[Alliance] Chapter Five: Session Sixty-Three
Appearing Characters: Elissa Cross, Gilveradin Windrunner, Maraad, Remnii, Robert Travard, Seria, Uther Menethil, Velameestra Windrunner, Victor Prestor
November 10th
As the group prepared to rush forward, the cultists fanned out to run at them as well. Through the smoke of shadowflame, there were hulking faceless monstrosities known as n'raqi also rounded on them, and black dragons soared down to bring their riders into the conflict.
Gil lined up a shot at one of the dragons soaring overhead and he fired. The apocalypse knight rider directed the dragon downward so that he took the shot instead. Gil fired again, and the arrow struck true again. The other dragonrider began to strafe around the group to get into a more advantageous position.
One of the faceless horrors lumbered toward the group and made a horrific, gurgling noise. He started to slam his misshapen nest of tentacles on his chest. Robert Travard ran at the shapeless horror and was immediately buffeted by the tentacles. There was a blast of psychic energy, but Robert Travard swung his mace around. The faceless horror blocked the blow, but a [Sacred Flame] erupted around the creature. Another of the faceless horrors started to lumber forward as the dragonrider Gil had shot soared downward and opened its fanged maw to release a blast of magma over the group. Remnii, Vel, and Seria were able to avoid the brunt of the blast, but the ground was covered with molten magma.
Vel activated her bladesong and got out of the path of magma. Her eyes honed in on one of the faceless horrors, and she urged her mind forward. She felt a telepathic connection form.
Another faceless horror charged into the group with a whirling strike of its tentacle arms. It slammed into Uther, Vel, and Travard, and Travard raised his mace to block it, but he was knocked to his knees. He grunted, and scrambled back to his feet.
Remnii darted behind Gil and Uther as she erected a [Spirit Guardians] as Seria transformed into her bear form. She raked into the nearest faceless horror with her acidic claws, tearing off tentacles that continued to writhe on the ground.
The swarm of cultists wielding all sorts of ritual knives, truncheons, messy carving weapons, and whatever else they could grab charged forward at Seria. They stabbed over and over into her flank and she roared, daggers and hatches sticking into her back.
Uther hefted Bryntroll and swung through the weakened faceless horror before slicing into the side of another.
As the one faceless horror died, Vel heard its voice through her mind, apparently connected through the telepathic bond she had formed.
Bob pulled the magic from Uther’s strike as it faded and he slammed it forward with a fist of silver as he used sacred flame again. Meanwhile, Vel clenched her teeth and launched herself up onto the massive bear to get a better vantage point as icy magic swirled around her fingertips and erupted over the other n’raqi and the swarm of cultists in a [Cone of Cold]. Her eyes flared magenta as she harnessed blood magic to empower the spell, and the entire front row of cultists was frozen solid. Their fellows ripped them apart to use their limbs as weapons as Gil opened a [Conjure Volley] over the enemies as well. He then vanished and reappeared on the other side of the stream of magma. Vel jumped off of Seria and raked her claws through the nearby faceless horror as she landed.
They suddenly heard a ballista shot fire into the air and pierced through one of the dragon. It roared as a gout of shadowflame erupted from it and it crashed into the ground, but the apocalypse knight tucked and rolled and landed on the ground.
Meanwhile, the swarm of of cultists fell on Vel. She spun around with her blade, deflecting and flipping around the various bodies that were throwing themselves at her. It was very uncomfortable, and she hissed loudly as one managed to nick her in the side, but her contingency activated, and released a blast of icy energy that froze the cultist solid. Another of his fellows broke through the frozen body just in time for the faceless horror to whip its tentacles around. Vel ducked, but they slammed into Seria, Robert, and Uther. The other faceless horror waded through the cultists and also swung its tentacles around, but this time only Bob was struck. The tentacles wrapped around Bob and he was held down. However, Bob used sacred flame again, and the other faceless horror was disintegrated in holy light.
Seria began to rip into the horde of cultists, and she sent many of them hurling through the air as others were torn asunder by her fangs. Remnii focused on the remaining faceless horror and used a sacred flame, which erupted around the creature’s feet. Uther followed up and dug his axe into the creature’s leg, which knocked it to the ground.
However, Bob was trapped under the creature and he tried to swing his mace at it with a blast of holy energy. Unfortunately the attack was ineffectual, as he was unable to gain ground through the mass of tentacles.
The remaining dragon landed on the ground and the gaps between its scales glowed with purple energy as it reared back and released a gout of shadowflame over the group. The drake then charged at Seria and tore into her side with her claws. Seria clawed back and managed to snare its wing to prevent it from leaving as the apocalypse knight swung his blade into Remnii. Meanwhile the other apocalypse knight, who had lost his mount, ran to close in on the group.
Robert continued to try and blast the aberration with silver light, but the creature was resilient and continued to hold him down.
Gil lined up a shot on the apocalypse knight that was attacking Remnii, and the arrow pierced straight through the knight’s throat. He coughed up blood as he fell to the ground, and Remnii offered a weak, but appreciative, smile in Gil’s direction. He then fired into the n’raqi that had pinned Robert down.
