Asters Last Flight

*Hired by*: Navigant Verne; Azurax the Arcane, Cobalt Lord of the Raging Skies

*Mission Request*: Find Verne's censer & prove his innocence; Retrieve map of Pinioned Tomb from Navigant Verne

*Rewards/Loot*: (Pending)

*Discovered Places*: N/A

*Caravan Allies*: Gromlo (antiquarian), Caliban (cook), "Bob" (alarm gnome)

*Monsters Encountered*: Zarine the eldritch-horror werewolf

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## Summary

The party just finished killing Serac. Arco stabilized Serac. He, Scipio, & Serac's unconscious body are down 200ft at the bottom chamber of the sewers. Aster flew up the 200ft hole to go find Eira on the main level of Serac’s secret sewer base. Upon getting back to the top Aster saw Zarine & Layla enter the room with the severed head of one of Serac's lackeys who had run away. Aster not knowing where exactly Eira was, talked loudly to Zarine to stall for time and as an attempt to warn her friends of his presence. She acts incredibly standoffish and sarcastic out of fear. Zarine wants to know where Serac and the censer were. Aster evades the Serac question and says he’s dead, but she answers truthfully regarding the censer. One of her party members (Burke) disappeared with the censer to who knows where. Zarine clearly plans to hunt Burke after this is over.

Zarine asks Aster about her time being cursed with lycanthropy. He creepily says he thinks of her like his offspring since she is the only one he has ever infected. Aster knows that he plans to kill her but he genuinely seems curious about her experience, so she makes a deal with Zarine. If she tells him about her experiences, then he has to promise he and Layla will not to go after her friends. He agrees under the terms that they leave Serac's body for him. This promise is made and Aster shouts down to Arco and Scipio to leave Serac’s body. She then sits down at the table on the far side of the room away from the many rooms, which she guesses Eira's in. Zarine and Aster talk. During this time Arco and Scipio left Serac's body and are trying to make their way back up to the top chamber. Eira watches this conversation from a hidden alcove.

Once they're done talking, Zarine asks Aster if there were any last wishes she had. She responds "yeah" and then transforms and pulls out her swords. They fight. Eira tries to banish Zarine, but he shrugs off the spell. Luckily he is too distracted by fighting Aster to realize a magical effect was being cast, so Eira remains safely hidden from him.

Aster knows she won't win this fight, considering she was already heavily hurt fighting Serac and his lackeys. She accepts the inevitability and attacks Zarine full force to keep his attention and buy her friends time to escape. She gets some good hits in, but Zarine appears to be resistant to the lightning & fire damage coming off her magical swords. Aster casts zephyr strike to escape Zarine’s grasp and flies up over the large 200ft drop in hopes that Zarine will lunge at her. He does exactly that but manages to grapple her in the process. During their descent, he breaks Aster's right wing. Aster's breastplate prevents her from taking any fall damage, but Zarine is equally unhurt by the drop. Aster still considers this a win since it took Zarine away from the floor Eira was on. Arco finally makes it to the main level only to realize that the action is below. He tries to charm Layla, but she shrugs it off. She remains out of the fight per the deal, though. In a last-ditch move, Aster yanks the silver arrow head off her necklace and embeds it into Zarine’s chest screaming “this is for Vissa!” Since the arrow head was a product of the Jasper Order, it reacted to Zarine’s dark moon lycanthropy and blasted him with radiant damage. The arrow head also revealed Zarine’s true form: an eldritch-horror werewolf with many tentacles and many heads.

Eira used a patch from her coat of useful things to cast dimension door. She arrives at the bottom just in time to see Aster fall dead by Zarine's claws. Eira beseeches her god for help but they don’t seem to hear her in this other plane. Arco also dimension doors down and prays to Onema to no avail. Zarine’s fiery aura cooks Aster into a nice roast bird, and he begins to eat her broken wing. He keeps his promise to not harm Aster's friends, though. Eira tries to surprise Zarine with a magical pit (another patch on her coat) but he easily evades the hole. Scipio rushes to the scene and kicks Serac's dead body to the eldritch-horror werewolf and shouts "here's dinner!" Zarine moves away from Aster’s body to eat Serac's, but one of his many heads still watched her friends. Eira, knowing Aster’s last wishes, grabbed the aarakocra’s most prized possessions and and grabs Scab, then lets Arco dimension door them away to safety.