I'm going to rip off your head and make it my puppet.
Iko dances past the down Tieflings and swings his blade at the woman.
SteelGate swings his big metal fists at the woman as well.
The woman avoids both attacks.
Azrael's Arrow Lands solidly into the womans body, her wounds are bleeding vigorously, she raises her hands for what is the final time.
The woman's hands glow with black energy but instead of touching Lynn she touches herself.
Her wounds start to close up as her smile gets larger.
Lynn tries to stab the witch again.
The bone armor surrounding the woman reflects Lynn's attack
Tink climbs the stairs and hides behind the doorway, watching the fight
SteelGate slows down and aims a bit better hoping to wipe the woman out.
Still missing the woman but denting the cage the Ward Stone fragment is in.
Iko just opens a flurry of attacks on the tiefling beside him with Radiance.
Tink pulls the rod of cancellation out of his robes, looking it over quickly he sees the woman is distracted. Running up Tink touches the rod to the stone through the bars.
The Rod pulses as it discharges into the stone, the stone in turn starts to flash brightly. After a moment it explodes in a flash of golden light, the sounds of angelic singing rings throughout the room. The woman is burned into black nothingness as everyone else feels all their wounds knit closed with blessed energy.
An unexpected side effect of the wardstone’s
destruction occurs. If the holy energies stored in all of the
wardstones were the waters of a vast lake formed by a dam,
then the fragment just destroyed was the plug in that dam
holding the waters back. Rather than simply diffusing the
wardstone’s border as the Eagle Watch theorized (and thus
removing the border from possible corruption), all of the
Wardstone Fragment energies of the wardstones along the border rush out of the “hole” caused by the final destruction of the last and largest fragment of the Kenabres stone. The energy of all of these
simultaneously draining artifacts infuses the PCs (though
not Irabeth or any other ally present, nor does the energy
harm allies) with incredible power, causing them to glow
with golden light. All debilitating conditions and wounds
are immediately healed as the PCs are restored in an instant
to full health. All expended spells are instantly restored, and
all limited use per day abilities recharge. Any dead PCs are
restored to life as if by true resurrection, but are automatically
stunned for a few rounds as the power surging through
their bodies overwhelms every sense. Irabeth, if she’s
present, frantically tries to help the PCs recover for the next
few rounds, but to no avail.
This event does not go unnoticed. All along the
border, other wardstones f lash with golden light as well,
momentarily supercharging their effects. Thousands
of demons are destroyed by the f lash of light, and many
more are wounded. The attacks along the borders
suddenly cease, and the surviving demons f lee back into
the depths of the Worldwound, thus they do not witness
the wardstones fade into total inertness. Although thedefenders rejoice at the unexpected pulse of energy, the
fact that their greatest defense has apparently burned
itself out is cause for concern—ramifications of this
development are explored in the next adventure.
Areelu Vorlesh learns of the development
via magical links to the Material Plane, and immediately
abandons her efforts to secure the perfect Nahyndrian crystal
to corrupt the wardstone. She works quickly to prepare a
vengeful strike against the PCs, hoping to corrupt the
mythic power they’ve now got within them to somehow
salvage part of her plan. The PCs, still stunned, receive a
vision of the first wardstone being erected in the Kite here
in Kenabres in 4639 ar, in a ritual involving the aid of the
Hand of the Inheritor—the herald of Iomedae: a golden,
winged angel with a halo of small swords around his head.
This event happens soon after the Second Crusade begins
In the year 4665 ar, the PCs see a vision of a
20-year-old Hulrun leading the burning of dozens of
supposed “witches” in the courtyard of the Kite before the
wardstone. This event launches the Second Crusade.
In the year 4692 ar, the PCs see a vision of
Khorramzadeh the Storm King leading a brazen attack on
Kenabres. The Storm King manages to strike a resounding
blow with his sword against the wardstone, which suffers
only the tiniest of cracks as the balor’s sword shatters.
Khorramzadeh is then attacked and forced to f lee when
the silver dragon Terendelev nearly kills him—this event
launches the Fourth Crusade.
In the year 4712 ar, the PCs see a vision of
Irabeth chasing a burly dwarven man—Staunton Vhane
(leader of the Hammers of Heaven mercenary group) into
the courtyard containing the wardstone. Both paladins
are heavily wounded, and as Staunton backs against the
wardstone, smoke rises and he screams in pain. He ducks
to avoid one of Irabeth’s blows, then manages to smash
her knee with his hammer, dropping her to the ground.
Staunton seems ready to deliver a death blow, but the sound
of approaching soldiers forces him instead to back away
and summon a fiendish giant wasp that he swiftly mounts
and then f lies away to the north, abandoning Kenabres.
