Emerald Spire 44.0 - The Destruction of the Spire

Miming furiously to themselves and taking surreptitious glances at the aquatic forces, the group settled on a plan of sorts. The soldiers didn't seem to be particularly powerful or skilled, and though they held the upper hand in terms of numbers and swimming ability, Marin was fairly confident that the only real threat was the squid-like Teuthida. Amara cloaked him, Kormon and Ismail in Invisibility and held back by the cave entrance while the others quietly swam in, trying to disturb the water as little as possible. They managed to deftly pass the soldiers and surround Teuthida without alerting anyone: only Dayana seemed to notice that something was off, though she said nothing. Teuthida railed on the captive Jaquarl demanding information. As they whipped Jaquarl, they mentioned something about a spell, wanting to know what it was for. Indeed, as they looked about they could see an extremely advanced ritual marked onto the rocky floor and walls. 
Deciding that this was enough, the three men lay into Teuthida. Before anyone else could react, they had laid waste to the squid-like creature and sent them back to their home plane. The soldiers leapt into action as Dayana retreated in shock. Jaquarl, for his part, recognized his chance. Using Kormon's weapon to cut himself free of bonds, he told them all that they would have to act immediately; he pulled back to another part of the cave to a certain portion of the spell, telling them to help Vibol and to "get her to break the spire"; when asked to clarify, he only offered the advice "dodge".
Freeing Vibol, the three adventurers fought back the soldiers. Ismail used Command to force Dayana and two of the soldiers to flee, but unfortunately their most direct path sent them all swimming towards Amara, who hid herself in response. As Marin had predicted, the soldiers weren't particularly powerful but they were numerous, swarming over the three adventurers. They freed Vibol from his bonds as well, and he thanked them as he ran over to Jaquarl's side. Seeing Jaquarl casting a spell, the soldiers abandoned the Materians and made to surround the wizard; when the group made to follow, Kormon shook off the effects of a spell thrown by Dayana. 
Amara popped back up to see Jaquarl and Vibol being overwhelmed by trident-wielding fish people, so she cast Wall of Force around the pair, protecting them in a shatter-proof bubble. She was none too soon as suddenly the spell Jaquarl had been casting flared to life. Portals began to open throughout the room and massive, horrific tentacles reached in. Eyes set into the ends of the appendages looked around as the arms undulated, while even more soldiers poured into the cave from the portals. Sighting the spellcaster, one of the tentacles reached up and slammed down, crushing all beneath it. When the arm pulled back, all of the soldiers had been forcibly unsummoned but Jaquarl and Vibol remained, protected by the Wall of Force. 
Kormon saw what he had to do. Putting himself into position, he took his crossbow and fired into the tentacle's eye. Though the damage to the aquatic beast seemed to be inconsequential, the bolt nonetheless managed to catch the creature's attention. It wound back and slammed itself towards Kormon, who just barely managed to dodge out of the way before the arm smashed into the crystal. A grinding sound echoed through the room and Kormon smiled.
Ismail cast Spiritual Weapon, creating a spectral trident that began to spin about and skewer aquatic angels. As Marin went to assist against the second wave of soldiers, he was hit by Dayana's spell and wasn't as lucky as Kormon was. Where once was a man there was suddenly a small fish idly swimming about. Seeing this, Ismail used his weapon to stab Marin, hurting him but restoring him to his true form. Not wanting to deal with any further magical interference, Ismail used Banishment, sending Dayana back to her home plane. 
Kormon repeated his maneuver as two more soldiers attempted to engage him. The tentacle pulled back and slammed into the Spire once again; Kormon expertly dodged the attack but the two angels weren't as lucky, and they were brutally sent back to their plane. Marin swam over to guard Amara, who was under attack by more soldiers. He managed to defend her while Ismail tried to bait a second tentacle into attacking the crystal using his Spiritual Weapon. Soldiers continued to pour out of the portals that seemed to be growing and tearing ever larger, revealing even more of the fleshy, enormous creature that was pressing itself into the room. Ismail was assaulted by soldiers who broke his concentration, returning a confused Dayana to the cave.
