Arcane Journey

Chapter 336 Cragg Castle

The buildings on the top of the mountain are like all the old castles, built on the top cliff according to the mountain, but now, there are only some ruins that have been smoked by fire...

Looking up from the bottom of the cliff, the ruins of a burnt black round tower stand alone on the top of the mountain, pointing to the gray sky.

Apparently, Cragg Castle, once built by the Zhentarim, had long been destroyed by fire due to a failed war.

In Brian's impression, it is not a new thing for Zhentalin to have ambitions for Shadow Valley.

Even before the 'Arcane Shoah', the Darknet had struggled relentlessly with Shadowvale and its protectors.

The followers of Bane sent from Zhentil Keep wanted to gain the rule of Shadow Valley more than once.

But Shadow Valley is a well-known place where voters live. Elminster, Storm, Dove, Helen, and the crazy witch Simbu who often make guest appearances at tooth-stretching sacrifices, for the Zhentarim, ruling Shadow Valley is undoubtedly a must. A difficult task, it is simply a dungeon of hell-level difficulty.

Even so, in the history of Shadow Valley, there is still a warrior named Joe Muhe, at least for a period of time, won the right to rule Shadow Valley, and Kragg Castle was built during his reign. of.

In the valley calendar 1339DR, Oram, the lord of the Shadow Valley, and his wife, Ms. Shiron, jointly ruled the Shadow Valley for No. 40 years.

These 40 years were a rare and long period of peace in the history of Shadow Valley, but in this year, Zhentarim spies assassinated Lord Oram.

Although these assassins were quickly captured and executed by Qiao Muhe, Qiao Muhe got the Ashaba pendant and declared himself the new legal lord of Shadow Valley.

Unbeknownst to the residents of Shadowvale, Jomuch was also a Zhentarim spy, and the whole affair was nothing more than a conspiracy, a hoax.

After Qiao Muhe became the ruler, he did not choose to live in the Twisted Tower, but rebuilt a castle for himself on the hill east of Shadow Valley.

The castle sits on a gentle slope below Warden's Mountain, and was once an outpost of the drow in the dark days before the Vale was founded.

When Qiao Muhe became the ruler of Shadow Valley and took this place as his own, it has become nothing but the foundation.

On top of the ruins, Jomuch built a symbol of his power as Lord of Shadowvale: Cragg Castle.

In this way, Jomuch's stronghold was quickly filled with agents of the Zhentarim.

In the end, the people of Shadow Valley who finally realized the seriousness of the situation rose up to rebel, and then Zhentil Fort also quickly dispatched troops to 'maintain peace' to maintain the rule of Jomuch.

However, all these efforts were in vain after Qiao Muhe himself failed to ambush Elminster, the sage of the Shadow Valley beyond his capacity. The price of this brain-dead attack was Qiao Muhe's own life.

In Chomuch's original idea, Kragg Castle should be a magnificent building comparable to the famous Dark Fortress on the Sunset Mountains in the west of the Kingdom of Cormyr.

But this plan was thwarted by two factors:

One is because his master built the castle beyond the budget, which resulted in the Zhentarim not having enough financial resources to support such extravagance, and the other is the rebel army composed of mercenaries and residents led by Ms. Hillen.

In the end, the resulting castle was much smaller than the original design.

And when Chomuch died, the remaining residents who had reservations also joined the revolution, and the castle was burned in the anger of the people and turned into ashes.

Since then, Craage Castle has once again become an abandoned ruin.

As time went by, Shadow Valley lasted for quite a long period of peace, until Elminster was seriously injured by the assassins of Shadow City and fled. Only one solitary tower remained.

Later, the army stationed here and started large-scale reconstruction work. At the very least, simple buildings can now be built in this area to accommodate people.

Bryan saw from a distance that although the area around Cragg Castle was still covered with moss and low bushes, the access road leading south to the north bridleway had been cleared. Currently, the reconstruction work is in full swing.