The PCs see a vision of Minagho, a beautiful
demonic woman with a long thin tail, clawed hands, and
curling horns protruding from where her eyes should be,
placing the wardstone fragment in this room and of Jeslyn
using a wish granted by Minagho to create the cage around
it before Minagho teleports away.
The PCs see a vision of an event they know will
now never happen—Areelu Vorlesh using a deep purple
Nahyndrian crystal the size of a human’s head to corrupt
the fragment, causing the entire border to f lash with
nauseating mauve fire that devastates the border cities and
transforms countless crusaders into half-fiend slaves of the
Worldwound. The PCs should realize at this point that the demons’ entire plan was to draw as many crusaders to the
border to defend it from their attacks, in order to maximize
the damage this event would have caused.
Areelu activates a device called an imago lens
in the Abyss that allows her to use a project image spell to
appear before the PCs.
WAGHHHH!!! I feel fantastic!
Lynn stands there bedazzled. "That was unexpected." she says as she finds herself and the others glowing as well as the witch burned to ashes.
Iko stumbles and braces himself against a wall. "What..."
There are no remains left of the woman that you were fighting, her magical gear lays on the floor, a cloak, a Scythe, an amulet and a pouch.
In the wall are embedded 5 fragments of the ward Stone, they call out to each of you and without thinking everyone steps forward and grasps them. A power courses through your bodies awakening power you have never felt before , as the power starts to die down and the dust settles in the room you know that you must return to Irabeth and see how the attack faired.
As the group proceeds back to the room with the Minotaur the body is done, apparently wiped out by the same magic that took the woman’s body away as well, a very Large Great axe sits on the floor, a war horn sits there as well as a pouch, you also note some helmets that appear to be ancient in design. They are mostly destroyed.
Mm.. this strength I feel inside, I must think on this. We has better get back to our allies.
"We need to make sure we cleared everything out. And we need to get Irabeth to put some troops in here. It's no use to leave it alone only to have it infested with demons and cultists again." Lynn tells.
As the house is now freed from all evil, Lynn grabs the damaged helmets. "I'll take them along to the Inn. Maybe the masters of metal in the basement can fix that. It would be a shame if these reminders of greatness are left behind like scrap metal."
From all the garbage found in the streets she searches a cloth or blanket to protect the cart of Tink. "If you don't mind, I'd like to bring the corpses of these good men along so they get a proper burial."
She trusts that Tink will bring along everything valuable that is magic and asks Don to make sure, no cold iron weapon is left behind. Once everything is done, she leads the trek back to the Defender's Heart.
As the group gathers up the bodies to be buried, the Helms to be restored and makes sure to take the weapons from the secret armory the Trip back to the Heart is quiet and somber. Even the Prisoner is quiet but that might be due to the gag that Lynn Tied around his mouth. After a short trip you can see that Irabeth and her troop have returned as well, There are some bodies outside that are being tended to by Surgeons and others are being covered up.
Irabeth approaches with Aliva, Horgus and Aravashnial in tow.
"You do it? We witnessed a great power being unleashed, it killed the demons in the city and once they were destroyed the remaining cultists fled back to the holes they came from."
Aliva appears to be walking without a cane and Aravashnial has no bandages over his eyes, which for the first time you can see are a cold blue like that of the deepest winter.
|
Azrael helps with the bodies as reverently as the task can be done. When that is complete he takes charge of his prisoner, removing the gag but keeping his hands bound loosely. He treats the tiefling as well as he can under the circumstances. We must talk of your loyalties and your future. he says as the group walks back.
Don helps load up the noble wagon with the captured equipment. The stone is no more and we have seemingly been blessed with extra strength against our foes. I do wonder what we will do next, perhaps try to push back into the Worldwound or fortify the city?
Lynn brings the helms to the weapon smiths in the basement. "Hello good sirs. I brought those helm from the Gray Garrison. These were the helms of heros on display there. Can you fix them?" she asks.
"We need to fortify the city, we just got word the Queen herself is marching towards Kenabrae's as we speak." Horgus is going through some ledgers while everyone talks.
The two Dwarves look the helms over for a few minutes.
"Aye Lassy we can fix em, take bout a day er two since we don't he having a lot o' regular steel just layin' round. We will give em ta Irabeth once we be done with em."
"Fine with me. Thanks." Lynn replies and leaves.
Lynn Heads back up stairs to get some food and a bit of rest, your wounds may be healed but your exhausted and drained from clearing out the Garrison.
Irabeth finds the group devouring their meals, "the Queen will arrive in a few days, will you assist us with clearing out any further hold outs?" Aliva sits down next to you.