As Kormon readied himself for a third strike on the Spire, two soldiers swam at him with a different strategy. Rather than try and fight him, they attempted to grab onto him and hold him in place for the tentacle to destroy. As the arm pulled back, Kormon managed to only free himself from one of his adversaries: he was trapped. Amara saw this and drew her wand of Magic Missile. Unwilling to see her friend be crushed, she fired an overpowered blast of missiles from the wand and managed to unsummon the angel who held him down. Kormon barely managed to dodge the full brunt of the attack and the current slammed him painfully into the Spire. However, the three hits had done it: a terrible cracking sound filled the cavern along with a pulse of green light as the Spire broke straight through. Jaquarl reversed his spell immediately, banishing everything from the room that wasn't from this plane. The soldiers, the tentacles, Dayana, Vibol and the water all disappeared, causing the free-swimming Ismail and Kormon to fall painfully to the floor below.
The group picked themselves up in the deafening silence following the battle. Marin and Amara joined Kormon and Ismail before going to Jaquarl's side: he was exhausted and badly injured. Ismail healed him and Kormon helped him sit up, congratulating his plan and his assistance in finishing their goal; Kormon in particular was quietly overjoyed at their success. The others were more muted, concerned with how they would escape, and Jaquarl for his part seemed miserable. As they considered how they were going to escape, Amara and Ismail stopped short. Marin and Kormon followed their line of sight to see that they had been joined by another. Sasien stood at the base of the crystal, their body language clearly indicative of flabbergasted shock that turned into muttering as they leaned over the nearest piece of crystal, caressing it like one might comfortingly stroke another.
Marin suggested that they leave quickly but Sasien demanded attention. They seemed largely uninterested in excuses because the act was done, though they were frustrated at the unknowable outcomes of this event. Only half-interested in the party itself, they spoke mostly to themselves as they tried to deduce the best means of containing the excessive amount of arcane energy that was being unstably poured into the environment. Using a massive chunk of the crystal carved out with nothing more than sharp hand-gestures, they drained the power from it in order to gracelessly summon a woman with long hair and dark glasses. They snapped at the woman to go upstairs, giving her a key card and telling her to access any and every system that could be used to safely draw out energy from the Spire and turn them up as high as they could go. Flustered and off-guard by the rude manner in which she was called, she nonetheless complied. 
Sasien, reforming their hand which had crumbled off like the crystal they had used to cast the summoning spell, turned their attentions back to the group. They asked for "volunteers" to help contain this mess, only interested in mages and unwilling to discuss detailed terms of employment at the moment, considering the crisis state. Marin and Kormon were much more concerned about securing a safe exit, for they knew that every lost second meant they were more likely to be trapped here forever or killed by the whim of the angered magelord. Jaquarl pushed away from Kormon and volunteered: he could never return home, lest death become a fond and unattainable dream, but the thought of having to make his way in the human world was not much more comforting. Sasien was more than willing to take up the offer of the skilled conjuring wizard and told him to join the woman he had sent to the labs upstairs. After a moment of consideration, Ismail also volunteered. He thanked the other three for letting him travel with them and for helping him regain his freedom and vengeance, but he also had nowhere to go and no real place in the surface world; he could not rule out that this wasn't the ultimate fate his goddess had intended for him. With a quick farewell, Ismail moved to join Jaquarl. Marin looked to Amara, mentioning that this must be a dream come true for her, but she fiddled and panicked and blurted out, close to tears, that she couldn't.
As Marin, Kormon and Amara began to make motions of leaving by the route they had entered, Sasien stopped them, saying that they had a task for them that they were sure to like. Wrenching the crystal pickaxe from Kormon's grip again, much to his mute fury, Sasien seemed to overcharge it with energy. Returning it to Kormon and equipping them with a teleportation token, Sasien instructed them to go to the very top of the spire, drive the pick in, and run. Not needing to be told twice, the group offered one more farewell to the two they were leaving behind and teleported away.
Finding themselves once more on the surface ruins, the three hastened up to the tip of the spire. With a mighty swing, Kormon drove his pick into the crystal. The energy from the pick flashed into the spire itself, which began to glow ominously. The thought of abandoning his pick at this point was unthinkable and Kormon strained mightily to reclaim it, managing to wrench the tool free but shattering its point for his efforts. With that, Amara cast Fly and they escaped from a hole in the tower ruin, heading away as fast as they were able. Within minutes, a huge explosion could be heard behind them. Marin turned to look at the billowing cloud of smoke emanating from the grove far behind them, and the resulting shockwave nearly knocked all three of them from the sky. Birds and animals fled in terror from the disturbance, but it was now over. Broken and buried, the spire was destroyed.
Category:Emerald Spire