“Incoming!” Nat cried as he flew behind the Bralani Azatas that were holding several of the Erinyes Devils at bay. Wren’s Bralani ducked her head ever so slightly, as a Lightning Bolt whizzed overhead. The lead devil was sent tumbling limply to the ground while the one behind it struggled to clear its head from the violent blast. It tried to force its way forward against the gale-force Gust of Wind the other Bralani had conjured, but it was too weak, so it settled for casting an Unholy Blight around the Bralanis, Tomas, and Nat, and Tomas and one of the Bralanis were left feeling sickened. Her sister pushed her way forward and stabbed her flaming trident into the Bralani responsible for the wind.
Erin had a pair of devils confronting
her and was still bleeding heavily from the Scarlet Walker’s wound, but she was
unconcerned. Serithtial flashed and stabbed, and one of the Erinyes collapsed
in a pool of Infernal blood. Erin continued her attack on its sister, and the
holy sword opened a deep gash in her abdomen. It swung back at her weakly, and
the paladin had no trouble blocking the blow. Jax was not so lucky; another
Erinyes flew down from the far end of the room and drove its trident deep into
his back. He pulled himself free, spun, and drove his rapier deep into her
chest. She spat blood back into his face with an Infernal oath.
Tomas wanted to hover in place, to fire
as many arrows as possible, but he didn’t really have the hang of this flying
thing yet, so he had to content himself with a single shot as he tried to stay
aloft. But that shot was a good one, and the devil who’d managed to push past
the winds collapsed to the floor. Shadow hammered the other with Magic Missiles and both of Wren’s
Bralani blasted it with Lightning Bolts,
and it joined her sisters in returning to eternal torment. Nat blasted the one
assaulting Jax with his own Magic
Missiles, but it refused to die.
Erin focused Serithtial’s righteous
wrath on the devil facing her. She stabbed, slashed, and hacked, carving off
chunks of devilish flesh, then finished with a spinning swipe that sent the
devil’s head flying through the air. Erin turned to face the last remaining
devil, the one facing Jax. It was near death, but determined to take at least
one of these mortals with it. It stabbed its trident forward into Jax’s gut,
then wrenched it free and stabbed again. The weapon’s flaming tines sank deep
into Jax’s chest, and smoke streamed from his mouth as he tried to scream. Then
his eyes rolled back into his head and his body hung suspended limply on the
devil’s trident. A second later, a stream of arrows slammed into the Erinyes,
sending her to Hell after her victim.
Wren flew to Jax’s body even as he fell.
She could see he was beyond normal healing, but she prayed to Pharasma as she
bent over Jax’s body and breathed a Breath
of Life into his lips. His eyes fluttered open even as Erin Laid on Hands to offer additional
healing. Wren’s summoned Azatas offered their own celestial healing, and Wren
gathered the rest of the group around her as she Channeled the healing power of her goddess.
“It looks like there’s a fancy bedroom
back there,” Shadow said, pointing to the southeast corridor.
“And some sort of magical workshop over
there,” Nat added pointing southwest.
“We don’t have time to mess around with
looking for loot,” Tomas snapped. “We need to find the Queen!”
“I agree,” Wren said. “I can feel the
Crown, directly above us. There’s a passage leading up over there.” Indeed, the
north end of the room had a large opening in the ceiling, exactly like the one
that had brought them to this level of the Sunken Queen. “I say while my
Bralani are here, we send them up first and head up right behind them.” She
seemed to be ready to move without delay, and had already flown to the far end
of the room with her celestial allies.
“Ummm … do you think we should call in
some reinforcements first,” Nat asked as the rest of the party followed her.
“Why not just do it once we see what’s
up there?” Jax asked.
“’Cause by then it might be too late,”
Nat countered. “At least let me see if I can get a look first.” He pulled out
his Wand of Clairvoyance, waved it in
the air a few times, then scrunched his eyes closed. “Nope,” he said after a
few seconds. “I got nothing.”
“Then let’s go!” Wren was ready to jet
up the shaft, but the others weren’t so hasty. Everyone seemed to have at least
some defensive spell (or two,
or three) they wanted to cast, or an item they wanted to invoke. Wren rolled
her eyes and snorted in frustration as precious seconds ticked by and her
summoned Azatas at last vanished.
