[Alliance] Chapter Two: Session Fifteen
August 1st
0:00
Uther, Theo, and Vel were attending classes. Sometime between a few of their classes, during an hour of downtime or so, Vel is approached by Enrian, who she had sent a sending to earlier in the week.
They step aside and talk. Enrian drops some information about who replaced Rorha, and his interactions with Telina, but it’s not much. He tried to maneuver the situation to get Vel to owe him a favor, and tell him who she was, in exchange for information, however, she turned down the deal, referring it to one-sided and rather “Faustian”.
He commented that he would wait for her to change her mind, and they went their separate ways.
Vel regroups with Uther and Theo, and they head to class.
0:31
Magister Runesight and the others arrive in Duskwither around noon. Runesight comments that he has detected something. He indicates that the aura seems to be coming from one of the inns--the one that Jaina and the others that don’t have a place have been staying.
Runesight heads toward, and eyes turn to him curiously. Runesight hands a piece of paper to Valeera, and informs her to deliver it to the headmaster of the spire and return to him when complete. Valeera goes and heads off.
Runesight informs the Farstriders that he will need their help. He tells them to create a perimeter around the building so that the culprit couldn’t escape. He informs them that if the culprit escapes because of negligence on their part, the Ranger-General would hear of it.
Gil shrugs and wishes him good luck. The magister enters.
Vereesa looks at Gil and asks him what the plan is. Gil informs her there are two daggers. Jaina has one, and the SI7 agent does as well. There’s a 50% shot that the magister would grab the SI7 agent.
Gil says he was going to grab Arator, and Vereesa tells him to be quick. He finds Arator on a ladder fixing something, and Gil tells him him to come with him very quickly, and then summarizes everything on the way. Arator does a quick divine sense, and confirms the demon hadn’t followed Gil, at least.
0:42
As Gil heads back, he sees a flicker of bright blue energy in the courtyard, The disguised form of Jaina appears, and she looks back at the inn, noting the arcane golem present.
Magister Runesight throws open the door to the inn, and points at Jaina, shouting “AFTER HER. NOW. THAT’S ALL CULPRIT.”
Gil nocks and arrow and looses it, trying to make it look like he’s aiming for Jaina, but intentionally missing. Jaina, meanwhile, conjures a wall of force, encapsulating the magister and the arcane golem. The arcane golem thumps uselessly against the wall.
Vereesa aims her arrow at the sky, and an ear-piercing screech whistles through the air.
--- 1:00
During class, Vel’s ears perk up, hearing the screech. She asks the teacher if there was a drill planned for the day. The teacher looks confused, having not been paying attention.
There is not, though shortly after the teacher receives word that they are doing room inspections and all students should head back to their room.
Levia encourages Vel to not stay at the dorms, as classes aren’t canceled for nothing. They leave, regrouping with Uther and Theo. Levia invites them to come with them, but Uther said he’s going to go investigate. Levia is incredulous.
1:08
Back to Gil, Jaina tells him Wall of Force will hold for 10 minutes. Gil tells her of the invisible demons and that the magister is tracking the dagger. Vereesa surmises that the warlocks are trying to capture and silence Vel. They decide to gather the others and decide what to do next.
Vel then sends Gil a sending asking what’s going on, and Gil responds. Levia then asks Vel what’s going on. Vel then reveals her to
As Levia runs off, she hears another voice. Valeera slinks out from the shadows. She says that the magister asked her to find her, and it’s a good thing she did. She can’t recognize Uther, and so Vel and him point him out.
Valeera informs the two of the situation. The magister is likely with the warlocks. Valeera tells them they should all meet up and bounce from the town. Whisper the Lynx then comes out of the shadows and sniffs Vel. Vel identifies the lynx as Caleron’s, and the group follows him, regrouping with the others.
Everyone is together.
1:24
They fabricate the plan to try and capture the magister. They head to set up in the chapel. Arator talks to the priest, and asks him politely to him to leave as it isn’t safe for him to stay there.
They set up the ambush, and Vel makes Valeera and Vincent invisible.
Jaina asks for a dagger to use as bait, and everyone takes out their daggers for her. She takes one and uses magic aura to mimic the blood bone dagger. She then offers herself as bait. Uther protests but everyone else agrees that it’s a good idea.
They plan some traps around the chapel to set up the trap. Vincent rigs up a trap to drop oil on anyone that enters.
However, Runesight seemed to be on to things. When they get outside, he calls for them to surrender. No one responds.
