Through the Fire and Flames

Morning comes. Kinna takes Bliss aside and hands her an envelope with two floral rings inside. She stumbles around an explanation, trying to avoid The Question. Bliss cuts her off, says I Do, and they kiss. Traveling down the cavern, the route narrows before opening into a lone campfire, a portal of some kind. Sirrias sticks his obsidian staff into it and it flares up, creating a fiery portable. The party rush through it and end up in a flaming purgatory with a towering obsidian castle in front of them. Mustered in front of the castle is an army: Fire Giants, the Court of Bones, various First Flame forces, a collection of demons, and a big red dragon. The Soup Troop summon their own allies to help: Glory and the Paladins of Tyr, the Silverwing Clan, Mar and some Kaldorak diaspora orcs, the Fort Maw Hunters, the Black Prone outfitted with Stone Snek's weapons, dryads and druids from the Grove of the Bear, and the Red Galleon itself flying overhead.

The fight begins and forces close. Sirrias calls down a Storm of Vengeance, granted to him by the Fey during his deal with them, and batters his enemies. The dragon and the Red Galleon dogfight overhead. The voice of Logi booms. Phaux calls to the Weaver and the Weaver answers, sending in the chimera Jim III and some abominations. Fire swirls around the perimeter of the battlefield and the red dragon strafes the allies with flaming breath. As Ghorza and the orcs battle the Court of Bones on the right flank, the scattered slain skeleton bones reform into a humongous skeleton warrior, which she slays with a 1-2 of a fireball dagger and greatsword. The tide of battle turns in favor of the good guys as the right flank of orcs, mercenaries, paladins, and halflings prepare to rush into the storm and attack the castle gates. The left flank of Hunters, fae, and druids remain bogged down fighting the demons, with both Delirious and Ursinine dying in the fight. Alala is killed by a demonic balrog and Brodo kills it in retribution. Flying through the air, Ghorza and the Red Galleon slay the dragon, which was the surviving one of the pair of dragons encountered earlier. Ghorza's dragon slaying tally is now four (Venomfang, Dragon Daddy, Dragon Pair 1 and 2). With the battlefield clearing, the party rush the castle gate, which is of course a magic portal.

They find themselves on an obsidian platform floating in space above Juniper, a throne in front of them. Brisko and his mages flank the throne and the voice of Logi bellows out again, "consume him!". Fighting commences and Sirrias feels the Sunderer inside him well up again and again, but resists. From this vantage point, they see an island moving on a collision course with Juniper's north shore. Kinna nearly dies and blinks to the Astral Plane for respite. The island crashes into Juniper, shattering the northern lands. Brisko tackles Sirrias and throws them both off the platform as they start hurtling toward the planet. Sirrias' arm succumbs to the sunderer's flame and he loses control of it. Ghorza dives after him and breaks Brisko's grasp, but Sirrias' wayward arm starts choking her. Brisko returns to the shard and rushes the throne, merging with Logi and becoming a fearsome fire elemental. It searches for Sirrias' shard, but cannot find the hidden gauntlet. From within the elemental's body, they can see two Shards and what appears to be Brisko's skull. Sirrias plunges in to grab them, but his arm is absorbed by the elemental, disappearing from his body. Finally, the elemental dies in an explosion, leaving behind the two Shards, Brisko's skull, and a small flickering flame. Sirrias kicks the skull into oblivion and asks Tymora for advice; she responds that only the Sunderder can unite and destroy the Shards. One by one, Shards from the other party members are added to Sirrias' gauntlet and magical effects occur: Sirrias gains 50 pounds and grass springs forth to cover the ground, mirroring the first effect of the Wand of the Wonder years ago. With the last Shard, wind erupts from Sirrias and his gauntlet transforms into a stake aimed at his heart. He resists it's force and, thinking fast, pins his arm to the ground. He summons an earth elemental to smash it for him, and it does so, crushing the gauntlet, the Shards, and his remaining hand. The flickering flame fades away and the Shards scatter to the wind in dust. The obsidian platform falls away and the party free-fall to earth. As they fall, the flying Red Galleon sweeps along to pick them up.

With the action over, Sirrias fades away, disappearing to be summoned to the fae court, who have claimed him to make good on his promise. Similarly, K'harth is whisked away by the Raven Queen.

Previous Episode: The Heroe's Feast