Aravashnial is talking with Quendrys at another table about finding new people for the Rift Wardens. Horgus is at a different table with some attache's going over ledger's and directing people to and fro for. Horgus seems to be in his element. Lamm and a few other Mongrel's come sit in a far corner to themselves.
"Sure. I made a promise to at least try to kill everything the Abyss spits out until the Storm King is dead - preferable by my hand. I'm feeling generous, so I extend that to the ones worshipping what comes from the Abyss for the time being." Lynn replies.
"I will gladly help." Tink says, the thought of finding more things like they have recently bringing an excited smile to his face.
SteelGate's gears grind for a moment as he shifts his weight before saying "This body was built to protect. Assisting in this will help fulfill this body's purpose."
Over the course of the next 2 days people appear a bit happier, no demons have been seen in the 2 days since the destruction of the Ward Stone Fragment and any group of cultists have been minor and handled swiftly. At the End of the second day a group of thousands of knights can be seen moving towards the city. The Army camps outside the city, Horgus and his Attaches go out to meet the queen as well as Quendys Irabeth and other high ranking officials. After a few hours they return with the queen and her guard.
Your group is summoned to the map room to meet with the Queen.
Lynn takes her magic cleaning cloth and cleans herself up to be presentable in front of the queen. She quickly moves to the map room and enters. There she notices that she has no clue how to act, or how to address a queen. She's heard that ladies would do curtsies on such occasions. But she's been upright all of her life and it would feel like fake. So she silently moves behind someone she knows and just nods as a greeting standing there, being insecure.
Lynn notes that upon entering the queen is wearing dirty full plate armor, there are some dents and lots of scratches and blade marks upon it.
The Queen looks at Lynn who acts very nervously, "Relax solider and have a seat, I have ordered some ale and food. Tell me your tale, I have heard some wild rumours about your exploits."
Lynn sits down as told and relays everything that happened the last few days that changed the life of all involved forever. Telling the tale of the death of Terendelev still causes tears to come to her eyes. Moving on to the meeting with the mongrelmen, the minor fights with demons and cultists in Kenabres and finally the systematic clean out of cultist hideouts throughout town, culminating in the destruction of the remains of the wardstone. "It is a strange feeling to come from being some unknown warrior in a city of brave defenders to belonging to the few the others look up to. But now that you are here, majesty, with an whole army, things will get back in order." Lynn says confidently with a smile at Queen Galfrey
The queen sits down with the grace of a solider, "We are not staying long I must confess, we know that the Demons are marching south, now that the Ward Stone barrier is down they will attack Nerosyn and other cities along the boarder. I have a task for you, I will leave a portion of my army who has volunteered to accompany you into the World Wound." The Queen stops there to let it sink in and let others voice their opinions.
Lynn sighs and the smile vanishes. "Looks like I don't get out of killing the Storm King myself then." she replies half joking.
"No I guess not, my/your men are more there for the larger battles, your team will be the specialist or strike force." The queen smiles back.
Don gets the blood and bits off his armor and weapons and presents himself, his nervousness at addressing the wueen is taken care of when Lynn steps up.
Iko bows low upon the Queen's entering. And then sits to listen to the exchange with Lynn. His eyes go wide at mention of entering the worldwound but he manages to keep his composure and silence.
" What intrigues me most is news from several reliable
sources that as our fiendish enemies are starting to mass in the
southern reaches along the Riftshadow within the Worldwound,
they have left several of their northern lairs relatively unprotected.
In particular, the fiend Aponavicius has taken the bulk of her army
from Drezen, leaving it only moderately protected as she joins
with the Storm King in Iz to, no doubt, plot greater attacks on
larger targets like Nerosyan, Karcau, and beyond. The time is right
to strike into their territory. Drezen was the first of our cities to fall after the First Crusade, and we lost more than our kin and our pride
that day. We lost the Sword of Valor, a magical banner carried by
the Inheritor herself during the Shining Crusade. If Drezen could
be retaken—if the Sword of Valor could once again be held by
the crusade... well, I trust I don’t need to explain how well that
would affect morale. But with the imminent attacks along the
border, I cannot spare many to lead an assault on Drezen. And
even if I could, a large army attacking the city would only draw
Aponavicius back to defend the place. The obvious tactic is to send
in a group of capable heroes with a modest but well-trained army
to strike now, while the proverbial iron is hot. And this is why I’ve
sought you out. If you can retake Drezen and reclaim the Sword
of Valor, not only will you silence the fools who would brand you
traitors for destroying the wardstone, but more importantly, you
would bolster the entire war effort with your heroism. And I fear
we need all the bolstering we can get!"
The Queen looks at the group.