Swordhaven: the Twelfth Chaos Lord

The King's Wound

Chaos storms hang over Swordhaven while rumors of Alteon's failing health pass through the city. Inside the palace, his daughters gather around a king who can no longer conceal his pain. He sends Brittany to summon the Hero. Whatever happens to him, his family and his realm must survive. Denara in the Royal Archives has the plans; Rufus will see the Hero's orders carried out.

The audience allows different replies. A promise of help earns Alteon's confidence in the Alliance; naming Gravelyn earns respect for the Hero's loyalty to her. Silence brings a different explanation. The king says that his corruption is passing into the land itself: king and kingdom are bound together, and Swordhaven suffers with him. Each conversation returns to the same responsibility. While Alteon is weakened, the Hero must command the city's defense.

The Archives also preserve the man behind the sick king. Long before this crisis, Alteon fought through an undead assault, calling out Valoath's name amid the battle. Victory brought a chance for peace with Lynaria and their daughter. Later, after Lynaria's death, he comforted the young Brittany and promised to teach her to be queen. He would protect the land and family her mother loved. That promise now stands against an enemy already inside him.

Denara helps investigate the threat spreading through the city. The Hero confronts bandits and flying spies, gathers samples for the Sisterhood of the Dishpan Hands and follows filthy clues into the sewers. Chaorrupted rats and spiders are spreading the blight through Swordhaven's foundations. Beyond them waits a Sludgelord. Defeating it produces another specimen, but does not end the city's danger.

Fear turns an ordinary act of care into an accusation. Page Alan offers Alteon water; when the king's condition worsens, the knights seize the boy. Alan protests that he only poured it. The scene establishes their suspicion, not proof that he deliberately poisoned the king. While guards look for someone to blame, the infection continues its advance.

Outside, Brittany and Brentan reach toward a future together. She teases him about their childhood quarrels, then makes him ask the question he has been circling. He offers to be her shield, defend those she loves and remain beside her for life. Brittany accepts his proposal as her father's corruption deepens. The kingdom's hope for succession and its fear of losing the king grow together.

While Swordhaven Celebrates

The danger beneath Swordhaven becomes an assault on its walls. Chaos creatures move through the city, the gates erupt into violence, and Rufus joins the defenders. Even as the Hero fights, Alteon's struggle continues elsewhere. Holding the streets cannot by itself free the king from the force changing him.

Griffin's armory supplies more than the Pactagonal Knights. Chaorrupted prisoners have escaped with stolen weapons; the Hero recovers those arms and helps give civilians a way to defend themselves. The Sisterhood also needs material for work on an inoculation. The effort offers hope of preventing more infections while the defenders face the ones already spreading.

Rufus prepares the defense against massed attackers. Archers hold the approach, supported by supplies that can bring axes, frost magic or fire onto the advancing creatures. These preparations offer alternatives rather than requiring every supply run in succession. The Hero helps hold back the attacking army, then faces the Chaos General following it. Swordhaven wins a reprieve, while its damaged gate remains dangerously open.

Brentan remembers an earlier conversation beside the royal dragon statue. Alteon blessed the marriage, but asked whether the young lord understood what giving his life to a realm would mean. Brittany must become queen, he insisted, and someone must guard the guardian. Brentan promised that he would. Now the memory weighs on him as the future Alteon imagined becomes less certain.

Wedding preparations continue among the invaders. Roald sends the Hero after stolen invitations, decorations and the things needed to keep the ceremony moving; defending the guests eventually means barricading the chapel. Brentan sees the king flinch and mutter, and fears that he is beginning to hear whispers himself. Alteon admits that he sometimes sees through the Chaos spies' eyes. He nevertheless insists that he can still secure a peaceful life for his daughter, while Tara's games briefly recall a less frightening kind of dragon battle.

The Wedding and the Beast

The wedding becomes another battlefield. Chaos breaks into the gathering, and the Royal Justiciar falters during the pronouncement. His own corruption turns the official meant to preside over the celebration into someone the Hero must subdue. The chapel's defenses have not kept the danger outside.

Alteon succumbs before his family. Brittany cries out, Brentan urges her to take her sisters away, and the Hero confronts the transformed king. Alteon's broken words promise that the dragon will rise. He accuses the Hero of acting too late and fighting too little, while Brittany refuses to let him continue. The father who promised to protect them has become the immediate threat.

His power reaches Tara through her dragon ring. Brittany tells the Hero to save her youngest sister while she deals with the king; Brentan pleads with his wife to stay where he can protect her. The Hero fights through the Chaos-filled passage and breaks the hold represented by Princess Thrall. This rescue is separate from the great Chaos Dragon that has yet to awaken over Swordhaven.