So he sets the church on fire, even though Headmaster Duskwither attempts to stop such a reckless action.
1:50
The door explodes and goes blasting in. The windows shatter, and flames erupt through the chapel. Runesight orders the assembled group to flush the “convicts” out.
Quethis Morningvale, one of the Duskwither teachers, casts arcane hand and covers the escape from the chapel. Meanwhile, the water elemental moves forward and starts to extinguish some of the fire. It then squeezes through the shattered window to outside, also extinguishing more fire.
And then, the spellbreaker captain steps forward, shouting “FOR QUEL’THALAS” as he makes a swing at magister Runesight. It’s Rowan. Runesight tries to duck out of the way, but Rowan is able to land a swing.
Runesight shouts to capture him.
Meanwhile, Arator casts blessing of fortitude on Vel, Tess, and Uther.
Outside, Zaeneas distracts a guard, and then casts darkness centered on himself. Gil starts firing arrows at the arcane hand to get it out of the way. Tess tries to follow up, but her blade clinks off the hand.
Valeera creeps out of the chapel, still invisible, and she sinks a dagger into Runesight’s side. She follows up with another strike, and then she backs up.
Rowan fends off some blows, though meanwhile, the retired spellbreaker, Vynlath Bloodsworn, goes through the center of the darkness, and manages to dispel it.
The arcane golem tries to hold person on Valeera, the elemental, and Rowan. It manages to get Rowan, and slams into him.
Vel, meanwhile, moves inside, and then uses silent image to conjure an illusory decoy of Jaina’s disguise, which then slips through the window and bolts. The Eternal Spring captain follows up, and takes a platoon to follow.
Acolyte Loralthalis steps forward, and casts suggestion on Valeera, magically convincing her to surrender.
Unfortunately, as the illusion runs, the Guardians fire after them, and one of them sees an arrow pass through it, identifying the image as an illusion. She shouts out to the others.
The battle continues. Vereesa is able to do a degree of substantial aoe damage. However, meanwhile, Galania Autumnshard, another instructor, blinks inside the building and uses thunderwave.
However, Jaina uses hold monster, and holds Galania in place. Unfortunately, the water elemental disperses in the process.
Meanwhile, Duskwither starts to put out more flames.
Uther tries to sense the demon, but senses that there is nothing within 60 feet of him. He shouts to the others about the fact, and Vel and Gil pipe up that it is probably causing chaos elsewhere.
Headmaster Duskwither shouts they need to put the fire out, and Vel helps. A Guardian holds an arrow at her, and tells her to surrender. Vel says she will stand-down for Headmaster Duskwither, but not the magister.
2:53
A surrender is called when Duskwither steps forward, however, in that moment Levia arrives, stating that Vel was telling the truth and they were in fact not involved, but she knew who was. She starts to explain her own involvement, and that they need to go back to the academy quickly if they were to stop anything.
However, in the moment, there was a voice that scolded Levia as a useless pawn, and a crystalline demon materialized and immediately grabbed her. Several other demons also appeared.
3:07
Gil zephyr strikes out, and promptly fires two arrows at the crystalline demon, chunking out some of the crystals of its body. Tess attempts to analyze the situation, and judging by his demeanor and the like, it seems he is, indeed, in on the situation.
Valeera slips free from her bonds, and scales up the side of the church, trying to take care of the demon on the roof. Caleron also convinces the guards to let him help. Gil shouts at the Guardians to kill the demon on the roof.
Vereesa fires at the magister, and her arrow explodes into vines, which grasp and stab into Runesight.
The Guardians fire at the demon on the roof, while the arcane golem slams into Gil. Duskwither attempts to banish the demon, but fails. Meanwhile, Runesight disappears.
The demon drags Levia over, and he turns to the rest of the group, spraying out a blast of crystals before it starts retreating. Another flying demon swoops in and teleports the crystalline demon, with Levia, into the air, and arrows pursue it.
Vel runs forward, whipping out her wand of arcane missile, and destroying the flying demon in the process. She then blinks forward, starting to drag Levia back away from the threat. However, it whirls around, digging its claws into Levia’s leg.
Vincent dashes in behind the demon, driving his silver sword into it. The silvered blade punches through the crystal.
Uther kills the demon with guiding bolt, and Levia is ultimately pulled to safety.
The rest of the demons are eliminated, just in time for an explosion to be heard coming from the direction of Duskwither Spire.
