Ludwig slowly approaches the throne to check if the man is indeed dead.
Pengaal grabs Ludwig's arm. "Remember - the dead do not lie sleeping here." Keeping the massive hole between himself and the armored figure at all times, he approaches it to peer down inside.
Ludwig nods to Pengaal. "I will be careful. We still need to check on him. If he is alive, I don't like to leave him behind us."
He looks at Siegschwert and smiles faintly. "Yes... Yes it is. And now it is in ruin. What a shame."
As the survivors slowly approach the throne the man stirs. A wheezing breath emanates from his chest and his eyes roll wildly in his head before finally settling on them. He does not move but speaks in a raspy voice.
"I am Moro Atticus. Lord of the Twilight Knights, second son of Rygalt Atticus, champion of the Horhorn bluffs. You...you are my children. Wayward once...and now returned."
The mans focus starts to slip away and you see his eyes roll once more as his voice trails off.
Pengaal approaches the hole. He peers over the edge and is stunned to see nothing but pitch blackness. Its almost mesmerizing as his mind ponders just how deep the darkness descends. Even the tree roots spilling into the hole quickly disappear from sight. He is forced to quickly step back when he feels stone start to crumble beneath his feet. A few bricks fall into the void. You do not hear it strike the bottom.
"Lord Atticus." Ludwig bows the man. "Are there others of our Order who survived?"
Pengaal stumbles backwards until he feels his spine touch stone. "They returned... to ruins. What happened here?"
Atticus shudders as the survivors attempt to speak with him. It seems to be all he can do to stop himself from slipping back into a catatonic state.
"They...I..." he starts. You see pain well up in his eyes. "I have committed a great sin, possibly the greatest there is. It is my actions that caused you to find yourselves in the state you are in."
The words are uttered in a dry rasp but are stunning nonetheless, if only for the gravity of the revelation.
Pengaal frowns. "Explain. Now."
"What sin?"
"I am responsible for awakening the deep" continues Atticus "...and all that followed."
He slouches lower in the throne
"I was faced with a world being consumed in war. Knowing the King would not stop his campaign and fearing that my Order would be destroyed yet again, I sought some means of ending the conflict. That is how I stumbled upon the truth of the deep and the creature that slumbered here. I attempted to commune, but I was wrong in thinking that I would control it."
"What have you awaken? What slumbered in the deep?"
"Something like a god..." he starts but is interrupted by a violent coughing fit. Only after he calms down and collects himself does he continue. "It blessed me with a great power - the knowledge of Souls. Yet, unwittingly, I doomed us all in the process. I openend the doorway to the Deep. But there is still a chance." The whithered man raises his hand and points at the deep chasm that is in the center of the room. "The soul of a god is more powerful than anyone can comprehend. Kill it, seize its soul, and rekindle the dying light of h-humanity. Please, I beseech you. Undo the wrongs that I have wrought"
"A god..." Ludwig chuckles nervously. "That's quite a challenge. I hope we're up to it."
"I hope as well - how can someone fight it, any more than we could fight floating in the black water?"
Your words hang in the air with almost palpable animosity. Atticus falls silent as well, slumping back into the depths of his throne and his eyes lulling away from you. He offers no solace. Indeed, Siegschwert and Felicia both slump to the ground in their own time, apparently the gravity of the situation overwhelming their spirits. You too start to feel the clawed hands of dread sinking into the folds of your mind.
The sound of footsteps on cobblestone draw you out of your stupor. You instinctively reach for your weapons but stop when you recognize the figure of the Twilight Deserter slipping into the hall through the main door. He approaches you with purpose in his eyes, giving a wide birth to the hole.
He doesn't say anything right away, instead taking in your group the same way he did when you first met. He even glances at Atticus for a moment but does not linger any longer than it takes for his lips to curl into a frown.
"I'm glad you found your way here in the end" he starts. "I kept my hopes guarded until now, the hope that I- we could matter in some way. But you've been able to carry yourselves through all the way. I'm ready now" and he gestures towards the hole.
"You will join us? That is one of the few good things that happened in some time."
With that, Ludwig slowly walks to the hole and gathers his spirit before making the last step into the abyss.
Pengaal nods in thanks to the deserter before falling down into the blackness as well.
As Ludwig and Pengaal are quickly swallowed by the darkness they can only hope that the deserter is close behind. Falling through the void takes your mind back to that first time you entered the deep. Disoriented, with a sense of falling yet no way of knowing your direction so that you only get the sense of endless, mindless momentum.
The ground appears suddenly and without warning and the survivors strike it hard, knocking the breath from their bodies. The bottom of the pit is murky, with no distinguishing features save the massive figure huddled away from you a short distance away. The shape shudders and heave, occasionally releasing a sound that strikes you as a mix of a sob and a groan. You can see that it has long, gangly humanoid limbs and molted feathers springing out all along its back and forearms. You cannot see its face with the way it is turned away from you and it doesn't seem to have noticed you yet.
