Chapter 335 Kragg Castle
The buildings on the top of the mountain are like all old-style castles. They were built on the top cliff according to the mountain. But now, they are only burned and smoked by fire. Just some ruins from the past...
Looking up from the bottom of the cliff, the ruins of a burnt black round tower stood alone on the top of the mountain, pointing towards the gray sky.
Obviously, Krag Castle, once built by the Zhentarim, had long been destroyed by fire due to a failed war.
In Brian's impression, it was not a new thing for the Zhentarim to have ambitions in Shadow Valley.
Even before the Arcane Catastrophe, the Dark Intelligence Network spent its time fighting unremittingly against the Valley of Shadows and its protectors.
The followers of Bane sent from Zhentil Keep have wanted to gain control of Shadowdale more than once.
But the Valley of Shadows is a well-known place where the chosen people gather. Elminster, Storm, Dove, Sheron, and the mad witch Xinbu who often guest-stars in the tooth-beating festival, this is a problem for the Zhentarim. , ruling the Shadow Valley is undoubtedly a difficult task, it is simply a copy of the hell level difficulty.
Even so, in the history of Shadow Valley, there was still a warrior named Qiao Muhe, who, at least for a period of time, gained the right to rule Shadow Valley, and Krag Castle was ruled by him. Period, it was built accordingly.
In 1339DR of the Valley Calendar, it was the fortieth year that Lord Oram of Shadow Valley and his wife, Ms. Shiron, jointly ruled Shadow Valley.
These forty 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 caught and executed by Qiao Muhe, Qiao Muhe obtained the Asaba Pendant and declared himself the new legal lord of Shadow Valley.
However, what the residents of Shadow Valley don't know is that Qiao Muhe is also a Zhentarim spy, and the whole incident is just a conspiracy and a scam.
After Qiao Muhe became the ruler, he did not choose to live in the Twisted Tower. Instead, he rebuilt a castle for himself on the hills east of the Shadow Valley.
The castle is located on a gentle slope below the Watcher's Mountain. It was once an outpost of the drow in the dark years before the valley was founded.
When Jomuhe became the ruler of Shadow Valley and adopted this place as his own, nothing here except its foundations ceased to exist.
On the ruins, Qomuch built a symbol of his power as the lord of Shadow Valley: Crag Castle.
In this way, Jomueh's stronghold was quickly filled with Zhentarim agents.
In the end, the people of Shadow Valley, who finally realized the seriousness of the situation, rose up in rebellion. Subsequently, Zhentil Fort also quickly dispatched "peace maintenance" troops to maintain Qiao Muhe's rule.
However, all these efforts were in vain after Qiao Muhe failed to ambush the sage Elminster of the Valley of Shadows over his own strength. The price of this brainless attack was Qiao Muhe's own life. .
In Qiao Muhe's original idea, Kragg Castle should be a magnificent building comparable to the famous dark fortress located in the Sunset Mountains in the west of the Kingdom of Cormyr.
But this plan was blocked by two factors:
One was because his master, building the castle exceeded the budget, resulting in the Zhentarim not having enough financial resources to support such a profligacy; the other It is the rebel army composed of mercenaries and residents led by Ms. Hillen.
Ultimately, the completed castle was much smaller than the original design.
When Qiao Muhe died, the remaining residents who originally had reservations joined the revolution, and the castle was burned to the ground and reduced to ashes in the anger of the people.
Since then, Crag Castle has once again become an abandoned ruin.
As time passed, Shadow Valley lasted for a long period of peace, until Elminster was seriously injured by the assassins of the City of Shadows and escaped. Seluer took the opportunity to enter with her Black Hope Legion. In the Valley of Shadows, only a solitary tower remained at the old castle site.
Subsequently, the army stationed here and began large-scale reconstruction work. At the very least, simple buildings can now be erected in this area to accommodate people.
Brian saw from a distance that although the area around Kragg Castle was still covered with moss and low bushes, the south-to-north bridle path had been cleared. Currently, the reconstruction work It's in full swing.
After all, for many years, the valley has become the biggest obstacle in front of the dark trade network. Therefore, the Church of Bane 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 both parties, who were once extremely jealous of their enemies, hit it off immediately and immediately concluded a strategic alliance.
Through the intelligence obtained by the Harper scouts, Brian also learned that even though the most important task of the Zhentarim at the moment is to completely conquer the Valley of Shadows, the priests of the Dark Lord Bane are still primarily concerned. It is the spread of faith.
Therefore, their energy was mainly focused on rebuilding the temple and making the Church of Bane the only legal faith in the valley.
With this goal in mind, Dark Judgment Manlason 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 interested in the idea of building a prominent temple in the center of their occupied territory. However, due to strategic considerations, the current military facilities at Crag Castle are Setting up various facilities is more important.
Later, a long-forgotten portal was discovered at the bottom of the castle. The occupying forces quickly connected it to Zhentil Fort, allowing them to continuously transport soldiers and supplies to the occupied area.
However, through the important intelligence collected from the Harpers, Brian unexpectedly learned that from the standpoint of the 'Dark Judgment' Manrazon, he had complicated feelings about the current situation.
On the one hand, he is very motivated by the prospect of starting to create the great temple that will eventually become the center of Bane's faith.
On the other hand, the agreement reached by Bozor, the ruler of Zhentil Keep and the electorate of Bane, and the Shar followers is the biggest problem he faces.
Because the ritual of tearing the magic web by the priestesses of Shar Church has brought more than a little inconvenience to the reconstruction of the temple: because the castle is too close to the lair of the lich Arokar, This ritual of suppressing magic adversely affects anything the priests try to accomplish through magic.