After all, for many years, the Valley has already become the biggest obstacle in front of the Dark Trade Network. Therefore, the Bann Church is very happy to participate in the plan to conquer the Shadow Valley.

When they learned that the Church of the Lost Lady was going to target Elminster, the leaders of the two parties, who had been extremely jealous when their enemies met, hit it off and immediately concluded a strategic alliance.

Through the information obtained by the Harper scouts, Brian also learned that even though the most important task of the Zhentarim Society is to completely conquer the Shadow Valley, the priests of the Dark Lord Bane are still concerned about the spread of faith.

Therefore, their energies were mainly focused on rebuilding the temple and making the church of Bane the only legitimate faith in the valley.

With such a goal in mind, Dark Judgment Manrason led a group of priests and craftsmen to come here and start the transformation work.

There is no doubt that the rulers of Zhentil Keep are very interested in the idea of ​​building a prominent temple in the center of the occupied area. important things.

Afterwards, a long-forgotten portal was discovered at the bottom of the castle, and the occupying forces quickly connected it to Zhentil Castle, so that troops and supplies could be continuously transported to the occupied area.

However, the important information gathered from the Harper let Brian accidentally learn that from the standpoint of "Dark Judgment" Manrathon, he has mixed feelings about the current situation.

On the one hand, he is energized by the prospect of being able to set out to create the future, the great temple that must eventually become the center of Bane's faith.

On the other hand, the agreement reached between the ruler of Zhentil Keep, Bozor, the elect of Bane, and the disciples of Shar is the biggest problem he faces.

Because the priestesses of the Church of Shar's ritual of tearing the magic net brought inconvenience to the rebuilding of the temple, not only at 01:30: because the castle was too close to the lair of the Lich Arocar, the magic-suppressing Rituals, making anything the priests try to accomplish through magic, have a bad effect.

In fact, many important spells can't even be used at all.

These facts put a lot of pressure on Manrason.

As a result, while others were rebuilding the castle day after day, he fell into a state of cowardice, fearing that the castle would be attacked, and hid in his temple all day long without being seen.

He waited in vain for the decision-makers of Zhentil Castle to send him 'enough supplies and troops to build this temple'.

However, this expectation may take a long time to be realized-if it can be realized at all.

From these bits and pieces of news, let Brian know that his next mission to save Azara and destroy the portal is very likely to meet the dark adjudicator of the dark trade network.

Before he knew it, Brian had quietly approached Kragg Castle.

Looking around, the architectural style of the castle is completely inconsistent with that of the old castle.

When rebuilding, the army tried to use as many existing buildings as possible, and even then, there were large areas that were already in complete ruins, requiring them to start over.

In the map Harper gave Brian, the different parts of the complex are also marked in detail.

The huge circular tower and ancillary buildings on the west side are the original buildings, while the low buildings on the north side are completely new.

Some ruins have still not been cleared, and large pieces of rubble have piled up in place.

On the northeast corner, workers are laying the foundations for the sprawling shrine that Manrathon hopes will be completed in the coming year.

As Brian expected, the guards around the castle were obviously looser, and even the mage who was patrolling the sky riding his magic pet rushed to the Twisted Tower immediately.

From this, it can be seen how well the half-elf monk Leoson, the harpist elite, completed this task.

Brian didn't waste any more time, and with the blessing of many concealment spells, he chose to go inside from the construction site of the castle.

This is the safest passage pointed out to him on the map.

The ruins on this road have all been cleared, and one side of the land has been sorted out.

Wooden stakes, driven deep into the soil, outline the architectural blueprint for a new castle.

Numerous stones and timbers have been neatly piled up on the side of the open space. As part of the castle reconstruction plan, the Bane believers designed and built the foundation of this new building.

So far, they have used old stones that have been cleared from the ruins, but it can be seen from the ruins that are about to be demolished that they will soon need new stones.

