Session 22: Ivasar

*“Control your passions before they control you.”*

In the catacombs, each hopeful for the Warriors of the Dawn found a shard of delerium that spoke to them.  Why it had to be here I’m not sure, only that maybe it was the closest largest source of delirium to the Acolytes of the Fallen Flame’s camp.  A huge shard of the meteor must have broken off and landed here, the dim catacomb had a plethora, with jagged boulders reaching to the ceiling.

One by one each initiate, as they were instructed, listened until they heard a piece calling to them, drawn to it like moths to a flame.  All seemed to be going well despite the gloomy atmosphere until…

A woman sauntered in, carrying with her an aura of menace and flanked by undead constructs.  She introduced herself as Zloya and with a sneer “Did you think you could get away so easily?  I’ve come to collect a debt!”.  We quickly surmised that she must be one of the sisters of the hag that we met in Emberwood Village.  And with that, without hesitation Ember let loose with a stream of eldritch power and profanity.

No pushover herself, she ordered her swarm of constructs into the room and more rose from the caskets.  With a few arcane words, a torrent of energy flew from her hands, channeling into her eyes, turning them pitch black.  We were in for a fight.

Ember moved first, letting loose a powerful shatter spell, crumbling a few of her minions but smashing Red on the arm in the process.  Red rallied and charged hacking with his sword and landing a solid hit on Zloya, only for her to teleport away in a cloud of black mist.

Viter didn’t do so well, his first two stabs of the rapier missed spectacularly.  I heard him speaking to himself in some sort of self-pep talk.  It seemed to work, as the next blow was a success, with a savvy slice slashing soundly.  Zloya retaliated, and lashed out with a hideous claw that grew from her hand, rending flesh.

Hearing more howls of the constructs and seeing a pack of them round the corner I summoned a growth of spikes, piercing their flesh and putting an end to their unnatural forms.  Zloya seeing that her reinforcements were cut off tried to disrupt my focus, sending waves of magic missiles slamming into my side, but I held on grimly, knowing it was the key to turning the tide.  Seeking other ways, she teleported next to Henrik, one of the hopefuls and with a brutal slash carved in his face and the door he was holding shut burst open with more of the horrid constructs.

Ember, summoning dark magics cast a powerful spell of Blight on the Hag, ending her.  The magical glamour surrounding her peeled away to revealed a withered crone, dressed in tatters and the foul spell crumbled her body. But a silvery light surrounded her, seeming to protect her from the worst of the spell.  We turned and saw the source, another woman of power, muttering something directed at Zloya.  We couldn’t make out what she said, but a glimpse into her mouth, full of green bile, left us no doubt as to her origins.  This was only confirmed when she let loose a piercing whistle that echoed through the catacombs and was seemingly answered by a foul screech echoing back.  Two booms were heard in quick succession followed by a crash of stone, something had awakened.

Saving her sister, she cast Zloya’s body into a portal of what looked to be the Fey Plane, thick with greenery and wild creatures.  It was then we saw what looked to be a heart shaped stone in her hand, similar to what her sister carried.  Viter, acting quickly, tried to sneak up to snatch it, but in the heat of battle let us all know what was on his mind and very loudly and cheerfully said “That stone’s gonna be my own!”.  The woman saw this coming, but was distracted by the rallying Warrior of the Dawn and Viter with a deft grasp was able to grab it out of her hand.  Unfortunately he paid the price, and was thrown clear across the room by a vicious backhand and getting dragged through my thorns in the process.  He was alive, but barely.

With the odds rapidly turning against her, the woman started for the portal.  I shouted at Ember to “Bag that Hag!” and she gamely tried with no success to tackle her.  With a quick leap she was gone and the portal closed behind her.  Although the immediate threat was gone we could hear steps of something large draw closer.  Gathering our unconscious and our wounded we quickly made for the exit, cutting down what remained of the minions.  I spiked the door but moments later a hideous creature smashed open the door, it towered over us with two tentacles hovering over its head, spitting silver darts.  We beat a hasty retreat and the Warriors of the dawn sealed the entrance behind us with an avalanche of stones using their glowing blades.

In silence we trekked back to the camp.  Viter spotted some writing on the stone, some Sylvan script, the name of Alliean Nekaris. We recalled that such a stone, a heartstone was created only by a deep betrayal of a person’s values.  Before we even had a chance to discuss this among ourselves, Ember promptly grabbed Allie’s collar and slammed her against a wall demanding an answer.  Tears quickly formed in her eyes and she said “She came for me, the hag, I know it.”

Allie told us a tale, about her true origins.  She hadn’t come from Caspia but from Sacena.  Living with her brother on the outskirts of town, she took odd work from the Queensmen to support them.  It was there in the small camp she fell in love with a man named Silas.  But it didn’t last long and he was captured by the many marauding bands of monsters.  An old woman came to her asking her to do odd things, promising his return.  The final task was to put a drop of her brother’s blood into a tree by the river.  Hesitating as this was no simple thing, she caved at the thought of seeing the face of her lover once more.  The next morning her brother had turned into a tree sprite and in her shock and grief she confessed to her crime.  The villagers turned on her and drove her away and she later she heard that her brother had been burned to death.  Not knowing where to go she ended up at the camp of the Acolytes of the Fallen Fire, hoping for a new start, but she knew that one day the Hag would come for her.

Redd denounced her then and there to the assembled crowd, casting her out of the order and vowing to execute her for her crimes.  Surprisingly, or perhaps looking for another fight, Ember came to her defense, telling him to promptly, fuck off.

As we finally made our way back to camp the mood more somber than ever, Leucretia was there waiting for us.  She looked confused as it was evident not all went according to plan and asked for an explanation.  Ember pithly replied “Oh didn’t the flames tell you?”.