"Yaisog Bonegnasher has many enemies amongst the tribes," Casavir said. "His clan may be the strongest now but he will not be able to hold the others together. I would expect the infighting to be fierce."

"So this is good news for the proposed trade route to Yartar," Issani said with satisfaction.

"This is good news for the people who live in this area," Casavir said. Issani's brows rose at the hint of rebuke.

"Why did the orcs capture you?" Carona asked when the silence dragged on.

"I wasn't taken for ransom; that much is certain. There is a plot afoot and not of Logram Eyegouger's making."

"Are you saying someone hired the orcs to capture you?" Casavir asked.

"The orcs were instructed to take me and to hold me, yes. I believe it was originally planned that I be replaced with a man called Olov. He arrived with the priest that Khelgar Ironfist killed."

"Did you know this man, Olov?" Casavir asked.

"I came to know him." Issani rubbed his swollen knuckles and grimaced. "Olov took my credentials and used them to forge a new set. His knowledge of the current state of Waterdeep trade policies was disconcertingly accurate. But there were details he wanted from me, details that he had the priest and his apprentices attempt to take from me by torture." He glanced at Carona and his lips turned down. "I am greatly in your debt, you know. I do not know how much longer I could have held out. Once they got what they wanted, the necromancer had further plans for me." He gave an exaggerated shudder but the fear in his eyes looked real enough.

"The necromancer had apprentices?" Carona said. "Did they flee? Will they continue his work?"

"They are dead. Shall I tell you how Logram's son came to become a ghast?" Issani had a rich voice, a storyteller's voice.

"Please do," Carona said.

"This Olov was a very arrogant man. He despised the orcs, considering them filthy barbarians, barely more than animals. You met Logram. You can imagine how well that attitude pleased him."

"Logram was the first true king these tribes have had in a generation, at least," Casavir said.

"Exactly. To put it in a nutshell, Olov offended Logram's son not once, but many times. I do not even believe it was deliberately done. Foolish, eh? Finally, in a fit of rage, the boy slew him. When the priest's apprentices intervened, he killed them also. The priest was furious. This was a tremendous setback to his carefully made plans. He forced Logram to sacrifice his own son in retribution. And the priest was not satisfied with the boy's death. He brought him back as the creature that you saw and he used every opportunity to flout the ghast in Logram's face. He drove Logram half-mad, I tell you."

"Had he no fear he would suffer the same fate as Olov? What hold did he have over Logram to exact so horrendous a price?" Casavir asked.

"I do not know," Issani said. "And frankly, I am glad of that fact."

"But who was behind these plans?"

"They were careful not to speak in front of me but I learned a few things. There was a man the priest spoke to through some magical means. His name is Garius and I am certain he is a Luskan." Issani's sharp eyes sharpened further at Carona's arrested look. "Do you know something of this man?"

"A little," she said, and then she described what she had overheard at Highcliff Castle.

"More of these priests?" Casavir asked.

Issani spoke over him. "The priest referred to this Garius as the Master of the Fifth Tower." He continued to watch her. "I can see by your expression that this means nothing to you."

"Should it?"

"The city of Luskan is ruled by the mages of the Hosttower. You have heard of the Arcane Brotherhood?" Carona nodded. "Well, their Hosttower is divided into four towers. Four, you understand? For one of the Arcane Brotherhood to claim to be the master of the fifth—well, that is a bold claim. A very bold claim. And an ambitious Luskan mage is an ambitious man indeed."

"And he and this priest were working together? Why? And how were the orcs involved?"

"I do not know for certain. One thing I know is that he anticipated great bloodshed." He cast his eyes towards Casavir.

"Logram was preparing to strike the Greycloak camp," Casavir said. Issani nodded.

"Garius had plans for the dead. He planned to raise an army of undead."

"Do you think Luskan planned to attack Neverwinter with this army?" Casavir shook his head in negation of his own words. "Even if, Tyr help us, all the Greycloaks had fallen, surely there would not have been enough—bodies—for a decisive strike against the city's defenses. Zombies like we faced earlier would not present a great threat to Neverwinter, not unless they came in vast numbers."

"It makes no sense," Issani agreed.

"The necromancer said that Garius was not his master," Carona said. "He implied that they both worked for someone else. Someone greater."

"That is worrisome news," Issani said.

Carona couldn't tell who was more shocked by their successful return—her guild contact, Karina, or the leader of the Greycloaks.

"So you're this Katalmach I've heard so much about," Commander Callum said. "Now that I know who you are, much becomes plain, Casavir."

"It is good to see you again, Callum."

Carona supposed she shouldn't have been surprised that they knew each other. The two spoke quietly and although Casavir looked wary, there seemed to be no enmity between them. That was something of a relief. Carona had begun to wonder if Casavir was an outlaw or exile from Neverwinter but apparently he was free to return to the city if he so chose. Issani had hinted that he would be most grateful if Casavir would accompany him to Neverwinter. Karina, who latched onto their party as soon as she spotted Issani, noticed this and urged Carona to persuade him as best she could.

Carona hadn't expected Casavir to agree but she wasn't nearly as surprised as his sergeant Katriona when he did so. She was not privy to what passed between them but Katriona's flushed face and Casavir's wooden expression told her that the discussion had not gone well. In the end, however, Callum agreed to take on any of Casavir's troops willing to join as Greycloaks, and Casavir agreed to return to Neverwinter "for now". He gave no hint to his future plans.

Karina travelled with them. She produced forged Council documents entitling her to draw upon Callum's supplies and riding stock for the emissary's use. That was convenient, since Chule had demonstrated her faith in their survival by returning to Neverwinter with all their rented donkeys the day after they'd gone into the mountains. Not that Carona expected Callum would begrudge them a handful of donkeys but the paperwork saved an argument or two, no doubt.

Karina used every opportunity during the long ride to the city to whisper in Issani's ear. Now that he was safe, the emissary's face settled into a cool polite mask most of the time. Karina promoted the Thieves Guild's interests, no doubt, and Carona wished her good fortune. Issani, who had already withstood torture, had impressed her as a man not easily manipulated.

They didn't see a single orc the entire trip back.

They arrived in Neverwinter just as the sun dropped into the sea. The gate sergeant told them that the Blacklake district was still closed, so Issani could not be taken directly to Nasher. The sergeant sent a runner to the Watch post but he didn't think a pass could be arranged for Issani before morning.

"Just as well," Issani said. "I am in most desperate need of a bath and a change of clothes. I would hate to present myself looking so disreputable."

Once they passed through the city gates, Karina rode on ahead to arrange for suitable lodgings, or so she said. Carona figured she wanted to report to the guild master for further instructions.

She returned quicker than Carona expected and with a smug look. Presumably the guild master was pleased. Carona hoped that meant she'd be paid handsomely and soon, for her purse was almost as flat as Casavir's. Karina led them to the Shining Serpent Inn and made it clear that Carona and her friends were dismissed.

The emissary had words of thanks for them all. When he reached Carona, he took her hand.

"I will not forget the lady who brought me a dagger in the darkness," he said. His bland mask slipped to show genuine warmth. "If there is ever anything I can do for you, do not hesitate to ask."