On the busy construction site, two huge two-headed creatures, shaking their heads, supervised a group of workers shackled together to carry and carve these rocks in 360 degrees without dead ends.

And a man in armor leaned lazily against a wall, directing everyone's work.

Two hellhounds summoned from the lower plane acted as overseers to intimidate the slave workers to work hard in a cruel way.

At the same time, there is also a priest, Benn, whose strength is around the second level, supervising the entire work.

The working slaves here, except for the humans in the Cormanthor region, one-third of them are residents of Shadow Valley.

They were used as mere labor, and more than thirty mountain dwarves were brought from Raven Keep to serve as stonemasons for carving.

Although with Brian's current ability, he could save this group of slaves just by waving his hand, but if he chooses to do so, he may be exposed because of this. Wouldn't it be a waste of the good opportunity created by the Harpers, and the gain outweighs the gain.

So, after quietly walking through the busy crowd, Brian walked directly along a cold and dark tunnel towards the depths of Kragg Castle.

When the last light of dusk disappeared on the eastern horizon, Brian had successfully reached the interior of Kragg Castle.

Moonlight shone dimly on the courtyard in the center of the wall.

In the center of the courtyard is a large pile of limestone blocks surrounded by a ring of masonry tools.

And at the edge of the courtyard, the shadows of the wall are gloomy, as if they will jump or change at any time.

Brian observed the surrounding environment calmly, and found a secret passage leading to the basement of the castle from the stables filled with foul smell.

Thick dust and layers of spider webs covered this narrow secret passage, and at the end of the secret passage was a small secret room with four sides.

The inside was covered with thicker dust, and it was obvious at a glance that no one had been in this room for many years, so that in many corners, dust and cobwebs had even formed into lumps.

It seems that someone used this secret room to store treasure many years ago. Regardless of the original intention of the person who hid the treasure, it seems that they have not been able to return due to various reasons...

Brian also found that many items that were not so strong, such as fabrics, had decayed away.

Just like the seemingly intact sack in front of his eyes, it shattered with a slight touch, and a large pile of golden and multicolored glittering gemstones immediately flickered in the air.

After Brian took away the pile of spoils that surprised him, he found a switch for a secret room in the corner of the room.

He looked at the switch in front of him, looked around with the help of detection magic, thought for a moment, and pressed the switch with a vigilant expression.

Accompanied by bursts of rumbling sounds, a wall covered with cobwebs on the left side of the secret room slowly rose up.

Immediately afterwards, a stench of excrement and a thick orc sweat filled the air.

Brian frowned. With the legendary favor, he could see the environment in the room clearly without any dark vision magic.

There was no one in the room, and at first glance, the stench probably came from the two basins in the corners on both sides of the room.

Various animal furs and animal bones were scattered on the bed in the room, and a few pieces of coal were burning in the brazier at the end of the bed, providing a little warmth for the cold and damp underground room.

There was a pot above the brazier, and something was stewing, emitting a disgusting smell of meat.

The door was a thick black curtain. When Brian walked through the curtain carefully, a strong smell of animal excrement hit his face...

In this way, with the help of the invisibility technique and the anti-detection means of the Purple Dragon Seal Ring, he arrived at a spacious hall at the bottom of the castle without any danger.

Dim candles were burning on the old candlesticks, and the flickering light of the fire illuminated the spacious circular hall.

There is only one circular staircase and corridor in the room, with the counterclockwise staircase on the left leading to the surface, while the staircase on the right is concealed by a locked door.

Just when Brian was about to walk towards the depths of the corridor in the hall, a sound of dull footsteps came from far and near in the darkness.

With the help of the faint firelight, after seeing the hill-like figure cast on the ground, Brian's expression changed, and he immediately took cover, hiding in the dark and waiting for the enemy to come over on his own initiative.

…………

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Light novel style, love to play memes, if you are interested, you can read it.

(End of this chapter)