As he was dropped, Robert scrambled back to his feet and brushed himself off.
At that moment Victor broke into the main conflict and leaped onto the drake that was right at Remnii’s face. He drove his sword into the drake’s back and the dragon fell to the ground with a roar. He bought Remnii a moment for her to put some distance between herself and the dragon.
Vel screeched at the cultists to get off her and she exploded into a swarm of white bats. Most of them started to attack the cultists with their claws and fangs, while a smaller portion rematerialized behind the dragon in her elven guise.
The remaining apocalypse knight ran at Bob, who raised his weapon to parry the knight, but he was starting to slow down as his injuries caught up with him.
The remaining cultists, who had lost a fair amount of their numbers, started to chant in shath’yar.
They started to plunge daggers into their chests, which created a stream of blood on the ground that turned black and created a massive seal. Through mud conjured by the blood of the creatures that sacrificed themselves to summon it, a crustacean-like claw erupted. Wings followed, and they saw adamantine chitin covering its body. Tendrils twitched all over its body, and it emerged from the bowels of the mound of bodies.
It looked at Gil.
Its eyes glowed, and Gil felt a roiling pain slam into him. He held his arm up to draw his bow, but the front end of his bow started to disappear, as if parts of it were sloughing off. The effect traveled up his arm, until he turned into a cloud of ash.
Vel shouted his name, but over the telepathic link he said that he wasn’t fine… but he was somehow conscious.
The voidal creature suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Uther. It stomped at Remnii as it then swung its claws around on Uther and Bob.
Remnii held out her hand and a ring of golden energy expanded from her palm as she used [Holy Nova]. The ring expanded and made the sound of a chime, before it abruptly surged back to her with an explosion of holy energy.
Uther hefted his axe, which started to scintillate with holy energy, and slammed it into the forgotten horror. The black drake tried to take off into the air, but Seria whipped her claw around and grabbed it. The drake screeched as she held fast and prevented it from escaping. It instead rounded on her with a flurry of fang and claw.
Robert looked at the forgotten horror and he held out his hand as he used [Hold Monster]. He watched as silver light started to form a seal around the creature, and he smiled as it started to immobilize the creature.
The smile turned to horror as the creature shattered the seal around it.
He hefted his mace and swung into the aberration. Meanwhile, Vel looked at her brother and bit into her thumb so he could use her blood as an anchor. He was able to use the anchor to reconstitute himself and overcome the effect.
However, time seemed to ripple as some of the enemies shifted their positions.
Vel raced forward and held out her sword. With a deft slash, it cut through the throat of the drake, and it fell writhing to the ground as rime then coated the sword and she swung into the forgotten horror. The cold was completely ineffective as she struck it, but her blade and claws scraped at its chitin. Meanwhile her bats started to swarm the apocalypse knight, whose shield flared with fire that was released in a cone over Remnii, Robert, and Seria.
Remnii’s spirit guardians blasted the forgotten horror with holy energy. However, the forgotten horror looked at Gil again as he reconstituted, and laughed.
Gil disintegrated into void ash again.
Seria finished off the apocalypse knight as she reared back and stomped down on the knight. She then swung her claw into the forgotten horror. The aberration stomped on Remnii, and she was teleported into the line of magma. The creature then snapped its claws at Bob and Seria.
Robert Travard had conjured two silver gauntlets at his sides that continued to blast the forgotten horror with silver flame while he brought his mace down on the creature. Cracks began to appear in its chitinous armor.
Remnii rushed out the magma that she had been thrown in and used [Exorcism]. Holy light seared through the cracks in the aberration’s chitinous armor, and Uther came down with his axe and used the jets of his armor to cleave through the carapace of the creature. It melted away into black ichor, but it continued to laugh with a deep, clicking sound.
Gil once more was able to reconstitute as the monster disappeared. Rob looked around at the devastation of the village, the immediate threat handled.
Another member of the Tyr’s Guard alerted they were heading toward the tomb as the initial host had gone straight for it.
Maraad pounded his chest and said that he could remain at the village, and Elissa piped up she could as well.
Rob asked if the others would also help at the tomb, and Vel said that was why they were there. Rob explained the tomb was a short swim to the bottom of the middle of the lake, and Maraad and Elissa gave the group some support healing before they headed off through the burning village.
Vel quickly ritual cast [Water Breathing] over the party as they got to the edge of the water and they saw an eerily still surface. They dove in, and they swam deeper and deeper.
It was not a natural lake. As they saw the bottom, it appeared something had carved out a crater that became a lake.
They finally saw the glimmer of something reflective. There were old stones, even older than the basement of the tavern. The stonework did not appear to be made of anything Vel was familiar with… until she thought back to the things she had seen at the Tower of Ilgalar. There was an ancient underwater crest that resembled a tomb door emblazoned with the symbol of a silver hand. It appeared to be able to be moved aside, but when they came to it, it had been shattered into pieces, revealing the passage below.
Rob’s eyes widened in horror, but he dove headfirst into the entrance. The others followed.
