What are Kings when their reign is wrung,
but shadows where once their radiance shone.
Cursed to awaken when the living come,
doomed for evermore to contest their throne.

It not often one meets a Crusader of Stendarr on the roads nowadays, certainly not since the strife of the Planemeld and the perpetual Banners War. Standing before an entrance into the catacombs of Skyreach, Dalamar may well be the first Crusader I have met since my escape from Coldharbour’s damnable Wailing Prisons. His warnings about what lies in the catacombs are explicit, if not perhaps a little melodramatic, speaking of necromancy, a great darkness, and undead kings.

It seems the original entrances to the catacombs were sealed long ago, until the Scaled Court took an interest, as they did in the Holds above, and excavated the entrance before us. But they were seemingly unprepared for the ancient darkness interned in the tombs below and few, if any, made it out alive. Those that didn’t now serve a different master in death.

Noble Dalamar had come to consecrate the tombs, but he himself was forced to flee in terror. Still he clings to his belief that the divines sent him here with purpose, but if it were not to cleanse these ruins himself, then he now believes it was to guide others to it. I would that we could collapse this entrance and seal the catacombs once more, but with the Serpent no longer able to muster its forces, be them elemental, mantikora, iron orc, or troll, the Scaled Court is certain to attempt to enter the catacombs again and seek to make pact with the dark power within. If they succeed in offering the dread necromancer the freedom of Craglorn… alas the Crusader is right, it is better for I to find the darkness within before the Serpent.

The shambling dead, both ancient and new, roam these corridors in great numbers, as do ghosts, spirits and skeletons that rise from piles of seemingly discarded bones. Whilst searching for a way down into the lower catacombs I discover a grand chamber. As I enter the braziers alight, illuminating a circular conclave of seated figures now all but rag and bones. The most prominent figure however, who I presume to be the High King Durac, is strangely well preserved. As I warily approach the figure I sense movement to my right, the spirit of one of the kings raises from its bones and it is only now, too late, I notice that the doorway behind has become magically barred. Whatever I am to face in this chamber of kings, I shall do so till one of us falls.

More figures arise either side of the spirit and together they attack. No sooner have I overcome one group of assailants then another kings rises from another throne, and soon another. I am hard pressed to survive the onslaught of fallen kings, yet I do. But as I wearily lift my head I see the vampiric figure of the High King himself raising gracelessly from his seat, doomed to contest his throne once more.

S.K