“There’s something else I want to try,”
Nat said as people were pulling out never-before-tried items and spell
components. “When I drew The Hidden Truth
from the Harrow Deck back in the castle, it told me I could get a
one-time-only answer to any question. I want to see if it can tell me how to
defeat the Queen.” He turned to Wren, and she handed him Zellara’s Harrow deck.
He removed the cards, sorted through them until he found The Hidden Truth, then held the card up. “What can you tell me, oh
spirits?” he intoned.
Nat’s
head began to spin, and his vision grew dark. When it cleared, he found himself
standing on the parapet of a wooden palisade, overlooking a narrow channel of
water. Behind him was a small town of log cabins, rough wood plank houses, and
a few stone buildings. Across the channel was a forest wilderness, but rising
out of the forest, about a mile away, was a huge flat-topped pyramid, and he
could see smoke rising from a village of hide and log huts clustered around its
base. He realized he was standing in Old Korvosa when it was just ‘Korvosa’, a
tiny Chelish colony carved out of the uncharted wilds of Varisia.
A
battle was raging around him. Shoanti warriors in canoes were trying to cross
the narrows, being repelled by soldiers on the palisade. The soldiers wore
uniforms similar to those of the Sable Company, but of an antique style. A tall
man in an officer’s uniform, who bore a striking resemblance to Marcus Endrin,
was shouting orders. Fifty yards to his right, an Earth Elemental had pounded
its way through the wooden wall, and Shoanti were streaming through the gap it
had created. Flaming arrows streaked through the sky overhead, and much of the
town behind him was already in flames.
Incongruously,
a young girl stood at his side amid the chaos. She had dark hair and eyes,
clearly of Varisian descent. With a start, he recognized her — he had seen her
image in paintings and statues all over Korvosa: she was Saint Alika the
Martyr, the legendary child oracle who saved the early city time and again with
her warnings of Shoanti attacks, only to perish in the Great Fire that marked
the last Shoanti attempt to drive the colonists out of their lands. While
everyone else around Nat seemed oblivious to his presence, the girl turned and
looked up at him expectantly. “Cutting it a little close, aren’t you? You know
I’m about to die in a few minutes – what is it you want?”
Nat
was tongue-tied for a moment. “Well, you see, we’re trying to fight this evil
Queen, far in the future,” he stammered, trying to figure out how to get this
little girl up to speed. “She wants to destroy the city and everyone in it. But
it’s not really just her – there’s also this dragon who died a long time ago,
and he …”
“I
don’t think a bunch of explanation is going to help,” he heard Jax bark from
somewhere far away. “Just get to the damn point!”
Nat
gulped. “Well, what it boils down to is, I’m hoping you can tell me what we
need to do to defeat the Queen and her minions.”
The
girl looked at him and a slight smile played about her lips. “Well that’s an
easy one, silly. You just have to destroy the Crown.” Her smile faded, and her
eyes began to well with tears. “I’m afraid I have to go now,” she said sadly. Nat saw a
spark come sailing through the air from the far shore – not another flaming
arrow, but a spark he recognized well: an incoming Fireball. He turned to grab
the girl, to try to shield her with his body, but even as he did, the scene
faded, and he found himself standing among his friends, in the heart of the
Sunken Queen.
“Well that wasn’t all that helpful,” Nat
pouted. “’Just destroy the Crown’ – yeah like that’s so simple.” But Jax’s brow
knitted in thought. “Hmmm … I wonder?” he
mused.
The others had continued casting
protective spells even as Nat had sought guidance from beyond. Serithtial
glowed even brighter than normal as Erin activated her Divine Bond, and then she borrowed the Harrow Deck to activate her
own boon, calling forth a Trumpet Archon to aid her, as promised by The Trumpet. Wren, her Bralani gone,
pulled a Bead of Summoning from her Necklace
of Prayer Beads, and an Astral Deva appeared, bowing to her in obedience.
Nat called Erin, Tomas, and Jax to his
side. “I don’t know what we’ll find up there, but I want us to have as much
protection as possible,” he said solemnly, then cast Protection from Spells on the four of them. Then he used his Staff of Conjuration to summon a Lillend
Azata to his side. Looking around at the party and all their celestial allies,
he still didn’t feel secure. “Just one more thing – this’ll only take a minute.”
