Loghain's final act

[xLegionx]

Loghain’s attempt to find elucidation in the halls of Tyr would provide little. The priests on hand would claim that they had no such vision of their own - indeed, given the unusual nature of the vision and the strong, inexact feelings he had, they offer nothing more than advice.

He would be told to trust in Tyr and to seek His guidance in his meditations and prayer.

It would be several days, if not a tenday before those pieces of advice bore fruit. One evening at rest, Loghain would awaken suddenly, remembering with crystal clarity a dream. In this dream, a hammer descended from the sky, slamming into the ground on the outskirts of a foggy hamlet beyond an undead infested ground. There, a valiant town guard make their stand, their armour battered and rent, yet one cannot escape the feeling that their souls fester as much as their foes. Then, a moment of betrayal, a figure, standing over you. A betrayal. A final undead, smote with the wrath of the Gods and a quiet death.

He awakens knowing where to go. Answers await within the Fields of the Dead.

Loghain, after many weeks from experiencing this vision, it happened upon him again as he slept and he rose up from his bed. He glanced around a moment, realizing he was sleeping on the right side of the bed and looked to his left noticing Shana Smith sleeping peacefully in the darkened night. Loghain leaned over to her and gently kissed her cheek, being careful to not awake her as he tossed himself off the bed and proceeding to the nearby closet and dressing himself in his paladin armor, trying to be as quiet as possible so as to not wake his fiance. After he had suited up Loghain proceeded to leave the room they were sleeping in, gently closing the door behind him. Judging by how quiet the friendly armed inn was, he assumed that it must still be late in the night. Loghain proceeded to leave the keep and walked many hours to the north past the city of Baldur's gate and to the fields of the dead.

By this time, Lathander's light had casted across the lands and despite his better judgment, the vision Loghain experienced continued to tug at the back of his mind. . .what could it mean? Is it truly some vision granted by Tyr or do dark forces plot to have him killed through false visions? Either way he knew very well it was his duty to find the truth of the matter. Looking upon the field, past memories swelled in his mind of his penance from before, having strutted through the field and slaying hundreds of undead before suffering serious injury and being found by Isabella and her companions. He cared not the possibility of what could happen and the fear of death did not tuck amidst his thoughts. He walked for many miles and proceeded to slay any undead that would stand in his way.

Loghain looked through the fields and having found nothing, proceeded to head up further north to the trollclaws and as he neared the entrance to the cursed mountains did he come upon several dark figures on the trail. One figure standing at the left of the trail and who was dressed in hooded black robes and wore an ivory, skeletal mask that covered half of his face, had a ghast crouched to his left, petting its head as if it were a dog. His staff, which was made of wood, had a blooded skull embedded on the top and seemed to be held in place by a skeletal hand that had long, unnatural fingers despite the rest of the hand appearing human in origin. Another figure, obviously a black knight, stood at the right and was dressed in black full plate armor and wore a cape made of dire wolf's fur which followed the wind's gentle current. His eyes gazed to Loghain with a fiery rage and he gripped the sheathed greatsword from across his back and drew it from its scabbard.

Lastly, a masked woman stood in the middle of the three with her arms crossed as her bright green eyes stared at Loghain almost as if she was expecting him. She wore leather armor that was made of green dragon scales and wore a black hood with a piece of black cloth wrapped around the lower half of her face. Dangling along her neck was a silver chained amulet with the circular silver symbol of Bhaal dangling from her neck. Judging by her style and grace, Loghain presumed she was an elf. As Loghain approached them she drew her daggers with each decorated with black ivory handles and the blades made of darkened steel each bearing blackened poison dripping from the blades and onto the ground, burning through the dirt like a powerful acid.

"This must be him. He matches the description given by my master," the masked woman said openly.

Loghain quickly shot them an angry glare as their evil intentions spoke openly enough through their appearance to him. He gripped his longsword tightly and pointed the tip of the blade directly at them: "Who art thee and to what is yer purpose here? Speak! For the will of evil is no doubt present within yer cursed souls!"

The masked woman simply giggled, her bright green eyes suddenly brightened. "Oh, you paladins truly are a delight. Such a display of blind devotion and to your code that it has left you blind in one eye. You wish to know of our purpose? I will put it plain and simple: Just your head with nothing attached below that neck of yours. . ."

Hearing that, Loghain planted his feet deep into the soil and proceed to hold his steel tower shield directly in front of him, putting himself in a defensive shield stance. "Cursed servant of Bhaal!! So my enemies hath finally resorted to the cowardly act of hiring wretched assassin's instead of facing me with honor? I shalt not yield to one such as thee nor shalt I allow yer sins to go unpunished! Ye shalt face judgment this day assassin! Yer days here are numbered and your time on this earth is short at hand! May the gods hath mercy on thy soul!"

The masked woman pulled off her glove as Loghain spoke, simply glancing at her nails with an almost lazy gaze in her eyes before turning her gaze back to the paladin. "Are you done? Can we finally kill you now? Good!" She turned to her companions and shouted before putting her glove back on."Kill him!"

Loghain charged forth with the masked woman having disappeared in plain sight, he proceeded to engage the necromancer. The necromancer commanded his ghast to attack the charging paladin while he began chanting his necromantic spells, summoning a small band of undead to the field. Loghain pointed his longsword high in the sky and proceeded to chant "Haviana, vonah Vian Siek!" and a wave of heavenly light irradiated from him in all directions, effectively burning all the nearby undead to ash. Loghain leapt quickly into the air before the necromancer could get off another spell and effectively burrowed his longsword deep into his chest.

The black knight roared with a rage of fury and charged, his greatsword ignited in flame and began to swing it wildly, hammering at Loghain's tower shield. Loghain could feel the force of the sword blows being delivered to his shield arm and as he rose his shield to block the incoming blows, he could feel his shield arm beginning to ache. Loghain attempted to charge keeping his tower shield in front and into the raging black knight but he simply leapt aside and with Loghain's vision blinded in the front due to his tower shield, failed to block the fatal swing that struck deep into his waist. Loghain tried to keep his footing but stumbled forward amidst the mud and stumbled face first into the ground.

It wasn't long after that that the masked woman appeared from plain sight of the shadows and burrowed her daggers deep into the paladin's back, the daggers steel evidently strong enough to pierce Loghain's full plate. She twisted her knives as they burrowed in Loghain's back and he could do nothing but scream from the pain. Loghain tried to get up but could feel the strength from his body quickly waning and finally, the light from his bright blue glacier eyes suddenly fading and becoming lifeless.

"Another dead paladin in my book. What a shame . . ." the masked woman looked amusingly at his body. And then it happened, Loghain quickly turned over onto his back with his mouth ajar, sounding as if attempting to gasp for air. He stretched his chest forward and his body began to crack and turn to ash in a near instant, followed by ashy flakes that began to flow from his body to the sky above him, leaving nothing behind except his armor, clothing and weapons on the ground."

"Let us leave his gear for his friends to find. We will be paid plenty when we get back to neverwinter and I do not want to stress over carrying so much weight across so great a distance. . ."

The black knight and the masked woman left the trail and proceeded to their intended destination. . .