Readying both blades, Pengaal circles wearly around the sobbing creature.
Before it has a chance to notice us, Ludwig charges into the creature, swinging his scythe.
The Deserter staggers to his feet among the group.
Ludwig is the first to act, charging at the god. His scythe glints through the air and drags across the creatures ragged feathers. A shriek, a debilitating shriek, erupts around you. The thing spins around violently, rising to its full height. Long, thing, gangly arms with clawed fingers are held weakly outwards. Its face is concealed behind a strange macabre mask. It heaves with the effort of breathing as it lumbers over the top of the survivors.
Ludwig is especially afflicted. He feels his emotions swirling within him, fighting against the Twilight Knight conditioning. Fear and Doubt swell in his breast as he gazes at the mask.
Ludwig tries to fight the fear and doubt off, but with each strikes the uneasiness grows stronger.
Pengaal leaps at the thing's hindquarters while it's busy with Ludwig, slamming both feet into the side of its knee.
Ludwig and Pengaal pour everything they have into the god and it writhes and shrieks as your weapons rake across its skin. Both of you feel the negative emotions building inside your minds and it takes everything you have to stay focused long enough to fight. The Deserter stalks in the background, gripping the hilt of his weapon. Spying his opportunity he drops into a combat stance and draws his weapon, causing a swaying wave of energy to shoot out towards the goblin king.
The goblin king staggers under the force of the many blows. It's almost...pathetic. With a shriek it raises a hand towards Pengaal who feels his mind come under violent assault. He manages to stave off the invasion through sheer willpower. The god turns on Ludwig and scoops him up on a single gnarled hand. Clutching him, Ludwig feels his subconscious start to rise within him.
Something rises deep from Ludwig's subconscious, and he finds himself in front of his ally, slashing him instead of the enemy, and unable to stop.
"Ludwig! Think, please!" Pengaal takes the scythe slash on the shoulder, turning full-circle to step away from the maddened Albiran to face the creature that maddened him again.
He hacks at its legs like the tendons are vines, trying to lay the thing low while Ludwig hopefully fights off whatever was done to him.
Pengaal manages to stave off both Ludwig and the god for the moment, putting the latter into a position where he can use a hard strike to knock out one of his legs. Two more quick slashes follow but fail to finish the creature.
Staggering back to its feet the goblin king shrieks and casts out mental attacks towards Pengaal and the Deserter. Emboldened by the fight and knowing he can't give up now, Pengaal pushes the attack away. The Deserter on the other hand cries and clutches his head, blood dribbling from his ears. Pushing the pain away the Deserter moves forward and sheathes his sword looking for another window to attack.
Goblin King 14/76
Ludwig recollects himself and assaults the creature with everything he has.
"No one controls my mind!"
Shoulder-to-shoulder with Ludwig, Pengaal hacks away at the creature.
Edit:
Together the survivors hack at the Goblin King, steiking a killing blow. The thing lurches and collapses into a bloody pile. A wave of emphatic feedback sweeps over them from the things death throes.
Following its death you feel your marks start to tingle with energy. Not a burning or unpleasant feeling. You feel that you've collected the gods soul...
The room melts away and you feel things begin to shuft around you but then stop suddenly. The Deserter fades from view but another familiar face appears in his place. Moro Atticus is here, armored and looking well compared to how you saw him just.a few minutes ago.
"It is time" he says abruptly. "The god's soul has been freed. With it we can restore the world. I can undo the mistakes of the past. The last thing to do is collect the last Twilight Marks. Sir Siegschwert and Lady Felicia have already given theirs unto me. Now it is your turn."
He holds out his hand towards you, waiting.
Ludwig takes a deep breath and steps forward, placing his hand on the Atticus'.
Nodding, Pengaal pulls his pigments out of his pack and daubs a rough symbol onto the back of his hand, before reaching for Atticus'.
You take the hand of the Lord of Twilight. It happens quickly, starting with a sting of pain. It fades away along with your perception of the world around you and, finally, yourselves. Until there is nothing left.
With the power of the Twilight Marks the world is recreated with a faithful attention to detail. Landscapes appear where they should, along with the people that inhabit them. History follows almost exactly to the path it had before. It is only the Twilight Knights that have changed. Events have been ordered in their favor: the crusade of the Nameless King stalls before the Order and the world comes to accept them universally as mankinds saviors. In the end, the Order stands to guide humanity on their path forward.
Of course, no one knows that it was once otherwise. No knowledge of the deep, or so even its champions, persists on into this second age. Pengaal, Ludwig, Siegschwert, Felicia, and Yuria are all set back upon the path that they had walked previously, none the wiser. The witches return tod their woods, the monks to their mountains, and the dead to their river.