He reached into his Handy Haversack and pulled out the Scroll of Gate they’d found in the Castle. Taking a deep breath, he
began to read from the scroll.
There was a flash of light accompanied
by the sound of heavenly chimes. Another pair of Astral Devas appeared before
him, but they did not look pleased to be there. “We were on an important errand
for our lady Desna,” they said; they spoke together in harmony, in a chord no
earthly throats could manage. “Why have you forced us here to this plane,
mortal?”
Nat drew himself up; his usual
nervousness seemed to disappear as he bowed to the heavenly messengers. “I
humbly beg forgiveness for calling you here and hope my plea might gain favor
with you. These others can bear witness, but I take full responsibility if this
is an overstep. We have evidence that a depraved former ruler here has
deliberately killed thousands of her subjects, will kill many thousands more,
and will turn a city over to the ministrations of hell, all in her search for
eternal youth and earthly power. We must stop her. She is a great menace that
threatens to plunge this whole realm into evil. Will you help?”
The devas looked at each other and then
back to Nat. “Your quest sounds a noble one, mortal, and worthy of our
assistance,” they sang together. “But a price must be paid for interrupting our
Lady’s business. What say you?” sang one to the other, “A magical item worth at
least 15,000 gold for each of our service?” “That sounds fair,” the other
replied.
Nat nodded. “I offer you these,” he
said, pulling a pair of items from his Haversack. “A Ring of Spell Storing and a Preserving
Flask.” The devas nodded, and the items vanished from Nat’s hand. “Lead us
to this evil Queen,” they sang.
Fully reinforced, the party gathered
beneath the opening in the ceiling and began to fly upwards. As they rose, Nat
cast one final spell, and blue glow of his eyes’ Arcane Sight began to scintillate with opal-like flashes of color,
as they acquired Greater Arcane Sight.
They ascended the stone shaft above
them, and just before they reached the top, all their protective Invisibility spells, well, vanished (Nat
could see a Permanent Invisibility Purge suffusing
the entire area). They emerged into a huge, lofty chamber, illuminated by
braziers at the four corners. A soft light also filtered in from two very high
oval windows on the southern wall. The twin windows were fitted with panes
of blue crystal, and they realized that these were likely the eyes of the
enormous statue on the face of the pyramid (although they had appeared as
ordinary stone from the outside). Below these crystal “eyes,” a band of mosaics
on the wall formed a huge map of an ancient, unknown land. The map featured a river
valley with many villages, each one labeled in a spiky script that Nat
recognized as Thassalonian. Yet the most unusual feature of the room floated
and undulated at its center — an amorphous blob of blood, over thirty feet
wide, hovered and rippled in the air. Shapes periodically formed on its turbulent
surface: faces, hands, buildings, and figures that lasted only long enough to
melt back into the horrific mass. Dozens of thin crystal tubes extended from
the upper walls of the room to a point just above the shifting mass of blood.
This had to be the Everdawn Pool, the ancient
source of power that the runelord Sorshen had discovered, and which Ileosa now
sought to harness.
As they entered the room, Ileosa’s face
suddenly appeared out of the pool of blood; it was a mask of fury, and she let
out an incoherent shriek of rage before she vanished back into the opaque mass.
Tomas had his bow ready, but nothing to shoot at for the moment, so he activated
his Chameleon Step and flew to one
side of the room, ready to fire at the first target he saw.
Suddenly, Ileosa came flying out of the
Pool. She was singing a Dirge of Doom,
and everyone nearby found themselves shaken by its haunting melody. Then another Ileosa flew out of the
Pool, and another and another, until half a dozen identical copies of the Queen
were flying about the chamber. One attempted to Charm Tomas, but failed, but another cast Confusion that left Erin’s Trumpet Archon cross-eyed. Three more
opened their mouths and a Discordant
Blast of sound hammered most of the group, throwing Nat backwards into the
wall behind him. Nat’s Lillend Azata managed to get an opportunity attack
against one of the Ileosas, opening a huge gash in her side. Each of the
Ileosas was surrounded by a cloud of Horrific
Doubles, mirror images that each seemed horribly wrong in ways that left Erin’s Trumpet Archon shaken.
