We rest again, this time far more needful for myself. The group kept pushing on when my ability to call upon spells had waned with constant use, past the point I felt was sensible.
We now know far more about this place, and what happened to it. Axeholm, once a thriving trade centre, was brought low by the catalyst of theft and retaliation. A bard from the Harper's guild by the name of Dalran Breezeholden came with his partner Katanya. They were welcomed as friends, housed in some of the better rooms, but the bard used the opportunity to thieve a gem they had, an artifact they call the Arc Stone, something that is somewhat like a philosopher's stone I believe.
The dwarves, incensed by this betrayal and theft, captured the bard's partner, imprisoned and tortured her in order to get the location of where he might have gone, but to no avail. Her mother came to try and bargain with the dwarves in order to free her daughter, but without news of the arc stone she was turned away. A druidic elf of significant power, she retaliated against them, killing at least a couple before she too was captured and imprisoned in a lined chamber of Dimeritium where her magics would not work. There she had to listen for three weeks while her daughter starved to death. The grief was so great that she turned into a banshee, and through the magic of her cursed scream started the plague of undead in Axeholm.
The king of Axeholm, protected from death by a suit of magical armour that keeps him stepping back and forth over the line of death in a way that gave me a migraine, closed off the city, blocking the doors to the lower reaches of it and has been guarding that door from being opened since then, for thousands of years. Although both the banshee and the king have fought before, both seem to have been too well matched and they mostly avoid each other now.
The king wants the banshee to suffer forevermore, or be destroyed. He has sat there for so long, guarding that door, and while he cannot be considered a good man, he is at least dutiful towards his people, even if the years have twisted him more. He told me that if he were freed from the burden, he would go and start afresh elsewhere, start a new city. I was hearted by this, one problem potentially solved, but Zenari was of another mind. Outside, she stated that he had to die, likely as a response to his willingness to let his people suffer if the banshee also did.
Not that he has too many options. He cannot control the undead within Axeholm, and there are many. Far too many for us to fight alone. 2687 dwarves lived there, he told us, as well as guests they had staying. I might have been able to bargain with him if he had been able to control them, but he cannot. It would have been a great deal more useful if he could have brought them out, a few at a time, for us to cut down and then for me to put them to rest properly. As it is, that option is not workable.
I had felt sure, up until he said that, that this was what was meant by 'conquer', that or using the undead as a weapon against the orcs and dragon in exchange for putting them to rest afterwards. But it seems not. The king is no more able to control them than we are, no matter that he is a cleric, supposedly. He also seems extremely unreliable in terms of keeping his vigil, which means any people from Phandalin would not be safe here, and the group's task was to make Axeholm safe for them.
If we find some way to free the banshee, the king will release the thousands of undead from within Axeholm. If we destroy her, the king may aid us in helping put the dead of Axeholm to rest so he can move on elsewhere. Except Zenari at least wants him dead, and was very clear about that.
If the banshee is put to rest, or destroyed, will the undead below crumble and rest with the source gone, or would they persist? None of us know enough about the undead to guess, and neither did the king.
One way or another though, it seems as though the only way to move on from here is to deal with those undead filling Axeholm for the city is not large enough for the people of Phandalin without clearing those lower levels, even if the King was not a threat to release them. How to do that though, none of us know.
My task, I am also still unclear about. I am not seeing all the options in our situation. Murder, yes, clearly. Surrender, well, I suppose that might mean death, or undeath of some sort, but conquer? I am still missing something important, and only the three who set the task can shed light on that.
All around me, the rest are settling down to sleep, all except Siax who is keeping first watch. I know what I want to do. I want to put those people to rest, but I have little idea on how to manage that, if it is even possible in the first place with such a large number. My powers may have grown with use, but the sheer scale of the task reminds me of the futility of Thundertree.
So I will go to them, the three, and I will ask. I may very well be met with silence, or anger, but there is some small hope that they might be merciful, since I have decided what I want to do, and just do not know how to accomplish that.