Alteon's attack kills Brittany. The Hero begs him to fight the corruption, and for a moment he recognizes what has happened to Lynaria's daughter. He cannot remain without risking more of the people he loves. He sends the Hero to care for his family and end the struggle, then leaves. Brentan is left grieving the wife whose future he had sworn to guard, and turns that grief into a demand for the king's death.

The royal dragon statue awakens as the twelfth Beast of Chaos. Alteon has unwillingly shed the blood of Swordhaven's heir, fulfilling the terrible condition that wakes the Beast. Another rune shines at Drakath's gate, and the dragon brings fire to the city. Lady Celestia urges the Hero onward despite their grief. There is no time to mourn before confronting the Beast on the castle roof.

Alteon's Last Choice

The Hero defeats the three-headed Chaos Dragon above the burning city and falls into the ruined throne room. Alteon does not immediately attack. Neither does the Hero. What follows begins as an attempt to find another answer, even after everything the king has done.

The Hero speaks of the Sisterhood's work toward a cure, but Alteon refuses. A further appeal to find another vial of the Tears of the Mother belongs to the conversation available after sufficient progress through the Thunderforge story; it is not spoken in every version. That appeal is refused too. Alteon is no longer asking the Hero to prolong the search for his recovery.

He distinguishes Chaos itself from the purpose Drakath has given it. By nature, he argues, it is neither Good nor Evil; under Drakath, it serves something profoundly dark. He has less than an hour left as himself and will not allow more of his people to be hurt. The Hero understands what he is asking, but struggles to accept it. Alteon leaves to see his city once more.

The pursuit passes through Swordhaven's chaorrupted citizens and ends with the king looking over his ruined home. Even now, he sees hope in it. His children must rebuild what he cannot. He demands that the Hero recognize his decision and make one of their own: slay him, or try to spare him.

The two choices change the Hero's response without saving Alteon's life. Accepting his request leads to a deliberate attack and a tribute to the king he was. Refusing leads to a promise to find a cure, but Alteon attacks again; the Hero blocks and strikes back. In that route, the Hero asks forgiveness and acknowledges his choice to save them. Both paths reach the same dying farewell.

Alteon thanks his friend and warns that Good's faction can tear itself apart through ambition and revenge. Defeating Chaos must take priority. If hope fails, the Hero should turn to Gravelyn, Empress of the Shadowscythe. He trusts the heart and strength she has inherited, and the light she may bring to the struggle. The Hero takes his crown to return to his heirs. Beyond that duty waits Drakath, and a promise that he will pay.

The Crown and the Alliance

The Alliance's preparations have two settings in the story. They can begin earlier with Robina, while Victoria takes her place after Swordhaven's catastrophe. The following account follows that later state: Alteon is dead, succession is disputed, and the realms are preparing to face the growing power of Chaos.

Victoria claims the throne, supported by advisers who call her the rightful heir. Brentan gathers forces of his own, while Tara's supporters advance a rival claim. Allegiances pass between the competing camps. Victoria decides that protecting Lore must come before defending her position in Swordhaven. To avoid fighting two wars at once, she takes her forces to Shadowfall.

Gravelyn has received letters from both Brentan's side and Tara's advisers, explaining why they cannot fulfill the Alliance's obligations. Victoria suspects requests for help taking the crown accompany them. The two rulers recognize a common purpose beneath their sharp exchange: Drakath is growing stronger, and neither can afford to let succession destroy their resistance. The Hero must help prepare the other realms for both defense and attack.

In Mobius, that means blinding spies, preparing venom-tipped arrows and recovering the weapons Escherion's inversion cost the town. The Hero locates the lost armory and arms the villagers. Renn and Zio rally people who have already survived one invasion. Back in Swordhaven, Brentan reacts furiously to the news that knights he considers his own have been taken elsewhere.

Arcangrove strengthens its defenses with captured Chaos Sprites, trained gorillaphants, planted Seed Spitters and healing tendrils. Rayst, Reens, Blakk and Moonwrath combine their magic into a protective ward. Elsewhere, Tara's adviser insists that Gravelyn should reject Victoria's claim. Tara herself would rather leave this queendom to her sister and go find her dragon. The struggle conducted in her name does not mean she shares every ambition of her supporters.

Dwarfhold faces another Chaos Drow assault. The Hero gathers attack plans and weapons, secures Gemralds, helps prepare blinding light grenades and rallies the defenders. Hartok and the dwarves fight for the home they have already lost once. With Mobius, Arcangrove and Dwarfhold prepared, their representatives gather before Victoria and Gravelyn at Shadowfall. The Alliance can still act together, despite the divisions Alteon feared.