Nat didn’t care for this situation one
bit. His Greater Arcane Sight showed
him that these were no illusions, although each Ilesoa carried the exact same
allotment of magical auras and items. He hoped that one of these was the real Ileosa, but didn’t want to waste
time sorting them out individually, so he flew forward, dangerously close to
the action, and then cast Stormbolts.
A blast of lightning erupted from his body shooting out in all directions, but
somehow diverting to avoid his friends and their allies. The gang of Ileosas
were not so lucky; each was struck by a blast of electrical energy that sent
them all flying backwards. As they fell to the ground, they each dissolved into
a pool of blood, exactly like the Blood
Simulacrum they had destroyed in Castle Korvosa’s throne room.
Wren could still sense the crown – it was
above and ahead of her, in the direction of the center of the Everdawn Pool.
Hoping to protect her friends and limit the Queen’s options, she flew to the
floor just beyond the shaft, knelt, and placed her palms on the stone floor.
She called upon the power of Pharasma to make this a Hallowed space, warded against all evil. For good measure, she made
Silence a part of the Hallow, and
almost the entire chamber fell deathly quiet.
The Trumpet Archon shook its head;
something about coming to this plane seemed to have left it feeling, well, a
bit off. But at least for the moment it was able to act normally. It flew to
its left, and discovered that the Silence
ended near the eastern wall of the chamber. Hoping that it’s new master’s
enemy was still within that pool of blood, it cast Order’s Wrath on the area. Nat’s devas split up, flying to opposite
sides of the room; when the one on the east discovered it could speak again, it
cast Dispel Evil, holding the spell’s
charge until a need should arise for it. Wren’s own Astral Deva followed it,
and cast Holy Aura as soon as it
could, surrounding everyone around it with divine, protective radiance.
Erin flew directly to the Everdawn Pool,
Serithtial at the ready. Not sure what to expect, she swept the sword through
the undulating mass of blood. It met no resistance and nothing seemed to happen
as Serithtial struck. But a few seconds later, the surface of the Pool began to
writhe, and then a huge creature exploded out of it. It looked like a massive, diseased, serpentine dragon, its skin covered with the bloody boils and pustules of Blood
Veil. It seemed far too large to have been contained within the confines of the
Everdawn Pool. It roared, and breathed out a cone of breath that stank of the
grave, and carried infection with it; Erin’s Trumpet Archon was left feeling
weaker, and infected with Mummy Rot. Nat’s Lillend lashed out at the new
threat, but was unable to strike it. Shadow conjured a Fireball that exploded behind the beast, but its flames seemed to do
no damage to it. Tomas fired adamantine arrows at the thing, but only one found
its mark.
But even as Jax flew into the Pool,
Ileosa flew out from her hiding place behind
it; she’d used the pool to block the party’s view of her, and now flew above
the Wall of Force Shadow had conjured
above it. She flew quickly to her right, and as soon as she was outside of the Silence she cast Greater Dispel Magic to negate Wren’s Hallow. Even those who still couldn’t see her (the Pool’s presence
in the center of the room provided a lot of cover to those on the far side of
it) were aware that something
was up as sounds again flooded into the area. Ileosa used Quickened Dominate Person to try to force Tomas to obey her
commands, but the ranger’s willpower proved too strong.
Nat flew to the east, knowing Ileosa had
to be here somewhere. As he
spotted her, he kept going until he was sure he was past the limits of the Wall of Force then invoked his Contingency spell of True Strike. Counting on the spell to
keep his aim true, he fired off a Polar Ray at Ileosa. Even as the ray streaked
through the air, he realized there was a factor he hadn’t counted on. A couple
of them, actually. Ileosa was protected by a Displacement spell, which his True
Strike might or might not be able to overcome. But there were also a myriad
of mirror images of her, and the ray simply succeeded in dispelling one of
those images. Frustrated, he followed up with a Quickened, Empowered, Maximized Orb of Light, only to see it suffer
the same fate as yet another image winked out of sight.
The PCs earned 28,800 XP, putting them
at 706,785 XP, with 850,000 required for level 17. We’ll definitely finish up
next week.
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