Swordhaven invasion and Drakath arrival

When the War Changed

Swordhaven is already being overrun when the hero reaches its defenders. Sepulchure’s elite undead have entered the castle, and Robina needs information as urgently as she needs another fighter. The hero speaks with five knights, helps defend the throne room, and presses toward King Alteon. What began as an invasion has become a struggle to keep the king’s own seat from falling.

The soldiers can see how badly the balance has shifted. Sir Kull draws Sir Round’s attention to a flying fortress carried by an enormous dragon. Round tries to meet the sight with a succession of dreadful puns. Their exchange gives the invasion a brief comic face: two ordinary defenders trying to make sense of something far larger than themselves. Behind the jokes, the threat is real. The undead are inside the castle.

Sepulchure breaks through to Alteon. The two rulers meet in combat, bringing the war between their factions into the throne room itself. Alteon’s welcome to the hero leaves a decision hanging over the confrontation: whether to stand with Good or Evil. The hero has fought all the way here, only to arrive at the point where choosing a side seems unavoidable.

Then Drakath intervenes. Both opponents recognize him, but neither controls what follows. Sepulchure insists that being undead places him beyond death. Drakath answers that confidence with destruction. The commander whose forces have overwhelmed Swordhaven is himself defeated, and Gravelyn’s cry for her father gives that loss a personal consequence beyond the ruined battlefield.

Sepulchure’s flying fortress crashes into the mountains. Alteon survives the confrontation, but he is gravely wounded and feels something happening to him that he cannot explain. The invading army has lost its leader; the defending kingdom has a stricken king. Neither side can call this a victory.

Drakath supplies the name for the new struggle. He announces an age of Chaos and threatens Lore through thirteen Chaos Lords. Alteon and the hero are to be left alive to watch, with their own destruction reserved for the end. The choice that seemed to define the throne-room battle has been overtaken by a threat to both sides. Before the hero can settle the old war, there is a new enemy to face.