In fact, many important magics cannot even be used at all.
These facts put a lot of pressure on Manrazon.
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 for the entire day. The sun disappeared.
He waited in vain for the decision-makers of Zhentil Keep 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 fragmentary messages, Brian learned that in his next mission to save Azara and destroy the portal, he was likely to encounter the dark judge of the dark trade network.
Unknowingly, Brian had quietly approached the vicinity of Kragg Castle.
Looking at it, the architectural style of the castle can be said to be completely inconsistent with that of the old castle.
When rebuilding, the army tried to use as many existing buildings as possible, but even so, there were large areas that had long since become complete ruins, requiring them to start over.
The map Harper gave Brian also marked the different parts of the building complex in detail. The huge round tower and ancillary buildings on the west side are original buildings, while the low buildings on the north side are completely new.
Some ruins have not yet been cleared, and large pieces of rubble are piled in place.
In the northeast corner, workers laid the foundation for the huge temple that Manlason hoped would be built in the coming year.
As Brian expected, the guards near the castle were obviously much looser. Even the mages who were riding familiars and patrolling in the sky rushed to the Twisted Tower as soon as possible.
It can be seen from this how well the half-elf monk Leoson, the elite Harper, accomplished this task.
Brian no longer wasted time, and with the blessing of many concealment spells, he chose to go from the construction site of the castle to the interior.
This is the safest passage pointed out to him on the map.
The ruins on this road have been cleared, and a flat piece of land has been made.
Wood piles driven deep into the soil outline the architectural blueprint for a new castle.
Countless stones and wood have been neatly stacked in the open space on the side. As part of the castle reconstruction plan, the Bann disciples designed and built the foundation of this new building.
Until now, they have been using old stones cleared from the ruins, but it can be seen from the ruins that are about to be demolished that they will soon have a need for new stones.
On the busy construction site, two huge two-headed creatures swung their heads and supervised a group of shackled workers to move and carve these rocks from 360 degrees.
And a man in armor leaned lazily against a wall, directing everyone's work.
Two hellhounds summoned from the lower plane serve as overseers in a cruel way, intimidating the slave workers to work hard.
At the same time, there is also Pastor Ben, whose strength is about level 2, supervising the entire work.
In addition to the humans in the Cormanthor region, one-third of the slaves working here are residents of Shadow Valley.
They were used as pure labor, and more than thirty mountain dwarves were brought from Crow Keep to serve as carving stonemasons.
Although with Brian's current ability, he can save this group of slaves with just a wave of his hand, but if he chooses to do this, he is likely to be exposed. Wouldn't it be a waste of what the Harpers created for him? Some of the good opportunities are not worth the gain.
So, after Brian quietly passed through the busy crowd, he 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.
The moonlight dimly illuminated the central walled courtyard.
In the center of the courtyard is a large pile of limestone blocks, surrounded by a circle of masonry tools.
At the edge of the courtyard, the shadows on the wall are eerie, as if they will jump or change into something at any time.
Brian observed the surrounding environment calmly, and found a secret passage leading to the underground of the castle from the stable that was filled with a foul smell.
Thick dust and layers of spider webs cover this narrow secret passage. At the end of the secret passage is a small square secret room.
The inside was covered with thicker dust. It was obvious that no one had been to this room for many years, so that dust and cobwebs had even formed in many corners inside.
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 come back due to various reasons... …
Brian also discovered that many items that were not so sturdy, such as cloth, had completely decayed.
Just like the sack in front of him that seemed to be intact, it shattered with just a slight touch. A large number of golden and colorful sparkling gems suddenly shone in the air.
After Brian collected this pile of trophies that surprised him, he found a secret room switch in the corner of the room.
He looked at the switch in front of him, looked around with the help of detection magic, pondered for a moment, and pressed the switch with a vigilant expression.
With bursts of rumbling sounds, a wall covered with cobwebs on the left side of the secret room slowly rose up.
Immediately afterwards, the stench of excrement and the strong smell of orc sweat filled the air.
Brian frowned. With the legendary favor, he could clearly see the environment in the room without any dark vision magic.
There was no one in the room. At first glance, the smell was probably coming from the two basins in the corners on both sides of the room.
Various animal furs and animal bones that have been chewed are scattered on the bed in the room. A few coals are burning in the brazier at the end of the bed, providing a little warmth to the cold and damp underground room.
There was a pot standing above the brazier, stewing something, emitting waves of disgusting meaty aroma.
The door was a thick black curtain. When Brian carefully walked through the curtain, a strong smell of animal excrement hit his face...
He just used it Using the invisibility technique and the anti-detection method of the Purple Dragon Seal Ring, he arrived at a spacious hall under the castle without any danger.
The ancient candlesticks were burning dim candles, and the erratic firelight illuminated this spacious rotunda.
There is only a circular staircase and corridor in the room. The counter-clockwise staircase on the left leads to the surface, while the staircase on the right is hidden by a locked door.
Just as Brian was about to walk deeper into the corridor of the hall, a dull sound of footsteps came from far and near in the darkness.
With the help of the weak firelight, after seeing the hill-like figure falling on the ground, Brian's expression moved and he immediately hid in the dark and waited for the enemy to come over.
…………
PS: Recommend a book "Crown of Chaos" to all my book friends. The protagonist, as the chosen one of the Chaos God in Warhammer, travels through the Faerûn continent after the Turbulent Years. , must be anointed as a god before the four gods come back, and must be a warlock and warrior. It is said that the author is a famous stocking addict.
It's a light novel style, if you like jokes, you can read it if you are interested.
(End of this chapter)